. . . Moses, that was bred up in all the learning of the
Egyptians, committed a gross absurdity in philosophy when with these eyes
of flesh he desired to see God, and petitioned his Maker, that is truth
itself, to a contradiction.
ON HELL
Men commonly set forth the torments of hell by fire, and the extremity of
corporeal afflictions, and describe hell in the same method that Mahomet
doth heaven. This indeed makes a noise, and drums in popular ears; but
if this be the terrible piece thereof, it is not worthy to stand in
diameter with heaven, whose happiness consists in that part that is best
able to comprehend it, that immortal essence, that translated divinity
and colony of God, the soul. Surely, though we place hell under earth,
the devil's walk and purlieu is about it: men speak too popularly who
place it in those flaming mountains, which to grosser apprehensions
represent hell. The heart of man is the place the devils dwell in. I
feel sometimes a hell within myself; Lucifer keeps his court in my
breast; Legion is revived in me. There are as many hells as Anaxagoras
conceited worlds. There was more than one hell in Magdalene, when there
were seven devils; for every devil is a hell unto himself.
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