Crucifix Neither are the Elements left free from such representations Alfonso the first Portugal beheld in the air an Escucheon with the five wounds And the Emperour Constantine the principal Instrument of the Passion the Cross which hath also divers other times appeared But what more gratious and loving demonstration of the memorie which he desires we should still preserve of his torments then the wounds which he hath imprinted upon the persons of many of his servants Blos li. 15. c. 3. Tritem in Crim. ad an 1500. Surius 14. Aprilis Mosc in vita S. Clarae For besides St. Francis who was marked with the most evident signes of his favour the like were received by St. Gertrude and St. Lucia of Ferrara And what more express memorial of the passion of our Redeemer then the heart of St. Clara of Monte Falco in which was found the Image of Christ crucified the Pillar Whip Lance and other instruments of the Passion We should never make an end if we should recount all those several wayes by which Christ our Saviour hath represented unto us his death and passion to the end we should ever have it present and fixt in our memorie But above all the most blessed Sacrament in which divine mystery the lively representation of his death is as often repeated as his holy body is consecrated in the whole world was a great demonstration of his infinite love towards mankind Wherein he gives us to understand that he desires not onely once but a million of times to die for us and that though he cannot now return again to be crucified by reason of the impassibility of his glorifyed body yet his divine charity hath found a way after an unbloody and impassible manner to repeat the Sacrifice of the Cross and the fruit of our redemption How great a gratitude do we owe our Saviour for so infinite an expression of his good will towards us and how can we be grateful it forgetful of so profitable and advantageous a benefit Let not then his Passion depart from our thoughts but let us rather depart from our pleasures and despise all humane felicity since we behold the Lord of the world in such humility Moreover this most blessed Sacrament is not onely a Memorial of the Passion of Jesus Christ but of the Incarnation and wonderful works of God and not onely brings into our memory what Christ did when he suffered for us but what the Eternal Word did when he became flesh for us that immense God unto whom the whole Globe of the Earth serves but as a footstool descending from Heaven and so far lessening himself as to cover that infinite Majesty under the form of a Servant of which this Divine Sacrament is a most excellent and lively representation For in it also the God of Heaven being already incarnate and made man descends from Heaven and vails himself under the accidents of a little bread and wine and there is as it were annihilated for us and become nothing Besides as in the Eucharist we receive Christ crucified so in it also we receive the Word incarnate insomuch as these two great wonders of God the Passion and Incarnation are not onely represented but as it were multiplied unto us in this blessed Sacrament which was a high thought of God and according to what he said by his Prophet David Psal 39. Thou hast made thy wonders many O Lord And there is none who is like unto thee in thy cogitations Here God made his wonders that is his Passion and Incarnation many repeating and as it were multiplying them in this blessed Sacrament Which was a most high thought of him who is the supreme Wisdom nor could it enter into any understanding but that of the Divinity that that which was so extraordinary and so far above the reach of all created capacities as the Son of God to be sacrificed and the eternal Word to descend from Heaven and be made man should become so ordinary and familiar as we daily see it in the use of this Divine Mysterie But God did not onely here make his wonders many but made them great as the same David cries out How magnified are thy works O Lord Psal 91. Thy cogitations are most profound For although the works of the Passion and Incarnation are so great yet they are as it were enlarged and made greater by this holy Sacrament The greatness of the work of the Incarnation consisted in this that God abased himself and was made man and the greatness of that of the Passion in that he humbled himself unto death But in this Sacrament he abases and humbles himself yet lower becoming food for man which is less than to be man or to die which is natural unto man Besides this the general fruit of the Incarnation and Passion is after a most admirable manner particularly applyed in this blessed Sacrament to every one which receives it worthily The Death and Passion of Christ upon Mount Calvarie was no doubt a great work of God but in this Mysterie we behold the same Death Passion and Sacrifice after an unbloody and impassible manner which is certainly the greater miracle and expresses more the Divine power The Incarnation likewise when the Eternal Word entred into the womb of a Virgin was a great work of God but in this Mysterie it is in a certain manner extended and made greater and is therefore called an extension of the Incarnation our Lord here entring into the breast of every Christian and uniting himself unto him These are the marvails of the Law of Grace concerning which the Prophet Isaias said unto the Lord Isai 64. When thou shalt do wonders we shall not sustain them Thou hast descended and the mountains melted at thy presence From the beginning they have not heard nor understood with their ears neither hath the eye seen O God besides thee what thou hast prepared for those who expect thee The Prophet speaks of those wondrous works which were to be seen at the coming of the Messias which wore to be such as the world had never heard of nor had ever entred into any thought but that of God and therefore the Apostle alleadging this place saith That the eye hath not seen nor the ear hath heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man what God hath prepared for those who love him Since over and above those two stupendious wonders of taking flesh and dying for us he hath given himself as food unto those Souls who remain in his grace and love him which is so great and marvailous a work as onely God could think of it and besides God none And as onely God can truly value it so it is not in the power of man sufficiently to acknowledge it No humane heart being able to support the weight of such an obligation and the greatness of the Divine love which shines forth in this wonder of wonders Tertul. li. de Patien cap.
world are not to affright us since they are to cease and determine By how much Eternity enobles and adds unto the greatness of those things which are eternal by so much doth Time vilifie and debase those things which are temporal and therefore as all which is eternal although it were little in it self ought to be esteemed as infinite so all which is temporal although it were infinite yet is to be esteemed as nothing because it is to end in nothing If a man were Lord of infinite worlds and possest infinite riches if they were at last to end and he to leave them they were to be valued as nothing and if all things temporal have this evil property to sail and perish they ought to have no more esteem then if they were not with good reason then is life it self to be valued as nothing since nothing is more frail nothing more perishing and in conclusion is little more than if it had no being at all Possessions Inheritances Riches Titles and other goods of fortune remain when man is gone but not his Life A little excess of cold or heat makes and end of that a sharp winde the infectious breath of a sick person a drop of poison makes it vanish in so much as no glass is so frail as it Glass without violence may last long but the life of man ends of it self glass may with care be preserved for many ages but nothing can preserve the life of man it consumes it self All this was well understood by King David who was the most powerful and happy Prince the Hebrews ever had as ruling over both the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel with all which was promised by God unto the Israelites but not until his time possessed his Dominions besides extending over many other Provinces See 1. Paralip 29. what he left him towards the building of the Temple onely so as gold rowld up and down his House and Court and he left at his death mighty treasures unto his Son Salomon Yet this so fortunate a Prince considering that his greatness was to have an end valued it as nothing and not onely esteemed his Kingdoms and treasures as a vanity but even his life it self Wherefore he sayes Thou hast put O Lord a measure unto my dayes and my substance is as nothing all my Rents all my Kingdoms all my Trophies all my Treasures all which I possess although so powerful a King all is nothing And presently adds Doubtless all is vanity all what living man is Psal 38. all his whole life is vanity and nothing that belongs to him so frail as himself Of so mean value are the things of this world although we were to enjoy them for many ages but being to end so quickly and perhaps more sodainly than we can imagine what account is to be made of them O if we could but frame a true conception of the shortness of this life how should we despise the pleasures of it This is a matter of such importance that God commanded the principal his Prophets that he should goe into the Streets and Market-places and proclaim aloud How frail and short was the life of man For the Prophet Isaiah being about to prophesie of the most high and hidden mysterie which ever God revealed unto man which is the incarnation of the eternal Word was suddenly commanded by the Lord to lift up his voice and to crie aloud unto whom the Prophet replied What is it O Lord that I must crie aloud The Lord said That all flesh is grass and all the glory of it at the flowers of the field For as the grass which is cut in the morning withers before night and as the flower is quickly faded so is the life of all flesh the beauty and splendour of it passing and withering in a day Upon which place saith St. Hierome Hieronin Comment He who shall look upon the frailty of our flesh and that every moment of an hour we increase and decrease without ever remaining in the same state and that even what we now speak dictate or write flyes away with some part of our life will not doubt to say his flesh is grass and the glory of it as the flower of the field And presently after He that was yesterday an Infant is now a Boy and will suddenly be a Youth and even until old age runs changing through uncertain conditions of lite and perceaves himself first to be an old man before he begins to admire that he is not still a Boy In another place the same Saint meditating upon the death of Nepotianus who died in the flower of his age breaks out into these complaints In Epitaph Nepot O miserable condition of humane nature Vain is all that we live without Christ all flesh is hay and all the glory of it as the flower of the field Where is now that comely visage where is now the dignity of the whole body with which as with a fair garment the beauty of the Soul was once cloathed Ay pitty the Lilly is withered by a Southern blast and the purple of the Violet turned into paleness And immediately adds Why do we not therefore consider what in time must become of us and what will we or will not cannot be far off for should our life exceed the terme of 900 years and that the dayes Mathusalam were bestowed upon us yet all this length of life once past and pass it must were nothing and betwixt him who lives but ten years and him who lives a thousand the end of life and the unavoidable necessity of death once come all is the same save onely he who lives longer departs heavier loaden with his sins This frailty therefore and brevity of humane life being so certain and evident yet our Lord would have his Prophet publish it together with the most hidden and unknown mysterie of his incarnation and the manner of the worlds redemption which even the most high Scraphins did not conceive possible and all because men will not suffer themselves to be perswaded of this truth nor practically apprehend the shortness of their life Nay seeing death seiseth upon others yet they will not believe that it shall happen unto themselves and although they hear of it hourly yet it appears unto them as a hidden mysterie which they cannot understand God therefore commanded the Prophet Isaiah that he should proclaim and publish it with a loud voice as a thing new and of great importance that it might so penetrate and link into the hearts of men Let us therefore receive this truth from God himself All flesh is grass All age is short All time flyes All life vanishes and a great multitude of years are but a great nothing Let us also hear how true this is from those who lived the longest Jux Isi l. de vita mor. Pat. c. 24. and have had the greatest experience of what it is to live Perhaps thou mayst
and therefore reprehended his Nephew for spending a short time in walking for his recreation telling him that those hours might be better imployed and being present when the same Nephew caused one which in reading pronounced a word with an ill accent to repeat it again admonisht him that too much time was lost in that useless repetition Seneca esteemed time above all price and value and in this manner sayes Redeem thy self unto thy self recover and preserve that time which hitherto hath been taken surprised or slipt from thee For whom wilt thou give me that shall set a price upon time or give a value unto a day who understands himselt daily to die If therefore the Gentils who had no hope by time to purchase Eternity made so great account of it what shall we Christians unto whom it is an occasion of eternal happiness Let us therefore hear St. Bernard Serm ad Scho. There is nothing sayes he more precious than time But out alass nothing at this day is more vilified A day of salvation is past and no man reflects on it no man thinks no man complains that he hath lost a day which shall never râ—â—rn But as a hair from the head so a moment of time shall not perish The same Saint also grieving to see a thing so precious so much mispent speaks in this manner Let no man make a small esteem of the time which is spent in idle words Say some We may yet chat and talk untill this hour be past O wretched speech Vntil this hour be past This being the hour which the goodness of thy Creator hath bestowed upon thee that in it thou mayest do penance for thy sins obtain pardon acquire grace and merit glory O lamentable speech Whilst this hour passes this being the hour wherein thou mayst gain divine mercy and commiseration In another part he speaks much to the same purpose exhorting us to benefit our selves by the time of this life His words are these Serm. 75. in Cant. Whilest we have time let us do good unto all especially since our Lord said plainly that the night would come when no man could work Art thou perhaps to find some other time in the world to come wherein thou mayst seek God and wherein thou mayst do good This being the time wherein he hath promised to remember thee and is therefore the day of mercy because here our God and King hath long agoe wrought thy salvation in the middest of the earth goe then and expect thy salvation in the middest of hell What possibility doest thou dream of obtaining pardon in the middest of eternal flames when the time of mercy is already past No sacrifice tor sin remains tor thee being dead in sin no more shall the Son of God be crucified for thee Once he died and shall now die no more That blood which he spilt upon the earth shall not descend into hell The sinners of the earth have drunk it up There is no part left for the devils or for sinners which are the companions of devils wherewith to quench their flames Once descended thither not the blood but the soul of Christ This only visit made by the presence of the soul when the body hung without life upon the Cross was the portion of them who were in prison The blood watered the dry land the blood was poured upon the thirsty earth and did as it were inebriate it The blood wrought peace for those who were upon earth and those who are in heaven but not for those which were in hell beneath the earth Once only as we have said the soul went thither and made in part redemption speaking of the souls of the Holy Fathers who were in Limbo that even for that moment the works of charity might not be wanting but it passed no farther Now is the time acceptable now is the time fit wherein to seek God And certainly he that seeks him shall finde him if so be he seek him when and where he ought to do All this from St. Bernard § 2. Consider what an eternal repentance will follow thee if thou makest not use of this occasion of time for the purchasing of the Kingdom of Heaven especially when thou shalt see that with so little adoe thou mightest have gained that everlasting glory which to satisfie a short pleasure thou hast lost tor ever In what to fury and madness was Esau Gen. 19. when he reflected that his younger brother had gotten the Blessing of the first born by his own base selling his Birth-right for a dish of Lentils he cried out and tore himself for spite and anger Behold thy self in this mirrour who for one vile and short pleasure hast sold the Kingdom of Heaven If God had then thrown thee into hell what wouldest thou have done but lamented that with eternal tears which in so short a time was lost Cain when he perceived that he and his posterity were cursed and made infamous for not knowing how to benefit himself by that occasion Gen. 9. which was first offered unto him and made use of by his Brother what resentment had he then or ought to have had Measure by this the sense of a damned person who for not making use of the time of this lite shall see himself cursed by God for an Eternity and others far less than himself made blessed and rewarded in heaven The Sons-in-law of Loth when they saw they might have escaped the fire and that being invited they had rejected and laughed at the counsel of their Father-in-law when afterwards they perceived it to rain fire and sulphur upon them and their Cities what grief and vexation had they for refusing the benefit of so fair an occasion offered at their own doors O what sorrow what pain what madness what desperation shall seise upon a damned creature when he shall call to mind how often he hath been invited by Christ to salvation and shall now feel a tempest of fire and sulphur pouring down upon him for ever in hell King Hannon who had so good an occasion to preserve that peace whereunto he was intreated and invited by David when after he saw his Cities ruin'd the Inhabitants burnt like bricks in a furnace some thrasht to death others torn in pieces what would he have given to have made use in time of so fair an offer or of holding friendship with so great a King but what is this in respect of what a sinner shall feel when he shall see himself burnt in hell fire become an eternal enemy of the King of Heaven and deprived tor ever of raigning with his blessed Saints what despite what grief of heart shall he then have The evil Theef who was crucified with the Saviour of the world what doth he now endure for refusing that good occasion which his companion embraced what a repentance hath now the rich Glutton for not laying hold of so great an opportunity offered him at his own home
us Petrus Damianus in Gomor c. 23. saying If the subtle Enemy shall set before thee the frail beauty of the flesh send thy thoughts presently unto she Sepulcher of the Dead and let them there see what they can finde agreeable to the touch or pleasing to the sight Consider that poison which now stinks intollerably that corruption which engenders and feeds worms That dust and dry ashes was once soft and lively flesh and in its youth was subject to the like passions as thou art Consider those rigid nerves those naked teeth the disjoynted disposition of the bones and articles and that horrible dissipation of the whole Body and by this means the Monster of this deformed and confused figure will pluck from thy heart all deceits and illusions This from St. Peter Damian All this is certainly to happen unto thy self Wherefore doest thou not amend thy evil conditions this is to be thy end unto this therefore direct thy life and actions From hence spring all the errors of men that they forget the end of their lives which they ought to have still before their eyes and by it to order themselves for the complyance with their obligations With reason had the Brachmans their Sepulchers placed still open before their doors that by the memory of death they might learn to live In this sense is that Axiome of Plato most true when he sayes That Wisdom is the Meditation of Death because this wholesome thought of Death undeceives us in the vanities of the world and gives us force and vigour to better our lives Johannes Brom. in Sum. verb. Poenit num 12. Some Authors write of a certain Confessarius who when all his perswasions could not prevail with his penitent to do penance for his sins contented himself with this promise that he would suffer one of his Servants every night when he went to bed to sound these words in his ear Think that thou art to dye who having often heard this admonition and and profoundly considered it with himself he at last returned unto his Confessor well disposed to admit of such penance as should be enjoyned him The same thing happened to another who having confessed to to the Pope very hainous crimes said that he could not fast nor wear hair-shirts nor admit of any other kinds of austerity His Holiness having commended the matter to God gave him a Ring with this Poesie Memento mâ—ri Remember thou art to dye charging him that as often as he looked upon the Ring he should read those words and call death to mind Few hours after the memory hereof caused such a change in his heart that he offered to fulfil what ever penance his Holiness should please to impose upon him For this reason it seems God commanded the Prophet Jeremias that he should goe into the house of the Potter and that he should there hear his words Well might the Lord have sent his Prophet into some place more decent to receive his sacred words then where so many men were daily imployed in dirt and clay but here was the particular mysterie whereby we are given to understand that the presence of Sepulchers wherein is preserved as in the house of a Potter the clay of humane nature it was a place most proper for God to speak unto us that the memory of death might more deeply imprint his words in our hearts For this very reason the Devil strives with all his power and cunning to obstruct in us the memory of death For what other cause can be assigned why the meer suspicion of some loss or notable damage should bereave us of our sleep and that the certainty of death which of things terrible is most terrible should never trouble us CAP. II. Remarkable Conditions of the end of Temporal Life BEsides the misery wherein all the felicity of this world is to determine the end of our life hath other most remarkable conditions very worthy to be considered and by which we may perceive the goods of it to be most contemptible We will now principally speak of three First that death is most infallible certain and no way to be avoided The second that the time is most incertain because we know neitheâ— when nor how it will happen The third that it is buâ— only one and but once to be experienced so that wâ— cannot by a second death correct the errors of the firsâ— Concerning the certainty and infallibility of death it imports us much to perswade our selves of it for as it is infallible that the other life shall be without end so it is as certain that this shall have it And as the Damned are in despair to find an end in their torments so are we practically to despair that the pleasures and contents of this world are to endure for ever God hath not made a Law more inviolable than that of death For having often dispensed in other Laws and by his omnipotent power and pleasure violated as I may say divers times the rights of Nature he neither hath nor will dispense with the Law of death but hath rather dispensed with other Laws that this should stand in force and therefore hath not onely executed the sentence of death upon those who in rigour ought to dye but upon those unto whom it was no wise due In the conception of Christ our Saviour those establisht Lawes of Nature that men were not to be born but by propagation from men and breach of the Mothers integrity were dispensed with God that his Lawes should have no force in Christ working two most stupendious Miracles and infringing the Lawes of Nature that his Son might be born of a Virgin Mother was so far from exempting him from the Law of death that death not belonging to him as being Lord of the Law and wanting all sin even original by which was contracted death nay immortality and the four gifts of glory being due unto his most Holy Body as resulting from the clear vision of the Divine essence which his Soul ever enjoyed yet all this notwithstanding God would not comply with this right of Nature but rather miraculously suspended by his omnipotent Arm those gifts of glory from his Body that he might become subject unto death in so much as God observes this Law of Death with such rigour that doing Miracles that the Law of Nature should not be kept in other things he works Miracles that the Law of Death should be observed even by his own Son who deserved it not and unto whom it was in no sort due And now that the Son of God had taken upon him the redemption of Mankind for whom out of his most infinite charity it was convenient for him to dye the death of the Cross which reason failing in his most holy Mother unto whom death was not likewise due from Original sin she being priviledged according to the opinion of most Universities as well in that as many other things by her blessed Son yet would
not to an ordinary River but to a River of fire for the greatness and severity of the rigour shall be repressed for 30 or 40 years during the life of a man what an infinity of wrath will it amass together and with what fury will it burst out upon the miserable Sinners in the point of death All this rigour and severity shall the wretched Caytif behold in the face of the offended Judge And therefore the Prophet Daniel saith that a River of fire issued from his Countenance and that his Throne was of flames and the wheels of it burning fire because all shall then be fire rigour and justice He sets forth unto us his Tribunal and Throne with wheels to signifie thereby the force and violence of his omnipotency in executing the severity of his justice all which shall appear in that moment when Sinners shall be brought into judgment when the Lord as David sayes shall speak unto them in his wrath and confound them in his fury The which is also declared by other Prophets in most terrible and threatning words Isai 56. Isaias saith The Lord will come cloathed in garments of vengeance and covered with a robe of zeal and will give unto his adversaries his indignation and his enemies shall have their turn And the Wise-man to declare it more fully saith His zeal that is his indignation shall take up arms and shall arm the creatures to revenge him of his enemies he shall put on justice as a brest-plate be shall take the bead-piece of righteous judgment and embrace the inexpugnable shield of equity and shall sharpen his wrath as a lance Osee 13. The Prophet Osee declares the same proposing the Judge unto us not onely as an enraged and armed man but a fierce and cruel Beast and therefore speaking in the person of God saith I will appear unto them in that instant at a Bear that hath been robbed of her whelps I will tear their entrails in pieces and will devour them as a Lyon There is no beast more fierce of nature than a Lyon or Bear which hath lost her young ones the which will furiously assault him she first meets with and yet God whose nature is infinite goodness would compare himself unto so savage and cruel beasts to express the terrour of his justice and rigour with which he is in that day to shew himself against Sinners The consideration of this wrought so much with Abbot Agathon when he was at the point of dying In vitis Pat. that he continued three dayes in admiration his eyes for fear and dread continually broad open without moving from one side to the other Certainly all comparisons and exaggerations fall short of what it shall be since that day is The day of wrath and calamity That is the day when the Lord shall speak aloud in lieu of the many dayes wherein he hath been silent That is the day of which he spake by his Prophet I held my peace and was mute but I will then cry out as a woman in labour That day shall take up all his justice and shall recompence for all his years of sufferance That day shall be purely of justice without mixture of mercy hope of compassion help favour or any other patronage but of our works This is signified in that which Daniel saith that the Throne and Tribunal of God was of flames and that there shall proceed from his face a river of fire because fire besides that it is the most active nimble and vehement of all the Elements is also the most pure not admitting the mixture of any thing The earth contains Mines of Mettals and Quarries of Stone the water suffers in her bosome variety of Fishes the Air multitudes of vapours and exhalations and other bodies but Fire endures nothing it melts the hardest mettals reduces stones into cinders consumes living creatures converts trees into it self in so much as it is not onely impatient of a companion but infuses its own qualities into what it meets withall and turns even what is contrary unto it into its own substance and nature it does not onely melt snow but makes it boyl and makes cold iron burn So shall it be in that day all shall be rigour and justice without mixture of mercy nay the very mercies which God hath used towards a Sinner shall then be an argument and food for his justice O man which hast now time consider in what condition thou shalt see thy self in that instant when neither the blood of Christ shed for thee nor the Son of God crucified nor the intercession of the most blessed Virgin nor the Prayers of Saints nor the Divine mercy it self shall avail thee but shall onely behold an incensed and revenging God whose mercies shall then onely serve to augment his justice Thou shalt then perceive that none will take thy part but all will be against thee The most holy Virgin who is the Mother of mercy the mercy of God himself and the blood of thy Redeemer will all be against thee and onely thy good works shall stand for thee This life once past thou art to expect no Patron no Protector but thy vertuous actions onely they shall accompany thee and when thy Angel Guardian Theophan an 20. Herac. Imper. ut habetur in tom 2. p. 2. Concil in notis ad vitam Theodori Papae and all the Saints thy Advocates shall leave thee they onely shall not forsake thee See that thou provide thy self for that day take care thou now benefit thy self by the blood of Christ for thy salvation if not it will onely serve for thy greater damnation The whole world was amazed at the manner of the condemnation of Pyrrhus the Heretick by Pope Theodâ—rus who calling a Councel at Rome and placing himself close by the body of St. Peter in the presence of the whole Assembly took the consecrated Chalice and pouring the blood of Christ into the Ink did with his own hand write the Sentence of excommunion and Anathema by which he separated Pyrrhus from the Church of Christ This dreadful manner of proceeding brought a fear upon all those who heard it Do thou then tremble unto whom it may happen that the blood of thy Redeemer shall onely serve as a Sentence of thy eternal death For so severe will the Divine justice be in that day against a Sinner that if it were needful for his condemnation to confirm the Sentence with the blood of Christ it should although once shed upon the Cross for his salvation then onely serve to his damnation and eternal reprobation If this be true as nothing can be more certain how come we to be so careless how come we to laugh and rejoyce In vitis Pat. lib. 5. With great reason an old Hermite in the Desert beholding another laugh reprehended him for it saying We are to give a strict account before the Lord of Heaven and Earth the most inflexible Judge and darest thou be
since he hath employed his omnipotency for our good and profit let us employ our forces and faculties for his glory and service CAP. VI. Of the End of all Time BEsides the end of the particular time of this life the universal end of all time is much to be considered that since humane ambition passes the limits of this life and desires honour and a famous memory after it Man may know that after this death there is another death to follow in which his memory shall also die and vanish away as smoke After that we have finisht the time of this life the end of all time is to succeed which is to give a period unto all which we leave behind us Let man therefore know that those things which he leaves behind for his memory after death are as vain as those which he enjoyed in life Let him raise proud Mausoleums Let him erect Statues of Marble Let him build populous Cities Let him leave a numerous Kindred Let him write learned Books Let him stamp his Name in brass and fix his Memory with a thousand nails All must have an end his Cities shall sink his Statues fall his Family and Linage perish his Books be burned his Memory be defaced and all shall end because all time must end It much imports us to perswade our selves of this truth that we may not be deceived in the things of this world That not only our pleasures and delights are to end in death but our memories at the farthest are to end with Time And since all are to conclude all are to be despised as vain and perishing Cicero although immoderately desirous of fame and honour Cieer in Ep. ad Luc. as appears by a large Epistle of his written unto a friend wherein he earnestly entreats him to write the conspiracy of Cataline which was discovered by himself in a Volume apart and that he would allow something in it unto their ancient friendships and Publish it in his life time that he might enjoy the glory of it whilest he lived yet when he came to consider that the world was to end in Time he perceived that no glory could be immortal and therefore sayes By reason of deluges and burnings of the earth In Somn. Scip. which muâ—â— of necessity happen within a certain time we cannot attain glory not so much as durable for any long time much less eternal In this world no memory can be immortal since Time and the World it self are mortal and the time will come when time shall be no more But this truth is like the memory of death which by how much it is more important by so much men think lest of it and practically do not believe it But God that his divine providence and care might not be wanting hath also in this taken order that a matter of so great concernment should be published with all solemnity first by his Son after by his Apostles and then by Angels Apoc. 10. And therefore St. John writes in his Apocalyps that he saw an Angel of great might and power who descended from heaven having a Cloud for his Garment and his head covered with a Rainbow his face shining as the Sun and his feet as pillars of fire with the right foot treading upon the Sea and with the left upon the Earth sending forth a great and terrible voice as the roaring of a Lyon which was answered by seaven thunders with other most dreadful noises and presently this prodigious Angel lifts up his hand towards Heaven But wherefore all this Ceremony wherefore this strange equipage wherefore this horrid voice and thunder all was to proclaim the death of Time and to perswade us more of the infallibility of it he continued it with a solemn Oath conceived in a Set form of most authentique words listing up his hand towards Heaven and swearing by him that lives for ever and ever who created Heaven and Earth and all which is in it There shall be mo more time With what could this truth be more confirmed than by the Oath of so great and powerful and an Angel The greatness and solemnity of the Oath gives us to understand the weight and gravity of the thing affirmed both in respect of it self and the importance of us to know it If the death of a Monarch or Prince of some corner of the world prognosticated by an Eclipse or Comet cause a fear and amazement in the beholders what shall the death of the whole World and with it all things temporal and of Time it self foretold by an Angel with so prodigious an apparition and so dreadful a noise produce in them who seriously consider it For us also this thought is most convenient whereby to cause in us a contempt of all things temporal Let us therefore be practically perswaded that not onely this life shall end but that there shall be also an end of Time Time shall bereave Man of this life and Time shall bereave the World of his whose end shall be no less horrible than that of Man but how much the whole World and the whole Race of mankind exceeds one particular person by so much shall the universal end surpass in terrour the particular end of this life For this cause the Prophecies which foretell the end of the World are so dreadful that if they were not dictated by the holy Spirit of God they would be thought incredible Christ therefore our Saviour having uttered some of them unto his Disciples because they seemed to exceed all that could be imagined in the conclusion confirmed them with that manner of Oath or Asseveration which he commonly used in matters of greatest importance Math. 13. Luc. 21. Amen which is By my verity or verily I say unto you that the world shall not end before all these things are fulfilled Heaven and earth shall fail but my words shall not fail Let us believe then that Time shall end and that the World shall die and that if we may so say a most horrible and disastrous death let us believe it since the Angels and the Lord of Angels have sworn it If it be so then that those memorials of men which seemed immortal must at last end since the whole Race of man is to end let us only strive to be preserved in the eternal memory of him who hath no end and let us no less despise to remain in the fading memory of men who are to die than to enjoy the pleasures of our senses which are to perish As the hoarding up of riches upon earth is but a deceit of Avarice so the desire of eternizing our memory is an errour of Ambition The covetous man must then leave his wealth when he leaves his life if the Theef in the mean time do not take it from him and fame and renown must end with the World if envy or oblivion deface it not before All that is to end is vain this World therefore and all which
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
their Angel guardians shall assist by giving testimony how often they have disswaded them from their evil courses and how rebellious and refractory they have still been to their holy inspirations The Saints also shall accuse them that they have laughed at their good counsels and shall set forth the dangers whereunto they them-themselves have been subject by their ill example The just Judge shall then immediately pronounce Sentence in favour of the good in these words of love and mercy Come you blessed of my Father possess the Kingdom which was prepared for you from the creation of the world O what joy shall then fill the Saints Abul in Mat. Jansen Sot Les l. 13. c. 22. alii Isai 30. and what spight and envy shall burst the hearts of Sinners but more when they shall hear the contrary Sentence pronounced against themselves Christ speaking unto them with that severity which was signified by the Prophet Isaiah when he said His lips were filled with indignation and his tongue was a devouring fire More terrible than fire shall be those words of the Son of God unto those miserable wretches when they shall hear him say Depart from me ye cursed into eternal fire prepared for Satan and his Angels With this Sentence they shall remain for ever overthrown and covered with eternal sorrow and confusion Ananias and Saphira were struck dead only with the hearing the angry voice of St. Peter What shall the Reprobate be in hearing the incensed voice of Christ This may appear by what happened unto St. Catharine of Sienna who being reprehended by St. Paul In vita ejus c. 24. who appeared unto her onely because she did not better employ some little parcel of time said that she had rather be disgraced before the whole World than once more to suffer what she did by that reprehension But what is this in respect of that reprehension of the Son of God in the day of vengeance for if when he was led himself to be judged he with two onely words I am overthrew the astonisht multitude of Souldiers to the ground how shall he speak when he comes to judge In vita PP l. 5. apud Rosul In the book of the lives of the Fathers composed by Severus Sulpitius and Cassianus it is written of a certain young man desirous to become a Monk whom his Mother by many reasons which she alleadged pretended to disswade but all in vain for he would by no means alter his intention defending himself still from her importunity with this answer I will save my soul I will assure my salvation it is that which most imports nic She perceiving that her modest requests prevailed nothing gave him leave to do as he pleased and he according to his resolution entred into Religion but soon began to flag and fall from his fervour and to live with much carelesness and negligence Not long after his Mother died and he himself fell into a grievous infirmity and being one day in a Trance was rapt in spirit before the Judgement Seat of God He there found his Mother and divers others expecting his condemnation She turning her eyes and seeing her Son amongst those who were to be damned seemed to remain astonisht and spake unto him in this manner Why how now Son is all come to end in this where are those words thou saidest unto me I will save nay soul was it for this thou didst enter into Religion The poor man being confounded and amazed knew not what to answer but soon after when he returned unto himself and the Lord was pleased that he recovered and escaped his infirmity and considering that this was a divine admonition he gave so great a turn that the rest of his life was wholly tears and repentance and when many wisht him that he would moderate and remit something of that rigour which might be prejudicial unto his health he would not admit of their advices but still answered I who could not endure the reprehension of my Mother how shall I in the day of judgement endure that of Christ and his Angels Let us often think of this and let not onely the angry voice of our Saviour make us tremble Raph. Columb Ser. 2. Domin in Quadr. but that terrible Sentence which shall separate the wicked from his presence Raphael Columba writes of Philip the second King of Spain that being at Mass he heard two of his Grandees who were near him in discourse about some worldly business which he then took no notice of but Mass being ended he called them with great gravity and said unto them onely these few words You two appear no more in my presence which were of that weight that the one of them died of grief and the other ever after remained stupified and amazed What shall it then be to hear the King of Heaven and Earth say Depart ye cursed and if the words of the Son of God be so much to be feared what shall be his works of justice At that instant the fire of that general burning shall invest those miserable creatures Less l. 13. c. 23. the Earth shall open and Hell shall enlarge his throat to swallow them for all eternity accomplishing the malediction of Christ and of the Psalm which saith Psal 54. Let death come upon them and let them sink alive into hell And in another place Coals of fire shall fall upon them Ps 139. and thou shalt cast them into the fire and they shall not subsist in their miseries And in another Psalm Psal 10. Snares fire and sulphur shall rain upon sinners Finally that shall be executed which was spoken by St. John That the Devil Death and Hell and all Apcc. 20. who were not written in the Book of life were cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where they shall be eternally tormented with Antichrist and his false Prophets And this is the second death bitter and eternal which comprehends both the Souls and the Bodies of them who have died the spiritual death of sin and the corporal death which is the effect of it The Just shall then rejoyce according to David Psal 57. beholding the vengeance which the Divine Justice shall take upon sinners and sing another song like that of Moses Exod. 15. when the Aegyptians were drowned in the red sea and that Song of the Lamb related by St. John Apoc. 15. Great and marvelous are thy works O Lord God omnipotent just and righteous are thy wayes King of all Eternity who will not fear thee O Lord and magnifie thy name With those and thousand other Songs of joy and jubilee they shall ascend above the Stars in a most glorious triumph until they arrive in the Empyrial Heaven where they shall be placed in thrones of glory which they shall enjoy for an eternity of eternities In the mean time the earth which was polluted for having sustained the Bodies of the damned shall be
punched him upon the body pluckt his beard from his chin drew him up and down by the hair of his head knockt out his teeth and for his greater affront scourged him on those parts where they use to whip children After which they brought him into the publick Market-place that all that would might abuse him and even women buffetted him which done they cut off hs right hand hurried him into prison and flung him into the common-hole where the most notorious Theeves and Murtherers were lodged leaving him nothing to feed on or so much as any to give him a jarre of water From thence some few dayes after they drew him forth pluckt out one of his eyes mounted him naked saving a little short cloak which covered nothing almost of his body upon a lean scabbed Camel his face backward holding the tayl in his hand instead of a Scepter and a halter in place of a Diadem In this equipage they brought him again into the Market-place where the injuries scorns and ignominies put upon him by the rascal multitude are not imaginable Some cast onions and rotten fruit at him others prickt him in the sides with spits others stufft his nostrils with filth and dung others squeezed upon his head and face sponges filled with urin and excrements some flung stones and dirt at him and called him by most opprobrious names and there wanted not an impudent baggage who running into the Kitchen fetcht a pot of scalding water and threw in his face There was no Tapster Cobler Tinker or base Tradesman which found not out some way or other to affront him At last they hung him by the heels betwixt two pillars and there left him to die But then did not his own Courtiers and houshold Servants pardon him one thrust his sword up to the hilts in his bowels two others to prove which had the sharpest sword tried them in his flesh At last the miserable Emperour although most happy if he were saved brought with much adoe that arm which had lost the hand and yet ran with blood to moisten his drie mouth and so expired In this manner ended the Monarch of the East but not yet his ignominy for during three dayes after they suffered his dead body to hang upon the Gibbet which was at last taken down more to free the living from horrour than for compassion to the dead whom they buried like a mad dog Let every one in this glass behold and consider what the things of this life are Let him compare Andronicus with Andronicus Andronicus Emperour and Augustus with Andronicus a Prisoner and publickly executed behold him first cloathed in Purple adored by Nations commanding the East his temples encircled with a Royal Diadem the Imperial Scepter in his hands and his very shooes studdied with Oriental Unions Then look upon him insulted over by the basest of his people buffetted by women and pelted with dirt and stones in his Imperial City Who would believe that he whom the people thronged to look upon as upon some God when he passed through the Streets of Constantinople in his Royal Chariot covered with plates of burnisht gold guarded with excellent Captains and waited on by the Princes of his Empire should by those very same persons who so lately had taken their oaths of loyalty and sworn to defend him be so traiterously and barbarously handled Finally he who had commanded justice to pass upon so many should himself come to be justized with greater infamy than any of them who could imagine that one subject should be so sodainly capable of such different extremes and that so great glory should conclude in so much ignominy This is enough to make us contemn all temporal goods and humane felicity which not onely passes away with time but often changes into greater misfortunes What esteem can that merit which stands exposed to so much misery which is by so much more sensible to the sufferer by how much it was less expected To this may be added another consideration of no small profit That if this Emperour passed to his salvation through so many affronts and cruel torments what hurt did they do him what imports it that he was so unhappy in this life if he were happy in the other certainly he gave sufficient hopes of his contrition for in all that lamentable and never to be paralell'd Tragedy no sign of impatience ever appeared in him neither spake he other words than these Lord have mercy on me and when they abused and wounded him with so much cruelty all he said was this Why do ye break this bruised Reed Certainly if he knew how to benefit himself as it seems he did by his misery he was more happy in it than in his Empire The eternal is that which imports As for the glory of his Empire and the misery of his ignominy they are now past A greater Emperour was Vitellius than he Fulgos l. 6. since not only the East but West acknowledged him for the Lord and Monarch of the whole World The riches he enjoyed were beyond estimation and gold abounded with him as stones of the Streets with others In Rome he was acknowledged Augustus and saluted with so glorious titles that he seemed to be all he could desire less than a God But wherein ended all this Majesty but in the greatest infamy that can be imagined for having tyed a rope about his neck and his hands behinde him torn his garments from his back and stuck a dagger under his chin they haled him ignominiously up and down the Streets of Rome cast filth in his face and reviled him with a thousand injurious speeches and at last killed him in the Market-place and threw him down the Gemonies where they used to fling the bodies of such offenders as were not lawfully to be buried A strange case to what end some men are born such care trouble and circumspection in bringing on a life to conclude in so disastrous a death He who should know the ends of Andronicus and Vitellius and should behold their birth breeding studies pretences and recreations should see them clad in silk and gold and acknowledged Emperours Would he say in his heart that so much adoe was necessary for such an end Folly is all humane greatness since at last it must end and perhaps in so disastrous a conclusion With reason did Pachimeras say It was safer to trust to a shadow than to humane happiness Who could imagine that the Emperour Valerianus Vide Platinam Baro. Fulgos whom the King of Persia taking prisoner kept inclosed in a Cage like some wilde beast used him as a footstool when he got on horseback and after flead his Souldiers and salted them as if they had been bacon could possibly come to such an end Compare here the different conditions that may happen to a Roman Emperour Behold Valerianus mounted upon a brave Courser trapped with Gold clad in Purple crowned with the Imperial Diadem adored by Nations and
been some revelations of great comfort It was revealed to St. Gertrude that as often as St. Joseph was named here upon Earth all the blessed in Heaven made a low bow What greater honour can be expected what comparison can all the expressions of respect and adorations of all the men in this World have with one onely inclination and reverence expressed by one Saint of Heaven What then shall be a reverence exhibited by them altogether The Church sayes of St. Martin that at his entrance into Heaven he was received with Celestial hymns that is with songs which the blessed sung in praise of his prowess and victory If Saul thought the honour too much which was given to David by the Damsels when they celebrated his Victory in their songs What shall it be to be celebrated by all the Saints and Angels in Celestial responsories Bellar. de aeter felic lib. 4. c. 2. Cardinal Bellarmine conceives that when a Servant of God enters into Heaven he shall be received with such musick all the blessed in Heaven often repeating those words in the Gospel Well done good servant and true because thou hast been faithful in a few things thou shalt be plac'd over much Enter into thy Lords joy which words they shall repeat in Quires This shall be a Song of Victory an honour above all the honours of the Earth conferred by so great so wise so holy and so authentique persons Whereupon St. Austin said Lib. 22. de Civit. c. 30. There shall be the true glory where none shall be praised by the error or flattery of the praiser and there the true honour which shall neither be denyed to the worthy nor granted unto the unworthy § 3. Although the honour and applause which the Just receive in Heaven from the Citizens of that holy City be incomparable yet that honour and respect with which God himself shall treat them is far above it Christ our Redeemer to express it uses no meaner a similitude than that of the honour done by the Servant unto his Lord and therefore sayes that God himself shall as it were serve the Blessed in Heaven at their Table It is much amongst men to be seated at the Table of a Prince but for a King to serve his Vassal as if he himself were his Servant who ever heard it Certainly with much reason David said unto God That his Servants were too much honoured And the same David when he caused Miphiboseth although the Grandchild of a King and the Son of an excellent Prince unto whom David ought his life to sit at his Table he thought he did him a singular honour but this favour never extended to wait on him Aman Esther 6. who was the most proud and ambitious man in the world could not think of a greater honour from King Assuerus than to ride through the Streets mounted upon the Kings own horse and that the greatest man in the Kingdom should lead him by the bridle but that the King himself should perform that service never entred into his imagination The honour which God bestows upon the Just exceeds all humane imagination who not satisfied with crowning all the Blessed with his own divinity giving himself to be possessed and enjoyed by them for all eternity does also honour their victories and heroick actions with new Crowns Lib. 10. Apum Thomas de Cantiprato writes of Alexander brother to St. Matilde and Son to the King of Scots that he appeared unto a certain Monk with two Crowns and being demanded why he had them doubled he answered This which I wear upon my head is common unto me with all the blessed but that which I carry in my hand is given me for renouncing my Kingdom upon Earth But above all the Martyrs Virgins and Doctors shall appear most glorious whom God shall honour with certain particular marks of honour by which they shall be known and distinguished from the rest of the Blessed which seals and marks shall be imprinted in their Souls like the indelible characters of Baptism Confirmation and Priesthood which are to endure for all eternity Of the Doctors the Prophet Daniel sayes They shall shine like the Stars in the Firmament giving us to understand that as the Stars excel the other parts of the Firmament by the advantage of their light so the Doctors shall be known in Heaven by a more glorious splendor which they shall cast from them And if the least Saint in Heaven shall shine seaven times more than the Sun what shall that light be which shall outshine so many Suns Apoc. 21. Of the Martyrs St. John saith That they went cloathed in white carrying palms in their hands in sign of victory For as Kings are honoured by wearing Purple and holding Scepters so Conquerors by their candid Garments and Palms Apoc. 21. The same St. John also sayes of Virgins That the name of Christ and his Father shall be imprinted in their foreheads which shall be as a token to distinguish them from the rest of Saints conformable unto that of the Prophet Isaias who sayes that a more noble and excellent name shall be given to Virgins than unto the rest of the Sons of God by which name St. Augustin sayes is meant some particular Devise which shall distinguish them from the rest as the more eminent men are distinguished from others by their several Titles of honour Besides this those members of the Blessed by which they have more specially served God or suffered for him Aug. 22. de Civit. Dei. shall as St. Austin notes cast forth some particular light and splendour so as every wound which St. Stephen received from his stoning shall cast forth a particular beam of light And with what a Garment of glory shall St. Bartholmew be clad who was flead from head to foot In the like manner St. James Intercisus who was hacked in pieces member by member for the faith of Christ Even the Confessors in those Senses which they have mortified for Christ shall have a particular Enamel of light St. John the Evangelist was shewed to St. Matilde with a particular splendour and glory in his eyes for not daring to lift them up to look upon our Blessed Lady when he lived with her for the great esteem and reverence he bore unto her There is no kind of honour which shall not then be given to the heroical acts of vertue performed by the Saints in this life which shall be to be read in the particular persons of the predestinate so as there shall be no necessity of Histories Annals or Statues to make known or eternize their memories as here in worldly honours which being short transitory and of small endurance have need of something to preserve them in the memory of men For this the Romans erected Statues unto those whom they intended to honour because being mortal there should something remain after death to make their persons and services which they had done
who disobey him he may either chastise with imprisonment or death and is therefore fear'd and respected by them But all this power is invalid without the assistance of his Subjects For what will it avail a Prince to command such a City to be defended if the Souldiers within have a minde to deliver it And therefore a certain Jester of Philip the Second King of Spain demanded of him If all should say No unto what your Majesty commands what was to be done giving him to understand that his power depends upon others The power of a Monarch depends not onely upon the will of his Subjects but the Walls of his Fortresses Arms Instruments of Warre and many other things so as the people depend onely upon one man which is the Prince but the Prince upon many men and matters in so much as many rich Kings have been seen without power as Craesus Andronicus and others who were not able to defend themselves with all their riches from their own Vassals Witness Domitian Commodus Heliogabolus and Julius Caesar But the power of the Blessed depends of no other power nor man Ansel de Simil. c. 52. which as St. Anselm sayes shall be so great as no force or resistance shall withstand it It a Saint have a mind to remove a Mountain from one place to another he shall do it with as much ease as we remove our eyes from one part unto another Neither is this a wonder For even the faithful in this life according to the promise of Christ have done it as is written of St. Gregorius Thaumaturgus and some others And if Angels nay Devils have this power the Blessed shall not be denyed it Concerning honour the richest Princes can onely make their Vassals to adore them upon the knee and do them other outward reverence but cannot hinder them from murmuring in their absence or from observing their actions and interpreting them as they please They have many flatterers which praise them with their tongues and scorn them in their hearts and for the most part they are farre fewer who praise than despise them for there are but few who discourse with them but many who discourse of them and therefore few who praise them in presence and many who censure them in absence Concerning pleasures it is true that Princes are not content with ordinary delights and therefore provide themselves of magnificent Shews costly Recreations exquisite Comedies pleasant Gardens Woods for hunting and are all cloathed splendidly But none of those can make a Calenture not to afflict them or that the pains of the head stomack or gout do not molest them or that cares and fears do not break their sleep No gold or money can secure the goods of this World or free them from imperfections This onely is to be had in Heaven where their power is so free from weakness that one onely Angel without Army Guns Swords 4 Reg. 19. or Lance could destroy at once 180000 men with what speed and facility do Saints succour their devotes who invoke them without impediment either from the distance of place or hinderance from the violence of Tyrants How compleat then shall be the honor of the Blessed since even the Devils shall reverence them Nay even now many who despised them living seeing the many miracles which God hath wrought by their intercession have honoured them after death The pleasures also are pure and true without mixture of pain or grief as we shall see in the proper places Besides it is to be considered that the great riches of the Saints are not like those of the Kings of the Earth drawn from the tributes imposed upon their Vassals which though just yet are not free from this ill condition that what enricheth the Prince impoverisheth the Subject The riches in Heaven have no such blemishes they are burthensome to none and what is given to the Servants of Christ who raigns in Heaven is not taken from any CAP. IV. Of the greatness of Eternal Pleasures HOnour Profit and Pleasures are distinct goods upon Earth and are rarely found together Honour is seldom a companion of profit and profit of pleasure And so the sick man drinks his Purge because it is profitable how bitter soever Besides the pleasures or the world are for the most part mixt with some shame and oftentimes with infamy They are costly and expensive we cannot entertain our pleasures without diminishing our wealth It is not so in eternal goods in which to be honest is to be profitable and to be profitable delectable Eternal honours are accompanied with immense riches and they are both attended by pleasures without end All this is signified by the Lord when he received the faithful Servant into glory when he sayes Well done good servant and true because thou hast been faithful in a few things I will place thee over many Enter into the joy of thy Lord. In these words he first honours him commending him for a good and faithful Servant then enriches him delivering many things into his hands and so admits him into the joy and pleasure of his Lord signifying by this manner of expression the greatness of this joy not saying that this joy should enter in to him but that he should enter into joy and into no other but that of his Lord. So great is the joy of that Celestial Paradise that it wholly fills and embraces the blessed Souls which enter into Heaven as into an immense Sea of pleasure and delight The joyes of the Earth enter into the hearts of those who possess them but fill them not because the capacity of mans heart is greater than they can satisfie But the joyes of Heaven receive the Blessed into themselves and fill and overflow them in all parts Their glory is like an Ocean of delights into which the Saints enter as a Sponge into the Sea which filling its whole capacity the water surrounds and compasses it all about Whereupon St. Anselme sayes Ansel ca. 71. de Simil. Joy shall be within and without Joy above and below Joy round about on every side and all parts full of joy The same immensity of joy the Lord signified when he said by Isaias Behold I create Jerusalem an exultation Isai 65. and her people a joy It is much to be noted that he sayes not I create a rejoycing for Jerusalem or in Jerusalem nor a joy in or for its people but by a particular mystery I make Jerusalem that it shall be all an exultation and its people all a joy He speaks in this manner to set forth the greatness of his copious joy with which that holy City and her Inhabitants shall be as it were encompassed and overwhelmed For as a plate of iron in the middle of a Furnace is so wholly inkindled and penetrated by fire that it seems fire it self and contains the full heat of the Furnace So a blessed Soul in Heaven is so replenished with that Celestial joy
conferring perfect happiness upon the Soul and beauty and immortality upon the Body § 3. Finally all those joyes of the Blessed both in Soul and Body which are innumerable have their sourse and original from that unspeakable joy of the clear vision of God And how can the joy be less which proceeds from such a cause who gives himself being the sweetness and beauty of the world to be possessed by man that joy being the very same which God enjoyes and which suffices to make God himself blessed with a blessedness equal to himself Wherefore not without great mystery in those words by which our Saviour admits the faithful into Heaven it is said Enter into the joy of thy Lord. he said not simply into joy but to determine the greatness of it sayes it was his own joy that joy by which he himself becomes happy and truly the immensity of this joy could not better be declared We are therefore to consider that there is nothing in this World which hath not for his end some manner of perfection and that those things which are capable of reason and knowledge have in that perfection a particular joy and complacencie which joy is greater or lesser according as that end is more or less perfect Since therefore the Divine perfection is infinitely greater than that of all the Creatures the joy of God which is in himself for he hath no end not perfection distinct from himself is infinitely greater than that of all things besides This joy out of his infinite goodness and liberality he hath been pleased to make the holy Angels and blessed Souls partakers of communicating unto the Just although no wayes due unto their nature his own proper and special felicity And therefore the joy of Saints which is that of the beatifical vision wherein consists the joy and happiness of God must needs be infinite and unutterable and all contents of this World in respect of it are bitter as alloes gall and wormwood Besides by how much a delectable object is more nearly and straightly united to the faculty by so much greater is the joy and delight which it produces Therefore God who is the most excellent and delightful object being in the beatifical vision united to the Soul with the most intimate union that can be in a pure creature must necessarily cause a most inexplicable joy incomparably greater than all the joyes real or imaginable which can be produced either by the Creatures now existent or possible For as the Divine perfection incloseth within it self all the perfections of things created possible and imaginable so the joy which it causes in the Souls of the Blessed must be infinitely greater than all other joyes which either have or can be caused by the Creature If the Greeks warred ten years and lost so much blood for the beauty of Helen And if it seemed a small thing unto Jacob to serve fourteen years a Slave for that of Rachel what trouble can seem great unto us to enjoy God in comparison of whose beauty all which the World affords is but deformity Absolon and Adonis were most beautiful and with their very sight drew love and admiration from their beholders But it looking upon Absolon another ten times more lovely should appear we should quickly leave to gaze upon Absolon and fix our eyes upon the other and if a third should come a hundred times more graceful than the second we should serve the second in the same manner and our eyes and delight would still follow him who was the most agreeable God being then infinitely more beautiful than we can either see or think and although he should create some other Creature ten hundred thousand times more beautiful than these we know yet that and one another million of times exceeding it would both fall infinitely short of God himself especially that beauty not being alone but accompanied with perfections without limit with an infinite wisdom omnipotence holiness liberality bounty and all that can be imagined good beautiful and perfect which must necessarily force the hearts of those who see him although before his enemies to love and adore him Which is an other proof of the joy which springs from the beatifical vision in regard it works so powerfully upon the will of him that enjoyes it that it compels it by an absolute necessity to a most intense love although it had before detested it because the joy must equalize the love which it caused It there were in the World a Man as wise as an Angel we should all desire to see him as the Queen of Saba did Salmon but if to this wisdom were joyned the strength of Hercules or Sampson the victories of Machabeus or Alexander the affability and curtesie of David the friedliness of Jonathan the liberality of the Emperour Titus and to all this the beauty and comeliness of Absolon who would not love and desire to live and converse with this admirable person Why then do we not love and desire the sight of God in whom all those perfections and graces infinitely above these are united which also we our selves if we serve him are to enjoy as if they were our own O how great and delightful a Theater shall it be to see God as he is with all his infinite perfections and the perfections of all Creatures which are eminently contained in the Deity How admirable were that spectacle where were represented all that are or have been pleasant or admirable in the World If one were placed where he might behold the seaven Wonders of the World the sumptuous Banquets made by Assuerus and other Persian Kings the rare Shews and Feasts exhibited by the Romans the pleasant Trees and savoury Fruits of Paradise the Wealth of Craesus David and the Assyrian and Roman Monarchs and all those joyntly together who would not be transported with joy and wonder at so admirable a sight but more happy were he upon whom all these were bestowed together with the assurance of a thousand years of life wherein to enjoy them Yet all this were nothing in respect of the eternal sight of God in whom those and all the perfections that either are or have been or possibly can be are contained What ever else is great and delightful in the World together with all the pleasures and perfections that all the men in the World have obtained or shall obtain to the World's end all the wisdom of Salomon all the sciences of Plato and Aristotle all the strength of Aristomenes and Milo all the beauty of Paris and Adonis if they should give all these things to one person it would have no comparison and would seem to be a loathsome thing being compared onely to the delight which will be enjoyed in seeing God for all eternity because in him onely will be seen a Theater of Bliss and Greatness wherein are comprised as in one the greatness of all creatures In him will be found all the richness of Gold the delightfulness