dish though otherwise most vile which the appetite most longs for Hence it may come to pass that one may offend more grieveously with feasting on toad-stools then another on Partridge and Feasants Esau was reprehended for over greedily gurmandiling a dish of Pulse-Pottage not for eating fat Hens or Capons The third fault is to lavish too much time and treasure in feasting many feast in a Circle as the children of Iob did they leave scarce one day in a year free from Riot and Excesse in Banqueting Parents now and then Prophesie to their children Wo be to thee my boy when thou comest into strange countries where thou shalt want those dainties thou didst enjoy at home How uncouth will it be for thee either to take pains or starve The like may be returned to the Parents Wo be to you who feed plentifully every day how will you be able to digest Hunger and Thirst The fourth fault of Gluttony is rashly to violate the Laws of Fast or at least to expound them as they list Hence the fast of forty dayes in Lent is changed into ten or twenty dayes temperance Many beleive they are fasting when they are not drunk We are now come to that pass as to perswade our selves that fasting was only ordained for Religious People others are so favourable Interpreters of this Law as they still find some excuse to free them from fasting But the Physitian you say and my Confessour exempt me from fasting true but over entreated by your importunity I beleive they would be of another opinion if they met with one less eloquent and more indigent The first is Drunkenness the Origin of many crimes and of all Vices the most dangerous because if a drunken man chance to fall suddainly which is not unusual or be surprised with some disease which hales him to the Gates of Death where poor wretch unable to grieve for his sins or to raise his mind up to his Maker in the state of mortal sin and ignorant of his sad condition he is hurried away to Eternity alas a prey to Death and to the Devil SECT 2. VVO therefore wo to you that are filled In spec because you shall be hungry With good reason said Reginaldetus Infinite men shall be damned for this sin of Gluttony Gluttony has an ample command and is much assistent to all sorts of vices ch 16. Lo this saies Ezechiel was the iniquity of Sodom fulness of Bread and abundance and the idleness of her For this cause our Saviour most carefully warns us Look well to your selves Luk. 27.34 lest perhaps your hearts be overcharged wi h surfeting and drunkenness For that is the malice of this vice not only to burden the body but likewise to fasten the soul to earth to trample it under foot and throw it headlong into Hell Here is Hunger and Thirst here is a long fast Because you shall be Hungry Consider what a great share of our misery it is that we neither value nor sufficiently understand the affaires of the next life Which of us has made tryal of extream Famine Hence we weigh not our own nor the Famine in Hell A pattern of this manifestly appears in Cities Besieged and in close Prisons For to that extreamity are people brought by rageing hunger that not only Dogs Cats and Horses but also Mice Serpents and Toads are greedily devoured by them they pluck the Grass up by the roots they strip their Bucklers off their skins to feed on Hunger compels them to convert into mans meat the Excrements of Birds and Beasts yea and the bodies too of their dearest friends Cambises Lib. 3. de tra as Seneca relates conducted a vast Army through Sands and Deserts into Aethiopia but being scarce well entred upon their march their Victuals and Provision failed their way was unknown unto them and that barren and barbarous Nation afforded them no releif Tender sprouts and tops of trees supplyed their wants in the begining afterwards they boyled skins or what ever they met with to asswage their hunger in fine neither finding Herbs Rats nor Cattel they slaughtered every tenth man a remedy against Famine worse then Famine it self This was but a little Hunger put them upon more cruel designs The Mother 's butchered their own Children as if they had been Chickens and with their own teeth tore in peices members dearer then their life This may yet seem little when compared to more wild attempts How often have people in Prison massacred themselves through hunger and fed upon their own limbs what way soever they could lay hold upon arms or shoulders thither their teeth hastned to make a prey of themselves to their own destruction SECT 3. NOw to the matter in hand This hunger which we behold with our eyes we are not sufficiently capable of and how then shall we understand that most rageing and eternal Famine in Hell by how much our hunger is more Rampant by so much it is the shorter whereas that other though most furious is nevertheless everlasting Wo to you because you shall be hungry Good Lord what a Countrey is this which sets before us for great dainties Horseflesh raw Mice and Toads with Pigeon dung of which notwithstanding we cannot obtain our fill we would esteem it a special favour to part from life but even that is denied Apoc. c. 9. They shall desire to dye and death will fly from them Everlasting hunger is unexplicable everlasting thirst intolerable To these Torments that other may be adjoyned Divines affirme that the delights in Heaven shall be so aboundant as to fill all the Members and Senses of the blessed with peculiar happiness Hereupon the tast and tongue shall swim in a juice of most delicious sweetness in so much that each one of the blessed may seem to enjoy this Divine repast according to and beyond all they can desire Contrary wise that malignant tongue of the Damned shall flow in bitter Gall this was foretold by the Hebrew Prophet Deut. 2. ch 32. The Gall of Dragons their Wine and the Venim of Asps uncurable No sweetness can be of force to mitigate this hunger or temper the bitterness of this Gall their torments are uncurable Moreover some are of opinion that they are afflicted with most cruel fits of the tooth-ach who ever has experienced these in this life let him imagine how afflictive they will be after death In case there were no other torments in Hell besides those of the teeth or head-ake or Gout or Stone and these being to endure for ever what expences labour and royl would one undergo to be quit of them But we fear and fear not these things while with exceeding cheerfulness we commit sins more to be feared In Inns now and then wee feed plentifully we drink off full bowls we sing merrily we dance and skip about but as soon as the Host brings in the reckoning and calls his guests to an account they are
is lost whom Eternity doth not draw to a better life he may take his course he may perish who is in such a dead-sleep as this dreadful thunder cannot awake him Here one may object The Flames of Hell-fire may well be cast in their way who run amain towards Hell why do you with them terrifie those that are dayly longing after Heaven that abstain from sin not so much for fear of punishment as for love of God What need these so frequently to contemplate those flames eternal They need very much Wherefore I shall lay down three documents whereunto we are concerned often to look back in this ensuing discourse SECT 2. THe first Document is All Holy men are partakers of no small comfort by this contemplation of Hell for whilest they assuredly trust themselves to be out of the reach of those scorching heats their hearts even leap for joy accompanied with most amorous thanksgiving most profound contempt of themselves and a most ample extolling of the Divine bounty But for as much as men of an upright conscience do slip and have their faylings therefore Eternity ever and anon plucks them as it were by the sleeve and sayes Beware look to thy self thou art not yet shot free thou knowst not whether in Gods favour thou shalt give up thy Ghost Final perseverance is a meer gift of God a meer Grace which we are not able by any actions of our own to merit in this point it is not lawful to call God our debtour he stands disingaged to every one If then God deny to bestow this grace upon thee thou art utterly undone for ever This serves as a strong bridle to every good man since we are not ignorant that divers have served God some forty some fifty years some longer and yet have sustained the loss of their former Holiness by a sinful end witness that unfortunate Hero of whom Cassian makes mention This if seriously weighed may stir up in each ones soul many pious affections The second Document is Wheresoever an attentive meditation of Eternity preceds there must needs follow a great care a fervour of spirit and a wonderful exactness in doing all our works This cogitation alone teaches manifestly that we owe all to God as to our Soveraign Lord and that we can never serve him so worthily as we ought but must needs acknowledge that what ever we do is not answerable to but far below so great a Majesty This same consideration of Eternity puts us in mind of the present condition of our life and withal warns us that now it is time to take pains in erning repose without end that years eternal will ensue in which we may neither labour nor merit any thing at all I remember to have read and that with admiration of a certain man who framed this conceit of Eternity What living man said he to himself endowed with reason and in his wits would lay claim to the Kingdome of France Spain Poland such wealthy Dominions as these upon condition that before he came to be absolute Lord of them he should lye with his face upward upon a delicate bed of Roses for forty years together It may so fall out that some one may be found overjoyed with the bargain and so may begin to throw himself upon that soft and well-sented lodging yet questionless he will not continue his posture for the space of three whole years but will forthwith depart from the former agreement and say Let me rise I would be deprived of three yea all Kingdoms rather then be constrayned to lye continually as I consented to do upon never so soft a bed And does the matter stand even thus Will no one of Reason if he might enjoy three Kingdoms take up his quarters as aforesaid during the space of thirty or forty years what raging madness then and blind folly is it for trifles for toyes for bables to will and do that for which thou maist be tormented upon a hot-glowing-Grid-iron not for forty nor four hundred nor four thousand nor yet four hundred thousand years but for all Eternity If therefore we provide not for our selves and affairs while we have time and space we are worse then mad and something more then Furies hath seised on us SECT 3. THe third Document I wish I could but obtain this one favour of all who read these things that they would accustome themselves to make use of two sorts of Spectacles the one Purple-coloured the other blew this later is to be used in this manner whensoever matters go well with us when the Body Soul or both are well disposed as often as comely and beautiful Objects are represented to the sight or harmonious concent tickles the Eares or delightful attractives charm the tast or Sabaean Odours satiare the Nostrils or things of smoothest temper flatter our touching or in brief when ever any thing contributes to our delight pleasure or satisfaction then then is the time to lay hold of our Sky-coloured Spectacle and reason thus with our selves Behold this pleases that satisfies the other gives content but what is all this compared to the Eternity of the Blessed what is this drop of Honey to that Sea of Delights in Heaven Wherefore do I debar my self from that Ocean of Pleasures above by gathering scattered drops here below O cast an eye up then towards that blessed Eternity aspire thither where there is all plenty of pleasure that either is or may be imagined Amongst Banquets and sporting yea amidst great variety of Dainties this Discourse may be serviceable unto us This Secret of Art may be made use of when we are soothed by any kind of Complacence whatever Lo this is the right use of the Azure Spectacle to raise the mind from things present and terrene to those to be met with hereafter in Heaven by this means we may be moderate amongst allurements to excess and environed with Pleasures may pass without peril But now on the contrary when we are not well at ease when pain Arrests the Body when sadness seizes on the Soul upon occasion of what Corrasive or Affliction soever take into your hand your Purple Glass and speak to your self as followeth Does this vexe thee so much does that Torture thee so far as almost to make thee Frantick Yet what a Flea-biting is this if thou regard the Eternity of the Damned Look down and take a view of Hell what ever here molesteth by Sufferings Crosses or Disasters is and may be reputed one of the choicest Felicities on Earth if we but lend an eye to those never ending Torments beneath Wherefore then dost thou burden Heaven and Earth with idle Complaints This both discovers thy Impatience and Folly T is clear thou knowest not what Hell is otherwise these Complaints would cease After all this thou tellest me thy Miseries are many thy Callamities intollerable What For want of house-room art thou enforced to lye in a Stall But the Damned are confined to Swine-sties
The mystery of the blessed Trinity the Incarnation of Christ the miracle of the Holy Eucharist the resurrection of the dead and eternity of torment Now for as much as these points are hard to beleive therefore Divine Providence hath in a singular maner confirmed them by Scriptures Councils and Miracles Our talk in this place is to discourse of pains eternal and why God whose nature is to have mercy would have them eternal Divines in this point have gone different wayes to answer the difficulty Some say the Damned alwaies sin therefore they are alwaies punished What injustice therefore is it for him to groan under pain who persevers in doing injury This answer is not amiss For not only the damned sin perpetually in Hell but even here while they lived amongst us they found out a certain kind of eternity to sin in which is the matter we are to weigh with maturity Who ever heaps sin upon sin till death sins during his eternity let us call it so Therefore in Gods eternity he is most justly punisht Both truly and elegantly said St Gregory It is manifest and certain beyond controul Lib. 4. Dial. 44. that neither the blessed have an end of their joyes nor the damned of their sufferings It is an Oracle of truth And they shall go into punishment everlasting but the just into life everlasting Matt. 25 Since therefore Christ is true in his promises he cannot be otherwise in his threats If you demand how can it be just to punish a fault without end which had a speedy end when it was a doing The blessed Bishop answers This might well be objected if the severe Judge weighed only deeds and not the hearts of men for the wicked therefore had an end in sinning because they had an end in living since they were resolved if it had been in their power to have lived alwaies that they might alwaies have sinned It is apparent they desire to live perpetually in sin who while they live never give over sinning Therefore it appertains to the great justice of the judge that they never want pain who in this life would never be without fault Here I would by all means have this observed This circumstance goes along with sin Not only to have sinned but also to desire to sin yet more justly is this desire punished with hell because God doth not only look upon sins committed but likewise the eagerness and longing to commit more as will appear by this example Imagine a man of thirty years old is adjudged to hell because he did not leave off sining had he lived fifty sixty seventy years he had continued so long his sinful course Nay if he had lived a hundred a thousand years he had still held on sining Yea if his life had been without end so likewise had been his sins Seeing then his desire to sin was so great as to be even eternal in desire deservedly is his punishment eternal Therefore as St. Gregory inculcates Let them never be without pain who in this life would never be without fault SECT 2. MOreover the damned do not expiate faults committed they do not lay aside that malice which begun with them during life for they have not so much grace of God as to repent That which followes is most dreadful and unexplicable The damned are so deprived of divine grace that for eternity none of them will ever say Have mercy on me O God none of them shall ever have that grace In which perticular they resemble much the Devils from whom no torments what ever shall be of force to squeez these words We have sinned spare us Hence one may rightly affirm In Hell are only Devils that is most obstinate and desperate enemies of God such as are not the devils alone but likewise all the damned And in this point the wicked man during life and the damned in torments are both a like neither of them being able with their own forces to recal their soul from sin In this case help from God is necessary which he never denies while we live albeit we lose his Grace a thousand times but withal he gives us this admonition Look to thy self lo now I pardon this fault which I shall not alwaies do I forewarn thee and covenant with thee while thy Soul is in the body the gates of mercy stand open for thee enter in but so soon as the soul is gone out of the body these gates shall be close shut This proceeding of God is most just For if the damned while he lived had asked pardon ten twenty thirty thousand times he might have obtained it But when death has once bereaved us of life it is in vaine to hope for any more pardon help or grace God made this agreement with us and added a thousand admonitions that we should not reject grace when it was offered nor mercy while we might find it But we resolved to embrace neither Grace is vanisht Mercy neglected we had a mind to be miserable we were determined to perish Therefore if we perish we may thank our selves we cut our own throats and refused to be friends of God and so by our own choice we never shall be Furthermore wicked actions are directly opposite to good to those everlasting pain is due to these eternal recompence For according to that Maxime of Phylosophy the same rule holds in contraries The perfection of beatitude is to be happy without end Then the accomplishment of torments in Hell is to be miserable for eternity Christ closes all his divine Sermons with this sentence Matt. c. 25. And these shall go into punishment everlasting but the just into life everlasting For so St. Matt. testifies And it came to pass ch 26. when Jesus had ended all these words Behold our Lord concludes his exhortations with this clause of reward and pain everlasting he is equally just and merciful whence he hath decreed to his friends joy and to his enemies torment in the highest degree SECT 3. THese things I must confess are spoken with much congruity But do we yet dive to the bottome of the matter in debate For my own particular I imbrace with reverence that wise principle of St. Austin He is become worthy of eternal ill Lib. 21 de civit deâ— c. 21 who destroyed in himself that good which might have been eternal This is the very cause of everlasting torment the infinite malice of every mortal sin For being an infinite goodness is offended the offence discovers infinite malice which was bold to violate the supream Good with such temerity Sr. Thomas the Prince of Divines avoucheth that Sin is nothing else but an ill humane act To every mortal sin he ascribes a twofold malice The one an act differing from the rule of reason The other an injury done to God by contemning him Now this malice is no other then a voluntary aversion from God which deserves infinite pain because it refuseth an infinite good
beleives In books and loose Papers frequent mention is made of eternal mourning and pains eternal And yet no one beleives Joyes everlasting delights without end perpetual pleasures of Paradise are much treated of and no one beleives We are often told we must use violence in the conquest of Heaven and no one God wot no one beleives or so few that Christ hath said Matt. 7. And few there are that find it Our Faith wherewith we beleive Heaven is a drowsy and dull Faith whence it comes that Heroick acts and generous attempts are so seldome heard of From the same root also sprung that Religious Oracle Tho. de Kempis Lib. 3. ch 3. The world promiseth temporal and small things and is served with great diligence Christ promiseth most high and eternal things and the hearts of men are nothing moved with it A thing of small value is sought after greedily for a penny sometimes there is foul contention for a vain thing and slight promise men cease not to toyl day and night Who is so vigorous and active in persuit of Heaven How many are not sensible of their watching all night when they are Gameing Dancing or Carousing Who watches so cheerfully for the service of Christ for Heaven for everlasting reward We may repeat a thousand times And no one beleives Now where Faith is lively and apprehends the immense joyes of Heaven as well as the endless torments in Hell there is a new course of life and a special reformation of our manners We thirst not after base and fading delights we esteem labour for God at a high rate as also suffering sweet and pleasing Francis Borgia Duke of Gandia being brought low by a hot Feavour learned this lesson that in humane affairs there was nothing permanent nothing perpetual Another time when this Feaver was so rageing that his marrow seemed to boyl within the bones this pious thought possest his mind What flames scorch them who for their crimes sustain eternal torments This thought was of singular use to him all the rest of his life A thought indeed most profitable whether we be opprest with Sickness or environed with other calamities since what is burdensome to the body serves to instruct the Soul He walks through pleasant fields to Prison Serm. de primordiis novissimis nostrss who goes on through prosperity in this life to perdition And truly it is a dangerous vanity to wish long life without thinking which way to live better Hearken what St. Bernard whispers in your ear Consider whence thou camest and blush consider where thou art and sigh consider whither thou goest and tremble Affected blindness which involves many will excuse none We were warned long agoe the gate is narrow and the way streit which leads to life The ready way to Hell is by Luxury and sensual pleasure If thou once begin to walk this path thy journey will be so quickly over had as if thou didst not go but run and fly thither This made that Learned and Holy man Sir Thomas More affirm what he left written in these verses He that the ready way to Hell would know ' Let him in Baths in Wine and Venus flow These things have been so often inculcated unto us that we almost loath to hear them any more Yea and what is yet worst of all we value more a merry moment of brutish delight then the chast fruition of eternal joyes Whence we make it appear we have an earnest desire of our own destruction Wherefore we are constrained again and again to say And no one beleives CHAP. XVII An Abridgement and Conclusion of what was treated before T Is certain no mans tongue is able though after an unpolisht strain to set forth the pains of Hell much less to declare them eaxactly or in their proper colours Admonitions in this matter pass from the lips to the ears but for the most part touch not the Soul to the quick Exceeding great is the difference between a real and painted fire which nevertheless appear sometimes much alike but our pains when compared with those of the damned Good Lord how unlike are they since betwixt a thing finite and infinite there is no proportion T is likewise certain which many Christians say they do not seriously beleive the guilty are punished in Hell otherwise they would certainly lead another life The saying of our lord points out this truth The Son of man coming Luâ— shall he find trow you Faith in the earth It may be as truly affirmed of others that either never or seldome do they think on the pains of Hell and when they do lend a thought to this matter they do not stay upon nor attentively consider or imprint these sad passages in their imagination but if it chance they fix their cogitations upon this subject that wholesome flame is quickly extinguished with a world of cares and worldly business and so both Deaf and Dumb they go down into Hell For all that go thither are Deaf and Dumb like that Citizen of Jerusalem who murthered Lazarus and who then begun to open his eyes when he was arrived at his journeys end But now to summe up what we treated at large in those nine-fold torments of that doleful eternity we judge it fit to renew the memory of each one in particular The first Torment is Darkness THe Royal Prophet saith Psal 18 Day unto day uttereth word and night unto night sheweth knowledge Who is able now to perswade the wicked that they go astray and commit wickedness The best of their time they spend in Toyes and Fooleries which yet they will not be perswaded till they meet with that darksome and eternal night in Hell Night unto night sheweth knowledge Even as the day of everlasting happiness will manifest to the blessed how seasonably they imployed their daies in works of Piety so that dreadful night will discover night eternal which the impious spend in their impieties and must ere long be buried in perpetual darkness O night O darkness wherein the curr of Conscience barks the favour of men sleeps all pleasure is exil'd no glitter of Gold nor Silver dazles the eyes Friends are silent Physitians are absent Shades terrify Flames environ Eternity holds fast what she hath gotten O night O darkness Please to look upon two wealthy Marchants sitting up till late in the night at the Chess-play Lo here is the Table whereon stands the King and Queen two Bishops two Knights two Rooks and eight Pawns on a side which doubled make up an Army of two and thirty men and so each man hath sixteen in Battel Array Upon the board is placed a burning Taper to give light to the Combate the sport goes merrily on the Gamesters grow warm with study and in fine almost all their Gold is layd down to make good the stake One of them after a long contest wins the game and carries away the Goal leaving the loser to fret and chafe who
miserable wretches shall fry in eternal flames for Eternity and longer In body they shall be tormented by fire and in spirit by the worm of Conscience There shall be pain intollerable horrible fear and stink incomparable death both of soul and body without hope either of pardon or mercy And yet shall they so dye as that they shall alwaies live and so live as that they shall ever dye Thus the soul of a sinner is either in hell tormented for sins or for good works placed in Paradise Now therefore let us choose one of the two either to be for ever tormented with the wicked or to rejoyce with Saints perpetually For good and evil life and death are set before us that we may stretch forth our hand to which we choose If pains do not terrify us at least let rewards invite us These things we are tought by Faith which yet as we declared before we either permit to degenerate into drowsness and sloath or wholly to perish Peter Barocius Lib. 2. de ratione bene moriendi Bishop of Padua recounts how a certain man famous for learning appeared after death to one of his intimate friends and spoke to him in this manner At the hour of Death in matters of Faith I was shamefully deceived by the Devil In which condition death found me carried me away and presented me to the judge by whom I was commanded to depart into flames Which though they be excessive yet should I deem them tollerable if after a thousand thousand years they were to have an end But they are eternal and so sharp as the like was never seen in this world Accursed be that knowledge which threw me headlong into so great misery After he had spoken thus he disappeared but his surviveing friend astonisht at the relation and especially strook with his friends eternal damnation consulted with his best friends what advice were most profitable for him in this case He became a new man and dyed holily The Conclusion THerefore St. Psal 68. Austin discoursed well Who saith he would not drink off a cup of temporal tribulation for fear of hell fire And who would not despise the sweetness of worldly pleasure out of love to the delights of everlasting life a greater fear makes us contemn smaller matters and a greater longing after Eternity makes us loath all temporal things As much saith St. Chrysostome as a grain of Sand Tom. 4. hom 11 in ep ad titum or a drop comes short of the immense abiss so far doth this present life differ from eternal and never ending treasures The things we have we do not truly possess we only make use of them and that improperly too T is vertue alone which will bear us company in our journey hence T is vertue alone which hath admittance into everlasting life Let us then at length open our eyes and quite extinguish all appetite to worldly wealth that all our desire may be placed on eternal But alas how great want of consideration is to be found amongst men how great blindness we wrangle for a half penny and make a laughter and jest on 't to lose Heaven Thus we are infected with the ordinary contagion of madness and take pleasure to perish for company Dost thou not blush saith St. Chrysostome to be so wedded to things present When wilt thou part with thy youth toyes and lay a side thy wonted folly What ever is here troublesome is of small continuance what is delightful there is everlasting Remove therefore thy mind from transitory and fading goods and settle it on better and eternal eagerly thirst after Heaven that thou maiest enjoy delights to come Is not reward of force to invite thee at least let fear of torment keep thee in awe Those punishments therefore saith Valerianus ought to have the first place in our thoughts where man lives while the pain lasts where neither pains are wanting to the body nor the body to pains To the like intent writes St. Chrysostome If the Ninivites had not been afraid of destruction Tom. 2. in epist 1. ad Thess they had bin destroyed If in the time of Noe they had feared the deluge they had not been drowned If the Sodomites had dreaded the fire they had not been burned It is a great misery to contemn menaces Nothing is so profitable as frequently to treat of hell speak of it every day that you may never fall into it A soul solicitous to escape hell cannot easily commit sin None of those who have a lively remembrance of hell will fall into it as none who sleight hell will escape it A certain man as Iohn Moscus relates came to Alexander Prat. spur c. 141. a venerable person who governed the Monastery of Abbot Gerasimus and said unto him Father I have a design to flit from my old habitation because the unpleasant situation of it is irksome to me To whom the good old man spoke in this manner Son this is a manifest sign you never consider with attention either the joyes of heaven or the pains of hell for if you did seriously weigh these things in your mind beleive me you would find no fault with your old habitation This was an Oracle of truth for who ever meditates attentively on heaven or hell either is not sensible of difficulty though never so great or if he be he makes his benefit of it and is most ready to undergo greater hardships so he may avoid eternal pains Of this temper was Abbot Olympius as Clymacus testifies who being asked how he could abide to live in such a Cave how he could endure such excessive heats or pass so many daies amongst whole swarms of gnats and flies he returned this answer I suffer these things willingly that I may be freed from future torments I am content to be bitten with gnats because I am afraid of the worm that never dyes heat is welcome to me in regard I stand in fear of fire everlasting for those sufferings pass away with time and will quickly have an end but these are without end and continue for eternity Wherefore these things deserve our dayly consideration and ought to be ruminated when our thoughts are most active As Physick is taken by way of prevention even when the body is well in health so likewise must our soul be prepared with these considerations to withstand vice I confess these thoughts are somewhat bitter but they are wholesome too they do not become familiar upon a suddain but by degrees time place and practise will nourish and bring them to maturity All idleness is a sworn enemy unto them which as it is pernitious to vertue so it opens an easy passage to let in all kind of vices Go too then c. 27. ver 4. who ever thou be and provide in time for thy own salvation Give ear to the Prophesy of Ecclesiasticus If thou hold not thy self instantly in the fear of our Lord thy house shall quickly be subverted It is now in thy choice whether thou wilt reign or perish A soft bed seldome makes a Souldier more valiant remember that beatitude is a daughter of labour and vertue Let none saith St. Tom. 10 ser 60. de tem Austin he ashamed to do pennance who was not ashamed to commit sin but let him strive without delay to renew himself by good works that he may be owned for a child by his father least being excluded from the Wedding feast and shut out from eternal bliss he have his hands and feet bound and be cast into exteriour darkness Excellently said Turtullian The ceasing from sin is the root of pardon the meditation of hell is the begining of salvation seeing hell abounds with all evil it wants chiefly that good which is the best amidst evils an end of Torment An End of this Treatise But where art thou O end of eternal Torments
at a stand they look one upon another and at length break forth into these words would to God we had never come hither our shot is wonderful dear While we are here on our journey we live in an Inn and unmindful of the reckoning Feast jovially carouse till within night sing sport and dance But who will discharge the shot O people ill advised We must pay a just reckoning though a dear one T is we have Banketted Quaffed and playd the good fellows t is we have wasted our health age and substance in riotous company keeping Now mine Host calls for a discharge just debts must be paid Creditours will have satisfaction either from our Purses or Persons We have eaten but with excess with too much expence and delecacy we have Feasted but too often and at too high a rate We have fasted but in a prophane manner and too seldome we have buried our selves in Wine we must now digest the surfetting Wo because we shall be hungry eternal Famine thirsts eternal expects us O what a Supper after a full but short dinner while the damned lived they seem to have licked nothing but salt so rageing is their thirst in hell How horrible a torment thirst is it is hard for any one to express unless he have made some certain tryal thereof In this particular we may well credit the sick who are frequently so tortured with thirst that they esteem it the very dregs of their distempered cup or their greatest disease SECT 4. THe Rich Glutton thrusting out his scorched Tongue cries in hideous manner I am tormented in this flame O one drop from the tip of a finger to refresh me Lo how modestly be begs He does not crave a Bason of water nor a Barrel of Oyle nor a Vessel of Wine but what is most obvious a drop of Water which yet he obtains not This wealthy Banketter is grown so poor that he does not ask a Goblin of Chrystal but the extremity of a finger not the choicest Wine from Greet but a small parcel of water not to have some Noble Cub-bearer but the Beggar Lazarus Mark well what thou sayest O thou Purple Gallant Lazarus has scabbed hands thou wilt be loath to drink water which drops from his finger Ah! let me have but one sole drop and that from the hand of Lazarus which I shall esteem as the choicest of Distelled Waters For all this he gets nothing no body hearkens to him both Eares and Gates are close shut And why I pray is one drop denied to this Glutton in so extream hunger and thirst Abraham was a practiser of Hospitallity and might have said Give him one little drop it will do him no good so great a flame will not be asswaged by so small a dew But their manner of proceeding is farr otherwise in the next world For as Heaven is repleanisht with Joy and Pleasure without the least mixture of sadness so Hell is stored with meer Grief and Pains void of all solace mitigation or ease Hence ellegantly and truly said St. Austin No death is worse or greater Lib. 6. de Livi. c. 12 then where Death dyes not So no Hunger and Thirst is more cruel or deadly then where Death cannot be obtained by Hunger and Thirst SECT 5. TWo brothers as it is recorded the one wise the oter a Fool went a Travellin together and came at length to a place divided into too waies Pet. Regin In spec The Fool was taken with the more pleasant way the wise man preferred the more rugged as more secure Here they fell at debate wherein the wise man deemed it better to yeild then contest So both were surprised by Robbers both were cast into Prison but the one a part from the other whence after a time they were brought before a judge Here the wise man accused the Fool and laid all the fault on him the fool retorts all the miscarriage upon his brother In conclusion the Judge makes this Decree Both are guilty the fool because he should have submitted to one wiser then himself the wise man because he should not have condescended to a fool This is plainly our condition the Soul and Body are brothers but extreamly unlike the soul by its descent being Noble and Wise is not afraid of a thorny way to Heaven she loves temperance and enters into strict league with Fasting as knowing well how these things avail her the spirit is prompt On the other side the body from its birth is foolish so espying a way that smiles with many delights it presently hastens thither it is forceably perswaded that all it has to do is to eat drink sport sleep well fly from labour follow idleness and repose amongst pleasures these things agree well with the body but toyl hunger watching it hates and avoydes as one would the Plague The Soul again endeavours with all her Rhetorick to evince that a smooth way leads not to Heaven as doth the sharp and stony and that they who cannot away with thorns covet not Roses But the body is slow in obeying dull in admitting wholesome counsel it will not be friends with subjection and frugallity so at length the soul yeelds and permitting the body to live as it lists becomes of a Master a slave In this maner they go and perish together thus they fall into the hands of theeves vices and Devils These brothers are parted in the end and committed to several prisons the body to the Grave and the soul to hell whence both are to make their appearance before the Soveraign Judge at the latter day where each will accuse the other Now because the foolish body would not be obedient to the soul and the wise soul was not of courage to subdue the wantonness of the flesh both convinced of impiety shall receive sentence of eternal torment This inevitable decree like a sharp two edged sword Apoc. c. 1. shall peirce through both soul and body Wherefore our Lord saies Matt. c. 10. Fear him that can destroy both soul and body into Hell Where hunger and thirst eternal shall serve as a sauce for their torments neither shall they have any other liquor to their feast then boyling brimstone Fire and Brimstone is part of their cup. Psa 10. SECT 6. ALL this notwithstanding men much addicted to Gluttony are little moved to what has bin said they gape after bankets and costly Viands they thirst after full cupps what ever you say of Famine in the next life O Christians a little more consideration would do well to eat and drink is not forbidden provided it be not against conscience or with neglect of Divine Laws We despise good counsel and dare transgress the commands of God not reflecting that the Gibbet is erected before our doors Wo to you that are filled because you shall be hungry Fault and punishment are linked together many crimes proceed from Gluttony not to be expiated even with most rageing hunger and
The sacred volumes of Scripture are wonderful exact in observing every word In the pool which contains stinking and immoveable waters which do not grow less do not flow out nor are dryed up after a thousand years this pool will be like it self after thirty yea threescore thousand years it will lose nothing it once had after a hundred thousand after a thousand Millions of years that pool will not have one drop of it dryed up As it was in the beginning so it will be then and for all ensuing ages Moreover such as had plunged their soul in wantonness and lust in this life shall be drowned in that pool in these baths of brimstone they shall swimme and sweat and be throughly drenched for their cleansing The greatness of this may be best learned from experience if the water of a fish-pond were all drawn out and the fish for some dayes space were not removed they would fill the air with such incredible stench that no one though in the open air would be able to abide long there What a torment will it be in hell to be seated in the midst of unsufferable stink without power to stir one foot thence for all eternity long custome makes tollerable sorded and ill sented trades but those torments in hell can by no means become more gentle SECT 2. THe third cause of that stink is the bodies of the damned more noysome then any dead carkase Esay foretold Out of their carcasses shall rise a stink All of them shall be tortured with the stink of one and one with that of all What a strange kind of Incense is flesh rotten and crawling with Maggats In Lucifers kingdome numberless carkasses of the damned like stinking carrion shall lye for ever upon hot coales Lust is possest with a certain kind of rageing fury so as it tramples reason under foot but these unbridled motions may be restrained if timely begun with For this cause a Religious man in the desert of Scythia subdued wantonness in this manner The comliness of a woman Lib. Sen. patr sect 10. he had formerly seen frequently â—an in his fancy this remembrance these representations he resolved to banish quite out of his breast He strugled long he fought valiently and overcame himself many waies yet he perceived all he did was only to preserve himself from being overcome In the mean while the Divine Providence sent a man out of Aegypt who casually related that beautiful woman was deceased The Champion of Christ took hold of the relation and seriously weighing what might â—edownd to his best advantage he at length made this resolution To depart from his Cell and hasten to the dead womans Tomb. Where determined to triumph over unchast love he makes this attempt when the night was come he rowls away the grave-stone digs up the earth and comes at last to the dead body then speaks thus to himself Behold quoth he thy treasure behold thy delight why dost thou not carry thy dearest away with thee Part at least of this Gold thou hast so sweat for shall bear thee company He spoke the word and made it good indeed for part of the winding sheet well drencht in matter and corruption he privately made his own Thence returning back to his poor cottage this well-sented booty he placed as a Looking-glass before his eyes where several times scoffing at himself he said Lo thou haâ—â— now what thou desired enjoy it glutt thy self with it satisfy thy eyes feed thy nostrils yea now I give thee leave to be all nose imagine this is a Hand-kercheif sent as a token from thy Dear why dost thou not wipe thy mouth and nose with this delicate Linnen so long did this noble combatant mortify himself with stink till all impure thoughts quite vanquished fled from his mind Thus lust though never so Rampant was conquered by stink thus Cupid that skilful and wicked Archer by stench was routed and put to flight Let us call to mind here I beseech you how not a small parcel of a winding sheet not one member of a rotten carcase but innumerable bodies of the damned send forth most intollerable stink not for a few daies but for endless ages St. Bonaventure was bold to say If one only carcass of the damned were here in this world it alone would suffice to infect it all SECT 3. THe fourth cause of stink is the Devils themselves who though spirits carry about them this most loathsome smell yea it is as proper for hell and Devils to stink as it was true which the antients said hell is full of stench Severus Sulpitius recounts how the Devil cloathed in Purple with a Crown on his head appeared to St. Martin and spoke to him these words Thou shalt know Martin in what manner thou maist worship me I am Christ But Martin being warned from above not to credit the Father of lyes said My Lord did not promise to come in this Equipage I know Christ all bloody crowned with Thorns and hanging upon a Cross but this strange King I know not He had scarce ended these words when this counterfeit Christ disappeared and to the end it might be manifest who that King was and of what kingdome he left such a horrible stink behind him that Martin conceived he was now an inmate of Hell and thus he discoursed with himself If one only Devil stink in this manner what will the stench be of all Devils and damned men together Antiochus Epiphanes Mach. 9. a fair picture of a wicked man being now sensible of vengeance from Heaven and having swarms of vermine within his members stunk so horribly that his whole Army was extreamly averse from that loathsome malady Yea as the Scripture testifies he could not endure his own stench How then in hell shall he for ever abide the stink of Devils and all that damned crue Mezentius the Tyrrhenian King not unlike to Antiochus despiser of men and Gods proceeded so far in cruelty by his wit that he slaughtered men not with the Ax nor the Gallows nor fire but with stench for to a living man he tyed the putrified body of one dead so long till the corruption of the dead killed the living A kind of torment most Barbarous most cruel and so much the more by how much the slower But what is this compared to the torments in Hell what is a noysome smell of a few daies to that other which remains for ever when therefore we look upon our Fires Racks and Gibbets we may justly exclaim O mild and gentle torment of Mezentius which bereaves of life by being fastned to one stinking carkass But O death more dreadful then any death to be tortured with the stench of so many devils and damned alwaies to dye and never to make an end of dying SECT 4. IN the Prisons of Japonia even to this day is matter found sufficient for the exercise of Christian Fortitude where many together are thrust into a loathsome Denn
their companions in pain So a thief shall see him that helpt him to steal so the gamster his play-fellow so the adulterer her with whom he sinned they shall behold each other and pine away with grief yea they would rather be blind then by seeing make others pains their own Excellently well said Isidorus Sent. li. 1. Hell fire shall shine to the wicked to increase their misery and damnation by seeing what may augment their grief but nothing which may redound to their comfort The third difference of both fires ours consumes all their 's nothing here of St. Lib. 21. Civ de D. c. 4. Anstin bears ample testimony If the Salamander lives in fire and the Mountains of Sicily long since and to this day burn and yet remain entire they testifie sufficiently not all that burns is consumed and the Soul declares not all that can suffer pain can dye Whence we learn how the bodies af men perpetually tormented neither loose their life in flames nor are destroyed by burning but are pained without perishing Who but God the Creatour of all things gave this property to the flesh of a dead Peacock that it might with ease be preserved incorrupt for a whole year Who bestowed that cold vertue upon Chaff to keep snow from melting or that hot quallity to bring green fruit to maturity How wonderful a thing is that when by casting water on Lime you set it on fire Why then shall not God have power to raise bodies from death and to torment the damned with fire eternal who made the world full of numberless miracles in heaven in earth in the air and waters since the world it self is doubtless a greater miracle and more excellent then all those its silled with Why may we not avouch that even spirits incorporeal though wonderfully yet truly may be afflicted with pain of corporeal fire What therefore God foretold by his Prophet concerning the punnishment of the damned shall come to passe indeed it shall Their Worm shall not dye and their fire shall not be quonched Esa 66 24. The fourth difference Our fire according to its fuel either lives and enencreaâ—es or decays and goes out but but hell fire is nourished by Gods justice never to be quenched by any Sea it is unquenchable This one word unquenchable thrice repeated by our Lord will either be of force to make us fall out with vice or else it will demonstrate we are worse then brutes SECT 3. THis fire in hell shall be greater Deut. c. 25. or less as every ones offence deserves the Divine Justice will use it as a scourge According to the measure of the sin shall measure also of the stripes be Even as amongst many guilty persons one is more sharply chastised then another with one and the same whip Hence appears the madness of certain men who scarcely aim at any thing but hell their words are these While we are on the way to the Region of utter darkness let us post thither with might and main let us make much of our selves while we may since we know we shall deserve scourges let 's deserve them to the purpose Go you mad men go esteem it your chiefest felicity to swim in pleasures glut your selves to day with wine and delights perchance to morrow you will be drowned in flames All the slaves in hell are dreadfully tormented those most who have most grievously and often offended God For he will give fire and worms into their flesh that they may be burnt and may feel for ever Judith 16. Briefly and pithily above others doth St. Prosper set before our eyes this punishment of fire eternal his words are these Continual sighing painful feeling extream grief affliction everlasting torment souls without killing punisheth bodies without dying Now as no pain with us pinches more sharply then fire so nons sooner consumes and ends our pain What fire then is that which tortures most bitterly and never ceases Moyses Gods Embassadour found out a word signally expressing eternity of hell fire A fire saith he Deut c. 32. is kindled in my wrath and shall burn into the lowest parts of hell The Prophet Hieremy spoke to the same purpose Jerem. c. 17. Thou hast kindled a fire in my fury it shall burn for ever The Powder which kindles eternal flames is the wrath of our Lord while we live we experience the anger not the wrath of God So it is written Machabees c. 5. Antiochus being alienated in mind considered not that for the sins of them that inhabit the City God had been angry a little God indeed is angry a little however he lift up his arms and seem to threaten stripes in good earnest his anger is yet little because joyned with clemency But when this anger is contemned and clemency sleighted then patience offended becomes fury whereby fire is kindled to burn for ever You saith God your selves kindled this fire when by your often iterated crimes you despised my clemency when my anger was little you were impatient you transgressed my Laws and by contempt fell upon what was forbidden Now the time of revenge is come I will punish you with horrible and unheard of torments you have kindled a fire in my fury now my fury shall burn even to the lowest part of hell Nature says Seneca makes pain either to lerable or short but God the author of Nature punisheth his rebellious and stubborn subjects with long and intolerable pain long because eternal intolerable because with most rageing fire SECT 4. HEre I most earnestly begge of all Christians that when any sickness or pain accosts them when the Gout Stone or any other malady or trouble molests them they would lay hold on this thought this affliction or pain were it to endure ten a hundred a thousand years would you not think you were already in hell What would you do then to be set free Do that now to escape eternal torments And know for certain the trouble you suffer though grievous the pain you endure though excessive is not so much as a shaddow of hell Here God strikes with one hand only and that gently there he scourges with both and that most severely here he often lays but one finger on you there with all his fingers yea and the whole hand too he lays load on Eustachius that Christian Champion whom we mentioned before being with Wife and Children enclosed in a hot glowing Oxe of brass was bitterly tormented yet this was no small solace to him that his pains would quickly have an end and his reward would last for ever Let us deeply imprint this in our memory It was frequent with all religious persons by daily meditation as it were to touch these flames eternal Apud Rosw c. 44. Paschasius Deacon relates out of Greek that twelve Anachorets as a compleat Senate met together and every one for himself declared what he thought he had profited to that day and what chiefly had been
and senseless with eyes and ears shut loosed the reins to lust and by joint example drew one another to destruction Hither unhappy that we are we posted amain and despâ—sing all admonition ran upon death alas death eternal What good do we reap now from all that the deceitful world fobb'd us with the memory of pleasures past is worse then death to us all delight is gone and quite vanisht away which though we might have enjoyed for some ages what had those joys been to these torments Alas we leaped only at a shadow of bitter pleasure Who was it that did so cruelly bewitch us O that we had but once a year seriously meditated on eternity O that we had now but one day one sole hour at our own disposal But O these wishes are in vain we are utterly undone all our hope is turned into despair Accursed be the day in which we were born accursed be God by whom we were created Here I stop my pen and send back these impious words thither from whence they came Let him be wise and beware in time whoever desires to escape this dreadful butchery of conscience SECT 5. IT were incredible if our eyes were not witnesses how industrious and witty how attentive and serious how watchful and quick-sighted how knowing and wary we are in amassing together things of this world When affairs of the body are to be looked after then it is we are wise careful and laborious here is the center of our lives and actions Behold I pray how exquisitely some have their Garments Embroydered see what artificial pictures edifices and statues others possess look upon that fine linnen which many wear for whiteness like snow for thinness equal to the spiders web look upon those master-pieces of art clocks musick with other forreign merchandise O how acute and unfatigable are we in raising works of handy-craft to perfection in heaping up wealth in dispatching worldly business and attaining honour When as God knows all these things are fading transitory and pass away in a moment Contrary-wise when any thing is to be done for heaven good Lord how dull and stupid how slothful and heedless how frosen and drowsie are we In this business alone we go coldly to work we languish we loyter we lay us down by the way T. Kem. l. 3 c. 3. It was most truly spoken For a little Prebend a long journey is undertaken for everlasting life many will scarce once lift a foot from the ground Here we are all as if we were struck with a palsie we snort and the devil stands centinel But when the soul once awakes indeed the conscience will no longer be lulled a sleep it will pinch gnaw vex and torture for eternity Their Worm dyeth not This Worm is fed with unexplicable dolours with sorrow void of all comfort The damned grieve for the loss of beatitude without hope of ever repairing that immense damage they think without ceasing it was their own folly drowned them in that Ocean of sadness neither will it ever be in their power to divert their fancy from that dismal thought to any other that may exhilerate them St. Bernard did contemplate these things attentively Lib. â— deâ— coâ—fiâ— c. 12. What is so painful saith he as always to have a mind of that which you shall never compass and always to loath that you shall ever have The damned shall for ever covet that which they shall never obtain and what they utterly dislike they must endure eternally Amongst so great a multitude of spectatours no ones eye will be more troublesome then every one 's to himself There is no sight either in heaven or earth which the darksome conscience would rather avoid but cannot Darkness is not covered from it self it beholds it self that can discover nothing else The works of darkness follow them they can hide themselves no where from darkness no not in darkness it self Here is the worm that dyeth not the remembrance of things past which being once cast into or rather bred in the soul by sin sticks so fast that henceforth it can never be pluckt away It doth not cease to gnaw the conscience wherewith being fed as with inconsumptive food it preserves its life perpetually I tremble at this gnawing worm Mat. 2â— and living death I tremble for fear of falling into the hands of living death and dying life Therefore while the soul endures the memory endures but what an one stained with sins rough with crimes swoln with vanity evergrown and neglected through contempt All which though they have gone before yet are they not passed they have passed from the hand to the mind That which is done cannot be undone wherefore though the doing was in time yet the having been done remains for ever that doth not pass away with time which goes away beyond all time It is therefore necessary that should torment for ever which thou shall ever remember to have done amiss Hitherto St. Bernard SECT 6. ADivine and Suffragan Bishop of St. Th Can Dominicks Order a faithful writer of the History of his time relates a strange passage in this manner A Bishop there was in in Germany of Princely race from which by his life and means he did degenerate This same man at first was somewhat bashful in gapeing after gold and in giving way to secret venery afterwards he proceeded further so as not careing to amend his life he loosed the reins to things forbidden and freely abandoned him self to rapine and luxury God checked him sundry ways one while by sickness another while by other calamities inviting him to reform his life In fine as he led a debaucht life so he took a miserable end At that very time Conrade Bishop of Hildeâ—heim was got out a bed to go to Mattins Hildemensis which ended he betook himself to his study to prepare for a Sermon next day Here being for some space in an ecstasy he thought he saw a Bishop with a Mitre on his head but with his face covered hurried away to judgment Presently his accusers laid to his charge that he was chiefly infamous for rapine and guilty of lust Here the Judg spoke to some of his attendance Examine his cause and give sentence They did so and forthwith the Executioners took away from the condemned Person his Mitre Ring and other Ornaments which they cast at the feet of the supream Judg. The attends rise up and as they go away each one for a conclusion of their Judgment says Therefore while we have time Paul Galaâ— c 6. vs 10. let us work good to all These things the foresaid Bishop beheld who after he came to himself found his head busied with enquiring what Bishop it might be which died at that time When lo one weeping at the Gate declares how his Master whom he named coming last evening ino the next village was suddainly dead Conrade at this lamentable accident fetcht a deep sigh resolving with tears
night and day to repeat While we have time let us work good to all An impure conscience is here unquiet hereafter it will be furiously tormented for ever SECT 7. THe force of conscience is incredible especially after the scene of this life is acted for in the presence of God every one will so blush at his own faults that though heaven were set open and the soul uncleansed were invited to enter nevertheless through horror of its own stains it would fly back and refuse to go in till all its spots were expiated So much the conscience has aversion of and blushes at her own offenses Therefore while we have time let us work good to all for as St. Austin discourses Who ever doth not deceive himself by flattery understands well in how great danger of eternal death and how far short of perfect holiness he lives during his pilgrimage here on earth Now then let us look to it and not resist the wholsom warning our conscience gives us The conscience is never silent if it meet with a peaceable and attentive hearer And truly this is exceeding profitable so to feel the worm in our bosom here as not to be troubled with it hereafter eternally St. Serm. DeiCon vert Bernard attests thus much saying It is best then to feel the worm when it may be stilled Therefore let it bite now that it may dye and so bite no more While it bites here it feeds upon what is putrified and biteing consume it that it may be consumed together with it lest being made much of it should become immortal It is therefore much better to be warned here then by our conscience to be murthered hereafter for as the same Saint adds Lib. de Animâ— Those who are exilled from heaven shall be tortured in flesh with fire and in spirit by the word of conscience There is pain unsuffâ—rable horrible fear incomparable stench death of soul and body without hope of pardon and mercy Yet shall they dye so as that they shall ever lâ—ve and so live that they shall ever dye What shall we do O mortals Our life is short the way long the end of the way doubtful time little nothing more certain then death nor uncertain then the hour the continuance of reward â—nd pain everlasting both which depend on a moment for eternity What then O mortals what shall we do CHAP. VIII The Seventh Torment of Eternity in Hell is the Place and Company CAto Censor A man of approved vertue was accustomed to give this admonition to them who were about to buy Land that in the first place they should be sure to provide for good neighbours An ill neighbour is a great evil whence that saying of Themistocles delivered by Plutarch is well known for having a farm to sell he commanded the cryer who gave notice of the sale he should likewise certifie That it had good neighbours A ruinous and inconvenient building if it be near bad company will meet with few buyers All exiled from heaven have such places of abode that our styes and dog-kennels compared to them might seem places or lodgings fit for Kings Besides the inconveniency of the place there is company displeasing beyond expression of so many millions of devils and damned men all sworn enemies to God so as if they were in Paradise they would make one abhor it This then is the seventh torment of eternity in hell the place and company that miserable above measure this detestable beyond imagination The Judg in his definitive sentence comprehended both saying This house of flames this dreadful prison which was prepared for the devil and his angels did not concern you in the beginning Mat. 25 but in regard you valued more the familiarity of mine enemies then my favour Go now go and dwell amongst them whose company heretofore you were so much taken with go into fire everlasting which was not prepared for you but for the devil and his angels It somtimes cometh to pass that a Schoolmaster for the fault of onâ— commands rods to be made ready but for as much as others by and by become faulty too he says These rods were not tyed together for you but because you have committed the same offence with that untoward boy you shall likewise be whipt with him In like manner Christ speaks to his enemies My intent was you should have enjoyed the society of Angels Paradise was made ready for you but since you have cast away all goodness and would not obey me but the devil Go therefore go go and make your abode in the devils den remain in that company your selves have provided Of this both place and company we now treat SECT 1. BEfore we enter into the Place le ts take a view of the ground Antientently at the left hand of the entrance into Yrimalcions house not far from the Porters lodg was painted upon the wall a mighty dog in a chain over whom was written in Capital Letters Take heed take heed of the dog Many such dogs as these are in hell so many Cerberus's as devils which are far more ravenous then all Cerberus's Here both by writing and words I exclaim Take heed take heed of these dogs But now let us look upon the place It is agreed upon as well by antient Fathers as Divines that those comfortless caverns of hell are seated in the center of the earth holy writt likewise affirmes the same For after they who rebelled against Moyses were separated from the people of God Num. 16 v 32 The earth brake in sunder under their feet opening her mouth devoured them with their tabernacles and all their substance and they went down into hell quick covered with the ground This prison of the wicked is rightly seated in the lowest place as the habitation of the blessed is on the highest noblest and most pleasant Of that prison we may frame this discourse In case the damned amount to thirty times a thousand millions of men or a hundred thousand millions and that fiery prison according to its whole dimenfion of height bredth and length contain one German mile it will have room enough for that wonderful number of men Streitness sutes well with the prison it being proper for liberty to enjoy an ample habitation But the croud of the damned those dogs and swine shall dwell in a narrow compass and shall be like grapes in a wine press or salt harrings in a barrel or bricks in a kill or pieces of wood in a pyle or hot glowing coles in an iron-grate or like sheep butcher'd in the shambles they shall be close and streitly thronged together The narrowness of the prison and their being pressed one near to another makes no small addition to their torments Into this slender compass God will conveigh all the sewers and filth of the world The greatest joy this world affords is not a little diminisht by loathsomness of place Who would esteem it a pleasure
this sort Let some one in the spring or autumn when the season of the year is sharpest be conveyed down into the bottom of a deep pit under ground where there is neither fire nor table nor bed Hither once a day let a crust of mouldy-hard bread with a small cup of stinking water be cast down by a rope this dainty fare must likewise be seasoned with reading this lecture that the party so enthralled is without ceasing to meditate on eternity both day and night Well said Pylades I deem that an efficacious way to imprint eternity in the mind Yet oblige me with a further courtesie and make me partaker of a more ample discourse touching the man before mentioned SECT 4. THat man in the beginning will esteem three weeks as irksome as three whole years and if he chance to be restored again to his liberty he will openly profess his sufferings were excessive What were his sufferings I pray hunger thirst cold want of sleep with privation of all comfort Hitherto the miscreant says true But observe I beseech you how tolerable this prison is how plentiful his diet what freedom he seems to enjoy when you look down upon that close imprisonment in hell he had his share of meat and drink to preserve his life in hell is neither one drop nor crum of comfort Besides no one derided that poor man in the pit none insulted over him no one loaded him with stripes whereas in hell they are perpetually oppressed with all these calamities Again that silly wretch might passe over the day in quiet and the night in rest though both were accompanied with difficulty but in hell is not so much as one sole minute of ease or sleep to be found Moreover that mans brest was not torn to pieces with sadness all grief horror amazement howling anguish and despair did not any ways afflict him as they do incessantly them in hell That mans thraldom was free from torments he was molested with no other disease then hunger thirst and cold but the damned are racked in all the members of their bodies and their souls being drencht in affliction always live in flames and never dye this death is more bitter to them then death it self In a word albeit that Caitif be remote from delights though he behold no sun haven o company but be debarred all sport and relaxation of mind yet he cherrishes this hope in his bosom that one day he shall enjoy himself again he shall see the suns face meet with his beloved companions and return afresh to his accustomed pastimes and delights Whereas God wot all their hope in hell is changed into despair they know certainly at their first entrance thither they must never look upon the sun any more they must never meet again either with their wished for company or content The sight of God the society of Angels together with all celestial pleasure is quite taken from them eternally without hope of recovery Despair lives in hell as at home it spares none of these Inhabitants Lo here O Christians with what facility we may gain knowledg of Eternity SECT 5. A Learned man of St. Dominicks Order recounts this passage to my present purpose Joan Junier A Jester says he a nimble-witted buffon in an assembly of noble men took upon him to play the preacher whom he had heard that morning and with an intent to draw mirth out of serious matters he thus begun his Sermon You know my masters how much my company conduceth to your jovial entertainment whether you be carousing feasting gaming or dancing I am still as the fool in the play ready to chear you up But listen I beseech you to what lately befel me as I lay upon a down bed and could not sleep I began to think with my self if thou wert so fast bound here for twenty or thirty years space that thou couldest neither stir hand nor foot what wouldst thou do to purchase liberty How if thou couldst riot otherwise obtain it then by bidding adieu to all company keeping and not I said to my self nay I would swear it if need required that I would utterly forswear all my pot-companions all jollity play and danceing rather then be in this sort debarred of my freedom But say I pray thee what course wouldest thou take if thou wert in Pluto's Court not buried in feathers but flames not amidst ripplers but devils where all chatting for merriment is wholly forbidden where one small drop of water is no less precious then a celler stored with the choicest canary whither one may enter as beasts did to the sick Lyon whose footsteps you might behold all going in but none coming out again To go down into hell is an easie matter but who was ever seen to have returned thence Now then if thou wert there tell me seriously what wouldest thou do His Sermon being thus ended he found himself so suddenly changed that one might justly perswade himself he was become another Porphyrius who played the Jester to Julian the Emperor and who whiles acting upon the stage he scoffed at the rites of Christian Religion found himself suddenly changed into another man and openly profest he was a christian yea and as a christian obtained the crown of Martyrdome with the loss of his head So serious conclusions follow out of jesting premisses so that other caviller drew earnest out of jest to his own great advantage and others 'T is a true and sure way of reasoning from a slight and transitory pain to frame a right estimate of pains eternal To which purpose give ear to S. Hieroms admonition Ad Po. Ocean Do we think brethren that the Prophets Preach in Jest the Apostles speak in a laughing manner or Christ thunders out menaces like a child Those are no Jests which are accompanied with real torments SECT 6. BEsides the place of hell which is infamous for all kinds of torments there is likewise company by all means detestable As the blessed in heaven will be replenisht with unexplicable delight when they behold Christ the worlds Saviour his most glorious Mother and Disciples together with so many Quires of Angels and millions of triumphant Saints So the reprobate will receive an addition to their horrid torments from that execrable company from which they shall never be delivered What sentiment wouldst thou be of if sound and in health thou should be constrained to lodg night and day in the same Hospital with sick folks covered over with ulcers sores and rottenness What if thou shouldst see their limms flowing in their own putrified matter and corruption How would thou be able to endure the stench of some the mourning and lamentations of others the sighs of this the complaints of that man the cough of the lungs in one and in another wailing till he give up the ghost O what a hell saist thou would this life be Nay how meer a nothing would this be compared to hell that which thou
the sea over floweth not In like manner all sorts of pains as so many streams empty themselves into eternity in hell yet eternity like an immense ocean is always the same neither ebbing nor flowing but infinite but unchangeable After a hundred centuries of ages are disburdened into this abysse a hundred more will be swallowed up and still more and more without end After the damned crue shall have dwelt in hell so many ages as to think they have lived in flames for all eternity by past yet eternity is not one jot diminisht After the revolution of so many ages eternity is not a minute less it is ever entirely the same After a thousand thousand years are come and gone the circle of eternity is as large as whole as unavoidable as it was in the beginning This is the ninth unspeakable unconceivable torment in Gods prison Now forasmuch as people yet alive busie their thoughts with eternity we assign a triple difference thereof eternity which makes the pious daily sigh eternity which is a fearful dream of the wicked and eternity which is an everlasting punishment to the damned The first of these three is the subject of this present chapter SECT 1. THe divine espouse commending the humanity of her beloved says Cant. 2. His left hand under my head and his right hand shall embrace me Under these words lyeth hid a mystery which must be unfolded In the left hand of the beloved are honours wealth and plenty in the right length of dayes or eternity Here the espouse as if she were wittingly and willingly blind exclaimes the left hand I see not because it is under my head so little do I value honour riches or transitory goods But the right wherewith he shall embrace me I behold though yet I enjoy it not all the eyes I have are fixed in contemplation of eternity things eternal are they I esteem Yet in regard I have not possession of a blessed eternity nevertheless I rest assured He shall embrace me Eternity delayed breeds torment as Hope that is differred afflicteth the soul Prov. 13. Eternity stirs up in the vertuous a dayly longing after it Boniface a Citizen of Rome having for some time kept company with Aglae a noble matron became at length so penitent for his fault that he resolved to wash out that stain by the practice of most heroick vertue This made him sl ght all danger of looseing the goods of fortune yea and his own life too this made him visit martyrs in prison and kiss their chains this made him encourage such as were to suffer and after death to bury their bodies Being taken up with these employments he took his journy to Tarsus where he performed the like good offices to the champions of Christ His dayly exhortation was they should be constant in their sufferings their labour though short would merit reward without end With these words he mervailously excited himself and others to lay down their lives couragiously While he was busie with these employments he was apprehended and had his flesh torn off his bones with iron hooks they thrust under his nails sharp needles and poured into his mouth melted lead Amidst these torments he persevered constant he believed his pains momentary and the crown he expected to be everlasting he repeated to himself his former exhortation and often redoubled I give thee thanks O my Lord Jesu In this manner he gloriously finisht his combat Eternity is cause of continual sighing to the godly SECT 2. ST Frances of Assisium the Jewel of his age through frequent weeping began to be troubled with sore eyes Divers perswaded him to forbear his dayly tears to whom with a deep sigh he said For the love of that light which is common to us flies I do not judge it meet to debar my self of the rays of light eternal Being likewise asked how in such thin clothes he could endure the austerity of winter He answered if we were warmed with love of our eternal country we should easily be sheltered from cold here This life was to St. Francis occasion of patience as eternity was of desire Christ our Lord undertaking to teach his followers how to sigh incessantly after eternity said Mat. 10 Fear ye not them that kill the body A hidden argument but according to art Do not for this reason fear saith he because they kill If any one had power to detain another in the fire or such like punishment alive him you might justly fear The sharper the pain inflicted by men the sooner it bereaves of life the more grievous the torment the quicker the end You have then no reason to fear them who can kill the body but once and that often with one blow fear him that redoubles dayly mortal wounds and always killing never kills Behold the antitheses of this divine Oratour The fear of a short death is to be overcome by fear of death eternal Our Lord therefore would glve us to understand that the souls of men are immortal subject to the sole pleasure of God and that the bodies are to be raised from death to reward or punishment everlasting Behold likewise with what artificial brevity of words Christ comprehended great mysteries the immortality of the soul the resurrection of the body and an eternity of well or wo. Eternity causeth in the vertuous continual sighing Sir Thomas More Sand. Lib. 1 a man every way accomplisht was cast into prison not to his disgrace but for manifesting his sanctity to the world His wife came to visit him with an intent to bring him off his resolution But in vain She â—â—ade her onset with a two forked argument and pleaded her cause with prayers and tears beseeching him chiefly by all conjugal fidelity he would preserve his life yet a while What fault have I made quoth she wherein have your children kinsfolk and family so much offended as to be so soon deprived of you my beloved husband All our lives depend on yours For my part I had rather dye a hundred time 〈◊〉 survive after your death 〈◊〉 my dearest More subscribe to the Kings decree and you make your self and us all live many years longer Are you so much fallen out with this present lifâ— as that you will obstinately run upon your own death Death knowes well when it is to come for us why then do we of our own accord send for it as if it had forgâ—tten us That you may have compassion for many of your friends have pitty on your self and do not despise the best share of your life which is yet behind I doubt not but God out of his goodness will grant you many more years to live in case your self be not out of liking with your own life Her Husband gave eaâ— pâ—tiently to what she said and when she had ended her speach How many years quoth he doest thou think I shall live my dear Aloysia to whom she quickly made answer you may well live
nap under it when a passenger hastily awaking the careless follow should speak thus to him friend what dost thou mean what makes thee stay here in such imminent danger arise quickly betake thy self to some secure place this wall is a falling every minute how darest thou sleep here be gone speedily What would you say if the traveller after all this should refuse to depart thence and say to him who warned him of his peril Do not molest me look you to your self I am resolved to take out my nap He that will perish let him perish hardly this fellow is determined the â—uinous wall shall be his tomb let him be buried in Gods name in the grave he hath chosen Mans life is indeed a tottering wall what day hour or moment it will fall who can tell the time is uncertaine albeit most certain it is a work â—â—ill cemented cannot stand long everyday hour and moment you may well expect a downfal Nevertheless we fool hardy and rash-brained people lean to this wal and nod without fear Each one is seised with his peculiar sleep this man lies snorting under the sleep of avarice that under lust another under drunkenness envy or pride The royal Prophet saw and admired many who slept in this manner They slept their sleep Psal 75. Thus every one gives way to his proper sleep which holds him closely oppressed with a deadly lethargy though there want not several persons to a wake him out of it Christ calls his Disciples call the antient Fathers call Catholick Preachers call from their Pulpits all with joint consent admonish us not to trust to a ruinous wall which already reels and by and by will lie equal with its foundation Moreover they show us where the defect is and change us without delay to put our selves in security Notwithstanding some are so fast asleep that they listen to no admonition at all others by so many clamours awake 't is true though to little purpose because ever and anon they fall into their slumber again and give you no other answer then the traveller did Let us a one we will take out our 〈◊〉 we are wâ—ll where we are All this notwithstand faithful monitours cease not to redouble their admonitions and these they repeat so much more earnestly and continually by how much they perceive their danger more imminent and certain for in this case 't is not the body alone whose safety lies at stake but the eternal welfare of both soul and body which is exposed to utter perdition everlasting death makes a prey of those whom this wall takes under its ruins But alas after so many iterated warnings many trust to this staggering wall shut their eyes and sleeping securely dream on eternity wherewith they are terrified no otherwise then dreamers use to be who together with their dream shake off dread too Thus we live thus we slumber thus we dream thus we perish for upon a suddain the wall falls and oppresses such as slept under it Immediately after an entire Eternity is represented to their view which is now no shore dream but an everlasting torment O travellers too too rash O sleep no less deadly then destructive Tell me now I beseech you whether you do not believe these particulars as matters of undoubted certainty SECT 4. IT is a business worthy of credit that in case any of the damned appeared again from hell and pulled these sleepers by the sleeve and charged them to look to it and foretold them in what danger they lived they could notwithstanding not awake them so great is the blindness and stupidity of mans soul Hereupon Abraham refuseth to condescend with the rich gluâ—tons request of sending some of the dead to warn his brothers yet alive the reason whereof he alledgeth in these words If they hear not Moyses and the Prophets if they despise the admonitions of the living neither if one shall rise again from the dead will they believe Luke c. 16. The matter is plainly so indeed Orat de Lazaro Whence St. Chrysostom said Hell is not seen to unbelievers to such as believe it is manifest When mention is made of punishments inflicted on offenders how often may you hear such words as these This was sent into banishment that was whipt for his fault another was condemned to the gallies another was beheaded he was hanged that other was stretched upon a rack and lastly this fellow was burnt to death Even malefactours hear such pâ—ssages as these and yet become no better by hearing of them Many who are guilty of death though their pardon be granted them yet they commit the same crimes again or worse Like unto these are we if we would acknowledg the truth how often by means of pennance do we obtain pardon for our sins and so escape hell how promptly do we undertake any thing to purchase our freedom When God knows almost in the turning of ones hand we slide back again and become worse by abusing of our liberty We take our leave of anger and envy covetousness and pride we may not endure we are wholly out of likeing with lasciviousness we abhor stealing and profess our selves sworn enemies to all debauchery But alas I upon the next occasion we loose the reins to anger envy dominiers in us we enter into league with avarice and pride we steal as readily as ever our wantonness draws us into the mire again feasting and riot have reduced us to their friendship in a word we commit the same if not more horrid offences then formerly Is not this to look upon eternity as a dream and in the mean while to act things meritorious of flames eternal In that prison which Pharao had in Aegypt two of his guilty Courtiers were detained to each of whom happened a different dream which neither of them had the skill to interpret whereupon turning to Joseph their fellow prisoner they said We have seen a dreum and their is no body to interpret it to us Gen. c. 40. There are many dreamers on Eternity but few interpreters let us help them with our interpretation SECT 5. IN the first edition which we published of Eternity we set it forth adorned with several pictures whereunto we now adjoin these ensuing particulars which are not so much to be read over as to be considered with attention Imagin a pyle or heap of hot glowing coals Monachium which for bigness equals this city of Munichen and which for three or four cubâ—â—â— goes down into the earth let one man alone be cast into this mass of fire upon this condition not to be released from the bed of flames till all the coals be taken away one by one which is to be performed no otherwise then by a Vultur which once in a hundred years shall carry away only one and no more Lo this man amongst nine sorts of torments which eternity brings with it is tormented only with that of fire which yet by reason of
on their right hand they have the Devils to torture them on their left are their companions in misery within them is anguish the worm of conscience terrour and despair Do we Christians beleive these things and live as we do Esay ch 53. Who hath beleived our hearing and the arm of our Lord to whom is it revealed We are perswaded these things ought to be beleived but we beleive them very coldly Our beleif hath scarcely any soul it is not lively as if I should point at a painted table with my finger and say this is Abraham ready to sacrifice his son Abraham I say not living but painted Such for all the world is our faith not lively not breathing forth heat not animated but drawn with a Pencil We beleive and beleive not Wherefore I lay down here a brief method of meditating every day upon eternity A certain Father having Wealth in aboundance provided his daughters of a handsome settlement they perswaded the old man he would be pleased to bestow upon them in his life time what means he intended for them at his death promising withal their Father should be plentifully furnisht with all necessaries For the first year they made good their promise and treated him with much liberallity but when it fell out that he lived longer then they expected they grew weary of the old man and unmindful both of Piety and their Promise they began to deal more niggardly and harshly with him He to find a remedy for his folly by a wile procures a great Chest filled with Sand and Stones to be secretly conveyed into his Chamber This he opened in the night and with that small stock which he had reserved he held on counting money so long till at length it amounted to a considerable summ which he purposely exprest in such a voice as his son in Law might easily over hear him Afterwards he lockt up his wealthy Coffer Next morning his Daughters spoke more lightsomly to him and demanded why it was so late last night ere he went to rest To whom the Father made answer My Children when I judged all was silent and none could take notice of what I did I took a view of my Treasure yet remaining which of you two deserves better of me while I live shall enjoy it after my death Hence proceeded a strong emulation both of them striving which should manifest greater respect to their Father After the old man was dead they opened the Chest wherein they found besides Sand and Stones a Staffe with this Inscription Avarice brought the children to What Piety could not make them do Much after this maner though out of a superior motive may we fill our Chest with Sand or little Seeds that what Piety could not perswade us to Eternity may Thus then we must go to work Let every one fill his Coffer Trunk or Desk or what else is nearest at hand as his Purse Hat Cup or Gloves with Poppy little Stones Pease or any other small Grain and when he is to meditate on Eternity he may begin to reckon in this sort that every Poppy seed little Stone or Pease may stand for a hundred or a thousand years For example one Grain signifies a thousand years two grains two thousand ten ten thousand a hundred a hundred thousand a thousand a thousand thousand years and so of the rest This is the first point belonging to our Method The second is Although you substract ten or a hundred grains from those in your Coffer Hat Dish or other Vessel almost nothing will appear to be substracted or taken away Mean while t is most certain Eternity remains entire though so many thousand years pass as you cast into your Chest Poppy seeds Pease or other grain This is most undoubtedly true For all this number hath its end albeit you fill a most capacious house with little seeds and every one stand for a thousand years The third When during Eternity so many thousand years are gone as there be small grains in your Coffer yet eternity is whole without any diminution not so much as the least parcel of it is impaired Nay though that same Coffer be three four five times emptied and every grain signifie a thousand years nevertheless nothing is taken off from Eternity it continuing durable and of as vast extent as when it first begun The fourth This same thought if serious and attentive will somewhat afflict the mind yet must we not therefore leave it off but must go on forward He that meditates may rouse himself up in this manner Go too in Gods name le ts proceed yet farther The fifth By this kind of meditation the soul will by little and little grow warm and break forth into these or the like expressions What do we mean the trash and toyes of this life we eagerly persue and look not after Eternity T is too true we busy not out mind with years eternal The sixth Our understanding must be so by degrees informed that it may frame a conceit of those hidden secrets from what we perceive by our eyes The Philosophers Maxime is true Our understanding must take instruction from our Phansy Now as we may not with one step mount to the top of a Ladder but by degrees and as we cannot all at once fill a streit neckt bottle with Wine so it is not possible by a sleight and suddain thought of eternity to imprint it either in the understanding or will By degrees we are to proceed from less to more Even as we fill a Hat Cap or Chest and by every seed we take out we reckon a thousand years so likewise when a great room is filled we must order our computation The seventh is to make a Colloquie to ones self What is all affliction in this world compared to infinite millions of years through and after which eternity shall endure and that without any moving towards an end or being in the least impaired Here every one is constrained to acknowledge Although what ever calamity the world contains fell upon me alone yet what would this be to pains eternal Again though I alone enjoyed all pleasures the world can afford and that for an hundred years together what would this be to an eternity of bliss What then do I fool that I am that I do not take another course From this time forward at least I will learn more wit If it chance that any one be opprest with pain in body sickness or grief of mind then chiefly is the time to entertain this thought If this pain or pensiveness were to continue ten twenty an hundred thousand years O God! how unexplicable would it be But what would this be in comparison of those most sharp pangs of eternity which after Millions of ages know no end but remain entire Lo here a brief method to meditate on Eternity SECT 3. IT is most true which one returning from the other world declared No one beleives how sharp are the
of others which moved him in a frantick humour to make himself a slave to the Devil hoping thereby to find some releif against his malicious opposers After some years Eberbach dyed and his Soul being separated from the Body was thrown into a Pool of Flames in which he was so tormented that after his return to this life again he affirmed If one great fire were made of all the Trees and Wood in the world he would rather fry in that till the day of judgement then abide one hour in the former flames He likewise gave a particular account of the cold darkness and other pains in Hell While he was there most sharply tormented a messenger from Heaven spoke to him in this maner Behold quoth he this reward they deserve that serve the Devil But tell me if thou might go back to life again wouldst thou take course to expiate thy sins committed Whereunto he answered I will refuse no punishment so I may go hence In fine upon this condition that he should undergo voluntary pennance he was restored to life and in regard his body was not yet buried he raising himself upon the Bier put all the standers by to flight Presently after he began vigorously to do Pennance for his faults adhering to Bishop Otho who was going to the Holy War Vnder whom he chastised himself so severely that he ran by his horse barefoot not careing how much he wounded his legs and feet with thorns and sharp stones Almost all the money he had he distributed amongst the poor he fasted every day with bread and water which he took most sparingly Some admiring this austerity of life perswaded him to take a milder course to whom he replied you have no cause to wonder at my strickness I have endured far worse were you there you would be of another mind When this Holy travel was ended he and his wife became Religious to spend the remnant of his dayes in expiating his crimes These things he related of himself to Iohn Xant from whom the Authour had his intelligence Here we may fitly call to mind that wholsome admonition I have suffered more grievous things And you O Christian must suffer more grievous things unless you be content to undergo smaller crosses here with patience Sometimes we complain others do us wrong here say to your self you shall endure more hereafter Sometimes others fill your ears with complaints tell them they must pass through greater difficulties the like may be practised in all troubles and miseries Wherefore do you exaggarate your grief through impatience Except you be careful greater affliction will befal you All you suffer is nothing if you look not upon those bloody Bathes of New but those fiery Gulfs of Pluto Therefore lest you be constrained to endure more satisfy your self with undergoing less SECT 3. THe third Conclusion All labour which tends not to Eternity is not only vain but for the most part hurtful Concerning which matter Christ delivered himself most expresly Matt. c. 16. What doth it profit a man if he gain the whole world and sustain the damage of his soul It is not only bootless for us to seek after Riches Health and Pleasure but even in vain do we strive to compass the whole world if in persuit thereof we lose our selves Make use of and enjoy Riches Health and Pleasures in as great height as your heart can desire when that is past you have purchased no more then Smoak and Shadows if after this life you be fastned to a stake incompassed with fire Contemplate I pray in what maner some use here to torment others by driveing a stake through their bodies till it come out at their mouths A dreadful Spectacle no doubt The miserable wretches hang tyed in this sort and sometimes to the augmentation of their pains are roasted with a slow fire as well as chained and nailed to a post hands and feet Alas how doleful is their suffering especially if it were to continue a hundred thousand years if for all eternity Alas What doth it profit a man Lucas Bergen if he gain the whole world and sustain the damage of his soul We do in some measure understand this Oracle but as a learned Divine said most men have a mist cast before their eyes by the flesh Hence St. Chrysostome made this true assertion Albeit that fire rage Hom. 55. ad pop that River be all on flames yet we laugh and follow our sports and sin freely What therfore may I more fitly repeat then that of the Prophet Let every one save his life Eternity comes a pace towards us and we post towards eternity ere long we shall meet together Iosophat being instructed by Barlaam in the principles of Christian Religion Damas Hist de Barl. c saw as it were in a Dream a Vision of Hell with the different kinds of torments used in that place and with all heard a Voyce that said This is the mansion of the wicked who have wallowed in the puddle of Vices After the vision was over he fell into a strange trembling and tears trickled down his Cheeks amain wherewith all allurements of unchast pleasure quite vanisht away whence Iosaphat became wholly another man Good God! how obdurately malicious are we Hell is not represented to us in a Dream but by an unerrable faith and yet what a life do we lead We indeed are often changed but still to worse We alter our former wickedness as if we were weary of it and take upon us a new habit of impiety farr exceeding the former Whereupon every one may make this prayer with St. Bernard Have pitty on me O my God before I be tormented eternally in Hell Nay every wicked man may pray as Manasses did Do not destroy me together with mine iniquities 2 Paral. ch 36. neither be angry with me for ever reserving evil for me nor condemn me unto those lowest places under-ground Because thou art the God of Repentant sinners What expressions O my God may I who am liker a Beast then a man rather make use of then these Spare me pardon me have mercy on me do not remember mine iniquities When Christ our Lord the day after Palm-Sunday went from Bethania to Hierusalem he stept aside to a Fig tree to gather some fruit to appease his hunger but finding none he said Matt. 21 Never grow there fruit of thee for ever And incontinent the Figtree was withered Such as these are all the inhabitants of Hell accursed Figtrees alwaies barren pluckt up by the roots and cast into the fire to burn for ever they will never bring forth fruite for eternity In Behemoths Kingdome there is no knowledge of patience at all nor of humility no vertue is to be found there the Soyl is altogether fruitless no trees are to be found there but such as sprung up for fuel they will bring forth no fruit for ever After our first Parents had tasted of the forbidden
setled without revocation Heretofore they were beautiful Angels now they are ugly Devils heretofore they were friends of God now as his sworn enemies they shall be tormented with fire everlasting And what offence brought them to this sad Catastrophe we told you even now One proud thought O King of Nations who will not â—and in â—ear of thee Here now let no one deceive himself and imagin the sin of the Angels was of a far different rank from those of men We may behold the like example in our first Parents as in the Angels Who together with their posterity were deprived of Gods grace robbed of the garment of innocency shut out of Paradise whence they were perpetually banisht and heard this fatal sentence pronounced against them You must dye Neither was it sufficient for them to dye once they were lyable to eternal death which now began to domineer over immense multitudes of people yea even over all mankind had not the Son of God taken pitty of us and become man to dye upon the Cross for our redemption We had all bin lost but that he vouchsafed to dye who was immortal for Original sin had already infected the whole mass of mankind What now I pray was that horrible offence of Adam He tasted of the forbidden Apple Alas Was the only biteing of an Apple to be chastised with so many Tears so many Funerals so many Calamities But wherefore do we complain This is the nature of sin it is infinitely displeasing to God it is punished with infinite pains and in conclusion is never expiated God is wrath when he is angry at sin Take yet a nearer view of the destruction of mankind The whole world served as a Tomb to bury all men in by a deluge of waters scarce eight persons being preserved alive from that inundation What was the cause of such prodigious mortality Who tumbled into the angry waves so many hundred thousand men Sin and especially that of Lust Who consumed with fire those strately Cities of Gomorrah Sodom and the rest Sin and chiefly Lust Who ruined the City of the Sichimites Sin and particularly that of Lust Who slew five and twenty thousand Benjamites and forty thousand Israelites in Battail Sin and principally that of Lust Thus God proceeds thus he vents his spleen against all sin in this point he knows not how to dissemble No sin escapes without punishment for though many obtain pardon yet none goes free from chastisement What punishment is that of Heli the Priest for his carelesness in correcting his Children what of Saul for disobedience Of David for incontinence Of Nabuchodâ—nâ—sor for Pride Of Ananias and Saphira for Avarice What vengeance was laid upon divers others for seemingly small faults Achan for stealing from the spoils of the enemies lost his life That poor man for gathering sticks on the Sabbath was stoned to death Oza for upholding the Ark from falling was strook suddainly dead The Prophet permitting himself at unawares to be deceived was strangled by a Lion The Israelites murmur against Moyses and are killed by fiery Serpents The Bethsamites look upon the Ark less reverently and above fifty thousand men are slain Boyes scoff at Elizeus and forty two of them are torn in peices by wild Bears God doth not spare offenders Ose ch 21. Let Samaria perish let the soul perish because she hath stirred up her God to bitterness If into a Sea of Honey one drop of Gall fell and turned the whole Sea into bitterness what would you say of that gall you might rightly affirm it were unspeakably nay infinitely bitter Of this nature is sin The goodness and mercy of God is infinitely sweet like unto an immense Sea of Honey But one deadly sin is of that bitterness and contains in it so much Gall as to turn God who is a boundless Ocean of sweetness into most dreadful bitterness of wrath and indignation This is asserted by Osee The Soul by sin hath stirred up her God to bitterness Doth she not therefore deserve to perish God himself complains of this dealing by the same Prophet Ephraim hath provoked me to wrath in his bitterness St. Hierom expounds it thus By his wickedness he hath made me bitter who was most sweet God therefore doth not spare the offender I now leave off to admire the saying of holy Iob ch 9. I feared all my works knowing thou didst not spare the offender God is so far from sparing offenders that he punished most severely others sins in his own son Christ's most painful death manifestly declares with what hatred God persecutes sin When a Medicine is prepared of liquid Gold Pearls or Bezoar stone one may reasonably affirm the Disease is dangerous and life desperate So we must needs acknowledge the grievousness of sin was excessive which could not be taken away but by the blood of Christ which is of infinite value Acknowledge therefore O man saith St. Bernard how grievous are those wounds for whose cure it was necessary Christ our Lord should be wounded Yea Christ when he went to be Crucified forbad them weep for his wounds and death that those tears might be shed for sin which was the cause of so ignominious a death Christs tears alone were sufficient to wash away sin for if all the Angels in Heaven assumed mens bodies and with tears bewailed one mortal sin for many ages all their weeping would not be of force to Cancel it which only Christs bloody tears would aboundantly expiate SECT 2. OUr second assertion is He loseth all Gods grace that sins mortally Any one mortal sin robs the Soul of all Divine grace There is nothing more amiable then a Soul adorned with Gods grace nothing more ugly then a Soul without it though it be defiled but with one deadly sin Sin is a most venemous Serpent whose sting is mortal how ever his Poyson seem to enter with delight O that we might behold with our eyes the deformity of sin we should fly as fast from it as we now pursue it sin is more terrible and deformed then the Devil Lucifer a Prince amongst Angels surpassed the rest in comeliness but all his beauty was so defaced with one sin that now he is most ugly stinking and dreadful to behold his sole aspect as many affirm is able to bereave the Spectatour of his life Divine grace is of such value that one may justly pronounce there is nothing more pretious in all the world I declare my self It may be affirmed of liquid Gold or of the water of life that one drop of either is more esteemable then a hundred vessels of the choycest Wine This same may be patly applyed to Divine Grace the least degree of it is far more pretious then all the favour of men or all the worlds wealth besides Imagine the World were all refined Gold it were of no value in comparison of Divine Grace Yet one mortal sin hath such opposition with it that when sin is committed
sutable to the exploit But alas what comparison betwixt this precipe from a high Mountain to casting ones self headlong from Heaven to Hell How then do so many throw themselves down from the fruition of bliss to thraldome amongst Devils They shut their eyes ere they attempt to do so they consider not the infinite malice of sin nor the inexplicable windings of eternity They jogg on towards Hell blindfolded He that is not pleased with his own blindness endeavours by all means possible to escape this downfal and chooses rather to undergo what ever happens then to be cast into that abisse whence there is no redemption SECT 5. OUr fifth assertion is Who ever commits a mortal sin throws himself into Hell fire for ever Fire everlasting is an unexplicable punishment of sin Were there no other mischief in sin this assuredly would be an abridgement of all evils The reward of sin is death eternal The soul that shall sin Ezechi ch 18. the same shall dye the justice of the just shall be upon him and the impiety of the impious shall be upon him Admirable is St. Psal 49. Austins discourse How great a punishment is it only to be deprived of the sight of God Such as have not tasted of that sweetness if they do not desire to see the face of God let them at least be afraid of fire those who are not invited with reward may be terrified with torments If what God promiseth seem to thee of small account tremble at what he threatens The sweetness of his presence is offered to thee and thou art not changed nor moved nor sighest after nor desirest it Thou still huggest thine own sins and the delights of thy flesh Thou heapest to thy self straw and fire will come upon thee Fire will burn in his sight That fire will not be like thine into which notwithstanding if thou wert compelled to thrust thy hand thou would rather do any thing then that If he that compels thee should say Either sign this wrighting against the life of thy Father and Children or thrust thy hand into thy own fire thou wouldst obey him rather then burn thy hand or any member of thy body which could not abide in pain forever Thy enemy therefore threatens a sleight evil and thou dost evil God threatens eternal evil and wilt thou not do good What trouble soever the Devil causeth in our souls it is by means of sin Hence our passions rebel and we are molested with fear suspicion inconstancy grief anxiety despair whereby mans soul is reduced by sin to resemble Hell Esay 48. There is no peace to the impious saith our Lord. Such as abandon themselves to sin are loaden with so many Chains by the Devil till at length with their own weight they sink down into hell While they live they draw nearer to hell as a great stone tumbled from the top of a Mountain tumbles so often till in the end it lye in the bortome In this manner while a notorious theif went up the Ladder the Hangman encouraged him saying You have but one step further to go and so he turned him off In this manner little birds with others of the same feather fly again and again to take their food till at last they are ensnared In this manner Drunkards animate their pot-companions this one cup and no more This course they continue till they drown each other in strong liquor And the like method is observed by sinners In the beginning they think it much to commit one sin by and by they double redouble and multiply offences till they come to hundreds Thus he who at first sinned privately and with much bashfulness by degreeâ—s puts on a bold face and dares now aâ—â—t confidently what ere while he blusht to think on Thus the first naughtiness is seldome acted alone but drawes after it a long train of impurities The beggining was indâ—ed with one crime then two afterwards more till in procesâ—s of time the number encreased almost above number Thus a sprout growes up into a wood thus a drop swells into an Ocean thus a spark becomes a fire of that greatness as it is not to be extinguisht for all eternity All these proceedings serve to recompence sin Whence some have arrived to such a generous resolution that they choose rather to dye then admit of one sin The most chast Ioseph would rather lose his good name together with his life then to undergo the least impeachment of Chastity Daniell ch 13. The modest Susanna breaks forth into this exclamation It is better for me without the act to fall into your hands then to sin in the sight of our Lord. It was more pleasing to her to be stoned to death then stained with Adultery Blessed St. Paul was sure that death it self could not separate him from the love of Christ St. Ambrose was resolved to undergoe all hardship whatever rather then act any thing misbecoming his profession Foâ—t when Ruffinus put Theodosius the Emperour in hope the Holy Bishop would change his resolution No quoth Theoâ—dosius I know well the constancy of Ambâ—rose no fear of temporal Majesty can make him forsake the Law of God St. Chrysostome with equal fortitude opposed himself against the menaces of Eudoxia the Empress and was so far from being dismaied with her fury that she was told in these express words It is in vain to go about to terrify the man he fears nothing but sin Lewis King of France being yet a child learned this lesson of his Mother Blanch Rather to part with life then consent to a mortal sin St. Anselm Bishop of Canterbury would rather leap into Hell then commit a mortal sin St. Edmund his successour in the same See frequently said I would rather throw my self into a burning Furnace then wittingly commit any sin against God Democles a comely youth to escape the unnatural dealing of King Demetrius leapt into a hot boyling Cauldron Such a death suted better with his generous mind then an unchast life So Papinian the Lawyer though no Christian resolved to dye before he would Patronise the design of Caracalla Emperour against his Brother A man defiled with mortal sin is more vile and contemptible then a Dog a Swine or a Toad For these owe but one death to nature he two the first to nature which is soon past the second to God which continues for eternity A man plunged in sin may fitly be termed a nest of Basiliskes a Den of infernal Theives of whom take St Pauls affirmation They shall suffer eternall pains in destruction from the face of our Lord and from the Glory of his Power they are quite excluded for ever 2. Thess ch 1.9 Out alas What age ever brought forth such a Monster that would not have its fury satisfied with one death What Executioner what Tyrant contented not their cruelty with Malefactors dying once but after that would proceed to a second death One death hath
in our own bosoms the coals of wrath and envy We greedily expect everlasting repose but still continue our sloathful courses as if we meant to make a business of idleness and when industry is required to falter in the very onset O we men who do not offer violence to Heaven But rather O we blind men who choose rather to erre in the broad and smooth way then to go right in the rough and narrow Christ and his Saints call upon us Strive to enter by the narrow gate Luke ch 13. strive strive Because many shall seek to enter and shall not be able Make hast run we must cope with difficulties if we will overcome Strive But God knows we neither run nor hasten our pace nor strive at all we yawn and gape and like unto Camels and Lyons go slowly after step by step And God grant we go after and do not rather stand still Our resolutions and purposes are like to the feeble endeavours of one Sick who now and then raiseth himself up crawls off his bed and attempting to go points his foot to the ground and strives to walk but by and by for want of strength falls upon his bed again his Thighes and Legs are far too weak to bear the weight of his body he would fain take a turn but is not able Not much unlike are our endeavours we design great matters we attempt many things we resolve to become Saints we seem to have a will to do gallantly But these attempts are frivelous without strength we want alacrity of spirit we languish in all our actions Whence we willingly slide back into our former vices which we only intermitted for a time but did not quite abandon Thus we fall down again upon our bed which we were about to leave and are overwhelmed with our old Lethargy We read over the Legends of Saints and extol them but follow them not nor imitate them at all We honour vertue with specious titles but express it not in our actions we gape after a blessed Eternity but shun with all wariness the troublesome way which leads us to it After Prayers are ended and the Sermon is past we pack home sit down to table and within a short space renew our old customs It is our fashion to go to Church to hear a Sermon to fetch now and then a sigh which may manifest we are fallen out with our sins and are angry with our selves for sining But how long I pray is this fashion in request Almost in the turning of your hand all our former Sanctity is joyfully buried in oblivion We do something t is true but that with extream tepidity and so what we do is either worth nothing or very imperfect Whence it falls out that after six hundred Sermons we are no better then before we swear as we did we are as impatient as ever Lust Envy and wrath have as much power over us as formerly The wings of our Pride are nothing clipt we are big swoln with the same avarice and gluttony domineers as it was wont to do our old sloth still keeps us under we defile our Souls with our accustomed stains weare without changing the ragged cloathes of our bad habits O strange blindness of mankind which with an Ocean of tears may not be sufficiently deplored the Pulpit in every Church rings with Eternity Eternity Eternity and yet we are drawn away with pleasures present such a desire we have of our own Perdition SECT 4. MUch after the same manner as we hear Sermons and neglect them which come in at one ear and pass out at the other so we run over spiritual books from which we draw no profit but presently forget what we read Out of sight out of mind Inculcate Eternity as often as you will we are resolved to spin out the thread we have begun we approve of good things but follow worser we put on Piety and quickly throw it off again as if we were still minded to stick in the same mud O Christians Look up Lu. 2.21 and lift up your heads and hearts because your redemption is at hand Fix your eyes and hearts in Heaven Do all things fall out cross and trouble you it will not alwaies be so Heaven promiseth you something better which a little patience will put you in possession of Do matters go well on with you doth all succeed to your mind Put no confidence in that success nothing is permanent in this world all things ebb and flow in their several seasons Eternity still remains the same it is only Eternity which admits no change These things we deliver by word and writing these things we represent unto you with variety of Pictures But who gives them leave to take impression in his heart Who understands these points aright Who groundedly strives to beleive them O therefore once again blind mortals who then act most carelesly when the great business of Eternity is in agitation when our eternal welfare lies at stake Conc. 3. Dom. 2. advent Lewis of Granada famous for Learning and Religion gives an account of one who appeared again after death to a friend of his in this life and discovered unto him this stupendious blindness of mankind Two intimate friends quoth he there were you may call one of them Theseus the other Pirithous which were almost as one Soul in two Bodies Both of them lead an upright life both loved each other so tenderly and were so agreed amongst themselves as that they desired nothing more then to dy together But Death crost their agreement and dissolved their amity by dispatching one out of this life before the other However all their familiarity could not be extinct by death For not long after they were parted he that was dead appeared to his surviveing friend both in habit and countenance composed to sadness as if he meant he should ask him some question At first the living man was almost dead with fear to see his friend so unexpectedly present in so doleful a posture But after a while taking courage he demanded if his portion were among the blessed or how matters stood with him In answer to which demands the dead man fetching a deep sigh repeared thrice in a distinct but mournful tone these words No one beleives no one beleives no one beleives The other with trembling asked again what that was which no one beleives No one said the dead man beleives how exactly God calls men to an account how rigorously he judges how severely he punnishes After which words he disappeared leaving the other surprized with horrour and ruminating with himself in silence the whole passage SECT 5. O words most true No one beleives now accurate every way are the judgements of God and how severe his punishments these particulars are frequently delivered in Sermons that of St. Iohn is often inculcated Do pennance for now the Ax is put to the root of the trees Matt. c. 3. And no one
That herd of Goats shall then be of more loathsome scent the more immoderately they have here sought after Perfumes Some of your odoriferous smells are incentives to Gluttony some to Lust and certainly an eager desire of them is an argument of incontinency But to make short this kind of allurements which are perceived by the ears eyes and nostrils are either marks of Levity or Lasciviousness To become a slave to sensual delight above measure is no less then vanity or impurity Perfumes and pretious Oyntments have been prejudicial and destructive to many Muleasses King of Tuny's faught against his Son Amida for the recovery of his Kingdome but being worsted in the encounter and seeking by flight to save himself all besmeared with blood and dust was discovered by his persumes and brought into Captivity where his son with a hot penknife cut out both the Apples of his Eyes and blinded him A young Gallant richly annoynted went to render thanks to Vespatian the Emperour for a curtesy he had lately done him But the Emperour being sensible of the sweet scent he breathed began to be angry and frowning on him spoke sharply saying I would rather thou hadst stunk of Garlick Thus Caesar recalled his grant and the Gallant after a sound check was cashiered of his pretended Honour C. Plotinus Plancus being sent into banishment and for fear of death lying privately at Salernum was betrayed by his costly odours and so lost his life and furnisht his adversaries with an excuse for their cruel proceeding So true it is that perfumes are disgraceful and dangerous Here by the way we may please to observe that many things which we beleive to be mere trifles are lookt upon by God with a rigorous eye ch 3.24 Therefore as Esay foretold For sweet savour there shall be stink Forget not I pray this admonition of the Prophet Micheas I will shew thee O man what is good ch 6.8 And what our Lord requireth of thee verily to do judgement and to love mercy and to walk solicitous with thy God The fifth Torment is fire OF this fire admirably speaks Isidorus Pelusiota Epist 47 You may be pleased to take notice my friend that none can lye hid from that All-seeing and watchful eye no not in the most secret retreat if you do any thing amiss For all things are naked and open to him though they seem to be never so private and out of sight Wherefore such as sin and do not true pennance shall be plunged in certain perpetual floods boyling with dreadful fire whose streams are no other then flames prepared for torment Let us therefore fear the Majesty of God This fire alas may not with any revolution of years nor as St. Gregory Nazianzen speaks with any numberless number of ages be extinguisht What way soever you turn all is Fire Pitch Brimstone Anger and Wrath of our Lord. Where you may note amongst our fires a main difference that of the Thunderbolt being more active then our usual fire and that eternal devouring fire of hell more powerful then either Now let me demand with Esay c. 33.14 Which of you can dwell with devouring fire which of you shall dwell with everlasting heats What fiery Salt-Sea though it be hot night and day yet in the year it hath its intermission from heat several dayes when it remains quiet and free from burning In Hell after an hundred a thousand yea ten thousand years are past Tom. 9. trac 5. de met not one day nor minute of respite will be allowed He saith St. Austin who hath a sound consideration and beleives what God hath revealed fears more eternal fire then the Sword of any Tyrant though never so barbarous He dreads more perpetual death then any death here whatever How many houres then how many moneths or years must those Traitours to God abide in that fire Neither hours dayes nor years may be numbred the hours shall be eternal the dayes and moneth eternal the years and fire shall be eternal Why will God reject for ever Psa 76. He will reject for ever The triumpher in Israel will not spare 1. Kings 15.29 and he will not be turned with repentance He that is afraid of these things saith St. Bernard bewares of them he that sleights them slips into them The like advice is instilled by Climacus Let the memory of eternal fire sleep with thee every night Grad 7. The sixth Torment is the Worm of Conscience A Guilty Conscience though but for a day good Lord what a punishment is it What then will it be when it lasts for ever The conscience of the damned is throughly wounded which makes it ever afflicted alwaies in despair without comfort Pathetically writes St. Lib. 5. de Isid ch 12. Bernard of this point Amongst so great a multitude of spectators no ones eye will be more troublesome then every one 's to himself There is no sight either in Heaven or Earth which the dark some conscience would rather avoid but cannot Darkness is not covered from its self it beholds it self that can discover nothing else The works of darkness follow them they can hide themselves no where from darkness no not in darkness it self This is the worm that dyeth not the remembrance of things past which being once cast into or rather bred in the soul by sin sticks so fast that henceforth it can never be pluckt away It doth not cease to gnaw the conscience wherewith being fed as with inconsumptive food it preserves its life perpetually Here the truth of those words will experimentally appear I will reprove thee and set it against thy face In Hell are no Clocks Psal 49 nor Stars to guide Clocks by no Almanacks nor Kalendars no means there to know any difference of times Ecclesiastes affirms Neither work nor reason nor wisdome nor knowledge shall be in Hell ch 9. ver 10. whither thou dost hasten Here only the Clock of Conscience is heard but much out of order It is irksome to one that is sick and cannot sleep to hear no Clock nor to be able to know how the time passeth Hence one quarter seems as long as an hour and an hour as long as a whole night and yet after six or seven hours are gone the little birds with chirping melody welcome in the morning the Sun by degrees rises out of his dayly tomb the feaverish heat remits and a gentle slumber seises on the temples all things that by approaching night grew worse by this time are become more mild Anon some will come in to ask how the sick man doth and will not only cheer him up with comfortable words but also with other necessaries Nothing of all these O my God! is to be found in Hell no Day no Sun no Dew no Morning no Birds but Devils no refreshment not so much as a drop of water there is perpetual darkness everlasting dolours and butchery of Conscience without end
Amongst a hundred thousand men you shall scarce find one who seriously endeavours to dive into these matters or frequently ruminates them in his mind Our life would be far otherwise our manners would be reformed if our thoughts were other then they use to be Whence it comes that our Conscience which was strook deaf with vices receives its hearing in torments so much more sharply now is it afflicted and desperate by how much ere while it was lulled a sleep in a drowsy security St. Austins assertion is true In Hell there shall be pennance but too late Their worm shall never dye The seventh Torment is the company and place A convenient house with ill neighbours is a great inconvenience but an inconvenient house with most wicked neighbours is the worst of inconveniences This kind of habitation is in Hell Psal 48. Their Sepulchres are their house for ever The Damned shall burn as if they were shut up in Sepulchres which are houses very incommodious but they are debarred from hiering any other Besides their neighbours are the worst imaginable such as would make even Heaven infamous and hareful a croud of damned men and Devils O what neighbours are these Take our lords sentence of them It were good for those men if they never had bin born It were good for those spirits if they never had been created Look upon damned men As sheep they are put in Hell Psa 48. death shall feed upon them But how are they now become sheep were they not while they lived Tigers Swine Vultures Wolves Lions They were indeed but the vengeance of God hath made them sheep and so tamed them that they cannot withstand any punishment inflicted on them Death shall feed upon them For as sheep feed upon grass without plucking up the roots and clip it so as they leave the root entire to spring again that it may be cropt again so doth death feed upon those captives in hell It bereaves them not of life that they may be kept alive to be perpetually slaughtered This is the second death which ever lives whereof St. Austin makes this discourse Lib. 91. de civit ch 28. The misery of those which do not belong to this City shall be perpetual which is called the second death because the soul there cannot be said to live as being estranged from the life of God nor the body which shall groan under the weight of eternal torments Wherefore this second death will be worse then death because it can never have and end by death There pain continues that it may afflict and nature is maintained in being that it may be sensible of affliction both which are preserved without decaying least punishment should decay Here I am almost in a mind to imitate Solon who carried a mournful Citizen to the top of an high Tower whence he commanded him to look over all the buildings of the City underneath saying think with your self how much grief hath heretofore been in these houses how much is at this present and will be hereafter and then cease to bewail the misery of mortals as if they were your own The like in some measure may I say Behold O mortals and consider that dreadful den of sorrow in hell O how much wailing is contained in those Caverns of Eternity what a mass of calamities will be there after infinite ages are past Cease therefore to deplore your flea-bitings as if they were unsupportable evils Here indeed is a receptacle of all miseries a forge of lamentation Who ever thou be which travellest yet upon the way take heed thou so order thy journey that this place of torments serve thee not for a perpetual Inn. The Eighth Torment is Despair THis world we live in is replenisht with many afflictions yet in process of time all of them meet with an end Such as are opprest with poverty I see find an end of it such as are aspersed with slanders are cleared of them in the end such as are sick are in the end delivered of their malady On this side I behold stripes racks and other engines prepared to torture on that blood-thirsty enemies proud Citizens gripeing Landlords but I likewise behold the stroke of death brings all those to nothing and frees these from barbarous usage But in those fiery Gulfs where Devils abide I contemplate many horrid and unexplicable torments yet I cannot espy any end of them no there is no end at all to be found Death is the best invention of nature death ends all it relieves some by others it is desired and deserves better of none then of those to whom it comes before it be sent for Death sets slaves at liberty even against their masters will death unchains Captives and looses Prisoners death is a present remedy against all injuries of this life But alas there is none of this in hell I take a view of all their lurking holes yet can espy no death at all unless it be that living death which incessantly renews its own pangs As in hell there is no end of sorrow so is there none of dying The Damned themselves as Dionisius notes cast up their own reckoning Corth in speculo amatorum mundi After ten thousand years are gone an hundred thousand more will come and after them as many millions as there are Sands in the Sea or stars in the Firmament And when those long revolutions of ages are over as if we had suffered nothing at all we shall begin to suffer a new so without ceasing end or measure the wheel of our torments will be perpetually rowled about Hence will ensue most piercing despair to the most cruel torture both of Memory Understanding and Will What ever their memory represents unto them will afflict them what ever their understanding thinks on will redound to their torment their very will will be astonisht at its own obstinacy for it can never will what God wills and so shall ever find within it self a torture of its own malice How dreadful a thing is it to know for certain they shall have God for their eternal foe they shall never escape his severe hand they shall for ever be trampled under his feet Hence will arise in them a continual and most desperate fury and an implacable hatred of God Job 20. All grief will rush in upon them All evil will be thrown upon their guilty heads O ye wretched new inhabitants of the night your delights are gone and to speak with St Iohn Apostle Apo. 18. The Apples of the desire of your Soul are departed from you and all fat and goodly things are perished from you Now only despair is left all hope is quite vanisht away You shall call upon death and it will not come you are now entred that Dungeon whence no death will ever set you free You have now nothing left you but only despair You may remember how greedily like Bears you sought after the honey of pleasure the
A PLEASANT AND PROFITABLE Treatise of HELL WRITTEN By Hieremy Drexelius S. J. Fear him that can destroy both Soul and Body into Hell Matth. ch 10. v. 28. Printed 1668. The Translator to the Reader I Presume your intent is I wish the event may correspond to march on towards Heaven Now that you may not miss your way which is dangerous I have provided you of a Guide which is the Fear of God You must not begin your journey but by his Conduct nor hope to finish it without erring unless he go on with you hand in hand Be not dismaid if he lead you through the desert to the Land of Promise through Hell to Heaven for that is his Native Countrey whose passages he is well acquainted with and from whose desolate shades he is able to usher you to the comfortable splendour of Paradise He requires no other Salary for all his labour in the enterprise then your serious perusal of this slender Treatise of Hell Startle not at this frightful word least you discover humane fear to be more prevalent with you then that of God If it chance to be I fear at the first sight you will shrink back and either not undertake to read or quickly cast away the book with an I look for Novelties to chear me up not for sad discourses of Hell to drive me into Melancholly or I have other business and cannot attend to reading But with your good leave no business concerns you more then your right progress towards a blessed Eternity And it is undoubtedly a principal point of Wisdome to go down into Hel alive by reading and a lively consideration aswel to escape going thither after Death whence there is no return as also to vanquish humane fear which is prejudicial and beget in your soul a wholesome fear of God Without which you can neither begin nor hold on with success your intended journey towards eternal bliss Lay hold then on this Manual Book which if leisurely read will not a little conduce to attain the chiefest Good and avoid the worst of Evils Farwel A Treatise of Hell CHAP. I. The Authors design in this Book with Advice to the Reader LEarnedly spoke Philo the Jew Lib. de som The House of God is the thought of a Wiseman This House the Eternal Wisdome enters into this it Inhabits in this it sweetly reposes To see to speak to hear to write are humane actions yet such as are not wholly denyed to Brutes for Wild-Beasts do likewise hear and see and herein some of them go far beyond man himself Amongst Animals some are reported to have spoken unto the Elephant is ascribed something not unlike to writing but to think and discourse with reason is proper to Man alone God associates himself to men whose thoughts are Holy and without spot and here he abides as in his own Mansion-house hence flowed that learned saying of Philo The House of God is the thought of a wiseman Here now arises the dispute what is fittest for man to busie his thoughts in setting a part his Creatour In this quarrel King David enters the Combate and avers I thought upon old dayes and the eternal years I had in mind Ps 76.6 This thought is most profitable this becomes man and is not unworthy of God Here is discovered a plain of such vast extent to think on that none was ever able yet to run it over with thinking One may seek an end in this matter which he shall never find Eternity knows no end it s not acquainted with any bounds and for limits it admits of none Eternity best deserves to be thought on Ten years ago I exposed a draught of Eternity to the pulick view it remains now for us to set before your eyes something as to the eternity of the Damned this requires our more serious reflexion it being not sufficient for us to scrape somewhat from the outsides of it which may serve us to hear write or talk of we must proceed further and lodge Eternity in the very bosome of our souls wherefore the task of this Chapter shall be to declare what we mean when we write on the eternity of the Damned SECT 1. THe wiseman of Rome friendly expostulates with Lucilius in this sort Sen. ep 102 As he is troublesome who awakes a man from a pleasant Dream because he bereaves him of that counterfeit which yet resembles real pleasure So thy Epistle did me wrong for it took me off once and oftner from considerations that suted with me I was well pleased to enquire after yea and beleive too the eternity of Souls For well might I beleive the Opinions of great men Besides I had so much hope that I now began to be irksome to my self now I despised the remnant of my feeble age as being about to enter into that immense time and the possession of all ages But the receit of thy Epistle awakned me and so I lost my goodly Dream which notwithstanding I 'le to again when I have done with thee and hereby redeem what formerly I lost I am almost now of that Opinion which Flavius Lucius Dexter of Barâ—inona an ancient Historian one who had Command in the Eastern Empire and an intimate friend to St. Hierom delivers in a Chronicle of his at the year of Christ our Saviour sixty four in these express words Lucius Annaeus Seneca native of Cordova in Spain by intercourse of Letters betwixt him and St. Paul had a good Opinion of Christian Religion became a Christian privately and is beleived to have been his Disciple to whom he writ with much feeling during his abode in Spain For my part I affirm nothing in this particular but reverence the testimony of the Ancient Chronicler Yet certain it is Annaeus Seneca did not only begin to think of but likewise to beleive an Eternity We may observe this mans deep-searching Wit he attempted and went on most attentively to weigh Eternity in its proper Ballance The contemplation whereof he compares to a Dream which lulls asleep the toylsome watches of the outward senses and commands the inward to keep strict Centinel This this is to meditate and to be withdrawn from this Annaeus was much unwilling in regard this kind of meditation proved so beneficial to him as himself declares saying I contemned the small residue of my life and stretched my self forward into that Volume of Ages never to be unfoulded Seneca by this time had a loathing of all things if compared to the sole possession of that never ending Circle of times When Heathens meditate in this manner upon Eternity what does it behove us Christians to do Our beleif of Eternity is bootless if we seldome or tepedly think on it Many are the reasons which may move us dayly to meditate upon eternity take this one in lieu of many Eternity mollifies our hearts when they are as hard as flint and Steel it quite vanquisheth all the stubbornness of our Soul That man