A64987:169
Fire and brimstone from heaven, from earth, in hell, or, Three discourses I. Concerning…
Fire and brimstone from heaven, from earth, in hell, or, Three discourses I. Concerning the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah formerly, II. Concerning the burning of Æetna, or Mount Gibel more lately, III. Concerning the burning of the wicked eternally, with fire and brimstone / by Thomas Vincent ...
London: printed for George Calvert, 1670
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
When this Fire was first kindled is not known, the burning of the Mountain being more ancient than any History can remember. What the Poets feign concerning the War of the Giants with the Gods and their casting down great Enceladus with Thunder, and keeping him down with vast Mountains, and this of Aetna being thrown upon his head, that this Fire was kindled by his hot breath, is as ridiculous, as it is fabulous.
When this Fire was first kindled is not known, the burning of the Mountain being more ancient than any History can remember. What the Poets feign concerning the War of the Gyants with the Gods and their casting down great Enceladus with Thunder, and keeping him down with vast Mountains, and this of Aetna being thrown upon his head, that this Fire was kindled by his hot breath, is as ridiculous, as it is fabulous.
Some are of the opinion that there are Fountains of Fire under ground as well as of Water; and that in the bosom and bowels of the Earth, God hath laid up Treasures of this Element, enclosing it in vast Caverns, as in so many Store-houses; which Subterranean Fire they assign to be the cause of hot ⟨p. 70⟩Bathes, and that Mount Aetna, as also Vesuvius with other flaming Mountains, which Geographers and Travellers tell us are to be seen in all the parts of the World, are the breathing holes of this Fire: but the Scripture is wholly silent of any such work of God there; we read of the Earth, and the gathering together of the waters, and the Fountains of the great deep, but nothing of any Fountains of Fire mingled with either of these Elements; and the laying up of this Element in store, in a place so low, when naturally it tendeth upwards, is not easy to conceive; besides who ever hath descended into the depths of the Earth, to search and find out these depths of Fire?
Some are of the opinion that there are Fountains of Fire under ground as well as of Water; and that in the bosom and bowels of the Earth, God hath layd up Treasures of this Element, enclosing it in vast Caverns, as in so many Store-houses; which Subterranean Fire they assign to be the cause of hot