Book I, Part 1, Chapter 8. Of the eighth Motive that obliges us to the Pursuit of Virtue* which is, the last Judgment, the second of the four last Things

1. As soon as ever the soul has left the body, immediately follows its particular judgment, and after that, the general one of all mankind together ; at which time shall be accomplished what the apostle said: We must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he hath done, whether it be good or evil ; 2 Cor. v. 10. Having treated, in another place, of those dreadful signs, which are to be the forerunners of the general judgment-day, I shall speak here of nothing but that severe and exact account, which will be then required from us, and of what is to follow, that this may teach man how much he is obliged to the pursuit of virtue.

2. As to the first, which is the strict inquiry God will make into all our actions, it is so frightful, that there was nothing surprised holy Job more than to consider, that God, whose majesty ip «4o great, could show so much rigor towards man, notwithstanding his being so frail a creature, as to set down every word, every thought, every motion of his, in his book of justice, to require a particular account thereof. After having said a great deal to this purpose, he goes on thus : Why dost thou hide thy face, and lookest upon me as thy enemy ? Thou exercisest thy power against a leaf which is driven to and fro by the wind, and thou pursuest the dry stubble. For thou writest bitter things against me, and hast a mind to destroy me for the sins of my youth ; thou hast put my feet in the stocks, and hast observed all my paths, and hast taken notice of the steps of my feet. I who am to be consumed as a rotten thing, and as a garment that is moth-eaten. Job xiii. 24, 25, 26, 27, 28.

Immediately after he adds, Man that is born of a woman, and has but a short time to live, is full of miseries. He comes forth like a flower, and is trodden down ; he flies away like a shadow, and never continues in the same state. - And dost thou think fit to open thy eyes upon such a one, and to bring him into judgment with thee ? Who can make that clean which is conceived of unclean seed ? Who but thou alone ? Job xiv. 1, 2, 3, 4. These are the terrible words which Job spoke, filled with surprise and astonishment at the severity the divine justice exercises against so poor and helpless a creature as is man ; against one so bent on any thing that is evil, and that drinks up iniquity like water. For that God should be so severe to the angels, who are spiritual, and very perfect creatures, is not to be a matter of so much wonder : but for his justice to call men, whose vicious inclinations are numberless, to so strict an account, as not to pass over any one circumstance of their whole lives, not to leave out any one idle word, nor so much as one moment of time that has been misemployed, without a very narrow inquiry into it, is a subject of the greatest amazement. For who can hear these words of our Saviour without astonishment? I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall render an account for it in the day of judgment; Matt. xii. 36. If we are to give an account of such words as these are, that hurt nobody, what an examination will be made into lewd discourses, unchaste thoughts, bloody "hands, and lascivious looks? What, in short, into all that time men have spent in committing sinful actions ? And if this be true, as doubtless it is, what can a man say of the severity of this judgment, but will fall far short of it ? What a fright will a poor man be in, to see himself accused before so venerable an assembly, of some light word he spoke in his life-time, without any design or intention ? Who will not be surprised at so stange a charge ? or who would have dared to affirm this, had not God himself said it ? Was there ever any prince that called his servant to account for the loss of a pin or a needle ? O the excellence of the Christian religion ! what perfection and purity dost thou teach, and how strict an account wilt thou require of it, and with how rigorous a judgment wilt thou examine into it!

3. Now if this judgment-day be so great a subject of all men's astonishment, what shame and confusion must sinners be then put to ? For all the wickedness they have ever committed, with so much caution and privacy in their most secret closets, and all the impurities they have ever been defiled with, and all the evil that has lain hid in the darkest recesses of their souls, shall be then made public, and exposed to the view of all the world. Is there any man now, whose conscience is so clear, as not to begin to blush and be afraid of this confusion? We see how often it happens, that men, upon no other motive but that of a sinful and criminal shame, will not discover their secret sins to their confessors, not even in confession, where the obligation to secrecy is so inviolable, and the tie so sacred. They, for no other reason but this, choose rather to let their souls be pressed down under the weight of their sins, than to undergo the shame of revealing them. How great, then, will that shame be, which men shall be put to before God, and in the sight of all ages, past, present and to come? The prophet tells us this confusion will be so extraordinary, that the wicked shall say to the mountains, Cover us, and to the hills, Fall upon us, that we may not be exposed to such shame ; Hos. x. 8,

4. But what horror will they be filled with, at the hearing of this last sentence thundered out against them: Depart from me, ye accursed, into everlasting fire, which has been prepared for the devil and his angels ; Matt. xxv. 41 . What will the damned think at the sound of those dreadful words ? If, says Job, we can scarce endure the least sound of his voice, who shall be able to look against the thunder of his greatness ? Job xxvi. 1.4. This word will carry such force along with it, that it will make the earth open in a moment, to swallow up and bury in its bowels those who, as the same Job says (ch. xxi. 12), Take the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ. St. John, in his Revelations, describes this fall in these words : " I saw an angel come down from heaven, having great power, and the earth was enlightened with his glory. And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, it is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird." Revel, xviii. 1, 2. In the same place the holy evangelist adds : " And a mighty angel took up a stone like a mill-stone, and cast it into the sea, saying, Thus with violence shall that great city Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no more at all." After the same manner shall the wicked, who are to be understood here by Babylon, be flung into the dungeon of everlasting darkness and confusion.

5. But what tongue shall be able to express the multitude of torments they are to suffer there ? Their bodies shall burn in scorching flames, which shall never be extinguished; the worm of conscience shall perpetually gnaw and tear their very souls in pieces, without ever being tired or sated. It is there that weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, we are so often threatened with in holy scripture, shall never cease. There it is that the damned, hurried on with rage and despair, shall vent their fury on God and themselves, biting off their flesh, bursting their hearts with sighs and grief, breaking their teeth with grinning and vexation, like madmen pulling their own limbs in pieces, and continually blaspheming that just God who has condemned them to such torments. There every one of them will a thousand times curse the hour of his birth, frequently repeating, though with a different spirit, these words of holy Job : " Let the clay perish wherein I was born, and the night in which it was said, A man-child is conceived. Let that day be turned into darkness, let not God regard it from above, neither let the light shine upon it. Let darkness and the shadow of death obscure it, let a cloud overcast it, and let it be wrapt up in terror. As for that night, let a dark tempest seize upon it, let it not be reckoned among the days of the year, nor come into the number of the months. Why died I not in the womb ? Why did I not give up the ghost when I came out of the belly ? Why was I placed upon the knee ? or why had I the breast to suck ?" Job iii. 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12. These are the complaints the damned shall make in hell for all eternity, O unhappy tongues, which shall never utter any thing but blas-phemies ! O wretched ears, which shall never hear any thing but frightful shrieks and groans ! O unhappy eyes, which shall never 9 F2

66 the sinner's guide, see any thing but objects of misery! O wretched bodies, which, instead of being refreshed, shall be eternally burning in hell flames ! What a condition will those sensual persons be in then, who have spent all their days in sports and delights ? O ! for how short and how fleeting a pleasure have they brought on themselves an endless train of miseries? Foolish and senseless creatures ! what do all your pastimes, which lasted so short a time, avail you, when the consequence is an eternity of pain and sorrow? what is now become of all your riches and treasures? wrhere are now your delights? Your seven fruitful years are now over, and they are followed by seven years of such barrenness that your former abundance is all swallowed up, and not the least sign or memory of it remains. Your honor is lost, and your happiness drowned, in that ocean of sorrow. You are reduced to such extremity as not to be allowed one single drop of w-ater to quench the scorching thirst which parches up your very bowels ; nay, your past prosperity is so far from giving you any comfort now, that it is rather one of your greatest torments. For then shall be fulfilled this saying of Job : " The delight of the wicked shall be changed into worms" (Job xxiv. 20) ; which, according to St. Gregory will happen, when the remembrance of their past pleasures shall be an increase of their present torments : wThen they shall call to mind the days they have seen, and those they now see ; thus unhappily experiencing, at their own cost, that, for things of so short a continuance, they suffer miseries which shall never have an end. Then they will plainly see how the enemy has deceived them, and being nowr, though too late, sensible of their folly, they will begin to make use of these words in the book of Wisdom : " We fools have wrandered out of the way of truth, and the light of justice has not shined upon us, and the sun of understanding has not rose upon us. We have wearied ourselves in the wTay of wickedness and destruction, we have wsilked through hard ways ; but as for the wray of the Lord we have not known it;" Wisd. v. 6, 7. These are to be the perpetual complaints of the damned, this their repentance, this their sorrow ; but all to no purpose, for the time of improving is now past. 6. The due consideration of these things cannot but excite us to the love of virtue. And, therefore, St. Chrysostom often makes use of these arguments in his homilies, to exhort us to it. In one of them he says, " That you may prepare your soul in time, to be the temple and abode of God, call to mind the dreadful day when wre are to appear before the throne of Jesus Christ, to give an account to him of all our actions. Consider in what manner this Lord will come to judge the living and the dead. Consider how many thousands of angels will attend him. Imagine you already hear the sound of that frightful but irrevocable sentence, which Jesus Christ will pass against the world

Consider that, as soon as this sentence shall be given, some will be tumbled headlong into outward darkness ; others, though they have taken a great deal of pains for the preserving of their virginity, shall have the gates of heaven shut on them ; some shall be tied up like bundles of weeds, and flung into the fire ; others again shall be delivered up as a prey, to the worm which will never die, and condemned to everlasting wailing and gnashing of teeth." We are all of us convinced of the truth of these things ; why then do not we, whilst we have time, cry out with the prophet, Who will give water to my head, and fountains of tears to my eyes, and I will weep day and night ? Jer. ix. 1. Let us, therefore, hasten and endeavour, before it is too late, to prevent the judgment by a confession of our sins : it is written : Who shall confess to you, 0 Lord, in hell? Ps. vi. 6.

7. Let us consider, further, that God has given us two eyes, two ears, two feet and two hands, that, if we should happen to lose the use of any one of these members, the other may still serve us. But he has given us but one soul, so that, if we lose that, we have no other left us to enjoy eternal glory. Let it, therefore, be our main concern to preserve it, for this soul must be one day saved or damned with the body for ever, and must appear before the tribunal of our great God, where, if you would excuse yourself, saying, you were dazzled with the false glittering of money, the judge will answer, that he forewarned you of this danger, when he said, What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, if he loses his own soul? Matt. xiv. 26. Should you say, the devil seduced me, he will tell you, that Eve did not clear herself by saying, it was the serpent that deceived her ; Gen iii.

8. Look into the Scriptures, and consider the prophet Jeremiah's vision : first he saw a watching-rod, and then a great cauldron boiling over a hot fire, to signify how God dealt with men. First he threatens, and then, if that will not do, punishes them. Nor is it to be doubted, but that he who will not submit to the correction of the rod, shall be made to undergo the torture of the cauldron. Read but the gospel, and you will see that no-

' body offered to intercede for those unhappy wretches whom our Saviour condemned. Brothers did not speak for their brothers, nor friends for their friends ; the father did not stand up for his son, nor the son for his father. But what do I speak of these, who were sinful men, since neither Noe, Daniel or Job, notwithstanding all their virtue and piety, wTill be able to alter the sentence once given by the judge ? Ezech. xxvi. See wThether any one durst so much as open his mouth in favor of him, who was turned away from the wedding-dinner; Matt. xxii. 11, 12, 13, and xxv. 11, 12, 13. See whether any body ever spoke one word for that servant who would not trade with the talent his master intrusted him with. Which of all those five virgins, that could not get any admittance into heaven, ever found any one that undertook to plead her cause ? Jesus Christ himself called them fools, for managing themselves so unwisely as, after having despised the delights of the flesh, and extinguished the fire of concupiscence, nay, after having observed the great precept of virginity, to neglect the commandment of humility, which seems to be much easier, and to take a pride in their chastity. Consider whether the rich man, who took no pity on Lazarus, could obtain one single drop of water, which he begged of the patriarch Abraham, as poor a comfort as it was, to mitigate those scorching flames that so tormented him; Luke xvi. Why then will we not charitably assist each other ? why will we not praise and glorify God before the sun of his justice is set, and before he removes his light from our eyes ? We had much better let our tongues be parched with fasting for the short remainder of this life, than, having satisfied them in this world, to let them be reduced to the necessity of begging a drop of water in the next, out of all possibility of obtaining it. If we are so nice and tender here, that we cannot suffer the heat of a light fever the space of three days, how shall we be able to endure those eternal burnings ? If the sentence of death passed on us by a mortal judge, who cannot take away above forty or fifty years of our life at furthest, be so terrible, why do not we tremble at the sentence that is to be given by a Judge, in whose power it is to deprive us of life everlasting ? It terrifies us to see the punishments inflicted on malefactors here on earth, to see the executioners drag them away by force, scourge, disjoint, quarter, tear or burn them, and yet what is this but a mere dream or shadow, in comparison to the pains of hell ? For death puts an end to all these sufferings, but there the worm of conscience never dies, there life is never at an end; the tormentors are never tired, and the fire never is put out. Let us, therefore, set what we will against this misery, let it be fire or sword, wild beasts, or any other kind of torment whatever ; to this it will appear but as an imperfect draft or representation.

9. What will these unhappy wretches do, when they shall see themselves deprived of so many blessings, and condemned to suffer such unspeakable miseries ? What will they say ? How will they cry out against themselves ? How horribly will they sigh and groan, and yet to what little purpose ? For neither is the sailor useful after he has lost his vessel, nor the physician when his patient is dead. It is then — but too late, alas ! — they will begin to reflect on their sins, and to say, We should have looked better to ourselves, and not fallen into this deplorable state. Alas ! how often have we been told of this, and would take no notice of it ! The Jews shall then know him, who came in the name of the Lord, but it shall not avail them, because they would not know him when this knowledge might have been beneficial to them.

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THE SINNER S GUIDE.

But what shall we, miserable creatures, be able to say for ourselves, when heaven and earth, the sun and moon, night and day, nay, the whole world, shall cry out against us, and be witnesses of the sins we have committed ? But should every thing else be silent, we have still our consciences to rise up against and accuse us. This is almost all taken out of St. John Chrysostom, and is sufficient to show us how terrible the idea of this dreadful day must be to those persons, who have not governed themselves by the dictates of reason and virtue. St. Ambrose, as severely as he searched into his own actions, gives us plainly to understand, in his commentaries on St. Luke, that this was his sentiment : his words are these: "Wo unto me, O Lord, if I do not bewail my sins ; if I do not rise at midnight to praise thy holy name, if I deceive my neighbor, or if I speak against the truth, because the axe is now laid to the root of the tree." Let him, therefore, who is in the state of grace, endeavor to bring forth the fruits of justice ; let him who is in the state of sin, endeavor to bring forth the fruits of penances For the Lord is nigh at hand, and comes to gather in his fruit, and will give life to those who work faithfully and profitably, and death toHhem who are idle and unserviceable.