painful will it be then for damned sinners to swim up and down in a lake or river of fire and brimstone for ever and ever ! There is no proportion between the heat of our breath and the fire that it blows. Oh then, what a dreadful, what an amazing, what an astonishing fire must that needs be which is blown by a breath dissolved into brim- stone ! God's wrath and indignation shall be an everlasting supply- to hell's conflagration. Ah sinners, how fearful, how formidable, how- unconceivable will this infernal fire prove ! Surely there is no misery, no torment to that of lying in a torrent of burning brimstone for ever and ever ! Mark, this infernal fire is a fire prepared by God himself, to punish and torment all impenitent persons and reprobate rebels, who scorned to submit to the sceptre of Christ. ' Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels,' Mat. XXV. 41. The wisdom of God hath been much exercised in pre- jDaring and devising the most tormenting temper for that formidable fire, in which the devil sCad his angels shall be punished for ever and ever. Not as if it were not prepared also for wicked and ungodly men ; but it is said to be prepared for the devil and his angels, because it was firstly and chiefly prepared for them. All impenitent sinners shall have the devil and his angels for their constant companions ; and therefore they shall be sure to share with them in the extremity and inevitableness of their torments. But,
[4.] Fourthly, Our fire ivhen it hurneih it shineth, it casts a light Our fire burns, and in burning shines ; light is a natural property of our common fire. It is true, the elementary fire in its own sphere shineth not, because of its subtleness, and the infernal fire of hell shineth not, because of its grossness ; yet our ordinary fire, being of a mixed natin-e, hath light as well as heat in it, and that is our comfort. It hath light to shew itself to us, and to ourselves^ and it hath light to shew others to us, and us to others, &c. Some men can work as well as talk by the light of the fire. Our fires have their beams and rays as well as the sun : but the fire of hell burns, but it does not shine, it gives no light at all. Infernal fire hath no light or bright- ness attending of it, and therefore Christ calls it ' utter darkness,' or outer darkness, that is, darkness beyond a darkness. Mat. xxv. 30, and viii. 12. I have read of a young man who was very loose and vain in his life, and was very fearful of being in the dark, who, after falling sick and could not sleep, cried out, Oh, if this darkness be so terrible, what is eternal darkness? Hell would not be so uncomfort- able a prison if it were not so dark a prison.^ Light is a blessing that shall never shine into that infernal prison. In Jude (ver. 6) you read of ' chains of darkness.' It would be a little ease, a little comfort, to the damned in hell, if they might have but light and liberty to walk up and down the infernal coasts ; but this is too high a favour for them to enjoy, and therefore they shall be chained and staked down in chains of darkness, and in blackness of darkness, that so they may fully undergo the scorchings and burnings of divine wrath and fury for ever and ever. In ver. 13 you thus read, 'To whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.' The words are a
^ Dreiellius. Basil speaking of heW-^re, Ba,ith, Vim comburendi retinet,illuminandi aviisit. It retains the property of Lurning : it liath lost the property of shining.
206 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
ITobraism, and sig^nify exceeding great darkness. Hell is a very- dark and dismal region, and extreme are the miseries, horrors, and torments which are tliere. The poets described the darkness of hell by the Cimmerian darkness. There was a territory in Italy betwixt 13aia3 and Cumjx?, where the Cimmerii inhabit, which was so environed Avith hills, and overshadowed with such hanging promontories, that the sun never comes at it. The darkness of Kgypt was such a strong and horrid thick darkness, that it was palpable, it might be felt. ' Even darkness which may be felt,' Exod. x. 21.^ The darkness that is here threatened is called ' darkness that may be felt,' either by way of a hyperbole, to signify what an exceeding great darkness it should be ; or else because the air should be so thickened with gross mists and thick foggy vapours, that it might be felt ; or else because this extraordinary darkness should be caused by a withdrawment of the light of the celestial bodies, or by drawing a thick curtain of very black clouds betwixt men's eyes and them. ' Yet this horrid darkness was nothing to the darkness of hell. The darkness of Egypt was but as an overcasting for three days : Exod. x. 22, 23, ' And there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days : they saw not one another, neither rose any from his place three days.' For three days they were deprived not only of the natural lights and lamps of heaven, but of all artificial light also. It is possible that the vapours might be so thick and moist as to put out their candles, and all other lights that were kindled by them. It is probable that they had neither light from sun, moon, or stars above, nor yet from fire or candle b^low; so that they were as blind men that could not see at all, and as lame men that could not move from their places ; and so they sate still as under the arrest of this darkness, because they could not see what to do, nor whither to go. God would teach tliem the worth of light, by the want of it. Some think that by that dreadful judg- ment of thick darkness, they were filled with that terror and horror, that they durst not so much as move from the places where they sate down. But after these three days of darkness were over, the Egyptians enjoyed the glorious light of the sun again. Oh, but sinners [when theyj are in hell, when they are in chains of darkness, when they are in blackness of darkness, they shall never see light more ! Hell is a house without light. Gregory, and all other authors that I have cast my eye upon, agree in this, that though our fire hath light as well as heat, yet the infernal fire hath only heat to burn sinners ; it has no light to refresh sinners ; and this will be no small addition to their torment. A philosopher being asked, whether it were not a pleasant thing to behold the sun ? answered, that that was a blind man's question. Surely life without light is but a lifeless life. But,