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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=419125" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Of Hell And The Estate of Those Who Perish</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">hus, having show'd you what I see<br>Of heaven, I now will tell<br>You also, after search, what be<br>The damned wights of hell.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And O, that they who read my lines<br>Would ponder soberly,<br>And lay to heart such things betimes<br>As touch eternity.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The sleepy sinner little thinks<br>What sorrows will abound<br>Within him, when upon the brinks<br>Of Tophet he is found.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Hell is beyond all though a state<br>So doubtful[10] and forlorn,<br>So fearful, that none can relate<br>The pangs that there are born.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">God will exclude them utterly<br>From his most blessed face,<br>And them involve in misery,<br>In shame, and in disgrace.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">God is the fountain of all bliss,<br>Of life, of light, and peace;<br>They then must needs be comfortless<br>Who are depriv'd of these.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Instead of life, a living death<br>Will there in all be found.<br>Dyings will be in every breath,<br>Thus sorrow will abound.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">No light, but darkness here doth dwell;<br>No peace, but horror strange:<br>The fearful damning wights[11] of hell<br>In all will make this change.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">To many things the damned's woe<br>Is liked in the word,<br>And that because no one can show<br>The vengeance of the Lord.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Unto a dreadful burning lake,<br>All on a fiery flame,<br>Hell is compared, for to make<br>All understand the same.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A burning lake, a furnace hot,<br>A burning oven, too,<br>Must be the portion, share, and lot,<br>Of those which evil sow.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">This plainly shows the burning heat<br>With which it will oppress<br>All hearts, and will like burnings eat<br>Their souls with sore distress.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">This burning lake, it is God's wrath<br>Incensed by the sin<br>Of those who do reject his path,<br>And wicked ways walk in.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Which wrath will so perplex all parts<br>Of body and of soul,<br>As if up to the very hearts<br>In burnings they did roll.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Again, to show the stinking state<br>Of this so sad a case,<br>Like burning brimstone God doth make<br>The hidings of his face.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And truly as the steam, and smoke,<br>And flames of brimstone smell,<br>To blind the eyes, and stomach choke,<br>So are the pangs of hell.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">To see a sea of brimstone burn,<br>Who would it not affright?<br>But they whom God to hell doth turn<br>Are in most woful plight.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">This burning cannot quenched be,<br>No, not with tears of blood;<br>No mournful groans in misery<br>Will here do any good.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">O damned men! this is your fate,<br>The day of grace is done,<br>Repentance now doth come too late,<br>Mercy is fled and gone.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Your groans and cries they sooner should<br>Have sounded in mine ears,<br>If grace you would have had, or would<br>Have me regard your tears.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Me you offended with your sin,<br>Instructions you did slight,<br>Your sins against my law hath been,<br>Justice shall have his right.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I gave my Son to do you good,<br>I gave you space and time<br>With him to close, which you withstood,<br>And did with hell combine.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Justice against you now is set,<br>Which you cannot appease;<br>Eternal justice doth you let<br>From either life or ease.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thus he that to this place doth come<br>May groan, and sigh, and weep;<br>But sin hath made that place his home,<br>And there it will him keep.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Wherefore, hell in another place<br>Is call'd a prison too,<br>And all to show the evil case<br>Of all sin doth undo.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Which prison, with its locks and bars<br>Of God's lasting decree,<br>Will hold them fast; O how this mars<br>All thought of being free!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Out at these brazen bars they may<br>The saints in glory see;<br>But this will not their grief allay,<br>But to them torment be.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thus they in this infernal cave<br>Will now be holden fast<br>From heavenly freedom, though they crave,<br>Of it they may not taste.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The chains that darkness on them hangs<br>Still ratt'ling in their ears,<br>Creates within them heavy pangs,<br>And still augments their fears.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thus hopeless of all remedy,<br>They dyingly do sink<br>Into the jaws of misery,<br>And seas of sorrow drink.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For being cop'd[12] on every side<br>With helplessness and grief,<br>Headlong into despair they slide<br>Bereft of all relief.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Therefore this hell is called a pit,<br>Prepared for those that die<br>The second death, a term most fit<br>To show their misery.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A pit that's bottomless is this,<br>A gulf of grief and woe,<br>A dungeon which they cannot miss,<br>That will themselves undo.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thus without stay they always sink,<br>Thus fainting still they fail,<br>Despair they up like water drink,<br>These prisoners have no bail.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Here meets them now that worm that gnaws,<br>And plucks their bowels out,<br>The pit, too, on them shuts her jaws;<br>This dreadful is, no doubt.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">This ghastly worm is guilt for sin,<br>Which on the conscience feeds,<br>With vipers' teeth, both sharp and keen,<br>Whereat it sorely bleeds.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">This worm is fed by memory,<br>Which strictly brings to mind,<br>All things done in prosperity,<br>As we in Scripture find.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">No word, nor thought, nor act they did,<br>But now is set in sight,<br>Not one of them can now be hid,<br>Memory gives them light.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">On which the understanding still<br>Will judge, and sentence pass,<br>This kills the mind, and wounds the will,<br>Alas, alas, alas!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">O, conscience is the slaughter shop,<br>There hangs the axe and knife,<br>'Tis there the worm makes all things hot,<br>And wearies out the life.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Here, then, is execution done<br>On body and on soul;<br>For conscience will be brib'd of none,<br>But gives to all their dole.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">This worm, 'tis said, shall never die,<br>But in the belly be<br>Of all that in the flames shall lie,<br>O dreadful sight to see!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">This worm now needs must in them live,<br>For sin will still be there,<br>And guilt, for God will not forgive,<br>Nor Christ their burden bear.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But take from them all help and stay,<br>And leave them to despair,<br>Which feeds upon them night and day,<br>This is the damned's share.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now will confusion so possess<br>These monuments of ire,<br>And so confound them with distress,<br>And trouble their desire.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">That what to think, or what to do,<br>Or where to lay their head,<br>They know not; 'tis the damned's woe<br>To live, and yet be dead.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">These cast-aways would fain have life,<br>But know, they never shall,<br>They would forget their dreadful plight,<br>But that sticks fast'st of all.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">God, Christ, and heaven, they know are best,<br>Yet dare not on them think,<br>The saints they know in joys do rest,<br>While they their tears do drink.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They cry alas, but all in vain,<br>They stick fast in the mire,<br>They would be rid of present pain,<br>Yet set themselves on fire.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Darkness is their perplexity,<br>Yet do they hate the light,<br>They always see their misery,<br>Yet are themselves all night.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They are all dead, yet live they do,<br>Yet neither live nor die.<br>They die to weal, and live to woe,<br>This is their misery.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Amidst all this so great a scare<br>That here I do relate,<br>Another falleth to their share<br>In this their sad estate.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The legions of infernal fiends<br>Then with them needs must be,<br>A just reward for all their pains,<br>This they shall feel and see.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">With yellings, howlings, shrieks, and cries,<br>And other doleful noise,<br>With trembling hearts and failing eyes,<br>These are their hellish joys.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">These angels black they would obey,<br>And serve with greedy mind,<br>And take delight to go astray,<br>That pleasure they might find.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Which pleasure now like poison turns<br>Their joy to heaviness;<br>Yea, like the gall of asps it burns,<br>And doth them sore oppress</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now is the joy they lived in<br>All turned to brinish tears,<br>And resolute attempts to sin<br>Turn'd into hellish fears.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The floods run trickling down their face,<br>Their hearts do prick and ache,<br>While they lament their woful case,<br>Their loins totter and shake.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">O wetted cheeks, with bleared eyes, <br>How fully do you show<br>The pangs that in their bosom lies,<br>And grief they undergo!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Their dolour in their bitterness<br>So greatly they bemoan,<br>That hell itself this to express<br>Doth echo with their groan.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thus broiling on the burning grates,<br>They now to wailing go,<br>And say of those unhappy fates<br>That did them thus undo.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Alas, my grief! hard hap had I<br>Those dolours here to find,<br>A living death, in hell I lie,<br>Involv'd with grief of mind.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I once was fair for light and grace,<br>My days were long and good;<br>I lived in a blessed place<br>Where was most heav'nly food.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But wretch I am, I slighted life,<br>I chose in death to live;<br>O, for these days now, if I might,<br>Ten thousand worlds would give.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">What time had I to pray and read,<br>What time to hear the word!<br>What means to help me at my need,<br>Did God to me afford!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Examples, too, of piety<br>I every day did see,<br>But they abuse and slight did I,<br>O, woe be unto me.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I now remember how my friend<br>Reproved me of vice,<br>And bid me mind my latter end,<br>Both once, and twice, and thrice.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But O, deluded man, I did<br>My back upon him turn;<br>Eternal life I did not heed,<br>For which I now do mourn.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ah, golden time, I did thee spend<br>In sin and idleness,<br>Ah, health and wealth, I did you lend<br>To bring me to distress.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">My feet to evil I let run,<br>And tongue of folly talk;<br>My eyes to vanity hath gone,<br>Thus did I vainly walk.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I did as greatly toil and strain<br>Myself with sin to please,<br>As if that everlasting grain<br>Could have been found in these.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But nothing, nothing have I found<br>But weeping, and alas,<br>And sorrow, which doth now surround<br>Me, and augment my cross.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ah, bleeding conscience, how did I<br>Thee check when thou didst tell<br>Me of my faults, for which I lie<br>Dead while I live in hell.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I took thee for some peevish foe,<br>When thou didst me accuse,<br>Therefore I did thee buffet so,<br>And counsel did refuse.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thou often didst me tidings bring,<br>How God did me dislike,<br>Because I took delight in sin,<br>But I thy news did slight.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ah, Mind, why didst thou do those things<br>That now do work my woe?<br>Ah, Will, why was thou thus inclin'd<br>Me ever to undo?</div><div style="margin:10px 0">My senses, how were you beguil'd<br>When you said sin was good?<br>It hath in all parts me defil'd,<br>And drown'd me like a flood.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Ah, that I now a being have,<br>In sorrow and in pain;<br>Mother, would you had been my grave,<br>But this I wish in vain.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Had I been made a cockatrice,<br>A toad, or such-like thing;[13]<br>Yea, had I been made snow or ice,<br>Then had I had no sin;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">A block, a stock, a stone, or clot,<br>Is happier than I;<br>For they know neither cold nor hot,<br>To live nor yet to die.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I envy now the happiness<br>Of those that are in light,<br>I hate the very name of bliss,<br>'Cause I have there no right.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">I grieve to see that others are<br>In glory, life, and well,<br>Without all fear, or dread, or care,<br>While I am racked in hell.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Thus will these souls with watery eyes,<br>And hacking of their teeth,<br>With wringing hands, and fearful cries,<br>Expostulate their grief.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">O set their teeth they will, and gnash,<br>And gnaw for very pain,<br>While as with scorpions God doth lash<br>Them for their life so vain.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Again, still as they in this muse,<br>Are feeding on the fire,<br>To mind there comes yet other news,<br>To screw their torments higher.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Which is the length of this estate,<br>Where they at present lie;<br>Which in a word I thus relate,<br>'Tis to eternity.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">This thought now is so firmly fix'd<br>In all that comes to mind,<br>And also is so strongly mix'd<br>With wrath of every kind.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So that whatever they do know,<br>Or see, or think, or feel,<br>For ever still doth strike them through<br>As with a bar of steel.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For EVER shineth in the fire,<br>EVER is on the chains;<br>'Tis also in the pit of ire,<br>And tastes in all their pains.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For ever separate from God,<br>From peace, and life, and rest;<br>For ever underneath the rod<br>That vengeance liketh best.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">O ever, ever, this will drown'd<br>Them quite and make them cry,<br>We never shall get o'er thy bound,<br>O, great eternity!</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They sooner now the stars may count<br>Than lose these dismal bands;<br>Or see to what the motes[14] among<br>Or number up the sands.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Then see an end of this their woe,<br>Which now for sin they have;<br>O wantons, take heed what you do,<br>Sin will you never save.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">They sooner may drink up the sea,<br>Than shake off these their fears;<br>Or make another in one day<br>As big with brinish tears;</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Than put an end to misery,<br>In which they now do roar,<br>Or help themselves; no, they must cry,<br>Alas, for evermore.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">When years by thousands on a heap<br>Are passed o'er their head;<br>Yet still the fruits of sin they reap<br>Among the ghostly dead.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Yea, when they have time out of mind<br>Be in this case so ill,<br>For EVER, EVER is behind[15]<br>Yet for them to fulfill.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=John+Bunyan">John Bunyan</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=419125" data-title="Of Hell And The Estate of Those Who Perish de John Bunyan" data-description="hus, having show'd you what I see
Of heaven, I now will tell
You also, after search, what be
The damned wights of hell.

And O, that they who read my lines
Would ponder soberly,
And lay to heart such things betimes
As touch eternity.

The sleepy s..."></div>
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