Fire and brimstone from heaven, from earth, in hell, or, Three discourses I. Concerning…

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 ⟨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 easie to conceive; besides who ever hath descended into the depths of the Earth, to search and find out these depths of Fire?

Justin giveth other reasons of this Fire, Lib. 4. Ca. 1. Est antem terra tennis & fragilis, cavernis quibusdam fistulisque ita penetrabilis, ut ventorum tota ferme flatibus pateat; nec non & ignibus generands, ntriendisque solely ipsius naturalis materia: quippe intrinsecus stratum sulphur & bitumine traditur: quae res facit ut spiritu cum igne inter interior a luctante, frequenter & compluribus lcis nunc flammas, nunc vaporem, nunc umum eructet. Indo denique Aetnae montis per tot socula durat incendium. The meaning in brief is this, The earth in that place being so thin and hollow, and penetrable by the Winds and the nature of the soil so Sulphurous, and so fit matter for the begetting and nourishing of Fire, the motion of the Wind closed in, doth kindle the Fire which belcheth forth in smoke and flames, and hence it is that the burning of Aetna hath endured for so many ages. Unto which he addeth a little after, speaking of the fall of the Waters. Eade caus etiam Aetnae Montis erpetuos ignes fcit;