consider this Wherefore busie we our selves about Temporal things and the affairs of this life which we are instantly to leave and enter into a Region of Eternity Less are a thousand years in respect of Eternity than a quarter of an hour in respect of threescore years Why are we then negligent in that short time we are to live in acquiring that which is to endure for a world of worlds Death is a moment placed betwixt this life and the next in which we are to traffick for eternity Let us not therefore be careless but let us remember how much it imports us to die well and to that end let us endeavour to live well §. 3. Besides all this although one should die the most happy death that can be imagined yet it suffices to behold the dead Body when the Soul hath left it how ugly and noisome the miserable Carcass remains that even friends flye from it and scarce dare stay one night alone with it The nearest and most obliged Kindred procure it in all haste to be carried forth a doors and having wrapt it in some course Sheet throw it into the Grave and within two dayes forget it and he who in life could not be contained in great and sumptuous Palaces is now content with the narrow lodging of seaven foot of earth he who used to rest in rich and dainty Beds hath for his Couch the hard ground and as Isaias saith for his Mattress moths and for his Covering Worms his Pillows at best the bones of other dead persons then heaping upon him a little earth and perhaps a Gravestone they leave his flesh to be feasted on by the worms whilest his heirs triumph in his riches He who gloried in the exercise of Armes and was used to revel at Balls and Festivals is now stiffe and could his hands and feet without motion and all his senses without life He who with his power and pride trampled upon all is now trod under foot by all Consider him eight dayes dead drawn forth of his Grave how gastly and horrible a spectacle he will appear and wherein differ from a dead Dog thrown upon a Dunghil Behold then what thou pamperst a Body which shall perhaps within four dayes be eaten by loathsome vermin Whereupon doest thou found thy vain pretensions which are but Castles in the air founded upon a little earth which turning into dust the whole Fabrick falls to ground See wherein all humane greatness concludes and that the end of man is no less loathsome and miserable than his beginning Let this Consideration serve thee as it hath done many Servants of Christ to despise all things of this life Alex. Faya to 2. Joh. Major verbo Mors. Ex. 21. Alexander Faya writes that having opened the Vault wherein lay interred the Body of a principal Count they who were present perceived upon the face of the dead person a Toad of an extraordinary greatness which accompanied with many other filthy and loathsome wormes and vermin was feeding upon his flesh which caused so great a horror and amazement that they all fled The which so soon as it came unto the knowledge of the Son of that Count who was then in the flower of his age he would needs goe and behold the spectacle and looking seriously upon it he broke into these speeches These are the friends which we breed and provide for with our delicacies for these we rest upon soft Beds and lodge in gilt Chambers adorned with Tapestries and make them grow and encrease with the vanity of our dainties Were it not better to prevent them by Fasts and Penances and Austerities in our life that they may not thus insult upon us after death With this conderation quitting his fair Possessions and flying privately away accompanied onely with a lively desire of being poor for Christ which he accounted for the greatest riches he came to Rome where chastising the body with much rigour and living in the holy fear of the Lord he at last became a Collier and by his labour sustained his poor life Finally coming one day unto the City to sell his coles he fell into a grievous sickness which having endured with marvelous patience he at last delivered his most happy Soul into the hands of his Redeemer and that very instant of his death all the Bells of the City rung themselves with which Miracle the Pope and the Roman Court being marvelously astonished his Confessor related unto them all that happened and informed them both of the condition and sanctity of the dead person and there being at the same time in Rome some Gentlemen and Souldiers belonging to the same Prince who came in search of their Master and finding him deceased carried home his holy Body with much joy and reverence unto his Country The Sight of the dead Body of the Empress Donna Isabella Wife unto the Emperour Charles the fift wrought no less effect in the heart of Blessed Francesc◠de Borgia then Marquess of Lombay who being appointed to wait upon the Coarse unto Granada where it was to be interred and being to deliver it bare-faced according to custome to the end it might appear to be the same Body he caused the sheet of Lead wherein it was wrapped to be opened which immediately cast forth so horrible a stench that those who were present not able to endure it were forced to retire and withal the face appeared so foul and deformed that not any of the attendants durst take their oath that that was the Empress's Body Who sees not here the vanity of the world what is of more respect and esteem than the Bodies of great Kings and Princes whilest they live and now dead the Guards and Gentlemen which are to wait upon them flye from them Who are accounted more happy than they who have the fortune to be near their persons They are spoken unto upon the knee as if they were Gods but being dead all forsake them and even Toads Worms and Dogs dare approach and eat them A good testimony of this was Queen Jezabell whose pamperd Body adored whilest she lived was being dead ignominiously torn in pieces by Dogs But to return to our Story The Marquess remaining alone behind the rest began to consider what the Empress once was and what he now beheld her Where was the beauty of that face but become worms and putrifaction where that Majesty and gravity of countenance which made all reverence her and those people happy who beheld her but now grown so hideous that her most obliged Servants leave and abandon her Where is now the Royal Scepter but resolved into filth and corruption This consideration so changed his heart that despising what was temporal and now wholly seeking what was eternal he determined never after to serve that Lord who was mortal The very memory of the loathsomness of a dead Body may serve to make us despise the beauty of that which is living as St. Peter Damian advises
Titus Etherius dyed in the act of lust Giachetto Saluciano and his Mistress dyed in the same venerial action and their bodies were both found conjoyned in death as their souls went joyntly to hell Upon small matters and unexpected accidents depends the success of that moment upon which depends Eternity Let every one open his eyes and assure not himself of that life which hath so many entrances for death let no man say I shall not dye to day for many have thought so and yet sodainly dyed that very hour By so inconsiderable things as we have spoken of many have dyed and thou mayest dye without any of them For a sodain death there is no need of a hair or fish bone to strangle thee nor affliction of melancholy to oppress or excess of sodain joy to surprize thee it may happen without all these exteriour causes A corrupt humour in the entrails which flyes unto the heart without any body perceiving it is sufficient to make an end of thee and it is to be admired that no more dye sodainly considering the disorders of our lives and frailties of our bodies we are not of iron or brass but of soft and delicate flesh A Clock though of hard Mettal in time wears our and hath every hour need of mending and the breaking of one wheel stops the motion of all the rest There is more artifice in a humane body than in a Clock and it is much more subtle and delicate The nerves are not of steel nor the veins of brass nor the entrails of iron How many have had their livers or spleen corcupted or displaced and have dyed sodainly no man sees what he hath within his body and such may his infirmity be that although he thinks and feels himself well yet he may dye within an hour Let us all tremble at what may happen CAP. IV. Why the end of Temporal Life is terrible DEath because it is the end of life is by Aristotle said to be the most terrible of all things terrible What would he have said if he had known it to be the beginning of Eternity and the gate through which we enter into that vast Abyss no man knowing upon what side he shall fall into that profound and bottomless depth If death be terrible for ending the business and affairs of life what is it for ushering in that instant wherein we are to give an accompt of life before that terrible and most just Judge who therefore dyed that we might use it well It is not the most terrible part of death to leave the life of this world but to give an accompt of it unto the Creatour of the world especially in such a time wherein he is to use no mercy This is a thing so terrible that it made holy Job to tremble notwithstanding he had so good an accompt to make who was so just that God himself gloried in having such a Servant The Holy Ghost testifies that he sinned not in all what he had spoken in his troubles and calamities which were sent him not as a punishment for his sins but as a trial of his patience proposing him unto us an example of vertue and constancy and he himself protests that his Conscience did not accuse him yet for all this was so fearful of the strict judgment which God passes in the end of the world that amazed at the severity of his Divine Justice he cries out in his discourse with the Lord Who will give me that thou protect and hide me in hell Dionys Rikel artic 16. de noviss whilest thy fury passes Whereupon Dionysius Rikellius affirms that that instant wherein the Judgement of God is to be given is not onely more terrible than death but more terrible than to suffer the pains of hell for some certain time and this not onely unto those who are to be damned but even unto those who are elected for heaven Since therefore Job being so just and holy quaked at the apprehensions of that Divine Judgement when it was yet far from him and when we use not to be so sensible as of things at hand without doubt when a Sinner shall in that instant perceive himself to have displeased his Redeemer and Creatour although but in small faults yet it will afflict him more than the suffering of most great pains for which St. Basil judged that it was less to suffer eternal torments Basil hom contra divites avaros than the confusion of that day and therefore pondering that reprehension given unto the rich man in the Gospel Fool this night thy Soul shall be taken from thee Whose then shall be the riches which thou hast gotten the Saint avers that this mock this taunt did exceed an eternal punishment Death is terrible for many weighty reasons and every one sufficient to cause in us a mortal fear whereof not the least is the sight of the offended Judge who is not onely Judge but Party and a most irrefragable Witness in whose visage shall then appear such a severity against the wicked that St. Austin sayes he had rather suffer all manner of torments than to behold the face of his angry Judge And St. Chrysostome saith Chrys homi 24. in Math. It were better to be struck with a thousand Thunderbolts than to behold that countenance so meek and full of sweetness estranged from us and those eyes of peace and mildness not enduring to behold us The only sight of an Image of Christ crucified Rad. in opusc in annuis Societ which appeared with wrathful and incensed eyes although in this life when the field of mercy is open was sufficient so to astonish three hundred persons who beheld it that they fell unto the ground senseless and without motion and so continued for the space of some hours How will it then amaze us when we shall behold not a dead Image but Jesus Christ himself alive not in the humility of the Cross but upon a Throne of Majesty and Seat of Justice not in a time of mercy but in the hour of vengeance not naked with pierced hands but armed against Sinners with the Sword of Justice when he shall come to judge and revenge the injuries which they have done him God is as righteous in his justice as in his mercy and as he hath allotted a time for mercy so he will for justice and as in this life the rigour of his justice is as it were repressed and suspended so in that point of death when the Sinner shall receive judgment it shall be let loose and overwhelm him A great and rapid river which should for 30 or 40 years together have its current violently stopt what a mass of waters would it collect in so long a space and if it should then be let loose with what fury would it overrun and bear down all before it and what resistance could withstand it Since then the Divine justice Dan. 7. which the Prophet Daniel compares
him abhorring mankinde even unto the last gasp he commanded that his body should not be interr'd in the earth as in the common Element wherein usually were buried the bodies of others afraid lest his bones should lye near or be touched by men though dead but that they should make his Sepulcher upon the brink of the Sea that tho fury of the waves might hinder the approach of all others and that they should grave upon it this Epitaph which is related by Plutarch After my miserable life they buried me in this deep water Reader desire not to know my name The Gods confound thee This Philosopher wanted faith and charity not distinguishing betwixt the Malice of man and his Nature having reason to abhorre that and to love this Yet by these extravagant demonstrations he gave us to understand how monstrous are our passions and how worthy of hate when they are not ordered and governed by reason And certainly all Christians ought to desire the destruction of the pomp and pride of men as Timon did of their persons their superfluous gallantry their unlawful pleasures their ostentation of riches their vain titles of honour their raging envy their disordered choler their unjust revenges their unbridled passions Those ought to die and be destroyed that the men may live § 6. So many are the miseries of life that they cannot all be numbered Death which is called by Aristotle The greatest of evils is by many esteemed a lesser evil than life the many evils in this surpassing the greatness of the evil in that and therefore many have thought it better to suffer the greatest which is death than to suffer so many though lesser which are in life For this reason one calls Death The last and greatest Physician because though in it self it be the greatest evil yet it cures all others and therefore prescribes the hopes of it as an efficacious remedy and comfort in the afflictions of life But because this comfort is not relished by all the fear of death being so natural and the dangers and many waves unto it accounted amongst the many miseries of life therefore some prime Philosophers could find out no other remedy for evils than to despair of their remedy Wherefore Seneca when a great Earthquake happened in his time in Campania wherein Pompeios a famous City and divers other Towns were sunk and many people lost and the rest of the Inhabitants distracted with fear and and grief fled from their Country as if they had been banisht he advised them to return home and assured them that there was no remedy for the evils of this life and that the dangers of death were unavoidable And truly if well considered what security can there be in life when the Earth which is the Mother of the living is unfaithful to them and sprouts out miseries and deaths even of whole Cities what can be secure in the World if the World it self be not and the most solid parts of it shake If that which is onely immoveable and fixt for to sustain the living tremble with Earthquakes if what is proper to the Earth which is to be firm be unstable and betray us where shall our fears find a refuge When the roof of the house shakes we may flie into the fields but when the world shakes whither shall we goe What comfort can we have when fear cannot find a gate to flie out at Cities resist Enemies with the strength of their walls Tempests finde a sheltet in the Haven The covering of Houses defend us from rains and snows In the time of plague we may change places but from the whole Earth who can flie and therefore from dangers For this reason Seneca said Not to have a remedy may serve us as a comfort in our evils for Fear is foolish without Hope Reason banishes fear in those who are wise and in those who are not despair of remedy gives a kind of security at least takes away fear He that will fear nothing let him think that all things are to be feared See what slight things endanger us even those which sustain life lay ambushes for us Meat and drink without which we cannot live take away our lives It is not wisdom therefore to fear swallowing by an Earthquake and not to fear the falling of a tile In death all sorts of dyings are equal What imports it whether one single stone kills thee or a whole Mountain oppress thee death consists in the souls leaving of the bodies which often happens by slight accidents But Christians in all the dangers and miseries of humane life have other comforts to lay hold on which are a good conscience hope of glory conformity unto the Divine will and the imitation and example of Jesus Christ From these four he shall in life have merit in death security in both comfort and in eternity a reward Justus Lipsius being much oppressed with his last infirmity whereof he died some who were present endeavoured to comfort him with some philosophical reasons and sentences of the Stoicks wherein that most learned man was much studied as appears in his Book of the Introduction to Stoical learning unto whom he answered in this most Christian manner Vain are all those consolations and pointing unto an Image of Christ crucified said This is the true comfort and true patience And presently with a sigh which rose from the bottom of his heart said My Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ give me Christian patience This comfort we ought to have who were redeemed by so loving a Lord That considering our sins are greater than the pains of this life and that the Son of God hath suffered farre greater who wanted all sin he hath deserved to convert the miseries of this life which are occasioned by sin into instruments of satisfaction for our sins drawing health out of infirmity and an antidote out of poison We may also draw from what is said how unjust was the complaint of Theophrastus that nature had given a longer life unto many birds and beasts than unto man If our life were less troublesome he had some reason but it being so fraught with miseries he might rather think that life the happiest which was shortest Wherefore as St. Jerome said to Heliodorus it is better to die young and die well than to die old and die ill This voyage being of necessity the felicity of it consists not in being long but being prosperous and that we at last arrive in the desired Port. St. Austin sayes August in Johan that to die is to be eased of those heavy burthens which we bear in this life and that the happiness is not to leave it late in the evening of our age but that when we die they charge us not with a greater load Let a man live ten years or let him live a thousand death as St. Jerome saith gives him the title of happy or unfortunate If he live a thousand years in sorrow it is a great unhappiness
brought a quintal Vi. Bonfrerium in Exod. 16. it shrunk and contracted it self into the small measure of a gomer with some it diminished and with others swelled and dilated it self into a greater proportion The corruption of it was so sodain that it lasted not one day without being wholly putrified and fill'd with worms and yet notwithstanding all these qualities the enjoying and eating of it cost much toyl and labour first in gathering then grinding then in cooking and performing many other duties requisite for the use of it After the same manner the goods of this life notwithstanding all their faults and evil conditions are not obtained nor enjoyed without much travel and vexation After this all did not enjoy that quality proper to Manna which was to taste like unto that which he that eat it most desired for sinners found this taste limited and not so full and savory as others Even so we with our vices alter and diminish the natural sweetness of the things of this life as we shall see hereafter in it's due place It is true that the appearance of it was good Sept. Interp in cap. 11. Nume species illius species chrystalli for as the 70 Interpreters say it was like Christal clear and transparent The same is the condition of the goods of this life they have the splendor and an appearance but are really more brittle then glass they are variable fading and inconstant and subject to a thousand alterations they are corruptible transitory and mortal and onely by reason of their glittering we seek after them as after things great and eternal Let us then leave the appearance and painted superficies of things and look upon the substance and truth and we shall finde that what is temporal is small and what eternal is great the temporal inconstant the eternal firm the temporal short and temporal the eternal durable and in fine eternal and this onely were enough to make it more esteemed then the temporal although the temporal in all other respects did exceed it but the one being so short and mutable and the other great firm and constant the difference betwixt them can be no less Lib. 7. moral c. 12. then as St. Gregory esteemed it who sayes Immense is that which shall follow and without limit and little is all that which ends And the same Saint notes that the small knowledge and memory of eternity is the main cause of the deceiving of Mankind who have in esteem the false goods of this life and undervalue those spiritual and eternal of the other and therefore speaks in this manner Lib. 8. moral ca. 12. The thoughts of the predestinated alwayes have their intentions placed upon eternity although they possess great felicity in this life and although they be not in danger of death yet ever look upon it as present to the contrary do obstinate souls who love this temporal life as a thing permanent because they consider not how great is the eternity of that which is to come and not considering the solidity of the eternal they judge this Banishment for their Countrey this Darkness for Light and this Race for their Station for those who know not greater matters are not able to judge of the smallest We therefore will begin to draw the Curtain and from the consideration of Eternity and the loose condition of time discover the distance betwixt the goods of heaven and those of earth from whence we shall come to handle the baseness of the temporal and greatness of the eternal Wherefore as a Philosopher said of light that there was nothing more clear nor nothing more obscure the same may be said of time and eternity which being held no less perspicuous are ill understood and are no less obscure and dark then the other But we shall endeavour to make them more intelligible being assisted by the light of Faith the doctrine of Saints and wisdom of the Philosophers CAP. II. How efficacious is the consideration of Eternity for the change of our Lives THe thought of Eternity St. Augustine calls a Great thought Augus in Psal 76. Magna cogit because the memory of it is of great joy unto the Saints and no less horror unto Sinners and unto both of much profit and concernment it causes us to do great matters and shews the smalness of the fading and transitory things of this earth I will therefore from this light begin to discover the large field of the poverty trumpery and baseness of the temporal and recommend the consideration of the eternal the which we ought still to have in our thoughts as David had perpetually in his in whom whilst he was a Sinner it caused horror and confusion and being a Saint it comforted and encouraged him to be yet more holy drawing from this meditation most spiritual and incomparable profit unto his soul and therefore in his Psalms he so often repeats the memory of it not only in the body of them but almost in every passage saying for ever or eternally or world without end there being no inscription or title which he uses more frequently then this against the end or in the end because he composed them with the consideration of eternity which follows the end of this life and for more clearness adds in some of them against the end for the Octave which according to St. Augustine signifies Eternity that being the octave after the 7 dayes of the week into which all time is to resolve which 7 dayes being past there are to be no more weeks but as St. Peter sayes one onely day of perpetual Eternity In this Eternity therefore did the Prophet employ his thoughts by day and his meditations by night this forced him to send up his voice unto Heaven and to cry out unto God this made him mute and took away his speech with men this astonished him and made his pulses fail with the consideration of it this affrighted him and mingled wormwood with the pleasures of this life this made him know the littleness of all that is temporal and made him enter within himself and examine his conscience Finally this brought him to a most miraculous change of life beginning to serve the Lord with more fervor all which effects proceeding from the thoughts of Eternity are apparent in the 76 Psalm therefore sayes he amongst other things Mine eyes prevented the watches I troubled myself and spake not immediately after he gives the reason saying I thought upon the dayes of old and had in my thoughts the years of eternity and meditated on them by night with my heart This thought was the occasion of his long watches on this he meditated before the Sun was risen and on this many hours after it was set and that with so great astonishment of what Eternity was that his spirit â—â—iled him and he trembled with the lively apprehension of what it was either to perish eternally in Hell or to enjoy a blessedness for
and a vertuous life let us set before our eyes the forgetfulness and miserable mistakes of the Sons of Adam in a matter of so great importance living as if Eternity were far off when as the Philopher sayes it is not two fingers distant and every minute threatens them What devides the Mariner from his death but the thickness of a plank What the cholerick and hasty man from Eternity but the edge of a sword what the Souldier from his end but the reach of a bullet what the Theef from the Gallows but the distance betwixt that and the Prison Finally how far is the most healthful and vigorous person distant from Eternity but as much as death is from life which often happens sodainly and ought every moment to be expected The life of Man is a dangerous passage wherein he walks upon the brink of Eternity with a certainty at last to fall into it How lives he then so wretchedly He who should walk close unto a great precipice in a path no broader then the breadth of his foot and that also full of rubs and stumbling blocks how circumspectly would he look about him and how carefully would he order his steps how then is it that being so near Eternity he is so careless and lives as if he were out of danger In Histo Barla ca. 12. in fine St. John Damascen excellently declares the fondness and mistakes of men in a most ingenious Parable wherein he naturally sets forth the state of this life A certain man saith he flying from a furious Unicorn which with his very roaring made the mountains tremble and the valleys to resound not regarding through fear which way he went chanced to fall into a molt deep pit but in his fall spreading abroad his armes to catch at something which might relieve him happened to light upon the boughs of a tree which grew out of the side of that pit whereon he seized with much joy hoping he had then both escaped the fury of the beast and the danger of his fall but looking towards the foot of the tree he perceived two great Rats the one white the other black perpetually gnawing the root of it in so much that it was now ready to fall looking afterward into the bottom of the pit he beheld a most deformed Dragon with flaming eyes gazing upon him and with open mouth awaiting his fall that he might devour him then casting his eyes unto that side of the pit where the tree grew there appeared four poisonful Aspicks shooting forth their heads to bite him Yet notwithstanding marking the leaves of the tree he might perceive some of them to distil certain drops of honey with which he was so greatly pleased that forgetting the dangers which from so many parts threatned him he employed himselt wholly in gathering and tasting drop by drop that small quantity of honey without reflecting or making further account either of the fierceness of the Unicorn above him of the horribleness of the Dragon beneath him of the poison of the Aspicks aside him or the weakness of the tree which was ready to fall and precipitate him into that horrid Dungeon In this Image we see represented the Estates of men who forgetful of the perils of this transitory life give themselves wholly over unto vain pleasures By the Unicorn is signified death which even from the hour of Man's birth follows and pursues him The Pit is the world full of evils and miseries The Tree is the course of this life The two Rats the one black the other white which gnaw it at the root are day and night which continually seconding one another go by hours and minutes consuming it The four Aspicks are the four Elements or four Humours of which we are composed the which by the excess of any one of them distemper the whole frame of our bodies and at last destroy it That horrid and fearfull Dragon is the eternity of Hell which enlarges his throat and jawes to swallow sinners The small drops of honey are the pleasures and delights of this life and so great is the diversion which they cause that men for a short and momentary content consider not the many dangers unto which they are exposed and seeing themselves encompassed on all parts by as many dangers of death as there are wayes and causes of dying which are infinite and are so many mouths and gates of Eternity yet notwithstanding solace themselves with the momentary delights of this small drop of honey which shall at last cause them to disgorge and cast up their entrals for a world without end Wonderful it is that so great a forgetfulness possesses us and a matter full of amazement that we are not moved with so great dangers How comes it about that every minute a new day of Eternity dawning upon us we carelesly pass over so many dayes and moneths Let the most strong and healthful person tell me what one year he is assured of wherein death may not assault him and push him headlong into an eternal abyss But what speak I of a year what moneth what day what hour what instant is he sure of how then can he eat how sleep in safety If one should enter into a field full of ambushes and secret traps whereon if he should chance to set his careless foot he were in danger to fall upon the points of Pikes or Halberts or into the mouth of some terrible Dragon and seeing with his own eyes that they who entred with him into the same field hourly fell into those traps and appeared no more should notwithstanding run leaping and dancing up and down without fear or apprehension of any thing amiss who would not say that man were a fool Certainly more fool art thou who seeing thy friends fall daily into the trap of Death thy neighbour swallowed up in Eternity thy brother sink into the pit of the Grave dost yet notwithstanding remain careless and secure as if the same fate did not attend thy self Although to die were a thing uncertain yet for the doubt and danger that it might happen thou oughtest to be vigilant and prepared for it What oughtest thou then to be it being so certain and that early or late thou art to enter in at the gate of Eternity A marvelous thing it is with what care men provide themselves against dangers although very uncertain If they hear that Theeves are in the way to rob and spoil the passengers no man passes that way but armed provided and many in company if they understand that the Plague begins to range what antidotes and conterpests are sought for if they fear a Famine every man in time provides himself of corn How happens it then that knowing that there is a Death a Judgment a Hell an Eternity we stand not upon our guards nor provide our selves for it Let us open our eyes and look into the perils which environ us let us take heed where we set our feet that we
perish not for the paths of this life are full of dangers And with reason did Isidorus Clarius compare it to a narrow Bridge Isid Clar. juxt S. Greg. scarce broad enough to receive our feet under which was a Lake of black and filthy water full of serpents and of ugly and poisonous creatures which onely sustained themselves by feeding on those unfortunate people who fell from the Bridge on either side were pleasant Gardens Meadows Fountains and beautiful Buildings But as it were extream madness in him who was to pass so dangerous a Bridge to entertain himself with gazing upon those Gardens and Buildings without taking care where he set his foot so is it as great a fully in him who is to pass this transitory life to apply himself to pleasures and delights without taking care of his wayes or works To this Cesarius Arelatensis adds That the greatest danger of of this Bridge consisted towards the end where it was narrowest and this is the most streight passage of Death Let us therefore if we intend to gain Heaven look how we place our feet in this life least we misplace them in death and perish in that Eternity wherein our life is to conclude O Eternity Eternity how few there are that provide for thee O Eternity peril of perils and if we miss the mark whereat we ought to aim above all dangers whence comes it that we prepare not for thee whence comes it that we fear thee not which art to endure as long as God is God this present life is but to last a very little time our forces will fail us our senses wax dull our riches leave us the commodities of the world fly from us the want of breath make an end of us and the world at last call us out of it what then will become of us we are to be sent into a strange Countrey for a long time why do we not forecast what to do when we come thither But that we may the better see this our condition and so learn to be more cautious I will relate another Parable of the same St. John Damascen In vita Josaph There was saith he a City very great and populous whereof the Inhabitants had a Custom to elect for their King a stranger who had no knowledge of that Kingdom and Common-wealth This King for a year they suffered to do what he list but that being ended and he most secure without fear or apprehension of any thing amiss thinking he should raign as long as live they suddainly came upon him despoiled him of his royal apparel dragging him naked through the streets and banishing him into an Island far off where he came to suffer extream poverty not having wherewith to feed or cloth himself his fortune without thinking on it wholly changing into the contrary his riches into poverty his joy into sadness his dainties into hunger and his royal purple into nakedness But once it happened that he whom they elected was a prudent and a subtil man and having understood from one of his Counsellors this evil and wicked Custom of the Citizens and their notable inconstancy grew not proud and haughty with the Dignity of the Kingdom which they had conferred upon him but became careful in providing for himself that when he should be deposed and banished into that Island which he every moment expected he might not as his Predecessours perish with poverty and hunger The course he took was during his Reign to transport secretly into that Island all the Treasures of the City which were very great The year being ended the Citizens according to their Custome with his Predecessours came in an uproar to depose him of his Office and Royalty and to send him in exile into the Island whither he went without trouble having before-hand provided wherewith he might live in honour and plenty whilst the preceding Kings perish'd with want and penury This is that which passes in this world and the course which a wise man ought to take That City signifies this world foolish vain and most inconstant wherein when we think to reign we are suddenly despoiled of all we have and sent naked into our Graves when we least look for it and are most busie in enjoying and entertaining our selves with the fading and transitory pleasures of this life as if we were immortal without so much as thinking on Eternity whither we are in a short time to be banisht A Region far off and far removed from our thoughts whither we are to go naked and forsaken of all where we are to perish with an eternal death and shall only live to be tormented into a Land of the dead obscure and dark where no light enters but everlasting horrour and eternal sorrow inhabits He is therefore wise who foreseeing that he is to be despoiled of all he hath in this world provides for the next making such use of time in this life that he may finde the profit of it in Eternity and with the holy works of pennance charity and alms transports his Treasures into that Region where he is to dwell for ever Let us therefore think upon the Eternal and for it despise the Temporal and we shall gain both the one and the other The consideration of Eternity St. Gregory understood to be figured by the Store-house well furnished with precious wine into which the Spouse saith that the Bridegroom brought her and in her ordained Charity because saith he he who shall with a profound attention consider in his mind Eternity may glory in himself saying he hath ordained in me charity by which thought he shall better preserve the order of love loving himself the less and God and all things for God the more he shall not make use of the temporal things of this life not even of those which are most necessary but in order to the Eternal CAP. V. What is Eternity according to St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Dionysius LEt us therefore begin to declare something of what is inexplicable and to frame some kind of conception of what is incomprehensible whereby Christians knowing or to speak more properly being less ignorant of what is Eternity they may have a horrour either to commit a sin or to omit an act of vertue trembling in themselves that for matters of so small value as are those of the Earth they are to lose things so great and precious as are those of Heaven Agrippina perceiving the great lavishness of her Son who poured out gold and silver as if it had been water desirous to reform his prodigality upon a time when the Emperour had commanded about a quarter of a Million to be bestowed upon some Minion of his caused that Money and as much more to be spread upon a Table and placed where he was to pass to the end that seeing with his own eyes the mighty mass of Treasure which he so wastfully mispent he might after with more discretion moderate his vast expences
Truly the folly and vanity of Man admits no other cure than to set before his eyes that for the small and momentary pleasure of a sin committed against the Law of God he loses and unthriftily casts away that which is to last for ever For this cause we ought to consider what it is to have no end what it is to last for ever what it is to be Eternal But who is able to declare this since Eternity is an immense Ocean whose bottom cannot be found a most obscure abyss wherein are sunk all the faculties of humane understanding an intricate Labyrinth out of which there is no issue a perpetual Present without what was or what shall be a continued Circle whose Centre is in every part and Circumference no where a great Year which ever begins and is never ended finally that which never can be comprehended yet ever ought to be pondered and thought upon But that we may say something and frame some conception of it let us see in what manner the Saints have defined it St. Gregory Nazianzen knows not what it is but only what it is not and therefore says Eternity is not time nor part of time because time and each part of time pass away but in Eternity nothing does nor ever shall pass All the torments with which a Soul enters into hell shall after millions of years past torment him as lively and entirely as at the first beginning neither shall the joyes with which the just enter into Heaven ever in the least sort diminish Time hath this property to draw along with it custome which at length lessens the sense of what at first was grievous but Eternity is ever the same ever entire in it nothing passes the pains with which the damned begin shall after a thousand ages be the same they were at first and the glory which he who is saved receives in the first instant shall ever appear fresh and new unto him Eternity hath no parts all is of a piece in it there is no diminution nor lessening And although the pleasures of this life which go along with time are of this condition that in time they lessen and that there is no delight in this world which by long enjoying becomes not troublesome and tedious and that to the contrary even griefs and and pains with continuance either grow less or are absolutely cured yet far otherwise is the web which Eternity weaves it is all uniform in it there is no joy which wearies us nor any pain which by continuance abates or becomes less sensible in so much as Eternity according to St. Dionysius Areopagita Cap. 10. de divin nomin is the immutability immortality and incorruptibility of a thing wholly and altogether existent a space which perishes not but is always subsistent after the same manner and therefore as the Wise man saith Wheresoever the tree falls there it shall for ever remain if thou shalt fall as an infernal fire-brand into the bottom of Hell there shalt thou be for ever burning whilest God is God it not being in the power of any to redeem thee thence nor in thy own so much as to turn from one side to the other Eternity is immutable because incompatible with change it is immortal because not capable of end and incorruptible because it cannot suffer diminution The evils of this life how desperate of remedy soever yet want not this comfort that they are either eased with change or ended by death or lessened by corruption But all this is wanting in eternal evils The change of pains serves for a refreshment and the infirm man how afflicted soever by turning from side to side receives some ease but eternal pains shall whilst God is God remain in the same posture force and vigour without change at all If the most pleasant and wholesome food of Manna only because continual caused vomiting and became loathsome What shall those pains which shall last for ever What torments shall they cause since they are to remain still after the same manner The Sea hath his ebbs and flows the Rivers their encreases the Planets their various Aspects the Year his four Seasons the greatest Feavers have their relaxations and the sharpest pain arriving at the height uses to decrease only eternal torments shall never suffer declination nor shall the eyes of the damned ever see a change The plain and even way which seems most easie wearies the Traveller because it wants variety What weariness shall then the ways of Eternity cause and those perpetual pains which can neither change end nor diminish The torments whereunto Cain entred now five thousand years ago are after so many ages past still the same they were at first and what they now are shall be so many ages more to come they are measured by the Eternity of God and the duration of his unhappiness by the duration of the Divine Glory whilst God lives he shall wrastle with death and shall immortally continue dying that eternal death still living and that miserable life still dying containing the worst of life and the worst of death those wretched Souls living only that they may suffer torments and dying that they may not enjoy comfort having neither the content of life nor the end of death but contrariwise for their greater torment have the pain of death and duration of life On the other part behold the happy lot of them that die in Grace their glory shall be immortal without fear of ending their happiness immutable without capacity of growing old their Crown incorruptible without danger of withering where no day shall pass without joy whose content shall be ever new and whose Glory flourish for perpetual Eternities and whose happiness shall ever be the same And that very Glory which St. Michael was six thousand years ago possest of the same he enjoys this very instant as fresh and new as the first day and shall six millions of years to come as new as now CAP. VI. What Eternity is according unto Boëtius and Plotinus LEt us now hear the Opinions of Severinus Boëtius and Plotinus two great Philosophers and the one of them no less a Divine what they conceive concerning this great Mystery and secret of Eternity Boëtius defines Eternity to be Lib. 5. de cons Philosopho A total and perfect possession of an indeterminable life which Definition although it principally belongs unto the Eternity of God yet it may-be also applied unto the Eternity of reasonable Creatures since they also enjoy a total and perfect possession of happiness in an eternal life never to end With reason he calls it a possession for the fulness it hath of joy possession being the best way of enjoying the which implies a ful Dominion of what it possesses for he who hath a thing in loan or trust may be said to enjoy it but not with that liberty as he who possesses it He says moreover that this possession is total because it is of
penance performed by Ezechiel the Prophet at the Commandment of God who appointed him that he should continue laid upon one side without rising for the space of 390 days This was a most rigorous pennance but by Divine Grace accomplished by the holy Prophet If it be then so difficult to lie immoveable upon one side for so short a time as the space of one year what shall it be for a condemned sinner to lye stretched upon a bed of sire in that eternal night and sadness of hell all sorts of evils raining down upon him for a time without end or limit What Christian is there who should consider and frame a liveconceit of this but would become another man who could take delight in a momentary pleasure of this life running the danger of those eternal pains in the next who would dare to sin at the hazard of so great a punishment O how powerful a remedy were it against the disordered customs of sinners if they would but settle themselves seriously to think that Eternity hath no end O that they would think upon this one half hour in a day or but so much in a week how quickly would they amend their lives But this is a thought not to be past over in haste but leasurely pondered with attention and profound consideration meditating within our selves what Eternity is that it is that which shall never have an end never never For as that meat which is not chewed nor concocted in the stomack benefits nothing so the thought of Eternity without being well ruminated and digested will little advantage us The force of this consideration appears by an accident related by Benedictus Renatus of a certain man vain and vitious named Fulk the which Benedict Renat lib. 5. as he was given to all sorts of pleasure and delicacy would be sure not to want a soft bed and a large repose But one night his sleep failing him tossing and turning from side to side desiring every moment that day would break whilest he lay thus awake this thought came into his consideration What wouldest thou take to lye in this manner for the space of two or three years in continual darkness without conversation of friends or entertainment of thy pleasures certainly although thou shouldest lye at thy ease and upon a soft Bed as thou now doest yet the trouble would be intolerable But know that thou art not to depart so cheap out of this life thou art not to escape hence at thy own choice at the best that can happen thou art to lye languishing in thy Death-bed where thou art to pass many evil and tedious nights unless perchance thou dye suddenly which will be more and when thou leavest that Bed and dyest dost thou know what Bed shall then expect thee what Couch death hath provided for thee Thy body certainly shall lye upon the hard and cold earth and be devoured by worms but concerning the soul what shall become of it knowest thou whither it shall goe assuredly according to thy present life it shall goe to hell where a terrible Bed of fire awaits thee not for a year or two but for a whole Eternity There thou art to continue in perpetual darkness and torments where a thousand thousand millions of years are not sufficient to satisfie for one of thy unlawful pleasures There thou shalt never see nor Sun nor Heaven nor God Ay me Ay miserable me if this poor want of sleep be so ill to be endured how shall I suffer the eternal torments of hell that which now imports me is to change my course of life for in this way I now goe I am lost for ever These considerations imprinted so deep a character in his minde of Eternity that he could not quit the thought of it until he had resolved to become a Religious man but would often say with himself What doest thou here miserable man thou livest in the world and the world affords thee no comfort thou sufferest many things which thou wouldest willingly avoid and wantest others which thou wouldest as willingly enjoy Thou molestest thy self with the cares of this life and what reward attends thee for all thy trouble thou enjoyest no compleat pleasure and if thou didst it would not last Seest thou not daily those who dye and enter into Eternity O Eternity Eternity if thou beest not in Heaven wheresoever thou art even in this soft Bed thou art grievous I will therefore endeavour to assure Heaven and for a little will not lose much nor for what is temporal the eternal and so putting in execution what he had resolved upon he entered a Religious person into the order of the Cistercians §. 4. All our actions are still to be accompanied with this thought For ever For ever shall be rewarded that which I do well and that for ever punished wherein I grievously offend With this consideration shall a Christian not onely animate himself to do good works but to do them well Aelianus writes of Ismenias Lib. 1. Var. Hist ca. 21. Embassador from the Thebans unto the King of Persia that being about to deliver his Embassage and advertised that before he spake a word he was to adore the King Ismenias thinking this honour too much to be bestowed upon a barbarous Prince yet seeing no wayes to avoid it fell upon this devise He took his Ring which anciently was of great esteem as signifying the quality and authority of him that wore it and pulling it from his finger let it secretly fall at the Kings feet whilest he lay prostrate before them saying within himself Not unto thee but to this Ring If we in like manner should in all our actions propose unto our selves Eternity and wholly respect it we should finde little difficulty in any good work we went about Let us therefore fix our eyes and thoughts upon it which is to be given us for that which may be done in a moment Blessed be God who bestows upon us a reward without and for troubles so short that they scarcely have a beginning Euripides a famous Poet amongst the Greeks complained upon a time that in three whole days he had made but three Verses and those not without trouble Alcestides another Poet present answered For me one day is sufficient to make an hundred Verses and that with ease Euripides then replied It is no marvel since thy Verses are but for three dayes and mine are for ever In the same manner Zeuxis a most excellent Painter but above all measure slow being demanded why he was so tedious in his work answered I paint leasurely because I paint for ever But certainly he deceived himself for at this day there is no Picture of his to be seen and for Euripides many of his works are lost But no good work of the just shall perish Neither have we need so much as of a day to gain Eternity One act of Contrition which is made in a moment does it and in a moment
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
the goods of life being limited it bestows them with a limited and restrained hand Even life it self it gives us but by peeces and mingles as many parts of death as it gives of life The age of Infancy dies when we enter into that of Childhood that of Childhood when we become Youths that of youth when we come to the age of Manhood that when we are old and even old age it self expires when we become decrepit so that during the same life we find many deaths and yet can hardly perswade our selves that we shall die one Let us cast our eyes upon our life past let us consider what is become of our Infancy Childhood and Youth they are now dead in us In the same manner shall those ages of our life which are to come die also Neither do we onely die in the principal times of life but every hour every moment includes a kinde of death in the succession and change of things What content is there in life which quickly dies not by some succeeding sorrow what affliction of pain which is not followed by some equal or greater grief then it self why are we grieved for what is absent since it offends us being present what we desire with impatience being possest brings care and sollicitude loss grief and affliction The short time which any pleasure stayes with us it is not to be enjoyed wholly and all at once but tasted by parts so as when the second part comes we feel not the pleasure of the first lessening it self every moment and we our selves still dying with it there being no instant of life wherein death gains not ground of us The motion of the Heavens is but the swift turn of the spindle which rol's up the thread of our lives and a most fleet horse upon which death runs post after us There is no moment of life wherein death hath not equal jurisdiction and as a Philosopher saith there is no point of life which we divide not with death so as if well considered we live but one onely point and have not life but for this present instant Our years past are now vanisht and we enjoy no more of them than if we were already dead the years to come we yet live not and possess no more of them than if we were not yet born Yesterday is gone to morrow we know not what shall be of to day many hours are past and we live them not others are to come and whether we shall live them or no is uncertain so that all counts cast up we live but this present moment and in this also we are dying so that we cannot say that life is any thing but the half of an instant and an indivisible point divided betwixt it and death With reason as Zacharias said may this temporal life be called The shadow of death since under the. shadow of life death steals upon us and as at every step the body takes the shadow takes another so at every pace our life moves forward death equally advances with it And as Eternity hath this proportion that it is ever in beginning and is therefore a perpetual beginning so life is ever ending and concluding and may therefore be called a perpetual end and a continual death There is no pleasure in life which although it should last twenty continued years that can be present with us longer than an instant and that with such a counterpoise that in it death no less approaches than life is enjoyed Time is of so small a being and substance and consequently our life Phys 4. trac 7. c. 4. that as Albertus Magnus saith it hath no essence permanent and stable but only violent and successive with which not being able to detain it self in its Careere it precipitates into Eternity and like an ill mouthed horse runs headlong on and tramples under toot all it meets with and without stopping ruins what it finds before it And as we cannot perfectly enjoy the sight of some gallant Cavalier deckt with jewels and adorned with glitterring bravery who with bridle on the neck passed in a full Careere before us so are we not able perfectly to enjoy the things of this life which are still in motion and never rest one moment but run headlong on until they dash themselves in peeces upon the rock of death and perish in their end The name which the Emperour Marcus Aurelius gave unto Time Mar. Aurel Anton lib. 4. when he said that it was a furious and a raging wave did not a little express this condition of it for as such a wave sinks and overwhelms the Vessel not permitting the Merchant to enjoy the treasures with which she was laden so Time with his violence and fury ruins and drowns all that runs along in it This Philosopher considering the brevity and fleeting of Time judged a long and a short life to be the same whole opinion for our further understanding I shall here relate If some of the Gods saith he should tell thee that thou wert to die to morrow or the day after thou wouldest not except thou wert of a base and abject spirit make any account whether since the difference and distance betwixt the two dayes were so small In the same manner thou art to judge of the difference of dying to morrow and a thousand years hence Consider seriously how many Physicians who with knit brows have handled the pulses of their sick Patients are now themselves dead how many Mathematicians who gloried in foretelling the death of others how many Philosophers who have disputed subtilly of death and mortality how many famous Captains who have kill'd and destroyed a multitude of poor people how many Kings and Tyrants who with insolency have used their power over their oppressed Vassals how many Cities If I may so say have dyed as Helice Pompeios Herculanum and innumerable others Add unto these how many thou thy self hast known to die and assisted at their Exequies and that which yesterday was fish and fresh is to day laid in pickle or dust Momentary then is all time All this from this most-wise Prince CAP. XII How short Life is for which respect all things temporal are to be despised BEhold then what is Time and what thy Life and see if there can be any thing imagined more swift and more inconstant than it Compare Eternity which continues ever in the same state with Time which runs violently on and is ever changing and cousider that as Eternity gives a value and estimation unâ—â— those things which it preserves so Time disparages and takes away the value of those that end in it The least joy of Heaven is to be esteemed as infinite because it is infinite in duration and the greatest content of the earth is to be valued as nothing because it ends and concludes in nothing The least torment in hell ought to cause an immense fear because it is to last without end and the greatest pains of this
Thomas then a little vapour which in a moment vanishes And although it should endure a thousand years yet coming to an end it were equal unto that which lasted but a day For as well the felicity of a long as a short life is but smoke and vanity since they both pass away and conclude in death Guerricus the Dominican a great Philosopher and Physician and afterwards a most famous Divine hearing them reade the sift Chapter of Genesis wherein are recounted the Sons and Descendants of Adam in these terms The whole life of Adam was 930 years and he died The life of his Son Seth was 912 years and he died and so of the rest began to think with himself that if such and so great men after so long a life ended in death it was not sate to lose more time in this world but so to secure his life that losing it here he might find it hereafter and with this thought entred into the Order of St. Dominick and became of a most religious life O what fools are men who seeing life so short endeavour to live long and not to live well Epis 22. since it is a thing most certain as Seneca observes that every man may live well but no man what age soever he attains unto can live long This folly appears more plainly by that which is said by Lactantius Laae lib. 6. divin Instit that this life being so short the goods and evils of it must be likewise short as the goods and evils of the other must be eternal and that God being pleased to make an equal distribution of both ordained that unto the short and transitory goods which we enjoy unlawfully in this life should succeed eternal evils in the next and unto those short evils which we suffer here for Gods sake eternal goods and happiness should follow in the other Wherefore Almighty God setting before us this disserence betwixt good and evil and leaving us in liberty of choosing which we please how great a folly were it for the not suffering of a few evils and those so short to lose goods so great and eternal and for the enjoying of goods so short and transitory to endure evils without end CAP. XIII What is Time according to St. Augustine LEt us also see what the great Doctor of the Church Saint Augustine thought of the nature of Time Lib. 11. Confes ca. 25. the which in that great wit and understanding of his sound so little estimation and being that after he had with much subtilty disputed what it was at length comes to conclude that he knows not what it is nay that he knows not so much as what it is not to know it The most that he can reach unto is that no time is long and that that onely may be called time which is present the which is but a moment The same is the opinion of Antoninus in his Philosophie Aur. Anton l. 2. who speaks in this mauner If thou wert to live 3000 years and 30000 more above those yet oughtest thou to remember that no man lives any other life than what he lives at present and therefore the most long and the most short space of life is the same that which is present being the same unto all although not that which is already past So as it seems there is but one only point of time and that no man can lose either that which is past or that which is to come since no man can lose what he hath not wherefore these two things ought to be preserved in memory The one that from the beginning all things keep the same form and return as it were in a circle to the same estate so as there is no difference betwixt the beholding of them for a 100 for 200 years or much more incomparable The other is that he who lives long and he who dies shortly lose the same thing being both deprived of the present of which they onely are possest and and no man loses what he hath not So much from this wise Prince why found no other substance in time but onely this present moment Cap. 14. And St. Augustine informs us further of the being of this present moment of which it cannot be affirmed so much as that it is at all These are his words If the present that it may be called time is because it is to pass into the praeterit how can it be said to be since the onely cause why it is is because it shall not be so as we cannot affirm it to have a being but in as much as it is a way into a not being Behold then whereunto thou trusts thy felicity See upon what pillar of brass thou placest thy hopes even on so slight a thing that its whole existence is in leaving to be and receives its being if it have any from its passing into nothing For what can that have which is and is not ever leaving to be with that impetuous fury that thou art not able to detain it for one small moment since even during that moment it is in a perpetual motion Let him who is in the flower of his age tell me by what power he is able to detain the years of his life but for one day or whether he can keep the pleasure which he now enjoyes but one hour from leaving him Let him endeavour to lay hold on time But it is in vain He knows not where to fasten Time hath no substance and yet runs with that violence that it will sooner hale thee after it than thou shalt be able to keep it back Wherefore the same holy Doctor speaking of life sayes That the time of life is a Careere unto death the which is so swift and mixt with so many deaths that he began to doubt whether the life of mortals were to be called a life or death and therefore thus discourses From the instant that we begin to be in this body Lib. 13. de Civ ca. 10. which is to die there is nothing operated in it but what brings on death This is effected by the mutability of lite if that may be called a lite which onely works to bring on death For there is none who is not nearer his death this year than the last to day than yesterday now than a little while agoe and all the time we live is substracted from the time of living and every day that which remains becomes less and less in so much as the time of this lite is nothing else but a Careere unto death in which no man is permitted to make stay or to march with more leasure but all are driven on with equal speed Presently after he adds For what else is daily and hourly done until death which was still a working be consummated and that time which follows death begin to be which time was then in death whilest there was a continual decay of lite From hence it follows that man was
powerful is subject to most impetuous storms whose end is to be sunk and overthrown O how wavering and uncertain is the height of the greatest honours false is the hope of man and vain is all his glory affected with feigned and fawning flatteries O uncertain life due unto perpetual toyl and labour what doth it now profit me to have fired so many stately and lofty buildings to have destroyed so many Cities and their people What doth it now profit me O Brother to have raised so many costly Palaces of Marble when I now die in the open field and in the sight of heaven O how many things doest thou now think of doing not knowing the bitterness of their end Thou beholdest me now dying and know that thou also shalt quickly follow me § 2. But let us forbear to look upon those several kindes of death which are incident to humane nature Let us onely consider that which is esteemed the most happy when we die not suddenly or by violence but by some infirmity which leasurely makes an end of us or by a pure resolution which naturally brings death along with it What greater misery of mans life than this that that death should be accounted happy not that it is so but because it is less miserable than others for what grief and sorrow doth not he pass who dies in this manner how do the accidents of his infirmities afflict him The heat of his Fever which scorches his entrails The thirst of his mouth which suffers him not to speak The pain of his head which hinders his attention The sadness and melancholy of his heart proceeding from the apprehension that he is to die besides other grievous accidents which are usually more in number than a humane body hath members to suffer together with remedies which are commonly no less painful than the evils themselves To this add the grief of leaving those he loves best and above all the uncertainty whither he is to goe to heaven or hell And if onely the memory of death be said to be bitter what shall be the experience Saul who was a man of great courage oncly because it was told him that the next day he was to die fell half dead upon the ground with fear For what news can be more terrible unto a sinner than that he is to die to leave all his pleasure in death and to give an account unto God for his life past If lots were to be cast whether one should have his flesh pluckt off with burning pincers or be made a King with what fear and anxiety of mind would that man expect the issue how then shall he look who in the agony of his death wrastles with Eternity and within two hours space looks for glory or torments without end What life can be counted happy if that be happy which ends with so much misery If we will not believe this let us ask him who is now passing the traunces of death what his opinion is of life Let us now enquire of him when he lies with his breast sticking forth his eyes sunk his feet dead his knees cold his visage pale his pulses without motion his breath short a Crucifix in one hand and a Taper in the other those who assist at his death bidding him say Jesus Jesus and advising him to make an Act of Contrition what will this man say his life was but by how much more prosperous by so much more vain and that all his felicity was false and deceitful since it came to conclude in such a period what would he now take for all the honours of this world Certainly I believe he would part with them at an easie rate Nay if they have been offensive to God Almighty he would give all in his power he had never enjoyed them and would willingly change them all for one Confession well made Philip the third was of this mind and would at that time have exchanged his being Monarch of all Spain and Lord of so many Kingdomes in the four parts of the world for the Porters Keyes of some poor Monastery Death is a great discoverer of truth What thou wouldest then wish to have been be now whilest it is in thy power A fool thou art if thou neglect it now when thou mayst and then wish it when it is too late He who unto the hour of his death hath enjoyed all the delights the world can give him at that hour what remains with him Nothing or if any thing a greater grief And what of all his penances and labours suffered for Christ Certainly if he had endured more than all the Martyrs he shall then feel no pain or grief of them all but much comfort Judge then if it shall not be better for thee to do that now which thou shalt then know to have been the better Consider of how little substance all temporal things will appear when thou shalt be in the light of eternal The honours which they have given thee shall be no more thine the pleasures wherein thou hast delighted can be no more thine thy riches are to be anothers See then whether the happiness of this life which is not so long as life it self be of that value that for it we should part with eternal felicity I beseech thee ponder what is life and what is death Life is the passing of a shadow short troublesome and dangerous a place which God hath given us in time for the deserving of Eternity Consider with thy self why God leads us about in the Circuit of this life when he might at the first instant have placed us in heaven Was it perhaps that we should here mispend our time like beasts and wallow in the base pleasures of our senses and daily invent new Chimera's of vain and frivolous honours No certainly it was not but that by vertuous actions we might gain heaven shew what we owe unto our Creator and in the middest of the troubles and afflictions of this life discover how loyal and faithful we are unto our God For this he placed us in the Lists that we should take his part and defend his honour for this he entred us into this Militia and Warfare for as Job sayes the life of man is a warfare upon earth that here we might fight for him and in the middest of his and our Enemies shew how true and faithful we are unto him Were it fit that a Souldier in the time of Battail should stand disarmed passing away his time at Dice upon a Drum-head and what laughter would that Roman Gladiator cause who entring into the place of Combat should set him down upon the Arena and throw away his Arms This does he who seeks his ease in this life and sets his affections upon the things of the earth not endeavouring those of heaven nor thinking upon death where he is to end A Peregrination is this life and what passenger is so besotted with the pleasures of the way that he forgets
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
where I beseech thee is the fear of his justice when knowing that thou mayest dye to day thou deferrest thy conversion for so many years so as thy vices may be rather said to leave thee than thou them Mark what St. Augustin sayes Repentance in death is very dangerous for in the holy Scripture there is but one onely found to wit the good Theef who had true repentance in his end There is one found that none should despair and but one that none should presume For in a sound man repentance is sound in an infirm man infirm and in a dead man dead Many deal with God as King Dionysius did with the Statue of Apollo from which when he took his Cloak of massie gold he said This Cloak is good neither for Summer nor Winter for Summer it is too heavy for Winter too cold So some can find no time for the service of God Almighty In youth they say It is too early and that we ought to allow that age its time of freedom and pleasure that when they are old they will seriously think of vertue and amendment of life that the vigour of youth is not to he enfeebled with the austerities of penance which renders us infirm and useless the rest of our succeeding lives But arriving at old age if by chance they attain it they have then many excuses and pretend that they want health and strength to perform their penances After this manner they would deceive God Almighty but they remain deceived themselves To the Apostle St. James this manner of speech seemed not well To morrow we will goe to such a City and there we will stay a year because we know not what shall be to morrow If then in temporal things it be not good to say I will do this to morrow what shall it be in procuring the salvation of our Souls to say Ten or twenty years hence when I am old which who knows whether ever shall be I will then serve God and repent to what purpose deferre we that untill tomorrow which imports so much to be done to day especially since it absolutely imports and perhaps will not be to morrow if not to day Aug. Confes In this error was St. Augustine as he himself confesses I felt my self saith he detained and I often repeated these words Miserable man Until when until when To morrow and to morrow And why is there not to day an end of ' my lewd life This I said and wept with most bitter contrition of my heart § 3. To this Uncertainty of death is to be added the Third Condition of being onely one and onely once to be tryed so as the error of dying ill cannot be amended by dying well another time God gave unto Man his senses and other parts of his body doubled he gave him two eyes that if one failed he might serve himself of the other he gave him two ears that if one grew deaf he might supply the defect by the other he gave him two hands that if one were lost yet he might not wholly be disabled but of deaths he gave but one and if that one miscarry all is ruin'd A terrible case that the thing which most imports us which is to dye hath neither tryal experience or remedy it is but onely once to be acted and that in an instant and upon that instant all Eternity depends in which if we fail the error is never to be amended Plutarch writes of Lamachus the Centurion that reprehending a Souldier for some error committed in warre the Souldier promised him he would do so no more Unto whom the discreet Centurion replyed Thou sayest well for in warre the mischief which follows the first error is so great that thou canst not erre twice And if in warre you cannot erre twice in death you ought not to erre once the error being wholly irrepairable If an ignorant Peasant who had never drawn a Bow should be commanded to shoot at at a mark far distant upon condition that if he hit it he should be highly rewarded with many brave and rich gifts but if he mist it and that at the first shoot he should be burnt alive in what streights would this poor man find himself how perplexed that he should be forced upon a thing of that difficulty wherein he had no skill and that the failing should cost him so dear as his life but especially that it was only once to be essayed without possibility of repairing the first fault by a second trial This is our case I know not how we are so jocund We have never dyed we have no experience or skill in a thing of so great difficulty we are onely once to dye and in that all is at stake either eternity of torments in hell or of happiness in heaven how live we then so careless and forgetful of dying well since for it we were born and are but once to try it This action is the most important of all our life the which is to pass in the presence of God and Angels upon it depends all eternity and if mist without repair or amendment Those human actions which may be repeated if one miss the other may hit and that which is lost in one may be regained in another If a rich Merchant has this year a Ship sunk in the Ocean another may arrive the next loaden with such riches as may recompence the loss of the former And if a great Oratour miscarry in his declamation and lose his credit he may with another recover it but if we once fail in death the loss is never to be restored That which is but onely one is worthy of more care and esteem because the loss of it is irrepairable Let us then value the time of this life since there is no other given us wherein to gain Eternity Let us esteem that time wherein we may practice a precious death or to say better both a precious life and death learning in life how to dye It was well said by a pious Doctor If those who are to execute some office or perform some matter of importance or if it be but of pleasure as to dance or play at Tennis yet study first before they come to do it why should we not then study the art of dying which to do well is an action more dfficult and important than all others If a man were obliged to leap some great and desperate leap upon condition that if he performed it well he should be made Master of a wealthy Kingdom but if ill he should be chained to an Oar and made a perpetual Galley-slave Without all doubt this man would use much diligence in preparing himself for so hazardous an undertaking and would often practice before an action of so great consequence from which he expected so different fortunes How far more different are those which we expect from so great a leap as is that from life to death since the Kingdoms of Earth
compared with that of Heaven are trash and rubbish and the tugging at an Oar in the Gallies compared with Hell a Glory When the leap is great and dangerous he who is to leap it uses to fetch his Careere backwards that he may leap further and with greater force We therefore knowing the danger of the leap from life to death that we may perform it better ought to fetch our Careere far back even from the beginning of our short life and from our first use of reason from which we shall know that the life we live is mortal that at the end of it we have a great debt to pay and that we are to discharge both use and principal when we least think of it St. John Eleemosynarius relates that anciently when they crowned an Emperour the principal Architects presented him with some peeces of several sorts of Marble wishing him to make choice of such as best pleased him for his Sepulcher giving him thereby to understand that his Reign was to last so short a time that it was convenient for him immediately to begin his Tomb that it might be finished before his life were ended and that withal he could not govern well his Vassals unless he first governed himself by the memory of death The others present were also admonished by this mystery that so soon as reason began to command and have Dominion in us that it was then time to provide for death and that in the preparation for our end consisted the good government and perfection of life A perfect life saith St. Gregory is the meditation of death Greg. moral 12. and he enjoyes a perfect life who imployes it in the study of death he lives well who learns how to dye well and he that knows not that knows nothing all Sciences besides profit him but little What did all that he had studied and all which he knew profit the great Aristotle nothing which he himself confest being near his death For when his Disciples besought him that having in his life time bestowed upon them so many fair Lessons and wise Sentences he would leave them one at his death This was his answer I entred this life in poverty I lived in misery and dye in ignorance of that which most imports me to know He said well for he had never studied how to dye Many Disciples hath Aristotle in those Sciences which he knew and many which follow his opinions but many more who imitate him in the ignorance he had of death Let us husband Time in which we may gain Eternity which being once lost we shall lose both the Time of this life and the Eternity of the other How many millions are now in Hell who whilest they were in this world dispised time and would now be content to suffer thousands of years all the torments of the damned for the redemption but of one instant in which they might by repentance recover the eternal life of glory which is now lost without remedy and yet thou casts away not onely instants but hours dayes and years Consider what a damned person would give for some part of that time which thou losest and take heed that thou hereafter when there shall be no repair of that time which thou now so lavishly mispendest be not thy self in the same grief and bitterness O fools as many as seek vain etertainments to pass away the time as though time would stand still if they found not divertisements to make it pass The time of this life flyes and over-runs thee and thou layest not up for the other Consider how thou mayest by Time gain Eternity look not then upon the loss of it as upon the loss of Time but of Etenity Time as saith Nazienzen is the Market or Fair of Eternity Endeavour then whilest it lasts to get a good bargain for this life once past there is no more occasion of traffick the time appointed for storing up is but short and the gain and profit is eternal Hear what a Heathen teaches thee who knew not this great good that by Time might be purchased Eternity and yet he sayes in this manner Nature did not bestow Time upon us with such liberality Seneca Epist 118. as that the least particle of it might be cast away Consider how much Time is lost even to the most diligent some part the care of our health takes from us some that of our friends some our necessary occasions some our publick affairs imploy sleep divides life with us Of this then so short and rapid time which remains what doth it profit us to spend the greater part in vain Lib. de brevitate vitae The same Author advises us also that we strive to overcome the swiftness of time with our diligence in well using and imploying it If this be Seneca's counsel who had not the help of faith and was ignorant that in an instant of time might be gained an eternity of Glory what ought we to do who have the light of heaven the knowledge of eternal happiness and the threats of eternal torments Let us live ever dying and let us think every instant to be our last so shall we not lose this time which is so precious and by which we may gain what is eternal Let us call to mind what is said by St. John Climacus Climac gra 6. The present day is not well past unless we esteem it to be the last of our life He is a good man who every hour expects death but he is a Saint that every hour desires it At least let us behave our selves as mortals and let us believe we are so shewing by our works that we know we are to dye Let us ask that of God which was prayed for by David Lord let me know the fewness of my dayes It is apparent that we are to dye it is apparent that we know not when it is apparent that we are dye but once but it is much more available as St. Ambrose notes when God saith it and we discourse it in our selves Let us therefore practically perswade our selves of this truth and let not that time slip from betwixt our hands which once past will never return Let us blush at the counsel of a Heathen Marcus Aurelius the Emperour who advises us to proceed alwayes constantly in vertuous actions Anton. lib. 2. in princip Reflect sayes he upon the end of that time which is assigned thee the which if thou shalt not spend in procuring the peace of thy mind whilest thou livest it will pass away and never return unto thee being dead every hour apply thy mind to mark seriously what thou takest in hand and doe it accurately with fortitude as becomes a Roman with an unfeigned gravity humanity liberality justice and in the mean time withdraw thy mind from all other thoughts which thou shalt easily doe if thou shalt so perform each action without the mixture of vain glory as if it were the last
will it cause when a Sinner in the instant of Gods judgment shall see himself delivered over into the power of the infernal Dragon without all hopes of ever escaping from him who will seize upon a Soul and carry her to the abyss of hell Let us call to mind with dread that which the holy Prophet feared and said of the Devil God grant he lay not hold on my soul like a Lion when there will be none that will set me at liberty or relieve me O what a lamentable thing will it be for one to see himself in the power of Lucifer not onely abandoned by Men but also by the Angels and by the Queen of Men and Angels and even of God himself Father of all mercies Let us provide our selves in time for that which is to be done in a moment on which depends our Eternity O moment in which all time is lost if a Soul doth lose it self in it and remains lost for ever how much doest thou avail us Thou givest an assurance to all the good works of this life and causest an oblivion of all the pleasures and delights thereof to the end that Man may not wholly give himself over to them since they will then be of no benefit to him and persevere in vertue since it will not secure him unless he persevere in it to the last §. 2. How can men be careless seeing so important a business as is the salvation of their Souls to depend upon an instant wherein no new diligence nor preparations will avail them Since therefore we know not when that moment will be let us not be any moment unprovided this is a business not to be one point of time neglected since that point may be our damnation What will a hundred years spent with great penance and austerity in the service of God profit us if in the end of all those years we shall commit some grievous sin and death shall seise upon us before repentance Let no man secure himself in his past vertues but continue them until the end since if he die not in grace all is lost and if he doe what matters it to have lived a thousand years in the greatest troubles and afflictions this world could lay upon him O moment in which the just shall forget all his labours and shall rest assured of all his vertues O moment in which the pains of a Sinner begin and all his pleasures end O moment which art certain to be uncertain when to be and most certain never to be again for thou art onely once and what is in thee determined can never be revoked in another moment O moment how worthy art thou to be now fixed in our memory In vit PP l. 5. p. 565. apud Rot that we may not hereafter meet thee to our eternal mine and perdition Let us imitate the Abbot Elias who was accustomed to say That three things especially made him tremble The first when his Soul was to be pluckt out of his Body the second when it was to appear before God to receive judgment and the third when sentence was to be pronounced How terrible then is this moment wherein all these three things so terrible are to pass Let a Christian often whilest he lives place himself in that instant from whence let him behold on one part the time of his life which he is to leave and on the other the eternity whereunto he enters and let him consider what remains unto him of that and what he hopes for in this How short in that point of death did those near-hand a thousand years which Mathusala lived appear unto him and how long one day in Eternity In that instant a thousand years of life shall appear unto the Sinner no more than one hour and one hour of torments shall appear a thousand years Behold thy life from this Watch-tower from this Horizon and measure it with the eternal and thou shalt find it to be of no bulk nor extension Sec how little of it remains in thy hands and that there is no escaping from the hands of Eternity O dreadful moment which cuts off the thread of Time and begins the web of Eternity let us in time provide for this moment that we may not lose Eternity This is that precious pearl for which we ought to give all that we have or are Let it ever be in our memory let us ever be sollicitous of it since it may every day come upon us Eternity depends upon death death upon life and life upon a thread which may either be broken cut or burnt and that even when we most hope and most endeavour to prolong it A good testimony of this is that which Paulus Aemilius recounts of Charles King of Navarre Paulus Aemilius l. 9. Aâ—cidita anno 1387. who having much decayed and weakned his bodily forces by excess of lust unto which he was without measure addicted the Physicians for his cure commanded Linnens steeped in Aqua vitae to be wrapped close about his naked body He who sewed them having nothing in readiness to cut the thread made use of a candle which was at hand to burn it but the thread being wet in those spirits took fire with such speed as it fired the Linnen and before it could be prevented burnt the body of the King in that manner as he immediately dyed Upon a natural thread depended the life of this Prince which concluded in so disastrous a death and no doubt but the thread of life is as easily cut as that of flax time is required for the one but the other is broken in an instant and there are more causes of ending our life than are of breaking the smallest twist Our life is never secure and therefore we ought ever to fear that instant which gives an end to Time and beginning unto Eternity Wonderful are the wayes which death finds out and most poor and contemptible those things upon which life depends It hangs not only upon a thread but sometime upon so small a thing as a hair So Fabius a Roman Senatour was choaked with a hair which he swallowed in a draught of milk No door is shut to death it enters where air cannot enter and encounters us in the very actions of life Small things are able to deprive us of so great a good Valer. Max. lib. 6. A little grain of a grape took away the life of Anacreon and a Pear which Drusus Pompeius was playing with fell into his mouth and choaked him The affections also of the Soul and the pleasures of the Body become the high way unto death Homer dyed of grief and Sophocles of an excess of joy Dionysius was kill'd with the good news of a victory which he obtained Aurelianus dyed dancing when he married the Daughter of Domiâ—ian the Emperour Thales Milesius beholding the sports in the Theater dyed of thirst Vid. Andream Eborensem de morte non vulgari and Cornelius Gallus and
merry How dare that Sinner laugh since that instant will come wherein it will not profit him to weep why does he not now with tears ask pardon for his sins when after death he cannot obtain it There shall be then no mercy no remedy no protection from God or man no defence but what each man hath from his own works Let us then endeavour they may be good ones since we have nothing in the other life to trust to but them The rich man shall not then have multitudes of Servants to set forth his greatness and authority nor well-feed Lawyers to defend his process onely his good works shall bestead him and they onely shall defend him and in that instant when even the mercy of God shall fail him and the blood of Christ shall not appease the Divine justice onely his good works shall not fail him then when their treasures which have been heaped up in this world and guarded with so much care shall fail their Masters their alms bestowed on the poor shall not fail them there when their Children Kindred Friends and Servants shall all fail them the Strangers which they have lodged the Sick which they have visited in the Hospitals and the needy which they have succoured shall not fail them The rich man is to leave his wealth behind him without knowing who shall possess it 〈◊〉 his good works shall goe along with him and they onely when nothing else can shall avail him neither shall Christ who is the Judge of the living and the dead at that time admit of other Patrons or Advocates Let us then take heed we turn not those against us which are onely at that dreadful time to bestead us It is to be admired how many dare do ill in the presence of that Judge with whom nothing can prevail but doing well and the wonder is much the greater that we dare with our evil works offend him who is to judge them The Theef is not so impudent as to rob his neighbour if the Magistrate look on but would be held a fool if he should rob or offend the Magistrate himself in his own house How dares then this poor thing of man injure the very person of his most upright and just Judge before whom it is most certain he shall appear to his face in his own house in so high a manner as to preferre the Devil his and our greatest enemy before him How great was the malice of the Jews when they judged it fitter that Barabbas should live than the Son of God Let the Sinner then consider his own insolence who judges it better to please the Devil than Christ his Redeemer Every one who sins makes as it were a Judgment and passes a Sentence in favour of Satan against Jesus Christ Of this unjust Judgment of man the Son of God who is most unjustly sentenced by a Sinner will at the last day take a most strict and severe account Let him expect from his own injustice how great is to be the Divine justice against him Let a Christian therefore consider that he hath not now his own but the cause of Christ in hand Let him take heed how he works since all his actions are to be viewed and reviewed by his Redeemer An Artist who knew his work was to appear before some King or to be examined by some great Master in the same art would strive to give it the greatest perfection of his skill Since therefore all our works are to appear before the King of Heaven and the chief Master of vertues Jesus Christ let us endeavour that they may be perfect and compleat and the rather because he is not to examine them for curiositie but to pass upon us a Sentence either of condemnation or eternal happiness Let us then call to mind that we are to give an account unto God Almighty and let us therefore take heed what we doe let us weep for what is amiss let us forsake our sins and strive to do vertuous actions let us look upon our selves as guilty offenders and let us stand in perpetual fear of the Judge as Abbot Amno advises us of whom it is reported in the Book of the lives of Fathers translated by Pelagius the Cardinal In vitis Pat. lib. 5. That being demanded by a young Monk what he should doe that might most profit him answered Entertain the same thoughts with the Malefactors in prison who are still enquiring Where is the Judge When will he come every hour expecting their punishment and weeping for their misdemeanors In this manner ought the Christian ever to be in fear and anxietie still reprehending himself and saying Ay me wretch that I am how shall I appear before the Tribunal of Christ how shall I be able to give an account of all my actions If thou shalt always have these thoughts thou mayest be saved and shalt not fail of obtaining what thou demandest towards thy salvation and all will be little enough Climac gra 6. St. John Climacus writes of a certain Monk who had lived long with small fervour and edification who falling into a grievous infirmity wherein he remained some space without sense or feeling was during that time brought before the Tribunal of God and from thence returned unto life wherein he continued ever after in that fear and astonishment that he caused the door of his little Cell which was so small and narrow that he had scarce room to move in it to be stopt up there remained as it were inclosed in prison the space of twelve years during which time he never spake with any nor fed upon other than bread and water but sat ever meditating upon what he had seen in that rapture wherein his thoughts were so intent as he never moved his eyes from the place where they were fixed but persevering still in his silence and astonishment could not contain the tears from abundantly flowing down his aged face At last saith the Saint his death now drawing near we broke open the door and entred into his Cell and having asked him in all humility that he would say something unto us of instruction all we could obtain from him was this Pardon me Fathers He who knew what it were truly and with his whole heart to think upon death would never have the boldness to sin The rigour of Divine Judgment which is to pass after death occasioned in this Monk so great change and penitence of life § 2. The second cause of the terribleness of death which is the laying open of all wherein we have offended in this life ANother thing of great horror is to happen in the end of life which shall make that hour wherein the Soul expires most horrible unto sinners and That is the sight of their own sins whose deformity and multitude shall then clearly and distinctly appear unto them and although now we remain in ignorance of many and see the guilt of none they shall then when we
since he hath employed his omnipotency for our good and profit let us employ our forces and faculties for his glory and service CAP. VI. Of the End of all Time BEsides the end of the particular time of this life the universal end of all time is much to be considered that since humane ambition passes the limits of this life and desires honour and a famous memory after it Man may know that after this death there is another death to follow in which his memory shall also die and vanish away as smoke After that we have finisht the time of this life the end of all time is to succeed which is to give a period unto all which we leave behind us Let man therefore know that those things which he leaves behind for his memory after death are as vain as those which he enjoyed in life Let him raise proud Mausoleums Let him erect Statues of Marble Let him build populous Cities Let him leave a numerous Kindred Let him write learned Books Let him stamp his Name in brass and fix his Memory with a thousand nails All must have an end his Cities shall sink his Statues fall his Family and Linage perish his Books be burned his Memory be defaced and all shall end because all time must end It much imports us to perswade our selves of this truth that we may not be deceived in the things of this world That not only our pleasures and delights are to end in death but our memories at the farthest are to end with Time And since all are to conclude all are to be despised as vain and perishing Cicero although immoderately desirous of fame and honour Cieer in Ep. ad Luc. as appears by a large Epistle of his written unto a friend wherein he earnestly entreats him to write the conspiracy of Cataline which was discovered by himself in a Volume apart and that he would allow something in it unto their ancient friendships and Publish it in his life time that he might enjoy the glory of it whilest he lived yet when he came to consider that the world was to end in Time he perceived that no glory could be immortal and therefore sayes By reason of deluges and burnings of the earth In Somn. Scip. which muâ—â— of necessity happen within a certain time we cannot attain glory not so much as durable for any long time much less eternal In this world no memory can be immortal since Time and the World it self are mortal and the time will come when time shall be no more But this truth is like the memory of death which by how much it is more important by so much men think lest of it and practically do not believe it But God that his divine providence and care might not be wanting hath also in this taken order that a matter of so great concernment should be published with all solemnity first by his Son after by his Apostles and then by Angels Apoc. 10. And therefore St. John writes in his Apocalyps that he saw an Angel of great might and power who descended from heaven having a Cloud for his Garment and his head covered with a Rainbow his face shining as the Sun and his feet as pillars of fire with the right foot treading upon the Sea and with the left upon the Earth sending forth a great and terrible voice as the roaring of a Lyon which was answered by seaven thunders with other most dreadful noises and presently this prodigious Angel lifts up his hand towards Heaven But wherefore all this Ceremony wherefore this strange equipage wherefore this horrid voice and thunder all was to proclaim the death of Time and to perswade us more of the infallibility of it he continued it with a solemn Oath conceived in a Set form of most authentique words listing up his hand towards Heaven and swearing by him that lives for ever and ever who created Heaven and Earth and all which is in it There shall be mo more time With what could this truth be more confirmed than by the Oath of so great and powerful and an Angel The greatness and solemnity of the Oath gives us to understand the weight and gravity of the thing affirmed both in respect of it self and the importance of us to know it If the death of a Monarch or Prince of some corner of the world prognosticated by an Eclipse or Comet cause a fear and amazement in the beholders what shall the death of the whole World and with it all things temporal and of Time it self foretold by an Angel with so prodigious an apparition and so dreadful a noise produce in them who seriously consider it For us also this thought is most convenient whereby to cause in us a contempt of all things temporal Let us therefore be practically perswaded that not onely this life shall end but that there shall be also an end of Time Time shall bereave Man of this life and Time shall bereave the World of his whose end shall be no less horrible than that of Man but how much the whole World and the whole Race of mankind exceeds one particular person by so much shall the universal end surpass in terrour the particular end of this life For this cause the Prophecies which foretell the end of the World are so dreadful that if they were not dictated by the holy Spirit of God they would be thought incredible Christ therefore our Saviour having uttered some of them unto his Disciples because they seemed to exceed all that could be imagined in the conclusion confirmed them with that manner of Oath or Asseveration which he commonly used in matters of greatest importance Math. 13. Luc. 21. Amen which is By my verity or verily I say unto you that the world shall not end before all these things are fulfilled Heaven and earth shall fail but my words shall not fail Let us believe then that Time shall end and that the World shall die and that if we may so say a most horrible and disastrous death let us believe it since the Angels and the Lord of Angels have sworn it If it be so then that those memorials of men which seemed immortal must at last end since the whole Race of man is to end let us only strive to be preserved in the eternal memory of him who hath no end and let us no less despise to remain in the fading memory of men who are to die than to enjoy the pleasures of our senses which are to perish As the hoarding up of riches upon earth is but a deceit of Avarice so the desire of eternizing our memory is an errour of Ambition The covetous man must then leave his wealth when he leaves his life if the Theef in the mean time do not take it from him and fame and renown must end with the World if envy or oblivion deface it not before All that is to end is vain this World therefore and all which
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
at least mortifie our affections for what is promised us hereafter and because it is most agreeable to God and profitable for our selves as may appear by this story related by Glycas Glycas ex eo Rad. in Aula Sancta cap. 12. A certain Anchorite had lived forty years in the desert retired wholly from the world and applying himself with great observance of his profession to the salvation of his Soul A desire at last entred into his minde to know who in the world was equal to himself in mortification Whereupon he besought God to reveal it unto him and it pleased his Divine Majesty to grant his request and it was answered him from heaven that the Emperour Theodâ—sius notwithstanding that he was Master of the greatest glory of the World yet was neither inferiour unto him in humility nor in overcoming himself The Hermite with this answer moved by God repaired unto the Court where he found easie access unto the courteous and religious Emperour unto whom the Servants of God and such as were famous for sanctity of life were alwayes welcome Not long after he found means to speak unto him and know his holy exercises At first he onely acquainted him with common vertues That he gave large Alms That he wore hair-cloth That he fasted often That he observed conjugal chastity and That he caused justice to be exactly observed These vertues seemed well unto the Hermit especially in such a person but yet judged all this to be short of himself who had done those things with greater perfection For he had renounced all and given all he possessed for Christ which was more than to give almes he never knew woman in his life which was more than to observe conjugal chastity he never did injury or injustice unto any which was more than to cause it to be kept to others his hair-cloth and fasts from all sorts of dainties were continual which was more than to abstain some dayes from flesh Wherefore altogether unsatisfied he further importuned the Emperour beseeching him to conceal nothing from him That it was the Divine will that he should acquaint him with what he did and that therefore he was sent unto him from God The Emperour thus urged said unto him Know then that when I assist at the horse-courses and spectacles in the Circus where my presence is required I so withdraw my minde from those vanities that though my eyes be open I see them not The Hermit remained astonisht at so particular a mortification in so great an Emperour and perceived that Scepters and Purple could not hinder a devout Prince from mortification of his affections and meriting much with God Almighty Theodosius further added Know also that I sustain my self by my labour for I transcribe certain parchments into a fair hand which being sold the price payes for my food With this example of poverty amongst so much riches and temperance in the middest of so great dainties the Hermit was wholly amazed and learned that abstinence from ease and pleasures of this life was that which made this religious Prince so gracious and acceptable unto our Lord. Finally so perverse are the delights of the World that though lawful yet they hinder much our spiritual proficiency and if unlawful are the total ruine of our Souls § 4. What shall we then say of the Royal and Imperial dignity which seems in humane judgement to embrace all the happiness of the World Honours Riches Pleasures all are contained in it But how small is a Kingdom since the whole Earth in respect of the Heavens is no bigger than a point and certainly neither Honours Riches or Pleasures are greater or more secure than we have described them Let us hear St. Chrysostome speak of the Emperours of his time Hom. 66. ad pop Look not upon the Crown saith he but upon that tempest of cares which accompany it Fix not thy eyes upon the purple but upon the mind of the King more sad and dark than the purple it self The Diadem doth not more encompass his head than cares and suspicions his soul Look not at the Squadions of his Guard but at the Armies of molestations which attend him for nothing can be so full of cares as the Palaces of Kings Every day they expect not one death but many nor can it be said how often in the night their hearts tremble with some sodain fright and their souls almost seem to forsake their bodies and this in the time of peace But when a warre is kindled what life so miserable as theirs how many dangers happen unto them even from their Friends and Subjects The floor of the Royal Palace is drowned in the blood of their Kindred If I shall mention those which have happened heretofore and now of late thou wilt easily know them This suspecting his Wife tied her naked in the mountains and left her to be devoured by wild beasts after she had been a Mother of divers Kings What a life had that man it being impossible he should execute such a revenge unless his sick heart had been eaten and consumed with jealousie This put to death his onely Son This killed himself being taken by the Tyrant This murthered his Nephew after he had made him his companion in the Empire This his Brother who died by poison and his innocent Son ended his life onely for what he might have been Of those Princes which followed one of them was with his Slaves and Chariots miserably burnt alive and it is not possible for words to express the calamities which he was forced to endure And he which now raigns hath he not since he was crowned suffered many troubles dangers griefs and treasons but in Heaven it is not so After this manner St. Chrysostome paints forth the greatest fortune of the World the Imperial Majesty which must needs be little since it is so unhappy that it suffers not to enjoy those frail goods of the earth in security but makes the possessors oftentimes perish before them But it is far otherwise in Heaven the Palace and House of God where the just without mixture or counterpoise of misery are to enjoy those goods eternal as we shall see in its proper place Lastly let us learn from hence not to admire the greatness of this World nor to desire the benefit of it Which lesson was well taught by St. Spiridion unto his Disciple who accompanying him one time unto the Court of the Emperour suffered himself to be transported with those things which he beheld The greatness and lustre of the Court The rich Garments Jewels Pearls and precious Stones dazled the eyes of the raw and unexperienced youth but above all the sight of the Emperour seated in his Imperial Throne with so much splendour and greatness almost drew him besides himself St. Spiridion willing one day to correct his errour asked him as if he had not known it Which of those were the Emperour His Disciple not reaching his intention
undefiled superiour to all grief and pleasure that thou do nothing without a good end nothing feignedly or falsely and that thou regard not what another man does or has to doe Besides that all things which happen thou receive as sent from thence from whence thou thy self art derived Finally that thou attend death with a quiet and temperate minde This is from that great Philosopher CAP. X. The dangers and prejudices of things Temporal THe least evil which we receive from the goods of this world is to deceive and frustrate our hopes and he comes well off whom they forsake onely with a mock For there are many who not onely fail of what they desire but meet with what they abhorre and in place of ease and content meet with trouble and vexation and instead of life finde death and that which they most affect turns often to their destruction Absolon being very beautiful gloried in nothing more than his hair but even those became the instrument of his death and those which he daily combed as if they had been threads of gold served as a halter to hang him upon an Oak To how many have riches which they loved as their life been an occasion of death This is the calamity of the goods of the earth which the Wise-man noted when he said Eccle. 5. Another dangerous evil I beheld under the Sun riches preserved for the destruction of their owner This is the general and incurable infirmity of riches that when they are possessed with affection they turn into the ruine of their possessors either in soul or body and oftentimes in both in so much as we are not to look upon temporal goods as vain and deceitful but as Parricides and our betrayers With much reason the two great Prophets Isaias and Ezechiel compare Egypt by which is signified the world and humane prosperity unto a reed which if you lean upon it breaks and the splinters wound your hands No less brittle than a reed are temporal goods but more dangerous Besides the other faults wherewith they may be charged a very great one is the hurts they doe to life it self for whose good they are desired and are commonly not onely hurtful unto the life eternal but prejudicial even unto the temporal How many for their desire to obtain them have lost the happiness of heaven and the quiet felicity of the earth enduring before death a life of death and by their cares griefs fears troubles labours and afflictions which are caused even by the greatest abundance and felicity before they enter into the hell of the other world suffer a hell in this And therefore St. John writes in his Apocalyps Apoc. 20. that Death and Hell were cast into a lake of fire because the life of sinners of whom he speaks according to the letter is a death and hell and he sayes that this Life and this Hell shall be cast into the other hell and he who places his felicity in the goods of the earth shall pass from one death unto another and from one hell unto another Let us look upon the condition whereunto Aman was brought by his abundance of temporal fortunes into so excessive a pride that because he was denied a respect which was no wayes due unto him he lived a life of death smothering in his breast a hell of rage madness and hatred nothing in this life as he himself confest giving him ease or content What condition more like unto death and hell than this for as in hell there is a privation of all joyes and delights so oftentimes it happens in the greatest felicities upon earth The same which Aman confessed Dionysius felt when he was King of Sicily to wit that he took no content at all in the greatest delights of his Kingdom Tull. in Tuscul q. Boet. l. de consol And therefore Boetius sayes that if we could take away the veil from those who sit in Thrones are clad in Purple and compassed about with Guards of Souldiers we should see the chains in which their Souls are enthralled conformable unto which is that of Plutarch that in name onely they are Princes but in every thing else Slaves A marvelous thing it is that a man compassed about with delights pastimes and pleasures should joy in nothing and in the middest of dancing drinking feasting and dainty fair should find a hell in his heart That in hell amongst so many torments sinners should not finde comfort is no marvail at all but that in this life in the middest of felicity and affluence of all delights he should finde no satisfaction is a great mystery A great mischief than is humane prosperity that amongst all its contents it affords no room for one true one But this is Divine providence that as the Saints who despised what was temporal had in their souls in the very middest of torments a heaven of joy and pleasure as St. Lawrence who in the middest of flames found a Paradice in his heart so the Sinner who neither esteems nor loves any thing besides those of the world should also in the middest of his regalo's and delights finde a life of hell and torments anticipating that whereunto after death he is to enter and be confined So great are the cares and griefs occasioned by the goods of the earth that they oppress those who most enjoy them and shut up the door to all mirth leaving them in a sad night of sorrow This is that which was represented unto the Prophet Zacharias Zach. 5. when before that the Devils came to fetch away the Vessel wherein the woman was enclosed to be carried into a strange Region in the Land of Sanaar there to dwell for ever the mouth of it was stopt up with a talent of Lead and she imprisoned in darkness and obscurity signifying thereby that before a worldling is snatcht away by the Devils to be carried into the mournful land of hell even in this life he is hood-winked and placed in so great a darkness as he sees not one beam of the light of truth so that no content or compleat joy can ever enter into his heart § 2. The reason why the goods of this life are troublesome and incommodious even to life it self is for the many dangers they draw along with them the obligations wherein they engage us the cares which they require the fears which they cause the affronts which they occasion the straights whereunto they put us the troubles which they bring along with them the disordinate desires which accompany them and finally the evil conscience which they commonly have who most esteem them With reason did Christ our Redeemer call riches thorns because they ensnare and wound us with danger losses unquietness and fears Wherefore Job said of the rich man Job 20. Greg. l. 15. Mor. c. 12. When he shall be filled he shall be straightned he shall burn and all manner of grief shall fall upon him The which St.
felicity in pamparing himself here will be tormented hereafter and he who is unjustly flattered and honoured here shall be justly scornd and despised there This was well declared by St. Vincent Ferrer in a comparison of the Faulcon and the Hen. The Hen whilest she lives seeks her food in the dirt and dunghils and at best feeds now and then upon some bran or light corn The Faulcon to the contrary is cherished carried upon his Masters fist and fed with the brains of Birds and Partridges but after death they change their conditions for the Faulcon is flung upon the dunghil and the Hen served to the table of Kings As Jacob changed his hands placing his right hand upon his Grandchild who stood upon his left side and his left hand upon him who stood upon the right preferring the younger before the elder so God uses to change his hands after death and preferre the younger who are the poor and despised in this life For this Christ our Redeemer pronounces so many Woes against the rich of this world Woe be unto you rich who rejoyce in this world yee shall weep in the next Woe be unto you who are now filled you shall hunger hereafter Woe be unto them who have their heaven here it is to be feared a hell will succeed it Let us tremble at what was spoken unto the rich glutton Thou didst receive pleasure in this life and for this eternal evils succeeded thee after death changing hands with poor Lazarus who received evils in this life and after death enjoyed the pleasures of the other The rich man who wanted not abundance of precious wines in this life wanted a drop of water to cool his tongue in the next And Lazarus who here wanted the crums of bread that fell from his table was feasted with the Supper of eternal happiness The Prophet Jeremias writes that Nabuzardan carried a way the rich Captives unto Babylon Jer. 39. and left the poor in Jerusalem because the Devil carries away the slayes and lovers of riches unto Babylon which is the confusion of hell and leaves the poor in spirit in Jerusalem which is the vision of peace that they may there enjoy the clear sight of God The felicity of temporal goods blots out of our memories the greatness of the eternal it makes us forget God and the happiness of the other life it blindes those who possesse them busies them wholly in things of the Earth and gives them that means and opportunities for vices which the poor have not who either work or serve their Masters or pray Wherefore the enjoying of temporal goods is so dangerous 1 Ti. 6. that St. Paul calls Riches the Snare of the Devil And if in ail Snares there be falshood and danger how false and dangerous must be the Snares of Satan Laer. l. 9. c. 4. Even Diogenes was aware of this truth and therefore calls them a Vail of malice and perdition St. Hieron in Algas Ep. 84. St. Jerome says that anciently there were too notable Proverbs in prejudice of the Rich The first That he who was very rich could not be a good man The second That he who was rich had either been a bad man or was the heir of a bad man and admonishes us that the name of Rich in the holy Scripture is most commonly taken in an ill sense and to the contrary in a favourable that of the poore The truth is that the holy Scripture is full of Contumelies against the rich of this world and above all the Son of God who uttered most notable and feareful expressions against those who abound in temporal goods and therefore when he taught the Beatitudes he gave the first of them unto the Poor and in preaching the Woes he gave the first unto the Rich. And upon another occasion said it was impossible for the Rich to enter into the Kingdom of heaven And although he was willing to mitigate so hard a Sentence yet he said it was difficult and so difficult as might make the rich of the world to tremble for he assure us it is easier for a Camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of heaven But with God nothing is impossible From all that which hath been said may be gathered how worthy of contempt and hatred are all temporal goods since they deceive us not onely of our content in this life but of our felicity in the other and even of God himself What implacable hatred would a faithful and honest Spouse conceive against that Traitor who counterfeiting the shape and habit of her Husband should violate her Chastity how would she abhorre him when she knew the injury he had done her in a matter of that importance In the same manner are we betrayed by temporal felicity who appearing unto its in the likeness of the true happiness makes our hearts to adulterate with it and leave our lawful Spouse and true good indeed which is God For certainly there is no perfect felicity but in his service and complyance with his holy will in this life that we may enjoy him eternally in the next and therefore temporal goods which by their deceit cozen us and make us lose the eternal ought not to be loved and followed but hated as a thousand deaths THE FOURTH BOOK OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWIXT THE TEMPORAL and ETERNAL CAP. I. Of the greatness of things Eternal ALthough the littleness and baseness of things temporal be in themselves such as we have already seen yet unto him who shall consider the greatness and Majesty of the eternal whereof we now begin to treat they will appear much less and more contemptible For such is the greatness of that glory that St. Austin falls into these speeches Augus in Man If it were requisite every day to suffer torments or to remain in hell it self for some long time to the end we might behold Christ in his glory and enjoy the company of Saints were it much to suffer what is grievous and painful upon earth that we might be partakers of so great a happiness which speech of St. Austin is not to be taken as an exaggeration as neither that which is attributed to St. Jerome That it is a wonder that the stones under the feet of those who shall be damned convert not into roses as an anticipated solace of those evils which they are to suffer And that to the contrary those under the feet of them who are to be saved turn not into thorns to wound and chastise them for their sins since for so short troubles they are to receive unspeakable joyes This greatness of eternal goodness consists not onely in the eternity of their duration but in their intention also as being supreme and without limit in their excellency And therefore we ought not to think much at the suffering of a thousand years torments if for them we might obtain those blessings but for
all living Creatures of so great variety all the Birds so curiously painted the Fishes so monstrous the Mettals so rich all People and Nations farthest remote certainly it would be a sight of wonderful satisfaction But what will it be to see all this whatever there is in the Earth together with all that there is in Heaven and above Heaven Some Philosophers in the discovery of a natural truth or the invention of some rare curiosity have been transported with a greater joy and content than their senses were capable of For this Aristotle spent so many sleepless nights for this Pythagoras travelled into so many strange Nations for this Crates deprived himself of all his wealth and Archimedes as Vitruvius writes never removed his thoughts night nor day from the inquisition of some Mathematical demonstration Such content he took in finding out some truth that when he eat his mind was busie in making lines and angles If he bathed and annointed himself as was the custome of those times his two fingers served him in the room of a compass to make circles in the oyl which was upon his skin He spent many dayes in finding out by his Mathematical rules how much gold would serve to gild a crown of silver that the Goldsmith might not deceive him and having found it as he was bathing in a Vessel of brass not able to contain his joy he fetcht divers skips and cried out I have found it I have found it If then the finding out of so mean a truth could so transport this great Artist what joy shall the Saints receive when the Creatour shall discover unto them those high secrets and above all that sublime mysterie of the Trinity of persons in the unity of essence This with the rest of those Divine knowledges wherewith the most simple of the Just shall be endued shall satiate their Souls with unspeakable joyes O ye wise of the World and ignorant before God why do you weary your selves in vain curiosities busie to understand and forgetful to love intent to know and slow to work Drye and barren speculation is not the way to knowledge but devout affection ardent love mortification of the senses and holy works in the service of God Labour therefore and deserve and you shall receive more knowledge in one instant than the wise of the world have obtained with all their watchings travails and experiences Aristotle for the great love he bore to knowledge held that the chief felicity of man consisted in contemplation If he found so great joy in natural speculations what shall we find in divine and the clear vision of God There shall the Memory also live representing unto us the Divine benefits and rendring eternal thanks unto the Author of all the Soul rejoycing in its own happiness to have received so great mercies for so small merits and remembring the dangers from which it hath been freed by Divine favour it shall sing the verse in the Psalm The snare is broken and we are delivered The remembrance likewise as St. Thomas teaches of the acts of vertue and good works by which Heaven was gained shall be a particular joy unto the Blessed both in respect they were a means of our happiness as also of pleasing so gracious and good a Lord. This joy which results from the memory of things past is so great as Epicurus prescribing a way to be ever joyful and pleasant advises us to preserve in memory and to think often of contents past But in Heaven we shall not onely joy in the memory of those things wherein we have pleased God in complying with his holy will and in ordering and disposing our life in his service but in the troubles also and dangers we have past The memory of a good lost without remedy causes great regret and torment and to the contrary the memory of some great evil avoided and danger escaped is most sweet and delectable The Wise-man said the memory of death was bitter as indeed it is to those who are to die but unto the Saints who have already past it and are secure in Heaven nothing can be more pleasant who now to their unspeakable joy know themselves to be free from death infirmity and danger There also shall live the Will in that true and vital life rejoycing to see all its desires accomplished with the abundance and sweet satiety of so many felicities being necessitated to love so admirable a beauty as the Soul enjoyes and possesses in God Almighty Love makes all things sweet and as it is a torment to be separated from what one loves so it is a great joy and felicity to remain with the beloved And therefore the Blessed loving God more than themselves how unspeakable a comfort must it be to enjoy God and the society of those whom they so much affect The love of the Mother makes her delight more in the sight of her own Son though foul and of worse conditions than in that of her neighbours The love then of Saints one towards another being greater than that of Mothers to their Children and every one of them being so perfect and worthy to be beloved and every one enjoying the sight of the same God how comfortable must be their conversation Sen. Ep. 6. Seneca said That the possession of what good soever was not pleasing without a Partner The possession then of the chief good mus be much more delightful with the society of such excellent companions If a man were to remain alone for many years in some beautiful Palace it would not please him so well as a Desert with company but the City of God is full of most noble Citizens who are all sharers of the same blessedness This conversation also being with wise holy and discreet personages shall much increase their joy For if one of the greatest troubles of humane life be to suffer the ill conditions follies and impertinencies of rude and ill-bred people and the greatest content to converse with sweet pious and learned friends what shall that Divine conversation be in Heaven where there is none ill conditioned none impious none froward but all peace piety love and sweetness in so much as Saint Austin sayes Aug. lib. de Spirittu anima Every one shall there rejoyce as much in the felicity of another as in his own ineffable joy and shall possess as many joyes as he shall find companions There are all things which are either requisite or delightful all riches ease and comfort Where God is nothing is wanting All there know God without errour behold him without end praise him without weariness love him without tediousness and in this love repose full of God Besides all this the Security which the will shall have in the eternal possession of this felicity is an unspeakable joy The fear that the good things which we enjoy are to end or at least may end mingles wormwood with our joyes and pleasures do not relish where there is
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
would he be unto so merciful a benefactor He hath done no less for us but much more For if he hath not drawn us out of Hell he hath not thrown us into it as we deserved which is the greater favour Tell me if a Creditor should cast that Debtor into prison who owed him a thousand Duckets and after the enduring of much affliction at last release him or should suffer another who owed him fifty thousand Duckets to goe up and down free without touching a thread of his garment Whether of the Debtors received the greater benefit I believe thou wilt say the latter More then are we endebted unto God Almighty and therefore ought to serve him better Consider how a man would live who should be restored to life after he had been in Hell Thou shouldst live better since thou art more indebted to Almighty God Lib. 4. Dialog cap. 36. St. Gregory writes of one who though he had not been released out of Hell but onely was upon the point of damnation yet led afterwards such a life that the change was admirable The Saint sayes that a Monk called Peter who before he retired to the desert was in a trance for some time as dead and being restored to his senses made this relation That he had had a sight of Hell and that he had seen in it great chastisements and innumerable places full of fire and that he knew some who had been very powerful in the World hanging in the midst of the flames and himself being now at the brink to be cast into the same he saw on the sudden a bright shining Angel who withheld him faying Return to thy body and confider well with what care and diligence it suits with thy profession to lead thy life from hence forwards So it was that being returned to his body he treated it with such austerity of penance watches and fasts that although he should not have spoken a word his manner of life did publish sufficiently what he had seen Secondly we are taught to exercise an invincible patience in suffering the afflictions and troubles of this life that by enduring these thankfully we may escape those of the other He who shall consider the eternity of those torments which he deserves will not grumble at the pains of this short life how bitter soever There is no state or condition upon earth how necesitous how poor how miserable soever which the damned would not endure and think it an infinite happiness if they might change with it Neither is there any course of life so austere which he who had once experienced those burning flames if he might live again would not make more rigorous He who hath once deserved eternal torments let him never murmure at temporal evils let his mouth be ever stopt from complaining of the crosses or petty injuries offered him in this life who hath committed offences worthy the pains of the other From this consideration there was nothing which the Saints would not willingly suffer no penance which they would not undergoe Apoc. 14. Wherefore St. John the Evangelist after he had spoken of the smoke which ascended from the torments of the damned for a world of worlds and and that they did not rest by day nor night presently adds Here is the patience of the Saints because seeing that all the troubles of this life were temporal and the torments of the other eternal nothing that they endured seemed much unto them Chrysost To. 5. Epist 5. ad Theod. So did St. John Chrsostome and advises us to do the like bearing with patience all temporal pains whatsoever with the consideration of the eternal From the consideration of little thing saith he let us frame a conjecture of the great If thou goe into a Bath and shalt find it excessive hot think on Hell If thou art tormented with the heat think on Hell If thou art tormented with the heat of some violent Fever pass unto the consideration of those eternal flames which burn without end and think that if a Bath or Calenture so afflict thee how shalt thou endure that River of fire Homil. 2. in 1. Ep. ad Thess And further the same Saint When thou shalt see any thing great in this present life think presently of the Kingdom of Heaven and so thou shalt not value it much and when thou shalt see any thing terrible think on Hell and thou wilt laugh at it When the concupiscence or desire of any temporal thing shall afflict thee think that the delight of sin is of no estimation and that the pleasure of it is nothing For if the fear of Lawes which are enacted upon earth be of that force that they are able to deterre us from evil actions much more will the thought of things to come and that immortal chastisement of eternal pain If the fear of an Earthly King divert us from many evils how much more shall the fear of a King eternal If the fight of a dead man detain us much more shall the thought of hell and that eternal death If we often think of hell we shall never fall into it We ought also often to call to minde the evils of the next life that we may more despise the pleasures of this because temporal felicity uses often to end in eternal miserie All that is precious in the world honour wealth fame pleasure all the splendour of the Earth is but smoke and a shadow if we compare the small duration of them with the eternity of those torments in the other world Put all the Silver in the world together in one heap all the Gold all the Precious-stones Diamonds Emeralds with all other the richest Jewels all the Triumphs of the Romans all the Dainties of the Assytians c. all would deserve to be of no other value than dirt ignominy and gall if to be possessed with hazard of falling at last into the pit of Hell Let us call to mind that sentence of our blessed Saviour What will it avail a man to gain the whole world if he lose his soul If they should make us Lords and Masters I say not of great wealth but of the whole world we should not admit of it with the least hazard of being damned for ever Let one enjoy all the contents and regalo's imaginable let him be raised up to the highest pitch of honour let him triumph with all the greatness of the world All this is but a dream if after this mortal life he finds himself at length plunged into hell-fire Whosoever should consider the lamentable day in which two Sons and three Daughters and his Wife the Emperess were put to death in presence of the Emperor Mauritius and afterwards himself was bereaved of life by command of a dastardly Coward and vicious fellow no doubt but he would esteem as very vain and of no worth all the twenty years of his Raign in his powerful Empire and Majesty though his punishment was not
it not deserve And if in benefits the good will wherewith they are conferred is most to be esteemed When the benefit is infinite and the will of infinite love what shall we do If when that Traitor who murthered Henry the Fourth King of France was justly sentenced to those cruel torments wherein he died the first begotten Son of the dead King and Heir unto his Kingdom had cloathed himselt in the habit of the Murtherer and offered to be torn in pieces for him and to die that he might be freed from his torments and not only offered but actually performed it What love and thanks would the Prince deserve from that Caitiff O King of Glory and onely begotten Son of the eternal Father in as much as lay in us we were desirous to murther thy Father and to destroy his Divine essence and being and therefore were most worthy of death and eternal flames But thou wert not onely willing to die for us but effectually gavest thy blood and life with so inhumane torments for us and wert prepared to suffer more and greater for our good How shall we repay so great a love what thanks what gratitude for so immense a benefit Let us also consider What we our selves are for whom he suffered For he suffered not for himself or because it imported him he suffered not for another God nor for some new creature of a superiour nature to all those who now are not for a Seraphin who had faithfully served him for an eternity of years but for a miserable vile creature the lowest of all those which are capable of reason composed of dirt and his Enemy This should make us more grateful that God suffered so much for us who least deserved it To this may be added that he suffered thus much for us not that his suffering was necessary tor our redemption and freedom out of the slavery of sin but took upon him all these pains and torments onely to shew his love unto us and to oblige us to imitate him in the contempt of the world and all humane felicity Let us then behold our selves in this Mirrour and reform our lives Let us suffer with him who suffered so much for us Let us be thankful unto him who did us so much good and so much to his own cost Let it grieve our very souls that we have offended so good a God who suffered so many evils that we should not be evil Let us admire the Divine goodness who being the honour of Angels would for so vile a creature abase himself to the reproach of the Cross Let us love him who so truly loved us Let us put our trust in him who without asking gave us more than we durst desire Let us imitate this great example proposed unto us by the Eternal Father upon Mount Calvarie Let us compose our lives conformable unto the death of his Son our Saviour in all humility and contempt of temporal felicity that we may thereby attain the eternal that humbling our selves now he may exalt us hereafter that suffering here he may in his good time comfort us that tasting in this life what is bitter we may in the other be satiated with all sweetness and that weeping in time we may rejoyce for all eternity To which end our Saviour said unto the great Imitator of his Passion St. Francis Francis take those things that are bitter in lieu of those that are sweet if thou intendest to be happy And accordingly St. Austin Brethren Augus Ser. 11. ad fra Know that after the pleasures of this life are to follow eternal lamentations for no man can rejoyce both in this world and the next And therefore it is necessary that he who will possess the one should lose the other If thou desirest to rejoyce here know that thou shalt be banisht from thy Celestial Country but if thou shalt here weep thou shalt even at present be counted as a Citizen of Heaven And therefore our Lord said Blessed are those who weep for they shall be comforted And for this reason it is not known that our Saviour ever laught but it is certain that he often wept and for this reason chose a life of pains and troubles to shew us that that was the right way to joy and repose CAP. V. 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 ANother most potent motive to induce us to the estimation of what is Eternal and the contempt of what is Temporal is That God hath in the most holy and venerable Sacrament of his body and blood made himself a means that we might attain the one by despising the other Which holy Mystery was instituted That it might serve as a Pledge of those eternal goods and therefore the holy Church calls it a Pledge of future glory and That it might also serve us as a Viaticum whereby we might the better pass this temporal life without the superfluous use of those goods which are so dangerons unto us Our Lord bestowing this Divine bread upon us Christians as he did that of Manna heretofore unto the Hebrews And therefore as we gave a beginning unto this work with a presentation of that temporal Manna which served as a Viaticum unto the children of Israel in the wilderness so we will now finish it with the truth of this spiritual Manna of the blessed Sacrament which is a Pledge of the eternal goods and given as a Viaticum unto Christian people in the peregrination of this life Let a Christian therefore know how much it imports him to obtain the Eternal and with what earnestness his Creator desires it that having obliged us by those high endearments of his Incarnation and Passion in suffering for us so grievous and cruel a death would yet add such an excess of love as to leave himself unto us in the most blessed Sacrament as a means of our Salvation Who sees not here the infinite goodness of God since he who as God omnipotent is the beginning of all things and as the chief good of all goods and most perfect in himself is likewise their utmost end would yet for our sakes make himself a Medium which is common to the creatures and argues no perfection Our Lord glories in the Scripture that he is the beginning and end of all And with reason for this is worthy of his greatness and declares a perfection whereof only God is capable But to make himself a Medium and such a Medium as was to be used according to humane will and subject to the power and despose of man was such a complyance with our nature and such a desire of our salvation as cannot be imagined the Means of our salvation may be considered either as they are on Gods part or on Mans part for both God and Man work for mans salvation That God should serve himself
it is a kind of impudence to use God as a Medium for the obtaining of that which does or may separate us from him who is our chief and utmost end Guigo Cathusianus sayes Guigo Carthus in Medit. that he who prayes for temporal things uses God Almighty as the Spouse does her Husband when she desires him to bring her with his own hands some vile slave with whom she may adulterate So we desiring temporal goods encrease our affection to the things of the earth which make us forget the love of our Creator and praying for them pray for the instruments and occasions of offending him Let us not commit this treason against our Lord God but let us ask what may redound to his glory and our own profit which is only that which is spiritual and eternal to wit his grace his knowledge the imitation of his Son the contempt of the world and what is conformable to his holy will This we may safely ask and this he will certainly give us because it is for our true good And therefore in the prayer which our Lord himself hath taught us when we have said Thy will be done we proceed in a bolder manner and say in an imparative way Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses having then a kinde of certainty of obtaining when we have first conformed our prayers to the divine will and it is then as Origen notes a singular confidence we have in God to command what we pray for The third error in our petitions for temporal goods is that we pray for things vain without substance or profit for such is all temporal greatness and felicity short vain inconstant transitory and unworthy the heart of man which ought wholly to fix upon the eternal and trample the rest under foot like that mysterious woman in the Apocalyps who was surrounded and penetrated by the Sun which filled the heart and bowels but trod the Moon under her feet the Sun which is perfectly circular being a Symbol of eternity and the Moon which is defective and mutable a figure of the temporal The Sun hath its own proper light the Moon none but what she borrows from the Sun In the same manner the eternal is a good in it self and desirable for it self the temporal hath no good at all but what it acquires by being a means of obtaining the eternal All humane felicity is but vanity smoke thorns deceit and misery With what face can a Christian demand such stuff from God Almighty and such is all humane prosperity in Gods acceptance Chrysos hom 79. in Mat. Out of which consideration St. Chrysostome speaks in this manner A Roman Judge will not understand thy allegations unless thou speak unto him in the Roman tongue In the like manner Christ will not hear thee unless thou speak unto him in his own language and thy mouth be conformable unto his In the language of our Redeemer riches are thorns honours smoke and pleasures vipers and therefore he who prays for things of this nature prayes but for so many evils And as there is no Father that if his Son instead of bread demand a Scorpion will give it him so God to those whom he loves and holds as Children when they ask him temporal goods denies them because he sees they are not good for them For this reason the honour demanded by the Wife of Zebedaeus for her two sons was denyed by our Saviour with this answer That they knew not what they asked demanding that for a good which was not and in room of the honour which they desired in a temporal Kingdom he gave them Martyrdom which they thought not of which conduced to real and eternal happiness Let us learn therefore How and for What to pray that we erre not in a matter of such importance For if the error be so much greater by now much the matter in which it falls is of greater moment an error in matter of prayer must be most great especially having a divine precept and an infallible promiss that if we demand what is necessary for our Salvation in his name we shall not fail of obtaining it Let us not therefore ask that in the name of our Saviour for which he would not die but that which he bought for us with his precious blood and life which is the blessings of heaven and our eternal felicity For this let us sigh for this let us pray and let us reflect how great and faulty a carelesness it is not to pray ever for that which imports us so much as heaven and for which only we have a certain promise to be heard and not for other things which the world esteems and time consumes CAP. VII How happy are those who renounce Temporal goods for the securing of the Eternal IF all which hath been said suffice not to make us despise the goods of the earth for the gaining of those blessings we hope for in heaven and if neither the example nor remonstrances of our Saviour will serve to make us esteem the Eternal and contemn the Temporal but that we will for all this preferre the one though little and base because present before the other though great and immense because to come Yet let our present interest and the word and promise of the Son of God move us which certainly if seriously weighed will not onely perswade us to despise but totally to renounce the goods of the world as many of the Philosophers have done that they might more freely enjoy the pleasures and commodities of this life and many Saints for the hopes they have had of the other Let us here call to mind what was said by the Saviour of the world Mat. 19. Whosoever shall leave father or mother or brothers or sisters or house or land for my sake shall in this life receive a hundred-fold and after death life eternal In which words we are to consider the greatness of the promise and the importance of that for which so great things are promised Without doubt it must be of high concernment to renounce our temporal goods since the Son of God invites us to it with so great promises and if it be convenient to renounce them as things poysonous and hurtful to us we can have no excuse for not despising them or at least if we do not despise them yet we can have no reason to love and prefer them before the eternal Much and extremely much it will concern us to despise that which is convenient for us to leave and as much to pluck from our hearts the affection of those things which are not fit for us to possess Neither is it much to say that it is advantagious for us to renounce these temporal things since St. Bonaventure judged it necessary and therefore according to the Apostle sayes That the root of all evil is avarice from which and from pride which accompanies it all sins have their birth food
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
as far distant from the immensity of God as the smallest grain of sand so a thousand years are as far short of Eternity as the twinckling of an eye Wherefore Boëtius says that there is more similitude betwixt a moment of time and ten thousand years than betwixt ten thousand years and Eternity There is no expression which can sufficiently set forth the greatness of what is Eternal nor which can explicate the brevity of time and littleness of what is Temporal Wherefore David Psal 76. when he considered what had passed since God created the world until his time calls all those Ages which were already past by the name of dayes saying I thought upon the days of old And it is not much that he should call Ages dayes when in another place he sayes a thousand years in the presence of God are but as yesterday 1. Joan. 2. And St. John expresses it yet more fully when he calls all those years which were to pass betwixt his time and the end of the world whereof 1600 are already run but an hour But David when he set himself seriously to think upon Eternity which in it self is but one and as the Saints speak one day he calls it Eternal years augmenting as much as he could the conception of Eternity and diminishing that of time For the same reason the Prophet Daniel setting forth the Glory of Apostolical persons speaks in the plural number That they shall shine like Stars for perpetual Eternities it seeming unto him that the ordinary Number did not suffice to declare what Eternity was and therefore explicates it by the number of many Eternities adding for more amplification the Epithete of perpetual Dan. 12. But endeavour we never so much we declare nothing of it Let the Prophets turn themselves wholly into tongues let them call it perpetual Eternities let them call it Eternity of Eternities let them call it many dayes let them call it Ages of Ages all falls short to explicate the infinite duration which it hath Wherefore Eliu speaking of God Job 36. says his years were inestimable because no years imaginable could compare with his Eternity Betwixt a minute and 100000 years there is proportion but betwixt 100000 years and Eternity none at all Well may a quarter of an hour be compared unto a million of years but a million of years with Eternity holds no comparison in respect of which all time vanishes and disappears neither is a million of years more than a moment since neither have proportion with Eternity but in respect of it are both equal or to say better are both nothing Eccl. 11. Wherefore the Wise man said That if a man had lived many years and those all in pleasure yet ought he to remember the time of darkness and the many dayes for so he calls Eternity the which when they shall come all that is past will be found to be vanity If Cain had lived and enjoyed all the felicities of the Earth even until this day and at this instant died what should he now possess of all his delights What would remain unto him of all his dayes past Certainly no more than remained unto his brother Abel whom he murdred more than 5500 years ago equally had both their dayes disappeared and Cain had no more left of his sports and pleasures so fully and for so long a time enjoyed than Abel of his short life but more to suffer in that time of darkness and the many dayes of Eternity Eccl. 11. For if as Ecclesiasticus saith The evils of one hour make many pleasures to be forgotten and the moment wherein a man dyes bereaves him of all he did in life either for delight or appetite why shall not then the torments of Hell make him forget all the pleasures of the earth and the Eternity of evils strip him of a few and momentary pastimes If with the grief of one hour the pleasures of many years are forgotten why shall not the pleasure of one moment for which thou fallest into Hell be forgotten with the malice of many years And if the instant of thy bodily death deprive thee of all thy vain contents and entertainments past what shall be done by the eternal death of thy Soul In that instant wherein Heliogabolus dyed what continued with him of all his sports and delights Nothing At this present after so many years measured in the Eternity of Hell what now remains with him but torments upon torments griefs upon griefs pains upon pains evils upon evils and a perpetual Woe is me which shall last as long as God is God The moment wherein we dye as touching the things of this life makes all men equal He who lived long and he who died shortly he who enjoyed much and he who had but little he who was glutted with all sorts of delights and he who was fed with the bread of sorrow and vexed with all sorts of griefs and misfortunes all are now the same all are ended in death the one is not sensible of his pleasure nor the other grieved with his labours After the expiration of an hundred years in a most rigid life what felt St. Romualdus of all his austerities What the most penitent Simeon Stylites after fourscore years of a prodigious penance wherein he quitted not his hair-shirt by day or night What felt he at his death of his continual fasts and long prayers Certainly of pain no more than if he had spent all that long time in the wanton pleasures of Sardanapalus Of griefs he found nothing but of joy and glory he now does and ever shall in abundance What felt St. Clement of Ancira of his twenty eight years torments suffered by the furious rage and madness of Tyrants Certainly of Pain no more then if during that time he had enjoyed all the delights of the world but of Glory an Eternity For if the malice of one hour make the contents of an hundred years to be forgotten much more will the happiness of an Eternity blot out the remembrance of 28 years sufferance O prodigious moment of death which gives an end unto all that is Temporal which transmits and changes all things which concludes the gusts and pleasures of sinners and begins their torments which ends the labours and austerities of Saints and begins their Glory and joyes Eternal Let therefore a Christian seriously consider that the pleasures by which he sins and the mortifications by which he satisfies are equally to have an end and that the torments which he deserves by the one and the joyes which he merits by the other are equally never to have an end and let him then make election of that which shall be best for him Let him see if it be not better to work himself an eternal Crown of glory out of the sleight and momentary sufferings of this life And let not the length of life affright him for there is nothing long in respect of Eternity It was
the Spider does one thread unto another first thinking how to obtain what we desire then how to keep it after how to advance and encrease it then how to defend it and lastly how to enjoy it and yet in conclusion all falls to pieces in the handling and becomes nothing What labour doth it cost the poor Spider to weave his webb passing incessantly from one part unto another and often returning unto the same place where he began consuming himself with threads drawn from his proper entrails for the forming of his Pavilion which with many journeys having placed on high and at last finisht this goodly artifice one touch of a broom defaces and brings to ground all his labour Just such are the employments of humane life of much toyl and of little profit robbing us of sleep and filling us with cares and anxieties spending the most part of our time in useless projects and vain imaginations which of themselves fall to nothing and in the end vanish without effect For which reason David said Our lives meditated as the Spiders who labour and toyl all day in making of Cobwebs so the life of man passes in the continual cares and thoughts of what he is to be what to endeavour what to obtain and all as the Wise-man sayes is vanity of vanities and affliction of spirit and for those things which concern the service of God we onely sometimes afford them our thoughts but seldom our works With much reason did Aristotle say that the hope of our life yet to come was like the dream of one who watches And Plato in the same manner calls the life past a dream of people awake For in this both humane hope and life resemble a dream that neither of them have either being or subsistence and there is no man who after a discourse within himself of his life past will not say that dreams and truths are the same thing since he possesses no more of what he once enjoyed than of what he dreamed all his delights and pleasures appearing so short unto him t hat their beginning and ending seem to be joyned together without a Medium CAP. XIV Time is the occasion of Eternity and how a Christian ought to benefit himself by it TIme although short frail and slippery yet hath one condition most precious which is to be the occasion of Eternity since by it we gain that in a small time which we are to enjoy for ever For this reason when st John said that Time is at hand the Gerek renders it Occasion is at hand because the time of this life is the occasion of gaining Eternity and that once past and overslipt there will be no remedy or hope left of obtaining the other Let us therefore endeavour to employ our time well and not lose the opportunity of so great a good whose loss is irrepairable and will be lamented with eternal but unprofitable complaints Let us consider how great is the good which occasion brings along with it and how the resentment which is usually caused by the loss of it that we may from thence know how to profit our selves by temporal occasions in order unto eternal happiness and that we may be freed from that inconsolable and fruitless repentance of the damned who have made no use of it It is a great business this of our salvation and depends wholly upon the swift time of this life which once past is irrevocable and the end of it most uncertain and therefore we ought with a hundred eyes to watch occasion that it overpass us not and with a hundred hands to lay hold on it The Ancients knowing the importance of it feigned it to be a Goddess thereby to declare the great good when timely apprehended which it brought unto mankind In Epig. Graec. whose Image they adored in this mysterious figure They placed it upon a Wheel which continually moved about it had wings at the feet to note the swiftness with which it passed the face was not seen but covered with long hair which on the forehead grew thick and bushie whereby was signified that it was hard to know when occasion happened but being present easie to lay hold on it the hinder-part of the head was bald because once past it had nothing whereby to retain it Auson in Epig. Ausonius to signifie the effect which it leaves with those who suffer it to slip from them adds that it drew behind it Metanaea that is Repentance which onely remains with those who know not how to use it Vide Joan David in lib. de occasione arrepta In Aph. Others represented Occasion with hands busied in distributing riches and precious gifts but accompanied with time in the habit of a Traveller which not with two but with four wings conducted it along to signifie the great haste with which it passed Wherefore Hippocrates with much reason calls Occasion precipitate because it runs with as great violence as he falls who throws himself headlong from a high rock Let us place in the middest of Eternity the longest time of humane life let it be a hundred two hundred or nine hundred years as long as the lite of man before the Deluge yet it will then appear but as an instant and he who shall cast his eyes upon the immensity of eternal duration will remain astonished that a thing so short so small so precipitate should be the occasion of that which is so long so great and so stable Since therefore the whole time of this life is so short for the gaining of Eternity let us resolve not to lose it especially since we have no assurance how long it will last and although we were certain to live yet a hundred years longer we ought not to spare one moment from the gaining of Eternity But being uncertain how long we are to live and perhaps shall die to morrow how can we be so careless as to let the occasion of securing our glory pass which hereafter will never be offered If a skilful Workman were commanded by some great Prince that upon pain of death he should have in readiness some excellent piece of his work against such a time as it should be called for and that although a years time were requisite to perfect it yet it might perhaps be called for sooner certainly that Artist would with all speed finish the piece the neglect being no less than the forfeit of his life Since then our life eternal consists in being furnished with the grace of God and in preserving his divine Image engraven in our souls how can we be so careless to let pass the occasion of our salvation Theophrastus and Democritus called Time a most precious expence Terence The first and most principal of all things Zenon said that There was nothing which men wanted more nor whereof they stood in greater necessity than time Pliny made that account of it that he would not so much as one moment of it should be lost
peeces and he above all remained distracted in his wits raging with despite and madness Let us now consider Antiochus in all his pomp and glory glittering in Gold and dazling the eyes of the beholders with the splendor of his Diamonds and precious Jewels mounted upon a stately Courser commanding over numerous Armies and making the very earth tremble under him Let us then behold him in his Bed pale and wan his strength and spirits spent his loathsome body flowing with worms and corruption forsaken by his own people by reason of his pestilential and poisonous stink which infected his whole Camp and finally dying mad and in a rage Who seeing such a death would with the felicity of his life who with the condition of his misery would desire his fortune See then wherein the goods of this life conclude And as the clear and sweet waters of Jordan end in the filthy mud of the dead Sea and are swallowed up in that noysome Bitumen so the greatest splendor of this life concludes in death and those loathsome diseases which usually accompany it Act. 12. Vide Josephum Behold in what a sink of filth ended the two Herods most potent Princes Ascalonita and Agrippa This who cloathed himself in Tissue and boasted a Majesty above humane dyed devoured by worms which whilst he yet lived fed upon his corrupted and apostumated flesh flowing with horrible filth and matter Neither came the other Ascalonita to finish his dayes more happily being consumed by lice that nasty vermin by little and little bereaving him both of his life and Kingdom 3 Reg. 20. King Achab Conqueror of the King of Syria and 32 other Princes dyed wounded by a chance-arrow which pierced his body and stained his Royal Charriot with his black gore which was after licked up by hungry Dogs as it he had been some savage beast 3 Reg. 22. Neither dyed his Son Joram a more fortunate death run through the heart with a sword his body left upon the field to be devoured by birds and beasts of prey wanting in his death seaven foot of earth to cover him who in life commanded a Kingdom Who could have known Caesar who had first seen him triumph over the Conquered world and then beheld him gasping for a little breath and weltring in his own bloud which flowed from three and twenty wounds opened by so many stabs Who could believe it were the same Cyrus he who subdued the Medes conquered the Assyrian and Chaldaean Empire he who amazed the world with thirty years success of continued Victories now taken prisoner and put to an ignominious death by the Command of a Woman Who could think it were the same Alexander Plut. in ejus vita who in so short time subjugated the Persians Indians and the best part of the known world and should after behold him conquered by a Calenture feeble exhausted in body dejected in spirit dried up and parched with thirst without taste in his mouth or content in his life his eyes sunk his nose sharp his tongue cleaving to his pallat not being able to pronounce one word What an amazement is it that the heat of a poor Fever should consume the mightiest power and fortune of the world and that the greatest of temporal and humane prosperities should be drowned by the overflowing of one irregular and inordinate humour How great a Monster is Humane Life since it consists of so disproportionable parts the uncertain felicity of our whose life ending in a most certain misery How prodigious were that Monster which should have one arm of a Man and the other of an Elephant one foot of a Horse and the other of a Bear Truly the parts of this life are not much more sutable Who would marry a woman though of a comely and well proportioned body who had the head of an ugly Dragon certainly although she had a great Dowry none would covet such a Bed-fellow Wherefore then do we wed our selves unto this life which although it seems to carry along with it much content and happiness yet is in effect no less a Monster since although the body appear unto us beautiful and pleasant yet the end of it is horrible and full of misery And therefore a Philosopher said well that the end of things was their head and as men were to be known and distinguished by their faces so things by their ends and therefore who will know what life is let him look upon the end And what end of life is not full of misery Let no man flatter himself with the vigour of his health with the abundance of his riches with the splendor of his authority with the greatness of his fortune for by how much he is more fortunate by so much shall he be more miserable since his whole life is to end in misery Wherefore Agesilaus hearing the King of Persia cried up for a most fortunate and happy Prince reprehended those who extolled him saying Have patience Plutar. in ejus vita for even King Priamus whose end was so lamentable was not unfortunate at the age of the King of Persia Giving us to understand that the most happy were not to be envied whilest they lived by reason of the uncertainty of that end whereunto they are subject How many as yet appear most happy whose death will shortly discover the infelicity of their lives Plutar. in Apoph Graecis Epaminondas when they asked him who was the greatest Captain Cabrias Iphicrates or himself Answered that whilest they lived no man could judge but that the last day of their lives would deliver the Sentence and give each one their due Let no man be deceived in beholding the prosperity of a rich man let him not measure his felicity by what he sees at present but by the end wherein he shall conclude not by the sumptuousness of his Palaces not by the multitude of his Servants not by the bravery of his Apparel not by the lustre of his Dignity but let him expect the end of that which he so much admires and he shall then perceive him at best to die in his Bed dejected dismayed and strugling with the pangs and anxieties of death and if so he comes off Well otherwise wise the daggers of his enemy the teeth of some wild beast or a tyle thrown upon his head by some violent wind may serve to make an end of him when he least thinks of it This reason tells us although we had no experience of it But we see it daily confirmed by the testimony of those who are already in the gates of death and no man can better judge of life than he who stands with his back towards it Mago Dionysius Carth. de noviss Art 5. a famous Captain amongst the Carthaginians and Brother to the great Hannibal being mortally wounded confessed this truth unto his Brother saying O how great a madness is it to glory in an Eminent Command The estate of the most
us Petrus Damianus in Gomor c. 23. saying If the subtle Enemy shall set before thee the frail beauty of the flesh send thy thoughts presently unto she Sepulcher of the Dead and let them there see what they can finde agreeable to the touch or pleasing to the sight Consider that poison which now stinks intollerably that corruption which engenders and feeds worms That dust and dry ashes was once soft and lively flesh and in its youth was subject to the like passions as thou art Consider those rigid nerves those naked teeth the disjoynted disposition of the bones and articles and that horrible dissipation of the whole Body and by this means the Monster of this deformed and confused figure will pluck from thy heart all deceits and illusions This from St. Peter Damian All this is certainly to happen unto thy self Wherefore doest thou not amend thy evil conditions this is to be thy end unto this therefore direct thy life and actions From hence spring all the errors of men that they forget the end of their lives which they ought to have still before their eyes and by it to order themselves for the complyance with their obligations With reason had the Brachmans their Sepulchers placed still open before their doors that by the memory of death they might learn to live In this sense is that Axiome of Plato most true when he sayes That Wisdom is the Meditation of Death because this wholesome thought of Death undeceives us in the vanities of the world and gives us force and vigour to better our lives Johannes Brom. in Sum. verb. Poenit num 12. Some Authors write of a certain Confessarius who when all his perswasions could not prevail with his penitent to do penance for his sins contented himself with this promise that he would suffer one of his Servants every night when he went to bed to sound these words in his ear Think that thou art to dye who having often heard this admonition and and profoundly considered it with himself he at last returned unto his Confessor well disposed to admit of such penance as should be enjoyned him The same thing happened to another who having confessed to to the Pope very hainous crimes said that he could not fast nor wear hair-shirts nor admit of any other kinds of austerity His Holiness having commended the matter to God gave him a Ring with this Poesie Memento mâ—ri Remember thou art to dye charging him that as often as he looked upon the Ring he should read those words and call death to mind Few hours after the memory hereof caused such a change in his heart that he offered to fulfil what ever penance his Holiness should please to impose upon him For this reason it seems God commanded the Prophet Jeremias that he should goe into the house of the Potter and that he should there hear his words Well might the Lord have sent his Prophet into some place more decent to receive his sacred words then where so many men were daily imployed in dirt and clay but here was the particular mysterie whereby we are given to understand that the presence of Sepulchers wherein is preserved as in the house of a Potter the clay of humane nature it was a place most proper for God to speak unto us that the memory of death might more deeply imprint his words in our hearts For this very reason the Devil strives with all his power and cunning to obstruct in us the memory of death For what other cause can be assigned why the meer suspicion of some loss or notable damage should bereave us of our sleep and that the certainty of death which of things terrible is most terrible should never trouble us CAP. II. Remarkable Conditions of the end of Temporal Life BEsides the misery wherein all the felicity of this world is to determine the end of our life hath other most remarkable conditions very worthy to be considered and by which we may perceive the goods of it to be most contemptible We will now principally speak of three First that death is most infallible certain and no way to be avoided The second that the time is most incertain because we know neitheâ— when nor how it will happen The third that it is buâ— only one and but once to be experienced so that wâ— cannot by a second death correct the errors of the firsâ— Concerning the certainty and infallibility of death it imports us much to perswade our selves of it for as it is infallible that the other life shall be without end so it is as certain that this shall have it And as the Damned are in despair to find an end in their torments so are we practically to despair that the pleasures and contents of this world are to endure for ever God hath not made a Law more inviolable than that of death For having often dispensed in other Laws and by his omnipotent power and pleasure violated as I may say divers times the rights of Nature he neither hath nor will dispense with the Law of death but hath rather dispensed with other Laws that this should stand in force and therefore hath not onely executed the sentence of death upon those who in rigour ought to dye but upon those unto whom it was no wise due In the conception of Christ our Saviour those establisht Lawes of Nature that men were not to be born but by propagation from men and breach of the Mothers integrity were dispensed with God that his Lawes should have no force in Christ working two most stupendious Miracles and infringing the Lawes of Nature that his Son might be born of a Virgin Mother was so far from exempting him from the Law of death that death not belonging to him as being Lord of the Law and wanting all sin even original by which was contracted death nay immortality and the four gifts of glory being due unto his most Holy Body as resulting from the clear vision of the Divine essence which his Soul ever enjoyed yet all this notwithstanding God would not comply with this right of Nature but rather miraculously suspended by his omnipotent Arm those gifts of glory from his Body that he might become subject unto death in so much as God observes this Law of Death with such rigour that doing Miracles that the Law of Nature should not be kept in other things he works Miracles that the Law of Death should be observed even by his own Son who deserved it not and unto whom it was in no sort due And now that the Son of God had taken upon him the redemption of Mankind for whom out of his most infinite charity it was convenient for him to dye the death of the Cross which reason failing in his most holy Mother unto whom death was not likewise due from Original sin she being priviledged according to the opinion of most Universities as well in that as many other things by her blessed Son yet would
means to escape from death which he perceived was now ready to seise upon him Or that he would mitigate those great pains which he then suffered but for the space of one short hour Or that after he was departed this life he would procure him a good lodging though but for one night and no longer The Marquess answered that those were onely in the power of God and wished him to demand things feasible here upon earth and he would not fail to serve him Unto whom the sick Souldier replied I now too late perceive all my labour and travail to be lost and all the services which I have done you in the whole course of my life to be vain and fruitless and turning himself unto those who were present spake unto them with much feeling and tears in his eyes My Bretheren behold how vainly I have spent my time being so precious a jewel in the serving of this Master obeying his Commands with much care and great danger of my Soul which at this instant is the grief I am most sensible of See how small is his power since in all these pains which afflict me he is not able to give me ease for one hours space Wherefore I admonish you that you open your eyes in time and let my error be a warning unto you that you preserve your selves from so notable a danger and that you endeavour in this world to serve such a Lord as may not onely free you from these present perplexities and preserve you from future evils but may be able to crown you with glory in another life And if the Lord by the intercession of your prayers shall be pleased to restore my health I promise hereafter not to imploy my self in the service of so poor and impotent a Master who is not able to reward me but my whole endeavour shall be to serve him who hath power to protect me and the whole world by his Divine vertue With this great repentance he dyed leaving us an example to benefit our selves by that time which God bestows upon us here for the obtaining of eternal reward § 2. Let us now come unto the second condition which is the Uncertainty of time in the Circumstances For as it is most certain that we are to dye so it is most uncertain How we are to dye and as there is nothing more known than that death is to seise upon all so there is nothing less understood than When and in What manner Who knows whether he is to dye in his old age or in his youth if by sickness or struck by a Thunder-bolt if by grief or stabbed by Poniards if suddenly or slowly if in a City or in a Wilderness if a year hence or to day the doors of death are ever open and the enemy continually lies in ambush and when we least think of him will assault us How can a man be careless to provide for a danger which ever threatens him Let us see with what art men keep their temporal things even at such time as they run no hazard The Shepheards guard their Flocks with watchful Dogs although they believe the Wolf to be far off onely because he may come And walled Towers are kept by Garrisons in time of peace because an enemy either has or may approach them But when are we secure of death when can we say that now it will not come why do we not then provide our selves against so apparent danger In frontier Towns the Centinels watch day and night although no Enemy appears nor any assault is feared why do we not alwayes watch since we are never secure from the assaults of death He who suspected that Theeves were to enter his house would wake all night because they should at no hour find him unprovided It being then not a suspicion but an apparent certainty that death will come and we know not when why do we not alwayes watch We are in a continual danger and therefore ought to be continually prepared It is good ever to have our Accompts made with God since we know not but he may call us in such haste as we shall have no time to perfect them It is good to play a sure game and be ever in the grace of God Who would not tremble to hang over some vast precipice wherein if he fell he were certain to be dashed in a thousand pieces and that by so weak a supporter as a thread This or in truth much greater is the danger of him who is in mortal sin who hangs over hell by the thread of life a twist so delicate that not a knife but the wind and the least fit of sickness breaks it Wonderful is the danger wherein he stands who continues to the space of one Ave Maria in mortal sin Death hath time enough to shoot his arrow in the speaking a word the twinkling of an eye suffices Who can laugh and be pleased whilest he stands naked and disarmed in the middest of his Enemies Amongst as many Enemies is man as there are wayes to death which are innumerable The breaking of a vein in the body The bursting of an Imposthume in the entrails A vapour which flyes up to the head A passion which oppresses the heart A tyle which falls from a house A piercing air which enters by some narrow cranny Vn yerro de cuenta A hundred thousand other occasions open the doors unto death and are his Ministers It is not then safe for man to be disarmed and naked of the grace of God in the middest of so many adversaries and dangers of death which hourly threaten him We issue from the wombs of our Mothers as condemned persons out of prison and walk towards execution for the guilt which we have contracted by Original sin Who being led to execution would entertain himself by the way with vain conceipts and frivolous jests we are all condemned persons who go to the Gallows though by different wayes which we our selves know not Some the straight way and some-by by-paths but are all sure to meet in death Who knows whether he goe the direct way or windes about by turns whether he shall arrive there soon or stay later all that we know is that we are upon the way and are not far from thence We ought therefore still to be prepared and free from the distracting pleasures of this life for fear we fall suddenly and at unawares upon it This danger of sudden death is sufficient to make us distaste all the delights of the earth Dionysius King of Sicily that he might undeceive a young Philosopher who therefore held him to enjoy the chief felicity because he wanted nothing of his pleasure caused him one day to be placed at a Royal Table and served with all variety of splendid entertainments but over the place where he was seated caused secretly a sharp-pointed Sword to be hung directly over his head sustained only by a horses hair This danger was sufficient to
were to have an end shew us also by this signe that for their instability and inconstancy they were even before their end to be trodden under foot and despised But more lively is the same exprest by the same St. John Apoc. 15. Ribera Cornel when he beheld the Saints standing upon the Sea to note that whilest they lived they contemned and trampled under foot the transitory and fading things of this World and to declare it more fully he sayes the Sea was of glass then which nothing is more frail and although hard yet brittle Needs must the instability of things temporal be very great and therefore most despicable because it proceeeds from so many causes For as the Sea hath two several kinds of motion the first natural by which it riseth and falleth daily with continual ebbs and flows so as the waves when they are most quiet are yet still moving and inconstant the other violent when the waters are raised and incensed by some furious tempest in the same manner the things of this World are naturally of themselves fading and transitory and without any exteriour violence suffer a continual change and run rowling on toward their end but besides are also subject to other unthought of accidents and extraordinary violences which force nature out of her course and raise huge storms in the Sea of this life by which those things which we most esteem suffer shipwrack For as the fairest flower withers of it self yet is oftentimes before born away by the wind or perishes by some storm of hail The most exact beauties lose their lustre by age but are often before blasted by some violent Feaver The most costly Garments wear out in time if before not taken from us by the Theef The strongest and most sumptuous Palaces decay with continuance if before not ruined by Fire or Earthquakes In like manner both their own nature and extrinsecal violences deprive temporal things even of time it self and trail them along in perpetual changes leaving nothing stable Let us cast our eyes upon those things which men judge most worthy to endure Nazian in Monod Pli. l. 36. c. 8. and made them to the end they should be eternal How many changes and deaths have they suffered St. Gregory Nazienzen places the City of Thebes in Aegypt as the chiefest of those wonders which the world admired Pompâ—n Mela l. 1. c. 9. Most of the houses were of Alabaster Marble spotted with drops of gold which made them appear most splendid and magnificent Upon the walls were many pleasant Gardens Sur. in Comm. an 1517 Evag. l. 2. c. 1. which they called Horti pensiles or hanging Gardens and the Gates were no less than a hundred out of which the Prince could draw forth numerous Armies without noise or knowledge of the people Pomponius Mela writes that out of every Port there issued 10000 armed men Euseb de praepar Hieron in Dan. c. 1. Polusl 2. rerum Indic c. 68. which in the whole came to be an Army of a million Yet all this huge multitude could not secure it from a small Army conducted by a Youth who as St. Jerome writes took and destroyed it Marcus Polus writes that he passed by the City of Quinsay which contained fourscore millions of souls and Nicholas de Conti passing not many years after by the same way found the City wholly destroyed Nicol. de Com. in itin apud Ram. tom 1. and begun to be newly built after another form But yet in greater than this was the City of Ninive which according to the holy Scripture was of three dayes journey and it is now many ages since that we know not where it stood Plin. l. 6. c. 26. Sol. c. 3. No less stately but perhaps better fortified was the City of Babylon and that which was the Imperial City of the World became a Desert and a Habitation of Harpies Onocentaurs Satyrs Monsters and Devils as was foretold by the Prophets and the walls which were 200 foot in height and 50 in breadth could not defend it from time And yet the holy Scripture describes Ecbatana the chief City of Media to be more strong than that It was built by Arphaxad King of the Medes of square stone the Walls contained seventy cubits in breadth thirty cubits in height and the Towers which encompassed it were each in height a hundred cubits and yet for all this could not the Median Empire having such a head escape from rendring it self unto the Assyrians And the same Monarch who built it and made the World to tremble under him came to lose it and himself and having conquered many Nations became at last conquered and a Slave unto his enemies It is not much that Cities have suffered so many changes since Monarchies and Empires have done the same and so often hath the World changed her face as she hath changed her Monarch and Master He who had seen the World as it was in the time of the Persians would not have known it as it was in the time of the Assyrians and he who knew it in the time of the Persians would not have judged it for the same when the Greeks were Masters After in the time of the Romans it appeared with a face not known before and he who knew it then would not know it now and some years hence it will put on another form being in nothing more like it self than in its perpetual changes and alterations for which cause it hath been ever worthy of scorn and contempt and more now than ever Cyp. in Epist ad Demet since it becomes every day worse and grows old and decayes with age as St Cyprian notes in those words Thou art to know that the World is already grown old and doth not remain in that strength and vigour which it had at first This the World it self tells us and the daily declining of it into worse needs no other testimony The Winter wants the usual rains to fertilize the earth the Summer the accustomed heat to ripen the corn the Autumn is not loaden as heretofore with fruits nor the Spring glads us with the delight and pleasure of its sweet temperature out of the hollowed Mountains are drawn less pieces of marble and the exhausted Mines yield less quantities of gold and silver The Labourer is wanting in the Fields the Mariners in the Seas the Souldier in the Tents Innocency in the Market-places Justice in the Tribunals Sincerity in Friendship Skill in Arts and Discipline in Manners Necessary it is that that should decay which thus daily sinks into it self and approaches towards an end Immediately he adds This is the doom of the World This the ordinance of God all that is born must die all that increases must grow old the strong become feeble the great diminish and when diminished perish Anciently our lives extended beyond 800 or 900 years now few arrive unto an hundred We see boys grown gray and our
tears advised him to hang it upon the Gallows to supply the room of the Malefactor Such is the inconstancy of humane hearts more variable than seems possible which changing in themselves draw within their compass the rest of the hings of this World Philo considering and admiring so great vanity and change Philo. l. de Jos speaks after this manner Perhaps those things which concern the Body are they not dreams perhaps this momentary beauty does it not wither even before it flourish our health is uncertain exposed to so many infirmities a thousand griefs happening by divers occasions abate our strength and forces the quickness and vigour of our senses are corrupted by vitious humours Who then can be ignorant of the baseness of exteriour things One day often makes an end of great riches many Personages of great honour and esteem changing their fortune become infamous great Empires and Kingdoms have in a short time been ruined Of this Dionysius is a sufficient witness who thrust from his Throne from a King of Sicily became a School-master in Gorinth and taught boyes The like happened unto Craesus the most rich King of Lydia who being in hope to overthrow the Persians not onely lost his own Kingdom but fell into the power of his enemies and failed little of being burnt alive Particular persons are not onely witnesses that all humane things are dreams but Cities Nations Kingdoms Greeks and Barbarians the Isles and those who inhabit the Continent of Europe Asia the East and West nothing remains like unto it self Certainly as Philo sayes the instability of humane things makes them appear not onely a dream but as a dream of a shadow rather than of any thing solid and consistent Hom. de poenit Let us hear also what St. Chrysostome sayes and counsels us concerning the same matter All things present saith he are more frail and weak than the webs of spiders and more deceitful than dreams for as well the goods as evils have their end Since therefore we esteem things present but as a dream and we our selves to be but as in a Inn from whence we are sodainly to depart let us take care for our journey and furnish our selves with provision and a Viaticum for eternity let us cloath our selves with such garments as we may carry along with us For as no man can lay hold on his Shadow so no man retains things humane which partly in death and partly before death fly from us and run more swiftly than a rapid river To the contrary are those things which are to come which neither suffer age nor change nor are subject to revolutions but perpetually flourish and persevere in a continued felicity Take heed then of admiring those riches which remain not with their Masters but change in every instant and leap from one to another and from this to that It behooves thee to despise all those things and to esteem them as nothing Let it suffice to hear what the Apostle sayes The things that are seen are temporal but those which are not seen are eternal Things humane disappear more sodainly than a shadow CAP. II. How great and desperate soever our Temporal evils are yet hope may make them tolerable FRom this inconstancy of humane things we may extract a constancy for our selves First by despising things so frail and transitory which as we have already said is a sufficient ground for their contempt Secondly by a resolute hope and expectation of an end or change in our adversity and afflictions since nothing here below is constant but all mutable and unstable and as things sometimes change from good to evil so they may also from evil unto good And as great prosperity hath often been the occasion of greater misery so we may hope our greatest misfortunes may produce a greater happiness Wherefore as in eternal evils because immutable we want the hope of a happy condition so in temporal evils how great soever we ought not to despair which we daily see confirmed with most unexpected successes Let us therefore onely fear eternal evils which are not capable of remedy and let us not despair and afflict our selves for the temporal which hath it and imports little whether it have it or no. This is not ill exprest by that which happened unto the Roman Appius Fulgos l. 6. who being proscribed and condemned to banishment became by the treachery of his Slaves and Servants in danger of his life who out of covetousness to possess themselves of the goods and treasure which he carried along with him cast him forth into a small Shallop and sailed away with the Ship But from this misfortune sprung his deliverance For not long after the Ship sunk in which his Slaves were drowned and he himself who had perished if he had been with them escaped with this little loss and came safe into Sicily Aristomenes being taken by his enemies and cast into an obscure Dungeon was there at least by famine and unwholesomness of the place to end his dayes but in the middest of despair an unexpected accident gave him hope of delivery A Fox by chance passing through a little hole under ground entred into the Dungeon where he had made his Den which being espied by Aristomenes he laid fast hold on him with one hand and with the other enlarged the passage and voiding the loose earth as he went followed his guide who at last safely conducted him into the open field from whence he escaped in safety when his enemies thought he had been dead There is no condition of life so miserable wherein we ought to despair nay wherein we may not hope of bettering our fortunes To how many hath a seeming unlucky accident been the occasion of great preferment and a disgrace of honours Diogenes his being condemned for false money and held for an infamous person was the occasion of his receiving respect and honour from Princes Plin. l. 7. c. 50. ' Alexander the Master of the World coming to visit him Phalareus being wounded in his breast by his enemies was cured of an Imposthume held desperate by the Physicians Gal. l. de Sim. ca. 11. Galen writes of a Leper who was cured by drinking a little wine wherein a Viper was by chance drowned which the Reapers not being willing to drink themselves gave him out of compassion thinking to kill him quickly and rid him out of those grievous pains which he endured but that which they thought would be his death became his life for the drinking of the wine caused the scales and scurf of his flesh to fall and restored him to his health Benive c. 15. Benivenius testifies that he knew a Boy that was lame of both feet in such sort that he could not goe without Crutches but being struck with the plague and recovering his health he remained sound of his feet and without lameness The same Author writes of a certain Architect who had one leg shorter than
pointing with his finger simply told him That was he And wherefore replyed the Saint is this man more to be esteemed than the rest is it perhaps because he is more vertuous or is it because he is adorned with more exterior lustre and bravery is not he likewise to die as well as the most poor and unknown beggar is he not to be buried is he not as well as the rest of men to appear before the just Judge Wherefore then doest thou value those things which are to pass as if they were to last for ever Wherefore doest thou admire that which hath no consistence It were fitter for thee to place thy eyes and heart upon things eternal and incorruptible and to be enamoured of those which are not subject to change and death The same Disciple of Spiridion being now Bishop travelled one time with his Master who was then also Archbishop of Trimitunte and as they came to a certain place where the fields were very fertile and pleasant the Disciple being much taken with them began to cast within himself how he might compass an Inheritance in that good Country and lay it to his Church The Saint who understood his thoughts gave him this sweet and gentle reprehension To what purpose dear Brother doest thou trouble thy thoughts with things so vain and of so little substance Wherefore doest thou desire Land and Vineyards to labour and cultivate doest thou not know that these things are onely of an outward appearance and within are nothing or at least are worth nothing We have an Inheritance in Heaven which none can take from us There we have a house not made by the hands of men Look after those goods and begin now even before the time by the vertue of hope to enjoy them Those goods are of that condition that if you once possess them and make your self Lord of them you shall be then their eternal heir and your Inheritance shall never pass to others Let one place himself in the point of death and let him from thence on the one part behold the littleness of all things temporal which are now past and on the other the greatness of Eternity whereinto he enters which shall never pass and he shall easily discover how all the greatness and commodities of this life are for their littleness and short endurance rather worthy of laughter than admiration CAP. VII How miserable a thing is this Temporal Life LEt us also consider more particularly the substance and bulk of humane life which we so much esteem and we shall not a little wonder how so many and so great misfortunes can happen in so short a space Whereupon Phalaris the Agregentin was used to say That if a man before he was born knew what he was to suffer in life he would not be born at all For this reason some Philosophers repenting that they lived would blaspheme Nature railing at it with a thousand complaints and injuries because to the best of living things it had given so bad and wretched a life not reaching so high as to know that this was an effect of the fault of man and not a fault of Nature or Divine Providence Pliny would say That Nature was but a Stepmother to mankind and Silenus being demanded what was the greatest happiness man was capable of said Not to be born or die quickly The great Philosopher and Emperour Marcus Aurelius considering humane misery spake in this discreet manner Aurel. Anton. in sua Philosoph The warre of this life is dangerous and the end and issue of it so terrible and dreadful that I am certain that if any of the ancient should rise again and recount unto us faithfully and give us a view of his life past from the time he came out of his Mothers womb unto his last gasp the body relating at large the pains and griefs it hath suffered and the heart the alarms it hath received from fortune that all men would be amazed at a body that had endured so much and at a heart that had gained so great a victory and dissembled it I here confess freely and although to my shame yet for the profit that may redound to future ages that in the space of fifty years which I have lived I have desired to prove the utmost of all the vices and excesses of this life to see if the malice of man had any bounds and limits and I finde after long and serious inquisition that the more I eat the more is my hunger and the more I drink the greater is my thirst if I sleep much the more is my desire to sleep the more I rest the more weary and indisposed I finde my self the more I have the more I covet and the more I grasp the less I hold Finally I attain to nothing which doth not surfeit and cloy me and then presently I abhorre it and desire something else This is the judgement of Philosophers concerning the miseries of mans life The same is that of the Wiseman Eccl. 3. when he sayes All the dayes of man are full of grief and misery neither do his thoughts rest at night Stob. ser 96. With reason did Democritus say That the life of man was most miserable since those who seek for Good hardly finde it and Evil comes of it self and enters our gates unsought for insomuch as our life is alwayes exposed unto innumerable dangers injuries losses and so many infirmities that according to Pliny and many Physicians Greeks and Arabians there were more than thirty several sorts of new diseases discovered in the space of a few years and now every day they finde out others and some so cruel as they are not to be named without horrour Neither speak I onely of the infirmities but of their remedies For even griefs known and common are cured by cauterizing with fire by sawing off a member by tripanizing the scull or drawing bones from it Some have been cured with the opening the belly and drawing forth the guts Others by reason of the great malice of the disease are cured with so strange diets that the sick persons as Cornelius Celsus writes have for very thirst drunk their Urine and eaten their Plasters for raging hunger Others are prescribed to eat Snakes Mice Worms and other loathsome Vermin But above all the cure of Palaeologus the Second Emperour of Constantinople was most cruel and extravagant whose infirmity after a years continuance found no other remedy but to be continually vext and displeased his Wife and Servants who most desired his health having no wayes to restore it but by disobedience still crossing and opposing him in what he most desired a harsh cure for a Prince If remedies be so great evils what are the infirmities The sickness of Angelus Politianus was so vehement that he knockt his head against the walls That of Mecoenas so strange that he slept not nor closed his eyes in three whole years That of Antiochus so pestilential
but greater if he live them ill though with content and therefore supposing so many miseries we cannot complain of God for having given us a short life but of our selves for having made it a bad one Ambr. Ser. quadrages Finally as St. Ambrose sayes Our life being compassed with so many miseries as that death seems rather a shelter for evils than a punishment God was pleased that it should be short that the vexations and misfortunes of it which cannot be counterpoised with any joyes of the earth might be more supportable At least if this life with so many miseries do not displease us yet let the eternal with all her felicities content us better and let us not endeavour less for the immortal life of heaven than we doe for this mortal one of earth And therefore as St. Austin sayes Augus trac 5. in Johan hom 57. If thou run a hundred miles for this life how many oughtest thou to run for the eternal and if thou make such speed to obtain a few dayes and uncertain how oughtest thou to run for life eternal CAP. VIII How little is man whilest he is temporal IF we consider the greatest thing in nature which is Man we shall see how little he is whilest he is temporal What is man saith Seneca a frail vessel broken with the least motion a most weak body naked by nature and unarmed necessitous of Mothers help subject to the injuries of fortune impatient of cold and labour composed of things infirm and fluid and those very things without which we cannot live as smell taste watching meat and drink are mortal unto us The wise Solon did not answer more favourably when they demanded of him Anton. in Mel. Stob. Ser. 96. what was Man He is saith he a corruption in his birth a beast in his life and food for worms when he is dead Aristotle being asked the same question answered That Man was an Idea of weakness Dionys Rikel de noviss arti 15. a spoil of time a game of fortune an image of inconstancy a ballance of envy and calamity and the rest is of flegme and choler Secundus the Philosopher being also demanded the same by Adrian the Emperour answered That Man was an incorporated understanding a phantasm of time a looker upon life a slave of death a travelling passenger a guest of place a toyling soul a habitation for a short time And St. Bernard saith That Man in this time of mortality is but a beast of carriage And the same Saint in another place sayes What is Man but a vessel of dung and in his meditations he adds If thou markest what he voids at his mouth and nose and at the other sinks of his body thou hast not in all thy life beheld a more noisome dunghill In the same part he saith Man is no other thing but unclean seed a sack of dung a food for worms Innocen de Contempla mundi lib. 1. c. 1. More fully Innocent the Pope I have considered saith he with tears what Man was made of what he is and what he shall be He was made of earth and conceived in sin and born for punishment He does things evil which are not lawful things filthy which are not decent and things vain which are not expedient He shall be the food of fire meat for worms and a mass of corruption O vile indignity of humane condition O unworthy condition of humane baseness Behold the plants and trees They produce flowers and leaves and fruit and thou nothing but nits lice and worms They furnish us with oyl wine and balsom thou affords nothing but flegme dung and urine Those send forth a fragrant odour and thou abominable stink Such as is the tree such is the fruit A good tree cannot bring forth bad fruit and what is man but a tree reverst This is the saying of this holy Pope And such is man even in his youth and best time But if he reach old age which is esteemed as a felicity the same Innocentius adds His heart is afflicted his head shakes his spirits languish his breath smells his face wrinkles his stature bends his eyes wax dimme his joynts quake his nose runs his hands tremble his hair falls his teeth rot his ears grow deaf Neither is he more changed in body than in mind An old man is easily displeased hardly pacified believes quickly long before disabused is greedy covetous peevish froward still complaining quick in talking slow in hearing admires what 's past contemns what 's present sighs grieves languishes and is alwayes infirm It may also appear what Man is by the stuff whereof he is made The first man God made of Clay mixing together the vilest and grossest Elements The rest of men who have succeeded have been made of a matter more loathsome and unclean and worse is that wherewith they are nourisht in their Mothers wombs and their birth is accompanied with shame grief and pollution which Pliny considering speaks in this manner It is a compassion nay a shame to think of the original of the proudest of living creatures which is man who often is abortive by the smell of a newly extinguisht candle From such beginnings sprung our Tyrants from hence the butcherly minde of those cruel Hangmen Thou which gloriest in the strength of body thou which embracest the gifts of fortune and thinkest not thy self her Servant but her Son and Darling thou who settest thy mind wholly upon victories thou who pufft up with success holdest thy self a God see how thou mightest have perished even before thou wert with so little a thing as a snuff of a candle and mayest yet with a smaller matter prickt with the little tooth of an Adder or like Anacreon the Poet choked with the stone of a grape or like Fabius the Roman Senatour suffocated with a hair in a draught of milk Thus farre Pliny who not onely admired the baseness of the nature of man but the easiness of his end Consider also wherein Man ends Man whilest he lives saith Pope Innocent engenders lice and vermin Lib. 3. c. 1. when he is dead grubs and worms whilest he lives affords nothing but dung and vomits when he is dead stink and rottenness alive he feeds but one man but dead a multitude of worms What thing more noisome than a humane Carcase what more horrible than a dead Man he whose embraces were most acceptable when he was alive even his sight is troublesome when he is dead What do riches banquets or delights profit us they shall not free us from death they shall not defend us from the worms they shall not take away our stink and ill savour He who even now was seated in a glorious Throne is now flung into an obscure Tomb he who lately feasted in a sumptuous Sala is now feasted upon by worms in a dark Sepulcher All this is from this contemplative Pope Bernard c. 3. Meditat. St. Bernard also considering this
miserable end of Man saith Man is converted into no man why therefore art thou proud know that thou wert in the womb unclean seed and curdled blood exposed afterward to sin and the many miseries of this life and after death shalt be the food of worms Wherefore doest thou wax proud Dust and ashes whose conception was in sin whose birth in misery whole life in pain and whose death necessity wherefore doest thou swell and adorn thy flesh with precious things which in few dayes is to be devoured by worms and doest not rather adorn thy soul with good works which is to be presented in heaven before God and his Angels All this is spoken by St. Bernard which every man ought to take as spoken unto himself §. 2. Besides that man is a thing so poor and little and composed of so base and vile materials this littleness this vileness hath no firmness nor consistence but is a river of changes a perpetual corruption and as Secundus the Philosopher sayes Lib. 11. de Praepa Evan. c. 7. A fantasme of time whose instability is thus declared by Eusebius of Caesarea Our nature from our birth until our death is unstable and as it were fantastical which if you strive to comprehend is like water gathered in the palm of the hand the more you grasp it the more you spill it In the same manner those mutable and transitory things the more you consider them with reason the more they flye from you Things sensible being in a perpetual flux are still doing and undoing still generating and corrupting and never remain the same For as Heraclitus sayes as it is impossible to enter twice into the same river because the same water remains not but new succeeds still as the first passes so if you consider twice this mortal substance you shall not both times find it the same but with an admirable swiftness of change it is now extended now contracted but it is not well said to say Now and Now for in the same time it loses in one part and gains in another and is another thing than what it is in so much as it never rests The Embrion which is framed from seed quickly becomes an Infant from thence a Boy from thence a Young-man from thence an Old and then decrepit and so the first ages being past and corrupted by new ones which succeed it comes at last to die How ridiculous then are men to fear one death who have already died so many and are yet to die more Not onely as Heraclitus said The corruption of fire is the generation of air but this appears more plainly in our selves for from youth corrupted is engendred man and from him the old man from the boy corrupted is engendered the youth and from the infant the boy and from who was not yesterday he who is to day and of him who is to day he who shall be to morrow so as he never remains the same but in every moment we change as it were with various phantasms in one common matter For if we be still the same how come we to delight in things we did not before we now love and abhorre after another manner than formerly we now praise and dispraise other things than we did before we use other words and are moved with other affections we do not hold the same form nor pass the same judgement we did and how is it possible that without change in our selves we should thus change in our motions and affections certainly he who still changes is not the same and he who is not the same cannot be said to be but in a continual mutation slides away like water The sense is deceived with the ignorance of what is and thinks that to be which is not Where shall we then finde true being but in that onely which is eternal and knows no beginning which is incorruptible which is not changed with time Time is moveable and joyned with movable matter glides away like a current and like a vessel of generation and corruption retains nothing in so much as the first and the last that which was and that which shall be are nothing and that which seems present passes like lightning Wherefore as time is defined to be the measure of the motion of things sensible and as time never is nor can be so we may with the like reason say that things sensible do not remain nor are nor have any being All this is from Eusebius which David declared more briefly and significantly when he said That man whilest he lived in this life was an Universal vanity Wherefore St. Gregory Nazianzen said In laud. Caes that we are a dream unstable like a Spectre or Apparition which could not be laid hold on Let man therefore reflect upon all which hath been said let him behold himself in this glass let him see wherefore he presumes wherefore he afflicts himself for things of the earth which are so small in themselves and so prejudicial unto him With reason did the Prophet say In vain doth man trouble himself Upon which St. Chrysostome with great admiration speaks in this manner Chrysost in Ps 36. Man troubles himself and loses his end he troubles himself consumes and melts to nothing as if he had never been born he troubles himself and before he attains rest is overwhelmed he is inflamed like fire and is reduced to ashes like flax he mounts on high like a tempest and like dust is scattered and disappears he is kindled like a flame and vanishes like smoke he glories in his beauty like a flower and withers like hay he spreads himself as a cloud and is contracted as a drop he swells like a bubble of water and and goes out like a spark he is troubled and carries nothing about him but the filth of riches he is troubled onely to gain dirt he is troubled and dies without fruit of his vexations His are the troubles others the joyes his are the cares others the contents his are the afflictions others the fruit his are the heart-burstings others the delights his are the curses others have the respect and reverence against him the sighs and exclamations of the persecuted are sent up to Heaven and against him the tears of the poor are poured out and the riches and abundance remains with others he shall howl and be tormented in hell whilest others sing triumph and vainly consume his estate In vain do living men trouble themselves Man is he who enjoyes a life but lent him and that but for a short time Man is but a debt of death which is to be paid without delay a living Creature who is in his will and appetite untamed a mischief taught without a Master a voluntary ambush subtle in wickedness witty in iniquity prone to covetousness insatiable in the desire of what is anothers of a boasting spirit and full of insolent temerity in his words fierce but easily quailed bold but quickly mastered an
such a one would hardly make him conceive the brightness and beauty of the Sun much less can the glory of those things of the other world be made to appear unto us though exemplified by comparisons of the greatest beauty the world affords So ineffable blessings are contemned by a Sinner and all to make himself despicable and accursed .. § 3. After the same manner the evils and pains of this World are nothing comparable unto those which are eternal and therefore as the three hundred years enjoying of one heavenly pleasure seemed unto that Servant of God no longer than three hours so to the contrary three hours of eternal pains will appear unto the damned as three hundred years and much more since even of the temporal pains in Purgatory this notable accident is written by St. Antoninus St. Anto. 4. p. §. 4. A man of an evil life was visited by our Lord with a long infirmity to the end he might repent and reflect upon his sins which took effect But his sickness by continuance grew so grievous and tedious unto him as he often with great earnestness recommended himself unto God and besought him to deliver him from the prison of his body Whereupon an Angel appeared unto him with this choice either to continue two years sick in that manner he was and then to goe straight to Heaven or to die instantly and remain three dayes in Purgatory He was not long in his election but presently chose the latter and immediately died but had not been an hour in those pains when the same Angel appeared unto him again and after some encouragement and consolation demanded if he knew him he answered No. I am said he the Angel who brought thee that choice from Heaven either to come hither or to remain in thy infirmity for two years To whom the afflicted soul replied It is impossible thou shouldest be the Angel of the Lord for good Angels cannot lie and that Angel told me I should remain in this place but three dayes and it is now so many years that I have suffered those most bitter torments and can yet see no end of my misery Know then said the Angel that it is not yet an hour since thou left thy body and the rest of the three dayes yet remain for thee to suffer To whom the Soul replied Pray unto the Lord for me that he look not upon my ignorance in making so foolish a choice but that out of his Divine mercy he will give me leave to return once more unto life and I will not onely patiently suffer those two years but as many as it shall please him to impose upon me His Petition was granted and being restored unto life his experience of Purgatory made all the pains of his infirmity seem light unto him in so much as he endured them not onely with patience but joy Much like unto this as appears in the Chronicles of the Minorits happened unto a religious person of the Order of St. Francis Chron. S. Fran. 2. p. l. 4. c. 8. who demanded the same of God Almighty in regard of the much trouble he put his religious brebren unto as also for what he suffered himself An Angel appeared unto him and gave him his choice either of suffering one day in Purgatory or remaining a whole year longer sick as he was He made choice to die presently and had scarce been one hour in Purgatory when he began to complain of the Angel for having cozened him The Angel appeared unto him again certifying him that his body was not yet buried because there was one onely hour past since his death He gave him his choice the second time His Soul was presently reunited to the body and he rose out of his Bed to the great astonishment of all If this then pass in Purgatory it will not be less in hell and if an hour seem a year which contains above eleven thousand hours an eternity in hell will appear eleven thousand eternities O how dearly bought are the short pleasures of the senses which are paid for with so long and so innumerable torments For if pain should last no longer than the pleasure that deserved it it would seem to those who are to feel it ten thousand times longer What will it do being eternal O pains of this World infirmities griefs and troubles how ridiculous are ye compared with those which are eternal since the time which you endure is but short and it is not much that you can afflict us nay if by temporal punishments we may escape the eternal you are most happy unto us and ought to be received with a thousand welcoms CAP. II. The greatness of the eternal honour of the Just LEt us now in particular consider the greatness of those goods of the other life in which are contained Honours Riches Pleasures and all the blessings both of soul and body of each whereof we shall say something apart and will begin with that of Honour Certainly the reward of honour which shall be conferred upon the Just in the other life is to be wonderful great First in respect that amongst all the appetites of a reasonable creature that of honour is the most potent and prevalent Secondly because our Saviour exhorts us unto humility as the way by which we are to enter into glory and promiseth honours and exaltations unto the humble and there is no question but in that place of satiety remuneration and accomplishment of all that can be desired the honour of the Servants of Christ and followers of his humility shall be inexpressible of which there are many promises in holy Scripture He himself sayes That his Father will honour them in Heaven and David sings Thou hast crowned him with glory and honour and Ecclesiasticus as it is applied by the Church A Crown of Gold upon his head graven with the seal of holiness and the glory of honour Besides all the tribute which those who serve God are able to pay him is onely to laud and honour him His eternal joy happiness and all his intrinsecal perfections are so excellent that they can receive no addition onely this glory and honour as they are an exteriour good are capable of augmentation And this is that which he receives from the Saints who serve him With which God is so pleased that he pays them again in the same money and honours those who honoured him and this honour arrives at that height that Christ himself expresses it in these words Apoc. 3. He who shall overcome I will give him to sit with me in my Throne even at I have overcome and have sitten with the Father in his Throne At the greatness of which promise a Doctor being amazed cries out Bell. l. 1. de aterna felici c. 4. infine How great shall be that glory when a just Soul shall in the presence of an infinite number of Angels sit in the same Throne with Christ and shall by the
of our bodies now to those precious gifts of glory after our resurrection We are now all rottenness unweildiness corruption uncleanness infirmities loathsomness and worms Then all shall be light incorruption splendor purity beauty and immortality Let us compare these together what difference there is betwixt a body sickly weak pale and loathsome or some eight dayes after death full of worms corruption and stench abominable with the same body being now in glory exceeding the Sun far in brightness the Heavens in beauty more odoriferous than the purest Roses or Lillies Neither do the evils or goods temporal bear any comparison with the eternal since as the Apostle sayes That which is momentary and light does cause an eternal weight of glory In the beginning of the Civil Warres with the Senate of Rome carried on against Caius and Fulvius Gracchus Val. l. c. 4. the Consul Opimius by publick Edict promised that whosoever should bring him the head of Caius Gracchus should receive for reward its weight in gold All esteemed this a recompence highly to be valued that one should receive equal weight of that precious mettal to the weight of dead flesh But God's promises far exceed this For a labour or trouble as light as a feather he gives eternal weight of glory The Apostle sayes not that God Almighty doth give onely a great weight for light merits out also adds over and above that it shall be eternal It were a great happiness if according to our penances or voluntary labours we should receive onely equal proportion of bliss yet so as it were eternal because how little soever it were it were to be purchased at a very cheap rate though it were in substance but so much for so much so that the difference were onely such in the duration thereof as if for the toyl of one dayes labour were given a whole year of rest But Almighty God giving much for a little for that which is light massie and heavy for a thing momentary an eternal reward what greater encrease or advantage can we possibly receive Seâ—imuleyus will be a great confusion unto us who hearing the foresaid Proclamation of the Roman Consul stuck not at any toil or danger until he had cut off the head of Gracchus greedy of the equal weight thereof in gold Let us have the like courage the Souldier had to take away the temporal life of a Man to the end we may not bereave our selves of an eternal life And since the purchase of Heaven is so cheap let us procure to augment the gain and let 's not have less desire of goods eternal than Setimuleyus had for temporals who desirous of a great reward filled with melted lead all the hollow places of the head which he had cut off Let us fill our momentary and light works with great affection and love Let us increase our desires and in any work how little soever accompany the same with a great will with a vehement desire to hoard up eternal treasures for temporal pains What an advantagious exchange will it be to buy Heaven for a draught of water for that which is but vile and lasts but a moment that which is of inestimable price and is to last for all eternity What sort of bargain would it be if one could buy a Kingdom for a straw yet so it is For that which is no more worth than a Straw we may purchase the Kingdom of Heaven Certainly all the felicity riches and earthly delights are no more than a straw compared with the glory of Heaven How fond and foolish would he be who having a Basket full of chips would not give one of them for an hundred weight of gold This is the sottishness of men that for earthly goods they will not receive those of Heaven Who is there that having offered him a precious stone for some small sand should not have so much wit as to give a thing so base and abject for a thing so noble and precious Who being offered a rich treasure for an handful of cinders would not admit of so gainful an exchange What hunger-starved man being invited to a full Table of dainty dishes upon condition he should not eat an apple paring would reject the invitation Heaven is offered us for things little and of small estimation Why do not we accept the offer Christ our Saviour called the Kingdom of Heaven a precious Margarite and a hidden Treasure for which we ought to forsake all the goods of the earth by reason they are all but dust and misery in respect of a treasure of Pearls and Diamonds St. Josaph at did very much in leaving an earthly Kingdom for a greater assurance of that of Heaven He did very much according to our deceitful apprehension and false estimation of things But if it be well considered he did very little much less than if he had given one Basketful of Earth for another of Gold a Sack full of Small-coal for a great Treasure and a Nut-shell for a great Banquet Whatever is in the Earth may well be given for the least crum of Heaven because all the greatnesses of this World are but crums nut-shells and trash compared with the least particle of heavenly bliss All the felicity upon Earth hath no substance nor weight if compared with the weight of eternal glory which is prepared for us This David did and convinced by the greatness of heavenly glory said unto our Lord I did eneline my heart to doe thy justifications The heart of man is like a just ballance that inclines that way where is the greatest weight And as in the heart of David the temporal weighed little and the eternal much so inclined by the eternal weight of glory which attends us and moved by the hope of so great a reward the fulfilling of the Law of God prevailed more with him than his own appetite and inclination §. 2. If we shall consider the labours for which eternal glory is promised us as a hire and reward the Apostle spake with great reason that all which we can suffer in the time of this life is no wayes worthy of that glory to come which is to be manifested in us To St. Austin all the torments of Hell seemed not much for the gaining of Celestial glory but for some short time And if we consider the greatness of that joy all the penances of St. Simon Stylites the fasts of St. Romualdus the poverty and nakedness of St. Francis and the scorns and affronts put upon St. Ignatius are no more than the taking up of a straw for the gaining of an earthly Empire All Stories are full for how small matters upon earth men have exposed themselves to great and almost certain dangers Because David caused it to be published in his Army that he that should first set upon the Jebuseans who were the hardiest of all his Enemies should be made General Joab doubted not to expose his life to manifest danger breaking through
instead of the burning coals of that eternal fire Neither shall they be Masters so much as of that broken pot wherein to contain a little water if it might be given them Jsai 30. For as Isaias sayes There shall not remain unto them so much as the shread of a broken pot to hold a little water from the pit nor shall there be any found to give it them That rich Glutton in the Gospel accustomed to drink in Cups of Chrystal to eat in Silver and to be cloathed in Silks and curious Linnens can tell us how far this infernal poverty extends when he demanded not wines of Candie but a little cold water and that not in Cups of Gold or Chrystal but upon the fingers end of a Leper This rich and nice Glutton came to such an extremity that he would esteem it a great felicity that they would give him but one drop of water although it were from the filthy and loathsome finger of a Leper and yet this also was wanting unto him Let the rich of the World see to what poverty they are like to come if they trust in ther riches let them know that they shall be condemned to the loss of all which is good Let them reflect upon him who was accustomed to be cloathed in precious Garments to tread upon Carpets to sleep upon Down to dwell in spacious Palaces now naked thrown upon burning coals and packt up in some narrow corner of that infernal Dungeon Let us therefore fear the riches of this World and the poverty of the other §. 4. This poverty or want of all good of the damned is accompanied with a most opprobrious infamy and dishonour when by publick sentence they shall be deprived for their enormous offences of eternal glory and reprehended in the presence of Saints and Angels by the Lord of Heaven and Earth This infamy shall be so great that St. Chrysostom speaks of it in these words A most intolerable thing is Hell Chrys in Math. 24. and most horrible are the torments yet if me should place a thousand Hells before me nothing could be so horrible unto me as to be excluded from the honour of glory to be hated of Christ and to hear from him these words I know you not This infamy we may in some sort declare under the example of a mighty King who having no Heir to succeed him in his Kingdom took up a beautiful Boy at the Church door and nourished him as his Son and in his Testament commanded that if at ripe years his conditions were vertuous and sutable to his calling he should be received as lawful King and seated in his Royal Throne but if he proved vitious and unfit for Government they should punish him with infamy and send him to the Gallies The Kingdom obeyed this Command provided him excellent Masters and Tutors but he became so untoward and ill-inclined that he would learn nothing flung away his books spent his time amongst other Boyes in making houses of dirt and other childish fooleries for which his Governors corrected and chastised him and advised him of what was fitting and most imported him but all did no good onely when they reprehended him he could weep not because he repented but because they hindred his sport and the next day did the same The more he grew in age the worse he became and although they informed him of the Kings Testament and what behooved him all was to no purpose until at last after all possible care and diligence his Tutors and the whole Kingdom weary of his ill conditions in a publick Assembly declared him unworthy to raign dispoiled him of his Royal Ornaments and condemned him with infamy unto the Gallies What greater affront and ignominy can there be than this to lose a Kingdom and to be made a Gally-slave for I do not know which of these things that young man would be more sensible of More ignominious and a more lamentable Tragedy is that of a Christian condemned to Hell who was taken by God from the gates of death adopted his Son with condition that if he kept his Commandments he should raign in Heaven and if not he should be condemned to Hell Yet he forgetting these obligations without respect of his Tutors and Masters who were the holy Angels especially his Angel Guardian who failed not to instill into him holy inspirations and other learned and spiritual men who exhorted him both by their doctrine and example what was fitting for a Child of God But he neither moved by their advices nor the chastisements of Heaven by which God overthrew his vain intentions and thwarted his unlawful pleasures onely lamented his temporal losses and not his offences and at the time of his death was sentenced to be deprived of the Kingdom of Heaven and precipitated into Hell What infamy can be greater than this of the damned Soul for if it be a great infamy to suffer death by Humane Justice for some crimes committed how great an infamy will it be to be condemned by Divine Justice for a Traitor and perfidious Rebel to God Besides this bitterness of pains the damned persons shall also be eternally branded with the infamy of their offences so as they shall be scorned and scoft at by the Devils themselves and not onely Devils but all rational creatures Men and Angels shall detest them as infamous and wicked Traitors to their King God and Redeemer Jsai 13. Facies combustae vultus eorum And as fugitive Slaves are marked and cauterized with burning irons so this infamy by some special mark of ugliness and deformity shall be stamped upon their faces and bodies so as Albertus Magnus sayes so ignominious shall be the body of a Sinner that when his Soul returns to enter it it shall be amazed to behold it so horrible and shall wish it were rather in the same state as when it was half eaten up by worms CAP. IX The Punishment of the Damned from the horribleness of the place into which they are banished from Heaven and made Prisoners in Hell ANother kind of punishment of great discomfort and affliction is that of Exile which the Damned shall suffer in the highest degree For they shall be banished into the profound bowels of the Earth a place most remote from Heaven and the most calamitous of all others where they shall neither see the Sun by day nor the Stars by night where all shall be horror and darkness and therefore it was said of that condemned person Cast him forth into utter darkness forth of the City of God forth of the Heavens forth of this World where he may never more appear into that land which is called in the Book of Job A dark land Job 10. covered with the obscurity of death a land of misery and darkness where the shadow of death and no order but everlasting horror inhabits a land according to Isaias Jsai 34. of sulphur and burning pitch a land of
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
which it causes will be excessive Vide Marcel Don. in Hist Mâ—dica l. 2. c. 1. Alexander Tralianus writes of a Woman who was extremely ill onely with a false imagination that she had swallowed a Snake and was perswaded that she already felt most grievous pains by the Snakes gnawing of her entrals What will the apprehension of the truth do in those miserable wretchches when the worm of their conscience will be continually gnawing their very hearts Assaharaâ—ius writes of others who complained of the great pains they endured by whipping when no man touched a thread of their Garment Much more is that which Fulgosius recounts as an eye-witnese that being Judge in a Duel one of the Competitors made the other flye Baptist Fulgos l. 9. but instantly fell down dead himself without any other cause than an imagination that he was hurt to death for he neither received wound nor blow neither was the sign of any found upon his dead body If in this life the imagination be so powerful in men who are in health and have other diversions as to cause a sense of pain where none hurts grief where none molests and death where none kills What shall it be in Hell where there is nothing of delight to divert it where so many Devils punish and afflict with torments preserving onely life that the pain of death may live eternally And if we see some timorous people with an imaginary fear tremble and remain half dead there is no doubt but the imagination of those miserable persons joyned with the horror of the place where they are will cause a thousand pains and torments The powers of the Soul shall be those which shall suffer the greatest lashes The Will shall be tormented with an eternal abhorring and rage against it self against all creatures and against God the Creator of all and shall with an intolerable sadness anger grief and disorder of all the affections violently desire things impossible and despair of all what is good And if joy consists in the possessing of what one loves and pain in the want of that which is desired and being necessitated to what is abhorred What greater pain and torment than to be ever desiring that which shall never be enjoyed and ever abhorring that which we can never be quyt of Bern. l. 5. de Consid ad Eugen. Papam Wherefore St. Bernard sayes What thing more painful then ever to will that which shall never be and ever to will that which shall not cease to be That which he desires he shall never obtain and what he desires not eternally suffer And from hence shall spring that raging fury which David speaks of The sinner shall see and he raging he shall gnash his teeth and be consumed This rage and madness shall be augmented by the despair which shall be joyned unto it For as no man sins without injury to the Divine mercy presuming to sin in hope he may repent and be pardoned So it was fit that the Divine justice should chastise the sinner with a despair of all remedy that so he who abused the Divine benefits with a false hope might feel the punishment of a true despair This torment shall be most terrible unto the damned For as the greatest evil is eased by hope so the least is made grievous by despair Hope in afflictions is supported by two things One is the fruit which may result from suffering The other is the end and conclusion of the evil suffered But in regard the despair of the damned is of so great evils the despair it self will be a most terrible one If one suffers and reaps fruit from it 't is a comfort unto him and the grief is recompenced by the joy of the benefit thereof but when the suffering is without fruit or profit then it comes to be heavy indeed The hope of a good harvest makes the labourer with chearfulness endure the toyl of plowing and sowing but if he were certain to reap no profit every pace he moved would be grievous and irksome unto him A Day-labourer with the hope of his wages goes through the toyl of the day with great comfort But if they commanded him to work for nothing he would have no heart to work at all The holy Martyrs and Confessors of Christ what penances what rigours what martyrdomes have they willingly undergone expecting the fruit they were to draw from their patience And though in temporal afflictions this hope of recompence should fail yet the hope that they would sometime cease and have an end would afford some comfort and ease unto the sufferers But in Hell both those are wanting The damned shall neither receive reward for their sufferings nor shall their torments ever have an end Of them it is that St. John speaks They shall seek death and shall not find it Apoc. 9. They shall desire to die and death shall flye from them O let a Christian consider how great a recompence attends the least of our sufferings here in Christs service and how vain and unprofitable shall all our sufferings be hereafter One penitent knock upon the breast here may gain eternal glory There the most intense pains and torments both in soul and body cannot deserve a drop of cold water nor so much ease as to turn from one side to the other In this raging despair ends the temerarious hopes of sinners Hell is full of those who hoped they should never enter into it and full of those who despair of getting out of it They offended with a presumptuous hope they should not die in sin and that proving false are fallen into eternal desperation There is no hope can excuse the falling into so great a danger Let us therefore secure Heaven and not sin The Memory shall be another cruel Tormentor of those miserable sinners converting all they have done good or bad into torments The good because they have lost their reward The bad because they have deserved their punishments The delights also which they have enjoyed and all the happiness of this life in which they have triumphed seeing that for them they fell into this misery shall be a sharp sword which shall pierce their hearts They shall burst with grief when they shall compare the shortness of their past pleasures with the eternity of their present torments What Mathematician so learned as can perfectly set out the excess of those eternal years of the other life unto those short few and evil dayes of this What groans what sighs will they pour out when they see that those delights have hardly lasted an instant and that the pains they suffer for them shall last for ages and eternities all that is past appearing but as a dream Let us tremble now at the felicity of this life if it make such wounds in the hearts of those who have used it ill Let us tremble at all our pleasures since they may turn into Arseneck and Hemlock The miserable wretch
shall with great grief remember how often he might have gained Heaven and did it not but is now tumbled into Hell and shall say unto himself How many times might I have prayed and spent that time in play but now I pay for it How many times ought I to have fasted and left it to satisfie my greedy appetite How many times might I have given alms and spent it in sin How many times might I have pardoned my enemies and chose rather to be revenged How many times might I have frequented the Sacraments and forbore them because I would not quit the occasion of sinning There never wantted means of serving God but I never made use of it and am therefore now justly paid for all Behold accursed Caitiff that entertaining thy self in pleasures thou hast for toyes and fooleries lost Heaven If thou wouldest thou mightest have been a companion for Angels if thou wouldest thou mightest have been in eternal joy and thou hast lost all for the pleasure of a moment O accursed and wretched fool thy Redeemer courted thee with Heaven and thou despisedst him for a base trifle This was thy fault and now thou sufferest for it and since thou wouldest not be happy with God thou shalt now be eternally cursed by him and his Angels The Understanding shall torment it self with discourses of great bitterness discoursing of nothing but what may grieve it Aristotle shall not there take delight in his wisdom nor Seneca comfort himself with his Philosophy Galen shall find no remedy in his Physick nor the profoundest Scholar in his Divinity A certain Doctor of Paris appeared after death unto the Bishop of that City and gave him an account that he was damned The Bishop demanded of him if he had there any knowledge He answered That he knew nothing but onely three things The first that he was eternally damned The second that the Sentence past against him was irrevocable The third that for the vain pleasure of the world he was deprived of the vision of God And then he desired to know of the Bishop if there were any people in the world remaining The Bishop asking him the reason of that question he answered that within these few last dayes there have so many souls descended into Hell that me-thinks there should not any be left upon earth In this power of the Soul is engendered tho worm of conscience which is so often proposed unto us in holy Scripture as a most terrible torment and greater than that of fire Onely in one Sermon or rather in the Epilogue of that Sermon Christ our Redeemer three times menaces us with that Worm Marc. 9. which gnaws the consciences and tears in pieces the hearts of the Damned admonishing us as often That their worm shall never die nor their sire be quenched For as the worm which breeds in dead flesh or that which breeds in wood eats and gnaws that substance of which they are engendered so the Worm which is bred from sin is in perpetual enmity with it gnawing and devouring the heart of the sinner with raging desperate and now unprofitable grief still putting him in mind that by his own fault he lost that eternal glory which he might so easily have obtained and is now fallen into eternal torments from whence there is no redemption And certainly this resentment of the loss of Heaven shall more torment him than the fire of Hell Of an evil conscience even in this life St. Austin said Aug. in Psal 45. Quint. Declam 12. Senec. ep 97. that amongst all the tribulations of the Soul none was greater than that of a guilty conscience Even the Gentils knew this and therefore Quintilian exclaims O sad remembrance and knowledge more grievous than all torments And Seneca sayes that evil actions are whipt by the conscience of themselves that perpetual vexation and resentment brings great afflictions and torments upon the Actors that wickedness drinks up the greatest part of its own poison and is a punishment unto it self Certainly it were a great rigour if a Father should be forced to be present at the execution of his Son but more if he should be compelled to be the Hangman and yet greater if the Gallows should be placed before his own door so that he could neither go in or out without beholding that affront and contumely but far greater crueltie if they should make the guilty person to execute himself and that by cutting his body in pieces member after member or tearing off his flesh with his own teeth This is the cruelty and torment of an evil Conscience with which a sinner is racked and tortured amongst those eternal flames not being able to banish his faults from his memory nor their punishment from his thoughts The envy also which they shall bear towards those who have gained Heaven by as small matters as they have lost it shall much add to their grief Those who are hungry if they see others meaner than they feed at some splendid and plentiful Table and cannot be admitted themselves become more hungry so shall it fare with the damned who shall be more afflicted by beholding others sometimes less than themselves enjoy that eternal happiness which they through want of care are deprived of Esau though a Clown having understood that his Brother Jacob had obtained his Fathers Benediction cried out and roared like a Lion and consumed himself with resentment and horror What lamentations shall those of the damned be when they shall see that the Just have gained the Benediction of God not by any deceit or cozenage used by them but that they lost it through their own neglect Those who with opinion of merit earnestly aim at some vacant Dignity if at length they see themselves neglected and with shame put off their grief and indignation swells above measure In like manner I say shall it be with those damned wretches who will be far more afflicted by the consideration of those great goods and eternal felicities which they see themselves have lost and those to enjoy them whom they deemed far inferiour to them in merit Let us now therefore have remorse of conscience whilest we may kill the Worm lest it then bite us when it cannot die CAP. XI Of Eternal Death and the Punishment of Talion in the Damned AFter all this there shall not want in Hell the pains of Death which amongst humane punishments is the greatest That of Hell is a living Death and doth as far exceed this of earth as the substance doth a shadow The Death which men give together with death takes away the pain and sense of dying but the Eternal Death of sinners is with sense and by so much greater as it hath more of life recollecting within it self the worst of dying which is to perish and the most intolerable of life which is to suffer pain And therefore St. Bernard calls the pain of the damned a living Death and a dead Life and Pope Innocent the
Third an immortal Death O Death how much less cruel art thou in taking away life than in forcing to live in so painful a manner Greg. Moral l. 9. c. 49. St. Gregory also sayes In hell there shall be unto the miserable a death without death and an end without end for their death shall ever live and their end shall ever begin Mortal sin is the greatest of all evils and consequently deserves the greatest of all punishments Because in ordinary death which takes away the use of the senses the rigour of it is not felt God ordained another kind of death in which the senses perpetually dying should perpetually feel the force of pain and should ever live in the agony of dying This David signitied when he said That death should feed on the damned for as the Flock pastures upon the grass but ends it not because it still grows green and fresh again so that death feeds upon sinners but consumes them not This death of the damned the holy Scripture calls the second death Because it succeeds the first and comprehends both that of soul and bodie And with much reason may it also be called a double death because death is then doubled when we die and feel the torment of dying which in the first death of the body we do not Even here amongst us if there should be a condition in which we might be sensible but of some part of that which death brings along with it it would be esteemed a greater evil than death it self Who doubts but if one after burial should find himself alive and sensible under the earth where he could speak with no body see nothing but darkness hear nothing but those who walked above him smell nothing but the rotten stink of their bodies cat nothing but his own flesh nor feel any thing but the earth which opprest him or the cold pavement of the Vault where he lay Who doubts not I say but that this estate were worse than to be wholly dead since life onely served to feel the pain of death For this reason the ingenious Romans when they would punish Sacriledge which is the greatest crime made use of interring the offenders alive as of the greatest punishment and therefore executed it upon their Vestal Virgins when they offended a gainst their chastity as upon Oppia and Minutia that being alive they might feel the pain and bitterness of dying And certainly Zeno the Emperour found this punishment so bitter that he devoured his own flesh by morsels What Sepulcher is more horrible than that of Hell what is eternally shut upon those who are in it whore the miserable damned remain not onely under earth but under fire having sense for nothing but to feel death darkness loathsomness pain and stink This is therefore a double death because to feel the pain of death is an evil double to that of dying Lib. 6. de Civit. ca. 12. Wherefore St. Austin said No death is greater or worse than where death dies not Besides this death of Hell may be called a double death in respect it contains both the death of sin ang the death of pain those unfortunate wretches standind condemned never to be freed from the death of sin and for ever to be tormented with the death of pain There is no greater death than that of the Soul which is sin in which the miserable are to continue whilest God is God with that infinite evil and that ugly deformity which sin draws along with it which is worse than to suffer that eternal fire which is but the punishment of it After sin what pain should there be greater than that of sin it self and for this reason in Hell in regard 't is the torment for sin it is a greater pain than death it self or the most horrible death of all Who trembles not with the onely memory that he is to die remembring that he is to cease to be that the feet whereon he walks are no more to bear him that his hands are no more to serve him nor his eyes to see Why then do we not rather tremble at the thought of Hell in respect of which the first death is no punishment but a reward a happiness and a joy there being no damned in Hell but would take that death which we here inflict for offences as an ease of his pains O how much does the Divine Justice exceed the humane since that which men give unto those whom they condemn for the greatest offences would be received by those whom God condemns as a great ease comfort and accomplishment of their desires who shall desire death and death shall flye from them for unto all their evils and miseries this as the greatest is adjoyned that neither They nor It shall shall ever die This circumstance of being eternal doth much augment the torments of Hell such being the condition of eternity as hath been already declared that it doth infinitely augment that whereunto it is annexed Let us suppose that one had but a Gnat that should sting his right hand and a Wasp at the left and that one foot should be pricked with a Thorn and the other with a Pin. If this onely were to last for ever it would be an intolerable torment What will it then be when hands feet arms head bread and entrails are to burn for all eternity The onely holding one finger in a Candle for the space of a quarter of an hour no body would be able to suffer it To be then plunged into the infernal flames for years eternal what understanding is there that is able I do not say to express in words but to frame a due conception of this torment That a torment is never to cease and that the tormented is to live for ever the onely thinking of it causes great horror What would it be to suffer it Sur. To. 7. die 14. April A certain man who had not much repentance or feeling it seems of his sins having expressed divers most heinous offences to the holy Virgin St. Lidwine the Saint replyed That she would do penance for them contenting her self that he should onely lye in his Bed one night in the same posture looking up towards Heaven without moving or turning himself all night The man very contented and joyful If my penance says he be no greater than this I shall soon have performed it But he was scarce laid down in his Bed when he had a mind to turn on one side it being a great trouble to him not to do it perswading himself that he never lay so uneasie his whole life before and said unto himself My Bed is a very good one and soft I am well in health what is wanting to me nothing else is wanting but onely to turn me from one side to the other But this what is it be quiet and sleep as thou art till morning Canst thou not then tell me what doth aile thee By this means he call'd
to mind eternity discoursing thus with himself How comes this to pass that thou canst not red one single night it being such a torture to be still without turning thy self What would it be if thou wert to remain in one posture three or four nights Certainly it would be a death unto me Truly I should never have believed one could suffer so much in a thing so easie Wo is me How little patience have I since a thing so small and trivial grieves me so much What would it have been if the had commanded me to lye watching many weeks What would it be if I had the Collick or were tormented with the Stone or Sciatica Far greater evils than these are prepared for thee in Hell whither thou posts by running into so many sins Consider what a Couch Is prepared for thee in that abyss of misery what Feather-bed what Holland Sheets Thou shalt be cast upon burning coals stames and fulphur shall be thy Coverlets Mark well whether this Bed be for one night onely Yea nights dayes moneths and years ages and eternities thou art to remain on that side thou fallest on without having the least relief to turn thy self unto the other That fire shall never die neither shalt thou ever die to the end its torments may last eternally After an hundred years and after an hundred thousand millions of years they shall be as lively and as vigorous as at the first day See what thou doest by not fearing eternal death by making no account of eternity by setting so much of thy affection on a temporal life Thou doest not walk the right way change thy life and begin to serve thy Creatour So did this man being convinced by this discourse He amended his life And let him do the like who comes to read this Let him know that if they should tell him that he were not to stir out of a Bed of roses for twenty years space he would not be able to suffer it How will he be able to lie upon a Bed of hot burning coals in flames of sulphur for all eternity § 2. Unto all those pains shall be joyned that of Talion which is To pay with proportion so much for so much which also shall not be wanting in Hell And therefore it is said in the Ayocalyps By how much she glorified her self and lived in delights Give her so much of torment There shall the delicious person be afflicted he who contemned others be despised and the proud trampled under foot it being most convenient for the Divine Justice that the damned in hell should be punished in the same manner wherein they have here offended as may appear by this example rehearsed by Henry Gran. A young Damsel Henric. Gran. d. 9. c. 200. as to outward appearance given to Prayer Fastings Watchings and Penance and for this reason esteemed by all for a Saint She fell dangerously sick and having made her confession died Within a short time after she appeared to her Confessarius in a black and fearful shape The priest not knowing her demanded Who she was I am quoth she that one that was held by all for a Saint I am none but a most miserable wretch since I am condemned to hell fire where I shall never cease to be tormented in company of the most abject and contemptible Fiends and that for the content and satisfaction I took in my self and for the pride I had esteeming my self far above others having a base and vile conceit of all For this vice I shall live in eternal torments Though God should drie up the Sea and fill up the empty places thereof with the smallest sand that can be imagined and should permit that a little Bird should but take one grain every hundred years God's wrath and Justice would not be satisfied with the torments my Soul shall suffer until such time as the said little Bird should take out every grain of the foresaid sand For were this granted I would most willingly suffer all the time required for the performance thereof all the pains and torments of all the damned Souls in Hell with this onely proviso that at last my Soul might come to obtain salvation But there is no remedy now And therefore Father do not put your self to the trouble to pray tor me being nothing can avail me In this History we have seen Pride chastised by humiliation In tills that follows we shall see Pleasures and delightful entertainments chastised with proportionable torments Cantip. l. 2. c. 49. p. 2. Joan Major v. Infernus Exemp 6. Cantipratensis writes That in the parts of Teutonia there was a Souldier very valiant and much given to Tilting and Running at the Ring And according as he lived so he died miserably His Wife who was a devout person and of exemplar life after the death of her Husband had in an Extasie manifested unto her the miserable state of her Husbands Soul It was represented unto her as if it were still united to the Body encompassed with a multitude of Devils Whereof the Principal in her hearing gave command they should furnish their new Guest with a pair of Shoes fit for his feet which piercing them might reach to his very head Then he commanded they should put him on a Coat of Male made full of sharp points which might pierce his whole body in all parts After this a third command was that they should put him on a Helmet with a sharp nail that might pierce his head and come to be clenched below his feet Finally by his command they hung a Target about his neck so heavy that it might crush all the bones in his body All this being punctually and speedily performed the Prince of darkness told his Officers This worthy person alter he had entertained himself in Tilting and the like menages of valour was accustomed to refresh his toyled limbs with sweet Baths and then to retire to some soft Bed sporting himself afterwards with other comfortable dalliances of sensuality Give him now somewhat of those refreshments which are usual here They presently hurl'd him into a fire prepared then to ease him they placed him in a Bed red hot where a Toad waited for him of an immense size with eyes most dreadful which clipped the Souldier very close kissing and embracing him in such a rueful manner that it was the most dreadful of all the torments he had suffered and brought him even to pangs of death That good woman who by Gods appointment had seen what past in her Husband had this vision so fresh in memory all the dayes of her life and with such continual oppressions of heart that none who had known her before beholding her afterwards could otherwise imagine but that she suffered some great and extraordinary affliction Many other pains and torments proportionable to the crimes committed may be seen in the works of Wermero A Gentleman of noble Parentage Wermer Mon. Carthu in fasciculo morum an English man
to last for ever in regard he had the good fortune to save his Soul Wherefore if one onely disastrous day after the enjoying of so much felicity and greatness of the world for twenty years space is sufficient to cause a contempt of all that pomp and make the same appear as smoke not onely one year of affliction not a thousand ages but eternity in torments how will it make all humane prosperity to seem nothing else but a shadow and a dream If the sad death of one though he saves his soul shews the vanity of all humane felicities The lamentable death of one who is damned to Hell and an eternity of unspeakable misery how will it make evident that all felicity and humane greatness is nothing but smoke a shadow and nothing Let us reflect a thought upon the Emperour Heliogabolus who gave so great a scope to all his sensual appetites and was most exactly industrious in making use of time to the advantage of his pleasures What account are we to make of his two years and eight moneths raign if we give credit to Aurelius and Eutropius turning our consideration to the other Scene of his miserable death For the Pretorian Souldiers having drawn him out of a Sink or Privy where he had hid himself then haling him upon the ground they threw him into an other Sink most filthy and abominable but in regard there was not room enough for his whole body they pull'd him out again and dragging him through the great place called Circus and other publick Streets of Rome at last they cast him into the Tyber having first tied great stones about him to the end he might never appear more nor obtain interrement All this was done to the great content of the people and approbation of the Senate Who should see this nice and effeminate Prince wallowing in the Sink abused by his Souldiers and drowned in the Tyber what estimate would he frame of all his greatnese But see him now in the horrid Sink of Hell abused by the Devils and plunged into that pit of fire and brimstone where he is to suffer excessive torments for all eternity what will that short time of his Empire seem being compared I do not say with three hundred thousand millions of years but with an eternity of pains which he is to suffer causing all the past glory of his Empire and splendour of his fortunes to vanish into smoke You may look upon a Wheel of Squibs or Fireworks which whilst it moves casts forth a thousand lights and splâ—â—dours with which the beholders are much taken but all at last ends in a little smoke and burnt paper So it is Whilst the Wheel of felicities was in motion according to the stile of St. James that is to say whilst our life lasts its fortune and prosperity appeared most glorious but ceasing all comes to end in smoke and he that fares best in it becomes a firebrand of Hell Rabanus said well that when a strong fever Raban in Eccl. or some great unexpected change in his estate happens to one it makes him forget all his former contents in health and wealth his sickness and adversity taking up so the whole man as that he has no leasure to employ his thoughts upon any thing else and if perhaps any passage of his former condition chance to come to his minde it gives him no satisfaction but rather augments his pain Wherefore if even temporal evils though very short are sufficient to make former felicities of many years vanish what impression will temporal goods make in us if we employ our thoughts upon eternal evils Besides this the eternity of torments in hell which is to be suffered hereafter without profit may move us to husband the short time of this life most to our advantage and with the greatest fruit How many miserable Souls now suffer those eternal pains for not employing one day in pennance nor endeavouring to make one good confession What would a damned Soul give for one quarter of an hour out of so many dayes and years which are lost and shall not have one instant allowed him Thou who now livest and hast time lose not that which imports so much and once lost can never be redeemed Peter Reginaldus writes that an holy Religious man being in prayer heard a most lamentable voice whereupon demanding Who he was and Why he lamented it was answered I am one of the damned And thou must know That I and the rest of the damned Souls lament and bewail nothing more bitterly than to have lost time in the sins we have committed O miserable creatures who for having lost a short space of time lose an eternity of felicity They come to know too late the importance of that which they have lost and shall never come to regain it Let us now make use of time whilest we may gain eternity and let us not lose that with pleasure which cannot be recovered with grief Let us now weep for our sins with profit that we way not weep for our pains without fruit Let us hear what St. Bernard sayes Bernard Serm. 16. in Cant. Who shall give water unto my head and who shall give a fountain of tears unto mine eyes that I may prevent weeping by weeping Let us now weep in time and do penance with sorrow that our tears may be dried up and our sorrow forgotten since eternal happiness is no less efficacious to make us forget the tears and grief of this life than hell the pleasures of it Wherefore Isaias saith My former cares are forgotten Isai 65. and are hid from mine eyes Upon which words St. Jerome glosses It is the effect of mirth and confession of the true God that an eternal oblivion shall succeed precedent goiefs For if former evils shall be forgotten it is not with the oblivion of memory but with the succession of so much good according to that In the good day an oblivion of evil Lastly let us draw from the consideration of hell a perfect hatred to all mortal sin since from the evil of sin proceeds that evil of pain Terrible is the evil of sin since it cannot be satisfied even with eternal flames But this requires a larger consideration which we are now come unto CAP. XIII The infinite guilt of mortal Sin by which we lose the felicity of heaven and fall into eternal evils THe horrible and stupendious malice of mortal sin is so foul and accursed that though committed in an instant it deserves the torments of hell for all eternity and an unlawful pleasure enjoyed by a sinner but for one moment deprives and disinherits him of eternal felicity Because therefore the scope of this work is to beget such disesteem of temporal goods as for them we may not lose the eternal I thought it not besides my purpose to procure as much as I could a horror and detestation of sin which is the occasion of the loss of heaven and
evil in it self in its own nature For if there were no God or that God were not offended with it yet it were a most abominable and horrid evil the greatest of all evils and the cause of all In regard of this deformity and filthiness of sin the Philosophers judged it to be abhorred above all things Aristotle said Aristotle 3. Eth. it were better to die than to do any thing against the good of vertue And Seneca and Peregrinus with more resolution said Although I were certain that men should not know it and that God would pardon it yet I would not offend for the very filthiness of sin For this Tully said That nothing could happen unto man more horrible than a fault And even those Philosophers who denied the immortality of the Soul and the providence of God affirmed that nothing should make us to commit it And there hath not wanted some Gentils who have suffered great extremities to avoid a vicious act Plut. in Demetrio Democles as Plutarch writes chose rather to be boiled in scalding water than to consent to a filthy act With reason Hippo is celebrated amongst the Greek Matrons who chose rather to die than offend Neither was that horror less which Verturius conceived against uncleanness who suffered prison whips and rigorous torments rather than he would sin against chastity Equal to this was that of the most beautiful youth Espurina of whom Valerius Maximus and St. Ambrose write Ambl. l. 3. de Virg. That he slashed and wounded his fair face that it should not give occasion to others of offence even by desire All those were Gentils who knew not Christ crucified for man nor saw hell open for the punishment of sinners nor fled from sin because it was an offence unto God but only for the enormity and filthiness it had in it self This made them endure prisons and tortures rather than admit it What then should Christians do who know their Redeemer died to the end they should not sin and how much sin is offensive to God Certainly they ought rather to give a thousand lives and souls than once to injure their Creator by committing an offence which not onely Gentils but even Nature hath in horror which hath planted in brute beasts although they cannot sin yet a natural aversion from that which looks like sin John Marquess of Gratis desired much to have a Foal from a generous Mare which he had by her own Son but could never effect it neither would she ever admit him until deceived by cloathing him in such sort as she knew him not But when he was uncloathed and she discovered the deceit she fell into that sorrow and sadness that after she would never feed but pined her self to death The like is reported by Jovianus Pontanus of a delicate Bitch of his which he could never although he caused her to be held make to couple with her Son So foul and horrible is but the shadow and image of sin even unto brute beasts Why should not men then who are capable of reason and have an obligation unto Gods commandments say and think with St. Anselm Lib. de simil c. 19. If I should see on this part the filthiness of sin and on the other the terrour of hell and it were necessary for me to fall into one of them I would rather cast my self into hell than admit of sin For I had rather enter pure into Hell than to enjoy the Kingdom of Heaven contaminated with sin Whosoever than he be who is infected with that horrible evil of a mortal sin he cannot choose but be most miserable and wretched For as St. Chrysostome sayes Chrysost Tom. 5. Ser. 5. de ie The greatest evil is to be evil And although the Chirurgion do not cut the cankered flesh yet the ulcerated Patient will not be freed from his infirmity So although God should not punish a Sinner yet he would not be free from the evil death misery and abomination of sin And therefore St. Austin sayes Aug. To. 8. in Ps 49. Although we could cause that the day of Judgement should not come yet we ought not to live ill This monstrous deformity of sin our Lord was pleased to express by a visible Monster and that after a most strange manner as is related by Villaveus He writes Villaveus lib. 8. c. 35. that in the year 1298. Cassanus King of the Tartars with an Army of 200000 horse entring Syria made himself Master of it and brought a great terror upon all those neighbouring Countries in so much as the King of Armenia delivered him his Daughter although she were a Christian and he an Infidel to be his Wife Not long after the Queen proved with child and when her time came was delivered not of a Child but of a most horrible and deformed Monster Whereat the barbarous King being astonisht and incensed by the advise of his Council commanded that she should be put to death as an Adulteress The poor Lady grieving to die with the imputation of a sin whereof she was innocent commended her self to our Saviour and by divine inspiration desired that before her death the Thing which she had brought forth might be baptized which was granted and no sooner performed but that Monster became a most beautiful and goodly Boy and the King amazed at the miracle with many other of his Subjects became Christian acknowledging by what had happened the beauty of Grace and the deformity of Sin although that deformity proceeded not from any actual sin either mortal or venial from which the Child was free but onely from Original guilt which without the fault of his proper will descended unto him from his Parents The deformity of sin comes from the contrariety of it to reason which renders a Sinner more foul and ugly than the most horrid Monster and more dead in soul than a putrid and dead Carcase Pliny admires the force of lightning which melts the gold and silver and leaves the Purse which contained it untoucht Such is sin which kills the Soul and leaves the Body sound and entire It is a flash of lightning sent from Hell and worse than Hell it self and such leaves the Soul which it hath blasted What shall I then say of the evils which it causes I will onely say this that though it were the best thing of the world yet for the evil effects which it produces it ought to be avoided more then death It bereaves the soul of grace banishes the holy Ghost deprives it of the right of heaven despoiles man of all his merits makes him unworthy of divine protection and condemns a sinner unto eternal torments in the other world and in this to many disasters for there is neither plague warre famine nor infirmity of body whereof sin hath not been in some sort the occasion and therefore those who weep for their afflictions let them change the object of their tears and weep for the
the bowels for all eternity all that our imagination can frame reaches not so immense an evil If we cannot therefore finde the depth of the malice of sin by way of Affimation let us try what may be done by the other way of Negation But this will also fail us For the evil of plagues famine and death are not it A mortal sin is more then these The evils of poverty dishonour and torments are not it It is more then these The torments of hell are not it It is above hell and all the pains of it Think with thy self that all the atoms which are to be found in the air all the sands in the sea all the leaves on the trees all the grass in the fields all the starrs in the heavens think I say that they are foul and ugly bodies all most deformed Monsters and frame to thy self a Monster and ugly Creature which should be made of all these will this equalize the foulness of a mortal sin It is not this ugly Monster nor this foul deformed Creature but it is a foulness and ugliness that doth far surpass all these and all horrid shapes and figures imaginable And let not this seem strange unto thee For not onely the evil of a Mortal sin but even that of a Venial is greater than all the evils of Hell or the evils within or without it all tht monstrousuess all the deformity of all things that are or can be contracted into one do not equal it Sin is more than all And therefore as St. Dionysius said of God That he was above what was good or what was fair because his goodness and beauty were of a superiour kind So it may be said of sin It is neither deformity abomination horror or malice but is something more than all these Let a sinner therefore know himself and that he is by sin above all that is ugly foul or monstrous For as he that hath whiteness is as white as that which makes him so so he that is in sin is as horrible and ill as sin it self Let him then reflect whether he is to sink charged with such a guilt and how much he ought to abhorr and loath himself Certainly if he should sink into Hell he would there finde no torment worse then himself If he should return into the Abyss of nothing he would be there better then in that Abyss of malice which is in sin Let him then reflect whether so unworthy and vile a wretch ought to have the same use of the creatures as if he were in the state of innocency and without this blemish of sin Let him consider if a person so infamous so abhominable as himself ought to use the things of this world for his delight honour pomp and ostentation The Emperour Marcus Aurelius Lord of the world and possessor of the greatest honours it could give him though a Gentil yet thought himself so worthy of contempt that he writes in this manner Treat thy self O soul with ignominy Anton. lib. 2. and despise thy self For thou hast no title to honour It is a prodigious thing that he who hath committed a mortal sin should desire honour and respect That he should complain of the troubles of this life and desire to be cherished and made much of That he who is the shame and infamy of the world should gape after glory That he who is a Traytor to his God should wish to be honoured and respected He who hath deserved hell for an eternitie why should he grumble at a short sickness or the necessities of this life which if he make the right use of may serve as a means of his salvation Let him therefore who hath sinned know that he is not to make the same use of the creatures as if he were innocent he is not to aim at other honour then that of God he is not to seek after ease and the Commodities of life but the securitie of his salvation not to thirst after the pleasures of the world but to perform strict penances for his sins past O if one knew himself perfectly with what different eyes would he behold the things of the world he would look upon them as things not appertaining to him at all and if he did not despise them at least he would make no account of them The Son of God onely because he took upon him the form of a sinner would not use the goods of this life but rather imbraced all that was troublesome painful and bitter in it why should he then who is really and in substance a sinner seek honours and delights Let him know the means of his salvation since Christ himself hath taught them to wit Penance Mortification and the Cross If Christ because he bore the sins of others used not temporal goods and the Commodities of life why should man who is loaden with his own sins complain he wants the pleasures and conveniences of it Why should he gape after the goods of the earth who is infected with a greater evil then that of hell The admirable man blessed Francis Borgia the great despiser of himself and the world out of this consideration was most content in the tribulations and want of all things temporal and the least comfort in his greatest necessities seemed too much for him All men wondered to see him so poor and the incommodities he suffered in his travail when he visited the Colledges of the Society in Spain Amongst the rest a certain Gentleman amazed at his great pains and sufferance said unto him Father how is it possible that having been so great a Lord you can endure the troubles and inconveniences of the wayes To whom the servant of God answered Sir do not pity me for I alwayes send before me a Harbinger who provides plentifully for all things necessary This Harbinger was the Knowledge of himself which in his greatest necessities made what he had appear too plentiful § 3. Besides this he who hath sinned ought to Consider that he hath need of Gods holy hand to draw him out of that misery or if he be already by repentance freed to preserve him from falling again into it That the means to obtain this is not the pride of the world the riches of the earth or the pleasures of the flesh but fasting sackcloth humiliation and penance Let him remember that of himself he is nothing and to that nothing hath added sin that being nothing he can do nothing that is good and that by sin he hath disobliged him who only could assist him in doing good Man is of himself nothing but a Lye and Sin two horrid and profound Abysses Let him imitate David who said I cried unto thee O Lord from the deeps what other deeps then those two of Nothing and of Sin which have no bottom Let him then who hath once offended his Creator know himself and where he remains Let him pray sigh and crie from his nothing and from the depth of his
it prepares for us are eternal whose greatness though it were not otherwise to be known might in this sufficiently appear that to free us from so many evils and crown us with so many goods it was necessary that he who was eternal should make himself temporal and should execute this great and stupendious work so much to his own loss CAP. IV. The baseness of Temporal goods may likewise appear by the Passion and Death of Christ Jesus THe greatness of eternal goods and evils is by the Incarnation of the Son of God made more apparent unto us then the Sun beams since for the freeing us from the one and gaining for us the other it was necessary so great a work should be performed and that God judged not his whole omnipotency ill imployed that man might gain eternity Yet doth not this great work so forcibly demonstrate unto us the baseness of things temporal and the contempt which is due unto them as the Passion and Death of the Son of God which was another work of his love an other excess of his affection another tenderness of our Creator and a most high expression of his good will towards us wherein we shall see how worthy to be despised are all the goods of the Earth since to the end we might contemn them the Son of God would not onely deprive himself of them but to the contrary embraced all the evils and incommodities this life was capable of Behold then how the Saviour of the world disesteemed temporal things since he calls the best of them and those which men most covet but thorns and to the contrary that which the world most hates and abhorrs he qualifies with the name of blessings favouring so much the Poor who want all things that he calls them blessed and sayes Of them is the Kingdom of heaven And of the Rich who enjoy the goods of the earth he sayes It is harder for them to enter into heaven then for a Camel to pass the eye of a needle And to perswade us yet more he not onely in words but in actions chose the afflictions and despised the prosperity of this life and to that end would suffer in all things as much as could be suffered In honour by being reputed infamous In riches by being despoyled of all even to his proper garments In his pleasures by being a spectacle of sorrow and afflicted in each particular part of his most sacred body This we ought to consider seriously that we may imitate him in that contempt of all things temporal which he principally exprest in his bitter death and passion This he would have us still to keep in memory as conducing much to our spiritual profit as an example which he left us and as a testimony of the love he bore us leaving his life for us and dying for us a publick death full of so many deaths and torments Zcnophon in Cyro lib. 3. Tigranes King of Armenia together with his Queen being prisoners unto Cyrus and one day admited to dine with him Cyrus demanded of Tigranes What he would give for the liberty of his wife to whom Tigranes answered That he would not onely give his Kingdom but his life and blood The woman not long after requited this expression of her husband For being both restored to their former condition One demanded of the Queene What she thought of the Majesty and Greatness of Cyrus to whom she answered Certainly I thought not on him nor fixt mine eyes on any but him who valued me so much as he doubted not to give his life for my ransom If this Lady were so grateful onely for the expression of her husbands affections that she looked upon nothing but him and neither admired nor desired the greatness of the Persians What ought the Spouse of Christ to do who not onely sees the love and affection of the King of Heaven but his deeds not his willingness to die but his actual dying a most horrid and cruel death for her ransom and redemption Certainly she ought not to place her eyes or thoughts upon any thing but Christ crucified for her Sabinus also extolls the loyalty and love of Vlysses to his Wife Penelope in regard that Circe and Calypso promising him immortality upon condition that he should forget Penelope and remain with them he utterly refused it not to be wanting to the love and affection he owed unto his Spouse who did also repay it him with great love and affection Let a Soul consider what great love and duty it owes to its Spouse Christ Jesus who being immortal did not onely become mortal but died also a most ignominious death Let us consider whether it be reasonable it should forget such an excessive love and whether it be fit it should ever be not remembring the same and not thankful for all eternity hazarding to lose the fruits of the passion of its Redeemer and Spouse Christ Jesus Upon this let thy Soul meditate day and night and the spiritual benefits which she will reap from thence will be innumerable Albertus Magnus used to say Lud. de Ponte P. 4. in introduc That the Soul profited more by one holy thought of the Passion of Christ than by reciting every day the whole Psalter by fasting all the year in bread and water or chastizing the Body even to the effusion of blood One day amongst others when Christ appeared unto St. Gertrude to confirm her in that devotion she had to his Passion he said unto her behold Daughter if in a few hours which I hung upon the Cross I so enobled it that the whole world hath ever since had it in reverence how shall I exalt that Soul in whose heart and memory I have continued many years Certainly it cannot be exprest what favour devout Souls obtain from Heaven in thinking often upon God and those pains by which he gained tor us eternal blessings and taught us to despise things temporal and transitory But that we may yet reap more profit by the holy remembrance of our Saviours passion we are to consider that Christ took upon him all our sins and being to satisfy the Father for them would do it by the way of suffering for which it was convenient that there should be a proportion betwixt the greatness of his pains and the greatness of our sins And certainly as our sins were without bound or limit so the pains of his torments were above all comparison shewing us by the greatness of those injuries he received in his passion the greatness of those injuries we did unto God by our inordinate pleasures We may also gather by the greatness of those pains and torments which were inflicted upon him by the Jews and Hangmen the greatness of those which he inflicted upon himself for certainly those pains which he took upon himself were not inferior to those he received from others But who can explicate the pains which our Saviour wounded by the grief he conceived at
bis life shall lose it and he who hates it in this world shall gain it for ever Hence it comes that we are now no more to look upon our selves as upon a thing of our own but onely Gods depending both in our spiritual and corporal being from that infinite Ocean of being and perfection Hence the Soul finding it self now free and unfetter'd flyes unto God with all its forces and affections not finding any thing to love and please it but in him in whom the beauty and perfections of all creatures are contained with infinite advantages When one hath once arrived unto this estate how dissonant and various soever his works be the end which he pretends is still the same and he ever obtains what he pretends if shutting his eyes to all creatures as if they were not he looks at nothing but God and how to please his Divine goodness and that onely for it self It may be that looking at the particular ends of each work our actions may be in several conditions sometimes they are in beginning sometimes in the middest sometimes in the end and oftentimes by impediments and cross accidents which happen they acquire not what they aim at but look upon the intention of him who works and they are still in their end For in what condition soever the work be he who does it with this intention onely to please God is ever in his end which no bad success or contradiction can hinder According to this which hath been said it is a great matter by Divine light to have arrived at this knowledge That all goods and gifts descend from above and that there is an infinite power goodness wisdom mercy and beauty from whence these properties which are here below participated by the creatures with such limitation are derived It is a great matter to have discovered the Sun by his rayes and guiding our selves by the stream to have arrived at the Fountains head or to have found the Centre where the multiplicity of created perfections meet and unite in one There our love shall rest as having nothing further to seek And this is to love God with all the heart all the soul all the mindâ— and all the powers And as those who arrive at this happy state have no other care no other thought than to doe the will of God here upon earth with the same perfection it is done in heaven So they have no other desires than by leaving earth to enter heaven there by sulfilling wholly the Divine will to supply what was defective upon earth Nothing detains them here but the will of God they have nothing begun which is not ended they are ever prepared all their business is dispatched like those servants who are alwayes expecting their Lord and still ready to open the door when he shall call Let us then prepare our selves by withdrawing our love from all which is temporal and created and placing it upon our Creator who is eternal let us love him not with a delicate and an effeminate love but with a strong and manly affection such a one as will support any weight overcome any difficulty and despise any interest rather than be separated from our beloved break his Laws or offend him though never so lightly Let this Love be strong as death that it may look death in the face and not flye from it which when it suffers it conquers Let thy fire be so enkindled that if whole rivers of tribulations fall upon it they may be but like drops of water falling upon a forge which the flame drinks up and consumes and is not quenched but quickned by them Be above thy self and above all that is below And if the world offer thee all it is Mistress of to despoil thee of this love tread it under thy feet and despise it as nothing To this love it belongs To accommodate ones self to poverty Not to repine at hunger nakedness cold or heat who as companions goe along with it To suffer injuries meekly To bear sickness and infirmities patiently Not to be dismayed in persecutions To endure temptations with longanimity To bear the burthens of our neighbours chearfully Not to be tired with their thwart conditions Not to be angry at their neglects nor overcome by their ingratitude In spiritual drynesses not to leave our ordinary devotions and in consolations and spiritual gusts not to forbear our obligations Finally that we may say with St. Paul Rom. 8. Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ tribulation or distress or famine or nakedness or danger or persecution or the sword I am sure that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers neither things present nor things to come neither might nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. FINIS