Who shall be punished with everlasting
destruction
With destruction both of soul and body, though not with the
annihilation of either; their gnawing worm of conscience will
never die, and the fire of divine wrath will never be quenched;
the smoke of their torment will ascend for ever. Sin being
committed against an infinite and eternal Being, will be infinite
in its duration; nor will it cease to be in the persons punished,
who will not be in the least reformed or purged from sin by
punishment; which will make the continuance of it just and
necessary. And these will be driven
from the presence of the Lord;
as the former clause may express the punishment of sense the
wicked will feel in their own breasts, this may intend the
punishment of loss; or what they will be deprived of, the
presence of the Lord, in which the happiness of angels, and of
glorified saints lies; and may also signify how sudden and
terrible their destruction will be. As soon as the Lord appears,
they will perish at his presence like wax before the fire; and so
awful will be his appearance, they will flee from it with the
utmost terror, and call to the rocks and mountains to hide them
from the face of the Lord, and to screen them from his wrath:
and from the glory of his power;
or his glorious power, in which he shall come, and which will be
exerted, and shown in raising the dead, and gathering all nations
before him, in passing sentence on them, and in executing it. For
he has power, as to save, so to destroy, as to glorify the bodies
and souls of his saints, so to destroy the wicked, both body and
soul, in hell; and the glory of his power will be seen in the
one, as well as in the other. And now it will be, that
tribulation will be rendered to the troublers of the Lord's
people.
