loued not life but to ressent it's death His Nayles haue forged them others of that sort His Thornes haue thence produced new Thornes and the forme of his Crosse hath made them to inuent some others of the lyke and the turning vpside downe of his hath serued S. Peter for a Couch to dye in For ioy rather then of payne I would say that all the deadly instruments of the passion of my Redeemer haue beene the preparatiues of the Triumph that a million of soules haue carryed away in their Martyrdom The Scourges haue been for S. Bartholomew the Nayles for S. Andrew the Sword for S. Paul the wounds for S. Francis and the Crosse serues on earth for a new subiect of Enuy for the whole world togeather since that euery one can pretend no better then to this glory to sacrifice his life vpon the same Aultar where the Authour of life hath beene immolated O how the amourous plaintes of that great Apostle make all to resound with a sweet melody Me thinkes the sweet accēts of his cryes do euē rauish my Spirit through mine eares The tyme of my lyfe is too long sayd he in the strength of his Passion I am troubled to reckon vp the moments of it's durance When shall it be that I shall liue forth of my selfe to go to liue in him whom I loue much better then my selfe Quite contrary to those guilty Soules who stand discoursing of death as of a losse where he desires it for recompence So as the Sun had neuer a fayre day for him and Nature so beautifull in its diuersities and so fruitfull to bring forth so many wonders was barren for his contentment in so much as the obiects of his pleasures was quite without the world and yet through a Miracle worthy of him he liued and dyed of Loue at once O sweet Life But yet more happy death The Swan after she hath measured diuers tymes the humide spaces of the banckes euen tyred out with lyuing calles for death vnto her succour with accents of melody so sweet and so pittifull withall as that it cannot choose but then euen yield to the assaults of Compassion This bird being richly dressed vp with innocency proclaymes the truth of her Death to Forrests to Champaygnes and to Rockes by the sad accents of her tunefull notes whose harmony doth rauish all those that haue sense of feeling in them and giues them a desire to dy with her This Diuine Apostle dying on the shore of his teares represents to vs this bird For being now weary to liue so long tyme absented from his lyfe he sends vp his amourous sighs to Heauen-wards with a voyce full of allurements cryes out how he desires to abandon his body for to go to behould the God of his Soule The harmony of his cryes so powerfully attracts the harts vnto him as all those who are able to heare but the Eccho of it and to perceyue i'ts sweetnesse doe borrow wings of al sides to fly out of themselues while the Earth is in contempt with them You Soules of the world I inuite you heere to hearken to this Consort of Musike where the Angells hold their part but you must purify your senses if you wil be rauished with Pleasure and Ioy. What Pleasure it is to thinke of Death CHAP. II. A TRAVAILLER strayed from his way and puzled in the full of the night within a thicke forrest finds himselfe on a sudden brought into streights through a thousand assaults of feare wherwith his Soule is strooken He casts his eyes on euery side but sees nothing but shadowes of horrour which presage the sun-set of his life The noyse of the impetuous winds that puts a garboyle into the boughes beate so roughly on his eares as he breathes but in a deadly feare more intollerable well nigh then death His imagination being troubled lets him see in dreame in the midst of the darknes as many precipices as the steppes he makes on his way In so much as he belieues euery momēt he is buryed quick in some pit or other with the whole burden of his euils The feare of being deuoured by the sauage beasts makes him to apprehend a new punishment whose dolour redoubles euermore through the sensible apparence of some euident danger The heauens earth being hid alike from his eyes within obscurity for remedy represent to him despaire in effect his Iudgement being now stupid with terror hath not the liberty of discourse but to conclude vpon his losse al things the while cōtributing to his most disaduantage Himselfe sees not himselfe awhit as if already he were quite besides himselfe the little sense he hath left him serues him but to suffer euils which in their excesse do rob him of his speach Thus brought to this extremity where death is more present with him then life since he wholy dyes and liues but to halfes he lifts now at last his eyes to Heauen-wards where he discryes a ray of light to disclose through the birth of the Aurora which serues him as a Beakon or Watch tower to remit him into the path of his way which he had lost The day by little little makes the shadowes of death with enuirone him to vanish out of sight with the hope of lyuing affoards him the contentmēt to behold the precipices which he hath escaped in so much as he arriues to the places of his desires with a great deale more pleasure then he felt paine Let vs now say We are these Trauaylours wandering in the thicke Forrest of this world during the darknes of Synne which enwraps vs one euery side The winds of temptations bluster without cease in our eares euery stepp we seeme to make forwards leads vs into the Tombe since we dye euery houre and the abysses are alwayes open to swallow vs vp as culpable of a thousand sortes of crimes Being brought to this estate the Heauen hides it selfe from our eyes as not able to pretend awhit for it's glory So as being oppressed with diuers disasters we breath the ayre of a lyfe full of annoyes and of vnsufferable afflictions The light of Eternity which shines to vs in the port of the Sepulcher is this goodly Aurora whose day disperses the shadowes of our night for euer What contentment to arriue at this port amidst so many stornes What happinesse to enioy the brightnes of a Sun which is not subiect to Eclypses after so many tedious nights We are all Pilgrimes who continually trauayle from this world into the other The darknes of sinne is the shadow of our bodies since they accompany vs without cease What incomparable felicity to go forth of our selues to find out that day which should illumine vs eternally What may we desire in Slauery but Liberty In darknes but light and in Trauayle but Rest This earth is a prison let vs neuer thinke then but to recouer our liberty This vnlucky dwelling is a place of obscurity let vs gape
for to make them serue as Aultars whereof himselfe shall be the Idol he shall not choose but lend his eares to the Oracles of sweet Necessity though cruel for him for he must dy and consequently serue one day as a victime vpon those very Aultars where they shall be yielding of Sacrifices to his person Let him bestow Empires as fauours Kingdomes for presents and whole Citties for the least recompence and then when he returnes into himselfe for to know what he wants he shall find that he needs no more but a peece of a sheet to shrowd with all his miseryes the horrour of his infection and corruption Let the Sunne neuer rise but to giue light to his triumphes if he ioyne not â—o his victories those other of his passions â—e shall celebrate but his owne ouerthrow â—nd triumph on himselfe without thinking of it Let the heauens be rayning on his head as many felicityes as there are disasters on earth all his happynes concludes with Death while by the way of his prosperities he goes on euery moment to the Sepulcher In fine although through his great possessioÌ„ of goods he know not what to desire not what to looke for yet shall I not forbeare ere the lesse to put him in the rancke of the most miserable of the world if vertue be not the richest of his treasures For not changing his condition awhit in the accomplishmeÌ„t of his greatnesses and of all his delightes he is alwayes the same a little ashes a little dust a little earth And howbeit of the ashes of the wood of Libanum of the dust of Azure or of some more noble or fertile earrh yet is al but meere putrefaction and the crust of all these goodly apparences is full of infection I esteeme him very happy great rich who contents himselfe with the meriting of these greatnesses these felicities and these riches for the glorious contempt which he makes of theÌ„ for being abused in the knowledge of himselfe he beholds all the world beneath him and desires but the continuatioÌ„ of his repose since in the only thought of Death he possesseth al the goods of life The great Monarkes of the world seeke the inteÌ„tions of lyuing happy in their greatnesses he the meane of dying content in his miseries they are alwayes in care to extend the bounds of their Empire he pleaseth himselfe to bound his ambition with what he possesseth since he wants not any thing for his voyage They make a masse of riches he takes glory in pouerty knowing that the richest are robbed at the end of the course of â—ife and that we go forth of the world in â—ike manner as we enter into it with the first habit of those miseries which we haue inherited from our parents In such sort as â—hinking perpetually of Death in the way where it is to approach euery moment he casts not his eyes vpon greatnesses but to haue pitty on those who possesse them He contemplates not the fauours of Fortune but to publish the inconstancy thereof So â—f he regard Thrones it is but to measure â—he depth of the precipices that enuiron theÌ„ since all crownes for him are made both of tare and thornes And the Scepters as light as reedes giue him not any other Enuy â—hen that of trampling them vnderfoot insteed of holding them in his hands since â—hey are the markes of a glory of smoake which resolues into nothing to returne to its first beginning There is no doubt but such as thinke coÌ„tinually of Death are raysed aboue all the greatnesses of the earth because Eternity is the obiect of their thoughtes So as if they desire greatnesses they wish they may be eternall if they enuy Treasures they marke the possession of them beyond Nature to the end Inconstancy of tyme may not bereaue them of them They haue no ambitioÌ„ for this vayne glory of the world which the least mischance may change into infamy nor for these Crownes which a litle wind of disgrace makes to fal from the head All their glory is to thinke of death for to be able to attayne at the last instant of lyfe the Crowne of immortality wherein consists the perfection of all felicityes possible to be desired Greatnesses are of the same nature with those who possesse theÌ„ they are but smoke they are but wind for we see theÌ„ to vanish away in the twinckling of an eye with their subiect So as if they seeme to subsist notwithstanding in their continuall flight they are changing the countenance euery houre To be great aboue the common sort of men in honours and in riches onely iâ— to be miserable if the true greatnes of man consist in meriting all and possessing nothing In so much as he who thinkes oâ— Death in despising the felicityes of this life makes himselfe to be worthy of the glory of the other and in these only thoughtes is he raised so aboue himself as if he were capable of vanity he would not know himself For from the tyme that he ioynes the thoughts of Death to the verity of his mortall condition he tasts before hand in the midest of his course the sweetnes of the goods which he pretends to receyue at the end I would say that the sensible imaginations which he hath of dying coÌ„tinually as there is nothing more certayne then it makes him to tread vnder foote all the greatnesses of the earth since that his soule directs his lookes vnto Heauen In effect were it not as much as to offeÌ„d a Prince to offer him at sea the Crowne of a Kingdome in the midst of stormes and tempests wherewith his ship were miserably tossed or els at such tyme as he were seene to be taken with a mortall disease For he might answere very pertinently they should attend him to make him those offers on the shore or when he were recouered of his health Now we seeme to represent this Prince since like vnto him do we floate vpon this sea of this world where the Ship of our life is incessantly tossed with diuers misfortunes Fortune comes to present vs in the fury of this tempest both Scepters and Crownes would it not be accounted rash now for vs to receiue them at her hands in this pittifull estate whereinto we are reduced not to hope for a calme or cessation for feare of seeing our hopes quite buryed with our life in a cruel shipwracke whose danger euen followes vs as neere as the shadow doth the body So as if she make vs the same offers during the mortal malady wherewith we are seised from the moment of our natiuity since we begin to dy from the instant that we begin to liue were it not a folly to accept them And for vs to answere her and to wish her to expect till we come vpon the shore is a vayne attendance while there is no other port in the sea of life then that of the tombe and to attend also for the cure of
this contagious malady which we haue taken of our parents were to expect that same which shall neuer come to passe So as indeed we should be throwing al these Crownes at her head and make vse of the Scepter she presents vs with as of a staffe to be auendged of her for her perfidiousnes to testify to her that our constancy scornes her leuity and that our contentment repose depends not awhit of the rowling of her wheele if we learne euery day to liue forth of her Empire Let vs conclude then and say that spirits that know wel the art of thinking of Death do marke out the thrones of their glory in heauen not being able to find any thing on Earth that were worthy of their greatnes Hence it is they take such pleasure to dy without cease and to increase their contentment yet further that they alwayes are thinking vpon it O sweet remembrance of death a thousand times more sweet then all the delights of life O cruell forgetfulnes of this necessity a thousand tymes more cruell then all the paynes of the world O sweet memory of our end where begins our only felicity O glorious obliuion of our mortal conditiō the only cause of our disasters Let vs not liue then but to thinke on the delight of Death let vs not dye but to contemne the pleasure of lyfe let vs forget all but the remembrance of Death Let vs loue nothing but its thoughtes and neuer essteeme but the only actions which haue relation to this last since this is that alone whence we are to receyue eyther price or payne A Contemplation vpon the Tombe of Alexander the Great CHAP. VI. O ALL yee Great Kings Loe I heere sommon you to appeare about this Tombe to behould therein the wormes the corruption and infection of the greatest the happyest the mightiest the most dreadfull Monarch of the world to say all in a word of Great Alexander whose Valour could neuer admit comparison whose Victories haue had no other bounds then those of the Vniuerse and whose Triumphes haue had all the Heauens for witnes all the Earth for Spoyles for slaues all Mortalls for Trumpet Renowne Fortune for Guide Descend then from your thrones vpon this dunghill where lyes the companion of your glory and your greatnesses Behould and contemplate this Pourtrait of your selues drawne to the lyfe after the originall of your miseries Cyrus approach you vnto this vnlucky place vpon your Chariot al of massy gould and come attended with that magnificent pompe which made all the world idolatrous in admiration of it that the infinite number of your subiects may be an infinite number of witnesses to conuince you of vanity and folly in behoulding this Victorious Prince heere beseiged by all sorts of miseryes with in a litle hole which serues as bounds and limirs to his power Cōsider how this great Taker of Townes is surprized himselfe by the wormes how this Triumphant souldier is defeated by thē how this Inuincible captaine hath beene vanquished by death and brought into this deplorable estate wherein you see him Are you not ashamed to be seated in that glittering Chariot since needs you must descend thence to enter into this dismall dwelling where the wormes attend your corruption This great number of subiects which enuiron you on all sides to set forth your glory is a troup of the miserable For they dye in following you and on which side soeuer you go Tyme conducts you all togeather into the Tombe Impose your lawes vpon al the people of the Earth yet needs must you receiue those same of Death Build you as long as you wil a thousand proud Pallaces in your Empire you cānot hold them but in fee-farme though you be the proprietary thereof because euery moment you are at the point of departing Well may you decke your selfe vp with the richest robes of vanity and play the God heere beneath with Crowne on the head and scepter in the hand yet looke what you are consider what you are like to be contemplate your miseries at leysure in the mirour of this sepulcher To day you loure on Heauen with an arrogant eye and to morrow you shal be seene metamorphozed into a stinking peece of earth To day you make your selfe adored of such as haue no iudgment but in the eyes only and to morrow shall you be sacrificed in the sight of all the world for expiatiō of your crimes and hardly shall be found a handfull of your ashes so true it is that you are nothing Xerxes descend you a little from the top of that mountayne of annoyes where they sad thoughtes do hould you besieged within this Vale of disasters and of miseryes to behold therein the pittifull ouerthrow of the proudest Conquerour of the world Spare your teares to mourne vpon his Tombe if you will but acquit your selfe of the iustest homage you may yield to his memory You weep before hand for the Death of your souldiers in foreseeing their end with that of the world What will you say now of the death of this great Captayne who for a last glory after so many triumphes is deuoured of wormes and metamorphosed into a stuffe al of corruption encompassed all with horrour and amazement So as if you will needs be satisfying your selfe afford your teares for your owne proper harmes since you are to incurre the same lot without respect eyther of your greatnes or power All your armyes are not of force inough to warrant you from Death you must bow your necke vnder the yoke of this necessity whose rules are without exceptiō whose law dispenseth not with any Alexander is dead Cyrus his predecessour hath dyed also after a thousand other Kings who haue gone before him and you runne now after them but to me it seemes you carry too great a port of Greatnes with you The earth wherof you are moulded framed demaunds but her earth you must quit your selfe of all and your scepter and crowne shall not be taken for more at that last instant then as sheephookes for that if we be different in the manner of liuing we are yet all equall in the necessity of dying Now therfore it is a vanity to say you are of the race of Gods Come see heere the place of your first begining for as you are borne of corruption so you returne to putrefaction If you doubt thereof as yet approach with your infected flesh to these rotten bones with your clay to these ashes If they differ in ought it can be but in coulour only Tell me to what end serue all those Statues of your resemblance which you caused to be erected on the lands of your Empire since tyme destroyes ruines the original Thinke you belike they dare not medle with those pourtraits which are but vayne shadowes of a body of smoke You trouble your selfe too much to make it credulous to the world that you are immortall as if
world to heape vp treasures but he fetches the turne only of the Circle of his lyfe the while of necessity most the Ship be landing at this last port of the Sepulcher where he finds himselfe as poore as when he entred into the cradle I know not for whome the Richman trauayles for before the iourney of his trauayle be finished his dayes are runne out and being on the point to reape the fruite of his passed paines death gathers those of the repose of his lyfe The Mercinary soules who lend forth their conscience to Interest insteed of their Money sell as in told Coyne the portion they pretend in Heauen for a little Earth Blind as they be they spin the web of their captiuity forge the Armes which are one day to reuenge the enormity of their crymes Abused soules they consider not how all the Gould of the world is yet now in the world howbeit the greatest part therof hath beene possessed by an infinite number of Mortals and so shall leaue them behind them as others how rich soeuer they be now without carrying ought els into the Tombe but griefe for not hauing made so good vse of them as they should To what point of misery was reduced the impious Richman of the Ghospell in a moment after he had possessed an infinite number of Treasures He behoulds himself in estate of begging a drop of water for to quench his thirst To what end serued all his pleasures past but to augment his present paynes He employed his Riches to purchase Hell and all his goods to gayne the euill he endures O humane Folly To put ones selfe in hazard to loose Eternity for enioying of a fading Treasure Good is not good but as permanent and yet looke they after transitory delights that subsist not but in flying Demaund they of Cyrus what hath he done with all his Riches he will answere he hath left them in the soyle that brought them forth Xerxes hath enioyed theÌ„ as well as he and as he so hath he borne no part thereof into his Sepulcher They may cause monuments to be built to their Memory but Tyme that deuoures all hath wrought new Tombes for their Tombes in such fort as if yet there be memory of their death it is but onely by reason of their lyfe They make a question which of the two was more rich eyther Alexander or Diogenes the one whose Ambition could not be bounded with the whole extent of the Earth and the other whose desire hopes were shut vp in the space of his Tub. For me I do hould with Diogenes since he is the richest who is best content I could neuer yet imagine the pleasure which Caligula tooke to wallow vpoÌ„ Gold for if the lustre of that mettall contented his eyes he might haue beheld himselfe a far of since the eye requires a distance proportioned to the force or feeblenes of its lookes but deceaued as he was he considered not the while how this Gould He differed not awhit but only in colour since they were both of Earth And in effect they can not authorize its pleasure but through the relatioÌ„ which was there of the nature of the one with that of the other The Poets represent to vs how the Goulden fleece was guarded by a Dragon lyke as the Goulden Aples of Hesperides and the Morall which may be gathered from these Fables is nothing els but the danger and payne which is inseparable from the conquest of Treasures The Historians obserue that in all the Countries where this mettall abounds the inhabitants are so poore as they haue scarse a ragge of linnen to couer their nakednesse withall What may we imagine in contemplation of this Verity but that all the Gould of the Earth cannot tell how to enrich a maÌ„ while the riches of the world are borne and dye in a pouerty worthy of compassion Then seeke not my Soule other Riches then those of Eternity Thou canst not tell how to buy heauen withall the gold of the earth and without the enioying of its felicities all goods are counterfait al Sweetnesses but full of Bitternes Imagine thee now to lyue vnder the Reigne of a goulden Age and that through an excesse of Fortune thou treadest vnder foot all the Pearles of the Ocean and all the goulden haruest of the Indies And not to loose thy selfe in this imagination consider the estate of this felicity tast in conceyt a part of the pleasures which thou wert to possesse if effects should answere to thy thoughts and then boldly confesse with the Wiseman how all these transitory goodes are treasures of Vanity that in the iust pretensions thou hast to an Eternall glory all these atomes of Greatnes can serue thee no more but for obiect of thy contempt Suppose thou wert the absolute Mistresse of the world what good couldst thou hope for in the fruition therof if all be replete with euils Crimes haue Temples there Vices haue Aultars All the Idolls are of goulden Calues and such as make professioÌ„ to follow Vertue are within the order of a malady of a contagious Spirit according to the common opinion So as through a Law of Tyme the most laudable Actions are subiect to reproaches Leaue then all the goods of the Earth to the Earth since thou art not borne for them seeke as a pledge in the sweet thoughtes of Eternity for the accomplishmeÌ„t of thy delightes The world is not able to satiate thy desires since it hath nothing in it that is not transitory And howbeit it be susteyned in its inconstancy it leaues not to wax old in changing to ruine it selfe by little and little in ruyning all things Thinke neuer then but of Eternity Speake not but of Eternity Let thy desires and thy Hopes regard but Eternity Let alwayes Eternity be in thy memory the conteÌ„pt of the world within thy hart If thou beest capabel of Hatred be it but for the Earth and if thou beest capable of Loue be it but for Heauen since it is the mansion of Eternity There are others who seeke their contentment in magnificent Pallaces as if they were shelters of proofe against disasters and misfortunes Charles the VIII tooke pleasure to build very proud Fabrikes as belieuing it may be to close his eyes in dying through the Splendour of their wonders but his lot an Enemy of his hopes snatched away his last breath being sound of health vpon a straw bed and in place encompassed round with Misery Heliogabalus likewise was deceued of his purpose for being on the point when the â—enormity of his Crymes had passed sentence of his Death on behalfe of the Gods he shuts himselfe in the fairest hall of his Pallace and prepares for his Enemies all the Richest instruments of Death he could recouer as thinking to sweeten the bitternes thereof with so goodly armes but his foresight was vnprofitable for the Gods permitted that as he had tasted the