Their meaning is, that these sorts of persons being most given up to fleshly lusts and pleasures, they shall be sure to have the lowest place in hell. The harlot's feet go down to death, and her steps take hold on hell.^ Wantonness brings men to hell. ' Whoremongers shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone/ Kev. xxi. 8. ' For fornication and uncleanness the wrath of God Cometh on the children of disobedience,' Col. iii. 5, 6. The adulterer herself goes thither; and is it not fit that her companions in sin should be her companions in misery ? * I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into gi*eat tribulation,' Kev. ii. 22. She hastens with sails and oars to hell, and draws her lovers with her. All her courses tend towards hell. Strumpets are the founda- tions and upholders of hell ; they are the devil's best customers. Oh, the thousands of men and women that are sent to hell for wantonness ! Hell would be very thin and empty were it not for these. Other sins are toilsome and troublesome, but wantonness is pleasant, and sends men and women merrily to hell. I have read a story, that one asking the devil which were the greatest sins ? he answered, ' Covetousness and lust.' The other asking again, whether perjury and blasphemy were not greater sins? the devil replied, that in the schools of divinity they were the greater sins, but for the increase of his revenues the other were the greater. Bede,2 therefore, styleth lust, Filiam diaboli, ' the daughter of the devil, which bringeth forth many children to him.' Oh that all wantons would take that counsel of Bernard, ^ ' Ardor gehennce extinguat in te ardorem luxuricB, major ardor minorem superet;' let the fire of hell extinguish the fire of lust in thee ; let the greater burning overcome the lesser, 1 Tim. v. 6. Ponder upon that Prov. ix. 18, ' But he knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell.' To wit, those that are spiritually dead, and that are in the high way to be cut off, either by filthy diseases, or by the rage of the jealous husband, or by the sword of the magistrate, or by some quarrels arising amongst those that are rivals in the harlot's love, and are as sure to be damned as if they were in hell already. A metaphor from a dungeon. He knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depths of hell. Aben Ezra will have the original word D^ ibi, ' there,' to be referred to hell ; * and the meaning of the whole verse to be more plainly thus, He knoweth not that her guests being dead are in the depth of hell. But the Hebrew word here used and translated dead, is Bephaim, which word, Rephaim, properly signifies giants, and to that sense is always rendered by the seventy <ylyavT€<;. The meaning of this place seems to be no other, but that the strange woman will bring them who are her guests to hell, to keep the apostate giants com- pany,— those mighty men of renown of the old world, whose wicked- ness was so great in the earth, that it repented and grieved God that he had made man. Gen. vi. 4, 5 ; and to take vengeance on whom he brought the general deluge upon the earth, and destroyed both man
^ This is a catachrestical metaphor : they are sure to bring her thither, as a man hath that in possession on which with much delight he takes fast hold. ^ Bede, in Prov. xxx. ^ Bern. Serm. 23, ad soror.
* Aben Ezra, in hunc vers.
118 THAT THERE IS MOST CERTAINLY A HELL.
and beast from the face thereof. These giants are called in Hebrew Nephilhn, such as, being fallen from God, fell upon men, and by force and violence made others fall before them, even as the beasts of the field do fall before the roaring lions. These great oppressors were first drowned, and then damned, and sent to that accursed place which was appointed for them. Now to that place and condition, in which they are, the harlot will bring all her wanton lovers. Take one scripture more : Pro v. xv. 11, ' HeU. and destruction are before the Lord ; how much more then the hearts of the children of men.'i Some think the latter is exegetical of the former ; some by Sheol understand the grave, and by Abaddon hell. There is nothing so deep, or secret, that can be hid from the eyes of God. He knows the souls in hell, and the bodies in the grave, and much more men's thoughts here in this place, Prov. XV. 11. The Jews take the word Ahaddon, which we render destruction, for Gehenna, that is, elliptically for Beth-Abaddon, the house of destruction. Though we know not where hell is, nor what is done there — though we know not what is become of those that are destroyed, nor what they suffer, yet God doth ; and if the secrets of hell and devils are known to him, then much more the secrets of the hearts of the children of men. The devil, who is the great executioner of the wrath of God, is expressed by this word ; as hell is called destruction in the abstract, so the devil is called a destroyer in the concrete. ' And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, or hell, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name ApoUyon,' Kev. ix. 11. Both the one and the other, the Hebrew and the Greek, signify the same thing — ^a destroyer. The devil, who is the jailer of hell, is called a destroyer, as hell itself is called destruction. Oh, sirs ! hell is destruc- tion ; they that are once there are lost, yea, lost for ever, Kev. xiv. 11. The reason why hell is called destruction, is because they that are cast to hell are undone to all eternity. * If hell,' said one, ' were to be endured a thousand years, methinks I could bear it, but for ever, that amazeth me.' . Bellarmine, out of Barocius,^ tells us of a learned man, who after his death appeared to his friend, complaining that he was adjudged to hell-torments, which, saith he, were they to last but a thousand thousand years, I should think it tolerable, but alas ! they are eternal. The fire in hell is like that stone in Ai'cadia I have read of, which being once kindled, could not be quenched.^ There is no estate on earth so miserable, but a man may be delivered out of it ; but out of hell there is no deliverance. It is not the prayer, no, not of a Gregory, though never so great, whatever they fable, that can rescue any that is once become hell's prisoner. I might add other scriptures out of the Old Testament, but let these suffice.
That there is such a place as hell is, prepared for the torment of the bodies and souls of wicked and impenitent sinners, is most clear and evident in the New Testament as well as in the Old. Amongst the many that might be produced, take these for a taste : Mat. v. 22, ' But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause' — rashly, vainly, and unreasonably — ' shall be in danger of the
^ Destruction is put as an adjunct or epithet of hell.