The sovereign and final happiness of man with the effectual means to obtain itThe soveraign and final happiness of man with the effectual means to obtain it

2. The Miseries of the present State are allayed with some enjoyments. None are so universally afflicted, so desolate, but something remains to sweeten the sense of their Sufferings. Judgments are tempered with Mercies. No Man is tortured with all Diseases, nor forsaken of all Friends, nor utterly without Comfort. And when the Affliction is irremediable, yet if our grief produces Sympathy in others, 'tis some ease to the troubled Mind, and by that assistance the Burden is made lighter. But in Hell the Damned are surrounded with Terrors, encompassed with Flames, without any thing to refresh their Sorrows, not a drop of Water to a Lake of Fire. All that was esteemed Felicity here, is totally withdrawn. Death puts a period to their Lives, and the Pleasures of Sin for ever. For 'tis most just, that those Objects which were abused by their ⟨p. 241⟩Lusts, and alienated their Hearts from their Duty and Felicity, should be taken away. And which is extreme Misery, in their most pitiful State they are absolutely unpitied. Pity is the cheap and universal Lenitive, not denied to the most guilty in their Sufferings here: for the Law of Nature instructs us to pity the Man, when the Malefactor suffers. But even this is not afforded to the Damned. All their Agonies and Cries cannot incline the Compassion of God, and the blessed Spirits in Heaven towards them: for they are not compassionable Objects, their Misery being the just effect of their perverse obstinate Choice. And in Hell all human tender Affections are extinguished for ever. Now 'tis the perfection of Misery, the excess of desolation to be deprived of all good things pleasing to our Desires, and to suffer all Evils from which we have the deepest aversation and abhorrence. As in Heaven all good is eminently comprised, and nothing but Good, so in Hell all Evil is in excessive degrees, and nothing but Evil.

2. The Miseries of the present State are allayed with some enjoyments. None are so universally afflicted, so desolate, but something remains to sweeten the sence of their Sufferings. Judgments are tempered with Mercies. No Man is tortur'd with all Diseases, nor forsaken of all Friends, nor utterly without Comfort. And when the Affliction is irremediable, yet if our grief produces Sympathy in others, 'tis some ease to the troubled Mind, and by that assistance the Burthen is made lighter. But in Hell the Damned are surrounded with Terrors, encompast with Flames, without any thing to refresh their Sorrows, not a drop of Water to a Lake of Fire. All that was esteemed Felicity here, is totally withdrawn. Death puts a period to their Lives, and the Pleasures of Sin for ever. For 'tis most just, that those Objects which were abused by their