us 8. Because at death vows are to no purpose we ought to make and accomplish them during Life the occasion of well-doing is not alwayes prefent Though the seasons be ordered as well as the Days and Nights yet it is not so with Life because the moments thereof succeed one to another without having so much as one assured 9. The meer necessity of dying doth perswade Wisemen to work out their own Salvation while it is day without standing in need of any other Clock to mark the hours of their work 10. Wise men do never sorrow for their Life past because they live only to die And though the time to come be not theirs yet they dispose of it before hand to their own advantage in the resolution they are alwayes to imploy it well 11. Life hath nothing that is its own but death all the Goods which it injoyeth are imaginary because they subsist only in the Fancy And seeing that subsistence depends of Time and Fortune if This take away from us the use of it That can limit the continuance thereof 12. He is happy upon the account of Justice who seeth himself die in doing of his duty the Race of this Life how painful soever it be becometh pleasant when we run it happily 13. To live but for one day is to live a whole Age provided we spend that day to good purpose A thousand years of Life are reckoned only by the last moment which doth finish it because that alone must Crown all the former 14. There is nothing so dreadful at Death as the remembrance of a long Life because as we must give an account of all our days past seeing they are present with God either to justify or condemn them so the doubt of our happiness or misery keeps our Souls on the Rack 15. We cannot go but once from Time to Eternity it is a journey that hath no returning and seeing that all Wise men prepare themselves to make it as soon as they are capable of reason he must needs be quite deprived of reason who is surprised at the hour of retreat 16. As the Pilgrim doth accomplish his vow when he puts himself on the way to make his Pilgrimage so we begin to go about our Mission as soon as we are born in the Path which we hold it is enough that Reason be our Lantern and Duty our Guide to keep us from going astray without measuring the paces of our Race 17. Although we do but pass away here below yet every man may work out his own Salvation here in passing All consists in the imploying well the Time allowed us without being solicitous for more or less a good life is alwayes long though it should last but for one moment 18. Endeavour every day to dosome good work to the end you may injoy what is past as you do what is present The Wise man never searcheth in vain for his Repose is in his Memory 19. Seeing that the Way which we are to hold in our Life is marked out let us go on cheerfully and consider that the more painful it be it is the safer provided that Patience be our Guide 20. Know that Death is the reward of the just and the punishment of the Wicked because Those when they die may lawfully hope for the Crown of their labours but These for the chastisement of their crime CHAP. XV. That the Wise man waiteth for Death without either wishing or fearing it 1. HE that wisheth for Death hath cause to fear it because the guilt of his desire prepareth his punishment as we are born here below by a secret Order of Providence so this alone can sound our retreat and of all the miseries which can befall us Desperation is the greatest 2. We should never fear the Evils which we cannot avoid because Fear is a new Evill far more painfull than that which we are to incurre and if in these encounters Nature overcome Reason we ought to implore the help of Grace because it triumpheth alwayes 3. Death frights none but the Wicked not but that the Godly do fear it but their Hope being stronger than their Fear the one is diminished by the growth of the other 4. Wise Christians do never dispute with Providence they undergo the laws thereof without repining and how rigorous soever they be seeing there is more glory in suffering than in complaining they beg for Constancy in their distresses rather than for Comfort 5. They that have a love to Life know not what they love For if it be a Good the imaginary propriety and uncertain usage thereof make us sensibly know the contempt we ought to have of it 6. A good Life is always long how short soever it be and seeing the greatest Heroes reckon their years by their Heroick acts the wise Christian ought to keep an account of his age by the Good he doth 7. Although we be born here below unwitting to us we have liberty to live here as we please but seeing that we must give an account of our Life we ought to be good husbands of Time for it conducts us to Eternity 8. Life may be justly compared to a Dream because we live in a continual dotage taking the false Good for the reall and the way of Vice for the path of Vertue 9. Know that the preparation to Death doth mitigate the fear thereof as the continuall thoughts of it taketh away the horrour and as Experience cannot chuse but be profitable to you so the profit you shall receive by it will far surpass the pains you shall take for it 10. If you would forsake Life without sorrow enjoy it without being tyed to it we should never think but of finishing our journey so much the rather because we cannot stay by the way 11. This Interval of dayes and nights whereof our Life is composed lets us see by the Image of Sleep that it is so confounded with Death that it is but one and the same thing 12. Nature causeth us to be born like unto Posts in this World where every man carrieth the sealed Letter of his Destiny directing to Death and seeing Time leadeth us thither if we do not go it will pull us This obligeth us to follow our Fate with that submission which becometh a creature 13. Seeing we do not live but to die and that we do not die but to live again let us drive the Trade of the Vertuous man because he alone can find at the end of his Course that Eternity which he waits for 14. He that liveth only to live doth deprive himself of Hope which is the sole Good of Life What would become of us in the miseries wherein we are if we did not pretend to Eternal happiness seeing our Souls can never die 15. Life is not otherwise considerable than by the good use we make of it though you should live a whole Age abounding with Riches and Happiness if the last moment do not justify all the former you may be reckoned in the number of the most miserable men in the World 16. Every body wisheth to live long not considering that a long life is a long receit of Time bestowed on us seeing that we must give an account of the imployment of our dayes The felicity of our Life depends of the happiness of our Death 17. Consider that every Age seeth die all that it hath seen born and that it draweth along with it all that hath appeared like it in the World without hope of returning because the years whereof it is composed are never twice counted 18. As soon as a man hath attained to the years of Reason he liveth long enough if he live but one day provided that one day be well spent The rest of the Time which is allowed us turneth to our reproach rather than our advantage if we do not spend it to good purpose 19. When we wish for Death we manifest our Cowardise more than our Courage because this fails us through want of resolution to endure the memory of what is past the trouble of what is present and the fear of what is to come whereof the only Hope of Eternity can sufficiently instruct us 20. Know that the Life of Great Men is a path strewed with Roses whereof the Thorns are at the end For after they have smelled the sweet odour of Those they must needs feel the sting of These 21. There is none but God and Vertue that can prolong the Life of Man God in adding to it that which is to come and Vertue in recalling what is past by the satisfaction we injoy in having spent it well 22. He that loveth Life in his miseries to suffer them constantly hath cause to fear Death because in suffering new torments it taketh away from him the means to acquire new Crowns 23. Live only to die if you would live without reproach he that thinks on that which is to come doth not sorrow for what is past and enjoyeth what is present without disquiet FINIS
us to remove both Heaven and Earth in quest of our repose if both of them faile us in the end so that we be not able to find it and if the Earth remain to us it serveth for a tomb to our hopes aswell as to our selves 18. We must of necessity work in the Lords Vineyard if at the end of the day we would receive our wages all other employments are unprofitable as well as our sorrow for the mispending of time seeing the want thereof renders us incapable to repaire our losses 19 Whatsoever Actions you do here below all the recompense that the World can give you for them cannot enrich you and if you do not take your aime beyond Time all the houres thereof are fatall to you seeing every moment may sound your retreat but such a retreat as hath no returne 20. Undervalue all things here below seeing all that you set your eye upon changeth countenance with you and let your apprehension be continually filled with this truth that only the good which we do in this life is the sole consolation which remains unto us at our death 21. Know then that Good hath this property it replenisheth with joy the heart of him who exerciseth himself in the practice thereof and although a man should never expect any other reward yet the good it self is alwaies our Glory our Happiness and our Prize 22. Our Actions are only rendered considerable by their Object and End and although the event of them be happy yet if their Object be not just and lawful both shame and loss are inseparable companions to their success 23. It is not enough not to do evill we do it alwayes when we cease from doing of good We must diligently worke out our own salvation without the intermission of one moment for that one moment may prove most fatal to us 24. Consider that in this World every man liveth as he pleaseth and although the manner of living and dying be quite different all must undergo the same judgement for an Eternity 25. If you desire to establish your repose firmly lay the foundation thereof upon your Salvation which ought to be the only scope of all your actions else they are to no purpose Suppose you were eminent in Honour and Riches this is as much as to enjoy a temperate Aire in the Country wherein you are but seeing you are alwayes upon your journey the change of the Climate will breed an alteration in the countenance of your Fortune and in the end you shall be only happy in remembring that you have been so 26. Consider that the vertuous actions of our life are as so many pictures of our good fortunes whereof the object being alwaies present renders us still happy So that the honest and vertuous man hath this advantage that he surviveth himself before his death seeing he enjoyeth the felicity of his life past by the pleasant remembrance thereof which abideth with him CHAP. II. That in this Life we can find no true ease but in peace of Conscience 1. YOu may well looke for Ease here below but you must give it to your self before you can find it it must be a piece of work of your own making seeing you cannot obtain it but only by the force of your own Industry 2. Suppose that Messengers bring you glad news every day and that your affairs are regulated by your wishes yet you cannot deny but that the remorse of Conscience hindereth your mind from enjoying that rest which it desireth 3. Consider that all sins carry their torment along with them and that God punisheth them in the Thought aswell as in the Will and that with a continual punishment seeing the remembrance of them is both the Torment and Executioner 4. The Sinner never taketh his Pastime with delight because the justice of God pursueth him alwayes to punish him without intermission and mingleth so many thorns among his Roses that the sighs of his heart do often belie the cheerfulness of his countenance 5. Imagine the greatness of the disturbance of a Malefactor fain would he flee from his punishment but the thoughts of his crimes do torment him incessantly so it is with the Sinner as God is every where so the Sinner feeleth his justice in every place which keepeth his soul upon the rack by the remembrance of his sin 6. Think not to find any delight yea in your very pleasures having your soul contaminated with the staines of your crimes God is pleased to change the nature of your contentments and to turne the subject of your consolation into that of your torment 7. Let the wicked man withhold no delightful thing from his Senses and let Voluptuousness be their nursing-mother her breasts are alwayes filled with bitterness to seed them seeing that by chastisements from above they find an unsavoury taste in the most delicious dishes 8. Trust not to the testimony of wicked men for God layeth his hand upon them to such an extremity as to make them insensible of his correction and as this stupidity is a marke of their reprobation so it witnesseth before hand the Eternity of the torments to which they are destined 9. Innocency carrieth alwayes Heaven with it and it is never found in any soul without communicating unto it the sweetness of that Repose which doth properly belong unto it it being the effect and Innocency the cause 10. Hell also followeth Sin unseparably so that Sin causeth its own torments in bringing them forth by reason of the necessity of justice which doth alwayes punish it 11. Know for a truth that the repose of the Conscience bringeth forth peace to the Soul and as both these together make up a Heaven upon Earth so there is no other Hell but that which consists in the privation of them 12. As often as you make a divorce from your Conscience you proclaime warr against your self and it is a warr wherein no Truce is to be looked for seeing justice gives none 13. Study to employ well the precious moments of your dayes if you would not die a Death which will admit no return to life again unless it be to make you the eternal object of the wrath of an angry God 14. O how unhappy is he at the hour of Death who hath mispent the time of his Life because as his sorrow for this fault is in vain so he feeleth himself instantly strucken with an evill both sudden and incurable 16. That God hath a love towards his creatures doth manifestly appear by the trouble they are in when he withdraweth his presence from them for they can find no rest but in him alone 17. There is no pleasure that can satisfy our mind or fill our heart because it is the property of our Envy to be irregular and from the satiety thereof there ariseth alwayes a new appetite 18. All that you do without consulting the Oracle of Heaven passeth for an improfitable labour whereof the pain abideth although the work
be ended seeing the grief thereof is continual and the reward imaginary 19. Do not lull your self asleep in the success of your wicked designes the justice of God is so much the more rigorous as it appeareth slow and if you do not prevent it by correcting your self first you shall never be able to shun it 20. Learn to admire the mercy of God that giveth your heart leave every moment to justify it self before him seeing the least of the sighs thereof can expiate the crimes of it 21. Establish unto your self a way of living wherein Honour may be your object and Reason your guide and be not slack in your duty this is the only means to find repose in the troubles of the World and to enjoy a calme amidst the storm whereby we are continually agitated 22. Every body loveth life and yet no body learns to live all the world dyeth and yet there is none that knoweth rightly how to dy This Science ought to be the only study of the Wiseman seeing it alone can sufficiently instruct us in the Art of working out our own Salvation 23. A Soul deprived of Grace is alwayes in Alarum being continually disturbed with the horrour of the crimes it hath committed and it may be said truly of it that it is a blind thing walking along the brink of a precipice 24. Imagine the disquiet of a sick-man in the heat of a continual Feaver He hath no rest night nor day feeling himself by little and little consumed by a secret fire which burneth him without being perceived devoureth him without being known and at last reduceth him to ashes without giving the least moment of intermission to his painful burnings 25. This poor afflicted man is the true picture of a guilty Soul which seeing it self buried in a body tormented with a continual agony feels it self already burning in apprehension in those Eternal Fires which are destined for the punishment thereof No wonder if his disquiet be great seeing every moment may be the last of his life and the first of the just vengeance of an angry God CHAP. III. That we ought to draw our consolation against the miseries which befall us from the consideration of the Original whence they are derived 1. COmplain not of the Crosses which are inflicted by the Divine Majesty they are presents sent from Heaven your patience will shortly make you know the value of them 2. Complaints are unseemly in the mouth of a Malefactor if you can do no other thing but provoke God do not augment the number of your offences in murmuring against his justice 3. You must know that God doth commonly afflict his Elect in strowing under their feet those Roses wherewith his head was crowned therefore seeing he hath been a sharer in them his Elect can have no part in his glory but by right of that succession 4. What cause have you to complain of the justice of God seeing his very rigours are the effects of his compassion he punisheth you in this World to the end that he may shew mercy to you in the next in his vengeance he constraineth you to admire his Bounty 5. In all your afflictions let Reason prevent Time in comforting you and be indebted to none but your self for the healing of your pain seeing you may find the remedy in your submissive Spirit 6. He that complains of the evill that he suffers must needs have forgotten the evil he hath done if he doth remember it his complaint passeth for a new crime greater then any that went before 7. As often as Heaven punisheth you do reason to justice in suffering without murmuring the chast sement which it inflicteth upon you silence and Submission do alwayes appease the wrath of God 8. There is no greater misery then to complain of those miseries that happen unto you because in murmuring against Justice which punisheth you you constrain it to augment the force thereof and to fall more heavily upon you by reason of this last crime which you commit 9. A heart filled with God doth never sigh but for joy amidst the greatest afflictions so that seeing he loveth much more then he suffereth the excess of his love doth so vehemently moderate that of his pain that by little and little he loseth the feeling thereof 10 Consider that you are the cause of your own afflictions to the end that punishing your self by the sorrow which you ought to have for them this sorrow may be your first comfort 11. How unhappy are the favorites of Fortune to follow the blind in their blindness suppose she should lead them a pleasant way yet that is no other then the way to their grave where they shall find the thorns of all those Roses which they have trampled upon 12. In all your calamities look up to the hand that smites you before you complain of the stroke it hath given you God doth never punish us in Time but to make us afraid of his vengeance in Eternity 13. The Time of afflictions is of short continuance in respect of that Eternity of glory which is to succeed it the evill of our sufferings soon passeth away but the good of our constancy ought never to have an end 14. Generous spirits have alwayes carried a respect and reverence toward the unfortunate knowing that they are sick persons who should at least be comforted if they cannot be cured 15. Never refuse comfort to an afflicted person to the end that God may repay it you when you stand in need of it As all the evils are punished in this world so is all the good recompensed 16. Flee not from the unfortunate seeing that to morrow you may be of their number but render to them what you would expect from others if you were in their condition The afflicted have no enemies seeing their misery maketh truce with all those who have proclaimed war against them 17. If it be true that the Object hath influence upon the Power or Faculty there is no afflicted person which may not receive abundance of consolation in the apprehension of a crucified Saviour never was any frustrated that came to him in sincerity 18. Be not weary in suffering as the Rose fadeth the prickles thereof become blunt it is not a small comfort to you in your crosses that you can reckon the houres thereof Those evils that must needs take an end are never of long continuance 19. O how happy a thing it is to grow old in affliction He that dyeth upon the Cross carrieth his death so far into the second Life which he hopeth for that he feeleth himself reviving according to the measure that he feeleth himself dying 20. The livery of the unfortunate is the livery of the Predestinate and it may be truly said that their silent constancy is continually working at those Crowns which are appointed to be the reward of their labours 21. They that rejoyce at the miseries of others prepare their own punishment after they have
condemned themselves seeing they render themselves guilty a-new by believing that they are not guilty yea they are far more guilty then those that are punished 22. The just man is commonly afflicted and he is very happy in this World that knoweth how to improve his sufferings a life crowned with Roses produceth alwayes a Death filled with Thorns 23. It is a great Comfort to look for none here below in all the crosses that happen unto us because if Patience cannot receive the final recompence from any other then Heaven it is to be beleeved that this recompence is bestowed upon us for no other end but to crown our Patience 24. Do not shun the approaches of afflicted persons God looks upon them continually as the objects of his compassion rather than of his Justice and beleeve it it is very lamentable not to improve aright the frowns and severities of Fortune seeing the last day of a voluptuous life is far more terrible than all the dayes that went before it have been pleasant and delightsome 25. I do not much wonder that some holy persons would choose either to suffer or die It is impossible to love a crucified God without partaking of his sufferings and as sorrow is the object of this love so the heart which is filled therewith doth sigh for joy amidst the greatest crosses 26. There is no man more miserable then he that is born and dyeth Fortunes darling because when death seizeth him unawares he knoweth at the end of the day that his light hath served him for no other use but to find the way to Hell 27. A great Calm is alwayes held suspect by the wise Pilot he complains of that good-lucke because the excess of a Calm is an infallible presage of the short continuance thereof 28. Light disgraces fortify the mind and as they keep it in a continuall Alarum by the feare of a greater mishap so the mind by a prudent foresight puts it self in a condition to shun it thus our first wound shelters us from many others which might tend to our hurt 29. How pleasant is it to do that promptly and handsomely which we must do of necessity The Cross is our portion he that will not beare the burthen thereof in Time prepareth his own punishment to Eternity 30. Do not refuse the Cup that God presenteth to you seeing he hath quenched his thirst with the bitterness of that whereof he makes you taste but a little is it not an excess of bounty to make a tryall first of all the sorrows that you can be able to suffer to mitigate the violence of them 31. When God afflicteth you by the death of any of your nearest Relations he comforts you at the same instant by a new adver tisment of the necessity of your departure seeing they are gone to their mansion place but one dayes journey before you 32. If you have lost your Wife that buried half waits for the other to be joyn'd with it and seeing that union is certain and infallible the moment which perfects it ought to be continually present with you although it be to come 33. The loss of any temporal Good ought not to afflict you if so be that of Grace abide with you An innocent person afflicted is never miserable because he ever findeth his consolation in Gods Will who hath so decreed it 34. All the miseries and all the happiness that can befall us are in Gods hands the first is the correction of his Justice the second the favour of his Goodness but seeing both these proceed from him alone the one obligeth us to silence out of respect the other to thankfulness through acknowledgement 35. Christian Wisdom consisteth in this to will that which God willeth not out of necessity but rather out of a submission that prevents it to the end that this necessity may find us alwayes disposed to undergo the laws thereof how hard soever they be 36. He that is jealous of the happiness of others increaseth his own miseries by his envy which is both criminal and unprofitable and in wishing an imaginary good he feeleth a reall evill 37. I do not much wonder if a Soul totally resigned to the will of God be under covert from the stormes of Fortune seeing the calme which it enjoyeth draweth the continuance thereof from him who hath deminion over Time 38. All our disquiet proceedeth only from our contempt of Providences Orders for if we did really beleeve this truth that all that happeneth unto us cometh from Providence our very afflictions would yeeld us comfort seeing their bitterness would be changed into sweetness CHAP. IV. That true glory doth only consist in living vertuously 1. ALthough you should ransack the whole Earth for Laurels there would nothing remain to you in the end but the ashes and although all the people thereof were your Subjects yet the small compass of your Tombe would limit the greatness of this Empire 2. The same stairs which serve for ascending serve also for descending All Thrones have their steps The last step of our elevation marketh alwayes the first step of our fall 3. Be not dazled at the splendor of Fortune's honours her inconstancy doth infallibly presage that the day of your prosperity shall not passe without a storm and althoug it be at the declining the last moment thereof may be fatall to you 4. All the honours which we receive here on Earth are of the same nature with the praises bestowed on them the latter are made of wind and the former are nothing but smoak the one passeth over our head the other striketh the eare in passing by 5. I do not much wonder that Glory hath nothing else to give but Laurels and Palmes the Crowns made of these last as long as the head that weareth them the one is withered in the Sun the other groweth white by the scorching of Time and both at last are reduced to powder 6. How many triumphs have you seen and how many crowned victorious but those faire days are past and the memory of those famous Conquerours passeth also untill at last the History of them by the length of Time becomes a fable 7. Suppose that Posterity should preserve the remembrance both of your name and exploits yet the Time ought to be limited and of what extent soever the limits thereof be they are alwayes very short seeing they can be measured 8. Wonder not that the Romans have acquired a false Glory they never had a love for the true Glory they followed Vertue without being willing to know it and as they were contented to do noble actions out of vanity so the vanity abideth with them their reputation being nothing but wind 9. He is base and low-minded who encloseth his ambition and hopes within the Circle of his life seeing the Tombe is the Centre thereof We must seek for a Glory that is far beyond Time and that hath no dependance from it which may fill the emptiness of our
and to give an account of that Life whereof they have contemned the reputation 18. If your Name be not known by your Condition make it known by your Exemplary Life Vertue is a Balm whereof the sweet Odor is spread every where 19. We have no cause to call Nature Step-mother what inequality soever we finde betwixt the Noblemen and the Peasants since that by Birth and Death we have the same destiny And if there appear a great difference in their Life yet know that the different ways which they keep do meet at the Grave 20. If you draw Vanity from the outward qualities of the Body Time will make you know your Folly every day because it destroyeth the ground thereof every moment In ruining the subject that causeth it CHAP. XI That we ought to be dis-engaged from all things to the end That we may live without disquiet and die without sorrow 1. CAll not your self the Owner of the Goods you possess every moment reneweth unto you the favor of the use of them We have nothing that is our own but miseries and unhappiness 2. If your heart be fastned on any Object consider the perishing nature of it and seeing you cannot love it but as a transitory thing justifie your love by the necessity of its ruine 3. When we love any thing passionately we expose our selves anew to the view of Fortune which can wound us in as many parts as we are divided 4. The Covetous man whose heart is in his Treasures feels it pluckt out as often as they are diminished without considering that as streams return to their source so this Piece of Earth wherewith he is intrusted must be re-joyned to its whole 5. The Ambitious man who renders himself Imaginary Possessor of all the goods he wisheth believeth that he is robbed of them when he is prevented in acquiring them This lets us see that as we live in our Passions so we feel our selves dying with the causes of their Birth 6. All that you would love love it in God to the end that your Love may produce your Repose rather than your Trouble All the Affections which we contract in this World do nothing else but breed and die seeing every moment may be the first and last of their continuance 7. What an ingenious thing it is for a man to torment himself in being willing to die for every object he loveth Is it not enough to give up his heart to one love that is allowable and lawful without dividing it amongst a thousand other Passions to resent as many different torments 8. The Chains wherewith we are tyed here below are easie to be made and hard to be broken And if death alone restore us to liberty yet we lose it in recovering it seeing that commonly we carry the guilty remembrance of our pleasant Bondage to the Grave with us 9. A mans love towards himself is to be excused when his Salvation is the object thereof he is permitted to love himself in a lawful way yea with excess too using extraordinary endeavors to testifie the violence of that Love by the contempt of all other 10. Happy is that man who is altogether his own that he may give himself wholly to God Unhappy is he that after he hath given his heart to the World seeth himself constrained to leave it with the World not having so much power as to take it back 11. The Wisemans Love is never blinde because Reason which is nothing else but Light produceth it Whence it comes to pass that he loveth with pleasure drawing his delights from the Object of his Affections which are as harmless as himself 12. Every Body loveth Liberty yet every Body is engaged They that have no Master become Slaves to their own Passions and in this shameful Bondage they render themselves unworthy of compassion because they have no compassion on themselves 13. Seeing that Christian Perfection consists in the contempt of all things and in the dis-engagement from our Selves we must be our own to the end that we may give our selves Unless our hearts be emptied they shall never be filled with God 14. Every man goeth about his own business and we do always forget the most important which is that of our Salvation All others are unprofitable at the end of our days work seeing an account will not be required of them no not so much as of their success 15. I know very well that all our desires do divide our heart and it is so possessed with a continual longing after their object that it liveth out of its self for anothers sake But though it be divided during life it must needs be united in it self at last to die all alone for its self onely 16. Do not wait till Age draw you from the World but preventing Necessity by Reason triumph over your self before Time become your Conqueror 17. Consider that your Habits and Customs are as so many Bonds which strengthen themselves continually and seeing Nature doth much contribute thereunto all endeavors at last are too weak to break them without the help of Grace 18. O what a contentment it is to a man to be free to die and to be wholly his own at the hour of death The Objects of our Passions are as so many Chains which fasten us to the World when we are upon the point of departing from it We must bid them adieu betimes that we may make our retreat without sorrow 19. It is very hard for us to hinder our selves from being surprised by Time in those Affections that we contract here below because as the hour of our departure is uncertain and the hope that dieth after us deceiveth us too so we do not commonly forsee our mishap but when it is unavoidable 20. Dis-engage your self from your Children and after you have put them under the Protection of Providence it is enough to shew them the way wherein they should walk to work out their own salvation by going before them your self 21. Be not tied with your Dignities these are the Liveries of Fortune which she giveth and taketh away at her pleasure Content your self in that you deserve them seeing you must give an account of the use of them 22. Let not your heart finde any place in your Palaces to lodge its Affections there least the Chains thereof be too strong Do not establish your dwelling there all the steps of your walks are numbred and in going under the covert of the shady Allies in your Gardens you draw nearer your Grave 23. Every Man loveth his Repose and no body takes pains to acquire it It is not enough to be rich in this World and to taste of a thousand pleasures therein because these riches remain in the World and the pleasures pass away leaving us nothing but a troublesome remembrance and an unprofitable sorrow 24. It is not enough to live at Liberty we must die so and what tye soever we have here below the failing of
the heart is that of the Soul because the will of this followeth the thoughts of the other 25. If you be addicted to the World quit this bad Master betimes and restore you to your self that you may offer your self totally to God All streams return to their Fountain all Beams are joyned to the Body of their Light You must render your Soul to its Creator in the Innocency of Baptism and in the Freedom of your Cradle CHAP. XII That the Good we do in this World is of greater value than the Goods we possess in it 1. THink not that you are Rich according to the worth of the Goods you possess but rather according to the measure of the Good which you do Your Treasures remain with your Heirs but your Works follow you Those are Strangers to your Soul but these do properly belong to it 2. The Inventory of your Goods serve onely for a memory of the Accompt you have to make both of the Purchase and the Usage of them So that when you die you shall know that you have taken pains onely for others seeing they are to reap the fruit of your labors and also of the torments appointed for you 3. He is truly miserable who hath his Coffers filled with Money and his Soul stained with the guilt of the purchase thereof Suppose your Riches did level the path of your life to render it more pleasant and you cease not to go on in your journey but when you are at the end of your course you shall be afraid of him whom you shall finde there after you have forgotten him to whom you should rather have betaken your self 4. Every body taketh pains for this Life as though it were immortal and no body thinks on Death which we carry in our bosome Whence it comes to pass that after we have spent our time in gathering of Riches a stranger enjoyeth them for our first punishment and Hell waiteth for us for our final torment 5. To what purpose do you put out your Money to Usury to assure your self of this Life seeing that by Grace you wait continually for the Life to come to prolong it The Fire of Covetousness devoureth you in the behalf of a Life which is nothing but the smoak thereof since that like smoak it is dissipated by the blast of our sighs 6. You keep an exact account of your Revenues and Disbursements without considering that you have nothing which is to be valued but the time you have to live and because that is uncertain and Death infallible you must make good the use and possession of a Good which you forsake for ever 7. What pleasure can you take in walking abroad upon your Territories if at every step you walk upon your Grave You take all your Walks in a Circle whereof your Grave is the Centre 8. You enjoy indeed a great satisfaction in having many Houses of Pleasure there to pass the different seasons of the year but the year passeth and your pleasures too and from season to season your last approacheth wherein you must give an account of the Fruits which all these seasons have yielded you 9. It is a sad pleasure for a man to contemplate himself in his greatness as in a Looking-Glass because though this Looking-Glass did flatter us yet it cannot represent us but in a continual motion seeing our life hath no stay and what delight can we have in a way how pleasant soever it be if it end at the Grave 10. How astonished may a Man be at the reading of his Testament when he heareth the Inventory of the Goods he hath purchased but hath no body to represent to him the Good he hath done Yet he forsaketh Those eternally and to all Eternity he can pretend to nothing but the fruits of These Judge of his astonishment by this thought 11. Do not reckon Greatness and Riches in the number of the Felicities of this Life they are either the Goods of Nature or Fortune whereof the use is much more dangerous than the possession seems pleasant He is Great before God who is willingly Small before Men. 12. Consider that the Goods which the World yieldeth are false but the Miserie 's true And if when you die you be rich onely in pieces of Land that Earth will remain to you both for your Grave and for your share 13. You cannot enrich your Soul but with Eternal Goods seeing those that are perishing are not for its use You cannot heap up Treasures in your Soul unless Heaven be the Fountain of them 14. It is a great ease to our Minde that we have onely purchased Goods to do Good withal and that we can be able to distribute that before we die which we would give after death For by making it pass through strange hands we run the hazard of diminishing our Charity although we enjoy the advantage thereof 15. Although we should not keep an Accompt of the good Deeds which we do yet it is lawful to preserve the remembrance of them so that the Memory being filled with a habit so commendable this Object always present powerfully moveth the Will whereon depends our future concernment 16. He that doth much Good gathereth much Goods A good life filleth the House with Riches in filling it with gladness A voluntary or patient Poverty may enrich us with Real Treasures 17. Be not disquieted for the meanness of your Estate what is Necessary is sufficient to the Wiseman Abundance never produceth Repose but Mediocrity is able to give it 18. He is free indeed who willeth always that which God willeth But since that we are blinde in our Liberty not knowing to what we shall direct our determinations we preserve our Freedom in putting it into the hands of him who gave it us to make a good use thereof seeing He is the Object and the End of that Usage 19. Covet no more riches than God bestows on you or what comes of the sweat of your Labors And though your Children have no more know that the Seed thereof is so fruitful that it increaseth continually and is never diminished 20. If you knew how great a pleasure it were to do good you would contract so powerful habits of it that it were impossible to break them But if you be so unhappy as to doubt of it let this disadvantage yield you some profit because experience may make you happy CHAP. XIII If we would leave the World chearfully we must dis-engage our selves from it ere we leave it 1. STudy to know the World that you may learn to contemn it seeing the contempt thereof proceeds from the knowledge we have of it No man ever knew it and loved it and they that tie themselves to follow it are wilfully blind who settle their chief happiness here below 2. If Examples are able to instruct you you have no more to do but to cast your eyes on every side to look on the miserable People the World hath made and is