ineffable p. 50. 14. An imperfect description of Eternity p. 53. 15. What Tyme is p. 56. 16. Eternitie compared to Tyme p. 62. 17. An eleuation of the mynd to God vpon the comparison of tyme to Eternitie p. 67. 18. Mans life compared to the worlds continuance p. 70. 19. The force of the thought of Eternitie p. 74. 20. That this life is onely lent vs to thinke vpon Eternitie p. 80. 21. An enterie to the consideration of the accursed Eternitie p. 88. 22. The horrour of this subiect p. 92. 23. It is an vniuersalitie of euils p. 95. 24. The paynes of sense and first of the sight and hearing p. 100. 25. The paines of other two senses the Smelling and tasteing p. 107. 26. The paine of the sense of touching p. 110. 27. A sith to God p. 116. 28. Of interiour paines p. 118. 29. The Prison of Hell p. 127. 30. Of the paine of Damni p. 131. 31. The continuall greife p. 135. 32. The Eternitie of the torments of Hell p. 144. 33. Of the desperation of the damned p. 153. 34. Paines without intermission p. 156. 35. Whether it were better for the damned not to bee p. 161. 36. Why there paines are eternall p. 166. 37. An Apostrophie to God and the soule vpon the accursed Eternitie p. 171. 38. A passage to the blessed Eternitie p. 181. 39. The finenesse of this subiect p. 186. 40. That the eternall felicitie is the petfection of all good things p. 189. 41. Of the place of the Blessed Eternitie p. 195. 42. Of the magnificence of the place p. 199. 43. Of the essentiall happines of the blessed p. 207. 44. The happines of the point of the soule p. 215. 45. Of the felicitie of the powers of the soule and first of the memorie p. 221. 46. The aduantages of the vnderstanding p. 227. 47. Of the light of Glorie p. 236. 48. Of diuers degrees of Glorie p. 240. 49. In what measure the beatified vnderstanding sees God in Heauen p. 245. 50. Whether the beatified vnderstaÌ„ding sees all in God p. 252. 51. The pleasures of the Will p. 256. 52. The felicitie of the inferiour portion of the soule p. 264. 53. Of the dowries of the beatified soule p. 268. 54. Touching the qualities of the glorified bodies p. 271. 55. The pleasure of the Senses p. 276. 56. A continuation of the precedent subiect p. 283. 57. Of the Aureola p. 287. 58. The Blessed societie of the Elect. p. 292. 59. The Excellences of this holy Societie p. 296. 60. Other excellencies p. 302. 61. A continuation of the excellencies p. 308. 62. A flight of the mynd towards this happie compaignie p. 317. 63. Another flight of mynd p. 320. 64. Eternitie is the fulnesse of Beatitude p. 326. 65. Meanes wherby to arriue at this happie Eternitie p. 334. 66. A continuation of the former discourse p. 345. 67. Another meane p. 352. 68. That this thought of Eternitie is the abridgement of all spirituall life p. 363. 69. A continuation of the formar discourse p. 368. 70. Of the essentiall Eternitie p. 376. 71. That this essentiall Eternitie is all things p. 384. 72. An application of the Heart to this essentiall Eternitie p. 391. 73. An aspiration of Hope p. 403. 74. A practise to engraue in our heart the memorie of Eternitie p. 409. 75. Other indeuours p. 420. 76. An other memoriall of Eternitie p. 424. 77. The moments wher vpon Eternitie doth depend p. 444. 78. The present moment p. 450. 79. The eternall doome p. 458. 80. Adoration of the essentiall Eternitie p. 474. FINIS ATTESTATIO LIbrum hunc cui titulus A Draught of Eternitie Authore Reuer mo IOANNE PETRO CAMO Episcopo Bell. diligenter perlegi adeoque nihil in eo Fidei aut bonis moribus contrarium reperi vt aeternâ laude lectione dignum Iudicem ac proinde ob quem tam Interpreti quam Authori aeternam debeant ad aeternitatem aspirantes GVILIELMVS TALBOTTVS S. Theol. Professor APPROBATIO HIc liber cui titulus Crayon de l'Eternité gallico Idiomate à R.mo Domino D. IOANNE PETRO CAMO Episcopo Bell. Conscriptus in Anglicum sermonem opere R d D. MILONIâ— CARRAEI versus cum nihil contineâ— contra Fidem seu bonos more 's vt mihâ— docti Fide digni viri testimonio constatâ— imprimatur Actum Duaci die 26. Maijâ— 1632. GEORGIVS COLVENERIVâ— S. Theol. Doctor Professor aâ— librorum Censor A DRAVGHT OF ETERNITY That Eternitie is litle considered THE FIRST STROKE O People deuoyde of the spirit of counsell and vnprouided of true prouidence God grant thou wouldst be wise and vnderstanding and that by a mature foresight thou couldst reach to the end of future things These are the words of the great law giuer of the Iewes taxing that Nation of inconsideration of an incircuncised heart and a stiffe necke and laying the greatest part of their faults vpon the litle attention they had to foresee future things To which pourpose saith S. BERNARD excellently well In these words of Moyses three things are recommended vnto vs. Wisdome Vnderstanding and Prouidence And I conceaue them to be assined and applyed to three times to represent in vs a Draught of Eternitie Which we will doe in this manner in moderating things present by wisdome in discering things past by the iudgment which we will make of our selues and by an exacte prudence in disposing our selues for the time to come Anâ—certes wisely to dispose of thing present and seriously to recogitatâ— things past in the bitternesse of ouâ— soule is the abridgement yea the toppe of all spirituall exercises and the forme of all interiour discipline To th' end that according vnto the Apostles Counsell we may liue in this life soberly and piously by obseruing sobriety in the vse of things present by redeeming with a worthy satisfaction tyme vnprofitably spent without gathering any fruit towards our saluation and by opposing the Buckler of Piety against the dangers which doe menace vs for the tyme to come Tell me now my deare Athanasia whether that with which the diuine MOYSES did so iustly and truely vpbraid the Israelites may not and ought not by as good right be cast in the â—eeth of the new Israel of God a people of acquisition and of an acquisition so paynefull and bloody of â—he soules of the greatest part of Christians redeemed with so great a price and with so plentious a redemption since worldlings are so lulled a sleepe in the region of the shadow of death that they loose the remembrance of this so wholesome a thought of Eternity which should neuer be razed out of their memory in any moment of this mortall life Let vs wish in their behalfe that which the great Conductour of the children of IACOB wished for his bretheren who was held the swetest and mildest amoÌ„gst men what euer be reported of the sharpenesse of his spirit amongst the waters of contradiction and let vs pronoune of men buried
will happily aske me ô Athanasia whence proceeds so deepe a blindnes and so deadly a numnesse in this poore man who rarely or neuer thinkes of eternitie To speake the truth the heauens stand astonished and the gards of those heauēly Gates quake with desolation in it because that miserable man in the same instant commits two greiuous crymes leauing the source of life of the blessed eternitie to build vnto himselfe with the length of tyme and in earth runing cisternes which can hold no water because here below we all die and flow as waters vpon the face of the earth till we be arrested in our coffin I neede not seeke far to find the origine of this disorder sith that sinne is the prime cause of this blindnesse My vertue hath forsaken me quoth the king of penitēts and Prophetes after his fall and the light of myne eyes is no longer with me That each sinner is blind is a truth so cleare that it needs no proofe Leaue them there saith our Sauiour speaking of certaine offenders they are blind in a blindnesse signified by that of Tobie and Samson and by the palpable darknesse of Egipt And if while the skie is loaden with fogie mists we neither discouer Sunne nor heauen or to speake with Dauid while rayne makes black and darksome clouds appeare much lesse can the soule couered with the filme of sinne see and contemplate him who shines frō aboue the eternall mountaines for the true and diuine wisdome takes not vp his resideme in a soule defiled with the malice of sinne nor in a bodie subiect to sense and passion And if nor the light of the sunne nor of a torch can be decerned through grosse bodies as might be a wall much lesse can eternall thoughts shine in a soule where sinne erects a wall which doth separate from his grace who makes not onely as Iob sayth the East and the starrs but euen Eternitie it selfe ô miserable soule who feedes the flockes of thy durtie passions in a land far distant from God far from true felicitie for saluation is far from sinners Lost soules since such as stray from God doe perish ô God whom thou dost forsake shall be forsaken well may their names be written in the land of the deade but neuer in that of the liuing nor in the Register of the glorious Eternitie Iesus preserue vs my Athanasia from so daunting a malediction vs I say who by the grace of God doe detest the disasterous night of sinne being receaued out of the tempests of darknesse We who loue the day light and sweetly walke therin we who put of the workes of darknesse and put on armour of light to walke honestly before God Angells and men We who protest that we were nether borne nor doe liue for any other end but incessantly to contemplate not the Heauens and the Sunne as that auncient Anaxagoras said of himselfe but the blessed Eternitie and the first cause therof We who sing with the royall Prophete Myne eyes are alwayes towards the eternall God I haue him alwayes before my face he is the onely obiect of myne eternall thoughts Things present doe hinder the contemplation of Eternitie VII THere is yet another thing that causeth worldlings to loose the memorie of Eternitie and the sight of this POLE-STARRE in the nauigation of this mortall life Doe you desire to know it Athanasia It is the things present The world is full of a kind of people who are onely worldly wise knowing onely terreane things and with these they haue their vnderstanding endarkned as the Apostle speakes who search onely the things that are vpon the earth not the things aboue and who resembling the vncleane beastes haue their eyes so fixedly turned vpon the earth that they cannot recouer them to heauenward vnlesse themselues be ouerturned That we are not to admire that Eternitie hath so few contemplatours seeing that the auncient Philosopher hath so many disciples who said that the things which are aboue vs doe no wayes concerne vs. Verily as it is imposible with one ey to see heauē and earth and to behold in the same place the Artique and Antartique Pole though a man were euen placed vnder the Equature or the Equinoctiall line so is it impossble that the mynd of man should in one thought accompanie present and future temporall and eternall things Those twinns are incompatible and would cause in it too griping conuulsions Things visible are tēporall and eternall things are not seene saith the Doctor of the Gentiles like as one of the Poles is inuisible vnto vs and farr moe Pilotes know how to sayle vnder that of our Orison then vnder that of the Antipodes that being vnknowen vnto vs and subiect to other starrs and other rules of nauigation We must not therfore wonder that so few direct their course towards Eternitie and that TYME hath so great a trayne since the MAXIMES of temporall and eternall things are not onely different but often also contrarie and alwayes further distāt then Heauen and Earth The soule betwixt these two Extreamities is like vnto the child in the EMBLEME being hoysted vp by the wings of it desire to things of the next life but kept downe to things of the present life by the stone of this earthly habitatiō abating the flight of the Spirit towards things aboue It is this Talent of leade mentioned by the Prophete which swayes downe to the ground such as desire to be freed from it and yet cānot so faint hearted they are to performe◠the good which they desire onely with an imperfect will For if they desired it with an absolute will and to that effect imployed the power they haue Grace would neuer quite them in so faire a way Thus did the youngman in the Gospell who shewed himselfe so desirous to vndertake the wayes of eternall life wherof he made so earnest a Petition to our Sauiour but when he had learnt that to enter thither by the straight way and narrow Gate he was to forsake his present possessions to aspire with more facilitie to the Treasures of Eternitie he returned sad and administred occasion to the sonne of God to make that sweete discourse to his disciples of the difficultie of entering into heauen with the loade of riches For which cause Sainte Augustine tearmed the loue of present things the glew which glewes the feathers of the mynd and hinders her flight towards Eternitie While the Christall is sole and in her natiue puritie it is transparent and in it are seene the obiects put before it but being once spred ouer with leade or quicksiluer our sight is stayed in the Glace and by reflection we see the picture of what is before it and not at all that which is behind it A neate and purified spirit not soyled with the lees and skumme of terreane affections Hath by the light of Fayth a cleare Prospect vpon Eternitie and the things of the next life But as soone as it applyes it selfe
afflict vs therin which being well husbanded doe worke in vs a crowne of eternall glorie No No what sufferances soeuer doe vexe vs in this dying life they enter into no comparison with the glorie which shall one day be reuealed vnto vs. The force of the thought of Eternitie XIX NO neuer Athanasia though our mynd turne it selfe on euerie side make choyce of subiects most pregnant to moue it and to giue it the most forceable impressions to imbrace good or auoyd euil neuer shall it light vpon any thought so fruitfull to produce this effect as the thought of Eternitie O momēts you are but chaffe and dust before the face of this great wind This is the great vanne which can separate the corne from the chaffe and separate precious from vile things Eternitie is that Moyses his rod able to deuoure the serpents of our sinns and to draw water from rockes that is can beget compunction in the most flintie heart It is a violent blast which driues vs forwards towards the Desert of penāce which vrgeth vs to returne into the Sheepe-fold of grace if by errour we haue strayed from it or by sinne like lost sheepe It is the end of all ends the end of all consommation and the extreamitie of extreamities wither the wiseman doth send vs if we desire to abstayne from sinning euerlastingly For if death if iudgement ensuing if the terrours of Hell serue for a bitt to the strongest mouth and for a restraynte to the most desparate soule what will it be if we add thervnto the importance of an Eternitie If we consider the Blessed Eternitie it is a Ionathas his honie if the Accursed it is a Tobie's gale soueraigne to cure the thickest and deepest blindnes There is no Filme which falls not from the 〈◊〉 washed with this water No Torrent of sinne which may not both be sustayned and repelled by this stronge banke It is a Sunne which doth breake disperse the cloudes of vice which striue to hide the light of grace Le ts approch then Athanasia to this Torch and our darknes shall be blowen ouer If we desire to be borne againe to Heauen let vs imitating that onely bird consume our selues in the beames of that great starr And if the thought of the worlds last day Iudge of all the other dayes filled S. Hieromes heart with such dread that it made him loose both foode and repose his sleepe being interrupted by the terrible found of the Archangells trumpet which sounded incessantly in his imagination what waight shall that eternall doome haue in our hearts which shall crowne the iust with roses that cannot fade and shall inuolue the wicked in quenchlesse flames which being kindled with the blast of Gods wroth shall cōtinue as long as the Deitie it selfe No I doe not beleeue that all the Antidotes which Spiritualists prescribe against the poyson of sinne that all their remedies put together in one masse can haue the like effect in the purging of a soule that the importance of an Eternitie well pondered can worke therin O Lord thou hast giuē a signe to those who haue thy feare imprinted vpon their heartes that they may auoyd the arrowes which thou shuttest from the bow of thy wroth and that by flight they may free themselues from the eternall torments which doe attend them torments by which such onely are ouertaken as for want of foresight and consideration dread them not as an auncient Father doth teach vs. O how happie is the soule whose eyes God daynes to open ouer so perilous a precipice that therby she may auoyde it and please our Lord in the Land of those that liue in his grace For they that passe their dayes in this happie Abode are not subiect to this seconde death which hath no resurrection for out of Hell there is no redemption or escape Their eyes owe no tributarie teares since they are not afflicted with the torment of malice nor doth their feete stumble in the way of saluation which is that of the blessed Eternitie Thinke of the last end saith the wisest of men and thou shal◠neuer offend If then the thought o◠death and of that which followe◠death hath so much force in a soule that is occupied in it as to diuert it from all euil what will it doe I pray you in a well composed heart which can iudiciously ponder the waight of things when it shall come to thinke that temporall death is but an instant which separates the soule from the body and that the particular iudgement which doth immediately follow this separation is past in a moment marrie that the decree of this iudgement is of an eternall and vninterrupted continuance Why the threate of a temporall death and the losse of a florishing estate written vpon a wall by a celestiall hand was able to seaze the soule of Baltazar with so daunting a terrour that the scripture assures vs that all his bones were thereby disioynted so throughly did feare possesse both body and soule How forceablely then shall the feare of an eternall death worke in a solide iudgement and in a heart that thinkes seriously of its saluation Will it not in this thought pronounce with the kingly Prophete All my bones were troubled that is to say all my powres were disordered and againe All my bones shall say vnto thee ô eternall Lord who is like vnto thee That this life is onely lent vs to thinke vpon Eternitie XX. O Momentes of this mortall life how carefully ought you to be managed since by you as by so many stepps we mount to Eternitie I for God hath onely placed vs in this region of death to breath continually to that of the liueing nor are we in this Desert for any other end then to trauell to the Land of Promisse Which shall one day be distributed amongst vs according to the line of distribution The Angells at their first creation were placed in a state of grace and full freedome and had a tyme to resolue their choyce of glorie or reprobation by obedience or reuoulting and following their election that great diuision was made which doth eternally separate the Blessed who kept their principalitie from the accursed who fell from Heauen into the Abisses below Men afterwardes created of so noble substances to repaire the ruines of those that were fallen haue also the tyme of their life to resolue and determine what shall become of them for all Eternitie For which cause they were created straight and free fire and water were put before them that they might make election of which they liked And they applie according to their owne will the vse of their freedome nor are they to impute it to others then themselues if by their owne malice misfortune befall them He that shall sowe benedictions shall reape benedictions but he that shall commit wickednes shall draw a curse vpon his owne heade and that an eternall one according as it is written Goe you accursed into
hath their foule pleasures and abundance of wealth left them To what a low ebbe is their soaring ambition reduced Alas the extreamitie of their ioyes was followed with teares and gnashings of teeth which shall neuer haue end and out of their short delightes they are falleÌ„ into tormeÌ„ts rigourous beyond measure and long without end From the mouth of these two or three reprochlesse witnesses let vs draw this word of Truth that the vndoubted Eternitie of these paynes of Hell puts vpon them the seale or marke of Infinitie since one shall neuer see an end of their continuance or of their intiere consummation If I tooke as much content in filling pages as I precisely studie breuitie I might haue here a large feilde by giuinge my imagination leaue to run in those vulgaire similitudes or conceipts which giue to weaker witts slender Idea's of Eternitie so far forth as man's vnderstanding can reach But I omitt the litle immortall bird drawing dry the Ocean by drawing thence euery hundred thousand yeares one drope of water I leaue the number of the starrs of the leeues of trees the sands of the sea and all the Arithmetique of the most skilfull maisters at the end of its lyne and other the like conceipts which I blame not for the respect I beare to the great and deuoute personnages who did apprehend them fitting good and fruitfull not onely for the comon but most aduanced soules I will passe I say these thoughtes leauing them to each ones inuention as their gust or spirituall profit shall moue them For my part Athanasia I confesse vnto you simply and sincerely the hardnesse of my owne hart wherin they made but a weake impression Of the desperation of the damned XXXIII BVt in recompence hereof I was wonderfully moued with the consideration of the furious and inconceaueable despaire which the Sight of this horrible Eternitie of paines shall cause in the hartes of the damned And truly as the worme which eates the aple is bred in the selfe same fruite so shall this eternall despaire like to a gnawing worme issue out of the selfe same Eternitie whence it doth springe True it is that the torments which the damned shall suffer in all the members of their body and in all the faculties of their soule are extreame Yet the consideration that they shall neuer haue end adds another extreamitie to this extreamitie which passeth imagination and which will incite these accursed wretches fallen into a reprobate sense to open their mouth against HeaueÌ„ and to horrible blasphemies against God as much or more then the sense of their punishments And if the Prophete said that he would cry like a dragon and grone like an oâ—trige ouer the desperate and incurable wounds of Israel how much more terrible shall the how lings of the reprobate be animated with a spirit of despaire and rage in seeing their calamities voyde of all hope of redresse So that it is the opinion of ALBERT THE GREAT and DENIS THE CARTHVSIAN that this thought of Eternitie shall much more afflict them then all the paines of their tortures Which the great S. AVGVSTINE expresseth in these termes Being tormented without interruption or end they shall liue depriued of all hope of pardon all expectation of mercy wherin doth consiste the greatest of their calamities For if they could but hope that their torments would haue end after so many millions of yeares as all the creatures euen to the worlds end shall haue had haires on their head be this number as great and incredible as it will yet is it finite and this imaginatioÌ„ of an end would in some sort solace their sufferances But wheras there is no end proposed vnto them they giue themselues ouer to despaire and impatieÌ„ce doth double their paines This moued the Prophete to say that their worme shall not die and their fire shall neuer be extinguished neuer be consumed because this worme of despaire shall torture their vnderstandings while the flame burns their body being most reasonable that those who with body and soule offended an eternall God should be punished in body and soule and be adiudged vnto paines that should last as long as God should be God that is for euer Paines without intermission XXXIV THis so dreadfull despaire shall yet be augmented Athanasia by a consideration which I find no lesse singular then remarkable to wit that those paines shall not onely be eternall but also without intermission For the daÌ„ned shall not onely passe in an instant from one extreamitie to another and as IOB saith from frosen waters to deuouring fires but their tormeÌ„ts shall be continuall and continually in a point vnsufferable and without intermission at all No part of repose or abatement of paines are there to be hoped T' is a warre that shall neuer haue truce In the sufferances of this life be they neuer so great there is alwayes some moderation or place to breath in in that they stay not still in the same state As the heaueÌ„s doe incessantly rowle So all that is vnder those rowleing spheeres are obnoxious to changes and reuolutions The seasons doe continually change and continually renew the face of the vniuers The Moone increaseth and decreaseth The Sunne doth aduance it selfe or put it selfe in a greater distance from vs. The sea hath its ebb and flowing and the springs riuers and floods run day and night to find the Sea Man's age runs dayly to decay Kingdomes and Empires haue their tymes to florish and fade Deseases are lightned in that they come but by fits and by the hope we haue to end or mend In aduerse fortune we are comforted by expectation to find her fauorable The sharpest and most violent sicknesse hath its interualls qualifications Sleepe is the comon charme of greeues and often by its dreames it rayseth the condition of the most miserable for the space it continewes aboue the happines of the most happie But in Hell sleepe flyes from the ey-lids of the reprobate nor doth rest seiourne neere vnto them Their teares doe neuer dry vp their Ague is continuall and without intermission Without relaxatioÌ„ they dy in liuing without relaxation they liue in dying And if a rayne continuing for 40. dayes onely was able to drowne the whole world ô God what a Deluge of miseries shall choke those miserable soules vpon whom without release floods of fire and darts of furie and malediction shall showre downe And if things most aggreeable turne disagreeable by coÌ„tinuance in so much that the Manna a food no lesse delicious then miraculous became lothsome to the Israelites And if eating euery day the same dish makes vs loath the most toothsome and exquisite bit if wayes that ly through great plaines though otherwise faire and facile seeme tedious And if none would purchace the possession of a crowne vpon condition to ly without sturring in a most delicate and richly parfumed bed for the space of thirtie or fortie yeares What shall it
the heauenly Hierusalem whose lampe is the lambe who hath blotted out the sinns of the world how fitly thou art represented to my eyes a litle to solace them after they haue poursued the view of that burning fornace which the wroth of God keepes eternally hote in the center of the earth But on the other side as they that come out of a darke dungeon haue difficultie on a souden to sustayne the splendour of a cleare day so this souden returne from darknesse to light from dolour to delight from sorrow to ioy from vnhappinesse to happ from death to life and from punishments to felicitie doth giue a certaine assault to my hart so true it is that the passage frō one extreamitie to another doth astonish the most constant mynd The best experienced Mariners hauing once passed the line are alwayes a litle troubled when they are to alter the course of their nauigation and to sayle vnder another Pole guided by other Cardes other starrs And yet ô happie change since we passe frō teares to langhter from punishments to reward and from paine to glorie The finenesse of this subiect XXXIX BVt who can without rauishment ô Athanasia expresse the sweetnesses with which this incomparable subiect doth replenish our vnderstanding O God if on day we shall come to behold that which nowme vnderstand of the glorie of thy Citie with what traunce shall we be seased when we shall be made like vnto thee in beholding thee such as thou art and shall be trāsformed into thy Image and shall be conducted by thy spirit from light to light It will be a farr other thing then the rauishment of IACOB vpon the sight of his faire RACHEL for what comparison is there betwixt the Creatour seene clearly and not in a glasse and a catiue creature Those beauties in that disciples reuelations whom IESVS loued is to the life represented vnto vs by this glorious Hierusalē which he doth compare to a Bride richly adorned coming out to meet her Bridgroome A fit comparison since this glorious Eternitie is no other thing then the eternall banquet of the marriages of the lambe O faire IYDITH who would not willingly endure the labours of the seige of Bethulia to enioy thee and who dare complaine of these moments of tribulation of this afflicting life spent in the conquest of thee All the beauties of the Bridegroome and Bride which are by the fingar of the Holy Ghost so delicately put downe in the Sacred Epithalamion which we instile the Canticle of Canticles are but shadowes compared to the measure of the light of glorie which God in his blessed Kingdome hath prepared for his saintes O choyce soules who like to other ESTERS are designed for the imbracements of this eternall ASSVERVS what can be found that can enter into comparison with your felicitie since it shall passe all humane sense and capacitie No neither the florishing Hierusalem nor yet the Triumphāt Rome can in any thing come neere vnto this happie Abode For she drawes her light from him who is wholy light and darknesse cannot comprehend him and who doth inhabite an inaccessible light O my eyes let fall your eylides ouer your aples and be blind to all that is faire vpon the face of the earth For nothing can be pleasing in presence of this excellēt obiect of the eternall house of the God of Eternitie O God ayde my sight and inrich me with an Eagles ey but let it be a heauenly one that I may not be dazeled with the aspect of so great a splendour That the eternall felicitie is the perfection of all good things XL. EVen as Athanasia the accursed Eternitie is the sinke of all the euils imaginable as we haue alreadie showen so is the blessed a collection of all the good things that can be wished for there the desire shall be replenished with all that good is And the Deuines to giue vs some knowledge of it doe defime it An eternall immutable and certaine condition deuoyd of all euil of fault or paine and odorned with all the aduantages of nature grace and glorie So that saith S. AVGVSTINE togeither with DAVID this estate is absolute in euery point seeing that the hungrie soule is there saciated with all the good things that can be desired We haue called it an eternall condition in which we see what a faire aduantage it hath ouer the crownes and Empires of the earth which stay so short a tyme vpon one head and the ioy of whose possession is mixed with a continuall feare of loosing them for it is writtē of the Kingdome of all ages that it shall neuer haue end We added that it was not subiect to change in which we discouer a notable difference betwixt this eternall felicitie and the temporall ones of this world which neuer continew in the same estate All that is here below are sensible of the perpetuall turning of the Primum Mobile For this eternitie being God himselfe which of his owne nature is immutable it cannot be diminished yea some Doctors doe hold that the Blessed shall continually experience new accidentall glorie which shall be vnto them a perpetuall subiect of new songs We haue said that it is certaine and sure because the impeccabilitie of such as shall be made participant therof by the freindshipp of God as the wisemans tearmes it shall depriue them of all feare of falling from it besids that the sentence of the reprobate being irreuocable that of the blessed shall be of no lesse continuance And of what continuance of the verie fame with Gods beeing But ô feast of contentments where none of those which doe enioy are disgusted no Israelite loathing this hidden Manna for the sweete and delightfull point of desire shall remayne deuoyd of all paine amidst the pleasure of the fruition so that by how much more they possesse what they desire by so much more they desire to possesse it Whence one of the Apostles said that the Angells in heauen desire to behold the glorious face of IESVS set at the right hand of his Father in those places aboue not that they see it not but because the more they contemplate it the more they desire to contemplate it In such sort that as in Hell the continuance of torments doth not harden the reprobate whose paines are still as greene and sensible as they were the first day So in Heauen the Roses of glorie doe neuer fade nor doth custome dull the continually liuely taste of those incomparable delightes Goe then ô worldlings ô children of the earth and forsake goods of such qualitie for the transitorie goods which doe possesse you if we may giue so good a name to those smale blossomes of contentments that florish and fade at once which you gather here below with such strife of mynd blossomes inuironed with thornes Yes for either those goods are false or at the most not purely good and who soeuer would take the paines to seperate from their bulke the
That we see now obscurely but in glorie face to face And in S. IOHN we shall see him such as he is which doth sufficiently proue that supreme felicitie consisteth in the intimate vision of God When againe we marke this passage thy Elect ô Lord shall be drunk with the aboundance of thy house and thou shall giue them to drinke of the torrent of pleasure And in the Ghospell enter into the ioy of thy Lord. And againe your ioy shall not be taken from you by which is sufficiently showen what part the will is to haue in the essentiall glorie And who would not gather hence that it consisteth in the vision and fruition of the two faculties God who is infinitly greater then our harts filling them both with vnimaginable delightes being in qualitie of Soueraigne Truth the obiect of our vnderstanding and as he is the Soueraigne Good the obiect of our will its repose and Center But when the Psalmist sings Taste and see how sweete is our Lord doth he not ioyne them both together being no lesse proper to the will to taste then to the vnderstāding to see and herein we follow the interpretation of the learned HVGH OF S. VICTOR And yet after the same Diuine Psalmist had said thou shall giue them to drinke of the torrent of pleasure doth he not add and in thy light we shall see light This opinion is cōfirmed by a Bull of Benetts the twelueth who defines that the soules of the Elect are blessed by these actes of seeing and enioying And the Romane Cathechisme put out by the Councell of Trents order placeth essentiall Beatitude in the vision and fruition of God It were an easie thing to show that the auncient Fathers of the Church placed the essentiall beatitude sometymes in the one sometymes in the other Power and sometymes also ioyntly in both but the breuitie which I proposed vnto my selfe from which I doe insensibly stray makes me cut of many peeces of those great Oracles which would wonderfully beautifie this stroke Le ts soberly content our selues with this smale reason If the Blessed soule did not imbrace the heauenly Spouse in his glorie with both her armes which are the vnderstanding and will doubtlesse she would not be wholy satisfied for who knowes not euen by experience that the will is not carried with lesse bent toward Good then the vnderstanding towards the Truth Whence I gather that necessarily her desire must be replenished with all sorts of good things according as the Scripture doth teach vs and the ensuing strokes will giue vs more amply to vnderstand Therfore to speake properly essentiall Beatitude doth consiste in the perfect vnion of the soule to God being made as the Apostle tearmes it one selfe same spirit with him which is done in the soule by Gods inward penetration called by the Diuines nor can we expresse it in any other terme an illaps which me thinkes vpon necessitie we may make vse of in our tongue as well as of the word Relaps finding that nether more rude nor more improper then this which is receaued and authorised by custome Now this illaps of God into the soule doth replenish it with the glorie of God himselfe and doth as it were deifie it according as S. IOHN speakes we know that we shall be made like vnto him when we shall see him as he is So that the soule shall be filled and replenished with God as the Moone when she is perfectly full with the light of the Sunne or as a sponge when it is throughly wett and filled with liquor And God vniting himselfe vnto her as the fire is vnited to the burning iron following the Contēplatiues ordinarie similitude shall be ioyned vnto her and shall vnite her so inly to himselfe that she shall be as it were transformed into God who shall be as saith the Spouse in the Canticles intirely hers as she againe shall be intirely his Which caused S. BERNARD to pronounce those holy and louing words our Beatitude and our reward is to see God to liue with God to liue of God and in God to be with God and in God who shall be all in all Now where this soueraigne Good is who can doubt but there is also the soueraigne ioy and Felicitie true Libertie perfect Charitie eternall Assurance and assured Eternitie In God is true Gladnes compleat Knowledge perfect Beautie continuall Peace Pietie Bountie Light Vertue Honestie Sweetnes true Life Glorie Praise Repose gracious Friendshipp and greatfull Concord Hitherto are the words of this mellifluous Doctor The happines of the point of the soule XLIV BVt perfectly to vnderstand in what this essentiall glorie doth consiste we must call to mynd Athanasia the diuision of the bodie and the soule wherof the Prophete speakes administring an occasion to misticall Diuines to diuide man's soule into three degrees the inferiour superiour and supreme Or if you had rather into three portions the lowest the highest and the middle And they seate Appetite in the lowest region the powres in midle but in the highest the point of the mynd the flowre vnitie or essence of the soule the Latines Mens the Grecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hebritians Nesamah for all these words doe but signifie one and the same thing Now to speake onely in this place of the highest God being Spirit a most pure Act and most-one essence although in glorie he be vnited to euerie blessed soule yet is his vnion more excellent and eminent in this highest portion of the soule then in those below euen as we obserue in mans soule which is all in all the body and all in euery part therof yet is more nobly that is it doth more nobly exercise its functions in the head then in the other members of the bodie So say the Mistikes that this highest portion of man's soule is the Spouse his bed Salomon's coutch his Cabinet and the place of his more particular delights Ther is the Diuine essence vnited to the essence of the soule there the spirituall marriages marriages the fullnesse of our eternall felicitie celebrated wherof so much mention is made in the holy Scripture For as the Bridegroome and Bride are two in one flesh by the sacred band which doth tye them together so the Blessed soule by this vnion with her Principle and application to her end becomes one spirit with him through the excesse of that Charitie which is the band of all perfection Thus is the soule transformed and transfigured into light by the spirit of God made participant of the Diuine nature and conformable to the liknesse of his Maiestie T is true that we are by nature made to the liknesse and similitude of God whose picture is so liuely exprest in the soule which is one in Essence and trine in faculties Yet much more by grace which makes vs as it were certaine looking-glasse wherin that glorioule Sunne makes the rayes of his light and loue meete while he expresseth his perfections therin
with which God did endow that heauenly and Angelicall bread We may say the same of the sight of God the highest point of eternall Glorie a sight which S. IOHN in his Reuelations tearmes a hidden Manna for the reasons which we will reserue for that stroke wherin we set out the pleasures of the Will Whether the beatified vnderstanding sees all in God L. BEfore I come to the Beatitude of the will I desire to show Athanasia whether as the vnderstanding enlightened with the light of Glorie sees God all so it sees all in God We cannot haue an answere to this difficultie from a better mouth then from the ORACLE of the Schoole the Angelicall Doctor who teacheth vs that like as no created vnderstanding can totally comprehend God so consequently can it not see in God all that he doth or is able to doe that being reserued to God alone who is of an infinite capacitie or rather infinitie it selfe Marrie it shall see more or lesse according to the measure of the light of Glorie by which it is sustayned He shall see in God all that he shall see yet shall he not for all that see all which God seeth Not because all that which God seeth is not visible in himselfe but in regard of the created vnderstandings limitation whence it cannot comprehend an illimited thing Nor is it to the pourpose to affirme that the Blessed who shall resemble the Angells shall see like those heauenly spirits in the WORD the true Mirrour without all Spot the likenesse of his Fathers Goodnes and figure of his substance the splendour and candour of his light being God of God and light of light All things as in a Mirrour being a thing comonly knowen that he that sees a Mirrour sees all things represented therin For to make that obiection vanish like smoake we need onely to reply that it is true indeed when we speake of a Mirrour which is comprehēded by the eye But this Mirrour of the WORD and the Diuinitie being incomprehensible how can it be imagined that a finit and limited vnderstanding can comprehēd that which is incomprehensible God therfore doth onely communicate himselfe infinitly vnto himselfe by reason of the infinit capacitie which he hath to giue and receaue such a communication To creatures it is sufficient that he communicate himselfe with proportion to their sufficiencie to receaue him For how can they iustly desire any more after they be replenished with the fulnesse of God so far forth as their capacitie and abilitie can admitt But let vs consider further Athanasia how excellent this sight of things in God shall be by the manner of seeing which shall be much more perfect then though they were seene in themselues in their nature and proprieties or els by their species and representation For the beatified vnderstanding being vnited vnto God and beholding the verie Diuine Essence without species or image shall by consequence see all the creatures in this Diuine Essence without Species or representations in a far more compleate and high manner then though they were seene in themselues because they shall see them in the same manner they see God whose proper Essence shall supplie the Species of things all which it contaynes in a most eminent manner O incomparable glorie of the blessed vnderstanding since thou shalt see the Essēce of God without species without mediation face to face and in it all things Thou shalt be blessed like vnto God and shalt enioy the felicitie which God himselfe enioyeth sith his Beatitude consisteth in the louing contemplation of his owne Essence The pleasures of the Will LI. ALthough the aduantages of the vnderstanding be such as we haue set them out in the preceedent stroke yet is the Will alwayes his Mistrisse and all his labours and actions are directed to her He is her Page her Torch-bearer her Forerunner it is he that discouers the GOOD and proposeth it to the Will to be loued who after she hath knowen it she imbraceth it For according to the Philosophers Axiome The will is not carried to an obiect it knowes not Now this Diuine Essence seene without the mediation of Species by the vnderstanding being the essentiall and infinite Goodnes whence all that is good amongst creatures doth flow the will shall so closely attentiuely and inuariably vnite her selfe vnto it that no creature ether in Heauen or earth shall euer be strong enough to separate her from this Charitie so perfect and accomplished And out of this inseparable vnion of the will with the Soueraigne Good her Rest and Center a fountaine of water of life runing to Eternitie shall spring vp in the soule and thence shall flow a floode of continuall ioyes and delightes so shall they be absorpt in the pleasures of our Lord and as it were drunke vp in the Abisses of Diuine sweetnesses And if the wiseman say that all good things did accompainie wisdome in him how much rather may the blessed soule pronounce the same in the possession of the Diuine wisdome and that eternall Kingdome which in the Ghospell we are exhorted to search after with promisse that in possessing of it all good shall befall vs For being accompained with a compleate Charitie Charitie the bond of perfection by a necessarie sequall she shall be attended by all the Vertues whose actes she shall exercise with an incredible delight and facilitie And this louing fruition of God by the Will is that hidden Manna wherof mention is made in the Apocalipse reserued for the victorious inhabitants of the triumphant Hierusalem For as the Manna of the Wildernes did conteyne in it selfe all kind of sauours so this vnion of the Will with the essentiall Goodnes of God doth cōprise all the fauours heart can wish in a most eminent◠māner There is nothing in the pleasures honours and riches of created things which is worthy to be compared to this treasure The Manna was a celestiall Foode taking its name from the admiration of those who tasted it for the word imports What is this and was spoken by the Israelites when they saw it fall from Heauen And this gust of the will can be no otherwise exprest but by rapture so far doth it outstripe all humane capacitie It is called a hidden Manna for that being vnknowen to the world it is onely knowen of such as doe experiēce its sweetnesse inconceaueable sweetnesse which caused the Kingly Prophete to cry out ô Lord how great is the multitude of the sweetnesse which thou hast treasured vp for those that walke in thy feare O God! might I dare to expresse in this poore Draught the vnspeakeable contentmēt of the Will in her vnion and application to the Goodnes of the Diuine Essence to the Diuinitie of the essētiall Goodnes O powrefull Vertue of Faith to what a high point of light dost thou rayse our soules in this vaile of darknesse Yes Athanasia euen as the vnderstāding shall be applied to the Prime Truth which is
of welth the hight of honours and dignities which haue the reputation of things high placed by those whose desires are abiect and crawling vpon the ground But if once man's heart fixe its sight vpō Eternitie it then clearely discouers how abiect and base all those things are which before he esteemed so high for as those that are vpon the toppe of a high mountaine doe apprehend the things that seemed great vnto them being in the bottome of the valley as litle pointes so those that walke in the wayes of Eternitie doe esteeme temporall things as nothing and that which before seemed to be placed aboue their heade is now found vnder their feete The same Doctour saith in another place nothing makes the calamities which we suffer in this transitorie life more sharpe and bitter vnto vs then the inconsideration of the eternall rewards which are promissed vs. But if a soule be once so happie as constantly to turne her eyes towards those eternall riches which cānot perish all that is transitorie shall be to her as nothing The same Pope explicating that passage of the Diuine Epithalamion where the Spouse saith that her Spouse had ledd her into his wine-cellar what doe you thinke saith he did that Louer vnderstand by the wine-cellar but a secrete and profound contemplation of Eternitie A contemplation which doth so ouersett the soule which takes it in abundance that she is made as it were drunke ther with all but with a drunkenesse of good pourposes and which by a laudable change of life and a wholsome amendment of manners tends to the heauenly Contrie and eternall delightes S. AVGVSTINE vpon the same subiect is of the same aduise whē he councells the deuoute soule nether to swell in prosperitie nor to be deiected in aduersitie grownding vpō the faithfull promisse which God hath giuen her of Eternitie a promisse which will make her contēne temporall felicities yea euen the calamities of this life if she take the eternall fire into her consideration And if one of the Aunciēts speaking of the vaine ambition of humane pretentions knew and following his knowledge could say that what goodly fortune soeuer one were possest of did but yet appeare vile and worthlesse to him that hoped for a better and larger who would not iudge that he who should lodge his hopes in Eternitie should find no more rest in these short momēts then the doue of the deluge vpon the waters which couered the face of the earth And if the children of Egipt vpon the tasting of the heauenly Manna that admirable bread of the desart did no more plaine the losse of their flesh-potts and onions So after a sound iudgement haue once relished by a setled pourpose the delightes of the blessed Eternitie earthly pleasures doe but loath disgust him He doth easily weane himselfe frō the impoysoned milke of the Serpēts of this world haueing once tasted that solide meate which doth nourish for an Eternitie That this thought of Eternitie is the abridgement of all spirituall life LXVIII I Could here expresse many wholsome effectes which this thought of Eternitie causeth in those who doe frequently and seriously ruminate it in their hearts But I conceaue Athanasia that they are all cōprised in this proposition to witt that all spirituall life is comprehended in this so profitable and and necessarie consideration For what archer can hitt a marke without ayming at it and since all this life is but an introduction to Eternitie how should one possibly arriue there vnlesse he begin tymely to tend towards it and addresse all his stepps and actions to that end If euery Agent doe worke for some end and if our principall and soueraigne end consiste in our eternall vnion with God in glorie ought we not in this mortall life to take the path which doth conduct vs to this end If then as I haue shewen in the first strokes of this Draught all the good and euill which is done in the world proceede from the neglect or vse of this thought of Eternitie doth it not follow that this thought is the very thread which must direct vs in the windings of the true life that is the spirituall life All those that doe handle spirituall matters doe diuide such as peculiarly addict themselues to the practise of pietie into three Classes or ranckes Beginners Proficiants and the more perfect making the first walke in the way which they call Purgatiue the second in the Illuminatiue the third in the Vnitiue In the Purgatiue they ranke those who like vnto new Champions doe crucifie their flesh with its concupiscence mortifie the motions of their sensualitie by the vigour and holy rigour of mynd who chastise their body and bring it into subiection renounceing world blood and Hell in a word labouring to spoyle themselues of the old man with his wicked inclinations and vitious habites Walking in the wayes of pennance and mortification and making head against vice least Sinne might raigne in vs and least that Dagon might preuayle against the Arke Now nothing doth so effectually plane and smouth the rough and rugged wayes nothing doth so forceably presse the Sinner to departe out of the Egipt of his iniquitie and to forsake that accursed land of the shadowe of death as the apprehension of eternall paines according to that of the Prophete Lord through thy feare we haue conceaued the spirit of Saluation And the Psalmist I haue done Iudgement and Iustice because I dreaded the irreuocable sentence of the Almightie And indeed as there is nothing which doth so speedily free a feild of rootes and rubbidge as the application of fire to the brambles and vndergroth wherby it becomes thornie and wilde so nothing doth cause a man more quickly to renounce vice nor more efficaciously purge the soule then the horrour of eternall fire prepared for the diuell and his Angells This is to put the hatchet to the roote of the bad tree least it might bring forth the fruites of corruption Let not therfore the thought of the accursed Eternitie depart out of our memorie and we shall see the Diuine truth which issued from the mouth of the wisman fulfilled in vs that we shall neuer offend for it would be to vs as a buckler against the firie darts of tēptations and if we chance to fall into sinne it would be as a sharpe spurre to make vs spring out of the ditch of so dangerous and deplorable an estate There is no remedie so sharpe and bitter that doth not seeme sweete vnto vs if we compare it to those consuming and eternall flames There is no passion so irregular but it becomes orderly and subiect to reason when an eternall paine represents it selfe vnto vs. There is no temptation that doth not vanish nor vice that doth not depart when he that is assaulted with it doth setledly ponder that that which doth delight is but momentarie but the torments due thervnto are eternall This is the effect of the consideration
and repose of winter In fine all that which may delight their senses or solace the faculties of their soule There saith S. BERNARD God is plenitude of light to the VNDERSTANDING multitude of Peace to the WILL and eternall consolation to the MEMORIE To be short those shadowes of good which are scattered ouer terreane things as droppes of dew and are distributed rarely and onely by parcells are eminently in God and as it were in an infinite Ocean If fleeting toyes doe so desperately delight such as are taken with theÌ„ that their reason is inchanted and their wisdome drunke vp therin how shall they be taken with him whose hands are filled with infinite delightes If this mortall and created life be so precious how precious shall he be who hath not onely life in himselfe but who is life it selfe and in whom we liue and are If the acquaintance of perfect creatures be so pleasing a thing how much more sweete is the perfectioÌ„ of the Creatour which is so compleate and the very modell of all perfection If these fading earthly beauties be so gayning and engaging how rauishing shall his beautie be which is admired by the Sunne and Moone and in whose presence the starrs are not bright If the antiquitie of nobilitie haue such a rate put vpon it by the vanitie of those that doe adore it how much more is his to be prised who is the old of dayes whose begininge is without begining If worldly honours and fortunes be courted by so many how much more is he to be sued for and pursued whose house is replenished with glorie and riches For if it be he who made all things good and coÌ„municated vnto them all that is delightfull or wishfull in them must we not infallibly persuade our selues that he reserued the excellencie therof for himselfe but an excellencie which doth infinitly surpasse all that we are able to imagine What happinesse saith S. AVGVSTINE shall their be in the Blessed Eternitie where there shall be no euil at all nor any thing awanting that is good There our labour shall be to praise God who shall be all in all Blessed are they that dwell in thy house ô Lord for euer and euer they shall praise thee He who gaue the vertue shall be the reward therof promising himselfe as an inestimable price by the mouth of the Prophete saying I will be their God and they shall be my people I will be all things to them which they can honestly desire life saluation foode abundance Glorie Honour Peace and all kinds of felicitie for so is that sacred word to be vnderstood God shall be all in all that is he shall be the fulnesse of all their desires There the Elect peaceably enioying a sacred repose and an eternall Saboath shall see how sweete our Lord is being filld with him who shall be in them all that can be desired O my God thou art my deare Truth my true Eternitie my eternall felicitie The same Doctour speaking of this essentiall Eternitie which is God himselfe comprehending in himselfe all goodnesse discourseth of it in this sort There is nether corruption defect old age nor frowardnesse in thee but contrariwise a perpetuall peace a solemne glorie a ioy without end a continuall solemnitie Thou art true alacritie and a flowre of peerlesse beautie of youth and perfect health There is nether yesterday nor to morrow in thee but a perpetuall TODAY thyne is saluation life and peace ô great God who art all things what glorious things are spoken of thee since in thee is the true Abode of all those who liue in true ioy In thee there is no feare no sorrow desire passeth presently into satisfaction being answeared with a speedie and plentuous possession of all that is desired O God thou dost inebriate thyne Elect with the plentie of thy house and with the torrent of thy pleasure thou shalt make them drinke because with thee is the fountaine of life and in thy light we shall see light when they shall see thee in thy selfe and all things in thee and thee in all things with a sight that shall not be interrupted which is the toppe of their eternall felicitie And in another place he saith vpon the same subiect Loue Eternitie and thou shalt raigne for euer with IESVS CHRIST if IESVS CHRIST be thyne onely end And againe Vnite thy heart to God's Eternitie and thou shalt be eternall with God It was an apprehension and feeling of this which drew that asperation so frequently from the mouth and heart of S. FRANCIS O my God thou art myne ALL. And doth not that passage of the heaueÌ„ly harmonie which S. IOHN heard in his Reuelations allude to this Benediction and glorie and wisdome and thankesgiuing honour and power and strength to our God for euer and euer AMEN An application of the Heart to this essentiall Eternitie LXXII BVt that which most importeth Athanasia is to know how we ought to applie our thoughtes to this essentiall Eternitie which is the verie Diuinitie This is rather to be done by a prone and louing humilitie then by a haughtie and swelling knowledge Lord my heart is not exalted nether are myne eyes loftieâ—nether haue I walked in great matters nor in meruelous things aboue me cryed out the Royall Psalmist My thoughtes haue bene humble knowing that thou louest the humble heart and that he that extolles himselfe makes thee ascend yet higher and put thy selfe in a greater distance from him Be thou praysed ô Lord for euer in that thou hidest thy selfe from the wise and great witts and reuealest thy selfe to thy litle humble ones I haue giueÌ„ you some directions Athanasia to auoyd the accursed Eternitie and to attaine the Blessed yet I must here tell you with the great Apostle behold I teach you a way far more excellent more short noble and efficacious Consider an Archer that shutts at a Butt he takes his ayme nether too high nor too low nether of this nor that side but setts his ey and arrow iust vpon the midst of the white Will you beleeue me Athanasia vpon this subiect you shall imitate his manner and ayme and without looking ether to the right or left hand that is without ether considering the powrefull hand of God in the accursed Eternitie or that which distributes crownes and rewards in the Blessed you shall fix the ey of your contemplation vpon the eternall God and vpon his essentiall Eternitie and approaching vnto him in an humble confidence you shall be illuminated and your face shall not be confounded No no Athanasia feare not it is he be confident he hath ouercome the world Feare not to be oppressed with the glorie of so high a Maiestie His delightes are to be with the children of men He is still at their Gate and knockes to haue entrie and to make his abode with them and to inrich them with good things He doth not onely not disdayne that we should loue him but he disdaynes that
Hell's Eternitie as that we doe not more thinke of his Eternitie who made them both this for the Diuells and their associates that for the Angells and the Elect. O eternall Diuinitie ô Diuine Eternitie thou art he whom I consider and whom I seake for to thee onely it is that I aspire for without thee the created Eternitie would not bee since it doth not subsiste but by the eternall essence of the essentiall Eternitie which is no other thē God himselfe And yet further to purisie myne affection and bring it to its full perfection henceforth I will not so much loue the Eternitie of God as the God of Eternitie though God be that same Eternitie and that same Eternitie be God himselfe And if by the imagination of an impossible thing one could be in Hell with his grace his accursed Eternitie would not be dreadfull nor is the Blessed Eternitie to be desired but that eternall life is to see God eternally eternally to depēd vpon him O eternall God! who is like vnto thee who is like vnto thee who is like vnto our Lord God who inhabites in the places aboue And what Eternitie can be compared vnto his from whom proceedes all Eternitie seing he hath made the ages of ages O Great God direct my wayes in thy presence and make me walke before thee in perfection that is perfect in such sort my intentions that forgetting myne owne interest and nether staying my selfe in the blessed or accursed Eternitie I may onely looke after thyne essentiall Eternitie which is thy selfe to whom be honour and glorie from generation to generation for euer and euer in the Eternitie of Eternities Amen An aspiration of Hope LXXIII BVt ô Lord will it not be too great a presumption for a worme of the earth to rayse it selfe towards thyne infinite Eternitie and promisse himselfe one day in thy glorie to be vnited thervnto Yea verily it were a manifest vanitie if a soule should persuade her selfe that of her selfe and by the strength of her owne winge she could wind her selfe thither But as of her selfe she can doe nothing so together with thee being fortified by thee what can she not performe ô great God since she holds her whole beeing of thy Grace What may she not what ought she not to expect from thy grace since it is written that thy grace is eternall life And againe with what confidence must not her heart needs be encouraged when she shall cast the eyes of her consideration vpon the great price and infinite merites of thyne eternall Sonne ô eternall Father a Sonne who hath layed her open the way to Eternitie not by the blood of gotes or calues but acquiring vnto her by his owne blood an eternall and plentuous redemption O my soule what are we not to hope from the Mercy of so good a God and who hath loued vs with an eternall and excessiue Charitie a Charitie so excessiue that he bestowed his owne Sonne to be the propitiation for our Sinnes When we were dead by our crymes his grace restored vs to life Our Sauiour dying vpō the Crosse did quicken vs by his death and the same reuiuour doth promise vs a like resurrection and ascending vnto heauen he goes to prepare vs a place before the Throne of his glorie Which made the great Apostle writing to the Ephesians say that God who is rich in mercy for his exceding Charitie wherwith he loued vs euen while we were dead by sinnes quickened vs together in CHRIST by whose grace we are salued and hath raysed vs vp with him selfe making vs sit with him in the celestials in IESVS CHRIST shewing to future ages the abundant riches of his grace through his benignitie towards vs in IESVS CHRIST And the Prince of the Apostles S. PETER Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord IESVS CHRIST who according to his great Mercy hath regenerated vs vnto a liuely hope by the resurrection of IESVS CHRIST from the deade vnto an inheritance incorruptible and incontaminate and that cannot fade conserued in the Heauens in you For what ought not those to hope for who are inrowled as members in the misticall body of the Holy Church whose heade he is being most reasonable that the Champions should follow their Commander in his triumph if they did accompanie him in his Combats vnder the Banner of the Crosse You that haue followed me said he to his Apostles you shall be set vpon seates in the Kingdome which my Father hath prepared for you in Eternitie There it is that the Elect like vnto Eagles shall flocke about the bodie of the glorious humanitie of our Redeemour and where crowned with the crowne of Iustice they shall lay them downe at the feet of this Lābe Conquerour of the earth and who vanquished the world And if the eternall Father hath giuen vs his Sonne how will not he giue vs all things with him especially since this Sonne hath the key of DAVID key Scepter of his Empire vpon his shouldiers A key with which he opens and none can shut Behold saith S. IOHN what Charitie the eternall Father hath communicated vnto vs that we should be named and be his Sonnes and if his Sonnes his Heires also Heires truely of God and Coheires of CHRIST It was this holy hope that moued the Psalmists heart so generously to lanch out as by so many flightes towards the blessed Eternitie Come let vs ascend into the Hill of our Lord and into the house of the God of IACOB Hope in him all yee congregations of the faithfull for those that hope in him vnderstād the truth of his promises those that are faithfull in his loue doe place their confidence therin Those that hope in him shall not be confounded for euer for such as put their confidence in him shall be no more shaken then the Mountaine of Sion but replenished with ioy in the expectation of the eternall felicitie they cryed out I reioyced when I was told that we were to goe into the house of our Lord. And indeed what is not a man to hope of an infinite Bountie what ought not one to expect from so solemne promises and whose truth remaynes for euer No Lord neuer neuer will I forget thy iustifications for it is by them that thou hast giuen me life I doe firmely beleeue that if my soule doe constantly adheare vnto thee thy right hand will receaue one into thy bosome O how happie are those whom thou hast chosen and taken as thyne for they shall dwell in thyne eternall Court for euer and euer Let 's make no doubt of it my soule he that by his grace moues vs to tend to this goale will not forsake vs in the midst of our course and in so faire a way but since his workes are perfect he will heape grace vpon grace and will make vs happily arriue at the Port and point of all consummation O God draw vs after thee sith it is thee alone whom we search and
vpon our feete in thy porches ô Hierusalem If we walke at euery steppe we are to be myndfull to aduance in the way of Hierusalem And that not to goe forward in the way of God is to goe backward In attireing our selues let vs thinke of the Blessed who are inuested with light as with a garment and of those pure creatures which in Heauen follow the Lambe where euer he goes in habites which put downe the snow in whitenesse O God may we sigh out when shall we be clad with thy selfe inuested with IESVS CHRIST adorned with the wedding garment and be admitted to the eternall banquet of the marriages of the Lambe When we heare the word of God preached vnto vs by the mouth of the Preacher why should not that word of God stirre vp our hearts to that God WORD to that word eternall an essentiall WORD eternally vttered by the Father the Splendour of his Father-hoode Light of Light Image of his substance towards that WORD in whom all things were made and who hath truely the words of life and life euerlasting O Diuine sacred and essentially eternall WORD it is of thee as of their true bread that the Elect doe feed in Heauen thou art he whom they preciously conserue in their heartes O Truth of God ô God of TRVTH thou remaynst for euer Heauen and earth shall passe but this eternall WORD shall neuer passe When we assiste in the Diuine Office and prayse God in the midst of his Temple why may not we excite our heartes towards that perfect prayse which God himselfe doth giue vnto himselfe in Eternitie or to that which the Angells and Elect doe render vnto him in Heauen when they call him thrice HOLY in so graue a tune and so full a musike that the gates of Heauen are moued in it Benediction praise and vertue be to him who is seated vpō the Throne and to the Lambe who hath redeemed vs in his blood frō euery Tribe people and nation and hath placed vs in his eternall Kingdome But principally when we are present at the CATHOLIKE SACRYFICE wherin the Lambe without spote who takes away the sinnes of the world is offered to his heauenly Father in an vnbloodie manner ô God then it is that we ought with all the Court of the Church Triūphant to incens the holy Alter with incēse euerlasting in an humbly louing adoration which ryseth vp as an incense burnt before the face of God Then it is that we are to doe our duties to him who is Preist for euer according to the Order of MELCHISEDECH and who being an eternall Bishope not needing to pray for himselfe yet made his entrie into the Sanctuarie of Eternitie not by the blood of beastes but by his owne offering himselfe vp to his Father an oblation for the sinnes of all mankind Like as all things seeme yellow to such as are sicke of the ganders and as that which is seene through a coloured glasse doth appeare to be of the same colour So when a soule hath accustomed it selfe by frequent aspirations to thinke of Eternitie euery thing be it what it will recalls this Obiect to her memorie The beautie of Townes and Palaces doth presently represent vnto her the riches of the incomparable Hierusalem such as it is described in the Apocalipse and that Palace of the Diuinitie far other then that of DAVID and SALOMON which the Scripture doth so richly describe An old Hermite beholding the Romane TRIVMPHES in their magnificall Pompe what shall the triumphant Hierusalem be quoth he if such splendour and glorie be seene euen in earth O Lord will we say with the Psalmist how happie are they that liue in thy house far beyond those that liue in the Tabernacles of Sinners O how goodly are the Tentes of IACOB for euer how the Mansions in the house of the Heauenly Father are diuersified and desireable How amiable are thy Porches ô Lord God of Vertue 's my soule is transported in consideration therof These worldly magnificencies which we dayly see ought to be so many ladders to a good soule to ascend to those that are eternall which are onely to be found in his Abode who is great and laudible in his holy Citie and his eternall Hill whose greatnes is infinite The sight of humane miseries will make the like impressiō in her by sending her downe to Hell aliue to behold there calamities incomparably greater in their extremitie and eternall continuance Yea if she behold malefactours led to execution by humane Iustice it makes her thinke of the eternall Iustice of God which is inflicted vpon the damned without all hope of ease or deliuerie Nay if she doe but see a beast die she is moued to pittie those poore creatures whose Felicitie expires with their life If she take into her consideration the great ones of this world that which is written occurs vnto her mynd that the Powrefull shall be powrefully tormēted In beholding Kings and Princes she doth rather pittie then enuie their condition when she calls to mynd that they shall die like other men That all their glorie shall passe as the floure of the feild and that their Diademes and honours of so short standing hath nothing comparable to that Kingdome where the King of Kings raignes with his Elect whom he makes participant of his Royaltie but a Royaltie that is euerlasting a Kingdome that knowes no end If she cast her ey downe vpon the poore and litle ones who are here below the refuse of the world and the scorne of men she apprehēds them happie because to them as to a poore LAZARVS an eternall Kingdome is promised If warre and peace occurre vnto her thoughtes they doe forthwith draw with them the memorie of both the Eternities The accursed where there is a continuall warre without Peace The Blessed where there raynes a happie Peace without all feare of warre Yea hereby she falls vpon the Essence of that eternally great God who in the Scriptures is sometymes styled the God of Peace sometymes the God of armies and reuenge The sight of the Sea floodes riuers and fountaines make her remember the same for she thinkes of the fountaine of Paradice of the source of life springing towards Eternitie she thinkes of the flood of the Citie of God and of the infinite Ocean of the essentiall Eternitie of the eternall essence whose is the Sea saith DAVID and who made this vaste receptacle of waters In what estate soeuer a soule that is seasoned with this holy exercise be whether in prosperitie or aduersitie in ioy or greefe in consolation or desolation in priuation or fruition in pleasure or paine in sicknes or health be she in grace or disgrace with the world in plentie or want be it amidst riches or in the presse of pouertie all doth cooperate to good And all this placeth Eternitie before her eyes beholding the accursed in afflictions the blessed in contentment and the eternall God in euery thing euery thing
in the dust of this life I would to God that the Spirit of wisdome vnderstanding and Counsell would descend into their soules and the diuine goodnesse grant that it way be found in ours to speake with S. BERNARD thaâ— we may sweetly dispose of thing present with wisdome condemne our former offences by a iudicious vnderstanding and foresee things to come by a clearesighted counsell God grant we may be wise in our present behauiour vnderstanding to correct our life past and prouident for the tyme to come that by Gods mercy wee may dy the death of the iust and our end way be like vnto theirs and that the end of our life may be precious In the sight of the iust Iudge who prouids crownes to such as haue lawfully fought Heauens grant my Athanasia that our soule departing this life may be like vnto the lampe whose flammes â—re fed by an aromaticall oyle and which neuer smell so well as when â—t is extinguished and that it doth â—nfranchise it selfe out of this clayie â—ouse of our body for no other end â—ut to breath out it selfe towards â—eauen leauing the earth embaulmed with a good odour in IESVS CHRIST as it is written that the memory of the iust should be sweete as the sent of perfumes powered out Which shall be most deare soule if from this vally of teares we prouide stepps in our hearts towards the blessed eternity and if vpon each occasion we eleuate our thoughts thitherwards thoughts which shall be to God as that litle rodde of smoake compouÌ„ded of all the perfuming ponders Whereof mention is made in the heauenly Epithalamion and if separating our selues from the troopes of those who sleeping in a letergy amidst their riches delights and vanities shut their eyes against the cleare light of eternity and repulsâ— the rayes of the Sunne of Iustice Alas these wretched slaues to theâ— owne riches possessed by the which they thinke they possessâ—â— sleepe at their ease passe in an imaginary felicity the momeÌ„ts of their dayes but at their awaking they find their hands empty put into the waights they are found light and which is yet worse in one pointe in an instant they descend into eternall torments So slept SAMSON after he was bereft of his force TOBIE when he had lost his eyes and Isboseth when he was depriued of life God looked downe from his heauenly mansion saith the kingly Prophets to see whether amongst men their were any of a good iudgment and a wise foresight who sought him as he merits that is with his whole heart But he found that euery one diuerted from his seruice and conuerted themselues to vaine and vnprofitable things forsooke the Creatour for the Creature Eternity for a moment whereupon none doth doe good no not one The wayes of Syon that is of the Blessed Eternity weepe to see themselues forsaken and abaÌ„doned none frequenting their solemnities O Eternity how considerable thou art but ô the misery and misery vvpon misery how litle thou art considered That all the euill in the world comes from want of thinking of Eternity II. YET Athanasia we may affirme it with an vndaunted bouldnesse since with an vndoubted truth all the euill in the world comes through defaut of this consideration For Eternity being well waighed is a light which doth dissipate the shadowes and disperse the clouds of sinne Thy iudgment ô Lord are razed out of his memory that offendeth and thence it is thaâ— he defiles all his wayes and falls at euery foote sayth the diuine Psalmist Where you are to note that in this place he speakes of that iudgment whose irreuocable verdict shall bring some to eternall rewards others to eternall paynes CoÌ„trariwise the same Prophete confesseth that he betooke himselfe to the workes of Iustice out of the apprehension he had conceaued of the chaste feare of this eternall iudgment How can an Archer vnlesse by meere chance Hit the marke he remarkes not and how should he arriue at Eternity that thinks not of it nor directs his course that way And with what face can one that will not follow Gods commandements begge of him that he would conduct him in the way of eternity The generall desolation of the earth saith IEREMIE yea the abomination of desolation is that none considers in his heart that is seriously this great and vniuersall end of Eternity and thence their are so few cleane and ruminating beastes which can be offered to God in the Sacrifice of Iustice Whence so many shipwrakes in the world that vast and spacious sea where so many weake mortall vessels are split against the manifests shelues but through want of the CoÌ„passe for that we direct not our thoughts in the point of Eternity How profitable it is to thinke of Eternity III. COntrariwise next to Gods grace one of the Principles of eternall saluation is to thinke of it It is a marke so faire ample that he that lookes vpon it hits it And who euer hath a firme and stayed ayme cannot misse this Butt The meanes to attaine to it are easie the wayes sometimes vncouth are now playne and bet the mountaines reduced into playnes The commandements are not hard the yoake is sweete and the burthen light Is it not true Athanasia that we runne in the wayes of the diuine commandements when heauenly loue extends our heart towards the glorious Eternity T is this faire RACHEL that makes our dayes seeme moments and our labours delights when we thinke of that pourchace Is it not this thought that doth furnish vs with Eagles wings to take a flight without stooping from the wing by coÌ„tinuing perseuerantly in good and aydes vs with wings of a done to mount vp to our true repose which is no other then Eternity Marke with what courage this Eagle speakes with what sweetnesse and promptitude this done I haue thought of the dayes of old and thought againe of the yeares of Eternity Would you not say that that were the Center where all the lynes of their desires meete that that is their one necessary It is the haire in which all the headhaire of the sacred spouse doth end and the point wherein all the rayes of her sight are receaued and stayed That this point which had neuer any beginning nor shall haue end is that litle seed in the Ghospell whence the great trees of all vertues spring the litle stone of DANIEL which growes vp to a maine mountaine MARDOCHEES litle source which after it had branched out it selfe into faire floodes of good workes becomes an Oceane of light Which makes we stick to this Truth that as the want of this thought of Eternitie is cause of the ruine of all the lost soules so when man prayseth God in this thought the rest of his thoughts doe leade him through the pathes of heroicall vertues to the solemne Feast and delightfull Saboath of Eternitie For the iust shall liue for euer and their reward shall be with our Lord who is himselfe
body if there remaynd no hope if another life doth not the Apostle say plainely that vnder our Christian law we were the most miserable creatures aliue But ô God how weake and faint is faith in these articles if we look vpon the liues of most Christians ô sinners who beleeue so well and liue so ill hauing onely a deade Faith not quickned with Charitie nor seconded with workes suiting with your beleife doe you not blush to see your hands contrarie to your tongues your actions to your words and so great contradiction in your selfe by the continuall warre which your will makes against your vnderstanding whence is bred in your heart that remorse and griping that gnawing worme which permits you not euen in your pleasures false follies and superfluities any contentment that is pure and without mixture of bitternesse tempering your laughter with greife and ouersowing a thousand thornes amongst the roses of your fleeting delightes ô miserable wretches willingly would I say ether liue as you beleeue or beleeue as you liue not crucifying a new againe the sunne of God by your vices and that far more cruelly and vnworthyly then the executioners did to the crosse betwixt two theeues vpon the Mount-Caluarie for the scripture assures vs that if they had knowen him as you professe to doe to be the King of glorie they had neuer treated him so barbarously but you barbarously crucifie him not now in his passing and passible life nor vpon Mount-Caluarie nor yet betwixt two theeues but euen set at the right hād of the maiestie of the Highest and raigning in the Eternitie of ages betwixt the Father and the Holy Ghost What doe you thinke Athanasia of the infidelitie or crueltie of the most part of wicked liuers who haue the face to professe themselues of the faythfull Yet if they beleeued as they liue their actions would be like their beleife and as Ethnikes vpon whom the light of truth hath not shun they would be lesse punished but the seruant that knowes the will of his maister and doth it not merits he not a double punishment And these wilfully blind creatures deserue they not to fall into the accursed ditch full of snares of fire and brimstone and to haue part in the chalice of eternall tempests and tormoyles Origene's errour touching the Eternitie of the paines of Hell X. ANd it happens somes tymes that for the punishment of this contradiction betwixt their life and beleife God permits them to fall into a reprobate sense and suffers them to perish in the Deluge of their errour leauing them in the obscuritie of their vnderstanding to walke in the vanitie of their thoughts poursuing the desires of their hearts following the straying rowtes of their owne inuentions Alas who would not tremble who would not quake with feare to see this mightie this prodigious this incomparable wit Origene fallen into this errour to beleeue that after a longe continuance of torments the damned should be drawen out of Hell to inioy the vision of God and this because he could not comprehend eternall torments which are so rightuous in Gods iustice This so learned and well disposed a man who knew all the Scripture did he not find in a thousand places of these diuine writts that there is nothing more inculcated nor more solidly proued then eternall fire then the immortall worme then eternall death So true it is that Faith and experience are incompatible that to vnderstand we must beleeue and to beleeue we must captiuate our vnderstanding and the soule that doth imbarke her selfe vpon the Ocean of the misteries of our beleife taking humane reason for her guide suffers a woefull shipwrake in the midst of the course of her nauigation While the discouerie of the Indians had not yet brought vs the newes of a new world situated vnder another Pole and another Horison then ours the opinion of the Antipodes was laught at learned men improued it and S. Augustine himselfe held it ridiculous But this concernes this world onely not eternall saluation The errour is far more dangerous which stumbles at the Eternitie of paynes because it takes also away the Eternitie of recompences ouerthrowes the truth of the soules immortalitie brings a foote againe the fopperies of transanimation or passage of soules out of one body into another and breakes downe the fundations of all truth Yet this great wit and withall of so good a life suffered shipwrake vpon this shelfe blinded in his owne imaginations as the auncient Philosopher who lost his sight by fixing it too setledly vpon the globe of the Sunne experiencing the Truth of this oracle who too curiously searcheth into the secreetes of the diuine Maiestie shall be oppressed which the greatnesse of his glorie It shall suffice vs for the present to oppose the strong buckler of our beleife against this errour a buckler not onely of a double but a centuple temper and not pearceable by the darts of humane reason since the scripture which we will shew in its place doth minace nothing more frequently nor establish nothing more strongly then eternall punishments prepared for the Diuel his Angells Apostates and all such as by sinne shall betake themselues to that reuoulted crue's side We will ponder the reason of this eternall curse as the order of this subiect shall require Eternitie cannot be defined XI NOw I set vpon the hardest peece of my taske to wit the begining and who knowes not that a good begining is halfe the deede doing And who can be ignorāt that to enter into a discourse and put ones selfe vpon it by a reasonable conduct an ouerture must be made vnto it by the definition of the subiect which a man is about to handle And here it is that euen at the very threshwood my pen falls out of my hand since the matter wherof I am about to represent a poore draught is none of those that can be defined for I pray you Athanasia this word Definition doth it not sound as it were some finite thing And what proportion can an infinite thing beare with a finite or what line can measure an infinite thinge Now Eternitie being of this nature who sees not that no definition can comprehend or compasse that which in it selfe hath no bound To what end then should we offer to shut vp wthin the termes of a definition that which neuer had begining nor shall haue end were it not to essay to shut vp the Ocean in a shell according as an Angell in a childs liknesse said to S. Augustine while he proiected in his vnderstanding that admirable worke of the Trinitie which he left vs And tell me how can that flow from a slender penne or be exprest by a drope of inke which cannot enter into the imagination nor the vnderstanding of man who being finite is in no sort able to contayne an infinite thing such as is Eternitie In vaine therfore haue some great and curious witts strayned themselues in defining a thinge indefinite
eternall fire For at last in the periode of our life when as tyme shall be no more to vs certaine it is that God will examen our workes be they good or bad and according to them will reward each one Then euery ones prayse or blame shall proceede from the mouth of God Now we are in the forked way of vertue or vice which was shewen to the young Hercules as an Auncient Authour writeth It is in our power to take towards the right or left hand and to sowe the seedes in this life whose fruites we shall gather in the next Certes as the lines drawen from the Center of the earth might goe to the circumfereÌ„ce of the Heauens so according to our comportment in these short momentes which we are to liue in earth the definitiue Sentence of our eternall Abode shall be giuen It is our part therfore tymely to thinke of our affaires and to foresee what shall become of vs for the scripture doth teach vs that we shall reape according as we haue sowen He that shall sow in spirit shall reape eternall life The chaste Susanna being pinched with bitter perplexities while those two infamous firebrands of dishonestie threatned her the ruine of her reputation vnlesse she condescended to their lewd desire chowsed rather to fall innoceÌ„t into the hands of men then stayned into his to whom nothing is hid who tryes the hearts and reynes and who can cast the body and soule into eternall torments Me thinkes sure each considerate heart will take her part and will pourchace at the price of transitorie and momentarie pleasures endlesse paines For t is a thinge too horrible to fall into the hands of the liueing God the God of vengeance terrible ouer all those of the earth Contrariwise he will easely and willingly imbrace all kind of paynes and sufferances who shall waigh as he ought that is in the waightes of the SANCTVARIE these words of the sacred ORACLE That we are to enter into the Kingdome which knowes no end to the resideÌ„ce of Glorie through many tribulations since that our Sauiour Iesus Christ was as it were forced to suffer before he could enter into his eternall Felicitie which he had wholy obtayned and which was necessarily due vnto him The Parobolicall historie of the wicked Rich-man and the poore Lazarus is a rich Table representing this truth vnto our eyes set out in liuelie colours Euerie one knowes the different successe of the one and the other and what answere Father Abraham made to this miserable reprobate's complaintes Call to mynd Sonne that thou tookest thy pleasures during thy life and that Lazarus suffered many afflictions Now your estates are much changed for he is replenished with ioy and delight and thou oppressed with desperate greeues and with punishments which shall neuer end O double Eternitie thou art like to those figues which were presented vnto the Prophete wherof some were strangly bitter the others extreamely sweete The Blessed Eternitie is a LAND OF PROMISSE and rest whose fruites are of an vnmeasurable greatnes and incomparable sweetnes The accursed is a forraine Region full of disorder a daunting desert far remoued from the face of God where the firie serpents doe stinge without cure and kill without all hope of recouerie O ETERNITIE The more I consider thee the lesse doe I know thee and the deeper I endeauour to diue into thy bottome more bottomelesse I find thee Thou art the floode of the Prophete which cannot be past nether at the ford nor otherwise The Gyantes grone vnder thy waters nor can any beaste euen though it were an ElephaÌ„t passe ouer thee by swiming to vse S. Gregories words All that can be said of thee is nothing in regard of that which should be said Though a man speake all he is able yet can he not sufficiently expresse thee euen to represent the least stroke of thyne infinitie Birdes although they cannot soare to the highest region of the aire leaue not for all that to flie And what if we cannot comprehend Eternitie yet ought we not cease to speake what we conceaue of it though we cannot conceaue what we ought to speake therof A man may enioy the light of the Sunne walke in its resplendant rayes and now and then steale a looke vpon it though he be not able to haue his sight still fixed vpon its globe We are to doe the like in this subiect of Eternitie and be it that our sight doth disperse and loose it selfe in the immensitie of its extent yet are we from tyme to tyme to consider it since life is â—ent vs for no other end but to be spent for the most part in this attention This is that which the Prophete termes couragiously to attend God and with patience to supporte this attention And the Apostle To attend the blessed hope of the coming of the great God I Lord said the great S. Augustine burne cute pinch slice here below so that I may not perish eternally An enterie to the consideration of the accursed Eternitie XXI BVt doe you not thinke it high tyme Athanasia that we should draw neerer by the consideration of both the Eternities and that for our spirituall profit we should make a kind of particular examen and as it were an Anatomie We will begin at the accursed Eternitie that we may follow the methode which the Spiritualistes obserue in the reformation of the soule begining with feare according to that of the wise man the feare of our Lord is the begining of true wisdome And is it not true wisdome to thinke seriously and tymely of eternall saluation and to direct our stepps towards the pathes of this peace which passeth all vnderstanding nor shall at any tyme be troubled with the noyse of warrs but shall enioy with God the abundance of a plentifull repose I haue done Iudgement and Iustice that is I haue behaued my selfe iustly in all myne actions saith the Royall Prophete Will you haue the reason of this vprightnesse because I haue dreaded the seueritie of the eternall Iudge And another Prophete brings in Sinners conuerted to the father of mercyes speaking in this wise O Lord through thy feare we haue conceaued good pourposes and by it we haue at length produced and brought forth the spirit of saluation The needle following the Contemplatiues worne similitude goes alwayes through before the silke and sharpe and pearceing FEARE according to that word of Dauid Lord pearce my body and soule with the FEARE of thy iudgements is still the forerunner of ioy ioy the inseparable fruite of the tree of true Charitie I see then that there I must begin but a secrete horrour doth fasten vpon myne imagination when I represent vnto my selfe so mournfull and daunting a matter It is a far other thing theâ— that place of horrour and vaste solitude wherof the Prophete speakes for it is the verie herbour of eternall horrour eternall reproach It is the accursed denne where DEATH doth eternally inhabite
body and soule to offend the soueraigne and eternall Goodnesse should in euery of them be eternally punished by the Soueraigne Iustice The numberlesse number of those paines are expressed in diuers passages of holy Scripture where it speakes of Fires Ice Darknes Blindnes Gnashings of teeth Teares Hungar Thirst Deseases Swords Howlings Gale Absinth Prisons Wormes Serpents Whirlewinds Tempestes Fournaces Thunders Wheeles and a number of other scourges wherof we find euery lease full The paynes of sense and first of the sight and hearing XXIV ANd wheras generall discourses seeme not to be so efficacious as particular ones let vs descend Athanasia from the generalitie of those eternall paines to the particular consideration therof The Contemplatiues diuide them into penas sensus and penas damni whence comes the word damnation and it is incomparably greater then the former though it far lesse strike vpon the imagination of vulgare myndes The Sight amongst the exteriour senses holds the first place and the priuation therof is numbred amongst the greatest miseries of this life by the iust TOBIE a worthy witnesse of so troublesome a discommoditie Now Faith doth teach vs that the damned shall be in thicker obscurities then those of Egipt and that the tēpest of darknes shall possesse them for euer And in the Holy Scripture Hell is marked out in these words exteriour darknesse For an Eternitie saith the Prophete light shall not be discouered therin for although God be there as it were in euery place and that darknes cannot obscure his naturall light yet his will is that in this dry Lake that is voyd of all consolation the darknesse couer the face of the Abisse and that the eyes of the damned though otherwise capable of sight see nothing but that which may trouble and torment them The fire of the diuine angar being once fallen downe vpon them they shall neuer more discouer the Sunne in punishmēt of the abuse of this noble sense in tyme past and that in lieu of contemplating the Heauen they haue made their lookes dwell vpon the earth and creatures And although light be as inseparable a qualitie of fire as heate yet as of old when the three children were throwen into the fournace the diuine powre leauing the light did suspend the heate of the flame that it should not attempt vpon those innocents so in Hell he will permit the heates actiuitie vpon the reprobate and yet will depriue the fire of light to leaue them in obscuritie amongst the deade of ages buried in an eternall obliuion and far remoued from the light of his face So shall our Lord diuide the flame from the fire saith the Psalmist that is according to some interpreters he shall separate the light from the heate And euen as during the palpable darknes which God did of old spread ouer Egipt while the Israelites enioyed a delightfull light the Idolaters were ether blind or afflicted with frighting visions so in Hell amidst the pitchie blacknes of that region of the shadow of death if at any tyme the dāned enioy some obscure glimses seeing as though they saw not it shall be onely to espie the hideous shapes of amaysing fantomes and horrible visions of Diuels whose aspect shall be more insupportable vnto them then the rest of their tortures So that if for the thicknes of this smoake and the blacknesse of these obscurities the priuation of the vse of this sense be an irkesome torment vnto them the short vse which at tymes they shall haue of it will onely serue to add to their torment alwayes vnfortunate both blind and seeing I will omit the particular paines of this delicate part which as the Phisitians obserue in its daintie litlenesse is obnoxious to so many different deseases which shall be yet diuersified both in qualitie and quantitie according as the reprobate shall haue abused that noble Sense which had bene in Heauē one of the principall organes by which the ioy of our Lord had entred into their heartes O God with what frightes shall their soules be tortured by the sense of hearing a sense by so much more liuely and capable of paines as it hath more commerce with the mynd Ah! what a mad musike will there be heard of howlings scrikes gnashings of teeth and grones of desperation If the thūder clapp and trumpets sound which did resound vpon the mountaine where God deliuered his law to MOYSES put all Israel in such an ALARVM and struke the heartes of the people with such astonishment that they said vnto their law giuer Let not our Lord speake vnto vs least we should die What a death shall it be in death it selfe to heare the voice of many waters or rather the ouerflowing torrents of so many maledictions and horrible blasphemies which rage and despaire shall draw from their execrable mouthes full of the stinch of a hellish brimstone ô how iarring the discorde and how detestable the roarings of those victimes of the eternall furie The eares of those eloquent Orators and pleasing Poetes who had taken so great complacence in the gratefull fall of their measured periodes and in the sweete cadēce of their rymes shall find themselues at that tyme in a wonderfull disorder The eares of those Princes which admitted onely silken words and the oyle of sinners that is flatterie who tooke content to be praysed in the desires of their heart and blessed in their iniquities who found no better musike then that which their owne prayses made as ALEXANDER said who was as great in vanitie as valour will then be struke with terrible accents The eares of those Adonises this word signifies Song those Ninnions of the Goddesse Venus whose baites are dishonest songes Those of these effeminate Musiciās and daintie Dames who must be lulled a sleepe by singing new aires more pernicious then those of the Poetes Syrenes shall then haue their eares filled with dreadfull plaintes resembling the voice of the Storke or Dragon to whom a Prophete compares his owne while he lamented the incurable woundes of the people of Israel But the damned shall be principally frighted and shall quake to heare the thunder clape of the heauenly wroth which shall continually resound in their eares Wheras the iust saith the royall Prophete shall be in the eternall memorie of God and shall not feare the dreadfull crake of his wroth The paines of other two senses the Smelling and tasteing XXV ANd if Hell be the world's sinke and the Receptackle of all the filth of this great Frame and with all a deepe dūgeon where the aire hath hardly any accesse how great must the stinch and infection needes be of so many corruptions heaped one vpon another and how insufferable the smell of that infernall brimstone mixed with so many corrupted matters When we reade the sufferances of certaine Martires who were afflicted with smells and vermine in darke prisons we esteeme those lent martirdomes as painefull as the violent Nay some natures there be that can so litle
the fire which proceedes from thyne irritated face Who continues the furnace where they are plunged in its wounted heate by the torrent of burning brimstone which flowes from the face of thy iust indignation O God of reuenge let this thought make so liuely an impression in our â—magination that we may be therby roused out of the lethargie of pleasures concupiscence and wordly ambition which keepe vs asleepe Let the fire which walkes before thee as executioner of thy terrible Iustice and which doth consume thyne enemyes to witt the reprobate neuer depart from our memorie may it be vnto vs a torch and pillar of light in the darknesse of the world and our errours a Lampe to our feete and a light to our wayes wherby we may discouer the gulfe which will swallow vs vp vnlesse we prohibite the feete of our affections to follow wicked wayes and command them to walke in the wayes of thy law Thou ô Lord who didst deliuer the three children out of the Babilonian furnace a figure of that wherin the reprobate burne for euer preserue vs from those abominable flames where thou art continually blasphemed and exempting vs from the sharpe and burning ones of thy wroth place vs in the light and bright ones of thy loue where like Pyralides and sacred Salemanders we shall liue happie without paine or consummation singing honour praise and benediction vnto thee for the Canticle of our deliuerance Of interiour paines XXVIII LEt vs now come Athanasia to the consideration of interiour paines And let vs iudge of the torments of the soule as well by the aduantages which it hath ouer the bodie as by the large share it hath in the malice of sinne which is consummated in the will If a Stoicall philosopher had light enough to discerne that euery disordered mynd is its owne TormeÌ„ter what a torture shall the reprobate find in their owne hearts in this accursed place of disorder which is replenished with the horrour of an eternall confusion There their vnderstanding shall be darkned with cloudes because they shall be ouertaken with a night of obscuritie and be couered with the thicke shades of death I will omitt the subtile schowle questions whether they shall be intangled in errours and ignorances wherof those accursed inhabitaÌ„ts of that black prison seeme to complaine in the booke of wisdome when they say that the Sunne of vnderstanding doth not enlighten them Vpon this subiect I will onely stike to that vndoubled truth which teacheth vs that they are fallen for euer into a reprobate sense which causeth their will still following that which the vnderstanding proposeth vnto it being bent to vice like a crooked bowe as the Psalmist tearmes it to hate God with an implacable and extreame hatred But if some subtile disputant goe about to teach vs that since the will cannot hate Good which is its proper obiect it is impossible that it should coÌ„ceaue a true hatred against God who is the soueraigne good we will answere him with the Angelicall S. THOMAS that the damned doe not hate God in himselfe because they know him not such as he is as doe the Blessed who by reason of that knowledge cannot leaue to loue him but onely in his workes for the vnderstanding of the damned conceauing God as Authour of the torments they endure causeth their will to be incensed against him with a mortall and raging hatred And wheras nor God nor the payne which they suffer can cease to bee their courrage ceaseth not and their will is continually tortured with this vnsufferable auersion Their memorie also shall haue its peculiar tormeÌ„t for if the blessed in Heauen reioyce in the labours reproaches which they endured for the loue of God and that through the fire and water of tribulations they are entred into rest the memorie of pleasures past shall be an extreame torment to the reprobate when they call to mynd that for those transitorie moments they are fallen into pinching and endlesse paines They shall roare out with ESAV to haue sold their heauenly inheritance for a mease of potage For comparing in their mynd pleasures past with those that are eternall and apprehending the approach of torments whose cruell panges they feele will not this memorie thinke you draw vpon them an insupportable affliction With what Phantomes and monsterous imaginations shall their fantisie be tortured Frame a iudgement of it by that which happens to such as in this life finding themselues guiltie of greeuious crimes feare to fall into temporall Iustice They may indeede sometymes be in a secure place but neuer in securitie They may be hid from the eyes of men and be placed out of their reach but neuer shall they be able to hide themselues from themselues or escape the assault of their owne conscience While they wake they are vexed with feares and suspicions their sleepe is interrupted with wicked dreames dreade doth still haunt them at each ones approach they quake with feare and the Furies hauing seased vpoÌ„ them grant them nether Peace nor Truce their dissipated thoughts put their hearts vpon the Racke Now if the apprehension of humane Iustice which hath power onely ouer the bodie giue so daunting Alarumes to the imagination what will the sense of the dartes of the Diuine Iustice doe which are so many vessells of death and burning arrowes shot at the damned soule But who can expresse the strange Chaos and horrible confusion which shall inhabite the inferiour appetite of the lost crue For if all the disorder of mans life spring from his passions which as blustering blastes are shut vp in the two caues Concupiscible and irascible what disorder iudge you must those wretched soules needs feele in that part what contradictions in themselues what conuulsions what rage what furie Alas that noble passion LOVE Queene of all the rest the Sunne and salt of life that passion which might haue made them happie for euer if they had turned it towards God that soueraignely amiable obiect being as it were razed out of them the perpetuall auersion they haue to loue shall afflict them as the panges of a woman in childbirth who cannot yet be deliuered S. CATHERINE OF SIENNA being vpon a day present while a possessed person was exorcised the Diuel being commanded to declare his name he answered with a hideous how leing I am the accursed DEPRIVED-OF-LOVE At which the Sainte was so moued that she thought she should haue fallen downe in a Traunce Touching the passion of hatred it shall be outragious in the daÌ„ned whence shall proceede their continuall blasphemies against God and the perpetuall maledictions and imprecations which they shall make against the creatures And if they haue any Desires they shall be execrable ones to see all the world partakers of their paynes not that they are at all solaced therby but onely to giue way to the incredible malice of which they are full Their auersion from all good shall be as much tormenting as in
it selfe it is execrable Of Ioy there must no mention be made in that place of dolour But cōtrarwise of an incredible Sadnesse which shall oppresse them without all consolation The heate of Anger shall redouble the heate of their flammes Hope banished from their hearts shall leaue the place voyde to Despaire which shall be one of their greatest and fiercest Tormentors And beit that an impudent and shamelesse audacitie shall opē their blaspheming and stinking mouth against Heauen yet shall an eternall horrour make them quake though indeed nothing can befall them worse then that which they alreadie endure Thus shall they be tossed with the blast of those tempestuous winds being burdēsome and insupportable to them selues And though their bodie be within Hells bosome yet shall they beare about with them another Hell in their owne bosomes They shall vomite out venimous words against themselues being weather-beaten by their passions as with contrarie winds vpon the sea of so many calamities They shall be deuoured with the sharpest gnawing of the bloodie birds of their inordinate affections They shall be giuen vp in prey to their owne rage as the Poetes Acteon to his owne hounds The Prison of Hell XXIX ANd if libertie be reputed so great a good that all the goods of life yea life it selfe without it are esteemed as nothing whence it is that amongst the ioyes of the blessed the libertie of the children of God is placed What conceipt are we to make my Athanasia of the eternall captiuitie of the damned in a prison so horrible as that of Hell O Lord how true it is that he that sinneth adiudgeth himselfe to a perpetuall slauerie but a slauerie farr other then that which Israel suffered in Egipt where the Diuells are farr more cruell then Pharaos officers who put the Hebrewes to digge and delue the earth A prison saith S. CIRILLE all on a fire and where the darknesse shall neuer be enlightned with any ray of light where pestilent and gnawing wormes liue in spight of death Who would not feare saith S. BERNARD this worme that cannot die this place full of fire this smoake this stinking brimstone those blasts of tempests those thicke and blacke fogges of exteriour darknesse For what light I pray you can penetrate into the bowells of the earth whither euerie liuing creature descended of those that reuoulted from MOYSES as the Psalmist teacheth vs and as we gather out of the booke of Numbers For to doubt whether Hell be in the Center of the earth a place furthest remote from the glorie of the blessed seemes to me a thing impossible after one haue well waighed the places of Scripture and of Fathers pointing out this truth ISAY speaking of the descent of Messias into Hell Hell which is below the earth saith he was troubled in thy arriuall And the same Messias is made speake in this sort by Ecclesiasticus I will penetrate the inferiour parts of the earth and I will visite all those that sleepe therin And the verie Diuels in S. LVKE besought our Sauiour that casting them out of the bodies which they possessed he would not send them into the Abisse S. CIRILLVS ALEXANDRINVS speaking of Hell tearmes it a blacke Caue vnder groūd replenisht with darknesse smoake and all miseries where the damned soules are as in a dungeon TERTVLIAN calls it a Treasure of fire shut vp vnder the earth And S. AVGVSTINE teacheth in diuers passages that Hell is vnder the earth as also S. GREGORIE the Great There is the lake or rather the cisterne without water of cōsolation whither those vnfortunate soules are banished A prison far other then that which was so irksome to IOSEPH since that those accursed soules are there bound hand and foote afflicted with ineffable torments And which is yet worse without all hope of deliuerie To which if we adde the compaignie of Diuells whose complices they made themselues by reuoulting with them from their Creatour I doe not thinke that any thing more horrible can be conceaued Alas the stateliest house in the world being designed to any one for his prison appeares forthwith to him gracelesse and disagreable so powrefully doth loue of libertie possesse mens mynds what will that house be wher all imaginable and vnimaginable euils make their generall Assemblie following the conceit of the great Romane Muse Of the paine of Damni XXX BVt amongst all those euils Diuinitie teacheth vs that none is comparable to that which is called the paine of damni whence damnation and the damned take their names No not all the exteriour ones nor yet all the interiour ones which breefly we haue represented can any way enter into comparison with this which alone doth further surpasse them all in greatnesse thē the highest celestiall spheere doth surmount this earthly globe Which I will endeauour to make you vnderstand Athanasia by this consideration In sinne there are two principale malices the first is the auersion frō the Creatour the other is the conuersion to the Creature which God declares by the mouth of his Prophete in these words my people at once committ two euills they forsake me who an the fountaine of liue-water and they make vnto them selues broken Cisternes which can hold no water To this second malice belongs that paine of Sense whose miseries we expressed in the precedant stroke but to the abandonning of the Creatour appertaines the paine of damni which consists in the eternall priuation of the sight of God wherin is placed the highest point of the immortall beatitude Now I apprehend saith the Father with the golden mouth that part of glorie incomparably more great then all the other torments And the same addes that tenne thousand torments like to those of the damned are nothing being cōpared to this priuation Wherin this Doctor is followed of all the rest and the schoole doth teach it as a constant truth which cannot be called in doubt without shaking the grounds and violating the principles of Christianitie S. THOMAS strikes further into it for though the paine of damni be equall in all the dāned and that of sense vnequall according to that which is written that the torments are proportioned to the vnlawfull delights and although as well those of sense as of damni be equall in respect of the Eternitie of their durance yet doth he hold that the paine of sense and that of damni doe differ almost as much as a finite and infinite thinge for certaine it is that touching the senses the punishment of the reprobate comes far short of their demerits the Diuine goodnesse not being able to conteyne his mercy euen in the effects of his greatest wroth but as for the losse of an infinite good wher in the paine of damni doth consiste who sees not that this punishment is in some sort infinite And if insensible thinges find no rest till they be reunited vnto their Center since they were not separated from it but by violence how intolerable must the
his sonne into a burning fornace that thence thou oughtst to coniecture an enormious crime in the child as well by reason of the greeuiousnesse of the punishment as by the Fathers rigour ô Eternall Father whose mercies are numberlesse what an inward hate must thou needs conceaue against the vniust and iniustice since thou dost punish so rigorously and so eternally the soules thou bought at so great a price as is the bloode of thyne owne sonne blood which cryed better then that of Abel bloode able to fetch out any stayne to wash of all offences and to render them sknowie white whom sinne had made cole-blacke so that this ISOPE this sopewort be applyed in a fitt tyme in a tyme capable of receauing this plentuous redemption Where are our thoughts ô my soule how doth not dread put vs into a traunce while sinne presents it selfe vnto our eyes what a monster must it needs be for whom so darksome a Dungeon and boisterous tempest is prepared and fince that God who is infinitly good is irreconciliably irritated against those reprobate soules How oft my poore heart haue we merited those horrible punishmēts wa st not as oft as we withdrew our selues from our dutie by mortall crimes sinthens all the Diuels there were damned for one sinne And are they not then so many singular obligations we haue to God who expected vs so long to repentance in not suffering his vengance to to take vs in the manure If we slile the Doctors who by their care and skill recouere vs out of a dangerous sicknesse our Esculapeses If a deliuerie out of prison draw such an obligation vpon vs towards the workers therof If a Princes grace doe so much ingage vs to him as likewise the fauour of being freed from fire or water to our deliuerers What shall we render to this good God who as often as we haue offended hath recouered vs frō death and death euerlasting Death whose torment doth far surpasse all that can be said or thought of it Propose vnto thy selfe ô my soule a thing that shall neuer happen according to the order of the Diuine Prouidence and Iustice though otherwise possible to him that can doe all that God had drawen out of this darke hole into which redemption enters not some one of the damned crue to giue him tyme of repentance for his sinns and consider what thankes he would render to his Creatour for so great a benefit and how well he would husband this precious tyme to regayne himselfe out of the midst of his dreadfull tortures Now my deare soule thou must needes haue lost all sense and iudgment if thou accnowledge not the benefit of preseruation to be no lesse then this imaginarie deliuerāce since it withdrawes thee from the same tormēts merited by so many faults Why doe not we then spend our selues in thankes giuing why are we negligēt in redeeming lost tyme sloathfull in running to the remedie of Penance The onely Table of safetie after the shipwrake of grace O God full of Goodnes who desires not the death of a sinner but his conuersion and life Ah! I begge this fauour of thee that at least I may performe some part of that which he would doe whom by thyne extraordinarie power and mercy without president thou migstest haue deliuered out of this Gulfe of horrour Ah! Lord I know this onely part would worke my whole penance for neuer would myne eylidds waxe dry the aples of myne eyes would euer swime in their fountaines night and day should I weepe My cheekes should alwayes be watered and my teares should be my dayly bread I would imbrace all sorts of exteriour and interiour sorow to auoyd those deuouring flammes and the eternall rageings of that abominable Mansion where thou art perpetually blasphemed O God my mercy Saue me from the Iawes of those roaring Lyons prepared for their prey Remoue me from before the sharpe hornes of those sauage Vnicornes Indew me ô Lord with the spirit of Compunction and Penance which is so necessarie to auoyde this Abisse And thou my soule why dost thou dwell vpon this thought of horrour why art thou vexed in it Lift vp thy heart and hope in the mercy of the Highest I thou shalt yet againe praise him the tyme of his mercy is not expired to thee He is the saluation of thy face and thy true God no no by his assistance and grace thou shalt beare no part in the abominable blasphemies of the region of the shadow of death but thou shalt be aggreable vnto him and shalt sing his prayses in the Land of the Liuing A passage to the blessed Eternitie XXXVIII HAppie land of the liuing Athanasia LAND OF PROMIS flowing with the milke and honie of Diuine fauours and blessings Land without thornes free from the captiuitie of IACOB How glorious things are reported of thee ô Citie of God! Sacred citie whose fundations are placed vpon the holy mountaines of Eternitie who art watered with an impetuous flood of felicitie and glorie and with torrents of celestiall delightes How louely are thy tabernacles O mansion of the God of vertues my soule and body doe swoone in the contemplation of thy wonders O Lord how happie are they who doe inhabite thy house◠they praise thee for euer and euer Blessed is he whō thou hast elected and receaued into thy armes he shall remayne for euer in the wishfull porches of thy heauenly Sion Certes Athanasia my heart changing this vnfortunate obiect wherin my pen was imployed in the precedent strokes to this other wholy delightfull one of the blessed Eternitie doth resent the same ioy which the Mariners doe experience when after a rough storme they meet with a calme the same alacritie which doth enlarge the victors hearts when after a dangerous battell they triumphe ouer their foes and diuide the plentuous spoyle Now it is that I may vsurpe the words of the Diuine Epithalamion Winter is past the raine and snow are blowen ouer and flowres begin to appeare in our land but flowres that are of fruite of honour and honestie admirable fruites of the Land of Promis There it is that God doth wipe away the teares of his saintes There are there no greiues or plaintes for all sortes of euils doe vanish in the presence of this vniuersall felicitie euen as shades doe disappeare in the light 's approach And as wine doth taste sweeter after bitter amandes and honie after the tast of wormeseed as deformitie doth raise the luster of an eminent beautie it being the propertie of contraries the one to aduance the other by their neighbourhood so after the harsh contemplation of so many astonishinge torments the splendour of the eternall glorie doth shine in myne eyes as a lightsome day following out an obscure night Such as doe exercise their Arts about fornaces are accustomed from tyme to tyme to releiue their weakned sight in beholding some pleasing table or to recreate them vpon some delightfull prospectiue Sweet light of
Yet the Saints who are in glorie whose faces are marked with his splendour and doe shine like the Sunne for perpetuall eternities are yet incomparably more liuely pictures of the Diuinitie For euen as the Sunne meeting with a thicke and darksome cloude in the aire doth sometymes so deeply imprint its beames vpon its face that it appeares another Sunne so are the Blessed in Heauen so transformed into God that they shewe as so many Gods and as so many dearest children of the Highest as DAVID deliuers it This excellent beautie with which the Diuine presence doth adorne them was cause that S. IOHN espying an Angell whom he tooke for God had adored him if that spirit no lesse humble then glorious bright had not giuen him to know that he was his fellow-seruant And in my opinion in this neere resemblance to God the verie toppe of the eternall glorie of the blessed is placed For what thinke you is God's owne glorie and felicitie but the life which he hath eternally of him selfe the most cleare knowledge which he hath of his immutable Truth and the most ardēt loue which he hath towards his owne infinite Goodnes His Beatitude consisting in the vision loue and fruition which the Diuine and increated Persons of the Blessed Trinitie haue of their owne mutuall knowledge Loue and eternall perfect and infinite complacence Now the soule of the Blessed being raysed to the vision loue and fruition of the same Diuine Persōs and of their Diuine and most indiuisible Essēce ought not her supernaturall and inineffable life by the resemblance which is betwixt her and God's felicitie to be said to be the accomplishment of her glorie since that without all feare of change she is wholy attentiue to the cleare contemplation of the prime and soueraigne Truth inflamed with the loue of the supreme and increated goodnes and hath the fruition of the infinite and vnspeakable sweetnes of God O truly liuing and happie life when shall it be that we shall liue in thee and by thee when shall we ô my soule inhabite this heauenly Hierusalem built as a Citie and with her glorious Citizens be made participant of him who is still himselfe immutable and whose yeares neuer decay Of the felicitie of the powres of the soule and first of the memorie XLV THis essentiall Beatitude Athanasia is extended and doth spread it selfe out yet diuersly in the lower degree of the soule to witt there wherin the three principall faculties or powres doe reside For euen as the Prophete to rayse the widowes deade child did shorten himselfe vpon this litle body and did apply his mouth to its mouth his hands to its hands and his feete to its feete So God who shall be all to all shall fill all the soule with the abundance of his bountie and shall cōmunicate vnto it a Diuine life which shall not feare the assaultes of death The memorie being entered into the liberties of our Lord shall call to mynd the effectes of his iustice and no lesse those of his mercy for she shall sing no neuer will I forgett thy iustifications ô Lord since in them thou hast giuen me life Fild with this rauishing and no lesse pressing then present obiect she shall breath out the remembrance of his sweetnes and shall exalt his adorable iudgements This remembrance shall be her soueraigne delight O how she shall call to mynd the sweetnes of the duggs of this incomparable goodnes farr passing the fuming wines of worldly delightes In how high a strayne shall she take the memorie of this supreme sanctitie Alas how can she forget him whom she hath so inwardly present and who shall be more in her then her selfe and to whom she shall be so strongly tyed in adauantine and diamantine chaynes that nothing shall euer be able to diuerte her Blessed memorie replenisht with the fairest Idea's that can possibly inhabit a heart and which then shall be a Magazine and memoriall of heauenly wonders whether she make reflection vpon things past how dearely shall she conserue the memorie of the incomparable obligations which she shall haue to this Creatour Conseruer Redeemour and Glorifier of her beeing Such as grace shall haue led from greatest sinns to repentance fauours before bounding where malice did superabound ô God! how highly shall they sing the sacred Canticle of the Diuine mercy And those who by the same grace shall haue conserued the first stole of their innocencie and being preserued from the abomination of desolation whose deluge doth ouerflowe the whole vniuerse shall haue bene drawen to the safe harbour of saluation by the chaynes of loue and humanitie will not they haue reason to beare a part in the fame Canticle and to pronounce that that mercy which conserued them vnstayned amidest the worlds impurities is a portion of that which is eternally grounded and built in Heauē The royall Prophete calling to mynd out of what an Abisse of miseries the Diuine goodnes had reclaymed him recalling him so sweetly to the accnowledgment of his faults coniures his soule and all his interiour powres to blesse God exciting his memorie neuer to permitt his benefites to fall into a disloyall obliuion for he it is that pardons saith he all thyne infirmities who cures all thy wounds who recouers thee from eternall death and who crownes thee with his mercyes O God what must this King of penitents needs say in heauen if he spoke thus in this vaile of teares reduced by a holy repentance from his iniquities to the state of grace When the Saintes whom God hath pardoned many faultes for there are in Heauē penitent sinners of all kinds shall see them selues deliuered from the innumberable torments which they contemplate in the accursed Eternitie and which they had as oft deserued as by their malice they had bene separated from God will they not haue great reason to say with the Psalmist Thy mercy ô Lord and thy iustice shall for euer be the subiect of our song vpon this shall our Psalme-singing be imployed whilst we walke in this immaculate way in which thou hast put vs. And if the memorie of paynes and perills past euen in this world be so delightfull how much more shall the Saintes and martyrs who haue suffered much for the Almighties sake haue cause to reioyce in this memorie While they walked in the way of this mortall life they sowed in teares but in the heauenly Sion they shall reape an eternall ioy They shall sing this pleasant Song We haue past through fire and water but in the end we are entred into refreshment And they shall blesse those light and transitorie moments of tribulation which brought them to eternall glorie And if their memorie doe stay vpon the present felicitie which they feele and of which they haue a liuely sense with what contentment shall they not be crowned in tasting the ineffable goodnes of God who rewards them infinitely beyond their merits Yea if they enlarge themselues vpon the
and bracelets are tokens of loue whose true proofe is the worke saith S. GREGORIE and is not the worke signified by the arme and hand the principall instruments of operation Now in euery well-ordered marriage the Bride receaues some dowrie of the Bridegroome whervpon in this great Sacrament of IESVS CHRIST and his Church and the faithfull Soule which is a member of this Church the misticall body of our Sauiour the Doctors doe assigne dowries to the soule which enters into Glorie according to that doctrine of ISAIE our Lord hath clothed me with garments of saluation and hath adorned me with a chayne as his Spouse And that of S. IOHN in his Apocalipse who compares the triumphant Hierusalem to a Bride well deckt being so adorned by her spouse And touching those dowries in particular they reduce them to three heades conformably to the three powres of the Soule and to the three Diuine vertues which God infuseth herebelow into the hearts of the faithfull Faith Hope and Charitie For they say that the Memorie is endowed with the possession of God which doth referre to Hope The vnderstanding with vision or knowledge in reward of Faith and the Will with the Diuine Fruition in recompence of Charitie This is the triple band which in Heauen shall inseparably tye vs to God a heauenly band which can neuer be broken Touching the qualities of the glorified bodies LIV. LEt 's now make a passage Athanasia from the interiour to the exteriour from the felicitie of the Soule to that of the body and let vs say that to those dowries which I haue deciphered in the former stroke admirable qualities shall be adioyned which without distroying the beeing of the bodie shall worke wonderfull changes and make them far more noble then they are in this mortall life We shall all rise againe saith the Apostle that is as well the Elect as the Reprobate but all shall not experience this happie change for the bodies of the dāned shall remayne passible heauie grosse and darke but the bodies of the Blessed shall become impassible subtile light and resplendant And to these foure qualities it is that the Doctors haue reduced the dowries of the glorious bodies Impassibilitie is a qualitie which shall make the body of an incorruptible temper not obnoxious to change exempt from hungar thrist cold heate greife infirmitie and from euery thing that can subiect vs to death or paine Glorified bodies cannot burne nor suffer in the fire nor be drowned in the water In a word nor can the tooth of Tyme nor any other force distroye them They shall enioy a continuall youth like to a flowre that cannot fade a vigorous health against which sicknesse can attempt nothing a qualitie of the heauenly bodies that suffer no alteratiō Which made the Apostle say that that which was sowen in corruption he meanes the corps layed in the graue shall ryse incorruptible and that which is mortall shall put-on immortalitie And againe the dead shall rise to incorruption The second dowrie is subtiltie which shall indewe the body as it were with a spirituall qualitie I doe not say that it shall become spirit for that is the errour of some auncient Heretikes refuted by S. AVGVSTINE in his bookes of the Citie of God nor yet that the glorious body shall be made aire an Heresie which S. GREGORIE in his Morales ascribes to EVTICHIVS Bishope of Constantinople but I say its subtiliti◠shall be so great that it shall passe through another body as through Heauen and earth which the Maisters tearme Penetration of dimensions And of this dowrie is vnderstoode that of the Apostle this sensible body shall rise againe spirituall that is resembling the spirit in sundrie things yet in such a spiritualitie as shall not depriue it of its palpabilitie according to that saying of our Sauiour to his disciples after his resurrection touch and see a spirit hath nether flesh nor bones as you see me haue And the same Sauiour did shew the subtiltie of his glorious body while he issued out of his Tombe not opening it and entred into the Hall where the Apostles were the gates being shutt The third qualitie shall be an incredible Agilitie and such as S. AVGVSTINE teacheth that the body shall be where the Spirit desireth not that this motion saith S. THOMAS is performed in an instant and without a meane but that the swiftnes of the passage shall be in a sort imperceptible and like to that of fire or lightning as saith the wiseman For the rest saith ISAIE they run without labour and trauell as far as they list without being wearie at all because this body sowen in infirmitie shall rise againe saith the Apostle in such vigour a vigour which S. THOMAS takes for Agilitie or Mobilitie that it shall be indefatigable and shall performe in a smale tyme an incredible iorney The fourth and most noble dowrie shall be Brightnes of which it is said in S. MATHEW that the Iust shall shine like the Sunne in the Kingdome of their heauenly Father and againe that they should flie like sparkes as it is in the wiseman And S. PAVLE writing to the Corinthians assures them that that which is sowen in infirmitie shall rise vp in glorie that is in brightnes according to S. THOMAS his interpretation grounding vpon the same Apostle who saith presently after as one starre differs from another in brightnes so shall the glorious bodies differre after their resurrection And the same Apostle speaking to the Philippians tells thē that our Lord will reforme the body of our humilitie and will cōforme it to his brightnes a brightnes wherof he gaue a proofe in his Transfiguration vpon the Mount-Thabor of his Agilitie by walking vpon the waters of his subtiltie in his birth and of his impassibilitie escapeing often tymes without hurt out of the hands of the Iewes who one while would stone him at another tyme would throw him headlōg downe while as yet the tyme of his suffering death for our sake was not arriued The pleasure of the Senses LV. THe glorious bodie being in this sort as it were transformed by the foure qualities which I haue touched in the former stroke O Athanasia iudge you how exquisite the pleasures of the senses shall be which they shall enioy in Organes so perfectly well disposed It is a delightfull question in Diuinitie to know whether the dowrie of impassibilitie shall exclude the act of the senses which S. THOMAS deneyes by no lesse solide then subtile arguments and shewes contrariwise that the perfection of those qualities shall render the pleasures of the Senses more pure and their delightes more excellēt He seemes to make some exception of the Sēse of tasteing for that the Kingdome of Heauen being nether meate nor drinke but ioy and Peace in the Holy Ghost and the beatified body stāding in no neede of foode to sustaine it he thinkes that this Sense made to relish meates remaynes vnprofitable and he would
fire wheeles gibbets swords haire-shirts disciplines austerities and whither the King of Saints entred by sufferaâ—nces O miserable bodie too delicate a member to liue vnder a Heade crowned with thornes and wholy couered with blood Tell me accursed carcasse and victime of death what priuiledge thou pretendst that thou darst presume by a manifest iâ—iustice wallowing in soft lux and delicacies to enter into a Kingdome all whose gates are made with Crosses in a Paradice where none enters that is not pearced with the firâ—e sword of a louing mortification Heare this doome or rather this thunder clapp ô my body and thou ô my soule If thou dost not mortifie with the spirit the actions of sensualitie thou shalt die marrie if thou mortifiest them thou shalt liue And againe mortifie your meÌ„bers which are vpon earth and carrie still in your body the mortification of IESVS CHRIST so shall you be as dead but to th' end you may liue eternally Of the Aureola LVII BEsides the essentiall Glorie which the Blessed shall enioy Athanasia in the sight of the Soueraigne well-beloued in the loue of the Soueraigne well-seene the Diuines doe note certaine accidentall ones and as it were accessorie to the prime and principall which they haue named Aureolas grounding vpon a passage of Exodus where there is command giuen to make a litle crowne called Aureola ouer the Arke bisides the crowne of gold with which it was to be wholy inuironed Now this Aureola doth chiefely reside in the soule albeit by a certaine rebounding saith S. THOMAS as also DENIS THE CARTHVSIAN and ouerswelling it breakes out and spreads it selfe ouer all the bodie and doth euen outwardly appeare with a certaine peculiar grace And if Essentiall Glorie be different according to the diuers degrees of Charitie and merite this accidentall of which we speake shall be varied following the varietie of labours and victories For as there is diuision of graces so is there of rewards to Ordinarily these Aureolae are diuided into three kindes wherof one is attributed to MARTYRES who haue conquered the world the second to VIRGINES who haue surmounted sensualitie the third to DOCTORS who by their learning haue defeated the Artes and errours of the Prince of darknesse And if these Aureolae be compared together the comon consent giues the first rancke and preeminencie to Martyrdome for there is no greater charitie then to giue ones life for that which he loues Neuer durst any saith S. AVGVSTINE preferre Virginitie before Martyrdome Chastitie being but a lent martyrdome wheras to die in torments is a violent one A second is giuen to virgines who follow the Lambe where euer he goes clothed in white stoles The third to Doctors who were the salte of the earth the light of the world and the Lampes of Israel And when I say the Aureola shall be giueÌ„ vnto Doctors I nether vnderstand the learned nor those that shall onely haue taken the degree of Doctor ship in earth and buried their Talent and hid their Lampe vnder the Bushall For such Doctors shall enioy in Heauen the simple guife of Charitie onely a thing common with the rest of the Elect for as DANIEL saith they shall be bright as the Firmament But such as shall instruct others in the way of saluation and rightuousnes shall sparkle and shine as glorious strarrs in perpetuall Eternities Those then it is that haue taught and communicated to the ignorant sound and wholsome doctrine who shall carrie away the Aureola of Doctors For as he is not crowned who hath onely the abilitie and strength to fight and vanquish but he that in effect doth fight and ouercome the enemy according to that none shall be crowned but such as haue lawfully fought so those onely that had knowledge made others participant of it shall partake of the Aureola of Doctors according to that of the Ghospell he that shall teach and doe what is good shall be called great in the Kingdome of Heauen Some vnderstand those words of the Apocalipse of this Aureola I will bestow on him that shall ouercome a hidden Manna and a white stone wherin shall be grauen a new name which none shall know but he that receaues it and that of ISAIE speaking of the Continent vnder the name of Eunukes I will giue them a Mansion within the compasse of the walls of my house and an excellent name amongst the childreÌ„ of men As then here below in earth men are ordinarily distinguished by their clothes so shall those three bands haue some particular signe or marke which shall make them notable amongst the rest of the Blessed The Blessed societie of the Elect. LVIII ANd if an auncient Philosopher Athanasia following comon sense said that felicitie is not full and accomplished without societie what compainie is comparable to that which the Blessed inioy in Glorie Though God be sole and one in Essence yet hath he societie in the distinctions of persons and thence is not solitarie in his Beatitude What shall it be to behold the Societie of the three Diuine persons vnited together in the vnitie of their beeing yea euen to be vnited to this high Societie in the band of Charitie which is that of perfection what shall it be to be associated to the humanitie of IESVS CHRIST our brother according to Flesh as he was Sonne of man which for our sake he tooke vpon him whence we are made children of God and if children heires and if heires of God coheires of IESVS CHRIST in the inheritance of Glorie O how happie shall they be who are inrowled into the holy FELLOWSHIPE of IESVS CHRIST and made partaker of his heauenly and Diuine conuersation And if it be written that euen in this world he that is in Charitie remaynes in God and God in him and that he that keepes the Commandements is made the Tabernacle and lodginge of the three persons of the Sacred TRINITIE what are we to say of the state of consummated Grace which is Glorie where Charitie is compleate O Diuine Societie And if after the Diuinitie and humanitie of our Sauiour we turne the ey of our consideration vpon the admirable beautie of her who is the holy of Holyes yea the MOTHER of the holy of Holyes and who next vnto God to whom is due the worshipe of Latria we honour with Hyperdulia what could be imagined more rauishing since she is the mother of that verie Sonne who was eternally begotteÌ„ in the splendour of Saintes in the breast of the eternall Father were it not a spareing speach to attire her with the Sunne to make the Moone her footstoole and starrs her crowne yes verily since her Sonne and her God are her great crowne and incomparable ioy according to that of the wiseman a vertuous Sonne is the crowne and ioy of his Father and Mother And from this qualitie of MOTHER OF GOD which is in some sorte infinite there rebouÌ„ds in her such an abundance of grace that she is not
which passe betwixt those heauenly inhabitants No for all their pretentions being one and their imployments being wholy about that one necessarie thing of that Marie's best Parte which shall neuer be taken from her their connection is rather to be tearmed an vnitie then an vnion since in them is accomplished that excellent word of our Sauiours beseeching his heauenly Father that such as follow and beleeue in him should be one as he and his eternall Father is one So shall all their desires be filled with perfect vnitie which is God and all their thoughtes meeting in that vnitie the Diuine Spouse by good reason may say to that holy assemblie his owne misticall bodie My Sister my Spouse thou hast wounded and borne away my Heart in one onely of thy heires For as a woman that doth graspe and gather together in her hand her long tresses makes them all end in one onely haire so all those elected troopes hauing but one onely desire which is to please God the louing heart of this God all of fire and which is Charitie it selfe can it possibly but be pleased in this their preparation of mynd From this perfect vnion doth arise the excellencie of a compleate Communitie which is the true and consummated Cōmunion of Saintes A Communion by which each one in his owne person doth possesse God and his Kingdome with such peace and so exquisite a Charitie that not the least apprehension of any partialitie can enter into their hearts There shall all proprietie be left and of the contrarie side there shall be so bountifull a communication that those that are highest seated in glorie are full of affection towards the lowest and as far forth as they are able make them participant of their abundance and the lowest againe shall as much reioyce in the exaltation of the highest as in their owne for in this perfect Communitie myne and thine shall be giuen ouer each ones particular good belonging to all and the goods of all belonging to each one in particular each one reioycing as much in an others good as in his owne by reason of the great Charitie which shall be infused into their hearts by the holy Ghost Hence they are all cōtinually sett at one table fedd with the same substance the Diuinitie drinking in the same cup eternall delightes imployed in the same exercises seruing one and the same Maister and that with the same spirit who being in all and being all in all he vnites them all together by vniting them all to himselfe This sacred band of the Diuinitie and this Charitie of God tying and vniting them together adornes this happie Societie with another excellencie which is that of Peace and Concord Peace of God which passeth all vnderstanding and which doth connect them together like vnto the graines of a Pungranade which appeare when it is cutt open to which the holy Spouse in the Canticles cōpares the redde cheekes of the Church his Spouse And if the word concord come from the vnion or agreement of heartes how should not they be vnited who haue one onely heart and that quickned with one onely soule all their hearts being set on God their onely Treasure and their adhering to that onely principle of all Good making them one verie spirit with God As concerning the Peace which followes this Cōcord as the beames the Sunne it is the very name of this higher Hierusalē which signifies VISION OF PEACE and of which it is written that it is bounded with peace And in ISAIE that God doth visite it in peace and in peace which can neuer be changed or troubled with any dissention because Gods absolute commāde shall find an absolute submission in all their hearts In that heauenly Citie saith S. AVGVSTINE CHARITIE is the Soueraigne LAW TRVTH the QVEENE PEACE the FELICITIE ETERNITIE the LIFE therof There shall be a true peace and such an one as shall neuer be trauersed by any a peace which passeth all delight From that Peace springs a serenitie of mynd a trāquillitie of heart a band of Loue a communication of Charitie and a rest in God which can neuer be changed So speaks that Great Doctor of that eternall Peace which the world nether giues nor indeed knowes A continuation of the excellencies LXI BVt Athanasia should I be able to conceale the excellencie of the beautie of that holy compaignie ô cryes out the wiseman how beautifull is the chaste and faire generation truely the memorie therof shall be immortall before God and mā If he affirmed this of earthly families who liue in honour what may be said of the generation of the Blessed which shall be crowned with eternall benedictions How should the Angells and Elect choose but be faire since their soules shall be decked with all the ornaments of vertues and their bodies inriched with the glorious qualities which before we haue declared There can be no stayne vpō them for nothing that is defiled or is imperfect can enter into this Sanctuarie of Eternitie And if MARDOCHEVS litle foūtaine became an Ocean of light what beautie can the Elect want who are vnited to the fountaine of all that faire or good is which is he whose essence is verie Beautie and Goodnes And who rules in heauen by the sweete and delightfull Empire of his incōparable beautie No Athanasia if all the beauties which doe sparkle in the whole world were gathered together I except nether the Sūne nor the Starrs they would be in no sort comparable to the least grace of the Elect. Iudge then what a shine of beauties must needs arise from so innumerable a number of so different beauties that some Doctors haue proceeded so far as to say that all the Angells are of a different species ô God what numberlesse species of beauties And as touching the diuersitie of humane sisages it is so visible euen in this world that it needs no other proofe but experience And what diuersitie of beauties shall there be in the diuers quires of Angells and the diuers degrees of the Blessed Let vs make an end without ending for who knowes not that a Draught though neuer so perfect in the nature of a Draught is yet but an imperfect picture and let vs giue the last touch to these excellencies by that which may be called the excellencie of Excellencies of this Blessed Societie It is that it shall be endowed with all the perfectiōs which grace and glorie can shewre downe vpon creatures For sith Beatitude is a perfect collection of all kind of good things why shall we not also affirme that those that doe enioy it are by consequence possessed of all the perfections which might in any sort perfect this felicitie Now though soueraigne and essentiall Beatitude as well that of this life as of the life to come doth not consiste in any created good and consequently nether in Honours Riches nor Pleasures the three Classes to which are reduced euery good be it honorable profitable or delightfull
shall be crowned but such as haue lawfully fought And if we be taken with the greatnes of the reward let vs not be amaysed with the paines we are to vndergoe in obtayning it We must still goe forward and without looking back ouer our shoulders we must perseuere in the way If the roughnesse of the way affright vs let the consideration of Eternitie our end and contrie encourage and comfort vs. Another flight of mynd LXIII IF after the wings of a doue which the successour of the Sōne of a doue S. PETER hath now lent thee thou wilt take those of the Eagle who builds his nest in high places but of an Eagle which is able fixedly to behold the Sonne and who neuer stoopes from his winge of whom can you better borrow them ô my soule then of that greate Doctor who holds the same ranke amongst the Fathers of the Church that S. IOHN holds amongst the Euangelists and who is that great Eagle which is nourished with the sappe of the Cedars of Libanus You will easely imagine that I speake of S. AVGVSTINE Let vs borrow then this second flight of that superlatiue witt in these no lesse affectionate then sublime tearmes If you were saith he euery day to suffer extreame torments yea euen for a longe space to support the tortures of Hell to behold IESVS CHRIST in his glorie and to be admitted into the Societie of his Saintes for so great a good were not all sufferances I will not say supportable but euen desireable Let then the Diuel lay Ambush for vs let him prouide temptations let fasting breake our bodie let our flesh be ouercharged with austerities let labours oppresse vs let watchings drie vs vp let this man torment me let that man persequute me let me be frosen with cold scorched with heate let heade breake in peeces heart ake contenāce waxe wāne let me become wholy abiect let my life pine away with greife and the yeares of my life in gronings let my bones rott it imports not so I find repose in the day of tribulation he vnderstands the day of generall iudgment and that I may rise againe amongst the Elect. For who can conceaue what shall be the glorie of the iust how greate the ioy of Saintes when their faces shall shine like the Sunne when the Sauiour of the world shall number his people of acquisition and shall range them into diuers orders in the house of his eternall Father rēdring to euery one according to their merits and giuing heauenly things for terreane things eternall for temporall There saith the same Doctor in auther place the Angelicall troopes make a rauishing musike there is keepe a feaste of a perpetuall solemnitie with such as doe dayly arriue departing out of their mortall pilgrimage There are seene the Compainie of PROPHETES the assemblie of the APOSTLES is manifested there there the inuincible Armies of MARTIRES are discouered There is the holy congregation of CONFESSORS there the Quire of venerable MVNKES there that of DEVOVTE WOMEN who at once ouercame the weaknesse of their owne sexe and the delightes of the world There the young VIRGINS elder in vertue then in yeares there are the sheepe and tender lambes that haue escaped out of the iawes of the wolues and from the inueigling snares of this life whence they doe now celebrate a perpetuall feaste and though their glorie be different yet is their ioy comon There Charitie raigneth in her full perfection for vnto them God is all in all whom they behold and loue without end or intermission whom in louing they doe praise and in praysing doe loue and all this without wearinesse or trauaile at all O my soule how happie thou shouldst be if being deliuered out of the prison of this wretched body thou mightest be thought worthy to heare the sacred songs of that celestiall harmonie and the praises of the eternall King of that glorious Empire sung in an admirable aire O how accomplished should thy honour and glorie be for so it would come to thy turne to entone that gracious Alleluia which is in the mouth of all the Elect. Let vs yet add that iert of the wing or rather stroke of the same Fathers Pen before we conclude these flightes and eiaculations of mynd From this sacred Residence all feare of pouertie is banished all weaknes miserie infirmitie none there is angerie none doth enuie his neighbours happinesse none stands in need of eating or drinking There is no ambition nor desire to be great There is no apprehension nor of Hell nor Diuell nor yet of death of body or soule Contrariwise there is a life full of alacritie through the assurance they haue of immortalitie Disorder can haue no footing there where all things are maintayned in a constant Peace and conserued in a perfect concord Ioyne to all this the pleasure there is to liue in the compaignie of ANGELLS to enioy the gratefull conuersation of all those excellent and sublime SPIRITS and to behold the Armies of Saintes more bright thē the starrs of Heauē To contemplate the Sanctitie of PATRIARKES the Hope of PROPHETES the Crowne of MARTYRES the white and flowrie Garland of VIRGINES And as for the SOVERAIGNE KING who keepes his Residence in the midst of that glorious people what tongue is able to speake his praise That bird of Paridice which hāgs still in the aire doth she not intimate vnto vs by her ingenious hanging the incōceaueable greatnesse of that glorie Eternitie is the fulnesse of Beatitude LXIV BVt in fine Athanasia if you wilt see the garlād and crowne of this glorie adorned with so many bright precious stones you must fixe your eyes vpon its Eternitie for if all those glorious aduantages could end amidst all those felicities one would be accompaigned with a misfortune which would distaste all his ioy and would make him resemble the great-ones of the earth who amidst all the honours which Politike Idolatrie doth sacrifice vnto them are cōtinually stung with the thought of death which shall in the end mow them downe euen like vnto other men and burying them in dust shall equalise their Scepters with hatchets Kings with all their Powre escape not its dart nor doe Giants with all their force auoyd it Herein appeares Origen's errour who walking vpon the wings of the wind perished like to that old Milo Crotoniensis by his owne strength while he was of opinion that the Elect after a long residence in Heauen should fall at length from that felicitie like as he had held before that the paines of the dāned should not be eternall one absurditie drawing on another An errour excellently well refuted by S. AVGVSTINE in his bookes of the Citie of God as also by the Angell of the Schoole An errour in fine which aimes at the ruine of the immortalitie of the soule which is more then a bestiall blindnesse And certes besides that in a thousand places of holy Scriptures the life of the Elect in Heauen is
haue these two winges nothing shall be able to hinder our flight towards the blessed Eternitie the heauēly Hierusalem the mother of the liuing Water shut vp in a narrow pipe doth spirte vp so much the higher The narrow way of sufferances is that which doth make spring vp in vs the fountaine of life which doth run towards Eternitie All the scripture cryes out this truth vnto vs who so euer will come after me to witt to glorie let him take vp his Crosse and follow me saith our Sauiour Happie is he who suffers tribulation for being once tryed he shall receaue the crowne of life which God hath promised to those that loue him And who are those that loue him but whom he doth chastise and whom he doth clothe with the liuerie of sufferances Because thou wast agreeable in Gods sight it was necessarie that affliction should try thee was it said to the good TOBIE Are not the Iust tryed like gold in the furnace to discouer whether they be worthy of God What Christians can be ignorant of this decree which was written with the blood of the Lambe vpon the threshwood of their dores That we are to enter into the Kingdome of Heauen through many tribulations And that all those that would liue piously in IESVS CHRIST must endure the scourge of persecutions to be found wheate worthy to be layed vp in the Granarie of Eternitie For which cause S. IAMES doth exhort the faithfull to reioyce in their afflictions knowing that patience is the proofe of their Faith and that the worke of Patience is perfect that is doth perfect him that doth it Tribulation saith the Apostle worketh patience and Patience probation and probation Hope and such a hope as confoundeth not in its expectation Though we are now for a smale tyme to be afflicted with many tribulations yet it is that the tryall of our Faith may appeare more precious then gold before the face of God who according to his great mercy doth regenerate vs by a liuely hope to possesse the heauēly inheritance which cannot be corrupted nor changed Then we shall behold we shall admire and the plentie of good things shall dilate our heart Then with an incredible ioy we shall be drunke vp in God our SALVATION Then the teares shall be wiped from the eyes of the Elect they shall weepe no more greife and paine shall no more tormēt them because all that is blowen ouer that is to say they entered not into those eternall Bowres but through the fires and waters of tribulation Truly he were iustly reputed an vnworthy soldier who would desire to gaine victorie better cheape then his Capitaine and how did our Capitaine and Law giuer IESVS CHRIST enter into the glorie which was due vnto him by nature was it not by sufferance Let vs behold then the Exemplaire of the mountaine but the mountaine of Caluarie before we take into our consideration that of Thabor Let vs looke vpon the Authour and Comsummatour of our faith IESVS CHRIST who choosed to vndergoe the Crosse while glorie was proposed vnto him Let vs imitate the Apostle who was so loyall to his Maister that he bore in his bodie the stigmates and markes of his crucified Lord. O how ioyfull the Apostles were when it happened that they were to endure something for the loue of CHRIST knowing what an eternall waight of glorie that sufferance treasured vp in heauen for them And if the Asserians vpon the sight of IVDITH's beautie did comfort themselues in the extreamities of that seige with the hope they had to enioy the faire creatures who were in the Citie What extreamities of miseries were we not willingly to endure to be possessed of the inestimable felicities which we haue represented If by labours saith S. AVGVSTINE it must be atchiued from this instant I inuoke you ô all yee torments of the world I coniure you to burst out vpon my head and shewre downe a mayne vpon me Let tribulations be multiplied and presse in troopes vpon me let infirmities vexations pouertie want aduersitie make head against and oppresse me Let euery one persecute me let all creatures bandie against me let me be the Butt of all their arrowes let me be the scorne of men and the reproach of people let my dayes be ended in pinching paines yet will I bee too content so that after this sharpe winter I may gather the flowres of the eternall Spring and that I may be rancked amongst the Elect who are bright with beames of Glorie I cannot be weaned from the plentifull and yndraynable dugges of this great and fruitefull Doctour without suckinge a long draught to giue some colour and life to this Draught of myne Marke then how he doth encourage vs to sufferances for the attayning of Eternitie If we diligently ponder the reward that is proposed vnto vs all that we suffer will seeme litle and light and we shall repute our paines vnworthy of so great a recompence For is it not true that we should buy eternall rest at a iust Rate though we were to pay a perpetuall labour for it and to purchase an eternall felicitie at the price of an eternall sufferance Marrie if you were imployed in an eternall labour when would you come to an eternall reward O the eternall Goodnesse who hath made our tribulation temporall and yet to this passing paine he hath alotted an endlesse pleasure Place a thousand thousand yeares before-Eternitie and yet what doe you doe but compare a limited with an illimited thing Adde to this that God did not onely prefixe a certaine tearme to our labours but that a short one to for what is the life of man but the continuance of a few dayes Though a man therfore were oppressed for the whole course of his life with all sortes of torments labours greeues though prisons hungar thirst and irkesome vlcers should accompaignie him to his graue were it not yet an affliction of a short standing the dayes of man are few in number his labours short and light and yet are followed with an endlesse Kingdome with an eternall Beatitude After these short sufferances we shall be possessed of the Societie of Angells and Saintes the inheritance of IESVS CHRIST God him selfe an inestimable price for so smale a labour Wherfore saith he in another place let vs loue eternall life and let vs learne how much we are to labour for it by the exemple of those who doe passionately loue this mortall life fearing to loose it for when any sicknesse begins to threaten them death what doe they not doe I doe not say to escape it for that is not possible but onely for a tyme to protract deathes fatall blow How much doth a man strugle when death doth catch him by the necke to escape out of its clawes he flies he hides him self and giues all that doth possesse to keepe his bodie in possession of his soule At the price of all his fortunes he is readie to ransome his life
If he be feircely sicke he freely endures all the paines that the Surgeons putt him to he obeyes the Doctours order takes downe the bitterest pill in the Apothecaries shope he nether grugheth price nor paine so he may escape the graue he is willing to consume all his substance to prolonge for some few moments more his consumeing life and yet to liue eternally how few are willing to endure a litle discommoditie But if worldlings prolonge their miserable dayes with so much instance vigilancie precausion prodigalitie paine and torment what ought not they to doe whose braue and generous myndes eye nothing that is lesse then Eternitie And if they be esteemed prudent who spare nothing to conserue a miserable mortall life how imprudēt must they needs be who for an immortall one will vse no sort of violēce nether against their body nor soule A continuation of the former discourse LXVI VErily vnlesse the graine of wheate falling into the ground die it selfe remayneth alone and fruitlesse And vnlesse we doe mortifie our selues here below there is litle appearance and yet lesse hope that we shall liue euerlastingly in Heauen In the building of SALOMONS Temple there was no noyse heard of hammars nor saw because the timber was disposed and fitted by Carpenters in the Forrest and the stones were cut and pollished in the Quarries so that being led vnto the Mount-Sion it rested onely to applie them It is the like of the vnited stones wherof the heauenly Hierusalem is built to witt the Elect out of the Quarrie of this world they were to be sent readie and so to be disposed in their places in that TEMPLE OF PEACE For which cause some of them haue bene sawen cut carued holed burnt wounded with swords that they might be applied to that eternall building for they are the structure and building of God saith the Apostle No there is no other passage to this TEMPLE of VERTVE but through the GATE OF LABOVR And the Kingdome of Heauen is promised onely in the Sermō which our Sauiour made of Beatitude to the humble of heart and persecuted that is to such as suffer tribulations The Kings coyne with which letters of exchange are payed in that Contrie are Labours and the Saintes doe repose in their labours for there their workes doe sollow them And if a woman with child saith the holy Gospell doe patiently endure the panges of childbirth which are so extreamely violent for the ioy she hath to bring forth a reasonable creature into this miserable world what paines then ought we to feare so our bodie be happily deliuered of our soule to Eternitie and that when our house of clay shall be demolished we may find one in heauen build not with the hand of man but with God's owne hand wherin we shall liue inhabit and bee for euer And if the labours of winter and summer and the length of a plainefull seruice was reputed as nothing of IACOB being pricked on by the loue be bore to RACHEL who will not to be impatient at the short and light labours of this life while he hath Eternitie before his eyes Goe to then saith a Prophete le ts take courage and let not our armes repose for a great reward is promised to good actions Worke faithfully what thou art able while tyme is lent thee to labour Behold the reward and nothing will seeme painefull vnto thee I haue giuen my heart to the Diuine iustificatiōs saith the Psalmist in respect of the reward promised them For the reward of such as keepe Gods law is great Know you not saith the great Apostle that many runne in the race all runne indeede but one receaueth the Price And they certes that they may receaue a corruptible crowne but we run in the race of vertue for an immortall and incorruptible crowne Le ts so runne that we may obteyne Those saith the same Doctour of the Crosse that are afflicted are disposed therby to great rewards and if they be tryed by God it is to th' end they may be worthy to haue a part with him and that he may with his owne hand bestow vpon them a Kingdome of honour and a diademe of beautie For God crownes his Elect with glorie and honour and doth establish them aboue all the workes of his hands Let vs not therfore be discouraged saith S. PAVLE for we haue not as yet resisted sinne nor fought to blood we that are not ignorant that our Guide IESVS CHRIST entered not into the Sanctuarie of Eternitie by meanes of the blood of sheepe and goates but by powreing out his owne at that price obtaineing for vs an eternall redemption But I here heape vp proofes in confirmation of a truth which euen Nouices in Christian discipline cannot doubt of Let vs therfore stay our stepps and shut vp this first meanes in these golden words of S. AVGVSTINE O soule what I haue is vendible consider whether you will buy it And what hast thou to sell ô Lord Rest saith he buy it At what rate saith the soule the price therof is Labour But what labour is required for an endlesse rest If you will make a iust valuation an eternall labour is due to an eternall peace T' is true indeede yet feare not ô soule God is mercifull he knowes well that if thou wert eternally to labour for this pourchase thou shouldst neuer attayne vnto the promissed and desired rest and therfore that thou mightst attayne it he will not haue thy labour to be eternall not that the Eternitie of glorie would not deserue it but that thou mightest be sure to beare it It is worth an eternall and yet is bought for a temporall labour In an other place the same Father doth enlarge and continue this consideration When eternall life saith he is promissed vs let vs place before our eyes a life exempt frō all the tormoyles and troubles which we taste in this and thou shalt more happily find out the calamities and miseries which are not to be found in that blessed life then thou canst the infinite blesse wherwith it is replenished he would say that as God so it is better knowen by negation then affirmation And yet wonderfull Mercy this inestimable fauour is to be sold If thou wilt thou maist buy it nor art thou to be troubled how to procure wherwithall to pay It is not worth more then thou hast or rather respects not at all what thou hast but onely what thou art This Eternitie is worth thyselfe and yet worth no more then thou art giue thy selfe and t is thyne Why dost thou dodge why dost thou stand vpon the price Dost thou apprehend that to make the payment thou art to be sold indeed no thou art not pay thy selfe such as thou art and the purchase is made Alas I am poore and miserable wilt thou say nor shall I be receaued as currant money But I dare assure thee that in freely giuing thy selfe thou wilt become good coyne for to giue ones
we loue him not and complaynes that he is made a solitude in Israel and that he is not beloued and that the wayes of the eternall Sion weepe that none doe frequent their solemnities Let vs therfore goe with confidence to the Throne of his Grace if we desire to haue part in his Glorie Let vs permit him to wash the feete of our affections if we will with S. PETER haue Societie with him This God then who is an essentiall Charitie doth not onely permit vs to loue him but euen commands it and that vnder paine of death death euerlasting The first and greatest of his Commandements is all of the Loue we owe him This loue did once vnite the Diuine and humane nature in the Person of the WORD and did so farre exinanite the eternall Sonne of the eternall Father as to become man to take vpon him the forme of a seruant to appeare in earth and to be conuersant with men A loue which may well rayse man towards God since it could bring God downe to man A loue the band of perfection which vnites the equall and doth equalise such as it doth vnite A Loue which hauing once personally vnited as S. AVGVSTINE saith the light of the Diuinitie to the clay of our mortalitie is able to eleuate our desires euen vnto God and make vs participant of the Diuine nature which is done by Charitie infused into our hearts by the Holy Ghost It is this Diuine Loue which separating our affections not onely from dangerous and superfluous things but euen from things which are not euil yet are subiect to be loued with excesse and with too strong and inordinate a passion shall make vs behold all created things in God and will so gouerne our inclinatiōs that we shall affect no creature but in God for God and according to God wherin consisteth the perfect practise of that Diuine Cōmandement which commands vs to loue God with all our heart with all our soule with all our spirit with all our strength and euen aboue all things For a soule that is come to this degree of perfection that she loues nothing but in God and God in all things in proper speach loues not many things nor is not in the folicitude inseparable from the multiplicitie of louely obiects but she loues but one onely thing which is God the one true necessarie thing and out of whom all is but miserie and affliction of spirit And because in all that which the order of Charitie proposeth vnto her to be loued she loues God alone she loues him equally in all and as couragiously in her enemy as tēderly in her friend because she loues him onely out of all other things and without all other things but nothing at all without him or out of him If it be ESTHER alone that ASSVERVS loueth saith my blessed Father in his Theotime why should he loue her more when she is parfumed and adorned then when she is in her comon attire If it be our Sauiour onely that a soule loueth why should she not as well loue the Mount-Caluarie as Thabor sith he is as truly in the one as the other and why should she not pronounce as cordially in the one as in the other It is Good for vs to be here She can loue our Sauiour in Egipt without louing Egipt why then shall she not loue him in the banquet of SIMON the LEPROVS without louing the banquet And if she loue him amidst the blasphemies which are vomited out against him without louing the blasphemies why shall she not loue him parfumed with MAGDELAINES precious oyntments without louing the parfumes or smells It is a true signe that one loues God onely in all things when one loues him equally in all things since he being alwayes equall to himselfe the inequallitie of loue towards him must needs spring from some thing which is not he Whence the soule that loues God purely and singulary loues him no more with the whole vniuerse to boote then all alone without the vniuerse because all that which is out of God and is not God is as nothing to her O pure soule who loues not euen Paradice it selfe but because God is there loued and is so soueraignely loued in his Paradice as that if he had not a Paradice to bestow yet would he nether be lesse loulie or lesse beloued of this generous soule who knowes not how to loue the Paradice of her God but onely her God of Paradice and who puts no lesse rate vpon the Caluarie where her Sauiour was crucified then the Heauen where he is glorified O how well doth this saintly Bishope speake my Athanasia whose tearmes I durst not paraphrase nor disguise or change his venerable words least I might loose his deuoute sēse expressed in words of so great energie and so full of spirit and vertue that all the flanting tearmes of worldly wisdome seeme to me far lesse persuasiue powrefull How forcibly and sweetly doth he teach vs in this discourse not to looke vpon the two hands of God that of Iustice and vengance and that other of Mercy and reward but to search after his face alone and to feare and loue him for himselfe not for the punishments which he threatens vice nor for the reward which he proposeth to vertue because he is altogether to be honored worshiped and serued for the loue of him selfe yea although he had nether Paradice for reward nor yet Hell for Punishment The blessed and accursed Eternitie are onely to be considered as things accessorie Our prime intention and cheife attention are to be set vpon the Diuine Eternitie or the eternall Diuinitie vnlesse we would loose the title of the children of God and through feare of eternall punishments or desire of eternall rewards beesteemed slaues and hirelings Let 's loue God Athanasia and let him dispose of vs as he pleaseth Let vs be in his hands as clay in the hand of the Potter Let him make of vs vessells of honour or ignominie Be it nobly or ignobly so we be his it sufficeth Le ts turne our eyes from rewards or punishments and let vs fixe them vpon our Lord. Let vs behold his amiable face Let vs set our view vpon his hands but as a faithfull hand-maide vpon those of her Mistrisse Let vs receaue indifferently that which comes from the right hād of prosperitie and the left of aduersitie Although he should euen kill vs le ts hope in him And let vs hope without hope yea euen against all apparence that nothing shall separate vs from his Charitie Let vs cast all our thoughtes vpon him And in steed of staying our thoughtes vpon the created and as it were the accidentall Eternitie of Heauen or Hell let vs onely be fastened vpon the essentiall Eternitie which is God himselfe who hath in his hand the extreamities of the earth And who keepes the keyes of eternall life and death Let vs not so dwell vpon the thought of Heauen or
towards Eternitie that at euery beating of a pulse euery thought word action you would make some reflection vpō a subiect of such importance It is said that the weaknesse of Antipheron his sight making the ayre become as thicke as a mirrour vnto him made him continually see his owne shape and I wish to God that the force of your fight were so persing that in all things you might behold the picture of Eternitie according to the methode I haue proposed vnto you For when all is said if you desire indeed to know the moment whervpon the good or bad successe of your Eternitie depends I will assure you it is THE PRESENT MOMENT Enter therfore into your selfe by a wholsome inuersion returne into your owne heart make a visite in the Hierusalem of your interiour man with the lampe of a sincere examen Consider in what state you stand Whether you are not in the state of disgrace and set in the chaire of pestilence and in the region of the shadow of death and darknes of sinne Giue eare vnto the voice of grace which cryes out vnto you ryse thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and CHRIST will illuminate thee he is the true light which doth illuminate euery man that comes into this world and he that followes him walkes not in darknes This Sūne of Iustice makes his beames shine vpon the good and bad Open thyne eyes and receaue his splendour and be not rebellions against the light Why wilt thou perish ô house of Israel approach vnto him who is the light of the world and thou shalt be enlightened and thy face shall not he confounded He shines in euery tyme and place and none is able to hide himselfe from his heate or light He is a Sunne that doth continually send out his rayses we need onely to open our eyes and euery moment they shall be filled with light I stand at the gate and knoke saith he and if any one open vnto me I will come vnto him and will take my repose and repast with him for I will suppe with him a repast Athanasia to which repose doth immediately follow In euery instant of your life these words are spoken to your heart The night is past the day is come le ts vs cast of then the workes of darknes and let vs put on the armour of light that we may honestly walke in the light of Grace You know what the Poetes learned fables teach touching OCCASION and how one is to lay hould vpon her she passeth like lightning in the twinckling of an eye and being past in vaine doe you call or endeuour to stope her since she is balde and affords no hold and withall deafe and inexorable to such as recall her If you heare me saith our Lord by a Prophete you shall eate the pleasant fruites of the earth but if you heare me not I will destroy you and will laugh at your destruction for I am a strong and iealous God and make such disdaynefull as disdayne me When I come to a soule I will be receaued and when I come in qualitie of Spouse I desire to be mett and that my grace be not receaued in vaine My spirit shall flie the dissembler and such as doe not receaue him so as is beseeming that sweete guest of the soule And though I operate all the good which is in the soule yet will I that she cooperate performing a parte of the way or at least admitting my fauours into the bosome of her consent and remembrance I will giue sight to the blind but I will also haue them to demand it I will willingly cleanse the vncleane yet will I haue her endeuours in recurring to my Goodnes I will willingly giue the pappe marrie vpon condition that she shall sucke it I will freely enlighten yet will I haue her to receaue my light I hate those remisse and drowsie soules who prolong their conuersion from day to day and who of their owne part will doe nothing for though I created them without them yet without them will I not saue them I will create in them a cleane heart and renew a right spirit in their bowells I will render vnto them the ioy of my saluation and confirme them with my principall Spirit yet of their part I will haue them to put of their old ADAM with his ill customes and put on the new accompaigned with Iustice Sāctitie and Truth Thus it is Athanasia that our Sauiour speakes to the soules which seriously and duely thinke of their cōuersion and Eternitie Euery moment he vseth these kind of discourses in the botome of our heart Le ts be good husbands therof If this day his voice sound in your eares waxe not hard hearted for otherwise if you will not accnowledge his wayes he will sweare in his wroth that you shall neuer enter into his eternall Rest Sluggard how long wilt thou sleepe how long ô yee heauie hearted Will you be in loue with vanitie and seake after a Lie Are you ignorant that the Goodnes of God hath long enough expected your repentance doe you not know what an auncient Father saith that the Holy Ghost is an enemye to slothfulnesse and delayes Doe not delay your conuersion saith the wiseman nor deferre it from day to day least you be preuented by a soudaine death and wishing for tyme of repentance you find it not Who is not to day fit for his conuersion shall be lesse fit to morrow because one sinne saith S. GREGORIE by its owne waight waighes vs downe to another one Abisse inuoking another Know then Athanasia that euery moment is proper to conuert our selues vnto God And what is a true conuersion but an auersion from the Creature and a returning towards the Creatour that is a contempt of the world which passeth with its concupiscences and an application of the Spirit to eternall things So shall euery present moment serue you for a gate by which you may passe from TYMES and MOMENTS to ETERNITIE The eternall doome LXXIX ANd here it is my Athanasia where I am to imitate the torch which being vpon the pointe of dying out casts the greatest light for before I finish and put the last fingar to this Draught I must send out fire and flames which I will doe by proposing vnto you the most forcible and efficacious motiue that cā be imagined to cause you to thinke continually of Eternitie And what is this sharpe spurre Athanasia but the definitiuely eternall Sentence which the iust Iudge of the liueing and the deade shall pronounce in his generall Iudgemēt at Doomes day when he shall make an eternall seperation betwixt goates and the Lambes the choyce wheate and darnell the wicked and the iust And if S. HIEROME had so deeply engrauen in his heart the memorie of the resurrection of the deade which shall be performed vpon the sound of the last Trumpet that at euery moment whether he waked or slept he apprehended that he heard