most familiar and perpetual society with Christ and his most Lovely and most Gracious Mother Mary and with all the Blessed Assuredly all the joys of the world Compared with the least joy of Heaven are meer bitterness The vast Ocean does not so much exceed in quantity one single drop of water as the least pleasure of the Blessed does exceed all the delight and pleasure that ever was in the world And the joys of Heaven shall never be ended nor ever be diminished Nor be interrupted for one single moment for all eternity 5. Besides when thy Soul in the Resurrection shall have received thy glorious body what joy shall it thence receive For thy very body shall be most splendid and much more bright than the Sun it shall be most sound most firm most beautiful most pure odoriferous incorruptible impassible most subtil and very agil Whence thy soul with its glorified body can be wheresoever it will in a very short space of time nothing can hinder it nothing put a stop or impediment unto it Thou shalt also after the Resurrection conceive exceeding great Joy from the happy renovation of this visible World which shall be of a far more elegant form than now it is For whatsoever is now in the World unclean whatsoever is obscure and shady in the Earth whatsoever is cold in the Waters and whatsoever has power of burning in the Fire all that shall go down into Hell The Sun and Moon and Starres shall be seven times more bright than they are now Henceforth there shall be no Clouds nor Hail nor Rain nor Winds nor Lightning nor Thunder Night shall cease to be a perpetual Day and Clarity succeeding as well on Earth as in the Heavens The Air shall have more light than it has now the Water shall be purer than it is now The Earth shall be fair as Gold and pellucid as Crystal and plain as the palm of your hand 6. Such things God has prepared for those who love him O how unhappy are they who for the most base pleasures delights and vanities of this World deprive themselves of so great joyes But thou who readest these things aspire and make haste to that never-fading Glory Detest and fly all Sin as much as thou canst contemn all transitory things love God love all Men and spend the time profitably which is allotted thee The Conclusion Admonitions concerning the Practice of these Meditations 1. HE who exercises himself in the foregoing Meditations may nay ought in some of them to wit in those which are more fruitful stay more than three daies especially during the first Exercise which Exercise precedes the repetition of the same Meditations 2. It will be profitable when he is to begin any Exercise our Meditation that he read first the last division of the same Meditation for in it commonly are put some things conducing to the right and profitable performance of the same Meditation 3. If whilst he is exercising himself he be overcharged with sleep let him rise and standing or walking continue the Exercise He must diligently weigh with himself all the points and members of the Divisions and freely stay in them 4. Moreover when he shall perceive himself to be solicited or allured to follow his vitious passions Concupiscences and inclinations if holy love do not restrain him from evil he must forthwith call to mind death judgment and hell that at least profitable fear may restrain him 5. He must very Carefully contain and bridle his tongue and senses for otherwise he will never make any progress in true vertues 6. That he may more speedily attain to a contempt of himself and true humility without which no Vertue is of any value he must very often exercise himself in an attentive and amorous consideration of the greatness of God and of his Fidelity and Charity towards himself and on the contrary in the consideration of his own littleness and of his unfaithfulness and ingratitude towards God he shall say to God these or such like things O Lord who art thou and who am I Thou art the Lord of highest majesty nobility and dignity Thou art the Creator of Heaven and Earth Thou art the Immense God the Omnipopotent God But I am a most vile worme I am unworthy whom the Earth should sustain I am nothing I can do nothing Thou hast been ever most faithful to me loving me most purely and bestowing upon me innumerable benefits but I alas have been most unfaithful and too ungrateful to thee and am so still He must perform the foresaid exercise purely to the honour of God He must in his heart prefer every man how wicked soever before himself and deem him better than himself 7. He must accustom himself frequently to recall and elevate his mind to God and he must do this even amidst conversation and when he is exercised in external works least his mind wandering and forgetful of his purpose and too estranged from God lose its inward purity and antient grace He must piously attend the amiable presence of God knowing that he alwaies beholds all his thoughts words and actions He must aspire after the spouse of his soul Jesus Christ and maintain sweet colloquies of love with him By this means he shall both pass this life with pleasure and after the death of the body he shall come to eternal joyes of immortal life Amen A short Commemoration of the Life of Christ divided into Articles Article I. THe sweet JESUS the Son of the living God the most high God the Creator of Heaven and Earth for the exceeding Charity wherewith he loved me would be conceived by the Holy Ghost and incarnate in the most chast womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary in which also he dwelt nine months My God emptied himself and taking the form of a servant was made my Brother that he might reduce me to his Heavenly Kingdom O Ineffable Piety and inestimable Favor what shall I return to my Lord I offer and resign my self wholly to his good pleasure To him be praise honour and glory for ever and ever Amen Article II. THe sweet JESUS the King of glory the cause of my salvation was born a Tender Infant in a poor stable winter sharply raging He was wrapp'd in clouts He was reposed in the Crib of Beasts He lay upon hay and straw He was suckled by the breasts of a poor mother The Son of God endured so great Poverty for my sake To him be praise honour and glory for ever Amen Article III. The sweet JESUS was circumcised on the eighth day from his Birth his Mother sadly condoling with him He was circumcised and shed his most pure Blood for me a most vile wretch and he would be called Jesus that is a Saviour for my comfort Then he was revealed to the Gentiles when the Sages guided by a star to Bethlehem to adore the little Infant and with joy and reverence offered to him gifts gold frankincense and myrrhe To him
wills not the death of a sinner but rather that the sinner should be Converted and Live Ezek. c. 18. 33. Meditation III. Of the Vniversal and Last Judgment Division 1. NOthing can be imagined more dreadful than that strict and terrible Judgment by which God will judge all men in the Last Day Very terrible Signs shall go before this Universal Judgment to wit a stupendious violence of Winds tumultuous Risings of the Sea unusual Workings of its Waves vast Earthquakes Fallings of Buildings knocking together of Mountains breaking of Rocks claps of Thunder obscuration of the Sun Moon and Stars sad roaring and bellowing of Beasts miserable withering of Men for fear c. The Day of Judgment being now at hand the world shall be set on Fire by the Divine Power and so the Fire shall destroy and consume all brute Animals and all Men which it shall find Alive But the Supreme Judge will come in His Majesty and with intollerable Anger That dreadful Judg shall come in the Clouds of Heaven with the Elders of the People and with thousands of Angels with the whole Celestial Host Deservedly therefore the Prophet Sophonias considering that great and bitter Day of our Lord Sophon 1. sayes That Day is a Day of Anger a Day of Tribulation and Straits a Day of Calamity and Misery a Day of Darkness and Gloominess a Day of Clouds and Tempestuousness a Day of a Trumpet and Noise And blessed Hierom sayes Whether I eat or drink or whatsoever else I do the Noise of that dreadful Trumpet always sounds in the ears of my mind Arise ye dead come to Judgment 2. Then all Men in a moment having received their Bodies shall Rise again and our Lord shall come down to Judge them And the Elect indeed agil beautiful strong splendid rejoycing and secure shall meet the Judge and being Raised from the Earth shall stand in the Air on his right hand But the Reprobate shall stand upon the Earth heavier than Lead infirm deformed stinking vile obscure and miserably trembling and shall be on his left hand O! what horrid and unimaginable straits shall they sustain With how unutterable a Terror and Fear shall they be strucken when they shall see above them an Angry and an Inflexible Judge beneath them the Pit of Hell open and gaping for them about them the World on Fire beside them a multitude of Devils Accusing them within them a guilty and gnawing Conscience All their Sins and all the Secrets of their Hearts shall be manifest as well to Men as Angels The Wicked shall seek to turn away their Face from the angry Countenance of the Judge but shall not be able Who also beholding the glory of the Just Shall be troubled with a horrid fear and sighing for anguish of Spirit shall say These are they whom sometimes we had in derision we fools deemed their Life a madness and their End without honour Lo how they are reckoned amongst the Sons of God and their Lot is amongst the Saints Wised 5. 3. Christ our Lord will show to all his Wounds shining with an ineffable Comliness which truly shall bring to the Just a most sweet consolation but to the Wicked a dreadful confusion Christ himself shall then terribly reproach to all the Reprobate and Ungrateful the benefits of his Incarnation and Passion And they with unconceivable grief shall acknowledge Him whom they chose rather to slight and despise than to fear and worship 4. No Evil shall then remain undiscussed or unrevenged but a strict Examen shall be made of all thy works words thoughts and affections The Justice of the Judge is not less than his Mercy both is infinite Wherefore thou must render an account of all the time granted to thee of spiritual Gifts neglected of temporal Goods ill expended of Meat Drink and Alms unworthily consumed Thou shalt render an Account not only for thy self but also for those to whom thou hast at any time set a bad example and hast given an occasion of doing ill As also for all Sinners and Pagans perhaps a grievous account shall be exacted of thee for that thou hast not faithfully prayed for their Conversion But chiefly thou shalt give an account for those who were specially committed to thy care Innumerable sins which thou dost not take notice of nor acknowledge shall then break out against thee as it were out of ambush and shall be objected unto thee The least thoughts and very minute words which thou slighted and reputed as nothing shall then be discussed Hence the Psalmist prays From my hidden faults cleanse me O Lord. Psal 18. Attend now that most hard and irrevocable Sontence of the just and angry Judge For when he shall have said to those who shall be on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father c. He shall say to those who shall be on his left hand Go ye cursed into eternal fire O sharp word O word full of all horror and bitterness This Sentence of eternal Damnation being pronounced immediately the Earth with a terrible crack shall swallow up the wicked and that fire with which the world shall burn involving them with darkness and with all the filth and stench of the whole world shall thurst them down into Hell there to be for ever tormented But these falling down into the depth of Hell the Elect shall go up gloriously into Heaven the same Reprobate beholding that very thing and to their greater Calamity and Misery never forgetting it O Despisers of the Law of God! think seriously I beseech you how sharp it will be to be in this manner separated from the society of God and the B. Virgin Mary and all the Citizens of Heaven When Hell shall have received the wicked damned Wretches it shall be shut and stopped at the top like a pot and no Devil or Man shall ever come forth thence 6. Thou therefore that thou mayst be able to avoid this unexpressible misery confusion horror and strait whilst the time of Mercy lasts study to appease God and to please Him Bewail and humbly and sincerely confess thy Sins Do not hide now from the Vicar of Christ the Priest what thou desirest should be hidden in that dreadful Judgment Correct thy Life with all thy forces Depart from evil and do good Psal 36. Spend thy time profitably Fly vain and foolish joyes Mortify as much as thou canst the vicious Passions and Affections of thy Mind Now wisely fear that thou mayst be then happily secure Meditation IV. Of the Pains of Hell Division 1. AS the Happiness of the Saints in Heaven is unutterable so the Calamity of the Reprobate in Hell is ineffable and incomprehensible Do thou now imagin a place under ground and a horrible Gulf Behold a vast Furnace all on Fire with Sulphur and Pitch terribly burning dark smoking stinking full of men and devils There is everlasting Horror and never ending Despair there 's Gnashing of Teeth and great Howling and
perpetual Blaspheming there the Damned for the sharpness of their Pains bite their Tongues and Curse the King of Heaven 2. Consider that there is such Fire and Heat and such Cold as all fire and heat and all cold of this world in comparison of that Heat and Cold is nothing There they are forced to pass from intolerable Heat to intolerable Cold. There they are most cruelly boyled and roasted They feel most bitter Torments in every Sense and in every Member Their Sight continually beholds dreadful horrid Faces of Devils Their Hearing continually perceives the Lamentations sad Cryes of those who continually cry out Wo wo wo Why were we created and made Cursed be God who made us This is the sad Song which is there continually sung Imagin there to be Vessels full of all filthiness to wit Toads Snakes putrid Flesh of dead Carcasses and the filth and dung of Jaques's mix'd together And the Wicked to be drowned over head and ears in those Vessels and against their will to smell touch eat and drink that stinking Mixture Thou canst imagin nothing so abominable and grievous but there are there things more abominable grievous There every one is punished most in those Members by which he has most sinned 3. There the Devils insult over those whom they torment and whom they have and shall for ever have for their companions saying Where are now your Riches where your Honour where your Glory where your Pleasure where your Delights where your Vanities Who is so hard and mad as not to conceive a profitable Fear from the consideration of these things And as not to amend his wicked and negligent Life Assuredly whatsoever can torment whatsoever can cause horror and abomination shall for ever be seen heard and felt in Hell 4. Consider moreover the inward punishment of the damned for they shall be for all eternity deprived of the sight of God They shall never see that blessed City the celestial Jerusalem God has cast them away and they are delivered to everlasting oblivion nor will He ever have mercy on them Rom. 1. For they are vessels of wrath in which the rigor and the severity of the Divine Justice is manifested The Worm of their Conscience shall never dye but shall without ceasing gnaw and accuse them for that for so short a joy and so momentary a pleasure they have lost eternal Happiness and found everlasting Punishments O Ponder ponder diligently this Eternity of Pains After a thousand thousands of Years their End shall be no nearer because they shall never end but in Hell there shall be a perpetual presence of all Evils and a perpetual absence of all Comfort 5. Lo such a Calamity is the Reward of those who fear not God and continue in their Sins without true Repentance until their Departure out of this Life For there being in Mortal Sin an infinite enormity by reason of the contempt of the immense God Such a Sin if it be not blotted out by Repentance shall be punished with endless Pain But thou who art yet in the time of Grace leaving thy Vices and Vanities without delay return to the Lord thy God and He will receive thee cleanse and heal thee Fear Him serve Him love Him with all thy heart For so thou shalt escape those Torments which never are ended never Intermitted never diminished 6. If thou art entred into Religion thou must with all thy might tend to perfection thou must lead an humble pure and signally Holy Life But if thou hast a secular Heart and Religion and livest negligently and shall end thy life in such negligence thou shalt be thrust down into Hell or certainly shalt endure such sharp horrid and long pains in Purgatory as if thou couldest now foresee them thou wouldest dye for fear and horror of them Wherefore now if thou beest wise thou wilt take diligent care for the salvation of thy Soul Meditation V. Of the Life and Passion of Christ Division 1. THe sin of the world could not have been taken away unless the Creator of the world assuming human flesh had abolished it with his own blood Ponder therefore how our Lord Jesus the Son of the living God the most high God for the excessive love with which he loved us would be conceived by the holy Ghost and be made man in the womb of the B. Virgin Mary that thou loaded with thine Iniquities mightest not descend down into Hell Thy God was made thy Brother He was born a tender little Infant in a poor Stable He was wrapped in vile clouts He was laid in the Crib of Beasts He lay upon hay and straw He was suckled by the breasts of a very poor Mother He was Circumcised the eighth day from his Nativity and shed his Blood Then he fled into Aegypt And so in his sacred Infancy and Childhood he sustained very many necessities and grievances with Mary and Joseph 2. The sweet Jesus when he was about thirty years old humbly received Baptism from his servant John He fasted was tempted watched preached was wearied with journeys and labours He endured with a most meek heart three and thirty years hunger thirst cold heat and innumerable grievances and innumerable persecutions and at length went to Hierusalem there to dy for thee 3. The sweet Jesus when upon his knees he had humbly washed the feet of his Disciples and had wiped them with a Towell and had instituted the Venerable Sacrament of the Eucharist he went unto Mount Olivet O how grievous how unworthy how sharp things did he suffer for thee For he the Lord of highest Majesty would tremble and be sad even unto death He would be bathed in a sweat of blood by reason of the vehemency of the anguishes with which he was oppressed He resused not to be kis't by the Traytor Judas and as a Theif by wicked men to be ignominiously apprehended bound led away dragged pushed smitten 4. The sweet Jesus the Lord of Lords vouchsafed to receive a cruel buffet from a servant of the high-Priest He vouchsafed to be unjustly condemned to be defiled with spittle to be beaten with blows and buffets to be reproachfully blinded mocked and scoffed The most meek Lamb did not in the mean while complain nor turn away his face from those who spat on him but teaching us patience and exhibiting himself a pattern of patience he was dumb and opened not his mouth Isa 53. He endured with silence revilings contumelies disgraces and many injuries 5. Behold sweet Jesus the Holy of Holies bespatred with spittle and bound is lead to Pilate and before him falsely accused but he humbly holds his peace He is sent by Pilate to Herod and is despised by Herod and clothed in a white and ridiculous coat as a fool and so is sent back to Pilate He is stripped in the Pretors Hall and inhumanely tyed to a Pillar and most cruelly torn with whipps His Virginal and delicate flesh was all deformed with bruises