Page:MeditationsOnTheMysteriesOfOurHolyV1.djvu/201

 Oh, how astounded will the tyrants and emperors be that martyred these apostles, when they shall see them exalted with so great glory! Oh, how much shall the poor religious be honoured, who in this world lived contemned!

Colloquy. — O sovereign Judge, if Thou dost thus honour those that are voluntarily poor, I embrace poverty with a great good will, not so much for my honour as for the glory which to Thee ensues from it!

" The separation of the good and bad." — Thirdly, I am to consider that Christ our Lord, to finish His judgment, " shall separate the" good " from the" evil, " as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats;" the righteous will be placed " on His right" hand, and the wicked "on His left."

1. Concerning this, I must consider that this world and the Church is now like a flock of sheep and goats, of good and evil so mingled together that we cannot always discern who is "the sheep" of Christ, or "the goats" of Satan. And through this ignorance oftentimes we honour the sinner as a just man, and despise the just man reputing him a sinner. Whence also it proceeds that the just and the unjust have not always that place which they merit; for oftentimes wicked men usurp the "right hand" and most exalted place of the earth, and the good stand on the "left hand," in the most contemptible place of the world. For which Solomon says, " I saw" a great evil " under the sun, in the place of judgment wickedness, and in the place of justice iniquity; and I said in my heart, God shall judge both the just and the wicked," and then shall be seen what every one is.

2. Now this time being come, Christ our Lord, to dis