the other elements and framed by the will of man out of mettall and wood and other mateâ—…alls of this world do cause such â—ontentment and ioy in the hart â—f man by the sight therof that for â—…is sight they endure and suffer much and make long iourneys and much expence what comfort and ioy shall it be for the cleere eyes of the soule being strengthned by supernaturall force and light to behould that beauty of the Angels and blessed spirits yea and the beauty of God himselfe If to heare with our corporall eares that Musicke which is made by the voyce of a man and of other instrumeÌ„ts of Musicke doth impart such sweetnes as that a man will remaine many houres as if his soule were euen suspended and he is content to loose both his food and rest for this earthly gust what sweetnes will it be for those inhabitants of heauen with the eares of their soule to heare those consorts melodious songes wherwith all the Quires of the Angells do praise and glorify Almighty God And to heare that most gratious voyce wherwith the same God doth comfort and recreate all those blessed soules discouereth to them his Loue togeather with the secrets of his very hart And to heare also eueÌ„ with the ears of their bodies the sound of that praise and thanksgiuing wherwith all those men who are to be made happy after their Resurrection shall glorify Almighty God giue ioy to the whole court of heauen A man c We haue reason to aspire to eternall glory since nothing of this life can queÌ„ch our thirst who considereth and pondereth by these and such other discourses both of reason and faith the greatenes of these celestiall blessings and who findeth that neither the naturall appetite of reason and much lesse the supernaturall which he hath being caused in him by grace is satisfied or contented or quieted by al the benefits and gusts and delights of the earth but that euen whilst he hath them he becometh more hungry more discontent and more vnquiet then he was before that onely he can be satisfied by the delights and gusts which are in heauen will be induced vpon this motiue to desire the happines of heauen with a most vehement ardour of minde And he is animated and encouraged to begge it of God and to sigh and grone for it continually and he sayth with Dauid Psal 41. As the Hart with being chased and tired and hauing deadly thirst desires the waters and goes panting vp and downe in search therof so my soule being ouerwrought by the miseries of this life desireth thee o my God hath a mighty thirst and an vnsatiable appetit towards thee who art the fountaine of the liuing water both of grace glory which can only satisfie and appease my whole appetit How longe o Lord am I to liue in this place of banishment When wil it be granted me that being freed from the miseries of this exile I may present my selfe before thee and behould thee face to face and enioy thy presence in the society of those happy soules And as longe as this sentence of banishement lies vpon me that the sight of thy Diuinity is deferred I take contentment in nothing but spending of sighes and shedding of teares day and night throgh the excessiue desire that I haue to be with thee and by these teares my soule is comforted mantained Thus did Dauid and all those holy Patriarcks and Prophets and great seruants of God of the old Testament aspire sigh and groane with vehement desire of this celestiall beatitude And much more and with more reason did the Saints of the newe Testament performe the same and so should all true Christians do First because till the passion of Christ our Lord was past the Saints how fully soeuer they were purged from all sinne and paine went not yet to heauen but to the Lymbus of the holy Fathers where they staid froÌ„ entring into heaueÌ„ till the redemption of the world were accomplished by Christ our Lord. But since his death all they who are purified either in this life or in the other do instantly rise vp to the possessioÌ„ of euerlasting beatitude And secondly now in tyme of the lawe of grace the guifts of the holy Ghost are more aboundantly communicated to the faithfull so they receiue more consolations and spirituall ioy and haue more gust feeling and experience of celestiall graces and do more perfectly vnderstand the height the value and the maiesty therof and consequently they desire them more with more ardour of affectioÌ„ then did the Saints of the old Testament It doth also increase this desire in the tyme of the lawe of grace to knowe that heauen is full of blessed creatures who are of the race of mankinde and who are expecting vs there and do greatly desire our Society For by the entry which any one of the elect doth make into heauen the glory of God is increased who is far more beloued and praised and glorified by the iust in heauen then on earth and so also doth the accidentall ioy and glory of euery one of the elect increase vpon the arriuall of any other But much more then they altogether doth d This reason would extremely oblige vs though ther were no other Christ our Lord who redeemed saued vs by his death desire to haue vs there with him Both because he loueth vs much more then they all are able to do as also for that by the entry of the elect into heauen and by the possession which theÌ„ is giuen theÌ„ of that kingdome the whole fruit of his passion and death is gathered all that is perfected and established which he did and suffred for vs heere that so he might make vs completely happy be like to himselfe in glory be partakers of his heauenly kingdome and in fine to make vs such as that togeather with him we may perfectly prayse and glorify and enioy his eternall Father For these reasons doth he much desire to see vs in heauen and when that desire of his is satisfyed by the ascent which any of the elect maketh thither that most sacred soule of our Lord doth receaue a new delight ioy which belongeth to his accidentall glory For as that kind of glory may increase in any of those other Blessed Spirits so may it also do in the most glorious Humanity of Christ our Lord. CHAP. XX. How from this knowledge concerning the Kingdome of Heauen which Christ our Lord will giue his seruaÌ„ts we are to gather a resolute purpose to fly from sinne and to fullfill the Commandments of God to despise the commodityes of this life THE a The consideration of eternall glory must awake vs to hate fly from sinne third and the principall vse which we are to make of this our knowledge and estimation and desire of heauenly beatitude is a stout and resolute minde and
a stiffe and effectuall purpose to put in executiō all those meanes which ar either necessary or but euen conuenient for the obteyning of this kingdome of heauen Now for the entring into heauen it is necessary to cast sinne away For Sinne giues impediment to al approach thither and they who haue the soule loaden with any one mortall sinne cannot enter into the kingdome of heauen Let vs therfore clense our soules from former sinne by penance and let vs resist all temptations least els we may returne to fall againe according to the aduice of the Apostle who saith Houlding fast these promises of God which are so great and so certaine and do concerne those sublyme guifts of grace and glory let vs my brethren much beloued clense our selues from all spot of sinne whether it be interiour or exteriour He saith from all sinne because it will behooue vs to be clensed from al and we must fly with diligence from all From mortall sins because they are against Charity do separate vs from God and from veniall sins because they are contrary to the will of God and they weaken the soule and dispose it to commit mortall sinne consequently to forfaite the kingdome of heauen So also for entring into heauen it is necessary to do good works such as are acceptable to God as Christ our Lord affirmeth saying Matt. 19◠If thou wilt enter into that eternall life which is true life keepe the commaundments Complying b It must stir vs vp to the practise of all vertue therefore with this obligation let vs performe holy workes wherby we may fulfill the commaundement of God and let vs put in execution the vertues of Humility Chastity Mercy Iustice Temperance Fortitude Religion and Charity by which if they be wrought in state of grace and do growe out of Charity they will make vs worthy of eternall life Besides c It exhorteth vs to perseuerance for the obteyning of this kingdome of heauen it is necessary that we continue in the good begun till we end in doeing well as our Lord did teach vs saying Matt. 24. He that contynueth to the end shall be saued Let vs therfore perseuere in good life and although the deuills comber vs with their temptations though men do persecute vs with their iniuries and though our Lord God do trye vs by many tribulatiōs let vs not turne backe nor be dismaied nor suffer our selues to fall downe to inordinate sorrow nor impatience nor disconfidence but let vs continually make our recourse to God and praying to him with humility let vs beg strengh at his hands wherwith to suffer and constancy that we may perseuere confidence that we may not dispaire So doth the Apostle aduise the Galathians saying Galat. 6. We who are liuing well and do exercise our selues in good workes let vs not faint nor giue ouer no nor growe slacke in the good course begunne but let vs contynue and grow therin with great constancy For in due tyme we shall gather the fruit if we doe not faint That is to say we shall eat the fruit of glory which shall haue no end Moreouer d We must not thinke of finding our heauen in this life if we meane to haue it in the next for the arriuing to enioy celestial beatitude we must despise the goodes and pleasures of this world And it is necessary that we place not our hartes or endes in them nor that we seeke for comfort in them as Christ our Lord did signify to vs by saying Luc. 6. Woe be to you who are the louers of riches and who haue placed your comfort in the cōmodityes of this life For this reason it will be necessary in most particuler manner to contemne all the commodityes of this life namely riches honours and pleasures as poore things transitory and base for by despising them we shall not place our end nor seeke for comfort in them This is therefore that fruit which we are to gather from the knowledge and desire of celestiall beatitude For knowing the greatnes and beauty and valew of heauenly things we grow quickly and clearely to see the vilenes poornes of such as be earthly and by desiring and tasting eternall things we grow instantly to loose the loue and tast of all thinges transitory And thus shall we perfectly accomplish that which the Apostle asketh at the hands of all the faythfull saying Coloss 3. If you be raysed vp with Christ seeke the things that are aboue That is e A place of S. Paul excellently pondered to say Since you are risen vp in soule to a spirituall life of grace with hope to be raysed vp in due tyme to an immortall and glorious life both in body and soule in imitation of Christ our Lord who rose vp from the dead to an immortal and glorious life seek you with your thoghts with your desirs with your good works and with continuall prayer the kingdom of heauen And since Christ our Lord who is your head is seated at the right hand of his Father possessing and enioying euen as man the greatest anthority and the greatest felicity of glory which he did euer communicate in Tyme or will euer communicate for all Eternity you that are members of his take gust and sauour in heauenly thinges and place not your delight and loue vpon those of the earth but desire those others so from the hart and with so great purity of life that you may euen by experience find the gust and most pure sauour of them addresse your life in order to this end of eternall glory which you loue and for which you hope This efficacious purpose determinate resolution to cleanse the soule from all vice to imploy it with perseuerance in good workes and cordially to despise earthly thinges is the vse which we are to make of the knowledg and desire of celestiall beatitude as hath beene sayd And it is most iust due that so we do and that for the going through with this enterprize which we are to make vpon heauen we be content to vndertake all labour and to encounter with any difficulty All the things f A plaine demonstration and I am in good hope that it will cōuince thee of this life which are of any valew are able to giue but the least cōtentment do cost some trouble and in all them some difficulty is to be endured The husband-mā for gathering in of a little corne doth manure and plough the ground before he sowes and after he hath sowed and that the blade is vp and the corne is growne is fayne first to cleanse it and then to sheere it with much labour The Sheepheard for the breeding of his poore flocke doth content himselfe to endure the heats and coldes and raines and windes and night-watches All Marchants and Factors and all the Maryners conductors who are of seruice to thē in their negotiations do
the guifts of grace what kind of profit what kind of comfort will it be to haue communication with so many Saints both men and Angells in the guifts of glory O with how much reason is it sayd Psal 23. Blessed are they O Lord who dwell in thy house they shall prayse thee there through the eternity of all eternityes Amen CHAP. XVI Of the fauour which Christ our Lord imparteth to his seruants at the day of Iudgment by giuing them his benediction and communicating his kingdome to them THIS benefit and fauour is followed by another which yet is greater For the good being once separated from the wicked being plac't vpon the right hand of Christ our Lord this celestiall King shall cast towards them his most gracious countenance being all full of suauity and delight And passing his sentence of fauour on them he will say Come yee blessed of my Father The benediction of God is the good guift of God and so to be blessed by him is to be filled withal those good gifts and graces which God communicates to his seruants That is withal those principall benefits which the Saints haue heere on earth when once they are made pure and cleane from all imperfections and withall those others also which the Angells doe possesse in heauen which is more with all those goods graces which the King of heauen himselfe doth possesse and enioy For as S. Iohn affirmeth 1. Ioan. 3. When he shall appeare we shall be made like to Iesus Christ our Lord participating of his power of his beauty of his wisedome of his goodnes of his ioy of his glory He a How grace and glory proceed from God the Father and how also from the other persons of the most B. Trinity calleth them Bl ssed of his Father to declare the fountayne first ofspring from whence all the benefits of grace and glory spring and this is the eternall Father and besides because all that which the Father operateth is also the worke of God the Sonne as he is God as also it is the worke of God the holy Ghost For the Diuinity the Goodnes and the Power is the very same in all the three Persons and to attribute them all to the Father as to the first Authour of all that is good is to offer them also to the Sonne as he is God and it is also to offer them to the holy Ghost who is one God with the Father and the Sonne O happy men who are to receaue such a benediction A benediction giuen by Christ our Lord in the face of heauen and earth of all the creaturs A benediction authorized by all the most Blessed Trinity as the Authour and fountaine of the same A benediction which comprehendes all the chiefe guifts of grace al the guifts of glory A benediction full of benefits vnspeakable most high and truly heauenly which containe all the most chiefe and choice part of heauen A Benediction of eternall benefit A Benediction irreuocable which can neuer be changed as long as God shall be God! O how highly is this benediction to be esteemed O how much is it to be desired procured which maketh men so truely happy as our Lord himselfe declareth saying Come and possesse the kingdome which is prepared for you from the beginning of the world Kingdoms b The great differences which are betweene an earthly a heauenly kingdom dominions you had on earth but temporall kingdoms dominions they were of little valew cōfort or ratherful of miseries whatsoeuer they were they are now growne to an end Laying aside those miserable kingdomes which already are ended come and possesse another kingdome which is celestiall full of incomparable happines a kingdome of infinite value a kingdome which eternally shall contynue And although euery one of you is to be a king of this kingdome and is to raigne and possesse the same yet the kingdom is still but one For all of you are to be subiect and obedient but it is to be with supreme loue to this Soueraigne King in whose company you are to raigne And because all of you are to be of one hart and of one will vnited by most perfect loue in such sort that the blessings belonging to any one in particuler to be of you all so farre forth as to reioyce therin and they of you all to be of euery one to reioyce with them to whome in particuler they belonge this kingdome is also to be but one Yet still though this kingdome be but one you shall all be kings and you all shall raigne For the kingdome is infinite in the greatnes of the felicity which is possest therin and it is infinite also in the contynuance since it is eternall And to the end that you may discerne the altitude of this kingdome and the great affection wher with it is giuen you Behould it hath bene prepared for you since the beginning of the world The election c Of our election to the kingdom of heauen and the preparation which is made for vs toward the same of the inhabitants of this kingdome was made before the world was created for they were chosen and predestinated from all eternity to raigine therin But the preparing of those things which concerne this kingdome and the putting of those meanes in practice which had relation to the obteyning therof did begin at the beginning of the world From that tyme were framed those most sumptuous pallaces those most beautifull habitations and those most glorious seats and thrones where the inhabitants of this kingdom were to liue raigne Then were created and were made happy those first Cittizens of this kingdom which are the Angels who were to keepe men company therin and to augument the glory which men were to possesse in this kingdome And so also from the first begining of the world ther were gifts of graces which came to be communicated to men wherby they were to obteyne this kingdome And for God to create man and withal to communicate iustice grace to him wherby he might procure this kingdome all that was done at once from that tyme to this nothing hath beene done but to dispose and help men giue them meanes that they might come to possesse and perfectly inioy this kingdome in glory both of body and soule This is that most blessed sentence which Christ our Lord will giue in fauour of his seruants that being done he will instantly rayse them vp togeather with himselfe and will inuest them with the most glorious possession of his celestiall kingdome CHAP. XVII Of the felicity which Christ our Lord will communicate to his seruants in the kingdome of heauen LET a A most excellent most sweet most profound yet most plaine description of the ioyes of heauen throughout this whole Chapter vs yet more particulerly cōtemplate the Maiesty of this kingdome which Christ our Lord imparteth to
for the getting of a little money passe through intollerable troubles both by Sea Land and do expose themselues to great danger of death All kind of tradesmen for the getting of a poore liuing do labour and sweat both day and night in their seuerall occupations The souldier for his miserable pay and for a little fume of honour is subiect to extreme inconueniences and runs hazard of his life at euery moment The seruants and Courtiers of great Princes for the obtayning of fauour which yet doe passe and change like any wind depriue themselues of their owne gust and deny their owne will and are hanging day and night vpon that of others and for the giuing of contentment to their Lords they take an aboundance of discontentment disgust to themselues They who are enamoured of this world the couetous for money the intemperate for curious fare the dishonest for that filthy pleasure the proud for that vaine delight in honour and commaund and all of them in fine for the poore cōmodities of this life do suffer greiuous paines and endure excessiue torments and sicknesses and other afflictions which vpon these occasious they incurre as themselues do confesse when the punishment of God shall haue laid their errour before their face And then they will say Sap. 5. We went astray from the way of truth and were estranged from that diuine light and did ouerworke and tyre our selues in the way of sinne and vice and there we endured many difficulties If then the men of this world for the obteyning of most base and transitory riches and of certaine pleasures which are vaine and pernicious both to body and soule for the giuing of contentment to mortall creatures for the yeilding of obedience to those infernall Diuels who perswade them to the loue of earthly things doe ingulfe themselues into such a sea of troubles and breake through such a world of difficultyes what in the name of God will it not be fit for Christians and the seruants of Christ to do for the being faythfull and loyall to that diuine Maiesty and for the exact complying with that obedience loue which they owe him both as to a father and as to a Lord and for the obtayning of the kingdome of heauen the possessing of those immortall riches of the house of God the honour glory of being the sons of God and consequently the ioynt heyres with Christ our Lord of his patrimony Royall and of his euerlasting entaile and for the inioying and that for euer of those incomprehensible delights of his beatitude Certainly it is most iust it is most due that they should vndergo any trouble and ouercome any difficulty and expose themselues to any temporall hazard how greatsoeuer For as the Apostle sayth by way of confirming this truth g 1. Cor. 9. All g This truth confirmed by S. Paul most diuinely excellently pondered by our Author men who striue and fight with others in the place deputed to that end as the vse of the Romains was to do in their entertainements and feasts do for the ouercomming of their opposites abstaine from all those thinges of gust which may be of any impediment to them in their combat as namely from delicate meates from wine from women and the like which are wont to make men dull and weake and they feed vpon grosse meats they obserue the rules of continency and temperance and they prepare and accustome themselues before hand to labour And all this they do to obtayne the reward of winning a corruptible crowne which might perhaps be some Iewell or some suite of clothes or some garland of bayes or flowres or some vaine applause and flying prayse of men What then are we Christians obliged to do in this spiritual contention and strife which we are making against sinne for the obtayning of that crowne of immortality and glory of that celestiall kingdome It is most certain that if for the giuing of contentment to Almighty God and for the obtayning of that eternall and immense beatitude it were necessary to suffer all those pains put togeather which al the men of the world from the beginning of it to the end will haue beene to suffer and which all the holy Martyrs haue endured it were all reason that we should willingly be content to endure them all And if it were necessary not only to suffer all the paines of this life but to endure yea and that for many ages all the torments of hell yea and of many hells it h The ioyes of heauen are more to be desired then euen the paines of hell to be auoyded were most iust fit to endure them all for the obtayning of the kingdome of heauen afterward For greater is the good of the glory of heauen then the euill of the paines of hell And how much then more iust and more conuenient will it be to suffer the payne and difficulty which belongs to vertue and which accompanyeth the fullfilling of Gods commandments Which i How the difficultyes of vertue grow delightfull through the goodnes of God besides that all temporal labour is light since it is so short difficultyes besides that they are short for as much as at the most they last no longer then this life they are with all both light and sweet For the loue of God and the heauenly consolations which he communicateth to his seruants doth make them sweet and the helps and succours of grace which otherwise he giues thē make them light So doe iust persons find this to be by experience as the Apostle confesseth saying 2. Cor. 1. After the rate of the tribulations and afflictions which we suffer for Christ our Lord and whereby we go in imitation of him so do the consolations which are giuen by Almighty God through the vertue and merit of our B. Sauiour increase and copiously abound in vs. If k Consider seriously of the conclusion of this discourse then the labours troubles of this life be on the one side so momentany and so short and on the other so sweet and light and the reward of glory and of that celestial kingdome so eternal and immense and that as our good workes doe grow to be increased so also doth the reward of glory go increasing in such sort as that to euery of our good workes yea l O infinite bounty of God! And are we then in our wits when we be either sinnefull or euen but slouthfull in Gods seruice and to euery one of our desires and euen to euery moment of a life which is lead in state of grace there is a distinct degree of glory which correspondeth what man is that who will not labour for the leading of a vertuous life Who will not be diligent in making resistance to all temptations whatsoeuer Who will not suffer any iniury or paine for liuing well And who will not resolue with strength and courage to perseuere in
THE IVDGE WHEREIN IS SHEWED how Christ our Lord is to Iudge the World at the last Day to the extreme Terrour of the Wicked and to the excessiue Comfort of the Good With a Preface which it will be necessary to read before the Booke Translated into English Nolite errare Deus non irridetur Quae enim seminauerit homo haec metet Gal. 6. vers 7. Be not deceaued God will not be mocked for the thinges which a man shall sow the same he shall reape Permissu Superiorum 1621. TO MY NOBLE FAITHFVLL WORTHY and most deare Friend Mr. G. T. SYR Since I had the Ioy to see you last I haue looked a little into the next Life as despayring that in this I should be able to find any thing which might be worthy to fill vp that place which is made empty by your ABSENCE And now by chance or rather by Gods good Prouidence I haue met with a Prospectiue-Glasse which giues me a view of Heauen and Hell in a very expresse cleare manner though the Countreyes theÌ„selues be far off I should neuer haue beene able to fit the Instrument towardes any eye but finding now that all was ready made and that so excellently to my hand I haue aduentured to frame a case for it after the English fashion The thing in it self you will not chuse but like for it is excellent and I am but too sure that you wil loue the part that I haue therein because the same Loue hath ceeled vp the eyes of your iudgement concerning me But if abstracting from that you chance to like it I shall stand in little feare of the censure of others who must giue me leaue to belieue that ther liues not amoÌ„gst them all for ought I know a man that can outstrippe you in Translating Heerein I haue seene pretious things of your doing both in Prose and Verse and in seuerall Languages And I neuer misliked any Translation of yours but that one when you traÌ„slated your Presence from the eyes of my body by whose AbseÌ„ce I am in part depriued of being able to translate some of your vertues into my soule The least that I can do against Absence Distance for so great a wrong is to send them a Defiance and to bid them be sure that if they mean to make me loue you one haires breadth the lesse they shal loose their labour Nay they kindle me rather to make this expression of my selfe and to acknowledge as I may say this Statute of my hart before the World For I am fixt in giuing you all power ouer me and I glory in being subiect to such a Friend Your what you will G. M. THE PREFACE A Learned and holy man of this age besides the odour of his Sanctity hath left suruiuing diuers Monuments of his writing and amongst the rest three bookes Of the Imitation of Christ our Lord. In the first of these he sheweth vnder seuerall Titles the seuerall Offices which his diuine Maiesty is performing to the soules of men as he is our God our Redeemer our King our Sauiour our Mediatour our Aduocate our Captaine our Sacrifice our Spouse our Doctour our Law-giuer our Pastour our Light our Life to conclude our Iudge The whole booke is large and not only should I haue felt the paines in translating it all but I might haue doubted of your Patience whether or no it would haue reached to the reading of it ouer with due intention The last of the Tytles deliuered to vs by our Authour I haue heere translated and you may see that he is a Lyon by his nayles In this discourse of Iudge which is not founded vpon priuate contemplations and much lesse either vpon loose coniections or streyned conceipts but euen wholy in effect vpon the passages of holy Scriptures though not cyted word for word but duely pondered and truly paraphrased as the best spirituall wryters are wont to do he doth admirably describe the soueraigne Maiesty the incomparable Mercy and the inuiolable Iustice of our Iudge And as incident heerunto he deliuers vs such a Mappe of the next world and doth so describe the Paradise of heauen the Zona Torrida of hell as may serue either to rauish vs with ioy or strike vs through with horrour and make vs euen wither for woe according to the seueral state that we may be in If we be members of the true Church of Christ our Lord and if withall we be in the state of grace we shall looke with more hope vpon the ioyes of heauen then with feare vpon the torments of hell and so we shall get courage in the good course begun But if on the other side we be cut off from the communion of the true Church of Christ our Lord by any one errour in beliefe or if yet being Catholikes we be remaining in state of mortal sinne this Treatise I hope wil help to guide vs by the haÌ„d out of those Labyrinths place vs in that high way of Fayth Charity without which we can haue no tytle to heaueÌ„ but the â—aws of hel will be sure to sucke swallow deuoure vs. Let no man therfore be deceaued or rather let no man deceaue himselfe God is God and he wil be serued And it is all reason that by our beleeuing and liuing as we ought true Homage may be done to that infinite inuisible immortall and most pure Maiesty of his And man is man a thing of nothing for of nothing he was made And as now he is what is he but a Pedlars-shop full of trash or rather a very sincke full of filth and to what height of honour ought he esteeme himselfe to be aduanced if he had but euen a single leaue to serue loue such an omnipotent Creator But now since besides this he is to be rewarded with an immortall Crowne of glory for so doing the sublime excellency wherof no created power can comprehend what meruayle can it be that the torments be also infinite to which he shal be adiudged and chayned if insteed of doing reuerence to God by imbracing an incorrupted faith leading either an innocent or penitent life he enter into rebellioÌ„ and treason against him by imbracing any errour in beleefe or falling into sensuality or any one other mortall sin if withall he dye therin without repentance It is not want of Charity in them who say That all such as dye with any mortall sinne vpon their soules shall eternally be tormented in the fyre of hell but it is true Charity to declare this truth that so in tyme men may know to what to trust S. Paul abounded and ouerflowed with Charity and that very Charity it was which obliged him to proclaim this doctrine Gal. 5. v. 20. That the workes of the flesh be manifest and he saith they are these Fornication Vncleanes Impudicity Luxury Seruing of Idolls Witchcrafts Emnities Contentions Emulations Anger 's Brawles Dissentions Sects Enuies Murthers
we may draw the detestation of sinne the care of leading a good life Chap. X. chapter 11 How a Christian is to draw out of the consideration of the diuine Iudgement a great feare of offending God that so he may fly far from it Chap. XI chapter 12 How it is very necessary ful of profit that a Christian do exercise himselfe in this holy feare accompany it with the exercise of diuine loue Chap. XII chapter 13 Of how great value and merit this holy Feare is Chap. XIII chapter 14 Of the fauours which Christ our Lord will do to the good at the day of Iudgement and of the Ioy which they shall conceaue by seeing the signes which precede that Iudgment and by beholding the glory of the Crosse which shall go before Christ our Lord. Chap. XIV chapter 15 Of the fauour which Christ our Lord will do his seruants at the day of Iudgment by separating them from the wicked Chap. XV. chapter 16 Of the fauour which Christ our Lord imparteth to his seruants at the day of Iudgment by giuing them his benediction and communicating his kingdome to them Chap. XVI chapter 17 Of the felicity which Christ our Lord will communicate to his seruants in the kingdome of heauen Chap. XVII chapter 18 Of other benefits which Christ our Lord cōmunicateth to his seruants in his heauenly kingdome and of the fruit of gratitude which we must gather from the Consideration of this reward Chap. XVIII chapter 19 How all the things of this life which are good and which giue delight do induce vs to a desire of the kingdome of heauen Chap. XIX chapter 20 How from this knowledge concerning the kingdome of Heauen which Christ our Lord will giue his seruants we are to gather a resolute purpose to fly from sinne and to fullfill the Commandments of God and to despise the commodityes of this life Chap. XX. chapter 21 How we are much to animate our selues towardes the exercise of good works considering the great estimation which Christ our Lord doth make of them at the day of Iudgement the reward which he also imparteth to them Chap. XXI THE IVDGE CHAP. I. How the office of being our Iudge doth belong to Christ our Lord as he is man and of the great benefit which God imparteth to vs in giuing him to vs to be our Iudge ALTHOVGH the indignation wrath of Christ our Lord against the wicked and the punishment which he inflicteth vpon their sins do belong to the office which he hath of being a Iudge yet so also doth it belong to him vnder the same Title to doe fauour to such as are Good to defend them to imparte benefites to them and both to expresse mercy towardes them in the Iudgment which he exerciseth vpon their faults to giue thē reward for their good deeds and for this reason it is that I wil declare the benefits and fauours which we obtaine by Christ our Lord in respect that he is our Iudge It a Why it was wholy fit for the second Person of the most holy Trinity to be our Iudg at the last day belongeth to Christ our Lord that he be our Iudge in regard that he is a man and because he tooke the nature of man vpon him as being a most conuenient thing that the Iudge be seene by all such as are to be iudged by him and that the guilty may wel vnderstand and heare the sentence that shal be giuē against them that for as much as men are composed of a body a soule they may perceaue it with their soule and heare it with the senses of their body Now if Christ our Lord as he is only God were to be the Iudge he could not then be seene by the wicked and the sentence which immediatly he should pronounce would not interiourly be perceaued by them and therefore it was fit that he should be our Iudge as man and should passe his Iudgment vpon men that so he might be seene and heard by all This Mystery was discouered to vs by Christ our Lord and Sauiour himselfe whilest he was saying Ioan. 5. The Father iudgeth no man but he hath giuen all iudgement to the Sonne and he gaue him au hority to exercise Iudgement as the sonne of man That is to say Although the eternal Father haue the supreme authority and power of Iudging that to him it doth principally belong to approue reward that which is good as also to reproue and punish that which is euill the same also hath the Sonne and the holy Ghost the same as being one the same God with the Father yet the office of Iudging exteriourly and after a visible manner to be seene in the Tribunall and with the authority Maiesty of a Iudge to giue exteriourly a sentence which may sensibly be perceaued by such as are Iudged this doth only belong to the person of the Sonne of God Who by meanes of the most sacred humanity which he hath immediatly vnited to himselfe by the power which frō all eternity he hath as God and by that which in Tyme was communicated to him as man he is to make this visible and exteriour Iudgment this being an execution of the interiour inuisible Iudgmēt which is made of all the most Blessed Trinity And although this exteriour Iudgment be also ascribed to the Father and to all the Blessed Trinity as to the prime cause of all things yet he who is the immediate executour of this Iudgement is Iesus Christ the Sonne of the liuing God because the sacred Humanity is only vnited immediatly to the person of the Sonne that Humanity doth make this Iudgment as the instrument of Diuinity Now b An vnspeakable benefit of God who gaue vs Christ our Lord for our Iudge an immense benefit and an imcomprehensible mercy it was for God the Father to giue vs Christ Iesus for the Iu ge of our cause as he is man as he is our brother and our Sauiour If a delinquent were in prison for greiuous Crymes deseruing death and that he had a brother who most tenderly loued him and esteemed him and did so much desire his liberty and his good that to deliuer him out of prison and from death he had spent his fortune and had exposed himselfe to many troubles and euen to the hazard of death and if the king should assigne that brother of the party for the Iudge of his cause with Soueraigne power to Iudge him without appeale what kind of fauour what clemency would it be which heerin should be vsed towards that man How full of ioy and comfort would he be vpō the naming of such a Iudge How confident and secure would he make himself that the sentence would be full of pitty and as fauourable to him as possible his cause might beare Well therfore since all men according to the c From which Christ our Lord his B. Mother
persons as long as they did perseuere they had signes in them of being predestinated and they who receaued not the fayth according to their then present state were wicked reprobate This did our Lord declare whē he sayd I came into this world that they who see not might se◠they who see might be blind Which was as much to say Vpon my comming did this iudgment follow and this distinction was made amongst men that many who in their soules were blind through ignorance and errour and vice and who did not see the truth nor did walke in the right way to heauen by beleeuing in me with a liuely fayth they I say might see the truth and follow it And that many others who saw and had knowledg of the Scriptures and did know the law and the Prophets who both in their own and in the peoples opinion estimation were held wise and had a spirituall light wherwith to looke into diuine things they I say for their pride and ingratitude should remaine blind and going astray from the right way should not find their errour and perdition Another diuine and most singular testimony which Christ our Lord hath giuen vs of the desire which he hath in this iudgment of his not to finde any sinnes which he might punish nor any sinners whom he should be so obliged to condemne is That d Let all Angells adore him for this inestimable benefit to men at his first comming he made a law which was to last till the end of the world wherby he gaue faculty to all sinners that during the whole tyme whilst their life should last they might passe a Iudgement vpon themselues acknowledging their sinns and accusing themselues therof with greefe and confessing them to a Priest who should hould the place of Christ our Lord and satisfying for them according to the iudgment of the same Ghostly father and that they performing this he would not in his Iudgment either cōdemne or punish them but would declare them to be not Guilty and would impart the kingdome of heauen to thē And that if hauing once passed this Iudgement vpon themselues they should yet return againe to sinne become abnoxious therby to eternall condemnation yet stil as long as their life should last they might returne to passe the same Iudgment vpon themselus as often as they would and that if they should do it according to e Confessing them all clearely with great sorrow firme purpose of amendmēt Truth he would not condemne them but would admit them into his company and make them happy O Iudgment which is so deerely sweet O Iudge who is so ful of mercy and how vnanswerable is it proued by this most pitteous Iudge that his intention and desire is not to punish but to pardon not to condemne but to absolue and saue since before he comes to passe his Iudgment he vseth so many meanes applyes so many remedies to the end that he may finde no sinnes to punish nor no sinners to condemne If an earthly Iudge had his prison ful of delinquents theeues murtherers and should make a kind of agreement and bargaine with them that f Consider seriously heerof admire the infinit goodnes of God in that wherein the blind world thinkes it hath hard measure namely in the Institution of the Sacrament of Confession euery one of them might choose what friend or kinsman of his owne he would and in secret should declare his offence to him deliuering to him the whole truth and vndergoing but that penalty which he should impose vpon him for the same And that vpon some day of the same yeare himselfe would come to the prison to Iudge them and that he would pronounce them to be free who had declared their offences to friend or kinsman of theirs who had performed the penalty which he had imposed and that he would only cōdemne those others who would not haue recourse to that remedy what would you say of this Iudge of this agreement You would say that there nether is nor euer was nor euer will be in the world any Iudge who sheweth or is to shew any such mercy nor who euer made or will euer make any such Capitulation with persons who had deserued to dye nor are there any laws on earth which can permit any such thinge And if there were any Iudge who would submit himselfe to the like cōdition there would no delinquent be found who would not ioyfully performe this agreement and so be declared for not guilty Well then Christ Iesus the Eternall Iudge and who is of infinite power and Maiesty doth shew this mercy to all such sinners as are worthy of eternall death And he hath made this bargaine and agreement with them all and that is yielded to by the laws of heauē which the laws of earth will not endure Let vs therfore serue our selues of this mercy let vs performe the articles of this agreement and let vs in tyme passe a Iudgment vpon our selues let vs confesse our sinnes with true sorrow let vs amend our liues to the end that when at the houre of our death in the particuler Iudgment and at the end of the world in the Vniuersal iudgment we shal come before this great Iudge he may find no sinnes to punish or condemne in vs. For it is sayd by S. Iohn the Apostle concerning this Lord 1. Ioan. 1. If we confesse our sins repenting our selues truly of them before God and his substitute God is iust and faithfull in fulfilling the promises and rewarding the meritts of Chri◅ our Sauiour and so he will pardon vs our sinnes through his merits and will cleanse vs from all wickednes as he hath promised O most vnhappy men who deferring to do pennance and to make amendment of their liues despise this mercy of God as S. Paul sayth by making ill vse thereof Rom. 2. And g Woe be to thē who will needes be wicked euen because God is so infinitely good by this meanes they treasure vp the wrath and punishment of God for themselues against the day of his wrath which is that of his Iudgement These lawes of mercy were not made nor are they proclaimed vnto men to the end that thereupon they should take such a wicked strange presumption to sinne but that if they haue sinned they should not be dismaid but that in hope of this diuine mercy they should instantly correct themselues and reforme their liues and obtaine pardon So doth the glorious Apostle S Iohn aduertise vs for hauing sayd That if we confesse our selues well God will pardon vs he instātly addeth this 1. Ioan. 2. These thinges haue I written to you my children to the end that you may not sinne but that you may fly from sinne at full speed but yet if any man do sinne we haue an Aduocate before the Father That is to say let him not be dismaid nor out
with the glorious stole of immortality are to enioy God eternally in his kingdome Now d The ioy which the elect will haue to see thēselues so neere the end of their hope by this so certaine secure hope that God wil be so gracious to them as to graunt that they may possesse enioy that immense good which they so mightily desire and to which then they shall be brought so neere they will reioyce and be reuiued in a wonderfull manner and giue strange thankes to God for hauing brought them to see that day and for hauing continued them in his seruice and vouchsafed to giue them such tokens pledges of his glory All this did Christ our Lord vnfold in the Ghospell For hauing reckoned vp the signs which are to appeare before his comming to Iudgement and the feare and sorrow wherewith they shall be receaued by the wicked turning then his discourse to his disciples and in their persons to all such as would be their imitatours and were to be aliue at that tyme he sayth after this manner When these thinges shall arriue which are to precede my comming do you lift vp your heads Be not disquieted be not dismayd giue no place to sorrow none to feare or to distrust as the louers of the world will do who will go with the head all hanging downe like men afflicted and dismayd But haue you great confidence conceaue great courage be cheerefull and reioyce and with this confidence and ioy lift vp your harts your face to God for now your redemption draweth neere The tyme approacheth and so doth that most happy state and complete redemption which now with my Passion and Death I am about to gain for you and that is both security from all kind of misery and immortall glory both to body and soule Another great fauour to the iust will be to see appearing in the ayre and that high vp neer heauen and before the person of Christ our Lord the signe and standard of the most holy e Happy soules which heere are deuoted to the Crosse of Christ our Lord Crosse not made of wood or mettall but of other most glorious matter and more brightly shining incomparably with more beauty then the sunne and in proportion so very large that being plac't on high it may be seene ouer the whole earth by all the inhabitāts thereof For a matter and motiue it is of incomparable comfort ioy for them to see in such high honour and glory that Crosse which they adored as the Image of Christ and which they loued by enduring and suffering affronts and paynes for his sake When f A profound yet a plain consideration a worldly man doth hate any thing or any person and seeth it or him aduanced to honour it puts him to payne Wicked men in this life did abhorre the Crosse of Christ because they did extremely loue the pleasures and delicacyes transitory honours of this world they detested to suffer paine sham in the vertue and for the loue of Christ our Lord. So doth S. Paul expresse it saying Phil. 3. There are many who liue and conuerse among you of whome I haue aduertised you many tymes now againe I repeate it with griefe sorrow of my hart who are the enemies of the Crosse of Christ since they giue themselues to delights and delicacyes and to ambition and pride which the Crosse of Christ doth condemne and they flye from pennance and mortification and abstinence and from the exercises of humility to which the Crosse of Christ doth perswade and teach When therefore these men shall see in that diuine Iudgment that the Crosse of Christ is so highly honoured and made so glorious which they with their workes did so abhorre it shall replenish them with paine and griefe For thereby they shall more cleerely see their errour and the eternall condemnation which is prepared for them For that is to be the end of such men as the same Apostle declareth saying VVhose end is death and the destruction of their soules On g The same consideration continued the contrary side whosoeuer he be that doth greatly loue any thing or person he reioyceth taketh comfort to see that it is honored esteemed by others And now for as much as the seruantes of God do cordialy loue the Crosse of Christ which is To mortify thēselues with thinges of difficulty to flesh and bloud and to suffer paines and tribulations and affronts for his loue and in the imitation of his Passion For as S. Paul sayth Galat. 5. They who are of Christ and who re liuely members of him and who haue his spirit and who are gouerned by him doe crucify their flesh and chastise it with penances and by willingly imbracing those affronts paynes which God presents And by afflicting their flesh in this manner they doe withall destroy and kill the vices and ill desires which sprout from thence Now when the seruants of God shal see that Crosse h And haue we not reason to loue it since it was the instrumēt of our redemption which they loued so much and wherein they did so greatly reioyce become exalted and so glorious and so highly honoured by Almighty God and so reueared by the whole world they shal receaue thereby excessiue ioy and consolation to see how well they chanced in following the Crosse of Christ our Lord and they shall hold it as an expresse signe of the glory which God will giue to them For a truth of God it is which is pronounced by his Apostle That whatsoeuer tribulation or paine or trouble is suffered in this life for the loue of God which how long soeuer it lasts is but momentary since it liues no longer then we liue which how grieuous soeuer it may seeme yet to the soules that loue God and are assisted by his holy grace is light and easy doth worke in vs and that as a meritorious cause a weight of most soueraigne glory ouerflowing beyond all measure and exceeding all that which we can so much as euen imagine this is not to be of temporall glory but a glory which shall neuer end CHAP. XV. Of the fauour which Christ our Lord wil do his seruants at the day of Iudgement by separating them from the wicked ANOTHER benefit fauour and that a great one will Christ our Lord do to his seruants in the day of Iudgment and that will be to separate them from the company of the wicked This was signified by Christ our Lord who said Matt. 25. When the sonne of man shall come to iudge he shall sit vpon the throne of his Maiesty all the nations of the earth shal be assembled before him and as the shepheard deuides the sheepe from the Goates so shall he deuide the good and bad from one another The good he calleth sheep for the innocency simplicity meeknes fruitefulnes in good works
deepe as that it hath neither bottom nor brim By seeing that it is an infinite delight and sweetenes and that it concernes the soule so much and that she doth so dearly truly belong vnto it and that it is her creator her father her God and that all her being depends vpon it there is also created in the soule another most copious and most abundant riuer of loue and all these riuers of loue meeting then in one the soule of euery Saint in heauen growes to haue in it an vnbridled boundles Sea of loue He that i Be still attentiue loues a thing doth wish it well if he may see the good he wishes it giues him ioy and the more he loues and the more he desires and the greater that the good is so much the greater is the ioy Now thē since the Saints in heauen do loue God with a whole boundlesse Sea of loue and seeing that he possesseth all the good which they can wish as namely that he is God himselfe and that together with God he is infinitely happy who can say what delight who can say what ioy they shall receiue since it is bound to be great according to the rate of their loue Infallibly they shall possesse a whole immense Sea of diuine ioy an immense Sea shall they possesse of celestiall and supreme delights This is that delight and ioy which the soule receiues from God himselfe being an infinit good when once she is possest of a cleare vision of him and that by loue O k Infinit ioy ioy which ouercomest all ioy O ioy which imbracest all our good O ioy without lymit O eternall ioy O ioy which art the euer running fountaine of al ioyes O ioy which knowest how to satisfy all the desirs and canst fill vp all the hollowes and empty places of the soule Matt. 25. and dost possesse whatsoeuer we shall euer be able to think To this ioy doth Christ niuite al his faithfull seruants this doth he giue them in reward of their vertue saying Reioyce O thou good faithfull seruant enter into the ioy of thy Lord. Another l The vnspeakable ioy which they shall haue by seeing the the most glorious humanity of Christ our Lord. felicity which the blessed soules shall haue is to behold the most glorious humāity of Christ our Lord and to enioye it and to see him euen as he is man in so excessiue Greatnes and Maiesty and glory And to see him withal so amiable and so affable so deerly sweet towards all those happy soules and to see that that Lord who is man as they are and who with his passion and death did for the loue he bare them redeeme them from eternall damnation the same man I say is the infinite and eternall God O how will they loue that most sacred humanity which loued them so much which did and suffered so great things for them O how will they reioyce to see that humāity so mightily sublymed and vnited by an incomprehensible manner to the person of the Word O how wil they glory in his felicity O what delight sweetnes wil they receiue from such a sight and from such a loue For as the prophet saith Isa 33. They shall see the king in his beauty Another m It wil be an inestimable ioy to see how infinitly God loueth them supreme felicity for those happy soules shal be to see the loue which God carries towards them and wherwith the eternall father did from all Eternity loue and choose them did in Tyme bestow his Sonne vpon them and deliuer him ouer to death for them and to see that this loue in it selfe is infinite and the very same wherewith God loues himselfe The n This truth is proued by a fit comparison seruant of a King will much esteeme that the king do him fauour bestowing some important place vpon him in his house with good prouision belonging to it But much more will he esteeme it and much more contentment cōfort will he receiue to see himselfe beloued by that king and that he is a fauorite of his And thogh he haue but some coniectures of this loue and that it may easely be cooled and changed into a disaffection yet doth he neuertheles esteem it more then all the other fauours which the king doth him For by louing him he giueth him his hart which is incomparably more then if he gaue him a part of his fortune What then will a Saint in glory feele in himselfe when he shal see that he is so beloued by God and although the benefits which God hath done him are very great yet the loue he beares him is much greater and although they are most precious benefits which there he is enioying by the guyft of God yet much more pretious is the loue For this loue is the root fountaine of all the benefites and guiftes and graces which he hath cōmunicated nay this loue is euen very God himselfe Now then to knowe this loue of God not by coniecture but by seeing it expresly in God with as great clarity as that wherewith he seeth God himselfe and still to see with the same clarity that this loue cannot be lost no nor changed but that for euer it shall remaine inuariable with the selfe same permanency wher with the truth of God himselfe shal remain of which truth it is sayd Psal 116. that it shall remaine for euer O how highly wil the Blessed esteeme value this loue of God! O how imcomparable ioy will they receiue to see thēselues so beloued by God! When loue is great it hath this property power that by the band of the same loue it makes o Of the vnion of seuerall things which is made by loue him that loues become the same thing with him that is beloued and that he lodgeth his whole hart in him that with the chaynes of loue he becomes imprisoned and euen captiued by him who is beloued that he depend wholy vpon him willing that which he wills and communicating to him all his goods Now then since the Blessed soules knowing that this is the property of intense loue and seeing themselues so beloued by God with this loue which hath no measure nor had no beginning nor will haue end what kind of immense incomparable ioy wil this be to them Without all question except the ioy which they shall haue in the felicity of God whome they loue more then themselues this other is their greatest ioy to see themselues so beloued by him who is omnipotent and who is infinite beauty and glory and the infinite fountaine of all Good Of this Loue God himselfe giueth testimony saying by the Prophet Hieremy Hier. 33. With eternall loue I haue loued thee and therefore did I in tyme shew mercy to thee and I called and drew thee to my friendship and glory CHAP. XVIII Of other benefits which Christ
our Lord coÌ„municateth to his seruantes in his heauenly kingdome and of the fruit of gratitude which we must gather from the Consideration of this reward BESIDES these benefits which are the chiefe there are others yet which are enioyed by happy soules in the kingdome of heauen which are also of inualuable value and of incomparable ioy One of them is to be in coÌ„pany of the Blessed where there is such a multitude of a The incomprehensible number of the Angels Angelicall spirits distinguished into nine Quires as that they are in greater number then all the men which haue beene which are and which shall euer be yea more then all the corporeall creatures of the whole world put togeather And where there are so many Patriarkes and Prophets and Apostles and Apostolicall men and Martyrs and Confessours and Virgins and so many others who by pennance haue made their way to heauen whom S. Iohn who saw them in a Reuelation sayth Apoc. 7. to be so many as that they cannot be numbred And b The dignity excellency of those celestiall inhabitants all of them are the sonnes of God and Grandes in the Court of God and Kings in the kingdome of heauen and all of them most perfect in vertue and most sanctifyedly wise and most beautifull and full of immense glory and all of them so well content and at ease that they desire nothing but what they haue because they haue as much as possibly they can desire And c What a noble conuersation will this be notwithstanding that they are so very high in dignity and glory yet withall euery one of them is most profoundly humble all affable and milde and of most sweet condition And being so innumerable as they are they yet doe all know one another much better and in a more intrinsecall manner then a man on earth can euer arriue to know himselfe And they all do treate and communicate with one another and they loue one another with such a loue as doth incomparably exceede the loue which any Mother can beare to a child For in them all there is but one affection and will which is that of God by the vnion and conformity of will which euery one hath with his and the felicity of all euery one esteemeth as his owne and the glory of euery one in particuler is held as proper to euery one And d Euery one of them hath excessiue ioy in the glory of any other so euery one of the Blessed hath as many particuler ioyes as there are Angels Saints in heauen For euery one of them reioyceth at the others good as at his owne and he enioyeth the ioy of another as his owne ioy and so much more will one happy soule be glad of the glory of any other as he shall see God to be more glorifyed in that other But amongst all the e The inestimable ioy which euery of the Blessed haue in behoulding and treating with the all immaculate Mother of God Blessed whether they be Angells or meere men and women the creature who doth more enoble and engrandize and delight and make happy that most glorious court of heauen is the most sacred Virgin Mary that Lady that Queene that most deerly diuinely sweet enamoured mother of theÌ„ all For she is the true naturall mother of him who created them all who redeemed them all and who indued them all with that beatitude They all are great they all are most sublimely happy but this Lady is more great more happy and more glorious then they all together All of them do ardeÌ„tly loue one another and they all conuerse and behould ech other with admirable sweetenes and they are all a cause of excessiue ioy and glory to one another But f And woe will be to theÌ„ who do not loue honour and admire and serue this soueraign Queene this soueraign Queene loues them al and euery one of them as her deerest Children and as her brethren and companions and as the louing members of Iesus Christ our Lord who is her naturall sonne And she behoulds them all with most gratious most amorous eyes and she treates communicates with them all with a most incomparable sweetenes and by that presence and communication of hers she causeth in euery one of them farre more ioy and farre more glory then any other creature doth This blessed life and this company of the blessed is described by the Prophet Isay Isa 60. speaking partly of the militant Church but principally of the triumphaÌ„t which is that celestial Hierusalem in these wordes There shall neuer be in thee O thou Soueraigne Citty and thou land of the liuing any sinne or punishement nor any newes or noyse therof Insteed of paine thou shalt haue perfect eternal health insteed of sinne thou shalt haue the continuall euerlasting exercise of the loue of God Our Lâ—rd God shall be al in all to thee thy Sunne and thy Moone and thy light and thy glory and all thy good And aâ—l the elect are to make vppe in thee a people and a most glorious and blessed common wealth to the end that all together may eternally enioy the inheritance of those celestiall benedictions And let vs see since there are to be so many inhabitants in that soueraigne Citty and since euery iust person is to be a Cittizen therof if there may there be found any one who is weake or impotent or who is subiect to the least disgust The Prophet doth instantly proceed and say The least of them al shal be so full of power as that he may stand for a thowsand of the strongest men and the little one shall stand for a mighty Army That is to say euery one of the Blessed shall participate so much of God and shall finde God to be so truely his as that whatsoeuer he haue a mind to do for that he shall haue sufficient power And whatsoeuer felicity he shall desire the same he shall possesse for in God he can do all and he hath all These g The fruites which grow from the consideration of the glory of heauen benefites which we haue heere recounted other which be like to these are possessed and enioyed in that celestiall kingdome which Christ our Lord who is the iudge both of the quicke and dead will impart to the iust in reward of their good life And now let vs reach towards the fruit which we must procure to gather from the infallible knowledge of this truth Whereof h Great estimatioÌ„ of the benefits great thansgiuing to the benefactour the first is this A very great estimation and profound internall gratitude for this mercy vnspeable grace of God that we being so poore creatures so weake so ignorant and who by our owne fault made our selues so miserable so base so vnworthy of all good and who so well deserued the vttermost of all paine God would
yet make choyce of vs from all eternity and first create vs and after that sinne was committed redeeme vs to the end that we might obteine that most sublyme and supernaturall end of beatitude which consisteth in seeing God and in enioying God and in obteyning and possessing that by grace which God himselfe doth possesse by nature which is to loue enioy himselfe Againe that he hath created and ordayned and called and iustified vs for the enabling vs to a dignity so sublime as it is to be Kings of heauen and to haue seates and thrones in that heauen which is called Empyreall that for euer And there to possesse the incomprehensible and eternall felicity of glory in this glory to be companions of the Angells yea and of God himselfe who is the Lord of the Angels This I say is a grace and mercy which we are to ponder and most profoundly to esteeme in the very rootes of our harts and to be gratefull to God for it withal the powers of our soule and with our tongue to blesse and prayse him for it with S. Peter saying Blessed and praysed be our God and the naturall fauour of Iesus Christ our Lord who through his great and most aboundant mercy hath engendred vs anew who were borne in sinne and were the Children of wrath by our descent from Adam by liuely Fayth and by the Sacraments making vs by this spirituall generation to become the sonnes of God himselfe and giuing vs a certaine true hope of the true life which is that blessed and euerlasting end And this he wrought in vs by the Resurrection of Christ our Sauiour For by his Resurrection he procured that the world should beleeue in him and should obey his ghospell and by meanes of this faith and obedience the fruit of his life and passion might be communicated to it and by this liuely hope he first enabled vs to expect and afterward to obteine the inheritāce which is due to the Sonne of God The i An insatiable thirst after the ioyes of heauen second thinge which we are to draw from hence is a very great and liuely and efficatious desire of this kingdome of heauen and that once we may arriue to possesse and enioye that celestiall happines A man desires euen by the very appetit of nature to be free from the affliction of paine other corporal miseries but this desire cannot be fulfilled in this life For all this life is full of affliction and sicknes paines of body and sadnes and griefe of mind and difficulties and troubles and contradictions by his kinsmen friends and of persecution by iniustice and oppressions of enemies and of contrary and ill encounters in point of fortune and of temptations of deuils and of the world and of their lawes and rights and of our owne corrupt nature and al our euill inclinations A man saith Iob liues but a little tyme and that little is full of many miseries In heauen it is where a man may haue this desire satisfied because there as S. Iohn saith Apoc. 21. God will wipe away the teares from his frends eyes there shall be no death nor lamentation nor any sad note nor griefe For all this had an end in this life and therfore it is necessary for a man to labour with desire of the kingdome of heauen where only this desire can be accomplished A man k The iust reasō of this thirst drawne from the sinnes wherwith the world abounds desires by the appetite of grace to see himselfe free from the sins of his soule which induce him to do ill In this life this delight cannot be accomplished because all this life is full of innumerable sinns and whersoeuer thou goest thou shal see sinne and plenty of wickednes And althogh in many places it aboundeth more or lesse then in other yet for the most part euery one of them is corrupted defild with diuers kinds of vices yea and euen the most iust and holy men haue some veniall sins of which they cānot free themselues and the same men run hazard to fall into other which are greater For as S. Iohn sayth 1. Ioan. 1. If we shall say that we haue no sinne we deceiue our selues therin and we speake not truth In heauen it is where this desire is fulfilled for there is neither fault nether can there be any For as the same Apostle saith Apoc. 21. Into that celestiall Hierusalem nothing can enter which is spotted And therfore it is necessary and most profitable for a man to aspire to that habitatiō of heauen where his desire may be satisfied CHAP. XIX How all the things of this life which are good and which giue delight doe induce vs to a desire of the kingdome of heauen NOT a We haue reason to thirst after the kingdom of heauen through the consideration of earthly pleasures which are miserable things yet they make a shift to please vs. onely do the euills of sinne and punishment wherof this life of ours is full incline vs to desire the kingdome of heauē which is free from al those inconueniences but so also do all good things which giue vs in this life any contentment or gust either corporall or spirituall perswade and moue vs to the same For they all discouer to vs the immensity of that celestiall happines and the greatnes of the appetite of our soule which cannot be satisfied and put in quiet by any thing which is lesse then that For a man who by his senses taketh experience of the sauour of his meat and drinke and of the sweetenes of musicke and of the contentment which he hath in seeing those things which are artificiall gallant and full of beauty by the light of reason and of faith will grow to make this consideration If a creature b A most certayne truth and which entreth sweetly into the soule so base and of so small importance as a bird a liquor of milke or wine or any other thing that concernes our food being toucht but by the course pallate of a man do yet cause delight and gust and such gust as that for it some men do expose themselues to much trouble and cost yea and euen to the very perdition of their soules what sauour and what ioy shall it giue the soule to be most profoundly internally with all the powers and forces therof vnited with God and to tast God he being that infinit good and that infinit sweetnes and ioy yea the infinit fountaine of all ioy and sweetnes And with the same soule to swallow downe huge draughtes of that riuer of delights which is in the house of God and which in substance is in euen God himselfe and the infinit and inexhausted sea of all chast and pure delights If to see with these corporall eyes of ours the designe the beauty and the grace of creatures which yet are but compounded of earth water and
that good cause which he hath begun Let vs all both heare and with great fidelity obey the voyce of that Prophet who sayth 2. Paral. 25. You who are the people of God do you encourage and animate yourselues to serue him and to continue in that seruice of his without dismay for in fine your labours shall 〈◊〉 answered with a great reward CHAP. XXI How we are much to animate our selues to the exercise of good workes considering the great estimation which Christ our Lord doth make of them at the day of Iudgement and the reward which he also imparteth to thē THERE is also another particular consideration belonging to this diuine Iudgment and to the reward of good workes which doth greately moue the soule to labour hard in the seruice of God And this is the Reason and Tytle which Christ our Lord alledgeth in giuing his benediction and reward to the iust when he saith Matt. 25. Come yee blessed of my Father possesse the kingdom which is prepared for you For I was hungry and you gaue me to eat I was thirsty and you gaue me to drinke I was a stranger you receiued me into your howse I was sicke and in prison and you came to visit me For a The great valew which our Lord doth make euen of our least good workes by these words Christ our Lord doth mightily discouer the estimation and price which he hath stamped vpon good workes which are done in grace and the great fauour and honor which they receiue in his diuine presence the much that they please him and the immense glory wherwith he rewardeth them since so meane workes so very easy to be wrought as it is to giue a peece of bread to a poore hūgry body or a cup of water to a thirsty or a shirt to couer the naked or a nights lodging to a stranger or a visit to an imprisoned or sick person though it be but to comfort him with good words for we see he doth not say I was sicke and you cured me or I was imprisoned and you freed me but such easy workes as are those other and which put vs to so little cost and trouble that excellent Maiesty of his is pleased to publish proclaime in that great Theater vpon the day of Iudgement in the presence of the whole world and he setteth out and praiseth them which his owne sacred mouth he sublymes then so high as to take them for seruices and deare fauours imparted to his owne persō which giue him great contenment gust And so much b That which maketh a good worke meritorious is the flowing of it from the grace of God in Christ our Lord and the being seconded by his promise of a reward which promise makes the reward due account he makes therof as to esteeme them for merits which are worthy of eternall life and he receaues them as a price of the kingdome of heauen And he esteemeth them for meritorious that not only all together but euery one of them a part and a part he takes euery one of them for the price of glory and of that kingdome which hath no end But c What will not our Lord do to vs for greater worke since he doth so much for the lesse now if Christ our Lord who so highely esteemes and vouchsafes the fauour of so great reward to so light and easy workes as those what will he do to such workes of mercy as are great hard and which grow out of much Charity As when a man doth giue all his goods or a great part therof to the poore or lodge Pilgrims for a long tyme and serue them and prouide them of all things necessary depriue himselfe of clothes to cloth the poore naked Christian and to serue sicke persons day and night and that in the case of troublesome and contagious diseases as when they may be struckē with the plague and to drawe with much trouble of person and charge of purse such as are prisoners or Captiues out of their chaines How much I say will Christ our Lord esteeme such works as these which cost much labour and money and for the performing whereof a man endures much incommodity and imbraceth many paineful things and wrastling with store of difficulties and mortifies himselfe much to comfort others renounces his owne will in many things that so others may be comforted and releeued There can no doubt be made but that much more he will esteeme them and will afford them the fauour in that day of Iudgement of a reward so much higher as the works are more excellent more acceptable in his eyes for being growne vp out of greater Charity And if the Corporall works of mercy which are exercised vpon the bodyes of men which must quickly dy and for the maintenance and preseruation of this corporall life which is soone to haue an end be so much esteemed and fauoured and so highly rewarded by Christ our Lord what will he be sure to do to the workes of spirituall mercy wherby immortall soules are succoured redrest and wherby they being deliuered from the death of sinne and euerlasting paine there is imparted to them saluation and a life of euerlasting glory A plaine d How much therefore are we bound to such as do assist our soules though it be with hazard of their liues case it is that the worke of mercy wherby a soule is assisted is more excellēt then that other wherby a body is releeued that these works of piety wherby the spirituall and eternall life is holpen is of much more valew and merit then that other wherby that corporall and fraile life is succoured For as much as according to S. Thomas D. Thom. cont Gen. l. 4. cap. 55. Amongst all those things which are created no one is greater then the saluation of a reasonable soule which consisteth in the enioying of God So also there is no other greater almes then that wherby this saluation and this life of grace and glory is procured consequently a much greater benefit doth he impart to another who remedieth the necessityes of his soule then if he had giuen him a great sūme of money And since they who giue a little bread to the hungry and a little water to the thirsty and they who retyre a Pilgrime to their house and apparel a naked person with a peece of cloth and visit a man who is in prison or sicke giuing him a little temporall comfort be so esteemed and honoured by Almighty God in the presence both of heauen earth in that terrible tribunall of his Iudgment and are so enobled and sublymed with the Crowne of celestiall glory and with the dignity of the euerlasting kingdome what will Christ do that most iust and righteous Iudge and that most liberal God with them who dispense the bread of heauenly doctrine to such as haue need and are hungry after it
and deny what he will meere opinion before the Iudgement of that Church which is is still to be instructed and taught by the holy Ghost And this sinne is of so high a nature as that vnlesse it be remoued by pennance the man in whome it liues shall No heretike without repentance can be saued dye a double death and neuer behould the face of God howsoeuer he may otherwise seeme to be a person of most holy life so ful of Charity as to sell his state and giue it all to the poore and of so valiant and Christian a hart as amongst Infidels to suffer death torments for the name of Christ For to proue that euen this will not serue the turne of an Heretike towards saluation see heere the authority of the greatest Fathers of the church coÌ„cerning this point Who The practise of the primitiue Church in this point See S. Aug. ad Quod-vult Deum the Catalogues of S. Irenaeus and S Epiphanius besids that in the way of practice the Church of their tyme did coÌ„demne many men for Heresy who held though it were but one point of doctrine in contrariety to the Catholike Church and somtymes of some such doctrine as in it selfe did not seeme to be of most importance they do also declare and that in most cleere and constant words in what certainty of damnation they are who dy in any Heresy at all Whosoeuer saith S. Cyprian D. Cypr. epist in Anton. what kinde of person soeuer a man be a No heretike is a Christian any more then only in name Christian he is not vnâ—es he be in the Church of Christ And againe Idem de vnit Eccles He belongs not to the rew rd of Christ who forsakes the Church of Christ such a one is an alien he is a prophane person he is an enemy And to this effect he also sayth if such an one should euen giue his life for the confession of the name of Christ he should yet by the Iudgement of this holy Father be condemned to the flames of Hell for his Heresy and not be receiued to the ioyes of heauen for his constancy he expresseth himself in these words Non esset illi corona fidei sed poena perfidiae S. Hierome in like manner speaking of the Church of Rome affirmeth it to be D. Hier. epist ad Dam. l. 2. The true house of Christ and that whosoeuer eateth the lambe out of that house is a prophane person and that vnles he be found in that Arke of Noe he shall be ouerwhelmed and perish in the floud S. Augustine doth also abound euery where in the profession of this truth D. Aug. tom 7. super gest câ—…m Emer vlt. med A man sayth he cannot obtaine saluation but in the Catholike Church he may haue all except saluation he may haue honour he may haue the sacrameÌ„ts he may sing Alleluia he may answere Amen he may belieue the Ghospell he may be baptized in the name of the Father of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost but no where can he haue saluatioÌ„ but in the Catholike Church D. Augu. tom 7. de vnit Eccl. vlt. med No man cometh saith he to saluation and life eternall but he that hath Christ for his head and no man can haue Christ for his head who is not in his body which is the Church Idem tom 3. de fide symb Heretikes by belieuing falsely of God do violate the faith and Schismatikes by their wicked dissentions flye of from fraternall charity although they belieue as we do And therefore neither doth the Heretike belonge to the catholike Church because he belieueth not God nor the Schismatike because he loueth not his Neighbour Let The schismatik hath no Charity and the Heretike hath neither Charity nor Fayth Idem tom 7. de Bapt. cont Don. l. 4. c. 18. vs suppose that a man were chast and contynent not couetous no worshiper of Idolls but full of hospitality no enemy to any man nor contentious but patient quiet not emulating or enuying any body but sober and frugall but yet withall that he were an heretike and there can no doubt be made but No Heretike can be saued though he be neuer so vertuous otherwise Idem tom 4. l. 1. de serm Do. in monte c. 9. that for this only That he is an Heretike he shall not possesse the kingdome of heauen It is not sayd alone Blessed are they who suffer persecution but these words are added for iustice sake Now where No heretike or schismatike can be a Martyr Tom. 1. de fide ad Petrum c. 39. true Fayth is not there can be no Iustice because the Iust man liues in Fayth Neither yet set Schismatikes promise themselues any thing thereby because where there is no Charity neither can there be any Iustice For Charity towards ones Neighbour doth worke no euill which Charity if they did possesse they would not teare the body of Christ which is his Church Belieue Some doubt whether this book be of S. Augustin or of S. Fulgentius who liued within 40. yeares after S. Augustine most firmely and haue no manner of doubt but that euery Heretike and Schismatike though baptized in the name of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost if he returne not to the Catholike Church how great Euen the giuing al in alms and suffering death for the name of Christ wil not deliuer an heretique from damnation Almes soeuer he distribute yea and though he shed his bloud for the name of Christ he can by no meanes be saued For neither Baptisme nor most liberall almes nor death endured for the name of Christ can auaile any man to saluation who holdeth not fast the vnity of the Catholike Church and so long as any How small soeuer that be hereticall or schismaticall iniquity which leadeth men to destruction remayneth in him These are they amongst many others whome God hath giuen to his Church as lightes whereby all good Christians may be guided towardes their saluation and take heed thou be not so miserable as to follow any ignis fatuus insteed of them for thy error in this life will import thee no lesse then thy eternall damnation in the next FAVLTS escaped in the Printing Page Line Fault Correction â—… 10. intention attention â—… vlt. fo of â—… 1. interiourly exteriourly â—… 12. he is to make deleatur he â—…9 10 vnanswerable vnanswerably â—… 3. to friend to that friend â—… 13. and for zeale and zeale of â—… 1. whither wither â—… 7. for thus for this â—…8 13. infinity infinite â—…9 13. guifts gusts â—… 14. Sathan that deleatur that â—… 16. is infinite is an infinite â—…1 10. is hauing is their hauing â—bid 11. then being their being â—…0 7. by all by ill â—…3 17. my pennance deleatur my