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Show -1 Offi '! l -J ,B - j .n ' Stomas CHAPTER XXIV. Of judgment and the punishment of sinners. In all things look to the end, and how those will stand before the strict judge, from whom there is nothing hid; who takes no bribes, and receives no excuses, ex-cuses, but will judge that which is just. O. miserable sinner, thou wilt answer an-swer unto God, who knoweth all thy evil deeds thou who art sometimes afraid of an angry man! Why dost thou not provide thee against the day of judgment, when no man can be excused or defended by another, an-other, but each one. will have to answer an-swer for himself? Now thy labor is profitable, thy tears are acceptable, thy groans are heard, thy sorrow is satisfying and purificth the soul. The patient man hath a great and wholesome purgatory; who suffering wrongs, is more concerned at another's malice than at his own injury; who prays freely for his adversaries, forgiving for-giving thciir offenses from his heart; who delays not to ask pardon of others; who is easier moved to pity than anger; an-ger; who does frequent violence to himself, him-self, and strives to bring his flesh woolly wool-ly in subjection to the spirt. Better is it to purge away our sins, and cut off our vices now, than to keep them for purgation afterward. Truly we deceive ourselves, through the inordinate love we bear the flesh. . What else will that fire devour but thy sins? Tha more thou sparest thysedf now, and followest the flesh, so much the more dearly shalt thou pay for it here-, after, and the more fuel dost thou lay up for that fire. j In what thing-?, a man hath mon sinned, in those things shall he be mo." grievously punished. Thorcj the slothful will he picke; with burning ycads, the gluttonous tor men ted with extreme hunger am: thirst: there the luxurious and the lovers lov-ers of pleasure will have burning pitci and foetid sulphur rained upon them and the envious, like dogs will how for rrrief. There will be no vice but will havt its own peculiar torment. There the proud will be filled witt confusion, and the avaricious pinched with the most miserable want. There one hour of punishment wiil be more grievous than a hundred years of the most bitter penance here. There will be no rest, no consolation for the damned, but here we sometimes cease from labor and enjoy the consolation i our friends. Be, therefore, solicitous and sorrowful sor-rowful for thy sins, that in the day of judgment thou mayst be in. security with the blessed: for then the just shall stand with great constancy against these that have afflicted and oppressed them. Then will he stand up to judge who- now humbly submitteth himself to the judgment of men. Then phall the poor and humble have great confidence, and the proud will fear on 'every side. Then will it appear that he was wis.?, in this world, who for Christ's sake learned to be a fool and despised. Then every tribulation borne witil patience shall be pleasing, and all iniquity in-iquity shall stop her mouth. Then shall every devout person rejoice, and all bad persons shall be pad. Then shall simple sim-ple obediance be more highly exalted than all worldly cunning. |