and Swine as he did Herod with that of Fox Sin changes men into beasts as is apparent out of Holy Writ Psa 48. Man when he was in honour did not understand he was compared to beasts without understanding and became like to them This is no great change Sin converts a man into a Devil as Christ plainly said to his Discisples John 6. Of you one is a Devil He objected likewise unto the Jews You are of your Father the Devil John 8. Now the Devil according to St. Anselm though warned by terrour and menaces would not abstain from sin neither would man beware of it albeit he was threatned with death if he did transgress The Devil sinned once but man offends many sand times he rebelled against his Creatour whereas man impiously kicks both at his Creatour and Redeemer St. In cap. 9. Joan. hom 54. Chrysostome inveighs severely against an envious person An envious man is worse then the Devil the Devil indeed bears envy but to men not to his own companions whereas thou being a man dost envy men and practise hatred against those of the same kind and nature with thy self which Satan doth not A wicked man may rightly be stiled a Devil yea hell it self Apoc. c. 20. And Hell and death saith the Apostle were cast into the Pool of fire How could this be was hell cast into hell it was so if we credit Expositours upon this place because he who steers a wicked course may justly be termed an Hell For as hell is a place of torments and an abode for Devils so a man of debaucht carriage suffers the pangs of a guilty Conscience wherein the Devil hath taken up his quarters Thus then this Hell shall be cast into Hell O sin O blasting and pestiferous whirlwind which killest in the budd both blossoms leaves and fruit of humane actions which deprivest man of justice and innocency and robbest him of himself O Poyson which dost murther when beloved and infectest even the very Marrow of the Soul and canst not be asswaged by an Ocean of calamities nor extinguished by the flames of Hell God makes this question to our first Parent after his fall Gene. 3. Adam where art thou Adam might with reason have returned this answer I am no where He was then no where indeed For by sin committed he was separated from God and punishment for his fault exiled him from Paradise Neither was he in himself by reason of the remorse his Conscience endured neither was he in other creatures which his offence had moved to Rebellion nor in the world because of his own inconstancy He was then no where alas he was no where where he might find repose But he was like unto a swift running torrent whose streams in regard of their rapid motion can neither be affirmed to be here nor there Do you desire to know what sin is Take a leisurely view of Adams fall How many millions of men were plunged into the depth of miseries by it from it sprung Famine War and Pestilence from it all Calamities Disasters yea death it self Such a tree might well bring forth such fruits from such a cause such effects were easily produced True it is the Son of God was fastned to a Cross to expiate this crime and yet how many millions suffer wrack in hell through sin Who ever will attentively consider these things when soothing pleasure invites him to offend may freely say I will not buy eternal repentance at so dear a rate When the Heavens frown and burst forth into storms of Hail Snow Whirlwinds Thunder and Lightning the cause is that Exhalations and Vapours through their native lightness are easily drawn up and afterwards in various tempests fall down to the earth again No otherwise descend from Heaven upon us violent storms of Dearth Warr Plague Sickness and other miseries which God indeed rains down amongst us but after the Exhalations and Vapours of our transgressions had ascended on high that lecture we learn from the Schools of Phylosophy this of Divinity St. Gregory speaks to the purpose The evil we suffer our sins have deserved The same is attested by Ecclesiasticus Death ch 40. Bloud Contention and Sword Oppressions Famine and Contrition and Scourges For the wicked all these were created Sin Banisht us from Paradise into this vale of tears into this tempestuous Sea where boysterous Winds and lofty Surges cause frequent Ship-wracks and all other miseries Sin maketh people miserable saith Salomon Pro. 14. How came the Turks so often to infest Christendome Whence proceeded so many inroads of Barbarous Nations So many Victories obtained against us What is the cause we are so much pestered with Famine and Plague Why doth that Face of Heaven toward us seem to be all of Brass and either drown us with too much wet or make us pine away for want of Rain Whence do Diseases rush in upon us by whole swarms All these are effects of sin sin is an abiss of all calamities I must needs deliver my mind in Seneca's words Epist 95 He is deceived that thinks God can have a will to do hurt he cannot God neither doth evil nor hath evil Albeit he chastise some and keep them in awe with punishments His eyes are clean from seeing evil and cannot look toward iniquity Therefore he bears extream hatred against sin Even as light of its own nature hath opposition with darkness Comliness with Deformity Goodness with Malice Purity with Uncleanness Life with Death So hath sanctity with all wickedness Wherefore as God loves sanctity beyond expression in like manner his aversion from sin is infinite Marks of his aversion are these that follow First he withdraws himself and his grace from a sinner Then he punisheth sin with many calamities as with present coyn even in this life Thirdly he takes from the Malefactour all right to Heaven Therefore we must either do true pennance or bid adieu to Heaven Fourthly every mortal sin he chastiseth with flames eternal and yet which cannot be exprest without admiration the chastisement is less then the sin deserves All Divines unanimously affirm an everlasting torment is decreed for every mortal sin neither can it ever truly be said This sin hath been punisht sufficiently What then is a mortal sin Alas alas Let all Angels answer this question which yet they are not able fully to declare that which lurks under one deadly sin is infinitely abominable That which Ludovicus Blosius recounts to stir up detestation of mortal sin is exceeding dreadful Monil spur c. 1. If the Mother of our Lord the most Blessed Virgin had sinned mortally and had dyed without contrition she had never attained Heaven but must have been tormented with the Devils in Hell So rigorous is Gods justice This likewise was revealed to St. Lib. 4. ch 7. Brigit who heard the Devils cry out to the supream Judge in this manner If that thing which thou lovest
setled without revocation Heretofore they were beautiful Angels now they are ugly Devils heretofore they were friends of God now as his sworn enemies they shall be tormented with fire everlasting And what offence brought them to this sad Catastrophe we told you even now One proud thought O King of Nations who will not â—and in â—ear of thee Here now let no one deceive himself and imagin the sin of the Angels was of a far different rank from those of men We may behold the like example in our first Parents as in the Angels Who together with their posterity were deprived of Gods grace robbed of the garment of innocency shut out of Paradise whence they were perpetually banisht and heard this fatal sentence pronounced against them You must dye Neither was it sufficient for them to dye once they were lyable to eternal death which now began to domineer over immense multitudes of people yea even over all mankind had not the Son of God taken pitty of us and become man to dye upon the Cross for our redemption We had all bin lost but that he vouchsafed to dye who was immortal for Original sin had already infected the whole mass of mankind What now I pray was that horrible offence of Adam He tasted of the forbidden Apple Alas Was the only biteing of an Apple to be chastised with so many Tears so many Funerals so many Calamities But wherefore do we complain This is the nature of sin it is infinitely displeasing to God it is punished with infinite pains and in conclusion is never expiated God is wrath when he is angry at sin Take yet a nearer view of the destruction of mankind The whole world served as a Tomb to bury all men in by a deluge of waters scarce eight persons being preserved alive from that inundation What was the cause of such prodigious mortality Who tumbled into the angry waves so many hundred thousand men Sin and especially that of Lust Who consumed with fire those strately Cities of Gomorrah Sodom and the rest Sin and chiefly Lust Who ruined the City of the Sichimites Sin and particularly that of Lust Who slew five and twenty thousand Benjamites and forty thousand Israelites in Battail Sin and principally that of Lust Thus God proceeds thus he vents his spleen against all sin in this point he knows not how to dissemble No sin escapes without punishment for though many obtain pardon yet none goes free from chastisement What punishment is that of Heli the Priest for his carelesness in correcting his Children what of Saul for disobedience Of David for incontinence Of Nabuchodâ—nâ—sor for Pride Of Ananias and Saphira for Avarice What vengeance was laid upon divers others for seemingly small faults Achan for stealing from the spoils of the enemies lost his life That poor man for gathering sticks on the Sabbath was stoned to death Oza for upholding the Ark from falling was strook suddainly dead The Prophet permitting himself at unawares to be deceived was strangled by a Lion The Israelites murmur against Moyses and are killed by fiery Serpents The Bethsamites look upon the Ark less reverently and above fifty thousand men are slain Boyes scoff at Elizeus and forty two of them are torn in peices by wild Bears God doth not spare offenders Ose ch 21. Let Samaria perish let the soul perish because she hath stirred up her God to bitterness If into a Sea of Honey one drop of Gall fell and turned the whole Sea into bitterness what would you say of that gall you might rightly affirm it were unspeakably nay infinitely bitter Of this nature is sin The goodness and mercy of God is infinitely sweet like unto an immense Sea of Honey But one deadly sin is of that bitterness and contains in it so much Gall as to turn God who is a boundless Ocean of sweetness into most dreadful bitterness of wrath and indignation This is asserted by Osee The Soul by sin hath stirred up her God to bitterness Doth she not therefore deserve to perish God himself complains of this dealing by the same Prophet Ephraim hath provoked me to wrath in his bitterness St. Hierom expounds it thus By his wickedness he hath made me bitter who was most sweet God therefore doth not spare the offender I now leave off to admire the saying of holy Iob ch 9. I feared all my works knowing thou didst not spare the offender God is so far from sparing offenders that he punished most severely others sins in his own son Christ's most painful death manifestly declares with what hatred God persecutes sin When a Medicine is prepared of liquid Gold Pearls or Bezoar stone one may reasonably affirm the Disease is dangerous and life desperate So we must needs acknowledge the grievousness of sin was excessive which could not be taken away but by the blood of Christ which is of infinite value Acknowledge therefore O man saith St. Bernard how grievous are those wounds for whose cure it was necessary Christ our Lord should be wounded Yea Christ when he went to be Crucified forbad them weep for his wounds and death that those tears might be shed for sin which was the cause of so ignominious a death Christs tears alone were sufficient to wash away sin for if all the Angels in Heaven assumed mens bodies and with tears bewailed one mortal sin for many ages all their weeping would not be of force to Cancel it which only Christs bloody tears would aboundantly expiate SECT 2. OUr second assertion is He loseth all Gods grace that sins mortally Any one mortal sin robs the Soul of all Divine grace There is nothing more amiable then a Soul adorned with Gods grace nothing more ugly then a Soul without it though it be defiled but with one deadly sin Sin is a most venemous Serpent whose sting is mortal how ever his Poyson seem to enter with delight O that we might behold with our eyes the deformity of sin we should fly as fast from it as we now pursue it sin is more terrible and deformed then the Devil Lucifer a Prince amongst Angels surpassed the rest in comeliness but all his beauty was so defaced with one sin that now he is most ugly stinking and dreadful to behold his sole aspect as many affirm is able to bereave the Spectatour of his life Divine grace is of such value that one may justly pronounce there is nothing more pretious in all the world I declare my self It may be affirmed of liquid Gold or of the water of life that one drop of either is more esteemable then a hundred vessels of the choycest Wine This same may be patly applyed to Divine Grace the least degree of it is far more pretious then all the favour of men or all the worlds wealth besides Imagine the World were all refined Gold it were of no value in comparison of Divine Grace Yet one mortal sin hath such opposition with it that when sin is committed
This same happens to each one of the Damned I might saies he grace was not wanting I was called upon I might Alas I might it was in my power but I would not I am justly excluded from that Soveraign Good and for ever I shall not behold light because I would not behold it A grief it is not to be exprest for one to call to mind how through his own fault he is deprived of so great a good Wonder not this cannot be exprest for since our thoughts cannot dive into those hidden joyes of Heaven since we comprehend not what it is to see God no marvail we do not set a sufficient estimate upon the loss of it An Infant when the Patents die knows not what it loses by their death therefore it neither sighs nor weeps Thus we do when we sin we little know poor wretches what Treasures we cast away None in this life is overwhelmed with such extream Miseries but he may find some slender space to breath in Besides we have no exact knowledge how affairs stand in the World to come Hence you may perchance find some one who with Gilimer King of the Wandals will laugh under a great burden of evils But know all Laughter is banisht from hell In every mortal crime Aversion and Conversion are chiefly considerable To speak with Divines he that sins averts himself from the Creatour and converts himself to the Creature which is a twofold injury to God To aversion therefore corresponds the pain of loss as to conversion that of sence this yeilds to the other so much that he who felt the first alone would be far from laughing would have Hell enough in that one pain of loss Gen. 4. ch 14. Wicked Cain anciently made this greivous complaint Lo thou dost cast me out this day from the face of the Earth and from thy face shall I be hid And yet there was hope he might return to the state of Grace What shall I say now of those Captives in Hell they are cast out from the face of the Earth they are hid from the Divine Countenance God has now done what he formerly threatned he would do he has forsaken them he has hid his face from them they are left to be devoured all evil and Affliction is come upon them the greatest whereof is They are cast out from the Face of God This which Holy David with iterated Vowes besought God might never befall him is now their Lott they are cast away never to be admitted to favour again He needs must have matter of excessive grief who being ready to be Annointed King should upon a suddain be hurried away and made fellow-prisoner with Theives Look upon Nabuchodâ—nâ—ser the worlds terror seated under the Canopy of Glory from whence he was thrown headlong to be a Companion to Bruits amongst them to learn how to play the Beast who had acted his part so ill amongst men Behold King Sedecias snatcht from his Royal Throne whom it was not thought sufficient to bereave of all the gifts of Fortune unless he were deprived of both his eyes too Then was verified that of Boetius The greatest part of misery is to remember one has been happy No otherwise shall the Damned be haled away into Infernal Dens for Eternity when they might have been elevated as Kings amongst the blessed never to have the least sense of any evil alwaies to be in the perfect fruition of the cheifest good The loss of this may rightly be termed a loss and such an one as can never be worthily deplored because never to be recovered SECT 4. VVHat other Petition should one that wants his sight make Luk. 18.41 but that of the blind man Lord that I may see In case one damned might have leave to ask some one of the Joyes of Heaven he would ask none else but this Let me see God I covet not a place more pleasant I am not ambitious of better company I do not refuse to abide still in these Flames only Let me see God But this no Law permits Still I crave at least after a thousand years let my suite be granted This is by no means lawful I am content with a denial till ten thousand years be expired Neither will this be allowed O that I might after twenty thousand years obtain my request That will by no means be granted At least after fifty thousand years let my Petition take effect Nor this neither Ah! when a hundred thousand are come and gone then Let me see God The Laws of God are opposite to this as well as the former O that my Prayer might be heard when a hundred thousand thousand years are past Here may nothing be obtained t is in vain to sue for favour the Gate of Grace is shut the entrance to Heaven is close lockt God thou shalt never see Psal 48. He shall not see light for ever Ponder this well saith St. Chrysostome Let us consider I beseech you and weigh maturely what difference there is betwixt these sober matters and our Bables and Toyes If a man had used his utmost endeavours and left no wind unsailed that he might compass Honours Riches or a beloved Espouse and in this persuite had spared neither Labour nor Charges till all things were in a readiness to Solemnize the Nuptialls and then another should unexpectedly step between him and home were not this enough to force the poor man off his Senses Here Shame and Loss meet to his Destruction which must be endured or he must shake hands with fury or clash with his opposer Couple me now this man thus frustrate of his hope with another buried in everlasting darkness and you will find a palpable difference that may remove his quarters chase other Honors and win a new Espouse but this can neither change place nor escape his torments he is wholly void of hope and most desperate for ever Nevertheless he is forced to acknowledge that God was careful of him God called him many times into his way again but he slighted the Call and refused to follow his guide He knows right well wherefore he was Created wherefore by Christ redeem'd wherefore Baptized whitherto invited hither forsooth that he would vouchsafe to come and mount the Throne of Glory in that blessed Kingdome where he might live eternally in the embracements of his Creatour But I saies he to himself am in fault I neglected I plunged my self into these dreadful flames whereupon my pain fury and confusion is horrible is immense Esay exclaims Esa 32. Darkness and palpableness are made upon the Denns for ever Thus much the Devils themselves acknowledge when they are upbraided in possest persons O miserable wretches you shall never see God Whereat they will fume fret gnash the teeth and by uncouth motions of the body manifest in some sort how incredibly they are tortured upon that sole account SECT 5. CHrist our Lord briefly explicates his most blessed Vision of God when
dish though otherwise most vile which the appetite most longs for Hence it may come to pass that one may offend more grieveously with feasting on toad-stools then another on Partridge and Feasants Esau was reprehended for over greedily gurmandiling a dish of Pulse-Pottage not for eating fat Hens or Capons The third fault is to lavish too much time and treasure in feasting many feast in a Circle as the children of Iob did they leave scarce one day in a year free from Riot and Excesse in Banqueting Parents now and then Prophesie to their children Wo be to thee my boy when thou comest into strange countries where thou shalt want those dainties thou didst enjoy at home How uncouth will it be for thee either to take pains or starve The like may be returned to the Parents Wo be to you who feed plentifully every day how will you be able to digest Hunger and Thirst The fourth fault of Gluttony is rashly to violate the Laws of Fast or at least to expound them as they list Hence the fast of forty dayes in Lent is changed into ten or twenty dayes temperance Many beleive they are fasting when they are not drunk We are now come to that pass as to perswade our selves that fasting was only ordained for Religious People others are so favourable Interpreters of this Law as they still find some excuse to free them from fasting But the Physitian you say and my Confessour exempt me from fasting true but over entreated by your importunity I beleive they would be of another opinion if they met with one less eloquent and more indigent The first is Drunkenness the Origin of many crimes and of all Vices the most dangerous because if a drunken man chance to fall suddainly which is not unusual or be surprised with some disease which hales him to the Gates of Death where poor wretch unable to grieve for his sins or to raise his mind up to his Maker in the state of mortal sin and ignorant of his sad condition he is hurried away to Eternity alas a prey to Death and to the Devil SECT 2. VVO therefore wo to you that are filled In spec because you shall be hungry With good reason said Reginaldetus Infinite men shall be damned for this sin of Gluttony Gluttony has an ample command and is much assistent to all sorts of vices ch 16. Lo this saies Ezechiel was the iniquity of Sodom fulness of Bread and abundance and the idleness of her For this cause our Saviour most carefully warns us Look well to your selves Luk. 27.34 lest perhaps your hearts be overcharged wi h surfeting and drunkenness For that is the malice of this vice not only to burden the body but likewise to fasten the soul to earth to trample it under foot and throw it headlong into Hell Here is Hunger and Thirst here is a long fast Because you shall be Hungry Consider what a great share of our misery it is that we neither value nor sufficiently understand the affaires of the next life Which of us has made tryal of extream Famine Hence we weigh not our own nor the Famine in Hell A pattern of this manifestly appears in Cities Besieged and in close Prisons For to that extreamity are people brought by rageing hunger that not only Dogs Cats and Horses but also Mice Serpents and Toads are greedily devoured by them they pluck the Grass up by the roots they strip their Bucklers off their skins to feed on Hunger compels them to convert into mans meat the Excrements of Birds and Beasts yea and the bodies too of their dearest friends Cambises Lib. 3. de tra as Seneca relates conducted a vast Army through Sands and Deserts into Aethiopia but being scarce well entred upon their march their Victuals and Provision failed their way was unknown unto them and that barren and barbarous Nation afforded them no releif Tender sprouts and tops of trees supplyed their wants in the begining afterwards they boyled skins or what ever they met with to asswage their hunger in fine neither finding Herbs Rats nor Cattel they slaughtered every tenth man a remedy against Famine worse then Famine it self This was but a little Hunger put them upon more cruel designs The Mother 's butchered their own Children as if they had been Chickens and with their own teeth tore in peices members dearer then their life This may yet seem little when compared to more wild attempts How often have people in Prison massacred themselves through hunger and fed upon their own limbs what way soever they could lay hold upon arms or shoulders thither their teeth hastned to make a prey of themselves to their own destruction SECT 3. NOw to the matter in hand This hunger which we behold with our eyes we are not sufficiently capable of and how then shall we understand that most rageing and eternal Famine in Hell by how much our hunger is more Rampant by so much it is the shorter whereas that other though most furious is nevertheless everlasting Wo to you because you shall be hungry Good Lord what a Countrey is this which sets before us for great dainties Horseflesh raw Mice and Toads with Pigeon dung of which notwithstanding we cannot obtain our fill we would esteem it a special favour to part from life but even that is denied Apoc. c. 9. They shall desire to dye and death will fly from them Everlasting hunger is unexplicable everlasting thirst intolerable To these Torments that other may be adjoyned Divines affirme that the delights in Heaven shall be so aboundant as to fill all the Members and Senses of the blessed with peculiar happiness Hereupon the tast and tongue shall swim in a juice of most delicious sweetness in so much that each one of the blessed may seem to enjoy this Divine repast according to and beyond all they can desire Contrary wise that malignant tongue of the Damned shall flow in bitter Gall this was foretold by the Hebrew Prophet Deut. 2. ch 32. The Gall of Dragons their Wine and the Venim of Asps uncurable No sweetness can be of force to mitigate this hunger or temper the bitterness of this Gall their torments are uncurable Moreover some are of opinion that they are afflicted with most cruel fits of the tooth-ach who ever has experienced these in this life let him imagine how afflictive they will be after death In case there were no other torments in Hell besides those of the teeth or head-ake or Gout or Stone and these being to endure for ever what expences labour and royl would one undergo to be quit of them But we fear and fear not these things while with exceeding cheerfulness we commit sins more to be feared In Inns now and then wee feed plentifully we drink off full bowls we sing merrily we dance and skip about but as soon as the Host brings in the reckoning and calls his guests to an account they are
a companion of Scorpions and wild Beasts He that seriously contemplates those fiery Prisons finds fault with the straitness of no place but converts every Prison into Paradise SECT 5. HEre now I beseech you let us make use of discourse to our purpose Imagin hell to be nothing else but a loathsome and starving prison where a thousand Captives for stench and vermine can neither sit nor lie conveniently where their meat is rotten Rice and drink muddy Water where they cannot sleep for famine stink and pain and that all this should continue a thousand years Imagin I say that hell is but such a Prison as this notwithstanding who would not tremble at the very name of this hell But if the matter be well scanned and weighed according to what is revealed in holy Scripture it will manifestly appear that the most loathsom prisons in Japonia or any other barbarous nation compared to hell maybe reputed a florishing Garden the delights of Thessaly or Paradise it self The reason is clear In our prisons we have some meat sleep and time to rest in hell is neither meat sleep nor rest there corrupt Rice would tast like Ambrosia puddle Water would drink like Nectar In our prisons none ever counted a thousand winters in hell which is most sad a hundred thousand years strike not off one tittle from eternity after a thousand millions of ages eterninity is entire Again Our prisons though dreadful yet are they without fire and the prisoners have a singular comfort that they can die the Dennes of the damned are full of flames and are not free from the second death because in hell death is always present but death without death and a continual death which lasts for ever Alas how far are we from thinking on these things how little do we consider things worthy our thoughts every hour Much better in this point and more considerate was St. Bernard I tremble Serm. de 5. regionibus says he I quake all over at the remembrance of that country and all my bones are shaken that is a place in which their is a worm immortal stench intolerable hammers striking palpable darkness O Awake all you that are Saints and Sinners especially you that are slaves to luxury if you will not tast how sweet Christ our Lord is how delicious Paradise take a tast at least of the bitterness of hell SECT 6. THis hellish stink fitly admonisheth us how many ways we offend by smelling for we are not only bound to keep in order our eyes tongue and ears but our nose also though for the most part we will not abide any ill smell Hence we frequently have an aversion from distressed Captives and poor sick folk because they carry a scent of Garlick rather then Saffron or Musk. Therefore the Judg out of the clouds will upbraid these tenderlings I was sick and in prison and you did not visit me Mat. c. 25. Impatience forsooth is so nice that where there is any suspition of stink thither we will not be drawn with Coach and Horses Them we love their familiarity we sue for who breath Cinnamon Civet and Balsom But ere long the case will be altered as Esay foretold c. 3. For sweet savor there shall be stink Moreover they sin by smelling who fill their beds garments and closets with sweet odours yea what they more frequently use must have a touch of outlandish perfumes or pretious ointments that they may be still provided to cherish the nostrils This 't is true is not accounted a heinous crime yet God established under pain of death Exod. c. 30. Such confection you shall not make unto your own uses because it is holy to the Lord. What man soever shall make the like to enjoy the smell thereof shall perish out of his People Hence therefore we sin by intemperance of smelling so many things which seem to us trifles and of small moment the eye of God observes and deems worthy of punishment It is here worth our frequent and serions reflection to know what the holy Scripture means in proposing unto us the stench of brimstone Gen. c. 19. Our Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorah brimstone and fire from our Lord out of heaven and he subverted these Cities and all the Countrey about all the Inhabitants of the Cities and all things that spring of the earth This shower of brimstone and stench punished the heat and stench of lust this rain was requisite to cure the ardor of luxury Extream heat is as proper to the fire as extream stink to brimstone since therefore they were corrupted with lasciviousness of the flesh they were also burned with fire and brimstone that they might learn by their punishment what their fault deserved A man addicted to venery is guilty of a twofold pain while he lives he wallows more and more in the mire of impurity after death he is thrown into a bath of boyling sulfur SECT 7. LUst therefore in hell shall in a special manner be tormented with fire and brimstone which St. Gregory learnedly asserts Then saith he Lib. 4. Mor. c. 17. the rageing fire burns those whom carnal delight had polluted Every wicked man is enflamed with a proper fire such as himself had enkindled in his heart by heat of temporal desires while he now boyls with these now with those and sets his thoughts a burning more and more with divers allurements of the world Now then let weeping expiate what the soul negligently given to pleasure did transgress It is altogether worthy of credit that few are plunged into those flaming gulfs who were not tâ—inted with stench of wantonness Here now let every one living learn to be wise in time and beware he be not smothered in the puddle of Luxury Wine and Drunkenness c. 4.11 as Osee testifies take away the heart but most of all fornication this last so steals away the heart that it hardly ever restores it It is wholly to be admired and dreadful above measure that under one sole thought which Divines call deliberate delight should lurk numberless pains endless torments and death everlasting The business is manifest Mat. c. 5. Whosoever shall see a woman to lust after her hath already committed adultery with her in his heart Here one cast of the eye one only thought one secret consent to lust contains innumerable infinite millions of ages wherewith that glance that thought that consent is to be revenged but never expiated This I say is wonderful and horrible to amazement I will say what I think though we perhaps think of these things yet we do not thoroughly weigh or examine them Hence it comes as Isidorus Clarus delivers it Tom. 1. Orat. 53. that we would rather be smudged for a moment then shining for eternity lascivious for an hour then glorious for ever such is our inconsideration and to speak plainly sottish rashness One that fights for his life might securely say I thought not
and senseless with eyes and ears shut loosed the reins to lust and by joint example drew one another to destruction Hither unhappy that we are we posted amain and despâ—sing all admonition ran upon death alas death eternal What good do we reap now from all that the deceitful world fobb'd us with the memory of pleasures past is worse then death to us all delight is gone and quite vanisht away which though we might have enjoyed for some ages what had those joys been to these torments Alas we leaped only at a shadow of bitter pleasure Who was it that did so cruelly bewitch us O that we had but once a year seriously meditated on eternity O that we had now but one day one sole hour at our own disposal But O these wishes are in vain we are utterly undone all our hope is turned into despair Accursed be the day in which we were born accursed be God by whom we were created Here I stop my pen and send back these impious words thither from whence they came Let him be wise and beware in time whoever desires to escape this dreadful butchery of conscience SECT 5. IT were incredible if our eyes were not witnesses how industrious and witty how attentive and serious how watchful and quick-sighted how knowing and wary we are in amassing together things of this world When affairs of the body are to be looked after then it is we are wise careful and laborious here is the center of our lives and actions Behold I pray how exquisitely some have their Garments Embroydered see what artificial pictures edifices and statues others possess look upon that fine linnen which many wear for whiteness like snow for thinness equal to the spiders web look upon those master-pieces of art clocks musick with other forreign merchandise O how acute and unfatigable are we in raising works of handy-craft to perfection in heaping up wealth in dispatching worldly business and attaining honour When as God knows all these things are fading transitory and pass away in a moment Contrary-wise when any thing is to be done for heaven good Lord how dull and stupid how slothful and heedless how frosen and drowsie are we In this business alone we go coldly to work we languish we loyter we lay us down by the way T. Kem. l. 3 c. 3. It was most truly spoken For a little Prebend a long journey is undertaken for everlasting life many will scarce once lift a foot from the ground Here we are all as if we were struck with a palsie we snort and the devil stands centinel But when the soul once awakes indeed the conscience will no longer be lulled a sleep it will pinch gnaw vex and torture for eternity Their Worm dyeth not This Worm is fed with unexplicable dolours with sorrow void of all comfort The damned grieve for the loss of beatitude without hope of ever repairing that immense damage they think without ceasing it was their own folly drowned them in that Ocean of sadness neither will it ever be in their power to divert their fancy from that dismal thought to any other that may exhilerate them St. Bernard did contemplate these things attentively Lib. â— deâ— coâ—fiâ— c. 12. What is so painful saith he as always to have a mind of that which you shall never compass and always to loath that you shall ever have The damned shall for ever covet that which they shall never obtain and what they utterly dislike they must endure eternally Amongst so great a multitude of spectatours no ones eye will be more troublesome then every one 's to himself There is no sight either in heaven or earth which the darksome conscience would rather avoid but cannot Darkness is not covered from it self it beholds it self that can discover nothing else The works of darkness follow them they can hide themselves no where from darkness no not in darkness it self Here is the worm that dyeth not the remembrance of things past which being once cast into or rather bred in the soul by sin sticks so fast that henceforth it can never be pluckt away It doth not cease to gnaw the conscience wherewith being fed as with inconsumptive food it preserves its life perpetually I tremble at this gnawing worm Mat. 2â— and living death I tremble for fear of falling into the hands of living death and dying life Therefore while the soul endures the memory endures but what an one stained with sins rough with crimes swoln with vanity evergrown and neglected through contempt All which though they have gone before yet are they not passed they have passed from the hand to the mind That which is done cannot be undone wherefore though the doing was in time yet the having been done remains for ever that doth not pass away with time which goes away beyond all time It is therefore necessary that should torment for ever which thou shall ever remember to have done amiss Hitherto St. Bernard SECT 6. ADivine and Suffragan Bishop of St. Th Can Dominicks Order a faithful writer of the History of his time relates a strange passage in this manner A Bishop there was in in Germany of Princely race from which by his life and means he did degenerate This same man at first was somewhat bashful in gapeing after gold and in giving way to secret venery afterwards he proceeded further so as not careing to amend his life he loosed the reins to things forbidden and freely abandoned him self to rapine and luxury God checked him sundry ways one while by sickness another while by other calamities inviting him to reform his life In fine as he led a debaucht life so he took a miserable end At that very time Conrade Bishop of Hildeâ—heim was got out a bed to go to Mattins Hildemensis which ended he betook himself to his study to prepare for a Sermon next day Here being for some space in an ecstasy he thought he saw a Bishop with a Mitre on his head but with his face covered hurried away to judgment Presently his accusers laid to his charge that he was chiefly infamous for rapine and guilty of lust Here the Judg spoke to some of his attendance Examine his cause and give sentence They did so and forthwith the Executioners took away from the condemned Person his Mitre Ring and other Ornaments which they cast at the feet of the supream Judg. The attends rise up and as they go away each one for a conclusion of their Judgment says Therefore while we have time Paul Galaâ— c 6. vs 10. let us work good to all These things the foresaid Bishop beheld who after he came to himself found his head busied with enquiring what Bishop it might be which died at that time When lo one weeping at the Gate declares how his Master whom he named coming last evening ino the next village was suddainly dead Conrade at this lamentable accident fetcht a deep sigh resolving with tears
nap under it when a passenger hastily awaking the careless follow should speak thus to him friend what dost thou mean what makes thee stay here in such imminent danger arise quickly betake thy self to some secure place this wall is a falling every minute how darest thou sleep here be gone speedily What would you say if the traveller after all this should refuse to depart thence and say to him who warned him of his peril Do not molest me look you to your self I am resolved to take out my nap He that will perish let him perish hardly this fellow is determined the â—uinous wall shall be his tomb let him be buried in Gods name in the grave he hath chosen Mans life is indeed a tottering wall what day hour or moment it will fall who can tell the time is uncertaine albeit most certain it is a work â—â—ill cemented cannot stand long everyday hour and moment you may well expect a downfal Nevertheless we fool hardy and rash-brained people lean to this wal and nod without fear Each one is seised with his peculiar sleep this man lies snorting under the sleep of avarice that under lust another under drunkenness envy or pride The royal Prophet saw and admired many who slept in this manner They slept their sleep Psal 75. Thus every one gives way to his proper sleep which holds him closely oppressed with a deadly lethargy though there want not several persons to a wake him out of it Christ calls his Disciples call the antient Fathers call Catholick Preachers call from their Pulpits all with joint consent admonish us not to trust to a ruinous wall which already reels and by and by will lie equal with its foundation Moreover they show us where the defect is and change us without delay to put our selves in security Notwithstanding some are so fast asleep that they listen to no admonition at all others by so many clamours awake 't is true though to little purpose because ever and anon they fall into their slumber again and give you no other answer then the traveller did Let us a one we will take out our 〈◊〉 we are wâ—ll where we are All this notwithstand faithful monitours cease not to redouble their admonitions and these they repeat so much more earnestly and continually by how much they perceive their danger more imminent and certain for in this case 't is not the body alone whose safety lies at stake but the eternal welfare of both soul and body which is exposed to utter perdition everlasting death makes a prey of those whom this wall takes under its ruins But alas after so many iterated warnings many trust to this staggering wall shut their eyes and sleeping securely dream on eternity wherewith they are terrified no otherwise then dreamers use to be who together with their dream shake off dread too Thus we live thus we slumber thus we dream thus we perish for upon a suddain the wall falls and oppresses such as slept under it Immediately after an entire Eternity is represented to their view which is now no shore dream but an everlasting torment O travellers too too rash O sleep no less deadly then destructive Tell me now I beseech you whether you do not believe these particulars as matters of undoubted certainty SECT 4. IT is a business worthy of credit that in case any of the damned appeared again from hell and pulled these sleepers by the sleeve and charged them to look to it and foretold them in what danger they lived they could notwithstanding not awake them so great is the blindness and stupidity of mans soul Hereupon Abraham refuseth to condescend with the rich gluâ—tons request of sending some of the dead to warn his brothers yet alive the reason whereof he alledgeth in these words If they hear not Moyses and the Prophets if they despise the admonitions of the living neither if one shall rise again from the dead will they believe Luke c. 16. The matter is plainly so indeed Orat de Lazaro Whence St. Chrysostom said Hell is not seen to unbelievers to such as believe it is manifest When mention is made of punishments inflicted on offenders how often may you hear such words as these This was sent into banishment that was whipt for his fault another was condemned to the gallies another was beheaded he was hanged that other was stretched upon a rack and lastly this fellow was burnt to death Even malefactours hear such pâ—ssages as these and yet become no better by hearing of them Many who are guilty of death though their pardon be granted them yet they commit the same crimes again or worse Like unto these are we if we would acknowledg the truth how often by means of pennance do we obtain pardon for our sins and so escape hell how promptly do we undertake any thing to purchase our freedom When God knows almost in the turning of ones hand we slide back again and become worse by abusing of our liberty We take our leave of anger and envy covetousness and pride we may not endure we are wholly out of likeing with lasciviousness we abhor stealing and profess our selves sworn enemies to all debauchery But alas I upon the next occasion we loose the reins to anger envy dominiers in us we enter into league with avarice and pride we steal as readily as ever our wantonness draws us into the mire again feasting and riot have reduced us to their friendship in a word we commit the same if not more horrid offences then formerly Is not this to look upon eternity as a dream and in the mean while to act things meritorious of flames eternal In that prison which Pharao had in Aegypt two of his guilty Courtiers were detained to each of whom happened a different dream which neither of them had the skill to interpret whereupon turning to Joseph their fellow prisoner they said We have seen a dreum and their is no body to interpret it to us Gen. c. 40. There are many dreamers on Eternity but few interpreters let us help them with our interpretation SECT 5. IN the first edition which we published of Eternity we set it forth adorned with several pictures whereunto we now adjoin these ensuing particulars which are not so much to be read over as to be considered with attention Imagin a pyle or heap of hot glowing coals Monachium which for bigness equals this city of Munichen and which for three or four cubâ—â—â— goes down into the earth let one man alone be cast into this mass of fire upon this condition not to be released from the bed of flames till all the coals be taken away one by one which is to be performed no otherwise then by a Vultur which once in a hundred years shall carry away only one and no more Lo this man amongst nine sorts of torments which eternity brings with it is tormented only with that of fire which yet by reason of
Apple they were quickly banisht from that Garden of Pleasure and an Angel in Arms placed to guard the entrance thereof this is attested by Holy Writ And he cast out Adam Gene. 3. and placed before the Paradise of Pleasure Cherubims and a flaming and a turning sword This was a most signal testimony of Divine mercy there to place a servant only and not the Lord of Paradise with a sword to hinder all entrance It will not be so in the day of Judgement when no servant shall be permitted to have a sword Our Lord will take the sword himself and draw it against the damned Matt. 25 Get ye away from me you accursed These words are but few yet do they make a volume of so vast a bulk as will never be sufficiently read over It behoves us therefore now to look well 〈◊〉 us The less misery each one shall 〈◊〉 to in the other world the more 〈◊〉 he undergoes miseries in this CHAP. XIV What is the Fuel of Eternal Fire With an Explication of the grievousness of mortal sin VVEll said an Ancient Philosopher The begining of Wisdome is the knowledge of sin He will never sin grievously who with attention ruminates the gravity and ugliness thereof Take sin out of the world and you take away all evil together with it Sin is the onely evil in the world yea the very nursery of all other evils a most profound sea of all miseries and a bottomless depth of torments Hence issued that of St. Chrysostome Sin is a willing madness a voluntary Devil This moved the Mother of St. Lewis King of France while he was young to instill this principle into his heart My son I would rather thou shouldst dye then sin mortally well to our purpose spoke Iohn Climacus Though we should fast a thousand years continually with Bread and Water though we should bring the whole world to mourn with us though we should equal the River Iordan by weeping drop by drop yet could we never satisfy for our faults committed This made the Wise man cry out Ecc. 21. As from the face of a Serpent flee from sins Who touches the cup wherein Death has Vomited to speak with Turtullian and in which Poyson is offered to the taster There is nothing in the world more formidable then sin Upon which subject much hath been delivered as well by word of mouth as writing whereunto we will annex five assertions who ever sins mortally 1. Offends God most grievously and makes him his adversary and foe 2. He loseth all Gods Grace 3. He becomes guilty of all miseries and calamities 4. He loseth Heaven for all Eternity 5. He throws himself headlong into everlasting pains in Hell St. Paul comprehends the whole business in a word The wages of sin is death and all the train of death sorrow pain sickness anguish which are Harbingers are followed by eternal death All this t is meet we should consider more exactly therefore we will proceed with our assertions in order SECT 1. THe first is Whoever sins mortally offends good grievously and makes him his adversary and foe By sin the supream God is wronged so far as man places his final end in the creature with neglect of the Creatour This is an extream injury and not much unlike to Idolatry for which cause sins in Holy Writ are frequently called Idolatry Such temerity as this is found in all grievous sin and is worthy of all punishment whatever For in regard God is most present every where the sin is committed before his eyes who so much abhors it and so becomes an injury to God who is both Spectatour and hearer Thus we affront the Soveraign King before his face Yea and what is worse we abuse benefits to the displeasure of our Benefactour For that very help which God affords us in every action we turn against him As if a Father should provide his little Son of a Dagger wherwith he might learn to defend himself and withal should guide his childs tender arm yet the wicked Boy should strive to murther his father even while he held up the hand ready to stab him This is every ones case that sins While God both helps and directs his actions these he most injuriously converts against God Now for better manifestation of this notorious affront take a view of what ensues So often as a man is about to sin he stands betwixt God and the Devil as judge and umpire whether he will declare for God explicates his own Law and withal shewes his Crucified Son to withdraw man from sin The Devil sets before him pleasure the bait to all evil hereby to perswade and entice him to sin Whoever now sins declares without any more adoe for the Devil because turning away from God he most unjustly adjudges the cause to the Devil What else is this but to say indeed Let Laws command or prohibit what they will let Gods Son Crucified admonish crave move or manifest what he please let God himself menace what he list from Heaven the Devil invites me so sweetly he drinks to me in such a sugred cup that he perswades he gets the victory I go I run after the Devil I permit my self to be drawn by him This Inkeeper gives me content what shot soever he demand This is exactly the proceeding of every one that sins grievously Thus God is put into one scale and Pleasure into the other man comes to weigh them and when he is determined to sin he resolves rather to lose the friendship of God then debar himself of pleasure and so prefers Barabbas the Theif and Murtherer before Christ our Redeemer What more base horrible and unworthy so Soveraign a Majesty then for a creature to deal thus with its Creatour Be astonied O Heavens upon this Jeremy ch 2. and O Gates thereof be ye desolate exceedingly saith our Lord. For two evils hath my people done Me they have forsaken the Fountain of living water a most clear fountain and have thirsted after muddy water Yet for further Declaration of this particular Man as we said is drawn two waies this way God draws that the Devil It is freely in mans choice whom he will follow The Devil ties man in a thread for he can do no more and proposes to him something which may either sooth the flesh or stuffe the purse or puff him up with ambition with these threds he draws man whom he has entangled whither he pleases Now that man may satisfy his Lust or encrease his Fortune or be seated on the Throne of Honour he tramples underfoot the express Law of God Contrariwise God binds man with cords not easily broken He sets before his eyes his numberless benefits he requires from him due service he threatens to banish him from Heaven and throw him into Hell for ever if he be disobedient But all in vain what ever God either promises or menaces The Devil bears the Bell and through mans wilfulness is
obeyed before God Man deeming it more for his purpose to follow the enticements of Satan then the commands of our Saviour wherefore he resolutely breaks a sunder all Bands which God hath imposed upon him Tell me now all you that wittingly run into sin and constitute the Devil your Commander tell me what Hells what Eternities may sufficiently expiate this injury done to God Heretofore God bitterly complained of this proceeding Hâ—erem ch 2. v. 20. Thou hast burst my bonds and thou saidst I will not serve This complaint is sutable to the matter for this in reallity every one doth who is resolved to sin he bursts his Bonds and saies I will not serve Hence may Satan insult or upbraid even Christ our Lord Behold how thou art treated by thine own thus men whom thou hast created love thee thus they honour thee for whom thou hast dyed and upon whom thou bestowest thy self with all thou hast They know well what they may expect from me and yet they run after me they suffer themselves to be inveighled with a momentary pleasure I have them ready to serve me at a beck they are not ignorant that I am their sworn enemy and for all that they love me though I do but fobb them with vain hope of a small gain Lust or a shadow of Honour Take notice how many of these march under my standerd I was not buffeted for them as thou was Christ for thine I was not scourged nor carried a Cross nor died on it as thou didst Christ for thine Besides I do not promise them Heaven nor offer them Paradise as thou dost Christ to thine whom thou instructedst with admonitions teachest with examples terrifiest with threats and guidest with precepts But all this is bootless they turn the deaf ear to thee and willingly hearken to my suggestions They choose rather to fry in Flames eternally then for a moment to live in subjection to thy Lawes No wrong is done to them that are willing they shall perish because they will perish because they abandon their Creatour they shall have me for their Lord and Master to tyrannize over them What have we to say to these things my bretheren saith St. Cyprian Do you not by this time palpably perceive O Mortals how great an affront this is to God This then is that which neither Hell fire nor eternity can sufficiently expiate We busy our selves now and then with enquiring Why God punisheth one deadly sin which is committed in a moment with flames eternal Several answers are given to this question by Divines amongst which scarce any one is satisfactory Touching this point we shall enlarge our selves in the ensuing Chapter However he that would take pains to consider maturely what we have already discoursed would acknowledge I doubt not that every heinous crime must needs be infinitely displeasing to God and that the injury which by sin redounds to his Soveraign Majesty is so unexplicable that it can never by any torments be compleatly satisfied The matter is apparent By how much the person offended is more noble and sublime so much more grievous is the offence He that injures one equal to himself is blame worthy but much more is he that being a Profane person is injurious to one in Holy Orders whether Priest Bishop Arch-bishop or Cardinal and more yet if the party affronted be King or Emperour but most of all in the judgement of men if he offer violence to the Popes Holiness thus the fault increases according as persons wronged are of a higher rank Hence in regard God who is vilified is of infinite Majesty the offender is guilty of infinite malice Wherefore the more clear knowledge one hath of the Deity the more exactly he perceives and execrates the malice of sin Certainly God hath so much hatred for sin that an eminent Divine of St. Dominicks Order pronounced this assertion It is most certain that if all created understandings were joyned in one and all tongues were combined together neither that understanding nor this combination of tongues were able to comprehend or declare the hatred God bears towards sin Lud. Gr. par 1. Memor Lib. 2. ch 7. For seeing God is infinitely good he hath infinite love for goodness and infinite hatred for malice Whence it happens that the reward of that and the punishment of this is everlasting Matt. 25 These shall go into punishment everlasting but the just into life everlasting For the deeper impression of the great hatred God hath against sin let us consider if you please what penalty a just Judge has often inflicted upon one crime The mind is manifest by its acting and Gods hatred is declared by the execution of his justice What punishment I pray is that of the Angels Lucifer a stupendious Prodegy of all beauty and comliness was with many millions of Angels thrown down headlong into those flameing gulfs What wickedness trow you had they contrived One proud thought was their offence Alas O God! alas must such a multitude of Potentates in respect of one whereof a thousand Kings are of small account be for ever damned And have they no respit allowed for mercy pennance or the recovery of Grace shall not all eternity be of force to wipe away the guilt of one proud thought may not infinite ages satisfy for one sole crime which was committed in a moment With good reason might God say to the Rebellious Angel and his associates I could quite destroy and annihilate you but you shall remain to my Majesty to the blessed Angels and all mankind a Prodigious wonder a spectacle of wickedness a mark of justice and an eternal abysse of my fury towards you If any one were spectatour while the Sons of a thousand Kings and Emperours were beheaded he would sigh and say This Royal Progeny must needs be guilty of some execrable design that makes them all without mercy thus generally lose their heads it is wonderfull above measure that no place is left neither for intercession number birth nor clemency to plead for their delivery The very same we may here think and admire so many Millions of Angels are thrown into eternal flames without any hope of pardon mercy or favour and that no regard should be had of their nature and Celestial Origin their exceeding great numbers nor the extenuation of their fault but that altogether should be involved as it were in the same whirlwind all condemned of High Treason and adjudged to everlasting death Ah! my God ah how unspeakable is the malice of sin that so highly provokes the implacable wrath of God against it and so implacable as not to be mitigated with any revolution of ages or any torments whatever Hence all hope of pardon is exil'd These Rebels to God shall be banisht Heaven for all eternity The time of grace is past no liberty may be expected all intercession is bootless all Petitioning is in vain The whole business is concluded the decree is
it leaves not one sole dram of grace in the soul What merit soever hath been collected for many years one sole sin destroyes in a moment This is asserted by Ecclesiastes c. 9. He that shall offend in one point shall lose many good things If any one had made himself acceptable to God by the practise of all kinds of Vertue for fifty for an hundred years space if any one had lead a strict life and fasted every day with bread and water if any one had girt his loins with an Iron Chain whipped himself dayly and bestowed all he had in Almes and after all this should commit one mortal sin he would lose all the merits of his life past all the Grace of God and of a bosome Friend become a professed Enemy to God The matter is certain and admits of no contest You may give credit to the Prophet Ezechiel ch 18. If the just man shall turn away himself from his justice and do iniquity all his justices which he had done shall not be remembred Hast thou committed one sole mortal sin all thy former labours are lost all grace is lost thou hast lost Heaven God and all Wherefore either recover thy losses or resolve to bewail them Eternally Amongst other punishments threatned by God to Israel that as most dreadful is rehearsed by Osee c. 9. Woe to them when I shall depart from them This departure of God from the Soul is the death of it An incomparable evil an evil that surpasseth all the sufferings of Holy Martyrs yea the everlasting torments of all the damned Take a view I pray of the misery of man deserted by God for sin what ever such a man doth what ever he suffereth while destitute of Divine Grace though he remove Mountains leap into the fire pluck the Stars from Heaven set whole Fountains on fire and act wonders to be admired in all ages yet shall he not merit the least degree of Heavenly bliss while he continues in Gods disfavour The reason of what I affirm is manifest The Origen of all merit is divine grace therefore let him either purchase grace or despair of Heaven I adjoyn another point altogether as deplorable He that hath forsaken God as aforesaid might indeed throw himself down at his pleasure but all the strength he hath cannot rise again He cast himself into a ditch out of which he can never escape unless God by his singular favour lend him his hand An Echo returns no answer but when provokeed by a previous noyse and he who has sinned doth not true pennance except he be first excited by God Nevertheless let none despair of pardon though he have fallen a thousand times Hast thou offended Be of good courage After a slip our steps are more warily if not more constantly setled Seeing therefore the nature of sin is so cruel de simil ch 190. and its malice so detestable St. Anselm generously cryes out If on one side I saw the deformity of sin and on the other the horrour of Hell by one whereof I must needs be overwhelmed I would rather throw my self into those flaming Gulfs then admit of sin For I had rather go into hell innocent and free from sin then defiled with it be seated in Heaven since it is certain only the wicked are tormented in Hell and the just alone possess eternal happiness Hereupon likewise the same Author discourses in this manner Open thine eyes miserable Soul and see what formerly thou hast bin and what now thou art what was thy condition then and what now Thou wast an Espouse of the Highest a Temple of the living God a Vessel of Election a Bride-chamber for an eternal King a Throne of the true Salomon a seat of Wisdome a Sister of Angels an Heir of Heaven All these prerogatives thou didst enjoy but now with tears lament thy suddain change The Espouse of God is become an Adultress of the Devil the Temple of the Holy Ghost is turned into a Den of Theives the Vessel of Election into one of Corruption the Bride-Chamber of Christ into a puddle for Beasts to wallow in the feat of Wisdome into a chair of Pestilence the Sister of Angels into a companion of Devils yea she who ere while like a Dovesoared above the Heavens now like a Serpent creeps upon the earth Bewail therefore bewail O wretched Soul thy doleful state for the Heavens mourn for thee the Angels and all Saints deplore thy condition the tears of Paul and bloody streams issuing from the body of Christ our Lord condole with thee because thou hast sinned and hast not done pennance for sin committed Proceed we now to a fuller examination of this point He who hath sinned is either sepsible his Conscience is wounded or he is not sensible If he be sensible he is also miserable because he groans under most piercing grief a guilty conscience is an excessive torment But if he have no feeling of his inward wounds then he is miserable above measure it is the worst of evils to cherish ones own wickedness without perceiveing it and to have lost all sense after one is mortally wounded Thus Drunkards while they are Carousing perceive not the strength of wine which when digested they are sensible of Well said St. Chrysostome The chiefest wickedness is to be wicked Serm. 5. de jeju Albeit the Physitian doth not scarify a sick person yet doth his sickness still remain with him and although God doth not punish the offender nevertheless he that offends is diseased yea already dead Not unlike to this is that assertion of Seneca The prime and greatest punishment of sinners is to have sinned Neither is any crime without pain because the torment of wickedness is in wickedness it self The Conscience is scourged with what ever is done amiss Where Vice is there is also punishment Neither can a goared Conscience be without grief Though no one strike a wicked man though no one maim or torture him with rack or flames yet he himself is his own Executioner Peradventure he is insensible and hath lost all feeling of his sad condition He is therefore so much nearer to Hell fire by how much he is farther off from the knowledge of his own offences Such an one may be rightly termed dead and buried Who hath sinned and is not sorry who hath grievously transgressed and sues not for pardon who hath lost Gods grace and sighs not for it who is deprived of his right to Heaven and esteems it no damage who is ready to be tumbled into Hell and laughs at it What a bruite is this what a stone what a block this is the malignant nature of sin so to transform men into beasts stocks and stones as that they perceive not their own scars till they be discovered by hell fire We then begin to abhor sin when it is attended by rigorous chastisement Yea it often comes to pass that such as through impiety have lost all feeling
receive a foretast of hell before they part with this life So those of Sodom and Gomorrah had a tryal of Hell Hom. 4. Epist ad Rom. before they came thither Patly spoke St. Chrysostome When mention is made of Hell if thou want faith and scoff at it call to mind the burning of Sodom For we have beheld we have beheld I say even in this life a representation of Hell in that conflagration of Sodom as they can testify who have travelled to those places and bin eye witnesses of Divine indignation thundred down from Heaven Imagine how grievous that offence was which brought hell upon them ere they went down into Hell The wonderful and almost incredible effects of the Plague and Lightning who is of sufficient ability to declare and yet much more exceeding all expression is that Plague and Lightning of sin which consumes and layes all wast Sin of all evils is the greatest and only evil it is worse then Death then Hell then any punishment because it is the source from whence all punishment proceeds Susanna being tempted to prostitute her Chastity Daniel ch 13. broke forth into this gallant expression If I shall do this it is death to me and if I do it not I shall not escape your hands What dost thou say woman mark well thy words For if thou do not consent to the Adulterers thou shalt dye if thou do consent thou shalt escape death Nevertheless she stands to what she said If I shall do this it is death to me The chast Matron knew well there was another death besides that of the body a perpetual an Eternal death James 1. in comparison whereof bodily death deserves not the name of death That of the Apostle is most certain Sin when it is consummate ingendreth death Daniel ch 13. Hereupon Susanna advanceth her resolution to the height It is better for me without the act to fall into your hands then to sin in the sight of our Lord. Learn of this noble Matron O Christians rather to lose the life of the body then the grace of God SECT 3. TAke now our third assertion Whoever sins mortally doth wilfully draw upon himself all kind of miseries and calamities Because sin is the principal yea the sole and only Origen of them all St. Cyprian in writing exhorts Donatus to climb up to the top of the Mountain of sublime judgement and thence to take a view of the Seas infested with Pyrates and journeys by Land beset with Robbers Thieves and Menslayers in great aboundance every where Cities rent a sunder with dissentions and whole Kingdomes over-run by wars so as no place may be found free from calamities which have their rise from sin Sin is the firebrand and root of all misery Most truly said St. Hom. 5. ad pop Chrysostome The several names of calamities are bare names to them that discourse aright that alone is calamity indeed to offend God He hath too mean a conceit of God who dares prefer before him any Lucre or base delight Were there some other deity as amiable rich liberal and holy which we valued more then God our folly might have some colour of excuse but since we esteem most vile trash and set more by a few drops then the whole Ocean and put an higher price on creatures then the Creatour of them is not this down right madness manifest impiety the worst of evils the seminary of all calamities But what dare not fool-hardy mortals attempt Even Fables themselves discover unto us mans temerity Gyants have a design against Heaven Hercules invades Hell Jason with his fellowes dives into the Bowels of the Sea Daedalus takes his flight through the air This Lesson we learn from Fictions The proud like Gyants assail Heaven which is exposed only as a conquest for humility Such as despise God make hell but a business of langhter covetous persons Iason like hoyse Sails in pursuit of the Golden Fleece Ambitious men as Daedalus did his wings open their jaws to every breath of vain glory Bold mortals stoutly undertake any enterprize which leads them by the hand to forbidden wickedness And whence I pray proceeds Discord Strife War and utter ruine but from sin alone All the health comliness and strength which is in mans body by means of sin becomes a prey to sickness and to death This made the Royal Prophet exclaim Psal 37. There is â—ealth in my flesh my bones have no peace at the face of my sins This likewise moved our Heavenly Physitian to arm us against all Maladies with this wholesome document Now sin no more least some thing worse happen to thee Pestilence and all sorts of diseases made their entrance into the world by the Portal of sin Turn over the History of Kings and you shall manifestly observe Pride brought them under the lash read Ezechiel and you may find Rapine chastised as well as Luxury by the Prophet Ioels testimony No place wants examples of divine justice What misery did sin involve the Kings of Israel in what the Corites Sodomites Dathan and Abiran with multitudes of the Jewish race and infinite others How many hundred thousands how many millions of men hath sin bereaved of life by Famine Plague Warr Fire Water and other untimely means They have perished for their iniquity Psa 72. Because they that are malignant shall be cast out So unto all men death did pass by sin that life is no beter then a continual death This truth receives light from the rehearsal of some of those many instruments of death invented to take away life Wherefore are Prisons in the world wherefore have we stocks Pillories Shackles Bolts Halters Racks Scourges Grid-irons Wheels Scorpions Frying-pans Iron-combs Gallows and such like provision had not these a begining to revenge sin committed or were they not found out by such as were resolved to do amiss by tyrannizing over the innocent I must needs acknowledge the Variety of Punishments to be great but far greater is the diversity of crimes which deserve punishment Proteus never put on so many several faces nor Empedocles changes nor Pythagoras trasmigrations nor Chaldeans varieties nor Evantius shapes as sin doth different forms and representations Now as honesty and innocency of life elevate a man above the ordinary strain so lewdness and impiety cast him down below the meanest of men and rank him amongst bruite beasts Is he worthy the name of a man who for ravenousness contends with the Wolf who by anger resembles the dog by Pride the Peacock by Avarice the Toad by Levitv the Sparrow by subtilty the Fox by Greediness the Vulture by Fury the Lion by Fearfulness the Heart by Laciviousness the Goat Hence King David gave unto Snakes and Asps the Epithete of angry and of foolish to Mules Hieremy termed Horses Adulterers Ezechiel called Pharao a Dragon St. Iohn likened the Pharasees to a brood of Vipers Christ branded the shameless with the name of Dogs
above all things which is the Virgin that bore thee and which did never sin if I say she had sinned mortally and had dyed without due contrition thou art such a friend of Justice that her soul could never have arrived in Heaven but must have been with us adjudged to hell The nature of one mortal sin is wonderful to amazement Pliny admires Silver Gold and Brass sealed up in a bag can be melted with Lightning and both seal and bag remain untoucht Much more worthy admiration it is that the soul can be so murthered by the secret admission of one deadly sin as thereby to become a prey to eternal death without ever dying or being destroyed Hom. 4. ad Pop. St. Chrysostome gives this prudent admonition Brethren be not children in your understanding but as to malice become little ones for it is a childish fear to fear death as children do who are afraid of Vizards and not of fire to which they apply their hand after the same manner we stand in fear of death which is but a contemptible bug-bear and fear not sin which indeed ought to be feared Because it robs us of all Gods grace makes us lyable to all sorts of miseries and guilty of eternal Flames Thus much concerning our third assertion SECT 4. THe fourth assertion is Who ever sins mortally loseth Heaven for all Eternity Sin shuts against us the gate of Heaven the Empyrial Heaven which is adorned with all delight which is for situation most sublime for extent most ample and in every respect most compleat in a word the worlds wonder from this heaven doth only deadly sin debar us We acknowledge the Soveraign Kings decree promulgated by St. Paul Eph. 5. No Fornicator or Unclean or covetous person which is the service of Idols hath inheritance in the Kingdome of Christ and of God This loss is not the last though it be the worst For in case no other harm proceeded from sin yet this alone were abundantly enough and too too great to be for ever excluded from the joyes of Heaven We may mention this damage t is true yet are we unable to make a right estimate of it well said St. Austin If it were in our power brethren Psa 49. to hinder the coming of the day of judgement yet in my opinion we ought not to lead a wicked life Suppose then the fire of divine judgement should afflict no body but each one might swim in what pleasures he listed for ever notwithstanding if they were separated from the face of God and never must enjoy the sight of their Creatour their loss would be infinite their punishment immense so as to speak with St. Austin they would have cause for all eternity to bewail their condition though they were not guilty of sin Amand. hoâ— sap Lib. 1. ch 4. That expression seems to have been framed amongst Rhetoricians Who will furnish me with Parchment as large as the heavens who will provide me of Quills which for number should equal the leaves of the trees Who will give me a Sea of Ink that I may write down the harms which proceed from mortal sin yet this is no exaggaration for though there were so many Quils so much Parchment and Ink to write with still it would go beyond the art of man to summ up what damage accrues to man by sin since it is eternal Truth it self proclaims to the world It were good for him Mart. 26 if that man had not been born Since God hath quite blotted out his image in Heaven and that most deservedly in regard of that infinite affront offered to so Soveraign a Majesty which is so much more notorious by how much the good preferred before God is of less value But all treasure delight and Honour are infinitely below God therefore the wrong done to God is infinite and consequently the punishment must be proportionable Is not he much obleiged to the giver who bestows on him gratis an hundred Marks in Gold Now our Tongue or Eyes alone which God hath freely gigen us are infinitely more worth then a thousand Marks in Gold to say nothing thing of our Soul and Body which are far more estimable then a thousand worlds Giles one of St. Francis his companions Catechising an ignorant person said A certain man wanted Hands Feet and Eyes to whom one of his friends spoke in this manner My friend if one should restore thee both Hands Feet and Eyes what requital wouldst thou make him I would quoth he become his servant all the dayes of my life Well then replyed Giles who gave thee Hands Feet Eyes Tongue Ears Soul and Body together with the good thou injoyest God without doubt If then thou wouldst be his servant that only restored some few Limbs what is it meet thou shouldst do for God who gave thee all Tell me now what a base part it is to offend him with thine eyes that bestowed them on thee or to affront God by word or deed who framed both tongue and hands for thee Hence ariseth in us an infinite obligation to serve God from which if we swerve by transgression both fault and punishment must needs be infinite Because according to St. Bernard what was short in time or action was certainly long in the setled resolution of the will Now as he is justly condemned that wilfully persists in vice so is he blame-worthy that strives not to better himself in vertue In like manner he who dies in sin hath a living death in eternal pain wherein he must abide for ever that he may suffer torment for ever but never be consumed Alas one merry moment of nimble winged time we prefer before treasures of glory and delights eternal we lose a needle and are sorry for the loss Heaven is snatcht from us and we laugh at it We know full well that upon every greivous crime an happy or wretched eternity depends the privation of that and possession of this is due to every great offence Thus much we know and yet sin boldly especially while we are not certain of one minute of life For who I pray after sin committed hath so much as one sole moment sure to do pennance in Nevertheless in a business of huge consequence and such extreme uncertainty we expose our eternal weal to manifest hazard of eternal wo so freely do we exchange everlasting glory for endless torments and in effect fools as we are demonstrate our hatred to Heaven For Heaven he hates who by contempt or carelesness intangles his soul with sin A Lacedemonian saies Plutarch made a vow to throw himself headlong from the Summit of Lucas But when he beheld the dreadful height of the Rock he was strook with horrour and altered his purpose Afterwards being upbraided for want of courage he answered I did not imagine that for performance of my vow I needed a greater vow Who ever designs to execute some difficult exployt must take upon him a resolution
sutable to the exploit But alas what comparison betwixt this precipe from a high Mountain to casting ones self headlong from Heaven to Hell How then do so many throw themselves down from the fruition of bliss to thraldome amongst Devils They shut their eyes ere they attempt to do so they consider not the infinite malice of sin nor the inexplicable windings of eternity They jogg on towards Hell blindfolded He that is not pleased with his own blindness endeavours by all means possible to escape this downfal and chooses rather to undergo what ever happens then to be cast into that abisse whence there is no redemption SECT 5. OUr fifth assertion is Who ever commits a mortal sin throws himself into Hell fire for ever Fire everlasting is an unexplicable punishment of sin Were there no other mischief in sin this assuredly would be an abridgement of all evils The reward of sin is death eternal The soul that shall sin Ezechi ch 18. the same shall dye the justice of the just shall be upon him and the impiety of the impious shall be upon him Admirable is St. Psal 49. Austins discourse How great a punishment is it only to be deprived of the sight of God Such as have not tasted of that sweetness if they do not desire to see the face of God let them at least be afraid of fire those who are not invited with reward may be terrified with torments If what God promiseth seem to thee of small account tremble at what he threatens The sweetness of his presence is offered to thee and thou art not changed nor moved nor sighest after nor desirest it Thou still huggest thine own sins and the delights of thy flesh Thou heapest to thy self straw and fire will come upon thee Fire will burn in his sight That fire will not be like thine into which notwithstanding if thou wert compelled to thrust thy hand thou would rather do any thing then that If he that compels thee should say Either sign this wrighting against the life of thy Father and Children or thrust thy hand into thy own fire thou wouldst obey him rather then burn thy hand or any member of thy body which could not abide in pain forever Thy enemy therefore threatens a sleight evil and thou dost evil God threatens eternal evil and wilt thou not do good What trouble soever the Devil causeth in our souls it is by means of sin Hence our passions rebel and we are molested with fear suspicion inconstancy grief anxiety despair whereby mans soul is reduced by sin to resemble Hell Esay 48. There is no peace to the impious saith our Lord. Such as abandon themselves to sin are loaden with so many Chains by the Devil till at length with their own weight they sink down into hell While they live they draw nearer to hell as a great stone tumbled from the top of a Mountain tumbles so often till in the end it lye in the bortome In this manner while a notorious theif went up the Ladder the Hangman encouraged him saying You have but one step further to go and so he turned him off In this manner little birds with others of the same feather fly again and again to take their food till at last they are ensnared In this manner Drunkards animate their pot-companions this one cup and no more This course they continue till they drown each other in strong liquor And the like method is observed by sinners In the beginning they think it much to commit one sin by and by they double redouble and multiply offences till they come to hundreds Thus he who at first sinned privately and with much bashfulness by degreeâ—s puts on a bold face and dares now aâ—â—t confidently what ere while he blusht to think on Thus the first naughtiness is seldome acted alone but drawes after it a long train of impurities The beggining was indâ—ed with one crime then two afterwards more till in procesâ—s of time the number encreased almost above number Thus a sprout growes up into a wood thus a drop swells into an Ocean thus a spark becomes a fire of that greatness as it is not to be extinguisht for all eternity All these proceedings serve to recompence sin Whence some have arrived to such a generous resolution that they choose rather to dye then admit of one sin The most chast Ioseph would rather lose his good name together with his life then to undergo the least impeachment of Chastity Daniell ch 13. The modest Susanna breaks forth into this exclamation It is better for me without the act to fall into your hands then to sin in the sight of our Lord. It was more pleasing to her to be stoned to death then stained with Adultery Blessed St. Paul was sure that death it self could not separate him from the love of Christ St. Ambrose was resolved to undergoe all hardship whatever rather then act any thing misbecoming his profession Foâ—t when Ruffinus put Theodosius the Emperour in hope the Holy Bishop would change his resolution No quoth Theoâ—dosius I know well the constancy of Ambâ—rose no fear of temporal Majesty can make him forsake the Law of God St. Chrysostome with equal fortitude opposed himself against the menaces of Eudoxia the Empress and was so far from being dismaied with her fury that she was told in these express words It is in vain to go about to terrify the man he fears nothing but sin Lewis King of France being yet a child learned this lesson of his Mother Blanch Rather to part with life then consent to a mortal sin St. Anselm Bishop of Canterbury would rather leap into Hell then commit a mortal sin St. Edmund his successour in the same See frequently said I would rather throw my self into a burning Furnace then wittingly commit any sin against God Democles a comely youth to escape the unnatural dealing of King Demetrius leapt into a hot boyling Cauldron Such a death suted better with his generous mind then an unchast life So Papinian the Lawyer though no Christian resolved to dye before he would Patronise the design of Caracalla Emperour against his Brother A man defiled with mortal sin is more vile and contemptible then a Dog a Swine or a Toad For these owe but one death to nature he two the first to nature which is soon past the second to God which continues for eternity A man plunged in sin may fitly be termed a nest of Basiliskes a Den of infernal Theives of whom take St Pauls affirmation They shall suffer eternall pains in destruction from the face of our Lord and from the Glory of his Power they are quite excluded for ever 2. Thess ch 1.9 Out alas What age ever brought forth such a Monster that would not have its fury satisfied with one death What Executioner what Tyrant contented not their cruelty with Malefactors dying once but after that would proceed to a second death One death hath
The mystery of the blessed Trinity the Incarnation of Christ the miracle of the Holy Eucharist the resurrection of the dead and eternity of torment Now for as much as these points are hard to beleive therefore Divine Providence hath in a singular maner confirmed them by Scriptures Councils and Miracles Our talk in this place is to discourse of pains eternal and why God whose nature is to have mercy would have them eternal Divines in this point have gone different wayes to answer the difficulty Some say the Damned alwaies sin therefore they are alwaies punished What injustice therefore is it for him to groan under pain who persevers in doing injury This answer is not amiss For not only the damned sin perpetually in Hell but even here while they lived amongst us they found out a certain kind of eternity to sin in which is the matter we are to weigh with maturity Who ever heaps sin upon sin till death sins during his eternity let us call it so Therefore in Gods eternity he is most justly punisht Both truly and elegantly said St Gregory It is manifest and certain beyond controul Lib. 4. Dial. 44. that neither the blessed have an end of their joyes nor the damned of their sufferings It is an Oracle of truth And they shall go into punishment everlasting but the just into life everlasting Matt. 25 Since therefore Christ is true in his promises he cannot be otherwise in his threats If you demand how can it be just to punish a fault without end which had a speedy end when it was a doing The blessed Bishop answers This might well be objected if the severe Judge weighed only deeds and not the hearts of men for the wicked therefore had an end in sinning because they had an end in living since they were resolved if it had been in their power to have lived alwaies that they might alwaies have sinned It is apparent they desire to live perpetually in sin who while they live never give over sinning Therefore it appertains to the great justice of the judge that they never want pain who in this life would never be without fault Here I would by all means have this observed This circumstance goes along with sin Not only to have sinned but also to desire to sin yet more justly is this desire punished with hell because God doth not only look upon sins committed but likewise the eagerness and longing to commit more as will appear by this example Imagine a man of thirty years old is adjudged to hell because he did not leave off sining had he lived fifty sixty seventy years he had continued so long his sinful course Nay if he had lived a hundred a thousand years he had still held on sining Yea if his life had been without end so likewise had been his sins Seeing then his desire to sin was so great as to be even eternal in desire deservedly is his punishment eternal Therefore as St. Gregory inculcates Let them never be without pain who in this life would never be without fault SECT 2. MOreover the damned do not expiate faults committed they do not lay aside that malice which begun with them during life for they have not so much grace of God as to repent That which followes is most dreadful and unexplicable The damned are so deprived of divine grace that for eternity none of them will ever say Have mercy on me O God none of them shall ever have that grace In which perticular they resemble much the Devils from whom no torments what ever shall be of force to squeez these words We have sinned spare us Hence one may rightly affirm In Hell are only Devils that is most obstinate and desperate enemies of God such as are not the devils alone but likewise all the damned And in this point the wicked man during life and the damned in torments are both a like neither of them being able with their own forces to recal their soul from sin In this case help from God is necessary which he never denies while we live albeit we lose his Grace a thousand times but withal he gives us this admonition Look to thy self lo now I pardon this fault which I shall not alwaies do I forewarn thee and covenant with thee while thy Soul is in the body the gates of mercy stand open for thee enter in but so soon as the soul is gone out of the body these gates shall be close shut This proceeding of God is most just For if the damned while he lived had asked pardon ten twenty thirty thousand times he might have obtained it But when death has once bereaved us of life it is in vaine to hope for any more pardon help or grace God made this agreement with us and added a thousand admonitions that we should not reject grace when it was offered nor mercy while we might find it But we resolved to embrace neither Grace is vanisht Mercy neglected we had a mind to be miserable we were determined to perish Therefore if we perish we may thank our selves we cut our own throats and refused to be friends of God and so by our own choice we never shall be Furthermore wicked actions are directly opposite to good to those everlasting pain is due to these eternal recompence For according to that Maxime of Phylosophy the same rule holds in contraries The perfection of beatitude is to be happy without end Then the accomplishment of torments in Hell is to be miserable for eternity Christ closes all his divine Sermons with this sentence Matt. c. 25. And these shall go into punishment everlasting but the just into life everlasting For so St. Matt. testifies And it came to pass ch 26. when Jesus had ended all these words Behold our Lord concludes his exhortations with this clause of reward and pain everlasting he is equally just and merciful whence he hath decreed to his friends joy and to his enemies torment in the highest degree SECT 3. THese things I must confess are spoken with much congruity But do we yet dive to the bottome of the matter in debate For my own particular I imbrace with reverence that wise principle of St. Austin He is become worthy of eternal ill Lib. 21 de civit deâ— c. 21 who destroyed in himself that good which might have been eternal This is the very cause of everlasting torment the infinite malice of every mortal sin For being an infinite goodness is offended the offence discovers infinite malice which was bold to violate the supream Good with such temerity Sr. Thomas the Prince of Divines avoucheth that Sin is nothing else but an ill humane act To every mortal sin he ascribes a twofold malice The one an act differing from the rule of reason The other an injury done to God by contemning him Now this malice is no other then a voluntary aversion from God which deserves infinite pain because it refuseth an infinite good
Certainly every mortal sin carries with it a contempt of God as will appear by this example There is a Law enacted under pain of death in a City of Italy Let none wear Sword nor Daggar He that knows this Law and yet will carry Sword and Daggar either contemns the Magistrate or the Prince who made it God in like manner has published to the world Let none Steal none Lye none commit Adultery c. Nevertheless what ever the Law say this man Steals in the sight of God that Lyes and the other commits Adultery Is not this to contemn God He that violates Caesars edict sins against Caesar and he that despiseth Divine Laws despiseth God This is manifest out of Holy Writ The soul that shall sin Lev. 6.1 and contemning the Lord shall deny unto his Neighbour the thing delivered to his custody So in St. Austins opinion Sin is contemning an unchangeable Good to adhere to things subject to change Hence comes to light that infinite malice of sin For by how much the Majesty offended is greater by so much is the offence more grievous To affront a Noble man is grievous to offer an abuse to a Lord is more grievous and more yet to injure an Earle but much more a Prince and most of all a King or Emperour These degrees are observed amongst men to lay open the nature of injuries offered What injury is it then to contemn God who is a Law-giver of infinite Majesty Whence it comes to pass that the infinite malice of one mortal sin though in an unclean thought only wittingly consented to cannot be Cancelled by any humane actions what ever For if into one Scale of Divine justice all the merits of the most glorious Virgin-Mother and all other Blessed were cast and into the other side of the Ballance were put one only mortal sin this would outweigh them all so as for this they would never be able to make due satisfaction It is altogether dreadful to express that all holy actions of all the just are counterpoysed by one mortal sin This notwithstanding he will cease to admire who knows how to frame a right estimate of God and his immense Majesty It is an unspeakable temerity for a creature to contemn its Creatour St. Mark testifies ch 3. He shall be guilty of an eternal sin SECT 4. SO great therefore and infinite is the malice of one mortal sin that all acts of virtue joyned together cannot counterballance it unless the Soveraign judge be pleased gratiously to pardon it In which work Gods inexplicable liberallity appears who pardons one mans sin a thousand and a thousand times but under this condition that he sin no more or if he do that he do true pennance before he dye which the sinner often times disters and dyes indebted whereby he is guilty of an eternal sin Admirable to the purpose speaks St Austin When any one is put to death for some heinous crime do the lawes esteem that short space of his execution a sufficient punishment or rather his removeal for ever from the company of the living For as the Lawes of this City cannot recal to life one that is killed no more can he that is condemned to the second death be recalled to eternal life If a Magistrate take away from an offender a life which he gave not may not God with more reason do as much Seeing therefore the malice of a mortal sin is infinite it deserves also infinite punishment which forasmuch as it cannot be inflicted by way of intension as Schools teach it is requisite it be done by extension that is what sharpness of torment was not able to do let length of time recompence He will give fire and worms into their flesh Judith c. 16 ver 21. that they may be burnt and may feel for ever While we consider these things methinks we should be so disposed as they are who being guilty of frequent robberies cannot behold others executed for the same fault as they deserve to be without sighing It falls out sometimes that a person of good repute passes by the Gallows and secretly sobs within himself while he ruminates these particulars in his mind Lo these poor wretches which totter in the air as a scorn to others and to us an object of sadness even after death pay for faults committed in their life And what crimes they were hanged for some of them perchance if all their theivery were put together have not stoln above ten or twelve shillings Whereas thou who hast purloined some thousands of crowns walks at thy liberty clothed in Silk and Sattin and art honourably treated by all having perhaps been instrumental in their death which thy self deserved a hundred times more then they who filcht away trifles and hang for them thou having carried away bags of Gold and yet goest scot-free Take heed the Gods said the Ancients tread upon Wooll with a slow pace but in the end they recompense their slowness with sharpness of revenge In this manner must we employ our thoughts when we meditate on hell Alas how many mortal sins have I committed and yet feel no smart of burning How many fry in those flames of Hell and must fry for ever who are guilty of far fewer crimes then I and perhaps had commited but one deadly sin The Sun of Gods bounty yet shines upon me they whose sins were neither so many nor grievous as mine are buried in eternal darkness Take heed Gods vengeance creeps on with a slow but sure pace Thou stands upon a tickle point and dost thou not tremble a small matter will throw thee down albeit thou hast kept footing long yet a moment serves to turn up thy heels and then whither wilt thou fall An Abisse and Chaos of flames will bid thee welcome Take heed If thou stir up a finger thou fallest one small Feavour an Apoplexie or Palsey one slender prick with a Rapier or Pistol-bullet will send thee packing into Eternity If when thou fallest thou be a friend of God his Angels will bear thee up If otherwise the Devils will snatch thee away and hell fire will give thee entertainment St. Ignatius was of opinion that perchance many were condemned to Hell for one sole mortal sin either of Perjury desire of Revenge some Lacivious thought or some other way in thought word or deed We may here seriously reflect that many of the damned were men as well as we and amongst those many Christians who by Sacraments and Sermons by pious books and wholesome admonitions were induced to a vertuous life which perhaps for some time they continued even in great familiarity with God but by degrees growing tepid and remiss they fell into mortal sin and so by Gods just judgement were condemned to eternal flames O mortals Set your hearts cryes out the Prophet Aggaeus upon your waies c. 1. ve 5 SECT 5. SIgismund the Emperour as Aeneus Silvius relates demanded of Theorick Bishop of Colen
utters his discontent in this manner O unhappy Fortune O base Villains How shall I recover my Gold again In this humor he goes home venting his spleen with furious complaints he disquiets his whole Family miscals his Servants and turns all topsy turvy Thus he wasts the night and after the loss of his money scarcely retains his Wits This Chest-table decyphers mans life which doth not want the light of reason the different Chest-men represent the diversity of States and Qualities amongst mortals Some are Kings and Queens some Peers and Nobles some Country and City Peasants who for Dignities and Riches are much unequal amongst themselves He that is skilful carries away the Victory and leaves the ignorant in the Lurch Afterwards ensues a perpetual night a night enveloped in horrid darkness and eternal despair They shall not see light for ever O dismal night O disconsolate darkness The second Torment is Weeping THe Angel as an Herauld from Heaven Apo. 18. long since denounced As much as she hath glorified her self and hath been in delecacies so much give her torment and mourning Hell is a place allotted for lamentation where they weep without shedding a tear or diminishing their grief with weeping O mortals why do we bewail the loss of money the death of friends or the troublesomness of the times These Tears are in vain these accidents hurt none but such as hurt themselves by their own crimes Luk. 23. Weep not upon me said our Saviour but weep upon your selves T is a matter worthy of lamentation to be cast for ever from the Face of God this no Sea of Tears may sufficiently bewail If you consider all the Prophets and their Predictions they commonly denounce great miseries they foretel great calamities But by and by they turn over the leaf and seem to say all damages are repaired all things are in a good condition Hence are those words of comfort The Hills shall flow with Milk and Honey And these likewise The threshing of your Harvest shall reach unto Vintage Lev. 26. and the Vintage shall reach unto sowing time and you shall eat the bread to your fill Thus storms and fair weather succeed each other The reason is manifest There is no wound in this world so uncurable whereunto God cannot lay a Playster no evil so great which may not have a remedy Tobias was poor and blind but continuing in patience was cured with a fishes Gall Naaman was a Leaper but was wealthy and healed with the water of Iordan Thessaly abounds with Poyson but is not destitute of Antidotes The Philippine Islands bring forth no Vines but Palmes which store them with a liquor more pretious then Wine Italy is bare of Woods but enjoyes a milder Winter and great variety of fruits So God substituted Christ instead of Adam the Blessed Virgin for Eve grace was provided to take away sin obedience satisfied for transgression and life is a comfort against death No sore can here be found without a cure no malady without a remedy But in that doleful Eternity all calamities want releif there be many Vlcers but no salve there is the worst of evils and that eternal without the least mitigation M. Marcellus at the taking of that flourishing City of Siracusa wept for compassion The Damned may weep tears of blood when they behold themselves in thraldome for all Eternity this this were just cause of such tears if they were available There shall be weeping without the least mixture of consolation The third Torment is Hunger THe wicked here feasted too magnificently at dinner wherefore they must now sit down with a short supper they did not restrain their immoderate appetite to meat and drink whereupon they became guilty of many sins by Gluttony as of Drunkenness and all that train of vices which attend it They did not eat to live but live to eat their mind lived amongst their dishes since they regulated their lives by the rules of Cookery Of these St. Tom. 10 serm 63 Austin speaks plainly Seeing they should eat to live they think they should live to eat but every wise man blames such Gluttons Drunkards and Gurmandisers and especially Holy Writ reproves them whose belly is their God These people come not to meat for want of food but to please their Palate and so become slaves to meat and drink What men are these who place their happiness in their Table as Beasts do in their Manger They did eat drink and vomit but now they hunger thirst and suffer for their Gluttony without the least mitigation of either hunger or thirst The Famine of Samaria or saguntum would be esteemed as dainties in hell where their famine is more cruel and rageing where a drop of water is as eagerly begged as justly denied Thus gluttony is chastised thus a small delight in eating is punisht with pains everlasting Albidius a Prodigal young man after he had consumed his inheritance in gluttony returned home in despair Whom Cato espying said O what a Religious yongster are you that with such liberality offer sacrifice to Protervia It was the custome in sacrificing to Protervia that what was not wasted in feasting should be devoured by Vulcan or consumed by fire So many as are condemned to Hell have indeed sacrificed to folly by lavishing most shamefully their Patrimony by contemning the Law of God and riotously glutting themselves with Feasting Wherefore now both they and their habitations burn and must burn eternally Of whose miserable condition thus speaks St. â—pra Austin There is no voice but groaning no rest but fire without ceasing there is no refreshment in that flame but continual burning of perpetual fire They shall never see light nor want darkness they shall have no remembrance of good who are possest with forgetfulness of God Their food is their torment their abode is not Abrahams bosome but Satans Den. Amend thy life while it is in thy power call upon God ere it be too late mourn while mourning is available and do not differ to do true pennance The fourth Torment is Stench TO the end the whole man may be chastised with all sorts of pain the nostrils shall be filled with most pestilent stink Poverty and needy persons are exceeding noysome to some mens smelling others when they meet with Perfumes wish with Catullus they were all nose O that these nicelings would consider what kind of odours are burning in Hell What wonder I pray if that loathsome prison be replenisht with stink it is a stable for Kids and Goats for so they are called by the Soveraign Judge Matt. 25 He shall set the sheep at his right hand but the Goats at his left These creatures have a scent neither of Fish nor Flowers they are fitter for a sty or Augias Stable and as Goats and Swine are banisht from the delights of Heaven Apo. 21. Into that seat of the blessed shall not enter any polluted thing nor that doth abomination
miserable wretches shall fry in eternal flames for Eternity and longer In body they shall be tormented by fire and in spirit by the worm of Conscience There shall be pain intollerable horrible fear and stink incomparable death both of soul and body without hope either of pardon or mercy And yet shall they so dye as that they shall alwaies live and so live as that they shall ever dye Thus the soul of a sinner is either in hell tormented for sins or for good works placed in Paradise Now therefore let us choose one of the two either to be for ever tormented with the wicked or to rejoyce with Saints perpetually For good and evil life and death are set before us that we may stretch forth our hand to which we choose If pains do not terrify us at least let rewards invite us These things we are tought by Faith which yet as we declared before we either permit to degenerate into drowsness and sloath or wholly to perish Peter Barocius Lib. 2. de ratione bene moriendi Bishop of Padua recounts how a certain man famous for learning appeared after death to one of his intimate friends and spoke to him in this manner At the hour of Death in matters of Faith I was shamefully deceived by the Devil In which condition death found me carried me away and presented me to the judge by whom I was commanded to depart into flames Which though they be excessive yet should I deem them tollerable if after a thousand thousand years they were to have an end But they are eternal and so sharp as the like was never seen in this world Accursed be that knowledge which threw me headlong into so great misery After he had spoken thus he disappeared but his surviveing friend astonisht at the relation and especially strook with his friends eternal damnation consulted with his best friends what advice were most profitable for him in this case He became a new man and dyed holily The Conclusion THerefore St. Psal 68. Austin discoursed well Who saith he would not drink off a cup of temporal tribulation for fear of hell fire And who would not despise the sweetness of worldly pleasure out of love to the delights of everlasting life a greater fear makes us contemn smaller matters and a greater longing after Eternity makes us loath all temporal things As much saith St. Chrysostome as a grain of Sand Tom. 4. hom 11 in ep ad titum or a drop comes short of the immense abiss so far doth this present life differ from eternal and never ending treasures The things we have we do not truly possess we only make use of them and that improperly too T is vertue alone which will bear us company in our journey hence T is vertue alone which hath admittance into everlasting life Let us then at length open our eyes and quite extinguish all appetite to worldly wealth that all our desire may be placed on eternal But alas how great want of consideration is to be found amongst men how great blindness we wrangle for a half penny and make a laughter and jest on 't to lose Heaven Thus we are infected with the ordinary contagion of madness and take pleasure to perish for company Dost thou not blush saith St. Chrysostome to be so wedded to things present When wilt thou part with thy youth toyes and lay a side thy wonted folly What ever is here troublesome is of small continuance what is delightful there is everlasting Remove therefore thy mind from transitory and fading goods and settle it on better and eternal eagerly thirst after Heaven that thou maiest enjoy delights to come Is not reward of force to invite thee at least let fear of torment keep thee in awe Those punishments therefore saith Valerianus ought to have the first place in our thoughts where man lives while the pain lasts where neither pains are wanting to the body nor the body to pains To the like intent writes St. Chrysostome If the Ninivites had not been afraid of destruction Tom. 2. in epist 1. ad Thess they had bin destroyed If in the time of Noe they had feared the deluge they had not been drowned If the Sodomites had dreaded the fire they had not been burned It is a great misery to contemn menaces Nothing is so profitable as frequently to treat of hell speak of it every day that you may never fall into it A soul solicitous to escape hell cannot easily commit sin None of those who have a lively remembrance of hell will fall into it as none who sleight hell will escape it A certain man as Iohn Moscus relates came to Alexander Prat. spur c. 141. a venerable person who governed the Monastery of Abbot Gerasimus and said unto him Father I have a design to flit from my old habitation because the unpleasant situation of it is irksome to me To whom the good old man spoke in this manner Son this is a manifest sign you never consider with attention either the joyes of heaven or the pains of hell for if you did seriously weigh these things in your mind beleive me you would find no fault with your old habitation This was an Oracle of truth for who ever meditates attentively on heaven or hell either is not sensible of difficulty though never so great or if he be he makes his benefit of it and is most ready to undergo greater hardships so he may avoid eternal pains Of this temper was Abbot Olympius as Clymacus testifies who being asked how he could abide to live in such a Cave how he could endure such excessive heats or pass so many daies amongst whole swarms of gnats and flies he returned this answer I suffer these things willingly that I may be freed from future torments I am content to be bitten with gnats because I am afraid of the worm that never dyes heat is welcome to me in regard I stand in fear of fire everlasting for those sufferings pass away with time and will quickly have an end but these are without end and continue for eternity Wherefore these things deserve our dayly consideration and ought to be ruminated when our thoughts are most active As Physick is taken by way of prevention even when the body is well in health so likewise must our soul be prepared with these considerations to withstand vice I confess these thoughts are somewhat bitter but they are wholesome too they do not become familiar upon a suddain but by degrees time place and practise will nourish and bring them to maturity All idleness is a sworn enemy unto them which as it is pernitious to vertue so it opens an easy passage to let in all kind of vices Go too then c. 27. ver 4. who ever thou be and provide in time for thy own salvation Give ear to the Prophesy of Ecclesiasticus If thou hold not thy self instantly in the fear of our Lord thy house shall quickly be subverted It is now in thy choice whether thou wilt reign or perish A soft bed seldome makes a Souldier more valiant remember that beatitude is a daughter of labour and vertue Let none saith St. Tom. 10 ser 60. de tem Austin he ashamed to do pennance who was not ashamed to commit sin but let him strive without delay to renew himself by good works that he may be owned for a child by his father least being excluded from the Wedding feast and shut out from eternal bliss he have his hands and feet bound and be cast into exteriour darkness Excellently said Turtullian The ceasing from sin is the root of pardon the meditation of hell is the begining of salvation seeing hell abounds with all evil it wants chiefly that good which is the best amidst evils an end of Torment An End of this Treatise But where art thou O end of eternal Torments
been sufficient to appease most barbarous Tyranny Whereas sin more cruel then any Monster or Tyrant is not glutted with murthering man once but murthers him eternally When you behold an Offender hurried to Execution and his flesh pluckt off with hot Pincers you forthwith imagine his crimes were hainous since his punishment is so excessive How grievous then must that fault be which can never be expiated with flames eternal This point is often treated these pains are frequently denounced by God and yet we are backward in forbearing sin These particulars we are assured of and still hold on to violate divine Laws with extreme temerity This fault we know deserves to be eternally banisht from Heaven that crime makes its Actour punishable with fire everlasting both in soul and body in so much as sin may seem to blow the Coals and to subminister Fuel for the duration of torments He that would seriously weigh what is here delivered would he not bridle his unruly appetites would he not restrain himself from sin and tread a better path It is down right madness to choose rather to perish then amend ones life O Mortals consider these things this matter is exceeding ferious and of mighty consequence Heaven is not purchased with doing nothing All this notwithstanding men sin with as much freedome and security as if God were ignorant of their acting they go on as boldly as if God had not forbidden them and offend as confidently as though God did nor look on while they offend We admire the foolishness of Esau who valued a dish of Pottage above his birth-right Let us now admire no more all we that esteem a bruitish pleasure at a higher rate then our title to the Kingdome of God all we that sell our Inheritance of Glory for an empty blast of humane praise What is now become of those Heroick resolutions I will rather lose my life then sin Plutarch tells you how Lysimachus was reduced to that extremity by thirst that he gave himself and his Army up into the hands of his enemies and after he had swallowed a cup of cold water he cryed our wo is me base fellow that I am that have parted with a Kingdome for so small pleasure With how much more reason may one that sins mortally exclaime O wretch that I am and unworthy the name of man who for a fleeting and beastly delight sell my right to Heaven prefer creatures before my Creatour Vice before Vertue Death before Life and Perdition before Salvation Ah! covetous miscreant for how slender gain dost thou sell away Heaven Alas Lacivious beast why dost thou change eternal joyes for a moments pleasure O wrathful and envious man how seldome dost thou meditate on hell And thou O Drunkard why wilt thou quaff away an Ocean of Celestial Nectar Good Lord what height of folly is it when a blessed eternity lyes at stake to part with everlasting happiness for a minutes delight Lust Revenge Drunkenness and all other vices please but for a moment and merit torments for an entire eternity Wherefore do we now wonder that God eternally punishes the wicked since the reward of the vertuous is without end Again he that sins mortally for a transitory pleasure sells away himself to the Devil what marvail if the buyers title become perpetual This made Elias speak plainly to King Achab I have found thee mine enemy 3. Kings ch 21. for that thou art sold to do evil in the sight of our Lord. Moreover it is notorious that he who grows obstinate in sin augments his own pain seeing therefore those in Hell are obstinate in their sins for in Hell there is neither pennancenor amendment they likewise increase their injury Understand then these things you that forget God Psa 49. lest sometime he take you violently and there be none to deliver you The very same who is now offended will be your Judge from whom there lyes no appeal to any other no frivolous defence or foolish excuse will then be admitted favour at that time is bootless intercession vain pleading comes too late delayes may not be expected For the judge cannot be moved with flattery nor corrupted with Bribes the last sentence is irevocable the decree eternal aswell as the punishment ensuing CHAP. XV. Why one Mortal Sin is punished with Eternal Torment NOne wonders to hear one say a magnificent City was burnt to the ground by neglecting to have care of one spark of fire We know by experience the activity of fire and its unsatiable appetite it has a devouring stomach while competent matter is set before it it feeds greedily and by feeding grows bigger it spares nothing that is fitly disposed for its pallate it swallowes up Houses Cities and Kingdomes it makes no distinction betwixt friends and foes it layes all wast it consumes all it has inflamed whole towns and we beleive it will bring the world into conflagration What Jaws what Panch may I say it hath whose hunger so much provision of sustenance is not able to asswage We do not therefore wonder that by one spark entire Cities become desolate but that the flames were no sooner extinguisht In like manner we do not gain-say any one that affirms our life to be but a moment and indeed compared to Eternity it scarcely deserves to be called a moment Now if you say further Eternity depends on this moment I shall not contradict you because I know an eternal reward is acquired with temporal pains for in case the labour were eternal the recompence could not be perpetual Neither shall I contest with any who avoucheth everlasting joy may â—e obtained in the twinkling of an eye since this blessing is not due to our deserts but to the merits of Christ This then is that which holds us in admiration that eternal punishment is frequently incurred in a short time in a moments space with one sole thought Actions vertuously performed deserve an endless Crown by reason of our Saviours merits which are of infinite value But how our sins should be of infinite malice and consequently merit infinite pain this passes our understanding this argument of Divinity we are not capable of For what malice I pray lurks under the sweetness of a filthy Lust in which one freely lingers for an hour or part of an hour or a minutes space which may not for all eternity be sufficiently expiated even in flames eternal This it is we mervail at this altogether transcends our capacity Something in answer to this difficulty hath formerly been alledged yet in regard the matter is weighty and hard to be understood we shall enlarge our selves in the declaration of it and unfold this Riddle Why a sin committed in a moment is punisht with eternal torment where by the way we shall discover the efficient cause of this doleful Eternity SECT 1. IN Christian Religion several mysteries are contained which humane reason is not able to comprehend Of this nature we particularize five