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punishments of the
damned: the devils, who are
their enemies, will continually mock them and remind
them of their sins. Nor will the sufferings
of the bodies of the damned cease here. They will also be afflicted by the
terrible darkness of
Hell,
described by the holy man, Job: "Before I go, and return no more, to a land that
is dark and
covered with the mist of death: a land of misery and darkness, where the shadow
of death, and no
order, but everlasting horror dwelleth." (Job 10:22).
Pain of Loss of God
A certain author has written, but with little foundation, that the pain of loss
is the same for
all the reprobate. But it seems far more probable to me and to the majority of
theologians that,
though the damned are equally deprived of God, this pain will, nevertheless,
afflict each according
to the measure of his faults and the knowledge he will have in Hell of the God
whom he has lost.
For it is difficult to believe that one who has lost God by one mortal sin will
be tormented in the
same degree as one who has lost Him by a hundred sins. It is equally
inconceivable to me, for
instance, how one who has been in the state of sin for but one day, can be
called upon to bear the
same degree of punishment as he who has remained in this state for a whole year.
For just as he who
has loved God more ardently during his life, will enjoy Him more in Heaven,
because of the
knowledge of the immense good which he will then possess, so also will the
damned, who