Meditations On The Mysteries Of Our Holy Faith/Volume 1/Meditations on the Last Things
MEDITATIONS ON THE LAST THINGS OF MAN, TO MOVE US TO A DETESTATION OF SINS.
The meditations of the last things of man, which are death and the grave, judgment particular and universal, hell, purgatory, and glory, are most efficacious to move us to detestation of our sins, and to an effectual resolution never more to return to them. on which said ecclesiasticus, " in all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin." [1] and for the same reason said moses to his people, " oh that they would be wise, and would understand, and would provide for their last end!" [2] giving to understand that our true wisdom, understanding, and providence consist in well meditating and ruminating those things which are to happen to us in the end of our life, and to be provided against them; and especially the meditations of death (as experience teaches us) is very profitable for all those that walk in any of the three ways — purgative, illuminative, and unitive; in which all men ought often to exercise themselves, though with different ends: the beginners to purify themselves of their sins before death assail them and take them unprovided; the proficients to hasten to store up virtues, seeing the time of meriting is very short, and death cuts it off on a sudden; the perfect, to despise all things created, with a desire to unite themselves by love with their creator: and therefore we will point out considerations that may profit all, but most especially such as help to the end of the purgative life, of which we are now treating.
MEDITATION VII.
On the properties of death.
In this meditation we will consider some properties of death, and what ends our Lord intended in them for our profit, reducing them to three, which are the principal.
POINT I.
The first property of death is, that it is most certain, [3] from which none can escape at the time that Almighty God has determined. 2. In this we are to consider first, that God our Lord, from all eternity, has determined the years of our life, [4] and assigned the month, the day, and hour in which every one is to die, so that it is impossible (says Job) to pass it by even for one minute; [5] neither is there any king or monarch that can add to himself or to any other one moment of life above that which Almighty God has determined. So that as I entered into the world the same day that Almighty God willed, and not before — so shall I depart out of the world the same day that God wills, and not afterwards. By this I may understand that what day soever I live I receive it of grace, and that those I have lived have been of grace; for our Lord might have assigned me a shorter time of life, as He assigned to others that died in their mother's womb or in their infancy. And seeing my life so depends upon God, there is just cause I should spend all the time of it in His service that gave it me, holding it for a great ingratitude to employ one only moment to offend Him.
Secondly, I am to consider that God our Lord in this His decree shortened or enlarged the days that some men, according to their natural constitution, might have lived, for the secret ends of his sovereign providence. For to some, either for their own prayers or for the prayers of other saints, He enlarged the days of their life; as to King Hezekias He added fifteen years, [6] because with tears he asked it. And the like has happened to the dead who have been miraculously raised to life. To some others He shortens the days of their life for one of two ends: either for their salvation, cutting them off (as the Wise man says) " in their youth," lest wickedness should alter their understanding, or lest deceit might "beguile" their "soul;" [7] or, on the contrary, to punish their grievous sins, and to stop their career that they might not make an addition of greater. Whereupon David said, that " bloody and deceitful men," that is, men very wicked and cruel, " shall not live out half their days." [8] And sometimes He shortens them for sins that seem but light; as it happened to the prophet who, being beguiled by another, did eat in the place where God had commanded him that he should not eat. [9] Out of all this I will draw a firm resolution so to order the days of my life that Almighty God shorten them not for my sins; saying with David, " Call me not away back, O Lord, in the midst of my days," [10] by a sudden death, but remember that Thy years are eternal, and have compassion of mine that are few and fleeting.
POINT II.
The second property of death is, that concerning the day, place, and manner it is most secretly hidden from all men, and manifest only to Almighty God.
1. In which I will consider first, that we are not able to know the day nor the hour in which we are to die; neither the place, nor the occasion, nor season in which death may attack us; nor the manner how we are to die, whether it shall be a natural death by sickness, or whether it shall be with a violent death by fire or water, by the hands of men or by beasts, or by lightning, or by the tile of a house that may fall down upon us. This only we know — that death shall come suddenly, or sickness and the occasion of it; and that when a man is most careless, it comes " as a thief in the night" [11] to scale his house and rob him of his wealth. So, says Christ our Lord, shall the Son of Man come to scale your house, which is the body, and to rob and spoil it of its soul and to give judgment on it.
2. Secondly, I will consider what ends our Lord had in this design of His providence, which is to oblige us to be always watchful, apprehensive of this hour, providing ourselves for it, [12] doing penance for our sins before death seize upon us, and making haste to merit and to labour before our light be out, lest "the light" [13] die suddenly and we remain in the dark. This Christ our Lord concluded in His parables concerning this matter. Sometimes He said "Vigilate, quia nescitis diem neque horam," "Watch" daily and hourly, " because you know not the day nor the hour" [14] of your death. At other times He said, " Watch ye, because you know not what hour your Lord will come," [15] and " Be you ready," " for at what hour you think not the Son of Man will come. ,, [16] With these words I will often exhort myself, saying,
Colloquy. — Gird thy body with the mortification of thy vices and passions, and take in thy hands the burning torches of virtues and good works, and be always watchful, expecting the coming of Christ; for He shall come when thou least thinkest of it, and that hour in which thou art most forgetful shall be, peradventure, the hour that He hath assigned; and if He find thee not well provided, thou wilt be miserably deceived.
3. Thirdly, I will consider that all sudden, unexpected deaths that have happened, and daily do happen, are remembrancers of this truth given me by our Lord, that I may fear and prepare myself; for death that strikes every man may likewise strike me. And therefore when I see or hear it said that some die suddenly by the sword, some by the hands of their enemies, and others lying down to sleep in good health slept the last sleep of death, out of all this I should draw fear and warning, for that it may possibly happen that such a kind of sudden death shall light upon me.
4. Upon this I should deeply consider, that any mortal sin whatsoever, if I do not penance for it, deserves that God's justice should chastise me with this death, as Christ our Lord admonished to this purpose, in two like cases that happened in His time: the one, when Pilate killed suddenly certain Galileans; [17] the other, when the tower of Siloe fell upon eighteen men. " Think you," says He, " that these Galileans were sinners above all the men of Galilee " or " Jerusalem? " " Non, dico vobis; sed nisi poenitentiam habueritis, omnes similiter peribitis " No, I say to you," for this has happened that you may understand, that " except you do penance you shall all likewise perish as if He should say, " When you see any die suddenly and of a disastrous death, be not vainly secure, saying, 4 This happened to them because they were great sinners for, verily, I say unto you, that what sinner soever he be, though he be not so great, if he do not penance he is worthy of punishment, and shall perish as these perished."
Colloquy. — Then if this be truth, as indeed it is, why do not I tremble to live one hour in mortal sin, of what sort soever it be? Who can secure me that the punishment shall not fall upon me that I so justly have deserved? Who hath excepted me from this general threatening with which Christ our God threateneth all sinners? O miserable sinner, have pity on thine own soul, [18] and endeavour to appease Almighty God with penance before so horrible misery light suddenly upon thee.
POINT III.
1. The third property of death is, that it happens but once, according to that of the Apostle St. Paul, " Statutum est omnibus hominibus semel mori " It is appointed unto men once to die." [19] Whereupon it ensues that the misfortune and error of an evil death (being the worst of all misfortunes) is irremediable throughout all eternity, as likewise to die a good death is throughout all eternity durable. So that if I once die in mortal sin, there is no means to remedy this evil. For (as Solomon says) " If the tree fall," when it is cut, " to the south or to the north, in what place soever it shall fall there shall it be." [20]
2. If by obstinacy in sin it falls to " the north," that is, hell, there is no remedy to recover grace nor to escape from pain. But if by perseverance in grace it falls to " the south " that is, heaven, there is no fear of returning again to sin nor of the loss of glory. With the lively consideration of this and of the former truths, I should, on the one side, be astonished at myself that, believing this with such certainty of faith, I yet live so careless of my salvation and so forgetful in a matter that so much imports me; and, on the other side, to animate myself to procure with greatest speed penance and amendment of life, and fervour therein, humbly beseeching our Lord to cut the tree of my life in such a time and place, and on such an occasion, that it may not fall to the side of hell but of heaven. And, moreover, I will examine, as St. Bernard says, [21] to what side I should fall if Almighty God should now cut me off, and will endeavour to assure my good success by doing fruits worthy of true repentance, with which the tree inclines to the part of glory, and being then cut off shall be transplanted into it.
(The crafty deceits that men experience concerning these three truths that have been explained shall be set down in the twelfth meditation.)
MEDITATION VIII.
ON THOSE THINGS THAT CAUSE ANGUISH AND AFFLICTION TO A MAN ON THE APPROACH OF DEATH.
Those things that may cause me great affliction and anguish at the hour of death may be reduced to three classes: some past— others present — and others to come. And in order to have the more feeling of this, I should represent that hour to myself as if I were stretched in my bed forsaken by the physicians and without hope of life. This is not difficult to realise, for it is possible that while I am saying, or reading, or thinking on this, there may be remaining to me no more than one day of my life; and seeing that one day must be the last, I may imagine that it is this present day,
POINT I.
First, I will consider the great anguish and affliction which the remembrance of all things that are past will cause me, running through the principal.
1. First, I shall be greatly afflicted with the remembrance of my past sins, and all the liberties, impurities, revenge, ambition, and covetousness that I have committed in the course of my life; also, of the slackness in the service of Almighty God, the negligences and omissions, and all the rest of my sins that have not been much bewailed and amended. I should imagine that there is at that instant an army made up of all my sins, as of " bulls," " lions," " tigers," [22] and other savage beasts, that rend in pieces my heart, or like an army of terrible serpents, that gnaw and bite my conscience, and neither the riches nor pleasures that I enjoyed can avail me to close up their cruel mouths; for the delight of sin being past there remains nothing but the sharpness of pain, and seeing I drank the sweet wine of sensual pleasure I am forced to drink the bitterness of their " dregs." [23] Then shall be fulfilled what David says, " The sorrows of death surrounded me, and the torrents of iniquity troubled me; the sorrows of hell have encompassed me" on all sides, the " snares of death prevented me " [24] unawares. Oh, what bitter sorrows! Oh, what furious torrents! Oh, what pinching snares shall these be! from which my own powers are so far from being able to deliver me that I shall hardly know how to make any use of them; for the bitterness of these sorrows will induce me to distrust, the vehement fury of these rivers will trouble my judgment, and the tightness of these snares will strangle me, that I cannot ask pardon of my sins, the devil making use of all this that I may have no escape from them.
Colloquy. — O my soul, bewail and confess well thy sins in thy life that they may not disquiet nor torment thee in thy death! Say not, " I have sinned, and what harm hath befallen me?" for thy joy shall soon pass away, and the stroke of sorrow shall come. " Be not without fear about sin," [25] which thou supposest to be pardoned, lest that sin bud out at thy death which thou bewailedst but imperfectly in thy life.
These and such other counsels which Ecclesiasticus notes in his fifth chapter I should collect from this consideration, with a resolved mind to begin presently to put them in practice.
2. Secondly, I will consider how at that instant I shall not only be tormented and afflicted with the remembrance of my sins, but also with the loss of the time that I had to negotiate a business so important as that of my salvation, and with letting slip many occasions Almighty God offered me to that end. Then shall I desire but one day of those many which now I lose in sleeping, playing and talking for pastime and recreation, and it will not be granted me. Then it shall afflict me that I have not frequented the holy sacraments nor the exercises of prayer; that I have not answered divine inspirations, nor heard sermons, nor exercised works of penance; that I have not given alms to the poor to gain friends to receive me in the eternal habitations; and that I have not been devoted to the saints, who in that narrow strait might be my mediators and advocates. Then shall I make great resolutions to do that which when I might I did not, desiring to live to accomplish them, and all perhaps without profit, like those of the wretched King Antiochus, the cruel persecutor of the Jews, who being at the point of death, though he made great promises and prayers to God — yet, says the Scripture, " This wicked man prayed to the Lord, of whom he was not to obtain mercy [26] not that mercy was wanting in Almighty God, but because there was wanting in this wretch a true disposition to receive it; for all those resolutions of his sprung merely from servile fear and were but to recover his bodily health, as if he could deceive Almighty God as he deceived men.
3. From this consideration I must collect, that the hour of death is the hour of undeceiving, in which I shall judge of all things differently from what I do now: holding (as Ecclesiastes says) for " vanity" [27] that which before I held for wisdom, and contrariwise holding for wisdom that which before I esteemed as vanity. And therefore the truest wisdom is to resolve effectually upon that which then I would do, and forthwith to accomplish it. For the ordinary law is, that he that lives well dies well; and he that lives very evilly seldom happens to die well. And especially will I make a full resolution to lose no iota of time, nor to let slip any occasion of my profit, remembering that of Ecclesiasticus, " Defraud not thyself of the good day, and let not a part of a good gift overpass thee," [28] but make thy profit of all, to the glory of Him that gives it to thee.
POINT II.
Secondly, I will consider the great affliction that my soul shall feel in leaving all things present, if I possess them with an evil conscience, or with an inordinate affection; upon which I should persuade myself that in that hour I must perforce, and in spite of myself, leave three sorts of things. [29]
1. First, I must leave the riches, dignities, offices, delicacies and possessions that I had, and shall not be able to carry anything with me. And the more goods I have the more bitter it will be to leave them. For death (says Ecclesiasticus) is very " bitter to him that hath peace in his possessions" [30] and dignities, and is desirous to live to enjoy them longer; and the sins he committed in procuring and in abusing them shall augment this bitterness, God's justice so ordaining it that those things which in their life were the instruments of their vicious delights, should in their death be their executioners and tormentors. Then shall be fulfilled that which is written in Job of a sinner. " His bread in his belly," which he did eat with much savour, "shall be turned into the gall of asps within him; the riches which he hath swallowed he shall vomit up, and God shall draw them oat of his belly. He shall suck the head of asps, and the viper's tongue shall kill him." [31] That is to say, his delights shall be turned into gall, his riches shall make him disgorge; but he shall neither have courage to dispose of them nor to leave them, until death take them away by force, the serpents and vipers of hell tormenting him for having gotten and possessed them with sin. 2. Secondly, in that hour I must by force depart from my parents and brethren, friends and acquaintance, and from all those that I love, whether it be with a natural love or any other, either lawful or unlawful. And as we leave not without grief what we possessed with love, [32] and by how much the greater the love is, wherewith it is possessed, so much the greater grief is felt in abandoning it; exceeding great will the sorrow be that I shall feel to depart from so many persons and things that are so fastened to my heart. And in these anguishes I shall say with that other king, "Siccine separat amara mors?" "Doth bitter death separate in this manner?" [33] Is it possible that I should leave those whom I so love? And shall I never more see them, nor enjoy them? O cruel Death, how much dost thou rend my heart, depriving me with such sorrow of what I possessed with such joy!
3. Lastly, in that hour my soul is to depart from my body, with which it has held so close and old a friendship, and consequently it is to depart from this world, and from all things in it contained, without hope ever again to see, hear, taste or touch them. And if the love I bear to my body, to my life, and to the other things of this visible world, be an inordinate love, I must needs feel exceeding great grief to depart from them; which I may easily realise by that sensible feeling I have when they take from me my wealth, my honour and fame, or exile me from my country, and force me to live from my friends like a pilgrim among strangers, or cut off some member of my body. For all this joined together happens in death, with another and more painful condition, which is — without hope ever to return again to possess it in this life.
4. In each of these three considerations, pondering awhile what is to be noted, I will enter into myself and examine whether I carry an inordinate love to any of these things mentioned, which if I find that I do, I will endeavour to uproot it by force of this consideration, and with the exercise of mortification, for this is to die in life, and with profit, taking death, as it were, by the hand, so as not to feel it, as religious men do that abandon all things for Christ our Lord, whom I am to beseech to aid me herein, saying to Him:
Colloquy. — O Eternal God, in whose hands are the souls of the just, 18 and under whose protection the anguish of death doth not touch them, take from my soul the inordinate love of all visible things, that in departing from them it may have no feeling of anguish. O my soul, if thou desirest that these three bitternesses of death should not touch thee, love not those things that death can take from thee, for if thou possess them not with love, thou shalt leave them in death without distress or grief!
5. I am likewise to ponder in these considerations how great a madness it is to offend Almighty God, and to endanger my eternal salvation for things that I am so soon to abandon, resolving courageously with myself to avoid forthwith any person, or thing whatsoever, that may expose me to this peril, dying to it rather than for its sake to die to God, and separating it from me rather than it should " separate me" [34] from God; seeing for this our Saviour Christ said that He " came to send" " the sword" and " separation" [35] upon earth, separating from men all persons and things that might hinder their salvation.
Colloquy. — O sweet Redeemer, put forthwith into my hand the sword of mortification, that I may separate from me whatsoever might separate me from Thee, dying to all that is created, to live to Thee my Creator, world without end! Amen.
Thirdly, I should consider the great affliction and anguish that the fear of the account I am to render with Almighty God, and of the rigorous judgment on which I am to enter, will cause me at that hour, as also that I know not the sentence that shall he pronounced in the affair of my salvation.
1. In this I should ponder the dreadfulness of this fear for three causes, i. Because the evil that is feared is the supreme of all evils, an eternal evil and remedyless, and I am now at the gates of it ii. Because the sentence which is to he given is definitive and irrevocable, and at that instant is to he executed without resistance, iii. Because the issue on my side is very doubtful, since the sin that I committed is manifest to me, hut not the true penance that I did, and my conscience accuses me to have offended the Judge, hut I know not whether I have appeased Him. " For man knoweth not whether he be worthy of love or hatred [36] and though I find no sins in myself, yet it may be that God will find them. [37] For all these causes the fear will at that time be most terrible. For if those who have a suit in any weighty business, on which all their wealth, their honour or life is interested, have very great fear the day that they expect the sentence, how much greater fear shall I be in when I am near the day on which the definitive sentence is to be given of my salvation or damnation? And if the greatest saints are then afraid, how much more shall I fear that am a miserable sinner?
2. This anguish and fear is wont to be augmented by the craft and subtlety of the devil, who in that hour tempts with increased malice, because he sees that " he hath but a short time" [38] remaining, and therefore he stirs up greatly all that may incite to desperation, he excessively magnifies our sins, and exaggerates the rigour of God's injustice against them. He will tell me that he that lived evil must not die well; and that he that laid not hold on God's mercy must fall into the hands of His justice. " And if the just man shall scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear V [39] And as he is a liar, and the father of lies, and a false accuser of men, if Almighty God tie not his hands and limit not his power he will set before me a thousand false imaginations and accusations, with illusions and horrid spectres, to trouble me, and to make me sweat with agony and endure greater anguish than that of death itself.
3. These are the fears that in that last passage will afflict me, if I provide me not in time to hinder their vehemence, which I should do by entering into myself, and considering, if death should now attack me, what it is that would give me greatest terror, and devising how to remedy it in time. And if I would not that death should seize upon me in my present state, I must endeavour instantly to get out of it; for it is neither lawful nor secure to live in a state in which I would not die.
4. I will conclude this meditation, setting before my eyes Christ our Lord, naked and nailed to the cross at the instant of giving up the ghost, and I will with great fervour beseech Him, that by His death He grant me a good death, and that if the devil come to my death (as he came to His) that He would deliver me from him, and grant me so assured a confidence that, like Himself, I may say in that hour:
Colloquy. — " Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit." O merciful Father, " my soul is" as yet " in my hands" [40] but ready to fly out of them, and in danger of falling into the hands of her enemies! Oh, do Thou receive her into Thine, that the work of Thy hands, for which they were nailed to the cross, may not be destroyed! I offer myself to imitate in this life Thy poverty and nakedness, that in death Thy hands may receive me, and may carry me with them to the repose of Thy glory! Amen.
5. We may likewise make addresses and prayers to our blessed Lady the Virgin, and to our guardian angel and other saints, beseeching their favour for that hour; for while we live we ought to negotiate that which should aid us at that instant.
(To this purpose we shall make use of a manner of preparation to die well, which will be put in the fourth part in the 51st meditation, collected from what Christ our Saviour did at his death, as likewise of what will be said in the fifth part in the 34th meditation, concerning the glorious assumption of our blessed Lady.)
MEDITATION IX.
ON THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT THAT IS MADE OF THE SOUL IN THE INSTANT OF DEATH. [41]
In this meditation I must presuppose that truth of our faith, that all men (as St. Paul [42] says) are to be " manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may" give a reason of all " that he hath done, whether it be good or evil," while he lived in this body, and this judgment is made invisibly after death; for "Statutum est omnibus hominibus semel mori, et post hoc judicium;" " It is appointed by Almighty God unto men once to die, and after this the judgment," [43] from which (as from death) no man will escape.
Before this tribunal of Christ I am to present myself in prayer, imagining this sovereign judge seated on a throne of fire, as Daniel [44] saw Him, to represent the terribleness of His wrath against the wicked; or on a most pure white throne of most resplendent light, as St. John [45] saw Him, to represent His infinite wisdom and purity, and His clemency towards the good. And of both these figures I may avail myself, as shall be seen in the following point.
POINT I.
First are to be considered the persons assisting at this judgment, regarding the qualities and appearances of each one of them. These are four at the least.
1. The first is the soul that is to be judged, which shall stand alone, naked, without her body or any visible things, clothed only with her works. For although at the time of death there are present many kinsfolk and many religious persons, yet in that instant that it issues out of the body there is none of them that can bear it company or favour it. As desolate shall be the soul of a king as that of a clown, of a rich man as of a poor man, of a learned man as of an idiot; for dignities and riches remain here, and though it carry with it its knowledge, there is no great account made of it, but of works. [46] By which I shall see what great senselessness it is to procure with so much solicitude that which cannot help me in that conflict, and to lose that which most of all concerns me.
2. On either side of the soul (as is gathered out of Holy Scripture) shall stand at least the angel-guardian and the devil, [47] with different countenances, accordingly as they suspect what is likely to happen. I may imagine " that on the right hand" of the wicked " the devil stands," [48] very joyful for the prey that he expects; and the angel on the left hand, with a sad countenance for the loss that he fears. But contrariwise shall it be in the good; yet always will the devil be there, with his fierce and horrible figure.
3. The fourth person is the judge, which is Almighty God Himself, who is to give this judgment invisibly, although He will give tokens of his presence; imprinting in the wicked terrible fear and horror, and in the good peace and consolation. For, as He is infinitely wise, He cannot deceive Himself in judgment; as He is absolutely good, He cannot wrest justice; as He is omnipotent, no man can resist His sentence; and as He is the Supreme Judge, there is no appeal from His tribunal, nor supplication; His sentence is always definitive and irrevocable. For all that may be seen in this process He sees and comprehends it at first sight, so that a review is superfluous.
4. Considering these things, I will imagine that my soul stands to be judged before the tribunal of so upright a judge as God our Lord is. And considering awhile my sins to move me to fear, I will behold the judge in indignation against me, with a severe countenance and an inexorable mind. And I will behold Satan standing on my right side, full of content, and as it were victorious, applying to myself that which the royal prophet David says, " Set thou the sinner over him, and may the devil stand at his right hand: when he is judged may he come forth condemned, and let his prayer" that he maketh " be turned into sin." [49] At another time, to move myself to confidence, I will behold the judge gentle towards me, with an amiable and pleasing countenance; and on my right side my angel-guardian, joyful for my victory, imagining that he is saying in my favour against the devil that which the Prophet Zachariah repeats, " The Lord rebuke thee!" [50] " Is not," perhaps, "this" poor wretch "a brand plucked out of the fire," that it might not be burned? Then what wilt thou?
Colloquy. — O most just Judge and most merciful Father, I confess that I am, through my sins, a black and filthy brand, and half burnt with the fire of my passions. Wash me, O Lord, and whiten me with the living water of Thy grace, and with that quench this fire that burneth me, that in the day of account the devil may leave me, Thy angel may protect me, Thy mercy may receive me, and Thy justice may crown me! Amen.
POINT II.
Secondly, I am to consider the time and place in which this judgment is to be made.
1. The time is the instant of death; for although by the special dispensation [51] of Almighty God, it has been seen to begin visibly a little before death in some cases that have happened for our example, yet ordinarily it is done invisibly, in the very instant that the soul ceases to inform the body, without any delay. And in that very moment the whole judgment is concluded, the accusation is made, and the sentence is given and executed. This moment I am to have always before my eyes, as that which is to be the beginning of my eternal good or evil, saying:
Colloquy. — " O momentum a quo eaternitas," " O moment wherein eternity beginneth," who can forget thee without great peril, and who can remember thee without great astonishment? Be mindful, O my soul, of this moment, and endeavour not to lose any moment of time, for in every one thou mayest merit the life that shall for ever endure!
2. The place of this judgment is wherever death arrests any man, without going to the valley of Jehosaphat, or to any other special place; for, as the judge is in all places, so in all places He has His tribunal, and makes this judgment, in the earth and in the sea, in the bed and in the street, that in every place I may fear, because I know not whether that shall be the place of my judgment. But as death most ordinarily attacks us in our chamber and bed, when I am in these places I must imagine sometimes that there stands the tribunal and throne of Almighty God to judge me, and the good and evil angel assisting at the judgment; for this holy thought will restrain the unmeasurable excesses of the flesh, which bud out from the solitariness of the place.
3. From these two considerations I am to draw a great fear of offending God, for perhaps the time and place wherein I commit this sin shall be also the time and place wherein God will do judgment; as the wife of Lot, who in the same instant and place that she turned to look upon Sodom was turned into a statue of salt, [52] and (as St. Paul says) "he that eateth unworthily" the body of Christ our Lord, " eateth judgment to himself." [53] So when I " drink iniquity like water," [54] I drink judgment to my soul, and perhaps the draught may be so deadly that in that very instant the judgment shall be executed.
POINT III.
1. Thirdly, I am to consider the frame and order of this judgment; that is, the accusers and witnesses, the 'proof and rigorous examination that shall be made of all my works, to judge me accordingly.
i. First, the accusers shall be three. The first shall be the devil, whom St. John calls the " accuser of our brethren" whose office is to " accuse them before Almighty God day and night;" [55] but in this last judgment with greater hatred and fury he will accuse me of all the sins I committed through his persuasion, by consenting to his temptations. And moreover he will add false accusations from his own suspicions, as well because he knows not the intentions as also because his anger and malice doth blind him, making him hold as true that which is false. Therefore, O my soul, resist always the devil and admit nothing of his, that when he comes to judgment against thee he may find nothing [56] of his for which to lay hold on thee, nor any sin of which truly to accuse thee.
ii. The second accuser will be every man's own conscience, which will likewise be a witness, and stand for a thousand; for its thoughts shall beat against us, and they (as the apostle says) shall in that hour accuse or defend us. [57] And as in confession I myself, of my own will, am the guilty, the accuser, and the witness against myself, that the priest may absolve me; so then also I shall be such perforce, that God may judge and condemn me for that of which here I obtained not pardon,
iii. Finally, the angel-guardian himself shall be the third witness, and in a manner accuser against me for my rebellions to his inspirations and counsels. From this I may gather how much it imports me always to consent to the good inspirations and dictates of these two faithful companions, my conscience and my angel, and to yield myself to them when in this life they accuse or reprehend me, that afterwards, in the other, they may not condemn me; following the counsel of our Saviour Christ, who says, " Be at agreement with thine adversary betimes, whilst thou art in the way with him," and " goest" to appear before the prince; for if thou then compoundest not with him, he will " deliver thee to the judge, and the judge" to the officer, who will "cast thee into prison" from whence "thou shalt not go out until thou repay the last farthing." [58]
Colloquy. — O Prince of Heaven, to whose tribunal I go to be judged, grant me that I may take Thy wholesome counsel, agreeing always with these two good " adversaries," that, being freed from the sin, I may be so likewise from the "officer" and eternal " prison." Amen.
2. But above all, I am to consider the most rigorous examination of the judge Himself, in which are two terrible things, i. The first is, that it is universal with regard to all things whatsoever, charging me with all my sins of deed, word, and thought, though they were but "idle" ones; [59] and with omissions and negligences of my life, with the ingratitude and deficient correspondence to God's benefits, as well general as special, as are sacraments, inspirations, &c. I shall also be charged with the evil circumstances that I mixed with my good works; for on this it is said, " that when He shall take a time, He will judge justices," [60] making a very rigorous examination of those works that appear good.
ii. The second property of this examination is, that it shall be evident to the examined himself, for the proof of all these charges shall be a clear light, wherewith God will discover to my soul all its sins, without omitting any one, even those which it had forgotten, and supposed were not at all. And upon this He says by one of the prophets, That He "will search Jerusalem by lamps," [61] that is to say, that He will not only judge the wicked that dwell in Babylon, but also the just that live in Jerusalem, and that He will inflame such a light to search into their souls that they themselves may see the very corners of their consciences. [62]
Colloquy. — Oh, how afflicted shall my poor soul find itself with so strict and rigorous an examination! Oh, how astonished shall it be with the evidence of proof so clear and certain! O eternal God, " enter not into judgment with Thy servant," " for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified." [63] Fear, O my soul, although thou find no great sins in thyself; for He thatis to examine and judge thee is Almighty God, [64] that seeth more than thou, and can find them. Examine thyself with the greatest rigour thou canst, and judge thyself rigorously for the sins thou shalt find; for if thou judgest thyself with grief, thou shalt no more be judged [65] to thy damnation.
These are the principal resolutions that I am to collect out of this consideration, endeavouring to accomplish them every night when I make examination of my conscience, or when I am to confess myself, as shall be declared in the 28th and 31st meditations.
iii. Lastly, I am to consider that in this examination, Almighty God will also discover to the just soul all its good works, words and desires, even those which it had forgotten, or doubted whether they were good or no. There shall she see her obediences and penances, her prayers and mortifications, comforting herself much with this view; for upon this said the voice from heaven," Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord," " for their works follow them." [66] And with this consideration, comparing the examination of both good and evil, I will animate myself to live such a life as in the last examination may be approved by Almighty God.
POINT IV.
1. Fourthly, I must consider how Christ our Lord, in the instant of death, by His just sentence, deprives and unclothes the wretched soul of the sinner of those supernatural graces and gifts which remained with him after sin, that he may without them enter into the everlasting flames and fire of hell.
1. The terribleness of this sentence, and the pain that the damned shall suffer in this conflict, I may consider by that which happens to a priest who has committed some crime, for which he deserves to be burned. For, not to disgrace the sacerdotal dignity with so infamous a punishment, first a bishop degrades him, taking off from him, one by one, his priestlike garments, saying unto him, " Seeing thou hast made thyself unworthy of the honour of a priest, we take from thee thy priestlike garments, and deprive thee of the honour that thou hadst';" and so being degraded they deliver him to the secular power, which executes upon him the punishment that he deserves.
2. In this manner I may imagine that Christ our Lord, " the bishop and pastor of our souls," [67] degrades the soul of the sinner, to whom he gave in baptism the dignity of spiritual priesthood, and adorned him with sacerdotal ornaments; depriving him of them, because he made himself by sin unworthy of this honour, stripping himself naked of the principal vestment of grace and charity. First, in that instant Almighty God will take from him the light of "faith," which was the spiritual " girdle of his reins," [68] saying to him, " Because thou madest thyself unworthy of this girdle, and didst not gird thyself therewith, leading thy life according to thy belief, I take it from thee that thou mayest remain bound hand and foot in perpetual darkness." Then will He take from him the virtue of hope, saying to him, " Because thou madest thyself unworthy of this virtue, not making thy profit of it, I take from thee the hope of those aids which I had offered thee to carry the sweet yoke of my law; and the ' stole' and pledges 'of immortality' and eternal life that I had given thee; and I pluck from thee the 'maniple of weeping' and repentance, that thou mayest have no hope of my pardoning of thy sins; and I uncloth thee of the ' amice' of my protection, that thou mayest never more hereafter enjoy it."
ii. He will likewise take from him the graces, given gratis or freely, that he had of prophesying, [69] and doing miracles; saying to him, " Because thou madest thyself unworthy of these graces, using them for thy own vain-glory, and treading underfoot my holy law, I despoil thee of them, and of all grace whatsoever; because for thee there shall be nothing now but rigour of justice." Thus the unfortunate soul shall remain with infamous nakedness, fulfilling therein the terrible threatenings of Ezekiel: " They shall strip thee of thy garments, and shall take away the instruments of thy glory," [70] and they shall leave thee naked and full of confusion. Oh, what terrible confusion shall the unhappy soul suffer, when it shall see itself stripped naked of that which before adorned it?
Colloquy. — O Redeemer of the world, Prince of pastors, and "Bishop of our souls," [71] degrade not nor strip naked my soul of the vestments Thou gavest it in baptism: clothe me anew with the garment of Thy grace, which I have lost through my sin, that I may free myself from this nakedness and eternal confusion! Amen.
iii. Then should I ponder how the soul remains with one of these vestments, which is, the character or mark of Christianity, which was given it in baptism, and that of confirmation and priesthood, [72] if it have received these two sacraments; but this shall be for its greater torment; for the Pagans and Moors that shall be with a Christian in hell, beholding the signal of an edifice that was begun, and not ended, [73] shall scoff at him, saying, " O mad and inconsiderate man, that hadst so much good in thy hands, and letst it be lost through thy own fault, why didst thou not finish thy building, seeing thou hadst so much aid for it? If we had been Christians we would have endeavoured to fly from the misery that now we are in. Oh, who deceived thee, and brought thee hither to us?"
iv. Finally, the soul shall be stripped naked of those moral and social virtues which it acquired in this life; it shall remain without prudence, or fortitude, or justice, or any other; [74] and if any knowledge be left it, that it got with its industry, it shall he to its greater pain, for not having purchased with it the science that might have redeemed it from all this misery. [75] In this manner shall be accomplished therein that dreadful sentence of holy Job: " His bread in his belly shall be turned into the gall of asps, the riches which he hath devoured he shall vomit out, and God shall draw them out of his belly." [76]
Colloquy. — O my soul, look that thou dost not willingly cast forth the riches of grace and charity that thou receivedst, for afterwards they will make thee of necessity cast forth faith, and the virtues that thou hast gained! And those sciences which now thou gainest with delight shall turn into the gall of asps to torment thee!
2. These are the principal fruits which I am to collect out of these considerations, endeavouring to trade with those talents that God has given me, lest at the reckoning-day God take them from me as from the slothful servant, [77] leaving me only those which, like asps and dragons, will most cruelly gnaw my heart, because I profited myself so ill with them.
POINT V.
1. Fifthly, I am to consider the final sentence which in that very instant of death Christ our Lord pronounces against the sinner, intimating it to him with an interior and terrible voice, saying to him alone the same words that He will afterwards say to all the wicked in the general judgment: " Depart from me, thou cursed of my Father, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels!" [78] that is to say, " Get thee hence, abominable sinner, that meritest not to stand in my presence, nor to enter into my glory! Go into eternal fire, which thy sins deserve, in company of Satan, to whose infernal power I commit thee, that he may carry thee with him."
2. This sentence being given, in the very same instant Almighty God forsakes the soul, and the angel-guardian abandons it, saying to it, as to Babylon, " I did enough to cure [79] thee, labouring thy salvation, and thou wouldst not; therefore I leave thee to the power of him who shall take that vengeance of thee which thy rebellion deserves." And in the very same moment the devil shall attack the wretched soul, without either admitting or hearing supplications or prayers, and carry it into hell. So that the sinner, in the twinkling of an eye, from his bed, where he lay very delicately, environed with many friends and kinsmen, dies, as Job saith, in a moment, with a death to appearance "happy" [80] and peaceable; but in the very same moment he descends to hell, passing from one extreme of temporal good to another extreme of eternal evil. Oh, what will the unhappy soul feel in that first entrance into hell, when it sees what it left and what it finds! when it sees and feels a bed of fire, the " covering" of " serpents," [81] the company of devils, and all the rest of torments, from which she has no hope ever to escape!
Colloquy. — O just Judge, have mercy upon me! "Et cum veneris judicare, noli me condemnare and when Thou comest to judge, do not condemn me! O my soul, fear this sentence of eternal damnation, and live in such a manner that thou mayest merit to be delivered from it! Amen.
POINT VI.
1. Sixthly, I am to consider the sentence that shall be given upon the just, Christ our Redeemer saying invisibly to him with an amiable voice, " Come, thou blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." [82] " Well done, thou good and faithful servant; because thou hast been faithful over a few things I will place thee over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. " [83] And at that very instant the devil departs ashamed, and the angel-guardian receives the soul, other angels (as they came to the soul of poor Lazarus) coming to accompany it; and all with great joy carry it to heaven, [84] to enjoy that eternal good, when it has nothing to be purged in purgatory. Oh, what joy shall the soul have in that her first and so much desired entrance! That which was before full of sorrows, humbled with contempts and troubled with fears, in a moment shall see herself far otherwise, all her pain turned into glory and her mourning into rejoicing, in the company of angels, in a place of repose, and engulfed in the view of her Almighty God.
2. These things considered, I will make comparison between the good and the evil, and I shall see (as David says) the death of the wicked, most evil [85] and abominable, the end of their rest and beginning of their torments. And contrarily that the end of the good is precious in the sight of "the Lord God, [86] the end of their labours, and beginning of their rest; and herewith I will animate myself to procure a good death, in which I may receive a good sentence, encouraging myself to penance and to the exercise of virtues, trusting in the benignity of the judge, who will sentence me with mercy if in my life I make profit of it.
3. I will conclude with a speech to the most blessed Virgin, (who at that hour interposes not herself in this judgment, for when the soul departs the body the door of intercession and pardon is locked up, and that of rigorous justice is opened,) beseeching her that now presently she will be my advocatrix and intercessor, securing for me this good sentence, and obtaining for me works worthy of it. To which end it will aid me to say with spirit those last words which the Church puts in the prayer of the Ave Maria, and those which it uses in another hymn, saying, " Maria, mater gratiee, Dulcis parens clementi«, Tu nos ab hoste protege, Et hora mortis suscipe [87] " Mary, mother of grace, mother of mercy, defend us from the enemy and at the hour of death receive us!"
Colloquy. — O Sovereign Virgin, seeing thou art the advocatrix of sinners, be my advocatrix before thy Son, appease His wrath by thy intercession, obtaining for me time of true repentance, before the time be past in which I may do it. And seeing the sentence given in death is irrevocable, plead for me, O most benign mother, that it may be favourable towards me, that I may see " the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus," and enjoy Him in thy company world without end. Amen.
(Much to the purpose of this meditation is that which will be declared in the third part, in the 24th meditation, where we meditate upon the death of the covetous rich man and of poor Lazarus, which is a lively example of that which here has been meditated.)
MEDITATION X.
ON THAT WHICH HAPPENS TO THE BODY AFTER DEATH, AND ON THE GRAVE.
One of the principal utilities that we ought to collect out of the meditations of death is that noble exercise of virtue, much like that which we call mortification; which is nothing else but the death of our passions and inordinate affections, depriving them of the life they have in us, endeavouring to repress and bury them, until they be turned into dust and nothing; as David said, " I will pursue my enemies, and overtake them, and will not return till they are consumed;" [88] I will bruise them until I overthrow them, and put them under my feet. For this cause S. Ambrose said, that the just man's life is an imitation of death; [89] for his continual study is to kill the carnal life that he feels in himself, depriving himself of all those things that his flesh and his own will most inordinately covet; suppressing the desires that sprout out, until he remains as dead to all that is sin, according to that of St. Paul, " Reckon that you are dead to sin, but alive unto God," [90] " and if you be dead with Christ from the elements of this world," " touch not, taste not, handle not that " which shall be "to your destruction;" [91] but mortify your members that are upon earth, that is, the works of earthly life, uncleanness, concupiscence, avarice, and the rest.
2. The practice of this mortification, like to death, we will set down in this meditation, the end of which shall be the imitation of death itself. And in that we proceed by the affections of fear, which are most proper to the purgative way, yet of themselves those of love are most effectual; of which it is said, that it " is strong as death," and " hard as hell," [92] because it kills, buries, and defeats all that is contrary to its beloved; as we shall see hereafter.
By the way also, in this meditation we will put in practice a very profitable manner of meditating, [93] by spiritualising exterior things that are perceived by the senses, applying them to interior, and collecting out of them rules and counsels of perfection.
POINT I.
1. The first point shall be to consider what my body will be after it is dead and abandoned by the soul, pondering especially three miseries.
i. First, that it loses the use of its members and senses, without ever more being able to see, hear or speak, or move to one side or the other, or to enjoy the goods of this mortal life. Now no beautiful things, nor sweet music, nor pleasing odours, nor savoury meats, nor things that are soft, anywise affect it: all this is to it as if it were not. For it has lost the organs by which it could enjoy it, and all that it has enjoyed serves it to little profit.
ii. The second misery is, to remain discoloured, disfigured, deformed, horrible, stiff, stark, and stinking, hastening rapidly to corruption. In such a manner that which a little before charmed the eye with its beauty now raises horror in it with its deformity.
iii. From whence proceeds the third misery, that all leave it alone in the chamber, in possession of those that are to shroud it in a sheet; and even those of the house, and the dearest friends, hold it a kind of piety to despatch it quickly, and to carry it out of doors.
2. From this consideration I will gather how safe a thing it is in my lifetime to do by degrees somewhat of that which shall afterwards be done perforce and without profit, carrying myself as dead to the world, and to all that is flesh and blood, endeavouring to imitate death in three other things like to the aforenamed: i. mortifying my senses and depriving myself of their delights, not only of the unlawful, but even of some of those which are lawful and not necessary. So that, like a dead man, I am to have neither feet, nor hands, nor eyes, nor ears, nor taste, nor tongue for anything that is sin, or is against the perfection I profess, ii. And for this reason the beautiful and pleasing things of this life are to be to me as if they were not, putting them under my feet, beholding (as St, Gregory [94] says) not what they are now, but what they shall quickly be; for though you attire flesh in cloth of gold and in silk ever so much or so gorgeously, yet still it is flesh. And what is " flesh" but "grass?" and what is " the glory thereof' but "the flower of the field," that " is withered" [95] by a passing wind? iii. Finally, I must follow virtue with a generous mind, that, as a dead man complains not that ail fly from him and forsake him, so it should be nothing to me that the world forsakes me, flies from me, and abhors me like one dead and crucified: rather I am to hold as a happiness what is described by the prophet David, " Those that saw me without fled from me; I am become as a vessel that is destroyed. For I have heard the blame of many that dwell round about." [96]
Colloquy. — Oh that I were dead in earth, that I might not perceive that men used me like one dead! Oh that I were so dead and crucified to all that is in the world that the world also held me for crucified and dead! Grant me, O sweet Jesus, that by the law of Thy grace I may die to the law of sin, to live to God, delighting to be nailed with Thee on Thy very cross, [97] so that " now not I" may "live," but " Thou in me," [98] world without end. Amen.
POINT II.
1. The second point is, to consider the clothing, the bed, and the lodging that is prepared for my dead body.
i. The clothing, for the most part, is in a manner the worst of the house, and very slender: for it is nothing more than a poor sheet for a shroud, with no more precious ornaments of silk or of gold: and if they put any of this upon me to carry me to burial, they take it again from me before they lay me in the grave.
ii. The bed is the hard earth; and as the prophet Isaiah says, " Under" me " shall the moth be strewed, and worms shall be" my " covering [99] and the curtains and pillows the bones of other dead.
iii. And after this fashion shall be the house and the lodging; for it is nothing but a narrow pit seven feet long, that is dug in half an hour; for the other sumptuous buildings of sepulchres serve the wretched body for nothing, it being not capable of enjoying them. Out of all this I will gather great confusion and shame for my vanity and sensuality, with which I desire fineness of apparel, softness of bed, and comforts of habitation, animating myself to mortify my superfluities in these, and to bear patiently all wants whatsoever, seeing what I now have (how little soever it be) is very much and very large compared with that which awaits me.
2. But particularly, if I am a religious man, or desire to be perfect, I may draw from hence great motives to be so in excellence, striving to make my life a continual meditation and imitation of death, in three things proper to this state. —
i. In being stripped of all these things to which perfect poverty obliges me: so that as a dead man loses the dominion of all his riches, which pass to his heirs or to the poor, he not feeling that they leave, him the worst clothing, or inter him in some contemptible place; so I will not content myself with leaving all that I possessed, and giving to the poor, to follow Jesus naked; but I will also bear willingly the want of things necessary, and will rather choose that they give me the worst, either of apparel, bedding, lodging or house, without murmuring at it any more than a man that is dead; for if " naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked shall return thither," [100] it is no great matter to live naked in this manner, conforming the middle of the life to its entrance and egress.
ii. Secondly, I will imitate death in the renunciation of all those sensual pleasures to which perfect chastity obliges me; so that as in death matrimonies are dissolved, the care of wife, children, and family ceases, and there is made a general divorce of all earthly things, and of the delights of the flesh; so I with the vow of chastity delight to be as it were dead to all these things, and to their cares, as if there were none in the world for me, or I were not alive for them.
iii. Thirdly, I will imitate the dead in perfect obedience; for as the dead body suffers itself to be tossed and carried wherever they will, and to be handled as they list, without resistance, repugnance or complaint, neither having will to choose the winding-sheet, nor the grave, nor anything else, taking only what others give it; so I, in all that is not sin, will permit myself to be governed by my superiors, obeying them in all that they shall command me, high or low, sweet or bitter, easy or difficult, without replying, contradicting, or resisting anything; without any self-will to choose this or that; but as one dead to my own will I will follow the will of others, taking with humility whatever they give me. These are the purposes that I must draw out of this consideration of death, encouraging myself to put them in practice; seeing it is not much for fifty years (which perhaps shall not be fifty days) to anticipate death in this manner, for the assurance of eternal life; by which for fifty thousand millions of years I shall possess the riches of Almighty God, I shall enjoy His pleasures, and I shall have perfect liberty, free from all misery. Oh, happy death to which succeeds so happy a life!
Colloquy. — O sweet Jesus, whose life was a continual death, to give us example of a holy and perfect life, grant me that in imitation of Thee I may live and die naked of all earthly things, mortified to delights, and obedient to all human creatures for Thy love: hold me always as dead to all that is visible, that my life be " hidden with" Thee "in God," [101] world without end! Amen.
POINT III.
1. The third point is, to consider the journey of the body towards the grave; pondering first, that I shall be carried in a coffin, or upon a bier on other men's shoulders to church; and that he who but awhile before walked the streets, looking on every side, and entered into the church, noting all that passed, goes now upon other men's feet, blind, deaf and dumb, himself the object of lamentation for his sad lot. And therefore to suppress the wantonness of my flesh, I will endeavour, when I rise out of my bed, to remember that some day others shall raise me never more to return to it. And when I go down the stairs of my house, I will say, " A day will come in which others will carry me down these stairs never more to get up." And when I go in the street, or enter into the church, I will imagine, that shortly I shall be carried through that street, and shall enter into that church, never more to come out Then will I consider with what company I am carried to my grave, some singing, others weeping, and many following me with piety to honour me; and yet how little it will avail my body whether they do it much or little honour, much less my soul if it be in hell: rather this honour would torment it the more, if it knew it
Then will I consider how they cast me into the grave and cover me with earth, laying a stone upon me, where my body shall be eaten with worms and turned to dust, and suddenly I shall be forgotten of all, as if I had never been in the world. And though there remain of me very great and honourable memory, little will it avail my soul if it enjoy not God; as it little availed Aristotle or Alexander the Great to be magnified in the world, being in hell in terrible torments; for as a holy saint says, "Woe to thee, Aristotle, that art praised where thou art not, and art tormented where thou art!"
2. Out of these considerations I will gather some correctives, persuading myself to make no account of the vain honours of this life, but to humble myself, and in my own estimation to put myself under the feet of all like " a worm," [102] or dust, that of all is trodden upon and cast out; as also not to contemn the poor and little ones, seeing in death I shall soon be equal with them, and speaking to my soul, I will say to her: —
Colloquy. — Consider well what will be the end of this flesh that thou hast; consider whom thou cherishest, whom thou adornest, and upon whom thou dost build these castles in the air; for all is but like a little " dust which the wind driveth from the face of the earth," [103] which presently returneth to fall back again. Be ashamed to subject thyself to so vile flesh; endeavour rather to subject it like a slave to thee, that it may aid thee to purchase life everlasting. 0 eternal God, clear the eyes of my poor soul with Thy sovereign light, that it may behold the wretched end of its miserable body, and contemn that which is present with the view of that which is to come! Amen.
3. Finally, I will consider that I cannot tell whether it will fall to my lot to have so honourable a funeral, or whether our Lord will permit, for chastisement of my sins, that I be buried in the belly of fishes or of wild beasts, or, as Jeremiah says, " with the burial of an ass," [104] or be eaten by crows, or by dogs, like unhappy Jezebel, [105] which I have well deserved for my sins; for to a bestial life is due the sepulchre of beasts. And therefore as much as lies in me I will abhor the vain pomp of worldly sepulchres, desiring both in life and death to choose for myself the humblest place on the earth.
4. I may also spiritualise what has been said in these three points, applying it to my soul dead by sin, which remains ugly, deformed, and unable to do meritorious works of eternal life, while her passions are carrying her to be interred in the abyss of evil, covering her with the gravestone of obstinacy, until she descend to the obscure and dreadful sepulchre of hell. All this should move me to compassion; for if I bewail the body from which the soul is absent, much more reason have I to bewail the soul from which Almighty God is absent [106] And seeing I would give life to the dead body if I could, there is no reason but that I should procure the life of the soul by those means that God has given me to that end, before body and soul die together without remedy.
Colloquy. — O eternal God, permit me not to carry in a living body a dead soul, but quicken it with Thy grace, that when the body dies the soul may obtain life everlasting! Amen.
(This consideration shall be spoken of more at large in the third part in the meditations 39, 40, and 41, on those three that Christ raised from death.)
MEDITATION XI.
ON THE REMEMBRANCE OF DEATH, AND ON THE DUST INTO WHICH WE SHALL BE CONVERTED IN THE GRAVE.
For Ash-Wednesday.
This meditation shall be grounded upon those words which the Church uses on Ash-Wednesday, "Memento, homo, quia pulvis es, et in pulverem reverteris;" "Remember, man, that thou art dust, and to dust thou shall return"[107] which words our Lord spoke to Adam after he had sinned, intimating to him the sentence of death which his sin deserved; and, by the way, declaring unto us what we were, what we shall be, and what we are, saying that all is but dust
POINT. I.
1. First, we are to consider that God our Lord, though he might have created the body of Adam of nothing, as he created his soul, yet he would not, but made it of a matter of the one side most vile and gross, and on the other visible and palpable, which is the dust and slime of the earth, [108] to the end that man, seeing daily with his corporal eyes this dust, might continually remember his original and beginning for two ends. i. That he might humble himself profoundly, and understand that of himself he deserves to be contemned, trodden under foot and trampled upon like dirt, and that he has nothing (though he have great goods) of which to be proud, because all have their foundation in dust. ii. That he might be moved to love and to serve his so loving and powerful Creator, who from vile dust raised him to so great a height as to be a man according to the image and likeness of God Himself.
2. So that dust and dirt may serve for remembrancers to recall to my memory my original and the matter of which I was formed, imagining when I see them that they cry out to me, and say, " Remember that thou art dust, humble thyself as dust, love, serve, and obey thy Creator that took thee from the dust." And when I wax proud with the gifts that I have, I am to imagine that they cry to me, repressing my vanity, and saying to me, "Of what art thou 'proud,' 'earth and ashes? ' " [109] " Why art thou puffed up, vessel of clay? "[110] Be warned by forgetful Adam, who, forgetting that he was dust, presumed to be as Almighty God, and rebelled against his Maker.
Colloquy. — O omnipotent Creator, permit not in me so pernicious an oblivion, that I fall not into so great a danger! Clear my eyes, that I may in spirit behold the dust of which I was formed, and open my ears that I may hear its cries, so imprinting them in my heart that I may never forget them! Amen.
(Of this point we shall speak largely in the sixth part, in the 26th meditation.)
POINT II.
1. Secondly, I am to consider that God our Lord, seeing the forgetfulness and pride of Adam, condemned him to the sentence of death, and to return into the dust of which he was formed, wherein principally He intended three ends for his good and ours.
i. To chastise his sin with it, and that we ail might perceive how grievous an evil sin is, seeing it is sufficient to destroy and to turn into dust so beautiful and rich a frame as is man; for if Adam had not sinned he had not died, but had been translated into heaven in body and soul with all his integrity and perfection. But through his sin the soul is forced to abandon the body, and the body is dissolved or unwalled and turned into small dust, according to that of the apostle, " By one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death." [111]
ii. The second end was that the memory of death, and that we are to return to dust, might be a most effectual medicine for our pride, seeing it was not sufficient to humble us that He had made us of dust. So that the dust and dirt of the earth which I see and feel is not only a signal to recall to my remembrance the original from whence I began, but also the end in which I am to stay; and when I behold it I should imagine that it is crying out and saying to me, " Remember thou art to return to earth and dust, and that like me thou shalt be trampled and trodden upon." Then "why" art thou " proud ?" [112] Thou art now flesh, thou shalt shortly be dust; wherefore art thou puffed up?
Colloquy. — O Father of mercy, I give Thee thanks that with the chastisement of my sin Thou hast made a medicine for my pride! Grant me that I may not be deaf to these cries that dust giveth me, that the chastisement of a merciful Father turn not into the punishment of a severe Judge!
iii. The third end was, that the fear of this chastisement and of this dust in which the flesh is to rest, might be a spur to our backwardness to do penance for our sins committed, and a bridle to our sensual proneness to curb our passions. So that if the remembrance of the sovereign benefit that Almighty God did to us, to take us out of the dust of the earth, be not sufficient to spur and to curb us, yet at least the remembrance may suffice, that when we least think of it we shall be turned into dust, and so what love could not do fear may bring to pass.
Colloquy. — Therefore, O my soul, take counsel of the prophet who saith, "In the house of Dust sprinkle thyself with dust " [113] and seeing thou livest in flesh, which is dust, and art shortly to dwell in the house of dust, which is the grave, sprinkle thyself with dust and ashes, doing penance for thy sins; and with the remembrance of this dust defeat the sweet and pleasing things of this life, that they may not carry thee after them to death everlasting.
POINT III.
1. Hence I will ascend to consider the spirit that is included in these words, pondering that not without cause they say not unto me, " Remember that thou" wast " dust," but that " thou art dust" at this present; to signify that of my corrupt nature I am earth and dust, since I am inclined to earthly things, as riches, honours, and pampering of the flesh, and that "as dust" [114] I am mutable and unstable, suffering myself to be tossed with the " wind" of every temptation, especially of vanity. And if I restrain not myself I shall turn into earth and dust, following my inclinations, and turning myself into an earthly, ambitious, sensual and vain man. For which I am greatly to humble myself and to tremble at my own mutability and weakness, and at the peril in which I live.
2. Then will I ponder how by God's grace I may free myself from these dangers, remembering that as well I myself as all those earthly things that I love are to end and to turn into dust. And in this spirit when I behold a rich and powerful man whose riches and power carry my eyes after him, that avarice and ambition may not overthrow me I will remember that he is but " dust" and that his gold and silver is earth, and that all shall return to that. And if I see any beautiful woman, that I may not be tempted and vanquished by luxury I will also remember that she and all her ornaments are dust, and that therein they shall rest. And in this spirit I will apply these words to all things upon earth, saying to myself, " Remember that what thou seest and desirest is dust, and shall turn into dust and ashes; and if thou dost love it inordinately, thou likewise shalt be dust and earth as it is. Therefore love God only and celestial riches, that by virtue of His grace it may be said to thee, " Thou art heaven, and to heaven thou shalt return, transforming thyself by love into heaven which thou lovest."
POINT IV.
Fourthly, I am to consider that God our Lord, by the means of the dead and of their skulls and bones, says to me these very words, " Remember that thou art dust, and that into dust thou shalt return," that they may be the more strongly imprinted on my heart, and that out of them I may gather the greater profit. This I may consider, calling to memory that memorable sentence of Ecclesiasticus, which comprehends the sense and spirit of the said words, "Memor esto judicii mei, sic enim erit tuum, mihi heri, et tibi hodie;" " Remember my judgment, for thine also shall be so; yesterday for me, to-day for thee." [115] And because the dead had two judgments, one of his body, by which he was condemned to turn to dust and to worms, the other of his soul, by which he receives sentence conformable to his merits; of both of them he would have us remember ourselves. And therefore in seeing any dead body, or the skulls and bones of the deceased, I should imagine that they say to me, " Remember that where thou seest thyself I saw myself, and where I now see myself thou shalt see thyself. Yesterday ended my life, to day peradventure thine shall be ended. Yesterday I turned into dust, to-day the like will begin for thee. Yesterday the bell tolled for me, to-day, perhaps, the same shall toll for thee. Yesterday I gave an account to God of my works, to-day thou shalt give a reckoning of thine. Yesterday I received sentence according to my merits, to-day thou shalt receive according to thine. Consider well that all this shall be 'to-day,' [116] for all the time of thy life is but as a day, and perhaps for thee this day will be thy last, and thou shalt not live until to-morrow."
Colloquy. — O my soul, hear the cry of the dead, hearken to the lecture that withered bones read thee. Consider well what judgment passed on them, for such shall be thine. Live as they wish they had lived; prepare thyself as they would that they had prepared themselves; measure often alive this course that they passed, that when thy hour approacheth thou mayest run it in such a way that thou mayest obtain life everlasting! Amen.
MEDITATION XII.
ON THE GREAT DECEITS AND GREAT DANGERS OCCASIONED BY THE FORGETFULNESS OF DEATH, AND THEIR REMEDY.
This meditation I will ground upon the speech of our Saviour Christ concerning a rich man, whose fields having yielded him plenty of fruits, he thought within himself to enlarge his granaries or barns, to gather and to keep them; and speaking to his soul, said to it, " Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thy rest, eat, drink, make good cheer. But God said to him, Thou fool! this night do they require thy soul of thee; and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?" [117] In the person of this rich man (so forgetful of his death) are represented to us those that have the like forgetfulness, especially when they are rich, healthful and young, which I am to apply to myself in the following form:
POINT I.
1. First, I am to consider three great deceits which the forgetfulness of death brings with it, by reason of which our Lord God calls this rich man? fool."
i. The first deceit is, to promise to myself many years of life and to bethink me what I shall do with them, as if this depended only on my will, and not upon God's, who, perhaps, has determined to take from us our life the very same night or day in which we thought it should have been longest; and herewith he defeats our imaginations, and discovers how much they went astray, on which I will reprehend myself with the words of the apostle St. James, saying to myself, " How darest thou say, To-morrow" I " will go into such a city, and there" I " will spend a year, and will traffic and make" " gain, whereas you know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is a vapour which appeareth for a little while, and afterwards shall vanish away. For that you should say, If the Lord will, and if I shall live," I " will do this or that [118] for otherwise thou shalt find thyself deceived, if Almighty God have determined the contrary.
ii. The second deceit is, to promise to myself not only long life, but also to assure myself that I shall have healthy strength, and content, with all the goods that I possess, and that they also shall last as long as I; whence it proceeds that upon this I exhort my soul, saying, " Requiesce, comede, bibe, et epulare;" " Take thy rest, eat, drink, make good cheer give thyself to banqueting and pleasure, for thou shall want nothing. And this is a most grievous illusion; for all this depends on Almighty God, who can take from me my goods before my life be ended, and though He take not them away, He may (as Ecclesiastes [119] says) take from me my health and strength, that I may not enjoy them.
iii. The third deceit is, to forget to provide what is necessary for the other life, as if there were no more but this present. And this was the grossest folly of this rich man, who having provided his soul of so much wealth to pass this temporal life, was altogether careless to provide it with those necessary goods for life everlasting; for which it needs be, that the unhappy soul that in this miserable life ate, drank, and banqueted, must afterwards endure perpetual hunger, thirst, and eternal misery.
2. Considering these three deceits, I will examine if my soul be beguiled with them, and will exhort her contrarily to what this rich man did, saying,
Colloquy. — O my soul, promise not to thyself many years, for perhaps thou shalt not live out this present! "Boast not for to-morrow, for thou knowest not what the day to come may bring forth." [120] Give not thyself to rest, but to labour; not to feastings and banquets, but to fasting and tears. Have a care of eternal life which awaits thee, for after death there is no means to merit any durable rest or contentment. [121] O eternal God, deliver me of Thine infinite goodness from the miserable deceits, before death seize upon me in them! Exhort Thou my soul to works that are pleasing unto Thee, that this day it may more and more separate itself from all such things as offend Thee! Amen.
POINT II.
Secondly, I am to consider the great losses they suffer in death that have been thus beguiled all their life, drawing them from the words of our Lord to this rich man, " Stulte, hac nocte animam tuam repetent a te, et quae prseparasti, cujus erunt?" "Thou fool! this night do they require thy soul of thee, and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?" In this are touched four grievous losses, for which King David had great reason to say, that " the death of the wicked is very evil." [122]
1. " Thou fool" — The first loss is to die in his very folly, without falling into a reckoning of it till it be 'past remedy. For, late or early, both good and evil shall come to perceive their errors, but in a different manner: for the wicked continue in their error until death, and then, with the experience of their torments and miseries, they fall into a reckoning how much in their lifetime they were beguiled, calling themselves " Insensati," [123] " men without sense" or judgment. But the good in their lifetime perceive their error by the light of faith, and prepare themselves for death before death seize upon them. Therefore, O my soul! to perceive thy own errors, take for thy teacher this divine light, if thou wilt not have the experience of eternal misery to be thy teacher, and beware by other men's dangers before this loss light upon thee with thy own.
2. "This night" — The second loss is to die in the night, that is, by a sudden and hasty death in the midst of their crimes; for oftentimes when men are healthful and contented, as this rich man was, Almighty God intimates to them the sentence of death, and moreover executes it, so that they pass from a temporal night to an eternal, and from the interior " darkness" of the heart to the " exterior" of hell. [124] With this fear, I will ask very earnestly of our Lord, that He would in such manner forewarn me of the peril of my death, that I may have time to dispose myself to it, as He forewarned King Ezechias by means of the prophet Isaias, saying to him, "Take order with thy house, for thou shalt die." [125] But to this end I am not to expect revelations from heaven; but my prophet Isaias must be the light of faith and of reason, the inspiration of God, the grievous sickness that assails me, and the warning of the physician when he tells me I am in danger. And generally, seeing I have no certain day of life, and every day I may expect death, it is wisdom to imagine that Almighty God says this day to me, " Take order to-day with thy soul, for to-morrow thou shall die and so do it immediately.
3. "Do they require." — The third loss is, to die by force and with violence, because their souls are required and forced out in despite of them. In this I will consider the difference between the just unbeguiled and sinners beguiled; for the just offer themselves voluntarily to death, when God's will is that they should die, and they say to Him with David, a Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise Thy name;" [126] and "into Thy hands I commend my spirit," for " Thou redeemedst me, O Lord the God of truth!" [127] And although nature somewhat shuns death, yet grace prevails against it, and when Almighty God requires of them their soul they yield it with great resignation. But the wicked abhor death, and bear it very impatiently, and therefore it is said that the devils (the ministers of Gods justice) do require and force from them their soul against their will.
Colloquy. — O eternal God, grant me that I may live so unfleshed from all things of this life that there may be no need to pull from me my soul perforce! Require it of me when Thou wilt, for I am ready and willing to give it unto Thee, in what day soever Thou requirest it.
POINT III.
1. Thirdly, I am to consider the dreadffulness of that terrible question that God our Lord makes, " Whose shall be the things that thou hast provided?" In this is represented the final loss of those who (as has been said) live forgetful of death, which is suddenly and with great grief to leave the goods which they possessed, without enjoying them, or disposing of them, or knowing to whom they shall come. This is to say to them, " Whose shall be the things that thou hast provided?' Whose shall be the house in which thou livest, and the bed in which thou sleepest; the rich garments with which thou attirest thyself, and the treasures of gold and silver that thou hast in thy chests? Whose shall be the servants that now serve thee, and the friends that now entertain thee, and the office and dignity for which all do honour thee? O wretched man, that storest up " treasures," and knowest not for whom thou didst "gather" these things; [128] for thy wretched soul, for whom thou didst provide them, can now no longer enjoy them!
2. This question I am to make to myself, examining what kind of goods I have "stored" up in this life, and saying to myself, "Then whose shall be the things that thou hast provided " when thou art dead? Will they peradventure be thy soul's, or one be thy " heir " whom thou "knowest not?" [129] If they be temporal goods, certainly they shall be none of thine; for the rich man, " when he shall die," shall take away nothing with him, nor " shall his glory descend with him [130] but if they be spiritual goods of virtues and good " works" [131] thine they will be; for these accompany those that die in our Lord, and forsake them not till they put them in the throne of His glory. Therefore, O my soul, labour to treasure up goods that in life and death may always be thine, and of which nobody can deprive thee!
3. Like this question I will make another to myself, saying, This soul that thou hast in thy body, whose shall it be? Will it perad venture be God's or the devil's? Will it be Christ's that redeemed it, or Satan's to whom it has subjected itself? If I am in mortal sin, and die in it, doubtless it will be the devil's; he will come to require it of me, and will carry it away, for it is his through sin. But if I be in the grace of Almighty God, and persevere in it, it will be God's, and He will come for it, to carry it with Him. Therefore, forthwith do penance for thy sins, that if to-day "the prince of darkness" should " come," he may "not" find " in" thy soul "anything "[132] that is his, and so may leave it.
Colloquy. — O King of heaven and of earth, "Tuus sum ego, salvum me fac," [133] "I am Thine, save me! " My soul is Thine, for Thou didst create it; it is Thine, for Thou didst redeem it; let it also be Thine sanctifying it with Thy grace, that it may be perpetually Thine, crowning it with the reward of Thy glory! Amen.
POINT IV.
1. For conclusion, and confirmation of what has been said in these three points, I will consider a terrible example and type of it in King Baltassar, who, while eating and drinking in a banquet, suddenly saw two fingers of a hand, which wrote upon a wall these words, "Mane, Thecel, Phares;" "He hath counted, He hath weighed, He hath divided which Daniel expounded in this form: " Mane — God hath numbered thy kingdom and hath finished it. Thecel — thou art weighed in the balance and art found wanting. Phares — thy kingdom is divided, and is given to the Medes and Persians." [134] All which things, he " being slain the same night," came to pass.
2. Applying this to myself, if I live in the like forgetfulness, I am to imagine that suddenly will come a day, or a night, in which God our Lord, with the fingers of His omnipotence, will write on the wall of my conscience the sentence of these three words, i. God hath numbered the days of thy life, [135] and those which thou hast to enjoy thy kingdom, thy wealth, thy honour, dignity and office, and they are already complete, and this day shall be the last. ii. He hath weighed thee in His scale, examining thy works, without omitting any one, and He hath found that they were light and not M full works," [136] for that thou hast not fulfilled all thy obligations, iii. God hath divided and separated from thee thy kingdom, thy wealth and dignity, and the goods that thou possessedst, and hath delivered them to thine enemies, or to strangers and to others to enjoy them. He hath likewise divided thy body and soul, and thy body He hath delivered to the worms to eat, and thy soul to the devils to torment it And in the very same hour that God shall intimate this sentence, He will execute it, and none shall be able to resist Him.
Colloquy. — Oh, what tremblings shall I then feel, more terrible than those of King Baltassar! Oh, what clamours and lamentations, what troubles and agonies of death shall afflict my poor soul, with so much the greater torment as the forgetfulness was the greater! Eemember me, O God, for Thy mercy, and imprint in my soul the memory of these three sentences, that I may always remember the account that Thou hast made of my days, and of the last which must be the end of them, that I may live with such care that at the day of judgment, when Thou shalt weigh me in Thy scale, Thou mayest not find me wanting, but entire, and weighty in all my works: and that although Thou dividest from me the kingdom of the earth, Thou mayest not exclude me from Thy kingdom of heaven! Amen.
MEDITATION XIII.
ON THE GENERAL JUDGMENT, AND ON THE SIGNS AND THINGS PRECEDING THAT DAY.
For the first Sunday of Advent.
POINT I.
1. For the foundation of this matter, I am to consider the
verity of that article of our faith that teaches us, that
besides the particular judgment that is made of every man
in the hour of death, there shall be another general judgment of all men together in the end of the world, which judgment shall be public and visible, ordained by the
divine providence for many reasons.
i. To confirm the sentence that was given in the particular judgment, and to manifest to the world its equity, and withal to supply what was wanted. For in death judgment is made of the soul only, and not of the body; and sometimes it happens that the soul is condemned in the judgment of God, and the body is carried to the grave with great honour. [137] Or, contrarily, that the soul is carried with great glory to heaven, and the body with great ignominy to the grave. And since body and soul were united together in serving or offending Almighty God, it is just that there should be a day in which judgments should be made of them both. On which I will animate my flesh to serve the spirit, seeing that with it it is also to be judged.
ii. The second reason is, for Almighty God to manifest Himself for the honour of the just that were oppressed in this life, and much more for the good credit of His government, that all may see that He was both wise and holy in all whatsoever He ordained or permitted. So that neither the good may then complain any more that virtue was oppressed, [138] nor the wicked glory that vice was exalted [139] ; and, finally, to " confound " [140] the rash judgments of those that dared to judge what they knew not. Upon this the Apostle counsels that we should "judge not before the time until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts." [141]
iii. The third reason is, the glory of Christ Jesus our Lord, that He may not only discover Himself in heaven to the good, but also that on earth, where His ignominy was apparent, He may manifest Himself to the wicked; and that those which saw His humiliation may see its reward. And for this cause the place of judgment will be " the valley of Josaphat" [142] near Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives; that in the same place where He was judged, condemned, and crucified for our sins, they may all see Him with great honour to be the judge both of the living and of the dead, [143] and that He that ascended to heaven in the sight of a few disciples shall descend, as it was told by the angel, [144] in the sight of the whole world to judge them all.
2. For these reasons the remembrance of judgment may move me to joy, thankfulness and praise, glorifying God for His sovereign providence, with which He designed it for so high ends; and with David inviting all creatures to " rejoice," and clap their hands " for joy," for that the Lord "cometh to judge the earth." " He shall judge the world with justice, and the people with his truth " [145] righting wrongs without acceptance of persons.
POINT II.
Secondly are to be considered the signs preceding this general judgment, as Christ our Lord reckons them in His gospel, [146] pondering their number and terror; the things which they signify, the effects which they shall cause in men, the manner how they shall come to pass, and withal the reasons wherefore they come to pass.
1. First, I am to ponder their number; for "He will arm (as the Wise man says) the creation for the revenge of his enemies;" "and the whole world shall fight with him against the unwise." [147] And as all have been instruments of God's mercy, to do them great benefits, so then they will be instruments of God's justice to do them great evil, and with great reason, because they abused them to the injury of their Creator. And although they now dissemble this wrong then they shall manifest it with terrible signs.
2. Secondly, I will ponder their terror, reasoning on some of them. " The sun shall be turned into darkness, the moon into blood " the stars or comets shall fall from heaven " like lightning; and " the powers of heaven shall be moved; " [148] for they shall make a fearful noise, as an alarum-bell when it is let loose to strike the hour; the earth shall dreadfully tremble, opening itself in many parts, and, like Mount AEtna, casting forth fire; the sea shall be in a tumult with terrible waves; the winds, encountering one another, shall raise horrible tempests; dreadful thunderclaps, with fearful "shafts of lightnings," [149] shall sound in the air; and there shall appear affrighting visions [150] and horrid monsters, much more horrid than in Egypt and Jerusalem. The wild and savage beasts and venomous serpents shall stray up and down, running in all parts with horrible howlings, roarings and hissings.
3. But how terrible soever these signs be, they will afflict much more with the terror of the things which they signify, and which men apprehend, because all these are but as a foreshadowing of the dreadful evils which they expect, for the world shall be the very portraiture of hell. The " darkness" of " the sun " menaces eternal darkness, in chastisement of the darkness of the soul. The "blood" of "the moon" is the sign of the indignation of Almighty God, which shall take vengeance of them for staining themselves with the blood of sins. The falling of "the stars" from heaven is the sign of the most unhappy fall which they shall make from the heaven of the Church to the bottomless pit of hell; for they threw themselves down headlong from the height of grace to the depth of sin. The fury of the elements and beasts prognosticates the terribleness of the infernal furies against them for living like beasts without any order or government of their passions.
4. Hence it will arise that men shall wither with fear and astonishment as well for the evils which they experience as for those which they expect, being seized upon by the sad spirit that withereth the bones. [151] Oh, what a difference shall there be in this case between those that have a good and secure, and those that have an evil and unquiet conscience! for although all will fear, yet the fear of the good will be mixed with great confidence in God's mercy. And so our Saviour Christ comforts them, saying, " When these things begin to come to pass, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand," [152] the end of your labours and the beginning of your rest. But the fear of the wicked shall be full of desperation and great impatience, for, as the Wise man says, " a troubled conscience always forecasteth grievous things." [153] And if already (says David) " they have trembled with fear where there was no fear," [154] how much more will they tremble where they have so much to tremble at, beginning presently to have that trembling and gnashing of teeth which they shall ever have in bell? Pondering all these things, and every one of them, I will exhort myself to the fear of God and detestation of my sins, saying to myself,
Colloquy. — How is it, O my soul, that thou fearest not the wrath of Almighty God, who the more merciful He is now shall then be the more rigorous? Why embracest thou not with love the sacraments and signs of His grace before the terrible signs of His wrath fall upon thee? If the pillars of heaven shall then tremble, why dost not thou fortify thyself with a celestial life, that though thou fearest yet thou mayest not fall? O infinite God, pierce Thou my flesh with Thy holy " fear," [155] making me fear Thy terrible judgments! Let my bones be withered with sorrow for having offended Thee, rather than I should be withered with an unprofitable fear! Let my face be covered with shame for my sins, that then I may lift up my head for joy of the redemption that I expect from them!
POINT III.
Thirdly, I must consider the terrible fire that shall arise from all the four parts of the world to burn and consume the things of the earth, and to renew and purify what is to remain in it. [156]
Concerning this fire, we are principally to consider three things for our purpose.
i. First, that it shall burn and consume exceeding quickly and without resistance the palaces and forests, treasures of gold and precious stones, beasts, birds and fishes, and all men that it shall find alive; for from it none shall be able to escape. And herein shall end the glory and beauty of this visible world, which worldlings so much love and esteem, fulfilling that of Joel, that " before" Almighty God shall come "a devouring fire," and "behind" him "a burning flame: the land is like a garden of pleasure before it, and behind it a desolate wilderness, neither is there any one that can escape it." [157]
Colloquy. — O my soul, why dost not thou abhor " the fashion of this world, which passeth away" [158] so hastily, and shall have so disastrous an end? Tremble at this fire which shall burn its riches, that thou mayest not give food therewith to the fire of thy avarice. Amen.
ii. Secondly, I will consider that this fire, as says the Book of Wisdom, [159] shall be most cruel against the wicked and most gentle to the good that shall then be alive; for to these it shall serve as a purgatory to purify them from their sins and from its dregs, and to augment to them the merit and the crown that soon after they are to receive. But sinners it shall terribly torment as the beginning of hell that attends them to chastise their rebellion.
iii. Hence it is that this fire shall last in the world till the general judgment be concluded, Almighty God (as David says) dividing its " flame" [160] to enlighten without hurt the bodies of the elect, and to torment the bodies of the reprobate, [161] so that forthwith in rising they shall feel the horrible fire in which they are to remain, which (the sentence being given) like a furious river will overwhelm them and go down with them to hell. Then shall be fulfilled, both in good and bad, that saying of the prophet, " The day" of the Lord " shall come, kindled like a furnace; and all the proud, and all that do wickedly shall be stubble: and the day that cometh shall set them on fire, saith the Lord of Hosts: it shall not leave them root nor branch. But unto you that fear my name the Sun of justice shall arise, and health in his wings; and you shall go forth, and shall leap like calves of the herd. And you shall tread down the wicked when they shall be ashes under the sole of your feet." [162]
Colloquy. — O my soul, compare this "furnace" with this "Sun of justice;" these flames that blind with these splendours that give light; these " ashes" of torments with these " wings" of ease; this burning like " stubble" with this leaping for pleasure like a young "calf;" and choose such a form of life as may free thee from so great evils, and purchase for thee so great good! O eternal God, from whose presence shall flow this "stream of fire" [163] for the punishment of the wicked, and another "river" of living " water" for the refuge of the good, wash me and purify me with the " water" [164] of this second, that I may be free from the fire of the first! Amen.
POINT IV.
1. Fourthly, I am to consider what Christ our Lord says of the day that He has assigned for this judgment: that " no one knoweih, but the Father alone" [165] ; and that it shall come on a sudden, for which He brings two similitudes. " As," says He, [166] " in the days of Noe " men 4 were eating and drinking,' ' buying and selling, "marrying and giving in marriage," and carrying on their businesses, " until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the Flood came and destroyed them all; [167] likewise as it came to pass in the days of Lot," the Sodomites being very careless, " in the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all, [168] even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man shall be revealed," and shall come to judgment. For men being occupied in marriages and pastimes, the flood of tribulations shall begin, and there shall rise a fire that shall consume them, and innumerable shall they be that shall be condemned, except some few that, like Noe and Lot, shall be saved.
And seeing that the same happens in many "tribulations," [169] plagues and deaths which suddenly assail us, I am to endeavour to live so well prepared that I may merit to be saved, taking the counsel that our Saviour Christ gave upon this, saying, " Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it;"[170] that is, let him mortify his carnal life, for losing it in such manner he shall quicken it with a spiritual life, and shall be secure at the day of this judgment.
Colloquy. — O Sovereign Judge, quicken me with Thy grace, that, like another Noe, I may be saved in the ark of Thy Church! Drag me out of the Sodom of the world, though it be by force,[171] like Lot, that being free from the fires that burn it, I may save my soul in the high " mountain" of Thy glory! Amen.
MEDITATION XIV.
ON THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD, AND THE COMING OF THE JUDGE, AND HIS PROCEEDINGS BEFORE GIVING THE SENTENCE.
POINT I.
First, I must consider the general resurrection of the dead, in which men in soul and body are to appear at this judgment. Concerning this article of our faith I am to consider,
1. First, that an " archangel," with a dreadful " voice," [172] in manner of a " trumpet," [173] will summon and call all the dead to rise again and come to judgment, saying, " Surgite, mortui, et venite ad judicium;" "Arise, you dead, and come to judgment!" And so potent will this voice be, by virtue of God's Almighty power, that "in a moment" all [174] the dead will arise. And (as St. John says) the "sea will give up the dead that" are " in it;" the earth those that it swallowed alive; and " death and hell" will give up " the dead that" are " in them." [175] Though they were turned into dust, God's omnipotency will form them in a moment, with all the perfection of members they are to have; and in this very moment the souls will ascend from " hell," and those of heaven will descend, and every one will be united to the self-same body that it owned before. So that this " voice of the archangel," and this citation to judgment, all will obey without resistance, excuse or delay, even though they have been kings, popes, and monarchs of the world.
Colloquy. — O my soul, remember often this powerful voice, let this trump sound in thy ears, fear this terrible summoning, and prepare thyself for it! Obey the voice of Almighty God, and of His visible archangel, that saith unto thee, " Rise, thou that sleepest, and arise thee from the dead, and Christ shall enlighten thee;" [176] for He desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should be converted, raised up, and live.
2. Secondly, I will consider what body will be given to the soul of the damned that comes up from hell, and what it will think to see itself encaged in it. For there will be given to it a body on the one side passible, and on the other side immortal and impassible, [177] that may ever suffer and never die. A foul, stinking, and horrid body, that will be the eternal prison of that wretched soul, and a .new hell to it in which to abide. Oh, what maledictions will the one cast forth against the other in that first entrance! " Cursed be thou, body," will the soul say, " for to pamper thee, and for that thou hast been rebellious to me, have I suffered so many and so great torments, and will for ever suffer them with thee." " Cursed be thou, soul! " will the body say, " be cause thou didst not with thy free will mortify and subdue me I am to suffer with thee such horrible torments." In this way these two miserable companions, that in this life joined together to seek their delights, drinking therewith innumerable sins, will then be joined and knit together like " thorns," [178] to prick one another, and to be their own executioners, and to augment one another's most terrible torments.
3. Thirdly, I will briefly consider the body that will be given to the soul of the blessed that descends from heaven, and with what delight and pleasure it will enter into it. For there will be given to it a body immortal, impassible, resplendent, every way perfect and exceedingly glorious. Oh, what benedictions will they pour forth one upon another! Oh, what welcomes will the soul give to her beloved body! " Blessed be thou," (will she say,) "for thou hast aided me to merit the glory that I have enjoyed! Blessed art thou, that sufferedst thyself to be mortified, and didst yield with obedience to fulfil whatsoever Almighty God commanded! Be comforted, for now the time of labour is past, and the time of rest is come! Thou wast 'sown' and buried in the earth 'in dishonour:' thou art now returned to live with new ' glory.' Glorify God with me, because with me thou shalt reign." Finally, making comparison of that which shall happen to the good and the evil, I will say to my own body, " Animate thyself in this mortal life to suffer, that the happy lot may fail upon thee to rise again to life everlasting r
POINT II.
Secondly, I must consider the coming of the Judge to judgment, His descending from heaven, the majesty of His person, the train that accompany Him — His royal standard — His glorious throne — the form of His countenance and His assistants that are on either side.
1. First, I will consider how Christ our Lord will really and truly descend from heaven, [179] and come the second time into the world to judge it, but in a way very different from that which He came at His first coming. For at this second coming He will come with a glorious and resplendent body, crowned with a crown of glory and immortality, with such splendour that the sun, moon, and stars, will not give light in His presence; and with such majesty that angels and men, righteous and sinners, and even the devils themselves, will subject themselves to Him, and adore, and (be they never so loth) acknowledge Him for their God and their Almighty Lord. For then will the eternal Father fulfil the promise that He made Him, to subject all things to Him, and to " put all His enemies under His feet," [180] that " every knee should bow" in His presence, and " every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father." [181]
Colloquy. — O my Saviour, very just it is that Thy second coming should discover that glory which at Thy first coming Thou didst conceal! Grant me, O Lord, to imitate the humility of the first that I may enjoy the glory of the second! Amen.
2. Then will I consider the train that accompanies Him, for (as " Enoch" prophesied) " the Lord shall come with thousands of His saints," [182] encircled with the whole army of heaven, [183] with the three hierarchies and the nine choirs, assuming (as may piously be believed) aerial bodies resplendent like the sun, discovering therein the beauty and excellency of their hierarchy and choir. Before Him (as is collected out of the Gospel) shall come the banner [184] of the Son of Man, which is the royal standard of the holy cross, with an admirable splendour. The which being one and the same will be most pleasing and delightful to the just that in this life embraced and esteemed it, crucifying their flesh with its vices and concupiscences; but most horrible and dreadful to the wicked, who believed not in it, or abhorred it, being enemies of it, because they held " their belly" for their "god." [185] And therefore in seeing it they shall weep bitterly, for they shall see in it the just cause of their damnation.
Colloquy. — O my soul, follow the banner of the cross in this life, that thou mayest see it with peace and security in the other! Bewail the enmity thou hast had against it, that thou mayest then behold it with joy and alacrity! Amen.
3. Thirdly, I will consider how our Lord Christ, coming to the valley of Josaphat, will be seated in a most excellent throne, made of a most beauteous and bright-shining cloud, and His divine face being one and the same, will yet appear most amiable to the good and most terrible to the wicked, so that to behold Him only they will remain full of terror and confusion. And from the most sacred wounds of His feet, hands, and side, will issue out rays of light and delectable splendour to the good, who, by the corporal view of these wounds, will receive most singular comfort, considering how infinite the love was of this sovereign King, in virtue of them to vouchsafe to receive them. But from the same wounds will issue rays of wrath, and as it were of fire against the wicked, who (as the Scripture says) "shall" bitterly "be wail," [186] that they reaped so little profit of them. But much more shall the Jews and Gentiles weep, that with so great cruelty made and pierced those precious wounds.
Colloquy. — O most sweet Jesus, by these Thy most sacred wounds, I beseech Thee " give me wings like a dove" to "fly and be at rest" [187] in them while I live, mourning for my sins, for whose cause Thou receivedst them, that at the day of judgment I may look on them and behold them with joyfulness, and through them mayest admit me to Thy glory! Amen.
4. Fourthly, then will I consider how on Christ our Saviour's side will be placed another throne of exceeding great glory for His most sacred Mother; for it is very just that in this judgment she, like another " Bethsabe," [188] should be seated on the side of the true Solomon, not to be the advocate for sinners, (for that time is now past), but to confound them, because they would not make use of so holy a Mother and so powerful an advocate as they had, as also that the righteous may be comforted by her presence, and she herself be honoured before all the world for the humiliations that she suffered in this life from those that knew her not, and did her outrage in the passion of her Son.
Colloquy. — O sovereign Virgin, I rejoice for the glory thou shalt have at that day! Aid me, I beseech thee, with thy intercession, that then also I may be joyful with thy presence!
5. Finally, round about the throne of our Lord Christ will stand another throne, where His Apostles (as He promised them) shall " sit judging the twelve tribes of Israel," [189] and all the nations of the world, condemning by their exemplary life the evil life of sinners, approving the sentence of the supreme Judge, and in His name declaring the righteousness of it. And, as many holy fathers affirm, there shall likewise be seated in thrones of glory the poor [190] of spirit, who, in imitation of the apostles, left all things for Christ. Oh, how astounded will the tyrants and emperors be that martyred these apostles, when they shall see them exalted with so great glory! Oh, how much shall the poor religious be honoured, who in this world lived contemned!
Colloquy. — O sovereign Judge, if Thou dost thus honour those that are voluntarily poor, I embrace poverty with a great good will, not so much for my honour as for the glory which to Thee ensues from it!
POINT III.
" The separation of the good and bad." — Thirdly, I am to consider that Christ our Lord, to finish His judgment, " shall separate the" good " from the" evil, " as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats;" [191] the righteous will be placed " on His right" hand, and the wicked "on His left."
1. Concerning this, I must consider that this world and the Church is now like a flock of sheep and goats, of good and evil so mingled together that we cannot always discern who is "the sheep" of Christ, or "the goats" of Satan. And through this ignorance oftentimes we honour the sinner as a just man, and despise the just man reputing him a sinner. Whence also it proceeds that the just and the unjust have not always that place which they merit; for oftentimes wicked men usurp the "right hand" and most exalted place of the earth, and the good stand on the "left hand," in the most contemptible place of the world. For which Solomon says, " I saw" a great evil " under the sun, in the place of judgment wickedness, and in the place of justice iniquity; and I said in my heart, God shall judge both the just and the wicked," [192] and then shall be seen what every one is.
2. Now this time being come, Christ our Lord, to dis cover these deceits and oppressions, shall separate "the wheat" from "the cockle," the grain from "the chaff," [193] the good fish from the bad, and the lambs from the kids. And the good, "He shall set on His right hand, "taking them up (as St. Paul says) " into the air," [194] that all the world may know them, and honour them as saints; and the wicked, "He will set" "on his left" hand, leaving them upon the earth that all may know them, and despise them as sinners. Oh, how great shall the confusion be of the wicked, who, in this life, had the right hand and were mighty, when they shall see themselves on the left hand in such an extremity of baseness! Oh, what a raging envy will they have against the righteous, when they shall see them so honoured, and themselves so contemned! What will the prince and the lord say when he shall see his slave exalted to so high a place? What the superior and the master, when he sees his subject and disciple so preferred before him? All at once they will say that of the Book of Wisdom, " We fools esteemed their life madness, and their end without honour; behold how they are numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints! Therefore we have erred from the way of truth, and the light of justice hath not shined to us, and the sun of understanding hath not risen upon us." [195]
Colloquy. — O Sun of Righteousness, illuminate the eyes of my soul with Thy celestial light, that I may behold the blindness of these wretches, and be warned in time by their .calamity! Amen.
3. Contrariwise, the righteous shall be very full of content to see themselves on the right side of Christ, and Christ our Lord very joyful to see them at His side; for then that saying of David begins to the letter to be visibly fulfilled: " The Queen stood on Thy right hand in gilded clothing, surrounded with variety." [196] Oh, how glorious then will that congregation of the just he there, like a queen that shall soon be placed in the kingdom of her spouse, rejoicing to behold herself set at the right hand of her beloved, adorned with virtues I In this life she was much humbled with contempts, and now she is seen in an instant exalted to great honours. Oh, happy he that seats himself in the lowest place of the world, for then Christ will say to him a Amice, ascende superius," " Friend, go up higher;" [197] ascend above the proud of the earth, and forthwith thou shalt ascend with me to the thrones of heaven.
Colloquy. — O my soul, choose in this life a low place among men, that at the day of judgment Christ may give thee a high place among the angels! Make no account of the right or left hand that thou hast in this world, but of that thou shalt have in the tribunal of Christ, endeavouring to live with such purity that thou mayest merit to be on His right hand! Amen.
3. Lastly, if I would know what hand I shall be on at the day of judgment, I must consider whether I be a " sheep" or a " goat;" that is, if I hear the voice of my pastor Christ; if I have meekness and humility; if I suffer with patience adversities and injuries; and if I distribute my goods liberally to others. Or contrariwise, if I be proud and vindictive; if I seek my temporal profit to the detriment of my neighbour, and to the loss of my spiritual good; and so making reflection upon this, I will endeavour to be "a sheep" of this sovereign Shepherd, confidently trusting that He will place me on His right hand with exceeding pleasure and profit.
POINT IV.
On the manifestation of consciences. — The fourth point shall be to consider the manifestation that will be made at the day of judgment of all the consciences of the good and evil before men and before angels, [198] when " the Lord," as the apostle St. Paul says, " both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the heart," [199] with a special light, which Almighty God shall communicate, in order to make them to be seen.
1. In this I will consider how God our Lord on that day shall open (as the Holy Scripture says) and unfold "the books" [200] of men's consciences, which during the time of this life were last shut up, so that all shall read what is written in the book of every one's conscience, and every one what is written in that of all; and according to the contents of those books judgment shall be concluded and sentence pronounced, that all may see the truth and uprightness of God's justice, as well for the honour of the good as for the confusion of the wicked. Whence I will gather how much it behoves me to consider well what I write in the book of my conscience; for I may now write what I please and cover it as I will, but in that day, whether I will or no, all shall come to light, and if the book of my conscience be well written, according to the book of life, which is Christ Jesus, my "book," [201] says Job, shall be my defence, my honour and my crown. But if it be contrary to that of Christ Jesus, it shall be my accuser, my dishonour and my condemnation.
Colloquy. — O most tender Saviour, whose book in the day of judgment shall be opened, that Thy life may be as a law and living rule by which judgment shall be made of ours, permit me not to write in the book of my conscience anything that may be contrary to Thy book! And if at any time, through my frailty, I shall so write, aid me to blot it out with penance, that in the day of my account, seeing me conformable to Thee in life, Thou mayest likewise make me conformable to Thee in glory! Amen.
2. But particularising more at large what is to pass in this manifestation, I will consider that then the secret sins of the heart shall be published, and the foul sins of deed that were committed in corners, and those which for shame were concealed in confession, or were covered with excuses and shifts. Then shall also be manifested evil intentions, secret treasons, hypocrisies, and all other works that seemed holy and were in truth wicked. Then shall be known unfaithful servants, false friends, feigned Christians, with very great confusion to see themselves discovered; for if I feel it so much to have my secret sin published before twelve men, how shall I feel it to have all my sins together published before all men and before all angels?
Colloquy. — O my soul, how darest thou sin m secret if thou believest that thy sin shall be published and manifested before all the world? How canst thou in confession cover some sins through shame, if thy faith tells thee of this confusion thou shalt suffer for concealing them? Eemember what thy Redeemer saith, " Nihil opertum quod non reveletur, neque occultum quod non sciatur " There is nothing covered which shall not be revealed, nor hidden which shall not be known." [202] Therefore cease to commit that sin that thou wouldst not have manifested.
3. Then I will consider how God our Lord shall manifest the good works of the just, how secret soever they have been; their pure thoughts, their holy affections, their intentions so closely hidden that the left hand knew not what the right did; and their exterior works which they covered for humility, and those which the world esteemed for evil, and on that account calumniated and condemned them; for which, notwithstanding, they shall be honoured and exalted. Oh, how foul and abominable 6hall vice then appear, and how pleasing and beautiful virtue! Oh, what honour and credit shall it then be to have been obedient and humble, and to have suffered injuries silently, without excuses or complainings! Oh, happy they who embrace these virtuous exercises, since through them they shall receive so great a glory!
Colloquy. — Cover, O my soul, thy good works with humility, that pride may not rob thee of them; for in His good time our Lord, to thy great glory, shall discover them! Amen.
4. Lastly, I will consider how the just Judge in that day will discover as well the good works which the evil did as the evil works which the good did; but with a different end and issue. For the good works of the evil shall arise to their greater ignominy, for not having persevered in that good, losing the reward of it for mingling it with many evils. And when they shall see the advices and good counsels which they gave to the elect they will be much the more ashamed that they took them not for themselves, nor made any profit of them. Contrariwise, when God shall punish the sins committed by the just, He will likewise publish the penance which they did and the good they drew from the same, so that they shall not be to them an occasion of confusion, but rather a motive to praise Almighty God who pardoned them and freed them by His great mercy from so great a misery. And all shall redound to the greater confusion of the wicked, seeing others that committed the same or greater sins than theirs in so great honour for having done penance for them in seasonable time.
POINT V.
1. Of the accusations and imputations against the wicked. — The fifth point shall be to consider the terrible accusations and charges that will arise out of this manifestation, against the wicked in favour of the good. For first of all, the devil, the " accuser" [203] and calumniator of men on this day — which is the last of his office — shall do the same with great vehemence, exaggerating the sins of the wicked, the more to confound them, as St. Basil [204] says, before the whole world; for turning himself to the Judge, he will say, " I did not create these, neither did I give them life, or sustenance, or the goods with they enjoyed: I neither suffered nor died for them, nor promised them any eternal reward; and yet notwithstanding, forsaking Thee who didst all these things for them, they served and obeyed me! Therefore mine they are by right; for I vanquished them, and they yielded themselves to me, and esteemed me more than Thee." This will proud Satan say, as one who after his raging manner desires to triumph over Christ our Lord, and to revenge himself on Him in His creatures. Oh, how ashamed and out of countenance shall the wicked become for having obeyed him!
Colloquy. — Fly, O my soul, from obeying him who will give thee so evil a retribution! Turn for Christ's honour who created and redeemed thee, deceiving His enemy in this life, that he may not beguile thee in the other!
2. Secondly, I will consider the terrible charges that Christ Himself will interiorly lay on them, calling to every one's memory the benefits benefits done them. "I," will He say, " created thee to my own image and likeness, and thou stainedst it with many sins. I redeemed thee with my precious blood, and thou with thy evil ways didst tread and trample it under foot. I gave thee the sacrament of baptism, making thee a member of my Church, and thou profanedst it, living with scandal therein. I offered thee the sacrament of penance to restore to thee my grace, and thou choosedst to remain in sin. I invited thee to the banquet of my body and blood for thy sustenance, and thou despisedst it for the flesh-pots of Egypt. I called thee with many inspirations, and thou wast obstinately rebellious unto them. I threatened thee with chastisements, I recalled thee with benefits, and I encouraged thee with promises of great rewards; and of all these thou madest no account O wretched man, what could I do more for thee than I did? And thou, what couldest thou do more against me than thou didst, esteeming more thine own honour than mine? O angels and ministers, judge you and see, ' what is there that I ought to do more to this vineyard, and have not done to it? Was it that I looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it hath brought forth wild grapes [205] Pondering all this, I will with great feeling pronounce those words of David, "O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy indignation, nor chastise me in Thy wrath," [206] but correct me in Thy mercy, whilst yet there i6 time for my amendment.
3. To this reprehension of Christ our very guardian' angels will add theirs, alleging how much they did to divert the wicked from their evil life, and yet with what rebellion the wicked contradicted them. The just likewise " ho are present shall accuse them — some because they rejected their counsel; others because they received from them great wrongs; and others for the peril in which they saw themselves through their evil example. All this the wretches shall hear and see in the' interior part of their soul and o their unhappy conscience, which (as the apostle saith) shall be the most terrible accuser of all; [207] for being convinced with the evidence of truth, and seeing the reason that all have to accuse her, she shall have nothing to answer, but much of which to accuse herself. Oh, how much better had it been for her to have willingly and profitably accused herself in this life, than to accuse herself at that time through necessity and without remedy!
Colloquy. — O sweet Jesus, grant me that I may worthily accuse myself of my sins before Thee, and before the confessor who is to absolve me of them, that they may not accuse me in judgment to my condemnation!
MEDITATION XV.
ON THE SENTENCES IN FAVOUR OF THE GOOD AND AGAINST THE WICKED, AND ON THEIR EXECUTION.
The form of the sentences which Christ our Lord will pronounce (as it is believed, with an audible voice) [208] in favour of the good and against the wicked, is expressed in the holy Gospel, beginning with that in favour of the good, that we may understand how much more God our Lord is inclined to reward than He is to punish.
POINT I.
1. First, I must consider that Christ our Lord, seated on the throne of His glory, looking toward the righteous, with a gentle and amiable voice will say to them, " Come, ye blessed of my Father! possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry, and you gave me to eat," &c. [209] This sentence we will meditate word by word, pondering the mystery which every word contains, conformably to the second form of praying set down in the ninth chapter of the introduction. And yet we will here do no more than point at the considerations of these words; for hereafter they will be handled more at large.
i " Come" — The first word is " Come in which I am to consider for what cause He says to them " Come," whence they are to come, and whither they are to come. He says to them " Come," to recall to their memory their first vocation, when He called them to follow Him, saying to them, " Come ye to me, all you that labour and are burdened, and I will refresh you." And, " If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross, and follow me." [210] And because they hearkened to this vocation, He calls them with such another word, as if He should say, " Seeing you came after me, embracing the cross and mortification, to follow my life, come to receive the reward, following me in glory. 'Come from' Mount 'Libanus' [211] of my Church, in which ye were baptised and washed with the tears of penance, and grew up like cedars in all virtues, ' Come out of great tribulation,' in which you have lived, having ' washed your robes, and made them white' in my precious 'blood.' [212] Come from the dens of lions and the habitations of tigers, in whose company you have lived, suffering great persecutions. 'Come' out from amongst the midst of them, and come to be crowned, and to receive the reward that you have merited for the many victories you have obtained."
Colloquy. — O my soul, hear speedily the voice of Christ, with which He calleth thee to imitate His life, that thou mayest be worthy to hear this sweet voice, with which He will call thee to receive thy crown! Amen.
ii. "Ye blessed of my Father." — The second word is " Ye blessed of my Father" He calls them " blessed," that all may understand the immensity of benefits that He has done, does, and will do throughout all eternity, fulfilling that of the Psalmist, that the "innocent in hands and clean of heart" should " receive a blessing from the Lord, and mercy from God his Saviour." [213] And he says not " Come, ye blessed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," nor " ye blessed of Moses," or of the patriarchs and prophets, but " ye blessed of my" eternal " Father, who hath blessed " you " with all kind of spiritual blessings," [214] communicating to you the goods of His grace, and now entirely those of His glory. And He says not "Ye blessed of God," but of "my Father, 19 that it may be understood that all these blessings proceed from the fatherly love which Almighty God bore them on account of His Son. And because His benediction is effectual, and immediately performs what it signifies, with this sweet word He will replenish them with new and extraordinary delights.
iii. " Possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world" — Thirdly, He says to them, "Posess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world! " In these words I am to consider what kingdom this is — how long a time has elapsed since it was prepared — that it is prepared for the righteous, and that to them is given the possession of it; in all which is resplendent the infinite charity of our heavenly Father. For, first, He would that the inheritance and patrimony of His children should be a kingdom, so sovereign that on account of its excellence it deserves the name of a kingdom; for it is not an earthly but a heavenly kingdom, whose riches are infinite, and whose pleasures so inestimable that they make their possessors blessed. This kingdom He prepared for them from all eternity, predestinating them of His mere mercy to reign with Him. And " from the foundation of the world" He created the highest heaven, that it might be a royal city and habitation of these blessed kings. And with great tenderness He adds that word "for you;" as if He should say, " This kingdom was not prepared principally for the angels, and through want of them for you, entering in place of those who lost the seats of this kingdom, but it was prepared equally for all the just, angels and men, and for you, for your souls, and for your bodies.
"'Come,' then, to take peaceable possession of this kingdom so noble and so ancient, out of which you shall never be expelled! Enter into the joys of my Father, which shall never be taken from you! ' Sit down to reign' with me on my throne, as I 'am also' set down with my ' eternal Father' [215] on His throne!"
Colloquy. — O most loving Father, I give Thee thanks for this so sovereign kingdom which Thou hast prepared for Thy elect, to show in them the infinite riches of Thy grace and charity! Grant me, O Lord, that I may in such manner prepare my soul that Thou mayest reign therein by Thy grace, and afterwards carry it to possess this eternal kingdom of Thy glory! Amen.
iv. " For I was hungry, and you gave me to eat." — Then the Judge declares the reason of His sentence, and the merits for which He gives them His kingdom, saying, " I was hungry, and you gave me to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink: I was a stranger, and you took me in; naked, and you covered me; sick, and you visited me: I was in prison, and you came to me," to set me at liberty. And the just, astonished that for so little works He should give them a kingdom so great, and that He should so much esteem these works of mercy, as if they had been done to His own person, shall ask Him, not so much with words as with affections and inward feelings of great admiration, saying, " Lord, when did we see Thee hungry, and fed Thee? thirsty, and gave Thee drink? Or when did we see Thee a stranger, and took Thee in? or naked, and covered Thee? Or when did we see Thee sick or in prison, and came to Thee?" Then our Lord will answer them, " Amen, I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these my least brethren you did it to me," for I was in them; and though but little ones, I yet glory to hold them for my brethren.
Colloquy. — O happy poor, that are accounted as His brethren by the Judge who shall judge them, and by the eternal King who shall reward them, who likewise rewardeth others for doing them good! O happy works of mercy, whose principal object is Christ, and whose reward is His kingdom! Oh, blessed are the merciful, seeing in this day they shall obtain so great mercy!
2. Lastly, I will consider that although Christ our Lord in the gospel alleges for the reason of His sentence only the works of mercy towards our neighbours, yet He will also declare the other good works of obedience and mortification necessary to enter into heaven. And as the voice of God is of infinite power, He will declare to every one interiorly, in such sort that all may understand the special works for which He gives him His kingdom. To the martyr He will say, " Come," " thou blessed of my Father, possess the kingdom prepared for" thee, "because Thou shedst Thy blood for me!" And to the virgin He will say, " Come, thou blessed of my Father, for the virginity which thou preservedst with purity of body and soul!" And to the religious man, " Come, thou blessed of my Father, for thou didst leave all things to follow me!" And in this manner I may run through the other states of the just. Oh, what content will all receive from the sweet voice of this comfortable sentence, with which Almighty God " will give" to "their hearing" complete joy and gladness, " and the bones that" were " humbled shall rejoice." [216] Happy the sheep that in this life " hear the voice" of their "Shepherd," and "follow" [217] His steps; for on this day, being placed on His right hand, they shall hear the voice that calls them to the eternal pastures.
Colloquy. — O sovereign Shepherd, aid me with Thy abundant grace, that I may be worthy to hear so favourable a sentence! Amen.
POINT II.
1. I must in the next place consider that towards the wicked the Judge will turn His angry countenance, and with a dreadful voice will say to them, " Depart from me, you cursed! into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you gave me not to eat," &c. This sentence, like the former, we may consider word by word, because in them are declared all the kinds of pains that are in hell, of which we shall hereafter make a lengthened consideration.
i. Pain of loss or damnation. — " Depart from me" — The first word is, " Depart from me." In this He condemns them to that eternal pain which is called pain of loss or damnation, which is a perpetual banishment from heaven, and a privation of the sight of Almighty God for evermore. And the more to wound them, showing Himself so glorious to them, He says, " Depart from me who am your God, your first beginning and last end! 'Depart from me' who am your Redeemer, from me who made myself man for your sakes, and received these wounds for your remedy; from me who invited you with pardon, and you would not accept it! Therefore, depart for ever from my friendship, from my protection, from my kingdom, from my paradise, from my clear sight, and from the copious river of my delights." And since whosoever is separated from Christ is also separated from those who go with Christ, in saying to them " Depart from me" He says likewise, " Depart from the hierarchies and choirs of my angels, depart from my apostles, martyrs, confessors and virgins, and depart from the sweet company of my holy Mother, who would also have been yours, but you would not have her! I did sufficient to draw you to my service and to my house, but you, through your perverse will, separated yourselves and made yourselves strangers. Therefore, in punishment of this, I, by my just will, do banish and separate you from me and all mine, without hope ever to have any part in me, or aught whatsoever that is mine."
Colloquy. — O my Saviour, let not such a punishment fall upon me, to separate me from Thee for ever! Chastise me with what punishment Thou wilt, so that, united with Thee in love, I may always be near Thee! Amen.
ii. "You cursed. [218] — The second word is "You cursed," with which, being very effectual, He pours upon them all the eternal maledictions and miseries that they have deserved by their sins. Cursed shall their soul be, and cursed their body; cursed their powers, and cursed their senses. There shall light upon them the malediction of hunger and thirst, of sickness and sorrow, of infamy and dishonour. Cursed in the "city" 11 where they shall live, in the house where they shall dwell, in the company they shall keep, and in all things that shall happen to them. And He calls them not cursed of His Father, as He called the righteous blessed of His Father, that they may understand that benediction originally springs from God our Father, who for His part would that they also should have been blessed; but malediction originally springs from themselves and their sins, according to that of David: "He loved cursing, and it shall come unto him; and he would not have blessing, and it shall be far from him; and he put on cursing like a garment, and it went in like water into his entrails, and like oil into his bones." [219] Oh, how raging and mad will the wretches be to hear this horrid word of the eternal malediction! Oh, what a raving envy shall pierce their entrails, seeing that Almighty God blesses the righteous, without leaving them so much as one benediction! If Esau, on seeing that his younger brother, Jacob, had got the blessing, " irrugit clamore magno," " roared out with a great cry," [220] and, with fruitless tears, said to his father, "Hast thou not reserved me also a blessing?" how loud will those reprobates figured by Esau cry and roar when they shall see that the elect, figured by Jacob, have purchased the benediction of the heavenly Father, and that not even one blessing remains for them! With what rage will they confirm their own malediction; cursing the day in which they were born and the milk which they sucked, desiring rather never to have been born than to hear such a fearful and affrighting malediction!
Colloquy. — O most sweet Jesus, who, ascending the cross, tookest upon Thee " the curse of the law," [221] to deliver us from the curse of sin and eternal pain, favour me with Thy mercy, that upon me may not fall so terrible a misery! Amen.
iii. Pain of Sense.' — ' Into everlasting fire." — The third word is, " Into everlasting fire." In this He condemns them to the pain which is called the pain of sense, which is everlasting fire. As if He should say, " I separate you from me, not that you should return to that freedom and liberty of life that you were wont to have, nor that you should live upon the face of the earth at your pleasure, but that you should descend to the obscure prison of hell, and burn in the terrible fires that are therein; and this not for ten years, nor ten thousand, but for all the time that the fire, which is eternal, shall last, and shall do its office to torment you throughout all eternity." Oh, what affliction will that dreadful word cause in those wretched sinners, seeing themselves again condemned to return to the prison and fire whence their soul had come up, that the body also may burn in those flames in which the soul burned!
iv. " Which is prepared." — The Judge adds, that this fire " was" already " prepared," to bring back to their memory that the divine justice, as it prepared a kingdom to reward the righteous, so also it prepared a fire to chastise the wicked; which, although it were hidden from the eyes of the body, yet was so revealed that they might see it with the eyes of faith, and might endeavour to escape it With these eyes am I to penetrate the earth and see the terrible fire which at this day is in its centre, prepared for the chastisement of my sins, if I do not penance for them, remembering that of the prophet Isaiah, " Praparata est ab heri Tophet," &c.; " Tophet is prepared by the king from yesterday," that is, very long since, and from the beginning of the world; a horrid place, "deep and wide. The nourishment thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord as a torrent of brimstone kindling it." [222] He calls it "Tophet" as our Saviour Christ calls it " Gehenna ," [223] which was a place of terrible fires, where the children were burned who were sacrificed to the idol Moloch; [224] to give us to understand that by the furnaces and horrible places of fire, of smoke and brimstone that we see upon the earth, we may, as it were, trace out the terribleness of that fire which Almighty God has prepared under it for such as sacrifice their souls to the devil.
Colloquy. — O eternal King, who preparedst heaven and hell, to cherish in the one the righteous with the gentle breath of Thy charity, and to torment the wicked in the other with the burning blast of Thy indignation, visit me with the breath of Thy divine inspiration, that I may always be mindful of these two places, preparing myself by Thy grace by such a manner of life that I may attain to the one and be for ever free from the other! Amen.
v. " For the devil and his angels!" — He says likewise to them that this fire is prepared "for the devil and his angels," that they may understand that they are condemned to the perpetual company of the devils, matching them together, that those whom they imitated in sin they might imitate in pain; and seeing they made themselves of the faction of Lucifer and of his wicked angels, they should have their punishment with them and by their means, those being their executioners who were their seducers. But He says not to them, " Go" to the "fire" prepared for you, as He says to the righteous, "Come" to "the kingdom" that I have " prepared for you," in order to upbraid them with the great mercy which He would have done them; for it was not His intention to make hell to punish men, if they themselves had not through sin made themselves worthy of punishment; and had they not been like the devils impenitent, they should not have been cast into the eternal fire prepared for them.
Colloquy. — O God of vengeance, and withal Father of mercy, seeing Thou rather desirest to pardon sinners with mercy than to chastise them with vengeance, give me time of true penance, that I be not chastised with the impenitent devils! Amen.
vi. (a) " For I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat!' — Then the Judge declares the just reason of His sentence, saying, " For I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat," nor did you exercise towards me the other works of mercy. And the damned, desiring to excuse themselves as not having failed in such works towards Christ, He will say to them, " As long as you did it not to one of these least, you did it not to me; for I was in them, and therefore what you did not to them you did not to me. For he that loveth not his neighbour, whom he seeth visibly with his eyes, how can he love Almighty God who is invisible? And he who forgetteth the image of Almighty God whom he hath present, how will he remember God Himself, whom he considers as absent?" [225]
(b) I will also consider that Christ our Lord in the reason of the sentence alleges those sins that seem the lesser, to give us to understand with how much more rigour He will chastise the greater sins, of which He will also make mention. And He will especially declare to every one (so that all shall understand it) the cause for which He condemns him, saying to the luxurious, " Depart from me, ye cursed, to everlasting fire, for the luxuries and impurities in which you lived;" and to the perjured and blasphemous, " Depart from me, because you profaned my holy name, whilst I had so great care of honouring yours," &c.
(c) I will consider that the wicked in the day of judgment will allege for their acquittal some glorious works which they did, saying to Christ, " Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and cast out devils in Thy name, and done many miracles in Thy name? [226] Then why dost thou separate us from Thee?" But our Lord will answer them, " I never knew you; depart from me, you that work iniquity:" as if He should say, " I know this faith and these graces that you had, for I gave you them; but you abused them, mingling them with heinous sins; and it was reasonable that you who prophesied to others should have prophesied to yourselves; and who east out devils out of other men's bodies should have cast them out of your own souls; and who did miraculous works should also have done virtuous works. And since you did not do this, I neither know you nor approve you; and though you call me your 'Lord,' I will not admit you as my servants, because you were not obedient to me." Whence I will gather, that if at that time no account shall be made of prophecy and the grace to do miracles without virtues, less account shall be made of nobility, riches, dignities, sciences, and other much lesser things which yet are much esteemed of men. For to all in general He will say, " I know you not; depart from me, you that work iniquity!"
(d) The damned hearing the thunder of this dreadful sentence, a mortal raving sadness will fall upon them. For if " the earth" at the signs of judgment (which like " lightnings" precede this thunder) "shook and trembled," [227] so as to wither their bones with fear, what a terror shall the thunder itself cause? What affliction the flash, and what torment the fire?
Colloquy. — O sovereign Judge, send " lightnings" of Thy divine inspirations upon the earth of my soul, that, contemplating what is to pass in judgment, I may tremble and quake, and so alter my life that Thou mayest alter the sentence! " Change" my heart with Thy " right hand," [228] that in that day I may not be placed on Thy left hand! "Et cum veneris judicare, noli me condemnare;" " And when Thou comest to judgment, do not condemn me." [229] Let Thy mercy now pardon me, that then Thy justice may not condemn me! Amen.
Thirdly, I am to consider the execution of these sentences, of which our Saviour Christ says, " Et ibunt hi in supplicium seternum, justi autem in vitam aeternam;" " And these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the just into life everlasting." [230]
1. I will consider the execution of the sentence given against the wicked; for in the instant that it is given, without any delay, in the sight of the righteous, the earth will open under their feet, and the devils laying hold on them, they will all together descend to hell; and the earth immediately closing up again, they will remain for ever buried in that abyss of fire. Then shall be fulfilled that malediction written in the Psalm, " Let death come upon them, and let them go down alive into hell [231] and that which St. John speaks of in his Apocalypse, that " hell and death," and whosoever was not found written in the book of life, was cast into the "pool of fire" [232] and brimstone, where, with Antichrist and the false prophets, they will be tormented day and night for ever and ever. " This is the second death, bitter and eternal, which encompasses the souls and bodies that died the first death of sin and the corporal death that followed. Oh, what a furious raving will possess the damned, seeing themselves not able to resist nor to impeach the execution of this sentence! Oh, what a bitter envy will penetrate their bowels, to behold the glory of the righteous from whom they are divided! Oh, what a desperate sadness will they receive by this " second death," and in their first entrance into that stinking infernal pool! Oh, what raging agonies, beholding themselves covered with mountains of earth, bolted up with eternal bolts, and bound hand and foot with chains of perpetual damnation! Then shall they see by experience " that it is an evil and a bitter thing" [233] to have divided themselves from their God, and to have abandoned His holy fear.
Colloquy. — Fear, O my soul, the terribleness of this second death, that thou mayest avoid the iniquity of the first death! " Enter" in spirit " into these holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth," [234] and hide thyself in them, beholding quietly what passeth there, that thou mayest fear the wrath of the Almighty and escape His fury!
2. I will likewise consider how "the just," as David says, " shall rejoice when he shall see the revenge" [235] that God's justice takes on the wicked, for although among the damned there may be their father or mother, brother or friend, they shall receive no pain, but rather joy, to see the great reason that Almighty God has for what He does; so that they shall sing the song that Moses sung when the Egyptians were drowned in the sea, " The depths have covered them, they are sunk to the bottom like a stone. Thy right hand, O Lord, is magnified in strength: Thy right hand, O Lord, hath slain the enemy;" [236] or the song of the Lamb, which St. John makes mention of, saying, " Great and wonderful are Thy works, O Lord God Almighty! Just and true are Thy ways, O King of Ages! Who shall not fear Thee, 0 Lord, and magnify Thy name? for Thou only art holy," because Thy judgments are manifest " to all." [237]
3. Hence I will go on to consider the execution of the sentence of the righteous, beholding how all the blessed are carried above the air, following their captain Jesus, singing a thousand songs of jubilation, and glorifying Almighty God for having delivered them from such and so great peril, with those words of the Psalmist, " Blessed be our Lord, who hath not given us to be a prey to their teeth! Our soul hath been delivered as a sparrow out of the snare of the fowlers. The snare is broken and we are delivered, our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth." [238] And in this manner they will penetrate the heavens until they arrive at the highest heaven, where Christ our Lord will place them on those thrones of glory which they are to possess, reigning with Him throughout all eternity with great peace and tranquillity.
Colloquy. — Oh, happy labours of a virtuous life, which are so well rewarded in life everlasting! Comfort thyself, O my soul, with the hope of these rewards, and embrace with great fervency these labours!
THE CONCLUSION OF THE FOREGOING.
There remains for conclusion of what has before been said, that I consider myself in this world as in a middle place bet ween heaven and hell, and that I am here (as St. Bernard says) as novices are in a house of probation, [239] Almighty God proving me with the precepts He imposes upon me, and with the afflictions that He sends me, but yet assisting me with His grace to escape out of them, after being first well tried. If I prove evil, following the devil's party, by the irrevocable sentence of Almighty God I shall be cast out of the world into hell; but if I prove just, fulfilling the will of God, by His sentence I shall be exalted from the world into heaven. Wherefore it behoves me to consider very well how I live, that I may come forth out of this world well approved.
Colloquy. — O eternal God, who madest this earth like a house of probation, to exeroise men whom Thou hast ordained for heaven, " prove me and try me," [240] preventing me with Thy mercy, that I may obey Thee in such a way that at the day of judgment Thou mayest approve me, and admit me into Thy kingdom! Amen.
MEDITATION XVI.
ON HELL, AS TO THE ETERNITY OF THE PAINS AND THE HORROR OF THE PLACE; AND ON ITS INHABITANTS, AND THE TORMENTORS.
POINT I.
First we must consider what hell is, in such a manner as by faith we are instructed, that, knowing its definition, we may tremble to hear the name.
1. The nature of hell. — Hell is a perpetual prison, full of fire and of innumerable and very terrible torments, to chastise perpetually such as die in mortal sin. Or, again, hell is an eternal state, wherein sinners, for the punishment of their sins, want all that good which they may desire for their content, and endure all kinds of evils which they may fear for their torment. So that in hell is joined together the privation of all that good which men enjoy in this life and angels in the other, and the presence of all those evils which afflict men in this life and the devils in the other.
2. This I may consider, by running through in my mind all the evils and miseries that I suffer or see others suffer, augmenting and eternising them in my thoughts; for all that in this life is suffered is little and lasts but a little time, because it has an end, but that which is suffered in hell is exceeding great, and will continue an infinite duration, which has equal extent with that of Almighty God, for it shall continue as long as Almighty God shall continue. If I here suffer hunger and thirst, I must understand that in hell I shall have another kind of hunger and thirst, incomparably greater, and, besides that, everlasting. If I here suffer any sorrow, or dishonour, or poverty, or melancholy, or want of friends, &c, all this I shall suffer in hell, with such excess that that which is here is as it were but painted or like a breath of wind, but that which is there shall all of it be most terrible, and shall never have an end; for after it has continued fifty thousand years there remain other fifty thousand millions to pass, and these being passed there remain others, and then others without number or end. For Cain having been in hell more than five thousand years, is as if he began but to-day. And it is some two thousand years now that the covetous Dives burns in hell and asks but one drop of water, and he will for ever burn and for ever desire it.
Colloquy. — Then what folly is it, O my soul, by not suffering in this life so small and so short afflictions, to put thyself in danger of suffering evils so great and so everlasting! How is it that thou wilt not bear patiently that little and short correction which thou sufferest, seeing thou deservest to suffer so great and everlasting for thy sins? O eternal God, enlighten me with Thy sovereign light, that by the evils present I may know the terribleness of those that are eternal, and may live in such manner that I may deserve to be free from them! Amen.
POINT II.
Secondly, I am to consider the causes and circumstances of this eternity, pondering how that all that is in hell is eternal.
1, The damned himself is eternal, not only as to his soul, but also his body; for he will be immortal, neither can he kill himself nor can any other kill him, neither will Almighty God annihilate him. And though he himself should "desire to die," "death shall fly from" [241] him, neither will God accomplish this his desire; rather his raving to destroy himself will terribly torment him, seeing he cannot obtain what he desires.
2. The place of the prison is eternal, and cannot be destroyed; for "the earth" (in the midst of which hell is) " standeth for ever." [242] The fire likewise shall be eternal; for the eternal " breath of the Lord" (as the prophet Isaiah says) shall serve " as a torrent of brimstone kindling it;" [243] and so that it shall have need of no other fuel. Or if brimstone serve for fuel, it shall likewise be eternal, for the same " breath of" Almighty God shall preserve it. And fire, which has the virtue to burn and to consume, has there, by God's omnipotency, its virtue divided, [244] for there it burns and consumes not, and so that which for ever burns for ever continues.
3. The "worm" that there " gnaws" shall be eternal, and (as Christ our Saviour said) " dieth not" [245] For the corruption of which it is engendered, which is sin, never ends; and the lively apprehension of it and of the pain never ceases; and so that cruel gnawing which it makes in the conscience shall never have an end.
4. The decree of Almighty God is eternal and immutable; for He is resolved never to revoke the definitive sentence which He has given, nor to deliver out of hell him who once enters therein! " Quia in inferno nulla est redemptio;" [246] For in hell there is no redemption of captives, nor ransoming of prisoners, nor any price for them, forasmuch as the blood of Jesus Christ passes not thither. And if when it was fresh, and was shed upon Mount Calvary, it drew out of hell none of the damned, much less shall it now deliver any forth from thence.
5. Finally, all the pains shall be eternal, because the sins shall likewise be so. Forasmuch as in hell there is no pardon of sins, no true penance, nor satisfaction that may be accepted, neither is the blood of Jesus Christ applied to them; whence it follows that whoever wills to die without doing penance for his sins, virtually wills to remain in them for ever, and that his sins should be eternal, and therefore he deserves that God's justice should chastise him with pains everlasting. [247] And upon this it is, that although a sinner die with true faith and hope, yet on entering into hell he is deprived of them, not only for being (as mentioned before) unworthy of them, but also because now there remains with him no object of hope, neither to obtain pardon of sins, nor to be heard in his petitions, nor to come out of misery, nor ever to attain to any blessedness.
Colloquy. — Then how is it, O my soul, that thou fearest not this being eternal, obliged to eternal miseries? How is it that thou art not affrighted with this fire, this "breath," this "worm," and this decree of God immutable and everlasting? Consider that yet Almighty God will alter the sentence, if thou with penance alterest thy life. Attend not till thy sin be eternal, for then so likewise shall be thy punishment.
POINT III.
1. Thirdly, I am to consider the continuance and unchangeableness of the pains which go together with eternity; considering that the pains shall in such a manner for ever endure, that they shall be perpetual without interruption and unchangeable without diminution. So that although they should continue millions of years, yet shall there not be even one day of vacation; neither will the pain cease so much as for an hour, or a moment; neither will the substantial pain be diminished, nor have any refreshing, as is apparent in the rich covetous man, to whom Abraham denied so small a refreshment as to have his tongue touched with " the tip of" a "finger" dipped "in water." [248] Rather accidental torments will be added to them, by the new entrance of other damned; and that change which here is usually refreshing (if in hell there be any change) shall be there a new torment For if the luxurious (as it is said in Job) " pass from the snow waters to excessive heat," [249] it will be that the heat will more torment them, by reason of its opposition to the cold, and that the cold may cause the greater trembling and gnashing of teeth, through its contrast with the heat.
2. Finally, although these torments be so lasting and continual, yet custom in suffering gains nothing as any cause of their ease; rather every day they are as it were renewed, and are ever fresh with fresh impatience. For as "the pride of" these wretches " that hate" Almighty God (as says the prophet David) "ascendeth continually," [250] so likewise increases their wrath and envy, their impatience, fury and rage. Then what sayest thou, O my soul, and what art thou doing? If thou hast a lively faith of such torments, how is it that thy spirit fails not to consider such terribleness, such perpetuity, such continuation, such immutability and eternity? If, lying in a soft bed, thou feel it equal with death to pass a long night in watching and pain, expecting with much anxiety the refreshing and dawning of the day, how much more wilt thou feel it to be in an obscure prison, in a bed of fire, in perpetual watching, and in terrible pain, in a night so long and tedious that expects no refreshing of the day, because it is eternal?
Colloquy. — O justice of the Almighty, who trembleth not in Thy presence? "O Lord, rebuke me not in Thy indignation, nor chastise me in Thy wrath [251] but protect me with Thy mercy, that I fall not into so dreadful and eternal a misery! Amen.
POINT IV.
Fourthly, descending to particulars, I must consider the dreadfulness of that place which we call hell.
1. For first it is a place under the earth, obscure and full of darkness thicker than that of Egypt, where never enters the light of the sun, moon, nor stars. And the fire, although it burns, gives no light, but smokes and blinds the sight; for " the Lord," on account of the wicked, " divideth the flame of fire," [252] taking from it the good that it has, and leaving it the evil.
2. Moreover, hell is a most narrow place, devoid of the flowery meadows and spacious forests of the earth. For although hell (as Isaiah says) be very " deep and wide," [253] and has its arms far stretched out, yet so many shall descend into it that hardly there will be for every one the space of a very narrow grave, and they will be crowded together like bricks in a fiery furnace, that they will not be able to turn or stir.
3. Besides this, it is a place most distempered with excessive heats, having not so much as a chink where any wind may enter to refresh it And for this cause St John, in his Apocalypse, calls it always the " pool of fire burning with brimstone." [254] For as fishes are in a lake of water overwhelmed, and as it were prisoners without being able to get out, so shall the damned be in that burning "pool" of terrible fire, mingled with melted brimstone of a most abominable smell.
4. And hence also it is that hell is a most stinking place. For the bodies of the damned shall reek forth an insupportable sweat with an intolerable stench. And, finally, it will be fastened on all sides with eternal bolts, that they shall never be able to get out, neither by force nor by subtlety. And if, by the dispensation of Almighty God, any comes out, he carries with him his torment, and returns presently from whence he issued; but that dispensation will never be given after the day of judgment. Oh, how soft and sweet would any dungeon appear to thee, if thou didst well ponder the terribleness of hell!
Colloquy. — O good Jesus, aid me to bewail bitterly my sins, that I may not descend to this land of " darkness," covered with the "shadow of death," [255] the land of those that are in despair! Amen
POINT V.
Fifthly, I am to consider the misery, wretchedness , and discord of the inhabitants of this place, who are captives in this prison.
1. Pondering how they want all the good qualities of bounty, discretion, nobility, parentage, friendship and loyalty, and are clothed with all the contrary qualities, with horrible repulsiveness. For in hell are all sorts of persons; some were angels of several hierarchies and choirs, beautiful, potent, and very resplendent; others were emperors, kings and princes, with divers estates and titles of nobility; others were wise philosophers, eloquent and learned in divers sciences; others courtiers, discreet, affable, liberal, grateful and kind; others parents, kinsmen and allies; fathers and sons, brothers or cousins. Others very great friends and acquaintance, companions and neighbours; but in entering into hell they lose all these qualities, having, as Job says, "no order" or concord, but confusion and "everlasting horror." [256] All make themselves mortal enemies one to another, filling themselves with wrath, rancour, envy, impatience and rage one against another, that one cannot endure to see the other, nor to give him a good word. The father abhors the son, and the son the father; the lord his vassal, and the vassal his lord; one cursing another, biting and rending themselves with rage. And specially those who in this life loved with an inordinate love, and were companions in sins, will much more abhor one another, and their pains will be augmented with rage to see themselves together. For as burning coals, when they are together, kindle each other, so these infernal coals, kindled with the fire of their own anger, will add heat to the burning heat of their companions.
2. Add to this the most painful consideration that, through necessity and in spite of themselves, they will be eternally together, not being able to fly or separate one from another. For, flying from one whom they much abhor, they light upon another that is worse; and so shall they have a perpetual and cruel war, having no one to pacify or to comfort them; for from the earth none will go, though he could; and none come from heaven though he would; for none that is good will deign to enter into so infamous a place, insomuch that Christ our Lord, when he descended into hell, entered not into this place, nor gave them any comfort. What will princes, then, think, to see themselves consorted with plebeians, and treated by them with such insolence and hatred? What a torment will it be to be forced to live with my enemies, who actually abhor me and curse me, without being able either to stop their mouths or my own ears! What a pain will it be never to see a person that wishes me well, nor is compassionate of my miseries, but that rather increases and augments them!
Colloquy. — O my soul, ground all thy friendships upon true charity, for this only is eternal, and perisheth not, and without it all the rest will perish. [257] Have peace, as much as in thee lieth, with all men, that thou mayest not enter into the company of so many wicked!
POINT VI.
Sixthly, I am to consider the terribleness of those hellish tormentors and executioners.
1. First, generally in hell, every one of the damned is a tormentor of all, and all are tormentors of one, saying and doing things (as is mentioned above) to torment them.
2. Moreover, the devils are terrible tormentors of men, revenging themselves upon them, for the rage they have against Almighty God and against Jesus Christ; and therefore they torment them with affrighting visions, with horrible imaginations, and with all other means that their fierce cruelty can invent.
3. Besides all this, the third and the most cruel tormentor is the worm of conscience, which gnaws, and will eternally gnaw, with terrible cruelty; for the damned wretch, remembering the sins he has committed, and the inspirations he has to get out of them, and to have freed himself from those torments, and yet that through the sin of his own perverse freewill he entered into them, will himself be his own torturer, and will bite himself, and would rend himself in pieces (if he could) with incredible bitterness and rage, herein fulfilling that punishment of which St. Augustine [258] speaks: " Thou didst command it, O Lord, and so it cometh to pass, that the inordinate mind should be its own torment;" for his sins are his tortures, and his unbridled passions his tormentors, so that he himself is most grievous to himself.
Colloquy. — Learn, then, O my soul, to hearken to this knocking of thy conscience, and " be at agreement with thy" good " adversary," [259] that pricketh thee when thou sinnest; for in hell, like a mad and enraged dog, she will bark and bite, revenging the injury thou didst her, when in this life thou contemnedst her!
4. The fourth tormentor will be the invisible hand of Almighty God, which discharges itself upon the damned, using His omnipotence against them; who, knowing this, turn their rage against Him, breaking out into horrible blasphemies, and desiring that He might cease to be. But all is turned to the increase of their anguish and torment.
Colloquy. — O most heavy hand of the Omnipotent, who can abide thee? Oh, what "a fearful thing is it to fall into the hands of the living God," [260] when He is offended! Keep, O Lord, very far from me this Thy hand of chastisement, and touch me with that of Thy mercy, that, being freed from these fears, I may ever enjoy Thee, world without end! Amen.
MEDITATION XVII.
ON THE PAINS OF THE SENSES AND INTERIOR FACULTIES, AND ON THE PAIN OF LOSS OR DAMNATION WHICH IS SUFFERED IN HELL.
As the sinner commits two great evils, which are, to separate himself from Almighty God, the fountain of living water, [261] and to turn to creatures, to enjoy their perishing delights, so in hell he is punished with two sorts of pain — one which we call of loss, or damnation, for the first evil; and another which we call of sense for the second. [262] With this we will begin, because the pain of sense is more easy to perceive.
POINT I.
1. First, I must consider the pain which the damned suffer when they have a body. For according to the laws of God's justice, " Per qua quis peccat, per hsec et torquetur;" "By what things a man sinneth, by the same also he is tormented." [263] And seeing sin entereth by the senses, in them must be its punishment This may be considered running through all the five.
i. The sight will be tormented by beholding their enemies near them, and by suffering horrible visions which the devils will set before them, taking dreadful forms in order to torment them; for they are not able to shut their eyes from seeing them, in chastisement of the sins they committed with this sense.
ii. The hearing will always be hearing blasphemies against Almighty God, maledictions and words most injurious, and other most harsh sounds after the manner of horrible howlings and roarings, without being able to shut their ears, in chastisement of the sins which they committed with them.
iii. The smell will perceive stinking things like brimstone, but above all, the abominable stench which will proceed from the bodies of the damned and from his own body.
iv. The taste in the throat and tongue will taste things exceeding bitter, yea much more bitter than " gall" or " wormwood," [264] with terrible retchings and vomitings of the stomach; and on the other side, it will suffer the hunger of a dog and a raging thirst, "desiring, like the rich covetous man, one little " drop of water," [265] which yet will not be granted him in chastisement of his sins of gluttony.
v. The touch throughout the whole body will suffer great torments from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, so that in it will be joined together the pains of the eyes, ears and teeth, of the side, of the heart, and of the gout, and of all others that torment us in this life. Now if the pain of one sense alone cause so great agony in this life, how much agony shall that pain cause that is made up of the pains of all the senses entering together? Oh, unhappy sensual delights, whose end is such terrible bitternesses!
2. With this consideration I must animate myself to bewail the sins which I have committed with these five senses, bewailing the liberty I have given them, and resolving to mortify and restrain them, that " death" and hell enter [266] not by them.
POINT II.
Secondly, I must consider the pain of the fire, which is so terrible that in comparison of it this here is no more than as if it were but painted, for it is an instrument of God's justice and omnipotence to chastise and torment, not only bodies, but souls also and pure spirits. The properties of this fire are,
1. First, that it is embodied with the damned by such a connexion, that wheresoever the devil goes, he is tormented with this fire; and we may say that he carries the fire of hell with him, because he carries the torment that he receives from it
2. Secondly, though this fire be one and the same, yet it torments not all the damned alike; for the greater sinners it torments much more, and the lesser less. [267] Yea, and it will even torment one part of the body of the damned more than another when that part was a special instrument of his sin. Some it will torment more in the tongue, because they were murmurers and perjured. Others in the throat, because they were gluttons and drunkards. And all this wrought by the omnipotence and justice of Almighty God, who takes it for its instrument
3. The third is, that it wants that which used to refresh, and retains that which is pure torment. For (as has been mentioned already) it burns and gives no light; it burns and consumes not; it burns perpetually and never diminishes, for it is preserved by God. And although the miserable damned (according to the saying of the prophet) are as " stubble," [268] this fire laying suddenly hold upon them without any resistance, yet this stubble never ceases to burn, and the flame that proceeds from it casts out such a smoke that it blinds but chokes not; it torments, but kills not. Then what will it be to see one of the damned steeped and overwhelmed in a pit of fire, and in an immensity of flames, with pitiful groanings, howlings and exclamations, without finding any refreshing or hope of ease? Oh, what a terrible evil is sin, seeing that Almighty God being infinitely merciful, beholding one that is His own creature, redeemed with the blood of the Lamb, suffering such horrible torments, yet has no compassion of him nor pulls him out of that fire; nay, rather from heaven He stands looking on him, and rejoicing that he suffers according to the statute of His justice!
Colloquy. — O my soul, hear what this our Lord says, "Which of you can dwell with devouring fire? Which of you shall dwell with everlasting burnings?" [269] If thou darest not touch the light fire of this life, why dost thou not tremble at the terrible fire of the other? Contemplate this fire with attention, that the fear of it may consume the fire of thy insatiable desires, if through thy want of fervent zeal, the fire of God's love be not sufficient to consume them.
POINT III.
Thirdly, running through all the interior faculties of the soul, I am to consider the pains which they suffer.
1. First, the imaginative faculty will be tormented with horrid imaginations, [270] more terrible than those which the most melancholy suffer in dreams, or than those the Egyptians suffered, which (says the Wise man) were horrible and dreadful, with most monstrous affrighting visages of wild "beasts" and "serpents;" and with roarings and " hissings," [271] that wrought in them great terror and amazement.
2. Hereupon it is that the appetites will be tormented with the fury of their own passions, which will come forth in bands, and with great vehemence, namely, fears, melancholy, irksomeness, agonies, anger, desperation, envy, and rage, with such a cruel war among themselves that they will rend one another in pieces.
3. The intellectual memory will be tormented with a continual and fixed recollection of things passed that it possessed, and of the present which it suffers, and of those which are to come in eternity; so that it cannot think upon or call to mind anything which may ease it, or divert it, so as not to think upon its misery. And if it remembers the pleasures it had in the world, it is for its greater torment. Thus its memory will be like a most tumultuous sea, tossed with innumerable waves of imaginations, more bitter than gall, some going and others coming, leaving him not so much as one moment of rest.
4. The understanding will be darkened, without being able by reasoning to understand anything that may please it: it will be full of errors and illusions, brooding over and exaggerating his evils; and, judging with obstinacy that Almighty God does him wrong, complaining against Him as against one unjust.
5. The will will be obstinate and obdurate in sin, and in the hatred of Almighty God, of His saints, and of men, without being able to be appeased, or changed, or to repent what it does; and, desiring to do his own will, he shall never be able to do it in anything that may be for his comfort; for already they have bound him hand and foot to "cast him into exterior darkness," [272] not permitting him liberty to exercise the works of light or joy. Hence a man's own will not being fulfilled shall be the hell of itself, to chastise it for those manifold times that, in this life, it did fulfil it contrary to the will of Almighty God.
6. Finally, I will consider that the heart of one of the damned is like a most bitter sea, into which enter the rivers of most terrible torments. Five for the five exterior senses, and other five for the five interior faculties; in order to chastise the sins they committed against the ten commandments of God's law, or against any one of them. For, as the apostle says, " Whosoever" shall " offend in one point is become guilty of all." [273]
Colloquy. — Then what greater unhappiness can there be than that those faculties which God our Lord gave me to enjoy Him, and to ennoble myself, should be converted into my cruel executioners, to torment and confound me? Immense God, aid me to mortify and subdue the faculties which Thou hast given me, and let me be their tormentor in this life rather than they should be mine in the life to come! Amen.
POINT IV.
Pain of loss, — Fourthly, I am to consider that pain which they call of loss, or damnation.
1. This is infinite, because it deprives of an infinite good, which is Almighty God. [274] So that these wretches shall for ever be banished from heaven, and deprived of the blessedness and end for which they were created — of the clear vision of Almighty God — of love that beatifies, and of that river of delights which proceeds from all; all which shall give them terrible torment and grief, especially those who in this life believed in it For although their understanding be obscured to know other things, it shall not be so to consider and esteem this, God's divine justice so ordaining it for their greater torment
The terribleness of this pain may be considered two ways:
i. The first is; by that which holy men feel here who have the light of heaven, to know the greatness of the glory and the high felicity that it is to see Almighty God; who hold it for an extreme pain to want this sight, and tremble only to think on it, as is noted in the third point of the sixth meditation.
ii. The second way is, by that which the damned themselves feel by wanting this high felicity; not inasmuch as it is a something good, for they neither love God nor any holy thing; but inasmuch as they want that which should give them high and eternal rest, and free them from so horrible a torment This I may come to find out by some likeness of things of this life; for if men have so much feeling to be deprived of an inheritance to which they had some right, how much more shall they feel to be deprived of the eternal inheritance of heaven, to which they might have had a right, if they had not forfeited it through sin! And if the privation of finite and limited goods and delights does so much grieve the heart, how much more will it be grieved with the privation of an infinite good, in which are eminently comprehended all the goods and pleasures created! And if, among terrible things, death is the most terrible — because it divides the soul from the body and from this visible world — how much more terrible will eternal death be, wherein the soul is divided from Almighty God, from His kingdom, and from the invisible world! And, as " eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him," [275] so likewise it is not possible to imagine the terribleness of the evils that «are included in wanting for ever these goods.
Colloquy. — O infinite God, let all the other pains of sense be discharged upon me, so I be without sin, rather than Thou shouldst chastise me with this pain of loss, depriving me, through my sin, of Thy amiable presence! Amen.
2. To this pain is annexed the wanting of the sight and company of our Saviour Christ, of His most blessed Mother, of the nine choirs of angels, and of all those that are blessed. This will inflict much terrible torment upon those wretched souls when, in the day of judgment, they shall see part of the glory of this blessed company, and shall be divided from them — the memory of which shall perpetually remain in them with a furious envy and rage. Finally, by the terrible evils which they suffer they will gather what most excellent goods they want, because they are assured that Almighty God will be as liberal in rewarding as He is terrible in chastising; and that in that most beautiful place of heaven He has as many delights as there are torments in that most wretched place of hell; and to see themselves deprived of these great goods will exceedingly augment their evil. With these considerations I will found myself deep in sentiments of the fear of God, and detestation of my sins, accompanying them with a great confidence in God's mercy that He will deliver me from this extreme misery; and so will I beg it of our Lord, saying to Him:
Colloquy. — I confess, O my God, that I am that miserable sinner who, " in the land of the saints hath done" innumerable "wicked things;" for which I deserve "not" to "see" Thy " glory," [276] nor to be admitted into the company of those who enjoy it. I am sorry for those sins by which I have merited so great a punishment. Pardon them, O Lord, through Thy mercy, that the work of Thy hands be not destroyed, nor fail in that end for which it was created! Let me not help to people hell, nor to be fuel for that neverending fire! Suffer me not to fall into a state in which I should curse and abhor Thee; for who shall confess to Thee in hell? [277] No, no, O Lord, it must not be so, for I must for ever love and bless Thee; and. after this life, Thou must place me in the other, where I may love and praise Thee, world without end! Amen.
- ↑ Ecclus. vii. 40.
- ↑ Deut. xxxii. 29.
- ↑ Heb. ix. 27.
- ↑ Ps. xxxviii. 6.
- ↑ Job xiv. 5.
- ↑ 4 Reg. xx. 6.
- ↑ Sap. w. 11.
- ↑ Ps. liv. 24.
- ↑ 3 Reg. xiii. 19.
- ↑ Ps. ci. 25.
- ↑ 1 Theas. v. 2; Apoc. xvi. 15.
- ↑ Eccles. ix. 2, 10.
- ↑ Joan. xii. 35.
- ↑ Matt. nv. 13.
- ↑ Matt. xxiv. 42.
- ↑ Luc. xii. 40.
- ↑ Luc. xiii. 2, and xiii. 4.
- ↑ Ecclus. xxx. 24.
- ↑ Heb. ix. 27.
- ↑ Ecdes. xi. 3.
- ↑ Serai. 49, paruorum.
- ↑ Ps. xxi. 13.
- ↑ Ps. lxxiv. 9.
- ↑ Ps. xvii. 5.
- ↑ Ecclus. v. 4, 5.
- ↑ 1 Mac. vi. 12; 2 Mac. ix. 13.
- ↑ Eccles. xi. 8.
- ↑ Ecclus. xiv. 14.
- ↑ Ps. xlviii. 18.
- ↑ Ecclus. xli. 1.
- ↑ Job xx. 14.
- ↑ S. Greg. 1, moral. 13.
- ↑ 1 Reg. xv. 32.
- ↑ Matt. x. 34.
- ↑ Luc. xii. 51.
- ↑ Ecclus. ix. 1.
- ↑ 1 Cor. iv. 3.
- ↑ Apoc xii. 12.
- ↑ 1 Pet.iv. 13.
- ↑ Ps. cxviii. 109.
- ↑ S. Th. 3. p. q. lix. ar. 5.
- ↑ 2 Cor. v. 10; Rom. xiv. 10.
- ↑ Heb. ix. 27.
- ↑ Daniel vii. 9.
- ↑ Apoc. xx. 11.
- ↑ Apoc.xiv. 13.
- ↑ Zach. iii. 1.
- ↑ Ps. cviii. 6; S. Greg. hom. xxxix. in Evang.
- ↑ Ps. cviii. 6.
- ↑ Zach. iii. 2.
- ↑ S. John Climacus, cap. 7; S. Greg, dialog, iv. cap. 37.
- ↑ Gen. xvi. 26.
- ↑ 1 Cor. xi. 29.
- ↑ Job xv. 16.
- ↑ Apoc. xii. 10.
- ↑ Joan. xiv. 30.
- ↑ Rom. ii. 15.
- ↑ Matt. v. 26; Luc. xii. 68.
- ↑ Matt, xii. 36.
- ↑ Ps. lxxiv. 3.
- ↑ Sophon. i. 12.
- ↑ S. Bern. serm. 55, in Cant.
- ↑ Ps. cxlii. 2.
- ↑ 1 Cor. iv. 4.
- ↑ 1 Cor. xi. 31.
- ↑ Apoc. xiv. 13.
- ↑ 1 Pet. ii. 25.
- ↑ Isa. xi. 5.
- ↑ Matt. vii. 22.
- ↑ Ezech. xxiii. 26.
- ↑ 1 Pet. ii. 25.
- ↑ S. Th. 3, p. q. lxriii. art. 6 ad 3.
- ↑ Luc. xiv. 30.
- ↑ S.Th. in addit. q. xcviii. art. 1 ad 3.
- ↑ Ibid. art. 7.
- ↑ Job xx. 14.
- ↑ Matt. xxv. 26.
- ↑ Matt. xxv. 41.
- ↑ Jer. li. 9.
- ↑ Job xxi. 23.
- ↑ Isa.xiv. 11.
- ↑ Matt. xxv. 34.
- ↑ Matt. xxv. 21.
- ↑ Luc. xvi. 22.
- ↑ Ps. xxxiii. 22.
- ↑ Ps. cxv. 15.
- ↑ Ex hymno ad primam officii parvi B. Mariw. " Memento rerum conditor."
- ↑ Ps. xvii. 38.
- ↑ Lib. 6, de bono mortis, c. 3.
- ↑ Rom. vi. 11.
- ↑ Colos. ii. 20, and iii. 5.
- ↑ Cant. viii. 6.
- ↑ Part 6, Med. X. & XI.
- ↑ Evangel, homil. 13.
- ↑ Isa. xl. 6.
- ↑ Ps. xxx. 12.
- ↑ Gal. vi. 14.
- ↑ Gal. ii. 20.
- ↑ Isa. xiv. 11.
- ↑ Job i. 21.
- ↑ Col. iii. 8.
- ↑ Ps. xxi. 7.
- ↑ Ps. i. 4.
- ↑ Jer. xxii. 19.
- ↑ 4 Reg. ix. 85.
- ↑ S. Aug.
- ↑ Gen. 3, 193
- ↑ Gen. ii. 7; de limo terrre.
- ↑ Ecclus, x. 9.
- ↑ Isa. xlv. 9.
- ↑ Rom. v. 12.
- ↑ Ecclus. x. 9.
- ↑ Mich. i. 10.
- ↑ Ps. i.4
- ↑ Ecclus. xxxviii. 23.
- ↑ Heb.iii. 13.
- ↑ Luc xii. 19.
- ↑ Jac. iv. 13.
- ↑ Eccles. v. 16.
- ↑ Prov. xxvii. 1.
- ↑ Eccles. ix. 5, 10.
- ↑ Ps. xxxiii. 22.
- ↑ Sap. vii.
- ↑ Matt. viii. 22.
- ↑ Isa. xxxviii. 1; 4 Reg. xx. 1.
- ↑ Ps. cxli. 8.
- ↑ Ps. xxx. 6.
- ↑ Ps. xxxviii. 7.
- ↑ Eccles. ii. 18, 19.
- ↑ Ps.xlviii. 18.
- ↑ Apoc. xiv. 13.
- ↑ Joan. xiv. 30.
- ↑ Ps. cxviii. 94.
- ↑ Dan. v. 26—28.
- ↑ Job xiv. 5.
- ↑ Apoc iii. 2.
- ↑ S Th. 3, p. q. lix. art. 5.
- ↑ Habac. i. 6.
- ↑ Jer. xii. 1.
- ↑ Ps. lxxxii. 18.
- ↑ 1 Cor. iv. 5.
- ↑ Joel iii. 2.
- ↑ Act. x. 42.
- ↑ Act. i. 11.
- ↑ Ps. xcv. 11; xcvii. 8, 9;
- ↑ Matt. xxiv. 5; Marc. xiii. 5; Luc. xxi. 8, &c.
- ↑ Sap. v. 18.
- ↑ Matt. xxiv. 29; Joel ii. 31.
- ↑ Sap. v. 22.
- ↑ 2 Mach. v.2.
- ↑ Prov. xvii. 22.
- ↑ Luc. xxi.28.
- ↑ Sap. xvii. 10.
- ↑ Ps. xiii. 6.
- ↑ Ps. cxyiii. 130.
- ↑ Ps. xlix. 3; xcvi. 32; Pet. iii. 7, 10.
- ↑ Joel ii. 3.
- ↑ 1 Cor. vii. 31.
- ↑ Sap. xvi. 22 et seq.
- ↑ Ps. xxviii.
- ↑ S. Basil ibid.
- ↑ Mal.iv. i.
- ↑ Ban. vii. 10.
- ↑ Apoc. xxii. 1.
- ↑ Matt. xxiv. 36.
- ↑ Luc. xvii. 2C.
- ↑ Gen. vii. 5.
- ↑ Gen. xix. 24.
- ↑ Matt. xxiv. 21.
- ↑ Luc. xvii. 33.
- ↑ Gen. xix. 16.
- ↑ Joan. v. 28.
- ↑ 1 Thess. iv. 15, 16; S. Th. in addit. q. kxv. et q. lxxvi.; S. Hier. in reg. monarcharum, c. 30.
- ↑ 1 Cor. xv. 52.
- ↑ Apoc. xx. 13.
- ↑ Eph. v. 14.
- ↑ Apoc. ix. 6.
- ↑ Nahum i. 10.
- ↑ Matt. xxiv. 30.
- ↑ Pa. cix. 1; 1 Cor. xv. 25.
- ↑ Phil. ii. 11.
- ↑ Judae,14.
- ↑ Dan.vii.10; Matt. xvi 27; xxv.31.
- ↑ Matt. xxiv. 30.
- ↑ Phil. iii. 19.
- ↑ Zac. xii. 10; Apoc. i. 7.
- ↑ Ps. liy. 7.
- ↑ 3 Reg. ii. 19.
- ↑ Matt. xix. 28; Isa. iii. 13.
- ↑ S. Th. q. Ixxxix. addit., art. 1, 2; Job xxxvi. 6.
- ↑ Matt. xxv. 31.
- ↑ Eccles. iii. 16; x. 6.
- ↑ Matt. iii. 12; xiii. 30, 47.
- ↑ 1 Thess.iv.
- ↑ Sap. v. 4.
- ↑ Ps. xliv. 10.
- ↑ Luc. xiv. 10.
- ↑ S. Th. in addit. q. lxxxvii.
- ↑ 1 Cor. iy. 5.
- ↑ Dan. vii. 10; Apoc xx. 12.
- ↑ Job xxxi. 35.
- ↑ Luc. xii. 2.
- ↑ Apoc xii. 10.
- ↑ Orat. 1 de amore erga Deum et prozimum.
- ↑ Isa. v. 2.
- ↑ Ps. vi. 8.
- ↑ Rom. ii. 10.
- ↑ Abulen, q. cccxxxiii. in Matth; Jansenius, Sofas, et alii.
- ↑ Matt. xxv. 34.
- ↑ Matt. xi. 28; xvi. 24.
- ↑ Cant. iv. 8.
- ↑ Apoc.?ii. 14.
- ↑ Ps. xxiii. 5.
- ↑ Eph. i. 4.
- ↑ Apoc. iii. 21.
- ↑ Ps.1.10.
- ↑ Joan. x. 3.
- ↑ Deut. xxviii. 16, et seq.
- ↑ Ps. cviii. 18.
- ↑ Gen.xxvii. 34; ib. xxxvi.
- ↑ Gal. iii. 13.
- ↑ Isa. xxx. 33.
- ↑ Matt. v. 29.
- ↑ 4 Reg. .10.
- ↑ 1 Joan. iv. 20.
- ↑ Matt. vii. 22.
- ↑ Ps. Ixxvi. 19; xcvi. 4.
- ↑ Ps. lxxvi. 11.
- ↑ Job x. 2.
- ↑ Matt. xxv. 46.
- ↑ Ps. liv. 16.
- ↑ Apoc. xx. 14.
- ↑ Jer. ii. 19.
- ↑ Isa. ii. 10.
- ↑ Ps. lvii. 11.
- ↑ Exod. xv. 1.
- ↑ Apoc. xv. 3.
- ↑ Ps. cxxiii. 6.
- ↑ Serm. xxxi. ex panris.
- ↑ Ps. xxv. 2.
- ↑ Apoc. ix. 6.
- ↑ Eccles. i. 14.
- ↑ Isa. xxx. 38.
- ↑ Ps. xxviii. 7.
- ↑ Marc. ix. 47; Is. lxvi. 24.
- ↑ S. Th. 8, p. q. lii. art. 6.
- ↑ S. Th. 1, 2, q. kxxvii. art 3, ad 1. cam S. Aug. et S. Greg, quos citat. meditat. ix. puncto 4.
- ↑ Luc. xvi. 24.
- ↑ Job. xxiv. 19.
- ↑ Ps. lxxiii. 23.
- ↑ Ps. vi. 2.
- ↑ Ps. xxviii. 7.
- ↑ Isa. xxx. 33.
- ↑ Apoc. xix. 20 ; xx. 15.
- ↑ Job. x. 21.
- ↑ Job x. 22.
- ↑ Cassian collat. xvi. c. 2; 1 Cor. xiii. 13.
- ↑ Lib. 1 confessionum.
- ↑ Matt v. 26.
- ↑ Heb. x. 31.
- ↑ Jer. ii. 13.
- ↑ Hier. ii.
- ↑ Sap. xi. 17.
- ↑ Jer. xxiii. 15.
- ↑ Luc. x?i. 24.
- ↑ Hier. ix. 21.
- ↑ S. Th. 1 p. q. lxiv. art. 4 ad 8.
- ↑ Mal. iv. 1.
- ↑ Isa. xxxiii. 14.
- ↑ S. Th. in addit. q. xciv.
- ↑ Sap. xvii. 4, et deinceps.
- ↑ Matt. xxii. 13.
- ↑ Jac. ii. 10.
- ↑ S. Th. 1, 2, q. lxxxvii. art. 4.
- ↑ 1 Cor. ii. 9.
- ↑ Isa. xxvi. 10.
- ↑ Ps. vi. 6.