support euil smells that to enter into a Hospitall makes them swoone And yet what is all this in comparison of the infamous exhalation of this gulfe of horrour of which we speake Alas Athanasia LAZARVS his sisters though verie affectionate to their brother could not endure that IESVS CHRIST should cause his graue to be opened by reason of the stinch which they apprehended would issue out of it albeit he were but dead for the space of foure dayes O infernall Caue without all vent or breathing hole receptacle of filth and dunge eternall graue of such as die continually and yet cannot die with what abominable filth art thou not filled you daintie offenders who liue onely amidst parfumes and Roses who are dayly loaden with all the Parfumers drouges then it is that in steede of sweete odours you shall rott in execrable smells for punishment of that that by your euil exemple you were in your life tyme an odour of death to death and not an odour of life to life and a good odour in IESVS CHRIST as pious people are Then shall be said of you that which a Prophete pronounced of Israel in Captiuitie those that were clad in purple and imbaulmed with parfumes haue imbraced dunghills With what afflictions shall not their taste be tormented For besids the gale of dragons wherof the scripture saith they shall drinke and the bread of greife which shall be their comon foode a continuall hungar and thirst shall terribly tyrannise ouer them They shall endure the hungar of mad-dogges saith the Psalmist And as touching the thirst which the burning heate of the reuengefull flame shall cause in them the storie of the wicked Rich-man doth furnish vs with an authenticall proofe Iust iudgment of God vpon those who in their life tyme cramd themselues with the worlds fayding delightes crowning themselues with roses and spoyling all the floures of the meades of pleasures All the most horrible famine that Scripture and histories propose vnto vs are but weake pictures to that which the damned shall suffer in this vnfortunate Residence of eternall miseries The paine of the sense of touching XXVI THe sense of touching the grossest of all the rest yet the furthest extended affording more hold to miserie in my opinion shall be more afflicted then the rest and the subiect vpon which the most cruell punishments shall be exercised Yes Athanasia for all the torments which the Scripture doth propose vnto vs as prepared for those which by the diuine Iustice shall be cast into the darke Dungeon of that eternall Gaole seeme to fall vpon this onely sense They shall passe saith IOB from snowie waters that is from the extremitie of cold to intollerable heates Whole floodes of fire and brimstone shall shewre downe vpon those vnfortunate wretches and againe a part of their chalice shall be fire hale snow ice and the boysterous blast of tempestes You see that all this belongs to the sense of touching And indeede this eternall fire whither the reprobate shall be condemned by the last sentence and this Pond of fire and brimstone whither they shall be cast headlōg shall worke principally vpon this Sense The hatchet is alreadie put to the roote of the tree said the forerunner of Messias and that which shall yeald no fruit shall be cut downe and cast into the fire He hath alreadie taken the vanne into his hand put into it the corne and chaffe being resolued to separate them and reserueing the one for his Granarie to cast the other into a fire which shall neuer be quenched And if amongst the torments which humaine Iustice hath inuented for the punishment of crimes there is none held more rigorous then that of fire by reason of the great actiuitie of this element what shall the heate of that fire be which shall be the executioner of the Iustice of the God of vēgeance whose Zeale shall be inflamed against the wicked and shall kindle the fire which shall eternally burne in the extremities of Hell as MOYSES doth expresse it The Contemplatiues striue to persuade vs that the materiall fire which we experience here below is but as a painted fire in respect of that whose flame doth cause a horrible combustion saith EZECHIEL which shall neuer be extinguished The Reprobate saith S. IOHN shall drinke the wine of Gods wroth and shall be tormented with fire and brimstone and the smoake of his torment shall assend for euer and euer that is shall neuer end And here it is ô my dearest soule to purge thee from the rouste of thyne iniquities and to make thee absolutely and for euer renounce sinne an accursed cause of so horrible an effect that I must brand thee with a wholsome marke and make the descende in thought into those disasterous flames asking thee with the Prophete ISAYE whether thou art able to liue in this deuoureing fire and whether thou wilt make choyce of thy habitation in eternall flames I must vrge thee vpon this point ô my soule and without vsing distinctions or euasions without all exceptions thou must answere my demand This fire is prepared for the Diuel and his reuoulted Angells saith the holy Euangilist consider whether thou will enter into this accursed crue and take part of the dreggs of their chalice There is noe meane either must sinne be forsaken or thou thy selfe be giuen vp a prey to this eternall torment It is long since this sentence was pronounced which teacheth vs that we are either to doe pennāce in this life or eternally to burne in the next To auoyde these straytes and slipe away to the right or left hand is impossible Heauen and earth shall passe but the words of truth shall neuer passe If thou be not altogether blind and if the light of reason be yet with thee I doubt not but thou wilt make a happie choyce and to escape so dangerous a gulfe thou wilt cast thy selfe into the armes of grace and Diuine mercy which admites onely the penitent and repentant prodigalls goe then my deare soule vpon this thy holy resolution and begge of the Diuine clemencie that he would finishe his worke in thee and that he would bestow grace vpon thee to accomplish that which it hath made thee will and begin For vnlesse God build in vaine doth a man goe about to build and all that is not established vpon the fundation of his assistance cannot choose but be ruinous A sith to God XXVII O Great God who art a consuming fire whose words are fire and as a hammer brusing the hardest stones Who appeares in the burning bush when thou wilt giue a law of terrour and dreade vnto the world and sends that of loue in firie tongues whose Zeale is as burning as fire and whose lampes are fire and flames whose iealousie is strong as death and hard as Hell Who makes the fire of thy Diuine Iustice issue from amōgst the thornes to destroy the tallest Cedars of Libanus who kindlest the reprobate as coles with
the fire which proceedes from thyne irritated face Who continues the furnace where they are plunged in its wounted heate by the torrent of burning brimstone which flowes from the face of thy iust indignation O God of reuenge let this thought make so liuely an impression in our â—magination that we may be therby roused out of the lethargie of pleasures concupiscence and wordly ambition which keepe vs asleepe Let the fire which walkes before thee as executioner of thy terrible Iustice and which doth consume thyne enemyes to witt the reprobate neuer depart from our memorie may it be vnto vs a torch and pillar of light in the darknesse of the world and our errours a Lampe to our feete and a light to our wayes wherby we may discouer the gulfe which will swallow vs vp vnlesse we prohibite the feete of our affections to follow wicked wayes and command them to walke in the wayes of thy law Thou ô Lord who didst deliuer the three children out of the Babilonian furnace a figure of that wherin the reprobate burne for euer preserue vs from those abominable flames where thou art continually blasphemed and exempting vs from the sharpe and burning ones of thy wroth place vs in the light and bright ones of thy loue where like Pyralides and sacred Salemanders we shall liue happie without paine or consummation singing honour praise and benediction vnto thee for the Canticle of our deliuerance Of interiour paines XXVIII LEt vs now come Athanasia to the consideration of interiour paines And let vs iudge of the torments of the soule as well by the aduantages which it hath ouer the bodie as by the large share it hath in the malice of sinne which is consummated in the will If a Stoicall philosopher had light enough to discerne that euery disordered mynd is its owne TormeÌ„ter what a torture shall the reprobate find in their owne hearts in this accursed place of disorder which is replenished with the horrour of an eternall confusion There their vnderstanding shall be darkned with cloudes because they shall be ouertaken with a night of obscuritie and be couered with the thicke shades of death I will omitt the subtile schowle questions whether they shall be intangled in errours and ignorances wherof those accursed inhabitaÌ„ts of that black prison seeme to complaine in the booke of wisdome when they say that the Sunne of vnderstanding doth not enlighten them Vpon this subiect I will onely stike to that vndoubled truth which teacheth vs that they are fallen for euer into a reprobate sense which causeth their will still following that which the vnderstanding proposeth vnto it being bent to vice like a crooked bowe as the Psalmist tearmes it to hate God with an implacable and extreame hatred But if some subtile disputant goe about to teach vs that since the will cannot hate Good which is its proper obiect it is impossible that it should coÌ„ceaue a true hatred against God who is the soueraigne good we will answere him with the Angelicall S. THOMAS that the damned doe not hate God in himselfe because they know him not such as he is as doe the Blessed who by reason of that knowledge cannot leaue to loue him but onely in his workes for the vnderstanding of the damned conceauing God as Authour of the torments they endure causeth their will to be incensed against him with a mortall and raging hatred And wheras nor God nor the payne which they suffer can cease to bee their courrage ceaseth not and their will is continually tortured with this vnsufferable auersion Their memorie also shall haue its peculiar tormeÌ„t for if the blessed in Heauen reioyce in the labours reproaches which they endured for the loue of God and that through the fire and water of tribulations they are entred into rest the memorie of pleasures past shall be an extreame torment to the reprobate when they call to mynd that for those transitorie moments they are fallen into pinching and endlesse paines They shall roare out with ESAV to haue sold their heauenly inheritance for a mease of potage For comparing in their mynd pleasures past with those that are eternall and apprehending the approach of torments whose cruell panges they feele will not this memorie thinke you draw vpon them an insupportable affliction With what Phantomes and monsterous imaginations shall their fantisie be tortured Frame a iudgement of it by that which happens to such as in this life finding themselues guiltie of greeuious crimes feare to fall into temporall Iustice They may indeede sometymes be in a secure place but neuer in securitie They may be hid from the eyes of men and be placed out of their reach but neuer shall they be able to hide themselues from themselues or escape the assault of their owne conscience While they wake they are vexed with feares and suspicions their sleepe is interrupted with wicked dreames dreade doth still haunt them at each ones approach they quake with feare and the Furies hauing seased vpoÌ„ them grant them nether Peace nor Truce their dissipated thoughts put their hearts vpon the Racke Now if the apprehension of humane Iustice which hath power onely ouer the bodie giue so daunting Alarumes to the imagination what will the sense of the dartes of the Diuine Iustice doe which are so many vessells of death and burning arrowes shot at the damned soule But who can expresse the strange Chaos and horrible confusion which shall inhabite the inferiour appetite of the lost crue For if all the disorder of mans life spring from his passions which as blustering blastes are shut vp in the two caues Concupiscible and irascible what disorder iudge you must those wretched soules needs feele in that part what contradictions in themselues what conuulsions what rage what furie Alas that noble passion LOVE Queene of all the rest the Sunne and salt of life that passion which might haue made them happie for euer if they had turned it towards God that soueraignely amiable obiect being as it were razed out of them the perpetuall auersion they haue to loue shall afflict them as the panges of a woman in childbirth who cannot yet be deliuered S. CATHERINE OF SIENNA being vpon a day present while a possessed person was exorcised the Diuel being commanded to declare his name he answered with a hideous how leing I am the accursed DEPRIVED-OF-LOVE At which the Sainte was so moued that she thought she should haue fallen downe in a Traunce Touching the passion of hatred it shall be outragious in the daÌ„ned whence shall proceede their continuall blasphemies against God and the perpetuall maledictions and imprecations which they shall make against the creatures And if they haue any Desires they shall be execrable ones to see all the world partakers of their paynes not that they are at all solaced therby but onely to giue way to the incredible malice of which they are full Their auersion from all good shall be as much tormenting as in
state needs be which doth separate a soule for euer from its true principle which is God without all hope of returne O rebellious Absalomes for an Eternitie you shall be banished from the Court of this heauenly Father who doth no longer accnowledge you for his children Prodigalls that you are who by your reuoults and deboistnesse haue dissipated the substaÌ„ces of this eternall Fathers grace then shall there be no more tyme of repentance left for you and in this perpetuall separation from his face you shall remayne for an Eternitie in that forraine land couered with the shadow of death because you did wilfully separate your selues from the Authour of life God will reiect you eternally eternally shall you be depriued of the light of his countenance and of the light of that glorie which is the part and portion of the Blessed For euer shall you lament the losse of this priselesse treasure as Michol speÌ„t teares and could not be comforted for the losse of her Gods You shall sob but in vaine in vaine shall you moane the losse of the God of Gods whose deare presence had as throughly replenished you with happinesse as his absence doth oppresse you with disaster The continuall greife XXXI THe geife of this so irreparable a losse shall be so bitter in those wretches that we may count it Athanasia for one of their greatest torments For when they begin once to consider what they are and what they might haue bene and for what dolours they haue changed the inconceaueable felicities which were prepared for them in the sight of God the fruitlesse repentance of their follie will so vexe them that thence shall spring those teares those gnashings of teeth and those groanings which the scriptures doe allote theÌ„ Thence that immortall worme which incessantly shall gnaw them mentioned by ISAY a worme which S. THOMAS and all the Doctors hold to be spirituall not corporall and that it consisteth onely in a perpetuall repentance and remorse of coÌ„science which shall sting them no otherwise then wormes are wont to gnaw the bodies in which they are bred and fedd For this greife rysing from the remembrance of their sinne which is the cause of all their euils and of so deplorable a priuation of the sight of God shall liue coÌ„tinually in their memorie and shall cause a sharper remorse in them then all their other tortures When they shall call to mynd so many secreete inspirations so many exteriour exhortations so many interiour motions which they had felt to reclayme them from their wicked wayes when they shall reflect vpon tyme mispent and lost which they might haue made vse of for their conuersion and for the redeeming of their vnfortunately spent dayes When they shall represent vnto their thoughts how often they were warned to forsake the wayes of sinners and not to sitt in the chaire of pestilence to which they turnd a deafe eare and would not vnderstand welldoing And when they shall come to contemplate the vnfortunate estate to which the contempt of so many remonstrances shall haue reduced them together with their negligeÌ„ce in not making vse of occasions past which will neuer more present themselues vnto them ô God! with how fruitlesse an abomination of their crimes and with how furious and mad an indignation shall they be transported But lets rather heare them in their owne words expresst by the holy Ghost in the booke of wisdome where he brings them in speaking in this sort We haue strayed and wandred from the wayes of truth nor haue we bene enlightened with the light of Iustice. The Sunne of vnderstanding hath not cast his beames vpon vs where you are to note by the way that these children of the Diuell speake thus following their Father's spirit which is the spirit of Lies since sufficient grace to be saued and necessarie light to descerne what is good is denyed no man God desiring that all should be saued and should come to the knowledge of truth But let vs heare the continuation of those vniuste plaintes We gaue our selues ouer to the wayes of iniquitie and to the pathes of our ruine we haue wandered in painefull wayes being ignorant of the pathes of our Lord. Here you see how they mixe cokle with the good corne wheate with Chaffe I meane they mixe truth with falsities putting darknesse for light For true it is the way of vice is painefull and loathsome and to speake with the Prophete it is besett with thornes but it is most false to affirme that they knew not the Diuine pleasure since the light of nature and the light of Faith MOYSES and the Prophetes doe more then sufficiently point it out wherin they offend doublely in seeking to excuse their sinnes and become so much more lyable to punishment that hauing knowen the will of their great maister they did it not Let vs closely follow the grones of the reprobate and see how the Racke compells them at length to confesse the truth what hath pride profited vs what aduantage haue we gotten by the vanitie of riches all that is past as a shadow as a Poste that rides at full speede as a shippe sayling on the sea vnder full sayles leauing behind her no markes of her passage as a bird swinning in the ayre whose trace is not found as an arrow which flying cutts the ayre and the ayre presently reunites it selfe So haue our dayes run by without leauing any marke of vertue we haue spent in malice all the Tyme which was liberally bestowed vpon vs to worke our saluation in feare and trembling We haue past the course of our age in apparences and in the vanities and false follies of the world and in an instant we are fallen into Hell In this sort doe those wretches gnawen with a continuall sorrow vnprofitably repent them selues and grone vnder the pressure and affliction of heart which is the Hell of their Hell How did the Egiptians thinke you greeue who contemned IOSEPHES counsell to make their prouision of corne during the seaueÌ„ yeares of plentie which were so abundant that wheate was no more esteemed then sand while during those others of famine they were constrayned to giue the most precious things they had yea euen their â—owne libertie least famine might driue their soules out of their bodies What a liuely sense of greife shall they be touched withall while they shall consider that their former abundance caused in them many offences and that their present want is the punishment of the same offences but especially when they shall see PHARAO made Maister of all their goodes as well moueable as immoueable and that of his simple subiectes they are become his slaues O how heartily they would haue wished that they had giuen credit to the good IOSEPHES prophicies who aduised them to be myndfull in their plentie of the hard tyme to come and to make good prouision in tyme of harnest while their granaries and Cellers ouerflowed on euery side But how light
is this temporall miserie if it be compared to the eternall sorrow which shall torment the reprobate aduertised by so many remonstrances as well by writing as by word of mouth which bett vpon their eyes and eares and made them inexcusable in not hauing redeemed lost tyme and in hauing by the hardnesse and inpenitence of their heart heaped vp a treasure of anger in the day of our Lords anger What a remorse shall they feele to see that their wounds waxe old in the face of their imprudence And that while they might haue purchased an eternall and priselesse felicitie for a glasse of cold water giuen in the loue and for the loue of God yea haue borne away the crowne of glorie by naturall and necessarie actions being done in grace with conformitie to Gods will at so easie a rate doth the supreame Goodnesse sell heauen and that these truthes were so frequently proposed vnto them by the Ghospell and the preachers therof who as trumpets made them resound in their eares they not being moued with all this lesse sensible then the walls of Hierico who fell at the sound of the prestly trumpett What a heart-breake it shall be vnto them to thinke how litle they inioyed and for how litle a space they possessed the same what benefits they haue lost from how faire aduātages they are fallen how litle was demanded at their hands for a priselesse glorie together with the torments passing conceit which they shall endure without all hope of end To speake the truth as there is no head so strong that turnes not nor body so stiddie that shakes not at the aspect of a deepe descent so me thinkes there is no braine that is not troubled by bending its attētion towards the eternall sorrow which shall incessantly gnaw vpon those miserable catiues The Eternitie of the torments of Hell XXXII BVt when all is done Athanasia reason must render the Ghost and humane wisdome must be drunk vp in the consideration of the Eternitie of those paines which we haue set out in weake colours For if those torments how euer great how euer long were to haue end yet hope would in habite the bottome of Pandoras bote nor should this hope be voyd of some sparke of consolation But alas in saying neuer we say a terme without terme and which for the tyme to come shall continue as long as God shall be God The Reprobate saith the sacred texte shall be forsaken of God eternally Eternally shall God be angrie with them and that without reconcilement This Abisse neuer renders any thing it once swallowes vp the soules that are once cast headlong thither neuer returne Out of that Gaole there is no redemption There no thoughts of God but such as are blasphemous no praise is rendred him in that accursed dungeon The flame of the Babilonian furnace burnt 49. handfulls high but could neuer rayse it selfe to the fiftith a number of IOVBILIE and Pardon as figure of that wherof we speake where there is no remission of sinnes There saith the Psalmist are the damned deuoured of death no otherwise then sheepe doe grase for as the grasse putts vp againe vnder the sheepes nibling tooth so shall the reprobate be continually struke with the sting of a liuing death and still as they shall be deuoured by it they shall reuiue to new punishments wherin the truth of that shall be seene which the Poetes did onely fabulously relate of the liuer still renewed as by the vultour it was deuoured The wicked saith the holy Ghospell shall be cast into the fire and they burne in steed of saying they shall burne A wonderfull speech which by a present tense in lieu of a future doth represent the Eternitie of this endlesse torment For after a thousand ages as many milliōs as cētenaries of million of millions one may still affirme of these accursed soules they burne while incessantly they pay the reuenew of a rent whose principale they shall neuer extinguish No for Eternitie being a perpetuall To-day and a continuance remayning still in the same beeing how can that run by which stands still in the same state And if there be any thing new it shall be the Canticles of ioy which shall continually be new in the blissed Eternitie In the accursed the reprobate shall suffer and dayly shall attend new sufferances and their sense still liuely shall neuer be hardened therby Their being accustomed to endure shall not make their tormēt lighter or lesse insupportable Whateuer euer calamities we suffer in this life be they neuer so great and greuious they dure onely for a tyme saith the Prophete DANIEL but to the damned tyme shall not be Le ts call to mynd saith S. PACION that in Hell there is no place left for repentance For the tyme therof is past Happie is he who by a good confession foreruns the face of the Iudge iustly irritated with our crymes who doth promptly performe all the good in this world which his hand is able to worke And who doth well in euery thing while in this life precious tyme is lent him For now it is the houre to rise from the sleepe of the death of sinne for our saluation or dānation are neerer then we beleeue But will it please you Athanasia that to giue life to this Draught we may borrow from this subiect of the Eternitie of those paynes the colours of some excellent pincell of antiquitie Heare S. AVGVSTINE then or rather see how he setts out this eternall miserie in its colours As for the accursed soules saith he their death is without death their end without end their tearme without tearme For their death shall be still liuing their end shall still be begining and their tearme shall neuer expire Death shall stifle without killing them The Torture shall bruse without distroying them The flame shall burne them without affording light at all for this fire shall be darke and horrour shall inhabit this darknesse and darknesse shall increase the torment of the flame Thus shall they be sett vpon with the sense of dolour and horrour incessantly suffering and dreading S. GREGORIE the GREAT almost in the same aire giues vs assurance of the Eternitie of paines In this torture of the reprobate saith he death is immortall and end endlesse Because death liues there continually and continually the end begins anew Where be now saith S. BERNARD the children of the flesh the louers of the world whose conuersation in earth was amongst vanities and delightes what haue we left of them but corruption and a most distastefull memorie They had a life of it in the earth they eate and drunke delicately they liued at their ease and in an instante they descended into Hell Their flesh in earth serues onely now for wormes-meate and their soule burnes in eternall flames For what did their glorie and vanitie serue them what benefit did they reape of their transitorie ioyes what aduantage did their great powre bringe them say what
be I pray you continually to ly extended vpon inconceaueably hote burning coales and amongst execrable stinches and all the torments that can be imagined without repose without intermission without coÌ„fort without hope and without release for a whole Eternitie O you that are deafe saith ISAYE harke ô you blind behold But who is blind but he that is slaue to sinne who is deafe but he that is made slaue to his vices And thou who seest so many things seest thou not this And thou that hast thyne eares open hearest thou not this But alas how many are there in the world who haue eyes but not to see and eares but not to vnderstand truthes so manifest O Lord thou who dost euery thing so well who makest the blind see and the deafe heare open the eyes and eares of those whom the vanities and filth of the world doe make blind and deafe To th end that those that doe run to their ruine and doe precipitate themselues into horrible misfortunes for want of foreseeing theÌ„ may by the feare of thy iudgments reclaime their footsteps from those so slipperie wayes O God who is able to relate the powre of thy wroth and to know without amaysement the effectes of thyne indignation ô how horrible a thing it is to fall into the hands of the liuing God! hands so heauie that IOB being onely touched with the tippe of one of the fingars therof and that for a smale space too inuites all creatures to take pittie of him ô how burdensome and insuportable are they to the reprobate Whether it were better for the damned not to bee XXXV FOrme a iudgment of it out of this consideration Athanasia that without respite they search after death and it comes not they shall wish for it and it shall fly from them VpoÌ„ which the Deuines moue a fine questioÌ„ to witt whether it were not better for the damned to bee no more or neuer to haue bene at all then to subsiste without anihilation amidst so many liuing deathes To which the Angell of the schowle S. THOMAS makes answeare with no lesse subtilitie then soliditie that the non-esse being considered purely in it selfe is the euil of euils and the most miserable condition imaginable and that thus it cannot in generall be desired But being taken as deliuering vs from a beeing accompained with all sorts of miseries and as it is a priuation of so many calamities it may be wished for of those who are in so deplorable a state Whence it is said in the Ghospell of that reprobate which betrayed the sonne of man and who through despaire hanging himselfe was burst in the midst It had bene better for this man that he had neuer bene And IOB in the extreamitie of his afflictions curseing the day of his birth wished that he had neuer bone S. AVGVSTINE confirmes this opinion when he saith The wicked and impious persons that are plunged in eternall fires shall liue in despite of themselues for they would be glad if it were in their powre to end so accursed a life but none will oblige them with the benefit of such a death as would make them senselesse of their paines And againe the Scripture daignes not this continuall sufferance with the name of life for to be continually in such extreame torments seemes not so much to be a life as a perpetuall death Whervpon in Sacred writt this damnation is called a seconde death to distinguish it from the first wher vnto all that are vpon the face of the earth are lyable And albeit it be called death yet is none extinguished therby for to liue in continuall torment is not to liue but to dic The same Doctor in another passage saith to the same pourpose If the damned soules liue in those eternall paines where the vncleane spirits aâ— tormented they are rather to be said tâ—dy then liue and that eternally Foâ— there is no worse nor more dreadfâ—â— death then when death cannot dyâ— Pope INNOCENTIVS giues authoritie to that beleife in these tearmes Then speaking of the accurseâ— Eternitie death shall be immortall 〈◊〉 death how much more sweete should thou be if thou didst extinguish so dolorous a life then to constraine one tâ— liue in such hellish torments and which is yet worse torments of so long continuance I for the number of yeares in Hell is numberlesse The last yeare of those punishments shall neuer arriue After a thousand million of yeares there will remayne as many againe to be counted and those also being sommed vp we are to begin anew againe CAIN after fiue thousand yeares of a liuing death is as in the first day of his tortures and after a thousand million â—f million of yeares he shall begin â—new to suffer And though the â—icked richman hath thirsted two â—â—ousand yeares in the flames which â—oe burne but not consume him he 〈◊〉 yet to expect and shall expect for â—ternitie one droppe of refreshing â—â—ater which shall for euer be deâ—yed him When humane iustice â—oth adiudge a criminall to exquiâ—te tortures for some great and â—â—ormious crimes to dy is reputed a â—uour since by that meanes he is â—eed from the cruell tormeÌ„ts which â—reife doth imprint in his body But 〈◊〉 the Diuine iustice which is exeâ—uted in Hell there is no stroke faâ—orable where one is to languish â—or euer in a death which cannot â—ie Which is a Hell in Hell worse â—hen a thousand Hells Why there paines are eternall XXXVI BVt le ts withdraw our view Athanasia from so horrible spectacle whose topp is Eternitie And let vs put the last fingaâ— to this draught all red with flames with the reason which Deuines giue of the Eternitie of those paynes Iâ— there any thing more conformable to the Diuine Iustice say they theâ— to punish those eternally who foâ— loosse pleasures vanities and transitorie toyes haue contemned thâ— torrent of eternall delightes glorie riches since that by the rule of equitie the punishment is to haue proportion with the fault Further adâ— they he that dyes in mortall sinne renouncing grace which is as thâ— Herbingar and Porter of Glorie iâ—surprised by death in a state of sâ—peruerted a sense and in such an auersion from God that it is credible that if he had liued for euer he had still persisted in his malice and had bene buried in euil dayes in so much that by loosing his life he did not for all that loose his will to offend which makes him perish in his reprobation and makes him worthy of an Eternitie of paines Againe seemes it not reasonable that he should be punished in Gods great Eternitie who hath offend God in the litle Eternitie of his life Let vs add to this that all which is in God being God himselfe because he is all beeing all essence all substance without accidents and consequeÌ„tly his iustice being equall with his mercy if he reward a cup of cold water giuen in his grace and for his loue with an Eternitie
Yet the Saints who are in glorie whose faces are marked with his splendour and doe shine like the Sunne for perpetuall eternities are yet incomparably more liuely pictures of the Diuinitie For euen as the Sunne meeting with a thicke and darksome cloude in the aire doth sometymes so deeply imprint its beames vpon its face that it appeares another Sunne so are the Blessed in Heauen so transformed into God that they shewe as so many Gods and as so many dearest children of the Highest as DAVID deliuers it This excellent beautie with which the Diuine presence doth adorne them was cause that S. IOHN espying an Angell whom he tooke for God had adored him if that spirit no lesse humble then glorious bright had not giuen him to know that he was his fellow-seruant And in my opinion in this neere resemblance to God the verie toppe of the eternall glorie of the blessed is placed For what thinke you is God's owne glorie and felicitie but the life which he hath eternally of him selfe the most cleare knowledge which he hath of his immutable Truth and the most ardēt loue which he hath towards his owne infinite Goodnes His Beatitude consisting in the vision loue and fruition which the Diuine and increated Persons of the Blessed Trinitie haue of their owne mutuall knowledge Loue and eternall perfect and infinite complacence Now the soule of the Blessed being raysed to the vision loue and fruition of the same Diuine Persōs and of their Diuine and most indiuisible Essēce ought not her supernaturall and inineffable life by the resemblance which is betwixt her and God's felicitie to be said to be the accomplishment of her glorie since that without all feare of change she is wholy attentiue to the cleare contemplation of the prime and soueraigne Truth inflamed with the loue of the supreme and increated goodnes and hath the fruition of the infinite and vnspeakable sweetnes of God O truly liuing and happie life when shall it be that we shall liue in thee and by thee when shall we ô my soule inhabite this heauenly Hierusalem built as a Citie and with her glorious Citizens be made participant of him who is still himselfe immutable and whose yeares neuer decay Of the felicitie of the powres of the soule and first of the memorie XLV THis essentiall Beatitude Athanasia is extended and doth spread it selfe out yet diuersly in the lower degree of the soule to witt there wherin the three principall faculties or powres doe reside For euen as the Prophete to rayse the widowes deade child did shorten himselfe vpon this litle body and did apply his mouth to its mouth his hands to its hands and his feete to its feete So God who shall be all to all shall fill all the soule with the abundance of his bountie and shall cōmunicate vnto it a Diuine life which shall not feare the assaultes of death The memorie being entered into the liberties of our Lord shall call to mynd the effectes of his iustice and no lesse those of his mercy for she shall sing no neuer will I forgett thy iustifications ô Lord since in them thou hast giuen me life Fild with this rauishing and no lesse pressing then present obiect she shall breath out the remembrance of his sweetnes and shall exalt his adorable iudgements This remembrance shall be her soueraigne delight O how she shall call to mynd the sweetnes of the duggs of this incomparable goodnes farr passing the fuming wines of worldly delightes In how high a strayne shall she take the memorie of this supreme sanctitie Alas how can she forget him whom she hath so inwardly present and who shall be more in her then her selfe and to whom she shall be so strongly tyed in adauantine and diamantine chaynes that nothing shall euer be able to diuerte her Blessed memorie replenisht with the fairest Idea's that can possibly inhabit a heart and which then shall be a Magazine and memoriall of heauenly wonders whether she make reflection vpon things past how dearely shall she conserue the memorie of the incomparable obligations which she shall haue to this Creatour Conseruer Redeemour and Glorifier of her beeing Such as grace shall haue led from greatest sinns to repentance fauours before bounding where malice did superabound ô God! how highly shall they sing the sacred Canticle of the Diuine mercy And those who by the same grace shall haue conserued the first stole of their innocencie and being preserued from the abomination of desolation whose deluge doth ouerflowe the whole vniuerse shall haue bene drawen to the safe harbour of saluation by the chaynes of loue and humanitie will not they haue reason to beare a part in the fame Canticle and to pronounce that that mercy which conserued them vnstayned amidest the worlds impurities is a portion of that which is eternally grounded and built in Heauē The royall Prophete calling to mynd out of what an Abisse of miseries the Diuine goodnes had reclaymed him recalling him so sweetly to the accnowledgment of his faults coniures his soule and all his interiour powres to blesse God exciting his memorie neuer to permitt his benefites to fall into a disloyall obliuion for he it is that pardons saith he all thyne infirmities who cures all thy wounds who recouers thee from eternall death and who crownes thee with his mercyes O God what must this King of penitents needs say in heauen if he spoke thus in this vaile of teares reduced by a holy repentance from his iniquities to the state of grace When the Saintes whom God hath pardoned many faultes for there are in Heauē penitent sinners of all kinds shall see them selues deliuered from the innumberable torments which they contemplate in the accursed Eternitie and which they had as oft deserued as by their malice they had bene separated from God will they not haue great reason to say with the Psalmist Thy mercy ô Lord and thy iustice shall for euer be the subiect of our song vpon this shall our Psalme-singing be imployed whilst we walke in this immaculate way in which thou hast put vs. And if the memorie of paynes and perills past euen in this world be so delightfull how much more shall the Saintes and martyrs who haue suffered much for the Almighties sake haue cause to reioyce in this memorie While they walked in the way of this mortall life they sowed in teares but in the heauenly Sion they shall reape an eternall ioy They shall sing this pleasant Song We haue past through fire and water but in the end we are entred into refreshment And they shall blesse those light and transitorie moments of tribulation which brought them to eternall glorie And if their memorie doe stay vpon the present felicitie which they feele and of which they haue a liuely sense with what contentment shall they not be crowned in tasting the ineffable goodnes of God who rewards them infinitely beyond their merits Yea if they enlarge themselues vpon the
said to be eternall and death to be defeated for euer as also the fire which shall torment the damned is named eternall it is also cleare in right reason that Beatitude which is a sufficient good or rather the collection of all good would not be compleat vnlesse it did exclude all euil and miserie especially the miserie of miseries which is death or annihilation For take away the perpetuitie of the life of the Blessed and they would be afflicted with a continuall sorrow for the losse of the beloued felicitie and a most distastefull bitternesse would disturbe the sweetnesse of the peaceable fruition Adde that Beatitude cannot be imperfect on the part of the Obiect which is God all whose workes are perfect and his guiftes without repentance which he neuer reuokes but for sinne which can neuer haue accesse to the Blessed cōfirmed in grace by Glorie And vnchangeably vnited to God whose nature is goodnesse his workes mercy And who can nether will nor can abide iniquitie Againe that word of our Sauiours to his Disciples is an Oracle of infallible truth and a promisse which shall remayne for euer Your ioy saith he shall not be taken from you God's seruants the Elect shall adore him in beholding his face and they shall raigne for euer and euer that is eternally saith S. IOHN in his Reuelations And S. BERNARD explicating that of the Psalmist I will fill my friends with the length of dayes and will shew them my SALVATION what is longer saith he then that which is eternall what continuance more longe then that which hath no end O how good an end is eternall life how good is that end which is infinite How faire is the day which hath no Sunne-setting nor is followed out by night and what is this day but the eternall VERITIE the true ETERNITIE O Societie of the Blessed eternally true and truely eternall those are they onely who may be truly said to be liuing and enioying a life truely long in heauē which knowes no end as they are truely dead and that of a long death who continually die in Hell where they continually liue without tasteing the fruite of life S. BERNARD's meditation shall make way to S. AVCVSTINE's touching the Eternitie of that blessed life O life saith he which God hath prepared for his friēds thou art a life full of happinesse crowned with assurance a quiete life and excellent life a pure life a chaste life a holy life a life that knowes no death a life without sorrow without labour without greife without vexation without corruption without varietie or chāge a life adorned with euerie beautie accomplished with honour a life that is not laboured with enuie nor subiect to anger where Loue raignes in its perfection and from whence feare is banished where the day is eternall and the hearts of all is but one where God is seene face to face and this vision is foode to those that behold him with an ardent affection O how thy shineing brightnes doth delight me and how aggreable are thy felicities to the desires of my heart The more I consider thee the more I loue thee I swoone with desire in contemplating thee yet that desire insteede of afflicting me affords me an extreame content and thy memorie is more sweete vnto mee then the honie-combe O happie life ô Empire of eternall felicitie where death hath no iurisdiction which shall neuer haue end Where the succession of tyme hath no raigne nor vicissitude where the day hath no night where change can get no footing where the victorious Champion accōpaigned with the troopes of Angells his heade being enuironed with a crowne of glorie incessantly sings to God the Song of the heauenly Sion How happie shall my soule be if after her departure out of this mortall pilgrinage she may haue the happines to see thee and to contemplate thy beautie thy walls thy gates thy Pallaces thy places thy noble citizēs and thyne omnipotent King seated in his admirable Throne of Maiestie Thy walls are built of pretious stones of an inestimable value thy Gates are inriched with peerlesse gemmes Thy streetes are paued with purest gold and in them the Diuine prayses doe continually resound Thy houses are made of fouresquare stones beautified with Saphires wrought with vinebranches and grapes of gold None enters within thy confines who are not pure for all that is defiled is repulsed The light which doth enlighten thee is nether from Lampe nor torch nor Sunne Moone nor starrs it is God alone proceeding from God that light which doth spring from light who is thyne eternall and vniuersall light The King of Kings resides continually in the midst of thee waited vpon with a numberlesse number of Courtiers and Officiers more resplendant then the lightning more bright then the flame Will you yet further giue eare to the same Sainte heare then what he saith of that liuely Eternitie that eternall life The wicked saith he shall goe into eternall fires but the iuste into eternall felicities That is the eternall life which is promised vs. And wheras men take no greater content here below then to liue behold how life is promised them and wheras they dread nothing so much as death see how an Eternitie of life is proposed vnto them What dost thou loue ô man To liue Thou shall enioy this great benefit What dost thou feare To dy Thou shalt be exempt from it Yet is it not all to liue long to liue for euer but the toppe of felicitie is to liue happie for euer What can we add to this Oracle of truth deliuered in so good tearmes by that incomparable witt but fruitlesse words in a subiect so fruitfull that the abundance therof doth oppresse him that handles it Meanes wherby to arriue at this happie Eternitie LXV BVt we are rather Athanasia to search out the meanes to attaine to this great happinesse then to enlarge our selues vpon curiosities to know it or loose our selues in the admiration therof since it is written that not all that shall say Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heauen but those that doe the will of our Lord that is such as shall liue according to his law and shall make force against his holy citie Dost thou desire to enter into true life said our Sauiour to the young man who asked his counsell which way he was to hold keepe the Commandements Of all the wayes which are taught vs by the holy scripture and the writings of Doctors to worke our saluation in feare and trembling I will onely touch two which next vnto God's grace without which we are able to doe nothing I find verie necessarie The Philosopher Epictetes made all his philosophicall Precepts turne vpon these two poles or pinnes SVSTAYNE and ABSTAYNE I am persuaded that all morall Christianitie may turne vpon the same pinnes The one doth teach vs to suffer difficulties labours paines the other the perfect contempt of worldly vanities pleasures and riches If we
haue these two winges nothing shall be able to hinder our flight towards the blessed Eternitie the heauēly Hierusalem the mother of the liuing Water shut vp in a narrow pipe doth spirte vp so much the higher The narrow way of sufferances is that which doth make spring vp in vs the fountaine of life which doth run towards Eternitie All the scripture cryes out this truth vnto vs who so euer will come after me to witt to glorie let him take vp his Crosse and follow me saith our Sauiour Happie is he who suffers tribulation for being once tryed he shall receaue the crowne of life which God hath promised to those that loue him And who are those that loue him but whom he doth chastise and whom he doth clothe with the liuerie of sufferances Because thou wast agreeable in Gods sight it was necessarie that affliction should try thee was it said to the good TOBIE Are not the Iust tryed like gold in the furnace to discouer whether they be worthy of God What Christians can be ignorant of this decree which was written with the blood of the Lambe vpon the threshwood of their dores That we are to enter into the Kingdome of Heauen through many tribulations And that all those that would liue piously in IESVS CHRIST must endure the scourge of persecutions to be found wheate worthy to be layed vp in the Granarie of Eternitie For which cause S. IAMES doth exhort the faithfull to reioyce in their afflictions knowing that patience is the proofe of their Faith and that the worke of Patience is perfect that is doth perfect him that doth it Tribulation saith the Apostle worketh patience and Patience probation and probation Hope and such a hope as confoundeth not in its expectation Though we are now for a smale tyme to be afflicted with many tribulations yet it is that the tryall of our Faith may appeare more precious then gold before the face of God who according to his great mercy doth regenerate vs by a liuely hope to possesse the heauēly inheritance which cannot be corrupted nor changed Then we shall behold we shall admire and the plentie of good things shall dilate our heart Then with an incredible ioy we shall be drunke vp in God our SALVATION Then the teares shall be wiped from the eyes of the Elect they shall weepe no more greife and paine shall no more tormēt them because all that is blowen ouer that is to say they entered not into those eternall Bowres but through the fires and waters of tribulation Truly he were iustly reputed an vnworthy soldier who would desire to gaine victorie better cheape then his Capitaine and how did our Capitaine and Law giuer IESVS CHRIST enter into the glorie which was due vnto him by nature was it not by sufferance Let vs behold then the Exemplaire of the mountaine but the mountaine of Caluarie before we take into our consideration that of Thabor Let vs looke vpon the Authour and Comsummatour of our faith IESVS CHRIST who choosed to vndergoe the Crosse while glorie was proposed vnto him Let vs imitate the Apostle who was so loyall to his Maister that he bore in his bodie the stigmates and markes of his crucified Lord. O how ioyfull the Apostles were when it happened that they were to endure something for the loue of CHRIST knowing what an eternall waight of glorie that sufferance treasured vp in heauen for them And if the Asserians vpon the sight of IVDITH's beautie did comfort themselues in the extreamities of that seige with the hope they had to enioy the faire creatures who were in the Citie What extreamities of miseries were we not willingly to endure to be possessed of the inestimable felicities which we haue represented If by labours saith S. AVGVSTINE it must be atchiued from this instant I inuoke you ô all yee torments of the world I coniure you to burst out vpon my head and shewre downe a mayne vpon me Let tribulations be multiplied and presse in troopes vpon me let infirmities vexations pouertie want aduersitie make head against and oppresse me Let euery one persecute me let all creatures bandie against me let me be the Butt of all their arrowes let me be the scorne of men and the reproach of people let my dayes be ended in pinching paines yet will I bee too content so that after this sharpe winter I may gather the flowres of the eternall Spring and that I may be rancked amongst the Elect who are bright with beames of Glorie I cannot be weaned from the plentifull and yndraynable dugges of this great and fruitefull Doctour without suckinge a long draught to giue some colour and life to this Draught of myne Marke then how he doth encourage vs to sufferances for the attayning of Eternitie If we diligently ponder the reward that is proposed vnto vs all that we suffer will seeme litle and light and we shall repute our paines vnworthy of so great a recompence For is it not true that we should buy eternall rest at a iust Rate though we were to pay a perpetuall labour for it and to purchase an eternall felicitie at the price of an eternall sufferance Marrie if you were imployed in an eternall labour when would you come to an eternall reward O the eternall Goodnesse who hath made our tribulation temporall and yet to this passing paine he hath alotted an endlesse pleasure Place a thousand thousand yeares before-Eternitie and yet what doe you doe but compare a limited with an illimited thing Adde to this that God did not onely prefixe a certaine tearme to our labours but that a short one to for what is the life of man but the continuance of a few dayes Though a man therfore were oppressed for the whole course of his life with all sortes of torments labours greeues though prisons hungar thirst and irkesome vlcers should accompaignie him to his graue were it not yet an affliction of a short standing the dayes of man are few in number his labours short and light and yet are followed with an endlesse Kingdome with an eternall Beatitude After these short sufferances we shall be possessed of the Societie of Angells and Saintes the inheritance of IESVS CHRIST God him selfe an inestimable price for so smale a labour Wherfore saith he in another place let vs loue eternall life and let vs learne how much we are to labour for it by the exemple of those who doe passionately loue this mortall life fearing to loose it for when any sicknesse begins to threaten them death what doe they not doe I doe not say to escape it for that is not possible but onely for a tyme to protract deathes fatall blow How much doth a man strugle when death doth catch him by the necke to escape out of its clawes he flies he hides him self and giues all that doth possesse to keepe his bodie in possession of his soule At the price of all his fortunes he is readie to ransome his life
ineffable p. 50. 14. An imperfect description of Eternity p. 53. 15. What Tyme is p. 56. 16. Eternitie compared to Tyme p. 62. 17. An eleuation of the mynd to God vpon the comparison of tyme to Eternitie p. 67. 18. Mans life compared to the worlds continuance p. 70. 19. The force of the thought of Eternitie p. 74. 20. That this life is onely lent vs to thinke vpon Eternitie p. 80. 21. An enterie to the consideration of the accursed Eternitie p. 88. 22. The horrour of this subiect p. 92. 23. It is an vniuersalitie of euils p. 95. 24. The paynes of sense and first of the sight and hearing p. 100. 25. The paines of other two senses the Smelling and tasteing p. 107. 26. The paine of the sense of touching p. 110. 27. A sith to God p. 116. 28. Of interiour paines p. 118. 29. The Prison of Hell p. 127. 30. Of the paine of Damni p. 131. 31. The continuall greife p. 135. 32. The Eternitie of the torments of Hell p. 144. 33. Of the desperation of the damned p. 153. 34. Paines without intermission p. 156. 35. Whether it were better for the damned not to bee p. 161. 36. Why there paines are eternall p. 166. 37. An Apostrophie to God and the soule vpon the accursed Eternitie p. 171. 38. A passage to the blessed Eternitie p. 181. 39. The finenesse of this subiect p. 186. 40. That the eternall felicitie is the petfection of all good things p. 189. 41. Of the place of the Blessed Eternitie p. 195. 42. Of the magnificence of the place p. 199. 43. Of the essentiall happines of the blessed p. 207. 44. The happines of the point of the soule p. 215. 45. Of the felicitie of the powers of the soule and first of the memorie p. 221. 46. The aduantages of the vnderstanding p. 227. 47. Of the light of Glorie p. 236. 48. Of diuers degrees of Glorie p. 240. 49. In what measure the beatified vnderstanding sees God in Heauen p. 245. 50. Whether the beatified vnderstaÌ„ding sees all in God p. 252. 51. The pleasures of the Will p. 256. 52. The felicitie of the inferiour portion of the soule p. 264. 53. Of the dowries of the beatified soule p. 268. 54. Touching the qualities of the glorified bodies p. 271. 55. The pleasure of the Senses p. 276. 56. A continuation of the precedent subiect p. 283. 57. Of the Aureola p. 287. 58. The Blessed societie of the Elect. p. 292. 59. The Excellences of this holy Societie p. 296. 60. Other excellencies p. 302. 61. A continuation of the excellencies p. 308. 62. A flight of the mynd towards this happie compaignie p. 317. 63. Another flight of mynd p. 320. 64. Eternitie is the fulnesse of Beatitude p. 326. 65. Meanes wherby to arriue at this happie Eternitie p. 334. 66. A continuation of the former discourse p. 345. 67. Another meane p. 352. 68. That this thought of Eternitie is the abridgement of all spirituall life p. 363. 69. A continuation of the formar discourse p. 368. 70. Of the essentiall Eternitie p. 376. 71. That this essentiall Eternitie is all things p. 384. 72. An application of the Heart to this essentiall Eternitie p. 391. 73. An aspiration of Hope p. 403. 74. A practise to engraue in our heart the memorie of Eternitie p. 409. 75. Other indeuours p. 420. 76. An other memoriall of Eternitie p. 424. 77. The moments wher vpon Eternitie doth depend p. 444. 78. The present moment p. 450. 79. The eternall doome p. 458. 80. Adoration of the essentiall Eternitie p. 474. FINIS ATTESTATIO LIbrum hunc cui titulus A Draught of Eternitie Authore Reuer mo IOANNE PETRO CAMO Episcopo Bell. diligenter perlegi adeoque nihil in eo Fidei aut bonis moribus contrarium reperi vt aeternâ laude lectione dignum Iudicem ac proinde ob quem tam Interpreti quam Authori aeternam debeant ad aeternitatem aspirantes GVILIELMVS TALBOTTVS S. Theol. Professor APPROBATIO HIc liber cui titulus Crayon de l'Eternité gallico Idiomate à R.mo Domino D. IOANNE PETRO CAMO Episcopo Bell. Conscriptus in Anglicum sermonem opere R d D. MILONIâ— CARRAEI versus cum nihil contineâ— contra Fidem seu bonos more 's vt mihâ— docti Fide digni viri testimonio constatâ— imprimatur Actum Duaci die 26. Maijâ— 1632. GEORGIVS COLVENERIVâ— S. Theol. Doctor Professor aâ— librorum Censor A DRAVGHT OF ETERNITY That Eternitie is litle considered THE FIRST STROKE O People deuoyde of the spirit of counsell and vnprouided of true prouidence God grant thou wouldst be wise and vnderstanding and that by a mature foresight thou couldst reach to the end of future things These are the words of the great law giuer of the Iewes taxing that Nation of inconsideration of an incircuncised heart and a stiffe necke and laying the greatest part of their faults vpon the litle attention they had to foresee future things To which pourpose saith S. BERNARD excellently well In these words of Moyses three things are recommended vnto vs. Wisdome Vnderstanding and Prouidence And I conceaue them to be assined and applyed to three times to represent in vs a Draught of Eternitie Which we will doe in this manner in moderating things present by wisdome in discering things past by the iudgment which we will make of our selues and by an exacte prudence in disposing our selues for the time to come Anâ—certes wisely to dispose of thing present and seriously to recogitatâ— things past in the bitternesse of ouâ— soule is the abridgement yea the toppe of all spirituall exercises and the forme of all interiour discipline To th' end that according vnto the Apostles Counsell we may liue in this life soberly and piously by obseruing sobriety in the vse of things present by redeeming with a worthy satisfaction tyme vnprofitably spent without gathering any fruit towards our saluation and by opposing the Buckler of Piety against the dangers which doe menace vs for the tyme to come Tell me now my deare Athanasia whether that with which the diuine MOYSES did so iustly and truely vpbraid the Israelites may not and ought not by as good right be cast in the â—eeth of the new Israel of God a people of acquisition and of an acquisition so paynefull and bloody of â—he soules of the greatest part of Christians redeemed with so great a price and with so plentious a redemption since worldlings are so lulled a sleepe in the region of the shadow of death that they loose the remembrance of this so wholesome a thought of Eternity which should neuer be razed out of their memory in any moment of this mortall life Let vs wish in their behalfe that which the great Conductour of the children of IACOB wished for his bretheren who was held the swetest and mildest amoÌ„gst men what euer be reported of the sharpenesse of his spirit amongst the waters of contradiction and let vs pronoune of men buried
in the dust of this life I would to God that the Spirit of wisdome vnderstanding and Counsell would descend into their soules and the diuine goodnesse grant that it way be found in ours to speake with S. BERNARD thaâ— we may sweetly dispose of thing present with wisdome condemne our former offences by a iudicious vnderstanding and foresee things to come by a clearesighted counsell God grant we may be wise in our present behauiour vnderstanding to correct our life past and prouident for the tyme to come that by Gods mercy wee may dy the death of the iust and our end way be like vnto theirs and that the end of our life may be precious In the sight of the iust Iudge who prouids crownes to such as haue lawfully fought Heauens grant my Athanasia that our soule departing this life may be like vnto the lampe whose flammes â—re fed by an aromaticall oyle and which neuer smell so well as when â—t is extinguished and that it doth â—nfranchise it selfe out of this clayie â—ouse of our body for no other end â—ut to breath out it selfe towards â—eauen leauing the earth embaulmed with a good odour in IESVS CHRIST as it is written that the memory of the iust should be sweete as the sent of perfumes powered out Which shall be most deare soule if from this vally of teares we prouide stepps in our hearts towards the blessed eternity and if vpon each occasion we eleuate our thoughts thitherwards thoughts which shall be to God as that litle rodde of smoake compouÌ„ded of all the perfuming ponders Whereof mention is made in the heauenly Epithalamion and if separating our selues from the troopes of those who sleeping in a letergy amidst their riches delights and vanities shut their eyes against the cleare light of eternity and repulsâ— the rayes of the Sunne of Iustice Alas these wretched slaues to theâ— owne riches possessed by the which they thinke they possessâ—â— sleepe at their ease passe in an imaginary felicity the momeÌ„ts of their dayes but at their awaking they find their hands empty put into the waights they are found light and which is yet worse in one pointe in an instant they descend into eternall torments So slept SAMSON after he was bereft of his force TOBIE when he had lost his eyes and Isboseth when he was depriued of life God looked downe from his heauenly mansion saith the kingly Prophets to see whether amongst men their were any of a good iudgment and a wise foresight who sought him as he merits that is with his whole heart But he found that euery one diuerted from his seruice and conuerted themselues to vaine and vnprofitable things forsooke the Creatour for the Creature Eternity for a moment whereupon none doth doe good no not one The wayes of Syon that is of the Blessed Eternity weepe to see themselues forsaken and abaÌ„doned none frequenting their solemnities O Eternity how considerable thou art but ô the misery and misery vvpon misery how litle thou art considered That all the euill in the world comes from want of thinking of Eternity II. YET Athanasia we may affirme it with an vndaunted bouldnesse since with an vndoubted truth all the euill in the world comes through defaut of this consideration For Eternity being well waighed is a light which doth dissipate the shadowes and disperse the clouds of sinne Thy iudgment ô Lord are razed out of his memory that offendeth and thence it is thaâ— he defiles all his wayes and falls at euery foote sayth the diuine Psalmist Where you are to note that in this place he speakes of that iudgment whose irreuocable verdict shall bring some to eternall rewards others to eternall paynes CoÌ„trariwise the same Prophete confesseth that he betooke himselfe to the workes of Iustice out of the apprehension he had conceaued of the chaste feare of this eternall iudgment How can an Archer vnlesse by meere chance Hit the marke he remarkes not and how should he arriue at Eternity that thinks not of it nor directs his course that way And with what face can one that will not follow Gods commandements begge of him that he would conduct him in the way of eternity The generall desolation of the earth saith IEREMIE yea the abomination of desolation is that none considers in his heart that is seriously this great and vniuersall end of Eternity and thence their are so few cleane and ruminating beastes which can be offered to God in the Sacrifice of Iustice Whence so many shipwrakes in the world that vast and spacious sea where so many weake mortall vessels are split against the manifests shelues but through want of the CoÌ„passe for that we direct not our thoughts in the point of Eternity How profitable it is to thinke of Eternity III. COntrariwise next to Gods grace one of the Principles of eternall saluation is to thinke of it It is a marke so faire ample that he that lookes vpon it hits it And who euer hath a firme and stayed ayme cannot misse this Butt The meanes to attaine to it are easie the wayes sometimes vncouth are now playne and bet the mountaines reduced into playnes The commandements are not hard the yoake is sweete and the burthen light Is it not true Athanasia that we runne in the wayes of the diuine commandements when heauenly loue extends our heart towards the glorious Eternity T is this faire RACHEL that makes our dayes seeme moments and our labours delights when we thinke of that pourchace Is it not this thought that doth furnish vs with Eagles wings to take a flight without stooping from the wing by coÌ„tinuing perseuerantly in good and aydes vs with wings of a done to mount vp to our true repose which is no other then Eternity Marke with what courage this Eagle speakes with what sweetnesse and promptitude this done I haue thought of the dayes of old and thought againe of the yeares of Eternity Would you not say that that were the Center where all the lynes of their desires meete that that is their one necessary It is the haire in which all the headhaire of the sacred spouse doth end and the point wherein all the rayes of her sight are receaued and stayed That this point which had neuer any beginning nor shall haue end is that litle seed in the Ghospell whence the great trees of all vertues spring the litle stone of DANIEL which growes vp to a maine mountaine MARDOCHEES litle source which after it had branched out it selfe into faire floodes of good workes becomes an Oceane of light Which makes we stick to this Truth that as the want of this thought of Eternitie is cause of the ruine of all the lost soules so when man prayseth God in this thought the rest of his thoughts doe leade him through the pathes of heroicall vertues to the solemne Feast and delightfull Saboath of Eternitie For the iust shall liue for euer and their reward shall be with our Lord who is himselfe
to earthly obiects It discryes nothing but the fayding shapes of this world And as hounds fall easily at default in the Spring when the fresh smells of flowres make them loose the sent of the game they poursue So the mynd that is carried to the search of heauenly things runns counter misled by the neerenesse of present things That we put a rate vpon present things rather by their neerenesse then worth VIII FOr though many of those that are carried away by their allurements know well that they are not comparable in worth to eternall things yet rather by their neighbourhoode then valour they make a stronge impression Who would not say that the full moone is greater thē the starrs it appearing as another Sunne amongst the lesser lightes which the night discouers in the heauens yet is it not so as the Astrologers assure vs but her proxmitie causeth this mistake Present things obnoxious to the decay of tyme are so short in continuance that they are but flying vapours as soone bet downe as blowen vp seeming rather appearances or the shadowes of a dreame then solidities while yet beeing neerer they appeare to the eyes of such as muse or rather abuse themselues therin more worthy of consideration then eternall things which are not limited in their extention nor haue end in their beeing And who knowes not to keepe in our comparison that the influences of this starre the nights great eye are more forceable then any other excepting that which is the fountaine of all light and which doth communicate it to all the rest We must say the like of things present that by reason of their neerenesse they strike the soule by the senses a more violent blow then the future doe which are beheld as a thing in absence Whence we haue a MAXIME that present obiects moue the powres which things in distance doe but slowly shake But all this proceeds from want of Fayth as hereafter we will declare for if this vertue were closely vnited in the mynds of those that doe beleeue her propositions she would make things hoped for appeare as present inuisible things visible according to the definition therof deliuered vs by the great Apostle The Moone appeares in diuers shapes or altogether disappeares according to the different oppositions of the earth betweene it and the Sunne We may say the like in the matter we treate of that Eternitie is seene or shut vp from soules according as they are more or lesse infected with earthly affections ô Loue of the world how long wilt thou obscure the faire light of heauenly loue ô thicke cloude why dost thou shut from so many eyes the aspect of the glorious rayes issuing from eternall lights behold this torch throwen downe the waxe which while it was below the flame did feede it is the very bane of it The loue of inferiour things guided according to the order of Charitie doth not impeach eternall loue but when perishable things are preferred before those that are permanent then this cleare lampe which shines to our feete to conduct vs in the way of eternall peace being smothered with materiall things dies out ô Smoke ô vnfortunate dung how many Tobies thou beatest blind Iron doth naturally run after the Loadstone yet many things hinder this stones attraction as when it is rubd with garlike or greese when it is neere vnto a Diamant or when it is placed in too great a distāce from the iron And our soules who of their owne natures are immortall by their owne instinct doe tend to Eternitie as to that which they most affect but as soone as the garlike or greese of the pleasures and delights which are tasted in things present doe attrape them or when the lying luster of worldly honours keepes them at a gaze it is not strange that Eternitie which they behold as a thing a far of doth so litle worke vpon their affections Shall I speake in a word what is the Remora which stops the shippe of our hearts vnder the sayles of our desires sayling towards Eternitie it is that euery one seekes himselfe and not the glorie of God It is as that old Antipheron that in euery thinge hauing our eyes turned vpon our selues in euery thing we seeke our owne interest Few hate their soules in this world to gayne them to Eternitie Few renounce all things present and yet fewer themselues who are more not onely present but pressing to follow Iesus Christ and to doe the will of God in earth as it is in heauen The weaknesse of Fayth makes Eternitie lesse considerable IX BVt what doe I say to doe the will of God Alas how many wicked how many mad men say in their heart their is no God Our lipps are to our selues who is our Lord Come let 's crowne our selues with present roses before death the death of all pleasures make them fade away let not a flowre of vanitie of loose desire of lucre put vp the heade in the meades of this mortall life which we take not a taste of before the graue shut vs vp And it is there that this want of beleife maks vs loose the veiw of the North-starre of Eternitie which I giue for a third cause Yes quoth our Sauiour himselfe to his Disciples doe you thinke that the sonne of man coming to iudge the world in his last coming shall find Faith in the earth and doe we thinke there is Faith in this end and dreges of ages wherin we liue Verily if we forme a iudgement of Faith by workes as the scripture teacheth vs it will easily be gathered by the fruite the world brings out that there is nether Truth nor Faith nor Memorie of Gods iustice or Eternitie left in the heart of man All erre from their mothers wombe and stray from the pathes of equitie being heauie hearted slow to beleeue that which is taught them by faith touching things to come They loue vanitie and seeke after falsitie and lyes ô how deceitfull are the children of men in their waightes suffering themselues to be deceaued in the Vanitie of their senses Let vs consider this more neerely and practically Faith tells vs many glorious things of the Citie of God where he raignes eternally with his Elect where he makes his loue take roote as in a fertile feild It tells vs that this Kingdome is of all ages that all the Blessed are Kings heires of God and coheires with Iesus Christ. That God is there all in all filling them with an eternall felicitie that his power is an eternall powre That his Kingdome shall haue no end And in our Crede we protest that we beleeue life euerlasting the life of the world to come That such as doe well shall enter into the blessed Eternitie and the wicked into an eternall tormēt That is one of the principale articles of our Faith and as it were the pinne vpon which the rest moue and turne for if all should die to vs togeither with the
body if there remaynd no hope if another life doth not the Apostle say plainely that vnder our Christian law we were the most miserable creatures aliue But ô God how weake and faint is faith in these articles if we look vpon the liues of most Christians ô sinners who beleeue so well and liue so ill hauing onely a deade Faith not quickned with Charitie nor seconded with workes suiting with your beleife doe you not blush to see your hands contrarie to your tongues your actions to your words and so great contradiction in your selfe by the continuall warre which your will makes against your vnderstanding whence is bred in your heart that remorse and griping that gnawing worme which permits you not euen in your pleasures false follies and superfluities any contentment that is pure and without mixture of bitternesse tempering your laughter with greife and ouersowing a thousand thornes amongst the roses of your fleeting delightes ô miserable wretches willingly would I say ether liue as you beleeue or beleeue as you liue not crucifying a new againe the sunne of God by your vices and that far more cruelly and vnworthyly then the executioners did to the crosse betwixt two theeues vpon the Mount-Caluarie for the scripture assures vs that if they had knowen him as you professe to doe to be the King of glorie they had neuer treated him so barbarously but you barbarously crucifie him not now in his passing and passible life nor vpon Mount-Caluarie nor yet betwixt two theeues but euen set at the right hād of the maiestie of the Highest and raigning in the Eternitie of ages betwixt the Father and the Holy Ghost What doe you thinke Athanasia of the infidelitie or crueltie of the most part of wicked liuers who haue the face to professe themselues of the faythfull Yet if they beleeued as they liue their actions would be like their beleife and as Ethnikes vpon whom the light of truth hath not shun they would be lesse punished but the seruant that knowes the will of his maister and doth it not merits he not a double punishment And these wilfully blind creatures deserue they not to fall into the accursed ditch full of snares of fire and brimstone and to haue part in the chalice of eternall tempests and tormoyles Origene's errour touching the Eternitie of the paines of Hell X. ANd it happens somes tymes that for the punishment of this contradiction betwixt their life and beleife God permits them to fall into a reprobate sense and suffers them to perish in the Deluge of their errour leauing them in the obscuritie of their vnderstanding to walke in the vanitie of their thoughts poursuing the desires of their hearts following the straying rowtes of their owne inuentions Alas who would not tremble who would not quake with feare to see this mightie this prodigious this incomparable wit Origene fallen into this errour to beleeue that after a longe continuance of torments the damned should be drawen out of Hell to inioy the vision of God and this because he could not comprehend eternall torments which are so rightuous in Gods iustice This so learned and well disposed a man who knew all the Scripture did he not find in a thousand places of these diuine writts that there is nothing more inculcated nor more solidly proued then eternall fire then the immortall worme then eternall death So true it is that Faith and experience are incompatible that to vnderstand we must beleeue and to beleeue we must captiuate our vnderstanding and the soule that doth imbarke her selfe vpon the Ocean of the misteries of our beleife taking humane reason for her guide suffers a woefull shipwrake in the midst of the course of her nauigation While the discouerie of the Indians had not yet brought vs the newes of a new world situated vnder another Pole and another Horison then ours the opinion of the Antipodes was laught at learned men improued it and S. Augustine himselfe held it ridiculous But this concernes this world onely not eternall saluation The errour is far more dangerous which stumbles at the Eternitie of paynes because it takes also away the Eternitie of recompences ouerthrowes the truth of the soules immortalitie brings a foote againe the fopperies of transanimation or passage of soules out of one body into another and breakes downe the fundations of all truth Yet this great wit and withall of so good a life suffered shipwrake vpon this shelfe blinded in his owne imaginations as the auncient Philosopher who lost his sight by fixing it too setledly vpon the globe of the Sunne experiencing the Truth of this oracle who too curiously searcheth into the secreetes of the diuine Maiestie shall be oppressed which the greatnesse of his glorie It shall suffice vs for the present to oppose the strong buckler of our beleife against this errour a buckler not onely of a double but a centuple temper and not pearceable by the darts of humane reason since the scripture which we will shew in its place doth minace nothing more frequently nor establish nothing more strongly then eternall punishments prepared for the Diuel his Angells Apostates and all such as by sinne shall betake themselues to that reuoulted crue's side We will ponder the reason of this eternall curse as the order of this subiect shall require Eternitie cannot be defined XI NOw I set vpon the hardest peece of my taske to wit the begining and who knowes not that a good begining is halfe the deede doing And who can be ignorāt that to enter into a discourse and put ones selfe vpon it by a reasonable conduct an ouerture must be made vnto it by the definition of the subiect which a man is about to handle And here it is that euen at the very threshwood my pen falls out of my hand since the matter wherof I am about to represent a poore draught is none of those that can be defined for I pray you Athanasia this word Definition doth it not sound as it were some finite thing And what proportion can an infinite thing beare with a finite or what line can measure an infinite thinge Now Eternitie being of this nature who sees not that no definition can comprehend or compasse that which in it selfe hath no bound To what end then should we offer to shut vp wthin the termes of a definition that which neuer had begining nor shall haue end were it not to essay to shut vp the Ocean in a shell according as an Angell in a childs liknesse said to S. Augustine while he proiected in his vnderstanding that admirable worke of the Trinitie which he left vs And tell me how can that flow from a slender penne or be exprest by a drope of inke which cannot enter into the imagination nor the vnderstanding of man who being finite is in no sort able to contayne an infinite thing such as is Eternitie In vaine therfore haue some great and curious witts strayned themselues in defining a thinge indefinite
afflict vs therin which being well husbanded doe worke in vs a crowne of eternall glorie No No what sufferances soeuer doe vexe vs in this dying life they enter into no comparison with the glorie which shall one day be reuealed vnto vs. The force of the thought of Eternitie XIX NO neuer Athanasia though our mynd turne it selfe on euerie side make choyce of subiects most pregnant to moue it and to giue it the most forceable impressions to imbrace good or auoyd euil neuer shall it light vpon any thought so fruitfull to produce this effect as the thought of Eternitie O momēts you are but chaffe and dust before the face of this great wind This is the great vanne which can separate the corne from the chaffe and separate precious from vile things Eternitie is that Moyses his rod able to deuoure the serpents of our sinns and to draw water from rockes that is can beget compunction in the most flintie heart It is a violent blast which driues vs forwards towards the Desert of penāce which vrgeth vs to returne into the Sheepe-fold of grace if by errour we haue strayed from it or by sinne like lost sheepe It is the end of all ends the end of all consommation and the extreamitie of extreamities wither the wiseman doth send vs if we desire to abstayne from sinning euerlastingly For if death if iudgement ensuing if the terrours of Hell serue for a bitt to the strongest mouth and for a restraynte to the most desparate soule what will it be if we add thervnto the importance of an Eternitie If we consider the Blessed Eternitie it is a Ionathas his honie if the Accursed it is a Tobie's gale soueraigne to cure the thickest and deepest blindnes There is no Filme which falls not from the 〈◊〉 washed with this water No Torrent of sinne which may not both be sustayned and repelled by this stronge banke It is a Sunne which doth breake disperse the cloudes of vice which striue to hide the light of grace Le ts approch then Athanasia to this Torch and our darknes shall be blowen ouer If we desire to be borne againe to Heauen let vs imitating that onely bird consume our selues in the beames of that great starr And if the thought of the worlds last day Iudge of all the other dayes filled S. Hieromes heart with such dread that it made him loose both foode and repose his sleepe being interrupted by the terrible found of the Archangells trumpet which sounded incessantly in his imagination what waight shall that eternall doome haue in our hearts which shall crowne the iust with roses that cannot fade and shall inuolue the wicked in quenchlesse flames which being kindled with the blast of Gods wroth shall cōtinue as long as the Deitie it selfe No I doe not beleeue that all the Antidotes which Spiritualists prescribe against the poyson of sinne that all their remedies put together in one masse can haue the like effect in the purging of a soule that the importance of an Eternitie well pondered can worke therin O Lord thou hast giuē a signe to those who haue thy feare imprinted vpon their heartes that they may auoyd the arrowes which thou shuttest from the bow of thy wroth and that by flight they may free themselues from the eternall torments which doe attend them torments by which such onely are ouertaken as for want of foresight and consideration dread them not as an auncient Father doth teach vs. O how happie is the soule whose eyes God daynes to open ouer so perilous a precipice that therby she may auoyde it and please our Lord in the Land of those that liue in his grace For they that passe their dayes in this happie Abode are not subiect to this seconde death which hath no resurrection for out of Hell there is no redemption or escape Their eyes owe no tributarie teares since they are not afflicted with the torment of malice nor doth their feete stumble in the way of saluation which is that of the blessed Eternitie Thinke of the last end saith the wisest of men and thou shal◠neuer offend If then the thought o◠death and of that which followe◠death hath so much force in a soule that is occupied in it as to diuert it from all euil what will it doe I pray you in a well composed heart which can iudiciously ponder the waight of things when it shall come to thinke that temporall death is but an instant which separates the soule from the body and that the particular iudgement which doth immediately follow this separation is past in a moment marrie that the decree of this iudgement is of an eternall and vninterrupted continuance Why the threate of a temporall death and the losse of a florishing estate written vpon a wall by a celestiall hand was able to seaze the soule of Baltazar with so daunting a terrour that the scripture assures vs that all his bones were thereby disioynted so throughly did feare possesse both body and soule How forceablely then shall the feare of an eternall death worke in a solide iudgement and in a heart that thinkes seriously of its saluation Will it not in this thought pronounce with the kingly Prophete All my bones were troubled that is to say all my powres were disordered and againe All my bones shall say vnto thee ô eternall Lord who is like vnto thee That this life is onely lent vs to thinke vpon Eternitie XX. O Momentes of this mortall life how carefully ought you to be managed since by you as by so many stepps we mount to Eternitie I for God hath onely placed vs in this region of death to breath continually to that of the liueing nor are we in this Desert for any other end then to trauell to the Land of Promisse Which shall one day be distributed amongst vs according to the line of distribution The Angells at their first creation were placed in a state of grace and full freedome and had a tyme to resolue their choyce of glorie or reprobation by obedience or reuoulting and following their election that great diuision was made which doth eternally separate the Blessed who kept their principalitie from the accursed who fell from Heauen into the Abisses below Men afterwardes created of so noble substances to repaire the ruines of those that were fallen haue also the tyme of their life to resolue and determine what shall become of them for all Eternitie For which cause they were created straight and free fire and water were put before them that they might make election of which they liked And they applie according to their owne will the vse of their freedome nor are they to impute it to others then themselues if by their owne malice misfortune befall them He that shall sowe benedictions shall reape benedictions but he that shall commit wickednes shall draw a curse vpon his owne heade and that an eternall one according as it is written Goe you accursed into
eternall fire For at last in the periode of our life when as tyme shall be no more to vs certaine it is that God will examen our workes be they good or bad and according to them will reward each one Then euery ones prayse or blame shall proceede from the mouth of God Now we are in the forked way of vertue or vice which was shewen to the young Hercules as an Auncient Authour writeth It is in our power to take towards the right or left hand and to sowe the seedes in this life whose fruites we shall gather in the next Certes as the lines drawen from the Center of the earth might goe to the circumfereÌ„ce of the Heauens so according to our comportment in these short momentes which we are to liue in earth the definitiue Sentence of our eternall Abode shall be giuen It is our part therfore tymely to thinke of our affaires and to foresee what shall become of vs for the scripture doth teach vs that we shall reape according as we haue sowen He that shall sow in spirit shall reape eternall life The chaste Susanna being pinched with bitter perplexities while those two infamous firebrands of dishonestie threatned her the ruine of her reputation vnlesse she condescended to their lewd desire chowsed rather to fall innoceÌ„t into the hands of men then stayned into his to whom nothing is hid who tryes the hearts and reynes and who can cast the body and soule into eternall torments Me thinkes sure each considerate heart will take her part and will pourchace at the price of transitorie and momentarie pleasures endlesse paines For t is a thinge too horrible to fall into the hands of the liueing God the God of vengeance terrible ouer all those of the earth Contrariwise he will easely and willingly imbrace all kind of paynes and sufferances who shall waigh as he ought that is in the waightes of the SANCTVARIE these words of the sacred ORACLE That we are to enter into the Kingdome which knowes no end to the resideÌ„ce of Glorie through many tribulations since that our Sauiour Iesus Christ was as it were forced to suffer before he could enter into his eternall Felicitie which he had wholy obtayned and which was necessarily due vnto him The Parobolicall historie of the wicked Rich-man and the poore Lazarus is a rich Table representing this truth vnto our eyes set out in liuelie colours Euerie one knowes the different successe of the one and the other and what answere Father Abraham made to this miserable reprobate's complaintes Call to mynd Sonne that thou tookest thy pleasures during thy life and that Lazarus suffered many afflictions Now your estates are much changed for he is replenished with ioy and delight and thou oppressed with desperate greeues and with punishments which shall neuer end O double Eternitie thou art like to those figues which were presented vnto the Prophete wherof some were strangly bitter the others extreamely sweete The Blessed Eternitie is a LAND OF PROMISSE and rest whose fruites are of an vnmeasurable greatnes and incomparable sweetnes The accursed is a forraine Region full of disorder a daunting desert far remoued from the face of God where the firie serpents doe stinge without cure and kill without all hope of recouerie O ETERNITIE The more I consider thee the lesse doe I know thee and the deeper I endeauour to diue into thy bottome more bottomelesse I find thee Thou art the floode of the Prophete which cannot be past nether at the ford nor otherwise The Gyantes grone vnder thy waters nor can any beaste euen though it were an ElephaÌ„t passe ouer thee by swiming to vse S. Gregories words All that can be said of thee is nothing in regard of that which should be said Though a man speake all he is able yet can he not sufficiently expresse thee euen to represent the least stroke of thyne infinitie Birdes although they cannot soare to the highest region of the aire leaue not for all that to flie And what if we cannot comprehend Eternitie yet ought we not cease to speake what we conceaue of it though we cannot conceaue what we ought to speake therof A man may enioy the light of the Sunne walke in its resplendant rayes and now and then steale a looke vpon it though he be not able to haue his sight still fixed vpon its globe We are to doe the like in this subiect of Eternitie and be it that our sight doth disperse and loose it selfe in the immensitie of its extent yet are we from tyme to tyme to consider it since life is â—ent vs for no other end but to be spent for the most part in this attention This is that which the Prophete termes couragiously to attend God and with patience to supporte this attention And the Apostle To attend the blessed hope of the coming of the great God I Lord said the great S. Augustine burne cute pinch slice here below so that I may not perish eternally An enterie to the consideration of the accursed Eternitie XXI BVt doe you not thinke it high tyme Athanasia that we should draw neerer by the consideration of both the Eternities and that for our spirituall profit we should make a kind of particular examen and as it were an Anatomie We will begin at the accursed Eternitie that we may follow the methode which the Spiritualistes obserue in the reformation of the soule begining with feare according to that of the wise man the feare of our Lord is the begining of true wisdome And is it not true wisdome to thinke seriously and tymely of eternall saluation and to direct our stepps towards the pathes of this peace which passeth all vnderstanding nor shall at any tyme be troubled with the noyse of warrs but shall enioy with God the abundance of a plentifull repose I haue done Iudgement and Iustice that is I haue behaued my selfe iustly in all myne actions saith the Royall Prophete Will you haue the reason of this vprightnesse because I haue dreaded the seueritie of the eternall Iudge And another Prophete brings in Sinners conuerted to the father of mercyes speaking in this wise O Lord through thy feare we haue conceaued good pourposes and by it we haue at length produced and brought forth the spirit of saluation The needle following the Contemplatiues worne similitude goes alwayes through before the silke and sharpe and pearceing FEARE according to that word of Dauid Lord pearce my body and soule with the FEARE of thy iudgements is still the forerunner of ioy ioy the inseparable fruite of the tree of true Charitie I see then that there I must begin but a secrete horrour doth fasten vpon myne imagination when I represent vnto my selfe so mournfull and daunting a matter It is a far other thing theâ— that place of horrour and vaste solitude wherof the Prophete speakes for it is the verie herbour of eternall horrour eternall reproach It is the accursed denne where DEATH doth eternally inhabite
why should we find it strange that he should eternally punish sinne that accursed nothing or rather that proud Giant which doth oppose his darksome priuation against that diuine beeing souueraignely lightsome Yea this truth though heauen and earth passe shall stand in force for euer that God shall destroy euerlastingly all that shall worke iniquitie and that being driuen from the sight of his face they shall suffer mortally eternall paynes Those accursed soules shall one day heare the folish Virgins dismission who came without the oyle of grace and Charitie Begone the gate of the eternall marriages are shut against you for euer Begone I know you not And this daunting sentence which shall be without Appeale is pronūced in the burning Court of the worlds comsūmation Goe you accursed into eternall fires prepared for the Diuell and the partakers in his reuoult The Manna which of old fell for 6. dayes vpon Israel ceased to fall the seauenth and he that neglected to make prouision of two measures therof the day before the Saboath with fasting was forced to pay his negligence Such as in the tyme of this life lent to negotiate and labour haue bene flouthfull in gathering the Manna of grace shall not be receaued in the other life which is the tyme wherin all worke ceaseth The sluggard saith the wiseman who in winter fearing the cold hath neglected to till shall reape onely in his feild bryers and nettles in haruest tyme and pouertie and hungar shall encompasse his gate For which cause the same wiseman calls him prudent and considerate who tills and sowes in its season threatening him with confusion and miserie who sleepes and takes his ease while he is to put his hand to the worke Verily such a man deserues to be compared to horses and mules who haue no vnderstanding and yet not to a generous horse nether but euen to a iade who hauing still at his sides so quicke and bloodie a spurre as that of the thought especially of the accursed Eternitie doth not striue to draw himselfe out of the durt of vice and to spring swiftly on in the course of vertue Alas what doth not a sick-body endure to be quite of his desease what bitter potions doth he not take downe what bleedings lancings burnings In a word what doth he not resolutly vndergoe to recouer his health and to prolong for a tyme this mortall and miserable life and yet to draw our selues out of the gates of death and those also eternall and out of the horrible tortures wherof this litle draught makes a weake representation shall wee vse no endeuours An Apostrophie to God and the soule vpon the accursed Eternitie XXXVII OEternitie ô powrefull rigourous and iealous God! God of Reuenge ô Lord thou art iust and all thy iudgments are iustice and equitie it selfe I adore them great God yea my soule cast vpon the earth and my mouth ioyned to the dust I confesse that all thou dost proceeds from a true and iust iudgmēt and that all thy wayes are replenished with iustice For who am I dust and ashes a worme and not a man to enter a dispute with thee Who if thou wouldst obserue and examine our faults who is able to sustayne thy face and to enter into iudgment with thee Yet as thou art soueraignely Good thou permitst men to discusse matters with thee And being Truth it selfe thou art willing that they should propose vnto thee the things they conceaue to be iust and true In this Confidence ô Lord approching towards the Throne of thy mercy after the consideration of those eternall paynes I haue now contemplated I hope thou wilt permit my poore soule to make a weake sallie towards thee Lord those soules which thou dost banish to those endlesse flames which deriue all their heate frō the fire of thy wroth are they not the workmanshipe of thy hands And is not thy worke mercy it selfe as thy nature is goodnesse it selfe Why then dost thou shut thy eares to their cryes and of a pitifull Father to those accursed soules thou becomest an inexorable and seuere I dare not say a cruell Iudge as thy seruant IOB tearmes thee whom thou didst try in manifold sufferances Where are thyne aunient mercyes ô Lord hast thou forgotten to pardon which is thyne ordinarie coustume Why hast thou reiected them for euer and can they neuer appease thy anger Ah! no Lord they know well that which they demande is not for thy glorie they that haue bene prodigall of thy fauours that are not worthy to be called thy children that can pretend nothing in the inheritance of saluation nor in the portion replenished with light reserued to thy Saints Their deeds of darknesse hath rendred them vnworthy of that bright day which knowes no night Being no longer thy children they cannot be heires of thy Sanctuarie heires of the Land of the liuing nor coheires with IESVS CHRIST whose pretious blood and merits they haue troden vnder their feete Nay Lord euen they doe not demande to depart out of Hell nor to be freed from those paynes which are iustly inflicted vpon them for to appeare before thy wrothfull face would be a hell and a Torture vnto them incomparably more rigorous then all the torments they endure Their onely desire is to be reduced to nothing since they haue commit the works of sinne which is a true nothing But if thou daigne them vnworthy of this vnfortunate fauour at least after many ages of paines can they not expect some moment of release shall not some litle drope of refreshment and solace after many thousand of yeares be sent to water their withered lipps their thirsting throtes their burning tongues Say Lord wilt thou for euer laugh at their liuing death Wilt thou not for euer bow to their begging O the God of my heart ô the part of myne euerlasting inheritance What 's this that I heare in the botome of my heart what dradfull Echo makes resound therin these words of horrour I will be inexorable vnto them eternally Softly my soule make a stand here step not a foote further Dost thou not see the firie sword in the Diuine Iustice's hand threatening ouer thy head if thou aduance a foote Dost belonge to thee temerarious wretch to sound God's Maiestie Fearest thou not to be ouerwhelmed with his glorie Dost thou not see that these reprobates are relinquished by the spirit of his heart precipitated into an eternall obliuion in this second death Leaue them there then and kissing the sonne that is adoring the highnesse of the Scepter of this Diuine Iustice reioyce together with the iuste in this iuste reuenge and wash thy hands in the ruine and bloode of those sinners And drawing light from their darknesse compound a wholsome treackle of the venime of their infelicitie Cast thyne eyes rather vpon the malice of sinne and by an effect so horrible forme a iudgment of the greatnesse of the Cause Thinke if thou seest a louing Father iustly casting
his sonne into a burning fornace that thence thou oughtst to coniecture an enormious crime in the child as well by reason of the greeuiousnesse of the punishment as by the Fathers rigour ô Eternall Father whose mercies are numberlesse what an inward hate must thou needs conceaue against the vniust and iniustice since thou dost punish so rigorously and so eternally the soules thou bought at so great a price as is the bloode of thyne owne sonne blood which cryed better then that of Abel bloode able to fetch out any stayne to wash of all offences and to render them sknowie white whom sinne had made cole-blacke so that this ISOPE this sopewort be applyed in a fitt tyme in a tyme capable of receauing this plentuous redemption Where are our thoughts ô my soule how doth not dread put vs into a traunce while sinne presents it selfe vnto our eyes what a monster must it needs be for whom so darksome a Dungeon and boisterous tempest is prepared and fince that God who is infinitly good is irreconciliably irritated against those reprobate soules How oft my poore heart haue we merited those horrible punishmēts wa st not as oft as we withdrew our selues from our dutie by mortall crimes sinthens all the Diuels there were damned for one sinne And are they not then so many singular obligations we haue to God who expected vs so long to repentance in not suffering his vengance to to take vs in the manure If we slile the Doctors who by their care and skill recouere vs out of a dangerous sicknesse our Esculapeses If a deliuerie out of prison draw such an obligation vpon vs towards the workers therof If a Princes grace doe so much ingage vs to him as likewise the fauour of being freed from fire or water to our deliuerers What shall we render to this good God who as often as we haue offended hath recouered vs frō death and death euerlasting Death whose torment doth far surpasse all that can be said or thought of it Propose vnto thy selfe ô my soule a thing that shall neuer happen according to the order of the Diuine Prouidence and Iustice though otherwise possible to him that can doe all that God had drawen out of this darke hole into which redemption enters not some one of the damned crue to giue him tyme of repentance for his sinns and consider what thankes he would render to his Creatour for so great a benefit and how well he would husband this precious tyme to regayne himselfe out of the midst of his dreadfull tortures Now my deare soule thou must needes haue lost all sense and iudgment if thou accnowledge not the benefit of preseruation to be no lesse then this imaginarie deliuerāce since it withdrawes thee from the same tormēts merited by so many faults Why doe not we then spend our selues in thankes giuing why are we negligēt in redeeming lost tyme sloathfull in running to the remedie of Penance The onely Table of safetie after the shipwrake of grace O God full of Goodnes who desires not the death of a sinner but his conuersion and life Ah! I begge this fauour of thee that at least I may performe some part of that which he would doe whom by thyne extraordinarie power and mercy without president thou migstest haue deliuered out of this Gulfe of horrour Ah! Lord I know this onely part would worke my whole penance for neuer would myne eylidds waxe dry the aples of myne eyes would euer swime in their fountaines night and day should I weepe My cheekes should alwayes be watered and my teares should be my dayly bread I would imbrace all sorts of exteriour and interiour sorow to auoyd those deuouring flammes and the eternall rageings of that abominable Mansion where thou art perpetually blasphemed O God my mercy Saue me from the Iawes of those roaring Lyons prepared for their prey Remoue me from before the sharpe hornes of those sauage Vnicornes Indew me ô Lord with the spirit of Compunction and Penance which is so necessarie to auoyde this Abisse And thou my soule why dost thou dwell vpon this thought of horrour why art thou vexed in it Lift vp thy heart and hope in the mercy of the Highest I thou shalt yet againe praise him the tyme of his mercy is not expired to thee He is the saluation of thy face and thy true God no no by his assistance and grace thou shalt beare no part in the abominable blasphemies of the region of the shadow of death but thou shalt be aggreable vnto him and shalt sing his prayses in the Land of the Liuing A passage to the blessed Eternitie XXXVIII HAppie land of the liuing Athanasia LAND OF PROMIS flowing with the milke and honie of Diuine fauours and blessings Land without thornes free from the captiuitie of IACOB How glorious things are reported of thee ô Citie of God! Sacred citie whose fundations are placed vpon the holy mountaines of Eternitie who art watered with an impetuous flood of felicitie and glorie and with torrents of celestiall delightes How louely are thy tabernacles O mansion of the God of vertues my soule and body doe swoone in the contemplation of thy wonders O Lord how happie are they who doe inhabite thy house◠they praise thee for euer and euer Blessed is he whō thou hast elected and receaued into thy armes he shall remayne for euer in the wishfull porches of thy heauenly Sion Certes Athanasia my heart changing this vnfortunate obiect wherin my pen was imployed in the precedent strokes to this other wholy delightfull one of the blessed Eternitie doth resent the same ioy which the Mariners doe experience when after a rough storme they meet with a calme the same alacritie which doth enlarge the victors hearts when after a dangerous battell they triumphe ouer their foes and diuide the plentuous spoyle Now it is that I may vsurpe the words of the Diuine Epithalamion Winter is past the raine and snow are blowen ouer and flowres begin to appeare in our land but flowres that are of fruite of honour and honestie admirable fruites of the Land of Promis There it is that God doth wipe away the teares of his saintes There are there no greiues or plaintes for all sortes of euils doe vanish in the presence of this vniuersall felicitie euen as shades doe disappeare in the light 's approach And as wine doth taste sweeter after bitter amandes and honie after the tast of wormeseed as deformitie doth raise the luster of an eminent beautie it being the propertie of contraries the one to aduance the other by their neighbourhood so after the harsh contemplation of so many astonishinge torments the splendour of the eternall glorie doth shine in myne eyes as a lightsome day following out an obscure night Such as doe exercise their Arts about fornaces are accustomed from tyme to tyme to releiue their weakned sight in beholding some pleasing table or to recreate them vpon some delightfull prospectiue Sweet light of
the heauenly Hierusalem whose lampe is the lambe who hath blotted out the sinns of the world how fitly thou art represented to my eyes a litle to solace them after they haue poursued the view of that burning fornace which the wroth of God keepes eternally hote in the center of the earth But on the other side as they that come out of a darke dungeon haue difficultie on a souden to sustayne the splendour of a cleare day so this souden returne from darknesse to light from dolour to delight from sorrow to ioy from vnhappinesse to happ from death to life and from punishments to felicitie doth giue a certaine assault to my hart so true it is that the passage frō one extreamitie to another doth astonish the most constant mynd The best experienced Mariners hauing once passed the line are alwayes a litle troubled when they are to alter the course of their nauigation and to sayle vnder another Pole guided by other Cardes other starrs And yet ô happie change since we passe frō teares to langhter from punishments to reward and from paine to glorie The finenesse of this subiect XXXIX BVt who can without rauishment ô Athanasia expresse the sweetnesses with which this incomparable subiect doth replenish our vnderstanding O God if on day we shall come to behold that which nowme vnderstand of the glorie of thy Citie with what traunce shall we be seased when we shall be made like vnto thee in beholding thee such as thou art and shall be trāsformed into thy Image and shall be conducted by thy spirit from light to light It will be a farr other thing then the rauishment of IACOB vpon the sight of his faire RACHEL for what comparison is there betwixt the Creatour seene clearly and not in a glasse and a catiue creature Those beauties in that disciples reuelations whom IESVS loued is to the life represented vnto vs by this glorious Hierusalē which he doth compare to a Bride richly adorned coming out to meet her Bridgroome A fit comparison since this glorious Eternitie is no other thing then the eternall banquet of the marriages of the lambe O faire IYDITH who would not willingly endure the labours of the seige of Bethulia to enioy thee and who dare complaine of these moments of tribulation of this afflicting life spent in the conquest of thee All the beauties of the Bridegroome and Bride which are by the fingar of the Holy Ghost so delicately put downe in the Sacred Epithalamion which we instile the Canticle of Canticles are but shadowes compared to the measure of the light of glorie which God in his blessed Kingdome hath prepared for his saintes O choyce soules who like to other ESTERS are designed for the imbracements of this eternall ASSVERVS what can be found that can enter into comparison with your felicitie since it shall passe all humane sense and capacitie No neither the florishing Hierusalem nor yet the Triumphāt Rome can in any thing come neere vnto this happie Abode For she drawes her light from him who is wholy light and darknesse cannot comprehend him and who doth inhabite an inaccessible light O my eyes let fall your eylides ouer your aples and be blind to all that is faire vpon the face of the earth For nothing can be pleasing in presence of this excellēt obiect of the eternall house of the God of Eternitie O God ayde my sight and inrich me with an Eagles ey but let it be a heauenly one that I may not be dazeled with the aspect of so great a splendour That the eternall felicitie is the perfection of all good things XL. EVen as Athanasia the accursed Eternitie is the sinke of all the euils imaginable as we haue alreadie showen so is the blessed a collection of all the good things that can be wished for there the desire shall be replenished with all that good is And the Deuines to giue vs some knowledge of it doe defime it An eternall immutable and certaine condition deuoyd of all euil of fault or paine and odorned with all the aduantages of nature grace and glorie So that saith S. AVGVSTINE togeither with DAVID this estate is absolute in euery point seeing that the hungrie soule is there saciated with all the good things that can be desired We haue called it an eternall condition in which we see what a faire aduantage it hath ouer the crownes and Empires of the earth which stay so short a tyme vpon one head and the ioy of whose possession is mixed with a continuall feare of loosing them for it is writtē of the Kingdome of all ages that it shall neuer haue end We added that it was not subiect to change in which we discouer a notable difference betwixt this eternall felicitie and the temporall ones of this world which neuer continew in the same estate All that is here below are sensible of the perpetuall turning of the Primum Mobile For this eternitie being God himselfe which of his owne nature is immutable it cannot be diminished yea some Doctors doe hold that the Blessed shall continually experience new accidentall glorie which shall be vnto them a perpetuall subiect of new songs We haue said that it is certaine and sure because the impeccabilitie of such as shall be made participant therof by the freindshipp of God as the wisemans tearmes it shall depriue them of all feare of falling from it besids that the sentence of the reprobate being irreuocable that of the blessed shall be of no lesse continuance And of what continuance of the verie fame with Gods beeing But ô feast of contentments where none of those which doe enioy are disgusted no Israelite loathing this hidden Manna for the sweete and delightfull point of desire shall remayne deuoyd of all paine amidst the pleasure of the fruition so that by how much more they possesse what they desire by so much more they desire to possesse it Whence one of the Apostles said that the Angells in heauen desire to behold the glorious face of IESVS set at the right hand of his Father in those places aboue not that they see it not but because the more they contemplate it the more they desire to contemplate it In such sort that as in Hell the continuance of torments doth not harden the reprobate whose paines are still as greene and sensible as they were the first day So in Heauen the Roses of glorie doe neuer fade nor doth custome dull the continually liuely taste of those incomparable delightes Goe then ô worldlings ô children of the earth and forsake goods of such qualitie for the transitorie goods which doe possesse you if we may giue so good a name to those smale blossomes of contentments that florish and fade at once which you gather here below with such strife of mynd blossomes inuironed with thornes Yes for either those goods are false or at the most not purely good and who soeuer would take the paines to seperate from their bulke the
reuelations represent vnto vs this heauenly Sion as a Citie all of gold and precious stones these being but shadowes of its true greatnes since the Heauens which we discouer with the Sunne and all the other starrs are but the pauement of the eternall firmament the inhabitants wherof treade vnder their feete the front of the brightest starrs All this vniuers the obiect and wonderment of the beholding eye and all this great world which hath so many louers and admirers is but a miserable stable full of dunge and durt in comparison of this seate of glorie of God's elect the God of the Elect. O great Apostle how good reason thou hadst in contemplation of this eternall Felicitie which consists in the sight of the true God and of that IESVS which he sent to esteeâ—â— all the rest durt and dung These visible heauens which in so high a strayne sing the glorie of their maker These nights and dayes which doe proclame his prayses through all the earth and so many wonderfull works which doe rayse our mynds by sense towards the greatnes of this Architect who sustaines this great bulke with three fingars are but the footstooles of the Throne of the eternall SalomoÌ„ and stayres onely by which we mount to his glorie If we should here giue bridle to our consideration and permit our mynd to walke through the multitude of different creatures which by their varietie doe so beautifie the face of the vniuers doe you not thinke Athanasia that it would be a course of too long a breath and such as was a subiect to so many the pens of antiquitie amongst others S. BASILS S. AMBROSES and ORIGENS in their Exam. and the Expounders of Genesis Let vs content our selues to draw from this spacious prospect this inference If the world a place of Nature be a Stage wherin is presented so many pleasant things how rauishing shall those beauties be which God shall manifest vnto his friends in the Mansion of his glorie the Paradice of his delightes If he permit the wicked his enemies such as offend him to inioy in this visible world so many delightes and pleasures what will he coÌ„municate to those whom he daignes to crowne with his heauenly and eternall fauours in the State of glorie A Stoicall Philosopher speaking of the felicitie of blessed soules according to the light of nature obscured with the shadowes of Paganisme could say that as much difference as there is betwixt the dungeon of a womans wombe and this great world so much is there betweene the wonders of this heaueÌ„ly beatitude of vertuous soules departed from their bodies and the greatest beauties which are seene in heauen and earth To what length are we to driue this dissimilitude we that are enlightened with the light of fayth and taught by so many faithfull promises as are contayned in the Scripture touching this blessed and vnconceauable Eternitie O Israel how goodly are thy tabernacles how delightfull thy Pauillions gardens watered with floods and fountaines are not so florishing nor are the vallies abounding with fruite so aboundant These are the words of a Prophete who yet doth but sparingly expresse the delightes of this happie Abode where the light is continuall and the dayes without nightes by reason of Gods presence who is wholy light and who doth not suffer those that doe follow and adore him to remayne in darknesse Wherevpon the spirits which doe serue before his Throne are called Angells of light It is a resplendant Residence not standing in need of those tortches the Sunne and Moone which are onely made to giue light to this low and elementarie world the heauenly Lambe being the Lampe which doth lighten the eternall Sion A Residence where the flowres doe continually accompaignie the fruites and where the extreamitie of heate and cold are banished to make place to an agreeable temperature and farr other then that earthly Paradice a garden of delight wherin were placed our first Parents created in originall Iustice A Residence in conclusion wholy constant and of an eternall durance From whence death is excluded and the qualities subiect to bring in alteration and change are banished and where all the inhabitants shall in some sort be made participant of the immutabilitie of God This stabilitie is in my opinion as it were the crowne of this faire place euen in that name farr differing froÌ„ the figure of this world which incessantly slides away not vnlike to ones shape in a mirrour which in an instant is both form'd and past according to S. IAMES O Citie of peace ô triumphant Hierusalem ô Court of the eternall Salomon when shall we come when shall we appeare before the face of this King of glorie when shall we be led into his Cellers when shall we passe through thy peaceable gates gates dearer to God then all the Tabernacles of IACOB O delightfull Abode ô wishfull Residence if euer I forgett thee let me not onely forget my right hand but euen my selfe for if I loose thee am I not eternally lost without all hope of redresse or mercy Of the essentiall happines of the blessed XLIII BVt you will aske me Athanasia what will be the highest point of the glorie of those that doe inhabite this place of delightes O my deare soule if neuer mortall ey saw what they see how doe you thinke I shall be able to expresse it with tongue or pen Is it in your opinion any thing which can fall within the compasse of a discours or can be put downe vpon paper Howbeit we will declare vnto you that which we haue discouered by the obscure light of faith rather in a glasse after a darke sort then openly face to face which is reserued for the next life as a reward for hauing beleeued it without seeing it It is therfore the constant doctrine of the Catholike Church that the essence of the eternall glorie doth consiste in the sight of the soueraigne well-beloued in the loue of the soueraigne well-beholden doe you vnderstand these few words well Athanasia which doe lay open vnto you all that you are to beleeue in this matter of the essentiall felicitie of the Blessed For leauing a part all the thornie disputes and contestations of the schoole vpon this point of the vision of the vnderstanding or of the fruition of the will the principall faculties of the soule wherin doth reside the happinesse of this supreme glorie whose obiect is God Omitting I say their debate who will place Beatitude in an act of the vnderstanding and theirs that will haue it to consist in an Act of the will we will follow the comon consent of Doctors and all the schooles who reiecting in this behalfe all partialitie haue now for a comon Maxime That it consistes in two actes of the vnderstanding and will grownding therin vpon the Scripture which now assignes the one now the other and somtymes both together As when we reade that eternall life is to know one onely God And againe
shall be crowned but such as haue lawfully fought And if we be taken with the greatnes of the reward let vs not be amaysed with the paines we are to vndergoe in obtayning it We must still goe forward and without looking back ouer our shoulders we must perseuere in the way If the roughnesse of the way affright vs let the consideration of Eternitie our end and contrie encourage and comfort vs. Another flight of mynd LXIII IF after the wings of a doue which the successour of the Sōne of a doue S. PETER hath now lent thee thou wilt take those of the Eagle who builds his nest in high places but of an Eagle which is able fixedly to behold the Sonne and who neuer stoopes from his winge of whom can you better borrow them ô my soule then of that greate Doctor who holds the same ranke amongst the Fathers of the Church that S. IOHN holds amongst the Euangelists and who is that great Eagle which is nourished with the sappe of the Cedars of Libanus You will easely imagine that I speake of S. AVGVSTINE Let vs borrow then this second flight of that superlatiue witt in these no lesse affectionate then sublime tearmes If you were saith he euery day to suffer extreame torments yea euen for a longe space to support the tortures of Hell to behold IESVS CHRIST in his glorie and to be admitted into the Societie of his Saintes for so great a good were not all sufferances I will not say supportable but euen desireable Let then the Diuel lay Ambush for vs let him prouide temptations let fasting breake our bodie let our flesh be ouercharged with austerities let labours oppresse vs let watchings drie vs vp let this man torment me let that man persequute me let me be frosen with cold scorched with heate let heade breake in peeces heart ake contenāce waxe wāne let me become wholy abiect let my life pine away with greife and the yeares of my life in gronings let my bones rott it imports not so I find repose in the day of tribulation he vnderstands the day of generall iudgment and that I may rise againe amongst the Elect. For who can conceaue what shall be the glorie of the iust how greate the ioy of Saintes when their faces shall shine like the Sunne when the Sauiour of the world shall number his people of acquisition and shall range them into diuers orders in the house of his eternall Father rēdring to euery one according to their merits and giuing heauenly things for terreane things eternall for temporall There saith the same Doctor in auther place the Angelicall troopes make a rauishing musike there is keepe a feaste of a perpetuall solemnitie with such as doe dayly arriue departing out of their mortall pilgrimage There are seene the Compainie of PROPHETES the assemblie of the APOSTLES is manifested there there the inuincible Armies of MARTIRES are discouered There is the holy congregation of CONFESSORS there the Quire of venerable MVNKES there that of DEVOVTE WOMEN who at once ouercame the weaknesse of their owne sexe and the delightes of the world There the young VIRGINS elder in vertue then in yeares there are the sheepe and tender lambes that haue escaped out of the iawes of the wolues and from the inueigling snares of this life whence they doe now celebrate a perpetuall feaste and though their glorie be different yet is their ioy comon There Charitie raigneth in her full perfection for vnto them God is all in all whom they behold and loue without end or intermission whom in louing they doe praise and in praysing doe loue and all this without wearinesse or trauaile at all O my soule how happie thou shouldst be if being deliuered out of the prison of this wretched body thou mightest be thought worthy to heare the sacred songs of that celestiall harmonie and the praises of the eternall King of that glorious Empire sung in an admirable aire O how accomplished should thy honour and glorie be for so it would come to thy turne to entone that gracious Alleluia which is in the mouth of all the Elect. Let vs yet add that iert of the wing or rather stroke of the same Fathers Pen before we conclude these flightes and eiaculations of mynd From this sacred Residence all feare of pouertie is banished all weaknes miserie infirmitie none there is angerie none doth enuie his neighbours happinesse none stands in need of eating or drinking There is no ambition nor desire to be great There is no apprehension nor of Hell nor Diuell nor yet of death of body or soule Contrariwise there is a life full of alacritie through the assurance they haue of immortalitie Disorder can haue no footing there where all things are maintayned in a constant Peace and conserued in a perfect concord Ioyne to all this the pleasure there is to liue in the compaignie of ANGELLS to enioy the gratefull conuersation of all those excellent and sublime SPIRITS and to behold the Armies of Saintes more bright thē the starrs of Heauē To contemplate the Sanctitie of PATRIARKES the Hope of PROPHETES the Crowne of MARTYRES the white and flowrie Garland of VIRGINES And as for the SOVERAIGNE KING who keepes his Residence in the midst of that glorious people what tongue is able to speake his praise That bird of Paridice which hāgs still in the aire doth she not intimate vnto vs by her ingenious hanging the incōceaueable greatnesse of that glorie Eternitie is the fulnesse of Beatitude LXIV BVt in fine Athanasia if you wilt see the garlād and crowne of this glorie adorned with so many bright precious stones you must fixe your eyes vpon its Eternitie for if all those glorious aduantages could end amidst all those felicities one would be accompaigned with a misfortune which would distaste all his ioy and would make him resemble the great-ones of the earth who amidst all the honours which Politike Idolatrie doth sacrifice vnto them are cōtinually stung with the thought of death which shall in the end mow them downe euen like vnto other men and burying them in dust shall equalise their Scepters with hatchets Kings with all their Powre escape not its dart nor doe Giants with all their force auoyd it Herein appeares Origen's errour who walking vpon the wings of the wind perished like to that old Milo Crotoniensis by his owne strength while he was of opinion that the Elect after a long residence in Heauen should fall at length from that felicitie like as he had held before that the paines of the dāned should not be eternall one absurditie drawing on another An errour excellently well refuted by S. AVGVSTINE in his bookes of the Citie of God as also by the Angell of the Schoole An errour in fine which aimes at the ruine of the immortalitie of the soule which is more then a bestiall blindnesse And certes besides that in a thousand places of holy Scriptures the life of the Elect in Heauen is
of Eternitie in the Purgatiue way and the force which it hath to reclayme vs from wickednesse A continuation of the formar discourse LXIX AS for the Illuminatiue way whose propertie it is to incite vs to goodnes and vertue what difficultie is incident to the pursute of vertue which is not surmounted by the price of so great glorie which is proposed vnto vs in Eternitie as I haue alreadie at large declared For the words of thy lipps ô Lord saith the Diuine Psalmist that is vpon the hope of thy promisses I haue kept the hard wayes IACOB hauing espyed that misterious ladder a figure of Beatitude durst close with an Angell neuer leaue wrastling with him till he had wrested a benediction from him And was not MICHOL with SAVLS crowne being proposed for his guerdon who should vanquish the Giant the motife which did so generously incite DAVID to so glorious an enterprise O Lord sings the Diuine Psalmist I ranne in the way of thy Commandements when thou didst opene and dilate my heart And yet what is able to dilate it more then the thought of Eternitie O how faire are the feete that is the affections of a foule which directes her stepps towards those eternall Hills through the pathes of pietie erecting stares in her heart to ascend vp to the heauēly Sion by the stepps of vertues This is she which doth rauish the Angells with admiratiō when they discouer her ascending out of the desart of the world as a litle rod of smoke composed of all the aromaticall spices It is written in the Apocalipse that the first fundation of the holy Citie Hierusalē is made of Iasper a stone marked with all the seuerall colours which are dispersed amongst the other stones wherby is intimated vnto vs that the eternall Sion hath its fundation vpō all the vertues and that he who pretends the attayning of it must resolue to imbrace them all otherwise he will not be permitted accesse Now what vertue is not acquired by this consideration what good habite is not contayned therin Let vs cast an ey vpon those which are the principall and as it were the roote of all the rest and we shall find Eternitie to be the Sea whither all these litle brookes runne What is FAITH but the argument of things not appeareing And are not eternall things those which doe not appeare for so the great Apostle doth teach vs. What is HOPE but an expectation of eternall blesse and the coming of the glorie of the great God In thee ô Lord haue I put my hoped saith DAVID and I shall not be confounded for euer What is CHARITIE but a Vertue which according to the Apostle remaynes for euer euen when FAITH and HOPE shall cease to be and Prophecies shall be made voyde and such as are rooted and founded in this Vertue doe in some measure comprehend the length bredth hight and depth of Eternitie What is PRVDENCE but a wise foresight of future things and principally of the next life for the life which ends in this world is called a Death by the Apostle yea yet in sharper tearmes a sensuall terreane malignant life And it was this prudent thought of Eternitie which MOYSES perceaued to be awanting in Israel while he tearmed it a Nation deuoyd of Councell and iudgement and wished from his heart that that people would become wise vnderstanding and foreseeing the tyme to come Touching FORCE and TEMPERANCE we haue shewen in the formar stroke that this thought makes one abstayne from and contemne earthly things and doth in courage the heart to all kinds of sufferances and crosses for the Conquest of Eternitie Concerning IVSTICE since eternall Glorie is tearmed the crowne of Iustice and that no iniustice can be permitted to make entrie there who can deney but the fruites of the thoughtes of Eternitie are the very same with those wherof DANIEL speakes which is to free the soule from sinne and to lodge eternall Iustice in its place And doth not the Psalmist say that the iust shall liue for euer PATIENCE also doth springe frō this thought sith the Kingdome of Heauen is promissed to such as doe practise it in persecution And who will not become HVMBLE vnder the powrefull hand of God when he shall seriously consider that the Kingdome of heauen belongs to the poore in spirit and that the humble shall be saued and aduanced and that the proude of heart are cast headlong downe with Lucifer into perpetuall flames And who will not turne MEEKE and mild when he shall reflect that the promised Land of Eternitie is their inheritance Who will not be deuoute and feruent in all the exercices of pietie whether it be prayer fasting Almes-deedes or in the practise of interiour or exteriour mortifications if he fall duely to consider that the violent doe beare away the Kingdome of Heauen Who will not imbrace or at least who will not loue and honour the Euangelicall Councells when he reades what great rewards are promised to the Continent obedient and voluntariepoore Runne in this sort ouer all the vertues whose pursuite and practise is the proper imployment of the Illuminatiue way and you shall find that whether they be Theologicall or morall infused they haue all for their Obiect a supernaturall end as faith the Angell of the schoole and consequently all of them ayme at Eternitie as all the lines of the circūference at the vnitie of the Cēter As for the vnitiue way which consistes in a certaine adhearing to the soueraigne Good which is God the verie essentiall Eternitie we will shew in the ensuing stroke that the essentiall Eternitie being no other thing properly speaking then God himselfe there is no thought at all which doth more immediately nor more generally vnite vs vnto him then that of Eternitie Whence I draw this Conclusion that the consideration of Eternitie is truely that one necessarie thing which is so highly commended in the Ghospell euen from the mouth of the sonne of God and called MARIE'S BEST PART which shall neuer be taken from her Iudge you then Athanasia of what importance it is to thinke frequently yea incessantly of Eternitie since it is as it were the pinne whervpon all spirituall life doth turne Of the essentiall Eternitie LXX HItherto Athanasia we haue not giuen thee a straight and cleare but an indirect view of Eternitie we haue shewen it thee onely sideling as BALAAM beheld the armie of Israel we haue onely pondered the two armes therof not the bodie It 's effects onely not it's cause and as one would say we haue seene the shouldiers onely not the face the accidents not the substance therof For albeit the Diuines teach vs that it is a whole and perfect possession of an endlesse life yet doth not this description quiet my vnderstāding in that it doth not represēt Eternitie as a thing created and out of God and which being applyed to creatures will indeede haue no end yet presupposeth a begining God alone being
we loue him not and complaynes that he is made a solitude in Israel and that he is not beloued and that the wayes of the eternall Sion weepe that none doe frequent their solemnities Let vs therfore goe with confidence to the Throne of his Grace if we desire to haue part in his Glorie Let vs permit him to wash the feete of our affections if we will with S. PETER haue Societie with him This God then who is an essentiall Charitie doth not onely permit vs to loue him but euen commands it and that vnder paine of death death euerlasting The first and greatest of his Commandements is all of the Loue we owe him This loue did once vnite the Diuine and humane nature in the Person of the WORD and did so farre exinanite the eternall Sonne of the eternall Father as to become man to take vpon him the forme of a seruant to appeare in earth and to be conuersant with men A loue which may well rayse man towards God since it could bring God downe to man A loue the band of perfection which vnites the equall and doth equalise such as it doth vnite A Loue which hauing once personally vnited as S. AVGVSTINE saith the light of the Diuinitie to the clay of our mortalitie is able to eleuate our desires euen vnto God and make vs participant of the Diuine nature which is done by Charitie infused into our hearts by the Holy Ghost It is this Diuine Loue which separating our affections not onely from dangerous and superfluous things but euen from things which are not euil yet are subiect to be loued with excesse and with too strong and inordinate a passion shall make vs behold all created things in God and will so gouerne our inclinatiōs that we shall affect no creature but in God for God and according to God wherin consisteth the perfect practise of that Diuine Cōmandement which commands vs to loue God with all our heart with all our soule with all our spirit with all our strength and euen aboue all things For a soule that is come to this degree of perfection that she loues nothing but in God and God in all things in proper speach loues not many things nor is not in the folicitude inseparable from the multiplicitie of louely obiects but she loues but one onely thing which is God the one true necessarie thing and out of whom all is but miserie and affliction of spirit And because in all that which the order of Charitie proposeth vnto her to be loued she loues God alone she loues him equally in all and as couragiously in her enemy as tēderly in her friend because she loues him onely out of all other things and without all other things but nothing at all without him or out of him If it be ESTHER alone that ASSVERVS loueth saith my blessed Father in his Theotime why should he loue her more when she is parfumed and adorned then when she is in her comon attire If it be our Sauiour onely that a soule loueth why should she not as well loue the Mount-Caluarie as Thabor sith he is as truly in the one as the other and why should she not pronounce as cordially in the one as in the other It is Good for vs to be here She can loue our Sauiour in Egipt without louing Egipt why then shall she not loue him in the banquet of SIMON the LEPROVS without louing the banquet And if she loue him amidst the blasphemies which are vomited out against him without louing the blasphemies why shall she not loue him parfumed with MAGDELAINES precious oyntments without louing the parfumes or smells It is a true signe that one loues God onely in all things when one loues him equally in all things since he being alwayes equall to himselfe the inequallitie of loue towards him must needs spring from some thing which is not he Whence the soule that loues God purely and singulary loues him no more with the whole vniuerse to boote then all alone without the vniuerse because all that which is out of God and is not God is as nothing to her O pure soule who loues not euen Paradice it selfe but because God is there loued and is so soueraignely loued in his Paradice as that if he had not a Paradice to bestow yet would he nether be lesse loulie or lesse beloued of this generous soule who knowes not how to loue the Paradice of her God but onely her God of Paradice and who puts no lesse rate vpon the Caluarie where her Sauiour was crucified then the Heauen where he is glorified O how well doth this saintly Bishope speake my Athanasia whose tearmes I durst not paraphrase nor disguise or change his venerable words least I might loose his deuoute sēse expressed in words of so great energie and so full of spirit and vertue that all the flanting tearmes of worldly wisdome seeme to me far lesse persuasiue powrefull How forcibly and sweetly doth he teach vs in this discourse not to looke vpon the two hands of God that of Iustice and vengance and that other of Mercy and reward but to search after his face alone and to feare and loue him for himselfe not for the punishments which he threatens vice nor for the reward which he proposeth to vertue because he is altogether to be honored worshiped and serued for the loue of him selfe yea although he had nether Paradice for reward nor yet Hell for Punishment The blessed and accursed Eternitie are onely to be considered as things accessorie Our prime intention and cheife attention are to be set vpon the Diuine Eternitie or the eternall Diuinitie vnlesse we would loose the title of the children of God and through feare of eternall punishments or desire of eternall rewards beesteemed slaues and hirelings Let 's loue God Athanasia and let him dispose of vs as he pleaseth Let vs be in his hands as clay in the hand of the Potter Let him make of vs vessells of honour or ignominie Be it nobly or ignobly so we be his it sufficeth Le ts turne our eyes from rewards or punishments and let vs fixe them vpon our Lord. Let vs behold his amiable face Let vs set our view vpon his hands but as a faithfull hand-maide vpon those of her Mistrisse Let vs receaue indifferently that which comes from the right hād of prosperitie and the left of aduersitie Although he should euen kill vs le ts hope in him And let vs hope without hope yea euen against all apparence that nothing shall separate vs from his Charitie Let vs cast all our thoughtes vpon him And in steed of staying our thoughtes vpon the created and as it were the accidentall Eternitie of Heauen or Hell let vs onely be fastened vpon the essentiall Eternitie which is God himselfe who hath in his hand the extreamities of the earth And who keepes the keyes of eternall life and death Let vs not so dwell vpon the thought of Heauen or
Hell's Eternitie as that we doe not more thinke of his Eternitie who made them both this for the Diuells and their associates that for the Angells and the Elect. O eternall Diuinitie ô Diuine Eternitie thou art he whom I consider and whom I seake for to thee onely it is that I aspire for without thee the created Eternitie would not bee since it doth not subsiste but by the eternall essence of the essentiall Eternitie which is no other thē God himselfe And yet further to purisie myne affection and bring it to its full perfection henceforth I will not so much loue the Eternitie of God as the God of Eternitie though God be that same Eternitie and that same Eternitie be God himselfe And if by the imagination of an impossible thing one could be in Hell with his grace his accursed Eternitie would not be dreadfull nor is the Blessed Eternitie to be desired but that eternall life is to see God eternally eternally to depēd vpon him O eternall God! who is like vnto thee who is like vnto thee who is like vnto our Lord God who inhabites in the places aboue And what Eternitie can be compared vnto his from whom proceedes all Eternitie seing he hath made the ages of ages O Great God direct my wayes in thy presence and make me walke before thee in perfection that is perfect in such sort my intentions that forgetting myne owne interest and nether staying my selfe in the blessed or accursed Eternitie I may onely looke after thyne essentiall Eternitie which is thy selfe to whom be honour and glorie from generation to generation for euer and euer in the Eternitie of Eternities Amen An aspiration of Hope LXXIII BVt ô Lord will it not be too great a presumption for a worme of the earth to rayse it selfe towards thyne infinite Eternitie and promisse himselfe one day in thy glorie to be vnited thervnto Yea verily it were a manifest vanitie if a soule should persuade her selfe that of her selfe and by the strength of her owne winge she could wind her selfe thither But as of her selfe she can doe nothing so together with thee being fortified by thee what can she not performe ô great God since she holds her whole beeing of thy Grace What may she not what ought she not to expect from thy grace since it is written that thy grace is eternall life And againe with what confidence must not her heart needs be encouraged when she shall cast the eyes of her consideration vpon the great price and infinite merites of thyne eternall Sonne ô eternall Father a Sonne who hath layed her open the way to Eternitie not by the blood of gotes or calues but acquiring vnto her by his owne blood an eternall and plentuous redemption O my soule what are we not to hope from the Mercy of so good a God and who hath loued vs with an eternall and excessiue Charitie a Charitie so excessiue that he bestowed his owne Sonne to be the propitiation for our Sinnes When we were dead by our crymes his grace restored vs to life Our Sauiour dying vpō the Crosse did quicken vs by his death and the same reuiuour doth promise vs a like resurrection and ascending vnto heauen he goes to prepare vs a place before the Throne of his glorie Which made the great Apostle writing to the Ephesians say that God who is rich in mercy for his exceding Charitie wherwith he loued vs euen while we were dead by sinnes quickened vs together in CHRIST by whose grace we are salued and hath raysed vs vp with him selfe making vs sit with him in the celestials in IESVS CHRIST shewing to future ages the abundant riches of his grace through his benignitie towards vs in IESVS CHRIST And the Prince of the Apostles S. PETER Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST who according to his great Mercy hath regenerated vs vnto a liuely hope by the resurrection of IESVS CHRIST from the deade vnto an inheritance incorruptible and incontaminate and that cannot fade conserued in the Heauens in you For what ought not those to hope for who are inrowled as members in the misticall body of the Holy Church whose heade he is being most reasonable that the Champions should follow their Commander in his triumph if they did accompanie him in his Combats vnder the Banner of the Crosse You that haue followed me said he to his Apostles you shall be set vpon seates in the Kingdome which my Father hath prepared for you in Eternitie There it is that the Elect like vnto Eagles shall flocke about the bodie of the glorious humanitie of our Redeemour and where crowned with the crowne of Iustice they shall lay them downe at the feet of this Lābe Conquerour of the earth and who vanquished the world And if the eternall Father hath giuen vs his Sonne how will not he giue vs all things with him especially since this Sonne hath the key of DAVID key Scepter of his Empire vpon his shouldiers A key with which he opens and none can shut Behold saith S. IOHN what Charitie the eternall Father hath communicated vnto vs that we should be named and be his Sonnes and if his Sonnes his Heires also Heires truely of God and Coheires of CHRIST It was this holy hope that moued the Psalmists heart so generously to lanch out as by so many flightes towards the blessed Eternitie Come let vs ascend into the Hill of our Lord and into the house of the God of IACOB Hope in him all yee congregations of the faithfull for those that hope in him vnderstād the truth of his promises those that are faithfull in his loue doe place their confidence therin Those that hope in him shall not be confounded for euer for such as put their confidence in him shall be no more shaken then the Mountaine of Sion but replenished with ioy in the expectation of the eternall felicitie they cryed out I reioyced when I was told that we were to goe into the house of our Lord. And indeed what is not a man to hope of an infinite Bountie what ought not one to expect from so solemne promises and whose truth remaynes for euer No Lord neuer neuer will I forget thy iustifications for it is by them that thou hast giuen me life I doe firmely beleeue that if my soule doe constantly adheare vnto thee thy right hand will receaue one into thy bosome O how happie are those whom thou hast chosen and taken as thyne for they shall dwell in thyne eternall Court for euer and euer Let 's make no doubt of it my soule he that by his grace moues vs to tend to this goale will not forsake vs in the midst of our course and in so faire a way but since his workes are perfect he will heape grace vpon grace and will make vs happily arriue at the Port and point of all consummation O God draw vs after thee sith it is thee alone whom we search and
thy selfe since thy beeing is Eternitie it selfe In contemplating the sundrie beauties which God hath disperâ—â—â— in the world rauishing the beholders eyes with admiration let vs say with an auncient Father if God permit the â—se of so many goodly things euen to his enemyes what will he reserue for his friends in the life to come In beholding the Sunne the world 's onely eye the fountaine of light from whence all the other starrs borrow their brightnes doth not occasion present it selfe in which we may consider the increated light of that God who is all light and whom darknes cannot obscure who doth inhabite an inaccessible light who is the Sunne of Iustice who is the true light by which euery one coming into this world is enlightened And to lift vp our thoughtes towards the Sunne of Iustice the Orient from aboue towards that heauenly Citie which stands in need of no Sunne nor Moone because Gods brightnes doth lighten it and its Lampe is the Lambe When the day doth enlighten vs and discouer vnto vs so many beauties which the nightly vayle doth hide from our eyes Alas may we say when shall the faire day of Eternitie appeare which shall be followed by no night and where we shall see the light of the Diuinitie in the light of Glorie And when the night mother of sleepe and rest shall spreade her darke mantle all besett with starrs ouer the face of the earth if we desire to with-draw our thoughtes from the sad night of the accursed Eternitie marked in the Scripture with the name of exteriour darknes a night which shall neuer see the day of Grace or Glorie what shall hinder vs in beholding so many torches which sparkle in those celestiall vaultes vpon a cleare night to propose vnto our selues the Blessed who shine as starrs for perpetuall Eternities differing in blesse brightnes as one starre differs from another Why may we not also contemplate the essentiall Eternitie of God vnder this Symbole since it is written he set his signet vpon the darknes That his night is as bright as day and his darknes shineth like light So shall the night afford vs a gratefull light And during the obscurities we shall lift vp our hands towards the holy places blessing our Lord till our chaÌ„ge shall draw neere and that we shall see him no more after a darke manner but face to face If the Sunn's course within his annuall circle shewe vnto vs the diuersitie of seasons the floures of the Spring and the fruites of the fall may not these things bring him vnto our consideration who is the flowre of the feild and the lilie of the vally whose lilie is most florishing him in a word who is the fruite of life the fruit of the blessed virgins woÌ„be the Sonne of the Eternall God whose floures are fruites of honour and honestie And the seasons of Summer and winter in the distempered excesse of their heates and cold are they not figures of that infortunate Eternitie where the damned passe out of icie waters into flames If we looke vpon the Elements wherof all the mixt bodies are composed doe not earth and Fire prefigure vnto vs the accursed Eternitie since the earth conteynes the fire of Hell with in its Center which shall neuer be extinguished And are not the Aire and Water a picture of Paradice where the Blessed doe flie and swimme as foole and fishe in the essentiall Eternitie Is it not written that the Elect after the Doome of the last Assises shall be taken vp into the ayre after IESVS CHRIST and that in heauen they shall drinke of the torrent of pleasures eternally and swime in those impetuous floodes which doe make the Citie of God ioyfull Whether we make reflection vpon our owne or other mens liues or whether we consider in an others death the picture of our owne which we cannot escape is it not a iust occasion to thinke of the life which shall neuer dye and of that second death which shall neuer liue although indeede it can neuer dy nether If according to the Apostle we may eate and drinke to God's glorie why may not we also in taking our repast thinke of the sacietie which we hope for in his glorie when as most happie children of the Deitie we shall be set at our heauenly Fathers table fed with the same foode with himselfe because we shall enioy the same Beatitude by which God is happie for being happie of himselfe in himselfe shall be our eternall happines when we shall be made partakers of him made like vnto him coÌ„formable to his Image and to vse the tearme of the holy Scripture partakers of his Diuine nature While we take our repose in our bedd why may we not thinke of him that is eternall and reflect vpon the repose which he prepares for vs in Eternitie if in the tyme of this mortall course we fight lawfully for him O God thou art my repose for euer and euer I haue made choyce of the bosome of thy goodnes to remayne therin eternally Who will giue me the wings of a Doue to flie vp to that assured repose and to passe into the place of the admirable Tabernacle euen vnto the house of God We may intertaine our selues with the same thoughts vpon Sonday the day of rest and repose seeing we are commanded to cease from corporall labours to be free to contemplate the Diuine Goodnesse and that delicate Saboath which the Saintes enioy in Eternitie for there it is saith the holy Ghost that they rest from labours and where they reape in ioy what they had sowen in teares Vpon festiuall days whether it be of the mysteries of our holy Fayth or of the solemnities of our Sauiour IESVS of his holy mother or of Saintes can we be imployed in a better thought then with the desire of imitating them to meet them in Eternitie by walking in the pathes which they haue marked vs out For in vaine should we boast that we are members of IESVS CHRIST and children of Saints if we refuse to walke as they haue walked that so following their example we may come to be made worthy vnto the part of the lot of Saintes in the light of eternall felicitie Vpon worke dayes which the Church Office calls ferialls we are to thinke that none comes to the eternall Ferialls but by labours and sufferaÌ„ces Whervpon the Scripture councelleth vs to walke towards goodnes while the day lasteth and carefully to put our hand to the worke while tyme is fauorable and the day proper to worke our saluation in Whether we be sitting standing or walking euery posture of our bodie represents Eternitie Sitting should reduce vnto our memorie the emptie Seates of the Angells fallen from Heauen which remayne for vs to fill and repaire their ruines And the Seates also prepared for those who are to iudge the world together with our Sauiour If we stand let vs thinke of that which the Psalmist saith we were straight
in the eternall God To whom keeping an inuariable fidelitie in the various change of things she pronounceth couragiously with the Apostle whether we liue or die we are our Lord's I will blesse him at all tymes his praise shall be continually in my mouth Whether he draw vs vp to Heauē or he depresse vs downe into the Abisses below whether he doe mortifie or quicken vs his loue shall be so strong vnto me loue which is more strong then death or Hell that nothing shall euer be able to separate me from his charitie Yea she will rather be vnmyndfull of her selfe then forget this deare Hierusalem of that Eternitie wherin she hath cast the Ankre of all her hopes and of her saluation Exercise your selfe therfore frequently and faithfully in this Practise of Aspirations and Iaculatorie Prayers which are so familiar to all those that professe true pietie and you will find by experience that as by meanes therof you come to see God in all things so shall you easely discouer therby in euery thing the Blessed or accursed Eternitie since Fortune and misfortune are the two basons or rather the two Poles of this life and the two Caskes or tunns of Prouidence according to that auncient Philosophers conceipt or at least to contemplate therin the essentiall Eternitie which is God the Center wherin all our desires and asperations doe end The moments wher vpon Eternitie doth depend LXXVII O God Athanasia what am I about to say this Eternitie which shall neuer haue end is not yet in respect of vs without begining and it is that which the Diuines call Euiternitie for God alone being his owne Eternitie is without begining or end But all other creatures who were made in TYME had a begining yet true it is that both Angells and men shall be eternall marrie in the tyme to come for they had a begining and were not from all Eternitie Now as we haue had a begining and shall haue no end whether our wicked life doe precipitate vs into eternall punishments or our good endeauours assisted by God's grace make vs a way to eternall life So our passage to the blessed or accursed Eternitie depends of a moment as of its principle O Athanasia how attētiue ought we to be to vnderstand that dreadfull moment whervpon depends our Eternitie If you aske me which it is I will discouer vnto you in the next stroke that it comprehends all the moments of this mortall life But as in a plentious heruist there are alwayes some eares of come more notable then the rest and amongst the starrs those which are neerest the two Poles are the most remarkable so amongst the moments of which our mortall life are composed I would wish that we should haue a principall care of the two of which I am about to speake The first is the precious moment in which the Diuine grace doth touch our hearts called by the Scripture the tyme of our visitation a moment of such importance that being rightly receaued it is the blosome of our blessed Eternitie but being ill managed it is the begining of our accursed Eternitie Woe be to thee said our Sauiour weeping ô Hierusalem because thou hast not decerned the tyme of thy visitation O God Athanasia how we shall be astonished when before the Tribunal of the iust Iudge where we must all appeare we shall heare our selues accused of so many negligences for that we haue ether despised the Diuine inspirations or that we haue abused so many heauēly graces which could haue giuen vs life if we had bene deade by sinne or life more abundantly if we were alreadie in grace according as it is writtē How much was that slothfull louer of the Canticles greeued when she perceaued that her Spouse was past by who had stood at her Chāber doore quaking with cold and beseeching entrie by so many louing inuitatiōs and aduantagous promisses She riseth but to late she runs full of desolation into diuers places but fines him not till after a thousand and a thousand labours affrontes reproches But what a heart breake shall it be to the reprobate soule when after her condemnation she shall clearly see how many occasions of working her saluation she had neglected and how many meanes she had to free her selfe from the torments to which she shall see her selfe adiudged for euer We sēnselesse say the damned speaking of the Elect esteemed their life who wrought their owne saluation madnes themselues dasterous and dishonorable but now we see their lot is in the inheritance of Saintes On the other side what a consolation shall it be to thee Blessed when they shall consider that their well imployed moments of affliction in earth had wrought in them an eternall waight of Glorie Let vs therfore be carefull of our selues Athanasia Let vs marke what our Sauiour speakes in our hearts and doubtlesse we shall vnderstand words of Peace and reconcilement Blessed is the man that heareth him and watcheth at his doores dayly which we doe when we are earefull to gather vp his inspiratiōs as the dropes of a heauenly dew which begets precious Pearles in our hearts and the holy vnions of our soule with God Let 's still be on foote and as it were stand Sentinell vpon our wayes let vs thinke in what sort we walke let vs turne our feete into the Pathes of the Diuine Lawe The SECOND MOMENT is that which makes a separation betwixt our soule and our body that is the instant of our departure out of this life a moment which is our last and is to be iudge of all those that went before For as the Tree remaynes for euer where it falls so shall we continue for euer in the state in which we are found in the instant of our death And such as God shall find vs then such will he iudge vs. For if all this life be but a waying to Eternitie death is to be tearmed the doore of Eternitie yet a double doore passing the good to felicitie the wicked to eternall miseries And if PHILIPPE MACEDO to conteyne himselfe within the bounds of temperance and modestie in his Kinglike greatnes made a Page aduertise him euery morning that he was a Man and consequētly mortall least he might haue framed some immortall cōceipt of himselfe How much more ought a Christian continually to call to mynd that double Eternitie which attends him after death The present moment LXXVIII BVt besides these two moments which I haue proposed vnto you Athanasia I doe so much desire that you would attend and applie your selfe to the consideration of Eternitie that I would wish from my heart that all the moments of your life were imployed in that exercise that I might applie to you that of the Prophete you are a nightly Sentinell of this life and might one day see you amongst the wise Virgins in the eternall banquet of the marriage of the Lambe I could wish that at euery breathing you would cast an ey
that voice of terrour Rise ô yee deade and appeare before the Tribunall of the liueing God how much more reason haue we to thinke of the issue and conclusion then the preparation of this solemne Iudgement since the sentence doth irreuocably decree what shall become of vs for all Eternitie Before and aboue all things said PACOMIVS let vs keepe before our eyes the last of all the dayes and all the moments of our life let vs thinke and throughly thinke of Eternitie A remarkable Sentence and euen worthy to be engrauen with an iron penne not onely in a plate of leade but in the hardest marble and flinte stone as said the good IOB The mother of Simphorian said vnto her sonne while he was haled vnto Martirdome my deare child the fruite of my wombe the beloued of my vowes turne thyne eyes towards Heauen consider him that raignes there for euer renounce him not for a moment of life the paines of death will quickly be past but the reward shall neuer end And S. FRANCIS to encourage his Religions to the lingering martirdome of a religions life said vnto them Bretheren great are the things which we haue promised vnto God yet infinitly greater things God hath promised vnto vs The labour is short the reward is eternall The pleasure doth post by the paine is permanent Many are called few are elected euery one receaues according to his workes But especially at that great day which is the iudge of all the rest euery one shall be rewarded according to his workes and God shall reueale that which is shut vp in darknes and shall manifest the secretes of hearts A day so dreadfull that the powres of Heauen shall be moued the Angells shall quake with feare when the Almightie shall come to iudge the world It is not my pourpose Athanasia to entertayne you with the horrours of that day which would require a whole volume I will onely place before your eyes the eternall Ghospell or rather the irreuocable sentence which shall proceede from his mouth who shall iudge the people in equitie who shall iudge nations and to whom his Father hath giuen all iudgement in heauē and in earth and which shall issue from thence like lightning and thunder farre more dreadfull then that which did appeare vpon the toppe of the mount Sina when our Lord deliuered his law vnto Israel by the hand of MOYSES Mediatour betweene God and the people O Sauiour of the world thou shalt be then a lambe Dominatour of the earth to the good but to the reprobate a roaring Lion When the Lion begins to roare in the Forrest there is nether passinger nor yet wildebeasts that doe not quake and hide themselues O how shall the damned dread thy voice resembling that of thy thunder in the wheele of thy furie since they shall inuoke the mountaines to fall downe vpon them to hide them before the face of thy wroth for who knowes the force of thyne indignation or who is able to somme vp the effectes therof How penetrating shall the two edged sword be which shall proceed from thy mouth whilst thou shalt thunder out against thē that eternall doome which shall reach euen vnto the diuisiō of their soule and their spirit of their ioyntes also and their marowes GOE YEE ACCVRSED INTO ETERNALL FIRE O Athanasia who is able without astonishment to vtter without swonding to vnderstand so dismaying and dreadfull words Be gone Alas dread Lord whither shall they goe to auoyd the encounter of thy spirit and to conuey themselues from before thy wrothfull countenance art thou not in Heauē in Hell and euery where dost thou not euen fill heauen and earth dost thou not hold the vniuerse in thy hand and doth not thy powre comprehend all things Be gone But to whom shall they betake themselues art not thou he who hath the words of eternall life who art euen thy selfe life euerlasting Be gone Whither wilt thou haue those Prodigalls to retire thēselues doe what they can they cannot goe out of thee since in thee all things haue motion beeing and life Be gone But whither shall those ABSALON's resort for succour being eternally banished from the Court of the eternall DAVID King of ages immortall and inuisible Be gone O what a word or rather what a Thunder bolt able to strike Lucifer downe into the Abisse of Hell oh Sauiour IESVS in the day of thy flesh in the tyme of thy sufferances when like an innocent Lambe thou wast lead to be sacryficed if this word It is I was able to prostrate vpon the ground the troopes of Soldiers How shall that word of reprobation precipitate them whom thou driuest eternally from the Paradice of thy presence Be gone ô banishing sword of the Angell of the high Councell who dost banish for an Eternitie the Betrayers of the heauenly inheritance Be gone ô Athanasia if the Auncient prophetes were struke with such astonishmēt while God appearing vnto them vnder diuers formes did impart vnto them his will and pleasure as to his friends and Embassadours to be the Interpreters of the same to the people and if the onely vision of the Angells of light put them into a traunce as we reade euen of S. IOHN in his Apocalipse falling prostrate at the feete of the Angell as though he had fallen downe deade If Israel while he heard God thunder and lighten vpon the Mount-Sina said vnto MOYSES speake thou vnto vs and we will vnderstand thee but let not our Lord speake least we may dye and continuing in his apprehension if we heare any more said he the voice of our Lord God infallibly we are dead for what flesh is able to susteyne the word of the liuing God speaking out of the midst of flames as we heare him how dreadfull I pray you must the condemning voice of the inexorable Iudge needs be The Prophete ISAYE seeing in spirit onely the destruction of Babylone was touched with so deepe a compassion that he affirmed that his reines were filled with dolour and his anguish was like to that of a woman in childbirth that he fell backward in hearing its Condemnation was troubled in beholding it withered away with apprehension and was inuolued in darknesse through amaysement therof Then saith the same Prophete speaking of the last iudgement the day of the furie of the God of Hostes shall be terrible to the proud arrogant and haughtie Then saith IEROMIE they shall be confounded who not haue considered that eternall reproach Then goes on ISAYE The Almightie will make the Maiestie of his voice be heard and will manifest the fearefull force of his arme in the consummation of his wroth and in the flame of deuouring fire For euen as a fire saith the Psalmist which burneth a woode and as a flame that burneth the mountaines so shalt thou pursue them in thy tempest who shall be the obiect of thy wrath Then the Almightie saith the wiseman by his owne vertue shall trample vnder his feete the