Christ's certain and sudden appearance to judgment

5. The punishment of the wicked will be eternal, hell fire will be unquenchable, Mark 9. 43. everlasting, Matth. 25. 41. the smoke of the torment will ascend up for ever and ever. Rev. 14. 11. This eternity of punishment will be a fearful aggravation of it; If you saw a malefactor torn to pieces with wild horses, or thrown into a fiery furnace, and there burned to ashes; you would say that either of these were dreadful punishments, though the pain possibly might not endure a quarter of an hour, for death concludes all bodily pains here: what then will it be to endure the torments of hell for ever? a small pain, if it should last long, would be very irksome; much more some racking pains by the stone, strangury, gout, colic, and the like, if they should continue for a year, or a month together, how miserable would they make the life to be? yea, if a man should hold but one of his fingers in the fire but for a day, it would afflict him more, than all outward comforts could delight him; the torments ⟨p. 140⟩of Hell will not be in one part only, but in every part; not in a weaker degree, but in the greatest extremity; not for a day, or a month, or a year, but for ever; the wicked will be always dying, never dead; the pangs of death will be ever upon them; and yet they shall never give up the ghost; if they could die they would think themselves happy; they will always be roaring, and never breathe out their last; always sinking, and never come to the bottom; always burning in those flames, and never consumed; the eternity of Hell, will be the Hell of Hell. When our Saviour endured equivalent punishment to this of Hell, for his people, it had not this circumstance of eternity in it; there not being that need, because of the excellency of his person; so that though the pains of Hell gat hold on him, yet they could not keep him in hold, but he brake through them, and triumphed over them, and could say in the conclusion, It is finished: but the damned will not be able to break through their punishment; they will be compassed about with them, and hedged in, and shut down, and never be able to lift up the head; never shall they say of this punishment, It is finished, for their pains will always be as it were beginning;