contempt of what is temporal since the first step unto Christian perfection according to the Counsel of Christ is to renounce all that we possess of earth that being so freed from those impediments of Christian perfection we may employ our selves in the consideration and memory of that Eternity which expects us hereafter as a reward of our holy works and exercises of vertue This horrid voice Eternity Eternity is to sound often in our hearts Thou not onely art to die but being dead eternity attends thee Remember there is a Hell without end and fix it in thy memory that there is a Glory for ever This consideration That if thou shalt observe the Law of God thou shalt be eternally rewarded and if thou break it thou shalt suffer pains without end will be far more powerful with thee then to know that the goods and evils of this life are to end in death Be mindful therefore of Eternity and resound in the inmost part of thy soul Eternity Eternity For this the Church when it consecrates the Fathers of it which are Bishops puts them in minde of this most powerful and efficacious memory of Eternity bidding them think of eternal years as David did And in the assumption and consecration of Popes they burn before their eyes a small quantity of flax with these words Holy Father so passes away the glory of the world that by the sight of that short and transitory blaze he may call to minde the flames eternal And Martin the fifth for his imprese and devise took a flaming fire which in short time burnt and consumed a Popes Tiara an Imperial Diadem a Regal Crown and a Cardinals Hat to give them to understand that if they complyed not with the duties of their places they were in a short time to burn in the eternal flames of hell the memory whereof he would preserve ever present by this most profitable Symbol §. 2. The name of Isachar whose Blessing from his Father was as we have formerly said to lye down and rest betwixt the two limits of Eternity signifies him That hath a memory or The man of reward or pay The Holy Ghost by this mystery charging us with the memory of eternal rewards And the Lord to shew how precious it was in his divine esteem and how profitable for us caused this name of Isachar to be engraven in a precious Amethyst which was one of those stones worn by the High-Priest in the Rational and one of those also rcveal'd unto St. John to be of the foundation of the City of God By it saith St. Anselme is signified the memory of Eternity which is the most principal foundation in the building of all perfection Truely if we consider the properties of this stone they are so many marks and properties of the memory of Eternity and of the benefits which that soul reaps Albert. Mag. Milius Ruiz v. Cesium de Min. lib. 4. p. 2. cap. 14. sect 14. which seriously considers it The Amethyst cause Vigilancy And what requires it more then the passage betwixt the two extreams of eternal glory and eternal pains What thing in the world ought to awake us more then the danger of falling into hell fire How could that man sleep which were to pass over a narrow plank of half a foot broad which served as a bridge betwixt two most high rocks the windes impetuously blowing and he if his foot slipt certain to fall into a most vast abyss No less is the danger of this life The way by which we are to pass unto Heaven is most streight the windes of temptations violent the dangers of occasions frequent the harms by ill examples infectious and the deceits of wicked Counsellors very many How then can a Christian sleep and be careless in so evident a peril Without all doubt it is more difficult to be saved considering the depravedness of our nature and the deceitful ambushes of the Devil then for a heavy man to pass over a heady and rapid river upon a small and bruised reed They say also of the Amethyst that besides the making him watchful who carries it it frees him from evil thoughts which how can that man have who bears Eternity in his mind how can he think upon the short pleasures of his senses who considers the eternal torments due unto his soul if he shall but consent to the least mortal sin The Amethyst also resists drunkenness preserving him that wears it in his senses and judgment and there is nothing that more preserves a mans judgment in the middest of the wine of delights in this life then the memory of the other and that for the pleasure of one moment here he is not only to suffer for hours for dayes for moneths for years but for worlds and a world of worlds hereafter The Amethyst besides this preserves the wearer from the force of poison And what greater Antidote against the poison of sin then to remember Hell which he deservs and Heaven which he loses by committing it The Amethyst also quiets a man and settles his thoughts And what can be more efficacious to free us from the disturbance of this life to bridle the insolence of covetousness to repress the aspiring of ambition then to consider the blessings of Eternity which attend the humble and poor in spirit Finally the Amethyst conferrs fruitfulness and this great thought of Eternity is fruitful of holy works For who is he that considers with a lively faith that for a thing so sleight and momentary he may enjoy the reward of eternal glory and will not be animated to work all he is able and to endure and suffer what shall happen for God Almighty and his Cause O how fruitful of Heroical works is this holy thought Eternal glory expects me the Triumphs of Martyrs the Victories of Virgins the Mortifications of Confessors are the effects of this consideration O holy thought O precious Amethyst that makes vigilant and attentive the negligent and careless that gives wisdom and judgment to the most deceived that heals those who are most ulcerated and corrupted with the poison of sin that quiets and pacifies the motions and troubles of our concupiscences that makes the most tepid and barren of vertues fruitful of holy works who will not endeavour to obtain and fix thee in his Soul O that Christians would so grave thee in their heart that thou mightest never be blotted out nor removed from thence How differently would they then live to what they now do how would they shine in their works for although the memory of Hell Heaven Death and Judgment be very efficacious for the reformation of our lives yet this of Eternity is like the quintescence of them all and virtually contains the rest CAP. IV. The Estate of Men in this life and the miserable forgetfulness which they have of Eternity BEfore we come to declare the conditions of Eternity whose consideration is so necessary for the leading of a holy
the memory of this doth not burst our hearts with compunction In vit PP Let us take the counsel of a holy Father in the Desert who when one asked him What he should do to soften and mollifie his stony heart answered That he should remember that he was to appear before the Lord who was to judge him whose sight as another holy Monk said would be so terrible unto the wicked that if it were possible that Souls could die the whole world at the coming of the Son of God would be struck dead with fear and terrour At the side of the Throne of Christ shall be placed another Throne of great glory for his most holy Mother not then to intercede for sinners but for the greater confusion of those who when time served have not addressed themselves unto her nor reaped the benefit of her Protection that she may be honoured in the sight of the whole World There shall be also other Thrones for the Apostles and those Saints who poor in spirit have left all for Christ who sitting now as Judges with their Redeemer and condemning by their good example the scandalous lives of sinners shall approve the Sentence of the Supream Judge and declare his great Justice before the world with which the wicked shall remain confounded and amazed and it shall then be fulfilled which so many years since was prophesied by the Wiseman Sap. 5. The wicked beholding the just who were despised in this life to be so much honoured shall be troubled with horrible fear and shall wonder at their unexpected salvation saying amongst themselves with great resentment and much grief and anguish of Spirit These are they who sometime were unto us matter of scorn and laughter We fools imagined their life to be madness and that their end would be without honour but behold they are counted amongst the Children of God and their lot is amongst the Saints We err'd and wandred from the ways of truth and the light of Justice was not with us nor the Sun of wisdom did shine upon us We wearied our selves in the ways of wickedness and perdition and walked in paths of difficulty and knew not the way of the Lord. What hath our pride profited us and what hath the pomp of our riches availed us all those things have passed like a shadow or like a messenger who passes in haste or like a ship which cuts the instable waves and leaves no track where it went and are now consumed in our wickedness The Tyrants who have afflicted and put to death the holy Martyrs what will they now say when they shall see them in this Glory Those who trampled under foot the justice right of the poor of Christ what will they do when they shall behold them their Judges And what will the wicked Judges doe or say when they shall see themselves condemned for their unjust Sentences Eccl. 3. 10. fulfilling that which was said by Salomon I saw a great evil beneath the Sun that in the Throne of Judgement was seated impiety and wickedness in the place of Justice and I said in my heart God shall judge the good and evil and then shall be seen who every one is Here in this life the just and sinner have not always the place which they deserve many times the wicked takes the right hand and the holy the left Christ shall then rectifie all those grievances and shall separate the wheat from the tares The good he shall place upon his right hand elevated in the Air that all the world may honour them as holy And the wicked shall stand far at his left remaining upon the Earth to their own confusion and the scorn of all How shall the sinners envy the just when they shall see them so much honoured and themselves so much despised How confounded shall be the Kings of the earth when they shall behold their Vassals in Glory and Lords when they shall see their slaves amongst the Angels and themselves in equal rank with Devils For it seems the Devils then shall assume bodies of Air that they may be sensibly seen by the wicked and shall stand amongst them for their greater affront and torment § 3. Immediately the Books of all mens Consciences shall be opened and their sins publisht to the whole world The most secret sins of their hearts and those filthy acts which were committed in private Those sins which through shame and bashfulness were conceal'd in Confession or cover'd with excuses crooked and sinister intentions hidden and unknown treacheries counterfeit and dissembling virtues all shall then be manifested feigned friends adulterous wives unfaithful servants false witnesses shall all to their great shame and confusion be then discovered If we are now so sensible when people murmure at us or that some infamous act of ours is known to one or two persons how shall we be then troubled when all our faults together are made known unto all both men and Angels How many are there now who if they imagined that their father or brother knew what they had committed in secret would die with grief And yet in that day not onely fathers and brothers but friends and enemies and all the world shall to their confusion know it The virtuous actions of the just how secretly soever performed their holy thoughts their pious desires their pure intentions their good works which the world now either disesteems or calumniates as madness shall then be manifested and they for them shall be honoured by the whole world virtue shall then appear admirable in all her beauty and vice horrible in all her deformity It shall then be seen how decent and beautiful it is for the great to humble themselves for the offended to be silent and pardon injuries on the other side how insolent and horrid a thing it is to trample upon the poor to wrong the humble to desire revenge and Lord it over others Then shall be also discovered the good works of the wicked but for their greater affront in that they have not persevered in doing well and that calling to remembrance the good counsel and advice which they have given unto others which hath been a means of their salvation they may be now confounded to have neglected it themselves to their own damnation The sins also of the just shall be published but with all their repentance and the good which they have drawn from their faults in such sort as it shall no ways redound to their shame but be an argument of rendring thanks and divine praises to the Lord who was pleased to pardon them But nothing shall be of greater despite and confusion unto sinners than to behold those who have committed equal greater sins than themselves to be then in Glory because they made use of the time of repentance which they despised and neglected This confusion shall be augmented by that inward charge which God shall lay against them of his divine benefits unto which
he after proved so excellent a Bishop and so perfect a follower of Christ that he came to give his blood for his holy name joyning to the Crown of a most holy life the Laurel of martyrdom No less wonderful was that contempt of the world in Simeon Sales Evagrius lib. 4. coll 33. who living as it is reported by Leontius and Evagrius in great poverty and contempt covered as much as he could his fasts large hours of prayer which he spent with God And to that end when he was in publique endeavoured so to behave himself as all men might take him for a fool and a distracted mad-man without the appearance of any virtue at all so as he was often seen to enter Taverns and when after his great fasts his hunger caused him to eat he would feed openly in the Streets upon vile and course meats and if any of understanding by chance looked more narrowly into his way of living as suspecting that what he did might be to conceal his vertues so soon as he had the least inkling of it he would presently depart to some other place where he might be free from knowledge or esteem It happened in a certain place where he was that one finding a Maid with child and urging her to confess who had defloured her she to conceal the offender laid it upon Simeon the Fool for so they called him He contradicted it not but was contented for Christs sake to bear the infamy until God was pleased that the true Father of the Child should be discovered and in the mean time had so much charity towards her who had laid that scandal upon him that she being in great necessity and infirm of her child-birth he secretly brought her to eat But our Lord at last made him venerable to the whole world who had made himself a fool to gain the wisdom of Heaven There are many also who to avoid the opinion of Saints and the honour which the people gave them have done things extraordinary and such as in the eyes of men seemed unworthy Gra. 25. §. 1. St. John Climacus writes that blessed Father Simeon understanding that the Governour of the Province came to visit him as a man famous for sanctity took a piece of bread and cheese in his hand and sitting at the door of his Cell eat it in that ravenous and odd manner that he seemed out of his wits and the Governour conceiving him to be so contemned him and returned home There lived also in the inner part of the Desert a Venerable old man unto whom a Disciple had associated himself to learn his sanctity and serve him Upon the fame of his holy life a certain man repaired unto him and with tears in his eyes besought him he would come unto his house and pray for his Son who was grievously sick The Hermite was content to goe along with him but the Father of the Child made haste before that he might in company of his Neighbours return and meet him and so receive him with more honour No sooner did the old man perceive him a farre off in this equipage but presently imagining what the matter meant he stript himself and plunging into a River close by began to bathe himself His Disciple being much ashamed of this light action wished the people to return home For the old man was out of his wits And going to his Master said Father what is it thou hast done all those who saw thee thought thou wert possest To whom the holy man answered It is well It is that which I desired §. 3. Amongst those who with Evangelical poverty have embraced the contempt of the world many have been great Lords Princes Kings and Emperours Amongst the Almanes their Prince Charles is the most famous who being rich and highly esteemed for his glorious actions touched with the desire of heavenly things left all to his Brother Pepin came to Rome built a Monastery upon the Mount St. Silvester and there remained sometime a Monk but being much troubled with the many visits of the City which was at hand and his retirement disquieted he left it and went to Mont-Cassino where he was received by Petronace the Abbot and there lived with great joy and content and profited so much in the exercises of humility that it is written in the Annals of the Monastery that the Abbot appointed him to take care of the Flock which mean office he executed with as great chearfulness as if he had governed a Kingdom as before and one of his Ews by chance falling lame he was seen to carry her home upon his shoulders a King not disdaining so mean a service We know also in our Spain that King Bamba after he had raigned eleven years and performed many brave actions deprived the Pirats of Africa of 200 Ships and taken Paul their King who went against the King of France prisoner The last of his glorious actions was to close himself up in a Monastery where he lived seaven years in great observance of Religion and died the year 674 And was after in 786 imitated by Bermudus King of Castile There is scarce any Province of Christendom wherein some Prince hath not renounced his temporal Kingdom for gaining the eternal instructing us that true greatness consists in humbling our selves for Christ and true riches in being poor both in will and deed But not to enlarge my self too far in recounting the Stories of those many Princes who have known how to exchange their temporal Riches for an eternal Kingdom I will content my self with relating one which includes many examples Cantiprat l. 2. c. 10. p. 2. Hen. Gran. d. 5. Ex. 25. Thomas de Cantiprato witnesses that in his time died St. Matilda Daughter to the King of Scots who had four Brothers The first being a Duke desiring to become poor for Christs sake left his wife and fortunes and forsook his Country The second bidding also farewell unto the world became an Hermite The third was an Arch-Bishop who quitting his Bishoprick entred into the Order of the Cistercians The fourth named Alexander was the youngest of all his Brothers and being now arrived at sixteen years of age his Father would have compelled him to take the Government of the Kingdom upon him Which being understood by his Sister Matilda who was twenty years old she called him aside and spake unto him in this manner My most sweet Brother what is that thou meanest to doe Thy elder Brothers have forsaken the things of the Earth to gain those of Heaven and wilt thou to gain this Temporal Kingdom which they have left lose that which is eternal and thy own Soul Alexander his eyes becoming fountains of tears answered her in this manner Sister what is it you advise me I am ready to execute your commands without varying in the least circumstance The holy Maid glad of his resolution changed her habit and both of them secretly leaving their Country came into
as well as Subject owe to the sin of our first Parents May you then being translated hence to the embraces of your Creator experimentally finde the true difference between things temporal and eternal in the blisful vision and fruition of our great All our all-mighty all-lovely all-glorious God who is all wonders at one sight all joyes and comforts in their sourse all blessings in their center the end of all labours the reward of all services the desire of all hearts and the accomplishment of all hopes and wishes May he then be to your Majesty all this which is here briefly expressed and infinitely more which is beyond expression And may he secure all these blessings to you for ever and crown them with his glorious Attribute of Eternity This is the no less hearty then dutiful prayer of MADAM Your Majesties Most humbly devoted In Christ Jesus J. W. A Summary of the Chapters in this Book LIB I. Cap. 1. OVr Ignorance of what are the true goods and not onely of things Eternal but Temporal pa. 1. Cap. 2. How efficacious is the Consideration of Eternity for the change of our lives p. 6. Cap. 3. The memory of Eternity is of it self more efficacious than that of Death p. 12. Cap. 4. The estate of men in this life and the miserable forgetfulness which they have of Eternity p. 18. Cap. 5. What is Eternity according to St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Dionysius p. 25. Cap. 6. What Eternity is according to Boetius and Plotinus p. 29. Cap. 7. Wherein is declared what Eternity is according to St. Bernard p. 33. Cap. 8. What it is in Eternity to have no end p. 41. Cap. 9. How Eternity is without change p. 52. Cap. 10. How Eternity is without comparison p. 60. Cap. 11. What is Time according to Aristotle and other Philosophers and the little consistence of life p. 68. Cap. 12. How short life is for which respect all things temporal are to be despised p. 74. Cap. 13. What is Time according to St. Augustine p. 82. Cap. 14. Time it the occasion of Eternity and how a Christian ought to benefit himself by it p. 89. Cap. 15. What is Time according to Plato and Plotinus and how deceitful is all that which is temporal p. 98. LIB II. Cap. 1. Of the End of Temporal Life p. 104. Cap. 2. Remarkable Conditions of the end of Temporal Life p. 121. Cap. 3. Of that moment which is the Medium betwixt Time and Eternity which being the end of Life is therefore most terrible p. 140. Cap. 4. Wherefore the End of Life is most terrible p. 147. Cap. 5. How God even in this Life passes a most rigorous Judgement p. 174. Cap. 6. Of the End of all Time p. 181. Cap. 7. How the Elements and the Heavens are to change at the end of Time p. 185. Cap. 8. How the World ought to conclude with so dreadful an End in which a general Judgement is to pass upon all that is in it p. 205. Cap. 9. Of the last day of Time p. 213. LIB III. Cap. 1. The mutability of things temporal makes them worthy of contempt p. 228. Cap. 2. How great and desperate soever our Temporal evils are yet hope may make them tolerable p. 238. Cap. 3. We ought to consider what we may come to be p. 243. Cap. 4. The Change of humane things shews clearly their vanity and how worthy they are to be contemned p. 253. Cap. 5. The baseness and disorder of Temporal things and how great a Monster men have made the World p. 261. Cap. 6. The Littleness of things Temporal p. 269. Cap. 7. How miserable a thing is this Temporal Life p. 285. Cap. 8. How little is Man whilest he is Temporal p. 309. Cap. 9. How deceitful are all things Temporal p. 319. Cap. 10. The dangers and prejudices of things Temporal p. 326. LIB IV. Cap. 1. Of the Greatness of things Eternal p. 337. Cap. 2. The Greatness of the Eternal honour of the Just p. 347. Cap. 3. The Riches of the Eternal Kingdom of Heaven p. 359. Cap. 4. The Greatness of Eternal Pleasures p. 368. Cap. 5. How happy is the Eternal Life of the Just p. 378. Cap. 6. The Excellency and Perfection of the Bodies of the Saints in the Life Eternal p. 389. Cap. 7. How we are to seek after Heaven and to preferr it before all the goods of the Earth p. 399. Cap. 8. Of Evils Eternal and especially of the great Poverty Dishonour and Ignominy of the Damned p. 411. Cap. 9. The Punishment of the Damned from the horribleness of the place into which they are banished from Heaven and made Prisoners in Hell p. 422. Cap. 10. Of the Slavery Chastisement and Pains Eternal p. 429. Cap. 11. Of Eternal Death and Punishment of Talion in the Damned p. 450. Cap. 12. The Fruit which may be drawn from the consideration of Eternal evils p. 459. Cap. 13. The infinite guilt of Mortal Sin by which we lose the felicity of Heaven and fall into eternal evils p. 467. LIB V. Cap. 1. Notable difference betwixt the Temporal and Eternal the one being the End and the other the Means Wherein also is treated of the End for which Man was created p. 487. Cap. 2. By the knowledge of our selves may be known the use of things Temporal and the little esteem we are to make of them p. 506. Cap. 3. The value of goods Eternal is made apparent unto us by the Incarnation of the Son of God p. 515. Cap. 4. The baseness of Temporal goods may likewise appear by the Passion and Death of Christ Jesus p. 524. Cap. 5. The importance of the Eternal because God hath made himself a Means for our obtaining it and hath left his most holy Body as a Pledge of it in the Blessed Sacrament p. 540. Cap. 6. Whether Temporal things are to be demanded of God And that we onely ought to aym in our prayers at goods Eternal p. 553. Cap. 7. How happy are those who renounce Temporal goods for the securing of the Eternal p. 561. Cap. 8. Many who have despised and renounced all that is Temporal p. 569. Cap. 9. The Love which we owe unto God ought so to fill our souls that it leave no place or power to love the Temporal p. 581. Faults escaped in the Print P. 8. L. 25. more R. of more P. 46. L. 28. resting R. rosting P. 65. L. 20. knowest R. knewest p. 139. L. 23. are die R. are to die P. 198. L. 27. Borosus R. Berosus P. 200. L. 29. hard R. hardness P. 232. L. 24. Persians R. Assyrians P. 232. L. 26. Assyrians R. Persians P. 338. L. 10. intention R. intension P. 416. L. 35. the depriving R. in the depriving P. 555. L. 38. know R. knew What else may be faulty the Pen may mend Moreover P. 386. L. 35. after those words any thing to maintain it you may add if you please These representations are to be understood
falls not under our capacity what it is to he without end We cannot amplifie it or exaggerate it so much but that whatsoever we say we still fall short Bonav de inf c. 49. Wherefore St. Bonaventure pondering with himself in his meditations upon Hell that if a damned person should every hundred years let fall but onely one small tear and those all to be preserved until that after innumerable Centuries of years they came to equal a Sea perhaps so many hundred millions of years may be thought to finish Eternity No it would but then begin Let them turn again and keep the same slow tears of that unfortunate sinner until they have fill'd another Ocean Would Eternity then end No but then begin as fresh and new as the first day Let them repeat the same ten twenty an hundred times until an hundred thousand Seas shall fill and overflow Shall we then find the bottom of Eternity No we have not past the Superficies of it and it shall still remain as deep and unsoundable as at first There are no Numbers no Arithmetick that can comprehend the years of Eternity If the whole Heavens were parchment and fill'd on both sides with Numbers they could not sum up the least part of that which hath no parts at all but is in it self whole entire and indivisible No Sea hath so many drops no Mountain so many grains of sand as will serve to reckon up the years of Eternity To declare this more amply I shall relate what happened unto Archimedes There were some Philosophers of his time who affirmed that the number of the sands of the Sea were infinite others that although they were in themselves finite yet they could not be comprehended under any Number Archimedes that he might confute both opinions composed a most learned and ingenious Book which he dedicated unto King Gelon wherein he proved that although the world were all fill'd with sand and that it were bigger than what it is yet that the multitude of those grains of sands were limited and might also be reduced under Numbers and he himself gave the account to what Number they would arise Since this Philosopher Father Clavius did the like computing how many grains of sand would fill the whole space betwixt the Firmament of the fixed Stars and the Earth making every grain of sand so little and indivisible that he allows 10000 of them unto the bigness of a poppie or mustard-seed and notwithstanding sums up this vast Number within the short space of one line all not surpassing one Unite and 51 Cyphers If then so many millions of millions may be contained in the length of one line what shall we say of the years in Eternity since that not only one line nor one book nor all the paper in the world nor all the world from the Firmament downwards filled with the Figures of Arithmetick were sufficient to contain one little particle of it notwithstanding the multiplication which is made by the adding of every figure Every Cypher which is added makes the number ten times more than it was because a Cypher put after one Unit makes it ten the second Cypher makes it one hundred the third one thousand and in this manner the Numbers goe multiplying to an immense Number in a few Figures Whereby one may conceive that adding one hundred Cyphers it makes the Numbers rise to such a pitch that it far exceeds the capacity of Man's imagination to conceive it What then would it be adding so many Cyphers as could be contained in a parchment as big as the whole Heaven Yet all this innumerable Number does not equal the least particle of Eternity which after so many numberless years past which at length after how long a time soever must meet an end would yet remain as if it did but then begin Let us seriously think how long were that life to be esteemed which should contain an hundred thousand years yet we have thought of nothing in respect of Eternity Let us think of ten times an hundred a thousand times as much still nothing to Eternity neither have we quitted the least part of it which is but then beginning Wherefore Lactantius saith With what years shall we satiate Eternity Lib. 1. de falsae relig c. 12. since it hath no end It is still beginning and nothing but a beginning and therefore may not unsignificantly be thus defined Eternity is a perpetual beginning which still continues without end or diminution Let us abstract from Eternity as many years as there are drops in the Sea atomes in the Air leaves in the Fields grains of sand in the Earth or Stars in the Heavens it will yet continue whole and entire Add as many years unto it it becomes no greater nor is further distant from its end since it admits none but in each point and instant receives a beginning Never never shall it have an end ever ever in beginning Let one imagine that there were a Mountain of sand which should reach from the Earth to Heaven and that an Angel after every thousand years should take from it one onely grain how many thousands of thousands of years and millions of millions would pass before that Mountain became so little that it would no longer remain perceptible Let the best Arithmetician that is cast up the account how many years would pass before that Angel had taken away half of the aforesaid Mountain This seems a thing endless but our understanding is beguiled for it would have an end and time would come when one half and even the whole Mountain would be taken away Finally there would be a time when there would be one only little grain remaining and this also would be removed But never shall we come to the end of Eternity and after the consuming of that whole Mountain of sand nothing would be diminished from Eternity but the Mountain of Eternity would remain as entire after millions of millions of Ages were past as in the beginning This seems to have been signified by that of Abacuch when he said The mountains of Ages are torn in pieces and the hills of the world shall be humbled by the ways of Eternity Because one thousand hills and mountains as big as the whole world may be consumed a thousand times over whilest the Eternity of the punishment of sinners pass over them which Eternity can never make an end of passing so that those miserable Souls who suffer in that devouring fire shall suffer a thousand and a thousand and millions of millions of years without coming neerer to the end than they were the first day § 2. What man would endure to lie upon one side resting before a scorching fire for the space of a whole year But what speak I of lying burning Who could endure to be laid in a soft bed upon one side without being permitted to rise or turn unto the other side for the same space This indeed was a rigorous
felicity of this world could not bestow true rest and even upon him who was the Master of it until the end of life Man is born as Job saith to labour Until death there is no rest Let us not then seek it here but let us place the chair of our joyes where it may be firm and stable and not in the unquietness and turmoyles of things temporal where death at least will certainly overthrow it Others painted Eternity in the form of a Snake to note the condition of a perpetual continuance not subject unto change but remaining still in the same estate and vigour For as this Serpent wants wings feet and hands which are the extremities of other creatures so Eternity wants an end which is the extremity of things temporal Apud Euseb l. 1. de praepar Evang c. 7. Moreover as Serpents although without feet wings or any extrinsecal organ of motion yet by their great liveliness of spirit move more swiftly then those creatures which have them so Eternity without dayes or nights or changes which are the feet and wings of time out-strips and over-go's all things that are temporal Besides Serpents enjoy such a vivacity and length of life that Philon Biblius saith they die not unless they be kill'd and that they hardly know a natural death being not subject to those changes of other creatures from youth to age and from health to sickness but preserve themselves still fresh and young by the often renewing and casting of their old skins neither have they like other creatures any determinate size of their greatness but so long as they live encrease in bigness after the manner of Eternity which hath no limit change or declination a condition of all others most to be feared by the wicked who are for ever to continue in those eternal torments without the least refreshment and without so much as the comfort of changing one torment for another St. Paulinus said of St. Martin that his rest was to change his labours and certainly to change one pain for another although not in it self much less is yet some ease But even this shall be wanting unto the damned who shall never be permitted so much change as to turn from one side to another A fearful thing that being now five thousand years past since the first damned Soul was plunged into hell that during all this time no change should afford him the least ease How many alterations have since happened in this world yet none in his most bitter torments The world hath once been destroyed by an universal deluge eight onely persons remaining alive After which all men enjoying an equal liberty the Assyrians became Tyrants over the rest and raised the first Monarchy which endured 1240 years and then not without the general uproar and turmoyl of all Asia passed unto the Medes under whom it continued 300 years Which ended it came unto the Persians and from them unto the Grecians from whom not without greater alteration then any of the former it passed unto the Romans under whom also it hath since failed Amongst all which changes and revolutions of the world none hath yet passed over that miserable and unfortunate creature Besides these alterations in government what alterations hath nature it self suffered what Islands hath the Sea swallowed up one of which as Plato reports was bigger than all Europe and Affrica And what others hath it cast up of new What buildings or to say better what Mountains hath the Earthquakes left secure many Hills have been overwhelmed or turned topsie turvie others have appeared and sprung up never known before What Cities have been sunk what Rivers dried up and others vomited forth through new Channels what Towers have not fallen what Walls not been ruin'd what Monuments not defaced how often hath the face of things changed how many revolutions have the greatest Kingdoms suffered and this miserable sinner hath in all this time not given one turn How many times hath the year renewed it self how many Springs how many Autumns past and yet he remains in that obscure night as in his first entrance into that place of torments The Sun hath compassed this elemental World a Million and 700000 times and yet this wretched Soul could never once change his posture or remove one pace since his first falling into hell Besides this what troubles what labours have been passed by those innumerable people who have lived from the beginning of the world until this present and are now all vanisht what sicknesses have been suffered what torments what griefs endured and are now all forgotten but no grief nor torment of that unfortunate Sinner hath in these 5000 years passed away or shall ever become less Ptolomy roared out with the pain of his Gout Aristarcus was grieved with his Dropsie Cambyses was afflicted with his Falling-sickness Theopompus afflicted with his Ptisick Tobias with his blindness and holy Job with his Leprosie yet those griefs had their end But all those evils which joyntly possess this miserable creature have not or ever shall have change or period They of Rabatha were sawed in the middest others thrashed to death with Flails others burnt alive in Furnaces others torn in pieces by wild Beasts Anaxarcus was pounded in a Mortar Perillus burnt in a brazen Bull. But all those pains passed away and are now no more but that damned person hath not yet made an end or to say better hath not yet begun to pass any one of his torments which 100000 years hence shall be as new and sensible unto him as they were in the beginning What desperation must then seise upon him when he sees a change in all things and in his pains and torments none for if even the pleasures of this life if continued the same convert into griefs how shall those pains which never change be suffered what spite and madness shall possess him when he shall behold the Flames of St. Lawrence the Stripes of St. Clement of Aneira the Cross of St. Andrew the Fasts of St. Hilarion the Haircloth of Simeon Stylites the Disciplines of St. Dominick all the Torments of Martyrs and Penances of Confessors now passed and turned into eternal joyes but his own pains neither to pass nor change neither any hopes left either of ending his torments or himself These are evils to be feared and not those transitory ones of the world which either change grow less or end or at least make an end of him who suffers them Let not therefore the sick person be grieved and vexed with his infirmities nor the poor man with his wants nor the afflicted with his crosses since the evils of this life are either changed with time eased by counsel and consolations or at least ended by death But this miserable wretch in Hell cannot so much as comfort himself with the hope of dying because in that multitude of torments if there were the least hope of end it would be some ease some refreshment
which must not there happen the Gates on all parts being shut to comfort Hope beguiles us in our evils and in some sort frees us from the sense of suffering There is no labour or toil so great which hope makes not tolerable The most afflicted and wretched persons live and subsist with expectation that one day their miseries will change or end But that ease and comfort is denied the damned whose unhappiness is never to have an end nor their torments alteration They would esteem it for a comfort if a thousand years hence they might be sure of that little drop of water begg'd by the rich glutton But what speak I of a thousand years it after an hundred thousand after a thousand times so many so that some certain time were prefixed and the door but of some small hope set open unto them If all the space which is taken up by the Earth covered by the Water filled with the Air and encompassed by the Heavens were full of grains of Wheat And a damned Soul were told that after all that Wheat were eaten by some small Bird which after every hundred thousand years should come to take one grain and when it should have taken away the last they would give it that drop of water which was demanded by the assistance of Lazarus it would be comforted to see this onely change and so small an ease in the midst of his pains Yet it shall not have this and after so many millions of millions of years the miserable wretch shall be in the same torments raging in the same manner and as much void of all comfort as ever This is it shall burst the hearts of the damned when they shall perceive all remedies to be then impossible which in this life were so easie to be obtained With the crums of bread which fell from his table the rich Glutton might have purchased eternal happiness and now the refreshment of one drop of water is denied him What rancour shall they have against themselves when they shall remember that by the forbearance of one momentary pleasure they might have escaped eternal torments How raging will their very entrails be to consider that that is now past help which was heretofore so easily to be avoided Let therefore a Christian open his eyes and whilest he may remedy that which hereafter when he would will be impossible Now is the time acceptable now is the time of Salvation now is the time of pardon and indulgence now that may be gained in a moment which all Eternity cannot hereafter redeem What other thing was signified unto us by the flames of the Babylonian furnace Dan. 3. which as the Scripture saith mounted unto the height of fourty nine Cubits It doth not say fifty as is usual in other places to give the compleat number although some be wanting And who I pray you approached so near unto that flame which flew and moved up and down in the air that could so punctually measure the height of it to arise just unto fourty nine Cubits and not to reach fifty But herein was the Mystery which we are about to speak off The Number of fifty was the Number of the Jubilee and signified Indulgence and Pardon and by the flames of that Furnace were figured the flames of Hell which how far soever they shall exceed the torments of this life yet shall never attain unto a Jubilee and remission of their pains Now 't is true they may Now every year every moneth every day every hour and every moment is a time of Pardon and Jubilee What would a damned Soul give for one onely quarter of an hour of those whole days and weeks which men mispend in this life for to be able to do penance in Let us not therefore be prodigal of a thing so precious let us not lose time and and with it Eternal Glory The time of this life is so precious that St. Bernardin dares give it this exaggeration saying That time is worth as much as God because by it God is gained Let us not therefore fling away a thing of that value but let us make use of this cheap bargain purchasing with time Eternity and God himself the Lord of Eternity fulfilling that which was said by Ecclesiasticus Eccl. 20. Is there any who for a small price will redeem many things Upon which words Galfridus says Galfrid in Cant. If there be due unto thee eternal bitterness and thou mayst escape it by suffering what is temporal certainly thou hast redeemed great matters for a small price In blessings eternal it is likewise a great comfort to have them free from change so as they can neither end nor diminish and that temporal Goods changing and consuming themselves they remain in the same firm and stable condition for all Eternity Let a Christian compare the brevity and inconstancie of the things of this life with the immutability and eternal duration of those of the other Let him seriously observe the difference betwixt those two words Now and Ever The fools of this world say Let us now rejoyce The wise and vertuous say it is better that we forbear our pleasures now that we may hereafter enjoy eternal happiness The worldlings say Let us now live daintily and fare deliciously The Servants of Christ say Let us dye in the flesh that we may live ever without change The Sinners say Let us now enjoy the world They who fear God say Let us flie from this unstable world that we may for ever enjoy the Coelestial Compare these two and see who are the wiser those who aim only at which endures but this momentary instant Now or those who look after Eternity which lasts for ever those who shall suffer eternally without any profit at all or those who are content to suffer a little in this world for so great a gain as is the Kingdom of Heaven O most miserable and disconsolate life of the damned who are nâ—ither to have end in their torments change in their griefs nor to reap profit by the pains which they suffer Three things onely afford us comfort in the troubles of this life that either they may end or become more supportable by change or at least that we shall be recompensed by some benefit for our sufferance all which will fail in eternal pains in which there is no hope either of end change or profit A fearful mistake to suffer for a whole Eternity without benefit hereafter for not suffering a moment now with so great a reward as is the eternal Glory of God and Kingdom of Heaven CAP. X. How Eternity is without comparison FRom what is already spoken may be collected the third Quality of Eternity which is to be without comparison For as there is no comparison betwixt what is infinite and what is finite so there can be none betwixt what is Eternal and what is Temporal And as the Mountain Olympus or if any greater in the world is
the place whither he is to goe How comest thou then to forget death whither thou travellest with speed and canst not though thou desirest rest one small minute by the way For time although against thy will will draw thee along with it The way of this life is not voluntary like that of Travellers but necessary like that of condemned persons from the prison unto the place of execution To death thou standest condemned whither thou art now going how canst thou laugh A Malefactor after sentence past is so surprised with the apprehension of death that he thinks of nothing but dying We are all condemned to die how come we then to rejoyce in those things which we are to leave so sodainly Who being led to the Gallows could please himself in some little flower that was given him by the way or play with the Halter which was shortly to strangle him Since then all of us even from the instant we issue out of our Mothers wombs walk condemned unto death and know not whether we shall from thence pass into hell at least we may how come we to please our selves with the flower or to say better with the hay of some short gust of our appetites since according to the Prophet all the glory of the flesh is no more than a little hay which quickly withers How come we to delight in riches which oftentimes hasten our deaths Why consider we not this when we are certain that all that we do in this life is vanity except our preparation for death In death when as there is no time nor remedy left us we shall too late perceive this truth when as all the goods of this life shall leave us by necessity which we will not now leave with merit Death is a general privation of all goods temporal an universal Pillager of all things which even despoils the body of the soul For this it is compared unto a Theef who not onely robs us of our treasure and substance but bereaves us of our lives Since therefore thou art to leave all Why doest thou load thy self in vain What Merchant knowing that so soon as he arrived unto the Ports his Ship and Goods should both be sunk would charge his Vessel with much Merchandise Arriving at death thou and all thou hast are to sink and perish why doest thou then burthen thy self with that which is not needful but rather a hinderance to thy salvation How many forbearing to throw their Goods over-board in some great Tempest have therefore both themselves and Goods been swallowed by the raging Sea How many who out of a wicked love to these Temporal riches have lost themselves in the hour of death and will not then leave their wealth when their wealth leaves them but even at that time busie their thoughts more about it than their Salvation Whereupon St. Gregory sayes That is never lost without grief which is possest with love Humbert in tract de Septemp timore Vmbertus writes of a certain man of great wealth who falling desperately sick and Plate of gold and silver to be brought before him and in this manner spake unto his Soul My Soul all this I promise thee and thou shalt enjoy it all if thou wilt not now leave my Body and greater things I will bestow upon thee rich Possessions and sumptuous Houses upon condition thou wilt yet stay with me But finding his infirmity still to encrease and no hope left of life in a great rage and fury he fell into these desperate speeches But since thou wilt not do what I desire thee nor abide with me I recommend thee unto the Devil and immediately with these words miserably expired In this story may be seen the vanity of Temporal things and the hurt he receives by them who possesses them with too much affection What greater vanity then not to profit us in a passage of the greatest necessity and importance and what greater hurt then when they cannot avail our bodies to prejudice our souls That they put an impediment to our salvation when our affections are too much set upon them were a sufficient motive not onely to contemn them but also to detest them Robertus de Licio writes that whilest he advised a sick person to make his Confession and take care of his Soul his Servants and other Domesticks went up and down the house laying hold every one of what they could the sick man taking notice of it and attending more to what They stole from him than to what He spake to him about the salvation of his Soul made deep sighs and cried out saying Wo be to me Wo be to me who have taken so much pains to gather riches and now am compelled to leave them and they snatch them from me violently before my eyes O my Riches O my Moneys O my Jewels into whose possession are you to fall and in these cries he gave up the ghost making no more account of his Soul than if he had been a Turk Vincentius Veluacensis relates also of one Vincen. in spec moral who having lent four pounds of money upon condition that at four years end they should pay him twelve he being in state of death a Priest went to him and exhorted him to confess his sins but could get no other words from the sick person than these Such a one is to pay me twelve pounds for four and having said this died immediately Much what to this purpose is a Story related by St. Bernardin of a certain Confessarius who earnestly perswading a rich man at the time of his death to a confession could get no other words from him but How sells Wool What price bears it at present and as the Priest spake unto him Sir for Gods sake leave off this discourse and have a care of your Soul the Sick man still persevered to inform himself of such things he might hope to gain by asking him Father when will the Ships come are they yet arrived for his thoughts were so wholly taken up with matters of gain and this world that he could neither speak nor think of any thing but what tended to his profit But die Priest still urging him to look to his Soul and confess all he could get from him was I cannot and in this manner died without confession This is the Salary which the goods of the earth bestow on those who serve them that if they do not leave or ruine them before their death they are then certain at least to leave them and often hazard the salvation of those that dote upon them O foolish Sons of Adam this short life Is bestowed upon us for gaining the goods of heaven which are to last eternally and we spend it in seeking those of the earth which are to perish instantly Wherefore do we not employ this short time for the purchasing eternal glory since we are to possess no more hereafter than what we provide for here Wherefore do we not
a name behind them neither observed justice with others nor vertue in themselves how shall they change their glory into ignominie Let us by the way look upon some of them who have filled the world with their vain fame who shall in that day by so much suffer the greater disgrace by how much the world hath bestowed more undeserved honours upon them Who more glorious than Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar whom the world hath ever esteemed as the most great and valorous Captains that it ever produced and their glory still continues fresh after so many ages past What was all they did but acts of rapine without right or title unjustly tyrannizing over what was none of theirs and shedding much innocent blood to make themselves Lords of the Earth All these actions were vicious and therefore unworthy of honour fame or memory and since they have for so many hundreds of years remained in the applause and admiration of men there shall in that day fall upon them so much ignominy shame and confusion as shall recompence that past honour which they have unworthily received and viciously desired This ambition was so exorbitant in Alexander that hearing Anaxartes the Philosopher affirm that there were many worlds he sighed with great resentment and cried out Miserable me that am not yet Lord of one This devillish and vain pride was extolled by many for greatness of spirit but was in truth the height of vanity and arrogant ambition which could not be contained in one World but with one desire tyrannized over many and shall then be punished with the publick ignominy of all men not onely in respect of the fame which he hath so unjustly enjoyed but of the ill example which he hath given to others and principally unto Caesar who as he followed his example in tyranny did likewise imitate him in ambition and the desire of rule and vain honour De Alex. Vide Val. Max. l. 8. De Julio Caes Vid. Fulg. l. 8. and therefore beholding his Statue in Cadiz at such time as he was Questor in Spain complained of his own fortune that at the age wherein Alexander had subjugated all Asia he had yet done nothing of importance counting it for a matter of importance to tyrannize over the world and to the end he might make himself Lord of it to Captivate his Countrey In like manner Aristotle so celebrated for his Writings in which he consumed many sleepless nights onely to purchase Glory and to make it greater in his confuting of other Philosophers used little ingenuity taking their words in a far other sense than they meant or spake them This labour of his since it proceeded not from Virtue but was performed with so little candour and sincerity meerly to obtain a vain reputation deserved no Glory and therefore a confusion equal unto the Honour they unduly now give him shall then fall upon him And since he put his Disciple Theodectus to so much shame his own ambition will be to him occasion of greater confusion Vide Val. Max. l. 8. Aristotle gave to this his Disciple Theodectus certain Books of the Art of Oratory to the end he should divulge them But afterwards resenting much that another should carry all the praise he owned the said Books publickly And for this reason in other Books which he wrote he cites himself saying As he had said in the Books of Theodectus Wherein is clearly seen Aristotle's ambition or desire of Glory and therefore was unworthy of it and with just ignominy shall pay the unjust Glory he now possesseth In so much then as not only Fame and Memory are vain in respect they are to end and finish as all things with the world are but also because their undeserved and pretended Glory is then to be satisfied with equal shame and confusion the affront they shall receive in that one day being equivalent unto the fame and honour of thousands of years Neither can the most famous men amongst the Gentiles be admired by so many in ten ages as shall then scorn and contemn them How many are ignorant that there ever was an Alexander And how many in all their lives never heard of Aristotle And yet shall in that day know them not for their honour but confusion The name of the Great and admired Alexander is unknown unto more Nations than known The Japonlans Chineses Cafres Angolans other people and most extended and spacious Kingdoms never heard who he was and shall then know him onely for a publique Thief a Robber an Oppressor of the World and for a great and an ambitious Drunkard The same which is to pass in Fame and Memory is also to pass in Children in whom as St. Thomas says St. Thom. supra the Fathers live and as from many good Parents spring evil Children so contrariwise from evil Parents come those that are good which shall be in that day a confusion to those who begat them and by so much the greater by how much worse was the example which they gave them Neither shall the Judge onely enquire into the example they have given their Children but also unto strangers and principally the works which they have left behind them And therefore as from the deceit of Arius saith the Angelical Doctor and other Heretiques have and shall spring divers Errours and Heresies until the end of the World so it is fit that in that last day of time should appear the evil which hath been occasioned by them that we may in this life not onely take a care for our selves but others so as it is a terrible thing as Cajetan notes upon that Article before mention'd of the Angelical Doctor that the Divine judgement shall extend even to those things which are by accident which is as the Divines speak unto those which are besides our will and intention St. Thomas also informs us That by reason of the body which remains after death it was convenient that the sentence of each one in particular should be again repeated in that general Judgement of the whole World Because many Bodies of just men are now buried in the mawes of wild Beasts or otherwise remain without interrement and to the contrary great sinners have had sumptuous Burials and magnificent Sepulchres all which are to be recompensed in that day of the Lord and the sinner whose Body reposed in a rich Mausoleum shall then see himself not only without Ornaments and Beauty but tormented with intolerable pains and the just who died and had no Sepulchres but were devoured by ravenous Birds shall appear with the brightness of the Heavens and with a Body glorious as the Sun Let those consider this who consume vast sums in preparing for themselves stately Sepulchres and beautiful Urns engraving their Names Actions and Dignities in rich Marbles and let them know that all this if they shall be damned shall serve them in that day but for their greater shame and reproach Out of this life
their Angel guardians shall assist by giving testimony how often they have disswaded them from their evil courses and how rebellious and refractory they have still been to their holy inspirations The Saints also shall accuse them that they have laughed at their good counsels and shall set forth the dangers whereunto they them-themselves have been subject by their ill example The just Judge shall then immediately pronounce Sentence in favour of the good in these words of love and mercy Come you blessed of my Father possess the Kingdom which was prepared for you from the creation of the world O what joy shall then fill the Saints Abul in Mat. Jansen Sot Les l. 13. c. 22. alii Isai 30. and what spight and envy shall burst the hearts of Sinners but more when they shall hear the contrary Sentence pronounced against themselves Christ speaking unto them with that severity which was signified by the Prophet Isaiah when he said His lips were filled with indignation and his tongue was a devouring fire More terrible than fire shall be those words of the Son of God unto those miserable wretches when they shall hear him say Depart from me ye cursed into eternal fire prepared for Satan and his Angels With this Sentence they shall remain for ever overthrown and covered with eternal sorrow and confusion Ananias and Saphira were struck dead only with the hearing the angry voice of St. Peter What shall the Reprobate be in hearing the incensed voice of Christ This may appear by what happened unto St. Catharine of Sienna who being reprehended by St. Paul In vita ejus c. 24. who appeared unto her onely because she did not better employ some little parcel of time said that she had rather be disgraced before the whole World than once more to suffer what she did by that reprehension But what is this in respect of that reprehension of the Son of God in the day of vengeance for if when he was led himself to be judged he with two onely words I am overthrew the astonisht multitude of Souldiers to the ground how shall he speak when he comes to judge In vita PP l. 5. apud Rosul In the book of the lives of the Fathers composed by Severus Sulpitius and Cassianus it is written of a certain young man desirous to become a Monk whom his Mother by many reasons which she alleadged pretended to disswade but all in vain for he would by no means alter his intention defending himself still from her importunity with this answer I will save my soul I will assure my salvation it is that which most imports nic She perceiving that her modest requests prevailed nothing gave him leave to do as he pleased and he according to his resolution entred into Religion but soon began to flag and fall from his fervour and to live with much carelesness and negligence Not long after his Mother died and he himself fell into a grievous infirmity and being one day in a Trance was rapt in spirit before the Judgement Seat of God He there found his Mother and divers others expecting his condemnation She turning her eyes and seeing her Son amongst those who were to be damned seemed to remain astonisht and spake unto him in this manner Why how now Son is all come to end in this where are those words thou saidest unto me I will save nay soul was it for this thou didst enter into Religion The poor man being confounded and amazed knew not what to answer but soon after when he returned unto himself and the Lord was pleased that he recovered and escaped his infirmity and considering that this was a divine admonition he gave so great a turn that the rest of his life was wholly tears and repentance and when many wisht him that he would moderate and remit something of that rigour which might be prejudicial unto his health he would not admit of their advices but still answered I who could not endure the reprehension of my Mother how shall I in the day of judgement endure that of Christ and his Angels Let us often think of this and let not onely the angry voice of our Saviour make us tremble Raph. Columb Ser. 2. Domin in Quadr. but that terrible Sentence which shall separate the wicked from his presence Raphael Columba writes of Philip the second King of Spain that being at Mass he heard two of his Grandees who were near him in discourse about some worldly business which he then took no notice of but Mass being ended he called them with great gravity and said unto them onely these few words You two appear no more in my presence which were of that weight that the one of them died of grief and the other ever after remained stupified and amazed What shall it then be to hear the King of Heaven and Earth say Depart ye cursed and if the words of the Son of God be so much to be feared what shall be his works of justice At that instant the fire of that general burning shall invest those miserable creatures Less l. 13. c. 23. the Earth shall open and Hell shall enlarge his throat to swallow them for all eternity accomplishing the malediction of Christ and of the Psalm which saith Psal 54. Let death come upon them and let them sink alive into hell And in another place Coals of fire shall fall upon them Ps 139. and thou shalt cast them into the fire and they shall not subsist in their miseries And in another Psalm Psal 10. Snares fire and sulphur shall rain upon sinners Finally that shall be executed which was spoken by St. John That the Devil Death and Hell and all Apcc. 20. who were not written in the Book of life were cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where they shall be eternally tormented with Antichrist and his false Prophets And this is the second death bitter and eternal which comprehends both the Souls and the Bodies of them who have died the spiritual death of sin and the corporal death which is the effect of it The Just shall then rejoyce according to David Psal 57. beholding the vengeance which the Divine Justice shall take upon sinners and sing another song like that of Moses Exod. 15. when the Aegyptians were drowned in the red sea and that Song of the Lamb related by St. John Apoc. 15. Great and marvelous are thy works O Lord God omnipotent just and righteous are thy wayes King of all Eternity who will not fear thee O Lord and magnifie thy name With those and thousand other Songs of joy and jubilee they shall ascend above the Stars in a most glorious triumph until they arrive in the Empyrial Heaven where they shall be placed in thrones of glory which they shall enjoy for an eternity of eternities In the mean time the earth which was polluted for having sustained the Bodies of the damned shall be
vanity in their manner of leaving us which is excellently represented by St. John Chrysostome in the Eunuch Eutropius Patrician of Constantinople Hom. in Eutrop. tom 5. Consul and great Chamberlain to the Emperour Arcadius who withdrawing his privacy and favour from him committed him to prison which the holy Doctor admirably ponders in this manner If in any time now more than ever may be said Vanity of vanities all is vanity Where is now the splendour of the Consulat where the Lictors and their Fasces where the Applauses Dances Banquets and Revels where the Crowns and Tapestry where the noise of the City and the flattering acclamations of the Circus all those things are perished a boysterous wind hath blown away the leaves and left the naked tree tottering and almost pluckt up by the roots Such was the violence of the storm that when it had shaken all the nerves it threatned utterly to overthrow the stock Where are now those masking friends those healths and suppers where that swarm of Parasites and that flood of wine poured out from morning till evening where that exquisite and various artifice of Cooks those Servants accustomed to say and do all that pleased All these were no more than a Nights dream which disappeared with the day Flowers which withered when the Spring was ended a Shadow they were and so they passed a Smoke and so they vanisht Bubbles in the water and so they burst Spiders webs and so were torn in sunder Wherefore let us ever repeat this sentence Vanity of vanities all is vanity This saying ought to be written upon our Walls Market-places Houses Streets Windows Gates but principally in the Conscience of every one since the deceitful employments of this life and the enemies of truth have gained too much power and authority with many This is it which one man ought to say unto another this is it we ought to say at dinner at supper and in all our conversation Vanity of vanities all is vanity Did I not daily tell thee that riches were flitting and deceitful but thou wouldest not endure me Did not I tell thee they had the condition of a fugitive Slave but thou wouldest not believe me See how experience hath taught thee that they are not onely fugitive but ungrateful and murthering since they have cast thee into this exigent But because this Eunuch would neither be advised by the counsel of his Domesticks nor Strangers do thou at least who art puffed up with wealth and honours make use of this calamity and turn it to thy own profit There is nothing more infirm than humane things By what name soever thou shalt express their baseness thou shalt still fall short Call them hay smoke a dream flowers which wither all is too little they are so frail that they are more nothing than nothing it self They are not only nothing but are still in precipitation Who was more exalted than this man was he not famous for his wealth through the world was he not mounted up to the height of all humane honour Did not all fear and reverence him But behold him now more miserable than Slaves and Bond-men more indigent than those who beg their bread from door to door There is no day wherein are not set before his eyes Swords drawn and sharpened to cut his throat Precipices Hangmen and the Street which lead to the Gallows Neither doth he enjoy the memory of his pad pleasures nor the common light but is at midday as in a dark night pen'd up betwixt four walls deprived of the use of his eyes But wherefore do I remember those things since no words are able to express the fear of his mind who every hour expects his punishment to what end are my speeches when the image of his calamity appears so evidently before thine eyes Not long agoe the Emperour having sent some Souldiers to draw him out of the Church whither he was fled for sanctuary he became as pale as box and at this instant hath no better colour than one who were dead To this add that his teeth gnash against one another his body quakes his voice is broken with sobbs his tongue stammers in conclusion he stands like one whose soul were frozen for fear within him All this is from St. John Chrysostome It is not needful to attend the end of life to see the imposture of it It is enough to see the alterations whilest it lasts CAP. V. The baseness and disorder of Temporal things and how great a Monster men have made the World LEt us now come to consider the baseness of all that which passes in time the which appeared so mean and poor unto Marcus Aurelius that he said Lib. 2. Those things which fall under sense which either allure us with delight or deject us with grief or glitter with outward pomp and appearance how vile are they all how worthy of contempt how sordid and filthy how subject to perish and how dead This said that great Emperour and Monarch of the World when the Roman Empire was in its greatest power and lustre and in the greatest experience of the goods of the earth being more powerful and having more command of them than Salomon and yet he not onely sayes they were vain but vile filthy contemptible and dead That we may understand this better let us look into the substance and being which temporal things have of themselves without respect either to the shortness of their duration or to the variety of their changes for which alone although in themselves most precious yet were they most despicable but being so little so vile so disorderly and for the most part so hurtful and prejudicial unto us although they were eternal yet ought they to be contemned We are not therefore onely to look upon that littleness and poorness which they have by nature and from themselves but upon the evil which they have acquired by our abuse For the World which of it self were tolerable is by us made such that it is not to be endured even by those who best love it And to those natural goods which it affords our unstable appetite hath added such artificial fopperies of our own inventions that of both together we have composed a Monster no less horrible than that described by St. John in the Apocalyps Apoc. 13. And therefore he that will see what worldly felicity is let him cast his eyes upon that Beast which for his unquietness and unconstancy is said to rise out of the sea He had the head and face of a Lion the body of a Leopard a Beast various and spotted and the feet of a Bear and for his more deformity he had seaven heads and ten horns This the lively Image of that which passes in the World For as this Monster is composed of three savage Beasts of a Bear which is carnal and luxurious of a Leopard whose skin is full of eyes and of a Lion the proudest of all other Beasts
dangers no man would take thee up though he should finde thee in the Streets And Dionysius to express the anxieties of the life of Kings said it was like that of condemned persons which every hour expect death This is signified by the Cup of Gold which the Woman that is Prosperity who sat upon the Monster with seaven heads that is the World held in her hand which although it made a fair shew yet was full of abomination because there is none who speaks not ill of his own condition and many who seem most fortunate abhorre their own lot although it appear glorious unto others Salomon was the King who most enjoyed the goods of this life for he resolved to satiate himself with delights even until he surfeited He had a thousand Wives whereof 700 Queens and 300 Concubins he had sumptuous Buildings and Palaces Gardens Orchards Houses of Pleasure Woods Groves Fish-ponds excellent Musick Men and Women Singers the greatest and best ordered Court in the World his Service and Vessels of gold and silver so sumptuous as it caused admiration in the Queen of Saba His Cavalry consisted of 40000 horse with furniture sutable in perpetual pay The Treasure which his Father David left him was according to Budaeus ten times greater than that of Darius King of Persia Finally he arrived unto that point of happiness and felicity in all kindes that he himself admired it and acknowledged himself for the most fortunate Prince in the world and said Eccl. 2. Who shall feed like me and who shall abound in all delights and pleasures as I doe Yet in all this prosperity than which greater cannot be imagined by man when he seriously cast his eyes upon it he said All was vanity and affliction of spirit and was so discontented with his life that he confessed it was tedious unto him and that he detested the care he had taken about it and envying the poor Laborer judged it was better for one to eat of what he got by the sweat of his brows If then such exccess of fortune felicity wealth honour and pleasure deceived so wise a King as Salomon who will not he deceived what shall we expect from some little part of felicity when this flood of fortune could not bestow a contented and quiet life What greater argument of the scarcity and littleness of temporal goods when all are not sufficient to fill a humane heart But as they are not the things which they seem so they afford not what we expect and therefore no man is content with what he has that still appearing better which is anothers And this proceeds from the deceit of humane things that obtaining what we desire and not finding that satisfaction which we expected we envy the condition of others thinking we should there meet with that content which is not to be had at home which seeking with much trouble we at last come to know our errour and find their condition worse than our own This is well exprest by Antiquity in a fiction it made full of doctrine wherein it feigned that the Cretans presented a Petition to Jupiter that since he was born in their Country he would be pleased to exempt them from the trouble and labours endured by others Jupiter answered that this was a Priviledge of those who were in heaven and could not be granted to them who lived upon earth Whereupon they framed a second Supplication that it might be lawful for them to change and truck their labours and cares one with another This was granted Whereupon the next Fair-day every one trussing up his own troubles in a Fardel and loading himself brought them to the Market-place but began before they bargained to search and look into those of others and finding them more heavy and grievous than their own every one returned to his house as wise as he came The remedy of afflictions is not to flye from them but to turn unto God since they happen unto us for our forsaking of him And it was a most high counsel of the Divine Providence that no man should want afflictions that so he might know his sins and hoping onely for ease and comfort in the next life and in God he might acknowledge and onely serve him Wherefore the Prophet Osee saith that God deals with us Osee 2. as a Husband with a Wife who had forsaken him and sought after strange Lovers who sowed thorns in her paths that being wounded she might say I will return unto my first Spouse so God sows Gall and Wormwood in the goods of this life that the Soul being afflicted may repent and turn unto him Another argument of the great deceit of temporal things is this that the more we possess them the more we covet them and alter the experience of their little substance and power to satisfie our hearts yet still we desire and gape after them It is evident that this is a great cozenage and a certain kind of witchcraft by which they snatch away humane affections at such a time as they should most avoid them Nothing satisfies and yet we desire that which does not satisfie How vain then are they since when we possess them they content us not yet we still desire more All the power and felicity of his Kingdom nor the greatness of his Palaces nor being Lord of so many Cities and Fields could content Achab unless he enjoyed the little Vineyard of his poor neighbour which being denied he fell sick with grief and melancholly flung himself upon his bed and for meer rage and madness forbore to eat O goods of the earth where is your greatness since the wealth of a rich Kingdome could not fill the heart of one man but left it empty to desire more and the want of one onely thing had more power to afflict him than so many goods joyned together to content him All things are as vain as this since they cannot give us that for which we seek them Eccl. 5. and therefore Ecclesiastes said The Covetous man shall not be filled with coin and he who loves riches shall not enjoy the fruit of them And this is vanity Finally from ail which is spoken either in this or the former Books may be drawn that consolation of in the Emperour Marous Aurclius in his Philosophy Lib. 2. in fine p. 185. where he sayes The time of humane life is a moment the nature slippery the senses darkned the temperature of the whole body easily corrupted the Soul wandring the fortune what it shall be hard to conjecture the fame uncertain and to be short those things which belong unto the body have the nature of a river and those which belong unto the mind are as smoke or a dream Life is a warre and a peregrination fame after death is forgotten What is there then that can guide unto security There is nothing but Philosophy which consists in this that thou conserve a mind without wound or stain entire and
Prosperous and the Lovers of the World who are those which for the most part people Hell The Prophet Baruch sayes Baruc. 3. Where are the Princes of the Nations which commanded over the beasts of the earth and sported with the birds of the air which store up silver and gold in which men put their trust and there is no end of their seeking who stamp and work silver who are sollicitous and their works are not found They are exterminated they have sunk down into hell Jac. 5. and others have risen in their places St. James sayes Weep you who are rich and lament the miseries which are to fall upon you St. Paul not onely threatens those who are rich but those who desire to be so saying Those who desire to be rich fall into the snare and temptation of the Devil 1 Tim. 6. and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires which drown them in death and perdition With this counterpoise then and hazard who would desire the wealth of the World since onely the desire of it is so poisonous Let those who dote upon the World hear St. Bernard Bernard in Medit. who sayes Tell me now Where are those lovers of the world who a little while agoe were here with us there is nothing remaining of them but dust and worms Mark diligently what they once were and what they now are They were men as thou now art they did eat drink laugh and pass away their times in mirth and jollity and in a moment of time sunk down into hell Here are their Bodies eaten by worms and their Souls condemned to eternal flames until united again they both shall sink together into everlasting fire that so those who were companions in sin may be also in torments and that one pain involve them who were consorts in the love of the same offence What did their vain glory profit them their short mirth their worldly power their fleshly pleasure their false riches their numerous families where is now their laughter their jests their boasting their arrogance how great shall be their sorrow when such misery shall succeed so many pleasures when from the height of humane glory they shall fall into those grievous torments and eternal ruine where according to what the Wise-man said the mighty shall be mightily punished If then those who most enjoy the World run the greatest hazard of being damned what can more induce us to the contempt of it than the consideration of so lamentable an end And what can more set forth the malice of temporal goods than to be the occasion of eternal evils If a curious built house be subject to some notable inconveniency no man will dwell in it if a couragious horse have some vitious quality no body will buy him and if a Chrystal cup have a crack it shall not be placed upon a Royal Cupboard yet the pleasures and goods of the World though subject to all those faults how are they coveted loved and sought after and in them our perdition Certainly if we should consider seriously the eternal evils which correspond to the short pleasures of this life we should have all humane felicity in horrour and trembling to see our selves in fortunes favour should flye from the world as from death The reverend and zealous Father Frier Jordan being desirous to convert a certain Cavalier to God and from the love of the world for his last remedy had recourse unto this consideration Seeing him a beautiful young man active and well disposed of body he said unto him At least Sir since God hath bellowed so comely a face and personage upon you think what pity it were they should be the food of eternal fire and burn without end The Gentleman reflected upon his advice and this consideration wrought so much with him that abhorring the world and quitting all his possessions and hopes he became poor in Christ and entred into Religion §. 2. Let us now come to the consideration of Eternal Evils that from thence we may despise all which is temporal be it good or bad The evils of Hell are truly evils and so purely such that they have no mixture of good In that place of unhappiness all is eternal sorrow and complaint and there is no room for comfort Aelian lib. 3. varia Hist c. 18. Aelian relates a History which being taken as a Parable may serve to illustrate what we are about to speak of He sayes in the utmost borders of the Meropes there is a cetrain place called Anostos which is as much to say from whence there is no return There was to be seen a great Precipice and a deep opening of the earth from whence issued two Rivers the one of Joy and the other of Sadness upon the brinks of which grew divers trees of so different fruits that those who eat of the one forgot all that might cause grief but those who eat of the other were so possessed with an unconsolable sadness that all was weeping and lamentations until they at last died with signs and shedding of tears What do those Rivers signifie but the one of them that whereof David speaks which with his current rejoyced the City of God the other that Flood of evil which enters the Prison of Hell and fills it with groans tears and despite without the least hope of comfort for there shall the door be eternally shut to all good or expectation of ease in so much as one drop of water was denied the rich Glutton from so merciful and pitiful a man as Abraham There shall not be the least good that may give ease nor shall there want a concourse of all evils which may add affliction There is no good to be found there where all goods are wanting neither can there be want of any evil where all evils whatsoever are to be found and by the want of all good and the collection of all evils every evil is augmented In the creation of the World God gave a praise to every nature saying It was good without farther exaggeration but when all were created and joyned together he said They were very good because the conjunction of many goods advances the good of each particular and in the same manner the conjunction of many evils makes all of them worse What shall Heaven then be where there is a concourse of all goods and no evils And what Hell where there are all evils and no good Certainly the one must be exceeding good and the other exceeding evil In signification of which the Lord shewed unto the Prophet Jeremias two little Baskets of Figs Jer. 24. in the one of which were excessively good ones and in the other excessively bad both in extremity He does not content himself in saying they were bad or very bad but sayes they were over-bad because they represented the miserable state of the Damned where is to be the sink of all evils without mixture of any good at all And for this
in it of a most intolerable stench What shall I then say of the Tongue which is the instrument of so many wayes of sinning flattery lying murmuring calumniating gluttony and drunkenness who can express that bitterness which the miserable shall suffer greater than that of wormwood or aloes insomuch as the Scripture sayes The gall of dragons shall be their wine and they shall taste the poison of Asps for all eternity Unto which shall be joyned an intolerable thirst and dog-like hunger conformable unto which David said They shall suffer hunger as dogs Quintilian sayes Quintil. Declam â—2 That Famine is the most pressing of all necessities and most deformed of all evils that Plagues and Warres are happinesses in respect of it If then a Famine of eight dayes be the worst of temporal evils what shall that Famine be which is eternal Let our Epicures and Belly-Gods hear what the Son of God prophesies Luc. 6. Wo unto you who are full for you shall be an hungred and with such an hunger as shall be eternal If the other evils of this world as Quintilian affirms may be esteemed not much in comparison of hunger even in this temporal life what will they be in respect of the hunger of the life to come Hunger in this life does bring men to such extremities that not onely they come to desire to eat Dogs Cats Rats and Mice Snakes Toads Leather Dung and eat them in effect but also Mothers come to eat their own Children and men the flesh of their own arms as it fell out to Zeno the Emperour If hunger be so horrible a mischief in this life how will it afflict the damned in the other without all doubt the damned would rather tear themselves in pieces than suffer it Neither shall thirst torment them less The sense of Touching as it is the most extended sense of all the rest so shall it be the most tormented in that burning fire Bar. ad an 191. We are amazed to think of the inhumanity of Phalaris who roasted men alive in his brasen Bull. This was a toy in respect of that fire of Hell which penetrates the very entrails of the body without consuming them The burning of a finger only does cause so great a torment that it is unsufferable but far greater were it to burn the whole arm and far greater were it besides the arms to burn the leggs and far more violent torment would it be to burn the whole body This torment is so great that it cannot be expressed in words since it includes or comprises as many torments as the body of man hath joints sinews arteries c. and especially being caused by that so penetrating and true fire of which St. Austin sayes that this temporal fire is but a painted fire in respect of that in Hell in so much that the fire of Hell does exceed ours by so many degrees as a thing in life and reality exceeds the same in a picture In conformity to what is here said venerable Peter Cluniacensis writes and when we read such like stories from the representations therein contained we are to raise our thoughts to the substance therein represented This venerable man then writes That a wicked Priest being ready to give up the ghost there appeared unto him two fiery Devils who brought with them a Frying-pan in which they told him they would fry him in Hell and a drop of hot liquor then falling out of the Frying-pan upon his hand in a moment burnt him to the very bones in the sight of all that were present who remained astonished to see the efficacy and violence of that infernal fire Whereupon Nicholas of Nice sayes that if there were a fire made of all the wood in the world it would not be able to cause so much torment as the least spark of Hell-fire Caesarius does also write Caesar l. 12. mirac c. 23. That Theodosius Bishop of Mastrick had a Servant by name Eberbach who in a raging fit of anger gave himself to the Devil upon condition he would help him to take revenge upon his Enemies Some years after this man fell grievously sick of a disease that brought him to the point of death and being now dead in all mens judgement his soul was cast into a sea of fire where he remained suffering until such time as an Angel of Heaven came unto him and said Behold what they are to suffer that serve the Devil But if so great a mercy should be shewed unto thee as to grant thee longer life wouldst thou not spend it in doing penance for thy sins He replyed There can be nothing so hard or painful which I would not undergoe to escape this torment Then the Lord used that mercy to him as to let him return to the use of life and senses and rising off the Biere where he was already placed to be carried to burial all that were present were astonished at him who at the same instant began a course of life of most austere and rigorous penance He went bare-foot upon thorns and briars store of blood issuing from the wounds received He lived onely on bread and water and that in a very small quantity What money he had he gave to the poor There were many who wondering at the rigour of his penance endeavoured to moderate the excess of his fervour and austerities to whom he answered Wonder not hereat for I have suffered torments of a far different kind and if you had been there you would frame a far different apprehension of them And for to explicate the excessive torment that fire caused he said That if all the trees in the world were put in one heap and set on fire I would rather burn there till the day of judgement than suffer onely for the space of one hour that fire which I have experienced Now what a miserable unhappiness will it be to burn in those flames of Hell not onely for one hour but till the day of Judgement yea even for all eternity and world without end Who would not esteem it an hideous torment if he were to be burnt alive an hundred times and his torment were to last every time for an hours space with what compassionate eyes would all the world look upon such a miserable wretch Nevertheless without all doubt any of the damned in Hell would receive this as a great happiness to end his torments with those hundred times burning For what comparison is there betwixt an hundred hours burning with some space of time betwixt every hour and to burn an hundred years of continual torment And what comparison will there be betwixt burning for an hundred years space and to be burning without interruption as long as God is God Let a Christian who hath ever committed a mortal sin consider this and let him see what can be difficult sharp and intolerable since thereby he deserved to be cast into Hell and let him see whether he think any
by birth by divine inspiration became a Cistercian Monk He entred upon this course of life and continued with such great courage that he stuck not to challenge the Devil and bid him defiance The Enemy made his Cell the field of battail Here he assaulted him first with whips then upon a certain occasion gave him such blows that the blood burst out at his mouth and nose At the noise the Monks came in and finding him half dead they carried him to his Bed where he lay for the space of three dayes without giving any signes of life In which time in the company of an Angel he descended into a very obscure place where he saw a Man seated in a Chair of fire and certain Women very beautiful thrusting into his mouth burning torches drawing them out at other parts of his body which had been the instruments of his sins The Monk being astonished at this spectacle the Angel told him This miserable wretch was a very powerful man in the world and much given to Women and for this reason the Devils in shape of Women do torment him as thou seest Pasing a little farther he beheld another whom the infernal spirits were fleaing alive and having rubbed all his body over with salt they put him to roast upon a Gridiron This man said the Angel was a great Lord so cruel to his Vassals as the Devils are now to him A little farther they met with other persons of divers states and conditions which were tormented with several kinds of torments Many Religious both men and women whose lives had been contrary to their profession Talkers Censurers of other mens lives Slaves to their bellies defiled with lust and other such like vices To these the Ministers of vengeance in shape of most ugly fellows gave many blows in such sort that they dashed out their brains and made their eyes flye out of their heads because in their works they were blind and without judgement a chastisement Prov. 19. which the Wise-man appoints for such like persons Afterwards he lifted up his eyes and beheld one fastned to a horrible Wheel turning in such a dreadful manner that the Monk here was almost besides himself That thou seest is terrible said the Angel but far more terrible will be what thou shalt now see At the instant the Wheel began to run from alost down to the most profound depths with such horrid joggs and with such noise as if all the World Earth Heaven and all were breaking in pieces At this so sudden and direful accident all the Prisoners and Goalers of Hell brake out into great cries cursing and damning him that came in the Wheel This man said the Angel is Judas the Apostle who betrayed his Master and as long as he shall raign in glory which shall be world without end so long shall this miserable wretch lye thus tormented With these Representations God hath given us to understand the proportion his Justice observes in his chastisements to make us form some lively apprehension of the greatness of those pains they being indeed far greater than what ever we can conceive by all the rigour imaginable exhibited to the senses And in regard what enters by the senses prevails more with us for this reason he represents unto us the torments of the soul sutably to those so horrible to our senses as is to dash out the brains and make the brains flye out of the head For though it be true that this effect is not wrought indeed yet the torments inflicted upon the damned Souls are without companion greater then it would be for a man in this life to be so beaten about the head till his brains and eyes flew out Let us therefore fear the Divine justice and let us understand that in those parts of the body we offend God Almighty with greater delight we shall be sure to be punished with greater torment And here may be given this further instruction that as these and many such like stories related for more variety of discourse in this Treatise oblige us not to a full and absolute belief of them so they desire the favour of so much credit at least as is allowed to Livy Justine or other Chronicle-writers especially the Recorders of these being such as are no less grave and wise and acknowledge moreover a greater obligation of conscience not to wrong the World with lies or empty relations taken up upon the account of frivolous reports especially in matters of such concernment And as we think it not amiss to make use as occasion serves of profane Examples and Authorities in confirmation of what we usually either speak or write so without all doubt the same use of Sacred and Ecclesiastical occurrences may be no less available in such matters as these CAP. XII The fruit which may be drawn front the consideration of Eternal Evils ALl which hath been said of the pains in Hell is far short of that which really they are There is great difference betwixt the knowledge we have by relation and that which we learn by experience The Machabees knew that the Temple of the Lord was already prophaned deserted and destroyed They had heard of it and lamented it but when they saw with their eyes the Sanctuary lye desolate the Altar prophaned and the Gates burnt there was then no measure in their tears They tore their garments cast ashes upon their heads threw themselves upon the ground and their complaints ascended as high as Heaven If then the relation and discourse of the pains of Hell makes us tremble what shall be the sight and experience This notwithstanding the consideration of what hath been said may help us to form some conception of the terrour and horrour of that place of eternal sorrow Let us as St. Bernard sayes descend into Hell whilest we live that we may not descend thither when we are dead Let us draw some fruit from thence during our lives from whence nothing but torment is to be had after death The principal fruits which may be drawn from that consideration are these In the first place an ardent love and sincere gratitude towards our Creator that having so often deserved Hell he hath not yet suffered us to fall into it How many be there now in Hell who for their first mortal sin and onely for that one have been sent thither and we notwithstanding the innumerable sins which we have committed are yet spared What did God find in us that he should use a mercy towards us for so many sins which he did not afford to others for so few Why are we not then more grateful for so many benefits which we have no wayes deserved How grateful would a damned person be if God should free him from those flames wherein he is tormented and place him in the same condition we now are What a life would he lead what penance would he undergoe what austerity would not appear a pleasure unto him and how grateful
corruption and by birth a Slave of the Devil and yet he dares offend his Maker An offence against God were most grievous though from another God if it were possible infinite and equal to himself but that his creature should be so audacious against his omnipotent Lord is beyond amazement But What is that which a sinner does when he offends It is according to St. Anselm an endeavour to pluck the Crown from the head of God and place it upon his own It is according to St. Bernard to desire to murther his God It is according to the Apostle St. Paul to kick and spurn against the Son of God It is to crucifie again the Lord of life If any of these things were attempted against a Majesty upon earth it were enough to make the offenders flesh to be pluckt off with pincers to have him torn in pieces with four horses to pull down his house and sow the place with salt and make his whole Linage infamous If such an offence committed by one man against another betwixt whom the difference is not great being both equal in nature be so hainous what shall it deserve being committed against God the Lord and Creator of all whose immense greatness is infinitely distant from the nature of his creature O good God who is able to explicate what a sinner does against thee and himself he despises thy Majesty razes out thy Law from his heart laughs at thy Justice scorns thy threats despises thy promises makes a solemn renunciation of thy glory thou hast promised him and all to bind himself an eternal slave unto Satan desiring rather to please thine enemy than thee who art his Father his Friend and all his good desiring rather to die eternally by displeasing thee than to enjoy heaven for ever by serving thee Let us now see Where and in What place a sinner presumes to sin and be a Traitor unto his God It is even in his own world in his own house and knowing that his Creator looks upon him he offends him If a sin were committed where God could not see it it were yet an enormous fault but to injury his Creator before his face what an unspeakable impudence If he who sins could go into another world where God did not inhabit and there in secret under the earth should sin after such a manner as onely himself should know it yet it were a temerarious boldness but to sin in his own house which is this world what hell doth it not deserve For a man onely to lay his hand upon his sword in the Palace of a King is capital and deserves death For a sinner then by his sins to spurn and crucifie the Son of God in the house of his Father and before his face what understanding can conceive the greatness of such a malice And therefore David with reason dissolved himself into tears because he had sinned in the presence of God and with a grief which pierced his heart cried out I have done evil before thee Besides this we not onely sin against God in his own house but even in his armes whilest we are upheld by his omnipotency If there were a Son so wicked who whilest he was cherished in his Mothers bosom should strike and buffet her and endeavour to kill her with his poniard every one would think that Child some Devil incarnate How then dares man offend God who sustains preserves and hath redeemed him Certainly that Christian ought to be esteemed worse than a Devil The hainousness of this malice in sin is much augmented by the Helpes which a sinner uses to effect it For he turns those very divine benefits which he hath received from God against him who gave them The sense which men usually have of ingratitude is most apprehensive If to forget a benefit be ingratitude to despise it is an injurie but to use it against the Benefactor I know not how to call it This does he who sins making use of those creatures which God created for his service to offend him and convert his divine benefits into arms against God himself What could we say if a King to honour his Souldier should make him a Knight arm him with his own arms and should girt his sword about him with his own hands and that the Souldier so soon as he was possest of the sword should draw it against the King and murther him This wickedness which seems impossible amongst men is ordinary in man towards God who being honoured so many wayes by his Creator and enriched by so many benefits for as much as in him lies bereaves God of his honour and according to St. Bernard desires to bereave him of his life His understanding which he receiv'd from God he uses in finding out a way to execute his sin with his hands he performs it and with all his power offends him who gave them Besides the impudence of man arrives at that height that he makes God himself assist him to sin This is that which our Lord much complains of when he sayes by his Prophet You made me serve you in your wickedness because God concurring to every action and natural motion of man who without his concurrence could neither move hand nor foot nor tongue man disposing his tongue to murmur and his hand to steal makes use of the concourse of God against God himself Who is so pitiless and inhumane to enforce the Father to assist in the murther of his onely Son compelling the Fathers hand to execute the stroke which is to pierce the heart of his onely begotten Equivalent to this is done by a sinner making God to concurre to an action by which man sinning crucifies again the Son of God What cruelty is this in a sinner who for this onely impiety deserves a thousand deaths But if we shall consider Why man does this it is a circumstance which will amaze us at the malice of sin Why does a sinner give this disgust unto his God Wherefore does he despise his Creator Wherefore is he a Traitor unto the Lord of the World Wherefore does he kick and spurn at Jesus Christ Wherefore does he abhorre his Redeemer Wherefore crucifies he the Son of God What reason hath he for so monstrous a wickedness Is it perchance because the world should not be ruin'd Is it perchance because his salvation stands upon it Is it perhaps to make himself a God Is it perhaps in respect or for love of another God No it is none of these but only for a base and filthy pleasure for a foolish fancy of man because he will and no more O horrid insolence O mad fury of men which without a cause so grievously offend their Creator How is it that the Heavens resolve not into thunderbolts and throw a thousand deaths upon them who do and dare by their sins irritate and offend so good and gracious a God The Manner also of our sinning would astonish any who should seriously consider it It
1. Tertullian said The greatness of some goods were intolerable the which according to the Prophet Isaias is verified in this Divine good and benefit which we were not able to support Wherefore it is called in holy Scripture The good or the good thing of God because it is a good and a benefit which more clearly than the Sun discovers the infinite and ineffable goodness of God to the astonishment and amazement of a humane heart and therefore the Prophet Oseas sayes Osee 3. They shall be astonished at the Lord and at his Good because his Divine benefit amazes and astonishes the Soul of man to see how good the Lord is and how great the good which he communicates unto us All which tends to no other end than to make us despise the goods of the Earth and to esteem onely those of Heaven which we attain unto by this Divine mysterie For this therefore did Christ our Redeemer institute this most blessed Sacrament that by it we might withdraw our hearts from things temporal and settle our affections upon those which are eternal for which it is most particularly efficacious as those who worthily receive it have full experience §. 3. Wherefore let that Soul who goes to communicate consider Who it is that enters into him and Who he is himself who entertains so great a Guest Let him call to mind with what reverence the blessed Virgin received the Eternal Word when he entred into her holy Womb and let him know it is the same Word which a Christian receives into his entrails in this Divine Sacrament Let him therefore endeavour to approach this holy Table with all reverence love and gratitude which ought if possible to be greater than that of the blessed Mother For then the obligation of Mankind was not so great as now it is For neither she nor we were then indebted unto him for his dying upon the Cross Let him consider that he receives the same Christ who sits at the right hand of God the Father That it is he who is the supreme Lord of Heaven and Earth He whom the Angels adore He who created and redeemed us and is to judge the living and the dead He who is of infinite wisdom power beauty and goodness If a Soul should behold him as when St. Paul beheld him and was struck blind with his light and splendour how would he fear and reverence him Let him know that he is not now less glorious in the Host and that he is to approach him with as much reverence as if he saw him in his Throne of glory With much reason did St. Teresa of Jesus say unto a devout Soul unto whom she appeared after death That we upon earth ought to behave our selves unto the blessed Sacrament as the blessed in Heaven do towards the Divine Essence loving and adoring it with all our power and forces Consider also that he who comes in person to thee is that self same Lord that required so much reverence that he struck Oza dead because he did but touch with his hand the Ark of his Testament and slew 50000 Bethshamits for their looking on it And thou not onely seest and touchest but receivest him into thy very bowells See then with what reverence thou oughtest to approach him The Angels and Seraphins tremble before his greatness and the Just are afraid Do thou then tremble fear and adore him S. John standing but near unto an Angel remained without force astonisht at the greatness of his Beauty and Majesty and thou art not to receive an Angel but the Lord of Angels into thy entrails It adds much to the endearment of this great benefit of our Saviour that it is not onely great by the greatness of that which is bestowed but by the meaneness of him who receives it For what art thou but a most vile creature composed of clay and dirt full of misery ignorance weakness and malice If the Centurion held himself unworthy to receive Christ under his roof and St. Peter when our Saviour was in this mortal life deemed himself not worthy to be in his presence saying Depart from me O Lord for I am a sinful man and St. John Baptist thought himself not worthy to unloose the latchet of his shoe How much more oughtest thou to judge thy self unworthy to receive him into thy bowels being now in his glory seated at the right hand of God the Father The Angels in heaven are not pure in his sight What purity shouldest thou have to entertain him in thy breast If a mighty King should visit a poor Beggar in his Cottage what honour what respects would it conferre upon him Behold God who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords comes to visit thee not in thy house but within thy self Seaven years did Salomon spend in building a Temple wherein to place the Ark of the Testament Why doest thou not spend some time in making thy self a Temple of God himself Noah was a hundred years in preparing a Vessel wherein to save those who were to escape the Deluge Why doest thou not spare some dayes or hours to make thy self a Sacristy for the Saviour of the World Behold thy own unworthiness and what thou goest a-about Moyses when he was to make an Ark for the Tables of the Law not onely made choice of precious wood but covered it all with gold Thou miserable and vile Worm why doest thou not prepare and adorn thy self to receive the Lord of the Law Consider also what is the end for which thy Saviour comes unto thee It is by communicating his grace to make thee partaker of his Divinity He comes to cure thy sores and infirmities he comes to give remedy to thy necessities he comes to unite himself unto thee he comes to Deifie thee Behold then the infinity of his Divine goodness who thus melts himself in communication with his Creatures Behold what is here given thee and for what it is given thee God gives himself unto thee that thou mayest be all divine and nothing left in thee of earth In other benefits God bestows his particular gifts upon thee but here he gives thee himself that thou mightest also give thy self unto him and be wholly his If from the Incarnation of the Son of God we gather the great love he bore unto mankind passing for his sake from that height of greatness unto that depth of humiliation as to inclose himself in the Womb of a Virgin Behold how in this he loves thee since to sustain thee in the life of grace he hath made himself the true food of thy Soul and comes from the right hand of the eternal Father to enclose himself in thy most impure breast Jesus Christ comes also to make thee one body with himself that thou mayest after an admirable manner be united unto him and made partaker not onely of his spirit but of his bloud That which this Consideration ought to work in the breast of a