[2.] The next thing is the duration, the hlacJcness of darkness for ever. The torment prepared for the wicked is everlasting, ' their worm dieth not, and their fire is not quenched,' Mark ix. 44. This is the hell of hell, that, as the torments there are without measure, so with- out end ; vivere nolunt, mori nesciunt. Here they might have life, and would not, and now would have death, and cannot : Eev. xx. 10, ' Tormented for ever and ever.' Woe, alas ! it is 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 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 Lawgiver best knoweth the merit of sin, which is the transgression of the law, as a jeweller knoweth the price of a jewel, and can laest give sentence in the case what he is to pay that hath lost or spoiled it. With man offences of a quick execu- tion 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 — Scelus non temporis magnitudine sed iniquitatis macjnitudine meti- endum est Partly because man sinneth as long as he can ; he sinneth m ceterTW suo, as Aquinas, and therefore is punished in ceterno Dei. We would live for ever to sin for ever ; in hell the desire of sinning is not extinguished or mortified.2 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,' Luke ii. 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 tem- poral satisfaction, as he cried out, For how short a pleasure have I
^ See ver. 6, on those words, chains of everlasting darkness; and ver. 7, those words, eternal fire. _
2 Wicked men are not changed in hell ; melted metal groweth hard again ; the bad thief had one foot in hell, and yet dieth 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.
VeR. 14.] UPON THE EPISTLE OF JUDE. 289
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 ; therefore, to counterbalance the violence of a temptation it is good to think of it. Can I dwell with everlasting burnings ? If a man be sick in the night, he tumbleth and tosseth and telleth the hours, and wisheth it were day ; oh ! what will a man do that is held under an everlasting night and darkness ? We are wont to think a sermon long, a prayer long ; what will hell be, when conscience shall repeat over the passages of our lives, and remember us of the wrath of God that endureth for ever ? Here sin is ever working, all the day it runneth in the mind, all the night it playeth in the fancy ; we begin the morn- ing with it, and end the day with it, and in the visions of the night it easily gets the start, and outrunnetli reason and conscience ; there the guilt of it will torment us day and night, and man is ever haunted with his own horrors, and the wrath of God inflicted upon him.
2. So much for the terribleness of the judgment ; now, secondly, let us consider the sureness of it, rerr'jprjTaL, it is reserved. Hell torment is sure, prepared, kept for the wicked; so Mat. xxv., ' Prepared for the devil and his angels.' Heaven is prepared for the saints, and they for it. In one place it is said, ' The kingdom prepared for you ;' in ano- ther, ' Vessels of mercy aforehand prepared unto glory.' So is hell fitted for the wicked, and they fit themselves for hell. God prepareth the saints and fitteth them, but endureth the wicked, and beareth Avith them whilst they ' fit themselves for destruction ;' see Kom. ix. 22, 23. Carnal men may lord it abroad for a while, and ruffie and shine iu worldly pomp, but ' the blackness of darkness is kept for them. '
3. Observe the suitableness of the judgment to the sin ; he saith darkness, not /re. Clouds that darken the truth are justly punished with ' the mists of darkness for ever ;' see 2 Peter ii. 17. They that would quench the true light are cast into eternal darkness. God lovetli to retaliate, that men may read their sin in their judgment here iu the world, he may do it in mercy to the saints. Jacob, that came the younger for the elder, to blind Isaac, had the elder daughter given him instead of the younger. Asa, that put the prophet in the stocks, was diseased in his feet. But in hell he doth it for the greater horror to the wicked ; they that chose left-hand blessings, Prov. iii. 16, are justly placed with the goats on the left hand. Mat. xxv.; he that denied a crumb could not receive a drop; they that cared not for God's company are then banished out of his presence, and to those that loved darkness more than light is ' the mist of darkness reserved for ever.'