by the fauourable winde of diuine grace may to morrow str◅ke against the rockes of incredulitie haue a contrary winde and suff◅r shipwracke and so haue ◅eede of the answeres ◅ere set downe To conclude counterp◅ysons are not for the sound but for the sicke and infected these confutations are not for them which bee cleane in heart and sound in spirit but for such as irreligion and presumption of humane wisedome haue bewitched Othou the Cr◅ator of all things the Authour of our life the Inspirer of our soules the Father Sonne and holy Ghost one true and onely God I humbly beseech thee illuminate the eyes of my vnderstanding that I may plainely see the happy issue of fearefull death that it will please thee so to purifie the thoughts of my soule that shee may fully apprehend the true causes of her immortality that it will please thee so to fauour my penne that it may write worthily vpon so worthy a subiect that the worke finished thou mayest be glorified the Reader edified and my selfe fortified Amen The Combate betwixt Man and Death The first Argument taken from the Instrumentall cause of eternal life The only meanes to attaine to the perfection of that good which the world so much desireth should not giue any amazement to the world Death is the only meanes Therefore Death should not giue any amazement to the world THE first proposition of this Argument doth plainely iustifie it selfe for without exception all men desire the happinesse of life the perfection of Soueraigne good which is the beatitude of the holy Spirit called eternal life I except not ill doers for they erre in doing ill and either beleeue that it is good or the way which tends vnto it But there is but one way to attaine vnto this good which is death Now then to abhorre this death more then horror it selfe greedily to desire that good which only death can giue vs to desire health and reiect the potion whereby we may recouer it to affect the pleasures which they say are in those fortunate Ilands but without any figure in that heauenly Paradice to refuse to enter into that shippe which alone can bring vs thither were to mocke at himselfe Let vs proceed and come to the proofe of the 2. proposition for thereon is grownded the force of our Syllogisme That Death is the onely meanes to attaine vnto the perfection of life is manifest in that the perfection of euery thing is the enioying of the ends all the lines of our dessignes all the proiects of our enterprises all our sweating and toyle tend and aime at the end Who knowes not that death is the first end of life feeles not but that life in her greatest vigour driues him directly thither all men may see that life is vnited inseparably vnto death by the con tinuance of the same succession of times cōsider this time whereof the enioying is the life There are three parts that which is past the present and the future the presēt is the bond of that which is past and of the future and as this article of the present time runnes as violently towards the future as the Primum Mobile turnes in the heauē so doth ourlife run vio lently towards her end This life is a very way as soone as thou doest enter into it and makest but one step it is the first pace towards the end of the way towards the end of life which is death for the going out of the cradle is the beginning of the entry to the graue whether thou wilt or wilt not whether thou thinkest of it or not yet it is true yea as certaine as in an howre-glasse where the first graine of sand which runnes is a guide vnto the last to the end of the hower Euery day we passe carries away some part of our life yea as we grow life decreaseth this very day which we now enioy is deuided betwixt Death and vs for the first howres of the morning being past to the present in their flowing are dead to vs wherefore Seneca had often this sentence very fitly in his mouth Death hath degrees yet that is not the first Which diuides vs in twaine but of the death is the last And it is the very reason why that wise Tekohite sayd vnto Dauid in the present time For certaine we die and slide away as the waters which returne no more So many degrees as there are in life so many deaths so many beginnings of another life Let vs examine them and take speciall note of the first death to iudge of the latter for herein as in all the other workes of wise Nature the end is answerable to the beginning The first degree of mans life is when being fashioned and framed hee liues in the wombe of his mother this is a vegetatiue life a life proper to plants only wherein hee may receiue nourishment grow in this life he continues commonly but nine moneths at the end of which time hee dies but a happy death whereby he gaines the vse of the goodly sences of nature that is to say of sight hearing smelling tasting and touching behold then the first death when as the Infant by the force of nature is driuen out of that fleshie prison comming from which place he striues and stretcheth out himselfe hee is angry with nature and cries incessantly but he is ill aduised it is his good and the beginning of his perfection Now followeth the infantiue life not differing from that of beasts which extends vnto seuen yeares compleate of this life child-hood is the death which begins at eight yeares and retaines nothing of the Infancy As for the exterior of man which is the body not the flesh nor bones not the foure principall humors if that bee true which the Phisitions hold for a Maxime that our bodies change all their substance euery seuen yeares And in truth how could our sliding nature so long subsist if it were not maintained by drinke and meate the which by a certaine vertue infused into all the members of the body digested purged and applied doth transubstantiat it selfe into our very bodies proportionably as the substance decayes as appeares by the words in the booke of Wisedome cap. 5. Being borne wee suddenly desist from that being wherein wee were borne It is no more the first body which wee brought into the world that is dead wee haue an other in our child-hood the third degree of life which extends vnto 18. yeares at the end wherof his death encounters him in the which beginnes the 4. degree of life which goes vnto 22. and then dies but from this death riseth youth the 5. degree which florisheth vnto 30. yeares then his flower falls and his youth is lost but a rich losse seeing thereby man-hood the perfect age is gotten which being strong and vigorous climbes vnto 50. yeares and this is the 6. degree of life Then comes age the 7. degree of life and the
hydeous feare The king saw him among the rest and admired him and obseruing his pale colour he inquired of him the cause of his palenes and was informed of his disease the king thinking that by his cure his force and valour would increase caused his Physitions to recouer him but the effect prooued contrarie for the souldiar being cured had no other care but to liue and this care made him to feare euery thing yea the shadow of a leafe his furious humor was gone down to his feet to fly away Where fore we must therfore thinke of death know it and contemne it To this end the ancients did set dead bodies at the doores of their houses to be seene of passengers for the same reason the Egyptians did cause an image of death to be carried about in their bankets and set vpon the table not to strike terror into them but rather a disdaine by the frequent beholding of what it is And so it was at Constantinople in the election creation of a new Emperor they were wont to breathe into his heart vertue valour when as being set in his highest Throne of glorie a mason came neare to him and made a shew of an heape of stones of diuers formes to the ende hee might choose which did best please him to build his tombe It is the same reason why at the Coronation of the Popes when as he that is new called passeth before S. Gregories Chappell the master of the Ceremonies holding an handfull of flaxe at the ende of a drie reed setts fire to it and cries with a loud voyce Pater sancte sic transit gloria mimdi O I would to God that both they and wee did thinke seriously of this that remembring how lightly this life passeth away wee might make haste for feare to be sodainly surprized euery man to doe his dutie according to his vocation euen as they doe which liue at Court being set at the table make what haste they can in feeding least the meat be taken away before they haue dyned VVhy stay wee then Let vs make hast to attaine to that royall dignitie which hee deserues best that is most at libertie and hee is most that least feares death Behold what a tragical Poet sayth Hee is a King that conquers feare And th'ills that dèsperate bosomes beare That in his Towre set safe and free Doth all things vnderneath himsee Encounters willingly his Fate Nor grudges at his mortall state From those golden verses the golden memory of Heluidius an ancient Romain shal for euer shine who seeing the ancient liberty captiuated by Vespasian and being commanded by him that hee should not come into the Senate hee answered That whilest he was a Senator hee would come vnto the Senat Vespasian replyed Bee in the Senate and hold thy peace Heluid Let no man then aske my opinion Vâ—…sp But I must in honour demand it Heluid Then must I in iustice speake what my conscience commands me Vesp. If thou speakest it I will put thee to death Heluid You may do what you please and I what I ought Let this example bee alwayes before our eyes and especially to vs Christians that of the twelue Apostles who neuer yeelded to the cruell assaults of death but alwayes reioyced with an inuincible courage as the text saith to be held worthy to suffer reproach for the Name of Christ. Wherefore aboue all the world they haue purchased a most holy fame yea their twelue names are written in the twelue foundations of the celestiall and eternall City O what a worthy reward for so great valour in the contempt of death The eight Argument taken from the worke of God The reward wherewith the Eternall doth sometimes recompence them he fauors cannot be euill Death is that wherewith hee doth sometimes reward them he fauors Therefore Death cannot bee euill IF that be true which Silenus in Tully and others with reason report that the first degree of happinesse is not to be borne and not to fall into the dangers of the present life That the second is to die in being borne without all doubt the third must bee not to continue long in the miseries of the world but hauing beheld the workes of God the wandring couse of the stars the swift motion of the heauens the inuariable changing of day and night presently to die Say not that thou art taken in thy youthfull age that is a priuiledge which God giues thee to free thee from a thousand Combats of vice which thou shouldest endure or it may be thou shouldest be conquered as Salomon was by voluptuousnsse or as Nero by cruel ty Looke vpon the insolencie and corruption of that time it will appeare that thou hast more cause to feare then to hope in liuing longer sayed Seneca to Marullus epist. â—…00 If this were in those times what shall it be in this age which is as many times impayred as there haue since slowed yeares and daies And admit thou wert assured to continue alwayes vertuous and victorious yet shouldest thoube continually couered with dust altered with thirst full of bitternesse and old with anguish Enoch pleased God and was beloued of him he was rapt vp into heauen that the malice of the world should not change his vnderstanding sayeth the text c. 44. Cleobis and Biton religious and dutifull children for that they tooke the yoake and drew the Charriot of their deceased mother vp the hil for want of Mules and the houre of the interment pressing on they receiued the night following in recompence of their singular piety a happy death Marcellus Nephew to Augustus Caesar adopted by him Marcellus vpon whom the hope of all the Romaine Empire did depend dyed in the 18. yeare of his age a thousand others yea innumeraable haue bene cut off in their vigorous youth the most excellent as the ripest cheries are the first taken it happens to these timely wits as to the ripest fruit they fall first and Homer writes that the Heroes and Demigods neuer extended their dayes euen vnto the threshold of old age Seneca reports that his predecessors had secne an infant of great stature at Rome but they saw him die presently according to the opinion of euery man of iudgement whereupon hee addes that maturity is a signe of imminent ruine that whereas the increasings are consumed they desire the end Moreouer hee abuseth himselfe much which thinkes he hath liued long because hee hath past many yeares if he shew no other signes but his pale face and his gray head Behold what the wise man saith Man is not gray for that hee hath liued many yeares but for that hee hath liued wisely long age must bee measured by the honest conditions and manners not by the number of dayes It depends of another saith Seneca how long wee shall liue but of our selues how good we are the importance is to liue well and not long yet many times liuing well doth not consist
to this death they which haue condemned mee are more vniust then I am Inferring thereby that he died well and honestly seeing they put him to death wrongfully and without cause Plato doth teach vs that Socrates was wont to insult ouer death in these tearmes I haue beene carefull said he to liue well in my youth and to die well in my age I am not tormented within me with any paine I am not vnwilling to dye for seeing my life hath beene honest I attend death ioyfully This is much but it is nothing in regard of Saint Paule who protesting that he felt not himselfe guilty in any thing cried out with a bold spirit that hee was assured that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers neither things present nor things to come nor height nor depth should separate him from the loue of God Let vs theÌ„ be careful to polish our soules and to settle our consciences let vs apply our selues to a well ordered equity let the body subiect it selfe vnto the soule and follow her motions Let the inferiour powers of the soule obey the commandements of reason Let reason guided by the holy Ghost obserue the Law grafted in euery creature by nature especially in man and most of all the Law of Moses To doe this is to be vertuous and to be vertuous is to haue a good conscience We must then direct all our actions to vertue if wee desire to liue in the world without feare without paine in peace and ioy vertue doth first of all make the soule perfect in her intellectuall part disperseth the clouds of error ignorance illuminating reason doth adorne it with prudence Secondly she labours to polish the will of man and hauing reformed it by her orderly course shee giues him the habite of Iustice. Thirdly she doth temper the angry part pulls away the extreame feare and on the other side prunes away the sprouts of rashnes and plants betwixt both valour and haâ—… dy feare Finally it doth also bridle the faculty of concupiscence and restraines the motions of voluptuousnesse and makes them obedient to the command of Temperance It is in a few words the true meanes to get a pure and vpright conscience especially if we bee carefull to be as honest in our priuate secret actions as if all the world did behold vs Seneca doth recommend this vnto vt in many places Wee reade of one called Virginius whose History was written by Cluuius who presented it vnto the sayd personage and sayd vnto him If there be any thing written otherwise then thou wouldest pardon mee and reforme it Oh no answered Virginius whatsoeuer I haue done hath bene done in that manner to that end that it might bee free for all to write at their pleasures a worthy speech of a noble spirit and content with his conscience in his actions Iulius Drusus when as one promised a great sum of mony to his Master mason that his house might not be subiect to the view of any man and I sayd he will giue twice so much if thou canst build my house in that sort as all men may see into it what is done there This was to saue his conscience not to do more in secret then before all the world And what a madnesse is it in most men not to feare God nor their conscience and yet to feare men who can do least in the correction of their faults What shall we then feare in this world One only God for his feare will inspire our hearts with an hardy courage against the greatest feares The 27. Argument taken from the frequent thinking of Death He that will receiue Death ioyfully must propound it often to his thoughts Wee all desire to receiue it ioyfully c. SOme sayth Seneca come to their death in choler but no man receiues it when it comes with a cheerefull countenance but he that hath long before prepared himselfe for it Let vs try this remedy it cannot be bad In the night after our first sleepe in bed let vs presuppose that we are dead and by a strong imagination let vs settle our selues in that sort as hauing no sence nor feeling that our soule and reason tells vs that it is euen so in death that there is no other difference but that our soule is yet present in the body and then let vs goe vnto our friends or to any other that die let vs view them talke vnto them and touch them being dead and we shall finde that in all this there is nothing to be feared that all is quiet that there is nothing but opinion that 〈◊〉 abuse man Let vs proceed enter the Church-yards and go down into their graues wee shall finde that 〈◊〉 the dead rest in peace yeaâ—… so profound 〈◊〉 peace as no liuing creature can interrupt them Let vs yet go on farther there is no danger for by the saying of Plato the knowledge of death is the goodliest science that man can attaine vnto Let vs do like vnto Iohn Patriarke of Alexandria build our tombes and not finish them but euery day lay one stone Let vs haue some Anatomy or MoÌ„mie in our houses and let vs not passe a day without beholding it let vs handle it it is death Little children by little and little grow familiar with that which they did strangely fly and in the end they play with it and know that it is but a dead image of copper which so terrified them Wee shall also see in death that it was but a shaddow that so amazed vs. Let vs yet do more waking and not dreaming let vs dispose our selues of purpose as Philippe King of Macedon did by chance who wrestling vpon the sand after the manner of the Country saw and measured the length of his body and admired the littlenes thereof in the shape printed in the sand where he had fallen Finally let vs not forget what the Emperour Maximilian 2. or 3. yeares before his death commanded carefully to be done that they should carry with him a coffin of oake in a chest with an expresse command that being dead they should couer his body with a course sheete hauing put lime in his eares nosestrills and mouth and then to lay him in the ground Let vs follow these great examples both high low and wee shall see that when death shall present her selfe vnto vs it will bee without amazement But if wee flie from euery image of death from al thought therof if the ringing of bells a shew of some mans death doth importune vs finally if euery word of death be troublesome as there haue beene such I doubt not but to them death is wonderfull terrible Obiection If the most reasonable feare Death most it is by reason to be feared But the antecedent is true therefore the Consequent must follow SEneca yea experience doth teach vs that Infants little children and such as haue lost their
demolition of man but onely the first for as a wise master of a familie when hee sees that his house threatneth ruine that it sinks in many places and the walls open commands it to be pulled downe that with the ruines and materials hee may raise another to cōtinue many yeares euen so nature a most expert Architectrice seeing man ladē with woūds deiected with misery and melancholy cōsumed with age and grown cro◅ked with the gou◅e catar◅es sowe◅ him co◅uptible in the graue that after many changes she may raise him incorruptible by the powerful voice of Christ. If the earthly habitation of this mansion bee destroyed saith the Apostle S. Paule we haue a dwelling with God that is to say an eternal house in heauen which is not made with hands and therefore we sigh and desire so much to be cloathed with our mansion which is in heauen and this is for our soule expecting the Resurrection of her body And this body sayth the same Apostle being sown in dishonour shall rise againe in glory sowne in weakenesse shall rise in strength and sowne a sensuall body shall rise a spirituall body What thē can man produce against this but onely some murmuring of his Incredulity that it exceedes the bounds of reason without the which hee will not assure himselfe of any thing I answer that the full perswasion of that which is written in the holy word is well grounded vpon faith a particular gift of heauen to all true Christians touching the returning of our bodies as for the reasonable coniecture of our future life after death I deny that this hath beene altogether vnknowne to men guided onely by the instinct of nature and I will proue my assertion sufficiently in the 39. Argument if God so please To this first consolation we will adde a second that is nature finding the declining and wasting of the substance of man came by a sacred mariage to stay some portion in the matrix of his deare moity and to fashion and bring forth many other reasonable creatures at diuers times creatures which haue the same flesh and bones of father and mother And if it be true that a good friend is a second selfe what shal a good sonne bee but himselfe without any addition whereby is plainly manifested what Macrobius saith that the body recoiues three aduantages of the reasonable soule that is to say he liues he liues well and in succession of time he remaines immortall Ecclesiasticus goeth ◅art her saying That if the father of a childe dyes it is all one as if hee were not dead for hee hath left his like behind him hee hath seene him and hath ioyed hauing left one who shall take reuenge of his enemies and requite his friends And this was it which moued that great Law-giuer Plato to make a law that euery man at a comperent age should marrie a wife else he shuld be called before the Iudge condemned in a fine and declared infamous for that as he afterwards sayth euery man should consider in himself that there is a certen power efficacie of nature which makes men to purchase an Immortalitie he would inferre that whosoeuer leaues children doth reuiue in some sort in them It is an order of nature which we must inviolablie obserue ingendring we perish of the one side but we begin again of the other If our parents by their fading and dying substance had not giuen vs life we could not haue entred into it of our selues what wrong is it if nature doth that of vs for our children which she bath done of our Parents for vs Moreouer death which is a priuation of life is a beginning of life in nature remayning in the first matter by the which she disposeth her selfe to a new forme not to continue still at this deformed spectacle Thirdly wha◅ great deformitie see you in death which is not in him that sleeps Fourthly that deformitie which may be is not seene by him whom it concernes it is to the suruiuor◅ that it should be hideous but most commonly they find it pleasing reaping by that meanes large successions elboe roome freedome from comptroll and if it were otherwise the world would not be able to containe vs. And thus much for the first part of the obiection As for the 2. which resembleth the demolishing of building to death this similitude hath no proportion yea it is contrary to the state of the question for what makes a ruined building deformed It is the disorder we see in it it is but a heape of stones and timber the stones are not layd in order one vpon another neither is the timber raised as it ought to be It is then the forme that wants when as the materialls remaine but in man or rather a dead carcase the soule which is the forme receiues no blemish she is freed from the surprises of the graue Thou doest not complaine that the egge-shell is broken when a chicken comes forth neither is the body of man to be lamented when as the soule flies away But what great difformitie doest thou see in a dead body thou seest little or no difference at all with one that sleeps this doth not terrifie thee why should the other amaze thee especially if thou doest consider that the body which is dead is truely asleepe the which is a subiect of an other discourse as we shall see if God please But all things haue their period the ladder his last staffe and life her last degree Thou diddest ascend ioyfully so must come downe againe with the like content if in the last steppe or in the midst thou beest not carried away accidentially by some violent death but to returne to the place where thou hast beene taken thy nature doth exhort thee yea it forceth thee If too vniust thou doest not willingly giue thy consent looke into the degrees of life and this contemplation will giue thee cōsolation against death when thou wert borne into the world there was found in thee an appetite to some substāce or meat without thy selfe the which hauing beene supplied thee and sent by the mouth into the stomacke was conuerted into a conco◅ted iuyce and then transformed into bloud by the liuer refined into spirits by the heart and finally fitted to thy decaying body thou didst receiue nourishment force and Ioy these are the first degrees of life then climing higher thou hast extended the fiue faculties of thy senses thine eye to see beautiful things thine eares to heare melodious sounds thy nose to smell pleasing sents thy mouth to tast holesome and delightfull sauours and thy hand to handle smooth and wel polished things these are other degrees of the same life At length the reasonable soule comes to play his part the vnderstanding desires to know whatsoeuer the sences apprehend whatsoeuer his eye sees his eare heareth his hands touch and moreouer what they neither see heare nor touch reason flying to
be not directed and animated from aboue he followes that which he should fly and flyes that which he should follow so as he shall neuer hit the white now win the Crowne of Iustice which is the true felicitie of man Let vs then conclude with S. Iohn That what we shal be doth not yet appeare with S. Paul That our life is hidden in Christ That it is in safe keeping and that the ende of this mortall life is the beginning of the immortall Let vs say in the ende that all things haue their Periode that wee are borne to liue We liue to die and wee die to liue againe but without any more turning for the Circle shal be returned to his point and the light of the bodie shall suffer no more eclipse Come then O gentle death which doest make an end of the miseries of this world and beginnest the happinesse of Heauen which dost free vs from mortall paine and bringest vs to enioy immortall good which doest conuert our teares and toyles into ioy rest which doest change our fantasticall treasure into that which is certaine and our temporall into spirituall and eternall Retire then O you deceitfull vanities for the charme of your pleasures cannot preuaile with me who am resolued to die hold your tongue also O vaine deception of Philosophie and humane tradition for I am taught by the death of my Sauiour by his resurrection that my greatest perfection is to acknowledge my imperfection my blindnesse my death in my sinnes and that my greatest happynesse in this world is to obteyne remission of my sinnes and to mortifie my corrupted members to the end that a good death may soone bring mee to the hauen of saluation and eternall life Amen The second Argument taken from the vicious fruits of the extreame feare of death That which breedes many inconueniences in the spirit bodie of man must bee speedily pulled away The extreame feare of death causeth great inconueniences Therefore that must be speedily pulled away SOme one sayed truely speaking of the excessiue apprehension of death that it is the ordinary obiect which troubleth the vnderstanding of man makes him to lose his Iudgement to abandon all duety and to cast himselfe into a shamefull forgetfulnesse of himselfe Let vs. see how Hee that feares death vnmeasurably he must of necessitie feare euery thing that may bring it that is all that hee sees and what he cannot discerne whereas death lyes in ambush whereby it happens that this man doth easily fall into many errours as into foolish superstition thinking by his voluntarie submissions by mâ—…toring of words not vnderstood by adoring of stocks and stones to moue God to pitty him and to turne away death which hee imagines vpon the least accident the flying of a bird or the croaking of a Crow should take him by the throate So we reade of Arislodemus King of the Messeniens who being in warre against his subiects the dogs howled like Woolues and an herbe called Dogstooth grew neere vnto his Altar the which being interpreted by his Soothsayers to bee an ill presage he concoiued such a feare as hee died And as this disordered motion of feare makes men credulous to the words of Satan so doth it make them incredulous to the assured promises of the Eternall the which prouoking the wrath of God in the end hee doth execute vpon them his sentence pronounced against the fearefull incredulous casting them into the Lake burning with fire and brimstone which is the second death Apocal. 21. O how fitly then did Saint Augustine say that by too much fearing the temporall death they did ingulfe themselues in the eternall a fearefull man not onely makes himselfe a slaue to fantasticall diuinity but also a bondman to any one that is subiect vnto him said King Lew. 11. who to assure himself against death shut himselfe vp solitarie at Plessis neere Tours yet could he not bee confident the opening of a doore amazed him he hated all those he suspected and he suspected all the world his most confident were dismisss and put from his person and hee remayned alone melancholie dreaming froward and chollericke nothing pleased him but onely displeasure he grew iealous of his sonne-in-law of his owne Sonne and his Daughter only his Phisitian possest him controlled him and kept him in awe with his words threatning death I know well said hee swearing a great oath that one of these mornings you will send mee away with the rest but you shall not liue eight dayes after Thus this imperious seruant kept his King captiue Thus this King lost his liberty more pretious then his life for maintaining whereof good men should alwaies striue Wherunto Seneca had reference when he sayd that the vilest death was to bee preferred before the honestest seruitude for that this liberty cannot safely confish but in the contempt of death as Agis King of Lacedemon taught him that demanded an assured liberty of him and in truth â—…hee that feares not death may passe freely like a Knight without feare who shall hinder him seeing the extremâ—… dangers of death cannot amaze him Moreouer fearefull persons are the ruine of States and Commonalties for in the least daÌ„gers through feare and the threats of great men they yeeld easily to a mischiefe and subiect themselues to the fauour of the wicked and the will of the base multitude Thirdly a man that trembles so at the apprehension of death runnes into assured misery which depriues him of all pleasure of life makes his facewrincle and grow pale before his time Which the Italian Gentleman will verifie who being imprisoned vpon a certaine accusation and receiuing newes that without all doubt he should lose his head the next day the feare of one night did so trouble his braine and distempered his body with shaking as he became all gray and worne But ô miserable men after all your shifts and escapes in the end you must come and yeeld your selues at the Port of Death So much the more miserable I do not call you miserable for that you are subiect vnto death but for your extreame feare that many thinking to free themselues from death haue run head-long into it some thinking to escape haue cast themselues out at a window and broken their neckes others flying their pursuing enemies swords haue leapt like fishes but without fins into a deepe riuer as into an assured Sanctuary where they haue beene drowned Nay besides all this they which thinking still to delay and escape that which they feare so extreamely when they see themselues in the bed of death then doe they vomit out their rage against heauen and exclaime iniuriously against the true God and being desperate they cast themselues into the infernall gulph Let vs conclude with Seneca That the feare of death will neuer profit any liuing man but drawing him into many miseries which are much more to be feared then death it selfe will make him in the
end insupportable and offensiue to all kind of people yea to himselfe For hauing his nose groueling to the ground like a hogge hee will neuer bee able to lift vp his eies nor his spirit to heauen where all perfect and assured contentment is to bee found If yeelding to all this you will aske me the meanes how to bee freed of this fearefull terror I will tell you that it is to know what Deathis as it is taught in the 13. 14. and 20. Arguments and not to rely vpon doubtfull and false opinions An Obiection Euery roote bringing forth fruits worthy repentance should be carefully preserued The feare of death bringeth forth fruits worthy of repentance Therefore the feare of death should bee carefully preserued WHatsoeuer thou sayest or doest remember thy end and thou shalt neuer sinne sayth the son of Syrach Answ. the continuall meditation of death to him that knowes it rightly helpes wonderfully vnto vertue And Seneca sayeth that man is neuer so diuine as when hee doth acknowledge himselfe to bee mortall Yea it auailes in Christian duties but that the feare of death is profitable to any thing I cannot comprehend I will not deny but that many haue bene wonderfully stirred vp to piety by the feare of death as among others the historie makes mentiō of Peter Vualdo in the yeare 1178. who in the city of Lyons sometime being assembled with many of the chiefe of the Citty to recreate themselues it so happened that one of them fell downe suddenly dead Vualdo a rich man was more mooued then all the rest and seized with feare and apprehension he addicted himselfe more to do penance and to meditate true piety But who doth not see that it is not properly death which causeth this inclination to pietie but the iudgement of God which wee discerne through death as through a glasse that it is the worme of Conscience which doth awaken vs by the contemplation of Death and stirres vp sinners to iustice sanctitie It is the ignorant confusion of the second death with the first which doth so strongly amaze men Finally it is a seruile feare and not commendable yea condemned of the Pagans themselues to forbeare to doe euill for feare of punishment Let vs conclude then That this first death which is naturall and common to all men seeing that her poyson hath beene quenched in the bloud of Christ as Tertullian speaks seeing that the Crosse of Iesus Christ hath pulled away her sting triumphed ouer her and giuen a counter-poyson for the poyson of sinne it is not euill but the greatest good that can arriue to mortall men and to feare to obtayne so great a good is a vice and no vertue before all vpright Iudges The Third Argument drawne from the Impossibility That onely is to bee feared that lyes in the power of man Death lyes not in the power of man Therefore not to be feared VIce onely should hee feared to be auoyded but nothing that is without the power of man is vice as Epictetus saith in his Enchiridion Moreouer that feare is good that can preuent an imminent danger but to that which can neither bee remedied nor foreseene feare serues but to aduance it Man may preuent and auoyd that which hee holds in his owne power and will as the approbation of vice the hatred of goodnesse and of true honour rashnes passions vnlawfull loue vnrestrained heauinesse excessiue ioy vaine hope damned despaire c. But all that which blinde man by his opinion doth affect or feare so much as wealth pouertie the honour or dishonour of the world life and death are not tyed to his will nor subiect to his scepter And therefore the Philosopher will rightly say that neither pouertie nor sicknesse let vs also adde death nor any thing that flowes not from our owne mallice are to bee feared let vs follow the Doctors of wisedome saith Heluidius in Tacitus which hold honest things onely to bee good and dishonest bad power nobilitie and whatsoeuer is without the spirit of man reputation riches friends health life and all things that depend of the free will of man flow necessarily perpetually from the decree of the Eternall and to seeke to hinder their course were to striue to stay the motion of the heauen and starres This prouidence of God dispersed throughout all the members of this Vniuerse hath infused into euery mooueable thing a secret immooueable vertue as Boetius saith by the which shee doth powerfully accomplish all things decreed in its time and place and order To seeke to breake the least linke of these causes chayned together were as much as to runne headlong against a rocke to ouerturne it I will that thou knowest the howre place of thy deceasse that to auoyd it thou flyest to a place opposite vnto it that thou watchest the houre yet shalt thou find thy selfe arriued and guided to the place at the houre appointed there to receiue thy death and that which is admirable thou thy selfe insensibly wouldest haue it so and diddest make choice of it To this force let Iulius Caesar oppose all his Imperiall power let him scoffe at Spurinus his prediction of the 15. of March the day being come hee must vnderstand from his Sooth-sayer who was no lyer that the day was not past he must come to the Capitoll and there receiue 23. wounds and fall downe dead at the foote of Pompeys statue Let Domitian storme for the approching of fiue of the clocke foretold yet must he die at the houre and for the more easier expedition one comes and tells him that it had strooke sixe he beleeues it with great ioy Parthenius his groome tells that there is a pacquet of great importance brought vnto him he enters willingly into the Chamber but it was to bee slaine at that very instant which hee feared most But if these histories seeme ouer worne with age who remembers not that memorable act at the last Assembly of the Estates at Blois of that Duke who receiued aduertisement from all parts both within and without the Realme that the Estates would soone end with the ending of his life euen vpon the Eue one of his confident friends discouered the businesse vnto him going to dinner he found a note written in his napkin with these words They will kill you To which he answered They dare not but they failed not Oh God how difficult is it to finde out thy wayes Let vs then cōclude that the houre of death appoynted by the immoueable order of God is ineuitable so that as one saith We shal sooner moue God then death So the Pagans who erected Altars to all their counterfeit Deities did neuer set vs any to death This firme decree of all things gane occasion to the Pagans to figure the three Destinies whose resolution great Iupiter could not alter no not to draw his Minion Sarpedon out of their bonds Let vs speake more properly God can
doe it but he wil neuer do it or very seldome to shew his infinit power by miracle Let vs in the end say That seeing death is ineuitable it must needs follow that the feare of it is vnprofitable On the other side let vs adde that mās life is not to be cut off before the time therefore a carefull waywardnesse to prolong it auailes nothing the Destinies which haue resolued immutably to spinne it out till such a time they will doe it feare it not and in the danger of death will rather shew a miracle to preserue thee as to the Poet Simonides who supping with Scopas in a Towne of Thessalie word was brought him that two young men were at the dore to speake with him the Poet went forth but found no body at the doore but hee heard a great noyse of the chamber which sunke downe and smothered Scopas and al his guests in the ruins We reade that Gelon then a young Infant but appointed to liue longer to gouern Sicile was drawne out of the like but a stranger danger for as hee was at schoole in the presence of his master and many of his companions behold a great Wolfe enters into the school comes to Gelon layes hold of his booke and drawes it by the one end Gelon without amazement holds fast and rather suffers himselfe to bee drawne forth by the Woolfe then to let goe his hold and in the meane time the building happened to sinke and ouerwhelmed both Master and schollers Thus God shewes his prouidence preseruing by his Angels those whom he pleaseth from present and most eminent dangers So would hee saue Lot and his family from the fire of heauen almost against their will For it is written that the Angels tooke them and thrust them out of Sodome yea it is written that the Angell executioner to shew the force of prouidence told Lot that he could not doe any thing vntill hee were retired into a towne adioyning which was afterwards called Zohar into the which he was no sooner entred but the Eternall powred downe fire and brimstone vpon Sodome and Gomorah We reade of Titus Vespasian that two famous knights had conspired to kill him whereof he was aduertised but making no shew thereof he tooke them by the hands led them forth to walke and hauing called for two swords he gaue to eyther of them one as prouoking them to that which they had resolued but being amazed both of the manner and of the Emperours courage You see sayth he that destinie doth iustly hold the principalitie of the world and that in vaine men practise murthers against it be it through hope to purchase greatnesse or for feare to lose it Let vs therefore acknowledge that it is not of vs but of the word of destinie which God hath pronounced that the lengthening or shortning of our liues depends The great God is to vs a God of strength to deliuer vs and the issues of death belong vnto the Eternal therefore the Apostle sayd that Christ is dead and risen againe that he might haue power ouer the dead and the liuing and therfore this vexing care of life nor that great horror of Death cannot profit vs any thing Let vs then leaue these things and finishing our course resolutely ioyfuly let vs yeeld al into the hands of our soue raigne Master neither to tempt him nor to despaire of him for both the one and the other are equally hateful vnto him and if our soule puft vp with the vent of temptation be desquiet within vs let vs say vnto it with Dauid My soule returne vnto thy rest feare nothing Euery kinde of death of them that are beloued of God is precious in his sight verie precious sayeth S. Bernard as being the ende of labour the consummation of the victorie the port of life and the entrie to perfect felicitie The first Obiection If Death did flow from the enchayned order of destinie we should not see it without order sometimes to goe slowly sometimes to runne headlong But that is vsually seene Therefore it seemes not to flow from destinie THe vnequall Issue of life which we see happen to men doth not alter but rather corroborate destinie it is the immutable decree of the Eternal he sees who should amend or impaire in this life he that hath made all for his glory euen the wicked for the day of calamitie And therefore he soone tooke vp Enoch to himself lest that malice shold corrupt his spirit sayth the text Contrariwise if Constantine the Great who was cruel in his youth had beene cut off he had not bin a Christian neither had hee so much extended the kingdome of Christ. There is yet another reason which is the deliuerance of good men from the miseries of the world when death comes I will gather thee vp with thy fathers sayd God to Iosias the good King to the end thy eyes may not see all the miseries which I will bring vpon this place On the other-side a long life is a great languishing to the wicked So Caine after his parricide committed was cursed of God and liuing so pursued by the Iudgement of God as he often cried out that his punishment was insupportable and therefore hee should wander vpon the face of the earth and that whosoeuer should finde him would kill him but God prouided setting a brand vpon his fore-head to the end no man should slay him But how comes it that the death of some is suddaine as the shot of an harquebuze cānot bee more suddaine and so long in others which languish of some long infirmitie I answere that to search into the Counsells of God which is properly the destiny wherof we speake is more infinite then to seeke the bottome of a gulph That great Apostle rapt vp to the third heauen finds nothing but depths incomprehensible Iudgements and wayes impossible to be found out Rom. 11. Moreouer I do not see to speake truely that death is more suddaine to one then to an other is it to them that being sound and vigorous are so strooken as they die presently Yet being thus strooken they know not whether they should suruiue it or no seeing some one hath escaped being thus stroken Wherefore I do not see that death is more slow to one then to an other Is it to them that lie bedred 10. or 20. yeares yea and what know they whether they shal die the first day they take their beds To conclude I say that seeing the comming of death is imperceptible and that it is impossible for any man to say assuredly I am dead or I shal suruiue that death cannot be suddaine or slow to any man other men iudge after the euent but not before And therefore it seemes to mee that the question which is made whether a languishing death or a suddaine be most to be desired is in vaine for that we shall find that death is suddaine to all men seeing it comes
All that is depraued and there is nothing but a horrible confusion in his will and actions 7. He was absolute Lord ouer all Creatures which trembled at his looke and brought him fruits according to his desire 8. Now they rebell and assaile him yea the earth instead of good corne brings forth nothing but thornes thistles 9. He had frequent conuersation with God inspired of him and breathing by him 10. Now the Prince of the power of the aire the vncleane spirit workes powerfully in the children of rebellion which are all the sonnes of Adam Ephes. 2. 2. 11. A glorious angelical and diuine Maiesty did shine in his face 12. Now they couer their shame with leaues they hide themselues among the trees and crie out Mountains fall vpon vs and couer vs. To conclude there is no greater contrariety betwixt day and night then of these famous qualities to the infamous blemishes of man as he liued in this world before his regeneration in the which by little and little hee recouers this Iustice holinesse and trueth Ephes. 4. 24. But the fulnesse thereof is reserued to heauen whither death leades vs and therefore to be desired The Fourth Argument taken from the efficient cause All that a good and wise mother giueth vnto her Children cannot be hurtfull Nature our good and wise mother giues vs death Death then cannot be hurtfull THe first proposition of this Argument cannot bee denyed after the experience which wee haue seene after the comparison which God makes of himselfe with a mother who cannot forget her child nor he his people After that Iesus Christ had said No man giues a stone instead of bread nor a Scorpion for fish to him that he loues And how then can nature the liuely spring of so liuely a loue giue any thing that is very hurtfull and fayle at neede and in the principall hauing neuer fayled vs in all the course of our life Now to proue that the second proposition is true and that nature hath ordayned death for her children Seneca doth teach vs saying That death is a Law of nature yea that our whole life is but a way vnto it S. Cyprian also doth affirme that it is a decree intimated vnto the world that whatsoeuer is borne should haue an end and from whom is this decree from God the Authour of nature the executioner of this decree but it is a fauourable decree to such as Heauen fauours It is a generall Law to restore that which is lent vs this life is but a loane wee must restore it at the end of the time it is a tribute wee owe for we entred vpon condition to depart when it shall please the master Moreouer what is this life but a harmony rising from the mixture of the foure elements which are the foure ingredients of our bodie and what is death by the censure of Hippocrates but a diuorce of marriage of these foure Elements This diuorce is as naturall to man as it is naturall that fire should be contrarie to water and ayre to earth for their contrarietie is the cause of this diuorce which is death I know that it is not sufficient for humane life to haue a body well tempered with his Organes and to haue the power of life but he must also haue a fist Effence as a Lute well strung and well tuned is not sufficient to make it sound vnlesse there bee a hand to play vpon it And I also maintayne that as the Musitian ceaseth to play when the Instrument is vnstrung so the soule ceaseth to giue life vnto the body yea flyes out when it is destroyed but this destruction is naturall and by consequence death and to that end Nature hath planted this body vpon pyles which take vent vpon boanes not very solide caulkt ouer with soft flesh glued with a viscous humour which may easily melt with heate or dissolue with rayne full of transparent veines easie to pierce watered with vnholesome water tempered with contrarie qualities which a certaine temperature keepes at quiet for a season but when euery one desires to command his companion and time in the end presenting the occasion the common right being forced the body sodainely falls And this force is of nature who must needes effect the words of the Lord spoken vnto man Thou art dust and shalt returne to dust Sonnes of men returne but whither From whence you came to the earth to death death then is of nature and therefore Thales the Milesian said that there was no difference betwixt life and death for that they are both equally according vnto Nature and as one demanded of him why he was in life and dyed not For the same cause answered he that the one is no more excellēt then the other It is also the reason why the Emperor Antonin the gentle seeing his seruants weepe lying sicke in his bed hee sayed vnto them Why weepe you for me and not rather the naturall and mortall condition of all the world that is to say Why doe you not rather weepe for life which is of a mortall condition The answere of Anaxagoras was more vertuous who being aduertised of the death of his deere and onely Sonne sayd O Messenger thou bringest me no vnexpected newes I know well I had begotten a Sonne that was mortall hee was not insensible like a stone but he considered that nothing had chanced to his sonne but what he had foreseene from his birth his long foresight and his sodaine con sideration of the condition of all men for to die had tēpered all sorow in him and brought him to reason which should alwaies holde the helme of this little world man Like was the answere of Lochades father to Siron vp on the like report of the death of one of his children I knew well sayth he that he should dye VVe shall see others hereafter to the ende they may haue no cause to say that this resolution was monstrous in the world To conclude nature to make vs resolue ioyfully vnto death seemes to direct vs to the sweete song of the Swanne a presaging bird consecrated to Apollo by Antiquitie the which dying nature gathers together about the heart the purest and sweetest bloud which makes him Iouiall and to sing a happie presage to whom Socrates Plato and Tully send them that haue so great feare of death An Obiection Satan Man and Sinne are the causes of death Therefore it is not Nature ANswere When it is said in the holy Scripture that Satan holds the empire of death that by one man sinne entred into the world and by sin death finally that death is the reward of sinne we must not vnderstand it of the naturall death whereof the question growes but of the spirituall and eternall death as many of the ancient fathers doe expound it And how else could the threatning of God against Adam be vnderstood touching the tree of knowledge of good and euil Thou shalt not eate
for on that day thou shalt eate of it thou shalt die the death obserue the words from that day for he died not that day but liued long after but from that day being fallen from grace he dyed the spiritual death then what doth this Hebrew phrase to die the death mean but the principall death which is the eternall the second death But this death brought in by Sathan by sin by man hath no power ouer the children of God good men to whom this discourse is onely directed since that it was subdued bound and confined into hell by Iesus Christ our Sauiour as Athanasius hath wel obserued that as the waspe strikes violently against a stone but hurts it not by her incursion but rather bruzeth her selfe and looseth her sting euen so death incountring Christ furiously who is life she could not hold him in her bands but she hath lost her sting so as they whom shee terrified before insult ouer her now So then death simply the laying of the bodie into the ground there to be putrified the way to heauē is good to the good is giuen of God by nature life death are of the Lord sayth wise Ecclesi 11. vers 14. It is he that giues life and death that maks vs to descend into the graue to rise againe saith the Prophetesse Anna. 2. Sam. 2. It is then our good mother that calls vs to death let vs follow and obay her voice seeing we can receiue no harme and how can it bee hurtfull seeing it is the sepulcher of vices and the resurrection of vertues sayth S. Ambrose and how how can it bee dangerous seeing it is that Toad-stone which by his fecret vertue expels and rectifies all vncleane things And in truth as Toades when they are growne olde and heauy with a fat poyson are set vpon by an infinite number of Ants which sucke him and deuour him so as nothing remaines but the said stone which afterwards they may freely handle yea profitably So death hauing beene purged from sinne is now by the almighty power of the Eternall conuerted into a most souereigne remedy against sinne The second Obiection There is not any thing ingenerate in all Creatures by nature in vaine But the feare of death is ingenerate in all Creatures Therefore the feare of death is not in vaine FOr the proofe of this Argument shall suffice the approbation of all Creatures great and small which flye from death the same reason is for man whom the complexion of his flesh being proportionable to the quality of the Elements inclines him to loue the world he may be where he will yet his naturall disposition will draw him towards his countrey although in stead of some sweete liquor which he promised to himselfe hee should drinke wormewood So man beeing borne in the world and accustomed vnto it can hardly leaue it Answer The nature of man doth sometimes affect and abhorre one the same thing but for diuers considerations if he beholds death nakedly there is great feare as we may discouer in many but if he can haue the iudgement and patience to see her attired in her precious ornaments with vertue with heauen gates by the which onely we are brought in of the assured ioy and rest of the minde in the possession whereof shee sets the soule then doe wee affect it and desire it and this desire should be held more natural in man for that it is more proper vnto him seeing it proceeds from the true iudgement of reason which makes him man Moreouer for a more cleare solution of the argument we must distinguish the vniuersall nature from the particular vniuersall nature is that vertue that admirable investigable proportiō infused by God into the Vniuerse the proper Instrument of the principall agent of this soueraigne essence which hauing insinuated into this Chaos the first matter hath brought it in six dayes too this goodly ornament and hath preserued it many thousand of yeares of this nature we de nie that she plants in beasts the feare of that shee giues them that is to say death but as to shew vnto the beasts of the earth al the lights of heauen as well the fixed stars as wandring she turnes about the heauens so to shew vnto heauen all the Creatures she hath giuen the passage returning of life death else it were impossible if as in a tree the dry leaues falling giue place to green that spring so in beasts the first should not giue way to them that follow As for particular nature the very cōplexion of euery one to whom death is so terrible I say it is an ill ordered feare The Order is preposterous when as the particular doth not follow the Law of the generall and it is the ruine of States when as the priuate good is preferred before the publike The Romaine Empire did flowrish when as the Popilij Scipios Fabij and others did choose rather to be poore in a rich estate then rich in a poore estate Euen so is it in the societie of mankind taken in all ages euery one must dispose himselfe to follow this generall order of supreme nature and whosoeuer shall contradict it shall shew himselfe a bad Cittizen of this great Cittie of the world and opposing himselfe let him not therfore think to escape the inexorable destinie of his end but as the bird takē in the limetwig thinking to free her selfe by striuing is caught the faster so man which is ensnared by death the more furiously hee torments himselfe the more he shall aduance the obiect of his torment Let euery one therefore looke vnto his dutie to his children and to them that shall come after to prepare himselfe to giue them place here to tends that great desire the issue of particular nature to ingender that great care of fathers mothers in the nourishing preseruation education and bringing vp of their children to the end they may sucoted them and why then hauing prouided for all left yong oliue plants in our old stock hearing the bell sound a retre◅t wherefore I say should we shew our selues deafe vnwilling faynt hearted The fat all bird drawn by the sent of thy Carcase is perched ouer thy window art thou still restie doest thou not feele thy seditious guests with in thee which cōspireth thy infallible ruine Nature will haue it so she commands thee to depart feare not folthy good mother and thou shalt do well Let vs therfore conclude that although our particular nature our complexion makes vs to abhorre death yet wee must not beleeue her no more then the seruant of the house which is borne to obey It is the mistresse the vniuersal vertue of the world which commands vs to depart and to suffer others to enter let vs follow and obey all our trembling and horror is in vaine But to what ende is it will you say for me to haue flourishing children if in the meane time I become worms
Aethiopia called Acridophages or caters of Grasse-hoppers who liuing farre from the sea and being destitute of all succours haue no other meate but these Grasse-hoppers which certaine hot windes from the west raise vp and bring vnto them the which they pouder vp with salt and liue thereon for that growing old which is not aboue fortie yeeres they breed in them certaine lyce which haue wings and stinke the which in a short space eate their bellies then the brest and in the end the whole body their paine beginnes with an itching intermixt with pleasure in scratching which increasing by little and little leaues him not vntill that hauing torne himselfe with his nayles hee hath made an issue for the lice and stinking matter which come forth in such aboundance as there is no possibilitie to bee cured and so through the vehemencie of their torment they end their miserable dayes with horrible cryes But let vs returne into our way and say with the holy writ Death is the highway of all the earth all enter into it let vs follow them by the tracke And you to whom the Ruler of the world hath giuen the Empire of life and death as it were at pleasure abate the frowning of your browes for what a poore man may feare of you the same is threatned to you by the great Master of all saith the tragicall Poet Seneca Obiect not vnto mee the beauty of your Pallaces nor the magnificence of your Sepulchers for the Philosopher Seneca will maintayne that we ought not to take measure of your tombes which seeme to take another course but one and the same dust makes all men equall if wee be borne alike wee must dye alike that great Establisher of humane rights hath made no distinction in our natiuitie and extraction with others but in the time wherein we liue when we shall bee come to the end of mortall men then farewell ambition thou must bee like to all that the earth doth couer Let vs comfort our selues in the death of great men and therefore let vs heare the last speeches and commandement of great Saladin Sultan of Aegypt and Syria I will said he in dying without any other obsequies they carry an old blacke iuppe vpon the end of a lance that the Priest cry out aloude all the people hearing him I haue vanquished I haue liued a great Prince but now I am vanquished by death and my life closed vp I haue beene rich now I haue nothing but a mourning weede To this goodly table let vs adde a second which the pensill of antiquitie hath drawne Cresus being vpon a burning pile is preserued from the fire by Cyrus but rather reserued to another season Cyrus made his profit of the words of Cresus that no man could account himselfe happy before his death he thinks of it and wills after his death others should thinke of it with him when as he caused these words to be grauen vpon his tombe I am Cyrus which conquered the Empire of the Persians let no man enuie this little peece of ground which couers my poore carcase What followes Alexander comes hunting after new worlds and stumbles vpon this tombe hee reades and considers of the words and compassion made his heart to grieue saith the History for the inconstancie of things why for that he must in like manner dye soone after hee dyed Let vs conclude and say with the Apostle that it is decreed that all men shall die once that no man is exempt no not Emperours Kings Princes Lords no not Popes Cardinals nor Bishops neither rich strong nor healthfull and thereby let vs take comfort An Obiection Any thing that is cause of strāge accidents is strange Death is the cause of strange accidents Therefore it is strange THis reason tends to confute the precedent Argument For that death ouerthrowing the highest mountaines degrading and vnthroning Kings and Emperors and consining thē into obscure caues with simple mourning clothes which rot in the end vpon their bodies seemes wonderfull terrible Answer The Monarks of the world haue their priuate consolation in death yea I will say that the greater they are the greater fauour they receiue in death A Kings life is an vnquiet life full of ten thousand cares and troubles he must watch for the quiet of his subiects and against the surprises of his enemies he hath not an houre free from amazement and eats not a bit without feare of poyson and therefore that King of Persia did iustly exclaime◅ against it O Crowne said he hee that knew how heauy thou art would neuer take thee vp where he should finde thee Say not O ambitious they are bare words onely which neuer giue the effects many great men haue spoken it and done it That famous Emperour Dioclesian reiecting the Romaine Empire shut himselfe in the Gardens of Salona to manure them with his owne hands That great King and Emperour Charles 5. protested that hee had found more pleasure and content in one day in his solitary life then in all his royall and triumphant reigne But to conclude the experience of all ages doth teach vs that the greatest gates are most subiect to winde the highest tops of Mountaines are soonest shaken and th◅ greatest Emperors are most assayled and haue no rest but in death onely The 7. Argument from the commendable e◅fect of the contempt of Death Euerie thing that makes vs valiant should be pretious The contempt of death makes vs valiant Therefore the contempt of death should be pretious THere is nothing that hath in it so great force to make a man valiant as the contempt of death he that feares it not makes himselfe master of the most strong and vigorous life in the world Seneca sayth that death is not to be feared that by the benefit thereof any thing is to be preferred or auoyded Agesilaus being demanded of one how hee might purchase great fame If thou contemnest death sayd he He whose spirit is seazed on with the feare of death will neuer performe any memorable thing in war this passion will benumme withdraw mens hands from the goodliest exployts in the world Plut. in Lacon Alexander said that there was not any place so strong by nature or by art that was safe for cowards We reade that Philip king of Macedon hauing ma◅e an irruption into Peloponesus and that one stepping forth sayd That it was to be feared the Lacedemonians would endure many miseries if they did not compound with Philip to whom one Damidas answered O Dwarfe sayd he what harme can happen vnto vs that feare not death Epictetus also teacheth vs that to attempt nothing basely wee must alwaies haue death before our eyes to make her familiar frendly vnto vs where of wee shall haue sufficient proofe in a souldier of Antigonus band who finding himselfe toucht with a deadly infirmitie had death in such disdaine as nothing amazed him yea hee was fearefull to the most
certentime of the death passiō of our Sauiour Tertullian sayes that it was in the 30. yeare of Iesus Christ and the 15. of Tiberius but Ignatius and Eusebius witnes that it was in the 33. yeare of Christ and the 18. of Tiberius Onuph rius Mercator and other late writers will sweare that it was in the 34 yeare of Iesus Christ and if we yeeld some thing to antiquitie we shall beleeue that Iesus Christ was 50. yeeres old when hee was crucified and that it was not vnder Tiberius but vnder Claudius to this the Iewes discourse tended Thou art not yet 50. yeeres old and yet thou sayest thou hast seen Abraham If in this so holy a thing where there is not any cause of blind passion there appeares such apparent contrarietie what shall wee thinke of History where as the penne puft vp with passion and transported with flatterie or slander hath eyther aymed too high or too low at the white of truth the onely commendation of an historie And admit wee should find writers void of all passion the which seemes impossible if we except the secretaries of God who were guided with the holy Spirit yet their Histories should be vncertaine for the most part for that they haue not beene spectators of the times places and persons necessary circumstances in a History how can they know them seeing that many times that which is done in our owne Towne in the streete yea in our house is concealed from vs Nay the most exquisite and most certaine science is nothing but vanitie trouble of mind saith Salomon And if wee shall rightly obserue it we shall find the most learned most disquieted and the most vnlearned most at rest S. Augustine hath seene it and was amazed crying out with S. Paule The vnlearned rise vp and lay hold of heauen and we are plunged into hell with our learning It is the reason why Nicholas de Cusa hath written bookes of learned Ignorance where hee commends them that make not so great account to know and vnderstand many things as to doe well and liue well Knowledge then being for the most ignorance in this life cannot contayne any subiect to loue life And therfore wee will conclude That seeing in all the degrees of life there appeares no sufficient reason to desire it so vehemently that this desire is not commendable but to be blamed namely in man who being man for that hee hath a reasonable facultie should not will any thing much lesse affect it with passion but by a true iudgement of vnpassionate reason An Obiection All that is ordayned for the seruice of God is grounded vpon good reason Life is ordayned for the seruice of God ANswer That life is good which in all her motions actions and meditations seeks nothing but the humble seruice of her Creator but it it a chiefe point of their seruice that man liuing should doe that honour vnto his Lord to giue certaine credit vnto his oath and to the writings of his testament sealed with his bloud Verily I say vnto you that whosoeuer heares my words and beleeues in him that sent me hath eternal life the which is repeated in many other places Whosoeuer hath this certain assurance of faith in him what can he feare death nay rather desire it seeing that in heauen by this death which serues vs as a bridge to passe thither we shall be like vnto the Angels and shall doe the will of our heauenly Father obtayning the Petition which we should daily make vnto him by the expresse command of his Son in the Lords prayer Thy will be done in earth as it is in heauen Let vs say the will is good which aimes directly at the honor of God so long as it shall please him to keepe it in his fauour but yet death is better which the Eternal sends to giue vs thereby a better life The 11. Argument taken from the description of Death No Cessation from a labour vnprofitably renewed is vnpleasing Death is a Cessation from a labor vnprofitably renewed THere is no neede of Eagles eyes to pierce into the truth of this argument the least attention will comprehend it For what is this life but a daylie weauing of Penelopes Webb it is finished in the euening but the night vndoes it in the morning we beginne againe with as great eagernes as if it had neuer beene The which made Seneca to poure forth these complaints When shal we cease to weaue daily one worke I rise and then goe to bed I hunger then fill my selfe I am a cold and then I warme me There is no ende the head and tayle hold fast together whereas the same things in their courses doe incessantly approch and recoyle againe It is day and night comes sōmer appears and winter doth aduance still they walke one rounde I neither see nor doe any thing that is new I doe but goe about this wheele sayth the same Philosopher If I be layed I say when shall I rise and when will night fill vp her measure to glut me with distemperatures vntill day sayth Iob Chap. 7. It is the true bodie of the infernall shadow of Ixion who tied vnto a wheele turnes about perpetually There is not any one so dul but sees this earthly Labyrinth and yet no man will leaue it Euen so they that are borne in a prison affect not their libertie so they that dwell among the Cimmerians in darknes desire not a cleere skie So the children of Israel would not leaue the house of bondage they quarrelled with Moses who spake vnto them they cursed him and being come forth they would haue returned often what was the cause custome which was become another nature feare to finde worse in their iorney ignorance a cruell beast No man will leaue this miserable earth fearing to fall into greater miserie so much doth the loue of the place custome retaine the inhabitants in their miseries saith Seneca Many floate miserably betwixt the torments of life the horrour of death they will not liue yet know not how to die like to Vlysses in Homer who tooke fast hold of a wild Fig-tree fearing to fall into bottomlesse Charybdis but yet ready to leaue it if the feare were past So Tiberius confest that hee held the Empire as a Wolfe by the eares the which if hee might without danger haue abandoned hee would willingly doe it So Seneca and so experience doth teach that many keepe themselues close in life like vnto them whom a violent torrent hath carryed into some rough and thornie places But let vs learne of a silly woman That death is the calme port for the stormes of this sea to the end that with her wee may take pleasure in it Monica speaking to her sonne S. Augustine vsed these words As for me my sonne I take no more any pleasure in any thing in this impure world what should I doe here longer in
this base estate I know not why I liue hauing no more to doe here to fore I had a desire to liue to see thee liue to Christ I see it why then stay I longer here and soone after yeelded vp her soule to the Spirit of all power Euen so O mortall men liue as long as you list exceede the many yeeres of Nestor or the 969. of Methusalem yet shall you not see any other thing in this world but those foure great Princesses the foure seasons of the yeere holding hands together and dancing this round continually sometimes shewing their gracious aspects sometimes their backs deformed as Philo the Iew speaks It is like Sysiphus stone which being thrust vp by force to the top of the Mountayne returnes presently backe againe to the foote of it and like the Sunne which hath no sooner toucht one of the Tropikes but hee suddenly turnes to the other To conclude it is Danaes tonne pierced full of holes they may well poure in water but they shall neuer fill it These are fictions but they haue their mysticall hidden sences The holy Scripture hath Parables and Philosophie figures let no man therefore reiect them for so did the ancient Philosophers shadow their Philosophie And as mercenarie labourers toyling and sweating in the longest day of Sommer reioyce when they see the Sunne decline and neere his setting so wee after such painefull trauaile whereunto this life doth force vs let vs reioyce when wee draw neere vnto our declining and let vs not refuse being weary and tyred to rest our selues in the sweet armes of death to the which without doubt there is no bed in the world how pleasing soeuer to be compared There is nothing here but ignorance that keepes vs backe If the Israelites had truely vnder stood the beauty and bounty of the land of Canaan if they had beene assured of the enioying thereof they had not so often murmured against Moses being ready to stone him they had not wisht for the oynions and leekes of Egypt they would haue taken courage in the midst of the desart Let vs then conclude that there is nothing but the blindnesse of man which hinders him from seeing the ioyes of heauen whereunto death is the waye Wherefore let vs open the eyes of our vnderstanding not grieue for the grosse foode of this world for in heauen there is prepared for vs the meate of Angels Obiection Any exchange from a place that is pleasing and certaine for one that is vncertaine must needs cause trouble vexation Death is the exchange of the world which is pleasing and certaine for a place wholly vncertaine MOst part of the world when the Lampe of this life is almost wasted are so perplexed as they do lose themselues In the chiefe Citie of Aragon vpon a Knights tombe this Epitaph is written in Latine I know not whither I goe I die against my will Farewell suruiuers The Emperour Titus dying said Alas must I die that haue neuer deserued it There is to be read at Rome vpō the stone of a Sepulcher of Sextus Perpenna to the Infernall gods I haue liued as I list I know not why I die Whereunto may be added the verses which the Emperour Adrian a little before his death made vnto his soule My pretty soule my daintiest My bodies sociable Guest Whither is my sweetest going Naked trembling little knowing Of that delight depriuingme That while I liu'd I had from Thee Many at this day in the light of the Gospell shew by their actions that they are no better resolued then these were although that shame will not suffer them to confesse it when as death approcheth Answer Wee deny the Minor of the Argument for it is not true that death is of it selfe to bee beloued if it appeares so it is but in comparison of some extreame misery which we apprehend in leauing it for the liuing are as we haue said like vnto them which are carried away violently with a stream who to saue themselues lay hold of that which comes first to hand yea if it were a barre of burning Iron If you will then aske them how pleasing that estate is you may easily ghesse what they will say That if they were as certaine as it is most certaine that there were no harme in death as shall appeare they would not breake out into such complaints It is also false that this place is certaine Gorgias the Rhetorician will not depose it for being demanded if hee died willingly Yea said hee for I am not grieued to leaue a lodging which is rotten and open of all sides And Epicurus had often in his mouth that against any thing in the world wee might finde some place of safety but we all liued in a City which was not fortified against death and in truth this body is but a little plot of earth commanded of euery side flanked of none hauing furious enemies without mutinous within Ingeners haue made many impregnable forts but neuer able to resist death Physitions haue drawne out the quintessence of their spirits if they haue any time found a delay yet must they in the end yeeld and pay the interest Fabulous Aeson returned to youth by the Sorceresse Medea and true Lazarus raised againe by the Sauiour of the world haue not yet for all that escaped death But you will reply It is that which wee would say that without death life shold be certaine I answere that you know not what you say for life as it is made here and whereof our question is cannot bee without death to desire to be a man and not be willing to die is not to desire to liue for it is one of the conditions of life as shall appeare in the following Argument Moreouer I adde that what incertainty of the future Estate soeuer you pretend doubtlesse it cannot bee so miserable except the reprobate as that of this life Thirdly admit that life were certaine yet the pleasures would not be so but rather the displeasures certaine That wise King of Macedon saw it feared it and protested against it For newes comming vnto him of three great prosperities that hee had won the price at the Olympike games that hee had defeated the Dardanians by his Lieutenant and that his wife had brought him a goodly sonne hee cried out with his hands lift vp to heauen O Fortune let the aduersity which thou preparest for me in exchange of thy fauours be moderate But I will sommon you Merchants which make a profession of trafficke There is a bargaine offered vnto you in the which you finde of the one side gaine to bee made and of the other losse I demand if like a good husband you will not weigh the losse with the gaine to the end that finding the losse the greater you may breake off the bargaine And why should not man obserue the like in life which is much more important Why should bee not ballance the pleasures
with the displeasures and finding these greater and more grieuous why should hee feare to lose the pleasures to auoyd the displeasures A Poet speaking of a solitary life sayd That if there be not so great ioy without doubt there is not so great paine If death haue not the ioyes of this world it hath not the torments of life which are farre greater Obserue it for a certaine Maxime that there are three things here below which march equally with an inconstant pace the estate of the aire which they call time life and the opinion of man And that which is worse there are more cloudy dayes then cleere more miserable dayes for man then happy and more changes to bad then good But that which should fully assure vs going out of this life is Iesus Christ who protests That no man shall pull his sheepe out of his hands Ioh. 10. We know whose wee are by the faith that is in vs by the which we are fully perswaded that God will keepe our pledge vntill that day 2. Tim. 1. Moreouer we are assured of the end by the beginning for to him that hath shal be giuen more Luc. 19. Finally we doubt no more For the holy Spirit doth witnesse with our Spirit that we are the children of God Rom. 8. 16. This is certaine but admit that it were not so there is no pleasure in the world be it neuer so short but it leaues behind a venimous sting of serious repentance I see thy large possessions thy stately houses the amiable aspect of thy children thy treasure the greatnesse of thine honors finally all the pompe in the world raise thee vp with their goodly shewes but beleeue me these things are not so happy as thou doest hold them for proofe looke vpon them that haue them in a higher degree then thy selfe if notwithstanding they bee not miserable they be transitory things if thou leauest not them first they will leaue thee if thou doest affect them more then as an exercise for thy spirit thou hast neither witt nor iudgement This vnderstanding which makes the man should not crouch vnder these carnall things it must rayse vp himselfe to those which are eternall to the beauties bounties exquisite workmanship of this vniuers All the pinching care which thou takest for the world is but a toyle to the bodie vexation of minde and a losse of time do what thou wilt enioy all the possessions of the earth but know this for certaine that one onely houre can take them from thee Doest thou not see that all runnes to change in this world like vnto the Moone which immediatly doth gouerne it Art thou mounted to the highest degree thou must descend againe he that loues thee wil hate thee he whom thou hast saued it may be will kill thee as it happened to Iulius Caesaer thou doest laugh to day it may be to thou shalt weep to morrow Doest thou triumph to day an other day thou shalt be led Captiue finally art thou aliue to day another day will carrie thee to the graue and not knowing what day if thou art wise thou wilt suspect euery day like vnto that good old man Messodan who being inuited by one of his friends to a feast the next day sayed vnto him Doest thou put me off vntill tomorrow who after so many yeares did neuer hold any one day assuredly mine but I haue held euery day as if it had beene my last a resolution which differs much from these young old men who hauing one footein the graue yet thinke they may liue one yeare more at the least and the yeare being past yet another and so alwaies what is this but against the order of nature to thinke to liue euer The 12. Argument from the condition of life No man should hate any essentiall condition of that which he pursues Death is an essentiall condition of life Therefore no man should hate Death that seekes life IT wee consider of death not in her introduction but as she hath beene blest by God since by his grace it is no fearefull paine to life as we conceiue but an inseparable qualitie Life is a burning Lampe the body is the cotten the radicall humour the oyle the naturall heate the fire this fire consumes the oyle and cotten by little and little and in few houres had deuoured it all if nutriment supplied and changed by a secret vertue did not kepe it repayred yet can it not preserue life from naturall ruine but for a time for that the vertue ingrafted into all the members of the body wearing by degrees in the transubstantiation of meates and application thereof to the fading substance comes in the ende to waste the humor dryes vp the fire is quenched death followes and seeing that we see death inclosed in the bodie of life he should be verie indiscreet that would seeke life and hate death and hee wise and vertuous that will no more regard death then life seeing it concernes his dutie Heare what Pompey the Great returning out of Sicily with Corne to famished Rome in a great storme said vnto the Master of the ship being halfe dead Gowe goe we the question is not to liue but to goe This great personage did consider that it was as naturall for man to dye as to liue and in truth all that haue liued are dead what force soeuer they pretended to oppose the most puissant beasts in the world the Elephants goe to dust yea Nature willing to shew how little that is which here seemes great and how vpon the least occasion all force decayes shee suffereth the Elephant at the sight of the least and basest creatures of a Mouse or an Ant to bee so seazed with feare as he trembles strangely The Tyrants were smothered with lightning in the Phlegrean fields The Tyrant Maximine with his 8 foot in length with his great thumb carrying his wiues bracelet for a ring who drew carts laden brake an horse teeth with his fist and did split trees with his hands Although he thought himselfe immortall by reason of his force yet he lyes slaine by his subiects In the same estate is Marius whose fillips were like blowes with a hammer Among the Moderns George Castriot Prince of Albania valiant and fortunate in his exployts who with his owne hands had slain 2000 Turks who neuer gaue but one blow to cleaue a man in two and to ouerthrow the strongest yet in the end death subdued him and layd him in his graue Let the Idolatrous Turkes search his Tombe for his bones and from those reliques draw an inuincible force to themselues yet hee is dead doth not this suffice Behold Cities Common weales and kingdomes they haue their youth and vigor so in like manner their age and death where is Thebeâ—… that great City whereof the name is scarce remaining where are those 〈◊〉 Cities of Candie where is Sparta and Athens wherof there remains nothing but the base ruines And thou the
man is as the world aboue the Moone alwayes cleere and without clouds But what is this ioy it is saith Seneca peace concord greatnesse of spirit ioyned to mildnesse it is to bee content with things present whatsoeuer and to become a friend to his affaiers It is sayth D◅critus to haue his spirit free from feare and the religious Doctor Saint Ambrose will say That tranquillity of conscience and assured innocency make the life happy Finally Salomon will cry out than a ioyful spirit is a delightful banket and contrariewise a troubled minde thinkes alwayes of things which are distastfull mournfull Trust not to these mela◅cholie men to whom adu◅ choler makes white things seeme blacke those that are happy vnfortunate and to feare where there is nothing but subiect of assurance Life is as we gouerne it good or bad pleasant or displeasant and therefore Epictetus sayed f◅ly That euery thing had two ends and that by the one it was easie to beare by the other combersome If your brother saith hee hath done you wrong doe not consider of ◅t of that side that he hath done you wrong for then it is vneasie to beare but of the other as he is your brother that you haue beene nourished together and then you wil find it very tolerable Du Vair who like the industrious Be◅ hath gathered summarily together the flowers of the Stoicks writes that nature may say vnto vs as the Philosopher did vnto his Disciples What I present vnto you with the right hand you take with the left your choice tends alwayes to the worst you leaue what is good and imbrace the bad Let vs take things by the good end wee shall finde that there is subiect of loue in that which we hate For there is not any thing in the world but is for the good of man As for example you haue a sute with your neighbour when you thinke of him your sute coms to minde and then you curse him and are disquieted the reason is you take it by the bad end but take it by the other and represent vnto your selfe that he is a man like to you that God by a resemblance of nature calls you to a mutuall affection that he is in the same Citie in the same Temple and doth communicate in the same Lawes the same prayers and the same Sacraments with thee that you are bound to succour one another reciprocally Finally the Stoicks hold for a Maxime that a wise man is exempt from iniurie either to giue or receiue he cannot doe any being borne onely to ayde hee receiues none for that being grounded vpon vertue hee valiantly contemnes all reproch wrong so as hee is inuulnerable as Seneca saith not for that hee is not strooke but for that as hee saith hee cannot bee hurt Answer I know that the Stoicks with whose fethers our obiector decks himselfe haue sought to frame their wise man of that fashion that he should not be capable of any ill but continually possest of a sollide ioy but whatsoeuer they haue purtrayed was but a vaine picture without effect or truth like vnto the Chimeres and Centaures Who wil beleeue that a wise man put vpon the racke feeles no paine Who can say that the life of Metellus is not more to be desired then that of Regulus turned vp and downe in a pipe full of nailes and that they are equall fauours That a wise man will ioyfully holde his hand burning in the fire like vnto Mutius Scaeuola Finally that a wise man beeing burnt tormented and put in Phalaris burning bull will notwithstanding say O what a sweete life is this Let them do what they list I care not These and such like are the Paradoxes of these Philosophers who as Cicero saith carry admiration in their foreheads but beeing strip't naked they giue cause of laughter of themselues as Plutarke saith they confesse their absurditie and vanity And in truth who wold not laugh when among other things they say that only a wise man is truely a king rich beautifull yea though he were a slaue a begger or a Zopirus with his nose cut off c. But let vs answere punctually to the reasons obiected The Sarazin Abdala vnderstands that by some excellent relickes of thesoule man is admirable to the world but hee doth not touch his felicitie for hee hath nothing of that remayning since his transgressiō he is continually here below miserable in euery degree He had the gift of free will to haue enioyed his owne happynesse if hee had would but for that hee abused it he lost himselfe and his liberty saith S. Augustine He rules ouer all creatures but a miserable domination in the which the meanest subiect exceeds his Lord in felicitie and twise miserable in the which the Lord suffers more miserie then the most wretched of his subiects Reade Plutarke and then Homer but aboue all the Spirit of God in the holy writ who knowes what wee are and qualifies man with no other titles but of darkenesse and foolishnesse to thinke a good thought of himselfe a brutish man who comprehends not the things which are of the Spirit and cannot vnderstand them for they are spiritually discerned Finally hee shewes him to be weake sicke dead in his sinnes a vipers broode not able to doe any good thing for that he is bad and by consequence cannot take part but with Satan the prince of darkenesse and the father of lyes and all iniquitie Moreouer if Seneca and others to retayne men in life teach them what they ought to doe it is no argument that they diuert them from death when shee shall present herselfe vnto them but contrariwise Seneca doth in a manner generally protest That death hath no discommoditie that it is not onely without ill but without the feare of ill and that it is a foolish thing to feare it c. As for life hee calls it deceitful and vicious for that it is alwayes imperfect But see how vpon this question hee opens his heart to sorrowfull Martia for the death of her sonne O ignorant men saith he of their owne miseries which doe not commend death as the goodlyest inuention of nature For whether that she holds felicitie inclosed or excludes calamitie be it that shee ends the satietie and wearinesse of old age or that shee carries away youth in his flower in the hope of better things be it that shee calls vnto her the most vigorous age before that it hath mounted the roughest steps yet is she to all men their end to some a remedy to some a vow and those are more bound vnto her to whom she coms without calling He goes on but he cuts off his discourse to come to the end of his life which was cut off for being commanded by Nero to dye without any delay hee willed his Surgeon to open a veine in his foote holding it in a bason of warme
the refutation in the meane time for witnes of my saying I propound that great Diuine S. Augustin writing that which followeth The present life is doubtfull blind miserable beaten with the flowing and ebbing of humors weakened with paines dried vp with heate swelled with meate vndermined with famine coÌ„founded with sports consumed with sorrowes distempered with cares dâ—…lled with pride pufâ—… vp with riches deiected with pouertie shaken in youth made crooked in age broken by diseases and tuined by 〈◊〉 c. Many great men who haâ—… not wanted any thing for the enioying of all pleasures yet would they in their life time haue writteÌ„ vpon the Marble which should couer them dead for a conclusion of the Epitaph these last words The life and biâ—…h of mortall men is nothing but toyle and death as one waue driues on another so one miserie thrusts on another the one is no sooner flying but the other followes him And as in the eye one teare springs of another so one sorrow riseth out of another as Buchanan hath learnedly written in his Tragedie of Iepthe The 3. Obiection It is not lawful of himselfe and without other some Command to remaine in a place that is bad and troublesome Life is a place bad and troublesome It is not therefore lawfull of himselfe without other command to remayne in life THis long Iliade of calamities of this present life seems to perswade man to the doctrine of the Stoicks which is to depart when it is too troublesome so speaks Seneca A wise man liues as long as he ought not solong as hee could he will see how with whom how he should liue and what he should doe if many things fal out troublesome crosse his tranquillitie he frees himselfe and he doth it not only in the vrgent necessitie but as soone as fortune seemes suspect vnto him he coÌ„siders that it imports not whether he giue himselfe his ende or that he receiue it Moreouer that it is wretched to liue in necessitie but there is no necessity to liue in necessitie Diogenès meeting one day with Speusippus being sickly causing himselfe to be carried by reason of the Gout he called vnto him in these tearmes God giue thee a good day Diogenes to whom he answered But God giue you no good day that being in this estate hast the patience to liue With the sharpnes of these Cynicall wordes Speusippus was so moued as contrarie to the precepts of his sect he ended his owne life But let vs produce if you please some reasons by the which these men haue debated there follie The 1. Life and death say they are indifferent things and therefore man acoording to his commoditie may vse them indifferently Wherefore saith 〈◊〉 As one that is inuited hauing feasted taken his refection retyres himselfe so being glutted with life why dost thou not depart O foole why doest thou not imbrace a pleà fing rest what interest hast thou that death should come vnto thee or thou goe vnto it Perswade thy selfe that this speech is false and proceeds from an indiscreet man It is a goodly thing to dye his death for it is alwayes thy death and especially that which thou hast procured to thy self The 2. Death is the goodliest port to libertie which is the fruite of wisedome I will not serue said that LaeedemoniaÌ„ child cast him down a precipice who learned to dye in contempt of seruitude he is free from all power what doth a prison a dungeon or fetters touch him he hath an open port The 3. Wherefore hath nature giueÌ„ so streight an entrance vnto life and hath preseÌ„ted vnto man so many large issues vnto death if it shal not bee lawfull for him to depart when he pleaseth On which side soeuer said Seneca thou shalt cast thy miseries thou shalt finde the end of thy miseries doest thou see this precipice by which they descend to liberty doest thou see this sea this riuer this pit there is liberty in the bottome doest thou see this little tree crooked cursed Liberty hangs at it Doest thou see thy throat thy heart These be the fruits of seruitude Plinie saith that the earth our common pareÌ„t hath for pitties sake ordained poysons to this end that beeing able to swallow them easily we may with equall facility dislodge out of this world So in old time Kings and great men did keepe certaine poyson ready for any suddaine vse in the doubtfull euents of fortune as Titus Liuius reports and therefore many haue poysoned themselues being valiant and esteemed great personages Zeno being 98. yeeres old yet strong and lusty returning from the Schoole hee stumbled and fell and being down hee strooke the ground with his hand saying â—…re I am what wilt thou And being come to his house hee layd downe his life of himselfe Cleanthes hauing an Vlcer in his mouth and hauing abstained two dayes from meat by the aduice of the Phisitions was cured Beeing then perswaded by them to eate againe Oh no said he hauing past the greatest part of the way I will not I will not returne againe and so he died of abstinence We could produce many others much coÌ„mended as Lucrece Cato and others if they were not sufficiently knowne Answer I deny that the swarme of miseries of this present life is a sufficient cause to depart when wee please the great God which hath placed vs here must first come and take vs away Pythagoras in Tully forbids to leaue the Corpes de guarde without commandement of the Captaine as a prisoner breaking prison agrauates his crime so the spirit violating his body makes himself guilty of a double torment And he that hath so strictly forbiddeÌ„ to kil meant it as well of himselfe as of others And therefore Virgil platonizing sings vnto vs that they which haue inhumanly slaine themselues hold the first place in hell As for the vertue which they pretend in it the most quick sighted Philosopher hath seene nothing but feare and foolishnesse thus he speaks It is the part of a coward and not of a valiant man to dye by reason of pouerty of loue or for any other thing that is troublesome it is a faintnesse to flie difficult things and after He suffers not death as a good thing but flying the euill Finally he that murthers himselfe wipes himselfe for euer out of the booke of life for that he dies impenitent in the act of sinne neuer to haue remission after this life nor as Saint Augustine sayth any indulgence of correction But to come neerer to our Stoickes wee will first appeale srom Seneca to Epictetus O men sayth hee haue patience attend God vntill hee giue the signe that hee hath dismist you from this ministery then returne vnto him But for the present support couragiously inhabite this region in the which he hath placed you this habitation is short easie not burthensome c. The 1. reason inferring that life and death
are indifferent is false for it is to teare in pieces the sacred communion of the soule with the body of man with his neighbour to kill himselfe Man is not borne for himselfe but after God for his Country which hee depriueth of a good son such as he ought to bee Aristotle hath seene it and hath written it saying That he that kils himselfe doth wrong vnto the Comonalty but to doe wrong is no indifferent thing Moreouer it is a sinne against nature for euery man loues himselfe naturally 〈◊〉 and desires to preserue his being also wee do not see any other Creature but man to kill himselfe through impaciency of paiue The 2. reason which speakes so much of li berty is friuolous and ridiculous for what liberty is there in a dead man who hath neither the power nor the will to chase away a fly that stings him who is made subiect to all sorts of wormes rottennes and stench what is liberty but a power to do what we list but death neither hath will action nor my power it a â—…s mosâ—… dry in my opinion to produce this defence As for the third poysons are giuen by the earth rather to preserue life theÌ„ to destroy it to make antidotes preseruatiues against malignant and venimous diseases and a thousand vnexpected accidents by the biting of mad or venimous beasts omitting the true cause of diuines that the sinne of man hath infected all powring forth his poyson vpon the Creatures which eâ—…uiron him therefore as Saint Paul sayth they sigh and long after their future restauration Finally examples binde vs not but rules wee liue not according vnto others but as we ought the Law of God is plaine sealed in the particular nature of euery one Thou shalt not kill by the which we are forbidden the simple homicide of our neighbor for that he is of humaine blood next the parricide of father or mother for we are their blood which doth much augment the hainousnes of the offeÌ„ce 3. The murthering of our selues which exceeds parricide in a degree of horror To this we must haue regard not vnto what Zeno or Cleanthes haue done And the Stoickes who in all other places so much recommend vnto their Disciples seemelines honesty and duty seeme to me in this point forgetfull blind preuaricators what shal we then do That which a wise Pagan did aduise vs It is for valiant men sayd he rather to contemne death theÌ„ to hate life Many times faint hearted meÌ„ are driuen to a base coÌ„tempt of theÌ„selues throgh the wearines of labor but vertue will trie al things Seeing theÌ„ that death is the end of all things it is sufficieÌ„t to go ioyfully vn to it To his words we adde That our inteÌ„t is not to take away life but the terror of death when it comes a wise man wil liue ioyfully so long as it shall please the Lord of life He wil die also more ioyfully when it shall please the same Lord. This is that he ought to do and doubtlesse man may without sin desire yea pray vnto the Lord that hee may liue long for many reasons but especially for 2. The one concernes the glory of God in the administratioÌ„ of the charge which hee hath committed vnto vs therefore the Son of God in dying would saue his Disciples by that voice full of vertue which he vsed to the Romaine souldiers and Iewes If you seeke me let them go the which preserued them long especially his well-beloued S. Iohn whom he retained in life vnto ninety yeares The other respects our children parents and friends of whom we may and ought in conscience haue a care seeing that by the censure of the Apostle hee which hath not a care of his family hath denied the faith and is worse then an Infidell But besides these reasons and some others which doe simbolize I say that the desire to liue were not fit if there were no other reason sor there is no ceasing from finne so long as life doth last so as the longer wee liue the more â—…lpable we are before God So as I maintaine that the feare to vndergo death I meane death simply is alwayes vicious foolish and ignorant But to be a Murtherer of himselfe without comparison it is much more execrable the Lawes of euery well gouerned Common-weale haue thundred against it yea the Grecians in the midst of â—…rmes whereas lawes are silent would not in signe of indignitie burne the body of Aiax according to their custome for that hee had slaine himselfe The virgins of Milesia for that they had furiously straÌ„gled themselues were drawne by publike ignominie through the streets of the Citie and in such cases God doth vsually shew visible signes of his reuenging wrath So in Parthenay a towne in Poitou a certaine woman in the absence of her husband was taken with a deuilish despaire she tooke the little children when shee had smothered them and hanged them then she came vnto her selfe went vp on a stoole and hung her selfe and and thrust awaie the stoole with her foote but the rope brake and she falling downe halfe dead found a knife the Diuell is a readie officer to furnish instruments to doe euill which she takes and thrusts into her bosome The next day the matter being knowne all the world ranne thither with the iudges who caused her bodie to be cast out vpon a dunghill neere vnto the towne wall Not far from it there was a corps de gard and neere it a place for a sentinell the gard being set for it was in time of warre the sentinell heard a fearfull noise in the ayre right against this Carcasse and after a long stay was forced to leaue his stand the gard also amazed with this noyse thought to flie awaie Thus the Diuells made sport with this poore desperate woman The 19. Argument taken from the contradiction of man touching Death Not any thing that is sometimes called for by vs with ioy being come should be trouble some Death is sometimes called for by vs with great ioy THe Pagans to describe the pittifull estate of man in this life haue fained that Prometheus mingling the slime of the earth with tears made â—…antherof wherunto a Latine Poet hath alluded saying Teares bâ—… the our Births 〈◊〉 all inteares we liue And Death in teares Many alarums doth giue But what need of testimony but the continuall feare and feuers which spring from the apprehension of those infirmities wherof we haue made mentioÌ„ Thy bowells wroung with the cholicke a thousand gripes and throwes at euerie child bearing if thou beest a woman the pinching cares that trouble the mind make thee by interruption soden exclaming to desire death not without reason seeing that the Prophet Elias serues thee for a patterne who not knowing how to auoyd the ambushes that were layed against him did wish to dye But let vs cast our eyes vpon those miseries that make vs
to desire Death not as wee propounded them nor as we haue found them but as they make themselues known If we shall indge of the streame by the spring what may we hope for of the life of man conceiued betwixt the vrine and excrements borne naked all in tears but only a perpetuall flux of corruption pouertie and calamities therefore it is not without reason that S. Bernard sayd That man is but a stinking sperme a nourishment for wormes a sacke of excrements and such should wee see him within if the skinne did not stay our sight outwardly Doe we doubt of it seeing of this liuing substāce there are ingendred wormes about an ell long and being dead serpents in the pithe of the backe as Plinie writes and experience teacheth Plutarke reports that the king of Egypt hauing caused the body of Cleomenes to be hanged and the garde hauing discouered a great serpent wound about his head they called the people who running to this spectacle called Cleomenes as a demy-God The like happened to a young man a Germaine who would neuer suffer his picture to be drawn in his life time but onely granted to his kinsfolkes who importuned him that some dayes after his interment they might take him vp and draw him as they found him Being taken out of the graue they saw about the Diaphragma the pith of the backe many little Serpents to verifie what the authour of Ecclesiasticus faith When man dyerh he becoms the inheritance of serpents The life of man is a candle exposed to all winds saith Epictetus His body is a store-house of all sorts of diseases saith another his flower his most excellent point of glory is such as he is alwayes in paine and martyrdome and this point passeth away dazling the eye like a flash greatnesse and worldly riches are no more sssured then the waues of the sea they flowe suddainely and ebbe no l◅sse violently Sesostris King of Egypt causing himselfe to bee drawne in a Chariot of pure gold by foure Kings his prisoners one of them held his eye fixed vpon the wheele which did rolle vp and down by him Sesostris obseruing it demanded of him the cause of his countenance who answered That looking vpon the wheele and obseruing the spoaks to bee sometimes aloft and suddainely downe againe I call to minde the rolling change of my selfe and my companions Sesostris considers hereof abates his pride and giues liberty to his Captiues Such is the estate of the affaires of this world like vnto a marke subiect to infinite darts of aduersity No man knowes what the night brings sayd one in Titus Liuius the pleasures are vncertaine but the displeasures most certaine Nature giues vs a taste at our comming into the world where wee enter weeping And according to this instinct of nature the Thraci ns wept at the birth of their children numbring what miseries they should suffer in the world For the same reason the Getes a religious people held that it was better to die then to liue therefore they lamented at their child-birthes and sung at their burialls And wise Salomon saith that the day of death is better then that of birth Looke into Erasmus vpon the prouerbe Optimum non nasci Sophocles in like manner giues aduice that it is more reasonable to weepe at the birth of their children as beeing entred into great miseries and beeing dead to carry them ioyfully to the graue as freed from the miseries of this life And who will doubt any more of this seeing he that neuer lies calls this life death Ioh. 5. saying Hee that heares my words and beleeues in him that sent me shall passe from death to life The Lycians law ordayned that they which wold mourn should put on womens robes for that it did in no sort befit graue and discreete men to weepe for the dead but for passionate women Vpon this law a Lawyer of Padoua groūded his testament although he be taxed by another First hee charged his heire vpon great comminations to banish all blacke cloth from his Funeralls and that he should prouide singers and players on Iustruments to sing and play going among the Priests both before and behinde the Corpes to the number of fifty to euery one of which he bequeathed halfe a Ducate for his paines Moreouer hee ordained that 12. young virgines attired in greene should carry his body vnto Saint Sophias Temple in which he should be interred suffering them to sing ioyfull songs with a loud voyce and for a reward hee bequeathed them a certaine summe of money to helpe them at their marriage All sorts of Priests and Monkes might assist except such as were barred with blacke lest that colour should darken the beauty and cheerefulnesse of his Funeralls he had seene with Heraclitus that during the dayes of this miserable life there is no subiect but of teares and that at our departure we should reioyce with Demoeritus And therefore Plato doth rightly call death a medicine for all miseries and Seneca esteemes it the end of seruitude Let vs seale vp this discourse with the memorable aduice which Epictetus gaue to the Emperour Adrian enquiring why they set garlāds vpon the dead It is in signe answered he that at the day of their death they haue triumphed ouer the diuers assaults of this life Let vs then dye when it shall please the prince of this life to cease the teares and alarmes of this life and to beginne the life of heauen whereas God will wipe away all teares from our eyes whereas death shall be no more and there shal be no more mourning crying nor labour Obiection If men call for death and being come refuse it so much it is a signe that it is very horrible But the antecedent is true Therfore the consequent is also true IT is reported in Laertius that the Philosopher Antisthenes tyed to his bed by a greeuous disease and the more grieuous the more he loued his life was visited by Diogenes who knowing the man had taken a naked sword vnder his gowne Antisthenes perceiuing him cried out O God who shall deliuer me from hence Diogenes answered presently that shal this shewing him his sword But Antisthenes replied more sodainly I meane from these paines and not from my life It seemes that most of those crier sout for death make that their refuge when she approcheth neere them Esope in the Apologue hath naturally described it by that old man who being laden with a great burthen and falling into a Ditch he grew to despaire and calling for death death came and commands him to follow him O no said he I call thee to helpe me vp with my burthē that I may returne Answer I know well that many feare death much not for any desire to liue nor for the pleasures they haue in life for the two examples obiected shew the contrarie but for that they know not what death is And thereunto tends this
it c. ANswere Neither Dauid nor Ezechias nor the other seruants of God feared death as it was death simply alone considered but for that God threatned them in regard of their sins by reason whereof it seemes they had some confused apprehension of hell which is the second death Doubtlesse my fault is great sayd Dauid but I pray thee saue mee by thy great bounty These are the words of God to Ezechias Dispose of thy house for thou shalt die shortly and shall not liue We must note that Ezekias heart was puft vp with glory God would humble him by the consideration of death wherewith he threatned him But these two and all other the seruants of God setting aside these threats being in the fauour of God haue with Saint Paul desired to die and to be freed from this mortal body to be with Christ with God Man here below should not apprehend any thing but the conscience of another life a life which dying without repentance grace leades to death eternall as that of Saul and Iudas who being desperate slue themselues quenching the match of a vicious life to kindle it in the fire of hell where there is a Lake of fire and brimstone As for the death of Christ the great difference it hath both in the cause and the effects from that of the faithful Christians makes it to differ a world The reason is Gods Diuine Iustice to reuenge the iniury which hath beene done him by the diuell in the nature of man the which not able to do in him without his totall ruine hee hath done in his surety in Iesus Christ his Son whom to that end hee sent into the world to take humaine flesh in the Virgins wombe It is he that was wounded for our offences broken for our iniquities censured to bring vs peace and slaine to cure vs as the Prophet speakes and the Apostles testifie The fruites first the glory of God is manifested in his loue in his bounty and in his mercy towards vs to haue so loued the world as to giue his owne Son to death for it to the end that whosoeuer did beleeue in him should not perish but haue life euerlasting as the same eternal Son doth witnes Secondly it is our saluation the redemption of the Church from sinne and death for it is the Lambe of God which taketh away the sinnes of the world And these are the reasons why Iesus Christ was terrified in death feeling the wrath of God vpon him for our sinnes But the death of the faithfull is nothing like for in the greatest torments which Tyrants can inflict vpon them it mortifies the sence and takes away all paine by the abundance of his consolation as Ruffinus writes of Theodorus and as our Annales testifie of the smiling death of Martirs in the middest of burning fiers for God is satisfied the passage is open the venimous teeth of death are pulled out seeing that the Lord wrestling with her hath slaine her as S. Augustine speakes and like a most expert Phisition hath made a wholesome Treacle to purge our bodies of those corrupt burning stincking and deadly humors and to make it sound holy impassible and immortall The second Obiection Euery iust reward is proportionable to the paine The reward of Martyrsis great Therefore their paine is great THe holy Writ and the ancient Fathers vpon it beare witnesse of the honour and great triumph which the Martyrs obtaine in heauen if their conflict against death bee answerable to this triumph as equity requires it must bee exceeding great and therefore it is no easie thing to dye the which S. Augustine seemes to confirme Si nulla esset mortis amaritudo non esset magna Martyrum fortitudo If saith hee there were no bitternesse in death the Martyrs valour should not be great Answer He is truely a Martyr who for the honour of God and for the loue of his neighbour doth constantly seale the contract of the alliance of God with his owne bloud and the true cause of Martyrdome is to suffer death for iustice and for the name of Christ as Christians and in doing well This bloud thus shed is the true seede of the Church the very Commentary of the holy Scripture the Trompet of Gods glory the true Victory of the cruelty and obstinacy of Gods enemies the holy Lampe to lighten and draw to the Kingdome of Christ those which are in the shaddow of death c. In consideration whereof these holy Champions of the faith are honored in heauen with a Crowne of gold clothed with white garments c. Vpon earth in the primi tiue Church vpon the day of their suffring which they called their birth-day the faithfull assembled vpon the place of their Martyrdome did celebrate their happy memory repeated their combates commended their resolution exhorting the assistants to doe the like if they were called to the like combate as well by reading of their bloody history as by the sight of the place where their blood was newly spilt It is that which Cyrillus in the epistle to Smyrne the Paraphrase of Rufynus doth teach vs wherein we may see that it was not the death but the cause of the death which made them to bee so recompenced and recommended And whatsoeuer they haue had in heauen shall bee giuen to all others which shall haue the like will to serue their master though not the effect the like Crowne nor the like garments To mee saith that great Martyr S. Paule the Crowne of Iustice is reserued which the Lord the iust Iudge shall giue mee in that day and not onely to me but vnto all those that shall loue his Comming And what Christian is it that desires not the comming of Christ It is also written that all the Armies which are in heauen wherein all the faithfull are followed the faithfull the true the Word of God vpon white horses clad in white Cypres Finally in this inestimable reward which God giues vnto Martyrs there is not so great a regard had to the merit and grieuousnesse of their death as to the most precious blood of his Sonne Iesus Christ and to his free promise wherefore this Obiection is to no purpose and if it were it doth incite men more to desire then to refuse death if it bee true that the enduring of the first death in the Saints is a freeing frō the second as Saint Augustine teacheth The third Obiection It is impossible but man should be toucht with a great apprehension of euery sharpe combate he is to endure Such is death MAn hath three cruell enemies which present themselues vnto him at his last farewell a sensible paine at the dissolution of the foule from the body sinne represents vnto him heauen gates shut and hell open and Satan tempts him and lets him see his criminall Inditement whereof he is ready to execute the sentence Answer It is
matter perisheth not and is not reduced to nothing but flowes dayly vnder new formes This matter is bounded the starres and the heauen which roule about it make it to bring forth creatures continually and man sometimes but by some rare constellation as the Naturallists speake The heauens I say are bounded and their motions limited Wherefore I maintaine it is not impossible that in an eternity of time that which is limited and bounded and hath once met and is ioyned may yet againe meete and be reioyned if we consider that it is not by chance but by fatall necessity that this Vniuerse roules without ceasing as al they among the Pagans which haue had any vnderstanding haue acknowledged Yea one of them said that who so would demande proofes thereof must be answered with a whip but behold a most certaine proof all creatures euen those that haue no vnderstanding tend alwayes to their ends propounded and all encounter in one vniuersall end If there were not a certaine prouidence in the world which prescribes to euery creature that end which it knoweth not and makes it containe it selfe the world should not be a world that is to say a most excellent and well ordained composition but the greatest confusion that could be imagined Seeing then that the heauens in their motions the starres in their coniunctions the causes in their order euen vnto the last may encounter together so those things which wholly deâ—…d of them may bee redâ—… 〈◊〉 the same estate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a maxime in Physicks that the matter and the Agent haue such power after the death and destruction of the creature as they had during his life what then can hinder it but by the position of the same causes and the same circumstances of time concurring the same effect may be repaired Moreouer the thing which is no more is no farther from being then that which hath not bene and there is no impossibility but that which hath had no being may come to light neither is ther any repugnancy but that which hath bene once liuing may come againe to life yea and who knowes whether that which is now hath not beene often heretofore I should beleeue it if I did giue credit to the eternity of the world As for the similitude of clay which the Obiect or not vnderstanding me doth presse so strongly it is very fit in this matter for the workeman which hath made a man and then hath wrought it to make a horse and then confounded it to make an ape and in the end an Eagle may if hee please returne and make the same man which he had made first and hauing vndone it may make a horse and so consequently one after an other in infinitum not that hee can make them all foure subsisting at one time therein the Obiector fights with his shadow and not with my saying And to demonstrate the power of Nature turning about her circle returning backe to the point where she had begun and passing ouer all the circumference of the circle to repaire that in place and time which she had dissolued shee would leaue for an earnest penny the Phenix the only bird of his kinde which is seene in Arabia and which the Egyptians in their Hierogliphicall letters painted to describe by his long continuance the immortality of the soule This goodly birde after many ages past to renew himselfe casts himselfe vpon a pile of stickes layd together the which hee doth so beate with his wings and with the helpe of the Sun which hangs perpedicularly ouer him as it takes fire and consumes the body out of which springs a little worme and of that a little birde which being couered with feathers in the end flies away and becomes the same Phenix You will question the truth hereof if the same Nature did not as much or more in the silke-worme whose egge is no bigger then a graine of millet it discouers a little woolly worme the which without dying transformes it selfe into a moth that changeth into a flie which hath scales and this becomes a butterflie which beating it selfe continually layes egges of these egges come little wormes and so consequently by an infinite circulation Wherefore these diuerse changes and formes happening in our bodies should not amaze vs but rather assure vs that hauing bin carried farre about they shall returne to their first estate seeing that their walkes and this Vniuerse haue their limits and bounds and seeing by the testimony of the wise man that which hath beene is now and that which is to come hath also beene God calling backe that which hath past that is to say as the Diuines expound it that God by his administration makes the Creatures succeeding one an other returne in their order as if they went about a wheele which kind of speech is taken from the celestiall Spheares which gouerne the seasons signifying that those things which happen by time are wheeled about with the reuolution of time which containes them These are the words of no vulgar Diuines whereby wee may see how much they yeeld to this opinion The end of the first Booke The Second Booke The first Argument taken from the Immortalitie of the soule That which is free from Death in the principall part should not feare it Man in his soule his principall part is freed frem death Therefore hee should not feare it IF all men could vnderstaÌ„d without doubting perswade themselues without wauering that their soules at the departure from their bodies are happilie immortall there is not any one without contradiction but would goe cheerefully and resolutely vnto death considering the miseries of this life and the heauie burthen of the bodie for it is the sepulcher of the soule as Plato saied The soule is a plant transported from heauen into a strange soyle into a body of earth where it sighs pines away and desires to depart The greatest thing in the world sayth Periander is contayned in a litle space Socrates maintained that the true man was that within which is lodged in the body as in an Inne S. Bernard exhorts the bodie to know it to intreate his guest which is the soule well The which Anaxarchus did apprehend who being beaten in a mortar did crie out couragiously to the tyrant Nicocreon Beat beate O hangman the flesh and boanes of Anaxarachus So M. Laeuius seeing Galba a great Orator with a deformed bodie sayd That great spirit dwels in a poore cottage But S. Paul shewes it better then all these If this earthly lodging be destroied if this bodie returne to ashes we haue a mansion with God And the body is the clothing of the soule the which Esop obiected to one who abused the beautie of his body He are my friend sayd he thou hast a faire garment but thou puttest it off ill Man is a caualier his body is the horse the spirit is the rider if the horse be lame blind
and to satisfaction by works The feare of the Lord is the beginning of wisedom sayth the wise man Man then being raysed a degree higher then woman in contemplation if he doth vse his knowledge rightly submitting himselfe wholy to God hee shall be much more zealous to his seruice as it happened to S. Iohn the Disciple which Iesus Christ loued aboue the rest but for that they are oftē puft vp they abuse it for pride is a spiritual poyson which spoyles all as it happened to Belzebub therefore most of our learned men are not so religious as women ignorant people who being gouerned by a moderat contemplation doe husband with all humilitie their moderate knowledge of God the affection in this feminine sexe is commonly more zealous then in the other Finally by the reuerence which is stronger in him this sexe feares to offend God and to make the holy Ghost heauy by whom he is sealed vntill the day of redemption as S. Paul speakes it is not feare onely then that begets religion for then Deere Conies and other fearefull Creatures should bee more religious Moreouer it is no generall rule that women are more religious if it bee not at this time which is as barren in deuout men as it is fertill in many religions for wee shall finde as many men recorded for Martyrs as women and in the Catalogue of the Apostles the first Architects of the Christian Churches we shall not find the name of any womē they are not suffered to speake in the Church And if the Elephant doth therein seeme to imitate man they are but shewes and gesticulations hauing no deuotion in the heart which is the essence of religion and what hee doth is by the instinct of his owne temper which approcheth neere vnto that of man And what doth Aelian others report so memorable of him but that hee turnes vp his s◅out towards the Sun and Moone as if hee did worship them doth not the flower called Heliotropium more it being weighty turnes round about lightly as the Sunne goeth To the 3. The impostor sayth that the soule is kindled with a desire of immortality to the end it may bee stirred vp to vortue it is well spoken for true vertue in this world is the sole and true good of man which makes him worthy of the heauenly beatitude which layes hold of a vertuous soule but this vertue without this immortality is a poison to man keeping him from running headlong to all carnall and vicious pleasures so as they be delightfull and as many Philosophers and men of God as shall crie out against the riots of the flesh they are so many tormenters but the soule is immortal and vertue is or should be requested and therefore one sayd long ago That a man were better to cast himselfe headlong into the sea then to be tyrannized by vice And on the other side Plaustus wil say that there is no price so excellent as vertue that it marcheth before al things liberty health life goods kinsfolke country children are defended and maintained by it And Claudian sings that from a high Tower she laughes at mortal things for that she is certaine of her immortality Finally she is rightly painted treading death vnder her feete for she alone swims is assured to escape spoile shipwracke as the Philosopher Stilpon did fitly teach King Demetrius who enquiring of him if he had lost nothing in the warres No sayd he for that vertue which I esteeme aboue all thing is not subiect to pillage But beasts replies hee flye death also Answere To speake properly beasts flie not from death for they are wholly ignorant what it is they will see the knife made sharpe to cut their throates and not be moued but being endued with the sense of feeling as with the other senses they will crie struggle when they feele a pricking or cutting or any other paine Some beasts of pleasure some birds for delight are cunningly taken by men to bee nourished daintily the which in their taking will torment themselues more then if they had the stroake of death To the 4. he sayth that the hart let vs adde to helpe him milles clockes and such like are in continuall action which notwithstanding cease in the end of their motion but let vs answere that there is difference betwixt a naturall action or one that is artificially forced and that which flowes freely and voluntarily without intermission or rest such as is the action of the soule in her thoughts and desires which wee maintaine to bee a true signe of her immortality as for that which wee did alledge of her continuall Vigilancy whilest the body sleepeth when as by assured dreames shee falls vpon the time to come hee cannot reply any thing to this but that dogs dreame I deny it Their barking and the other actions they do sleeping as well as waking proceede from a certain temperature into which they fall as in our selues in the brutall part by the gathering together of certaine grosse humors about the heart being prest we are forced to cry out The obiection to the 5. is his confirmation for if man abused by his imagination seeking the good encounters that which is bad he is twise miserable in his dessignes in his euents True it is man is subiect to so many miseries in this life as at euery step hee meetes with a thousand if hee thinkes to haue found any pleasure it is suddainly drowned with a floud of teares this did the Comedian Plautus vnderstand saying that mans age is so composed as it hath pleased the gods that pleasure should haue care for companion yea if any good happeneth presently some discommodity followes in greater abundance And Ouid sayd it was a vertue to abstaine from a smiling pleasure Horace he bids chase away pleasure it cost too deere And this made Lucretius though an Epicure to blame men who were too greedy of this life in these words What is there here O man of such delight Whose want so ruthlesse seemes in her despight Thou fear'st O foole and shak'st at thought of death That through al tempest brings where blowes no breath Our aduersary goes on and presumes that man may liue happily in this world if he will Answere Without doubt he would for no man takes counsell if he shal be happy he neuer troubles himselfe to choose felicity but for the meanes to attaine vnto it as Aristotle sayth hee neuer desires any hurt but vnder a shew of good for that goodnesse is the proper obiect of the will the diuell chooseth our euill for his owne good holding it a great benefit vn to him if many perish Man then by this desires to bee happy if he may by the discourse of the aduersary how is it possible that no man in the world neither hath nor shall bee truely happy by his owne faculties The true felicity of man is to be
man being borne and bred in the bottome of a darke caue thinks that he hath no facultie to see is he the therefore blinde the soule being buried in the darkenesse of a mortall body as in a graue sees not her immortalitie hath she therfore none Thirdly we doe not say that man is immortall for that he differs from beasts but for many reasons deliuered to be deliuered Fourthly the Philosophers aboue mentioned would see and touch the soule in her immortalitie she is not subiect to any sence S. Basile hath seene it in spirit written it with his hand The soule sayth he cannot be seene with eyes for that she is not illuminated by any colour nor hath any figure or corporal character Aristotle knew it whengoing out of the fabrike of corporall nature hee sayd that it was not the charge of a Physition to treat of all sorts of soules as is the intellectuall which hee pronounceth to differ from the sensitiue vegetatiue from which he sayth shee may separate her selfe as the perpetuall from the corruptible Gallen had his eyes fixed onlie vpon the body the subiect of Phisick and therefore hee sayd freely that it did not import him in his arte if hee were ignorant how the soules were sent into the bodyes or whether they past from one to an other But if it please Gallen leauing the limites of his arte to take the fresh ayre of diuine Philosophy presently his goodly conception is followed with these words The soule is distilling from the vniuerfall Spirit descending from heauen c. Which hauing left the earth recouers heauen and dwells with the Moderator of all things in the Celestiall places As for Hippocrates his words sound more of the immortalitie then of the death of the soule hauing this sence That the soule goes alwayes increasing vntil the death of the bodie But if you desire effects and not words what conceit could Aristotle Gallen and Hippocrates haue of the soule to bee mortall who by an immortall labour haue purchased such great same throughout the world and whose authoritie is the cause that they are now produced and maintained Finally that which he obiects of the soules thoughts fixed for the most part on the fraile things of this passing world it is no smal signe of the corruption of mankind but no argument that the soule is perishable seeing she retaines still the immortal seale which God hath set vpon her in her first creation The. 2 Obiection The container and that which is contained should entertaine themselues by a iust proportion The body and the soule are the container and contained IF the soule bee immortal seeing the body is mortall what proportion were there betwixt the soule and body How hath nature which doth all things by a iust weight number and measure ioyned things together which are so dislike It serues to no purpose to produce the birde kept in a cage which as soone as shee can get out flies away for he is kept there by force and not as forme in substance Answere Wee grant the whole argument and wee adde that it is sinne which came by accident that hath caused this great disproportion Otherwise man before sinne in his estate of innocency had his body immortall therefore Iesus Christ our Sauiour like a cunning Logitian drew the resurrection of the body from the immortality of the soule for that God was called the God of Abraham of Isaacke and of Iacob but God sayth hee is not the God of the dead but of the liuing So sayth Saint Augustine and Saint Bernard that the soule is so separated from the body as there remaines still a naturall inclination to resume it againe to minister to his body and this onely doth hinder her that shee is not affectionate towards God withal her vertue and force as be the Angells and therefore her blessednesse is imperfect For the soules ô flesh saith Bernard cannot without thee bee accomplished in their ioy nor perfect in their glory nor consummated in their felicity and in the same place hee distinguisheth their degrees or places for the soule in this life as in a Tabernacle before the resurrection in heauen as in a gallery and then after the resurrection in the house of God But you will say this answere is Metaphisicall I desire one that is naturall Answere This goodly order which you recommend in nature required this ordering that as there are some Creatures meerely spirituall others meerely corporall so there were some which were mixt both spirituall and corporall and that is man who in that smal forme represents all that is in the world and who by his senses doth communicate with the Creatures and by his vnderstanding with the Angells giuing his right hand to heauen and his left to the earth The 3. Obiection If reason loades vs to the immortality of the soule by the same meanes she shold guide vs to the resurrection of the body But that is not true I Proue the Minor by this knowne Maxime of reason That there is no returne from priuation to the habit nor by consequence from death to life no more then from starke blindnes to sight Wherefore they of Athens where one writes that the men are borne Philosophers hearing S. Paul discourse of many points of heauenly doctrine they gaue an attentiue heare vnto him but when hee came to the Resurrection of Iesus Christ they interrupted him mocking at him as one that doated Ans. I deny it that the resurrectiō of the dead is absolutely beyond the apprehension of nature The West-Indians who are without the Church of Christ beleeue it and practise it as well by the ceremonies of their interrements which aime directly at it as by the vsuall intreaties they make to the Spaniards digging for the gold of their Sepulchres that they should not take out carry away the bones to the end they may rise againe speedily as Benzo reports At Rome this Epitaph is yet to be read in Latine vpon a Pagans tombe The publike hath giuen a place vnto Aurelius Balbus a man of an vnspotted life I rest heere in hope of the resurrection But that which is most wonderfull and exceedes all credit if they that write it were not eye witnesses and worthy of credit that in Egypt in a place neere vnto Caine a multitude of people meete on a certaine day in march to bee spectators of the resurrection of the flesh as they say where from Thursday to Saterday inclusiuely they may see and touch bodies wrapt in their sheetes after the ancient manner but they neither see them standing nor walking but onely the armes or the thighes or some other part of the body which you may touch If you go farther off and then returne presently you shall finde these members to appeare more out of the ground and the more they change place the more diuers these motions appeare This admirable sight is written by