When all is done, the hell of hells, the torment of torments, is the everlasting absence of God, and the everlasting impossibility of returning to his presence…to fall out of the hands of the living God, is a horror beyond our expression, beyond our imagination…. What Tophet is not Paradise, what Brimstone is not Amber, what gnashing is not a comfort, what gnawing of the worme is not a tickling, what torment is not a marriage bed to this damnation, to be secluded eternally, eternally, eternally from the sight of God?
–From a sermon to the Earl of Carlisle in 1622
‘Death be not proud … for thou art not so’ – John Donne, poet, priest & Dean of St Paul’s, died #OnThisDay 1631 pic.twitter.com/KXNGZlsv7m
— St Paul’s Cathedral (@StPaulsLondon) March 31, 2016