Page:MeditationsOnTheMysteriesOfOurHolyV1.djvu/296

 4. Lastly, I will consider some particular chastisements that Almighty God threatens in Scripture against such as break any special commandments; that is to say, " A man that sweareth much shall be filled with iniquity, and a scourge shall not depart from his house." In this are set down two most grievous evil consequences of this vice, which are, to fill the house of a man with sins and punishments, with spiritual and corporeal wounds, and so lay it even with the foundations, as it is manifest by the malediction of the volume, which we put in the beginning of this meditation. "The eye," also, "that mocketh at his father, and that despiseth the labour of his mother in bearing him, let the ravens of the brooks pick it out, and the young eagles eat it:" for such an one is not worthy of long life, but of an infamous death; and in the other life the infernal ravens and eagles shall pluck out his eyes, blinding him with obstinacy, and eating his bowels with torture.

And in this manner we may consider other chastisements, collected from what has been declared in the seven preceding meditations.

1. Thirdly, I am to consider the blessings that Almighty God pours out upon those that observe His law, as well corporeal as spiritual, and as well temporal as eternal.

i. This I may consider, first running through the catalogue that Moses makes of them in the same book of Deuteronomy, saying to his people, that if they observed the law of God, all these blessings should "come upon" them and " overtake" them. " Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed in the field. Blessed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy