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sinne ,: might procure unto himselfe the wiaedome of Salomon , the strength of Sampson , the beauty of Absalon ajad Susanna , the riches of Croesus , the power of Augustus , and the yeeres of Methusalah "
Thomas Tynime having conjectured that our earth will be the place of future punishment , attempts to establish his theory , in the following para * graphs , after having , referred to the classical fables of Pluto and his infernal realms :
" Geographers'tell us of the mountame JEtna in Cictfw ? , at this day called Gibello Monte , on the top whereof is a barren ground mlxt with ashes , in the winter time couered with snow ; the circuit of which mountaine is twenty furlongs , and is imiironed with a banke of ashes , of the height of a wall . In the middle of this
Mount , is also a round hill of the same colour and matter , wherein be two great holes , called crateres , out of which do rise sometimes sundry great flames of fire , sometimes horrible smoake , sometime are blown out burning stones in infinite numbers . Beside the visible sight of which fire , there is also heard within the ground terrible noyse and roaring .
" What else can these fearefull fiery flames , horrible smoake , burning stones , in . such hideous manner blowne up , and the terrible roaring within that mountaine JEtna , import , but a certaine subterranean part of hell ? As also it may be , in like manner , thought of the Marine Rocke of Barry 9 in Glamorganshire , in Wales ; by a certaine cleft or rift whereof , ( if a man lay his eare thereon , ) is heard the worke , as it were , of a smith ' s forge : one while the blowing of bellowes ;
another while the sound of hammers , beat * ing on a stethy or anuile ; the noise of knives made sharpe on a whetstone ; and the crackling of fire in a furnace , and such like , very strange and admirable to heare .
** Nauigators report , that there is a sea in the voyages to the West Indies , ( called the Burmudas , ) which is a most hellish sea for thunder , lightning and stormes . Also ,. they assure vs of an island , which they , call the Island of Diuels ; for to such as appigpaeh neere the same , there doe not onely api > eare fearefull sights of diuels and eiiil spirits , but also nrightie tempests with mpst terrible and continuali thunder and lightning ; and the noyse of horrible cries , with screeching , doth so affright and amaze those that come neere that place , that they are glad , with all might and maine , to file and speed them thence with all possible hast they can * ^' Coamogniphers also informe vs of a
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certaine wonderfull whtrle ^ poole , in the frozen sea , not far from the land , towards the islands of the ffibrides , whereunto al the waues of the sea haue their course from far , which there conueying
themseines into the secret receptacles of nature , are swallowed vp , as it were , into a bottomlesse pit : and if any ship chance to passe this way , it is puld and drawne with such violence of the waues , that eftsoones without remedie , the force of the whirlepoole deuoureth the same . *'—Pp . 77—79
Thomas Tymme is now severe upon " some which ascribe al these things to natural causes and workings , or else will account them no better then fables : as they doe , " he adds ,
" all things else which concerne religion ; " as if a person must disbelieve the righteous retributions of eternity , or receive every fanciful speculation < c concerning the present and future local hell . " I borrow these words
from an opponent of Dr . Coward , who wrote a century later than Thomas Tymme . This was t € Lawrence Smith , LL # . D ., Rector of South-Warcnborough . " In his " Evidence of Things not seen , " ( edit . 2 , 1703 , ) with no
small confidence he determines , ( 96 , > €€ that the place of miserable residence to the damned at present , between the time of their departure out of this world , 'till the resurrection , is some horrid and dismal abode in the inferiour
distinctions of the air , and not under ground in subterranean vaults ; since the blessed souls are to pass through the habitations of the damned , in their ascent to their happy place of abode till the day of judgment . " Then " wicked souls" being " united to their bodies /* and thus rendered "
capable of punishment by material fire , " the " place of their torment will /' he conceives , ( 97 , ) " be this lower world which we now inhabit , together with the at present uninhabitable large tracts of the earth , and the vast dimensions and compass of the seas , then drained of water by the devouring : flames , and filled only with sulphureous burning materials of divine vengeance / From 2 Peter 4 ii . 7 , this . amp lifying tne
commentator saya , " ' -tis plain that avenging fire at the last day will be this earth turned into an huge amassment of flames or burning fiery furnace , reaching upwards from its superficies to the very < fixed stars ^ © r firmament of heaven- " Thus men , tar enough , on other subjects , from t *^
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Ǥ 2 S ^ - ^ rm , No . XXVI .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1821, page 592, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2505/page/24/
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