Ultima, = the last things in reference to the first and middle things

Lastly, there is a difference in durance, our fire dyes quickly, but hell fire lasts for ever. This is done (saith Austin) ⟨p. 150⟩admirably, ¹yet actually, the burning bodies never consume, the kindled fire never wastes with any length of time. We read of a certain salt in Sicily, that if put into the fire, it swims as in water, and being put into water crackles as in fire; we read of a fountain in Libya, that in a cold night is so hot, that none can touch it, & in a hot day so cold that none could drink it: If God thus work miracles on earth, dost thou seek a reason of Gods high and heavy judgement in hell? I see the pit, I cannot find the depth; there is a fire that now stands as it was created, it must be endured, yet never, never must be ended. The custom of some countries, that burn malefactors, use the least fires for greatest offenders, that so the heat being lessened, the pains might be prolonged, but if this be so terrible to them, whose fire is but little, and whose time cannot be long, what an exceeding horrible torment is this in hell, where the fire is extreme great, and the time for ever and ever lasting? Suppose you, or any one of you, should lie one night grievously afflicted with a raging fit of the Stone, Colic, Strangury, Toothache, Pangs of travail, and a thousand such miseries incident to man, how would you toss and tumble? how would you turn your sides, tell the clock, count the hours, expect every moment for the gay-bright morn, and till then esteem every hour a year, and every pang a misery matchless, and intolerable: O then what will it be (think you) to lie in fire and brimstone, kept in highest flame by the unquenchable wrath of God, world without end? how tedious will be that endless night, where the clock never strikes, the time never passes, the morn never dawns, the Sun never rises; where thou canst not turn nor toss, nor tumble, nor yet take any rest; where thou shalt have nothing about thee but darkness, and horror, and wailing and yelling, wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth for evermore? Good Lord, that for a smile of present pleasure, men should run upon the rock of eternal vengeance! Come, ye that pursue vanity, and see here the fruit of sin at this harvest of Tares, Pleasures are but momentany, ²but the pangs are eternal: Eternal? how long is that?