2. Now when these wretched rejecters of Christ shall thus be set before him in their sins, and convicted, this is the preparatory work upon which follows the manner of executing the act which will be done.
(1.) In the presence of all the holy angels.
(2.) In the presence of all them that in their lifetime came to him, by saying unto them, “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels”: with the reason annexed to it. For you were cruel to me and mine, particularly discovered in these words, “For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me not in; naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not” (Matt 25:41-43).
Second, Now it remains that we speak of the place into which these shall be cast, which, in the general, you have heard already, to wit, the first prepared for the devil and his angels. But, in particular, it is thus described:—
1. It is called Tophet: “For Tophet is ordained of old, yea, for the king,” the Lucifer, “it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large; the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it” (Isa 30:32).
2. It is called hell. “It is better for thee to enter halt” or lame “into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell” (Mark 9:45).
3. It is called the wine-press of the wrath of God. “And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth,” that is, them that did not come to Christ, “and cast it into the great wine-press of the wrath of God” (Rev 14:19).
4. It is called a lake of fire. “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire” (Rev 20:15).
5. It is called a pit. “Thou hast said in thy heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit” (Isa 14:13-15).
6. It is called a bottomless pit, out of which the smoke and the locust came, and into which the great dragon was cast; and it is called bottomless, to show the endlessness of the fall that they will have into it, that come not, in the acceptable time, to Jesus Christ (Rev 9:1,2; 20:3). . 7. It is called outer darkness. “Bind him hand and foot—and cast him into outer darkness,” “and cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness,” “there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matt 22:13; 25:30).