all humaine capacitie If we say with the Angell of the Schowle that it is an immoueable durance whose continuation shall neuer fayle how shall we compare it with Tyme whose continuance is cut of by euerie moment and which would cease to bee if God by an onely word should stop the motion of the Heauens If we say with the Apostle of France that it is an immortall thing incorruptible inuariable hauing its beeing all at once how can we compare it with Tyme which is a variable corruptible changeable mortall thing and whose beeing consists onely of a succession of instants a transitorie beeing which subsists onely by a flux of moments which tend continually to ruine and change as many faces as it conteynes instants which made Iob say that the life of man doth neuer remayne in the same state For since it is but a successiō of dayes who knowes not that though some dayes resemble others yet are they neuer the same If we say with a Christian philosopher in his Consolatio Philosophiae that Eternitie is an indiuisible and accomplished beeing without end or limite who sees not that it is the true conterpoise of Tyme whose imperfect beeing is bounded with euerie instāt If we say with another Doctor that it is a present without either praeter-perfect or future Tyme and a spheere whose center is continually without any circuit at all who sees not that it is to drinke vp Tyme into a nothing to place a thinge so litle beside so huge a thinge Yes verily heauen and earth shall passe and shall be worne like a garment but Eternitie shall be still itselfe and its constāt and perpetuall youth shall neuer waxe old An eleuation of the mynd to God vpon the comparison of tyme to Eternitie XVII O Eternall God who art authour of Tyme yet makest thyne abode in Eternitie whose gouernement and Royaltie doth extend it selfe PLVS VLTRA adorable Dietie who art from Eternitie to Eternitie that is to say without begining or end subsisting eternally by thy selfe who art seated vpon thyne eternall Throne whose power is an eternall power and whose Kingdome is the Kingdome of all ages bring to passe ô great God by that mercy which thou eternally builsted in heauen that the consideration of the immense and incomprehensible greatnes of eternitie may be so liuely imprinted vpon our heart that the affections which linke them in so strong bands to trāsitorie things and to the moments of things temporall may be so weakened or rather brought to nothing that nothing may stay vs here below or hinder our course toward the goale of eternall felicitie Take vs by the right hand ô Lord conduct vs to thy glorie by the royall way of thy heauenly will and leade vs in the eternall way Thou ô great Iesus sonne of the eternall liueing God who art our way Truth and life direct our steps in the way of true life And which is this true life but life euerlasting which is nothing els but to see thee in the bosome of the Father who begets the great TO-DAY of Eternitie Rayse vp the abbated currage of mortalls and readuance their drooping thoughts towards their origine Let them take so full a taste of the Manna of the blessed Eternitie that things possessed in Tyme may become loathsome vnto them Let them repute all tyme vaine in respect of Eternitie Grant ô Lord that this wholsome thought may be so deeply engrauē in our memorie that it may serue as a threade to conduct vs in the Labirinth of the worlds malice and that we may passe through the vse of temporall things with so well a directed conduct that we may not loose eternall Mans life compared to the worlds continuance XVIII ANd if all the continuance of Tyme be so litle in respect of Eternitie as I haue declared vnto you what shall the course of mans life be if we compare it I will not say to Eternitie for the distance is too great but onely to the continuance of the world How many men tearmed by the old Philosopher the litle worlds hath this world which the same Philosopher tearmed the great man deuoured How many liues haue and shall runne out since the begining of the world to the consummation therof Truly it is not imaginable though other wise finite and limited by number and season If you aske the wisest of men who was wise too by a heauenly wisdome to what he doth compare the shortnes of mans life he will tell you that it resembles a shadow which soudainly vanisheth a courser which passeth with a mimble speede a vessell on the sea vnder full sayles in a fauorable gale which swiftly glides ore the waues The flight of a bird which with a strong and liuely winge cuts the aire and an arrow which being shot from a strong and forcible arme flies home to the marke If you moue Iob vpon this point he will tell you that the dayes of man are verie short vpō the earth that his life is a vapour as soone cast downe as drawen vp that it is a winde whose measure is short nor can it be extended a measure so smale saith the Psalmist that its substance is a verie nothing and withall a measure which is in his hands who keepes the key of life and death It is not in the hands of men to th' end that liuing in so great an vncertaintie he may not rely vpon the continuance of his dayes nor trust to the common course of nature an errour too too ordinarie Measure me a blast of wind and waigh me a flame said a Prophete speaking of the lightnes vanitie of earthly things the shape desire of which passe like a floode But be it that all these things had some waight and soliditie yet since their vse cannot exceede the course of this mortall life one may clearely discouer that they leaue but vpon a slender reede and an earthly fundation For if our life compared to the worlds continuance be but a moment what a inconceaueable part of a nothing will it be if we add that the worlds continuance what euer we fayne to our selues of the length of it is but a momēt in respect of Eternitie A thousand yeares before the face of the Eternall God saith the Psalmist is but as yesterday which is past And all the yeares of men is but as the watch of a might which is reputed for nothing This causeth Iob to say that all the glorie of man is as a dreame that vanisheth and cannot be recalled and that it passeth like vnto a nightly vision Verily all these descriptions dictated by the Holy Ghost are liuely pictures of the vanitie and Nothing of man's life whose durance is so short that an onely instant doth often separate the Cradle and Graue All that we see is but a point saith the great Stoicke yea lesse then a point if any thing lesse can be imagined Shall we then gruge at the moments of tribulatiō which doe
state needs be which doth separate a soule for euer from its true principle which is God without all hope of returne O rebellious Absalomes for an Eternitie you shall be banished from the Court of this heauenly Father who doth no longer accnowledge you for his children Prodigalls that you are who by your reuoults and deboistnesse haue dissipated the substaÌ„ces of this eternall Fathers grace then shall there be no more tyme of repentance left for you and in this perpetuall separation from his face you shall remayne for an Eternitie in that forraine land couered with the shadow of death because you did wilfully separate your selues from the Authour of life God will reiect you eternally eternally shall you be depriued of the light of his countenance and of the light of that glorie which is the part and portion of the Blessed For euer shall you lament the losse of this priselesse treasure as Michol speÌ„t teares and could not be comforted for the losse of her Gods You shall sob but in vaine in vaine shall you moane the losse of the God of Gods whose deare presence had as throughly replenished you with happinesse as his absence doth oppresse you with disaster The continuall greife XXXI THe geife of this so irreparable a losse shall be so bitter in those wretches that we may count it Athanasia for one of their greatest torments For when they begin once to consider what they are and what they might haue bene and for what dolours they haue changed the inconceaueable felicities which were prepared for them in the sight of God the fruitlesse repentance of their follie will so vexe them that thence shall spring those teares those gnashings of teeth and those groanings which the scriptures doe allote theÌ„ Thence that immortall worme which incessantly shall gnaw them mentioned by ISAY a worme which S. THOMAS and all the Doctors hold to be spirituall not corporall and that it consisteth onely in a perpetuall repentance and remorse of coÌ„science which shall sting them no otherwise then wormes are wont to gnaw the bodies in which they are bred and fedd For this greife rysing from the remembrance of their sinne which is the cause of all their euils and of so deplorable a priuation of the sight of God shall liue coÌ„tinually in their memorie and shall cause a sharper remorse in them then all their other tortures When they shall call to mynd so many secreete inspirations so many exteriour exhortations so many interiour motions which they had felt to reclayme them from their wicked wayes when they shall reflect vpon tyme mispent and lost which they might haue made vse of for their conuersion and for the redeeming of their vnfortunately spent dayes When they shall represent vnto their thoughts how often they were warned to forsake the wayes of sinners and not to sitt in the chaire of pestilence to which they turnd a deafe eare and would not vnderstand welldoing And when they shall come to contemplate the vnfortunate estate to which the contempt of so many remonstrances shall haue reduced them together with their negligeÌ„ce in not making vse of occasions past which will neuer more present themselues vnto them ô God! with how fruitlesse an abomination of their crimes and with how furious and mad an indignation shall they be transported But lets rather heare them in their owne words expresst by the holy Ghost in the booke of wisdome where he brings them in speaking in this sort We haue strayed and wandred from the wayes of truth nor haue we bene enlightened with the light of Iustice. The Sunne of vnderstanding hath not cast his beames vpon vs where you are to note by the way that these children of the Diuell speake thus following their Father's spirit which is the spirit of Lies since sufficient grace to be saued and necessarie light to descerne what is good is denyed no man God desiring that all should be saued and should come to the knowledge of truth But let vs heare the continuation of those vniuste plaintes We gaue our selues ouer to the wayes of iniquitie and to the pathes of our ruine we haue wandered in painefull wayes being ignorant of the pathes of our Lord. Here you see how they mixe cokle with the good corne wheate with Chaffe I meane they mixe truth with falsities putting darknesse for light For true it is the way of vice is painefull and loathsome and to speake with the Prophete it is besett with thornes but it is most false to affirme that they knew not the Diuine pleasure since the light of nature and the light of Faith MOYSES and the Prophetes doe more then sufficiently point it out wherin they offend doublely in seeking to excuse their sinnes and become so much more lyable to punishment that hauing knowen the will of their great maister they did it not Let vs closely follow the grones of the reprobate and see how the Racke compells them at length to confesse the truth what hath pride profited vs what aduantage haue we gotten by the vanitie of riches all that is past as a shadow as a Poste that rides at full speede as a shippe sayling on the sea vnder full sayles leauing behind her no markes of her passage as a bird swinning in the ayre whose trace is not found as an arrow which flying cutts the ayre and the ayre presently reunites it selfe So haue our dayes run by without leauing any marke of vertue we haue spent in malice all the Tyme which was liberally bestowed vpon vs to worke our saluation in feare and trembling We haue past the course of our age in apparences and in the vanities and false follies of the world and in an instant we are fallen into Hell In this sort doe those wretches gnawen with a continuall sorrow vnprofitably repent them selues and grone vnder the pressure and affliction of heart which is the Hell of their Hell How did the Egiptians thinke you greeue who contemned IOSEPHES counsell to make their prouision of corne during the seaueÌ„ yeares of plentie which were so abundant that wheate was no more esteemed then sand while during those others of famine they were constrayned to giue the most precious things they had yea euen their â—owne libertie least famine might driue their soules out of their bodies What a liuely sense of greife shall they be touched withall while they shall consider that their former abundance caused in them many offences and that their present want is the punishment of the same offences but especially when they shall see PHARAO made Maister of all their goodes as well moueable as immoueable and that of his simple subiectes they are become his slaues O how heartily they would haue wished that they had giuen credit to the good IOSEPHES prophicies who aduised them to be myndfull in their plentie of the hard tyme to come and to make good prouision in tyme of harnest while their granaries and Cellers ouerflowed on euery side But how light
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