are alwayes in pledge with you but therein ought you to consider the while how the glory which enuirons you seemes to fetch the same course which the Sunne doth and how it flyes away without cease towards its West whence it shall neuer rise agayne Be it so that your lookes seeme to astonish the stoutest and that they fauour the more happy Those lookes in their sternesse cannot wound but the culpable no-engage in their sweetnes but spirits which feed of smoke There is no doubt but your power is admired but not enuyed of the wiser because the greatnes of your might concludes very ordinarily in vanity We must confesse that the honour life of men are in your hāds But you must needs confesse withall that your heades also are beneath the Sword which is fastened to the feeling of Heauen or rather suspended in the ayre by a little threed and how the least of your crymes may pul vpon you the chastisement therof So as if you take pleasure to bath you in the bloud of Innoēccy as an Otho or a Caligula the diuine Iustice prepares your last bath in your proper bloud where your Soule suffers Shipwracke with your body What then are your delights In what garden do you gather their flowers Verily you haue all things at your wish but what pleasure is it to wish for transitory goods whose priuatiō causeth a great deale more sorrow then the fruition afforded contentment If your Crownes and Scepters are agreable to you during life they will cause a horrour at your Death for that you ought to giue accompt of your swaying them You are but Lieutenants onely in the Land of God during the tyme of your Reigne The hower approaches wherein you are to iustify the Soueraigne actions of all the moments of your life to know in truth in what fashion you haue disposed of the Greatnesses and of the Treasures whereof you were no more then meere Depositarians Do you now then referre all your pleasures to this last instant and you shall know how the way is a great deale more thorny then that of a low condition and voyd of Enuy. Tell vs I pray thee Lucullus what are become of the delights of thy proud Feasts I admit that the prodigality of thy Magnificences hath vnpeopled the ayre of Birds and the sea of fishes and that Art hath exposed to view as in a stall her last inuentions to glut the appetite of thy foolishnes Where are now those contentments Where is this Pompe where is this lustre where are the Pallaces of these banquets where are the Cupps of Gould where the Meate where the Cookes where are the Stewards where the Guesse and the wayters of thy Feasts All is slid away without their memory And if the Historyes Lucullus do yet remember thee it is but onely to represent thy folly to Posterity What contentment may they take in feasts if the sweet wines wherwith they satiate their hunger be chaunged to corruption They take pleasure to deuour their pleasure like as in the Chase they find contentment in running after their sports The hony which they put into the mouth becomes bitter in the stomacke for what incōmodities seeme they not to suffer who haue filled their belly withall the sortes of Meats And to what shame and infamy submit they not themselues while they drown their reason in wine their honour and their conscience all at once is it not to be cruell to ones selfe to precipitate his paces to the Tomb-wards as if we dyed not soone inough Againe for whome take we the paines to treat our bodyes so if not for the wormes since the flesh is destined to them All the fat which we gather is but for them for the small tyme we lyue is not to be put into accompt Why consider they not how euery Banquet hath its last course euery wedding-day its morrow and that the ioy of these feasts seemes to passe away as swift as the day which lends them light What a goodly custome was it among the Pagans to serue in at the last course of their Bāquets an Anatomy vpon the table in signe how the wormes were shortly to reduce the bodies of the inuited to that estate How many are there now adayes who in the blindnes of Epicurisme put all their Gallantry in making of good Cheere But what excesse of Bestiality the while to take such pleasure to pamper the body on the way of death whither it runs posting without cease I graunt thou hast drowned to day thy Troubles in thy Glasses and hast glutted thine appetite with meats the most delicious of the world what shal be left thee therof to morrow but gaule in the mouth frō the surfet of thy riot I say but bitternes in thy hart repentance in thy soule Thy Crosses renew againe more strong then euer by reason of the priuation of thy delighs Thou must begin againe to morrow to sooth thy sensuality and the day following the same tormēts which thou hast suffered now already shall succeed thy ioy So as when all the lyfe should be a feast the last seruice thereof were alwaies to be feared since a life of Roses brings forth a death of Thornes Cramme then thy body withall sorts of meats as long as thou wilt he that shall haue fasted the while shal be a great deale more content then thou vpon the last day of thy Banquets So as if thou hast the aduantage to be fatter then he the wormes shall fare the better for it in thy graue You sensles Soules that loue but the pleasures of the Table I aduertise you betimes that the Feast is ended and the Company brooke vp ech one is retired with himselfe But there is now another manner of news which is that many of your Cōpanions are dead one as Ninus with too much drinke another with feeding ouer much as Messina He there hath fetched an eternall sleepe as Bogrias he heere hath cut his wiues throat in his wine as Thessalius To what end thinke you They are the last seruices which misfortune presents at the last Course of your feasts the poyson whereof is couered with sugar take you heed then play not with such formidable Enemies It is all that you can do to eschew the dangers in the world with the light you haue of Reason and you are drowning the same in your Banquets without feare of suffering Shipwracke with it Away with these Pleasures of smoke which fill not the body but with new matter of putrifaction I abhor you detest you with a hatred which shall neuer dy Since my God hath put Thornes on his head why should not I be putting them in my hart I will from henceforth quench my Thirst within his Chalice and gather the fruits of my nourishment in his desarts My Sauiour hath fasted all his life and shall I pamper my selfe euery moment Let death come vpon me rather then such a wish I loue thee
doubt not of the rest Thinke thē of death you Courtiers since the Eternity both of glory payne depends of a moment O sweet and dreadfull moment And you my Dames you belieue you haue conquered an Empire straight as soone as you haue once subiected any spirit to you power to what end do you study so euery day since you learne ech moment but vanity and new lessons of nicenes be it for actiō or grace sake but therein what thinke you to do Your purpose is to wound harts you vndoe soules for when you make a mā passionately in loue with you you do euen make him a Foole. You cannot be taking away his hart without depriuing him of reason And to what extrauagancies is he not subiect the while during the reigne of his passion I would say of his folly You are al which he loues and very often all which he adores what cry me I should thinke it rather to please you then to saue himselfe If he looke vpon the Sun he is but to make comparison betweene the light of your eyes and that of this bewtifull starre which I leaue to you to imagine how farre frō truth He seemes to maynteyne very impudently in scorne of all created things that you are the only wonder of the world and the very abridgemēt of al that nature hath euer made bewtifull which yet no man belieues but he and you If he carry vp his thoughtes to Heauen he compares you to the Angells with these words That you haue all the qualities of them Iudge now without passiō whether these termes of Idolatry do not fully wholy passe sentence to conuince him with a thousand sorts of crymes And yet do you take pleasure to make the Deuill more potent then he is for to cause others to be damned Returne then agayne vnto your selfe and consider how you ought to render an accoumpt one day of all those spirits whose Reason you haue made to wander in the labyrinth of your charmes For she that on earth shall haue subiected the most shal be the greatest slaue in Hell What glory take you to ioyne your charmes with those of the Diuels thereby to draw both bodyes and soules vnto them I attend you at this last moment of your lyfe where your definitiue sentence is to be pronounced Thinke you alwayes of this moment if there be yet remayning in you but neuer so litle sparke of loue for your selues When you shall once haue enthralled all the Kings of the earth there would yet be a great deale more shame then honour in it since all those Kings were no more then meere corruption and infection Thinke of your selues my Dames you are to day no more the same you were yesterday Tyme which deuours all thinges defaceth ech moment the fayrest lineaments of your face nor shall it euer cease to ruine your beauties vntill such tyme as you be wholy reduced to ashes So passeth away the glory of the world all flyes into the Tombe That of all the Lawes which Nature hath imposed vpon vs that same of Dying is the sweetest CHAP. XII FROM the tyme that our first Father had violated the sacred Lawes which God had imposed vpon him Nature as altering her nature would acknowledge him no more for her child Anone she rayseth a tumult against him with all created things The Heauen armes it selfe with thunders to punish his arrogancy The Sunne hides himselfe vnder the veyle of his Eclypses to depriue him of his light The Moone his sister defending his quarrell resolues with her selfe to be often changing her countenance towards him to signify vnto him the displeasure she tooke thereat The Starres being orherwise innocent of nature became malignant of a sudden to powre on his head their naughty influences The Ayre keeping intelligence with the Earth exhales her vapours and hauing changed them into poyson infects therewith the body of that miserable wretch The Birdes take part with them they whet their beakes clawes to giue some assault or other The Earth prepares the mine of its abysses for to swallow him vp if the dread horrour of its trembling were not sufficient to take away his life The sauage beasts stand grinding their teeth to deuoure him The Sea makes an heape of an infinite number of rockes to engulfe him in their waues But this is nothing yet Nature is so set on reuenge against him as she puts on his fellowes to destroy their pourtraite I meane to combat with the shadow of their body in causing them to quench the fire of their rage with their proper bloud In so much as man hath no greater enemy then man himselfe Let vs go forward To continue these euils do miseries enter into the world accompanyed with their sad disastres and followed with despayre griefe sadnes folly rage and a thousand passions besides which do cleane vnto the senses for to seize vpon soules This poore Adam sees himselfe to be besieged on al sidess if he looke vp to Heauen the flash of the lightenings there euen dazles and astonishes him quite the dreadfull noyse of thunder makes him to wish himselfe to be deafe he knowes not what to resolue vpon since he hath now as many enemyes as he had vassals before Adam may well cry mercy for his syn what pardon soeuer he obteyne thereof yet will nature neuer seeme to pardon him for it Whence it is that in compasse also of these ages of redemption it self wherein we breath the ayre of grace we do sigh that same of miseryes So as if there be nothing more certayne according to the experience of our sense then that the Earth is a Galley wherein we are slaues that it is the prison wherin we are enchained and the place assigned vs to suffer the paynes of our crymes in can there possibly be found any soules so cuell to themselues and such enemyes to their owne repose as not to be continually sighing after their liberty after the end of their punishments and the beginning of an eternall lyfe full of pleasures What would become of vs if our lyfe endured for euer with its miseryes if it should neuer haue an end with our euill that it had no bounds or limits no more then we For then should I be condemning the laughter of Democritus and allowing of the continuall teares of his companion since the season would be alwayes to be alwaies weeping and neuer to laugh Then would it be that cryes and plaints would serue vs for pastimes and teares sighes should neuer abandon eyther our eyes or harts But we are not so brought to this extremity of vnhappines The Heauens being touched with compassion of our euills and of the greatnes of our miseryes in giuing vs a cradle for them to be borne in haue affoarded vs a Sepulcher also for to bury them in O happy Tombe that reduceth to ashes the subiect of our flames O happy Tombe where the wormes make an end to
deuill who as a Monster of many heades eternally deuours the damned Their Ryuer of Cocytus or Phlegeton demonstrates to vs the tormēts of death The lake of Auernus where troubles and sadnes inhabite what els may it seeme to represent vnto vs then the dismall dwelling of the wicked Spirits The great Famine they faigne of Tantalus le ts vs cleerely to behould the scarcity and penury of all goods which the damned haue The Vultur of Titius which incessantly preyes on the hart without deuouring it doth figure nought els then the worme of vnprofitable Repentance which gnawes without end those vnhappy Spirits The wheele wherin Ixion is tortured as likewise the Pitchers which the Danaides filled in vayne are as so many witnesses of the Eternity of paynes of the damned Soules which lets vs see how euen those who establish their true Paradise in this world haue built thē without thinking of a Hell in the other where they are euerlastingly punished O cruell Eternity What torments dost thou truly comprehend in thy long durance there beneath in Hell where a million of ages in punishments cānot forme a first moment of some end After one hath endured and suffered an infinite nūber of paynes during as many years as there hath been instāts in the Tyme since the birth of the world may he not wel affirme that he had liued in those torments but for the space of an houre only if he were to liue alwayes in dying alwaies to dye liuing in Hell without release or respit My Dames I speake to you because you haue the Spirit wādering in vanity If you sigh for anguish in expectation of a Day vpon a bed of roses with what impatience will you be rackt in Hell during those Eternal Nights You shun the breath of the fire and the burning of the Sun as the enemyes of your beauty why feare you not rather the tanning and burning of the eternall flames Let me dye rather sayd Nero's wyfe then to become foule and wrinckled Would you be conseruing your beauty which is so deare vnto you for a few dayes and liue without it eternally in Hel If you could but behould the foulnes deformity of one damned Soule the onely remembrance of the horrour and amazemēt of that obiect would be an intollerable punishment to you If Nature haue not a stronger tye of loue then that wherewith it hath enchayned vs with our selfe is it possible my Dames that you can exercise such a cruelty against your selues as not to wish to liue cōtent but in the world where your pleasures are like to dye with you If Hell affright you not for its punishmēts sake let the Eternity therof breed a terrour in you to be vnhappy for euer To be in the cōpany of deuils for euer doth not the thought thereof only seeme to astonish you since there is nothing more true then it If nature as a Step-dame hath denyed you the fortitude of men at least it hath giuen you the force of a Spirit for to know your errours Loue not your beauty but to please the Angels rather then men since it is a diuine quality whose admiratiō appertaynes to them To burne alwayes Alas Seeme you not to resent in reading the lamentable history of the punishments of Fire wherewith the damned are tormēted some little sparkle of its flames through a strong apprehension of incurring one day those paynes I speake heere to Thee who readest these verities to bethinke thy selfe of this singular grace which God seemes to vouchsafe in permitting this same Booke to fall into thy hands so to discouer this sētence which I haue signifyed to thee on the behalfe of God That if you change not your life you shal be damned eternally O cruell Eternity O My Soule thinke alwayes of this Eternity what torments soeuer thou sufferest in this world say thou alwayes with Iob My euils shall one day haue an end O how happy was this man to be exposed on the dunghill of al the miseries of the world as on a moūtaine where tuning the Harpe of his feelings and of his passions to the Key of his Humility of his Patience he sung the glory of his Lord in the midst of his infamy What canst thou suffer heere beneath more cruell then the paynes of the damned And yet if thou shouldst euen suffer a part of their punishments without the priuation of grace thou shouldst be happy because those euils would termine one day to the fruitiō of thy soueraigne good Then trample thou the thornes vnder thy feet giue thy selfe in prey to dolours sufferances nor haue thou euer any other consolation then that of Iob in saying without cease My euills heere shall one day finish The Houre of Death WE MVST DYE This is a law of necessity whereof himselfe who made the same would not be exempted We must dye This is a sentence pronounced now for these six thousand yeares in the Pallace of the Terrestriall Paradise by an omnipotent God whose infinite Iustice hath not spared his proper Sonne We must dy All such as hitherto haue beene haue passed this way those who now are do hold the same they who are not as yet in approching to the Cradle do approch to the Sepulcher We must dy But we know not the hower the day the moneth nor the yeare we know not the place nor the manner of the Death whose paynes we are to suffer We must dy Since we hould the life but as borrowed of him that created the same We must dye it is an euil that hath no remedy al our children must dy as our Fathers did after they had shewed them the way which our Grandfathers had tracked for vs. We must dy at last since we dy euery hower because the aire which we breath being none of ours we cannot serue our selues of it but as others do in passing on till to morrow We must dye since that all which is in vs continually tends to death without release or intermission The very fetchings of our breath are counted as well as our steps In so much as all our actions are not wrought but for a certaine terme whence Tyme conducts vs by litle and litle to death We must dy This is a verity which experience proclaymes to all the world and to the end no man may euer doubt thereof the Sonne of God hath signed the Sentence with his bloud on the mount of Caluary You must dye great Monarkes what markes of immortality soeuer you haue Be you as eloquent as you will Demostenes is dead be you neuer so valiant Alexander is layd in his Tombe If you haue force for your inheritance Sampson is buryed vnder the ruines of the Temple which he demolished If you be faire Absalom is reduced into Ashes If rich Cresus is no more of the world if wise Salomon is now not lyuing if happy Dauid is expired in the midst of his felicities In fine what quality soeuer you haue