And these shall go away into everlasting
punishment
Their excuses will not be regarded, their pleas will be of no
avail, their pretensions to interest in Christ, and love to him,
will be set aside; the sentence will remain irrevocable, and
there will be no appeal from it, for there is no higher tribunal
to bring the cause before; judgment having passed, the execution
of it immediately follows: these goats, or formal professors,
shall be obliged, whether they will or not, to depart from the
presence of Christ; the angels will be ordered to take and cast
them into everlasting burnings; they will be driven by them into
hell, the place appointed for them; where they shall endure
(yxun vnwe) "everlasting
punishment", as the Jews F16 also express it; and that both in
soul and body, as the just desert of sin; which being committed
against an infinite God, cannot be satisfied for by a finite
creature; who therefore must ever bear the punishment of it,
because its pollution and guilt will always remain:
but the righteous into life eternal;
such as are justified by the righteousness of Christ, and who,
though they have done works of righteousness under the influence,
and by the assistance of the grace of God, yet have not depended
upon them, but upon Christ, for life and salvation: these shall
go into heaven, the place appointed for them, to enjoy that
eternal life in soul and body, which is the free gift of God,
through Christ; and will be a life free from all the sorrows of
the present one; a life of perfect holiness and knowledge, and
inconceivable pleasure; a life of vision of God, and communion
with him, and which will continue for ever; and which ascertains
the eternity of the punishment of the wicked: for as the
happiness of the righteous will be eternal, the punishment of the
wicked will be so too; for no reason can be given why the word
which is the same in both clauses, should be taken in the one for
a limited time, and in the other for an eternal duration. The
Jews have a saying F17 which agrees with this last clause,
"the world to come is not made but for the righteous".