HELL, With the Everlasting Torments thereof Asserted.  
SHOWING 

1. Quod sit, That there is such a place.  
2. Quid sit, What this place is.  
3. Ubi sit, Where it is.    
Being Diametrically opposite to a late Pamphlet, Entitled, The Foundation and Pillars of Hell Discovered, Searched, Shaken, and Removed.  
For the Glory of God, both in his Mercy and Justice, the comfort of all poor believing Souls, and the terror of all wicked and ungodly wretches.  
Semper meditare Gehennam.  
By NICH. CHEWNEY, M.A.  
LONDON, Printed by J. M. for Tho. Dring, and are to be sold at his Shop, at the Sign of the George in Fleetstreet, near Cliffords-Inne, 1660.   

To the Worshipful, and his ever honoured Friends, William Parson's Esq; and Mrs. Dorothy Parsons, his virtuous Consort.  
THough either of your Names were more than sufficient Honour done to this small and weak piece in the Patronage of the same; yet, whom God hath joined together, I did not dare to sever. To you both then do I make this Application, and Dedication. Yours was the Principal, and to whom else should pertain the interest? What you shall meet with of Vigour, and Solidity, I desire you would entertain and cherish; for it is Yours, Yours first in the Birth and Occasion; now in the Nourishment and Protection. What more languishing and abortive, impute to the Author; 'tis mine, like me, I'll Father it. However it will implore your Charity, the Charity of your fair Interpretation, which if you shall vouch safe, you have Nobly rewarded the Endeavours of,  
SIR, Your most Affectionate Friend and Servant, N. C.   

To the READER.  
WHat Anonymus tells thee in the beginning of his Epistle, thou knowest to be true, and wilt gratify him with a concession of the same, that what he presents there is both new and old, to wit, an old Originian Heresy new vampt on the Socinian last. In the reviving of which, that he may be indulgent to the Creature, he considers not how injurious he is to the Creator, whose mercy while he seems to magnify, he vilipends his justice. For if there be no Hell, no place of everlasting Torment after this life, (which he vainly endeavours to prove) not only the wicked, how lose and licentious soever in their lives, how profane and scandalous soever at their death, but even the Devils themselves (who were reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgement of the great day) may at last be saved. And how then will the infinite justice of God be satisfied, in which, as well as in his mercy, he will everlastingly be glorified?  
I was once in the mind to have followed this bold Undertaker passibus aequis, and to have set before thee his ignorant mistakes, his wilful errors, his false glosses, his fair pretences, his foul purposes, his undervaluing the Scriptures, his diminution of Christ and his sufferings; but I suppose these must needs be obvious to every judicious eye; I have then contented myself (and I hope thee) with this downright confutation. In which, God knows, my aim is aut praevenire errori, aut revocare errantem; Either to prevent a man before he errs, or to recall and recover him erring. It is a phrase often used by the Apostles, Let no man deceive you with vain words. Nihil facilius est quàm errare, There is nothing easier than to err. There is no man but does err; sometimes in via pedum, often in via morum. That provision than is very necessary for us, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, especially in these bad times, when deceits lie as thick upon the Earth, as the Grasshoppers did upon the ground in Egypt, that a man can scarce set his foot beside them. But woe unto those, by whose pride and self-conceitedness the world is so filled and furnished with them.  
I but, say some, they urge the Scriptures for their opinions. So did Arius, Novatus, Aerius, Montanus, Donatus, Pelagius, and the Devil himself. Neither hath there been at any time, any Heretic so fruitless, that hath not used the copy of their countenance; nor in any place any error so shameless, that hath not been overcast with the blaze of these orient colours. Impostors make use of the scriptures, to undermine those that desire to be guided by them, by their corrupt interpretations of them.  
Yet is it no disgrace to the Scriptures, that they are thus depraved; it seems rather some grace unto them, that Satan and his Imps do meddle with them. For thereby they tacitly acknowledge, that there is virtue and power in them. The Bee gathers honey on the same stalk, from which the Spider sucks poison. Some have been infected by their meats and drinks; yet either these things must nourish us, or nothing. Nor is it possible for Impostors to find out a better colour for their Errors and Heresies, than out of the Scriptures. Therefore with that heavenly gold, they gild over their base metal, that it may pass the more current. But what they get hereby they may put in their eyes and see near the worse; for they pervert the scriptures to their own destruction.  
Truly I could wish, that such Impostors as these before they be suffered to meddle with the Scriptures, might be forced to put in sureties, that the sense they give of them should be sound and Orthodox, and consenting with the Church of God: For the trusting of every man upon his single bond, to interpret any place of scripture, is the occasion of very much Error, as we find by woeful experience. Hence grow they bold to utter their own fancies, and look to be credited upon their bare word. And what is this but Dominari fidei, to Lord it over the faith of others? Hence it is, that the scriptures themselves, which were by God ordained as a special means to bring us to the knowledge of him, by Satan's illusions become occasions of our more offending him.  
As in dark nights Pirates use to kindle fires, and make great lights upon the Rocks and Maritime Coasts: whether, when the poor weatherbeaten Seamen steer in hope of harbour, they meet with nothing but wrack and ruin: so Heretics flourish with the scriptures, or at least some seeming flashes thereof, under the pretence of new, but false Lights, to which, when distressed souls repair for succour, these pestilent seducers feed them with nothing but pernicious error.  
This is the cunning of these wicked Impostors, something they will have good, to draw down the evil, the greater part shall be evil, to poison the good. Miscent recta perversis, etc. But as the Apostle from God, so I from the Apostle, by the command of God,, do warn thee of these wicked perverters of the Word of God, which come indeed in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening Wolves, that thou take heed of them, that thou be not led, and so led away by them, lest thou fall into the error of the wicked.  
It may be this council may be slighted by thee, but they of whom I warn thee, would give much, that such as I am, though now mean and contemptible in the eyes of the world, would hold our tongues, and forbear speaking; our hands, and forbear writing against them. If they could procure (as who sees not 'tis their great endeavour) our mouths to be muzzled, or our hands manacled by Authority, or else delivered over to their wolvish cruelty; Error would then play Rekes, Darkness triumph, Hell (though now divided) make playday, Truth languish, and all goodness fall slat to the Earth. From which sad influences, let every Christian pray, in that which was once the Dialect of the Church, Good Lord deliver us, etc.   

HELL, With the everlasting Torments thereof Asserted.  
THere are three ways proposed by S. Bernard for our apprehending of divine Things; The first whereof is the Understanding, which relies upon Reason. The second is, Faith, which relies upon supreme Authority. The third is Opinion, which relies upon Probability, Et veri Similitudo. Now there may arise in some men, some mistake, some misapprehensions of the sense of some place of Scripture, there may arise some paradoxical imaginations in them, and yet these never attain to the settledness of an opinion, they float in the fancy, and are but waking dreams. Yet such Imaginations, and Fancies, and Dreams, receive too much honour in the things, and too much favour in the persons, if they be questioned or reproved.  
By this means it comes to pass sometimes, that that which was but straw at first, being blown by vehement Disputations, sets fire on Timber, & draws men of more learning and authority to side with, and mingle themselves in these impertinencies; Therefore it is good council that the wise Man gives, Prov. 26.4. Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou be like unto him. Every bewildered fancy that ariseth, must not be so much as reproved, or called in question.  
And though Fancies grow to be Opinions, and that men come to think, that they have reasons for their opinions, and to know that they have other men on their side in those opinions; yet so long as they be but opinions, of a little too much, or a little too little, in matter of ceremony or circumstance, as long as they are but deflectings and deviations upon colloterall matters, no foundation being shaken, no Cornerstone displaced, as long as they are but preteritions, not contradictions; but Omissions, not Usurpations; they are not worthy of conviction; and there may be more danger than profit, in bringing them forth into an over-vehement agitation: For those men whose end is Schism, Sedition, and Distraction, are brought near their own ends, and the accomplishment of their desires, if they can set other men together by the ears, and make sober men to wrangle.  
They must be Opinions then, not Fancies; and those opinions must have a contrariety, an opposition to certain Truths; they must be held, maintained, pesisted in, and published, before it be fit to call them in question, or to afford them a confutation. A man admits an opinion sometimes to lodge in him so long, as that transit in intellectum, it fastens upon his understanding; and that that he did but think before, he now seems to know and believe; and then, Fides si habet haesitationem, infirma est, as that faith that admits a scruple is weak: So, Opinio, si habet assertionem, temeraria est, When that that is but an opinion comes to be published and avowed for certain, yea, for a necessary truth, than it becomes dangerous: and that grows apace; for scarcely does any man believe an opinion to be true, but he hath a certain appetite and itch to infuse it into others.  
This Itch, I suppose, hath troubled this appetite stirred up, and provoked a certain confident Anonymus, in whom all these pieces meet, and make up a body of error, which he stiffly holds, and publicly persists in; otherwise I had never troubled, either myself, or the Reader, with this confutation; whose great endeavour it is, to undermine and blow up Hell in the belief of others, because he himself is persuaded there is no such place. I have therefore set myself Diametrically opposite to what he hath written to that purpose, and in the management hereof, shall proceed by the consideration of these Three Circumstances.  
1. Quod sit, That there is such a place of misery prepared and appointed for the wicked.  
2. Quid sit, What this place of misery is.  
And 3ly, To satisfy (if possibly) the curious inquiries of those who make most question of it; I shall with as much light as the Father of Lights hath afforded me, determine Ubi sit, where this place of Misery and Torment is.  
First, That there is a Hell; which place, though some think God never made, but that it grew out of our sins; yet it is manifest it had a being even before sin; and that God made it before he had present occasion for it, or actual use of it. It was, without question, constituted ere the Angels fell.  
Hell was framed before sin was hatched, as Heaven was form and fitted before the Inhabitant was produced. For we must observe, that God created Angels and Men after his own Image, Ratione sapientes, vitâ innocentes, dominio potentes, wise, innocent, powerful. But withal be gave them flexibilem naturam, a mutable condition, which had power of standing, and possibility of falling: Power to stand, was of God the Creator; possibility to fall, was of themselves as Creatures. If God had given them an immutable nature, he had created them Gods, not Creatures. Now out of the whole host of Angels, he kept some from falling; and when all Mankind was fallen, he redeemed some by his Son. As he shows mercy upon some in their salvation, so it is fit he should show justice upon others in their condemnation. And because there must be distinct places, for the exercise of the one, and for the execution of the other, which are in God equally infinite, by an irrecoverable decree from the foundation of the world, a glorious habitation was ordained for the one, and a terrible Dungeon for the other, Mat. 25.46. These shall go into everlasting punishment, and the Righteous into life eternal. So certain are both these places, that they were of old prepared for that purpose, Mat. 25.34. Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you, from the foundation of the world, vers. 41. Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels. As God foresaw the different estates and conditions of Men and Angels: so he provided for them distinct and different places. That there is a Hell.  
First, The Scriptures do plentifully testify, and that both in the Old and New Testament, though Anonymus see it not; But who so blind as he that will not see? In the old Testament, Psal. 9.17. The wicked shall be turned into Hell, and all those that forget to turn to God. If School here signify the Grave only, what punishment is here threatened to the wicked, which the Righteous is not equally liable to? I am sure Mollerus was of another mind, who saith; The Psalmist there declars the miserable condition of all those who live and die in their sins, Aeternis punientur paenis, They shall be everlastingly punished. And Musculus reads the place thus, Animi impiorum cruciatibus debitis apud inferos punientur, The Souls of the ungodly shall be punished in Hell with deserved Torments. Also, Psal. 18.5. The sorrows of Hell compassed me about. Some read the bands or ropes; for Chebel signifies both, but in the plural number Cheblee, rather signifieth Sorrows, as of a Woman in Travail. The word Scheol is Translated Hell. Osiand. Pelican. So the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, the Ropes or Bands of Hell. And they so apply it first to David, Credebam me ob peccata mea inferno proximum. I thought sometimes by reason of my sins, that I was nigh to Hell. So Pelican. And what let but that this good man might justly fear the indignation of God, when he considered the heinousness of his impieties? Then to Christ, as prefigured in David, Qui peccatum & maledictum factus propter nos inferni dolores & cruciatus sensit; Who being made a sin and curse for us, did feel those sorrows and torments of Hell, which we had deserved. So Osiander also, Videbar captus in laqueis inferni, & quasi in infernum detrudendus, etc. I seemed as taken in the snares of Hell, as like to one thrust down and detained there, because of the burden of sin which lay upon me.  
But if it be Objected, that this punishment, and these sufferings, and that death, which our Saviour Christ endured, cannot be said to be eternal, because they lasted but a time, which being expired, they were likewise finished. I answer, that a thing may be said to be eternal two ways, either in respect of the Substance, or in respect of the Circumstance, the being or continual being of a thing in the former sense, Christ suffered eternal death, not in the latter; He suffered the essential part of those Torments, which all the Elect should have suffered unto all eternity, though not the circumstantial in respect of duration. Besides, eternal death, in the phrase and dialect of the Scriptures, doth not signify the perpetual dissolution of body and soul, as some do understand it, for so the damned themselves do not suffer eternal death, but either the immeasurable greatness of infernal torments, or the everlasting continuance of the same. The first of which is Essential, the other but accidental, that Christ suffered; this he could not, ought not to undergo.  
Can not, because he is Eternal Life itself, God blessed for ever. Amen. Ought not, because it was his office, and his great undertaking in the same, to free us from death, by conquering the power, and taking a way the sting thereof.  
Lastly, Christ may be said to suffer eternal death potentially, (if we may borrow that expression to declare our full and direct intention) though not actually; that is, a death always enduring; though not by him always to be endured. There is this proportion between that death which we should have suffered, and that which Christ did suffer for us; the one being infinite in time, the other infinite in weight and measure. The Son of God then truly suffered eternal death in respect of the greatness of those miseries which he endured, and the sense of God's wrath in those sufferings which he sustained.  
This may be more clearly illustrated, if we consider wherein this eternal death of which we speak, doth principally confist, which on all hands is acknowledged to be in these two things, namely, the punishment of loss, and the punishment of sense, both which Christ our Redeemer suffered for us: Of loss, when being fastened to the Cross, he was as it were, at least for a time, cast out from the presence of God, and deprived of the apprehension of his favour, as appears by that sad complaint, and doleful exclamation, which he made, Mat. 26.46. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Nor are they competent Judges of the condition of the Lord Jesus, who thus sadly cried out, that say it was because God had left him in the hands of the wicked Jews, to use him at their pleasure; for many of God's servants have been exposed to like malice and mischief, and yet never so passionately affected with it, as to cry out in the midsts of their sufferings, that God had forsaken them, because their enemies have prevailed against them. No, no, it was the sensible apprehension of God's dereliction, that constrained him to break out into that dolorous exclamation. Of sense, when he drank so deep of the Cup of divine wrath, that as Mark 14.33. expresseth it, he was sore amazed; and he himself complaineth, Mat. 26.38. that his very soul was heavy unto the death.  
And in this sense, if there were no other, may we maintain that Article of our Creed, and in spite of Opposition, truly affirm, that Christ descended into Hell: At which Anonymus doth shrewdly carp, and with which boldly quarrels, saying, These words are not to be found in the most ancient Creeds, and so would beat us with our own rod: But admit they be not; yet can we not believe (as some do think, and say) that they crept into our Creed by negligence; for they came not in at a heat, or hand over head, but with grave advice, and great deliberation were there inserted. And as Calvin Just. 2.16.8. saith of them, They were received with the common consent of all the Godly, and that there are none of the Fathers, but do make mention of them. So that it matters not when, or by whom they were inserted, seeing there is nothing therein contained (setting aside some unnecessary interpretations thereof) but what is consonant to the analogy of faith proposed to us in the most sacred word of God. And if the bitterness of some against them be such, that they will not suffer them to have admittance: Calvin in the place forecited, doth undertake to make it plain, that there is so much of our Redemption interressed therein, that they cannot be omitted without an apparent loss of much fruit and benefit conveyed to us by the sufferings of our Saviour, who in the working out of our Redemption, underwent the heavy burden of God's wrath, and felt those very infernal pains (as an effect thereof) which we had deserved, that we might everlastingly be freed from the same. Thus David, Psalm. 116.3. speaking in the person of Christ, saith, Angustiae infernales invenerant me, The pains of Hell got hold upon me: Nor is it impossible (saith Willet) to feel the Toments of Hell, though not in the proper place. For the place considered in itself, conduceth little to the suffering of the wrath and curse of God, saith Polyander; If Christ (saith he) tormented the Devils, as themselves complain, Mat. 8.29. in the Land of Judea, out of that infernal place: God could bruise Christ for our sins, by the heavy weight of his wrath, in the same land, out of that place of torment, as he did, and is manifest by that prophecy of Isaiah, 53.10.12.  
What contrariety then is among the learned, concerning the descent of Christ into Hell, is principally in opposition to the Papists, who affirm, that he went down in Soul to deliver the Patriarches, and the Souls of just persons there detained in bondage, till his death and passion; for, otherwise it is fully agreed among them, that Christ by virtue of his death and sufferings, did vanquish and overcome Hell and the Devil, with all the powers of Darkness. This (saith Willet, pag. 1050.) being taken for granted, that Christ by his descent into Hell, shook the infernal Powers, and triumphed over them, as is by some of our Reverend Fathers, and Learned Brethren, upon great persuasion of many forcible Reasons and Arguments affirmed, is not by me impugned. So then I shall proceed.  
Solomon, Prov. 5.5. saith of his Harlot, That her feet go down to death, her steps take hold on Hell; where Scheol is translated Hell, and in the judgement of Lavator, is well translated to Foveam vel infernum passus ejus tenebunt; which (saith he) is spoken, not so much of natural death, as of spiritual, and that eternal destruction, which followeth thereupon: And he gives this for a reason of so understanding the place; Whoredom being an abominable sin, defiling the members of Christ, dissolving and making void the Covenant between God and Man, must needs be accompanied with an equivalent judgement, even excluding those that are guilty thereof without repentance, the Kingdom of Heaven, into which pure and undefiled place, no unclean thing can enter, Heb. 13.4. and mark the words, Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge: If man will not, God himself will, and give them a portion of misery answerable to their transgression. To second this, we read, Prov. 9.18. Nescit convivas tandem in profunda tartara deturbari, ut in aeternum cum impiis & sceleratis affligantur: So Lavator; and is well translated by us; she knoweth not that the dead are there, and that her guests are in the depth of Hell. What can be plainer than this? and yet Anonymus sees it not.  
That the Greeks Translate Scheol into Haides, is most true, but that Haides comes from Adam, is far fetched, and very suspicious; who would not rather conclude it to proceed from the primitive particle, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, non videre; not to see: or from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by reason of the darkness and obscurity of that place. And if the word Hell be not (as he either ignorantly, or impudently affirms) to be found in Greek, I would fain know how he would better Translate these words of our Saviour Christ, Mat. 16.18. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it: Beza and Pareus read it, Portae inferorum non superabunt eam: That is, saith the one, Quicquid consilio vel viribus potest Satan, Whatsoever the Devil by policy or power can bring to pass; potentia aut Machinae Satanae, saith the other, The strength, or the crafty and subtle devices of the Devil, shall not be able to prevail against that Church, which is so founded upon the Rock Christ.  
In the New Testament, the Pharisees having put a false gloss upon those words of the Law, Mat. 5.21. Thou shalt not Kill; our blessed Saviour as the heavenly Doctor, doth strenuously oppose it by his authority, ver. 22. But I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause, etc. teaching them, and in them us, that a simple forbearance of the real and actual slaughter of our Neighbour, is not sufficient to satisfy the strictness of that command; but that the violation thereof is to be extended, even to the very heart and tongue: For, besides exterternal murder, there are three kinds of internal murder, which are all forbidden by the same; every one of which makes a man liable to the judgement of God. Now as these three degrees of internal Murder do differ in weight, so doth he proportion a punishment agreeable to the heinousness of the same.  
The first is rash anger against our Brother, by which we are moved to an unlawful revenge: and for this allots the danger of judgement, declaring thereby, that look what punishment they in the Sanhedrim inflicted upon actual and apparent Murderers, the same were they liable to, and did deserve at the hands of God, who were guilty of this secret kind of Murder, being angry, even to revenge against their brother; which Doctrine the Scribes and Pharisees were altogether ignorant of, and did not, would not apprehend.  
The Second kind of inward or secret Murder, is to say to our Brother, Racha; which word, be it Hebrew, Syriack, or Caldee, it matters not, we suppose it, and that upon very good grounds, to be some apparent manifestation of a mind beyond measure incensed against our Brother, by outward countenance, gesture or motion, either of the mouth or hand, declaring thereby the rancour and malice that we have conceived in our heart against him; such an one our Saviour saith, is in danger of the Council; That is, contracts as great guilt unto himself, and is subject to as severe a judgement in the Court of Heaven, as any capital Crime that is censured in the Sanhedrim, or high Court of the Jews. For here again (as before) is an allusion to the great Sanhedrim, which took a cognizance of such notorious crimes as were committed, and inflicted, deserved punishment upon such offenders for the same.  
The Third kind of secret Murder, is an open reviling and reproaching of a Brother; for the word in use among the Hebrews, doth not only signify one bereft of Reason, as we commonly understand it, but also a wicked and ungodly wretch, Psal. 14.1. The Fool (so Translated) or the wicked and wilful Atheist, hath said in his heart, there is no God: Now such an one, saith Christ, is in danger of Hell fire. In which he again alludes to the great Sanhedrim, and the highest degree of punishment that was inflicted by them, namely, to be burned in the valley of Hinnom, which by a known Metaphor is transferred to Hell itself, and the inexpressible torments thereof. For as those poor wretches being enclosed in a brazen Idol heat with fire, were miserably tormented in this valley of Hinnom: so the wicked being cast into Hell, the prison of the damned, shall be eternally tormented in unquenchable fire. This valley, by reason of the pollution of it, with slaughter, blood and stench of carcases did become so execrable, that Hell itself did afterwards inherit the same name, and was called Gehenna, of this very place. And that, 1. In respect of the hollowness and depth thereof, being a low and deep valley: 2. For the fire which poor souls here did, the wicked there do miserably sustain: 3. Because all the soil and filth was cast into this place, and so are all unclean and polluted persons into Hell. To this last judgement of the Sanhedrim, doth Christ appropriate that kind of murder, which is by open reviling of a Brother, that he might notify the heinousness of this sin, than which (more is the pity) none commonly is accounted lighter, nor more familiar. And that no man might justify himself, but that every man laying his hand on his heart, may acknowledge, that by evil will, rancour and reproach against his brother; he hath violated the commandment, and thereby hath deserved death and damnation in the judgement of God, as much as open and notorious murder did deserve condemnation in the judgement of men. The Gloss that Anonymus puts upon the words, thereby to carry them to another sense, and wring from them another signification is corrupt, and his reasons alleged to that purpose, not worth the answering. Again, Luk. 16.23. speaking of that rich Man, And in Hell he lifted up his eyes being in torments, etc. This, he saith, is no proof, nor the less because he saith it; but why not? because, saith he, it is a Parable, not a History. We have but his bare word for it; for Marlorate calls it a History, in which, saith he, Christ describes spiritual things under such figures, and in such terms as he knew would be most obvious to our capacity, and so best apprehended and applied by us. Besides, Tertullian contra Martion. Hillar. in enar. Psal. 2. Ambr. on Luc. and many others call it so: Now whether we shall believe Anonymus, his single report and repute of it, or all these pious and learned Authors in their joint issue concerning it, let the Reader judge. For my part, I think it no less than blasphemy, to say, that it is a fabulous and feigned story; for Christ, who is truth itself, used not to sport with fictitious tales, to allure with vain pollicitations, or terrify his Auditors with idle disguises, or fantastical appearances, as the Poets of old in their Fables of Sisyphus, Tantalus, and the Elysian fields, these were the whole heaven wide from truth; but this of our Saviour was most true.  
Yet grant it to be a Parable, why then (saith Anonymus) we are not to grant a Doctrine upon it; to which I reply, that the scope and proper intent of Parables, is either manifest and certain, or else conjectural and uncertain; if uncertain, then may not a Doctrine be founded thereon, unless we have some supply from other places of Scripture, for the clearer illustration and more firm confirmation of the same, and in this sense it is, as is commonly affirmed. Theologia parabolica non est argumentativa: Parabolical Divinity is not Argumentative; That is to say, when the scope of a Parable is doubtful, as concerning those things which beyond the purpose are collected from the circumstances of a Parable. But if the purpose and drift of a Parable be apparent, why may not some certainty be collected, and something proved thence, so we pass not the bounds, or wander from the purpose & the scope thereof. The words then of Christ in this Parable, do evidently declare, that the souls of the faithful, immediately after they are separated from their bodies, are transported to a place of joy and happiness, and that the souls of the wicked so separated, are cast into misery and torment. As for other things, which are but (as it were) circumstantially added, they are not, ought not, strenuously to be urged in proving Doctrines of Faith, seeing they serve for illustration only, and make little to any other purpose.  
Moreover, if all those places, which consist of figurative and parabolical speeches, be doubtful and uncertain, and so prove nothing: What certainty I pray you may be gathered out of the Scripture, seeing that very many, and the very necessary and material truths, in the scriptures are parabolical and figurative?  
1. If no Doctrine may be built upon Parables, many excellent Sermons of our Saviour Christ, the great Bishop of our Souls, were preached and penned in vain, and to no purpose, which were spoken in Parables to the people, and are in and under the same parables commended unto us; but this is most absurd to think. And therefore that,  
2. If all Scripture, given by divine inspiration, be Profitable for Doctrine, for Reproof, for Correction, for Instruction in righteousness; then that scripture which is contained in Figures, and comprehended in Parables, is profitable for Doctrine, and will also afford certain ground for the same. But the first is true, Rom. 15.4. Whatsoever things were written aforetime, saith the Apostle, were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. Therefore the latter also, 2 Tim. 3.16. All the reasons by Anonymus alleged to the contrary, not being worth one fig.  
I will add one Scripture instance more, and then draw to a conclusion of this first circumstance, Rev. 14.10. The same (speaking of those wicked ones which worshipped the Beast and his Image, etc.) shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the Cup of his indignation, and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy Angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. We have here in this denunciation, or divine Anathema, these particulars to be considered.  
1. What is denounced, to wit, That they shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God.  
2. The quality of this wrath, to wit, Without any mixture of mercy.  
3. The measure of it, to wit, A Cup of indignation.  
4. The effect of it, to wit, Torment by fire and brimstone.  
And 5. In whose presence, to wit, Of the holy Angels, and of the Lamb.  
First, That which is denounced is, That as they drank of sin, which was the wine of Babylon's fornication: so they should drink of Punishment; wine for wine, but wine of the wrath of God: It was sweet, though poisonable wine of which they drank first; but it shall be sharp and sour of which they shall drink next, and that most justly too: because as the Lord says, Isai. 5.4. He looked for sweet Grapes at their hands, who owned the Christian name, and claimed the privilege to be of his Church, but behold sour Grapes: therefore of such Grapes as they gave to him, such wine he returns back to them, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, indignation and fury, as Psal. 75.8. In the hand of the Lord there is a Cup, and the wine is red, etc. And jer. 25.15. Thus saith the Lord, Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand.  
Secondly, The quality of this wrath, It is without mixture, to wit, of any Mercy: So Ribera, Non erat mistum divinis miserationibus. There was a time when mercy might have been had without any mixture of justice, which being neglected, now justice must be executed without any mixture of mercy. God hath suffered much, and he hath suffered long too; much in burden, long in continuance; he hath not been eased by repentance, he is constrained to ease himself by his just vengeance. For though he suffer long, in mercy: there is no reason that he should suffer always, in justice. Mercy having had her time, Justice must have hers also: Indeed, the Cup that God gives to his own for their sins, is full of mixture, as Psal. 75.8. tempered by his medicinal and fatherly hand, with the sweetness of mercies, and comfort in the end, whereas it is far otherwise with wicked and impenitent sinners.  
Thirdly, the quantity of it, It is a cup of indignation full to the brim; in which God seems to deal equally, and proportionably with them: as they filled the cup of their iniquity, so he fills the cup of their misery: They shall see, I and feel too, with what a proportionable Analogy, their sinning meets with their suffering, whereby he manifests a very great difference between his punishing of the wicked in wrath, and the correction of his own in love, upon whom he will lay no more than they are able to bear, and whom he ever corrects in mercy and in measure.  
Fourthly, The effect and operation of this direful and dreadful draught, The Cup of the Lords indignation, and that is Misery and Torment, and that in the highest degree, as of burning by fire, mingled with brimstone, as the fuel thereof, which is found to be, 1. Most obnoxious to the eyes. 2. Most loathsome to the smell. And 3. Most fierce in burning; well therefore doth he speak of it, who said, Facillimè incenditur, pertinacissimè fervet, & difficillimè extinguitur. It is easily kindled, violently fewelled, and hardly (very hard indeed, which is never) extinguished  
Fifthly, This their tormenting shall be in the presence of the holy Angels, and of the Lamb. 1. Of the holy Angels, because in their sight they sinned, and in their sight they shall be punished. And 2. Of the Lamb, against whom they sinned in siding with his Enemies, while they professed themselves his followers: Therefore, saith Ribera, Ipsi magis crucientur, intelligentes se ab eo videri: It is an addition to their misery, when they shall consider that he beholds them, that was once slighted and contemned by them.  
Thus we see as clearly as if it were described with a ray of the Sun, that there is a Hell, a place of torment provided and prepared for all wicked and ungodly wretches, and that plainly by Scripture proved. I know there are and have been, many besides our Anonymus, that have vi & armis opposed it, and wrangled against it. Danaeus reckons up nineteen several sorts of Heretics that denied it. But say what they will, the wicked would give much to be sure that the scriptures in this particular were not true, Credere nolunt, & non credere nequeunt; they will not believe, and yet they cannot choose but believe; truly their case is fearful.  
The very Heathen, though he deny it, have prescribed to the truth thereof, that there is a Hell, a place of torment for those that rebel against the Gods, Homer Iliad 8. not far from the beginning, saith, 
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉,  
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, etc.   
Where jupiter speaking to the other Gods concerning the Grecians and Trojans.  
If any shall so hardy be,  
To aid each part in spite of me;  
Him will I tumble down to Hell,  
In that infernal place to dwell.  
For Tartarus Obscurus, was then, and so ever since, hath been taken for hell, that place of Torment appointed for the wicked. Also Horace, lib. Ode. speaking concerning Ioves Thunderbolts, saith, 

Quo bruta tellus & vaga flumina,  
Quo styx, & invisi horrida Taenari,  
Sedes, etc.   

With which Earth Seas, the Stygian Lake,  
And Hell with all her Furies quake.    
Nor was Virgil ignorant thereof, when he said, 

— Dent ocyus omnes,  
Quas meruere pati (sic stat sententia) paenas.   

— They all shall pack,  
Sentence once past, to their deserved rack.    
The horror of which place he acknowledgeth he could not express.  

Non mihi si centum linguae sint, oraque centum,  
Omnia paenarum percurrere nomina possum.   

No heart of man can think, no tongue can tell,  
The direful pains ordained, and felt in Hell.   
They ever retained so much light, as sufficed to make some discovery of that place of darkness; yea, some of them have been terrified with their own inventious concerning it, and distracted with the sense of those very Torments, which their own Pens have described. As Pygmalion doted on his own Picture: so were they amazed with their own Comments. How much more if they had known those unspeakable miscries, and intolerable horrors, as they are in themselves, and inflicted upon those damned spirits, that must for ever undergo them? Par nulla figura Gehennae, Nothing can truly resemble Hell.  
Besides, many wicked wretches are punished, and many as wicked escape unpunished; now justum est, ut qui pariter peccarint, easdem paenas luerint: It is fit that partners in sin, should not be parted in judgement: God doth not punish all here, that he may show his mercy, in allowing some space of repentance; nor doth he forbear all here, that he may manifest his justice, lest the world should turn Atheist, and deny his providence. Parcit ut puniat, punit ut parcat: He spares that he may punish, and he punisheth that he may spare. He afflicteth some in the suburbs of Hell, that they might never come into the City itself. But those evil persons, which he suffers to pass on uncorrected here, he reserves to be condemned for ever hereafter. Sin knows its doom, it must smart, either in this world, or in the world to come.  
Yet further, in all things natural and supernatural, there is an opposition and contrariety. There is good, there is evil; light and darkness, joy and sorrow. Now as there are two several ways, so are there two distinct ends; Heaven, a place of admirable and inexpressible happiness, whether the good Angels transport the souls of the Saints, such as by a holy and rectified conversation have glorified God, and adorned their profession; Hell, a place of horror and confusion, whither the black and grisly spirits do hurry the souls of wicked incorrigible and impenitent wretches, when they are once separated from their bodies.  
Again, all men naturally do honour the good, and punish the evil. The Barbarians themselves have Laws of Castigation, and Instruments of execution to cut off irregular and exorbitant persons. And shall the great Creator come short in justice of his Creatures, and those Barbarians too? The Law of Nations doth require, that Malefactors, if they escape with life, be banished for ever. And shall not God banish such as have been Rebels on earth, from his glorious presence in Heaven, dooming them to that dreadful place of eternal torment? If this were not, stabit cum Nerone Paulus, Nero were as good a man as Paul, Esau should still have his birthright in bliss, and Cain be a Saint as well as Abel. As believers say, If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable; so might the wicked say, If in this life only we have sense of sorrow, we are of all men most happy.  
Lastly, Every Prince is allowed this concurrence to his state, that as he hath a pleasant Palace for himself, his Nobles, and his Attendants: so he hath a Goal and Dungeon for Thiefs and Traitors. That Heaven is glorious, where the great King keeps his Royal and Magnificent Court, the outer side of whose pavements we delight to behold, and admire the transcendent beauty thereof. So is that Hell a dismal Dungeon, where he secures his Enemies, the outside whereof men are not permitted to have a sight of, lest they should be presently struck dead with the horror of the place. They that have seen the flames, and heard the roar of Aetna, the flashing of Vesuvius, the thunderings and burning flakes evaporating from those marine Rocks, have not yet seen, no not so much as the very glimmerings of Hell. A painted Fire is a better shadow of these, than these can be of Hell torments, and the miseries of the damned therein. Having then cleared our passage thus far, let me in sober terms ask Anonymus this question: Dost thou verily (whosoever thou art) believe as thou writest, that there is no Hell? Quis daemonum ita credit? What Devil doth believe so?, they know it and feel it. Why art thou come to torment us before the time? torments they knew were prepared for them, and a time when these torments should be fully and fatally inflicted on them, and loath they were to suffer before that time. Shall not men tremble to deny, what the Devils are forced to confess? What, eat, drink, and play, Epicure, Post mortem nulla voluptas? No pleasure after death? none indeed to reprobates; there is nothing but Hell for them, and they will find but small pleasure in that. O Anonymus, Anonymus, take that Council which the Father gives, Crede & fuge, credendo fugies, Believe it and avoid i●: by believing thou shalt avoid it. We are sure there is such a place, let us be but half so sure that we may escape it & we shall do well enough. Fear it, that we feel it not. If we tremble at these torments, while the wicked laugh and are jovial, we shall put off our fear of them, laugh and be merry, when trembling and astonishment shall seize upon them, as Daniel 4.19. said to that Monarch, Let not the Dream trouble thee, the dream shall be to them that hate thee, and the interpretation to thine Enemies: So may I say, Let us from the bottom of our hearts repent and bewail our former iniquities, believe the exceeding great and precious promises of mercy, which God in Christ hath set before us, and then the terrors of this place will not be terrible unto us; the terrors shall be to the devils that hate God, and to the Reprobates his Enemies, that daily provoke God. For their tormenting cares, we shall have flourishing Crowns in the communion of Saints and Angels.  
2. And so I come unto the next question; namely, What Hell is? Though it were far more easy to inform the Reader, what it is not, than what it is; yet will I make the best discovery thereof that I am able, according to our first Proposal. And if any complain of want of Method, let him know, that the nature of the place admits of none. For who can speak orderly and methodically of that, Quod nec modum, nec methodum novit, that knows no Method, keeps no Order? And if any man expect an absolute description of this place, I excuse myself, with that of the Poet forecited, Non mihi si centum linguae. But as Pythagoras' guest at the stature and pitch of Hercules, by the length of his foot; and we say in the Proverb, Ex ungue leonem: so by shadow and resemblance, we may a little conceive what it is in sufferrance. It is then that place to which the Justice of God confineth reprobates for their eternal punishment. The plagues whereof are external, internal and eternal; External, which consists, 1. In a privation of all comfort, a privative cause hath a positive effect. Tully banished from Italy, though it were into Greece, the Academy of the world, wept bitterly, when he remembered Rome. Exiled Demosthenes, though he found much kindness among his Enemies, yet would shed tears in abundance, when he looked towards Athens: The captive Jews hung up their Harps, when they remembered Zion▪ Ovid laments, that Roma relinquenda est, he must leave that famous and flourishing City; but when he considers Scythia est quo mittitur, he could not be comforted. It is the most unhappy part of unhappiness to remember former welfare. 2. In a sensible passion of universal anguish; the sight being punished with weeping, smoke, and the direful aspect of ugly Devils, and their damned crew; the ears with the dreadful howl, horrid blasphemies, and horrible roar of those miserable Caitiffs that are there tormented; the taste with thirst and hunger, even hot and dry, empty and unsatisfied; the smell with noisome scents and filthy savours; the feeling with scorching and burning, even as it were to the frying of the very marrow in the bones; yea the whole frame and fabric of their once trimmed bodies, shall be defaced and deformed, dull, heavy, and unweildly, as a brand in a great fire, no part free from burning; such is the extremity, & universality of those pains. Internal, That consists in a plenary desertion of God; they shall be utterly deprived of his glorious presence, in whose favour is life, and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore, but never to be seen or tasted by these damned wretches, nor shall they behold the sweet and amiable countenance of the Lord Jesus Christ, or enjoy communion with his Saints; but shall be as continual sinners, so continual sufferers: Two contrarieties being reconciled in them, which otherwise would be impossible; the one extreme Presumption, the other extreme Despair. Presumption, for with bitter malice, and a cursed heart, they shall perpetually blaspheme, and despitefully sin against the spirit of grace, Rev. 16.11. Desperation, without all hope of mercy, or admitting one thought of Peace. The one being a sin against the justice of God, the other against his Mercy; both these proceeding from that sting of conscience, which they continually feel, and is that worm which never dyeth. Eternal, not determinable with time, for then time shall be no more, everlastingness shall make their sorrows absolute. If all the lives (I say not men, women, and children only, but of all) and every of the Creatures, that ever lived upon the earth, or shall live to the world's end, were all added one to another, and all spun into one life, this one life of these damned wretches exceeds them all. Ubi per millia millia annorum cruciandi, nec in seculo seculorum liberandi, saith S. August. Myriad of years shall not determine, or put a period to their sufferings. The gulf is so deep, there is no getting out; Ex inferno nulla redemptio. Therefore it is called Infernus, ab inferendo, of casting in; for the wicked are so cast in, that they can never be able to get forth. As no Habeas Corpus from death; so no Habeas animam, out of Hell: That rich Man, Luk. 16. solicited for his Brethren: why did he not beg his own deliverance, who was able to have taught them by his own sad and woeful experience? O he saw Ingentem hiatum, a vast interposed Gulf. He must let that alone, and alone for ever.  
Those laments must needs be comfortless, which afford to the distressed no hope of any kind of consolation; neither the comfort of mitigation; for Luk. 16.24. all hope of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, relief, is there denied, even to a drop of water to cool the tongue of the tormented. Nor the comfort of liberation, no deliverance, no not at the last; for ver. 26. ●he is given to understand by reason of the great partition, their case is such, Ut non possunt, they cannot for ever look for any freedom thence, but must there remain in torments everlastingly. So neither the comfort of relief in, or delivery from the miseries of this place. Not the poor comfort, which in all the calamities of this life, doth still stick by us, and never leave us.— Dabit deus his quoque finem, an end will come. Here an end will never come; which (never) is never deeply enough imprinted in us, nor seriously enough considered by us. That this (now) shall be now still, and never have an end; and that Cruciaris, Luk. 16.25. be Cruciaris for ever, and never declined into a preter-tense, is an exaltation of this sad contemplation, and the greatest aggravation of their unhappiness.  
Now because it is the main design of Anonymus to overthrow, (if it were possible) this truth. I shall therefore fortify it with the greater strength, and prove by divers (I hope) considerable arguments, that all Reprobates shall be tormented with the Devil and his Angels, and that everlastingly, never admitting either case or end.  
1. The Scriptures, setting forth the nature of these torments by divers emphatical expressions, do evidently declare the same, as (1.) per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, most exquisite pains, such for the suddennese and sharpness, as the pains of women travelling in Childbirth, Luk. 16.24, 26. (2.) per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, most miserable tortures, such as are inflicted upon the most notorious malefactors, Apo, 20.10. (3.) per 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, most dangerous and deadly plagues, Apo. 22.18. Whosoever then are liable to, and reserved for such pains, tortures and plagues, shall never be annihilated, but for ever remain in and under the same. But the first is true of the wicked, and therefore the latter.  
2. The continued succession, or rather the perpetual continuation of Hell torments, is notably expressed, Apo. 14.11. which is the amplification of the former judgement, from the eternity thereof; showing, that it is such as shall be both easeless and endless.  
1. He says, that the smoke of their torment ascended up for ever and ever; not (to speak properly) that there is any smoke in Hell, because smoke proceeds from the resolution of the matter, which by fire is consumed. Now if there were any such thing in Hell, it were probable that the fire would sometimes be extinguished; but smoke here is. 1. Either a Metonymy of the sign for the thing signified, as smoke is a sure sign that there is fire, and so the sense is, that the fire wherein they are tormented shall remain for ever. Or 2. That with this fire, wherein they are tormented, is perpetual smoke, and darkness, so that they have not so much comfort therein as a little light may afford; and this smoke shall be a torment to them, if not equal with, yet not much inferior to the fire itself; and therefore it is called the smoke of their torment, that is, the smoke that troubles and torments them.  
And indeed it is but just; for as the smoke of their unrepented sins ascended first, by which God was sorely displeased, and exceedingly provoked to take vengeance on them; so that the smoke of their eternal torment should ascend next, to show that God had now given them smoke for smoke, Apoc. 20.10. And the Devil that deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. Here is set before us, the full and final destruction of Satan himself, which may be called his second imprisonment for ever in that infernal pit; where likewise the beast and false Prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night, which the very next words expound, saying, for ever and ever, according to the like usual phrase, Chap. 7.15. & 14.11. For there is no vicissitude of day and night in eternity, nor is there any day in Hell, but eternal night: This kind of expression therefore is used to declare, that those torments which the Devils and the damned do there suffer, shall be without any cessation or intermission.  
3. The grace of repentance for sins past, and amendment of life for the time to come is eternally denied to them; As the Tree falls, so it lies, Mat. 25.10. The door shall be shut, the gate of mercy, by which they might have entered; shall for ever be shut against them. These Chains can never be broken, were they of Cords, of wreathed Trees, of Iron, they might be burst asunder, but the chains of vengeance never; besides, a great gulf doth interpose, by which they are for ever disabled to pass unto the habitations of the blessed. Now they to whom Grace is for ever denied here, and glory hereafter must necessarily be detained in misery unto all eternity; The first is true of all Reprobates and impenitent wretches; and therefore the latter:  
4. That infernal Dungeon hath no back doors, no egress at all, Mat, 5.28. Verily, I say unto thee, thou shalt not come forth thence, till thou hast paid the utmost farthing, which can never be done unto all Eternity; why then those that are fast bound in Chains in such a place, out of which there is no getting, must needs abide by it for ever: the first is true, and therefore the latter.  
But here it is saucily objected by Anonymus, etc. How stands this with the justice of God, to punish temporal offences with eternal scourges? It was the rule of his own law, that paena non debet excedere culpam, Deut. 25.3. How can he then inflict eternal damnation for a momentary and temporal transgression.  
I answer, 1. There is a double quantity considered in punishment; the one according to the intention of pain; the other according to the duration of time. In respect of the former, the quantity of punishment must be answerable to the quantity of sin, Revel. 18.7. How much sin, so much sorrow: the more pestilent iniquity, the more torturing fire. For the other, we must not think that the continuance of punishment is limited with the continuance of the fact. Among men, Adultery is but a short pleasure, yet often pursued with a long penance. But the duration of torment respects the disposition of the delinquent. Poenae singulorum inaequales intention, poenae omnium aequales duratione, Aquin. The pains of all are equal in continuance, unequal in grievance.  
But Secondly, and more particularly, I answer, It will appear to be most just, both in respect of the mind, and intention of the sinner, of the matter wherein he sinneth, and of the person against whom he sinneth.  
First, The mind and intention of the sinner considered, it will appear to be most just; for though the act itself, the sin committed, be but temporal and finite, yet the mind of the sinner is eternal and infinite; insomuch, that if he could live ever, he would sin ever; and therefore, as Gregory saith, Quia mens in hac vita nunquam voluit carere peccato, justum est, ut nunquam careat supplicio: Because the mind of man in this life would never be without sin, it is just that it should never be without punishment in the life to come.  
2. If the matter and subject of sin be considered, we shall find it to be of, and in the soul; like as then the wounding of the body, causeth the death and destruction of the same, by reason of which there is no returning unto life again: so sin being the death of the soul, it must necessarily follow, that it be perpetual and everlasting.  
3. Sin, as it is a transgression of the Law of God, is so much the more heinous. As he that smiteth the Prince, to whom principally and especially he owes his Allegiance, doth more grievously offend, than he that striketh a private person: So every sin is of an infinite nature, because of the infinite dignity of the person, and his glorious Majesty, against whom it is committed; and therefore it deserveth an infinite punishment; which because it cannot be infinite, secundum intentionem, in the intention and greatness of it, it remaineth that it should be infinite, secundum durationem, in respect of the duration and continuance of the same.  
Now further, the equity of God's justice in punishing the temporal act of sin with eternal torments, Hugo doth fitly illustrate by these examples; Like as (saith he) when marriage is contracted, per verba de praesenti, By words uttered in the present-tense, though the contract itself, in respect of the ceremony thereof be soon done, yet the marriage as the substance thereof remaineth in force all the life long: So when the Soul and Sin are contracted together, it is no marvel this contract holding so long as the soul endureth, if it deserve everlasting punishment. And like as where the fuel and matter of the fire continueth, the flame still burneth: So sin, leaving a blot in the soul, being the matter of Hell fire, is eternally punished, because there is still matter for that everlasting fire to work upon.  
Thus than we see it's no injustice in God to punish sin eternally, he doth but reward them whom he so punisheth, according to their works: For though the action of sin be temporal, Voluntas tamen peccandi, quae per paenitentiam non mutatur, est perpetua, saith Gorrhan: Yet the will to sinne which is not changed by repentance, is eternal and perpetual. For the further description of Hell, the Scripture useth three principal terms; The Worm that never dyeth; Outer Darkness; And fire that cannot be quenched, Mark. 9.44.  
First, The Worm; This must not be understood of a corporal worm; which, if it were, would be terrible enough; for a man to live always dying, and die always living, with an adder sucking and stinging his vital parts. But we must know, that after the world's dissolution, there shall remain no mixed body, but only man: no generation or corruption in the revived bodies. Therefore this worm cannot be corporal, but spiritual, the stinging of a vexed, gauled, tormented, and tormenting conscience. This, oh this is even Infernum in mundo, a Hell on earth; and consider, O consider, Qualiter sentient in inferno, what it shall be to their sense, who shall be tormented therewith in Hell itself. It is so essential a part of their torment, that Christ Jesus makes a threefold repetition thereof in one, yea at the close of one Sermon, Mark. 9.44. Where their worm dyeth not: And again, ver. 46. Where their worm dyeth not; and again, ver. 40. Where their worm dyeth not, and their fire goeth not out. Great, yea very great, and inexpressible must this punishment needs be, which our Saviour doth so often inculcate, within so small a space. The Heathen Poets made this one of those three furies, which they fictioned to torment the damned.  

— Scindes latus una flagello,  
Altar a tartareis sectos dabit anguibus artus.  
Tertia fumantes incoquet igne genas.   

One brings the Scorpion which the conscience eats  
Tother with Iron whips the back flesh beats.  
While the third boils the soul in scalding heats.   
But if the testimony of a Heathen will not pass for currant, or bear no weight at all with us; hear then what an ancient Christian Poet, Prudentius by name saith to this purpose.  
Praescius inde Pater liventia tartara plumbo,  
Incendit liquido, piceasque bitumine fossas,  
Infernalis aquae furvo suffodit Averno,  
Et Phlegethontaeo sub gurgite sanxit edaces,  
Perpetuis scelerum paenis obrodere vermes.  
The prescient Father black hell burns,  
With scalding lead, and ditches turns  
Into a flame, with sulphur mixed,  
Th'internal streams rolling betwixt;  
And gnawing worms hath put therein,  
To torture wretches for their sin.  
Some take this worm to be recordatio prateritorum, the remembrance of things past; and they are either sins committed, or good things enjoyed; Of sins, which shall so long gnaw their souls and bodies, like a vulture preying on their hearts, as the remembrance of former iniquities committed shall continue, which will be for ever. Of good things enjoyed; S, August. observes, that of the rich man's pleasure, Omnia dicit, Abraham de praeterito, He speaks of all in the time past and gone. Dives erat, vestiebatur, epulabatur, recipisti; There was a rich man, did lare, did go, had received, all past, and vanished away; all (like the counterpane of a lease) expired, or like wages received and spent before hand. This fuisse felicem, the remembrance of what he had been, must need; be a sharp corrosive to him. So that for these poor rejected and damned wretches, to remember the evils they have done is bitter, the good they once had more bitter, the good they might have had, most bitter. Therefore fore it is good council for us now, pravidere mala futura, ne recordemur bona praeterita, to foresee with fear the evil that shall be hereafter, lest we remember with grief the good that hath been heretofore. O that our foresight were but half so sharp as our sense! Let us now consider seriously the pains that shall be, that we be never put to remember sadly the joys that have been.  
Secondly, Outer darkness, Mat. 22.13. speaking of the unprofitable servant cast him into outer darkness. But God made not darkness; and whereas in the beginning of the Creation, it is said, Gen. 1.2. That darkness was upon the face of the deep; This was not a thing created, but a mere privation, absence, or not being of that light, which was made afterwards. Nor do we think this mist of darkness, into which the damned shall be cast, and in which tormented in Hell, to be a positive thing: but as when the Sun is hiden, darkness necessarily follows: so here, not any emanation of any beam of God's countenance, not a spark of his light comes into this prison of Hell, therefore where there is such a privatio lucis, there must needs be intolerable darkness.  
A good day makes amends for a bad night; but to this night belongs no day, it is everlasting darkness. The roughest tempest, the weariest journey, is not without some comfort, because there is hope of an end: but these pains be as endless in quantity, as they are easele●e in quality. joshua. 10.13. had a long day when the Sun stood still in the Firmament; yet that day had an end, the Sun fell to his course again, and at last did set: but here, the Sun and Moon shall utterly cease to measure time by any motion. That is a long sentence that hath no period, a doleful night which hath no morning, a woeful darkness where no star shall afford a glimpse, no Taper befriend it with its light; yet with such night, and such darkness, doth God punish all wicked and ungodly wretches, that eat the light here,— clausi tenebris & carcere caeco, In darkness and blind prison shut, shall they remain unto all eternity.  
Let us then decline the works of darkness, as we desire to escape this place of darkness, and the darkness of this place. Inferior darkness must be doomed to inferior darkness. What is more just, then that they who refused the light when they might have had it, should be deprived of it, when they most desire it? There are two many of these among us, that nuzzle themselves up in ignorance, as if they meant to make their own beds in Hell: Alas, it is a fearful place to take up a lodging in, and so much the more fearful, by how much it is more than a lodging, even an everlasting habitation. Voluntary blindness shall be confined to necessary blindness: and they that might now see, if they would but open their eyes, shall there open their eyes, yet shall not be able to see; not see what they would, yet see what they would not, even to avoid the seeing of which, they would wish themselves to have no eyes. Now the God of Grace and Mercy, the sweet Father of Lights, defend us from the Prince, and from the power, and from this place of outer darkness.  
Last of all, Fire unquenchable. Five several times doth our Saviour Christ make mention of this Fire, at the close of that Sermon of which we formerly spoke, Mark. 9.43, Into the fire that never shall be quenched, and v. 44. And the fire is not quenched; as also ver. 45.46, & 48. as if he could never speak enough of it, to terrify all that heard him from it, that they might not betormented in it, which continually burns the souls of the damned, and yet shall never convert them into ashes. A fire indeed it is, but neither tolerable nor terminable. The breath of the Lord like a river of brimstone doth inflame it, and the breath of ten thousand Reprobates shall never be able to blow it out. Scalding Sulphur, and burning stench universally shall rack them; where heat doth follow smoke, and fire heat, and stench fire, and torment stench, and burning shall be added to burning, The Prophet, Isai. 33.14. puts that to question which is out of question, who among us is so hardy as to dwell with the devouring fire? who among us can dwell with everlasting burning? surely none.  
I know Anonymus cannot away with the word ever or everlasting, if it do come in his way, as come it will, he endeavours to carry the sense of it another way than is intended by the holy Ghost. But he hath very ill luck in it: for he exceedingly betrays his ignorance by it. It is sometimes (saith he) used for a limited time, therefore it must always be so used, good Logic. But let him give me one example where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so used. Sin is like oil, and torment like fire, so long as the oil lasteth, so long the fire burneth, and that is for ever. If after so many millions of years, as there be drops in the Ocean, there might be deliverance, there might be some hope; Alas in Hell there is no limitation, when the Lord shall give over his being, they shall have ease, and not before. An infinite Majesty is offended; therefore an infinite penalty is imposed, which these miserable Caitiffs must for ever undergo, unless some better informed, and more merciful man, such as Anonymus, shall get the keys of this place of horror, unlock the doors, and for mere pity let them out of this place of torment. I know also, that it hath been much controverted among the Learned, Whether the Fire in Hell be sustantial, or only Allegorical. Calvin, and some others are for the Allegory, and they give this for a reason. There is mention of Wood, and of Worm, as well as of fire: now these are Allegorical, and therefore the fire. But in Scripture things spoken together, are not always taken in the same nature and manner: As for example; Christ is called the Rock of our salvation; the Rock is Allegorical, is our salvation, therefore Allegorical? Likewise, Luk. 22.30. Ye shall eat and drink (saith our Saviour) at my Table in my Kingdom: Eating and drinking is Allegorical, is therefore the Kingdom Allegorical too? For my part, I think we may safely conclude, that there is true and substantial fire in Hell, Isai. 66.15. The Lord will come with fire to render his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. Si in igne damnabit reprobos, quare non in igne cruciabit damnatos? says that Father. If he will judge the Reprobates in fire, why not condemn them to fire?  
Grant it then to be substantial Fire: yet another question will be, whether it be material, corporal, or spiritual. It is not material; for that kind of fire must be continually supplied and nourished with fuel. Yet he that makes the damned live without food, is able to maintain this fire without wood. Not spiritual; Indeed, Gregory calls it an incorporeal fire: but it passeth the nature of fire to be spiritual; yet if with fear, and without curiosity, we may look upon those flames, we may at tribute a spiritual nature, to that more than natural fire. Though spirits have nothing material in their nature, which that infernal fire should work upon: yet such is the powerful judgement of that Almighty Arbiter of the world, justly willing their torment, that he can make Spirits most sensible of those fiery tortures: and such is the obedible submission of their created nature, that they may be immediately wrought upon by those appointed pains. And as this inspection cannot be with too much caution, no more can the conclusion that is drawn there from, be with too much heed: for he that makes it spiritual fire only, goes about to make it no fire at all. It is therefore by the consent of many of the Godly learned, held to be a corporal fire; which being granted, there arise notwithstanding some exceptions against the same.  
Object. 1. If it be corporal, how can it diversely torment divers Reprobates? There is but one fire in Hell, but yet that fire doth not excruciate and torment all the wicked, which are therein after one manner and measure: the more wicked men have been here, the more wretched shall they be there; The mighty shall be mightily tormented.  
Res: For Answer; For the better understanding hereof, we must know; that this fire is the instrument of divine Justice: now no instrument works only by its own virtue, and after its own manner, and in its own measure: but is regulated, ordered, and disposed according to the will and power of the first Mover. The Fire in a Furnace is augmented or qualified, according to the will of him that kindles it, or hath to do with it: so is this inflamed or mitigated by the power and will of God, Isai. 30.33. The breath of the Lord, like a River of Brimstone, doth kindle it. One and the same fire doth otherwise burn Iron, than Wood or Straw, and that (as one saith well) Secundum duritiem vel durationem materiae, According to the nature of the incensed matter, is the rage and fury of the fire. Gregory in the Fourth Book of his Dialogues, hath a notable saying to this purpose: Quod hic diversitas corporum, illic agit diversitas peccatorum; That which is wrought here by the diversity of bodies, is wrought there by the diversity of sins: one and the same fire may be common to all yet may it afford a several degree of pain to every one according to the pleasure of the great disposer.  
Object. 2. If it be corporal fire, it must be maintained with fuel, or else it will quickly languish and be extinguished; But there is no fuel in Hell, at least not such fuel as can maintain it to eternity; for (saith Anonymus) the wicked are compared to chaff and stubble, and so are quickly consumed and come to nothing: but will he say, they are such, because they are compared unto such: would he be contented that any man should infer, because he (as a man) is compared to a beast that perisheth, therefore he is a beast. I suppose he would rather reply, nullum simile est idem; For that Similitude and Identity are different things; as, He that is like me, is not myself; Indeed, man is compared unto such, in respect of his fading condition in this life: but this mortal shall after put on immortality. These bodies shall be so rarified, as they shall not admit of a diminution, much less of an annihilation.  
Ans. We let him pass, and answer, that the bodies and souls of the damned shall be loco carbonum & lignorum, instead of fuel; and because those materials (as they are qualified) are everlasting; it follows, that Hell fire must be everlasting also; for it is against the nature of fire to cease, so long as it hath any combustible matter to feed upon.  
Obj. 3. If it be corporal fire, than it is of the same species with our fire: now we know what the nature of this fire is, but not of that.  
Answ. In the bodies, which are the matter of the fire, there may be a difference, as lignum igneum, & ferrum ignitum; burning Wood, and burning Iron differ, still it is fire though divers from ours in certain properties, which are unknown to us; and (if it be the blessed will of God) may we never know them. But seeing it is substantial and corporeal fire, it will not be amiss to take notice of some particulars wherein it differs from this elementary fire of ours, which may be considered in these five respects.  
1. In regard of Heat; our fire is hot, nor is there any element in the extremest fury more afflictive to the sense, than fire; but the fire of Hell is far more hot and more afflictive. The fire in a Lantsckip, which is ignis pictus, a painted fire, or that purgatory fire, which is ignis fictus, a feigned fire, yet hath so warmed the Pope's Kitchen, is a better representation of elemental fire, then elemental can be of that fire, which is eternal. That furnace, whose heat was septupled, Dan. 3.19. insomuch that the flames thereof licked up them, for whom it was not meant, was raging, very raging, and of great violence, but not a glowing sparkle compared to the everlasting fire of Hell.  
2. In regard of Light; our fire comforts in shining, that is oppressed with horrible darkness: Ardet noster & lucet, Our fire burns, and in burning shines: but this, as divine Justice hath disposed it, burns, but shines not, unless it be for the greater torment of those that are frying in it; Vim comburendi retinet, illuminandi amisit, saith Basil, It retains the property of burning, it hath lost the property of shining. Therefore it is called Hades, Sine sole domus, a House without light. The Apostle Judas calls it, the black darkness. The darkness of Egypt was strong and horrid, so thick that it was palpable, yet nothing to the darkness of Hell. In Egypt they had but an over-casting, they enjoyed the glorious light of the Sun again: in Hell, Non videbunt lumen in aeternum, They shall never see light more.  
3. Elemental fire burns the body only, Eternal the soul also. The passion of the body, is but the body of passion; the soul of pain, is the pain of the soul: yet if a consumable body be not able to endure burning flames for a day, how will an unconsumable soul and body be able to endure the scorching flames of Hell for ever?  
4. Elemental fire as it burns, so it consumes, Hell fire rageth more, and wasteth less. The reprobate shall have the punishment Uri, to be burned, but not the happiness Exuri, to be burned out. So Prosper when he saith, Poennae gehennales puniunt, non finiunt corpora. Hell torments punish, but do not finish the bodies. In Hell there is no cessation of fire burning, nor of matter burned: The Poet, Prudentius, speaks thus sadly of it.  
Vermibus & flammis, summis cruciatibus aevum,  
Immortal dedit, Senio ne flamma periret.  
To Worm and Fire, to Torments there,  
No term he gave, they cannot wear.  
If this fire were terminable, it might then be tolerable, but being endless, it must needs be easless.  
Lastly, Our Fire may be quenched, but the fire of Hell never goes out. Our Fire is maintained with Wood, and put out with Water: but that, as it hath nothing to maintain it, so nothing to extinguish it. All their weeping cannot mitigate the fierceness of those flames. And if there be any tears, they shall rather be like oil to feed it, then like water to quench it.  
The sum than is this: The Torments of Hell are comprised under fire, because that is the most violent and vehement of all the elements whatsoever. Water doth only kill, Fire doth vex, terrify, and torment in killing; yea, which is worse, this fire doth never kill  
Let fools then solace themselves with a conceit, that there is no such place, they will one day find it, and feel it to their misery. Without doubt it is good for us, Semper cogitare gehe●nam. And as we desire to escape the fire of Hell, let us avoid the fire of sin. There are certain fiery sins, that shall find fiery punishments. S. Paul calls lust a burning sin. It is better to marry then to burn; who then would burn in lust here, that fears to burn in Hell hereafter? Rage and Malice are burning sins, therefore anger is called Excandescentia, a waxing hot. They that nourish this fire within them, are nourished for a worse fire without them. Blasphemy is a burning sin, let those whose mouths flame with Oaths, and whose Tongues are set on fire of Hell, venting nothing but cursed speeches, fear these torturing and tormenting flames. Drunkenness is a burning sin, too much wine is the oil of Hells own lamp. They inflame the reckoning till they inflame their brains, inflame their bloods, inflame their bodies, purchase as much sickness as comes to a burning fever, and as much sin as serves to inflame their own Hell. All the world is on fire with sin, to make work for the fire of Hell. And there is but one only way to put it out: The water and blood that came out of the most precious side of the Lord Jesus: only that water can quench the fire of sin in us here, and that blood quench the fire of Hell against us for ever hereafter.  
I might here enlarge myself with the consideration of the dire and dismal effects of these torments, which are principally two, to wit, Weeping, and gnashing of Teeth, Mat. 8.12. Fletus de ardore, stridor dentium de frigore, saith Rabanus, Weeping caused by the hear, and gnashing of Teeth, by reason of the cold. This declares that there are these two extremitises in Hell, intolerable Heat, and incomparable Cold, Greg. on Mat. 8. Called therefore, Avernus absque vera temperatura: where the freezing cold shall not mitigate the scorching heat, nor the scorching heat qualify the freezing cold.  
It is observable, that while we are here, the expense of Tears outwardly mitigates and allays the sorrow that lies hard and heavy within, and gives an ease to the surcharged heart: So the Poet,— est quaedam flere voluptas, The burden of indigestible grief (as it were) venting and emptying itself at the eyes: but Hell by eternal tears could never yet qualify eternal pains. Besides, if we do admit of weeping here as the Text is plain for it, it ariseth from the extreme perturbation of the soul, and the horrible anguish of the body, and may be said to be rather a howling like Dragons, than any true shedding of tears. Yet seeing one effect of the horrors in Hell is weeping, and such weeping as shall never be comforted: Let us prevent our weeping there, by weeping here, where we may be comforted. The time of living is the time of repenting; if we die without repentance, repentance is dead to us for ever. Weep then here, and the time will come when God will wipe away all these Tears from our eyes: For God hath disposed, Flentes ad risum, ridentes ad fletum; weepers to laughing, and laughers to weeping.  
Gnashing of Teeth; This is another effect of these Tortures, and ariseth from the sense of some sorrow mixed with indignation: a just and fit punishment, that they who once gnashed their Teeth at others, should gnash their Teeth at their own Torments, they shown their teeth in derision; They shall gnash their teeth in indignation. O the dreadful horror, and fearful terror of this sad and direful place, where there is neither help nor hope! No help, God will not, Saints or Angels cannot; nor would the damned themselves help one another, if they could: for they rather wish all others damned with them, then that any should be freed from them. No hope; Men say in extreme passions, if it were not for hope the heart would break: there is no hope in Hell, & yet the heart must hold: It is a misery to these damned souls that it cannot break, ever in a dying condition, yet without any hope of expiration. Seeing then there is no help, no hope of help in that place of torment: Let us seek help while we may have it, and make much of hope, that we may be enriched by it. The Apostle tells us, Rom. 5.5. That hope maketh not ashamed, because it is never disappointed: for if it could be illuded, it would be ashamed. Now if we would hope well, we must do well. He that tempts God, does not hope in God; that hoping, thrusts all upon God, and will out of a lazy devotion do nothing for himself. Many stretch themselves upon their beds, as Lepidus in the shade, and cry out, O utinam hoc esset salvari! but you know who said it, Take that unprofitable servant, and cast him into outer darkness. It is in vain for a man to hope to do well hereafter, as most men do; when he continues doing nothing but that which is evil here. The means must be used, where hope is nourished. Hope is only for the present, it hath nothing in reversion: the Saints in heaven have no hope; for they are in full possession of joy, the damned in Hell have no hope, for they are in full possession of torment. Only the living have hope, and in the living God is their hope, which he increase here, that it may be comfortably consummated hereafter.  
3. The last question is, Ubi sit, Where the place of torment is? I know that to rest within the bounds and limits of precedents, is to overactive, and to curiously inquisitive persons, a thing very contemptible: nothing is accounted wisdom with such, but what is exalted above the reach and pitch of those that went before us. To rest in positive divinity, and Articles confessed by all the Churches, to be content to know that there is a Hell, wherein tortures and torments are provided for the damned, and there is a Heaven too, wherein salvation is prepared for the just, and raise no estimation, no emulation, no opinion of singularity by the way, only to edify, and not to amaze; only to bring men to an assent, and to a practice, and not to an admiration, is now adays reputed but homespun divinity, made up only of humane Learning, so much decried, as that they hold it not necessary for carrying on the great work of instruction and edification.  
Let us know (say these highflown men) what God meant to do with man, before ever God meant to make man; we care not for that Law, which Moses hath written, that every man can read, and that he might have received from God in one day: Let us know that Cabal, that which passed between God and him, and all the rest of the forty days. We care not for Gods revealed will, his Acts of Parliament, his public Proclamations; Let us know his Cabinet Counsels, his bosom, his pocket dispatches. Is there not another kind of Predestination, then that which is revealed in the Scriptures? May not a Man be saved though he do not; and may not a man be damned, albeit he do perform those conditions, which seem to make sure his salvation in the Scriptures? How many miles are there between Earth and Heaven? and where is that very place that is called Hell? Our Country man Holkot upon the Book of Wisdom, says well of that Wisdom which we seek in the Book of God. All wisdom is nothing to me, if it be not mine; and I have title to nothing that is not conveyed to me by God in his scriptures: And in the wisdom manifested to me there: I rest, as in other things, so in this, concerning the local being of Hell.  
Now the Scripture saith, and that frequently too, that it is downward, Psa. 140.10. Let them be cast into the deep pits, that they rise not up again. Bring them down into the pit of destruction, Prov. 9.18. They are in the depth of hell, Prov. 15.24. The way of life is above to the wise, that he may departed from hell beneath. So the terms declare it, and the words describe it. Scheol is sometimes taken for a pit, sometimes for the Grave, and sometimes, and that significantly too for hell, as we have already showed, all downwards. Mercerus upon Gen. 37. says, that Scheol generally signifies all places under the Earth: whence perhaps arises that conceit, that Hell is in the heart of, or under the earth: without doubt it is below, because it is every where opposed to heaven, which is above. It is therefore called Abyssus, a deep Pit, a vast Gulf, such a pit as by reason of the depth thereof, may be said to have no bottom. The Devils entreated Christ, that he would not send them to this place, Luk. 8.31. In abyssum, which is, saith Beza upon Mat. Immensae profunditatis vorago, quasi absque fundo: A Gulf of an immeasurable depth, etc.  
The Apostle that preached to the Jews, used the word Gehenna, Jam. 3.6. Where speaking of an unruly Tongue, saith, It is set on fire, à Gehenna, of Hell, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. So Piscator, that is, it is set on fire by the Devil, and that by a Metonymy of the subject, as on the contrary, we find Coelum, Heaven, put for God in Heaven, Luk. 15.21. I have sinned against Heaven: So Hell is put for the Devil. But Piscator upon James, tells us, That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is by the Hebrews corruptly called Gehinnom, that is the valley of Hinnom. For so in the time of Christ and his Apostles, was the place of the damned called, which is vulgarly termed, Infernus, and by profane Authors is called Orcus: and so indeed (as Anonymus affirms) the Apostle spoke to them in a known Dialect, and used an expression that was familiar among them.  
They also that preached to the Gentiles, when they spoke of this place, used the word Haides, which they then took (and sure they could not be mistaken) for a place of darkness and obscurity, wherein the wicked were everlastingly to be tormented. The Apostle 2 Peter 2.4. speaking of the Angels that sinned, saith, God cast them down into Hell; So Beza in his Annotations, telleth us, the Greeks called that place, which was ordained for the Prison and torment of the damned. And reason itself doth teach us, that it must needs be opposite and contrary to that place, in which the spirits of just men made perfect do reside, which on all hands is granted to be above, therefore Hell must needs be below.  
But against this it is objected: That Dives in Hell saw Abraham and Lazarus, which he could not do, if Hell were so deep and so remote a place as commonly is affirmed. I answer, That albeit Hell is below, and downward in respect of Heaven; yet (as some think) it may not be so in regard of Earth, Rev. 12.12. Woe unto the Inhabitants of the Earth, for the Devil is come down among you: so that he was cast no lower than the surface of the Earth. I know there are divers Arguments on both sides. As that they that live know not the state of the dead: so the dead know not the state of the living, much less of the Saints in heaven.  
But against this is opposed. That if they in Hell had not the sight of Heaven, their own sufferings would less afflict them: for their most grievous torment shall arise from the vision of what joys they have eternally lost, Wisd. 5.2. When they see it they shall be tormented with terrible fear, and be amazed at the Saint's salvation. So Ber. The faithful shall have a sight of Hell, and the Reprobate a sight of Heaven, Ut illi magis laetentur, videntes quid evaserint, & high gravius crucientur, videntes quid manserint. That the one may be the more comforted, by seeing what miseries they have escaped: the other the more afflicted, by seeing what happiness they have forfeited, Psal. 112.10. The wicked shall see it, and be grieved: he shall gnash with his teeth and melt away. Bar then the sight of their eyes, and you mitigate the grief of their hearts. That weeping and gnashing of Teeth, of which our Saviour speaks, Luk, 13.28. proceeds from sight; when you shall see Ahraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. It is their exile from the presence of the Lamb, from the society of Saints and Angels, from the felicity and joys which they behold, that shall most bitterly molest and trouble them: else could they not be under the misery of that which is called paena damni, the punishment of loss. On the other side, it is said, That the sight of Heaven is never afforded, no not to Saints, but as an high, an inestimable favour. It was S. Paul's greatest grace, and that which had like to have transported him beyond the limits of his holy profession, to be wrapped up into the third Heaven; and to behold the life which the blessed live with God. But what extraordinary grace or favour is this, if it be also granted to the Reprobates? The answer is easy; S. Paul saw that life, and had a sight of those joys, experiendo, by tasting them, and hoped again to see them participando, by a blessed partaking of them: such a sight is not permitted to the children of perdition. They see them to the grief of their hearts, and terror of their souls that they cannot enjoy them, but are for ever deprived of them.  
But how could that rich Man, spoken of in the Gospel; or how can other damned spirits be said to see the glory of Heaven, when as they want those luminary Organs of the body, the disposition of sight; besides, the great distance between the several places, and the the thick darkness interposed? which is a great question with Anonymus. I shall easily remove this block out of the way: for even Spirits see, though not with bodily eyes; they have the eyes of intelligence and apprehension, by which they are able to distinguish matters of intricacy and perplexity, and that at distance too; much more between Light and Darkness. They apprehend this Glory either universally or particularly. An universal apprehension they have, whereby they perceive the Saints to be in great glory: in particular, what this Glory is, they know not. They see it, and they see so much of it, as shall augment their torment, Tam propter invidiam alienae faelicitatis, quàm propter carentiam illius quietis, both in regard of others gain, and their loss; the transcendent happiness which the Saints are for ever made partakers of, and their own want of the same. Now if it be granted, That the damned shall see the glory of Heaven, than it will probably follow, that Hell is in the Air, only separated with a great unpassable gulf, that either may not come to other. And I have read of certain Hills, whose tops have been so near one to another, that men might talk one to another; but could not without many days travel come one to another. If they do not see it, than it is as probable, that it may be in the bowels of the Earth. However, it is below, downwards, in the more inferior parts of the workmanship of him, who as the Poet styles him, is Ille opifex rerum, the great Creator of all. But precisely to determine, whether in the Air, or in the Water, or on the face of the Earth, or in the Centre of the Earth, or in the centre of the world's Centre, Tegitur, non legitur, periculose disquiritur, tutò ignoratur, is kept secret, and not discovered; is safe to be ignorant of, cannot but be dangerous to dispute. That saying of Scaliger would be a seasonable curb to restrain us from a curious indagation, and scrupulous enquiry after the place itself, if it were minded of us.  
Nescire velle, quae Magister optimus,  
Docere non vult, erudita inscitia est.  
What the great Master will not have made known,  
Our greatest Wisdom is, to let alone.  
Yet thus far may we boldly conclude concerning it. That as just Spirits separated from their bodies, do presently ascend into the Imperial Heaven, there to possess joy and happiness: so the Souls of hard, obdurate, and impenitent sinnets, whose hearts neither the mercies of God could mollify, nor his Judgements terrify, are confined below to the inferior Elements, there to remain in everlasting miseries and torment. And this (as I take it) is, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, to be wise to sobriety, according to the wholesome advice of the Apostle; But to determine positively where Hell is, and to measure out, and to dispose of every foot contained in the same, is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, audacious curiosity; and is carefully to be avoided by us.  
Now because there is a difference among some, that are more nice than wise about the Ubi: Anonymus concludes against the Quod: to the bewraying either of his ignorance, or infidelity, or both; because men will not be rash in it, therefore such Atheists will rashly deny it. If any than shall ask further concerning the local place of Hell; I answer, with Socrates, I was never there myself, and my hope is never shall be; nor spoke I with any that came from thence, and therefore cannot satisfy his curiosity: herein I confess many doubt concerning Hell, Ubi sit, where it is: none can describe Quid sit, What it is; but all (all I mean in their right minds) do agree, Quod sit, That there is such a place, where the damned shall be imprisoned, and in which tormented unto all eternity.  
Seeing then (as we have upon good reason concluded) that Hell is a descent, downwards; let us keep ourselves so far as we can from it, while we live, that it may never devour us, when we die. Sin is a burden that presseth downward. The Prophet Zachary 5.7. compares it to a Talon of Lead; how heavy was it on the back of Judas? it never left him, till it had pressed him down to his own place. As the heaviest bodies draw to the Centre of the Earth: so do the saddest and heaviest spirits, such as the mercy of God hath quite forsaken, draw down to the Centre of Hell. Sin brings a man easily down, Facilis descensus Averni.  
Things nearest Heaven, take less care for Earth; The Fowls of the air neither plough nor sow, nor carry into Barns. But men most love that which they must shortly leave, and think seldom or never of that place, where they must, after the consummation of a short time here, abide for ever. O Lord give me the grace to consider the evil of my ways; Et semper cogitare Gehennam, ne in gehennam incidam; If nothing else will work me to repentance, to think often of Hell here, that I may not fall into hell for ever hereafter.  
The life of the damned is a death without end; the death of the damned is to live in eternal Torments. When the wrath of God shall cease towards them, then shall Torments cease to be inflicted on them. But the wrath of God is Eternal, therefore their plagues must needs be eternal also. When those damned wretches shall repent of their impieties, then shall they be freed from their miseries; But the space of repentance was by them neglected, and the grace of repentance is now denied. Therefore there is no deliverance to be expected. O Eternity, eternity, thou alone dost add to, and aggravate the punishments of the damned beyond all measure. Their misery is grievous in respect of the acerbity and sharpness thereof; more grievous in respect of the variety and diversity thereof, but most grievous in respect of the eternity and everlastingness thereof.  
Anonymus (how advisedly, and upon what grounds I know not; for all his pretended reasons make nothing to that purpose) saith, That this opinion (as he calls it) to wit, of the everlasting duration of Hell torments, hath caused much sin. I answer, How lightly soever he seems to set by it, by the term he puts upon it, it was a real & substantial truth before his Cradle was made, and will be so when his Coffin shall be rotten. And if corrupt men will draw hellish conclusions from heavenly instructions, who can help it? such bad consequences are not the legitimate Children of God's sacred Truth; but the bastards of man's own corruption, to whom they are to be brought, and by whom to be fathered for their maintenance. Sure I am, if we take a right course with it, there is good use to be made of it.  
1. The glory and comfort of eternal life doth more, and the more manifestly appear hereby. This is a significant and delightful demonstration, which one contrary gives to another, when they are diametrically opposed. The day would not seem half so clear, if the departing Sun should not leave night to follow it. The foil adds grace to the Jewel. It (no less then) glorifies Learning, that the malicious Tongue of ignorance doth bark at it. He knows the benefit of heat, that hath felt the sharpness of a freezing cold: If there were no sickness to trouble us, health itself would not be precious to us. Even their opposition is an Exposition of their nature: The consideration of the deformity and darkness of Hell, doth add a greater, and more glorious lustre to the beauty and brightness of Heaven, and those heavenly Mansions, which the merits of Jesus have purchased for the righteous.  
2. This Doctrine (for so Alstedius calls it) is very necessary for the Godly, that they may be moved in the serious consideration thereof to acknowledge with the greater affection the mercy of God in Jesus Christ, by which they are freed from so great a misery, as this of eternal damnation, which we affirm (though Anonymus do deny it; and by that, if there were nothing else to do it, Ex ungue leonem, discovers what he is) that Christ our surety, in our place and stead did suffer for us. And that this is an undoubted truth, at which none but the Children of darkness can take exception, that which followeth, will (I hope) sufficiently testify.  
First, That Prophetical speech of David, Psal. 88.4, 5. etc. where are fully and emphatically described, the grievous torments and infernal dolours, which Christ our Saour sustained in the time of his passion: being such, as no Saint was able to undergo. And that the Psalmist doth there prophesy of the sufferings of Christ, the circumstances of that Psalm do evidently declare.  
Secondly, The Type and Figure thereof in the person of David, who by the instigation of wicked men, the Sons of Belial was exceedingly troubled; and of which in many of his Psalms he sadly complained, manifestly prefigured the future sufferings of the Lord Jesus, in especial, Psalm. 18.6. The sorrows of Hell compassed me about, and the snares of death prevented me: compared with that of Psalm. 116.3. where we have the like expressions.  
Thirdly, The description itself of the passion of Christ, what horrible anxiety he suffered in his Soul; what consternation and contristation, in regard of those infernal torments with which he violently conflicted even to this death, for the sins of all the Elect, and the wrath of God due unto them for the same, which lay so hard upon him, that his sweat was great drops of blood, and an Angel was sent to comfort him, Mat. 26.36. Luk. 22.43.  
Fourthly, The surrogation of Christ in our place, forasmuch as he suffered instead of all the faithful, and all those things which should have been sustained by us, he in our place sustained for us, as Mat. 20.28. The Son of man came to give his life a ransom for many, joh. 11.51, 52. speaking concerning the prophecy of Caiaphas; he foretold that Jesus should die for that Nation, and not for that Nation only, but that also he should gather together into one all the Sons and Daughters of God, that were scattered abroad, 1 Tim. 2.6. Also 1 Pet. 3.18. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust. But among all those things which he suffered for us, the chief was the infernal death, which by reason of our transgression was due unto us, without which, all his sufferings had been to no purpose. And to this our Doctrine tends, what ever wicked men think of it, or speak against it; and therefore confidently and comfortably affirm, that Christ our Mediator in our stead hath undergone this also for us.  
Fifthly, The susception and taking of our sin, which was by imputation laid upon him; seeing he hath taken our sins upon himself, and born them for us, as plainly appears by that place of Isai. 53.6. and 2 Cor. 5.21. It is necessary also, that he bear the punishment of the same; the principal part whereof is this infernal death and condemnation, Deut. 27.26.  
6ly, The execration which he underwent, for he was made a curse for us, who were under the curse of the Law, Gal. 3.13. Concerning which, I have already declared myself else where: sigh then this Curse doth infer, that we were liable to eternal death and condemnation, from which, Christ becoming a curse for us, did graciously deliver us; It is manifest, that the death of Christ was different from the death of any, of all Saints whatsoever; who in all their sufferings, were neither made sin, nor a curse, nor were they forsaken of God, nor tasted the cup of his indignation; but were only fatherly chastised by him; nor did they colluct or wrestle with Hell, and the powers of darknese, unless it were, as with Enemies already foiled, whom Christ by his death had vanquished and subdued.  
Lastly, The confession of Crellius (and other of the Socinian brood, to whom Anonymus, though he wish well, must necessarily subscribe, as not being worthy to carry their Books after them) who saith, that Christ suffered death, instar maledicti à Deo (let him crack that Nut) the effect whereof must have been our punishment unto all eternity.  
We had spoken to this purpose before, and had then done with this Argument, but that Anonymus would needs make the world believe, that we are they that labour to overflow the sufferings of Christ, when indeed we are so far from overthrowing them, and the sufficiency thereof, by leaving any part thereof unperformed by him, or to be completed by us, that we magnify them rather, and his love to us, that undergoing such misery for us, we might thereby be eternally freed from the same.  
This is a truth, against which the Gates of Hell shall never be able to prevail, much less the slight assaults of such poor and feeble undertakers as Anonymus; who, while he chargeth us with undervaluing the sufferings of Christ, doth himself (by a Socinian trick that he hath) undervalue the person of Christ, by that corrupt gloss which he puts upon the words of S. Paul, Rom. 5.19. By the obedience of one, many are made righteous. It is not (saith he) by the obedience of God, nor by the obedience of God-man, but by the obedience of one man (which word (man) is not expressed in that verse, though it be, with note of distinction, or opposition in some verses before) are many made righteous. 'Tis true, not by the obedience of God; for God cannot be said either to obey or suffer; but by his favour, by the obedience, testified both by the Action and Passion of that one person, which was God and Man, many are made righteous. For the Apostle there used the term, man, not understanding thereby hominem merum, mere man, sed hominem verum, but true man. It was fit, that the Redeemer of man should be true man, in regard of the justice of God, which could not punish sin, but in that nature which had offended: It was fit also, that he should be more than man, in regard of the heavy burden of God's wrath, which was to be sustained by him. The righteousness of whom, by which we are constituted righteous, is therefore by the communication of properties (saith Downam) called the righteousness of God, being the righteousness of that person, which is God, as well as man; It is not the obedience of the Godhead; no, nor the obedience of the Man-head, but the obedience of Christ our Mediator, considered as God and Man, by which we are made righteous.  
I cannot, but by the way, lament the growth and insinuation of this pestilent Heresy of Socinianism, which under pretence of giving glory to Christ, doth rob him of all that true glory that belongs unto him. It will allow him to be a holy, a thrice holy man, an unreproachable, an irreprehensible, an admirable, an incomparable man; a man, to whom, he that should equal any other man, were worse than a Devil; A man worthy to be called God, in a fare higher sense than any Magistrate, any King, any Prophet; But yet he was no God, saith this Heresy and these Heretics, no Son of God; A Redeemer by way of example, but no Redeemer by way of equivalent satisfaction. S. Paul says, Ephe. 2.12. He is an Atheist that is without Christ. And he is as much an Atheist still, that pretends to receive Christ, and not as God; for if the receiving of Christ must redeem him from being an Atheist, there can no other way be imagined, but by receiving him as God, for that only, and no other good opinion of Christ, overcomes, and removeth his Atheism. After the great day, whatsoever is not Heaven, is Hell; He that then shall be where the Son is now (if he be not in Heaven) shall be as far from heaven, as if he were where the Centre of the Earth is now: He that confesses not all Christ, confesses no Christ. And this is the wickedness that keeps down Anonymus, and the rest of that Heretical brood, that they cannot, will not be raised up to the consideration of Christ as God. But we proceed.  
3. The serious meditation of this Doctrine, doth restrain wicked men from their impieties: Oderunt peccare mali formidine poenae.— Bad men for fear of pain, do ill detest— The Apostle, Rom. 2.4. saith, The goodness of God leadeth to repentance: and well are they that will be led; But some there are that will not lead, with whom there is another course to be taken, such must be driven on whether they will or no. John Baptist, Mat. 3.2. proposed the goodness of God, as a special argument to persuade his Hearers to repentance; do it, repent, and the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand, hard by you.  
One would think this would have done it, have even led them to it, but it stirred them not: He is fain to lay Heaven by, and the life, joy, glory to come; And to betake himself to Hell, to the anguish, tribulation, torments there, for all these are in the eighth verse, under those words, the wrath to come; so to drive them (if it may be) to it, since leading would not serve the turn. How strangely doth sin besot men, that the Kingdom of Heaven works not so kindly with them, as doth the wrath to come? The loss of Heaven, if that were all, would never restrain any from it: if not, Ira ventura, wrath to come, they would never care for the loss of Heaven. Repent, or you lose Heaven; alas, this works not any change or alteration: Repent, or you must to Hell, the place of endless and easeless torments, that bites soon: This doth strike fear in their hearts, and that fear bringeth forth repentance. So that this fear, even the fear of punishment is good, though it be ignorantly condemned by some. 'Tis true, that the Apostle saith, Rom. 8.15. That the Sons of God have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the spirit of adoption, whereby they cry Abba, Father: The spirit of Bondage is inferior to the spirit of Adoption; yet that spirit is better than the spirit of Belial, or that spirit of slumber, which the Prophet mentions, Isai. 29.10. whereby men's eyes are closed up, that thy cannot see the judgements of the Lord.  
It is a Maxim, that actio perfecta non recipitur, nisi imperfectè primo; there is no perfect action, but at first it is imperfect, and is perfected by degrees. It is a good thing to be a Son, yet it is better to be a Servant; A doorkeeper in the house of God, then to dwell in the Tents of ungodliness. It is good to be in Canaan, the Land of promise, but (in the mean time) it is better to be in the Wilderness then in Egypt. So fear and spare not, says S. August; for, Sinondum potes amore justitiae, at timore poenae: Do it, if it be not for love of goodness, yet for fear of punishment; & his ground is out of Deut. 5.29. O that there were in them (saith God) such an heart that they would fear me, and keep my Commandments. Nothing brought the Jews to the love of God, but the terror they conceived of his judgements, which they visibly saw before their face; yet God wished that they might have such an heart in them always, that they would so fear him; which for aught I can perceive from that place, was but a servile fear, procured by the terrible sights at the delivery of the Law.  
There is no fear of God then, though it have some servility in it (so fare as servility imports but a fear of punishment) but is good; for timor est amor inchoativus, saith S. August. The love of God gins in fear, and then amor est timor consummatus, The fear of God ends in love. God presents to us the joys of Heaven often, thereby to allure us, but we have seen how coldly we are affected towards them, and therefore as often the torments of Hell, thereby to terrify us from the evil of our ways. Gehennae timor regni nos affert coronam; even the fear of hell gets us heaven, and we thank that pain which gives us sight. Though there may be difference between timor & tremor, Fear and Terror; yet the difference is not so great, but that they may both be found in, and fall upon the best of men. When God talked with Abraham, a horror of darkness, says that Text, Gen. 15.12. fell upon him. The Father of Lights, and the God of all comfort present, and present in an action of mercy, and yet a horror of great darkness fell upon Abraham, the father of the faithful. When God talked personally and presentially with Moses, Moses hide his face; for saith that Text, Exod. 13.6. He was afraid to look upon God. When we look upon God in those terrible judgements, which he hath executed upon some, and see that there is nothing between us, and the same judgements (for we have sinned the same sins, and God is still the same God) what can we do, but stand in awe of him that we sin not.  
He urgeth that place in John, 1.4.18. to prove this fear and sin, but to little purpose; for the wise man saith, Prov. 1.7. Timorem domini esse initium sapientiae, The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and therefore Jonah to the Ninivites, Joh. 3.4. and John Baptist to the Jews, Mat. 3.10. and all the Prophets to sinners, have used to provoke them to this fear, by threatening the dangers that were imminent, if they repent not. But yet afterwards, when men are reclaimed from their iniquities, converted to God, and have made some progress in his service; then do they change every day more and more their fear into love, until they arrive at last unto that state whereof S. John there speaketh; which cannot be suddenly, nor fully expected of any. S. August. hath a pretty expression to this purpose: He saith, That fear is the servant sent before, to prepare place in our hearts for his Mistress' love, who being once admitted into, and possessed thereof, fear departeth, and gives place unto love. But where this fear never entereth at all, it is impossible that ever love should take up a habitation.  
And albeit this fear of punishment be not in those that are come up to that degree of perfection, of which the Apostle there speaks, or is at leastwise less in them, then in others; yet being joined with that reverence that becomes it; it is most necessary and profitable for such Christians, whose life is not so perfect, nor love so great. This appeareth by that of our Saviour Christ, Luk. 12.5. Fear him, who after he hath killed, hath pomer to destroy both body and soul in hell. Also S. Paul testifieth of himself, 1 Cor. 9.27. That he kept under his body, and brought it into subjection, lest that by any means, when he had preached to others, himself should be a cast away; meaning thereby, that notwithstanding all those favours, which he had received from God, yet he retained such a fear of God, as that he was careful of those relapses, which considered in their own nature, deserved exclusion out of those heavenly habitations, the glory whereof in a very great measure, he hath had some ocular demonstration of.  
Now (my friend Anonymus) if such a man as S. Paul did thus stand in awe of the justice of God, notwithstanding his Apostle-ship, and those rare endowments, with which he was plentifully furnished for the execution and administration of the same, a man so holy as he, what ought we to be in whose consciences remains the guilt of many thousand notorious impieties? This know, saith the same Apostle, Ep. 5.5. That no Whoremonger, or unclean person, or covetous man, which is an Idolater, hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ, and of God. And, as though this had not been sufficient, he adds, Let no man deceive you with vain words; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. As if he should say, Those that flatter you in your sins, and bolster you up in your iniquities, with this, tush, God is merciful, and is easily won to pardon these or the like impieties, notwithstanding a delightful continuance therein; These men do but deceive you; for the wrath and vengeance of God cometh upon the Children of disobedience for these very things: The Author to the Hebrews tells us, Horrendum esse incidere in manus Dei viventis, That it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God: The same Apostle rendering a reason, Deus enim noster est ignis consumens, for our God is a consuming fire. They than that will not believe God's justice, nor are in any measure terrified with his threats against sin, but presuming of his mercy, do continue in their impiety, shall suddenly be surprised, and irrecoverably be confounded, when God's judgements do seize upon them.  
I but, saith Anonymus, this causeth Melancholy, and exceeding trouble of mind: Truly if we consider the condition that we are in by nature, we have very small cause to be jovial: For 1. There is a captivity, wherein we are violently detained under the slavery of sin and Satan. S. Paul knew it, and speaks of it, Rom. 7.25. and in the sense thereof cryeth out, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver, me? I hope Anonymus will not be so foolhardy as to say, this trouble of the Apostle was a sin, who being sensible of it, could, not but be troubled with it. Indeed there is no Turk so hurries his Gallie-slaves, and puts them to so base services, as sin doth her Captives. Give me one that hath been in this Captivity, and by the mercy of God is freed from it, & scit, quod dico: He knows what I say is certainly true. 2. There a Prison too; Ask David else, who never was in any Goal, what he means, when he said, Psal. 88.8. I am so fast in prison, that I knew not how to get out? What else caused him to cry out so passionately, Psal. 142.7. O bring my Soul out of Prison: And S. Mat. 4.16. saith of some to whom Christ preached here, That they sat in darkness, and in the shadow of death, even as men in a Dungeon use to do. 3. There are Chains too, A sinner is tied with the Chains of his own sins, Prov. 5.22. With the bonds of iniquity, Acts 8.23. And these are they for which David gives thanks to God, Psal. 116.16, That he had broken them in sunder. A man need no other bonds, if once he come to feel them. The galls that sin makes in the conscience, are the entering of the Iron into his soul.  
But perhaps these are not felt by some; no, not felt? Take this then for a Rule. If Christ heal them, that be ,  we must be, ere he can heal us. He is Medicus cordis, the Physician of the heart indeed; but it is cordis contriti, of the broken heart; it is a condition ever annexed to make us the more capable; and likewise a disposition it is, to render us the more curable. It is our fault, and a great fault it is, that we are more ready to laugh with the merry Philosopher, then to weep with the mourner; Mirth seldom knocks twice at our doors without entrance; but sorrow shall not in, so long as we ourselves, with all the miserable helps that we can muster up, can keep it out. He that sees heaven lost, Paradise vanished, the Earth accursed, Hell enriched, the World corrupted, all Mankind defaced, will have small cause to laugh. Man fell by affectation of joy, he must rise again by the affection of sorrow. That part of the world that shall be cast into the bottomless lake, spend the days in laughter; that part which shall rejoice for ever, must be first drowned in tears. For my own part, I am none of those, that desire to go merrily to hell; I had rather have God's Vinegar, then Anonymus his Oil; God's Wormwood, than his Manna, God's Justice, than his mercy; Sorrow and mourning here, than misery and torment for ever hereafter. For a conscience troubled in itself, is Odour quietis, as Noah's sacrifice was, a favour of rest with God.  
I but, saith he, this opinion (for he will not allow it any other term) provoketh to despair; I confess, to despair of the mercy of God, is a sin of a very high nature: but for aught I see, not so frequent as is by some imagined. I have read of whole sects, whole bodies of Heretics, that denied the communion of God's grace to others: The Cathari denied that any man had it, but themselves: The Novatians denied that any man could have it again, having once lost it, by some deadly sin committed after Baptism. But I never read of any sect that denied it to themselves; no sect of despairing men. We have some, somewhere sprinkled; one in the old Testament, Cain; and one in the New Testament, Judas; and one in the Ecclesiastical story, Julian; but no body, no sect, of despairing men. Therefore he that abandons himself to this sin of desperation, sins with the least reason of any; for he prepares his sin above God's mercy; and he sins with the fewest examples of any; for God hath diffused this light with an evidence to all, that all sins (excepting that sin, which is not without a great deal of difficulty, and some incertainty, defined, the sin against the Holy Ghost) may be forgiven unto men, yea unto all men without exception.  
But we must take heed, least in magnifying the mercy of God, we decry his justice, while we seek to keep some few poor souls from dashing themselves to pieces on the rock of despair, we give not occasion to thousands to engulf themselves on the quick sands of presumption. And so we cast out one Devil with another, and the latter prove the greater. Presumption is a sin to which we are naturally prone, and therefore the more dangerous. Soon is a man invited to make much of himself, to approve and applaud his own endeavours, to look big upon his own performances, hardly won to his own affliction, or brought about to his own disestimation. Despair is a thing grievous to trembling nature: Not often doth that Archer of Hell head his Arrows with such displeasing assaults. Besides, this hath often turned (invito diabolo) to a hearty contrition for sin, and a holy conversion from sin; like a violent Fever, that hath boiled up all the choler and corruption of sin, so that a man becomes the better after it. But to presume is so sweet a sin to flesh and blood, that it once foiled Innocence itself. Satan hath not a more tried shaft in all his quiver, then to persuade men, while they are sinning, to bear themselves boldly upon the favour of God. Therefore as the wise Man eats moderately of the dish which he best likes, because he knows there is more danger of surfeit in that, then in all the rest; So it becometh us to be most  and heedful of that sin, which we know will soon take us, and take God from us. We may say of them both, Despair and Presumption, as the Israelitish woman did of Saul and David in their harmony, after the slaughter of Goliath, Saul hath slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands: so where despair hath hurried away some, with a great deal of noise and clamour, presumption hath engulfed more, many more, without any noise at all.  
Together with this sin of despair, in his Linsey woolsey discourse, he links the performance of holy duties. I know the Devil and his instruments are professed Enemies thereunto: but after that way which they deny, so will we worship the God of our Fathers. The Tree is known by the fruits: It is not well said, but well done thou faithful servant, that by the mercies of God, in the merits of Jesus will gain acceptance and admittance. Hath not God promised to reward every man according to his works? Hath not Christ our Saviour confirmed us by the same promise? and will this fellow make them liars? Doth not the Apostle enjoin his Corinthians, 1.9.24. So to run, that they may obtain? Did not Jacob wrestle with Christ, the Angel of the Covenant for a blessing, and prevail? And how did he wrestle, but by prayer and supplication? As the Prophet excellently expresseth it, Hos. 12.3, 4. What is this, but with Diogenes, to trample upon Plato's pride with more pride, to condemn our presumption (as he judges it) with greater presumption? For by his new Divinity, or rather old fustian, he presumes to cross even the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who wills us, Mat. 7.7. to ask, that we may have; And S. James 4.2. tells us the reason why we have not, even because we ask not.  
Methinks they should be ashamed to print and publish to the world, that which is so apparently cross and contrary to the word of God, thereby seeking to bring men into a cursed condition, even to neglect & contemn the performance of those duties which we are enjoined for to do, in the name of the Lord Jesus. What will he, what can he say to that of the Apostle, Phil. 2.12. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling? And that of the 1 Cor. 15.58. Be steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labour is not in vain in the Lord? 1 Tim. 6.17, 18, 19 Charge them that are rich in this world, etc. laying up for themselves a good foundation, Rev. 22.12. Behold, I come quickly, saith Christ, and my reward is with me, to give to every one according to his works. Therefore it is evident (notwithstanding his negation) that we may escape Hell, and do ourselves much good (though not for, yet) by our good works. Surely after we have prayed for hallowing God's name, the coming of his Kingdom, etc. We may pray, not only for daily bread, but pardon of, and power against sin, and not lose our labour. We are commanded to hear, Isai. 55.3. that our souls may live: For though God hath promised, and Christ hath purchased all good things for believers, yet we cannot, not so soon at least expect them, unless we seek for them, by those means which are appointed. See what the Prophet saith to this purpose, Ezek. 36.37. God hath an intention of good towards his people; Yet, saith he, I will be enquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.  
Thus we see the Scriptures themselves are point blank for the performance of holy duties, But his intents and his purpose, his aim and his end, is to undervalue the Scriptures, by telling us, we have not the very Books that were written by the Prophets and Apostles: Nor is it enough (saith he) that we have Books in Hebrew and Greek, unless we could certainly know, that these Copies (as they are called) do agree word for word with those that were written by those Holy Penmen.  
To which I answer; If his ignorance be such, that he knows not whether they accord or no, let him sit by, and submit to the judgement of the Godly Learned: let him not raise a dust to blind the eyes of others, because he himself cannot discern truth from falsehood. But yet forsooth, under a probable and plausible show of some learning, which God knows is very small, which is to strongly presumed is none at all; under the pretence of zeal and devotion, holiness and humility, labours to obtrude his paralogisms unto the people, as sugared baits of serpentine deceit, which he persuades himself cannot be done, but by endeavouring to overthrow Religion, and the very basis and foundation thereof, the holy Scriptures. But that he may not outface us with a Card of ten, we affirm, that the original Text, the authentic Hebrew of the Old Testament, with the Greek of the New, is entire and incorrupt; and for proof hereof, do commend these ensuing Arguments to the Consideration of the judicious and Christian Reader.  
The first whereof is drawn from the want of proof on their side, who endeavour to lay so foul an imputation upon the Scriptures, which they are bound to make good by some evident demonstration, but hic labour. They are a Tree so firmly rooted, that all the cold storms of humane reluctancy and opposition could never shake. They then deserve, and that justly too, to be branded with a vain and profane suspicion of that, for which they never yet, nor ever will be able to give a reason.  
Secondly, From the testimony of Christ himself, Mat. 5.18. Where he saith, that one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or tittle of the Law shall not pass away; yea, Heaven and Earth shall pass way, before the word of God shall suffer the least diminution. Whence it is manifest, that God will not permit his word contained in the Scriptures, to suffer any the least depravation.  
Thirdly, From the incredible devotion, even to superstition, which the Jews bore to the holy Scriptures; whence it was enacted by them, that if any one should presume to change or alter any thing therein, they were judged guilty of an unpardonable offence. Besides, if they would have done it, they could not; for it must have been done either before the coming of the Messiah, or after; If before any such wickedness had been committed by them, they could not have have evaded the just reprehension of Christ and his Apostles: If after, the Copies thereof being dispersed among the Christians, would have rendered such attempts vain and fruitless. And that they did it not, may appear by those places concerning the coming of Christ in the flesh, which above all, and before all others would have been corrupted by them.  
Fourthly, From the care and vigilancy of the Fathers, who have ever had recourse to, and made use of these spiritual weapons against Heathens, Heretics, and profane persons, insomuch that no manifest depravation of the Text could possibly creep in, without public notice taken of it, and as public clamour and scandal against it.  
Fifthly, From the consideration that almost every age hath afforded notable and famous Critics, such as Origen and Jerome of old, Erasmus, Beza, and an infinite number of others in latter times, who with an Heroic industry and diligence, have weighed every tittle in the balance of the Sanctuary, and sound it entire; so that there cannot be any visible corruption found in it, or apparent depravation of it.  
Lastly, From the providence of God. If God could and would preserve the Original and Authentic Scriptures inviolate, and propagate them to posterity; there is no doubt to be made but that they were preserved: But that God could, none can, none dare deny; That he would, his providence to the Church doth testify, to whom he so delivered his holy Word, that without any suspicion of error, it might receive instruction and information from it, Mat. 28. ult. Lo I am with you (by my word and spirit) unto the end of the world.  
Now for Translations, I confess, they cannot have that propriety, and delicacy, and harmony, and melody of language, which the Holy Ghost delighted in, and made frequent use of, in the penning of the Scriptures. We know, that when the Grecians and the Romans, and S. August. himself undervalved and despised the Scriptures, because of the poor and beggarly phrase that they seemed to be written in, the Christians could say little against it, but turned still upon the other and safer way, we consider the matter, and not the phrase, because for the most part, they had read the Scriptures only in Translations, which could not maintain the Majesty, nor preserve the Elegancies of the Original. But howsoever the Christians were at first fain to sink a little under that imputation, that their Scriptures had no Majesty, because those embellishments could not appear in Translations, with which the Original did abound; yet now that a perfect knowledge of those languages hath brought us to see the beauty, and to behold the glory of those Books, and to come up so near unto the same in our Translations: Let a man that is endued with the spirit of discerning, read the Books in our Translation, he shall apprehend the Author to be God; the matter to be divine and absolute that is therein contained, the manner and form to be no barbarous, or trivial, or market, or homely language, but as full of Majesty as possibly could be rendered in the simplicity of words: And the end whereat they aim to be the glory of God alone, may thence conclude these are the Scriptures, and the very word of God. By the Scriptures themselves then in the Original, and by Translation as near and agreeable to the Original as the best and ablest Expositors could possibly render them, have we proved, that there is a place prepared, wherein all wicked and ungodly wretches shall be tormented with the Devil and his Angels, and that for ever.  
I but God delights not in the death of a sinner, Ezek. 18. much less in the eternal damnation of any of his Creatures. Answ. Yet as mercy hath had her place and day, so Justice must have hers, whom mercy saves, she saves for ever, though their works were short, and nothing unto God; yea, the very effects of his own grace. Therefore whom Justice condemns, she condemns for ever, not so much respecting the persons that have sinned, as the person against whom they have sinned: Almighty God, as he is good, is not delighted with their torments: but as he is just, he is not satisfied without their torments. Factus est malo dignus aeterno, qui hoc in se peremit bonum, quod esse posset aeternum, says August, He is justly plagued with an evil that is eternal, who hath corrupted himself in a good that might have been eternal.  
But if God's justice must be satisfied upon those sinners, for whom Christ satisfied not; why is it not rather in reducing them to nothing? Seeing the unthankful deserve to be deprived of all benefits. Now one special benefit is Being; therefore ipsum esse amittant, let them not be. Answ. It's true, the Creature that disobeyes the Creator, deserves to lose his being: but because it was given him to this purpose, that he should serve him; therefore it shall never be taken away, for God will have his homage and service out of that very being, whether of grace and salvation, to the praise of his mercy, or of punishment and confusion, to the praise of his justice.  
But Anonymus is of an opinion, that the mercy of God will terminate their sorrows according to that in Wisd. 11.23. Thou shalt have mercy upon all, and thou lovest all the things that are: and Rom. 11.32. God hath concluded all under unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all; Sed conclusit & daemons; he hath also concluded the Devils under sin. Neither will his goodness suffer that, which he made for blessedness to perish for ever in torment. Alas, these be but the plausible conceits that over-mercifull Origen did first bring forth for the recovery of lost spirits; who notwithstanding the doom of Christ, Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels, would have these words rather, Minaciter quàm veraciter dicta, spoken by way of threatening, then by way of truth. But the Scripture delivers it plain, ac plenè, Rev. 20.10. The Devil shall be tormented in the Lake of fire day and night for ever.  
Besides, this opinion doth both extendere & extenuare misericordiam; as it straineth, so it restraineth mercy. It extends it to the future deliverance of the damned, it extenuates it in regard of the happy condition of the blessed. For if the lost be ever to be released out of Hell; then will it follow that the Saints are one day to be excluded out of heaven; And so, what the bad shall gain, the good shall lose: yea, the very mercy of God cannot get more glory by the one, than it shall lose by the other,  
But though the Devils be everlastingly chained up, yet there may be mercy for reprobate men they may get lose, Gen. 6.3. My spirit shall not always strive with man; therefore his indignation shall cease. And he doth often threaten, but not do as we see in the case of Ninive. Answ. God doth many times menace and not strike, because our repentance steps between: But when everlasting burning hath wasted all the moisture of repenting, will he do so then? Here indeed we may speed as well as Ninive, and find God in mercy inclining towards us: for we cannot choose but stand, so long as our sins fall: but we must needs fall, if our sins stand. But at that day, the date of repentance will be quite out. I but as David puts the question, Psal. 77.7. Will the Lord cast off for ever, and will he be favourable no more? No certainly, while there is life, there is hope: for that is spoken only of temporal afflictions, with which the Church is exercised while it is militant here below. But still as the joys of heaven, so the pains of Hell are eternal. If they that say otherwise, Anonymus and his gang can tell us when, and at what time they shall expire, then will they say something to the purpose.  
For the conclusion of the whole matter; methinks God may justly say to Anonymus, as he did to that wicked and unreformable person, Psal. 50.16. What hast thou to do to declare my statutes, or that thou shouldst take my Covenant in thy mouth? seeing thou not only hatest it it in thine heart, but also pervertest it with thy lips? It were fit and necessary that such men, before they be suffered to meddle with the Scriptures, should put in sureties, that the sense which they give of them, should be Orthodox and consenting with the Church. For the trusting of every man upon his single bond, to interpret any place of Scripture, is the occasion of much error: So grow they bold to utter their own fancies, and look to be believed upon their own bare word, which is Dominari fidei, to take upon them to be Lords over the faith of others. If Satan come to us in broad terms, charging us to renounce Christ, we should openly and utterly defy them; Therefore he creeps in like a Serpent, and as our Saviour tells us, Mat. 13.25. Superseminat Errores, sows Tares: that these growing together with the seeds of truth, may in time choke them.  
The things that were ordained for a means, whereby the Gentiles might come to know God, by Satan's illusion became occasions of their more offending him, Rom. 1.20. By the visible things of the Creation, they might have understood the invisible things of the Godhead. But they fell to worship the Sun, Moon, and Creatures, omitting the knowledge of the Creator: Where should we know Christ but in, and by the Scriptures? Joh. 5.39. Search the Scriptures, saith he, they testify of me. Yet as it often happens, that in the very highway we cannot see for dust; so upon the face of this sacred Spring, the Devil collects such clouds of errors; that many men do lose Christ even in the very place where they are appointed to find him. Or, as in dark nights, Pirates use to kindle fires, and make great lights upon the Rocks, and maritime Coasts: whether, when poor Seamen steer, in hope of harbour, they meet with nothing but wrack and ruin: So Heretics flourish with Scriptures, or at least with some flashes of it, like false Lights, to which when distressed souls repair for succour, these pestilent seducers feed them with nothing but pernicious errors. Fowlers by setting up a dead Tree, besmeared with Lime, and beset with dead birds, as if they were living, allure the live birds to them, as to their friends and acquaintance, and so bring them to destruction. The application is easy; the experiment too common. Dead errors are made snares for living souls.  
This is the cunning of these wicked Impostors, something they will have good, to draw down the evil, the greater part shall be evil to poison the good; Miscent recta perversis, saith Gregory in his Morals, Ut ostendendo bona auditores ad se pertrahant: & exhibendo mala, latenti peste corrumpant. They seem Saints at a distance, and speak well, if you may believe them; but if you approach near to them, and make a more narrow discovery of them, you shall find they are in sheep's clothing. If Rome had not some truth, she would never be believed: if she were not full of errors, her followers could not be deceived. As the Apostles from God, so the faithful Ministers of God, from the Apostles, by the commandment of God, do warn us of these things, that we fall not into the error of the wicked. It may be that we slight them speaking: but they of whom they warn us, would give much to have them hold their peace. You know the story; Philip of Macedon besieging Athens, sent Legates to the City, that if they would deliver into his hands ten of their Orators, such as he should choose, whom he pretended to be disturbers of the Commonwealth, he would raise his siege, and be at peace with them. But Demosthenes quickly smelled out his plot, and with the consent of the Athenians, returned him this Apological answer. The Wolves came to Treat of a League with the shepherds, and told them thus; All the fraud and discord betwixt you and us, ariseth from a certain generation of Dogs, which you maintain among you: deliver up those Dogs, & we will be good friends with you, neither will we any ways wrong you. The Dogs were delivered up, & the Peace was concluded, the shepherds secure: But O the woeful and cruel massacre that was presently made amongst the poor Lambs: they were all devoured, the Shepherds undone, and all by parting with their Dogs. If the Popish and Schismatical faction, who like Sampsons' Foxes, are joined together by the tails, though their heads seem to be different one from the other, could once get the Ministers of the Gospel to hold their peace, or procure them to be muzzled by Authority, or to be delivered over to their wolvish cruelty, woe were to our poor souls. Error would then play Rekes, Darkness triumph, Hell make play-days, Truth would languish, and all goodness lie prostrate on the Earth. As little as they are now regarded, or as much as they are slighted; we should then dearly miss them, and earnestly wish for them; and say, blessed are they that come to us, not only in the name of the Lord, as most seducers do, but sent from the Lord, to his glory & our establishment.  
Let us then, while we do enjoy them, gather strength from them against vacillation and inconstancy. There be some, of whom the Apostle Paul speaks, 2 Tim. 4.4. That will turn away their Ears from the Truth, unto Fables, very toys will lead away fools. Alas, a quid novi, carries them any where. A new fashion does not more take your proud Lady, a new Play your roaring Gallant, a new Tavern your deep Drinker, a new Trick your nimble Cheater, nor a new Drug your gulling Empiric, than a new opinion does your light-heeled Schismatic. Christ questions the Jews, Mat. 11.7. What went ye out into Wilderness to see? a Reed shaken with the wind? yea rather, O ye Reeds shaken with the wind, what went ye out into the Wilderness to see? a vanity lighter than yourselves? yet as the golden Calf took the Israelites, because it was made of their Earring: So a fictitious conceit transporteth too many among us, because it is made fit for their Ears.  
Let us truly weigh the folly of inconstancy, Heb. 13.9. Be not carried about with strange Doctrines, for it is a good thing for the heart to be established with grace. To be lose then in the main joints, of Religion, must needs be very bad. The tottering wall is soon blown down, but being down, who shall erect and set it up again? The righteous soul is like a body of a square figure: turn it on which part you will, lay it how you list, it will still be constant, and like itself. An unstable Christian is the world's worst movable: a little resembling the Silkworm, but not of such profit: one day you shall find him a fly, another a Maggot, very seldom twice in the same shape. Take Gold, and throw it into the water, yet it loseth neither value nor colour, cast it into the fire, and it comes forth the purer; but dirt is hardened with the fire, and dissolved with the water: The Sons of levity are such, as that which they are joined withal would have them to be: hard or soft, cold or hot, tall or low, great or small, of any temper. Their souls are like common strumpets, they take in all suggestions: If one say there is no Hell, they believe it: If another shall come and say, there is no Heaven, no Angel, no God, they are apt to be taken with it. For shame let us be steady, before we be laid in the steady Earth, where there is no motion at all. In the Grave the most pragmatical busybody shall be quiet. There is no shifting of ground, no changing of sides there. They that troubled all the Country with their fantastical Opinions, to get themselves a name, shall there lie as quiet as their fellow-clods. The body shall be confined to one place, the soul to another, without shifting or removing, till the time come that they be removed to the Bar, and brought before the Tribunal of the Lord Jesus, to receive secundum opera, according to their works.  
I confess, we are Sheep, apt to wander, but we shall not if we keep our Shepherd; We are Chickens apt to stray, but we may be secure under the wings of our Hen. God is our Shepherd, let us keep close to him, never any trusted in him, and did miscarry. The Holy Catholic Church, she is the Hen, under whose Wings we have been hatched up hitherto, let us carefully brood ourselves under the same, from the danger of the Kite. Let us keep in the one, and depend upon the other by our Faith and Prayers; and all the forces of Satan shall not remove us from the Truth. Which God of his mercy Grant we may to his Glory, our own Comfort, and the good Example of others. Amen.  
There is an Excellent Piece of the same Authors Extant, against the Socinians, with an History of their Lives and Deaths.  
FINIS.