The saints everlasting rest

Thirdly, If all this be nothing, go try thy strength by some corporal torment; as Bilney before he went to the stake, would first try his finger in the candle; so do thou: hold thy singer awhile in the fire, and feel there whether thou canst endure the fire of hell. Austin mentioneth a chaste christian woman, who being tempted to uncleanness by a lewd ruffian, she desired him for her sake to hold his finger one hour in the sire; he answered, it is an unreasonable request: how much more unreasonable is it (said she) that I should burn in hell for the satisfying your lust? So say I to thee; if it be an intolerable thing to suffer the heat of the are for a year, or a day, or an hour, what will it be to suffer ten thousand times more for ever? What if thou wert to suffer Lawrence's death, to be roasted upon a grid-iron; or to be scraped or pricked to death, as other martyrs were? If thou couldst not endure such things as these, how wilt thou endure the eternal flames?

Fourthly, If thou be so fearless of that eternal misery, why is the least foretaste of it so terrible? Didst thou never feel such a thing as tormenting conscience? If thou hast not, thou shalt do. Didst thou never see and speak with a man that lived in desperation, or in some degree of these wounds of spirit that was near despair? How uncomfortable was their conference? How burdensome their lives? Nothing doth them good which they possess; the sight of friends, or house, or goods, which refresh others, is a trouble ⟨p. 122⟩to them: they feel no sweetness in meat or drink; they are weary of life, and fearful of death. What is the matter with these men? If the misery of the damned itself can be endured, why cannot they more easily endure these little sparks?

Fifthly, Tell me faithfully, what if thou shouldst but see the devil appear to thee in some terrible shape, would it not daunt thee? What if thou shouldst meet him in thy way home, or he should show himself to thee at night in thy bedchamber, would not thy heart sail thee, and thy hair stand on end? I could name thee those that have been as confident as thyself, who, by such a sight, have been so appalled, tha they were in danger of being driven out of their wits. Or what if some damned soul, of thy former acquaintance, should appear to thee, would not this amaze thee? Alas! what is this to the torments of hell? Canst thou not endure a shadow to appear before thee? O how wilt thou endure to live with them for-ever, where thou shalt have no other company but devils and the damned: and shalt not only see them, but be tormented with them, and by them!