Preaching about hell is never an end in itself. You can’t frighten anyone into heaven. Heaven is for people who love purity, not for people who simply loathe pain. Nevertheless, Edwards says, “Some talk of it as an unreasonable thing to think to fright persons to heaven; but I think it is a reasonable thing to endeavor to fright persons away from hell—’tis a reasonable thing to fright a person out of a house on fire.”23
