with the glorious stole of immortality are to enioy God eternally in his kingdome Now d The ioy which the elect will haue to see thēselues so neere the end of their hope by this so certaine secure hope that God wil be so gracious to them as to graunt that they may possesse enioy that immense good which they so mightily desire and to which then they shall be brought so neere they will reioyce and be reuiued in a wonderfull manner and giue strange thankes to God for hauing brought them to see that day and for hauing continued them in his seruice and vouchsafed to giue them such tokens pledges of his glory All this did Christ our Lord vnfold in the Ghospell For hauing reckoned vp the signs which are to appeare before his comming to Iudgement and the feare and sorrow wherewith they shall be receaued by the wicked turning then his discourse to his disciples and in their persons to all such as would be their imitatours and were to be aliue at that tyme he sayth after this manner When these thinges shall arriue which are to precede my comming do you lift vp your heads Be not disquieted be not dismayd giue no place to sorrow none to feare or to distrust as the louers of the world will do who will go with the head all hanging downe like men afflicted and dismayd But haue you great confidence conceaue great courage be cheerefull and reioyce and with this confidence and ioy lift vp your harts your face to God for now your redemption draweth neere The tyme approacheth and so doth that most happy state and complete redemption which now with my Passion and Death I am about to gain for you and that is both security from all kind of misery and immortall glory both to body and soule Another great fauour to the iust will be to see appearing in the ayre and that high vp neer heauen and before the person of Christ our Lord the signe and standard of the most holy e Happy soules which heere are deuoted to the Crosse of Christ our Lord Crosse not made of wood or mettall but of other most glorious matter and more brightly shining incomparably with more beauty then the sunne and in proportion so very large that being plac't on high it may be seene ouer the whole earth by all the inhabitāts thereof For a matter and motiue it is of incomparable comfort ioy for them to see in such high honour and glory that Crosse which they adored as the Image of Christ and which they loued by enduring and suffering affronts and paynes for his sake When f A profound yet a plain consideration a worldly man doth hate any thing or any person and seeth it or him aduanced to honour it puts him to payne Wicked men in this life did abhorre the Crosse of Christ because they did extremely loue the pleasures and delicacyes transitory honours of this world they detested to suffer paine sham in the vertue and for the loue of Christ our Lord. So doth S. Paul expresse it saying Phil. 3. There are many who liue and conuerse among you of whome I haue aduertised you many tymes now againe I repeate it with griefe sorrow of my hart who are the enemies of the Crosse of Christ since they giue themselues to delights and delicacyes and to ambition and pride which the Crosse of Christ doth condemne and they flye from pennance and mortification and abstinence and from the exercises of humility to which the Crosse of Christ doth perswade and teach When therefore these men shall see in that diuine Iudgment that the Crosse of Christ is so highly honoured and made so glorious which they with their workes did so abhorre it shall replenish them with paine and griefe For thereby they shall more cleerely see their errour and the eternall condemnation which is prepared for them For that is to be the end of such men as the same Apostle declareth saying VVhose end is death and the destruction of their soules On g The same consideration continued the contrary side whosoeuer he be that doth greatly loue any thing or person he reioyceth taketh comfort to see that it is honored esteemed by others And now for as much as the seruantes of God do cordialy loue the Crosse of Christ which is To mortify thēselues with thinges of difficulty to flesh and bloud and to suffer paines and tribulations and affronts for his loue and in the imitation of his Passion For as S. Paul sayth Galat. 5. They who are of Christ and who re liuely members of him and who haue his spirit and who are gouerned by him doe crucify their flesh and chastise it with penances and by willingly imbracing those affronts paynes which God presents And by afflicting their flesh in this manner they doe withall destroy and kill the vices and ill desires which sprout from thence Now when the seruants of God shal see that Crosse h And haue we not reason to loue it since it was the instrumēt of our redemption which they loued so much and wherein they did so greatly reioyce become exalted and so glorious and so highly honoured by Almighty God and so reueared by the whole world they shal receaue thereby excessiue ioy and consolation to see how well they chanced in following the Crosse of Christ our Lord and they shall hold it as an expresse signe of the glory which God will giue to them For a truth of God it is which is pronounced by his Apostle That whatsoeuer tribulation or paine or trouble is suffered in this life for the loue of God which how long soeuer it lasts is but momentary since it liues no longer then we liue which how grieuous soeuer it may seeme yet to the soules that loue God and are assisted by his holy grace is light and easy doth worke in vs and that as a meritorious cause a weight of most soueraigne glory ouerflowing beyond all measure and exceeding all that which we can so much as euen imagine this is not to be of temporall glory but a glory which shall neuer end CHAP. XV. Of the fauour which Christ our Lord wil do his seruants at the day of Iudgement by separating them from the wicked ANOTHER benefit fauour and that a great one will Christ our Lord do to his seruants in the day of Iudgment and that will be to separate them from the company of the wicked This was signified by Christ our Lord who said Matt. 25. When the sonne of man shall come to iudge he shall sit vpon the throne of his Maiesty all the nations of the earth shal be assembled before him and as the shepheard deuides the sheepe from the Goates so shall he deuide the good and bad from one another The good he calleth sheep for the innocency simplicity meeknes fruitefulnes in good works
are excepted ordinary law are faulty and guilty it being necessary according to the diuine Iustice and wisedome that Iudgment be giuen vpon them the cause of all them who haue comitted mortall sinne being so important that either they must be condemned to immense euerlasting torments or be declared not guilty but worthy to enioy the kingdome of heauē what greater fauour what clemency could be desired or euen thought of then that God the Father should be pleased to giue vs for our Iudg Christ Iesus who is our brother and of the selfe same nature with vs and who loues vs with an vnspeakeable loue and who doth so much esteeme and desire both our liberty our glory that for the procuring therof he hath offered himself to most bitter paines and scornes and euen to the death of the Crosse O how great a comfort O how incomparable a ioy is this for those sonnes of Adam who feele the greatnes of this benefit O how confident and secure ought they to be that Iudgment shall goe vpon them with greate mercy and that the rigour of Iustice shal be tēpered with much pitty and that the sentēce shall passe in fauour of them for as much as shal be possible without impeachment of the holy law most sweet ordination of Almighty God CHAP. II. Of the great desire which Christ our Lord hath for as much as concerneth him not to condemne any one in his Iudgment but to saue them all THIS most mercifull Iudg hath giuen vs some most euident testimonies of the most ardent desire which he hath not to condemne vs in his diuine Iudgment but to deliuer vs as free safe that the sentence may wholy passe in fauour of vs. One of these testimonies and that a very admirable one is this That before he would come the second tyme to make an vniuersall Iudgment of sinners to condemne punish such as he should finde to be faulty a Marke this excellent doctrine for it is ful of truth and comfort he came in that first cōming of his to passe a Iudgment vpon sinns themselues to destroy and to consume and to depriue them of being and life and in like manner also to passe a Iudgement against all the enimies of our soules namely the World the Flesh and the Diuell and to ouercome and dispossesse them of all power and Tytle which they might make to men and to defeate those forces which they mainteyned to the preuidice of mens soules and to giue men strength and meanes wherby they might defend themselues and obteine perfect victory against them all That so when he should come to passe a Iudgment vpon men he might finde them free from sinne and if not all of them yet so many at least as would take profit by the grace he gaue them and consequently that he might haue nothing to punish in them Yea and moreouer that he might finde them conquerours ouer their enemies that so he might giue them that reward of glory for their victory which he had promised to such as should ouercome This is that high Mystery which Christ our Lord discouered to vs in the Ghospell somtyme saying Ioan. 3. That he came not to Iudge the world but to saue the world At other times he saith that he came to make iudgment vpō the world as he teacheth vs by the Euangelist saying Ioan. 12. I came into the world to Iudge it And yet in another place Ioan. 8. Now is Iudgmēt to passe vpon the world Our Lord meanes to say heerby as himself declares That at his first cōming when he came in a mortal and passible body he came not to passe a Iudgement vpon men to chastise condemne the wicked by doing Iustice and pronouncing a sentence of condemnation against them For if he had come to this end and that he would haue passed this Iudgement at his first comming he would in effect haue bin obliged to comdemne all the world for in effect he found them all in sin and euen those few Iust persōs who were free were so in vertue of his being come to saue them And if that first coming of his had beene to Iudge men euen those few had also bene in state of sinne and had beene condemned He therfore explicates himselfe by saying I came not to iudg the world but to saue it That is I came not as a Iudge but as a Sauiour I came not to condemne sinners by doing Iustice on them by passing a sentence of condemnation against them But b Christ our Lord deliuereth no man from the paynes of hell by his sacred Passion but such as first are deliuered by it from sinne I came to saue them by suffering and dying for them and by communicating my Iustice and merits to them that so I might free them from sinne and Iustify them and giue them the spirituall health of grace and of eternall glory And to this very office of sauing men is ordeyned that Iudgement which he saith he came to make in that first comming and which he was to passe against sinnes against the diuell also in fauour of men So doth he declare himselfe saying Through my Passion and Death Iudgment is now to passe and sentence is to be giuen in fauour of the men of this world against the diuell For till now he held men subiect and captiued vnder his power and tyranny but now by the payment which I am making for thē they are to remaine safe and free Now the diuell who is the Prince of this world who held men subiect vnder sinne is to be deposed from that dominion which he held in the world for innumerable soules which were captiued in error and sinne are to be conuerted and saued and remedy shal be imparted to them all wherby they may be deliuered from him and may obtaine eternall glory So also in that first cōming of Christ our Lord to saue mankind he made a kind of distinguishing and deuiding Iudgement betweene the good and the bad the elect and the reprobate For when he was preaching and working miracles and procuring the saluatiō of the world some did profit by his comming receauing his fayth and obeying his Ghospell participating of his merits And others againe because they would not belieue in him nor serue themselues of his remedyes did still remaine in their sins yea through their ingratitude and the hardnes of their harts they grew therein And thus by the occasion of the comming of Christ our Lord the distinction grew more apparent betweene the faythful the vnfaithfull between Iust persons and sinners betweene the elect and such as were reproued by God For they who receaued the faith of Christ did follow him by the imitation of his life by the taking vp of his Crosse according to their c That is according to the state wherein they were at that tyme. present iustice were iust
persons as long as they did perseuere they had signes in them of being predestinated and they who receaued not the fayth according to their then present state were wicked reprobate This did our Lord declare whē he sayd I came into this world that they who see not might se◠they who see might be blind Which was as much to say Vpon my comming did this iudgment follow and this distinction was made amongst men that many who in their soules were blind through ignorance and errour and vice and who did not see the truth nor did walke in the right way to heauen by beleeuing in me with a liuely fayth they I say might see the truth and follow it And that many others who saw and had knowledg of the Scriptures and did know the law and the Prophets who both in their own and in the peoples opinion estimation were held wise and had a spirituall light wherwith to looke into diuine things they I say for their pride and ingratitude should remaine blind and going astray from the right way should not find their errour and perdition Another diuine and most singular testimony which Christ our Lord hath giuen vs of the desire which he hath in this iudgment of his not to finde any sinnes which he might punish nor any sinners whom he should be so obliged to condemne is That d Let all Angells adore him for this inestimable benefit to men at his first comming he made a law which was to last till the end of the world wherby he gaue faculty to all sinners that during the whole tyme whilst their life should last they might passe a Iudgement vpon themselues acknowledging their sinns and accusing themselues therof with greefe and confessing them to a Priest who should hould the place of Christ our Lord and satisfying for them according to the iudgment of the same Ghostly father and that they performing this he would not in his Iudgment either cōdemne or punish them but would declare them to be not Guilty and would impart the kingdome of heauen to thē And that if hauing once passed this Iudgement vpon themselues they should yet return againe to sinne become abnoxious therby to eternall condemnation yet stil as long as their life should last they might returne to passe the same Iudgment vpon themselus as often as they would and that if they should do it according to e Confessing them all clearely with great sorrow firme purpose of amendmēt Truth he would not condemne them but would admit them into his company and make them happy O Iudgment which is so deerely sweet O Iudge who is so ful of mercy and how vnanswerable is it proued by this most pitteous Iudge that his intention and desire is not to punish but to pardon not to condemne but to absolue and saue since before he comes to passe his Iudgment he vseth so many meanes applyes so many remedies to the end that he may finde no sinnes to punish nor no sinners to condemne If an earthly Iudge had his prison ful of delinquents theeues murtherers and should make a kind of agreement and bargaine with them that f Consider seriously heerof admire the infinit goodnes of God in that wherein the blind world thinkes it hath hard measure namely in the Institution of the Sacrament of Confession euery one of them might choose what friend or kinsman of his owne he would and in secret should declare his offence to him deliuering to him the whole truth and vndergoing but that penalty which he should impose vpon him for the same And that vpon some day of the same yeare himselfe would come to the prison to Iudge them and that he would pronounce them to be free who had declared their offences to friend or kinsman of theirs who had performed the penalty which he had imposed and that he would only cōdemne those others who would not haue recourse to that remedy what would you say of this Iudge of this agreement You would say that there nether is nor euer was nor euer will be in the world any Iudge who sheweth or is to shew any such mercy nor who euer made or will euer make any such Capitulation with persons who had deserued to dye nor are there any laws on earth which can permit any such thinge And if there were any Iudge who would submit himselfe to the like cōdition there would no delinquent be found who would not ioyfully performe this agreement and so be declared for not guilty Well then Christ Iesus the Eternall Iudge and who is of infinite power and Maiesty doth shew this mercy to all such sinners as are worthy of eternall death And he hath made this bargaine and agreement with them all and that is yielded to by the laws of heauē which the laws of earth will not endure Let vs therfore serue our selues of this mercy let vs performe the articles of this agreement and let vs in tyme passe a Iudgment vpon our selues let vs confesse our sinnes with true sorrow let vs amend our liues to the end that when at the houre of our death in the particuler Iudgment and at the end of the world in the Vniuersal iudgment we shal come before this great Iudge he may find no sinnes to punish or condemne in vs. For it is sayd by S. Iohn the Apostle concerning this Lord 1. Ioan. 1. If we confesse our sins repenting our selues truly of them before God and his substitute God is iust and faithfull in fulfilling the promises and rewarding the meritts of Chri◅ our Sauiour and so he will pardon vs our sinnes through his merits and will cleanse vs from all wickednes as he hath promised O most vnhappy men who deferring to do pennance and to make amendment of their liues despise this mercy of God as S. Paul sayth by making ill vse thereof Rom. 2. And g Woe be to thē who will needes be wicked euen because God is so infinitely good by this meanes they treasure vp the wrath and punishment of God for themselues against the day of his wrath which is that of his Iudgement These lawes of mercy were not made nor are they proclaimed vnto men to the end that thereupon they should take such a wicked strange presumption to sinne but that if they haue sinned they should not be dismaid but that in hope of this diuine mercy they should instantly correct themselues and reforme their liues and obtaine pardon So doth the glorious Apostle S Iohn aduertise vs for hauing sayd That if we confesse our selues well God will pardon vs he instātly addeth this 1. Ioan. 2. These thinges haue I written to you my children to the end that you may not sinne but that you may fly from sinne at full speed but yet if any man do sinne we haue an Aduocate before the Father That is to say let him not be dismaid nor out
and serued The Sunne shall grow darke not as now it doth somtymes by naturall causes or in respect that any cloude may ouershadow it or because the Moone may cast it self betweene it and the earth as it hapneth in the case of an Eclipse but it is to be obscured by a supernaturall and miraculous cause and so it is to be vnderstood that for a while it shall loose the whole light it had The Moone shall also loose her light The Stars shall fall from heauen Ioel. 2. either because when they are without light it shall seeme to be as if they were fallen or els for that in very deed they shall dislodge themselues from that high firmament where they are fixt and for some tyme shall fall from thence and deteine themselues in the ayre till they returne againe into their place The powers of the heauen shal be moued that is those celestiall bodies with their naturall vertue shall tremble and so shift their places as in an earthquake the earth is wont to do or if it be vnderstood of Angells the meaning is how in that day they shall make some kind of spiritual demōstration motion of great admiratiō The Sea shal be troubled shal be moued in a most wōderful māner and with the waues thereof shall make such a hideous noyse as will astonish the whole world oppresse and afflict with excessiue feare and horrour the harts of mortall men will make them euen whither againe with woe The Earth shall tremble 2. Pet. 3. and shal be open in many partes and shall disclose euen the pits of hel The Ayre with the same Earth and Sea shall burne by that most ardent ouerflowing of fire which shall consume al the liuing bodyes of fishes beasts and men God in his law commanded the children of Israel Deut. c. 13. v. 20. that when they should be to fight against the Idolatours and Pagans who dwelt in the Land of Promise and whome he was pleased to punish for their sinnes not only that they should kill the men but euen the very beasts which did them seruice and so in particuler he b A sign of this truth in the old Testamēt exacted this of Saul when he went to fight against the Amalecites and because he did not punctually comply with this cōmandment but suffered some of the Cattle to liue God was offended Saul was punished 1. Reg. 3. Let vs now see why God did not content himselfe with causing the men who had sinned to be put to death but the beasts also which had no fault It was to make men vnderstand and feele that sinne is so great a mischeife and is so worthy to be abhorred and punisht and that God doth indeed so much abhor it that it is a most cōuenient thing not onely to punish sinners with eternall tormēts death but to destroy also and consume and as it were to chastice the creatures wherof they did serue help thēselues towards their sinnes Therfore is it that resoluing in the Vniuersall Iudgment to chastice the wickednes of all men in a most complete manner he will not content himselfe to deliuer ouer sinners themselues to those eternall ardours of fire those other immense paines of hell but to the creaturs also wherof they made some vse in sinning he giues as it were a kind of payne and punishment in detestation of the sins themselues as also to the end that they may be purged and cleered frō that indecency and deformity which grew to them by the seruice which they did to sinners For thus it is that the Sunne the Moone Stars which did illuminate sinners whilest they were committing their sinnes shal be depriued by him for a whyle of all the light beauty which they haue he shall conuert it into thick darknes And as for the Sea the Earth Ayre which gaue food to sinners did maintaine them whilest they were offending God he will make them as it were feare and tremble will depriue them for a tyme of the naturall quality and disposition they haue and will consume and kill all those liuing creatures and plantes which were the food of sinners and wil destroy al those buildings which were the habitation of wicked men And thus through the mutation demonstration desolation which in the Iudgment God will shew in al the creatures which serued sinners he doth teach and testify the infinite hatred which he hath against sin And he doth induce perswade vs that now through the knowledge of this truth we may be drawn to abhor detest them and that with a penitentiall holy life we may cleanse our soules as well as possibly we can frō al fault offence of his diuine Maiesty 2. Pet. 3. S. Peter c This truth is insinuated by S. Peter doth admonish vs of the good effect which we are to draw from the change which is to be made vpon the creatures by saying to this effect Since there is a day of the vniuersall Iudgement to come wherin all the creatures for hauing serued sinners are to be purged with fire and burnt inferre my brethren from hence how diligent and constant it is fit for you to be in the leading of a good life and how holily and purely you are to conuerse in this world and how vigilant and carefull it will becom you to be in performing the works of piety towards God and of mercy towards your Neighbour expecting with a liuely fayth that day of our Lord and approaching and drawing neere to him with speed not with paces of the body but with the desires affections of the soule desiring and louing this day and preparing to see your selues at that tyme accompanyed with purity of life and with the exercise of vertue CHAP. V. How Christ our Lord discouereth the hate which he carryeth towardes sin by the so particuler account which he taketh of them all ANOTHER mystery of this diuine Iudgement discouering the mighty demonstration and detestatiō which God doth expresse against the faults whereby he is offended is the so particuler accompt which he will take of vs which we all must giue of all the facultyes or powers al the senses both of our body and soule of all the creaturs which we haue vsed and a If you beleeue this point of fayth to be true I shall not need to wish you to looke wel about you of all the workes which we haue performed all the wordes which we haue spoken and all the thoughts which we haue conceaued how little soeuer they fall out to haue beene without leauing out so much as any one idle word or any one idle thought We shall giue accompt of how we imployed our Vnderstanding if we did set it on worke vpon the inquiry and search of God and his truth and in contemplating on him his holy Cōmandments and the workes of
al things they dispose themselues to consider the diuine IudgmeÌ„t so to know the better and as it were to feele the greiuousnes of sinne and the punishment that falls vpon it and the much that God abhors it so to procure a sorrow and hatred of sinne as being an offence of God and to feare it much and to fly from it with great care as being contrary to his diuine will and so exercysing this chast feare which is an effect fruit of diuine loue he exerciseth loue with all which is the cause of that feare for this it is that we haue said that the iust man exercising this filiall feare doth not loose the least graine of the excellency and merit of his loue and that the exercise of filiall feare is not lesse pious and acceptable to God then that of loue For in fine this is the feare of Saints to all whome the Psalmist speakes by saying Psal 33. O all yow Saints feare our Lord. And this is that feare which hath for a reward That it obteyneth of God what it will as the Psalmist doth also witnes saying Psal 140. God will fullfill the will of them that feare him and will heare their praâ—ers granting all which they aske To b True hope riseth out of filiall Feare conclude this is that feare which maketh men happy in this life through the liuely hope and pledge it giues of glory in the other life it will giue the possession therof For a truth it is deliuered by the holy Ghost Prou. 28. Blessed is the man who alwaies liues in the holy feare of God CHAP. XIIII Of the fauours which Christ our Lord will do to the good at the day of Iudgement and of the Ioy which they shall conceaue by seeing the signes which precede that Iudgment and by beholding the glory of the Crosse which shall go before Christ our Lord. GREAT are the benefits which we find in that diuine Iudgment the fruits which we gather thence by our considering that which Christ our Lord will shew vpon the wicked For as we haue declared it doth cleerly discouer the greiuousnes of sinne and how mightily it is abhorred by our Lord God and it moueth vs to a hatred and a feare therof But yet greater are the blessings which we find in the Iudgement of God and the profit which we reap from theÌ„ce by considering that which Christ our Lord will then do for his seruants the fauours which he will impart and the felicity which he will communicate For in this doth he discouer his goodnes and the much that he loueth such as are good and the estimation which he makes of vertue he awaketh and prouoketh vs much to loue him and he doth animate and incourage vs much to labour hard in his seruice and that for the pleasing of him and complying with his holy will we must imploy our selues in all kind of vertue Let vs therfore go declaring the fauors which Christ our Lord will impart to the good in this his Iudgment to the end that we may gather this fruite from thence A great a How differeÌ„tly the same things do worke vpon the good and the bad benefit and fauour shall it be for the good that those very signes which are to precede the diuine Iugdment as namely the darkening of the Sunne the Moone Starres the swelling vp of the Sea the opening of the earth withal the rest which are to strike such excessiue horrour into the wicked and will cause in them such an extreme affliction and dismay so far as that they shall goe like persons euen distracted and mad with griefe shal euen be dryed vp and withered thorough the deadly paine and sorrow which they shal receaue as our Lord himselfe declareth saying Luc. 21. Men shall whither with the feare they will be in of those miseryes which they expect and of which those signes are the forerunners That these very signes I say shal giue to those iust men the seruants of God whome they shall find aliue great strength courage great confidence and security in God shall cause them great alacrity and comfort and they shall go all refresh't and fully at ease as being animated with a new spirit of hope and ioy For b The great reasons which good men haue to be glad of death and the day of Iudgment iust men who cordially doe loue Almighty God do much desire to leaue the miserable estate of this life where God is so many wayes offended and when themselues cannot forbeare to fal into some defects which although they be light veniall yet for as much as they goe against the will of God they feele theÌ„ much and much paine by them where they also find that they haue many impedimentes to keepe them from communicating with God from louing him and tasting him as they desire These persons do extremely couet the state of immortality glory where they shall most perfectly both in body and soule enioy the fauours and benedictions of God as the Apostle declareth c The sense is of the B. Apostle and it is opened and explained by our Authour saying Rom. 8. We know that all creatures that is to say all the whole machine of the world which conteyns all the sensible creaturs is groaning vnder the weight and mutability and corruption which it is subiect to And as a woman who being in labour of her child doth expect to bring him forth so doth it remaine with a kind of wearines and griefe from the very first beginning of the world till this instant desiring hoping to see it self free from this corruption and mutability to be all renewed according to the imitation and resemblance of that glorious liberty of the sonnes of God And we the disciples seruants of Christ our Lord who haue receaued the chiefe and first fruits gifts of the holy Ghost doe sigh groan withal the affectioÌ„ of our harts towards the perfect complete adoptioÌ„ of the sonnes of God which is the glory not only of our soules but euen of our bodyes also whereby the whole man shall be deliuered from all mortality and corruption and from all euill inclination concupiscence and shall perfectly enioy both in body and soule the redemption which was wrought by Christ our Lord. This is of the Apostle And for as much as this desire is of iust persons and that in it selfe it is so very internall and so vehement when they shall see the signes of the diuine Iudgement they shal know that the tyme is then close at hand wherein that desire of theirs is to be satisfyed and when they are to be possessed of that happy state and wherein they are to be free both in body and soule froÌ„ all corruption and misery both of sin and pennance And they shall be ful of glory in their soules and their bodyes being adorned
deepe as that it hath neither bottom nor brim By seeing that it is an infinite delight and sweetenes and that it concernes the soule so much and that she doth so dearly truly belong vnto it and that it is her creator her father her God and that all her being depends vpon it there is also created in the soule another most copious and most abundant riuer of loue and all these riuers of loue meeting then in one the soule of euery Saint in heauen growes to haue in it an vnbridled boundles Sea of loue He that i Be still attentiue loues a thing doth wish it well if he may see the good he wishes it giues him ioy and the more he loues and the more he desires and the greater that the good is so much the greater is the ioy Now thē since the Saints in heauen do loue God with a whole boundlesse Sea of loue and seeing that he possesseth all the good which they can wish as namely that he is God himselfe and that together with God he is infinitely happy who can say what delight who can say what ioy they shall receiue since it is bound to be great according to the rate of their loue Infallibly they shall possesse a whole immense Sea of diuine ioy an immense Sea shall they possesse of celestiall and supreme delights This is that delight and ioy which the soule receiues from God himselfe being an infinit good when once she is possest of a cleare vision of him and that by loue O k Infinit ioy ioy which ouercomest all ioy O ioy which imbracest all our good O ioy without lymit O eternall ioy O ioy which art the euer running fountaine of al ioyes O ioy which knowest how to satisfy all the desirs and canst fill vp all the hollowes and empty places of the soule Matt. 25. and dost possesse whatsoeuer we shall euer be able to think To this ioy doth Christ niuite al his faithfull seruants this doth he giue them in reward of their vertue saying Reioyce O thou good faithfull seruant enter into the ioy of thy Lord. Another l The vnspeakable ioy which they shall haue by seeing the the most glorious humanity of Christ our Lord. felicity which the blessed soules shall haue is to behold the most glorious humāity of Christ our Lord and to enioye it and to see him euen as he is man in so excessiue Greatnes and Maiesty and glory And to see him withal so amiable and so affable so deerly sweet towards all those happy soules and to see that that Lord who is man as they are and who with his passion and death did for the loue he bare them redeeme them from eternall damnation the same man I say is the infinite and eternall God O how will they loue that most sacred humanity which loued them so much which did and suffered so great things for them O how will they reioyce to see that humāity so mightily sublymed and vnited by an incomprehensible manner to the person of the Word O how wil they glory in his felicity O what delight sweetnes wil they receiue from such a sight and from such a loue For as the prophet saith Isa 33. They shall see the king in his beauty Another m It wil be an inestimable ioy to see how infinitly God loueth them supreme felicity for those happy soules shal be to see the loue which God carries towards them and wherwith the eternall father did from all Eternity loue and choose them did in Tyme bestow his Sonne vpon them and deliuer him ouer to death for them and to see that this loue in it selfe is infinite and the very same wherewith God loues himselfe The n This truth is proued by a fit comparison seruant of a King will much esteeme that the king do him fauour bestowing some important place vpon him in his house with good prouision belonging to it But much more will he esteeme it and much more contentment cōfort will he receiue to see himselfe beloued by that king and that he is a fauorite of his And thogh he haue but some coniectures of this loue and that it may easely be cooled and changed into a disaffection yet doth he neuertheles esteem it more then all the other fauours which the king doth him For by louing him he giueth him his hart which is incomparably more then if he gaue him a part of his fortune What then will a Saint in glory feele in himselfe when he shal see that he is so beloued by God and although the benefits which God hath done him are very great yet the loue he beares him is much greater and although they are most precious benefits which there he is enioying by the guyft of God yet much more pretious is the loue For this loue is the root fountaine of all the benefites and guiftes and graces which he hath cōmunicated nay this loue is euen very God himselfe Now then to knowe this loue of God not by coniecture but by seeing it expresly in God with as great clarity as that wherewith he seeth God himselfe and still to see with the same clarity that this loue cannot be lost no nor changed but that for euer it shall remaine inuariable with the selfe same permanency wher with the truth of God himselfe shal remain of which truth it is sayd Psal 116. that it shall remaine for euer O how highly wil the Blessed esteeme value this loue of God! O how imcomparable ioy will they receiue to see thēselues so beloued by God! When loue is great it hath this property power that by the band of the same loue it makes o Of the vnion of seuerall things which is made by loue him that loues become the same thing with him that is beloued and that he lodgeth his whole hart in him that with the chaynes of loue he becomes imprisoned and euen captiued by him who is beloued that he depend wholy vpon him willing that which he wills and communicating to him all his goods Now then since the Blessed soules knowing that this is the property of intense loue and seeing themselues so beloued by God with this loue which hath no measure nor had no beginning nor will haue end what kind of immense incomparable ioy wil this be to them Without all question except the ioy which they shall haue in the felicity of God whome they loue more then themselues this other is their greatest ioy to see themselues so beloued by him who is omnipotent and who is infinite beauty and glory and the infinite fountaine of all Good Of this Loue God himselfe giueth testimony saying by the Prophet Hieremy Hier. 33. With eternall loue I haue loued thee and therefore did I in tyme shew mercy to thee and I called and drew thee to my friendship and glory CHAP. XVIII Of other benefits which Christ
and deny what he will meere opinion before the Iudgement of that Church which is is still to be instructed and taught by the holy Ghost And this sinne is of so high a nature as that vnlesse it be remoued by pennance the man in whome it liues shall No heretike without repentance can be saued dye a double death and neuer behould the face of God howsoeuer he may otherwise seeme to be a person of most holy life so ful of Charity as to sell his state and giue it all to the poore and of so valiant and Christian a hart as amongst Infidels to suffer death torments for the name of Christ For to proue that euen this will not serue the turne of an Heretike towards saluation see heere the authority of the greatest Fathers of the church coÌ„cerning this point Who The practise of the primitiue Church in this point See S. Aug. ad Quod-vult Deum the Catalogues of S. Irenaeus and S Epiphanius besids that in the way of practice the Church of their tyme did coÌ„demne many men for Heresy who held though it were but one point of doctrine in contrariety to the Catholike Church and somtymes of some such doctrine as in it selfe did not seeme to be of most importance they do also declare and that in most cleere and constant words in what certainty of damnation they are who dy in any Heresy at all Whosoeuer saith S. Cyprian D. Cypr. epist in Anton. what kinde of person soeuer a man be a No heretike is a Christian any more then only in name Christian he is not vnâ—es he be in the Church of Christ And againe Idem de vnit Eccles He belongs not to the rew rd of Christ who forsakes the Church of Christ such a one is an alien he is a prophane person he is an enemy And to this effect he also sayth if such an one should euen giue his life for the confession of the name of Christ he should yet by the Iudgement of this holy Father be condemned to the flames of Hell for his Heresy and not be receiued to the ioyes of heauen for his constancy he expresseth himself in these words Non esset illi corona fidei sed poena perfidiae S. Hierome in like manner speaking of the Church of Rome affirmeth it to be D. Hier. epist ad Dam. l. 2. The true house of Christ and that whosoeuer eateth the lambe out of that house is a prophane person and that vnles he be found in that Arke of Noe he shall be ouerwhelmed and perish in the floud S. Augustine doth also abound euery where in the profession of this truth D. Aug. tom 7. super gest câ—…m Emer vlt. med A man sayth he cannot obtaine saluation but in the Catholike Church he may haue all except saluation he may haue honour he may haue the sacrameÌ„ts he may sing Alleluia he may answere Amen he may belieue the Ghospell he may be baptized in the name of the Father of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost but no where can he haue saluatioÌ„ but in the Catholike Church D. Augu. tom 7. de vnit Eccl. vlt. med No man cometh saith he to saluation and life eternall but he that hath Christ for his head and no man can haue Christ for his head who is not in his body which is the Church Idem tom 3. de fide symb Heretikes by belieuing falsely of God do violate the faith and Schismatikes by their wicked dissentions flye of from fraternall charity although they belieue as we do And therefore neither doth the Heretike belonge to the catholike Church because he belieueth not God nor the Schismatike because he loueth not his Neighbour Let The schismatik hath no Charity and the Heretike hath neither Charity nor Fayth Idem tom 7. de Bapt. cont Don. l. 4. c. 18. vs suppose that a man were chast and contynent not couetous no worshiper of Idolls but full of hospitality no enemy to any man nor contentious but patient quiet not emulating or enuying any body but sober and frugall but yet withall that he were an heretike and there can no doubt be made but No Heretike can be saued though he be neuer so vertuous otherwise Idem tom 4. l. 1. de serm Do. in monte c. 9. that for this only That he is an Heretike he shall not possesse the kingdome of heauen It is not sayd alone Blessed are they who suffer persecution but these words are added for iustice sake Now where No heretike or schismatike can be a Martyr Tom. 1. de fide ad Petrum c. 39. true Fayth is not there can be no Iustice because the Iust man liues in Fayth Neither yet set Schismatikes promise themselues any thing thereby because where there is no Charity neither can there be any Iustice For Charity towards ones Neighbour doth worke no euill which Charity if they did possesse they would not teare the body of Christ which is his Church Belieue Some doubt whether this book be of S. Augustin or of S. Fulgentius who liued within 40. yeares after S. Augustine most firmely and haue no manner of doubt but that euery Heretike and Schismatike though baptized in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost if he returne not to the Catholike Church how great Euen the giuing al in alms and suffering death for the name of Christ wil not deliuer an heretique from damnation Almes soeuer he distribute yea and though he shed his bloud for the name of Christ he can by no meanes be saued For neither Baptisme nor most liberall almes nor death endured for the name of Christ can auaile any man to saluation who holdeth not fast the vnity of the Catholike Church and so long as any How small soeuer that be hereticall or schismaticall iniquity which leadeth men to destruction remayneth in him These are they amongst many others whome God hath giuen to his Church as lightes whereby all good Christians may be guided towardes their saluation and take heed thou be not so miserable as to follow any ignis fatuus insteed of them for thy error in this life will import thee no lesse then thy eternall damnation in the next FAVLTS escaped in the Printing Page Line Fault Correction â—… 10. intention attention â—… vlt. fo of â—… 1. interiourly exteriourly â—… 12. he is to make deleatur he â—…9 10 vnanswerable vnanswerably â—… 3. to friend to that friend â—… 13. and for zeale and zeale of â—… 1. whither wither â—… 7. for thus for this â—…8 13. infinity infinite â—…9 13. guifts gusts â—… 14. Sathan that deleatur that â—… 16. is infinite is an infinite â—…1 10. is hauing is their hauing â—bid 11. then being their being â—…0 7. by all by ill â—…3 17. my pennance deleatur my