Page:The New View of Hell.djvu/75

 selfish desires, is a flame supported by that heap of spiritual filth and rubbish, which renders the heart of man unclean.

From what has now been said, the meaning of that "lake of fire burning with brimstone" spoken of in the Revelation, in which "the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars" shall have their part, is sufficiently obvious. Brimstone corresponds to the filthy lusts of the natural man. These, through unbridled indulgence, feed and support the flame of infernal love, as brimstone feeds and supports the flame of natural fire. Such lusts are spiritual brimstone.

Those, therefore, who are immersed in evil concupiscences originating in the love of self, are in precisely the state which corresponds to being in a "lake that burneth with fire and brimstone." Such a lake is a perfect symbol, framed under the law of correspondence, of the spiritual condition of the wicked. Hence it is said that, in the great Hereafter, they will have their part in this lake. They are in it now and here, but not so entirely as they will be then and there.

But a smoke is said to issue from that lake. "The smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever." What does this mean?

If the fire and the brimstone are not to be literally interpreted, neither is the smoke. If the former are sym-