Page:MeditationsOnTheMysteriesOfOurHolyV1.djvu/156

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in all places He has His tribunal, and makes this judgment, in the earth and in the sea, in the bed and in the street, that in every place I may fear, because I know not whether that shall be the place of my judgment. But as death most ordinarily attacks us in our chamber and bed, when I am in these places I must imagine sometimes that there stands the tribunal and throne of Almighty God to judge me, and the good and evil angel assisting at the judgment; for this holy thought will restrain the unmeasurable excesses of the flesh, which bud out from the solitariness of the place.

3. From these two considerations I am to draw a great fear of offending God, for perhaps the time and place wherein I commit this sin shall be also the time and place wherein God will do judgment; as the wife of Lot, who in the same instant and place that she turned to look upon Sodom was turned into a statue of salt, [1] and (as St. Paul says) "he that eateth unworthily" the body of Christ our Lord, " eateth judgment to himself." [2] So when I " drink iniquity like water," [3] I drink judgment to my soul, and perhaps the draught may be so deadly that in that very instant the judgment shall be executed.

POINT III.

1. Thirdly, I am to consider the frame and order of this judgment; that is, the accusers and witnesses, the 'proof and rigorous examination that shall be made of all my works, to judge me accordingly.

i. First, the accusers shall be three. The first shall be the devil, whom St. John calls the " accuser of our brethren" whose office is to " accuse them before Almighty God day and night;" [4] but in this last judgment with greater hatred and fury he will accuse me of all the sins I com-

  1. Gen. xvi. 26.
  2. 1 Cor. xi. 29.
  3. Job xv. 16.
  4. Apoc. xii. 10.