dled. Oh! how unlike is this to that heaven, for which these unhappy spirits were formed, and which they might have attained. There each spirit delights to aid his fellow spirits, in attaining the ends which they love; for all labor together for the common good. But in hell, every spirit as earnestly desires to see his fellow spirits fail of the gratification of their cherished lusts, unless when their success will aid him, in obtaining some selfish end which he loves.
But we may see sufficient illustrations of the miseries of hell, without descending, in imagination, to those regions of death and endless woe, where evil has fully consummated the eternal ruin of those who have cherished it. Even here, in the natural world, we daily meet with those whose countenances, in every feature, as well as their words and actions, are indices that cannot be mistaken. They point, with unerring certainty, to affections disordered and perverted, and in which the miseries, which lost spirits suffer, are already beginning to be felt. There may be seen envy and ambition writhing in disappointment, covetousness and sensual lust unsatisfied, vengeance unappeased,—these and other perverted affections, fed and cherished in the inner chambers of the spirit, and yet rewarding those who nourish them, with the serpent's bite and the scorpion's sting.
One other point ought to be referred to in this connection. It will be correctly inferred, from the views that have been presented, that the Lord casts no one into hell, but that all, who descend to that world of death, go there of their own choice. They are led thither by those evil lusts, which constitute their life's love. And as they descend to those regions of woe, or, which means the same thing, become confirmed in the love of evil and falsity, the Divine Mercy and Compassion still follows them, mitigating their miseries and watching over them with a providential care, even while this mercy and compassion is continually repaid, with infernal fury, not only against heaven itself, but even against Him who is the source of all goodness and truth. But it
