Hereat answered Faustus: "Thou sayest true; I cannot deny it. Ah, woe is me, most miserable Faustus! How have I been deceived! Had I not had a desire to know too much, I had not been in this case; for having studied the lives of the holy saints and prophets, and thereby thought to understand sufficient heavenly matters, I thought myself not worthy to be called Dr. Faustus if I should not also know the secrets of hell, and be associated with the furious fiends thereof; now, therefore, must I be rewarded accordingly."
Which speeches being uttered, Faustus went very sorrowful away from his spirit.
CHAPTER XV.
How Dr. Faustus desired again of his Spirit, to know the
Secrets and Pains of Hell;
and whether those damned Devils, and their Company, might ever
come to the Favour and Love of God again.
Dr. Faustus was pondering with himself how he might get loose from so damnable an end as he had given himself unto, both soul and body; but his repenting was like that of Cain and Judas—he thought his sin greater than God could forgive; hereupon resting his mind, he looked up to heaven, but saw nothing therein, for his heart was so possessed of the devil that he could think of nought else but of hell and the pains thereof.
Wherefore in all haste he called unto him his spirit Mephistophiles, desiring him to tell him some more of the secrets of hell; what pain the damned are in, and how they were tormented; and whether the damned souls might get again the favour of God, and so be released out of their torments or not.
Whereupon the spirit answered: "My Faustus, thou mayst well leave to question any more of such matters, for they will but disquiet thy mind; I pray thee, what meanest thou, thinkest thou through these thy fantasies to escape us? No, for if thou shouldst climb up to heaven, there to hide thyself, yet would I thrust thee down again; for thou art mine, and thou belongest to our society. Therefore, sweet Faustus, thou wilt repent this thy foolish demand, except thou be content that I shall tell thee nothing."
Quoth Faustus, ragingly: "I will know, or I will not live, wherefore dispatch and tell me."
To whom Mephistophiles answered: "Faustus, it is no trouble unto me at all to tell thee; and therefore since thou forcest me thereto, I will tell thee things to the terror of thy soul, if thou wilt abide the hearing: thou wilt have me to tell thee of the secrets of hell, and of the pains thereof. Know, Faustus, that hell hath many figures, semblances, and names; but it cannot be named or figured in such sort to the living that are damned, as it is to those that are dead, and do both see and feel the torments thereof: for hell is said to be deadly, out of which came never any to life again but one, but he is nothing for thee to reckon upon; hell is bloodthirsty, and is never satisfied: hell is a valley into which the damned souls fall; for so soon as the soul is out of man's body, it would gladly go to the place from whence it came, and climbeth up above the highest hills, even to the heavens, where being by the angels of the first model denied entertainment (in consideration of their evil life spent on earth), they fall into the deepest pit or valley, that hath no bottom, into a perpetual fire which shall never be quenched; for like as the flint thrown in the water loseth not virtue, neither is the fire extinguished, even so the hellish fire is unquenchable: and even as the flint-stone in the fire burns red hot, and consumeth not, so likewise the damned souls in our hellish fire are ever burning, but their pain never diminishing. Therefore is hell called the everlasting pain, in which is never hope for mercy; so it is called utter darkness, in which we see neither the light, the sun, 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 thy ears, trembling in thy hands, biting thine own tongue with pain, thy heart crushed as with a press, thy bones broken, the devils tossing firebrands unto thee: yea, thy whole carcass tossed upon muck-forks from one devil to another; yea, Faustus, then wilt thou wish for death, and he will fly from thee, thine unspeakable torments shall be every day augmented more and more, for the greater the sin the greater is the punishment. How likest thou this, my Faustus? A resolution answerable to thy request.
"Lastly, Thou wilt have me tell thee that which only belongeth to God, which is, if it be possible for the damned to come again into the favour of God, or not. Why, Faustus, thou knowest that this is against thy promise; for why shouldst thou desire to know that having already given thy soul to the devil, to have the pleasure of the world, and to know the secrets of hell; therefore thou art damned, and how canst thou then come again to the favour of God? Wherefore I discreetly answer, no; for whomsoever God hath forsaken and thrown into hell must there abide his wrath and indignation in that unquenchable fire, where is no hope of mercy to be looked for, but abiding his perpetual pains, world without end: for even as much it availeth thee, Faustus, to hope for the favour of God again as Lucifer himself; who indeed, although he and we have a hope, yet it is to small avail and taketh none effect, for out of that place God will neither hear crying nor singing; if he do, thou shalt have a little remorse, as Dives, Cain, and Judas had. What helpeth the emperor, king, prince, duke, earl, baron, lord, knight, esquire, or gentleman, to cry for mercy being there? Nothing; for if on earth they would not be tyrants and self-willed, rich with covetousness, proud with pomp, gluttons, drunkards, whoremongers, backbiters, robbers, murderers, blasphemers, and such like, then were there some hope to be looked for; therefore, my Faustus, as thou comest to hell with these qualities thou mayst say with Cain, 'My sins are greater than can be forgiven;' go hang thyself with Judas; and lastly, be contented to suffer torments with Dives. Therefore know, Faustus, that the damned have neither end nor time appointed in the which they may hope to be released; for if there were any such hope that they, by throwing one drop of water out of the sea in a day until it were dry, or there were one heap of sand as high as from the earth to the heavens, that a bird carrying away but one corn in a day, at the end of this so long labour, that yet they might hope at the last God would have mercy on them, they would be comforted; but now there is no hope that God once thinks upon them, or that their howling shall ever be heard; yea, so impossible it is for thee to hide thyself from God, as it is impossible for thee to remove the mountains, or to empty the sea, or to tell the drops of rain that have fallen from heaven until this day, or to tell what there is most of in the world; yea, and as for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, even so impossible it is for thee, Faustus, and the rest of the damned, to come again into the favour of God. And thus, Faustus, hast thou heard my last sentence, and I pray thee, how dost thou like it? But know this, that I counsel thee to let me be unmolested hereafter with such disputations, or else will I vex thee every limb to thy small contentment."