to smell them never the lesse as favorably as may be this being sayed the damned opened his cloke with which he seemed to be covered from whence issued so horrible stinke that all the Religious were constrained to leave the Monastery without ever being able to inhabite there againe if one damne soul caused so great infection what shall J pray thee so many millions of Souls and bodies burning in Hell cause Thinke well on it ADde unto all these evils the comble and chiefe of all these miseries which is that all these cruell torments shal never have an end my deare Friēd at this word Never thy Heart though never so couragious doth it not faile thee yes never the miserable damned shal shal have an end of their paine after an hundred yeares torment a thousand of yeares begin and they being ended an hundred thousand are beginning and after them succeeds as many millions as there are drops of water in the Sea and Athomes in the aire and after all this ther will remaine an eternity intire O eternity thou art exceeding O eternity thou art most horrible O eternity thou art badly considered Eternity Eternity O the weighty word Eternity If one were for tenn yeares to lye on a soft bed and strewed with roses what a great torment this would be if one were constrained for twenty yeares to have his eyes fixed on the most agreable object of the world what anguish and wearisomnes vvould it cause if thy eares during fifty yeares vvere inforced to heare the most ravishing musick on earth vvould it not be insupportable Alas O my God what will be the eternall paine which with out any mitigation or solace will continue for ever to be couched for ever on most ardent coales to swallow alwaycs most bitter gall and wormwood mingled with the foame of Serpents to see for ever the hideous and inexplicable shapes of the divels to heare alwayes the enraged musick of horrid blasphemies which the damned shall utter against God to smell the stinkes and the intollerable infections of Hell for all eternity For ever Alas my God! alas how long is this for ever that shall never have an end nor rest it is exceeding long to suffer for ever it is a miserie without a second if it were for a thousand yeares one might hope that it would have an end but for ever my soul likes it not O! For ever a great for ever which never can be comprehended this eternall ever frights my Soul considering this ever what Heart doth not fayle and tremble Heaven THe consideration of Heaven must-needes be a very efficacious meanes for to withdraw us from vice and to leade us unto virtue seeing that the Prince of the Apostles made use of it for to excite Prelats to justly performe their duty firmely believe yee sayes he unto them that in recompense of your fidelity and labours which yee have taken in the government of souls yee shall receceave a Crowne of Glorie which shall shine on your heads all eternity St. Paul imployed no other reason for to persuade the Collossians to cast off the old man which carryes with him many infirmities and to revest themselves with the new man who hath for his portion the greatest virtues if yee do this sayes he the celestiall inheritance shall be the high prize and avantageous reward of your paynes Jesus Christ himself after having declared unto his Disciples the many wayes which leades unto Heaven found nothing more efficacious for to incourage them thē to say unto them my Friends among the difficulties with which yee shall incounter in these separated wayes from the commun and publike way Confide couragiously on the assurances which I give yee that they will conduct yee unto infinite rewards The greatest Saints made use of this consideration for to practice the highest virtues Heare David who speakes for all O my Soverign Lord I confesse that I had an exceedingly proud Heart and very hard to yeeld unto thy favorable inspirations but by the consideration of thy infinit recompences I have humbled it and made it to performe all thy pleasures and commands Deare Friend tell me art not thou able to do the same Thinke well on it BEcause the true recompance which God gives unto his good servants is found in Heaven it is necessary to know what this Heaven is St. John Apoc 21. affirmes that it is a great City of which the walls are of precious stones raised on a fundation of pure gold with twelve gates most magnificent which serves but for shew for they are never shutt for the light which produceth there a continuall faire day banisheth all darknes and night St. Matthew sayes it is a great Kingdome St. Luke addes that it is eternal St. Peter calls it divine divine indeed since that God is ther King the Virgin Mother is ther Queene the Angels are the Courtiers and all the Saints are there Inhabitatants A Kingdome where all the discourse is of Ioy and contentment All griefe vexation anger and disquiet being banished thence wher is not to be seen any Plebeyan or mean Person all there being most Noble wher all that is good is found in aboundance without any want the Divines teache that it is an Estate composed of all the good imaginable and yet more then can be imagined and exempt from all evils Dispute no more of it sayes St. Paul for I who have ben there can not declare the things I have seen ther so great and admirable they are No truly addes St. Augustine for though all the tongues of men yea of all the Angels should be imployed in it they could not declare them J will not omit notwithstanding to say a word or two of this place of the company and of the glorie of this beautifull Heaven whilst I shall speake Think thou well on it THe place wher Heaven is seated is very high infinite in its extension most pure and most fertile and full of all goodnes the Philosophers and reason teach us that the place ought to answer the qualitie of him that ther is lodged even so we see the Palaces of Princes do surpasse and excell in beautie and richesse the Cottages of Peasantes and clownes I will leave thee to think what must be the mansion and habitation of a God and of all his Favorits compared with all the Howses of this world One must be ignorant that the Firmament so admirable in beauty so shining with stars is but the pavement of this divine Howse for not to conclude evidently that with in there are other rarietyes farr beyond our imagination O Lord God of Power sayes David how charming is the place of thy habitation my Soul can not think on a more agreable and delectable thing because thinking on it presently it is ravished Great King thou hast greater occasion to do this then the Queene of Saba had considering the wonders of the Palace of thy Sonn Salomon Jt is this that caused St.
one vvord to have lost vvhat soever good thou hadst and sold thy soul vnto the divell Thinke well on it Seeke redresse for the vvoundes thy tongue hath made in thy soul and resent them vvith griefe firmely purpose to keepe it better being most assured that of a hundred that this time goes to hell ninety are precipitated ther by the tongue IF thou already didst feele the stinking exhalations of thy dying body vvouldst thou not sigh from the bottome of thy heart sor having sought vvith so much sensuality svveet odours to perfume they garments to imbaume thy carkas and to satisfy thy nostrels and those vvho accompany thee vvhilst thy soul by its imeperfections yeelds an intollerable loathsome sent vnto all the celstiall court vvhat extravigance is it to perfume the sleave and permitt the arme to be putrified vvhat folly is it to smel of musk amongst lackyes acd to stinck in the presences of a Prince Thinke well on it Be confounded if the ancient proverb be verifyed in thee very often the heart stinketh vvhen the body is perfumed resolue not to verify here after this truth WHat vvouldst thou doe if thou didst knovv for certaine that vvith in three dayes thy body should be vvormes meate vvoudst thou not curse a thousand times thy taste vvhich finds nothing fufficiently seasoned vvhich seekes vvith so much care svveet and delicious viands and pleasant vvines vvhich knovves not hovv to fast nor to abstaine from vvhat is forbiden Hadst not better eaten some ill dressed meate then to be inforced to drinke the poyson of serpents and eate toades Thinke well on it Thou vvilst confesse that it is better vvith a little payne to abstaine and to be mortefyed a fevv dayes in the noble company of IESUS and his Saints for to gaine Paradise then to suffer hunger eternally vvith the damned in hell IF thou didst lively apprehend vvhat vvill happen at the last period of they life vvhere thou shalt loose all feeling vvouldst thou not have an extreame regret and sorrovv to have ben so delicate and sensuall in thy touching that thou hast never ben able to endure haire cloth discipline nor the least incommodity but hast alvvayes sought after the finest linnen and hast made his sence vvholy brutale Alas hovv vvilst thou be able to vveare garments of fire to lye eternally on the burning coales of hell Thinke well on it Thou vvilt confesse that it had ben better a hundred times to have ben alvvayes leprous then to have procured thes eternall evils I do aske thee if this vvere the last hour of thy life whether thou vouldst not rather be with out a hand then to have imployed thy hands so often in taking that vvhich did not belong unto thee implaying eateing to much in satisfying vanity in stirking vvithout reason in vnjustly increasing thy wealth in taking things vnlawfull is it not true that ther vvould not be so many gallowes if ther were not so many malifactors Thinke well on it Thou will allovv that ther had not ben so many damned if their hands had taken so much payne for to open unto them the Heavens as they have done for to purchase hell THis is the last question I will propose vnto thee at this time If thou wert fallē to day sick as it is possible and that thou wert assured that thou shoudst not recovere wouldst not thou rather have ben lame and with out feet then to have so often runne after dauncings and tavernes frequent play howses and infamous places in which thou perhaps hast lost that which is never to be recovered and with that the life of thy soul Take heede of those hogs which the Evangelist mentions behold how after the divel was entred into them they never left running vntill they were precipitated into the sea Thinke well on it Have compassion on those who being once under the slavery never rest from falling from one sinn into an other untill they be indulfed into eternall perdition I am not so passionatly amourous of the saluation of thy soul that I forget the health of thy body and therfore least thy minde being to much imployed in thinking on those things I propose might cause a distemper in thy head J am willing that thous spend some time in beholding a spectacle which represents itself here very fitt to confirme what hath ben sayed Ther was a young lady who appeared vnto her Ghostly Father in a most terrible manner a thousand snakes were her haires of her head she had two cruell Aspes hanging at her eyes which did cruelly torture her two venomous vipers at her nostrels two poisonning lizards at her eares she mutilated her tongue with ineffable rage on her bosome ther appeared two vglie Toads which nibbled her breasts an horrible dragon which constrained her to swallow his Foame an other four or five times environed her body thrusting his head into her privities drew forth her entraills two gastly divels most cruelly did teare the partes of her body which had ben instruments of the greatēst offences and incessantly powred melted led and boyling oyle I am not able to expresse what strange faces and wry mouthes she made her eyes sparkling with fire rowled in her head withfury she cast forth of her eares and nostrels firy sulphure she mouthed worse then a fury a garment of fire covered all her body but truly nothing was so insupportable as her roarings and cryes Cursed be the creature sayd she who for so smal pleasures hath deserved so great torments cursed be the heade which for being the seat of all vanities is at present the bayt of all the infernall wormes cursed eyes which for inconsidered lookes are punished with most horrid sights Cursed eares which for lascivious ayres and songes are constrained to heare hellish musick Cursed nostrells which for effeminat odors smels the stinking carkasses of the damned Cursed and a hundred times cursed body which for having taken to much plesure in superfluous promotions and forbeden sensualitys shalt be alwayes clothed with fire and tortured with divers torments Cursed creatures which have contribuited vnto my misery and have ben complyces of my crimes Cursed be Father and Mother who have given me the temporall life which hath conducted unto cternall death Cursed be aboue all cursed eternity which will not afford an end nor truce of my evils O eternity and insaying cursed eternity she vanished behold a a strang vision I assure thee that we should see one farre more frightfull if God would afford us a sight pearceing even unto hell and therfore Thinke well it I Returne to aske of thee I say of thee who art the dearely beloved of my heart if thou shouldst know that thou wert to depart this world with in tvvo dayes wouldst thou with so much ambition appeare among men wouldst thou spēd so much mony in magnificent clothes in splendent jewels fine perrles and rich equipage wouldst thou walk with so much pride wouldst thou speake with so much arrogance
mind without doubt from his good Angell it proceeded Thou art here in a good and easy bed environed with filken curtaynes and finds the night so long and tedions and vnable to take any repose Oh what can the soules so many yevres in purgatory doe not mentioning those which burnes in hell for all eternity This thought well pondered made him to resolue to quitt these Fopperyes to apply him the more seriously vnto the obtayning celestiall and eternall happynes What ravishing speech or mouing discourse persuaided a yong and vaine lady to fortefy her courage and to resolue to do penance for her sinns which she did detest as she ought A strong imagination ceased on her Heart She goes with her Neighbours to confesse as much for company sake as for devotion by good fortune she mett with a discreet Confessarious who having heard her confession and sweetly having advertised her of the injury she did her self in living so vainly and wickedly he gave her for penance to weare a haire cloth for certayne howres O Father sayed she what say you to vveare a haire cloth Alas I can not do it I have great difficulty to weare a smocke if it be not very fine well answered the confessarius in lieu of Heircloth you shall fast three dayes how fast replyed she J who can not rise forth of my bed before I have eaten a good caudell O Father this is impossible for me to performe Well then sayed the Confessarius you shall heare three Masses on your knees without turning your head it will be very hard for me not to turne my head replyed she a gaine but impossible for me to kneel so long without fainting I know not what then to do with you replyed the Father seeing you refuse so easie penances having commit'ed so many great sinns Perhaps you can as often as you wash your hands thinke that those white hands shall become filth and wormes meate she accepts of this pen̄ance receaves absolution goes home washing her hands before she sitts to eate she thinks on what was enioyned her for the first and second time she made but smal reflexion but on the third time this thought made so deep impression in her Heart that she resolues to give a fare well vnto all delicacie and vanity for to do pennance proportionable vnto her sinns and to give herself wholy vnto God and to become a Saint Lett these particulare examples suffice for it is a most assured truth that ther have ben million of Persons who have heard most eminent Preacheurs and yett have not ben moved who have had religious Confesseurs able to make Saints and have not gained any thing who have read most spirituall bookes and have nothing profited And yett two or three words well considered a speech spoken without disigne but well pondered and digested hath made them to know themselves and hath reduced them into an happy condition I was Confessarius vnto a Lady of quality who assured me rhat she for 7. years had wepp for the death of her Husband in the beginning very often in the day and afterwards twise every day she never failed to weep I know not how many Religious of divers ordres and other able and discreet people were imployed to make her know the injury she did vnto the holines reputation and virtue of her deceased Husband but all to no effect one day as she was weepeing in her chamber passing throught a gallery she meets with one of her Maydes sweeping who mildly sayed vnto her I know not Madam vnto what purpose your Lá so long time opposeth the will of God This speech proceeding from a chambre mayde glided so deeply in to her soul and she considered it so well that she resolued to make an end of these teares the which so many premeditated dis courses could not effect because they were not well considered on one word by chance spoken and well considered gained and eonquered her Ther fore being it is most true that one sole word well meditated on is capable to convert a person and to profitt more then long exhortations even as as one only graine well buried in the earth will yeeld more increase then a hundred others cast on the high way or on stones I am resolued having a most ardent desire to aide ye Towards your saluation not to propose vnto ye above two or three words at a time but I conjure you by what is most deare vnto you after that I have spoken Thinke well on it ANd because the great secreat consist in giving you the meanes of well thinking on it J find not a better then a strong representation a lively imagination of the hovvre of death This is the secreat which those that would live holy made vse of For this reason the Emperor Maximilian had his Coffin caried allwayes with him S. Iohn Elimosinarius twise or thrise every day visited his sepulcher The Anchoritts have allwayes in their Cels a Deaths head on which they alwayes looked Ther are so many good Religious vvho hardly meditate on any thing then on death Believe me that amongst the infidels those that have desired to live the better have made vse of this meanes I vvill not give you any other example then that of Philip King of Macedony Father of Alexander the great vvho had one of his Pages vvitth him for to come and tell him every Morning Sir remember that you are a Man and therfore must dye Go too my deare friend tell me seriously and from the heart if God should send you an angell to assure you that you were to dye whithin two or three dayes in earnest what would you thinke then what would you say hasten not to answere but before Thinke well on it I read on your countenance what lyes hidd in your Heart you thinke that you are in health young and strong and therfore you can not imagine death to be so necre O for the love of God my deare friend J befeech you confide not on your youth on your health and strenght nor any quality you can have No no you must be deceaved by those who have no other designe then to ruine you believe me rather who am your faithful friend having no other interest then your good I tell you then and assure you desireing you to believe me More younge beter in health and stronger then you more rich and abler then you shall dye this weeke who not witshstanding believes to live as long as you And although I am not a Prophet for to foretell that you shall be of the number yet I can with as great assurance advertise you as if I were one that death to day is neerer vnto you then it was yesterday and that to morrow it will be neerer then it is to day and it will never rest vnt ill it hath over taken tript vp your heils and sent you into the other world Consider therfore seriously on your affaires Thinke well on it THat
so effectionaly adheare vnto creatures as to contemne the Creator vvhat vvoulst tho thinke of him vvho being ablc to chang his heart into pearle into a luminous starr yea even into God himself should rather love to convert it into durt into a hogg or into a divell Thinke well on it And knovving that love Metamorphizeth thy heart into vvhat it loves thou vvilt confesse that it is an extreame malice vvhich deserves more then hell to settle the affection on any thing then God soly take heed of vvhat thou hast done heretofore and resolue for the time to come HAst thou never beheld the heavenes enveloped and darkned with obscure clouds the aire all in fire with lightning thounders grumling on all parts an horred medlay of winds and rayne drouning the fields and â—over turning howses if this should happen to day and a voice should bed thee to looke vnto thy self for this tempest very shortly would fall on thy head wouldst thou not tremble with feare and griefe for having so wickedly imployed so many good talents which God hath given thee for to serve him wouldst thou then be endued with the eloquence of speech to ruine others with subtility of witt to deceave them with the sweetnes of conversation to draw them vnto euil with force to distroy them with beauty to hurt them and with all other talents to damne thy self and them together Unto what punishment wouldst thou condemne him who having receaved a great summe of mony of a great king for to serve him and to engage others in his service should buy halters for to distroy himself and others Thinke well on it Thou wilt with out doubt conclud that it is farr better not to have receaved so many talents from heaven then to imploy them ill and that servant to be very vnhappy who spent his masters monyes in things contrary vnto his intention See if thou be not such an one and purpose to amend FEaring that I have weared thee with my interogations I am resolved to acquiesce for a while to hearken vnto a musick which in deed is none of the sweetest for it comes from hell notwithstanding it will profitt very much and confirme all that is already sayed In the booke of wisdom chap 5. the wise Man makes the damned to say Repenting and sighing for anguish of spirits These are they whom we had some time in dirision and in a parable of reproch we senslesse esteemed their life madnes and their end without honor Behold how they are counted among the children of God and their lot is among the Saints we therfore have erred from the way of truth and the light of justice hath not shined to vs and the sunne of vnderstanding rose not to vs we are weried in the way of iniquitie and perdition and have walked hard wayes but the way of the lord we have not knowen hat hath pride profited vs what commoditie hath the vaunting of riches brought to vs. Al those things are passed away as a shadovv and as a messenger running before and as a shippe that passeth through the surging waters wher of when it is past the trace can not be found nor the path of that shippes keele in the waves or as a bird that flyeth through in the Ayre of which ther is no token can be found of her passage but only a found of the winges beating the light winde and by vehemence of going cutting the ayre moving the winges she is flowen through and afterward ther is no signe found of her way or as when an arrow is shott forth to a sett marke the divided ayre is forth with closed in it self again so that the passage therof is not knowne so we also being borne forthwith ceased to be and of vertue certes have ben able to shew no signe but in our Naughtines we are consumed such things sayed they in hell which sinned because the hope of the impious is as dust which is taken away with the winde and as a thinne froth which is dispersed by the storme and as smoke that is scatered abrode by the winde and as the memory of a Ghest of one day that passeth Hast thou well heard this harmonius musick of hell tell me seriously wouldst go thether one day to be partaker of it Thinke well on it In the meane while I will continue my demanding of thee if for certaine thou must die with in four or five dayes at the farthest wouldst thou not with many teares complaine of they eyes in having given them so much liberty to reade so many vaine and vnchast bookes wouldst thou not be sorry to have cast so many amoreus and lewd glances on so many dangerous objects which Satan made vse of to precipitate thee into wicked actions as if he had not been sufficiently powerfull to ruine thee without the aide of thy sight had it not ben better for thee to have ben borne blinde or that thine eyes had ben putt out as soon as thou wert borne then to have made so ill vse of them Thinke well on it Thou wilt conclud with the evangelist that it is more expedient to have thy eyes pluckt out that is to retayne with violence thy sight for to enter into Paradise then to behold what soever presents it self and to descend into hell invite thy eyes to wash with their teares they passed faults and make a couenant with them for the time to come as Holy Iob did TEll me freely if thou shouldst heare the bell which advertise all that they are carring the viaticum vnto thee wouldst thou not exceedingly blame thy eares for having too curiously listened vnto the wicked discourse held against the reputation of an other for having taken to much pleasure in impertinent prayses and indiscreet jestings and scoffings for having ben too attentive vnto wanton songes lascivious wordes which insinuate their poison so secreetly into the heart that hardly one perceaves it before he he dead as the fish takes not heed that be hath swallowed the hooke vntill he is dravvne forth of the vvater O hovv much better had it ben for thee to have ben alwayes deafe then to have by this organ afforded entrance vnto this poison which hath infected thy soul and perhaps will cause its eternall death Thinke well on it Thou vvilt resolue to follovv the counsell of the vvise man to inviron they eares vvith a hedg of thorns that is to say vvith a strong consideration of hell fyer for not to hearken to any thing vvhich can ruine thee IMagine that vvith in tvvo hovvres thy soul is to give an account of all she hath ever sayed if this vvere so vvouldst thou not torture thy tongue vvith they teeth for having uttered so-many jeasts mockeryes and vntruths so many braggings oftentations and vauntings so many fovvle vvordes detractions and blasphemes so many cursings and othes of all vvhich thou shalt see a most exact catologue vvilst not passe for a poore merchant if thou art found for
loved if thou should consider that in a moment after thy death all these Gallants will be fled and not one will remaine with thy Body thou wouldst not seeke so much to please them thou wouldst not yeeld unto so many remisse effeminate and unworthy condescendments which blemish the reputation and are cause of the damnation of many If thou wert the greatest foole and the most passionate of lovers for any humane beauty do but imagine thy beloved to be deade and putrified as she must be one day it will be impossible that the flame which burnes thee be not immediatly extinguished O how easie it is to subdue the flesh whilst it is alive and sound if one consider what it will be when it is dead Jf thou wert as hardened with malice as Pharao and for all the miracles of the world thou wouldst not bend unto the will of God no more then he did if death should enter into thy thought thou wouldst presently yeeld unto reason as he did as soone as it appeared in his Kingdome and in his owne house I know not whether it be true which some report of Panders that they make use of dead mē skulls as a remedie for all their diseases but I am most certayne that the memorie of death is a most powrfull and afficacious meanes to cure all spirituall evils and to restore the soul unto perfect health King David verefyes my assertion my lord sayes he I had great difficulty to pardon injuries and wrongs which my enemyes did me chastity seemed unto me very hard to keepe contempt was intollerable and in-deed J found all thy commandements al most impossible but when seriously I considered that all here are trāsitory and that I must die this narow way became of its self wide and large chastity appeared easie pardoning of enimies reasonable and all thy precepts light If the remembrance of Death destroyeth sinn the oblivion of it doth intertaine and nourish it for Esaias ca. 47. counting the sinns of Babilon and the punishments with which God would afflict them sayes that the cause of those evils was that they did not remember Death Jeremy seekeing the origine of the vices which reigned in the City of Hierusalem affirmes it to be no other then the little mindefulnes they had of their end SAtan having had a long experience of the soveraigne virtue of this remedie endeavors by all meanes to hender man from making use of it I can not better make thee comprehend his malicious inventions their by the catching or killing of woodculvers which are wilde Pigeons the bird catcher or Fowler having found the tree on which they settle and roost at night in troopes for they are birds that consort together inmultitudes chooseth an abscure and darke night and takes others with guns and drums being arrived at the place they begin to beat the drumme but softly for feare that the Birds should fliy a way and increasing the noyse by little and little they enure them so unto the sound that they at last beat the drummes with all their force with out ever fritghting the Pigeons in the meane while one creepes unto the foot of the tree where he holds up a candle which he had in a darke lanterne the woodculvers which are delighted with light descende unto the lower branches of the tree to enjoy the light then they shoot and at every shott they kill many the others which were higher thinking their companions fled not hearing the gunne by reason of the noise the drummes make takes their place and are also killed Behold the explication of this the tree represents the world the wood Culvers are the men the Fowler is the Divell who intices and allures them unto himself vvith pleasures honors and riches vvhich are like little fires or lights a bout vvhich men fly vvhiles death strikes them their companions never take notice of the blovv by reason of the greate noise vvhich the vvorld makes figured vvel by the drummes So that one hath no sooner quitted these smal splendors but an other courts and seekes them one hath no sooner left any benefice or office but an other flyes thether and so all passe all die and the gratest part are lost for not haveing sufficiently ben vvarned by the death of others that if any one hath reflected on it if any one hath ben moved these resentments as quickly passe as a flash of lightning and even as vve see hogs hie together in troupes grunt and are affrighted vvhen any one of them is killed but he is no sooner dead then every one returnes unto his former imployment this unto his wallowing in mire that unto his rooting with his nose the earth an other to fill him self in the trough even so when a man is dead the neighbowrs are astonished the domestikes weepe the kindred are aggrieved but as soone as he is buried every one return unto his affaires unto his former passions and vices But if all had a lively and couragious spirit and a profound judgment one word in a hundred yeares or to see one dead would be sufficient to convert all those who should see it and considere seriously that the same must infallibly happen unto them selves from whence then proceeds so smal profitt Thinke well on it Thou wilt finde that it proceeds either from the malice of the Divell who deprives thy soul of this profitable thought and diverts it otherwayes if great care be not taken or from the inconstancie of thy jmagination which is so wavering that it knowes not how to remaine long on the same thing if it be not constrained by often reflections therfore I deeme it most necessarie if thou desirest to profitt by this meanes that when thou beginest any busine thou considerest how thou wouldst have done it if presently thou were to die More that once a month thou retirest into a solitary place and dismissing all other thoughts prostrat at the feet of a Crucifixe either in thy chamber or in a Church thou seriously thinkest on these three or four points That the end of thy life will come very soone perhaps before the month be ended That thou must leave all thou hast in this world honors richers and pleasures carrying nothing with thee but the remorse of thy conscience and the sinns which thou hast committed That the Body having given up the Ghost after many paynes and conflicts shall be sowed in a poore sheete layed in the grave and reduced into ashes being forgotten of all the world That the soul shall be happy if at the houre of Death it be in good state but most miserable if it be in mortall sinne and into what part soever it be carried into Heaven or into Hell it shall remaine ther for ever and then imagining thy self to be at the last gaspe and holding the Crucifix in thy hand say with fervor O most mercifull Iesus my support and my strength in whom I beleeve in whom I hope whom I love
and ever will love afforde me at this houre thy powerfull hand for to depart securely I confesse before the whole world that my miserable life hath ben replenished with many great wickednesses of which I heartely repent my self and I do confide that thy infinit goodnes will pardon me and not permitt my soul to be lost for which thou gavest thyn on the Crosse No I can not beleeve that thou wilt repulse me o my dearest Iesus for I am flesh of thy flesh bone of thy bone sonn of thy Father thou also calst me thy Brother Therfore my Brother seing thou hast taken my humanity to give me thy divinity deliver me at this houre from the throat of the lyon I kisse this side from whence proceeded my happynes open it unto me and wash my ordures and impurities with the water and bloud which issued from thence I adore these hands which were nailed for me unto them I recommend my soul they have created me they will save me I honor these woundes in which I will hide my self untill the choler of my judg be passed O celestiall Father be unto we propitious and remember that my sinnes have ben chastised with al rigour in the person of thy most beloved Sonn O my lord Jesus Christ permitte not the the infinit price of thy bloud to be unprofitable unto my soul O holy Ghost fortefy me with thy grace that I do not faile or be subdued in this last conflict O Mother of God who hath ben most charitable and favorable unto me all my life time be so now in this moment I beseech thee on which depends all my felicity O S. Michael who has the commission to present Soules unto the divine Tribunall and to defend them from the enemy I recommend mine unto thee O good Angell guardian helpe me O all yee S. of Heaven come unto my succour that leaving this earth I may ascend into Heaven for to prayse eternally with yee our soveraigne Creator The Iudgment THe consideration of Judgment which followes Death is not lesse profitable then that of death if it be maturely pondered when I represent unto my self sayes Job the justice impartiality and rigour of the divine judgment and the exact account I must render I am so frightned with my sinns that I am enforced to resolue to shun them more then the greatst evil what so ever The Saints conducted by the Holy Ghost do exhort thee to thinke on it often place thy self before the eyes of this Soveraigne judge adviseth S. Gregorie feare him now to the end that abstaining from vice thou mayst not feare him when he shall judge thee remember the name of that king who seing the picture of the generall judgement entred into such a strong apprehēsion that he was almost dead Certes if thou rightly imagine what it will be thou wilt stifle all the imperfections of thy Soul St. Hierosme had not a better practice for to triumph ouer vice and to addict him unto all virtue whether I eate sayes he drinke sleepe or wake and in all I do it seemes to me that I heare this dreadfull and terrible voice Arise yee dead and come vnto judgment IN good earnest if thou knewest assuredly that within two or three hours thou wert to be summoned to answer before the Tribunal of God wouldst thou dare O! for the love of God mark what I ask thee wouldst thou dare yet once more I beseech thee think well on what thou wilt answer wouldst thou well dare to resolve to appear at the Judgment of God IN this fearful and terrible Judgment where thou shalt find assembled the great Councel of the King of Kings who hath ordained this hour for to decide wholly and justly the criminal process of thy Conscience Process in which will be examined exactly all the parts of thy life a Process where will be determined the final sentence of thy eternal felicity or misery VVhoudst thou dare I say to appear in the condition thou art for to plead thy cause Thou who art so bashsul and fearful when thou art taken in never to little a fault Thou wouldst thou dare to behold a Person of quality Thou who tremblest at the least apparent danger VVouldst thou dare appear in the presence of him before whom the most puissant Monarchies of the earth tremble the highest Seraphins hide themselves with their wings not being able to endure and behold the brightness of so great a Majesty Ah! for the sacred and bitter Passion of Jesus Christ Thinke well on it When I consider how thy soul leaving thy body is in danger to fall into the hands of the Apparitours of the Soveraign Judg who will lead thee directly before this dreadful Parliament I sweat I am in a trance with the imagination I have of seing thee at Barr for to answere being strongly accused BUt by whom by thy mortal enemies or rather immortal who out of the hatred which they bear thee vvil not omit the least thing they can reproach thee vvithal in this great and majestical assembly by whom by those vvho heretofore have been thy good Friends as the Blessed Virgin thy good Angel so many Saints who hath taken so great paines to save thee if thou vvouldst have harkened unto them by whom by the complices and confederates of thy vvickedness vvho are enraged against thee and by thy ovvn Conscience vvhich vvill say open unto all the vvorld all thy imperfections But of vvhat shalt thou be accused of all in vvhich thou hast not kept the Commandements God gave thee the holy inspirations vvhich he most lovingly suggested unto thee of all vvhich thou vvast oblieged to do according to the estate unto vvhich God hath called thee of all vvhich thou hast done to satisfy thy unruly passions of all vvhich thou hast neglected to doe for the glory of God But hovv accused vvith so much assurance of thy adverse Party that nobody vvill dare to reply or speak one vvord in thy behalf and defence vvith so much evidence of all thy imperfections that not one of them can be hid or disguised vvith so great remorse of thy Conscience that thou vvilt acknovvledg all vvith so much shame that thou vvilt desire the mountaines to fall on thee Is not this dreadful Think well on it Having thought on it seriously if thou dost not conceave a great fear if thou tremblest not vvith terrour pardon me I beseech thee if I doubt and mistrust the verity of thy faith for hovv can I be assured that thou beleevest rightly if thou makes no reckoning and esteem of things so important and concernes thee so much vvhat meanes to be persvvaded that thou regardes it if vvhen it is presented unto thee thy Heart remaines colder then marble and more hard then steel Wherefore earnestly endeavour to knovv thy self seeing that thou shalt be most rigorously judged O Great affair is it to appear for to ansvver before so great a Court it is exceeding misfortune to
that it is a country full of obscure darknes and noisome stinkes wher there is no order but an intollerable horror and eternal confusion Salomon will assure thee that it is a most bottomlesse pit from whence none can come that is fallen there in Jsayas will explicate it unto thee that it is a Prison full of a most vehement fire which although it be of the same nature with the elementarie fire is incomparably more efficacious to torment because it doth not act with the sole natural virtue but as the instrumēt of the infinit divine power of God which is elevated to torment the damned as much as Gods justice requires from whence it is that it needes not any matter for its maintenance it can never be extinguished because it is the breath of God to witt his infinite power that kindles it according unto Jsayas The Divines hold that it is replenished with all sortes of evils and voyed of all good it is in vayne for to dispute of it sayeth the devout Rusbroquius for when we have saied all that can be sayed of the paynes of Hell it will be much lesse in comparison of what it is then a drop of water compared unto the whole Ocean S. Augustine in one of his epistles sayeth that a dead man raised to life by the touching of St. Hierosmes haire shirt testefyed unto St. Cyrille Bishop of Hierusalem that the torments of the other life were so great that if any one had experimented the least he would choose rather to be even unto the day of judgment in a furnace wher all the fire of the world was inclosed then to suffer onc day in Hell are not these things dreadful Think well on it ANd following the counsell of St. Bernard descend often into Hell whilst thou livest by thy meditations to the end that after thy death thou beest not shut up there for al eternity Consider advisedly how the Souls of the damned are hideously tortured because they see themselves deprived for all eternity of the vision of God a torment farr greater then can be imagined in this world All their powers are full of bittternes and anguish inexplicable the memorie with the remembrance of past pleasures and of future evils the understanding with the perfect knowledg of all it hath done preferrlng the creatures before the Creator the transitorie goods and pleasures before those which shall never have an end the will with an inraged hate which they have against God which will make them utter a thousand blasphemies the imagination with the lively apprehensiō of the present payens and yett more to follow The fire acts with farr greater heate against them then doth our inflamed coales agaist a Barr of Iron which it burnes and inflames in the Furnace The remorse of Conscience excessively gnawes and vexes for the meanes representing them selves which it hath had of salvation although it doth not repent of the sinn as an offence against God yett it burstes with griefe and rage for having committed the evil which hath ruined it Esau roared like a lyon seeing that for a smal dish of porridge he had lost his right of inheritance the damned soul doth yet worse knowing that for a short pleasure for a base reveng for a little word she hath lost Heaven in good earnest is not this an ineffable heart breake Thinke well on it MArke how the body shall ther suffer an insupportable fire it shall be cast into an extreame cold it shall be hammered cruelly on most hard Anviles broken on wheels grounded in a mill Cut and shred with rasours pierced with leances Infinē imagine all the punishments that the Tyrants have invented to torment the Martyres the brasen Buls boiling Cauldrons Combes of Iron Crosses Fires Rasours all this was but an eesie and short Prentiship to that which the Divels make the damned to suffer in all the parts of their Bodies but especially in their five senses The sight shall be cruelly tormented with thick obscure darknesse which depriving them of all comfort of the light shall afford them I know not what unfortunat cleernesse which shall cause them to see hideous and ghastly spectacles of their torments and so many dreadful shapes of the infernall monsters the sight of which shall be intollerable without any relaxation Alas if the seeing of one Divell is able to cause the death of the most couragious what shall do I beseech thee the horrible spectacle of all the Divels and the damned The Hearing shall be incessantly frighted with the despairable cryes with dreadfull howlings and with most execreable blasphemies which these miserables shall utter against them selves and against God Imagine a thousand People in the fire even unto the chinn every one lamentably crying how insupportable will their clamors be and what is this in comparaison of a hundred thousand millions of the damned which burne in Hell The Ambitious shall saye I despaire with griefe Cursed vanities which hath brought me hether the Avaritious shall complaine I am enraged with the paynes cursed richesses which are the cause of my euil the Lascivious shall yell I burne cursed pleasures which have kindled me this fire c. The Taste inportuned with an exceeding hunger and extraordinary thirst shall have for viande loathsomes Toads and the gall of Dragons for drinke this shall but increase the Hunger and thirst witnesseth the cursed Richman who almost two thousand yeares since demanded a drop of water for to assuage the thirst which did torture him and as yet hath not obtained it nor never shall The Feeling shall be tormented through all that is sensible by fire which shall penetrate even unto the marrow cold shall succeede which shall congeale the bloud with in the veines with sharpe aches an hundred times in foure aid tweety houres the flesh shall be torne and the bones broken and as often redintegrated and repaired an hundred times shall be powred on the Body boiling oyle melted lead and they shall not consume The Smelling shall be infected with stinking and noisome smells which shal exhale not only from the infulphured fire and the tainted sinkes of Hell but also from the Bodies of the damned Odors so insupportable that St. Bonaventure affirmes that one Body of the damned would be able to infect the whole world with the plague In the lives of the Fathers it is written that a certaine religious man damned appeared unto his companion who asked him if the paines of Hell were so cruel as they preach know answered he that they are such that the tongues of men are not able to explicate the rigour of them Couldst thou not give me some proofe saied the companion I will replied the damned wouldst thou see heare taste or feele them Alas sayed the Religious I am not able to see or heare them for I am too timerous nether to feele them being too delicate much lesse am I able to taste them having so weake a stomack but I should be content