the sea over floweth not In like manner all sorts of pains as so many streams empty themselves into eternity in hell yet eternity like an immense ocean is always the same neither ebbing nor flowing but infinite but unchangeable After a hundred centuries of ages are disburdened into this abysse a hundred more will be swallowed up and still more and more without end After the damned crue shall have dwelt in hell so many ages as to think they have lived in flames for all eternity by past yet eternity is not one jot diminisht After the revolution of so many ages eternity is not a minute less it is ever entirely the same After a thousand thousand years are come and gone the circle of eternity is as large as whole as unavoidable as it was in the beginning This is the ninth unspeakable unconceivable torment in Gods prison Now forasmuch as people yet alive busie their thoughts with eternity we assign a triple difference thereof eternity which makes the pious daily sigh eternity which is a fearful dream of the wicked and eternity which is an everlasting punishment to the damned The first of these three is the subject of this present chapter SECT 1. THe divine espouse commending the humanity of her beloved says Cant. 2. His left hand under my head and his right hand shall embrace me Under these words lyeth hid a mystery which must be unfolded In the left hand of the beloved are honours wealth and plenty in the right length of dayes or eternity Here the espouse as if she were wittingly and willingly blind exclaimes the left hand I see not because it is under my head so little do I value honour riches or transitory goods But the right wherewith he shall embrace me I behold though yet I enjoy it not all the eyes I have are fixed in contemplation of eternity things eternal are they I esteem Yet in regard I have not possession of a blessed eternity nevertheless I rest assured He shall embrace me Eternity delayed breeds torment as Hope that is differred afflicteth the soul Prov. 13. Eternity stirs up in the vertuous a dayly longing after it Boniface a Citizen of Rome having for some time kept company with Aglae a noble matron became at length so penitent for his fault that he resolved to wash out that stain by the practice of most heroick vertue This made him sl ght all danger of looseing the goods of fortune yea and his own life too this made him visit martyrs in prison and kiss their chains this made him encourage such as were to suffer and after death to bury their bodies Being taken up with these employments he took his journy to Tarsus where he performed the like good offices to the champions of Christ His dayly exhortation was they should be constant in their sufferings their labour though short would merit reward without end With these words he mervailously excited himself and others to lay down their lives couragiously While he was busie with these employments he was apprehended and had his flesh torn off his bones with iron hooks they thrust under his nails sharp needles and poured into his mouth melted lead Amidst these torments he persevered constant he believed his pains momentary and the crown he expected to be everlasting he repeated to himself his former exhortation and often redoubled I give thee thanks O my Lord Jesu In this manner he gloriously finisht his combat Eternity is cause of continual sighing to the godly SECT 2. ST Frances of Assisium the Jewel of his age through frequent weeping began to be troubled with sore eyes Divers perswaded him to forbear his dayly tears to whom with a deep sigh he said For the love of that light which is common to us flies I do not judge it meet to debar my self of the rays of light eternal Being likewise asked how in such thin clothes he could endure the austerity of winter He answered if we were warmed with love of our eternal country we should easily be sheltered from cold here This life was to St. Francis occasion of patience as eternity was of desire Christ our Lord undertaking to teach his followers how to sigh incessantly after eternity said Mat. 10 Fear ye not them that kill the body A hidden argument but according to art Do not for this reason fear saith he because they kill If any one had power to detain another in the fire or such like punishment alive him you might justly fear The sharper the pain inflicted by men the sooner it bereaves of life the more grievous the torment the quicker the end You have then no reason to fear them who can kill the body but once and that often with one blow fear him that redoubles dayly mortal wounds and always killing never kills Behold the antitheses of this divine Oratour The fear of a short death is to be overcome by fear of death eternal Our Lord therefore would glve us to understand that the souls of men are immortal subject to the sole pleasure of God and that the bodies are to be raised from death to reward or punishment everlasting Behold likewise with what artificial brevity of words Christ comprehended great mysteries the immortality of the soul the resurrection of the body and an eternity of well or wo. Eternity causeth in the vertuous continual sighing Sir Thomas More Sand. Lib. 1 a man every way accomplisht was cast into prison not to his disgrace but for manifesting his sanctity to the world His wife came to visit him with an intent to bring him off his resolution But in vain She â—â—ade her onset with a two forked argument and pleaded her cause with prayers and tears beseeching him chiefly by all conjugal fidelity he would preserve his life yet a while What fault have I made quoth she wherein have your children kinsfolk and family so much offended as to be so soon deprived of you my beloved husband All our lives depend on yours For my part I had rather dye a hundred time 〈◊〉 survive after your death 〈◊〉 my dearest More subscribe to the Kings decree and you make your self and us all live many years longer Are you so much fallen out with this present lifâ— as that you will obstinately run upon your own death Death knowes well when it is to come for us why then do we of our own accord send for it as if it had forgâ—tten us That you may have compassion for many of your friends have pitty on your self and do not despise the best share of your life which is yet behind I doubt not but God out of his goodness will grant you many more years to live in case your self be not out of liking with your own life Her Husband gave eaâ— pâ—tiently to what she said and when she had ended her speach How many years quoth he doest thou think I shall live my dear Aloysia to whom she quickly made answer you may well live
in our own bosoms the coals of wrath and envy We greedily expect everlasting repose but still continue our sloathful courses as if we meant to make a business of idleness and when industry is required to falter in the very onset O we men who do not offer violence to Heaven But rather O we blind men who choose rather to erre in the broad and smooth way then to go right in the rough and narrow Christ and his Saints call upon us Strive to enter by the narrow gate Luke ch 13. strive strive Because many shall seek to enter and shall not be able Make hast run we must cope with difficulties if we will overcome Strive But God knows we neither run nor hasten our pace nor strive at all we yawn and gape and like unto Camels and Lyons go slowly after step by step And God grant we go after and do not rather stand still Our resolutions and purposes are like to the feeble endeavours of one Sick who now and then raiseth himself up crawls off his bed and attempting to go points his foot to the ground and strives to walk but by and by for want of strength falls upon his bed again his Thighes and Legs are far too weak to bear the weight of his body he would fain take a turn but is not able Not much unlike are our endeavours we design great matters we attempt many things we resolve to become Saints we seem to have a will to do gallantly But these attempts are frivelous without strength we want alacrity of spirit we languish in all our actions Whence we willingly slide back into our former vices which we only intermitted for a time but did not quite abandon Thus we fall down again upon our bed which we were about to leave and are overwhelmed with our old Lethargy We read over the Legends of Saints and extol them but follow them not nor imitate them at all We honour vertue with specious titles but express it not in our actions we gape after a blessed Eternity but shun with all wariness the troublesome way which leads us to it After Prayers are ended and the Sermon is past we pack home sit down to table and within a short space renew our old customs It is our fashion to go to Church to hear a Sermon to fetch now and then a sigh which may manifest we are fallen out with our sins and are angry with our selves for sining But how long I pray is this fashion in request Almost in the turning of your hand all our former Sanctity is joyfully buried in oblivion We do something t is true but that with extream tepidity and so what we do is either worth nothing or very imperfect Whence it falls out that after six hundred Sermons we are no better then before we swear as we did we are as impatient as ever Lust Envy and wrath have as much power over us as formerly The wings of our Pride are nothing clipt we are big swoln with the same avarice and gluttony domineers as it was wont to do our old sloth still keeps us under we defile our Souls with our accustomed stains weare without changing the ragged cloathes of our bad habits O strange blindness of mankind which with an Ocean of tears may not be sufficiently deplored the Pulpit in every Church rings with Eternity Eternity Eternity and yet we are drawn away with pleasures present such a desire we have of our own Perdition SECT 4. MUch after the same manner as we hear Sermons and neglect them which come in at one ear and pass out at the other so we run over spiritual books from which we draw no profit but presently forget what we read Out of sight out of mind Inculcate Eternity as often as you will we are resolved to spin out the thread we have begun we approve of good things but follow worser we put on Piety and quickly throw it off again as if we were still minded to stick in the same mud O Christians Look up Lu. 2.21 and lift up your heads and hearts because your redemption is at hand Fix your eyes and hearts in Heaven Do all things fall out cross and trouble you it will not alwaies be so Heaven promiseth you something better which a little patience will put you in possession of Do matters go well on with you doth all succeed to your mind Put no confidence in that success nothing is permanent in this world all things ebb and flow in their several seasons Eternity still remains the same it is only Eternity which admits no change These things we deliver by word and writing these things we represent unto you with variety of Pictures But who gives them leave to take impression in his heart Who understands these points aright Who groundedly strives to beleive them O therefore once again blind mortals who then act most carelesly when the great business of Eternity is in agitation when our eternal welfare lies at stake Conc. 3. Dom. 2. advent Lewis of Granada famous for Learning and Religion gives an account of one who appeared again after death to a friend of his in this life and discovered unto him this stupendious blindness of mankind Two intimate friends quoth he there were you may call one of them Theseus the other Pirithous which were almost as one Soul in two Bodies Both of them lead an upright life both loved each other so tenderly and were so agreed amongst themselves as that they desired nothing more then to dy together But Death crost their agreement and dissolved their amity by dispatching one out of this life before the other However all their familiarity could not be extinct by death For not long after they were parted he that was dead appeared to his surviveing friend both in habit and countenance composed to sadness as if he meant he should ask him some question At first the living man was almost dead with fear to see his friend so unexpectedly present in so doleful a posture But after a while taking courage he demanded if his portion were among the blessed or how matters stood with him In answer to which demands the dead man fetching a deep sigh repeared thrice in a distinct but mournful tone these words No one beleives no one beleives no one beleives The other with trembling asked again what that was which no one beleives No one said the dead man beleives how exactly God calls men to an account how rigorously he judges how severely he punnishes After which words he disappeared leaving the other surprized with horrour and ruminating with himself in silence the whole passage SECT 5. O words most true No one beleives now accurate every way are the judgements of God and how severe his punishments these particulars are frequently delivered in Sermons that of St. Iohn is often inculcated Do pennance for now the Ax is put to the root of the trees Matt. c. 3. And no one
Amongst a hundred thousand men you shall scarce find one who seriously endeavours to dive into these matters or frequently ruminates them in his mind Our life would be far otherwise our manners would be reformed if our thoughts were other then they use to be Whence it comes that our Conscience which was strook deaf with vices receives its hearing in torments so much more sharply now is it afflicted and desperate by how much ere while it was lulled a sleep in a drowsy security St. Austins assertion is true In Hell there shall be pennance but too late Their worm shall never dye The seventh Torment is the company and place A convenient house with ill neighbours is a great inconvenience but an inconvenient house with most wicked neighbours is the worst of inconveniences This kind of habitation is in Hell Psal 48. Their Sepulchres are their house for ever The Damned shall burn as if they were shut up in Sepulchres which are houses very incommodious but they are debarred from hiering any other Besides their neighbours are the worst imaginable such as would make even Heaven infamous and hareful a croud of damned men and Devils O what neighbours are these Take our lords sentence of them It were good for those men if they never had bin born It were good for those spirits if they never had been created Look upon damned men As sheep they are put in Hell Psa 48. death shall feed upon them But how are they now become sheep were they not while they lived Tigers Swine Vultures Wolves Lions They were indeed but the vengeance of God hath made them sheep and so tamed them that they cannot withstand any punishment inflicted on them Death shall feed upon them For as sheep feed upon grass without plucking up the roots and clip it so as they leave the root entire to spring again that it may be cropt again so doth death feed upon those captives in hell It bereaves them not of life that they may be kept alive to be perpetually slaughtered This is the second death which ever lives whereof St. Austin makes this discourse Lib. 91. de civit ch 28. The misery of those which do not belong to this City shall be perpetual which is called the second death because the soul there cannot be said to live as being estranged from the life of God nor the body which shall groan under the weight of eternal torments Wherefore this second death will be worse then death because it can never have and end by death There pain continues that it may afflict and nature is maintained in being that it may be sensible of affliction both which are preserved without decaying least punishment should decay Here I am almost in a mind to imitate Solon who carried a mournful Citizen to the top of an high Tower whence he commanded him to look over all the buildings of the City underneath saying think with your self how much grief hath heretofore been in these houses how much is at this present and will be hereafter and then cease to bewail the misery of mortals as if they were your own The like in some measure may I say Behold O mortals and consider that dreadful den of sorrow in hell O how much wailing is contained in those Caverns of Eternity what a mass of calamities will be there after infinite ages are past Cease therefore to deplore your flea-bitings as if they were unsupportable evils Here indeed is a receptacle of all miseries a forge of lamentation Who ever thou be which travellest yet upon the way take heed thou so order thy journey that this place of torments serve thee not for a perpetual Inn. The Eighth Torment is Despair THis world we live in is replenisht with many afflictions yet in process of time all of them meet with an end Such as are opprest with poverty I see find an end of it such as are aspersed with slanders are cleared of them in the end such as are sick are in the end delivered of their malady On this side I behold stripes racks and other engines prepared to torture on that blood-thirsty enemies proud Citizens gripeing Landlords but I likewise behold the stroke of death brings all those to nothing and frees these from barbarous usage But in those fiery Gulfs where Devils abide I contemplate many horrid and unexplicable torments yet I cannot espy any end of them no there is no end at all to be found Death is the best invention of nature death ends all it relieves some by others it is desired and deserves better of none then of those to whom it comes before it be sent for Death sets slaves at liberty even against their masters will death unchains Captives and looses Prisoners death is a present remedy against all injuries of this life But alas there is none of this in hell I take a view of all their lurking holes yet can espy no death at all unless it be that living death which incessantly renews its own pangs As in hell there is no end of sorrow so is there none of dying The Damned themselves as Dionisius notes cast up their own reckoning Corth in speculo amatorum mundi After ten thousand years are gone an hundred thousand more will come and after them as many millions as there are Sands in the Sea or stars in the Firmament And when those long revolutions of ages are over as if we had suffered nothing at all we shall begin to suffer a new so without ceasing end or measure the wheel of our torments will be perpetually rowled about Hence will ensue most piercing despair to the most cruel torture both of Memory Understanding and Will What ever their memory represents unto them will afflict them what ever their understanding thinks on will redound to their torment their very will will be astonisht at its own obstinacy for it can never will what God wills and so shall ever find within it self a torture of its own malice How dreadful a thing is it to know for certain they shall have God for their eternal foe they shall never escape his severe hand they shall for ever be trampled under his feet Hence will arise in them a continual and most desperate fury and an implacable hatred of God Job 20. All grief will rush in upon them All evil will be thrown upon their guilty heads O ye wretched new inhabitants of the night your delights are gone and to speak with St Iohn Apostle Apo. 18. The Apples of the desire of your Soul are departed from you and all fat and goodly things are perished from you Now only despair is left all hope is quite vanisht away You shall call upon death and it will not come you are now entred that Dungeon whence no death will ever set you free You have now nothing left you but only despair You may remember how greedily like Bears you sought after the honey of pleasure the
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
A PLEASANT AND PROFITABLE Treatise of HELL WRITTEN By Hieremy Drexelius S. J. Fear him that can destroy both Soul and Body into Hell Matth. ch 10. v. 28. Printed 1668. The Translator to the Reader I Presume your intent is I wish the event may correspond to march on towards Heaven Now that you may not miss your way which is dangerous I have provided you of a Guide which is the Fear of God You must not begin your journey but by his Conduct nor hope to finish it without erring unless he go on with you hand in hand Be not dismaid if he lead you through the desert to the Land of Promise through Hell to Heaven for that is his Native Countrey whose passages he is well acquainted with and from whose desolate shades he is able to usher you to the comfortable splendour of Paradise He requires no other Salary for all his labour in the enterprise then your serious perusal of this slender Treatise of Hell Startle not at this frightful word least you discover humane fear to be more prevalent with you then that of God If it chance to be I fear at the first sight you will shrink back and either not undertake to read or quickly cast away the book with an I look for Novelties to chear me up not for sad discourses of Hell to drive me into Melancholly or I have other business and cannot attend to reading But with your good leave no business concerns you more then your right progress towards a blessed Eternity And it is undoubtedly a principal point of Wisdome to go down into Hel alive by reading and a lively consideration aswel to escape going thither after Death whence there is no return as also to vanquish humane fear which is prejudicial and beget in your soul a wholesome fear of God Without which you can neither begin nor hold on with success your intended journey towards eternal bliss Lay hold then on this Manual Book which if leisurely read will not a little conduce to attain the chiefest Good and avoid the worst of Evils Farwel A Treatise of Hell CHAP. I. The Authors design in this Book with Advice to the Reader LEarnedly spoke Philo the Jew Lib. de som The House of God is the thought of a Wiseman This House the Eternal Wisdome enters into this it Inhabits in this it sweetly reposes To see to speak to hear to write are humane actions yet such as are not wholly denyed to Brutes for Wild-Beasts do likewise hear and see and herein some of them go far beyond man himself Amongst Animals some are reported to have spoken unto the Elephant is ascribed something not unlike to writing but to think and discourse with reason is proper to Man alone God associates himself to men whose thoughts are Holy and without spot and here he abides as in his own Mansion-house hence flowed that learned saying of Philo The House of God is the thought of a wiseman Here now arises the dispute what is fittest for man to busie his thoughts in setting a part his Creatour In this quarrel King David enters the Combate and avers I thought upon old dayes and the eternal years I had in mind Ps 76.6 This thought is most profitable this becomes man and is not unworthy of God Here is discovered a plain of such vast extent to think on that none was ever able yet to run it over with thinking One may seek an end in this matter which he shall never find Eternity knows no end it s not acquainted with any bounds and for limits it admits of none Eternity best deserves to be thought on Ten years ago I exposed a draught of Eternity to the pulick view it remains now for us to set before your eyes something as to the eternity of the Damned this requires our more serious reflexion it being not sufficient for us to scrape somewhat from the outsides of it which may serve us to hear write or talk of we must proceed further and lodge Eternity in the very bosome of our souls wherefore the task of this Chapter shall be to declare what we mean when we write on the eternity of the Damned SECT 1. THe wiseman of Rome friendly expostulates with Lucilius in this sort Sen. ep 102 As he is troublesome who awakes a man from a pleasant Dream because he bereaves him of that counterfeit which yet resembles real pleasure So thy Epistle did me wrong for it took me off once and oftner from considerations that suted with me I was well pleased to enquire after yea and beleive too the eternity of Souls For well might I beleive the Opinions of great men Besides I had so much hope that I now began to be irksome to my self now I despised the remnant of my feeble age as being about to enter into that immense time and the possession of all ages But the receit of thy Epistle awakned me and so I lost my goodly Dream which notwithstanding I 'le to again when I have done with thee and hereby redeem what formerly I lost I am almost now of that Opinion which Flavius Lucius Dexter of Barâ—inona an ancient Historian one who had Command in the Eastern Empire and an intimate friend to St. Hierom delivers in a Chronicle of his at the year of Christ our Saviour sixty four in these express words Lucius Annaeus Seneca native of Cordova in Spain by intercourse of Letters betwixt him and St. Paul had a good Opinion of Christian Religion became a Christian privately and is beleived to have been his Disciple to whom he writ with much feeling during his abode in Spain For my part I affirm nothing in this particular but reverence the testimony of the Ancient Chronicler Yet certain it is Annaeus Seneca did not only begin to think of but likewise to beleive an Eternity We may observe this mans deep-searching Wit he attempted and went on most attentively to weigh Eternity in its proper Ballance The contemplation whereof he compares to a Dream which lulls asleep the toylsome watches of the outward senses and commands the inward to keep strict Centinel This this is to meditate and to be withdrawn from this Annaeus was much unwilling in regard this kind of meditation proved so beneficial to him as himself declares saying I contemned the small residue of my life and stretched my self forward into that Volume of Ages never to be unfoulded Seneca by this time had a loathing of all things if compared to the sole possession of that never ending Circle of times When Heathens meditate in this manner upon Eternity what does it behove us Christians to do Our beleif of Eternity is bootless if we seldome or tepedly think on it Many are the reasons which may move us dayly to meditate upon eternity take this one in lieu of many Eternity mollifies our hearts when they are as hard as flint and Steel it quite vanquisheth all the stubbornness of our Soul That man
Hell where the wretches are ever a dying and never dead indeed Alas the night is long which exceeds a year and extends it self beyond the limits of an age That night is excessive long after which never day appears that night is full of Horror which is enveloped in eternal darkness with such night with such obscurity as this does God revenge himself of his enemies whose dwelling is remote from Sun Moon and Stars Job 3. A darksome hurlwind possesses their night it is not counted in the daies of the year nor numbred in the Moneths Darkness and the shadow of death obscure it a mist possesseth it and it is wrapped in bitterness The Damned neither see nor ever shall see their Maker for whose sight nevertheless they were made This darkness is their first Torment of which SECT 1 THere be two kinds one called utter darkness or of body the other of the mind or inner darkness Those farr surpass that of Aegypt though never so horrid and palpable Fire burns in Hell but gives no light so that all are shut up in a darksome Prison Elegantly speaks St. Ad Theod laps Chrysostome of this punishment saying We shall all mourn most sadly when the Fire with vehemence oppresseth us We shall see none besides those who are fellows in damnation and a vast sollitude Who can express what dreadful frights will arise from this darkness As that fire has no power to consume so it cannot shine otherwise there would be no darkness which brings upon those Inhabitants Fear Trembling Solitude and a numness with amazement As for inward darkness which Schoolmen term Pain of loss or a privation of the sight of God this is so great a punishment that none greater can be inflicted For as to see God is bliss it self and the top of Felicity so to be deprived of the vision of God for ever is the chiefest pain of the Damned whence ariseth in their wills a marvellous kind of sorrow The Faulcon while his eyes are covered with the hood flies neither after Duck nor Mallard Heron nor other Prey but so soon as the hood is pluckt off and he espies his game to the persuit whereof he is carried by Nature t is not facil to keep him quiet on the Fist he baits he strives to break the Lures and is in danger either to hurt himself or weary his Faulconer so violently is he carried after the Fowl he once sets Eye on Not unlike to this is mans condition While we live in this world we seem to be hoodwinkt we walk in darkness Hence t is no marvail that we are not ravisht with desire to see God there is a veil betwixt him and us which takes off our eagerness but immediately after Death has rent the Veil and the souls at liberty from bodily contagion it being now plac'd in the vast extent of Eternity and put into possession of its freedome will forthwith be carried away with such violence towards its Creator that of all Torments this will be greatest to be but one sole minute debarr'd from the fruition of God What then will it be to be divorced for all Eternity from the beloved Center of Bounty the very height of bliss is to see God which King David prudently weighing saies Ps 16.15 I shall be filled when they Glory shall appear The extract then of all miseries will it be for ever to be banisht the presence of God SECT 2. Every loss is so much the greater by how much the greater good it deprives us of T is a great Fine to be enforced to pay ten thousand Crowns twenty or thirty is greater but above all is an hundred thousand Yet this is far exceeded by another damage which robs one of many Millions of Gold yea of all Treasures too during life Such a mulct as this is that penalty of darkness which at one stroke divides from all good not only for life but O! for all Eternity Here St. Chrysostome astonisht In this point saies if you mention a thousand Hells Tom. 5. ad pop you come short of the grief a Soul endures by her separation from Heaven Hell I must confess is intollerable yet far more unsufferable is it to lose the Inheritance of Bliss Let this matter serve to busie thy thoughts in Tom. 2. in Matt. He inculcates the same in another place A thousand hells put into one scale weigh nothing to the being exild from Glory to the being hated of Christ and hearing from him I know you not Every tree that doth not yeild good Fruit Matt. 3.10 shall be cut down and cast into the fire Here is a double punishment of the Tree To be cut down and cast into the fire A tree were more gently dealt with if it were singed with fire then if it were so grubbed up by the roots that hereafter you may despair to have it either flourish or bring forth fruit The like is mans case in this particular whose pain would be milder to undergo those scorching heats then to be for ever banisht from the Face of God A semblance or shadow of what I say may be met with even in this life Such as have grievously sinned against God are sometimes scourged with a twofold whip The first of pain so Antiochus and Herod yet alive burst out into swarms of Vermin as if they had been dead Carcasses or rotten Cheese certainly they were smitten by God The second is the scourge of Anguish or sadness whereby all solace is taken from the offender who by this time finds no comfort in God This is an ante-past or foretast of Hell whereof notwithstanding eminent Saints have had their share Therefore Holy David cries out Cast me not away from thy face turn not away thy face from me Now as it fares both with Saints and Sinners who even in this life tast of the pain of Sense and Loss that they may be informed what passes in Hell So those whose wickedness hurls them down thither groan under the heavy burden of both kinds of punishment and shall see no light for ever SECT 3. ANy one mortal sin is sufficient to make us lose this blessed Vision of God for as the Master of Divines delivers who ever commits a mortal sin turns away his will from his last end and thereby deserves never to attain that end for which he was created Long ago was the Sentence pronounced against thse Matt. 7.23 Depart from me all ye that work Iniquity This is a most grievous punishment which by mans Fault is yet much increased as will appear by the following example A certain person might have been possest of an Inheritance worth ten thousand Crowns but through a sloathful carelesness lets the time slip and so falls short of it When t is too late he perceives what a Fat Morfel has escaped him whereupon he storms he rages he is ready to tear himself in peices and sometimes by violence of greif dies indeed
to vertue souls well disposed to hear him Great matters were expected from him But Macarius begun his Sermon not with words but weeping Let us mourn said he and let our eyes produce plenty of tears before we flee hence to that place where tears scald bodies This was the beginning this the prosecution this the confirmation this the Epilogue of his Exhortation Which speech of his though short yet was it so serious that all fell a weeping all prostrated themselves upon the ground and earnestly made this Petition O Father pray for us Macarius hit the Nail on the Head Tears while we live purge after death they punish here they wipe away our stains there they scorch the guilty There shall be weeping and most bitter howling as well of Devils as Damned Imagine the worst you can to torment the Ears The shouting of men the Barking of Doggs the Howling of Wolves the lowing of Oxen the roaring of Lions with the ungrateful noise made by other Beasts the Claps of Thunder in the Clouds the steep fall of Waters and whatever may be conceived offensive to the Ears Alas all that is nothing to the most desperate weeping and gnashing of teeth they endure in Hell Resort hither all you whose breasts boyl with hatred and envy all you who though sleightly offended snarle and Wild-bore-like whet your Tusks to revenge Here you may take a view of your own picture in the damned Hearken the kingly Prophets admonition The sinner shall observe the just Psal 36. and shall gnash upon him with his teeth Enter into consideration of our life and you shall find that we eagerly conspire to each others ruine What profit then I pray do we pursue This one so soon as our adversary lies open to our fury we sheath the Sword of Revenge up to the Hilts in his overthrow This is the work of malice this unsatiable envy persues amain Even as dogs when they quarrel shew their teeth so we dog-like men or inhumane dogs deal one with another and now and then fall at odds for a bare bone O you who swell with hatred and pine away with envy why do you assume the nature of dogs why do you imitate the Damned There there shall be weeping there shall be gnashing of teeth Who ever rightly understands the meaning of that eternal We easily laies aside all envy and malice often ruminating with himself Neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard what God hath prepared for those who forsake him In Hell shall be weeping in Heaven rejoycing such as ear hath never heard it is in thy choice now to begin to weep with those or to rejoyce with these either this or that will last for ever CHAP. IV. The third Torment for Eternity in Hell is Hunger THat exquisite Master of Rhetorick Quintilian had the boldness to say Quinti decl 12. The Plague is happy Warr is happy and all kind of Death is easy But Hunger is hard the most pinching of necessities the most deformed of evils An evil unspeakable that needs must be to which the greatest of evils compared are to be held in esteem such an evil as this in Quintillians opinion is hunger amongst all miseries worthily accounted the chiefest This assertion is not without reason since both by ancient and modern History it is apparent that extremity of hunger sometimes brings men to that height of madness as to tear their own flesh in pieces with their teeth Baron ad an 491. and to nourish their bodies by imparing them Zeno the Emperour did thus who was buried before he was dead Is it so indeed is nine dayes hunger so cruel a kind of death that whatsoever death compared unto it may be reputed a gentle punishment What then will a Famine of ten years of a hundred a thousand a million of ages be from which all hope of releif is quite cut off I may truly say of this hunger is the sharpest of necessities hunger is the worst of miseries This rageing evil is the third torment of that doleful eternity The Prophet long ago threatned this kind of punishment They shall suffer Famine as dogs Psa 58. He is truly miserable who having a desire to eat finds nothing to asswage his hunger much more is he who alwaies gapes after meat with a greedy appetite but meets with nothing nor ever shall to satisfie his stomack Nay further yet he is not only afflicted with extream hunger but is parched with most vehement thirst beside Such is the hunger such the thirst of the damned whereof in the ensuing Chapter SECT 1. CHrist threatens in good earnest Luk. 6. Wo to you that are filled because you shall be hungry Such hunger shall oppress you as will exceed that of a day a moneth a year and such an one to whom not a few but all things shall be wanting No one will no one can give either crumm or drop The remembrance of dainties past will sharpen and set their stomacks on fire that the pain of Gluttony may accompany the fault and the punishment be answerable to the offence Wis 11. By what things a man sineth by the same also he is tormented One may offend many wayes by Gluttony First when too much meat and drink is taken even against our stomach which frequently grumbles not for want but excesse The stomach has its mouth which wants not words the stomach is filled with indignation and Belching saies O I am opprest I am surcharged I faint I perish Too much kindness kills me Fain I would be refresht not stifled I would be nourisht not choaked I am not to be stuffed with meat as a Boulster with Feathers This sort of good will hurts me worse then hatred or emptiness These are the complaints of the stomach Of which St. Tom. 3. in c. 2. Joan. Chrysostome declares that What exceeds necessity in eating doth harm but nourishes not Fulness is the root of all Diseases So the first fault in Gluttony is to feed too plentifully The second fault is to have a longing of such delicate and costly viands that of necessity the Sea must be divided into and shell fishes fetched from the unknown shores of the remotest Seas Besides the Feasant other sorts of fowl must be had to satisfie ambition in the Kitchin What a dainty stomach will scarcely admit of must be brought in from the farthest Ocean To please the Palate which loaths ordinary fare search is made farr and near the whole world must be ransacked for belly cheer which is then daintiest when dearest So Alagabalus Emperour inhabiting the Sea cost would never feed upon fish These kind of people are possest with a hunger of greater extent then their belly they vomit that they may drink and drink that they may vomit Bankets sought for throughout the World they greedily devour which by and by they reject the same way they were received Observe here by the way That is accounted a Soverain
their companions in pain So a thief shall see him that helpt him to steal so the gamster his play-fellow so the adulterer her with whom he sinned they shall behold each other and pine away with grief yea they would rather be blind then by seeing make others pains their own Excellently well said Isidorus Sent. li. 1. Hell fire shall shine to the wicked to increase their misery and damnation by seeing what may augment their grief but nothing which may redound to their comfort The third difference of both fires ours consumes all their 's nothing here of St. Lib. 21. Civ de D. c. 4. Anstin bears ample testimony If the Salamander lives in fire and the Mountains of Sicily long since and to this day burn and yet remain entire they testifie sufficiently not all that burns is consumed and the Soul declares not all that can suffer pain can dye Whence we learn how the bodies af men perpetually tormented neither loose their life in flames nor are destroyed by burning but are pained without perishing Who but God the Creatour of all things gave this property to the flesh of a dead Peacock that it might with ease be preserved incorrupt for a whole year Who bestowed that cold vertue upon Chaff to keep snow from melting or that hot quallity to bring green fruit to maturity How wonderful a thing is that when by casting water on Lime you set it on fire Why then shall not God have power to raise bodies from death and to torment the damned with fire eternal who made the world full of numberless miracles in heaven in earth in the air and waters since the world it self is doubtless a greater miracle and more excellent then all those its silled with Why may we not avouch that even spirits incorporeal though wonderfully yet truly may be afflicted with pain of corporeal fire What therefore God foretold by his Prophet concerning the punnishment of the damned shall come to passe indeed it shall Their Worm shall not dye and their fire shall not be quonched Esa 66 24. The fourth difference Our fire according to its fuel either lives and enencreaâ—es or decays and goes out but but hell fire is nourished by Gods justice never to be quenched by any Sea it is unquenchable This one word unquenchable thrice repeated by our Lord will either be of force to make us fall out with vice or else it will demonstrate we are worse then brutes SECT 3. THis fire in hell shall be greater Deut. c. 25. or less as every ones offence deserves the Divine Justice will use it as a scourge According to the measure of the sin shall measure also of the stripes be Even as amongst many guilty persons one is more sharply chastised then another with one and the same whip Hence appears the madness of certain men who scarcely aim at any thing but hell their words are these While we are on the way to the Region of utter darkness let us post thither with might and main let us make much of our selves while we may since we know we shall deserve scourges let 's deserve them to the purpose Go you mad men go esteem it your chiefest felicity to swim in pleasures glut your selves to day with wine and delights perchance to morrow you will be drowned in flames All the slaves in hell are dreadfully tormented those most who have most grievously and often offended God For he will give fire and worms into their flesh that they may be burnt and may feel for ever Judith 16. Briefly and pithily above others doth St. Prosper set before our eyes this punishment of fire eternal his words are these Continual sighing painful feeling extream grief affliction everlasting torment souls without killing punisheth bodies without dying Now as no pain with us pinches more sharply then fire so nons sooner consumes and ends our pain What fire then is that which tortures most bitterly and never ceases Moyses Gods Embassadour found out a word signally expressing eternity of hell fire A fire saith he Deut c. 32. is kindled in my wrath and shall burn into the lowest parts of hell The Prophet Hieremy spoke to the same purpose Jerem. c. 17. Thou hast kindled a fire in my fury it shall burn for ever The Powder which kindles eternal flames is the wrath of our Lord while we live we experience the anger not the wrath of God So it is written Machabees c. 5. Antiochus being alienated in mind considered not that for the sins of them that inhabit the City God had been angry a little God indeed is angry a little however he lift up his arms and seem to threaten stripes in good earnest his anger is yet little because joyned with clemency But when this anger is contemned and clemency sleighted then patience offended becomes fury whereby fire is kindled to burn for ever You saith God your selves kindled this fire when by your often iterated crimes you despised my clemency when my anger was little you were impatient you transgressed my Laws and by contempt fell upon what was forbidden Now the time of revenge is come I will punish you with horrible and unheard of torments you have kindled a fire in my fury now my fury shall burn even to the lowest part of hell Nature says Seneca makes pain either to lerable or short but God the author of Nature punisheth his rebellious and stubborn subjects with long and intolerable pain long because eternal intolerable because with most rageing fire SECT 4. HEre I most earnestly begge of all Christians that when any sickness or pain accosts them when the Gout Stone or any other malady or trouble molests them they would lay hold on this thought this affliction or pain were it to endure ten a hundred a thousand years would you not think you were already in hell What would you do then to be set free Do that now to escape eternal torments And know for certain the trouble you suffer though grievous the pain you endure though excessive is not so much as a shaddow of hell Here God strikes with one hand only and that gently there he scourges with both and that most severely here he often lays but one finger on you there with all his fingers yea and the whole hand too he lays load on Eustachius that Christian Champion whom we mentioned before being with Wife and Children enclosed in a hot glowing Oxe of brass was bitterly tormented yet this was no small solace to him that his pains would quickly have an end and his reward would last for ever Let us deeply imprint this in our memory It was frequent with all religious persons by daily meditation as it were to touch these flames eternal Apud Rosw c. 44. Paschasius Deacon relates out of Greek that twelve Anachorets as a compleat Senate met together and every one for himself declared what he thought he had profited to that day and what chiefly had been
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
night and day to repeat While we have time let us work good to all An impure conscience is here unquiet hereafter it will be furiously tormented for ever SECT 7. THe force of conscience is incredible especially after the scene of this life is acted for in the presence of God every one will so blush at his own faults that though heaven were set open and the soul uncleansed were invited to enter nevertheless through horror of its own stains it would fly back and refuse to go in till all its spots were expiated So much the conscience has aversion of and blushes at her own offenses Therefore while we have time let us work good to all for as St. Austin discourses Who ever doth not deceive himself by flattery understands well in how great danger of eternal death and how far short of perfect holiness he lives during his pilgrimage here on earth Now then let us look to it and not resist the wholsom warning our conscience gives us The conscience is never silent if it meet with a peaceable and attentive hearer And truly this is exceeding profitable so to feel the worm in our bosom here as not to be troubled with it hereafter eternally St. Serm. DeiCon vert Bernard attests thus much saying It is best then to feel the worm when it may be stilled Therefore let it bite now that it may dye and so bite no more While it bites here it feeds upon what is putrified and biteing consume it that it may be consumed together with it lest being made much of it should become immortal It is therefore much better to be warned here then by our conscience to be murthered hereafter for as the same Saint adds Lib. de Animâ— Those who are exilled from heaven shall be tortured in flesh with fire and in spirit by the word of conscience There is pain unsuffâ—rable horrible fear incomparable stench death of soul and body without hope of pardon and mercy Yet shall they dye so as that they shall ever lâ—ve and so live that they shall ever dye What shall we do O mortals Our life is short the way long the end of the way doubtful time little nothing more certain then death nor uncertain then the hour the continuance of reward â—nd pain everlasting both which depend on a moment for eternity What then O mortals what shall we do CHAP. VIII The Seventh Torment of Eternity in Hell is the Place and Company CAto Censor A man of approved vertue was accustomed to give this admonition to them who were about to buy Land that in the first place they should be sure to provide for good neighbours An ill neighbour is a great evil whence that saying of Themistocles delivered by Plutarch is well known for having a farm to sell he commanded the cryer who gave notice of the sale he should likewise certifie That it had good neighbours A ruinous and inconvenient building if it be near bad company will meet with few buyers All exiled from heaven have such places of abode that our styes and dog-kennels compared to them might seem places or lodgings fit for Kings Besides the inconveniency of the place there is company displeasing beyond expression of so many millions of devils and damned men all sworn enemies to God so as if they were in Paradise they would make one abhor it This then is the seventh torment of eternity in hell the place and company that miserable above measure this detestable beyond imagination The Judg in his definitive sentence comprehended both saying This house of flames this dreadful prison which was prepared for the devil and his angels did not concern you in the beginning Mat. 25 but in regard you valued more the familiarity of mine enemies then my favour Go now go and dwell amongst them whose company heretofore you were so much taken with go into fire everlasting which was not prepared for you but for the devil and his angels It somtimes cometh to pass that a Schoolmaster for the fault of onâ— commands rods to be made ready but for as much as others by and by become faulty too he says These rods were not tyed together for you but because you have committed the same offence with that untoward boy you shall likewise be whipt with him In like manner Christ speaks to his enemies My intent was you should have enjoyed the society of Angels Paradise was made ready for you but since you have cast away all goodness and would not obey me but the devil Go therefore go go and make your abode in the devils den remain in that company your selves have provided Of this both place and company we now treat SECT 1. BEfore we enter into the Place le ts take a view of the ground Antientently at the left hand of the entrance into Yrimalcions house not far from the Porters lodg was painted upon the wall a mighty dog in a chain over whom was written in Capital Letters Take heed take heed of the dog Many such dogs as these are in hell so many Cerberus's as devils which are far more ravenous then all Cerberus's Here both by writing and words I exclaim Take heed take heed of these dogs But now let us look upon the place It is agreed upon as well by antient Fathers as Divines that those comfortless caverns of hell are seated in the center of the earth holy writt likewise affirmes the same For after they who rebelled against Moyses were separated from the people of God Num. 16 v 32 The earth brake in sunder under their feet opening her mouth devoured them with their tabernacles and all their substance and they went down into hell quick covered with the ground This prison of the wicked is rightly seated in the lowest place as the habitation of the blessed is on the highest noblest and most pleasant Of that prison we may frame this discourse In case the damned amount to thirty times a thousand millions of men or a hundred thousand millions and that fiery prison according to its whole dimenfion of height bredth and length contain one German mile it will have room enough for that wonderful number of men Streitness sutes well with the prison it being proper for liberty to enjoy an ample habitation But the croud of the damned those dogs and swine shall dwell in a narrow compass and shall be like grapes in a wine press or salt harrings in a barrel or bricks in a kill or pieces of wood in a pyle or hot glowing coles in an iron-grate or like sheep butcher'd in the shambles they shall be close and streitly thronged together The narrowness of the prison and their being pressed one near to another makes no small addition to their torments Into this slender compass God will conveigh all the sewers and filth of the world The greatest joy this world affords is not a little diminisht by loathsomness of place Who would esteem it a pleasure
this sort Let some one in the spring or autumn when the season of the year is sharpest be conveyed down into the bottom of a deep pit under ground where there is neither fire nor table nor bed Hither once a day let a crust of mouldy-hard bread with a small cup of stinking water be cast down by a rope this dainty fare must likewise be seasoned with reading this lecture that the party so enthralled is without ceasing to meditate on eternity both day and night Well said Pylades I deem that an efficacious way to imprint eternity in the mind Yet oblige me with a further courtesie and make me partaker of a more ample discourse touching the man before mentioned SECT 4. THat man in the beginning will esteem three weeks as irksome as three whole years and if he chance to be restored again to his liberty he will openly profess his sufferings were excessive What were his sufferings I pray hunger thirst cold want of sleep with privation of all comfort Hitherto the miscreant says true But observe I beseech you how tolerable this prison is how plentiful his diet what freedom he seems to enjoy when you look down upon that close imprisonment in hell he had his share of meat and drink to preserve his life in hell is neither one drop nor crum of comfort Besides no one derided that poor man in the pit none insulted over him no one loaded him with stripes whereas in hell they are perpetually oppressed with all these calamities Again that silly wretch might passe over the day in quiet and the night in rest though both were accompanied with difficulty but in hell is not so much as one sole minute of ease or sleep to be found Moreover that mans brest was not torn to pieces with sadness all grief horror amazement howling anguish and despair did not any ways afflict him as they do incessantly them in hell That mans thraldom was free from torments he was molested with no other disease then hunger thirst and cold but the damned are racked in all the members of their bodies and their souls being drencht in affliction always live in flames and never dye this death is more bitter to them then death it self In a word albeit that Caitif be remote from delights though he behold no sun haven o company but be debarred all sport and relaxation of mind yet he cherrishes this hope in his bosom that one day he shall enjoy himself again he shall see the suns face meet with his beloved companions and return afresh to his accustomed pastimes and delights Whereas God wot all their hope in hell is changed into despair they know certainly at their first entrance thither they must never look upon the sun any more they must never meet again either with their wished for company or content The sight of God the society of Angels together with all celestial pleasure is quite taken from them eternally without hope of recovery Despair lives in hell as at home it spares none of these Inhabitants Lo here O Christians with what facility we may gain knowledg of Eternity SECT 5. A Learned man of St. Dominicks Order recounts this passage to my present purpose Joan Junier A Jester says he a nimble-witted buffon in an assembly of noble men took upon him to play the preacher whom he had heard that morning and with an intent to draw mirth out of serious matters he thus begun his Sermon You know my masters how much my company conduceth to your jovial entertainment whether you be carousing feasting gaming or dancing I am still as the fool in the play ready to chear you up But listen I beseech you to what lately befel me as I lay upon a down bed and could not sleep I began to think with my self if thou wert so fast bound here for twenty or thirty years space that thou couldest neither stir hand nor foot what wouldst thou do to purchase liberty How if thou couldst riot otherwise obtain it then by bidding adieu to all company keeping and not I said to my self nay I would swear it if need required that I would utterly forswear all my pot-companions all jollity play and danceing rather then be in this sort debarred of my freedom But say I pray thee what course wouldest thou take if thou wert in Pluto's Court not buried in feathers but flames not amidst ripplers but devils where all chatting for merriment is wholly forbidden where one small drop of water is no less precious then a celler stored with the choicest canary whither one may enter as beasts did to the sick Lyon whose footsteps you might behold all going in but none coming out again To go down into hell is an easie matter but who was ever seen to have returned thence Now then if thou wert there tell me seriously what wouldest thou do His Sermon being thus ended he found himself so suddenly changed that one might justly perswade himself he was become another Porphyrius who played the Jester to Julian the Emperor and who whiles acting upon the stage he scoffed at the rites of Christian Religion found himself suddenly changed into another man and openly profest he was a christian yea and as a christian obtained the crown of Martyrdome with the loss of his head So serious conclusions follow out of jesting premisses so that other caviller drew earnest out of jest to his own great advantage and others 'T is a true and sure way of reasoning from a slight and transitory pain to frame a right estimate of pains eternal To which purpose give ear to S. Hieroms admonition Ad Po. Ocean Do we think brethren that the Prophets Preach in Jest the Apostles speak in a laughing manner or Christ thunders out menaces like a child Those are no Jests which are accompanied with real torments SECT 6. BEsides the place of hell which is infamous for all kinds of torments there is likewise company by all means detestable As the blessed in heaven will be replenisht with unexplicable delight when they behold Christ the worlds Saviour his most glorious Mother and Disciples together with so many Quires of Angels and millions of triumphant Saints So the reprobate will receive an addition to their horrid torments from that execrable company from which they shall never be delivered What sentiment wouldst thou be of if sound and in health thou should be constrained to lodg night and day in the same Hospital with sick folks covered over with ulcers sores and rottenness What if thou shouldst see their limms flowing in their own putrified matter and corruption How would thou be able to endure the stench of some the mourning and lamentations of others the sighs of this the complaints of that man the cough of the lungs in one and in another wailing till he give up the ghost O what a hell saist thou would this life be Nay how meer a nothing would this be compared to hell that which thou
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
torments in Hell No one understands their length no one sufficiently weighs their eternity Out alas we are too much taken up with trifles in which we are often entangled till death we now and then wrangle for we know not what and as a Jest or a Dream think upon eternity whence it comes to pass that we seldome or sleightly correct our misdemenours I who write these things as well as others who have written on eternity do openly make this Proclamation We have cured Babylon Jeremy ch 51. It was in its free choice whether it would be cured or no. The way is streit the gate is narrow and few enter in thereat Many are called and few are chosen Therefore Hieremy the Prophet cryes out with a loud voice ch 51. v. 45. Let every one save his life If he cannot do it otherwise let him condemn himself to perpetual imprisonment and bury himself alive T is better to pass out of Prison to Heaven then out of a Palace to Hell The ancient Philosophers had notice of this truth Seneca exclaims I was well pleased with inquiring after the Eternity of Souls yea and I did beleive it too Epist 101. Behold how they pondered the Mystery of eternity who were deprived of the rayes of truth What are Christians obliedged to do The same Seneca spoke wisely when he said Amongst evils our best comfort is they will have an end The end is a lenetive against all misery You may meet with one who bewails the burning of his house another who complains he has no friend no one to assist him none that cares for him This man is afflicted through pains of body that grows pensive because he is in desolation of spirit One deplores his neediness and want another deems it worse then death to see himself despised To what purpose I pray are these lamentations The best remedy in misery is it will have an end this remedy eternity is destiture of It comprehends all kind of punishments but is wholly void of any end of them Hence the eternity of the damned is a torment unexplicable Lib. 5. Hist Angl Venerable Bede faithfully rehearseth a remarkable passage which hapned in his time In the County of Northumberland lived a man of great piety called Drithelm who through extremity of sickness was brought to the gates of death so as in the beginning of the night he seemed to be dead indeed and as such lay all the night following Next morning being unexpectedly restored to himself he said to the amazement of those present he was permitted to live yet longer but after a farr different manner then hitherto he had done Wherefore he addicted himself to spend more time in Prayer he distributed all his Goods amongst his Wife Children and the poor that done he renounced all worldly cares and betook himself to great austerity which gave sufficient testimony what horrible things he had been eye-witness of in the other world What he had seen he did not promiscuously relate to all but only to such as he knew were unfeigned friends of Eternity Amongst these was King Alfride a man of eminent Learning who frequently and attentively gave ear to Drithelm while he discoursed of Hell Concerning which he enlarged himself chiefly in the explication of that horrible darkness that incomparable stench those lamentable howlings and tears those swarms of Adders the insulting of Devils the balls of fire and bitter hail which served to afflict the Damned when they were forced to make a dismal exchange by being snatcht out of flames and thrown amongst Ice These particulars compared with the delights of Paradise Drithelm much insisted on Out of which narration the greatest profit redounded to himself for in a Monastery his abode was fevered from the rest and situate on the bank of a River where his principal employment was to cleave fast to God with his desires to visit Heaven to multiply Prayers without ceasing to chastist his body and with perpetual sighs â—o meditate on Eternity And that all might perceive he was in good earnest he used often for the mortifying his flesh to go into the River which ran by his Cell sometimes to the middle sometimes to the neck and stay therein so long till the Ice in Winter frose about his body at his comeing out he did not dry his clothes by the Fire or Sun but kept them on wet as they were to the greater vexation of his body in so much as he seemed rather to be apparelled with Ice then Garments Some spectatours moved with compassion towards the man asked him How is it possible Drithelm you should be able to endure such piercing cold to whom he readily returned this answer I have beheld sharper things and more bitter colds then this Who ever shall ruminate with attention the punishments of eternity See writers of S. S. lives may pronounce the same of the greatest sufferings of Martyrs I have seen greater then these Iames a Noble Persian was by King Isdegerdes commanded to be cut in pieces from head to foot joynt by joynt But one that contemplates eternity will say I have seen sharper torments then these Serapion had all his bones broken Nicephorus Martyr after broyling on a Gridiron was cut piece-meal Yet still one may affirm I have seen more cruel usage Ianas Martyr not without bitter taunts had his fingers cut off as if they were to be sowen to spring up again his skin was pulled over his ears his tongue pluckt out himself was thrown into boyling Pitch and lastly all his Limbs were bruised upon an Engine His companion Barachisius was scourged with Thorns had his flesh miserably rent and in fine had all his bones torn a sunder and broken But I have beheld more bitter passages Saturninus being tyed to a wild Bull whom they made more wild with prickling was hurried through rough and craggy waies and so drawn in peices a horrible torment no doubt Nevertheless I have seen more horrible Martina a Noble Virgin being fastned to four stakes was beaten with staves and stripes was torn with hooks cast to the Beasts and condemned to the fire Emmeramus Bishop of Ratisbon after his fingers were chopt off his eyes pulled out his ears and nostrils divided from his head his hands and feet were cut away and his tongue out of his mouth Leodegarius Bishop of Auston in France when he had undergone Famine and long Imprisonment was deprived of his Eyes had the soles of his Feet wounded and seperated from his body his Lips cut away and his tongue pluckt out Yet worse pains then these I have beheld Alexander Bishop of Rome endured many stabs Cassianus a School master was run through with the Bodkins and Pen-knives of his Schollars whose hands by how much the weaker so much more grievous was his Martyrdome Mark Bishop of Arethusa being pricked with Lancets on all sides was anointed with Honey put into a wisket of Rushes and so exposed as a
Prey to Bees Wasps and Gnats Notwithstanding I have seen more harsh dealing then this Blessed Maximus after he had bin rent with Hooks and had suffered the Rack and bin beaten with clubs was stoned to death Anthimus Martyr was tormented with hot glowing Aulls broken potsheards fiery shooes and stretched upon a Rack Zoe wife to Exuperius Martyr after six daies Famine endured in a dark Dungeon was hung up by the hair of her head and stifled with smoak of burnt Excrements Glycerius haveing been beaten till his bones appeared was cast into the fire Peter the Exorcist companion to Marcelliuus Martyr first was torn with whips then had Vinegar and Salt poured into his gaping wounds and lastly was roasted with a flow fire Christiana Virgin was likewise roasted and basted with Oyl Serpents were let loose against her her tongue was pluckt out and shot to death with Arrows Maxima and Donatilla were cruelly beaten with rods then had their wounds rubbed with quick Lime and finally being broyled on a Gridiron were condemned to the beasts Theonilla had the top of her head taken off with a Rasour which was afterwards Crowned with Thorns and Brambles then being tyed to four stakes she was barbarously beaten with thongs of Lether and had hot Coales thrown upon her belly amongst which torments she gave up the Ghost Horrible pains were these no doubt and sharp sufferings Albeit I have seen sharper and more horrible Pantaleon haveing been for a long time burned was at last thrown into a Cauldron of molten Lead Paul and Iuliana Brother and Sister were tortured on the Rack were afflicted with boyling Pitch beaten with rods of hot iron seated in Chaires and cast upon beds strook full of Nails and after three dayes abode amongst Snakes were for the Faith of Christ consumed with fire Blessed St. Barbara was cruelly rotmented with burning Torches stripes and iron hooks and having her breasts cut off suffered her head to be barbarously smitten with Hammers Auxentius had his feet bored through with iron and then being hanged upon a Wheel was so long pierced with hot auls till he ended his Martyrdome Quintinus of the illustrious order of Senatours in Rome underwent mervailous torments for after he had been dressed with boyling Oyle Pitch and Fat his sides were scorched with burning Torches all his body was beaten with Chains Mustard Lime and Vinagre were poured into his mouth O strange kind of drink and himself was thrust through with two Iron Spits from the Neck to the Thighes having besides sharp needles strook into all his fingers between the Flesh and Nails Do these seem great extremities of cruelty But far greater are to be found in Hell and those eternal in comparison whereof the former may be reputed as a Play-game or a jest We have seen far sharper pains then all before mentioned Even this Age we live in hath been witty in inventions of Tyranny In some places the bellies of men consecrated to God being ripped open and stuffed with Provend have served as Mangers for Horses or troughs for Hogs to feed in Quick Mice have likewise bin placed upon mens naked bellies and covered there under Basons on the tops whereof a fire being made the little creatures were compelled to seek for their liberty which finding no other way they eate into the bowels of liveing men Hence Caligula thou maist learn something to imitate In other places mens bodies were cut asunder joynt by joynt burning Torches were put under their Armpits and applyed to their whole breasts Hooks were thrust into their entrals and that they might be longer tortured before death fires were kindled under them Some have been cloathed in Bears-skins and so baited by Mastive Dogs till they were devoured Some again have been rowled on sharp stones some have been covered with a board and pressed under a thousand pound weight and so bruised to peices with so much more cruelty and pain by how much their death was slower These are cruel most cruel sufferings yet who ever looks upon the pains of Hell with the eye of contemplation will constantly pronounce of all the torment of Martyrs together I have seen much more cruel I have beheld much more dreaful All the inventions of cruesty found out by Tyrants are small are nothing at all in respect of the Torments in Hell which are eternal alas alas they are eternal SECT 4. GOd commanded Ezechiel to make this Proclamation That all flesh may know that I the Lord have drawn my Sword out of his Scabbard not to be revoked ch 21. ver 5. Where this Sword is once unsheathed it will never be put up again it is irrevokable For the better understanding hereof let us I pray betake ourselves to a quiet posture as he did in Mount Choreb who did contemplate Eternity with much attention Let us sit down and cast up our accounts on Paper or on our fingers ends in this manner The Damned shall be tormented in Hell a thousand years that is not enough Two thousand years nor that Three thousand years that is too little Four thousand years and that too Five thousand years that is not sufficient Ten thousand years neither will that suffice Twenty thousand years that falls short of their due Fifty thousand years so likewise does that A hundred thousand years this compared to eternity is nothing it will not do the deed To what summe would our computation amount it we should go on reckoning half a daies space as we reckoned before What book of accounts would contain that summe By midday he that Calculated would be overwhelmed with his own work in fine he would be constrained to say the measure of Eternity is not to be taken by the fingers it cannot be reckoned it cannot be summed up by any numbers what ever it is altogether numberless Joyn what numbers you please together let your product rise to what height you will Eternity goes beyond it how farr Infinitely it surpasses all computation and hides its end in that endless revolution of Ages Ah Mortals ah Christians ah how little do we consider these things how seldome do we leisurely cast up our accounts in this manner Indeed no one beleives no one beleives no one beleives These things I must tell you are not dreams they are no Fables nor Rhetorical flourishes here are no amplifications no exaggarations at all Matt. c. 25. Eternal truth has uttered the Oracle Depart from me accursed into fire everlasting The Sun is not clearer then these words which makes me repeat No one beleives no one beleives no one beleives In our first part of Eternity we lead the Reader on by the hand to a right consideration of Eternity Here now imagine a thousand Cubes a thousand Millions of years These are soon said but not so soon considered with attention They make thus many years 1000 000000000000000,000,000,000,000 or a thousand thousand thousand thousand thousand thousand thousand thousand times a thousand thousand years After
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
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
blessed life replenisht with never ending and perpetual delight Have patience therefore yet a while 2. Cor. ch 4. Our momentary and light tribulation worketh an eternal weight of glory in us We shall one day remember with joy what we now have difficulty to endure Whatsoever sufferings therefore occur Coll. 1.11 bear them In all Patience and longanimity with joy giving thanks to God These and many other particulars are much inculcated to little purpose whereunto scarce any other answer is returned Es c. 28. but that of the Jews Command recommand command recommand expect re-expect expect re-expect What ever befals us hereafter we will glut our Eyes and Hands with things present pleasure draws us too and fro in which t is hard to observe a mean Our appetite must be satisfied though it cost us never so dear God is good and merciful who will easily pardon such as offend him With these charms they strive to stop your mouth but O miserable and blind mortals do you not know these pleasures you thirst after are forbidden doth not your own Conscience Preach this Doctrine to you doth not reason disswade you do not Gods Laws command the contrary Tell me I pray do you not beleive all the pleasure this world affords how lasting soever it be lasts but a moment withers in a trice and ends in eternal sorrow All Eternity of this world compared to true Eternity is but a minute a point and less then nothing But do you consider or give credit to these things If you will be known by the name of Christians you must both think on and beleive them If you acknowledge mans condition to be such that we are unmindful of eternal and eagerly pursue things present which is the cause why you have so many scars are so grievously wounded and drowned in the sink of Vice I shall own your Confession as good in case it be accompanied with amendment of life SECT 2. GIve me leave to propose yet another question Do you beleive these Vices which are so familiar with you are punisht eternally by God We do beleive it say they Why then are you both so forgetful and bold as to tread under foot so confidently the laws of God insomuch as neither fear of chastisement nor dread of hell nor horrour of everlasting fire nor love of Heaven are able to restrain you from sin From want of this fear proceeds your debaucht life your impatience in adversity your forgetfulness of Hell in prosperity and that multitude of vices which ensnare you Indeed Eternity hath no place in your thoughts which though you beleive you do not consider it with attention Jeremy ch 12. There is none that considereth in the heart Eternity is frequently in our mouth seldome in our heart Admonitions concerning Eternity knock at our Ears but are not admitted to enter Scarce any one weighs attentively the Secrets of eternity Now and then perchance we have some thoughts of those endless windings of eternity but they quickly vanish we sometimes read what others have written of eternity but we soon forget it we hear in Sermons of that bottomless Gulf of Eternity but even that too stayes not long with us a croud of other thoughts stifle in our minds those wholesome considerations So eternity ere it be well entred into our souls is overwhelmed with pernicioâ—â— desires whence all the blandishments of our former impurities creep into our hearts and nestle there as before Thus our Faith which we boast of is a drowsy or indeed a dead faith Michael Mercatus the elder as Baronius relates from persons of undoubted credit entered into a league of intimate friendship with Marsilius Ficinus Tom. 5. anno 411. a man of an excellent capacity this tye was faster knit together by their joynt applycation to the study of Phylosophy Both of them were well read in Plato Whence it came to pass that they engaged in a dispute amongst themselves what was the state of man after death whither his soul went what semblance belonged to matters in the next world All which they resolved first to deduce but of Plato's principles and afterwards to establish according to the tenets of Christianity When they had long debated the business they came at length to this agreement that they should shake hands and promise each other that whether dyed first should if God were so pleased faithfully inform the surviver how the case stood in the next life This was their covenant to which they mutually consented and confirmed it by Oath In process of time they were so parted as that they setled their habitation in different Cities Which done Michael Mercatus being early one morning busiy at his study of Philosophy he heard a horseman in the next street posting amain towards his Gates and Marsilius his voice calling aloud He meanes things touching the immortality of the soul O Michael Michael those things are true they are true indeed they are most true Michael acquainted with the voice of his familier friend left his books ran to the window looked forth and saw Marsilius his back riding on a white horse and now almost out of sight at a turning whom he pursued with a nimble voice and called Marsilius Marsilius but the rider in white admitting no delay was presently out of sight Mercatus astonisht with this unexpected apparition was solicitous to know what was become of his Marsilius After a while he understood Marsilius was dead at Florence that very hour wherein he both heard and saw him at his own house From that time forward Mercatus though otherwise a man of an upright life and approved integrity took his leave of Philosophy and resolved to adhere more exactly to the principles of a better Philosophy taught Christian Religion Whereupon being dead to himself and the world be bestowed the remainder of his life upon things to come and meditated every day upon eternity SECT 3. AN attentive meditation on eternity is the beginning of a better life Vertue is commended but coldly where love of eternal life is wanting The road is smooth and easy to hell when the mind is not dayly employed with the consideration of a blessed or damned eternity These things we both know and beleive and yet we loyter and neglect our chiefest good T is true you may hear some say O Eternity But in the interim they cheerfully lay fast hold on a full cup and carouse so long till the liquor damm at the top of their throat Now and then with a deep sigh we breath out Eternity and in the mean while our heart swimms in impure and lacivious thoughts it digests secret lust and by hidden contrivances steals away it self from God We run in quest after the treasures of Heaven but cease not to smile upon money which is the scum of the earth and privately offer sacrifice to Mammon We make a shew as if we were afraid of flames eternal and yet hold on to kindle