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

Others are of the judgement that Hell fire will be real Fire, it being so positively, so plainly, and so frequently asserted to be Fire, fire with flames, fire which shall burn, and because nothing will put to greater pain than fire, and because it is proper for the ⟨p. 97⟩body to be tormented with some real material substance, and when the Holy Ghost telleth us it shall be fire, why should he turn this fire into a Metaphor, which may tend rather to weaken our conceptions of it's horror than to heighten them; and therefore in answer to that great Objection, that it is said to be prepared for Devils, they are ready to say, it shall be such fire as will not only torment the Soul, but also Devils too, God having power to make such a fire; the other Metaphors are made use of but once, this of fire is the almost constant expression in Scripture, where Hell is described.

Others are of the judgement that Hell fire will be real Fire, it being so positively, so plainly, and so frequently asserted to be Fire, fire with flames, fire which shall burn, and because nothing will put to greater pain than fire, and because it is proper for the ⟨p. 97⟩body to be tormented with some real material substance, and when the Holy Ghost telleth us it shall be fire, why should he turn this fire into a Metaphor, which may tend rather to weaken our conceptions of it's horrour than to highten them; and therefore in answer to that great Objection, that it is said to be prepared for Devils, they are ready to say, it shall be such fire as will not only torment the Soul, but also Devils too, God having power to make such a fire; the other Metaphors are made use of but once, this of fire is the almost constant expression in Scripture, where Hell is described.

I confess that I do not judge these answers to be fully satisfactory▪ for however the souls of wicked men and women may by sympathy with the body be tormented by real Fire, yet God having made Devils to be wholly Spirits which are wholly incorporeal, I don't apprehend how any fire or bodily substance can have any impression upon them, but that Fire, Air, Earth, or Water, are all the same things to them, and that they are incapable of suffering by any of them, that as Water cannot drown them, so neither can fire burn them, that as Air cannot refresh them, so neither can Fire afflict them. Indeed were the opinion of some Ancients true that Devils have bodies, but more pure and refined, such as cannot be seen any more than the Air, a real Fire might be made so pure by God as to torment the Devils; but I am altogether of the Judgement that Devils are wholly Spirits, the Scripture asserting it, and many reasons I might give of it, but that it would be too large a digression; moreover the fire of Hell I believe will be such as immediately to afflict the souls of the wicked, and