Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n
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A36557
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A pleasant and profitable treatise of Hell. Written by Hieremy Drexelius. S.J.; Infernus damnatorum carcer et rogus æternitatis. English.
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Drexel, Jeremias, 1581-1638.
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1668
(1668)
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Wing D2184A; ESTC R212863
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150,577
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394
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This same happens to each one of the Damned I might saies he grace was not wanting I was called upon I might Alas I might it was in my power but I would not I am justly excluded from that Soveraign Good and for ever I shall not behold light because I would not behold it A grief it is not to be exprest for one to call to mind how through his own fault he is deprived of so great a good Wonder not this cannot be exprest for since our thoughts cannot dive into those hidden joyes of Heaven since we comprehend not what it is to see God no marvail we do not set a sufficient estimate upon the loss of it An Infant when the Patents die knows not what it loses by their death therefore it neither sighs nor weeps Thus we do when we sin we little know poor wretches what Treasures we cast away None in this life is overwhelmed with such extream Miseries but he may find some slender space to breath in Besides we have no exact knowledge how affairs stand in the World to come Hence you may perchance find some one who with Gilimer King of the Wandals will laugh under a great burden of evils But know all Laughter is banisht from hell In every mortal crime Aversion and Conversion are chiefly considerable To speak with Divines he that sins averts himself from the Creatour and converts himself to the Creature which is a twofold injury to God To aversion therefore corresponds the pain of loss as to conversion that of sence this yeilds to the other so much that he who felt the first alone would be far from laughing would have Hell enough in that one pain of loss Gen. 4. ch 14. Wicked Cain anciently made this greivous complaint Lo thou dost cast me out this day from the face of the Earth and from thy face shall I be hid And yet there was hope he might return to the state of Grace What shall I say now of those Captives in Hell they are cast out from the face of the Earth they are hid from the Divine Countenance God has now done what he formerly threatned he would do he has forsaken them he has hid his face from them they are left to be devoured all evil and Affliction is come upon them the greatest whereof is They are cast out from the Face of God This which Holy David with iterated Vowes besought God might never befall him is now their Lott they are cast away never to be admitted to favour again He needs must have matter of excessive grief who being ready to be Annointed King should upon a suddain be hurried away and made fellow-prisoner with Theives Look upon Nabuchodâ—nâ—ser the worlds terror seated under the Canopy of Glory from whence he was thrown headlong to be a Companion to Bruits amongst them to learn how to play the Beast who had acted his part so ill amongst men Behold King Sedecias snatcht from his Royal Throne whom it was not thought sufficient to bereave of all the gifts of Fortune unless he were deprived of both his eyes too Then was verified that of Boetius The greatest part of misery is to remember one has been happy No otherwise shall the Damned be haled away into Infernal Dens for Eternity when they might have been elevated as Kings amongst the blessed never to have the least sense of any evil alwaies to be in the perfect fruition of the cheifest good The loss of this may rightly be termed a loss and such an one as can never be worthily deplored because never to be recovered SECT 4. VVHat other Petition should one that wants his sight make Luk. 18.41 but that of the blind man Lord that I may see In case one damned might have leave to ask some one of the Joyes of Heaven he would ask none else but this Let me see God I covet not a place more pleasant I am not ambitious of better company I do not refuse to abide still in these Flames only Let me see God But this no Law permits Still I crave at least after a thousand years let my suite be granted This is by no means lawful I am content with a denial till ten thousand years be expired Neither will this be allowed O that I might after twenty thousand years obtain my request That will by no means be granted At least after fifty thousand years let my Petition take effect Nor this neither Ah! when a hundred thousand are come and gone then Let me see God The Laws of God are opposite to this as well as the former O that my Prayer might be heard when a hundred thousand thousand years are past Here may nothing be obtained t is in vain to sue for favour the Gate of Grace is shut the entrance to Heaven is close lockt God thou shalt never see Psal 48. He shall not see light for ever Ponder this well saith St. Chrysostome Let us consider I beseech you and weigh maturely what difference there is betwixt these sober matters and our Bables and Toyes If a man had used his utmost endeavours and left no wind unsailed that he might compass Honours Riches or a beloved Espouse and in this persuite had spared neither Labour nor Charges till all things were in a readiness to Solemnize the Nuptialls and then another should unexpectedly step between him and home were not this enough to force the poor man off his Senses Here Shame and Loss meet to his Destruction which must be endured or he must shake hands with fury or clash with his opposer Couple me now this man thus frustrate of his hope with another buried in everlasting darkness and you will find a palpable difference that may remove his quarters chase other Honors and win a new Espouse but this can neither change place nor escape his torments he is wholly void of hope and most desperate for ever Nevertheless he is forced to acknowledge that God was careful of him God called him many times into his way again but he slighted the Call and refused to follow his guide He knows right well wherefore he was Created wherefore by Christ redeem'd wherefore Baptized whitherto invited hither forsooth that he would vouchsafe to come and mount the Throne of Glory in that blessed Kingdome where he might live eternally in the embracements of his Creatour But I saies he to himself am in fault I neglected I plunged my self into these dreadful flames whereupon my pain fury and confusion is horrible is immense Esay exclaims Esa 32. Darkness and palpableness are made upon the Denns for ever Thus much the Devils themselves acknowledge when they are upbraided in possest persons O miserable wretches you shall never see God Whereat they will fume fret gnash the teeth and by uncouth motions of the body manifest in some sort how incredibly they are tortured upon that sole account SECT 5. CHrist our Lord briefly explicates his most blessed Vision of God when
miserable wretches shall fry in eternal flames for Eternity and longer In body they shall be tormented by fire and in spirit by the worm of Conscience There shall be pain intollerable horrible fear and stink incomparable death both of soul and body without hope either of pardon or mercy And yet shall they so dye as that they shall alwaies live and so live as that they shall ever dye Thus the soul of a sinner is either in hell tormented for sins or for good works placed in Paradise Now therefore let us choose one of the two either to be for ever tormented with the wicked or to rejoyce with Saints perpetually For good and evil life and death are set before us that we may stretch forth our hand to which we choose If pains do not terrify us at least let rewards invite us These things we are tought by Faith which yet as we declared before we either permit to degenerate into drowsness and sloath or wholly to perish Peter Barocius Lib. 2. de ratione bene moriendi Bishop of Padua recounts how a certain man famous for learning appeared after death to one of his intimate friends and spoke to him in this manner At the hour of Death in matters of Faith I was shamefully deceived by the Devil In which condition death found me carried me away and presented me to the judge by whom I was commanded to depart into flames Which though they be excessive yet should I deem them tollerable if after a thousand thousand years they were to have an end But they are eternal and so sharp as the like was never seen in this world Accursed be that knowledge which threw me headlong into so great misery After he had spoken thus he disappeared but his surviveing friend astonisht at the relation and especially strook with his friends eternal damnation consulted with his best friends what advice were most profitable for him in this case He became a new man and dyed holily The Conclusion THerefore St. Psal 68. Austin discoursed well Who saith he would not drink off a cup of temporal tribulation for fear of hell fire And who would not despise the sweetness of worldly pleasure out of love to the delights of everlasting life a greater fear makes us contemn smaller matters and a greater longing after Eternity makes us loath all temporal things As much saith St. Chrysostome as a grain of Sand Tom. 4. hom 11 in ep ad titum or a drop comes short of the immense abiss so far doth this present life differ from eternal and never ending treasures The things we have we do not truly possess we only make use of them and that improperly too T is vertue alone which will bear us company in our journey hence T is vertue alone which hath admittance into everlasting life Let us then at length open our eyes and quite extinguish all appetite to worldly wealth that all our desire may be placed on eternal But alas how great want of consideration is to be found amongst men how great blindness we wrangle for a half penny and make a laughter and jest on 't to lose Heaven Thus we are infected with the ordinary contagion of madness and take pleasure to perish for company Dost thou not blush saith St. Chrysostome to be so wedded to things present When wilt thou part with thy youth toyes and lay a side thy wonted folly What ever is here troublesome is of small continuance what is delightful there is everlasting Remove therefore thy mind from transitory and fading goods and settle it on better and eternal eagerly thirst after Heaven that thou maiest enjoy delights to come Is not reward of force to invite thee at least let fear of torment keep thee in awe Those punishments therefore saith Valerianus ought to have the first place in our thoughts where man lives while the pain lasts where neither pains are wanting to the body nor the body to pains To the like intent writes St. Chrysostome If the Ninivites had not been afraid of destruction Tom. 2. in epist 1. ad Thess they had bin destroyed If in the time of Noe they had feared the deluge they had not been drowned If the Sodomites had dreaded the fire they had not been burned It is a great misery to contemn menaces Nothing is so profitable as frequently to treat of hell speak of it every day that you may never fall into it A soul solicitous to escape hell cannot easily commit sin None of those who have a lively remembrance of hell will fall into it as none who sleight hell will escape it A certain man as Iohn Moscus relates came to Alexander Prat. spur c. 141. a venerable person who governed the Monastery of Abbot Gerasimus and said unto him Father I have a design to flit from my old habitation because the unpleasant situation of it is irksome to me To whom the good old man spoke in this manner Son this is a manifest sign you never consider with attention either the joyes of heaven or the pains of hell for if you did seriously weigh these things in your mind beleive me you would find no fault with your old habitation This was an Oracle of truth for who ever meditates attentively on heaven or hell either is not sensible of difficulty though never so great or if he be he makes his benefit of it and is most ready to undergo greater hardships so he may avoid eternal pains Of this temper was Abbot Olympius as Clymacus testifies who being asked how he could abide to live in such a Cave how he could endure such excessive heats or pass so many daies amongst whole swarms of gnats and flies he returned this answer I suffer these things willingly that I may be freed from future torments I am content to be bitten with gnats because I am afraid of the worm that never dyes heat is welcome to me in regard I stand in fear of fire everlasting for those sufferings pass away with time and will quickly have an end but these are without end and continue for eternity Wherefore these things deserve our dayly consideration and ought to be ruminated when our thoughts are most active As Physick is taken by way of prevention even when the body is well in health so likewise must our soul be prepared with these considerations to withstand vice I confess these thoughts are somewhat bitter but they are wholesome too they do not become familiar upon a suddain but by degrees time place and practise will nourish and bring them to maturity All idleness is a sworn enemy unto them which as it is pernitious to vertue so it opens an easy passage to let in all kind of vices Go too then c. 27. ver 4. who ever thou be and provide in time for thy own salvation Give ear to the Prophesy of Ecclesiasticus If thou hold not thy self instantly in the fear of our Lord thy house shall quickly be subverted It is now in thy choice whether thou wilt reign or perish A soft bed seldome makes a Souldier more valiant remember that beatitude is a daughter of labour and vertue Let none saith St. Tom. 10 ser 60. de tem Austin he ashamed to do pennance who was not ashamed to commit sin but let him strive without delay to renew himself by good works that he may be owned for a child by his father least being excluded from the Wedding feast and shut out from eternal bliss he have his hands and feet bound and be cast into exteriour darkness Excellently said Turtullian The ceasing from sin is the root of pardon the meditation of hell is the begining of salvation seeing hell abounds with all evil it wants chiefly that good which is the best amidst evils an end of Torment An End of this Treatise But where art thou O end of eternal Torments