70 Comments on Sterne. 
“ cautioufnefs of one ‘of -thofe little fouls from 
“« which Leffius (lib. 13. de moribus divinis, ch- 
*« 94.) has made his eftimate, wherein he fetteth 
* forth, That one Dutch mile, cubically multi- 
“ plied, will allow room enough, and to fpare, 
** for eight hundred thoufand millions, whieh he 
** fuppofes to be as great 4 number of. fouls (count- 
‘“* ing from the fall of Adam) as can poffibly be 
** damn’d to the end-of the world. ---- I am 
* much more at a lofs to know what could be 
** in Francifcus Ribera’s head, who pretends that 
“no lefs a fpace than one of two hundred 
** Italian miles, multiplied into itfelf, will be fufh- 
** cent to hold the like number—he certainly muft 
‘** have gone upon fome of the old Roman fouls,” 
&e. 4 . 
The fucceeding raillery is very well, but unfair 
with refpect to the mathematical Theologift, as the 
original paffage will prove. ‘‘ Francifcus Ribera, in 
cap. 14. Apocalypf. will have Hell a material and local 
Jire in the centre of the earth, 200 Italian miles in diameter, 
as he defines it out of . thofe words, Exivit fanguis de 
terra—per Stadia mille fexcenta, Gc. But Leffius, lib. 
13. de moribus divinis, cap. 24. will have this local hell 
far lefs, one Dutch mile-in diameter, all filled with fire and 
brimftone ; becaufe, as he there demonftrates, that fpace 
cubically multiplied will make a {phere able to hold eight hundred 
thoufand millions of damned bodies, (allowing each body fix 
foot fquare) whick will abundantly fuffice.” [1 believe 
the damn‘d, on Leffius's {cheme, would be lefs 
crouded 
