we have placed honour makes it most ridiculous Some think they should be valued and esteemed because they are strong not remembring that a Bear a Bull or a Sumpter-mule is stronger than they Some because they are richly clad become mighty proud and puft up not being ashamed to be more esteemed for the work of a Mechanick Taylor than for their vertuous actions Others think to be honoured for their dishonours bragging of their vices murthers and adulteries Others boast of the nobility of their blood without looking upon vertue and so make that a vice which was to oblige them to noble actions converting that which was to be their honour into infamy valuing themselves more for being noble than being Christians A man is no greater than what he is in the eyes of God and the estimation which God hath of us is not for being born in a Palace but for being reborn in the water of Baptism What comparison is there betwixt being born of noble linage and being born from the side of Christ Jesus The penitent Virgin Donna Sancha Carillo so often as she assisted at Baptisms beheld Christ upon the Cross Ro. in ejus vita lib. 2. c. 1. with his side open and the Child issuing forth giving us to understand the new birth we receive from the blood of Christ in our Christianity for which God esteems men more than for being born of sinful blood This birth is of dishonour that of honour this of sin that of holiness this of the flesh which kills that of the spirit which quickneth by this we are the sons of men by that of God by the birth of the flesh we are heirs of our fathers fortunes but much more of their miseries for we are born sinners by the birth of Baptism we are the heirs of heaven and for the present we receive grace and for the future glory What an errour is it then to value our selves more for our humane birth by which we are made sinners than for our divine birth by which we are made just How foolish were he who being the Son of a King and a Bond-woman should esteem himself more for being the Son of a Slave than of a Monarch More fool is he who values more the nobility of his blood in being a Gentleman than the nobility of his soul in being a Christian Finally all honours of the earth are but such as Matathias told his Sons dung and corruption St. Anselme compares those who seek after honours to boyes who hunt after butter-flies Isaias unto spiders which disimbowel themselves in framing a web which is broken by the flies Yet for all this poorness and baseness of honours many souls have perished by them If David cursed the mountains of Gelboe because Saul and Jonathan died upon them with much more reason may we curse the high mountains of honour upon which so many Souls have been seen to perish § 2. Let us now consider what Riches are unto whom St. Gregory Nazianzen did much honour when he called them a precious dung Truely in themselves they are not much better Gold and Silver said Antoninus the Philosopher In vita sua c. 9. were nothing else than excrements and dregs of the Earth that precious Marbles were as corns and seggs in the feet and generally he sayes of the matter of all these things that they are nothing but dust and corruption Plotinus said that Gold was nothing else but a viscuous water others that it was yellow earth What are Precious stones but shining pibles some red some green c Silk but the slaverings of worms the finest Hollands and purest Linnens but threads of certain plants Other webbs of esteem are made of hair of beasts whereof if we should meet one in our meat would make us loath it and many in their cloaths are proud of them Curious Furres what are they but the skins of contemptible vermin Civet but the sweat of a Cat near his most noisom parts Amber but the uncleanness of a Whale or something which the Sea purges from it as not worthy to be preserved Musk but the putrified and congealed blood of a poor Beast What are Possessions Palaces Cities Provinces and spacious Kingdoms They are indeed onely toyes of men who though old are but Children in esteeming so much of them and this I say not comparing them with things eternal Lucian beholding them not from the Empyrial Heaven Lucian in Icaromenip but from the Sphere of the Moon said All Greece possest not above four fingers and that Peloponesus was not bigger than a Lentil seed To Seneca the whole compass of the Earth seemed but a Point and all the greatness there onely matter of sport Hom. 24. in Mat. St. Chrysostome more seriously looking upon the so much esteemed greatness of this World the brave Palaces renowned Cities large Kingdoms compares them to those little houses of sand or dirt made by Children for their entertainment which men stand by and laugh at and oftentimes if their Parents or Masters find that it hinders them from learning of their lessons they strike them down with their feet and destroy that in a moment which hath cost the boyes much time and labour So God useth to deal with those who neglecting his service employ themselves in scraping together riches enlarging their possessions building of Palaces strong Forts and walled Towns which he destroys with that ease as if they were those little houses of sand made by Children And certainly more Children are they who set their hearts upon the greatness of this short life than those who busie themselves in walls of dirt This is of St. John Chrysostome Hom. 14. de Avaritia Who in another place saith That if looking upon a Table where we behold painted a rich and powerful man and a poor and contemptible Beggar we neither envy the one nor despise the other because we know them to be shadows and no truth The same judgement we ought to make of the things themselves for all according to Scripture are little more than nothing And as in a Comedy or Farse it imports little who playes Alexander and who the Beggar since all are equal when the Play is done So are all after death If Herod offered to a dancing Girl because she pleased him the half of his Kingdom what was the whole worth And Aman who possessed great wealth confessed he valued them as nothing so long as Mardocchus did not reverence him The pleasures of our Pallat if we consider them what more vile and nasty A Capon a Hen or a Duck which is the ordinary food of rich men if we but observe their feeding nothing would be more loathsome If in your Cooking you should fling into the pot worms grubs horse-dung and other such stuff no body I believe would eat of it and what is a Hen but a vessel fill'd with such uncleanness Other meats which are most coveted by our sensual Belly-gods if they
and work stupendious wonders and being of a great and generous spirit confessed his fear saying as we have it from St. Paul Heb. 12. That he was terrified and trembled Let a man now consider how memorable was that day unto the Hebrew Nation wherein they saw such Visions heard such Thunders and felt such Earthquakes as it is no wonder that the great fear which fell upon them in that day of Prodigies made them think they could not live Yet was all this nothing in respect of the terrour of that great day wherein the Lord of Angels is to demand an account of the violation of the Law For after the sending far greater plagues than those of Egypt after burning in that Deluge of fire the Sinners of the world the Saints remaining still alive that that Article of our Faith may be literally fulfill'd From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead The Heavens shall open and over the Valley of Josaphat the Redeemer of the World attended by all the Angels of Heaven in visible forms of admirable splendour shall with a Divine Majesty descend to judge it Before the Judge shall be born his Standard Chrys Tom. 3. Serm. de Cruce which St. Chrysostome and divers other Doctors affirm shall be the very Cross on which he suffered Then shall the just such being the force and vigour of their spirits as will elevate their terrene and heavy bodies meet as the Apostle sayes their Redeemer in the Air who at his issuing forth of the Heavens shall with a voice that may be heard of all the world pronounce this his Commandment Arise ye dead and come unto Judgement Which shall be proclaimed by four Angels in the four Quarters of the World with such vehemence that the sound shall pierce unto the infernal Region from whence the Souls of the damned shall issue forth and re-enter their bodies which shall from thenceforward suffer the terrible torments of Hell The Souls also of those who died onely in Original sin shall come and possess again their bodies free from pain or torment and the Souls of the blessed filling their bodies with the four gifts of Glory shall make them more resplendent than the Sun and with the gift of agility shall joyn themselves with those just who remain alive in the Air in their passible bodies which being yet mortal and therefore not able to endure those vehement affections of the heart of joy desire reverence love and admiration of Christ shall then die and in that instant behold the Divine Essence after which their Souls shall be again immediately united to their bodies before they can be corrupted or so much as fall unto the ground and thence forward continue glorious for in the moment wherein they die they shall be purified from those noxious humours and qualities wherewith our bodies are now infected And therefore it was convenient they should first die that being so cleansed from all filth they might by the restitution of their blessed Souls receive the gifts of Glory Considering then the so different conditions of the Souls of men who can express the joy of those happy Souls when they shall take possession of their now glorious and beautiful bodies which were long since eaten by worms or wild beasts some four some five thousand years agoe turned into dust and ashes What thanks shall they give to God who after so long a separation hath restored them to their antient Companions What gratulations shall the Souls of them who lived in austerity and penance give unto their own bodies for the mortifications and rigours which they have suffered for the hair-shirts disciplines and fasts which they have observed To the contrary the Souls of the damned how shall they rage and curse their own flesh since to please and pamper it hath been the occasion of their torments and eternal unhappiness Which miserable wretches wanting the gift of agility and so not able of themselves to go unto the place of Justice shall be hurried against their wills by Devils all trembling and full of fear § 2. The Reprobates being then in the Valley of Josaphat and the Predestinate in the Air the Judge shall appear above Mount Olivet Zach. 1. unto whom the clouds shall serve as a Chariot and his most glorious body shall cast forth rayes of such incomparable splendour as the Sun shall appear but as a coal for even the Predestinate shall shine as the Sun but the light and brightness of Christ shall as far exceed them as the Sun does the least Star The which most admirable sight shall be yet more glorious by those thousand millions of excellent and heavenly spirits which shall attend him who having formed themselves acreal bodies of more or less splendour according to their Hierarchy and Order shall fill the whole space betwixt Heaven and Earth with unspeakable beauty and variety The Saviour of the World shall sit upon a Throne of great Majesty made of a clear and beautiful Cloud his countenance shall be most milde and peaceable towards the good and though the same most terrible unto the bad In the like manner out of his sacred wounds shall issue beams of light towards the just full of love and sweetness but unto sinners full of fire and wrath who shall weep bitterly for the evils which issue from them Psa 109. 1 Cor. 15. Phil. 2. So great shall be the Majesty of Christ that the miserable Damned and the Devils themselves notwithstanding all the hate they bear him shall yet prostrate themselves and adore him and to their greater confusion acknowledge him for their Lord and God And those who have most blasphemed and outraged him shall then bow before him fulfilling the promises of the eternal Father That all things should be subject unto him That he would make his enemies his footstool and That all knees should bend before him Here shall the Jews to their greater confusion behold him whom they have crucified and here shall the evil Christians see him whom they have again crucified with their sins here also shall the Sinners behold him in glory whom they have despised for the base trifles of the earth What an amazement will it be to see him King of so great Majesty who suffered so much ignominy upon the Cross and even from those whom he redeemed with his most precious blood What will they then say who in scorn crowned the sacred temples of the Lord with thorns put a Reed in his hand for a Scepter cloathed him in some old and broken Garment of purple buffeted and spit upon his blessed face And what will they then say unto whose consciences Christ hath so often proposed himself in all his bitter passion and painful death and hath wrought nothing upon them but a continuance of greater sins valuing his precious blood shed for their salvation no more than if it were the blood of a Tyger or their greatest enemy I know not how
and increase Whereupon St. Austin calls it the foundation of the City of Babylon This Covetousness is seated in the affections of the soul as in its proper subject but is fed and receives nourishment from those exteriour things which we possess Wherefore wholly to extripate it two things are necessary not onely to quit this interiour thirst and gaping after riches but also that exteriour possession of them The first is to be done by the will and spirit but the second by an actual and effectual execution and forsaking them and it is for this that we are promised in this life a hundred-fold and in the next eternal felicity O how great a distance is there discovered betwixt things temporal and eternal since the onely hope of the eternal bestows more upon us even in this life then we can receive from the dominion and possession of all that is temporal Temporal goods by being enjoyed and possest are not so much as doubled but by being renounced for Christ are multiplyed a hundred-fold and hereafter conferr the Kingdom of Heaven Abundance of temporal goods as hath been already observed hinder and obstruct the pleasures and contents of this life for which we seek them and hereafter throw their possessors into hell flames so as they are not onely the occasion of eternal pain but by anticipation of many temporal inconveniences For I know not how it coms to pass the most rich are not the most contented nor yet the least necessitated It seems their goods diminish in their hands and are of less value amongst them than the poor at least ten is not worth to a rich man so much as one to a poor so as the poor who have renounced their goods for Christ finde them multiplyed a hundred-fold and the rich who forgetting their Redeemer employ themselves wholly in heaping up wealth find them as much diminished and of a hundred enjoy not one Besides the rich are so encumbered with cares dangers fears and perturbations that they know not the true contents of this life and yet run the hazard of eternal damnation in the other But to the contrary those who are poor in spirit and have forsaken their possessions for Christ are in this world filled with joy peace and comfort and in the next enjoy the Kingdom of Heaven O how happy are they who understand this and know how to change earth for heaven O how truly doth Christ call happy the poor in spirit who have left all for his sake and therefore enjoy a double happiness the one present and the other future here a hundred-fold for that which they possess not and hereafter the possession of life eternal O how happy is he who knows with the riches of the earth to purchase the treasure of glory in death and in life to receive them a hundred-fold doubled Cassian Collat. ult c. ult This according to Abbot Abraham is fully verified in religious persons who have quitted all they have upon earth to live in an estate of poverty who for one Father which they have left find a hundred in religion and for one Brother a hundred who embrace them with Christian charity for one possession a hundred possessions and for one house a hundred houses in the multitude of Monasteries founded for their Order so as there is no doubt but this reward is not onely doubled unto them a hundred-fold but multiplied to a farre greater proportion The same may be seen in other servants of God who serve him in voluntary poverty Beda de Nat. Sancti Benedic who by how much as Bede notes they have served God with more affection in renouncing their temporal goods by so much hath God stirred up the affections and liberalities of others to supply and assist them in all their wants So as they are served with the goods of all and as the Apostle sayes having nothing possess all But although this recompence should fail us yet one a hundred-fold greater then this will not fail us which is that noted by St. Jerome Lib. 3. in Math. He who for our Saviours sake leaves carnal things shall receive spirituall which in comparison and value are as if some small number were compared with a hundred We seek the goods of the earth for the ease and content of life But if this may better and with more advantage be acquired by the contempt and leaving them what can we desire more Certainly he who quits all for Christ enjoyes a hundred times more content and pleasure then he who flows in the greatest riches and abundance for according to what hath been said the goods of this life are tedious and troublesome even to life it self so the freedom from those cares and incommodities which accompany them eases the heart and makes our life more sweet and pleasant Whereupon St. Chrysostome notes That as the Children in the middest of the fiery furnace in Babylon were refresht by a cool wind and pleasant dew to those who are in poverty which the holy Scripture calls a furnace are recreated by a gentle aire from heaven and the dew of the holy Spirit and that in so high a manner as St. Bernard speaking of the Monks of Claraval sayes That they drew from their Poverty Fasts and austere Penances such joy and spiritual comfort that they were jealous and afraid least God had given them their whole and compleat reward in this world and it seemed unto them that having their heaven in this life they should lose it in that to come Whereupon it was necessary for St. Bernard to prove unto them in one of his Sermons That he did injure the grace of the holy Spirit who placed grief in what it communicated Certainly the Servants of God are highly rewarded since they receive even in this life such celestial joyes for those temporal trifles which they have quitted If one for a certain weight of Copper were to receive the like in Gold Cassian Sup. I believe he would think he had made a good bargain The like exchange they make who receive those spiritual joyes for the pleasures of the earth In Histor Cistere This is fully verified in that which happened unto Arnulphus the Cistercian who being rich noble and abounding with all which the world esteems moved by the Sermons of St. Bernard became a Monk in the Monastery of Claraval where after a holy life led in much rigour and austerity he at last became very infirm and through the great grief and pains which he suffered would often fall into faintings and sounding trances but still when he recovered from his fits would cry out It is true it is true which thou hast said O blessed Jesus And to some present who thought the extremity of pain did make him rave he would say Brethren I have spoken this in my right judgement and senses for that which our Lord promised in the Gospel That he who for his sake should leave Father Mother or Goods
comes it then that a Dwarf or Pigmey in time affrights us and an armed Giant in eternity makes us not tremble how is it that eternal hell moves us not and yet we fear a temporal pain how is it we do not penance for our sins why have we not patience in our afflictions why suffer we not all that which can be suffered in this life rather than to suffer one onely torment in eternity The pains of this valley of tears being they are to have an end are not to be feared in comparison of those which shall never have it how contentedly then ought we to suffer here a little and for a short time that we may be freed from suffering much hereafter and for ever What we have considered in evils and afflictions the same is to be considered in goods and blessings If one were to enjoy all the pleasures of the senses for a thousand miriads of years but were to pass no further we ought to change them all for one onely pleasure that would last for ever Why then exchange we not one perishing pleasure of the earth which is to last but for a moment for all those immense joyes which we are to possess in Heaven for a world without end All the temporal goods of the world might well be quitted for the securing of only one that were eternal how is it then that we secure not all the eternal by forbearing now and then one which is temporal It would infinitely exceed the Dominion of the whole world so long as the world shall last to be Lord but of one little Cottage for eternity time holds no comparison with it all that is temporal how great soever being to be esteemed vile and base and all that is eternal how small soever high and precious And that we may exaggerate this consideration as much as possible the very being of God himself if it were but for a time might be quitted for some other infinitely less excellent which were eternal And shall then the covetous man satisfie himself with those poor treasures which death may quit him of to morrow and perhaps the Theef to day despising for them the eternal treasure of Heaven For certain if God should promise as to enjoy the pleasure of one onely sense for ever in the next life we ought for it to part with all the pleasures we have in this how huge a folly is it then that promising all those immense joyes of Heaven we will not for all them together part with some of those poor ones on earth The second way by which Eternity unto whatsoever it is joyned makes the good infinitely better and the bad infinitely worse is because it collects it self wholly into every instant so that in every instant it makes us sensible of all that which it is to contain in its whole duration and being to endure for an infinity it amasses as it were into every instant a whole infinity of pleasure or pain every instant being sensible both of what it contains at present what is past and what it shall contain in future So as a Doctor sayes Les de perfec divi lib. 4. c. 3. In Eternity all the good a thing can contain successively in an infinite time is recollected into one instant and made perceptible and enjoyable all at once As if all the pleasures a most delicious Banquet could afford successively by parts and that in an infinite time should be resumed all at once and all that delight should be conferred joyntly and together for eternity certainly this would make it infinitely better and of more esteem The same thing Eternity causes in evils and pains recollecting them in a certain manner into one and making them sensible all at once and although they be not all really and actually together yet it causes them to be apprehended altogether and so produces in the Soul a grief infinite and without limit Those then are truly evils which are totally and every way evils both in extension their duration having no end and in intension their being and essence having no limit or measure What afflicted person who considers this can be impatient since all the griefs of this life have both an end and limit The greatest temporal evils are but as biting of gnats in respect of the least of those which are eternal and therefore that we may escape all the eternal it is not much to suffer one temporal Let us tremble at the consideration of those two lances of Eternity those two infinities whose wounds are mortal and pierce the damned from side to side those two unsupportable rocks which overwhelm and crush whom they fall upon into pieces All that we suffer here is to be laughed at a fillip with a finger a trifle in respect of the eternal which embraces all times and with the evils of them all falls every instant upon the head of the damned §. 2. Besides what hath been already said Goods and Evils eternal have this condition that they are not onely qualified and augmented by the future but also by what is past although temporal so as the blessed Souls in Heaven not only enjoy the glory which they have in present and that which is to come but also what is past even unto those real and true goods of this life to wit their vertues and good works with the memory of which they recreate and congratulate themselves for all eternity in so much as all goods past present and to come concur in one to fill up the measure of their joy and the goods of all times even of those of this life are amassed and heaped up in their felicity How different from this are temporal goods since even those which we possess in present suffer not themselves to be entirely enjoyed here is no good which is not alloyed by some want danger or imperfection And if for the present they afford so little content much less do they for the future since the security of what we possess is so uncertain that the fear of losing it often disseasons the present gust The same fear also robbs our remembrance of the comfort of what is past since we fear to lose that most which we have formerly taken most pleasure in enjoying On all sides then the eternal goods are much more excellent unto which we ought to aspire and strive to purchase them even at the cost of all which is temporal and in this life as much as may be to imitate the same eternity the which is to be done by the practice of those three Vertues which St. Bernard recommends unto us in these words Serm. 1. in Festo Om. Sact. With Poverty of spirit with Meekness and Contrition of heart is renewed in the Soul a similitude and image of that Eternity which embraces all times For with poverty of spirit we merit the future with meekness we possess the present and with the tears of repentance recover what is past And truely he
who esteems Eternity hath no more than to exercise himself in the practise of those three Vertues The first by quitting with spiritual poverty all that is temporal and changing it for the eternal not setting his heart upon any thing in this life that he may find it bettered in the other For as Eternity does infinitely augment that good or evil unto which it is annexed so time diminishes and draws violently after it all that is in it Things therefore which are to finish require not much to leave them and those that are to end in nothing are to be reputed for nothing For the second Vertue a Christian ought with patience and meekness to persist in doing well and in overcoming the difficulties of vertue since the slight troubles of this life are to be rewarded with eternal happiness in the other And who seeing hell open and the abyss of its evils without bottom would not bear with patience the rigour of penance and with meekness suffer the impertinency of an injury not troubling at all the interior peace of his Soul but attending wholly even through fire and water to live vertuously and please his Redeemer who looking upon Heaven which awaits him will not be animated to do what is good chearfully and to suffer all crosses for God Almighty's sake with fervour and courage Ruffi nu 107. Pelag. libel 7. n. 28. Ruffinus relates that a certain Monk coming unto the Abbot Aquilius complained unto him that he found much trouble and tediousness in keeping of his Cell To whom the discreet Abbot answered My son this proceeds from not meditating on the perpetual torments we are to suffer nor upon the eternal joy and repose which we hope for If thou shouldest seriously but think on that though thy Cell were filled and swarmed with worms and vermin and thou stoodst up to the throat in the middle of them yet wouldest thou persevere in thy recollection without weariness or trouble The third Vertue is with tears and grief of Soul to endeavour a recommpence for our sins past and to satisfie for them with a dolorous contrition and bitterness of heart that so the eternity of happiness which by them was lost may with repentance be regained contrition being a vertue so potent that it repairs what is ruin'd and although it is said that what is done hath no remedy and that there is no power over what is past yet this most powerful Vertue is able to undoe what is done and to prevail upon what is past since it takes away our sins and makes them as if they had never been committed CAP. VIII What it is in Eternity to have no end But all these definitions and declarations of Eternity are not yet sufficient to express and truly set forth the greatness of it neither is it well understood as Plotinus notes what the Authors who define it thought of it That may be rather said which was said by Simonides the Philosopher Cic. l. 2. de naturae deorum who when Hieron King of Sicily intreated him to declare what thing God was demanded a dayes space to think before he gave his answer the which past he said he had need of more time to consider it and required other two dayes at the end of those he asked four which also ended his answer was that the more he thought upon it the more he found he had to think and knew less how to express it and that the further he entred into the consideration of it the more it hid and obscured it self from him The same may be said of Eternity the which is an Abyss so profound that humane understanding finds no footing but hath still more to consider the more it ponders De Myst Theo. St. Dionysius Areapagita speakiug of God confesses that it cannot be said what he is but onely what he is not and beside what he is In like manner Eternity cannot better be declared then by what it is not and beside what it is Eternity is not time it is not space it is not an age it is not a million of ages but it is more then time space or millions of ages The life wherein thou now art and which must shortly have an end is not Eternity the health which thou at present enjoyest is not Eternal thy pleasures and entertainments are not Eternal thy possessions treasures revenues are not Eternal that wherein thou trustest is not Eternal the goods of this world in which thou so much delightest are not Eternal Thou must leave them all A far greater thing is Eternity above Kingdoms above Empires and above all felicities Whereupon Lactantius and other Authors Lact. de falsa rel lib. 1. c. 2. not being able to declare it by what it is declare it by what it is not some saying it is that which hath no end others that which endures no change others that which holds no comparison which is as much to say it is that which is unlimited immutable and not proportionable with any thing besides it self It shall suffice therefore to declare and as it were Anatomize these three conditions of Eternity if not to give a perfect knowledge of what it is yet at least to beget a fear and reverence of that which most concerns us and withal to create in us a contempt and scorn of all which is Temporal as being little limited and mutable § 2. For the first Condition Ces dialog 3. which is to have no end Cesarius says that Eternity is a Day which wants an evening because it shall never see the Sun of its brightness set which is to be understood of the Eternity of Saints that of sinners being a Night which wants a morning upon whom the Sun of Glory never shall arise wherein the damned shall remain in perpetual sadness and obscurity eternally tormented both in Soul and Body If he who is sick of a Calenture though laid upon a soft and downy Bed thinks each hour of night an Age and every minute expects and with impatience wishes for the day how shall it fare with those who because in this life they slept when they were to watch shall in the next lie awake for an eternal night in a Bed of burning fire without ever hoping for a morning And certainly if there were in Hell no other pain than to live in that eternal night and sadness it were enough to astonish and confound all humane understanding This very condition of wanting end the Ancients deciphered by the figure of a Ring which because a Circle is endless But with greater Mystery David calls it a Crown whose roundness also admits no end thereby signifying according to Dionysius Carthusianus that an Eternity without end is either to be the reward of our good works or the punishment of our bad We ought to tremble at the sound of this voice without end for them who do ill and to rejoyce at this without end for them who do well It