Page:The Judgment Day.pdf/163

 to result from some undeserved dispensation of Divine Providence. He feels certain that he is no worse than his neighbors, and yet it has been his misfortune to become the object of the divine displeasure. You seek in vain to convince him that the evils which he endures are the necessary consequence of his selfish and disorderly affections. He persists in looking outward and not inward for the cause of his miseries, and imagines that he finds that cause in the treatment which he receives from his neighbors, in the feelings which he supposes some one to cherish towards him, or in some other external evil to which Divine Providence has subjected him. And even though he may not venture to charge his calamities directly upon the providence of the Lord, yet he is indirectly doing so, when he ascribes them to those external circumstances, which he knows, if he reasons at all, exist only by the divine permission. You find it impossible to convince him, that the external evils of which he complains, are only the occasion, not the cause of the spiritual pains which he suffers; and that if his own affections were in a healthy and orderly state, these providential permissions, which he now regards as the cause of his miseries, would either not exist or would have no power whatever to injure him.

But, the question is sometimes asked,—what difference can it make to devils and wicked men, whether the wrath of God, to which they ascribe their sufferings, be real or only apparent, provided the appearance seems to them to be a reality? In the one case, they are the objects of the divine mercy and providential care, which, though seeking in vain to make them happy, do nevertheless mitigate their miseries so far as can be done, without destroying their freedom. They are cared for and sustained, even while returning hatred for love; and permitted to enjoy, at least some measure of infernal delight, derived from cherishing the love of self. In the other case—the anger of the Lord being real,—the source and foundation of all spiritual existence would be re-