the matter of his contemplation After all of them had unbosomed themselves the twelfth and last spoke what he had to say I shall set the words intire that his religious simplicity may appear thus then he began his speech You fathers having your conversation in heaven are endowed with heavenly wisedom no wonder But I deeming my self unworthy of those things perceive my sins what way soever I go keep me compâ—ny on every side therefore I have adjudged my self to hell saying abide thou here as thou deserves after a while thou shalt be reputed one of that place I see therefore such moans such incessant tears as cannot be recounted I hold some gnashing the teeth others quaking and trembling all over from head to foot then throwing my self upon the ground and taking up dust I beg of God I may never make tryal of those miseries In like manner I look upon that immense Sea of boyling fire whole waves flow too and fro and roar exceedingly so as some may imagin they ascend even to heaven in that dreadful Sea innumerable men are plunt ged who jointly with one voice cry and howl in such sort as no one ever heard upon earth they all of them burn like withered sticks the mercy of God having forsaken them to give place to his Justice Here now I bewail mankind that dare talk or attend to any thing else but to shun those many evils the world abounds with These things I busie my mind with meditating upon mourning as our Lord says and esteeming my self unworthy either heaven or earth I frequently ruminate that of the 51. Psalm ver 4. My tears have been breads unto me day and night The like account many have made with themselves Lo may every one say thou hast deserved pains immortal and that more then once but whether God have blotted out all thy sins thou canst not manifest by an acquittance thou hopest they are forgiven or will be and so doest well Mich. 6 For all that see thou be wary and walk carefully with thy Maker for this our Lord requires This is to be wise in time SECT 5. BUt how many do all quite contrary They hoard up money with as much anxiety as if they meant to carry it into heaven The smoak of honour and empty reputation is maintained by them as some thing sacred they would rather dye then be despised Yet for all this these same people now and then asperse others same so much the more desperately by how much they are accustomed to speak favourably in their own behalf Many are solicitous for bodily welfare and will not easily deprive the palat of pleasure it defires Thus we march on to eternity not foreseeing things to come unmindful of those past and eagerly bent upon things present In this sort most spend their days some busie their souls with their Coffers others with the belly and yet every one would seem to be serious when the most of his trade is in trifles Vices in most bear such sway without controul that it may be questioned whether they have any earnest belief of heaven and hell Fool-hardy mortals Let us learn I beseech you to allay the heat of this violent impetuosity with some spark of flames eternal Anger and lust have no small resemblance with rageing fire scarce any vices when they get the head run on with so much fury Lust like an untamed horse shakes off reason as that would do his rider Anger is excellently decyphered by Paulus Orosius Lib. 2. conâ— Pagan Fury void of reason ranks grief and revenge amongst vertues whatever anger contrives boldness undertakes to execute Anger says St. Chrysostom is a tyrannical passion because nothing so much disturbs tranquillity of mind as unruly anger We may mitigate this fury with fire everlasting 'T is a maxime amongst Physitians Fire is a remedy against Fire for if the finger or hand chance to be burned 't is a present cure to apply it to the fire or candle-light thus fire through likeness will to fire In like manner when any place is set on fire 't is usual to shoot off a Gun or Cannon against it that the gentler fire may be vanquisht by the stronger Alas how often are our hearts inflamed with brutish motions Against this burning then let us discharge that roaring Cannon Depart ye accursed into everlasting fire What dost thou mean silly wretch if thou be resolved to perish it may be easily done one hour one minute of an hour will serve by lust or anger to commit that which thou mayst lament for ever Thus one fire may become a remedy for another SECT 6. WHo ever considers the origin of the Carthusians It began An 1082. will scarcely ever behold any of them without sighing take briefly this story which concerns it A learned man being dead at Paris while the duties for him were a doing in the Church raised himself up on the beer and with a horrid voice exclaimed By the just Judgment of God I am accused Here upon the Funeral was put off till the next day when singing the same words again the dead man from his Coffin crys out By the just Judgment of God I am judged It did not yet appear what was become of him so they expected till the third day when being busie as before the dead man shoots out By the just Judgment of God I am condemned O thrice miserable who shall be so for ever Now that which would make any one to tremble is this man in the opinion of all was reputed a Saint of an upright life so deceitful are the judgments of men The whole City of Paris was witness of what passed Hereupon Bruno with his Companions left the City and betook themselves into the Wilderness where they might learn rather to converse in heaven then upon earth This was the begining of the Carthusian Family Whence you may frame this discourse Is it so Are men gifted with learning and sanctity as the world thinks accused judged and condemned What then will become of me poor wretch I will therefore as much as in me lyeth have a care of my soul Let others who mind not eternity pamper their bodies let them live and like to morrow perhaps they will be dust and ashes These proceedings I am not enamoured of these steps I trace not because I seek for another period of my travels If I cannot dwell in those austere mountains of Carthusia at least I will decline those meetings where they sport and play and wast their time in feasting if I cannot wholly forbear eating f flesh yet will I renounce the wantonness thereof if I cannot keep continual silence I will at least forbear back-biteing and lascivious talk if night and day I be not in the temple as religious persons are yet no hour shall pass wherein I will not remember God Henceforth when sufferings occur I will not onely esteem them little but meer nothing in comparison of flames
their companions in pain So a thief shall see him that helpt him to steal so the gamster his play-fellow so the adulterer her with whom he sinned they shall behold each other and pine away with grief yea they would rather be blind then by seeing make others pains their own Excellently well said Isidorus Sent. li. 1. Hell fire shall shine to the wicked to increase their misery and damnation by seeing what may augment their grief but nothing which may redound to their comfort The third difference of both fires ours consumes all their 's nothing here of St. Lib. 21. Civ de D. c. 4. Anstin bears ample testimony If the Salamander lives in fire and the Mountains of Sicily long since and to this day burn and yet remain entire they testifie sufficiently not all that burns is consumed and the Soul declares not all that can suffer pain can dye Whence we learn how the bodies af men perpetually tormented neither loose their life in flames nor are destroyed by burning but are pained without perishing Who but God the Creatour of all things gave this property to the flesh of a dead Peacock that it might with ease be preserved incorrupt for a whole year Who bestowed that cold vertue upon Chaff to keep snow from melting or that hot quallity to bring green fruit to maturity How wonderful a thing is that when by casting water on Lime you set it on fire Why then shall not God have power to raise bodies from death and to torment the damned with fire eternal who made the world full of numberless miracles in heaven in earth in the air and waters since the world it self is doubtless a greater miracle and more excellent then all those its silled with Why may we not avouch that even spirits incorporeal though wonderfully yet truly may be afflicted with pain of corporeal fire What therefore God foretold by his Prophet concerning the punnishment of the damned shall come to passe indeed it shall Their Worm shall not dye and their fire shall not be quonched Esa 66 24. The fourth difference Our fire according to its fuel either lives and enencreaâ—es or decays and goes out but but hell fire is nourished by Gods justice never to be quenched by any Sea it is unquenchable This one word unquenchable thrice repeated by our Lord will either be of force to make us fall out with vice or else it will demonstrate we are worse then brutes SECT 3. THis fire in hell shall be greater Deut. c. 25. or less as every ones offence deserves the Divine Justice will use it as a scourge According to the measure of the sin shall measure also of the stripes be Even as amongst many guilty persons one is more sharply chastised then another with one and the same whip Hence appears the madness of certain men who scarcely aim at any thing but hell their words are these While we are on the way to the Region of utter darkness let us post thither with might and main let us make much of our selves while we may since we know we shall deserve scourges let 's deserve them to the purpose Go you mad men go esteem it your chiefest felicity to swim in pleasures glut your selves to day with wine and delights perchance to morrow you will be drowned in flames All the slaves in hell are dreadfully tormented those most who have most grievously and often offended God For he will give fire and worms into their flesh that they may be burnt and may feel for ever Judith 16. Briefly and pithily above others doth St. Prosper set before our eyes this punishment of fire eternal his words are these Continual sighing painful feeling extream grief affliction everlasting torment souls without killing punisheth bodies without dying Now as no pain with us pinches more sharply then fire so nons sooner consumes and ends our pain What fire then is that which tortures most bitterly and never ceases Moyses Gods Embassadour found out a word signally expressing eternity of hell fire A fire saith he Deut c. 32. is kindled in my wrath and shall burn into the lowest parts of hell The Prophet Hieremy spoke to the same purpose Jerem. c. 17. Thou hast kindled a fire in my fury it shall burn for ever The Powder which kindles eternal flames is the wrath of our Lord while we live we experience the anger not the wrath of God So it is written Machabees c. 5. Antiochus being alienated in mind considered not that for the sins of them that inhabit the City God had been angry a little God indeed is angry a little however he lift up his arms and seem to threaten stripes in good earnest his anger is yet little because joyned with clemency But when this anger is contemned and clemency sleighted then patience offended becomes fury whereby fire is kindled to burn for ever You saith God your selves kindled this fire when by your often iterated crimes you despised my clemency when my anger was little you were impatient you transgressed my Laws and by contempt fell upon what was forbidden Now the time of revenge is come I will punish you with horrible and unheard of torments you have kindled a fire in my fury now my fury shall burn even to the lowest part of hell Nature says Seneca makes pain either to lerable or short but God the author of Nature punisheth his rebellious and stubborn subjects with long and intolerable pain long because eternal intolerable because with most rageing fire SECT 4. HEre I most earnestly begge of all Christians that when any sickness or pain accosts them when the Gout Stone or any other malady or trouble molests them they would lay hold on this thought this affliction or pain were it to endure ten a hundred a thousand years would you not think you were already in hell What would you do then to be set free Do that now to escape eternal torments And know for certain the trouble you suffer though grievous the pain you endure though excessive is not so much as a shaddow of hell Here God strikes with one hand only and that gently there he scourges with both and that most severely here he often lays but one finger on you there with all his fingers yea and the whole hand too he lays load on Eustachius that Christian Champion whom we mentioned before being with Wife and Children enclosed in a hot glowing Oxe of brass was bitterly tormented yet this was no small solace to him that his pains would quickly have an end and his reward would last for ever Let us deeply imprint this in our memory It was frequent with all religious persons by daily meditation as it were to touch these flames eternal Apud Rosw c. 44. Paschasius Deacon relates out of Greek that twelve Anachorets as a compleat Senate met together and every one for himself declared what he thought he had profited to that day and what chiefly had been
is lost whom Eternity doth not draw to a better life he may take his course he may perish who is in such a dead-sleep as this dreadful thunder cannot awake him Here one may object The Flames of Hell-fire may well be cast in their way who run amain towards Hell why do you with them terrifie those that are dayly longing after Heaven that abstain from sin not so much for fear of punishment as for love of God What need these so frequently to contemplate those flames eternal They need very much Wherefore I shall lay down three documents whereunto we are concerned often to look back in this ensuing discourse SECT 2. THe first Document is All Holy men are partakers of no small comfort by this contemplation of Hell for whilest they assuredly trust themselves to be out of the reach of those scorching heats their hearts even leap for joy accompanied with most amorous thanksgiving most profound contempt of themselves and a most ample extolling of the Divine bounty But for as much as men of an upright conscience do slip and have their faylings therefore Eternity ever and anon plucks them as it were by the sleeve and sayes Beware look to thy self thou art not yet shot free thou knowst not whether in Gods favour thou shalt give up thy Ghost Final perseverance is a meer gift of God a meer Grace which we are not able by any actions of our own to merit in this point it is not lawful to call God our debtour he stands disingaged to every one If then God deny to bestow this grace upon thee thou art utterly undone for ever This serves as a strong bridle to every good man since we are not ignorant that divers have served God some forty some fifty years some longer and yet have sustained the loss of their former Holiness by a sinful end witness that unfortunate Hero of whom Cassian makes mention This if seriously weighed may stir up in each ones soul many pious affections The second Document is Wheresoever an attentive meditation of Eternity preceds there must needs follow a great care a fervour of spirit and a wonderful exactness in doing all our works This cogitation alone teaches manifestly that we owe all to God as to our Soveraign Lord and that we can never serve him so worthily as we ought but must needs acknowledge that what ever we do is not answerable to but far below so great a Majesty This same consideration of Eternity puts us in mind of the present condition of our life and withal warns us that now it is time to take pains in erning repose without end that years eternal will ensue in which we may neither labour nor merit any thing at all I remember to have read and that with admiration of a certain man who framed this conceit of Eternity What living man said he to himself endowed with reason and in his wits would lay claim to the Kingdome of France Spain Poland such wealthy Dominions as these upon condition that before he came to be absolute Lord of them he should lye with his face upward upon a delicate bed of Roses for forty years together It may so fall out that some one may be found overjoyed with the bargain and so may begin to throw himself upon that soft and well-sented lodging yet questionless he will not continue his posture for the space of three whole years but will forthwith depart from the former agreement and say Let me rise I would be deprived of three yea all Kingdoms rather then be constrayned to lye continually as I consented to do upon never so soft a bed And does the matter stand even thus Will no one of Reason if he might enjoy three Kingdoms take up his quarters as aforesaid during the space of thirty or forty years what raging madness then and blind folly is it for trifles for toyes for bables to will and do that for which thou maist be tormented upon a hot-glowing-Grid-iron not for forty nor four hundred nor four thousand nor yet four hundred thousand years but for all Eternity If therefore we provide not for our selves and affairs while we have time and space we are worse then mad and something more then Furies hath seised on us SECT 3. THe third Document I wish I could but obtain this one favour of all who read these things that they would accustome themselves to make use of two sorts of Spectacles the one Purple-coloured the other blew this later is to be used in this manner whensoever matters go well with us when the Body Soul or both are well disposed as often as comely and beautiful Objects are represented to the sight or harmonious concent tickles the Eares or delightful attractives charm the tast or Sabaean Odours satiare the Nostrils or things of smoothest temper flatter our touching or in brief when ever any thing contributes to our delight pleasure or satisfaction then then is the time to lay hold of our Sky-coloured Spectacle and reason thus with our selves Behold this pleases that satisfies the other gives content but what is all this compared to the Eternity of the Blessed what is this drop of Honey to that Sea of Delights in Heaven Wherefore do I debar my self from that Ocean of Pleasures above by gathering scattered drops here below O cast an eye up then towards that blessed Eternity aspire thither where there is all plenty of pleasure that either is or may be imagined Amongst Banquets and sporting yea amidst great variety of Dainties this Discourse may be serviceable unto us This Secret of Art may be made use of when we are soothed by any kind of Complacence whatever Lo this is the right use of the Azure Spectacle to raise the mind from things present and terrene to those to be met with hereafter in Heaven by this means we may be moderate amongst allurements to excess and environed with Pleasures may pass without peril But now on the contrary when we are not well at ease when pain Arrests the Body when sadness seizes on the Soul upon occasion of what Corrasive or Affliction soever take into your hand your Purple Glass and speak to your self as followeth Does this vexe thee so much does that Torture thee so far as almost to make thee Frantick Yet what a Flea-biting is this if thou regard the Eternity of the Damned Look down and take a view of Hell what ever here molesteth by Sufferings Crosses or Disasters is and may be reputed one of the choicest Felicities on Earth if we but lend an eye to those never ending Torments beneath Wherefore then dost thou burden Heaven and Earth with idle Complaints This both discovers thy Impatience and Folly T is clear thou knowest not what Hell is otherwise these Complaints would cease After all this thou tellest me thy Miseries are many thy Callamities intollerable What For want of house-room art thou enforced to lye in a Stall But the Damned are confined to Swine-sties
thirst Great was the hunger of Erisichthon but far inferiour to that in Hell all our famine is a mere dream to that of the damned Hereby we are admonished to beware all intemperance Those who feasted in old time were accustomed to leave some part of their meat on the table to teach us not to eat for pleasure or till we could eat no more T is a Proverb amongst the Germans Mirth when it comes to the height must be broken off so we must leave off Feasting before the Feast end Who is so sottish as when he knows for three or four houres feasting he must fast a whole year to command presently a feast prepared for him Yet such sots are we that though we know our abstinence and fast continue but a few houres nevertheless we are resolved to fare daintily and please our Pallates Hence are those invitations Come let us take wine Esay ch 56. and be filled with drunkenness and it shall be as to day so also to morrow and much more O wretched fools within a while it will not be as to day your mirth to day is waited on by a sad to morrow Fulness must be accompanied with Famine and drunkenness tormented with thirst After a short space that doleful song will amuze your ears you have received your share of goods in this life away with you now there is no more due to you heretofore you feasted now you must fast let others feast that formerly fasted For this reason thus saies our Lord Behold my servants shall eat and you shall be hungry behold my servants shall drink Esay ch 65. v. 13. and you shall be thirsty behold my servants shall rejoyce and you shall be confounded Behold my servants shall praise for joyfulness of heart and you shall cry for sorrow of heart and for contrition of spirit you shall howl Though you were deaf to admonition yet it was told you often and long ago that delicasies were paid with torments This none would give ear to I called and you have not answered I spake and you have not heard and you did evil in my eyes Es v. 12. and you have chosen the things that I would not Now your jovial but short madness shall be requited with long and everlasting Famine fleeting pleasures are to be expiated with perpetual thirst T is now too late to apply a remedy to this hunger and thirst Such a supper sutes well with such a dinner Therefore be sober and watch Pet. 1. c. 5. Ose c. 4. for Fornication and Wine and Drunkenness take away the heart He that has a horrour of eternal famine let him now endure hunger neither long Luk. c. 6. ver 25. nor cruel Blessed are ye that now are an hungred because you shall be filled Christian suffering has a seast prepared for it which lasts for ever but to wantonness and intemperance eternal punishment is appointed Who often meditates on hell escapes it CHAP. V. The fourth Torment for Eternity in Hell is Stench T Is pleasant to live Hom. 5. in Epâ—st ad Heb. but now and then it happens that life is more displeasing then death it self This St. Chrysostome observing said Every one well descended and of good education judgeth it more unsufferable then death to be cast in Prison to abide stench to lye in darkness and Fetters with Homicides Look down into Hell and you will confess there was never so noysome and cruel a Goal neither that under ground of the Messenians called The Treasure nor that of the Persians called Lethe or oblivion nor the Quarries of Syracusa nor the Labyrinth of Creet nor the House and Dungeon of the Athenians nor the Tullianum of the Romans nor the Ceramon of the Cyprians nor the Decas of the Spartans nor the Ancon of Gilimer nor that infamous Prison of Actiolinus which for cruelty surpassed all sorts of torments Neither were there ever detained in any Prison so many in thraldom as God punisheth damned Captives in his grand Prison This Prison of God under ground if you look upon the place is most deep if upon the Jaylor he is most cruel if on the foulness of it it is most stinking if on the imprisoned it is of vast extent containing innumerable yet if you consider the infinite number of offenders it is exceeding strait In fine if you seek after its continuance it is eternal none can escape thence all passages and gates being closely locked up And forasmuch as all the filth of the whole world is devolved into this Dungeon it is a most nasty sink a Den replenisht with loathsome stink This is the fourth torment of eternity intollerable stench How unexplicable this torment is how far beyond our conceit of it we will now declare SECT 1. THe holy Scripture frequently proposes to our consideration the intollerable stench of Hell Psal 10. Holy David saies He shall rain snares upon sinners fire and brimstone and blast of storms the potion of their Cup. Now as drops of rain may not be numbred so the pains of the wicked He shall rain torments upon them like a turbulent showre or swift running torrent He shall rain snares wherewith they shall be so fast bound as it will be impossible for any of them to escape or to break their chains or to undermine the Prison walls wherein they shall be inclosed Their part shall be in the Pool burning with fire and brimstone Apoc. c. 21. Here let us come nearer to our present matter and consider attentively how great will the stench be of one burning in brimstone How if a hundred if a thousand be joyned in the like flame This yet is nothing to the brimstone in Hell whose stench ariseth from divers causes The first after the world is buried as it were in one grave after the general judgement all the Ordure of the Earth shall run down into that sink of Hell whereby the world shall be purged The Psalmist foretold Psa 96. Fire shall go before him and shall inflame his enemies round about Divines relying on this Prophecy affirm that fire shall go before the worlds judge as an apparitour and shall bring all before the Tribunal till the whole judgement be compleatly ended that done and the definitive sentence pronounced that fire like a thunderbolt shall throw down the wicked headlong and as an Executioner shall set upon and bind that guilty multitude so fast as they shall despair of ever escapeing Then will it hurry them like chained dogs into their kennels he shall enflame his enemies round about and together with them all the filth and mud of the world shall flow down into the Lake of hell for hell is indeed the sink of the earth the receptacle of all ordure The second cause of stench is Brimstone Ubi supra whereof the eye of our Lord St. Iohn speaks Their part shall be in the pool burning with fire and brimstone which is the second death
a companion of Scorpions and wild Beasts He that seriously contemplates those fiery Prisons finds fault with the straitness of no place but converts every Prison into Paradise SECT 5. HEre now I beseech you let us make use of discourse to our purpose Imagin hell to be nothing else but a loathsome and starving prison where a thousand Captives for stench and vermine can neither sit nor lie conveniently where their meat is rotten Rice and drink muddy Water where they cannot sleep for famine stink and pain and that all this should continue a thousand years Imagin I say that hell is but such a Prison as this notwithstanding who would not tremble at the very name of this hell But if the matter be well scanned and weighed according to what is revealed in holy Scripture it will manifestly appear that the most loathsom prisons in Japonia or any other barbarous nation compared to hell maybe reputed a florishing Garden the delights of Thessaly or Paradise it self The reason is clear In our prisons we have some meat sleep and time to rest in hell is neither meat sleep nor rest there corrupt Rice would tast like Ambrosia puddle Water would drink like Nectar In our prisons none ever counted a thousand winters in hell which is most sad a hundred thousand years strike not off one tittle from eternity after a thousand millions of ages eterninity is entire Again Our prisons though dreadful yet are they without fire and the prisoners have a singular comfort that they can die the Dennes of the damned are full of flames and are not free from the second death because in hell death is always present but death without death and a continual death which lasts for ever Alas how far are we from thinking on these things how little do we consider things worthy our thoughts every hour Much better in this point and more considerate was St. Bernard I tremble Serm. de 5. regionibus says he I quake all over at the remembrance of that country and all my bones are shaken that is a place in which their is a worm immortal stench intolerable hammers striking palpable darkness O Awake all you that are Saints and Sinners especially you that are slaves to luxury if you will not tast how sweet Christ our Lord is how delicious Paradise take a tast at least of the bitterness of hell SECT 6. THis hellish stink fitly admonisheth us how many ways we offend by smelling for we are not only bound to keep in order our eyes tongue and ears but our nose also though for the most part we will not abide any ill smell Hence we frequently have an aversion from distressed Captives and poor sick folk because they carry a scent of Garlick rather then Saffron or Musk. Therefore the Judg out of the clouds will upbraid these tenderlings I was sick and in prison and you did not visit me Mat. c. 25. Impatience forsooth is so nice that where there is any suspition of stink thither we will not be drawn with Coach and Horses Them we love their familiarity we sue for who breath Cinnamon Civet and Balsom But ere long the case will be altered as Esay foretold c. 3. For sweet savor there shall be stink Moreover they sin by smelling who fill their beds garments and closets with sweet odours yea what they more frequently use must have a touch of outlandish perfumes or pretious ointments that they may be still provided to cherish the nostrils This 't is true is not accounted a heinous crime yet God established under pain of death Exod. c. 30. Such confection you shall not make unto your own uses because it is holy to the Lord. What man soever shall make the like to enjoy the smell thereof shall perish out of his People Hence therefore we sin by intemperance of smelling so many things which seem to us trifles and of small moment the eye of God observes and deems worthy of punishment It is here worth our frequent and serions reflection to know what the holy Scripture means in proposing unto us the stench of brimstone Gen. c. 19. Our Lord rained upon Sodom and Gomorah brimstone and fire from our Lord out of heaven and he subverted these Cities and all the Countrey about all the Inhabitants of the Cities and all things that spring of the earth This shower of brimstone and stench punished the heat and stench of lust this rain was requisite to cure the ardor of luxury Extream heat is as proper to the fire as extream stink to brimstone since therefore they were corrupted with lasciviousness of the flesh they were also burned with fire and brimstone that they might learn by their punishment what their fault deserved A man addicted to venery is guilty of a twofold pain while he lives he wallows more and more in the mire of impurity after death he is thrown into a bath of boyling sulfur SECT 7. LUst therefore in hell shall in a special manner be tormented with fire and brimstone which St. Gregory learnedly asserts Then saith he Lib. 4. Mor. c. 17. the rageing fire burns those whom carnal delight had polluted Every wicked man is enflamed with a proper fire such as himself had enkindled in his heart by heat of temporal desires while he now boyls with these now with those and sets his thoughts a burning more and more with divers allurements of the world Now then let weeping expiate what the soul negligently given to pleasure did transgress It is altogether worthy of credit that few are plunged into those flaming gulfs who were not tâ—inted with stench of wantonness Here now let every one living learn to be wise in time and beware he be not smothered in the puddle of Luxury Wine and Drunkenness c. 4.11 as Osee testifies take away the heart but most of all fornication this last so steals away the heart that it hardly ever restores it It is wholly to be admired and dreadful above measure that under one sole thought which Divines call deliberate delight should lurk numberless pains endless torments and death everlasting The business is manifest Mat. c. 5. Whosoever shall see a woman to lust after her hath already committed adultery with her in his heart Here one cast of the eye one only thought one secret consent to lust contains innumerable infinite millions of ages wherewith that glance that thought that consent is to be revenged but never expiated This I say is wonderful and horrible to amazement I will say what I think though we perhaps think of these things yet we do not thoroughly weigh or examine them Hence it comes as Isidorus Clarus delivers it Tom. 1. Orat. 53. that we would rather be smudged for a moment then shining for eternity lascivious for an hour then glorious for ever such is our inconsideration and to speak plainly sottish rashness One that fights for his life might securely say I thought not
eternal In this sense venerable St. Tom. 10 Serm. 109 Austin spoke What soever though never so grievous any one endures in this life compared to hell fire is very little yea nothing at all It is so indeed all our pains are toys and slight flea-bitings in respect of punishment everlasting The least torment in hell surpasses the greatest in this world Pains which accompany sickness become tolerable by frequent intervals which are not to be found in hell Grief when excessive makes us insensible none can grieve much and long together except it be in hell nature having so sweetly disposed that if our sorrow be of long continuance it is likewise of easie sufferance In hell sorrow is intolerable and exceeding long because eternal CHAP. VII The Sixth Torment of Eternity in Hell is the Worm of Conscience THe Jewel of antient Fathers and star amongst Bishops St Austin spoke agreeably to what we experience In Psal 47. Amongst all tribulations of mans soul none is more pinching then a bad conscience It is a great punishment for the Father to stand by while his Son is executed but much greater if he be compelled to play the Executioner and most of all if the Gibbet whereon his son is hanged be erected before his own door to serve as a sad spectacle to renew his grâ—f Yet all this is a mear trific in regard of that punishment which forces the guilty person to be his own hangman as it happens When the Offender turns his teeth against himself and with incessant gripes of conscience tears himself in pieces This is the Sixth Torment of Eternity in Hell which Christ in the conclusion of one Sermon repeats thrice Where their Worm dyeth not Mark Chap. 9 Presently after he iterates the same words Where their Worm dyeth not and ends with the same Where their Worm dyeth not The like method is observed by the Prophet Esay Chap. 66 Who closes his Sermons with Their Worm dyeth not This punishment must needs be unspeakable whereof we now treat SECT 1. I Dolaters of old time understood well how great a torment was that of a troubled conscience Quintilian exclaims Declam 12. O sad remembrance O conscience more grievous then all torments This same was the opinion of all wise men St. In Psa 143. Gregory avouches Amongst many tribulations of mans mind and numberless afflictions none is greater then a guilty conscience Here says Seneca we must needs acknowledg Ep. 97. that the conscience is beaten with its own wickedness which torments it much because perpetual anxiety bears it company Malice drinks up a great share of its own poyson it is its own punishment No guilty person is well at ease To these St. Austin subscribes saying Whither shall a man fly from himself In Psal 45. which way soever he fly he draws himself after him and which way he draws himself he is a torture to himself He is his own punishment who hath a guilty conscience God knows what pain his soul endures what crosses what torments what hells How many vices a man hath so many racks he suffers and these so much more bitter by how much more interiour The reason hereof is at hand When adversity environs us on every side when heaven and earth conspire to trouble us we may take our refuge to God tho none comfort us God is aboundant solace unto us But if the conscience be defiled no content may be found either amongst creatures or in the creator all things are bitter all full of gall Whither now would you have recourse to God He is your enemy To conscience that is your Executioner To the blessed they are offended To your companions they will but encrease your grief To delights and pleasures these will more defile the conscience So true it is no punishment is worse then a wicked conscience Nevertheless while we live the but chery of conscience allows some respite its nipping sometimes ceases either with reading working talking feasting travelling or at least when we are a sleep But in that castle of cruelty in Lucifers territory it admits of no truce no breathing space of quiet no sleep no banketâ—ing no comfort night and day this viper gnaws the very heart strings Their Wâ—rm dyeth not SECT 2. MAny things there are from whence proceeds this torture of conscience in the reprobate the chiefest of all is The loss of everlasting glory Heaven is shut up hell is shut up none may pass hence thither it is decreed that heavenly banket was neglected 't is now irrecoverable there remains no hope of beatitude Esau a clownish fellow and one who took barbarousness from brutes amongst whom he converted nevertheless he was heinously displeased when his brother snatcht from him his fathers blessing For Gen. c. 27. Having heard his fathers words he roared out with a great cry and being dismaid said bless me also my father How then will the damned roar each one having the approbation of his conscience Thou hast lost thy fathers blessing all right to and hope of heaven is quite gone for a contemptible dish of portage thou hast sold a Kingdom Accursed that thou art excluded from heaven for all eternity This Worm which hath begun to gnaw thee thou shalt not be able to shake off thee any more thou hast heard with thine own ears the Judges sentence Go depart from me ye accursed into everlasting fire which is prepared for the Devil and his Angels Amidst these swarms of Worms the damned shall behold Hom. 40 in Evang. as St. Gregory testifies the glory of the blessed To the end that sinners in pain may be more tormented let them see their glory whom they despised and receive new â—orture from their punnishment whom they vainly loved Thus the damned behold the bliss of Saints but at a great distance As if one shut up in a high tower almost pined away with famine and encompassed with worms and stench should look down into most pleasant Gardens where many much in love one with another did swim in delights alas what a tormenting sight would this be this would onely serve to augment his sufferings If one hunger-starved see a table well furnished with dainties but dare not touch a bit he becomes more hungry especially if through his own fault he be barred from eating This is the condition of the damned They shall suffer hunger as dogs Ps 58. Their conscience therefore will so afflict them as not to give them leave to think on any thing that may delight A guilty conscience like a mad dog with barking and biteing peretually will drive the wretches into most desperate madness Thus the conscience is wont to revenge it self it having formerly not been hearkened to when it gave wholsom admonition SECT 3. THe second thing which conscience shall upbraid the damned with is Neglect of Vertue and a multitude of crimes The conscience will rehearse as out of a scrowl all that was ill done
and senseless with eyes and ears shut loosed the reins to lust and by joint example drew one another to destruction Hither unhappy that we are we posted amain and despâ—sing all admonition ran upon death alas death eternal What good do we reap now from all that the deceitful world fobb'd us with the memory of pleasures past is worse then death to us all delight is gone and quite vanisht away which though we might have enjoyed for some ages what had those joys been to these torments Alas we leaped only at a shadow of bitter pleasure Who was it that did so cruelly bewitch us O that we had but once a year seriously meditated on eternity O that we had now but one day one sole hour at our own disposal But O these wishes are in vain we are utterly undone all our hope is turned into despair Accursed be the day in which we were born accursed be God by whom we were created Here I stop my pen and send back these impious words thither from whence they came Let him be wise and beware in time whoever desires to escape this dreadful butchery of conscience SECT 5. IT were incredible if our eyes were not witnesses how industrious and witty how attentive and serious how watchful and quick-sighted how knowing and wary we are in amassing together things of this world When affairs of the body are to be looked after then it is we are wise careful and laborious here is the center of our lives and actions Behold I pray how exquisitely some have their Garments Embroydered see what artificial pictures edifices and statues others possess look upon that fine linnen which many wear for whiteness like snow for thinness equal to the spiders web look upon those master-pieces of art clocks musick with other forreign merchandise O how acute and unfatigable are we in raising works of handy-craft to perfection in heaping up wealth in dispatching worldly business and attaining honour When as God knows all these things are fading transitory and pass away in a moment Contrary-wise when any thing is to be done for heaven good Lord how dull and stupid how slothful and heedless how frosen and drowsie are we In this business alone we go coldly to work we languish we loyter we lay us down by the way T. Kem. l. 3 c. 3. It was most truly spoken For a little Prebend a long journey is undertaken for everlasting life many will scarce once lift a foot from the ground Here we are all as if we were struck with a palsie we snort and the devil stands centinel But when the soul once awakes indeed the conscience will no longer be lulled a sleep it will pinch gnaw vex and torture for eternity Their Worm dyeth not This Worm is fed with unexplicable dolours with sorrow void of all comfort The damned grieve for the loss of beatitude without hope of ever repairing that immense damage they think without ceasing it was their own folly drowned them in that Ocean of sadness neither will it ever be in their power to divert their fancy from that dismal thought to any other that may exhilerate them St. Bernard did contemplate these things attentively Lib. â— deâ— coâ—fiâ— c. 12. What is so painful saith he as always to have a mind of that which you shall never compass and always to loath that you shall ever have The damned shall for ever covet that which they shall never obtain and what they utterly dislike they must endure eternally Amongst so great a multitude of spectatours no ones eye will be more troublesome then every one 's to himself There is no sight either in heaven or earth which the darksome conscience would rather avoid but cannot Darkness is not covered from it self it beholds it self that can discover nothing else The works of darkness follow them they can hide themselves no where from darkness no not in darkness it self Here is the worm that dyeth not the remembrance of things past which being once cast into or rather bred in the soul by sin sticks so fast that henceforth it can never be pluckt away It doth not cease to gnaw the conscience wherewith being fed as with inconsumptive food it preserves its life perpetually I tremble at this gnawing worm Mat. 2â— and living death I tremble for fear of falling into the hands of living death and dying life Therefore while the soul endures the memory endures but what an one stained with sins rough with crimes swoln with vanity evergrown and neglected through contempt All which though they have gone before yet are they not passed they have passed from the hand to the mind That which is done cannot be undone wherefore though the doing was in time yet the having been done remains for ever that doth not pass away with time which goes away beyond all time It is therefore necessary that should torment for ever which thou shall ever remember to have done amiss Hitherto St. Bernard SECT 6. ADivine and Suffragan Bishop of St. Th Can Dominicks Order a faithful writer of the History of his time relates a strange passage in this manner A Bishop there was in in Germany of Princely race from which by his life and means he did degenerate This same man at first was somewhat bashful in gapeing after gold and in giving way to secret venery afterwards he proceeded further so as not careing to amend his life he loosed the reins to things forbidden and freely abandoned him self to rapine and luxury God checked him sundry ways one while by sickness another while by other calamities inviting him to reform his life In fine as he led a debaucht life so he took a miserable end At that very time Conrade Bishop of Hildeâ—heim was got out a bed to go to Mattins Hildemensis which ended he betook himself to his study to prepare for a Sermon next day Here being for some space in an ecstasy he thought he saw a Bishop with a Mitre on his head but with his face covered hurried away to judgment Presently his accusers laid to his charge that he was chiefly infamous for rapine and guilty of lust Here the Judg spoke to some of his attendance Examine his cause and give sentence They did so and forthwith the Executioners took away from the condemned Person his Mitre Ring and other Ornaments which they cast at the feet of the supream Judg. The attends rise up and as they go away each one for a conclusion of their Judgment says Therefore while we have time Paul Galaâ— c 6. vs 10. let us work good to all These things the foresaid Bishop beheld who after he came to himself found his head busied with enquiring what Bishop it might be which died at that time When lo one weeping at the Gate declares how his Master whom he named coming last evening ino the next village was suddainly dead Conrade at this lamentable accident fetcht a deep sigh resolving with tears
shall live in their torments but they shall so live in them as if it were possible they would dye but no one makes an end of them that their pains may last for ever Their pains there are not only endless but likewise so perpetually renewed as that they are always new They shall burn says Job c. 20. and all sorrow shall fall upon them Whence they will be seised with most desperate fury and most furious despair Some indeed despair and that but once because death allows them no longer time But in hell they despair a thousand times an hour yea their despair is without ceasing like unto a continual or hectick feaver Whatever the damned think on that is to them rageing despair they would if it were in their power tear themselves in pieces with their teeth stabbe themselves all over with sharp knives and draw death to them with open arms but death will fly from them SECT 2. SUch as despair through extream adversity somtimes bereave themselves of life by water sword halter poyson or precipices fancying hereby they shall find an end of their life and misery together whereas in hell no end may be found either of calamity life or death There is no water no sword no halter no poyson no precipice can kill them howbeit all these particulars do there torment them as doth also continual and never ending despair At which the Judges final sentence doth chiefly aime Depart from me accursed into everlasting fire from this no appeal may be granted the decree is irrevocable and as St. Austin speaks this sentence of God is unchangable The Angel which St. Apoc. c. 10. John saw swore by him that liveth for ever and ever that there shall be time no more But there shall be eternity and a reward of things done in time This immutable oath of the Angel this fatal sentence of our Lord the damned shall so certainly perceive that this storm of words this horrible thunder shall perpetually sound in their ears into fire everlasting into fire everlasting everlasting alas â—nto fire everlasting Not one syllable or tittle of these words fail of their effects these words which the damned hear and understand we hear and understand not Now as the habitation of the blessed is replenished with all delight so that of the damned is an epitome or abridgment of all dolours What ever is afflictive deplorable or dreadful those beneath are sensible of what ever is delightful pleasing or comfortable those above do plentifully participate In this world of ours no malady so great but has its remedy all affliction may if we will be mitigated Our grief is frequently appeased by reason by rest by pleasing conversation and chiefly by process of time one while our friends and kindred another while such as have suffered the like disasters but principally hope either wipes away or asswages our Calamity Whereas God knows in that region of utter desolation all gates are shut to the least solace No ease no comfort may be expected from heaven or earth from their condition past present or to come What way soever they turn their eyes they behold arrows of eternal death shot against them On every side they are environed with mourning and anguish grief and extream sadness together with torments exceeding all number They may truly say The sorrows of death have compassed me Psal 114 and the pangs of despair we have found tribulation and wailing Hereupon they will not cease to curse the name of our Lord perpetually SECT 3. THis despair of the wicked will be augmented above measure by the certain knowledge they have that with all their unspeakable sufferings not the least blemish of sin may be washt away such is the venom of one mortal sin that even venial defects accompanying it to hell must be chastised for ever Take this example our ordinary failings are idle words effused laughter some small excess in diet carelesness in the castody of our eyes distraction in prayer these and such like while we live are casily expiated One morsel for borne to curb our appetite one gentle sigh a litle patience or an easie keeping our hands or eyes in order blot out those lesser stains whereas if they be joined with one heinous crime in hell both shall be punisht eternally which adds no small fuel to enkindle the fire of despair We must needs acknowledge in this life the hand of God is armed with meekness when he strikes but in the other 't is heavier then lead harder then iron and when extended to revenge he never pulls it in again The despair we speak of ariseth from hope in excess which is called presumption this the wise man warns us to eschew Say not I have sinned and what sorrowful thing hath chanced to me for the highest is a patient rewarder Of sin forgiven be not without fear neither add thou sin upon sin And say not The mercy of our Lord is great he will have mercy on the multitude of my sins Slack not to be converted to our Lord and defer not from day to day for his wrath shall come suddainly and in time of vengeance he will destroy thee Ecclesiast c. 15. Admirably well sayd St. Gregory Lib 1 Râ—â— c 3 He hath an orderly trust in the mercy of God who corrects what he did amiss by repenting not repeating the same fault He that doth otherwise is not guided by hope but is thrust headlong by temerity SECT 4. T Is a point worthy of credit that scarce any Christian is adjudged to hell who in this life did not hope to live longer and thought death farther off then it was Out of this deceitful hope springs everlasting despair It is likewise a matter no less credible that amongst those desperate slaves scarce one may be found who during life did not often secretly despair in this manner Lo I but do and undo I shall never lead other life it is too too hard to relinquish old customes all my endeavour is to no purpose it is in vain to strive I shall never become better while I live let us therefore hold on and enjoy good things preseâ—t death posts on amain we must all be gone quickly let us then take our leave of these timely delights and solemnize our departure with pleasure Th s in reallity is to despair O Christians as you tender your selves and your own salvation I beseech you and by the death of Christ conjure you beware of this dargerous roek unless you desire without peradventure to suffer wrack It is never too late to amâ—nd while we live Have we fallen into the same offence a thousand times Let us â—iâ—e again a thousand times by pennance 'T is never past time to become better every day every hour each one may say with the Psalmist Psa 76. I sayd now have I begun He that is grown so feeble as that he will not endeavour to amend his failings but permits the reins to corrupt
upon mutual consent they drew lots and the lot falling upon Jonas he was cast into the sea the rest who had thrown their goods into the water escaping While we live we sail in a tattered and leeking ship through a stormy and raging sea where we are as near to eternity as Marriners to the water we are often three fingers distant from death though many times not so much one breathing space sufficeth to act that which an entire eternity cannot expiate We are frequently minded of the danger we live in by one who speaks to us in this sort Why art thou oppressed with sleep Rise invocate God He that values his salvation shakes off drowsiness arises from the place of his repose and throws over board such ladeing as would hinder his safety I mean he betakes himself to prayer fasting and almes deeds and chooses rather to loose all then not to do pennance in good earnest for his sins Contrary-wise how many be found who refusing to submit to the will of God are in such a dead sleep as not to hear what peril is threatned by the roaring tempest to these kind of people eternity seems but a fable or a dream O dangerous lethargy which makes them pass over with a deaf ear wholsom admonitions till at length death seises on them and as it were betwixt sleeping and wakeing casts them into the vast ocean of eternity SECT 2. IT is recounted of a certain man Merff Ser 3. in dom 2. post Epiph. more commendable for his linage then his life that he was a mere worldling and hardhearted to the poor This same person attended by his servant betook himself to his rest when lo about midnight the servant is made partaker of this vision He beholds his master hurried away to Gods Tribunal where he is accused and condemned thence by a crue of infernal spirits who insult over him he is plunged into gulfs of fire where divers sad passages were represented unto him Lucifer welcoming his new guest said This friend of ours was much taken with hot bathes whence he used to repair to a warm and soft bed for his ease he was wont to chear himself up with full bowls and melodious harmony see therefore that all these particulars be prepared for him Here the miserable wretch crys out and furiously curses the day of his birth the glorious company of heaven yea and God himself Amidst these execrations and howling his unhappy soul was thrown down with horrid noise into a pool of flames Provided for him After this lamentable representation the servant awaking rises up and runs to his master whom he found stark dâ—ad Out alas how hiddenly does death steal upon us wo be to them whom it arrests at unnawares when they are asleep they shall make their entrance into their habitation for eternity whence they may never return to their former dainties or delights God in his wrath threatens most severely I will make them drunk that they may be drousie and sleep an everlasting sleep and not arise Jer. ch 15. Abundant examples bear testimony hereof Balthasar the Chaldean King sitting at a banket saw a hand writing on the wall whereat he was astonisht though he understood not what was written Daniel who was skilful in the interpretation of it he honoured with a purple robe and a chain and moreover decreed he should be esteemed as a person in the third place next to the King Where notwithstanding no mention at all is made of any repentance albeit that very night Balthasar was slain This same lot falls upon all them whâ—â— look on eternity as on a dream for such as these though they busie their thoughts with almost infinit matters yet they never seriously fasten them on Eternity but live as they list and wallow in wickedness To these as to King Balthasar this short writing is prophesied This life is a moment but on this moment Eternity depends Herewith they are terrified they tremble they have an horrour to be burnt in eternal flames they are amazed to think that after a thousand millions of years Eternity is no whit at all diminished they extoll this truth but make no use of it to amend their manners they reverence these mysteries but better not their lives they hearken to and esteem those who unsold these hidden secrets unto them mean while either they do no pennance or persevere not therein We believe these things say they yet they do not bid adieu to their accustomed vices After fear of short continuance they return afresh to carousing to voluptuousness to usury to envy and dissention as vicious if not more then ever To persons thus indisposed that which Daâ—iel told the King may be fitly applyed And thou O Balthasar after the knowledge of all these things hast not humbled thy heart And thou O Christian after all these particulars were declared unto thee hast not amended thy covetousness and injustice thy bawling and bitter tongue thy inveterate malice thou hast not corrected thy unbridled lust and lasciviousness are haunted as formermerly thy riot and drunkenness is not laid aside thou sports and rants as much as ever swearing is still in vogue with thee Eternity alas is carelesly thought on by thee it seems no more then a fearful dream eternity never took deep rooting in thy breast and now upon the suddain thou must be thrown into that immense ocean of eternity These matters thou might nay thou ought to have foreseen if thou wouldest continue under the notion of a Christian He may ascribe his own destruction to himself who being warned of his danger bewares it not SECT 3. SAul put the people of Ifrael into great fright for as it is recordâ—â— in the first book of Kings c. 11. The spirit of our Lord seised on Saul and his fury was exceeding wrath And taking both the Oxen he cut them into pieces and sent them into all the coasts of Israel by Messengers saying Whosoever shall not forth and follow Saul and Samuel so shall it be done to his Oxen. The Israelites were slow in coming to the Kings standard but so soon as they received this message The fear of our Lord invaded the people and they went forth as it were one man three hundred and thirty thousandmen Christ the commander of heaven and earth a King of far greater soveraignty then Saul menaceing in good earnest makes this proclamation Fear him who after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell yea I say to you fear him Luke c. 12. He doth not threaten Oxen but men with fire eternal and yet what reckoning do many make of these threats they value them no more then a dream and thereupon with much boldness transgress the laws of God Tell me I pray What temerity would that traveller be guilty of who being weary upon the way should espy a wall full of chincks rotten and eady to fall down and yet by reason of his weariness should dare to take a
it leaves not one sole dram of grace in the soul What merit soever hath been collected for many years one sole sin destroyes in a moment This is asserted by Ecclesiastes c. 9. He that shall offend in one point shall lose many good things If any one had made himself acceptable to God by the practise of all kinds of Vertue for fifty for an hundred years space if any one had lead a strict life and fasted every day with bread and water if any one had girt his loins with an Iron Chain whipped himself dayly and bestowed all he had in Almes and after all this should commit one mortal sin he would lose all the merits of his life past all the Grace of God and of a bosome Friend become a professed Enemy to God The matter is certain and admits of no contest You may give credit to the Prophet Ezechiel ch 18. If the just man shall turn away himself from his justice and do iniquity all his justices which he had done shall not be remembred Hast thou committed one sole mortal sin all thy former labours are lost all grace is lost thou hast lost Heaven God and all Wherefore either recover thy losses or resolve to bewail them Eternally Amongst other punishments threatned by God to Israel that as most dreadful is rehearsed by Osee c. 9. Woe to them when I shall depart from them This departure of God from the Soul is the death of it An incomparable evil an evil that surpasseth all the sufferings of Holy Martyrs yea the everlasting torments of all the damned Take a view I pray of the misery of man deserted by God for sin what ever such a man doth what ever he suffereth while destitute of Divine Grace though he remove Mountains leap into the fire pluck the Stars from Heaven set whole Fountains on fire and act wonders to be admired in all ages yet shall he not merit the least degree of Heavenly bliss while he continues in Gods disfavour The reason of what I affirm is manifest The Origen of all merit is divine grace therefore let him either purchase grace or despair of Heaven I adjoyn another point altogether as deplorable He that hath forsaken God as aforesaid might indeed throw himself down at his pleasure but all the strength he hath cannot rise again He cast himself into a ditch out of which he can never escape unless God by his singular favour lend him his hand An Echo returns no answer but when provokeed by a previous noyse and he who has sinned doth not true pennance except he be first excited by God Nevertheless let none despair of pardon though he have fallen a thousand times Hast thou offended Be of good courage After a slip our steps are more warily if not more constantly setled Seeing therefore the nature of sin is so cruel de simil ch 190. and its malice so detestable St. Anselm generously cryes out If on one side I saw the deformity of sin and on the other the horrour of Hell by one whereof I must needs be overwhelmed I would rather throw my self into those flaming Gulfs then admit of sin For I had rather go into hell innocent and free from sin then defiled with it be seated in Heaven since it is certain only the wicked are tormented in Hell and the just alone possess eternal happiness Hereupon likewise the same Author discourses in this manner Open thine eyes miserable Soul and see what formerly thou hast bin and what now thou art what was thy condition then and what now Thou wast an Espouse of the Highest a Temple of the living God a Vessel of Election a Bride-chamber for an eternal King a Throne of the true Salomon a seat of Wisdome a Sister of Angels an Heir of Heaven All these prerogatives thou didst enjoy but now with tears lament thy suddain change The Espouse of God is become an Adultress of the Devil the Temple of the Holy Ghost is turned into a Den of Theives the Vessel of Election into one of Corruption the Bride-Chamber of Christ into a puddle for Beasts to wallow in the feat of Wisdome into a chair of Pestilence the Sister of Angels into a companion of Devils yea she who ere while like a Dovesoared above the Heavens now like a Serpent creeps upon the earth Bewail therefore bewail O wretched Soul thy doleful state for the Heavens mourn for thee the Angels and all Saints deplore thy condition the tears of Paul and bloody streams issuing from the body of Christ our Lord condole with thee because thou hast sinned and hast not done pennance for sin committed Proceed we now to a fuller examination of this point He who hath sinned is either sepsible his Conscience is wounded or he is not sensible If he be sensible he is also miserable because he groans under most piercing grief a guilty conscience is an excessive torment But if he have no feeling of his inward wounds then he is miserable above measure it is the worst of evils to cherish ones own wickedness without perceiveing it and to have lost all sense after one is mortally wounded Thus Drunkards while they are Carousing perceive not the strength of wine which when digested they are sensible of Well said St. Chrysostome The chiefest wickedness is to be wicked Serm. 5. de jeju Albeit the Physitian doth not scarify a sick person yet doth his sickness still remain with him and although God doth not punish the offender nevertheless he that offends is diseased yea already dead Not unlike to this is that assertion of Seneca The prime and greatest punishment of sinners is to have sinned Neither is any crime without pain because the torment of wickedness is in wickedness it self The Conscience is scourged with what ever is done amiss Where Vice is there is also punishment Neither can a goared Conscience be without grief Though no one strike a wicked man though no one maim or torture him with rack or flames yet he himself is his own Executioner Peradventure he is insensible and hath lost all feeling of his sad condition He is therefore so much nearer to Hell fire by how much he is farther off from the knowledge of his own offences Such an one may be rightly termed dead and buried Who hath sinned and is not sorry who hath grievously transgressed and sues not for pardon who hath lost Gods grace and sighs not for it who is deprived of his right to Heaven and esteems it no damage who is ready to be tumbled into Hell and laughs at it What a bruite is this what a stone what a block this is the malignant nature of sin so to transform men into beasts stocks and stones as that they perceive not their own scars till they be discovered by hell fire We then begin to abhor sin when it is attended by rigorous chastisement Yea it often comes to pass that such as through impiety have lost all feeling
and Swine as he did Herod with that of Fox Sin changes men into beasts as is apparent out of Holy Writ Psa 48. Man when he was in honour did not understand he was compared to beasts without understanding and became like to them This is no great change Sin converts a man into a Devil as Christ plainly said to his Discisples John 6. Of you one is a Devil He objected likewise unto the Jews You are of your Father the Devil John 8. Now the Devil according to St. Anselm though warned by terrour and menaces would not abstain from sin neither would man beware of it albeit he was threatned with death if he did transgress The Devil sinned once but man offends many sand times he rebelled against his Creatour whereas man impiously kicks both at his Creatour and Redeemer St. In cap. 9. Joan. hom 54. Chrysostome inveighs severely against an envious person An envious man is worse then the Devil the Devil indeed bears envy but to men not to his own companions whereas thou being a man dost envy men and practise hatred against those of the same kind and nature with thy self which Satan doth not A wicked man may rightly be stiled a Devil yea hell it self Apoc. c. 20. And Hell and death saith the Apostle were cast into the Pool of fire How could this be was hell cast into hell it was so if we credit Expositours upon this place because he who steers a wicked course may justly be termed an Hell For as hell is a place of torments and an abode for Devils so a man of debaucht carriage suffers the pangs of a guilty Conscience wherein the Devil hath taken up his quarters Thus then this Hell shall be cast into Hell O sin O blasting and pestiferous whirlwind which killest in the budd both blossoms leaves and fruit of humane actions which deprivest man of justice and innocency and robbest him of himself O Poyson which dost murther when beloved and infectest even the very Marrow of the Soul and canst not be asswaged by an Ocean of calamities nor extinguished by the flames of Hell God makes this question to our first Parent after his fall Gene. 3. Adam where art thou Adam might with reason have returned this answer I am no where He was then no where indeed For by sin committed he was separated from God and punishment for his fault exiled him from Paradise Neither was he in himself by reason of the remorse his Conscience endured neither was he in other creatures which his offence had moved to Rebellion nor in the world because of his own inconstancy He was then no where alas he was no where where he might find repose But he was like unto a swift running torrent whose streams in regard of their rapid motion can neither be affirmed to be here nor there Do you desire to know what sin is Take a leisurely view of Adams fall How many millions of men were plunged into the depth of miseries by it from it sprung Famine War and Pestilence from it all Calamities Disasters yea death it self Such a tree might well bring forth such fruits from such a cause such effects were easily produced True it is the Son of God was fastned to a Cross to expiate this crime and yet how many millions suffer wrack in hell through sin Who ever will attentively consider these things when soothing pleasure invites him to offend may freely say I will not buy eternal repentance at so dear a rate When the Heavens frown and burst forth into storms of Hail Snow Whirlwinds Thunder and Lightning the cause is that Exhalations and Vapours through their native lightness are easily drawn up and afterwards in various tempests fall down to the earth again No otherwise descend from Heaven upon us violent storms of Dearth Warr Plague Sickness and other miseries which God indeed rains down amongst us but after the Exhalations and Vapours of our transgressions had ascended on high that lecture we learn from the Schools of Phylosophy this of Divinity St. Gregory speaks to the purpose The evil we suffer our sins have deserved The same is attested by Ecclesiasticus Death ch 40. Bloud Contention and Sword Oppressions Famine and Contrition and Scourges For the wicked all these were created Sin Banisht us from Paradise into this vale of tears into this tempestuous Sea where boysterous Winds and lofty Surges cause frequent Ship-wracks and all other miseries Sin maketh people miserable saith Salomon Pro. 14. How came the Turks so often to infest Christendome Whence proceeded so many inroads of Barbarous Nations So many Victories obtained against us What is the cause we are so much pestered with Famine and Plague Why doth that Face of Heaven toward us seem to be all of Brass and either drown us with too much wet or make us pine away for want of Rain Whence do Diseases rush in upon us by whole swarms All these are effects of sin sin is an abiss of all calamities I must needs deliver my mind in Seneca's words Epist 95 He is deceived that thinks God can have a will to do hurt he cannot God neither doth evil nor hath evil Albeit he chastise some and keep them in awe with punishments His eyes are clean from seeing evil and cannot look toward iniquity Therefore he bears extream hatred against sin Even as light of its own nature hath opposition with darkness Comliness with Deformity Goodness with Malice Purity with Uncleanness Life with Death So hath sanctity with all wickedness Wherefore as God loves sanctity beyond expression in like manner his aversion from sin is infinite Marks of his aversion are these that follow First he withdraws himself and his grace from a sinner Then he punisheth sin with many calamities as with present coyn even in this life Thirdly he takes from the Malefactour all right to Heaven Therefore we must either do true pennance or bid adieu to Heaven Fourthly every mortal sin he chastiseth with flames eternal and yet which cannot be exprest without admiration the chastisement is less then the sin deserves All Divines unanimously affirm an everlasting torment is decreed for every mortal sin neither can it ever truly be said This sin hath been punisht sufficiently What then is a mortal sin Alas alas Let all Angels answer this question which yet they are not able fully to declare that which lurks under one deadly sin is infinitely abominable That which Ludovicus Blosius recounts to stir up detestation of mortal sin is exceeding dreadful Monil spur c. 1. If the Mother of our Lord the most Blessed Virgin had sinned mortally and had dyed without contrition she had never attained Heaven but must have been tormented with the Devils in Hell So rigorous is Gods justice This likewise was revealed to St. Lib. 4. ch 7. Brigit who heard the Devils cry out to the supream Judge in this manner If that thing which thou lovest
blessed life replenisht with never ending and perpetual delight Have patience therefore yet a while 2. Cor. ch 4. Our momentary and light tribulation worketh an eternal weight of glory in us We shall one day remember with joy what we now have difficulty to endure Whatsoever sufferings therefore occur Coll. 1.11 bear them In all Patience and longanimity with joy giving thanks to God These and many other particulars are much inculcated to little purpose whereunto scarce any other answer is returned Es c. 28. but that of the Jews Command recommand command recommand expect re-expect expect re-expect What ever befals us hereafter we will glut our Eyes and Hands with things present pleasure draws us too and fro in which t is hard to observe a mean Our appetite must be satisfied though it cost us never so dear God is good and merciful who will easily pardon such as offend him With these charms they strive to stop your mouth but O miserable and blind mortals do you not know these pleasures you thirst after are forbidden doth not your own Conscience Preach this Doctrine to you doth not reason disswade you do not Gods Laws command the contrary Tell me I pray do you not beleive all the pleasure this world affords how lasting soever it be lasts but a moment withers in a trice and ends in eternal sorrow All Eternity of this world compared to true Eternity is but a minute a point and less then nothing But do you consider or give credit to these things If you will be known by the name of Christians you must both think on and beleive them If you acknowledge mans condition to be such that we are unmindful of eternal and eagerly pursue things present which is the cause why you have so many scars are so grievously wounded and drowned in the sink of Vice I shall own your Confession as good in case it be accompanied with amendment of life SECT 2. GIve me leave to propose yet another question Do you beleive these Vices which are so familiar with you are punisht eternally by God We do beleive it say they Why then are you both so forgetful and bold as to tread under foot so confidently the laws of God insomuch as neither fear of chastisement nor dread of hell nor horrour of everlasting fire nor love of Heaven are able to restrain you from sin From want of this fear proceeds your debaucht life your impatience in adversity your forgetfulness of Hell in prosperity and that multitude of vices which ensnare you Indeed Eternity hath no place in your thoughts which though you beleive you do not consider it with attention Jeremy ch 12. There is none that considereth in the heart Eternity is frequently in our mouth seldome in our heart Admonitions concerning Eternity knock at our Ears but are not admitted to enter Scarce any one weighs attentively the Secrets of eternity Now and then perchance we have some thoughts of those endless windings of eternity but they quickly vanish we sometimes read what others have written of eternity but we soon forget it we hear in Sermons of that bottomless Gulf of Eternity but even that too stayes not long with us a croud of other thoughts stifle in our minds those wholesome considerations So eternity ere it be well entred into our souls is overwhelmed with pernicioâ—â— desires whence all the blandishments of our former impurities creep into our hearts and nestle there as before Thus our Faith which we boast of is a drowsy or indeed a dead faith Michael Mercatus the elder as Baronius relates from persons of undoubted credit entered into a league of intimate friendship with Marsilius Ficinus Tom. 5. anno 411. a man of an excellent capacity this tye was faster knit together by their joynt applycation to the study of Phylosophy Both of them were well read in Plato Whence it came to pass that they engaged in a dispute amongst themselves what was the state of man after death whither his soul went what semblance belonged to matters in the next world All which they resolved first to deduce but of Plato's principles and afterwards to establish according to the tenets of Christianity When they had long debated the business they came at length to this agreement that they should shake hands and promise each other that whether dyed first should if God were so pleased faithfully inform the surviver how the case stood in the next life This was their covenant to which they mutually consented and confirmed it by Oath In process of time they were so parted as that they setled their habitation in different Cities Which done Michael Mercatus being early one morning busiy at his study of Philosophy he heard a horseman in the next street posting amain towards his Gates and Marsilius his voice calling aloud He meanes things touching the immortality of the soul O Michael Michael those things are true they are true indeed they are most true Michael acquainted with the voice of his familier friend left his books ran to the window looked forth and saw Marsilius his back riding on a white horse and now almost out of sight at a turning whom he pursued with a nimble voice and called Marsilius Marsilius but the rider in white admitting no delay was presently out of sight Mercatus astonisht with this unexpected apparition was solicitous to know what was become of his Marsilius After a while he understood Marsilius was dead at Florence that very hour wherein he both heard and saw him at his own house From that time forward Mercatus though otherwise a man of an upright life and approved integrity took his leave of Philosophy and resolved to adhere more exactly to the principles of a better Philosophy taught Christian Religion Whereupon being dead to himself and the world be bestowed the remainder of his life upon things to come and meditated every day upon eternity SECT 3. AN attentive meditation on eternity is the beginning of a better life Vertue is commended but coldly where love of eternal life is wanting The road is smooth and easy to hell when the mind is not dayly employed with the consideration of a blessed or damned eternity These things we both know and beleive and yet we loyter and neglect our chiefest good T is true you may hear some say O Eternity But in the interim they cheerfully lay fast hold on a full cup and carouse so long till the liquor damm at the top of their throat Now and then with a deep sigh we breath out Eternity and in the mean while our heart swimms in impure and lacivious thoughts it digests secret lust and by hidden contrivances steals away it self from God We run in quest after the treasures of Heaven but cease not to smile upon money which is the scum of the earth and privately offer sacrifice to Mammon We make a shew as if we were afraid of flames eternal and yet hold on to kindle
That herd of Goats shall then be of more loathsome scent the more immoderately they have here sought after Perfumes Some of your odoriferous smells are incentives to Gluttony some to Lust and certainly an eager desire of them is an argument of incontinency But to make short this kind of allurements which are perceived by the ears eyes and nostrils are either marks of Levity or Lasciviousness To become a slave to sensual delight above measure is no less then vanity or impurity Perfumes and pretious Oyntments have been prejudicial and destructive to many Muleasses King of Tuny's faught against his Son Amida for the recovery of his Kingdome but being worsted in the encounter and seeking by flight to save himself all besmeared with blood and dust was discovered by his persumes and brought into Captivity where his son with a hot penknife cut out both the Apples of his Eyes and blinded him A young Gallant richly annoynted went to render thanks to Vespatian the Emperour for a curtesy he had lately done him But the Emperour being sensible of the sweet scent he breathed began to be angry and frowning on him spoke sharply saying I would rather thou hadst stunk of Garlick Thus Caesar recalled his grant and the Gallant after a sound check was cashiered of his pretended Honour C. Plotinus Plancus being sent into banishment and for fear of death lying privately at Salernum was betrayed by his costly odours and so lost his life and furnisht his adversaries with an excuse for their cruel proceeding So true it is that perfumes are disgraceful and dangerous Here by the way we may please to observe that many things which we beleive to be mere trifles are lookt upon by God with a rigorous eye ch 3.24 Therefore as Esay foretold For sweet savour there shall be stink Forget not I pray this admonition of the Prophet Micheas I will shew thee O man what is good ch 6.8 And what our Lord requireth of thee verily to do judgement and to love mercy and to walk solicitous with thy God The fifth Torment is fire OF this fire admirably speaks Isidorus Pelusiota Epist 47 You may be pleased to take notice my friend that none can lye hid from that All-seeing and watchful eye no not in the most secret retreat if you do any thing amiss For all things are naked and open to him though they seem to be never so private and out of sight Wherefore such as sin and do not true pennance shall be plunged in certain perpetual floods boyling with dreadful fire whose streams are no other then flames prepared for torment Let us therefore fear the Majesty of God This fire alas may not with any revolution of years nor as St. Gregory Nazianzen speaks with any numberless number of ages be extinguisht What way soever you turn all is Fire Pitch Brimstone Anger and Wrath of our Lord. Where you may note amongst our fires a main difference that of the Thunderbolt being more active then our usual fire and that eternal devouring fire of hell more powerful then either Now let me demand with Esay c. 33.14 Which of you can dwell with devouring fire which of you shall dwell with everlasting heats What fiery Salt-Sea though it be hot night and day yet in the year it hath its intermission from heat several dayes when it remains quiet and free from burning In Hell after an hundred a thousand yea ten thousand years are past Tom. 9. trac 5. de met not one day nor minute of respite will be allowed He saith St. Austin who hath a sound consideration and beleives what God hath revealed fears more eternal fire then the Sword of any Tyrant though never so barbarous He dreads more perpetual death then any death here whatever How many houres then how many moneths or years must those Traitours to God abide in that fire Neither hours dayes nor years may be numbred the hours shall be eternal the dayes and moneth eternal the years and fire shall be eternal Why will God reject for ever Psa 76. He will reject for ever The triumpher in Israel will not spare 1. Kings 15.29 and he will not be turned with repentance He that is afraid of these things saith St. Bernard bewares of them he that sleights them slips into them The like advice is instilled by Climacus Let the memory of eternal fire sleep with thee every night Grad 7. The sixth Torment is the Worm of Conscience A Guilty Conscience though but for a day good Lord what a punishment is it What then will it be when it lasts for ever The conscience of the damned is throughly wounded which makes it ever afflicted alwaies in despair without comfort Pathetically writes St. Lib. 5. de Isid ch 12. Bernard of this point Amongst so great a multitude of spectators no ones eye will be more troublesome then every one 's to himself There is no sight either in Heaven or Earth which the dark some conscience would rather avoid but cannot Darkness is not covered from its self it beholds it self that can discover nothing else The works of darkness follow them they can hide themselves no where from darkness no not in darkness it self This is the worm that dyeth not the remembrance of things past which being once cast into or rather bred in the soul by sin sticks so fast that henceforth it can never be pluckt away It doth not cease to gnaw the conscience wherewith being fed as with inconsumptive food it preserves its life perpetually Here the truth of those words will experimentally appear I will reprove thee and set it against thy face In Hell are no Clocks Psal 49 nor Stars to guide Clocks by no Almanacks nor Kalendars no means there to know any difference of times Ecclesiastes affirms Neither work nor reason nor wisdome nor knowledge shall be in Hell ch 9. ver 10. whither thou dost hasten Here only the Clock of Conscience is heard but much out of order It is irksome to one that is sick and cannot sleep to hear no Clock nor to be able to know how the time passeth Hence one quarter seems as long as an hour and an hour as long as a whole night and yet after six or seven hours are gone the little birds with chirping melody welcome in the morning the Sun by degrees rises out of his dayly tomb the feaverish heat remits and a gentle slumber seises on the temples all things that by approaching night grew worse by this time are become more mild Anon some will come in to ask how the sick man doth and will not only cheer him up with comfortable words but also with other necessaries Nothing of all these O my God! is to be found in Hell no Day no Sun no Dew no Morning no Birds but Devils no refreshment not so much as a drop of water there is perpetual darkness everlasting dolours and butchery of Conscience without end