to earthly obiects It discryes nothing but the fayding shapes of this world And as hounds fall easily at default in the Spring when the fresh smells of flowres make them loose the sent of the game they poursue So the mynd that is carried to the search of heauenly things runns counter misled by the neerenesse of present things That we put a rate vpon present things rather by their neerenesse then worth VIII FOr though many of those that are carried away by their allurements know well that they are not comparable in worth to eternall things yet rather by their neighbourhoode then valour they make a stronge impression Who would not say that the full moone is greater thē the starrs it appearing as another Sunne amongst the lesser lightes which the night discouers in the heauens yet is it not so as the Astrologers assure vs but her proxmitie causeth this mistake Present things obnoxious to the decay of tyme are so short in continuance that they are but flying vapours as soone bet downe as blowen vp seeming rather appearances or the shadowes of a dreame then solidities while yet beeing neerer they appeare to the eyes of such as muse or rather abuse themselues therin more worthy of consideration then eternall things which are not limited in their extention nor haue end in their beeing And who knowes not to keepe in our comparison that the influences of this starre the nights great eye are more forceable then any other excepting that which is the fountaine of all light and which doth communicate it to all the rest We must say the like of things present that by reason of their neerenesse they strike the soule by the senses a more violent blow then the future doe which are beheld as a thing in absence Whence we haue a MAXIME that present obiects moue the powres which things in distance doe but slowly shake But all this proceeds from want of Fayth as hereafter we will declare for if this vertue were closely vnited in the mynds of those that doe beleeue her propositions she would make things hoped for appeare as present inuisible things visible according to the definition therof deliuered vs by the great Apostle The Moone appeares in diuers shapes or altogether disappeares according to the different oppositions of the earth betweene it and the Sunne We may say the like in the matter we treate of that Eternitie is seene or shut vp from soules according as they are more or lesse infected with earthly affections ô Loue of the world how long wilt thou obscure the faire light of heauenly loue ô thicke cloude why dost thou shut from so many eyes the aspect of the glorious rayes issuing from eternall lights behold this torch throwen downe the waxe which while it was below the flame did feede it is the very bane of it The loue of inferiour things guided according to the order of Charitie doth not impeach eternall loue but when perishable things are preferred before those that are permanent then this cleare lampe which shines to our feete to conduct vs in the way of eternall peace being smothered with materiall things dies out ô Smoke ô vnfortunate dung how many Tobies thou beatest blind Iron doth naturally run after the Loadstone yet many things hinder this stones attraction as when it is rubd with garlike or greese when it is neere vnto a Diamant or when it is placed in too great a distāce from the iron And our soules who of their owne natures are immortall by their owne instinct doe tend to Eternitie as to that which they most affect but as soone as the garlike or greese of the pleasures and delights which are tasted in things present doe attrape them or when the lying luster of worldly honours keepes them at a gaze it is not strange that Eternitie which they behold as a thing a far of doth so litle worke vpon their affections Shall I speake in a word what is the Remora which stops the shippe of our hearts vnder the sayles of our desires sayling towards Eternitie it is that euery one seekes himselfe and not the glorie of God It is as that old Antipheron that in euery thinge hauing our eyes turned vpon our selues in euery thing we seeke our owne interest Few hate their soules in this world to gayne them to Eternitie Few renounce all things present and yet fewer themselues who are more not onely present but pressing to follow Iesus Christ and to doe the will of God in earth as it is in heauen The weaknesse of Fayth makes Eternitie lesse considerable IX BVt what doe I say to doe the will of God Alas how many wicked how many mad men say in their heart their is no God Our lipps are to our selues who is our Lord Come let 's crowne our selues with present roses before death the death of all pleasures make them fade away let not a flowre of vanitie of loose desire of lucre put vp the heade in the meades of this mortall life which we take not a taste of before the graue shut vs vp And it is there that this want of beleife maks vs loose the veiw of the North-starre of Eternitie which I giue for a third cause Yes quoth our Sauiour himselfe to his Disciples doe you thinke that the sonne of man coming to iudge the world in his last coming shall find Faith in the earth and doe we thinke there is Faith in this end and dreges of ages wherin we liue Verily if we forme a iudgement of Faith by workes as the scripture teacheth vs it will easily be gathered by the fruite the world brings out that there is nether Truth nor Faith nor Memorie of Gods iustice or Eternitie left in the heart of man All erre from their mothers wombe and stray from the pathes of equitie being heauie hearted slow to beleeue that which is taught them by faith touching things to come They loue vanitie and seeke after falsitie and lyes ô how deceitfull are the children of men in their waightes suffering themselues to be deceaued in the Vanitie of their senses Let vs consider this more neerely and practically Faith tells vs many glorious things of the Citie of God where he raignes eternally with his Elect where he makes his loue take roote as in a fertile feild It tells vs that this Kingdome is of all ages that all the Blessed are Kings heires of God and coheires with Iesus Christ. That God is there all in all filling them with an eternall felicitie that his power is an eternall powre That his Kingdome shall haue no end And in our Crede we protest that we beleeue life euerlasting the life of the world to come That such as doe well shall enter into the blessed Eternitie and the wicked into an eternall tormēt That is one of the principale articles of our Faith and as it were the pinne vpon which the rest moue and turne for if all should die to vs togeither with the
she guerdon of his followers and seruants Eternitie is the proper thought of a spirituall man IV. O Thought Athanasia passing all other thoughts and from whence issue as the beames from the face of the Sunne all other good thoughts ô oyle that swims aboue all other liquours oyle of the wise virgins Lāpe oyle of the widowe that neuer fayles fountaine of oyle springing towards eternitie Certes there is no thought more worthy the spirit of man an immortall spirit a spirit brother to the Angells then that of Eternitie for it is the thought of God he being eternitie it selfe throw thy thoughts vpon God sings the diuine Psalmist fixe ô man all thy cares in this heauenly obiect walke in his sight and be perfect what doe I say perfect it is to be alreadie in a degree of Beatitude and a Beatitude far greater then that wherof the faire Queene of Saba spake when she named those Courtiers blessed who are dayly in the presence of the wisest of Kings Since that he who doth contemplate the King of Kings and Sages yea wisdome it selfe drawes from the glorious presence of him who is far other then SALOMON such aduantages as may be admired but neuer exprest nay nor yet conceaued ô who will fauour vs so much that all our conuersation may be in heauen as was his who was rapt vp into the third Heauē if not the cōtinuall thought of this eternall obiect which is the Center of our wishes and desires ô Eternitie thou art the true Sunne where the legitimate young Eagles are tryed Thou art the glorious star towards which all well composed hearts like spirituall Turne-soles doe incessantly turne their view hearts florishing with good desires loaden with fruits of good works their floures being fruits of honour and honestie that is extreamely honorable The great Apostle being returned out of that strong and wōderfull rapture and that heauenly schowle where he had learnt the secreets which it was not lawfull for a man to speake being in earth with open and intire eyes saw nothing at all so was he dazled with the rayes of eternitie or if he saw any thing it was but durt and doung and the great spirituall Giant of our age as the deuoute AVILA styles him the Founder of the Companie of Iesus when he came out of his Extasies ô quoth he how durtie and diminutiue is the earth in my sight when I consider the beautie and goodlinesse of Heauen All seemes abiect to true bred soules that ends not in eternitie nothing is able to bound their desires saue that obiect which hath no bounds What can I desire in heauen it selfe which is the measure of Tyme and consequently limited what can I pretend in the earth which is too wretched and miserable to ingage my affection which takes a far higher flight No ô thou God of my heart goes on the Psalmist I will haue nothing but thy selfe thou art my part foreuer True it is I haue but a mortall condition in this vallie of teares yet my pretensions are not such they reach to immortalitie If the passage to eternall solace ly through the fire and water of sufferance in lieu of being disamayed at it I will be comforted in it knowing that he who alone is of himselfe immortall becoming mortall for the loue of me made his entrie into the Temple of Honour through that of Labour not permitting himselfe accesse to his owne glorie but through the doore of dolour And againe doth not Faith deliuer as an Oracle this Apostolicall speech The light and passing moments of tribulation doe loade vs with the waight of eternall glorie Nothing did so powerfully moue that generous mayde of our dayes the Holy mother TERESA to so many heroicall enterprises which she vndertooke for the aduancement of Gods glorie in his Church by the reformation of a whole Order as this thought of Eternitie for being as yet very young she animated her selfe to pietie and to the desire of heauenly things while she conferred with her litle brother ô Litle Angels vpon what can your thoughts be placed but eternitie and by this word NEVER which by way of emulation they did often iterate their thoughts being far more deepe and penetrating in that their tender age then their words she layed the fundation of that goodly edifice of perfection which God hath made appeare in her making choyce of weake things to cōfound the strong and by this spirituall Amason fastening confusion vpon the house of the world and the Prince of darknesse a place more disordered then the house of Nabuchodonosor All that is temporall is reputed as nothing to a soule whose whole pretensions are set on Eternitie It is the bird of Paradice which neuer comes vpō the groūd but by the thread of meere necessitie Euerie other obiect is vnworthy of her courage vnworthy to possesse any place in her affections It is the true and onely thought worthy of an immortall and reasonable spirit The sensible man thinks not of Eternitie V. BVt alas the sensible man is not capable of it I tearme him a sensible man who depriued of the knowledge of the noblenesse of his beeing the liuely Image of the diuinitie walkes after the troopes of brutall passions feeding the Bore of his sensualitie the Lyon of his wroth the Dragon of his pride the woolfe of his auarice This man being aduanced to the honour of reason and called to the lote of Saints by the light of grace hath suffered this light to be obscured hath not vnderstood who called him to this happie portion and therfore he hath bene compared to horses without reason and hath bene made like vnto them This man hath his eyes fixed in his head not seeing a hairebread aboue it or below his feete a deplorable blindnesse He is like to those wicked old men who would attempt vpon the honour of the chaste Susanna who hung downe their heads towards the earth least they might see heauen The fire of concupiscence falling into his heart hinders him to see the Sunne And albeit naturall light tell him that his soule is immortall yet he turnes it not vpon eternitie because his owle-like eyes are not able to sustayne so gratefull a splendour No for the shine of the day-starre which is so louely in it selfe and so beloued of pure eyes whose aples are strong is dreaded of such as haue a weake and waterie sight O how miserable is this vnfortunate man this child of darknesse this almost blind and so weake-sighted Heli that he cannot see the lampe of Syons eternall Temple saue onely when it is extinguished how miserable I say is this man since the light that is in him is darknesse couered with so many ashes that it is quite smothered and what great hazard he runs of loosing the eternall light of glorie who walkes in so palpable darknesse and is buried in the shadowes of so black an obliuion Sinne depriues vs of the consideration of Eternitie VI. YOu
If he be feircely sicke he freely endures all the paines that the Surgeons putt him to he obeyes the Doctours order takes downe the bitterest pill in the Apothecaries shope he nether grugheth price nor paine so he may escape the graue he is willing to consume all his substance to prolonge for some few moments more his consumeing life and yet to liue eternally how few are willing to endure a litle discommoditie But if worldlings prolonge their miserable dayes with so much instance vigilancie precausion prodigalitie paine and torment what ought not they to doe whose braue and generous myndes eye nothing that is lesse then Eternitie And if they be esteemed prudent who spare nothing to conserue a miserable mortall life how imprudēt must they needs be who for an immortall one will vse no sort of violēce nether against their body nor soule A continuation of the former discourse LXVI VErily vnlesse the graine of wheate falling into the ground die it selfe remayneth alone and fruitlesse And vnlesse we doe mortifie our selues here below there is litle appearance and yet lesse hope that we shall liue euerlastingly in Heauen In the building of SALOMONS Temple there was no noyse heard of hammars nor saw because the timber was disposed and fitted by Carpenters in the Forrest and the stones were cut and pollished in the Quarries so that being led vnto the Mount-Sion it rested onely to applie them It is the like of the vnited stones wherof the heauenly Hierusalem is built to witt the Elect out of the Quarrie of this world they were to be sent readie and so to be disposed in their places in that TEMPLE OF PEACE For which cause some of them haue bene sawen cut carued holed burnt wounded with swords that they might be applied to that eternall building for they are the structure and building of God saith the Apostle No there is no other passage to this TEMPLE of VERTVE but through the GATE OF LABOVR And the Kingdome of Heauen is promised onely in the Sermō which our Sauiour made of Beatitude to the humble of heart and persecuted that is to such as suffer tribulations The Kings coyne with which letters of exchange are payed in that Contrie are Labours and the Saintes doe repose in their labours for there their workes doe sollow them And if a woman with child saith the holy Gospell doe patiently endure the panges of childbirth which are so extreamely violent for the ioy she hath to bring forth a reasonable creature into this miserable world what paines then ought we to feare so our bodie be happily deliuered of our soule to Eternitie and that when our house of clay shall be demolished we may find one in heauen build not with the hand of man but with God's owne hand wherin we shall liue inhabit and bee for euer And if the labours of winter and summer and the length of a plainefull seruice was reputed as nothing of IACOB being pricked on by the loue be bore to RACHEL who will not to be impatient at the short and light labours of this life while he hath Eternitie before his eyes Goe to then saith a Prophete le ts take courage and let not our armes repose for a great reward is promised to good actions Worke faithfully what thou art able while tyme is lent thee to labour Behold the reward and nothing will seeme painefull vnto thee I haue giuen my heart to the Diuine iustificatiōs saith the Psalmist in respect of the reward promised them For the reward of such as keepe Gods law is great Know you not saith the great Apostle that many runne in the race all runne indeede but one receaueth the Price And they certes that they may receaue a corruptible crowne but we run in the race of vertue for an immortall and incorruptible crowne Le ts so runne that we may obteyne Those saith the same Doctour of the Crosse that are afflicted are disposed therby to great rewards and if they be tryed by God it is to th' end they may be worthy to haue a part with him and that he may with his owne hand bestow vpon them a Kingdome of honour and a diademe of beautie For God crownes his Elect with glorie and honour and doth establish them aboue all the workes of his hands Let vs not therfore be discouraged saith S. PAVLE for we haue not as yet resisted sinne nor fought to blood we that are not ignorant that our Guide IESVS CHRIST entered not into the Sanctuarie of Eternitie by meanes of the blood of sheepe and goates but by powreing out his owne at that price obtaineing for vs an eternall redemption But I here heape vp proofes in confirmation of a truth which euen Nouices in Christian discipline cannot doubt of Let vs therfore stay our stepps and shut vp this first meanes in these golden words of S. AVGVSTINE O soule what I haue is vendible consider whether you will buy it And what hast thou to sell ô Lord Rest saith he buy it At what rate saith the soule the price therof is Labour But what labour is required for an endlesse rest If you will make a iust valuation an eternall labour is due to an eternall peace T' is true indeede yet feare not ô soule God is mercifull he knowes well that if thou wert eternally to labour for this pourchase thou shouldst neuer attayne vnto the promissed and desired rest and therfore that thou mightst attayne it he will not haue thy labour to be eternall not that the Eternitie of glorie would not deserue it but that thou mightest be sure to beare it It is worth an eternall and yet is bought for a temporall labour In an other place the same Father doth enlarge and continue this consideration When eternall life saith he is promissed vs let vs place before our eyes a life exempt frō all the tormoyles and troubles which we taste in this and thou shalt more happily find out the calamities and miseries which are not to be found in that blessed life then thou canst the infinite blesse wherwith it is replenished he would say that as God so it is better knowen by negation then affirmation And yet wonderfull Mercy this inestimable fauour is to be sold If thou wilt thou maist buy it nor art thou to be troubled how to procure wherwithall to pay It is not worth more then thou hast or rather respects not at all what thou hast but onely what thou art This Eternitie is worth thyselfe and yet worth no more then thou art giue thy selfe and t is thyne Why dost thou dodge why dost thou stand vpon the price Dost thou apprehend that to make the payment thou art to be sold indeed no thou art not pay thy selfe such as thou art and the purchase is made Alas I am poore and miserable wilt thou say nor shall I be receaued as currant money But I dare assure thee that in freely giuing thy selfe thou wilt become good coyne for to giue ones
we loue him not and complaynes that he is made a solitude in Israel and that he is not beloued and that the wayes of the eternall Sion weepe that none doe frequent their solemnities Let vs therfore goe with confidence to the Throne of his Grace if we desire to haue part in his Glorie Let vs permit him to wash the feete of our affections if we will with S. PETER haue Societie with him This God then who is an essentiall Charitie doth not onely permit vs to loue him but euen commands it and that vnder paine of death death euerlasting The first and greatest of his Commandements is all of the Loue we owe him This loue did once vnite the Diuine and humane nature in the Person of the WORD and did so farre exinanite the eternall Sonne of the eternall Father as to become man to take vpon him the forme of a seruant to appeare in earth and to be conuersant with men A loue which may well rayse man towards God since it could bring God downe to man A loue the band of perfection which vnites the equall and doth equalise such as it doth vnite A Loue which hauing once personally vnited as S. AVGVSTINE saith the light of the Diuinitie to the clay of our mortalitie is able to eleuate our desires euen vnto God and make vs participant of the Diuine nature which is done by Charitie infused into our hearts by the Holy Ghost It is this Diuine Loue which separating our affections not onely from dangerous and superfluous things but euen from things which are not euil yet are subiect to be loued with excesse and with too strong and inordinate a passion shall make vs behold all created things in God and will so gouerne our inclinatiōs that we shall affect no creature but in God for God and according to God wherin consisteth the perfect practise of that Diuine Cōmandement which commands vs to loue God with all our heart with all our soule with all our spirit with all our strength and euen aboue all things For a soule that is come to this degree of perfection that she loues nothing but in God and God in all things in proper speach loues not many things nor is not in the folicitude inseparable from the multiplicitie of louely obiects but she loues but one onely thing which is God the one true necessarie thing and out of whom all is but miserie and affliction of spirit And because in all that which the order of Charitie proposeth vnto her to be loued she loues God alone she loues him equally in all and as couragiously in her enemy as tēderly in her friend because she loues him onely out of all other things and without all other things but nothing at all without him or out of him If it be ESTHER alone that ASSVERVS loueth saith my blessed Father in his Theotime why should he loue her more when she is parfumed and adorned then when she is in her comon attire If it be our Sauiour onely that a soule loueth why should she not as well loue the Mount-Caluarie as Thabor sith he is as truly in the one as the other and why should she not pronounce as cordially in the one as in the other It is Good for vs to be here She can loue our Sauiour in Egipt without louing Egipt why then shall she not loue him in the banquet of SIMON the LEPROVS without louing the banquet And if she loue him amidst the blasphemies which are vomited out against him without louing the blasphemies why shall she not loue him parfumed with MAGDELAINES precious oyntments without louing the parfumes or smells It is a true signe that one loues God onely in all things when one loues him equally in all things since he being alwayes equall to himselfe the inequallitie of loue towards him must needs spring from some thing which is not he Whence the soule that loues God purely and singulary loues him no more with the whole vniuerse to boote then all alone without the vniuerse because all that which is out of God and is not God is as nothing to her O pure soule who loues not euen Paradice it selfe but because God is there loued and is so soueraignely loued in his Paradice as that if he had not a Paradice to bestow yet would he nether be lesse loulie or lesse beloued of this generous soule who knowes not how to loue the Paradice of her God but onely her God of Paradice and who puts no lesse rate vpon the Caluarie where her Sauiour was crucified then the Heauen where he is glorified O how well doth this saintly Bishope speake my Athanasia whose tearmes I durst not paraphrase nor disguise or change his venerable words least I might loose his deuoute sēse expressed in words of so great energie and so full of spirit and vertue that all the flanting tearmes of worldly wisdome seeme to me far lesse persuasiue powrefull How forcibly and sweetly doth he teach vs in this discourse not to looke vpon the two hands of God that of Iustice and vengance and that other of Mercy and reward but to search after his face alone and to feare and loue him for himselfe not for the punishments which he threatens vice nor for the reward which he proposeth to vertue because he is altogether to be honored worshiped and serued for the loue of him selfe yea although he had nether Paradice for reward nor yet Hell for Punishment The blessed and accursed Eternitie are onely to be considered as things accessorie Our prime intention and cheife attention are to be set vpon the Diuine Eternitie or the eternall Diuinitie vnlesse we would loose the title of the children of God and through feare of eternall punishments or desire of eternall rewards beesteemed slaues and hirelings Let 's loue God Athanasia and let him dispose of vs as he pleaseth Let vs be in his hands as clay in the hand of the Potter Let him make of vs vessells of honour or ignominie Be it nobly or ignobly so we be his it sufficeth Le ts turne our eyes from rewards or punishments and let vs fixe them vpon our Lord. Let vs behold his amiable face Let vs set our view vpon his hands but as a faithfull hand-maide vpon those of her Mistrisse Let vs receaue indifferently that which comes from the right hād of prosperitie and the left of aduersitie Although he should euen kill vs le ts hope in him And let vs hope without hope yea euen against all apparence that nothing shall separate vs from his Charitie Let vs cast all our thoughtes vpon him And in steed of staying our thoughtes vpon the created and as it were the accidentall Eternitie of Heauen or Hell let vs onely be fastened vpon the essentiall Eternitie which is God himselfe who hath in his hand the extreamities of the earth And who keepes the keyes of eternall life and death Let vs not so dwell vpon the thought of Heauen or
afflict vs therin which being well husbanded doe worke in vs a crowne of eternall glorie No No what sufferances soeuer doe vexe vs in this dying life they enter into no comparison with the glorie which shall one day be reuealed vnto vs. The force of the thought of Eternitie XIX NO neuer Athanasia though our mynd turne it selfe on euerie side make choyce of subiects most pregnant to moue it and to giue it the most forceable impressions to imbrace good or auoyd euil neuer shall it light vpon any thought so fruitfull to produce this effect as the thought of Eternitie O momēts you are but chaffe and dust before the face of this great wind This is the great vanne which can separate the corne from the chaffe and separate precious from vile things Eternitie is that Moyses his rod able to deuoure the serpents of our sinns and to draw water from rockes that is can beget compunction in the most flintie heart It is a violent blast which driues vs forwards towards the Desert of penāce which vrgeth vs to returne into the Sheepe-fold of grace if by errour we haue strayed from it or by sinne like lost sheepe It is the end of all ends the end of all consommation and the extreamitie of extreamities wither the wiseman doth send vs if we desire to abstayne from sinning euerlastingly For if death if iudgement ensuing if the terrours of Hell serue for a bitt to the strongest mouth and for a restraynte to the most desparate soule what will it be if we add thervnto the importance of an Eternitie If we consider the Blessed Eternitie it is a Ionathas his honie if the Accursed it is a Tobie's gale soueraigne to cure the thickest and deepest blindnes There is no Filme which falls not from the 〈◊〉 washed with this water No Torrent of sinne which may not both be sustayned and repelled by this stronge banke It is a Sunne which doth breake disperse the cloudes of vice which striue to hide the light of grace Le ts approch then Athanasia to this Torch and our darknes shall be blowen ouer If we desire to be borne againe to Heauen let vs imitating that onely bird consume our selues in the beames of that great starr And if the thought of the worlds last day Iudge of all the other dayes filled S. Hieromes heart with such dread that it made him loose both foode and repose his sleepe being interrupted by the terrible found of the Archangells trumpet which sounded incessantly in his imagination what waight shall that eternall doome haue in our hearts which shall crowne the iust with roses that cannot fade and shall inuolue the wicked in quenchlesse flames which being kindled with the blast of Gods wroth shall cōtinue as long as the Deitie it selfe No I doe not beleeue that all the Antidotes which Spiritualists prescribe against the poyson of sinne that all their remedies put together in one masse can haue the like effect in the purging of a soule that the importance of an Eternitie well pondered can worke therin O Lord thou hast giuē a signe to those who haue thy feare imprinted vpon their heartes that they may auoyd the arrowes which thou shuttest from the bow of thy wroth and that by flight they may free themselues from the eternall torments which doe attend them torments by which such onely are ouertaken as for want of foresight and consideration dread them not as an auncient Father doth teach vs. O how happie is the soule whose eyes God daynes to open ouer so perilous a precipice that therby she may auoyde it and please our Lord in the Land of those that liue in his grace For they that passe their dayes in this happie Abode are not subiect to this seconde death which hath no resurrection for out of Hell there is no redemption or escape Their eyes owe no tributarie teares since they are not afflicted with the torment of malice nor doth their feete stumble in the way of saluation which is that of the blessed Eternitie Thinke of the last end saith the wisest of men and thou shal◠neuer offend If then the thought o◠death and of that which followe◠death hath so much force in a soule that is occupied in it as to diuert it from all euil what will it doe I pray you in a well composed heart which can iudiciously ponder the waight of things when it shall come to thinke that temporall death is but an instant which separates the soule from the body and that the particular iudgement which doth immediately follow this separation is past in a moment marrie that the decree of this iudgement is of an eternall and vninterrupted continuance Why the threate of a temporall death and the losse of a florishing estate written vpon a wall by a celestiall hand was able to seaze the soule of Baltazar with so daunting a terrour that the scripture assures vs that all his bones were thereby disioynted so throughly did feare possesse both body and soule How forceablely then shall the feare of an eternall death worke in a solide iudgement and in a heart that thinkes seriously of its saluation Will it not in this thought pronounce with the kingly Prophete All my bones were troubled that is to say all my powres were disordered and againe All my bones shall say vnto thee ô eternall Lord who is like vnto thee That this life is onely lent vs to thinke vpon Eternitie XX. O Momentes of this mortall life how carefully ought you to be managed since by you as by so many stepps we mount to Eternitie I for God hath onely placed vs in this region of death to breath continually to that of the liueing nor are we in this Desert for any other end then to trauell to the Land of Promisse Which shall one day be distributed amongst vs according to the line of distribution The Angells at their first creation were placed in a state of grace and full freedome and had a tyme to resolue their choyce of glorie or reprobation by obedience or reuoulting and following their election that great diuision was made which doth eternally separate the Blessed who kept their principalitie from the accursed who fell from Heauen into the Abisses below Men afterwardes created of so noble substances to repaire the ruines of those that were fallen haue also the tyme of their life to resolue and determine what shall become of them for all Eternitie For which cause they were created straight and free fire and water were put before them that they might make election of which they liked And they applie according to their owne will the vse of their freedome nor are they to impute it to others then themselues if by their owne malice misfortune befall them He that shall sowe benedictions shall reape benedictions but he that shall commit wickednes shall draw a curse vpon his owne heade and that an eternall one according as it is written Goe you accursed into
eternall fire For at last in the periode of our life when as tyme shall be no more to vs certaine it is that God will examen our workes be they good or bad and according to them will reward each one Then euery ones prayse or blame shall proceede from the mouth of God Now we are in the forked way of vertue or vice which was shewen to the young Hercules as an Auncient Authour writeth It is in our power to take towards the right or left hand and to sowe the seedes in this life whose fruites we shall gather in the next Certes as the lines drawen from the Center of the earth might goe to the circumfereÌ„ce of the Heauens so according to our comportment in these short momentes which we are to liue in earth the definitiue Sentence of our eternall Abode shall be giuen It is our part therfore tymely to thinke of our affaires and to foresee what shall become of vs for the scripture doth teach vs that we shall reape according as we haue sowen He that shall sow in spirit shall reape eternall life The chaste Susanna being pinched with bitter perplexities while those two infamous firebrands of dishonestie threatned her the ruine of her reputation vnlesse she condescended to their lewd desire chowsed rather to fall innoceÌ„t into the hands of men then stayned into his to whom nothing is hid who tryes the hearts and reynes and who can cast the body and soule into eternall torments Me thinkes sure each considerate heart will take her part and will pourchace at the price of transitorie and momentarie pleasures endlesse paines For t is a thinge too horrible to fall into the hands of the liueing God the God of vengeance terrible ouer all those of the earth Contrariwise he will easely and willingly imbrace all kind of paynes and sufferances who shall waigh as he ought that is in the waightes of the SANCTVARIE these words of the sacred ORACLE That we are to enter into the Kingdome which knowes no end to the resideÌ„ce of Glorie through many tribulations since that our Sauiour Iesus Christ was as it were forced to suffer before he could enter into his eternall Felicitie which he had wholy obtayned and which was necessarily due vnto him The Parobolicall historie of the wicked Rich-man and the poore Lazarus is a rich Table representing this truth vnto our eyes set out in liuelie colours Euerie one knowes the different successe of the one and the other and what answere Father Abraham made to this miserable reprobate's complaintes Call to mynd Sonne that thou tookest thy pleasures during thy life and that Lazarus suffered many afflictions Now your estates are much changed for he is replenished with ioy and delight and thou oppressed with desperate greeues and with punishments which shall neuer end O double Eternitie thou art like to those figues which were presented vnto the Prophete wherof some were strangly bitter the others extreamely sweete The Blessed Eternitie is a LAND OF PROMISSE and rest whose fruites are of an vnmeasurable greatnes and incomparable sweetnes The accursed is a forraine Region full of disorder a daunting desert far remoued from the face of God where the firie serpents doe stinge without cure and kill without all hope of recouerie O ETERNITIE The more I consider thee the lesse doe I know thee and the deeper I endeauour to diue into thy bottome more bottomelesse I find thee Thou art the floode of the Prophete which cannot be past nether at the ford nor otherwise The Gyantes grone vnder thy waters nor can any beaste euen though it were an ElephaÌ„t passe ouer thee by swiming to vse S. Gregories words All that can be said of thee is nothing in regard of that which should be said Though a man speake all he is able yet can he not sufficiently expresse thee euen to represent the least stroke of thyne infinitie Birdes although they cannot soare to the highest region of the aire leaue not for all that to flie And what if we cannot comprehend Eternitie yet ought we not cease to speake what we conceaue of it though we cannot conceaue what we ought to speake therof A man may enioy the light of the Sunne walke in its resplendant rayes and now and then steale a looke vpon it though he be not able to haue his sight still fixed vpon its globe We are to doe the like in this subiect of Eternitie and be it that our sight doth disperse and loose it selfe in the immensitie of its extent yet are we from tyme to tyme to consider it since life is â—ent vs for no other end but to be spent for the most part in this attention This is that which the Prophete termes couragiously to attend God and with patience to supporte this attention And the Apostle To attend the blessed hope of the coming of the great God I Lord said the great S. Augustine burne cute pinch slice here below so that I may not perish eternally An enterie to the consideration of the accursed Eternitie XXI BVt doe you not thinke it high tyme Athanasia that we should draw neerer by the consideration of both the Eternities and that for our spirituall profit we should make a kind of particular examen and as it were an Anatomie We will begin at the accursed Eternitie that we may follow the methode which the Spiritualistes obserue in the reformation of the soule begining with feare according to that of the wise man the feare of our Lord is the begining of true wisdome And is it not true wisdome to thinke seriously and tymely of eternall saluation and to direct our stepps towards the pathes of this peace which passeth all vnderstanding nor shall at any tyme be troubled with the noyse of warrs but shall enioy with God the abundance of a plentifull repose I haue done Iudgement and Iustice that is I haue behaued my selfe iustly in all myne actions saith the Royall Prophete Will you haue the reason of this vprightnesse because I haue dreaded the seueritie of the eternall Iudge And another Prophete brings in Sinners conuerted to the father of mercyes speaking in this wise O Lord through thy feare we haue conceaued good pourposes and by it we haue at length produced and brought forth the spirit of saluation The needle following the Contemplatiues worne similitude goes alwayes through before the silke and sharpe and pearceing FEARE according to that word of Dauid Lord pearce my body and soule with the FEARE of thy iudgements is still the forerunner of ioy ioy the inseparable fruite of the tree of true Charitie I see then that there I must begin but a secrete horrour doth fasten vpon myne imagination when I represent vnto my selfe so mournfull and daunting a matter It is a far other thing theâ— that place of horrour and vaste solitude wherof the Prophete speakes for it is the verie herbour of eternall horrour eternall reproach It is the accursed denne where DEATH doth eternally inhabite
What Memori◠hath not this remembrance in abomination What Vnderstanding doth not flie a consideration so odious What Will hath not an auersion from a subiect so distastefull What Fantasie doth not turne it selfe from so sad an obiect What Pen in lieu o◠writing would not fly away from a matter so much to be fled What Inke blacke enough to equalise the blacknes of those coles of desolation This notwithstanding my Athanasia the most holy and most wise doe admonish and councell vs to thinke frequently of it and to descende into Hell liueing that we may not descend thither dying saith a Father of the Church subtilly and truly True it is this medicine is bitter and its bitternesse may cause a kind of drunkennesse and distraction of mynd marrie it is a wholsome distraction and its conuulsions giues health and holinesse to the soule it doth seaze vpon It is that volume of the Prophete's bitter in the mouth but restorature in the heart What abundance of people fall into this gulfe for want of forefeeing it Let vs cast our selues into it by foresight Athanasia but as Dyuers into the sea to bring vp the pearles of good and holy resolutions The horrour of this subiect XXII IT is neuerthelesse very hard that I may not say impossible to be hold this subiect in the face without astonishment For if the verie words eternall Reprobation and Damnation make the most constant and resolute courage quake what will the consideration of their effect doe A woman became once a Statua of salt vpon the aspect of an abominable towne burnt with heauenly fire the inhabitāts wherof descended into Hell aliue I would to God that the sight of the accursed Eternitie would make vs as immoueable as Statua's to bad actions and would Season vs with the salt of true wisdome Moyses had an horrour and an apprehension of his rodd while departing out of his hand he saw it trāsformed into a serpent and although God commāded him boldly to take hold of this beast by the tayle yet durst he not doe it without trembling O Athanasia what heart is so resolute as to behold the rodd of God rodd of direction in his Kingdome changed into a rodd of iron driuing away the reprobate as earthen potts and in a rodd of furie and not quake with a iust feare sith that euen the heauēly Intelligences the celestiall Virtues assured of their saluation shall be moued with feare when the great Iudge shall come at the consommation of the world to hold his last Assises That which the Poetes fabulously relate of their Medusa and of the Sunn's retrogradation least it might giue light to the horrid and vnnaturall banquet of Thiestes are but weake strokes of the sacred horrour which the consideration of the cursed Eternitie doth imprint vpon a soule The reprobate to preuent the definitiue and irreuocable sentence of their eternall condemnation shall one day inuoke the mountaignes to fall vpon them and to burie them in an eternall obliuion And if the heate of the Babilonian fornace did affright all the beholders with the firie flashes which it vomited out what must the aspect of that eternall fornace made hote with the wroth of God and maintained in a continuall heate with a blast of brimstone needes worke in a heart that hath its sight sharpened by Faith It is an vniuersalitie of euils XXIII I Will discouer vnto thee all sortes of good saith God to his fauorite Moyses in manifesting my selfe vnto thee Yes for in the vision of God all felicitie is comprised as also all sortes of euil in the priuation of this obiect of the soueraigne Beatitude For if the supreme Felicitie according to all the Diuines be a perfect collection of all good doth not the rule of Contraries oblige vs to beleeue that the toppe of the soueraigne infelicitie is a collection of all euil Goe to then my Athanasia let vs represent vnto our myndes all the calamities and torments imaginable and vnimaginable and let vs loade the shouldiers of one onely with this heauie masse and let vs affirme that such is the least part of the sufferances of the damned In this world calamities are alwayes in a manner particular so that it is an extraordinarie thing to see the same partie assaulted with two or three at the same tyme and when the defease is violent it dures not for that ether the desease ceaseth or the patient opprest with it ceaseth to bee In Hell it is not so for all the torments which we can cōprehend yea euen those which are incomprehensible meet in the same instā◠vpon the damned's heade vpon whom scourges are reunited and ruine◠multiplied euen as the Eagles to make vse of the Scriptures comparison and haulkes doe in troopes seaze vpon carrion O God said the good Iob that man of greeues and oppressed with infirmities and miseries thou hast rowled vpon me all the billowes of thy wroth And Dauid in a like aire I am come to th◠brode sea and the tempest hath swallowed me vp how much better doe these words suite with the reprobate who perceaue the heauie hand of the Diuine iustice vpon them without all hope of solace To them it belongs to reade in the booke of Lamentations maledictions and misfortunes which the Prophete did sometymes write by Gods command to reclaime Israel from its vice and destruction to them I say who are fallen to the bottome of all miseries The great Angell of the Schowle S. THOMAS giuing a reason why all calamities conceauable doe fall vpon the damned saith after S. BASILE that in the end of the word when fire shall generally purge it there shall be a separation made of all pure and impure things in the elements and as that which is pure shall be reserued for the pleasure and content of the Elect so that which is impure shall be cast into the Sinke or center of the earth where the comon opinion placeth Hell to be a continuall torment to the damned being most iust that as by their sinne they abused all creatures so they all should conspire to torment them as it is written in the booke of wisdome That all the world shall fight for the seruice and glorie of the iustice of God against the mad men Propose vnto your selfe then ô Athanasia a person reduced to that point of miserie that at one instant he should be afflicted with all sortes of paines not onely in the principall members but euen in the least partes of his bodie so far forth that he should resent particular stingings through euery pore Speake the truth to behold the most vile and wretched creature on the earth in this dismale estate would it not moue horrour in your heart And yet Faith doth assure vs that the torments of the damned are far other and that all this collection of euils is but a poore part of their cup. And Verily most reasonable it is that such as imployed all the powres of their
body and soule to offend the soueraigne and eternall Goodnesse should in euery of them be eternally punished by the Soueraigne Iustice The numberlesse number of those paines are expressed in diuers passages of holy Scripture where it speakes of Fires Ice Darknes Blindnes Gnashings of teeth Teares Hungar Thirst Deseases Swords Howlings Gale Absinth Prisons Wormes Serpents Whirlewinds Tempestes Fournaces Thunders Wheeles and a number of other scourges wherof we find euery lease full The paynes of sense and first of the sight and hearing XXIV ANd wheras generall discourses seeme not to be so efficacious as particular ones let vs descend Athanasia from the generalitie of those eternall paines to the particular consideration therof The Contemplatiues diuide them into penas sensus and penas damni whence comes the word damnation and it is incomparably greater then the former though it far lesse strike vpon the imagination of vulgare myndes The Sight amongst the exteriour senses holds the first place and the priuation therof is numbred amongst the greatest miseries of this life by the iust TOBIE a worthy witnesse of so troublesome a discommoditie Now Faith doth teach vs that the damned shall be in thicker obscurities then those of Egipt and that the tēpest of darknes shall possesse them for euer And in the Holy Scripture Hell is marked out in these words exteriour darknesse For an Eternitie saith the Prophete light shall not be discouered therin for although God be there as it were in euery place and that darknes cannot obscure his naturall light yet his will is that in this dry Lake that is voyd of all consolation the darknesse couer the face of the Abisse and that the eyes of the damned though otherwise capable of sight see nothing but that which may trouble and torment them The fire of the diuine angar being once fallen downe vpon them they shall neuer more discouer the Sunne in punishmēt of the abuse of this noble sense in tyme past and that in lieu of contemplating the Heauen they haue made their lookes dwell vpon the earth and creatures And although light be as inseparable a qualitie of fire as heate yet as of old when the three children were throwen into the fournace the diuine powre leauing the light did suspend the heate of the flame that it should not attempt vpon those innocents so in Hell he will permit the heates actiuitie vpon the reprobate and yet will depriue the fire of light to leaue them in obscuritie amongst the deade of ages buried in an eternall obliuion and far remoued from the light of his face So shall our Lord diuide the flame from the fire saith the Psalmist that is according to some interpreters he shall separate the light from the heate And euen as during the palpable darknes which God did of old spread ouer Egipt while the Israelites enioyed a delightfull light the Idolaters were ether blind or afflicted with frighting visions so in Hell amidst the pitchie blacknes of that region of the shadow of death if at any tyme the dāned enioy some obscure glimses seeing as though they saw not it shall be onely to espie the hideous shapes of amaysing fantomes and horrible visions of Diuels whose aspect shall be more insupportable vnto them then the rest of their tortures So that if for the thicknes of this smoake and the blacknesse of these obscurities the priuation of the vse of this sense be an irkesome torment vnto them the short vse which at tymes they shall haue of it will onely serue to add to their torment alwayes vnfortunate both blind and seeing I will omit the particular paines of this delicate part which as the Phisitians obserue in its daintie litlenesse is obnoxious to so many different deseases which shall be yet diuersified both in qualitie and quantitie according as the reprobate shall haue abused that noble Sense which had bene in Heauē one of the principall organes by which the ioy of our Lord had entred into their heartes O God with what frightes shall their soules be tortured by the sense of hearing a sense by so much more liuely and capable of paines as it hath more commerce with the mynd Ah! what a mad musike will there be heard of howlings scrikes gnashings of teeth and grones of desperation If the thūder clapp and trumpets sound which did resound vpon the mountaine where God deliuered his law to MOYSES put all Israel in such an ALARVM and struke the heartes of the people with such astonishment that they said vnto their law giuer Let not our Lord speake vnto vs least we should die What a death shall it be in death it selfe to heare the voice of many waters or rather the ouerflowing torrents of so many maledictions and horrible blasphemies which rage and despaire shall draw from their execrable mouthes full of the stinch of a hellish brimstone ô how iarring the discorde and how detestable the roarings of those victimes of the eternall furie The eares of those eloquent Orators and pleasing Poetes who had taken so great complacence in the gratefull fall of their measured periodes and in the sweete cadēce of their rymes shall find themselues at that tyme in a wonderfull disorder The eares of those Princes which admitted onely silken words and the oyle of sinners that is flatterie who tooke content to be praysed in the desires of their heart and blessed in their iniquities who found no better musike then that which their owne prayses made as ALEXANDER said who was as great in vanitie as valour will then be struke with terrible accents The eares of those Adonises this word signifies Song those Ninnions of the Goddesse Venus whose baites are dishonest songes Those of these effeminate Musiciās and daintie Dames who must be lulled a sleepe by singing new aires more pernicious then those of the Poetes Syrenes shall then haue their eares filled with dreadfull plaintes resembling the voice of the Storke or Dragon to whom a Prophete compares his owne while he lamented the incurable woundes of the people of Israel But the damned shall be principally frighted and shall quake to heare the thunder clape of the heauenly wroth which shall continually resound in their eares Wheras the iust saith the royall Prophete shall be in the eternall memorie of God and shall not feare the dreadfull crake of his wroth The paines of other two senses the Smelling and tasteing XXV ANd if Hell be the world's sinke and the Receptackle of all the filth of this great Frame and with all a deepe dūgeon where the aire hath hardly any accesse how great must the stinch and infection needes be of so many corruptions heaped one vpon another and how insufferable the smell of that infernall brimstone mixed with so many corrupted matters When we reade the sufferances of certaine Martires who were afflicted with smells and vermine in darke prisons we esteeme those lent martirdomes as painefull as the violent Nay some natures there be that can so litle
the fire which proceedes from thyne irritated face Who continues the furnace where they are plunged in its wounted heate by the torrent of burning brimstone which flowes from the face of thy iust indignation O God of reuenge let this thought make so liuely an impression in our â—magination that we may be therby roused out of the lethargie of pleasures concupiscence and wordly ambition which keepe vs asleepe Let the fire which walkes before thee as executioner of thy terrible Iustice and which doth consume thyne enemyes to witt the reprobate neuer depart from our memorie may it be vnto vs a torch and pillar of light in the darknesse of the world and our errours a Lampe to our feete and a light to our wayes wherby we may discouer the gulfe which will swallow vs vp vnlesse we prohibite the feete of our affections to follow wicked wayes and command them to walke in the wayes of thy law Thou ô Lord who didst deliuer the three children out of the Babilonian furnace a figure of that wherin the reprobate burne for euer preserue vs from those abominable flames where thou art continually blasphemed and exempting vs from the sharpe and burning ones of thy wroth place vs in the light and bright ones of thy loue where like Pyralides and sacred Salemanders we shall liue happie without paine or consummation singing honour praise and benediction vnto thee for the Canticle of our deliuerance Of interiour paines XXVIII LEt vs now come Athanasia to the consideration of interiour paines And let vs iudge of the torments of the soule as well by the aduantages which it hath ouer the bodie as by the large share it hath in the malice of sinne which is consummated in the will If a Stoicall philosopher had light enough to discerne that euery disordered mynd is its owne TormeÌ„ter what a torture shall the reprobate find in their owne hearts in this accursed place of disorder which is replenished with the horrour of an eternall confusion There their vnderstanding shall be darkned with cloudes because they shall be ouertaken with a night of obscuritie and be couered with the thicke shades of death I will omitt the subtile schowle questions whether they shall be intangled in errours and ignorances wherof those accursed inhabitaÌ„ts of that black prison seeme to complaine in the booke of wisdome when they say that the Sunne of vnderstanding doth not enlighten them Vpon this subiect I will onely stike to that vndoubled truth which teacheth vs that they are fallen for euer into a reprobate sense which causeth their will still following that which the vnderstanding proposeth vnto it being bent to vice like a crooked bowe as the Psalmist tearmes it to hate God with an implacable and extreame hatred But if some subtile disputant goe about to teach vs that since the will cannot hate Good which is its proper obiect it is impossible that it should coÌ„ceaue a true hatred against God who is the soueraigne good we will answere him with the Angelicall S. THOMAS that the damned doe not hate God in himselfe because they know him not such as he is as doe the Blessed who by reason of that knowledge cannot leaue to loue him but onely in his workes for the vnderstanding of the damned conceauing God as Authour of the torments they endure causeth their will to be incensed against him with a mortall and raging hatred And wheras nor God nor the payne which they suffer can cease to bee their courrage ceaseth not and their will is continually tortured with this vnsufferable auersion Their memorie also shall haue its peculiar tormeÌ„t for if the blessed in Heauen reioyce in the labours reproaches which they endured for the loue of God and that through the fire and water of tribulations they are entred into rest the memorie of pleasures past shall be an extreame torment to the reprobate when they call to mynd that for those transitorie moments they are fallen into pinching and endlesse paines They shall roare out with ESAV to haue sold their heauenly inheritance for a mease of potage For comparing in their mynd pleasures past with those that are eternall and apprehending the approach of torments whose cruell panges they feele will not this memorie thinke you draw vpon them an insupportable affliction With what Phantomes and monsterous imaginations shall their fantisie be tortured Frame a iudgement of it by that which happens to such as in this life finding themselues guiltie of greeuious crimes feare to fall into temporall Iustice They may indeede sometymes be in a secure place but neuer in securitie They may be hid from the eyes of men and be placed out of their reach but neuer shall they be able to hide themselues from themselues or escape the assault of their owne conscience While they wake they are vexed with feares and suspicions their sleepe is interrupted with wicked dreames dreade doth still haunt them at each ones approach they quake with feare and the Furies hauing seased vpoÌ„ them grant them nether Peace nor Truce their dissipated thoughts put their hearts vpon the Racke Now if the apprehension of humane Iustice which hath power onely ouer the bodie giue so daunting Alarumes to the imagination what will the sense of the dartes of the Diuine Iustice doe which are so many vessells of death and burning arrowes shot at the damned soule But who can expresse the strange Chaos and horrible confusion which shall inhabite the inferiour appetite of the lost crue For if all the disorder of mans life spring from his passions which as blustering blastes are shut vp in the two caues Concupiscible and irascible what disorder iudge you must those wretched soules needs feele in that part what contradictions in themselues what conuulsions what rage what furie Alas that noble passion LOVE Queene of all the rest the Sunne and salt of life that passion which might haue made them happie for euer if they had turned it towards God that soueraignely amiable obiect being as it were razed out of them the perpetuall auersion they haue to loue shall afflict them as the panges of a woman in childbirth who cannot yet be deliuered S. CATHERINE OF SIENNA being vpon a day present while a possessed person was exorcised the Diuel being commanded to declare his name he answered with a hideous how leing I am the accursed DEPRIVED-OF-LOVE At which the Sainte was so moued that she thought she should haue fallen downe in a Traunce Touching the passion of hatred it shall be outragious in the daÌ„ned whence shall proceede their continuall blasphemies against God and the perpetuall maledictions and imprecations which they shall make against the creatures And if they haue any Desires they shall be execrable ones to see all the world partakers of their paynes not that they are at all solaced therby but onely to giue way to the incredible malice of which they are full Their auersion from all good shall be as much tormenting as in
why should we find it strange that he should eternally punish sinne that accursed nothing or rather that proud Giant which doth oppose his darksome priuation against that diuine beeing souueraignely lightsome Yea this truth though heauen and earth passe shall stand in force for euer that God shall destroy euerlastingly all that shall worke iniquitie and that being driuen from the sight of his face they shall suffer mortally eternall paynes Those accursed soules shall one day heare the folish Virgins dismission who came without the oyle of grace and Charitie Begone the gate of the eternall marriages are shut against you for euer Begone I know you not And this daunting sentence which shall be without Appeale is pronūced in the burning Court of the worlds comsūmation Goe you accursed into eternall fires prepared for the Diuell and the partakers in his reuoult The Manna which of old fell for 6. dayes vpon Israel ceased to fall the seauenth and he that neglected to make prouision of two measures therof the day before the Saboath with fasting was forced to pay his negligence Such as in the tyme of this life lent to negotiate and labour haue bene flouthfull in gathering the Manna of grace shall not be receaued in the other life which is the tyme wherin all worke ceaseth The sluggard saith the wiseman who in winter fearing the cold hath neglected to till shall reape onely in his feild bryers and nettles in haruest tyme and pouertie and hungar shall encompasse his gate For which cause the same wiseman calls him prudent and considerate who tills and sowes in its season threatening him with confusion and miserie who sleepes and takes his ease while he is to put his hand to the worke Verily such a man deserues to be compared to horses and mules who haue no vnderstanding and yet not to a generous horse nether but euen to a iade who hauing still at his sides so quicke and bloodie a spurre as that of the thought especially of the accursed Eternitie doth not striue to draw himselfe out of the durt of vice and to spring swiftly on in the course of vertue Alas what doth not a sick-body endure to be quite of his desease what bitter potions doth he not take downe what bleedings lancings burnings In a word what doth he not resolutly vndergoe to recouer his health and to prolong for a tyme this mortall and miserable life and yet to draw our selues out of the gates of death and those also eternall and out of the horrible tortures wherof this litle draught makes a weake representation shall wee vse no endeuours An Apostrophie to God and the soule vpon the accursed Eternitie XXXVII OEternitie ô powrefull rigourous and iealous God! God of Reuenge ô Lord thou art iust and all thy iudgments are iustice and equitie it selfe I adore them great God yea my soule cast vpon the earth and my mouth ioyned to the dust I confesse that all thou dost proceeds from a true and iust iudgmēt and that all thy wayes are replenished with iustice For who am I dust and ashes a worme and not a man to enter a dispute with thee Who if thou wouldst obserue and examine our faults who is able to sustayne thy face and to enter into iudgment with thee Yet as thou art soueraignely Good thou permitst men to discusse matters with thee And being Truth it selfe thou art willing that they should propose vnto thee the things they conceaue to be iust and true In this Confidence ô Lord approching towards the Throne of thy mercy after the consideration of those eternall paynes I haue now contemplated I hope thou wilt permit my poore soule to make a weake sallie towards thee Lord those soules which thou dost banish to those endlesse flames which deriue all their heate frō the fire of thy wroth are they not the workmanshipe of thy hands And is not thy worke mercy it selfe as thy nature is goodnesse it selfe Why then dost thou shut thy eares to their cryes and of a pitifull Father to those accursed soules thou becomest an inexorable and seuere I dare not say a cruell Iudge as thy seruant IOB tearmes thee whom thou didst try in manifold sufferances Where are thyne aunient mercyes ô Lord hast thou forgotten to pardon which is thyne ordinarie coustume Why hast thou reiected them for euer and can they neuer appease thy anger Ah! no Lord they know well that which they demande is not for thy glorie they that haue bene prodigall of thy fauours that are not worthy to be called thy children that can pretend nothing in the inheritance of saluation nor in the portion replenished with light reserued to thy Saints Their deeds of darknesse hath rendred them vnworthy of that bright day which knowes no night Being no longer thy children they cannot be heires of thy Sanctuarie heires of the Land of the liuing nor coheires with IESVS CHRIST whose pretious blood and merits they haue troden vnder their feete Nay Lord euen they doe not demande to depart out of Hell nor to be freed from those paynes which are iustly inflicted vpon them for to appeare before thy wrothfull face would be a hell and a Torture vnto them incomparably more rigorous then all the torments they endure Their onely desire is to be reduced to nothing since they haue commit the works of sinne which is a true nothing But if thou daigne them vnworthy of this vnfortunate fauour at least after many ages of paines can they not expect some moment of release shall not some litle drope of refreshment and solace after many thousand of yeares be sent to water their withered lipps their thirsting throtes their burning tongues Say Lord wilt thou for euer laugh at their liuing death Wilt thou not for euer bow to their begging O the God of my heart ô the part of myne euerlasting inheritance What 's this that I heare in the botome of my heart what dradfull Echo makes resound therin these words of horrour I will be inexorable vnto them eternally Softly my soule make a stand here step not a foote further Dost thou not see the firie sword in the Diuine Iustice's hand threatening ouer thy head if thou aduance a foote Dost belonge to thee temerarious wretch to sound God's Maiestie Fearest thou not to be ouerwhelmed with his glorie Dost thou not see that these reprobates are relinquished by the spirit of his heart precipitated into an eternall obliuion in this second death Leaue them there then and kissing the sonne that is adoring the highnesse of the Scepter of this Diuine Iustice reioyce together with the iuste in this iuste reuenge and wash thy hands in the ruine and bloode of those sinners And drawing light from their darknesse compound a wholsome treackle of the venime of their infelicitie Cast thyne eyes rather vpon the malice of sinne and by an effect so horrible forme a iudgment of the greatnesse of the Cause Thinke if thou seest a louing Father iustly casting
tyme to come if their be any tyme to come in the immoueable and euer-present state of Eternitie and if they consider the new discoueries of gusts and contentments which they shall continually make in the Abisse of this infinite Beautie and Goodnes of God haue they not a large feild of ioyfullnes and thankesgiueing I will omit the Sciences with which she is furnished by him who is called the God of Sciences and who teacheth men science and especially that Queene of Sciences DIVINITIE which consisteth in the Contemplation of God and which is the true knowledge of Saintes For I pray you what doe not they saith S. GREGORIE know who see him that knowes all The aduantages of the vnderstanding XLVI OVr manner of knowing and vnderstanding during this mortall life stands in need of the meditation of senses whence this Philosophicall Axiome nothing enters into the vnderstanding which past not first through the senses And verily that which comes to the knowledge of sense is but superficiall For example how doth our sight know but by a species or representation which the obiect of this sense sends out to our eye which the Maisters tearme species sensibilis and is the cause that we see and know by sight What soeuer enters into the knowledge of our vnderstanding by this gate is admitted in no other sort In like manner it is of other senses touching sensible and corporall things There are others more spirituall as the Notiōs or Principles of Artes and Sciences which our vnderstanding conceiues by speculation But how doth it conceaue them but by a subtile delicate and spirituall Image which is called Species intelligibilis And then by how many windings doth this species passe how many changes and alterations doth it endure by the Common sense the phantasie the vnderstanding styled actiue and then by the passiue before it put on the proper shape to become intellectuall Loe then how our naturall knowledge is formed by species and Images Yea euen the knowledge of Faith though supernaturall enters not into our soule but vnder some kind of composition some simple vniuersall and abstracte cloud which is Faith Hence it is that the Apostle speaking of that kind of knowledge by Faith compares it to an obscure sight and as it were to that of a glasse And who knowes not that we see but meerely in a glasse by meanes of the species which are formed in it a species which formes another in our eyes So our vnderstāding which is the ey of our soule doth not assēt to the truthes of Faith reuealed by God but by hearing them by the voice of the Church and her Pastures For Faith is by hearing or by reading them in the Creede and Canonicall bookes But it fares not so Athanasia with the knowledge of the vnderstanding in the blessed Eternitie For there it shall see God without species without representation The Deitie vniting ioyning and applying it selfe in such sort vnto it that that inward presence shall be in lieu of species O deare God! how neerely doth this vnion approach vnto vnitie and with what wonders is this application filled The verie proper essence of the Diuine Truth being receaued into the vnderstanding without all Image or species And then the peace of God which passeth all vnderstanding shall conserue and possesse the heartes and vnderstandings that is to say the wills and vnderstandings of those happie soules O who is able to expresse the incomparable happines of those who without vayle without glasse without obscuritie shall see face to face being enlightened and freed from all dimnesse and confusion that glorious face which the Psalmist with such instance pursueth O what a glorie shall it be to behold without being oppresst with the greatnes of so high a Maiestie those adorable ineffable incomprehensible misteries of the most holy Trinitie what a gracious fauour shall it be openly to discouer the eternall generation of the WORD issuing out of the Fathers bosome a generation of which the Prophete pronounceth with admiration who is able to relate it what a communication shall it be to see the Diuine communications yea the communication of communications which is that of the eternally reciprocall loue and reciprocally infinite of the Father to the Sonne and the Sonne to the Father whence is produced as from one same Principle the Holy Ghost Because the Father and the Sonne hauing but one will which doth loue and one goodnes which is loued the fountaine of this production can be but one O misterie of misteries which it is better to admire then to deciphere and better to speake nothing of it then too litle I had rather in this place which is not alloted to thy explication imitate the Seraphins who doe vayle their eyes and feete and fold their winges and content my selfe in protesting my beleife and alleagance in these words of the wellbeloued disciple of IESVS CHRIST There are three who giue testimonie in heauen the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and those three are one I adore thee ô great God in the Trinitie of thy persons and in the vnitie of thy essence and I doe sinke and become nothing before thyne infinite greatnesse What ioy Athanasia hath this beatified vnderstanding to discouer this great misterie hidden frō the worlds creation to witt the Hypostaticall vnion of the eternall Word with the flesh which we call Incarnation What a number of secretes are conteyned in this great secrete what a number of wheeles are fastened in this one wheele that is what misteries doe depend of this misterie and what a fire amidst this wheele fire which our Sauiour brought into the world to the end it should burne all the hearts of the faithfull with his loue what delight shall it be to behold this Abisse of beauties and perfections which are in God by way of excellencie and infinitly aboue all that we are able to imagine in the Attributes which we frame of him In this heauenly vision as in the liuely fountaine of all light the shades of errours doubtes opinions and ignorances shall vanish which doe inuiron and incompasse vs in the almost palpable darknes of the Egipt of this life Faith it selfe which reuealed vnto vs so many meruelles of God and of his glorious Citie shall disappeare in this happie Abode where we shall see according as we shall haue heard and beleeued Nether shall Hope be any more because we shall enoye that which by Hope we expected Charitie alone shall neuer faile neuer shall any thing cause her holy flame to die out contrariwise in glorie she shall be accomplished and come to the hight of her perfection What a delightfull entertaynement shall it be for the vnderstanding to consider the windings of that wonderfull clocke of the Diuine Prouidence as well in the gouernement of the world in generall as of all the soules in particular and what thankesguings shall it render to the fatherly care of the Diuine Goodnes whilst it shall admire
which passe betwixt those heauenly inhabitants No for all their pretentions being one and their imployments being wholy about that one necessarie thing of that Marie's best Parte which shall neuer be taken from her their connection is rather to be tearmed an vnitie then an vnion since in them is accomplished that excellent word of our Sauiours beseeching his heauenly Father that such as follow and beleeue in him should be one as he and his eternall Father is one So shall all their desires be filled with perfect vnitie which is God and all their thoughtes meeting in that vnitie the Diuine Spouse by good reason may say to that holy assemblie his owne misticall bodie My Sister my Spouse thou hast wounded and borne away my Heart in one onely of thy heires For as a woman that doth graspe and gather together in her hand her long tresses makes them all end in one onely haire so all those elected troopes hauing but one onely desire which is to please God the louing heart of this God all of fire and which is Charitie it selfe can it possibly but be pleased in this their preparation of mynd From this perfect vnion doth arise the excellencie of a compleate Communitie which is the true and consummated Cōmunion of Saintes A Communion by which each one in his owne person doth possesse God and his Kingdome with such peace and so exquisite a Charitie that not the least apprehension of any partialitie can enter into their hearts There shall all proprietie be left and of the contrarie side there shall be so bountifull a communication that those that are highest seated in glorie are full of affection towards the lowest and as far forth as they are able make them participant of their abundance and the lowest againe shall as much reioyce in the exaltation of the highest as in their owne for in this perfect Communitie myne and thine shall be giuen ouer each ones particular good belonging to all and the goods of all belonging to each one in particular each one reioycing as much in an others good as in his owne by reason of the great Charitie which shall be infused into their hearts by the holy Ghost Hence they are all cōtinually sett at one table fedd with the same substance the Diuinitie drinking in the same cup eternall delightes imployed in the same exercises seruing one and the same Maister and that with the same spirit who being in all and being all in all he vnites them all together by vniting them all to himselfe This sacred band of the Diuinitie and this Charitie of God tying and vniting them together adornes this happie Societie with another excellencie which is that of Peace and Concord Peace of God which passeth all vnderstanding and which doth connect them together like vnto the graines of a Pungranade which appeare when it is cutt open to which the holy Spouse in the Canticles cōpares the redde cheekes of the Church his Spouse And if the word concord come from the vnion or agreement of heartes how should not they be vnited who haue one onely heart and that quickned with one onely soule all their hearts being set on God their onely Treasure and their adhering to that onely principle of all Good making them one verie spirit with God As concerning the Peace which followes this Cōcord as the beames the Sunne it is the very name of this higher Hierusalē which signifies VISION OF PEACE and of which it is written that it is bounded with peace And in ISAIE that God doth visite it in peace and in peace which can neuer be changed or troubled with any dissention because Gods absolute commāde shall find an absolute submission in all their hearts In that heauenly Citie saith S. AVGVSTINE CHARITIE is the Soueraigne LAW TRVTH the QVEENE PEACE the FELICITIE ETERNITIE the LIFE therof There shall be a true peace and such an one as shall neuer be trauersed by any a peace which passeth all delight From that Peace springs a serenitie of mynd a trāquillitie of heart a band of Loue a communication of Charitie and a rest in God which can neuer be changed So speaks that Great Doctor of that eternall Peace which the world nether giues nor indeed knowes A continuation of the excellencies LXI BVt Athanasia should I be able to conceale the excellencie of the beautie of that holy compaignie ô cryes out the wiseman how beautifull is the chaste and faire generation truely the memorie therof shall be immortall before God and mā If he affirmed this of earthly families who liue in honour what may be said of the generation of the Blessed which shall be crowned with eternall benedictions How should the Angells and Elect choose but be faire since their soules shall be decked with all the ornaments of vertues and their bodies inriched with the glorious qualities which before we haue declared There can be no stayne vpō them for nothing that is defiled or is imperfect can enter into this Sanctuarie of Eternitie And if MARDOCHEVS litle foūtaine became an Ocean of light what beautie can the Elect want who are vnited to the fountaine of all that faire or good is which is he whose essence is verie Beautie and Goodnes And who rules in heauen by the sweete and delightfull Empire of his incōparable beautie No Athanasia if all the beauties which doe sparkle in the whole world were gathered together I except nether the Sūne nor the Starrs they would be in no sort comparable to the least grace of the Elect. Iudge then what a shine of beauties must needs arise from so innumerable a number of so different beauties that some Doctors haue proceeded so far as to say that all the Angells are of a different species ô God what numberlesse species of beauties And as touching the diuersitie of humane sisages it is so visible euen in this world that it needs no other proofe but experience And what diuersitie of beauties shall there be in the diuers quires of Angells and the diuers degrees of the Blessed Let vs make an end without ending for who knowes not that a Draught though neuer so perfect in the nature of a Draught is yet but an imperfect picture and let vs giue the last touch to these excellencies by that which may be called the excellencie of Excellencies of this Blessed Societie It is that it shall be endowed with all the perfectiōs which grace and glorie can shewre downe vpon creatures For sith Beatitude is a perfect collection of all kind of good things why shall we not also affirme that those that doe enioy it are by consequence possessed of all the perfections which might in any sort perfect this felicitie Now though soueraigne and essentiall Beatitude as well that of this life as of the life to come doth not consiste in any created good and consequently nether in Honours Riches nor Pleasures the three Classes to which are reduced euery good be it honorable profitable or delightfull
said to be eternall and death to be defeated for euer as also the fire which shall torment the damned is named eternall it is also cleare in right reason that Beatitude which is a sufficient good or rather the collection of all good would not be compleat vnlesse it did exclude all euil and miserie especially the miserie of miseries which is death or annihilation For take away the perpetuitie of the life of the Blessed and they would be afflicted with a continuall sorrow for the losse of the beloued felicitie and a most distastefull bitternesse would disturbe the sweetnesse of the peaceable fruition Adde that Beatitude cannot be imperfect on the part of the Obiect which is God all whose workes are perfect and his guiftes without repentance which he neuer reuokes but for sinne which can neuer haue accesse to the Blessed cōfirmed in grace by Glorie And vnchangeably vnited to God whose nature is goodnesse his workes mercy And who can nether will nor can abide iniquitie Againe that word of our Sauiours to his Disciples is an Oracle of infallible truth and a promisse which shall remayne for euer Your ioy saith he shall not be taken from you God's seruants the Elect shall adore him in beholding his face and they shall raigne for euer and euer that is eternally saith S. IOHN in his Reuelations And S. BERNARD explicating that of the Psalmist I will fill my friends with the length of dayes and will shew them my SALVATION what is longer saith he then that which is eternall what continuance more longe then that which hath no end O how good an end is eternall life how good is that end which is infinite How faire is the day which hath no Sunne-setting nor is followed out by night and what is this day but the eternall VERITIE the true ETERNITIE O Societie of the Blessed eternally true and truely eternall those are they onely who may be truly said to be liuing and enioying a life truely long in heauē which knowes no end as they are truely dead and that of a long death who continually die in Hell where they continually liue without tasteing the fruite of life S. BERNARD's meditation shall make way to S. AVCVSTINE's touching the Eternitie of that blessed life O life saith he which God hath prepared for his friēds thou art a life full of happinesse crowned with assurance a quiete life and excellent life a pure life a chaste life a holy life a life that knowes no death a life without sorrow without labour without greife without vexation without corruption without varietie or chāge a life adorned with euerie beautie accomplished with honour a life that is not laboured with enuie nor subiect to anger where Loue raignes in its perfection and from whence feare is banished where the day is eternall and the hearts of all is but one where God is seene face to face and this vision is foode to those that behold him with an ardent affection O how thy shineing brightnes doth delight me and how aggreable are thy felicities to the desires of my heart The more I consider thee the more I loue thee I swoone with desire in contemplating thee yet that desire insteede of afflicting me affords me an extreame content and thy memorie is more sweete vnto mee then the honie-combe O happie life ô Empire of eternall felicitie where death hath no iurisdiction which shall neuer haue end Where the succession of tyme hath no raigne nor vicissitude where the day hath no night where change can get no footing where the victorious Champion accōpaigned with the troopes of Angells his heade being enuironed with a crowne of glorie incessantly sings to God the Song of the heauenly Sion How happie shall my soule be if after her departure out of this mortall pilgrinage she may haue the happines to see thee and to contemplate thy beautie thy walls thy gates thy Pallaces thy places thy noble citizēs and thyne omnipotent King seated in his admirable Throne of Maiestie Thy walls are built of pretious stones of an inestimable value thy Gates are inriched with peerlesse gemmes Thy streetes are paued with purest gold and in them the Diuine prayses doe continually resound Thy houses are made of fouresquare stones beautified with Saphires wrought with vinebranches and grapes of gold None enters within thy confines who are not pure for all that is defiled is repulsed The light which doth enlighten thee is nether from Lampe nor torch nor Sunne Moone nor starrs it is God alone proceeding from God that light which doth spring from light who is thyne eternall and vniuersall light The King of Kings resides continually in the midst of thee waited vpon with a numberlesse number of Courtiers and Officiers more resplendant then the lightning more bright then the flame Will you yet further giue eare to the same Sainte heare then what he saith of that liuely Eternitie that eternall life The wicked saith he shall goe into eternall fires but the iuste into eternall felicities That is the eternall life which is promised vs. And wheras men take no greater content here below then to liue behold how life is promised them and wheras they dread nothing so much as death see how an Eternitie of life is proposed vnto them What dost thou loue ô man To liue Thou shall enioy this great benefit What dost thou feare To dy Thou shalt be exempt from it Yet is it not all to liue long to liue for euer but the toppe of felicitie is to liue happie for euer What can we add to this Oracle of truth deliuered in so good tearmes by that incomparable witt but fruitlesse words in a subiect so fruitfull that the abundance therof doth oppresse him that handles it Meanes wherby to arriue at this happie Eternitie LXV BVt we are rather Athanasia to search out the meanes to attaine to this great happinesse then to enlarge our selues vpon curiosities to know it or loose our selues in the admiration therof since it is written that not all that shall say Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdome of Heauen but those that doe the will of our Lord that is such as shall liue according to his law and shall make force against his holy citie Dost thou desire to enter into true life said our Sauiour to the young man who asked his counsell which way he was to hold keepe the Commandements Of all the wayes which are taught vs by the holy scripture and the writings of Doctors to worke our saluation in feare and trembling I will onely touch two which next vnto God's grace without which we are able to doe nothing I find verie necessarie The Philosopher Epictetes made all his philosophicall Precepts turne vpon these two poles or pinnes SVSTAYNE and ABSTAYNE I am persuaded that all morall Christianitie may turne vpon the same pinnes The one doth teach vs to suffer difficulties labours paines the other the perfect contempt of worldly vanities pleasures and riches If we
haue these two winges nothing shall be able to hinder our flight towards the blessed Eternitie the heauēly Hierusalem the mother of the liuing Water shut vp in a narrow pipe doth spirte vp so much the higher The narrow way of sufferances is that which doth make spring vp in vs the fountaine of life which doth run towards Eternitie All the scripture cryes out this truth vnto vs who so euer will come after me to witt to glorie let him take vp his Crosse and follow me saith our Sauiour Happie is he who suffers tribulation for being once tryed he shall receaue the crowne of life which God hath promised to those that loue him And who are those that loue him but whom he doth chastise and whom he doth clothe with the liuerie of sufferances Because thou wast agreeable in Gods sight it was necessarie that affliction should try thee was it said to the good TOBIE Are not the Iust tryed like gold in the furnace to discouer whether they be worthy of God What Christians can be ignorant of this decree which was written with the blood of the Lambe vpon the threshwood of their dores That we are to enter into the Kingdome of Heauen through many tribulations And that all those that would liue piously in IESVS CHRIST must endure the scourge of persecutions to be found wheate worthy to be layed vp in the Granarie of Eternitie For which cause S. IAMES doth exhort the faithfull to reioyce in their afflictions knowing that patience is the proofe of their Faith and that the worke of Patience is perfect that is doth perfect him that doth it Tribulation saith the Apostle worketh patience and Patience probation and probation Hope and such a hope as confoundeth not in its expectation Though we are now for a smale tyme to be afflicted with many tribulations yet it is that the tryall of our Faith may appeare more precious then gold before the face of God who according to his great mercy doth regenerate vs by a liuely hope to possesse the heauēly inheritance which cannot be corrupted nor changed Then we shall behold we shall admire and the plentie of good things shall dilate our heart Then with an incredible ioy we shall be drunke vp in God our SALVATION Then the teares shall be wiped from the eyes of the Elect they shall weepe no more greife and paine shall no more tormēt them because all that is blowen ouer that is to say they entered not into those eternall Bowres but through the fires and waters of tribulation Truly he were iustly reputed an vnworthy soldier who would desire to gaine victorie better cheape then his Capitaine and how did our Capitaine and Law giuer IESVS CHRIST enter into the glorie which was due vnto him by nature was it not by sufferance Let vs behold then the Exemplaire of the mountaine but the mountaine of Caluarie before we take into our consideration that of Thabor Let vs looke vpon the Authour and Comsummatour of our faith IESVS CHRIST who choosed to vndergoe the Crosse while glorie was proposed vnto him Let vs imitate the Apostle who was so loyall to his Maister that he bore in his bodie the stigmates and markes of his crucified Lord. O how ioyfull the Apostles were when it happened that they were to endure something for the loue of CHRIST knowing what an eternall waight of glorie that sufferance treasured vp in heauen for them And if the Asserians vpon the sight of IVDITH's beautie did comfort themselues in the extreamities of that seige with the hope they had to enioy the faire creatures who were in the Citie What extreamities of miseries were we not willingly to endure to be possessed of the inestimable felicities which we haue represented If by labours saith S. AVGVSTINE it must be atchiued from this instant I inuoke you ô all yee torments of the world I coniure you to burst out vpon my head and shewre downe a mayne vpon me Let tribulations be multiplied and presse in troopes vpon me let infirmities vexations pouertie want aduersitie make head against and oppresse me Let euery one persecute me let all creatures bandie against me let me be the Butt of all their arrowes let me be the scorne of men and the reproach of people let my dayes be ended in pinching paines yet will I bee too content so that after this sharpe winter I may gather the flowres of the eternall Spring and that I may be rancked amongst the Elect who are bright with beames of Glorie I cannot be weaned from the plentifull and yndraynable dugges of this great and fruitefull Doctour without suckinge a long draught to giue some colour and life to this Draught of myne Marke then how he doth encourage vs to sufferances for the attayning of Eternitie If we diligently ponder the reward that is proposed vnto vs all that we suffer will seeme litle and light and we shall repute our paines vnworthy of so great a recompence For is it not true that we should buy eternall rest at a iust Rate though we were to pay a perpetuall labour for it and to purchase an eternall felicitie at the price of an eternall sufferance Marrie if you were imployed in an eternall labour when would you come to an eternall reward O the eternall Goodnesse who hath made our tribulation temporall and yet to this passing paine he hath alotted an endlesse pleasure Place a thousand thousand yeares before-Eternitie and yet what doe you doe but compare a limited with an illimited thing Adde to this that God did not onely prefixe a certaine tearme to our labours but that a short one to for what is the life of man but the continuance of a few dayes Though a man therfore were oppressed for the whole course of his life with all sortes of torments labours greeues though prisons hungar thirst and irkesome vlcers should accompaignie him to his graue were it not yet an affliction of a short standing the dayes of man are few in number his labours short and light and yet are followed with an endlesse Kingdome with an eternall Beatitude After these short sufferances we shall be possessed of the Societie of Angells and Saintes the inheritance of IESVS CHRIST God him selfe an inestimable price for so smale a labour Wherfore saith he in another place let vs loue eternall life and let vs learne how much we are to labour for it by the exemple of those who doe passionately loue this mortall life fearing to loose it for when any sicknesse begins to threaten them death what doe they not doe I doe not say to escape it for that is not possible but onely for a tyme to protract deathes fatall blow How much doth a man strugle when death doth catch him by the necke to escape out of its clawes he flies he hides him self and giues all that doth possesse to keepe his bodie in possession of his soule At the price of all his fortunes he is readie to ransome his life
Hell's Eternitie as that we doe not more thinke of his Eternitie who made them both this for the Diuells and their associates that for the Angells and the Elect. O eternall Diuinitie ô Diuine Eternitie thou art he whom I consider and whom I seake for to thee onely it is that I aspire for without thee the created Eternitie would not bee since it doth not subsiste but by the eternall essence of the essentiall Eternitie which is no other thē God himselfe And yet further to purisie myne affection and bring it to its full perfection henceforth I will not so much loue the Eternitie of God as the God of Eternitie though God be that same Eternitie and that same Eternitie be God himselfe And if by the imagination of an impossible thing one could be in Hell with his grace his accursed Eternitie would not be dreadfull nor is the Blessed Eternitie to be desired but that eternall life is to see God eternally eternally to depēd vpon him O eternall God! who is like vnto thee who is like vnto thee who is like vnto our Lord God who inhabites in the places aboue And what Eternitie can be compared vnto his from whom proceedes all Eternitie seing he hath made the ages of ages O Great God direct my wayes in thy presence and make me walke before thee in perfection that is perfect in such sort my intentions that forgetting myne owne interest and nether staying my selfe in the blessed or accursed Eternitie I may onely looke after thyne essentiall Eternitie which is thy selfe to whom be honour and glorie from generation to generation for euer and euer in the Eternitie of Eternities Amen An aspiration of Hope LXXIII BVt ô Lord will it not be too great a presumption for a worme of the earth to rayse it selfe towards thyne infinite Eternitie and promisse himselfe one day in thy glorie to be vnited thervnto Yea verily it were a manifest vanitie if a soule should persuade her selfe that of her selfe and by the strength of her owne winge she could wind her selfe thither But as of her selfe she can doe nothing so together with thee being fortified by thee what can she not performe ô great God since she holds her whole beeing of thy Grace What may she not what ought she not to expect from thy grace since it is written that thy grace is eternall life And againe with what confidence must not her heart needs be encouraged when she shall cast the eyes of her consideration vpon the great price and infinite merites of thyne eternall Sonne ô eternall Father a Sonne who hath layed her open the way to Eternitie not by the blood of gotes or calues but acquiring vnto her by his owne blood an eternall and plentuous redemption O my soule what are we not to hope from the Mercy of so good a God and who hath loued vs with an eternall and excessiue Charitie a Charitie so excessiue that he bestowed his owne Sonne to be the propitiation for our Sinnes When we were dead by our crymes his grace restored vs to life Our Sauiour dying vpō the Crosse did quicken vs by his death and the same reuiuour doth promise vs a like resurrection and ascending vnto heauen he goes to prepare vs a place before the Throne of his glorie Which made the great Apostle writing to the Ephesians say that God who is rich in mercy for his exceding Charitie wherwith he loued vs euen while we were dead by sinnes quickened vs together in CHRIST by whose grace we are salued and hath raysed vs vp with him selfe making vs sit with him in the celestials in IESVS CHRIST shewing to future ages the abundant riches of his grace through his benignitie towards vs in IESVS CHRIST And the Prince of the Apostles S. PETER Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST who according to his great Mercy hath regenerated vs vnto a liuely hope by the resurrection of IESVS CHRIST from the deade vnto an inheritance incorruptible and incontaminate and that cannot fade conserued in the Heauens in you For what ought not those to hope for who are inrowled as members in the misticall body of the Holy Church whose heade he is being most reasonable that the Champions should follow their Commander in his triumph if they did accompanie him in his Combats vnder the Banner of the Crosse You that haue followed me said he to his Apostles you shall be set vpon seates in the Kingdome which my Father hath prepared for you in Eternitie There it is that the Elect like vnto Eagles shall flocke about the bodie of the glorious humanitie of our Redeemour and where crowned with the crowne of Iustice they shall lay them downe at the feet of this Lābe Conquerour of the earth and who vanquished the world And if the eternall Father hath giuen vs his Sonne how will not he giue vs all things with him especially since this Sonne hath the key of DAVID key Scepter of his Empire vpon his shouldiers A key with which he opens and none can shut Behold saith S. IOHN what Charitie the eternall Father hath communicated vnto vs that we should be named and be his Sonnes and if his Sonnes his Heires also Heires truely of God and Coheires of CHRIST It was this holy hope that moued the Psalmists heart so generously to lanch out as by so many flightes towards the blessed Eternitie Come let vs ascend into the Hill of our Lord and into the house of the God of IACOB Hope in him all yee congregations of the faithfull for those that hope in him vnderstād the truth of his promises those that are faithfull in his loue doe place their confidence therin Those that hope in him shall not be confounded for euer for such as put their confidence in him shall be no more shaken then the Mountaine of Sion but replenished with ioy in the expectation of the eternall felicitie they cryed out I reioyced when I was told that we were to goe into the house of our Lord. And indeed what is not a man to hope of an infinite Bountie what ought not one to expect from so solemne promises and whose truth remaynes for euer No Lord neuer neuer will I forget thy iustifications for it is by them that thou hast giuen me life I doe firmely beleeue that if my soule doe constantly adheare vnto thee thy right hand will receaue one into thy bosome O how happie are those whom thou hast chosen and taken as thyne for they shall dwell in thyne eternall Court for euer and euer Let 's make no doubt of it my soule he that by his grace moues vs to tend to this goale will not forsake vs in the midst of our course and in so faire a way but since his workes are perfect he will heape grace vpon grace and will make vs happily arriue at the Port and point of all consummation O God draw vs after thee sith it is thee alone whom we search and
in the eternall God To whom keeping an inuariable fidelitie in the various change of things she pronounceth couragiously with the Apostle whether we liue or die we are our Lord's I will blesse him at all tymes his praise shall be continually in my mouth Whether he draw vs vp to Heauē or he depresse vs downe into the Abisses below whether he doe mortifie or quicken vs his loue shall be so strong vnto me loue which is more strong then death or Hell that nothing shall euer be able to separate me from his charitie Yea she will rather be vnmyndfull of her selfe then forget this deare Hierusalem of that Eternitie wherin she hath cast the Ankre of all her hopes and of her saluation Exercise your selfe therfore frequently and faithfully in this Practise of Aspirations and Iaculatorie Prayers which are so familiar to all those that professe true pietie and you will find by experience that as by meanes therof you come to see God in all things so shall you easely discouer therby in euery thing the Blessed or accursed Eternitie since Fortune and misfortune are the two basons or rather the two Poles of this life and the two Caskes or tunns of Prouidence according to that auncient Philosophers conceipt or at least to contemplate therin the essentiall Eternitie which is God the Center wherin all our desires and asperations doe end The moments wher vpon Eternitie doth depend LXXVII O God Athanasia what am I about to say this Eternitie which shall neuer haue end is not yet in respect of vs without begining and it is that which the Diuines call Euiternitie for God alone being his owne Eternitie is without begining or end But all other creatures who were made in TYME had a begining yet true it is that both Angells and men shall be eternall marrie in the tyme to come for they had a begining and were not from all Eternitie Now as we haue had a begining and shall haue no end whether our wicked life doe precipitate vs into eternall punishments or our good endeauours assisted by God's grace make vs a way to eternall life So our passage to the blessed or accursed Eternitie depends of a moment as of its principle O Athanasia how attētiue ought we to be to vnderstand that dreadfull moment whervpon depends our Eternitie If you aske me which it is I will discouer vnto you in the next stroke that it comprehends all the moments of this mortall life But as in a plentious heruist there are alwayes some eares of come more notable then the rest and amongst the starrs those which are neerest the two Poles are the most remarkable so amongst the moments of which our mortall life are composed I would wish that we should haue a principall care of the two of which I am about to speake The first is the precious moment in which the Diuine grace doth touch our hearts called by the Scripture the tyme of our visitation a moment of such importance that being rightly receaued it is the blosome of our blessed Eternitie but being ill managed it is the begining of our accursed Eternitie Woe be to thee said our Sauiour weeping ô Hierusalem because thou hast not decerned the tyme of thy visitation O God Athanasia how we shall be astonished when before the Tribunal of the iust Iudge where we must all appeare we shall heare our selues accused of so many negligences for that we haue ether despised the Diuine inspirations or that we haue abused so many heauēly graces which could haue giuen vs life if we had bene deade by sinne or life more abundantly if we were alreadie in grace according as it is writtē How much was that slothfull louer of the Canticles greeued when she perceaued that her Spouse was past by who had stood at her Chāber doore quaking with cold and beseeching entrie by so many louing inuitatiōs and aduantagous promisses She riseth but to late she runs full of desolation into diuers places but fines him not till after a thousand and a thousand labours affrontes reproches But what a heart breake shall it be to the reprobate soule when after her condemnation she shall clearly see how many occasions of working her saluation she had neglected and how many meanes she had to free her selfe from the torments to which she shall see her selfe adiudged for euer We sēnselesse say the damned speaking of the Elect esteemed their life who wrought their owne saluation madnes themselues dasterous and dishonorable but now we see their lot is in the inheritance of Saintes On the other side what a consolation shall it be to thee Blessed when they shall consider that their well imployed moments of affliction in earth had wrought in them an eternall waight of Glorie Let vs therfore be carefull of our selues Athanasia Let vs marke what our Sauiour speakes in our hearts and doubtlesse we shall vnderstand words of Peace and reconcilement Blessed is the man that heareth him and watcheth at his doores dayly which we doe when we are earefull to gather vp his inspiratiōs as the dropes of a heauenly dew which begets precious Pearles in our hearts and the holy vnions of our soule with God Let 's still be on foote and as it were stand Sentinell vpon our wayes let vs thinke in what sort we walke let vs turne our feete into the Pathes of the Diuine Lawe The SECOND MOMENT is that which makes a separation betwixt our soule and our body that is the instant of our departure out of this life a moment which is our last and is to be iudge of all those that went before For as the Tree remaynes for euer where it falls so shall we continue for euer in the state in which we are found in the instant of our death And such as God shall find vs then such will he iudge vs. For if all this life be but a waying to Eternitie death is to be tearmed the doore of Eternitie yet a double doore passing the good to felicitie the wicked to eternall miseries And if PHILIPPE MACEDO to conteyne himselfe within the bounds of temperance and modestie in his Kinglike greatnes made a Page aduertise him euery morning that he was a Man and consequētly mortall least he might haue framed some immortall cōceipt of himselfe How much more ought a Christian continually to call to mynd that double Eternitie which attends him after death The present moment LXXVIII BVt besides these two moments which I haue proposed vnto you Athanasia I doe so much desire that you would attend and applie your selfe to the consideration of Eternitie that I would wish from my heart that all the moments of your life were imployed in that exercise that I might applie to you that of the Prophete you are a nightly Sentinell of this life and might one day see you amongst the wise Virgins in the eternall banquet of the marriage of the Lambe I could wish that at euery breathing you would cast an ey
necke of the proud and powrefull Be gone accursed O God! what a second thunder bolt shall fall vpon the heades of the Reprobate by this eternall curse a curse which doth comprehend in it selfe in an eminēt manner all the torments which euerlastingly they are to endure in Hell Be gone thou accursed figue tree Be gone barrē trees twise deade rooted out of the blessed earth and are onely fitt to be cast into the fire Be gone you are not worthy to take vp place in the garden of my delightes where I plante none but trees that beare good fruite Goe you accursed into eternall fire Goe into deuoureing flames take vp your Abode in eternall fires The blast of my wroth shall kindle the brimstone of the furnace wherin you burne as long as I shall be God Athanasia I leaue to your meditation the rest of this horrible sentence which in the twinkling of an eye shall be put in execution ingeniously confessing vnto you that my quakeing pen doth fall from its flight as did the birds of old which flew ouer the accursed lake of Pentapolis But le ts turne our eyes from this tragicall spectacle let 's giue an attentiue eare to the sweete voice of the Spouse of the elected foule ô how delightfull shall this voice be and how iustly may the Elect say with the Psalmist ô how sweete is thy word ô Lord to our taste yea it is more sweete then the honie combe Loe here the sentence of their eternall felicitie Come ô what an actractiue word is this able euen to draw out of the Abisse of nothing that which yet hath no beeing sith God doth call that which is not as that which is giueing beeing to that which is not by his powerfull word Come With what promptitude shall the Elect spring vp into the ayre to present themselues before their Spouse and to obey his blisfull cōmands wholy to be desired yea the crowne and accomplishment of all their desires Though they were as vnsensible as iron this lodestone will draw them II it will draw them after it selfe in the sweete odour of this inuitation Come This word doth intimate a perfect vnion of grace and Glorie which shall transforme the Blessed into God participating of his felicitie and shall translate them into the inheritance of the children of the eternall Father Come yee blessed ô benediction far passing that of the old Patriarkes and which conteynes in it the fatnes of the wishfull soyle and all the dewe of Heauen quite putting downe the dewe of Hermō which doth disperse it selfe all ouer the Mountaine of Sion O how blessed are they who are blest by our Lord who made Heauen and earth They shall dwell for euer in the Land of Promise a Land of benediction freed from all captiuitie by the presence of our Lord. A Land which doth flow with the milke and honie of Diuine blessings a Land abūding with the bread of Angells with heauēly Manna where the Elect possest of a constant peace shall enioy a plentuous repose In this happie day alloted for Iustice and Mercy an inuariable plentie of Peace shall befall the Iuste and the Moone of change shall be taken away Here it is Athanasia that I would inuite you to ruminate with me that Diuine sallie of loue and desire of the greate S. AVGVSTINE Bring to passe that I may loue thee ô Lord and if I loue thee not yet enough effect that I may loue thee more Certes it is not possible for me to know in what measure I want necessarie loue this onely I know that all plentie which is not my God is to me meere miserie and want O how happie is he saith the Psalmist who hath his desires filled with him And who indeed can be said to be compleatly rich but he that is saciated with his glorie and inebriated with the abundance of the delightes of his house Come yee blessed of my Father and receaue the Kingdome prepared for you from the begining of the world O what a Kingdome ô what a crowne Crowne of gold beset with signes of sanctitie glorie and honour liueries of vallour Come my beloued saith he to those elect soules come and you shall be crowned This eternall and infinitly happie Kingdome saith S. ISIDORVS in what euer respect it be considered is promised to all kind of people and yet ô humane blindnesse few speake of it few thinke of it and that but rarely too Worldly entertaynemēts are stuffed with friuolous and impertinent discourses rarely doe we heare any newes of Heauen and that heauenly life which shall neuer haue end This is a miserable straying from the right way Our life is lent vs to breath after Eternitie Nor it is sutable to the condition of a Christian to hope for any glorie or felicitie which is not eternall Those that doe vndertake any lōg voyage or famous pilgrimage as that of the Holy Lād doe entertayne thēselues in the way with on other thought then that of the place whither they tend solacing their wearinesse with the sweet memorie of that which they hope to see there O Athanasia what ought we to doe in this sade exile where we are Pilgrimes and Passingers after the manner of our fore-fathers where we wander and stray from God but to place our thoughtes vpō the Contrie whither we trauell vpon the Citie of permanent abode whither we breath and to refresh our labours by the blessed hope of the wished period of our pilgrimage and withall to imitate the Traueller who contēting him selfe vpon the way with pure necessaries holds on without stop or stay or looking backward making vse of temporall things onely to aduance vs in our way to Eternitie O how full of glorie is this Kingdome sings the holy Church where all the Saintes doe raigne with God And who will giue force to the wings of our desires to ayme and fly towards this marke during the whole course of our mortall life a happie course if it arriue at so wishfull an end But now it is high tyme that to free our pencill we giue the last touch to this Draught by an Adoration of the essentiall Eternitie LXXX O Great God! Eternall Essēce ESSENTIALL ETERNITIE why it is thee in fine which before and aboue all things I desire and seeke for And if I aspire after the Blessed Eternitie the reasō is because it is no other thing then thy selfe who art and who doth make eternall life which without thee and out of thee would nether be desireable nor estimable Behold all my desire is before thee and I powre out my prayer in thy presence which hath no other ayme but inseparably and eternally to vnite my selfe vnto thy Goodnesse to hold it and neuer to be separated from it to seeke thy face to search for thy faire countenance the onely Obiect of myne eternall felicitie Giue thy selfe vnto me ô my God behold I loue thee and giue thee my whole heart Thou desirest not the man