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A vast den of poisonous hissing serpents!
from Jonathan Edwards, "Charity and its Fruit"
Hell is a place where God manifests his displeasure and wrath.
Everything in hell is hateful.
There is not one solitary object there that is
not odious and detestable, horrid and hateful.
There is no person or thing to be seen there, that
is amiable or lovely; nothing that is pure, or holy,
or pleasant, but everything abominable and odious.
There are no beings there but devils,
and damned spirits that are like devils.
Hell is, as it were, a vast den of poisonous hissing
serpents- the old serpent, who is the devil and Satan,
and with him all his hateful brood!
Those in hell hate God, and Christ, and angels, and
saints in heaven; and not only so, but they hate one
another, like a company of serpents or vipers, not
only spitting out venom against God, but at one another,
biting and stinging and tormenting each other.
All things in the wide universe that are hateful shall
be gathered together in hell, as in a vast receptacle
provided on purpose, that the universe which God
has made may be cleansed of its filthiness, by casting
it all into this great sink of wickedness and woe.
It is a world prepared on purpose for the expression
of God's wrath. He has made hell for this; and he has
no other use for it but there to testify forever his hatred
of sin and sinners, where there is no token of love or mercy.
In hell, there is nothing there but what shows
forth the Divine indignation and wrath.
Every object shows forth wrath.
It is a world all overflowed with a deluge of wrath, as
it were, with a deluge of liquid fire, so as to be called
a lake of fire and brimstone, and the second death.
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