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A21040 The iudge wherein is shewed, how Christ our Lord is to iudge the world at the last day to the extreme terrour of the wicked, and to the excessiue comfort of the good. With a preface, which it willbe necessary to read before the booke. Translated into English.; Libro de la imitacion de Christo Nuestro SeƱor. English. Book 7 Arias, Francisco.; Matthew, Tobie, Sir, 1577-1655. 1621 (1621) STC 741; ESTC S120328 84,537 253

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and who powre out the drink of spiritual comfort and ease to such as are afflicted and deiected that so they may beare their miseryes with patience who cloath their soules with vertues and celestiall guifts who are naked depriued of al spiritual graces and who cure and recouer out of their miserable infirmityes and who draw and deliuer out of that horrible captiuity them who are sicke of sinne and are taken prisoners and made slaues by Sathan Most certain it is that although all they who expresse mercy towards their neighbours shall be esteemed honored in that Tribunal shal be sublimed with glory and royall dignity yet these others who haue imparted it towards the soules of mē shal be much more esteemed and honoured by Christ our Lord and his Angels shal be raised to greater glory more aduaūced in the kingdom of heauen It is also to be considered that although these works of mercy whether they be corporall or spirituall and which respect the spirituall or corporall good of our neighbour are excellent and of great value and merit as we haue already sayd yet the interiour and exteriour workes of Fayth Hope Charity and Religion which haue e How highly gratefull those acts of vertue are which do immediatly respect Almighty God imediate relation to Almighty God and to the worship seruice which is due to him as our God and our Creatour are more excellent and of greater value merit then the workes of mercy which ayme but at the cōfort of our neighbours And so much more as any vertue doth draw neere approach to God so much more is the vertue more excellent Now the vertues which are called Theological which are Fayth Hope Charity do looke vp and serue immediatly honour Almighty God belieuing his truth and louing his goodnes and hoping in his mercy And the vertue of Religion doth respect and exercise the worship and veneration which is due to God as being soueraigne Authour and Lord of all thinges And these vertues being more excellent then that of Mercy towardes our Neighbour it is cleare that those faythfull Christians who with firme and liuely fayth haue beleeued in Christ our Lord and who confessed his fayth in the face of Tyrants who placed all their confidence in Christ searching with care after his glory and resigning themselues entirely to his most holy will and honoring him reuering him with true worship with pure prayers and with an exact performance of their promises and the vowes which they make to his diuine Maiesty certaine I say it is that in the day of his diuine Iudgment they shall be more esteemed and honoured by Christ for hauing done and suffered these thinges then either they or any others shall be for any other inferiour works which they may haue wroght towardes their Neighbours And therefore the reward of glory being so illustrious and so high which for the workes of spirituall and corporall mercy they shall receaue considering that yet the reward which these others shall obtayne is to be much more eminent and great and since notwithstāding that the kingdome which is to be giuen in reward of these workes of mercy is celestiall eternall yet for these acts of faith and Charity and Religion a greater and a better portion shall be allotted and set out in the same kingdome let vs be most diligent in the leading of a good life in cōseruing our soules pure and cleane in exercysing our selues in the acquisitiō of vertue And let vs be full of feruour towards the works of mercy whether they be spirituall or corporall euery one according to his Tallent O happy f Conclusion and for euer most happy they who shall thus imploy themselues Happy because they were elected from all eternity by almighty God Happy because they were called in Tyme to his faith and Religion and were instructed therin Happy because they did correspond to that vocation of God and did begin to lead a good life Happy because they did contynue therin Happy because if they fell they quickly rose againe by penance and were constant therin And Happy beyond all happies because when our Lord came to call them to accompt at the houre of their death he found them imployed in a good life and watchfull in the exercise of good workes expecting the tyme of his comming to receaue the reward of their labours at his mercifull and most liberall handes For it is sayd by no lesse then Truth it selfe Luc. 12. Happy is that seruant whome his Lord when he commeth shall find watching and imployed in the discharge of his duety with fidelity and prudence and complying with his obligations whether they be common to all Christians or particulerly belonging to his state I tell you as an vndoubted truth that to such a seruant as this his Lord shall deliuer vp the possession of all his goods That is Christ our most mercifull Lord and our God will rayse him vp from the blessinges of grace in this life to the blessinges of glory in the next and from the basenes of this earth to raigne eternally together with himselfe in heauen Amen THE CONCLVSION TO THE READER MAKE accompt good Reader that this discourse is a Letter this which now thou art reading is the Postscript of it Thou hast seene the torments of Hell and the ioyes which are imparted to the elect in heauen Thou hast seene that if thou dye in mortall sinne thou wilt for euer be chayned in those torments for euer be depriued of those ioyes Take heed therefore of all sinne and especially take heed of the sinne either of Schisme or Heresy which are of the greatest that can be cōmitted The nature of Heresy consisteth in this That a man will make election of some one doctrine or more which is contrary to the beleefe of that true Church which is celebrated in the Creed of the first Councell of Nice to be One to be Holy to be Catholike to be Apostolike Be sure thou be of that one true Church which soeuer that be for thogh myself be resolued yet I will not heere handle that question by way of Controuersy but there is but one wherin a Christian can be saued one in the faith which it professeth howsoeuer it may be accounted many in respect of the infinite persons which it conteyneth and consequently of the particular Churches which it imbraceth The nature Wher in the nature of heresy doth indeed consist therfore of heresy doth not consist in the multitude or quality of the Articles of Religion which are held in difference from the dotrine and direction of the holy Catholike Church but it consisteth properly in the pride and presumption of that hart which dares preferre a priuate opinion of any one or seuerall Countries or any interpretation of holy Scripture which interpretation is also no more then a For he will make the scriptur affirm
and serued The Sunne shall grow darke not as now it doth somtymes by naturall causes or in respect that any cloude may ouershadow it or because the Moone may cast it self betweene it and the earth as it hapneth in the case of an Eclipse but it is to be obscured by a supernaturall and miraculous cause and so it is to be vnderstood that for a while it shall loose the whole light it had The Moone shall also loose her light The Stars shall fall from heauen Ioel. 2. either because when they are without light it shall seeme to be as if they were fallen or els for that in very deed they shall dislodge themselues from that high firmament where they are fixt and for some tyme shall fall from thence and deteine themselues in the ayre till they returne againe into their place The powers of the heauen shal be moued that is those celestiall bodies with their naturall vertue shall tremble and so shift their places as in an earthquake the earth is wont to do or if it be vnderstood of Angells the meaning is how in that day they shall make some kind of spiritual demōstration motion of great admiratiō The Sea shal be troubled shal be moued in a most wōderful māner and with the waues thereof shall make such a hideous noyse as will astonish the whole world oppresse and afflict with excessiue feare and horrour the harts of mortall men will make them euen whither againe with woe The Earth shall tremble 2. Pet. 3. and shal be open in many partes and shall disclose euen the pits of hel The Ayre with the same Earth and Sea shall burne by that most ardent ouerflowing of fire which shall consume al the liuing bodyes of fishes beasts and men God in his law commanded the children of Israel Deut. c. 13. v. 20. that when they should be to fight against the Idolatours and Pagans who dwelt in the Land of Promise and whome he was pleased to punish for their sinnes not only that they should kill the men but euen the very beasts which did them seruice and so in particuler he b A sign of this truth in the old Testamēt exacted this of Saul when he went to fight against the Amalecites and because he did not punctually comply with this cōmandment but suffered some of the Cattle to liue God was offended Saul was punished 1. Reg. 3. Let vs now see why God did not content himselfe with causing the men who had sinned to be put to death but the beasts also which had no fault It was to make men vnderstand and feele that sinne is so great a mischeife and is so worthy to be abhorred and punisht and that God doth indeed so much abhor it that it is a most cōuenient thing not onely to punish sinners with eternall tormēts death but to destroy also and consume and as it were to chastice the creatures wherof they did serue help thēselues towards their sinnes Therfore is it that resoluing in the Vniuersall Iudgment to chastice the wickednes of all men in a most complete manner he will not content himselfe to deliuer ouer sinners themselues to those eternall ardours of fire those other immense paines of hell but to the creaturs also wherof they made some vse in sinning he giues as it were a kind of payne and punishment in detestation of the sins themselues as also to the end that they may be purged and cleered frō that indecency and deformity which grew to them by the seruice which they did to sinners For thus it is that the Sunne the Moone Stars which did illuminate sinners whilest they were committing their sinnes shal be depriued by him for a whyle of all the light beauty which they haue he shall conuert it into thick darknes And as for the Sea the Earth Ayre which gaue food to sinners did maintaine them whilest they were offending God he will make them as it were feare and tremble will depriue them for a tyme of the naturall quality and disposition they haue and will consume and kill all those liuing creatures and plantes which were the food of sinners and wil destroy al those buildings which were the habitation of wicked men And thus through the mutation demonstration desolation which in the Iudgment God will shew in al the creatures which serued sinners he doth teach and testify the infinite hatred which he hath against sin And he doth induce perswade vs that now through the knowledge of this truth we may be drawn to abhor detest them and that with a penitentiall holy life we may cleanse our soules as well as possibly we can frō al fault offence of his diuine Maiesty 2. Pet. 3. S. Peter c This truth is insinuated by S. Peter doth admonish vs of the good effect which we are to draw from the change which is to be made vpon the creatures by saying to this effect Since there is a day of the vniuersall Iudgement to come wherin all the creatures for hauing serued sinners are to be purged with fire and burnt inferre my brethren from hence how diligent and constant it is fit for you to be in the leading of a good life and how holily and purely you are to conuerse in this world and how vigilant and carefull it will becom you to be in performing the works of piety towards God and of mercy towards your Neighbour expecting with a liuely fayth that day of our Lord and approaching and drawing neere to him with speed not with paces of the body but with the desires affections of the soule desiring and louing this day and preparing to see your selues at that tyme accompanyed with purity of life and with the exercise of vertue CHAP. V. How Christ our Lord discouereth the hate which he carryeth towardes sin by the so particuler account which he taketh of them all ANOTHER mystery of this diuine Iudgement discouering the mighty demonstration and detestatiō which God doth expresse against the faults whereby he is offended is the so particuler accompt which he will take of vs which we all must giue of all the facultyes or powers al the senses both of our body and soule of all the creaturs which we haue vsed and a If you beleeue this point of fayth to be true I shall not need to wish you to looke wel about you of all the workes which we haue performed all the wordes which we haue spoken and all the thoughts which we haue conceaued how little soeuer they fall out to haue beene without leauing out so much as any one idle word or any one idle thought We shall giue accompt of how we imployed our Vnderstanding if we did set it on worke vpon the inquiry and search of God and his truth and in contemplating on him his holy Cōmandments and the workes of
for the getting of a little money passe through intollerable troubles both by Sea Land and do expose themselues to great danger of death All kind of tradesmen for the getting of a poore liuing do labour and sweat both day and night in their seuerall occupations The souldier for his miserable pay and for a little fume of honour is subiect to extreme inconueniences and runs hazard of his life at euery moment The seruants and Courtiers of great Princes for the obtayning of fauour which yet doe passe and change like any wind depriue themselues of their owne gust and deny their owne will and are hanging day and night vpon that of others and for the giuing of contentment to their Lords they take an aboundance of discontentment disgust to themselues They who are enamoured of this world the couetous for money the intemperate for curious fare the dishonest for that filthy pleasure the proud for that vaine delight in honour and commaund and all of them in fine for the poore cōmodities of this life do suffer greiuous paines and endure excessiue torments and sicknesses and other afflictions which vpon these occasious they incurre as themselues do confesse when the punishment of God shall haue laid their errour before their face And then they will say Sap. 5. We went astray from the way of truth and were estranged from that diuine light and did ouerworke and tyre our selues in the way of sinne and vice and there we endured many difficulties If then the men of this world for the obteyning of most base and transitory riches and of certaine pleasures which are vaine and pernicious both to body and soule for the giuing of contentment to mortall creatures for the yeilding of obedience to those infernall Diuels who perswade them to the loue of earthly things doe ingulfe themselues into such a sea of troubles and breake through such a world of difficultyes what in the name of God will it not be fit for Christians and the seruants of Christ to do for the being faythfull and loyall to that diuine Maiesty and for the exact complying with that obedience loue which they owe him both as to a father and as to a Lord and for the obtayning of the kingdome of heauen the possessing of those immortall riches of the house of God the honour glory of being the sons of God and consequently the ioynt heyres with Christ our Lord of his patrimony Royall and of his euerlasting entaile and for the inioying and that for euer of those incomprehensible delights of his beatitude Certainly it is most iust it is most due that they should vndergo any trouble and ouercome any difficulty and expose themselues to any temporall hazard how greatsoeuer For as the Apostle sayth by way of confirming this truth g 1. Cor. 9. All g This truth confirmed by S. Paul most diuinely excellently pondered by our Author men who striue and fight with others in the place deputed to that end as the vse of the Romains was to do in their entertainements and feasts do for the ouercomming of their opposites abstaine from all those thinges of gust which may be of any impediment to them in their combat as namely from delicate meates from wine from women and the like which are wont to make men dull and weake and they feed vpon grosse meats they obserue the rules of continency and temperance and they prepare and accustome themselues before hand to labour And all this they do to obtayne the reward of winning a corruptible crowne which might perhaps be some Iewell or some suite of clothes or some garland of bayes or flowres or some vaine applause and flying prayse of men What then are we Christians obliged to do in this spiritual contention and strife which we are making against sinne for the obtayning of that crowne of immortality and glory of that celestiall kingdome It is most certain that if for the giuing of contentment to Almighty God and for the obtayning of that eternall and immense beatitude it were necessary to suffer all those pains put togeather which al the men of the world from the beginning of it to the end will haue beene to suffer and which all the holy Martyrs haue endured it were all reason that we should willingly be content to endure them all And if it were necessary not only to suffer all the paines of this life but to endure yea and that for many ages all the torments of hell yea and of many hells it h The ioyes of heauen are more to be desired then euen the paines of hell to be auoyded were most iust fit to endure them all for the obtayning of the kingdome of heauen afterward For greater is the good of the glory of heauen then the euill of the paines of hell And how much then more iust and more conuenient will it be to suffer the payne and difficulty which belongs to vertue and which accompanyeth the fullfilling of Gods commandments Which i How the difficultyes of vertue grow delightfull through the goodnes of God besides that all temporal labour is light since it is so short difficultyes besides that they are short for as much as at the most they last no longer then this life they are with all both light and sweet For the loue of God and the heauenly consolations which he communicateth to his seruants doth make them sweet and the helps and succours of grace which otherwise he giues thē make them light So doe iust persons find this to be by experience as the Apostle confesseth saying 2. Cor. 1. After the rate of the tribulations and afflictions which we suffer for Christ our Lord and whereby we go in imitation of him so do the consolations which are giuen by Almighty God through the vertue and merit of our B. Sauiour increase and copiously abound in vs. If k Consider seriously of the conclusion of this discourse then the labours troubles of this life be on the one side so momentany and so short and on the other so sweet and light and the reward of glory and of that celestial kingdome so eternal and immense and that as our good workes doe grow to be increased so also doth the reward of glory go increasing in such sort as that to euery of our good workes yea l O infinite bounty of God! And are we then in our wits when we be either sinnefull or euen but slouthfull in Gods seruice and to euery one of our desires and euen to euery moment of a life which is lead in state of grace there is a distinct degree of glory which correspondeth what man is that who will not labour for the leading of a vertuous life Who will not be diligent in making resistance to all temptations whatsoeuer Who will not suffer any iniury or paine for liuing well And who will not resolue with strength and courage to perseuere in