flourishing and pleasant Orchards consumed without power either to preserve them or themselves All shall burn and with it the World and all the fame and memory of it shall die and that which mortals thought to be immortal shall then end and perish No more shall Aristotle be cited in the Schools nor Vlpian alleaged in the Tribunals no more shall Plato be read amongst the Learned nor Cicero imitated by the Orators no more shall Seneca be admired by the understanding nor Alexander extolled amongst Captains all fame shall then die and all memory be forgotten O vanity of men whose memorials are as vain as themselves which in few years perish and that which lasts longest can endure no longer than the World What became of that Statue of maslie gold which Gorgias the Leontin placed in Delphos to eternize his Name and that of Gabrion in Rome and that of Borosus with the golden tongue in Athens and innumerable others erected to great Captains in brass or hardest marble certainly many years since they are perished or if not yet they shall perish in this great and general Conflagration Onely vertue no fire can burn Three hundred sixty Statues were erected by the Athenians unto Demetrius Phalareus for having governed their Common-wealth ten years with great vertue and prudence but of so little continuance were these Trophies that those very Emblems which were raised by gratitude were soon after destroyed by envy and he himself who saw his Statues set up in so great a number saw them also pulled down but he still retained this comfort which Christians may learn from him that beholding how they threw his Images unto the ground he could say at least They cannot overthrow those Vertues for which they were erected If they were true Vertues he said well for those neither envy can demolish nor humane power destroy and which is more the divine power will not in this general destruction of the World consume them but will preserve in his eternal memory as many as shall persevere in goodness and die in his holy grace for onely Charity and Christan Vertues shall not end when the World ends The sight of those Triumphs exhibited by Roman Captains when they conquered some mighty and powerful Kings lasted but a while and the memories of the Triumphers not much longer and now there are few who know that Metellus triumphed over King Jugurtha Aquilius over King Aristonicus Atilius over King Antiochus Marcus Antonius over the King of Armenia Pompey over King Mithridates Aristobulus and Hiarbas Emilius over King Perseus and the Emperour Aurelius over Cenâ—bia the Queen of the Palmirens If few know this but dumb Books and dead Paper when those shall end what shall then become of their memories How many Histories hath fire consumed and are now no more known then if they had never been Written neither to doe nor write can make the memory of man immortal Aristarchus wrote more than a thousand Commentaries of several Subjects of which not one line remains at present Chrysippus wrote seaven hundred Volumes and now not one leaf is extant Theophrastus wrote thre hundred and sarce three or four remain Above all is that which is reported of Dionysius Grammaticus that he wrote three thousand five hundred works and now not one sheet appears But yet more is that which Jamlicus testifies of the great Trimegistus that he composed thirty six thousand five hundred twenty five books and all those are as if he had not written a letter for 4 or 5 little and imperfect Treatises which pass under his name are none of his Time even before the end of time leaves no Books nor Libraries By the assistance of Demetrius Phalareus King Ptolomy collected a great Library in Alexandria in which were stored all the Books he could gather from Caldee Greece and Aegypt which amounted to seventy thousand bodies but in the Civil Wars of the Romans it perished by that burning which was caused by Julius Caesar Another famous Library amongst the Greeks of Policrates and Phisistratus was spoyled by Xerxes The Library of Bizantium which contained a hundred and twenty thousand Books was burnt in the time of Basiliscus That of the Roman Capitol was in the time of Commâ—dus turned into ashes by lightning and what have we now of the great Library of Pergamus wherein were two hundred thousand Books Even before the end of the World the most constant things of the World die And what great matter is it if those memorials in paper be burnt since those in brass melt and those of marble perish That prodigious Amphitheater Vide Lips In Amph. which Stability Taurus raised of stone was burnt in the time of Nero the hard marble not being able to defend it self from the soft flames The great riches of Corinth in gold and silver were melted when the Town was fired those precious mettals could neither with their hard-resist nor with their value hire a friend to defend them from those furious flames If this particular burning in the most flourishing time of the World caused so great a ruine what shall that general one which shall make an end of the World and all things with it § 5. Let us now consider as we have already in Earthquakes and Deluges what great astonishment and destruction hath sometime happened by some particular burnings that by them we may conceive the greatness of the horror and ruine which will accompany that general one of the whole world What lamentations were in Rome when it burnt for seven dayes together What shrieks were heard in Troy when it was wholly consumed with flames What howling and astonishment in Pentapolis when those Cities were destroyed with fire from heaven Some say they were ten Cities Strabo thirteen Josephus and Lira five that which of faith is that there were four at least who with all their Inhabitants were consumed What weeping was therein Jerusalem when they beheld the House of God the Glory of their Kingdom the Wonder of the World involved in fire and smoke And that we may draw nearer unto our own times when lightning from Heaven fell upon Stockholme the capital City of Sweden and burnt to death above 1600 persons besides an innumerable multitude of Women and Children who hoping to escape the fire at land fled into the ships at Sea but overcharging them were all drowned Imagin what that people felt when they saw their houses and goods on fire and no possibility of saving them when the Husband heard the shrieks and cries of his dying Wife the Father of his little Children and unawares perceived himself so encompassed with flames that he could neither relieve them nor free himself What grief Albert. Krant Suec l. 5. c. 3. what anguish possest the hearts of those unfortunate creatures when to avoid the fury of the fire they were forced to trust themselves to the no less cruel waves when by their own over-hasty crowdings and indiscretion they saw their Ships
a name behind them neither observed justice with others nor vertue in themselves how shall they change their glory into ignominie Let us by the way look upon some of them who have filled the world with their vain fame who shall in that day by so much suffer the greater disgrace by how much the world hath bestowed more undeserved honours upon them Who more glorious than Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar whom the world hath ever esteemed as the most great and valorous Captains that it ever produced and their glory still continues fresh after so many ages past What was all they did but acts of rapine without right or title unjustly tyrannizing over what was none of theirs and shedding much innocent blood to make themselves Lords of the Earth All these actions were vicious and therefore unworthy of honour fame or memory and since they have for so many hundreds of years remained in the applause and admiration of men there shall in that day fall upon them so much ignominy shame and confusion as shall recompence that past honour which they have unworthily received and viciously desired This ambition was so exorbitant in Alexander that hearing Anaxartes the Philosopher affirm that there were many worlds he sighed with great resentment and cried out Miserable me that am not yet Lord of one This devillish and vain pride was extolled by many for greatness of spirit but was in truth the height of vanity and arrogant ambition which could not be contained in one World but with one desire tyrannized over many and shall then be punished with the publick ignominy of all men not onely in respect of the fame which he hath so unjustly enjoyed but of the ill example which he hath given to others and principally unto Caesar who as he followed his example in tyranny did likewise imitate him in ambition and the desire of rule and vain honour De Alex. Vide Val. Max. l. 8. De Julio Caes Vid. Fulg. l. 8. and therefore beholding his Statue in Cadiz at such time as he was Questor in Spain complained of his own fortune that at the age wherein Alexander had subjugated all Asia he had yet done nothing of importance counting it for a matter of importance to tyrannize over the world and to the end he might make himself Lord of it to Captivate his Countrey In like manner Aristotle so celebrated for his Writings in which he consumed many sleepless nights onely to purchase Glory and to make it greater in his confuting of other Philosophers used little ingenuity taking their words in a far other sense than they meant or spake them This labour of his since it proceeded not from Virtue but was performed with so little candour and sincerity meerly to obtain a vain reputation deserved no Glory and therefore a confusion equal unto the Honour they unduly now give him shall then fall upon him And since he put his Disciple Theodectus to so much shame his own ambition will be to him occasion of greater confusion Vide Val. Max. l. 8. Aristotle gave to this his Disciple Theodectus certain Books of the Art of Oratory to the end he should divulge them But afterwards resenting much that another should carry all the praise he owned the said Books publickly And for this reason in other Books which he wrote he cites himself saying As he had said in the Books of Theodectus Wherein is clearly seen Aristotle's ambition or desire of Glory and therefore was unworthy of it and with just ignominy shall pay the unjust Glory he now possesseth In so much then as not only Fame and Memory are vain in respect they are to end and finish as all things with the world are but also because their undeserved and pretended Glory is then to be satisfied with equal shame and confusion the affront they shall receive in that one day being equivalent unto the fame and honour of thousands of years Neither can the most famous men amongst the Gentiles be admired by so many in ten ages as shall then scorn and contemn them How many are ignorant that there ever was an Alexander And how many in all their lives never heard of Aristotle And yet shall in that day know them not for their honour but confusion The name of the Great and admired Alexander is unknown unto more Nations than known The Japonlans Chineses Cafres Angolans other people and most extended and spacious Kingdoms never heard who he was and shall then know him onely for a publique Thief a Robber an Oppressor of the World and for a great and an ambitious Drunkard The same which is to pass in Fame and Memory is also to pass in Children in whom as St. Thomas says St. Thom. supra the Fathers live and as from many good Parents spring evil Children so contrariwise from evil Parents come those that are good which shall be in that day a confusion to those who begat them and by so much the greater by how much worse was the example which they gave them Neither shall the Judge onely enquire into the example they have given their Children but also unto strangers and principally the works which they have left behind them And therefore as from the deceit of Arius saith the Angelical Doctor and other Heretiques have and shall spring divers Errours and Heresies until the end of the World so it is fit that in that last day of time should appear the evil which hath been occasioned by them that we may in this life not onely take a care for our selves but others so as it is a terrible thing as Cajetan notes upon that Article before mention'd of the Angelical Doctor that the Divine judgement shall extend even to those things which are by accident which is as the Divines speak unto those which are besides our will and intention St. Thomas also informs us That by reason of the body which remains after death it was convenient that the sentence of each one in particular should be again repeated in that general Judgement of the whole World Because many Bodies of just men are now buried in the mawes of wild Beasts or otherwise remain without interrement and to the contrary great sinners have had sumptuous Burials and magnificent Sepulchres all which are to be recompensed in that day of the Lord and the sinner whose Body reposed in a rich Mausoleum shall then see himself not only without Ornaments and Beauty but tormented with intolerable pains and the just who died and had no Sepulchres but were devoured by ravenous Birds shall appear with the brightness of the Heavens and with a Body glorious as the Sun Let those consider this who consume vast sums in preparing for themselves stately Sepulchres and beautiful Urns engraving their Names Actions and Dignities in rich Marbles and let them know that all this if they shall be damned shall serve them in that day but for their greater shame and reproach Out of this life
their Angel guardians shall assist by giving testimony how often they have disswaded them from their evil courses and how rebellious and refractory they have still been to their holy inspirations The Saints also shall accuse them that they have laughed at their good counsels and shall set forth the dangers whereunto they them-themselves have been subject by their ill example The just Judge shall then immediately pronounce Sentence in favour of the good in these words of love and mercy Come you blessed of my Father possess the Kingdom which was prepared for you from the creation of the world O what joy shall then fill the Saints Abul in Mat. Jansen Sot Les l. 13. c. 22. alii Isai 30. and what spight and envy shall burst the hearts of Sinners but more when they shall hear the contrary Sentence pronounced against themselves Christ speaking unto them with that severity which was signified by the Prophet Isaiah when he said His lips were filled with indignation and his tongue was a devouring fire More terrible than fire shall be those words of the Son of God unto those miserable wretches when they shall hear him say Depart from me ye cursed into eternal fire prepared for Satan and his Angels With this Sentence they shall remain for ever overthrown and covered with eternal sorrow and confusion Ananias and Saphira were struck dead only with the hearing the angry voice of St. Peter What shall the Reprobate be in hearing the incensed voice of Christ This may appear by what happened unto St. Catharine of Sienna who being reprehended by St. Paul In vita ejus c. 24. who appeared unto her onely because she did not better employ some little parcel of time said that she had rather be disgraced before the whole World than once more to suffer what she did by that reprehension But what is this in respect of that reprehension of the Son of God in the day of vengeance for if when he was led himself to be judged he with two onely words I am overthrew the astonisht multitude of Souldiers to the ground how shall he speak when he comes to judge In vita PP l. 5. apud Rosul In the book of the lives of the Fathers composed by Severus Sulpitius and Cassianus it is written of a certain young man desirous to become a Monk whom his Mother by many reasons which she alleadged pretended to disswade but all in vain for he would by no means alter his intention defending himself still from her importunity with this answer I will save my soul I will assure my salvation it is that which most imports nic She perceiving that her modest requests prevailed nothing gave him leave to do as he pleased and he according to his resolution entred into Religion but soon began to flag and fall from his fervour and to live with much carelesness and negligence Not long after his Mother died and he himself fell into a grievous infirmity and being one day in a Trance was rapt in spirit before the Judgement Seat of God He there found his Mother and divers others expecting his condemnation She turning her eyes and seeing her Son amongst those who were to be damned seemed to remain astonisht and spake unto him in this manner Why how now Son is all come to end in this where are those words thou saidest unto me I will save nay soul was it for this thou didst enter into Religion The poor man being confounded and amazed knew not what to answer but soon after when he returned unto himself and the Lord was pleased that he recovered and escaped his infirmity and considering that this was a divine admonition he gave so great a turn that the rest of his life was wholly tears and repentance and when many wisht him that he would moderate and remit something of that rigour which might be prejudicial unto his health he would not admit of their advices but still answered I who could not endure the reprehension of my Mother how shall I in the day of judgement endure that of Christ and his Angels Let us often think of this and let not onely the angry voice of our Saviour make us tremble Raph. Columb Ser. 2. Domin in Quadr. but that terrible Sentence which shall separate the wicked from his presence Raphael Columba writes of Philip the second King of Spain that being at Mass he heard two of his Grandees who were near him in discourse about some worldly business which he then took no notice of but Mass being ended he called them with great gravity and said unto them onely these few words You two appear no more in my presence which were of that weight that the one of them died of grief and the other ever after remained stupified and amazed What shall it then be to hear the King of Heaven and Earth say Depart ye cursed and if the words of the Son of God be so much to be feared what shall be his works of justice At that instant the fire of that general burning shall invest those miserable creatures Less l. 13. c. 23. the Earth shall open and Hell shall enlarge his throat to swallow them for all eternity accomplishing the malediction of Christ and of the Psalm which saith Psal 54. Let death come upon them and let them sink alive into hell And in another place Coals of fire shall fall upon them Ps 139. and thou shalt cast them into the fire and they shall not subsist in their miseries And in another Psalm Psal 10. Snares fire and sulphur shall rain upon sinners Finally that shall be executed which was spoken by St. John That the Devil Death and Hell and all Apcc. 20. who were not written in the Book of life were cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where they shall be eternally tormented with Antichrist and his false Prophets And this is the second death bitter and eternal which comprehends both the Souls and the Bodies of them who have died the spiritual death of sin and the corporal death which is the effect of it The Just shall then rejoyce according to David Psal 57. beholding the vengeance which the Divine Justice shall take upon sinners and sing another song like that of Moses Exod. 15. when the Aegyptians were drowned in the red sea and that Song of the Lamb related by St. John Apoc. 15. Great and marvelous are thy works O Lord God omnipotent just and righteous are thy wayes King of all Eternity who will not fear thee O Lord and magnifie thy name With those and thousand other Songs of joy and jubilee they shall ascend above the Stars in a most glorious triumph until they arrive in the Empyrial Heaven where they shall be placed in thrones of glory which they shall enjoy for an eternity of eternities In the mean time the earth which was polluted for having sustained the Bodies of the damned shall be
not true and fine gold which she wore but false and counterfeited for although it seemed gold it was but alchimy and yet being gilt she sold it for true gold So the Prosperity of the World comes decked with the goods of the earth which she fells for true goods setting them forth as great secure and lasting when they are nothing less All is but deceit and cozenage which is well exprest by Seneca when he sayes That is onely good which is honest other goods are false and adulterate What greater falshood and deceit than to make those things which are most vile and base to appear so precious and of such esteem that men pretend nothing greater and being more changeable than the Moon to appear constant and secure in so much as we remain so satisfied with them as if they were never to change and being fading and corruptible we seek after them as if they were eternal and immortal remembring nothing less than their end and ours forgetting wholly that they are to perish and we to die It is evident they are false since they promise of themselves what they neither have nor are Those who work in prospective will so paint a room that the light entring onely through some little hole you shall perceive beautiful and perfect figures and shapes but if you open the windows and let in a full light at most you shall see but some imperfect lines and shadows So the things of this World seem great and beautiful unto those who are in darkness and have but little light of heaven but those who enjoy the perfect light of truth and faith finde nothing in them of substance The felicity of this life is but a fiction and a shadow of true happiness and by that name is often qualified in holy Scripture which excellently expresses the nature of it For the shadow is not a body but a resemblance of a body and seeming to be something is nothing The inconstancy also and speedy change of humane things deserves this name because the shadow is alwayes altering and ends on a sodain And as the shadow when it is at length and can increase no further is nearest the end so temporal goods and humane fortunes when they are mounted up as high as the starres are then nearest to vanish and disappear sodainly And therefore one of the friends of Job faid Job 5. I saw the fool that he had taken deep rooting and instantly I cursed his beauty for the more firm he appeared to stand the more near he was unto his fall And David said he saw the Sinner exalted as a Cedar but he endured no longer than he turned his eyes What is to deceive but to publish that for truth which is not and to promise that which shall never be accomplished I leave to the witness of every one how often the issue of their hopes have proved vain not finding in what they desired that content which they expected In riches they hope for peace and repose but meet with nothing but unquietness and cares and many times with dangers and losses For this Christ our Redeemer called riches deceits saying that the Divine Word was choaked with the falshood and deceit of riches He is not content with calling them false and deceitful but calls them falshoods and deceits for what can be more false and perfidious then promising one thing to perform just the contrary The prosperity of this world promises us goods and gives us evils promises us ease and gives us cares promises security and gives us danger promises us great contents and gives us great vexations promises us a sweet life and gives us a bitter With reason it is said in the Book of Job that the bread Job 21. which the worldly man eats shall be converted into the gall of Aspes because that in those things which seem necessary for his life as the bread of its mouth he shall meet his death and when he hopes for pleasure he shall finde gall and no morsel which shall not leave some bitterness behinde it There is no felicity upon earth which carries not its counterpoise of misfortunes no happiness which mounts so high which is not depressed by some calamity For as they anciently painted humane Fancy in the form of a young man with one arm lifted up with wings as if it meant to flye towards heaven and the other weighed down by some great weight which hindred it from rising so humane felicity how high soever it soars hath still something to depress it §. 2. If we will evidently see how deceitfull are the things of this world this is a convincing argument that no man after he hath enjoyed what he most desires is content with his condition which apparently shews their deceit neither doth any man cease to desire more though he possess the greatest and most ample fortune in the world which also argues their falsehood since they satisfie not those who possess them No man but envyes the life of some other and grievs and complains of his own though far more happy Constantine the Great who was arrived at the height of humane felicity Euseb in Orat. de laudibus Constan said his life was something more honourable than that of Neat-heards and Shepheards but much more painful and troublesome Alfonsus King of Naples said the life of Kings was the life of Asses for the great burthens which they bear So as in the book of Job it is said Job 22. that the Giants groan under the waters In which place as Albertus Magnus explicates it by the Giants are understood the mighty ones of the earth upon whom it sends troubles and vexations for so the name of Waters signifie in that place of holy Scripture which makes them groan under the intolerable weight of them They are like the Giants which in great Cities are shewed at their solemn Feasts that which appears is some great and stately bulk covered with Gold and Silks but that which appears not is the little poor man which carries it upon his shoulders sweating groaning tyred and half dead with the weight The Sumpter-mules of the Grandees of Spain at their first coming to Court are loaden with great wealth of Silver Vessel Tissue-Beds and rich Hangings their Sumpter-clothes imbroidered their Winding-staves of silver their Cords of silk with their great Plumes their Bells Bosses and other Furniture But although their load be rich and sumptuous yet in fine it is a load and oppresses them and they are ready to faint and sink under the weight of it So is Honour Empire and Command Even King David confessed as much and sayes That his loyns were as it were disjoynted and he was bruised and wearied with the burthen Some Kings have said that which is particularly related by Stobaeus of Antigonus Stob. Ser. 3. who when he was crowned King of Macedonia said O Crown more noble than happy if men knew how full thou art of cares and
A TREATISE OF THE DIFFERENCE BBTWIXT THE TEMPORAL AND ETERNAL Composed in Spanish BY Eusebius Nieremberg S. J. Translated into English By Sir VIVIAN MULLINEAUX Knight And since Reviewed according to the tenth and last Spanish Edition Printed in the Year 1672. TO The Most Excellent Majesty OF CATHARINE QUEEN OF GREAT BRITAIN MADAM THe design of this Treatise is no other then what all must own to be the great business and general concern of mankind which is to be well read in the difference between things temporal and eternal This is the Subject this the Title of the Book The original which hath already passed there the test of ten Editions we owe to Spain and to the pious and learned labours of the late Eusebius Nieremberg who hath often obliged the world by the like fruits of his zealous Pen. After having been read and approved in divers other languages it hath now learned to speak English having been lately translated by a noble and worthy person Sir Vivian Mullineaux for the service of the publick and accordingly resolves if it may be but so happy as to deserve the gracious favour of your Majesties royal Patronage to adventure abroad for the benefit of all pious and well-disposed whether Catholique or Protestant Readers All which may be here duly informed as of the difference between things temporal and eternal so of the different and cautionary wayes they ought to pursue in dividing themselves and their hearts between both Time and Eternity are points of good and wholesome use to all wise and intelligent contemplations Time indeed got the start of Man at the Creation and is five dayes elder then he Nevertheless Man still lives in hopes he shall at long-run overtake and even out-live Time And this shall be when the general Resurrection shall have restored him to his better and glorified self and all that is mortal in him shall have put on immortality 1 Cor. 15.53 Man then being like to prove the longer liver of the two Time cannot nor indeed any thing that shall perish with Time be that great end for which Man was finally ordained That onely can be Man's end which hath none it self and that is Eternity a happy Eternity the last article of our Creed and the last end of our Creation Sure then it behooves us to be wary Gamesters when Eternity is at stake and not carelesly to throw away our affections at a venture or heedlesly to engage our hearts here and there upon every slight invitation from sense and fancy but to proceed advisedly in the choice of our object and in the difference we make between things Temporal and Eternal This very difference being the nice pin and ticklish point which shall unappealably decide the case of all we have to hope or fear in the world to come by giving sentence at the last day of our final weal or woe For we are to be judged by our affections and every man shall stand or fall by the verdict of his own heart So that the main point which shall difference our dooms is the different applications we make to things temporal or eternal causing this man's lot to fall to the right hand the others to the left MADAM this address is farr from pretending to the usuall Panegyrick strain in complementing the great name whose Patronage it implores or enlarging upon those truly-Christian and Princely accomplishments your great and eminent vertues which more adorn your Majesty then Majesty can your Person These are a subject for a higher undertaking then this small Dedicatory dares pretend to Onely with your Majesties permission thus much I shall make bold to say that your heroick and exemplar piety attended with so many other rich endowments of grace clearly speaks you Mistress of a Soul throughly acquainted with the Difference between things temporal and eternal Hence it is that none of the most courting allurements of this life however great in themselves can seem truly such to your greater heart Your Christian ends and designs take a nobler flight they are not limited to the narrow bounds of a visible Sphere they act upon motives fetched from another world and harbour not a thought which can sit down and fix on this side Eternity Though I love not to be paradoxical yet methinks the Prophet Daniel hath a word of comfort and encouragement for your Majesty even where it might be least expected from the outward letter to countenance the application Dan 12.3 They that instruct many to righteousness shall shine as the starrs for ever and ever So speaks this great person and Oracle of Judah Here is a boundless promise and Heaven stands engaged for the performance not onely the single happiness of shining like the starrs for ever but the double blessing of for ever and ever I humbly conceive this so highly-rewardable teaching and instructing others to righteousness may without violence to the Text be taken in a twofold sense For not onely the useful and practical Doctrines of the Divinity-chair the Preacher and the Man of elocution but also the pious though silent deeds of the good Liver are our Teachers and Instructors For that person especially if a publick person instructs well who lives well and the good dumb work hath oftentimes more of the perswasive faculty in it than either pen or tongue can match This Madam is your Majesties case this your nay our happiness if we understand it aright Your life is a noble School of Vertue and reads us a fair Lecture of a more then ordinary Christianity far beyond the cold instructions of Book or Pulpit They onely utter words you speak examples England hath heard and the holy Altars have often witnessed the fervour of your Majesties devotions whilest you spend whole nights in paying the faithful homage of heart and knee to the greatest of all Majesties Almighty God So that the severe duties of Prayer Watching Penance Mortification frequent Retreats to a more free and undisturbed converse with Heaven are now adopted Court-Vertues in the sanctity of your Majesties Royal Person All which makes me say that such and so eminently-instructive a life will if the Prophet please to lend me his expression entitle your Majesty not onely to one but were it possible to a plurality of Eternities Live then So the vulgar Edition renders it in perputuas aeternitates most pious Princess live and be still your great Self great in Majesty greater for for piety and greatest in the contempt of all temporal greatness compared with eternal May the same sweet Providence which hath led up so noble a Merit to a Throne for a Royal Consort to Soveraignty long preserve you in your high Orb there to shine as a leading Pattern of true Vertue and Piety to our Nation And when our sins shall envy us the happiness of your Majesties longer residence upon earth and the inexorable Decree shall summon you to pay the common debt which all of us Prince
which he was wholly absorpt his senses suspended and tied up as it were in a sweet sleep by the content which he received from that consideration Seneca Epist 22. I delighted my self sayes he amongst other things to enquire into the Eternity of Souls and believing it as a thing assuredly true I delivered up my self wholly over unto so great a hope and I was now weary of my self and despised all that remained of age though with perfect and entire health that I might pass into that immense time and into the possession of an eternal world So much could the consideration of Eternity work in this Philosopher that it made him to despise the most precious of temporal things which is life Certainly amongst Christians it ought to produce a greater effect since they not onely know that they are to live eternally but that they are either to joy or suffer eternally according unto their works and life CAP. III. The Memory of Eternity is of it self more efficacious then that of Death ANd therefore it shall much import us to frame a lively conception of Eternity and having once framed it to retain it in continual memory which of it self is more efficacious then that of Death for although both the one and the other be very profitable yet that of Eternity is far more generous strong and fruitful of good works for by it did Virgins preserve their purity Anchorits perform their austere penances and Martyrs suffered their torments the which were not comforted and encouraged in their pains by the fear of death but by the holy reverence and hope of Eternity and the love of God It is true the Philosophers who hoped not for the immortality of the other life as we do yet with the memory of death retired themselves from the vanity of the world despised its greatness composed their actions and ordered their lives according to the rules of reason and vertue Epict. c. 28. apud S. Hier. in ca. 10. Math. Whereupon Epictetus advises us alwayes to have death in our mindes so sayes he Thou shalt never have base and low thoughts and desire any thing with trouble and anxiety And Plato said that by so much man were to be esteemed wiser by how much he more seriously thought of death and for this reason he commanded his Disciples that when they went any journey they should go barefoot signifying thereby that in the way of this life we should alwayes have the end of it discovered which is death and the end of all things But Christians who believe the other life are to add unto this contemplation of death the memory of Eternity the advantages whereof are as far above it as things eternal above those which are temporal The Philosophers were so much moved with the apprehension of death because with it all things of this mortal life were to end death being the limit whereunto they might enjoy their riches honours and delights and no further others desired to die because their evils and afflictions were to die with them If then death amaze some only because it deprives them of the goods of this life which by a thousand other wayes use to fail and which of themselves even before the death of the owner are corruptible dangerous and full of cares and if others hope for death onely because it frees them from the evils of life which in themselves are short and little as all things temporal are why should not we be moved by the thought of Eternity which secures us goods great and everlasting and threatens us with evils excessive and without end Without doubt then if we rightly conceive of Eternity the memory of it is much more powerful then that of death and if of this wise men have had so great an esteem and advised others to have the same much more ought to be had of that of Eternity Zenon desirous to know an efficacious means how to compose his life bridle his carnal appetites and observe the lawes of vertue had recourse unto the Oracle which remitted him unto the memory of death saying Go to the dead consult with them and there thou shalt learn what thou demandest There seeing the dead possess nothing of what they had and that with their lives they had breathed out all their felicity he might learn not to be puffed up with pride nor to value the vanities of the world For the same cause some Philosophers did use to drink in the skulls of dead men that they might keep in continual memory that they were to die and were not to enjoy the pleasures of this life although necessary unless alloid by some such sad remembrance In like manner many great Monarchs used it as an Antidote against the blandishments of fortune that their lives might not be corrupted by their too great prosperity Philip King of Macedonia commanded a Page to tell him three times every morning Philip thou art a man putting him in mind that he was to die and leave all The Emperor Maximilian the first four years before he died commanded his Coffin to be made which he carried along with him whither soever he went which with a mute voice might tell him as much Maximilian thou art to die and leave all The Emperors also of the East amongst other Ensignes of Majesty carried in their left hand a book with leaves of gold which they called Innocency the which was full of earth and dust in signification of humane mortality and to put them in minde hereby of that ancient doom of Mankind dust thou art and into dust thou shalt return And not without much conveniency was this memorial of death in the form of a book nothing being of more instruction and learning then the memory of death being the onely School of that great truth where we may best learn to undeceive our selves With reason also was the book called Innocency For who will dare to sin that knows he is to die Neither were the Emperors of the Abissins careless herein Nicol. God lib. 1. de rebus Abiss â—a 8. for at their Coronations amongst many other Ceremonies there was brought unto them a vessel fill'd with earth and a dead mans skull advertising them in the beginning that their Raign was to have a speedy end Finally all Philosophers agreed in this that all their Philosophy was the meditation of death But without doubt the contemplation of Eternity is far beyond all Philosophy it is a greater matter and of far more astonishment for the torments of Hell to last for ever then for the greatest Empires sodainly to have an end more horrible to suffer eternal evils then to be deprived of temporal goods greater marvel that our souls are immortal then that our bodies are to die Wherefore Christians especially those who aim to be perfect are rather to endeavour in themselves a strong conception of Eternity then to stir up the fear of death whose memory ought not to be needful for the
hills to hide them within their Caverns But all this is rather to be imagined then expressed and the very thought of it is enough to make us tremble The creatures now groan to see themselves abused by man in contempt of his and their Creator but they shall then shake off their yoaks and shall revenge themselves of the agrievances which they suffer under him and the injuries he hath done unto the Creator of all The violences of the Elements and disturbances of Nature which have and may happen hereafter are nothing in respect of those which shall be in the last dayes the which St. Augustine sayes shall be much more horrible and dreadful than those which are past And if those single and alone were so terrible as we have already seen what shall they be when they come all together and from all parts when the whole world shall rebel against man when all shall be confusion when Summer shall be changed into Winter and Winter into Summer and no creature shall keep the prefixed law with them who have not observed the Law of their Creatour that so they may revenge both God and themselves §. 3. But that this most fearful alteration of the creatures which shall happen may be yet more apparent we will specifie some of them out of the Apocalyps of St. John Very dreadful is that which he mentions in the eighth Chapter of hail and fire with a rain of blood so general and in such abundance that it shall destroy the third part of the Earth of trees and green herbs How horrible an amazement shall so general a rain cause amongst men But it is not so to end For immediately shall appear in the Air a huge mountain of fire which shall fall all at once into the Sea and dividing it self into several bodies shall burn the third part of the Fishes the third part of Ships and of what else shall be in the Ocean The like effect shall proceed from a flame or prodigious Comet which falling into the Rivers and Fountains and there dividing it self into several parts shall turn the waters bitter as wormwood and make them so pestilential as they shall infect those who drink them and many shall die with their taste An Angel shall then smite the Sun Moon and Stars Apoc. 9. and deprive them of a third part of their light But mote horrible than all is that which follows that after so many calamities the bottomless pit which is hell shall burst open and out of his profound throat belch forth so thick a smoke as shall wholly darken the Sun and Air from which smoke shall sally forth a multitude of deformed Locusts which in great swarms shall disperse themselves over the face of the whole earth and leaving the fields herbs and what is sown fall upon such men as have been unfaithful unto God and shall for five moneths torment them with greater rage than Scorpions Some Doctors understanding those Locusts according unto the Letter Lessius de Perf. div l. 13. c. 18. Cornel. in Apoc. that they shall be a certain kind of true Locusts but of a strange figure and fierceness others that they shall be Devils of hell in the shape of Locusts and it is no marvel that in the destruction of the world Devils shall appear in visible forms since in the destruction of Babylon they appeared in divers figures of beasts as was prophesied by Isaias But after what manner soever St. John sayes that this Plague shall be so cruel Isa c. 34. 13. that men shall seek death and shall not find it and shall desire to die and death shall flye from them Many other plagues shall happen in those last dayes For as before that God drowned the Aegyptians and delivered his people he sent such plagues upon Aegypt as are recorded in Exodus so before the general destruction of Sinners in that universal Deluge and Sea of fire which shall cover the whole Earth and out of which the Saints are to escape free so much greater plagues shall proceed as the whole World is greater than Aegypt For not onely the Rivers and Fountains shall then ce turned into blood but the whole Sea shall be converted into a most black gore The Lord shall also in those days send horrible botches and sores upon men and the Sun shall scorch them in that manner as they shall lose their senses and some of the wicked shall turn against God and blaspheme as if they were already in hell The Earth also shall tremble and that not being the greatest which is recounted in the sixth Chapter of the Apocalyps yet the Apostle relates such things of it as are able to strike a fear and amazement into those who hear it His words are these There was a great Earthquake Apoc. 6. and the Sun became as sackcloth and the Moon at blood the Stars fell from Heaven as a Fig-tree cast off its green siggs when it it shaken by a violent wind The Heavens were folded up as a book or as a roll of parchment and all Mountains and Islands moved from their places I leave unto the consideration of every one what shall then become of those who remain alive in that conflict St. John sayes that Kings and Princes the Rich and Strong Slaves and Free-men shall hide themselves in Caves and Rocks and shall say unto the Mountains and Hills Fall upon us and cover us And the same S. John sayes further that there shall be yet a greater Earthquake which shall be the greatest that ever happened since the foundation of the World was laid in which the Islands shall sink and the Mountains shall be made even with the Plains Horrible lightnings and thunders shall affright the Inhabitants of the Earth and hailstones shall fall of the weight of a Talent which is of 5 Arrobas an Hebrew Talent weighing 125 Roman pounds This Plague joyned with so strange an Earth-quake how shall it astonish those who are then alive § 4. But how shall it then fare with Sinners when after all shall come that general fire so often foretold in holy Scripture which shall either fall from Heaven Vide P. Grana De novissi Alb. Mag. in comp or asseend out of Hell or according to Albertus Magnus proceed from both and shall devour and consume all it meets with Whither shall the miserable flye when that River of flames or to say better that Innundation and Deluge of fire shall so encompass them as no place of surety shall be left where nothing can avail but a holy life when all besides shall perish in that universal ruine of the whole World What shall it then profit the wordlings to have rich Vessels of gold and silver curious Embroideries precious Tapestries pleasant Gardens sumptuous Palaces and all what the world now esteems when they shall with their own eyes behold their costly Moveables burnt their rich and curious pieces of Gold melted and their
the memory of this doth not burst our hearts with compunction In vit PP Let us take the counsel of a holy Father in the Desert who when one asked him What he should do to soften and mollifie his stony heart answered That he should remember that he was to appear before the Lord who was to judge him whose sight as another holy Monk said would be so terrible unto the wicked that if it were possible that Souls could die the whole world at the coming of the Son of God would be struck dead with fear and terrour At the side of the Throne of Christ shall be placed another Throne of great glory for his most holy Mother not then to intercede for sinners but for the greater confusion of those who when time served have not addressed themselves unto her nor reaped the benefit of her Protection that she may be honoured in the sight of the whole World There shall be also other Thrones for the Apostles and those Saints who poor in spirit have left all for Christ who sitting now as Judges with their Redeemer and condemning by their good example the scandalous lives of sinners shall approve the Sentence of the Supream Judge and declare his great Justice before the world with which the wicked shall remain confounded and amazed and it shall then be fulfilled which so many years since was prophesied by the Wiseman Sap. 5. The wicked beholding the just who were despised in this life to be so much honoured shall be troubled with horrible fear and shall wonder at their unexpected salvation saying amongst themselves with great resentment and much grief and anguish of Spirit These are they who sometime were unto us matter of scorn and laughter We fools imagined their life to be madness and that their end would be without honour but behold they are counted amongst the Children of God and their lot is amongst the Saints We err'd and wandred from the ways of truth and the light of Justice was not with us nor the Sun of wisdom did shine upon us We wearied our selves in the ways of wickedness and perdition and walked in paths of difficulty and knew not the way of the Lord. What hath our pride profited us and what hath the pomp of our riches availed us all those things have passed like a shadow or like a messenger who passes in haste or like a ship which cuts the instable waves and leaves no track where it went and are now consumed in our wickedness The Tyrants who have afflicted and put to death the holy Martyrs what will they now say when they shall see them in this Glory Those who trampled under foot the justice right of the poor of Christ what will they do when they shall behold them their Judges And what will the wicked Judges doe or say when they shall see themselves condemned for their unjust Sentences Eccl. 3. 10. fulfilling that which was said by Salomon I saw a great evil beneath the Sun that in the Throne of Judgement was seated impiety and wickedness in the place of Justice and I said in my heart God shall judge the good and evil and then shall be seen who every one is Here in this life the just and sinner have not always the place which they deserve many times the wicked takes the right hand and the holy the left Christ shall then rectifie all those grievances and shall separate the wheat from the tares The good he shall place upon his right hand elevated in the Air that all the world may honour them as holy And the wicked shall stand far at his left remaining upon the Earth to their own confusion and the scorn of all How shall the sinners envy the just when they shall see them so much honoured and themselves so much despised How confounded shall be the Kings of the earth when they shall behold their Vassals in Glory and Lords when they shall see their slaves amongst the Angels and themselves in equal rank with Devils For it seems the Devils then shall assume bodies of Air that they may be sensibly seen by the wicked and shall stand amongst them for their greater affront and torment § 3. Immediately the Books of all mens Consciences shall be opened and their sins publisht to the whole world The most secret sins of their hearts and those filthy acts which were committed in private Those sins which through shame and bashfulness were conceal'd in Confession or cover'd with excuses crooked and sinister intentions hidden and unknown treacheries counterfeit and dissembling virtues all shall then be manifested feigned friends adulterous wives unfaithful servants false witnesses shall all to their great shame and confusion be then discovered If we are now so sensible when people murmure at us or that some infamous act of ours is known to one or two persons how shall we be then troubled when all our faults together are made known unto all both men and Angels How many are there now who if they imagined that their father or brother knew what they had committed in secret would die with grief And yet in that day not onely fathers and brothers but friends and enemies and all the world shall to their confusion know it The virtuous actions of the just how secretly soever performed their holy thoughts their pious desires their pure intentions their good works which the world now either disesteems or calumniates as madness shall then be manifested and they for them shall be honoured by the whole world virtue shall then appear admirable in all her beauty and vice horrible in all her deformity It shall then be seen how decent and beautiful it is for the great to humble themselves for the offended to be silent and pardon injuries on the other side how insolent and horrid a thing it is to trample upon the poor to wrong the humble to desire revenge and Lord it over others Then shall be also discovered the good works of the wicked but for their greater affront in that they have not persevered in doing well and that calling to remembrance the good counsel and advice which they have given unto others which hath been a means of their salvation they may be now confounded to have neglected it themselves to their own damnation The sins also of the just shall be published but with all their repentance and the good which they have drawn from their faults in such sort as it shall no ways redound to their shame but be an argument of rendring thanks and divine praises to the Lord who was pleased to pardon them But nothing shall be of greater despite and confusion unto sinners than to behold those who have committed equal greater sins than themselves to be then in Glory because they made use of the time of repentance which they despised and neglected This confusion shall be augmented by that inward charge which God shall lay against them of his divine benefits unto which
brought forth The same happened in the Siege of Jerusalem as Eusebius recounts in his Ecclesiastical History At the Siege of Numantia when Scipio had cut off all provisions from entring the Town the Inhabitants fell into that mortal and dog-like famine that every day they sallied forth to catch Romans as if they had hunted after wilde beasts Those whom they took they fed upon their flesh and drunk their blood as if they had drunk fountain water or fed upon Kid. They pardoned none but such as fell into their hands were cut in quarters and sold by pieces publickly in the Butchery in so much as the flesh of a dead Roman was of greater value than the ransome of a live one In the fourth book of Kings there is mention made of a Famine in Samaria in the time of Elizeus the Prophet which much exceeds this The want of food was so great that the head of an Ass was sold for 80 pieces of silver and the fourth part of a small measure of Pigeons dung for 5 pieces The most lamentable and inhumane was that having spent all their provision Women eat their own Children and one Woman complained to the King of Israel that her neighbour had broken an Agreement made betwixt them which was That they should first eat her Child and that done the others I sayes she have complied with my obligation and we have already eaten mine and now she hath hid hers and denies me my part Which the King hearing rent his garments and was struck with unspeakable sorrow Josephus in the seaventh Book of the Wars of the Jews relates a story much like unto this Joseph l. 7. de bel Jud. c. 2. but executed with more fury and after a more strange manner There was saith he in Jerusalem when it was besieged a Lady rich and noble who had hid in a house of the City the most part of her wealth and of the rest lived sparingly and with great moderation But she was not suffered to do so long for the Souldiers of the Garrison discovering her stock in a short time bereaved her both of what she had within doors and without and if she chanced at any time to be relieved by friends or beg some little thing to asswage her hunger they would take it from her and tear the morsel out of her mouth Seeing her self therefore destitute of all hope or counsel and certain to die of hunger and no possible remedy left for her necessities she began to arm her self against the laws of Nature and beholding the Infant which hung at her breast she cried out in this manner O unhappy Son of a more unhappy Mother how shall I now dispose of thee where shall I preserve thee things are driven to that exigent that though I save thy life from famine thou art certain to be a Slave to the Romans Better it is my Son that thou now sustain thy Mother who gave thee being and strike a terrour into those cursed Souldiers who have left me no other way of subsisting better that thou become an argument of pity unto future ages and raise sorrow in hearts not yet born At these words she cut the throat of her tender Infant divided it in the middle rosted one half and eat it and laid aside the rest for another meal She had no sooner ended this lamentable Tragedy but the Souldiers entred who smelling the rosted flesh began to threaten the Woman with death if she discovered not her store But she distracted with rage and horrour of her act and desiring nothing more than to accompany her dead Infant without fear or being abashed at all replied in this manner Peace friends we will share like brothers and saying this she fetched the half Child and placed it upon the Table before them At which hideous sight the Souldiers being amazed and confounded conceiv'd so great horrour and compassion in their hearts that they were not able to utter one word but she to the contrary staring upon them with a wilde countenance full of fury and distraction with a hoarse and broken voice spake in this manner Why how now Masters how comes this to pass is not this my Son the fruit of my own body is not this my act why do ye not then eat since I have begun unto you are you perhaps more nice than a Woman are you more scrupulous than the Mother which bore it for shame fall too It is I who have eaten of it first and 't is I will bear you company in eating of the rest But they not being able to behold so horrible a spectacle fled out of doors and left the miserable Mother with that little which remained of her Son and all her wealth Unto these stories I shall add one more lamentable in which will clearly appear unto what calamity humane life stands exposed It is written by William Paradin a man of great learning and diligence in a Treatise of things memorable in his time He relates it thus In the year 1528 men were grown so dissolute in their lives and so given over to all sorts of wickedness that notwithstanding those cruel and bloody warres which then raigned in most parts of Europe they humbled not themselves nor converted unto their Lord God but became every day worse and fell into that extremity of vice and mischief that God being offended let loose the sharp arrows of his wrath and vengeance against the Realm of France with such fury that all men thought the final destruction of that Kingdom was then come The want of corn wine and other fruits of the earth and the miseries and calamities of those times were such as no Records ever mention the like For five continued years beginning at the year 1528 the four Seasons of the year never kept their due and natural course but were in that confusion and disorder that sometimes Autumn came in Spring and Spring in Autumn Summer in Winter and Winter in Summer onely the unnatural Summer seemed to overcome the rest of the parts of the year and the heat doubled his forces against his enemy the cold insomuch as in December January and February when the cold ought to season and mellow the earth with frost and snow the heat was so excessive that the ground was parched and burnt up which was a most prodigious thing to behold In all those five years there was no two dayes together of hard weather neither those so intense as to glase the waters with the least shew of ice by which excessive heat were bred in the bowels of the earth an infinite number of Vermin Snails Grubs Worms Lizards and other creatures which eat up the young and tender corn in the hearb and much of it was devoured and consumed in the husk before it sprung up which was the reason that Wheat which uses to sprout up divers sterns from one grain hardly put forth one or two and those so abortive weak and dry that in
Gregory explicates in these words He is first troubled with a weariness in seeking how to compass sometimes by flattery sometimes by terrours what his covetousness desires and having obtained it the sollicitude of keeping it is no less vexatious He fears Theeves and is afrighted with the power of great ones lest they should by violence take his wealth from him and if he meet one in want presently suspects he may rob him and those very things which he hath gathered together he fears lest their own nature may consume them Since then the fear of all these things is a trouble and vexation the miserable wretch suffers in as many things as he fears St. Chrysostome also sayes that the rich man must needs want many things because he is content with nothing and is a slave of his avarice still full of fears and suspicion hated envied murmured at and made the enemy of all men whilest the poor life which walks the Kings high-way secured and guarded from Theeves and Enemies is a Port free from storms a School of wisdom and a life of peace and quietness Hom. 47. in Mat. And in another place he sayes thus If thou shalt well consider the heart of an avaritious and covetous man thou shalt finde it like a Garment spoiled and consumed with moths and ten thousand worms so corrupted and overcome with cares that it seems not the heart of a man Such is not the heart of the poor which shines like gold is firm as a rock of diamonds pleasant as a rose and free from fear theeves cares and sollicitudes lives a an Angel of heaven present onely to God and his service whose conversation is more with Angels than Men whose treasure is God not needing of any to serve him since he onely serves his Creator whose slaves are his own thoughts and desires over which he absolutely commands What more precious than this what more beautiful But the little help which humane life receives from temporal riches cannot be better exprest than by that which David sayes Psal 33. The rich have wanted and were a hungred but those who seek the Lord shall not be defrauded of all good If then the abundance of wealth cannot free us from the necessities of the body how shall they rescue us in the griefs and cares of the minde Neither are honours more favourable unto humane life What anguish of heart doth the fear of losing them cost us and what shifts are we put to to preserve them great are the inconveniences which many suffer to sustain them even to the want of necessary food Exod. 5. For as Pharao exacted things impossible from the Children of Israel commanding that no straw should be allowed them for the burning of their bricks and yet that the same Tax and number should be imposed as before The same tyranny is exercised over many by the World which takes away the stock and substance which they formerly had to sustain themselves and yet commands them still to maintain the same pomp and equipage which they did when they enjoy'd it so that many are forced by their honour as they term it to maintain a Coach and Lackies which they need not when they have scarcely wherewith to feed their hungry bellies In others what melancholly and sadness is sometimes caused by a vain suspicion that some have thought or spoken ill of them so many are the mischiefs and vexations which this counterfeit good draws along with it that many have given thanks to God that he hath taken this burthen of honour from them that so they might live in greater quiet and repose Plutarch sayes That if a man were offered two wayes whereof the one led to Honour and the other to Death he should choose the latter Lucian desiring to express it more fully feigns that one of the Gods refused his Deity because he would not be troubled with being alwayes honoured He invents this lye to make us believe the truth which we have spoken The excess also of pleasures what miseries doth it heap upon us what infirmities doth it engender in our bodies what torments and resentments in our consciences for as he who wanders out of his way without reflecting on it is by the briers bushes pits and unevenness of the ground put in minde that he hath lost himself which although he be otherwise well accommodated yet troubles and afflicts him So the wayes and paths of a delicious man cry out unto him that he goes astray and must therefore cause a melancholly and a sadness in his heart Hom. 10. in Ezechiel Well said St. Gregory that he was a fool who looked for joy and peace in the delights of the world for those are the effects of the Holy Ghost and companions of righteousness which are farre removed from the cares and vanities of the earth Besides all our pleasures are so intermixt with trouble and importunities that it is the greatest pleasure to want them Epicurus who was a great studier of pleasures Hieron contra Jovinian did as St. Jerome writes enrich all his books with sentences of temperance and sobriety and he hath scarce a leaf which is not filled with pot-herbs fruits roots and other mean food of small trouble the sollicitude in setting forth of banquets being greater than the delight we receive in their abuse Diogenes in the same manner and other Philosophers despised pleasures as prejudicial to the commodities of life passing for that cause their lives in great poverty Crates flung all his goods into the Sea and Zeno was glad his were drowned with a Tempest Aristides would not admit the bounty of Calicias and Epaminondas was content with one Coat living in poverty and temperance to the end he might live with content and honour and free from necessities which are often greater amongst the rich than the poor Riches make not their Masters rich who live in perpetual covetousness and are never satisfied with their Coffers Wherefore the Holy Ghost speaking of those who are called Rich and of the Poor of the Gospel sayes those are as it were rich and enjoy nothing and these are as it were poor and possess all things For which reason St. Gregory noted that our Saviour Christ called not the Riches of the world absolutely Riches but false and deceitful Riches False in regard they cannot continue long with us Deceitful because they cannot satisfie the necessities of life § 3. It is more to be feared when the goods of this life cause the evils of the other and that they not onely rob us of the content of the present but occasion the torments of the future and after one hell in this life throw us down into another after death Well said St. Jerome in one of his Epistles that it was a difficult thing to enjoy both the goods present and to come to passe from temporal pleasures to eternal and to be great both here and there for he who places his whole
some their lives St. Bernard explicating the 90. Psalm reports that a certain religious person being ready to die beheld two Devils in that horrid and ugly shape that he cried out as if he had been distracted Cursed be the hour that I entred into Religion and then holding his peace not long after with a quiet and appeased voice and countenance he said Nay rather blessed be the time that I became of this Order and ever blessed be the Mother of Christ whom I have alwayes loved from my heart And then turning to those who were in prayer he said unto them Marvel not at the turbation of my spirit for two Devils appeared unto me in that monstrous and horrid form that if there were here a fire of sulphur and melted mettal which were to last unto the day of Judgement I would sooner pass through the middest of it than turn again to behold them If then two Devils caused such amazement what shall the sight of legions doe each exceeding other in deformity If the Devil be so ugly and terrible in this life what shall he be in his proper place of damnation and especially so many together Many are affrighted very much passing onely through a Church-yard onely for fear of seeing a phantasm in what a fright will be a miserable damned soul which shall see so many and of so horrid shapes St Gregory reflecting on that which is spoken in the book of Job Job 10. That in Hell shall inhabit everlasting horror sayes in this manner How can there be fear where there is so much grief We grieve for a present evil and fear for that which is to come and he who is arrived at the utmost of misery hath nothing more to fear and not to fear is a kind of good and no good can happen in Hell He answers That as death perpetually killing the damned leaves them alive that they may die living so pain torments them and in such manner affrights them that they are still in fear of greater succeeding pains Their fight also shall be tormented with beholding the punishment of their friends and kindred Egesippus writes that Alexander the Son of Hircanus resolving to punish certain persons with exemplary rigour caused 800 to be crucified and whilest they were yet alive caused their wives and children to be murthered before their eyes that so they might die not one but many deaths This rigour shall not be wanting in Hell where Fathers shall see their Sons and Brothers their Brothers tormented The Torment of the eyes shall be also very great in regard that those that have given others scandal and made others fall into sin shall see themselves and those others in that Abyss of torments To the sight of these dreadful and grievous apparitions shall be added that nocturnal horrour and fearful darkness of the place Nicholas de Lira sayes In Exod. 10. sayes that therefore the darkness of Aegypt was said to be horrible because there the Aegyptians beheld fearful figures and phantasms which terrified them In the like manner in that infernal darkness the eyes shall be tormented with the monstrous and enormous figures of the wicked spirits which shall appear much more dreadful by reason of the obscurity and sadness of that eternal night The Hearing shall not onely be afflicted by an intolerable pain caused by that ever burning and penetrating fire but also with the fearful and amazing noises of thunders roarings howlings clamours groans curses and blasphemies Sylla being Dictator caused six thousand persons to be enclosed in the Circus and then appointing the Senate to meet in a Temple close by where he intended to speak unto them about his own affairs to strike the greater terror into them and make them know he was their Master he gave order that so soon as he began his oration the Souldiers should kill this multitude of people which was effected Upon which were heard such lamentations outcries groans clashing of Armour and blows of those merciless homicides that the Senatours could not hear a word but stood amazed with terror of so horrid a fact Such shall be the harmony of Hell when the ears shall be deafned with the cries and complaints of the damned What confusion and horrour shall it breed to hear all lament all complain all curse and blaspheme through the bitterness of the torments which they suffer Sur. in ejus vita 14. Apr. St. Lidwin being in an extasie saw a place so dreadful made of black stone and of such a depth that it would fright one to look into it The Saint heard there within most fearful groans cries and howlings noise and horrible knocking as it were of hammers wherewith those within were tormented She was so astonished to hear this that if all the noise and lamentations of the world were joyned together it would be of no trouble in respect of it The Angel told her That was the habitation of the damned And demanding of her whither she had any desire to see it she said No she would not see it because only hearing what there was done caused her an unsufferable grief The Smell also shall be tormented with a most pestilential stench Horrible was that torment used by Mezentius to tye a living body to a dead and there to leave them until the infection and putrified exhalations of the dead had killed the living What can be more abominable than for a living man to have his mouth laid close to that of a dead one full of grubs and worms where the living must receive all those pestilential vapours breathed forth from a corrupted carcass and suffer such loathsomness and abominable steneh But what is this in respect of Hell when each body of the damned is more loathsome and unsavoury than a million of dead dogs and all these pressed and crowded together in so streight a compass Isaias in respect of their stench calls them dead bodies Isai 34. when he sayes The stench of their carcasses shall ascend And St. Bonaventure goes so far as to say that if one onely body of the damned were brought into this world it were sufficient to infect the whole earth Neither shall the Devils send forth a better smell For although they are spirits yet those fiery bodies unto which they are fastned and confined shall be of a most pestilential savour And in this manner a Devil who had appeared unto him being put to flight by St. Martin left such an horrible stench behind him that the Saint deemed himself to be already in hell and said unto himself If one onely Devil having been here hath caused this what will all the Devils together and damned men doe Libel de provid num 3. In the Book of the Doctrine of the Fathers it is written that a pious Damsel being carried by an Angel to see Hell she saw her own Mother there put into a Cauldron of boiling pitch up to the neck and great numbers of vermin swarming
riches that they lived most contentedly in great poverty and moderation Aristides although a principal person in Athens was so affected to poverty that he alwayes went in a course broken Garment hungry and necessitated and though he had a friend of great wealth called Clinias could never be perswaded to accept the least relief from him It happened that this Clinias being accused before the Judges to aggravate his other crimes it was laid in his dish that being rich and able he had not assisted his friend Aristides Clinias perceiving the Judges to be highly incensed and all men to cry out against his inhumanity went to Aristides and desired him to defend him from that false calumny and to satisfie the Judges and people how often he had offered his wealth and fortunes to serve him and that it was he himself who had still refused it Aristides did so and informed the Judges of the innocence of his friend and that it was his own desire rather to live in his own poverty than to brave it in the riches of another saying withall That rich men who mispent their fortunes were every where to be found but few who passed their poverty and want of necessaries with a generous mind which so soon as he had declared There was none present who envied not more the poverty and beggary of Aristides then wished the wealth of Clinias Zeno as St. Gregory Nazianzen and Seneca write when news was brought him That he had lost all answered I see that Fortune will have me henceforward profess the life of a Philosopher with less difficulty Valerius Maximus reports of Anaxagoras that when he received the like news all he said was If my goods had not perished I had Cato reports of Crates the Theban that he flung his substance into the Sea saying It is better I drown you than you me Diogenes left all he had but a wooden Dish and by chance seeing one drink out of the hollow of his hand broke that also Laertius writes that one scoffing at Aeschines a Philosopher of Rhodes said By the Gods Aeschines I am sorry to see thee so poor who answered By the same Gods I pity thee for having so great riches which thou hast gotten with trouble preserv'st with care spendest with grief keepest with danger defendest with a thousand fears and passions and which is worst of all Where are thy riches there is thy heart This point is singularly well handled by St. John Chrysostome in his second Book against the despisers of a Monastick life Chrys Lib. 2. con Vituper Vitae Monast which he dedicates to the Philosophers of the Gentils wherein he onely uses such reasons as may be apprehended by the light of nature comparing Plato with Dionysius Socrates with Archelaus and Diogenes with Alexander all which he makes much more glorious in their poverty than the others in all their power and Dominions He relates also that of Epaminondas the Theban who being called to a certain Council could not come because his Cloak was in washing and he had no other to weare and yet was more esteemed and reverenced by the Greeks than any of their Princes from whence the holy Doctor inferres That when there was no Evangelical Law nor Examples of Saints yet in natural reason and by natural testimonies Poverty was of high esteem and dignity This being so as certainly it is what can we say but that is not Poverty which we call so but great and true Riches §. 2. It is much to our confusion that the Gentils should so far despise temporal goods not being guided by that faith of Eternity which we profess The which gives so great a light unto the discovery of that distance which is betwixt the one and the other that many whom it hath enlightned with the beams of truth have not onely despised what the world holds in esteem but have sought and embraced the contrary rejoycing in poverty ignominy and austerities performing such actions to this effect as have not fallen under imagination whereof I shall here relate some admirable Histories and will begin with that of Mark of Alexandria which we find written in certain Greek Commentaries Ex Cod. M. S. Graec. Biblioth Vid. Raderum 2. P. opuse sui Viridar c. 3. pa. 79. The Abbot Daniel going with his Disciples unto Alexandria beheld there in company of other fools this Mark who went wholly naked but where modesty required something to cover him distributing what was given him with many sottish gestures amongst the other fools his companions The prudent Abbot seriously marking him presently found by that spirit of trial wherewith the Lord had endued him that this folly was Celestial wisdom and therefore meeting him the next day in one of the publick Market-places he endeavoured to detain him that he might speak with him but he still counterfeiting the fool strove all he could to get loose and run away from him insomuch as the Venerable old man was fain to cry unto those who were present to assist him who seeing a Monk struggle with a Fool cried out as fast to him to beware of the Mad-man At last some Priests and Ecclesiasticks who knew the Abbot passing by asked him What he had to do with the Fool and what he would with him Unto whom he answered If you desire to know bring him before the Patriarck and let him examine what he is They did so but Mark would neither answer nor speak a word until the Patriarck commanded him under an oath to declare Who he was and what were his intentions Then the counterfeit Fool forced by this adjuration to leave off his dissembling confest he had been a grievous sinner and had continued in dishonesty of life fifteen years but by the goodness of God repenting his sins he had resolved to perform as many years of penance and had in a place convenient for the purpose spent eight of them but desiring to pass the rest of them in greater rigour and austerity he came to Alexandria there to be treated in that manner as they had seen him in which he had now continued other eight years Those who were present could not out of tenderness refrain tears and were much edified at the extraordinary wayes by which the spirit of God recalls those whom he hath chosen But their admiration was much encreased when the next day the Abbot Daniel having sent his Disciple unto Mark to visit him and to advise him to return to the silence and solitariness of his Cell he found him dead and that he had already rendred his soul unto his Creator Unto whose Interrement all the Monks and Priests of Alexandria with an incredible number of the People repaired praising the Lord for the marvailous works of his providence that whom he had chosen to be despised and contemned in life he had in this manner preserved to be honored in death Who sees in not this admirable man a high contempt and renunciation of those