set before our eyes the life which is Eternall and let us well consider the nature of it which we shall come the better to understand by removing from it whatsoever we account troublesome in this life For it is easier to finde what it is not rather then what it is And yet it is set to sale Thou maist buy it if thou wilt Thou shalt not need to be much troubled or turmoiled about it for the greatnesse of the price The price is whatsoever thou hast and no more Never examine what thou hast but consider what thou art It is worth thy buying though thou givest thy self for it Give thy self and thou shalt have it What Art thou to seek thy self Art thou to buy thy self Behold such as thou art if thou canst be content to give thy self thou shalt have it But thou wilt be ready to say it may be Alack I am a wicked man And such a man perhaps will not be received for good payment If thou beest not already good do but give thy self and by so doing thou shalt become good and go for current Do but make a faithfull promise to give thy self and this shall make thee good And being made good thou art a price of thy self good enough And thou shalt have as I said not onely health safety life and such like as shall have an end but also thou shalt be freed from many miseries Thou shalt neither be wearied nor stand in need of rest thou shalt neither hunger nor thirst neither increase nor decrease neither grow young nor wax old because there is no being born there For there is full growth and stature and the entire and perfect number of yeares There is no number like unto it For as it hath no need of being augmented so is there no fear of being diminished Behold what excellent things are spoken of it And yet I cannot come neare telling thee what it is or what good things are treasured up in it For as it is written Eye hath not seen nor eare heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man And how should my mouth be able to utter what the heart of man is not able to conceive And because we have gone along through S. Augustines books as it were through so many pleasant gardens and are now brought at length to the Celestiall Paradise Let us seal and confirm what hitherto hath been spoken by the testimonie of the same Father If we were every day saith he to suffer all torments yea the torments of Hell it self and that for a long time together to the end that we might behold Christ in his glory and have communion and fellowship with the Saints were it not worth our pains and sufferings Who would not suffer any sorrow to be made partaker of so much good and so great glory Let the Devils then lie in wait for me let them assault with tentations let my body be brought down with fasting let my flesh be kept under with pressure let me be wearied with labours let my moisture be dried up with watching let one man clamour against me let another disquiet me let me be bowed together with cold let me be set on fire with heat let my conscience murmure let my head ake let my breast be inflamed let my stomack be troubled with ventosities let my countenance wax pale and bleak let me be full of infirmities let my life consume away with grief and my yeares with mourning let rottennesse enter into my bones and let it spring up like a fountain under my feet Let all these miseries come upon me so that I may have rest and consolation in the day of tribulation and ascend up unto the people of the Lord. For What shall be the glory of the just and how great shall the joy of the Saints be when every face shall shine as the Sunne When the Lord shall begin to reckon up his people in their distinct orders in his Fathers kingdome and when he shall render unto every man according to his works the rewards which he hath promised that is Heavenly for Earthly and Eternall for Temporall Think therefore upon the dayes of old and call to minde the yeares which are yet for to come Think upon Eternitie O man think upon Eternitie Think upon the Eternitie of Torment and the Eternitie of Joy which is to follow after this short life ended and I dare warrant thee thou wilt never complain of any adversitie thou wilt never let slip out of thy mouth such a word as this This is too grievous or This is intolerable or This is too hard Thou wilt I dare say count all things easie and tolerable whatsoever can happen in this life and thou wilt never be better pleased then when thou art most afflicted It is reported by John Moschus of one Olympius an old man of singular patience who lived cloystered up in a Monasterie neare unto Jordan that he had his minde so bent and fixt continually upon Eternitie that he had scarce any sense or feeling at all of any temporall sorrow or miserie For as he goes on with his storie Upon a time as it hapned a certain religious man turned out of his way to visit him and finding him in a dark Cell a place as he thought inhabitable by reason of heat and swarms of gnats and other flies not without much admiration spake thus unto him And canst thou Olympius endure to live in such a close room so exceeding hot and so much pressed with gnats and swarms of flies But what did Olympius answer And dost thou wonder at this I tell thee my sonne all these are but light matters I count them tolerable that so I may escape Eternall torments which are intolerable I can endure to be stung by gnats that so I may not feel the sting of Conscience and the gnawing of the worm that never dieth This heat which thou so complainest of I can suffer easily when I think upon the Eternall fire of Hell which is unsufferable These troubles if I may so call them are but short and shall have an end But the torments in Hell are without end Whereupon said the other Certainly Olympius thou art led by the spirit of wisdome and truth so wisely and truely hast thou answered I would there were more of thy minde that would think thus seriously upon these things Then certainly there would be more then there are now adayes that would after thy example patiently suffer and endure all things CHAP. III. The Conclusion of all ZEuxis the most famous for his skill amongst all the ancient Painters that we have heard of was observed to be very slow at his work and to let no piece of his go abroad into the world to be seen of men till he had turned it over and over this side and that side again and again to see if he could spie any fault in it And being upon a time asked the reason why he was so curious
a Mistresse and Guide leadeth thee by the hand and pointeth thee to a thing which the fire hath no power to consume So shall all the damned burn but never shall burn out They shall alwaies burn but never be consumed They shall seek for death in the flames but shall not finde it Therefore justly doth one cry out Oh wo Eternall that never shall have end Oh end without end Oh death more grievous then all death Alwayes to dye and never to be quite dead So saith divine Isaiah Their fire never shall be quenched And the Angel in the Revelation They shall desire to dye and death shall flee from them That the Salamander for a little time can endure live in the fire beside Aristotle Plinie Galen AElian Dioscorides S. Augustine also himself beleeved This creature is very cold and is generated of showers The sunne and drought are death to it Therefore according to Plinie it endures in the flame like ice Of the skin thereof lights are made for perpetuall burning lamps God who made the Salamander of Earth and Clay hath of his goodnesse formed man though of the same matter yet of a more excellent and noble nature He hath made him a little lower then the Angels He hath assigned unto him after this life the fellowship of the same kingdome with the Angels But man being in honour had no understanding and was compared unto the beasts that perish By his own malice he made himself such a Salamander that must alwayes live or alwayes dye in Eternall flames In those fiery prisons of Hell all things are Eternall but these six things especially CHAP. 1. What things are Eternall in Hell THe damned himself is Eternall and dyes not No man can make an end of himself or another They shall seek death and shall not finde it Yea the very desire of death in as much as their desire cannot be satisfied shall greatly increase their torment The Prison it self is Eternall It can never fall to ruine it can never be broken down it can never be digged through It is barred up with rocks and mountains The locks and barres are so firm and strong that none can get out If any of the damned should by Gods permission before the day of judgement come out from thence yet still he should carry an Hell about him and never be free from torment The fire there is Eternall Christ himself in Matthew saith as much expressely Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire or fire Eternall Doest thou heare this word Eternall The anger of the Lord doth kindle this fire and it shall never be put out To this beareth Isaiah witnesse saying The breath of the Lord like a stream of brimstone doth kindle it it shall burn night and day and shall not be quenched the smoke thereof shall ascend up for ever and ever Eternall punishment and Eternall life are Relates as S. August speaketh and Relates are of like continuance To say therefore That Eternall life shall be without end and Eternall punishment shall have an end is very absurd Who therefore will deferre his conversion As the things mentioned before are Eternall so is the Worm and Conscience tormented with deep despaire for the life past Their worm shall not die So prophesieth Isaiah The Poëts of old translated this out of holy writ into their fables For what is that Tityus of whom Virgil feigneth That a flying Vultur every day gnawes and teares his Liver which is every night again repaired and made up that every day the Vultur may have more prey to gnaw upon What is the Vultur but the Worm we speak of And what is his Liver but the Conscience alwayes gnawen and tormented To this Eternitie of Hell belongeth also the last sentence and the last decree pronounced by Christ the Judge A decree Alas irrevocable immutable Eternall There is no Appealing from it If the sentence be once pronounced by the mouth of this Judge it stands irrevocable for all Eternitie In Hell there is no redemption not any no not any but Eternall desperation The bloud of Christ when it was newly poured out on the mount of Golgotha though of infinite efficacie for satisfaction yet reached not unto the demned If the yoke of the Lord saith Saint Bernard be a yoke of Repentance you think that in it self it is not sweet But this you must know That it is most sweet if it be compared with that fire of which it is said Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire The Punishment or Pain of losse also as they call it is Eternall being the privation of the sight of God for ever which together with all the other torments of the damned shall never have end because there can be no place for satisfaction For although these torments shall continue infinite millions of yeares yet there shall not one day no nor one houre no nor so much as a moment of rest and respite be granted There shall be vicissitude and varietie of torments but to their greater pain and grief Christ often foretold it by Matthew in plain words The children of the kingdome shall be cast out into utter darknesse There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth weeping for heat and gnashing of teeth for cold How then can man be so forgetfull of himself and God How can he so degenerate into a beast Yea rather how can he become like a rock or a stone so senselesse as when he shall think upon the unsufferable and unutterable torments of Hell which never shall have end then not to feare and tremble and say with himself thus I am for certain in the way to Eternitie and I know not how soon I may come to my journeys end I sit on the Stairs of Eternitie and every little thrust is ready to plunge me into the bottomlesse pit But if it seem so grievous and intolerable for a man to lye though but for one night on a soft feather-bed and never sleep or close his eyes but to sigh and grone for pain in his head or any other member for the toothach or for the stone If the night seems long and the day a great way off and the sun to slack his coming And yet as I said he lyes upon a good feather-bed and if he will have but a little patience he may hope to finde ease in the day and help from the Physician Alack Alack How intolerable shall it be to lye night and day in the fire for a thousand and a thousand and again I say a thousand yeares How intolerable shall it be there to watch to hunger to thirst to burn to be tormented extremely in every part and not to hope for any rest or so much as a drop of cold water but to be alwayes in despaire and so to fry and to be tortured for infinite millions of ages and to be so farre from
himself Eternitie Eternitie Eternitie Why so Set thine house in order saith the Prophet to king Hezekiah For thou shalt die and not live There will come an evening for certain after which thou shalt see no morning or there will come a morning after which thou shalt see no evening Have an especiall care therefore in all thy actions that thou woundest not thy Conscience and trust not too farre to those things that perish for fear lest thou thy self together with them dost likewise perish and finally lose the things that are Eternall It is a custome in Germanie and not to be disliked in the evening when a Candle is first lighted or brought into a room To say Deus det nobis lucem AEternam God grant unto us light Eternall We shall do well to imitate the Germanes in this custome or rather it is alreadie in use and hath been long ago in many parts of this kingdome to say God grant us the light of heaven It is very good dayly to put us in minde of Eternitie There is likewise a kinde of Eternitie in Slaverie and Imprisonment but infamous and horrible It is a cruell punishment and worse then death it self in some mens judgement to be condemned to perpetual imprisonment or to be a perpetuall Gally-slave Those which are oppressed with sicknesse or other sorrows do likewise imagine with themselves that even in their sufferings there is a kinde of Eternitie Whence it comes to passe that we often heare them utter such distempered speeches as these will this last alwayes Shall I still without end be nayled fast to my bed Shall I suffer these pains and sorrows perpetually Shall I alwayes be thus vexed and tormented Alack these Eternities are but short and soon come to an end But if it be so grievous to flesh and bloud to endure slaverie or imprisonment here on earth though but for a moment for our life is no longer according to Davids measure but a span which is very short What care and diligence and what circumspection ought we to use that we be noâ— cast into the prison of Hell and into the fathomlesse pit where there is slaverie and imprisonment pain and torment to be endured throughout all ages beyond all times even to all Eternitie CHAP. II. That Eternitie transcends all numbers of Arithmetick THere is a very common and well known Arithmetick which children are taught when they first go to School and this is it Suppose there were a mountain of very fine sand as big as the whole earth or rather much bigger Then suppose that every yeare an Angell should take from this mountain one and but one grain of sand How many thousand and thousand and again I say thousand yea how many hundred thousand and yet more how many thousand millions of yeares must there needs passe before it can be perceived that the mountain is grown lesse or any whit diminished Let a man that is skilfull in Arithmetick sit down and begin to cast How many yeares must passe before the mountain or half the mountain be removed by the Angell Certainly we cannot conceive that ever he shall be able to cast up the Totall number of the sand But herein are we mistaken for although we cannot conceive it possible to be done yet it may be done But Eternitie exceeds this number of yeares beyond all comparison it is most certain For between a thing finite and a thing infinite there is no comparison no proportion Eternitie hath no limits no terms no bounds none at all But suppose the damned should burn in Hell no longer then till the mountain by grain after grain yeare after yeare should by the Angell be quite removed yet what an incomprehensible number of yeares must first passe before they can expect to see the day of deliverance But alas there is no such day to be expected their torments shall have no end After that incomprehensible number of yeares it shall be truely said Now beginneth their Eternitie their Eternitie is not in any part expired they are as farre from the end of their torments as they were at the beginning After a thousand yeares yea after a hundred thousand yeares there shall not be an end or middle or beginning of Eternitie For the measure of Eternitie is Alwayes The same Art of Arithmetick about the businesse of Eternitie a late Divine teacheth in words somewhat different but in meaning all one with the former I therefore adde it because a man can never sufficiently think or speak of it Consider saith he what is the length of Eternitie How long shall God and his Saints reigne How long shall the damned burn in Hell For ever How long is that Imagine an hundred thousand yeares Alas That is nothing in respect of Eternitie Imagine ten hundred thousand yeares yea so many ages Yet that is nothing Eternitie is still as long as it was Imagine a thousand millions of yeares And yet that is nothing Eternitie is not a whit shortened Imagine yet more 1000000000000000000000000000000 a thousand thousand thousand thousand thousand thousand thousand thousand Millions of yeares Imagine I say the damned should burn in Hell so many yeares and yet thou hast not found the very beginning of Eternitie Imagine once more so many millions of millions of yeares as there are drops in the sea and yet thou art not come to the beginning of Eternitie Such for continuance is the Eternitie of joy into which the blessed shall enter and the Eternitie of torments which the damned shall suffer O Jesus spare us spare us O Jesus O Jesus save us Have mercy upon us O good Jesus and suffer us not to be plunged headlong into the bottomlesse pit to be tormented with the damned for all Eternitie But yet if God would but say unto the damned Let the earth be covered with most fine sand and let the world be filled therewith and let it be heaped up so high as heaven and then let an Angell come once in every thousand yeares and take one grain of sand out of this heap When after so many thousand yeares as there be grains of sand the Angell shall have removed the whole heap then will I deliver you out of Hell Oh how would the damned exult and rejoyce and not think themselves damned But alas after so many thousands of yeares there remain yet more and more and infinite more to all Eternitie even for ever and ever This is that heavy weight that so presseth the damned Let every one therefore that sinneth consider with himself and again I say let him consider that unlesse he repent he shall be pressed and grone under this heavy weight of Eternitie Guilielmus Peraldus Bishop of Lions a very religious and learned man hath another manner of reckoning meditating upon the innumerable number of yeares throughout which the damned shall be tormented If the damned saith he should every day distill from their eyes but one small teare and those teares should