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
pointing with his finger simply told him That was he And wherefore replyed the Saint is this man more to be esteemed than the rest is it perhaps because he is more vertuous or is it because he is adorned with more exterior lustre and bravery is not he likewise to die as well as the most poor and unknown beggar is he not to be buried is he not as well as the rest of men to appear before the just Judge Wherefore then doest thou value those things which are to pass as if they were to last for ever Wherefore doest thou admire that which hath no consistence It were fitter for thee to place thy eyes and heart upon things eternal and incorruptible and to be enamoured of those which are not subject to change and death The same Disciple of Spiridion being now Bishop travelled one time with his Master who was then also Archbishop of Trimitunte and as they came to a certain place where the fields were very fertile and pleasant the Disciple being much taken with them began to cast within himself how he might compass an Inheritance in that good Country and lay it to his Church The Saint who understood his thoughts gave him this sweet and gentle reprehension To what purpose dear Brother doest thou trouble thy thoughts with things so vain and of so little substance Wherefore doest thou desire Land and Vineyards to labour and cultivate doest thou not know that these things are onely of an outward appearance and within are nothing or at least are worth nothing We have an Inheritance in Heaven which none can take from us There we have a house not made by the hands of men Look after those goods and begin now even before the time by the vertue of hope to enjoy them Those goods are of that condition that if you once possess them and make your self Lord of them you shall be then their eternal heir and your Inheritance shall never pass to others Let one place himself in the point of death and let him from thence on the one part behold the littleness of all things temporal which are now past and on the other the greatness of Eternity whereinto he enters which shall never pass and he shall easily discover how all the greatness and commodities of this life are for their littleness and short endurance rather worthy of laughter than admiration CAP. VII How miserable a thing is this Temporal Life LEt us also consider more particularly the substance and bulk of humane life which we so much esteem and we shall not a little wonder how so many and so great misfortunes can happen in so short a space Whereupon Phalaris the Agregentin was used to say That if a man before he was born knew what he was to suffer in life he would not be born at all For this reason some Philosophers repenting that they lived would blaspheme Nature railing at it with a thousand complaints and injuries because to the best of living things it had given so bad and wretched a life not reaching so high as to know that this was an effect of the fault of man and not a fault of Nature or Divine Providence Pliny would say That Nature was but a Stepmother to mankind and Silenus being demanded what was the greatest happiness man was capable of said Not to be born or die quickly The great Philosopher and Emperour Marcus Aurelius considering humane misery spake in this discreet manner Aurel. Anton. in sua Philosoph The warre of this life is dangerous and the end and issue of it so terrible and dreadful that I am certain that if any of the ancient should rise again and recount unto us faithfully and give us a view of his life past from the time he came out of his Mothers womb unto his last gasp the body relating at large the pains and griefs it hath suffered and the heart the alarms it hath received from fortune that all men would be amazed at a body that had endured so much and at a heart that had gained so great a victory and dissembled it I here confess freely and although to my shame yet for the profit that may redound to future ages that in the space of fifty years which I have lived I have desired to prove the utmost of all the vices and excesses of this life to see if the malice of man had any bounds and limits and I finde after long and serious inquisition that the more I eat the more is my hunger and the more I drink the greater is my thirst if I sleep much the more is my desire to sleep the more I rest the more weary and indisposed I finde my self the more I have the more I covet and the more I grasp the less I hold Finally I attain to nothing which doth not surfeit and cloy me and then presently I abhorre it and desire something else This is the judgement of Philosophers concerning the miseries of mans life The same is that of the Wiseman Eccl. 3. when he sayes All the dayes of man are full of grief and misery neither do his thoughts rest at night Stob. ser 96. With reason did Democritus say That the life of man was most miserable since those who seek for Good hardly finde it and Evil comes of it self and enters our gates unsought for insomuch as our life is alwayes exposed unto innumerable dangers injuries losses and so many infirmities that according to Pliny and many Physicians Greeks and Arabians there were more than thirty several sorts of new diseases discovered in the space of a few years and now every day they finde out others and some so cruel as they are not to be named without horrour Neither speak I onely of the infirmities but of their remedies For even griefs known and common are cured by cauterizing with fire by sawing off a member by tripanizing the scull or drawing bones from it Some have been cured with the opening the belly and drawing forth the guts Others by reason of the great malice of the disease are cured with so strange diets that the sick persons as Cornelius Celsus writes have for very thirst drunk their Urine and eaten their Plasters for raging hunger Others are prescribed to eat Snakes Mice Worms and other loathsome Vermin But above all the cure of Palaeologus the Second Emperour of Constantinople was most cruel and extravagant whose infirmity after a years continuance found no other remedy but to be continually vext and displeased his Wife and Servants who most desired his health having no wayes to restore it but by disobedience still crossing and opposing him in what he most desired a harsh cure for a Prince If remedies be so great evils what are the infirmities The sickness of Angelus Politianus was so vehement that he knockt his head against the walls That of Mecoenas so strange that he slept not nor closed his eyes in three whole years That of Antiochus so pestilential
reaping time they gathered not half so much as they sowed and sometimes nothing at all This Famine lasted without cease or intermission five whole years a thing so lamentable that it is impossible for them to imagine who have not seen it The people were so oppressed and afflicted with this mortal hunger and many other evils which accompanied it that it was pitiful to behold For many who were rented men and reasonable well to pass left their Houses and Granges and went from door to door like wanderers begging an alms for Gods sake Every day the number of the poor increased in such a manner as it was fearful to behold them going up and down in troops impossible to remedy and dangerous to suffer For besides the fear and hazard of being robbed to which necessity might without sin enforce them the air was filled with stench and corruption from their breaths and bodies To asswage their hunger they fill'd themselves with all sorts of hearbs good and bad wholesome and poisonous they ransackt all Gardens and Orchards not sparing so much as the roots and stalks of Cabbages and of them found not enough to satisfie their ravenous appetites and failing of Pot-hearbs in the Gardens they fell upon those which grew wilde in the Fields Many of them boiled great caldrons full of Mallows and Thistles mingling with them a little Bran if they could get it and with this stuffed their bellies like Porks It was a wonderful thing to see their many exquisite inventions of making bread of seeds of Hearbs of Roots of Fearn of Acorns of Hay-seeds forced and taught by hunger the Mistress of the sloathful verifying that which is commonly said Want and Necessity makes men seek out remedies not thought on as it made those miserable people seeing Hogs feed upon the roots of Fearn to trie whether they could make bread of it robbing the food even from Swine to sustain themselves Which evidently demonstrates the wrath of God against the impurity and filthiness of our sins since he permits men to fall into that necessity as to feed and feast with those unclean creatures From hence were ingendred many sorts of infirmities great companies of Men Women Boyes and Girles young and old of all ages went up and down the streets naked pale shivering with cold some swoln like Drums with Dropsies others stretcht upon the ground half dead and ready to draw the last gasp and of such the Stables and Dunghils were full others trembled as if they were infected with quicksilver so as they appeared more like unto Ghosts and Fantoms than living men But above all the greatest pity was to behold thousands of Women feeble pale and hunger-starved charged with an infinite number of their poor languishing Infants which dried up with hunger could not so much as weep or demand succour from their sorrowful and afflicted Mothers who could onely help them with their pitiful and compassionate looks of which rivers of tears which ran from their eyes were a sufficient witness and this certainly was the most lamentable Scene of this miserable Tragedy The same William Paradin writes that in Lonhans a Town of Burgundy he beheld a poor woman who with all the diligence she could use had gotten a little morsel of black bread which when she was about to have eaten her Infant unto whom she gave suck a boy of about a year old who had never until then eaten bit snatcht it out of her hand at which the sorrowful Mother admiring beheld with what greediness he devoured that little piece of drie bread as savourly as if it had been a March-pane which when he had eaten the Mother pickt up the crums that fell from his mouth intending to eat them her self but the Infant fell into so great unquietness and so violent a fit of crying that she was forced to leave them and truly it seemed the Child knew the scarcity of that kind of food and was therefore unwilling of a companion What heart so hard and inhumane that would not burst at the sight of so rueful a spectacle The same Author further writes That in another Village near unto this two women not finding any thing wherewith to asswage their hunger filled themselves with Sea Onions not knowing the property of that venemous hearb which in such a manner poisoned them that the extremities of their hands and feet became green as the skin of a Lizard and a corrupt matter flowed from betwixt their nails and flesh for which not receiving help so soon as was requisite they both died There was no creature which became not an executioner of the wrath of God The poor labourers left their Lands and Inheritances in hope to be relieved by the Rich who had long since heaped up great quantities of corn in their Granaries from whom at the first they bought bread at excessive rates afterwards money failing they sold and pawned their Lands and Inheritances for vile and low prices for that which was worth an hundred crowns was sold for ten Such was the abominable and greedy avarice of the Usurers as if it were not enough for the poor to be scourged by the wrath of God and to have the Elements and Creatures declared their enemies but Men themselves must become their Hangmen and persecute and afflict their own kinde The Extortioners perceiving the desired occasion which the perverseness of the time offered them lost it not but had Brokers and Factors in the Villages to buy the Inheritances of the poor at what price they pleased which the afflicted willingly parted with that they might have wherewith to eat and together with it sold their Cattle and Houshold-stuffe and the very necessaries of their persons and would with all their hearts have pawned their bowels to have had wherewith to feed them Besides this many of them saw not their Wheat measured and were forced to take it as the Sellers pleased who were no juster in their measure than the price There were some Usurers that bought a piece of Land for less money than the Notaries would take for drawing the Writings After all this the poor Peasants saw themselves their Wives and Children cast out of their Houses and to die in Hospitals All those miseries which fall not under imagination are found in the life of man §. 4. Evils of Warre GReater than all these calamities is that of Warre which of the three Scourges of God wherewith he uses to chastise Kingdomes is the most terrible as well because it is comonly followed by the other two as for that it brings along with it greater punishments and which is worse greater sins whereof plagues are free in which all endeavour to be reconciled with God and even those who are in health dispose themselves for death The Pestilence is sent by God who is all goodness and mercy not passing through the hands of men as warres doe Wherefore David held it for a mercy that his people suffered pestilence and not warre
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.
danger But this Celestial happiness being eternal neither shall nor can end diminish or be endangered but with this security adds a new joy unto those others of the Saints §. 2. Besides the Powers of the Soul the Senses also shall live nourished with the food of most proportionable and delightful objects The eyes shall ever be recreated with the sight of the most glorious and beautiful Bodies of the Saints One Sun suffices to chear up the whole World What joy then shall one of the Blessed conceive in beholding as many Suns as there are Saints and in seeing himself one of them when his hands feet and the rest of his members shall all forth beams clearer than the Sun at midday how shall he be transported in beholding the Body of the holy Virgin our most blessed Lady more beautiful and resplendent than the light of all the Saints together When Saint Dionysius Arcopagita beheld her in a mortal Body she seemed unto him as if she had been in glory With what joy then and gladness shall we look upon her in Heaven clad with immortality Hester 2. Of Hester the holy Scripture tells us that she was incomparably beautiful and of most rare features ravishing the eyes of all and exceedingly amiable With how fat greater excellency will the Queen of Heaven appear full of all graces and priviledges of beauty in the happy state of glory But above all with what content and admiration shall we behold the glorious Body of Christ our Redeemer in comparison of whose splendor that of all the Saints shall be as darkness from whose wounds shall issue forth raies of a particular brightness The tormented members also of the Martyrs and the mortified parts of the Confessors shall flourish with a singular beauty and splendour Besides all this the glory and greatness of the Empyrial Heaven and the lustre of that Celestial City shall infinitely delight the blessed Citizens The ears shall be fill'd with most harmonious songs and musick as may be gathered from many places of the Apocalyps and if the Harp of David delighted Saul so much as it asswaged the fury of his passions cast forth the Devils and treed him of that melancholy whereof the wicked spirit made use and that the Lyre of Orpheus wrought such wonders both with men and beasts what shall the harmony of Heaven do The devout Virgin Donna Sancha Carillo being sick and ready to die with excessive pain Roa l. 1. c. 10. in ejus vita with the hearing of musick from Heaven was freed from her grief and remained sound and healthy St. Bonaventure writes of St. Francis that whilest an Angel touched his Instrument it seemed unto him that he was already in glory What delight then will it be not onely to hear the voice of one Instrument played upon by an Angel but also the voices of thousands of Angels together with the admirable melody of musical Instruments The singing of one little Bird only ravished an holy Monk for the space of three hundred years when as he perswaded himself they being past that there were no more than three hours past What sweetness will it be to heat so many heavenly Musicians those millions of Angels so many men which will be sounding forth their Alleluja's which holy Tobie mentioned and those Virgins singing a new song which none but they could sing Surius writes in the life of St. Nichalas Tolentine that for fix moneths before his death he heard every night a little before Mattins most melodious musick of Angels in which he had a taste of that sweetness which God had prepared for him in his glory and such joy and comfort he received by hearing it that he was wholly transported desiring nothing more than to be freed from his Body to enjoy it The same desired St. Austin when he said Aug. c. 25. med that all the employments all the entertainments of the Courtiers in Heaven consisted in praises of the Divine Majesty without end without weariness or trouble Happy were I and for ever happy if after death I might deserve to hear the melody of those songs which the Citizens of that Celestial habitation and the squadrons of those blessed spirits sing in praise of the eternal King This is that sweet musick which St. John heard in the Apocalyps when the Inhabitants of Heaven sang Let all the world bless thee O Lord To thee be given all honour and dominion for a world of worlds Amen The smell shall be feasted with the odour which issues from those beautiful Bodies more sweet than Musk or Amber and from the whole Heaven more fragrant than Jesemins or Roses Greg. l. 4. dialog c. 16. Hom. 38. in Evang. Turonen li. 7. histo Fran. St. Gregory the Great writes that Christ our Redeemer appearing unto Tarsilla his Sister cast forth so delicious a smell and fragrancy that it well appeared it could not proceed but from the Author of all sweetness St. Gregory of Tours writing of the holy Abbot St. Sylvius sayes that when he was dead there was so great sadness in the Monastery for the loss of him that our Lord was pleased to command that he should be restored to life again The Saint obeyed though with great resentment of what he left and whither he returned He bewailed his banishment with a fresh and lively memory of that Celestial Country where he had seen himself a little before with so great advantage The Monks pressed him very hard to declare unto them something of of what he had seen He told them I my dear Bretheren mounted up to the land of the living where I had the Sun Moon and Starres for my footstool with greater splendour and beauty than if it had been paved with silver and gold being placed in the seat deputed for me I was replenished with an odour of so singular sweetness that it alone hath been sufficient to banish all appetites or desires of the things of this life in so much that I neither desired to eat nor drink any thing to maintain it Baron To. 9. an 716 Baronius reports of one who raised from death amongst other things recounted That he had seen a most delightful place where an infinite number of most beautiful persons did recreate themselves and that there issued from them a most fragrant and miraculous sweetness and this the Angels told him was the Paradise of the Sons of God Greg. l. 4. Dial. The like is reported also by St. Gregory of a certain Souldier Neither is it much that glorious Bodies should breath out so sweet a smell since even in this valley of misery the Bodies of Saints without life or soul have sent forth a most admirable fragrancy St. Gregory the Great writes that at the instant Greg. 4. Dial. c. 14. when Sr. Servius died all who were present were filled with a most incomparable sweetness St. Jerome reports the like of St. Hilarion that ten moneths after his death
his Body cast forth a most fragrant perfume If this be in corruptible flesh what shall be in the immortal Bodies of the Saints The taste also in that blessed Country shall not want the delight of its proper object For although the Saints shall not there feed which were to necessitate that happy state unto something besides it self yet the tongue and pallat shall be satiated with most pleasant and savoury relishes so as with great decency and cleanliness they shall have the delight of meat without the trouble of eating by reason of the great delicacy of this Celestial taste The glory of the Saints is often signified in holy Scripture under the names of a Supper Banquet Manna Aug. lib. de spiritu vita Laur. Justin de Dis Mon. ca. 23. St. Austin sayes it cannot be explicated how great shall be the delight and sweetness of the taste which shall eternally be found in Heaven And St. Laurentius Justinianus affirms that an admirable sweetness of all that can be delightful to the taste shall satisfie the pallat with a most agreeable satiety If Esau sold his Birthright for a dish of Lentil pottage well may we mortifie our taste here upon earth that we may enjoy that perfect and incomparable one in Heaven The touch also shall there receive a most delightful entertainment All they tread upon shall seem unto the Just to be flowers and the whole disposition of their Bodies shall be ordered with a most sweet and exquisite temperature For as the greatest penances of the Saints were exercised in this sense by the afflictions endured in their Bodies so it is reason that this sense should then receive a particular reward And as the torments of the damned in hell are most expressed in that sense so the Bodies of the Blessed in Heaven are in that sense to receive a special joy and refreshment And as the heat of that infernal fire without light is to penetrate even to the entrals of those miserable persons so the candor and brightness of the celestial light is to penetrate the bodies of the Blessed and fill them with an incomparable delight and sweetness All then what we are to do is to live in that true and perfect life all is to be joy in that eternal happiness Therefore as St. Anselme sayes Ansel de Simil. c. 59. the eyes nose mouth hands even to the bowels and marrow of the bones and all and every part of the body in general and particular shall be sensible of a most admirable pleasure and content Joan. de Tamba Trac de Deliciis sensibilibus Paradisi Et Nich. de Nise de quat Noviss 3. Myst 4. Consi The Humanity of Christ our Redeemer is to be the principal and chief joy of all the Senses and therefore John Tambescensis and Nicholas of Nise say that as the intellectual knowledge of the Divinity of Christ is the joy and essential reward of the Soul so the sensitive knowledge of the Humanity of Christ is the chief good and essential joy of the Senses and the utmost end and felicity whereunto they can aspire This it seems was meant by our Saviour in St. John when speaking unto the Father he said This is life eternal that is essential blessedness as Nicholas de Nise interprets it that they know thee the only true God in which is included the essential glory of the Soul and him whom thou hast sent Jesus Christ in which is noted the essential blessedness of the Senses in so much as onely in the Humanity of our Saviour the appetite of the Senses shall be so perfectly satisfied as they shall have no more to desire but in it shall receive all joy pleasure and fulness of delight for the eyes shall be the sight of him who is above all beauty for the ears one onely word of his shall sound more sweetly than all the harmonious musick of the Celestial spirits for the smell the fragrancy that shall issue from his most holy Body shall exceed the perfume of spices for the taste and touch to kiss his feet and sacred wounds shall be beyond all sweetness It is much also to be noted that the blessed Souls shall be crowned with some particular joyes which the very Angels are not capable of For first it is they onely who are to enjoy the Crowns of Doctors Virgins and Martyrs since no Angel can have the glory to have shed his blood and died for Christ neither to have overcome the flesh and by combats and wrastlings subjected it unto reason Wherefore Saint Bernard said The chastity of men was more glorious than that of Angels Secondly men shall have the glory of their bodies and joy of their senses which the Angels cannot For as they want the enemy of the Spirit which is the Flesh so they must want the glory of the victory Neither shall they have this great joy of mankind in being redeemed by Christ from sin and as many damnations into hell as they have committed mortal sins and to see themselves now freed and secure from that horrid evil and so many enemies of the Soul which they never had which must needs produce a most unspeakable joy Cap. VI. The excellency and perfection of the Bodies of the Saints in the life eternal WE will not forbear also to consider what man shall be when he is eternal when being raised again at the great day he shall enter Soul and Body into Heaven Let us run over if you please all those kinds of goods which expect us in that Land of promise When God promised Abraham the Country of Palestine he commanded him to look upon it and travel and compass it from side to side Gen. 13. Lift up thine eyes saith the Lord and from the place where thou standest look towards the North and towards the South and towards the East and towards the West All the land which thou seest I will give unto thee and thy seed for ever And immediately after Arise and walk the land in length and breadth for I will certainly give it thee We may take these words as spoken unto our selves since they seem to promise us the Kingdom of Heaven for no man shall enter into that which he docs not desire and no man can desire that as he ought to do which he has not walked over in his consideration for that which is not known is hardly desired And therefore we ought often to contemplate the greatness of this Land the length of its eternity and the breadth and largeness of its felicity which is so far extended that it fills not onely the Soul but the Body with happiness and glory that glory of the Soul redounding unto the Body and perfecting it with those four most excellent gifts and replenishing it with all felicity which can be imagined or desired If Moses seeing an Angel in a corporal figure onely upon the back part and but in passage received so great a glory from