finding any end as never to be able to hope for any end There saith Thomas one houres punishment shall be more grievous then an hundred yeares here in the most bitter punishment that can be There is no rest no consolation to the damned O Lord rebuke me not in thine anger neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure Remember not the sinnes of my youth nor my transgressions Unlesse thou wilt have mercy O God I must needs perish CHAP. II. Why Hell is Eternall HEre ariseth a question which is worthy to be known of all men How it can be that God who is good and mercifull and whose mercy is over all his works should notwithstanding punish even one mortall sinne committed it may be in a moment and in thought onely How he should punish such a sinne I say for all Eternitie and so punish it that it shall deserve still alwayes to be punished and though millions of yeares be passed yet it shall never be said This sinne hath been sufficiently punished it is enough he hath made satisfaction for the wicked thought by which he hath offended God What then Hath God for one sinne and that in thought onely decreed the punishment of everlasting fire What equalitie is there in this For a momentanie sinne to appoint an Eternall punishment Why doth blessed David cry out O give thanks unto the Lord for he is good and his mercy endureth for ever And why doth he repeat it twenty seven times if God be so severe To this S. Augustine Gregorie Thomas Aquinas and others answer That in every mortall sinne the offence of its own nature is infinite because it is an injury against the infinite majesty of God Again He that dyeth guilty of a mortall sinne without repentance doth as much as if he should sinne Eternally For if he might live Eternally he would sinne Eternally He hath not lost a will to sinne but life in which to sinne still being ready to sinne if he might live still So he doth not cease to sinne but doth cease to live Further it is to be considered That a damned person can never make satisfaction though he should pay never so much For being an Enemie and not in favour with God his paiment is not worthy acceptation seeing that he himself is not accepted with him Neither indeed to speak truely can he be said to pay any thing because he doth nothing but suffers onely punishment and that against his will We will make the matter yet more plain by a familiar example Suppose a man should borrow of his neighbour a thousand crowns and for the use thereof make over the Rent of his house unto him for ever It may be in twenty yeares he may thus repay the summe of money borrowed But what then Is he fully discharged of all the debt Doth there remain nothing to be paid The Principall remains still as due to be paid as if there had been nothing at all paid For this is the nature of such lones That although the yearely use be paid still the Principall remains entire and due to be paid So it is with the damned For although they should pay never so much yet they can never get out of debt They are debters still and ever shall be The strong shall be as â—ow and the maker of it as a spark and they shall both burn together and none shall quench them Suetonius reports of Tiberius Cesar that being petitioned unto by a certain offendeâ— to hasten his punishment and to grant him a speedy dispatch he made him this answer Nondum tecum in gratiam redii Stay Sir You and I are not yet friends Christ is a most just Judge no Tyrant no Tiberius And yet if one of the damned after a thousand yeares burning in Hell should beg and intreat for a speedy death he would answer after the same manner Nondum tecum in gratiam redii Stay You and I are not yet friends If after a thousand yeares more he should ask the same thing he should receive the same answer Nondum tecum in gratiam redii Stay You and I are not yet friends If after an hundred thousand yeares yet more yea millions of yeares he should ask again again he should receive the same answer Nondum tecum in gratiam redii Stay You and I are not yet friends The time was I offered to be thy friend but thou wouldest not yea thy father but thou wouldest not I offered thee my grace a thousand and a thousand times but thou rejectedst it This I knew right well and I held my peace and further expected fourtie fiftie sixtie yeares to see if thou wouldest change thy minde and course of life But there followed no serious or true repentance Thou hast set at nought all my counsell and wouldest none of my reproos Thou hast hated instruction and hast cast my words behinde thee Eat therefore the fruit of thine own wayes and be filled with thine own counsels I will laugh at thy destruction for ever neither shall my justice after infinite ages give thee any answer but this Nondum tecum in gratiam redii Stay You and I are not yet friends O God which art in heaven O sinne which throwest men headlong into Hell the Hell of torments and into the bottomlesse pit of Eternall pain But Righteous art thou O Lord and upright are thy judgements Just and right it is that he which would not by repentance accept of mercy when it was offered should by punishment be tormented have justice without mercy for ever CHAP. III. Other motives to the consideration of Eternitie drawn from Nature BUt I return to the school of Nature to consider further upon Eternitie There are found hot Baths in certain mountains and rocks whose waters in running make such a noise and murmuring that the diseased persons that resort thither for cure if at their entrance into the Bath they do but imagine they heare musicall instruments and an Harmonious consort they have their eares so dulled with the continuall noise thereof that the Musick which at first was sweet unto them becomes at length by their imagination working upon it very loathsome and a torment unto them But if they imagine they heare a drumme or any other loud sounding instrument they at length grow almost mad with the noise thereof daily molesting and troubling them From hence also we are led as it were by the hand to the consideration of Eternitie The weeping and wailing yelling and crying which is heard at the first entrance of Hells mouth under those infernall mountains shall never cease but shall torment the damned without end and be no whit mitigated by time and long sufferance But on the contrary the blessed in heaven shall without wearinesse heare the Thrice Holy sung Holy Holy Holy yea and the more they heare it the more they shall be delighted with the sound thereof Christ in his conference with
of Eternall happinesse he spareth him not here in this life but scourgeth him dayly I might bring infinite examples to prove this I will name but one but the like I think hath not been seen or heard of in many ages CHAP. III. How God punisheth here that he may spare hereafter A strange example the like hath scarce at any time been heard of IN the yeare of our Lord one thousand one hundred eighty five Andronicus Emperour of the East being overcome and taken prisoner by Isaac Angelo had two heavy iron-chains put about his neck was laden with fetters and shackles and was most barbarously and despitefully used and at length in this manner was brought before the forenamed Isaac Before whom complaining of his hard usage he was delivered over to the multitude to be abused at their pleasure They being set on fire with anger thought it a fine thing to be revenged of their enemy And thus they used him They buffetted him they bastinadoed him they pulled him by the beard they twitcht his hair from his head they dasht out his teeth they dragged him in publick they made him a laughing-stock they suffered women to beat him with their fists Then they cut off his right hand and being thus maimed they thrust him into the dungeon of theeves and robbers without either meat or drink or any other thing that was necessarie or any one to look after him After a few dayes they put out one of his eyes and being thus shamefully mangled having one eye put out and one hand cut off they put upon him a very sory short coat shaved his head set him upon a scabbed Camel with his face toward the tail put upon his head a Crown of Garlick made him hold in his hand the Camels tail in stead of a Sceptre and so they carried him through the market-place very leisurely with great pomp and triumph And here the most impudent base vile amongst the people like savages after an inhumane sort fell upon him nothing at all considering that not past three dayes before he was no lesse then an Emperour crowned with a Royall Diadem commended worshiped honoured yea and adored of all men Nothing at all regarding their oath of Allegiance They raged and were mad upon him and their rage and madnesse fitted every man with instruments of mischief against him Some struck him on the head with clubs others filled his nostrils with dirt others squeezed sponges upon his face first soaked in the excrements of man and beast others runne him into the sides with spits Some threw stones others threw dirt at him some called him mad dog others called him fool and blockhead An impudent woman running out of a kitchin with a kettle of scalding water in her hand poured it upon his head as he passed by There was none which did not some mischief or other to him At length they brought him to the Theatre to make him a laughing-stock took him down from the Camel and hanged him up by the heels between two pillars Thus poore Emperour having suffered a thousand indignities yet bore them patiently carrying himself like a man and a true Christian Champion He was never heard all the while to lament or cry out of his hard fortune For it had been to no purpose He was all the while casting up his account which he was to make unto God and begging pardon for his sinnes He was heard to say nothing but onely this and this he said often Domine miserere Domine miserere Lord have mercy Lord have mercy Unhappy Andronicus which was compelled to suffer such things But happy in this that thou didst suffer them so patiently as being the just reward of sinne When he was hanged up one would have thought their malice should have ceased but they spared him not then as long as he lived For they rent his coat from his body and tossed him up and down with their hands tearing him in pieces with their nails One more cruell then the rest run his sword through his belly and guts as he was hanging Two others to trie whose sword was sharpest thrust him through the back leaning upon their swords with both their hands Here the most miserable unhappy Emperour with much ado lifted up his maimed hand to his mouth to suck out the bloud as some thought from the fresh and bleeding wound and so ended his life miserably After some few dayes he was taken down from the gibbet and thrown under one of the arches of the Theatre like a beast till some that had more humanitie in them then the rest removed him But yet notwithstanding he was not suffered to be buried Oh Andronicus Oh thou Emperour of the East How much wast thou bound unto God whose will it wâ—s that for a few dayes thou shouldst suffer such things that thou mightest not perish for ever Thou wast miserable for a short time that thou mightest not be miserable for all Eternitie I make no doubt but thou hadst the yeares of Eternitie in minde seeing that thou didst suffer such things so constantly and couragiously Nicetas Choniates is mine Authour from whom I borrowed this lamentable historie and he lived about the same time when this happened Let us Christians keep alwayes in minde the yeares of Eternitie So whatsoever adversitie or affliction happeneth we shall more easily beare it Every thing is short if we compare it with Eternitie For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a farre more exceeding and Eternall weight of glory Hereupon S. Augustine cryeth out and prayeth so earnestly Domine hîc ure hîc seca modò in aeternum parcas Lord seare me here lance me here so thou sparest me hereafter And Fulgentius though a most holy man drawing neare unto his death threescore and ten dayes before he died was often heard to cry out Domine da mihi modò patientiam postea indulgentiam Lord grant me patience here and ease hereafter These were his words and prayers even to the last gasp Certain it is God spareth them least of all whom he determineth to take unto himself to dwell with him throughout all Eternitie THE SIXTH CONSIDERATION upon ETERNITIE How the Holy Scripture in many places teacheth us to meditate upon Eternitie THe kingly Prophet speaking of the wicked saith that they walk on every side or in a circuit This is their manner of life They go from feast to feast from delights to delights from wickednesse to wickednesse This is their Circuit And when they think they have almost finished their Circuit of wickednesse and gone over the round of their lust they begin again returning still to their former course till death steals upon them before they be aware The children of Job made this law amongst themselves to feast one another round every one in his course The good man their father observed and knew very well that this their feasting round could not be without sinne
be compared with the unutterable and unsufferable scorchings and torments of this fire though they should last but for one houre If these answers be good and agreeable to right reason How comes it to passe O God that for a little gain and that but vile for deceitfull honour and that fugitive for filthy pleasure and that not long so many men so little regard Eternall punishment in Hell fire We cannot be perswaded with any reward no though it be to gain a whole world to stay but for one houre in fire Temporall And yet if either gain at any time invites us or if honour smiles upon us or pleasure allures us we never fear Hell and fire Eternall But thou wilt say I hope for better God is mercifull and his goodnesse will not suffer me to despair or to be terrified with the fear of evil to come So indeed we are wont to speak And the words in themselves are not impious if our works were pious But for the most part our works are such that if we rightly consider them we have little cause to hope for mercy It is a very dangerous and foolish part for a man to live in a constant course of ungodlinesse and to hope for Eternitie amongst the blessed Alas one sinne is sufficient to condemne us Knowest thou not what Christ hath threatned in the Gospell whosoever shall say unto his brother Thou fool shall be in danger of Hell fire Knowest thou not what Christ hath forbidden Whosoever looketh upon a woman to lâ—st after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heaâ—t Knowest thou not what Christ hath premonished Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdome of heaven but he which doth the will of my Father which is in heaven Knowest thou not that Christ sâ—all shut many out of the gate He that loveth father or mother more then me is not worthy of me And he that taketh not his crosse and followeth after me is not worthy of me Knowest thou not what Christ hath openly and plainly said and again repeated Many be called but few chosen Few indeed yea very Few Knowest thou not how often Christ hath exhorted to amendment of life Except ye be converted and become as little children ye shall not enter into the kingdome of heaven If thy hand or thy foot offend thee cut them off and cast them from thee it is better for thee to enter into life halt and maimed rather then having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire Except ye repent ye shall all likewise perish And not long after Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able Knowest thou not how expressely Saint Paul recites up all those things that hinder us from entring into that blessed Eternitie The works of the flesh are manifest which are these Adulterie fornication uncleannesse lasciviousnesse idolatrie witchcraft hatred variance emulations wrath strife seditions heresies envyings murthers drunkennesse and revellings and such like of the which I tell you before as I have told you in time past that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdome of God Now if any man be guiltie to himself of any one of these sinnes here reckoned up and is not so grieved for it that he seeks by all means possible to avoid it for the time to come He may sing to himself if he will this vain Spero I hope and I hope but this mans hope is indeed none at all but meere rashnesse and presumption For a man to adventure the danger of stripes and blows is an evil that may be born To lose at play an hundred or a thousand Florens is a great misfortune but may be endured To lay his head at stake and to bring his life in danger is a bad adventure but at the worst it is but losse of life and that losse is not of all other the greatest But to hazard the Eternall salvation both of body and soul by living at uncertainties by hoping in words and despairing in works nullifying hope by a wicked and ungodly life This is the extremest of all evils This is the most grievous misfortune a man can fall into This is most pernicious rashnesse and boldnesse This is extreme folly and madnesse Now consider this ye that forget God lest he teare you in pieces and there be none to deliver you CHAP. III. That the way of Eternitie is diligently and carefully to be sought after LEt every Christian man therefore often ask himself and others also which are in the place of God this question What shall I do that I may obtain blessed Eternitie or Eternall blessednesse Am I in the right way that leadeth unto Eternitie Something I do indeed but it is but very little and not worth speaking of I thirst and breathe after the joyes which are immortall and Eternall But few are my works cold and imperfect at the best and altogether unworthy of an Eternall reward I think it long till I arrive at the haven But I am afraid of the troublesome waves and tempests by the way When as yet notwithstanding that is the safest and best way unto heaven which is most rough and narrow This the very Truth it self of Gods mouth pronounceth and Christ proclaimeth saying Enter ye in at the strait gate For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be Alack too many that go in thereat Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be Alack too few that finde it Again Strive to enter in at the strait gate For many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able Oh what a fearfull word is that MANY and that FEW How should it make us tremble But we miserable men deceive our selves rashly promising unto our selves Eternitie And yet I cannot tell whether we may be more truely said to hope or to dream that we shall be reckoned amongst those few before mentioned I would to God now even now whilest it is the accepted time and the day of salvation we would have a diligent and an intent eye upon Eternitie and reason thus with our selves Alas what is all this that I suffer or that I see others suffer It is nothing if it be compared with Eternitie What if I could reckon up as many labours and perils as Saint Paul himself did undergo as they are by him set down in his second Epistle to the Corinthians and the eleventh Chapter If I should endure hunger and thirst enmities and injuries sicknesse and povertie Yea more what if I were stoned with Saint Paul and beaten with rods What if I suffered shipwrack All these are nothing to punishments Eternall Therefore in all adversitie I must thus think with my self
accounting labour in the conquest of vices to be but pleasure loving their enemies passing by injuries and all for the hope of an Eternall reward And who then would not suffer any extremitie and labour to purchase unto themselves an Eternall reward I have considered the dayes of old the yeares of antient times Ps 76. 5. Thy â—â—ows passe by me the voice of thy THUNDER is round about me The arrows of present punishments fly over my head the voice of that horrible thunder Go Ye cursed into ETERNALL fire is like a wheel that will alwaies turn THE FOURTH CONSIDERATION upon ETERNITIE How holy David meditated upon Eternitie and how we should imitate him THat God should punish the Apostate Angels and men condemned at the last day with Eternall punishments this hath seemed so strange to some and so incredible that Origen himself a man otherwise of an admirable wit and excellent learning very well skilled in Scripture hath been so bold as to teach That the Devils and the Damned after a certain time when they shall be sufficiently purged by the fire from their sinnes shall at length be restored to grace But S. Augustine and others convince him and condemne him of this his errour Yet notwithstanding this errour hath found in the world many favourers Certain Hereticks called the Aniti have disseminated and scattered it throughout Spain by divers their interpretations Some thought that all the damned others that Christians onely others that Catholicks onely others that those onely that had been more liberall then others in giving of almes should be delivered at length out of Hell Though Saint Augustine hath not refused these their errours yet the Holy writ hath done it plainly and openly Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire and again And these shall go away into everlasting punishment but the righteous into life eternall Here no Glosses or Interpretations will serve their turn to defend their errours Wherefore the Divine Psalmist king David though he delighted much in the consideration of both times that which was past and that which was to come yet he had an eye more especially to that which was to come Mine eyes saith he prevent the night watches and again in another place Thou holdest mine eyes waking I am so troubled that I cannot speak What was it Blessed Prophet that thus broke thy sleep What businesse hadst thou to do so early before daylight What caused thee so to keep silence and to be troubled in minde Heare what he saith I have considered the dayes of old and the yeares of ancient times and the yeares of Eternitie I have had in my minde Lo This was the thing that broke his sleep when he compared the yeares that were past with the yeares which were to come and with Eternitie Neither did he thus in the day onely but I call to remembrance saith he my song in the night I communed with mine own heart and my spirit made diligent search And what moved him to this nightly exercise Will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his mercy clean gone for ever See how he fears and trembles at the very consideration of Eternitie how he is afraid of Gods judgements lest God should punish him with Eternall punishment And what is the end and effect of this Meditation And I said This is mine infirmitie But I will remember c. or Now I will begin So in an instant at the very same minute he became better then he was and delayed not neither did he deferre his Repentance and put it off till worser yeares But saith he Now I will begin now I will live a more godly life then I have done He saith not After such an houre or after such a day But Now even now I will some man say if I were as David was if I could meditate of Eternitie as blessed David did it may be then I would readily and with alacritie say with David Now I will begin But I am so intangled with daily cares so hindred with worldly businesse so distracted into divers parts one way or other that I cannot I live amongst men I see and heare much evil I have no time or leisure once to have so good a thought in minde as the thought of Eternitie When we meet together in companie to make merry amidst our sports and amongst our cups we never conferre about such grave points our mindes wander up and down about many things and cannot then fix themselves upon the consideration of Eternitie At our feasts and merry meetings we take our cups and please our selves in making jests Thoughts of Eternitie are too severe too sad and Melancholick to be entertained by us we banish such out of our companie We enquire what news out of Italie or France or Spain That which you tell us of so often concerning Heaven and Hell is now old and grown stale We know it well enough already what need you repeat it so often till we loath it So by this means there is no place or time left once to think upon Eternitie O Christian brother it is true indeed which thou sayest I cannot deny it But I could wish thou wouldest be as ready and forward to amend thy fault as to confesse it It is too cleare and manifest we see it with our eyes that there is little or no care in the world of Eternitie although one thing or other every day still puts us in minde of it The Book of the rites and Ceremonies of the Church of Rome at the consecration of their Bishops doth appoint these words to be recited Annos AEternos in mente habe Keep still in minde the yeares of Eternitie or Think upon Eternitie For when the Pope new elect in a solemne manner is carried along to S. Peters Church there goes one before him having in his hand burning flax and shaking it he repeateth thrice these words Pater Sancte sic transit gloria mundi Holy Father so the glory of the world passeth away It were a devout and godly practise if we did every day at the beginning and end of all our actions say unto our selves these words Annos AEternos in mente habe Think upon Eternitie But especially when we are tempted unto any sinne when the Devill suggests and puts into our mindes ill thoughts and when our Conscience is in danger of being wounded O then Think upon Eternitie CHAP. I. Divers Admonitions to think upon Eternitie PHilip king of Macedon appointed a certain noble young man to salute him thrice every morning after this manner Philippe homo es Remember Philip Thou art but a man That being put dayly in minde of his mortalitie he might carry himself towards mortall men like a mortall man Much more ought every good Christian man and true member of the Catholick Church be a monitour unto himself and with due consideration thrice at the least every day say to
that never dieth What miserable and improvident men are we that having but â— short journey to go but full of dangers all the way go on notwithstanding so merrily and sportingly as if we were walking all the while through a Paradise or a most pleasant garden free from all fear of enemies and in the end of our walk presently to be received and admitted as citizens into our heavenly Countrey a place of all securitie For can we be ignorant if we be it is our own fault But we cannot be ignorant that at length we shall come to the two gates of Eternitie the one of the blessed the other of the damned And enter we must at one of them that is certain at which God knows it is according as we shall behave and carry our selves by the way Laurentius Justinianus wondring at the merry madnesse of such travellers breaks forth into this exclamation Oh the lamentable condition of mortall men which go on exulting all the way whilest they are but exiles or banished men from their own countrey Let us not settle our mindes upon any vain joyes and fond toyes by the way whilest we are travelling towards our countrey but let us so runne our race that at the end thereof we may obtain admittance in at the gate which is the entrance to Eternall blessednesse God hath indeed created us rather unto joyes and pleasures then unto labours and sorrows but we are much mistaken both of the time and place It is not here it shall be hereafter Joyes are prepared in heaven but none but the good and faithfull servants shall enter into them And by what means may a man obtain entrance Knowest thou not what Christ said The kingdome of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by sorce Think now â—hus with thy self Am I this vioâ—ent man Is this the violence here â—poken of To eat to drink to rise â—p to play to lie down to take my ease It is not certainly Fight we must but it must be the good â—ight like Christian Champions Run we must but so that we may obtain Strive we must but to enter in at the strait gate Labour we must and offer violence to the kingdome of heaven but it must be in due time and place Now whilest we have time here whilest we are on the way whilest we have life and strength that when we come to the point of death and so passe the Horizon of this world and depart into another never to return back again when we shall be translated from time to Eternity then at the last we may have joy for our life past and hope for that which is to come Let us labour therefore let us labour I say and offer violence to our selves fighting against our own froward wils and affections so shall we obtain by the mercy of God everlasting rest for short labour and Eternall glorie for a few dayes travell True and solid joy is not here to be found in vain delights and pleasures but in heaven where there is joy and pleasure for evermore God prepared a gourd and made it come over Jonah that it might be a shadow over his head to deliver him from his grief So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd And what is all the pleasure or rather vanitie of this present world Is it not like Jonahs gourd flourishing for a time and yeelding a comfortable shadow Rich men have their gourd also that is their riches under the shadow whereof they rejoyce with exceeding great joy Drunkards and gluttons have their gourds also that is great tables and delicious fare under the shadow whereof they are merry and joyfull Voluptuous men also have their gourds too that is their unlawfull pleasures under the shadow whereof they lie down and sport themselves But Alâ—s sorrow follows after such joy and suddenly overtakes it Their mirth â—s soon turned into mourning And their delights and pleasures end â—n gall and bitternesse For what became of Jonahs gourd God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day and it â—mote the gourd that it withered Now tell me Jonah where is thy gourd What is become of it Where is now thy exceeding great joy They are both gone together Thy gourd is withered and thy joy is ended Such are our vain delights and pleasures such is our joy rather shadows of things then any thing indeed they passe away suddenly and become like Jonahs gourd that soon withered The joy of this world is but for a moment but the joy of the life to come is for all Eternitie CHAP. III. Here is declared by a most memorable example How sweet and precious the taste of Eternitie is THis knew Theodorus very well one born of Christian Parents and as it seems he learned it betimes when for yeares he was but a youth but an old man for judgement and discretion For on a great Festivall day kept throughout all Egypt there being a great feast at his fathers house and many invited thereunto when some were eating and drinking others laughing and playing and others sporting and dancing he amidst all these â—ollities retired himself to his inward closet finding himself wounded to the heart but with a chast arrow For thus he began to expostulate with himself Unhappy Theodore What would it profit thee if thou shouldst gain the whole world Many things thou hast indeed but canst thou tell how long thou shalt enjoy them Thou livest in abundance now thou maist feast it and make merry thou maist laugh and be fat thou maist rejoyce and skip for joy But art thou sure how long this â—â—all last I should like it well if 〈◊〉 would last alwayes But what shall I do Shall I for the enjoying of these short and transitorie pleasures and delights deprive my self of those joyes which are Eternall Tell me Theodore is this according to Christian Religion to frame unto our selves an heaven here on earth and think to passe from delights to delights from Temporall to Eternall Either I am much deceived or else Christ shewed unto us another way unto the kingdome of heaven and that is through many tribulations Therefore have no more to do with worldly vanities but preferre Eternall joyes before Temporall Thus he said and fell a weeping So then he retired himself into a withdrawing room and there prostrating himself upon the earth he prayed after this manner Eternall God my heart is naked and open before thee I send up my sighs as humble Oratours and Petitioners unto thee I know not what to ask nor how Onely this one thing I beg at thy hands that thou wilt not suffer me to die an Eternall death Lord thou knowest that I love thee and that I desire to be with thee that I may sing Eternall praises unto thee Lord have mercie upon me Whilest he was thus praying in comes his mother on a sudden and presently perceiveth by the rednesse and moistnesse of his eyes that
the thoughts of death judgement Heaven and Hell are good and wholesome godly and holy but none more then the thought of Eternitie which may worthily be called the Quintessence But as it is with meat not the taking of it meerly into the mouth but the good digesting of it in the stomack the turning of it into good bloud in the liver and the distributing of it into all the parts by the veins nourisheth the body So it is with these precious thoughts of Death Judgement Heaven Hell and Eternitie Not the bare thinking upon them but serious thinking upon them with our selves setting apart all cares and worldly distractions the pondering of them well in our hearts and the often ruminating upon them this is it that â—eedeth and nourisheth the soul. If this be not done the rest is to little purpose without this even the reading of the holy Scripture is fruitlesse the hearing of the word preached is unprofitable Many heare Sermons often reade the Scripture over and over again and yet are little bettered by it because they do not meditate upon what they have both read and heard When they heare what comes in at one eare goes out at the other When they reade the eye is no sooner off from the book but what was read is soon slipt out of memorie Before they can practise what they have heard or read they have quite forgotten what they should do Therefore if we will reade or heare with profit we must spend some time in meditating and pondering with our selves what we have read and heard This lesson we may learn of the blessed Virgin the mother of our Lord. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart The Seventh Conclusion FEw or none beleeve or else do not well understand and weigh with themselves these words of Christ Enter ye in at the strait gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be which go in thereat Because strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life and few there be that finde it This again our Saviour repeats by the mouth of Saint Luke Strive to enter in at the strait gate For many I say unto you will seek to enter in and shall not be able Whosoever laughs at this faith and therefore will not beleeve because he doth not see when that shall come to passe which he did not beleeve he shall â—lush and be confounded he shall be confounded and separated from the blessed he shall be separated from the blessed and have his portion with the damned Hieronymus Platus reports of a certain woman that hearing Bertoldus a powerfull man in the pulpit inveigh very vehemently and bitterly against a sinne that she knew her self guiltie of fell down dead in the Church and after a while by the blessing of God upon the prayers of the Congregation coming again unto her self related unto them what she had seen in this trance saying thus Me thought I stood before Gods tribunall and threescore thousand souls more with me called together from all the parts of the world to receive their finall sentence And they were all condemned and adjudged to Eternall torments but onely three Oh! what a fearfull thing was this I should hardly beleeve this womans relation but that I beleeve Christs asseveration in the Gospel Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction and many there be that go in thereat And again Strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life and few there be that finde it It may seem strange to flesh and bloud that God the Father of mercies should passe the sentence of condemnation upon so many I do not say threescore thousand but threescore thousand thousand And what man would beleeve it were he not perswaded of the truth thereof upon the consideration of the soveraigne and infinite majestie of God which is offended the inutterable malice of sinne which is committed and many evident testimonies of Scripture by which it is plainly proved Job trembles at it saying A land of darknesse as darknesse it self and of the shadow of death without any order and where the light is as darknesse or according to the Latine Where there is no order and where everlasting horrour dwelleth Saint Matthew affirms as much in the words of our Saviour Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire Let us consider these things well with our selves and whilest we have time let us wash away our sinnes with the teares of repentance for fear lest God suddenly snatch us away and give us our portion to drink with hypocrites in the bottomlesse pit of Hell where there is nothing but weeping and gnashing of teeth where the worm never dieth and the fire never goes out from whence there is no redemption no redemption I say and again I say no redemption No not any comfort at all not so much as a little drop of cold water If the godly themselves who are in the state of grace and in the favour of God whose mindes and wills be good if they I say could sufficiently conceive from what grievous torments they shall be delivered at the day of judgement and into what unutterable and unconceiveable joyes they shall enter without doubt they would use no delay they would not let an houre passe but out of hand they would take their leave of all vanities forsake the world and leave the dead to look after the dead But as for themselves they would be dayly and hourely well employed about their Masters businesse alwayes studying to please God ever lauding and praising him for his goodnesse and mercy towards them in blessing them in part here in this world and giving them an assured promise of everlasting blessednesse in the world to come for delivering them from the torments of Hell and giving them entrance into the joyes of heaven It is the saying of Saint Gregorie The evils of this present life seem the more hard unto us the lesse we think upon the good which shall follow hereafter And because we consider not the exceeding great rewards which are laid up for us therefore we count the afflictions of this world grievous to be born whereas if we did lift up our mindes and raise our thoughts to the contemplation of those things which are Eternall and not subject to any change if we would have an eye unto them and set our hearts upon them we would certainly count the sufferings of this life and whatsoever hath an end to be as nothing and again joy in tribulation is a song in the night For although we are outwardly afflicted with the sense of sorrows Temporall yet we are inwardly comforted with the hope of joyes Sternall Much after the same manner reasoneth S. Augustine If thou wouldest but attend saith he unto what thou shalt hereafter receive thou wouldst