Neighbour proceeds further he finds out means either to burn or take away his Titles Contracts and Publick Instruments which might make out the Righteousness of his Possession and at the same time he forges others to debar him from his pretensions These are the proceedings of the Flesh against the Spirit the Soul had three fair Contracts to shew and drawn in a very good form in the first state of her Creation The one was of Original Justice the other of the Gift of Immortality and the third of the Infusion of Science The Contract of Original Justice has put her in Possession of the Sanctifying Grace according to the feelings of all the Fathers who by these words of Genesis Let us make man to our Image and Resemblance takes the Image for her constitution in her intelligible being and the resemblance for her interiour ornament through the infusion of Grace after which comes Charity The Queen of all Virues waited on by all moral perfections which as Ladies of Honour are always inseperable from her the Justice then comes first Leader and Chief among the Cardinals with the rest that follow immediately the Theological all which in the first instant did acknowledge God for their object and were so punctual to serve him on occasions that nothing could be imagined better ordered in that litle Common-wealth Man was admitted to the Privy Councel of the King of Glory so far as to know the most secret affairs of the Divinity as was the decree of the redemption of mankind in the fulness of time by sending one of the Divine Persons who uniting himself to humane Nature would discharge her of her Debts in rigour of Justice Moreover by Virtue of his Contract he had not only reasonable inclinations towards his Creator but as yet his Will did taste with so much sweetness of all manner of things which concern'd the Divine Worship that the sensitive appetite has not so much of sensible pleasure in the enjoyment of her delights The Contract of Immortality exempted Adam and all them who by Original propagation were to come from his Race from that rigorous tribute of Death whereby the Soul could have received a great advantage for by this means she would have shunn'd the experience of what grief and sorrow she met with in the seperation when that those two essential pieces of Man the Soul and Body so perfectly united comes to break off I must confess this Contract was not grounded on any right of nature because that man suffers within himself a continual War of four contrary qualities which at last must end his life to begin his Death and therefore he could not expect to be Immortal by Nature Mortalis erat Adam conditione corporis animalis immortalis autem beneficio conditoris D. Aug. in c. 7. Genes but even as the King who is above the common Laws of his Kingdom dispenses with whom he pleases So God says St. Augustin did order that Man Mortal by the condition and property of his animal Body should be Immortal by the benefice of his Prince Ne mors undequaque subreperet vel senectute confecti decursis temporum spatiis interirent Idem ibid. A Benefice nail'd to the Tree of Life by an adherent quality which acted this great wonder that eating the Fruit which hung from the Branches it did not only give nourishment to the Body to preserve Life but also was an expulsive Medicine of all gatherings of ill Humours to keep him always in the just proportion of a perfect health Infusione non per se sed per accidens The Contract of the Infusion of science did raise the Spirit of man from the very instant of his Creation to the perfect knowledge of all natural things God having granted him that Grace that whereas now we spend years and ages to attain to some little knowledge of Learning in one instant he would become an able Phylosopher For whatever thing he would apply himself to either Material Spiritual or Divine he would easily draw from thence all possible consequences by way of nature In material things he had a clear knowledge of their constitutive Principles of their genius difference properties and accidents he gave to each thing Names which were evident signs and marks of their substance that from one they would easily come to the knowledge of the other The motion of the Heavens Ordinary Extraordinary Influences Aspects Regards Positions Colours Zodiack Eccliptick Signs Constellations and the wonderful enclosure of all the Globes one into another without confusion all that was the entertainment of his Spirit In Spiritual things the very Angels met under the sphere of his Activity and made up a part of the object of his science for though he had no material Species of the Angel being that the matter cannot be the Image of the Spirit nevertheless by illations and Universal consequences by proportion of the Soul whose Functions are Intellectual he could conclude the existence of a being purely Spiritual without any mixture of matter In Divine things there was no Creature in the World wherein he did not consider either the trace or Image of God and carrying his understanding from visible to invisible things would conclude that of necessity there was one originary cause a primum mobile a Soveraign Agent Fomes peccati The Body after he had corrupted nature did falsifie burn and corrupt all those Titles Contracts and Priviledges Substituting in their place the Leven of concupiscence In the practice of Courts they would call that a demising which the Soul makes of all her rights to the Body not having courage enough to maintain them This is what St. Paul calls the Law of sin which causes the Soul that she dares not appear to hold her own rank in the quality of a Princess by the excellency of her extraction nor to have her self obeyed as Mistress and Regent of the Body Her cowardliness makes her to take with the vile and abject condition of a Servant and receive the Laws of the Flesh whereas she ought to command absolutely CHAP. XXXVII The third unjust Usurpation of the Flesh on the right of the Spirit THe Meers and Bounds being taken away the Contracts confounded the bad Neighbour seizes on the Inheritance sells and alienates all that he can What a grief is it to a poor man to see before his eyes all his Chief and best Goods proscribed the hangings of his Halls the Beds and rich Furniture of his Rooms Quisque peccando animam suam diabolo vendit accepta tanquam pretio dulcedine temporalis voluptatis D. Aug. in expos propositionum ad Rom. Num 4. the brave Linnen conserved so long a time in the Coffers all seized on all exposed to sale If for to conserve the memory of his race he would fain buy one of the Pieces they make him pay a double rate for it The Body deals the same with the Soul he sets all her moveable Goods
imployment about their own proper Objects otherwise the Author of Nature had fail'd in his work For example in vain had God so Artificially wrought out the Eyes which he has plac'd in mans Forehead as the Organs of his Visual Faculty if withall we could not behold the Beauty of Colours which cannot be said without Blaspheming against the Sacred Proceedings of the Divinity It 's therefore that the same Author of Nature who had grafted in each Faculty a seeking Inclination for its Object has likewise set in the Object other Inclinations for the inquisition of its faculty Man has a faculty of Understanding and Reasoning De animi immortalitate multi etiam philosophi gentium multa disputarunt immortalemesse animum humanum multis multiplicibus libris conscriptum memoriae reliquerunt D. Aug. tom 8. in Psal 88. which is as essential to him as his proper Nature being that it is his chief difference by Virtue of that faculty he passes when he pleases beyond all what is material among the Creatures shapes within himself their Species and having reduc'd them all to a small Volume he lodges them within the roof of his Understanding Nay which is more he takes his walk into the very imaginary spaces where he finds other Heavens other Worlds possible wonderful handsome if God had been pleas'd to reduce them to Act This is not as yet enough his activity admits of no bounds until it comes to the knowledge of an Eternal Immortal Impassible Being which must be the originary principle of all things If that be so and that our Spirits go beyond all Creatures to contemplate on that which is Eternal Immortal Impassible and that moreover the faculty ought to enjoy its Object we must conclude two necessary Verities the one that our Spirits are Immortal the other that they are Created to participate of that Immortality which God gives us as a reward for our good Service If the matter had gone otherwise Man who is Created to the Image and Resemblance of God to be the Happiest Creature in the World would remain the most miserable of all Creatures For if we do consider the strength of his Body Qui animae suae curam gerunt c. Paulo infra Lyons and Bulls surpass him If the length of his years Trees are far beyond him If the Subtility of his Eye-sight the Eagle surmounts him If the Health of his Body Ipse non oportere contraria facere existimantes Philosophiae ejusque solutioni ac purificationi ad hanc viam se convertunt sequentes illam qua praeit ac ducit Plato in Phaed. the Fish has the advantage If Riches the Bowels of the Earth may argue with him of Poverty If Contentment the Birds of the Air make but a mockery of his Pleasures If good Cloaths and Rich Garments the Roses and Lillies are cover'd with Satten with Purple and Scarlet Whereas he sees nothing on his back but the Spoils of dead Beasts It 's then necessary that there be another state wherein it must be found true Ubi mors ad hominem accesserit mortale quidem ipsius ut apparet moritur immortale vero saluum incorruptum abit c Plato ibidem that Man is the most Happy of all Creatures This cannot be here on Earth where Corruption joyn'd with Inconstancy Nurse of Alterations and Changes suffers not any thing to subsist long without decaying and finding its doom where it had its birth The Saviour of the World ordain'd the days of his Incarnation to teach all Faithful Souls the place so much to be desir'd of their Eternal rest he makes them a publick Lesson of it in the famous Sermon on the Mount where the common sort made up the main part of his Audience He proves by formal Induction of all the Beatitudes and Consolations which may happen to Man that there is none true or solid here to be found on Earth consequently that Heaven must be their place Quod si immortalis est anima cura sane opus habet c. Paulo infra Cercidas the Arcadian was at deaths door when being demanded if he did not fear so cruel a Separation Contrariwise my Friends hitherto 't was my Body that liv'd under the rigorous Laws of an urgent Destiny it must be restor'd to the Earth that demands it Nunc vero cum haec immortalis esse videatur nullum aliud fuerit ipsi refugium neque salus à malis praeter quam ut optima sapientissima fiat nihil enim aliud secum transiens anima ad inferos habit praeter eruditionem ac educationem Plato infra being that we must restore to every one what appertains to him As for my Spirit which is Immortal it goes to the Elisian Fields where it shall meet with Pythagoras the Phylosopher Olympus the Musician Hecate the Annalist Homer the Prince of Poets That brave repartee would sound better in a Christians mouth when his Frends exhort him to resign himself to Death if with a Spirit truly Faithful he would say Alas what is your reason to exhort me to take Death in good part I have no such great cause to desire a longer Life being that the Tears which drop from my Eyes at the hour of my Birth and the continual troubles which have accompanied the rest of my days have preached no other thing to me than the necessity of this passage For my part I hope in the Mercy of my God that he will admit me into the company of the Blessed Virgin Hamana anima ita immortalis est ut mori possit ita mortalis ut mori non possit c. Paulo inferius Ut ergo breviter dixerim immortaliter mortalis est mortaliter immortalis D. Greg. l. 4. Moral in c. 3. Iob. c. 7. Si cor hominis in manu Dei multo magis anima si anima in manu Domini est non utique anima nostra sepulchro simul cum corpore includitur nec busto tenetur sed quiete pia fungitur of all the Apostles Martyrs Confessors Virgins and the rest of the Blessed For if the day that the Prisoner sees himself discharg'd of his Irons freed out of his slavery drawn out of a dark dungeon to enjoy his beloved Liberty live in the company of his Freinds and enjoy the sweet Air of his native country is pleasant and grateful to him Know that the moment of my departing brings me no less consolation my nature has loaden me with Irons my Body made me a meer slave my Actions have cast me into a dungeon if the Commissary knocks at the door I do rejoyce for it is to make me enjoy the true liberty live in the company of Gods servants and enjoy the sweet Air of Heaven the native country of all blessed souls why should I not then take death in good part being that I always believed the Center of my soul could be no other then the
Virtue without shineing Jesus Christ trod under foot God altogether forgotten and what is most deserving of our respects set at naught and utterly disdained For my part I remit the off-spring of those disorders to the want of believing the Immortality of Souls For wherever that pernicious errour has crept that all dyes with the Body they may attempt on the Sacred Persons of Kings and without any respect to the Divinity whereof they are the lively Images on Earth treat them unworthily so be that their dealings be underboard For if all dyes with the Body and that there is no account to be taken of their crimes after death If they do betray the State if they do sell their Country if they do commit the most horrid crimes that ever were heard of they may fear no punishment if that unhappy belief takes place in their Spirits Let the great ones oppress the little ones let the rich cut the poor peoples throats let the enemy execute his vengeance all is permitted to him who gives no more advantage to his Soul than to that of a bruit beast Let them speak no more of the commandments of God of the Sacraments of the Church of the reward reserved for the good in Heaven of the punishments prepared for the wicked in Hell if there be no more in man then Living and Dying we may say as much of the Patriarchs of Religious Orders Benedict Bernard Dominick Francis that they have not obliged their Children to bring them from the World to pass over the best of their days in crucifying of their Bodies For if the Souls be not Immortal all those sufferings are but a meer oppression of Innocency I have heretofore joyned my small weak Prayers to the common Vows of all France for a Blessing from Heaven for our Sovereigns Arms whilst he had them in his hands to fight against Heresy but I will have a thousand times more sensible feelings of his Piety and Courage when he shall make appear his Power and Authority to suppress those unfortunate execrements of Nature who are so bold as to lift up their Horns to strike at Piety In the mean time I call you again brave Chrysanthus and Musonius most worthy Prelates of the Church get out of your Tombs pierce the Rock of your Sepulchres and announce unto us your Belief in this point of the Immortality of Souls Chrysanthus and Musonius were two Famous Bishops among them who assisted at the general Councel of Nice in the year 1328 where the two Articles of the Resurrection of the Flesh and of the Life Everlasting were particularly treated of it happened that these two great Prelates died before the conclusion of the Councel After the Fathers had Signed all and each of the Acts they brought the Papers on the Tombs of the Deceased with this humble supplication Holy Fathers the well beloved of God who have assisted at the Acts of this present Councel as we have found you always Faithful to maintain the Rights of the Church the Faithful Spouse of your Master and Ours and as you have Fought with us to defend her against her Enemies So We do beseech you if you have as yet the same feelings with us of the Articles proposed that you may set your honds to these present Papers A thing truly to be admired next Morning they found that all was Signed with their proper hands If that Article of it self cannot be contradicted but by him who will deny the Principles of Nature the Authority of the Holy Ghoct and all common feelings can there be Christians found hereafter who will live in the World as if all would die with the Body But if they do believe the Immortality of Souls how can it be that they have no thoughts but for the Earth It 's a folly like that of a Merchant who Freights a Vessel to go to the Indies to Peron to China to enrich himself And being arrived where the Mines of Gold and Silver are he spends his time in looking at the Hills that are about the place the Streams that are underneath the Woods that are hard by and does not think of loading his Ship nor of returning back to his Country God has placed our Souls in our Bodies as in a Mystical Vessel it 's to load us with the Goods of Eternity and the Merchandize of Heaven One spends his time with pampering of his Flesh another to build a Fortune in the Air This Man Fights with the Winds that Man Paints on the Waters and none thinks that his Soul is Immortal nor that she is to return to her Country some day was there ever the like folly That was a strong Receipt and more than ordinary Plato in eo qâ— Carmi. which Zamolxis a Physician of Thrace gave to a young Man whom Plato calls Carmis Son to Glaucon who complained of a great pain in his head and of a Megrim which made him giddy-brain'd He orders no cooling Plaisters to be applyed to him no opening of a Vein no Scarrifications he will have his Soul to be Purged assuring that the Infirmities of the Body proceed from the alterations of this Principle This Purging is no other than a discharging of all feelings of the Earth to bring her to the thoughts of Immortality This is the Receipt which Jesus prescribes to all those who are willing to convert themselves I will make bold to borrow the words of Seneca the Moral Phylosopher Seneca Ep. 102 to make the Induction thereby If the Infirmities of the Body trouble your Health and that by redoubling their rigours they bring you to Death's door rejoyce as the Prisoner at the first news of his Liberty For Death is no other thing than an enlargement of the Soul out of the Prison of the Body where she sighs under the Irons and Chains of corrupt Nature If any ask you the question which is your Countrey and your Native place do not say that it is Alexandria or Smyrna No tell boldly that it is Heaven being there is nothing here on Earth can content your heart nor set a stop to your expectations for all rouls under the unavoidable Laws of Mortality Consider that even as the Mother which carried you in her Womb was not resolved to lodge you there still but that after nine months space you should come weeping into the World So the World that has harboured you for a time had no design to give you a perpetual residence but only to suffer you to refresh your self as a passenger without any tie to the place where you have lodged by way of civility only and as a Passenger not as a Proprietor This vale of Misery is but an Inne the Riches are but Honours and Vanity the Pleasures are the Houshold-stuff Man is the Pilgrim and Traveller he is not permitted to carry any thing along with him he must first account with his Host and after march off from whence he came and as he has
difficile est ut linguae saecularium men tem non inquinet quam tangit quia dum plerumque eis ad quaedam lonquenda condescendimus paulisper assueti hanc ipsam locutionem quae nobis indigna est etiam delectabiliter tenamus ut ex ea jam redire non libeat ad quam ex condescensione venimus inviti D. Greg. to 2. lib. 3. dialog cap. 15. and Capharnites happens to very many in our days which is That our Saviour speaking to them of Holy and Profitable things of the Institution of the Blessed Sacrament of the necessity of Crosses of the obligation of sufferance says that they are things hard to be digested they cannot give ear to them they are altogether displeasing to them and for to express their unwillingness to practice them they do withdraw themselves one after another from under so heavy a Yoak Is it not a strange and most deplorable thing that now-a-days it 's taken for the meerest folly in Nature to speak of God in any Meetings He is but an Alter-piece a devourer of Images a rouler of Beads a Melancholick and Hypocondriacal man who will offer to speak of Devotion in company they will presently begin to jeer him to smother his feelings of Devotion and Piety Gorrumpunt mores bonos colloquia prava 1 Cor. 15. v. 33. Is it possible that the World has blotted out of our hearts the Memorials of the Recognizances which we owe unto him whom the very senseless and dumb Beasts cannot forget We will make such large amplifications of a matter of nothing and we shall not have a word to say of the King of Glory of a God of Majesty inexhaustible source of perfection We will pass over whole days to entertain a company with Stories with Fables with Fictions without truth or ground and we shall be sorry for one quarter of an hour imployed to set forth the Praises and Glorious Prerogatives of our Redeemer A Commedian a Stage-player shall be heard as an Oracle and he who will declare the Word of God must be commanded to keep silence Do we not fear the Fatal Effects of that most Dreadful Sentence pronounced by our Saviour against them who shall be ashamed to confess him before Men Vitiorum exempla oppugnant animum immutant transformant miraculo erit inter incendia vel non sâ—mi vel ceâ—tè non incaâ—esâ—ere S Cyprian de spectaculis that he will not acknowledge them before his Father which is in Heaven They are the People to be shun'd as a Plague that infects all the World as so many Incarnate Devils whose conversation and company brings us nothing but misfortune and woe It is then most true that good conversation and company is an efficacious means that God makes use of to convert Souls That of the wicked is also another strong means whereof the Devil makes use to cross his designs of their Conversion And so we must conclude that he who is taken with this company goes on headlong to everlasting destruction whereas the former has found out the right Road to Heaven and the assured means to work his Salvation CHAP. XXIII That to think of Death has a great power on the Conversion of a Sinner THere is neither Rule nor Law so Universal Statutum est omnibus hominibus semel mori post hoc autem judicium Heb. v. 27. but admits of some exceptions or difficulties there have been many and are at this present to my great grief that will hardly believe the Existance of a God But all without either exception or difficulty concur in this Point that we must all die we tread under our feet the dead to day and we shall be dealt with the same to morrow Testamentum enim hujus mundi morte morietur Eccl. 14. v. 12. For my part I do adore all thoughts which may conduce to my Salvation as of the love of God above all things who without any desert of mine has given me so many Graces of the Beauty of Heaven glorious and everlasting residence of the Blessed of the noble extraction of the Soul appointed from all Eternity to enjoy the intuitive Vision of the first Essence But in this point I must confess the corruption of my nature the dullness of my understanding such thoughts are good for purer Souls than mine is they are motives able to ravish a St. Paul into the third Heavens to Print on a St. Francis the Effigies of Christ to set a St. Bernard beyond his Senses and make all those extatical Spirits to fall into a weakness I am an insensible Rock to all those truths a Dyamond which those Darts cannot penetrate I am colder than the very Ice at the approach of those Fires But when I come to think thar poor Brother Lyon Capucin must die that I am now standing on my Legs and that to morrow they will put my Head into a Capuce for to cast me into the Earth That they will sing a doleful de profundis at my Funeral to send me to another World and give me the last farewel I raise up my shoulders I re-enter into my self my Blood is already frozen within my Veins I have no more mind to laugh than I have to live And really as I shall make it appear by moral induction there is no Motive more powerful among the Exteriours to stir up all sorts of persons to the feelings of their Salvation than the thought of dying To Youth it is a curb to stop them when they are in their full carreer to Perdition To Kings Princes Emperours and Monarchs a Subject of humility that they should not puff themselves up with over-much Pride above the People To Soldiers and Warriours a cause of humiliation that the favour of Fortune and Arms should not make them insolent To the most Holy Souls an ordinary entertainment Mors rot a incertè fixa brevis haec est multiplex vita sursum movetur ac deorsum trahitur fugiens tenetur manus effugit saltat plerumque nec tamen fugere potest stationem suam motu trahit retrahit Greg. Nâ—zianz in distichis to keep them within the limits of humility and from presuming any thing rashly by the Justice of their actions As for the Youth that Antient practice of the Romans was a rare spectacle and a brave Lesson they gave the young men of the City when they made up a most magnificent Sepulchre to the young Princess Servilia the rarest beauty that ever appeared in the Roman Empire Over the Marble cover of her Tomb was in the very middle an Earthen Pot and at both the ends two Nymphs in Womens shape from the Head to the Navel and thence downwards light-footed Deers so Artificially joynted Greg. Nazianz. in Moncast which looking fixedly at the Pot with a jeering smile would give it a kick at the same time and break it to pieces That Earthen Pot represented the Body of Servilia a Vessel
stuft up with Earth and Dung Those light-footed Deers are the days of her life which with a great deal of speed conducted her to Death That jeering smile shewed the vanity of all her greatness and Pleasures This breaking of the Vessel the seperation of the Soul from the Body In fine Omnes eodem eogimur omnium Versatur urna serius ocius Sors exitura nos en aeternum Exitium impositura Cymba Horat. lib. 2. Carm. the whole exposed to the publick view was a brave instruction to the Youth of Rome to curb them and stop the course of their insolency But let us not seek for so Antient a fact let us go and open some Tomb wherein of late days is cast some rare young Beauty which Death had overcome Imagine with your self dear Reader this Carcass to be left in your Chamber Ask it the question What is become of those fair eyes which were but two days since seen to open with such Majesty Circum ferabatur apud Aegyptios inter pocula sceletus hoc est corporis ossea duntaxat compage exextantiseffigies in memoriam ut ajunt manerotis isidis alumni quem annis innocentibus immatura morte fata praeripuerant Herodot l. 11. Petron. in Satyrico and give a bold look at the admirers to shut down their lids for shame to be dazled with fear to grow black with sadness to be inflamed with anger to grow mild and smile at a Lover Where are those optick Veins which carried by their continuation the usual ray on the very door-case of the Eye to receive the Species and frame the Image of such as were represented Exteriourly Where are those Tunicks and little thin skins which locked up so artificially all humours that nothing should annoy this great little Master-piece of Nature All That is no more but a stinking Dunghill mixed with nasty Blood more horrible to be seen than ever was the Carcass of Helena which Menippus had perceived in the dark Dungeon of Hell But what is become of that pure white proper and well set Body so pamper'd so carefully wash'd so curiously deck'd so interlac'd with thousands of Sky-colour'd Veins which Nature had fram'd as a Net to intangle all men in her Love all is nothing now but a rotten lump of Flesh where Worms have taken up their quarters to feed at their ease Let us go further to find out the Heart first alive and at last dead whence proceeded all Passions as so many Sovereign Ladies and Queens of that little World Alas It 's now but a small handful of ashes the least touch will reduce it to dust as the Apples of the Lake Asphatite where Sodom and Gomorrah stood heretofore There is no young man in the World let him be the greatest Ranter that ever was heard of if he will but consider seriously this doleful pourtraiture he will conceive a distast of all Earthly pleasures he will stop the course of his Debauch'd life knowing for certain the day will come that infallibly he will be brought to the same condition Damascenus in historia Balaam Josaphat testatur priscas Sanctorum reliquias religiosè in theca ex collo pendente gestasse non tantum venerationis sed memoriae mortis causa Tradition gives us to understand of the Patriarch Noah how after he had made an end of building an Ark and received Orders to get into it with all his Family The first thing he would have observ'd in his new House was that his Children should think often of Death as a strong motive to keep them from Vice and Deadly Sin And to bring them to this good Custom he commands them to go look for the Bones of Adam's Body which being all found and brought home to the Community except the hinder part of his Head which they left on the Mount Calvary for the accomplishment of the Messias Mysteries To one he he gives the Thigh-bone to another that of an Arm and to all the rest each one his proportion To the end they might always think that if God by his special Grace delivered them out of all danger of Shipwrack and Deluge Yet they were not exempted from the inevitable Laws of Death If Jonathan thought of that Sentence in time he would not take the news of his Death so much to Heart And we should not know by Scripture the weakness of his Courage and the main excess of his Grief which made him say with a weeping Tone Alas for having tasted a little Honey must I die so soon I did as yet but begin to receive the sweet Air of Life and here already I am summon'd to march off to take up my Lodging in the thick and dark shadows of an Eternal Night Nature to me is a most Cruel Step-mother to shew me so much of her Pleasures and presently to cut me off before I tasted of their sweetness We must then acknowledge that of all Exteriour means the most serious thought of Death is the strongest to move Youth to their Conversion Ponite quotidie ante oculos vestros finem vestrum cogitate cujus erunt quid vobis proderunt quae post vos remanebunt haec cogitate haec inter vos die ac nocte in secreto in publico tractate S. Anselm ad Burgundium macherum ejus conjugem Epist As for Kings Princes and Monarchs who by the eminency of their Dignities should seem to be out of all fear being that all Creatures shew them their Obedience as to the Gods of the Earth What made them undervalue and forsake their Scepters and Crowns to live in a Desart as Josaphat Son to the great Abenner Who was it that oblig'd them to quit their Palaces and Royal Houses for to lead in a Cloister the Life of a poor Religious man as a Charles the Great Who perswaded them to have a greater esteem for the Cross of Jesus than for the Richest Treasures the World can afford as a Constontine but the Thoughts of Death Leonitus in the Life of the Ancient Fathers relates That at the Coronation of the Emperours in the City of Constantinople before they had gone further in their Ceremonies Vide apud Xiphilium in domit funebre convivium domitavi there would come a number of Sculptures every one with his Marble in his Hand who Addressing themselves to the Emperour ready to be Crown'd would make him this Complement Sacred Majesty according to the Custom of your Predecessors and the Order Establish'd in the Ceremonies of your Vnction here we do Prostrate ourselves at your Feet with these Marbles and our Request is to be inform'd by your Majesty what form we shall give your Tomb O my God! what different Ceremonies have we here On the one side I see Pallaces Louvres and Imperial-Houses preparing to receive the Prince with a great deal of Honour And on the other side I hear of nothing but Stones Tombs and Sepulchres wherein he is to