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
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
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
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
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
THE Holy Desires OF DEATH OR A COLLECTION Of some Thoughts of the Fathers of the Church to shew how Christians ought to despise Life and to desire Death By the R. F. Lalemant Prior of St. Genovefe and Chancellour of the University of Paris Englished by T. V. at the Intrance of a Person of Honour Printed in the Year 1678. Qui Perfectus est Patienter vivit Delectabiliter moritur The Perfect Man Lives Patiently Dies Pleasantly St. Augustin in his Expositioâ— upon the 1 Epist of St. John Tract 9. AN ADVERTISEMENT THis Collection entituled The Holy Desires of Death was only in its beginning a Simple and Literal Translation of some Passages of the Fathers of the Church which the Author made in his continual Infirmities for the Comfort of himself and of some persons of Piety Afterwards his Manuscript having been view'd by very Prudent and Illuminated persons they judg'd that it ought to be published but withall that it was fit it should be first enlarged and explicated by a kind of Paraphrase upon some of the Conceptions of the Holy Fathers which are couched in this Work thereby to render it usefull to more people by rendering it intelligible to all You will therefore find in some places that the Authour hath pick'd out only the Sense and as one may say the Sap and the Juyce of the Doctrine of these great Saints in explicating their Conceptions and in adding to their Expressions yet so as not to swerve from their Sentiments nor stray from the Character of their Spirits It was also conceiv'd that it might be permitted to support their Reasonings with the authority of the sacred Scripture and as that is the source of all their Lights to rely principally thereupon to strengthen this Work And this Liberality appeared to be so much the more tolerable by how much it was sometimes even Necessary to render the Discourse more consequent more connected more forcible and finally more capable to serve for the Edification of our Neighbour which is the sole Intention we had and which indeed one can justly have For the rest it ought not to be taken amiss if among the divers Conceptions here collected from the Scriptures and from the Fathers there are found some which resemble one another since even that Resemblance hath also great Advantages For besides that thereby it is made manifest that these Conceptions are not particular Opinions it is more over a sensible Mark of the spirit of Truth which dictated them and 't is to be hoped that they who shall Read them in the same Spirit will always derive from them some new Instructions We have plac'd St. Augustin in the first Rank of the Church Fathers whose Sentiments are here related because we found his Discourses so effectual that we belive'd we had reason to make them the Foundation of this Work and to style them by the Name of Principles because in effect all that which ensues whether out of the same St. Augustin or out of the other Fathers relates to the first Maxims which we have drawn from him as Consequences from their Principles It would have been very Natural and certainly very profitable to joyn in this Treatise the Example of the Holy Fathers to their Doctrine but the Authour having already traced the History of their holy Death in his Book Of the Death of the Just you may thither have recourse The CONTENTS of the Principal Matters contained in this Book I. Article THe First Principle of St. Augustin That the Difference which is between Perfect and Imperfect Christians is That the One love Death and endure Life and that the Other love Life and endure Death pag. 1. II. Article The Second Principle of St. Augustin That proportionably as the Christian feels his love for Virtue to encrease he also feels the Desire of Death to enerease in himself p. 7. The Vnion of the Two precedent Principles p. 9. III. Article St. Augustin having established these Two Principles answers an Objection p. 11. IV. Article The Third Principle of St. Augustin That there are among Christians two sorts of Fear to displease God p. 14. V. Article Other Principles of St. Augustin That we are not happy in this Life but by the Hope and by the Desire of Eternal Goods c. p. 21. VI. Article The Fathers who preceded and followed St. Augustin explicated themselves in the same manner as he did upon the same Subject p. 32. Tertullian says That Christians are distinguish'd from all other Men by the Desire they have of Death That they look upon it as a Grace which is to crown all the other Graces and That it is principally that which they dayly demand of God in their Prayers p. 33. VII Article Some Maxims of St. Cyprian collected from several places of his Writings and principally from the Discourse he composed Of Mortality p. 38. The First Maxim of St. Cyprian That Christians who dread Death are Vnjust and Vnreasonable because in saying every day to God in the Lords Prayer Thy Kingdom come they pray him to hasten their Death p. 39. The Second Maxim of St. Cyprian That 't is no mervail that Infidells and Wicked people dread Death but that this Weakness is not tolerable in Christians p. 43. The third Maxim of St. Cyprian That Christians ought not to love the World since the World hates Christians c. p. 46. 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 p. 48. VIII Article The Sentiments of St. Gregory of Nazian concerning the obligation which Christians have to contemn Life and to cover Death p. 54. IX Article The Abridgment of a Discourse of St. Gregory Bishop of Nisse Wherein he shews That we should be so far from lamenting them who go forth of this Life that we should rather envy and desire their Happiness p. 62. X. Article An Abridgment of a Treatise which St. Ambrose made de bono Mortis of the good of Death where he says That 't is Death which delivers us from the Miseries of this Life and from the servitude of Sin c. p. 77. XI Article An excellent Dostrine of St. Ambrose who establishes two manners of Living and of Dying observed in the Sacred Scripture p. 82. XII Article Divers Instructions of St. John Chrysostom p. 89. 1. Instruction where he shews what is it to be a Christian and that his principal Character is to desire and to love Death p. 90. XIII Article The Second Instruction of St. John Chrysostom That we should be miserable if our Life were never to end c. p. 100. XIV Article The Third Instruction of St. Chrysostom That Death is that which most of all humbles Man and that Humility being the Foundation of all Virtues it follows That to be virtuous we must meditate incessantly upon Death c. p. 112. XV. Article The Fourth Instruction of St. John
Chrysostom That we ought to be as ready to go forth of the World as Criminalls are ready to go forth of their Prison when one brings to them the Princes pardon p. 122. XVI Article The Fifth Instruction of St. Chrysostom That if we lived as beseems true Christians we should not have any difficulty to conceive Death to be the most desirable of all good things p. 128. XVII Article The Sixth Instruction of St. John Chrysostom That the Death of Christ Jesus should have cured us from the fear of Dying and that the Ceremonies of the Church in the Funerals of the Faithfull ought to give us Joy and Comfort p. 134. XVIII Article An Exhortation of St. John Chrysostom where he declaims with much vehemence against the lazy and imperfect Christians who fear Death and instructs after an admirable manner the zealous and perfect Christians who desire Death p. 146. XIX Article The Sentiments of St. Jerome concerning the Advantages which Death brings to Christians and the Obligation they have to prepare themselves for it and to think continually upon it p. 154. XX. Article St. Jerome teaches us what temper we ought to observe in the disgust of Life and in the desire of Death p. 160. XXI Article An Excellent Instruction of the same St. Jerome p. 173. XXII Article St. Jerome or the Authour of some Epistles attributed to him which are at the end of his Works presses this Doctrin farther and expresly teaches That a Christian ought not only not to fear Death wherein he would do no more than many Pagans have done but that he ought also to represent it often to himself to desire it and to love it if he will imitate Christ Jesus p. 177. XXIII Article We return following the Order of the time of St. Augustin and we relate some more Sentiments of this holy Doctour which confirm the Truths we have establish'd by his Principles p. 181. An Excellent Moral of St. Augustin against them who fear a temporal Death and dread not the Eternal Death p. 182. XXIV Art A pithy Reflexion of St. Augustin upon the shortness of the Life of the Body and upon the Eternity of the Life of the Soul p. 188. XXV Art A most true and edificatory Observation of St. Augustin That God by a particular Mercy besprinkles the most pleasing Sweets of this World with Bitterness and permits his Elect to be afflicted with Infirmities which Contradictions with Calumnies and with Crosses to oblige them to despise Life and to desire Death p. 193. XXVI Article St. Augustin teaches in several places of his writings as an assured Doctrine That the most solid Virtue of Christians and the most Visible Character of the Predestinate is to sigh continually in the expectation of Death and in the Hope of another Life p. 197. XXVII Article A Comparison of Faithful Christians with the Faithful Isralites In which St. Augustin shews That as the first coming of the Messias was the object of the continual Desires and of the devotion of the true Isralites so also the second coming of Christ Jesus ought to be the Aym of the most solid Piety and of the most fervent Desires of Christians p. 203. XXVIII Article An Instruction of S. Isidore of Damiet to all Christians to excite in them a perfect desire of Death p. 213. XXIX Article St. Eucherius Arch-Bishop of Lion exhorts Christians to observe attentively the different Agitations of human Passions the shortnesse of Life and the uncertainty of Death to the end they may never engage themselves in the Tumults of the World and that they may be evermore prepared to die p. 216. XXX Article St. Fulgentius and St. Paulinus prove That Death is a Recompence for the Just and a Chastisement for the Wicked That Life is to be counted by the quantity of good Works which one hath done and not by the number of Years one hath lived p. 223. XXXI Article Reflections of St. Gregory Pope upon the Subject which is proposed in this work p. 231. 1. Reflexion That the continual view of Death is the most assured means to lead a Holy and Quiet Life p. 231. XXXII Art 2. Reflexion of St. Gregory That naturally all the Desires and all the Actions of Man tend to Death That Grace should do in us that which Nature doth of it self c. p. 233. XXXIII Art 3. Reflexion of St. Gregory That they who love the World have some reason to fear the end thereof but That they who serve Christ Jesus ought not to be apprehensive of the Worlds destruction c. p. 238. XXXIV Art 4. Reflexion of St. Gregory That there are few Just persons who can truly say with St. Paul god forbid that I should glory in any other thing than in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ because the World is dead and crucified to me as I am Dead and Crucified to the World p. 241. XXXV Art A pithy Description which St. Gregory the Great makes of the necessities and of the Myseries of the Body and of the Soul whence this holy Pope concludes That men ought to desire Death for â—he enjoyment of a better Life in which they shall no longer be exposed either to Sorrow or to Sin p. 257. XXXVI Art S. John Climachus distinguishes the Desires of Death which the Devil suggests unto us from those which Grace inspires into us and he composed one Degree of his holy Ladder upon this subject where he shews That the Meditation of Death is the most profitable of all Spiritual Practices p. 270. XXXVII Art St. Bernard Teaches us That Hope is the portion of true Christians and That this Virtue makes them to love Death and to suffer patiently all the evils of this Life p. 277. XXXVIII Art St. Bernard proves That to the end we may not dread Death but receive it which Patience and even with Joy we must prepare our selves for it every day by 〈◊〉 true Repentance That by this meanâ— Grace overcomes Nature That what appears so terrible to a sinful man becomes pleasing to a just man but particularly to such as have embraced a Religious and solitary Life p. 288. XXXIX Art The Sentiments of St. Bernard touching the Comtempt which perfect Christians ought to have of Life and of Health From whence he takes Occasion to speak of the Patience which they ought to have in their Infirmities and of the Joy which the continual thought of Death ought to afford them p. 294. XXXX Art An Extract of some passages of the Book of the Imitation of Christ where it is treated of the Contempt of Life and of the desire of Death p. 299. XXXXI Art The admirable Prayses which St. Laurence Justinian gives to Death From whence he concludes That it is no wonder if they who are the most perfect among Christians are they who most desire it p. 311. XXXXII. Art A Collection of some of the admirable Sentiments which St. Teresa hath left us in her Writings touching the
Meditation upon Eternity and upon the Desire of Death p. 318. The Conclusion of this whole Collection How as from the beginning of this Treatise we have drawn from St. Augustin such Principles as were proper to establish this Proposition That perfect Souls desire Death and receive it with Joy So we end this Collection with a Discourse which the same holy Doctour made upon the same Subject wherein he pretends to engage all Men by their proper Interest to desire to pass forth of this World p. 326. To the devout Peruser of these Collections IF in the Mouth of two or three Witnesses every word is established Mat. 18.16 You have here devout Reader above six times that number of irrefragable Testifiers of that Truth which is intended to be established in this short Treatise to wit That Christians ought to despise Life and desire Death I. S. Augustin Leads the Van whose Principles are the Basis of the following Building He was one of the most famous and learned Fathers of the Church and the renowned Bishop of Hippo in Africa where he flourished in admirable Sanctity in year of our Redemption 400. and died in the year 433. The Fathers who preceded and who followed S. Augustin deliver the same Doctrin upon the same subject to wit II. Tertullian Who flourished in the Year 230. III. St. Cyprian The most Eloquent and holy Bishop of Carthage who was crown'd with Martyrdom in the Year 250. IV. St. Gregory Bishop of Nazian surnam'd the Divine the equal of St. Basil and the Companion of his studies who flourished in the Year 370. V. St. Basil Surnam'd the Great Arch-Bishop of Cesarea in Cappadocia who flourished at the same time to wit 370. VI. St. Gregory Bishop of Nyce the Brother of St. Basil who flourish'd in the Year 380. VII St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan who died in the Year 397. VIII St. John Chrysostom Bishop of Constantinople who died about the Year 407. IX St. Ireneus Bishop of Lyons in France who suffered under Severus in the Y. 180. X. St. Jerome Priest and Doctour of the Church who died in the Year 420. XI St. Isidor Bishop of Sevil in Spain who died in the Year 636. XII St. Eucherius Bishop of Lyons in France who died about the Year 433. XIII St. Fulgentius Bishop of Ruspen in Africa who died in the Year 529. XIV St. Paulinus Bishop of Nola in Campania who died in the Year 431. XV. St. Gregory The first most holy Hope of that Name deservedly sirnamed the Great who died in the Year 604. XVI St. John Climacus A holy Abbot in Mount Sina who flourished in the Year 560. XVII St. Bernard Abbot of Claraval an Apostolical man of great Sanctity who died in the Year 1153. XVIII The Author Of the Books of the Imitation of Christ XIX St. Laurence Justinian The 1. Patriark of Venice died in the Year 455. XX. St. Teresa A holy Virgin in Spain who lived and dyed in the last age Vpon the view of these many Evidences and multitudes of Authorities and upon the frequent perusall of these Collections you will undoubtedly by degrees render your Life more easy unto you and remove that vulgar and universal errour out of your mind concerning the dreadful apprehension of Death which you will familiarly behold and hourly expect as the happy period of your painfull and dangerous Pilgrimage and as the desirable passage opening to eternal Life eternal rest eternal felicity THE Holy Desires OF DEATH Article I. The First Principle of St. Augustin S. Aug. That the Difference which is between a Perfect and Imperfect Christian is That the first desires Death with Ardour and endures Life with Patience whereas the second only receives Death with Submission and hath not yet quitted all the Tyes which ordinarily fasten men to Life WIll you know what Progresse you have made in Charity In Epist â— Joan. tract 9. Examin your-self upon these Words of St. John The Perfection of our Love towards God consists in having an entire Confidence in him for the day of Judgment So that Charity is perfect in all them who have this Confidence What is it to have this Confidence for the day of Judgment 'T is not to dread its comming Some there are who do not believe this day will come I speak not of these impious Wretches for what likelyhood is there that they can either desire of dread that which they believe will never come to pass Epist 1. Joan. c. 4. v. 18. But as soon as a man begins to believe the day of Judgment he must also begin to fear it True it is that so long as he only fear's it he hath not yet Confidence because he is not replenish'd with this Charity which animates Faith Nevertheless this Fear ceases not to produce excellent Effects It is a beginning of Mortification and of good Works and it ordinarily falls out that by these exercises of Virtue they come to desire what formerly they only dreaded Then a Soul looks no longer upon that last day but as the first of her Happiness nor doth she go against her own Sen timents when she Prays-saying Lord Let your Kingdom come In effect He who fears lest the Kingdom of God should come fears also lest his Prayer should be heard Judg now in what manner one Prays when one fears to obtain what one demands whereas he who Prays with that Considence which perfect Charity gives him desires effectually that what he demands may be speedily granted him We may therefore say that there are yet some imperfect persons to whom Sufferings and Death serve only for an exercise of their Patience and of their Courage and who are not yet strong enough to desire to Suffer or to Die These because they desire to live longer simply suffer Death when it befalls them But there are others more perfect who are so unfetter'd from Life that in lieu of loving it as a good thing they endure it as an Evil. All that the former can do is to conquer the repugnance of Nature and to submit themselves to the Will of God because finally they like rather to conform themselves to what he hath ordained concerning them than to leave themselves to be transported with a bootless weakness in following their own will Thus altho ' the desire of this present Life struggles in their Heart against the necessity of Dying yet they arm themselves with Fortitude and with Patience to receive Death with Peace and with Submission One may say That the Christians who are in this Estate suffer Death with Patience But the Others who desire with the Apostle that their Souls may be untyed from their Bodies to be united to Christ Jesus are not content to suffer Life as a necessary Evil but they receive Death it self with Joy as a great Good because they find nothing in this present Life but subjects of Disquiet and of Sorrow and that they find in Death the end of all these
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
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
a Child of God not to tie himself to things present and perishable that he may sooner go towards his Father who stretches forth his arms to receive him This tender affection and this holy impatience spring from the purity of a good Conscience He who is enflam'd with the love of eternal Goods is not puff'd up in Prosperity nor cast down in Adversity He is as it were above the Earth and dwells already in Heaven he conserves a Spirit evermore equall in the inequality of his lives events Finally he is like him of whom it is said in Scripture You stick not either at the Benedictions or at the Maledictions of the World but you are as an Angel of our Lord. 2. Reg. c. 24. v. 17. 2. Instruction of St. Chrysostom That we should be miserable if our Life were never to end and that if we had a faithful and true belief of the Resurrection we should not only not dread Death but we should ardently desire it WHen God gives us Life In cap. 12. Gen. Hom. 32. 't is by an action of his Omnipotency but when he gives us Death In Cap. 5. Gen. Hom. 21. 't is by a wholesome effect of his Bounty What would Life be without Death A long sequell of miseries an eternal Banishment an infinite Punishment In Cap. 5. Gen. Hâ—m 67. and almost as cruel as that of Hell For what more painfull torment could be inflicted upon them who love Serm. in Verba Pauli De dormientibus nolo vos Ser. 29. than to separate them for ever from their beloved object If this Maxim is true in sensual love is it not infinitly more in the Divine love A Heart deeply engaged in this love to which one should say you shall remain always upon Earth and you shall never see God would it not have cause to esteem it self almost as miserable as the Damned It is therefore truly said That if Death is the chastisement of Adams Sin 't is also the greatest favour that God could grant to the Children of Adam after his Disobedience Before the coming of Christ Jesus Death was frightfull because men were its slaves and that they could not obtain of God any more then temporal rewards for their good actions But since he hath ransom'd us by his precious Blood since he hath loved Death and made an alliance with it it is not only no longer an Evil but 't is the greatest of all Goods 't is the source of all imaginable happinesses Thus the fear of dying ought to be consider'd as a weakness of Nature and not as an effect of Reason 'T is true that all Creatures have an extreme desire to conserve their Being but this desire is not pardonable except only in such people who know nothing of any other Life than this The true Christian who hopes after this Death a more noble and a more happy Being than this first Being which he receiv'd by being born into the World not only desires not to conserve it but burns with impatience to loose it that he may acquire the possession of a soverain Felicity There is no truth which Christ Jesus preached and assured more authentically than the Mystery of the Resurrection Ib. Serm. de tridua Domini Resurrec and there is nothing also which the Enemies of Christianism have more thwarted All the World agrees that Christ Jesus died 1 Cor. 18.23 The Jews looked upon his Cross as a Scandall and the Gentiles as a Folly But as for the Resurrection they all absolutely deny it only the Christians believe that and God gives to them all sorts of proofs thereof He permits that Souldiers should be placed around his Sepulchre he rises forth of the Tomb in their presence the Stone is overturned the Earth trembles the Guards are affrighted the Women find him not where they had layd him and the Angells assure them that he was risen He appeared to his Disciples in particular in publick in divers places in many encounters He stays with them Forty days he there drinks he there eats and when one of them protests that he would believe nothing of it unless he could see him with his Eyes and touch him with his Hands our Saviour presents himself unto him shews him the Wound of his side will have him to put his Finger into it and finally forces him by this last proof to cry out I doubt no longer John 20. v. 28.29 you are my Lord and my God Thou hast believed answered Jesus because thou hast seen Blessed are they who believe without having seen Can one desire testimonies more evident and more authentical of his Resurrection If we are Christians we must believe it If we will be Happy we must believe it without seeing it any otherwise than by the Eyes of Faith What Happiness ought we to expect from the Rusurrection and from the Promises of Jesus Christ Is it not to be resuscitated as he is that we may reign with him But to have a share in his Resurrection and in his Kingdom we must necessarily die Death therefore is an inestimable advantage and happiness and thus we ought not to dread it but with all our hearts to desire it What advantage can we find by living longer Old age and the Infirmities which accompany it do they not render us imsupportable to others and to our selves Consider an old man overwhelm'd with years his spirits dejected his Body extenuated his face full of wrinkles his eyes half shut up his voyce trembling his head hanging down towards the Earth as it were seeking for a Sepulchre wherein to be buried Is not this a kind of Monster in nature But that which is here more monstrous in him is the desire to live in despight of so many incommodities and to trail along his Soul captivated and burthened with such heavy chains Strange blindness of man This passion is more violent in the very caducity and feebleness it self than in the most tender youthfulness Whatever tye a man advanced in age hath for his dignities and for his treasures he would willingly destrip himself of all to prolong his Life for some years and he would employ these years in acquiring other honours and other riches of which he should destrip himself Madd man Weak Worm of the Earth Reffuse of the Universe Learn that in so deplorable an estate thou hast nothing more to desire but Death nor any thing to hope for but the Resurrection Serm. 20. in verba De tormientibus An Engraver hath made a fair Statue he finds it afterwards to be eaten with Rust and spoiled by the injury of time The love he hath for his own work moves him to take compassion on it he breaks it in pieces casts the mettal into the fire and frames a Figure fairer then the former This is that which God did having seen that Man who was his Image and his Head-work was disfigured by Sin By what right and upon what
account O thou ungrateful and insolent creature thou unfortunate work of the hand of the Allmighty thou kneaded vessel of clay by what right darest thou murmure against the God who created thee since instead of this gross form which is subject to corruption he will give thee another perfect and incorruptible Our Lord Jer. 18.6 says the Prophet hath commanded me to go down into the house of the Potter I found him turning a Vessel upon the wheel but the work was spoiled as soon as it was out of the hands of the workman he broke it in pieces and made another as himself pleased And shall not I have the same power as hath this Artist And the people of Israel are they not in my hands as the Clay is in the hands of the Potter O man what art thou adds the Apostle who darest dispute against God Rom. 9.20 The Work can it say to the Workman who formed it Why have you made me so Let us therefore thank him for the Life he hath given us perishable as it is since 't is the first favour we have received from his Bounty But let us look upon it as perishable and let 's demand of him a holy Death as the happy passage to that immortal Life which he hath promised us Article XIV 3. Instruction of St. Chrysostom That Death is that which most humbles man and That Humility being the foundation of all the Virtues it follows that to be virtuous we must incessantly meditate on Death talk of it at all times familiarise our selves with it visit Sepulchers and assist dying persons because nothing doth more edify and comfort than to see the Saints die and nothing more deterrs from impiety than to see the wicked die WHether Man labours to acquire Glory In c. 5. Genes hom 67. or to raise himself into Dignities or to heap up Riches Ser. de fide lege nat nothing doth so much humble him and makes him better to resent the vanity of all these things than Death A Conquerour who makes whole Provinces desolate and who breathes nothing but Blood and Murder may in vain blind himself with a fond passion of rendring his reputation immortal if Death which he brings into all places hath spared him for some time yet he is no less sure to die and to see the course of his conquests cut off by the same lot by which he hath made thousands perish before his eyes What avails it to this Magistrate to this Minister of State to this Favorit to have a troop of adorers attending him to have honour given him and to hear himself praised to the skies 'T is in vain for Flatterers to endeavour to raise up their birth by alotting to them Ancestours they never had 'T is frivolous to labour to justify their conduct which the Publick condemns and to predict to them a long Prosperity which so many accidents can overturn Death the faithfull councellour of those people to whom none dares speak truth presents it self unto them at every hour in publick in private in the height of their employments and even amidst their pleasures but in a shape much more terrible than it appears to ordinary persons and reads to them this affrighting Lesson Remember Man that thou art made of Earth and that thou art to return to Earth I have there laid all thy Predecessours Know that had not God commanded me to leave thee hitherto in the World to exercise the Good and to punish the Wicked 't is long since that the horrour of thy crimes would have obliged me to take thee from off the face of Earth The Rich and the Covetous are no more exempt from these threats than the Ambitious and altho' they are perpetually taken up with the care of keeping their treasures they cease not to hear the voyce of Death which secretly whispers in their Ears Luc. 12.20 To morrow I will fetch back thy Soul All thou hast been heaping up so many years shall be dissipated in the space of Six Months by thy Heirs Law-suits shall consume one part Riot shall swallow up the other part and among all thy Successours not one shall be found who will so much as remember to pray for thee Thus it is that the very wicked receive instructions from Death and that they learn of it to humble themselves in the enjoyment of their false Goods to which they would adhere yet more than they do if they were not averted by these wholsom advertisements But this Lesson hath never more force than in the mouth of dying persons Certainly there 's nothing more edifies a Christian and affords him greater comfort than to see a man breath forth well his last breath in producing acts of Piety of Love and of Confidence towards God The tranquillity which appears in his countenance is an effect of the quiet of his Conscience The Charities which he hath exercised the services which he hath rendred to the poor the Pardon which he hath granted to his Enemies his Watchings his Fastings his Mortifications and finally all his good works are as so many Angel-Gardians encompassing his Soul to defend her against the assaults of the Devil In this estate he explicates his last will without any trouble of Spirit he comforts and instructs them who assist him he demands of them to joyn their Prayers with his and after the tender embraces of the Cross of his Redeemer he renders up his Soul upon that adorable instrument of his dear Saviours Passion his Life is extinguished as a Light which hath no more nourishment his beautiful Soul fly's to Heaven and his Eyes are closed with that peaceable Sleep of the Just which doth not separate the Soul from the Body but to reunite them one day in Eternity What Christian well perswaded of the truth of his Religion would not desire to die in this manner and would not avouch that this Death is more desirable a thousand times than Life The Death of the Wicked is a far different Lesson but which doth no less instruct them who know how to make their profit of it One may there observe visible signes of Gods anger a terrible effect of those celebrious Words of the Scripture You who have had no other Gods but your own passions and who have contemned my Counsells and my Chastisements wicked wretches I will render speedily unto you with usurie the taunting scoffs which you have darted against me When you shall be in the arms of Death I will abandon you to despair and to fury I will no otherwise look upon you than with disdain and I will take pleasure to insult over your misery with a mocking laughter In effect those Athiests who braved Death when they conceived it to be far from them are a thousand times more weak than others when it is near at their dores The remorse of their Crimes begins to gnaw their Hearts and yet their Ears are shut against all holy instructions They
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
have yet but very little Virtue and Piety Epist ad Prin. ad Euriam ad Paulinum alibi As Death is the end at which all men must arrive so the thought of Death is a faithfull guide to conduct us with safety unto it For the Scripture hath sayd That if we remember the last days of our Life Eccles. 7.40 we shall never Sin Surely then we run an hazard to sin often if we do not think that we must die We fall into the same misfortune as do those Travellers whom the night hath surprized in a Forrest and who have strayed out of their way Every one of them takes a several track and the farther they go the more they swerve from the right path Christ Jesus hath shew'd us the way He hath said I am the Way and the Truth His Light conducts us amidst the darkness his Voyce calls us He serves us for a guide but 't is by the pathway of sufferings and by the track of Calvary that he leads us and all they who will follow him must as he did carry their Cross and prepare themselves to die This different disposition which men have in regard of Death is the most visible Character of their predestination or of their reprobation And 't is that which Christ Jesus hath shew'd us in the Parable of the Virgins For he says that those five foolish Virgins did not enter to the Marriage of the Bridegroom because they had not put themselves in a readiness to receive him How can one explicate these marriages and this preparation but of the Joy of a Christian Death and of the holy disposition which one ought to have for it He teaches us at the same time that the five Wise Virgins being totally replenished with these holy thoughts deserv'd to have room in the house of the Bridegroom and there to celebrate the Marriage-feast the joy whereof shall last for all Eternity He who would not do good when he could have done it shall be justly punished with an impotency of doing it when he would do it He who would not think of Death during his Life time shall not be able to think of the true Life at the hour of Death And what doth it avail a man to avoid the remembrance of an Evil which he cannot shun and to love that which he is not sure to possess one moment What doth it avail him to adhere to a life which flies from him and to fly from Death which seeks after him Man says the Psalmist Psal 38. spins his days as the Spider spins her Web. Isai 59. After many turns and returns wherein he consumes himself with his own labour Death comes which ruins all his work and then it appears not so much as that he ever was Article XX. St. Jerome teaches us the temper we ought to keep in the disgust of Life and in the desire of Death We have added this passage for the Comfort of good people who naturally fear Death NOthing is more ordinary to man In Amos c. 5. etalibi than to be cast down in afflictions to be weary of living and to wish to die But all they who find themselves in this disposition do they believe that they are for this more perfect than others On the contrary they ought to be asham'd of it as of a defect of Faith and a want of Courage Not but that Life is despicable and that it is even meritorious to contemn it but that we should be so far from conceiving a disgust of it when it is full of afflictions as that we ought then chiefly to cherish it as a means given us by God to do penance If Death is to be desired 't is in a delicious Life where sometimes our condition exposes us to sin as it were against our will 't is in a long prosperity where we may have just cause to sigh for passing our life unprofitably and perhaps criminally upon Earth and for vainly spending the precious time which is only lent us to merit Heaven by our sufferings For my part says the Apostle St. Paul If it is permitted to boast 1. Cor. 12. I averr that I glory of my pains and of my afflictions to the end that the power of Christ Jesus may dwell in me I feel a satisfaction and a joy in my Infirmities in Injuries in Poverty in Persecutions in the pressing Adversities which I suffer for my Saviour and when I am weak 't is then that I find my self most strong The contempt therefore of Life is not always a certain mark of our Faith and of our Piety 't is sometimes a weariness of suffering for God sometimes a sadness which the austerity of devotion casts into the Heart we are asham'd to leave it and we want courage to persevere in it If the Soul is not supported by an extraordinary Grace the disgust of all things and even of Piety it self which is insinuated by little and little and the Imagination which black 's it self by dismal thoughts and by desires of dying brings her to the brinks of Despair Those persons who have lately sequestred themselves from the World are more exposed to this misery than others untill the Divine love hath fill'd up all that emptiness which the separation left in their Spirit For whatever endeavour these persons use Nature never endures the yoak of Grace without violence 't is in vain to tame this Nature by the continuall exercises of piety by mortifications by rigorous penances for that inward Law of the Body evermore resists the law of the Spirit and in the combat which is fought between them although the Spirit gets the victory yet it is sometimes weakned and foyled in its own conquests Then we would die because we find no more pleasure in living and in these sad desires 't is Nature which acts and not Grace Nature is willing to discharge herself of Life as of a Burthen which is to her insupportable Always to fight says she always to languish always to suffer Ah is it not something worse than to be dead I know it by my own experience Brethren and if it may be permitted me to glory in my infirmities and to make use of the terms of the Apostle I would tell you what I have done to quell these revolts and these impatiencies of Nature Eusebius of the Death of S Jerome relating his own Words Finding that the memory of the divertisements of my youth followed me every where as my shadow and troubled my most innocent occupations I shut up my self in a dismal Grot amidst the vast Deserts of Siria where the Rocks scorched with the ardours of the Sun furnish'd our Solitary Hermits with places of retrait which are common to them with the Savage Beasts I confess that I could not enter there without horrour but the occasions of offending God appeared to me more horrible than that Solitude Nevertheless in a dwelling so dreadfull where I nourished my self
only with wild Roots my Imagination ingenious to persecute me ceased not to entertain it self with the delights of the Roman Citty I pass'd the day in sighing and the night in weeping for my Sins But the more I strove to quench with my Tears the secret fire of my Concupiscence the more that rebell was enkindled even in the marrow of my bones If sometimes the wearinesses of my penance forced me to abandon my self to sleep I paid not that tribute to Nature but against my will and to free my self quickly from it I suffer'd my body to fall to the ground it being extenuated with watchings and as it were broken with all sorts of macerations I had no other Pillow than a Stone no other Garment then a Hayr-cloath no other Drink than Water nor other Food than Herbs and Roots and when the weakness of my Stomack obliged me to eat them boyled for a more easy disgestion I durst not satisfy my hunger fearing to commit an excess in making good cheer This Abstinence and the heat of the Climat joyned to the ardour of my temper had dryed me up like a Skeleton and one might have counted all the Nerfs through a Skin more tawny than that of the Ethiopians In this sad estate I had more horrour of my self than of the Scorpions and of the Serpents which were round about me and yet my Spirit would escape on a sodain even amidst my most holy Meditations and quit Prayer to dream of the Roman Dames running over all the assemblies I had frequented formerly where the Devil had laid his mortall Baits to entrap Chastity Then being irritated at the revolt of my Senses which these thoughts had excited against me I massacred my breast with a thousand blows and I left not off striking it untill the Grace of our Lord had calmed my Passions He knows what my sorrow was after such strange Conflicts I blushed with shame Life was insupportable unto me All the corners of my Grot all the Rocks of my Solitude seem'd to me so many Censurers of my Life and so many Witnesses of my Weaknesses For this cause I often chang'd my habitation hoping to find out some one where I might have more quiet but my evil did not change because I bore every where about me the subject of my disquiet I avouch that in the height of my torments I ardently desired to die and that I could have wished it had been permitted me to go forth of the World When one day I was press'd with this thought more violently than I was wont I took up the Book of the sacred Scripture which was my sweetest comfort and as God would have it I fell upon that passage where the Prophet Amos says these terrible Words Joel 2.11 Accursed be they who inconsiderately desire the day of our Lord. Soph. 1.15 Who urges you thus to desire it That day of our Lord is a day without Light Amos. 1.18 a day of darkness and obscurity When you shall be weary of your misery overwhelm'd with infirmities persecuted with temptations rejected by the injustices of others when you shall be disgusted with the whole World and irksom to your self expect the hour of our Lord with patience Amos. â— 19 For what doth it avail a man to shun the meeting of a Lion if he falls into the paws of a Bear S. Ierom. It is not in his power to hinder his Soul from going forth when that hour shall be come Eccl. 8.8 and he hath no right to hasten or to slacken the day of his Death After this sacred Instruction I suffered Life patiently being resolv'd to employ all the moments thereof in doing good works and being perswaded that we may well desire Death but that it is not permitted us to advance or further it nor even so much as to demand it of God with overmuch impatience because although we ought to contemn Life yet we must not omit to conserve it Article XXI An Excellent Instruction of the same St. Jerome That Death ought to be looked on as an order of the Divine Providence rather than as an effect of human Infirmity and that so we ought to die by Obedience and by Love A True Christian looks upon Death not only as upon a subject of consolation Lib. 9. in Isaiam alibi but moreover as upon an object of love and of respect because it must be granted that it is God who makes us live and die when he pleases and that the end of our days is more an effect of the Divine Will than of human infirmity For if the fall of the least Sparrows happens not without the order of God as himself says in the Gospell we ought to believe by a stronger reason That the last fall of our Body never happens but according to the immutable decree of his Will We should therefore look on Death with Love considering it as an effect of the eternal Providence We must take from it that which Nature finds horrible in it and think that God sends it not to them whom he loves but to the end they should always love him In effect the greatest testimony he can give them of his love is to withdraw them out of the World and to free them from the slavery of their Body and of Sin to render them Saints and make them eternally happy I say yet much more we are in some sort made partakers even upon Earth of this happiness when we submit to his will with this Confidence And as the last mark we can give of our Love towards God is to receive Death with an entire Obedience and even with Joy when it summons us to go forth of the World so the most perfect act of our Faith and of our Piety towards Christ Jesus is to resign our selves before hand to what ever God shall ordain of our Life and of our Death Let us therefore with David say to him Ps 89. Behold we are ready O Lord Cut of the threed of our miserable Life when you please And surely what is the duration of our days They pass away more speedily than the Word We live ordinarily but Seaventy Years and the stronger scarcely pass Fourscore But should our Life endure a Thousand years before your eyes a Thousand years are no more then yesterday which is past and gone Death hurries them away as a Whirlwind and they disappear as a Dream So that how long soever our Life is it will be counted for nothing unless it is pleasing to you Grant then Sap. 3. O Lord that we may count our days by our Good Works and that we may know their shortness to the end we may acquire Wisdom of Heart Article XXII St. Jerome or the Authour of some Epistles attributed to him which are placed at the end of his Works urges this Doctrine yet farther and teaches That a Christian ought not only not to dread Death but that he ought also to
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
hands of God and for that the torment of Death doth not touch him It seems to the eyes of the unwise that the Just man dies his departure out of the World appears to them an affliction They imagine that the way he takes in separating himself from others will bring him to nothing whereas it is but a passage which leads him to peace and to repose Altho' he endures a cruel Death before men yet God replenishes him with a certain hope of Immortality He suffers a little to gain much Our Lord hath tryed him by these pains of short durance and hath found him worthy of his Love 'T is Gold which he puts into the melting vessell to refine it 'T is a Victime which he sanctifies by the Sacrifice to make it revive one day in Eternity The day will come when the Just shall possess the glory of Heaven and he shall shine more brightly than the Starrs we shall behold him judging Nations and bearing sway over the people for he is the Child of the most High He shall share with him in his Kingdom and the Lord of the Just shall reign Eternally They who have confidence in him will understand this truth they shall repose in his bosom and shall enjoy the Peace which he hath prepared for his Elect. But as for the Wicked who have despised and injured the Just and who have withdrawn themselves from God they shall be chastised according to their crimes How unhappy are they to have abandonned Wisdom and shaken off the yoak of Justice For all their hopes will be vain their labours will be unprofitable and their works will remain imperfect If they have Wives they will be dishonest if they have Children they will be unnatural A curse shall fall upon their families and the posterity of Adulterers shall be exterminated 'T is in vain for them to boast of their Riches of their Power of their Health Should they live longer than other men all the years of their Life shall be counted for nothing at the day of their Death If they die old their old age shall be disquieted with the remorse of their Conscience and the World growing impatient to see them so long upon Earth will look upon them only with contempt and perhaps with indignation If they die Young they shall be deprived of the advantages they might have had in the World and of the hope of the heavenly Good Finally the Death of the wicked is the ruine of their race 't is a desolation without hope a night without light an Abysmus of miseries where nothing dwells but a dismall nothing and an eternal horrour These sentences of the sacred Scripture make us see That only Impious and Infidells need to fear Death but that Christians who are indued with piety should be so far from fearing it that they ought even to desire it Certainly a happy Life doth not consist in living a long time but in living in a perfect submission to the orders of Providence What doth it serve us to continue upon earth even to a decrepit age Is not Innocence of Life to be preferred before the duration of Life and is not purity of manners more worth than old age The Scripture speaking of the Just man who dies young hath sayd That he was snatch'd speedily out of the World Sap. 4.11 lest the Master of errour should seduce his spirit and lest Malice should corrupt his Soul But because he became perfect in a short time v. 13. 't is as if he had lived many Years and God to whom this Soul was agreable hastned to withdraw her from the midst of iniquity wherewith the whole Earth is replenished Article XXXI As St. Gregory the Pope was himself very infirm and sickly so he speaks and writes frequently of Death He is one of the Ecclesiastical Authours who hath fill'd his Works with the strongest reflections upon this subject We have drawn out four or five of them which best relate to our proposed Design I. Reflection of St. Gregory S. Gregory That the Continual view of Death is the most assured means to lead a holy and quiet Life HE who seriously considers what he ought to hope for or to fear at the article of Death Moral in c. 17. Job must needs act with great circumspection and have a continual apprehension of falling into Sin That last hour which he hath evermore present before his Eyes renders him truly living to the Eyes of God He fixes upon nothing that is perishable He desires nothing of all that which men who live without Reflection seek with so much earnestness and the disposition wherein he places himself every hour as if he were then to die makes him to look upon himself as already dead For Life is by so much the more holy and more perfect by how much it hath relation each moment to Death Holy Scripture teaches us Eccles. 7. that the more men study this Lesson and contemplate themselves in this Looking-Glass which flatters not the farther they are from falling into the snares of Sin Article XXXII 2. Reflexion of St. Gregory That naturally all the Desires and all the Actions of man tend to Death That Grace should do that in us which Nature doth of it self That according to the thought of Job Life resembles the day of a hireling a pilgrimage a warfare where no one enroll's himself but to die in fighting against the Enemies of our Salvation THe Sick person who lies languishing in pain and in sadness Lib. 2. Mor. c. 3. Lib. 12. c. 3. expects with impatience the return of the day but the Sun which brings the Light brings no remedy to his misery on the contrary it diminishes one day of his Life The Hireling finds the hours of his labour over-long and blames the Night for coming on so slowly The Covetous man counts with discontent all the moments which retard his revenues The Ambitious man who hath conceiv'd great designs would in order to hasten the success hasten the years of his Life The Husbandman makes vows to see his Harvest ripen Finally it seems that men demand nothing but to be Old altho' they apprehend nothing so much as Old-age In Winter we wish the return of the Spring Scarcely is the season of Flowers past over but we desire that of Fruits In Autumn we say that Winter hath it's pleasures Thus it is that the Spirit of Man unquiet and insupportable to it self carries on its vain desires from one time to another and not enjoying the present anticipates always upon the future and marches by a secret impatience towards his Death What we do by a hidden motion of Nature why shall we not do by the Inspiration and by the Succour of Grace Grace incessantly advertises us that this Life is short and miserable and that we ought to aspire to another Life which is everlasting and happy Sometimes the sacred Scripture teaches us this Verity by comparing Life to a
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
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
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
people by their proper Interest ought to desire to depart out of the World YOu complain that Truth is trampled on by the tricks of Lying and Falshood Lib. 22. de Civ c. 30. You say O Christians that they who make profession to be the Masters or the Disciples of Truth do basely abandon it Ser. 64. de Verbis Domini and that its beauty which is altogether Divine cannot fix the inconstancy of its Lovers Why then do you not aspire to Heaven Ser. 6. inter Communes where Truth glittering with all its beams triumphs over falshood and malice and frees them who love it In Psalm passim and frees them who love it from all injustice and violence You declame against the iniquity of men who neither regard desert nor virtue who bestow Offices upon birth or favour and who sleight the good people without confering on them any reward Why then do you not aspire after the glory of the Blessed in Heaven where happiness corresponds to the pains they have indured where Crowns are proportioned to the Combats they have fought and finally where rewards follow the good Works they have performed and where the most holy are most honoured Kings cannot exercise their magnificence and their Liberalitie which are their most shining virtues without being very often deceived by outwards apparences As they know not the true spirit of their Subjects they cannot discern their true deserts They frequently favour Vice when they intend to render Justice to Virtue But the God whom we adore cannot be deceived He reads in the Heart of them who serve him He discerns all our actions and as he beholds all the motions of our Will he also lets not impietie pass without punishment nor Virtue without reward You complain of the hardness of your condition you murmure for that you must always fight you grieve to be incessantly encompassed with enemies you bear them about you you nourish them within your selves and you are the theater of this intestine War where the Flesh is continually at strife with the spirit On which ever side the victory falls you cannot rejoyce without being afflicted at the same time for some loss Leave then this wretched dwelling where Life is a continual temptation and a perpetual combat Desire Death which will be the end of all these miseries Sight after that agreable habitation where the Saints enjoy a perfect victory and a peace without molestation Do not any longer complain that in despight of all the care you take to bring one part of your self to agree with the other part yet their differences are dayly renewed Or if you will complain let this your complaint serve at least to make you march more speedily towards that place of peace where you shall agree with your self and be in a perpetual repose Finally you love Life but you would not have it to be made up of miseries and of sorrows Shall God make Life for you after another manner than it was for his own Son To come to that Life which you demand you must be gon out of this Christ Jesus himself hath shew'd us that we must acquire it at that rate Why seek you not that dwelling where the Life which you desire hath his habitation From the first moment in which you shall possess Heaven you will no longer fear either poverty or misery or disease or death Why then do you not that for the enjoyment of so happy a Life which you do for the prolonging of this other unfortunate Life You abstain from Meats and from Divertisements which are hurtfull to your health Why do you not as much for that Life which will never be troubled with any sicknesses And yet the solicitudes you have to preserve your Body will not warrant it from Death All that you can pretend to is to die a little later Ah! my dear Brethren can it be possible that you should do less to live eternally No I cannot believe it and you will testifie without doubt by your actions by your sufferings and by the Holy Desires of Death that you have a Faith and Hope for another Life What would you give to be exempt from all incommodities and to be assured to live always Is it not true that all whatever you possess would not suffice to purchase so great a good altho' you were Lord even of the whole Universe Yet this so great and excellent a good is to be sold You may buy it if you will the price ought not to affright you it will not exceed your abilities you shall pay no more for it then what you are able to give you may purchase it by an Alms you may acquire it by some other good Works you may deserve it by a good desire finally you may obtain it by a penitential Life and by a holy Death Do not then despise a happiness which depends only on the will to possess it And if you have any spark of zeal left in you to promote your true Interest and to procure your own Salvation seek a dwelling where Truth is victorious where Sanctity is honoured where Peace is immutable where Life and Felicity are Eternal Approbation SInce the Death of the Just gives us the liberty to render to their memory what we ow them we may say that the Reverend Father Lalemant Prior of St. Genovefe and Chancellour of the University of Paris having studied and endeavoured by the meditation and the practise of such Truths as the Spirit of God â—nspired into the greatest men of the Church to make Death familiar unto him this Collection of the most pithy thoughts which the holy Fathers had concerning Death is one of the most considerable Monuments which remains â—o us of his sublime virtue It were â—o be wished that every one would follow the example of this great person in reading his Works and that they would learn to die Christianly by seeing how he prepared himself thereto The esteem which people most elevated by their condition and their deserts had of his Piety and his extraordinary Qualities did not at all lessen the contempt he had of Life and the desire of Death which always appeared in him according to the example of the Apostle Thus hiâ— memory shall be evermore in veneration to all them who will reaâ— this excellent Work 'T is thâ— judgment which I gave at Soâ—bon the first of March 1673. Signed Colbert FINIS