afflict vs therin which being well husbanded doe worke in vs a crowne of eternall glorie No No what sufferances soeuer doe vexe vs in this dying life they enter into no comparison with the glorie which shall one day be reuealed vnto vs. The force of the thought of Eternitie XIX NO neuer Athanasia though our mynd turne it selfe on euerie side make choyce of subiects most pregnant to moue it and to giue it the most forceable impressions to imbrace good or auoyd euil neuer shall it light vpon any thought so fruitfull to produce this effect as the thought of Eternitie O momēts you are but chaffe and dust before the face of this great wind This is the great vanne which can separate the corne from the chaffe and separate precious from vile things Eternitie is that Moyses his rod able to deuoure the serpents of our sinns and to draw water from rockes that is can beget compunction in the most flintie heart It is a violent blast which driues vs forwards towards the Desert of penāce which vrgeth vs to returne into the Sheepe-fold of grace if by errour we haue strayed from it or by sinne like lost sheepe It is the end of all ends the end of all consommation and the extreamitie of extreamities wither the wiseman doth send vs if we desire to abstayne from sinning euerlastingly For if death if iudgement ensuing if the terrours of Hell serue for a bitt to the strongest mouth and for a restraynte to the most desparate soule what will it be if we add thervnto the importance of an Eternitie If we consider the Blessed Eternitie it is a Ionathas his honie if the Accursed it is a Tobie's gale soueraigne to cure the thickest and deepest blindnes There is no Filme which falls not from the 〈◊〉 washed with this water No Torrent of sinne which may not both be sustayned and repelled by this stronge banke It is a Sunne which doth breake disperse the cloudes of vice which striue to hide the light of grace Le ts approch then Athanasia to this Torch and our darknes shall be blowen ouer If we desire to be borne againe to Heauen let vs imitating that onely bird consume our selues in the beames of that great starr And if the thought of the worlds last day Iudge of all the other dayes filled S. Hieromes heart with such dread that it made him loose both foode and repose his sleepe being interrupted by the terrible found of the Archangells trumpet which sounded incessantly in his imagination what waight shall that eternall doome haue in our hearts which shall crowne the iust with roses that cannot fade and shall inuolue the wicked in quenchlesse flames which being kindled with the blast of Gods wroth shall cōtinue as long as the Deitie it selfe No I doe not beleeue that all the Antidotes which Spiritualists prescribe against the poyson of sinne that all their remedies put together in one masse can haue the like effect in the purging of a soule that the importance of an Eternitie well pondered can worke therin O Lord thou hast giuē a signe to those who haue thy feare imprinted vpon their heartes that they may auoyd the arrowes which thou shuttest from the bow of thy wroth and that by flight they may free themselues from the eternall torments which doe attend them torments by which such onely are ouertaken as for want of foresight and consideration dread them not as an auncient Father doth teach vs. O how happie is the soule whose eyes God daynes to open ouer so perilous a precipice that therby she may auoyde it and please our Lord in the Land of those that liue in his grace For they that passe their dayes in this happie Abode are not subiect to this seconde death which hath no resurrection for out of Hell there is no redemption or escape Their eyes owe no tributarie teares since they are not afflicted with the torment of malice nor doth their feete stumble in the way of saluation which is that of the blessed Eternitie Thinke of the last end saith the wisest of men and thou shal◠neuer offend If then the thought o◠death and of that which followe◠death hath so much force in a soule that is occupied in it as to diuert it from all euil what will it doe I pray you in a well composed heart which can iudiciously ponder the waight of things when it shall come to thinke that temporall death is but an instant which separates the soule from the body and that the particular iudgement which doth immediately follow this separation is past in a moment marrie that the decree of this iudgement is of an eternall and vninterrupted continuance Why the threate of a temporall death and the losse of a florishing estate written vpon a wall by a celestiall hand was able to seaze the soule of Baltazar with so daunting a terrour that the scripture assures vs that all his bones were thereby disioynted so throughly did feare possesse both body and soule How forceablely then shall the feare of an eternall death worke in a solide iudgement and in a heart that thinkes seriously of its saluation Will it not in this thought pronounce with the kingly Prophete All my bones were troubled that is to say all my powres were disordered and againe All my bones shall say vnto thee ô eternall Lord who is like vnto thee That this life is onely lent vs to thinke vpon Eternitie XX. O Momentes of this mortall life how carefully ought you to be managed since by you as by so many stepps we mount to Eternitie I for God hath onely placed vs in this region of death to breath continually to that of the liueing nor are we in this Desert for any other end then to trauell to the Land of Promisse Which shall one day be distributed amongst vs according to the line of distribution The Angells at their first creation were placed in a state of grace and full freedome and had a tyme to resolue their choyce of glorie or reprobation by obedience or reuoulting and following their election that great diuision was made which doth eternally separate the Blessed who kept their principalitie from the accursed who fell from Heauen into the Abisses below Men afterwardes created of so noble substances to repaire the ruines of those that were fallen haue also the tyme of their life to resolue and determine what shall become of them for all Eternitie For which cause they were created straight and free fire and water were put before them that they might make election of which they liked And they applie according to their owne will the vse of their freedome nor are they to impute it to others then themselues if by their owne malice misfortune befall them He that shall sowe benedictions shall reape benedictions but he that shall commit wickednes shall draw a curse vpon his owne heade and that an eternall one according as it is written Goe you accursed into
the fire which proceedes from thyne irritated face Who continues the furnace where they are plunged in its wounted heate by the torrent of burning brimstone which flowes from the face of thy iust indignation O God of reuenge let this thought make so liuely an impression in our â—magination that we may be therby roused out of the lethargie of pleasures concupiscence and wordly ambition which keepe vs asleepe Let the fire which walkes before thee as executioner of thy terrible Iustice and which doth consume thyne enemyes to witt the reprobate neuer depart from our memorie may it be vnto vs a torch and pillar of light in the darknesse of the world and our errours a Lampe to our feete and a light to our wayes wherby we may discouer the gulfe which will swallow vs vp vnlesse we prohibite the feete of our affections to follow wicked wayes and command them to walke in the wayes of thy law Thou ô Lord who didst deliuer the three children out of the Babilonian furnace a figure of that wherin the reprobate burne for euer preserue vs from those abominable flames where thou art continually blasphemed and exempting vs from the sharpe and burning ones of thy wroth place vs in the light and bright ones of thy loue where like Pyralides and sacred Salemanders we shall liue happie without paine or consummation singing honour praise and benediction vnto thee for the Canticle of our deliuerance Of interiour paines XXVIII LEt vs now come Athanasia to the consideration of interiour paines And let vs iudge of the torments of the soule as well by the aduantages which it hath ouer the bodie as by the large share it hath in the malice of sinne which is consummated in the will If a Stoicall philosopher had light enough to discerne that euery disordered mynd is its owne TormeÌ„ter what a torture shall the reprobate find in their owne hearts in this accursed place of disorder which is replenished with the horrour of an eternall confusion There their vnderstanding shall be darkned with cloudes because they shall be ouertaken with a night of obscuritie and be couered with the thicke shades of death I will omitt the subtile schowle questions whether they shall be intangled in errours and ignorances wherof those accursed inhabitaÌ„ts of that black prison seeme to complaine in the booke of wisdome when they say that the Sunne of vnderstanding doth not enlighten them Vpon this subiect I will onely stike to that vndoubled truth which teacheth vs that they are fallen for euer into a reprobate sense which causeth their will still following that which the vnderstanding proposeth vnto it being bent to vice like a crooked bowe as the Psalmist tearmes it to hate God with an implacable and extreame hatred But if some subtile disputant goe about to teach vs that since the will cannot hate Good which is its proper obiect it is impossible that it should coÌ„ceaue a true hatred against God who is the soueraigne good we will answere him with the Angelicall S. THOMAS that the damned doe not hate God in himselfe because they know him not such as he is as doe the Blessed who by reason of that knowledge cannot leaue to loue him but onely in his workes for the vnderstanding of the damned conceauing God as Authour of the torments they endure causeth their will to be incensed against him with a mortall and raging hatred And wheras nor God nor the payne which they suffer can cease to bee their courrage ceaseth not and their will is continually tortured with this vnsufferable auersion Their memorie also shall haue its peculiar tormeÌ„t for if the blessed in Heauen reioyce in the labours reproaches which they endured for the loue of God and that through the fire and water of tribulations they are entred into rest the memorie of pleasures past shall be an extreame torment to the reprobate when they call to mynd that for those transitorie moments they are fallen into pinching and endlesse paines They shall roare out with ESAV to haue sold their heauenly inheritance for a mease of potage For comparing in their mynd pleasures past with those that are eternall and apprehending the approach of torments whose cruell panges they feele will not this memorie thinke you draw vpon them an insupportable affliction With what Phantomes and monsterous imaginations shall their fantisie be tortured Frame a iudgement of it by that which happens to such as in this life finding themselues guiltie of greeuious crimes feare to fall into temporall Iustice They may indeede sometymes be in a secure place but neuer in securitie They may be hid from the eyes of men and be placed out of their reach but neuer shall they be able to hide themselues from themselues or escape the assault of their owne conscience While they wake they are vexed with feares and suspicions their sleepe is interrupted with wicked dreames dreade doth still haunt them at each ones approach they quake with feare and the Furies hauing seased vpoÌ„ them grant them nether Peace nor Truce their dissipated thoughts put their hearts vpon the Racke Now if the apprehension of humane Iustice which hath power onely ouer the bodie giue so daunting Alarumes to the imagination what will the sense of the dartes of the Diuine Iustice doe which are so many vessells of death and burning arrowes shot at the damned soule But who can expresse the strange Chaos and horrible confusion which shall inhabite the inferiour appetite of the lost crue For if all the disorder of mans life spring from his passions which as blustering blastes are shut vp in the two caues Concupiscible and irascible what disorder iudge you must those wretched soules needs feele in that part what contradictions in themselues what conuulsions what rage what furie Alas that noble passion LOVE Queene of all the rest the Sunne and salt of life that passion which might haue made them happie for euer if they had turned it towards God that soueraignely amiable obiect being as it were razed out of them the perpetuall auersion they haue to loue shall afflict them as the panges of a woman in childbirth who cannot yet be deliuered S. CATHERINE OF SIENNA being vpon a day present while a possessed person was exorcised the Diuel being commanded to declare his name he answered with a hideous how leing I am the accursed DEPRIVED-OF-LOVE At which the Sainte was so moued that she thought she should haue fallen downe in a Traunce Touching the passion of hatred it shall be outragious in the daÌ„ned whence shall proceede their continuall blasphemies against God and the perpetuall maledictions and imprecations which they shall make against the creatures And if they haue any Desires they shall be execrable ones to see all the world partakers of their paynes not that they are at all solaced therby but onely to giue way to the incredible malice of which they are full Their auersion from all good shall be as much tormenting as in
shall be crowned but such as haue lawfully fought And if we be taken with the greatnes of the reward let vs not be amaysed with the paines we are to vndergoe in obtayning it We must still goe forward and without looking back ouer our shoulders we must perseuere in the way If the roughnesse of the way affright vs let the consideration of Eternitie our end and contrie encourage and comfort vs. Another flight of mynd LXIII IF after the wings of a doue which the successour of the Sōne of a doue S. PETER hath now lent thee thou wilt take those of the Eagle who builds his nest in high places but of an Eagle which is able fixedly to behold the Sonne and who neuer stoopes from his winge of whom can you better borrow them ô my soule then of that greate Doctor who holds the same ranke amongst the Fathers of the Church that S. IOHN holds amongst the Euangelists and who is that great Eagle which is nourished with the sappe of the Cedars of Libanus You will easely imagine that I speake of S. AVGVSTINE Let vs borrow then this second flight of that superlatiue witt in these no lesse affectionate then sublime tearmes If you were saith he euery day to suffer extreame torments yea euen for a longe space to support the tortures of Hell to behold IESVS CHRIST in his glorie and to be admitted into the Societie of his Saintes for so great a good were not all sufferances I will not say supportable but euen desireable Let then the Diuel lay Ambush for vs let him prouide temptations let fasting breake our bodie let our flesh be ouercharged with austerities let labours oppresse vs let watchings drie vs vp let this man torment me let that man persequute me let me be frosen with cold scorched with heate let heade breake in peeces heart ake contenāce waxe wāne let me become wholy abiect let my life pine away with greife and the yeares of my life in gronings let my bones rott it imports not so I find repose in the day of tribulation he vnderstands the day of generall iudgment and that I may rise againe amongst the Elect. For who can conceaue what shall be the glorie of the iust how greate the ioy of Saintes when their faces shall shine like the Sunne when the Sauiour of the world shall number his people of acquisition and shall range them into diuers orders in the house of his eternall Father rēdring to euery one according to their merits and giuing heauenly things for terreane things eternall for temporall There saith the same Doctor in auther place the Angelicall troopes make a rauishing musike there is keepe a feaste of a perpetuall solemnitie with such as doe dayly arriue departing out of their mortall pilgrimage There are seene the Compainie of PROPHETES the assemblie of the APOSTLES is manifested there there the inuincible Armies of MARTIRES are discouered There is the holy congregation of CONFESSORS there the Quire of venerable MVNKES there that of DEVOVTE WOMEN who at once ouercame the weaknesse of their owne sexe and the delightes of the world There the young VIRGINS elder in vertue then in yeares there are the sheepe and tender lambes that haue escaped out of the iawes of the wolues and from the inueigling snares of this life whence they doe now celebrate a perpetuall feaste and though their glorie be different yet is their ioy comon There Charitie raigneth in her full perfection for vnto them God is all in all whom they behold and loue without end or intermission whom in louing they doe praise and in praysing doe loue and all this without wearinesse or trauaile at all O my soule how happie thou shouldst be if being deliuered out of the prison of this wretched body thou mightest be thought worthy to heare the sacred songs of that celestiall harmonie and the praises of the eternall King of that glorious Empire sung in an admirable aire O how accomplished should thy honour and glorie be for so it would come to thy turne to entone that gracious Alleluia which is in the mouth of all the Elect. Let vs yet add that iert of the wing or rather stroke of the same Fathers Pen before we conclude these flightes and eiaculations of mynd From this sacred Residence all feare of pouertie is banished all weaknes miserie infirmitie none there is angerie none doth enuie his neighbours happinesse none stands in need of eating or drinking There is no ambition nor desire to be great There is no apprehension nor of Hell nor Diuell nor yet of death of body or soule Contrariwise there is a life full of alacritie through the assurance they haue of immortalitie Disorder can haue no footing there where all things are maintayned in a constant Peace and conserued in a perfect concord Ioyne to all this the pleasure there is to liue in the compaignie of ANGELLS to enioy the gratefull conuersation of all those excellent and sublime SPIRITS and to behold the Armies of Saintes more bright thē the starrs of Heauē To contemplate the Sanctitie of PATRIARKES the Hope of PROPHETES the Crowne of MARTYRES the white and flowrie Garland of VIRGINES And as for the SOVERAIGNE KING who keepes his Residence in the midst of that glorious people what tongue is able to speake his praise That bird of Paridice which hāgs still in the aire doth she not intimate vnto vs by her ingenious hanging the incōceaueable greatnesse of that glorie Eternitie is the fulnesse of Beatitude LXIV BVt in fine Athanasia if you wilt see the garlād and crowne of this glorie adorned with so many bright precious stones you must fixe your eyes vpon its Eternitie for if all those glorious aduantages could end amidst all those felicities one would be accompaigned with a misfortune which would distaste all his ioy and would make him resemble the great-ones of the earth who amidst all the honours which Politike Idolatrie doth sacrifice vnto them are cōtinually stung with the thought of death which shall in the end mow them downe euen like vnto other men and burying them in dust shall equalise their Scepters with hatchets Kings with all their Powre escape not its dart nor doe Giants with all their force auoyd it Herein appeares Origen's errour who walking vpon the wings of the wind perished like to that old Milo Crotoniensis by his owne strength while he was of opinion that the Elect after a long residence in Heauen should fall at length from that felicitie like as he had held before that the paines of the dāned should not be eternall one absurditie drawing on another An errour excellently well refuted by S. AVGVSTINE in his bookes of the Citie of God as also by the Angell of the Schoole An errour in fine which aimes at the ruine of the immortalitie of the soule which is more then a bestiall blindnesse And certes besides that in a thousand places of holy Scriptures the life of the Elect in Heauen is
haue these two winges nothing shall be able to hinder our flight towards the blessed Eternitie the heauēly Hierusalem the mother of the liuing Water shut vp in a narrow pipe doth spirte vp so much the higher The narrow way of sufferances is that which doth make spring vp in vs the fountaine of life which doth run towards Eternitie All the scripture cryes out this truth vnto vs who so euer will come after me to witt to glorie let him take vp his Crosse and follow me saith our Sauiour Happie is he who suffers tribulation for being once tryed he shall receaue the crowne of life which God hath promised to those that loue him And who are those that loue him but whom he doth chastise and whom he doth clothe with the liuerie of sufferances Because thou wast agreeable in Gods sight it was necessarie that affliction should try thee was it said to the good TOBIE Are not the Iust tryed like gold in the furnace to discouer whether they be worthy of God What Christians can be ignorant of this decree which was written with the blood of the Lambe vpon the threshwood of their dores That we are to enter into the Kingdome of Heauen through many tribulations And that all those that would liue piously in IESVS CHRIST must endure the scourge of persecutions to be found wheate worthy to be layed vp in the Granarie of Eternitie For which cause S. IAMES doth exhort the faithfull to reioyce in their afflictions knowing that patience is the proofe of their Faith and that the worke of Patience is perfect that is doth perfect him that doth it Tribulation saith the Apostle worketh patience and Patience probation and probation Hope and such a hope as confoundeth not in its expectation Though we are now for a smale tyme to be afflicted with many tribulations yet it is that the tryall of our Faith may appeare more precious then gold before the face of God who according to his great mercy doth regenerate vs by a liuely hope to possesse the heauēly inheritance which cannot be corrupted nor changed Then we shall behold we shall admire and the plentie of good things shall dilate our heart Then with an incredible ioy we shall be drunke vp in God our SALVATION Then the teares shall be wiped from the eyes of the Elect they shall weepe no more greife and paine shall no more tormēt them because all that is blowen ouer that is to say they entered not into those eternall Bowres but through the fires and waters of tribulation Truly he were iustly reputed an vnworthy soldier who would desire to gaine victorie better cheape then his Capitaine and how did our Capitaine and Law giuer IESVS CHRIST enter into the glorie which was due vnto him by nature was it not by sufferance Let vs behold then the Exemplaire of the mountaine but the mountaine of Caluarie before we take into our consideration that of Thabor Let vs looke vpon the Authour and Comsummatour of our faith IESVS CHRIST who choosed to vndergoe the Crosse while glorie was proposed vnto him Let vs imitate the Apostle who was so loyall to his Maister that he bore in his bodie the stigmates and markes of his crucified Lord. O how ioyfull the Apostles were when it happened that they were to endure something for the loue of CHRIST knowing what an eternall waight of glorie that sufferance treasured vp in heauen for them And if the Asserians vpon the sight of IVDITH's beautie did comfort themselues in the extreamities of that seige with the hope they had to enioy the faire creatures who were in the Citie What extreamities of miseries were we not willingly to endure to be possessed of the inestimable felicities which we haue represented If by labours saith S. AVGVSTINE it must be atchiued from this instant I inuoke you ô all yee torments of the world I coniure you to burst out vpon my head and shewre downe a mayne vpon me Let tribulations be multiplied and presse in troopes vpon me let infirmities vexations pouertie want aduersitie make head against and oppresse me Let euery one persecute me let all creatures bandie against me let me be the Butt of all their arrowes let me be the scorne of men and the reproach of people let my dayes be ended in pinching paines yet will I bee too content so that after this sharpe winter I may gather the flowres of the eternall Spring and that I may be rancked amongst the Elect who are bright with beames of Glorie I cannot be weaned from the plentifull and yndraynable dugges of this great and fruitefull Doctour without suckinge a long draught to giue some colour and life to this Draught of myne Marke then how he doth encourage vs to sufferances for the attayning of Eternitie If we diligently ponder the reward that is proposed vnto vs all that we suffer will seeme litle and light and we shall repute our paines vnworthy of so great a recompence For is it not true that we should buy eternall rest at a iust Rate though we were to pay a perpetuall labour for it and to purchase an eternall felicitie at the price of an eternall sufferance Marrie if you were imployed in an eternall labour when would you come to an eternall reward O the eternall Goodnesse who hath made our tribulation temporall and yet to this passing paine he hath alotted an endlesse pleasure Place a thousand thousand yeares before-Eternitie and yet what doe you doe but compare a limited with an illimited thing Adde to this that God did not onely prefixe a certaine tearme to our labours but that a short one to for what is the life of man but the continuance of a few dayes Though a man therfore were oppressed for the whole course of his life with all sortes of torments labours greeues though prisons hungar thirst and irkesome vlcers should accompaignie him to his graue were it not yet an affliction of a short standing the dayes of man are few in number his labours short and light and yet are followed with an endlesse Kingdome with an eternall Beatitude After these short sufferances we shall be possessed of the Societie of Angells and Saintes the inheritance of IESVS CHRIST God him selfe an inestimable price for so smale a labour Wherfore saith he in another place let vs loue eternall life and let vs learne how much we are to labour for it by the exemple of those who doe passionately loue this mortall life fearing to loose it for when any sicknesse begins to threaten them death what doe they not doe I doe not say to escape it for that is not possible but onely for a tyme to protract deathes fatall blow How much doth a man strugle when death doth catch him by the necke to escape out of its clawes he flies he hides him self and giues all that doth possesse to keepe his bodie in possession of his soule At the price of all his fortunes he is readie to ransome his life
in the dust of this life I would to God that the Spirit of wisdome vnderstanding and Counsell would descend into their soules and the diuine goodnesse grant that it way be found in ours to speake with S. BERNARD thaâ— we may sweetly dispose of thing present with wisdome condemne our former offences by a iudicious vnderstanding and foresee things to come by a clearesighted counsell God grant we may be wise in our present behauiour vnderstanding to correct our life past and prouident for the tyme to come that by Gods mercy wee may dy the death of the iust and our end way be like vnto theirs and that the end of our life may be precious In the sight of the iust Iudge who prouids crownes to such as haue lawfully fought Heauens grant my Athanasia that our soule departing this life may be like vnto the lampe whose flammes â—re fed by an aromaticall oyle and which neuer smell so well as when â—t is extinguished and that it doth â—nfranchise it selfe out of this clayie â—ouse of our body for no other end â—ut to breath out it selfe towards â—eauen leauing the earth embaulmed with a good odour in IESVS CHRIST as it is written that the memory of the iust should be sweete as the sent of perfumes powered out Which shall be most deare soule if from this vally of teares we prouide stepps in our hearts towards the blessed eternity and if vpon each occasion we eleuate our thoughts thitherwards thoughts which shall be to God as that litle rodde of smoake compouÌ„ded of all the perfuming ponders Whereof mention is made in the heauenly Epithalamion and if separating our selues from the troopes of those who sleeping in a letergy amidst their riches delights and vanities shut their eyes against the cleare light of eternity and repulsâ— the rayes of the Sunne of Iustice Alas these wretched slaues to theâ— owne riches possessed by the which they thinke they possessâ—â— sleepe at their ease passe in an imaginary felicity the momeÌ„ts of their dayes but at their awaking they find their hands empty put into the waights they are found light and which is yet worse in one pointe in an instant they descend into eternall torments So slept SAMSON after he was bereft of his force TOBIE when he had lost his eyes and Isboseth when he was depriued of life God looked downe from his heauenly mansion saith the kingly Prophets to see whether amongst men their were any of a good iudgment and a wise foresight who sought him as he merits that is with his whole heart But he found that euery one diuerted from his seruice and conuerted themselues to vaine and vnprofitable things forsooke the Creatour for the Creature Eternity for a moment whereupon none doth doe good no not one The wayes of Syon that is of the Blessed Eternity weepe to see themselues forsaken and abaÌ„doned none frequenting their solemnities O Eternity how considerable thou art but ô the misery and misery vvpon misery how litle thou art considered That all the euill in the world comes from want of thinking of Eternity II. YET Athanasia we may affirme it with an vndaunted bouldnesse since with an vndoubted truth all the euill in the world comes through defaut of this consideration For Eternity being well waighed is a light which doth dissipate the shadowes and disperse the clouds of sinne Thy iudgment ô Lord are razed out of his memory that offendeth and thence it is thaâ— he defiles all his wayes and falls at euery foote sayth the diuine Psalmist Where you are to note that in this place he speakes of that iudgment whose irreuocable verdict shall bring some to eternall rewards others to eternall paynes CoÌ„trariwise the same Prophete confesseth that he betooke himselfe to the workes of Iustice out of the apprehension he had conceaued of the chaste feare of this eternall iudgment How can an Archer vnlesse by meere chance Hit the marke he remarkes not and how should he arriue at Eternity that thinks not of it nor directs his course that way And with what face can one that will not follow Gods commandements begge of him that he would conduct him in the way of eternity The generall desolation of the earth saith IEREMIE yea the abomination of desolation is that none considers in his heart that is seriously this great and vniuersall end of Eternity and thence their are so few cleane and ruminating beastes which can be offered to God in the Sacrifice of Iustice Whence so many shipwrakes in the world that vast and spacious sea where so many weake mortall vessels are split against the manifests shelues but through want of the CoÌ„passe for that we direct not our thoughts in the point of Eternity How profitable it is to thinke of Eternity III. COntrariwise next to Gods grace one of the Principles of eternall saluation is to thinke of it It is a marke so faire ample that he that lookes vpon it hits it And who euer hath a firme and stayed ayme cannot misse this Butt The meanes to attaine to it are easie the wayes sometimes vncouth are now playne and bet the mountaines reduced into playnes The commandements are not hard the yoake is sweete and the burthen light Is it not true Athanasia that we runne in the wayes of the diuine commandements when heauenly loue extends our heart towards the glorious Eternity T is this faire RACHEL that makes our dayes seeme moments and our labours delights when we thinke of that pourchace Is it not this thought that doth furnish vs with Eagles wings to take a flight without stooping from the wing by coÌ„tinuing perseuerantly in good and aydes vs with wings of a done to mount vp to our true repose which is no other then Eternity Marke with what courage this Eagle speakes with what sweetnesse and promptitude this done I haue thought of the dayes of old and thought againe of the yeares of Eternity Would you not say that that were the Center where all the lynes of their desires meete that that is their one necessary It is the haire in which all the headhaire of the sacred spouse doth end and the point wherein all the rayes of her sight are receaued and stayed That this point which had neuer any beginning nor shall haue end is that litle seed in the Ghospell whence the great trees of all vertues spring the litle stone of DANIEL which growes vp to a maine mountaine MARDOCHEES litle source which after it had branched out it selfe into faire floodes of good workes becomes an Oceane of light Which makes we stick to this Truth that as the want of this thought of Eternitie is cause of the ruine of all the lost soules so when man prayseth God in this thought the rest of his thoughts doe leade him through the pathes of heroicall vertues to the solemne Feast and delightfull Saboath of Eternitie For the iust shall liue for euer and their reward shall be with our Lord who is himselfe
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
eternall fire For at last in the periode of our life when as tyme shall be no more to vs certaine it is that God will examen our workes be they good or bad and according to them will reward each one Then euery ones prayse or blame shall proceede from the mouth of God Now we are in the forked way of vertue or vice which was shewen to the young Hercules as an Auncient Authour writeth It is in our power to take towards the right or left hand and to sowe the seedes in this life whose fruites we shall gather in the next Certes as the lines drawen from the Center of the earth might goe to the circumfereÌ„ce of the Heauens so according to our comportment in these short momentes which we are to liue in earth the definitiue Sentence of our eternall Abode shall be giuen It is our part therfore tymely to thinke of our affaires and to foresee what shall become of vs for the scripture doth teach vs that we shall reape according as we haue sowen He that shall sow in spirit shall reape eternall life The chaste Susanna being pinched with bitter perplexities while those two infamous firebrands of dishonestie threatned her the ruine of her reputation vnlesse she condescended to their lewd desire chowsed rather to fall innoceÌ„t into the hands of men then stayned into his to whom nothing is hid who tryes the hearts and reynes and who can cast the body and soule into eternall torments Me thinkes sure each considerate heart will take her part and will pourchace at the price of transitorie and momentarie pleasures endlesse paines For t is a thinge too horrible to fall into the hands of the liueing God the God of vengeance terrible ouer all those of the earth Contrariwise he will easely and willingly imbrace all kind of paynes and sufferances who shall waigh as he ought that is in the waightes of the SANCTVARIE these words of the sacred ORACLE That we are to enter into the Kingdome which knowes no end to the resideÌ„ce of Glorie through many tribulations since that our Sauiour Iesus Christ was as it were forced to suffer before he could enter into his eternall Felicitie which he had wholy obtayned and which was necessarily due vnto him The Parobolicall historie of the wicked Rich-man and the poore Lazarus is a rich Table representing this truth vnto our eyes set out in liuelie colours Euerie one knowes the different successe of the one and the other and what answere Father Abraham made to this miserable reprobate's complaintes Call to mynd Sonne that thou tookest thy pleasures during thy life and that Lazarus suffered many afflictions Now your estates are much changed for he is replenished with ioy and delight and thou oppressed with desperate greeues and with punishments which shall neuer end O double Eternitie thou art like to those figues which were presented vnto the Prophete wherof some were strangly bitter the others extreamely sweete The Blessed Eternitie is a LAND OF PROMISSE and rest whose fruites are of an vnmeasurable greatnes and incomparable sweetnes The accursed is a forraine Region full of disorder a daunting desert far remoued from the face of God where the firie serpents doe stinge without cure and kill without all hope of recouerie O ETERNITIE The more I consider thee the lesse doe I know thee and the deeper I endeauour to diue into thy bottome more bottomelesse I find thee Thou art the floode of the Prophete which cannot be past nether at the ford nor otherwise The Gyantes grone vnder thy waters nor can any beaste euen though it were an ElephaÌ„t passe ouer thee by swiming to vse S. Gregories words All that can be said of thee is nothing in regard of that which should be said Though a man speake all he is able yet can he not sufficiently expresse thee euen to represent the least stroke of thyne infinitie Birdes although they cannot soare to the highest region of the aire leaue not for all that to flie And what if we cannot comprehend Eternitie yet ought we not cease to speake what we conceaue of it though we cannot conceaue what we ought to speake therof A man may enioy the light of the Sunne walke in its resplendant rayes and now and then steale a looke vpon it though he be not able to haue his sight still fixed vpon its globe We are to doe the like in this subiect of Eternitie and be it that our sight doth disperse and loose it selfe in the immensitie of its extent yet are we from tyme to tyme to consider it since life is â—ent vs for no other end but to be spent for the most part in this attention This is that which the Prophete termes couragiously to attend God and with patience to supporte this attention And the Apostle To attend the blessed hope of the coming of the great God I Lord said the great S. Augustine burne cute pinch slice here below so that I may not perish eternally An enterie to the consideration of the accursed Eternitie XXI BVt doe you not thinke it high tyme Athanasia that we should draw neerer by the consideration of both the Eternities and that for our spirituall profit we should make a kind of particular examen and as it were an Anatomie We will begin at the accursed Eternitie that we may follow the methode which the Spiritualistes obserue in the reformation of the soule begining with feare according to that of the wise man the feare of our Lord is the begining of true wisdome And is it not true wisdome to thinke seriously and tymely of eternall saluation and to direct our stepps towards the pathes of this peace which passeth all vnderstanding nor shall at any tyme be troubled with the noyse of warrs but shall enioy with God the abundance of a plentifull repose I haue done Iudgement and Iustice that is I haue behaued my selfe iustly in all myne actions saith the Royall Prophete Will you haue the reason of this vprightnesse because I haue dreaded the seueritie of the eternall Iudge And another Prophete brings in Sinners conuerted to the father of mercyes speaking in this wise O Lord through thy feare we haue conceaued good pourposes and by it we haue at length produced and brought forth the spirit of saluation The needle following the Contemplatiues worne similitude goes alwayes through before the silke and sharpe and pearceing FEARE according to that word of Dauid Lord pearce my body and soule with the FEARE of thy iudgements is still the forerunner of ioy ioy the inseparable fruite of the tree of true Charitie I see then that there I must begin but a secrete horrour doth fasten vpon myne imagination when I represent vnto my selfe so mournfull and daunting a matter It is a far other thing theâ— that place of horrour and vaste solitude wherof the Prophete speakes for it is the verie herbour of eternall horrour eternall reproach It is the accursed denne where DEATH doth eternally inhabite
body and soule to offend the soueraigne and eternall Goodnesse should in euery of them be eternally punished by the Soueraigne Iustice The numberlesse number of those paines are expressed in diuers passages of holy Scripture where it speakes of Fires Ice Darknes Blindnes Gnashings of teeth Teares Hungar Thirst Deseases Swords Howlings Gale Absinth Prisons Wormes Serpents Whirlewinds Tempestes Fournaces Thunders Wheeles and a number of other scourges wherof we find euery lease full The paynes of sense and first of the sight and hearing XXIV ANd wheras generall discourses seeme not to be so efficacious as particular ones let vs descend Athanasia from the generalitie of those eternall paines to the particular consideration therof The Contemplatiues diuide them into penas sensus and penas damni whence comes the word damnation and it is incomparably greater then the former though it far lesse strike vpon the imagination of vulgare myndes The Sight amongst the exteriour senses holds the first place and the priuation therof is numbred amongst the greatest miseries of this life by the iust TOBIE a worthy witnesse of so troublesome a discommoditie Now Faith doth teach vs that the damned shall be in thicker obscurities then those of Egipt and that the tēpest of darknes shall possesse them for euer And in the Holy Scripture Hell is marked out in these words exteriour darknesse For an Eternitie saith the Prophete light shall not be discouered therin for although God be there as it were in euery place and that darknes cannot obscure his naturall light yet his will is that in this dry Lake that is voyd of all consolation the darknesse couer the face of the Abisse and that the eyes of the damned though otherwise capable of sight see nothing but that which may trouble and torment them The fire of the diuine angar being once fallen downe vpon them they shall neuer more discouer the Sunne in punishmēt of the abuse of this noble sense in tyme past and that in lieu of contemplating the Heauen they haue made their lookes dwell vpon the earth and creatures And although light be as inseparable a qualitie of fire as heate yet as of old when the three children were throwen into the fournace the diuine powre leauing the light did suspend the heate of the flame that it should not attempt vpon those innocents so in Hell he will permit the heates actiuitie vpon the reprobate and yet will depriue the fire of light to leaue them in obscuritie amongst the deade of ages buried in an eternall obliuion and far remoued from the light of his face So shall our Lord diuide the flame from the fire saith the Psalmist that is according to some interpreters he shall separate the light from the heate And euen as during the palpable darknes which God did of old spread ouer Egipt while the Israelites enioyed a delightfull light the Idolaters were ether blind or afflicted with frighting visions so in Hell amidst the pitchie blacknes of that region of the shadow of death if at any tyme the dāned enioy some obscure glimses seeing as though they saw not it shall be onely to espie the hideous shapes of amaysing fantomes and horrible visions of Diuels whose aspect shall be more insupportable vnto them then the rest of their tortures So that if for the thicknes of this smoake and the blacknesse of these obscurities the priuation of the vse of this sense be an irkesome torment vnto them the short vse which at tymes they shall haue of it will onely serue to add to their torment alwayes vnfortunate both blind and seeing I will omit the particular paines of this delicate part which as the Phisitians obserue in its daintie litlenesse is obnoxious to so many different deseases which shall be yet diuersified both in qualitie and quantitie according as the reprobate shall haue abused that noble Sense which had bene in Heauē one of the principall organes by which the ioy of our Lord had entred into their heartes O God with what frightes shall their soules be tortured by the sense of hearing a sense by so much more liuely and capable of paines as it hath more commerce with the mynd Ah! what a mad musike will there be heard of howlings scrikes gnashings of teeth and grones of desperation If the thūder clapp and trumpets sound which did resound vpon the mountaine where God deliuered his law to MOYSES put all Israel in such an ALARVM and struke the heartes of the people with such astonishment that they said vnto their law giuer Let not our Lord speake vnto vs least we should die What a death shall it be in death it selfe to heare the voice of many waters or rather the ouerflowing torrents of so many maledictions and horrible blasphemies which rage and despaire shall draw from their execrable mouthes full of the stinch of a hellish brimstone ô how iarring the discorde and how detestable the roarings of those victimes of the eternall furie The eares of those eloquent Orators and pleasing Poetes who had taken so great complacence in the gratefull fall of their measured periodes and in the sweete cadēce of their rymes shall find themselues at that tyme in a wonderfull disorder The eares of those Princes which admitted onely silken words and the oyle of sinners that is flatterie who tooke content to be praysed in the desires of their heart and blessed in their iniquities who found no better musike then that which their owne prayses made as ALEXANDER said who was as great in vanitie as valour will then be struke with terrible accents The eares of those Adonises this word signifies Song those Ninnions of the Goddesse Venus whose baites are dishonest songes Those of these effeminate Musiciās and daintie Dames who must be lulled a sleepe by singing new aires more pernicious then those of the Poetes Syrenes shall then haue their eares filled with dreadfull plaintes resembling the voice of the Storke or Dragon to whom a Prophete compares his owne while he lamented the incurable woundes of the people of Israel But the damned shall be principally frighted and shall quake to heare the thunder clape of the heauenly wroth which shall continually resound in their eares Wheras the iust saith the royall Prophete shall be in the eternall memorie of God and shall not feare the dreadfull crake of his wroth The paines of other two senses the Smelling and tasteing XXV ANd if Hell be the world's sinke and the Receptackle of all the filth of this great Frame and with all a deepe dūgeon where the aire hath hardly any accesse how great must the stinch and infection needes be of so many corruptions heaped one vpon another and how insufferable the smell of that infernall brimstone mixed with so many corrupted matters When we reade the sufferances of certaine Martires who were afflicted with smells and vermine in darke prisons we esteeme those lent martirdomes as painefull as the violent Nay some natures there be that can so litle
it selfe it is execrable Of Ioy there must no mention be made in that place of dolour But cōtrarwise of an incredible Sadnesse which shall oppresse them without all consolation The heate of Anger shall redouble the heate of their flammes Hope banished from their hearts shall leaue the place voyde to Despaire which shall be one of their greatest and fiercest Tormentors And beit that an impudent and shamelesse audacitie shall opē their blaspheming and stinking mouth against Heauen yet shall an eternall horrour make them quake though indeed nothing can befall them worse then that which they alreadie endure Thus shall they be tossed with the blast of those tempestuous winds being burdēsome and insupportable to them selues And though their bodie be within Hells bosome yet shall they beare about with them another Hell in their owne bosomes They shall vomite out venimous words against themselues being weather-beaten by their passions as with contrarie winds vpon the sea of so many calamities They shall be deuoured with the sharpest gnawing of the bloodie birds of their inordinate affections They shall be giuen vp in prey to their owne rage as the Poetes Acteon to his owne hounds The Prison of Hell XXIX ANd if libertie be reputed so great a good that all the goods of life yea life it selfe without it are esteemed as nothing whence it is that amongst the ioyes of the blessed the libertie of the children of God is placed What conceipt are we to make my Athanasia of the eternall captiuitie of the damned in a prison so horrible as that of Hell O Lord how true it is that he that sinneth adiudgeth himselfe to a perpetuall slauerie but a slauerie farr other then that which Israel suffered in Egipt where the Diuells are farr more cruell then Pharaos officers who put the Hebrewes to digge and delue the earth A prison saith S. CIRILLE all on a fire and where the darknesse shall neuer be enlightned with any ray of light where pestilent and gnawing wormes liue in spight of death Who would not feare saith S. BERNARD this worme that cannot die this place full of fire this smoake this stinking brimstone those blasts of tempests those thicke and blacke fogges of exteriour darknesse For what light I pray you can penetrate into the bowells of the earth whither euerie liuing creature descended of those that reuoulted from MOYSES as the Psalmist teacheth vs and as we gather out of the booke of Numbers For to doubt whether Hell be in the Center of the earth a place furthest remote from the glorie of the blessed seemes to me a thing impossible after one haue well waighed the places of Scripture and of Fathers pointing out this truth ISAY speaking of the descent of Messias into Hell Hell which is below the earth saith he was troubled in thy arriuall And the same Messias is made speake in this sort by Ecclesiasticus I will penetrate the inferiour parts of the earth and I will visite all those that sleepe therin And the verie Diuels in S. LVKE besought our Sauiour that casting them out of the bodies which they possessed he would not send them into the Abisse S. CIRILLVS ALEXANDRINVS speaking of Hell tearmes it a blacke Caue vnder groūd replenisht with darknesse smoake and all miseries where the damned soules are as in a dungeon TERTVLIAN calls it a Treasure of fire shut vp vnder the earth And S. AVGVSTINE teacheth in diuers passages that Hell is vnder the earth as also S. GREGORIE the Great There is the lake or rather the cisterne without water of cōsolation whither those vnfortunate soules are banished A prison far other then that which was so irksome to IOSEPH since that those accursed soules are there bound hand and foote afflicted with ineffable torments And which is yet worse without all hope of deliuerie To which if we adde the compaignie of Diuells whose complices they made themselues by reuoulting with them from their Creatour I doe not thinke that any thing more horrible can be conceaued Alas the stateliest house in the world being designed to any one for his prison appeares forthwith to him gracelesse and disagreable so powrefully doth loue of libertie possesse mens mynds what will that house be wher all imaginable and vnimaginable euils make their generall Assemblie following the conceit of the great Romane Muse Of the paine of Damni XXX BVt amongst all those euils Diuinitie teacheth vs that none is comparable to that which is called the paine of damni whence damnation and the damned take their names No not all the exteriour ones nor yet all the interiour ones which breefly we haue represented can any way enter into comparison with this which alone doth further surpasse them all in greatnesse thē the highest celestiall spheere doth surmount this earthly globe Which I will endeauour to make you vnderstand Athanasia by this consideration In sinne there are two principale malices the first is the auersion frō the Creatour the other is the conuersion to the Creature which God declares by the mouth of his Prophete in these words my people at once committ two euills they forsake me who an the fountaine of liue-water and they make vnto them selues broken Cisternes which can hold no water To this second malice belongs that paine of Sense whose miseries we expressed in the precedant stroke but to the abandonning of the Creatour appertaines the paine of damni which consists in the eternall priuation of the sight of God wherin is placed the highest point of the immortall beatitude Now I apprehend saith the Father with the golden mouth that part of glorie incomparably more great then all the other torments And the same addes that tenne thousand torments like to those of the damned are nothing being cōpared to this priuation Wherin this Doctor is followed of all the rest and the schoole doth teach it as a constant truth which cannot be called in doubt without shaking the grounds and violating the principles of Christianitie S. THOMAS strikes further into it for though the paine of damni be equall in all the dāned and that of sense vnequall according to that which is written that the torments are proportioned to the vnlawfull delights and although as well those of sense as of damni be equall in respect of the Eternitie of their durance yet doth he hold that the paine of sense and that of damni doe differ almost as much as a finite and infinite thinge for certaine it is that touching the senses the punishment of the reprobate comes far short of their demerits the Diuine goodnesse not being able to conteyne his mercy euen in the effects of his greatest wroth but as for the losse of an infinite good wher in the paine of damni doth consiste who sees not that this punishment is in some sort infinite And if insensible thinges find no rest till they be reunited vnto their Center since they were not separated from it but by violence how intolerable must the
hath their foule pleasures and abundance of wealth left them To what a low ebbe is their soaring ambition reduced Alas the extreamitie of their ioyes was followed with teares and gnashings of teeth which shall neuer haue end and out of their short delightes they are falleÌ„ into tormeÌ„ts rigourous beyond measure and long without end From the mouth of these two or three reprochlesse witnesses let vs draw this word of Truth that the vndoubted Eternitie of these paynes of Hell puts vpon them the seale or marke of Infinitie since one shall neuer see an end of their continuance or of their intiere consummation If I tooke as much content in filling pages as I precisely studie breuitie I might haue here a large feilde by giuinge my imagination leaue to run in those vulgaire similitudes or conceipts which giue to weaker witts slender Idea's of Eternitie so far forth as man's vnderstanding can reach But I omitt the litle immortall bird drawing dry the Ocean by drawing thence euery hundred thousand yeares one drope of water I leaue the number of the starrs of the leeues of trees the sands of the sea and all the Arithmetique of the most skilfull maisters at the end of its lyne and other the like conceipts which I blame not for the respect I beare to the great and deuoute personnages who did apprehend them fitting good and fruitfull not onely for the comon but most aduanced soules I will passe I say these thoughtes leauing them to each ones inuention as their gust or spirituall profit shall moue them For my part Athanasia I confesse vnto you simply and sincerely the hardnesse of my owne hart wherin they made but a weake impression Of the desperation of the damned XXXIII BVt in recompence hereof I was wonderfully moued with the consideration of the furious and inconceaueable despaire which the Sight of this horrible Eternitie of paines shall cause in the hartes of the damned And truly as the worme which eates the aple is bred in the selfe same fruite so shall this eternall despaire like to a gnawing worme issue out of the selfe same Eternitie whence it doth springe True it is that the torments which the damned shall suffer in all the members of their body and in all the faculties of their soule are extreame Yet the consideration that they shall neuer haue end adds another extreamitie to this extreamitie which passeth imagination and which will incite these accursed wretches fallen into a reprobate sense to open their mouth against HeaueÌ„ and to horrible blasphemies against God as much or more then the sense of their punishments And if the Prophete said that he would cry like a dragon and grone like an oâ—trige ouer the desperate and incurable wounds of Israel how much more terrible shall the how lings of the reprobate be animated with a spirit of despaire and rage in seeing their calamities voyde of all hope of redresse So that it is the opinion of ALBERT THE GREAT and DENIS THE CARTHVSIAN that this thought of Eternitie shall much more afflict them then all the paines of their tortures Which the great S. AVGVSTINE expresseth in these termes Being tormented without interruption or end they shall liue depriued of all hope of pardon all expectation of mercy wherin doth consiste the greatest of their calamities For if they could but hope that their torments would haue end after so many millions of yeares as all the creatures euen to the worlds end shall haue had haires on their head be this number as great and incredible as it will yet is it finite and this imaginatioÌ„ of an end would in some sort solace their sufferances But wheras there is no end proposed vnto them they giue themselues ouer to despaire and impatieÌ„ce doth double their paines This moued the Prophete to say that their worme shall not die and their fire shall neuer be extinguished neuer be consumed because this worme of despaire shall torture their vnderstandings while the flame burns their body being most reasonable that those who with body and soule offended an eternall God should be punished in body and soule and be adiudged vnto paines that should last as long as God should be God that is for euer Paines without intermission XXXIV THis so dreadfull despaire shall yet be augmented Athanasia by a consideration which I find no lesse singular then remarkable to wit that those paines shall not onely be eternall but also without intermission For the daÌ„ned shall not onely passe in an instant from one extreamitie to another and as IOB saith from frosen waters to deuouring fires but their tormeÌ„ts shall be continuall and continually in a point vnsufferable and without intermission at all No part of repose or abatement of paines are there to be hoped T' is a warre that shall neuer haue truce In the sufferances of this life be they neuer so great there is alwayes some moderation or place to breath in in that they stay not still in the same state As the heaueÌ„s doe incessantly rowle So all that is vnder those rowleing spheeres are obnoxious to changes and reuolutions The seasons doe continually change and continually renew the face of the vniuers The Moone increaseth and decreaseth The Sunne doth aduance it selfe or put it selfe in a greater distance from vs. The sea hath its ebb and flowing and the springs riuers and floods run day and night to find the Sea Man's age runs dayly to decay Kingdomes and Empires haue their tymes to florish and fade Deseases are lightned in that they come but by fits and by the hope we haue to end or mend In aduerse fortune we are comforted by expectation to find her fauorable The sharpest and most violent sicknesse hath its interualls qualifications Sleepe is the comon charme of greeues and often by its dreames it rayseth the condition of the most miserable for the space it continewes aboue the happines of the most happie But in Hell sleepe flyes from the ey-lids of the reprobate nor doth rest seiourne neere vnto them Their teares doe neuer dry vp their Ague is continuall and without intermission Without relaxatioÌ„ they dy in liuing without relaxation they liue in dying And if a rayne continuing for 40. dayes onely was able to drowne the whole world ô God what a Deluge of miseries shall choke those miserable soules vpon whom without release floods of fire and darts of furie and malediction shall showre downe And if things most aggreeable turne disagreeable by coÌ„tinuance in so much that the Manna a food no lesse delicious then miraculous became lothsome to the Israelites And if eating euery day the same dish makes vs loath the most toothsome and exquisite bit if wayes that ly through great plaines though otherwise faire and facile seeme tedious And if none would purchace the possession of a crowne vpon condition to ly without sturring in a most delicate and richly parfumed bed for the space of thirtie or fortie yeares What shall it
That we see now obscurely but in glorie face to face And in S. IOHN we shall see him such as he is which doth sufficiently proue that supreme felicitie consisteth in the intimate vision of God When againe we marke this passage thy Elect ô Lord shall be drunk with the aboundance of thy house and thou shall giue them to drinke of the torrent of pleasure And in the Ghospell enter into the ioy of thy Lord. And againe your ioy shall not be taken from you by which is sufficiently showen what part the will is to haue in the essentiall glorie And who would not gather hence that it consisteth in the vision and fruition of the two faculties God who is infinitly greater then our harts filling them both with vnimaginable delightes being in qualitie of Soueraigne Truth the obiect of our vnderstanding and as he is the Soueraigne Good the obiect of our will its repose and Center But when the Psalmist sings Taste and see how sweete is our Lord doth he not ioyne them both together being no lesse proper to the will to taste then to the vnderstāding to see and herein we follow the interpretation of the learned HVGH OF S. VICTOR And yet after the same Diuine Psalmist had said thou shall giue them to drinke of the torrent of pleasure doth he not add and in thy light we shall see light This opinion is cōfirmed by a Bull of Benetts the twelueth who defines that the soules of the Elect are blessed by these actes of seeing and enioying And the Romane Cathechisme put out by the Councell of Trents order placeth essentiall Beatitude in the vision and fruition of God It were an easie thing to show that the auncient Fathers of the Church placed the essentiall beatitude sometymes in the one sometymes in the other Power and sometymes also ioyntly in both but the breuitie which I proposed vnto my selfe from which I doe insensibly stray makes me cut of many peeces of those great Oracles which would wonderfully beautifie this stroke Le ts soberly content our selues with this smale reason If the Blessed soule did not imbrace the heauenly Spouse in his glorie with both her armes which are the vnderstanding and will doubtlesse she would not be wholy satisfied for who knowes not euen by experience that the will is not carried with lesse bent toward Good then the vnderstanding towards the Truth Whence I gather that necessarily her desire must be replenished with all sorts of good things according as the Scripture doth teach vs and the ensuing strokes will giue vs more amply to vnderstand Therfore to speake properly essentiall Beatitude doth consiste in the perfect vnion of the soule to God being made as the Apostle tearmes it one selfe same spirit with him which is done in the soule by Gods inward penetration called by the Diuines nor can we expresse it in any other terme an illaps which me thinkes vpon necessitie we may make vse of in our tongue as well as of the word Relaps finding that nether more rude nor more improper then this which is receaued and authorised by custome Now this illaps of God into the soule doth replenish it with the glorie of God himselfe and doth as it were deifie it according as S. IOHN speakes we know that we shall be made like vnto him when we shall see him as he is So that the soule shall be filled and replenished with God as the Moone when she is perfectly full with the light of the Sunne or as a sponge when it is throughly wett and filled with liquor And God vniting himselfe vnto her as the fire is vnited to the burning iron following the Contēplatiues ordinarie similitude shall be ioyned vnto her and shall vnite her so inly to himselfe that she shall be as it were transformed into God who shall be as saith the Spouse in the Canticles intirely hers as she againe shall be intirely his Which caused S. BERNARD to pronounce those holy and louing words our Beatitude and our reward is to see God to liue with God to liue of God and in God to be with God and in God who shall be all in all Now where this soueraigne Good is who can doubt but there is also the soueraigne ioy and Felicitie true Libertie perfect Charitie eternall Assurance and assured Eternitie In God is true Gladnes compleat Knowledge perfect Beautie continuall Peace Pietie Bountie Light Vertue Honestie Sweetnes true Life Glorie Praise Repose gracious Friendshipp and greatfull Concord Hitherto are the words of this mellifluous Doctor The happines of the point of the soule XLIV BVt perfectly to vnderstand in what this essentiall glorie doth consiste we must call to mynd Athanasia the diuision of the bodie and the soule wherof the Prophete speakes administring an occasion to misticall Diuines to diuide man's soule into three degrees the inferiour superiour and supreme Or if you had rather into three portions the lowest the highest and the middle And they seate Appetite in the lowest region the powres in midle but in the highest the point of the mynd the flowre vnitie or essence of the soule the Latines Mens the Grecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hebritians Nesamah for all these words doe but signifie one and the same thing Now to speake onely in this place of the highest God being Spirit a most pure Act and most-one essence although in glorie he be vnited to euerie blessed soule yet is his vnion more excellent and eminent in this highest portion of the soule then in those below euen as we obserue in mans soule which is all in all the body and all in euery part therof yet is more nobly that is it doth more nobly exercise its functions in the head then in the other members of the bodie So say the Mistikes that this highest portion of man's soule is the Spouse his bed Salomon's coutch his Cabinet and the place of his more particular delights Ther is the Diuine essence vnited to the essence of the soule there the spirituall marriages marriages the fullnesse of our eternall felicitie celebrated wherof so much mention is made in the holy Scripture For as the Bridegroome and Bride are two in one flesh by the sacred band which doth tye them together so the Blessed soule by this vnion with her Principle and application to her end becomes one spirit with him through the excesse of that Charitie which is the band of all perfection Thus is the soule transformed and transfigured into light by the spirit of God made participant of the Diuine nature and conformable to the liknesse of his Maiestie T is true that we are by nature made to the liknesse and similitude of God whose picture is so liuely exprest in the soule which is one in Essence and trine in faculties Yet much more by grace which makes vs as it were certaine looking-glasse wherin that glorioule Sunne makes the rayes of his light and loue meete while he expresseth his perfections therin
Yet the Saints who are in glorie whose faces are marked with his splendour and doe shine like the Sunne for perpetuall eternities are yet incomparably more liuely pictures of the Diuinitie For euen as the Sunne meeting with a thicke and darksome cloude in the aire doth sometymes so deeply imprint its beames vpon its face that it appeares another Sunne so are the Blessed in Heauen so transformed into God that they shewe as so many Gods and as so many dearest children of the Highest as DAVID deliuers it This excellent beautie with which the Diuine presence doth adorne them was cause that S. IOHN espying an Angell whom he tooke for God had adored him if that spirit no lesse humble then glorious bright had not giuen him to know that he was his fellow-seruant And in my opinion in this neere resemblance to God the verie toppe of the eternall glorie of the blessed is placed For what thinke you is God's owne glorie and felicitie but the life which he hath eternally of him selfe the most cleare knowledge which he hath of his immutable Truth and the most ardēt loue which he hath towards his owne infinite Goodnes His Beatitude consisting in the vision loue and fruition which the Diuine and increated Persons of the Blessed Trinitie haue of their owne mutuall knowledge Loue and eternall perfect and infinite complacence Now the soule of the Blessed being raysed to the vision loue and fruition of the same Diuine Persōs and of their Diuine and most indiuisible Essēce ought not her supernaturall and inineffable life by the resemblance which is betwixt her and God's felicitie to be said to be the accomplishment of her glorie since that without all feare of change she is wholy attentiue to the cleare contemplation of the prime and soueraigne Truth inflamed with the loue of the supreme and increated goodnes and hath the fruition of the infinite and vnspeakable sweetnes of God O truly liuing and happie life when shall it be that we shall liue in thee and by thee when shall we ô my soule inhabite this heauenly Hierusalem built as a Citie and with her glorious Citizens be made participant of him who is still himselfe immutable and whose yeares neuer decay Of the felicitie of the powres of the soule and first of the memorie XLV THis essentiall Beatitude Athanasia is extended and doth spread it selfe out yet diuersly in the lower degree of the soule to witt there wherin the three principall faculties or powres doe reside For euen as the Prophete to rayse the widowes deade child did shorten himselfe vpon this litle body and did apply his mouth to its mouth his hands to its hands and his feete to its feete So God who shall be all to all shall fill all the soule with the abundance of his bountie and shall cōmunicate vnto it a Diuine life which shall not feare the assaultes of death The memorie being entered into the liberties of our Lord shall call to mynd the effectes of his iustice and no lesse those of his mercy for she shall sing no neuer will I forgett thy iustifications ô Lord since in them thou hast giuen me life Fild with this rauishing and no lesse pressing then present obiect she shall breath out the remembrance of his sweetnes and shall exalt his adorable iudgements This remembrance shall be her soueraigne delight O how she shall call to mynd the sweetnes of the duggs of this incomparable goodnes farr passing the fuming wines of worldly delightes In how high a strayne shall she take the memorie of this supreme sanctitie Alas how can she forget him whom she hath so inwardly present and who shall be more in her then her selfe and to whom she shall be so strongly tyed in adauantine and diamantine chaynes that nothing shall euer be able to diuerte her Blessed memorie replenisht with the fairest Idea's that can possibly inhabit a heart and which then shall be a Magazine and memoriall of heauenly wonders whether she make reflection vpon things past how dearely shall she conserue the memorie of the incomparable obligations which she shall haue to this Creatour Conseruer Redeemour and Glorifier of her beeing Such as grace shall haue led from greatest sinns to repentance fauours before bounding where malice did superabound ô God! how highly shall they sing the sacred Canticle of the Diuine mercy And those who by the same grace shall haue conserued the first stole of their innocencie and being preserued from the abomination of desolation whose deluge doth ouerflowe the whole vniuerse shall haue bene drawen to the safe harbour of saluation by the chaynes of loue and humanitie will not they haue reason to beare a part in the fame Canticle and to pronounce that that mercy which conserued them vnstayned amidest the worlds impurities is a portion of that which is eternally grounded and built in Heauē The royall Prophete calling to mynd out of what an Abisse of miseries the Diuine goodnes had reclaymed him recalling him so sweetly to the accnowledgment of his faults coniures his soule and all his interiour powres to blesse God exciting his memorie neuer to permitt his benefites to fall into a disloyall obliuion for he it is that pardons saith he all thyne infirmities who cures all thy wounds who recouers thee from eternall death and who crownes thee with his mercyes O God what must this King of penitents needs say in heauen if he spoke thus in this vaile of teares reduced by a holy repentance from his iniquities to the state of grace When the Saintes whom God hath pardoned many faultes for there are in Heauē penitent sinners of all kinds shall see them selues deliuered from the innumberable torments which they contemplate in the accursed Eternitie and which they had as oft deserued as by their malice they had bene separated from God will they not haue great reason to say with the Psalmist Thy mercy ô Lord and thy iustice shall for euer be the subiect of our song vpon this shall our Psalme-singing be imployed whilst we walke in this immaculate way in which thou hast put vs. And if the memorie of paynes and perills past euen in this world be so delightfull how much more shall the Saintes and martyrs who haue suffered much for the Almighties sake haue cause to reioyce in this memorie While they walked in the way of this mortall life they sowed in teares but in the heauenly Sion they shall reape an eternall ioy They shall sing this pleasant Song We haue past through fire and water but in the end we are entred into refreshment And they shall blesse those light and transitorie moments of tribulation which brought them to eternall glorie And if their memorie doe stay vpon the present felicitie which they feele and of which they haue a liuely sense with what contentment shall they not be crowned in tasting the ineffable goodnes of God who rewards them infinitely beyond their merits Yea if they enlarge themselues vpon the
and bracelets are tokens of loue whose true proofe is the worke saith S. GREGORIE and is not the worke signified by the arme and hand the principall instruments of operation Now in euery well-ordered marriage the Bride receaues some dowrie of the Bridegroome whervpon in this great Sacrament of IESVS CHRIST and his Church and the faithfull Soule which is a member of this Church the misticall body of our Sauiour the Doctors doe assigne dowries to the soule which enters into Glorie according to that doctrine of ISAIE our Lord hath clothed me with garments of saluation and hath adorned me with a chayne as his Spouse And that of S. IOHN in his Apocalipse who compares the triumphant Hierusalem to a Bride well deckt being so adorned by her spouse And touching those dowries in particular they reduce them to three heades conformably to the three powres of the Soule and to the three Diuine vertues which God infuseth herebelow into the hearts of the faithfull Faith Hope and Charitie For they say that the Memorie is endowed with the possession of God which doth referre to Hope The vnderstanding with vision or knowledge in reward of Faith and the Will with the Diuine Fruition in recompence of Charitie This is the triple band which in Heauen shall inseparably tye vs to God a heauenly band which can neuer be broken Touching the qualities of the glorified bodies LIV. LEt 's now make a passage Athanasia from the interiour to the exteriour from the felicitie of the Soule to that of the body and let vs say that to those dowries which I haue deciphered in the former stroke admirable qualities shall be adioyned which without distroying the beeing of the bodie shall worke wonderfull changes and make them far more noble then they are in this mortall life We shall all rise againe saith the Apostle that is as well the Elect as the Reprobate but all shall not experience this happie change for the bodies of the dāned shall remayne passible heauie grosse and darke but the bodies of the Blessed shall become impassible subtile light and resplendant And to these foure qualities it is that the Doctors haue reduced the dowries of the glorious bodies Impassibilitie is a qualitie which shall make the body of an incorruptible temper not obnoxious to change exempt from hungar thrist cold heate greife infirmitie and from euery thing that can subiect vs to death or paine Glorified bodies cannot burne nor suffer in the fire nor be drowned in the water In a word nor can the tooth of Tyme nor any other force distroye them They shall enioy a continuall youth like to a flowre that cannot fade a vigorous health against which sicknesse can attempt nothing a qualitie of the heauenly bodies that suffer no alteratiō Which made the Apostle say that that which was sowen in corruption he meanes the corps layed in the graue shall ryse incorruptible and that which is mortall shall put-on immortalitie And againe the dead shall rise to incorruption The second dowrie is subtiltie which shall indewe the body as it were with a spirituall qualitie I doe not say that it shall become spirit for that is the errour of some auncient Heretikes refuted by S. AVGVSTINE in his bookes of the Citie of God nor yet that the glorious body shall be made aire an Heresie which S. GREGORIE in his Morales ascribes to EVTICHIVS Bishope of Constantinople but I say its subtiliti◠shall be so great that it shall passe through another body as through Heauen and earth which the Maisters tearme Penetration of dimensions And of this dowrie is vnderstoode that of the Apostle this sensible body shall rise againe spirituall that is resembling the spirit in sundrie things yet in such a spiritualitie as shall not depriue it of its palpabilitie according to that saying of our Sauiour to his disciples after his resurrection touch and see a spirit hath nether flesh nor bones as you see me haue And the same Sauiour did shew the subtiltie of his glorious body while he issued out of his Tombe not opening it and entred into the Hall where the Apostles were the gates being shutt The third qualitie shall be an incredible Agilitie and such as S. AVGVSTINE teacheth that the body shall be where the Spirit desireth not that this motion saith S. THOMAS is performed in an instant and without a meane but that the swiftnes of the passage shall be in a sort imperceptible and like to that of fire or lightning as saith the wiseman For the rest saith ISAIE they run without labour and trauell as far as they list without being wearie at all because this body sowen in infirmitie shall rise againe saith the Apostle in such vigour a vigour which S. THOMAS takes for Agilitie or Mobilitie that it shall be indefatigable and shall performe in a smale tyme an incredible iorney The fourth and most noble dowrie shall be Brightnes of which it is said in S. MATHEW that the Iust shall shine like the Sunne in the Kingdome of their heauenly Father and againe that they should flie like sparkes as it is in the wiseman And S. PAVLE writing to the Corinthians assures them that that which is sowen in infirmitie shall rise vp in glorie that is in brightnes according to S. THOMAS his interpretation grounding vpon the same Apostle who saith presently after as one starre differs from another in brightnes so shall the glorious bodies differre after their resurrection And the same Apostle speaking to the Philippians tells thē that our Lord will reforme the body of our humilitie and will cōforme it to his brightnes a brightnes wherof he gaue a proofe in his Transfiguration vpon the Mount-Thabor of his Agilitie by walking vpon the waters of his subtiltie in his birth and of his impassibilitie escapeing often tymes without hurt out of the hands of the Iewes who one while would stone him at another tyme would throw him headlōg downe while as yet the tyme of his suffering death for our sake was not arriued The pleasure of the Senses LV. THe glorious bodie being in this sort as it were transformed by the foure qualities which I haue touched in the former stroke O Athanasia iudge you how exquisite the pleasures of the senses shall be which they shall enioy in Organes so perfectly well disposed It is a delightfull question in Diuinitie to know whether the dowrie of impassibilitie shall exclude the act of the senses which S. THOMAS deneyes by no lesse solide then subtile arguments and shewes contrariwise that the perfection of those qualities shall render the pleasures of the Senses more pure and their delightes more excellēt He seemes to make some exception of the Sēse of tasteing for that the Kingdome of Heauen being nether meate nor drinke but ioy and Peace in the Holy Ghost and the beatified body stāding in no neede of foode to sustaine it he thinkes that this Sense made to relish meates remaynes vnprofitable and he would
fire wheeles gibbets swords haire-shirts disciplines austerities and whither the King of Saints entred by sufferaâ—nces O miserable bodie too delicate a member to liue vnder a Heade crowned with thornes and wholy couered with blood Tell me accursed carcasse and victime of death what priuiledge thou pretendst that thou darst presume by a manifest iâ—iustice wallowing in soft lux and delicacies to enter into a Kingdome all whose gates are made with Crosses in a Paradice where none enters that is not pearced with the firâ—e sword of a louing mortification Heare this doome or rather this thunder clapp ô my body and thou ô my soule If thou dost not mortifie with the spirit the actions of sensualitie thou shalt die marrie if thou mortifiest them thou shalt liue And againe mortifie your meÌ„bers which are vpon earth and carrie still in your body the mortification of IESVS CHRIST so shall you be as dead but to th' end you may liue eternally Of the Aureola LVII BEsides the essentiall Glorie which the Blessed shall enioy Athanasia in the sight of the Soueraigne well-beloued in the loue of the Soueraigne well-seene the Diuines doe note certaine accidentall ones and as it were accessorie to the prime and principall which they haue named Aureolas grounding vpon a passage of Exodus where there is command giuen to make a litle crowne called Aureola ouer the Arke bisides the crowne of gold with which it was to be wholy inuironed Now this Aureola doth chiefely reside in the soule albeit by a certaine rebounding saith S. THOMAS as also DENIS THE CARTHVSIAN and ouerswelling it breakes out and spreads it selfe ouer all the bodie and doth euen outwardly appeare with a certaine peculiar grace And if Essentiall Glorie be different according to the diuers degrees of Charitie and merite this accidentall of which we speake shall be varied following the varietie of labours and victories For as there is diuision of graces so is there of rewards to Ordinarily these Aureolae are diuided into three kindes wherof one is attributed to MARTYRES who haue conquered the world the second to VIRGINES who haue surmounted sensualitie the third to DOCTORS who by their learning haue defeated the Artes and errours of the Prince of darknesse And if these Aureolae be compared together the comon consent giues the first rancke and preeminencie to Martyrdome for there is no greater charitie then to giue ones life for that which he loues Neuer durst any saith S. AVGVSTINE preferre Virginitie before Martyrdome Chastitie being but a lent martyrdome wheras to die in torments is a violent one A second is giuen to virgines who follow the Lambe where euer he goes clothed in white stoles The third to Doctors who were the salte of the earth the light of the world and the Lampes of Israel And when I say the Aureola shall be giueÌ„ vnto Doctors I nether vnderstand the learned nor those that shall onely haue taken the degree of Doctor ship in earth and buried their Talent and hid their Lampe vnder the Bushall For such Doctors shall enioy in Heauen the simple guife of Charitie onely a thing common with the rest of the Elect for as DANIEL saith they shall be bright as the Firmament But such as shall instruct others in the way of saluation and rightuousnes shall sparkle and shine as glorious strarrs in perpetuall Eternities Those then it is that haue taught and communicated to the ignorant sound and wholsome doctrine who shall carrie away the Aureola of Doctors For as he is not crowned who hath onely the abilitie and strength to fight and vanquish but he that in effect doth fight and ouercome the enemy according to that none shall be crowned but such as haue lawfully fought so those onely that had knowledge made others participant of it shall partake of the Aureola of Doctors according to that of the Ghospell he that shall teach and doe what is good shall be called great in the Kingdome of Heauen Some vnderstand those words of the Apocalipse of this Aureola I will bestow on him that shall ouercome a hidden Manna and a white stone wherin shall be grauen a new name which none shall know but he that receaues it and that of ISAIE speaking of the Continent vnder the name of Eunukes I will giue them a Mansion within the compasse of the walls of my house and an excellent name amongst the childreÌ„ of men As then here below in earth men are ordinarily distinguished by their clothes so shall those three bands haue some particular signe or marke which shall make them notable amongst the rest of the Blessed The Blessed societie of the Elect. LVIII ANd if an auncient Philosopher Athanasia following comon sense said that felicitie is not full and accomplished without societie what compainie is comparable to that which the Blessed inioy in Glorie Though God be sole and one in Essence yet hath he societie in the distinctions of persons and thence is not solitarie in his Beatitude What shall it be to behold the Societie of the three Diuine persons vnited together in the vnitie of their beeing yea euen to be vnited to this high Societie in the band of Charitie which is that of perfection what shall it be to be associated to the humanitie of IESVS CHRIST our brother according to Flesh as he was Sonne of man which for our sake he tooke vpon him whence we are made children of God and if children heires and if heires of God coheires of IESVS CHRIST in the inheritance of Glorie O how happie shall they be who are inrowled into the holy FELLOWSHIPE of IESVS CHRIST and made partaker of his heauenly and Diuine conuersation And if it be written that euen in this world he that is in Charitie remaynes in God and God in him and that he that keepes the Commandements is made the Tabernacle and lodginge of the three persons of the Sacred TRINITIE what are we to say of the state of consummated Grace which is Glorie where Charitie is compleate O Diuine Societie And if after the Diuinitie and humanitie of our Sauiour we turne the ey of our consideration vpon the admirable beautie of her who is the holy of Holyes yea the MOTHER of the holy of Holyes and who next vnto God to whom is due the worshipe of Latria we honour with Hyperdulia what could be imagined more rauishing since she is the mother of that verie Sonne who was eternally begotteÌ„ in the splendour of Saintes in the breast of the eternall Father were it not a spareing speach to attire her with the Sunne to make the Moone her footstoole and starrs her crowne yes verily since her Sonne and her God are her great crowne and incomparable ioy according to that of the wiseman a vertuous Sonne is the crowne and ioy of his Father and Mother And from this qualitie of MOTHER OF GOD which is in some sorte infinite there rebouÌ„ds in her such an abundance of grace that she is not
If he be feircely sicke he freely endures all the paines that the Surgeons putt him to he obeyes the Doctours order takes downe the bitterest pill in the Apothecaries shope he nether grugheth price nor paine so he may escape the graue he is willing to consume all his substance to prolonge for some few moments more his consumeing life and yet to liue eternally how few are willing to endure a litle discommoditie But if worldlings prolonge their miserable dayes with so much instance vigilancie precausion prodigalitie paine and torment what ought not they to doe whose braue and generous myndes eye nothing that is lesse then Eternitie And if they be esteemed prudent who spare nothing to conserue a miserable mortall life how imprudēt must they needs be who for an immortall one will vse no sort of violēce nether against their body nor soule A continuation of the former discourse LXVI VErily vnlesse the graine of wheate falling into the ground die it selfe remayneth alone and fruitlesse And vnlesse we doe mortifie our selues here below there is litle appearance and yet lesse hope that we shall liue euerlastingly in Heauen In the building of SALOMONS Temple there was no noyse heard of hammars nor saw because the timber was disposed and fitted by Carpenters in the Forrest and the stones were cut and pollished in the Quarries so that being led vnto the Mount-Sion it rested onely to applie them It is the like of the vnited stones wherof the heauenly Hierusalem is built to witt the Elect out of the Quarrie of this world they were to be sent readie and so to be disposed in their places in that TEMPLE OF PEACE For which cause some of them haue bene sawen cut carued holed burnt wounded with swords that they might be applied to that eternall building for they are the structure and building of God saith the Apostle No there is no other passage to this TEMPLE of VERTVE but through the GATE OF LABOVR And the Kingdome of Heauen is promised onely in the Sermō which our Sauiour made of Beatitude to the humble of heart and persecuted that is to such as suffer tribulations The Kings coyne with which letters of exchange are payed in that Contrie are Labours and the Saintes doe repose in their labours for there their workes doe sollow them And if a woman with child saith the holy Gospell doe patiently endure the panges of childbirth which are so extreamely violent for the ioy she hath to bring forth a reasonable creature into this miserable world what paines then ought we to feare so our bodie be happily deliuered of our soule to Eternitie and that when our house of clay shall be demolished we may find one in heauen build not with the hand of man but with God's owne hand wherin we shall liue inhabit and bee for euer And if the labours of winter and summer and the length of a plainefull seruice was reputed as nothing of IACOB being pricked on by the loue be bore to RACHEL who will not to be impatient at the short and light labours of this life while he hath Eternitie before his eyes Goe to then saith a Prophete le ts take courage and let not our armes repose for a great reward is promised to good actions Worke faithfully what thou art able while tyme is lent thee to labour Behold the reward and nothing will seeme painefull vnto thee I haue giuen my heart to the Diuine iustificatiōs saith the Psalmist in respect of the reward promised them For the reward of such as keepe Gods law is great Know you not saith the great Apostle that many runne in the race all runne indeede but one receaueth the Price And they certes that they may receaue a corruptible crowne but we run in the race of vertue for an immortall and incorruptible crowne Le ts so runne that we may obteyne Those saith the same Doctour of the Crosse that are afflicted are disposed therby to great rewards and if they be tryed by God it is to th' end they may be worthy to haue a part with him and that he may with his owne hand bestow vpon them a Kingdome of honour and a diademe of beautie For God crownes his Elect with glorie and honour and doth establish them aboue all the workes of his hands Let vs not therfore be discouraged saith S. PAVLE for we haue not as yet resisted sinne nor fought to blood we that are not ignorant that our Guide IESVS CHRIST entered not into the Sanctuarie of Eternitie by meanes of the blood of sheepe and goates but by powreing out his owne at that price obtaineing for vs an eternall redemption But I here heape vp proofes in confirmation of a truth which euen Nouices in Christian discipline cannot doubt of Let vs therfore stay our stepps and shut vp this first meanes in these golden words of S. AVGVSTINE O soule what I haue is vendible consider whether you will buy it And what hast thou to sell ô Lord Rest saith he buy it At what rate saith the soule the price therof is Labour But what labour is required for an endlesse rest If you will make a iust valuation an eternall labour is due to an eternall peace T' is true indeede yet feare not ô soule God is mercifull he knowes well that if thou wert eternally to labour for this pourchase thou shouldst neuer attayne vnto the promissed and desired rest and therfore that thou mightst attayne it he will not haue thy labour to be eternall not that the Eternitie of glorie would not deserue it but that thou mightest be sure to beare it It is worth an eternall and yet is bought for a temporall labour In an other place the same Father doth enlarge and continue this consideration When eternall life saith he is promissed vs let vs place before our eyes a life exempt frō all the tormoyles and troubles which we taste in this and thou shalt more happily find out the calamities and miseries which are not to be found in that blessed life then thou canst the infinite blesse wherwith it is replenished he would say that as God so it is better knowen by negation then affirmation And yet wonderfull Mercy this inestimable fauour is to be sold If thou wilt thou maist buy it nor art thou to be troubled how to procure wherwithall to pay It is not worth more then thou hast or rather respects not at all what thou hast but onely what thou art This Eternitie is worth thyselfe and yet worth no more then thou art giue thy selfe and t is thyne Why dost thou dodge why dost thou stand vpon the price Dost thou apprehend that to make the payment thou art to be sold indeed no thou art not pay thy selfe such as thou art and the purchase is made Alas I am poore and miserable wilt thou say nor shall I be receaued as currant money But I dare assure thee that in freely giuing thy selfe thou wilt become good coyne for to giue ones
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