Fourthly, from the plague of darkness inflicted on the Egyptians, of which it is written (_Exod._ x. 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 (_Matth._ xxii. 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_, εἰς 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. [Sidenote: Gehenna, and Tophet.] 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 burned the priests of Moloch upon their own altars, as appeareth at large in the 2nd of _Kings_, chap. xxiii.: 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_. [Sidenote: Of the literal sense of the Scripture concerning hell.] Seeing now there is none, that so interprets the Scripture, as that after the day of judgment, 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 under ground or under water; 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 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_. [Sidenote: Satan, Devil, not proper names, but appellatives.]