twenty years and upward Whereunto Sir Thomas replyed your design then is to have me exchange an entire eternity for twenty years Surely you have small skill in merchandise who would part with costly wares for a trifle Had you mentioned twenty thousand years you might have had some seeming pretence for your folly But alas what are twenty or thirty thousand years to eternity A small point a shaddow a moment a smoak a mear nothing Wherefore I will joyfully undergo not onely imprisonment but all the calamities likewise of this life so long as it pleases God and upon condition my eternal recompense may be secured to loose any thing of that is to loose all What he said he made good by a couragious death SECT 3. JOhn Godfrey Bishop of Wortsburg a bright shining star amongst Prelates a man of so much greater sanctity by how much it was more concealed This good Prelate I say frequently used this sentence worthy to be engraven in cedar and gold Every moment I stand at the do r of Eternity Hence proceeded that custome of placing in every room of his palace a dead mans scull or some other bones of the dead either real or drawn out in mortar lest at any time he should forget the memory of eternity At his exequies a funeral Oration in latine extolled many things in him worthy commendation but this one especially that he was so addicted to busie his thoughts perpetually with eternity as that he read over leisurely three several times a treatise of eternity Work must needs go well forward where there is ever a fresh remembrance of eternity This was a practise of most heroick spirits to pause seriously upon eternity both night and day Here I may not pass over in silence that passage worthy of credit A Priest and a religious man P. Hermanus Hugo eminent in all kind of Schollarship was carried on so fervently with desire to imprint eternity in his heart that with great care he read over seven times a little book of eternity which doubtless he had done oftner if death had not overhastily summoned him to eternity Pachomius after a long exhortation to his Disciples came in the end to this conclusion Above all things said he let us bear in mind the last day and every minute be affraid of eternal puuishment This holy man knew well which way vertue was to be â—cquired Eternity stirs up in the pious frequent and sometimes doleful sighs For since we are exposed to a twofold eternity the one blessed the other cursed and since we have no acquittance to ascertain us of beatitude no marvail if they be in a particular manner seised with fear and trembling who now approach to the confines of eternity Besides though we have great hope of attaining everlasting happiness nevertheless because we are not yet in possession of it we have just cause to fear and sigh The delay of so great a good provokes both sighing and weeping Hermenigildus King of whom we spoke before son to Levigildus King of the Visigothes having renounced Arrianism became a Catholick and endured with much fortitude wrongs imposed on him by his own father who threatned to take away his life unless he would abandon Catholick Religion To whom the young prince returned this generous answer You may determine concerning me father what you please Do you resolve to take from me a Kingdom It is but one which dayly perisheth that other which is immortal you have not power to deprive me of Do you cast me into prison you stop not our free passage to heaven thither thither we will take our journy Will you break off the thread of this dying life I expect a better an eternal one These words were becoming so royal a person It is no loss but gain to exchange temporal goods for eternal Eternity makes the vertuous often long after it SECT 4. IEzonias anciently said to Ezekiel ch 11. v. 2 c. Son of man these are the men that conceive iniquity and devise most wicked counsel in this City saying were not houses builded of late This is the caldron and we the flesh Therefore prophesie of them thou son of man Those wicked men thought they were amidst the dainties in their own City as flesh in the pot which is not easily taken out by any All goes well with us say they our city and our houses are as fortresses unto us we are safe enough our enemies cannot annoy us To these same men Ezechiel prophesied on the behalf of God Ubi supâ—a I will cast you out of the midst of the caldron and I will give you into the hands of the enemies and will do judgments in you You shall fall by the sword The like befalls them who are much enamoured with this mortal life They think they are flesh in the caldron they are well at ease gay clothes costly fare and many pleasures they account their heaven eternity as they think not on so they desire it not being well appayed with their caldron Let us leave them to run their carrier by and by the case will be altered They shall be cast out they shall fall by the sword they shall be thrown into other caldrons wherein they shall fry and boyl for ever Contrary-wise while the wicked snatch at a minutes pleasure men of good conscience steer their course upward like unto fat which in a boyling pot swims on the top whereas others like lumps of flesh sink down and remain in the bottom This choice fat the world as a busie but foolish cook scums off and casts away for froth all good men are reputed as the refuse of this world However they pass through these sufferings with joyfulness having had a foretast of blessed eternity which they are already in love with Eternity makes the pious languish for it Amongst the people of Israel divers were found whose bosoms boyled with desires of enjoying the land of promise The desert which they inhabited so many years became now loathsome to them especially after their eyes gave testimony of the fruitfulness of the country which appeared in exquisit figgs goodly pomegranats and a huge bunch of grapes brought thence What do we said they Let us go up and possess the Land because we may obtain it Num. 13. Such expressions as these daily fill the mouths of the godly What do we here amongst Sepulchers of the dead why do we snatch our food from things which fade in a moment Let us go up and possess the Land whose fertility is eternal St. Austin being enflamed with this desire Lib. 3. de Lib. arb composed the third Book of Free Will which he closes with these words So great is the beauty of Justice so much the delight of light etetnal that albeit it were not lawful to stay therein any longer then one days space for this alone numberless years of this life abounding with dainties and plenty of temporal goods might in reason worthily be
Apple they were quickly banisht from that Garden of Pleasure and an Angel in Arms placed to guard the entrance thereof this is attested by Holy Writ And he cast out Adam Gene. 3. and placed before the Paradise of Pleasure Cherubims and a flaming and a turning sword This was a most signal testimony of Divine mercy there to place a servant only and not the Lord of Paradise with a sword to hinder all entrance It will not be so in the day of Judgement when no servant shall be permitted to have a sword Our Lord will take the sword himself and draw it against the damned Matt. 25 Get ye away from me you accursed These words are but few yet do they make a volume of so vast a bulk as will never be sufficiently read over It behoves us therefore now to look well 〈◊〉 us The less misery each one shall 〈◊〉 to in the other world the more 〈◊〉 he undergoes miseries in this CHAP. XIV What is the Fuel of Eternal Fire With an Explication of the grievousness of mortal sin VVEll said an Ancient Philosopher The begining of Wisdome is the knowledge of sin He will never sin grievously who with attention ruminates the gravity and ugliness thereof Take sin out of the world and you take away all evil together with it Sin is the onely evil in the world yea the very nursery of all other evils a most profound sea of all miseries and a bottomless depth of torments Hence issued that of St. Chrysostome Sin is a willing madness a voluntary Devil This moved the Mother of St. Lewis King of France while he was young to instill this principle into his heart My son I would rather thou shouldst dye then sin mortally well to our purpose spoke Iohn Climacus Though we should fast a thousand years continually with Bread and Water though we should bring the whole world to mourn with us though we should equal the River Iordan by weeping drop by drop yet could we never satisfy for our faults committed This made the Wise man cry out Ecc. 21. As from the face of a Serpent flee from sins Who touches the cup wherein Death has Vomited to speak with Turtullian and in which Poyson is offered to the taster There is nothing in the world more formidable then sin Upon which subject much hath been delivered as well by word of mouth as writing whereunto we will annex five assertions who ever sins mortally 1. Offends God most grievously and makes him his adversary and foe 2. He loseth all Gods Grace 3. He becomes guilty of all miseries and calamities 4. He loseth Heaven for all Eternity 5. He throws himself headlong into everlasting pains in Hell St. Paul comprehends the whole business in a word The wages of sin is death and all the train of death sorrow pain sickness anguish which are Harbingers are followed by eternal death All this t is meet we should consider more exactly therefore we will proceed with our assertions in order SECT 1. THe first is Whoever sins mortally offends good grievously and makes him his adversary and foe By sin the supream God is wronged so far as man places his final end in the creature with neglect of the Creatour This is an extream injury and not much unlike to Idolatry for which cause sins in Holy Writ are frequently called Idolatry Such temerity as this is found in all grievous sin and is worthy of all punishment whatever For in regard God is most present every where the sin is committed before his eyes who so much abhors it and so becomes an injury to God who is both Spectatour and hearer Thus we affront the Soveraign King before his face Yea and what is worse we abuse benefits to the displeasure of our Benefactour For that very help which God affords us in every action we turn against him As if a Father should provide his little Son of a Dagger wherwith he might learn to defend himself and withal should guide his childs tender arm yet the wicked Boy should strive to murther his father even while he held up the hand ready to stab him This is every ones case that sins While God both helps and directs his actions these he most injuriously converts against God Now for better manifestation of this notorious affront take a view of what ensues So often as a man is about to sin he stands betwixt God and the Devil as judge and umpire whether he will declare for God explicates his own Law and withal shewes his Crucified Son to withdraw man from sin The Devil sets before him pleasure the bait to all evil hereby to perswade and entice him to sin Whoever now sins declares without any more adoe for the Devil because turning away from God he most unjustly adjudges the cause to the Devil What else is this but to say indeed Let Laws command or prohibit what they will let Gods Son Crucified admonish crave move or manifest what he please let God himself menace what he list from Heaven the Devil invites me so sweetly he drinks to me in such a sugred cup that he perswades he gets the victory I go I run after the Devil I permit my self to be drawn by him This Inkeeper gives me content what shot soever he demand This is exactly the proceeding of every one that sins grievously Thus God is put into one scale and Pleasure into the other man comes to weigh them and when he is determined to sin he resolves rather to lose the friendship of God then debar himself of pleasure and so prefers Barabbas the Theif and Murtherer before Christ our Redeemer What more base horrible and unworthy so Soveraign a Majesty then for a creature to deal thus with its Creatour Be astonied O Heavens upon this Jeremy ch 2. and O Gates thereof be ye desolate exceedingly saith our Lord. For two evils hath my people done Me they have forsaken the Fountain of living water a most clear fountain and have thirsted after muddy water Yet for further Declaration of this particular Man as we said is drawn two waies this way God draws that the Devil It is freely in mans choice whom he will follow The Devil ties man in a thread for he can do no more and proposes to him something which may either sooth the flesh or stuffe the purse or puff him up with ambition with these threds he draws man whom he has entangled whither he pleases Now that man may satisfy his Lust or encrease his Fortune or be seated on the Throne of Honour he tramples underfoot the express Law of God Contrariwise God binds man with cords not easily broken He sets before his eyes his numberless benefits he requires from him due service he threatens to banish him from Heaven and throw him into Hell for ever if he be disobedient But all in vain what ever God either promises or menaces The Devil bears the Bell and through mans wilfulness is
you so make use of temporal things that with all your heart you pass to eternal If you desire saies St. Chrysostome to enjoy the things of this world â— Epist ad Tim. seek after Heaven will you get under your command these things present Despise them utterly Ermenigildus a most Holy young man son to the Spanish King when his Father Leuigildus had commanded this message to be brought unto him that he should either dye or receive the Communion after the Arrian fashion He sticking close to the true Religion returned this answer to his Father who was an Arrian It is not hard to part from a Kingdome which cannot be possest for any long time for his part his sole ambition was to enjoy that Kingdome which makes the Kings thereof immortal In the self same manner we must make use of our discourse Let us bid adue for ever to all those things which debar us from the fruition of the cheifest good for the loss of many things we know is gainful to the loser and we must not count that lost the privation whereof is recompenced in a most ample sort When King Demetrius made himself master of Athens Lachares an Athenian Philosopher besmeared his face with ink cloathed himself in a Countey weed and carried on his arm a basket covered over with green Leaves in this Equipage he stole out privately at a Postern Gate Now that he might with more ease escape the Troopers of Tarentum who pursued him he got a Horseback too and scattered several pieces of Durick Coin along the way as he rid which while the horsemen solicitously gather up he breaks from them and by means of this Stratagem secures his arrival into Baeotia So true it is that our loss is gain when we part with some to preserve the rest when we throw away a small proportion to secure the whole Why then do we not cast away to keep why do we not sustain some loss to become winners Let us ever be afraid of this own loss to lose God for ever Let every one dayly make this prayer in his own behalf Psa 50. Isa 26. Ex. 33. Ioh. 14. Cast me not away from thy face My heart hath said to thee my face hath sought thee out Thy face O Lord I will seek Shew me thy face Lord shew us the Father and it sufficeth us I am ready O Lord to do all thou shalt command to suffer all thou shalt lay upon me to fulfil thy holy will and to abstain from whatsoever thou forbidest Only this I earnestly crave turn not away thy face from me Let me lye in darkness O Lord let me be despised and live in obscurity only this is my Petition Turn not away thy Face from me The smallest evil if it endure for ever becomes exceeding great from the poise of Eternity what then shall we say of the greatest of evils CHAP. III. The second Torment of Eternity in Hell is Weeping IF he who has care of a Vineyard leave carelesly growing upon the Vine a bunch of ripe Grapes and before they be rotten brings them not to the Press the Wine they make will be so base and unsavoury that even a drunken man will be loath to drink of it Tears of Piety are a pretious liquor a most Noble Wine such as would rellish in the Pallate of an Angel so they be powred out in time St. Bernard affirms our tears to be dainties for Angels when they proceed either from a Holy sorrow or from the love of God But if Tears flow out of season or not from a motive of vertue they degenerate into a sowre and decayed wine they become unpleasant and fit for none to drink Those two Monsters of Kings Herod and Antiochus wept but their weeping was counterfeit their Tears came too late Esau saith St. Paul Heb. 12. found no place of Repentance although with Tears he had sought it Tears out of time are ungrateful and carry a tast of the Dreggs The space of this life is a time to weep in They that sow in Tears Ps 125. shall reap in joyfulness Going they went and wept casting their seeds This is the way to powre out Wine of the choicest perfume most Delicious to the tast of Angels Sometimes in the night the Elephant is observed to mourn sadly as one who bemoans his own slavery While we live we are in a night and alas too often are slaves to Vices Why do we not bewail this most wretched Servitude He leaves Grapes to rot upon the Vine who with Peter and Magdalen refuseth to weep In the other world tears come too late let us Weep amain in this Wo to those miserable Creatures who go into that House of Eternal wailing there they must begin to weep but shall never meet with the end of it Eternity fills their eyes with perpetual tears This is their second Torment in Hell Weeping whereof our Saviour speaks expresly Matt. 13 Luk. 13. There shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth Darkness of which we treated in the precedent Chapter serves to torment the eyes and weeping the subject of the ensuing is a continual rack to the ears SECT 1 CHrist in his most Divine Sermons made frequent mention of the tears of the Damned least the testimony of that excessive pain should be forgotten Hence are those words so often repeated There shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth Weeping saies St. Bernard by reason of that unquenchable fire Gnashing S. Bern. super qui habitat for that their worm never dyeth Their weeping proceeds from their pain their gnashing of Teeth from the fury they are seised with The cruelty of their Torments enforceth them to weep the vehemency of repining envy and obstinate malice causes in them gnashing of Teeth Hitherto this holy Father Concerning timely weeping truth it self hath spoken Matt. 4 Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Here we sometimes take a pleasure in weeping there eternal rears are void of all comfort That of the Poet is well known Weeping doth our pain asswage Tears from grief us dis-engage But in Hell all sorts of torments receive increase from weeping as doth the fire from Oyl or Brimstone cast into it In case the damned let fall one onely tear every day and God as he might easily do should keep these dayly tears together they would at length amount to an Ocean of tears so vast that it alone would far exceed all the Seas of this world Nevertheless though the Damned howl and wail most bitterly yet they shed not one sole tear even as graceless children who when chastised by their Parents part not with one salt drop from their eyes because they are grown stiff-hearted against stripes In like manner the damned whose will is most obstinate albeit they rage they roar and fill the air with horrid outcries notwithstanding no moysture of piety issues from their eyes All of them fill their Denns with confused
howlings as beasts do which are presently to be lead away to the slaughter Out alas what Musick is this which will never cease for all eternity What St. Paul testified of the joyes of Heaven Neither eye hath seen nor ear hath heard c. The very same may be affirmed of the furious howling of the Damned Such lamentable complaints such outragious wailings such terrible roarings are those of the damned that no one hath ever heard the like Let us call to mind I beseech you those cruel Gardens of Nero wherein he used to supp while Christians on every side being fastned to stakes were burned with a slow fire to serve as Torches in the night How sad and lamentable were the howlings of these Christians Imagine only a thousand tyed in this manner amidst the flames and as many more with their thighs broken upon a Rack yet alive with pittiful moans bewailing the greatness of their torments What a doleful noise would this be But alas what are a thousand Crucified men encompassed with fire what are a thousand upon the Rackâ— if compared to so many thousand thousands so many Millions of damed men and Devils all whose fearful outcryes and wayling each one as an evil most near unto him shall distinctly perceive SECT 2. GOD hath most wisely ordained that what shall mervailously delight all the blessed the contrary thereof shall incredibly torment the damned Frequent mention is made in holy writ of Celestial Harmony and Musick of the Blessed all whose exteriour senses shall enjoy their several delights So contrariwise in Hell it will be a special torment to hear incessantly the horrible complaints howling and mourning of so many hundred Millions as if so many Oxen were roasted alive or so many mad dogs strugled to break their chains but could not How ungrateful Musick would it be if your neighbour had a Kennel of Dogs who with continual barking should keep a restless sick man all night awake But O how melodious would this cry of dogs be O how gentle how short-lasting would this Hell appear if compared to those fiery caverns replenished with eternal howling Yet this is a just punishment for unchast amorous songs for lascivious strains in place whereof wo wo wo everlasting will fill their ears The damned will curse God and his Saints without ceasing yea and themselves too together with all who have been their companions in sin The Father will curse his Son the Son the Father the Mother her Daughter and the Daughter her Mother they will curse all the years dayes and houres of their lives for ever But they will weep with dry cheeks for nothing so much as for that shameful loss of time to have lavisht so many good houres so many dayes weeks moneths and years and that with so much idleness will be unto them cause of most peircing grief but alas too late Peter Reginaldus recounts how a Religious man being at his prayers heard a doleful voice he demanded who was there why he mourned what would he have Whereunto the voice made answer I am one of the damned Wherefore replyed the other dost thou mourn so sadly to whom the voice said I and the rest of the damned bewail nothing so bitterly as to have consumed the space of our lives in wickedness Out alas one houres time had been sufficient to gain that which from henceforth for all eternity will not be granted This saying was too true but too late hereupon grew that pious custome amongst the vertuous every hour to raise up the mind towards Heaven with these or the like words O my Lord O my God! I have now spent another hour whereof an account must be rendred have mercy on me O God now and in the end of my life SECT 3. NOw therefore our sighs avail us now if we will our tears are as so many Pearls now we have opportunity to weep that we may not sigh and weep forever When Antipater had written to Alexander King of Macedonia many things relating to his Mother and the King had read them he said Antipater does not know that one small tear let fall by a mother is able to abolish whole Epistles stuffed with slaunders I may in some sort averr the same of those guilty Inhabitants of Hell the Damned were not pleased to take notice that with one salt drop from the eye if serious if timely all offences what ever might be quite washed away For this reason St. Ser. 16. in Cant. Bernard exclaims Who will give water to my head a fountain of tears to my eyes that with weeping I may prevent weeping and gnashing of teeth and strait bands of hands and Feet and a great weight of Chains pressing binding burning and not consuming There shall be weeping By St. Matthew alone this is four times repeated Matt. 8.13 The children of the Kingdome shall be cast out into utter darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth The same is itterated And shall cast them into the Furnace of fire there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth In the very height of jollity and mirth at the Wedding against one ill cloathed this sentence passed Cast him into utter darkness there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth Weeping wants no solace while the dead we mourn for is yet within our doors but so soon as he is carried out not to return so soon as he is cast into a hole not to come out till the day of Judgement here whole showres are powred out here we give him a most sorrowful and last farwel Thus all mourning in this world has its comfort Yea even as those who dream they weep when the dream is over find their cheeks dry and wonder they were so sadly deluded in like manner when the deceitful dreams of this life are past and we awake to eternity we shall both admire and condemn our tears without fruit Indeed our wailing here is like that of Dreamers there there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth and that through excessive pains Be pleased I pray now and then to make some small tryal hereof apply your finger to a slender wax-light set on fire but for half a quarter of an hour O what howlings what showtings out will follow hence you would think the whole man were thrown into the fire when alas only the fingers end is scorched What I beseech you are these imaginary these painted Flames to Hell There shall be weeping there shall be gnashing of teeth Weeping shall proceed from fire gnashing of teeth from unexplicable cold Where mark by the way the damned shall ever have their senses most lively that they may suffer This may be observed in those who are sick of a Feavour in whom because the sense of pain is quick therefore they whet their teeth to cut the violence of their Malady in pieces In this sort the damned enjoy the quickness of senses most entirely that they may be sensible of their torments therefore as
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
miserable wretches shall fry in eternal flames for Eternity and longer In body they shall be tormented by fire and in spirit by the worm of Conscience There shall be pain intollerable horrible fear and stink incomparable death both of soul and body without hope either of pardon or mercy And yet shall they so dye as that they shall alwaies live and so live as that they shall ever dye Thus the soul of a sinner is either in hell tormented for sins or for good works placed in Paradise Now therefore let us choose one of the two either to be for ever tormented with the wicked or to rejoyce with Saints perpetually For good and evil life and death are set before us that we may stretch forth our hand to which we choose If pains do not terrify us at least let rewards invite us These things we are tought by Faith which yet as we declared before we either permit to degenerate into drowsness and sloath or wholly to perish Peter Barocius Lib. 2. de ratione bene moriendi Bishop of Padua recounts how a certain man famous for learning appeared after death to one of his intimate friends and spoke to him in this manner At the hour of Death in matters of Faith I was shamefully deceived by the Devil In which condition death found me carried me away and presented me to the judge by whom I was commanded to depart into flames Which though they be excessive yet should I deem them tollerable if after a thousand thousand years they were to have an end But they are eternal and so sharp as the like was never seen in this world Accursed be that knowledge which threw me headlong into so great misery After he had spoken thus he disappeared but his surviveing friend astonisht at the relation and especially strook with his friends eternal damnation consulted with his best friends what advice were most profitable for him in this case He became a new man and dyed holily The Conclusion THerefore St. Psal 68. Austin discoursed well Who saith he would not drink off a cup of temporal tribulation for fear of hell fire And who would not despise the sweetness of worldly pleasure out of love to the delights of everlasting life a greater fear makes us contemn smaller matters and a greater longing after Eternity makes us loath all temporal things As much saith St. Chrysostome as a grain of Sand Tom. 4. hom 11 in ep ad titum or a drop comes short of the immense abiss so far doth this present life differ from eternal and never ending treasures The things we have we do not truly possess we only make use of them and that improperly too T is vertue alone which will bear us company in our journey hence T is vertue alone which hath admittance into everlasting life Let us then at length open our eyes and quite extinguish all appetite to worldly wealth that all our desire may be placed on eternal But alas how great want of consideration is to be found amongst men how great blindness we wrangle for a half penny and make a laughter and jest on 't to lose Heaven Thus we are infected with the ordinary contagion of madness and take pleasure to perish for company Dost thou not blush saith St. Chrysostome to be so wedded to things present When wilt thou part with thy youth toyes and lay a side thy wonted folly What ever is here troublesome is of small continuance what is delightful there is everlasting Remove therefore thy mind from transitory and fading goods and settle it on better and eternal eagerly thirst after Heaven that thou maiest enjoy delights to come Is not reward of force to invite thee at least let fear of torment keep thee in awe Those punishments therefore saith Valerianus ought to have the first place in our thoughts where man lives while the pain lasts where neither pains are wanting to the body nor the body to pains To the like intent writes St. Chrysostome If the Ninivites had not been afraid of destruction Tom. 2. in epist 1. ad Thess they had bin destroyed If in the time of Noe they had feared the deluge they had not been drowned If the Sodomites had dreaded the fire they had not been burned It is a great misery to contemn menaces Nothing is so profitable as frequently to treat of hell speak of it every day that you may never fall into it A soul solicitous to escape hell cannot easily commit sin None of those who have a lively remembrance of hell will fall into it as none who sleight hell will escape it A certain man as Iohn Moscus relates came to Alexander Prat. spur c. 141. a venerable person who governed the Monastery of Abbot Gerasimus and said unto him Father I have a design to flit from my old habitation because the unpleasant situation of it is irksome to me To whom the good old man spoke in this manner Son this is a manifest sign you never consider with attention either the joyes of heaven or the pains of hell for if you did seriously weigh these things in your mind beleive me you would find no fault with your old habitation This was an Oracle of truth for who ever meditates attentively on heaven or hell either is not sensible of difficulty though never so great or if he be he makes his benefit of it and is most ready to undergo greater hardships so he may avoid eternal pains Of this temper was Abbot Olympius as Clymacus testifies who being asked how he could abide to live in such a Cave how he could endure such excessive heats or pass so many daies amongst whole swarms of gnats and flies he returned this answer I suffer these things willingly that I may be freed from future torments I am content to be bitten with gnats because I am afraid of the worm that never dyes heat is welcome to me in regard I stand in fear of fire everlasting for those sufferings pass away with time and will quickly have an end but these are without end and continue for eternity Wherefore these things deserve our dayly consideration and ought to be ruminated when our thoughts are most active As Physick is taken by way of prevention even when the body is well in health so likewise must our soul be prepared with these considerations to withstand vice I confess these thoughts are somewhat bitter but they are wholesome too they do not become familiar upon a suddain but by degrees time place and practise will nourish and bring them to maturity All idleness is a sworn enemy unto them which as it is pernitious to vertue so it opens an easy passage to let in all kind of vices Go too then c. 27. ver 4. who ever thou be and provide in time for thy own salvation Give ear to the Prophesy of Ecclesiasticus If thou hold not thy self instantly in the fear of our Lord thy house shall quickly be subverted It is now in thy choice whether thou wilt reign or perish A soft bed seldome makes a Souldier more valiant remember that beatitude is a daughter of labour and vertue Let none saith St. Tom. 10 ser 60. de tem Austin he ashamed to do pennance who was not ashamed to commit sin but let him strive without delay to renew himself by good works that he may be owned for a child by his father least being excluded from the Wedding feast and shut out from eternal bliss he have his hands and feet bound and be cast into exteriour darkness Excellently said Turtullian The ceasing from sin is the root of pardon the meditation of hell is the begining of salvation seeing hell abounds with all evil it wants chiefly that good which is the best amidst evils an end of Torment An End of this Treatise But where art thou O end of eternal Torments