^ Spirits, that is, the souls departed, not men, but spirits, to keep an analogy to the 18th ver., ' Christ suffered, being made dead in the flesh, and made alive by the Spirit ; in which Spirit he had gone and preached to them that are now spirits in prison, because they disobeyed, when the time was, when the patience of God once waited in the days of 'Soa.h.—Broughton, in his Epistle to the Nobility of England. Augustine, lib. i. d« civ. del. cap. 17.
124 THAT THERE IS MOST CERTAINLY A HELL.
and the gospel, and the great work of redemption, &c., yet by the light of nature, and reasonings from thence, they did attain to the understanding of a deity, who was both just and good ; as also, that the soul was immortal, and that both rewards and punishments were prepared for the souls of men after this life, according as they were found either virtuous or vicious. Profound Bradwardine, and several others, have produced many proofs concerning their appre- hensions of this truth. 1 What made the heathen Emperor Adrian when he lay a-dying, cry out, '0 animula vagula hlandula,' &g. 0 my little wretched wandering soul, whither art thou now hastening ? &c. Oh, what will become of me ! live I cannot, die I dare not ! but some discoveries of hell, of wrath to come ? Look, as these poor heathens did feign such a place as the Elysian fields, where iihe virtuous should spend an eternity in pleasures ; so also they did feign a place called Tartarum, or hell, where the vicious should be eternally tormented. Tertullian, and after him Chrysostom, affirmeth that poets and philo- sophers, and all sorts of men, speaking of a future retribution, have said that many are punished in hell. Plato is very plain, that whoever are not expiated, but profane, shall go into hell to be tormented for their wickednesses, with the greatest, most bitter and terrible punish- ments, for ever in that prison in hell. And Jupiter, speaking to the other gods concerning the Grecians and Trojans, saith, —
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.'''
So Horace, speaking concerning Jove's thunderbolts, says, —
Quo bruta tellus et vaga flumina,
Quo Styx, et invisi horrida Taenari sedes, &c.
With which earth, seas, the Stygian lake, J And hell with all her furies quake.'
And Trismegistus affirms concerning the soul's going out of the body defiled, that it is tossed to and fro with eternal punishments. ^ Nor was Virgil ignorant thereof when he said, —
Dent ocyus omnes, Quas meniere pati — sic stat sententia — pcenas.
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 linguae centum sint, oraque centum, .... Omnia psenarum percurrere nomina possim.
No heart of man can think, no tongue can tell, The direful pains ordained and felt in hell.^
It was the common opinion among the poor heathen that the wicked were held in chains by Pluto — so they called the prince of devils— in
^ Bradw. de causa del, i. 1, cap. 1, &c. " Iliad, viii. 10-13 G
=* Odes 1, 34, 10.— G.
* One of the many opinions ascribed to Trismegistus, who, like Socrates, left no writings. — G.
* Not Virgil, but Ovid, Met. Tiii. 3.— G. e Virgil— ^Eneid, vi. 625.— G.
THAT THERE IS MOST CERTAINLY A HELL. 125
chains which cannot be loosed. To conclude, the very Turks speak of the house of perdition, and affirm that they who have turned the grace of God into impiety, shall abide eternally in the fire of hell, and there be eternally tormented, i I might have spent much more time upon this head, but that I do not judge it expedient, considering the persons for whose sakes and satisfaction I have sent this piece into the world. But,
[4.] Fourthly, The secret checTcs, gripes, stings, and the amazing horrors and terrors of conscience, that do sometimes astonish, affright, and even distract sinful luretches, do clearly and abundantly evidence that there is a hell, that there is a place of torment prepared and ap- pointed for ungodly sinners.- Doubtless, it was not merely the dissolu- tion of nature, but the sad consequent, that so startled and terrified Belshazzar wben he saw the handwriting on the wall, Dan. v. 5, 6. Guilty man, when conscience is awakened, fears an after-reckoning, when he shall be paid the wages of his crying sins proportionable to his demerits.
Wolfius 3 tells you of one John Hufmeister that fell sick in his inn as he was travelling towards Augsburg in Germany, and grew to that horror that they were fain to bind him in his bed with chains, where he cried out that ' he was for ever cast ofi" from before the face of God, and should perish for ever, he having greatly wounded his conscience by sin,' &c.
James Abyes, who suffered martyrdom for Christ's sake and the gospel's, as he was going along to execution he gave all his money and his clothes away to one and another to his shirt, upon which one of the sheriff's attendants scoffingly said that ' he was a madman and a heretic ; ' but as soon as the good man was executed this wretch was struck mad, and threw away his clothes, and cried out that ' James Abyes was a good man, and gone to heaven, but he was a wicked man, and was damned ; ' and thus he continued crying out until his death. 4
Dionysius was so troubled with fear and horror of conscience, that, not daring to trust his best friends with a razor, he used to singe his beard with burning coals, [Cicero.]
Bessus having slain his father, and being afterwards banqueting with several nobles, arose from the table and beat down a swallow's nest which was in the chimney, saying they lied ' to say that he slew his father,' for his guilty conscience made him think that the swallows, when they chattered, proclaimed his parricide to the world. ^
Theodoricus the king having slain Boetius and Symmachus, and being afterwards at dinner, began to change countenance, his guilty conscience so blinding his eyes that he thought the head of a fish which stood before him to have been the head of his cousin Symmachus, who bit his lip at him and threatened him, the horror whereof did so amaze him that he presently died.^
» Alcoran, Mahom. c. 14, p. 160, and c. 20, p. 198.
* Stia quemque exagitant furice, Ever}' man is tormented with his own fury, that is his conscience, saith the philosopher.
* AVolf. Lectiones, Memor. tom. 2, &c. ■* Foxe, as before. — G.
" Plut. de sera {numinW] vindicata. [Misprinted 'Bossus,' cf. Plutarch, Alexander, 42, 43, &c. — G.] * Sigonius de occid. Imper.
126 THAT THE TORMENTS OF HELL ARE