Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
Then shall He say to those on the left, &c. Note the antithesis: Christ says to the elect, "Come to Me and to My glory." But to the reprobate, "Depart from Me, to the devil and hell, because in life ye clave to the devil, and not to Me." The word depart denotes the pain of loss (pÅ“na damni), which is the deprivation of the glory of Heaven for ever. But the word fire denotes the pain of sense; for the fire of hell burns continually, not only the bodies, but the souls of the wicked, and yet does not consume them. This punishment is very dreadful. For to be banished from God, from Christ, from Heaven, from the Saints, from everything that is good, is horrible torment. Wherefore S. Chrysostom (Paræn1 , ad Theodor. lapsum) thinks that the deprivation of the vision of God is a greater torment to the damned than the fire of hell. Others entertain the opposite opinion. Isaiah says, "The wicked shall not behold the glory of the Lord" (xxvi10). Cursed, those whom God will curse as His enemies. Into the fire, therefore there is real fire in hell, and that far fiercer and of a different nature and quality from earthly fire. This is the teaching of S. Ambrose (in cap14 , S. Luc.), S. Jerome (in Isa. chaps65, 66), Damascene (lib4 , cap. ult.).
Moreover, this fire is fed by sulphur, which also God will preserve for ever, that it may continually burn the wicked. This is the fire with which Moses threatened the Jews in Deuteronomy 32:22, "A fire is kindled in My fury, and it shall burn unto the lowest hell." Hear what S. Chrysostom says, "They shall be thrust into the river and the sea of fire, a sea which can never be crossed, in which the waves of fire rise mountains high. Fire, I say, but not earthly fire, but far more terrible than any here, whose flames fill the great abyss, so that on every hand the fire seems ready to overwhelm, like some immense wild beast. If we cannot describe in language the most bitter torments of that fire and those flames, what shall we say of them? especially when we consider that a man placed for one moment in earthly fire would die; but there they are burnt and suffer, and never will that which is burnt be consumed" (Hom44in loc.)
Everlasting. Origen, therefore, is in error in thinking that the pains of hell shall cease, and that the wicked shall be delivered out of them on the completion of the Platonic year, that Isaiah , after several thousands of years. For the eternity of punishment in hell is here expressed. So Bede, Theophylact, and others passim. This will be the awful punishment, which will drive the damned to despair, fury, madness, to blaspheming God, their parents, comrades, and all creatures, because so long as Heaven shall last, so long will there be a hell. It shall last as long as God Himself and the universe shall endure. So long shall the reprobate endure, "and shall be tormented day and night for ages of ages" ( Revelation 20:10). Think of this fire when lust, or ambition, or any other temptation entice thee, and say to thyself, "I will not purchase everlasting fire at the price of a little pleasure."
S. Hippolytus the Martyr enlarges upon these words of Christ in a very moving manner in his Treatise on the End of the World. He introduces Christ as reproaching the wicked for their abuse of His benefits, "It was I who formed you, and ye clave to another. I created the earth, the sea, and all things for your sakes, and you misused them to My dishonour. Depart from Me, ye workers of iniquity, I know you not. Ye have become the workmen of another master, even the devil. With him possess darkness, and the fire which shall not be quenched, and the worm which sleepeth not, and the gnashing of teeth." After an interval he adds, "I formed your ears that you should hear the Scriptures, and you applied them to songs of devils, to harps, and jokes. I created your eyes that ye might behold the light of My commandments, and follow them; but ye opened them for adultery, and immodesty, and all uncleanness. I ordained your mouth for the praise and glory of God, and to sing psalms and spiritual songs; but ye applied it for the utterance of revilings, perjuries, and blasphemies. I made your hands, that you should lift them up in prayers and supplications; ye have stretched them out in thefts and murders." And thus he proceeds.
After He has pronounced this sentence, Christ will drive them from Him by means of the demons into hell. Yea, all the elements, together with the heavens, shall rise against them. For, as it is said in Wisdom ( Wisdom of Solomon 6:18), "He shall arm the creatures to take vengeance upon His enemies, and the whole world shall fight for Him against the foolish ones. The right aiming thunderbolts shall go forth. The water of the sea shall race against them, and the rivers shall flow together upon them. A spirit of strength shall stand against them, and like a whirlwind shall divide them."
Prepared for the devil and his angels, that Isaiah , for their chief prince and his armies, Arab. From hence it is plain that the fire of hell was primarily, and per se, prepared by God for the demons, but as a consequence was prepared for men who imitate the disobedience of the devils. Moreover, this fire was prepared by God from everlasting, after the foreseen sin of Lucifer and the demons. For their God decreed to form it for their punishment. But it was actually made, in time, by God at the commencement of the universe, before the creation of man.
The Syr. instead of devil has accuser, which is the meaning of the Gr. διάβολος, for such is Lucifer, who accuses holy men, and even their just works, before God. Hence in the Acts of S. Montanus and his companions, martyrs, the accuser and criminator of the martyrs is called diabolus, because he acted his part before the tribunal of the heathen judges.
