euils wherwith they are mixed should find that chaffe feathers and smoake haue waight in respect of their lightnesse For which cause our Sauiour doth exhort vs in the Ghospell not to treasure vp riches in the earth where they are subiect to ruste and to the theife's violent hand but to heape vp riches in heauen where all is safe and sure No none can possibly heape vp riches in these two so differēt Abodes Heauen and earth for the Beautitude of the Kingdome of heauen is promised to the poore onely witnesse the example of the incompasionate Rich-man and our Sauiours declaration of the almost impossible difficultie of the rich-mans entrie into Heauen O how aduised is he who herebelow gathers together the treasures of grace and who cōuayes thē through the hands of the poore in bills of exchange into the Eternitie of glorie where such money is currant for it is written that good workes follow them that dy in our Lord and that good trees are knowen by their fruite in this land of the liuing where he reapes benedictions that hath sowen them in the land of the deade And I pray you how should not Eternitie be the perfection of all the good things which the senses and heart can neuer comprehend sythēs God himselfe is the very great reward of such as possesse it very great in deed syth they are rewarded beyond their seruice euery perfect gift and euery best present proceeding from the Father of lightes Who doth not see that he him selfe is an vndrainable fountaine of all goodnes being all desire wholy to be desired and the fulnes of all desires He is that one necessarie thing which compriseth in it selfe by way of excellencie all that is to be defired Delightes without end are in his right hand riches also and glorie wisdome goodnesse powre greatnes beautie the source of saluation and the botome of all beatitude as the Psalmist doth excellently sing My saluation is in God he is my glorie my ayde and all my hope is in him For assurance of this truth MOYSES demanding of God the happinesse to behold his face I will shew the all good said our Lord vnto him in appearing vnto thyne eyes Of the place of the Blessed Eternitie XLI I Doubt Athanasia these generall discourses sets your mouth on water and makes you desire to fill your appetite with more particular meates To comply therefor with your inclination I will serue you vp for the first dish a Draught of the place of this eternall Beatitude Truly I might say that it is situated in his bosome who makes Eternitie it selfe and who being infinite cannot be bounded by any place being present in euery place by his beeing and powre since that all is his all comes from him and all is in him in him I say in whom we liue moue and are But that you may not loose your selfe in those IMAGINARIE SPACES where this infinite thing makes abode which cannether be comprised by the Heauen of Heauens nor of heauen nor earth which he filleth with his immensitie nor by any other place I will tell you with all the grauest Doctors of the Church that God from the begining of the world did create this Kingdome which he prouided for his Angells and Elect in the Heauen called Empireall that is to say of fire not that it burnes but by reason of the brightnes of its flame and the splendour of its light This highest Heauen was vnknowen to the auncient Astrologers and is yet to the new vnlesse by the light of faith reuealed by God to the Church and her Doctors For the Astrologers like to all those that make profession of other mathematicall disciplines grownding onely vpon sensible demonstrations and making a iudgement of other places by the diuers motions of the starrs and this that we speake of being inuisible and immoueable is placed aboue the knowledge and lawes of Astrologie It is then a firme stable solide and inuariably settled heauen called in holy Scrip. The firmamēt of heauen the heauen of Heauens the Land of the liuing the Seate and Throne of God and in Geneses Heauen created from the begining as BEDE ALCVINE TOSTATE and the Maister of the sentences doe interprete it And there all the Fathers doe establish the mansion of the glorie of God together with his Angells and Blessed following these words of holy writ We haue a Mansion in heauen not made with the hand of man And our Sauiour said to his disciples your reward shall be plētuous in heauen And againe before his Ascension he said vnto them I goe to prouide you a place And what place is this but that where he is set at the right hand of the Maiestie in the highest S. BASILE THE GREAT S. CLEMENT Rom. S. CLEMENT Alexan. S. IOHN DAMASENE PHILO IVDAEVS STRABON and S. THOMAS amongst other Diuines doe warrant this opinion Of the magnificence of the place XLII THus much concerning the situation Athanasia but for its magnificencie what tongue can expresse it what pen describe it since our thoughts and senses cannot attayne thervnto O Israel how great is the house of God how ample his possessiōs his Abode is goodlie high immense and infinite these are the words of the Prophete BARVCH O eternall wisdome t is thou then that dost powrefully extend thy force from one extreamitie to another disposing all things with an incomparable sweetnesse thus speakes the wise man O how happie should I bee said the good TOBIE if I could see the light of Hierusalem O God said DAVID how I am in loue with the beautie of thy house and with the place of the habitation of thy glorie And if the glorie of God incompassng the Temple of SALOMON that miracle of man's Art and industrie added a grace vnto it which did rayse this maister-peece aboue all the workes of the earth what shall that place be where the Saintes in the light of gloric see the increated and inaccessable light of the Dietie O you DAVID's houses of Cedars hyde your selfes house of SAVLTVS which SALOMON built for his pleasures vpon the Mount-Libane yea euen you beauties of Libane hide your selues faire topps of Carmel and Saron Vayle thy selfe ô thou throne of SALOMON thou incomparable yet humane worke for who dare make the handeworkes of man enter into comparison with the mightie workmanship of God What Pallace euen of those that appeare the most proud and magnificent durst one compare with the King of glorie 's incomparably more great more wise and more powerfull then SALOMON since all the pompe of this sonne of DAVID is lesse prised in the Scripture then the simple nakednes of a place in the feilds yea in this vaile of teares Hath this wretched and miserable world any similitude wherby we might make a conceipt of the excellencie where teares and complaintes are permitted no entrie sith it is crowned with all the contentments and perfections that can be desired In vaine doth S. IOHN in his
became mortall and the Eternall for your saluation did subiect himselfe to Tyme in vniting his Diuinitie to our humanitie How good occasion doth this descent of the Sonne of God into earth administer vnto you to rayse vp your selfe to Heauen and there to seeke a permanent Citie for euer in the holy Sion Vndertake this holy exercise by taske and for the space of some dayes to th' end that custome may beget in you a habite frequently to thinke of Eternitie For the third PRACTISE oblige your selfe by a firme pourpose yet without vow to say euery day at some houre most comodious for you three PATER NOSTER's And in reciting them to thinke of the Blessed accursed and essentiall Eternitie which is God Vniting your selfe to the last by Loue by desire to the Blessed detesting the accursed rather by the correction of your manners and amendment of life then by emptie words For as we come not to the celestiall Eternitie without doing good so we auoyd not the accursed but by flying euill When you recite your beades or the Crowne of our Blessed Lady a prayer very familiar to all those who make profession of pietie Let this crowne of flowres put you in mynd of the flowres which neuer fade wherof the Garland of Eternitie is wrought Let the round forme of this Crowne make you myndfull that the Sphearicall figure which hath nether begining nor end is the Symbole of the essentiall Eternitie which neuer had begining nor shall euer haue end This you may vse as a fourth PRACTISE None can liue like a good Christian who doth not twice a day at least wind vp the Cloke of his heart and thinke of his wayes to witt in the morning and euening These are two tymes which he that desires to liue according to God and to direct his footsteps in the pathes of Peace ought neuer to omitt Take then some litle part of that tyme to cast a looke vpon Eternitie that totall coÌ„tinuance which is neuer followed with euening nor morning And beseech God Almightie that you may so passe through temporall that you may not loose eternall things This shall be a fift PRACTISE for you Le ts passe to Other indeuours LXXV THere is nothing so frequent in the mouth of Christians Athanasia as the Prayer which our Lord and Maister made to direct vs to his heauenly Father according to his words and spirit to th end that hauing his will in our mouth we might be heard for the reuerence of it If you will beleeue me as often as this holy Prayer shall passe through your lipps you shall call to mynd the Essentiall Eternitie by apprehending that you speake to the Eternall God You shall thinke of the Blessed Eternitie in making this petition Thy Kingdome come and of the accursed Eternitie in pronunceing that other Deliuer vs from euil since it is the collection and fulnesse of all euils And let this aduise passe for THE SIXT ENDEVOVR OR PRACTISE You may doe the like when pietie shall moue you to salute the Blessed virgine in the words of the Angell and the Church And when as you shall beseech her to assiste you by her intercession in the houre of your departure out of this life call to mynd that this houre shall be the tyme and instant which shall decide your Eternitie A moment in which you will stand in great need of her assistance to auoyd the perills of Hell and to acchiue the Land of the â—ueing Let this be the SEAVENTH PRACTISE I say the same of the Apostles Creed When you recite it waigh the Articles therof in the waights of the Sanctuarie The Communion of Saintes of the Triumphant Church with those of the Militant And Life euerlasting and they will serue you as MEMORIALLS to engraue in your soule the Memorie of Eternitie Behold the EIGHT PRACTISE Whether you assiste in the solemne songe of the Diuine Office or you recite your boures apart Remember that for diuers reasons the holy Church hath ordayned that these two versicles should be added to the end of euery Psalme Glorie be to the Father and to the Sonne and to the Holy Ghost Euen as it was in the begining and now and euer c. And that amongst the others this is not the least prowrefull to imprint the memorie of Eternitie in the mynds of the Faithfull Take this for a NINGHT PRACTISE The Iewes that they might continually remeÌ„ber Gods law carried it about with them yea wore it euen before their eyes written vpon Phylacteries or peeces of parchement VnderstaÌ„ding literally certaine passages of the auncient Couenaunt wherby it is commanded that one should alwayes behold them that is that one should haue them as rules of their actions I would to God that Christians were as carefull to haue still before their eyes the eternall Ghospell and to that effect they had painted Tables in their houses to renew the memorie therof I know some personages who to this pourpose caused the words of a Prophete to be written vpon the chimney of their chambers in letters of Gold WHO IS ABLE TO LIVE FOR EVER IN A CONSVMING FIRE AND AMIDST ETERNALL FLAMES This is facile and Fruitfull and shall be counted for the TENTH PRACTISE An other memoriall of Eternitie LXXVI BEsides these former PRACTISES which are very familiar I will yet bestow vpon you Athanasia a verie facile Memoriall to make you thinke of Eternitie vpon euery occasion It is the vse of Aspirations or Reflections which the Doctours of spirituall life doe so highly recommend to such as desire to liue piously and according to God If you will please to make vse of it you will shortly find by experience that all things will rayse you towards God who is the essentiall Eternitie wherin you will represent vnto your selfe the differeÌ„t Idea's of the Blessed or accursed Eternitie All the creatures being as so many Mirrours vnto you shall discouer the Image of the Eternall God And which way so euer you turne your selfe the inuisible and eternall God shall appeare in visible and temporall things All that can fall within the knowledge of your senses shall beare you aboue your selfe to him that passeth all vnderstanding Or at the least you may make reflection vpon the eternall delightes or colours which doe attend you in the blessed or accursed Eternitie according to your comportment in this life And to afford you some smale scantling of that so familiar an exercise to those that are conuersant in the knowledge of Saintes As oft as you shall behold this vniuersall obiect of heauen and earth which was S. ANTONIE's great booke wherin he read in capitall letters the Authour's greatnes whom all this admirable fabrike cost but one smale word what will hinder you to say with DAVID ô Lord how wonderfull is thy name through all the world thy magnificence is extolled beyond the Heauens Heauens which are but the workes of thy hands Heauens which shall passe while thou shalt still remaync
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
God by the footsteps of such things as he hath made visible vnto vs. But is it possible that Tyme which is so litle and diminutiue a thing should rayse vs to the knowledge of Eternitie which is incomprehensible and ineffable The Geometritions who take the measure of all solide bodyes from a point which is not and which not being found in nature is onely in the imagination make a breach to this thought and make vs hope the effect of the proposition of that incomparable Auncient Mathematician who demanded onely a point out of the earth wherin he might place his engine to shake the whole masse of the vniuerse which hath no other fundation as the Prophete saith then its owne waight and stabilitie What is Tyme then properly speaking but an instant as litle perceptible as the mathematicall point It is a moment cutting of things past from things to come and which more quicke then quicksiluer runs away being presst and slides out of his hand that striues to hold it In naming it we loose it so subtile and glib is it by nature It were to waygh the fire and measure the wind according to the tearmes of the Prophete to striue to stay this Protheus In an instāt he vanisheth and while you thinke to shew him with your finger he is gone To count tyme past with Tyme were impertinent since now it is not nor hath that which is not any qualities saith the Philosophers Maxime And yet should we lesse iustly attribute vnto Tyme the tyme to come which as yet hauing no beeing can be no other wise instyled then with the name of nothing What is Tyme then but an instant so closely inuironned or rather asseiged with a not-beeing that in thinking to hold or shew it it is alreadie slid from its beeing in nature Such as haue endeuoured to shew its incomprehensible litlenesse giue it a litle more scope imitating therin the Geometritions who draw their points into lines their lines into superficies and their superficies into bodies vpon which they exercise the Rules of their Art For to make vs vnderstād that Tyme is no other thinge then the measure of the PRIMVM MOBILE they were constrayned to gather together as many instants as are conteyned in 24. howres composing therof a reasonable distance whervpō to enlarge their discourse Wherin they haue followed Democrites fantasie who composed the world of a collection of atomes bringing to a grosse bodie many pettie percells which according to the signification of the word haue no body at all which are emptie and almost chimericall imaginatiōs As then following the Maximes of Philosophie Arithmetique being come to the number of tenne which is a full and perfect nūber is forced to begin againe extending its multiplication to infinitie and as all that is written is framed out of 24. letters euen so the course of the PRIMVM MOBILE whose violence drawes about with it all the other Spheres is ended in the distance of 24. houres though in proper speach Tyme be but an indiuisible and almost imperceptible instant Wence the length of ages yeares and mōthes is drawen from the multiplication of dayes as also the length of dayes from that of houres and houres by the assēbling of many instants Whervpon the Scripture in the Actes and in the first Epistle to the Thessalonensians ioyne together those words Tymes and moments to teach vs that Tyme a thing which should be so precious vnto vs and wherof alone according to an Auncient the auarice is laudable consists onely of moments moments so short and light that the Scripture in an other passage represents them onely by the twinkling of an eye Goe mortells and plot great matters let your proiects in your imagination reach to Eternitie you who haue onely the present tyme that is a moment in your power and a momēt which is lost in the very instant in which you thinke to graspe it being a shadow which flyes such as follow it Who would not stand amaysed at the blind madnesse of most men who build their hopes vpon things so frayle and comforting themselues in the expectation of a fortune say as they beleeue that Tyme workes all miserably for saking the pretensions of the blessed Eternitie for flitting moments which like to lightning meete with death in their birth Vnaduised Atalantases who for aples not of gold but gilt onely stoppe the course of their best designes and loose the aples or rather the crownes of Eternitie Eternitie compared to Tyme XVI TO what end shall we now place thi great torch of Eternitie before the eyes of those blind wretches who are diued so deepe into the darknesse of Tyme that they are not able to sustayne the shine of so glorious a light Yet let vs not omit Athanasia for the consolation of the good to strike sparkes of fire out of Tyme which we haue represented in so smale a shape and reduced to simple moments to the extent of that vast Eternitie whose immensitie doth swallow vp all ages imaginable I must confesse there is alwayes some imperfection in the comparison of things disproportionable For to say it is to place a flie by an Elephant a moate by a mountaine to compare a drope of water with the whole Ocean and earth to Heauen which in regard of the Heauēly Spheeres appeares but as an imperceptible point all this is to say nothing or if to say any thing it is to make knowne the weaknesse of mans wit and imbecillitie of his imagination Le ts hoyste vp the sayles of our thought and say that Eternitie doth as farre out strippe yeares and ages as the great Sunne the lesser starrs eclipsing all their light as soone as it appeares in the Horison And if Antiquitie represented Tyme in Saturne who deuoured his owne children for that it doth incessantly nible away the moments houres dayes monthes yeares and ages Eternitie infinitly passing Tyme doth swallow it vp as a point and when Tyme shall cease to bee Eternitie shall thrust out its continuance into a NEVER which shall neuer haue end as it neuer had begining It is too sparingely spoken to call it an Abisse that cannot be soūded that it is an Ocean receauing all the waters of the world without being augmented Nay rather let vs apply vnto it that which the Auncient Philosopher applyed vnto the Diuinitie that Eternitie is a circle whose center is extended euerie where and whose circunference hath no bounds O Eternitie cryes out a deuoute personage who is able to conceaue what thou art I propose vnto my selfe a thousand yeares I conceaue a thousand thousand yeares I passe in imagination as many millions of ages as are moments in tyme from the begining of the world and yet haue I found nothing that comes neere to Eternitie ô Eternitie thou shalt cōtinue for euer and euer what is it to say for euer and euer It is to say euerlastingly But what will euerlastingly say it is a thing that passeth the reach of
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
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
Yet the Saints who are in glorie whose faces are marked with his splendour and doe shine like the Sunne for perpetuall eternities are yet incomparably more liuely pictures of the Diuinitie For euen as the Sunne meeting with a thicke and darksome cloude in the aire doth sometymes so deeply imprint its beames vpon its face that it appeares another Sunne so are the Blessed in Heauen so transformed into God that they shewe as so many Gods and as so many dearest children of the Highest as DAVID deliuers it This excellent beautie with which the Diuine presence doth adorne them was cause that S. IOHN espying an Angell whom he tooke for God had adored him if that spirit no lesse humble then glorious bright had not giuen him to know that he was his fellow-seruant And in my opinion in this neere resemblance to God the verie toppe of the eternall glorie of the blessed is placed For what thinke you is God's owne glorie and felicitie but the life which he hath eternally of him selfe the most cleare knowledge which he hath of his immutable Truth and the most ardēt loue which he hath towards his owne infinite Goodnes His Beatitude consisting in the vision loue and fruition which the Diuine and increated Persons of the Blessed Trinitie haue of their owne mutuall knowledge Loue and eternall perfect and infinite complacence Now the soule of the Blessed being raysed to the vision loue and fruition of the same Diuine Persōs and of their Diuine and most indiuisible Essēce ought not her supernaturall and inineffable life by the resemblance which is betwixt her and God's felicitie to be said to be the accomplishment of her glorie since that without all feare of change she is wholy attentiue to the cleare contemplation of the prime and soueraigne Truth inflamed with the loue of the supreme and increated goodnes and hath the fruition of the infinite and vnspeakable sweetnes of God O truly liuing and happie life when shall it be that we shall liue in thee and by thee when shall we ô my soule inhabite this heauenly Hierusalem built as a Citie and with her glorious Citizens be made participant of him who is still himselfe immutable and whose yeares neuer decay Of the felicitie of the powres of the soule and first of the memorie XLV THis essentiall Beatitude Athanasia is extended and doth spread it selfe out yet diuersly in the lower degree of the soule to witt there wherin the three principall faculties or powres doe reside For euen as the Prophete to rayse the widowes deade child did shorten himselfe vpon this litle body and did apply his mouth to its mouth his hands to its hands and his feete to its feete So God who shall be all to all shall fill all the soule with the abundance of his bountie and shall cōmunicate vnto it a Diuine life which shall not feare the assaultes of death The memorie being entered into the liberties of our Lord shall call to mynd the effectes of his iustice and no lesse those of his mercy for she shall sing no neuer will I forgett thy iustifications ô Lord since in them thou hast giuen me life Fild with this rauishing and no lesse pressing then present obiect she shall breath out the remembrance of his sweetnes and shall exalt his adorable iudgements This remembrance shall be her soueraigne delight O how she shall call to mynd the sweetnes of the duggs of this incomparable goodnes farr passing the fuming wines of worldly delightes In how high a strayne shall she take the memorie of this supreme sanctitie Alas how can she forget him whom she hath so inwardly present and who shall be more in her then her selfe and to whom she shall be so strongly tyed in adauantine and diamantine chaynes that nothing shall euer be able to diuerte her Blessed memorie replenisht with the fairest Idea's that can possibly inhabit a heart and which then shall be a Magazine and memoriall of heauenly wonders whether she make reflection vpon things past how dearely shall she conserue the memorie of the incomparable obligations which she shall haue to this Creatour Conseruer Redeemour and Glorifier of her beeing Such as grace shall haue led from greatest sinns to repentance fauours before bounding where malice did superabound ô God! how highly shall they sing the sacred Canticle of the Diuine mercy And those who by the same grace shall haue conserued the first stole of their innocencie and being preserued from the abomination of desolation whose deluge doth ouerflowe the whole vniuerse shall haue bene drawen to the safe harbour of saluation by the chaynes of loue and humanitie will not they haue reason to beare a part in the fame Canticle and to pronounce that that mercy which conserued them vnstayned amidest the worlds impurities is a portion of that which is eternally grounded and built in Heauē The royall Prophete calling to mynd out of what an Abisse of miseries the Diuine goodnes had reclaymed him recalling him so sweetly to the accnowledgment of his faults coniures his soule and all his interiour powres to blesse God exciting his memorie neuer to permitt his benefites to fall into a disloyall obliuion for he it is that pardons saith he all thyne infirmities who cures all thy wounds who recouers thee from eternall death and who crownes thee with his mercyes O God what must this King of penitents needs say in heauen if he spoke thus in this vaile of teares reduced by a holy repentance from his iniquities to the state of grace When the Saintes whom God hath pardoned many faultes for there are in Heauē penitent sinners of all kinds shall see them selues deliuered from the innumberable torments which they contemplate in the accursed Eternitie and which they had as oft deserued as by their malice they had bene separated from God will they not haue great reason to say with the Psalmist Thy mercy ô Lord and thy iustice shall for euer be the subiect of our song vpon this shall our Psalme-singing be imployed whilst we walke in this immaculate way in which thou hast put vs. And if the memorie of paynes and perills past euen in this world be so delightfull how much more shall the Saintes and martyrs who haue suffered much for the Almighties sake haue cause to reioyce in this memorie While they walked in the way of this mortall life they sowed in teares but in the heauenly Sion they shall reape an eternall ioy They shall sing this pleasant Song We haue past through fire and water but in the end we are entred into refreshment And they shall blesse those light and transitorie moments of tribulation which brought them to eternall glorie And if their memorie doe stay vpon the present felicitie which they feele and of which they haue a liuely sense with what contentment shall they not be crowned in tasting the ineffable goodnes of God who rewards them infinitely beyond their merits Yea if they enlarge themselues vpon the
in the same measure And he that sowes in benedictions shall reape a plentuous crope of benedictions O centuple of this life how oft shalt thou be centupled in the life to come In those Diuine and celestiall Abodes called by the Scripture MANSIONS some are placed higher then others saith S. AVGVSTINE and doe behold God more clearely And S. GREGORIE speaking of the same subiect The great and litle saith he are in Glorie but they enioy it more or lesse according to the diuersitie of their merit Nor are we vpon this word Mansions to imagine to our selues separated Celles or Quarters a part in the heauenly Hierusalem where there is a perfect societie amongst the Blessed together with a Communitie of all good things each one reioyceing no lesse in anothers felicitie then in his owne all this holy Compainie hauing but one Soule and one Heart in God the one and onely Obiect of their desires But by that word saith S. THOMAS after S. AVGVSTINE we are to conceaue diuers degrees of Charitie and rewards which are had in this plentifull Rest where the Saintes doe reside for euer as in the happie repose of the LAND OF PROMISSE In what measure the beatified vnderstanding sees God in Heauen XLIX IT is no smale question Athanasia to know how far the vnderstanding fortified with the light of Glorie doth extend it selfe in the cōtemplation of the Diuine Essence which it beholds without all helpe of species or representation But the Angell of the schoole giues a worthy satisfaction to this holy curiositie in teaching vs that God according to IEREMIE being by reason of his infinitie incomprehensible to euery created thought can neuer be comprehēded by any vnderstāding with what euer light of Glorie they be adorned and assisted Because euery creature being bounded is not capable to comprehend an infinite Obiect Hence we haue that fine and necessarie distinction that the blessed shall see God All indeed but not totally they shall see him all because being most simple he cannot be seene but he is all seene But againe wheras he is infinite there nether is nor can be any capacitie out of himselfe which can totally comprehend him nor imbrace that immense Infinitie which is onely knowen of him selfe Wee haue some semblance of this Truth which cannot be seene vnlesse it be all seene and yet is it neuer totally seene though it be euen a limited creature and hath nothing comparable to the Creatour So doe the fish and fowles inioy the vast extent of the Sea and ayre yet what fish did euer swime in all the waters and what bird did euer with flight measure the ayres extent All this notwithstanding is possible because it is finite But the Diuinitie which is boundlesse cannot be totally seene For who did euer sound the depth of such an Abisse And who hath euer knowen the sense of our Lord Herein is discouered the impertinencie of AETIVS and ENNANIVS old Heretikes who affirmed that God could be comprehended by a creature as though forsooth an illimited thing could be shut vp within limites An impertinencie pertinently refuted by those great lightes of the Church S. BASILE S. GREGORIE OF NAZIANZENE S. CHRISOSTOME S. AVGVSTINE and after them by the Angelicall Doctor Yet this doth not impeach the full and intire satisfaction of the Blessed nor doth the naturall incapacitie which they find in thēselues to behold God totally any white vexe them yea contrariwise it doth augment their ioy and contentmēt which hath no other of-spring then the loue of God a loue of friendshippe which doth rather respect the greatnesse and glorie of the obiect beloued then it s owne interest what a pleasing rauishment shall possesse them to behold the most simple onely and incomposed simplicitie of that Diuine beautie which they contemplate all though not totally by reason of its incomprehensible infinitie In beholding it their desire is filled with euery good thing And beit they see it diuersly as we haue showen yet are they throughly content according to the comon similitude of a glasse wherof the least is as well filled with a litle as the greatest with much liquor And after the desire is saciated with the fruition of this ineffable Good with what an excesse of ioy are they taken to know that this adorable Deitie hath an infinite compainie of other graces and perfections still remayning to be seene relished which are not totally comprehēded nor knowen saue onely by himselfe Man doth then rayse himselfe aboue himselfe and liftes vp his heart But God greater then all hearts doth yet rise higher nor can he be encōpased by any other then himselfe in his full extent O how rauishing and admirable is that they behold And how good cause haue they to sing with the Angells the three Sanctuses to so dreadfull a Maiestie in so high a strayne that the Gates of Heauen shall tremble at it and to pronounce Thou art great and exceeding laudable ô Lord and who can worthily enough sing thy excellēces in thy sacred Citie in thy holy mountaines Though all creatures should ouerset themselues yea melt away in ioy and admiration yet shall they neuer arriue at the least of thyne infinite excellēcies Hence it is that the HYMNE of silence is the best suiting praise that can be offered vnto thee in thy Heauenly Sion Yet ô God how much more admirable is that which those soules doe not discouer in thee since it surpasseth all created vnderstandings euen strengthened with the light of Glorie And to what a violent paine would the desire of knowing thee totally and louing thee deseruedly that is infinitly put them vnto if thy sweete and fatherly prouidēce least the puritie of their inspeakable ioyes might be stayned with the mixture of any discontent did not change the knowledge they haue that they cannot totally comprehend and imbrace thee into a soueraigne delight that the glorious Obiect of their view and loue is so immense that it cannot be perfectly and intirely knowen and beloued but by thy selfe by reason of the Diuine infinitie of thyne infinite Diuinitie Meane while they draw from this great ALL as from an vndraynable fountaine all their comon and particular delightes diuersely glorious according to the diuersitie of the light of Glorie which is distributed vnto them wherby they see him more or lesse with proportion to their Charitie and merit We haue some darke resemblance of this here below in the vse of our Senses For is it not true that the same Picture is diuersely beholden according to the varietie of their opinions and skill that doe behold it Is not a daintie musike diuersely receaued into the eare of the hearer according as their organes are disposed and they are attentiue vnto it And to conclude this discourse with an excellent similitude The miraculous MANNA which pleased euery palate was doubtlesse of a diuerse relish to the Israelite yet neuer any of them nor ioyntly all of them felt euer all the tastes
God himselfe so shall the beatified will be inseparably ioyned to the Essence of the Diuine Goodnes and shall be eternally fedd and sustayned with God's owne substance in some sort as a tender child who hangs at his mothers breaste is nourished with the substance of the mothers milke And thus shall be accomplished that of the Prophete I will leade her into a place a part and will speake vnto her heart and I will giue her the milke of my dugges Reioyce Hierusalem with alacritie that thou maist be filled with the milke of consolation and that thou maist sucke and take delight in the full aboundance of his glorie thou shalt be carried to the pappes and thou shalt be dandled and lulled vpon the knee O Church Militant in earth poore bleare-dyed LIA with weeping in this vally of teares not discouering the Sunne which shines in the Triumphant be comforted in that thou art not forsaken or abandoned of thy IACOB no for he is with thee to the worlds end Thou enioyest his imbracements which makes thee fruitefull in the feaste of his grace to wit the most holy Eucharist for in this banquet thou art fed with the substance of his flesh and blood applyed to the substance of his children to th end they may learne by this wonderfull misterie that in the perpetuall feaste of Glorie he will in like manner applie vnto the Essence of their soules his Diuine Essence and that there they shall taste and see how sweet he is True it is that here below that Diuine humanitie is vayled with Sacramentall species but aboue in the banquet of the Lambs marriage all shall be discouered Enigma's shall cease and the vnderstanding and will shall see and taste without image and species the beautie of the Diuine Goodnes the goodnes of the faire Diuinitie Then as S. AVGVSTINE saith the prize and crowne of vertue shall be God himselfe who gaue the vertue Who shall be seene aboue of the Blessed without end loued without distaste praysed without intermission So that this recompence is the greatest that can be since it is nether Heauen nor Earth nor any other creature but the very Creatour and Lord of all Who though most-one and most simple yet doth he comprehend in himselfe in an infinite eminencie all the perfections of all things Whēce it comes that the Blessed shall in him alone behold and enioy all things according to each ones measure of Glorie And as creatures are in some sort here below the mirrour wherin is seene the beautie of the Creatour so aboue God shall be the Mirrour wherin the creatures shall be seene much more perfectly then in them selues But in fine Athanasia the toppe of the felicitie of the beatified will shall be placed in her perfect loue the accomplishmēt of her true end and in that inuariable and immutable coniunction with her rauishing Obiect the Soueraigne Good which will make her wholy Diuine wholy transformed into the Will of God and to speake with the Contemplatiues wholy deified The felicitie of the inferiour portion of the soule LII LEt vs now descend Athanasia to the lowest degree of the soule and le ts giue a light touch of her Beatitude Who is able to comprehend what goodly and rauishing Idea's the three faculties of the soule shall make resulte in the imagination and how withall this light and gliding Mercurie shall be stayed in God whose presence shall arrest all the motions of this stirring vnquiete and flitting facultie And if we make a step lower into the appetitiue part where the Concupiscible and Irascible passions are lodged motions which doe stirre vp such tormoyles tempests and disorders in our inward house in this life who would be able to expresse the heauenly order and goodly gouernmēt that Reason which then shall be their absolute Mistrisse and Gouernant shall establish amongst them And what a sure and happie Peace shall raigne amongst those people who whileome were so subiect to rebellion while they sat in the darknes of this life and in the region of the shadowe of death Then there will be no Loue but of God in God and for God no Hatred but of that which shall be contrarie to this soueraigne Loue. No more desire but that which doth accompainie the fruition of the Diuine obiect which is continually to enioy and eternally to behold that glorious face which the Angells continually desire to behold albeit they continually behold it There shall be no more auersion or flight but from that which shall be contrarie to that sacred desire or rather there will be no more auersion at all because this passion presupposing euil it shall haue no Obiect in this place of felicitie where infelicitie is not permitted entrance Ioy shall be perpetuall and alwayes in our Lord since this sacred Residence is called the ioy of our Lord nor cā the scourge of sorrow approach his Tabernacles of confidence and ioy far other then those which S. PETER wished vpon the Mont-Thabor Anger is a monster banished from this Pallace of Loue. Euen Hope it selfe shall vanish in the possession of that which with patience was expected Despaire throwen headlong into Hell for euer shall not recouer it selfe from that fall to inhabite this place of delight Chaste Feare full of respect and wholy canded in Loue shall remayne in Beatitude for euer and euer And with what courages shall not those valiant Champions be enriched who are there adorned with so many crownes hauing alreadie past their cōbats and lawfully fought But to speake in a more noble and high strayne of those motions which we tearme passions here below because we suffer by their mutinie and reuoults we should rather say that they shall be happily changed into reasonable affections and that humane reason being vnited to the prime and soueraigne that is the Diuine Reason shall make vse of all those faculties for the seruice and glorie of the Creatour applying all to his honour and praise and making them in a glorious manner waite vpon CHARITIE whose proper Empire is to rule soueraignely ouer reasonable affections and to bestow vpon them an honorable imployment So shall the soule as the Psalmist sings and all her interiour faculties blisse God Of the dowries of the beatified soule LIII I Haue espoused thee in Faith I haue espoused thee for euer said God to a faithfull soule by one of his Prophetes Whence you see Athanasia that herebelow the betrothing is as it were passed betweene God and the soule when she adheares to him by a liuely Faith that is quickned with loue and Charitie but that the consummation of the marriage which is followed with an indissoluble knot is performed onely in the Blessed Eternitie These two sortes of espousalls are figured by the eare-letters and bracelets with which ABRAHAM presented REBECCA by the hands of ELIEZER for the pledges of their marriage For eare-rings are symboles of Faith which doth insinuate it selfe by the eare where the word of God entereth
rather attribute vnto it a delicious humiditie vpon the tongue which makes it feele the taste of a hidden Manna then to beleeue that this facultie should be there without its peculiar delight And it is not without reason that Beatitude is compared in the Scripture to a great feaste and that the Sacred Canticles mention so many sweetes honie combes daintie and inebriating wines and that the heauenly Spouse inuites those to drinke and eate who are called inuited and admitted to his eternall marriages For though we cannot fully conceaue in this life what the endlesse delightes shall be which God hath in his right hand to bestow vpon his Fauorites yet doth Faith teach vs that there are secretes lockt vp in the treasures of his wisdome to doe that which we cannot comprehend Our Lord saith ISAIE will make a solemne banquet in his holy mountaine for all natioÌ„s replenished with all sortes of good things and delicate meates a banquet far other then that of ASSVERVS which the scripture deliuers in such pompe in the booke of ESTER O how happie shall he be saith the Holy Euangelist who shall eate bread in the Kingdome of Heauen and shall be inuited to the marriage of the lambe Behold saith the Sauiour of our soules what I haue prepared for you in the Kingdome which my Father hath giuen me that you may eate and drinke at my table And S. LVKE speaking of this Eternall banquet Amen I say vnto you saith he the Sonne of man shall girt himselfe and shall make his Elect sit at his table and he will serue them according to their rancke And the Psalmist the desire of the Elect that is their appetite shall be replenished with good things and the same speaking of himselfe I shall not be saciated saith he till the glorie of our Lord shall appeare vnto me Could the delightes of the taste be more plainely set out By how much the eye passeth the other Senses in dignitie by so much its delightes shall be more worthy of coÌ„sideration O God what rauishing spectacles shall they behold and how all the worlds rarities shall shew vile and obscure in regard of the wonderous splendour of the heauenly Hierusalem How shall the diuersitie of the glorious bodies adorned with so many recommendable qualities rauish them But leauing the Angells and Saintes of the lower rankes ô blessed eyes what ioy shall you not feele in the vision of that glorious visage of IESVS CHRIST which the Angells haue beholden for so many ages and shall behold for euer and euer so far from being wearied of it that they shall be delightfully saciated with it O Deified humanitie the soueraigne glorie and felicitie of the eyes that behold thee ô resplendant Sunne of the Easte ô starre the light of the world ô Lambe who art the Lampe of the eternall Sion how happie are they who in these Tabernackles of assurance shall incessantly behold thee vpon the Diuine Thabor and shall adore thee like the Elders of the Apocalipse before the Throne of thy Maiestie in the highest IOB beholding in spirit this happie Abode rauished with content said I know that my Redeemour liues and that at the last day I shall rise againe and shall issue out of the ground being a new againe clad with the same skinne with which now I am inuironed and that in myne owne flesh I shall see my God my Redeemour whom with myne owne eyes I shall behold and with no others and this hope layed vp in my bosome is my sweetest consolation O Goodly Paradice it is in thee that the eares shall heare those secrete words which S. PAVLE heard in his Rapture and which he durst not speake againe ô blessed eares it is in this place that you shall heare the words of spirit and life yea words of spirit life euerlasting ô Saintes then shall you say we will harken what our Lord shall say vnto vs yes speake Lord for thy seruants are attentiue And if the Queene of Saba did repute Salomon's courtiers happie because they dayly heard the discourses of wisdome which issued from his mouth what shall it be to heare him who is incomparably more then SALOMON and who is wisdome it selfe ô how delightfull shall the discourses of Saintes be how delicious their song and harmonious musicke nay the Saintes dance for ioy in this holy place and God's prayses doe continually resound in their mouthes Be hust heauenly Musicians who so highly sing the Glorie of God Silence ye warbling birds Consorts of the world be still while the Musicians of heauen tune their instruments and play of their Harpes till they entone with one consent of hearts and voices the Song of the Lambe The Song alwayes new of him who alone workes wonders A continuation of the precedeÌ„t subiect LVI BVt doe you not perceaue Athanasia the sweete charme of all the parfumers odoriferous Sentes By meanes of those which you shall find in the CaÌ„ticles rayse vp your mynd I beseech you to those delightfull Sweetes wherwith the Saints doe embalme the Throne of the Lambe the odour of whose garments surpasse all aromaticall spices Those who in this world by their examplaire vertues haue bene a good odour in IESVS CHRIST and an odour of life to life shall be then so sweetly parfumed that our Sauiour will say vnto them as ISAAC did to IACOB behold the odour of my children like vnto that of a florishing feild and heaped with benedictions It shall not be enough for the sense of touching to be exeÌ„pt from paine by the priuiledge of impassibilitie but further though it be the grossest of all the Senses yet inriched with the dowrie of subtiltie Agilitie and brightnesse it shall haue also its particular delightes marrie such as are innocent for as is in the sacred Text there shall be no more marriages but euery one shall be as the Angells of God and as pure as the very sunne-beames although it be inuironed on euery side with a torrent of pleasures which shall penetrate men in more places then they haue pores in their bodie I omit the glorious mâ—arkes and particular contentmeÌ„ts of the bodies which might haue suffered paines and mortified themselues for the loue of God for as sinners shall be tormented according to their lawlesse pleasures so shall the Elect be rewarded according to their sufferances For which cause our Sauiour said you are happie when you are persecuted because your reward shall be plentifull in heauen For the loue of you said the Psalmistâ— speaking for the Saintes we haue bene mortified and led like sheepe to slaughter But ô Lord saith the same how thy friendes haue bene afflicted and as the vulgaire translation hath honored how their principalitie that is their Glorie was confirmed And againe according to the multitude of their greeues consolations abounded in their Hearts O my wretched body what ought we not to endure herebelow to arriue at the tâ—oppe of such felicitie whither theâ— Saintes are come through
fire wheeles gibbets swords haire-shirts disciplines austerities and whither the King of Saints entred by sufferaâ—nces O miserable bodie too delicate a member to liue vnder a Heade crowned with thornes and wholy couered with blood Tell me accursed carcasse and victime of death what priuiledge thou pretendst that thou darst presume by a manifest iâ—iustice wallowing in soft lux and delicacies to enter into a Kingdome all whose gates are made with Crosses in a Paradice where none enters that is not pearced with the firâ—e sword of a louing mortification Heare this doome or rather this thunder clapp ô my body and thou ô my soule If thou dost not mortifie with the spirit the actions of sensualitie thou shalt die marrie if thou mortifiest them thou shalt liue And againe mortifie your meÌ„bers which are vpon earth and carrie still in your body the mortification of IESVS CHRIST so shall you be as dead but to th' end you may liue eternally Of the Aureola LVII BEsides the essentiall Glorie which the Blessed shall enioy Athanasia in the sight of the Soueraigne well-beloued in the loue of the Soueraigne well-seene the Diuines doe note certaine accidentall ones and as it were accessorie to the prime and principall which they haue named Aureolas grounding vpon a passage of Exodus where there is command giuen to make a litle crowne called Aureola ouer the Arke bisides the crowne of gold with which it was to be wholy inuironed Now this Aureola doth chiefely reside in the soule albeit by a certaine rebounding saith S. THOMAS as also DENIS THE CARTHVSIAN and ouerswelling it breakes out and spreads it selfe ouer all the bodie and doth euen outwardly appeare with a certaine peculiar grace And if Essentiall Glorie be different according to the diuers degrees of Charitie and merite this accidentall of which we speake shall be varied following the varietie of labours and victories For as there is diuision of graces so is there of rewards to Ordinarily these Aureolae are diuided into three kindes wherof one is attributed to MARTYRES who haue conquered the world the second to VIRGINES who haue surmounted sensualitie the third to DOCTORS who by their learning haue defeated the Artes and errours of the Prince of darknesse And if these Aureolae be compared together the comon consent giues the first rancke and preeminencie to Martyrdome for there is no greater charitie then to giue ones life for that which he loues Neuer durst any saith S. AVGVSTINE preferre Virginitie before Martyrdome Chastitie being but a lent martyrdome wheras to die in torments is a violent one A second is giuen to virgines who follow the Lambe where euer he goes clothed in white stoles The third to Doctors who were the salte of the earth the light of the world and the Lampes of Israel And when I say the Aureola shall be giueÌ„ vnto Doctors I nether vnderstand the learned nor those that shall onely haue taken the degree of Doctor ship in earth and buried their Talent and hid their Lampe vnder the Bushall For such Doctors shall enioy in Heauen the simple guife of Charitie onely a thing common with the rest of the Elect for as DANIEL saith they shall be bright as the Firmament But such as shall instruct others in the way of saluation and rightuousnes shall sparkle and shine as glorious strarrs in perpetuall Eternities Those then it is that haue taught and communicated to the ignorant sound and wholsome doctrine who shall carrie away the Aureola of Doctors For as he is not crowned who hath onely the abilitie and strength to fight and vanquish but he that in effect doth fight and ouercome the enemy according to that none shall be crowned but such as haue lawfully fought so those onely that had knowledge made others participant of it shall partake of the Aureola of Doctors according to that of the Ghospell he that shall teach and doe what is good shall be called great in the Kingdome of Heauen Some vnderstand those words of the Apocalipse of this Aureola I will bestow on him that shall ouercome a hidden Manna and a white stone wherin shall be grauen a new name which none shall know but he that receaues it and that of ISAIE speaking of the Continent vnder the name of Eunukes I will giue them a Mansion within the compasse of the walls of my house and an excellent name amongst the childreÌ„ of men As then here below in earth men are ordinarily distinguished by their clothes so shall those three bands haue some particular signe or marke which shall make them notable amongst the rest of the Blessed The Blessed societie of the Elect. LVIII ANd if an auncient Philosopher Athanasia following comon sense said that felicitie is not full and accomplished without societie what compainie is comparable to that which the Blessed inioy in Glorie Though God be sole and one in Essence yet hath he societie in the distinctions of persons and thence is not solitarie in his Beatitude What shall it be to behold the Societie of the three Diuine persons vnited together in the vnitie of their beeing yea euen to be vnited to this high Societie in the band of Charitie which is that of perfection what shall it be to be associated to the humanitie of IESVS CHRIST our brother according to Flesh as he was Sonne of man which for our sake he tooke vpon him whence we are made children of God and if children heires and if heires of God coheires of IESVS CHRIST in the inheritance of Glorie O how happie shall they be who are inrowled into the holy FELLOWSHIPE of IESVS CHRIST and made partaker of his heauenly and Diuine conuersation And if it be written that euen in this world he that is in Charitie remaynes in God and God in him and that he that keepes the Commandements is made the Tabernacle and lodginge of the three persons of the Sacred TRINITIE what are we to say of the state of consummated Grace which is Glorie where Charitie is compleate O Diuine Societie And if after the Diuinitie and humanitie of our Sauiour we turne the ey of our consideration vpon the admirable beautie of her who is the holy of Holyes yea the MOTHER of the holy of Holyes and who next vnto God to whom is due the worshipe of Latria we honour with Hyperdulia what could be imagined more rauishing since she is the mother of that verie Sonne who was eternally begotteÌ„ in the splendour of Saintes in the breast of the eternall Father were it not a spareing speach to attire her with the Sunne to make the Moone her footstoole and starrs her crowne yes verily since her Sonne and her God are her great crowne and incomparable ioy according to that of the wiseman a vertuous Sonne is the crowne and ioy of his Father and Mother And from this qualitie of MOTHER OF GOD which is in some sorte infinite there rebouÌ„ds in her such an abundance of grace that she is not
onely inuested with them but ouer-inuested not onely full but ouer-heaped so that next to the humanitie of thy adorable Sōne who was conceaued by the Holy Ghost of her pure blood there is no created obiect in Heauen that dare approach her beautie It was written of ESTER that she was extreamely faire incredibly gracefull meruellously amiable and gracious in the eyes of euery one But nothing below was powerfull enough to gaine the Heart of the Heauenly ASSVERVS saue onely the Diuine Maries perfections O vessell of Election choyce peece of the massiue gold of faire and pure dilection beset with all the precious stones of vertues what a ioy shall it be to the Elect thy litle children sith thou art the mother of their Sauiour and Father to liue eternally in thy happie compaignie What sense of obligation shall they testifie vnto thee who by thy powrefull prayers receaued so many sundry graces in earth Yea that which is the toppe of all graces their admittance into the Pallace of immortalitie what a delight shall it be to be associated to the troopes of Angells whose conuersation is intirely sweete and deuoyd of bitternesses and to be made partakers of their splendour and beautie yea to become like to them according as it is written the Elect shall be as the Angells of God which is easie to be beleeued since that in some sort they shall be made like vnto God when they shall see him face to face and such as he is What a glorie shall it be to be made an eternall Citizen of that delightfull Hierusalem built as a Citie to be participant of the same freedome which the Saintes of God enioy without all feare of falling from it or of being euer banished from that Residence of permanēt and eternall abode And if in the tyme of the Triumphant Rome it was reputed so greate a priuiledge to be made free Denisan of that famous Citie as then LADY CONQVERESSE of a great part of the world And if while Hierusalem florished vnder SALOMON's reigne it was so wishfull a thinge to liue there and to haue a share in the delightes and triumphes which were there ordinarie O heauenly Societie where God raignes in and amongst his Saintes eternally where triumphes and pleasures are perpetuall and that in a life that shall neuer pay tribute to death how much more art thou to be desired The Excellences of this holy Societie LIX BVt let vs not contēt our selues Athanasia with a generall sight of this holy compaignie but that we may take more gust and reape more fruite from this speculation let vs walke our thoughtes amidst the particular excellences therof and let vs waigh it as we ought in the waightes of the Sanctuarie If earthly Cities be esteemed for the multitude of their inhabitants as was the great NINIVE of old since that ROME CONSTANTINOPLE and now the incomparable PARIS who for the abundance of her riches and the number of her inhabitants seemes in deede as in name an Abridgement of Paradice What esteeme is to be made of the numberlesse number of the heauenly Hierusalem No saith IOB the number of God's Champions vpon whom the light of his countenāce doth shine cannot be counted A thousand thousand Angells saith DANIEL serue him and tenne thousand milliō assiste before his throne And if the first quire of Angells surpasse the number of men and that Quire be the lest in number as in all other qualities how great must the number of the eight former quires needs be if according to the opinion of S. THOMAS followed by DENIS THE CARTHVSIAN the number of Angells doth as much outstripe that of men who haue bene now are or shall be as heauenly bodies doe put downe the elementarie in quantitie As for the Elect who are to succeede in the vacante Seates and to repaire the ruines of the Angells Apostataes they shall be in so great abundance that S. IOHN saith in his Reuelatiōs that their number cannot fall vnder the lawes of Arithmetike Counte if thou canst the starrs in the Heauens and the sands on the Sea shoare said our Lord of old to ABRAHAM and know that thy posteritie shall be yet more numerous In what number shall the children of the God of ABRAHAM ISAAC and IACOB be who could out of stones raise the children of that great Patriarke the Father of the faithfull and beleeuers O Lord grant that I may be enrowled in the booke of life which shall contayne all their names new names which shall proceed from thy mouth and that I may cōfesse thee in that great Church and triumphant assemblie and that I may blesse the amongst that people full of grauitie And it is an excellencie no lesse gratefull to contemplate the fine distinction of rankes in that incredible multitude without all diuision or iealousie For if in the Babilone of the Reprobate there be a horrible confusion and disorder in this Hierusalem Mother of the Elect there is a well gouerned Order by the Diuine wisdome a thousand tymes fairer then that which we dayly behold in the compositiō of this great vniuerse There are many Mansions in my Fathers house saith our Sauiour CHRIST The Angells are diuided therin into three principale Hierarchies and each of these Hierarchies into three orders which make vp nine Quires of all those heauenly Spirits Thus are the troopes of the Armie of the God of Hostes ranged of which it is said in the Sacred Canticle speaking of the Spouse of the great and Heauenly SALOMON what can you espie in the Sulamite but troopes of Soldiers well ordered whence she is terrible as an Armie put into Battaile araye And though the Elect Associates of the felicitie of Angells as being their brothers be disposed of according to the diuerse degrees of their Quires yet shall they keepe their owne particular titles by which they shall be distinguished from one another and knowen for such as they were in the seruice of God in his Church Militant Thus shall the Quires of PATRIARKES PROPHETES APOSTLES EVANGELISTS MARTIRS VIRGINS CONFESSORS and all the rest of the Faithfull who euen in the world ouercame the world be seene in a goodly order Other excellencies LX. THis multitude and Order is accompained with another excellencie which consistes of an admirable vnion and correspondancie proceeding from one and the same spirit to witt the spirit of God which doth animate and gouerne this heauenly companie There DAVID would haue iuster reason then here below to sing ô how good and pleasant a thing it is to see brothers liue vnanimously together Their accord and vnion doth resemble the oyle of the high Priest AARON which runing downe from his heade spredd it selfe vpon his beard and from thence fell vpon his coller or as others say to the hemme of his garments The sweete and peaceable Societie of Doues Bees Pismires sheepe and of Cities and Comō wealthes well gouerned is but a weake and vnworthy draught of the agreeable intelligence
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
selfe in confidence of such a promisse is to be good And being once good thou wilt become a reasonable price and thou shalt not onely purchase what I told thee of saluation health life and life euerlasting but further nether wearinesse labour hungar thirst nor any other paine what soeuer shall molest thee All the good that can be imagined shall be there all the euil that can be imagined shall not be there and the continuance of that happie state shall be eternall I am able to make no further discouerie for nether eye hath seene nor eare hath heard nor heart hath conceaued the felicities of that glorie and how should that fall within the compasse of my tongues or penn's expression which neuer yet entered into my heart Another meane LXVII IF patience in aduersitie begett the blessed hope hope saith the Apostle which confoundeth not of happinesse in our heartes a holy contempt of transitorie toyes is no lesse forceable to make vs take a happie flight towards the heauenly Sion and to make vs relish celestiall things disdayning those base and earthly ones In the ballaÌ„ce of man's heart the fall of the one scale is the others rysing and ordinarily the worldling is deceiptfull in his waightes waighing profane drosse with the SANCTVARIE waightes which the spirituall maÌ„ doth not nor those who by attending to that which belongs to their saluation haue all their conuersation in Heauen The first step that doth separate vs froÌ„ earth doth aduance vs towards heauen The Gods of the earth are seated on high saith the Psalmist vpon which passage a Father of the Church saith that those Gods are the high-soaringe soules which like to the birde of Paradice doe neuer stoope to the ground and who may say with the Apostles behold we haue forsaken all and who for this pious renounceing of all doe heare that Diuine promisse you that haue left all shall receaue an hundredfold herebelow and life euerlasting after this mortall life This earthly trash is a heauie burdeÌ„ and doth exceedingly hinder those that striue to clime the mountaine of God But if by a holy contempt we treade vpon the same burden it rayseth vs thitherward A faithfull speach and worthy to be carefully layed vp in our heart Loue not the world nor yet that which it termes good for its figure doth passe and vanish like smoke ESTHER had good reason to coÌ„temne those royall pompes and magnificences and to put on mourneing weedes since she foresaw that she was about to be a Widowe and that all those would presently disappeare as shadowes being far more prudent then that proude Queene wherof mention is made in the Apocalipse who being seated in her Throne and gayzing vpon her selfe in her ornaments and glorie as a Peacoke in the varietie of his glorious plumes pronunced with as much vanitie as vntruth I raigne nor shall I euer become a widowe nor yet euer resent the dint of aduersitie but she sodainely fell from her vaine hopes And with damage and confusion she experienced that worldly felicitie is like to a flowre which florisheth in the morning but at night fadeth like to grasse growing vpon the tiles of a house which withereth away euen before it appeare fully greene This was it which one of the auncient Sages aymed at saying christall is glittering and glorious to the eye marrie in vse britle and subiect to breaking But heauenly felicitie is of a more solide temper for besides that according to IOB the heauens are build of most solide brasse and are composed of a matter which weares not a way being exempt from all corruption or alteration the Eternitie of glorie which is promised to the Elect is equall to the coÌ„tinuance of God who shall neuer haue end And therfor though that which the wisdome of the world and Sense esteemes true good notwithstanding that euen its vanitie is a true signe of the falsitie therof should by its alluremeÌ„ts and inchantments make a most violent impression vpon the most resolute mynd yet the shortnesse of its continuance being compared to an Eternitie shall appeare as litle bright or gratious in the ey of a setled iudgement as the lesser starrs in the presence of the Sunne This true esteeme made the great Apostle repute all terreane things as durt and dung while he proposed vnto himselfe the Conquest of Eternitie And the Psalmist touched with the same apprehension cryed out what is to me in Heauen and besides thee what would I vpon the earth nothing verily ô the God of my heare and the part of myne inheritance for euer O when shall I see the day the happie day in which I shall appeare before thy glorious face the onely obiect of myne eternall blesse Teares are my foode day and night while my desire doth incessantly presse vpon me with this demand where is thy God In very deed euen as the Sunne which causeth the day doth at his approach driue away the darknesse which in its absence doth couer the earth so the light of Eternitie doth no sooner shine in the soule 's Orison but the thicke and foule vapours of terreane affections are dispersed T' is in vaine my soule for thee to search for consolation in transitorie things Let thy thoughtes be onely placed vpon the Eternall God and thou shalt be throughly replenished with a ioy which shall bereaue thee of all sense of calamitie Rise vp ô Lord and let thyne enemyes be dispersed Appeare onely before myne eyes and the world thyne enemy and myne shall be put to flight They shall vanish like smoke and shall melt away as waxe before the fire This Dagon shall fall to ruine before the Arke of thyne Eternitie He doth passe together with his concupiscence but thou shalt remayne for euer thy yeares run not by and thou art still the same What can then an immortall soule doe in this vallie of teares miseries and death who thou touchest with a sense of the fortunate Ilands of Eternitie and with a desire of those eternall Hills but sigh and breath in the Egipt of this mortalitie after the milke and honie which runs in abuÌ„dance in the Land which thy Goodnesse hath promised vnto her taking comfort in this expectation while protracted hope doth afflict her It is a speciall grace which God bestowes vpon his Elect saith S. GREGORIE in filling their hearts with a hope as it were certaine of attayning the heauenly Contrie while they wander through the wildernesse of this earth to th end that they might behold as it were below them and as a thing vnworthy of their consideration all transitorie things and that for the loue of Eternitie they should treade vnder their feete by a holy pride the most pâ—osperous pleasures riches honours in the earth And this is that which God speakes by the mouth of one of his Prophetes to a soule that followes him I will rayse thee to the highest places of the earth and what are those high places but the abundance
truely eternall that is without begining or end he being the begining and end of all that hath beeing by participation of his But now Athanasia I will propose vnto you the essentiall Eternitie which is no other thing then God himselfe And God too not as punishing in the Eternitie accursed nor as rewarding in the blessed Eternitie but as being in himselfe as his owne essence to his owne Eternitie and that true increated and essentiall Eternitie in which this created Eternitie consisteth wherof we haue shewen some strokes before O what an Eternitie is this Athanasia and whither is the flight of my thoughts carried since it toucheth vpon the glorie of the Diuine Maiestie in the highest regions Here it is that the winge and sight of an Eagle were required to rayse ones selfe vp into the highnesse of the riches and wisdome of God who is incomprehensible in all his wayes And to behold this Sunne of the East which is the fountaine of all light and which cānot be obscured And here not the blacke and darke lynes of a first Draught but euen the bright rayses of the Sunne were more then requisite to bring light and life to the deciphering of him who from all Eternitie doth inhabite an inaccessable light and who could not be susteyned by a created vnderstanding vnlesse it were fortified with the light of Glorie All those Diuine perfections which Diuinitie considers in God vnder the name of Attributes are in him his owne onely and incomposed Essence for being a pure Act he doth not admitt in himselfe any composition at all or multiplicitie of qualities being all Essence all substance But we are constrayned by our owne infirmitie to speake so of God according to our ordinarie manner of cōceaueing and discourseing calling him Good Iuste Mercifull Infinite Eternall Omnipotent as we doe diuersly cast our thoughts vpon his workes rather then vpon himselfe who in his one and onely beeing doth cōprehend by way of eminencie all the perfections which are found in Goodnes Iustice Mercy So that he is not onely essentially good but he is euen essentiall Goodnesse all that is good being good by the onely communication and participation of this essentiall Goodnesse Now to giue a name to this supreme excellencie is a worke proper to the same excellencie which as it alone doth perfectly know it selfe so it onely is able to name it selfe Whervpon the Angell speaking vnto SAMSON's Father and representing vnto him the Diuine Maiestie said why dost thou inquire my name which is ADMIRABLE that is which thou canst not conceaue but by admiration Howbeit amongst the multitude of Diuine names wherwith the holy Scripture is full and which the bookes of the Doctours of the Church propose vnto vs there is none more generally receaued then that which God by his owne mouth imparted vnto MOYSES who demanded his name that he might denounce it to such as should inquire after it I AM WHO AM said our Lord and if they aske thee who sent thee vnto them tell them he that IS commanded me to come vnto you This name IS saith the Angell of the schoole is the most proper of all the Diuine names as being the most significatiue for it doth not expresse any forme at all but onely a simple beeing or rather the beeing of beeings as that great Genius of nature tearmed it And God being his owne Essence and Beeing cannot be more properly named then by the name IS which caused S. IOHN DAMASCENE to say that the principall name of the Diuine names is He who IS because he is as an infinite Ocean an illimited substance Againe this name sutes well with God in that it doth expresse a continuall present tyme which doth shew the essentiall Eternitie of God in whom saith S. AVGVSTINE in his bookes of the Trinitie there is nether tyme past nor tyme to come Now this Eternitie is so essentiall to God that if he were not eternall he would cease to be God and that created Eternitie wherof Diuines speake doth onely subsiste in the increated Eternitie of God himselfe and if we may so say it is imperfect for though it shall neuer haue end being a continuall presēt without any measure of tyme yet had it a begining since God alone of all the things which haue beeing hath no begining Nor doe we see any title in holy Scripture more frequently attributed vnto God then that he is Eternall I liue eternally saith our Lord. The Kingdome of heauen is eternall Our Lord is great eternally Our Lord is seated in an eternall Throne God is not moued eternally Those that hope in him shall not be confounded eternally The name of his Maiestie is Eternall He is his Elect's eternall part Mercy is established eternally in Heauen His Word and Truth shall dure eternally He hath made an eternall Testament God is liuing and Eternall for euer and euer He is an Eternall Dominatour He doth inhabite the eternall Hierusalem His powre is an eternall powre and his Kingdome in generation and generation And many the like passages all through the holy Scripture Now he is not onely eternall but is euen the very eternall Essence or the ESSENTIALL ETERNITIE So that to thinke of Eternitie is to haue God for the onely obiect of our thoughtes And to applie the essence of our immortall soule to his essence who alone of himselfe hath immortalitie is it not the perfection and fulnesse of our essentiall Beatitude If therfore I extolle the thought of Eternitie aboue all other thoughtes by reason of that great infinite Obiect am I not groūded vpon a solide reason Is not the immensitie and incōparable perfection therof able to rauish and drinke vp all our interiour and exteriour faculties following that of the Psalmist My heart and my flesh haue reioyced toward the liuing God That this essentiall Eternitie is all things LXXI AS God is eternall Athanasia or rather Eternitie it selfe so is he also infinite or rather infinitie it selfe Infinite according to his essentiall greatnesse which is immense and boundlesse Infinite also in his cōtinuance which is without limitation too to speake with the Prince of Schoolemen He is euery where by his existence and doth existe in euery thing filling Heauen and earth and all that is therin In a word he is in euery place and beyond all place by his essence presence and powre But he is in the Blessed Eternitie after an admirable manner for the Scripture doth assure vs that he is all things in all his Elect. There saith S. AVGVSTINE God is the vniuersall good of all the Saintes and the perfect Beatitude of all their desires there he is light and colour to their eyes musike to their eares honie to their taste or rather a hidden Manna and a delicious baulme to their smell In him they haue the diuersitie and beautie of sundrie seasons the freshnesse of the Springe the brightnesse of the Sommer the fruitfulnesse of the fall of the leafe the rest
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
that voice of terrour Rise ô yee deade and appeare before the Tribunall of the liueing God how much more reason haue we to thinke of the issue and conclusion then the preparation of this solemne Iudgement since the sentence doth irreuocably decree what shall become of vs for all Eternitie Before and aboue all things said PACOMIVS let vs keepe before our eyes the last of all the dayes and all the moments of our life let vs thinke and throughly thinke of Eternitie A remarkable Sentence and euen worthy to be engrauen with an iron penne not onely in a plate of leade but in the hardest marble and flinte stone as said the good IOB The mother of Simphorian said vnto her sonne while he was haled vnto Martirdome my deare child the fruite of my wombe the beloued of my vowes turne thyne eyes towards Heauen consider him that raignes there for euer renounce him not for a moment of life the paines of death will quickly be past but the reward shall neuer end And S. FRANCIS to encourage his Religions to the lingering martirdome of a religions life said vnto them Bretheren great are the things which we haue promised vnto God yet infinitly greater things God hath promised vnto vs The labour is short the reward is eternall The pleasure doth post by the paine is permanent Many are called few are elected euery one receaues according to his workes But especially at that great day which is the iudge of all the rest euery one shall be rewarded according to his workes and God shall reueale that which is shut vp in darknes and shall manifest the secretes of hearts A day so dreadfull that the powres of Heauen shall be moued the Angells shall quake with feare when the Almightie shall come to iudge the world It is not my pourpose Athanasia to entertayne you with the horrours of that day which would require a whole volume I will onely place before your eyes the eternall Ghospell or rather the irreuocable sentence which shall proceede from his mouth who shall iudge the people in equitie who shall iudge nations and to whom his Father hath giuen all iudgement in heauē and in earth and which shall issue from thence like lightning and thunder farre more dreadfull then that which did appeare vpon the toppe of the mount Sina when our Lord deliuered his law vnto Israel by the hand of MOYSES Mediatour betweene God and the people O Sauiour of the world thou shalt be then a lambe Dominatour of the earth to the good but to the reprobate a roaring Lion When the Lion begins to roare in the Forrest there is nether passinger nor yet wildebeasts that doe not quake and hide themselues O how shall the damned dread thy voice resembling that of thy thunder in the wheele of thy furie since they shall inuoke the mountaines to fall downe vpon them to hide them before the face of thy wroth for who knowes the force of thyne indignation or who is able to somme vp the effectes therof How penetrating shall the two edged sword be which shall proceed from thy mouth whilst thou shalt thunder out against thē that eternall doome which shall reach euen vnto the diuisiō of their soule and their spirit of their ioyntes also and their marowes GOE YEE ACCVRSED INTO ETERNALL FIRE O Athanasia who is able without astonishment to vtter without swonding to vnderstand so dismaying and dreadfull words Be gone Alas dread Lord whither shall they goe to auoyd the encounter of thy spirit and to conuey themselues from before thy wrothfull countenance art thou not in Heauē in Hell and euery where dost thou not euen fill heauen and earth dost thou not hold the vniuerse in thy hand and doth not thy powre comprehend all things Be gone But to whom shall they betake themselues art not thou he who hath the words of eternall life who art euen thy selfe life euerlasting Be gone Whither wilt thou haue those Prodigalls to retire thēselues doe what they can they cannot goe out of thee since in thee all things haue motion beeing and life Be gone But whither shall those ABSALON's resort for succour being eternally banished from the Court of the eternall DAVID King of ages immortall and inuisible Be gone O what a word or rather what a Thunder bolt able to strike Lucifer downe into the Abisse of Hell oh Sauiour IESVS in the day of thy flesh in the tyme of thy sufferances when like an innocent Lambe thou wast lead to be sacryficed if this word It is I was able to prostrate vpon the ground the troopes of Soldiers How shall that word of reprobation precipitate them whom thou driuest eternally from the Paradice of thy presence Be gone ô banishing sword of the Angell of the high Councell who dost banish for an Eternitie the Betrayers of the heauenly inheritance Be gone ô Athanasia if the Auncient prophetes were struke with such astonishmēt while God appearing vnto them vnder diuers formes did impart vnto them his will and pleasure as to his friends and Embassadours to be the Interpreters of the same to the people and if the onely vision of the Angells of light put them into a traunce as we reade euen of S. IOHN in his Apocalipse falling prostrate at the feete of the Angell as though he had fallen downe deade If Israel while he heard God thunder and lighten vpon the Mount-Sina said vnto MOYSES speake thou vnto vs and we will vnderstand thee but let not our Lord speake least we may dye and continuing in his apprehension if we heare any more said he the voice of our Lord God infallibly we are dead for what flesh is able to susteyne the word of the liuing God speaking out of the midst of flames as we heare him how dreadfull I pray you must the condemning voice of the inexorable Iudge needs be The Prophete ISAYE seeing in spirit onely the destruction of Babylone was touched with so deepe a compassion that he affirmed that his reines were filled with dolour and his anguish was like to that of a woman in childbirth that he fell backward in hearing its Condemnation was troubled in beholding it withered away with apprehension and was inuolued in darknesse through amaysement therof Then saith the same Prophete speaking of the last iudgement the day of the furie of the God of Hostes shall be terrible to the proud arrogant and haughtie Then saith IEROMIE they shall be confounded who not haue considered that eternall reproach Then goes on ISAYE The Almightie will make the Maiestie of his voice be heard and will manifest the fearefull force of his arme in the consummation of his wroth and in the flame of deuouring fire For euen as a fire saith the Psalmist which burneth a woode and as a flame that burneth the mountaines so shalt thou pursue them in thy tempest who shall be the obiect of thy wrath Then the Almightie saith the wiseman by his owne vertue shall trample vnder his feete the
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
but for his heart nor the heart but for loue nor loue but to communicate thy goodnes to a reasonable creature and by such communication to make it eternally happie Thou wouldst ô Lord haue me aspire after this communication the toppe of our soueraigne Beatitude when thou commandst me to pray vnto thee that thy Kingdome come It is this onely thing which I begge of thy bountie that I may dwell with thee that is to say in thee for all Eternitie I loue the beautie of thy house which is no other then thyne owne essence and the sole ayme of my desires is the place of thy glorie Let me rest therin for euer and euer and according to my election and dilection let me dwell there euerlastingly Yet that I may enter thither according to thy pleasure ô my GLORIE ô my MERCY ô my God my Light my Saluation Loe how I lay downe all my pretentioÌ„s and proper interests at the Gate of thy holy Sion renouncing from my very heart the spirit of bondage and seruile feare which would make me flie the accursed Eternitie for no other reason ô disaster then that I should be ther the eternall Obiect of thy wroth and hatred renouÌ„cing also that mercenarie spirit which would make me wish for the Blessed Eternitie for other ends then to loue blesse and praise thee therin for euer No Lord I will haue no other motiue to loue and looke after thee then thy selfe who art soueraignely amiable and desirable I will behold thee directly in thy selfe and applie my selfe entirely vnto thee because thou art my God and because ô my deare God thou art what thou art Thou art all my riches all my pretentions for that I know in seeing thee I shall see and possesse in thee all good things Thou thy selfe art the reward of euery good worke and he is vnworthy of all laurells who seekes for any other but thy selfe for thou art a far more ample recompeÌ„ce to those â—hat loue thee then man is able to conceaue It is to thee then alone ô Diuine Eternitie ô eternall Diuinitie that I consecrate all my desires all my thoughtes It is to thee ô eternall Beeing that I consecrate all my beeing in tyme and Eternitie It is to the Trinitie of thy Diuine Persons to whom I dedicate the three powres of my soule To the ADORATION of thy powrefull fecunditie I consecrate my MEMORIE ô eternall Father To thy WISDOME ô eternall Sonne begotten of the Father by his vnderstanding I dedicate my VNDERSTANDING To thee ô HOLY GHOST the reciprocall Loue of the Father and the Sonne proceeding from their one will I offer vp my will O Father of light grant me the LIGHT of thy Glorie that one day I may clearely see that which I now beleeue by the light of FAITH O eternall WORD bestow thy selfe vpoÌ„ me that I may possesse in Heauen that which I seeke by HOPE O Holy Ghost make me partaker of thyne infinite BEAVTIE to th' end I may one day enioy that which now I imbrace by CHARITIE Yes Lord I am wholy thyne be thou also wholy myne and receaue me according to thy word and let me not be confounded in my expectation Thou art myne Eternitie like as thou art my saluation and my hope Thou art the onely Eternitie which I pretend grant that I may prayse thee euerlastingly and according to thy word espouse my soule in a liuely Faith espouse it for euer For with all the sinceritie of heart and puritie of intention that I can possibly conceaue and speake I giue thee this assurance of my fidelitie by a solemne protestation in the words of the Diuine Psalmist No Lord I will nothing nether in HeaueÌ„ nor earth but thy selfe for thou art the God of my heart and the onely part which I pretend in the Eternitie of Eternities FINIS