cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, by the extraordinary wrath of God, were consumed for their wickedness with fire and brimstone, and together with them the country about made a stinking bituminous lake: the place of the damned is sometimes expressed by fire, and a fiery lake, as in the Apocalypse 21:8, “But the timorous, incredulous, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.” So that it is manifest, that hell fire, which is here expressed by metaphor from the real fire of Sodom, signifieth not any certain kind or place of torment; but is to be taken indefinitely for destruction, as it is in Rev. 20:14, where it is said, that “death and hell were cast into the lake of fire”; that is to say, were abolished and destroyed; as if after the day of judgment there shall be no more dying, nor no more going into hell; that is, no more going to Hades, (from which word perhaps our word Hell is derived,) which is the same with no more dying.
Fourthly, from the plague of darkness inflicted on the Egyptians, of which it is written ( Exod. 10:23), “They saw not one another, neither rose any man from his place for three days; but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings”; the place of the wicked after judgment, is called “utter darkness,” or, as it is in the original, “darkness without.” And so it is expressed ( Matt. 22:13) where the king commanded his servants, “to bind hand and foot the man that had not on his wedding garment, and to cast him out,” εὶς τὸ σκοτος τὸ ἐξώτερον , “into external darkness,” or “darkness without”: which though translated “utter darkness,” does not signify “how great,” but “where” that darkness is to be; namely, “without the habitation” of God’s elect.
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