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