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," [1] 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
- ↑ 1 Cor. ii. 9.
