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
world are not to affright us since they are to cease and determine By how much Eternity enobles and adds unto the greatness of those things which are eternal by so much doth Time vilifie and debase those things which are temporal and therefore as all which is eternal although it were little in it self ought to be esteemed as infinite so all which is temporal although it were infinite yet is to be esteemed as nothing because it is to end in nothing If a man were Lord of infinite worlds and possest infinite riches if they were at last to end and he to leave them they were to be valued as nothing and if all things temporal have this evil property to sail and perish they ought to have no more esteem then if they were not with good reason then is life it self to be valued as nothing since nothing is more frail nothing more perishing and in conclusion is little more than if it had no being at all Possessions Inheritances Riches Titles and other goods of fortune remain when man is gone but not his Life A little excess of cold or heat makes and end of that a sharp winde the infectious breath of a sick person a drop of poison makes it vanish in so much as no glass is so frail as it Glass without violence may last long but the life of man ends of it self glass may with care be preserved for many ages but nothing can preserve the life of man it consumes it self All this was well understood by King David who was the most powerful and happy Prince the Hebrews ever had as ruling over both the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel with all which was promised by God unto the Israelites but not until his time possessed his Dominions besides extending over many other Provinces See 1. Paralip 29. what he left him towards the building of the Temple onely so as gold rowld up and down his House and Court and he left at his death mighty treasures unto his Son Salomon Yet this so fortunate a Prince considering that his greatness was to have an end valued it as nothing and not onely esteemed his Kingdoms and treasures as a vanity but even his life it self Wherefore he sayes Thou hast put O Lord a measure unto my dayes and my substance is as nothing all my Rents all my Kingdoms all my Trophies all my Treasures all which I possess although so powerful a King all is nothing And presently adds Doubtless all is vanity all what living man is Psal 38. all his whole life is vanity and nothing that belongs to him so frail as himself Of so mean value are the things of this world although we were to enjoy them for many ages but being to end so quickly and perhaps more sodainly than we can imagine what account is to be made of them O if we could but frame a true conception of the shortness of this life how should we despise the pleasures of it This is a matter of such importance that God commanded the principal his Prophets that he should goe into the Streets and Market-places and proclaim aloud How frail and short was the life of man For the Prophet Isaiah being about to prophesie of the most high and hidden mysterie which ever God revealed unto man which is the incarnation of the eternal Word was suddenly commanded by the Lord to lift up his voice and to crie aloud unto whom the Prophet replied What is it O Lord that I must crie aloud The Lord said That all flesh is grass and all the glory of it at the flowers of the field For as the grass which is cut in the morning withers before night and as the flower is quickly faded so is the life of all flesh the beauty and splendour of it passing and withering in a day Upon which place saith St. Hierome Hieronin Comment He who shall look upon the frailty of our flesh and that every moment of an hour we increase and decrease without ever remaining in the same state and that even what we now speak dictate or write flyes away with some part of our life will not doubt to say his flesh is grass and the glory of it as the flower of the field And presently after He that was yesterday an Infant is now a Boy and will suddenly be a Youth and even until old age runs changing through uncertain conditions of lite and perceaves himself first to be an old man before he begins to admire that he is not still a Boy In another place the same Saint meditating upon the death of Nepotianus who died in the flower of his age breaks out into these complaints In Epitaph Nepot O miserable condition of humane nature Vain is all that we live without Christ all flesh is hay and all the glory of it as the flower of the field Where is now that comely visage where is now the dignity of the whole body with which as with a fair garment the beauty of the Soul was once cloathed Ay pitty the Lilly is withered by a Southern blast and the purple of the Violet turned into paleness And immediately adds Why do we not therefore consider what in time must become of us and what will we or will not cannot be far off for should our life exceed the terme of 900 years and that the dayes Mathusalam were bestowed upon us yet all this length of life once past and pass it must were nothing and betwixt him who lives but ten years and him who lives a thousand the end of life and the unavoidable necessity of death once come all is the same save onely he who lives longer departs heavier loaden with his sins This frailty therefore and brevity of humane life being so certain and evident yet our Lord would have his Prophet publish it together with the most hidden and unknown mysterie of his incarnation and the manner of the worlds redemption which even the most high Scraphins did not conceive possible and all because men will not suffer themselves to be perswaded of this truth nor practically apprehend the shortness of their life Nay seeing death seiseth upon others yet they will not believe that it shall happen unto themselves and although they hear of it hourly yet it appears unto them as a hidden mysterie which they cannot understand God therefore commanded the Prophet Isaiah that he should proclaim and publish it with a loud voice as a thing new and of great importance that it might so penetrate and link into the hearts of men Let us therefore receive this truth from God himself All flesh is grass All age is short All time flyes All life vanishes and a great multitude of years are but a great nothing Let us also hear how true this is from those who lived the longest Jux Isi l. de vita mor. Pat. c. 24. and have had the greatest experience of what it is to live Perhaps thou mayst
tears advised him to hang it upon the Gallows to supply the room of the Malefactor Such is the inconstancy of humane hearts more variable than seems possible which changing in themselves draw within their compass the rest of the hings of this World Philo considering and admiring so great vanity and change Philo. l. de Jos speaks after this manner Perhaps those things which concern the Body are they not dreams perhaps this momentary beauty does it not wither even before it flourish our health is uncertain exposed to so many infirmities a thousand griefs happening by divers occasions abate our strength and forces the quickness and vigour of our senses are corrupted by vitious humours Who then can be ignorant of the baseness of exteriour things One day often makes an end of great riches many Personages of great honour and esteem changing their fortune become infamous great Empires and Kingdoms have in a short time been ruined Of this Dionysius is a sufficient witness who thrust from his Throne from a King of Sicily became a School-master in Gorinth and taught boyes The like happened unto Craesus the most rich King of Lydia who being in hope to overthrow the Persians not onely lost his own Kingdom but fell into the power of his enemies and failed little of being burnt alive Particular persons are not onely witnesses that all humane things are dreams but Cities Nations Kingdoms Greeks and Barbarians the Isles and those who inhabit the Continent of Europe Asia the East and West nothing remains like unto it self Certainly as Philo sayes the instability of humane things makes them appear not onely a dream but as a dream of a shadow rather than of any thing solid and consistent Hom. de poenit Let us hear also what St. Chrysostome sayes and counsels us concerning the same matter All things present saith he are more frail and weak than the webs of spiders and more deceitful than dreams for as well the goods as evils have their end Since therefore we esteem things present but as a dream and we our selves to be but as in a Inn from whence we are sodainly to depart let us take care for our journey and furnish our selves with provision and a Viaticum for eternity let us cloath our selves with such garments as we may carry along with us For as no man can lay hold on his Shadow so no man retains things humane which partly in death and partly before death fly from us and run more swiftly than a rapid river To the contrary are those things which are to come which neither suffer age nor change nor are subject to revolutions but perpetually flourish and persevere in a continued felicity Take heed then of admiring those riches which remain not with their Masters but change in every instant and leap from one to another and from this to that It behooves thee to despise all those things and to esteem them as nothing Let it suffice to hear what the Apostle sayes The things that are seen are temporal but those which are not seen are eternal Things humane disappear more sodainly than a shadow CAP. II. How great and desperate soever our Temporal evils are yet hope may make them tolerable FRom this inconstancy of humane things we may extract a constancy for our selves First by despising things so frail and transitory which as we have already said is a sufficient ground for their contempt Secondly by a resolute hope and expectation of an end or change in our adversity and afflictions since nothing here below is constant but all mutable and unstable and as things sometimes change from good to evil so they may also from evil unto good And as great prosperity hath often been the occasion of greater misery so we may hope our greatest misfortunes may produce a greater happiness Wherefore as in eternal evils because immutable we want the hope of a happy condition so in temporal evils how great soever we ought not to despair which we daily see confirmed with most unexpected successes Let us therefore onely fear eternal evils which are not capable of remedy and let us not despair and afflict our selves for the temporal which hath it and imports little whether it have it or no. This is not ill exprest by that which happened unto the Roman Appius Fulgos l. 6. who being proscribed and condemned to banishment became by the treachery of his Slaves and Servants in danger of his life who out of covetousness to possess themselves of the goods and treasure which he carried along with him cast him forth into a small Shallop and sailed away with the Ship But from this misfortune sprung his deliverance For not long after the Ship sunk in which his Slaves were drowned and he himself who had perished if he had been with them escaped with this little loss and came safe into Sicily Aristomenes being taken by his enemies and cast into an obscure Dungeon was there at least by famine and unwholesomness of the place to end his dayes but in the middest of despair an unexpected accident gave him hope of delivery A Fox by chance passing through a little hole under ground entred into the Dungeon where he had made his Den which being espied by Aristomenes he laid fast hold on him with one hand and with the other enlarged the passage and voiding the loose earth as he went followed his guide who at last safely conducted him into the open field from whence he escaped in safety when his enemies thought he had been dead There is no condition of life so miserable wherein we ought to despair nay wherein we may not hope of bettering our fortunes To how many hath a seeming unlucky accident been the occasion of great preferment and a disgrace of honours Diogenes his being condemned for false money and held for an infamous person was the occasion of his receiving respect and honour from Princes Plin. l. 7. c. 50. ' Alexander the Master of the World coming to visit him Phalareus being wounded in his breast by his enemies was cured of an Imposthume held desperate by the Physicians Gal. l. de Sim. ca. 11. Galen writes of a Leper who was cured by drinking a little wine wherein a Viper was by chance drowned which the Reapers not being willing to drink themselves gave him out of compassion thinking to kill him quickly and rid him out of those grievous pains which he endured but that which they thought would be his death became his life for the drinking of the wine caused the scales and scurf of his flesh to fall and restored him to his health Benive c. 15. Benivenius testifies that he knew a Boy that was lame of both feet in such sort that he could not goe without Crutches but being struck with the plague and recovering his health he remained sound of his feet and without lameness The same Author writes of a certain Architect who had one leg shorter than
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
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
perish not for the paths of this life are full of dangers And with reason did Isidorus Clarius compare it to a narrow Bridge Isid Clar. juxt S. Greg. scarce broad enough to receive our feet under which was a Lake of black and filthy water full of serpents and of ugly and poisonous creatures which onely sustained themselves by feeding on those unfortunate people who fell from the Bridge on either side were pleasant Gardens Meadows Fountains and beautiful Buildings But as it were extream madness in him who was to pass so dangerous a Bridge to entertain himself with gazing upon those Gardens and Buildings without taking care where he set his foot so is it as great a fully in him who is to pass this transitory life to apply himself to pleasures and delights without taking care of his wayes or works To this Cesarius Arelatensis adds That the greatest danger of of this Bridge consisted towards the end where it was narrowest and this is the most streight passage of Death Let us therefore if we intend to gain Heaven look how we place our feet in this life least we misplace them in death and perish in that Eternity wherein our life is to conclude O Eternity Eternity how few there are that provide for thee O Eternity peril of perils and if we miss the mark whereat we ought to aim above all dangers whence comes it that we prepare not for thee whence comes it that we fear thee not which art to endure as long as God is God this present life is but to last a very little time our forces will fail us our senses wax dull our riches leave us the commodities of the world fly from us the want of breath make an end of us and the world at last call us out of it what then will become of us we are to be sent into a strange Countrey for a long time why do we not forecast what to do when we come thither But that we may the better see this our condition and so learn to be more cautious I will relate another Parable of the same St. John Damascen In vita Josaph There was saith he a City very great and populous whereof the Inhabitants had a Custom to elect for their King a stranger who had no knowledge of that Kingdom and Common-wealth This King for a year they suffered to do what he list but that being ended and he most secure without fear or apprehension of any thing amiss thinking he should raign as long as live they suddainly came upon him despoiled him of his royal apparel dragging him naked through the streets and banishing him into an Island far off where he came to suffer extream poverty not having wherewith to feed or cloth himself his fortune without thinking on it wholly changing into the contrary his riches into poverty his joy into sadness his dainties into hunger and his royal purple into nakedness But once it happened that he whom they elected was a prudent and a subtil man and having understood from one of his Counsellors this evil and wicked Custom of the Citizens and their notable inconstancy grew not proud and haughty with the Dignity of the Kingdom which they had conferred upon him but became careful in providing for himself that when he should be deposed and banished into that Island which he every moment expected he might not as his Predecessours perish with poverty and hunger The course he took was during his Reign to transport secretly into that Island all the Treasures of the City which were very great The year being ended the Citizens according to their Custome with his Predecessours came in an uproar to depose him of his Office and Royalty and to send him in exile into the Island whither he went without trouble having before-hand provided wherewith he might live in honour and plenty whilst the preceding Kings perish'd with want and penury This is that which passes in this world and the course which a wise man ought to take That City signifies this world foolish vain and most inconstant wherein when we think to reign we are suddenly despoiled of all we have and sent naked into our Graves when we least look for it and are most busie in enjoying and entertaining our selves with the fading and transitory pleasures of this life as if we were immortal without so much as thinking on Eternity whither we are in a short time to be banisht A Region far off and far removed from our thoughts whither we are to go naked and forsaken of all where we are to perish with an eternal death and shall only live to be tormented into a Land of the dead obscure and dark where no light enters but everlasting horrour and eternal sorrow inhabits He is therefore wise who foreseeing that he is to be despoiled of all he hath in this world provides for the next making such use of time in this life that he may finde the profit of it in Eternity and with the holy works of pennance charity and alms transports his Treasures into that Region where he is to dwell for ever Let us therefore think upon the Eternal and for it despise the Temporal and we shall gain both the one and the other The consideration of Eternity St. Gregory understood to be figured by the Store-house well furnished with precious wine into which the Spouse saith that the Bridegroom brought her and in her ordained Charity because saith he he who shall with a profound attention consider in his mind Eternity may glory in himself saying he hath ordained in me charity by which thought he shall better preserve the order of love loving himself the less and God and all things for God the more he shall not make use of the temporal things of this life not even of those which are most necessary but in order to the Eternal CAP. V. What is Eternity according to St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. Dionysius LEt us therefore begin to declare something of what is inexplicable and to frame some kind of conception of what is incomprehensible whereby Christians knowing or to speak more properly being less ignorant of what is Eternity they may have a horrour either to commit a sin or to omit an act of vertue trembling in themselves that for matters of so small value as are those of the Earth they are to lose things so great and precious as are those of Heaven Agrippina perceiving the great lavishness of her Son who poured out gold and silver as if it had been water desirous to reform his prodigality upon a time when the Emperour had commanded about a quarter of a Million to be bestowed upon some Minion of his caused that Money and as much more to be spread upon a Table and placed where he was to pass to the end that seeing with his own eyes the mighty mass of Treasure which he so wastfully mispent he might after with more discretion moderate his vast expences
felicity of this world could not bestow true rest and even upon him who was the Master of it until the end of life Man is born as Job saith to labour Until death there is no rest Let us not then seek it here but let us place the chair of our joyes where it may be firm and stable and not in the unquietness and turmoyles of things temporal where death at least will certainly overthrow it Others painted Eternity in the form of a Snake to note the condition of a perpetual continuance not subject unto change but remaining still in the same estate and vigour For as this Serpent wants wings feet and hands which are the extremities of other creatures so Eternity wants an end which is the extremity of things temporal Apud Euseb l. 1. de praepar Evang c. 7. Moreover as Serpents although without feet wings or any extrinsecal organ of motion yet by their great liveliness of spirit move more swiftly then those creatures which have them so Eternity without dayes or nights or changes which are the feet and wings of time out-strips and over-go's all things that are temporal Besides Serpents enjoy such a vivacity and length of life that Philon Biblius saith they die not unless they be kill'd and that they hardly know a natural death being not subject to those changes of other creatures from youth to age and from health to sickness but preserve themselves still fresh and young by the often renewing and casting of their old skins neither have they like other creatures any determinate size of their greatness but so long as they live encrease in bigness after the manner of Eternity which hath no limit change or declination a condition of all others most to be feared by the wicked who are for ever to continue in those eternal torments without the least refreshment and without so much as the comfort of changing one torment for another St. Paulinus said of St. Martin that his rest was to change his labours and certainly to change one pain for another although not in it self much less is yet some ease But even this shall be wanting unto the damned who shall never be permitted so much change as to turn from one side to another A fearful thing that being now five thousand years past since the first damned Soul was plunged into hell that during all this time no change should afford him the least ease How many alterations have since happened in this world yet none in his most bitter torments The world hath once been destroyed by an universal deluge eight onely persons remaining alive After which all men enjoying an equal liberty the Assyrians became Tyrants over the rest and raised the first Monarchy which endured 1240 years and then not without the general uproar and turmoyl of all Asia passed unto the Medes under whom it continued 300 years Which ended it came unto the Persians and from them unto the Grecians from whom not without greater alteration then any of the former it passed unto the Romans under whom also it hath since failed Amongst all which changes and revolutions of the world none hath yet passed over that miserable and unfortunate creature Besides these alterations in government what alterations hath nature it self suffered what Islands hath the Sea swallowed up one of which as Plato reports was bigger than all Europe and Affrica And what others hath it cast up of new What buildings or to say better what Mountains hath the Earthquakes left secure many Hills have been overwhelmed or turned topsie turvie others have appeared and sprung up never known before What Cities have been sunk what Rivers dried up and others vomited forth through new Channels what Towers have not fallen what Walls not been ruin'd what Monuments not defaced how often hath the face of things changed how many revolutions have the greatest Kingdoms suffered and this miserable sinner hath in all this time not given one turn How many times hath the year renewed it self how many Springs how many Autumns past and yet he remains in that obscure night as in his first entrance into that place of torments The Sun hath compassed this elemental World a Million and 700000 times and yet this wretched Soul could never once change his posture or remove one pace since his first falling into hell Besides this what troubles what labours have been passed by those innumerable people who have lived from the beginning of the world until this present and are now all vanisht what sicknesses have been suffered what torments what griefs endured and are now all forgotten but no grief nor torment of that unfortunate Sinner hath in these 5000 years passed away or shall ever become less Ptolomy roared out with the pain of his Gout Aristarcus was grieved with his Dropsie Cambyses was afflicted with his Falling-sickness Theopompus afflicted with his Ptisick Tobias with his blindness and holy Job with his Leprosie yet those griefs had their end But all those evils which joyntly possess this miserable creature have not or ever shall have change or period They of Rabatha were sawed in the middest others thrashed to death with Flails others burnt alive in Furnaces others torn in pieces by wild Beasts Anaxarcus was pounded in a Mortar Perillus burnt in a brazen Bull. But all those pains passed away and are now no more but that damned person hath not yet made an end or to say better hath not yet begun to pass any one of his torments which 100000 years hence shall be as new and sensible unto him as they were in the beginning What desperation must then seise upon him when he sees a change in all things and in his pains and torments none for if even the pleasures of this life if continued the same convert into griefs how shall those pains which never change be suffered what spite and madness shall possess him when he shall behold the Flames of St. Lawrence the Stripes of St. Clement of Aneira the Cross of St. Andrew the Fasts of St. Hilarion the Haircloth of Simeon Stylites the Disciplines of St. Dominick all the Torments of Martyrs and Penances of Confessors now passed and turned into eternal joyes but his own pains neither to pass nor change neither any hopes left either of ending his torments or himself These are evils to be feared and not those transitory ones of the world which either change grow less or end or at least make an end of him who suffers them Let not therefore the sick person be grieved and vexed with his infirmities nor the poor man with his wants nor the afflicted with his crosses since the evils of this life are either changed with time eased by counsel and consolations or at least ended by death But this miserable wretch in Hell cannot so much as comfort himself with the hope of dying because in that multitude of torments if there were the least hope of end it would be some ease some refreshment
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
much happiness he had not made use of it although the misfortune chanced without his fault But the miserable damned in hell when they shall perceive that by their own fault they have lost the occasion of so great blessings as are those of heaven it is incredible what grief and resentment shall possess them CAP. XV. What is Time according to Plato and Plotinus and how deceitful is all that which is temporal THat we may yet better understand the smalness and baseness of all which is temporal I will not pass in silence the description of Time made by Platinus a famous Philosopher amongst the Platonicks who sayes that Time is an Image or Shadow of Eternity The which is conformable unto holy Scripture not onely unto that of David when he sayes that Man passes in a figure that is in time but unto that of the Wise-man Sap. 2. who defines Time in these words Our Time is the passing of a Shadow The which is no other than the imperfect moveable and vain Image of a thing consistent and solid Job 8. Job also sayes As a shadow are our dayes upon the earth And the Prophet David elsewhere My dayes have slided away as a shadow And in many other places of Scripture the same comparison is used to signifie the swiftness of Time and the vanity of our life Neither is it without mystery that the same comparison is so often used in those sacred Writings For truly few comparisons can be found more apt and proportionable for the expressing of what is Time and Eternity than that of a Statue and the Swadow of it For as a Statue remains for many years and Ages firm stable and immoveable without encrease or diminution whilest the Shadow is in continual motion now greater now lesser So is it with Time and Eternity Eternity is firm fixed and immoveable without receiving less or more Time is ever moving and changing as the Shadow which is great in the morning less at mid-day and towards night returns to its former greatness every moment changing and moving from one side unto another In the same manner the life of man hath no instant fixt but still goes on in perpetual changes and in the greatest prosperity is for the most part shortest Aman the same day he thought to sit at the Table of King Assuerus Esth 3. 7. by whom he had been exalted above all the Princes of his Kingdom was ignominiously hang'd Jud. 13. Holofernes when he hoped to enjoy the best day of his life was miserably beheaded by a woman King Baltassar in the most solemn and celebrated day of his whole raign Dan. 5. wherein he made ostentation of his great riches and royal entertainment was slain by the Persians Act. 12. Herod when he most desired to shew his Majesty being cloathed in a rich habit of Tissue embroidered with gold and by the acclamations of the people saluted as a God was mortally struck from heaven There is nothing constant in this life The Moon hath every Moneth her changes but the life of man hath them every day every hour Now he is sick now in health now sorrowful now merry now cholerick Sinesius hym 6. now fearful in so much as Sinesius not without reason compared his life unto Euripus a Streight of the Sea which ebbs and flows seaven times in a day as the most constant which is the most just man in the world falls every day seaven times The shadow wheresoever it passes leaves no track behinde it and of the greatest personages in the world when they are once dead there remains no more than if they had never lived How many preceding Emperors in the Assyrian Monarchy were Lords of the world as well as Alexander and now we remain not onely ignorant of their Monuments but know not so much as their names And of the same great Alexander what have we at this day except the vain noise of his fame Venus Alsâ—rsus Kikâ—â—ius de noviss art 4. Let that Company of Philosophers inform us who the day following assembled at his dead Corps One of them said Yesterday the whole circumference of the world sufficed not Alexander this day two yards of ground serve his turn Another in admiration cried out Yesterday Alexander was able to redeem innumerable people from the hands of death this day he cannot free himself A third exclaims Yesterday Alexander oppressed the whole earth and this day the earth oppresses him and there is no footstep in it left by which he passed Moreover how great is the difference betwixt a Statua of Gold or Marble and the Shadow That is solid and of a precious substance and this hath no being or body In the same manner the life eternal is most precious and of great concernment the temporal vain and miserable without substance The Shadow hath no other being but to be a privation of the most excellent quality in nature and of the most beautiful thing the world produces which is the light of the Sun In the same manner this life without substance or being is a privation of our greatest happiness Wherefore Job said Job 9. His dayes fled away and his eyes saw not what was good This said he who was a Prince and possessed great riches and many Servants and a numerous Family and yet he sayes that in his life he saw not what was good which he might say with much truth because the goods of this life are not to be called such and if they were yet the pleasure of them endures so short a space as they are done before we are sensible of them and if they should continue some time yet being subject to end they are to be esteemed as if they were not The which was confessed by a certain Cavalier called Rowland Hist de S. Dom. who having been present at a Feast celebrated with great cost and bravery to the high content and satisfaction of the invited Guests at night when he returned home cried out with much bitterness of spirit Where is the Feast we had to day where is the glory of it how is this day past without leaving any tract behinde it even so shall the rest of this life pass without leaving any thing to suceed it but eternal sorrow This consideration sufficed to make him change his life and the next day to enter into Religion And as in a shadow all is obscurity so this life is full of darkness and deceit Whereupon Zacharias said That men sat in darkness and in the shadow of death Much are we deceived whilest we live in this body of death since this life although short appears long unto us and being miserable yet we are pleased and content with it and being nothing yet it seems as if it were all things and there is not any danger which men undergoe not for the love they bear it even unto the hazard of Eternity Doubtless this is the most prejudicial
flourishing and pleasant Orchards consumed without power either to preserve them or themselves All shall burn and with it the World and all the fame and memory of it shall die and that which mortals thought to be immortal shall then end and perish No more shall Aristotle be cited in the Schools nor Vlpian alleaged in the Tribunals no more shall Plato be read amongst the Learned nor Cicero imitated by the Orators no more shall Seneca be admired by the understanding nor Alexander extolled amongst Captains all fame shall then die and all memory be forgotten O vanity of men whose memorials are as vain as themselves which in few years perish and that which lasts longest can endure no longer than the World What became of that Statue of maslie gold which Gorgias the Leontin placed in Delphos to eternize his Name and that of Gabrion in Rome and that of Borosus with the golden tongue in Athens and innumerable others erected to great Captains in brass or hardest marble certainly many years since they are perished or if not yet they shall perish in this great and general Conflagration Onely vertue no fire can burn Three hundred sixty Statues were erected by the Athenians unto Demetrius Phalareus for having governed their Common-wealth ten years with great vertue and prudence but of so little continuance were these Trophies that those very Emblems which were raised by gratitude were soon after destroyed by envy and he himself who saw his Statues set up in so great a number saw them also pulled down but he still retained this comfort which Christians may learn from him that beholding how they threw his Images unto the ground he could say at least They cannot overthrow those Vertues for which they were erected If they were true Vertues he said well for those neither envy can demolish nor humane power destroy and which is more the divine power will not in this general destruction of the World consume them but will preserve in his eternal memory as many as shall persevere in goodness and die in his holy grace for onely Charity and Christan Vertues shall not end when the World ends The sight of those Triumphs exhibited by Roman Captains when they conquered some mighty and powerful Kings lasted but a while and the memories of the Triumphers not much longer and now there are few who know that Metellus triumphed over King Jugurtha Aquilius over King Aristonicus Atilius over King Antiochus Marcus Antonius over the King of Armenia Pompey over King Mithridates Aristobulus and Hiarbas Emilius over King Perseus and the Emperour Aurelius over Cenâ—bia the Queen of the Palmirens If few know this but dumb Books and dead Paper when those shall end what shall then become of their memories How many Histories hath fire consumed and are now no more known then if they had never been Written neither to doe nor write can make the memory of man immortal Aristarchus wrote more than a thousand Commentaries of several Subjects of which not one line remains at present Chrysippus wrote seaven hundred Volumes and now not one leaf is extant Theophrastus wrote thre hundred and sarce three or four remain Above all is that which is reported of Dionysius Grammaticus that he wrote three thousand five hundred works and now not one sheet appears But yet more is that which Jamlicus testifies of the great Trimegistus that he composed thirty six thousand five hundred twenty five books and all those are as if he had not written a letter for 4 or 5 little and imperfect Treatises which pass under his name are none of his Time even before the end of time leaves no Books nor Libraries By the assistance of Demetrius Phalareus King Ptolomy collected a great Library in Alexandria in which were stored all the Books he could gather from Caldee Greece and Aegypt which amounted to seventy thousand bodies but in the Civil Wars of the Romans it perished by that burning which was caused by Julius Caesar Another famous Library amongst the Greeks of Policrates and Phisistratus was spoyled by Xerxes The Library of Bizantium which contained a hundred and twenty thousand Books was burnt in the time of Basiliscus That of the Roman Capitol was in the time of Commâ—dus turned into ashes by lightning and what have we now of the great Library of Pergamus wherein were two hundred thousand Books Even before the end of the World the most constant things of the World die And what great matter is it if those memorials in paper be burnt since those in brass melt and those of marble perish That prodigious Amphitheater Vide Lips In Amph. which Stability Taurus raised of stone was burnt in the time of Nero the hard marble not being able to defend it self from the soft flames The great riches of Corinth in gold and silver were melted when the Town was fired those precious mettals could neither with their hard-resist nor with their value hire a friend to defend them from those furious flames If this particular burning in the most flourishing time of the World caused so great a ruine what shall that general one which shall make an end of the World and all things with it § 5. Let us now consider as we have already in Earthquakes and Deluges what great astonishment and destruction hath sometime happened by some particular burnings that by them we may conceive the greatness of the horror and ruine which will accompany that general one of the whole world What lamentations were in Rome when it burnt for seven dayes together What shrieks were heard in Troy when it was wholly consumed with flames What howling and astonishment in Pentapolis when those Cities were destroyed with fire from heaven Some say they were ten Cities Strabo thirteen Josephus and Lira five that which of faith is that there were four at least who with all their Inhabitants were consumed What weeping was therein Jerusalem when they beheld the House of God the Glory of their Kingdom the Wonder of the World involved in fire and smoke And that we may draw nearer unto our own times when lightning from Heaven fell upon Stockholme the capital City of Sweden and burnt to death above 1600 persons besides an innumerable multitude of Women and Children who hoping to escape the fire at land fled into the ships at Sea but overcharging them were all drowned Imagin what that people felt when they saw their houses and goods on fire and no possibility of saving them when the Husband heard the shrieks and cries of his dying Wife the Father of his little Children and unawares perceived himself so encompassed with flames that he could neither relieve them nor free himself What grief Albert. Krant Suec l. 5. c. 3. what anguish possest the hearts of those unfortunate creatures when to avoid the fury of the fire they were forced to trust themselves to the no less cruel waves when by their own over-hasty crowdings and indiscretion they saw their Ships
we can carry nothing but our good works and let us not add unto our evil ones that of vain-glory in seeking to leave behind us a vain Fame and Renown Plin. l. 56. c. 13. What remains unto King Porsenna of that heavy burthen wherewith he grieved and afflicted his whole Kingdom in rearing him a Sepulchre of that rare and sumptuous workmanship but a testimony of his pride and folly In like manner the Monument of the Emperour Adrian which was the Beauty and Glory of Rome shall be then changed into a scorn Lastly St. Thomas teaches us that Temporal things on which we place our affections because some last a longer and some a shorter time after death shall all enter with us into Divine judgement Let us take heed therefore whereon we set our hearts since the accomplishing of what we wish may be a punishment of our desires Those things of the Earth which we most love and desire should continue if they be taken from us it is a chastisement of our earthly affection and if we be permitted to enjoy them let us fear that they be not the temporal Reward of some good Work which may either diminish or deprive us of the Eternal Besides this because not onely the Soul of man hath offended but the whole man both in Soul and Body it was fit that both Soul and Body should be judged and appear before the Tribunal of Christ and that in publique because none should presume to sin in secret since his sins are to be revealed and made known to all past present and to come A terrible case it is that this passage of Divine judgement which according as we have said out of holy Job appears unto the Saints more terrible than to suffer all the pains of Hell is twice to be acted and this so bitter trance to be again repeated the second time being unto sinners of greater horrour and confusion than the first CAP. IX Of the last day of Time THat we may now come to handle the manner of this universal Judgement which is to pass upon time and men we are to suppose that this fire which is to precede the coming of Christ is at his descent to continue in assistance of his Divine justice and after his return unto Heaven attended by all the just to remain until it hath purged and purified these inferiour Elements the which is noted by Albertus Magnus Albert. Magn. in comp Theol. lib. 7. c. 15. Less de perf div lib. 13. c. 30. 23. and collected from divers places of the Divine Scriptures We are also to suppose that this coming of Christ is to be with greater terrour and Majesty than hath been yet manifested by any of the Divine persons either in himself or any of his Creatures If an Angel which represented God and was onely to promulgate the Law came with that terrour and Majesty unto Mount Sinay as made the Hebrew people though purified and prepared for his coming to quake and tremble what shall the Lord of the Law doe when he himself comes to take an account of the Law and to revenge the breach of it With what terrour and Majesty shall he appear unto men plunged in sin and unprepared for his reception who are then to be all present and judged in that last day of time The day in which the Law was given was very memorable unto the Hebrews And this day where an account of the Law is to be given will be horrible and ought perpetually to remain in the memory of all mankind But before we declare what shall pass in this let us say something of what hath already passed in that that from the horrour of the first appearance we may gather something of what shall happen in the second and from the Majesty wherewith an Angel appeared when he gave the Law collect something of the Majesty of the Lord of Angels when he judges the Law Fifty dayes after the departure of the Sons of Israel out of Egypt after so many plagues and punishments poured upon that Kingdom after the burying of the unbelieving Egyptians who pursued them in the bottom of the Red Sea and that the Hebrews having escaped their enemies were lodged round about Mount Sinay Deut. 33. Vid. Barrad l. 6. itin c. 5. Ps 65. Deut. 33. There was seen to come in the Air from far that is from Mount Seir in Idumea a Lord of great power attended with an infinite multitude of Angels In so much as David sings that ten thousand compassed about his Chariot And Moses speaking of many thousands which attended him says also that he carried in his right hand the Law of God all of flaming fire and yet he who came in this height of Majesty waited on with those Celestial Spirits was not God Act. 7. but as we learn from St. Stephen onely an Angel and believed to be St. Michael who because he came in the Name of God the holy Scriptures calls the Lord. This Angel thus accompanied came seated on a dark condensed Cloud which cast forth frequent flashes of Lightning and resounded with dreadful cracks of Thunder Deut. 33. from Mount Seir unto Mount Haran in the Land of the Ishmaelites and from thence with the same Majesty passed through the Air unto Mount Sinay where the Children of Israel lay encamped who at the dawning of the day astonisht with that fearful noyse stood quaking and trembling in their Tents No sooner was the Angel arrived unto Mount Sinay which as the Apostle says Heb. 42. was covered with rain whirlwinds storms and tempests but he descended in flames which raught betwixt Heaven and Earth from whence issued forth a smoke black and thick as from a furnace during which time a Trumpet was heard to sound with that piercing vehemence that as it encreased in loudness so fear encreased in the amazed Israelites who now stood quaking at the foot of the Mountain but were by the Angel so much would he be respected commanded by the mouth of Mâ—ses not to approach it lest they died After which the Angel began with a dreadful voice to proclaim the Law which was pronounced with so much life and vigour that not withstanding the horrid noyse of Thunder the flashes of lightning and the shrill and penetrating sound of the Trumpet still continued yet all the Hebrews who with their Tents overspread those vast deserts and many thousands of Egyptians who were converted and followed them heard conceived and understood it clearly and distinctly Nay so piercing was the voyce that it entred and imprinted it self in their very bowels speaking unto every one of them as if it had spoken to him only which caused so great a fear and reverence in the people that they thought they could not live if the Angel continued speaking and therefore besought it as a grace that he would speak unto them by the way of Moses lest they should die Nay Moses himself accustomed to see
commanding over Kingdoms and after see the same man enclosed like a beast and trodden under the foot of a barbarous King Such contrary fortunes happen in humane life Let us not therefore trust in it § 2. Yet less imaginable seems that which happened unto Pope John the XXIII when after four years possession of the Papacy many Princes of Europe having during that time in token of obedience kissed his feet he himself came to kiss the feet of another Pope and having in his Pontificat created many Cardinals took it at last as a singular favour to be made one himself This seems incredible but it is a most true history The mutability of humane things produces so strange effects that our imagination dares not feign them Who would think that the chief Bishop should be made a Captive as this was in the Council of Constance assembled for the pacification of the Schisme then reigning in the Church There he was deprived of his dignity and himself confirmed his own deposition and suffered in person great misery want and affliction from whence he made an eseape and fled from place to place until at length he became so well advised as to put himself into the hands of Martin the Fifth elected after his deposition who had many Cardinals then about him created by this John who beheld him that had made them deprived of all dignities humbly asking pardon of the new Pope whom he acknowledged for such and esteemed it a great favour to receive his Hat anew Thus far can the instability of Temporal goods arrive Who could imagine that which happened unto the Emperour Zeno who after he had possessed the Empire many years cockered in all the blandishments of so high a fortune was at last constrained through famine to eat his cloathes and feed upon the flesh of his own armes This Emperour being in a trance was given out to be dead and so buried in a Vault but returning afterwards unto himself he cried out aloud named those of his Guard and his other Servants who though they heard him would not help him There he remained interred alive eating his own flesh as witnesses Cedrenus Cedren in Com. Who could believe such a misfortune but the misery wherein humane happiness often terminates is not to be conceived The glory and riches of Belisarius were greater than of many Kings Vid. Petr. Mex in vita Justini Crinit et Volater The World was amazed at his valour and courage he overcame the Goths in many battails and took their King prisoner he made an end of the Vandals and triumphed over ther captive King Gilismer he triumphed also in the East over the Persians His wealth was so great that in one hours space he gained all that the Vandals had scrapt together in fourscore years Who could imagine that this so rich and glorious Captain should become a blind Begger and beg an alms in the Church of St. Sophia and other publick places Dionysius the second possessed a wealthy Kingdom in Sicily Egn. l. 6. c. 10. Portan l. 2. c. 8. de Fort. domest Who would thing that from a King he should be necessitated to become a Schoolmaster who would not wonder at the cozenage of the World that should first see him in his Royal Palace with a Scepter in his hand compassed about with his Servants and the Great ones of his Kingdom and should after behold him in his School managing a Rod in the middest of a number of boyes What shall I say of King Adonibezee Jud. 1. who after the conquest of seaventy Kings died a Slave and for his greater infamy had the extremities of his hands and feet cut off Spain afforded Queen Goswinda Max. an 589. beloved and esteemed by King Leovigildus her Husband afterward publickly executed and tormented in the Market-place of Toledo Of no less marvail is that which happened unto the Empress Maria Wife unto Otho the third burnt by order of justice which being a story of memory I shall relate it out of Godfridus Viterbiensis Vid. Chr. Coriol an 668 These two Princes passing by Modena the Empress became desperately enamoured of a young Count much a Gentleman and excellently accomplisht in the lineaments of his body but much more in the perfections of his mind in so much as he neglected and sleighted the violent addresses and sollicitations of this fond Princess who perceiving her self mockt full of choler and madness did as Josephs Mistress cry out a Rape and accused the innocent Count to the too credulous Emperour that he would have forced her who without much search into the business belived it and caused him to be beheaded which as soon as it came to the knowledge of his Countess a Lady of an heroick and confident spirit and fully satisfied of the goodness and innocency of her Husband at such time as the Emperour gave audience she entred into the presence and flinging down the head of her Husband before him accused him as an unjust Judge and demanded justice of him against himself and for proof of what she said offered her self to the then usual tryal of burning iron which being accepted and the heated Iron put into her hands she handled it as if it had been a Nosegay of flowers which being seen by the Emperour he confessed himself guilty but the Countess not so satisfied cried out that since he was faulty he ought to die for that he had caused to be executed an innocent person neither could she be contented until the sentence was pronounced against the Empress who was the Author of that mischief to be burnt which was accordingly executed upon this great princess Wife to so potent an Emperour and Daughter of the King of Arragon for neither Crowns nor Scepters secure us from the inconstancy of humane changes Well was it said by St. Gregory Nazianzen that we may better trust unto the wind or to letters written upon water than unto humane felicity § 3. What we have hitherto recounted are changes not falls That which we are to fear is a fall from sanctity and vertue and this is properly to fall when we descend from the state of grace to that of sin The mutations of fortune are but exchanges of one condition for another No man can fall when he is at lowest and the lowest and basest of all things is humane felicity which when it quits us we fall not but change it and perhaps for the better The true falls are those which are spiritual and it may with reason amaze us to see that on this part also we are exposed to uncertainties But this may be our comfort that temporal changes are not in our hands but spiritual are Our wealth whether we will or no may be taken from us but grace unless by our own fault cannot We may be bereaved of honours against our will but not of vertue except we consent Corporal goods may perish be stoln and lost a thousand manner
of wayes but spiritual goods can onely be forsaken and are then onely lost when we leave them by sin This may make us tremble that they are lost because we will lose them and not being mutable in themselves they change because we are mutable That which hath happened in this kind is most lamentable St. Peter Damian writes that he knew a Monk in the City of Benevento named Madelmo Petr. Dami l. 1. c. 10. who arrived at so great sanctity of life that being upon a holy Saturday to fill a dozen of Lamps and oyl failing for the lust he with great faith filled it with water and lighting it it burned as the rest Many other miracles he wrought in our Lord for which he was in great esteem both of the Prince and Citizens But wherein ended this miraculous and venerable man a strange change God withdrawing his holy hand from him he fell into such dishonesty of life that he was taken and publickly whipt and his head for his greater ignominy shaved like a Slave A lamentable tragedy is the life of man wherein we behold so contrary extremes Ibidem The same St. Peter Damian writes that he knew in the same City a Priest of so great sanctity that every day when he celebrated Mass the Prince of Benevento beheld an Angel descend from heaven who took the Divine Mysteries from his hands to offer them unto the Lord. Yet this man so favoured from above fell into the like vice that all might fear and none be assured in any state whatsoever S. John Climacus relates the story of that young man Clim gr 15. of whom we read in the Lives of the Fathers who mounted unto so high a degree of vertue that he commanded the wild Asses and compell'd them to serve the Monks of the Monastery whom blessed St. Anthony compared to a Ship laden with rich Merchandize sailing in the middest of the Ocean whose end was uncertain Afterwards this so fervent youth fell most miserably and bewailing his sin said unto some of the Monks who passed by Speak unto the old man that is St. Anthony that he pray unto God that he would grant me yet ten dayes of repentance The holy man hearing this toar the hair from his head and said A great Pillar of the Church if fallen and five dayes after the Monk died in so much as he who heretofore commanded the wild beasts of the Wilderness became a scorn to the Devils and he who preserved himself by bread from heaven was afterward deprived of his spiritual sustenance Heracl in Parad. Lamentable also is the accident related by Heraclides of Hieron Alexandrinus who having flourished many years in great vertue and fame of sanctity Andr. Ebor Ex. mem t. 2. de mor. for mut left off all and became a haunter of publick Stews In the same manner Ptolomee the Egyptian having passed fifteen years in the Desert in continual prayer sustaining himself only with bread and the dew which fell from heaven came to leave all and lead a most scandalous life If we look into the holy Scriptures we shall find greater changes and more lamentable falls Who would think that Saul chosen of God for very good of an humble and patient spirit should end in a Luciferian pride and in a mortal hatred against the best man in Israel Who would think that a man so wise and so religious as Salomon should in his latter times be seduced by women and erect Temples unto false Gods Finally who would imagine that an Apostle of Christ should die in despair and hang himself What man can then presume so much of himself that he needs not stand in fear of what he may be CAP. IV. The change of humane things shews clearly their vanity and how worthy they are to be contemned THis inconstancy and change of things serve as a testimony of their vanity Witness those who have had the largest experience of humane greatness and felicity Gilimer King of the Vandals was of great power wealth and valour but overcome by Belisarius and deprived of his Kingdome was led in triumph through the Streets of Constantinople When he approached the place where Justinian the Emperour was seated in a Throne of incomparable Majesty cloathed in his Imperial Robes and compassed with the great Princes of his Empire the Captive King beholding him in so great glory and himself a Slave abandoned of the whole world neither wept nor complained nor shewed the least sign of sorrow or resentment Procop. li. 2. de bello Vandalorum but onely uttered that most true sentence of the Wise-man Vanity of vanities and all is vanity He who knew this no marvail though in so great a misfortune he had drie eyes For if he knew that all humane greatness was vanity wherefore should he grieve for that which was nothing That is not worthy of grief which deserves not love Things so mutable are those below that as they merit not our affections when we enjoy them so they ought not to vex and afflict us when we lose them This apprehension was the cause of the great equality of mind which this Prince exprest in all his actions who was so far from shewing any grief in the loss of his Kingdom and fortunes that he rather seemed to laugh and rejoyce and therefore when he was overthrown in battail and forced to flye into Numidia where he fortified himself in one of the Mountains the Enemy besieging and streightning him with want of victuals he sent to the Captain who commanded in chief to demand of him Bread a Sponge and a Cittern Bread to sustain his life which was now like to perish for want of food a Sponge to drie his eyes for that having now entred into the consideration of the vanity of humane things and ashamed at his grief for the loss of them he was resolved to change his passions and rather laugh than weep for what being possest afforded no security the same being lost brought no prejudice and to this end demanded a Cittern for that having wiped his eyes from their fruitless tears he was now resolved to change his complaints into songs and his grief into content which consists not so much in the abundance of a great fortune as in the sufficiency of a moderate And with reason might he take the Cittern for if he well considered he might rejoyce even in his mishap since his loss made him understand that deceit of the World which his most ample Kingdom never could and freed him not onely from cares and troubles but from sins which in the prosperity of this life have a larger field than in an adverse fortune Possessed of this truth they took him prisoner and brought him to the conquering Belisarius The Captive King came with those expressions of joy and mirth that the General seeing him laugh whom he judged to have so great a cause of tears thought his grief had distracted him and
at least mortifie our affections for what is promised us hereafter and because it is most agreeable to God and profitable for our selves as may appear by this story related by Glycas Glycas ex eo Rad. in Aula Sancta cap. 12. A certain Anchorite had lived forty years in the desert retired wholly from the world and applying himself with great observance of his profession to the salvation of his Soul A desire at last entred into his minde to know who in the world was equal to himself in mortification Whereupon he besought God to reveal it unto him and it pleased his Divine Majesty to grant his request and it was answered him from heaven that the Emperour Theodâ—sius notwithstanding that he was Master of the greatest glory of the World yet was neither inferiour unto him in humility nor in overcoming himself The Hermite with this answer moved by God repaired unto the Court where he found easie access unto the courteous and religious Emperour unto whom the Servants of God and such as were famous for sanctity of life were alwayes welcome Not long after he found means to speak unto him and know his holy exercises At first he onely acquainted him with common vertues That he gave large Alms That he wore hair-cloth That he fasted often That he observed conjugal chastity and That he caused justice to be exactly observed These vertues seemed well unto the Hermit especially in such a person but yet judged all this to be short of himself who had done those things with greater perfection For he had renounced all and given all he possessed for Christ which was more than to give almes he never knew woman in his life which was more than to observe conjugal chastity he never did injury or injustice unto any which was more than to cause it to be kept to others his hair-cloth and fasts from all sorts of dainties were continual which was more than to abstain some dayes from flesh Wherefore altogether unsatisfied he further importuned the Emperour beseeching him to conceal nothing from him That it was the Divine will that he should acquaint him with what he did and that therefore he was sent unto him from God The Emperour thus urged said unto him Know then that when I assist at the horse-courses and spectacles in the Circus where my presence is required I so withdraw my minde from those vanities that though my eyes be open I see them not The Hermit remained astonisht at so particular a mortification in so great an Emperour and perceived that Scepters and Purple could not hinder a devout Prince from mortification of his affections and meriting much with God Almighty Theodosius further added Know also that I sustain my self by my labour for I transcribe certain parchments into a fair hand which being sold the price payes for my food With this example of poverty amongst so much riches and temperance in the middest of so great dainties the Hermit was wholly amazed and learned that abstinence from ease and pleasures of this life was that which made this religious Prince so gracious and acceptable unto our Lord. Finally so perverse are the delights of the World that though lawful yet they hinder much our spiritual proficiency and if unlawful are the total ruine of our Souls § 4. What shall we then say of the Royal and Imperial dignity which seems in humane judgement to embrace all the happiness of the World Honours Riches Pleasures all are contained in it But how small is a Kingdom since the whole Earth in respect of the Heavens is no bigger than a point and certainly neither Honours Riches or Pleasures are greater or more secure than we have described them Let us hear St. Chrysostome speak of the Emperours of his time Hom. 66. ad pop Look not upon the Crown saith he but upon that tempest of cares which accompany it Fix not thy eyes upon the purple but upon the mind of the King more sad and dark than the purple it self The Diadem doth not more encompass his head than cares and suspicions his soul Look not at the Squadions of his Guard but at the Armies of molestations which attend him for nothing can be so full of cares as the Palaces of Kings Every day they expect not one death but many nor can it be said how often in the night their hearts tremble with some sodain fright and their souls almost seem to forsake their bodies and this in the time of peace But when a warre is kindled what life so miserable as theirs how many dangers happen unto them even from their Friends and Subjects The floor of the Royal Palace is drowned in the blood of their Kindred If I shall mention those which have happened heretofore and now of late thou wilt easily know them This suspecting his Wife tied her naked in the mountains and left her to be devoured by wild beasts after she had been a Mother of divers Kings What a life had that man it being impossible he should execute such a revenge unless his sick heart had been eaten and consumed with jealousie This put to death his onely Son This killed himself being taken by the Tyrant This murthered his Nephew after he had made him his companion in the Empire This his Brother who died by poison and his innocent Son ended his life onely for what he might have been Of those Princes which followed one of them was with his Slaves and Chariots miserably burnt alive and it is not possible for words to express the calamities which he was forced to endure And he which now raigns hath he not since he was crowned suffered many troubles dangers griefs and treasons but in Heaven it is not so After this manner St. Chrysostome paints forth the greatest fortune of the World the Imperial Majesty which must needs be little since it is so unhappy that it suffers not to enjoy those frail goods of the earth in security but makes the possessors oftentimes perish before them But it is far otherwise in Heaven the Palace and House of God where the just without mixture or counterpoise of misery are to enjoy those goods eternal as we shall see in its proper place Lastly let us learn from hence not to admire the greatness of this World nor to desire the benefit of it Which lesson was well taught by St. Spiridion unto his Disciple who accompanying him one time unto the Court of the Emperour suffered himself to be transported with those things which he beheld The greatness and lustre of the Court The rich Garments Jewels Pearls and precious Stones dazled the eyes of the raw and unexperienced youth but above all the sight of the Emperour seated in his Imperial Throne with so much splendour and greatness almost drew him besides himself St. Spiridion willing one day to correct his errour asked him as if he had not known it Which of those were the Emperour His Disciple not reaching his intention
brought forth The same happened in the Siege of Jerusalem as Eusebius recounts in his Ecclesiastical History At the Siege of Numantia when Scipio had cut off all provisions from entring the Town the Inhabitants fell into that mortal and dog-like famine that every day they sallied forth to catch Romans as if they had hunted after wilde beasts Those whom they took they fed upon their flesh and drunk their blood as if they had drunk fountain water or fed upon Kid. They pardoned none but such as fell into their hands were cut in quarters and sold by pieces publickly in the Butchery in so much as the flesh of a dead Roman was of greater value than the ransome of a live one In the fourth book of Kings there is mention made of a Famine in Samaria in the time of Elizeus the Prophet which much exceeds this The want of food was so great that the head of an Ass was sold for 80 pieces of silver and the fourth part of a small measure of Pigeons dung for 5 pieces The most lamentable and inhumane was that having spent all their provision Women eat their own Children and one Woman complained to the King of Israel that her neighbour had broken an Agreement made betwixt them which was That they should first eat her Child and that done the others I sayes she have complied with my obligation and we have already eaten mine and now she hath hid hers and denies me my part Which the King hearing rent his garments and was struck with unspeakable sorrow Josephus in the seaventh Book of the Wars of the Jews relates a story much like unto this Joseph l. 7. de bel Jud. c. 2. but executed with more fury and after a more strange manner There was saith he in Jerusalem when it was besieged a Lady rich and noble who had hid in a house of the City the most part of her wealth and of the rest lived sparingly and with great moderation But she was not suffered to do so long for the Souldiers of the Garrison discovering her stock in a short time bereaved her both of what she had within doors and without and if she chanced at any time to be relieved by friends or beg some little thing to asswage her hunger they would take it from her and tear the morsel out of her mouth Seeing her self therefore destitute of all hope or counsel and certain to die of hunger and no possible remedy left for her necessities she began to arm her self against the laws of Nature and beholding the Infant which hung at her breast she cried out in this manner O unhappy Son of a more unhappy Mother how shall I now dispose of thee where shall I preserve thee things are driven to that exigent that though I save thy life from famine thou art certain to be a Slave to the Romans Better it is my Son that thou now sustain thy Mother who gave thee being and strike a terrour into those cursed Souldiers who have left me no other way of subsisting better that thou become an argument of pity unto future ages and raise sorrow in hearts not yet born At these words she cut the throat of her tender Infant divided it in the middle rosted one half and eat it and laid aside the rest for another meal She had no sooner ended this lamentable Tragedy but the Souldiers entred who smelling the rosted flesh began to threaten the Woman with death if she discovered not her store But she distracted with rage and horrour of her act and desiring nothing more than to accompany her dead Infant without fear or being abashed at all replied in this manner Peace friends we will share like brothers and saying this she fetched the half Child and placed it upon the Table before them At which hideous sight the Souldiers being amazed and confounded conceiv'd so great horrour and compassion in their hearts that they were not able to utter one word but she to the contrary staring upon them with a wilde countenance full of fury and distraction with a hoarse and broken voice spake in this manner Why how now Masters how comes this to pass is not this my Son the fruit of my own body is not this my act why do ye not then eat since I have begun unto you are you perhaps more nice than a Woman are you more scrupulous than the Mother which bore it for shame fall too It is I who have eaten of it first and 't is I will bear you company in eating of the rest But they not being able to behold so horrible a spectacle fled out of doors and left the miserable Mother with that little which remained of her Son and all her wealth Unto these stories I shall add one more lamentable in which will clearly appear unto what calamity humane life stands exposed It is written by William Paradin a man of great learning and diligence in a Treatise of things memorable in his time He relates it thus In the year 1528 men were grown so dissolute in their lives and so given over to all sorts of wickedness that notwithstanding those cruel and bloody warres which then raigned in most parts of Europe they humbled not themselves nor converted unto their Lord God but became every day worse and fell into that extremity of vice and mischief that God being offended let loose the sharp arrows of his wrath and vengeance against the Realm of France with such fury that all men thought the final destruction of that Kingdom was then come The want of corn wine and other fruits of the earth and the miseries and calamities of those times were such as no Records ever mention the like For five continued years beginning at the year 1528 the four Seasons of the year never kept their due and natural course but were in that confusion and disorder that sometimes Autumn came in Spring and Spring in Autumn Summer in Winter and Winter in Summer onely the unnatural Summer seemed to overcome the rest of the parts of the year and the heat doubled his forces against his enemy the cold insomuch as in December January and February when the cold ought to season and mellow the earth with frost and snow the heat was so excessive that the ground was parched and burnt up which was a most prodigious thing to behold In all those five years there was no two dayes together of hard weather neither those so intense as to glase the waters with the least shew of ice by which excessive heat were bred in the bowels of the earth an infinite number of Vermin Snails Grubs Worms Lizards and other creatures which eat up the young and tender corn in the hearb and much of it was devoured and consumed in the husk before it sprung up which was the reason that Wheat which uses to sprout up divers sterns from one grain hardly put forth one or two and those so abortive weak and dry that in
undefiled superiour to all grief and pleasure that thou do nothing without a good end nothing feignedly or falsely and that thou regard not what another man does or has to doe Besides that all things which happen thou receive as sent from thence from whence thou thy self art derived Finally that thou attend death with a quiet and temperate minde This is from that great Philosopher CAP. X. The dangers and prejudices of things Temporal THe least evil which we receive from the goods of this world is to deceive and frustrate our hopes and he comes well off whom they forsake onely with a mock For there are many who not onely fail of what they desire but meet with what they abhorre and in place of ease and content meet with trouble and vexation and instead of life finde death and that which they most affect turns often to their destruction Absolon being very beautiful gloried in nothing more than his hair but even those became the instrument of his death and those which he daily combed as if they had been threads of gold served as a halter to hang him upon an Oak To how many have riches which they loved as their life been an occasion of death This is the calamity of the goods of the earth which the Wise-man noted when he said Eccle. 5. Another dangerous evil I beheld under the Sun riches preserved for the destruction of their owner This is the general and incurable infirmity of riches that when they are possessed with affection they turn into the ruine of their possessors either in soul or body and oftentimes in both in so much as we are not to look upon temporal goods as vain and deceitful but as Parricides and our betrayers With much reason the two great Prophets Isaias and Ezechiel compare Egypt by which is signified the world and humane prosperity unto a reed which if you lean upon it breaks and the splinters wound your hands No less brittle than a reed are temporal goods but more dangerous Besides the other faults wherewith they may be charged a very great one is the hurts they doe to life it self for whose good they are desired and are commonly not onely hurtful unto the life eternal but prejudicial even unto the temporal How many for their desire to obtain them have lost the happiness of heaven and the quiet felicity of the earth enduring before death a life of death and by their cares griefs fears troubles labours and afflictions which are caused even by the greatest abundance and felicity before they enter into the hell of the other world suffer a hell in this And therefore St. John writes in his Apocalyps Apoc. 20. that Death and Hell were cast into a lake of fire because the life of sinners of whom he speaks according to the letter is a death and hell and he sayes that this Life and this Hell shall be cast into the other hell and he who places his felicity in the goods of the earth shall pass from one death unto another and from one hell unto another Let us look upon the condition whereunto Aman was brought by his abundance of temporal fortunes into so excessive a pride that because he was denied a respect which was no wayes due unto him he lived a life of death smothering in his breast a hell of rage madness and hatred nothing in this life as he himself confest giving him ease or content What condition more like unto death and hell than this for as in hell there is a privation of all joyes and delights so oftentimes it happens in the greatest felicities upon earth The same which Aman confessed Dionysius felt when he was King of Sicily to wit that he took no content at all in the greatest delights of his Kingdom Tull. in Tuscul q. Boet. l. de consol And therefore Boetius sayes that if we could take away the veil from those who sit in Thrones are clad in Purple and compassed about with Guards of Souldiers we should see the chains in which their Souls are enthralled conformable unto which is that of Plutarch that in name onely they are Princes but in every thing else Slaves A marvelous thing it is that a man compassed about with delights pastimes and pleasures should joy in nothing and in the middest of dancing drinking feasting and dainty fair should find a hell in his heart That in hell amongst so many torments sinners should not finde comfort is no marvail at all but that in this life in the middest of felicity and affluence of all delights he should finde no satisfaction is a great mystery A great mischief than is humane prosperity that amongst all its contents it affords no room for one true one But this is Divine providence that as the Saints who despised what was temporal had in their souls in the very middest of torments a heaven of joy and pleasure as St. Lawrence who in the middest of flames found a Paradice in his heart so the Sinner who neither esteems nor loves any thing besides those of the world should also in the middest of his regalo's and delights finde a life of hell and torments anticipating that whereunto after death he is to enter and be confined So great are the cares and griefs occasioned by the goods of the earth that they oppress those who most enjoy them and shut up the door to all mirth leaving them in a sad night of sorrow This is that which was represented unto the Prophet Zacharias Zach. 5. when before that the Devils came to fetch away the Vessel wherein the woman was enclosed to be carried into a strange Region in the Land of Sanaar there to dwell for ever the mouth of it was stopt up with a talent of Lead and she imprisoned in darkness and obscurity signifying thereby that before a worldling is snatcht away by the Devils to be carried into the mournful land of hell even in this life he is hood-winked and placed in so great a darkness as he sees not one beam of the light of truth so that no content or compleat joy can ever enter into his heart § 2. The reason why the goods of this life are troublesome and incommodious even to life it self is for the many dangers they draw along with them the obligations wherein they engage us the cares which they require the fears which they cause the affronts which they occasion the straights whereunto they put us the troubles which they bring along with them the disordinate desires which accompany them and finally the evil conscience which they commonly have who most esteem them With reason did Christ our Redeemer call riches thorns because they ensnare and wound us with danger losses unquietness and fears Wherefore Job said of the rich man Job 20. Greg. l. 15. Mor. c. 12. When he shall be filled he shall be straightned he shall burn and all manner of grief shall fall upon him The which St.
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
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
the Pikes and Launces to obtain that honour at the price of his own blood Because King Saul published in the Army that he would give his Daughter in Matrimony to him that should overcome the Giant Golias there being none found that durst attempt it David slighted all danger in hopes of obtaining such a recompense What have not men attempted to gain a terrestrial reward Nothing hath seemed much unto them For the gaining then of Heaven all things ought to seem little unto a Christian Seneca wondered at what Souldiers did and suffered for so short and transitory Kingdoms as are those of the Earth and that not for themselves but for another Much more may we wonder that the sufferings and labours of this life by which we are to gain the Kingdom of Heaven not for a stranger but for our selves seem so great and grievous unto us What did not Jesbaam perform for the advancing of the Kingdom of David though he was esteemmed a poor wretch and a dastard 2 Reg. 23. 1. Paralip 11. Vid. Sanctium Tirinum 2 Reg. 23. seeing that the Kingdom of David lay at stake he took such courage that he set upon 800 men and slew them in his first fury and at another occasion he killed 300. For the same Kingdom of David Eleazar Son of Ahostes fought with such constancy and valour that he slew innumerable Philistins continuing the Battel until he was so weary that he was not able to move his arm no longer and it remained so stiff with weariness as if it had been of stone If for a Kingdom of another Man's Dominions these men were so valiant why do not we take courage and procure with great valour to make conquest of the Kingdom of Heaven though we lose all our strength and even our lives in the Conquest since in respect of it all toil and labour is nothing For the advancing then of the Kingdom of David his worthies performed such actions as if they were not authorised by holy Scripture might seem incredible But what speak I of advancing his Kingdom when only to fatisfie a gust of his and perhaps an impertinent one which was to drink of the water in the Cisterns of Bethleem the young men threw themselves into the thickest of the Enemies Squadrons and with their naked swords cutting a passage through the middest of the Army fetcht the desired waters If men undergoe such hazards for the Kingdom nay for the pleasure of another and that momentary what ought we to do for those eternal joyes which are to be our own and for the Kingdom of Heaven wherein we expect such immense honours riches and pleasures Why do we not all take heart and courage It is the Kingdom of Heaven we hope for joyes riches and honours eternal are those which are promised us All is but little what can be suffered in time to obtain the same Semma for the defence of a poor field sowed with lentils durst fight alone against an Army of the Philistians 2 Reg. 23. For the defence then of grace which is the seed of God and to assure our glory which is the fruit of the Passion of Christ it is not much if without shedding of blood we fight against our unruly appetites and conquer our corrupt nature in this life that we may render it more perfect in the other To this purpose the consideration of glory is most powerfull having still before our eyes Heaven which is promised us And let not the eternal reward proposed by Christ be less efficacious than the temporal proposed by Man This was signified by our Lord unto the Prophet Ezechiel in those four living creatures so much different in nature Ezek. 1. but all one in their employment and puesto to wit an Eagle a Lyon an Ox and a Man which he beheld in the middle of the air flying with each one four wings as swift as a flash of lightning What thing could so force the heavy nature of an Ox as to equal the flight of an Eagle or what could associate the fierce nature of a Lyon with the gentleness of a Man The same Prophet declares it saying that they carried Heaven on their heads having the Firmament above them Because if Heaven be in our thoughts it will encourage us to all things It will make material Men equal unto Angels and subject them unto reason who in their customs are brutish as wild beasts so as he who is slow and heavy as an Ox shall flye with four wings and by conquering his own nature become in his flight equal to the birds of the air and he which feeds grovling upon the earth shall elevate himself and quit his short and transitory pleasures for those which are eternal § 3. Neither is this much For so great is the good which we expect that for it to be deprived of all other goods whatsoever ought to be esteemed a happiness and to suffer all torments and afflictions as a pleasure Let us hear what St. Chrysostome sayes Chrysost Tom. 5. Hom. 19. How many labours soever thou shalt pass how many torments soever thou shalt endure all are nothing in respect of those goods to come Let us hear also what St. Vincent Martyr said unto Dacianus the President and with what joy and patience in his torments he confirmed what he had spoken When they hoisted him up on high upon the Rack and the Tyrant in a scoff demanded of him where he then was the Saint smiling and beholding Heaven whither he was going answered I am aloft and from thence can despise thee although insolent and puft up with the power thou hast upon Earth Being after menaced with more cruel torments he said Me-thinks thou dost not threaten but court me Dacianus with what I desire with all the powers and faculties of my Soul And when they tore his flesh with hooks and pincers and burnt him with lighted torches he cried out with great joy In vain thou weariest thy self Dacianus thou canst not imagine torments so horrid which I could not suffer Prison Pincers Burning-plates of iron and Death it self are unto Christians sports and recreations and not torments He who had the joyes of Heaven before his eyes scorned and laughed at the bitterest torments upon Earth Let us consider them also and we shall not shun the sufferance of any thing whereby we may gain Heaven What pity is it that a Christian for some short and sordid pleasure should lose joyes so great and eternal because he will not bear some slight injurie here should be deprived of celestial honour there for not paying what he owes and not restoring what he hath unjustly taken should forfeit the divine riches of Heaven and for one pleasant morsel which the Devil offers him should deprive himself of that great Supper whereunto God invites him Who would choose rather to feed upon bones and craps which fell from the Table than to he a Guest at the
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
it not deserve And if in benefits the good will wherewith they are conferred is most to be esteemed When the benefit is infinite and the will of infinite love what shall we do If when that Traitor who murthered Henry the Fourth King of France was justly sentenced to those cruel torments wherein he died the first begotten Son of the dead King and Heir unto his Kingdom had cloathed himselt in the habit of the Murtherer and offered to be torn in pieces for him and to die that he might be freed from his torments and not only offered but actually performed it What love and thanks would the Prince deserve from that Caitiff O King of Glory and onely begotten Son of the eternal Father in as much as lay in us we were desirous to murther thy Father and to destroy his Divine essence and being and therefore were most worthy of death and eternal flames But thou wert not onely willing to die for us but effectually gavest thy blood and life with so inhumane torments for us and wert prepared to suffer more and greater for our good How shall we repay so great a love what thanks what gratitude for so immense a benefit Let us also consider What we our selves are for whom he suffered For he suffered not for himself or because it imported him he suffered not for another God nor for some new creature of a superiour nature to all those who now are not for a Seraphin who had faithfully served him for an eternity of years but for a miserable vile creature the lowest of all those which are capable of reason composed of dirt and his Enemy This should make us more grateful that God suffered so much for us who least deserved it To this may be added that he suffered thus much for us not that his suffering was necessary tor our redemption and freedom out of the slavery of sin but took upon him all these pains and torments onely to shew his love unto us and to oblige us to imitate him in the contempt of the world and all humane felicity Let us then behold our selves in this Mirrour and reform our lives Let us suffer with him who suffered so much for us Let us be thankful unto him who did us so much good and so much to his own cost Let it grieve our very souls that we have offended so good a God who suffered so many evils that we should not be evil Let us admire the Divine goodness who being the honour of Angels would for so vile a creature abase himself to the reproach of the Cross Let us love him who so truly loved us Let us put our trust in him who without asking gave us more than we durst desire Let us imitate this great example proposed unto us by the Eternal Father upon Mount Calvarie Let us compose our lives conformable unto the death of his Son our Saviour in all humility and contempt of temporal felicity that we may thereby attain the eternal that humbling our selves now he may exalt us hereafter that suffering here he may in his good time comfort us that tasting in this life what is bitter we may in the other be satiated with all sweetness and that weeping in time we may rejoyce for all eternity To which end our Saviour said unto the great Imitator of his Passion St. Francis Francis take those things that are bitter in lieu of those that are sweet if thou intendest to be happy And accordingly St. Austin Brethren Augus Ser. 11. ad fra Know that after the pleasures of this life are to follow eternal lamentations for no man can rejoyce both in this world and the next And therefore it is necessary that he who will possess the one should lose the other If thou desirest to rejoyce here know that thou shalt be banisht from thy Celestial Country but if thou shalt here weep thou shalt even at present be counted as a Citizen of Heaven And therefore our Lord said Blessed are those who weep for they shall be comforted And for this reason it is not known that our Saviour ever laught but it is certain that he often wept and for this reason chose a life of pains and troubles to shew us that that was the right way to joy and repose CAP. V. The Importance of the Eternal because God hath made himself a means for our obtaining it and hath left his most holy Body as a Pledge of it in the Blessed Sacrament ANother most potent motive to induce us to the estimation of what is Eternal and the contempt of what is Temporal is That God hath in the most holy and venerable Sacrament of his body and blood made himself a means that we might attain the one by despising the other Which holy Mystery was instituted That it might serve as a Pledge of those eternal goods and therefore the holy Church calls it a Pledge of future glory and That it might also serve us as a Viaticum whereby we might the better pass this temporal life without the superfluous use of those goods which are so dangerons unto us Our Lord bestowing this Divine bread upon us Christians as he did that of Manna heretofore unto the Hebrews And therefore as we gave a beginning unto this work with a presentation of that temporal Manna which served as a Viaticum unto the children of Israel in the wilderness so we will now finish it with the truth of this spiritual Manna of the blessed Sacrament which is a Pledge of the eternal goods and given as a Viaticum unto Christian people in the peregrination of this life Let a Christian therefore know how much it imports him to obtain the Eternal and with what earnestness his Creator desires it that having obliged us by those high endearments of his Incarnation and Passion in suffering for us so grievous and cruel a death would yet add such an excess of love as to leave himself unto us in the most blessed Sacrament as a means of our Salvation Who sees not here the infinite goodness of God since he who as God omnipotent is the beginning of all things and as the chief good of all goods and most perfect in himself is likewise their utmost end would yet for our sakes make himself a Medium which is common to the creatures and argues no perfection Our Lord glories in the Scripture that he is the beginning and end of all And with reason for this is worthy of his greatness and declares a perfection whereof only God is capable But to make himself a Medium and such a Medium as was to be used according to humane will and subject to the power and despose of man was such a complyance with our nature and such a desire of our salvation as cannot be imagined the Means of our salvation may be considered either as they are on Gods part or on Mans part for both God and Man work for mans salvation That God should serve himself