Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
fire_n	die_v	hell_n	worm_n	3,808	5	10.0013	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79466	Hell, with the everlasting torments thereof asserted. Shewing 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, intituled, 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 terrour of all wicked and ungodly wretches. Semper meditare Gehennam. / By Nich. Chevvney, M.A.	Chewney, Nicholas, 1609 or 10-1685.	1660 (1660)	Wing C3805; Thomason E1802_2; ESTC R209913	50,666	128

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 pennance But the duration of torment respects the disposition of the delinquent Poenae singulorum inaequales intentione 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 it self 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 sinne it is just that it should never be without punishment in the life to come 2. If the matter and subject of sinne 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 sinne 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 heynous As he that smiteth the Prince to whom principally and especially he ows his Allegiance doth more grievously offend then 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 Gods 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 it self 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 marvell this contract holding so long as the soul endureth if it deserve everlasting punishment And like as where the fewel 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 then 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 sinne be temporall 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 principall 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 alwayes dying and die alwaies living with an adder sucking and stinging his vital parts But we must know that after the worlds dissolution there shall remain no mixt 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 it self 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 smal a space The Heathen Poets made this one of those three furies which they fictioned to torment the damned Scindes latus una flagello Alter a tartareis sectos dabit anguibus artus Tertia fumantes incoquet igne genas One brings the Scorpion which the conscience eats T'other 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 mixt 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 mans 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 councel for us now pravidere mala futura ne recordemur bona praeterita to foresee with fear the evil that shall be hereafter least we remember with grief the good that hath been heretofore O that our fore-sight 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 joyes 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 darknesse was upon the face of the deep This was not a thing created but a meer 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 Gods 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 intollerable 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 Ioshua 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 woful 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 shun the light here clausi tenebris carcere caeco In darkness and blind prison shut shal 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 then 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 spake 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 terrifie 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 enflame 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 then is intended by the holy Ghost But he hath very ill luck in it for he exceedingly bewrayes his ignorance by it It is sometimes saith he used for a limited time therefore it must alwaies be so used good Logick But let him give me one example where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is so used Sin is like oyl and torment like fire so long as the oyl 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 Majestie is offended therefore an infinite penalty is imposed which these miserable Caitiffs must for ever undergo unless some better enformed and more merciful man such as Anonymus shall get the keyes of this place of horror unlock the doors and for meer pitty 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 onely 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 alwaies 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 sayes 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 supplyed and nourished with fewel 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 then 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 onely 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 coporal fire which being granted there arise notwithstanding some exceptions against the same Object 1. If it be corporal how can it diversly 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 onely 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 enflamed 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 then 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 fewel or else it will quickly languish and be extinguished But there is no fewel in Hell at least no such fewel as can maintain it to eternity for saith Anonymus the wicked are compared to chaffe 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 inferre 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 my self 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 fewel 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 then 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 diverse 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 extreamest fury more afflictive to the sense then 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 Popes Kitchin 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 Jude calls it the black darkness The darkness of Aegypt was strong and horrid so thick that it was palpable yet nothing to the darkness of Hell In Aegypt 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 onely Eternall 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 Immortale 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