Hell's Eternitie as that we doe not more thinke of his Eternitie who made them both this for the Diuells and their associates that for the Angells and the Elect. O eternall Diuinitie ô Diuine Eternitie thou art he whom I consider and whom I seake for to thee onely it is that I aspire for without thee the created Eternitie would not bee since it doth not subsiste but by the eternall essence of the essentiall Eternitie which is no other thē God himselfe And yet further to purisie myne affection and bring it to its full perfection henceforth I will not so much loue the Eternitie of God as the God of Eternitie though God be that same Eternitie and that same Eternitie be God himselfe And if by the imagination of an impossible thing one could be in Hell with his grace his accursed Eternitie would not be dreadfull nor is the Blessed Eternitie to be desired but that eternall life is to see God eternally eternally to depēd vpon him O eternall God! who is like vnto thee who is like vnto thee who is like vnto our Lord God who inhabites in the places aboue And what Eternitie can be compared vnto his from whom proceedes all Eternitie seing he hath made the ages of ages O Great God direct my wayes in thy presence and make me walke before thee in perfection that is perfect in such sort my intentions that forgetting myne owne interest and nether staying my selfe in the blessed or accursed Eternitie I may onely looke after thyne essentiall Eternitie which is thy selfe to whom be honour and glorie from generation to generation for euer and euer in the Eternitie of Eternities Amen An aspiration of Hope LXXIII BVt ô Lord will it not be too great a presumption for a worme of the earth to rayse it selfe towards thyne infinite Eternitie and promisse himselfe one day in thy glorie to be vnited thervnto Yea verily it were a manifest vanitie if a soule should persuade her selfe that of her selfe and by the strength of her owne winge she could wind her selfe thither But as of her selfe she can doe nothing so together with thee being fortified by thee what can she not performe ô great God since she holds her whole beeing of thy Grace What may she not what ought she not to expect from thy grace since it is written that thy grace is eternall life And againe with what confidence must not her heart needs be encouraged when she shall cast the eyes of her consideration vpon the great price and infinite merites of thyne eternall Sonne ô eternall Father a Sonne who hath layed her open the way to Eternitie not by the blood of gotes or calues but acquiring vnto her by his owne blood an eternall and plentuous redemption O my soule what are we not to hope from the Mercy of so good a God and who hath loued vs with an eternall and excessiue Charitie a Charitie so excessiue that he bestowed his owne Sonne to be the propitiation for our Sinnes When we were dead by our crymes his grace restored vs to life Our Sauiour dying vpō the Crosse did quicken vs by his death and the same reuiuour doth promise vs a like resurrection and ascending vnto heauen he goes to prepare vs a place before the Throne of his glorie Which made the great Apostle writing to the Ephesians say that God who is rich in mercy for his exceding Charitie wherwith he loued vs euen while we were dead by sinnes quickened vs together in CHRIST by whose grace we are salued and hath raysed vs vp with him selfe making vs sit with him in the celestials in IESVS CHRIST shewing to future ages the abundant riches of his grace through his benignitie towards vs in IESVS CHRIST And the Prince of the Apostles S. PETER Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST who according to his great Mercy hath regenerated vs vnto a liuely hope by the resurrection of IESVS CHRIST from the deade vnto an inheritance incorruptible and incontaminate and that cannot fade conserued in the Heauens in you For what ought not those to hope for who are inrowled as members in the misticall body of the Holy Church whose heade he is being most reasonable that the Champions should follow their Commander in his triumph if they did accompanie him in his Combats vnder the Banner of the Crosse You that haue followed me said he to his Apostles you shall be set vpon seates in the Kingdome which my Father hath prepared for you in Eternitie There it is that the Elect like vnto Eagles shall flocke about the bodie of the glorious humanitie of our Redeemour and where crowned with the crowne of Iustice they shall lay them downe at the feet of this Lābe Conquerour of the earth and who vanquished the world And if the eternall Father hath giuen vs his Sonne how will not he giue vs all things with him especially since this Sonne hath the key of DAVID key Scepter of his Empire vpon his shouldiers A key with which he opens and none can shut Behold saith S. IOHN what Charitie the eternall Father hath communicated vnto vs that we should be named and be his Sonnes and if his Sonnes his Heires also Heires truely of God and Coheires of CHRIST It was this holy hope that moued the Psalmists heart so generously to lanch out as by so many flightes towards the blessed Eternitie Come let vs ascend into the Hill of our Lord and into the house of the God of IACOB Hope in him all yee congregations of the faithfull for those that hope in him vnderstād the truth of his promises those that are faithfull in his loue doe place their confidence therin Those that hope in him shall not be confounded for euer for such as put their confidence in him shall be no more shaken then the Mountaine of Sion but replenished with ioy in the expectation of the eternall felicitie they cryed out I reioyced when I was told that we were to goe into the house of our Lord. And indeed what is not a man to hope of an infinite Bountie what ought not one to expect from so solemne promises and whose truth remaynes for euer No Lord neuer neuer will I forget thy iustifications for it is by them that thou hast giuen me life I doe firmely beleeue that if my soule doe constantly adheare vnto thee thy right hand will receaue one into thy bosome O how happie are those whom thou hast chosen and taken as thyne for they shall dwell in thyne eternall Court for euer and euer Let 's make no doubt of it my soule he that by his grace moues vs to tend to this goale will not forsake vs in the midst of our course and in so faire a way but since his workes are perfect he will heape grace vpon grace and will make vs happily arriue at the Port and point of all consummation O God draw vs after thee sith it is thee alone whom we search and
will happily aske me ô Athanasia whence proceeds so deepe a blindnes and so deadly a numnesse in this poore man who rarely or neuer thinkes of eternitie To speake the truth the heauens stand astonished and the gards of those heauēly Gates quake with desolation in it because that miserable man in the same instant commits two greiuous crymes leauing the source of life of the blessed eternitie to build vnto himselfe with the length of tyme and in earth runing cisternes which can hold no water because here below we all die and flow as waters vpon the face of the earth till we be arrested in our coffin I neede not seeke far to find the origine of this disorder sith that sinne is the prime cause of this blindnesse My vertue hath forsaken me quoth the king of penitēts and Prophetes after his fall and the light of myne eyes is no longer with me That each sinner is blind is a truth so cleare that it needs no proofe Leaue them there saith our Sauiour speaking of certaine offenders they are blind in a blindnesse signified by that of Tobie and Samson and by the palpable darknesse of Egipt And if while the skie is loaden with fogie mists we neither discouer Sunne nor heauen or to speake with Dauid while rayne makes black and darksome clouds appeare much lesse can the soule couered with the filme of sinne see and contemplate him who shines frō aboue the eternall mountaines for the true and diuine wisdome takes not vp his resideme in a soule defiled with the malice of sinne nor in a bodie subiect to sense and passion And if nor the light of the sunne nor of a torch can be decerned through grosse bodies as might be a wall much lesse can eternall thoughts shine in a soule where sinne erects a wall which doth separate from his grace who makes not onely as Iob sayth the East and the starrs but euen Eternitie it selfe ô miserable soule who feedes the flockes of thy durtie passions in a land far distant from God far from true felicitie for saluation is far from sinners Lost soules since such as stray from God doe perish ô God whom thou dost forsake shall be forsaken well may their names be written in the land of the deade but neuer in that of the liuing nor in the Register of the glorious Eternitie Iesus preserue vs my Athanasia from so daunting a malediction vs I say who by the grace of God doe detest the disasterous night of sinne being receaued out of the tempests of darknesse We who loue the day light and sweetly walke therin we who put of the workes of darknesse and put on armour of light to walke honestly before God Angells and men We who protest that we were nether borne nor doe liue for any other end but incessantly to contemplate not the Heauens and the Sunne as that auncient Anaxagoras said of himselfe but the blessed Eternitie and the first cause therof We who sing with the royall Prophete Myne eyes are alwayes towards the eternall God I haue him alwayes before my face he is the onely obiect of myne eternall thoughts Things present doe hinder the contemplation of Eternitie VII THere is yet another thing that causeth worldlings to loose the memorie of Eternitie and the sight of this POLE-STARRE in the nauigation of this mortall life Doe you desire to know it Athanasia It is the things present The world is full of a kind of people who are onely worldly wise knowing onely terreane things and with these they haue their vnderstanding endarkned as the Apostle speakes who search onely the things that are vpon the earth not the things aboue and who resembling the vncleane beastes haue their eyes so fixedly turned vpon the earth that they cannot recouer them to heauenward vnlesse themselues be ouerturned That we are not to admire that Eternitie hath so few contemplatours seeing that the auncient Philosopher hath so many disciples who said that the things which are aboue vs doe no wayes concerne vs. Verily as it is imposible with one ey to see heauē and earth and to behold in the same place the Artique and Antartique Pole though a man were euen placed vnder the Equature or the Equinoctiall line so is it impossble that the mynd of man should in one thought accompanie present and future temporall and eternall things Those twinns are incompatible and would cause in it too griping conuulsions Things visible are tēporall and eternall things are not seene saith the Doctor of the Gentiles like as one of the Poles is inuisible vnto vs and farr moe Pilotes know how to sayle vnder that of our Orison then vnder that of the Antipodes that being vnknowen vnto vs and subiect to other starrs and other rules of nauigation We must not therfore wonder that so few direct their course towards Eternitie and that TYME hath so great a trayne since the MAXIMES of temporall and eternall things are not onely different but often also contrarie and alwayes further distāt then Heauen and Earth The soule betwixt these two Extreamities is like vnto the child in the EMBLEME being hoysted vp by the wings of it desire to things of the next life but kept downe to things of the present life by the stone of this earthly habitatiō abating the flight of the Spirit towards things aboue It is this Talent of leade mentioned by the Prophete which swayes downe to the ground such as desire to be freed from it and yet cānot so faint hearted they are to performe◠the good which they desire onely with an imperfect will For if they desired it with an absolute will and to that effect imployed the power they haue Grace would neuer quite them in so faire a way Thus did the youngman in the Gospell who shewed himselfe so desirous to vndertake the wayes of eternall life wherof he made so earnest a Petition to our Sauiour but when he had learnt that to enter thither by the straight way and narrow Gate he was to forsake his present possessions to aspire with more facilitie to the Treasures of Eternitie he returned sad and administred occasion to the sonne of God to make that sweete discourse to his disciples of the difficultie of entering into heauen with the loade of riches For which cause Sainte Augustine tearmed the loue of present things the glew which glewes the feathers of the mynd and hinders her flight towards Eternitie While the Christall is sole and in her natiue puritie it is transparent and in it are seene the obiects put before it but being once spred ouer with leade or quicksiluer our sight is stayed in the Glace and by reflection we see the picture of what is before it and not at all that which is behind it A neate and purified spirit not soyled with the lees and skumme of terreane affections Hath by the light of Fayth a cleare Prospect vpon Eternitie and the things of the next life But as soone as it applyes it selfe
in the eternall God To whom keeping an inuariable fidelitie in the various change of things she pronounceth couragiously with the Apostle whether we liue or die we are our Lord's I will blesse him at all tymes his praise shall be continually in my mouth Whether he draw vs vp to Heauē or he depresse vs downe into the Abisses below whether he doe mortifie or quicken vs his loue shall be so strong vnto me loue which is more strong then death or Hell that nothing shall euer be able to separate me from his charitie Yea she will rather be vnmyndfull of her selfe then forget this deare Hierusalem of that Eternitie wherin she hath cast the Ankre of all her hopes and of her saluation Exercise your selfe therfore frequently and faithfully in this Practise of Aspirations and Iaculatorie Prayers which are so familiar to all those that professe true pietie and you will find by experience that as by meanes therof you come to see God in all things so shall you easely discouer therby in euery thing the Blessed or accursed Eternitie since Fortune and misfortune are the two basons or rather the two Poles of this life and the two Caskes or tunns of Prouidence according to that auncient Philosophers conceipt or at least to contemplate therin the essentiall Eternitie which is God the Center wherin all our desires and asperations doe end The moments wher vpon Eternitie doth depend LXXVII O God Athanasia what am I about to say this Eternitie which shall neuer haue end is not yet in respect of vs without begining and it is that which the Diuines call Euiternitie for God alone being his owne Eternitie is without begining or end But all other creatures who were made in TYME had a begining yet true it is that both Angells and men shall be eternall marrie in the tyme to come for they had a begining and were not from all Eternitie Now as we haue had a begining and shall haue no end whether our wicked life doe precipitate vs into eternall punishments or our good endeauours assisted by God's grace make vs a way to eternall life So our passage to the blessed or accursed Eternitie depends of a moment as of its principle O Athanasia how attētiue ought we to be to vnderstand that dreadfull moment whervpon depends our Eternitie If you aske me which it is I will discouer vnto you in the next stroke that it comprehends all the moments of this mortall life But as in a plentious heruist there are alwayes some eares of come more notable then the rest and amongst the starrs those which are neerest the two Poles are the most remarkable so amongst the moments of which our mortall life are composed I would wish that we should haue a principall care of the two of which I am about to speake The first is the precious moment in which the Diuine grace doth touch our hearts called by the Scripture the tyme of our visitation a moment of such importance that being rightly receaued it is the blosome of our blessed Eternitie but being ill managed it is the begining of our accursed Eternitie Woe be to thee said our Sauiour weeping ô Hierusalem because thou hast not decerned the tyme of thy visitation O God Athanasia how we shall be astonished when before the Tribunal of the iust Iudge where we must all appeare we shall heare our selues accused of so many negligences for that we haue ether despised the Diuine inspirations or that we haue abused so many heauēly graces which could haue giuen vs life if we had bene deade by sinne or life more abundantly if we were alreadie in grace according as it is writtē How much was that slothfull louer of the Canticles greeued when she perceaued that her Spouse was past by who had stood at her Chāber doore quaking with cold and beseeching entrie by so many louing inuitatiōs and aduantagous promisses She riseth but to late she runs full of desolation into diuers places but fines him not till after a thousand and a thousand labours affrontes reproches But what a heart breake shall it be to the reprobate soule when after her condemnation she shall clearly see how many occasions of working her saluation she had neglected and how many meanes she had to free her selfe from the torments to which she shall see her selfe adiudged for euer We sēnselesse say the damned speaking of the Elect esteemed their life who wrought their owne saluation madnes themselues dasterous and dishonorable but now we see their lot is in the inheritance of Saintes On the other side what a consolation shall it be to thee Blessed when they shall consider that their well imployed moments of affliction in earth had wrought in them an eternall waight of Glorie Let vs therfore be carefull of our selues Athanasia Let vs marke what our Sauiour speakes in our hearts and doubtlesse we shall vnderstand words of Peace and reconcilement Blessed is the man that heareth him and watcheth at his doores dayly which we doe when we are earefull to gather vp his inspiratiōs as the dropes of a heauenly dew which begets precious Pearles in our hearts and the holy vnions of our soule with God Let 's still be on foote and as it were stand Sentinell vpon our wayes let vs thinke in what sort we walke let vs turne our feete into the Pathes of the Diuine Lawe The SECOND MOMENT is that which makes a separation betwixt our soule and our body that is the instant of our departure out of this life a moment which is our last and is to be iudge of all those that went before For as the Tree remaynes for euer where it falls so shall we continue for euer in the state in which we are found in the instant of our death And such as God shall find vs then such will he iudge vs. For if all this life be but a waying to Eternitie death is to be tearmed the doore of Eternitie yet a double doore passing the good to felicitie the wicked to eternall miseries And if PHILIPPE MACEDO to conteyne himselfe within the bounds of temperance and modestie in his Kinglike greatnes made a Page aduertise him euery morning that he was a Man and consequētly mortall least he might haue framed some immortall cōceipt of himselfe How much more ought a Christian continually to call to mynd that double Eternitie which attends him after death The present moment LXXVIII BVt besides these two moments which I haue proposed vnto you Athanasia I doe so much desire that you would attend and applie your selfe to the consideration of Eternitie that I would wish from my heart that all the moments of your life were imployed in that exercise that I might applie to you that of the Prophete you are a nightly Sentinell of this life and might one day see you amongst the wise Virgins in the eternall banquet of the marriage of the Lambe I could wish that at euery breathing you would cast an ey