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world all his works and deeds and their consequences together with the evil
lusts and desires which in this world he treasured up in his heart. Consequently
that unrest of mind, which in this world from time to time, often or seldom,
used to terrify him, will in the next world grow very powerful and completely
overcome him. For in that world it will not be possible for him to silence his
conscience and quiet the restlessness of his heart by means of sensual pleasures
and bodily occupations, as he used to do here on earth. Nor will he be able to
conceal his faults and sins with the curtain of hypocrisy. On the contrary, in
that state of existence, his inner man and the other things which were hidden
therein will be made clear and evident. All his sins will become well known to
himself, and his unrest will reach its extremity. That unrest, and the reproach
of conscience, and the evil desires of his sensual nature, and the lusts which
he has brought with him to that world and which he cannot satisfy there, will
kindle in his heart the flames of hell. Besides this, the man who has died in
sin, and has carried impurity of heart with him into the next world, will be
kept far from all approach to the holy one, will not be admitted to His
presence, and will be subject to His wrath. And since man's true rest and
eternal bliss consist entirely in nearness to God and in knowledge of Him and in
serving Him, therefore through separation from
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Him the greatest unrest and punishment will fall to such a man's lot; and
God's holiness and glory and righteousness and greatness, through recognition of
which and participation in God's love and grace the pure in heart receive
infinite happiness, will become to sinners and those whose hearts are defiled
like the burning flames of hell. And so it is written: 'It1 is a
righteous thing with God to recompense affliction to them that afflict you, and
to you that are afflicted rest with us, at the revelation of the Lord Jesus
Christ from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering
vengeance to them that know not God, and to them that obey not the gospel of our
Lord Jesus: who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face
of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he shall come to be glorified
in his saints.'
If now any one asks what special punishment, other than those already
mentioned, will befall sinners in the next world, and where hell, the place of
their punishment, is, the answer is that man cannot by means of his intellect
find a correct and certain reply, because man's intellect has of itself no
acquaintance with the future existence and the unseen world, and is quite unable
to make discoveries concerning it. But, from the holy Scriptures, we gain enough
information on these subjects to teach us what God desires us to know, without
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