IMAGE THE TWENTY-FIRST.

IF THOU ART STILL HESITATING IN THE CHOICE OF VIRTUE AND HOLINESS, CONSIDER HOW THROUGHOUT ALL ETERNITY THOU WILT WISH THOU HADST CHOSEN THE BETTER PART.

Before all things consider Eternity (A), and how the Saints in Heaven and the wicked in Hell now wish that they had more earnestly followed after holiness. O how long is Eternity! Thou mayst reckon up the atoms of the sand on the shore (B), thou mayst count the drops of water in the sea (C), more easily than thou wilt number the years of eternity. Where the Tree shall once have fallen (D), whether it be toward the south or toward the north, there shall it for ever remain: nor beyond that will there be any more Time (E), nor Occasion (F), nor Death (G), excepting Death eternal. Behold, how even one Sin shutteth man up in Hell (H). Oh, how much would he that is for ever lost now give, if he could purchase but one little hour (I) in which he might repent! But it is now all in vain, and he is derided by the evil spirit that deceived him (K). Look to it therefore, and take care what thou art now placing in that indelible record, and in which Eternity thou art writing (L). For thy thoughts, thy words, thine actions, when once past, are eternal, and can never be again undone. Oh, that thou wouldst be wise, that thou wouldst be wise in time!

On Eternity,

OR THE FIFTH MEANS OF INCREASING MEDITATION AND ITS

FRUITS.

FOR the place of thy meditation consider the scene represented in the Image. And use the prayer on this subject.

FIRST POINT.

How short

ated things.

CONSIDER, that as all streams return into the sea from whence they take their rise, so all temporal things tend to eternity: some things now corruptible, are waiting for everlasting incorruption; but others will return into their own nothingness, and will remain in that for ever. Contemplate therefore, as from an eminence, all created things, and weigh well in how short a time they will all have lived all crepassed away like a shadow :—so many flowers, fruits, works, living creatures:-so that they shall never hereafter exist for ever: then turn thine eyes upon thyself, being assured that as those things, so will thy life pass away: and that likewise shall never again be renewed, except in the Judgment. Thus Xerxes looking down from a height upon his great army, and considering how short-lived the whole of that multitude would be, when he thought thereon he began to weep. But do thou, beholding the vanity of earthly things, through their winters and summers, life and death, despise those things which turn thee aside from virtue and consider whether it were not reasonable for thee to fix wholly thine eyes and mind upon virtue, and eternal things.

SECOND POINT.

What eternity is.

CONSIDER how short our life is, and that upon it afterwards depends a twofold eternity: of happiness or of misery; and that thou must of necessity have one or other for thy portion; and that it is now within thy power to follow virtue, and to procure the most

it is.

wicked is

happy eternity; or to follow vice, and to be the slave of eternal woes. What then, thinkest thou, ought to be done, and what art thou doing? Look here, and weigh what that eternity must be,—a space of time, that is, which is without any limit, incomprehensible, of utmost length. How long Within it are contained not only very many years, but even thousands of years, yea a thousand times ten thousand, and millions upon millions, more than are the stars of Heaven, or the grains of sand which are upon the sea-shore, and the drops of rain, flowers on the trees or their leaves: yea, so much so that if a man were to reckon up the greatest possible number of years from the very beginning of the world unto the end of it, and then were to attempt to subtract this number from eternity, he could never even conceive so many, but that eternity would yet remain still whole, untouched, and entire. And now observe How dread to what a degree eternity increaseth the punishments of the ful to the damned, wherein there is no intermission, no solace, not even eternity. that of one drop of water, whereof there is no end, for their worm dieth not. Now go thou down alive into hell, and look into that vast lake, burning with fire and brimstone; behold there myriads of men, and among them prelates, priests, and monks, kings and rulers. See for instance how Cain, or the rich glutton, are tormented in all their senses and limbs. There with the eye of thy mind behold, how great is the fear in their souls, the grief, the shame, the deprecation, the rage, and indescribable madness—And lastly, give ear to the most bitter weepings and wailings, the curses which they cast with flaming and impious tongue against God and all good men. Ask of any one of them, what he now thinks of the world's glory and its delights, how he would spend one little hour towards gaining salvation, out of those which thou throwest away in idleness and tales. And from the sulphureous and foul smell that surrounds thee, taste how bitter is the cup of the Lord's anger. And contemplating these things among those waves of fire, then if those waves shall raise up any one to thy sight, as we see things come to the surface in a boiling cauldron, enquire what it is in all these woes which tormenteth most, and soon with horror and wailing and gnashing of teeth he will cry out, "eternity, eternity alone," in comparison with which, all their most grievous woes are light, and their torments, ease: ask then of him, how long he must have been there, and how long he will be there, and what solace he can look for; and he will answer, none. And again, look on him, as he goes down into the boiling surge, and is absorbed into it, and rolled into eternity. Are these things indeed true? and if true, do I live as though they were true? Do I despise things present, so as for the future eagerly to press after virtue?