But Wheras They Say That, Both In The Isle, And In Mount Hecla We Appoint Certaine Places, Wherin The Soules

Of our countrimen are tormented, we vtterly stand to the deniall of that and we thanke God & our Lord Iesus

Christ from the botome of our hearts (who hath deliuered vs from death & hell, & opened vnto vs the gate of the kingdome of heaan because he hath instructed vs more truely, concernmg the place, whether the soules of our deceased countrimen depart, then these historiographers doe tell vs. We know and maintain that the soules of the godly are transported immediatly out of their bodily prisons, not into the Papists purgatory, nor into the Elysian fields, but into Abrahams bosome, into the hand of God, & into the heauenly paradise. We know & maintaine concerning the soules of the wicked, that they wander not into the fires & ashes of mountaines or into visible ice, but immediatly are carried away into vtter darknesse, where is weeping & gnashing of teeth, where there is colde also, & fire not comon, but far beyond our knowledge & curious disputation. Where not onely bodies, but soules also, that is spirituall substances are tormented. And we do also hold, that the Islanders are no whit nearer vnto this extreame & darke prison, in regard of the situation of place, then the Germans, Danes, Frenchmen, Italians, or any other nation whatsoeuer. Neither is it any thing to the purpose, at all to dispute of the place or situation of this dungeon. It is sufficient for vs, that (by the grace and assistance of our Lord Iesus Christ, with whose precious blood we are redeemed) we shall neuer see that vtter darknesse, nor feele the rest of the torments that be there. Now let vs here shut vp the disputation concerning the hell of Island.

SECTIO DECIMA.

[Sidenote: Frisius, Zieglerus Saxo fere similiter.] Quod si quis ex hac glacie magnam partem ceperit, eamque vasi ant scrinio inclusam, quam diligentissime asseruarit, illa tempore glaciei, qua circum insulam est, degelantis, euanescit, vt neque minima eius particula vel guttula aqua reperiatur.

Id profecto necessario addendum fuit: Hanc scilicet glaciem, voces humanas, secundum Historicos, representatem, & damnatorom receptaculum existentem, non esse, vt reliqua in vastissima hac vniuersitate omnia, ex Elementi alicuius materia conflatam. Siquidem cum corpus esse videatur, corpus tamen non sit, (quod ex Frisij paradoxo recte deducitur) cum etiam corpora dura & solida perrumpat, non secus ac, spectra & genij: Restat igitur cum non sit elementaris natura, vt vel spiritualem habeat materiam, vel coelestem, vel quod ipsi forsan largiantur, infernalem. Infernalem tamen esse non assentiemur, quia ad aures nostras peruenit frigus infernale longe esse intractabilius, quam est hac glacies, humanis manibus in scrinio reposita, nec quicquam suo contactu, vel nudatam carnem ladere valens. Nec profecto spiritualem esse dabimus; accepimus enim a Physicis, substantias spirituales nec cerni, nec tangi, nec ijs quicquam decedere posse: qua tamen omnia in hanc historicorum glaciem, quantumuis, secundum illos, hyperphysicam, cadere certum & manifestum est. Praterea & hoc verissimum est, eam calore solis resolutam, ac in superficie sua stagnantem, siti piscatorum restinguenda, non secus ac riuos terrestres, inseruire: Id quod substantia spirituali denegatum est. Non est igitur spiritualis, vt nec infernalis. Iam vero coelestem habere materiam, nemo audebit dicere: Ne forte inde aliquis suspicetur, glaciem hanc barathrum, quod illi Historici affingunt, secum e coelo traxisse: Vel id coelo, quippe eiusdem materia cum glacie, commune esse, atque ita carcer damnatorum cum Paradiso coelesti loca commutasse, Historicorum culpa putetur.

Quare cum glacies hac Historica nec sit elementaris, vt ex prasenti loco Frisij optime sequi iam toties monuimus: nec spiritualis, nec infernalis, quod vtrumque breuibus, solidis tamen rationibns demonstrauimus: nec coelestis materia, quod opinari religio vetat: relinquitur omnino, vt secnndum eosdem Historicos nulla sit, quam tamen illi tam cum stupenda admiratione pradicant, & nos videri ac tangi putamus. Est igitur, & non est: Quod axioma vbi secundum idem, & ad idem, & eodem tempore, verum esse poterit, nos demum miraculis istis glacialibus credemus. Itaque iam vides Lector, ad hac refellenda nullo alio esse opus, quam monstrari quomodo secum dissideant. Sed haud mirum, eum qui semel vulgi fabulosis rumoribus se cermisit, sapius errare. Cuiusmodi etiam prodidit quidam de glaciei huius Sympathia, quod videlicet molis, cuius pars esset, discessum insequeretur, vt omnem obseruationis diligentiam ineuitabili fuga necessitate deciperet. Atqui sape idimus eiusmodi solitariam molem post abactam reliquam glaciem, nullis vectibus nullis machinis detentam, ad littus multis septimanis consistere. Palam est igitur, illud de glacie miraculum fundamento niti, quam est ipsa glacies, magis lubrico.

The same in English.

THE TENTH SECTION.

[Sidenote: Frisius. Zieglerus. Saxo.] If any man shall take a great quantity of this ice, & shall keepe it neuer so warily enclosed in a coffer or vessel, it wil at that time when the ice thaweth about the Iland, vtterly vanish away, so that not the least part thereof, no nor a drop of water is to be found.

Surely, this was of necessity to be added: namely, that this ice, which according to historiographers representeth mans voice, & is the place of the damned, doth not as all other things in this wide world, consist of the matter of some element. For whereas it seemeth to be a body, when indeed it is no body: (which may directly be gathered out of Frisius absurd opinion) whereas also it pierceth through hard & solide bodies, no otherwise then spirits & ghosts: therefore it remaineth, seeing it is not of an elementary nature, that it must haue either a spirituall, or a celestial, or an infernal matter. But that it should be infernall, we can not be perswaded, because we haue heard that infernall cold is farre more vnsufferable then this ise, which vseth to be put into a boxe with mens hands, & is not of force any whit to hurt euen naked flesh, by touching thereof. Nor yet will we grant it to be spirituall: for we haue learned in naturall Philosophy, that spiritual substances can neither be seene nor felt, & cannot haue any thing taken from them: all which things do notwithstanding most manifestly agree to this ise of the Historiographers, howsoeuer according to them it be supernatural.

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