four last things

Numerous theologians and Christian apologists have written on the Four Last Things; published accounts include:

• {{lang|la|Cordiale quattuor novissimorum}} (15th century) attributed to {{ill|Gerardus de Vliederhoven|fr|Gérard de Vliederhoven}} and to Denis le Chartreux; translated into French by Jean Miélot and thence into English as {{sic|hide=y|Cordiale, or Four Last Things}} by Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers in 1479Cox, Michael, editor, The Concise Oxford Chronology of English Literature, Oxford University Press, 2004, {{ISBN|0-19-860634-6}}
• The Four Last Things (1522) by Thomas More; unfinished (published posthumously).{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/fourlastthings00more|title=The four last things: Thomas More (1903)|website=Internet Archive|access-date=15 July 2022}}

{{multiple image|perrow = 2|total_width=300

| image1 = Novíssimos, A Morte (1793) - José Gervásio de Sousa Lobo (Paróquia de Nossa Senhora do Pilar de Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais).png

| image2 = Novíssimos, O Juízo (1793) - José Gervásio de Sousa Lobo (Paróquia de Nossa Senhora do Pilar de Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais).png

| image3 = Novíssimos, O Inferno (1793) - José Gervásio de Sousa Lobo (Paróquia de Nossa Senhora do Pilar de Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais).png

| image4 = Novíssimos, O Paraíso (1793) - José Gervásio de Sousa Lobo (Paróquia de Nossa Senhora do Pilar de Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais).png

| footer = The Four Last Things in a 1793 series of paintings by Portuguese Brazilian artist José Gervásio de Sousa Lobo, in Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, Brazil; clockwise from top left: Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell.

}}

• The Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Hell, and Heaven (1631) by Robert Bolton; published posthumously in 1639{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/mrboltonslastlea00bolt|title=Mr. Boltons last and learned worke of the foure last things, death, iudgement, hell and heaven. With his assises-sermons, and notes on Iustice Nicolls his funerall. Together with the life and death of the authour : Bolton, Robert, 1572–1631|website=Internet Archive|access-date=20 November 2015}}
• The four last things: death, judgment, hell, heaven by Martin of Cochem{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/thefourlastthing00martuoft|title=The four last things : death, judgment, hell, heaven : Martin, von Cochem, 1634–1712|website=Internet Archive|date=1899 |access-date=20 November 2015}}
• Four Last Things (1649) by William Sheppard, whose preface supported the Rump Parliament against the Presbyterians{{cite book|author=Nancy L. Matthews|title=William Sheppard, Cromwell's Law Reformer|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r5ESzAYjAc8C&pg=PA25|date=8 July 2004|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-89091-5|page=25}}{{cite book|author=Blair Worden|title=The Rump Parliament 1648-53 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c_KVaGF6k2oC&pg=PA120|date=5 May 1977|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-29213-9|pages=120–}}
• {{lang|de|Sinnliche Beschreibung der vier letzten Dinge}} ("A Sensuous Representation of the Four Last Things") (1675) by Angelus Silesius
• Four Last Things–Death, Judgment, Heaven, and Hell (1691) by William Bates{{cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/fourlastthingsd00bategoog|title=The Four Last Things, Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell|last=Bates|first=William|via=Internet Archive|publisher=S. Johnson|access-date=19 November 2015|location=Manchester}}

• {{lang|cy|Myfyrdodau bucheddol ar y pedwar peth diweddaf}} ("Devout musings on the four last things") (1714) by John Morgan
• Thoughts upon the Four Last Things (1734) by Joseph Trapp{{cite book|last=Paulson|first=Ronald|title=Hogarth's Harlot: Sacred Parody in Enlightenment England|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_kets93C_AkC&pg=PA253|access-date=19 November 2015|date=2003-10-29|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=9780801873911|page=253}}
• Four discourses on the four last things (1751) by Thomas Greene

• The Four Last Things (1960) by Harry Williams
• {{lang|fr|L'eternelle vie et la profondeur de l'ame}} (1947) by Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange. Published in English as Life Everlasting: A Theological Treatise on the Four Last Things: Death, Judgement, Heaven, Hell{{cite book|last1= Garrigou-Lagrange|first1= Réginald|author-link=Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange|title=Life Everlasting and the Immensity of the Soul: A Theological Treatise on the Four Last Things : Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=cN8HAAAACAAJ|access-date=20 November 2015|year=1991|publisher= Tan Books|isbn= 978-0-89555203-7}}
• The Last Things: Concerning Death, Purification After Death, Resurrection, Judgment, and Eternity (1965) by Romano Guardini{{cite book |title= The Last Things: Concerning Death, Purification After Death, Resurrection, Judgment, and Eternity|last= Guardnin|first= Romano|author-link= Romano Guardini |year= 1965|isbn= 1-94989948-9 |publisher=Cluny Media}}

A Catholic sermon on the Four Last Things features in James Joyce's novel A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916); a "hellfire" sermon in the Protestant revivalist tradition appears in Stella Gibbons's Cold Comfort Farm (1932).

Martin of Cochem explains that "there are three principal reasons why all sensible people fear death so much: First, because the love of life, the dread of death is inherent in human nature. Secondly, because every rational being is well aware that death is bitter, and the separation of soul and body cannot take place without inexpressible suffering. Thirdly, because no one knows whither he will go after death, or how he will stand in the Day of Judgment."{{cite book|chapter=On Death |title=The four last things: death, judgment, hell, heaven|year=1899|publisher= Benziger Brothers|first=Martin of|last=Cochem|author-link=Martin of Cochem}}

Or as Alphonsus Liguori wrote in his meditations: "We must die: how awful is the decree! We must die. The sentence is passed: It is appointed for all men once to die. Heb. 9:27"{{cite book|chapter=Part 1: On the Certainty of Death. |title=The Way of Salvation: Meditations for Every Day of the Year|year=1836|publisher=Dublin|first=Alphonus|last=Liguori|author-link=Alphonsus Liguori}}

Of the final judgment, Alphonsus Liguori writes that, "the last day is called in Scripture a day of wrath and misery; and such it will be for all those unhappy beings who shall have died in mortal sin; for on that day their most secret crimes will be made manifest to the whole world, and themselves separated from the company of the saints, and condemned to the eternal prison of hell, where they will suffer all the agonies of ever dying yet always remaining alive."

Of heaven, Richard Challoner in his famous work Think Well On't writes, " Consider, that if God's justice is so terrible in regard to his enemies, how much more will his mercy, his goodness, his bounty declare itself in favour of his friends! Mercy and goodness are his favourite attributes, in which he most delights: his tender mercies says the royal prophet, Ps. 144. are over all his works.{{cite book|chapter=s:Think Well On't/Day 17: On heaven|title=Think Well On't or, Reflections on the great truths of the Christian religion for every day of the month|year=1801|publisher=T. Haydock|first=Richard|last=Challoner|author-link=Richard Challoner}}

Luis de la Puente writes concerning The nature of hell: "Hell is a perpetual prison, full of fire and of innumerable and very terrible torments, to chastise perpetually such as die in mortal sin. Or, again, hell is an eternal state, wherein sinners, for the punishment of their sins, want all that good which they may desire for their content, and endure all kinds of evils which they may fear for their torment. So that in hell is joined together the privation of all that good which men enjoy in this life and angels in the other, and the presence of all those evils which afflict men in this life and the devils in the other."{{cite book|chapter=Meditation XVI|title=Meditations On The Mysteries Of Our Holy Faith|year=1852|publisher=Richarson and Son|first=Lius|last=de la Puente|author-link=Luis de la Puente}}

The Four Last Things are a common theme of artistic and literary works as well as theological works.

{{Reflist}}

• {{cite book|last=Göttler |first= Christine|title=Last Things: Art and the Religious Imagination in the Age of Reform |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=mSk-nwEACAAJ|access-date=19 November 2015|year=2010|publisher=ISD|isbn= 978-250352397-2|ref=none}}
• {{cite book|editor-last1= Cardarelli |editor-first1= Sandra |editor-last2=Anderson|editor-first2= Emily Jane|editor-last3=Richards|editor-first3= John |first= Jacek |last=Kowzan|title=Art and Identity: Visual Culture, Politics and Religion in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=HjYsBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA97 |access-date= 20 November 2015 |date= 2012-01-17|publisher= Cambridge Scholars |isbn= 978-1-44383670-8|pages=97–126 |chapter=Memorare Novissima Tua; The Iconography of the Four Last Things as a Representation of the Religious Identity.|ref=none}}
• {{cite book|last=Thiel |first= John E. |title=Icons of Hope: The "Last Things" in Catholic Imagination |date=September 2013 |publisher=University of Notre Dame Press |isbn=9780268042394 |ref=none}}

• {{commons category-inline|The Four Last Things}}

{{Catholic virtue ethics}}

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Category:4 (number)

Category:Christianity and death

Category:Christian eschatology

Category:Souls