felicity of this world could not bestow true rest and even upon him who was the Master of it until the end of life Man is born as Job saith to labour Until death there is no rest Let us not then seek it here but let us place the chair of our joyes where it may be firm and stable and not in the unquietness and turmoyles of things temporal where death at least will certainly overthrow it Others painted Eternity in the form of a Snake to note the condition of a perpetual continuance not subject unto change but remaining still in the same estate and vigour For as this Serpent wants wings feet and hands which are the extremities of other creatures so Eternity wants an end which is the extremity of things temporal Apud Euseb l. 1. de praepar Evang c. 7. Moreover as Serpents although without feet wings or any extrinsecal organ of motion yet by their great liveliness of spirit move more swiftly then those creatures which have them so Eternity without dayes or nights or changes which are the feet and wings of time out-strips and over-go's all things that are temporal Besides Serpents enjoy such a vivacity and length of life that Philon Biblius saith they die not unless they be kill'd and that they hardly know a natural death being not subject to those changes of other creatures from youth to age and from health to sickness but preserve themselves still fresh and young by the often renewing and casting of their old skins neither have they like other creatures any determinate size of their greatness but so long as they live encrease in bigness after the manner of Eternity which hath no limit change or declination a condition of all others most to be feared by the wicked who are for ever to continue in those eternal torments without the least refreshment and without so much as the comfort of changing one torment for another St. Paulinus said of St. Martin that his rest was to change his labours and certainly to change one pain for another although not in it self much less is yet some ease But even this shall be wanting unto the damned who shall never be permitted so much change as to turn from one side to another A fearful thing that being now five thousand years past since the first damned Soul was plunged into hell that during all this time no change should afford him the least ease How many alterations have since happened in this world yet none in his most bitter torments The world hath once been destroyed by an universal deluge eight onely persons remaining alive After which all men enjoying an equal liberty the Assyrians became Tyrants over the rest and raised the first Monarchy which endured 1240 years and then not without the general uproar and turmoyl of all Asia passed unto the Medes under whom it continued 300 years Which ended it came unto the Persians and from them unto the Grecians from whom not without greater alteration then any of the former it passed unto the Romans under whom also it hath since failed Amongst all which changes and revolutions of the world none hath yet passed over that miserable and unfortunate creature Besides these alterations in government what alterations hath nature it self suffered what Islands hath the Sea swallowed up one of which as Plato reports was bigger than all Europe and Affrica And what others hath it cast up of new What buildings or to say better what Mountains hath the Earthquakes left secure many Hills have been overwhelmed or turned topsie turvie others have appeared and sprung up never known before What Cities have been sunk what Rivers dried up and others vomited forth through new Channels what Towers have not fallen what Walls not been ruin'd what Monuments not defaced how often hath the face of things changed how many revolutions have the greatest Kingdoms suffered and this miserable sinner hath in all this time not given one turn How many times hath the year renewed it self how many Springs how many Autumns past and yet he remains in that obscure night as in his first entrance into that place of torments The Sun hath compassed this elemental World a Million and 700000 times and yet this wretched Soul could never once change his posture or remove one pace since his first falling into hell Besides this what troubles what labours have been passed by those innumerable people who have lived from the beginning of the world until this present and are now all vanisht what sicknesses have been suffered what torments what griefs endured and are now all forgotten but no grief nor torment of that unfortunate Sinner hath in these 5000 years passed away or shall ever become less Ptolomy roared out with the pain of his Gout Aristarcus was grieved with his Dropsie Cambyses was afflicted with his Falling-sickness Theopompus afflicted with his Ptisick Tobias with his blindness and holy Job with his Leprosie yet those griefs had their end But all those evils which joyntly possess this miserable creature have not or ever shall have change or period They of Rabatha were sawed in the middest others thrashed to death with Flails others burnt alive in Furnaces others torn in pieces by wild Beasts Anaxarcus was pounded in a Mortar Perillus burnt in a brazen Bull. But all those pains passed away and are now no more but that damned person hath not yet made an end or to say better hath not yet begun to pass any one of his torments which 100000 years hence shall be as new and sensible unto him as they were in the beginning What desperation must then seise upon him when he sees a change in all things and in his pains and torments none for if even the pleasures of this life if continued the same convert into griefs how shall those pains which never change be suffered what spite and madness shall possess him when he shall behold the Flames of St. Lawrence the Stripes of St. Clement of Aneira the Cross of St. Andrew the Fasts of St. Hilarion the Haircloth of Simeon Stylites the Disciplines of St. Dominick all the Torments of Martyrs and Penances of Confessors now passed and turned into eternal joyes but his own pains neither to pass nor change neither any hopes left either of ending his torments or himself These are evils to be feared and not those transitory ones of the world which either change grow less or end or at least make an end of him who suffers them Let not therefore the sick person be grieved and vexed with his infirmities nor the poor man with his wants nor the afflicted with his crosses since the evils of this life are either changed with time eased by counsel and consolations or at least ended by death But this miserable wretch in Hell cannot so much as comfort himself with the hope of dying because in that multitude of torments if there were the least hope of end it would be some ease some refreshment
the goods of life being limited it bestows them with a limited and restrained hand Even life it self it gives us but by peeces and mingles as many parts of death as it gives of life The age of Infancy dies when we enter into that of Childhood that of Childhood when we become Youths that of youth when we come to the age of Manhood that when we are old and even old age it self expires when we become decrepit so that during the same life we find many deaths and yet can hardly perswade our selves that we shall die one Let us cast our eyes upon our life past let us consider what is become of our Infancy Childhood and Youth they are now dead in us In the same manner shall those ages of our life which are to come die also Neither do we onely die in the principal times of life but every hour every moment includes a kinde of death in the succession and change of things What content is there in life which quickly dies not by some succeeding sorrow what affliction of pain which is not followed by some equal or greater grief then it self why are we grieved for what is absent since it offends us being present what we desire with impatience being possest brings care and sollicitude loss grief and affliction The short time which any pleasure stayes with us it is not to be enjoyed wholly and all at once but tasted by parts so as when the second part comes we feel not the pleasure of the first lessening it self every moment and we our selves still dying with it there being no instant of life wherein death gains not ground of us The motion of the Heavens is but the swift turn of the spindle which rol's up the thread of our lives and a most fleet horse upon which death runs post after us There is no moment of life wherein death hath not equal jurisdiction and as a Philosopher saith there is no point of life which we divide not with death so as if well considered we live but one onely point and have not life but for this present instant Our years past are now vanisht and we enjoy no more of them than if we were already dead the years to come we yet live not and possess no more of them than if we were not yet born Yesterday is gone to morrow we know not what shall be of to day many hours are past and we live them not others are to come and whether we shall live them or no is uncertain so that all counts cast up we live but this present moment and in this also we are dying so that we cannot say that life is any thing but the half of an instant and an indivisible point divided betwixt it and death With reason as Zacharias said may this temporal life be called The shadow of death since under the. shadow of life death steals upon us and as at every step the body takes the shadow takes another so at every pace our life moves forward death equally advances with it And as Eternity hath this proportion that it is ever in beginning and is therefore a perpetual beginning so life is ever ending and concluding and may therefore be called a perpetual end and a continual death There is no pleasure in life which although it should last twenty continued years that can be present with us longer than an instant and that with such a counterpoise that in it death no less approaches than life is enjoyed Time is of so small a being and substance and consequently our life Phys 4. trac 7. c. 4. that as Albertus Magnus saith it hath no essence permanent and stable but only violent and successive with which not being able to detain it self in its Careere it precipitates into Eternity and like an ill mouthed horse runs headlong on and tramples under toot all it meets with and without stopping ruins what it finds before it And as we cannot perfectly enjoy the sight of some gallant Cavalier deckt with jewels and adorned with glitterring bravery who with bridle on the neck passed in a full Careere before us so are we not able perfectly to enjoy the things of this life which are still in motion and never rest one moment but run headlong on until they dash themselves in peeces upon the rock of death and perish in their end The name which the Emperour Marcus Aurelius gave unto Time Mar. Aurel Anton lib. 4. when he said that it was a furious and a raging wave did not a little express this condition of it for as such a wave sinks and overwhelms the Vessel not permitting the Merchant to enjoy the treasures with which she was laden so Time with his violence and fury ruins and drowns all that runs along in it This Philosopher considering the brevity and fleeting of Time judged a long and a short life to be the same whole opinion for our further understanding I shall here relate If some of the Gods saith he should tell thee that thou wert to die to morrow or the day after thou wouldest not except thou wert of a base and abject spirit make any account whether since the difference and distance betwixt the two dayes were so small In the same manner thou art to judge of the difference of dying to morrow and a thousand years hence Consider seriously how many Physicians who with knit brows have handled the pulses of their sick Patients are now themselves dead how many Mathematicians who gloried in foretelling the death of others how many Philosophers who have disputed subtilly of death and mortality how many famous Captains who have kill'd and destroyed a multitude of poor people how many Kings and Tyrants who with insolency have used their power over their oppressed Vassals how many Cities If I may so say have dyed as Helice Pompeios Herculanum and innumerable others Add unto these how many thou thy self hast known to die and assisted at their Exequies and that which yesterday was fish and fresh is to day laid in pickle or dust Momentary then is all time All this from this most-wise Prince CAP. XII How short Life is for which respect all things temporal are to be despised BEhold then what is Time and what thy Life and see if there can be any thing imagined more swift and more inconstant than it Compare Eternity which continues ever in the same state with Time which runs violently on and is ever changing and cousider that as Eternity gives a value and estimation unâ—â— those things which it preserves so Time disparages and takes away the value of those that end in it The least joy of Heaven is to be esteemed as infinite because it is infinite in duration and the greatest content of the earth is to be valued as nothing because it ends and concludes in nothing The least torment in hell ought to cause an immense fear because it is to last without end and the greatest pains of this
means to escape from death which he perceived was now ready to seise upon him Or that he would mitigate those great pains which he then suffered but for the space of one short hour Or that after he was departed this life he would procure him a good lodging though but for one night and no longer The Marquess answered that those were onely in the power of God and wished him to demand things feasible here upon earth and he would not fail to serve him Unto whom the sick Souldier replied I now too late perceive all my labour and travail to be lost and all the services which I have done you in the whole course of my life to be vain and fruitless and turning himself unto those who were present spake unto them with much feeling and tears in his eyes My Bretheren behold how vainly I have spent my time being so precious a jewel in the serving of this Master obeying his Commands with much care and great danger of my Soul which at this instant is the grief I am most sensible of See how small is his power since in all these pains which afflict me he is not able to give me ease for one hours space Wherefore I admonish you that you open your eyes in time and let my error be a warning unto you that you preserve your selves from so notable a danger and that you endeavour in this world to serve such a Lord as may not onely free you from these present perplexities and preserve you from future evils but may be able to crown you with glory in another life And if the Lord by the intercession of your prayers shall be pleased to restore my health I promise hereafter not to imploy my self in the service of so poor and impotent a Master who is not able to reward me but my whole endeavour shall be to serve him who hath power to protect me and the whole world by his Divine vertue With this great repentance he dyed leaving us an example to benefit our selves by that time which God bestows upon us here for the obtaining of eternal reward § 2. Let us now come unto the second condition which is the Uncertainty of time in the Circumstances For as it is most certain that we are to dye so it is most uncertain How we are to dye and as there is nothing more known than that death is to seise upon all so there is nothing less understood than When and in What manner Who knows whether he is to dye in his old age or in his youth if by sickness or struck by a Thunder-bolt if by grief or stabbed by Poniards if suddenly or slowly if in a City or in a Wilderness if a year hence or to day the doors of death are ever open and the enemy continually lies in ambush and when we least think of him will assault us How can a man be careless to provide for a danger which ever threatens him Let us see with what art men keep their temporal things even at such time as they run no hazard The Shepheards guard their Flocks with watchful Dogs although they believe the Wolf to be far off onely because he may come And walled Towers are kept by Garrisons in time of peace because an enemy either has or may approach them But when are we secure of death when can we say that now it will not come why do we not then provide our selves against so apparent danger In frontier Towns the Centinels watch day and night although no Enemy appears nor any assault is feared why do we not alwayes watch since we are never secure from the assaults of death He who suspected that Theeves were to enter his house would wake all night because they should at no hour find him unprovided It being then not a suspicion but an apparent certainty that death will come and we know not when why do we not alwayes watch We are in a continual danger and therefore ought to be continually prepared It is good ever to have our Accompts made with God since we know not but he may call us in such haste as we shall have no time to perfect them It is good to play a sure game and be ever in the grace of God Who would not tremble to hang over some vast precipice wherein if he fell he were certain to be dashed in a thousand pieces and that by so weak a supporter as a thread This or in truth much greater is the danger of him who is in mortal sin who hangs over hell by the thread of life a twist so delicate that not a knife but the wind and the least fit of sickness breaks it Wonderful is the danger wherein he stands who continues to the space of one Ave Maria in mortal sin Death hath time enough to shoot his arrow in the speaking a word the twinkling of an eye suffices Who can laugh and be pleased whilest he stands naked and disarmed in the middest of his Enemies Amongst as many Enemies is man as there are wayes to death which are innumerable The breaking of a vein in the body The bursting of an Imposthume in the entrails A vapour which flyes up to the head A passion which oppresses the heart A tyle which falls from a house A piercing air which enters by some narrow cranny Vn yerro de cuenta A hundred thousand other occasions open the doors unto death and are his Ministers It is not then safe for man to be disarmed and naked of the grace of God in the middest of so many adversaries and dangers of death which hourly threaten him We issue from the wombs of our Mothers as condemned persons out of prison and walk towards execution for the guilt which we have contracted by Original sin Who being led to execution would entertain himself by the way with vain conceipts and frivolous jests we are all condemned persons who go to the Gallows though by different wayes which we our selves know not Some the straight way and some-by by-paths but are all sure to meet in death Who knows whether he goe the direct way or windes about by turns whether he shall arrive there soon or stay later all that we know is that we are upon the way and are not far from thence We ought therefore still to be prepared and free from the distracting pleasures of this life for fear we fall suddenly and at unawares upon it This danger of sudden death is sufficient to make us distaste all the delights of the earth Dionysius King of Sicily that he might undeceive a young Philosopher who therefore held him to enjoy the chief felicity because he wanted nothing of his pleasure caused him one day to be placed at a Royal Table and served with all variety of splendid entertainments but over the place where he was seated caused secretly a sharp-pointed Sword to be hung directly over his head sustained only by a horses hair This danger was sufficient to
make the poor Philosopher to forbear his dinner and not to relish one morsel of the Feast with pleasure Thou then who art no more secure of thy life than he how canst thou delight in the pleasures of the world he who every moment expects death ought no moment to delight in life This onely consideration of death according to Ricardus was sufficient to make us distaste all the pleasures of the earth A great danger or fear suffices to take away the sense of lesser joyes and what greater danger then that of Eternity Death is therefore uncertain that thou shouldest be ever certain to despise this life and dispose thy self for the other Thou art every hour in danger of death to the end that thou shouldest be every hour prepared to leave life What is death but the way unto eternity A great journey thou hast to make wherefore doest thou not provide in time and the rather because thou knowest not how soon thou mayest be forced to depart The People of God because they knew not when they were to march were for forty years which they remained in the Wilderness ever in a readiness Be thou then ever in a readiness since thou mayst perhaps depart to day Consider there is much to do in dying prepare thy self whilest thou hast time and do it well For this many years were necessary wherefore since thou knowest not whether thou shalt have one day allowed thee why doest thou not this day begin to dispose thy self If when thou makest a short journey and hast furnished and provided thy self of all things fitting yet thou commonly findest something to be forgotten how comes it to pass that for so long a journey as is the Region of Eternity thou thinkest thy self sufficiently provided when thou hast scarce begun to think of it Who is there who does not desire to have served God faithfully two years before death should take him if then thou art not secure of one why doest thou not begin Trust not in thy health or youth for death steals treacherously upon us when we least look for it for according to the saying of Christ our Redeemer it will come in an hour when it is not thought on And the Apostle said the day of the Lord would come like a theef in the night when none were aware of it and when the Master of the house was in a profound sleep Promise not thy self to morrow for thou knowest not whether death will come to night The day before the Children of Israel went forth of Egypt how many of that Kingdom young Lords and Princes of Families promised themselves to doe great matters the next day or perhaps within a year after yet none of them lived to see the morning Wisely did Messodamus who as Guido Bituricensis writes when one invited him forth the next day to dinner answered My friend why doest thou summon me for to morrow since it is many years that I durst not promise any thing for the day following every hour I look for death there is no trust to be given to strength of Body youthful years much riches or humane hopes Hear what God sayes to the Prophet Amos Amos 8. In that day the Sun shall set at midday and I will over-cast the earth with darkness in the day of light What is the setting of the Sun at midday but when men think they are in the middest of their life in the flower of their age when they hope to live many years to possess great wealth to marry rich wives to shine in the world then death comes and over-shadows the brightness of their day with a cloud of sorrow as it happened in the Story related by Alexander Faya Alex. Faya To. 2. Ladislaus King of Hungary and Bohemia sent a most solemn Embassage unto Charles King of France for the conducting home of that Kings Daughter who was espoused unto the Prince his Son The chief Embassador elected for this journey was Vdabricas Bishop of Passaw for whose Attendants were selected 200 principal men of Hungary 200 of Bohemia and other 200 of Austria all persons of eminent Birth and Nobility so richly clad and in so brave an Equipage that they appeared as so many Princes To these the Bishop added an hundred Gentlemen chosen out of his own Subjects so that they passed through France 700 Gentlemen in company most richly accoutred and for the greater Pomp and Magnificence of the Embassage there went along with them 400 beautiful Ladies in sumptuous habits and adorned with most costly jewels the Coaches which carried them were studded with gold and enchased with stones of value Besides all this were many Gifts and rich Garments of inestimable price which they brought along with them for Presents But the very day that this glorious Embassage entred Paris before they came at the place appointed for their entertainment a Curriere arrived with the news of the death of the espoused Prince Such was the grief that struck the heart of the French King with so unexpected a news as he could neither give an answer to the Embassage nor speak with the Embassadour or those who accompanied him and so they departed most sorrowful from Paris and every one returned unto his own home In this manner God knows by the means of death to fill the earth with darkness and sorrow in the day of greatest brightness as he spake by his Prophet Since then thou knowest not when thou art to dye think thou must dye to day and be ever prepared for that which may ever happen Trust in the mercies of God and imploy them incessantly but presume not to deferre thy conversion for a moment For who knows whether thou shalt ever from hence forward have time to invoke him and having invoked him whether thou shalt deserve to be heard Know that the mercy of God is not promised to those who therefore trust in him that they may sin with hope of pardon but unto those who fearing his Divine Justice cease to offend him wherefore St. Cregory says The mercies of Almighty God forget him Greg. in moral who forgets his Justice nor shall he find him merciful who does not fear him just For this it is so often repeated in Scripture That the mercy of God is for those who fear him And in one part it is said The mercy of the Lord from eternity unto eternity is upon those who fear him And in anothâ—r As the Father hath mercy on his Son so the Lord hath mercy on these who fear him In another According to the height from earth unto heaven he has corroborated his mercy upon those that fear him Finally the very Mother of mercy sayes in her Divine Canticle That the mercy of the Lord is from generation to generation upon those who fear him Thou seest then that the Divine mercy is not promised unto all and that thou shalt remain excluded from it whilest thou presumest and doest not fear his justice And
will it cause when a Sinner in the instant of Gods judgment shall see himself delivered over into the power of the infernal Dragon without all hopes of ever escaping from him who will seize upon a Soul and carry her to the abyss of hell Let us call to mind with dread that which the holy Prophet feared and said of the Devil God grant he lay not hold on my soul like a Lion when there will be none that will set me at liberty or relieve me O what a lamentable thing will it be for one to see himself in the power of Lucifer not onely abandoned by Men but also by the Angels and by the Queen of Men and Angels and even of God himself Father of all mercies Let us provide our selves in time for that which is to be done in a moment on which depends our Eternity O moment in which all time is lost if a Soul doth lose it self in it and remains lost for ever how much doest thou avail us Thou givest an assurance to all the good works of this life and causest an oblivion of all the pleasures and delights thereof to the end that Man may not wholly give himself over to them since they will then be of no benefit to him and persevere in vertue since it will not secure him unless he persevere in it to the last §. 2. How can men be careless seeing so important a business as is the salvation of their Souls to depend upon an instant wherein no new diligence nor preparations will avail them Since therefore we know not when that moment will be let us not be any moment unprovided this is a business not to be one point of time neglected since that point may be our damnation What will a hundred years spent with great penance and austerity in the service of God profit us if in the end of all those years we shall commit some grievous sin and death shall seise upon us before repentance Let no man secure himself in his past vertues but continue them until the end since if he die not in grace all is lost and if he doe what matters it to have lived a thousand years in the greatest troubles and afflictions this world could lay upon him O moment in which the just shall forget all his labours and shall rest assured of all his vertues O moment in which the pains of a Sinner begin and all his pleasures end O moment which art certain to be uncertain when to be and most certain never to be again for thou art onely once and what is in thee determined can never be revoked in another moment O moment how worthy art thou to be now fixed in our memory In vit PP l. 5. p. 565. apud Rot that we may not hereafter meet thee to our eternal mine and perdition Let us imitate the Abbot Elias who was accustomed to say That three things especially made him tremble The first when his Soul was to be pluckt out of his Body the second when it was to appear before God to receive judgment and the third when sentence was to be pronounced How terrible then is this moment wherein all these three things so terrible are to pass Let a Christian often whilest he lives place himself in that instant from whence let him behold on one part the time of his life which he is to leave and on the other the eternity whereunto he enters and let him consider what remains unto him of that and what he hopes for in this How short in that point of death did those near-hand a thousand years which Mathusala lived appear unto him and how long one day in Eternity In that instant a thousand years of life shall appear unto the Sinner no more than one hour and one hour of torments shall appear a thousand years Behold thy life from this Watch-tower from this Horizon and measure it with the eternal and thou shalt find it to be of no bulk nor extension Sec how little of it remains in thy hands and that there is no escaping from the hands of Eternity O dreadful moment which cuts off the thread of Time and begins the web of Eternity let us in time provide for this moment that we may not lose Eternity This is that precious pearl for which we ought to give all that we have or are Let it ever be in our memory let us ever be sollicitous of it since it may every day come upon us Eternity depends upon death death upon life and life upon a thread which may either be broken cut or burnt and that even when we most hope and most endeavour to prolong it A good testimony of this is that which Paulus Aemilius recounts of Charles King of Navarre Paulus Aemilius l. 9. Aâ—cidita anno 1387. who having much decayed and weakned his bodily forces by excess of lust unto which he was without measure addicted the Physicians for his cure commanded Linnens steeped in Aqua vitae to be wrapped close about his naked body He who sewed them having nothing in readiness to cut the thread made use of a candle which was at hand to burn it but the thread being wet in those spirits took fire with such speed as it fired the Linnen and before it could be prevented burnt the body of the King in that manner as he immediately dyed Upon a natural thread depended the life of this Prince which concluded in so disastrous a death and no doubt but the thread of life is as easily cut as that of flax time is required for the one but the other is broken in an instant and there are more causes of ending our life than are of breaking the smallest twist Our life is never secure and therefore we ought ever to fear that instant which gives an end to Time and beginning unto Eternity Wonderful are the wayes which death finds out and most poor and contemptible those things upon which life depends It hangs not only upon a thread but sometime upon so small a thing as a hair So Fabius a Roman Senatour was choaked with a hair which he swallowed in a draught of milk No door is shut to death it enters where air cannot enter and encounters us in the very actions of life Small things are able to deprive us of so great a good Valer. Max. lib. 6. A little grain of a grape took away the life of Anacreon and a Pear which Drusus Pompeius was playing with fell into his mouth and choaked him The affections also of the Soul and the pleasures of the Body become the high way unto death Homer dyed of grief and Sophocles of an excess of joy Dionysius was kill'd with the good news of a victory which he obtained Aurelianus dyed dancing when he married the Daughter of Domiâ—ian the Emperour Thales Milesius beholding the sports in the Theater dyed of thirst Vid. Andream Eborensem de morte non vulgari and Cornelius Gallus and
purified in that general burning and then shall be renewed the Earth the Heavens the Stars and the Sun which shall shine seaven times more than before and the creatures which have here been violated and oppressed by the abuse of man whereof some had taken armes against him to revenge the injuries of their Creatour and others groaned under their burthen with grief and sorrow shall then rejoyce to see themselves freed from the tyranny of sin and sinners and joyful of the triumph of Christ shall put on mirth and gladness This is the end wherein all time is to determine and this the Catastrophe so fearful unto the wicked where all things temporal are to conclude Let us therefore take heed how we use them and that we may use them well let us be mindful of this last day this day of justice and calamity this day of terrour and amazement the memory whereof will serve much for the reformation of our lives Let us think of it and fear it for it is the most terrible of all things terrible and the consideration of it most profitable and available to cause in us a holy fear of God and to convert us unto him Joh. Curopol in hist apud Rad. in opusc in vitis PP Occidentis John Curopolata writes of Bogoris King of the Bulgarians a Pagan who was so much addicted to the hunting of wilde beasts that he desired to have them painted in his Palace in all their fury and fierceness and to that end commanded Methodius the Monk a skilful Painter to paint them in so horrible a manner as the very sight might make the beholders tremble The discreet Monk did it not but in place of it painted the Day of Judgement and presented it unto the King who beholding that terrible act of Justice and the coming of the Son of God to judge the World crowning and rewarding the just and punishing the wicked was much astonished at it and being after instructed left his bad life and was converted to the faith of Christ If onely then the Day of Judgement painted was so terrible what shall it be executed Almost the same happened unto St. Dositheus Anon. in Elog. Dorothei Dosithei who being a young man cokored and brought up in pleasures had not in his whole life so much as heard of the Day of Judgement until by chance he beheld a Picture in which were represented the pains of the damned at which he was much amazed and not knowing what it was was informed of it by a Matron present which he apprehended so deeply that he fell half dead upon the ground not being able to breath for fear and terrour after coming to himself he demanded what he should doe to avoid that miserable condition it was answered him by the same Matron that he should fast pray and abstain from flesh which he immediately put in execution And though many of his house and kindred endeavoured to divert and disswade him yet the holy fear of God and the dread of eternal condemnation which he might incurre remained so fixt in his memory that nothing could withdraw him from his rigorous penance and holy resolution until becoming a Monk he continued with much fruit and profit Let us therefore whiles we live ever preserve in our memory this day of terrour that we may hereafter enjoy security for the whole eternity of God THE THIRD BOOK OF THE DIFFERENCE BETWIXT THE TEMPORAL and ETERNAL CAP. I. The mutability of things temporal makes them worthy of contempt HItherto we have spoken of the shortness of time and consequently of all things temporal and of the end wherein they are to conclude Nothing is exempted from death and therefore not onely humane life but all things which follow time and even time it self at last must die Wherefore Hesichius Damas in Par. l. 1. as he is translated by St. John Damascen saith That the splendour of this world is but as withered leaves bubles of water smoke stubble a shadow and dust driven by the wind all things that are of earth being to end in earth But this is not all for besides the certainty of end they are infected with another mischief which renders them much more contemptible than that which is their instability and continual changes whereunto they are subject even whilest they are For as time it self is in a perpetual succession and mutation as being the brother and inseparable companion of Motion so it fixes this ill condition unto most of those things which pass along in it the which not onely have an end and that a short one but even during that shortness of time which they last have a thousand changes and before their end many ends and before their death many deaths each particular change which our life suffers being the death of some estate or part of if For as death is the total change of life so every change is the death of Come part Sickness is the death of health sleeping of waking sorrow of joy impatience of quiet youth of infancy and age of youth The same condition hath the universal world and all things in it for which cause they deserve so much contempt that Marcus Aurelius the Emperour wondered that there could be found a man so senseless Aur. Anton l. 6. de vita sua as to value them and therefore speaks in this manner Of that very thing which is now in doing some part is already vanisht changes and alterations continually innovate the world as that immense space of time by a perpetual flux renews it self Who therefore shall esteem those things which never subsist but pass along in this headlong and precipitate river of time is as he who sets his affection upon some little bird which passes along in the air and is no more seen Thus much from this Philosopher This very cause of the little value of things temporal proceeding from their perpetual changes together with the end whereunto they are subject is as St. Gregory notes signified unto us by that Woman in the Apocalyps Greg. l. 34. moral who had the Moon under her feet and her head adorned with twelve Stars Certainly the Moon as well as the Stars might have been placed in her Diadem but it was trod under foot by reason of the continual changes and alterations which it suffers whereby it becomes a figure of things temporal which change not onely every Moneth but every day the same day being as Euripides sayes now a Mother then a Stepmother The same was also signified by the Angel Apoc. 10. who crowned with a Rainbow descended from heaven to proclaim that all time was to end with his right foot which presses and treads more firmly he stood upon the Sea which by reason of its great unquietness is also a figure of the instability of this World And therefore with much reason did the Angel who had taught us by his voice that all time and temporal things
miserable end of Man saith Man is converted into no man why therefore art thou proud know that thou wert in the womb unclean seed and curdled blood exposed afterward to sin and the many miseries of this life and after death shalt be the food of worms Wherefore doest thou wax proud Dust and ashes whose conception was in sin whose birth in misery whole life in pain and whose death necessity wherefore doest thou swell and adorn thy flesh with precious things which in few dayes is to be devoured by worms and doest not rather adorn thy soul with good works which is to be presented in heaven before God and his Angels All this is spoken by St. Bernard which every man ought to take as spoken unto himself §. 2. Besides that man is a thing so poor and little and composed of so base and vile materials this littleness this vileness hath no firmness nor consistence but is a river of changes a perpetual corruption and as Secundus the Philosopher sayes Lib. 11. de Praepa Evan. c. 7. A fantasme of time whose instability is thus declared by Eusebius of Caesarea Our nature from our birth until our death is unstable and as it were fantastical which if you strive to comprehend is like water gathered in the palm of the hand the more you grasp it the more you spill it In the same manner those mutable and transitory things the more you consider them with reason the more they flye from you Things sensible being in a perpetual flux are still doing and undoing still generating and corrupting and never remain the same For as Heraclitus sayes as it is impossible to enter twice into the same river because the same water remains not but new succeeds still as the first passes so if you consider twice this mortal substance you shall not both times find it the same but with an admirable swiftness of change it is now extended now contracted but it is not well said to say Now and Now for in the same time it loses in one part and gains in another and is another thing than what it is in so much as it never rests The Embrion which is framed from seed quickly becomes an Infant from thence a Boy from thence a Young-man from thence an Old and then decrepit and so the first ages being past and corrupted by new ones which succeed it comes at last to die How ridiculous then are men to fear one death who have already died so many and are yet to die more Not onely as Heraclitus said The corruption of fire is the generation of air but this appears more plainly in our selves for from youth corrupted is engendred man and from him the old man from the boy corrupted is engendered the youth and from the infant the boy and from who was not yesterday he who is to day and of him who is to day he who shall be to morrow so as he never remains the same but in every moment we change as it were with various phantasms in one common matter For if we be still the same how come we to delight in things we did not before we now love and abhorre after another manner than formerly we now praise and dispraise other things than we did before we use other words and are moved with other affections we do not hold the same form nor pass the same judgement we did and how is it possible that without change in our selves we should thus change in our motions and affections certainly he who still changes is not the same and he who is not the same cannot be said to be but in a continual mutation slides away like water The sense is deceived with the ignorance of what is and thinks that to be which is not Where shall we then finde true being but in that onely which is eternal and knows no beginning which is incorruptible which is not changed with time Time is moveable and joyned with movable matter glides away like a current and like a vessel of generation and corruption retains nothing in so much as the first and the last that which was and that which shall be are nothing and that which seems present passes like lightning Wherefore as time is defined to be the measure of the motion of things sensible and as time never is nor can be so we may with the like reason say that things sensible do not remain nor are nor have any being All this is from Eusebius which David declared more briefly and significantly when he said That man whilest he lived in this life was an Universal vanity Wherefore St. Gregory Nazianzen said In laud. Caes that we are a dream unstable like a Spectre or Apparition which could not be laid hold on Let man therefore reflect upon all which hath been said let him behold himself in this glass let him see wherefore he presumes wherefore he afflicts himself for things of the earth which are so small in themselves and so prejudicial unto him With reason did the Prophet say In vain doth man trouble himself Upon which St. Chrysostome with great admiration speaks in this manner Chrysost in Ps 36. Man troubles himself and loses his end he troubles himself consumes and melts to nothing as if he had never been born he troubles himself and before he attains rest is overwhelmed he is inflamed like fire and is reduced to ashes like flax he mounts on high like a tempest and like dust is scattered and disappears he is kindled like a flame and vanishes like smoke he glories in his beauty like a flower and withers like hay he spreads himself as a cloud and is contracted as a drop he swells like a bubble of water and and goes out like a spark he is troubled and carries nothing about him but the filth of riches he is troubled onely to gain dirt he is troubled and dies without fruit of his vexations His are the troubles others the joyes his are the cares others the contents his are the afflictions others the fruit his are the heart-burstings others the delights his are the curses others have the respect and reverence against him the sighs and exclamations of the persecuted are sent up to Heaven and against him the tears of the poor are poured out and the riches and abundance remains with others he shall howl and be tormented in hell whilest others sing triumph and vainly consume his estate In vain do living men trouble themselves Man is he who enjoyes a life but lent him and that but for a short time Man is but a debt of death which is to be paid without delay a living Creature who is in his will and appetite untamed a mischief taught without a Master a voluntary ambush subtle in wickedness witty in iniquity prone to covetousness insatiable in the desire of what is anothers of a boasting spirit and full of insolent temerity in his words fierce but easily quailed bold but quickly mastered an
Crucifix Neither are the Elements left free from such representations Alfonso the first Portugal beheld in the air an Escucheon with the five wounds And the Emperour Constantine the principal Instrument of the Passion the Cross which hath also divers other times appeared But what more gratious and loving demonstration of the memorie which he desires we should still preserve of his torments then the wounds which he hath imprinted upon the persons of many of his servants Blos li. 15. c. 3. Tritem in Crim. ad an 1500. Surius 14. Aprilis Mosc in vita S. Clarae For besides St. Francis who was marked with the most evident signes of his favour the like were received by St. Gertrude and St. Lucia of Ferrara And what more express memorial of the passion of our Redeemer then the heart of St. Clara of Monte Falco in which was found the Image of Christ crucified the Pillar Whip Lance and other instruments of the Passion We should never make an end if we should recount all those several wayes by which Christ our Saviour hath represented unto us his death and passion to the end we should ever have it present and fixt in our memorie But above all the most blessed Sacrament in which divine mystery the lively representation of his death is as often repeated as his holy body is consecrated in the whole world was a great demonstration of his infinite love towards mankind Wherein he gives us to understand that he desires not onely once but a million of times to die for us and that though he cannot now return again to be crucified by reason of the impassibility of his glorifyed body yet his divine charity hath found a way after an unbloody and impassible manner to repeat the Sacrifice of the Cross and the fruit of our redemption How great a gratitude do we owe our Saviour for so infinite an expression of his good will towards us and how can we be grateful it forgetful of so profitable and advantageous a benefit Let not then his Passion depart from our thoughts but let us rather depart from our pleasures and despise all humane felicity since we behold the Lord of the world in such humility Moreover this most blessed Sacrament is not onely a Memorial of the Passion of Jesus Christ but of the Incarnation and wonderful works of God and not onely brings into our memory what Christ did when he suffered for us but what the Eternal Word did when he became flesh for us that immense God unto whom the whole Globe of the Earth serves but as a footstool descending from Heaven and so far lessening himself as to cover that infinite Majesty under the form of a Servant of which this Divine Sacrament is a most excellent and lively representation For in it also the God of Heaven being already incarnate and made man descends from Heaven and vails himself under the accidents of a little bread and wine and there is as it were annihilated for us and become nothing Besides as in the Eucharist we receive Christ crucified so in it also we receive the Word incarnate insomuch as these two great wonders of God the Passion and Incarnation are not onely represented but as it were multiplied unto us in this blessed Sacrament which was a high thought of God and according to what he said by his Prophet David Psal 39. Thou hast made thy wonders many O Lord And there is none who is like unto thee in thy cogitations Here God made his wonders that is his Passion and Incarnation many repeating and as it were multiplying them in this blessed Sacrament Which was a most high thought of him who is the supreme Wisdom nor could it enter into any understanding but that of the Divinity that that which was so extraordinary and so far above the reach of all created capacities as the Son of God to be sacrificed and the eternal Word to descend from Heaven and be made man should become so ordinary and familiar as we daily see it in the use of this Divine Mysterie But God did not onely here make his wonders many but made them great as the same David cries out How magnified are thy works O Lord Psal 91. Thy cogitations are most profound For although the works of the Passion and Incarnation are so great yet they are as it were enlarged and made greater by this holy Sacrament The greatness of the work of the Incarnation consisted in this that God abased himself and was made man and the greatness of that of the Passion in that he humbled himself unto death But in this Sacrament he abases and humbles himself yet lower becoming food for man which is less than to be man or to die which is natural unto man Besides this the general fruit of the Incarnation and Passion is after a most admirable manner particularly applyed in this blessed Sacrament to every one which receives it worthily The Death and Passion of Christ upon Mount Calvarie was no doubt a great work of God but in this Mysterie we behold the same Death Passion and Sacrifice after an unbloody and impassible manner which is certainly the greater miracle and expresses more the Divine power The Incarnation likewise when the Eternal Word entred into the womb of a Virgin was a great work of God but in this Mysterie it is in a certain manner extended and made greater and is therefore called an extension of the Incarnation our Lord here entring into the breast of every Christian and uniting himself unto him These are the marvails of the Law of Grace concerning which the Prophet Isaias said unto the Lord Isai 64. When thou shalt do wonders we shall not sustain them Thou hast descended and the mountains melted at thy presence From the beginning they have not heard nor understood with their ears neither hath the eye seen O God besides thee what thou hast prepared for those who expect thee The Prophet speaks of those wondrous works which were to be seen at the coming of the Messias which wore to be such as the world had never heard of nor had ever entred into any thought but that of God and therefore the Apostle alleadging this place saith That the eye hath not seen nor the ear hath heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man what God hath prepared for those who love him Since over and above those two stupendious wonders of taking flesh and dying for us he hath given himself as food unto those Souls who remain in his grace and love him which is so great and marvailous a work as onely God could think of it and besides God none And as onely God can truly value it so it is not in the power of man sufficiently to acknowledge it No humane heart being able to support the weight of such an obligation and the greatness of the Divine love which shines forth in this wonder of wonders Tertul. li. de Patien cap.