Blessed HUGH GREEN, Priest, 1642 on the Scaffold

THE FOUR LAST THINGS

Biography

"THERE be four principal things which all men ought to remember : death, judgment, Heaven and Hell. Death is a horror to nature, but that which followeth is much more terrible, viz. judgment, if we die not as we ought; and as we dispose ourselves to good or evil in this life, so shall the measure of our punishment or glory succeed. I am here condemned to die for my religion and for being a priest: we know there must be priests, for God, foretelling of the Church by the prophets, saith, 'Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedech' (Ps. cix.). 'And from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof, there shall be a clean sacrifice offered in My Name (Mai. i.11). Now'four things are to be considered : a God, a sacrifice, a priest, a man : such am I, and therefore I must die. Wherefore do we receive holy unction and are made priests but to offer sacrifice to God ? But I am condemned for -being ordained by the See of Rome. St. Paul saith, 'the Romans have the Catholic faith' and gives God thanks that their faith and his were one, of which Catholic faith I am."

"In all thy works remember thy last end and thou shalt never sin."—ECCLUS. vii. 40