his handes and the diuine words of his mouth As for the memory we shal be questioned if we haue vsed it in calling our Lord God to mind togeather with his presence his goodnes his power and all his benefits and mercies We shal be arraigned vpon the point of our Will if perhaps it haue beene busyed in the loue and estimation and desire of God and the accomplishment of his Law and of his will and in the search of all those thinges which concerne the glory of our Lord God We shall b We shall not only giue account of our sinnes the faculties of our mind but also of the senses of our body and of the vse of all Gods creatures giue account of how we put the senses of our body on worke if we imployed our eyes vpon behoulding this fabrike of the world and these Heauens and Elements and the other works of God that so behoulding in these creaturs the trace and sent which they carry in them of all his diuine perfections we may raise our selues vp by them So to consider with our soules the power and the wisedome and the goodnes and the beauty of God and by this meanes to loue and praise him with our whole harts So also if we imployed our ears to hear the words of the true God and those instructions and doctrines admonitions and examples which were profitable to the soule and in hearing the sweet musicke of mans voice and of the instruments which he can vse of the birds also of the ayre so to stir our selues vp towardes deuotion to contemplate the much sweetnes of that Celestiall musicke and so to loue and esteeme the blessinges of heauen And concerning the Smell if we imployed it onely vpon those things which are necessary for mans life through the sent of creaturs if we aspir'd towardes the sweet sauour of vertues and of good example of the glory of the next life So also for the Tongue if it was mouing in the prayse of our Lord God in offering him deuout prayers in learning and teaching those thinges which are necessary both for our selues and our Neighbours and in discouering and confessing our sinnes for the obtayning of pardon and redresse thereof and in taking but that food which was necessary for the sustenance of our life and in drawing out of the gust sauour of corporal meate a consideration and feeling of the vnspeakeable sweetnes and sauour of those spirituall foods of grace and glory So also if we haue imployed the sense of Feeling with our handes and all the rest of our body vpon the onely taking of those thinges which were necessary for the same body and profitable for our soule and for our Neighbours and for the vse of our life and for the exercise of the workes of Charity and Mercy This good vse of all the powers of our souls senses of our body doth our Lord God demaund of vs when he saith Deut. 4. Keepe thy selfe and keepe thy soule with great care and of this are we to make a very exact accompt in his diuine Iudgement Wee shall also giue accompt in the same Iudgment of all our sinnes of speach such as are vaine Oathes Reproaches murmurations cursings scoffing of our neighbours and words of anger and impatience of lying of sowing discord Of these and others which are either lasciuious or curious or vaine of euery idle word saith Christ our Redeemer Matt. 12. shall men giue accompt in the day of Iudgment and that word goeth for idle which is neither necessary nor profitable Accompt must also be giuen of all sinnes of deed such as are disobedience to parents and other Superiours reuenge ill in treaty of our neighbours dishonesty iniustice vsurping detayning the goods of others against right vnlawfull bargaines pride in gouernement excesse in the furniture of houses of clothes of expences otherwise and in the intertainemēt of seruants excesse also in dyet in play and in other superfluous and vaine things Of all these and of all other euill deeds accompt must be giuen as Ecclesiastes saith Eccles 12. All things which are done by man both good bad shall be presented in that diuine Iudgemēt to be there examined for euery work which shal be found erroneous and ill he shal be punished We shall giue accompt of al our thoughts such as are rash Iudgmēt consents which are giuen to reuenge or els vncleanes or voluntary delights in any thing which is ill or to inward hatred or in fine to thoughts which are vnprofitable For as the Wise man saith Sap. 1 God will examine iudge the thoughts of the wicked Besides this we shall giue c A point of great moment and little thought on accompt of our sinnes of Omission which are the most in number and ly most hidden from our sight For hauing forborne to pray to read good bookes to fast to performe other penances and mortifications and to confesse and communicate For hauing omitted to do the workes of Iustice and mercy in certaine cases and at certaine tymes when either some particuler precept or the great necessity of doing those workes did oblige vs to them For hauing fayled to comply with many dutyes of our calling and offices to which we were bound by the obligations either of God or man We shall giue accompt how we haue profitted by those spirituall and supernaturall graces which God hath giuen vs such as are his Sacraments the guifte of Fayth the Doctrine of the Ghospell good Sermons holy exampls vertuous conuersations the admonitions and reprehensions of our Superiours and Ghostly Fathers and the interiour inspirations which God hath giuen vs. We shall giue account how we haue vsed our naturall and temporall benefits as namely our Health if we haue imployed it vpon the seruice of that Lord who gaue it Our Tyme if we haue spent it profitably our Reputation if we vsed it to the glory of God and the good of our Neighbour Our Estate temporal goods if we haue imployed them onely to the succour of the true necessities of our selues our family and our neighbours and of those things which are profitable to the life of a Christian man and to the honest Condition of euery one The accompt which is to be giuen for these sinnes of Omission and the punishment which is allotted to them Christ our Lord declared in that Parable of the Talents when he told that vnprofitable seruant that the Talent which God gaue him which are his naturall and spirituall guifts as also his temporall goods was not well imployed by him nor vsed in those workes which were agreable to God and he said thus to him Matt. 25. Thou negligent and wicked seruant since thou sayst that I am rigorous and that I expect more then I laid out why didst thou not put out that Talent to profit which I gaue thee That is why didst thou not make
yet make choyce of vs from all eternity and first create vs and after that sinne was committed redeeme vs to the end that we might obteine that most sublyme and supernaturall end of beatitude which consisteth in seeing God and in enioying God and in obteyning and possessing that by grace which God himselfe doth possesse by nature which is to loue enioy himselfe Againe that he hath created and ordayned and called and iustified vs for the enabling vs to a dignity so sublime as it is to be Kings of heauen and to haue seates and thrones in that heauen which is called Empyreall that for euer And there to possesse the incomprehensible and eternall felicity of glory in this glory to be companions of the Angells yea and of God himselfe who is the Lord of the Angels This I say is a grace and mercy which we are to ponder and most profoundly to esteeme in the very rootes of our harts and to be gratefull to God for it withal the powers of our soule and with our tongue to blesse and prayse him for it with S. Peter saying Blessed and praysed be our God and the naturall fauour of Iesus Christ our Lord who through his great and most aboundant mercy hath engendred vs anew who were borne in sinne and were the Children of wrath by our descent from Adam by liuely Fayth and by the Sacraments making vs by this spirituall generation to become the sonnes of God himselfe and giuing vs a certaine true hope of the true life which is that blessed and euerlasting end And this he wrought in vs by the Resurrection of Christ our Sauiour For by his Resurrection he procured that the world should beleeue in him and should obey his ghospell and by meanes of this faith and obedience the fruit of his life and passion might be communicated to it and by this liuely hope he first enabled vs to expect and afterward to obteine the inheritāce which is due to the Sonne of God The i An insatiable thirst after the ioyes of heauen second thinge which we are to draw from hence is a very great and liuely and efficatious desire of this kingdome of heauen and that once we may arriue to possesse and enioye that celestiall happines A man desires euen by the very appetit of nature to be free from the affliction of paine other corporal miseries but this desire cannot be fulfilled in this life For all this life is full of affliction and sicknes paines of body and sadnes and griefe of mind and difficulties and troubles and contradictions by his kinsmen friends and of persecution by iniustice and oppressions of enemies and of contrary and ill encounters in point of fortune and of temptations of deuils and of the world and of their lawes and rights and of our owne corrupt nature and al our euill inclinations A man saith Iob liues but a little tyme and that little is full of many miseries In heauen it is where a man may haue this desire satisfied because there as S. Iohn saith Apoc. 21. God will wipe away the teares from his frends eyes there shall be no death nor lamentation nor any sad note nor griefe For all this had an end in this life and therfore it is necessary for a man to labour with desire of the kingdome of heauen where only this desire can be accomplished A man k The iust reasō of this thirst drawne from the sinnes wherwith the world abounds desires by the appetite of grace to see himselfe free from the sins of his soule which induce him to do ill In this life this delight cannot be accomplished because all this life is full of innumerable sinns and whersoeuer thou goest thou shal see sinne and plenty of wickednes And althogh in many places it aboundeth more or lesse then in other yet for the most part euery one of them is corrupted defild with diuers kinds of vices yea and euen the most iust and holy men haue some veniall sins of which they cānot free themselues and the same men run hazard to fall into other which are greater For as S. Iohn sayth 1. Ioan. 1. If we shall say that we haue no sinne we deceiue our selues therin and we speake not truth In heauen it is where this desire is fulfilled for there is neither fault nether can there be any For as the same Apostle saith Apoc. 21. Into that celestiall Hierusalem nothing can enter which is spotted And therfore it is necessary and most profitable for a man to aspire to that habitatiō of heauen where his desire may be satisfied CHAP. XIX How all the things of this life which are good and which giue delight doe induce vs to a desire of the kingdome of heauen NOT a We haue reason to thirst after the kingdom of heauen through the consideration of earthly pleasures which are miserable things yet they make a shift to please vs. onely do the euills of sinne and punishment wherof this life of ours is full incline vs to desire the kingdome of heauē which is free from al those inconueniences but so also do all good things which giue vs in this life any contentment or gust either corporall or spirituall perswade and moue vs to the same For they all discouer to vs the immensity of that celestiall happines and the greatnes of the appetite of our soule which cannot be satisfied and put in quiet by any thing which is lesse then that For a man who by his senses taketh experience of the sauour of his meat and drinke and of the sweetenes of musicke and of the contentment which he hath in seeing those things which are artificiall gallant and full of beauty by the light of reason and of faith will grow to make this consideration If a creature b A most certayne truth and which entreth sweetly into the soule so base and of so small importance as a bird a liquor of milke or wine or any other thing that concernes our food being toucht but by the course pallate of a man do yet cause delight and gust and such gust as that for it some men do expose themselues to much trouble and cost yea and euen to the very perdition of their soules what sauour and what ioy shall it giue the soule to be most profoundly internally with all the powers and forces therof vnited with God and to tast God he being that infinit good and that infinit sweetnes and ioy yea the infinit fountaine of all ioy and sweetnes And with the same soule to swallow downe huge draughtes of that riuer of delights which is in the house of God and which in substance is in euen God himselfe and the infinit and inexhausted sea of all chast and pure delights If to see with these corporall eyes of ours the designe the beauty and the grace of creatures which yet are but compounded of earth water and
and who powre out the drink of spiritual comfort and ease to such as are afflicted and deiected that so they may beare their miseryes with patience who cloath their soules with vertues and celestiall guifts who are naked depriued of al spiritual graces and who cure and recouer out of their miserable infirmityes and who draw and deliuer out of that horrible captiuity them who are sicke of sinne and are taken prisoners and made slaues by Sathan Most certain it is that although all they who expresse mercy towards their neighbours shall be esteemed honored in that Tribunal shal be sublimed with glory and royall dignity yet these others who haue imparted it towards the soules of mē shal be much more esteemed and honoured by Christ our Lord and his Angels shal be raised to greater glory more aduaūced in the kingdom of heauen It is also to be considered that although these works of mercy whether they be corporall or spirituall and which respect the spirituall or corporall good of our neighbour are excellent and of great value and merit as we haue already sayd yet the interiour and exteriour workes of Fayth Hope Charity and Religion which haue e How highly gratefull those acts of vertue are which do immediatly respect Almighty God imediate relation to Almighty God and to the worship seruice which is due to him as our God and our Creatour are more excellent and of greater value merit then the workes of mercy which ayme but at the cōfort of our neighbours And so much more as any vertue doth draw neere approach to God so much more is the vertue more excellent Now the vertues which are called Theological which are Fayth Hope Charity do looke vp and serue immediatly honour Almighty God belieuing his truth and louing his goodnes and hoping in his mercy And the vertue of Religion doth respect and exercise the worship and veneration which is due to God as being soueraigne Authour and Lord of all thinges And these vertues being more excellent then that of Mercy towardes our Neighbour it is cleare that those faythfull Christians who with firme and liuely fayth haue beleeued in Christ our Lord and who confessed his fayth in the face of Tyrants who placed all their confidence in Christ searching with care after his glory and resigning themselues entirely to his most holy will and honoring him reuering him with true worship with pure prayers and with an exact performance of their promises and the vowes which they make to his diuine Maiesty certaine I say it is that in the day of his diuine Iudgment they shall be more esteemed and honoured by Christ for hauing done and suffered these thinges then either they or any others shall be for any other inferiour works which they may haue wroght towardes their Neighbours And therefore the reward of glory being so illustrious and so high which for the workes of spirituall and corporall mercy they shall receaue considering that yet the reward which these others shall obtayne is to be much more eminent and great and since notwithstāding that the kingdome which is to be giuen in reward of these workes of mercy is celestiall eternall yet for these acts of faith and Charity and Religion a greater and a better portion shall be allotted and set out in the same kingdome let vs be most diligent in the leading of a good life in cōseruing our soules pure and cleane in exercysing our selues in the acquisitiō of vertue And let vs be full of feruour towards the works of mercy whether they be spirituall or corporall euery one according to his Tallent O happy f Conclusion and for euer most happy they who shall thus imploy themselues Happy because they were elected from all eternity by almighty God Happy because they were called in Tyme to his faith and Religion and were instructed therin Happy because they did correspond to that vocation of God and did begin to lead a good life Happy because they did contynue therin Happy because if they fell they quickly rose againe by penance and were constant therin And Happy beyond all happies because when our Lord came to call them to accompt at the houre of their death he found them imployed in a good life and watchfull in the exercise of good workes expecting the tyme of his comming to receaue the reward of their labours at his mercifull and most liberall handes For it is sayd by no lesse then Truth it selfe Luc. 12. Happy is that seruant whome his Lord when he commeth shall find watching and imployed in the discharge of his duety with fidelity and prudence and complying with his obligations whether they be common to all Christians or particulerly belonging to his state I tell you as an vndoubted truth that to such a seruant as this his Lord shall deliuer vp the possession of all his goods That is Christ our most mercifull Lord and our God will rayse him vp from the blessinges of grace in this life to the blessinges of glory in the next and from the basenes of this earth to raigne eternally together with himselfe in heauen Amen THE CONCLVSION TO THE READER MAKE accompt good Reader that this discourse is a Letter this which now thou art reading is the Postscript of it Thou hast seene the torments of Hell and the ioyes which are imparted to the elect in heauen Thou hast seene that if thou dye in mortall sinne thou wilt for euer be chayned in those torments for euer be depriued of those ioyes Take heed therefore of all sinne and especially take heed of the sinne either of Schisme or Heresy which are of the greatest that can be cōmitted The nature of Heresy consisteth in this That a man will make election of some one doctrine or more which is contrary to the beleefe of that true Church which is celebrated in the Creed of the first Councell of Nice to be One to be Holy to be Catholike to be Apostolike Be sure thou be of that one true Church which soeuer that be for thogh myself be resolued yet I will not heere handle that question by way of Controuersy but there is but one wherin a Christian can be saued one in the faith which it professeth howsoeuer it may be accounted many in respect of the infinite persons which it conteyneth and consequently of the particular Churches which it imbraceth The nature Wher in the nature of heresy doth indeed consist therfore of heresy doth not consist in the multitude or quality of the Articles of Religion which are held in difference from the dotrine and direction of the holy Catholike Church but it consisteth properly in the pride and presumption of that hart which dares preferre a priuate opinion of any one or seuerall Countries or any interpretation of holy Scripture which interpretation is also no more then a For he will make the scriptur affirm
persons as long as they did perseuere they had signes in them of being predestinated and they who receaued not the fayth according to their then present state were wicked reprobate This did our Lord declare whē he sayd I came into this world that they who see not might se◠they who see might be blind Which was as much to say Vpon my comming did this iudgment follow and this distinction was made amongst men that many who in their soules were blind through ignorance and errour and vice and who did not see the truth nor did walke in the right way to heauen by beleeuing in me with a liuely fayth they I say might see the truth and follow it And that many others who saw and had knowledg of the Scriptures and did know the law and the Prophets who both in their own and in the peoples opinion estimation were held wise and had a spirituall light wherwith to looke into diuine things they I say for their pride and ingratitude should remaine blind and going astray from the right way should not find their errour and perdition Another diuine and most singular testimony which Christ our Lord hath giuen vs of the desire which he hath in this iudgment of his not to finde any sinnes which he might punish nor any sinners whom he should be so obliged to condemne is That d Let all Angells adore him for this inestimable benefit to men at his first comming he made a law which was to last till the end of the world wherby he gaue faculty to all sinners that during the whole tyme whilst their life should last they might passe a Iudgement vpon themselues acknowledging their sinns and accusing themselues therof with greefe and confessing them to a Priest who should hould the place of Christ our Lord and satisfying for them according to the iudgment of the same Ghostly father and that they performing this he would not in his Iudgment either cōdemne or punish them but would declare them to be not Guilty and would impart the kingdome of heauen to thē And that if hauing once passed this Iudgement vpon themselues they should yet return againe to sinne become abnoxious therby to eternall condemnation yet stil as long as their life should last they might returne to passe the same Iudgment vpon themselus as often as they would and that if they should do it according to e Confessing them all clearely with great sorrow firme purpose of amendmēt Truth he would not condemne them but would admit them into his company and make them happy O Iudgment which is so deerely sweet O Iudge who is so ful of mercy and how vnanswerable is it proued by this most pitteous Iudge that his intention and desire is not to punish but to pardon not to condemne but to absolue and saue since before he comes to passe his Iudgment he vseth so many meanes applyes so many remedies to the end that he may finde no sinnes to punish nor no sinners to condemne If an earthly Iudge had his prison ful of delinquents theeues murtherers and should make a kind of agreement and bargaine with them that f Consider seriously heerof admire the infinit goodnes of God in that wherein the blind world thinkes it hath hard measure namely in the Institution of the Sacrament of Confession euery one of them might choose what friend or kinsman of his owne he would and in secret should declare his offence to him deliuering to him the whole truth and vndergoing but that penalty which he should impose vpon him for the same And that vpon some day of the same yeare himselfe would come to the prison to Iudge them and that he would pronounce them to be free who had declared their offences to friend or kinsman of theirs who had performed the penalty which he had imposed and that he would only cōdemne those others who would not haue recourse to that remedy what would you say of this Iudge of this agreement You would say that there nether is nor euer was nor euer will be in the world any Iudge who sheweth or is to shew any such mercy nor who euer made or will euer make any such Capitulation with persons who had deserued to dye nor are there any laws on earth which can permit any such thinge And if there were any Iudge who would submit himselfe to the like cōdition there would no delinquent be found who would not ioyfully performe this agreement and so be declared for not guilty Well then Christ Iesus the Eternall Iudge and who is of infinite power and Maiesty doth shew this mercy to all such sinners as are worthy of eternall death And he hath made this bargaine and agreement with them all and that is yielded to by the laws of heauē which the laws of earth will not endure Let vs therfore serue our selues of this mercy let vs performe the articles of this agreement and let vs in tyme passe a Iudgment vpon our selues let vs confesse our sinnes with true sorrow let vs amend our liues to the end that when at the houre of our death in the particuler Iudgment and at the end of the world in the Vniuersal iudgment we shal come before this great Iudge he may find no sinnes to punish or condemne in vs. For it is sayd by S. Iohn the Apostle concerning this Lord 1. Ioan. 1. If we confesse our sins repenting our selues truly of them before God and his substitute God is iust and faithfull in fulfilling the promises and rewarding the meritts of Chri◅ our Sauiour and so he will pardon vs our sinnes through his merits and will cleanse vs from all wickednes as he hath promised O most vnhappy men who deferring to do pennance and to make amendment of their liues despise this mercy of God as S. Paul sayth by making ill vse thereof Rom. 2. And g Woe be to thē who will needes be wicked euen because God is so infinitely good by this meanes they treasure vp the wrath and punishment of God for themselues against the day of his wrath which is that of his Iudgement These lawes of mercy were not made nor are they proclaimed vnto men to the end that thereupon they should take such a wicked strange presumption to sinne but that if they haue sinned they should not be dismaid but that in hope of this diuine mercy they should instantly correct themselues and reforme their liues and obtaine pardon So doth the glorious Apostle S Iohn aduertise vs for hauing sayd That if we confesse our selues well God will pardon vs he instātly addeth this 1. Ioan. 2. These thinges haue I written to you my children to the end that you may not sinne but that you may fly from sinne at full speed but yet if any man do sinne we haue an Aduocate before the Father That is to say let him not be dismaid nor out
the right vse of what I gaue thee imploying it well in the exercise of vertue in the increase of merit and in the multiplication of good works And so when he had rebuked this sloathfull seruant he commaunds the ministers of his Iustice to excecute the sentence which he giues against him when he sayth Take that vnprofitable seruant and cast him into exteriour darknes which is that of Hell where there is lamentation and euerlasting torment through the paines of intollerable both heat and could other torments also which are to be endured there CHAP. VI. How Christ our Lord declares the detestation which he carryeth against the sinnes of wicked men whereof they are conuinced by the sentence which he pronounceth against them THESE are the things wherof a man is to giue accompt in that diuine Iudgment of God And this is that which now is to be considered that so he may know how deeply God doth feele the weight of sinne and consequently how to moue himselfe to detest it And withall let him ponder how after that Christ our Lord hath demāded this accompt of thē whom he findeth to be culpable for not hauing complyed with these obligations but proceeded contrary to his commaundements How I say that most iust Iudge will conuince them in that terrible Tribunall before all the Inhabitants both of heauen and earth saying to them in his manner You a If this do not mooue thee pray to God that it may for els thou art in ill case men why haue you thus offended mee why haue your done me so many Iniuries I being your God of infinity Maiesty Goodnes and wisedome I being your Creatour your Father and your Sauiour who for you did giue my life and shed my bloud Why haue you spoken so many wordes in affront of me Why haue you wrought so many wicked deeds in dishonour and disobedience to my Law Why did you consent to those bad desires and thoughts whereby you came to cast me vnder the feet of those creatures esteeming louing them more then me Me whom you ought to haue praysed glorifyed with your tongues whome you should haue serued and obeyed with your workes whome you should alwayes haue desired and loued with your whole harts for whom you ought to haue giuē your liues a thousand liues if you had been Maisters of so many Why haue you so dishonoured me transgressing trāpling vpō my Precepts Why haue you exchāged me with so extreme contempt for those most base aduantages and gayns of earth and for those most vaine delights guifts of creatures Since you confessed me by your wordes to be your Lord and God why would you deny me by your workes Tell me you men since I haue imparted to you so many supernaturall guifts which I gayned for you by my Passion Death A guift of Fayth and Baptisme whereby I made you Christians a guift of Grace whereby I adopted you for my Children so many Vertues whereby you might adorne your soules be enabled to worke well The guift of Sacraments which might conferre and conuey my Grace into your soules and innumerable inspirations which might quicken you vp towardes vertue and so many most high and most pretious guifts which I purchased at my so great cost why haue you set them at so low a rate VVhy haue you despised thē and permitted them to passe away without being of any profit to you at all More account did you make of the vanity of your descent according to your linage of flesh bloud then of the fayth of Christians and the adoption of the sonnes of God More account did you make of money which is made of dead mettall of the goods of this life and of the vaine punctillios of honour then of the blessing of my grace and of those immense eternall treasures of my glory I hauing giuen you such a holy Law a Doctrine so pure so profitable and so celestiall that you might obserue and keepe it hauing giuen you so many Prophets Apostles holy Doctours so many Preachers and teachers of my Ghospell to the end that they all might counsaile perswade you to the obseruation of my Commandmēts and to the accomplishment of my will yea and my selfe being come visibly downe to earth in flesh bloud to teach preach this Law to you by the very wordes of myne owne mouth why haue you made no more account of this law nor complyed with my will nor obeyed my wordes Why would you rather do that which Sathā that did tempt you to thē that which was commanded you by me VVhy would you rather follow and obey that peruerse enemy who abhorred you and endeauoured nothing but your damnation then me who am your God who was your Father who loued you and did procure your saluation euerlasting glory Tel me yet further O you vngrateful mē since it is I who gaue you life health and temporal goods space of tyme that you might sacrifice it all to my seruice how commeth is to passe that you would needs imploy it in offence of me I gaue you life I say and health and strength whereby you might haue acquired vertues and haue exercised good workes and so you might haue b throgh the passiō promise of Christ our Lord good workes arriue to be meritorious and not of themselues merited eternall happines And you on the other side haue imploied it in the pursuite of vaine honour of pleasing men for certaine interests which passe and perish and in the search of those deadly delights which now are carrying you on towards eternall torments I gaue you temporall meanes for the necessary supply of this life and that you might relieue the miseries of your Neighbours and you haue wasted them vpon the foolish complemēts of the world and vpon banquets which serued not for necessitie but for gluttony and vpon certaine attires ornaments which did but serue for vanity and vpon sports and other vicious imployments I gaue you Tyme to the end that you might imploy it vpon praying and ruminating and meditating vpon my benefits and mercyes and vpon the Mysteryes of my law and in performing workes which might haue relation to euerlacting life but you haue wasted it vpon vnprofitable conuersations and vpon wicked deedes which deserue to be rewarded with eternall fire These complaintes doth God make against sinners by his Prophet and there will he make them at that day with greater demonstration of mislike then euer till that tyme he will haue shewed And thereby he will conuince them all they shal be able to make no excuse or defēce nor haue so much as one word to answere and so shall that be fullfilled which the Psalmist sayth Psal 106. All wickednes that is all wicked men shal haue the mouth stopped vp Let vs now consider what euery one of these sinners will thinke within himselfe in that point of the
diuine Iudgement when c Make this case thyne owne betymes for one day it wil be thy case whether thou wilt or no he shall see a Theater made round about him of all the creatures both of heauen and earth and that himselfe is placed in the middest of them that both all the Angells and men and Diuels are looking on him And when he shall obserue that his sinnes are published and proclaymed before them all and not only his wicked words and workes but euen all his bad desires and thoughts when he shall perceaue that all that lewdnes which he committed in the most retyred corners yea and those impurityes which did not so much as issue out of his hart shall then be cleare and patent to all the world To see that all those Diuels shal stand accusing him that his own very conscience is stil vpbraiding cōdemning him And to see the Iudge himselfe offended enraged against him and that he behoulds him with a countenance full of terrour and of reuenge for iniuryes receaued and to see that hideous pitt of hell all open in expectation to swallow him vp and to see himselfe so euidently conuinced that he hath no word to plead for himself And d A sad consideration but most certainely true that finding himselfe hemmed in by such an excesse of afflictions such incomparable miseryes he cannot fly away nor hath he any one hole wherein to hide his head nor any one thing to alleadge nor any one person to whome he may appeale or by whom he may be succoured For to defend himselfe against the Iudge is impossible since he is of infinite power To deceaue him with false informations cannot be since he is of infinite Wisedome To work vpon him by way of presents or petitions is not to be thought of since he is infinitely iust To goe in search after Patrons and Aduocats is losse of labour For in that day neither the Angels nor the Apostles can intercede for any one no nor euen the Queene e A heauy and most desperate case of heauen and the mother of mercy can plead the cause of sinners in that day The gate of pardon and sauing mercy is then closed vp against all the wicked all the iust and blessed soules shall approue of the diuine Iustice in that day and shall reioyce in that it is to be executed because so it is fit for the glory of God our Redeemer And then shal that be perfectly fullfilled which the Psalmist sayth Psalm 57. The Iust man seeing the punishment and vengeance which is to be taken vpon the wicked shall reioyce not for the payne which those sinners shall be subiect to nor out of any desire of reuenge but only for the zeale they haue to the glory of God for the loue they beare to his diuine Iustice CHAP. VII How Christ our Lord discouereth the grieuousnes of sinne and the hatred which he carryeth against it by the last sentence wherby he is to condemne the wicked and the punishment which he inflicteth vpon them ANOTHER Article of the diuine Iudgement which doth admirably discouer the excessiue hatred which Christ our Lord doth carry against sin is the last sentence which he will thunder out against the wicked As soone as he shall haue published their sinnes conuinced them thereof he wil deuide them from the company of the Iust and then turning his terrible and fierce countenance towardes them he will pronounce this most hideous sentence against them Depart a Our Lord deliuer vs from so great a misery from me you accursed into that eternall fire which is prepared for the Diuell and the wicked Angells Depart from me who am an infinite good and the fountaine of all benediction of grace of comfort of ioy of life of saluation of glory If then they be deuided from that only fountaine of al Good what kind of miserable thinges will they find themselues to be It is plaine that they must find themselues without comfort without grace without ioy without repose or ease and ful on the contrary side of all misery of all mischiefe of all paine Depart all you accursed because cursed are they who breake the Commandments of the true God for the greatest ill of all ill is sin and to this ill do they submit themselues who do any thing against that which our Lord cōmāds So sayth Dauid so doth the church sing euery day when she speakes to God Cursed are they O Lord who depart from keeping of thy Cōmandments Psal 118. In particuler manner are they accursed in the Law who doe not offer the first fruits and tithes of those things which God had giuen to them Matt. 3.1 and cursed also are those others who hauing promised some beast in sacrifice to Almighty God do offer him such a one as is leane and lame and worth nothing Into all these curses haue you fallen because you haue broken the Commandmēts of God and gaue him not the honour and glory of all the good deeds which once you wrought nor of all the benefits which you receaued And hauing consecrated and dedicated your soules to our true God by Fayth and Baptisme and being obliged to giue him the best and chiefe part thereof which is your loue and obedience fidelity and a watchfull care to doe him seruice you did not giue this to God but to the world and to your owne will and for these reasons you are indeed accursed and your selues are the authors of your malediction Let b Be attentiue to see whither the wicked are to be sent whē they are once driuen from God vs now consider whither it is that he sends them when once he driues them from himselfe Go saith he you accursed into euerlasting fier because in this life you sought for contentments for delights and gusts according to your owne will against the will of God you shal now be burnt body and soule with a most furious and impetuous fier against your will And because by sinning you haue offended and despised God who is infinite Good and an infinite Maiesty that fier shall be infinite in the continuance therof And who now shal be the ministers of Iustice to torment these accursed creatures And with what companions shall they be sorted in that torment of eternall fire Go saith our Lord into eternal fire which is prepared for the diuell and his wicked Angells For the principall authors of any wickednes the punishement is principally to be prouided and because the deuill was the first author of sinne therfore was the torment of eternall fier prouided first for him And because wicked men did follow the deuill in the fault they shall follow him also in the paine And because they chose to obey the perswasion will of the deuill rather then the commaundement and will of God they shall therfore haue him for their tormentor and