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.

CAP. IV.

Of the greatness of Eternal Pleasures.

HOnour, Profit, and Pleasures are distinct goods upon Earth, and are rarely found together. Ho∣nour is seldom a companion of profit, and profit of pleasure; And so the sick man drinks his Purge, be∣cause it is profitable how bitter soever. Besides, the pleasures or the world are for the most part mixt with some shame, and oftentimes with infamy. They are costly and expensive; we cannot entertain our plea∣sures without diminishing our wealth. It is not so in eternal goods, in which to be honest is to be profitable, and to be profitable delectable. Eternal honours are accompanied with immense riches, and they are both attended by pleasures without end. All this is signified by the Lord, when he received the faithful Servant in∣to glory, when he sayes, Well done good servant and true: because thou hast been faithful in a few things, I will place thee over many; Enter into the joy of thy Lord. In these words he first honours him, commend∣ing him for a good and faithful Servant; then enri∣ches him, delivering many things into his hands: and so admits him into the joy and pleasure of his Lord; signifying by this manner of expression the greatness

of this joy, not saying, that this joy should enter in to him, but that he should enter into joy, and into no other but that of his Lord. So great is the joy of that Celestial Paradise, that it wholly fills and embraces the blessed Souls, which enter into Heaven, as into an immense Sea of pleasure and delight. The joyes of the Earth enter into the hearts of those who possess them, but fill them not, because the capacity of mans heart is greater than they can satisfie. But the joyes of Hea∣ven receive the Blessed into themselves, and fill and o∣verflow them in all parts. Their glory is like an Oce∣an of delights, into which the Saints enter as a Sponge into the Sea, which filling its whole capacity, the water surrounds and compasses it all about. Where∣upon St. Anselme sayes;* 1.1

Joy shall be within and without, Joy above and below, Joy round about on every side, and all parts full of joy.

The same im∣mensity of joy the Lord signified when he said by Isaias, Behold I create Jerusalem an exultation, * 1.2 and her people a joy. It is much to be noted that he sayes not, I create a rejoycing for Jerusalem, or in Jerusalem, nor a joy in or for its people, but by a particular my∣stery I make Jerusalem that it shall be all an exulta∣tion, and its people all a joy. He speaks in this man∣ner to set forth the greatness of his copious joy, with which that holy City, and her Inhabitants shall be as it were encompassed and overwhelmed. For as a plate of iron in the middle of a Furnace is so wholly inkind∣led and penetrated by fire, that it seems fire it self, and contains the full heat of the Furnace: So a blessed Soul in Heaven is so replenished with that Celestial joy, that it may not onely be said to be joyful, but joy it self.

The multitude of joyes in Heaven is joyned with their greatness: and so great they are, that the very least of them sufficient to make us forget the great∣est contents of the Earth; and so many they are, as that, though a thousand times shorter, yet they would

exceed all temporal pleasures though a thousand times longer; but joyning the abundance of those eternal joyes with their immense greatness, that eternal B iss becoms ineffable. Wherefore St. Bernard sayes;

The reward of Saints is so great, that it cannot be mea∣sured, so numerous, that it cannot be counted, so copious, that it cannot be ended, and so precious, that it cannot be valued.

* 1.3 And Albertus Magnus to the same purpose;

So great are the joyes of Heaven, that all the Arithmaticians of the Earth cannot num∣ber them: The Geometricians cannot measure them: nor the most learned men in the world explicate them: because neither eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard, neither hath it entred into the heart of man, what God hath prepared for those who love him. The Saints shall rejoyce in what is above them, which is the vision of God; in what is below them, which is the beauty of Heaven and other corporal Creatures; in what is within them, which is the glorification of their bodies; in what is without them, which is the company of Angels and men. God shall feast all their spiritual senses with an un∣speakable delight; for he shall be their object, and shall also be a mirrour to the sight, musick to the ear, sweetness to the taste, balsam to the smell, flowers to the touch. There shall be the clear light of Summer, the pleasantness of the Spring, the abundance of Autumn, and the repose of Winter.

§. 2.

The principal joy of the Blessed is in the possession of God, whom they behold clearly as he is in him∣self. For as Honourable, Profitable, and Delectable (according to what we have already said) are not di∣vided in Heaven, so the blessed Souls have three gifts essential and inseparable from that happy state, which correspond to those three kinds of blessings, which the

Divines call Vision, Comprehension, and Fruition. The first consists in the clear and distinct sight of God, which is given to the Just as a reward of his merits, by which he receives an incomparable honour, since his works and vertues are rewarded in the presence of all the Angels with no less a Crown and recompence than is God himself. The second is the possession which the Soul hath of God, as of his riches and in∣heritance. And the third is the ineffable joy which accompanies this sight and possession. The greatness of this joy no tongue can tell; and I believe that neither the Blessed themselves, who have experience of it, nor the Angels of Heaven are able to declare it. Yet it will not be amiss, if we (as much as our ignorance and rudeness is able to attain unto) consider and ad∣mire it. This joy hath two singular qualities, by which we may in some sort conceive the immensity of it. The first, that it is so vigorous and powerful, that it excludes all evil, pain, and grief. This onely is so great a good, that many of the Philosophers held it for the chief felicity of man.* 1.4 And therefore Cicero writes, that Jeronymus Rhodius, a famous Philosopher and a great Master, to whom may be joyned Diodorus the Peripatetick, speaking of the chief happiness of man, taught that it consisted in being free from grief; It being the opinion of those Philosophers, that not to suffer pain or evil was the greatest and most su∣preme good. But herein was their errour, that they judged that to be the good it self, which was but an effect and consequent of it: For so powerful is that love and joy, which springs from the clear vision of God, that it is sufficient to convert hell into glory; in so much as if to the most tormented Soul in hell were added all the torments of the rest of the Dam∣ned both Men and Devils, and that God should vouch∣safe him but one glympse of his knowledge, that on∣ly clear vision, though in the lowest degree, were suffi∣cient to free him from all those evils both of sin and

pain: So that his Soul being rapt by that ineffable beauty which he beheld, would not be sensible of any grief at all. O how potent a joy is that, which cast into such an abyss of torments, converts them all in∣to consolations! How mighty were that fire, where∣of one spark would consume the whole Ocean? There is no joy in this World so intense, which can suspend the grief we suffer from a finger, that is in sawing off. Griefs do more easily bereave us of the sense of plea∣sure, than pleasures do of pains. Yet such is the great∣ness of that soveraign joy in Heaven, that it alone is sufficient to drown all the griefs and torments both in Earth and Hell; and there is no pain in the World able to diminish the least part of it.

The other stupendious wonder, which proceeds from the greatness of this joy, is the multitude of those pleasures, which as from a most fruitful root spring from it. Who would not be astonisht, that the happi∣ness of the Soul should cause so many, and so marve∣lous effects in the bodies of the Blessed? So excellent is that beatifical vision, which with ineffable joy pos∣sesses the spirit, that it bursts forth into the body with all the evident demonstrations of beauty, lustre, and the other gifts of glory. We see here that the heart is not able so farre to dissemble a great joy conceiv∣ed, as that it appears not by some signe in the body; but that joy is so weak and feeble, that it extends no further than to express some little chearfulness and mirth in the countenance. But the beatifical Vision is so immense a joy, that it wholly changes the body, making it beautiful as an Angel, resplendent as the Sun, immortal as a Spirit, and impassible as God him∣self, working great miracles and prodigies in the bo∣dy, by the redundancie of that unspeakable comfort, which the spirit feels. O if one could place before the eyes of the World the body of some blessed Saint, en∣endowed with the four gifts of glory, full of clearness, splendor, and beauty, casting forth a fragrancy infi∣nitely

more sweet unto the senses than that of Musk and Amber, that men might see by this shadow, how immense is that light and joy, which thus illustrates and beautifies the flesh. O mortals, why do ye covet o∣ther pleasures with loss of Soul and Body, and do not rather seek after these with the profit and glory of both? O how different are temporal delights from eternal! those (especially if they be unlawful) blemish and destroy the Soul, and weaken and corrupt the body; but these beautifie and embellish them both, conferring perfect happiness upon the Soul, and beau∣ty and immortality upon the Body.

§ 3.

Finally all those joyes of the Blessed both in Soul and Body, which are innumerable, have their sourse and original from that unspeakable joy of the clear vi∣sion of God. And how can the joy be less, which pro∣ceeds from such a cause, who gives himself, being the sweetness and beauty of the world, to be possessed by man, that joy being the very same which God en∣joyes, and which suffices to make God himself blessed with a blessedness equal to himself? Wherefore not without great mystery in those words, by which our Saviour admits the faithful into Heaven, it is said; Enter into the joy of thy Lord. he said not simply into joy, but to determine the greatness of it, sayes, it was his own joy, that joy, by which he himself becomes happy; and truly the immensity of this joy could not better be declared. We are therefore to consider, that there is nothing in this World, which hath not for his end some manner of perfection, and that those things, which are capable of reason and knowledge, have in that perfection a particular joy and complacencie; which joy is greater or lesser according as that end is more or less perfect. Since therefore the Divine per∣fection is infinitely greater than that of all the Crea∣tures,

the joy of God, which is in himself, (for he hath no end not perfection distinct from himself) is infinitely greater than that of all things besides. This joy out of his infinite goodness and liberality he hath been pleased to make the holy Angels and blessed Souls partakers of, communicating unto the Just (although no wayes due unto their nature) his own proper and special felicity. And therefore the joy of Saints, which is that of the beatifical vision, wherein consists the joy and happiness of God, must needs be infinite and un∣utterable, and all contents of this World in respect of it are bitter as alloes, gall, and wormwood.

Besides, by how much a delectable object is more nearly and straightly united to the faculty, by so much greater is the joy and delight which it produces. Therefore God, who is the most excellent and delight∣ful object, being in the beatifical vision united to the Soul with the most intimate union that can be in a pure creature, must necessarily cause a most inexpli∣cable joy, incomparably greater than all the joyes real or imaginable, which can be produced either by the Creatures now existent or possible. For as the Divine perfection incloseth within it self all the perfections of things created, possible, and imaginable, so the joy, which it causes in the Souls of the Blessed, must be in∣finitely greater than all other joyes, which either have, or can be caused by the Creature. If the Greeks warred ten years and lost so much blood for the beauty of He∣len, And if it seemed a small thing unto Jacob to serve fourteen years a Slave for that of Rachel, what trouble can seem great unto us to enjoy God, in com∣parison of whose beauty all which the World affords is but deformity? Absolon and Adonis were most beau∣tiful, and with their very sight drew love and admi∣ration from their beholders. But it looking upon Ab∣solon, another ten times more lovely should appear, we should quickly leave to gaze upon Absolon, and fix our eyes upon the other: and if a third should come

a hundred times more graceful than the second, we should serve the second in the same manner, and our eyes and delight would still follow him, who was the most agreeable. God being then infinitely more beau∣tiful than we can either see or think, and although he should create some other Creature ten hundred thou∣sand times more beautiful than these we know, yet that, and one, another million of times exceeding it, would both fall infinitely short of God himself, espe∣cially that beauty not being alone, but accompanied with perfections without limit, with an infinite wis∣dom, omnipotence, holiness, liberality, bounty, and all that can be imagined good, beautiful, and perfect, which must necessarily force the hearts of those who see him (although before his enemies) to love and a∣dore him. Which is an other proof of the joy which springs from the beatifical vision, in regard it works so powerfully upon the will of him that enjoyes it, that it compels it by an absolute necessity to a most intense love, although it had before detested it; because the joy must equalize the love which it caused. It there were in the World a Man as wise as an Angel, we should all desire to see him, as the Queen of Saba did Salmon; but if to this wisdom were joyned the strength of Hercules or Sampson, the victories of Ma∣chabeus or Alexander, the affability and curtesie of David, the friedliness of Jonathan, the liberality of the Emperour Titus, and to all this the beauty and comeliness of Absolon, who would not love and desire to live and converse with this admirable person? Why then do we not love and desire the sight of God, in whom all those perfections and graces infinitely a∣bove these are united: which also we our selves, if we serve him, are to enjoy as if they were our own?

O how great and delightful a Theater shall it be to see God, as he is, with all his infinite perfections, and the perfections of all Creatures, which are eminently contained in the Deity! How admirable were that

spectacle, where were represented all that are or have been pleasant or admirable in the World! If one were placed where he might behold the seaven Wonders of the World, the sumptuous Banquets made by Assuerus and other Persian Kings, the rare Shews and Feasts exhibited by the Romans, the pleasant Trees and sa∣voury Fruits of Paradise, the Wealth of Craesus, Da∣vid, and the Assyrian and Roman Monarchs, and all those joyntly together, who would not be transported with joy and wonder at so admirable a sight? but more happy were he, upon whom all these were be∣stowed, together with the assurance of a thousand years of life, wherein to enjoy them. Yet all this were nothing in respect of the eternal sight of God, in whom those and all the perfections, that either are or have been, or possibly can be, are contained. What e∣ver else is great and delightful in the World, together with all the pleasures and perfections, that all the men in the World have obtained, or shall obtain to the World's end, all the wisdom of Salomon, all the sci∣ences of Plato and Aristotle, all the strength of Aristo∣menes and Milo, all the beauty of Paris and Adonis, if they should give all these things to one person, it would have no comparison, and would seem to be a loathsome thing, being compared onely to the de∣light, which will be enjoyed in seeing God for all eter∣nity; because in him onely will be seen a Theater of Bliss and Greatness, wherein are comprised as in one the greatness of all creatures. In him will be found all the richness of Gold, the delightfulness of the Mea∣dows, the brightness of the Sun, the sweet taste of Honey, the pleasantness of Musick, the beauty of the Heavens, the comfortable smell of Amber, the con∣tentfulness of all the senses, and all that can be either admired or enjoyed.

To this may be added, that this inestimable joy of the vision of God is to be multiplied into innumera∣ble other joyes; into as many, as there are blessed

Spirits and Souls which shall enjoy the sight of God, in regard every one is to have a particular content∣ment of the bliss of every one. And because the bles∣sed Spirits and Souls are innumerable, the joyes like∣wise of every one shall be innumerable.* 1.5 This St. An∣selme notes in these words.

With how great a joy shall the Just br replenished, to accomplish whose blessedness, the joy of each other Saint shall concur? for as every Saint shall love another equally as him∣self, so he shall receive equal joy from his happiness to that of his own. And if he shall rejoyce in the happiness of those, whom he loves equally unto himself, how much shall he rejoyce in the happiness of God, whom he loves better than himself?

Finally the blessed Soul shall be surrounded with a Sea of joys, which shall fill all his powers and senses with plea∣sure and delight, no otherwise than if a Sponge, that had as many senses of pleasures as it hath pores and eyes, were steeped in a Sea of milk and honey, suck∣ing in that sweetness with a thousand mouths. God is unto the Blessed a Sea of sweetness, an Ocean of un∣speakable joyes. Let us therefore rejoyce who are Christians, unto whom so great blessings are promised: let us rejoyce that Heaven was made for us, and let this hope banish all sadness from our hearts.* 1.6 Palladius writes, that the Abbot Apollo, if he saw any of his Monks sad, would reprehend him, saying, Brother, why do we afflict our selves with vain sorrow? let those grieve and be melancholy, who have no hope of Heaven, and not we, unto whom Christ hath pro∣mised the blessedness of his glory. Let this hope com∣fort us, this joy refresh us; and let us now begin to enjoy that here, which we are ever hereafter to pos∣sess; for hope, as Philo sayes, is an anticipation of joy. Upon this we ought to place all our thoughts, turning our eyes from all the goods and delights of the Earth.

The Prophet Elias, when he had tasted but one little drop of that Celestial sweetness, presently lockt up the

windows of his senses, covering his eyes, ears, and face with his mantle. And the Abbot Sylvanus, when he had finished his prayers, shut his eyes, the things of the Earth seeming unto him unworthy to be looked upon after the contemplation of the heavenly, in the hope whereof we onely are to rejoyce.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Ansel. ca. 71. de Simil.
• * 1.2

  Isai. 65.
• * 1.3

  Albert. Mag. in Comp. Theol. l. 7. c. 8. 1 Cor. 2. Isai. 64.
• * 1.4

  Cicero de Fin. & 5. Tuscul.
• * 1.5

  Ansel. de Simil. cap. 71.
• * 1.6

  Pallad. Hist. ca. 52.