A treatise of the difference bbtwixt [sic] the temporal and eternal composed in Spanish by Eusebius Nieremberg ... ; translated into English by Sir Vivian Mullineaux, Knight ; and since reviewed according to the tenth and last Spanish edition.

§ 2.

For the first Condition,* 1.1 which is to have no end; Cesarius says, that Eternity is a Day, which wants an evening, because it shall never see the Sun of its bright∣ness set, which is to be understood of the Eternity of Saints; that of sinners being a Night which wants a morning, upon whom the Sun of Glory never shall arise: wherein the damned shall remain in perpetu∣al sadness and obscurity, eternally tormented both in Soul and Body. If he who is sick of a Calenture, though laid upon a soft and downy Bed, thinks each hour of night an Age, and every minute expects and with impatience wishes for the day, how shall it fare with those, who, because in this life they slept

when they were to watch, shall in the next lie awake for an eternal night in a Bed of burning fire, without ever hoping for a morning? And certainly if there were in Hell no other pain, than to live in that eter∣nal night and sadness, it were enough to astonish and confound all humane understanding. This very condi∣tion of wanting end the Ancients deciphered by the figure of a Ring, which, because a Circle, is endless. But with greater Mystery David calls it a Crown, whose roundness also admits no end; thereby signi∣fying according to Dionysius Carthusianus, that an E∣ternity without end is either to be the reward of our good works, or the punishment of our bad. We ought to tremble at the sound of this voice, without end, for them, who do ill; and to rejoyce at this, with∣out end, for them, who do well. It falls not under our capacity, what it is to he without end. We cannot am∣plifie it or exaggerate it so much, but that whatsoever we say we still fall short.* 1.2 Wherefore St. Bonaventure pondering with himself in his meditations upon Hell, that if a damned person should every hundred years let fall but onely one small tear, and those all to be preserved until that after innumerable Centuries of years they came to equal a Sea, perhaps so many hun∣dred millions of years may be thought to finish Eter∣nity; No: it would but then begin. Let them turn a∣gain and keep the same slow tears of that unfortu∣nate sinner, until they have fill'd another Ocean. Would Eternity then end? No; but then begin, as fresh and new, as the first day. Let them repeat the same, ten, twenty, an hundred times, until an hun∣dred thousand Seas shall fill and overflow. Shall we then find the bottom of Eternity? No; we have not past the Superficies of it, and it shall still remain as deep, and unsoundable as at first. There are no Numbers, no Arithmetick, that can comprehend the years of Eternity. If the whole Heavens were parchment, and fill'd on both sides with Numbers, they could not sum

up the least part of that, which hath no parts at all, but is in it self whole, entire, and indivisible. No Sea hath so many drops, no Mountain so many grains of sand, as will serve to reckon up the years of Eter∣nity.

To declare this more amply, I shall relate what hap∣pened unto Archimedes. There were some Philosophers of his time, who affirmed that the number of the sands of the Sea were infinite; others that although they were in themselves finite, yet they could not be com∣prehended under any Number. Archimedes, that he might confute both opinions, composed a most learn∣ed and ingenious Book, which he dedicated unto King Gelon; wherein he proved, that although the world were all fill'd with sand, and that it were bigger than what it is, yet that the multitude of those grains of sands were limited, and might also be reduced under Numbers; and he himself gave the account, to what Number they would arise. Since this Philosopher, Fa∣ther Clavius did the like; computing how many grains of sand would fill the whole space betwixt the Firma∣ment of the fixed Stars and the Earth, making every grain of sand so little and indivisible, that he allows 10000 of them unto the bigness of a poppie, or mu∣stard-seed, and notwithstanding sums up this vast Number within the short space of one line, all not surpassing one Unite, and 51 Cyphers. If then so many millions of millions may be contained in the length of one line, what shall we say of the years in Eternity: since that not only one line, nor one book, nor all the paper in the world, nor all the world from the Fir∣mament downwards filled with the Figures of Arith∣metick were sufficient to contain one little particle of it, notwithstanding the multiplication which is made by the adding of every figure? Every Cypher which is added, makes the number ten times more than it was, because a Cypher put after one Unit makes it ten, the second Cypher makes it one hundred, the third

one thousand, and in this manner the Numbers goe multiplying to an immense Number in a few Figures. Whereby one may conceive that adding one hundred Cyphers it makes the Numbers rise to such a pitch, that it far exceeds the capacity of Man's imagination to conceive it. What then would it be, adding so ma∣ny Cyphers as could be contained in a parchment as big as the whole Heaven? Yet all this innumerable Number does not equal the least particle of Eterni∣ty; which after so many numberless years past, which at length after how long a time soever must meet an end, would yet remain as if it did but then begin. Let us seriously think how long were that life to be estee∣med, which should contain an hundred thousand years; yet we have thought of nothing in respect of Eternity. Let us think of ten times, an hundred, a thousand times as much: still nothing to Eternity; neither have we quitted the least part of it, which is but then beginning. Wherefore Lactantius saith, With what years shall we satiate Eternity,* 1.3 since it hath no end? It is still beginning, and nothing but a begin∣ning, and therefore may not unsignificantly be thus de∣fined: Eternity is a perpetual beginning, which still con∣tinues without end or diminution. Let us abstract from Eternity as many years as there are drops in the Sea, atomes in the Air, leaves in the Fields, grains of sand in the Earth, or Stars in the Heavens, it will yet con∣tinue whole and entire. Add as many years unto it, it becomes no greater, nor is further distant from its end; since it admits none, but in each point and in∣stant receives a beginning. Never, never shall it have an end, ever, ever in beginning. Let one imagine, that there were a Mountain of sand which should reach from the Earth to Heaven, and that an Angel after every thousand years should take from it one onely grain; how many thousands of thousands of years, and millions of millions would pass before that Moun∣tain became so little, that it would no longer remain

perceptible? Let the best Arithmetician, that is, cast up the account, how many years would pass, before that Angel had taken away half of the aforesaid Moun∣tain. This seems a thing endless; but our under∣standing is beguiled; for it would have an end, and time would come when one half, and even the whole Mountain would be taken away. Finally, there would be a time, when there would be one only little grain remaining: and this also would be removed. But never shall we come to the end of Eternity: and af∣ter the consuming of that whole Mountain of sand, nothing would be diminished from Eternity: but the Mountain of Eternity would remain as entire, after millions of millions of Ages were past, as in the be∣ginning. This seems to have been signified by that of Abacuch, when he said, The mountains of Ages are torn in pieces: and the hills of the world shall be humbled by the ways of Eternity; Because one thousand hills and mountains as big as the whole world, may be consu∣med a thousand times over, whilest the Eternity of the punishment of sinners pass over them: which Eter∣nity can never make an end of passing; so that those miserable Souls, who suffer in that devouring fire, shall suffer a thousand, and a thousand, and millions of millions of years without coming neerer to the end, than they were the first day.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Ces. dia∣log. 3.
• * 1.2

  Bonav. de inf. c. 49.
• * 1.3

  Lib. 1. de falsae relig. c. 12.