A DISCOURSE UPON THE NATURE OF eternity, And the Condition of a separated soul, according to the grounds of Reason, and Principles of Christian RELIGION.  
By WILLIAM BRENT of Gray's inn, Esquire, now Prisoner in the gatehouse.  
LONDON, Printed for Richard Moon, at the Seven Stars in Paul's churchyard, 1655.   

The Preface to the Reader.  
EMpedocles of Agrigentum being demanded why 'twas so hard to find out a wise man, gave this reason; because (said he) none can find one out, who is not so himself; thereby inferring, that unless there be a proportion between the object and the power, it will never be able to produce the effects flowing from it.  
Upon this ground it may be well concluded, that 'tis impossible for any to give a true description of Eternity, who hath no subsistence but in time; and certainly, although some spirits sublimated by the daily contemplation of eternal things; may perhaps be able to show us some imperfect Ideas, of those perfect beauties whereon they are enamoured, yet 'tis a mere extravagance in me who have employed the best part of my time in quest of transitory and fading things, to undertake the handling of a subject which cannot be worthily expressed by less than an angel, nor be conceived in this life by human kind.  
Whilst Hannibal was with the King Antiochus in Ephesus, where they were busied in making preparation for a war against the Romans, he was invited by some of the great King's favourites to hear one Phormio a Philosopher read a Lecture of military discipline, and the duty of a general, and having performed it with the applause of all the auditory, Hannibal being demanded his opinion of the man, answered that he had indeed formerly seen divers mad men, but never any one so mad as PHORMIO, who having, never viewed troops on their march, never spent one night in the trenches, or performed the least duty of a soldier, would notwithstanding take upon himself to order an Army & prescribe rules unto a General.  
It is certainly much easier to comprehend all military knowledge which is contained in the finite number of some precepts drawn from reason and experience; then fathom the bottemless Abyss of Eternity, which holds no proportion at all with the narrow limits and shallowness of human reason, and consequently to undertake the handling of this subject is a much greater madness than that of PHORMIO.  
This being so, I doubt not but there will be some, who unsatisfied with what I shall set down, will question upon what grounds I have adventured to publish my conceptions upon Eternity, so many excellent pens having already employed themselves in the deciphering of it) and will conclude, that as his error is to be pitied, who contrary to his expectation, (Fails) by the weakness of his forces to perform what he hath undertaken; so his madness is unexcusable, who undertakes what himself knows, is not to be performed.  
I will not go about to justify myself against their reprehensions, which perhaps have truth for their foundation; all I shall say is, I have written this only for my own private use, that I might at times of leisure view the discoveries I have made of that country to which I tend; and on which time at the shutting in of my lives course will land me, and I have published it not as conceiving I could better what hath formerly been written, but out of an opinion, that my conceits (though short of what others have delivered) might hit the humour of some one or other, and waken him from that lethargy wherein the World holds the most part of men during their lives, that he might look about in time and provide himself for that eternal habitation; those who are stung with the Tarantula, cannot be cured but by music, and I have heard that 'tis not always the best Tunes help the diseased Patients, but such as (how extravagant soever) sympathize most with their inclinations.  
Reader! having given thee this account of myself, I proceed briefly to set down the substance of this short Treatise: in the first place, I shall endeavour to let thee know what Eternity is; in the second, to describe what our condition will be in it: & in the last place, to set down such Rules as may (being observed) render us perfectly happy in that fixed condition, wherein Eternity will place us: all I require from thee is, that if thou approve not what I write, thou wilt (at least) approve the good will wherewith 'tis written.  
Farewell.   

A Discourse upon the Nature of Eternity &c.  
ONe of the maxims wherein Philosophers (notwithstanding the many different opinions among them) do accord is this; Nihil est in intellectu, quod non prius fuit in sensu; that is, nothing is in our understanding which hath not first gained its admittance through the senses; our souls during the time of their imprisonment in our bodies, seem to be so narrowly cooped up by our senses who guard all the avenues, by which any intelligence of the great workmanships of nature may be conveyed to them, that they get notice of nothing, save what is brought them by their mediation.  
Well may the exterior objects assisted by the suns light fill the air with the representation of their several species, but the understanding will not be able to know any thing either of the shape or colour, unless they pass through the eye into the common sense, and be transmitted to the fancy.  
The warbling Choristers of the air, may well cause both the woods & valleys, echo, with their melodious sounds; and all the famous Orators display the utmost charms of winning rhetoric: but if our ears deny them entrance to the brain, they will at last die in the air where they were formed, without giving us the last information, either of their harmony, or meaning.  
All the rare spices of the East may well evaporate themselves to nothing before our eyes, without leaving any other sense of their rich perfumes, but what our smelling shall convey unto us. And if another monarch far surpassing Assuerus in the richesse, and extent of his Dominions, should unpeople the three Elements, to furnish out a sumptuous feast that might show forth the greatness of his magnificence, we were not able to distinguish any of those exquisite dainties, and delicious wines, farther than what our tastes should dictate unto us.  
Infine our souls, notwithstanding their immaterial substance, and the faculties of will and understanding, whereby they think themselves equal to the celestial Spirits (were but those gates dammed up whereof our senses are the Porters) would (like the Egyptians during the three days' darkness wherewith God plagued them) be forced to sit still, nor could the Heavenly gifts of reasoning and resolving avail them aught towards the discovery of truth or goodness, which are the only object of their functions.  
The spots we now discover in the sun, the valleys in the Moon, and stars that move in an Epicycle about the Planet Jupiter; had been Eternally concealed from all mankind, had not the invention of Galileus perspectives by aiding the weakness of our sight, discovered them unto our eyes and I am verily persuaded that all those rare effects of nature which we now attribute to sympathy, to antipathy, or other occult causes, are indeed only material qualities, but too subtle to be perceived by our senses, which is the cause that all our rarest wits are at a fault in quest of them, and pay us only with obscure terms instead of truth.  
Eternity alone is that can never fall to be the object of our senses; the infinity of its duration cannot be comprehended by their finite powers, and time doth hurry us away so fast over the race of our mortality, that we have not the leisure to contemplate its stable firmness, not subject to those laws of ruin by which Heaven and earth shall one day perish. This truth is excellently confirmed unto us by the Apostle, when he saith that neither eye hath seen, ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man, to conceive the excellencies of what God hath prepared in store for those that fear him. Eternity is surely one of the most precious of all those blessings, and the Trisagion or thrice holy, so much renowned in the Greek Church, as a hymn delivered to them by the mouths of angels, Sanctus Deus, sanctus fortis, Sanctis immortalis, puts immortality in the last place, as compliment of the Divine perfections.  
When Moses moved with a holy curiosity, desired he might behold the face of God, he was answered it was impossible to see that and live; all this beloved Patriarch could obtain, was licence to view the glory of his hinder parts in passing by; and what is thereby meant save only this; that we may be permitted here on Earth, to contemplate the Divine perfections in the Creatures, which are the least, and meanest effects of his power, being produced during the continuance of fleeting time, but that all solid joys, together with his beatifical vision, are reserved only for such as fix their habitations in the blessed dwelling of Eternity.  
Saint Paul being through special favour wrapped into the third Heaven that he might take a taste of those celestial pleasures, thinks it not lawful to utter the Arcana, that is, the sublime, and hidden things which he learned there; the greatest height we can attain unto whilst we are here, is to contemplate the mysteries which shall be there revealed, per speculum in aenigmate, through a glass, in a dark riddle: what is this glass, but faith, by whose assistance our faint eyes are able without dazzling, to look upon the sun of truth, even God himself, and expound those riddles that pass the reach of human understanding?  
Relying therefore upon this guide, I shall begin to search into the Nature of Eternity, because her Maxims, are like a clew of thread let down from Heaven to lead us with security, and humbleness into the understanding of Divine mysteries; that so we may not stray in the wild maze of self opinion, wherein the greatest part of human kind do wander endlessly, and lose themselves, at last being entrapped in the pernicious snares, of overweening pride, or stupid ignorance.  
When the Divines endeavour to describe the Deity unto us, they make us of three sorts of Attributes: the first, as they call them negative, the second relative, and the third positive: the first, show what he is not, and the second what he is in relation to us, or to some other being, but the third which should declare unto us, what he is in himself, fail to perform it, because all terms Explicate only our conceptions, and we can conceive nothing but what is infinitely short of his perfections: they call him increated and immortal, that we may know his essence is incompatible, with whatsoever hath either ending or beginning; they term him Creator and Redeemer, thereby informing us that all the blessings we enjoy here or expect hereafter are but dependencies upon his power. But when they tell us of his virtues, and of his wisdom, they intend not that we should thereby understand such virtues or such wisdom as are in us; not an affection, or habit of his will inclining him to pursue always the dictates of a right reason, nor a perspicacity of judgement enabling him to distinguish upon all occasions the real truths, from those that seem so; which notwithstanding is the proper meaning of those terms, whereas the Divine virtues, and wisdom are neither qualities, nor habits, but the very essence and being of God himself, which cannot be known or comprehended by any other nature inferior to him.  
It being therefore admitted that we can never write or conceive any thing worthily of the Divine Nature, how is it possible, I should be able to explicate the Nature of Eternity, which is the measure of his duration, and one of the most excellent of all his attributes? God himself seems to glory in it when being asked his name by the great Patriarch Moses he gives him only this description of himself, Ego sum qui sum. I am he that am, without mentioning either his power, his justice, or any of his other attributes, giving us thereby to understand that all his other attributes depend upon his being (according to the order of our conceptions) as their foundation; that other things have an existence whose beginning flows from his power, and whose continuance is an effect only of his will; that nothing hath a stable independent being save only he, and that in fine, no happiness or perfection is to be prised, if the enjoyment of it be not secured unto us by Eternity.  
This measure of God's being, cannot (by any positive terms which we can use) be comprehended, or defined, nor can it be illustrated to human understandings, by other means then by considering the nature of it negatively, and comparatively, unto those things which have a being during the continuance of time, the first of which considerations shall be of the infinity thereof; which (as I said before) is a term purely negative, and represents nothing at all unto our imaginations, the only conception we can frame upon it; being of something, not circumscribed by ends, or bounds, as are all the objects which present themselves unto our senses.  
We are astonished when we consider the vast extent of this habitable earth which hath sufficed to the production and nourishment of the innumerable number of men now living, or that have had a being since the Creation of the World, and we are notwithstanding satisfied both by the demonstrations of Cosmographers, and relations of Navitors, that a full third part of it is yet undiscovered. The immense quantity of waters in the Ocean, seems to pose arithmetic, to number all the several drops of water contained in it: but above all the Heavens encircling round this ball made up of Earth, Water, and the other Elements, and exceeding it so far in bigness, that all of it together bears in comparison to them but such proportion (according to the Astronomers computation) as a point in middle of a circle, to the circumference, doth with its unmeasurable greatness out vie the force of human understanding, to conceive any idea of its dimensions; and yet when we consider, but with the least attention these great workemanships of God, and search into the nature of them, we must needs be satisfied they are not infinite; for that consisting (as our senses can inform us) of finite parts; themselves must likewise be of the same nature with the parts whereof they are composed: who is it that perceives not when he takes up a shovel full of earth from the ground, or but a dish of water out of the Sea, that those portions of the two Elements are finite, and that our not being able to find out their certain quantity, proceeds not from any contradiction in their natures, to be surveyed or measured, but only from the weakness of our forces? who is it that can doubt when he perceives the sun draw nearer to us but that the distance between us and him is finite? since were it otherwise, it were not capable of increase or diminution. And who in fine can make a question but that the Heavens are circumscribed by certain bounds, and limits, when he beholds them to be perpetually measured by the sun, moon, and the other Planets in their several motions, according to whose different races, we give beginning and ending, unto our hours, days, months, years, and to our ages.  
Archimedes was of opinion he could have moved the world, had there been any other place out of it, upon which he might have fixed his instrument; and I am certainly persuaded that when we shall be freed out of this cage of earth wherein our souls are enclosed during this life; we shall with ease be able to survey and comprehend, the Heavens, the Earth, and all the other workmanships of nature that now appear to be so far beyond the reach of human understanding. And yet when our enlarged souls shall have the power to circle earth, sound hell, and measure all the vast extent of Heaven, how little or rather nothing at all will that appear, being compared unto infinity? if we were able to number all the drops of water in the Sea, and count the sands upon the shore, and if for every one of them we were to live an age before we died, yet were this term as nothing being compared unto Eternity, since time would at last consume all that large stock of our subsistence, and Eternity when that were past would still continue constant in the full possession of all its being.  
Aristotle was of opinion the world wherein we live had no beginning, and should never have an ending, persuaded thereunto by the incessant vicissitude of generation, and corruption, and the settled course of Nature which perpetuates all the several species, or kinds of things, notwithstanding the continual decay of the inidividuals, whereof they are composed; if this imagination of his were true, it would then follow, that the duration of the world, should be indeed perpetual, but not infinite, and that it would have nothing in it approaching to the pure simplicity of an eternal being. For if time be divided (as reason, experience, and the opinion of all Philosophers, assure us 'tis) into past, present, and to come, how can that (though ne'er so far extended) be without end? whose very being consists in a perpetual flux of ending and beginning; or how can that be without bounds? whose two parts, that is, the first and last, are not at all; and whose third part (wherein only it subsists) is circumscribed within such narrow limits, that we can hardly think a thought, during the term of its duration: and what resemblance can there be in it of Eternity; the one being in a continual motion, and the other in a constant quiet; the one perpetually changing, and the other never subject to alteration, and the one in fine subsisting only in the short instants of the present time, whereas the other comprehends all times past, present, and to come, in the pure simplicity of a present being. From this ground, there ariseth another consideration of the Nature of Eternity, that is of the indivisibility thereof, which I make the subject of my next reflection.  
Indivisibility is a term also negative, which represents unto us only something that cannot be parceled out by portions as the things of this inferior world way be. Divide, et impera, that is divide and govern, is a maxim successfully practised by the Politicians, when making use of the private dissensions either of a City, or commonwealth, they obtain and preserve thereby their Dominion over all the differing parties: and we may also, with the same truth affirm this other, Divide & destru●, divide and destroy; God who is Creator of whatsoever hath an existence, being himself one by the simplicity of his Nature, hath placed the subsistence of all things in unity, and hath therefore by a working peculiar only to himself, united the contraries of heat and cold, of draught and moisture, unto the making up of all the several bodies, either sensible or insensible, which are contained in the rich treasury of nature; whilst they continue united by this bond, so long they are said to be; but if the union be once broken, either by external violence, or the inward working of the different qualities whereof the body is composed; then doth it forthwith lose the former being, and becomes some other thing, according to the nature of the new form which it acquires. As long as our bodies remain fit to entertain our souls, by the due temperature of the humours, and disposition of the Organs to receive her operations, we continue to be men; but when that ceaseth either by inward distemper or outward force, we then leave to be so, our souls becoming separated forms, and our bodies returning to the common mass of matter, from whence they are extracted; the same we see happens in beasts, plants, and in all other inanimate bodies, of what Nature or quality soever: so as there can be no conclusion truer than this, that whatsoever is already divided, hath left to be what it was formerly, whatsoever may be divided is subject to decay and ruin; and whatsoever is indivisible, must also of necessity by reason of the simplicity of its Nature be eternal.  
Eternity is therefore indivisible, and all those happy persons who have gained that blessed part, are always in possession of their whole being, they lose nothing of what is past, they want nothing of what is future, but the present in that celestial country doth comprehend after an unexpressible manner, all those three different, and incompatible parts, into which time is divided. And hence it is, that all the happiness found there, is true, and solid; because those different goods are united in that fixed Mansion, which being here divided, mislead the greatest part of human kind in the search they make after the chiefest good, and feed us only with appearances instead of truth.  
Good is the simplest of all other beings, and is therefore not to be looked for here, where nothing doth subsist but is compounded; and all those things which are so eagerly pursued by men, for the resemblance they have to good, are but like glowworms, which cheat us as we wander in the night, and casting forth a lustre equal to that of the most precious gems, are in themselves nought else but rottenness & putrefacti●●…  
●…ee are divided almost into as many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ns, as persons, and every one seeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sse (which is the chiefest good) a several way, in the variety of their own appetites, neglecting Eternity, which is the only place where it resides.  
Some hunt after power and sovereign command, expecting to find true contentment in Authority; but alas! how infinitely are they misguided by ambition? the cares of governing, and dangers that accompany a sceptre, so far outwaigh the happiness found in it, that Augustus Caesar, who enjoyed the Empire of the world, in the most settled times it ever saw, made it his daily suit unto the Senate, that he might be restored unto the quiet of a private life: and Diocletian having generously cast off the yoke of ruling others, refused to return again unto the glorious servitude, professing that he found more pleasure among the cabbages growing in his solitary garden, then twenty years' command over the Roman Empire had yielded to him.  
Others there are, whose thoughts are wholly taken up in gathering wealth, as if that were the only thing to be desired, never considering (so grossly are they blinded by their covetousness) that the content of riches consists not in the hoarding up of treasures, but in the liberal distribution of them; that the sordid ways of gathering money, renders them odious to others, and the restless care of keeping it, destroys the quiet they would establish in themselves; that their continual negotiation about gain, hinders them from enjoying the happiness of life; and that in fine, when they have reaped the plentiful harvest of all their labours, they must resign it unto others, who longing to enjoy the precious spoil, think their lives tedious, and their deaths welcome. I forbear to mention the infinite number of mischiefs which the possession of riches hath brought upon the owners: how many are there who (like Seneca) have in hoarding up treasures been careful to get together the instruments of their own ruin? finding at last by experience, that to be the occasion of their deaths, wherein they had established the contentment of their lives: this is a truth so evidently certain, that not Philosophers only and votaries, have been able to discover the imposture of them, but even whole Nations have agreed upon it. The inhabitants of the Balearicke Islands (now called Majorca, & Minorca) drowned all their gold and silver in the Ocean; and the Spartans (one of the most flourishing commonwealths that ever were) banished those metals out of the confines of their territories, forbidding the enjoyment of them to all their Citizens; as being incompatible with true contentment.  
Some place their happiness in pleasure, and shunning whatsoever hath the show of trouble, give themselves wholly up to sensual delights; fond fools, who blinded by their bestial appetites, think themselves happy men in practising those actions, which deprive them of the dignity of being reasonable creatures, and cast them down into the rank of beasts; unworthy of enjoying souls made after the Divine likeness, since they employ their whole time in giving satisfaction to their bodies. And yet how short are those few minutes of contentment which they enjoy, whilst they abandon themselves to their debauches, being compared to those of trouble, which necessarily accompany the pleasures they hunt after? the drunkard will assure us that the pain he suffers in his head, and stomach, is of much longer continuance, then was the taste of that delicious wine wherein he made a shipwreck of his reason; the passion whether feigned, or real, which a libidinous man acts, or suffers for a desired beauty, and the solicitous endeavours, used by him for obtaining of his prey, far outwaigh the momentary pleasure he enjoys, which notwithstanding is attended with remorse of conscience from within, and the apprehensions of danger, and dishonour from abroad. Diseases (the effect of their disorders) take up a settled quarter in their bodies, and render that the constant mansion of grief, and pain, where they intended to have given admittance unto nought but joy, and pleasure; and for a compliment of their misfortunes, their vices like a raging fire, consuming all those excellencies which God and Nature have bestowed upon them; brand them with a perpetual blot of infamy to all posterity, and fix an everlasting guilt upon their souls.  
Samson had a prodigious strength infinitely surpassing that of other men, seconded by an excess of courage, which rendered him victorious over lions, and triumphant in the discomfiture of an host of men; his single person was of more value than an army, but when he suffered himself to be conducted by his passion, the love of Dalila having first blindfolded his reasons eyes, deprived him after of his corporeal sight, betrayed him to his enemies, and reduced him to so great a height of misery, that to be freed from the contempt to which he was exposed, he was constrained to employ his matchless force, in working his revenge by his own ruin.  
Sardanapalus (last of the Assyrian monarchs) saw himself peaceably settled in the chief Empire of the world, but having once given himself over to his effeminate pleasures, the fire of lust first kindled in his own heart, quickly destroyed the respect of him in the minds of neighbour Princes, and his own subjects, and after taking hold on the magnificent Pile he had caused to be erected, reduced to ashes both his person and his Empire.  
Alexander (justly surnamed the great, for his unparalleled courage, conduct, and fortune) was mounted to so great a height of glory, that he despised the world, as a place too narrow to bound the limits of his conquests, and yet the murder of his friend Clitus, which he committed in his drunkenness, rendered all these prosperities so unsavoury to him, that he attempted the killing of himself, and begat such an aversion against him in the minds of divers of his subjects, that they prepared a poison for him, which cutting short the course of all his victories, buried his triumphs, together with his carcase in the grave.  
Solomon received from God the gift of an incomparable wisdom, above all the men that ever were, and with it a confluence of all those blessings, which might raise human nature unto the greatest height of happiness, whereof 'tis capable during this mortal life; but the inordinate love of women, to which he was addicted in his latter time, deprived his issue of the greater part of his terrestrial kingdom, and himself (as some do probably conjecture) of the eternal joys of heaven.  
Why should I farther instance the single punishments of particular voluptuous persons? 'tis so prodigious a madness for man to place his chiefest good in sensual lust, that it hath drawn down fire from heaven for the consuming of whole Cities, and water from the earth, and firmaments, which was upon the point to have extirpated mankind, all the different Elements conspiring to revenge that insufferable wrong is done to their Creator, when we neglect his image engraven in our souls, to satisfy the fleshly part of us, which is nothing else but dust and ashes.  
And to conclude, even Epicurus the Philosopher, who placed the chiefest good of man in pleasure, did notwithstanding (if we believe Seneca, rather than some others who have slandered him) esteem, that pleasure to consist i'th' golden mean of temperance, and not in the exorbitant use of wine, of play, of gluttony, and women.  
I have exceeded in handling this particular the brevity I had proposed unto myself, because these are the Meteors, which by the glittering brightness of their deceitful light, dazzle the eyes of our unweary youth, and like so many wandering fires mislead us in our search for happiness, through the blind paths of ignorance, and folly, until at last they train us into the dangerous precipice of wickedness, and infamy, from whence we are not able (without particular assistance of the Divine grace) to free ourselves, for all Eternity.  
All other things so greedily grasped at by worldly men, may be reduced unto the before mentioned heads, of power, of riches, and of pleasure, nobility, fame, and respect, are the attendants upon power, sufficiency, and plenty, wait upon riches, health, strength, and beauty, are necessarily required to the completing of our pleasures, and therefore what false appearance soever of happiness, they may hold forth to our deluded minds, they cannot possibly give us that true content, which is not to be found in these principal things, whereunto they are but accessories.  
Power, riches, pleasure, and the rest, have indeed some resemblance of good, but are not that which they resemble for good; or happiness (being the same) consists not in possessing many different things, but in the union of all together, whereas they are so far from being one, that they are inconsistent with each other.  
The weight of business, and distance kept by sovereign Princes, for maintaining the reverence due to their calling, permits them not the sweet delights of pleasure, to which the freedom of equality is requisite, and the vastness of their expense, in wars, in treaties, for intelligence, and other things incident to their Authority makes them the neediest almost of all other men. The wary closeness of the rich miser, inconsistent with popularity, hinders him from being powerful, and his daily employment about the increasing of his store, debars him from the use of pleasure, which cannot be had without the expense of time, and money. The seriousness of great affairs disturbs the quietness of pleasures, and the prodigality of luxury, wastes the estates of those that are addicted to it.  
In fine, which way soever we turn ourselves, to seek contentment in satisfaction of our lustful appetites, these divided goods which cannot dwell together in one subject frustrate our expectations, and enforce us to confess with the wiseman, that whatsoever hath a subsistence during the continuance of time, is vanity, of vanities, and nought but vanity. For if by a particular indulgence, of God, and Nature, these divided (and as I have already showed) incompatible blessings, of power, riches, pleasure, respect, nobility, fame, plenty, beauty, health, and strength, should fall to be the portion of one man; what were all these advantages without security in the enjoyment of them, but vanity, and mere vexation of our spirits? and what security can this life possibly afford, amid the daily apprehensions of being deprived of them before we die, and certainty to lose them, when we descend into the grave?  
Our blessed Saviour therefore adviseth Martha not to divide her thoughts, in the solicitous quest of many things, since what was necessary was only one, And that we might not be to seek, what that one, single, necessary thing should be, himself informs us in another place what 'tis, when he commands us, to seek first the kingdom of Heaven by just and righteous actions, which being once obtained, we shall enjoy all other blessings as coessential with it.  
Is power the object of thy wishes? thou shalt be there (as the Apostle assures) coheir with him, to whom all power in Heaven and Earth is given. Is honour or command thy chiefest good? it is so liberally dispensed to all the inhabitants of Eternity, that the Prophet David seems to charge God with prodigality in that particular, when he cries out, Nimis honorati sunt amici tui Deus; nimis confortatus est principatus eorum! my God thy friends are too much honoured, their principality is too much strengthened, or established. Dost thou desire fame or riches? behold the same Prophet telleth thee, Gloria, et divitiae, in domo Domini, glory, and riches, are in the house of the Lord. Art thou delighted with the magnificence of royal feasts? the King of Kings hath by his only son sent down from Heaven, invited all mankind to a delicious banquet in his eternal palace, where having seated all the guests that come upon his invitation, according to their several degrees, himself will minister unto them. Is thy heart ravished at the sight of some accomplished beauty? those who reside in that eternal mansion, out shine the sun in greatest height of all his glory.  
In fine, whatever else it is that doth delight thee shall there be present; because all thy soul's faculties which can find nothing in this inferior world but is too mean & narrow for them, shall there be fully satisfied, according to the large extent of all their powers, being absorbed in contemplation of the first truth, and the enjoyment of the chiefest good; and yet all this shall be, not by the various diversity of several objects, but by their blessed admission to the presence of God himself, who being the first cause, contains emminently the perfection of all other beings, in the simplicity of his own nature, communicating freely all his excellencies to those happy persons, who are made partakers with him in the infinite, and indivisible Eternity.  
Having considered the vast diversity there is between Eternity & time, by reason of the infinity of the one, & the strait limits wherein the other is shut up▪ and circumscribed; the entire firmness of the one, and the minute parts whereinto the other is divided, it follows that we should raise our thoughts unto the contemplation of those excellencies, which an eternal being hath, by the comparing of it unto that which we enjoy, during the succession of time.  
Those who employ themselves in quest of that, which we vulgarly call the philosopher's Stone, have not as yet found out the way of fixing Mercury, which is the cause they fail in their attempts of making gold, notwithstanding the many laborious, and chargeable experiments, have been used for the effecting of it; and all that have endeavoured to establish their contentment, in the perishable goods of this inferior world, have found themselves deluded by their hopes, because they were not able, to fix the fleeting instants of the present time; whose continual motion, is of all other things, most destructive unto the happiness of life.  
What an uncomfortable voyage would that man have, who were bound out in quest of some particular wave, i'th' midst of the Atlantic Ocean, how improbable that he should make discovery of what he sought for? and how impossible to settle there, considering the perpetual agitation of the waters, in that restless Element? And yet such is the fatal blindness which possesseth the greatest part of human kind, that we consume our lives in seeking to find out a permanent bliss, amid the various diversity of worldly things; though all our predecessors for above fifty ages past, who have preceded us in that design, have perished in it, without being able to inform us any thing, save only this, that they have met with nothing in their several wanderings but vanity, nor reaped aught but the vexation of their spirits; and that times course (as certain, though not so rapid as that of the Ocean) faileth not to ravish from us all those pleasing objects, in the pursuit of which, we entertain our lives; and fancy in the obtaining of them, a contentment, which is nowhere to be found, but in the happy region of Eternity.  
That harmless innocence which is the precious treasure of our Childhood, is violently snatched from us by the heat of youth, that inconsiderately engageth us, to seek contentment in satisfaction of our lustful appetites; and when the access of years and judgement at man's estate, hath made us see the vanity of that employment, ambition, pride, and covetousness, present us with the specious baits of honour, power, and riches, and train us by those sweet allurements from contemplation of Eternity, to employ the strength, and vigour of our age in purchase of them, as if they could bestow true happiness on their possessors; until at last (if death prevent us not before) we find ourselves arrived at the utmost period of life, (old age) where though experience discover to us the true nature of those transitory things we first admired, yet we can reap no other fruit of all her counsels, but only sorrow, and despair, when we consider the grossness of our errors, and miscarriages for the time past, and the impossibility of amending them in that to come.  
And hence it is the royal Prophet David takes occasion to reproach mankind of dulness, and heaviness of heart, that forsaking the only necessary thought and study of Eternity, give themselves over unto the love of vanity and the pursuit of lies; filii hominum usque quo gravi corde; ut quid diligitis vanitatem et quaeritis mendacium? as who should say, you sons of men, how long will you permit your hearts and your affections to be weighed down by the inordinate solitude for earthly things? behold, the pleasures which you love and court for satisfaction of your youth, are only vanity, and those more solid employments you search after for the entertainment of your elder years, are but a lie; promising contentment, and giving nought but care, vexation, and repentance.  
If Julius Caesar could have foreseen that all his victories, and triumphs whereby he subjected unto himself the Roman State. (That proud Mistress of the known world) would but have served to make him fall a glorious victim in the Senate house; he had not prosecuted certainly with so much ardour as he did, the cutting off all those, who opposed themselves to the accomplishment of his ambitious designs. King Pyrrhus had sure followed the council of his friend, and betaken himself unto the quiet pleasures of a peaceful life, had he been well informed that all his thoughts of conquests and the enlargement of his Empire, should perish together with himself, by the hands of a weak woman, in the attempt he made to surprise the city Argos. Saladine (that great victorious Sultan of the East) would not have spent his life amid the toil, and dangers that attend a martial employment, had he but thought at first, as he did afterwards, at the hour of death, that he should carry nothing of all the spoils and riches he had gotten away with him, but only a poor shirt to shroud his carcase.  
The rich man in the gospel would not have joyed in his full barns, and store houses sufficient for the expense of many years, had he but known that he should never live to see the birth of the succeeding morn.  
In fine, the business of the world would cease, and we should look with horror, and aversion, upon those gilded follies, and pleasing vanities, in quest whereof we spend our lives, disturb the Elements, and alter the whole frame of nature, were but their mask pulled off, and we made sensible of that which is confirmed unto us by the experience of all our predecessors; to wit, that there is nothing in this inferior world can give a satisfaction to our soul, whose frame is equal unto that of the celestial spirits; and that although by an excess of bestiallity, we could so plunge our souls into the mass of our terrestrial bodies, as to set up our rests upon the enjoyment of those things which are the object of our senses, yet age and sickness, would like unbidden guests, trouble the mirth of all our entertainments; and time (the absolute commander of all sublunary things) consuming by degrees the matter of them, would violently snatch us from their embraces, and put in execution that irrevocable decree pronounced by God against material things, to wit that whatsoever is composed of dust and ashes shall again return unto it.  
So that if we examine the true cause of things, we must conclude, that the ill conduct of our lives, and all the miseries, vices, and disorders, that flow from thence; are an effect of the continual motion of time, which representing unto us these exterior objects, under several disguises, keeps us from penetrating into the true Nature of them, and suggesting to our deluded minds vain hopes, and fears, doth by those false alarms disturb our reason, and brings upon us a forgetfulness of what is past, a mistake of what is present, and a gross negligence, in not providing of ourselves for what's to come.  
For remedy hereof, antiquity was used to set up trophies and monuments of all great, and virtuous actions, as also to expose the bodies of Malefactors who were executed, unto the public view on poles, or gibbets, that so posterity being put in mind of what had past, might be invited to imitate the one, and avoid the other. King Philip (Father of the great Alexander) gave command unto a Page of his to wake him daily with this admonition, that he should call to mind he was a man, fearing lest he might otherwise be transported by the false lustre of his greatness, and prosperities, as to mistake (which his son after did) what himself was, and forget the condition of humanity, wherein he had been placed by God, and Nature. And (the great Doctor of the Church) Saint Jerome thinks it a matter of that consequence for us to employ ourselves in the consideration of what is future, that he assures us confidently (by warrant of the sacred Scripture) we should never sin, did we but carefully ruminate on the last things that do attend us. Memorare novissima tua et in aeternum non peccabis.  
See here the true condition of our being during the succession of time. Let us now alter the Scene and from this theatre of confusion, and disorder, raise up our thoughts unto the contemplation of Eternity. It is an instant always present, never decaying, whose infinity comprehends all times past, present, and to come, and whose simplicity presenting us at once with whatsoever can be good or perfect, united in their first cause, whereof (Unless our sins debar us from his sight) the Divine Nature we shall be then made glad beholders; clears up the foggy mists of ignorance, of forgetfulness, and of mistake, which hang between our understandings and the truth of things; fills all the powers and faculties of our souls with the enjoyment of their desired objects, and doth establish us in the secure possession of our bliss beyond the reach of fortune, or of time which shall not there have power to traverse our contentments with the desire of aught that's past, or the apprehension of aught to come.  
When we have once maturely weighed these solid truths, we shall begin to loathe this prison of our bodies subject to the perpetual injuries of time, and death, and shall cry out with the Apostle, Infaelix ego homo: quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus? unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body which belongs to death? and with the same Apostle, fixing all our affections and thoughts upon Eternity, we shall continually desire to be dissolved that we may live with Christ in his eternal habitation: and when we shall receive the summons to dislodge hence, brought us by age, diseases, war, famine, pestilence, or any other officer, of time, clad in the hideousest dress that death can wear; we shall with joy prepare ourselves unto the journey; and with the Prophet David say, Laetatus sum in his quae dicta sunt mihi, in domum domini ibimus. I am rejoiced in that which hath been said unto me, we will go into the house of the Lord.  
It seems (being a man according unto God's own heart) he had well studied the Nature of that celestial mansion, whose qualities, he doth so excellenty describe in the 2 following verses. Stantes erant pedes nostri, in atriis tuis Jerusalem, Jerusalem quae aedificatur ut civitas, cujus participatio ejus in idipsum. Our feet were standing in thy Courts Jerusalem. Here they are running, forced to accompany the motion of time, but they shall there be fixed in an Eternal rest, never to be disturbed by time, or fortune, Jerusalem that is builded as a City, whose portion consisteth in the thing itself. All other places are but inns, where we are entertained as passengers during our pilgrimage, and therefore have their buildings subject (as are those they harbour) unto decay, and ruin, but this City being the permanent place of our abode, hath its foundations laid upon the never fading basis of Eternity. And if you ask, what is the stock or treasure of the inhabitants in that blessed country? he forth with tells us that their portion consisteth in the thing itself; what is the thing itself? but that which is without dependence upon any other; and what is that? but he who being to declare himself unto the Patriarch Moses, saith he is, he that is, even God himself, in whom is comprehended the fullness of all things, and without whom is nothing, but the privation of good and happiness  
Let us endeavour then so to comport ourselves that we be not engaged amid these fading transitory things, but may be able to say with the Apostle; our life is laid up with Christ in God; and let our only traffic, and negotiation, be to hoard up treasures (according to the counsel of our blessed Lord and Saviour) where neither rust, nor moths, can come to wast them, nor thieves, break in to steal them from us. We need not be to seek where that should be, since he informeth us that 'tis in Heaven, the only proper seat and mansion of Eternity.  
In the precedent discourse I have endeavoured to describe (although imperfectly) the Nature and condition of Eternity, which is the true and proper habitation of our souls, who have no commerce with time, but only by their union with our bodies. A blessed country, but such a one as doth not equally agree with all constitutions, to some it is an Ocean of pleasure, rest, and happiness; to others, an abyss of everlasting horror, trouble, and confusion; the reason of which difference, proceeds from the diversity of those several dispositions and affections we carry with us at our parting hence. For the clear understanding whereof, it is necessary that we consider the Nature of our souls, and examine what are those things which subsist in, and together with them, after the dissolution of our bodies.  
The Heathen Philosophers guided only by the light of nature, did (some of them) believe the soul of man, to be immortal, they perceived well that she was capable of many operations, even in this life, without the mediation of the body; that she gave a being within herself, unto an infinite number of things, abstracted from the several notions of time, place, figure, or any other property incident unto material things; which kind of being because it sorted not unto the things themselves in their own Nature, they must necessarily receive from her, and they did thence infer, that she could not communicate such a being unto them, unless she had an immaterial being in herself. They saw the act of judging, was an action purely her own, whereby she produced several conclusions (which are new beings) out of those premises that present themselves to our imaginations; and knowing the infallibility of this argument, ex nihilo nihil fit, that of nothing there comes nothing, they were fully satisfied the soul had a being, independent from the body, since it was able to communicate a being unto other things, without the help of any organs which depend upon her.  
From the assurance of her being, they collected also her immortality; for having by the strict observation of all natural causes, found out that nothing whatsoever could lose its former being, and acquire a new one (which we term death in living creatures) but by division, and that, that same could happen but two ways, viz. either by dividing the matter from the form, or by dividing the matter within itself, they inferred thence; that since both these ways were incompatible with the soul, she was not capable of a real change, and consequently not of death (which of all others is the greatest) not the first, because that she is immaterial, nor the second, because she is a pure form, and that all forms are by their being so incapable of division, of increase, or diminution, according unto these two Maxims among them, forma non suscipit majus & minus, and this other in indivisibili non fit mutatio.  
Upon the same grounds also they inferred, that all the resolutions, or judgements, and all those Sciences, and Arts, whether speculative, or practic, which are in the soul during this life, shall remain also in her after her separation from the body; these being things which depend only on her, and which are (in a kind) part of herself, so as without them she would lose something of the perfection of her being. And to conclude, because they saw nothing among all the works of Nature, which did not at some time or other, unless ('twere hindered by exterior causes) attain unto a fullness, and maturity whereby it was enabled to reach that end for which it was ordained, and found the reasonable soul alone, which hath for the object of her understanding the truth of all natural causes, and their effects, was not able at any time during this life, wherein she is united with the body to comprehend the utmost truth may be discovered in any art, or science whatsoever; they thence inferred, that she was to enjoy a being after the dissolution of the body, wherein she might at freedom exercise the power of reasoning, wherewith she is endued, and not only retain those sciences she hath acquired here, but also be able to conceive all other truth, and knowledge whatsoever, which may be deduced out of them, by that concatenation and dependence, which the verity of one proposition, hath upon that of another.  
I have delivered these speculations of the Philosophers with this brevity, without setting down the many arguments used by them for proof of their assertions, and answer of the objections have been framed in opposition to them (wherewith whole volumes might be filled) because they have been since the most part of them confirmed unto us by the tenets of Christian Religion; the truth whereof (being revealed by God himself) is not to be disputed by mankind, and I have taken this short view of the condition of our souls, only to this intent, that in the sequel of the ensuing Discourse we may upon these grounds be able the better to discover, how far the ordinary working of natural causes, doth cooperate with the Divine justice in the reward of virtuous, and the punishment of vicious persons.  
For the clear understanding whereof we must know that all living creatures whatsoever (except man) being destitute of reason, suffer themselves without repugnance to be directed by the rules of Nature. (That is, the ordinary power used by God in governing the world) which doth sweetly guide them to the performance of those actions, and the obtaining of that end, whereunto they are ordained. But man (whose portion is a reasonable soul) assumes the conduct of himself, and blinded by self love, or overweening pride, forsakes the general end of other things (which is the honour and glory of their Maker) to pursue his own particular good and follow the inordinate affections of his own corrupted Nature; the true cause of which mistake is this that follows.  
Those who have curiously searched into the composition of man, observe, that he may be considered in a triple capacity, according unto every one of which he hath a several good, that he proposeth unto himself, and endeavoureth to attain unto during this life. The first is, that of a living creature composed of a material body, and a form that doth communicate unto it life and motion. The second as he is endued with a reasonable soul, capable of Discourse, and knowledge, participating thereby of the Nature of intellectual spirits, which placeth him in a rank above all the material creatures of this inferior world. And the third, as he is the workmanship of God created by him out of nothing, after his own likeness, that he might serve him with obedience and perseverance, during his temporal being, and be the witness, and partaker of his glory in Eternity. The chiefest good of man according to the first, are riches, and corporeal pleasures, called by the Apostle, Concupiscentia carnis, & oculorum; Concupiscence of the flesh and eyes.  
According to the second the vanity of human knowledge accompanied with the forgetfulness of God; or the ambitious desire of obtaining Power, Honour, and command, called by the same Apostle, superbia vitae, pride of life; those who consider him according to the third capacity, esteem their chiefest good to consist in the uniting of their wills with God, and in procuring the advancement of his glorious Name.  
Now the vast distance there is between these ends which men propos●… unto themselves, causeth the great diversity we see daily between them in the direction and conduct of their lives, each one desiring to obtain the object of his wishes, by actions suitable unto it. Those of the first rank, abandoning themselves to sensual lusts forget the dignity of human Nature: and abase themselves into the rank of beasts. Those of the second, denying to acknowledge him from whom they have received all those advantages wherein they glory, imitate the devils in their pride, ungratitude, and rebellion against their maker. Those only of the third rank, entering into the true knowledge of themselves, and of the end for which they were created, submit their wills unto Almighty God, and endeavouring to imitate the angels in their prompt obedience, make themselves during this life, fit to enjoy their society after the dissolution of their bodies.  
From the great contrariety of men's judgements, resolutions, and of the actions and habits, that flow from, and are acquired by them, ariseth the different condition of our souls when they are separated from our bodies. The coral we see daily, grows in the Sea, and I have read, that being under water it may (by reason of its softness) be moulded into any shape, or figure whatsoever; but being once exposed unto the open air, it forthwith hardens, and is no more capable of change, and alteration: the like happeneth unto our souls, who while they do continue in this Sea, o'th' world, are susceptible of the different affections of good, and bad; according to the several appearances of things, which working on our fancies, incline our wills unto the following, or forsaking of them; but having once finished their voyage here, must always wear the dress of those affections they have at parting hence, and reap their harvest in Eternity suitable unto the seeds they have sowed here; according to that saying of the Apostle; quaecunque seminaverit homo, eadem & metet, whatsoever a man hath sowed, the same also he shall reap.  
Let us examine the condition of one who hath abandoned himself unto his sensual lusts, and placing his chief good in them, hath employed all the affections and faculties of his soul, in compassing those objects of his wishes, his stock of time is now exhausted whilst he endeavoured only to beguile it with the variety of choice delights; and death finding him busy in the caressing of his body, hath violently snatched it from him. The stately palaces, vast Treasures, and ravishing beauties, whereof he thought himself the owner, are now in the possession of another, and the poor soul is exposed naked upon the confines of Eternity. Let us with the eyes of contemplation accompany her thither, and see what are her thoughts, what are her entertainments in that country wherein as yet she is a stranger. This rude alarm hath roused her now out of that pleasing slumber, wherein she retchlessely consumed the time allotted her to labour, and she is come unto the land of rest, wherein she must for all Eternity, subsist upon the stock she hath brought with her: she now begins to take a view thereof, and summing her accounts, she finds that all her large possessions, sumptuous Buildings, Friends, and Riches, have parted with her at the hour of Death, that all her pleasures are vanished like a dream, that her body for whose solace and delight all these were coveted, is mouldering into dust, and ashes; and that in fine of all that she hath done; of all that she hath seen, suffered, or enjoyed, there remains nothing with her but her own inordinate judgements, and affections, which like a raging fire burn her without consuming, whilst all her powers and faculties are racked incessantly, when she considers the excellency of what she hath foregone, the unworthiness of what she hath pursued, and the impossibility to retract her choice.  
All that which a most violent passion is able to produce in the most capable subject, is nothing in comparison of her afflictions. We read that Pompey's wife (She who was daughter unto Julius Caesar) died suddenly with the excess of grief caused by the love she bare unto her husband, upon the sight but of a bloody garment; which she knew had been that day worn by him; and if we may believe the Poets, that same passion drew Orpheus to Hell among the Ghosts, and Fiends in search of his Eurydice, as being company much more supportable unto him, than were his cares, and sorrows occasioned by her absence: but alas! what comparison is there between the cause of their afflictions? they sorrowed for their separation from those they loved but for a time, as being well assured, that although time would not restore life to those had lost it: yet he would certainly unite them to their loves by giving death to those that sought it: whereas Eternity (though infinite and boundless) cannot in all the vastness, of extension, furnish this soul with the least ray of hope, that she shall meet again with those deceitful pleasures, wherein she had established her contentment.  
The miseries we suffer during our union with our bodies, have ever with them this double comfort: viz. that either they themselves will change their Nature, or we change our opinions touching the Nature of them. The course of things we see is variable, and we may probably imagine that as our joys have passed, so also will those things that do afflict us; or else; that the acquaintance we shall make with misery; will in time so far alter the Nature thereof, that we shall be no longer troubled at it. The strongest poisons, do in tract of time, become natural food to those that are accustomed to them; as heretofore, we read, it happened unto that King, from whom we have the name and use of Mithridate; whereas the miseries of an eternal condition, can never receive ease by any alteration, either in the things themselves, or in the minds of those that suffer them: Because Eternity is nothing else but a fixed instant always permanent; and time is so essentially necessary unto change, that it cannot be wrought but by his means, according to the before recited maxim. In instanti non fit mutatio.  
The torment which Mazentius mentioned (by Virgil in his Aeniods) used to his captives, hath some imperfect weak resemblance of this poor soul's condition; that Tyrant used to fasten them unto dead bodies joining their hands, their feet, their mouths, their eyes, and all their other parts with those of putrid carcases. Let us consider what were the thoughts of those poor miserable wretches, who though living in themselves were by this union hindered from exercising any the actions of life; and notwithstanding their natural aversion from stench, from rottenness and from corruption, were yet forced to converse only with them, exchanging all the happiness of life, to entertain those dismal objects, which presented them with nought but ghastliness, and terror.  
That unto which those wretches were compelled by outward violence is an imperfect representation of what happens to this soul by her depraved habits, and affections, she hath made choice of bodily delights, and pleasures, as her chiefest good; she hath employed during her life the faculty of her understanding in the contemplating, and that of her will in the enjoyment of them; the often reiteration of these acts, and judgements, have powerfully imprinted them within her, and being thus disposed her temporal union with the body hath been dissolved; and she's become a dweller in Eternity; where (as I have already showed) she is not capable of alteration, she very well perceives the base unworthiness, and vanity of those delights; and the impossibility of ever coming to enjoy them, but cannot quit her inclinations to them, which not permitting her to exercise her faculties on objects worthy herself, fill her with notions of earthly, fading, and corruptible things: whereon (beginning to be now sensible of her own natural perfections) she cannot cast a thought, but doth replenish her with horror, with confusion and affrightment.  
The condition of a soul puffed up with pride of human knowledge, or the ambitious desire of Power, and Command, after her separation from the body, is yet much more deplorable, then that of the other. The failings of the one have proceeded from a gross ignorance of the true good was to be followed, and from a soft compliance with the body; whereas this other hath offended out of malice, and contempt of the first cause, from whom she hath received her being; the one is to be looked on as a simple Malefactor, whereas this other cannot be considered but as a traitor, and a rebel, who hath attempted to invade the rights of her Creator; and endeavoured to find out a wisdom, and establish a power which should be independent of him. Their passions are proportionable unto the causes from whence they spring, so as if the one give herself over to the weak passions of grief, and lamentation, this other falling from the height of her ambitious pretences, must needs abandon herself unto despairer to rage, and fury; she hath been so far blinded during this life by the opinion of her own wisdom, and sufficiency, or dazzled with the false lustre of her dignities, and Power, that she refused to stoop to the Divinity, and acknowledge him the only giver of them: she hath therefore proposed herself unto herself as the main end of all her actions, and having thus established a chief good opposite unto that of all the other Creatures, and settled in herself the notions, and affections thereof, she hath been separated from the body. When coming to discover the true Nature and cause of things, she finds that whatsoever hath a being, depends on God, as the first cause, and are willingly subordinate unto him as the end, for which they were created; that herself is like a prodigy in Nature, whom all the other Creatures exprobrate with this her vile ungratitude, Treason, and Rebellion against their Maker; what can she do having thus proudly contemned her God? & being herself forsaken and detested by all other things, but seek out a retirement in herself, where her proud thoughts despoiled of that false greatness they had fancied; feed her continually with envy, rancour, and despite, against her fellow Creatures, and the Deity.  
Her case (in my opinion) hath some resemblance with that of Bajazet King of the Turks, he who was overcome and taken Prisoner by the great Tamerlane: this proud Prince saw himself master of the better part of Asia, and having swallowed in his ambitious thoughts the Monarchy of the whole World, had besieged the Grecian Emperor in his imperial City which he was upon the point of taking: but in the midst of all his flattering prosperities he was invaded by this Tamerlane, who having defeated him in a great battle, caused him to be shut up within an iron cage, in which being enclosed, he exposed him unto the mockery of all his Army, and used him as a footstool to tread upon, whensoever he had occasion to get on horseback; what were the thoughts of this proud Tyrant who having lately had the disposal of a World of men, and being regarded by them as a Deity; was suddenly become the scorn of Boies, and lackeys? and having formerly fancied to himself the Empire of the World, was forced to serve another as his footstool? All his past greatness, Power, and Prosperities, had now no other subsistence, but in his Memory, where they were always present, not to give ease to his afflictions, but to increase the anguish and the trouble of them, by inspiring him with thoughts of rage, and fury against God and men, by whom his expectations had been so foully disappointed.  
Such we may fancy to ourselves are the ravings of this poor soul; though with this difference, that Bajazet was able to avoid the trouble of them, by dashing out his brains against the iorn bars of that his Prison, whereas this soul can never quit herself from being persecuted by those stings of conscience she carries with her as her torturers for all Eternity.  
Alas! how imperfect is that apprehension we have of the acts which a soul exerciseth after her separation from the body; by comparing them unto those we are capable of during this life? he that should estimate the motion of the primum mobile; according unto what he sees performed here by a snail; would not fall shorter in his conception of the Rapid swiftness, wherewith that sphere is whirled about this Globe of Earth, than we shall do in ours, if we resemble the affections of joy, and grief, which we have here during the union with our material bodies, to those a soul hath when she is severed from it; whether we shall consider her huge activity, when she is purely an immaterial substance, in comparison of what she hath when she is clogged with flesh and blood; or the perfection of her operations, when she beholds clearly the things themselves in their own Natures, without help of those Ideas, or imperfect represent aions of them in our fancies, which we are forced to use during this life: or lastly, the exemption from time, and place, by which our actions here are all restrained, but can have no commerce at all with her, who is above the reach of time because of her eternal being; nor can be circumscribed in place, as having neither quantity nor matter, The affections of joy, and grief, as they-reside in the intellectual appetite of man, are but impulses of our wills upon our other faculties, which carry us on to the enjoying of the one, or shunning the other, with more, or less violence, according to the measure of the impression we receive touching the good, or evil of them; the force whereof depends upon the active motion of the soul, and therein that of one separated, hugely surpasseth what she hath here, while she is mingled with the mass of our terrestrial bodies; powder whereof we have the daily use, when it remains united in the mass whereof it is composed, is easily restrained by the weak closure of a tun, or barrel; but if it once take fire will cause an Earthquake, and shake the frame of Nature if it be hindered in its course towards the region of fire, which is the proper centre, whereunto it tends. The soul hath some resemblance unto this her passions, or impulses; during her union with the body, are weak, and feeble; but being once divided from it, she than hath an activity surpassing that of fire, which makes her passions or impulses, become so strong and violent, that they bear no proportion at all with those which we have here, and enjoy nothing common with them, but their appellation. Their force is also very much increased, by the clear sight she hath of things in their own Natures, without the help of any Species, drawn from the things, or the conversion of herself unto the phantasms, from whence ariseth the certainty of knowledge, incompatible with doubt, or with opinion (which are the greatest enemies to action) since no man ever vehemently covets, or fears a thing, of whose Nature he is uncertain. And, lastly they are beyond measure heightened, by the exemption from time, and place, which she enjoys during her state of separation; whereby she comprehends (after a sort) all time and place, within herself. A little time, and a small place, are capable only of little alterations, we are not sensible of the falling of one drop of water, whereas in time it hath the force to pierce the hardest Marble; and the Sunes beams, which being divided into sundry places, have scarce the Power to warm us, do (when they are united, by a glass) become a fire that burns and scorceth. What shall we say then of a passion, which hath Eternity, and an infinity of place for bounds of its continuance, and situation? all degrees of comparison are here exceeded, and we must needs acknowledge that all the miseries whereof a man is capable during this life, are a mere nothing, in respect of what these wretched, wretched, souls, are forced to suffer towards the expiation of their crimes, for all Eternity.  
What I have here set down hath been to explicate the miserable state of those unhappy souls during Eternity (according to the ordinary course of natural causes) who deviating from the true good for the enjoyment whereof they were created, have pursued their own vicious inclinations, and affections, in stead thereof. But who is he that can be able to discover the immense greatness of those punishments, which the strict justice of an offended Deity, will inflict upon them, for their ungratitude against him? here all expression is dumb; and we must needs acknowledge our hearts are too too narrow to comprehend the vast abisses of his judgements, as well as the overflowing torrents of his mercies. Yet since himself hath by his only son been pleased to communicate something concerning them unto mankind; I shall with reverence draw near; and without prying curiously into the hidden secrets of them, attempt to take a short imperfect view of the proceedings, which the Divine justice will order to be made against these Malefactors for the condign punishment of their offences.  
How deplorable is the condition of these souls according unto what I have described already? and yet how happy were it in respect of what it is, were they but left alone to be tormented only by themselves? for they have scarce begun to make a sad acquaintance with their miseries, when they are suddenly environed with a multitude of devils; whose ugly shapes cause an affrightment in them equal to that of the employment upon which they come, and that is to convey them unto the dreadful judgement seat of God. These fiends do now begin to glory in the success of their temptations, and whilst they drag them to the place where they are to receive the sentence of their condemnation, practise upon them all those barbarous cruelties, which an insulting merciless enemy, can use against a Captived wretch delivered over to his rage, and fury. They now have executed their commission, and these poor guilty souls tremble with horror to see themselves presented before the dreaded▪ majesty of him, whom having formerly rejected for their Advocate and their Redeemer, they must now submit unto, as Judge of all their actions, and deportments; those rays of glory which streaming from his sacred person, replenish all the Saints and angels with unspeakable content, and rleasure, fill them with an excess of horror, and despair, by making them reflect upon the innocence wherein they were created, the happiness for which they were ordained, the base unworthiness of that for love whereof they have cast off the first, and forfeited the latter; the prodigious ugliness of those affections wherewith they now are filled instead of them; and lastly, that all this must be proclaimed and justified against them before the dreadful Majesty of God, in presence of the Saints and angels, by their own consciences, produced as witnesses against them to their eternal shame and infamy; so that encompassed with a Legion of these torturing thoughts, as well as devils; they know not whether of the two hath greater torment, either the expectation of the sentence, or the Execution of it.  
And yet that same is wonderfully terrible, for they are thereby banished from the presence of Almighty God, and doomed to live in Everlasting Fire provided for the devil and his angels, from all Eternity. A dismal mansion, whether we shall consider the place itself, which is a Region belching out perpetual flames, and yet covered with an impenetrable darkness, or the society of the inhabitants thereof (who are the devils, implacable enemies of human kind) whose malice keeps them perpetually busied in the invention of new torments, whereby to add unto the greatness of their afflictions; or lastly, their entertainments whilst they abide there, which (as the son of God himself informs us) are weeping, & gnashing of their teeth for all Eternity.  
I shall not go about to reckon up the sundry kinds of punishments inflicted there, on several persons according to the Nature of their several crimes; the sulphurous potions which the drunkard shall there be forced to swallow down instead of the delicious wines, wherein he placed his greatest happiness; the loathsome food wherewith the glutton shall there be crammed, in lieu of his choice feasts, and sumptuous banquets, the scorns, indignities, and contempts, to which the proud ambitious man shall be exposed, in exchange of of that respect, and honour he sought for here, and all those different kinds of tortures which the Divine justice, dispenseth with an admirable order, amid that horror, and confusion, according to the different crimes whereof those souls have here been guilty; these have already been copiously deciphered by other excellent pens, and cannot be comprised by me within the compass of this short discourse, nor do I comprehend, how these material things may (by the ordinary course of Nature) work any alteration in the immaterial soul, when she is separated from the body (for I speak nothing of her condition after the resurrection, when she shall be again united to it) but I must needs conclude her torments far exceed the force of human and understanding to conceive; when I consider, the infinite Majesty of that God, for satisfaction of whose justice they are appointed; the absolute unlimited Power of him by whose order they are inflicted; the huge activity of a separated soul by whom they are suffered; and the endless continuance of Eternity, during all which they are to be endured.  
We have accompanied these miserable souls unto the brink of that infernal lake, wherein who ever falls is irrecoverably lost for all Eternity; unhappy persons, to have at all received a being, since they must there exchange the momentary pleasures they have enjoyed in giving satisfaction to their own unbrideled appetites, to live in everlasting flames, tormented by the devils, and the sting of their own consciences, more cruel to them then those hellish monsters, amongst whom they are confined by the Divine justice, for their punishment, and our example.  
Let us now alter the Scene, and quitting these sad spectacles of horror, and affrightment, turn all our thoughts upon the contemplation of a soul, who during life hath proposed God unto herself as her chief good, and entering into a serious consideration of the unspekable benefits she hath received from him, in her creation, in her redemption, and continual preservation, hath by an act of generous gratitude cast off all thoughts of Lust, of Vanity, or Pride, whereunto she was inclined by her concupiscences, and affections, to sacrifice herself entirely unto the performance of his will, and pleasure; the Divine grace seconding these good dispositions, hath so illuminated her with the resplendent beams of Heavenly light, that she hath been enabled to discover some little glimpse of those admirable perfections of her Creator, the sight whereof hath ravished all her Powers, so that enamoured on his celestial beauty she hath conversed during her union with the body only in Heaven, all her thoughts, wishes and affections being continually present there where she had placed her only treasure. Death, whose grim visage affrights the most courageous spirits, is welcome to her, and she doth quit with joy the base attire of flesh, and of corruption, that she may put on immortality. Let us a little consider the blessedness of her condition in this state of separation.  
Knowledge, whose object is the true Nature, and cause of things, is so hard to be attained unto during this life, that the Philosophers (who have employed themselves in search of it) have a great part of them despaired of being able to find it out. The academics (a sect of them much renowned in ancient time) pronounced boldly that there was nothing whatsoever, could be known; the sceptics (proceeding something more warily) held that no demonstration could be made, and did therefore continue doubtful, denying their assent unto the truth of any proposition. And those Philosophers (who following Aristotle) have established in our schools a form of learning, do (by a tyranny they exercise over our reason) command us to admit without proof so many grounds, or principles; upon which they establish the Doctrine they deliver, that divers of our choicest modern wits, have thence taken occasion to dispute against them, and to endeavour the overthrowing of all that structure they have built upon them.  
This inextricable labyrinth wherein truth is shut up, being impervious by mortal men, caused Socrates after all his study in search of her, conclude, that he was ignorant of all things else save only this, that he knew nothing, and the despair of being able to find her out, made Aristotle throw himself headlong into the Ocean, after he had long sought in vain to find the reason of its Ebbs and flowings.  
But she who doth so carefully conceal herself from those that live, exposeth freely all her beauties to be viewed over by this separated soul, and fills her with the fullness of that knowledge in one instant, whose smallest portion we scarcely gain by the continual study of many ages; the contemplation whereof is a contentment infinitely surpassing all those pleasures which we are capable of during this life. The Queen of Sheba, upon the fame only of Salomon's great wisdom, thought it well worth her labour to quit the pleasures of her Court, and exposing herself unto the trouble, toil, and dangers incident to a long voyage, came from the farthest part of all the East to find him out, that she might have the satisfaction to become a hearer of it. Alexander the great, prised at so high a rate those notions of Philosophy he had received from Aristotle during the time he was his pupil, that he was used to say, he had a greater obligation to his Tutor then to his Father Philip, and yet he had from him received his being, & power, sufficient to make himself the wonder of succeeding ages, by reason of his glorious victories, and conquests: and Archimedes (the great Artist) had all his powers, and faculties, so wholly taken up, by the contentment he found in speculating of those demonstrations he had invented touching the symmetry and proportion of bodies, that all the rage, and fury, was practised, at the taking in of Siracusa, & the destruction of these innocent inhabitants, which peopled that unlucky City (whereof himself was one) could not divert him from the pleasure of it, or once afford him leisure to make answer unto a soldier, who asked his name, with an intention to have presreved him.  
If this small dawn of knowledge hath appeared unto the eyes of the beholders with so glorious a luster, as made it preferable before the sumptuous magnificences of a splendid Court, the glittering brightness of a crown, and sceptre, or life itself, what shall we say of that excess of pleasure wherewith this soul is filled, when she enjoys the fullness of all knowledge, and clearly sees the causes, Nature, properties, and qualities, of all the workmanships of God? when she beholds his admirable wisdom, Power, and Providence, exercised in the continual upholding of this huge fabric? and how from the great contrariety and strife there is between the parts whereof it is composed, he draws the preservation of the whole, by a perpetual Series of generation, and corruption: how death which seems to be ordained for destroying the society of human kind, is the main Basis whereupon it rests; because the fear thereof witholds vicious persons from falling headlong into the depth of wickedness, and the hope of it animates virtuous men to persist constantly, in the rough craggy ways of good, and virtue. Those rare effects of Nature that puzzle all our choicest wits in searching out their hidden causes, are then made easy to her, and she doth plainly understand, whether the fluxes and refluxes of the Ocean, are guided by the motion of the moon, or the impulse of that continual wind, raised under the Equator by the sun, whether that constant inclination of the Loadstone towards the North, whereby we are enabled to make discoveries of the remotest creeks and corners of the Sea, is caused by an attractive quality residing in the poles of the earth, which being somewhat different from those we fancy in the Heavens, produceth that small variation we observe daily in the compass, or by those streams of atoms, drawn by the sun's great heat between the tropics, which flowing ever more from North to South, and penetrating all the subtle pores, whereof the stone is full while it remains within the Earth in that position, doth in continuance of time beget this property, which we can imitate by often heating of an iron, and placing it to cool (while yet the por●… thereof are opened by the fire) d●●… North, and South. Or lastly, whether that quality, together with the power whereby the same is by a touch communicated to the needle, and that whereby it attracts iron to itself, depend on causes whereof as yet mankind is ignorant, whose knowledge is by providence reserved to the discovery of posterity in that age which shall succeed us, as the experience was to those in that which went before us. Whether the cheerful light, which we see darted by the sun from East, to West, is but a quality communicated by him in an instant to all the air, throughout the vast extent of our horizon, or is the body of the fire itself, which being the most active Element, and flowing from the sun, as from its fountain, into the liquid Element of air, prevents by its vast distance from us, huge expansion, and active swiftness, our feeling, and our sight, from being sensible of any thing which might inform our understanding, touching the measure of its heat and motion. Whether the never ceasing turns we have of day, and night, proceed from the perpetual motion of all the Heavens, carried about by the great violence of the primum mobile, or from the motion of the Earth on its own Axis, exposing all the several parts of it successively, to be enlightened by the sun; Whether the Planets are fixed; each of them in a several sphere, whose motion doth direct their courses; or (which some think they can demonstrate of the sun) move all of them (except the moon) upon their several Axes like the Earth. How far their different influences, and aspects, govern all sublunary bodies, causing the births and periods, of States, and Monarchies, and the particular happiness and miseries of private men.  
But above all she is entirely satisfied with seeing, how the infalibillity of God's prescience, infringeth not the liberty of man's free will. How nothing here below, happens by chance, but that his providence disposing sweetly all those things which he hath wrought, permits the miseries of good, and prosperities of wicked men for the advantage of his service; by exercising and instructing of the one, and by reclaiming of the other, and how in fine by the inscrutable Meanders of his judgements he ordereth so, that all the villainy, and wickedness is practised here, cooperates unto the good of his Elect, and the increase of his own glory.  
In these employments she might with joy spend an infinity of time, were she not taken off by others of much more delight, and consequence. For she no sooner leaves times region and comes upon the confines of Eternity, but she's attended by a troop of Angels, appointed to convoy her unto the glorious Court of her Creator, and she receives by them an invitation is sent unto her by God himself, like unto that we read of in the Canticles. I am hiems transiit imber abiit, & recessit sunge amica mea & veni. My friend the winter of thy chilling cares, and fears, is past, the showers of all thy tears are now blown over, arise therefore and mount up unto the ever blessed dwelling of Eternity. Who can express those ecstasies of joy this summons causeth? or fancy to himself the least Idea of those pleasing raptures wherewith she is possessed, when she beholds the beauties of the imperial Heaven, which now stands open to receive her?  
Those holy Saints and pious men, who have endeavoured to inflame us with the love of virtue by hope of the reward to come; accommodating their expressions to our conceits, describe it to us like a spacious city, built all of Gold and precious stones, whose gates are each of them composed of one entire pearl, whose walls are made not for defence but ornament, because her enemies are all destroyed, and she established in security, above the reach of time or fortune whose houses are of Jasper, and of Porphyry, inlaid with Rubies, Diamonds, and Carbuncles, where Gold and polished Marble, are not employed but for the meanest uses. Every of whose inhabitants is a great King, and hath Dominion over all the works of Nature, a beauty that out shines the Sun in greatest height of all his glory, an activity surpassing that of lightning, accompanied with youth, and health, which never shall decay for all Eternity. Within the circuit of those walls, they represent unto us a large field, beautified with all the choice variety of flowers that can be thought on, whose fragrant smell sends forth a most delicious perfume to the senses; in midst whereof passeth a purling stream of living waters, which who so tastes, shall never thirst for all Eternity: where a continual spring preserves all plants, in the full freshness of their prime and verdure, where an eternal day suffers not the least eclipse of night, or darkness, there all the blessed dwellers in this Heavenly Country do entertain each other in perfect love, and concord, with fullness of all joys, and pleasures, whose complete happiness can never be disturbed, by the unwelcome presence of an enemy, or the sad parting of a friend.  
What a mere nothing, are all the flattering shadows of content we grasp at during life, being compared to those of this celestial mansion, which I have here described? yet these are the outside only of their joys, not to be prised at all, if once compared to that wherein consists the Essence, of their perfect bliss, and happiness. Gold, Marble, precious stones, fair fields, cool springs the company of Saints and angels, sovereign power, beauty, activity, youth, health, impassibility, and immortality itself can never satisfy the immaterial soul, without the vision of her Lord and maker, this is the centre whereunto she sends, the object of her powers, and faculties; this being once obtained, brings with it full repose, and quietness, which all created things can never do. And this is here communicated freely to her, whereby her understanding is fully satisfied, with the clear knowledge of all things, by sight of him who is both the first cause, and truth itself. Her will finds also here what ever object it desireth, in the secure possession of all good things, which are united in his Nature who is good itself.  
Who can describe the infinite advantages, prerogatives, and dignities, that do accompany this blessed vision? words are too feeble to express, and human hearts (though ne'er so large) are too too narrow to conceive them.  
Let us conclude; that as that man who doth partake of wisdom is truly wise, and who hath courage becometh valiant, even so this blessed soul, being ingulf'd in contemplation of the deity, by the strict union which that causeth of all her faculties to him, is in some sort a God, enjoying all perfections by participation, which God himself hath by propriety.   

The Conclusion.  
Reader having finished these two first heads of this Discourse, to wit, a description of what Eternity is, and what our condition will be when we shall come to be partakers of it; there remained in the last place, that I should according to my promise, have set down such rules for the conduct of our lives, whilst we are here, as might (being observed) render us perfectly happy when we should come to be inhabitants in that our country.  
These rules I meaned should have comprised within them all the virtues, which may be well reduced into two heads; that is to say, those which have for their object the Divinity itself, and those that serve for the well ordering, and disposing of our actions.  
The principal ones of the first kind, are those we call the theological virtues, Faith, Hope, and Charity, whereof, the first breeds in us a perfect resignation of our understandings unto God, by assenting with humility and constancy, without doubt, or hesitation, unto those truths which he hath pleased to reveal to us for the salvation of our souls: the second makes us with patience and perseverance, continue in the way of virtue; expecting to be made partakers of all those blessings he hath promised to his servants; and the third causeth, an entire union of our will with his, which is the greatest height of Christian perfection, and the assured means to attain unto an everlasting bliss.  
Among those of the second kind (being the moral virtues) the chiefest are, Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance, (commonly called the Cardinal virtues) which serve for the well ordering and disposing of all the faculties, passions, and affections, of our souls. Prudence, which ought to preside in all the consultations of our understanding; Justice, to govern all the resolutions of our will; Fortitude, to keep in due subjection the passions comprised under the general notion of the irascible part of man; and Temperance, to bridle the exorbitancy of our concupiscences, and affections.  
I had intended to have described at large the Nature, and the qualities, of all these virtues, and to have showed, how all the other may be deduced out of these seven, by reason of the connexion, and relation they have unto each other; and I had meant, in the contexture of that Discourse, to have set down the way, and means, to purge our souls from all the depraved inclinations, and habits, which are opposite unto them, that being thereby cleansed, from all the rust and filth of sin, they might become capable subjects of being illuminated by the Divine grace, and be enabled to discover his admirable goodness, and perfections, whereon being enamoured, they might by fervent acts of charity unite their wills entirely unto his, and thereby mount unto the top of Christian perfection, which is the assured means of being happy in Eternity.  
I say I had intended, for (although I had spent some time in the digesting, and ordering of this matter) yet I was put unto a stand in that design, by a reflection which I chanced to make upon a saying of that glorious Saint, and Doctor in the Church of God, Saint Cyprian, who writing unto some of the ethnics, touching the lives and studies of the Christians speaks thus, Philosophi factis no verbis sumus, nec magna loquimur, sed vivimus, that is, we are Philosophers in our actions, not in our words, nor do we speak great things but practise them. It seems this holy man thought it much fitter for a Christian, to exercise himself in virtuous actions then in describing the Nature of the virtues.  
Now this opinion of so grave and reverend a Father of the Church, having at first caused me to doubt, whether I should proceed to perfecting the work I had in hand; I took a resolution sometime after to give it over, upon the reading of a passage, reported by some writers in the life of Origen, (that prodigy of wit and learning) they set down that being in his old Age sensible of divers errors he had run into (which made his followers be condemned as heretics) he came into the Church with an intention to expound some passage out of the Scripture, for the instruction of the people; and to that purpose opening the book, he chanced to light upon a passage in the psalms of David; wherein the holy Prophet speaking of God, saith thus, Peccatori dixit, quare tu enarras gloriam meam, & assumis testamentum meum, in os tuum. In English thus, He (meaning God) said unto the sinner, wherefore dost thou show forth my glory and dost assume my testament into thy mouth. The pennitent old man, taking this reproof as spoken to himself, burst forth into a flood of tears, which took from him the use of speech, and retiring out of the Church, abandoned all the thoughts of teaching others, that he might spend the short remainder of his life in the reforming of himself.  
The reasons which prevailed with this great Doctor, have wrought the same effect with me, and I resolved to quit the farther busying of myself in an employment, wherein I was forbidden to meddle by reason of my sins; and which I was unable to perform, because I am a stranger to the practice of those virtues I should write of, and so might justly fear that inconvenience would thereby happen, whereof we are forewarned by our Blessed Saviour in the gospel, to wit, that if the blind shall lead the blind, they both will fall together in the pit.  
Here therefore I give end to this Discourse, with this advertisement only unto the pious Reader, that if he shall desire to have his heart inflamed with the Divine love, he must first necessarily cleanse it from all affections unto fading, and transitory things. Suetonius in the lives of the twelve first Caesars, relates, that when the body of the Emperor Titus was placed in the funeral pile, to be consumed with fire (according to the custom of those times) his heart (after his body was reduced into ashes) did many times spring out of the flames, and being at last opened by those who wondered at the strangeness of the accident, it was found to be full of poison; which hindered the operation of the fire upon it. Even so our souls, while they continue fraught with the inordinate love of earthly things (which are the mortal poison of the soul) resist the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and suffer not themselves to be inflamed by the celestial fire of charity, which he doth never fail to kindle in those hearts are fitted to receive it.  
The readiest way for the devout Reader to effect this, is wholly to employ his thoughts, and studies, in the continual meditation upon Eternity, wherein if he be farthered by any thing which I have here set down, I then desire, that as I have made him partaker of my meditations, so he would also make me partaker with him in his Prayers.  
FINIS.