Terrors take hold on him as waters, a tempest stealeth him away in the night.
Ver. 20. Terrors take hold on him as waters] Abundantly, suddenly, irresistibly; he is even swallowed up by them and overwhelmed; as he that is plunged into a deep pit full of water, or that hath the proud surges going over his soul, Psalms 124:5. The misery of it is, that these waters are fiery, and hell is a lake; but a burning lake, and such also as hath eternity to the bottom.
A tempest stealeth him away in the night] i.e. Furtim, et repente et horribiliter. Night is itself full of terror; but much more when a tempest is up, and thieves are abroad, &c. Oh! it must needs be a terrible time indeed, when death shall come with a writ of Habeas corpus, and the devil with another of Habeas animam upon a man at once. Petrus Suetorius speaketh of one that preaching a funeral sermon on a certain canon at Paris, and giving him large commendations, heard at the same time a voice in the church, Mortuus sum, iudicatus sum, damnatus sum, I am dead, judged, and damned (Pet. Suetor. de Vit. Carth). Oh! let us but think with ourselves, though it pass all thought, what a screech the poor soul giveth when hurled into hell; there to suffer such tortures and torments as it shall never be able to avoid or abide!