Ultima, = the last things in reference to the first and middle things

First, in heat, The pile thereof is fire and much wood, and the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it, Isaiah. 30.33.¹ This fire is not made by the hand of man, nor blown from the bellows of some forge, nor fed with any fuel of combustible matter: no, it is the arm of God, and the breath of God, and the anger of God that kindles it sharply, and continues it everlastingly; and (I pray) if the breath that kindles it, be like a stream of brimstone, what is the fire it self? you know there is a great difference betwixt the heat of our breath, and the fire in our chimneys: now then if the breath of God that kindles hell fire be dissolved into brimstone: What a fearful fire is that, which a great torrent of burning Brimstone doth ever mightily blow? A torrent of Brimstone said I? no, it is not Brimstone, but like Brimstone, like to our capacity, although for the nature this like is not like; nay, could we know exactly what this breath were, you would say (I warrant you) it were far more hotter then ten thousand Rivers of Brimstone, were they all put together: Our God (saith the Apostle) is a consuming fire, Heb. 12.29.² And if God be a fire, what then is hell fire, kindled by the breath God? O my soul, how canst thou but tremble at the thought of this fire, at which the very Devils themselves do quake and shiver? Pause a while and consider, wert thou arraigned at some earthly bar, thy doom past, the execution at hand, and thy body now ready to be cast, (as many a Martyrs was) into some burning fire, or boiling Caldron: O how wouldest thou shout and roar, and cry through the extremity of torment? but what is a boiling Caldron, to that boiling sea of fire and brimstone? pitch and sulphur, boil altogether, were not this enough? see there the perplexing properties of such heats; they burn as Brimstone, darkly to grieve the sight, sharply to afflict the sense, loathsomely to perplex the smell: it is a fire that needs no bellows to kindle it, nor admits ⟨p. 148⟩of the least air to cool it; the fuel wastes not, the smoke vents not; the chimneys are but Reprobate credits, where they lie scorching, burning, holing their lullabies, and their nurses furies. The flames of Nebuchadnezzars fire, could ascend forty nine Cubits;