and peopled with such a multitude of beautiful Citizens as are as farre above any imaginable number as the capacity of the City is above any imaginable measure Some famous Mathematicians say of die Empyrial Heaven that it is so great that if God should allow unto every one of the blessed a greater space than the whole Earth yet there would remain as much more to give unto others and that the capaciousness of this Heaven is so great that it contains more than ten thousand and fourteen millions of miles What wonder will it be to see a City so great of so precious matter The Divines confess the capaciousness of this Heaven to be immense but are more willing to admire it than bold to measure it Joan. Gailer in suo Peregrino Howsoever there wants not one who sayes that if God should make each grain of sand upon the Sea-shore as big as the whole Earth they would not fill the Concave of the Empyrial Heaven and yet this Holy City possesseth all that space and is all composed of matter far more beautiful and precious than Gold Pearl and Diamonds For certain our thoughts cannot conceive so great riches and wonders for which we ought to undergoe all the pains and necessities of this World St. Francis of Assisium being afflicted with a grievous pain of his eyes in so much as he could neither sleep Chron. Frat. Min. p. 1. c. 60. nor take any rest and at the same time molested by the Devil who filled his Cell with Rats which with their Careers and noise added much unto his pain with great patience gave thanks unto the Lord that he had so gently chastized him saying My Lord Jesus Christ I deserve greater punishment but thou like a good Shepherd suffer me not to stray from thee Being in this meditation he heard a voice which said unto him Francis if all the Earth were of Gold and all the Rivers of Balsame and all the Rocks of precious Stones wouldest thou not say that this were a great treasure Know that a treasure which exceeds Gold as farre as Gold does Dirt Balsam Water or Precious-stones Pibbles remains as a reward for thy infirmity if thou be content and bear it with patience Rejoyce Francis for this treasure is Celestial glory which is gained by tribulations Certainly we have reason to suffer here all pains and poverty whatsoever since we are to receive in glory so much the greater riches Wherefore we ought to lift up our souls and weaning our hearts from the frail felicity of these temporal goods of the Earth to say with David Glorious things are said of thee City of God So did Fulgentius who entring Rome when it was yet in its lustre and beholding the greatness beauty and marvelous Architecture of it said with admiration O Celestial Jerusalem how beautiful must thou be if Terrestrial Rome be such A shadow of this was shewed unto St. Josaphat whose History is written by St. John Damascen In vita Josaph Barl. St Josaphat being in profound prayer prostrate upon the earth was overtaken with a sweet sleep in which he saw two men of grave demeanour who carried him through many unknown Countries unto a Field full of flowers and plants of rare beauty laden with fruit never before seen The leaves of the trees moved with a soft and gentle wind yielded a pleasant sound and breathed forth a most sweet odour there were placed many Seats of Gold and precious Stones which shined with a new kind of brightness and a little Brook of Chrystal water refreshed the air and pleased the sight with a most agreable variety From thence he was brought into a most beautiful City whose Walls were of transparent Gold the Towers and Battlements were of Stones of inestimable value the Streets and places shone with Celestial beams of light And there passed up and down bright Armies of Angels and Seraphins chanting such songs as were never heard by mortal ears Amongst other he heard a voice which said This is the repose of the Just this the joy of those who have given a good account of their lives unto God But all this is no more than a dream and a shadow in comparison of the truth greatness and riches of that Celestial Court. In regard that all the Blessed together with Christ are to raign in this most rich City and Kingdom how great shall the riches be who was ever so rich as to have at the entrance of his House a massie large piece of Gold two or three yards long What riches will those be of Heaven because all the Kingdom of Heaven is to be of pure Gold all the Streets and all the Houses of that Holy City and not only Gold but more than Gold The holy Scripture to make us on one part understand the riches of this Kingdom of God and on the other part to know that they are of a higher and more excellent nature than those of the Earth expresses them with the similitude of the riches of this World as Gold Pearl and precious Stones because by these names we understand things of great wealth and value but withall sets them forth for such as are not to be found upon earth so as when it speaks of Pearls it sayes they were so great as they served for the Gates of a City when it speaks of Emeralds and Topaz's it makes them to suffice for the foundatian of high Walls and Turrets when of Gold it makes it transparent as Glass or Chrystal All this is to signifie that in Heaven there are not onely greater riches but of a more sublime and high quality than ours upon Earth And with reason is that Holy City called the Kingdom of Heaven to let us know that the same advantage that Heaven hath above Earth the same have Celestial honours riches and joyes above those which are here below If the whole Earth is no more than a point in respect of the Heavens what can those short and corruptible riches be in respect of the eternal § 3. Of those incomparable riches the Blessed are not onely to be Lords but Kings as appears in many places of holy Scripture Neither is the Celestial Treasure â—or this Kingdom of Heaven less or poorer by having so many Lords and Kings It is not like the Kingdoms on Earthy which permit but one King at once and if divided become of less power and Majesty but is of such condition that it is wholly possessed by all in general and by each one in particular like the Sun which warms all and every one and not one less because it warms many The effects of riches are much greater and more noble in Heaven than they can be upon Earth Wealth may serve us here to maintain our power honours and delights but all the Gold in the world cannot free us from weakness infamy and pain The power of a rich King can reach no further than to Command his Vassals and those
a name behind them neither observed justice with others nor vertue in themselves how shall they change their glory into ignominie Let us by the way look upon some of them who have filled the world with their vain fame who shall in that day by so much suffer the greater disgrace by how much the world hath bestowed more undeserved honours upon them Who more glorious than Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar whom the world hath ever esteemed as the most great and valorous Captains that it ever produced and their glory still continues fresh after so many ages past What was all they did but acts of rapine without right or title unjustly tyrannizing over what was none of theirs and shedding much innocent blood to make themselves Lords of the Earth All these actions were vicious and therefore unworthy of honour fame or memory and since they have for so many hundreds of years remained in the applause and admiration of men there shall in that day fall upon them so much ignominy shame and confusion as shall recompence that past honour which they have unworthily received and viciously desired This ambition was so exorbitant in Alexander that hearing Anaxartes the Philosopher affirm that there were many worlds he sighed with great resentment and cried out Miserable me that am not yet Lord of one This devillish and vain pride was extolled by many for greatness of spirit but was in truth the height of vanity and arrogant ambition which could not be contained in one World but with one desire tyrannized over many and shall then be punished with the publick ignominy of all men not onely in respect of the fame which he hath so unjustly enjoyed but of the ill example which he hath given to others and principally unto Caesar who as he followed his example in tyranny did likewise imitate him in ambition and the desire of rule and vain honour De Alex. Vide Val. Max. l. 8. De Julio Caes Vid. Fulg. l. 8. and therefore beholding his Statue in Cadiz at such time as he was Questor in Spain complained of his own fortune that at the age wherein Alexander had subjugated all Asia he had yet done nothing of importance counting it for a matter of importance to tyrannize over the world and to the end he might make himself Lord of it to Captivate his Countrey In like manner Aristotle so celebrated for his Writings in which he consumed many sleepless nights onely to purchase Glory and to make it greater in his confuting of other Philosophers used little ingenuity taking their words in a far other sense than they meant or spake them This labour of his since it proceeded not from Virtue but was performed with so little candour and sincerity meerly to obtain a vain reputation deserved no Glory and therefore a confusion equal unto the Honour they unduly now give him shall then fall upon him And since he put his Disciple Theodectus to so much shame his own ambition will be to him occasion of greater confusion Vide Val. Max. l. 8. Aristotle gave to this his Disciple Theodectus certain Books of the Art of Oratory to the end he should divulge them But afterwards resenting much that another should carry all the praise he owned the said Books publickly And for this reason in other Books which he wrote he cites himself saying As he had said in the Books of Theodectus Wherein is clearly seen Aristotle's ambition or desire of Glory and therefore was unworthy of it and with just ignominy shall pay the unjust Glory he now possesseth In so much then as not only Fame and Memory are vain in respect they are to end and finish as all things with the world are but also because their undeserved and pretended Glory is then to be satisfied with equal shame and confusion the affront they shall receive in that one day being equivalent unto the fame and honour of thousands of years Neither can the most famous men amongst the Gentiles be admired by so many in ten ages as shall then scorn and contemn them How many are ignorant that there ever was an Alexander And how many in all their lives never heard of Aristotle And yet shall in that day know them not for their honour but confusion The name of the Great and admired Alexander is unknown unto more Nations than known The Japonlans Chineses Cafres Angolans other people and most extended and spacious Kingdoms never heard who he was and shall then know him onely for a publique Thief a Robber an Oppressor of the World and for a great and an ambitious Drunkard The same which is to pass in Fame and Memory is also to pass in Children in whom as St. Thomas says St. Thom. supra the Fathers live and as from many good Parents spring evil Children so contrariwise from evil Parents come those that are good which shall be in that day a confusion to those who begat them and by so much the greater by how much worse was the example which they gave them Neither shall the Judge onely enquire into the example they have given their Children but also unto strangers and principally the works which they have left behind them And therefore as from the deceit of Arius saith the Angelical Doctor and other Heretiques have and shall spring divers Errours and Heresies until the end of the World so it is fit that in that last day of time should appear the evil which hath been occasioned by them that we may in this life not onely take a care for our selves but others so as it is a terrible thing as Cajetan notes upon that Article before mention'd of the Angelical Doctor that the Divine judgement shall extend even to those things which are by accident which is as the Divines speak unto those which are besides our will and intention St. Thomas also informs us That by reason of the body which remains after death it was convenient that the sentence of each one in particular should be again repeated in that general Judgement of the whole World Because many Bodies of just men are now buried in the mawes of wild Beasts or otherwise remain without interrement and to the contrary great sinners have had sumptuous Burials and magnificent Sepulchres all which are to be recompensed in that day of the Lord and the sinner whose Body reposed in a rich Mausoleum shall then see himself not only without Ornaments and Beauty but tormented with intolerable pains and the just who died and had no Sepulchres but were devoured by ravenous Birds shall appear with the brightness of the Heavens and with a Body glorious as the Sun Let those consider this who consume vast sums in preparing for themselves stately Sepulchres and beautiful Urns engraving their Names Actions and Dignities in rich Marbles and let them know that all this if they shall be damned shall serve them in that day but for their greater shame and reproach Out of this life
but he who desires nothing There being in Heaven no desire unaccomplished there must needs be great riches It was also a position of the Stoicks That he was not poor who wanted but he who was necessitated Since then in the Celestial Kingdom there is necessity of nothing most rich is he who enters into it By reason of these Divine Riches Christ our Saviour when he speaks in his Parables of the Kingdom of Heaven doth often express it under Names and Enigma's of things that are rich sometimes calling it the Hidden Treasure and sometimes the Precious Pearl and other times the Lost Drachma For if Divine happiness consist in the eternal possession of God what riches may be compared with his who enjoyes him and what inheritance to that of the Kingdom of Heaven What Jewel more precious than the Divinity and what Gold more pure than the Creator of Gold and all things precious who gives himself for a Possession and Riches unto the Saints to the end they should abhorre those Riches which are temporal if by them the eternal are endangered Let not therefore those who are to die to morrow afflict themselves for that which may perish sooner than they Let them not toyl to enjoy that which they are shortly to leave nor let them with more fervour pray for those things which are transitory than those which are eternal preferring the Creature before the Creator not seeking God for what he is but for what he gives Wherefore St. Austin sayes Aug. in Psal 52. God will be served gratis will be beloved without interest that is purely for himself and not for any thing without himself and therefore he who in invokes God to make him rich does not invoke God but that which he desires should come unto him for what is invocation but calling something unto him wherefore when thou shalt say My God give me riches thou dost not desire that God but riches should come unto thee for if thou hadst invoked God he would have come unto thee and been thy riches but thou desiredst to have thy Coffers full and thy heart empty and God fills not Chests but breasts § 2. Besides the possession of God it imports us much to frame a conception of this Kingdom of Heaven which is that of the Just where they shall reign with Christ eternally whose riches must needs be immense since they are to be Kings of so great and ample a Kingdom The place then which the Blessed are to inhabit is called she Kingdom of Heaven because it is a most large Region and much greater than can perhaps fall under the capacity of our understanding And if the Earth compared with Heaven be but a point and yet contain so many Kingdoms what shall that be which is but one Kingdom and yet extended over the whole Heavens How poor and narrow a heart must that Christian have who confines his love to things present sweating and toyling for a small part of the goods of this World which it self is so little why does he content himself with some poor patch of the Earth when he may be Lord of the whole Heavens Although this Kingdom of God be so great and spacious yet it is not dispeopled but as full of Inhabitants of all Nations and conditions as if it were a City or some particular House There as the Apostle said are many thousands of Angels an infinite number of the Just even as many as have died since Abel and thither also shall repair all who are to die unto the end of the World and after judgement shall there remain for ever invested in their glorious bodies There shall inhabit the Angelical Spirits distinguished with great decency into their Nine Orders unto whom shall correspond Nine others of the Saints Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs Confessors Pastors Doctors Priests and Levites Monks and Hermits Virgins and other holy Women This populous City shall not be inhabited with mean and base People but with Citizens so noble rich just and discreet that all of them shall be most holy and wise Kings How happy shall it be to live with such persons The Queen of Saba onely to see Salomon came from the end of the Earth and to see Titus Livius Nations and Provinces far distant came to Rome To behold a King issue out of his Palace all the People flock together What shall it then be not onely to see but to live and raign with so many Angels and converse with so many eminent and holy Men If onely to see St. Anthony in the Desert men left their Houses and Countries what joy shall it be to discourse and converse with so many Saints in Heaven If there should now descend from thence one of the Prophets or Apostles with what earnestness and admiration would every one strive to see and hear him In the other World we shall hear and see them all St. Romane at the sight of one Angel when he was a Gentile left the world and his life to become a Christian How admirable shall it then be to see thousand of thousands in all their beauty and greatness and so many glorious bodies of Saints in all their lustre If one Sun be sufficient to clear up the whole World here below what joy shall it be to behold those innumerable Sum in that Region of light From this multitude of Inhabitants the place of glory is not only called the Kingdom of Heaven but the City of God It is called a Kingdom for its immense greatness and a City for its great beauty and population It is not like other Kingdoms and Provinces which contain huge Deserts inaccessible Mountains and thick Woods nor is it devided into many Cities and Villages distant one from another but this Kingdom of God although a most spacious Region is all one beautiful City Who would not wonder if all Spain or Italy were but one City and that as beautiful as Rome in the time of Augustus Caesar who found it of Brick and left it of Marble What a sight were that of Chaldaea if it were all a Babylon or that of Syria if all a Jerusalem What shall then be the Celestial City of Saints whose greatness possesses the whole Heavens and is as the holy Scripture describes it to exaggerate the riches of the Saints all of Gold and precious Stones The Gates pf this City were as St. John sayes one entire Pearl and the foundations of the Walls Jasper Saphire Calcedon Emerald Topaz Jacinth Amethist and other most precious Stones The Streets of fine Gold so pure as it seemed Chrystal joyning in one substance the firmness of Gold and transparency of Chryftal and the beauty both of one and the other If all Rome were of Saphire how would it amaze the world how marvelous then will the holy City be which though extended over so many millions of leagues is all of Gold Pearl and precious Stones or to say better of a matter of farre more value
reason it is not a sufficient expression to say they are evils but they are to be tearmed evils excessively great No man will admire this who knows the grievousness of a mortal sin for committing of which as he is a man he deserves hell and as he is Christian according to St. Austin a new hell that is an Infidel merits one hell and a Christian two who knowing Christ incarnate and crucified for him durst yet sin and offend him Sin is an excessive evil because it is an infinite evil and therefore it is not too much if it be chatized with infinite evils It is an evil which is greater than the whole collection of all other evils and for this reason 't is not too much rigour that the sinner should be chastized with the collection of all evils together Those who wonder at the terribleness of eternal pains know not the terribleness of sin Whereupon St. Austin sayes Aug. lib. 21. c. 12. Therefore the eternal pains seem hard and injust unto humane apprehension because in the weakness of our natural understanding the sense of that eternal wisdom is wanting by which might be perceived the great malice of the first prevatication If then for that first sin committed when Christ had not yet died for man eternal damnation was not thought too much what shall it be when we know that our Redeemer was so gracious as to give his life because we should not sin From the necessity of so costly and precious a Medecine may be collected the greatness of the infirmity I say the greatness and danger of a disease is known by the extraordinary remedies which are applyed unto it and by the things which are sought out for the cure and without which the malady would be without remedy We may therefore gather the infinite malice of a mortal sin because there was no other means sufficient but one so extraordinary as was God to become Man and give his own life for Man dying a death so shameful and painful as he did offering a price so great as was the excessive worth and infinite price of his merits and passion Sin is an injurie against God and as the injurie increases according to the greatness and worth of the person offended so God being infinite the injury becomes of infinite malice and as God is a good which includes all goods so a mortal sin which is an injury done unto him is a mischief which exceeds all evils and ought to be punished with all pains and torments § 3. Let us now consider the several sorts of pains in Hell and the greatness of them In the Roman Laws according to Tully and Albertus Magnus we find mentioned eight several kindes of punishments Alber. Mag. l. 7. Comp. Theolog. c. 22. which are The punishment of Loss when one is mulcted in his goods The punishment of Infamy Banishment Imprisonment Slavery Whipping Death and the punishment of Talion To these may be reduced all the rest and we shall find the Divine Justice to exercise them all upon those who have despised his mercy and injured his infinite bounty and goodness In the first place there is the pain of Loss and that so rigorous that the depriving the damned Soul of one onely thing they take from him all good things For they deprive him of God in whom they are all comprised This is the greatest pain that can be imagined O how miserable and poor must the damned Soul be who hath lost God for all eternity He who is condemned by humane Laws to the loss of his goods may if he live gain others at least in another Kingdom if he flye thither but he who is deprived of God where shall he find another God and who can flye from Hell God is the greatest good and it is therefore the greatest evil to be deprived of him Because as St. John Damascen sayes evil is the privation of good and that is to be esteemed the greatest evil which is a privation of the greatest good which is God and must certainly therefore cause more grief and resentment in the Damned than all the torments and punishments of Hell besides And in regard there is in Hell an eternal privation of God who is the chief Good the pain of Loss whereby one is deprived for ever of the greatest of all goods this privation will cause the greatest pain and torment If the burning of a hand cause an insufferable pain by reason that the excessive heat deprives the Body of its natural temper and good constitution which is but a poor and short good how shall he be tormented who is deprived and eternally separated from so great a Good as is God If a bone displaced or out of joynt causeth intolerable grief because it is deprived of his due state and place what shall it cause in a rational creature to lye eternally separated from God who is the chief end for which he was created Chrys 24. in Math. Tom. 2. fol. 82 p. 2. St. Chrysostome gives us some understanding of this grief when he sayes He who burns in Hell loses also the Kingdom of Heaven which is certainly a greater punishment than that torment of flames I know many who are afraid of Hell but I dare confidently say that the amission of glory is far more bitter than all those pains which are to be suffered in Hell And no wonder that this cannot be exprest in words since we know not well the happiness of those divine rewards by the want of which we ought also to measure the infelicity of their loss but we shall then without doubt learn when we are taught by sad experience Then our eyes shall be opened then the vail shall be taken away then shall the wicked perceive to their greater grief and confusion the difference betwixt that eternal and chief good and the frail and transitory pleasures of this life If St. Chrysostome says this of the loss of the reward of eternal happiness that it is a greater evil than the torment of hell fire what shall the loss of God be not onely as our Good but also for as much that in himself he is the chief Good of which the damned are to be deprived for all eternity Moreover this condemnation of a Sinner unto the loss of God and all which is good shall extend so far that he shall be deprived even of the hope of what is good and shall be left for ever in that profound poverty and necessity without expectation of remedy or relief What greater want can any one have than to want all things and even hope of obtaining any thing We are amazed at the poverty of holy Job who from a Prince and a rich man came to lye upon a dunghil having nothing left but a piece of a broken pot to scrape away the putrifaction from his sores But even this shall fail the damned who would take it for a great Regalo to have a dunghil for their bed
instead of the burning coals of that eternal fire Neither shall they be Masters so much as of that broken pot wherein to contain a little water if it might be given them Jsai 30. For as Isaias sayes There shall not remain unto them so much as the shread of a broken pot to hold a little water from the pit nor shall there be any found to give it them That rich Glutton in the Gospel accustomed to drink in Cups of Chrystal to eat in Silver and to be cloathed in Silks and curious Linnens can tell us how far this infernal poverty extends when he demanded not wines of Candie but a little cold water and that not in Cups of Gold or Chrystal but upon the fingers end of a Leper This rich and nice Glutton came to such an extremity that he would esteem it a great felicity that they would give him but one drop of water although it were from the filthy and loathsome finger of a Leper and yet this also was wanting unto him Let the rich of the World see to what poverty they are like to come if they trust in ther riches let them know that they shall be condemned to the loss of all which is good Let them reflect upon him who was accustomed to be cloathed in precious Garments to tread upon Carpets to sleep upon Down to dwell in spacious Palaces now naked thrown upon burning coals and packt up in some narrow corner of that infernal Dungeon Let us therefore fear the riches of this World and the poverty of the other §. 4. This poverty or want of all good of the damned is accompanied with a most opprobrious infamy and dishonour when by publick sentence they shall be deprived for their enormous offences of eternal glory and reprehended in the presence of Saints and Angels by the Lord of Heaven and Earth This infamy shall be so great that St. Chrysostom speaks of it in these words A most intolerable thing is Hell Chrys in Math. 24. and most horrible are the torments yet if me should place a thousand Hells before me nothing could be so horrible unto me as to be excluded from the honour of glory to be hated of Christ and to hear from him these words I know you not This infamy we may in some sort declare under the example of a mighty King who having no Heir to succeed him in his Kingdom took up a beautiful Boy at the Church door and nourished him as his Son and in his Testament commanded that if at ripe years his conditions were vertuous and sutable to his calling he should be received as lawful King and seated in his Royal Throne but if he proved vitious and unfit for Government they should punish him with infamy and send him to the Gallies The Kingdom obeyed this Command provided him excellent Masters and Tutors but he became so untoward and ill-inclined that he would learn nothing flung away his books spent his time amongst other Boyes in making houses of dirt and other childish fooleries for which his Governors corrected and chastised him and advised him of what was fitting and most imported him but all did no good onely when they reprehended him he could weep not because he repented but because they hindred his sport and the next day did the same The more he grew in age the worse he became and although they informed him of the Kings Testament and what behooved him all was to no purpose until at last after all possible care and diligence his Tutors and the whole Kingdom weary of his ill conditions in a publick Assembly declared him unworthy to raign dispoiled him of his Royal Ornaments and condemned him with infamy unto the Gallies What greater affront and ignominy can there be than this to lose a Kingdom and to be made a Gally-slave for I do not know which of these things that young man would be more sensible of More ignominious and a more lamentable Tragedy is that of a Christian condemned to Hell who was taken by God from the gates of death adopted his Son with condition that if he kept his Commandments he should raign in Heaven and if not he should be condemned to Hell Yet he forgetting these obligations without respect of his Tutors and Masters who were the holy Angels especially his Angel Guardian who failed not to instill into him holy inspirations and other learned and spiritual men who exhorted him both by their doctrine and example what was fitting for a Child of God But he neither moved by their advices nor the chastisements of Heaven by which God overthrew his vain intentions and thwarted his unlawful pleasures onely lamented his temporal losses and not his offences and at the time of his death was sentenced to be deprived of the Kingdom of Heaven and precipitated into Hell What infamy can be greater than this of the damned Soul for if it be a great infamy to suffer death by Humane Justice for some crimes committed how great an infamy will it be to be condemned by Divine Justice for a Traitor and perfidious Rebel to God Besides this bitterness of pains the damned persons shall also be eternally branded with the infamy of their offences so as they shall be scorned and scoft at by the Devils themselves and not onely Devils but all rational creatures Men and Angels shall detest them as infamous and wicked Traitors to their King God and Redeemer Jsai 13. Facies combustae vultus eorum And as fugitive Slaves are marked and cauterized with burning irons so this infamy by some special mark of ugliness and deformity shall be stamped upon their faces and bodies so as Albertus Magnus sayes so ignominious shall be the body of a Sinner that when his Soul returns to enter it it shall be amazed to behold it so horrible and shall wish it were rather in the same state as when it was half eaten up by worms CAP. IX The Punishment of the Damned from the horribleness of the place into which they are banished from Heaven and made Prisoners in Hell ANother kind of punishment of great discomfort and affliction is that of Exile which the Damned shall suffer in the highest degree For they shall be banished into the profound bowels of the Earth a place most remote from Heaven and the most calamitous of all others where they shall neither see the Sun by day nor the Stars by night where all shall be horror and darkness and therefore it was said of that condemned person Cast him forth into utter darkness forth of the City of God forth of the Heavens forth of this World where he may never more appear into that land which is called in the Book of Job A dark land Job 10. covered with the obscurity of death a land of misery and darkness where the shadow of death and no order but everlasting horror inhabits a land according to Isaias Jsai 34. of sulphur and burning pitch a land of
he after proved so excellent a Bishop and so perfect a follower of Christ that he came to give his blood for his holy name joyning to the Crown of a most holy life the Laurel of martyrdom No less wonderful was that contempt of the world in Simeon Sales Evagrius lib. 4. coll 33. who living as it is reported by Leontius and Evagrius in great poverty and contempt covered as much as he could his fasts large hours of prayer which he spent with God And to that end when he was in publique endeavoured so to behave himself as all men might take him for a fool and a distracted mad-man without the appearance of any virtue at all so as he was often seen to enter Taverns and when after his great fasts his hunger caused him to eat he would feed openly in the Streets upon vile and course meats and if any of understanding by chance looked more narrowly into his way of living as suspecting that what he did might be to conceal his vertues so soon as he had the least inkling of it he would presently depart to some other place where he might be free from knowledge or esteem It happened in a certain place where he was that one finding a Maid with child and urging her to confess who had defloured her she to conceal the offender laid it upon Simeon the Fool for so they called him He contradicted it not but was contented for Christs sake to bear the infamy until God was pleased that the true Father of the Child should be discovered and in the mean time had so much charity towards her who had laid that scandal upon him that she being in great necessity and infirm of her child-birth he secretly brought her to eat But our Lord at last made him venerable to the whole world who had made himself a fool to gain the wisdom of Heaven There are many also who to avoid the opinion of Saints and the honour which the people gave them have done things extraordinary and such as in the eyes of men seemed unworthy Gra. 25. §. 1. St. John Climacus writes that blessed Father Simeon understanding that the Governour of the Province came to visit him as a man famous for sanctity took a piece of bread and cheese in his hand and sitting at the door of his Cell eat it in that ravenous and odd manner that he seemed out of his wits and the Governour conceiving him to be so contemned him and returned home There lived also in the inner part of the Desert a Venerable old man unto whom a Disciple had associated himself to learn his sanctity and serve him Upon the fame of his holy life a certain man repaired unto him and with tears in his eyes besought him he would come unto his house and pray for his Son who was grievously sick The Hermite was content to goe along with him but the Father of the Child made haste before that he might in company of his Neighbours return and meet him and so receive him with more honour No sooner did the old man perceive him a farre off in this equipage but presently imagining what the matter meant he stript himself and plunging into a River close by began to bathe himself His Disciple being much ashamed of this light action wished the people to return home For the old man was out of his wits And going to his Master said Father what is it thou hast done all those who saw thee thought thou wert possest To whom the holy man answered It is well It is that which I desired §. 3. Amongst those who with Evangelical poverty have embraced the contempt of the world many have been great Lords Princes Kings and Emperours Amongst the Almanes their Prince Charles is the most famous who being rich and highly esteemed for his glorious actions touched with the desire of heavenly things left all to his Brother Pepin came to Rome built a Monastery upon the Mount St. Silvester and there remained sometime a Monk but being much troubled with the many visits of the City which was at hand and his retirement disquieted he left it and went to Mont-Cassino where he was received by Petronace the Abbot and there lived with great joy and content and profited so much in the exercises of humility that it is written in the Annals of the Monastery that the Abbot appointed him to take care of the Flock which mean office he executed with as great chearfulness as if he had governed a Kingdom as before and one of his Ews by chance falling lame he was seen to carry her home upon his shoulders a King not disdaining so mean a service We know also in our Spain that King Bamba after he had raigned eleven years and performed many brave actions deprived the Pirats of Africa of 200 Ships and taken Paul their King who went against the King of France prisoner The last of his glorious actions was to close himself up in a Monastery where he lived seaven years in great observance of Religion and died the year 674 And was after in 786 imitated by Bermudus King of Castile There is scarce any Province of Christendom wherein some Prince hath not renounced his temporal Kingdom for gaining the eternal instructing us that true greatness consists in humbling our selves for Christ and true riches in being poor both in will and deed But not to enlarge my self too far in recounting the Stories of those many Princes who have known how to exchange their temporal Riches for an eternal Kingdom I will content my self with relating one which includes many examples Cantiprat l. 2. c. 10. p. 2. Hen. Gran. d. 5. Ex. 25. Thomas de Cantiprato witnesses that in his time died St. Matilda Daughter to the King of Scots who had four Brothers The first being a Duke desiring to become poor for Christs sake left his wife and fortunes and forsook his Country The second bidding also farewell unto the world became an Hermite The third was an Arch-Bishop who quitting his Bishoprick entred into the Order of the Cistercians The fourth named Alexander was the youngest of all his Brothers and being now arrived at sixteen years of age his Father would have compelled him to take the Government of the Kingdom upon him Which being understood by his Sister Matilda who was twenty years old she called him aside and spake unto him in this manner My most sweet Brother what is that thou meanest to doe Thy elder Brothers have forsaken the things of the Earth to gain those of Heaven and wilt thou to gain this Temporal Kingdom which they have left lose that which is eternal and thy own Soul Alexander his eyes becoming fountains of tears answered her in this manner Sister what is it you advise me I am ready to execute your commands without varying in the least circumstance The holy Maid glad of his resolution changed her habit and both of them secretly leaving their Country came into
and therefore reprehended his Nephew for spending a short time in walking for his recreation telling him that those hours might be better imployed and being present when the same Nephew caused one which in reading pronounced a word with an ill accent to repeat it again admonisht him that too much time was lost in that useless repetition Seneca esteemed time above all price and value and in this manner sayes Redeem thy self unto thy self recover and preserve that time which hitherto hath been taken surprised or slipt from thee For whom wilt thou give me that shall set a price upon time or give a value unto a day who understands himselt daily to die If therefore the Gentils who had no hope by time to purchase Eternity made so great account of it what shall we Christians unto whom it is an occasion of eternal happiness Let us therefore hear St. Bernard Serm ad Scho. There is nothing sayes he more precious than time But out alass nothing at this day is more vilified A day of salvation is past and no man reflects on it no man thinks no man complains that he hath lost a day which shall never râ—â—rn But as a hair from the head so a moment of time shall not perish The same Saint also grieving to see a thing so precious so much mispent speaks in this manner Let no man make a small esteem of the time which is spent in idle words Say some We may yet chat and talk untill this hour be past O wretched speech Vntil this hour be past This being the hour which the goodness of thy Creator hath bestowed upon thee that in it thou mayest do penance for thy sins obtain pardon acquire grace and merit glory O lamentable speech Whilst this hour passes this being the hour wherein thou mayst gain divine mercy and commiseration In another part he speaks much to the same purpose exhorting us to benefit our selves by the time of this life His words are these Serm. 75. in Cant. Whilest we have time let us do good unto all especially since our Lord said plainly that the night would come when no man could work Art thou perhaps to find some other time in the world to come wherein thou mayst seek God and wherein thou mayst do good This being the time wherein he hath promised to remember thee and is therefore the day of mercy because here our God and King hath long agoe wrought thy salvation in the middest of the earth goe then and expect thy salvation in the middest of hell What possibility doest thou dream of obtaining pardon in the middest of eternal flames when the time of mercy is already past No sacrifice tor sin remains tor thee being dead in sin no more shall the Son of God be crucified for thee Once he died and shall now die no more That blood which he spilt upon the earth shall not descend into hell The sinners of the earth have drunk it up There is no part left for the devils or for sinners which are the companions of devils wherewith to quench their flames Once descended thither not the blood but the soul of Christ This only visit made by the presence of the soul when the body hung without life upon the Cross was the portion of them who were in prison The blood watered the dry land the blood was poured upon the thirsty earth and did as it were inebriate it The blood wrought peace for those who were upon earth and those who are in heaven but not for those which were in hell beneath the earth Once only as we have said the soul went thither and made in part redemption speaking of the souls of the Holy Fathers who were in Limbo that even for that moment the works of charity might not be wanting but it passed no farther Now is the time acceptable now is the time fit wherein to seek God And certainly he that seeks him shall finde him if so be he seek him when and where he ought to do All this from St. Bernard § 2. Consider what an eternal repentance will follow thee if thou makest not use of this occasion of time for the purchasing of the Kingdom of Heaven especially when thou shalt see that with so little adoe thou mightest have gained that everlasting glory which to satisfie a short pleasure thou hast lost tor ever In what to fury and madness was Esau Gen. 19. when he reflected that his younger brother had gotten the Blessing of the first born by his own base selling his Birth-right for a dish of Lentils he cried out and tore himself for spite and anger Behold thy self in this mirrour who for one vile and short pleasure hast sold the Kingdom of Heaven If God had then thrown thee into hell what wouldest thou have done but lamented that with eternal tears which in so short a time was lost Cain when he perceived that he and his posterity were cursed and made infamous for not knowing how to benefit himself by that occasion Gen. 9. which was first offered unto him and made use of by his Brother what resentment had he then or ought to have had Measure by this the sense of a damned person who for not making use of the time of this lite shall see himself cursed by God for an Eternity and others far less than himself made blessed and rewarded in heaven The Sons-in-law of Loth when they saw they might have escaped the fire and that being invited they had rejected and laughed at the counsel of their Father-in-law when afterwards they perceived it to rain fire and sulphur upon them and their Cities what grief and vexation had they for refusing the benefit of so fair an occasion offered at their own doors O what sorrow what pain what madness what desperation shall seise upon a damned creature when he shall call to mind how often he hath been invited by Christ to salvation and shall now feel a tempest of fire and sulphur pouring down upon him for ever in hell King Hannon who had so good an occasion to preserve that peace whereunto he was intreated and invited by David when after he saw his Cities ruin'd the Inhabitants burnt like bricks in a furnace some thrasht to death others torn in pieces what would he have given to have made use in time of so fair an offer or of holding friendship with so great a King but what is this in respect of what a sinner shall feel when he shall see himself burnt in hell fire become an eternal enemy of the King of Heaven and deprived tor ever of raigning with his blessed Saints what despite what grief of heart shall he then have The evil Theef who was crucified with the Saviour of the world what doth he now endure for refusing that good occasion which his companion embraced what a repentance hath now the rich Glutton for not laying hold of so great an opportunity offered him at his own home
peeces and he above all remained distracted in his wits raging with despite and madness Let us now consider Antiochus in all his pomp and glory glittering in Gold and dazling the eyes of the beholders with the splendor of his Diamonds and precious Jewels mounted upon a stately Courser commanding over numerous Armies and making the very earth tremble under him Let us then behold him in his Bed pale and wan his strength and spirits spent his loathsome body flowing with worms and corruption forsaken by his own people by reason of his pestilential and poisonous stink which infected his whole Camp and finally dying mad and in a rage Who seeing such a death would with the felicity of his life who with the condition of his misery would desire his fortune See then wherein the goods of this life conclude And as the clear and sweet waters of Jordan end in the filthy mud of the dead Sea and are swallowed up in that noysome Bitumen so the greatest splendor of this life concludes in death and those loathsome diseases which usually accompany it Act. 12. Vide Josephum Behold in what a sink of filth ended the two Herods most potent Princes Ascalonita and Agrippa This who cloathed himself in Tissue and boasted a Majesty above humane dyed devoured by worms which whilst he yet lived fed upon his corrupted and apostumated flesh flowing with horrible filth and matter Neither came the other Ascalonita to finish his dayes more happily being consumed by lice that nasty vermin by little and little bereaving him both of his life and Kingdom 3 Reg. 20. King Achab Conqueror of the King of Syria and 32 other Princes dyed wounded by a chance-arrow which pierced his body and stained his Royal Charriot with his black gore which was after licked up by hungry Dogs as it he had been some savage beast 3 Reg. 22. Neither dyed his Son Joram a more fortunate death run through the heart with a sword his body left upon the field to be devoured by birds and beasts of prey wanting in his death seaven foot of earth to cover him who in life commanded a Kingdom Who could have known Caesar who had first seen him triumph over the Conquered world and then beheld him gasping for a little breath and weltring in his own bloud which flowed from three and twenty wounds opened by so many stabs Who could believe it were the same Cyrus he who subdued the Medes conquered the Assyrian and Chaldaean Empire he who amazed the world with thirty years success of continued Victories now taken prisoner and put to an ignominious death by the Command of a Woman Who could think it were the same Alexander Plut. in ejus vita who in so short time subjugated the Persians Indians and the best part of the known world and should after behold him conquered by a Calenture feeble exhausted in body dejected in spirit dried up and parched with thirst without taste in his mouth or content in his life his eyes sunk his nose sharp his tongue cleaving to his pallat not being able to pronounce one word What an amazement is it that the heat of a poor Fever should consume the mightiest power and fortune of the world and that the greatest of temporal and humane prosperities should be drowned by the overflowing of one irregular and inordinate humour How great a Monster is Humane Life since it consists of so disproportionable parts the uncertain felicity of our whose life ending in a most certain misery How prodigious were that Monster which should have one arm of a Man and the other of an Elephant one foot of a Horse and the other of a Bear Truly the parts of this life are not much more sutable Who would marry a woman though of a comely and well proportioned body who had the head of an ugly Dragon certainly although she had a great Dowry none would covet such a Bed-fellow Wherefore then do we wed our selves unto this life which although it seems to carry along with it much content and happiness yet is in effect no less a Monster since although the body appear unto us beautiful and pleasant yet the end of it is horrible and full of misery And therefore a Philosopher said well that the end of things was their head and as men were to be known and distinguished by their faces so things by their ends and therefore who will know what life is let him look upon the end And what end of life is not full of misery Let no man flatter himself with the vigour of his health with the abundance of his riches with the splendor of his authority with the greatness of his fortune for by how much he is more fortunate by so much shall he be more miserable since his whole life is to end in misery Wherefore Agesilaus hearing the King of Persia cried up for a most fortunate and happy Prince reprehended those who extolled him saying Have patience Plutar. in ejus vita for even King Priamus whose end was so lamentable was not unfortunate at the age of the King of Persia Giving us to understand that the most happy were not to be envied whilest they lived by reason of the uncertainty of that end whereunto they are subject How many as yet appear most happy whose death will shortly discover the infelicity of their lives Plutar. in Apoph Graecis Epaminondas when they asked him who was the greatest Captain Cabrias Iphicrates or himself Answered that whilest they lived no man could judge but that the last day of their lives would deliver the Sentence and give each one their due Let no man be deceived in beholding the prosperity of a rich man let him not measure his felicity by what he sees at present but by the end wherein he shall conclude not by the sumptuousness of his Palaces not by the multitude of his Servants not by the bravery of his Apparel not by the lustre of his Dignity but let him expect the end of that which he so much admires and he shall then perceive him at best to die in his Bed dejected dismayed and strugling with the pangs and anxieties of death and if so he comes off Well otherwise wise the daggers of his enemy the teeth of some wild beast or a tyle thrown upon his head by some violent wind may serve to make an end of him when he least thinks of it This reason tells us although we had no experience of it But we see it daily confirmed by the testimony of those who are already in the gates of death and no man can better judge of life than he who stands with his back towards it Mago Dionysius Carth. de noviss Art 5. a famous Captain amongst the Carthaginians and Brother to the great Hannibal being mortally wounded confessed this truth unto his Brother saying O how great a madness is it to glory in an Eminent Command The estate of the most
been some revelations of great comfort It was revealed to St. Gertrude that as often as St. Joseph was named here upon Earth all the blessed in Heaven made a low bow What greater honour can be expected what comparison can all the expressions of respect and adorations of all the men in this World have with one onely inclination and reverence expressed by one Saint of Heaven What then shall be a reverence exhibited by them altogether The Church sayes of St. Martin that at his entrance into Heaven he was received with Celestial hymns that is with songs which the blessed sung in praise of his prowess and victory If Saul thought the honour too much which was given to David by the Damsels when they celebrated his Victory in their songs What shall it be to be celebrated by all the Saints and Angels in Celestial responsories Bellar. de aeter felic lib. 4. c. 2. Cardinal Bellarmine conceives that when a Servant of God enters into Heaven he shall be received with such musick all the blessed in Heaven often repeating those words in the Gospel Well done good servant and true because thou hast been faithful in a few things thou shalt be plac'd over much Enter into thy Lords joy which words they shall repeat in Quires This shall be a Song of Victory an honour above all the honours of the Earth conferred by so great so wise so holy and so authentique persons Whereupon St. Austin said Lib. 22. de Civit. c. 30. There shall be the true glory where none shall be praised by the error or flattery of the praiser and there the true honour which shall neither be denyed to the worthy nor granted unto the unworthy § 3. Although the honour and applause which the Just receive in Heaven from the Citizens of that holy City be incomparable yet that honour and respect with which God himself shall treat them is far above it Christ our Redeemer to express it uses no meaner a similitude than that of the honour done by the Servant unto his Lord and therefore sayes that God himself shall as it were serve the Blessed in Heaven at their Table It is much amongst men to be seated at the Table of a Prince but for a King to serve his Vassal as if he himself were his Servant who ever heard it Certainly with much reason David said unto God That his Servants were too much honoured And the same David when he caused Miphiboseth although the Grandchild of a King and the Son of an excellent Prince unto whom David ought his life to sit at his Table he thought he did him a singular honour but this favour never extended to wait on him Aman Esther 6. who was the most proud and ambitious man in the world could not think of a greater honour from King Assuerus than to ride through the Streets mounted upon the Kings own horse and that the greatest man in the Kingdom should lead him by the bridle but that the King himself should perform that service never entred into his imagination The honour which God bestows upon the Just exceeds all humane imagination who not satisfied with crowning all the Blessed with his own divinity giving himself to be possessed and enjoyed by them for all eternity does also honour their victories and heroick actions with new Crowns Lib. 10. Apum Thomas de Cantiprato writes of Alexander brother to St. Matilde and Son to the King of Scots that he appeared unto a certain Monk with two Crowns and being demanded why he had them doubled he answered This which I wear upon my head is common unto me with all the blessed but that which I carry in my hand is given me for renouncing my Kingdom upon Earth But above all the Martyrs Virgins and Doctors shall appear most glorious whom God shall honour with certain particular marks of honour by which they shall be known and distinguished from the rest of the Blessed which seals and marks shall be imprinted in their Souls like the indelible characters of Baptism Confirmation and Priesthood which are to endure for all eternity Of the Doctors the Prophet Daniel sayes They shall shine like the Stars in the Firmament giving us to understand that as the Stars excel the other parts of the Firmament by the advantage of their light so the Doctors shall be known in Heaven by a more glorious splendor which they shall cast from them And if the least Saint in Heaven shall shine seaven times more than the Sun what shall that light be which shall outshine so many Suns Apoc. 21. Of the Martyrs St. John saith That they went cloathed in white carrying palms in their hands in sign of victory For as Kings are honoured by wearing Purple and holding Scepters so Conquerors by their candid Garments and Palms Apoc. 21. The same St. John also sayes of Virgins That the name of Christ and his Father shall be imprinted in their foreheads which shall be as a token to distinguish them from the rest of Saints conformable unto that of the Prophet Isaias who sayes that a more noble and excellent name shall be given to Virgins than unto the rest of the Sons of God by which name St. Augustin sayes is meant some particular Devise which shall distinguish them from the rest as the more eminent men are distinguished from others by their several Titles of honour Besides this those members of the Blessed by which they have more specially served God or suffered for him Aug. 22. de Civit. Dei. shall as St. Austin notes cast forth some particular light and splendour so as every wound which St. Stephen received from his stoning shall cast forth a particular beam of light And with what a Garment of glory shall St. Bartholmew be clad who was flead from head to foot In the like manner St. James Intercisus who was hacked in pieces member by member for the faith of Christ Even the Confessors in those Senses which they have mortified for Christ shall have a particular Enamel of light St. John the Evangelist was shewed to St. Matilde with a particular splendour and glory in his eyes for not daring to lift them up to look upon our Blessed Lady when he lived with her for the great esteem and reverence he bore unto her There is no kind of honour which shall not then be given to the heroical acts of vertue performed by the Saints in this life which shall be to be read in the particular persons of the predestinate so as there shall be no necessity of Histories Annals or Statues to make known or eternize their memories as here in worldly honours which being short transitory and of small endurance have need of something to preserve them in the memory of men For this the Romans erected Statues unto those whom they intended to honour because being mortal there should something remain after death to make their persons and services which they had done
his Body cast forth a most fragrant perfume If this be in corruptible flesh what shall be in the immortal Bodies of the Saints The taste also in that blessed Country shall not want the delight of its proper object For although the Saints shall not there feed which were to necessitate that happy state unto something besides it self yet the tongue and pallat shall be satiated with most pleasant and savoury relishes so as with great decency and cleanliness they shall have the delight of meat without the trouble of eating by reason of the great delicacy of this Celestial taste The glory of the Saints is often signified in holy Scripture under the names of a Supper Banquet Manna Aug. lib. de spiritu vita Laur. Justin de Dis Mon. ca. 23. St. Austin sayes it cannot be explicated how great shall be the delight and sweetness of the taste which shall eternally be found in Heaven And St. Laurentius Justinianus affirms that an admirable sweetness of all that can be delightful to the taste shall satisfie the pallat with a most agreeable satiety If Esau sold his Birthright for a dish of Lentil pottage well may we mortifie our taste here upon earth that we may enjoy that perfect and incomparable one in Heaven The touch also shall there receive a most delightful entertainment All they tread upon shall seem unto the Just to be flowers and the whole disposition of their Bodies shall be ordered with a most sweet and exquisite temperature For as the greatest penances of the Saints were exercised in this sense by the afflictions endured in their Bodies so it is reason that this sense should then receive a particular reward And as the torments of the damned in hell are most expressed in that sense so the Bodies of the Blessed in Heaven are in that sense to receive a special joy and refreshment And as the heat of that infernal fire without light is to penetrate even to the entrals of those miserable persons so the candor and brightness of the celestial light is to penetrate the bodies of the Blessed and fill them with an incomparable delight and sweetness All then what we are to do is to live in that true and perfect life all is to be joy in that eternal happiness Therefore as St. Anselme sayes Ansel de Simil. c. 59. the eyes nose mouth hands even to the bowels and marrow of the bones and all and every part of the body in general and particular shall be sensible of a most admirable pleasure and content Joan. de Tamba Trac de Deliciis sensibilibus Paradisi Et Nich. de Nise de quat Noviss 3. Myst 4. Consi The Humanity of Christ our Redeemer is to be the principal and chief joy of all the Senses and therefore John Tambescensis and Nicholas of Nise say that as the intellectual knowledge of the Divinity of Christ is the joy and essential reward of the Soul so the sensitive knowledge of the Humanity of Christ is the chief good and essential joy of the Senses and the utmost end and felicity whereunto they can aspire This it seems was meant by our Saviour in St. John when speaking unto the Father he said This is life eternal that is essential blessedness as Nicholas de Nise interprets it that they know thee the only true God in which is included the essential glory of the Soul and him whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ in which is noted the essential blessedness of the Senses in so much as onely in the Humanity of our Saviour the appetite of the Senses shall be so perfectly satisfied as they shall have no more to desire but in it shall receive all joy pleasure and fulness of delight for the eyes shall be the sight of him who is above all beauty for the ears one onely word of his shall sound more sweetly than all the harmonious musick of the Celestial spirits for the smell the fragrancy that shall issue from his most holy Body shall exceed the perfume of spices for the taste and touch to kiss his feet and sacred wounds shall be beyond all sweetness It is much also to be noted that the blessed Souls shall be crowned with some particular joyes which the very Angels are not capable of For first it is they onely who are to enjoy the Crowns of Doctors Virgins and Martyrs since no Angel can have the glory to have shed his blood and died for Christ neither to have overcome the flesh and by combats and wrastlings subjected it unto reason Wherefore Saint Bernard said The chastity of men was more glorious than that of Angels Secondly men shall have the glory of their bodies and joy of their senses which the Angels cannot For as they want the enemy of the Spirit which is the Flesh so they must want the glory of the victory Neither shall they have this great joy of mankind in being redeemed by Christ from sin and as many damnations into hell as they have committed mortal sins and to see themselves now freed and secure from that horrid evil and so many enemies of the Soul which they never had which must needs produce a most unspeakable joy Cap. VI. The excellency and perfection of the Bodies of the Saints in the life eternal WE will not forbear also to consider what man shall be when he is eternal when being raised again at the great day he shall enter Soul and Body into Heaven Let us run over if you please all those kinds of goods which expect us in that Land of promise When God promised Abraham the Country of Palestine he commanded him to look upon it and travel and compass it from side to side Gen. 13. Lift up thine eyes saith the Lord and from the place where thou standest look towards the North and towards the South and towards the East and towards the West All the land which thou seest I will give unto thee and thy seed for ever And immediately after Arise and walk the land in length and breadth for I will certainly give it thee We may take these words as spoken unto our selves since they seem to promise us the Kingdom of Heaven for no man shall enter into that which he docs not desire and no man can desire that as he ought to do which he has not walked over in his consideration for that which is not known is hardly desired And therefore we ought often to contemplate the greatness of this Land the length of its eternity and the breadth and largeness of its felicity which is so far extended that it fills not onely the Soul but the Body with happiness and glory that glory of the Soul redounding unto the Body and perfecting it with those four most excellent gifts and replenishing it with all felicity which can be imagined or desired If Moses seeing an Angel in a corporal figure onely upon the back part and but in passage received so great a glory from
of our bodies now to those precious gifts of glory after our resurrection We are now all rottenness unweildiness corruption uncleanness infirmities loathsomness and worms Then all shall be light incorruption splendor purity beauty and immortality Let us compare these together what difference there is betwixt a body sickly weak pale and loathsome or some eight dayes after death full of worms corruption and stench abominable with the same body being now in glory exceeding the Sun far in brightness the Heavens in beauty more odoriferous than the purest Roses or Lillies Neither do the evils or goods temporal bear any comparison with the eternal since as the Apostle sayes That which is momentary and light does cause an eternal weight of glory In the beginning of the Civil Warres with the Senate of Rome carried on against Caius and Fulvius Gracchus Val. l. c. 4. the Consul Opimius by publick Edict promised that whosoever should bring him the head of Caius Gracchus should receive for reward its weight in gold All esteemed this a recompence highly to be valued that one should receive equal weight of that precious mettal to the weight of dead flesh But God's promises far exceed this For a labour or trouble as light as a feather he gives eternal weight of glory The Apostle sayes not that God Almighty doth give onely a great weight for light merits out also adds over and above that it shall be eternal It were a great happiness if according to our penances or voluntary labours we should receive onely equal proportion of bliss yet so as it were eternal because how little soever it were it were to be purchased at a very cheap rate though it were in substance but so much for so much so that the difference were onely such in the duration thereof as if for the toyl of one dayes labour were given a whole year of rest But Almighty God giving much for a little for that which is light massie and heavy for a thing momentary an eternal reward what greater encrease or advantage can we possibly receive Seâ—imuleyus will be a great confusion unto us who hearing the foresaid Proclamation of the Roman Consul stuck not at any toil or danger until he had cut off the head of Gracchus greedy of the equal weight thereof in gold Let us have the like courage the Souldier had to take away the temporal life of a Man to the end we may not bereave our selves of an eternal life And since the purchase of Heaven is so cheap let us procure to augment the gain and let 's not have less desire of goods eternal than Setimuleyus had for temporals who desirous of a great reward filled with melted lead all the hollow places of the head which he had cut off Let us fill our momentary and light works with great affection and love Let us increase our desires and in any work how little soever accompany the same with a great will with a vehement desire to hoard up eternal treasures for temporal pains What an advantagious exchange will it be to buy Heaven for a draught of water for that which is but vile and lasts but a moment that which is of inestimable price and is to last for all eternity What sort of bargain would it be if one could buy a Kingdom for a straw yet so it is For that which is no more worth than a Straw we may purchase the Kingdom of Heaven Certainly all the felicity riches and earthly delights are no more than a straw compared with the glory of Heaven How fond and foolish would he be who having a Basket full of chips would not give one of them for an hundred weight of gold This is the sottishness of men that for earthly goods they will not receive those of Heaven Who is there that having offered him a precious stone for some small sand should not have so much wit as to give a thing so base and abject for a thing so noble and precious Who being offered a rich treasure for an handful of cinders would not admit of so gainful an exchange What hunger-starved man being invited to a full Table of dainty dishes upon condition he should not eat an apple paring would reject the invitation Heaven is offered us for things little and of small estimation Why do not we accept the offer Christ our Saviour called the Kingdom of Heaven a precious Margarite and a hidden Treasure for which we ought to forsake all the goods of the earth by reason they are all but dust and misery in respect of a treasure of Pearls and Diamonds St. Josaph at did very much in leaving an earthly Kingdom for a greater assurance of that of Heaven He did very much according to our deceitful apprehension and false estimation of things But if it be well considered he did very little much less than if he had given one Basketful of Earth for another of Gold a Sack full of Small-coal for a great Treasure and a Nut-shell for a great Banquet Whatever is in the Earth may well be given for the least crum of Heaven because all the greatnesses of this World are but crums nut-shells and trash compared with the least particle of heavenly bliss All the felicity upon Earth hath no substance nor weight if compared with the weight of eternal glory which is prepared for us This David did and convinced by the greatness of heavenly glory said unto our Lord I did eneline my heart to doe thy justifications The heart of man is like a just ballance that inclines that way where is the greatest weight And as in the heart of David the temporal weighed little and the eternal much so inclined by the eternal weight of glory which attends us and moved by the hope of so great a reward the fulfilling of the Law of God prevailed more with him than his own appetite and inclination §. 2. If we shall consider the labours for which eternal glory is promised us as a hire and reward the Apostle spake with great reason that all which we can suffer in the time of this life is no wayes worthy of that glory to come which is to be manifested in us To St. Austin all the torments of Hell seemed not much for the gaining of Celestial glory but for some short time And if we consider the greatness of that joy all the penances of St. Simon Stylites the fasts of St. Romualdus the poverty and nakedness of St. Francis and the scorns and affronts put upon St. Ignatius are no more than the taking up of a straw for the gaining of an earthly Empire All Stories are full for how small matters upon earth men have exposed themselves to great and almost certain dangers Because David caused it to be published in his Army that he that should first set upon the Jebuseans who were the hardiest of all his Enemies should be made General Joab doubted not to expose his life to manifest danger breaking through
because he who passes from nothing to be a Creature capable of reason and glory ought alwayes to look upon the end for which he was created and from that consideration to make a change of his life as David did of his who confesses in the same Psalm That his change came from the right hand of the most high Let us then as he did remember to change our customs from tepid to become fervent and from Sinners just because the end for which we were created is onely God This onely consideration of so high an end will be able to work a change in us And for this reason David gave this Title to another Psalme To the end For those that are to be changed or altered The holy Prophet well knew the importance of this mindefulness of our last end and therefore he repeated it in his Psalms to the end that having our attention alwaies fixed upon it we should not cease to ayme at it nor spoil our intentions by the mixture of other thoughts of less consideration as he gives to understand in the Inscription of his Psalm 74 which sayes Vnto the end Corrupt not Another Version saies To the end Lose not As if he should say Look upon the end for which thou art created to the end thou maist not lose it Let us also consider that glory being no wayes due unto our nature yet God out of his mercy created us to enjoy it and when he might have made us for a natural felicity and perfection was pleased to create us for a supernatural Other creatures he made for us but us for himself There is no creature hath a more noble end than we there is neither Seraphin nor Archangel that surpasses us in this Let us therefore know the value of it that we may not lose it and with it our selves Consider also that if God should not have made thee for himself nor to the end thou mightest serve him but had left the free and at liberty and had onely given thee a being yet even for that thou owest him all what thou art The Son although the Father be not his end yet ows him all respect and reverence because he begat him The Husbandman who plants a tree hath right unto the fruit God therefore who created and planted thee hath right unto thee and all that thou art And if his right be such for making thee it is no less for ordaining thee for himself There is no Dominion so absolute as both Divines and Philosophers affirm as that of the End over those things which are in order to it in so much as Marcilius Ficinus sayes Mar. Ficinus l. 1. Epis The end is a Lord more excellent then those things which as Servants and Ministers relate unto it For this reason man although he be neither the Creatour nor utmost end of Corporal things yet because he is their immediate end and that they were ordained for his use is their Lord and God who is the utmost end of man and them is the Lord of all Philo calls the End the head of things For as a Prince is the absolute head and Lord of his vassals and Kingdom so the End is Lord and head of those things which have a relation unto it and therefore man who is wholly from God and for God ought not to stir a hand or a foot but in order to his service One of the Philosophers calls the End The cause of causes another The principal of all causes If therefore unto God because he is thy efficient cause thou owest him what thou art for being thy final cause thou owest him more then thou art For this obligation looks not upon that which thou hast received which is thy finite and limited being but upon that for which thou art ordained which is a being divine infinite and without limit Even God himself as he is the efficient cause of things doth as it were serve himself as he is the chief good and Final cause of things and doth not make them but for this end What right then hast thou to work for any thing but God since God doth not nor will work for any thing but himself The End is the cause of causes and therefore if thou owest thy self unto God for being thy Maker thou owest thy self unto him for being thy End for he had not been thy Maker if it had not been for some End which was the cause of thy creation §. 2. Consider the force of the End in the several Orders of things Natural Artificial and Moral that thou maiest from hence gather what force it ought to have in things supernatural With what violence do the the Elements tend unto their centre because it is their End With what force doth a stone fall from high and with what violence doth it press unto its natural place and bears down all before it And the fire that it may attain his Sphere how it mounts above the highest hills and rocks Consider a great Stone hung in the air by some Cable how it strives to get loose and being at liberty with what violence it falls upon the earth with what speed and earnestness without stay or diversion to one part or other it tends straight to its Center In this manner thou oughtest to seek after thy Lord God with all the powers of thy soul with all the forces of thy body and all the affections of thy heart all thy inclinations are to tend that way thou art to go directly to him without diverting on either hand or looking upon any creature which may detain thee bearing down all things temporal before thee A stone that it may attain its end sticks not to fall in water fire or to be dasht in a thousaud pieces and thou that thou mayest attain thy God art not to stop at any thing not at the loss of goods or honour or at the very tearing of thy members in pieces and as our Saviour sayes If thy Eye scandalize thee pluck it out or cut off thy Foot or Hand if it offend thee for it is better to enter into heaven blind or lame then to fall into hell fire sound and entire Things natural find no quiet but in their Centre and the Mariners needle rests not but when it beholds the North no more shall the Soul ever meet with repose but in God And certainly the cause of the greatest miseries and afflictions in the world proceeds from our deviating from God who is our onely End and eternal happiness Let the heart of man therefore undeceive it self for it shall never finde quiet and content but in its Creatour If we come to things Artificial Those which are not directed to some end what are they but a disorderly confusion If a Painter should draw his lines without proposing any Idea unto himself what would be the issue of his work but a great blot If in painting some great Captain he should instead of a Sword place in
it prepares for us are eternal whose greatness though it were not otherwise to be known might in this sufficiently appear that to free us from so many evils and crown us with so many goods it was necessary that he who was eternal should make himself temporal and should execute this great and stupendious work so much to his own loss CAP. IV. The baseness of Temporal goods may likewise appear by the Passion and Death of Christ Jesus THe greatness of eternal goods and evils is by the Incarnation of the Son of God made more apparent unto us then the Sun beams since for the freeing us from the one and gaining for us the other it was necessary so great a work should be performed and that God judged not his whole omnipotency ill imployed that man might gain eternity Yet doth not this great work so forcibly demonstrate unto us the baseness of things temporal and the contempt which is due unto them as the Passion and Death of the Son of God which was another work of his love an other excess of his affection another tenderness of our Creator and a most high expression of his good will towards us wherein we shall see how worthy to be despised are all the goods of the Earth since to the end we might contemn them the Son of God would not onely deprive himself of them but to the contrary embraced all the evils and incommodities this life was capable of Behold then how the Saviour of the world disesteemed temporal things since he calls the best of them and those which men most covet but thorns and to the contrary that which the world most hates and abhorrs he qualifies with the name of blessings favouring so much the Poor who want all things that he calls them blessed and sayes Of them is the Kingdom of heaven And of the Rich who enjoy the goods of the earth he sayes It is harder for them to enter into heaven then for a Camel to pass the eye of a needle And to perswade us yet more he not onely in words but in actions chose the afflictions and despised the prosperity of this life and to that end would suffer in all things as much as could be suffered In honour by being reputed infamous In riches by being despoyled of all even to his proper garments In his pleasures by being a spectacle of sorrow and afflicted in each particular part of his most sacred body This we ought to consider seriously that we may imitate him in that contempt of all things temporal which he principally exprest in his bitter death and passion This he would have us still to keep in memory as conducing much to our spiritual profit as an example which he left us and as a testimony of the love he bore us leaving his life for us and dying for us a publick death full of so many deaths and torments Zcnophon in Cyro lib. 3. Tigranes King of Armenia together with his Queen being prisoners unto Cyrus and one day admited to dine with him Cyrus demanded of Tigranes What he would give for the liberty of his wife to whom Tigranes answered That he would not onely give his Kingdom but his life and blood The woman not long after requited this expression of her husband For being both restored to their former condition One demanded of the Queene What she thought of the Majesty and Greatness of Cyrus to whom she answered Certainly I thought not on him nor fixt mine eyes on any but him who valued me so much as he doubted not to give his life for my ransom If this Lady were so grateful onely for the expression of her husbands affections that she looked upon nothing but him and neither admired nor desired the greatness of the Persians What ought the Spouse of Christ to do who not onely sees the love and affection of the King of Heaven but his deeds not his willingness to die but his actual dying a most horrid and cruel death for her ransom and redemption Certainly she ought not to place her eyes or thoughts upon any thing but Christ crucified for her Sabinus also extolls the loyalty and love of Vlysses to his Wife Penelope in regard that Circe and Calypso promising him immortality upon condition that he should forget Penelope and remain with them he utterly refused it not to be wanting to the love and affection he owed unto his Spouse who did also repay it him with great love and affection Let a Soul consider what great love and duty it owes to its Spouse Christ Jesus who being immortal did not onely become mortal but died also a most ignominious death Let us consider whether it be reasonable it should forget such an excessive love and whether it be fit it should ever be not remembring the same and not thankful for all eternity hazarding to lose the fruits of the passion of its Redeemer and Spouse Christ Jesus Upon this let thy Soul meditate day and night and the spiritual benefits which she will reap from thence will be innumerable Albertus Magnus used to say Lud. de Ponte P. 4. in introduc That the Soul profited more by one holy thought of the Passion of Christ than by reciting every day the whole Psalter by fasting all the year in bread and water or chastizing the Body even to the effusion of blood One day amongst others when Christ appeared unto St. Gertrude to confirm her in that devotion she had to his Passion he said unto her behold Daughter if in a few hours which I hung upon the Cross I so enobled it that the whole world hath ever since had it in reverence how shall I exalt that Soul in whose heart and memory I have continued many years Certainly it cannot be exprest what favour devout Souls obtain from Heaven in thinking often upon God and those pains by which he gained tor us eternal blessings and taught us to despise things temporal and transitory But that we may yet reap more profit by the holy remembrance of our Saviours passion we are to consider that Christ took upon him all our sins and being to satisfy the Father for them would do it by the way of suffering for which it was convenient that there should be a proportion betwixt the greatness of his pains and the greatness of our sins And certainly as our sins were without bound or limit so the pains of his torments were above all comparison shewing us by the greatness of those injuries he received in his passion the greatness of those injuries we did unto God by our inordinate pleasures We may also gather by the greatness of those pains and torments which were inflicted upon him by the Jews and Hangmen the greatness of those which he inflicted upon himself for certainly those pains which he took upon himself were not inferior to those he received from others But who can explicate the pains which our Saviour wounded by the grief he conceived at
and increase Whereupon St. Austin calls it the foundation of the City of Babylon This Covetousness is seated in the affections of the soul as in its proper subject but is fed and receives nourishment from those exteriour things which we possess Wherefore wholly to extripate it two things are necessary not onely to quit this interiour thirst and gaping after riches but also that exteriour possession of them The first is to be done by the will and spirit but the second by an actual and effectual execution and forsaking them and it is for this that we are promised in this life a hundred-fold and in the next eternal felicity O how great a distance is there discovered betwixt things temporal and eternal since the onely hope of the eternal bestows more upon us even in this life then we can receive from the dominion and possession of all that is temporal Temporal goods by being enjoyed and possest are not so much as doubled but by being renounced for Christ are multiplyed a hundred-fold and hereafter conferr the Kingdom of Heaven Abundance of temporal goods as hath been already observed hinder and obstruct the pleasures and contents of this life for which we seek them and hereafter throw their possessors into hell flames so as they are not onely the occasion of eternal pain but by anticipation of many temporal inconveniences For I know not how it coms to pass the most rich are not the most contented nor yet the least necessitated It seems their goods diminish in their hands and are of less value amongst them than the poor at least ten is not worth to a rich man so much as one to a poor so as the poor who have renounced their goods for Christ finde them multiplyed a hundred-fold and the rich who forgetting their Redeemer employ themselves wholly in heaping up wealth find them as much diminished and of a hundred enjoy not one Besides the rich are so encumbered with cares dangers fears and perturbations that they know not the true contents of this life and yet run the hazard of eternal damnation in the other But to the contrary those who are poor in spirit and have forsaken their possessions for Christ are in this world filled with joy peace and comfort and in the next enjoy the Kingdom of Heaven O how happy are they who understand this and know how to change earth for heaven O how truly doth Christ call happy the poor in spirit who have left all for his sake and therefore enjoy a double happiness the one present and the other future here a hundred-fold for that which they possess not and hereafter the possession of life eternal O how happy is he who knows with the riches of the earth to purchase the treasure of glory in death and in life to receive them a hundred-fold doubled Cassian Collat. ult c. ult This according to Abbot Abraham is fully verified in religious persons who have quitted all they have upon earth to live in an estate of poverty who for one Father which they have left find a hundred in religion and for one Brother a hundred who embrace them with Christian charity for one possession a hundred possessions and for one house a hundred houses in the multitude of Monasteries founded for their Order so as there is no doubt but this reward is not onely doubled unto them a hundred-fold but multiplied to a farre greater proportion The same may be seen in other servants of God who serve him in voluntary poverty Beda de Nat. Sancti Benedic who by how much as Bede notes they have served God with more affection in renouncing their temporal goods by so much hath God stirred up the affections and liberalities of others to supply and assist them in all their wants So as they are served with the goods of all and as the Apostle sayes having nothing possess all But although this recompence should fail us yet one a hundred-fold greater then this will not fail us which is that noted by St. Jerome Lib. 3. in Math. He who for our Saviours sake leaves carnal things shall receive spirituall which in comparison and value are as if some small number were compared with a hundred We seek the goods of the earth for the ease and content of life But if this may better and with more advantage be acquired by the contempt and leaving them what can we desire more Certainly he who quits all for Christ enjoyes a hundred times more content and pleasure then he who flows in the greatest riches and abundance for according to what hath been said the goods of this life are tedious and troublesome even to life it self so the freedom from those cares and incommodities which accompany them eases the heart and makes our life more sweet and pleasant Whereupon St. Chrysostome notes That as the Children in the middest of the fiery furnace in Babylon were refresht by a cool wind and pleasant dew to those who are in poverty which the holy Scripture calls a furnace are recreated by a gentle aire from heaven and the dew of the holy Spirit and that in so high a manner as St. Bernard speaking of the Monks of Claraval sayes That they drew from their Poverty Fasts and austere Penances such joy and spiritual comfort that they were jealous and afraid least God had given them their whole and compleat reward in this world and it seemed unto them that having their heaven in this life they should lose it in that to come Whereupon it was necessary for St. Bernard to prove unto them in one of his Sermons That he did injure the grace of the holy Spirit who placed grief in what it communicated Certainly the Servants of God are highly rewarded since they receive even in this life such celestial joyes for those temporal trifles which they have quitted If one for a certain weight of Copper were to receive the like in Gold Cassian Sup. I believe he would think he had made a good bargain The like exchange they make who receive those spiritual joyes for the pleasures of the earth In Histor Cistere This is fully verified in that which happened unto Arnulphus the Cistercian who being rich noble and abounding with all which the world esteems moved by the Sermons of St. Bernard became a Monk in the Monastery of Claraval where after a holy life led in much rigour and austerity he at last became very infirm and through the great grief and pains which he suffered would often fall into faintings and sounding trances but still when he recovered from his fits would cry out It is true it is true which thou hast said O blessed Jesus And to some present who thought the extremity of pain did make him rave he would say Brethren I have spoken this in my right judgement and senses for that which our Lord promised in the Gospel That he who for his sake should leave Father Mother or Goods