is esteemed in it is vain all is vanity of vanities Let us onely aim and aspire unto the eternal because the just onely as the Prophet sayes shall remain in the eternal memory of God The memory of man is as men themselves frail and perishing What man ambitious of a perpetual memory would not rather choose to be esteemed by ten men who were to live a hundred years than by a thousand who were to die immediately after him Let us therefore desire to be in the memory of God whose life is eternity Our memory amongst men can last no longer than men themselves which shall all die like us and there can be no memory immortal amongst those who are mortal It is therefore very expedient that the end of the World should be accompanied by the universal Judgement of all men wherein shall be revealed their most secret and hidden thoughts and anions That the murtherer who hath slain his neighbour lest he should discover his wickedness may not hope that therefore it shall remain conceal'd and That no man should be bold to sin for want of witnesses since the whole World shall then know that which if any but himself had known here would have burst his heart with shame and sorrow CAP. VII How the Elements and the Heavens are to change at the end of Time LEt us now look upon the strange manner of the end of the World which being so terrible gives us to understand the vanity and deceit of all things in it and the great abuse of them by man for questionless were it not for the great malice and wickedness which raigns in the World the period of it would not be so horrible and disastrous Lib. recognit S. Clement the Roman writes that he learned of St. Peter the Apostle that God had appointed a day from all eternity wherein the Army of Vengeance should with all its forces and as we may say in ranged battail fight with the Army of Sin which day is usually called in the holy Scripture The day of the Lord in which battail the Army of Vengeance shall prevail and shall at once extirpate and make an end both of Sin and the World wherein it hath so long raigned And certainly if the terrour of that day shall equal the multitude and hainousness of sins we need not wonder at what the sacred Scripture and holy Fathers have foretold of it But as it is usual in war res to skirmish and make inrodes before the day of battel so before that dreadful day wherein all punishments are to encounter with all offences the Lord shall from divers parts send forth several calamities which shall be fore-runners of that great day of battel and shall like light Horse-men scoure the Campania which St. John in the Apocalyps signified by those Horse-men which he saw sally forth upon divers-coloured horses one red another black and the third pale so the Lord shall before that day send Plagues Famine Warres Earthquakes Droughts Inundations Deluges and if those miseries do now so much afflict us what shall they then doe when God shall add unto them his utmost force and power when all Creatures shall arm against Sinners and the Zeal of divine justice shall be their Captain-general which the Wise-man declares in these words Sap. 5. His zeal shall take up arms and shall arm the creatures to revenge him of his enemies he shall put on Justice as a breast-plate and righteous Judgement as a helmet and he shall take Equity as a buckler and shall sharpen his Wrath as a lance and the circuit of the earth shall fight for him Thunderbolts shall be sent from the clouds as from a well-shooting how and shall nit fail to hit the mark and Hail shall be sent full of stormy wrath The Waters of the sea shall threaten them the Rivers shall combat furiously a most strong Wind shall rise against them and shall divide them as a whirle-wind Very dreadful are those words although they contain but the Warre which three of the Elements are to make against Sinners but not onely Fire Air and Water but Earth also and Heaven as it appears in other places of Scripture shall fall upon them and confound them for all creatures shall express their fury in that day and shall rise against man and if the clouds shall discharge thunderbolts and stones upon their heads the Heavens shall shoot no less balls than Stars which as Christ sayes shall fall from thence If Hail no bigger than little stones falling but from the clouds destroy the fields and sometimes kills the lesser sort of cattle what shall pieces of Stars do falling from the Firmament or some upper Region It is no amplification which the Gospel uses when it sayes That men shall wither with fear of what shall fall upon the whole frame of nature for as in Man which is called the Lesser world when he is to die the humours which are as the Elements are troubled and out of order his eyes which are as the Sun and Moon are darkned his other senses which are as the lesser stars fall away his reason which is as the celestial vertues is off the hinges so in the death of the greater World before it dissolve and expire the Sun shall be turned into darkness the Moon into blood the Stars shall fall and the whole World shall tremble with a horrid noise If the Sun Moon and other celestial bodies which are held incorruptible shall suffer such changes what shall be done with those frail and corruptible Elements of Earth Air and Water If this inferiour World do as the Philosophers say depend upon the Heavens those celestial bodies being altered and broken in pieces in what estate must the lower Elements remain when the Vertues of Heaven shall faulter and the wandring Stars shall lose their way and fail to observe their order How shall the Air be troubled with violent and sudden Whirle-winds dark Tempests horrible Thunders and furious flashes of Lightning and how shall the Earth tremble with dreadful Earth-quakes opening her self with a thousand mouthes and casting forth as it were whole Volcanies of fire and sulphur and not content to overthrow the loftiest Towers shall swallow up high Mountains and bury whole Cities in her entrails How shall the Sea then rage mounting his proud waves above the clouds as if they meant to overwhelm the whole Earth and shall certainly drown a great part of it The roaring of the Ocean shall astonish those who are far distant from the Sea and inhabit in the middest of the firm land wherefore Christ our Saviour said Luc. 21. that there should be in the Earth afflictions of Nations for the confusion of the noise of the Sea What shall men do in this general perturbation of Nature they shall remain amazed and pale as death What comfort shall they have they shall stand gazing one upon another and every one shall conceive a new fear by beholding in
one day Whereupon St. Austin sayes Such is the beauty of righteousness Augus de libero arb 3. such the joy of that eternal light of that immutable truth and wisdom that although we were not to continue in it above one day yet for so short a time a thousand years in this life replenished with delights and abundance of all goods temporal were justly to be despised For it was not spoken amiss that Better is one day in thy Courts above a thousand So that whereas it is commonly said that for eternal joyes we ought to leave the temporal and frail goods of the earth which are short and transitory St. Austin sayes that if those of heaven were short and these of earth Eternal yet we ought to forsake these for those This is confirmed by that which is written by Thomas de Cantiprato and others Lib. 2. c. 57. N. 67. That the Devil being demanded by an Exorcist what he would suffer to see God answered That he would suffer all that the damned in hell Men and Devils were to suffer until the day of Judgement onely that he might enjoy the sight of him but for some short time How can we then complain of the short troubles of this life which are to be recompenced with the clear vision of God for ever when his professed Enemy would suffer so much onely to enjoy it for an insant Cato having onely read that discourse of Socrates concerning immortality thought it nothing to part with this life and tear his bowels in pieces that he might enjoy that eternal liberty of the Soul freed from the incumbrances and oppressions of the Body Jo. Herol in Promp Exem Heroldus writes that Frier Jordan General of the holy Order of the preaching Friers exorcizing a possest person the Devil amongst other answers to his demands told him That he had never seen the face of God but onely during the twinkling of an eye and that to see it so much longer he would willingly suffer all the pains of his companions until the day of Judgement Frier Jordan remained astonished at this answer and recalling himself a little he said unto him Thou hast said well But declare me his beauty by some similitude or representation Thou hast moved a foolish question replied the Spirit for there is no expressing of it But to give some satisfaction to thy desire I say that if the beauties of all Creatures Heavens Earth Flowers Pearls and all other things that can give any delight to the sight were all comprised in one onely thing if every one of the Stars yielded as much light as the Sun and the Sun shined as bright as all they together all this united so together would be in respect of the beauty of God Almighty as a dark pitchy night in respect of the clearest and brightest day Where by the way it is to be observed that the Devils never saw God clearly as the Angels in glory now behold him but onely by the excellency of their nature attained to some particular and advantagious knowledge of his beauty and divine perfections and joy which resulted from that knowledge And if to enjoy that once again for so short a time they would endure those torments for so long a space what shall it be to behold him clearly in his glory Certainly to be rosted pluckt in pieces with pincers to be burnt alive for a thousand years were well employed to enjoy that felicity but for a day What shall it be to possess it for an eternity when the joy also of each day shall be equivalent to many years Joh. Major Ex. 14. Ex Coll. Psal 89. Wherefore Johannes Major reports that a certain Monk being at Mattins with the other Religious of his Monastery and coming to that verse of the Psalm where it is said A thousand years in the presence of God are but as yesterday which is already past began to imagine with himself how it might be possible and remaining in the Quire as his manner was after the end of Mattins to perfect his devotions he humbly besought the Lord to grant him the true understanding of that place which he had no sooner done but he perceived a little Bird in the Quire that with flying up and down before him by little and little with her most melodious singing insensibly drew him forth of the Church into a Wood not farre off where pearching her self upon a bough she for some short time as it seem'd to him continued her musick to the unspeakable delight of the Monk and then flew away leaving him by her absence no less sad and pensive But seeing she came no more he returned back thinking he had left his Monastery the same morning immediately after Mattins and that it was now about the third hour but coming to the Convent which was near the Wood he found the Gate by which he was accustomed to enter to be mured up and another opened in some other part where calling upon the Porter he was demanded Who he was From whence he came and What was his business He answered that he was the Sacristan of the Church and that having that morning gone abroad after Mattins he found all things at his return changed The Porter demanded of him the name of the Abbot the Prior the Procurator He named them all and wondered he was neither understood nor permitted to enter and why they feigned not to know those Religious whom he mentioned and desired to be brought to the Abbot but coming into his presence neither the Abbot knew him nor he the Abbot whereat the good Monk being much astonished knew not what to say or do The Abbot asked him his name and that of his Abbot and turning the Annals of the Monastery found it was more than three hundred years since the death of those persons which he named Whereupon the Monk making a relation of what had happened unto him concerning the Psalm they acknowledged him and admitted him as a Brother into their profession where having received the Sacraments of the Church he with much peace ended his dayes in our Lord. If the pleasure of one sense did so ravish the Soul of this Servant of God what shall it be when not onely the hearing but the light smell taste the whole body and soul shall be drowned in joyes proportionable to the senses of the one and power of the other If the musick of a little Bird did so transport him what shall the musick of Angels what shall the clear vision of God what shall God himself doe when he makes oftentation if so may say of his omnipotency For as Assuerus who raigned from India to Aethiopia over 170 Provinces made a great Feast for all his Princes which lasted 181 dayes So shall this King of Heaven and Earth make his great Supper of glory which shall last for all eternity for the setting forth of his Majesty and for the honour and entertainment of his Servants where
the joyes shall be such as neither the eye hath seen nor the ear hath heard nor hath entred into the heart of man O baseness of temporal goods what proportion doe they hold with this greatness since they are so poor that even time from whence they have their being makes them tedious and not to be endured Who could continue a whole moneth without other diversion in hearing the choicest musick nay who could pass a day free from weariness without some change of pleasures But such is the greatness of those joyes which God hath prepared for them who love and fear him as we shall still desire them afresh and they will not cloy us in a whole Eternity §. 2. St. Anselme observes this difference betwixt the goods and evils of this life and the other Anselm lib. de simil that in this life neither of them are pure but mixt and confused The goods are imperfect and mingled with many evils and the evils short and mingled with some good But in the other life as the goods are most perfect and pure without the least touch of any ill and so can never weary us for that were an evil so to the contrary those evils of hell in which there is no good at all are horrible and above all sufferance Eternal glory therefore is great both in respect of its purity being free from any ill and in respect of its perfection being highly and excellently good David said Ps 102. That God had removed our sins from us as far as the East is distant from the West which he hath not onely verified in the guilt of sin but in the punishment which is as tar removed from the blessed as Heaven is from Earth And although the spiritual distance betwixt them be greater than the corporeal yet that we may from hence form some conception of that also we will say as much as our weakness is able to attain unto of this Clavius in Sphae 〈◊〉 1. Our famous Mathematician Christopher Clavius sayes that from the Sphere of the Moon which is the lowest Heaven unto the Earth are one hundred and twenty thousand six hundred and thirty miles and from the Heaven of the Sun four millions thirty thousand nine hundred and twenty three miles and from the Firmament or eighth Heaven one hundred sixty one millions eight hundred fourscore and four thousand nine hundred and fourty three miles Here Plato wills the Mathematicians to cease their enquiry for from hence there is no rule of measuring further but without all doubt it is much farther from thence to the Empyrial Heaven For the onely thickness of the Starry Sphere is said to contain as much as the whole space betwixt that and the Earth In so much as if a Milstone were thrown from the highest of the Firmament and should every hour fall two hundred miles it would be 90 years before it arrived at the Earth The Mathematicians also and some learned Interpreters of the holy Scripture affirm that the distance from the Earth unto the highest of the Firmament is less than that from thence to the lowest of the Empyrial Heaven and therefore conclude if one should live two thousand years and every day should travel a hundred miles he should not in all that time reach the lowest of the Firmament and if after that he should also travel other two thousand years he should not reach the highest of it and from thence four thousand years before he arrived at the lowest of the Empyrial Heaven O power of the grace of Jesus Christ which makes us in a moment dispatch so great a journey That noble Matron who was tormented and put to death in England said unto those with grief and honour that beheld her martyrdome So short is the way which brings us to heaven that within six hours I shall mount above the Sun and Moon tread the Stars under my feet and enter into the Heaven of the Blessed But there was no need of six hours one little instant brings the souls of the blessed thither which being purified from their sins and pains remain further distant from the one and the other than Heaven is from Earth Proportionable unto this distance of place is the advantage which the greatness of Heaven hath above that of Earth and the same holds in their blessings Let us mount then with this consideration thither and from that height let us disspise all this mutable World Ptolom in Praefa Almages since even the Gentils did it Wherefore Ptolome said He is higher than the world who cares not in whose hands the world is And Cicero What humane thing can seem great unto him Tull. in Som. Scip. unto whom eternity and the greatness of the other world are known All the earth seems so little unto me that I am sorry and ashamed of our Empire with which we have onely touched some little part of it All the Kingdoms of the Earth are but as a point and unto Boctius seemed but as a point of a point Bar. 3. But of Heaven Baruch could say How great is the house of God how large is the place of his possession it is great and hath no end high and immeasurable So great is the advantage of things eternal above temporal although they were not eternal O what fools then are they who for one point of Earth lose so many leagues of Heaven who for one short pleasure lose things so immense and durable O the greatness of the omnipotency and goodness of the divine liberality which hath prepared such things for the humble and little ones who serve him St. Austin whose thoughts were so sublime and whose understanding was one of the greatest in the world found himself unable to express them nay even to think of them For being desirous to write of Eternal Glory and taking pen in hand he beheld in his Chamber a great light and felt a sweetness so fragrant as almost transported him and withal heard a voice which said Austin what doest thou mean doest thou think it possible to number the drops in the Sea or to grasp the whole compass of the Earth or to make the Celestial bodies suspend their motion that which no eyes have seen wouldest thou behold that which no ear hath heard wouldest thou conceive that which no heart hath attained nor humane understanding imagined doest thou think that thou onely canst comprehend What end can that have which is infinite how can that be measured which is immense Sooner shall all those impossibilities be possible than thou understand the least part of that glory which is enjoyed by the blessed in Heaven If one who had been ever bred in an obscure dungeon and never had seen other light than that of some dimme Lamp were told that above the Earth there was a Sun which enlightned the whole world and cast his beams far above a hundred thousand leagues in Circumference all the discourses which could be made unto
Cardinal Bellarmine sayes Bellar. conc de Beat. p. 2. that the bodies of St. John Baptist and St. Paul shall shine with a most incredible beauty having their necks as it were adorned with collars of gold What sight more glorious than to behold so many Saints like so many Suns to shine with so incomparable lustre and beauty What light then will that of Heaven be proceeding from so many lights or to speak more properly from so many Suns By how much the number of Torches is greater by so much is also greater the light they produce altogether How great then shall the clarity or that holy City be where many Suns do inhabit And if by the sight of every one in particular their joy shall be more augmented by the sight of a number without number what measure can that joy have which results from so beautiful a spectacle § 2. As all the bodies of Saints are to be wholly filled with light so they are to enjoy the priviledges of light which amongst all material qualities is enobled with this prerogative that it hath no contrary and is therefore impassible And so the glorious bodies of the Saints having nothing that may oppose them are also freed from sufferance Besides nothing is more swift than light and therefore those bodies who have the greatest share of light are also the most swift in motion whereupon there is no Element so nimble and active as fire no nature so swift as that of the Sun and Stars and light it self is so quick that in an instant it illuminates the whole Sphere of its activity In like manner the glorious bodies of the Saints as they are to enjoy more light so they are to move with more speed and agility than the very Stars themselves The light is also so subtle and pure that it stops not in its passage although it meets with some bodies solid and massie The whole Sphere and body of the Air hinders not the. Sun from enlightning us below and Chrystal Diamonds Glass and other heavy bodies are penetrated by light But far greater shall be the subtility and purity of the blessed bodies unto whose passage nothing how gross or opake soever shall be an obstacle For this reason the Saints in holy Scripture are often called by the name of Light and particularly it is said that the wayes of the Just are like a shining light at midday For as the light because impassible makes his way through dirty and unclean places without defiling its purity passes with speed and penetrates other bodies that stand in its way So the Saints endowed with the light which they receive from this gift of Clarity cannot suffer from any thing having an agility to move with speed from place to place and a subtlety to penetrate wheresoever they please The goods resulting from these privileges and endowments of the glorious bodies are more in number than all the evills of this mortal life The onely gift of impassibility frees us from all those miseries which our bodies now suffer the cold of Winter the heat of Summer infirmities griefs tears and the necessity of eating which one necessity includes infinite others Let us but consider what cares and troubles men undergoe onely to sustain their lives The Labourer spends his dayes in plowing sowing and reaping The Shepheard suffers cold and heat in watching of his flock The Servant in obeying anothers will and command The Rich man in cares and fears in preserving what he possesses What dangers are past in all estates onely to be sure to eat from all which the gift of impassibility exempts the Just The care of cloathing troubles us also little less than that of feeding and that of preserving our health much more For as our necessities are doubly encreased by sickness so are our cares from all which he who is impassible is free and not onely from the griefs and pains of this life but if he should enter into hell it would not burn one hair of him The Prerogative also of the gift of agility is most great which easily appears by the troubles and inconveniences of a long journey which howsoever we are accommodated is not performed without much weariness and oftentimes with danger both of health and life A King though he pass in a Coach or Litter after the most easie and commodious way of travelling must pass over rocks hills and rivers and spend much time but with the gift of agility a Saint in the twinkling of an eye will place himself where he pleases and pass millions of leagues with as much ease and in as short a time as a furlong We admire the Story of St. Anthony of Padua who in one day passed from Italy into Portugal to free his Father condemned wrongfully to death and at that of St. Ignatius Patriarch of the Society of Jesus who in a short time transported himself from Rome to Colen and from thence to Rome without being missed less than in two hours space If to the mortal bodies of his Servants God communicates such gifts what shall he do to the glorified bodies of his Saints What an excellency of nature were it to be able in one day to visit all the great Kingdoms of the Earth and see what passed amongst them in an hour to goe to Rome the chief City of the World from thence to pass to Constantinople the head of the Eastern Empire In another hour to the Great Cair and consider there the immense multitude of the Inhabitants In another hour goe to Goa the Court of the East-Indies and behold the Riches thereof in another to Pequin the Seat of the Kings of China and contemplate the vast extent of that prodigious City in another to Meaco the Court of Japonia in another to Manila the head City of the Philippin Islands in another to Ternate in the Maluca's in another to Lima in Peru in another to Mexico in New Spain in another to Lisboa and Madrid in another to London and Paris the principal Seats of Christendom marking at ease what passed in the Courts of those great Monarchs If this were a great priviledge what shall that be of those glorious bodies who in a short space can traverse all the Heavens visit the Earth return unto the Sun and Firmament and there observe what is above the Starrs in the Empyrial Heaven Greg. li. 3. Dial. 36. St. Gregory writes in his Dialogues that a Souldier assaulting a holy personage and having his naked sword lifted up and ready to give the blow the man cried out to his Patron St. John for help who instantly withheld the Souldiers hand that he could not move it How soon did St. John hear him in Heaven who invoked him upon Earth with what speed did he descend to assist him with-holding and drying up the arm of the wicked Souldier the bodies of the Saints are to move hereafter with no less speed than their spirits do now the weight of their bodies shall
brought a quintal Vi. Bonfrerium in Exod. 16. it shrunk and contracted it self into the small measure of a gomer with some it diminished and with others swelled and dilated it self into a greater proportion The corruption of it was so sodain that it lasted not one day without being wholly putrified and fill'd with worms and yet notwithstanding all these qualities the enjoying and eating of it cost much toyl and labour first in gathering then grinding then in cooking and performing many other duties requisite for the use of it After the same manner the goods of this life notwithstanding all their faults and evil conditions are not obtained nor enjoyed without much travel and vexation After this all did not enjoy that quality proper to Manna which was to taste like unto that which he that eat it most desired for sinners found this taste limited and not so full and savory as others Even so we with our vices alter and diminish the natural sweetness of the things of this life as we shall see hereafter in it's due place It is true that the appearance of it was good Sept. Interp in cap. 11. Nume species illius species chrystalli for as the 70 Interpreters say it was like Christal clear and transparent The same is the condition of the goods of this life they have the splendor and an appearance but are really more brittle then glass they are variable fading and inconstant and subject to a thousand alterations they are corruptible transitory and mortal and onely by reason of their glittering we seek after them as after things great and eternal Let us then leave the appearance and painted superficies of things and look upon the substance and truth and we shall finde that what is temporal is small and what eternal is great the temporal inconstant the eternal firm the temporal short and temporal the eternal durable and in fine eternal and this onely were enough to make it more esteemed then the temporal although the temporal in all other respects did exceed it but the one being so short and mutable and the other great firm and constant the difference betwixt them can be no less Lib. 7. moral c. 12. then as St. Gregory esteemed it who sayes Immense is that which shall follow and without limit and little is all that which ends And the same Saint notes that the small knowledge and memory of eternity is the main cause of the deceiving of Mankind who have in esteem the false goods of this life and undervalue those spiritual and eternal of the other and therefore speaks in this manner Lib. 8. moral ca. 12. The thoughts of the predestinated alwayes have their intentions placed upon eternity although they possess great felicity in this life and although they be not in danger of death yet ever look upon it as present to the contrary do obstinate souls who love this temporal life as a thing permanent because they consider not how great is the eternity of that which is to come and not considering the solidity of the eternal they judge this Banishment for their Countrey this Darkness for Light and this Race for their Station for those who know not greater matters are not able to judge of the smallest We therefore will begin to draw the Curtain and from the consideration of Eternity and the loose condition of time discover the distance betwixt the goods of heaven and those of earth from whence we shall come to handle the baseness of the temporal and greatness of the eternal Wherefore as a Philosopher said of light that there was nothing more clear nor nothing more obscure the same may be said of time and eternity which being held no less perspicuous are ill understood and are no less obscure and dark then the other But we shall endeavour to make them more intelligible being assisted by the light of Faith the doctrine of Saints and wisdom of the Philosophers CAP. II. How efficacious is the consideration of Eternity for the change of our Lives THe thought of Eternity St. Augustine calls a Great thought Augus in Psal 76. Magna cogit because the memory of it is of great joy unto the Saints and no less horror unto Sinners and unto both of much profit and concernment it causes us to do great matters and shews the smalness of the fading and transitory things of this earth I will therefore from this light begin to discover the large field of the poverty trumpery and baseness of the temporal and recommend the consideration of the eternal the which we ought still to have in our thoughts as David had perpetually in his in whom whilst he was a Sinner it caused horror and confusion and being a Saint it comforted and encouraged him to be yet more holy drawing from this meditation most spiritual and incomparable profit unto his soul and therefore in his Psalms he so often repeats the memory of it not only in the body of them but almost in every passage saying for ever or eternally or world without end there being no inscription or title which he uses more frequently then this against the end or in the end because he composed them with the consideration of eternity which follows the end of this life and for more clearness adds in some of them against the end for the Octave which according to St. Augustine signifies Eternity that being the octave after the 7 dayes of the week into which all time is to resolve which 7 dayes being past there are to be no more weeks but as St. Peter sayes one onely day of perpetual Eternity In this Eternity therefore did the Prophet employ his thoughts by day and his meditations by night this forced him to send up his voice unto Heaven and to cry out unto God this made him mute and took away his speech with men this astonished him and made his pulses fail with the consideration of it this affrighted him and mingled wormwood with the pleasures of this life this made him know the littleness of all that is temporal and made him enter within himself and examine his conscience Finally this brought him to a most miraculous change of life beginning to serve the Lord with more fervor all which effects proceeding from the thoughts of Eternity are apparent in the 76 Psalm therefore sayes he amongst other things Mine eyes prevented the watches I troubled myself and spake not immediately after he gives the reason saying I thought upon the dayes of old and had in my thoughts the years of eternity and meditated on them by night with my heart This thought was the occasion of his long watches on this he meditated before the Sun was risen and on this many hours after it was set and that with so great astonishment of what Eternity was that his spirit â—â—iled him and he trembled with the lively apprehension of what it was either to perish eternally in Hell or to enjoy a blessedness for
contempt of what is temporal since the first step unto Christian perfection according to the Counsel of Christ is to renounce all that we possess of earth that being so freed from those impediments of Christian perfection we may employ our selves in the consideration and memory of that Eternity which expects us hereafter as a reward of our holy works and exercises of vertue This horrid voice Eternity Eternity is to sound often in our hearts Thou not onely art to die but being dead eternity attends thee Remember there is a Hell without end and fix it in thy memory that there is a Glory for ever This consideration That if thou shalt observe the Law of God thou shalt be eternally rewarded and if thou break it thou shalt suffer pains without end will be far more powerful with thee then to know that the goods and evils of this life are to end in death Be mindful therefore of Eternity and resound in the inmost part of thy soul Eternity Eternity For this the Church when it consecrates the Fathers of it which are Bishops puts them in minde of this most powerful and efficacious memory of Eternity bidding them think of eternal years as David did And in the assumption and consecration of Popes they burn before their eyes a small quantity of flax with these words Holy Father so passes away the glory of the world that by the sight of that short and transitory blaze he may call to minde the flames eternal And Martin the fifth for his imprese and devise took a flaming fire which in short time burnt and consumed a Popes Tiara an Imperial Diadem a Regal Crown and a Cardinals Hat to give them to understand that if they complyed not with the duties of their places they were in a short time to burn in the eternal flames of hell the memory whereof he would preserve ever present by this most profitable Symbol §. 2. The name of Isachar whose Blessing from his Father was as we have formerly said to lye down and rest betwixt the two limits of Eternity signifies him That hath a memory or The man of reward or pay The Holy Ghost by this mystery charging us with the memory of eternal rewards And the Lord to shew how precious it was in his divine esteem and how profitable for us caused this name of Isachar to be engraven in a precious Amethyst which was one of those stones worn by the High-Priest in the Rational and one of those also rcveal'd unto St. John to be of the foundation of the City of God By it saith St. Anselme is signified the memory of Eternity which is the most principal foundation in the building of all perfection Truely if we consider the properties of this stone they are so many marks and properties of the memory of Eternity and of the benefits which that soul reaps Albert. Mag. Milius Ruiz v. Cesium de Min. lib. 4. p. 2. cap. 14. sect 14. which seriously considers it The Amethyst cause Vigilancy And what requires it more then the passage betwixt the two extreams of eternal glory and eternal pains What thing in the world ought to awake us more then the danger of falling into hell fire How could that man sleep which were to pass over a narrow plank of half a foot broad which served as a bridge betwixt two most high rocks the windes impetuously blowing and he if his foot slipt certain to fall into a most vast abyss No less is the danger of this life The way by which we are to pass unto Heaven is most streight the windes of temptations violent the dangers of occasions frequent the harms by ill examples infectious and the deceits of wicked Counsellors very many How then can a Christian sleep and be careless in so evident a peril Without all doubt it is more difficult to be saved considering the depravedness of our nature and the deceitful ambushes of the Devil then for a heavy man to pass over a heady and rapid river upon a small and bruised reed They say also of the Amethyst that besides the making him watchful who carries it it frees him from evil thoughts which how can that man have who bears Eternity in his mind how can he think upon the short pleasures of his senses who considers the eternal torments due unto his soul if he shall but consent to the least mortal sin The Amethyst also resists drunkenness preserving him that wears it in his senses and judgment and there is nothing that more preserves a mans judgment in the middest of the wine of delights in this life then the memory of the other and that for the pleasure of one moment here he is not only to suffer for hours for dayes for moneths for years but for worlds and a world of worlds hereafter The Amethyst besides this preserves the wearer from the force of poison And what greater Antidote against the poison of sin then to remember Hell which he deservs and Heaven which he loses by committing it The Amethyst also quiets a man and settles his thoughts And what can be more efficacious to free us from the disturbance of this life to bridle the insolence of covetousness to repress the aspiring of ambition then to consider the blessings of Eternity which attend the humble and poor in spirit Finally the Amethyst conferrs fruitfulness and this great thought of Eternity is fruitful of holy works For who is he that considers with a lively faith that for a thing so sleight and momentary he may enjoy the reward of eternal glory and will not be animated to work all he is able and to endure and suffer what shall happen for God Almighty and his Cause O how fruitful of Heroical works is this holy thought Eternal glory expects me the Triumphs of Martyrs the Victories of Virgins the Mortifications of Confessors are the effects of this consideration O holy thought O precious Amethyst that makes vigilant and attentive the negligent and careless that gives wisdom and judgment to the most deceived that heals those who are most ulcerated and corrupted with the poison of sin that quiets and pacifies the motions and troubles of our concupiscences that makes the most tepid and barren of vertues fruitful of holy works who will not endeavour to obtain and fix thee in his Soul O that Christians would so grave thee in their heart that thou mightest never be blotted out nor removed from thence How differently would they then live to what they now do how would they shine in their works for although the memory of Hell Heaven Death and Judgment be very efficacious for the reformation of our lives yet this of Eternity is like the quintescence of them all and virtually contains the rest CAP. IV. The Estate of Men in this life and the miserable forgetfulness which they have of Eternity BEfore we come to declare the conditions of Eternity whose consideration is so necessary for the leading of a holy
comes it then that a Dwarf or Pigmey in time affrights us and an armed Giant in eternity makes us not tremble how is it that eternal hell moves us not and yet we fear a temporal pain how is it we do not penance for our sins why have we not patience in our afflictions why suffer we not all that which can be suffered in this life rather than to suffer one onely torment in eternity The pains of this valley of tears being they are to have an end are not to be feared in comparison of those which shall never have it how contentedly then ought we to suffer here a little and for a short time that we may be freed from suffering much hereafter and for ever What we have considered in evils and afflictions the same is to be considered in goods and blessings If one were to enjoy all the pleasures of the senses for a thousand miriads of years but were to pass no further we ought to change them all for one onely pleasure that would last for ever Why then exchange we not one perishing pleasure of the earth which is to last but for a moment for all those immense joyes which we are to possess in Heaven for a world without end All the temporal goods of the world might well be quitted for the securing of only one that were eternal how is it then that we secure not all the eternal by forbearing now and then one which is temporal It would infinitely exceed the Dominion of the whole world so long as the world shall last to be Lord but of one little Cottage for eternity time holds no comparison with it all that is temporal how great soever being to be esteemed vile and base and all that is eternal how small soever high and precious And that we may exaggerate this consideration as much as possible the very being of God himself if it were but for a time might be quitted for some other infinitely less excellent which were eternal And shall then the covetous man satisfie himself with those poor treasures which death may quit him of to morrow and perhaps the Theef to day despising for them the eternal treasure of Heaven For certain if God should promise as to enjoy the pleasure of one onely sense for ever in the next life we ought for it to part with all the pleasures we have in this how huge a folly is it then that promising all those immense joyes of Heaven we will not for all them together part with some of those poor ones on earth The second way by which Eternity unto whatsoever it is joyned makes the good infinitely better and the bad infinitely worse is because it collects it self wholly into every instant so that in every instant it makes us sensible of all that which it is to contain in its whole duration and being to endure for an infinity it amasses as it were into every instant a whole infinity of pleasure or pain every instant being sensible both of what it contains at present what is past and what it shall contain in future So as a Doctor sayes Les de perfec divi lib. 4. c. 3. In Eternity all the good a thing can contain successively in an infinite time is recollected into one instant and made perceptible and enjoyable all at once As if all the pleasures a most delicious Banquet could afford successively by parts and that in an infinite time should be resumed all at once and all that delight should be conferred joyntly and together for eternity certainly this would make it infinitely better and of more esteem The same thing Eternity causes in evils and pains recollecting them in a certain manner into one and making them sensible all at once and although they be not all really and actually together yet it causes them to be apprehended altogether and so produces in the Soul a grief infinite and without limit Those then are truly evils which are totally and every way evils both in extension their duration having no end and in intension their being and essence having no limit or measure What afflicted person who considers this can be impatient since all the griefs of this life have both an end and limit The greatest temporal evils are but as biting of gnats in respect of the least of those which are eternal and therefore that we may escape all the eternal it is not much to suffer one temporal Let us tremble at the consideration of those two lances of Eternity those two infinities whose wounds are mortal and pierce the damned from side to side those two unsupportable rocks which overwhelm and crush whom they fall upon into pieces All that we suffer here is to be laughed at a fillip with a finger a trifle in respect of the eternal which embraces all times and with the evils of them all falls every instant upon the head of the damned §. 2. Besides what hath been already said Goods and Evils eternal have this condition that they are not onely qualified and augmented by the future but also by what is past although temporal so as the blessed Souls in Heaven not only enjoy the glory which they have in present and that which is to come but also what is past even unto those real and true goods of this life to wit their vertues and good works with the memory of which they recreate and congratulate themselves for all eternity in so much as all goods past present and to come concur in one to fill up the measure of their joy and the goods of all times even of those of this life are amassed and heaped up in their felicity How different from this are temporal goods since even those which we possess in present suffer not themselves to be entirely enjoyed here is no good which is not alloyed by some want danger or imperfection And if for the present they afford so little content much less do they for the future since the security of what we possess is so uncertain that the fear of losing it often disseasons the present gust The same fear also robbs our remembrance of the comfort of what is past since we fear to lose that most which we have formerly taken most pleasure in enjoying On all sides then the eternal goods are much more excellent unto which we ought to aspire and strive to purchase them even at the cost of all which is temporal and in this life as much as may be to imitate the same eternity the which is to be done by the practice of those three Vertues which St. Bernard recommends unto us in these words Serm. 1. in Festo Om. Sact. With Poverty of spirit with Meekness and Contrition of heart is renewed in the Soul a similitude and image of that Eternity which embraces all times For with poverty of spirit we merit the future with meekness we possess the present and with the tears of repentance recover what is past And truely he
were violently overthrown and evened with the ground in so much as the face of the World changed by the furious discord of the Elements produced many unheard of Prodigies For the vast body of the waters suddenly and unexpectedly returning and entring far into the land many thousands of people were drowned whose dead bodies after the swellings of the waves were asswaged and retired unto their natural and usual bed were found some with their faces downward grovling upon the Earth some upwards looking upon the Heavens and some great Ships the waters left upon the tops of houses as it happened in Alexandria others far from the Sea-shore and as we our selves are witness who saw one as we passed by Methion then old and worm-eaten All this lamentable story is from Ammianus Marcellinus No less fearful is that which is related by Nauclerus and Trithemius that the year 1218. Naucler Gen. 41. sub fin Trit Chron. The enraged Sea entring into Frisia there were drowned in the Fields and in their own houses more than a hundred thousand persons Langus adds that afterwards in the year 1287. the Ocean again reentring the same Province retired not till it had left 80000 persons drowned behind it This mortality is not much in a whole Province in respect of what the Sea hath done in one onely City Surius in his Commentaries of the year 1509. writes that the day of the Exaltation of the Cross in September the Sea betwixt Constantinople and Pera swelled with that rage and fury that it passed over the walls of both Cities and that there were drowned onely of Turks in Coustantinople above 13000. Unto these so certain examples we shall not need to aad what Plato writes Tertul. Apolog. Cap. 39. although Tertullian and many Authors of these times approve it That the Atlantick Island which was seated in that spacious Ocean betwixt Spain and the West-Indies and which was a greater part of the World then Asia and Affrick both together replenished with innumerable people was by an Earthquake and the rain of one onely day and night in which the Heavens as it were melted themselves into water and the Sea over-past his bounds buried in the Ocean with all the Inhabitants and never since appeared But I will not make use of this History to exaggerate the force of the Elements enraged against man The modern Stories which we have related with more certainty are sufficient and by that which happened in Frisia may be seen with what fury the Ocean imprisoned within his proper limits issues forth when God permits it to fight against Sinners What shall be then when the Lord of all shall arm all the Elements against them and shall give the Alarm to all creatures to revenge him upon men so ungrateful for his infinite benefits The Air also which is an Element so sweet and gentle in which we live and by which we breath when God slacking the bridle draws force out of weakness with no less fury ruins and overthrows all it meets It hath been seen to tear up whole woods by the roots and transport the trees to places far distant Ovied In Hist Indic l. 6. ca. 3. Surius in Comment Conrad Argen in Chron. Surius writes that the 28 of June in the year 1507 at midnight there arose such a Tempest in Germany that it made the strongest Buildings shake uncovered Houses rooted up Trees and threw them a great distance off Conradus Argentinas writes That Henry the sixth being Emperour he himself saw great Beams of Timber blown from the roof of the chief Church in Ments as big as the Beams of a Wine-press and that of heavy wood as Oak flying in the air above a miles distance Above all who is not amazed at what Josephus writes in his Antiquities and Eusebius in Praepar Evangel that the Tower of Babylon which was the most strong and prodigious Building of the World was by God overthrown with a Tempest What shall I speak of those fearful Tempests of hail and lightning flying through the air from place to place to chastize Sinners one of which slew all the Flocks and Heards of the Egyptians And in Palestine of another Hail of a strange greatness that slew innumerable Amorites Of latter times in these parts in the year 1524. Clavitellus writes that near Cremona there fell Hail as big as Hens eggs Clav. Fol. 260. Corn. A lap in cap. 9. Exod. Olaus Mag. l. 1. c. 22. Conimb In Meteor c. de grandine Hist Tripart l. 7. c. 22. Ezek. 38. Apoc. 16. and in the Campania of Bolognia in the year 1537. there fell stones or 28 pound weight Olaus Magnus writes that in the North Hail hath fallen as big as the head of a man And the Tripartite cap History that the year 369. there happened such a Tempest in Constantinople that the Hail was as rocks Certainly it is not then much what the Prophet Ezekiel sayes that in the end of the World shall fall huge stones and what St. John writes that they shall be of the weight of a talent which is 125 pounds of Roman weight With what horrible thunder shall that Tempest resound which shall throw a stone of that greatness In Seythia they write that divers persons have fallen dead with the terrible noise of the thunders in those parts What noise then shall those last Tempests make which God shall send in the end of the World All those alterations past of the Elements are no more than skirmishes What shall then be the battel which they are to give unto Sinners when the Heavens shall shoot it's arrows and give the Alarm with prodigious thunders and shall declare their wrath with horrible apparitions Greg lib. 4. dialog Cap. 36. Joan. in Vit. Greg l. 1. c. 37. Zonar in Iren. Plin. l. 1. c. 13. St. Gregory the Great writes as an eye-witness that in a great Pestilence at Rome he saw arrows visibly fall from Heaven and strike many men John the Deacon sayes it rained arrows How shall it the be when the Heavens and Air rain pieces of stars The world was amazed when ill the time of Irene and Constantine the Sun was darkned for 17 dayes together and in the time of Vespasian the Sun and Moon appeared not during the space of 12 dayes What shall it be in the last dayes when the Sun shall hide his beams under a mourning Garment and the Moon shall cloath her self with blood to signifie the wanes which all the creatures are to make with fire and blood against those who have despised their Creator When on one side the Earth shall rouse it self up against them and shall shake them off her back as unwilling to endure their burthen any longer When the Sea shall pursue and assault them within their own houses and the Air shall not permit them to be safe in the fields Certainly it shall be then no wonder if they shall desire the mountains to cover them and the
flourishing and pleasant Orchards consumed without power either to preserve them or themselves All shall burn and with it the World and all the fame and memory of it shall die and that which mortals thought to be immortal shall then end and perish No more shall Aristotle be cited in the Schools nor Vlpian alleaged in the Tribunals no more shall Plato be read amongst the Learned nor Cicero imitated by the Orators no more shall Seneca be admired by the understanding nor Alexander extolled amongst Captains all fame shall then die and all memory be forgotten O vanity of men whose memorials are as vain as themselves which in few years perish and that which lasts longest can endure no longer than the World What became of that Statue of maslie gold which Gorgias the Leontin placed in Delphos to eternize his Name and that of Gabrion in Rome and that of Borosus with the golden tongue in Athens and innumerable others erected to great Captains in brass or hardest marble certainly many years since they are perished or if not yet they shall perish in this great and general Conflagration Onely vertue no fire can burn Three hundred sixty Statues were erected by the Athenians unto Demetrius Phalareus for having governed their Common-wealth ten years with great vertue and prudence but of so little continuance were these Trophies that those very Emblems which were raised by gratitude were soon after destroyed by envy and he himself who saw his Statues set up in so great a number saw them also pulled down but he still retained this comfort which Christians may learn from him that beholding how they threw his Images unto the ground he could say at least They cannot overthrow those Vertues for which they were erected If they were true Vertues he said well for those neither envy can demolish nor humane power destroy and which is more the divine power will not in this general destruction of the World consume them but will preserve in his eternal memory as many as shall persevere in goodness and die in his holy grace for onely Charity and Christan Vertues shall not end when the World ends The sight of those Triumphs exhibited by Roman Captains when they conquered some mighty and powerful Kings lasted but a while and the memories of the Triumphers not much longer and now there are few who know that Metellus triumphed over King Jugurtha Aquilius over King Aristonicus Atilius over King Antiochus Marcus Antonius over the King of Armenia Pompey over King Mithridates Aristobulus and Hiarbas Emilius over King Perseus and the Emperour Aurelius over Cenâ—bia the Queen of the Palmirens If few know this but dumb Books and dead Paper when those shall end what shall then become of their memories How many Histories hath fire consumed and are now no more known then if they had never been Written neither to doe nor write can make the memory of man immortal Aristarchus wrote more than a thousand Commentaries of several Subjects of which not one line remains at present Chrysippus wrote seaven hundred Volumes and now not one leaf is extant Theophrastus wrote thre hundred and sarce three or four remain Above all is that which is reported of Dionysius Grammaticus that he wrote three thousand five hundred works and now not one sheet appears But yet more is that which Jamlicus testifies of the great Trimegistus that he composed thirty six thousand five hundred twenty five books and all those are as if he had not written a letter for 4 or 5 little and imperfect Treatises which pass under his name are none of his Time even before the end of time leaves no Books nor Libraries By the assistance of Demetrius Phalareus King Ptolomy collected a great Library in Alexandria in which were stored all the Books he could gather from Caldee Greece and Aegypt which amounted to seventy thousand bodies but in the Civil Wars of the Romans it perished by that burning which was caused by Julius Caesar Another famous Library amongst the Greeks of Policrates and Phisistratus was spoyled by Xerxes The Library of Bizantium which contained a hundred and twenty thousand Books was burnt in the time of Basiliscus That of the Roman Capitol was in the time of Commâ—dus turned into ashes by lightning and what have we now of the great Library of Pergamus wherein were two hundred thousand Books Even before the end of the World the most constant things of the World die And what great matter is it if those memorials in paper be burnt since those in brass melt and those of marble perish That prodigious Amphitheater Vide Lips In Amph. which Stability Taurus raised of stone was burnt in the time of Nero the hard marble not being able to defend it self from the soft flames The great riches of Corinth in gold and silver were melted when the Town was fired those precious mettals could neither with their hard-resist nor with their value hire a friend to defend them from those furious flames If this particular burning in the most flourishing time of the World caused so great a ruine what shall that general one which shall make an end of the World and all things with it § 5. Let us now consider as we have already in Earthquakes and Deluges what great astonishment and destruction hath sometime happened by some particular burnings that by them we may conceive the greatness of the horror and ruine which will accompany that general one of the whole world What lamentations were in Rome when it burnt for seven dayes together What shrieks were heard in Troy when it was wholly consumed with flames What howling and astonishment in Pentapolis when those Cities were destroyed with fire from heaven Some say they were ten Cities Strabo thirteen Josephus and Lira five that which of faith is that there were four at least who with all their Inhabitants were consumed What weeping was therein Jerusalem when they beheld the House of God the Glory of their Kingdom the Wonder of the World involved in fire and smoke And that we may draw nearer unto our own times when lightning from Heaven fell upon Stockholme the capital City of Sweden and burnt to death above 1600 persons besides an innumerable multitude of Women and Children who hoping to escape the fire at land fled into the ships at Sea but overcharging them were all drowned Imagin what that people felt when they saw their houses and goods on fire and no possibility of saving them when the Husband heard the shrieks and cries of his dying Wife the Father of his little Children and unawares perceived himself so encompassed with flames that he could neither relieve them nor free himself What grief Albert. Krant Suec l. 5. c. 3. what anguish possest the hearts of those unfortunate creatures when to avoid the fury of the fire they were forced to trust themselves to the no less cruel waves when by their own over-hasty crowdings and indiscretion they saw their Ships
a name behind them neither observed justice with others nor vertue in themselves how shall they change their glory into ignominie Let us by the way look upon some of them who have filled the world with their vain fame who shall in that day by so much suffer the greater disgrace by how much the world hath bestowed more undeserved honours upon them Who more glorious than Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar whom the world hath ever esteemed as the most great and valorous Captains that it ever produced and their glory still continues fresh after so many ages past What was all they did but acts of rapine without right or title unjustly tyrannizing over what was none of theirs and shedding much innocent blood to make themselves Lords of the Earth All these actions were vicious and therefore unworthy of honour fame or memory and since they have for so many hundreds of years remained in the applause and admiration of men there shall in that day fall upon them so much ignominy shame and confusion as shall recompence that past honour which they have unworthily received and viciously desired This ambition was so exorbitant in Alexander that hearing Anaxartes the Philosopher affirm that there were many worlds he sighed with great resentment and cried out Miserable me that am not yet Lord of one This devillish and vain pride was extolled by many for greatness of spirit but was in truth the height of vanity and arrogant ambition which could not be contained in one World but with one desire tyrannized over many and shall then be punished with the publick ignominy of all men not onely in respect of the fame which he hath so unjustly enjoyed but of the ill example which he hath given to others and principally unto Caesar who as he followed his example in tyranny did likewise imitate him in ambition and the desire of rule and vain honour De Alex. Vide Val. Max. l. 8. De Julio Caes Vid. Fulg. l. 8. and therefore beholding his Statue in Cadiz at such time as he was Questor in Spain complained of his own fortune that at the age wherein Alexander had subjugated all Asia he had yet done nothing of importance counting it for a matter of importance to tyrannize over the world and to the end he might make himself Lord of it to Captivate his Countrey In like manner Aristotle so celebrated for his Writings in which he consumed many sleepless nights onely to purchase Glory and to make it greater in his confuting of other Philosophers used little ingenuity taking their words in a far other sense than they meant or spake them This labour of his since it proceeded not from Virtue but was performed with so little candour and sincerity meerly to obtain a vain reputation deserved no Glory and therefore a confusion equal unto the Honour they unduly now give him shall then fall upon him And since he put his Disciple Theodectus to so much shame his own ambition will be to him occasion of greater confusion Vide Val. Max. l. 8. Aristotle gave to this his Disciple Theodectus certain Books of the Art of Oratory to the end he should divulge them But afterwards resenting much that another should carry all the praise he owned the said Books publickly And for this reason in other Books which he wrote he cites himself saying As he had said in the Books of Theodectus Wherein is clearly seen Aristotle's ambition or desire of Glory and therefore was unworthy of it and with just ignominy shall pay the unjust Glory he now possesseth In so much then as not only Fame and Memory are vain in respect they are to end and finish as all things with the world are but also because their undeserved and pretended Glory is then to be satisfied with equal shame and confusion the affront they shall receive in that one day being equivalent unto the fame and honour of thousands of years Neither can the most famous men amongst the Gentiles be admired by so many in ten ages as shall then scorn and contemn them How many are ignorant that there ever was an Alexander And how many in all their lives never heard of Aristotle And yet shall in that day know them not for their honour but confusion The name of the Great and admired Alexander is unknown unto more Nations than known The Japonlans Chineses Cafres Angolans other people and most extended and spacious Kingdoms never heard who he was and shall then know him onely for a publique Thief a Robber an Oppressor of the World and for a great and an ambitious Drunkard The same which is to pass in Fame and Memory is also to pass in Children in whom as St. Thomas says St. Thom. supra the Fathers live and as from many good Parents spring evil Children so contrariwise from evil Parents come those that are good which shall be in that day a confusion to those who begat them and by so much the greater by how much worse was the example which they gave them Neither shall the Judge onely enquire into the example they have given their Children but also unto strangers and principally the works which they have left behind them And therefore as from the deceit of Arius saith the Angelical Doctor and other Heretiques have and shall spring divers Errours and Heresies until the end of the World so it is fit that in that last day of time should appear the evil which hath been occasioned by them that we may in this life not onely take a care for our selves but others so as it is a terrible thing as Cajetan notes upon that Article before mention'd of the Angelical Doctor that the Divine judgement shall extend even to those things which are by accident which is as the Divines speak unto those which are besides our will and intention St. Thomas also informs us That by reason of the body which remains after death it was convenient that the sentence of each one in particular should be again repeated in that general Judgement of the whole World Because many Bodies of just men are now buried in the mawes of wild Beasts or otherwise remain without interrement and to the contrary great sinners have had sumptuous Burials and magnificent Sepulchres all which are to be recompensed in that day of the Lord and the sinner whose Body reposed in a rich Mausoleum shall then see himself not only without Ornaments and Beauty but tormented with intolerable pains and the just who died and had no Sepulchres but were devoured by ravenous Birds shall appear with the brightness of the Heavens and with a Body glorious as the Sun Let those consider this who consume vast sums in preparing for themselves stately Sepulchres and beautiful Urns engraving their Names Actions and Dignities in rich Marbles and let them know that all this if they shall be damned shall serve them in that day but for their greater shame and reproach Out of this life
we can carry nothing but our good works and let us not add unto our evil ones that of vain-glory in seeking to leave behind us a vain Fame and Renown Plin. l. 56. c. 13. What remains unto King Porsenna of that heavy burthen wherewith he grieved and afflicted his whole Kingdom in rearing him a Sepulchre of that rare and sumptuous workmanship but a testimony of his pride and folly In like manner the Monument of the Emperour Adrian which was the Beauty and Glory of Rome shall be then changed into a scorn Lastly St. Thomas teaches us that Temporal things on which we place our affections because some last a longer and some a shorter time after death shall all enter with us into Divine judgement Let us take heed therefore whereon we set our hearts since the accomplishing of what we wish may be a punishment of our desires Those things of the Earth which we most love and desire should continue if they be taken from us it is a chastisement of our earthly affection and if we be permitted to enjoy them let us fear that they be not the temporal Reward of some good Work which may either diminish or deprive us of the Eternal Besides this because not onely the Soul of man hath offended but the whole man both in Soul and Body it was fit that both Soul and Body should be judged and appear before the Tribunal of Christ and that in publique because none should presume to sin in secret since his sins are to be revealed and made known to all past present and to come A terrible case it is that this passage of Divine judgement which according as we have said out of holy Job appears unto the Saints more terrible than to suffer all the pains of Hell is twice to be acted and this so bitter trance to be again repeated the second time being unto sinners of greater horrour and confusion than the first CAP. IX Of the last day of Time THat we may now come to handle the manner of this universal Judgement which is to pass upon time and men we are to suppose that this fire which is to precede the coming of Christ is at his descent to continue in assistance of his Divine justice and after his return unto Heaven attended by all the just to remain until it hath purged and purified these inferiour Elements the which is noted by Albertus Magnus Albert. Magn. in comp Theol. lib. 7. c. 15. Less de perf div lib. 13. c. 30. 23. and collected from divers places of the Divine Scriptures We are also to suppose that this coming of Christ is to be with greater terrour and Majesty than hath been yet manifested by any of the Divine persons either in himself or any of his Creatures If an Angel which represented God and was onely to promulgate the Law came with that terrour and Majesty unto Mount Sinay as made the Hebrew people though purified and prepared for his coming to quake and tremble what shall the Lord of the Law doe when he himself comes to take an account of the Law and to revenge the breach of it With what terrour and Majesty shall he appear unto men plunged in sin and unprepared for his reception who are then to be all present and judged in that last day of time The day in which the Law was given was very memorable unto the Hebrews And this day where an account of the Law is to be given will be horrible and ought perpetually to remain in the memory of all mankind But before we declare what shall pass in this let us say something of what hath already passed in that that from the horrour of the first appearance we may gather something of what shall happen in the second and from the Majesty wherewith an Angel appeared when he gave the Law collect something of the Majesty of the Lord of Angels when he judges the Law Fifty dayes after the departure of the Sons of Israel out of Egypt after so many plagues and punishments poured upon that Kingdom after the burying of the unbelieving Egyptians who pursued them in the bottom of the Red Sea and that the Hebrews having escaped their enemies were lodged round about Mount Sinay Deut. 33. Vid. Barrad l. 6. itin c. 5. Ps 65. Deut. 33. There was seen to come in the Air from far that is from Mount Seir in Idumea a Lord of great power attended with an infinite multitude of Angels In so much as David sings that ten thousand compassed about his Chariot And Moses speaking of many thousands which attended him says also that he carried in his right hand the Law of God all of flaming fire and yet he who came in this height of Majesty waited on with those Celestial Spirits was not God Act. 7. but as we learn from St. Stephen onely an Angel and believed to be St. Michael who because he came in the Name of God the holy Scriptures calls the Lord. This Angel thus accompanied came seated on a dark condensed Cloud which cast forth frequent flashes of Lightning and resounded with dreadful cracks of Thunder Deut. 33. from Mount Seir unto Mount Haran in the Land of the Ishmaelites and from thence with the same Majesty passed through the Air unto Mount Sinay where the Children of Israel lay encamped who at the dawning of the day astonisht with that fearful noyse stood quaking and trembling in their Tents No sooner was the Angel arrived unto Mount Sinay which as the Apostle says Heb. 42. was covered with rain whirlwinds storms and tempests but he descended in flames which raught betwixt Heaven and Earth from whence issued forth a smoke black and thick as from a furnace during which time a Trumpet was heard to sound with that piercing vehemence that as it encreased in loudness so fear encreased in the amazed Israelites who now stood quaking at the foot of the Mountain but were by the Angel so much would he be respected commanded by the mouth of Mâ—ses not to approach it lest they died After which the Angel began with a dreadful voice to proclaim the Law which was pronounced with so much life and vigour that not withstanding the horrid noyse of Thunder the flashes of lightning and the shrill and penetrating sound of the Trumpet still continued yet all the Hebrews who with their Tents overspread those vast deserts and many thousands of Egyptians who were converted and followed them heard conceived and understood it clearly and distinctly Nay so piercing was the voyce that it entred and imprinted it self in their very bowels speaking unto every one of them as if it had spoken to him only which caused so great a fear and reverence in the people that they thought they could not live if the Angel continued speaking and therefore besought it as a grace that he would speak unto them by the way of Moses lest they should die Nay Moses himself accustomed to see
purified in that general burning and then shall be renewed the Earth the Heavens the Stars and the Sun which shall shine seaven times more than before and the creatures which have here been violated and oppressed by the abuse of man whereof some had taken armes against him to revenge the injuries of their Creatour and others groaned under their burthen with grief and sorrow shall then rejoyce to see themselves freed from the tyranny of sin and sinners and joyful of the triumph of Christ shall put on mirth and gladness This is the end wherein all time is to determine and this the Catastrophe so fearful unto the wicked where all things temporal are to conclude Let us therefore take heed how we use them and that we may use them well let us be mindful of this last day this day of justice and calamity this day of terrour and amazement the memory whereof will serve much for the reformation of our lives Let us think of it and fear it for it is the most terrible of all things terrible and the consideration of it most profitable and available to cause in us a holy fear of God and to convert us unto him Joh. Curopol in hist apud Rad. in opusc in vitis PP Occidentis John Curopolata writes of Bogoris King of the Bulgarians a Pagan who was so much addicted to the hunting of wilde beasts that he desired to have them painted in his Palace in all their fury and fierceness and to that end commanded Methodius the Monk a skilful Painter to paint them in so horrible a manner as the very sight might make the beholders tremble The discreet Monk did it not but in place of it painted the Day of Judgement and presented it unto the King who beholding that terrible act of Justice and the coming of the Son of God to judge the World crowning and rewarding the just and punishing the wicked was much astonished at it and being after instructed left his bad life and was converted to the faith of Christ If onely then the Day of Judgement painted was so terrible what shall it be executed Almost the same happened unto St. Dositheus Anon. in Elog. Dorothei Dosithei who being a young man cokored and brought up in pleasures had not in his whole life so much as heard of the Day of Judgement until by chance he beheld a Picture in which were represented the pains of the damned at which he was much amazed and not knowing what it was was informed of it by a Matron present which he apprehended so deeply that he fell half dead upon the ground not being able to breath for fear and terrour after coming to himself he demanded what he should doe to avoid that miserable condition it was answered him by the same Matron that he should fast pray and abstain from flesh which he immediately put in execution And though many of his house and kindred endeavoured to divert and disswade him yet the holy fear of God and the dread of eternal condemnation which he might incurre remained so fixt in his memory that nothing could withdraw him from his rigorous penance and holy resolution until becoming a Monk he continued with much fruit and profit Let us therefore whiles we live ever preserve in our memory this day of terrour that we may hereafter enjoy security for the whole eternity of God THE THIRD BOOK OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWIXT THE TEMPORAL and ETERNAL CAP. I. The mutability of things temporal makes them worthy of contempt HItherto we have spoken of the shortness of time and consequently of all things temporal and of the end wherein they are to conclude Nothing is exempted from death and therefore not onely humane life but all things which follow time and even time it self at last must die Wherefore Hesichius Damas in Par. l. 1. as he is translated by St. John Damascen saith That the splendour of this world is but as withered leaves bubles of water smoke stubble a shadow and dust driven by the wind all things that are of earth being to end in earth But this is not all for besides the certainty of end they are infected with another mischief which renders them much more contemptible than that which is their instability and continual changes whereunto they are subject even whilest they are For as time it self is in a perpetual succession and mutation as being the brother and inseparable companion of Motion so it fixes this ill condition unto most of those things which pass along in it the which not onely have an end and that a short one but even during that shortness of time which they last have a thousand changes and before their end many ends and before their death many deaths each particular change which our life suffers being the death of some estate or part of if For as death is the total change of life so every change is the death of Come part Sickness is the death of health sleeping of waking sorrow of joy impatience of quiet youth of infancy and age of youth The same condition hath the universal world and all things in it for which cause they deserve so much contempt that Marcus Aurelius the Emperour wondered that there could be found a man so senseless Aur. Anton l. 6. de vita sua as to value them and therefore speaks in this manner Of that very thing which is now in doing some part is already vanisht changes and alterations continually innovate the world as that immense space of time by a perpetual flux renews it self Who therefore shall esteem those things which never subsist but pass along in this headlong and precipitate river of time is as he who sets his affection upon some little bird which passes along in the air and is no more seen Thus much from this Philosopher This very cause of the little value of things temporal proceeding from their perpetual changes together with the end whereunto they are subject is as St. Gregory notes signified unto us by that Woman in the Apocalyps Greg. l. 34. moral who had the Moon under her feet and her head adorned with twelve Stars Certainly the Moon as well as the Stars might have been placed in her Diadem but it was trod under foot by reason of the continual changes and alterations which it suffers whereby it becomes a figure of things temporal which change not onely every Moneth but every day the same day being as Euripides sayes now a Mother then a Stepmother The same was also signified by the Angel Apoc. 10. who crowned with a Rainbow descended from heaven to proclaim that all time was to end with his right foot which presses and treads more firmly he stood upon the Sea which by reason of its great unquietness is also a figure of the instability of this World And therefore with much reason did the Angel who had taught us by his voice that all time and temporal things
of wayes but spiritual goods can onely be forsaken and are then onely lost when we leave them by sin This may make us tremble that they are lost because we will lose them and not being mutable in themselves they change because we are mutable That which hath happened in this kind is most lamentable St. Peter Damian writes that he knew a Monk in the City of Benevento named Madelmo Petr. Dami l. 1. c. 10. who arrived at so great sanctity of life that being upon a holy Saturday to fill a dozen of Lamps and oyl failing for the lust he with great faith filled it with water and lighting it it burned as the rest Many other miracles he wrought in our Lord for which he was in great esteem both of the Prince and Citizens But wherein ended this miraculous and venerable man a strange change God withdrawing his holy hand from him he fell into such dishonesty of life that he was taken and publickly whipt and his head for his greater ignominy shaved like a Slave A lamentable tragedy is the life of man wherein we behold so contrary extremes Ibidem The same St. Peter Damian writes that he knew in the same City a Priest of so great sanctity that every day when he celebrated Mass the Prince of Benevento beheld an Angel descend from heaven who took the Divine Mysteries from his hands to offer them unto the Lord. Yet this man so favoured from above fell into the like vice that all might fear and none be assured in any state whatsoever S. John Climacus relates the story of that young man Clim gr 15. of whom we read in the Lives of the Fathers who mounted unto so high a degree of vertue that he commanded the wild Asses and compell'd them to serve the Monks of the Monastery whom blessed St. Anthony compared to a Ship laden with rich Merchandize sailing in the middest of the Ocean whose end was uncertain Afterwards this so fervent youth fell most miserably and bewailing his sin said unto some of the Monks who passed by Speak unto the old man that is St. Anthony that he pray unto God that he would grant me yet ten dayes of repentance The holy man hearing this toar the hair from his head and said A great Pillar of the Church if fallen and five dayes after the Monk died in so much as he who heretofore commanded the wild beasts of the Wilderness became a scorn to the Devils and he who preserved himself by bread from heaven was afterward deprived of his spiritual sustenance Heracl in Parad. Lamentable also is the accident related by Heraclides of Hieron Alexandrinus who having flourished many years in great vertue and fame of sanctity Andr. Ebor Ex. mem t. 2. de mor. for mut left off all and became a haunter of publick Stews In the same manner Ptolomee the Egyptian having passed fifteen years in the Desert in continual prayer sustaining himself only with bread and the dew which fell from heaven came to leave all and lead a most scandalous life If we look into the holy Scriptures we shall find greater changes and more lamentable falls Who would think that Saul chosen of God for very good of an humble and patient spirit should end in a Luciferian pride and in a mortal hatred against the best man in Israel Who would think that a man so wise and so religious as Salomon should in his latter times be seduced by women and erect Temples unto false Gods Finally who would imagine that an Apostle of Christ should die in despair and hang himself What man can then presume so much of himself that he needs not stand in fear of what he may be CAP. IV. The change of humane things shews clearly their vanity and how worthy they are to be contemned THis inconstancy and change of things serve as a testimony of their vanity Witness those who have had the largest experience of humane greatness and felicity Gilimer King of the Vandals was of great power wealth and valour but overcome by Belisarius and deprived of his Kingdome was led in triumph through the Streets of Constantinople When he approached the place where Justinian the Emperour was seated in a Throne of incomparable Majesty cloathed in his Imperial Robes and compassed with the great Princes of his Empire the Captive King beholding him in so great glory and himself a Slave abandoned of the whole world neither wept nor complained nor shewed the least sign of sorrow or resentment Procop. li. 2. de bello Vandalorum but onely uttered that most true sentence of the Wise-man Vanity of vanities and all is vanity He who knew this no marvail though in so great a misfortune he had drie eyes For if he knew that all humane greatness was vanity wherefore should he grieve for that which was nothing That is not worthy of grief which deserves not love Things so mutable are those below that as they merit not our affections when we enjoy them so they ought not to vex and afflict us when we lose them This apprehension was the cause of the great equality of mind which this Prince exprest in all his actions who was so far from shewing any grief in the loss of his Kingdom and fortunes that he rather seemed to laugh and rejoyce and therefore when he was overthrown in battail and forced to flye into Numidia where he fortified himself in one of the Mountains the Enemy besieging and streightning him with want of victuals he sent to the Captain who commanded in chief to demand of him Bread a Sponge and a Cittern Bread to sustain his life which was now like to perish for want of food a Sponge to drie his eyes for that having now entred into the consideration of the vanity of humane things and ashamed at his grief for the loss of them he was resolved to change his passions and rather laugh than weep for what being possest afforded no security the same being lost brought no prejudice and to this end demanded a Cittern for that having wiped his eyes from their fruitless tears he was now resolved to change his complaints into songs and his grief into content which consists not so much in the abundance of a great fortune as in the sufficiency of a moderate And with reason might he take the Cittern for if he well considered he might rejoyce even in his mishap since his loss made him understand that deceit of the World which his most ample Kingdom never could and freed him not onely from cares and troubles but from sins which in the prosperity of this life have a larger field than in an adverse fortune Possessed of this truth they took him prisoner and brought him to the conquering Belisarius The Captive King came with those expressions of joy and mirth that the General seeing him laugh whom he judged to have so great a cause of tears thought his grief had distracted him and
miserable end of Man saith Man is converted into no man why therefore art thou proud know that thou wert in the womb unclean seed and curdled blood exposed afterward to sin and the many miseries of this life and after death shalt be the food of worms Wherefore doest thou wax proud Dust and ashes whose conception was in sin whose birth in misery whole life in pain and whose death necessity wherefore doest thou swell and adorn thy flesh with precious things which in few dayes is to be devoured by worms and doest not rather adorn thy soul with good works which is to be presented in heaven before God and his Angels All this is spoken by St. Bernard which every man ought to take as spoken unto himself §. 2. Besides that man is a thing so poor and little and composed of so base and vile materials this littleness this vileness hath no firmness nor consistence but is a river of changes a perpetual corruption and as Secundus the Philosopher sayes Lib. 11. de Praepa Evan. c. 7. A fantasme of time whose instability is thus declared by Eusebius of Caesarea Our nature from our birth until our death is unstable and as it were fantastical which if you strive to comprehend is like water gathered in the palm of the hand the more you grasp it the more you spill it In the same manner those mutable and transitory things the more you consider them with reason the more they flye from you Things sensible being in a perpetual flux are still doing and undoing still generating and corrupting and never remain the same For as Heraclitus sayes as it is impossible to enter twice into the same river because the same water remains not but new succeeds still as the first passes so if you consider twice this mortal substance you shall not both times find it the same but with an admirable swiftness of change it is now extended now contracted but it is not well said to say Now and Now for in the same time it loses in one part and gains in another and is another thing than what it is in so much as it never rests The Embrion which is framed from seed quickly becomes an Infant from thence a Boy from thence a Young-man from thence an Old and then decrepit and so the first ages being past and corrupted by new ones which succeed it comes at last to die How ridiculous then are men to fear one death who have already died so many and are yet to die more Not onely as Heraclitus said The corruption of fire is the generation of air but this appears more plainly in our selves for from youth corrupted is engendred man and from him the old man from the boy corrupted is engendered the youth and from the infant the boy and from who was not yesterday he who is to day and of him who is to day he who shall be to morrow so as he never remains the same but in every moment we change as it were with various phantasms in one common matter For if we be still the same how come we to delight in things we did not before we now love and abhorre after another manner than formerly we now praise and dispraise other things than we did before we use other words and are moved with other affections we do not hold the same form nor pass the same judgement we did and how is it possible that without change in our selves we should thus change in our motions and affections certainly he who still changes is not the same and he who is not the same cannot be said to be but in a continual mutation slides away like water The sense is deceived with the ignorance of what is and thinks that to be which is not Where shall we then finde true being but in that onely which is eternal and knows no beginning which is incorruptible which is not changed with time Time is moveable and joyned with movable matter glides away like a current and like a vessel of generation and corruption retains nothing in so much as the first and the last that which was and that which shall be are nothing and that which seems present passes like lightning Wherefore as time is defined to be the measure of the motion of things sensible and as time never is nor can be so we may with the like reason say that things sensible do not remain nor are nor have any being All this is from Eusebius which David declared more briefly and significantly when he said That man whilest he lived in this life was an Universal vanity Wherefore St. Gregory Nazianzen said In laud. Caes that we are a dream unstable like a Spectre or Apparition which could not be laid hold on Let man therefore reflect upon all which hath been said let him behold himself in this glass let him see wherefore he presumes wherefore he afflicts himself for things of the earth which are so small in themselves and so prejudicial unto him With reason did the Prophet say In vain doth man trouble himself Upon which St. Chrysostome with great admiration speaks in this manner Chrysost in Ps 36. Man troubles himself and loses his end he troubles himself consumes and melts to nothing as if he had never been born he troubles himself and before he attains rest is overwhelmed he is inflamed like fire and is reduced to ashes like flax he mounts on high like a tempest and like dust is scattered and disappears he is kindled like a flame and vanishes like smoke he glories in his beauty like a flower and withers like hay he spreads himself as a cloud and is contracted as a drop he swells like a bubble of water and and goes out like a spark he is troubled and carries nothing about him but the filth of riches he is troubled onely to gain dirt he is troubled and dies without fruit of his vexations His are the troubles others the joyes his are the cares others the contents his are the afflictions others the fruit his are the heart-burstings others the delights his are the curses others have the respect and reverence against him the sighs and exclamations of the persecuted are sent up to Heaven and against him the tears of the poor are poured out and the riches and abundance remains with others he shall howl and be tormented in hell whilest others sing triumph and vainly consume his estate In vain do living men trouble themselves Man is he who enjoyes a life but lent him and that but for a short time Man is but a debt of death which is to be paid without delay a living Creature who is in his will and appetite untamed a mischief taught without a Master a voluntary ambush subtle in wickedness witty in iniquity prone to covetousness insatiable in the desire of what is anothers of a boasting spirit and full of insolent temerity in his words fierce but easily quailed bold but quickly mastered an
just Sentence of God be praised for a Conqueror over the World and the invisible Powers of Hell and how shall that Soul rejoyce when it shall see it self being freed from all danger and troubles to triumph over all its enemies What can it desire more than to be partaker of all those divine goods and even to accompany Christ in the same Throne O how chearfully do they combat upon Earth O how easily do they bear all afflictions for Christ who with a lively faith and certain hope apprehend so sublime honours Certainly with much reason may the happiness of Saints be called by the name of Glory since the honour which they receive is so transcendent What an honour shall that be when the Just in the other lise shall receive no less a recompence of his holiness than God himself The nature of honour is to be a reward of vertue and by how much greater the reward is which a powerful King bestows upon some valorous Captain by so much greater is the honour which he confers upon him What honour shall it then be when God shall give unto those who have served him not onely to tread upon the Starres to inhabit the Palaces of Heaven to be Lords of the World but transcending all that is created and finding amongst his whole riches nothing sufficient to reward them shall give them his own infinite essence to enjoy not for a day but to all eternity The highest honour which the Romans bestowed upon their greatest Captains was to grant them a day of triumph and in that permission to wear a Crown of grass or leaves which withered the day following O most honoured vertue of Christians whole triumph shall be eternal and whose never fading Crown is God himself O most happy Diadem of the Just O most precious Garland of the Saints which is of as great worth and value as is God! Sapores King of the Persians was most ambitious of honour and would therefore be called the Brother of the Sun and Moon and Friend to the Planets This vain Prince erected a most glorious Throne which he placed on high and thereon fat in great Majesty having under his feet a certain Globe of glass whereon were artificially represented the motions of the Sun the Moon and Stars and to sit crowned above this phantastical Heaven he esteemed as a great honour What shall be then the honour of the just who truly and really shall sit above the Sun the Moon and Firmament crowned by the hand of God himself If the applause of men and the good opinion which they have from others be esteemed an honour what shall be the applause of Heaven and the good opinion not onely of Saints and Angels but of God himself whose judgements cannot erre David took it for a great honour that the Daughter of his King was judged as a reward of his valour God surpasses this and honours so much the services of his Elect that he pays their merits with no less a reward than himself O happy labour of the victorious and glorious combat of the just against the vices and temptations of the World whose victory deserves so inestimable a Crown Clemens Alexandrinus reports that there were in Persia three Mountains He who came to the first heard as it were a farre off the noise and voice of them who were fighting he who attained at the second heard perfectly the cries and clamours of Souldiers engaged in the fury of a Battail but he who attained unto the third heard nothing but the joyful acclamations of a victory This happens really with the just who are likewise to pass three mystical Mountains which are Reason Grace and Glory He who arrives at the knowledge of Reason gives an alarm unto Vice which he combats and overcomes by Grace and in Glory celebrates his victory with the joy and applause of all the Inhabitants of heaven and is crowned as a Conquerour with such a Crown as we have already spoken of §. 2. Besides this he who is most known and is praised and celebrated for good and vertuous by the greatest multitude is esteemed the most glorious and honourable person But all this World is a solitude in respect of the Citizens of Heaven where innumerable Angels approve and praise the vertuous actions of the Saints and they likewise are nothing and all creatures Men and Angels but as a solitary Wilderness in respect of the Creator What comparison betwixt that honour which may be given by some particular Kingdom or by all Europe and that which shall be heaped upon the just by all the blessed Men and Angels nay even by the damned and Devils in the Day of Judgement What is the approbation of a created understanding in respect of the Divine What man so glorious upon earth whose worth and valour hath been known to all Those who were born before him could not know him no more shall many of those who are to follow him But the Predestinate in heaven shall be known by all past and to come by all the Angels and by the King of Men and Angels Humane fame is founded upon the applause of mortal men who besides being less than Angels may be deceived may lie and are most part of them sinners and wicked How farre then must that honour exceed it which is conferred upon the Just by the holy Angels and by those blessed and pure Souls who cannot be deceived themselves nor will deceive us If we esteem it more to be honoured by the Kings of the Earth by the Great men of the World and by the Learned in Universities than by the barbarous and ignorant Peasants of some poor Village how ought we then to value the honou rwhich shall be bestowed upon us by the Saints in Heaven who are the Kings and Grandees of the Court of God and are all replenished with most perfect and divine wisdom All the honour of men is ridiculous and his ambition no wiser who seeks it then as St. Anselme sayes if one worm should desire to be honoured by another Lib. de Sim. c. 65. All the Earth is but as a Village or rather as some poor Cottage in respect of Heaven Let us not therefore strive for a name upon Earth but that our names may be written in Heaven in comparison whereof it is too much to say that the Earth is a point as Seneca called it Lib. 2. de Consol and therefore Bottius proves that it is less and sayes If from this little particle of Earth you shall take what Seas Lakes and uninhabited places full of wild beasts take up you shall leave unto men but a narrow dwelling Being therefore penn'd up in so small a point of a point how canst thou think to extend thy renown and publish thy name Compare the honour of Heaven with that of Earth and thou shalt find the difference betwixt them to be as great as is their distance Of this incomparable honour in Heaven have
to the Common-wealth known to posterity But in Heaven there is no need of this artifice because those who are there honoured are immortal and shall have in themselves some character engraved as an evident and clear testimony of their noble Victories and Atchievements The honour of the Just in Heaven depends not like that of the Earth upon accidents and reports nor is exposed to dangers or measured by the discourse of others but in it self contains its own glory and dignity Cuiac ad tit de dignit The dignities in the Roma Empire as may be gathered from the Civil Law were four expressed by these four Titles Perfectissimus Clariffimus Spectabilis Illustris most Perfect most Clear Specious and Illustrious These Honours were onely in name and reputation not in substance and truth For He was often called most perfect who was indiscreet foolish passionate and imperfect He most clear who had neither clearness nor serenitity of understanding but was infected with dark and obscure vices Those specious and beautiful from whom a man would flye twenty leagues rather than behold them and those illustrious who were enveloped in the darkness of vice and ignorance without the least light of vertue That we may therefore see the difference betwixt the honours of Heaven and those of the Earth which are as farre distant from one another as truth from falsehood we must know that in Heaven the Blessed are not onely called most Perfect but really are so both in soul and body without the least imperfection or defect are not onely called most Clear but are so each one being adorned with that gift of brightness that they shall cast out beams more clear than the Sun and if the Sun be the most bright thing in nature what shall they be who seaventimes out-shine it Nor shall they be onely said to be spectabilis or specious and worthy to be looked upon but their beauty and comeliness shall be such as shall not onely draw the eyes of all to behold them but shall stirre up their affections to love and admire them In the like manner they shall not be titularly but really Illustrious for every one with his own light shall be sufficient to illustrate and enlighten many Worlds If one onely false title of those which are truely enjoyed by the Blessed were capable of making the Roman Empire to respect and honour the possessor what shall the truth and substance of them all do in Heaven 1 Mac. 2. With reason did Mathathias call the glory of this World dung and filth because all honours and dignities of the Earth in respect of those in Heaven are base vile and despicable What greater honour than to be Friends of God Sons Heirs and Kings in the Realm of Heaven Apoc. 4. St. John in his Apocalyps sets forth this honour of the blessed in the 24 Elders who were placed about the Throne of God and in that Honour and Majesty as every one was seared in his presence and that upon a Throne cloathed in white and lucid Garments in signe of their perpetual joy and crowned with a crown of Gold in respect of their dignities To be covered in the presence of Kings is the greatest honour they conferre upon the chiefest Grandees but God causes his Servants to be crowned and seated upon Thrones before him and our Saviour in the Day of Judgement makes his Disciples his fellow Judges §. 4. Certainly greater honour cannot be imagined than that of the Predestinate For if we look upon him who honours It is God If with what With no less joy than his own Divinity and other most sublime gifts If before whom Before the whole Theater of Heaven now and in the Day of Judgement before Heaven Earth Angels Men and Devils If the continuance For all eternity If the titles which he gives them it is the truth and substance of the things not the empty word and vain name By all this may appear the cause why eternal happiness being a mass and an assembly of all goods imaginable yet is called by way of excellence by the name of Glory because that although it contain all pleasures contents joyes riches and what can be defired yet it seems the Glory and honour which God bestows upon the Just exceeds all the other The honour which God gives in Heaven to glorious Souls may be seen by that which he gives to their worm-eaten bones upon Earth whereof St. Chrysostom speaks these words Where is now the Sepulcher of the great Alexander In 2. ad Corinth Hom. 26. shew it me I beseech thee and tell me the day whereon he died The Sepulchers of the Servants of Christ are so famous that they possess the most Royal and Imperial City of the World and the day whereon they died is known and observed as festival by all The Sepulcher of Alexander is unknown even to his own Countrymen but that of these is known to the very Barbarians Besides the Sepulchers of the Servants of Christ excell in splendor and magnificence the Palaces of Kings not onely in respect of the beauty and sumptuousness of their buildings wherein they also exceed but which is much more in the reverence and joy of those who repair unto them For even he who is clothed in Purple frequents their Tombs and humbly kisses them and laying aside his Majesty and Pomp supplicates their prayers and assistance with God Almighty he who wears the Diadem taking a Fisherman and a Maker of Tents for his Patrons and Protectors What miracles hath not God wrought by the Reliques of his Servants and what prodigies have not been effected by their bodies St. Chrysostome writes of St. Juventius Chrysost in Serm. de Juven Max. Sever. in Ep. ad Socrum and St. Maximus that their bodies after death cast forth such beams of light that the eyes of those who were present were not able to suffer them Sulpicius Severus writes of St. Martin that his dead body remained in a manner glorified that his flesh was pure as Chrystal and white as milk What wonders did God work by the bodies of St. Edward the King and St. Francis Xavier preserving them incorrupted for so many years and if he do those great things with their Bodies who are under the Earth what will he do with their Souls which are above the Heavens and what with them both when their glorious Bodies shall arise and after the Day of Judgement united to their Souls enter in triumph into the holy and eternal City of God CAP. III. Of the Riches of the eternal Kingdom of Heaven THe Riches in Heaven are no less than the Honours though those as hath been said are inestimable There can be no greater riches than to want nothing which is good nor to need any thing which can be desired and in that blessed life no good shall fall nor no desire be unsatisfied And if as the Philosophers say he is not rich who possesseth much
his Body cast forth a most fragrant perfume If this be in corruptible flesh what shall be in the immortal Bodies of the Saints The taste also in that blessed Country shall not want the delight of its proper object For although the Saints shall not there feed which were to necessitate that happy state unto something besides it self yet the tongue and pallat shall be satiated with most pleasant and savoury relishes so as with great decency and cleanliness they shall have the delight of meat without the trouble of eating by reason of the great delicacy of this Celestial taste The glory of the Saints is often signified in holy Scripture under the names of a Supper Banquet Manna Aug. lib. de spiritu vita Laur. Justin de Dis Mon. ca. 23. St. Austin sayes it cannot be explicated how great shall be the delight and sweetness of the taste which shall eternally be found in Heaven And St. Laurentius Justinianus affirms that an admirable sweetness of all that can be delightful to the taste shall satisfie the pallat with a most agreeable satiety If Esau sold his Birthright for a dish of Lentil pottage well may we mortifie our taste here upon earth that we may enjoy that perfect and incomparable one in Heaven The touch also shall there receive a most delightful entertainment All they tread upon shall seem unto the Just to be flowers and the whole disposition of their Bodies shall be ordered with a most sweet and exquisite temperature For as the greatest penances of the Saints were exercised in this sense by the afflictions endured in their Bodies so it is reason that this sense should then receive a particular reward And as the torments of the damned in hell are most expressed in that sense so the Bodies of the Blessed in Heaven are in that sense to receive a special joy and refreshment And as the heat of that infernal fire without light is to penetrate even to the entrals of those miserable persons so the candor and brightness of the celestial light is to penetrate the bodies of the Blessed and fill them with an incomparable delight and sweetness All then what we are to do is to live in that true and perfect life all is to be joy in that eternal happiness Therefore as St. Anselme sayes Ansel de Simil. c. 59. the eyes nose mouth hands even to the bowels and marrow of the bones and all and every part of the body in general and particular shall be sensible of a most admirable pleasure and content Joan. de Tamba Trac de Deliciis sensibilibus Paradisi Et Nich. de Nise de quat Noviss 3. Myst 4. Consi The Humanity of Christ our Redeemer is to be the principal and chief joy of all the Senses and therefore John Tambescensis and Nicholas of Nise say that as the intellectual knowledge of the Divinity of Christ is the joy and essential reward of the Soul so the sensitive knowledge of the Humanity of Christ is the chief good and essential joy of the Senses and the utmost end and felicity whereunto they can aspire This it seems was meant by our Saviour in St. John when speaking unto the Father he said This is life eternal that is essential blessedness as Nicholas de Nise interprets it that they know thee the only true God in which is included the essential glory of the Soul and him whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ in which is noted the essential blessedness of the Senses in so much as onely in the Humanity of our Saviour the appetite of the Senses shall be so perfectly satisfied as they shall have no more to desire but in it shall receive all joy pleasure and fulness of delight for the eyes shall be the sight of him who is above all beauty for the ears one onely word of his shall sound more sweetly than all the harmonious musick of the Celestial spirits for the smell the fragrancy that shall issue from his most holy Body shall exceed the perfume of spices for the taste and touch to kiss his feet and sacred wounds shall be beyond all sweetness It is much also to be noted that the blessed Souls shall be crowned with some particular joyes which the very Angels are not capable of For first it is they onely who are to enjoy the Crowns of Doctors Virgins and Martyrs since no Angel can have the glory to have shed his blood and died for Christ neither to have overcome the flesh and by combats and wrastlings subjected it unto reason Wherefore Saint Bernard said The chastity of men was more glorious than that of Angels Secondly men shall have the glory of their bodies and joy of their senses which the Angels cannot For as they want the enemy of the Spirit which is the Flesh so they must want the glory of the victory Neither shall they have this great joy of mankind in being redeemed by Christ from sin and as many damnations into hell as they have committed mortal sins and to see themselves now freed and secure from that horrid evil and so many enemies of the Soul which they never had which must needs produce a most unspeakable joy Cap. VI. The excellency and perfection of the Bodies of the Saints in the life eternal WE will not forbear also to consider what man shall be when he is eternal when being raised again at the great day he shall enter Soul and Body into Heaven Let us run over if you please all those kinds of goods which expect us in that Land of promise When God promised Abraham the Country of Palestine he commanded him to look upon it and travel and compass it from side to side Gen. 13. Lift up thine eyes saith the Lord and from the place where thou standest look towards the North and towards the South and towards the East and towards the West All the land which thou seest I will give unto thee and thy seed for ever And immediately after Arise and walk the land in length and breadth for I will certainly give it thee We may take these words as spoken unto our selves since they seem to promise us the Kingdom of Heaven for no man shall enter into that which he docs not desire and no man can desire that as he ought to do which he has not walked over in his consideration for that which is not known is hardly desired And therefore we ought often to contemplate the greatness of this Land the length of its eternity and the breadth and largeness of its felicity which is so far extended that it fills not onely the Soul but the Body with happiness and glory that glory of the Soul redounding unto the Body and perfecting it with those four most excellent gifts and replenishing it with all felicity which can be imagined or desired If Moses seeing an Angel in a corporal figure onely upon the back part and but in passage received so great a glory from
of our bodies now to those precious gifts of glory after our resurrection We are now all rottenness unweildiness corruption uncleanness infirmities loathsomness and worms Then all shall be light incorruption splendor purity beauty and immortality Let us compare these together what difference there is betwixt a body sickly weak pale and loathsome or some eight dayes after death full of worms corruption and stench abominable with the same body being now in glory exceeding the Sun far in brightness the Heavens in beauty more odoriferous than the purest Roses or Lillies Neither do the evils or goods temporal bear any comparison with the eternal since as the Apostle sayes That which is momentary and light does cause an eternal weight of glory In the beginning of the Civil Warres with the Senate of Rome carried on against Caius and Fulvius Gracchus Val. l. c. 4. the Consul Opimius by publick Edict promised that whosoever should bring him the head of Caius Gracchus should receive for reward its weight in gold All esteemed this a recompence highly to be valued that one should receive equal weight of that precious mettal to the weight of dead flesh But God's promises far exceed this For a labour or trouble as light as a feather he gives eternal weight of glory The Apostle sayes not that God Almighty doth give onely a great weight for light merits out also adds over and above that it shall be eternal It were a great happiness if according to our penances or voluntary labours we should receive onely equal proportion of bliss yet so as it were eternal because how little soever it were it were to be purchased at a very cheap rate though it were in substance but so much for so much so that the difference were onely such in the duration thereof as if for the toyl of one dayes labour were given a whole year of rest But Almighty God giving much for a little for that which is light massie and heavy for a thing momentary an eternal reward what greater encrease or advantage can we possibly receive Seâ—imuleyus will be a great confusion unto us who hearing the foresaid Proclamation of the Roman Consul stuck not at any toil or danger until he had cut off the head of Gracchus greedy of the equal weight thereof in gold Let us have the like courage the Souldier had to take away the temporal life of a Man to the end we may not bereave our selves of an eternal life And since the purchase of Heaven is so cheap let us procure to augment the gain and let 's not have less desire of goods eternal than Setimuleyus had for temporals who desirous of a great reward filled with melted lead all the hollow places of the head which he had cut off Let us fill our momentary and light works with great affection and love Let us increase our desires and in any work how little soever accompany the same with a great will with a vehement desire to hoard up eternal treasures for temporal pains What an advantagious exchange will it be to buy Heaven for a draught of water for that which is but vile and lasts but a moment that which is of inestimable price and is to last for all eternity What sort of bargain would it be if one could buy a Kingdom for a straw yet so it is For that which is no more worth than a Straw we may purchase the Kingdom of Heaven Certainly all the felicity riches and earthly delights are no more than a straw compared with the glory of Heaven How fond and foolish would he be who having a Basket full of chips would not give one of them for an hundred weight of gold This is the sottishness of men that for earthly goods they will not receive those of Heaven Who is there that having offered him a precious stone for some small sand should not have so much wit as to give a thing so base and abject for a thing so noble and precious Who being offered a rich treasure for an handful of cinders would not admit of so gainful an exchange What hunger-starved man being invited to a full Table of dainty dishes upon condition he should not eat an apple paring would reject the invitation Heaven is offered us for things little and of small estimation Why do not we accept the offer Christ our Saviour called the Kingdom of Heaven a precious Margarite and a hidden Treasure for which we ought to forsake all the goods of the earth by reason they are all but dust and misery in respect of a treasure of Pearls and Diamonds St. Josaph at did very much in leaving an earthly Kingdom for a greater assurance of that of Heaven He did very much according to our deceitful apprehension and false estimation of things But if it be well considered he did very little much less than if he had given one Basketful of Earth for another of Gold a Sack full of Small-coal for a great Treasure and a Nut-shell for a great Banquet Whatever is in the Earth may well be given for the least crum of Heaven because all the greatnesses of this World are but crums nut-shells and trash compared with the least particle of heavenly bliss All the felicity upon Earth hath no substance nor weight if compared with the weight of eternal glory which is prepared for us This David did and convinced by the greatness of heavenly glory said unto our Lord I did eneline my heart to doe thy justifications The heart of man is like a just ballance that inclines that way where is the greatest weight And as in the heart of David the temporal weighed little and the eternal much so inclined by the eternal weight of glory which attends us and moved by the hope of so great a reward the fulfilling of the Law of God prevailed more with him than his own appetite and inclination §. 2. If we shall consider the labours for which eternal glory is promised us as a hire and reward the Apostle spake with great reason that all which we can suffer in the time of this life is no wayes worthy of that glory to come which is to be manifested in us To St. Austin all the torments of Hell seemed not much for the gaining of Celestial glory but for some short time And if we consider the greatness of that joy all the penances of St. Simon Stylites the fasts of St. Romualdus the poverty and nakedness of St. Francis and the scorns and affronts put upon St. Ignatius are no more than the taking up of a straw for the gaining of an earthly Empire All Stories are full for how small matters upon earth men have exposed themselves to great and almost certain dangers Because David caused it to be published in his Army that he that should first set upon the Jebuseans who were the hardiest of all his Enemies should be made General Joab doubted not to expose his life to manifest danger breaking through
the Pikes and Launces to obtain that honour at the price of his own blood Because King Saul published in the Army that he would give his Daughter in Matrimony to him that should overcome the Giant Golias there being none found that durst attempt it David slighted all danger in hopes of obtaining such a recompense What have not men attempted to gain a terrestrial reward Nothing hath seemed much unto them For the gaining then of Heaven all things ought to seem little unto a Christian Seneca wondered at what Souldiers did and suffered for so short and transitory Kingdoms as are those of the Earth and that not for themselves but for another Much more may we wonder that the sufferings and labours of this life by which we are to gain the Kingdom of Heaven not for a stranger but for our selves seem so great and grievous unto us What did not Jesbaam perform for the advancing of the Kingdom of David though he was esteemmed a poor wretch and a dastard 2 Reg. 23. 1. Paralip 11. Vid. Sanctium Tirinum 2 Reg. 23. seeing that the Kingdom of David lay at stake he took such courage that he set upon 800 men and slew them in his first fury and at another occasion he killed 300. For the same Kingdom of David Eleazar Son of Ahostes fought with such constancy and valour that he slew innumerable Philistins continuing the Battel until he was so weary that he was not able to move his arm no longer and it remained so stiff with weariness as if it had been of stone If for a Kingdom of another Man's Dominions these men were so valiant why do not we take courage and procure with great valour to make conquest of the Kingdom of Heaven though we lose all our strength and even our lives in the Conquest since in respect of it all toil and labour is nothing For the advancing then of the Kingdom of David his worthies performed such actions as if they were not authorised by holy Scripture might seem incredible But what speak I of advancing his Kingdom when only to fatisfie a gust of his and perhaps an impertinent one which was to drink of the water in the Cisterns of Bethleem the young men threw themselves into the thickest of the Enemies Squadrons and with their naked swords cutting a passage through the middest of the Army fetcht the desired waters If men undergoe such hazards for the Kingdom nay for the pleasure of another and that momentary what ought we to do for those eternal joyes which are to be our own and for the Kingdom of Heaven wherein we expect such immense honours riches and pleasures Why do we not all take heart and courage It is the Kingdom of Heaven we hope for joyes riches and honours eternal are those which are promised us All is but little what can be suffered in time to obtain the same Semma for the defence of a poor field sowed with lentils durst fight alone against an Army of the Philistians 2 Reg. 23. For the defence then of grace which is the seed of God and to assure our glory which is the fruit of the Passion of Christ it is not much if without shedding of blood we fight against our unruly appetites and conquer our corrupt nature in this life that we may render it more perfect in the other To this purpose the consideration of glory is most powerfull having still before our eyes Heaven which is promised us And let not the eternal reward proposed by Christ be less efficacious than the temporal proposed by Man This was signified by our Lord unto the Prophet Ezechiel in those four living creatures so much different in nature Ezek. 1. but all one in their employment and puesto to wit an Eagle a Lyon an Ox and a Man which he beheld in the middle of the air flying with each one four wings as swift as a flash of lightning What thing could so force the heavy nature of an Ox as to equal the flight of an Eagle or what could associate the fierce nature of a Lyon with the gentleness of a Man The same Prophet declares it saying that they carried Heaven on their heads having the Firmament above them Because if Heaven be in our thoughts it will encourage us to all things It will make material Men equal unto Angels and subject them unto reason who in their customs are brutish as wild beasts so as he who is slow and heavy as an Ox shall flye with four wings and by conquering his own nature become in his flight equal to the birds of the air and he which feeds grovling upon the earth shall elevate himself and quit his short and transitory pleasures for those which are eternal § 3. Neither is this much For so great is the good which we expect that for it to be deprived of all other goods whatsoever ought to be esteemed a happiness and to suffer all torments and afflictions as a pleasure Let us hear what St. Chrysostome sayes Chrysost Tom. 5. Hom. 19. How many labours soever thou shalt pass how many torments soever thou shalt endure all are nothing in respect of those goods to come Let us hear also what St. Vincent Martyr said unto Dacianus the President and with what joy and patience in his torments he confirmed what he had spoken When they hoisted him up on high upon the Rack and the Tyrant in a scoff demanded of him where he then was the Saint smiling and beholding Heaven whither he was going answered I am aloft and from thence can despise thee although insolent and puft up with the power thou hast upon Earth Being after menaced with more cruel torments he said Me-thinks thou dost not threaten but court me Dacianus with what I desire with all the powers and faculties of my Soul And when they tore his flesh with hooks and pincers and burnt him with lighted torches he cried out with great joy In vain thou weariest thy self Dacianus thou canst not imagine torments so horrid which I could not suffer Prison Pincers Burning-plates of iron and Death it self are unto Christians sports and recreations and not torments He who had the joyes of Heaven before his eyes scorned and laughed at the bitterest torments upon Earth Let us consider them also and we shall not shun the sufferance of any thing whereby we may gain Heaven What pity is it that a Christian for some short and sordid pleasure should lose joyes so great and eternal because he will not bear some slight injurie here should be deprived of celestial honour there for not paying what he owes and not restoring what he hath unjustly taken should forfeit the divine riches of Heaven and for one pleasant morsel which the Devil offers him should deprive himself of that great Supper whereunto God invites him Who would choose rather to feed upon bones and craps which fell from the Table than to he a Guest at the
instead of the burning coals of that eternal fire Neither shall they be Masters so much as of that broken pot wherein to contain a little water if it might be given them Jsai 30. For as Isaias sayes There shall not remain unto them so much as the shread of a broken pot to hold a little water from the pit nor shall there be any found to give it them That rich Glutton in the Gospel accustomed to drink in Cups of Chrystal to eat in Silver and to be cloathed in Silks and curious Linnens can tell us how far this infernal poverty extends when he demanded not wines of Candie but a little cold water and that not in Cups of Gold or Chrystal but upon the fingers end of a Leper This rich and nice Glutton came to such an extremity that he would esteem it a great felicity that they would give him but one drop of water although it were from the filthy and loathsome finger of a Leper and yet this also was wanting unto him Let the rich of the World see to what poverty they are like to come if they trust in ther riches let them know that they shall be condemned to the loss of all which is good Let them reflect upon him who was accustomed to be cloathed in precious Garments to tread upon Carpets to sleep upon Down to dwell in spacious Palaces now naked thrown upon burning coals and packt up in some narrow corner of that infernal Dungeon Let us therefore fear the riches of this World and the poverty of the other §. 4. This poverty or want of all good of the damned is accompanied with a most opprobrious infamy and dishonour when by publick sentence they shall be deprived for their enormous offences of eternal glory and reprehended in the presence of Saints and Angels by the Lord of Heaven and Earth This infamy shall be so great that St. Chrysostom speaks of it in these words A most intolerable thing is Hell Chrys in Math. 24. and most horrible are the torments yet if me should place a thousand Hells before me nothing could be so horrible unto me as to be excluded from the honour of glory to be hated of Christ and to hear from him these words I know you not This infamy we may in some sort declare under the example of a mighty King who having no Heir to succeed him in his Kingdom took up a beautiful Boy at the Church door and nourished him as his Son and in his Testament commanded that if at ripe years his conditions were vertuous and sutable to his calling he should be received as lawful King and seated in his Royal Throne but if he proved vitious and unfit for Government they should punish him with infamy and send him to the Gallies The Kingdom obeyed this Command provided him excellent Masters and Tutors but he became so untoward and ill-inclined that he would learn nothing flung away his books spent his time amongst other Boyes in making houses of dirt and other childish fooleries for which his Governors corrected and chastised him and advised him of what was fitting and most imported him but all did no good onely when they reprehended him he could weep not because he repented but because they hindred his sport and the next day did the same The more he grew in age the worse he became and although they informed him of the Kings Testament and what behooved him all was to no purpose until at last after all possible care and diligence his Tutors and the whole Kingdom weary of his ill conditions in a publick Assembly declared him unworthy to raign dispoiled him of his Royal Ornaments and condemned him with infamy unto the Gallies What greater affront and ignominy can there be than this to lose a Kingdom and to be made a Gally-slave for I do not know which of these things that young man would be more sensible of More ignominious and a more lamentable Tragedy is that of a Christian condemned to Hell who was taken by God from the gates of death adopted his Son with condition that if he kept his Commandments he should raign in Heaven and if not he should be condemned to Hell Yet he forgetting these obligations without respect of his Tutors and Masters who were the holy Angels especially his Angel Guardian who failed not to instill into him holy inspirations and other learned and spiritual men who exhorted him both by their doctrine and example what was fitting for a Child of God But he neither moved by their advices nor the chastisements of Heaven by which God overthrew his vain intentions and thwarted his unlawful pleasures onely lamented his temporal losses and not his offences and at the time of his death was sentenced to be deprived of the Kingdom of Heaven and precipitated into Hell What infamy can be greater than this of the damned Soul for if it be a great infamy to suffer death by Humane Justice for some crimes committed how great an infamy will it be to be condemned by Divine Justice for a Traitor and perfidious Rebel to God Besides this bitterness of pains the damned persons shall also be eternally branded with the infamy of their offences so as they shall be scorned and scoft at by the Devils themselves and not onely Devils but all rational creatures Men and Angels shall detest them as infamous and wicked Traitors to their King God and Redeemer Jsai 13. Facies combustae vultus eorum And as fugitive Slaves are marked and cauterized with burning irons so this infamy by some special mark of ugliness and deformity shall be stamped upon their faces and bodies so as Albertus Magnus sayes so ignominious shall be the body of a Sinner that when his Soul returns to enter it it shall be amazed to behold it so horrible and shall wish it were rather in the same state as when it was half eaten up by worms CAP. IX The Punishment of the Damned from the horribleness of the place into which they are banished from Heaven and made Prisoners in Hell ANother kind of punishment of great discomfort and affliction is that of Exile which the Damned shall suffer in the highest degree For they shall be banished into the profound bowels of the Earth a place most remote from Heaven and the most calamitous of all others where they shall neither see the Sun by day nor the Stars by night where all shall be horror and darkness and therefore it was said of that condemned person Cast him forth into utter darkness forth of the City of God forth of the Heavens forth of this World where he may never more appear into that land which is called in the Book of Job A dark land Job 10. covered with the obscurity of death a land of misery and darkness where the shadow of death and no order but everlasting horror inhabits a land according to Isaias Jsai 34. of sulphur and burning pitch a land of