be I am ready for love of him to suffer hunger thirst cold nakednesse povertie and such like I am willing for his sake to be bound burnt and cut in pieces These sufferings are but short they cannot continue long But the joyes or torments of Eternitie are long indeed for they shall never have end Therefore farewell all the world and the things that are in it I care not for you I regard you not Farewell I say But welcome Eternitie whensoever thou comest Thou art the onely thing that I seek after my soul longeth after thee there is nothing that I desire in comparison of thee With the heat of such cogitations his soul was so set on fire that it was inflamed with the love of Eternitie which the blessed shall enjoy in heaven Therefore he resolved to take leave of his parents to forsake his riches and bid adieu to his delights for ever He did not resolve hastily but continued in his resolution constantly He was not soon hot and soon cold He was not altered all on the sudden He did not passe from one extreme to another He did not strive for the highest pitch at the first but rose up by degrees and became one of Pachomius his Scholars You have heard the Prologue But there follows no Tragedie after it For contrarie to the law of a Tragedie we have a sorrowfull beginning but a joyfull ending He came forth with a Lachrymae but went off with a Plaudite At his Intrat there was weeping for grief but at his Exit there was clapping of hands for joy Thus you have heard the life and death of Theodorus whose soul fed as it were upon thoughts of Eternitie and was delighted therewith as with marrow and fatnesse He was not of the worlds minde which counteth Eternitie but a fable but refused not himself to become a fable and a by-word in the world being perswaded fully of a blessed Eternitie and earnestly desiring and thirsting to have a part in it Christian brethren shall I speak a free word but a true or not I but Theodorus Most men live so as if there were no such thing as Eternitie as if it were but a meer fable and feigned thing But what do I tell you of Theodorus Will you heare what Saint Peter saith The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the heavens shall passe away with a great noise and the elements shall râ—elâ— with servent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of men ought we to be in all holy conversation and godlinesse But where are these men now adayes by whose holy conversation and godlinesse a man may judge that they beleeve Saint Peter that the day of the Lord is coming and that Eternitie shall follow after But if you will not beleeve Saint Peter heare what truth it self saith Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat Certainly men would not go in at the broad gate of destruction if they did think they should come out no more if they did once dream of Eternitie But as I said before most men make Eternitie but a feigned thing a wittie invention to keep men in aw and a good honest fable And yet how many are apt to say We beleeve that there is a blessed Eternitie after this life we hope to have part in it we have a desire and longing after it But alas How little is their faith how vain is their hope How cold is their desire Present pleasures money in the hand the allurements of the flesh steal away the hearts of many and by little and little make the desire and love of Eternitie grow quite cold in them as if they had drowned and buried it in the grave of oblivion We heare it often read and preached Thus saith the Lord This is the commandment of the Lord And as often as we heare it we still neglect it Say the Lord what he will command what he will our old way pleaseth us best We will walk after our own devices and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart Therefore thus saith the Lord Ask ye now amongst the heathen who hath heard such horrible things Had the people which knew no God but known these secrets of Eternitie certainly they never would have contemned and neglected them Go to now O ye sonnes of men Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hands and no man regarded I will also laugh at your calamitie I will mock when your fear cometh when your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwinde when distresse and anguish cometh upon you when Eternitie shall suddenly overtake you If Death seize upon you in this miserable state and condition there is then no hope of mercy The gate is presently shut there is no opening of it The sentence of condemnation is past there is no repealing of it Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Watch therefore good Christians watch I say The Judge stands at the gate That may happen in a minute that you may be sory for for all Eternitie Antonie the great in a certain Sermon which he made to his people spake thus unto them Dearly beloved brethren in matters of this life we have a care to make good bargains we will be sure to have a penyworth for a peny I lay out for instance so much money and I have the worth of it in wares I give so many crowns and I have so many bushells of wheat So many pounds and I have so many quarters of Malt. But we are not so wise in heavenly matters we will not give things Temporall in exchange for things Eternall Eternall life is a thing not worth looking after we much undervalue it we will scarce give any thing for it we will not take any pains or labour to obtain it And yet what is our labour suppose the greatest we can undergo If it be compared unto life Eternall the reward of it it will not amount to so much as one halfpeny in respect and reference to a Million of Gold For what saith the Psalmist The daves of our life are threescore yeares and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourescore yeares yet is their strength labour and sorrow But suppose a man should live an hundred yeares to speak with the most and all that while serve God zealously and faithfully were it not time well spent to gain Eternitie were not the labour well bestowed to purchase a kingdome I do not mean a kingdome to continue for an hundred yeares onely but throughout all ages not an earthly kingdome but the kingdome of heaven Therefore Christian brethren be not puffed up with vain
full of horrour round about which a Serpent windes it self and in the winding bites it self by the tail At the right hand of the den stands a Young man of a beautifull and pleasant countenance holding in his right hand a Bow and two arrows and in his left hand an Harp In the very entrance of the den sits an Old man opposite and having his eyes very intent upon his Table-book according as the celestiall globe by its motion or the young man standing by dictates unto him so he writes At the left hand of the den sits a grave matron gray-headed and having her eyes alwayes busied At the mouth of the den there are foure stairs each higher then other The first is of Iron the second of Brasse the third of Silver the fourth of Gold On these are little children running up and down and playing and never fear the danger of falling This is the Picture The meaning is this The Den signifies the incomprehensibility of Eternitie The Serpent that twines it self about it Time The Young man God in whose hand is Heaven Earth and Hell On Earth and in Hell are the Arrows of the Lord fastened but in Heaven there is nothing but Joy and the sounding of the Harp The Old man is Fate or rather That which God hath decreed from all Eternitie The Matron Nature The Stairs distinct Times Ages The Children running up and down the stairs do signifie things created especially Man who is sporting in matters of Salvation and playing and jesting in the very entrance of Eternitie Alack Alack O mortal men we have played too long amidst these dangers we are very neare unto Eternitie even in the very entrance of it whilest we live Let but death lightly touch us and we are presently swallowed up of Eternitie Death need not use any great power or fight long against us we are thrown down headlong in a moment and tumble down these stairs into the Ocean of Eternitie Bethink your selves well you that play upon these stairs and think upon any thing rather then upon Eternitie It may be to day or to morrow you may be translated from Time to Eternitie CHAP. II. The secret sense and meaning of Scripture is unfolded AFter the Chapter of the Type and Picture of Eternitie the holy Scripture of divine truth shall not unfitly follow When Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon had cast the three Hebrew children into the fiery furnace for refusing to obey his impious command the flame is said to have ascended nine and fourty cubits above the furnace A strange thing But not without a Mysterie What Did any man accurately measure the height thereof Did any man ascend and apply unto it a rule to take the just measure of it was it just nine and fourty cubits neither more nor lesse Why not fifty For we use to number thus Twenty thirty fourty fifty though the number be somewhat more or lesse Here in this place there wants but one of fifty Surely there is a Mystery in it and some secret meaning The number of fifty was wont to signifie the yeare of Jubilee But the flames in the fiery furnace of hell although they rage both against body and soul and infinitely exceed all the torments of this life yet they shall never extend so farre as the yeare of grace and Jubilee In hell there is no yeare of Jubilee no pardon no end of torments Now now is the time of Jubilee not every hundred or fifty yeares but every houre and every moment Now one part of an houre may obtain pardon here which all Eternitie cannot hereafter Now is the time that in one little and short day we may have more debts forgiven us then in the fire of Hell in all yeares and times to come hereafter Let us adde hither another explication of divine Scripture When the people of God did passe over Jordan the waters which came down toward the sea of the plain which is now called the dead sea failed untill there was none left And in Ecclesiasticus it is said There is that buyeth much for a little These two testimonies of Scripture Galfrid joyneth together and thereupon discourseth thus If Eternall bitternesse be due unto thee and thou mayst escape it by tasting of Temporall certainly thou hast redeemed much for a little I confesse It is a sea indeed in which thou saylest but yet a dead sea And how much art thou bound to give thanks unto God who whereas thou hast deserved to be overwhelmed in the salt roaring and unnavigable sea hath of his great mercy towards thee suffered thee rather to sayl in the dead sea O blessed change that so by the dead sea thou mayst passe unto the land of the living This writer compares all the adversities of this life to the dead sea and Eternall punishments to the salt and unnavigable sea No man can escape both He must needs sayl in the one or in the other What dost thou O man cryes out S. Chrysostome Art thou about to ascend up to heaven and dost thou ask me whether there be any difficulties by the way Whatsoever we do this dead sea we must passe over we may if we will arrive at the haven of Tranquillitie and Eternall happinesse The word of God most high is the fountain of wisdome and her wayes are everlasting cōmandments Through this dead sea there is no other way into the region of the living but the way of Gods commandments We have a most cleare place of Scripture for it If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments This is the onely way to Eternitie If a man shall ask a Divine of our time this question What is Eternitie His answer will be It is a Circle running back into it self whose Centre is Alwayes and Circumference No where that is which never shall have end What is Eternitie It is an Orb every way round and like it self in which there is neither beginning nor end What is Eternitie It is a wheel A wheel that turns a wheel that turned ever A wheel that turns and will leave turning never What is Eternitie It is a yeare continually wheeling about which returns again to the same point from whence it began and still wheels about again What is Eternitie It is an ever-running fountain whither the waters after many turnings flow back again that they may alwayes flow What is Eternitie It is an ever-living spring from whence waters continually flow either the most sweet waters of Benediction and blessing or the most bitter waters of Malediction and cursing What is Eternitie It is a Labyrinth which hath innumerable turnings and windings which alwayes leads them a round that enter in carrying them from turning to turning and so losing them What is Eternitie It is a pit without bottome whose turnings and revolutions are endlesse What is Eternitie It is a Spirall Line but without beginning which hath circles and windings one within another but
life was not long which is so soon fled away For what is any mans life Adde as many yeares as thou wilt imagine the longest old age What is it Is it not as a morning blast All this is most true I pray you tell me where is Adam now where is Cain where is long-liv'd Methuselah where is Noah where is Sem where is Eber where is most obedient Abraham where is Jacob where is Joseph They are dead and gone their time is past we may say of them Vixerunt fuerunt Troes Once they were now they are not Thus our life passeth away thus the glory of the world passeth away O morning dew O meere vanitie What is it that we so desire here what so long as to be hoped or wished for here short it is a Modicum it is it is vile and nothing worth it is but a small point whatsoever thine eye beholdeth here It is a true saying of Gregorie the great The longest measure of our life is but a point or it is a short line that begins continues and ends in a point In a moment in the twinkling of an eye all things shall have an end I have seen an end of all perfection but thy commandment is exceeding broad so saith the Psalmist Why then do we account any time long For that which is past now is not that which is to come yet is not and what is the present The glasse is alwayes running and the clock never stands still The houre passeth away by flying minutes What is flown by is past and gone what is yet behinde is still to come But where is the time which we use to call long Bernard makes often mention of that most true and excellent saying of S. Hierom and Reader it is worth observing No labour ought to seem long unto us no time long in which we are seeking after Eternall glory And yet though the life of man be but very short in comparison of Eternitie there is none of the damned that can justly accuse God for not granting him a longer life They must condemne themselves for not living better There is no inquisition in the grave saith Solomon whether thou hast lived ten or an hundred or a thousand yeares In hell it is no time to complain of shortnes of life Every mâ—n hath lived long enough if he hath lived godly enough Here Christian brother I will deal more boldly and plainly with thee and lay the matter so open that thou shalt see it clearely presented before thine eyes Thou sayest that thou dost often think upon heaven and that thou hast an earnest and longing desire after Eternitie Sayest thou so I heare thee but I do not beleeve thee neither would I have thee beleeve me if I should say so of my self For how can it be O good Christian brother how can it be that thou or I should think so often and so seriously upon heaven and have such a longing desire as we say we have after Eternitie and yet be so lukewarm yea stone-cold in matters of religion so slow and backward to that which is good so prone and forward to that which is evil so ready and willing to all manner of wantonnesse so querulous and complaining so slothfull and negligent Where we should be angry there are we too patient and where we should be patient and couragious there are we too faint-hearted and pusillanimous In the fire of every light affliction our patience melts and consumes away nay we are often cast down with a word we are blown down with the breath of a mans mouth But never are we more impatient and desperate then when our wills are crossed I might speak here of the hot Apostems of lust wherewith our hearts are often inflamed and swoln and likewise of the devouring Cancer of Envie which often eats into our breasts and makes our flesh consume away But I passe them by Notwithstanding what hath been said we good and godly men as we professe our selves and would have other think us to be too timourous where we should be bold and too bold where we should be timourous glory in nothing more then in this That we have often in our mindes and hearty desires the joyes of Eternitie Beleeve it it is not credible that the thoughts of heaven and Eternitie should be so often in our mindes as we speak of and yet mean while that we should live no better then we do Did I say It is not credible Nay I say it is impossible And thus I shall declare it The Patriarch Jacob served his uncle Laban for his daughter Rachel seven yeares And they seemed to him but a few dayes for the love that he had to her Hearest thou this whosoever thou art that so complainest Thou servest no impostour or deceiver as Laban was but God thy maker and him that will surely keep his covenant and promise Thou servest not for a wife but for the kingdome of heaven not for the beauty and sight of a wife but for the beatificall vision and Eternall sight of God not for the delight and pleasure of a wife but for celestiall and Eternall delights and pleasures And yet doth the trouble of one winters day oftentimes so cast thee down that suddenly all thy love towards God and thy desire after heaven begins to wax cold in thee Assoon as the storm of adversitie begins thou breakest forth into most bitter complaints thou callest heaven and earth to witnesse thou breathest nothing but revenge yea oftentimes I beleeve thou sparest not God himself but callest his justice into question At other times when pleasure with her fawning allurements hath once enticed thee she doth so bewitch thee and take away thy memorie that thou quite forgettest to serve God and so runnest headlong into the Labyrinth of sinne which hath a fair entrance at least seemingly but leadeth thee the next way to destruction Is this the vigilancy which thou so much talkest of Is this thy heroicall fortitude and love of God How wilt thou serve God seven yeares as Jacob did Laban when alas thou canst not endure the labour and sorrow of one short day O Simon Simon sleepest thou Couldest thou not watch one houre with thy Lord and Master But heare further concerning the Patriarch Jacob. He being beguiled by his uncle Laban who gave him blear-eyed Leah in stead of beautifull Rachel served him yet seven yeares more for his daughter Rachel whom he dearly loved And no doubt but those seven yeares also seemed unto him but as a few dayes for the exceeding great love that he had unto her And it is very likely that oftentimes when he was weary at his work he had an eye unto Rachels beauty and said thus with himself Surely for her beauty she is worthy for whom I should suffer seven yeares hard service and if need were I would not stick to serve yet seven yeares more Such was the affection that he
bore unto Rachel that it made him scarce sensible of any labour Hearest thou this thou which goest for a Souldier of Christ conceivest thou this understandest thou this How then canst thou still murmure against God Thou art bid to serve God for Gods sake that so thou mayest at length enter into Gods Eternall rest Thou art exhorted to tolerance and patience here that so thou mayest be made partaker of immortalitie with the blessed hereafter And yet sleepest thou O sluggard Hast thou not an eare to heare Art thou still complaining Do but reckon up the yeares which thou hast spent in the service of God and see whether thou hast served God faithfully and painfully twenty yeares as Jacob did Laban I am afraid thou wilt come short in thy reckoning Hast thou served God so many moneths I tell thee I make a question of it Number the nights that thou hast spent in watching and praying recount the dayes which thou hast spent in holy exercises and see if thou canst truely say unto God as Jacob did to Laban In the day the drought consumed me and the frost by night and my sleep departed from mine eyes Thus have I been twenty yeares in thy house I served thee fourteen yeares for thy two daughters and six yeares for thy cattell Tell me Christian man hast thou served God thus twenty yeares Thou knowest thy wages if thou servest God Not Labans daughters nor flocks of sheep God himself shall be the reward of thy service Thou shalt be blessed both in soul and body It shall be well with thee on every side Thou shalt enjoy all manner of delights great delights without either lacking or loathing and without end Thou shalt swimme in the bottomlesse Ocean of pleasures And yet behold thy hands are slack to every good work Thy feet are slow to go to Church Thy heart consumes away with envy flames with anger and revenge abounds with the vermine of filthy thoughts and is quite dead through slothfulnesse and impatience Is this thy serving of God Is this the way thinkest thou to heaven to immortall life to Eternall blessednesse Surely it is not Why dost thou not rather as Jacob did when thou art weary with any labour which thou undergoest in the service of God when the world goes ill with thee when adversitie presseth thee prosperitie seduceth thee and labours burden thee lift up thine eyes to heaven behold Rachel who is promised unto thee and thus comfort up thy self Be not troubled O my soul Behold thy Rachel thy Rachel which is in heaven fair Rachel comely Rachel Rachel that is all beautifull not having any one blemish about her Behold heaven and the house of thy Eternall rest and pleasure Be content to suffer for a while a little sorrow and some pains For thou shalt shortly be where thy Rachel is and there thou shalt be the more joyfull and blessed by how much the more thou art here sorrowfull and afflicted There shall thy rest be the more pleasant and joyfull by how much the more thy life here is heavy and painfull Well then be of good courage shew Christian fortitude and patience Eternitie blessed Eternitie is more worth infinitely more worth then all that we can do or suffer If thus O Christian brother thou wouldest animate and encourage thy self if with such eyes thou wouldest oftner look up to heaven if with such affection thou wouldest dayly think upon Eternitie Beleeve it All thy dayes of service here on earth would seem but few for the great love which thou wouldest have unto Eternitie Thou wouldest count all labour easie all troubles welcome all losses gain This I will say and therewith I will conclude The more a man thinks upon the Eternitie of the world to come the more care he will take here to leade a godly life in this present world Thus saith the high and loftie one that inhabiteth ETERNITIE Adam lost ETERNITIE Christ regained it to this the Angels invite us from this the devils with draw us have a care whether thou followest THE SEVENTH CONSIDERATION upon ETERNITIE How Christians use to paint Eternitie HE that is to go through an house in the dark must go warily and leisurely step after step and he must grope for the wall If mans understanding will be prying into Eternitie if he thinks here in this life to enter into it he is much deceived The way is dark and full of difficulties He may hurt himself by the way but he shall never here attain unto it The way thither is but short indeed but when a man is once in there is no coming out again And yet though no mortall man can so conceive of Eternitie that he can certainly say what it is notwithstanding the infinitenesse thereof is shadowed out by certain pictures resemblances in such manner that every man may have a glimpse of it Whatsoever we speak or write concerning Eternitie howsoever we set it out in colours All is but a shadow yea a shadow of shadows No Oratour in the world can with all his Rhetorick sufficiently expresse it No Limner with all his curious art and skill can set it forth to the life If all times that ever were and ever shall be should be put together they would infinitely come short of Eternitie the Latitude thereof is not to be measured neither by houres nor dayes nor weeks nor moneths nor yeares nor Lustra's nor Olympiads nor Indictions nor Jubilees nor ages nor Plato's yeares nor by the most slow motions of the Eighth sphere though these were multiplied by a thousand or a million or the greatest multiplier or Number numbering that can be imagined Neither can it be measured by any Number numbered as by the starres of heaven the sands of the sea the grasse of the field the drops of the rivers and such like The number of Eternitie is past finding out The Saylers use to sound the depth of the sea by a plummet and a line Let us also let down the plummet and line of our humble and reverent cogitations to sound the depth of Eternitie which yet is past finding out But if we will go by this Map if we will sayl by this chard if we will view well this Picture we shall come much nearer finding it then otherwise we should Chrisâ—i as a childe taken as it were from the manger and the cradle almost quite naked and without clothes stands in the clouds on â—is shoulders he beares a crosse In the clouds there is this inscription â—TERNITIE Beneath Christs feet down upon the earth there is the Sceleton of a man or nothing but the bones of a man without hair or skinne onely he hath a beard to be known by in his left hand he holds a piece of parchment in which these words are written Momentaneum quod delect at That which delighteth is momentanie In his right hand he holds up an Apple Neare unto him there stands a Raven pecking a shelfish with
and a Globe Therefore Faustina the Empresse had money stampt after this figure and superscription There was a Globe on which the Empresse sat stretching forth one hand and holding in the other a sceptre with this inscription ETERNITIE Hence it was that many of the Ancients thought the world to be Eternall because it was Round whom S. Basil answers very fitly Let the world be a Circle but the beginning of the Circle is the Centre In the third place they have represented Eternitie by a Seat by which is signified Eternall rest The Nasamones a certain people of Africa for the most part did not onely breathe out their last sitting upon a seat but also desired to be buried after that position as having then attained to Eternitie and a long cessation from all their labours As in many places at this day Kings and Emperours are found sitting in vaults under earth in silence and mournfull majestie And it was usuall with the Romanes to support with such like the molten statues of their deceased Emperours as having then the fruition of Eternity Some there are that thus reason with themselves oftentimes Behold I have been a long time held and oppressed with cares and labours But now why do I not take some respite why do I not make some pause why do I not rest from my labours I have laboured long enough let others labour as much as I have done for my part I 'le rest now and take mine ease So they set up their seats and promise unto themselves dayes of rest But alas they are of no long continuance They set up their seats and embrace their ease but neither in due time nor place Oh! how truely and devoutly doth that golden book of the imitation of Christ give us a pull by the eare in these words Dispose and order all things according to thine own will and the lust of thine own eyes and yet thou shalt never finde but thou shalt alwayes suffer one thing or other either willingly or by constraint and so thou shalt alwayes finde a crosse The whole life of Christ was a Crosse and Martyrdome and doest thou seek rest and pleasure Therefore we must set up our seat in heaven and not here for here amongst so many troubles it can never stand quiet and though all other things should spare it yet death at length will overturn it There is no true rest to be hoped for but that which is Eternall But if there be any rest in this life this is it For a man to commit himself and all that is his to the will of God to put his whole trust and confidence in him and to account all other things beside but vain So are we taught in Ecclesiasticus Trust in God and abide in thy place Without this rest of the soul all other things are meer troubles a meer sea of tempestuous waves and the very presence of Hell But I return to the Ancients In the fourth place they have represented Eternitie by the Sunne and the Moon The Sunne revives every day although it seems every day to die and to be buried It alwayes riseth again although every night it sets The Moon also hath her increase after every wane Catullus hath pretty verses to this purpose The Sunne doth set the Sunne doth rise again The day doth close the day doth break again Once set our Sunne again it riseth never Once close our day of life it 's night for ever In Hell there is Eternall night but without sleep There they sleep not because they slept here where they should have watched there they watch because here they slept in their sinnes indeed not long but longer they would if they could yea Eternally But it is farre otherwise with those that are in heaven For a perpetuall light shall shine forth to the Saints and Eternitie of time there is rest there is pleasure after long labours and watchings In the fifth place they have represented Eternitie by the Basilisk The Basilisk is the most venimous of all creatures and it alone of all others as Horus Niliacus saith cannot be killed by humane force yea it is so virulent that it killeth herbs with the very breath of it that it puts to flight all other creatures with the hissing of it that it makes all birds suddenly silent upon the first presence of it AElianus reports that in the desert of Africa a certain beast fell down being tired and that the Serpents came together as it were to a feast to devour the carcase and that they presently ran all away and hid themselves in the sand upon the sight of the Basilisk Eternitie whether of joy or of torment cannot be shortened or diminished much lesse taken away or avoided Neither is it strange if it affright all that are in their right wits with the very thought of it Infinite are the windings of this Basilisk unmeasurable and untwinable are the orbs and circuits of it Oh Dragon to be trembled at Let us divert a little to our selves It comes to passe sometimes when a man descends into himself and rips up his conscience by confession that he findes many Serpents nests and whole broods of vipers and thereupon much marvelleth in himself saying Whence is there so much venime in my breast Whence are so many fat Snakes so many grievous and deadly sinnes Whence is there so great an host of Lisards whence so many filthy and lustfull cogitations I am afraid my self at such a numerous and pestilent brood But marvell not we shall easily shew thee the cause thereof A moyst and a rude place is very apt to breed Serpents Lo then there is a double cause The moysture of the place and the negligence of them that should look to it So it is in the soul of man If we spend all our care upon our body handling it delicately feeding it daintily pampering it with feasts effeminating it with pleasures it must needs be confessed that the soul the inhabitant thereof hath her dwelling in a moyst place Adde hither slothfulnesse and neglect of divine duties Let no care be had at all of salvation so the body be sound and it goes well with it let no regard be had what happens to the soul Let confession of sinnes be seldome made unto God and when it is but in a negligent manner What marvell then if a multitude of Serpents and poysonous vermine breed there But O good Christian brother Let the Basilisk enter into thy Breast that is the cogitation of Eternitie and thou shalt presently perceive that these venimous beasts will soon vanish away Thou confessest that thy heart doth abound with these Snakes It is a signe therefore thou seldome thinkest upon Eternitie Amend therefore and now at length begin to think upon this with thy self That which delighteth is but Momentanie but that which tormenteth is Eternall In the sixth place they have represented Eternity after this manner There is a vast den
the woman of Samaria makes often mention of Eternitie and life everlasting Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life I would we did thirst with the woman of Samaria after those waters and earnestly pray for them O Lord give me of this water that I thirst not Give me O Christ though but a drop of this water that is some thirst and desire after Eternall life In the yeare after the Nativity of our Lord fourescore and one as Suetonius Dion and Plinius Secundus tell at large on the first day of November about seven of the clock at the Mountain Vesuvius in Campania there was an horrible eruption of fire before which there went an unusuall drought and grievous earthquakes There was also heard noise under earth as if it had been thunder The sea roared and made a noise the Heaven thundred as if mountains had in conflict met together great stones were seen to fall the aire was filled with smoke and fire mixt together the Sunne did hide his head Whereupon it was thought by many that the world was almost at an end and that the last day was come wherein all should be consumed with fire For there was such abundance of ashes scattered up and down over land and sea and in the aire that there was much hurt done amongst men and cattell and in the fields that fish and fowl were destroyed that two cities the name of the one was Herculanum and the name of the other Pompeii were utterly ruined These and such other Caverns in the earth with Precipices and fiery mountains alwayes flaming but never going out are lively examples given us by God to put us in minde of the fire in Hell in which the bodies of the cursed shall be alwayes burning but never be burnt out Concerning this you may reade Tertullian Minutius and Pacian See O man how providently even Nature her self doth go before thee and as it were leade thee by the hand to the contemplation of Eternitie To conclude This Time of ours carryeth with it some signe and print of Eternitie Nature fain would have us learn the thing signified by the signe and take a scantling of Eternitie by the little module and measure of time It is the saying of S. Augustine This is the difference between things Temporall and Eternall We love things Temporall more before we have them and esteem them not so much when we have them For the soul cannot be satisfied but with true and secure Eternitie and joy which is Eternall and incorruptible But things Eternall when they are actually possessed are much more loved then before when they were onely desired and hoped for For neither could Faith beleeve nor Hope expect so much as Charitie and Love shall finde when once we shall be admitted to possession Why then doth not earth seem vile in our eyes especially when we must ere long forsake it And why do we not with ardent desire lift up our eyes to Heaven where we shall inherit a kingdome and that Eternall Thou art weighed in the balanceâ— and art found wanting Dan 5.27 That man regardeth not ETERNITE who weigheth his money more accurately then his life THE THIRD CONSIDERATION upon ETERNITIE Wherein the old Romanes principally placed their Eternitie PLinius Secundus thought those men happy which either did things worthy to be wrote or wrote things worthy to be read but those men of all most happy which â—ould do both So the Romanes thought they might three manner â—f wayes eternize their fame and â—ransmit their names unto posteriâ— First they wrote many excellent things many excellent indeed but not all not all chaste not all holy They committed to writing their own blemishes their dishonest oves and filthy lusts But this was no honest or Kings highway to Eternitie How many books have dyed before their Authours and according to Plato have been like unto the Gardens of Adonis as soon dead as sprung up They pleased not long which quickly pleased But suppose the books of all the Romanes should outlive time and be alwayes extant and exposed to publick view yet they should not be able to give life unto their Authours Again the Romanes did not onely write but also did many brave works worthy to be recorded by the pennes of eloquent and learned men and these works were of divers kindes They sought Eternitie in many things but found it in nothing as we are taught to beleeve They were great we do not deny it in civill and warlike affairs at home and abroad admirable for their skill in Arts and Sciences Magnificent and profuse in setting forth shews and bestowing gifts wonderfull even to astonishment for stately buildings Tombes Vâ—ults Monuments and Statues as you may guesse by these few particulars which I will briefly run over Augustus in his own name and at his own proper charges set forth Playes and Games foure and twenty times and at the charge of the common Treasury three and twenty times And never a one of those cost him under two Millions and five hundred thousand Crowns and this so great a summe of money I say was all laid out upon one shew The very meanest and cheapest that ever Augustus set forth came to a Million two hundred and fifty thousand Crowns Nero gilded over the whole Theatre the Ornaments of the Tyring house and comâ—â—al implements he made all of gold to these you may adde square pieces of wood or woodden Lots scattered amongst the people which had for their inscriptions whole houses fields grounds farms slaves servants beasts great summes of silver and many times jewels a great number To whosoevers lot fell any one of these he presently received according to the inscription The same Nero for a Donative to a common souldier commanded to be told two hundred and fifty thousand crowns Agrippina Nero's mother caused the like summe of money to be layd upon a Table thereby secretly reprehending and labouring to restrain her sonnes profusenesse Whereupon Nero perceiving that he was toucht commanded another summe to be added as great as the former and said thus Nesciebam me tamparum dedisse I forgot my self in giving so little The same Nero entertained at Rome for nine moneths together King Teridates and was every day at cost for him twenty thousand Crowns which came in nine moneths to five Millions and fourty thousand Crowns And at his departure he gave him for a Viaticum or to spend by the way two Millions and an half What should I tell you of their stately and magnificent buildings Caligula the Emperour made a bridge over an Arm of the Sea three miles long There were Temples in Rome foure hundred twenty foure most of them very magnificent Domitian spent upon the sole gilding of the Capitol seven Millions On the staires of the Amphitheatre which were
this subscription Cras Cras Tomorrow Tomorrow The Earth opens her mouth and flames of fire break forth and tend aloft in which these words are written AEternum quod cruciat That which tormenteth is Eternall Christ coming down from the clouds Two adore with bended knees of diverse sex in the place of all mankinde Behinde them there is a running Houre-glasse or a Diall measuring houres by the running of water called a Clepsydra and a Book lying wide open On one page there is written They spend their dayes in mirth and in a moment go down to the grave On the other page Who shall deliver me from the body of this death Before them stand Two heavenly Angels which embrace them with their arms and pointing at Christ bid them lift up their eyes unto him This is the Picture The meaning follows CHAP. I. Christ inviting CHrist the Eternall sonne of the Eternall God came into this world clad with no other garment then we that is stark naked The garment of immortalitie and innocencie we lost by Adams disobedience And now alas how miserably arayed do we come into this world Christ together with us yea for us suffers punishment and yet was not guilty of any sinne But what means this Crosse upon the shoulders of the Sonne of God It is a bed on which he sâ—ept in death Gâ—lgotha was his chamber The thorns his pillow And the Crosse his bed Which many religious men of former times well considering with themselves have voluntarily and freely chosen to lie hard and take little rest that at the day of resurrection they might rise joyfully to rest Eternall Some as we may reade have made the earth their Mattresse Sackcloth their Sheet and a Stone their Boulster And many there are which do so still to this day But I leave them and return to Christ. He suffered death even that most bitter and shamefull death of the crosse To what end That he might save us from death Eternall Die we must all of us but our death is but short In a moment in the twinkling of an eye the soul is snatched from the body and this is all that which we call Death But it is not so with them in Hell Their torments farre exceed all the sorrows and pangs of death not onely because they are more grievous for their qualitie but also because they are of longer continuance beyond all comparison For they are Eternall So then their torments are alwayes to be tormented and their death to die alwayes And from this death hath Christ the Sonne of God delivered us the Childe that we see described walking amidst the clouds Under his feet is a bare Sceleton or the bare bones of a man which by all signes we may gather to be our forefather Adams Hearken ye children and ye childrens children hearken unto the words of your forefather Adam thus speaking unto you CHAP. II. Adam lamenting O My children happie then indeed if your forefather had known his own happinesse but now miserable and that even in this because mine By me were you destroyed before you were begotten by me were you damned before you were brought forth I fain would be as God and by that means I am left scarce a man Before you could perish you all perished in me I my self do not know whether you may better call me a Father or a Tyrant and a murderer I cannot wonder or complain justly that you are so vicious and so sinfull for you learnt it of me I am sory that you are so disobedient but this you learnt also of me I was first disobedient unto God that made me The Angels in heaven blush and are ashamed to see your gluttonie and intemperance but this is your fathers fault Your pride hath made you odious and detestable before God but this monster first conquered and triumphed over me and so pride became more proud then she was before This is the inheritance you receive from me nothing else but an heap of miseries God indeed of his free good-will gave unto me by a sure promise heaven for an inheritance and intailed it upon you But I have undone you all cut off the intail and prodigally made away all for one bit I valued my wife and an apple more then you all more then heaven more then God A cursed and unhappy dinner for which I deserved to sup in Hell many thousand yeares after I lived in Paradise a garden full of all delight and pleasure beyond imagination God gave me the free use of all things therein onely the fruit of one tree was forbidden me I was Lord of all the creatures I was wise and beautifull strong and lusty I abounded with all manner of delights The aire was then as temperate as could be desired the clouds were clad in bright blew the heaven smiled upon us the Sunne did shine so pure that nothing could be more All things seemed to gratifie us at our new marriage Our eyes could behold nothing but that which was flourishing and pleasing to them Our eares were continually filled with musick the birds those nimble Choristers of the aire ever warbling out their pleasant ditties The earth of it self brought forth odoriferous cinamon and saffron I was compassed about with pleasures on every side I lived free and remote from all care sorrow fear labour sicknesse and death I seemed to be a God upon earth The Angels in heaven rejoyced to see my happinesse there was none that did envy me but my self But because I obeyed not the voice of God all these evils fell upon me I was driven out of Paradise banished from the sight of God and for shame I hid my face Labour sorrow mourning fear teares calamities a thousand miseries seized upon me and quite wearied me out you feel it as many as are of my familie and that which seems to be the end of all temporall miserie and sorrow is oftentimes the beginning of Eternall O my children learn by your own wofull experience learn by your own losse and mine learn I say to be wise at length I will give you but one lesson and it is but in three words which you shall do well to learn by heart and that is To hate sinne Behold Do you not see a grievous flame breaking out hard by me It hath burnt ever since sinne first entred into the world and shall never be put out All other punishments are but light and shall shortly have an end But the damned shall be tormented in this flame for ever and ever Now if we will we may escape it Heaven is set open to all but there is no coming to it but by the way of repentance and the gate of the crosse He that walketh in this way and entreth in at this gate may be certain of his salvation and eternall joy in the kingdome of heaven where he shall have an everlasting habitation This is the counsell of Adam to his children I say
short labour for rest Eternall Hast thou joy for a time Do not trust too much to it Art thou sad and sorrowfull for a time Do not despair of joy and comfort Neither let prosperitie puffe thee up nor adversitie cast thee down God hath promised unto thee Eternall life Therefore contemne Temporall felicitie He hath threatned Eternall fire Therefore contemne all Temporall sorrows To conclude then with the same divine authour Let us therefore be in love with Eternall life and thereby we shall come to know how much we ought to labour for the obtaining of it For we see that those men which are lovers of this present life which is but temporall and shall shortly have an end labour with might and main to preserve and prolong it as long as they can And yet they cannot escape death For that at one time or other will seize upon them All that they can hope for is but to put it off for a little time When death approacheth then every one is labouring and seeking to hide himself ready to give and part with any thing that he hath to redeem his life He sends for the Physician he will be ruled by him in any thing he will take any thing at his hands he will suffer any thing purging bleeding cupping scarifying and what not You see what charge a man will be at and what pains he will voluntarily endure to live here though but for a short time And yet he will scarce be at any charge or take any pains after this life ended to live for ever Brethren it should not be so If there be such labouring and watching such sending and going such running and riding such spending and praying such doing and suffering to live here a while longer What should we not willingly do and suffer to live for ever And if they be accounted wise which labour by all means they can to put off death a while longer being loth to lose a few dayes What fools are they which live so that finally they lose the day of Eternitie Think upon these things well with your selves O mortall men and foresee the day of Eternitie whether of joy or of torment before it cometh For although all other things passe away yet Eternitie still remains and shall never passe away CHAP. I. The Punishment of Eternall death THe Messenians had a certain prison or dungeon under earth void of aire and light and full of Hellish horrour which as it was a most dismall place so had it also a glorious title for it was called the Treasure-house This prison or dungeon had no doores at all to it onely one mouth at which the prisoners were let down by a rope and so it was stopped up again with a great stone Into this Treasure-house was Philopoemen that great Emperour of Greece cast and there by poyson he ended his life God also hath his Treasure-house under earth if I may so speak But I pray you what a one is it It is of most wicked and ungodly desperate and damned men Actiolinus a Tyrant of Padua as Jovius reports had many prisons so infamous for all kinde of miseries and torments that whosoever were cast thereinto counted their life miserie and their death happinesse Death might come in there without knocking he was so welcome unto them and so long lookt for For this was their hard usage They were laden with irons starved with hunger poisoned with stench eaten up with vermine and so in a most miserable manner they lived and died at length a long and a lingring death There every one was judged most miserable but he that was dead and could feel no misery Whilest they lived it was a punishment worse then death to have their habitation amongst the dead For the dead bodies lay on heaps rotting amongst the living in such manner that it might be truely said there That the dead killed the living But the very worst of these prisons is a Paradise and a most pleasant place if it be compared with the infernall prison of Hell Whatsoever miserie was suffered in Actiolinus his prison in this regard it was tolerable because it was of no long continuance being to last no longer then a short life and quite vanishing away at the houre of death But the Treasure-house of the damned which is Gods prison is void of all comfort The torments thereof are intolerable because they are Eternall Death cannot enter in there neither can those that are entered get out again But they shall be tormented for evermore For evermore What a fearfull thing is this They shall be tormented for evermore It was a most true saying of Cassiodorus As no mortall man can apprehend or understand what the Eternall reward is so neither can any man conceive or imagine what that Eternall torment is The Persians had a prison into which a man might enter easily but being once in could get out no more or if he did yet very hardly And therefore it was called Lethe or Oblivion It is an easie matter to descend down into Hell but to ascend up again it is altogether impossible Was ever any heard to return from Hell This prison of Hell is not without just cause called Lethe or Oblivion For God is so unmindefull of the damned that he will never remember them to have mercy upon them Hell is called the Land of Oblivion or Forgetfulnesse and that for two reasons as a godly and learned Writer observes First Because saith he they remember God no more for their good neither have they any memorie at all of things past but such as doth afflict and torment them All their pomp and glory pleasures and delights are quite forgotten or else not remembred without grief and sorrow Secondly To those that are in this horrid Region and lake of fire God hath forgotten to be gracious and mercifull neither will he send his Angels at any time to minister unto them the least comfort If once in there is no coming out again For what said Abraham unto the rich Glutton frying in Hell and desiring him to send Lazarus to cool his tongue with a drop of water Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed so that they which would passe from hence to you cannot neither can they passe to us that would come from thence Oh gulf full of horrour and despaire Oh Eternitie of torments the very thought whereof is able to make a stout man quake and tremble The wicked and ungodly men dig their own graves and dwell therein for evermore But what manner of graves do they dig They dig as deep as Hell where the rich Glutton was buried from whence he lifted up his eyes in torments and saw Abraham afarre off and Lazarus in his bosome to his greater torment Oh what a terrible deep is this Oh what a fearfull grave is this Who lies here He that suffered Lazarus to lie at his gate having no compassion on him How is it with him now He