eternally in his Glory S. Climacus Article XXXVI St. John Climacus distinguishes the desires of Death which the Devil suggests unto us from those which Grace inspires and of this Doctrine he composes one degree of his holy Ladder Degree 6. n. 4. where he shews That the Meditation of Death is the most profitable of all Spiritual practises AS all apprehensions of Death are not criminal Degree 8. n. 3. 4. Ibid. 8. so all the desires of Death are not always lawfull According to Nature Man dreads to die and Christ Jesus himself was apprehensive of it to make it clearly appear to men that he had taken upon him all the weaknesses of humanity and that there were two Natures united in his Person If God had not given to the Soul this natural adhesion for her Body she would not remain there shut up one instant This adhesion is therefore an order of Providence and not a disorder of Sin But to know whether the Desires or Fears of Death are criminal or commendable we must examine the reasons which move us to dread it or to desire it There are some who by a motive of Despair desire to die when they find themselves oppress'd with sickness or with affliction and these are very faulty in not receiving these chastisements from the hand of God with patience and humility Others after they have imbraced a Penitent Life are discouraged and grow weary of suffering for the expiation of their Sins and these surely are very unhappy for they lose the fruit of all the good works which they have formerly performed They have kept their Lamps along time lighted and they let them go out at the hour perhaps in which the Bridegroom is ready to come Others there are who being puffed up with a vain presumption imagin that they are arrived at the soverein peace of Soul and have gotten a comâ—eat victory over all their Passions because they have no longer any fear of Death They perceive not that this Pride is a thousand times worse than the fear of Death and that the malice of our invisible Enemies is so great 7. Degree n. 68. that they convert the seeds of Virtues into Vices Some others more conformable to the Spirit of Christianism seeing that the violence of their evil Customs makes them to relapse incessantly into Sin desire Death with thoughts of repentance and of humility These sentiments are laudable 22. Degree n. 25. and yet they are but the beginning of Christian perfection One arrives at this perfection when being dead to all the affections of the World to the World it self 6. Degree n. 20. and to Sin one desires to die upon no other motive than only to be entirely united to Christ Jesus 'T is by this mark that one may know the difference between the natural apprehensions of Death 6. Degree n. 6. and the fear which proceeds not from the feeling of Nature between the Impatience which comes from Despair and the desire which the hope of a better Life produces For he who hath not renounced all created things and his own will 6. Degree n. 20. and 11. betrays himself and is like to a Soldier who should present himself with his hands tyed in the day of Battle They who during their Lifetime have their Heart and Spirit link'd to Heaven 26. Degree n. 106. mount up to Heaven after their Death But they who have had their Soul link'd to the Earth descend under the Earth 26. Degree n. 377. The goods and the honours of the World are as so many rotten steps of a Ladder upon which the humble man cannot set his foot without puting himself in danger to lose his Humility He who voluntarily resigns himself to Death and who expects it without fear 6. Degree n. 12. hath some Vertue But he who at every hour desires it may pass for a Saint We cannot live holily one sole day if we do not desire that it may be the last day of our Life rather than to offend God in it The continual thought of Death extinguishes at last all Vices And as a perfect Charity renders a man exempt from falling into Sin so a perfect Meditation of Death renders him uncapable to fear any thing but the Judgements of God Ib. n. 14. And surely there is reason to admire that the Pagans themselves have said something not unlike unto this when they declared That Phylosophy or the love of Wisdom is nothing else but a continual study of Death Article XXXVII St. Bernard teaches us That Hope is the portion of true Christians and that this Virtue enables them to suffer patiently all the evills of this Life and to Love and Desire Death THe Children of darkness sleep in the night season Ser. 6. in Ps 90. alibi but as for us my Brethren who are Children of light let us watch in expectation of the days coming in which we are to sleep the sleep of Death S. Bernard Let us arm our selves with a holy Hope to fight against this drowsiness of the World Let Sensualists shut their eyes against the beams of this Hope and let them repose in the wantonness of a voluptuous Life Let them say we are in peace and in security who can discover us what can trouble the enjoyment of our pleasures The day will come when they shall be overwhelm'd with an un-foreseen ruine as a Woman is surprized by the pangs of Childing How terrible are your judgments how incomprehensible are your words â—ap 17. O Lord Whilst the Wicked insult over the holy Nation of your Elect and flatter themselves that they shall always domineer a stroke of your hand lays these fugitive slaves in the dust who fancied they could steal themselves from your eternal Justice They who were seen to triumph over your Patience are all enwrap'd in the shadows of a long and dismall night as many Criminalls are fast linked together with one and the same Chain As for us O my God! who have no share in their Sleep nor in their Blindness we lift up our Eyes incessantly towards Heaven from whence we expect our help You O Lord Psal 15. are our good and all our portion This part which is fallen to our Lot is rich and delicious Our hereditary share is of an incomparable excellency S. Ber. 'T is for this that our Heart rejoyceth and that we sing with alacrity because you will not leave the Soul of the Just in Hell nor will you suffer him whom you have made holy to see corruption Thus O Lord the inheritance of the Children of Jacob is more worth than the riches of the Children of Esau for when they should possess the whole Earth when the Goods which the World promises them should be great the possession thereof is not peaceable the duration is but short the end is uncertain and the loss of them is follow'd with an infinite number of miseries
Evil or by the Remedy The Soul hath no less weak nesses and miseries than the Body You see her one day deceived by Hope and on the morrow troubled with Fear Anger transports her Sadness dejects her Joy dissipates her Envy gnaws her and nothing contents her One Passion follows another and sometimes for one that is destroy'd there spring up a thousand The sacred Scripture compares this agitation to the dreadful Tempests which are raised upon the Waters Isa 57 20. Who can then says the Prophet number all the Waves of the Sea Nevertheless 't is yet a harder task to count the desires of Man who goes astray in the errour of his Heart Jacob. v. 6. He will and he will not at the same time the same things He seeks with impatience what he hath not and he is presently disgusted with what he possesses Vice is followed with remorse Virtue is accompanied with pains he knows not to which of the two he should apply himself His first motion inclines him to Good and yet he doth the Evil by reflexion at the same time when he condemns it The Apostle St. Paul says Rom. 7.18 I find in my self a Will to do Good but I find not the means to accomplish it For I do not the Good to which I have a will and I do the Evil which I would not There is nothing good in Man He is submitted both together to the Law of God according to the Spirit and to the Law of Sin according to the Flesh God and the World draw him by turns He is a Compound of all that which is most motley in Nature always and in every thing unlike to himself His manners his opinions his desires all his actions all his thoughts are in a continuall instability Finally one may sooner stop the course of the Winds and the rapidity of a Torrent than fix his inconstancy by the sole force of Reason Thus the more our Soul examins her self the less she knows her self Who am I for example I who make so many reflections upon others What is the Beginner that stirs all the parts of my Body By what means do they come to know the orders of my Will How can they execute them with so much readiness But this will what makes it spring up in me Whence proceeds this intelligence which guides it these lights which clear it these darknesses which sometimes encompass it It walks upon the wings of the winds upon the points of the Waves it penetrates the highest Heavens it descends into the center of the Earth it carries its curiosity into every corner and yet the most common and the most sensible objects hide themselves from its knowledge in a word it knows not what it self is Man thinks and he knows not what it is to think he reasons and he cannot say what reason is The Soul is united to the Body and she conceives not how she is united to it she enters not there and she goes not from thence when she pleases the matter which she animates serves her for a Prison and by an inclination opposit to her nature she loves this Prison which keeps her captive The Senses which should be in all things subject unto her revolt incessantly against her deceive her and corrupt her 'T is an assembly of qualities which are mortal and immortal which are corruptible and incorruptible Water is not so contrary to Fire as these Qualities are contrary among themselves yet all agree together in one and the same subject notwithstanding that 't is impossible to say either what makes their mutual intelligence or what breaks it One cannot number all the kinds of Diseases which may separate the Soul from the Body and yet the Soul acts as if nothing were able to separate her from it She heaps up designs upon designs hopes upon hopes and there needs no more than a blast to overturn all O Man thou confused Pile of uncertainties and of miseries Eccles. 7 and 8. learn not to pry into that which is above thee since thou knowest not thy own self since thou art ignorant of that which is proper to thy self during thy Life and in this little number of days design'd for thy Pilgrimage upon Earth which pass as the shadow of a smoak 'T is the Wisest among men who hath said No one knows how he is to finish his course And even as the Fishes are caught by the hook of the Fisher and Birds are taken in the Nets of the Fowler so Men fall into the ambushes of Death when they least dream of it What is Man O my God that he should by you be so highly honoured Why do you east your eyes and employ your thoughts upon a Vessel so feeble and so full of iniquity Job 7.19 You visit him in the Morning and presently you exercise him by strong Tryalls He hath scarcely begun to see the day light before he falls into Darkness Psal 15. His Body is but a heap of dust and his Life fleets away as the Grass it blooms in Morning like the Flowers of the Field and in the Evening the smallest blast of wind withers it it dwindles away and there remains no track of the place where it but now flourished It seems as if after you had formed man you had abandon'd him to his own conduct Eceli 15. You have set before his eyes the Water and the Fire Life and Death Good and Evil to the end you might leave him the liberty of choyce which is almost always unlucky to him There are none who have understanding Psal 13. and light There are none who seek God They are gon astray from the right path They are all corrupted There is not any one who of himself doth good no there is not one Lord why do you leave them to be a prey to their Passions and to the hardness and malignity of their own Heart Know you not that our fall is inevitable as soon as you withdraw your hand from holding us up Do not then estrange your self from us O Lord you who are our only prop and our strength Draw us out of the mire of the World that we may not sink down and be drown'd in it Deliver us from those worldlings who have made choyce of this present Life for their portion S. Gregory Overwhelm them with an abundance of your riches and of your treasures wherewith they may satiate their cupidity But as for us who have placed our treasure in Heaven our Heart is where our Treasure is Grant then O my God that we may perfectly renounce all the goods of the Earth and that we may surmount all the miseries of our Nature 2 Cor. 4. Grant that we may carry evermore in our Body the death of our Lord Jesus to the end that the Life of Jesus may appear also in our Body For we who live for him are every hour deliver'd up to Death for him that we may live
Meditation upon Eternity and upon the Desire of Death p. 318. The Conclusion of this whole Collection How as from the beginning of this Treatise we have drawn from St. Augustin such Principles as were proper to establish this Proposition That perfect Souls desire Death and receive it with Joy So we end this Collection with a Discourse which the same holy Doctour made upon the same Subject wherein he pretends to engage all Men by their proper Interest to desire to pass forth of this World p. 326. To the devout Peruser of these Collections IF in the Mouth of two or three Witnesses every word is established Mat. 18.16 You have here devout Reader above six times that number of irrefragable Testifiers of that Truth which is intended to be established in this short Treatise to wit That Christians ought to despise Life and desire Death I. S. Augustin Leads the Van whose Principles are the Basis of the following Building He was one of the most famous and learned Fathers of the Church and the renowned Bishop of Hippo in Africa where he flourished in admirable Sanctity in year of our Redemption 400. and died in the year 433. The Fathers who preceded and who followed S. Augustin deliver the same Doctrin upon the same subject to wit II. Tertullian Who flourished in the Year 230. III. St. Cyprian The most Eloquent and holy Bishop of Carthage who was crown'd with Martyrdom in the Year 250. IV. St. Gregory Bishop of Nazian surnam'd the Divine the equal of St. Basil and the Companion of his studies who flourished in the Year 370. V. St. Basil Surnam'd the Great Arch-Bishop of Cesarea in Cappadocia who flourished at the same time to wit 370. VI. St. Gregory Bishop of Nyce the Brother of St. Basil who flourish'd in the Year 380. VII St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan who died in the Year 397. VIII St. John Chrysostom Bishop of Constantinople who died about the Year 407. IX St. Ireneus Bishop of Lyons in France who suffered under Severus in the Y. 180. X. St. Jerome Priest and Doctour of the Church who died in the Year 420. XI St. Isidor Bishop of Sevil in Spain who died in the Year 636. XII St. Eucherius Bishop of Lyons in France who died about the Year 433. XIII St. Fulgentius Bishop of Ruspen in Africa who died in the Year 529. XIV St. Paulinus Bishop of Nola in Campania who died in the Year 431. XV. St. Gregory The first most holy Hope of that Name deservedly sirnamed the Great who died in the Year 604. XVI St. John Climacus A holy Abbot in Mount Sina who flourished in the Year 560. XVII St. Bernard Abbot of Claraval an Apostolical man of great Sanctity who died in the Year 1153. XVIII The Author Of the Books of the Imitation of Christ XIX St. Laurence Justinian The 1. Patriark of Venice died in the Year 455. XX. St. Teresa A holy Virgin in Spain who lived and dyed in the last age Vpon the view of these many Evidences and multitudes of Authorities and upon the frequent perusall of these Collections you will undoubtedly by degrees render your Life more easy unto you and remove that vulgar and universal errour out of your mind concerning the dreadful apprehension of Death which you will familiarly behold and hourly expect as the happy period of your painfull and dangerous Pilgrimage and as the desirable passage opening to eternal Life eternal rest eternal felicity THE Holy Desires OF DEATH Article I. The First Principle of St. Augustin S. Aug. That the Difference which is between a Perfect and Imperfect Christian is That the first desires Death with Ardour and endures Life with Patience whereas the second only receives Death with Submission and hath not yet quitted all the Tyes which ordinarily fasten men to Life WIll you know what Progresse you have made in Charity In Epist â— Joan. tract 9. Examin your-self upon these Words of St. John The Perfection of our Love towards God consists in having an entire Confidence in him for the day of Judgment So that Charity is perfect in all them who have this Confidence What is it to have this Confidence for the day of Judgment 'T is not to dread its comming Some there are who do not believe this day will come I speak not of these impious Wretches for what likelyhood is there that they can either desire of dread that which they believe will never come to pass Epist 1. Joan. c. 4. v. 18. But as soon as a man begins to believe the day of Judgment he must also begin to fear it True it is that so long as he only fear's it he hath not yet Confidence because he is not replenish'd with this Charity which animates Faith Nevertheless this Fear ceases not to produce excellent Effects It is a beginning of Mortification and of good Works and it ordinarily falls out that by these exercises of Virtue they come to desire what formerly they only dreaded Then a Soul looks no longer upon that last day but as the first of her Happiness nor doth she go against her own Sen timents when she Prays-saying Lord Let your Kingdom come In effect He who fears lest the Kingdom of God should come fears also lest his Prayer should be heard Judg now in what manner one Prays when one fears to obtain what one demands whereas he who Prays with that Considence which perfect Charity gives him desires effectually that what he demands may be speedily granted him We may therefore say that there are yet some imperfect persons to whom Sufferings and Death serve only for an exercise of their Patience and of their Courage and who are not yet strong enough to desire to Suffer or to Die These because they desire to live longer simply suffer Death when it befalls them But there are others more perfect who are so unfetter'd from Life that in lieu of loving it as a good thing they endure it as an Evil. All that the former can do is to conquer the repugnance of Nature and to submit themselves to the Will of God because finally they like rather to conform themselves to what he hath ordained concerning them than to leave themselves to be transported with a bootless weakness in following their own will Thus altho ' the desire of this present Life struggles in their Heart against the necessity of Dying yet they arm themselves with Fortitude and with Patience to receive Death with Peace and with Submission One may say That the Christians who are in this Estate suffer Death with Patience But the Others who desire with the Apostle that their Souls may be untyed from their Bodies to be united to Christ Jesus are not content to suffer Life as a necessary Evil but they receive Death it self with Joy as a great Good because they find nothing in this present Life but subjects of Disquiet and of Sorrow and that they find in Death the end of all these
difficulty to undeceive themselves from the vanities of the World to contemn Life and even to take an extreme pleasure in seeking after Death because they are assured that no one can be perfectly happy S. Gregory of Nazian untill he dies for Christ Jesus and untill he reigns with him in his Heavenly Kingdom St. Gregory of Nazian in his Funeral Orations furnishes excellent thoughts concerning the obligations which Christians have to despise Life and to desire Death and particularly in the Elogium he composed for his Brother Cezarius WHen I consider the happiness which our Kindred have acquired by dying and the little they have lost in loosing this unhappy Life so far am I from afflicting my self that I feel my self transported with joy and I say to God When shall it be O Lord that you will take us as you have them out of this strange Land and that we shall go into our lovely Countrey to joyn our selves with them who are there arrived before us When shall it be that Death shall put us in a condition to partake with them the pleasures of Paradise and to lead together an eternally happy Life In effect my Brethren what can we expect during the short time which remains of our Life but to see day after day more miseries to-suffer more evils and to câ—mmit more Sins than we have hitherto committed 'T is therefore this consideration and not the loss of our Freinds 't is the danger of offending God to which we are exposed during our Life and not the grief for their Death which ought to be the true subject of our Tears Let 's weep my Brethren but let us weep as David did for that our Pilgrimage is prolonged Le ts afflict our selves for that our Exile is not ended Le ts weep because we love a Life subject to so many miseries and which incessantly exposes us to lose the Grace of God This is my Brethren a just cause 〈◊〉 our sighs and tears 〈◊〉 therefore sigh over our selves with the holy Apostle and let us say 2 Cor. c. 4. and 5. This base Cottage built of clay wherein we now lodg shall it never be destroy'd Shall we not soon dwell in that other house which is not made by the hand of man and which shall endure eternally For how long shall we yet ly oppress'd under the weight of this mortal Body And till when must we trayl after us in all places a living Sepulcher where our Soul is as it were buried in the Flesh and infected with a corruption greater than that of reall Graves 〈◊〉 my Brethren if the â—â—â—th of Sin is not the subject of your griefs and affliction you have no subject that is legitimate But that which ought to cover us with shame is That we love this Life all miserable as it is and that we make much of this Body which detain's our Soul captive 'T is true that we are unwilling to offend God but we are willing to continue in a state of offending him at least 't is that which we desire when we desire to Live Do you then know for what a true Christian ought not to afflict himself I repeat it over again to you a true Christian ought not to afflict himself 〈…〉 he lives too long 〈…〉 thing that delays his 〈◊〉 delays also his happiness but what happiness A happiness which is pure in its enjoyment immense in its greatness and eternal in its duration Finally a happiness which comprehends the possession of God himself and which consequently surpasses the intilligence and the desire of man Behold that which ought to make us sigh without creasing towards Heaven and to say with the Prophet Psal 118 v. 81. My Soul languishes O Lord she falls almost into a swoun in the expectation of your Salvation For my own part through 〈…〉 of God I fear 〈…〉 my Body should 〈◊〉 since it's nature is to be perishable I am perswaded that the ruine of that which is materiall and terrestriall in me cannot chuse but be very advantagious unto me Let 's leave to the wicked the care to flatter a Body which kills the Soul and which one cannot keep long alive Those unhappy wretches tast not the goods of the Spirit because they have no feeling of Hope for another Life And surely I do not at all wonder that they place their soveraign good in this mortall Life in Health in good cheer and in the other pleasures of the senses But for us my Brethren who are convinced that all those goods are but vanity and that they will be dissipated in less time than the dew of the morning let us say with the Apostle would to God that by a lively Faith and by an ardent Charity I had so mortified my Body that it were not capable to detain my Soul for if I could totally bury my self with Christ Jesus I should be assured to be resuscitated and to live with him eternally Article IX S. Gregory Nisse St. Gregory Bishop of Nisse hath made a Discourse to shew That we should be so far from lamenting them who go forth of this Life that we ought to envy and desire their happiness He proves this Truth by many reasons which we give in brief and in the end be explicates it by an excellent comparison of the state of men in this present Life wiih the state of an Infant enclosed in his Mothers Belly He says afterwards That they who lament the Death of their Neighbour or who are afraid to die are as little reasonable as Children who cry when they are born into the World because they are not sensible of the happiness they have in being delivered out of the most dismal of all Prisons THey who excessively afflict themselves at the Death of their Kindred and Friends Orat. de mortuis To 3. are for the most part very weak Spirits who suffer themselves to be ledd by the movings of Nature and of Custom They weep ordinarily because 't is the custome to weep upon such occasions They grieve for themselves in the person of another because in losing him they lose some advantage which they reaped from him or else they weep because they fancy a false honour of appearing to be of a tender and good nature There is moreover a certain pleasure in Tears and one delights to draw compassion or esteem from others by weeping Finally in whatever manner we weep over the Dead 't is always a weakness and we should never fall into it if we gave our selves time to consider That the orders of Providence are unalterable and that human things change incessantly For is it not a folly to grieve for the Dead as if they could have lived always and to live so as if one were never to die To get forth of this errour we need only to consider a little the difference there is between the solid and infinite goods we hope for in heaven and Goods so vain and so short
which we possess upon Earth and we shall clearly see That if Christians ought to weep 't is not for that their Friends are too soon dead but for that they themselves live too long For the greatest of all miseries is to languish in the World amidst all manner of Evils and to be for a long time deprived of the happiness which those very Freinds possess whose loss we lament I demand therefore of you my Brethren in the first place wherein do you believe that Mans soveraign Good doth consist For if we will reason acccording to the Rules of Christian Phylosophy the only Good which deserves to be eall'd Good is that which belongs to all and for always The Pagan Phylosophy which reasons only upon false lights gave formerly the name of Good to such things as regard only either mens Bodies of their Fortunes But is it not a horrid blindness to establish the soverain Good in Beauty in Strength in Dexterity and in such other like exteriour Qualities These wise profane people did they not perceive that these things which are given but to a few diminish with age perish in a short time and are accompanied with so many misfortunes that one must be very stupid not to aspire after a better happiness Did they not see I say what we now see That Riches Dignities and even Crowns which without doubt raise men to the highest pitch of this false Felicity pass from one Family to another that the most elevated Thrones fall down to the ground that the most glittering Fortune is but a smoke which is dissipated in an instant and which leaves nothing else behind it but the smut of the bad actions which were done to acquire it These men who affected the name of Wise were they senseless enough not to know That the best grounded Glory is subject to the darts of Detraction and that the people by one and the same capriciousness sets up and pulls down the reputation of the greatest men If one makes use of Treasures they are consumed if one hides them they are useless But what matters it whether it be Covetuousness or Prodigality which makes us poor since the miseries which accompany poverty are not so unsupportable as are the disquiets which attend upon riches Finally these Wise persons who had so great a knowledge of human things could they not comprehend that all the Goods of this Life are meer illusions they who had every day the experience thereof Ha my Brethren it was because Faith did not clear them it was because in the darkness of Paganism Pride being the soul of all their thoughts and of all their actions they sought in themselves a Good which cannot be found without renouncing those false Goods and ones own self It is not so with Christians they seek their soveraign happiness in Humility in the contempt of Life and in their self-annihilation because they are perswaded that one possesses all in possessing God and one possesses not him but by uncloathing ones self of all things and by consequence that one must make no other provision for Heaven but that of good Works For there one shall neither suffer hunger nor cold nor the injuries of Ayr nor the cruelties of the wicked One shall not there be embusied in labouring nor in sowing the earth in sayling on the Sea in building Palaces in traficking in pleading in filling the Spirit with Sciences in inventing laws nor in causing them to be kept There will neither be War nor Process nor Tyranny nor Malady nor Poverty and as the Goods there will be without end and without mixture so nothing can there either corrupt or change them Surely when I consider the weakness of them who afflict themselves for their Freinds departure out of the world and who themselves fear to follow them I cannot sufficiently admire it If a man after he had pass'd the time of his tender Youth in an obscure Prison and liv'd as it were in a continuall night should be displeas'd with them who obtain'd his liberty to go forth to contemplate the Sun the Starrs the Earth cover'd with fruits and the other Beauties of the Univers and finally to place him in a full liberty what would you think of this man who had such strange humours Without doubt my Brethren you would believe that he had lost his Wits and you would strive to cure him of so extravagant a folly Permit me to tell you that your selves are in the same state and that your errour is perhaps more deplorable than his You are displeas'd at the happiness which your Freinds enjoy in being delivered out of this miserable Prison of the Body and your selves fear to go forth of it to go to contemplate in his glory the Creator of the Sun of the Starrs and of all the Beauties of the Universe For my part I avouch to you that I cannot conceive the cause of so great a straying in the human spirit unless it is that the criminal curiosity of the first man hath plunged all his posterity in such a profound ignorance that men know not even what is convenient for them One may say that we are become like unto a Child who being yet shut up in his Mothers Belly hath not so much as the use of his Senses This Child hath Eyes and he sees not he hath Ears and he hears not he hath a rational Soul and he knows not he neither understands what he is nor what must become of him finally he hath no knowledg of Life which nevertheless is the sole Good in which he ought to be concerned Is it not true that if this Child could reason he would surely judge that Nature had not furnished him with all these faculties and all these organs to be always deprived of their functions That having a Mouth he was not to be nourished like a Plant That having Feet and Hands and all the other parts which compose his Body he was not design'd to be always a lump of Flesh nor to live among nastinesses and to be close shut up in a Dungeon Is it not true I say that by making these reflexions he would assuredly come to the knowledge of the Life he was to lead upon Earth But because this Child doth not reason that which should rejoyce him afflicts him he receives as an Evil all the advantages of his birth and of his liberty and as if he lost a great Good in going forth of his Mothers Belly he complains as soon as he comes into the World Behold if I am not deceived an image very much resembling these weak men whom I undertook to convince Now if there is any of them who hear me who is of the number of those blind persons who will not see the light Ah my dear Brethren I conjure you to take some compassion of his blindness 'T is surely a shame for a Christian to lament for the Death of his Freinds and to fear his own Death This weakness is only
the Holy Martyrs who expose not themselves to die but in hopes to live the Body dies for a time and the soul lives for an eternity Ah my Brethren let us beware of being like to them who live outwardly being dead within Let us desire to be rather of the number of those happy Dead who die in apparence to live in effect This was the sentiment of St. Paul in those celebrious Words I desire to be disengaged from the bonds of this Body Philip. 1.23 and to be with Christ Jesus It was also the thought of David when he exclaims in one of his Psalms Alas Psal 119.5 how irksom is my exile I live here as a Stranger my Soul is troubled to remain so long among the Enemies of peace Behold this is properly the state of the Predestinate who are afflicted at their stay upon Earth among the snares and the miseries wherewith this Life is replenished instead of going to enjoy in Heaven those infinit Goods in their full greatness as well as in their eternal duration and which are the sole object of their Hope and of their Desires Article XII The Homelies of St. John Chrysostom are full of excellent Instructions concerning Death We have made choyce of such as seem'd most proper for this Work 1. S. Chrysost Instruction of St. John Chrysostom where he shews what it is to be a Christian and that his principal Character is to desire and to love Death A Christian evermore considers himself upon Earth as a man going onward in his way Hom. 24. in Epist ad Hebr. In Psal 119. and the continual reflexion which he makes upon this quality of a Stranger and of a Traveller Ad Theod lapsum c. 3. is the foundation of all his Virtues For he who hath sojourned upon Earth as a Stranger shall be a Citizen in the Kingdom of Christ Jesus What is the care of a Traveller 'T is to cumber himself with nothing but what is necessary for his journey to take the path which is shortest and most secure to use all the diligence he possibly can and not to fix his heart upon any thing he finds in his way because he reserv's all his affections for his dear Countrey According as he draws nearer to it he feels his impatience encrease to arrive at it and as soon as he discovers it he is so transported with Joy that he forgets the pain he hath endured and the dangers he hath incurred or if he keeps them in his memory 't is but as a valiant Champion remembers his wounds after he hath gain'd the Victory In effect what is it that a Christian can love or fear upon Earth which is not unworthy his affection or his fear Can all the favours of fortune give him a more glorious Title than that of Son of the most High and of Brother of Christ Jesus For 't is Christ Jesus himself who honours with this quality all them who have receiv'd his Word And when the Pharisees say that 't is to commit a Blasphemy to give this honour to men Jesus answers John 10.34 Is it not written in your Law I have said you are Gods Can the Scripture fail Wherefore O Christians labour so long as you please to agrandise your selves in the World Endeavour to become Rich Learned Conquerours Princes Kings if you will Procure even if it is possible that your Kingdom may be extended over the whole Earth what is there in all this which can be compared with the Kingdom which God hath promised you You have therefore nothing to hope for in the World Let us see now what you have to fear Hunger or Thirst say you But hath not God said Mat. 5.6 Blessed are they who are Hungry and Thirsty for they shall be satisfied Is it Poverty He hath also said Blessed are the Poor for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them v. 3. Do you fear Injuries Persecutions Afflictions Sicknesses On the contrary it is Written Rejoyce give your minds to gladness v. 11. and 12. you who endure couragiously all these things for the glory of our Master because you shall receive an ample reward in Heaven You have then nothing else to dread O Christians but the delay of these rewards And what can forward them but Death It is not therefore an Evil as men of the vulgar sort believe on the contrary 't is a Good for them who have Faith not an ordinary Good but the greatest of all transitory Goods For if our soveraign Good is to possess the Celestial Kingdom our greatest Good is surely that which hastens the possession hereof Wonder not therefore after this O you Sensualists if a Christian fully perswaded of these Truths run's to Death with more ardour than you run after Pleasures Be no more surprized that he disdains your promises that he despises your threats that he treads under his feet your Idols and that he triumphs over your Tyranny Know that it shall sooner be drained dry in inventing torments than the constancy of Christians will be shaken with your cruelty because Death is a desirable Good for them who hope another Life and because our Kingdom is not of this World John 18.36 For were our Kingdom of this World we would fight to defend it against our Enemies Nevertheless do not fancy that the Christian remains upon the Earth altogether stupid and insensible as the trunk of a barren tree which expects nothing but the mortal blow which must separate it from its roots 'T is true that the Christian desires Death because it will end his pains but yet he ceases not to make a holy use of Life He employs all the moments thereof in good works but whatever he doth in this Life is only to procure him a happy end of it For these holy Desires of Death do not hinder him from cherishing his Neighbours from serving his Friends from loving his Brethren and from acquitting himself of all Christian duties more faithfully than they who perform them having only profane ends in their Friendships But doth God ordain that he should quit them to come to him he is evermore ready to depart and although according to the resentments of Nature his Heart is as much afflicted in being separated from his Freinds as his Body in being separated from his soul yet he ceases not to desire to be separated from them to the end he may always possess them with God and he prefers this eternal enjoyment before a possession of longest durance from which one can only derive a weak and uncertain consolation Wherefore he says at all times with the Apostle Christ Jesus is my Life and Death is a gain for me Philip. 1.21 Unhappy man that I am Who will deliver me from the bonds of this mortal Body Rom. 7 24. that I may no longer be fastned to any thing but to Christ Jesus 'T is in effect the property of a Christian and of
have yet but very little Virtue and Piety Epist ad Prin. ad Euriam ad Paulinum alibi As Death is the end at which all men must arrive so the thought of Death is a faithfull guide to conduct us with safety unto it For the Scripture hath sayd That if we remember the last days of our Life Eccles. 7.40 we shall never Sin Surely then we run an hazard to sin often if we do not think that we must die We fall into the same misfortune as do those Travellers whom the night hath surprized in a Forrest and who have strayed out of their way Every one of them takes a several track and the farther they go the more they swerve from the right path Christ Jesus hath shew'd us the way He hath said I am the Way and the Truth His Light conducts us amidst the darkness his Voyce calls us He serves us for a guide but 't is by the pathway of sufferings and by the track of Calvary that he leads us and all they who will follow him must as he did carry their Cross and prepare themselves to die This different disposition which men have in regard of Death is the most visible Character of their predestination or of their reprobation And 't is that which Christ Jesus hath shew'd us in the Parable of the Virgins For he says that those five foolish Virgins did not enter to the Marriage of the Bridegroom because they had not put themselves in a readiness to receive him How can one explicate these marriages and this preparation but of the Joy of a Christian Death and of the holy disposition which one ought to have for it He teaches us at the same time that the five Wise Virgins being totally replenished with these holy thoughts deserv'd to have room in the house of the Bridegroom and there to celebrate the Marriage-feast the joy whereof shall last for all Eternity He who would not do good when he could have done it shall be justly punished with an impotency of doing it when he would do it He who would not think of Death during his Life time shall not be able to think of the true Life at the hour of Death And what doth it avail a man to avoid the remembrance of an Evil which he cannot shun and to love that which he is not sure to possess one moment What doth it avail him to adhere to a life which flies from him and to fly from Death which seeks after him Man says the Psalmist Psal 38. spins his days as the Spider spins her Web. Isai 59. After many turns and returns wherein he consumes himself with his own labour Death comes which ruins all his work and then it appears not so much as that he ever was Article XX. St. Jerome teaches us the temper we ought to keep in the disgust of Life and in the desire of Death We have added this passage for the Comfort of good people who naturally fear Death NOthing is more ordinary to man In Amos c. 5. etalibi than to be cast down in afflictions to be weary of living and to wish to die But all they who find themselves in this disposition do they believe that they are for this more perfect than others On the contrary they ought to be asham'd of it as of a defect of Faith and a want of Courage Not but that Life is despicable and that it is even meritorious to contemn it but that we should be so far from conceiving a disgust of it when it is full of afflictions as that we ought then chiefly to cherish it as a means given us by God to do penance If Death is to be desired 't is in a delicious Life where sometimes our condition exposes us to sin as it were against our will 't is in a long prosperity where we may have just cause to sigh for passing our life unprofitably and perhaps criminally upon Earth and for vainly spending the precious time which is only lent us to merit Heaven by our sufferings For my part says the Apostle St. Paul If it is permitted to boast 1. Cor. 12. I averr that I glory of my pains and of my afflictions to the end that the power of Christ Jesus may dwell in me I feel a satisfaction and a joy in my Infirmities in Injuries in Poverty in Persecutions in the pressing Adversities which I suffer for my Saviour and when I am weak 't is then that I find my self most strong The contempt therefore of Life is not always a certain mark of our Faith and of our Piety 't is sometimes a weariness of suffering for God sometimes a sadness which the austerity of devotion casts into the Heart we are asham'd to leave it and we want courage to persevere in it If the Soul is not supported by an extraordinary Grace the disgust of all things and even of Piety it self which is insinuated by little and little and the Imagination which black 's it self by dismal thoughts and by desires of dying brings her to the brinks of Despair Those persons who have lately sequestred themselves from the World are more exposed to this misery than others untill the Divine love hath fill'd up all that emptiness which the separation left in their Spirit For whatever endeavour these persons use Nature never endures the yoak of Grace without violence 't is in vain to tame this Nature by the continuall exercises of piety by mortifications by rigorous penances for that inward Law of the Body evermore resists the law of the Spirit and in the combat which is fought between them although the Spirit gets the victory yet it is sometimes weakned and foyled in its own conquests Then we would die because we find no more pleasure in living and in these sad desires 't is Nature which acts and not Grace Nature is willing to discharge herself of Life as of a Burthen which is to her insupportable Always to fight says she always to languish always to suffer Ah is it not something worse than to be dead I know it by my own experience Brethren and if it may be permitted me to glory in my infirmities and to make use of the terms of the Apostle I would tell you what I have done to quell these revolts and these impatiencies of Nature Eusebius of the Death of S Jerome relating his own Words Finding that the memory of the divertisements of my youth followed me every where as my shadow and troubled my most innocent occupations I shut up my self in a dismal Grot amidst the vast Deserts of Siria where the Rocks scorched with the ardours of the Sun furnish'd our Solitary Hermits with places of retrait which are common to them with the Savage Beasts I confess that I could not enter there without horrour but the occasions of offending God appeared to me more horrible than that Solitude Nevertheless in a dwelling so dreadfull where I nourished my self
only with wild Roots my Imagination ingenious to persecute me ceased not to entertain it self with the delights of the Roman Citty I pass'd the day in sighing and the night in weeping for my Sins But the more I strove to quench with my Tears the secret fire of my Concupiscence the more that rebell was enkindled even in the marrow of my bones If sometimes the wearinesses of my penance forced me to abandon my self to sleep I paid not that tribute to Nature but against my will and to free my self quickly from it I suffer'd my body to fall to the ground it being extenuated with watchings and as it were broken with all sorts of macerations I had no other Pillow than a Stone no other Garment then a Hayr-cloath no other Drink than Water nor other Food than Herbs and Roots and when the weakness of my Stomack obliged me to eat them boyled for a more easy disgestion I durst not satisfy my hunger fearing to commit an excess in making good cheer This Abstinence and the heat of the Climat joyned to the ardour of my temper had dryed me up like a Skeleton and one might have counted all the Nerfs through a Skin more tawny than that of the Ethiopians In this sad estate I had more horrour of my self than of the Scorpions and of the Serpents which were round about me and yet my Spirit would escape on a sodain even amidst my most holy Meditations and quit Prayer to dream of the Roman Dames running over all the assemblies I had frequented formerly where the Devil had laid his mortall Baits to entrap Chastity Then being irritated at the revolt of my Senses which these thoughts had excited against me I massacred my breast with a thousand blows and I left not off striking it untill the Grace of our Lord had calmed my Passions He knows what my sorrow was after such strange Conflicts I blushed with shame Life was insupportable unto me All the corners of my Grot all the Rocks of my Solitude seem'd to me so many Censurers of my Life and so many Witnesses of my Weaknesses For this cause I often chang'd my habitation hoping to find out some one where I might have more quiet but my evil did not change because I bore every where about me the subject of my disquiet I avouch that in the height of my torments I ardently desired to die and that I could have wished it had been permitted me to go forth of the World When one day I was press'd with this thought more violently than I was wont I took up the Book of the sacred Scripture which was my sweetest comfort and as God would have it I fell upon that passage where the Prophet Amos says these terrible Words Joel 2.11 Accursed be they who inconsiderately desire the day of our Lord. Soph. 1.15 Who urges you thus to desire it That day of our Lord is a day without Light Amos. 1.18 a day of darkness and obscurity When you shall be weary of your misery overwhelm'd with infirmities persecuted with temptations rejected by the injustices of others when you shall be disgusted with the whole World and irksom to your self expect the hour of our Lord with patience Amos. â— 19 For what doth it avail a man to shun the meeting of a Lion if he falls into the paws of a Bear S. Ierom. It is not in his power to hinder his Soul from going forth when that hour shall be come Eccl. 8.8 and he hath no right to hasten or to slacken the day of his Death After this sacred Instruction I suffered Life patiently being resolv'd to employ all the moments thereof in doing good works and being perswaded that we may well desire Death but that it is not permitted us to advance or further it nor even so much as to demand it of God with overmuch impatience because although we ought to contemn Life yet we must not omit to conserve it Article XXI An Excellent Instruction of the same St. Jerome That Death ought to be looked on as an order of the Divine Providence rather than as an effect of human Infirmity and that so we ought to die by Obedience and by Love A True Christian looks upon Death not only as upon a subject of consolation Lib. 9. in Isaiam alibi but moreover as upon an object of love and of respect because it must be granted that it is God who makes us live and die when he pleases and that the end of our days is more an effect of the Divine Will than of human infirmity For if the fall of the least Sparrows happens not without the order of God as himself says in the Gospell we ought to believe by a stronger reason That the last fall of our Body never happens but according to the immutable decree of his Will We should therefore look on Death with Love considering it as an effect of the eternal Providence We must take from it that which Nature finds horrible in it and think that God sends it not to them whom he loves but to the end they should always love him In effect the greatest testimony he can give them of his love is to withdraw them out of the World and to free them from the slavery of their Body and of Sin to render them Saints and make them eternally happy I say yet much more we are in some sort made partakers even upon Earth of this happiness when we submit to his will with this Confidence And as the last mark we can give of our Love towards God is to receive Death with an entire Obedience and even with Joy when it summons us to go forth of the World so the most perfect act of our Faith and of our Piety towards Christ Jesus is to resign our selves before hand to what ever God shall ordain of our Life and of our Death Let us therefore with David say to him Ps 89. Behold we are ready O Lord Cut of the threed of our miserable Life when you please And surely what is the duration of our days They pass away more speedily than the Word We live ordinarily but Seaventy Years and the stronger scarcely pass Fourscore But should our Life endure a Thousand years before your eyes a Thousand years are no more then yesterday which is past and gone Death hurries them away as a Whirlwind and they disappear as a Dream So that how long soever our Life is it will be counted for nothing unless it is pleasing to you Grant then Sap. 3. O Lord that we may count our days by our Good Works and that we may know their shortness to the end we may acquire Wisdom of Heart Article XXII St. Jerome or the Authour of some Epistles attributed to him which are placed at the end of his Works urges this Doctrine yet farther and teaches That a Christian ought not only not to dread Death but that he ought also to