un, moon, nor
stars; and were our darkness like the darkness of night, yet were there
hope of mercy: but ours is perpetual darkness, clean exempt from the
face of God. Hell hath also a place within it, called Chasma, out
of which issueth all manner of thunders and lightnings, with such
shriekings and wailings, that oftentimes the very devils themselves
stand in fear thereof; for one while it sendeth forth wind, with
exceeding snow, hail, and rain, congealing the water into ice, with
the which the damned are frozen, gnash their teeth, howl, and cry,
yet cannot die. Other whiles, it sendeth forth most horrible hot
mists, or fogs, with flashing of flames of fire and brimstone, wherein
the sorrowful souls of the damned lie broiling in their reiterated
torments. Yea, Faustus, hell is called a prison, wherein the damned
lie continually bound; it is called Pernicies and Exitium, death,
destruction, hurtfulness, mischief, a mischance, a pitiful and evil
thing, world without end. We have also with us in hell a ladder,
reaching of exceeding height, as though the top of the same would touch
the heaven, to which the damned ascend to seek the blessing of God, but
through their infidelity, when they are at very highest degree, they
fall down again into their former miseries, complaining of the heat of
that unquenchable fire; yea, sweet Faustus, so much understand thou of
hell, the while thou art desirous to know the secrets of our kingdom.
And mark, Faustus, hell is the nurse of death, the heat of fire, the
shadow of heaven and earth, the oblivion of all goodness; the pains
unspeakable, the griefs unremovable, the dwelling of the devils.
Dragons, serpents, adders, toads, crocodiles, and all manner of venomous
and noisome creatures; the puddle of sin, the stinking far ascending
from the Stygian lake, brimstone, pitch, and all manner of unclean
metals, the perpetual and unquenchable fire, the end of whose miseries
was never purposed by God. Yea, yea, Faustus, thou sayest I shall, I
must, nay, I will tell thee the secrets of our kingdom, for thou buyest
it dearly, and thou must and shalt be partaker of our torments, that, as
the Lord said, shall never cease, for hell, the woman's belly, and the
earth, are never satisfied; there shalt thou abide horrible torments,
howling, crying, burning, freezing, melting, swimming in a labyrinth of
miseries, scolding, smoking in thine eyes, stinking in thy nose,
hoarseness in thy speech, deafness in th