Discourses on Divers Texts of Scripture, Discourses 1 · Sermon 7
PROVERBS 21. 16.Pro. 21. 16.
The Man, that wandreth out of the way of understanding, shall remain in the Congregation of the Dead. foreign, in coetu Gigantum.
IT is a question sometimes moved amongst Divines, and worth resolving; How, and by what name the place and condition of the damned (which in the Gospel is called Gehenna) was termed, or expressed in the Old Testament before the Captivity of Babylon, and whilst the first Temple stood: For presently after the Return, the afore-mentioned name Gebenna began to be frequented; as appears both by the second of Esdras, the Chaldee Paraphrast, and other Jewish writings, where that name is often found; as also by the Gospel, where our Saviour useth it, as then vulgarly known amongst the Jews. But it is as certain, that before the Captivity or second Temple (for so the Jews call the time of their state after their return) this name was not in use; both because it is no where to be found in the Canonicall Scriptures of the old Testament, which were all written within that time; and especially, because the ground and occasion thereof was not till about that time in being; which was the pollution of the valley of the sons of Hinnom, or Tophet by King Iosiah, and the dreadfull execution of divine vengeance in that Place: Hence it became to posterity to be a name of execration, and applyed to signifie the place of eternall punishment.
For this valley of Hinnom (Gehinnom, or, as afterward they pronounced it, Gehenna) was a valley neer Jerusalem, in a place whereof, called Tophet, the children of Israel committed that abominable Idolatry, in making their children to passe through the fire to Moloch, that is, burnt them to the Devil. For an eternall detestation whereof, King Iosiah polluted it, and made it a place execrable, ordaining it to be the place, whither dead Carkasses, Garbage, and other unclean things should be cast out: For consuming whereof, to prevent annoyance, a continuall fire was there burning. Yea, not man onelyonly, but the Lord himself, as it were consecrated this place, to be a place of execration, by making it the field of his vengeance, both before and after. For first, this was the place where the Angel of the Lord destroyed the host of Senacherib, King of Assyria, where one hundred and eighty thousand of their Carkasses were burnt, according to that, Esay 30. Through the voyce of the Lord shall the Assyrian be beaten down. For Tophet (this was a place, I told you, in the valley of Hinnom) is ordained of old; yea for the King 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. This was also the place, where the Idolatrous Jews were slain, and massacred by the Babylonian armies; when their City was taken, and their Carkasses left, for want of room for buriall, for meat to the fowles of heaven, and beasts of the field; according to the word of the Lord, by the Prophet Ieremy in his seventh and nineteenth Chapters, The children of Iudah have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and daughters in the fire, which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart. Therefore behold, the dayes come, saith the Lord, that it shall be no more called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter. For they shall bury in Tophet till there be no place. And the carkasses of this people shall be meat for the fowls of heaven, and the beasts of the field, and none shall fray them away.
Hence, as I said, this place being so many wayes execrable for what had been done therein, especially, having been as it were the gate to eternall destruction, by so remarkable judgements, and vengeance of God there executed for sin; it came to be translated to signifie the place of the damned, as the most accursed, execrable, and abominable place of all places; the invisible vall…y of Hinnom. For such was the property of the Jewish Language, to give Denominations unto things unseen, from such analogicall, and borrowed expressions of things visible. By all which it is apparent, that this notion of that name took its beginning after the Captivity, and was not in use before.
Still therefore we are left to seek, by what other name, and under what notion this place of the damned was expressed, before the word Gehenna, or Gehinnom came to be used. I answer, out of my Text, it seems to have been called Domus, or Coetus Gigantum. Vir qui erraverit à viâ intelligentiae, in Coetu Gigantum commorabitur. In the Hebrew, in Coetu Rephaim, which word properly signifies Giants, and to that sense is alwayes rendred by the Seventy, foreign, though we, and the later Interpreters, both in this, and some other places, take it for manes, or mortui; but the ancient, I think, deserve the more credit, especially it being confessed, that the word elsewhere so signifies. In Coetu Gigantum therefore, that is, of those Giants, and Rebels against God, of whom we read Gen. 6. Those mighty men, and men of renown of the old World, whose wickednesse was so great in the earth, that it repented, and grieved God he had made man; and to take vengeance upon whom, he brought the generall Deluge upon the earth, and destroyed man and beast from the face thereof. Vir qui erraverit à viâ Doctrinae, The man that wandreth out of the way of understanding, shall go and keep them company; that is, go to that accursed place, and condition which they are in.
That this construction of Coetus Rephaim is not improbable, may appear, first, by the glosse of Rabbi Solomon upon this Text, in Coetu Rephaim, that is, saith he, foreign, in Coetu Gehennae; This notion therefore is not altogether new.
Secondly, it is strengthened by comparing with it other places of Scripture, where the like expression is used; as twise more in this Book of Proverbs; First, Chap. 2. 18. where we read according to the Vulgar, Domus mulier is alienae inclinata est ad mortem, & ad inferos semitae ejus; Here for ad inferos, the Hebrew hath foreign, ad Gigantes; And the Seventy render it with an exegesis: foreign, She hath put, or set her paths in Hades, or Hell, with the Giants. Again, Chap. 9. 18. Aquae furtivae dulciores sunt, & panis absconditus suavior. Et ignoravit, (namely, he that goes in to a strange woman) quod ibi sint Gigantes, & in profundis Inferni convivae ejus. Here in some Editions of the Vulgar are added these words: Qui enim applicabitur illi, descendet ad inferos, & qui abscesserit ab illâ salvabitur: an Argument how this place hath been understood; For the meaning of both these places seems to be no other, but, That the strange woman will bring them who frequent her, to hell, to keep the Apostate Giants company.
There is another place in the Hagiographa, where these Rephaim are mentioned, to wit, Iob 26. 5. which though of a more ambiguous sense, and scope, yet as it is translated by the vulgar Latin, and well enough to agree with the Hebrew, seems to be no other, but a description of Hell with the former; Gigantes, saith he, gemunt sub aquis, & qui habitant cum iis. Nudus est infernus coram illo (id est, Deo) & nullum est operimentum perditioni. The meaning hereof seems to be this. The place where the old Giants mourn, or wail under the waters, and their fellow-inhabitants, the rest of the damned with them, even Infernus, and the place of Perdition it self, is naked and open to the eyes of God, from whom nothing is hid; which is agreeable to that, Pro. 15. 11. Hell and destruction are before the Lord, how much more then the hearts of the children of men? In this place the Jews take the word Abaddon, which we render destruction, for Gehenna; that is, elliptically, for Beth Abaddon, the House of destruction. And why then should not the same word be so taken in that place of Iob? and Nullum est operimentum perditioni, be as much as, Nullum est operimentum Loco perditionis, or Gehennae?
Compare with these places in the Hagiographa, two in the Prophets; One in the 14. of Esay; where by way of a Poeticall or Propheticall hypotyposis of the destruction or fall of Babylon, the King thereof is brought in coming to the Rephaims, or Giants in the other world. Hell (saith the Text) from beneath is moved for thee, to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the Rephaims for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth: And they shall say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us?
The other is the 32 of Ezekiel, concerning the fall of Egypt, where their slain are bestowed in like manner, in the nethermost parts of the earth, with the Gibborim; which signifies not onelyonly mighty men, but Giants, and so is rendred in this place by the Seventy: And thus much from comparison of places of Scripture.
A third Argument to make this notion probable, which I have represented, is this; Because all the expressions almost in Scripture, whereby this place of eternall punishment is represented, relate and allude to some places or Stories remarkable for Gods exemplary vengeance executed upon sinners. As that of Gehenna to the notorious Judgements of God in the valley of Hinnom, for Idolatry, and Blasphemy. That of the Lake of fire and brimstone, so often mentioned in the Apocalypse, to the Lake Asphaltites, the lasting monument of those showers of fire and brimstone from heaven, wherewith Sodom and Gomorrah with the rest of the Cities of the plain perished for their abominable lusts. Our Saviours expression in his sentence of condemnation, (Go ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devill and his Angels) seems to relate to the punishment of the Apostate Angels, who for their rebellion were delivered unto chains of darknesse against that great Day.
And was not the destruction of the old world, by the generall Deluge of water, as famous as any of these? Yea, not to be paralleld by any, but that second Deluge of fire, at the last Judgement? How improbable is it then, that this should not lend a denomination to the place or state of eternall punishment, as well as the rest?
Nay, which is more, S. Peter in his second Epistle, and second Chapter recites these last three together, as if they had been intended, as patterns of the eternall Judgement and punishment of sinfull men. For (saith he) if God spared not the Angels that sinned, but cast them down to Hell, and delivered them to chains of darknesse, to be reserved unto judgement. 5. And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eight person, a Preacher of righteousnesse, bringing in the Flood upon the world of the ungodly, (that is, of the Rephaim, for so the Seventy sometimes turn it.) 6. And turning the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample, or pattern (mark it well, foreign, (i.) foreign, of the punishment) of such, as should after live ungodly: (Hence, as I told you, was the Lake Asphaltites, or the Lake of fire and brimstone, borrowed by Saint Iohn, for a denomination of hell.) 7. And he delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked; (If God did this) 9. He knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of Iudgement, to be punished. Ye see the application, or reddition, and accordingly, how prone the destruction of the world, of the Rephaim or ungodly by the Deluge, is, to give denomination to the punishment of Hell, as well as the other two.
And now, I suppose, you look for my Application, and putting the whole Text together, which I shall do: He that goeth astray from the way of understanding, (that is, he that wandereth from the Law and Discipline of God; For that indeed is the true wisdom. Timor Domini principium sapientiae, The fear of God is the prime wisdom; that is the meaning; or to speak after our Academicall notion, the chief Philosophy; whence, through all this Book of the Proverbs, the wicked man who hath no skill in this Divine Philosophy, or Discipline of God, goeth for a Fool, and so is called) must one day go even to his Fellow-giants; who, as Baruch sayes in his third Chapter, were destroyed, because they had no wisdom, and perished through their own foolishnesse. Vir qui erraverit à viâ Doctrina, in Coetu Gigantum commorabitur. They who thus go astray, shall go to those Rephaims of the old World, whose true sons they are; that is, unto the place of everlasting punishment; From which God deliver us.