eternally in his Glory S. Climacus Article XXXVI St. John Climacus distinguishes the desires of Death which the Devil suggests unto us from those which Grace inspires and of this Doctrine he composes one degree of his holy Ladder Degree 6. n. 4. where he shews That the Meditation of Death is the most profitable of all Spiritual practises AS all apprehensions of Death are not criminal Degree 8. n. 3. 4. Ibid. 8. so all the desires of Death are not always lawfull According to Nature Man dreads to die and Christ Jesus himself was apprehensive of it to make it clearly appear to men that he had taken upon him all the weaknesses of humanity and that there were two Natures united in his Person If God had not given to the Soul this natural adhesion for her Body she would not remain there shut up one instant This adhesion is therefore an order of Providence and not a disorder of Sin But to know whether the Desires or Fears of Death are criminal or commendable we must examine the reasons which move us to dread it or to desire it There are some who by a motive of Despair desire to die when they find themselves oppress'd with sickness or with affliction and these are very faulty in not receiving these chastisements from the hand of God with patience and humility Others after they have imbraced a Penitent Life are discouraged and grow weary of suffering for the expiation of their Sins and these surely are very unhappy for they lose the fruit of all the good works which they have formerly performed They have kept their Lamps along time lighted and they let them go out at the hour perhaps in which the Bridegroom is ready to come Others there are who being puffed up with a vain presumption imagin that they are arrived at the soverein peace of Soul and have gotten a comâ—eat victory over all their Passions because they have no longer any fear of Death They perceive not that this Pride is a thousand times worse than the fear of Death and that the malice of our invisible Enemies is so great 7. Degree n. 68. that they convert the seeds of Virtues into Vices Some others more conformable to the Spirit of Christianism seeing that the violence of their evil Customs makes them to relapse incessantly into Sin desire Death with thoughts of repentance and of humility These sentiments are laudable 22. Degree n. 25. and yet they are but the beginning of Christian perfection One arrives at this perfection when being dead to all the affections of the World to the World it self 6. Degree n. 20. and to Sin one desires to die upon no other motive than only to be entirely united to Christ Jesus 'T is by this mark that one may know the difference between the natural apprehensions of Death 6. Degree n. 6. and the fear which proceeds not from the feeling of Nature between the Impatience which comes from Despair and the desire which the hope of a better Life produces For he who hath not renounced all created things and his own will 6. Degree n. 20. and 11. betrays himself and is like to a Soldier who should present himself with his hands tyed in the day of Battle They who during their Lifetime have their Heart and Spirit link'd to Heaven 26. Degree n. 106. mount up to Heaven after their Death But they who have had their Soul link'd to the Earth descend under the Earth 26. Degree n. 377. The goods and the honours of the World are as so many rotten steps of a Ladder upon which the humble man cannot set his foot without puting himself in danger to lose his Humility He who voluntarily resigns himself to Death and who expects it without fear 6. Degree n. 12. hath some Vertue But he who at every hour desires it may pass for a Saint We cannot live holily one sole day if we do not desire that it may be the last day of our Life rather than to offend God in it The continual thought of Death extinguishes at last all Vices And as a perfect Charity renders a man exempt from falling into Sin so a perfect Meditation of Death renders him uncapable to fear any thing but the Judgements of God Ib. n. 14. And surely there is reason to admire that the Pagans themselves have said something not unlike unto this when they declared That Phylosophy or the love of Wisdom is nothing else but a continual study of Death Article XXXVII St. Bernard teaches us That Hope is the portion of true Christians and that this Virtue enables them to suffer patiently all the evills of this Life and to Love and Desire Death THe Children of darkness sleep in the night season Ser. 6. in Ps 90. alibi but as for us my Brethren who are Children of light let us watch in expectation of the days coming in which we are to sleep the sleep of Death S. Bernard Let us arm our selves with a holy Hope to fight against this drowsiness of the World Let Sensualists shut their eyes against the beams of this Hope and let them repose in the wantonness of a voluptuous Life Let them say we are in peace and in security who can discover us what can trouble the enjoyment of our pleasures The day will come when they shall be overwhelm'd with an un-foreseen ruine as a Woman is surprized by the pangs of Childing How terrible are your judgments how incomprehensible are your words â—ap 17. O Lord Whilst the Wicked insult over the holy Nation of your Elect and flatter themselves that they shall always domineer a stroke of your hand lays these fugitive slaves in the dust who fancied they could steal themselves from your eternal Justice They who were seen to triumph over your Patience are all enwrap'd in the shadows of a long and dismall night as many Criminalls are fast linked together with one and the same Chain As for us O my God! who have no share in their Sleep nor in their Blindness we lift up our Eyes incessantly towards Heaven from whence we expect our help You O Lord Psal 15. are our good and all our portion This part which is fallen to our Lot is rich and delicious Our hereditary share is of an incomparable excellency S. Ber. 'T is for this that our Heart rejoyceth and that we sing with alacrity because you will not leave the Soul of the Just in Hell nor will you suffer him whom you have made holy to see corruption Thus O Lord the inheritance of the Children of Jacob is more worth than the riches of the Children of Esau for when they should possess the whole Earth when the Goods which the World promises them should be great the possession thereof is not peaceable the duration is but short the end is uncertain and the loss of them is follow'd with an infinite number of miseries
have nothing to fear upon Earth and as they possess nothing but their Soul and their Body so they look upon Death as an advantage which puts them in possession of Christ Jesus When they understand that some one among them is dead there 's a universal Joy amongst them all No one daring to say Such a one is Dead but they all say Such a one hath finished his Course At this happy tidings they chaunt forth Canticles of Joy to the praise of God humbly demanding of him for themselves the grace of a speedy and holy Death In effect as the Gladiatours have an extreme desire to get forth of the Theatre where they are perpetually expos'd to new Wounds so they who lead an austere Life and see themselves perpetually expos'd to the Temptations of Sin burn with a desire to put an end to their combats and to be delivered from the labours of this miserable Life in order to enjoy a repose which shall never be interrupted Article XVII 6. Instruction of St. John Chrysostom That the Death of Christ Jesus ought to have cured us of the dread of Death and that the Ceremonies of the Church in the Funerals of the Faithfull should afford us Comfort and Joy both for them and for our selves ST Paul says That before the birth of Christ Jesus Hom. 4. in Ep. ad Heb c. 2. Death reigned in the whole Univers and that its Empire was extended over all the Nations of the Earth Then Man began not to live but to Die without passing to a better Life But the Saviour of the World hath triumphed over Death by dying he hath destroyed its Tyranny even to the gates of Hell and those ghastly places to which it fled have acknowledged the power of our Deliverer In so much as after his Passion and his Resurrection one cannot be his Disciple without loving Death as he loved it Thus my Brethren strengthned by his Example we have no longer any cause to trouble our selves when we think of that last hour and we should do amiss to make now such complaints as our forefathers did before the coming of our Redeemer What do we see upon Earth Job 14. sayd Iob more wretched than Man He is born of a Woman amidst pains he lives a short time and suffers much his best days pass away as a shadow and he never remains constant in the same estate Were it not better for him never to have been At least there remains some hope in the Wood when 't is cut down the Stem thereof buds forth afresh and its Branches becom more thick and green than before But as for Man when the Woof of his life is once broken off 't is for evermore He comes naked forth of his Mothers womb and he shall return naked into the womb of the Earth What remaines there of man when he hath served for food to the Worms Could he not behold the Light but upon this hard condition that he must in a moment after be plunged in the darkness of the Tomb Behold what was the langage of men before the coming of the Messias But Christ Jesus hath visited us in these darknesses he hath drawn us forth of this shadow of Death wherewith we were encompassed he hath caus'd our Life to spring from our Death he hath open'd us a passage to Eternity by passing himself first by a Death ignominious in appearance but in effect glorious Thus he fought Death with its own weapons he hath pull'd out its sting 〈◊〉 23. he hath destroy'd it by it self Heb. 11. he hath subdued the Prince of Death and finally he hath cast it headlong into an eternal Abysmus ◠Cor. 25. and by this Victory he hath wiped off the Tears and rased the disgrace of his people from the face of the Earth Isay 25. Let us not my Brethren lose the advantage which he hath given us over Death Let us have no horrour of a thing which God hath rendred to usefull and so glorious unto us Rom. 8. We who possess the first fruits of the Spirit with hope to be delivered from this subjection to corruption and to be made partakers of the glory and of the liberty of the Children of God Let us remain firm in Faith let us generously brave Death If we look on it with Eyes of Faith we shall finde nothing in it that is terrible but on the contrary it will appear to us sweet and agreable and in the end we shall grow familiar with it But we must look upon it at all times and be acquainted with it if we will find it pleasing unto us We must love it and desire it by the example of our dear Master who loved it for our sakes When I behold on one side to what degree of honour Christ Jesus hath raysed us and on the other side when I consider to what lownesse we debase our selves I am altogether confounded at our remisness and negligence I see many among Christians who fear Death not only for themselves but for their Freinds This weakness is so visible among us and even among persons who seem to have much piety that the Pagans publickly mock at it For say they if the Christians believe in God whom they adore why fear they to see him and if they love him what induces them to shun the only thing which according to their own doctrine must unite them eternally unto him 'T is certainly to give occasion to the wicked to esteem all that we say of the eternall Goods and of the Resurrection of the Dead to be meer Fables They less regard what we preach than what we do You destroy by your actions what we endeavour to establish by our discourses for they judge rather of the Religion of Christ Jesus by your Life than by our Instructions In effect all the frights which you make appear shew plainly that you have little confidence in the Word of God When the Apostle S. Paul says I desire to die Philip. 1.23 and to be united to Christ Jesus he teaches us what should be the continuall desire of all true Christians Thus when you testify so great an apprehension of Death you make known to the whole world that your Faith is feeble and languishing we see that you fear to obtain that which you cannot demand with too much ardour and that instead of practising the precepts which you have heard Heb. 1. your Heart resembles those balf-open Vessels which let out all one pours into them For the rest I bless God for that he will have his Church make use in the Funerals of the Dead of such holy and august Ceremonies as condemn your remisness and which convince you of your little Faith For why think you do we there sing Hymns and Psalms and set up lighted Cierges and Torches but to teach you to look upon your Brethren whilst we are burying them as upon victorious Champions whom we ought to accompany with
only with wild Roots my Imagination ingenious to persecute me ceased not to entertain it self with the delights of the Roman Citty I pass'd the day in sighing and the night in weeping for my Sins But the more I strove to quench with my Tears the secret fire of my Concupiscence the more that rebell was enkindled even in the marrow of my bones If sometimes the wearinesses of my penance forced me to abandon my self to sleep I paid not that tribute to Nature but against my will and to free my self quickly from it I suffer'd my body to fall to the ground it being extenuated with watchings and as it were broken with all sorts of macerations I had no other Pillow than a Stone no other Garment then a Hayr-cloath no other Drink than Water nor other Food than Herbs and Roots and when the weakness of my Stomack obliged me to eat them boyled for a more easy disgestion I durst not satisfy my hunger fearing to commit an excess in making good cheer This Abstinence and the heat of the Climat joyned to the ardour of my temper had dryed me up like a Skeleton and one might have counted all the Nerfs through a Skin more tawny than that of the Ethiopians In this sad estate I had more horrour of my self than of the Scorpions and of the Serpents which were round about me and yet my Spirit would escape on a sodain even amidst my most holy Meditations and quit Prayer to dream of the Roman Dames running over all the assemblies I had frequented formerly where the Devil had laid his mortall Baits to entrap Chastity Then being irritated at the revolt of my Senses which these thoughts had excited against me I massacred my breast with a thousand blows and I left not off striking it untill the Grace of our Lord had calmed my Passions He knows what my sorrow was after such strange Conflicts I blushed with shame Life was insupportable unto me All the corners of my Grot all the Rocks of my Solitude seem'd to me so many Censurers of my Life and so many Witnesses of my Weaknesses For this cause I often chang'd my habitation hoping to find out some one where I might have more quiet but my evil did not change because I bore every where about me the subject of my disquiet I avouch that in the height of my torments I ardently desired to die and that I could have wished it had been permitted me to go forth of the World When one day I was press'd with this thought more violently than I was wont I took up the Book of the sacred Scripture which was my sweetest comfort and as God would have it I fell upon that passage where the Prophet Amos says these terrible Words Joel 2.11 Accursed be they who inconsiderately desire the day of our Lord. Soph. 1.15 Who urges you thus to desire it That day of our Lord is a day without Light Amos. 1.18 a day of darkness and obscurity When you shall be weary of your misery overwhelm'd with infirmities persecuted with temptations rejected by the injustices of others when you shall be disgusted with the whole World and irksom to your self expect the hour of our Lord with patience Amos. â— 19 For what doth it avail a man to shun the meeting of a Lion if he falls into the paws of a Bear S. Ierom. It is not in his power to hinder his Soul from going forth when that hour shall be come Eccl. 8.8 and he hath no right to hasten or to slacken the day of his Death After this sacred Instruction I suffered Life patiently being resolv'd to employ all the moments thereof in doing good works and being perswaded that we may well desire Death but that it is not permitted us to advance or further it nor even so much as to demand it of God with overmuch impatience because although we ought to contemn Life yet we must not omit to conserve it Article XXI An Excellent Instruction of the same St. Jerome That Death ought to be looked on as an order of the Divine Providence rather than as an effect of human Infirmity and that so we ought to die by Obedience and by Love A True Christian looks upon Death not only as upon a subject of consolation Lib. 9. in Isaiam alibi but moreover as upon an object of love and of respect because it must be granted that it is God who makes us live and die when he pleases and that the end of our days is more an effect of the Divine Will than of human infirmity For if the fall of the least Sparrows happens not without the order of God as himself says in the Gospell we ought to believe by a stronger reason That the last fall of our Body never happens but according to the immutable decree of his Will We should therefore look on Death with Love considering it as an effect of the eternal Providence We must take from it that which Nature finds horrible in it and think that God sends it not to them whom he loves but to the end they should always love him In effect the greatest testimony he can give them of his love is to withdraw them out of the World and to free them from the slavery of their Body and of Sin to render them Saints and make them eternally happy I say yet much more we are in some sort made partakers even upon Earth of this happiness when we submit to his will with this Confidence And as the last mark we can give of our Love towards God is to receive Death with an entire Obedience and even with Joy when it summons us to go forth of the World so the most perfect act of our Faith and of our Piety towards Christ Jesus is to resign our selves before hand to what ever God shall ordain of our Life and of our Death Let us therefore with David say to him Ps 89. Behold we are ready O Lord Cut of the threed of our miserable Life when you please And surely what is the duration of our days They pass away more speedily than the Word We live ordinarily but Seaventy Years and the stronger scarcely pass Fourscore But should our Life endure a Thousand years before your eyes a Thousand years are no more then yesterday which is past and gone Death hurries them away as a Whirlwind and they disappear as a Dream So that how long soever our Life is it will be counted for nothing unless it is pleasing to you Grant then Sap. 3. O Lord that we may count our days by our Good Works and that we may know their shortness to the end we may acquire Wisdom of Heart Article XXII St. Jerome or the Authour of some Epistles attributed to him which are placed at the end of his Works urges this Doctrine yet farther and teaches That a Christian ought not only not to dread Death but that he ought also to
Pilgrimage wherein we are to make what speed we are able Otherwhiles it compares it to a Warfare whereinto we enroll our selves to die in fighting against the Enemies of Christ Jesus At other times it represents Death unto us under the Parable of a Hireling who tills the Vinyard for the price of his days labour O Christians when the Evening shall come let not us imitate those indiscreet Vignerons who complained that they had born the burden of the day and endured the heat of the Sun Let 's not presume that we have deserv'd a larger recompense than they who have labour'd less time than we It belongs to the Master of the Vinyard to distribute his Wages as himself pleases At what ever hour he calls us to his service let us labour as long as the day lasts Our Lord knows well how to pay unto each one what appertains to him Mat. 20.12 Perhaps the last shall be first and the first last because there are many called and but few chosen Let us expect the hour of payment with Patience and with Humility That hour O Christians is the hour of Death for this Death which we so much dread is the period of our pains and the time of our reward Article XXXIII 3. Reflexion of St. Gregory That they who have the World love some reason to fear the end of it but that they who serve Christ Jesus ought not to apprehend the destruction of the World on the contrary they ought to endure with patience War Famine Pestilence Detraction Persecution and the other Scourges wherewith the hand of God chastises men because these are the signs of the second coming of our Saviour IF the scourges of God fall upon your Head lift it up and look towards Heaven Hom. 1. and 13. in Evan. because your Redemption is near at hand Behold the Fig-tree and all other Trees Luk. 21. when their fruit begins to be formed you say that Summer is coming on So when you shall see all these things arrive which the common sort of men account miseries know that the Kingdome of Christ Jesus approaches and that Christians ought to rejoyce thereat as at the greatest of all good things because they shall never possess the Kingdom of God untill that of the Devil which is the World shall be destroyed It belongs therefore to them only who have the love of the World rooted in their Heart who look not after eternal Life who even fancy that there is none It only belongs I say to those wretched Children of the World to afflict themselves for the end of the World But as for us who are the Children of God who know that our Patrimony is not upon Earth but that it expects us in the glory of the Eternal Father we rejoyce to see an end of the Worlds Tyranny which hath already too long lasted Heaven and Earth shall pass Luk. 21.33 but my Words shall not pass says our Lord. Those are the works of his Hands they shall perish but our Lord will remain Heb. 1.11 They will wax old as a Garment They will change their form as a Cloak But he who created them will be evermore the same Ps 101. v. 26.27 c. and his years will have no end The Just shall dwell with him and their Posterity shall be eternally happy Article XXXIV 4. Reflection of St. Gregory That there are few Just who can truly say with St. Paul God forbid that I should glory of any other thing than of the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ because the World is dead and crucified for me as I am dead and crucified for the World That altho ' the major part of good people employ all their Life to die to the World Gal. 6.14 yet it frequently falls out that the World dies not to them but on the contrary that it strives to corrupt them by its flatteries and by its illusions From whence this holy Doctour takes an occasion to exhort Christians to be willing to go forth of this place which is so dangerous and to desire Death as the sole Remedy of all their Evills THere is no Just Man who doth not acknowledge himself miserable during this Life Morol l. ◠c. 2.3 c. and who considers it not as a painfull and perilous Pilgrimage He knows that the Dignities and the Riches of the World are things perishable But what ever experience he dayly makes of them they cease not to leave in his spirit the same impression which the sight of a delicious Countrey leaves in the Spirit of a Traveller He doth not absolutely prefer it before his native Land but he is less impatient to get home to it What should press us to leave Life will some one say if we make good use of it Our Lord hath given us Goods let us employ them for his Glory He forbids not the enjoyment o◠Honours when one referr◠them all to him What har◠is there in hearing our Prayses published so long as w◠cease not to prayse God 〈◊〉 Thus doth the World endeavour to seduce the Jus◠man by subtle stratagems which it disguises under th◠appearances of Virtue Bu◠a true Christian grounde◠in the love of Christ Jesu◠speaks another Language 〈◊〉 you Honours of the World says he you Riches Health Commodities of Life I am not to look upon you but as the obstacles of my Salvation In this sad voyage which I make upon Earth my Soul sends forth continual sighs for the length of her exile nor can she suffer with patience that which separates her from her dear Countrey What a remisness what an imprudence is it to stay upon the Earth for the exercising of an Office and Dignity which torments us to distribute our Goods which are capable to corrupt us to acquire a Prayse which may make us proud and perhaps for some other end which is yet more vain and frivolous Ah my Soul do not thou adhere to any worldly thing thou wilt not there meet with any thing which is not unworthy of thy affection Remember the nobility of thy origin thou comest from Heaven the Earth is not for thee God did not create thee to animate eternally a lump of Flesh Death will ere long destroy this Body in which thou takest so much complacency but its loss ought not to afflict thee God will one day repair it 'T is Sin which thou oughtest to dread there is thy Death and a terrible and irreparable Death Thou wilt be exposed to the danger of this Death so long as thou sojournest upon Earth Go forth of it then my Soul go forth of thy Prison separate thy self from thy Body for I burn with a desire to die that I may go to live eternally with my Lord Jesus Behold what are the sentiments of perfect Christians They have learned in the School of so good a Master that even they who most desire to die notwithstanding that they are already
have you heard say of them who were seen yesterday so flourishing One of them was murdered the other was drown'd another died in playing and he who seem'd to have most health expir'd sitting at table One should never have done if one should run over all the manners of Death wherewith dayly and dismall examples strike our eyes and yet what profit do we make thereof He surely is wise and happy who passes on his Life without adhering to it who sees all it's moments slide away as if each of them were to be the last and who prepares himself at the beginning of each day with the same care which he would take upon the day of his Death One acquires this happy foresight by the contempt of the World by the desire of advancing in Virtue by a sincere repentance by a blind obedience to the orders of Providence by an uncloathing and despising of ones self accompanied with a firm resolution to suffer all for Christ Jesus Let us say to him with St. Paul Lord 2 Tim. 4. I am as a Victime which hath already the aspersion to be sacrificed the time of my departure draws near I have finished my course and no more now remains for me but to expect the crown of Justice which is reserved for them who have fought valiantly Behold the state in which a true Christian should be setled Ibid. for he who hath not fought according to the Law shall not be crowned Wherefore make your profit of the strength which God hath given you and whilst you you are in health lay up a treasure of good works for the other Life Perhaps you will not be any longer in the state of performing them when you shall fall into sickness and infirmity You are not surely so great a fool as to fancy you shall always enjoy health Alas how the sentiments of man change in the bed of Death All that he esteemed great in the World appear then to him little and despicable the sin which seem'd to him small and inconsiderable becomes great and monstrous But the change of his reason serves him no more but to plunge him in Despair Learn this sacred doctrine from the mouth of Christ Jesus Lib. 3. c. 49. He who loves his Soul shall lose it Joh. 12.15 Do not imitate those self-lovers of whom the Apostle St. Paul speaks with execration Tim. 3. For nothing is worthy of your love but God alone no not even your own Soul 2 Pet. 3. Jud. 10.8 which is the most perfect image of the Divinity Mat. 16.26 If you love it you shall lose it and if you lose your Soul Mark 8. what will it avail you to have gained the whole World For having once lost your Soul by what exchange can you recover it But we shall never comprehend this truth unless the love of Jesus serves us for our Master O love of my God when wilt thou clear my spirit When wilt thou set my Heart on fire When shall I enjoy thy delights When shall I contemplate the glory of thy Kingdom Comfort me in my Banishment Sweeten my Affliction I sigh after nothing but to be with you my beloved Lord for all the comfort the World offers me doth but augment my impatience and my sorrow When I have a will to raise up my self towards Heaven my Passions draw me towards the Earth Tottering between two so opposit motions I am a burden to my self and I desire ardently to die that so there may be an end of all these combats which put me in perpetual danger to be overcome by the Enemy of my Salvation If I had still any affection for the World I would entreat you to leave me in it but since I have setled all my affections upon you what is there that should stay me upon Earth If God doth you the favour to afford you these feelings do not attribute them to your self Rom. 12. I exhort you not to elevate your selves beyond that which you ought in the sentiments you have of your selves but to contain your selves within the limits of moderation according to the measure of the gift of Faith which God hath imparted to each one of you Jer. 13. 'T is to me alone to whom glory appertains says our Lord. Do not glorify your selves because I have spoken unto you Give to me the glory of all before darkness surprizes you By this means you will profit more and more in Virtue and I will give you a tast of all the sweetnesses of a holy Death Article XXXXI The admirable Prayses which St. Laurence Justinian gives to Death from whence he concludes that 't is no wonder if the most perfect among Christians are they who most desire it WE need not mervail that the Faithful who are penetrated with the Love of Christ Jesus De incendijs Divini amoris desire to die S. Laurence since he hath rendred Death desirable by dying for us In effect 't is no longer a punishment 't is a favour and a favour by so much the greater by how much the sooner obtained For that which was a chastisement of Sin is now a temporal recompense of good Works We ought therefore to look now upon it as the object of our sweetest hopes and not as the subject of our Fears O Death thou art no longer bitter thou art no longer cruel to the Disciples of Christ Jesus as thou wert formerly to the Children of Adam Let us bless our Lord for having made the most terrible of all Evils to be so wholesome and so universal a remedy which frees us from all sorts of infirmities and miseries which exempts us from the misfortunes of poverty from the outrages of our enemies from the attacks of envy from the disquiets of avarice and of ambition in a word from the tyranny of all our passions c which is yet more desirable which exempts us from Sin Death having thus changed its nature Christians have no longer any aversion against it but on the contrary they desire it as much as other men dread it and they invite to their assistance that which the World avoyds as the cause of its destruction Now altho' all true Christians have these thoughts we must nevertheless acknowledge that the Saints are infinitly more pierced therewith As they have more love for Christ Jesus they have also a greater desire for Death The ardour of this Love gives them such an absolute contempt of Life and such an impatience to get out of it that there is not a moment in which they wish not the separation of their Soul from their Body Nothing more nearly touches than these Words of David when having his Heart transfixed with the darts of Divine Love and as it were transported out of himself by a happy and holy fury he exclams Psal 83. â— My Soul languishes and is consumed with a desire to enter into the house of our Lord. My Heart burns with
Pains and the beginning of an Eternal Felicity Article II. The Second Principle of St. Augustin That proportionally as the Christian feels his Love for Virtue to encrease he feels also the Desire of Death to encrease within him WHen a man hath a lively and sincere Faith which gives him a sight of the place whether he is to walk during his abode upon Earth and of that where he shall arrive one day after his going forth of this World the Desire of Death ought to encrease in him according to the encrease of his Piety because it sussiceth not that Faith makes him see that Celestial dwelling where he is to be setled for euer but Charity must also make him love it and desire speedily to obtain it Now 't is impossible for him to have this Disposition in his Spirit and in his Heart without being glad to go forth of this Life An Excellent Passage of one of St. Augustins Disciples who made a Collection of his Sentences and of his chief Maxims where the tow precedent Principles are united This Collection is attribution to St. Prosper IF we consult our Faith and have the Sentiments which it ought to inspire into us we shall acknowledg that Sanctity of Life and a Desire of Death are things inseparable For one cannot be truly a Christian if one loves not God and if one aspires not to that Eternal Life which he hath promis'd to all them who love him We see it by Faith we expect it by Hope we love it and we desire it by Charity According as a man advances in the practice of these Virtues he advances also in the exercise of this holy Desire The more ardour he hath for eternal Life the less adhesion he hath to the temporal Life and considering Death as the sole issue out of this World and as the entrance into that Celestial Life which ought to be the object of all our Defires he looks with Joy upon that last moment which is to take him from off the face of the Earth So that when Faith and Charity are perfect in a Soul the Desire of Death is there at the same time so perfect that it raises it-self above that love of Life which blind and material Nature inspires into us But when Virtue is yet imperfect although Faith perswades us that Death is advantagious unto us yet Nature thwart's in us this holy Thought and we then feel that we possess Life with pleasure and should lose it with pain and difficulty whereas perfect Christians endure Life with pain and lose it with pleasure Article III. St. Augustin having establish'd these two Principles proposes to himself the Objection of some persons of Piety who fear the Judgments of God and who say That they do not believe they should do well in desiring Death and that it seems better to them to demand of God Time for Mortification and for becoming more Perfect I Know not upon what they can ground themselves Quaest Evan in Mat. q. 17. who having a sincere Faith can say nevertheless that they would not dye so soon to the end they might have more time to labour for their Salvation and their Perfection For 't is certain that the most infallible Mark which a Soul can have of her advancement in Virtue is when she advances in this holy disposition which makes her desire Death If then these persons will speak according to truth Let them not say I desire not to die so soon to the end I may have time to become more virtuous but let them rather say I desire to live longer because I am not virtuous enough to love Death Thus not to be willing to die so soon is not to the Faithfull a means to acquire more Virtue but 't is a signe that they have not yet acquired any Let them therefore who have hitherto said that they would not die to the end they might become more perfect say henceforth That they desire to die and this will make it appear that they are arrived at Christian Perfection Article IV. The Third Principle of S. Augustin That there are among Christians two sorts of Fear to displease God One of which is destroyed and the Other strengthened by Charity From whence this holy Doctor concludes That Faithful Souls which are the true Spouses of Christ Jesus fear nothing so much as to be for a long time separated from this Divine Bridegroom THere is a Fear which is banish'd by Charity In Psal 127. Tr. 9. n Epist i Joan. pass 1 Joan. 28 according to that word of Saint John Fear is not found with Charity but perfect Charity drives out Fear and he who fears is not perfect in Charity There is another Fear which the Royal Prophet calls the Fear of our Lord that pure and chaste Fear Psa 18 10. which remains for ever and ever Which gives us occasion to observe That there are two forts of the Fear of God one of which will subsist in Heaven with Charity and the other will be banish'd thence the one will perish with Life the other will remain eternally I cannot better explain unto you the Nature and the Properties of these two Fears then in placing before your Eyes a Comparison which seems to me very just and very sensible Figure to your selves two Women One of them chaste and the Other unfaithful to her Husband Is it not true that when their Husbands are absent the unfaithful Woman fears at every hour the return of her Husband and that on the contrary the chaste Woman fears lest her Husband should stay too long from coming Our Souls are the Spouses of Christ Jesus and during the state of this mortal life this Divine Bridegroom is separated from his Spouses Now if you agree to this truth there remains no more my Brethren but to ask your selves concerning the nature of the Fear which you feel to see whether it is either that imperfect Fear which Charity ought to exclude or that other tender and awful Fear which is to remain eternally O Christian Souls do not neglect this occasion which I present unto you to know well your selves Question your Conscience Will you know whether you truly love this Divine Bridegroom Do you desire that he should come presently or that he should yet for some time delay his coming Behold my Brethren and consider how your Heart is thereupon disposed and from thence you shall know what your Fear is and what is your love Alas How many Christians are there to whom if one should tell this News Christ Jesus will come to morrow to take you out of this World they would say Lord stay a little longer I have only begun to taste Life I have Youth and Health about me my House is not yet well established my Children are in their tender age and cannot pass without me I have in my mind great designs for the publick good the Poor have need of my assistance I perform
the eye of Faith nor love them but with the Spirit of Charity Now Faith and Charity do not link themselves to that which is perishable He who practises these two Virtues possesses temporal Goods without permitting himself to be possessed by them He gathers Riches but 't is to distribute them liberally to the Poor He hath care of his Health without being disquieted as well knowing that all the precautions one takes to preserve it are useless and sometimes even criminal when one submits them not to the orders of Providence Altho' his Honour is dear unto him he ceases not to suffer calumnies with patitience He is tender for his Freinds without having effeminate complacencies for them Finally he resembles a Traveller in all things who comforts himself when the weather is bad or his lodging incommodious because he prepared himself for all sorts of sufferings and for that he expects no repose but in the end of his journey Thus let detraction decry him let poverty oppress him let sicknesses torment him let the loss of Freinds afflict him the desire of Death and the Hope of the other Life render his Soul unmovable amidst all these miseries This Desire and this Hope are as two Ankers which resist the most furious Tempests and which defend his Heart against the Violence of Passions and against the blows of Fortune Article VI. There are an infinity of other such-like Thoughts and Expressions in St. Augustin But it will perhaps suffice to have related these which we have collected from many passages of his Writings to serve for the Foundation and for the Principles of this Work THis holy Doctour drew from the sacred Scriptures and from the Tradition of the Church the substance of these Maxims and the Fathers who went before him Tertul. or they who followed him have explicated themselves in the same manner upon the same subject Tertullian says That the Christians were distinguished from all other men by the Desire of Death That they look upon it as a Grace which is to crown all their Graces and That it is principally that which they demand of God every day in their Prayers What I pray you is the Idea we ought to have of Christians In Apol. passim The Christians are certain people ever-more ready to die who have this thought imprinted in their Spirit and this desire engraved in their Heart who look upon Death as the end of their servitude and the beginning of their happiness 'T is as one would say a People and a Nation of men distinguish'd from all others by the contempt they have of Life Moreover they are ready to lose it and that which afflicts others comforts them for they know that Baptism hath already separated them from the World and therefore they are glad when Death comes to deliver them out of it for evermore They conceive it to be a want of Faith for one to testify the least fear of Death in the most dangerous diseases or at the sight of the most cruel torments Is there question of suffering for God One may perceive Joy painted in their countenances they disdain the Tyrants they encourage their Executioners they cast themselves with alacrity into the flames All that prolongs their Life retards their Felicity Let 's go die say they we are Christians we glory in it and the glory of a Christian is to die couragiously for his Master to happy we who being the Disciples of Christ Jesus may die as he did True Christians says Tertulian in another place desire with an extreme passion to break the Chains which tye them to the Earth and to go to reign in Heaven with Christ Jesus Our Soul 't is true is no longer a slave to the Devil since the Saviour of the World hath ransomed it but our Body is yet under his empire He can raise Persecutions against us and expose us to the rage of our Enemies Shall we fear him for so small a matter Shall we not have the courage to free our selves from his power What is it that Death hath so terrible in it since Christ Jesus hath shewed us the example of dying well There is no other way to come to the Kingdom which he hath prepared for us Le ts die with him O Christians if we will reign with him These thoughts are the ordinary entertainment of the Faithful and the continual object of their vows The Pagans are confounded and the Devils despair but the Angels rejoyce at their resolution This Constancy which the Christians testify in affronting Death and this contempt they have of Life are so linked to the Spirit of Chrystianisme that even altho' the Son of God should not have expresty signified that Christians ought to demand to die in demanding the Comming of his Kingdom yet they would not have ceased to offer up to him this Petition So true it is that the sole character of Christian ought to inspire a continual contempt of Life and an ardent desire to possess the Kingdom which Christ Jesus hath promised to his Elect. Article VII That which Tertullian hath so well expressed in few Words hath been very largly explicated by St. Cyprian in many passages of his Writings and Principally in the Discourse he composed upon Mortality We have collected some Maxims of this great-Bishop concerning this subject S. Cypri and particularly of the eagerness which true Christians ought to have to get forth of this Life The First Maxim of St. Cyprian That the Christians who fear Death are Unjust and Unreasonable since in saying to God every day in the Lords Prayer Thy Kingdom come they desire our Lord to hasten their Death WE may say that they who fear Death shew plainly that they know not the prime Principles of Christianism 'T is surely to have little love for Christ Jesus to apprehend the arrival of his Kingdom May not one say That we are the Enemies of the Son of God and that we fear he should ascend his Throne to punish them who have offended him What is there more unjust and more unreasonable than to wish every day that the Will of God may be accomplished and yet to complain when it is accomplished Nevertheless 't is this disorder into which most of us fall We do as those bad Servants and those rebellious Slaves who must be trailed against their will into the presence of their Masters We pass forth of this Life rather by necessity than by submission and by such a cowardly repugnance we make it plainly appear that we have no Faith nor any Hope to be rewarded by him who calls us Surely I cannot comprehend how 't is possible that a Christian Soul can divide her-self into such contrary Sentiments For if the Captivity of the Earth doth yet please us why do we pray that the Kingdom of Heaven may come To what end do our Lipps pronounce so frequently such holy Prayers in which we demand of God that the day of our glory
and of our triumph may arrive Is it that we had rather serve the Devil upon Earth then reign in Heaven with Christ Jesus Either let us change our belief or else let us change our language let us speak like Pagans if we will live like Pagans Let us dread Death if we hope for nothing after Death But why should we not despise this Life if we expect a better Let 's make it appear that we submit our-selves to Faith and that we are fully perswaded of the truth of the Promises of Christ Jesus The Second Maxim of St. Cyprian That 't is no wonder if Infidells and Wicked people fear Death but that this Weakness is not tolerable in Christians LEt him dread to die who hath not obtain'd as we have a new birth of the holy Ghost and who not being regenerated in the Waters of Baptism shall be cast headlong into the Flames which can never be quenched Let him dread to die who hath not the sacred Unction and who hath not been marked with the adorable and wholsom sign of the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ Finally let him dread to die who in the delay of his Death find's also the delay of the punishments which expect him after Life But he who is truly a Christian and who loves God can fear nothing and ought to hope all Death is not a Death for him but a Life 'T is not a destruction of his Being 't is a changing of estate which is to end all his Miseries Since Death hath been joyned to the source of Life which is Christ Jesus it hath lost all its malediction and all its bitterness It hath chang'd those horrible names which affrighted us to take the pleasing names which comfort us Now the Christians call it a Sleep which charms our displeasures a Passage which conducts us to the Celestial Country a happy Ship wreck which casts us into the Haven So long as man was yet in the first state of Innocence Death was a punishment wherewith the Divine Justice threatned him if he should fall into Sin but in the state of Grace 't is a Sacrifice by which it purifies the Just and renders him worthy of Eternal Glory Formerly to terify man it was said to him If thou Sinnest thou shalt die and now to support him and to encourage him in the sufferings of this Life it is said unto him If thou diest not thou wilt Sin and the Apostles exhort us to comfort one another by the consideration of the nearness of Death and of the Comming of Christ Jesus The Third Maxim of St. Cyprian That Christians ought not to love the World because the World hates Christians and That when Death delivers them from all commerce with the World 't is a subject of Joy for them 'T Is for him who finds his delights in a worldly Life to desire to remain long in the World 'T is for him whom the World keeps as it were enchanted by the charm of pleasures to desire not to go forth of the World But since the World hates true Christians why do you who are Christians love the World which loves not you Why do you not rather love Christ Jesus who loves you and who calls you to crown you with all sorts of Goods Why do you not frequently consider that you have renounc'd the World by the Vows of your Baptism and that you stay not in the World during the time of your life but as a Stranger during his Journey Hate then the World since the World hates you and desire that happy day in which you shall pass into the true place of your repose there to enjoy the liberty of the children of God The Fourth Maxim of St. Cyprian That Death ought to be consider'd by Christians as a passage from the miseries of this Life to a glorious Immortality 'T Is certain that the Servants of God will not enjoy a perfect Peace till Death shall deliver them from all the miseries of this World and untill they are arrived to that happy Haven where an eternal Tranquillity reigneth 'T is the sole means which is left us to possess that Peace without trouble that Joy without sorrow and that Pleasure without disgust which we in vain seek to find else-where So that we ought to be so far from fearing Death which procures us so many Goods that on the contrary we ought to rejoyce when it approches In effect this Life is it any other thing than a Combate and a continual Temptation Let the most happy persons of the World examin themselves and then let them speak sincerely they will avouch that their purest Joy is evermore troubled by some pensiveness that all their Sweets are intermixed with bitterness that their Honours are accompanied with vexations and solicitudes and finally that Evils and Goods are linked together with an inseparable colligation Yet if Man hath any desire in this unfortunate Life 't is surely a desire to be happy It must needs be that he hath formerly had in himself an original greatness whereof there remains in him only say ruines upon which he strives to re-build some kind of Felicity All his thoughts aym at this end but he knows not distinctly either the Happiness he hath lost or the way he must take to recover it His Soul conducts him always towards Heaven from whence she derives her birth and his Senses dragg him always towards the Earth whereof they are formed He neither knows what he is nor what he would and like to a Vessel floating at the mercy of the Winds and of the Waves he serves for a wethercock to fortune and to his own cupiditie Let him fortify himself with the wisest Maxims of Phylosophy let experience a good wit and an human reason guide him 〈◊〉 his actions let him make choice among all the goods of the Earth of them which are least subject to change and which are most capable to render a man happy all his labour vanishes into smoak he will repent him-self of his choice he will seek after other goods and those other goods will deceive him But when will he be able to stop his affections what means will he find out to preserve them and to preserve himself Ever since this blinde Love of Life hath carried men on to invent Remedies to prolong it have they met with any one against Death Why then do they not look upon it rather as an infallible Remedy against their Disquiets and as the wholesom end of all their Evils Ah 't is that they are not truly Christians 't is that they know no other Life than this 't is that they doubt of Gods promises which never deceive us and that after so many dismal proofs of the uncertainty of the things of this World they love rather still to deceive themselves than to acknowledge that they are deceived But the true Disciples of Christ Jesus being perswaded of the truth of his Words and enflamed with his love have no
difficulty to undeceive themselves from the vanities of the World to contemn Life and even to take an extreme pleasure in seeking after Death because they are assured that no one can be perfectly happy S. Gregory of Nazian untill he dies for Christ Jesus and untill he reigns with him in his Heavenly Kingdom St. Gregory of Nazian in his Funeral Orations furnishes excellent thoughts concerning the obligations which Christians have to despise Life and to desire Death and particularly in the Elogium he composed for his Brother Cezarius WHen I consider the happiness which our Kindred have acquired by dying and the little they have lost in loosing this unhappy Life so far am I from afflicting my self that I feel my self transported with joy and I say to God When shall it be O Lord that you will take us as you have them out of this strange Land and that we shall go into our lovely Countrey to joyn our selves with them who are there arrived before us When shall it be that Death shall put us in a condition to partake with them the pleasures of Paradise and to lead together an eternally happy Life In effect my Brethren what can we expect during the short time which remains of our Life but to see day after day more miseries to-suffer more evils and to câ—mmit more Sins than we have hitherto committed 'T is therefore this consideration and not the loss of our Freinds 't is the danger of offending God to which we are exposed during our Life and not the grief for their Death which ought to be the true subject of our Tears Let 's weep my Brethren but let us weep as David did for that our Pilgrimage is prolonged Le ts afflict our selves for that our Exile is not ended Le ts weep because we love a Life subject to so many miseries and which incessantly exposes us to lose the Grace of God This is my Brethren a just cause 〈◊〉 our sighs and tears 〈◊〉 therefore sigh over our selves with the holy Apostle and let us say 2 Cor. c. 4. and 5. This base Cottage built of clay wherein we now lodg shall it never be destroy'd Shall we not soon dwell in that other house which is not made by the hand of man and which shall endure eternally For how long shall we yet ly oppress'd under the weight of this mortal Body And till when must we trayl after us in all places a living Sepulcher where our Soul is as it were buried in the Flesh and infected with a corruption greater than that of reall Graves 〈◊〉 my Brethren if the â—â—â—th of Sin is not the subject of your griefs and affliction you have no subject that is legitimate But that which ought to cover us with shame is That we love this Life all miserable as it is and that we make much of this Body which detain's our Soul captive 'T is true that we are unwilling to offend God but we are willing to continue in a state of offending him at least 't is that which we desire when we desire to Live Do you then know for what a true Christian ought not to afflict himself I repeat it over again to you a true Christian ought not to afflict himself 〈…〉 he lives too long 〈…〉 thing that delays his 〈◊〉 delays also his happiness but what happiness A happiness which is pure in its enjoyment immense in its greatness and eternal in its duration Finally a happiness which comprehends the possession of God himself and which consequently surpasses the intilligence and the desire of man Behold that which ought to make us sigh without creasing towards Heaven and to say with the Prophet Psal 118 v. 81. My Soul languishes O Lord she falls almost into a swoun in the expectation of your Salvation For my own part through 〈…〉 of God I fear 〈…〉 my Body should 〈◊〉 since it's nature is to be perishable I am perswaded that the ruine of that which is materiall and terrestriall in me cannot chuse but be very advantagious unto me Let 's leave to the wicked the care to flatter a Body which kills the Soul and which one cannot keep long alive Those unhappy wretches tast not the goods of the Spirit because they have no feeling of Hope for another Life And surely I do not at all wonder that they place their soveraign good in this mortall Life in Health in good cheer and in the other pleasures of the senses But for us my Brethren who are convinced that all those goods are but vanity and that they will be dissipated in less time than the dew of the morning let us say with the Apostle would to God that by a lively Faith and by an ardent Charity I had so mortified my Body that it were not capable to detain my Soul for if I could totally bury my self with Christ Jesus I should be assured to be resuscitated and to live with him eternally Article IX S. Gregory Nisse St. Gregory Bishop of Nisse hath made a Discourse to shew That we should be so far from lamenting them who go forth of this Life that we ought to envy and desire their happiness He proves this Truth by many reasons which we give in brief and in the end be explicates it by an excellent comparison of the state of men in this present Life wiih the state of an Infant enclosed in his Mothers Belly He says afterwards That they who lament the Death of their Neighbour or who are afraid to die are as little reasonable as Children who cry when they are born into the World because they are not sensible of the happiness they have in being delivered out of the most dismal of all Prisons THey who excessively afflict themselves at the Death of their Kindred and Friends Orat. de mortuis To 3. are for the most part very weak Spirits who suffer themselves to be ledd by the movings of Nature and of Custom They weep ordinarily because 't is the custome to weep upon such occasions They grieve for themselves in the person of another because in losing him they lose some advantage which they reaped from him or else they weep because they fancy a false honour of appearing to be of a tender and good nature There is moreover a certain pleasure in Tears and one delights to draw compassion or esteem from others by weeping Finally in whatever manner we weep over the Dead 't is always a weakness and we should never fall into it if we gave our selves time to consider That the orders of Providence are unalterable and that human things change incessantly For is it not a folly to grieve for the Dead as if they could have lived always and to live so as if one were never to die To get forth of this errour we need only to consider a little the difference there is between the solid and infinite goods we hope for in heaven and Goods so vain and so short
pardonable in a Child Let us then open our Eyes let 's act as reasonable men let 's live like Christians 'T is high time to conceive a horrour of our Prison and to shake off the chains which detain us in it Let 's reflect that there is another Life than this let 's awaken our Faith let 's excite our Hope and finally let us comfort our selves le ts rejoyce that our near Relations have acquired an eternal Happiness by the loss of a miserable Life le ts burn with a holy Desire of Death let 's seek with ardour and receive with joy that which will put an end to our afflictions and give a beginning to our Felicity Article X. Among all the Fathers of the Church St. Ambrose is one of them who hath spoken best of Death He made a particular Treatise De bono mortis Of the good of Death S. Ambrose where he says That it frees us from the miseries of this Life and from the servitude of Sin He teaches That 't is Death which procures Immortality to our Soul and a glorious Resurrection to our Body and finally That 't is Death which gives us the means to testify our Gratitude our Love and our Zeal to Christ Jesus Whence he concludes that if we have Faith we ought to desire Death Life is a burthen the weight whereof oppresses us and Death is the only succour which can discharge us of it Life is a punishment and Death is the sole means which remains for us to be releas'd of it Did one ever see Slaves and miserable Wretches fear to be set at freedom and to be comforted 'T is from Death alone that we must expect this Comfort and this liberty Now if we ought to love it because its frees us from the miseries of Life ought we not to love it more because it delivers us from the bondage of Sin For the most innocent of men is a Sinner as long as he is living he must die to the end he may sin no more and his Death is no less the end of his Sin than of his Life But Death doth yet much more it breaks not the bonds of Sin but to procure us the glorious liberty of the Elect. 'T is Death which re-unites men to their beginning makes them find their greatness and their felicity in the loss of their Lives 'T is Death finally which delivering them from corruption introduces them into an incorruptible and eternal Life For as soon as Sin had given birth to Death God drew from thence the Resurrection to the end that Sin ceasing by Death Nature might always subsist by the Resurrection and that man dying to the Earth and to Sin might live eternally in Glory Then this Word of the sacred Scripture wild be accomplished Death hath been absorp'd and destroyed by an entire victory 1 Cor. 15. v. 55. and we shall be able to say with the Apostle O Death where a thy victory O Death where is thy sting But the greatest advantage which we derive from Death is That it gives us the means to imitate the Charity of Christ Jesus and to do for him in some sort the same thing he hath done for us We may be in dying the Victims of his glory as he hath been the Victim of our Salvation and we may testify our gratitude by voluntarily offering to him this Sacrifice In effect how will it be possible for us to satisfy otherwise our so great obligations And moreover if we well consider it Rom. 8. What proportion is there between the sufferings of the present Life and the felicitie of the other Life between the torments of Death and that immortal glory which God is one day to discover in us Article XI An Excellent Doctrine of St. Ambrose which establishes two manners of Living and of Dying set down in the Sacred Scripture The first is that of just men who Live of Life that is who being in the Grace of God enjoy the Life of Body and of Soul And the second is that of Sinners and wicked men who Live being dead and who leading an exteriour life upon Earth are dead interiourly before God As to the two manners of dying the One is of them who die of death that is who in dying impenitent endure a double Death that of the Soul and that of the Body and the Other is of the Sole Predestinate who die to live which is understood of the Elect who endure the corporal Death with patience and with joy to go to possess an eternal and glorious Life WHen it is said in the sacred Scripture That the man who shall keep Gods Commandments De Paradiso c. 9. and shall exercise Justice and Mercy towards his Neighbour Ezech. 18. shall live the Life we must not believe that the Holy Ghost made use without design of such an extraordinary expression To live the Life or of Life is to have a double Life One of which is exteriour and corporal and the Other interiour and spiritual 't is to lead the life of a Man and of an Angel both together 't is to enjoy at the same time Health and Grace 't is to live of a general Virtue which includes all the natural and supernatural functions finally 't is the estate in which good people live upon Earth an Estate truly happy for the time but from which one may fall unless one labours continually to disengage himself from all adhesions to Life by the thought and by the desire of Death On the contrary to die the Death or of the Death Gen. 2. Exod. 21. what is it else according to the language of the Scripture but to suffer a double Death of the Body and of the Soul I mean to be deprived of the ordinary use of this transitory Life and of the possession of eternal Life And this is it which makes the misery of the reprobate who for having over much loved a criminal Life die miserably in their crimes There is moreover among Christians another manner of dying which is of them who die to life or who die in living that is who are dead and living both together And these are they who live of the life of the Body who enjoy a perfect health who have beauty strength and dexterity and yet who are dead to the Life of Grace and are not animated with the Spirit of God 'T is of these men that it is said in the Scripture That they descend alive into Hell And 't is in this sence that the words of the Apostle are to be understood Psal 54.16 The Widow who lives in delights is dead 1 Tim. 56. altho' she seems to be living And it is also the deplorable state of the wicked in this life out of which they may nevertheless get forth by sincere penance Finally the fourth kind of Christians in relation to Life and to Death and the most happy of all is of them who live by Death such are all
honour and with pomp in their triumph What truer subject of Joy can we have for them than to be the witnesses of their liberty and of their victory What have we else to do or say but bless God for having call'd them to himself and for having crown'd his own Gifts in them by a happy Death Do we not thereby testify the acknowledgment of this favour by Words the most holy that can be found in the Scripture Finally is it not for this reason that we cause our Churches to eccho forth Cantieles of prayse and of jubilation Surely there is nothing in all the Ceremonies which invite you not to a holy alacrity For as Ecclesiasticus says Singing accords not with tears and lamentation Eccle. 91. Believe me my Brethren do not look upon Death as a frightfull thing For if you are solidly Christians if you are perswaded that there is another Life if you believe the Resurrection of the Dead you will easily comfort your selves in the loss of your Freinds and you will wish that your selves may soon pass forth of this Life so full of dangers and of myseries where one doth nothing but suffer and Sin Cor. 6. Do not therefore any longer dishonour your name by such shamefull weaknesses but acting as faithfull Ministers of God render your selves recommendable by a great Patience in Evil and by a couragious Contempt of Death be as if you were always dying although yet living as sad and yet always joyfull as poor and yet possessing all in the possession of God who is promised unto you Article XVIII An Exhortation of St. John Chrysostom where he speaks against remiss and imperfect Christians who dread Death and instructs couragious and perfect Christians to desire it YOu who make profession to believe in Christ Jesus can you love the sweets of this Life Serm. de non timenda morte c. 24. Can you dread the bitterness of Death O you remiss and faithless Christians have you forgotten the example of Christ Jesus our good Master and do you doubt whether you must die as he did The true Christians have made themselves always known by the holy desires of Death but they have not acquired this generous disposition by any other means than by unshackling themselves from all the Goods of the Earth When one hath once with a sincere heart renounced them Life is a small matter and one will consider it rather as a punishment than as a pleasure T is therefore for this unfettering of the Heart that we must labour and 't is that wherein consists the perfection of a Christian For as for Death besides that it is unavoydable it is to be desired by them who have never so little Faith and although at first it is repugnant to Nature yet Grace overcomes by little and little that repugnancy and makes us love at last that which before gave us a horrour Hear what the Apostle St. Paul 1. Et 2. ad Corinth says You who are enrolled in the sacred warfare of Christ Jesus ought to have no other care than to stand to your Arms and to fight upon all occasions A Soldier doth not involve himself in the employs of the Civil life to the end he may he wholly embusied in satisfying him who hath enrolled him Now the Warfare of Christ Jesus is to endure constantly Watchings Fastings Poverty Injuries Imprisonment Wounds and Death it self for the glory of his holy Name 'T is true that the Christian Moral appear's at the first view too severe to senfual men but if one examin's it with a Spirit untyed from the secret interest of self love and of Concupiscence one finds nothing so reasonable and so advantagious to the common good of all men nor even so profitable to particular persons whether it be for their conduct or for their comfort In effect what Religion is there in the world which proposes a more perfect Model than Christ Jesus whose Life is more pure whose Miracles are more evident and whose Doctrine is more wise and more disinterressed Do but compare it with that of the most prudent Philosophers and of the most renowned Law-makers and you will finde that in all the Words and in all the Actions of Christ Jesus there is a Character of Sanctity and of Divinity which his Enemies themselves cannot chuse but aeknowledge whereas in the other Doctrins human Wisdom is always interwoven with some extravagancy with some gross interest with some contradiction or with some errour Since therefore we make profession to follow the Lessons of so good a Master let us endeavour O Christians to imitate him in all things Let 's leave Sensualists to enjoy their Sensuality this enjoyment is so small a matter and lasts so short a time that we ought more to pitty than to envy them Let 's leave the World to reign 't is here it 's Kingdom ours is not yet come What hath our Joy common with the Joy of the Earth The World will lament whilst we laugh and we shall one day mock at it's tears as it this day mocks at ours The difference there is between it and us is That it being in our own power to rejoyce as it doth we do it not because we acknowledg the vanity of all its pleasures but it cannot enjoy the pleasures of Eternity because it hath despised them on the contrary it shall be plonged in dreadfull darkness where pains and gnashings of teeth shall never end but shall be the continuing signes of its sufferings and of its despair Let us weep then my Brethren let 's weep whilst the World rejoyces let 's weep for it's being in joy because Charity so ordains and let us be so far from loving Life as the World doth as to run to Death which it loves not because Death is not unhappy for us as it is for it but on the contrary it will end all our unhappinesses Psal 29. In the Evening we are drowed in tears and in the Morning we shall be in an eternal joy Let us never forget That our true pleasure ought to be to despise all vain pleasures and that our solid happiness is to believe there is none solid but with God Ah Christian if thou considerest thy condition as thou oughtest how wilt thou dare to complain of living without pleasure thou who art obliged to die with pleasure Article XIX As St. Jerome is one of the Doctours of the Church who hath testified the greatest desire of Death so we have few Ecclesiastical Authours who have spoken so clearly as he either of the Advantages which Death brings to Christians or of the obligation they have to prepare themselves for it S. Jerom. and continually to think of it Behold in what manner this great Saint explicates himself concerning it in several places of his Writings THe greatest mark of an irregular Life is never to think of Death and when we think but seldom of it 't is a certain Sign that we
desire it and to love it if he will imitate Christ Jesus 'T Is a small matter not to dread Death since Pagan Philosophers who imagined they lost all in losing Life were free from this fear Is it a matter of more difficulty to overcome Death with the Christian Faith than with the profane Phylosophy Let us familiarize our selves with this Bugbeare it affrights only them who dare not look near at hand upon it But it suffices not to learn to die when old Age or Diseases threaten us with Death 'T is in the flourishing years of Youth and in the vigour of Health that we should most seriously apply our selves to this study For who told us that we should have time enough to prepare our selves thereto Since it's blows are unavoydable let us resolve to endure them So many Martyrs so many Virgins have affronted it with courage why shall we not imitate them God doth not always demand these bloody Sacrifices but as for the sacrifice of our Will he demands it every hour and I dare say that there is more merit to offer unto him our Life in all the moments wherein he conserves it unto us than to lose it once by the cruelty of the Executioners Let us aspire yet to a greater Perfection since we are Christians Let us change our Dread into Desire and our Aversion into Affection We have the honour to be Heyrs to a Man-God who hath changed the punishment of our Crime into a Sacrifice of Piety Let us desire Death as he desired it le ts love Death and le ts seek it even between the arms of the Cross as Christ Jesus there sought it Le ts render to him in dying the same Obedience which he rendred to his Eternal Father Finally let us rejoyce to go to find our Master since we are his Disciples Let us depart with alacrity to come to our Father since we are his Children For if we have no love for him nor Desire to be near him we are supposititious Children Children of darkness unworthy to see the Light and to reign one day with Christ Jesus Article XXIII The order of time demands now that we return to St. Augustin For besides the Principles of Doctrine upon which we in the beginning established the whole design of this Treatise there are moreover found in his Writings an infinity of pithy passages where he repeats and deeply prosecutes this matter S. Augustin An Excellent Morall of St. Augustin against them who fear Temporal death and who do not apprehend Eternal Death ALL men are apprehensive of the Death of the Body Tract 49. in Joan. but few there are who fear the Death of the Soul All the World strives to hinder that first from seizing on them which nevertheless will infallibly one day come upon him and scarcely and one labours to avoid that Death of the Soul Epist 45. ad Armamentarium which will no less infallibly follow unless timely prevented Was there ever any greater extravagancy than this For the Death of the Body is but the shadow and the Image of the Death of the Soul The Man who must necessarily die upon Earth uses all his endeavours not to die there and the same man who is designed to live eternally in Heaven uses no diligence to render himself worthy of that happy Life Thus having a will to do that which he cannot and having no will to do that which he ought his endeavours are useless and criminal When he attentively considers that Death is inevitable he troubles and disquiets himself to retard it at least for some Months But why doth he not rather consider that by leading a holy life he would secure an infinite happiness he would suffer no disquiet and that he should die even with joy because he might justly hope to live happily in Eternity We expose our selves dayly to contempt to a thousand perplexities and to all sorts of vexations and even to the dangers of losing our Lives in seeking out the means to conserve it And this passion of living long doth so strangely blind men that they sometimes die with the sole-fear of dying To fly from a furious Beast they cast themselves headlong into a River To avoid a Shipwreck they throw their Victuals into the Sea Fear doth that in them which rashness could not do An affrighted man knows no longer any danger Such a one to escape the kind of Death which he dreaded exposes himself to a thousand Deaths more terrible than that wherewith he was threatned What torments doth not the Iron and the Fire cause them to suffer who put them selves into the Chirurgions hands They endure to have a part of their Body cut off to save the other A man who loves his health submits himself as a Slave to all that the Physitians ordain him to do or suffer and although he knows the vanity of their Art he omits not to obey them in all things nor can his own experience nor the uselesness of their applications nor the uncertainty of their skill undeceive him This man more sick of Imagination than of any other Disease feeds himself with a false hope of being cured try's all sorts of remedies and hastens his Death by the Medicines which are given him to prolong a little while his Life But the most horrible of all the effects which are caus'd by so blind and so irregular a passion is That Men to live a little longer adventure sometimes to offend him mortally who is the very Source of Life For fearing to lose a Life which must necessarily end they lose a life which must never end And yet God commands us but few things and those very easy to deliver us from the true Death which we nevertheless neglect to put in practise We our selves only are to be blamed if we obtain not a Life which will eternally preserve it self without the help of men and whereof our Enemies can never deprive us But as for this death which we so much fear we cannot possibly avoid it and are most sure to suffer it though never so much against our will Article XXIV A pithy reflection of St. Augustin upon the shortness of this Life and upon the Eternity of the other to stir up Christians to unfetter themselves more and more from the Earth and ardently to breath after Heaven O Men In Psal 36. Serm. 107. de diversis who are engaged in the course of this Life and who prepare your selves to end it well do not bound your consideration only upon the places through which you must pass consider that place where you are to arrive You shall indeed suffer much in this journey but you surely shall come at the end to an eternal rest Cast your Eyes upon the recompense which is prepared for you and you will look with contempt upon the miseries you endure on Earth For if you compare the Evils you suffer with the felicity which is promised you you will be
reasonings of human Wit If once I am raysed above the earth John 12.32 I will draw all to my self says Christ Jesus But Lord whence comes it that you draw not all and that it seems as if the fruit of your sacred Passion were imperfect Ah! 'T is because the weight of our sins is yet stronger than the Adamant which draws us 'T is because we have not the courage to quit all that we have of terrestriall For had we never so slender a disposition to bend our selves towards Heaven thou O Lord wouldst quickly draw us thither by the power of thy Grace Give us we beseech thee this disposition and since it is impossible for man to rayse himself above the Earth but by the Cross which elevated thee upon Calvary in the view of all Nations Grant O Saviour that we may embrace this Cross with as much Gratitude for thy Bounties and Mercies as thou hast had Compassion for our Miseries Article XXVII A Comparison between true Christians and the faithfull Israelites in which St. Augustin shews That as the first comming of the Messias was the object of the continual Desires and Devotion of the true Israelites so the second comming of Christ Jesus should be the scope of the most solid Piety and of the most fervent Desires of Christians THe Elect whom the Sacred Scripture names the Children of God In Psal 136. and 143. and the Reprobate whom it calls the Children of Men or Children of the Earth have lived after a very different manner The Reprobate limit their hope to the present World and expecting no other Felicity than that of this Life Hom. 50. alibi embusy themselves in building Towns and in establishing a permanent fortune upon Earth Cain the head of the Reprobate first founded a City which he call'd by the name of his Son Nembroth raised the Tower of Babel and built Babylon But we read no such thing of the Children of God It is not said that they built any Town on the contrary they fled from Towns they walked continually from place to place and when by the order of God they stayd in any Countrey they lodged under Tents in the open Fields to avoyd the corruption of the World which is a kind of contagious Disease gotten by commerce with one another Such was the Life of Abraham of Isaac of Jacob and of other holy Patriarks Moses lived in a like manner in conducting the people of Israel in the Desart after he had freed them from the Captivity of Egypt All the events of his passage 1 Cor. 10. Heb. 7.8.9 were according to the thought of S. Paul but a Figure of that which was to befall the Elect who are the true Isralites chosen by God from all Eternity Wherefore if we will be of this beloved troop whereof our Saviour speaks in the Gospel we must not pass our Life in building Palaces and in raysing great fortunes upon Earth Let us not imitate the ingratitude and Blindness of these Hebrews who made to themselves Gods according to their own capricious brain who repined at their servitude and who upon every little incommodity hapning in their Journey murmured against their Conductour and preferr'd their slavery of Egypt before all the goods which he gave them hopes of in the Land of Promise On the contrary they who were truly touched with the desire of that dear Countrey endured with undanted courage all the difficulties of their voyage in hopes to arrive one day at that place of repose and plenty which Moses promised them But so long as they remained Captives they ceased not to sigh and weep upon the banks of the Babilonian River they hung their Harps upon the branches of Trees and when they were entreated to sing Canticles of Mirth their answer was Psal 1 36. Alas how can we sing being in a strang Land Rather let our Tongues be dryed up and all the Strings of our Harps broken than that we should be induced to sing in a place of tears and lamentation Sion was but the Figure of the Church and the captivity of Egypt was but the Image of the Tyrany of the Devil The true Israelites knew well that they could not enjoy an entire liberty untill after the coming of the Messias Therefore it was that they made so many vows and Prayers to see the arrival of that happy days foretold by all their Prophets And that Nation had evermore such ardent desires for the coming of their Redeemer that even in their greatest blindness and when they crucified the true Messias they still continued their Prayers and demanded of God that he would send him to deliver his people Let not us imitate these blind and self opinion'd Jews Let us acknowledge Christ Jesus for our Deliverer Let us couragiously support the toyls of our Pilgrimage Let us look upon the World as upon a Wilderness through which we must pass with all sorts of pains and incommodities and when we shall be ready to enter into our Celestial Countrey let 's Render Thanks to our Redeemer for that after having deliver'd us from the bondage of the Devil he hath moreover the Goodness to send us Death to accomplish the breaking of our Fetters Let us then In Psal 66. my Brethren prepare our selves to meet the coming of our Saviours Kingdom for that it will come is most certain It is I say most certain that he who came once in an estate of contempt and of humiliation will come another time in an estate of greatness and of Majesty It is certain that he who came to be judged by the World will come one day to judge the World Let us now adore him in his humiliation to the end we may not be affrighted one day by that terrible preparation of greatness and of Majesty wherewith he will come to Judgement If we love him whilst he hath yet his Arms stretched forth on the Cross we may deserve to contemplate him in his Glory He will divide his Kingdom with them who have sincerely desired that his Kingdom should come and that his Will should be don Why then desire we not to have it come Why do we not accomplish his Will His Will is no other than that of his Father who sent him Let us avouch Christ Jesus before Men for our Master if we will not have him to disavow us before his Father for his true Children But it is not enough for obtaining an entrance into the Heavenly Kingdom to say to him with our Mouths Mat. 7.21 Lord Lord We must fulfill the Will of his Father which is also his Will Now the Will of my Father says Christ Jesus is that all they who see the Son and who believe in him should have Eternal Life Job 6.40 and I will raise them up at the last day Let us then believe in him with our whole Heart and let us look upon him for the present with Eyes of Faith and of
Love to the end we may behold him face to face in a blessed Eternity S. Isidor Article XXVIII An Instruction of St. Isidore of Damiet to all Christians to excite them to a perfect desire of Death SOme persons even the most pious perswade themselves oftentimes In Epist passim that they have no longer any tye and adhesion to Life nor to any thing of this World But 't is an Errour to fancy that one is entirely untyed from it if he feels not in his Heart a true desire of Death Let him who believes himself to be in so perfect an estate enter seriously into himself and he shall undoubtedly perceive that the Will of Man reigns yet in his Soul and that he is not totally uncloathed of the love of Life Let him severely examin himself let him question himself and ask of his Soul Do we no longer fear Death Doth nothing fasten us any longer to Life If we were to die within one Year within one Month within one Day if we were to die in this Moment should we be ready to render an accompt to God of our Actions And should we have no reluctancy to quit our freinds our relations our dwelling our works For we adhere to all and this adhesion is sometimes more violent for small matters than for the greatest Yet if there remains any thing that chains our Will to the World the Love which we have for God is not perfect Our Life upon Earth is a continual Warfare We bear Arms for the Glory of God He commands us to march to fight to pour forth our blood for him Why shall we not do for an Eternal Recompense that which men do for the reputation of a few days Let us then seriously examin our selves and let us see whether our heart is wholly submitted to this holy discipline of the Warfare of Christ Jesus Let us see whether according to St. Pauls precept we have taken for the Armour of our breast and back Faith and Charity Thes 5.8 and for our Helmet the Hope of Salvation For if our submission is perfect our Love will also be perfect and Death will afford us joy instead of giving us terrour Article XXIX St. Eucherius Arch-Bishop of Lyon exhorts Christians to observe attentively the different agitations of human Passions the shortness of Life and the uncertainty of Death to the end they may never engage themselves in the tumults of the World S. Eucherius and that they may be evermore prepared to die HAve you never contemplated from the Sea-shore Epist ad Valerianum the combat of the Winds disputing among themselves for the Empire of the Waves That dreadfull bellowing of the Billows which rush one upon another and push them with such violence against the Rocks whilst the mountains of Water and of Froth seem to ascend to the skyes and then sodainly to descend to the abysmus Doth not this sight inspire I know not what horrour which is nevertheless accompanyed with some pleasure and which insensibly engages the beholder to meditate upon those mervails This is the most lively and the most resembling Image we can find of the Agitations of the World But to behold them well we must stand upon the Shore and consider according to the spirit of God the joys and the afflictions the hatred and the freindship the quarrells and the reconciliations the fortune and the misfortune of men the flux and the reflux of their interests of their designs and of all their actions how they do and undo how they seek and shun the same things how one generation succeeds another how the Grandfather makes place for the Father and the Father for the Son not any of them thinking seriously during the whole course of their Life of the rapidness of this motion which trails them towards their Death Certainly this spectacle is a learned Lesson for them who know how to make their profit of it and we may say that it also affords some satisfaction when one reflects upon himself and finds that he is exempt from that trouble which overthrows the reason of all the rest of men Happy Tranquillity Adorable Peace of the love of Christ Jesus How sweet is it to them whom you have timely placed in the haven of their Salvation to behold in safety the fury of the Tempest without fearing either the winds or the waves or the rocks or the quick sands But as for us who have escaped Shipwreck by a sincere penance we I say who know the dangers out of which you our good God have delivered us give us we beseech you a holy horrour upon the sight of this terrible spectacle of the Tempests of the World and an ardent desire to be freed from them for ever by a Christian Death And surely we must not expect to enjoy a perfect calm so long as we sojourn upon Earth Should we live longer we should not be more happy The Life of our Fathers is ended our own slides dayly away Let us make place for them who are to follow us a little sooner or a little later the difference is small for they will not long survive us Finally in the same manner as the Surges of the Sea follow push and press upon one another by a precipitated motion and as the Waves which are raysed up highest fall down afterward the lowest to make room for a second the second for a third which is driven away by an infinity of other followers all which in the sequell come to be dissipated upon the shore even so the Life of one man succeeds that of another man one is elevated and the other is humbled according to the capriciousness of fortune But by how much their elevation is higher by so much the abysmus into which they sink is deeper and all terminate in Death Article XXX S. Fulgen St. Fulgentius and S. Paulinus prove That Death is a Recompense for the Just and a Chastisement for the Impious That the length of Life is to be computed by the number of Good Works one hath performed and not by the number of days one hath lived THe bad man trembles at the bare Name of Death Hath he the least indisposition Fulg. Epist 5. ad Gall. He believes 't is a mortal Sickness Paulin. Ep. 37. ad Pam. If one talks to him of God he falls into a fury He complains of the impotency of Remedies He is pierced with the apprehension of the least danger His Soul Prov. 12. and 28. says Solomon is perpetually perplexed with vain terrours Sap. 3. and 4. c. He flies when no one pursues him But the Just looks upon the danger without being affrighted and marches on like a Lion who is secure of his strength and of his courage Nothing that befalls him contristates him and if he were threatned even with Death he would be so far from being afraid that he would rejoyce at it because his Heart is in the
Let him who rests assured upon the darkness and upon the uncertainty of this Life learn that Death hath no respect for Treasures for the greatness nor for the glory of men It neither pardons the lustre of birth De morum conversione nor of manners nor of age except only that it is at the dore of old men and that it lies in wait for young ones To ground ones hope upon all these things is to imitate that senseless person of whom the Gospel says He built his house upon the Sands Mat. 7.29 the Rain fell the Rivers overflowed the Winds blew and setting upon this house it was soon overturned and great was its ruine because it was hurried away before its time and when the owner thought least of it The Torrent hath devoured all even to the foundations Job 21. What a folly is it to consume in a perishable work the time which one ought to employ in acquiring an eternal happiness Do we not consider that this Life is but a Vapour which vanishes O thou Ambitious person hast thou obtained at last the Dignity for which so many years thou underhand laboured'st The weight of it will quickly oppress thee O thou Covetous man hast thou stuff'd thy Coffers with money Take care of losing it and beware of Theives the Harvest hath been plentifull pull down thy Barns to build greater change and re-change thy Edifices toyl heap up pole and pillage on all sides and then sit down and say Lâ—◠〈…〉 19. O my Soul how happy are we now We have Goods in store for the whole remainder of our Life Ah! how long will this Life yet last Perhaps not one Year perhaps but one Day perhaps but a Moment and perhaps in that fatal Moment in which thou makest in thy Soul these vain projects of a long possession of all these Goods God will re-demand this Soul and then who shall enjoy the fruit of thy labours It is not so with them who place all their hope in God who uncloath themselves of all affection to worldly goods who are evermore ready to quit the Earth and always enflam'd with the desire of the Heavenly goods because they have heaped such goods together as the Worms cannot devour nor the Theives purloin from them The blind Lovers of the World believe that we in this estate lead a life here below full of bitterness but 't is because the blindness of their Spirit renders them uncapable to conceive the sweetnesses wherewith the Love of Christ Jesus incessantly fills the Soul of the Just even whilst she is yet a captive within the Prison of her Flesh Surely we must not imagine that this Paradise of inward delights whereof God gives sometimes a tast even in this world to his Elect is a place which is sensible and material 'T is not the feet 't is the motion of the Heart which conducts to this enclosed Garden to this sealed Fountain which causes to issue forth of the only source of Wisdom the living water of the four Virtues In this delicious place Hope makes us feel the excellent Odours of this tree of Life of this Pomegranet-tree of the Canticles more precious than all the trees of the Forests under the shadow whereof the Bridegroom delights to refresh himself There it is that one tast's by advance with a holy greediness the incomparable pleasures of the Divine Love Nevertheless these pleasures which the eye of the sensual man cannot behold and which the spirit of the World cannot comprehend are not counted among the rewards of the eternal Life 't is but a pay of the temporal Warfare Tast says David and acknowledg the delights of our Lord. Ps 33 8. 'T is a Manna which satiates without giving any disgust But O Christians let not us imitate our Fathers who fed upon the Manna and are dead let us make provision only to continue our Journey and to get strength to overcome the difficulties of the way An incorruptible Food expects us in Heaven 't is that Celestial nourishment after which we must have an insatiable hunger Let us demand of God that he will introduce us to this delicious banquet of the Lamb without blemish where we shall sit at his Table in the company of Saints and of Angells in a happy Eternity Article XXXVIII S. Bernard proves That to the end we may not fear Death but may endure at with patience and even receive it with Joy we must prepare our selves dayly for it by sincere Repentance That by this means Grace overcomes Nature That what appears so terrible to a sinful man becomes pleasing to a just man but particularly to them who have embraced the Religious and solitary Life T Is a constant truth the more one mortifies himself De div Ser. 18. in Cant. Ser. 26 the more one hopes for Mercy and by consequence one less needs to apprehend Death A Christian who mortifies his Body In Vigil Nativ Ser. 2 Tract de Vita Solitâ—ria who entirely disengages himself from the Earth and who exercises himself in all sorts of Virtues during his Life feels his Courage and even his Joy redoubled when he is to die He looks on Death as a Sanctuary and a secure Harbour He leaps over this passage which is so short as a Bridge to thwart the impetuous torrent of this Lives bitterness Finally he desires Death as the term of his banishment as the day in which he is to shake off his fetters and to free himself for ever from the miseries which oppressed him Now if God gives this Grace to persons remaining in the World he gives it yet more abundantly to good Religious and such as are truly Solitary because they have embraced a profession into which they enter by a Spiritual Death by separating themselves from all things which affoard any adhesion to the Life of the Body In effect what is it that a true Solitary person can fear in Death or rather what will he not there find to desire He learns in his little Cell to uncloath himself of all that is in the World He makes it in his retrait his continual study to contemplate the felicity of Paradise A Cell and Heaven have a near relation to one another what is done in Heaven is done also in a Cell one is there employ'd upon God there one enjoys God and the society of Angells there one leads a Life altogether Celestial The Cell is a holy place 't is a sacred Mountain where the Soverain Master of the World uncloathing himself if we may say it of all his Majesty frequently entertains himself with his Servant without witness without reserve as one freind with another And even as the Temple is the Sanctuary of God so the Cell is the Sanctuary of a true Religious man Whether his Soul raises up her self to the enjoyment of the blessed Eternity either by fervent Prayer or by a holy Death she finds a short and easy way
from the Cell to Heaven The weight of earthly of affections hinders not her flight thither The Love of God wherewith she is enflamed lifts her above the Earth by a secret force like that of the Adamant They who are in so sublime an estate have not only acquired Sanctity but moreover the perfection of Sanctity and the very height of perfection it self But let them give thanks to the Authour of these Favours with a profound Humility For as Pride caus'd the most perfect Angells to fall from the height of Heaven so the same Pride hath caus'd many Solitary persons to perish If God inspires us with a contempt of this Life and an ardent desire of Death let us attribute to his sole Bounty such Sentiments which are so contrary to our Nature and let us humbly expect that he will hear our Prayers Article XXXIX Reflections of St. Bernard concerning the contempt which perfect Christians ought to have of Health and of Life From whence he takes occasion to speak of the Patience they are to practise in their Infirmities and of the Joy which the continual thought of Death affords them if they are true Disciples of Christ Jesus Hypocrates pretends to teach us the method of preserving and prolonging our Life Scr. 30. in Cant. Epicurus seeks the means to make us pass it over pleasantly But Christ Jesus instructs us to despise it and to lose it or to render it more short and more painfull Which side will you take To which of these Masters will you become Disciples In my Judgement the choyce contains no difficulty I am not in pain to determine my self either concerning the Sentiments which I ought to follow or concerning the Doctrine which I am to propose unto you I am no Disciple either of Hypocrates or of Epicurus I am the Disciple of Christ Jesus and I speak to the Disciples of Christ Jesus I should be a Prevaricator if I should teach you other Maxims than his Hypocrates undertakes to preserve the health of the Body Epicurus would banish from it all sorrow and cause Pleasure to reign in the Soul On the eontrary Christ Jesus my Master ordains us to endure Sicknesses to love Sorrows and to shun Pleasures Thus the Physitian ayms only to entertain for a long time the union of the Soul and of the Body the Phylosopher thinks on nothing but how to render this Union delightfull and both of them finally confine their spirit to this mortal and perishable Life which they cannot with all their Science either prolong one day or exempt one hour from miseries But Christ Jesus who levells his Doctrine only at an immortal Life and who knows that the Labours and Pains of the transitory Life are absolutly necessary to deserve the repose and the pleasures of Eternity speaks of nothing but of hating our selves and of loving sufferings and Death Doth he not tell us in the sacred Scripture He who hath a desire to save himself John 12.26 let him lose himself and he who shall lose himself for the love of me and of the Gospel shall save himself And what is it to lose ones self if it is not to abandon ones self to the misfortunes and to the pains of Life as a Martyr or to afflict ones self by voluntary Mortifications as a Penitent For 't is a kind of Martyrdom to suffer constantly Sicknesses or the injuries of Fortune and to Mortify the Flesh by a severe Penance and by a continual meditation of Death We have hereupon the example of the Holy Fathers I pist 384. and of our blessed Predecessours Why think you did they make choyce of shady low and moyst Valleys for the building of their Monasteries It was surely to the end that the bad Ayr causing frequent Infirmities to befall the Religious there residing those sicknesses might exercise their Patience and render Death to them more familiar and more desirable In a word my Brethren the Science of the saints consists in suffering for some time Pains and Afflictions Serm. 21. de dversis in order to acquire a happyness full of Joy and of Rest in Eternity Article XXXX Altho' the Book of the Imitation of Christ is in every ones hands yet it will not be unprofitable to extract out of it some pithy passages concerning the contempt of Life There is if we may say it a Moysture and an Vnction of Sanctity in all the Words of that Authour Imitation of Ch. which penetrate even to the bottom of the heart and which give an admirable Idea of the Death of the Saints There is surely Just cause of admiration that so many persons of Piety who continually read this Work and approve of it should still nevertheless passionatly love Life and tremble with fear when one speaks to them of Death FAir day of Eternity which art not darkned by the return of Night Calm and cleer day in which sparkle all the lights of soverain truth Lib. 3. c. 48. and cl 20. Celestial City Happy habitation of the Saints Residence full of joy Place of rest and of delights Lib. 1. c. 23. the possession whereof is not troubled by any of those changes which overthrow the felicities of the Earth Lib. 3. c. 49. c. When will this happy day shine for us When O Lord shall we see this dear Countrey And why do we not uncloath our selves even at this hour of every thing that hinders us from arriving there Alas the brightness of that day shines not yet to us but only afar off We make our interview of it only through the thick darkness of our ignorance Whilst the Citizens of that holy Jerusalem abandon themselves to the transports of their joy and incessantly chant forth Canticles to the glory of the Most high to the glory of his thrice holy Name the Children of Eve unfortunate Heyrs of her Chastisement creep upon the Earth and sigh at the length of their banishment Is that call'd a Living which we live here below All our days are full of darkness of bitterness and of sorrow Our Soul is there upon the rack through a continual fear of Sin Our Heart is there disquieted by a thousand solicitudes dissipated by curiosity transported by ambition blinded by errour beaten down by labour beseiged by temptations effeminated by delights languishing in poverty in Sicknesses and in all sorts of Calamities O Man acknowledge that if it is grievous unto thee to die it ought to be yet more grievous unto thee to live O the Strange stupidity of the human Heart amidst so many miseries Man is to day and to morrow he appears no more Nevertheless he scarcely ever thinks of the uncertainty of his condition Senseless that he is he makes projects for many years as if he were assured to live a long time he who hath not one sole day certain How many men have we seen whom Death hath surpriz'd in the height of their great enterprises How often
an ardent thirst to enjoy God the living God and my Body is dryed up in this desire Happy they who placing in you all their confidence have no other thought but to advance themselves towards you O Lord for one sole day in your House is more worth than a Thousand any where else I had rather be the last and upon the step of the dore in the House of my God than dwell in the tents of the Wicked In effect it seems that a Soul enflamed with the desire of seeing her God unties her self from her Body by continual Extasies and to make use of Davids expression Melts away in these transports Psal 21. as Wax melts with the heat of the Sun They who are arriv'd at so high a degree of perfection which renders them equal to Angels forget oftentimes to take such nourishment as is necessary for their Body because they are devoured by a Hunger much more pressing than that which is satisfied by food The Spiritual aliment which fills them takes from them all gust of corporal sustenance and the flames of Charity do so stifle in them the flames of concupiscence that they become insensible both as to the necessities of the Body and as to the pleasures of the Earth O Lord said a great Saint Why do we preserve with so much precaution a miserable Life Should we not laugh at a Prisoner who should spend all his time in raysing up the walls of his Prison Yet this is that which men do when they pamper their Bodies Since we must die to see you O God and since no one can entirely possess you but by losing his Life I accept the condition even from this hour Do that to day which you will do one day Behold I am ready to follow you and I demand of you this cheif favour That I may see you to the and I may die S. Teresa and that I may die to the end I may see you eternally S. Aug. Article XXXXII. It may perhaps seem strange that we should place the thoughts of St. Teresa in a collection of those of the Fathers But the Writings of this great Saint are replenish'd with so sublime a piety that one may compare them in this point to the most beautious Works which the Spirit of God ever dictated to men Wherefore we conceiv'd that it might not only be permitted but that it would prove profitable to insert here some of the admirable Sentiments she hath left us upon the meditation of Eternity and upon the desire of Death O Jesu soverainly amiable A pious exclamation after Communion sole object of my affections shall I always languish with the impatient desire of seeing you What solace will you give to a Soul which nothing upon Earth comforts and which can take no rest but in you alone O that this banishment is long O that Life is irksom to one who burns with the desire of possessing you I die because I cannot die You know it O my God you who died for the love of me know whether it is to live when one long expects what one loves No my Life is not a Life 't is a continual torment 't is a fire which devours 't is a punishment which would be as terrible as those of Hell if one had lost the Hope of seeing an end of it O Life thou enemy of my happiness Life more cruel a thousand times than Death why is it not permitted me in this moment to break the chains wherewith thou keepest me in captivity But I preserve thee because my God protects thee I have a care of thee because thou belongest to him Do not then any longer abuse his bounty nor my obedience and cease at last to oppose thy self to the impatience of my affection O desirable Death and too long expected O Sanctuary inaccessible to all the tempests of the World happy end of our miseries destruction of Sin beginning of our true Life make haste to deliver me from the Death of the World O let me die to the end I may not die 'T is the Death of Sin which I dread 'T is the Life of Grace which I desire But this dread and this desire consume me in such sort that I do not live and yet I cannot die My Life is all out of me because all my Hope is in Christ Jesus who hath promis'd unto me a better Life Alas It is very true That Love is more dreadfull then Death Cant. 2. O Love of Jesus how piercing are your darts how stinging are your wounds The rudest blows of Death are endured with less difficulty than yours There is too much of it O Lord there 's too much Turn a little aside your looks Cant. 6. for I want strength to support them Eyther burn me no longer or make an end to reduce me into ashes How will you have my Soul to divide herself between that which you demand of her and that which my Bodie requires of her Be gon from me O all you Earthly Consolations a Heart wounded with the Love of Jesus cannot be cured but by Jesus All human Remedies are too weak to asswage a Divine Sickness 'T is you my Saviour who cure and who wound when you please O Faithful Bridegroom of the Faithfull Soul with what bounty what sweetness what pleasure what ravishments what testimonies of tenderness do you heal the hurts which your Love hath made in us O my Soul let us expect yet a little and he will take compassion on our languishing condition His impatience is no less then ours we sometimes believe him to be far off when he is very near at hand Behold him descending from the mountains and traversing the hills he runs he flies to draw near unto us he knocks at the dore he calls us Enter Lord I slept but my heart watched Alas I was ready to follow you and you have stoll'n your self from me I seek you and I find you no more I call you and you do not answer What have we done my Soul who hath driven away your Bridegroom Is it not that our impatience displeases him Is it not that we love him overmuch or that we love him not enough For he is a Jealous God Exod. 34. who will be loved more than all things and will have us love nothing but himself Perhaps he will surprize us Thes 2.2 His day comes when it is least thought on as the Thief who comes in the night Let us expect with humility that dreadfull day If Jesus loves us he will not slack his coming if he doth not love us he will come but too soon for us The Conclusion of all this Collection S. Aug. As at the beginning of this Treatise we drew from St. Augustin Principles to establish this Proposition That perfect Souls desire Death and receive it with Joy we thought fit to finish this Collection with a discourse wherein the same holy Doctour shews That all
which we possess upon Earth and we shall clearly see That if Christians ought to weep 't is not for that their Friends are too soon dead but for that they themselves live too long For the greatest of all miseries is to languish in the World amidst all manner of Evils and to be for a long time deprived of the happiness which those very Freinds possess whose loss we lament I demand therefore of you my Brethren in the first place wherein do you believe that Mans soveraign Good doth consist For if we will reason acccording to the Rules of Christian Phylosophy the only Good which deserves to be eall'd Good is that which belongs to all and for always The Pagan Phylosophy which reasons only upon false lights gave formerly the name of Good to such things as regard only either mens Bodies of their Fortunes But is it not a horrid blindness to establish the soverain Good in Beauty in Strength in Dexterity and in such other like exteriour Qualities These wise profane people did they not perceive that these things which are given but to a few diminish with age perish in a short time and are accompanied with so many misfortunes that one must be very stupid not to aspire after a better happiness Did they not see I say what we now see That Riches Dignities and even Crowns which without doubt raise men to the highest pitch of this false Felicity pass from one Family to another that the most elevated Thrones fall down to the ground that the most glittering Fortune is but a smoke which is dissipated in an instant and which leaves nothing else behind it but the smut of the bad actions which were done to acquire it These men who affected the name of Wise were they senseless enough not to know That the best grounded Glory is subject to the darts of Detraction and that the people by one and the same capriciousness sets up and pulls down the reputation of the greatest men If one makes use of Treasures they are consumed if one hides them they are useless But what matters it whether it be Covetuousness or Prodigality which makes us poor since the miseries which accompany poverty are not so unsupportable as are the disquiets which attend upon riches Finally these Wise persons who had so great a knowledge of human things could they not comprehend that all the Goods of this Life are meer illusions they who had every day the experience thereof Ha my Brethren it was because Faith did not clear them it was because in the darkness of Paganism Pride being the soul of all their thoughts and of all their actions they sought in themselves a Good which cannot be found without renouncing those false Goods and ones own self It is not so with Christians they seek their soveraign happiness in Humility in the contempt of Life and in their self-annihilation because they are perswaded that one possesses all in possessing God and one possesses not him but by uncloathing ones self of all things and by consequence that one must make no other provision for Heaven but that of good Works For there one shall neither suffer hunger nor cold nor the injuries of Ayr nor the cruelties of the wicked One shall not there be embusied in labouring nor in sowing the earth in sayling on the Sea in building Palaces in traficking in pleading in filling the Spirit with Sciences in inventing laws nor in causing them to be kept There will neither be War nor Process nor Tyranny nor Malady nor Poverty and as the Goods there will be without end and without mixture so nothing can there either corrupt or change them Surely when I consider the weakness of them who afflict themselves for their Freinds departure out of the world and who themselves fear to follow them I cannot sufficiently admire it If a man after he had pass'd the time of his tender Youth in an obscure Prison and liv'd as it were in a continuall night should be displeas'd with them who obtain'd his liberty to go forth to contemplate the Sun the Starrs the Earth cover'd with fruits and the other Beauties of the Univers and finally to place him in a full liberty what would you think of this man who had such strange humours Without doubt my Brethren you would believe that he had lost his Wits and you would strive to cure him of so extravagant a folly Permit me to tell you that your selves are in the same state and that your errour is perhaps more deplorable than his You are displeas'd at the happiness which your Freinds enjoy in being delivered out of this miserable Prison of the Body and your selves fear to go forth of it to go to contemplate in his glory the Creator of the Sun of the Starrs and of all the Beauties of the Universe For my part I avouch to you that I cannot conceive the cause of so great a straying in the human spirit unless it is that the criminal curiosity of the first man hath plunged all his posterity in such a profound ignorance that men know not even what is convenient for them One may say that we are become like unto a Child who being yet shut up in his Mothers Belly hath not so much as the use of his Senses This Child hath Eyes and he sees not he hath Ears and he hears not he hath a rational Soul and he knows not he neither understands what he is nor what must become of him finally he hath no knowledg of Life which nevertheless is the sole Good in which he ought to be concerned Is it not true that if this Child could reason he would surely judge that Nature had not furnished him with all these faculties and all these organs to be always deprived of their functions That having a Mouth he was not to be nourished like a Plant That having Feet and Hands and all the other parts which compose his Body he was not design'd to be always a lump of Flesh nor to live among nastinesses and to be close shut up in a Dungeon Is it not true I say that by making these reflexions he would assuredly come to the knowledge of the Life he was to lead upon Earth But because this Child doth not reason that which should rejoyce him afflicts him he receives as an Evil all the advantages of his birth and of his liberty and as if he lost a great Good in going forth of his Mothers Belly he complains as soon as he comes into the World Behold if I am not deceived an image very much resembling these weak men whom I undertook to convince Now if there is any of them who hear me who is of the number of those blind persons who will not see the light Ah my dear Brethren I conjure you to take some compassion of his blindness 'T is surely a shame for a Christian to lament for the Death of his Freinds and to fear his own Death This weakness is only
the Holy Martyrs who expose not themselves to die but in hopes to live the Body dies for a time and the soul lives for an eternity Ah my Brethren let us beware of being like to them who live outwardly being dead within Let us desire to be rather of the number of those happy Dead who die in apparence to live in effect This was the sentiment of St. Paul in those celebrious Words I desire to be disengaged from the bonds of this Body Philip. 1.23 and to be with Christ Jesus It was also the thought of David when he exclaims in one of his Psalms Alas Psal 119.5 how irksom is my exile I live here as a Stranger my Soul is troubled to remain so long among the Enemies of peace Behold this is properly the state of the Predestinate who are afflicted at their stay upon Earth among the snares and the miseries wherewith this Life is replenished instead of going to enjoy in Heaven those infinit Goods in their full greatness as well as in their eternal duration and which are the sole object of their Hope and of their Desires Article XII The Homelies of St. John Chrysostom are full of excellent Instructions concerning Death We have made choyce of such as seem'd most proper for this Work 1. S. Chrysost Instruction of St. John Chrysostom where he shews what it is to be a Christian and that his principal Character is to desire and to love Death A Christian evermore considers himself upon Earth as a man going onward in his way Hom. 24. in Epist ad Hebr. In Psal 119. and the continual reflexion which he makes upon this quality of a Stranger and of a Traveller Ad Theod lapsum c. 3. is the foundation of all his Virtues For he who hath sojourned upon Earth as a Stranger shall be a Citizen in the Kingdom of Christ Jesus What is the care of a Traveller 'T is to cumber himself with nothing but what is necessary for his journey to take the path which is shortest and most secure to use all the diligence he possibly can and not to fix his heart upon any thing he finds in his way because he reserv's all his affections for his dear Countrey According as he draws nearer to it he feels his impatience encrease to arrive at it and as soon as he discovers it he is so transported with Joy that he forgets the pain he hath endured and the dangers he hath incurred or if he keeps them in his memory 't is but as a valiant Champion remembers his wounds after he hath gain'd the Victory In effect what is it that a Christian can love or fear upon Earth which is not unworthy his affection or his fear Can all the favours of fortune give him a more glorious Title than that of Son of the most High and of Brother of Christ Jesus For 't is Christ Jesus himself who honours with this quality all them who have receiv'd his Word And when the Pharisees say that 't is to commit a Blasphemy to give this honour to men Jesus answers John 10.34 Is it not written in your Law I have said you are Gods Can the Scripture fail Wherefore O Christians labour so long as you please to agrandise your selves in the World Endeavour to become Rich Learned Conquerours Princes Kings if you will Procure even if it is possible that your Kingdom may be extended over the whole Earth what is there in all this which can be compared with the Kingdom which God hath promised you You have therefore nothing to hope for in the World Let us see now what you have to fear Hunger or Thirst say you But hath not God said Mat. 5.6 Blessed are they who are Hungry and Thirsty for they shall be satisfied Is it Poverty He hath also said Blessed are the Poor for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them v. 3. Do you fear Injuries Persecutions Afflictions Sicknesses On the contrary it is Written Rejoyce give your minds to gladness v. 11. and 12. you who endure couragiously all these things for the glory of our Master because you shall receive an ample reward in Heaven You have then nothing else to dread O Christians but the delay of these rewards And what can forward them but Death It is not therefore an Evil as men of the vulgar sort believe on the contrary 't is a Good for them who have Faith not an ordinary Good but the greatest of all transitory Goods For if our soveraign Good is to possess the Celestial Kingdom our greatest Good is surely that which hastens the possession hereof Wonder not therefore after this O you Sensualists if a Christian fully perswaded of these Truths run's to Death with more ardour than you run after Pleasures Be no more surprized that he disdains your promises that he despises your threats that he treads under his feet your Idols and that he triumphs over your Tyranny Know that it shall sooner be drained dry in inventing torments than the constancy of Christians will be shaken with your cruelty because Death is a desirable Good for them who hope another Life and because our Kingdom is not of this World John 18.36 For were our Kingdom of this World we would fight to defend it against our Enemies Nevertheless do not fancy that the Christian remains upon the Earth altogether stupid and insensible as the trunk of a barren tree which expects nothing but the mortal blow which must separate it from its roots 'T is true that the Christian desires Death because it will end his pains but yet he ceases not to make a holy use of Life He employs all the moments thereof in good works but whatever he doth in this Life is only to procure him a happy end of it For these holy Desires of Death do not hinder him from cherishing his Neighbours from serving his Friends from loving his Brethren and from acquitting himself of all Christian duties more faithfully than they who perform them having only profane ends in their Friendships But doth God ordain that he should quit them to come to him he is evermore ready to depart and although according to the resentments of Nature his Heart is as much afflicted in being separated from his Freinds as his Body in being separated from his soul yet he ceases not to desire to be separated from them to the end he may always possess them with God and he prefers this eternal enjoyment before a possession of longest durance from which one can only derive a weak and uncertain consolation Wherefore he says at all times with the Apostle Christ Jesus is my Life and Death is a gain for me Philip. 1.21 Unhappy man that I am Who will deliver me from the bonds of this mortal Body Rom. 7 24. that I may no longer be fastned to any thing but to Christ Jesus 'T is in effect the property of a Christian and of