2. The next thing is the duration [The blackness of darkness FOREVER,] The torment prepared for the wicked is everlasting, their worm dyeth not, and their fire is not quenched, Mark 9. 44, This is the Hell of Hell, that as the torments there are without measure, so without end; vivere nolunt mori nesciunt, here they might have life and would not, and now would have death and cannot▪ Rev. 20. 10, tormented for ever and ever: Woe alas, 'tis for ever! Poor wicked wretches, whose bodies shrink at the prick of a Pin, or the flame of a candle, how will they endure those endless pains? when their restless thoughts shall have run through thousands of years, they must look for more; the the pains of the damned are eternal: partly because of the greatness of the Majesty against whom they have sinned; we are finite creatures, and so not fit to judge of the nature of an offence against an infinite God; the Law giver best knoweth the merit of sin, which is the transgression of the Law, as a Jeweller knoweth the price of a Jewel, and can best give sentence in the case what he is to pay that hath lost or spoiled it; with man offences of a quick execution meet with a long punishment, and the continuance of the penalty in no case is to be measured with the continuance of the act of sin; Saelus non tempor is magnitudine sed iniqu tatis magnitudine metiendum est: Partly because man sinneth as long as he can, he sinneth in aeterno suo (as Aquinas) and therefore is punished in aeterno Dei; we would live for ever to sin for ever▪ *in Hell the desire of sinning is not extinguished ⟨p. 431⟩or mortified: Partly because they despised an eternal happiness, and therefore do justly suffer an eternal torment: Partly because they are in their final estate peace upon earth, Luk. 2. 14. here God is upon a Treaty with us; but there we are beyond a possibility of repentance and pardon. Partly because their obligations to God are infinite, and so their punishment riseth according to the excess of their obligations: Well then, this representeth the folly of sinners, that will run the hazard of eternal torments for a little temporal satisfaction, as he cried out, For how short a pleasure have I lost a Kingdom? When he had parted with his Sovereignty for a draught of water; so you, out of a desire of present contentment, forfeit Heaven, and run the hazard of the horrors of everlasting darkness;
2. The next thing is the duration [The blackness of darkness FOREVER,] Thetorment prepared for the wicked is everlasting, their worm dyeth not, and their fire is not quenched, Mark 9. 44, This is the Hell of Hell, that as the torments there are without measure, so without end; vivere nolunt mori nesciunt, here they might have life and would not, and now would have death and cannot▪ Rev. 20. 10, tormented for ever and ever: Wo alass, 'tis for ever! Poor wicked wretches, whose bodies shrink at the prick of a Pin, or the flame of a candle, how will they endure those endles• pains? when their restless thoughts shall have run through thousands of years, they must look for more; the the pains of the damned are eternal: partly because of the greatness of the Majesty against whom they have sinned; we are finite creatures, and so not fit to judge of the nature of an offence against an infinite God; the Law giver best knoweth the merit of sin, which is the transgression of the Law, as a Jeweler knoweth the price of a Jewel, and can best give sentence in the case what he is to pay that hath lost or spoiled it; with man offences of a quick execution meet with a long punishment, and the continuance of the penalty in no case is to be measured with the continuance of the act of sin; Saelus non tempor is magnitudine sed iniqu tatis magnitudine metiendum est: Partly because man sinneth as long as he can, he sinneth in aeterno suo (as Aquinas) and therefore is punished in aeterno Dei; we would live for ever to sin for ever▪ *in Hell the desire of sinning is not extinguished ⟨p. 431⟩or mortified: Partly because they despised an eternal happiness, and therefore do justly suffer an eternal torment: Partly because they are in their final estate peace upon earth, Luk. 2. 14. here God is upon a Treaty with us; but there we are beyond a possibility of repentance and pardon. Partly because their obligations to God are infinite, and so their punishment riseth according to the excess of their obligations: Well then, this representeth the folly of sinners, that will run the hazard of eternal torments for a little temporal satisfaction, as he cryed out, For how short a pleasure have I lost a Kingdom? When he had parted with his Soveraignty for a draught of water; so you, out of a desire of present contentment, forfeit Heaven, and run the hazard of the horrours of everlasting darkness;
- *Wicked men are not changed in Hell; melted mettle groweth hard again; the bad thief had one foot in Hell, and yet dyeth blaspheming; their Judgments are changed not their hearts; they would have dallied with God longer, grieved his spirit here in the world longer, but that their Candle went out, &c.Wicked men are not changed in Hell; melted mettle groweth hard again; the bad theif had one foot in Hell, and yet dyeth blaspheming; their Iudgments are changed not their hearts; they would have dallyed with God longer, greeved his spirit here in the world longer, but that their Candle went out, &c.
