The word hell is not in the Greek; the Greek word for which they put the English word hell, is gehenna; ge in Greek is the earth, or ground, and henna is borrowed from the Hebrew, from the valley of Hinnom. Dr. Lightfoot, in his epistle prefixed to his Harmony, saith, It is well known the judgment of gehenna is taken from the valley of gehenna; Tophet or gehenna are names of the places of idolatry; there was the idol Moloch.

SECTION II. Of Hell-fire, Mat. v. 22, and the everlasting fire, and unquenchable fire, Mat. xxv. 41, 46. Fear him that hath power to cast into hell, Luke xii. 5. The damnation of hell, Mat. xxiii. 33.

Mat. v. 22. The fire of gehenna, and the everlasting fire, &c. How the Jews understood them is evidently to be seen in their writings; they understood these expressions to signify the fire of the valley of Hinnom; so saith Dr. Lightfoot to the reader, in his Harmony, because of the law thou art delivered from the judgment of gehenna and Baal-Tur. Gem. i. 1.

The Protestant writers confess that Mat. v. 22. xxv. 41, 46, Luke xii. 5, are to be understood of the fire of the valley of the son of Hinnom, which is Tophet; so Mr. Cartwright, Dr. Fulke, Mr. Trap, and the late Annotations on the Bible, and others, for in danger of hell-fire &c. read, in danger of being burned in the valley of Hinnom, or Tophet;the damnation of hell, gehenna; they interpret these places of the valley of Hinnom, or Tophet, which place was near to Jerusalem, where they of

fered their children to Moloch, Josh. xv. 8. King Josiah defiled Tophet, the valley of the son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or daughter pass through the fire to Moloch, 2 Kings xxiii. 10. Josiah commanded all the carrion of the city of Jerusalem to be carried into that valley, and burned there, that the carrion might not annoy the city; thither, saith David Chimchi, were carried all the filth and unburied carcasses, to be burned. The Sanhedrim of the Jews, for some offences, sentenced the bodies of the offenders to lie unburied in that valley, to burn with the carrion cast there, which, among the Jews, was considered a great disgrace; and for of fences most criminal, they burned the offenders alive in that valley. They placed the malefactor in a dunghill up to the knees, and put a towel about his neck, and one pulled it one way and one another way, till being strangled he was forced to open his mouth; then they poured scalding lead into his mouth, which went down into his body, and so burned his bowels; Talmud in Sanhedr. Per. 7. Mr. Cartwright saith, the Jews sent thither their guilty to be burned in that valley, and those they burned there they dealt with as guilty.

Observe the following reasons: First, it is confessed by all, that Christ speaks and alludes to the Jewish practice in their judicature; therefore the places abovesaid concern them. Secondly, the speech of Christ was to the Jews by birth and educa tion; they wrote the New Testament, and though it be penned in Greek, it speaks the phrase of the Jewish nation. The apostle, preaching to the Jews,

used the word gehenna, James iii. 6. Christ and his disciples used known terms, that they might the better be understood. Thirdly, because the Jews had not power to send them to the hell they speak of in the future world. Fourthly, because the last, only, of the three sins is said to be judged to the fire of gehenna, which if it were to be understood as some would have it, it will follow that some sins deserve not hell eternal, and shall not be punished there, which is contrary to themselves, who teach that the least sin deserves hell eternal. Fifthly, Mat. v. 22, shows the severity of the Jews and Pharisees in punishing anger without a cause. Racha is a word of disgrace, which signifies a crafty fellow, or wicked wretch. To apply it to any one was as great fault as to say fool, if not greater, yet it was punished less: Thus, he who was guilty of rash anger was in danger of the judgement; he who contemptuously said racha, was in danger of the council; but if he said fool, he was in danger of hell-fire, i. e. in the true sense, to burn in the valley of the son of Hin

nom.

SECTION III. Of the word Everlasting.

1. The fire of the valley of Tophet is so called, in that it did burn day and night, and went not out.

2. The words ever and everlasting the Greeks understand to mean an age; ever and everlasting are of similar signification, and are used for a limited time, a time during life: He shall serve his master forever, Exod. xxi. 6; Levit. xxv. 46; that is, until his own or his master's death; longer he could not

serve him. The everlasting, priesthood, Exod. xl. 15, was only until Christ came; then it was to cease, as appears, Heb. vii. 12-14. It is said, they shall inherit the land forever, Isa. x. 21; that ever was but a little while, as appears, Isa. lxiii. 18.

3. Inasmuch as fire is durable, and goeth not out until the combustible matter be consumed, it may be called everlasting and unquenchable; for the fire that destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorràh is called eternal fire, because it indeed consumed those cities; but where no wood is the fire goeth out, Prov. xxvi. 20.

4. If fire were everlasting, it will not follow that what is cast into it is everlasting; the wicked are compared to chaff and stubble; fire is not long in consuming them. Burn the chaff, Isa. v. 24. If any say chaff will be ever burning, and never consumed, we know the contrary.

5. Consider that the scripture sometimes uses words that exceed their signification, and they are not strictly to be understood according to their literal signification; as John xxi. 25, The things that Jesus did, if they should be written, I suppose the world itself would not contain the things that should be written. A large expression! What! will not the whole world contain a record of the actions of one man? The meaning is, they would be exceedingly numerous, or too great. So sin, and the strength of the Ethiopian army are said to be infinite, Job xxii. 5, Nah. iii. 9; that is, very great; for the world and all it contains is finite, Isa. xl. 17. These considerations show how such words are to be understood, and it may satisfy us herein.

Is it not a very strange thing that they themselves should confess that the English word hell is in the Hebrew sheol, and in the Greek hades and gehenna, and that they are to be understood as aforesaid, and still should translate these same words by the English word hell, and then, expound hell as a terrible and dreadful place of torment, never to end? O horrible abuse and blasphemy against God and his word! and even all men are deluded and deceived thereby. Verily, verily, they deserve the name they give to others, of denying the word of God.

SECTION IV. The story of Dives. Luke xxi. 19-31.

This affords no proof of any torments in hell, because it is a parable, not a history; on a parable we are not to ground a doctrine. The story of Dives is no more a proof of a punishment after this life, than Judges ix. 8, is a proof that trees did formerly walk and speak; for it is said, the trees went forth and said, &c. The story of Dives is not to be understood according to the letter for the following reasons:

1. It saith, there was a rich man in hell, yet all confess the body is in the grave.

2. How could Dives see so far, as Abraham's bosom is from hell? Mr. Leigh saith, the great chaos between Abraham and Dives signifies an infinite distance, which overthroweth their seeing, and speaking to each other.

3. It saith, he saw Abraham; yet they say, hell is a place of utter darkness; how can anything be seen in a place of utter darkness?