glory be not ambitious after worldly honour be not wearied out with well doing be not cast down with afflictions do not sink under the burden of the Crosse but beare it patiently and cheerfully rejoycing with the Apostles that you are counted worthy to suffer For I reckon saith S. Paul that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Let no man when he hath forsaken the world think that he hath forsaken any great matter For what is earth in comparison of heaven It is but as a Centre to the Circle a Minute to Eternitie a Drop to the Sea and a Grain of dust to the Drie land What are our riches Fading and uncertain moveables We are soon taken from them or they from us Though with much ado we keep them as long as we live yet whether we will or no we must part with them when we die we cannot carry them to our graves Why do we not then make a vertue of a necessitie why do we not willingly part with them whilest they are ours seeing that shortly we must part with them whether we will or not when death attacheth us for a debt due to Nature and then they can be no longer ours Why do we not lay them out like good Merchants for the Margarite or precious pearl of Eternall life Thus sweetly goes on Athanasius But I must leave him and draw to a conclusion Pachomius was wont whensoever he felt any unlawfull thoughts or desires arise in his minde to drive them away with the remembrance of Eternitie and if at any time he perceived them to rebell again he still repelled them by meditating seriously upon Eternitie the Eternall punishments of the damned the torments without end the fire that never goes out and the worm that never dyeth And here I will conclude this consideration with the exhortation of the same Pachomius Before all things saith he let us every day think upon the last day Let us mâ— time remember Eternitie Let us every minute we have to live so live as if we lived in fear of everlasting torments that so by the mercy of God in Jesus Christ we may for ever escape them 〈◊〉 him be glory both now and 〈◊〉 ever Amen 2 Pet 3. â—8 Because man shall go to his ETERNALL habitation Ecclius Alas how vnlike are the houses of ETERNITIE One of them we must inhabit we must either for ever rejoyce in heaven or for ever burne in hell THE NINTH CONSIDERATION upon ETERNITIE The first Conclusion NO man living is able in word to expresse or in thought conceive the infinite space of Eternitie Between a true man and a painted man true fire and painted fire there is a great deal of difference and yet these are in some kinde one like unto another But between our common fire and the fire of Hell between the sorrows of this life and the pains of Hell there is no comparison no proportion at all For this life and the sorrows of this life are measured by space of Time but the life to come and the sorrows thereof cannot be measured by any thing but onely Eternitie which also is without measure This doth our Saviour most elegantly expresse in the Gospel of S. John by the Parable of the Vine-branch If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned In these words is Eternitie briefly and plainly described for mark the words well they runne not in the future He shall be cast forth and shall wither and men shall gather them and shall cast them into the fire and they shall be burned I say they runne not in the future but all in the present tense He is cast forth and withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned They are burned This is the state and condition of the damned They are burned that is alwaies burning When a thousand yeares are past and gone As it was in the beginning so it is still They are burned And when a thousand and a thousand more yet are gone As it was so it is They are burned And if after certain millions of yeares the question be asked What is now the state and condition of the damned What do they What suffer they How fares it with them There can be no other answer made but this They are burned still burning continually inutterably Eternally from one age to another even for ever and ever Upon this place excellently saith Saint Augustine One of these two must needs be the condition of the vine-branch either it must abide in the vine or else be cast into the fire if not in the vine then certainly in the fire But that it may not be cast into the fire let it still abide in the vine The Second Conclusion IF those men which do still continue in their sinnes did but know how neare they are unto Eternitie and everlasting torments if they did consider well with themselves how that God in a moment in a breath in the twinkling of an eye as we speak may suddenly take them away in their sinnes and deliver them up unto death Then surely if they had it they would give all Spain all the treasures of Asia all the gold of India yea all the world to obtain but one houre to confesse their sinnes to repent them of the same and to ask God pardon and forgivenesse They would not certainly they would not still hug and embrace their sinnes they would not every day multiply them as they do they would not lodge them every night in their bosome and lie snorting in them For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul Though thou losest every thing else in the world yet O man have a care to keep thy soul. It were needlesse here to reckon up a Catalogue of the Martyrs of Christ in all ages There are whole books of them in great volumes they are recorded to all posteritie and their names shall be had in everlasting remembrance But the greatest honour that we can do them is to follow their good example to learn of them Christian fortitude and magnanimitie to fear God more then man God which is able to destroy both body and soul in Hell rather then man which can onely kill the body but is not able to kill the soul to love God more then all the world to be willing to part with all for Christ to lay down our lives for Christ to lose all to save our souls and gain Eternitie I will conclude here with that excellent exhortation of Saint Augustine What then shall we do brethren What What else but whilest we have time amend our lives where we have done amisse do so no more become new men That what is
himself Eternitie Eternitie Eternitie Why so Set thine house in order saith the Prophet to king Hezekiah For thou shalt die and not live There will come an evening for certain after which thou shalt see no morning or there will come a morning after which thou shalt see no evening Have an especiall care therefore in all thy actions that thou woundest not thy Conscience and trust not too farre to those things that perish for fear lest thou thy self together with them dost likewise perish and finally lose the things that are Eternall It is a custome in Germanie and not to be disliked in the evening when a Candle is first lighted or brought into a room To say Deus det nobis lucem AEternam God grant unto us light Eternall We shall do well to imitate the Germanes in this custome or rather it is alreadie in use and hath been long ago in many parts of this kingdome to say God grant us the light of heaven It is very good dayly to put us in minde of Eternitie There is likewise a kinde of Eternitie in Slaverie and Imprisonment but infamous and horrible It is a cruell punishment and worse then death it self in some mens judgement to be condemned to perpetual imprisonment or to be a perpetuall Gally-slave Those which are oppressed with sicknesse or other sorrows do likewise imagine with themselves that even in their sufferings there is a kinde of Eternitie Whence it comes to passe that we often heare them utter such distempered speeches as these will this last alwayes Shall I still without end be nayled fast to my bed Shall I suffer these pains and sorrows perpetually Shall I alwayes be thus vexed and tormented Alack these Eternities are but short and soon come to an end But if it be so grievous to flesh and bloud to endure slaverie or imprisonment here on earth though but for a moment for our life is no longer according to Davids measure but a span which is very short What care and diligence and what circumspection ought we to use that we be noâ— cast into the prison of Hell and into the fathomlesse pit where there is slaverie and imprisonment pain and torment to be endured throughout all ages beyond all times even to all Eternitie CHAP. II. That Eternitie transcends all numbers of Arithmetick THere is a very common and well known Arithmetick which children are taught when they first go to School and this is it Suppose there were a mountain of very fine sand as big as the whole earth or rather much bigger Then suppose that every yeare an Angell should take from this mountain one and but one grain of sand How many thousand and thousand and again I say thousand yea how many hundred thousand and yet more how many thousand millions of yeares must there needs passe before it can be perceived that the mountain is grown lesse or any whit diminished Let a man that is skilfull in Arithmetick sit down and begin to cast How many yeares must passe before the mountain or half the mountain be removed by the Angell Certainly we cannot conceive that ever he shall be able to cast up the Totall number of the sand But herein are we mistaken for although we cannot conceive it possible to be done yet it may be done But Eternitie exceeds this number of yeares beyond all comparison it is most certain For between a thing finite and a thing infinite there is no comparison no proportion Eternitie hath no limits no terms no bounds none at all But suppose the damned should burn in Hell no longer then till the mountain by grain after grain yeare after yeare should by the Angell be quite removed yet what an incomprehensible number of yeares must first passe before they can expect to see the day of deliverance But alas there is no such day to be expected their torments shall have no end After that incomprehensible number of yeares it shall be truely said Now beginneth their Eternitie their Eternitie is not in any part expired they are as farre from the end of their torments as they were at the beginning After a thousand yeares yea after a hundred thousand yeares there shall not be an end or middle or beginning of Eternitie For the measure of Eternitie is Alwayes The same Art of Arithmetick about the businesse of Eternitie a late Divine teacheth in words somewhat different but in meaning all one with the former I therefore adde it because a man can never sufficiently think or speak of it Consider saith he what is the length of Eternitie How long shall God and his Saints reigne How long shall the damned burn in Hell For ever How long is that Imagine an hundred thousand yeares Alas That is nothing in respect of Eternitie Imagine ten hundred thousand yeares yea so many ages Yet that is nothing Eternitie is still as long as it was Imagine a thousand millions of yeares And yet that is nothing Eternitie is not a whit shortened Imagine yet more 1000000000000000000000000000000 a thousand thousand thousand thousand thousand thousand thousand thousand Millions of yeares Imagine I say the damned should burn in Hell so many yeares and yet thou hast not found the very beginning of Eternitie Imagine once more so many millions of millions of yeares as there are drops in the sea and yet thou art not come to the beginning of Eternitie Such for continuance is the Eternitie of joy into which the blessed shall enter and the Eternitie of torments which the damned shall suffer O Jesus spare us spare us O Jesus O Jesus save us Have mercy upon us O good Jesus and suffer us not to be plunged headlong into the bottomlesse pit to be tormented with the damned for all Eternitie But yet if God would but say unto the damned Let the earth be covered with most fine sand and let the world be filled therewith and let it be heaped up so high as heaven and then let an Angell come once in every thousand yeares and take one grain of sand out of this heap When after so many thousand yeares as there be grains of sand the Angell shall have removed the whole heap then will I deliver you out of Hell Oh how would the damned exult and rejoyce and not think themselves damned But alas after so many thousands of yeares there remain yet more and more and infinite more to all Eternitie even for ever and ever This is that heavy weight that so presseth the damned Let every one therefore that sinneth consider with himself and again I say let him consider that unlesse he repent he shall be pressed and grone under this heavy weight of Eternitie Guilielmus Peraldus Bishop of Lions a very religious and learned man hath another manner of reckoning meditating upon the innumerable number of yeares throughout which the damned shall be tormented If the damned saith he should every day distill from their eyes but one small teare and those teares should
Laurentius Justinianus shall resolve the last question for us There are saith he many things in this world which nature hath so appropriated and assigned to some one certain place that they are not to be found in any other place unlesse it be in part Of some flowers which grow in the new-found world we have onely the seed Of some living creatures there are brought over unto us onely the skinnes Now Eternitie is a thing so proper to another world that it is not to be found in this onely the seed thereof we may have even in this world And what are the seeds of Eternitie They are saith Laurentius Contempt of a mans self The gift of Charitie and the taste of Christs works To contemne others is a tree that overspreadeth the whole world whose wood is fewell for the fire of Hell To contemne himself is a very small seed scarce known in the world Christ brought it down from heaven with him who made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and became obedient not to the Stable onely or the Manger but even to mount Calvarie unto death even the death of the Crosse unto the grave yea even unto Hell Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him Behold this little seed is grown up and spread in breadth and is become the highest of all trees The same Authour speaking of Charitie saith thus The measure of our glory and Eternall reward shall be according to the measure of our charitie For To whom little is forgiven the same loveth little He obtaineth lesse grace whosoever hath lesse Charitie And where there is lesse grace there also shall be lesse glory So then it is most true The more thou lovest God the more thou heapest up unto thy self Eternall rewards The whole Law is love but it must be pure chaste and holy I have done with the second which is Charitie I come to the third which is The taste of Christs Works It is a common and witty saying in the Rhetorick Schools He is to be thought a good proficient who can relish Tullies works We may say as much in the School of Christianitie He hath made a good progresse in Religion and vertue who can relish Christs Works who likes the taste of Christs doctrine and example But whosoever findeth no taste almost at all no relish in the words and works of Christ whosoever is not moved affected and delighted with those things which belong unto the minde and Christian pietie to heaven and Eternall felicitie but on the contrarie findes much sweetnesse in eating drinking walking laughing jesting and playing The same man may â—ay with sorrow enough too truely How little seed of Eternitie have I within me O my God! Or rather I have none at all For when I descend into my self I see manifestly what spirit is within me and whither my affection carries me To spend whole nights in dancing feasting revelling quaffing dicing and carding hearing foolish and idle tales reading impure Books calling for and laughing at amorous songs playing the good fellow and doing as the company doth Oh this never offends me this is pleasing and delightfull to me But to heare of Christ and his life to heare of holy men that lived formerly who were much given to watching fasting and prayer or to reade of their lives that makes no musick in my eares and this is an eye-sore unto me I can neither heare nor see I stop mine eares and close mine eyes for fear lest they should be offended To heare a Sermon of an houre long it is death unto me and therefore I seldome come to Church or if I do sometimes I drive away the time either sleeping or prating There are too many such men in the world but of such it may be truely said That they have no taste or relish at all of the works of Christ. But now let us heare the judgement of the Church concerning Eternitie The memorie of Eternitie is so precious in the esteem of the Church that there is no Psalme no Prayer no Hymne but closeth with it Glory be to the Father and to the Sonne and to the Holy Ghost as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be world without end Amen As it was in the beginning that is Before all beginning from all Eternitie without any beginning is now and ever shall be world without end that is Throughout all ages infinite innumerable incomprehensible ages to all Eternitie But let us leave the little rivers and make haste to the fountain CHAP. II. Cleare testimonies of Divine Scripture concerning Eternitie I Will produce onely three witnesses a Prophet an Apostle and an Evangelist How many and how great are the sighs and grones of poore abject and despised men we may heare them every day One or other every where is complaining Wo is me poore man I have few or no friends at all I am disrespected I am scorned and trampled under foot almost by all Have patience a little O man suffer for a while the day of comfort will rise at length though it seem long first Remember Gods promise in the Prophesie of Baruch Cast about thee a double garment of the righteousnesse which cometh from God and set a Diadem on thy head of the glory of the Everlasting Others there are that accuse Nature complaining still that she hath given too long a life to ravens and too short a great deal unto man Heare thus much you that are still complaining of the shortnesse of mans life This life is short indeed But when this short and vain life shall end there remains another life which never shall have end If ye will not beleeve me yet beleeve S. Paul For we know saith S. Paul that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands Eternall in the heavens What great losse is it then if this earthly tabernacle of our body be dissolved when as we have a royall Palace prepared for us which is not subject to dissolution To the testimonie of the Prophet and the Apostle let us adde the testimonie of the Evangelist Saint Matthew in whose Gospell we may reade these words of our Saviour If thy hand or thy foot offend thee cut them off and cast them from thee It is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed rather then having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire And if thine eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee It is better for thee to enter into life with one eye rather then having two eyes to be cast into hell-fire Oh fire Oh hell Oh Eternitie Time is nothing if it be compared with Eternitie shortnesse of life and so losse of time is no losse at all but great gain if thereby we gain Eternitie Christ hath promised it and Saint Matthew hath recorded it and sealed it
present ever Thou hast peace that ever lasteth Health and life that never wasteth God is all in all Glorious things are spoken of thee O Citie of God In thee have their habitation all those that rejoyce In thee there is no fear in thee no sorrow All desires are turned to joyes Whatsoever a man can wish for is present with thee Whatsoever can be desired is in thee in abundance They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatnesse of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures For with thee is the fountain of life in thy light shall we see light when we shall see thee in thy self and thee in us and our selves in thee living in everlasting felicitie and enjoying the beatificall vision of thee for ever And though this felicitie be everlasting yet a man may obtain it in a short time and with little labour I have compassion on the multitude saith our Saviour because they have now been with me three dayes and have nothing to eat Sweet Saviour dost thou count it such a matter for us to abide with thee three dayes and eat nothing And why sweet Jesus dost thou not rather tell us of the dayes of Eternitie and the everlasting joyes wherewith we shall be abundantly satisfied in the kingdome of heaven God taketh notice of the least service that we perform and it is precious in his sight He telleth the very hairs of our heads and much more then will he tell the drops of bloud that are spilt for his sake and put them up in the bottle of his remembrance We may therefore very well cry out with Saint Hierom Oh! How great a blessednesse is this To receive great things for small and Eternall things for Temporall and further to have the Lord our debtour But thou wilt be ready to say It goes hard to be in sufferings every day and though all other things might easily be endured yet death is terrible Christian brother I am ashamed to heare thee say so it is foolishly spoken and like a childe Knowest thou not thus much I know that I ascend to descend flourish to wither am young to grow old live to die and die to live blessed Eternally Trust therefore in the Lord for ever For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength Again S. Augustine comes unto my minde who upon the words of our Lord saith thus Our Lord and Saviour concluded with these words saying These shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life Eternal It is life Eternall that is here promised Because men love to live here upon earth therefore life is promised unto them And because they are much afraid to die therefore life Eternall is promised unto them What wouldest thou have Life Well thou shalt have it What art thou afraid of Is it Death Well thou shalt not suffer it But they which shall be tormented in Hell fire shall have a desire to die and death shall flie from them To live long therefore is no great matter yea more To live alwayes is no great matter but To live blessed that is a thing to be desired that is a great matter indeed Therefore thou shalt live in heaven and shalt never die There shalt thou live blessed for evermore for neither shalt thou suffer any evil neither shalt thou be in fear of suffering for there it is impossible to suffer any evil There shalt thou possesse whatsoever thou canst desire and what thou possessest thou shalt desire still to possesse Thou canst not be cast out of possession And this shall satisfie thee It was there that David did expect to have his thirst quenched and his hunger satisfied In thy presence is fulnesse of joy at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore and again My soul thirsteth after thee and yet again As for me I will behold thy face in righteousnesse I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likenesse This is a new and a strange voice for a King He hath his table well furnished with all kindes of dishes and yet as if he were hunger-starved he hopes to be filled at anothers table His own bread and his own wine would not serve his turn to appease his hunger or to quench his thirst There was other bread that he had a minde to and other liquour that he so thirsted after the bread of heaven and the water of life For what is the plenty and abundance of all the Kings of the earth It is nothing else but meere want And what is the daintie fare at their great tables It is but like the beggers pitcher if it be compared with the fatnesse of Gods house and his heavenly table Come eat and drink and be filled my beloved shall the King of heaven say This feast of mine shall never be ended there shall come no sorrow after it As it is To day so shall it be For ever and ever Neither can Saint Augustine here contain himself but he breaks forth again into this exclamation Oh life of lives surpassing all life Oh everlasting life Oh life blessed for ever where there is joy without sorrow rest without labour riches without losse health without sicknesse there is no such matter in this life abundance without defect life without death perpetuitie without corruptibilitie beatitude without calamitie where all good things are in perfect charitie where all knowledge is in all things and through all things where the Majestie of God is seen in presence where the minde of the beholders is filled with the bread of life They alwayes behold Gods presence and still they desire to behold it they desire to behold it and yet without anxietie they are satisfied with it and yet without satietie And that thou maist understand and know good Christian brother that this superexcellent glory these celestiall riches this heavenly kingdome is to be bought heare what the same Saint Augustine saith I have to sell saith God I have to sell come and buy it Lord what is it that thou hast to sell I have rest Come and buy it What is the price of it The price is labour And how much labour is Eternall rest worth If thou wilt speak the truth and judge aright Eternall rest is worth Eternall labour It is true indeed but do not fear For God is mercifull For should thy labour be Eternall thou shouldest never attain to rest Eternall But that thou maist attain at length to rest Eternall therefore thy labour shall not be Eternall not but that it is worth so much but that thou maist at length get the possession of it Indeed it is worth the price though it be labour Eternall But that it may be purchased and possessed it is necessarie that the price thereof be but labour Temporall Therefore Christian brethren let us rouse up our selves and stirre up one another with this exhortation of Saint Augustine which here followeth Let us
why so long in drawing his lines and so slow in the use of his pencill he made this answer I am long a doing whatsoever I take in hand because what I paint I paint for Eternitie And thus stands the case with all we paint also for Eternitie Whatsoever we do it so belongs unto Eternitie that a man may truely say of it thus I write I reade I sing I pray I labour whatsoever I do whatsoever I say whatsoever I think all is For Eternitie Now if this be the nature of our thoughts words and deeds if they shall remain For all Eternitie we had need have a care what we think speak or do it concerns us to look about us to minde our businesse not to go negligently and sleepily about our work not to let any thing go out of our hands rude and imperfect but to polish and perfect it with all the care skill and industrie that we can use We paint with Zeuxis For Eternitie When we have done our works they are presently transmitted to Eternitie to be viewed by a most judicious and all-seeing eye that no fault can escape and being viewed and censured they are to be committed either to be Eternally punished or Eternally rewarded What I have said before I here say again because it cannot be said too often though I should say it a thousand times Whatsoever we think speak or do once thought spoke or done it is Eternall it abideth for ever Will you heare what S. Gregorie saith In all our actions we must use great care and circumspection we must well weigh and consider with our selves what it is that we take in hand and to what end we do it that our mindes be not set upon any thing that is Temporall but upon those things which are Eternall Therefore in all thy actions labour to be perfect Pray for Eternitie study for Eternitie suffer for Eternitie contend for Eternitie labour for Eternitie So live to God that thou maist live with God So live on Earth that thou maist live in Heaven So live for Eternitie that thou maist live to Eternitie Heare also what S. Bernard saith Our works do not passe away assoon as they are done as they may seem to do but as seeds sown in time they rise up to all Eternitie The foolish man which hath no understanding will wonder to see such a plentifull increase rise up of such little seeds be it good or be it evil according to the nature of the seed which is sown But he that is wise will ponder these things and count no sinne little For he hath an eye still not to that which is present but to that which is to come not to that which is sown but to that which is reaped not to that which is done in time but to that which remains to all Eternitie Oh the dangerous and miserable madnesse of the sonnes of Adam God created us unto the possession of infinite and Eternall goods And why are we carried then with the whole bent of our affections to those things which are flitting and vanishing God made us heirs of Heaven and Eternall possessions And why do we so miserably entangle our selves in our vanities and run headlong to destruction Let us be wise in time let us look well to our steps let us make speed on the way of Eternitie Let us so live that we may live to Eternitie The way thither is short and narrow but the Term thereof is very large But O miserable and foolish men that we are We fain would obtain Eternall life but we are loth to tread in the way that leads to it we fain would be there but we will not take pains to go thither Every man desires to be blessed There is no man saith Saint Augustine of what condition or degree soever he be but hath a desire after that life which is blessed for ever Therefore that life is the common haven at which all men desire to arrive but all men know not how to steere their course aright It is a thing which all men without controversie would fain possesse but how to compasse it what course to take which way to go that is the point they cannot agree upon We may seek it long enough upon earth and it is a question whether we shall ever finde it or no Not that I condemne the seeking of it but the not seeking it in the right place One is of opinion that the Souldiers life is most blessed but another denies that and sayes The life of the Husbandman is most blessed And again this another denies and sayes that the Lawyers life is most blessed and he gives his reason for it For the Lawyer is worshipped by the people and is much sought unto he is ever taking of fees and pleading causes And again this another denies and sayes The Judges life is most blessed For he hath power of hearing causes and deciding them And yet again another denies this and sayes The Merchants life is most blessed For he sees divers countreys learns many fashions gathers together much wealth You see dearely beloved in so many severall kindes of lives there is not any one to be found that will please all But the life blessed for ever that is it which pleaseth all Blessednesse therefore is not to be expected here but is to be sought for elsewhere and never to be found out but by a good and godly death Ungodly men themselves desire to die the death of the godly but they will not live the life of the godly For to die well is the way to felicitie but to live well is matter of labour And yet that is not to be obtained without this Eternitie depends upon death and there is no dying well without living well Choose which thou wilt life or death If thou livest well thou canst not but die well and it shall be well with thee for ever If thou livest not well thou canst not hope to die well but it will be ill with thee for ever Not many yeares ago a man of a good house having more wit in his head then religion in his heart being asked what he thought of the strict lives of the religious and the loose lives of the licentious which he esteemed best answered thus I could wish to live like the licentious but to die like the religious Some wit there might be in his answer but I am sure there was little religion in it He had spoke like a Christian man if he had said thus I desire to live the life of the religious that my end may be like his Balaam could say Let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his But he had said a great deal better if he had said thus Let me live the life of the righteous that I may die the death of the righteous and that my last end may be like his For whosoever liveth the life of the godly shall
How God punisheth here that he may spare hereafter A strange example Pag. 142 The sixth Consideration How the holy Scripture in many places teacheth us to meditate upon Eternitie Pag. 149 Chap. I. The Answer of the holy Fathers and the Church about this Pag. 152 Chap. II. Cleare testimonies of Divine Scripture concerning Eternitie Pag. 169 Chap. III. This life in respect of that which is to come is but as a drop to the Ocean Pag. 176 The seventh Consideration How Christians use to paint Eternitie Pag. 190 Chap. I. Christ inviting Pag. 195 Chap. II. Adam Lamenting Pag. 197 Chap. III. The Raven croking Pag. 202 The eighth Consideration How Christians ought not onely to look upon the Emblems and Pictures of Eternitie but come home and look within themselves and seriously meditate upon the thing it self Pag. 225 Chap. I. Eternitie doth not onely cut off all comfort and ease but even all hope also Pag. 232 Chap. II. Eternitie is a Sea and a three-headed Hydra It is also a fountain of all joy Pag. 237 Chap. III. How sweet and precious the taste of Eternitie is Pag. 244 The ninth Consideration Seven Conclusions about these Considerations of Eternitie 259. 265. 268. 272. 274. 280. 284. Chap. I. The Punishment of Eternall Death Pag. 299 Chap. II. The reward of Eternall life Pag. 313 Chap. III. The conclusion of all Pag. 331 The word of God most High is the Fountain of wisedome her wayes are everlasting commandements Ecc â— 5 The infant playes with Fate Nature the fool with ETERNITIE but the wise man shall have dominion over the starres CONSIDERATIONS upon ETERNITIE The first Consideration What Eternitie is SImonides being asked by Hiero King of Sicilie what God was desired one day to consider upon it And after one day past having not yet found it out desired yet two dayes more to consider further upon it And after two dayes he desired three And to conclude at length he had no answer to return unto the King but this That the more he thought upon it the more still he might For the further he busied himself in the search thereof the further he was from finding it The thing that we are here now to consider upon is Eternity And the first question that offers it self unto our consideration is What Eternitie is Boëtius saith that it is altogether and at once the entire and perfect possession of a life that never shall have an end And let no man take it ill if we say that it cannot be known and that the more we search into it the more we lose our selves in the search of it For how can that be defined which hath no bounds or limits If any man urge us further and desire us to shadow it out at least by some though obscure description Our answer is That it may easier be done by declaring what it is not rather then what it is so doth Plato concerning God What God is saith he that I know not what he is not that I know So Augustine Bishop of Hippo in his sixty fourth Sermon upon the words of our Lord describeth that true beatitude which is in heaven by removing from it the very thought of all evil We may more easily finde saith he what is not there then what is In heaven there is neither grief nor sorrow nor pâ—nurie nor defect nor disease nor death nor any evil So may we say concerning Eternitie For whatsoever in this life we either see with our eyes or let in by our other outward senses that is not Eternall For the things that are seen saith S. Paul are temporall but the things which are not seen are Eternall Hence every man may say This my joy these my pleasures and delights this treasure this honour this stately building this life of mine all is Transitorie nothing Eternall A man can point at nothing which shall not perish and have an end Indeed the ignorant multitude use to speak after this manner This structure is for Eternitie this monument is everlasting And the impatient man is wont to complain that his pains are without end But these Eternities are very short and a man may easily in words comprehend them Say what thou canst of the true Eternity thou must needs come farre short of it So saith Augustine Thou sayest of Eternitie whatsoever thou wilt But therefore thou sayest whatsoever thou wilt because thou canst not say all say what thou wilt But therefore thou must needs say something that still thou mayest have something to think which thou canst not say Trismegistus saith That the soul is the Horizon of Time and Eternitie For in that it is immortall it is partaker of Eternitie and in that it is infused by God into the body it is partaker of Time But before we proceed any further for orders sake let us see what men of former times Romanes Grecians Egyptians others have thought of Eternitie For they acknowledged it for certain and represented it divers wayes CHAP. I. What men of former times have thought of Eternitie and how they have represented it FIrst of all they have represented Eternitie by a Ring or a Circle which hath neither beginning nor ending which is proper onely to Gods Eternitie Seeing therefore that God is Eternall and his duration is properly called Eternitie the Egyptians used to signifie God by a Circle And the Persians thought they honoured God most when going up to the top of the highest tower they called him the Circle of heaven And it was a custome amongst the Turks as Pierius teacheth at large to cry out every morning from an high tower God alwayes was and alwayes will be and then to salute their Mahomet The Saracens also used to call God a Circle Mercurius Trismegistus whom I named before the most memorable amongst Philosophers who wrote more books then any mortall man beside if we may beleeve Seleucus and Meneceus said that God was an intellectual sphere whose centre is every where and circumference no where because Gods Majestie and immensitie are terminated no where For this cause the Ancients built unto their gods Temples for figure round So Numa Pompilius is said to have consecrated to Vesta a round Temple at Rome So Augustus Cesar in the name of Agrippa dedicated to all the gods a round Temple and called it Pantheon Hereupon Pythagoras to shew Gods Eternitie teached his scholars to worship him turning their bodies round about And there was a statute made by Numa as Brissonius witnesseth That they which were about to worship God should turn themselves round Therfore God is according to the Ancients a Circle but a Circle without a Peripherie or circumference whose Centre is every where because God is the beginning and end of all things Whereupon Job most justly cryes out Behold God is great we know him not neither can the number of his yeares be searched out Again they have represented Eternitie by a Sphere
full of horrour round about which a Serpent windes it self and in the winding bites it self by the tail At the right hand of the den stands a Young man of a beautifull and pleasant countenance holding in his right hand a Bow and two arrows and in his left hand an Harp In the very entrance of the den sits an Old man opposite and having his eyes very intent upon his Table-book according as the celestiall globe by its motion or the young man standing by dictates unto him so he writes At the left hand of the den sits a grave matron gray-headed and having her eyes alwayes busied At the mouth of the den there are foure stairs each higher then other The first is of Iron the second of Brasse the third of Silver the fourth of Gold On these are little children running up and down and playing and never fear the danger of falling This is the Picture The meaning is this The Den signifies the incomprehensibility of Eternitie The Serpent that twines it self about it Time The Young man God in whose hand is Heaven Earth and Hell On Earth and in Hell are the Arrows of the Lord fastened but in Heaven there is nothing but Joy and the sounding of the Harp The Old man is Fate or rather That which God hath decreed from all Eternitie The Matron Nature The Stairs distinct Times Ages The Children running up and down the stairs do signifie things created especially Man who is sporting in matters of Salvation and playing and jesting in the very entrance of Eternitie Alack Alack O mortal men we have played too long amidst these dangers we are very neare unto Eternitie even in the very entrance of it whilest we live Let but death lightly touch us and we are presently swallowed up of Eternitie Death need not use any great power or fight long against us we are thrown down headlong in a moment and tumble down these stairs into the Ocean of Eternitie Bethink your selves well you that play upon these stairs and think upon any thing rather then upon Eternitie It may be to day or to morrow you may be translated from Time to Eternitie CHAP. II. The secret sense and meaning of Scripture is unfolded AFter the Chapter of the Type and Picture of Eternitie the holy Scripture of divine truth shall not unfitly follow When Nebuchadnezzar King of Babylon had cast the three Hebrew children into the fiery furnace for refusing to obey his impious command the flame is said to have ascended nine and fourty cubits above the furnace A strange thing But not without a Mysterie What Did any man accurately measure the height thereof Did any man ascend and apply unto it a rule to take the just measure of it was it just nine and fourty cubits neither more nor lesse Why not fifty For we use to number thus Twenty thirty fourty fifty though the number be somewhat more or lesse Here in this place there wants but one of fifty Surely there is a Mystery in it and some secret meaning The number of fifty was wont to signifie the yeare of Jubilee But the flames in the fiery furnace of hell although they rage both against body and soul and infinitely exceed all the torments of this life yet they shall never extend so farre as the yeare of grace and Jubilee In hell there is no yeare of Jubilee no pardon no end of torments Now now is the time of Jubilee not every hundred or fifty yeares but every houre and every moment Now one part of an houre may obtain pardon here which all Eternitie cannot hereafter Now is the time that in one little and short day we may have more debts forgiven us then in the fire of Hell in all yeares and times to come hereafter Let us adde hither another explication of divine Scripture When the people of God did passe over Jordan the waters which came down toward the sea of the plain which is now called the dead sea failed untill there was none left And in Ecclesiasticus it is said There is that buyeth much for a little These two testimonies of Scripture Galfrid joyneth together and thereupon discourseth thus If Eternall bitternesse be due unto thee and thou mayst escape it by tasting of Temporall certainly thou hast redeemed much for a little I confesse It is a sea indeed in which thou saylest but yet a dead sea And how much art thou bound to give thanks unto God who whereas thou hast deserved to be overwhelmed in the salt roaring and unnavigable sea hath of his great mercy towards thee suffered thee rather to sayl in the dead sea O blessed change that so by the dead sea thou mayst passe unto the land of the living This writer compares all the adversities of this life to the dead sea and Eternall punishments to the salt and unnavigable sea No man can escape both He must needs sayl in the one or in the other What dost thou O man cryes out S. Chrysostome Art thou about to ascend up to heaven and dost thou ask me whether there be any difficulties by the way Whatsoever we do this dead sea we must passe over we may if we will arrive at the haven of Tranquillitie and Eternall happinesse The word of God most high is the fountain of wisdome and her wayes are everlasting cōmandments Through this dead sea there is no other way into the region of the living but the way of Gods commandments We have a most cleare place of Scripture for it If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments This is the onely way to Eternitie If a man shall ask a Divine of our time this question What is Eternitie His answer will be It is a Circle running back into it self whose Centre is Alwayes and Circumference No where that is which never shall have end What is Eternitie It is an Orb every way round and like it self in which there is neither beginning nor end What is Eternitie It is a wheel A wheel that turns a wheel that turned ever A wheel that turns and will leave turning never What is Eternitie It is a yeare continually wheeling about which returns again to the same point from whence it began and still wheels about again What is Eternitie It is an ever-running fountain whither the waters after many turnings flow back again that they may alwayes flow What is Eternitie It is an ever-living spring from whence waters continually flow either the most sweet waters of Benediction and blessing or the most bitter waters of Malediction and cursing What is Eternitie It is a Labyrinth which hath innumerable turnings and windings which alwayes leads them a round that enter in carrying them from turning to turning and so losing them What is Eternitie It is a pit without bottome whose turnings and revolutions are endlesse What is Eternitie It is a Spirall Line but without beginning which hath circles and windings one within another but
without ending What is Eternitie It is a Snake bowed back unto it self orbicularly holding the tail in the mouth which in its end doth again begin and never ceaseth to begin What is Eternitie It is a duration alwayes present it is one perpetuall day which is not divided into that which is past and that which is to come What is Eternitie It is an age of ages as Dionysius saith never expiring but alwayes like it self without changing What is Eternitie It is a beginning without beginning middle or end It is a beginning continuing never ending alwayes beginning in which the blessed alwayes begin a blessed life and alwayes abound with new pleasures in which the damned alwayes dye and after all death and struggling with death alwayes begin again to die and struggle with death As long as God shall be God so long shall the blessed be blessed so long shall they reigne and triumph so long shall the damned also fry in Hell and yelling cry We are tormented in this flame being still to be tormented and tortured for ever CHAP. III. Why the place of Eternitie is called a Mansion JOHN Patriarch of Alexandria a very devout and godly man was often wont to go to visit the sick took with him for his companion Troilus a Bishop which had more care of his money then of the sick The Patriarch whispered him in the eare and said I pray thee brother let us help the friends of Christ whereupon Troilus like a crafty companion concealing the disease of his mind to wit his covetousnes bad his servant give to the poore all the money which at that time he had about him to buy other things withall Not long after it happened that he fell into a Fever which his covetousnesse had caused whereof the Patriarch of Alexandria hearing and easily guessing at the cause of his disease went to visit him and carried with him as much silver as he had not long before given to the sick and after a little conference had with him he said thus I did but jest with thee the other day when I wished thee to bestow something to the relief of the sick and it was because my servant had no money about him But behold here in good earnest I restore unto thee the money which thou laidst out for my sake and I thank thee for it When Troilus saw the money told his fever began to leave him and his heat to abate and in every part he found himself much better whereupon finding himself gather strength he rose up to dinner and sat down at Table About noon tide when dinner was ended and the Table removed he went to sleep and sweetly took his ease and dreamed that he saw a very stately edifice and in the frontispice thereof over the gate this inscription Mansio AEterna Requies Troili Episcopi In English thus The Eternall Mansion and Resting-place of Bishop Troilus He was very much delighted with this dream But not long after he had another vision that troubled him For there came one with a company of workmen and gave them a strict charge saying Take away that inscription and put this in the place thereof Mansio AEterna Requies Joannis Archiepiscopi Alexandriae empta libris triginta argenti In English thus The Eternall Mansion and Resting-place of John Archbishop of Alexandria which he bought for thirty pounds With this vision he was very much affrighted but he made a very good use of it For presently of an hard and covetous man he became liberall and charitable especially to such as were in need So much did the very dream of an Eternall Mansion prevail with him But oh ye rather blessed mansions and therefore blessed because Eternall Oh! how exceedingly doth Christ desire that we should loathe and forsake these our tabernacles and ruinous houses and with earnest desire make haste unto those Eternall Mansions In my Fathers house saith he are many mansions No man is kept back from thence but by himself The place excludes no man for it is exceeding large Time shuts out no man for there is a Mansion and that Mansion is Eternall A Prayer O Eternall and mercifull God O Eternall Truth O true Love O beloved Eternitie So cure our blindnesse that by these present and short sorrows we may be brought to know and so escape the future horrible and Eternall punishments Direct us and teach us so to possesse things perishing and Temporall that finally we lose not the things which are Eternall Teach us so to lament for our sinnes committed that we may escape Eternall punishments Teach us so to behave our selves in the house of our pilgrimage that we be not shut out of the Eternall Mansions Teach us so to make our progresse in the way that at length we may be received into our Countrey The perpetuall hills did bowe His wayes are everlasting Habac 3.6 The Salamander the Basilisk the Phenix the golden ring the fiery mountain may here upon earth put us in minde of ETERNITIE but onely blessed ETERNITIE can make us eternall in heaven THE SECOND CONSIDERATION upon ETERNITIE In what things Nature representeth Eternitie THE Idolaters themselves therefore have acknowledged an Eternitie such as it was and have described it also by certain signes For God hath manifested it unto them so that they are without excuse How much dearer therefore and in what great esteem ought the consideration thereof be amongst all Christians to whom Eternitie is better represented and in a more lively manner Therefore thou art inexcusable O man whosoever thou art that being often put in minde of Eternitie doest as often let it slip out of thy memorie Thou hast often in thy sight and before thine eyes Rings and Circles Spheres and Globes Sunne and Moon If thou lookest upon any of these they wil put thee in minde of Eternitie Nature her self like a good mother hath exposed them to publick view that when we see them or heare of them we might be invited to meditate upon Eternitie Solinus reports that there is a stone in Arcadia called Asbestos which being once set on fire doth continually burn wherefore in times past they were wont in Temples and sepulchres to make lamps of it of which Saint Augustine maketh mention I adde that Plinie Volaterranus Dioscorides and many others tell strange wonders of a certain kinde of Line or Flax which is called by divers names For some call it Linum Asbestinum others Carystium others Indicum and others Linum vivum This is not onely not consumed by fire but also is purged and cleansed wherefore the dead bodies of Kings heretofore when they were to be put into the fire and to be burned used to be wrapped about with a Linen cloth made thereof to keep their ashes from confusion and to distinguish them from others Of such Flax Nero had a Towel which he esteemed of more price then gold and precious stones Behold Nature her self like
the woman of Samaria makes often mention of Eternitie and life everlasting Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up unto everlasting life I would we did thirst with the woman of Samaria after those waters and earnestly pray for them O Lord give me of this water that I thirst not Give me O Christ though but a drop of this water that is some thirst and desire after Eternall life In the yeare after the Nativity of our Lord fourescore and one as Suetonius Dion and Plinius Secundus tell at large on the first day of November about seven of the clock at the Mountain Vesuvius in Campania there was an horrible eruption of fire before which there went an unusuall drought and grievous earthquakes There was also heard noise under earth as if it had been thunder The sea roared and made a noise the Heaven thundred as if mountains had in conflict met together great stones were seen to fall the aire was filled with smoke and fire mixt together the Sunne did hide his head Whereupon it was thought by many that the world was almost at an end and that the last day was come wherein all should be consumed with fire For there was such abundance of ashes scattered up and down over land and sea and in the aire that there was much hurt done amongst men and cattell and in the fields that fish and fowl were destroyed that two cities the name of the one was Herculanum and the name of the other Pompeii were utterly ruined These and such other Caverns in the earth with Precipices and fiery mountains alwayes flaming but never going out are lively examples given us by God to put us in minde of the fire in Hell in which the bodies of the cursed shall be alwayes burning but never be burnt out Concerning this you may reade Tertullian Minutius and Pacian See O man how providently even Nature her self doth go before thee and as it were leade thee by the hand to the contemplation of Eternitie To conclude This Time of ours carryeth with it some signe and print of Eternitie Nature fain would have us learn the thing signified by the signe and take a scantling of Eternitie by the little module and measure of time It is the saying of S. Augustine This is the difference between things Temporall and Eternall We love things Temporall more before we have them and esteem them not so much when we have them For the soul cannot be satisfied but with true and secure Eternitie and joy which is Eternall and incorruptible But things Eternall when they are actually possessed are much more loved then before when they were onely desired and hoped for For neither could Faith beleeve nor Hope expect so much as Charitie and Love shall finde when once we shall be admitted to possession Why then doth not earth seem vile in our eyes especially when we must ere long forsake it And why do we not with ardent desire lift up our eyes to Heaven where we shall inherit a kingdome and that Eternall Thou art weighed in the balanceâ— and art found wanting Dan 5.27 That man regardeth not ETERNITE who weigheth his money more accurately then his life THE THIRD CONSIDERATION upon ETERNITIE Wherein the old Romanes principally placed their Eternitie PLinius Secundus thought those men happy which either did things worthy to be wrote or wrote things worthy to be read but those men of all most happy which â—ould do both So the Romanes thought they might three manner â—f wayes eternize their fame and â—ransmit their names unto posteriâ— First they wrote many excellent things many excellent indeed but not all not all chaste not all holy They committed to writing their own blemishes their dishonest oves and filthy lusts But this was no honest or Kings highway to Eternitie How many books have dyed before their Authours and according to Plato have been like unto the Gardens of Adonis as soon dead as sprung up They pleased not long which quickly pleased But suppose the books of all the Romanes should outlive time and be alwayes extant and exposed to publick view yet they should not be able to give life unto their Authours Again the Romanes did not onely write but also did many brave works worthy to be recorded by the pennes of eloquent and learned men and these works were of divers kindes They sought Eternitie in many things but found it in nothing as we are taught to beleeve They were great we do not deny it in civill and warlike affairs at home and abroad admirable for their skill in Arts and Sciences Magnificent and profuse in setting forth shews and bestowing gifts wonderfull even to astonishment for stately buildings Tombes Vâ—ults Monuments and Statues as you may guesse by these few particulars which I will briefly run over Augustus in his own name and at his own proper charges set forth Playes and Games foure and twenty times and at the charge of the common Treasury three and twenty times And never a one of those cost him under two Millions and five hundred thousand Crowns and this so great a summe of money I say was all laid out upon one shew The very meanest and cheapest that ever Augustus set forth came to a Million two hundred and fifty thousand Crowns Nero gilded over the whole Theatre the Ornaments of the Tyring house and comâ—â—al implements he made all of gold to these you may adde square pieces of wood or woodden Lots scattered amongst the people which had for their inscriptions whole houses fields grounds farms slaves servants beasts great summes of silver and many times jewels a great number To whosoevers lot fell any one of these he presently received according to the inscription The same Nero for a Donative to a common souldier commanded to be told two hundred and fifty thousand crowns Agrippina Nero's mother caused the like summe of money to be layd upon a Table thereby secretly reprehending and labouring to restrain her sonnes profusenesse Whereupon Nero perceiving that he was toucht commanded another summe to be added as great as the former and said thus Nesciebam me tamparum dedisse I forgot my self in giving so little The same Nero entertained at Rome for nine moneths together King Teridates and was every day at cost for him twenty thousand Crowns which came in nine moneths to five Millions and fourty thousand Crowns And at his departure he gave him for a Viaticum or to spend by the way two Millions and an half What should I tell you of their stately and magnificent buildings Caligula the Emperour made a bridge over an Arm of the Sea three miles long There were Temples in Rome foure hundred twenty foure most of them very magnificent Domitian spent upon the sole gilding of the Capitol seven Millions On the staires of the Amphitheatre which were
and watches his time when he may set upon us when we think not of him What shall become of us whither will he carry us if here we have lived wickedly To the barre of Christs judgement and from thence to the pit of Hell And from thence there is no redemption Nobility from thence sets no man free Power delivers no man The applause of men formerly given yeelds there no comfort Let us here seek the favour of God and his glory That is the true glory which is got by the shunning of vain glory And there is no true glory but that which is Eternall Solomon in the Proverbs describeth wisdome like a Queen attended by two waiting maids Eternitie and Glorie the first on the right hand the second on the left Glorie is nothing worth if there be not joyned with it Eternitie that which all we Christians do expect For here we have no continuing Citie but we seek one to come Eternall in the heavens The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance To give an almes to a poore man to moderate a greedie appetite to resist the enemie of chastitie These are works that require not much pains or time for the doing And yet the remembrance of these together with their reward shall be Eternall What a small thing was it that Mary Magdalene bestowed upon our Saviours feet How quickly had she done it And yet it is made known throughout the whole world Some others it may be would have admired other things in her her cherrie cheeks her comely countenance the pleasant flower of her youth her rare grace her great riches her affabilitie and courtesie and such like These were not the things which Christ commended in her but it was the office which she performed unto his feet The thing it self was not great And yet it was a means to procure for her Eternall glory and a never-dying name It shall be preached throughout the whole world This is the testimonie of Christ. This work of hers was not engraven in marble nor cast in brasse nor promulged in the market place nor proclaimed with a Drum and a Trumpet And yet it hath continued for a memoriall of her to this day and so shall for ever and It shall be preached throughout the whole world If you consider the action it self Judas Iscariot the covetous Pursebearer found fault with it Simon the swelling and proud Pharisee condemned it If the matter it was but an Ointment at the most not worth above thirty small pieces of gold If the place it was private If the witnesses present they were but few If the person she was a woman and one infamous And yet for all these It shall be preached throughout the whole world How many Emperours have advanced their colours displayed their victorious and triumphant Eagles and set up their standards in their enemies Camp How many warlike Captains have led popular Armies and commanded them worthily How many provident Governours have ruled their people very wisely How many Kings have erected rare monuments and statues and built Castles and Cities How many learned men have wasted their brains in new inventions and have like Chymicks distilled them into Receivers of Paper And to what end all this To keep their names in continuall remembrance and to be recorded amongst worthy and memorable men And yet notwithstanding they lodge in the bed of silence and lie buried in the grave of oblivion But one good work that the righteous doth shall be had in everlasting remembrance Time and envie shall never deface and conceal it The wisest men Captains Prelates and Kings themselves shall with reverence reade and heare it It shall be preached throughout the whole world The onely way then to immortalitie and true Eternitie is To live well so to die well Go to now ye Romanes If ye will seek Eternitie in Statues and Mâ—rble monuments but you shall never finde it there I for my part will wish rather with S. Hierom in the life of Paul the Eremitâ— Oh remember saith he Hierom a sinner who if God had given him the choice would have preferred the poore cloak of Paul with his good works before the Scarlet robes of kings with their kingdomes Let us Christians here whilest we have time make over our riches for fear lest we lose them let us send them before us into another world Heaven stands open ready to receive them We need not doubt of the safe carriage the carriers are very faithfull and trusty but they are the poore and needy of this world We make over unto them here by way of exchange a few things of little value being to receive in heaven an exceeding Eternall weight of glorie For so hath Christ promised upon the performance of his precept I say unto you Make to your selves friends of the Mammon of unrighteousnesse that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations But let us passe from the Romanes unto others CHAP. II. A better way then the former which the Romanes followed to Eternitie DArius the king of the Persians most notable for his slaughter had in his Armie ten thousand Persians which he therefore called immortall as Caelius Rhodiginus interprets it not because he thought they should never die For where are there any such but because as any of the number was diminished by sword or sicknesse it was presently made up so that still there was neither more nor lesse then ten thousand Thus Darius framed unto himself a kinde of immortalitie and Eternitie But alas it was a very short one For within a little space he and all his armie utterly perished The Presidents and Princes assembled together unto Darius and said thus unto him King Darius live for ever Alas how vain was this wish and how short this Eternitie We live but seventy or eighty yeares at the most We are but in a dream if we think to live here for ever Not without cause therefore Xerxes when for the conquering and subjugating Greece as Herodotus reports he carried with him out of Asia two great armies both by sea and land in number three and twenty hundred thousand seventeen thousand and six hundred beside others that attended upon souldiers upon a day taking his prospect from a Mountain and beholding his souldiers fell a weeping And being asked the reason why He said it was because after a matter of fiftie or sixty yeares of so many hundred thousand men so select and strong scarce one should be found alive We may dream and feigne unto our selves I know not what Eternities But in the mean time we must needs die and are as water spilt upon the ground Another and better type of Eternitie was found out at Constantinople in the yeare of our Lord 459. The Church of Constantinople in the time when Gennadius was Bishop was augmented by a new and noble foundation of a Monasterie of Acoemets dedicated to S. John Baptist. These Acoemets
ALWAYES which shall follow But they which open their eares to heare and their hearts to understand when the Church soundeth both Trumpets as it often doth and thereupon seriously consider with themselves and compare together this short NOW with that infinite and everlasting ALWAYES they will use no delay but presently remove the camp they live here as Pilgrims and strangers they have their loyns girt they remember that they are in a journey they send their riches and pleasures before them into their Countrey which is above they choose rather to enjoy them ALWAYES in heaven then NOW for a short time upon earth Certain it is whosoever heareth attentively and mindeth seriously the Alarm of these Trumpets and thereupon compareth together things present with things future and things transitorie with things Eternall He will presently make himself ready to depart he will prepare himself a place of buriall he will lay out his winding sheet he will send for his bear and furnish himself with all things necessarie for his journey remembring still in every place that he is passing on the way to Eternitie and conferring with himself every day after this manner How shall I be able to give account unto God for all my thoughts words and deeds and When shall I give up my account and What sentence will he passe upon me NOW therefore will I die unto my self that I may ALWAYES livâ— unto my self and unto God Welâ— is it with that man which timelâ— and dayly thus thinketh upon Eternitie Whatsoever we do we arâ— passing on our way and we do noâ— know how short it is unto thâ— gate which leadeth to Eternitie At the last houre of our life death shall bring us unto this gate and compell us to enter Let us therefore so live as if we were alwayeâ— expecting death that if it shalâ— please God at any time to visit uâ— with sicknesse the forerunner oâ— death we may entertain it cheer fully and beare it patiently liftinâ— up our eyes unto Christ hanginâ— upon the Crosse the true and perfecâ— pattern of Patience and when the time of our dissolution draweth neare praying thus Lord Jesu stand by me and comfort me Lord Jesu be present with thy servant that putteth his trust in thee Lord Jesu make me partaker of thy victorie Lord Jesu receive my spirit and leade me through the darksome valley and shadow of death leade me and forsake me not untill thou hast brought my soul into the land of the living O thou most potent conquerour of death O thou which art my light life and salvation Good Master what good thing shall I doe that I may have ETERNALL life Math 19. 16. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter into the kingdome of God The love of riches of ETERNITIE are scarce resident in one heart THE FIFTH CONSIDERATION upon ETERNITIE How others even wicked men themselves have meditated upon Eternitie THe old historie of the Fathers tells us of a religious man that reading upon the nineteenth Psalme came at length having not thought of it to these words For a thousand yeares in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past and here stuck For he could not conceive a reason why a thousand yeares and one day should be compared together Whereupon they say there was a little bird sent by God which so ravisht the man with her sweet singing that though he heard her sing a very great while together yet he thought the time very short scarce a short houre long The winde bloweth where it listeth Not good men onely have with holy David meditated upon Eternitie but even wicked men also and those oftentimes against their will Benedictus Renanus reports of a vain and ungodly fellow a very Epicure and meer worldling which never used to fast or watch one that could not endure the want of any thing but especially sleep Upon a certain night it seems this fellow could not sleep as he was wont being much troubled with unusuall dreams so he turned himself upon his bed from one side to another and could not by any means get any rest then he wished it were day But here the winde of the Lord began to blow though it were in a strange land for good thoughts were very rare in this man Being weary with watching and finding no ease or rest aâ— all thus he began to think with himself Would any be hired upon any condition to lie thus two or three yeares together in darknesse without the companie of friends though his sicknesse were not very grievous Would he be content to want his sports and playes so long Would he be content to be bound to his bed though it were a feather-bed or a bed of down and never stirre abroad to see any sights or shews or make merry with his friends I think no man would And shall I alone amongst all men enjoy rest and pleasure by an especiall priviledge and have no sense of grief and sorrow Surely no. Will I nill I needs I must sometime or other lie down upon the bed of sicknesse unlesse I be suddenly taken away by death which God forbid This was a good winde these were good cogitations But what bed shall I have next when death shall thrust me out of this My body must rot under earth For this is the condition of all men after death But what shall become of my soul in another world Surely all men do not go to the same place after death Do not some go one way and some another Is there not an Hell as well as an Heaven Wo and alas What kinde of bed shall the damned finde in Hell How many yeares shall they lie there In what yeare after their first entrance shall the flames cease and be put out Assuredly Christ doth not onely in word threaten to cast the wicked into everlasting fire but will also cast them in indeed This thing is certain and very manifest Therefore the damned shall burn in Hell for ever Therefore a thousand and a thousand and again I say a thousand yeares will not suffice to purge away the â—innes of this short life Therefore they shall never see the Sunne any more nor Heaven nor God being most miserable Eternally and without end With such thoughts as these this man became so vigilant and watchfull and proceeded so farre that night and day he could not be at rest but Eternitie did still runne in his minde Fain indeed he would have shaken off the thoughts thereof as gnawing worms but he could not Therefore he followed sports and pastimes went to merry meetings sought out companions like himself and sate oftentimes so long at his cups that he laid his conscience asleep and so seemed to take some rest But when he came again unto himself his conscience being awakened did presently accuse him and suggest unto him afresh sorrowfull thoughts of Eternitie Thus finding no rest
a sweet and pleasant dream and be after punished an hundred yeares for it would he think such a dream were to be desired And yet saith the Father As a dream is to an hundred yeares so is this present life to the life to come yea rather it is much lesse And as a drop is to the main Ocean so are a thousand yeares unto Eternitie And in another place What is there saith he to be compared unto Eternitie What are a thousand yeares in comparison of infinite ages which are yet for to come Are they not like unto the least drop of a bucket compared unto a bottomlesse Well Look for no end of torments after this life unlesse thou repentest before thou departest out of this life for after death there is no place of repentance no shedding of teares will profit thee or do thee any good Though a man in Hell should gnash his teeth and blare out his scorched tongue he shall not obtain so much as a drop of cold water Grant then that a man should enjoy pleasures all his life long what is that to infinite ages which are yet for to come Here in this life all things good and bad have at length an end but the punishments that shall be suffered hereafter shall have no end Set fire on the body here and the soul will soon depart But after the resurrection when the body shall be from thenceforth immortall and incorruptible the soul of the damned shall alwayes burn and not consume in Hell-fire They shall rise again incorruptible indeed But how Not to receive a crown of incorruptible glory but to suffer Eternall torments But let us heare what another of the Fathers saith Saint Gregorie makes answer to this common question Will not drunkennesse sooner steal upon a man in the wine-cellar standing by the hogshead then in the Parlour sitting at the table The Spouse of Christ triumpheth in the words of Solomon He brought me to the banquetting-house or as some reade it He brought me into his wine-cellar and his banner over me was love or He hath set his banner of love over me Upon which words Saint Gregorie discoursing saith thus By the wine-cellar what can we better or more fitly conceive then the secret contemplation of Eternitie For truely whosoever doth seriously consider with himself upon Eternitie and let this consideration sink deep into his minde he may truely rejoyce and triumph with the Spouse saying He hath set his banners of love over me For he will keep better order in his love loving himself lesse God more and even his enemies also for Gods sake But such is the nature of this profound consideration that it will presently make a man drunk Make him drunk How With the drunkennesse of the best desires such as will leade him to amendment of life carrie him to his heavenly countrey and bring him at length to joyes Eternall It was cast in the Apostles teeth that they were drunk with wine And so they were indeed but it was with wine out of this Cellar Saint Gregorie hath many excellent considerations and sayings upon Eternitie amongst others he hath this which is a very short one and a true one Momentaneum quod delectat AEternum quod cruciat That which delighteth is momentanie but that which tormenteth is Eternall Here I could wish with Job Oh that these words were written Oh that they were printed in a Book That they were graven with a pen of iron These words I say That which delighteth is momentanie but that which tormenteth is Eternall The Book in which this should be written is the heart of man the pen of iron with which it should be written is serious meditation the ink with which it should be written is the bloud of Christ. And these words so imprinted and ingraven in the breast are then especially to be called to minde and to be often repeated when pleasure fawneth when lust provoketh when luxurie inviteth when the flesh rebelleth and the spirit faileth when there is occasion of sinne offered and danger of falling into sinne But let us heare what another of the Fathers saith In the fourth place comes Saint Bernard He shall answer to the question here to be propounded In the lives of men there is such difference that almost now so many men so many judgements concerning afflictions There are found some so grievously and continually afflicted that they are ready to fall down under the crosse as being too heavy for them to beare One is oppressed with povertie another is afflicted with sicknesse another is overcharged with secret debts another is tormented with cares another is grieved and vexed with injuries and slanders every man thinks that most grievous which in present he suffers And many times it comes to passe that such as are faint-hearted and impatient wish for death runne into the water and make haste to the halter thinking thereby to finde an end of all their griefs and sorrows whereas indeed that supposed end becomes to them but the beginning of their sorrows and such sorrows as never shall have end But with the good and godly it is not so They patiently endure all submitting themselves in all things to Gods good will and pleasure They neither desire to die quickly nor yet to live long Is it Gods will they shall die They also are willing Will he have them die quickly They are willing to that also Will he have them live yet longer They are not against that What God willeth that they will What he willeth not neither will they Beside these two kindes of men there is a third and that is the greatest part of men that desire to live long And there is almost no man so old but he hopes and desires to live yet another yeare These men are never heard to say they have lived long enough Death makes too much haste with them he comes to them too soon yea and before his time Here now the question may be moved Who live or who shall live longer Saint Bernard in his seventeenth Sermon upon the ninetie first Psalme upon these words with long life will I satisfie him breaketh forth into this admiration What is so long as that which is Eternall What is so long as that which shall have no end Life Eternall is the good end which we are all to aim at and this end is without end And further he addes That is the true day indeed after which there follows no night where there is Eternall veritie and true Eternitie and therefore true and Eternall satietie So then the question may be determined thus That those onely shall live a long life truely so called whosoever shall never die but alwayes live in heaven And again That those shall die a lingring death alas too lingring a death whosoever shall alwayes die but never live in Hell for they shall live onely there to be tormented alwayes Let us heare but one more and so conclude
bore unto Rachel that it made him scarce sensible of any labour Hearest thou this thou which goest for a Souldier of Christ conceivest thou this understandest thou this How then canst thou still murmure against God Thou art bid to serve God for Gods sake that so thou mayest at length enter into Gods Eternall rest Thou art exhorted to tolerance and patience here that so thou mayest be made partaker of immortalitie with the blessed hereafter And yet sleepest thou O sluggard Hast thou not an eare to heare Art thou still complaining Do but reckon up the yeares which thou hast spent in the service of God and see whether thou hast served God faithfully and painfully twenty yeares as Jacob did Laban I am afraid thou wilt come short in thy reckoning Hast thou served God so many moneths I tell thee I make a question of it Number the nights that thou hast spent in watching and praying recount the dayes which thou hast spent in holy exercises and see if thou canst truely say unto God as Jacob did to Laban In the day the drought consumed me and the frost by night and my sleep departed from mine eyes Thus have I been twenty yeares in thy house I served thee fourteen yeares for thy two daughters and six yeares for thy cattell Tell me Christian man hast thou served God thus twenty yeares Thou knowest thy wages if thou servest God Not Labans daughters nor flocks of sheep God himself shall be the reward of thy service Thou shalt be blessed both in soul and body It shall be well with thee on every side Thou shalt enjoy all manner of delights great delights without either lacking or loathing and without end Thou shalt swimme in the bottomlesse Ocean of pleasures And yet behold thy hands are slack to every good work Thy feet are slow to go to Church Thy heart consumes away with envy flames with anger and revenge abounds with the vermine of filthy thoughts and is quite dead through slothfulnesse and impatience Is this thy serving of God Is this the way thinkest thou to heaven to immortall life to Eternall blessednesse Surely it is not Why dost thou not rather as Jacob did when thou art weary with any labour which thou undergoest in the service of God when the world goes ill with thee when adversitie presseth thee prosperitie seduceth thee and labours burden thee lift up thine eyes to heaven behold Rachel who is promised unto thee and thus comfort up thy self Be not troubled O my soul Behold thy Rachel thy Rachel which is in heaven fair Rachel comely Rachel Rachel that is all beautifull not having any one blemish about her Behold heaven and the house of thy Eternall rest and pleasure Be content to suffer for a while a little sorrow and some pains For thou shalt shortly be where thy Rachel is and there thou shalt be the more joyfull and blessed by how much the more thou art here sorrowfull and afflicted There shall thy rest be the more pleasant and joyfull by how much the more thy life here is heavy and painfull Well then be of good courage shew Christian fortitude and patience Eternitie blessed Eternitie is more worth infinitely more worth then all that we can do or suffer If thus O Christian brother thou wouldest animate and encourage thy self if with such eyes thou wouldest oftner look up to heaven if with such affection thou wouldest dayly think upon Eternitie Beleeve it All thy dayes of service here on earth would seem but few for the great love which thou wouldest have unto Eternitie Thou wouldest count all labour easie all troubles welcome all losses gain This I will say and therewith I will conclude The more a man thinks upon the Eternitie of the world to come the more care he will take here to leade a godly life in this present world Thus saith the high and loftie one that inhabiteth ETERNITIE Adam lost ETERNITIE Christ regained it to this the Angels invite us from this the devils with draw us have a care whether thou followest THE SEVENTH CONSIDERATION upon ETERNITIE How Christians use to paint Eternitie HE that is to go through an house in the dark must go warily and leisurely step after step and he must grope for the wall If mans understanding will be prying into Eternitie if he thinks here in this life to enter into it he is much deceived The way is dark and full of difficulties He may hurt himself by the way but he shall never here attain unto it The way thither is but short indeed but when a man is once in there is no coming out again And yet though no mortall man can so conceive of Eternitie that he can certainly say what it is notwithstanding the infinitenesse thereof is shadowed out by certain pictures resemblances in such manner that every man may have a glimpse of it Whatsoever we speak or write concerning Eternitie howsoever we set it out in colours All is but a shadow yea a shadow of shadows No Oratour in the world can with all his Rhetorick sufficiently expresse it No Limner with all his curious art and skill can set it forth to the life If all times that ever were and ever shall be should be put together they would infinitely come short of Eternitie the Latitude thereof is not to be measured neither by houres nor dayes nor weeks nor moneths nor yeares nor Lustra's nor Olympiads nor Indictions nor Jubilees nor ages nor Plato's yeares nor by the most slow motions of the Eighth sphere though these were multiplied by a thousand or a million or the greatest multiplier or Number numbering that can be imagined Neither can it be measured by any Number numbered as by the starres of heaven the sands of the sea the grasse of the field the drops of the rivers and such like The number of Eternitie is past finding out The Saylers use to sound the depth of the sea by a plummet and a line Let us also let down the plummet and line of our humble and reverent cogitations to sound the depth of Eternitie which yet is past finding out But if we will go by this Map if we will sayl by this chard if we will view well this Picture we shall come much nearer finding it then otherwise we should Chrisâ—i as a childe taken as it were from the manger and the cradle almost quite naked and without clothes stands in the clouds on â—is shoulders he beares a crosse In the clouds there is this inscription â—TERNITIE Beneath Christs feet down upon the earth there is the Sceleton of a man or nothing but the bones of a man without hair or skinne onely he hath a beard to be known by in his left hand he holds a piece of parchment in which these words are written Momentaneum quod delect at That which delighteth is momentanie In his right hand he holds up an Apple Neare unto him there stands a Raven pecking a shelfish with
this subscription Cras Cras Tomorrow Tomorrow The Earth opens her mouth and flames of fire break forth and tend aloft in which these words are written AEternum quod cruciat That which tormenteth is Eternall Christ coming down from the clouds Two adore with bended knees of diverse sex in the place of all mankinde Behinde them there is a running Houre-glasse or a Diall measuring houres by the running of water called a Clepsydra and a Book lying wide open On one page there is written They spend their dayes in mirth and in a moment go down to the grave On the other page Who shall deliver me from the body of this death Before them stand Two heavenly Angels which embrace them with their arms and pointing at Christ bid them lift up their eyes unto him This is the Picture The meaning follows CHAP. I. Christ inviting CHrist the Eternall sonne of the Eternall God came into this world clad with no other garment then we that is stark naked The garment of immortalitie and innocencie we lost by Adams disobedience And now alas how miserably arayed do we come into this world Christ together with us yea for us suffers punishment and yet was not guilty of any sinne But what means this Crosse upon the shoulders of the Sonne of God It is a bed on which he sâ—ept in death Gâ—lgotha was his chamber The thorns his pillow And the Crosse his bed Which many religious men of former times well considering with themselves have voluntarily and freely chosen to lie hard and take little rest that at the day of resurrection they might rise joyfully to rest Eternall Some as we may reade have made the earth their Mattresse Sackcloth their Sheet and a Stone their Boulster And many there are which do so still to this day But I leave them and return to Christ. He suffered death even that most bitter and shamefull death of the crosse To what end That he might save us from death Eternall Die we must all of us but our death is but short In a moment in the twinkling of an eye the soul is snatched from the body and this is all that which we call Death But it is not so with them in Hell Their torments farre exceed all the sorrows and pangs of death not onely because they are more grievous for their qualitie but also because they are of longer continuance beyond all comparison For they are Eternall So then their torments are alwayes to be tormented and their death to die alwayes And from this death hath Christ the Sonne of God delivered us the Childe that we see described walking amidst the clouds Under his feet is a bare Sceleton or the bare bones of a man which by all signes we may gather to be our forefather Adams Hearken ye children and ye childrens children hearken unto the words of your forefather Adam thus speaking unto you CHAP. II. Adam lamenting O My children happie then indeed if your forefather had known his own happinesse but now miserable and that even in this because mine By me were you destroyed before you were begotten by me were you damned before you were brought forth I fain would be as God and by that means I am left scarce a man Before you could perish you all perished in me I my self do not know whether you may better call me a Father or a Tyrant and a murderer I cannot wonder or complain justly that you are so vicious and so sinfull for you learnt it of me I am sory that you are so disobedient but this you learnt also of me I was first disobedient unto God that made me The Angels in heaven blush and are ashamed to see your gluttonie and intemperance but this is your fathers fault Your pride hath made you odious and detestable before God but this monster first conquered and triumphed over me and so pride became more proud then she was before This is the inheritance you receive from me nothing else but an heap of miseries God indeed of his free good-will gave unto me by a sure promise heaven for an inheritance and intailed it upon you But I have undone you all cut off the intail and prodigally made away all for one bit I valued my wife and an apple more then you all more then heaven more then God A cursed and unhappy dinner for which I deserved to sup in Hell many thousand yeares after I lived in Paradise a garden full of all delight and pleasure beyond imagination God gave me the free use of all things therein onely the fruit of one tree was forbidden me I was Lord of all the creatures I was wise and beautifull strong and lusty I abounded with all manner of delights The aire was then as temperate as could be desired the clouds were clad in bright blew the heaven smiled upon us the Sunne did shine so pure that nothing could be more All things seemed to gratifie us at our new marriage Our eyes could behold nothing but that which was flourishing and pleasing to them Our eares were continually filled with musick the birds those nimble Choristers of the aire ever warbling out their pleasant ditties The earth of it self brought forth odoriferous cinamon and saffron I was compassed about with pleasures on every side I lived free and remote from all care sorrow fear labour sicknesse and death I seemed to be a God upon earth The Angels in heaven rejoyced to see my happinesse there was none that did envy me but my self But because I obeyed not the voice of God all these evils fell upon me I was driven out of Paradise banished from the sight of God and for shame I hid my face Labour sorrow mourning fear teares calamities a thousand miseries seized upon me and quite wearied me out you feel it as many as are of my familie and that which seems to be the end of all temporall miserie and sorrow is oftentimes the beginning of Eternall O my children learn by your own wofull experience learn by your own losse and mine learn I say to be wise at length I will give you but one lesson and it is but in three words which you shall do well to learn by heart and that is To hate sinne Behold Do you not see a grievous flame breaking out hard by me It hath burnt ever since sinne first entred into the world and shall never be put out All other punishments are but light and shall shortly have an end But the damned shall be tormented in this flame for ever and ever Now if we will we may escape it Heaven is set open to all but there is no coming to it but by the way of repentance and the gate of the crosse He that walketh in this way and entreth in at this gate may be certain of his salvation and eternall joy in the kingdome of heaven where he shall have an everlasting habitation This is the counsell of Adam to his children I say
it is Adams counsell Who falling once did make his children all Both guilty of his punishment and fail CHAP. III. The Raven croking NEare unto the Sceleton of the Protoplast or the bare bones of the first man that God made is the Ravens place in the picture which makes very much for the representation of Eternitie to the life It is a well known saying of Saint Augustine Cras cras that is To morrow to morrow is the voice of the Raven Mourn therefore like a Dove and beat thy breast The chiefest cause that I conceive why most men lose their part and portion of blessed Eternitie is because they seek it not To day but deferre the seeking of it till To morrow For what is more frequent or ordinarie then putting off repentance till To morrow To morrow which God doth know we are uncertain whether we shall live to see or no but that we may not seem to put it off without some fair pretence we make many fair promises unto God I will To Morrow that I will I will be sure to do it To Morrow comes To Morrow goes And still thou art to do it Thus still repentance is deferr'd From one day to another Untill the day of Death is come And Judgement is the other But the day of promise is so long a coming that the day of death often prevents it and we are suddenly snatcht away and swallowed up of Eternitie and so plunged into the gulf miserable men that we are into the gulf of everlasting horrour and despair This is it that undoes many saith Saint Augustine whilest they cry Cras Cras To morrow To morrow the gate is suddenly shut against them Therefore the sonne of Sirach often calls upon us to this purpose Make no tarrying to turn unto the Lord and put not off from day to day For suddenly shall the wrath of God come forth and in thy securitie thou shalt be destroyed and perish in the day of vengeance It was truely said of Seneca that Romane Philosopher A great part of our life we spend in doing ill the greatest part in doing nothing but all in doing another thing rather then what we should Not unlike to Archimedes who when Syracuse was taken was sitting secure at home and drawing circles with his compasse in the dust For do we not see most men when the Eternall salvation of their souls is in question handling their dust and stretching themselves to their furthest compasse set upon the tenter-hooks as it were and distracted with law suits money matters worldly businesse and labours that shall nothing profit them at the last Eternitie is a thing they never once think of or else very seldome and then but slightly for a snatch and away as dogs are said to lap at Nilus Martha Martha thou art carefull and troubled about many things but one thing is needfull and that is Beatitude or blessednesse not that on earth which such as it is is yet but short but that in heaven which is Eternall Before we take any businesse in hand we commonly examine it at this well known rule saying Is it worth my pains Shall I get my bread by it Should not a Christian man rather in the beginning of every work sit down and say with himself Shall I gain heaven by it Will it any thing further me in the way to blessed Eternitie We do not love to trouble our heads with such Quaere's as these we put off the hearing of them till another time we do adjourn it from one time to another and another and still another And at the last day of Term we will grant a hearing Foolish men when at last we are not able to labour then we first begin to think of labour When we must needs depart out of this world then we begin to think upon another world When we can live no longer here then we begin to think of the life to come hereafter When the houre-glasse of our short time is runne out then we begin to think of Eternitie When there is no time left for repentance then presently we will repent When the gate is shut then we knock But this is the fault of all sinners in generall still to deferre their Repentance from day to day Every sinner is ready to say saith Saint Augustine I cannot now I will another time Alas Alas If another time why not now Dionysius King of Sicilie disrobing Apollo of his cloth of gold said thus Nec aestati nec hyemi vestis haec convenit It is a weare neither fit for winter nor Summer In Summer it is too heavy and in Winter it is too cold So do many saith Saint Ambrose play with God and deceive their own souls They say Let a young man live according to the fashion of the world Let him drink and dance let him go to the Horse-race and to the Wrestlers let him go a coursing in the fields with his companions It is for old men to stay at home and not to stirre abroad unlesse it be to Church This is too melancholick a life for a young man But when they grow old what do they then Then are they old and sickly weak and feeble you must not look for these things of them at that age their strength will not permit it is not with them as formerly it hath been you must give them leave to take their ease let them have a care of their health This is all they have to do Thus we let the Summer and Winter of our age passe away and never once think of the Eternall Spring But let us remember our selves and as we have opportunitie let us do good But let not our song be any more with the black Raven Cras Cras Tomorrow Tomorrow and so let Today and Tomorrow and the next and so our whole life passe away and Eternitie overtake us before we are aware Tomorrow is not Today onely is ours So saith Saint James Go to now ye that say Today or tomorrow we will go into such a citie and continue there a yeare and buy and sell and get gain whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow For what is our life It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away It was a very good answer that Messodamus gave one inviting him to a feast the next day as it is reported by Guido Bituricensis My friend saith he why dost thou invite me against Tomorrow I durst not for these many yeares secure my self that I should live one day for I have expected death every houre No man is sufficiently armed against death unlesse he be alwayes prepared to entertain it What is it else but rashnesse and folly folly and madnesse and indeed meere contempt of Eternitie for a man to lie down in ease upon a feather-bed to sleep secure snorting and snoring and to lodge an enemy a deadly enemy all the while
destruction If all the torments that can be inflicted or imagined should be heaped together upon the head of a man for an hundred yeares together they would not come neare the punishments of Hell for one yeare no not for a day nor yet an houre All the punishments that Theeves Robbers Murderers and such Malefactours suffer though grievous for the time yet they are quickly ended in three or foure dayes they are over or in the compasse of a week at most But the torments of the damned are not for a yeare or an age but for ever God shall ever punish them because he can never punish them enough though he punish them to all Eternitie CHAP. I. Eternitie doth not onely cut off all comfort and ease but even all hope also IN this life we have Hope for our comforter in all calamities and distresses which hath a soveraigne vertue to mitigate and asswage all pains and sorrows And God of his great mercy for the most part in all adversities still leaveth a man some Hope of help and succour The sick man as long as he lives â—e still lives in Hope as long as here is life there is Hope But after this life ended there remaineth â—o the damned no more any Hope of comfort Hope the last comforter of all taketh her flight and Eternall desperation seizeth upon them The Prophet Daniel speaketh of an Angel coming down from heaven and saying Hew the tree down and destroy it Cut off her â—â—oughs shake off her leaves and scatter her fruit abroad yet leave the stump of the roots thereof in the earth Upon which words saith S. Ambrose The leaves and the fruit are shaken off but the root is preserved that is Delights here are taken from us and punishments are inflicted upon us but yet Hope is not taken away from us Behold The root is preserved Hope is left behinde In Hell it hath no rooting Behold the day cometh crieth the Prophet Malachie that shall burn them up saith the Lord of hosts that it shall leave them neither root nor branch And Job lamenting cryeth out I am gone and my Hope hath he removed like a tree The Hope or The expectation of the wicked shall perish So saith Solomon Therefore whilest there is time and place for Hope let us have Hope but let us Hope for such things as we ought All humane things are vain and uncertain The Heathen Poet tells us so much in these verses Omnia sunt hominum tenui pendentia filo Et subito casu quae valuere ruunt All humane things hang by a slender thred What stands most strong is quickly ruined We must not therefore place our Hope trust and confidence in such things S. Bernard sheweth us a better way in these words Faith saith God hath prepared for the faithfull great and unconceiveable good things And Hope saith He hath reserved them and laid them up for me And Charitie saith in the third place I make haste and think it long till I come to them True Hope as Saint Gregorie afâ—â—meth raiseth up the minde to the â—â—ought of Eternitie and taketh â—â—ay the sense of all outward crosâ—â—s and troubles True Hope makes â—â—to understand that all worldly â—â—ings are vain but a Modicum â—â—t for a moment But oh that moâ—â—ent on which all Eternitie doth â—epend The day of death and the â—â—ure of the extreme and last agoâ—ie is properly that moment and â—â—t precious jewell for buying whereof the wise merchant selleth â—â—l that he hath But few know â—â—e worth of this jewell About Eternall salvation saith S. Hierom every man is negligent But what is the reason that men are so negligent in a thing of such great moment Poore men we are troubled with weak and ill eyes We â—…e well enough neare at hand but â—e can scarce perceive any thing â—…farre off I do not speak of such as â—…e come to mans estate or such as â—re grown old Boyes and girles when they are new taken from their cradle before they have all their teeth come forth learn the first elements of vices they smutch their fingers presently with the soil of covetousnesse and after a while they have an unsatiable desire after getting riches they learn to make good markets for themselves if they meet with a good penieworth they presently lay hold upon it their hand is presently in the purse either laying out for gain or receiving in gain they know how to make the best use and advantage of their money they get an insight into the mysteries of divers trades they will be talking of merchandise they will learn good judgement of wines they will tell you what fashion and cut is in use beyond seas Juvenal the Poet in his Satyres gave these a lash long ago This old wives teach boyes in their infancie And girles do learn before their A B C. Hence is the rise Of every vice Hence cometh our grosse ignoâ—â—nce and forgetfulnesse of things Eternall Young and old all do â—â—ervalue their money but as for heaven and Eternitie they know â—ot neither will they understand â—he true worth of them But let â—s proceed CHAP. II. Eternitie is a Sea and a three-headed Hydra but it is also a Fountain of all joy I Would fain ask thee O Christian man whosoever thou art that hearest Sermons often but seldome it may be with attention and devotion thee especially fain would I ask one question Suppose thou shouldest take in hand to lade out all the water in the sea into a small river neare adjoyning which runneth back again into the sea continually as fast as it is cast out Suppose thou shouldest use no other lâ—dle but a very smal spoon to cast it out withall Now tell me How long dost thou think thou shouldest be in draining of the sea Or again Suppose thou shouldest draw it out with a bucket as big as an hogshead and as fast as thou drawest poure it out into another chanell Answer me In how many yeares dost thou think thou shouldest be able to draw the sea drie To sit scorching and frying in the flames of Hell-fire so many yeares I know thou wilt say were a grievous and wicked torment And yet the damned would think it well with them if it were so they would like the condition well and not think the time long so that they had any assurance that at length their torments should have an end and not extend to all Eternitie We reade in Heathenish Authours of old time a thing more strange then tiue of a certain Hydra or Snake which as they feigned had three heads and assoon as one was cut off had two shoot up in the place thereof But if this Hydra be any where to be found â—t is in Hell where there is a â—hree fold Eternitie which like the Hydra stretcheth out her long neck with three heads that is The pain â—f losse the pain of sense and the worm of conscience
that never dieth What miserable and improvident men are we that having but â— short journey to go but full of dangers all the way go on notwithstanding so merrily and sportingly as if we were walking all the while through a Paradise or a most pleasant garden free from all fear of enemies and in the end of our walk presently to be received and admitted as citizens into our heavenly Countrey a place of all securitie For can we be ignorant if we be it is our own fault But we cannot be ignorant that at length we shall come to the two gates of Eternitie the one of the blessed the other of the damned And enter we must at one of them that is certain at which God knows it is according as we shall behave and carry our selves by the way Laurentius Justinianus wondring at the merry madnesse of such travellers breaks forth into this exclamation Oh the lamentable condition of mortall men which go on exulting all the way whilest they are but exiles or banished men from their own countrey Let us not settle our mindes upon any vain joyes and fond toyes by the way whilest we are travelling towards our countrey but let us so runne our race that at the end thereof we may obtain admittance in at the gate which is the entrance to Eternall blessednesse God hath indeed created us rather unto joyes and pleasures then unto labours and sorrows but we are much mistaken both of the time and place It is not here it shall be hereafter Joyes are prepared in heaven but none but the good and faithfull servants shall enter into them And by what means may a man obtain entrance Knowest thou not what Christ said The kingdome of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by sorce Think now â—hus with thy self Am I this vioâ—ent man Is this the violence here â—poken of To eat to drink to rise â—p to play to lie down to take my ease It is not certainly Fight we must but it must be the good â—ight like Christian Champions Run we must but so that we may obtain Strive we must but to enter in at the strait gate Labour we must and offer violence to the kingdome of heaven but it must be in due time and place Now whilest we have time here whilest we are on the way whilest we have life and strength that when we come to the point of death and so passe the Horizon of this world and depart into another never to return back again when we shall be translated from time to Eternity then at the last we may have joy for our life past and hope for that which is to come Let us labour therefore let us labour I say and offer violence to our selves fighting against our own froward wils and affections so shall we obtain by the mercy of God everlasting rest for short labour and Eternall glorie for a few dayes travell True and solid joy is not here to be found in vain delights and pleasures but in heaven where there is joy and pleasure for evermore God prepared a gourd and made it come over Jonah that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd And what is all the pleasure or rather vanitie of this present world Is it not like Jonahs gourd flourishing for a time and yeelding a comfortable shadow Rich men have their gourd also that is their riches under the shadow whereof they rejoyce with exceeding great joy Drunkards and gluttons have their gourds also that is great tables and delicious fare under the shadow whereof they are merry and joyfull Voluptuous men also have their gourds too that is their unlawfull pleasures under the shadow whereof they lie down and sport themselves But Alâ—s sorrow follows after such joy and suddenly overtakes it Their mirth â—s soon turned into mourning And their delights and pleasures end â—n gall and bitternesse For what became of Jonahs gourd God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day and it â—mote the gourd that it withered Now tell me Jonah where is thy gourd What is become of it Where is now thy exceeding great joy They are both gone together Thy gourd is withered and thy joy is ended Such are our vain delights and pleasures such is our joy rather shadows of things then any thing indeed they passe away suddenly and become like Jonahs gourd that soon withered The joy of this world is but for a moment but the joy of the life to come is for all Eternitie CHAP. III. Here is declared by a most memorable example How sweet and precious the taste of Eternitie is THis knew Theodorus very well one born of Christian Parents and as it seems he learned it betimes when for yeares he was but a youth but an old man for judgement and discretion For on a great Festivall day kept throughout all Egypt there being a great feast at his fathers house and many invited thereunto when some were eating and drinking others laughing and playing and others sporting and dancing he amidst all these â—ollities retired himself to his inward closet finding himself wounded to the heart but with a chast arrow For thus he began to expostulate with himself Unhappy Theodore What would it profit thee if thou shouldst gain the whole world Many things thou hast indeed but canst thou tell how long thou shalt enjoy them Thou livest in abundance now thou maist feast it and make merry thou maist laugh and be fat thou maist rejoyce and skip for joy But art thou sure how long this â—â—all last I should like it well if 〈◊〉 would last alwayes But what shall I do Shall I for the enjoying of these short and transitorie pleasures and delights deprive my self of those joyes which are Eternall Tell me Theodore is this according to Christian Religion to frame unto our selves an heaven here on earth and think to passe from delights to delights from Temporall to Eternall Either I am much deceived or else Christ shewed unto us another way unto the kingdome of heaven and that is through many tribulations Therefore have no more to do with worldly vanities but preferre Eternall joyes before Temporall Thus he said and fell a weeping So then he retired himself into a withdrawing room and there prostrating himself upon the earth he prayed after this manner Eternall God my heart is naked and open before thee I send up my sighs as humble Oratours and Petitioners unto thee I know not what to ask nor how Onely this one thing I beg at thy hands that thou wilt not suffer me to die an Eternall death Lord thou knowest that I love thee and that I desire to be with thee that I may sing Eternall praises unto thee Lord have mercie upon me Whilest he was thus praying in comes his mother on a sudden and presently perceiveth by the rednesse and moistnesse of his eyes that
be sure to die the death of the godly And whosoever liveth the life of the ungodly shall be sure to die the death of the ungodly once he shall die but that once shall be alwayes and that alwayes for ever and ever A certain Souldier being called in question by Lamâ—chus a Centurion for some misdemeanour or other committed in the camp earnestly desired pardon for that once and promised never to offend in the like kinde again But the Centurion made him this answer In bello bone vir non licebit bis peccare Oh Sir know you thus much There is no offending in warre twice But in death alas there is no offending once There is no hope of pardon Once dead and alwayes dead He that dies once ill is damned for ever There is no returning again to life to amend what was done amisse There is no appealing from the sentence of condemnation if it be once passed As death leaves a man so judgement findes him and as judgement leaves him so Eternitie findes him It is the saying of Iphicrates That it is a shame for an Emperour at any time to say with the fool Non putâram I did not think it But it is a greater shame for a Christian man to say Non putâram I did not think there had been such a difference between a chaste life and a voluptuous life I did not think that Eternitie was to follow after this life I did not think that I should have died so suddenly Alas Alas How sleepily do we go about the businesse of Eternitie whereas the nature of this mortall life of ours is such that we cannot be certain at any time that we shall live for any time no not so much as for one minute when as we know for certain that we must depart from hence and yet are most uncertain at what houre we shall depart and when that houre shall come then also we shall seem not so much to have lived as to have posted unto death in a moment Here we are but as sojourners in a strange land and not as citizens in our own countrey we are but Tenants at will and not Freeholders Will we nill we we must depart For here have we no continuing Citie but we seek one to come The holy Prophet Baruch asketh this question Where are the Princes of the heathen become and such as ruled the beasts upon the earth that hoorded up silver and gold and made no end of their getting Do they retain and keep their kingdomes and their glory still Not so For thus saith the Prophet answering his own question They are vanished and gone down to the grave and others are come up in their steads They are vanished saith the Prophet For they were but sojourners and no citizens they are gone and others are come up in their steads their houses are let out to others and they are cast out themselves and gone down to the grave But if the question be asked again Where are the Princes of heaven whose dwelling is above the seventh Sphere where are they It may be answered likewise that They are also vanished and others are come in their steads but they are translated to the kingdome of heaven there to abide for ever without all fear of being dispossessed Let us crown our selves with Rose buds sing those men of most loose and deplorate lives Why with Rose buds Because the beauty and smell of them is gone in one day and they are withered and such fading crowns do best become those which shall shortly perish But as for the Blessed it is not so with them but they are crowned with jewells and precious stones whose beautie never fadeth The woman mentioned in the Revelation had upon her head a crown not of Rose buds of the garden nor of jewels of the sea but of the Starres of heaven As then the heavenly orbs are incorruptible so likewise they that inhabite them are incorruptible they are not subject to any change they are immortall The righteous live for evermore All worldly things are transitorie but heavenly things are everlasting Here are we wearied with labour but there shall we be refreshed with Eternall rest Why do we seek for rest before our labour is ended We are yet upon the Stage Therefore we must act our parts We have to deal with potent enemies Therefore we must be alwayes prepared to fight We are still in our race Therefore we must hold out to the last Let us then so act our parts that the Angels may rejoyce to be Spectatours let us so fight that we may winne the Crown let us so runne that we may obtain Well saith S. Gregorie If we well consider with our selves what and how great things are promised unto us in heaven all things on earth will seem vile unto us For what tongue can sufficiently expresse or what heart conceive how great the joyes be in that Citie which is above Where we shall beare a part in the heavenly Quire with Angels evermore lauding and praising God where we shall be in Gods presence and see him face to face where we shall behold light incomprehensible where we shall be in no fear of death where we shall have the priviledge of heavenly Saints and Citizens to be for ever incorruptible Me thinks I finde my minde inflamed and set on fire whilest I am speaking of these joyes and me thinks it should set on fire all that heare it Me thinks it should so work upon us all that even now we should most earnestly and ardently desire to be there where we hope to be for ever hereafter But thus much we must know That there is no coming there without much labour It is not I but Paul the Preacher that saith it A man is not crowned except he strive lawfully Let then the greatnesse of the reward encourage us and prick us forward and let not the labour and pains the short labour and the little pains hinder us or keep us back We must go on and we must go on with perseverance we must not so much consider the roughnesse of the way as the blessed Eternitie which is the end thereof And this the same holy Father declares most excellently saying This is a speciall badge and cognizance of the elect that they know how to carry themselves in the way of this present life in such manner that by the certainty of hope they are assured that they have attained unto a great pitch in as much as they see all transitorie things farre beneath them and for the love of Eternitie trample all sublunarie things under their feet And this is it which the Lord speaketh by the mouth of his holy Prophet saying unto every soul that followeth him I will lift thee up above the high places of the earth For as for losses reproaches povertie disgrace and such like these are as I may so call them the lower places of the earth which the
lovers of this world as they walk through the plain of the broad way do not love to come neare but keep off as farre as is possible But as for gain and profit the fawning and flattering of inferiours abundance of riches honours and places of dignitie these are the high places of the earth which whosoever is worldly minded and hath setled his affections on things here below he I say esteemeth highly because to him they seem great But whosoever is heavenly minded and hath setled his affections on things above he I say esteemeth them not because to him they seem what they are that is vile and base For as it is with a man going up an high mountain still the higher he goes the lower he sees the earth beneath him So is it with him whose conversation is in heaven The higher he mounts from the earth with the wings of pious cogitations the farther he flies from the earth with the wing of his affections He knows that all the glory of this world is nothing and therefore his thoughts and affections are altogether upon another world This is the man that is lifted up above the high places of the earth You have heard what S. Gregorie saith It will not be amisse in the next place to heare likewise what Saint Augustine saith What is that It is a lesson worth our learning That which we must lose saith he one time or other upon necessitie it is wisdome to distribute abroad in time that we may purchase thereby the reward of Eternitie Moses lived long indeed he lived in health but at length he died Methuselah lived longer then he but it follows And he died This is or shall be every mans Epitaph Et mortuus est And he died For we must needs die and are as water spilt on the ground But the soul is immortall it is Eternall it shall live for ever either in Eternall glory or else in Eternall torments Here our lot is cast in which Eternitie we shall have part and there is no revoking it Oh blessed Eternitie oh Eternall blessednesse How comes it to passe that seldome or never we think upon thee or if we do at any time we do it but upon the by How comes it to passe that we do not labour more for thee that we do not seek for thee that we are not sollicitous for thee O Lord God open thou our eyes that we may see and know what Eternitie is both that of glory and that other of torment and how infinite both how blessed the one and how miserable the other Thou hast created us unto thee Thou hast created us unto Eternitie For thou art Eternitie Thou wouldst have us be partakers of thy Eternitie Lord let it be according to thy will Thou hast said it Lord let it be according to thy word Thou hast promised Lord make good thy promise Make us partakers of thy Eternitie Grant that we may spend the short moment of time granted unto us here in this life Grant we beseech thee that we may spend it in such a religious and godly manner as men that labour for Eternitie contend for Eternitie suffer for Eternitie To this end cause thy ministers often to call upon us to think still upon Eternitie make us call one upon another in every place to think upon Eternitie that so by thy mercy we may reigne with thee O Eternitie and as many as it is possible may be kept from perishing everlastingly Heare this ye Christians all heare it ye Pagans heare it ye Kings and Princes heare it ye Germanes heare it ye French heare it ye English yea let all the world heare it There can be no sufficient securitie where there is danger of losing Eternitie Oh long Oh profound Oh bottomlesse Oh Eternall Eternitie Blessed are they O Lord that dwell in thy house they shall be still praising thee They shall praise thee throughout infinite myriads of ages Moses being neare unto his death commending unto God in his prayers his people Israel and blessing them thus took his leave of the tribe of Asher and said Let Asher be blessed with children let him be acceptable to his brethren and let him dip his foot in oyl Thy shoes shall be iron and brasse and as thy dayes so shall thy strength be There is none like unto the God of Jesurun who rideth upon the heaven in thy help and in his excellencie on the skie The Eternall God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms Thus God stretcheth forth the arms of his power throughout heaven infinitely and by his arms all the world all time and all things in the world are directed guided and governed So God from the beginning yea from the Eternitie of his predestination hath carried in his breast all the godly and doth protect them daily and hourely and as it were embraceth them with his arms Ascend therefore O my soul and have no more to do with earth and clay Stretch forth thy self and ascend up unto him that rideth upon the heavens ascend up unto thy God whose dwelling is in the highest mountains those mountains of Eternitie There shalt thou sit in safetie and behold the earth beneath and so shalt thou plainly perceive how little and of none esteem all things are here below which now either sollicit thee with love or terrifie thee with fear thou shalt plainly perceive what a small thing it is whatsoever is contained within the Centre of the world that little globe or point of earth thou shalt plainly perceive how that all things created are vain weak short vile yea vanitie it self yea rather meere nothing in respect of God and of Eternitie Therefore seek thou after the onely true and soveraigne good and regard not other things Trust in God relie on him open thy heart wide to entertain him tread under the feet of thy affections whatsoever is under the Sunne and Moon whatsoever allureth thee with smiles or terrifieth thee with frowns think upon Eternitie and alwayes keep in minde that excellent saying of Saint Hierome No labour must seem hard no time must seem long all the while we are seeking after Eternall glory It is reported by Saint Hierome that there was upon a time a certain Camell haunted by an evil spirit which being brought before Hilarion a devout and godly man began to rage in such a strange and terrible manner as if it would presently have devoured him But the holy man nothing afraid spake thus unto the evil spirit Do not think to fright me thou evil spirit although that thou hast got a Camel on thy back it is all one to me whether thou comest in a Camels skin or in a Foxes skin And presently the fierce Camel fell down before him and became very tame and gentle to the great laughter of all those that stood by Such are all flatteries fawnings allurements and tentations of this world such are all fears frowns