(3.) The loss is irreparable. They are banished out of God's sight for evermore. Despair is one ingredient in the sorrow of the damned ; all hopes are cut off of being any more admitted into God's favourable presence. There are many ups and downs in a christian's experience, God hideth his face that he may afterward show it the more gloriously; but this curse is never reversed against the wicked. It was the church's prayer, Ps. lxxxi. 19, ' Keturn again, and cause the light of thy coun- tenance to shine upon us, and we shall be saved.' The saints find sun- shine after clouds, but to these the mist of darkness is reserved for ever, 2 Peter ii. 17. Hell is a region upon which the sun shall never shine ; the wall of partition between God and them shall never be
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broken down ; his fiery indignation they may look for, but not his com- fortable and gracious presence ; that is reserved for the saints.
2. We now come to the poena sensus, the punishment of sense, in- timated in that clause, ' And from the glory of his power.' This clause further showeth the grievousness of their punishment. The face of the Lamb sitting upon his throne is terrible to the wicked, therefore they shall call upon the mountains to cover them, and hide them from the face of the Lamb, Rev. vi. 15, 16. But if they cannot abide his presence pronouncing the sentence of banishment upon them, how heavy will his hand be when he cometh to execute that sentence !
That this may sink into your minds, I will prove two things — (1.) That God doth immediately punish the sinner with his own hands ; (2.) That if Christ interpose his own hand, this maketh their case more terrible and dreadful.
[1.] That Christ or God will take the punishment into his own hands. He is the principal author of those pains which the wicked endure. That God hath an immediate hand in the punishing of ob- stinate and impenitent sinners is evident by these reasons —
(1.) The quarrel with sinners is God's own : Lev. xxvi. 25, ' I will avenge against them the quarrel of my covenant.' So Hosea xii. 2, ' The Lord hath a controversy with Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways.' It is his laws that are broken, his grace despised, the blood of his Son slighted, his Holy Spirit vexed and grieved, and his glory trampled under foot ; and therefore no wonder if he take the punishment into his own hands, and inflict it upon them by his own immediate power.
(2.) Vengeance is God's royal prerogative: Heb. x. 30, 31, 'Ven- geance is mine, I will recompense, saith the Lord.' And thence he concludeth that 'it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.' Because vengeance is his, therefore the sinner falleth into his hands ; he hath reserved this work unto himself.
(3.) Terrors of conscience, that now light upon any, good or bad, they are the arrows of the Almighty : Job vi. 4, ' The arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit ; the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me.' This was his great trouble, that it was the Almighty God with whom he had to do ; the sense of God's wrath was like an envenomed dart flung into his soul. Now if the troubles occasioned by sin now cause men to know and dread his almighty power, much more when sin is fully recompensed into the bosoms of wicked men. An arrow shot by a strong hand maketh a deep and piercing wound, what will one of God's empoisoned darts do?
(4.) After this life, God is all in all, 1 Cor. xv. 28, both in mercy and wrath. All cometh immediately from God, without the interven- tion of means.
He is all in all in a way of mercy. Here he supplieth the necessities of the bodily life by the creatures, and sometimes at the second and third hand ; and therefore we know little of God in comparison by that kind of dispensation : ' I will hear the heavens, and the heavens shall hear the earth.' He supplies our soul necessities by ordinances. Now though the fountain be full and flowing, yet if the pipe be narrow, the water can
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pass only as the pipe can transmit it : the pipe is narrow here, and the vessel is not very capacious. So in a way of wrath ; now it is exe- cuted by creatures, and God showeth how much strength he can put into a creature to execute his displeasure ; but a creature is not a vessel capacious enough to convey all his wrath to us, as a bucket cannot con- tain an ocean. A giant striking with a straw, the straw cannot convey the strength of his blow, for it is a light thing though in the hands of a mighty man ; so no creature is able to bring all God's wrath to another, no vessel is able to hold all God's displeasure ; but then we shall fall immediately into his hands.