And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
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Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And these shall go; Gr. shall go away, &c ... punishment, that Isaiah , of fire and burning. Whence S. Augustine reads (Tract21 , in Joan.), into burning. It means, they shall be burnt in hell, but not burnt up, nor consumed, so as to he annihilated, which the lost will desire.
Everlasting, because they have most grievously offended the Eternal God. For mortal sin, because it is an injury against the Infinite God, has in it an infinite wickedness, therefore it deserves an infinite punishment. But, forasmuch as punishment infinite in intensity can neither be given nor yet endured by Prayer of Manasseh , there shall be given to the reprobate a punishment of infinite duration which shall last for ever and ever. The author of the book on the Spirit and the Soul, in the works of S. Augustine, forcibly depicts the dreadfulness of this punishment. He says, there is to these miserable beings death without death, end without end, consumption without being consumed. For death also shall always live, and the end shall always be beginning. Death shall destroy, and not annihilate. Pain shall torment, and not put fear to flight. The flame shall burn, but shall not disperse the darkness. For there shall be darkness in the fire, fear in the darkness, and pain in the burning. Thus shall the reprobate be tormented without hope of pardon or mercy, which is the misery of miseries. For if, after as many thousands of years as they had hairs upon their heads, they might hope for an end of their punishment, they would sustain it with far greater ease; but because they neither have nor will have any hope, they will fall into despair, and will have no strength to support their torments. Hence S. Cyprian (Lib. de Laud. Martyr. cap5), "Paradise flourishes by the witness of God; hell embraces, the eternal fire consumes those who deny it. It is a dreadful place whose name is hell, with a great murmuring and groaning of those that wail, and with flames bursting out through the horrible night of thick darkness."
From what has been said, we may consider and imagine how bitter and how sad must be the future everlasting separation between the lost and the saved,—when the one shall ascend up into Heaven to everlasting, happiness, and the others shall go down into hell to everlasting fire. Never again, to all eternity, shall they behold the Saints—not even their friends, their brothers, or their parents. For there is a great gulf fixed between the two, as Abraham said to the rich glutton. Thou, therefore, who art wise, ascend daily into Heaven, and descend into hell, that from thence thou mayest gain incentives to flee from vice and pursue virtue. Truly does S. Chrysostom say (Hom2in Epist2ad Thessal.), "No one who has hell before his eyes will ever fall into hell. No one who despises hell will escape it." We may say with S. Diethelmus, in Ven. Bede"s History of the English, "I have seen worse and more dreadful things in hell." By this means we shall bravely sustain and overcome all temptations, persecutions, infirmities, and tribulations through fear of the judgment and of hell.
Life eternal. By these words is meant the receiving of all health, all strength, all honour, all glory, all pleasure, all joy, and everything that is good. For these are the things which those enjoy who truly live; for to live in hunger, thirst, disease, ignominy, pain, is not so much to live as to die continually.
1Gratum facientis. But for a criticism in the Tablet, I should have thought it unnecessary to observe that, in translating gratum by grateful, I use the word in the classical and theological sense. (Back to the place).
2 This would seem to be a mistake for two. (Back to the place).
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