it c. ANswere Neither Dauid nor Ezechias nor the other seruants of God feared death as it was death simply alone considered but for that God threatned them in regard of their sins by reason whereof it seemes they had some confused apprehension of hell which is the second death Doubtlesse my fault is great sayd Dauid but I pray thee saue mee by thy great bounty These are the words of God to Ezechias Dispose of thy house for thou shalt die shortly and shall not liue We must note that Ezekias heart was puft vp with glory God would humble him by the consideration of death wherewith he threatned him But these two and all other the seruants of God setting aside these threats being in the fauour of God haue with Saint Paul desired to die and to be freed from this mortal body to be with Christ with God Man here below should not apprehend any thing but the conscience of another life a life which dying without repentance grace leades to death eternall as that of Saul and Iudas who being desperate slue themselues quenching the match of a vicious life to kindle it in the fire of hell where there is a Lake of fire and brimstone As for the death of Christ the great difference it hath both in the cause and the effects from that of the faithful Christians makes it to differ a world The reason is Gods Diuine Iustice to reuenge the iniury which hath beene done him by the diuell in the nature of man the which not able to do in him without his totall ruine hee hath done in his surety in Iesus Christ his Son whom to that end hee sent into the world to take humaine flesh in the Virgins wombe It is he that was wounded for our offences broken for our iniquities censured to bring vs peace and slaine to cure vs as the Prophet speakes and the Apostles testifie The fruites first the glory of God is manifested in his loue in his bounty and in his mercy towards vs to haue so loued the world as to giue his owne Son to death for it to the end that whosoeuer did beleeue in him should not perish but haue life euerlasting as the same eternal Son doth witnes Secondly it is our saluation the redemption of the Church from sinne and death for it is the Lambe of God which taketh away the sinnes of the world And these are the reasons why Iesus Christ was terrified in death feeling the wrath of God vpon him for our sinnes But the death of the faithfull is nothing like for in the greatest torments which Tyrants can inflict vpon them it mortifies the sence and takes away all paine by the abundance of his consolation as Ruffinus writes of Theodorus and as our Annales testifie of the smiling death of Martirs in the middest of burning fiers for God is satisfied the passage is open the venimous teeth of death are pulled out seeing that the Lord wrestling with her hath slaine her as S. Augustine speakes and like a most expert Phisition hath made a wholesome Treacle to purge our bodies of those corrupt burning stincking and deadly humors and to make it sound holy impassible and immortall The second Obiection Euery iust reward is proportionable to the paine The reward of Martyrsis great Therefore their paine is great THe holy Writ and the ancient Fathers vpon it beare witnesse of the honour and great triumph which the Martyrs obtaine in heauen if their conflict against death bee answerable to this triumph as equity requires it must bee exceeding great and therefore it is no easie thing to dye the which S. Augustine seemes to confirme Si nulla esset mortis amaritudo non esset magna Martyrum fortitudo If saith hee there were no bitternesse in death the Martyrs valour should not be great Answer He is truely a Martyr who for the honour of God and for the loue of his neighbour doth constantly seale the contract of the alliance of God with his owne bloud and the true cause of Martyrdome is to suffer death for iustice and for the name of Christ as Christians and in doing well This bloud thus shed is the true seede of the Church the very Commentary of the holy Scripture the Trompet of Gods glory the true Victory of the cruelty and obstinacy of Gods enemies the holy Lampe to lighten and draw to the Kingdome of Christ those which are in the shaddow of death c. In consideration whereof these holy Champions of the faith are honored in heauen with a Crowne of gold clothed with white garments c. Vpon earth in the primi tiue Church vpon the day of their suffring which they called their birth-day the faithfull assembled vpon the place of their Martyrdome did celebrate their happy memory repeated their combates commended their resolution exhorting the assistants to doe the like if they were called to the like combate as well by reading of their bloody history as by the sight of the place where their blood was newly spilt It is that which Cyrillus in the epistle to Smyrne the Paraphrase of Rufynus doth teach vs wherein we may see that it was not the death but the cause of the death which made them to bee so recompenced and recommended And whatsoeuer they haue had in heauen shall bee giuen to all others which shall haue the like will to serue their master though not the effect the like Crowne nor the like garments To mee saith that great Martyr S. Paule the Crowne of Iustice is reserued which the Lord the iust Iudge shall giue mee in that day and not onely to me but vnto all those that shall loue his Comming And what Christian is it that desires not the comming of Christ It is also written that all the Armies which are in heauen wherein all the faithfull are followed the faithfull the true the Word of God vpon white horses clad in white Cypres Finally in this inestimable reward which God giues vnto Martyrs there is not so great a regard had to the merit and grieuousnesse of their death as to the most precious blood of his Sonne Iesus Christ and to his free promise wherefore this Obiection is to no purpose and if it were it doth incite men more to desire then to refuse death if it bee true that the enduring of the first death in the Saints is a freeing frō the second as Saint Augustine teacheth The third Obiection It is impossible but man should be toucht with a great apprehension of euery sharpe combate he is to endure Such is death MAn hath three cruell enemies which present themselues vnto him at his last farewell a sensible paine at the dissolution of the foule from the body sinne represents vnto him heauen gates shut and hell open and Satan tempts him and lets him see his criminall Inditement whereof he is ready to execute the sentence Answer It is
doe it but he wil neuer do it or very seldome to shew his infinit power by miracle Let vs in the end say That seeing death is ineuitable it must needs follow that the feare of it is vnprofitable On the other side let vs adde that mās life is not to be cut off before the time therefore a carefull waywardnesse to prolong it auailes nothing the Destinies which haue resolued immutably to spinne it out till such a time they will doe it feare it not and in the danger of death will rather shew a miracle to preserue thee as to the Poet Simonides who supping with Scopas in a Towne of Thessalie word was brought him that two young men were at the dore to speake with him the Poet went forth but found no body at the doore but hee heard a great noyse of the chamber which sunke downe and smothered Scopas and al his guests in the ruins We reade that Gelon then a young Infant but appointed to liue longer to gouern Sicile was drawne out of the like but a stranger danger for as hee was at schoole in the presence of his master and many of his companions behold a great Wolfe enters into the school comes to Gelon layes hold of his booke and drawes it by the one end Gelon without amazement holds fast and rather suffers himselfe to bee drawne forth by the Woolfe then to let goe his hold and in the meane time the building happened to sinke and ouerwhelmed both Master and schollers Thus God shewes his prouidence preseruing by his Angels those whom he pleaseth from present and most eminent dangers So would hee saue Lot and his family from the fire of heauen almost against their will For it is written that the Angels tooke them and thrust them out of Sodome yea it is written that the Angell executioner to shew the force of prouidence told Lot that he could not doe any thing vntill hee were retired into a towne adioyning which was afterwards called Zohar into the which he was no sooner entred but the Eternall powred downe fire and brimstone vpon Sodome and Gomorah We reade of Titus Vespasian that two famous knights had conspired to kill him whereof he was aduertised but making no shew thereof he tooke them by the hands led them forth to walke and hauing called for two swords he gaue to eyther of them one as prouoking them to that which they had resolued but being amazed both of the manner and of the Emperours courage You see sayth he that destinie doth iustly hold the principalitie of the world and that in vaine men practise murthers against it be it through hope to purchase greatnesse or for feare to lose it Let vs therefore acknowledge that it is not of vs but of the word of destinie which God hath pronounced that the lengthening or shortning of our liues depends The great God is to vs a God of strength to deliuer vs and the issues of death belong vnto the Eternal therefore the Apostle sayd that Christ is dead and risen againe that he might haue power ouer the dead and the liuing and therfore this vexing care of life nor that great horror of Death cannot profit vs any thing Let vs then leaue these things and finishing our course resolutely ioyfuly let vs yeeld al into the hands of our soue raigne Master neither to tempt him nor to despaire of him for both the one and the other are equally hateful vnto him and if our soule puft vp with the vent of temptation be desquiet within vs let vs say vnto it with Dauid My soule returne vnto thy rest feare nothing Euery kinde of death of them that are beloued of God is precious in his sight verie precious sayeth S. Bernard as being the ende of labour the consummation of the victorie the port of life and the entrie to perfect felicitie The first Obiection If Death did flow from the enchayned order of destinie we should not see it without order sometimes to goe slowly sometimes to runne headlong But that is vsually seene Therefore it seemes not to flow from destinie THe vnequall Issue of life which we see happen to men doth not alter but rather corroborate destinie it is the immutable decree of the Eternal he sees who should amend or impaire in this life he that hath made all for his glory euen the wicked for the day of calamitie And therefore he soone tooke vp Enoch to himself lest that malice shold corrupt his spirit sayth the text Contrariwise if Constantine the Great who was cruel in his youth had beene cut off he had not bin a Christian neither had hee so much extended the kingdome of Christ. There is yet another reason which is the deliuerance of good men from the miseries of the world when death comes I will gather thee vp with thy fathers sayd God to Iosias the good King to the end thy eyes may not see all the miseries which I will bring vpon this place On the other-side a long life is a great languishing to the wicked So Caine after his parricide committed was cursed of God and liuing so pursued by the Iudgement of God as he often cried out that his punishment was insupportable and therefore hee should wander vpon the face of the earth and that whosoeuer should finde him would kill him but God prouided setting a brand vpon his fore-head to the end no man should slay him But how comes it that the death of some is suddaine as the shot of an harquebuze cānot bee more suddaine and so long in others which languish of some long infirmitie I answere that to search into the Counsells of God which is properly the destiny wherof we speake is more infinite then to seeke the bottome of a gulph That great Apostle rapt vp to the third heauen finds nothing but depths incomprehensible Iudgements and wayes impossible to be found out Rom. 11. Moreouer I do not see to speake truely that death is more suddaine to one then to an other is it to them that being sound and vigorous are so strooken as they die presently Yet being thus strooken they know not whether they should suruiue it or no seeing some one hath escaped being thus stroken Wherefore I do not see that death is more slow to one then to an other Is it to them that lie bedred 10. or 20. yeares yea and what know they whether they shal die the first day they take their beds To conclude I say that seeing the comming of death is imperceptible and that it is impossible for any man to say assuredly I am dead or I shal suruiue that death cannot be suddaine or slow to any man other men iudge after the euent but not before And therefore it seemes to mee that the question which is made whether a languishing death or a suddaine be most to be desired is in vaine for that we shall find that death is suddaine to all men seeing it comes
some one returnes from market saith S. Augustin sound and lustie who falling breaks a leg whereof hee shall dye Who semes better assured then he that is set in a strong chaire yet vpon some troublesome newes hee may be disquieted fall and breake his necke Another laughing eating and drinking shal be suddenly surprized with an Apoplexie rising from some vnknowne cause and dye presently What receptacle seemes more safe and commodious for hunters that are wearie and full of sweat and dust then a cleane house with a good fire And yet a Prince with his traine thinking to retire him to such a place found himselfe in such dāger of death in the morning as he could not escape without the losse of his nayles that fell away by the vehemencie of his paine and two of his company found smotheredin the morning whence thinke you proceeded the cause of this strange Accident It was from the wall newly plastered which cast forth a virulent vapor which together with the smoake of a great cole fire fumed vp into the head dispersed his poyson throughout all the members of their bodies Who could haue foreseene this accident but too late Ammianus Marcellinus reports tho like to haue happened to the Emperour Iouinian who was found smothered in the mor ning by the like poyson And to conclude what seemes freer from breaking then a head lying in the shadow far from any house yet it hap pened that the Poet Aeschilus being so retired an Eagle flying in the ayre thinking his bald head had bene a flint stone let fal a Tortose to break it and to haue the meate but falling downe it brake the skull os poore Aeschilus The first Obiection That which shall not happen vnto vs is not to bee accounted among our miseries But these misfortunes shall not happen vnto vs c. THese miseries if it pleaseth God shall not befall vs but where is that warrant from heauen to assure vs The comicall Poet saith That man cannot be exempt from any humane accident No man liuing can say without warrāt This shal not happen vnto mee saith Menander What befalls to one thinke it may happen to thee saith Seneca for thou art a man and therefore retaine this and thinke of it not to be deiected in aduersity nor puft vp in prosperity but haue alwayes before thine eyes the liberty of fortune as being able to lay vpon thee all the miseries shee holds in her hand Man is in continuall warre vpon earth Is there not a course of warre ordayned for mortall men vpon earth saith Iob. If he be freed from his enemies abroad let him beware of some treacherous Synō at home Be alwaies ready sayd Iesus Christ for you know not the day nor the houre no man is no more assured against death then the bird is against the shot of a harquebuze God would saith S. Augustine that wee should watch continually But if changing thy tune thou thinkest that thy neighbour is not afflicted like thy selfe and that hee is much more happy thou art much deceiued Euery man feeles his owne griefe Herodotus hath seene it and written it saying That if all men liuing laden with their owne miseries had brought them together vpon one heape to exchange with them of their neighbours hauing well weighed them and viewed them euery man would willingly carry backe his owne Without doubt this present life is so full of miseries that in comparison thereof death seemes a remedy A long life is but a long torture saith S. Augustine And what other opinion can wee haue seeing that Iesus Christ who was giuen vs for a perfect president is neuer propounded vnto vs laughing but somtimes weeping as when hee approched the Tombe of his friend Lazarus and when as he wept vpon the ingratefull Citie of Ierusalem and therefore the Apostle saith That in the dayes of his flesh hee offered himselfe with great cries and teares to him who could saue him from death What is that but to shew vs that this life is not worthy of ioy but of lamentation not of laughter but of crying as the Philosopher Heraclitus doth esteeme it who alwayes with a weeping voice did lament the estate of this life The second Obiection It is a cowardly consideration not to be willing to die but to cease to liue This reason hath that consideration TO denounce death to end the miseries of this life is sayth one to pro pound a carnall end to the liking of sensuality Vpon death sayth another the priuation of thislife there is no Cataplasme but of a better life for the losse of earth but the enioying of heauen Answere Death is the corruption of the flesh and a priuation of all the sences to the end therefore that the remedy may be proportionable to the flesh it must also be fleshly sensible and palpable I grant that in retiring ourselues we must not think only to fly from humaine miseries but rather to draw neere to diuine fauours But betwixt doing and duty who doth not at this day see an infinite distance That elect vessell of the holy Ghost that great Apostle Saint Paul seeles a Law in his members fighting against the Law of his vnderstanding He complaines there was a thorne thrust into his flesh the angel of Satan did buffer him what is this but the relikes of sin of infirmity distrust what glosse soeuer they will set of it If Saint Paul were such a one what then are we poore dwarses wauering and staggering let vs not flatter and seduce our selues for our workes discouer vs O God fortifie vs and make thy holy Spirit to reigne in vs and attending the happy effect of diuine promises let vs meditate of the Testament sealed with the bloud of Christ. But if the horror of death which doth threaten vs of euery side comes to hinder our holy meditations let vs vanquish it by the darts of reason this may be done and it is that we ought to doe The Surgion which hath sercht a wounde hath applied a fit Cataplasime hath made his patient without passion or paine is to be cō-mended The Philosopher which hath examined the naturall death hath found o◅t the cause of the feare it giues hath accomodated reasons fit to take awaie this feare and to assure mans courage is not to be contemned I know well that hee which through death hath made vs see the life eternall hath done more but this worke is of God and not of men and if the sacred word of the eternall God doe it not no humaine voice can doe it But doe you say there is no Catap◅sme fit for the losse of a pleasant life but the hope of a better Answer You presuppose two suppositions heere which are not First that life is full of pleasures Secondly that in death wee haue a feeling of the losse against that which hath beene and shab be said to the which I will send
apparitions shadowes and walking spirits to wrestle with them The statue of Nicon the wrestler borne at Tasos did witnesse it without words when as one who had enuied and hated Nicon at the sight of this statue fell into his old spleene which he had borne him liuing who taking a staffe layd vpon the image to despight the memory of Nicon the image to bee reuenged of this affront fell vpon him with all his weight and crusht him to death This was an accident but it was well and iustly ordained But behold another more euident Fabia wife to the Emperour Heraelius Being carried dead to her tombe it happened that a maiden by mischance did spit out at a window vpon the body for which she was taken burnt in the same fire that was prepared to reduce the body of Fabia to ashes In such recommendation they had in those dayes the honor of the dead The rage of Sylla is iustly held detestable who not content to haue done all the violence he could to his enemies whilest they liued after their death would draw their bones out of their graues and cast them into the riuer The death of the Saints is pretious before God let vs also say the death of vertuous men is pretious before men and if any one hath bene blemished in his life it should be buried in his graue Lewis 11. of France a great King hath verified it in his owne person towards his enemy the faire Agnes whom some of those times supposed that the Kings Father had entertained After her death she was intoÌ„bed in the Church of the Castle of Laches and by reason of a certaine rent shee gaue vnto it her body was layd in the middest of the Quire Lewis comming thither some time after there was suite made vnto him by a Priest that hee would suffer them to remoue that Tombe to some other place for that it did incomodate them The King beeing informed who lay there answered That which you demand is vniust although this woman were in her time very opposite vnto me yet will I not violate her Sepulcher Moreouer I cannot conceiue that you haue laid this body in so eminent 〈◊〉 place without some rich present performe that to your Benefactor being dead which you promised her being alâ—… and remooue her not from thence to bind you more strictly towards her I giue you for an increase sixe hundred pounds starling If this were done in a life which was blemished what shall it bee in one that is all pure and vntainted If it be obserued towards them that dye a drie death how much more towards them that are vniustly slaine by Tyrantâ—… Behold a memorable history among many which intimates that God hath a watchfull eye ouer them Perdinand fourth Mâ—…g of Spaine transported with choler vppon a suspition ill grounded for a murther committed commanded two bretheren of the house of 〈◊〉 to bee throwne headlong from the top of a rocke Going to their execution these Gentlemen protest and crie out that they dye innocents and seeing the Kings eares were shut vp to their iust defence they cited him to apear within 30. dayes before the soueraigne Iudge The dayes run on and the King is carelesse vntill that vpon the 30. day hee found himselfe seazed at the first but with a light infirmity but it increased so suddainely as hee dyed the same day Consider hereof you to whom honour is more pretious then life and who liuing feele the stings of Enuy and slander more then your bodies are followed with their shaddowes Take comfort heerein for God by your death will preuent these vniust pursuites and make an end of these iniurious taxations Enuy assaults the man liuing but lying in the bed of death she leaues him at rest as the Poet saith and then due honour is giuen to men of merit O you which meditate day and night on your learned writings writings either to chase away ignorance or to reforme men deformed with all sorts of vices in this debaucht age faint not for any malice they beare you liuing death will smother this rancor consume this enuy we see it daily and before vs Cate the Cenfor did taxe it sharpely I know saith hee that many ignorant of true honour will traduce my writings if I publish them but I let their babling fall to the ground meaning the graue whereas the sharpest stings of slander are abated and buried and the bookes which during the life of their Authors durst not looke vpon the light no more then Owles after their death flie out like young Eagles and behold the Sunne Obiection Whatsoeuer God and men hold to be euill is euill God and men iudge death to be euill Ergo c. THIS Argument is grounded vpon the Diuine Oracle pronounced to Adam That day thou shalt eate of the fruite of the tree of knowledge of good and euill thou shalt die the death the Apostle saies that Death is the reward of sin As for men in Cities wel gouerned their lawes impose the punishment of death for theeues murtherers sedicious c. I answer That death in her beginning is bad but not in her deriuation but it is good in respect of his power and wisedome who drawes light from darkenes good from euill life from death for now by the blessing of God death serues as a ladder to the faithfull to ascend vp into heauen So the diuersity of tongs sent at the building of the Tower of Babel proceeded from the fury of God kindled against the builders to frustrate their enterprize Yet the same tongs haue bene since imparted to the Apostles vpon White-sonday by the fauour of God thereby to haue the mysteries of the Lord declared So garments were inuented in token of the losse of our naked Innocency and yet in continuance they are become an honorable ornament for our bodies as wee see Euen so in the beginning God sent death in his fury and since he sent it in fauour to Enoch to Iosias and to all them hee loues The holy Ghost speaking by the penne of Salomon sayth that hee more esteemes the dead which are already dead then the liuing which are yet liuing As for malefactors death is not inflicted vpoÌ„ theÌ„ as it is simply death but for two reasons adiaceÌ„t the one is that depriuing them of all motion it makes them cease to commit any more euill frees the Country of such vermine The other that it is imposed for a publike infamy and therefore they are set vpon scaffolds and gibbets in publike place this deserued infamy is the true torment of the punishment death is but an accident and do wee not see many delinquents desire an honorable graue more then life the which they would not do if they held death to bee the worst of euills and not rather an extreame dishonor in which they feele their soules to suruine Bias therefore did answere wittily being demanded which of all
be not directed and animated from aboue he followes that which he should fly and flyes that which he should follow so as he shall neuer hit the white now win the Crowne of Iustice which is the true felicitie of man Let vs then conclude with S. Iohn That what we shal be doth not yet appeare with S. Paul That our life is hidden in Christ That it is in safe keeping and that the ende of this mortall life is the beginning of the immortall Let vs say in the ende that all things haue their Periode that wee are borne to liue We liue to die and wee die to liue againe but without any more turning for the Circle shal be returned to his point and the light of the bodie shall suffer no more eclipse Come then O gentle death which doest make an end of the miseries of this world and beginnest the happinesse of Heauen which dost free vs from mortall paine and bringest vs to enioy immortall good which doest conuert our teares and toyles into ioy rest which doest change our fantasticall treasure into that which is certaine and our temporall into spirituall and eternall Retire then O you deceitfull vanities for the charme of your pleasures cannot preuaile with me who am resolued to die hold your tongue also O vaine deception of Philosophie and humane tradition for I am taught by the death of my Sauiour by his resurrection that my greatest perfection is to acknowledge my imperfection my blindnesse my death in my sinnes and that my greatest happynesse in this world is to obteyne remission of my sinnes and to mortifie my corrupted members to the end that a good death may soone bring mee to the hauen of saluation and eternall life Amen The second Argument taken from the vicious fruits of the extreame feare of death That which breedes many inconueniences in the spirit bodie of man must bee speedily pulled away The extreame feare of death causeth great inconueniences Therefore that must be speedily pulled away SOme one sayed truely speaking of the excessiue apprehension of death that it is the ordinary obiect which troubleth the vnderstanding of man makes him to lose his Iudgement to abandon all duety and to cast himselfe into a shamefull forgetfulnesse of himselfe Let vs. see how Hee that feares death vnmeasurably he must of necessitie feare euery thing that may bring it that is all that hee sees and what he cannot discerne whereas death lyes in ambush whereby it happens that this man doth easily fall into many errours as into foolish superstition thinking by his voluntarie submissions by mâ—…toring of words not vnderstood by adoring of stocks and stones to moue God to pitty him and to turne away death which hee imagines vpon the least accident the flying of a bird or the croaking of a Crow should take him by the throate So we reade of Arislodemus King of the Messeniens who being in warre against his subiects the dogs howled like Woolues and an herbe called Dogstooth grew neere vnto his Altar the which being interpreted by his Soothsayers to bee an ill presage he concoiued such a feare as hee died And as this disordered motion of feare makes men credulous to the words of Satan so doth it make them incredulous to the assured promises of the Eternall the which prouoking the wrath of God in the end hee doth execute vpon them his sentence pronounced against the fearefull incredulous casting them into the Lake burning with fire and brimstone which is the second death Apocal. 21. O how fitly then did Saint Augustine say that by too much fearing the temporall death they did ingulfe themselues in the eternall a fearefull man not onely makes himselfe a slaue to fantasticall diuinity but also a bondman to any one that is subiect vnto him said King Lew. 11. who to assure himself against death shut himselfe vp solitarie at Plessis neere Tours yet could he not bee confident the opening of a doore amazed him he hated all those he suspected and he suspected all the world his most confident were dismisss and put from his person and hee remayned alone melancholie dreaming froward and chollericke nothing pleased him but onely displeasure he grew iealous of his sonne-in-law of his owne Sonne and his Daughter only his Phisitian possest him controlled him and kept him in awe with his words threatning death I know well said hee swearing a great oath that one of these mornings you will send mee away with the rest but you shall not liue eight dayes after Thus this imperious seruant kept his King captiue Thus this King lost his liberty more pretious then his life for maintaining whereof good men should alwaies striue Wherunto Seneca had reference when he sayd that the vilest death was to bee preferred before the honestest seruitude for that this liberty cannot safely confish but in the contempt of death as Agis King of Lacedemon taught him that demanded an assured liberty of him and in truth â—…hee that feares not death may passe freely like a Knight without feare who shall hinder him seeing the extremâ—… dangers of death cannot amaze him Moreouer fearefull persons are the ruine of States and Commonalties for in the least daÌ„gers through feare and the threats of great men they yeeld easily to a mischiefe and subiect themselues to the fauour of the wicked and the will of the base multitude Thirdly a man that trembles so at the apprehension of death runnes into assured misery which depriues him of all pleasure of life makes his facewrincle and grow pale before his time Which the Italian Gentleman will verifie who being imprisoned vpon a certaine accusation and receiuing newes that without all doubt he should lose his head the next day the feare of one night did so trouble his braine and distempered his body with shaking as he became all gray and worne But ô miserable men after all your shifts and escapes in the end you must come and yeeld your selues at the Port of Death So much the more miserable I do not call you miserable for that you are subiect vnto death but for your extreame feare that many thinking to free themselues from death haue run head-long into it some thinking to escape haue cast themselues out at a window and broken their neckes others flying their pursuing enemies swords haue leapt like fishes but without fins into a deepe riuer as into an assured Sanctuary where they haue beene drowned Nay besides all this they which thinking still to delay and escape that which they feare so extreamely when they see themselues in the bed of death then doe they vomit out their rage against heauen and exclaime iniuriously against the true God and being desperate they cast themselues into the infernall gulph Let vs conclude with Seneca That the feare of death will neuer profit any liuing man but drawing him into many miseries which are much more to be feared then death it selfe will make him in the
for on that day thou shalt eate of it thou shalt die the death obserue the words from that day for he died not that day but liued long after but from that day being fallen from grace he dyed the spiritual death then what doth this Hebrew phrase to die the death mean but the principall death which is the eternall the second death But this death brought in by Sathan by sin by man hath no power ouer the children of God good men to whom this discourse is onely directed since that it was subdued bound and confined into hell by Iesus Christ our Sauiour as Athanasius hath wel obserued that as the waspe strikes violently against a stone but hurts it not by her incursion but rather bruzeth her selfe and looseth her sting euen so death incountring Christ furiously who is life she could not hold him in her bands but she hath lost her sting so as they whom shee terrified before insult ouer her now So then death simply the laying of the bodie into the ground there to be putrified the way to heauē is good to the good is giuen of God by nature life death are of the Lord sayth wise Ecclesi 11. vers 14. It is he that giues life and death that maks vs to descend into the graue to rise againe saith the Prophetesse Anna. 2. Sam. 2. It is then our good mother that calls vs to death let vs follow and obay her voice seeing we can receiue no harme and how can it bee hurtfull seeing it is the sepulcher of vices and the resurrection of vertues sayth S. Ambrose and how how can it bee dangerous seeing it is that Toad-stone which by his fecret vertue expels and rectifies all vncleane things And in truth as Toades when they are growne olde and heauy with a fat poyson are set vpon by an infinite number of Ants which sucke him and deuour him so as nothing remaines but the said stone which afterwards they may freely handle yea profitably So death hauing beene purged from sinne is now by the almighty power of the Eternall conuerted into a most souereigne remedy against sinne The second Obiection There is not any thing ingenerate in all Creatures by nature in vaine But the feare of death is ingenerate in all Creatures Therefore the feare of death is not in vaine FOr the proofe of this Argument shall suffice the approbation of all Creatures great and small which flye from death the same reason is for man whom the complexion of his flesh being proportionable to the quality of the Elements inclines him to loue the world he may be where he will yet his naturall disposition will draw him towards his countrey although in stead of some sweete liquor which he promised to himselfe hee should drinke wormewood So man beeing borne in the world and accustomed vnto it can hardly leaue it Answer The nature of man doth sometimes affect and abhorre one the same thing but for diuers considerations if he beholds death nakedly there is great feare as we may discouer in many but if he can haue the iudgement and patience to see her attired in her precious ornaments with vertue with heauen gates by the which onely we are brought in of the assured ioy and rest of the minde in the possession whereof shee sets the soule then doe wee affect it and desire it and this desire should be held more natural in man for that it is more proper vnto him seeing it proceeds from the true iudgement of reason which makes him man Moreouer for a more cleare solution of the argument we must distinguish the vniuersall nature from the particular vniuersall nature is that vertue that admirable investigable proportiō infused by God into the Vniuerse the proper Instrument of the principall agent of this soueraigne essence which hauing insinuated into this Chaos the first matter hath brought it in six dayes too this goodly ornament and hath preserued it many thousand of yeares of this nature we de nie that she plants in beasts the feare of that shee giues them that is to say death but as to shew vnto the beasts of the earth al the lights of heauen as well the fixed stars as wandring she turnes about the heauens so to shew vnto heauen all the Creatures she hath giuen the passage returning of life death else it were impossible if as in a tree the dry leaues falling giue place to green that spring so in beasts the first should not giue way to them that follow As for particular nature the very cōplexion of euery one to whom death is so terrible I say it is an ill ordered feare The Order is preposterous when as the particular doth not follow the Law of the generall and it is the ruine of States when as the priuate good is preferred before the publike The Romaine Empire did flowrish when as the Popilij Scipios Fabij and others did choose rather to be poore in a rich estate then rich in a poore estate Euen so is it in the societie of mankind taken in all ages euery one must dispose himselfe to follow this generall order of supreme nature and whosoeuer shall contradict it shall shew himselfe a bad Cittizen of this great Cittie of the world and opposing himselfe let him not therfore think to escape the inexorable destinie of his end but as the bird takē in the limetwig thinking to free her selfe by striuing is caught the faster so man which is ensnared by death the more furiously hee torments himselfe the more he shall aduance the obiect of his torment Let euery one therefore looke vnto his dutie to his children and to them that shall come after to prepare himselfe to giue them place here to tends that great desire the issue of particular nature to ingender that great care of fathers mothers in the nourishing preseruation education and bringing vp of their children to the end they may sucoted them and why then hauing prouided for all left yong oliue plants in our old stock hearing the bell sound a retre◅t wherefore I say should we shew our selues deafe vnwilling faynt hearted The fat all bird drawn by the sent of thy Carcase is perched ouer thy window art thou still restie doest thou not feele thy seditious guests with in thee which cōspireth thy infallible ruine Nature will haue it so she commands thee to depart feare not folthy good mother and thou shalt do well Let vs therfore conclude that although our particular nature our complexion makes vs to abhorre death yet wee must not beleeue her no more then the seruant of the house which is borne to obey It is the mistresse the vniuersal vertue of the world which commands vs to depart and to suffer others to enter let vs follow and obey all our trembling and horror is in vaine But to what ende is it will you say for me to haue flourishing children if in the meane time I become worms
Aethiopia called Acridophages or caters of Grasse-hoppers who liuing farre from the sea and being destitute of all succours haue no other meate but these Grasse-hoppers which certaine hot windes from the west raise vp and bring vnto them the which they pouder vp with salt and liue thereon for that growing old which is not aboue fortie yeeres they breed in them certaine lyce which haue wings and stinke the which in a short space eate their bellies then the brest and in the end the whole body their paine beginnes with an itching intermixt with pleasure in scratching which increasing by little and little leaues him not vntill that hauing torne himselfe with his nayles hee hath made an issue for the lice and stinking matter which come forth in such aboundance as there is no possibilitie to bee cured and so through the vehemencie of their torment they end their miserable dayes with horrible cryes But let vs returne into our way and say with the holy writ Death is the highway of all the earth all enter into it let vs follow them by the tracke And you to whom the Ruler of the world hath giuen the Empire of life and death as it were at pleasure abate the frowning of your browes for what a poore man may feare of you the same is threatned to you by the great Master of all saith the tragicall Poet Seneca Obiect not vnto mee the beauty of your Pallaces nor the magnificence of your Sepulchers for the Philosopher Seneca will maintayne that we ought not to take measure of your tombes which seeme to take another course but one and the same dust makes all men equall if wee be borne alike wee must dye alike that great Establisher of humane rights hath made no distinction in our natiuitie and extraction with others but in the time wherein we liue when we shall bee come to the end of mortall men then farewell ambition thou must bee like to all that the earth doth couer Let vs comfort our selues in the death of great men and therefore let vs heare the last speeches and commandement of great Saladin Sultan of Aegypt and Syria I will said he in dying without any other obsequies they carry an old blacke iuppe vpon the end of a lance that the Priest cry out aloude all the people hearing him I haue vanquished I haue liued a great Prince but now I am vanquished by death and my life closed vp I haue beene rich now I haue nothing but a mourning weede To this goodly table let vs adde a second which the pensill of antiquitie hath drawne Cresus being vpon a burning pile is preserued from the fire by Cyrus but rather reserued to another season Cyrus made his profit of the words of Cresus that no man could account himselfe happy before his death he thinks of it and wills after his death others should thinke of it with him when as he caused these words to be grauen vpon his tombe I am Cyrus which conquered the Empire of the Persians let no man enuie this little peece of ground which couers my poore carcase What followes Alexander comes hunting after new worlds and stumbles vpon this tombe hee reades and considers of the words and compassion made his heart to grieue saith the History for the inconstancie of things why for that he must in like manner dye soone after hee dyed Let vs conclude and say with the Apostle that it is decreed that all men shall die once that no man is exempt no not Emperours Kings Princes Lords no not Popes Cardinals nor Bishops neither rich strong nor healthfull and thereby let vs take comfort An Obiection Any thing that is cause of strāge accidents is strange Death is the cause of strange accidents Therefore it is strange THis reason tends to confute the precedent Argument For that death ouerthrowing the highest mountaines degrading and vnthroning Kings and Emperors and consining thē into obscure caues with simple mourning clothes which rot in the end vpon their bodies seemes wonderfull terrible Answer The Monarks of the world haue their priuate consolation in death yea I will say that the greater they are the greater fauour they receiue in death A Kings life is an vnquiet life full of ten thousand cares and troubles he must watch for the quiet of his subiects and against the surprises of his enemies he hath not an houre free from amazement and eats not a bit without feare of poyson and therefore that King of Persia did iustly exclaime◅ against it O Crowne said he hee that knew how heauy thou art would neuer take thee vp where he should finde thee Say not O ambitious they are bare words onely which neuer giue the effects many great men haue spoken it and done it That famous Emperour Dioclesian reiecting the Romaine Empire shut himselfe in the Gardens of Salona to manure them with his owne hands That great King and Emperour Charles 5. protested that hee had found more pleasure and content in one day in his solitary life then in all his royall and triumphant reigne But to conclude the experience of all ages doth teach vs that the greatest gates are most subiect to winde the highest tops of Mountaines are soonest shaken and th◅ greatest Emperors are most assayled and haue no rest but in death onely The 7. Argument from the commendable e◅fect of the contempt of Death Euerie thing that makes vs valiant should be pretious The contempt of death makes vs valiant Therefore the contempt of death should be pretious THere is nothing that hath in it so great force to make a man valiant as the contempt of death he that feares it not makes himselfe master of the most strong and vigorous life in the world Seneca sayth that death is not to be feared that by the benefit thereof any thing is to be preferred or auoyded Agesilaus being demanded of one how hee might purchase great fame If thou contemnest death sayd he He whose spirit is seazed on with the feare of death will neuer performe any memorable thing in war this passion will benumme withdraw mens hands from the goodliest exployts in the world Plut. in Lacon Alexander said that there was not any place so strong by nature or by art that was safe for cowards We reade that Philip king of Macedon hauing ma◅e an irruption into Peloponesus and that one stepping forth sayd That it was to be feared the Lacedemonians would endure many miseries if they did not compound with Philip to whom one Damidas answered O Dwarfe sayd he what harme can happen vnto vs that feare not death Epictetus also teacheth vs that to attempt nothing basely wee must alwaies haue death before our eyes to make her familiar frendly vnto vs where of wee shall haue sufficient proofe in a souldier of Antigonus band who finding himselfe toucht with a deadly infirmitie had death in such disdaine as nothing amazed him yea hee was fearefull to the most
hydeous feare The king saw him among the rest and admired him and obseruing his pale colour he inquired of him the cause of his palenes and was informed of his disease the king thinking that by his cure his force and valour would increase caused his Physitions to recouer him but the effect prooued contrarie for the souldiar being cured had no other care but to liue and this care made him to feare euery thing yea the shadow of a leafe his furious humor was gone down to his feet to fly away Where fore we must therfore thinke of death know it and contemne it To this end the ancients did set dead bodies at the doores of their houses to be seene of passengers for the same reason the Egyptians did cause an image of death to be carried about in their bankets and set vpon the table not to strike terror into them but rather a disdaine by the frequent beholding of what it is And so it was at Constantinople in the election creation of a new Emperor they were wont to breathe into his heart vertue valour when as being set in his highest Throne of glorie a mason came neare to him and made a shew of an heape of stones of diuers formes to the ende hee might choose which did best please him to build his tombe It is the same reason why at the Coronation of the Popes when as he that is new called passeth before S. Gregories Chappell the master of the Ceremonies holding an handfull of flaxe at the ende of a drie reed setts fire to it and cries with a loud voyce Pater sancte sic transit gloria mimdi O I would to God that both they and wee did thinke seriously of this that remembring how lightly this life passeth away wee might make haste for feare to be sodainly surprized euery man to doe his dutie according to his vocation euen as they doe which liue at Court being set at the table make what haste they can in feeding least the meat be taken away before they haue dyned VVhy stay wee then Let vs make hast to attaine to that royall dignitie which hee deserues best that is most at libertie and hee is most that least feares death Behold what a tragical Poet sayth Hee is a King that conquers feare And th'ills that dèsperate bosomes beare That in his Towre set safe and free Doth all things vnderneath himsee Encounters willingly his Fate Nor grudges at his mortall state From those golden verses the golden memory of Heluidius an ancient Romain shal for euer shine who seeing the ancient liberty captiuated by Vespasian and being commanded by him that hee should not come into the Senate hee answered That whilest he was a Senator hee would come vnto the Senat Vespasian replyed Bee in the Senate and hold thy peace Heluid Let no man then aske my opinion Vâ—…sp But I must in honour demand it Heluid Then must I in iustice speake what my conscience commands me Vesp. If thou speakest it I will put thee to death Heluid You may do what you please and I what I ought Let this example bee alwayes before our eyes and especially to vs Christians that of the twelue Apostles who neuer yeelded to the cruell assaults of death but alwayes reioyced with an inuincible courage as the text saith to be held worthy to suffer reproach for the Name of Christ. Wherefore aboue all the world they haue purchased a most holy fame yea their twelue names are written in the twelue foundations of the celestiall and eternall City O what a worthy reward for so great valour in the contempt of death The eight Argument taken from the worke of God The reward wherewith the Eternall doth sometimes recompence them he fauors cannot be euill Death is that wherewith hee doth sometimes reward them he fauors Therefore Death cannot bee euill IF that be true which Silenus in Tully and others with reason report that the first degree of happinesse is not to be borne and not to fall into the dangers of the present life That the second is to die in being borne without all doubt the third must bee not to continue long in the miseries of the world but hauing beheld the workes of God the wandring couse of the stars the swift motion of the heauens the inuariable changing of day and night presently to die Say not that thou art taken in thy youthfull age that is a priuiledge which God giues thee to free thee from a thousand Combats of vice which thou shouldest endure or it may be thou shouldest be conquered as Salomon was by voluptuousnsse or as Nero by cruel ty Looke vpon the insolencie and corruption of that time it will appeare that thou hast more cause to feare then to hope in liuing longer sayed Seneca to Marullus epist. â—…00 If this were in those times what shall it be in this age which is as many times impayred as there haue since slowed yeares and daies And admit thou wert assured to continue alwayes vertuous and victorious yet shouldest thoube continually couered with dust altered with thirst full of bitternesse and old with anguish Enoch pleased God and was beloued of him he was rapt vp into heauen that the malice of the world should not change his vnderstanding sayeth the text c. 44. Cleobis and Biton religious and dutifull children for that they tooke the yoake and drew the Charriot of their deceased mother vp the hil for want of Mules and the houre of the interment pressing on they receiued the night following in recompence of their singular piety a happy death Marcellus Nephew to Augustus Caesar adopted by him Marcellus vpon whom the hope of all the Romaine Empire did depend dyed in the 18. yeare of his age a thousand others yea innumeraable haue bene cut off in their vigorous youth the most excellent as the ripest cheries are the first taken it happens to these timely wits as to the ripest fruit they fall first and Homer writes that the Heroes and Demigods neuer extended their dayes euen vnto the threshold of old age Seneca reports that his predecessors had secne an infant of great stature at Rome but they saw him die presently according to the opinion of euery man of iudgement whereupon hee addes that maturity is a signe of imminent ruine that whereas the increasings are consumed they desire the end Moreouer hee abuseth himselfe much which thinkes he hath liued long because hee hath past many yeares if he shew no other signes but his pale face and his gray head Behold what the wise man saith Man is not gray for that hee hath liued many yeares but for that hee hath liued wisely long age must bee measured by the honest conditions and manners not by the number of dayes It depends of another saith Seneca how long wee shall liue but of our selues how good we are the importance is to liue well and not long yet many times liuing well doth not consist
certentime of the death passiō of our Sauiour Tertullian sayes that it was in the 30. yeare of Iesus Christ and the 15. of Tiberius but Ignatius and Eusebius witnes that it was in the 33. yeare of Christ and the 18. of Tiberius Onuph rius Mercator and other late writers will sweare that it was in the 34 yeare of Iesus Christ and if we yeeld some thing to antiquitie we shall beleeue that Iesus Christ was 50. yeeres old when hee was crucified and that it was not vnder Tiberius but vnder Claudius to this the Iewes discourse tended Thou art not yet 50. yeeres old and yet thou sayest thou hast seen Abraham If in this so holy a thing where there is not any cause of blind passion there appeares such apparent contrarietie what shall wee thinke of History where as the penne puft vp with passion and transported with flatterie or slander hath eyther aymed too high or too low at the white of truth the onely commendation of an historie And admit wee should find writers void of all passion the which seemes impossible if we except the secretaries of God who were guided with the holy Spirit yet their Histories should be vncertaine for the most part for that they haue not beene spectators of the times places and persons necessary circumstances in a History how can they know them seeing that many times that which is done in our owne Towne in the streete yea in our house is concealed from vs Nay the most exquisite and most certaine science is nothing but vanitie trouble of mind saith Salomon And if wee shall rightly obserue it we shall find the most learned most disquieted and the most vnlearned most at rest S. Augustine hath seene it and was amazed crying out with S. Paule The vnlearned rise vp and lay hold of heauen and we are plunged into hell with our learning It is the reason why Nicholas de Cusa hath written bookes of learned Ignorance where hee commends them that make not so great account to know and vnderstand many things as to doe well and liue well Knowledge then being for the most ignorance in this life cannot contayne any subiect to loue life And therfore wee will conclude That seeing in all the degrees of life there appeares no sufficient reason to desire it so vehemently that this desire is not commendable but to be blamed namely in man who being man for that hee hath a reasonable facultie should not will any thing much lesse affect it with passion but by a true iudgement of vnpassionate reason An Obiection All that is ordayned for the seruice of God is grounded vpon good reason Life is ordayned for the seruice of God ANswer That life is good which in all her motions actions and meditations seeks nothing but the humble seruice of her Creator but it it a chiefe point of their seruice that man liuing should doe that honour vnto his Lord to giue certaine credit vnto his oath and to the writings of his testament sealed with his bloud Verily I say vnto you that whosoeuer heares my words and beleeues in him that sent me hath eternal life the which is repeated in many other places Whosoeuer hath this certain assurance of faith in him what can he feare death nay rather desire it seeing that in heauen by this death which serues vs as a bridge to passe thither we shall be like vnto the Angels and shall doe the will of our heauenly Father obtayning the Petition which we should daily make vnto him by the expresse command of his Son in the Lords prayer Thy will be done in earth as it is in heauen Let vs say the will is good which aimes directly at the honor of God so long as it shall please him to keepe it in his fauour but yet death is better which the Eternal sends to giue vs thereby a better life The 11. Argument taken from the description of Death No Cessation from a labour vnprofitably renewed is vnpleasing Death is a Cessation from a labor vnprofitably renewed THere is no neede of Eagles eyes to pierce into the truth of this argument the least attention will comprehend it For what is this life but a daylie weauing of Penelopes Webb it is finished in the euening but the night vndoes it in the morning we beginne againe with as great eagernes as if it had neuer beene The which made Seneca to poure forth these complaints When shal we cease to weaue daily one worke I rise and then goe to bed I hunger then fill my selfe I am a cold and then I warme me There is no ende the head and tayle hold fast together whereas the same things in their courses doe incessantly approch and recoyle againe It is day and night comes sōmer appears and winter doth aduance still they walke one rounde I neither see nor doe any thing that is new I doe but goe about this wheele sayth the same Philosopher If I be layed I say when shall I rise and when will night fill vp her measure to glut me with distemperatures vntill day sayth Iob Chap. 7. It is the true bodie of the infernall shadow of Ixion who tied vnto a wheele turnes about perpetually There is not any one so dul but sees this earthly Labyrinth and yet no man will leaue it Euen so they that are borne in a prison affect not their libertie so they that dwell among the Cimmerians in darknes desire not a cleere skie So the children of Israel would not leaue the house of bondage they quarrelled with Moses who spake vnto them they cursed him and being come forth they would haue returned often what was the cause custome which was become another nature feare to finde worse in their iorney ignorance a cruell beast No man will leaue this miserable earth fearing to fall into greater miserie so much doth the loue of the place custome retaine the inhabitants in their miseries saith Seneca Many floate miserably betwixt the torments of life the horrour of death they will not liue yet know not how to die like to Vlysses in Homer who tooke fast hold of a wild Fig-tree fearing to fall into bottomlesse Charybdis but yet ready to leaue it if the feare were past So Tiberius confest that hee held the Empire as a Wolfe by the eares the which if hee might without danger haue abandoned hee would willingly doe it So Seneca and so experience doth teach that many keepe themselues close in life like vnto them whom a violent torrent hath carryed into some rough and thornie places But let vs learne of a silly woman That death is the calme port for the stormes of this sea to the end that with her wee may take pleasure in it Monica speaking to her sonne S. Augustine vsed these words As for me my sonne I take no more any pleasure in any thing in this impure world what should I doe here longer in
are indifferent is false for it is to teare in pieces the sacred communion of the soule with the body of man with his neighbour to kill himselfe Man is not borne for himselfe but after God for his Country which hee depriueth of a good son such as he ought to bee Aristotle hath seene it and hath written it saying That he that kils himselfe doth wrong vnto the Comonalty but to doe wrong is no indifferent thing Moreouer it is a sinne against nature for euery man loues himselfe naturally 〈◊〉 and desires to preserue his being also wee do not see any other Creature but man to kill himselfe through impaciency of paiue The 2. reason which speakes so much of li berty is friuolous and ridiculous for what liberty is there in a dead man who hath neither the power nor the will to chase away a fly that stings him who is made subiect to all sorts of wormes rottennes and stench what is liberty but a power to do what we list but death neither hath will action nor my power it a â—…s mosâ—… dry in my opinion to produce this defence As for the third poysons are giuen by the earth rather to preserue life theÌ„ to destroy it to make antidotes preseruatiues against malignant and venimous diseases and a thousand vnexpected accidents by the biting of mad or venimous beasts omitting the true cause of diuines that the sinne of man hath infected all powring forth his poyson vpon the Creatures which eâ—…uiron him therefore as Saint Paul sayth they sigh and long after their future restauration Finally examples binde vs not but rules wee liue not according vnto others but as we ought the Law of God is plaine sealed in the particular nature of euery one Thou shalt not kill by the which we are forbidden the simple homicide of our neighbor for that he is of humaine blood next the parricide of father or mother for we are their blood which doth much augment the hainousnes of the offeÌ„ce 3. The murthering of our selues which exceeds parricide in a degree of horror To this we must haue regard not vnto what Zeno or Cleanthes haue done And the Stoickes who in all other places so much recommend vnto their Disciples seemelines honesty and duty seeme to me in this point forgetfull blind preuaricators what shal we then do That which a wise Pagan did aduise vs It is for valiant men sayd he rather to contemne death theÌ„ to hate life Many times faint hearted meÌ„ are driuen to a base coÌ„tempt of theÌ„selues throgh the wearines of labor but vertue will trie al things Seeing theÌ„ that death is the end of all things it is sufficieÌ„t to go ioyfully vn to it To his words we adde That our inteÌ„t is not to take away life but the terror of death when it comes a wise man wil liue ioyfully so long as it shall please the Lord of life He wil die also more ioyfully when it shall please the same Lord. This is that he ought to do and doubtlesse man may without sin desire yea pray vnto the Lord that hee may liue long for many reasons but especially for 2. The one concernes the glory of God in the administratioÌ„ of the charge which hee hath committed vnto vs therefore the Son of God in dying would saue his Disciples by that voice full of vertue which he vsed to the Romaine souldiers and Iewes If you seeke me let them go the which preserued them long especially his well-beloued S. Iohn whom he retained in life vnto ninety yeares The other respects our children parents and friends of whom we may and ought in conscience haue a care seeing that by the censure of the Apostle hee which hath not a care of his family hath denied the faith and is worse then an Infidell But besides these reasons and some others which doe simbolize I say that the desire to liue were not fit if there were no other reason sor there is no ceasing from finne so long as life doth last so as the longer wee liue the more â—…lpable we are before God So as I maintaine that the feare to vndergo death I meane death simply is alwayes vicious foolish and ignorant But to be a Murtherer of himselfe without comparison it is much more execrable the Lawes of euery well gouerned Common-weale haue thundred against it yea the Grecians in the midst of â—…rmes whereas lawes are silent would not in signe of indignitie burne the body of Aiax according to their custome for that hee had slaine himselfe The virgins of Milesia for that they had furiously straÌ„gled themselues were drawne by publike ignominie through the streets of the Citie and in such cases God doth vsually shew visible signes of his reuenging wrath So in Parthenay a towne in Poitou a certaine woman in the absence of her husband was taken with a deuilish despaire she tooke the little children when shee had smothered them and hanged them then she came vnto her selfe went vp on a stoole and hung her selfe and and thrust awaie the stoole with her foote but the rope brake and she falling downe halfe dead found a knife the Diuell is a readie officer to furnish instruments to doe euill which she takes and thrusts into her bosome The next day the matter being knowne all the world ranne thither with the iudges who caused her bodie to be cast out vpon a dunghill neere vnto the towne wall Not far from it there was a corps de gard and neere it a place for a sentinell the gard being set for it was in time of warre the sentinell heard a fearfull noise in the ayre right against this Carcasse and after a long stay was forced to leaue his stand the gard also amazed with this noyse thought to flie awaie Thus the Diuells made sport with this poore desperate woman The 19. Argument taken from the contradiction of man touching Death Not any thing that is sometimes called for by vs with ioy being come should be trouble some Death is sometimes called for by vs with great ioy THe Pagans to describe the pittifull estate of man in this life haue fained that Prometheus mingling the slime of the earth with tears made â—…antherof wherunto a Latine Poet hath alluded saying Teares bâ—… the our Births 〈◊〉 all inteares we liue And Death in teares Many alarums doth giue But what need of testimony but the continuall feare and feuers which spring from the apprehension of those infirmities wherof we haue made mentioÌ„ Thy bowells wroung with the cholicke a thousand gripes and throwes at euerie child bearing if thou beest a woman the pinching cares that trouble the mind make thee by interruption soden exclaming to desire death not without reason seeing that the Prophet Elias serues thee for a patterne who not knowing how to auoyd the ambushes that were layed against him did wish to dye But let vs cast our eyes vpon those miseries that make vs
to desire Death not as wee propounded them nor as we haue found them but as they make themselues known If we shall indge of the streame by the spring what may we hope for of the life of man conceiued betwixt the vrine and excrements borne naked all in tears but only a perpetuall flux of corruption pouertie and calamities therefore it is not without reason that S. Bernard sayd That man is but a stinking sperme a nourishment for wormes a sacke of excrements and such should wee see him within if the skinne did not stay our sight outwardly Doe we doubt of it seeing of this liuing substāce there are ingendred wormes about an ell long and being dead serpents in the pithe of the backe as Plinie writes and experience teacheth Plutarke reports that the king of Egypt hauing caused the body of Cleomenes to be hanged and the garde hauing discouered a great serpent wound about his head they called the people who running to this spectacle called Cleomenes as a demy-God The like happened to a young man a Germaine who would neuer suffer his picture to be drawn in his life time but onely granted to his kinsfolkes who importuned him that some dayes after his interment they might take him vp and draw him as they found him Being taken out of the graue they saw about the Diaphragma the pith of the backe many little Serpents to verifie what the authour of Ecclesiasticus faith When man dyerh he becoms the inheritance of serpents The life of man is a candle exposed to all winds saith Epictetus His body is a store-house of all sorts of diseases saith another his flower his most excellent point of glory is such as he is alwayes in paine and martyrdome and this point passeth away dazling the eye like a flash greatnesse and worldly riches are no more sssured then the waues of the sea they flowe suddainely and ebbe no l◅sse violently Sesostris King of Egypt causing himselfe to bee drawne in a Chariot of pure gold by foure Kings his prisoners one of them held his eye fixed vpon the wheele which did rolle vp and down by him Sesostris obseruing it demanded of him the cause of his countenance who answered That looking vpon the wheele and obseruing the spoaks to bee sometimes aloft and suddainely downe againe I call to minde the rolling change of my selfe and my companions Sesostris considers hereof abates his pride and giues liberty to his Captiues Such is the estate of the affaires of this world like vnto a marke subiect to infinite darts of aduersity No man knowes what the night brings sayd one in Titus Liuius the pleasures are vncertaine but the displeasures most certaine Nature giues vs a taste at our comming into the world where wee enter weeping And according to this instinct of nature the Thraci ns wept at the birth of their children numbring what miseries they should suffer in the world For the same reason the Getes a religious people held that it was better to die then to liue therefore they lamented at their child-birthes and sung at their burialls And wise Salomon saith that the day of death is better then that of birth Looke into Erasmus vpon the prouerbe Optimum non nasci Sophocles in like manner giues aduice that it is more reasonable to weepe at the birth of their children as beeing entred into great miseries and beeing dead to carry them ioyfully to the graue as freed from the miseries of this life And who will doubt any more of this seeing he that neuer lies calls this life death Ioh. 5. saying Hee that heares my words and beleeues in him that sent me shall passe from death to life The Lycians law ordayned that they which wold mourn should put on womens robes for that it did in no sort befit graue and discreete men to weepe for the dead but for passionate women Vpon this law a Lawyer of Padoua groūded his testament although he be taxed by another First hee charged his heire vpon great comminations to banish all blacke cloth from his Funeralls and that he should prouide singers and players on Iustruments to sing and play going among the Priests both before and behinde the Corpes to the number of fifty to euery one of which he bequeathed halfe a Ducate for his paines Moreouer hee ordained that 12. young virgines attired in greene should carry his body vnto Saint Sophias Temple in which he should be interred suffering them to sing ioyfull songs with a loud voyce and for a reward hee bequeathed them a certaine summe of money to helpe them at their marriage All sorts of Priests and Monkes might assist except such as were barred with blacke lest that colour should darken the beauty and cheerefulnesse of his Funeralls he had seene with Heraclitus that during the dayes of this miserable life there is no subiect but of teares and that at our departure we should reioyce with Demoeritus And therefore Plato doth rightly call death a medicine for all miseries and Seneca esteemes it the end of seruitude Let vs seale vp this discourse with the memorable aduice which Epictetus gaue to the Emperour Adrian enquiring why they set garlāds vpon the dead It is in signe answered he that at the day of their death they haue triumphed ouer the diuers assaults of this life Let vs then dye when it shall please the prince of this life to cease the teares and alarmes of this life and to beginne the life of heauen whereas God will wipe away all teares from our eyes whereas death shall be no more and there shal be no more mourning crying nor labour Obiection If men call for death and being come refuse it so much it is a signe that it is very horrible But the antecedent is true Therfore the consequent is also true IT is reported in Laertius that the Philosopher Antisthenes tyed to his bed by a greeuous disease and the more grieuous the more he loued his life was visited by Diogenes who knowing the man had taken a naked sword vnder his gowne Antisthenes perceiuing him cried out O God who shall deliuer me from hence Diogenes answered presently that shal this shewing him his sword But Antisthenes replied more sodainly I meane from these paines and not from my life It seemes that most of those crier sout for death make that their refuge when she approcheth neere them Esope in the Apologue hath naturally described it by that old man who being laden with a great burthen and falling into a Ditch he grew to despaire and calling for death death came and commands him to follow him O no said he I call thee to helpe me vp with my burthē that I may returne Answer I know well that many feare death much not for any desire to liue nor for the pleasures they haue in life for the two examples obiected shew the contrarie but for that they know not what death is And thereunto tends this
Combate to kil this feare of death in man I therefore persist in my opinion that it is nothing but the feare which man hath to fall into some greater miserie as we haue shewed doth make him so much apprehēd death But there is no euill in this as appeares in the following argument Therefore there is no reason of feare which reason should gouern a reasonable man Let vs not trust to those distrustful spies which being returned from the point of death cry out Horror horror for they faile more in corage then in bodie and deserue the like punishment to them that went to discouer the land of Canaan who being returned brought nothing but bad and slanderous tydings to al the people as the holy Scripture doth witnes Let vs rather beleeue wise and valiant men produced heereafter vpon the Theater who like vnto Iosua◅ spies depose ioyntly that God hath deliuered death into our hands that it is quencht for our sakes Next it is not true that all men flie death being called many haue bin greeued returning to health after some great sicknesse which they thought should haue swallowed vp their life Giue me leaue to speake this truth of my selfe being 120. leagues from my parents about 14. yeares since studying in a towne streightly besieged and famished I fell sicke of a bloudie flux whereof many dyed whereof my master was dead In this estate I was resolued to dye but when I found that God gaue me force to vanquish my disease I was verie melancholike in the beginning held it a losse to be recouered And therefore notwithstanding this opposition wee will close vp our discourse with Seneca saying That death is the cause that life is no martirdome The 20. Argument taken from the remouing of the euill of death No euill consisting in a falfe opinion and nothing in effect is to be feared Death is an euill consisting in a false opinion and nothing in effect c. IT is a great aduantage as great Captaines say to haue obserued and measured his enemy from head to foote Let vs in like manner obserue and measure death and we shall find it is but an Anatomy a vaine name a Picture and Image a scar-crow a bable a fantasticke feare an imaginary fire which some men see in an euening walking in Church-yards An ideot at the sight thereof would be amazed sweare that hee hath seene a spirit walking but a wiseman will vnderstand that it is an oyly exhalation which by agitation takes fire Ignorant opinion makes man beleeue that death is very euill when it is a priuation from all euil hee is amazed with a false alarme So women and weake spirits dare not remaine alone in their Chambers for that they imagine they shal see spirits and apparitions little children are afraid to see their parents masked Astianax could not endure the sight of Hector armed but lay aside these armes take away the maske you shall conuert their feare into assurance and their cries into ioy So pull away these false maskes of hideous lookes and the trembling cries of them that die they are but fained or sorrowes grownded in the aire of an imaginary euill So Cassander did tremble at the sight of Alexanders picture dead long before the table would not bite him yet hee quaked as if it had beene some furious beast the reason was that his imagination being impayred hee thought that Alexander was wonderfully in choller against him Wil you haue an apparent signe that in this horrible apprehension of death mans iudgement is troubled and therefore suspected to bee false The strongest and most vigorous the yongest and most iust do least feare the losse of life who in reason should apprehend it most if it were to be feared hauing more interest in it but old men and such as are subiect to the cholike stone and malefactors feare it without measure Maecenas tormented continually with a feauer was content to bee cut and mangled so as with all his paines hee might prolong his life How many Messales offenders would liue in torture or broken vpon the wheele so as they might not end their liues What is the reason of this but that his iudgement is peruerted beleeuing that all the paine he feeles shall be doubled in death If he be a reprobate and vnderstands it of the second death and not of the first whereof wee now discourse his iudgement is right but for a good man to thinke that there is any great paine in a naturall death hee erres much It is not the death said Aeschines but the violent passion against death which is horrible If they thinke there bee any discomodity in death sayd the old man Bassus let them know it comes from them that die not from death which frees them of all paine Pindarus sayth of man that he is but the dreame of a shaddow but let vs speake it and with more reason of death a dreame is false and a shaddow the opposition of a sollide body to the light So death the priuation of life is an euill dreamed and false Good God who can represent that which is not vnder what idea can the Painter imagine to draw it he will present vnto vs bones bound with sinewes without flesh and naked hauing a sythe in his hand this is something but be well aduised to thinke that death doth subsist beyond this representation as a liuing man doth subsist longer then his picture you should bee foully deceiued for take away this representation and all other imagination and you take away all that is of death for it is nothing at all therefore the portrait is false May a man paint a voice the which although it be inuisible yet it falls vnder the sence of hearing but death in what sence so euer you take it is incapable of all sence and by consequence not to bee drawne by any pencel What is death then it is a word of few letters which hath no subsistāce but in imagination nothing in nature nothing in effect We laugh at the Bourgondian spies who in their war against the French King Lewes 11. being sent to discouer the Country fled at the sight of certaine Thistles as if they had discouered a troupe of men at Armes If we had the vnderstanding to know death as the sight hath to distinguish thistles we should find that they are more ridiculous which fly amazed from the incounter of death for it is nothing at all whereas thistles are at the least pricking plants Let vs then say boldly That to feare that whereof neuer any man yet felt the sting to draw from a wandering fantasie proceeding from an vnsetled braine a true and sensible paine is a meere folly Oh God! what paine can there be at the very instant when life flies away in a body depriued of all sence Let a sicke body endure all the extremities of paine yet in death there is none at all doest thou not
kind of death was the worst That sayth hee which the Lawes haue ordained inferring thereby that a naturall death is not euill but that which crimes haue deserued the which is not giuen by nature but by a hangman and yet not so much by the execu tioner who is but the instrument as by a villanie perpetrated which is the true cause So sayd S. Peter Let none of you suffer as a murtherer theese malefactor or too curious in other mens affaires But if any one suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God in that behalfe The 24. Augument taken from the testimonie of wise men All wise men in the conflict of Death depose that death is not euill But that is true which all wise men depose c. THe troupes of Christian Martirs heathen Philosophers marching so boldly vnto death are so many witnesses without reproch to conuince them of falshood which hold death to be so great an euill Let vs be carefull lest this blasphemie creep into our thoughts that they were in despaire or mad No no their verie enemies dare not speake it haâ—…ng knowne that they were for the most part men famous in pietie iustice vertue and wisedome and for such as were recommended by all men The Ecclesiasticall Historie is gored with thousands of such Martires the author of the tables hath set downe some in the end of his first booke of whom I make no mention But behold the manly courage of Blandina who by her ioyfull countenance doth summon vs vnto death whereunto she doth march with such a grace and state as if she had gone to a nuptiall feast Then followes happie Tiburtins conuerted vnto Christ by Vrban in the yeare 227 who marching vpon burning coales seemed to tread vpon Roses These Christians with infinite others as well ancient as moderne had neuer any horror of death but haue desired it yea sought it as a refreshing and refection to their bodies soules but for that no man doubts but the zeale of Christians hathmade them continue constant vnto the death and the diuine power had so fortified their resolutioÌ„s that neither their reason could be swallowed vp nor drowned by the horror of persecution Let vs come to others of a multitude let a few suffise Socrates accused by the Athenians to thinke ill of the Gods for that he reiected pluralitie adored an vnitie was condemned to dye before the which he would first censure his iudges saying To feare death O my Lords Areopagites is to make shew to be wise and not to be for it is to seem to know death to be euil which they vnderstand not He did so little apprehend death as when as eloquent Lisias had giuen him an Oration artificially penned which hee should vse for his Apologie whereby hee should be absolued he read it and found it excellent yet he sayd vnto Lycias If thou hadst brought me Sicionian shoes admit they had beene fit for my foote yet would I not vse them for that they were not decent for me So thy discourse is most eloquent and fluent but not fit for men that are graue and resolute The executioner then presented him poysoÌ„ in a cup which Socrates tooke with a constant hand and demanded of him as a sicke patient would doe of the Physition to recouer health how he should swallow it then without any stay drunk it vp after which he walked a little then tooke his bed his boy vncouering him felt his parts to grow cold Socrates being wak't directed his speech to Criton who aboue all others wished him a longer life and to make him thinke of it had propounded vnto him his children his deare friends that for their sakes if not for his owne hee would preserue his life which was necessarie for them No no answered hee God who hath giuen me my childreÌ„ wil care for them when I shall be gone from â—…ce I shall finde friends either like vnto you or better neither shall I bee long depriued of your company for you must soone come to the same place Then as if he had by this potion recouered his health hee cried â—…ut O Criton we owe a Cock to Aesculapius be not forgetfull to sacrifice vnto him Let vs obserue that in the last passages of life he was in no sort amazed but dying ioyfully comforted his suruiuing friend and let vs not doubt but hee who was the first among the seuen Sages of Greece knew before Demosthenes that which this Orator spake couragiously to Phiâ—… King of Macedon who threatned him to cause his head to be câ—…t off Well saith hee if thou giuest mee death my Countrey will giue mee immortality And doublesse Socrates liues and will liue eternally so the suruiuing hauing seene the assurance of his death held him most happy as going to liue another life and in another place And Aristippus that ioyfull Philosopher beeing demanded in what sort Socrates was dead In that manner said he that I my selfe desire Inferring that death was more to bee wished for then a happy life Let vs heare a second that is Theramenes to whom they presented a great cup of poyson the which he dranke resolutely and returned the cup to Critiâ—… the most cruell of the 30. Tyrants which had condemned him Theramenes therein alluding to the manner obserued at this day in Germanie which is that hee which drinkes to any one sends him the same glasse full of wine that hee may pledge him These deathes are full of courage but behold a woman dying who exceedes them all and that onely to incourage her husband to dy it is Arria the wife of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This woman being aduertised that Petus was condemned to what death hee would choose went vnto him to perswade him both by word the effect to dislodge out of this life she had a naked dagger vnder her gowne and giuing her husband heâ—… last â—…well shee thrust her selfe to the hart and drawing it forth againe with the like courage she held it vnto Petus and spake these her last words vnto him Pâ—… non doleâ—… Pete O my deere Petus it doth not paine mee and then dyed Let vs seale vp these examples with two women who commonly doe passionatly loue the presentation of their children yet a certen Lacedemonian hauing heard that her Son fighting valiantly had beene slaine in battaile O sayd shee this was a braue Sonne not lamenting the death of her Sonne but reioycing at his vertue Another hearing that her Sonne returned safe from battaile and that hee had â—…d shed cryed out vnto him There is a bad report of thee thou must eyther deface it or not liue holding it better to dye then to suruiue an Ignominie Obiection If the greatest fauorites of God haue feared death it is to bee feared But Dauid Ezechias and others fauored by God feared Death and especially Iesus Christ the only and wel-beloued Sonne of God feared
vnto Iesus Christ who being disswaded by his Disciples from going vp to Ierusalem he sayd vnto them There are 12 houres of the day after the example of the Apostles namely of Saint Paul who was thrice whipt with rodds continued whole dayes and nights in the bottome of the sea c. We ought to do it for Christ is a gaine to vs both in life and death for that dying we change the drosse of the world for the gold of heauen we going out of life as out of a deepe pit of darknesse and ignorance and wee ascend vp into the heauenly Vniuersity whereas the deepest sciences are learned and wee passe from a miserable seruitude into a most happy freedome of spirit Let vs then quicken our spirits and take courage and not be like vnto the skoÌ„me of the world to whom dying Nature makes this reproch which is read in Seneca What is this I haue put you into the world without couetous desires without feare without superstition without treason and without any other such infections As you entred into the world so depart this life without apprehension feare vexation or passion which torment your soules But especially let vs be carefull to depart without feare of death which among all humaine passions is most desperate it is done if we once put on a Christian courage and magnanimity and shall not flie but offer our selues following our vocation to the greatest dangers As good Macedonius did who seeing two Captaines march to reuenge the irreuereÌ„ce done to the statue of Placilla by the expresse and vnworthy commandement of Theodosius her husband seeing them I say runne to a great Massacre meetes them stayes them pulls them from their horses and by more then humaine authority commands them to desist from such cruelty to tell their master That the greatnesse of his estate shold not make him forget that he is a man that hee seekes to teare that a sunder which he cannot put together deface liuely Images which hee cannot repaire and that this outrage should touch the Creator By the boldnesse of his words and by his constancy he amazed these Captaines with the feare of Gods reuenging wrath and makes them returne towards the Emperour who hauing heard them pacified his rage Obiection Whatsoeuer is a guift of nature cannot be gotten by art Fortitude is a guift of nature c. ANswere It is true that fortitude hath her foundation in the irascible faculty but her culture her instruction and increase is purchased by labour study and continuall exercise If Alexander Caesar and other valiant Captaines had not bene continually thrust into armes hazarded themselues in warre and cast themselues into battailes they had neuer purchased the habite of valour nor gotten so many triumphes vpon their enemies In like manner if wee desire to conquer our selues and our owne passions which are most dangerous enemies wee must exercise our selues continually in these listes of vertue and weede out of our hearts two contrary vices the one is dull negligence which lulling vs asleepe in the world will not suffer vs to consider what this life is how miserable how vaine wauering although wee suppose it be perpetuall contrary to that which experience doth teach vs shewing vs dayly that either necessity doth pull it away or vanity doth swallow it vp or hasty nature doth end it The other extreame vice is feare which is the cause that wee cannot once thinke of such necessity but with trembling and horror And as the eye viciated with some yellow humour or looking through a yellow glasse thinkes all it sees to be yellow yea the purest white So our soules being infected with this terror increased by faintnesse and fortified by cowardise takes quiet things to be horrible the safest port and secuâ—…est from winds to bee more dangerous then the Rocke Capharois and finally death the happy end of all miseries to bee the beginning of most horrible paines But let vs purge this peccant huâ—… â—…ast off this 〈◊〉 scart and clothe our selues with this force with this resolute vâ—…reue and wee shall visibly see and iudge with reason that wee haue beene miserably deceiued taking our friends for enemies the greatest safety for horror and 〈◊〉 happinesse 〈◊〉 death for misery The 26. Argument taken from the instrumentall cause In euery expedition the meanes must be proper vnto it A good conscience is the proper meanes to the expedition of death Therefore we must haue a good conscience IF we consider profoundly of the cause of this terror which man hath of death we shall finde it is a naturall feeling though dull and some what brutish to haue offended his Lord thinking that he attends nothing but death to lay open the volumne of his faults to indite him criminally to pronounce sentence of condemnation against him and to deliuer him ouer to Satan the executioner to cast him into a fire which is neuer quenched Man hath a confused apprehension of all this he sees nothing in life hee feares it in death his conscience within accuseth him and serues for a thousand witnesses It is that which makes the wicked to tremble when the leaf of a tree doth fall and liues no more assured then if his life were tyed to a thread it is the Worme which neuer dies but gnawes the wicked continually It is a bad conscience said Diogenes which keepes man from beeing couragious and without feare Let a man bee by nature hardy yet a bad conscience will make him most fearefull said Pithagoras yea he added that the torments which hee shall suffer will bee much more sharpe and painefull then whipping to the body the diseases of the minde being far more grieuous then of the body which gaue occasion to Poets to paint the Furies armed with burning torches to burne the wicked So was the Emperor Caligula intreated for his cruelties terrified with feare waking awaked suddainely sleeping alwayes troubled neuer in quiet Nero was in the same estate hauing slaine his mother So Saule being forsaken by the Eternall was possest by an euill spirit hauing bad newes of his speedy death he trembles for feare forsakes his meate and drinke is much perplexed falls downe vppon the ground as the Scripture doth obserue for then the Iniustice committed against Dauid whom he had confest with his mouth to bee more lust then himselfe came to his minde Wherefore if we will liue without feare of death let vs liue without wounding of our coÌ„sciences for it alone in life doth neuer feare said wise Bias It is it that makes men liue in tranquility finding theÌ„selues not guilty of any thing Periander sayd that a good conscience made Agis King of the Lacedemonians triumph ouer his enemies in death for as hee was led to execution by the Ephores seeing some moued with compassioÌ„ to weep Weepe not for me said hee for it is against equity and reason that I am led
to this death they which haue condemned mee are more vniust then I am Inferring thereby that he died well and honestly seeing they put him to death wrongfully and without cause Plato doth teach vs that Socrates was wont to insult ouer death in these tearmes I haue beene carefull said he to liue well in my youth and to die well in my age I am not tormented within me with any paine I am not vnwilling to dye for seeing my life hath beene honest I attend death ioyfully This is much but it is nothing in regard of Saint Paule who protesting that he felt not himselfe guilty in any thing cried out with a bold spirit that hee was assured that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers neither things present nor things to come nor height nor depth should separate him from the loue of God Let vs theÌ„ be careful to polish our soules and to settle our consciences let vs apply our selues to a well ordered equity let the body subiect it selfe vnto the soule and follow her motions Let the inferiour powers of the soule obey the commandements of reason Let reason guided by the holy Ghost obserue the Law grafted in euery creature by nature especially in man and most of all the Law of Moses To doe this is to be vertuous and to be vertuous is to haue a good conscience We must then direct all our actions to vertue if wee desire to liue in the world without feare without paine in peace and ioy vertue doth first of all make the soule perfect in her intellectuall part disperseth the clouds of error ignorance illuminating reason doth adorne it with prudence Secondly she labours to polish the will of man and hauing reformed it by her orderly course shee giues him the habite of Iustice. Thirdly she doth temper the angry part pulls away the extreame feare and on the other side prunes away the sprouts of rashnes and plants betwixt both valour and haâ—… dy feare Finally it doth also bridle the faculty of concupiscence and restraines the motions of voluptuousnesse and makes them obedient to the command of Temperance It is in a few words the true meanes to get a pure and vpright conscience especially if we bee carefull to be as honest in our priuate secret actions as if all the world did behold vs Seneca doth recommend this vnto vt in many places Wee reade of one called Virginius whose History was written by Cluuius who presented it vnto the sayd personage and sayd vnto him If there be any thing written otherwise then thou wouldest pardon mee and reforme it Oh no answered Virginius whatsoeuer I haue done hath bene done in that manner to that end that it might bee free for all to write at their pleasures a worthy speech of a noble spirit and content with his conscience in his actions Iulius Drusus when as one promised a great sum of mony to his Master mason that his house might not be subiect to the view of any man and I sayd he will giue twice so much if thou canst build my house in that sort as all men may see into it what is done there This was to saue his conscience not to do more in secret then before all the world And what a madnesse is it in most men not to feare God nor their conscience and yet to feare men who can do least in the correction of their faults What shall we then feare in this world One only God for his feare will inspire our hearts with an hardy courage against the greatest feares The 27. Argument taken from the frequent thinking of Death He that will receiue Death ioyfully must propound it often to his thoughts Wee all desire to receiue it ioyfully c. SOme sayth Seneca come to their death in choler but no man receiues it when it comes with a cheerefull countenance but he that hath long before prepared himselfe for it Let vs try this remedy it cannot be bad In the night after our first sleepe in bed let vs presuppose that we are dead and by a strong imagination let vs settle our selues in that sort as hauing no sence nor feeling that our soule and reason tells vs that it is euen so in death that there is no other difference but that our soule is yet present in the body and then let vs goe vnto our friends or to any other that die let vs view them talke vnto them and touch them being dead and we shall finde that in all this there is nothing to be feared that all is quiet that there is nothing but opinion that 〈◊〉 abuse man Let vs proceed enter the Church-yards and go down into their graues wee shall finde that 〈◊〉 the dead rest in peace yeaâ—… so profound 〈◊〉 peace as no liuing creature can interrupt them Let vs yet go on farther there is no danger for by the saying of Plato the knowledge of death is the goodliest science that man can attaine vnto Let vs do like vnto Iohn Patriarke of Alexandria build our tombes and not finish them but euery day lay one stone Let vs haue some Anatomy or MoÌ„mie in our houses and let vs not passe a day without beholding it let vs handle it it is death Little children by little and little grow familiar with that which they did strangely fly and in the end they play with it and know that it is but a dead image of copper which so terrified them Wee shall also see in death that it was but a shaddow that so amazed vs. Let vs yet do more waking and not dreaming let vs dispose our selues of purpose as Philippe King of Macedon did by chance who wrestling vpon the sand after the manner of the Country saw and measured the length of his body and admired the littlenes thereof in the shape printed in the sand where he had fallen Finally let vs not forget what the Emperour Maximilian 2. or 3. yeares before his death commanded carefully to be done that they should carry with him a coffin of oake in a chest with an expresse command that being dead they should couer his body with a course sheete hauing put lime in his eares nosestrills and mouth and then to lay him in the ground Let vs follow these great examples both high low and wee shall see that when death shall present her selfe vnto vs it will bee without amazement But if wee flie from euery image of death from al thought therof if the ringing of bells a shew of some mans death doth importune vs finally if euery word of death be troublesome as there haue beene such I doubt not but to them death is wonderfull terrible Obiection If the most reasonable feare Death most it is by reason to be feared But the antecedent is true therefore the Consequent must follow SEneca yea experience doth teach vs that Infants little children and such as haue lost their
It is the excesse of the feare of death I striue to prune and root out shewing that vanity and corruption is so vnited to life that all which liue yea the greatest spirits wallow in this mire and therefore death which giues an end to this vanity and corruption should cause no feares to reply that it is the abuse and not the life we may answer againe that the abuse is generall since the fall of the first man no man can be exempt if hee be well obserued Let Diogenes go suddainely with a torch lighted into the most frequent market of Athens nay into the most famous royall Faire of France to search yet shal he not find one and I know not whether hee himselfe which could so taxe others will bee found without blame and whether he as it hath bene reproched vnto him did not more glory in his Tub then Alexander in his Empire Oh how easie it is to speake and lie Vertue consists in practise and action there will not any one be found in this age that is not tainted more or lesse with one of the aboue named vices or with all three wee can giue no instance All men suffer themselues to be led to some vaine hope which they attend from day to day which in the end deceiues them and death deliuers them from this deception why then should it be so terrible vnto them But represent one out of ten thousand who hath learned wherein the true end of life doth consist that is to say in the tranquillity of the mind in continuall action according vnto vertue yea according vnto piety as hee knoweth and striues to haue the spirit of a wise man whereof Seneca speakes epist. 60. that is like vnto the world aboue the Moone alwayes cleere Yet must he confesse that he is in a wondeful cōbate yea in insupportable paine being tossed with contrary windes of diuers passions which neuer leaue him no more then his body or flesh Sometimes the immoderate loue of transitory things stings him sometimes the hatred of eternall things sollicites him or prophane ioy or the melancholy of the minde layes hold of him and consumes him if vaine hope leaue him then furious despaire gets hold or boldnes thrusts him on to mischiefe or feare retires him from good and furious choller transports him beyond the bounds of reason so many passions so many cords to bind him so many assaults so many paines if it succeed not wel and most commonly it proues contrary to his proiect for this heauy flesh this sensuall concupiscence which hee is to incounter dawes him stil to the ground But harken how that great Apostle more vertuous then all the Philosophers together for that hee had the gift of the Spirit of God in a higher degree heare how in the like conflict he cries out Miserable man that I am who shall deliuer mee from the body of this death If this seruant of God liuing the life of Iesus Christ yet for the mortal assaults which he felt tearmes this present life death and were death a deliuerance what feare wee in death that wee do not salute it rather as the safe port from all the stormes and tempests of this life full of baites and snares as S. Augustine sayth Let vs feale vp this discourse with the ring of Seneca which is That the condition of all men imployed is miserable and that most miserable which attends no other thing but his imployments hee taxes the greatest part of men who like vnto Liuius Drusus from their infancy to their dying day giue themselues no truce alwayes in action in trauell of minde or body if they meete with any pleasure they passe it ouer lightly without taste if with displeasure they are toucht to the quicke Finally they run so swiftly as they looke not to their way they thinke not of their life and cannot say what it is all actions shall bee pleasant but that which is proper to man which is to haue the spirit purged giuen to Philosophy and to the meditation of that which concernes man in the world Let vs then say with reason O vanity of vanities this is nothing but vanity The 30. Argument taken from the restoring of mankind Whatsoeuer being lost shal bee powerfully restored to vs againe should not trouble vs in the losse Life being lost shal be powerfully restored c. IF thou beest a Christian Christ commands thee thy faith doth bind thee to beleeue the Resurrection of the flesh in the which by the powerfull voyce of the Creator raysing them vp which sleepe in the dust the life which thou hadst left shal bee restored vnto thee againe with most pretious interests But if depriued of the eyes of this faith thou canst not see the beginning of the creation of the world seeing that by faith as the Apostle doth witnesse wee vnderstand that the ages haue bene ordained yet as a miscreant thou doest beleeue the eternity and fatality of the world let vs admit this supposed truth to bee true know then that the limited reuolution of the heauens being ended and al the order of causes chained together returned to the same point in the which they hold all things ballanced in an equal weight know I say that this same concatenatiō of causes by a necessary reuolution wil restore thee to life yea to the same estate in the same place in the same positure thou art in at this present so as you which reade these things or heare them read shall be the same at the same time reading or hearing It is the true extraction which moued that great Zoroastres to assure that one day al men should take life againe Plato was of the same opinion saying That after the returne of the eight spheare which was in thirty six thousand yeares all things should in like manner returne The reason there is nothing made new vnder the Sun and there is nothing but what hath bene and may returne hereafter So the Sun withdrawing his quickning influence with his body from our Zenith the trees being withered remaine without fruit without any verdure without leaues If thou hadst not seene it the yeares past yet thou mayest in some sort beleeue that the Sun should returne and by his returne giue that vegetatiue vertue that springing sap sweete smelling spirit to herbes and trees which thou didst hold depriued of that power and so they were for this life which is in them in the beginning of Winter descends from the branches to the body and so to the roote but the same gracious Star which by his retyring had caused this death returning drawes backe by a wonderful regression and reuolution of nature this vegetatiue vertue from the earth to the roots to the body and to the branches and makes it to be seen and smelt by the buds blossomes leaues and fruites A dead man and one liuing is all one sayd Heraclitus hee that watcheth and the sleeper
there is a third degree yet more abhominable more iniurious to Iustice when as good men are opprest by the wicked and Iustice troden vnder foot by Iniustice what good or iust man is there but sees it and feels it Why doest thou hold thy peace said Abacuck to the Lord the wicked oppressing the iust So Caine slue Abel so Esau persecuted Iacob so the PagaÌ„s haue alwaies mo lested the Israelites sought to ruine them so the Iewes Infidels haue afflicted Christians so the Arrian Heretikes did with all violence persecute the Catholikes Pompey with the iust Senate was vanquished by Caesar Cato murmures and despayring kills himselfe So the Romaine Emperors haue euen glutted their rage vpon the innocencie of Martirs so the Goathes Barbarians tormented the Romaines as soone as they were become Christians Thirtie Tyrants inuade and ruine that goodly Common-weale of Athens The Turke at this day holds the reynes of the Empire of the world triumphing euery where ouer Christian armies Finally what are these great kingdomes but great thefts as a Pirate did fitly obiect to Alexander the Great who made him to keepe silence with shame This iniustice being obserued by many hath giuen occasion to thinke that all things are turned by chance as Claudian doth represent it Graphically and Dauid himselfe confesseth that hee hath beene readie to leaue the good way and to forsake the partie of God for that he saw the wicked in such abundance These men saies he for all that they possesse Are nothing worth yet still we see they spend There liues whole length in varied happinesse Pamper'd with all things to their very end What shall we then thinke yea whereon can wee assure our selues without wauering that the life of man in this world is a List and Careere in which as he hath wrestled and combated so being departed hee shall receiue either the Crowne of glory or the shame of infamy and this shall bee when as iustice shall appeare in her greatest beauty and lustre But in the mean 〈◊〉 this diuine prouidence will that the good as corne in the aire be thrasht fanned and sifted to the end at their departure they may be laid vp in the granier and on the other side the chaffe that is to say the wicked who haue beene alwayes in ioy shal be cast into the fire that is neuer quenched Affliction is the narrow way into the which he must enter who desires to come into the Kingdome of heauen The reproche of Christ is the honour of the child of God the Crosse of Christ is his Scepter his stripes torments are roses and gilloflowers So Moses saith the text held the reproch of Christ to be greater riches then the treasures of Egypt yea hee did rather choose to bee afflicted with the people of God then to enioy for a time the pleasures of sinne So S. Paule did rather choose the trauells imprisonments beatings and death then all the honour he could expect to be a Pharisian Doctor among the Iewes So a million of Martyrs haue rather made choice of chains fires and of death of serue Christ then of Diadems triumphs and wordly felicitie So Regulus did choose rather to bee tormented in a pipe stucke full of nayles at Carthage then to giue preiudiciall counsell to his countrey Socrates had rather dye then adherre to Pagan Idolatrie Seneca preferred death before the flattering of his vicious Prince verifying by effect the words of his Epistle I loue not torments saith he but if there be question to suffer them I desire to carry my selfe brauely couragiously and honestly Cato spake more as the Poet reports Patience most ioyes when most her crosse abounds Most honor costs most and most ioy redounds But for what reason S. Ambrose saith The wise man is not broken by the paines of the body nor vexed by the discommodities in the midst of miseries he is alwayes happy for that the happinesse of life doth not consist in the tickling pleasures of the body but in the coÌ„science purged from all filth of sinne What wilt thou then doe in this secure peace of the wicked in this continuall ware-fare of good men haue a little patience And thou in the'nd shalt say with comfort driuen Thy vowes are heard euen from the highest heauen The Gods sayth Homer suffer not the sinnes of men to passe vnpunished although they deserre the punishment yet by the waight they recoÌ„pence the slownes If the diuine wrath be slow yet it is violent sayth another It is that which did most fortifie Cyrus in the assurance of the immortality of the soule seeing the wicked in this life to prosper good men decay And what shall wee Christians then doe Wee will attend with Dauid that the measure of sinne may be full and then when they haue made an end to fill vp the measure of their fathers they cannot auoyde the iudgement of Hell fire sayth Iesus Christ I know for a certaine sayth Dauid that God will doe iustice I know the Lord th' afflicted will Reuenge and iudge the poore All these wicked riâ—… men which haue had their pleasures and abundance in this world shall haue miseries in the other and 〈◊〉 â—…se poore Lazares which haue beene here diuersly tormented shal be comforted and enioy an eternall rest as the Euangelist speakes Finally the wicked after this life changing opinion and sighing with the anguish of theirminds wil say among themselues Behold him whom wee haue sometimes derided made prouerbs of dishonor wemad men held his life to be mad and his death infamous and how is hee accounted of a the children of God his portion among the Saints And thus doth a wise man discourse We may therefore conclude that seeing lustice this pretious pearle doth east forth but sun-beames in this world vpon vnreasonable creatures and that her bodie beautiful in perfection is in heauen whither she was forced flying the earth to haue recourse there to receiue such as had cherished sought her vpon earth and contrariewise to banish for euer such as had persecuted her with all violence Wee may I say necessarily coÌ„clude That the soules of men are immortal to the end that the happy may be crowned with this iustice and the wicked cast by the heauie burthen of their iniustice to the bottomlesse pit of hell Amen Obiection If the soule did escape the graue shee might fing the prayses of God But she cannot THE Minor is proued directly by a text of the holy Scripture There is no mention of thee in death who shal worship thee in the graue saith Dauid being grieuously sicke And The dead do no more praise the Lord neither they which descend whereas they speake not Ezechias fearing death speakes thus vnto the Lord the graue shall not worship thee death shall not praise thee and they that descend into the
man being borne and bred in the bottome of a darke caue thinks that he hath no facultie to see is he the therefore blinde the soule being buried in the darkenesse of a mortall body as in a graue sees not her immortalitie hath she therfore none Thirdly we doe not say that man is immortall for that he differs from beasts but for many reasons deliuered to be deliuered Fourthly the Philosophers aboue mentioned would see and touch the soule in her immortalitie she is not subiect to any sence S. Basile hath seene it in spirit written it with his hand The soule sayth he cannot be seene with eyes for that she is not illuminated by any colour nor hath any figure or corporal character Aristotle knew it whengoing out of the fabrike of corporall nature hee sayd that it was not the charge of a Physition to treat of all sorts of soules as is the intellectuall which hee pronounceth to differ from the sensitiue vegetatiue from which he sayth shee may separate her selfe as the perpetuall from the corruptible Gallen had his eyes fixed onlie vpon the body the subiect of Phisick and therefore hee sayd freely that it did not import him in his arte if hee were ignorant how the soules were sent into the bodyes or whether they past from one to an other But if it please Gallen leauing the limites of his arte to take the fresh ayre of diuine Philosophy presently his goodly conception is followed with these words The soule is distilling from the vniuerfall Spirit descending from heauen c. Which hauing left the earth recouers heauen and dwells with the Moderator of all things in the Celestiall places As for Hippocrates his words sound more of the immortalitie then of the death of the soule hauing this sence That the soule goes alwayes increasing vntil the death of the bodie But if you desire effects and not words what conceit could Aristotle Gallen and Hippocrates haue of the soule to bee mortall who by an immortall labour haue purchased such great same throughout the world and whose authoritie is the cause that they are now produced and maintained Finally that which he obiects of the soules thoughts fixed for the most part on the fraile things of this passing world it is no smal signe of the corruption of mankind but no argument that the soule is perishable seeing she retaines still the immortal seale which God hath set vpon her in her first creation The. 2 Obiection The container and that which is contained should entertaine themselues by a iust proportion The body and the soule are the container and contained IF the soule bee immortal seeing the body is mortall what proportion were there betwixt the soule and body How hath nature which doth all things by a iust weight number and measure ioyned things together which are so dislike It serues to no purpose to produce the birde kept in a cage which as soone as shee can get out flies away for he is kept there by force and not as forme in substance Answere Wee grant the whole argument and wee adde that it is sinne which came by accident that hath caused this great disproportion Otherwise man before sinne in his estate of innocency had his body immortall therefore Iesus Christ our Sauiour like a cunning Logitian drew the resurrection of the body from the immortality of the soule for that God was called the God of Abraham of Isaacke and of Iacob but God sayth hee is not the God of the dead but of the liuing So sayth Saint Augustine and Saint Bernard that the soule is so separated from the body as there remaines still a naturall inclination to resume it againe to minister to his body and this onely doth hinder her that shee is not affectionate towards God withal her vertue and force as be the Angells and therefore her blessednesse is imperfect For the soules ô flesh saith Bernard cannot without thee bee accomplished in their ioy nor perfect in their glory nor consummated in their felicity and in the same place hee distinguisheth their degrees or places for the soule in this life as in a Tabernacle before the resurrection in heauen as in a gallery and then after the resurrection in the house of God But you will say this answere is Metaphisicall I desire one that is naturall Answere This goodly order which you recommend in nature required this ordering that as there are some Creatures meerely spirituall others meerely corporall so there were some which were mixt both spirituall and corporall and that is man who in that smal forme represents all that is in the world and who by his senses doth communicate with the Creatures and by his vnderstanding with the Angells giuing his right hand to heauen and his left to the earth The 3. Obiection If reason loades vs to the immortality of the soule by the same meanes she shold guide vs to the resurrection of the body But that is not true I Proue the Minor by this knowne Maxime of reason That there is no returne from priuation to the habit nor by consequence from death to life no more then from starke blindnes to sight Wherefore they of Athens where one writes that the men are borne Philosophers hearing S. Paul discourse of many points of heauenly doctrine they gaue an attentiue heare vnto him but when hee came to the Resurrection of Iesus Christ they interrupted him mocking at him as one that doated Ans. I deny it that the resurrectiō of the dead is absolutely beyond the apprehension of nature The West-Indians who are without the Church of Christ beleeue it and practise it as well by the ceremonies of their interrements which aime directly at it as by the vsuall intreaties they make to the Spaniards digging for the gold of their Sepulchres that they should not take out carry away the bones to the end they may rise againe speedily as Benzo reports At Rome this Epitaph is yet to be read in Latine vpon a Pagans tombe The publike hath giuen a place vnto Aurelius Balbus a man of an vnspotted life I rest heere in hope of the resurrection But that which is most wonderfull and exceedes all credit if they that write it were not eye witnesses and worthy of credit that in Egypt in a place neere vnto Caine a multitude of people meete on a certaine day in march to bee spectators of the resurrection of the flesh as they say where from Thursday to Saterday inclusiuely they may see and touch bodies wrapt in their sheetes after the ancient manner but they neither see them standing nor walking but onely the armes or the thighes or some other part of the body which you may touch If you go farther off and then returne presently you shall finde these members to appeare more out of the ground and the more they change place the more diuers these motions appeare This admirable sight is written by
All that is depraued and there is nothing but a horrible confusion in his will and actions 7. He was absolute Lord ouer all Creatures which trembled at his looke and brought him fruits according to his desire 8. Now they rebell and assaile him yea the earth instead of good corne brings forth nothing but thornes thistles 9. He had frequent conuersation with God inspired of him and breathing by him 10. Now the Prince of the power of the aire the vncleane spirit workes powerfully in the children of rebellion which are all the sonnes of Adam Ephes. 2. 2. 11. A glorious angelical and diuine Maiesty did shine in his face 12. Now they couer their shame with leaues they hide themselues among the trees and crie out Mountains fall vpon vs and couer vs. To conclude there is no greater contrariety betwixt day and night then of these famous qualities to the infamous blemishes of man as he liued in this world before his regeneration in the which by little and little hee recouers this Iustice holinesse and trueth Ephes. 4. 24. But the fulnesse thereof is reserued to heauen whither death leades vs and therefore to be desired The Fourth Argument taken from the efficient cause All that a good and wise mother giueth vnto her Children cannot be hurtfull Nature our good and wise mother giues vs death Death then cannot be hurtfull THe first proposition of this Argument cannot bee denyed after the experience which wee haue seene after the comparison which God makes of himselfe with a mother who cannot forget her child nor he his people After that Iesus Christ had said No man giues a stone instead of bread nor a Scorpion for fish to him that he loues And how then can nature the liuely spring of so liuely a loue giue any thing that is very hurtfull and fayle at neede and in the principall hauing neuer fayled vs in all the course of our life Now to proue that the second proposition is true and that nature hath ordayned death for her children Seneca doth teach vs saying That death is a Law of nature yea that our whole life is but a way vnto it S. Cyprian also doth affirme that it is a decree intimated vnto the world that whatsoeuer is borne should haue an end and from whom is this decree from God the Authour of nature the executioner of this decree but it is a fauourable decree to such as Heauen fauours It is a generall Law to restore that which is lent vs this life is but a loane wee must restore it at the end of the time it is a tribute wee owe for we entred vpon condition to depart when it shall please the master Moreouer what is this life but a harmony rising from the mixture of the foure elements which are the foure ingredients of our bodie and what is death by the censure of Hippocrates but a diuorce of marriage of these foure Elements This diuorce is as naturall to man as it is naturall that fire should be contrarie to water and ayre to earth for their contrarietie is the cause of this diuorce which is death I know that it is not sufficient for humane life to haue a body well tempered with his Organes and to haue the power of life but he must also haue a fist Effence as a Lute well strung and well tuned is not sufficient to make it sound vnlesse there bee a hand to play vpon it And I also maintayne that as the Musitian ceaseth to play when the Instrument is vnstrung so the soule ceaseth to giue life vnto the body yea flyes out when it is destroyed but this destruction is naturall and by consequence death and to that end Nature hath planted this body vpon pyles which take vent vpon boanes not very solide caulkt ouer with soft flesh glued with a viscous humour which may easily melt with heate or dissolue with rayne full of transparent veines easie to pierce watered with vnholesome water tempered with contrarie qualities which a certaine temperature keepes at quiet for a season but when euery one desires to command his companion and time in the end presenting the occasion the common right being forced the body sodainely falls And this force is of nature who must needes effect the words of the Lord spoken vnto man Thou art dust and shalt returne to dust Sonnes of men returne but whither From whence you came to the earth to death death then is of nature and therefore Thales the Milesian said that there was no difference betwixt life and death for that they are both equally according vnto Nature and as one demanded of him why he was in life and dyed not For the same cause answered he that the one is no more excellēt then the other It is also the reason why the Emperor Antonin the gentle seeing his seruants weepe lying sicke in his bed hee sayed vnto them Why weepe you for me and not rather the naturall and mortall condition of all the world that is to say Why doe you not rather weepe for life which is of a mortall condition The answere of Anaxagoras was more vertuous who being aduertised of the death of his deere and onely Sonne sayd O Messenger thou bringest me no vnexpected newes I know well I had begotten a Sonne that was mortall hee was not insensible like a stone but he considered that nothing had chanced to his sonne but what he had foreseene from his birth his long foresight and his sodaine con sideration of the condition of all men for to die had tēpered all sorow in him and brought him to reason which should alwaies holde the helme of this little world man Like was the answere of Lochades father to Siron vp on the like report of the death of one of his children I knew well sayth he that he should dye VVe shall see others hereafter to the ende they may haue no cause to say that this resolution was monstrous in the world To conclude nature to make vs resolue ioyfully vnto death seemes to direct vs to the sweete song of the Swanne a presaging bird consecrated to Apollo by Antiquitie the which dying nature gathers together about the heart the purest and sweetest bloud which makes him Iouiall and to sing a happie presage to whom Socrates Plato and Tully send them that haue so great feare of death An Obiection Satan Man and Sinne are the causes of death Therefore it is not Nature ANswere When it is said in the holy Scripture that Satan holds the empire of death that by one man sinne entred into the world and by sin death finally that death is the reward of sinne we must not vnderstand it of the naturall death whereof the question growes but of the spirituall and eternall death as many of the ancient fathers doe expound it And how else could the threatning of God against Adam be vnderstood touching the tree of knowledge of good and euil Thou shalt not eate