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The Torments of Hell - The Venerable Bede · Classic Speeches

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  Section forty eight of the World's Best Orations, Volume one. This is a
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  LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information
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  or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. The World's Best Orations from
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  the Earliest Period to the Present Time, Volume one by David J. Brewer
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  and Edward A. Allen. The Torments of Hell The Venerable Bead. The
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  Sunday is a chosen day in which the angels rejoice. We must ask who
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  was the first to request that souls might, on Sunday have rest in Hell.
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  And the answer is that Paul the Apostle and Michael the Archangel besought the
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  Lord when they came back from Hell, for it was the Lord's will that
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  Paul should see the punishments of that place. He beheld trees all on fire,
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  and sinners tormented on those trees, and some were hung by the feet,
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  some by the hands, some by the hair, some by the neck,
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  some by the tongue, and some by the arm. And again he
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  saw a furnace of fire burning with seven flames, and many were punished in
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  it, And there were seven plagues round about this furnace. The first snow,
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  the second ice, the third fire, the fourth blood, the fifth
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  serpents, the sixth lightning, the seventh stench. And in that furnace itself
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  were the souls of the sinners who repented not in this life. There they
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  are tormented, and everyone receiveth according to his works. Some weep, some
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  howl, some groan, some burn, and desire to have rest, but
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  find it not, because souls can never die. Truly, we ought to
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  fear that place, in which is everlasting dullar, in which is groaning,
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  in which is sadness without joy, in which are abundance of tears, on
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  account of the tortures of souls, in which a fiery wheel is turned a
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  thousand times a day by an evil angel, and at each turn a thousand
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  souls are burnt upon it. After this he beheld a horrible river, in
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  which were many diabolic beasts like fishes in the midst of the sea, which
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  devour the souls of sinners. And over that river there is a bridge,
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  across which righteous souls pass without dread, while the souls of sinners suffer,
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  each one according to its merits. There Paul beheld many souls of sinners,
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  plunged, some to the knees, some to the loins, some to the
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  mouth, some to the eyebrows. And every day and eternally they are tormented.
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  And Paul wept and asked who they were that were therein plunged to the
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  knees, and the Angel said, these are detractors and evil speakers. And
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  those up to the loins are fornicators and adulterers, who returned not to repentance.
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  And those to the mouth are they who went to church but they heard
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  not the word of God. And those to the eyebrows are they who rejoiced
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  in the wickedness of their neighbor. And after this he saw between heaven and
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  Earth the soul of a sinner, howling betwixt seven devils that had on that
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  day departed from the body. And the angels cried out against it and said,
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  woe to thee wretched soul. What hast thou done upon earth? Thou
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  hast despised the commandments of God, and hast done no good works. And
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  therefore thou shalt be cast into outer darkness, where shall be weeping and gnashing
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  of teeth. And after this, in one moment, angels carried a soul
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  from its body to heaven. And Paul heard the voice of a thousand angels
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  rejoicing over it and saying, O, most happy and blessed soul, rejoiced
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  today because thou hast done the will of God. And they set it in
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  the presence of God. And the Angel said, whoso keepeth the Sunday shall
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  have his part with the angels of God. And Paul demanded of the Angel
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  how many kinds of punishment there were in Hell? And the Angel said,
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  there are one hundred and forty four thousand. And if there were one hundred
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  eloquent men, each having four iron tongues that spoke from the beginning of the
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  world, they could not reckon up the torments of Hell. But let us,
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  beloved brethren, hearing of these so great torments, be converted to our
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  Lord, that we may be able to reign with the angels. And of
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  Section forty eight read by Aaron Zimmermann,