In hell there 's nothing heard but yells and cries ; In hell the fire never slacks, nor worm never dies. But where is this hell placed ? ' My muse, stop there : Lord, shew me what it is, but never where !
To worm and fire, to torments there, No term he gave, they cannot wear.^
Look, as there are many that please themselves with discourses of the degrees of glory, whilst others make sure their interest in glory ; so many please themselves with discourses of the degrees of the tor- ments of hell, whilst others make sure their escaping those torments ; and look, as many take pleasure to be discoursing about the place where hell is, so some take pleasure to make sure their escaping of that place ; and certainly they are the best and wisest of men who spend most thoughts, and time, and pains how to keep out of it, than to exercise themselves with disputes about it.^ But,
[4.] Fourthly, I answer, That it has been the common opinion of the fathers, that hell is in the bowels of the earth ; yea, Christ and the blessed Scriptures, which are the highest authority, do strongly seem to favour this opinion, by speaking of a descent unto hell, in opposition unto heaven ; and, therefore, we may as well doubt whether heaven be above us, as doubt of hell being beneath us.^ Among other •scriptures ponder upon these : Ps. cxl. 10, ' Let them be cast into the deep pits, that they rise not up again. Bring them down into the pit of destruction ;' Prov. ix. 18, ' Her guests are in the depths of hell ;' Prov. XV. 24, * The way of life is above to the wise, that he may depart from hell beneath.' Sheol is sometimes taken for a pit, some- times for the grave, and sometimes, and that significantly too, for hell, all downwards. One saith^ that Sheol generally signifies all places under the earth; whence some conclude that hell is in the heart of the earth, or under the earth. Without doubt it is below, ■ because it is everywhere opposed to heaven, which is above. It is therefore called A byssus, 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, Luke viii. 31, in Abyssum, which is, saith one, Immensce profundit- afis vorago, quasi absque /undo : A gulf of immeasurable depth, &c.5 The apostle, 2 Pet. ii. 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, Heb. xii. 23, do reside, which, on all hands, is granted to be above ; and hell therefore must needs be below, in
^ A Pentelogia, dolor inferni. — Prudentius the poet.
' As in heaven one is more glorious than another, so in hell one shall be more miser- able than another. — Augustine.
* Infernum est locus subterraneus, Tertul. lib. 3. de Anim.
* Mercerus upon Gen. xxxvii. [Comment, on Genesis, 1598, folio. — G.] ' Beza upon Mat.
144 OF THE PLACE WHERE HELL IS.
the centre of tlie earth, say some, which is from the superficies three thousand five hundred miles, as some judge. Hesiod saith, hell is as far under the earth as heaven is above it. Some have been of opinion that the pit spoken of, into which Korah, Dathan, and Abiram went down alive, when the earth clave asunder and swallowed them up, was the pit of hell, into which both their souls and bodies were im- mediately conveyed, Num. xvi. 33. As we know little in respect of the height of heaven, so we know as little in respect of the lowness of hell. Some of the upper part of the earth is to us yet terra incognita, an unknown land ; but all of the lowest parts of hell is to us an un- known land. Many thousands have travelled thither, but none have returned thence, to make reports or write books of their travels. That piece of geography is very imperfect. Heaveiji and hell are the greatest opposites, or remotest extremes : ' Thou, Capernaum, which art exalted unto heaven, shalt be brought down to hell !' Mat. xi. 23. Heaven and hell are at farthest natural distance, and are therefore the everlasting receptacles of those who are at the farthest moral dis- tance— believers and unbelievers, saints and impenitents. And it is observable, that as the height of heaven, so the depth of hell, is ascribed to wisdom, to shew the unsearchableness of it. ' Oh the depth,' as well as ' Oh the height,' ' of the wisdom of God ! how un- searchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out !' Kom. xi. 33. Certainly God's depths, and Satan's depths, and hell's depths, lie far out of our view, and are hard to be found out, 1 Cor. ii. 10, and Kev. ii. 24. Though I ought religiously to reverence the won- derful wisdom of God, and to wonder at his unsearchable judgments, yet I ought not curiously and profanely to search beyond the com- pass of that which God hath revealed to us in his word. The Romans had a certain lake, the depth whereof they knew not ; this lake they dedicated to victory. Doubtless hell is such a lake, the depth whereof no man knows; it is such a bottomless pit that no mortal can sound. But,
[5.] Fifthly and lastly, I answer. Some of the learned are of opinion, that hell is without this visible world, which will pass away at the last day, 2 Pet. iii. 10-13, and removed at the greatest distance from the sedes beatorum, the place where the righteous shall for ever inhabit : Mat. viii. 12, ' But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness.' Mat xxii. 30, ' Then said the king to his servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness.' Mat. xxv. 30, ' And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness.' Into a darkness beyond a darkness, into a dungeon beyond and beneath the prison. i The darkness of hell is compared to the darkness of those prisons, which were oftentimes out of the city ,2 2 Pet.ii.4; JudeG; Actsxii.lO. By outer darkness, the Holy Ghost would signify to us that the wicked should be in a state most remote from
^ In tenebras ex tenebris, infeliciter exclusi, infeliciua excludendi. — Augustine.
* This prison was without the gate, near mount Calvary, and it was the loathsomest and vilest prison of all, for in it the thieves who were carried to Calvary to be executed were kept; and Christ alludeth to this prison in that Mat. viii. 12, and that Mat. xxii. 13, and that Mat. xxv. 30, ' Cast him into utter darkness;' which al- lusion could not be understood, unless there had been a dark prison without the city, where was utter darkness.
THREE IMPROVEMENTS MORE TO BE MADJE, ETC. 145