ISA. XLII. 24, 25,] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 201
consume and spend itself. Neither can we see how material fire can make impressions upon spirits, as the devils and souls of men are.
Ans. [1.] First, I)o not lue find that the hush huriied and loas not consumed? Exod. iii. 2, 3. Though all clothes by daily experience wax old, yet when the Israelites were in their wilderness-condition their clothes did not wax old: Deut. viii. 4, 'Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee, neither did thy foot swell these forty years': Neh. ix. 41 , ' Yea, forty years didst thou sustain them in the wilderness, so that they lacked nothing; their clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not.' Their clothes were never the worse for wearing. God by his almighty power kept their clothes from waxing old ; and so God by his almighty power can keep the fire of hell unquenchable. But,
[2.] Secondly j Such as thus object, draio things to the scantling of their own reason, ivhich may he many ways of a dangerous consequence both to themselves and others, Certainly such as go about to make the fire of hell only spiritual fire, they go about to make it no fire at all ; for it passeth the natural fire to be spiritual. But,
[3.] Thirdly, We see in this life that bodily tortures ivork upon the spirits in the same bodies : and ivhy may it not he so in hell f Do not men by their daily experience find that their souls are frequently afflicted in and under corporeal distempers, diseases, and weaknesses? Doubtless God can by his almighty power infuse such power into material fire as to make it the instrument of his dreadful wrath and vengeance, to plague, punish, scorch, and burn the souls of damned sinners. Bodies and souls are co-partners in the same sins, and there- fore God may make them co-partners in the same punishments. Every creature is such as the great God will have it to be, and com- mands it to be ; and therefore if the Lord shall lay a command upon the fire of hell to reach and burn the souls of damned sinners, it shall certainly do it. God is the God of nature as well as the God of grace ; and therefore I cannot see how the fire of hell can be said now to act against its own nature, when it does but act according to the will and command of the God of nature. I readily grant that if you consider infernal fire in itself, or in its own nature, and so it cannot have any power on such a spiritual substance as the soul of man is ; but if you consider infernal fire as an instrument in an almighty hand, and so it can act upon such spiritual beings as devils and damned souls are, and make the same dreadful and painful impressions upon them as it would do upon corporeal beings, i Though spirits have nothing material in their nature which that infernal fire should work upon, yet such is the almighty power of God that lie can make spirits most sensible of those fiery tortures and torments which he has de- clared and appointed for them to undergo. Let tliem tell us, saith one, [Dr Jackson,] how it is possible that the soul of man , which is an immortal substance, should be truly wedded to the body or material substance : and I shall as easily answer them, that it is as possible for the same soul to be as easily wrought upon by a material fire. It is much disputed and controverted among the schoolmen how the devils can be tormented with corporeal fire, seeing they are spirits ; and, as I
* Vide Augus*., lib. xxi. c. 10, de Civitate Dei.
202 London's lamentations on [Isa. XLII. 24, 25.
pupposc, it is well concluded of them thus — 1. First, That in hell there is cor})oreal fire, as appears thus: (1.) Because the h)cri[)ture affirms it, Mat. iii. 10, v. 22, and xxv. 41 : (2.) Because the bodies sinning against God are to be vexed and tormented with cor})orcal pains. 2. Secondly, They conclude that the devils are tormented in that fire because Christ saith so: Mat. xxv. 41, 'Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.' 3. Thirdly, It being demanded. How the devils are tormented in that fire ? they answer, They are tormented, not only. First, With the pight of it ; or Secondly, With an imaginary apprehension thereof ; but Thirdly, As an instrument ordained of God for that very end ; and Fourthly, Ut locus locaium contincns et cogens.'^ Hell is a fiery region, or a region of fire ; and therefore the devils being contained and included therein, must needs be tormented there- by. Cum Dives ah igne padatur, quis neget, aninias ignibus "puniri. None must question this truth, saith my author, that souls and spirits are punished by fire, seeing our Saviour himself telleth us that Dives, who was in hell but in soul, was tormented in the flames, Luke xvi. 24.2 But,
[4.] Fourthly, It is not safe to leave the plain letter of the Scripture to allegorise ; and whether the opinion of metaphorical fire in hell, bath not been an introduction to that opinion that many have taken up in these days — viz., that there is no other hell but what is within us, I shall not now stand to determine. I know Calvin, and some others, are for the allegory ; and they give this for a reason, that there is mention made of wood, and of a worm, as well as fire. Now the.se are allegorical, and therefore the fire is allegorical also. But by their favour, we find in the Scripture that those things which are spoken together are not always taken in the same nature and manner. As, for example, Christ is called, ' the rock of our salvation,' Dent, xxxii. 15, 18, 30, 31 ; 2 Sam. xxii. 47; 1 Cor. x. 4. Now the rock is alle- gorical ; is our salvation therefore allegorical ? So likewise Luke xxii. 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 ? Allegories are not to be admitted but where the Scrii)ture itself doth warrant them ; and commonly where an allegory is propounded, there it is also expounded. As in Gal. iv. 24, ' Wliich things are an allegory ; for these are the two testaments,' Many men have been too wanton with allegories. Origen, Ambrose, Jerome, and several others of the ancients, have been blamed for it by learned men. But,
[5.] Fifthly and lastly, I cannot tell but that the fire by which the damned shall be punished, may he p)ciTthj material, and partly spiri- tual ; ptartly material, to work upon the body, and partly spiritual, to torment the soul. Dr Gouge "^ puts this question, Is it a material fire wherewith the damned in hell are tormented ? and gives this answer — viz., This is too curious a point to resolve to the full; but yet this answer may safely be returned. It is no wasting or consuming fire, but a torturing ; and so far corporeal, as it tormenteth the body ; and
' Tho. [Aqiiinan,] Suppleni. Ixx. cap. 3. * Greg. Dial, iv., cap. 28, 29.
* Dr Gouge on Hvb. x. 27, sec. 98.
ISA. XLII. 24, 25.] THE LATE FIERY DISPENSATION. 203