Lastly,whereas there was a place near Jerusalem called the Valley of the Children of Hinnon in a part whereof called Tophet the Jews had committed most grievous idolatry,sacrificing their children to the idol Moloch;and wherein also God had afflicted His enemies with most grievous punishments;and wherein Josiah had burnt the priests of Moloch upon their own altars,as appeareth at large in II Kings,Chapter 23;the place served afterwards to receive the filth and garbage which was carried thither out of the city;and there used to be fires made,from time to time,to purify the air and take away the stench of carrion.From this abominable place,the Jews used ever after to call the place of the damned by the name of Gehenna,or Valley of Hinnon.And this Gehenna is that word which is usually now translated hell;and from the fires from time to time there burning,we have the notion of everlasting and unquenchable fire.
Seeing now there is none that so interprets the Scripture as that after the day of judgement the wicked are all eternally to be punished in the Valley of Hinnon;or that they shall so rise again as to be ever after underground or underwater;or that after the resurrection they shall no more see one another,nor stir from one place to another;it followeth,methinks,very necessarily,that which is thus said concerning hell fire is spoken metaphorically;and that therefore there is a proper sense to be enquired after (for of all metaphors there is some real ground,that may be expressed in proper words),both of the place of hell,and the nature of hellish torments and tormenters.
And first for the tormenters,we have their nature and properties exactly and properly delivered by the names of the enemy,or Satan;the Accuser,or Diabolus;the Destroyer,or Abaddon.Which significant names,Satan,Devil,Abaddon,set not forth to us any individual person,as proper names use to do,but only an office or quality;and are therefore appellatives;which ought not to have been left untranslated,as they are in the Latin and modern Bibles,because thereby they seem to be the proper names of demons;and men are more easily seduced to believe the doctrine of devils,which at that time was the religion of the Gentiles,and contrary to that of Moses and of Christ.
And because by the Enemy,the Accuser,and Destroyer is meant the enemy of them that shall be in the kingdom of God;therefore if the kingdom of God after the resurrection be upon the earth (as in the former chapter I have shown by Scripture it seems to be),the enemy and his kingdom must be on earth also.For so also was it in the time before the Jews had deposed God.For God's kingdom was in Palestine;and the nations round about were the kingdoms of the Enemy;and consequently by Satan is meant any earthly enemy of the Church.
The torments of hell are expressed sometimes by "weeping,and gnashing of teeth,"as Matthew,8.12;sometimes,by "the worm of conscience,"as Isaiah,66.24,and Mark,9.44,46,48;sometimes,by fire,as in the place now quoted,"where the worm dieth not,and the fire is not quenched,"and many places besides:sometimes,by "shame,and contempt,"as,"And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake;some to everlasting life;and some to shame,and everlasting contempt."All which places design metaphorically a grief and discontent of mind from the sight of that eternal felicity in others which they themselves through their own incredulity and disobedience have lost.And because such felicity in others is not sensible but by comparison with their own actual miseries,it followeth that they are to suffer such bodily pains and calamities as are incident to those who not only live under evil and cruel governors,but have also for enemy the eternal king of the saints,God Almighty.And amongst these bodily pains is to be reckoned also to every one of the wicked a second death.For though the Scripture be clear for a universal resurrection,yet we do not read that to any of the reprobate is promised an eternal life.For whereas St.Paul,to the question concerning what bodies men shall rise with again,saith that "the body is sown in corruption,and is raised in incorruption;it is sown in dishonour,it is raised in glory;it is sown in weakness,it is raised in power";glory and power cannot be applied to the bodies of the wicked:nor can the name of second death be applied to those that can never die but once.And although in metaphorical speech a calamitous life everlasting may be called an everlasting death,yet it cannot well be understood of a second death.
The fire prepared for the wicked is an everlasting fire:that is to say,the estate wherein no man can be without torture,both of body and mind,after the resurrection,shall endure for ever;and in that sense the fire shall be unquenchable,and the torments everlasting:
but it cannot thence be inferred that he who shall be cast into that fire,or be tormented with those torments,shall endure and resist them so as be eternally burnt and tortured,and yet never be destroyed nor die.And though there be many places that affirm everlasting fire and torments,into which men may be cast successively one after another for ever,yet I find none that affirm there shall be an eternal life therein of any individual person;but to the contrary,an everlasting death,which is the second death:"For after death and the grave shall have delivered up the dead which were in them,and every man be judged according to his works;death and the grave shall also be cast into the lake of fire.This is the second death."Whereby it is evident that there is to be a second death of every one that shall be condemned at the day judgement,after which he shall die no more.
