you so make use of temporal things that with all your heart you pass to eternal If you desire saies St. Chrysostome to enjoy the things of this world â— Epist ad Tim. seek after Heaven will you get under your command these things present Despise them utterly Ermenigildus a most Holy young man son to the Spanish King when his Father Leuigildus had commanded this message to be brought unto him that he should either dye or receive the Communion after the Arrian fashion He sticking close to the true Religion returned this answer to his Father who was an Arrian It is not hard to part from a Kingdome which cannot be possest for any long time for his part his sole ambition was to enjoy that Kingdome which makes the Kings thereof immortal In the self same manner we must make use of our discourse Let us bid adue for ever to all those things which debar us from the fruition of the cheifest good for the loss of many things we know is gainful to the loser and we must not count that lost the privation whereof is recompenced in a most ample sort When King Demetrius made himself master of Athens Lachares an Athenian Philosopher besmeared his face with ink cloathed himself in a Countey weed and carried on his arm a basket covered over with green Leaves in this Equipage he stole out privately at a Postern Gate Now that he might with more ease escape the Troopers of Tarentum who pursued him he got a Horseback too and scattered several pieces of Durick Coin along the way as he rid which while the horsemen solicitously gather up he breaks from them and by means of this Stratagem secures his arrival into Baeotia So true it is that our loss is gain when we part with some to preserve the rest when we throw away a small proportion to secure the whole Why then do we not cast away to keep why do we not sustain some loss to become winners Let us ever be afraid of this own loss to lose God for ever Let every one dayly make this prayer in his own behalf Psa 50. Isa 26. Ex. 33. Ioh. 14. Cast me not away from thy face My heart hath said to thee my face hath sought thee out Thy face O Lord I will seek Shew me thy face Lord shew us the Father and it sufficeth us I am ready O Lord to do all thou shalt command to suffer all thou shalt lay upon me to fulfil thy holy will and to abstain from whatsoever thou forbidest Only this I earnestly crave turn not away thy face from me Let me lye in darkness O Lord let me be despised and live in obscurity only this is my Petition Turn not away thy Face from me The smallest evil if it endure for ever becomes exceeding great from the poise of Eternity what then shall we say of the greatest of evils CHAP. III. The second Torment of Eternity in Hell is Weeping IF he who has care of a Vineyard leave carelesly growing upon the Vine a bunch of ripe Grapes and before they be rotten brings them not to the Press the Wine they make will be so base and unsavoury that even a drunken man will be loath to drink of it Tears of Piety are a pretious liquor a most Noble Wine such as would rellish in the Pallate of an Angel so they be powred out in time St. Bernard affirms our tears to be dainties for Angels when they proceed either from a Holy sorrow or from the love of God But if Tears flow out of season or not from a motive of vertue they degenerate into a sowre and decayed wine they become unpleasant and fit for none to drink Those two Monsters of Kings Herod and Antiochus wept but their weeping was counterfeit their Tears came too late Esau saith St. Paul Heb. 12. found no place of Repentance although with Tears he had sought it Tears out of time are ungrateful and carry a tast of the Dreggs The space of this life is a time to weep in They that sow in Tears Ps 125. shall reap in joyfulness Going they went and wept casting their seeds This is the way to powre out Wine of the choicest perfume most Delicious to the tast of Angels Sometimes in the night the Elephant is observed to mourn sadly as one who bemoans his own slavery While we live we are in a night and alas too often are slaves to Vices Why do we not bewail this most wretched Servitude He leaves Grapes to rot upon the Vine who with Peter and Magdalen refuseth to weep In the other world tears come too late let us Weep amain in this Wo to those miserable Creatures who go into that House of Eternal wailing there they must begin to weep but shall never meet with the end of it Eternity fills their eyes with perpetual tears This is their second Torment in Hell Weeping whereof our Saviour speaks expresly Matt. 13 Luk. 13. There shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth Darkness of which we treated in the precedent Chapter serves to torment the eyes and weeping the subject of the ensuing is a continual rack to the ears SECT 1 CHrist in his most Divine Sermons made frequent mention of the tears of the Damned least the testimony of that excessive pain should be forgotten Hence are those words so often repeated There shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth Weeping saies St. Bernard by reason of that unquenchable fire Gnashing S. Bern. super qui habitat for that their worm never dyeth Their weeping proceeds from their pain their gnashing of Teeth from the fury they are seised with The cruelty of their Torments enforceth them to weep the vehemency of repining envy and obstinate malice causes in them gnashing of Teeth Hitherto this holy Father Concerning timely weeping truth it self hath spoken Matt. 4 Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Here we sometimes take a pleasure in weeping there eternal rears are void of all comfort That of the Poet is well known Weeping doth our pain asswage Tears from grief us dis-engage But in Hell all sorts of torments receive increase from weeping as doth the fire from Oyl or Brimstone cast into it In case the damned let fall one onely tear every day and God as he might easily do should keep these dayly tears together they would at length amount to an Ocean of tears so vast that it alone would far exceed all the Seas of this world Nevertheless though the Damned howl and wail most bitterly yet they shed not one sole tear even as graceless children who when chastised by their Parents part not with one salt drop from their eyes because they are grown stiff-hearted against stripes In like manner the damned whose will is most obstinate albeit they rage they roar and fill the air with horrid outcries notwithstanding no moysture of piety issues from their eyes All of them fill their Denns with confused
The sacred volumes of Scripture are wonderful exact in observing every word In the pool which contains stinking and immoveable waters which do not grow less do not flow out nor are dryed up after a thousand years this pool will be like it self after thirty yea threescore thousand years it will lose nothing it once had after a hundred thousand after a thousand Millions of years that pool will not have one drop of it dryed up As it was in the beginning so it will be then and for all ensuing ages Moreover such as had plunged their soul in wantonness and lust in this life shall be drowned in that pool in these baths of brimstone they shall swimme and sweat and be throughly drenched for their cleansing The greatness of this may be best learned from experience if the water of a fish-pond were all drawn out and the fish for some dayes space were not removed they would fill the air with such incredible stench that no one though in the open air would be able to abide long there What a torment will it be in hell to be seated in the midst of unsufferable stink without power to stir one foot thence for all eternity long custome makes tollerable sorded and ill sented trades but those torments in hell can by no means become more gentle SECT 2. THe third cause of that stink is the bodies of the damned more noysome then any dead carkase Esay foretold Out of their carcasses shall rise a stink All of them shall be tortured with the stink of one and one with that of all What a strange kind of Incense is flesh rotten and crawling with Maggats In Lucifers kingdome numberless carkasses of the damned like stinking carrion shall lye for ever upon hot coales Lust is possest with a certain kind of rageing fury so as it tramples reason under foot but these unbridled motions may be restrained if timely begun with For this cause a Religious man in the desert of Scythia subdued wantonness in this manner The comliness of a woman Lib. Sen. patr sect 10. he had formerly seen frequently â—an in his fancy this remembrance these representations he resolved to banish quite out of his breast He strugled long he fought valiently and overcame himself many waies yet he perceived all he did was only to preserve himself from being overcome In the mean while the Divine Providence sent a man out of Aegypt who casually related that beautiful woman was deceased The Champion of Christ took hold of the relation and seriously weighing what might â—edownd to his best advantage he at length made this resolution To depart from his Cell and hasten to the dead womans Tomb. Where determined to triumph over unchast love he makes this attempt when the night was come he rowls away the grave-stone digs up the earth and comes at last to the dead body then speaks thus to himself Behold quoth he thy treasure behold thy delight why dost thou not carry thy dearest away with thee Part at least of this Gold thou hast so sweat for shall bear thee company He spoke the word and made it good indeed for part of the winding sheet well drencht in matter and corruption he privately made his own Thence returning back to his poor cottage this well-sented booty he placed as a Looking-glass before his eyes where several times scoffing at himself he said Lo thou haâ—â— now what thou desired enjoy it glutt thy self with it satisfy thy eyes feed thy nostrils yea now I give thee leave to be all nose imagine this is a Hand-kercheif sent as a token from thy Dear why dost thou not wipe thy mouth and nose with this delicate Linnen so long did this noble combatant mortify himself with stink till all impure thoughts quite vanquished fled from his mind Thus lust though never so Rampant was conquered by stink thus Cupid that skilful and wicked Archer by stench was routed and put to flight Let us call to mind here I beseech you how not a small parcel of a winding sheet not one member of a rotten carcase but innumerable bodies of the damned send forth most intollerable stink not for a few daies but for endless ages St. Bonaventure was bold to say If one only carcass of the damned were here in this world it alone would suffice to infect it all SECT 3. THe fourth cause of stink is the Devils themselves who though spirits carry about them this most loathsome smell yea it is as proper for hell and Devils to stink as it was true which the antients said hell is full of stench Severus Sulpitius recounts how the Devil cloathed in Purple with a Crown on his head appeared to St. Martin and spoke to him these words Thou shalt know Martin in what manner thou maist worship me I am Christ But Martin being warned from above not to credit the Father of lyes said My Lord did not promise to come in this Equipage I know Christ all bloody crowned with Thorns and hanging upon a Cross but this strange King I know not He had scarce ended these words when this counterfeit Christ disappeared and to the end it might be manifest who that King was and of what kingdome he left such a horrible stink behind him that Martin conceived he was now an inmate of Hell and thus he discoursed with himself If one only Devil stink in this manner what will the stench be of all Devils and damned men together Antiochus Epiphanes Mach. 9. a fair picture of a wicked man being now sensible of vengeance from Heaven and having swarms of vermine within his members stunk so horribly that his whole Army was extreamly averse from that loathsome malady Yea as the Scripture testifies he could not endure his own stench How then in hell shall he for ever abide the stink of Devils and all that damned crue Mezentius the Tyrrhenian King not unlike to Antiochus despiser of men and Gods proceeded so far in cruelty by his wit that he slaughtered men not with the Ax nor the Gallows nor fire but with stench for to a living man he tyed the putrified body of one dead so long till the corruption of the dead killed the living A kind of torment most Barbarous most cruel and so much the more by how much the slower But what is this compared to the torments in Hell what is a noysome smell of a few daies to that other which remains for ever when therefore we look upon our Fires Racks and Gibbets we may justly exclaim O mild and gentle torment of Mezentius which bereaves of life by being fastned to one stinking carkass But O death more dreadful then any death to be tortured with the stench of so many devils and damned alwaies to dye and never to make an end of dying SECT 4. IN the Prisons of Japonia even to this day is matter found sufficient for the exercise of Christian Fortitude where many together are thrust into a loathsome Denn
to take up his quarters for any long time in a tallow-chandlers or curriers shop in Augias stable or in a vault filled with rotten carcasses so ungrateful a place as this by reason of its stench would quite banish out of the breast all thoughts of pleasure What then will happen in that forge of Gods wrath in that horrid cave of eternity wherce all joy is removed and where there is nothing to be found but extream dolours How much will this deep obscure and stenchful place increase their pains yea what I tremble to think of a place most remote from heaven and closely shut up with a thousand locks iron grates and percullises Abraham cryes out from above Luke c. 16. Between us and you there is fixed a great Chaos a Chaos of flames that they which will passe from hence to you may not neither go from thence hither And yet Abrahams abode was not in heaven In our prisons there is ample liberty if you look upon the habitations of the damned Their Sepulchers Psa 43. their houses for ever Princes and Kings Emperours and Popes are shut up in this house neither hath Craesus nor Alexander any other dwelling place St. Luke c. 16. bears testimony The rich man also dyed and he was buried in hell O profound Sepulcher Into this now are his stately buildings and towers converted into this his pleasant fountains and triumphal arches into this his groves and flourishing gardens into this his bathes his theaters and magnificent palaces his whole house is no more then a narrow tomb Neither do they live here at their freedom and liberty but are enchained and fast bound The great King gave command Mat. 22. Bind his hands and feet and cast him into utter darkness These guilty persons cannot walk nor so much as stir whither they will they are tyed hand and foot and as if they were fastned to Spits they become fuel to that devouring fire SECT 2. IT is manifest out of antient history that several men and those none of the vulgar sort were inclosed in cages as if they had been out-landish birds Alexander the great commanded Callisthenes Olyntheus Sen others either for suspition of treason or for perswading the King not to affect the title of Lord from the Athenians to have his ears lips and nostrils cut off and to be cruelly mangled in other members whereby be became a spectacle of misery and deformity and then to be shut up in an iron cage with a dog and so carried about for a show Lysimachus who had been his Schollar moved with compassion to so great a man gave him poyson thereby to put a period to the punishment his faults deserved not but his freedom in speaking O happy cage of Callisthenes compared to the flaming prisons the damned endure The like misfortune which befel Callisthenes hath also involved others Tamerlan the worlds terrour Lissius pol c. 5. having overcome Bajaset the Turkish Monarck shut him up in a cage of Iron and so in derision showed him to all would see him three years together Christiern King of Denmark in the year one thousand five hundred Ex Jovio twenty two became an Apostate from Christian religion Afterwards by reason of his cruelty he was deprived of three Kingdoms miserably condemned to perpetual bondage and in the year one thoussand five hundred thirty two like an unruly beast was cast into a grate where he ended his days But O gentle prisons of Bajaset and Christiern if compared to those of the damned Valerian a Roman Emperour received no better usage from Sapores King of Persia Baron ad An. 262. for being encaged as well as the former he was never permitted to stir out but when he was forced instead of a footstool to lead his back to Sapores to mount on horse-back In fine Valerian had his skin pulled off and his flesh rubbed with salt Thus also was Renzus son to Frederick imprisoned till death After the same manner Mark Bishop of Arethusa Suidas famous for eloquence and sanctity of life a most renowned Martyr in the time of Julian the Apostate was first committed to boys to be stabed with bodkins then besmeared with brine and hony was enclosed in a cage hung in the open air under the scorching sun and so was exposed as a prey to hornets wasps gnats and flies that he might feel himself dye But O how mild were these punishments how delightsome these cages in respect of theirs in hell All torment here is but imaginary and a mere shaddow as being solaced either with the shortness of their continuance or sweetned with the hope of everlasting reward we know our present tribulation is light and momentary Hence the Champions of God the more pain they endure the greater recompense they expect Whereas those prisoners in hell neither receive comfort from time past which they neglected nor from that to come wherein their torments shall continue for ever Divine Justice has so decreed that the wicked shall find their enemys their executioners whose perswasions they followed and whose friendship they formerly sued for and forasmuch as heretofore they haunted plesant meddows to sport themselves in Wisd 2 they shall now inhabit streight cages for their punishment This shall be their condition for eternity SECT 3. WEre there no other torment for souls guilty of eternal death then to be shut up in so loathsome a prison amongst so many sworn enemies for ever this this alone would be abundantly enough What then shall I say of their many other torments of their worm of conscience their hunger thirst and perpetual flames which shall never have an end their torments are many indeed which last for eternity eternity which may be measured if you regard its beginning but if you seek for an end of it which you shall never find it is wholly unmeasurable The Prophet Esay chap. 34. hath a lively description of this place of everlasting banishment The torrents thereof saith he shall be turned into pitch and the ground thereof into brimstone and the land thereof shall be into burning pitch St. Apoc. c. 19. Matth. â— c. 13. c. 106 John calls this prison a Pool of fire and brimstone Christ the furnace of fire Holy Job the dark land ohat is covered with the midst of death a land of misery and darkness where is the shaddow of death and no order but everlasting horror inhabiteth Here say you I would gladly be informed how to frame a lively and lasting conceit of this unconsumable Aetna this recepticle of all miseries whereby I might frequently have a remembrance of it To this purpose I call to mind a conference which passed betwixt two intimate friends the one whereof might well be termed Orestes the other Pylades this demanded to know in what manner he might best represent to himself that dungeon of the damned Whereunto Orestes replyed in my judgment the business is to be performed in
callest stench would smell like balsome these moans would be harmonious musick that pain thou speakest of would prove a play-game it is a paradise indeed thou lookest on as a hell For if it be troublesome to converse with a few who hate thee what may be imagined more grievous then to abide there where no one loves another but every ones breast boyles with hatred towards each other These fashions are in request in Satans Court all burn with such deadly hatred that if it were in their power they would tear one another peice-meal with their teeth For these inmates of hell extreamly abhor the image of God both in themselves and others yea as they have an excessive spleen against God so they have a tooth against every thing that resembles him How cumberson then is it to live amongst such domesticks as these Amongst this accursed crue the eyes shall be chiefly tormented with the presence of them who have any way been the cause of their condemnation whether they be parents or wife or children or friends or other companions in sin amongst whom the devils are not to be reckoned in the last place who by the judgment of God as Divines affirm shall be appointed to torment men that they may find by experience to what tyrants they submitted themselves Never to be able to rid themselves of this society is a far greater torment then to be cast into a ditchful of snakes without ever being released thence or to be continually stung by â—hose poysonous creatures and never killed by them You would easily imagine this unsociable company might be of force sufficient to make us eschesh the wicked meetings of drunkards gamesters perjured persons and lascivious talkers whose vices often stick close to such as communicate with them especially being we ought to beware lest we hurt others by our bad example Christ makes this publick proclamation to the world Matth. 18. Wo be to the world for scandals he that shall scandalize one of these little ones that believe in me it is expedient for him that a Milstone be hanged about his neck and that he be drowned in the depths of the sea Wo be to the world for scandals Wo be to that man by whom scandal cometh Sins of ill example which we call scandals bring with them hot service in Lucifers kingdom Therefore Eccles 7. It is better to go to the house of mourning then to the house of banketting for in that the end of all men is signified and he that liveth thinketh what shall be It behooves every one to look to himself while he hath time All men have two ways to enter into eternity out of which there is no way left to return Hast thou made thy entry into heaven fear not thou shalt never be thrust out again Hath hell taken possession of thee rest assured no door no nor so much as a chink will ever afford thee passage thence thou art now become a Citizen thou hast taken house-room thou hast settled thy abode here thou must dwel eternally Thou knowest well that warning of Ecclesiastes ch 11. If the Tree shall fall to the South or to the North in what place soever it shall fall there shall it be CHAP. IX The Eighth Torment of Eternity in Hell is Despair THe antient Thebans mervailed that the common-wealth of the Lacedaemonians did so flourish that their Citizens were kept in such order as vices were seldom heard of amongst them Hereupon they sent Philonius the Philosopher to pry into their proceedings and to bring back in writing what he observed either concerning their laws or government Philonius having curiously marked all particulars returned to Thebes where being to give an account of his Embassy in publick he laid open upon the Theatre rods snares whips racks axes wheels and gibbets then after some time of silence he broke forth into these words Behold quoth he and become eye-witnesses you Theban Citizens what keeps the Lacedaemonians in order no one offends amongst them who is not forthwith chastised vertue goes not without reward nor vice free from punishment hence it is their manners are better then ours God the worlds law-giver with admirable wisdom performs his part and that orderly discipline may not go to wrack he does not threaten gibbets racks nor wheels but hell fire which burns for ever Nevertheless such is mans impiety the world dares stil transgress the laws of God what I pray would not mans boldness attempt if they were only punishable for an hour or a day or to be imprisoned for a year or two To all such as swerve from Gods commands we know thraldom without end pains eternal are decreed and yet which cannot be spoken without wonder transgressors of divine laws are Numberless VVhence I beseech you doth this incredible temerity proceed The fear of God is not before their eyes Psalm 13. because the mercy of God so often as men offend hinders him from throwing down Thunder-bolts upon the offenders therefore they become audacious above measure whence many void of fear trample the ordinations of Heaven under foot and loose the reins to wickedness forbidden A deceitful hope sooths many up and leads them insensibly into the gulf of despair which is that torment of eternity we now treat of SECT 1. HOpe in this world is an admirable lenitive for all sorts of affliction and miseries whatever it may fitly be termed a Soveraign oyntment that appeases all our aggrievances Hope chiefly regards profit and the end though tears trickle down abundantly yet they are easily wiped away with this spunge Those noble champions of Christ those invincible Martyrs though they suffered much yet were they much comforted with the fruits of patience The like solace are they partakers of to speak with St. Bernard who do good and suffer evil It happens sometimes that one purchases a Farm for which he pays many thousand crowns and yet for all that says he doth not repent him of his bargain because all his charges will in time come back again with interest Their torments in hell are exceedingly increased for that their sufferings bring them in no profit whereas with us one small tear so it be serious is able to wash away many heinous offences it is not so with them for albeit their pains be never so grievous yet do they not expiat one venial sin nor deserve so much as a drop of water How heavy a burden is it for pesants and labourers to work without wages So is all toyl without hope of recompence In this manner slaves who labour for their masters not themselves esteem their pains troublesome because fruitless yet they may receive comfort from the end of their labours which death brings to a period This is a benefit wholly denyed to those slaves in hell who shall seek for death Apoc c. 9. Serm. 112. and shall not find it they shall desire to dye and death shall fly from them The wicked says S. Austin
above all things which is the Virgin that bore thee and which did never sin if I say she had sinned mortally and had dyed without due contrition thou art such a friend of Justice that her soul could never have arrived in Heaven but must have been with us adjudged to hell The nature of one mortal sin is wonderful to amazement Pliny admires Silver Gold and Brass sealed up in a bag can be melted with Lightning and both seal and bag remain untoucht Much more worthy admiration it is that the soul can be so murthered by the secret admission of one deadly sin as thereby to become a prey to eternal death without ever dying or being destroyed Hom. 4. ad Pop. St. Chrysostome gives this prudent admonition Brethren be not children in your understanding but as to malice become little ones for it is a childish fear to fear death as children do who are afraid of Vizards and not of fire to which they apply their hand after the same manner we stand in fear of death which is but a contemptible bug-bear and fear not sin which indeed ought to be feared Because it robs us of all Gods grace makes us lyable to all sorts of miseries and guilty of eternal Flames Thus much concerning our third assertion SECT 4. THe fourth assertion is Who ever sins mortally loseth Heaven for all Eternity Sin shuts against us the gate of Heaven the Empyrial Heaven which is adorned with all delight which is for situation most sublime for extent most ample and in every respect most compleat in a word the worlds wonder from this heaven doth only deadly sin debar us We acknowledge the Soveraign Kings decree promulgated by St. Paul Eph. 5. No Fornicator or Unclean or covetous person which is the service of Idols hath inheritance in the Kingdome of Christ and of God This loss is not the last though it be the worst For in case no other harm proceeded from sin yet this alone were abundantly enough and too too great to be for ever excluded from the joyes of Heaven We may mention this damage t is true yet are we unable to make a right estimate of it well said St. Austin If it were in our power brethren Psa 49. to hinder the coming of the day of judgement yet in my opinion we ought not to lead a wicked life Suppose then the fire of divine judgement should afflict no body but each one might swim in what pleasures he listed for ever notwithstanding if they were separated from the face of God and never must enjoy the sight of their Creatour their loss would be infinite their punishment immense so as to speak with St. Austin they would have cause for all eternity to bewail their condition though they were not guilty of sin Amand. hoâ— sap Lib. 1. ch 4. That expression seems to have been framed amongst Rhetoricians Who will furnish me with Parchment as large as the heavens who will provide me of Quills which for number should equal the leaves of the trees Who will give me a Sea of Ink that I may write down the harms which proceed from mortal sin yet this is no exaggaration for though there were so many Quils so much Parchment and Ink to write with still it would go beyond the art of man to summ up what damage accrues to man by sin since it is eternal Truth it self proclaims to the world It were good for him Mart. 26 if that man had not been born Since God hath quite blotted out his image in Heaven and that most deservedly in regard of that infinite affront offered to so Soveraign a Majesty which is so much more notorious by how much the good preferred before God is of less value But all treasure delight and Honour are infinitely below God therefore the wrong done to God is infinite and consequently the punishment must be proportionable Is not he much obleiged to the giver who bestows on him gratis an hundred Marks in Gold Now our Tongue or Eyes alone which God hath freely gigen us are infinitely more worth then a thousand Marks in Gold to say nothing thing of our Soul and Body which are far more estimable then a thousand worlds Giles one of St. Francis his companions Catechising an ignorant person said A certain man wanted Hands Feet and Eyes to whom one of his friends spoke in this manner My friend if one should restore thee both Hands Feet and Eyes what requital wouldst thou make him I would quoth he become his servant all the dayes of my life Well then replyed Giles who gave thee Hands Feet Eyes Tongue Ears Soul and Body together with the good thou injoyest God without doubt If then thou wouldst be his servant that only restored some few Limbs what is it meet thou shouldst do for God who gave thee all Tell me now what a base part it is to offend him with thine eyes that bestowed them on thee or to affront God by word or deed who framed both tongue and hands for thee Hence ariseth in us an infinite obligation to serve God from which if we swerve by transgression both fault and punishment must needs be infinite Because according to St. Bernard what was short in time or action was certainly long in the setled resolution of the will Now as he is justly condemned that wilfully persists in vice so is he blame-worthy that strives not to better himself in vertue In like manner he who dies in sin hath a living death in eternal pain wherein he must abide for ever that he may suffer torment for ever but never be consumed Alas one merry moment of nimble winged time we prefer before treasures of glory and delights eternal we lose a needle and are sorry for the loss Heaven is snatcht from us and we laugh at it We know full well that upon every greivous crime an happy or wretched eternity depends the privation of that and possession of this is due to every great offence Thus much we know and yet sin boldly especially while we are not certain of one minute of life For who I pray after sin committed hath so much as one sole moment sure to do pennance in Nevertheless in a business of huge consequence and such extreme uncertainty we expose our eternal weal to manifest hazard of eternal wo so freely do we exchange everlasting glory for endless torments and in effect fools as we are demonstrate our hatred to Heaven For Heaven he hates who by contempt or carelesness intangles his soul with sin A Lacedemonian saies Plutarch made a vow to throw himself headlong from the Summit of Lucas But when he beheld the dreadful height of the Rock he was strook with horrour and altered his purpose Afterwards being upbraided for want of courage he answered I did not imagine that for performance of my vow I needed a greater vow Who ever designs to execute some difficult exployt must take upon him a resolution
That herd of Goats shall then be of more loathsome scent the more immoderately they have here sought after Perfumes Some of your odoriferous smells are incentives to Gluttony some to Lust and certainly an eager desire of them is an argument of incontinency But to make short this kind of allurements which are perceived by the ears eyes and nostrils are either marks of Levity or Lasciviousness To become a slave to sensual delight above measure is no less then vanity or impurity Perfumes and pretious Oyntments have been prejudicial and destructive to many Muleasses King of Tuny's faught against his Son Amida for the recovery of his Kingdome but being worsted in the encounter and seeking by flight to save himself all besmeared with blood and dust was discovered by his persumes and brought into Captivity where his son with a hot penknife cut out both the Apples of his Eyes and blinded him A young Gallant richly annoynted went to render thanks to Vespatian the Emperour for a curtesy he had lately done him But the Emperour being sensible of the sweet scent he breathed began to be angry and frowning on him spoke sharply saying I would rather thou hadst stunk of Garlick Thus Caesar recalled his grant and the Gallant after a sound check was cashiered of his pretended Honour C. Plotinus Plancus being sent into banishment and for fear of death lying privately at Salernum was betrayed by his costly odours and so lost his life and furnisht his adversaries with an excuse for their cruel proceeding So true it is that perfumes are disgraceful and dangerous Here by the way we may please to observe that many things which we beleive to be mere trifles are lookt upon by God with a rigorous eye ch 3.24 Therefore as Esay foretold For sweet savour there shall be stink Forget not I pray this admonition of the Prophet Micheas I will shew thee O man what is good ch 6.8 And what our Lord requireth of thee verily to do judgement and to love mercy and to walk solicitous with thy God The fifth Torment is fire OF this fire admirably speaks Isidorus Pelusiota Epist 47 You may be pleased to take notice my friend that none can lye hid from that All-seeing and watchful eye no not in the most secret retreat if you do any thing amiss For all things are naked and open to him though they seem to be never so private and out of sight Wherefore such as sin and do not true pennance shall be plunged in certain perpetual floods boyling with dreadful fire whose streams are no other then flames prepared for torment Let us therefore fear the Majesty of God This fire alas may not with any revolution of years nor as St. Gregory Nazianzen speaks with any numberless number of ages be extinguisht What way soever you turn all is Fire Pitch Brimstone Anger and Wrath of our Lord. Where you may note amongst our fires a main difference that of the Thunderbolt being more active then our usual fire and that eternal devouring fire of hell more powerful then either Now let me demand with Esay c. 33.14 Which of you can dwell with devouring fire which of you shall dwell with everlasting heats What fiery Salt-Sea though it be hot night and day yet in the year it hath its intermission from heat several dayes when it remains quiet and free from burning In Hell after an hundred a thousand yea ten thousand years are past Tom. 9. trac 5. de met not one day nor minute of respite will be allowed He saith St. Austin who hath a sound consideration and beleives what God hath revealed fears more eternal fire then the Sword of any Tyrant though never so barbarous He dreads more perpetual death then any death here whatever How many houres then how many moneths or years must those Traitours to God abide in that fire Neither hours dayes nor years may be numbred the hours shall be eternal the dayes and moneth eternal the years and fire shall be eternal Why will God reject for ever Psa 76. He will reject for ever The triumpher in Israel will not spare 1. Kings 15.29 and he will not be turned with repentance He that is afraid of these things saith St. Bernard bewares of them he that sleights them slips into them The like advice is instilled by Climacus Let the memory of eternal fire sleep with thee every night Grad 7. The sixth Torment is the Worm of Conscience A Guilty Conscience though but for a day good Lord what a punishment is it What then will it be when it lasts for ever The conscience of the damned is throughly wounded which makes it ever afflicted alwaies in despair without comfort Pathetically writes St. Lib. 5. de Isid ch 12. Bernard of this point Amongst so great a multitude of spectators no ones eye will be more troublesome then every one 's to himself There is no sight either in Heaven or Earth which the dark some conscience would rather avoid but cannot Darkness is not covered from its self it beholds it self that can discover nothing else The works of darkness follow them they can hide themselves no where from darkness no not in darkness it self This is the worm that dyeth not the remembrance of things past which being once cast into or rather bred in the soul by sin sticks so fast that henceforth it can never be pluckt away It doth not cease to gnaw the conscience wherewith being fed as with inconsumptive food it preserves its life perpetually Here the truth of those words will experimentally appear I will reprove thee and set it against thy face In Hell are no Clocks Psal 49 nor Stars to guide Clocks by no Almanacks nor Kalendars no means there to know any difference of times Ecclesiastes affirms Neither work nor reason nor wisdome nor knowledge shall be in Hell ch 9. ver 10. whither thou dost hasten Here only the Clock of Conscience is heard but much out of order It is irksome to one that is sick and cannot sleep to hear no Clock nor to be able to know how the time passeth Hence one quarter seems as long as an hour and an hour as long as a whole night and yet after six or seven hours are gone the little birds with chirping melody welcome in the morning the Sun by degrees rises out of his dayly tomb the feaverish heat remits and a gentle slumber seises on the temples all things that by approaching night grew worse by this time are become more mild Anon some will come in to ask how the sick man doth and will not only cheer him up with comfortable words but also with other necessaries Nothing of all these O my God! is to be found in Hell no Day no Sun no Dew no Morning no Birds but Devils no refreshment not so much as a drop of water there is perpetual darkness everlasting dolours and butchery of Conscience without end