Hell-Fire

Isai. xxxiii. 14.HELL-FIRE is described after a sufficiently clear manner in the Old Testament. Moses inveighing against the Israelites, who rebelled against the Lord, says to them, A Fire is kindled in my anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. Here Hell-fire and the place of torment for the wicked, is seated in the deepest part of the earth. Isaiah is still more express, Who among us shall dwell with the devouring Fire? Who amongst us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? And elsewhere, They shall go forth and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me, for their worm shall not die, neither shall their Fire be Ecclus. vii. 17.quenched. And Ecclesiasticus, The vengeance of the ungodly is Fire and Worms. See also Job xx. 26. A Fire not blown shall consume them. And xxiv. 19. Ad nimium calorem transeat ab aquis nivium.

Matth. ix. 24.Our Saviour in the Gospel makes use of the same similitude, to represent the punishment of the damned. He likewise speaks frequently of the eternal Fire prepared for the Devil, his Angels, and Reprobates. And Jude ver. 7.St. Jude says, Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, in like manner giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal Fire. It is needless to produce a heap of other passages out of the New Testament, since every one agrees, that the Eternal Fire whereby the wicked are to be consumed, is there very clearly set forth. St. John in the Revelations, ch. xx. vs. 14, 15. saw a lake of Fire, into which the Beast and his false Prophet had been cast, and was the portion of infidels, murderers, and abominable persons. Lastly, Fire is the common symbol of God’s Vengeance on the wicked.

But whether this is to be understood of an elementary and material, or a metaphorical fire, of a common living and sensible, or of an allegorical and figurative worm; in a word, whether the Fire of Hell consists only in a quick, and sharp anguish, and the worm in the remorse and despair of the damned, is what the Doctors and Fathers are divided about. Origen¹ has taught in several places, that the flames of hell, as well as the worm of the damned, were not real. We learn the same thing from St. Ambrose,²Nec corporalium aliquis stridor dentium, nec ignis aliquis perpetuus flammarum corporalium, neque vermis est corporalis. This Fire, adds he, is nothing else but sorrow for passed sins; the worm nothing but remorse of conscience. St. Jerom³ acknowledges it to be the opinion of several, that the Fire wherewith the damned are burnt, is only the sting and troubles of their conscience. Ignis qui non extinguitur, a plerisque conscientiâ accipitur delictorum. St. Gregory of Nice is clearly of this opinion⁴; and St. John Damascenus⁵ says expressly, that it is not a material Fire; that it is very different from our common Fire; and that men scarce know what it is. This sentiment is still at this day very common among the Greeks; and at the Council of Florence they maintained, that the Fire of Purgatory was not a true and real Fire.

But in the Latin Church, the most common opinion, and which has most followers, is, that the damned are tormented with a real fire, which does most truly burn them, and that they are gnawed by a material and sensible worm, which does not die. St. Austin⁶ is not content barely with proposing his thoughts on this subject; he prevents the objection which naturally arises in the mind about it. For how can an elementary Fire, or a living and material worm operate upon the soul, which is a spiritual substance? To this St. Austin replies, Why should not this be credible of the soul, when separated from the body, since the mind of man, which certainly is not corporeal, does actually experience the pain of Fire? for after all, it is not the body which suffers heat, or cold, or pain; it is the soul, which is united with the body. And why should not Devils, and the souls of the damned, be inseparably linked to the Fire, which burns them, and the worm which gnaws them, as well as our soul to our body? with this difference however, that our soul gives life to our body, whereas the flames we are speaking of, cause only torment to Devils and the Damned. Adhærebunt ergo spiritus dæmonum, imo spiritus dæmonis, licet incorporei, corporeis ignibus cruciandi; non ut ignes isti quibus adhærebunt, eorum jacturâ inspirentur, & animalia fiant; sed, ut dixi, miris & ineffabilibus modis adhærendo, accipientes ex ignibus pœnam, non dantes ignibus vitam.

St. Cyprian⁷ represents Hell to us as a smoaking gulph, including an active and devouring Fire. St. Chrysostom⁸ describes to us rivers of flames, and waves of Fire which beset the Damned there without consuming them. St. Jerom⁹ acknowledges, that there are two very real torments there, excessive Cold, and a burning Fire; and the Author printed under his name upon the book of Job¹⁰, says, that Hell-fire is no common one, that requires fewel to keep it up, but is preserved, and continues of it self; Ignis gehennæ non materiis quibusdam & pabulis vivit ut ardeat, sed per seipsum. ut creatus est vigens, &c St. Gregory¹¹ the Great says the same thing in a very particular manner: Gehennæ ignis cum sit corporeus, & in se missos reprobos corporaliter exuret, nec studio humano succenditur, nec lignis nutritur, sed creatus semel durat inextinguibilis, &c. In his fourth book of¹² Dialogues he inculcates the same doctrine, and argues almost like St. Austin, concerning the manner wherein corporeal Fire acts upon the soul disingaged from matter. The schoolmen for the most part have adopted this last opinion, which is almost universal in the Latin Church.

The Son of God says, that he had brought down Fire upon earth, and desired Luke xii. 49.nothing more than to have it kindled. He came to baptize with the Holy Ghost and Matth. iii. 2.with Fire. To verify this prediction, he sent the Holy Ghost, which descended upon his Disciples in the form of tongues, or like sparks of Fire. Acts ii. 3.

Fire must one day consume the world, according 2 Pet. iii. 12. 2 Pet.iii.7.to St. Peter: Cœli ardentes solventur, & elementa ignis ardore tabescent. And again, The Heavens and the Earth which are now, are reserved unto Fire against the day of judgment. And elsewhere: The day of 1 Cor. iii. 7.the Lord shall declare every man’s work, because it shall be revealed by Fire, and the Fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is. The Psalmist describing the coming of the Lord to judgment, says, Fire goeth before Ps.xcvii. 3,4,5.him, and burneth up his enemies round about. His lightnings enlightned the world, the earth saw, and trembled; the hills melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, &c.

The Heathens had some knowledge of this truth, whether they learnt it by conversation with the Hebrews, or by reading the Sacred writings; whether this were one of the truths preserved among all nations by tradition; or whether lastly, reasoning, and the knowledge they had of the Elements and the state of the earth, enabled them to comprehend that the world would one day be consumed by Fire. Josephus remarks it Joseph. Antiq. l. 1. c. 3.as an ancient tradition, that before the deluge the sons of Seth having learned from Adam, that the World would be destroyed first by water, and afterwards by Fire, resolved upon preserving to posterity the discoveries they had made in Astronomy; to this end they engraved them upon two pillars, one of Stone to resist the water, and the other of brick to resist Fire; that they placed these two columns in the Syriad¹³, and that the pillar of stone was still to be seen in his time.

Apud Simplic. Comment. in Ariftot. de lib. de Cœlo, l. 1. c. 9.I do not here examine the truth of this tradition, but it is very certain, that long before Josephus, the Greek Philosophers believed the world would be destroyed by Fire. Heraclitus held this opinion, and said that after it had passed through the flames, it would receive a new birth amidst the Tull. Cic. l. 2. de nat. Deorum.Fire. The Stoicks afterwards maintained the same opinion; and Cicero has taken particular notice of it in his books concerning the nature of the Gods. Ex quo eventurum ut ad extremum omnis mundus ignesceret, cum humore consumpto neque terra ali posset, neque remearet aër — ita relinqui nihil præter ignem: a quo rursum, ac de eo, renovatio mundi fieret. That after this conflagration, the world, which they held to be a God, and a living Animal, would be enewed.

Ovid speaks likewise of this old tradition, which asserted, that the world would be one Ovid. Metamorph. I.day consumed in flames.

Esse quoque in fatis reminiscitur affore tempus, Quo mare, quo tellus, correptaque regia cœli Ardeat, & mundi moles operosa laboret.

Lucan expresses himself in the same Lucan. Pharsal. l. 7.manner. He tells Cæsar, that it is to no purpose to afflict himself for not having burned the bodies of the soldiers killed in the battle of Pharsalia, that the time would come when they should be consumed by Fire, together with the rest of the world.

See our Dissertation concerning the End of the World.

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