onely inuested with them but ouer-inuested not onely full but ouer-heaped so that next to the humanitie of thy adorable Sōne who was conceaued by the Holy Ghost of her pure blood there is no created obiect in Heauen that dare approach her beautie It was written of ESTER that she was extreamely faire incredibly gracefull meruellously amiable and gracious in the eyes of euery one But nothing below was powerfull enough to gaine the Heart of the Heauenly ASSVERVS saue onely the Diuine Maries perfections O vessell of Election choyce peece of the massiue gold of faire and pure dilection beset with all the precious stones of vertues what a ioy shall it be to the Elect thy litle children sith thou art the mother of their Sauiour and Father to liue eternally in thy happie compaignie What sense of obligation shall they testifie vnto thee who by thy powrefull prayers receaued so many sundry graces in earth Yea that which is the toppe of all graces their admittance into the Pallace of immortalitie what a delight shall it be to be associated to the troopes of Angells whose conuersation is intirely sweete and deuoyd of bitternesses and to be made partakers of their splendour and beautie yea to become like to them according as it is written the Elect shall be as the Angells of God which is easie to be beleeued since that in some sort they shall be made like vnto God when they shall see him face to face and such as he is What a glorie shall it be to be made an eternall Citizen of that delightfull Hierusalem built as a Citie to be participant of the same freedome which the Saintes of God enioy without all feare of falling from it or of being euer banished from that Residence of permanēt and eternall abode And if in the tyme of the Triumphant Rome it was reputed so greate a priuiledge to be made free Denisan of that famous Citie as then LADY CONQVERESSE of a great part of the world And if while Hierusalem florished vnder SALOMON's reigne it was so wishfull a thinge to liue there and to haue a share in the delightes and triumphes which were there ordinarie O heauenly Societie where God raignes in and amongst his Saintes eternally where triumphes and pleasures are perpetuall and that in a life that shall neuer pay tribute to death how much more art thou to be desired The Excellences of this holy Societie LIX BVt let vs not contēt our selues Athanasia with a generall sight of this holy compaignie but that we may take more gust and reape more fruite from this speculation let vs walke our thoughtes amidst the particular excellences therof and let vs waigh it as we ought in the waightes of the Sanctuarie If earthly Cities be esteemed for the multitude of their inhabitants as was the great NINIVE of old since that ROME CONSTANTINOPLE and now the incomparable PARIS who for the abundance of her riches and the number of her inhabitants seemes in deede as in name an Abridgement of Paradice What esteeme is to be made of the numberlesse number of the heauenly Hierusalem No saith IOB the number of God's Champions vpon whom the light of his countenāce doth shine cannot be counted A thousand thousand Angells saith DANIEL serue him and tenne thousand milliō assiste before his throne And if the first quire of Angells surpasse the number of men and that Quire be the lest in number as in all other qualities how great must the number of the eight former quires needs be if according to the opinion of S. THOMAS followed by DENIS THE CARTHVSIAN the number of Angells doth as much outstripe that of men who haue bene now are or shall be as heauenly bodies doe put downe the elementarie in quantitie As for the Elect who are to succeede in the vacante Seates and to repaire the ruines of the Angells Apostataes they shall be in so great abundance that S. IOHN saith in his Reuelatiōs that their number cannot fall vnder the lawes of Arithmetike Counte if thou canst the starrs in the Heauens and the sands on the Sea shoare said our Lord of old to ABRAHAM and know that thy posteritie shall be yet more numerous In what number shall the children of the God of ABRAHAM ISAAC and IACOB be who could out of stones raise the children of that great Patriarke the Father of the faithfull and beleeuers O Lord grant that I may be enrowled in the booke of life which shall contayne all their names new names which shall proceed from thy mouth and that I may cōfesse thee in that great Church and triumphant assemblie and that I may blesse the amongst that people full of grauitie And it is an excellencie no lesse gratefull to contemplate the fine distinction of rankes in that incredible multitude without all diuision or iealousie For if in the Babilone of the Reprobate there be a horrible confusion and disorder in this Hierusalem Mother of the Elect there is a well gouerned Order by the Diuine wisdome a thousand tymes fairer then that which we dayly behold in the compositiō of this great vniuerse There are many Mansions in my Fathers house saith our Sauiour CHRIST The Angells are diuided therin into three principale Hierarchies and each of these Hierarchies into three orders which make vp nine Quires of all those heauenly Spirits Thus are the troopes of the Armie of the God of Hostes ranged of which it is said in the Sacred Canticle speaking of the Spouse of the great and Heauenly SALOMON what can you espie in the Sulamite but troopes of Soldiers well ordered whence she is terrible as an Armie put into Battaile araye And though the Elect Associates of the felicitie of Angells as being their brothers be disposed of according to the diuerse degrees of their Quires yet shall they keepe their owne particular titles by which they shall be distinguished from one another and knowen for such as they were in the seruice of God in his Church Militant Thus shall the Quires of PATRIARKES PROPHETES APOSTLES EVANGELISTS MARTIRS VIRGINS CONFESSORS and all the rest of the Faithfull who euen in the world ouercame the world be seene in a goodly order Other excellencies LX. THis multitude and Order is accompained with another excellencie which consistes of an admirable vnion and correspondancie proceeding from one and the same spirit to witt the spirit of God which doth animate and gouerne this heauenly companie There DAVID would haue iuster reason then here below to sing ô how good and pleasant a thing it is to see brothers liue vnanimously together Their accord and vnion doth resemble the oyle of the high Priest AARON which runing downe from his heade spredd it selfe vpon his beard and from thence fell vpon his coller or as others say to the hemme of his garments The sweete and peaceable Societie of Doues Bees Pismires sheepe and of Cities and Comō wealthes well gouerned is but a weake and vnworthy draught of the agreeable intelligence
she guerdon of his followers and seruants Eternitie is the proper thought of a spirituall man IV. O Thought Athanasia passing all other thoughts and from whence issue as the beames from the face of the Sunne all other good thoughts ô oyle that swims aboue all other liquours oyle of the wise virgins Lāpe oyle of the widowe that neuer fayles fountaine of oyle springing towards eternitie Certes there is no thought more worthy the spirit of man an immortall spirit a spirit brother to the Angells then that of Eternitie for it is the thought of God he being eternitie it selfe throw thy thoughts vpon God sings the diuine Psalmist fixe ô man all thy cares in this heauenly obiect walke in his sight and be perfect what doe I say perfect it is to be alreadie in a degree of Beatitude and a Beatitude far greater then that wherof the faire Queene of Saba spake when she named those Courtiers blessed who are dayly in the presence of the wisest of Kings Since that he who doth contemplate the King of Kings and Sages yea wisdome it selfe drawes from the glorious presence of him who is far other then SALOMON such aduantages as may be admired but neuer exprest nay nor yet conceaued ô who will fauour vs so much that all our conuersation may be in heauen as was his who was rapt vp into the third Heauē if not the cōtinuall thought of this eternall obiect which is the Center of our wishes and desires ô Eternitie thou art the true Sunne where the legitimate young Eagles are tryed Thou art the glorious star towards which all well composed hearts like spirituall Turne-soles doe incessantly turne their view hearts florishing with good desires loaden with fruits of good works their floures being fruits of honour and honestie that is extreamely honorable The great Apostle being returned out of that strong and wōderfull rapture and that heauenly schowle where he had learnt the secreets which it was not lawfull for a man to speake being in earth with open and intire eyes saw nothing at all so was he dazled with the rayes of eternitie or if he saw any thing it was but durt and doung and the great spirituall Giant of our age as the deuoute AVILA styles him the Founder of the Companie of Iesus when he came out of his Extasies ô quoth he how durtie and diminutiue is the earth in my sight when I consider the beautie and goodlinesse of Heauen All seemes abiect to true bred soules that ends not in eternitie nothing is able to bound their desires saue that obiect which hath no bounds What can I desire in heauen it selfe which is the measure of Tyme and consequently limited what can I pretend in the earth which is too wretched and miserable to ingage my affection which takes a far higher flight No ô thou God of my heart goes on the Psalmist I will haue nothing but thy selfe thou art my part foreuer True it is I haue but a mortall condition in this vallie of teares yet my pretensions are not such they reach to immortalitie If the passage to eternall solace ly through the fire and water of sufferance in lieu of being disamayed at it I will be comforted in it knowing that he who alone is of himselfe immortall becoming mortall for the loue of me made his entrie into the Temple of Honour through that of Labour not permitting himselfe accesse to his owne glorie but through the doore of dolour And againe doth not Faith deliuer as an Oracle this Apostolicall speech The light and passing moments of tribulation doe loade vs with the waight of eternall glorie Nothing did so powerfully moue that generous mayde of our dayes the Holy mother TERESA to so many heroicall enterprises which she vndertooke for the aduancement of Gods glorie in his Church by the reformation of a whole Order as this thought of Eternitie for being as yet very young she animated her selfe to pietie and to the desire of heauenly things while she conferred with her litle brother ô Litle Angels vpon what can your thoughts be placed but eternitie and by this word NEVER which by way of emulation they did often iterate their thoughts being far more deepe and penetrating in that their tender age then their words she layed the fundation of that goodly edifice of perfection which God hath made appeare in her making choyce of weake things to cōfound the strong and by this spirituall Amason fastening confusion vpon the house of the world and the Prince of darknesse a place more disordered then the house of Nabuchodonosor All that is temporall is reputed as nothing to a soule whose whole pretensions are set on Eternitie It is the bird of Paradice which neuer comes vpō the groūd but by the thread of meere necessitie Euerie other obiect is vnworthy of her courage vnworthy to possesse any place in her affections It is the true and onely thought worthy of an immortall and reasonable spirit The sensible man thinks not of Eternitie V. BVt alas the sensible man is not capable of it I tearme him a sensible man who depriued of the knowledge of the noblenesse of his beeing the liuely Image of the diuinitie walkes after the troopes of brutall passions feeding the Bore of his sensualitie the Lyon of his wroth the Dragon of his pride the woolfe of his auarice This man being aduanced to the honour of reason and called to the lote of Saints by the light of grace hath suffered this light to be obscured hath not vnderstood who called him to this happie portion and therfore he hath bene compared to horses without reason and hath bene made like vnto them This man hath his eyes fixed in his head not seeing a hairebread aboue it or below his feete a deplorable blindnesse He is like to those wicked old men who would attempt vpon the honour of the chaste Susanna who hung downe their heads towards the earth least they might see heauen The fire of concupiscence falling into his heart hinders him to see the Sunne And albeit naturall light tell him that his soule is immortall yet he turnes it not vpon eternitie because his owle-like eyes are not able to sustayne so gratefull a splendour No for the shine of the day-starre which is so louely in it selfe and so beloued of pure eyes whose aples are strong is dreaded of such as haue a weake and waterie sight O how miserable is this vnfortunate man this child of darknesse this almost blind and so weake-sighted Heli that he cannot see the lampe of Syons eternall Temple saue onely when it is extinguished how miserable I say is this man since the light that is in him is darknesse couered with so many ashes that it is quite smothered and what great hazard he runs of loosing the eternall light of glorie who walkes in so palpable darknesse and is buried in the shadowes of so black an obliuion Sinne depriues vs of the consideration of Eternitie VI. YOu
his sonne into a burning fornace that thence thou oughtst to coniecture an enormious crime in the child as well by reason of the greeuiousnesse of the punishment as by the Fathers rigour ô Eternall Father whose mercies are numberlesse what an inward hate must thou needs conceaue against the vniust and iniustice since thou dost punish so rigorously and so eternally the soules thou bought at so great a price as is the bloode of thyne owne sonne blood which cryed better then that of Abel bloode able to fetch out any stayne to wash of all offences and to render them sknowie white whom sinne had made cole-blacke so that this ISOPE this sopewort be applyed in a fitt tyme in a tyme capable of receauing this plentuous redemption Where are our thoughts ô my soule how doth not dread put vs into a traunce while sinne presents it selfe vnto our eyes what a monster must it needs be for whom so darksome a Dungeon and boisterous tempest is prepared and fince that God who is infinitly good is irreconciliably irritated against those reprobate soules How oft my poore heart haue we merited those horrible punishmēts wa st not as oft as we withdrew our selues from our dutie by mortall crimes sinthens all the Diuels there were damned for one sinne And are they not then so many singular obligations we haue to God who expected vs so long to repentance in not suffering his vengance to to take vs in the manure If we slile the Doctors who by their care and skill recouere vs out of a dangerous sicknesse our Esculapeses If a deliuerie out of prison draw such an obligation vpon vs towards the workers therof If a Princes grace doe so much ingage vs to him as likewise the fauour of being freed from fire or water to our deliuerers What shall we render to this good God who as often as we haue offended hath recouered vs frō death and death euerlasting Death whose torment doth far surpasse all that can be said or thought of it Propose vnto thy selfe ô my soule a thing that shall neuer happen according to the order of the Diuine Prouidence and Iustice though otherwise possible to him that can doe all that God had drawen out of this darke hole into which redemption enters not some one of the damned crue to giue him tyme of repentance for his sinns and consider what thankes he would render to his Creatour for so great a benefit and how well he would husband this precious tyme to regayne himselfe out of the midst of his dreadfull tortures Now my deare soule thou must needes haue lost all sense and iudgment if thou accnowledge not the benefit of preseruation to be no lesse then this imaginarie deliuerāce since it withdrawes thee from the same tormēts merited by so many faults Why doe not we then spend our selues in thankes giuing why are we negligēt in redeeming lost tyme sloathfull in running to the remedie of Penance The onely Table of safetie after the shipwrake of grace O God full of Goodnes who desires not the death of a sinner but his conuersion and life Ah! I begge this fauour of thee that at least I may performe some part of that which he would doe whom by thyne extraordinarie power and mercy without president thou migstest haue deliuered out of this Gulfe of horrour Ah! Lord I know this onely part would worke my whole penance for neuer would myne eylidds waxe dry the aples of myne eyes would euer swime in their fountaines night and day should I weepe My cheekes should alwayes be watered and my teares should be my dayly bread I would imbrace all sorts of exteriour and interiour sorow to auoyd those deuouring flammes and the eternall rageings of that abominable Mansion where thou art perpetually blasphemed O God my mercy Saue me from the Iawes of those roaring Lyons prepared for their prey Remoue me from before the sharpe hornes of those sauage Vnicornes Indew me ô Lord with the spirit of Compunction and Penance which is so necessarie to auoyde this Abisse And thou my soule why dost thou dwell vpon this thought of horrour why art thou vexed in it Lift vp thy heart and hope in the mercy of the Highest I thou shalt yet againe praise him the tyme of his mercy is not expired to thee He is the saluation of thy face and thy true God no no by his assistance and grace thou shalt beare no part in the abominable blasphemies of the region of the shadow of death but thou shalt be aggreable vnto him and shalt sing his prayses in the Land of the Liuing A passage to the blessed Eternitie XXXVIII HAppie land of the liuing Athanasia LAND OF PROMIS flowing with the milke and honie of Diuine fauours and blessings Land without thornes free from the captiuitie of IACOB How glorious things are reported of thee ô Citie of God! Sacred citie whose fundations are placed vpon the holy mountaines of Eternitie who art watered with an impetuous flood of felicitie and glorie and with torrents of celestiall delightes How louely are thy tabernacles O mansion of the God of vertues my soule and body doe swoone in the contemplation of thy wonders O Lord how happie are they who doe inhabite thy house◠they praise thee for euer and euer Blessed is he whō thou hast elected and receaued into thy armes he shall remayne for euer in the wishfull porches of thy heauenly Sion Certes Athanasia my heart changing this vnfortunate obiect wherin my pen was imployed in the precedent strokes to this other wholy delightfull one of the blessed Eternitie doth resent the same ioy which the Mariners doe experience when after a rough storme they meet with a calme the same alacritie which doth enlarge the victors hearts when after a dangerous battell they triumphe ouer their foes and diuide the plentuous spoyle Now it is that I may vsurpe the words of the Diuine Epithalamion Winter is past the raine and snow are blowen ouer and flowres begin to appeare in our land but flowres that are of fruite of honour and honestie admirable fruites of the Land of Promis There it is that God doth wipe away the teares of his saintes There are there no greiues or plaintes for all sortes of euils doe vanish in the presence of this vniuersall felicitie euen as shades doe disappeare in the light 's approach And as wine doth taste sweeter after bitter amandes and honie after the tast of wormeseed as deformitie doth raise the luster of an eminent beautie it being the propertie of contraries the one to aduance the other by their neighbourhood so after the harsh contemplation of so many astonishinge torments the splendour of the eternall glorie doth shine in myne eyes as a lightsome day following out an obscure night Such as doe exercise their Arts about fornaces are accustomed from tyme to tyme to releiue their weakned sight in beholding some pleasing table or to recreate them vpon some delightfull prospectiue Sweet light of
vpon our feete in thy porches ô Hierusalem If we walke at euery steppe we are to be myndfull to aduance in the way of Hierusalem And that not to goe forward in the way of God is to goe backward In attireing our selues let vs thinke of the Blessed who are inuested with light as with a garment and of those pure creatures which in Heauen follow the Lambe where euer he goes in habites which put downe the snow in whitenesse O God may we sigh out when shall we be clad with thy selfe inuested with IESVS CHRIST adorned with the wedding garment and be admitted to the eternall banquet of the marriages of the Lambe When we heare the word of God preached vnto vs by the mouth of the Preacher why should not that word of God stirre vp our hearts to that God WORD to that word eternall an essentiall WORD eternally vttered by the Father the Splendour of his Father-hoode Light of Light Image of his substance towards that WORD in whom all things were made and who hath truely the words of life and life euerlasting O Diuine sacred and essentially eternall WORD it is of thee as of their true bread that the Elect doe feed in Heauen thou art he whom they preciously conserue in their heartes O Truth of God ô God of TRVTH thou remaynst for euer Heauen and earth shall passe but this eternall WORD shall neuer passe When we assiste in the Diuine Office and prayse God in the midst of his Temple why may not we excite our heartes towards that perfect prayse which God himselfe doth giue vnto himselfe in Eternitie or to that which the Angells and Elect doe render vnto him in Heauen when they call him thrice HOLY in so graue a tune and so full a musike that the gates of Heauen are moued in it Benediction praise and vertue be to him who is seated vpō the Throne and to the Lambe who hath redeemed vs in his blood frō euery Tribe people and nation and hath placed vs in his eternall Kingdome But principally when we are present at the CATHOLIKE SACRYFICE wherin the Lambe without spote who takes away the sinnes of the world is offered to his heauenly Father in an vnbloodie manner ô God then it is that we ought with all the Court of the Church Triūphant to incens the holy Alter with incēse euerlasting in an humbly louing adoration which ryseth vp as an incense burnt before the face of God Then it is that we are to doe our duties to him who is Preist for euer according to the Order of MELCHISEDECH and who being an eternall Bishope not needing to pray for himselfe yet made his entrie into the Sanctuarie of Eternitie not by the blood of beastes but by his owne offering himselfe vp to his Father an oblation for the sinnes of all mankind Like as all things seeme yellow to such as are sicke of the ganders and as that which is seene through a coloured glasse doth appeare to be of the same colour So when a soule hath accustomed it selfe by frequent aspirations to thinke of Eternitie euery thing be it what it will recalls this Obiect to her memorie The beautie of Townes and Palaces doth presently represent vnto her the riches of the incomparable Hierusalem such as it is described in the Apocalipse and that Palace of the Diuinitie far other then that of DAVID and SALOMON which the Scripture doth so richly describe An old Hermite beholding the Romane TRIVMPHES in their magnificall Pompe what shall the triumphant Hierusalem be quoth he if such splendour and glorie be seene euen in earth O Lord will we say with the Psalmist how happie are they that liue in thy house far beyond those that liue in the Tabernacles of Sinners O how goodly are the Tentes of IACOB for euer how the Mansions in the house of the Heauenly Father are diuersified and desireable How amiable are thy Porches ô Lord God of Vertue 's my soule is transported in consideration therof These worldly magnificencies which we dayly see ought to be so many ladders to a good soule to ascend to those that are eternall which are onely to be found in his Abode who is great and laudible in his holy Citie and his eternall Hill whose greatnes is infinite The sight of humane miseries will make the like impressiō in her by sending her downe to Hell aliue to behold there calamities incomparably greater in their extremitie and eternall continuance Yea if she behold malefactours led to execution by humane Iustice it makes her thinke of the eternall Iustice of God which is inflicted vpon the damned without all hope of ease or deliuerie Nay if she doe but see a beast die she is moued to pittie those poore creatures whose Felicitie expires with their life If she take into her consideration the great ones of this world that which is written occurs vnto her mynd that the Powrefull shall be powrefully tormēted In beholding Kings and Princes she doth rather pittie then enuie their condition when she calls to mynd that they shall die like other men That all their glorie shall passe as the floure of the feild and that their Diademes and honours of so short standing hath nothing comparable to that Kingdome where the King of Kings raignes with his Elect whom he makes participant of his Royaltie but a Royaltie that is euerlasting a Kingdome that knowes no end If she cast her ey downe vpon the poore and litle ones who are here below the refuse of the world and the scorne of men she apprehēds them happie because to them as to a poore LAZARVS an eternall Kingdome is promised If warre and peace occurre vnto her thoughtes they doe forthwith draw with them the memorie of both the Eternities The accursed where there is a continuall warre without Peace The Blessed where there raynes a happie Peace without all feare of warre Yea hereby she falls vpon the Essence of that eternally great God who in the Scriptures is sometymes styled the God of Peace sometymes the God of armies and reuenge The sight of the Sea floodes riuers and fountaines make her remember the same for she thinkes of the fountaine of Paradice of the source of life springing towards Eternitie she thinkes of the flood of the Citie of God and of the infinite Ocean of the essentiall Eternitie of the eternall essence whose is the Sea saith DAVID and who made this vaste receptacle of waters In what estate soeuer a soule that is seasoned with this holy exercise be whether in prosperitie or aduersitie in ioy or greefe in consolation or desolation in priuation or fruition in pleasure or paine in sicknes or health be she in grace or disgrace with the world in plentie or want be it amidst riches or in the presse of pouertie all doth cooperate to good And all this placeth Eternitie before her eyes beholding the accursed in afflictions the blessed in contentment and the eternall God in euery thing euery thing