without euer being touched with other enuy then to finish readily his voyage to make exchange for Death with a life exempt from Death So as we may wel mainteyne that he who is alwaies thinking of Death is the richest in the world seeing that euen such thoughts only may make him to purchase the treasure of Eternity wherein consists our soueraigne Good A Contemplation vpon the Tombe of Cresus CHAP. VIII YOV Rich-men of the world who know no other God then Gold and Siluer come and see the treasures which the greatest King of the Earth hath carryed with him into the Tombe And this is the mighty King Cresus to whome the mines serued him for a Coffer the Indyes for a Cabinet and the Ocean for a new riuer of Pactolus where he vainely endeauoured to quench the thirst of his guilty auarice and of his most haughty ambition Represent vnto your memory his passed greatnesses and behould now his present miseries If you thinke of the riches of his life all of roses consider the pouerty of his Death all of thornes If you remember the magnificences of his Court turne the lease at the same tyme to see the horrours of this his dismall solitude If you muse yet on the rich ornaments of his golden Pallace see contemplate through your teares the corruptiō which is inclosed with him in the Tombe If you haue seene him seated on the highest top of greatnesses behold him now with the same eye abased on the dunghill of misery He hath liued he hath reigned as an Idoll within the Temple of Fortune on the proudest Altar of Vanity but the torch of his life is put out the date of his reigne is expired the Temple of his glory is demolished the Aultar of his Empire is destroyed and this carkasse which you see is the Idol that serues as a prey vnto the wormes Gobrias do thou cause thy selfe to be drawne heere by thy Lyons on thy Chariot of massy Gold before thou dyest The deceiptfull glasses of thy goodly Mirrours hide from thine eyes the truth of thy defects let thee see but the guilded case of thy rich apparences On the other side they but represent to thee by halfes while this Sepulcher shal depaynt them forth to thee at large with the same draught and with the selfe same lineaments which Nature hath markt vpon thy body from the moment of thy birth In comming hither to visit this place thou shalt not stray awhit out of thy way since euery moment of Tyme directs thy steps vnto the Sepulcher Enter a little into the knowledge of thy selfe and reuert from thy wandering Thou reposest for the most vpon a Couch all of gold And what pleasure takest thou the while to passe some nights vpon this bed of Flowers since thou must lodge so long a tyme vpon a clod of earth wherof thou art framed moulded thou takest al thy repasts vpō a siluer Table thou seest this carkasse wherof thou art the originall how it serues for a table meate all at once for the wormes to feed on Why dost thou prize so much thy treasures Behould to what estate is he brought who hath possessed all those of the World At his birth he had for portion all the good of the earth and in dying he hath inherited all the miseries of nature Imagine that which he hath had and see what is left him He hath purchased al yet possesseth nothing nor canst thou auoyd his lot whilest thou holdest the same way of his life hence it is that I point thee out thy sepulcher all ready within his Tombe Policrates come see the coffer of the Treasures of Cresus to glut thy couetous appetite with all his rotten bones I meane whose marrow the wormes deuoure the stench of this prey couered with a linnen sheet newly weft together with the infection Behold now all which this mighty King was able to saue from the Shipwracke of his lyfe and riches al together These are the lamentable relickes as well of his Maiesty as of his greatnesses and thou runst into danger of the same rockes so sayling in a lyke sea if thou change not the Pylot Take profit then frō the domage of another mayster thy brutish passions that prepare for thine enemies the triumph of thy lyfe And thou Lucullus come and visit the Sepulcher of this great Prince before thou vnpeoplest the ayre of birds the land of sauage beasts and the sea of fishes if thou wilt see displayed the vanity of thy enterprises Thou takest a glory while thy life lasts to afford entertainement to all the world Behould awhile how thou art like to be intreated after thy death Cause thy tables to be furnished with meats the most delicious that are yet of necessity must all the company serue one day as a last course for the wormes Let thy festiuall dayes hould out for a whole yeare together the Sun which shines vpon thee will not fayle to conduct al thy bāquetting ghests into the Sepulcher In such sort as looke how the tyme deuoures it selfe so likewise doest thou seeme to deuoure thy life by little and little with the same food that doth nourish and mainteyne it What reckoning canst thou make of al the glory of thy prodigious magnificences if it haue no other foundation with it then that of corruption For al the proud preparations of thy Feasts do metamorphoze themselues into infection with thy miserable subiects which haue caused the expence You mercinary Soules who are not capable of loue but for your treasures nor of passion but to make you Idolaters of them you stand counting your Crownes euery day and you keep no account by order of a wise foresight of the small tyme which is left you to enioy the same To what end serues you your Booke of accompts where you reckon vp the summes which are due vnto you if you want vnderstāding to calculate that which you owe to your conscience whose interests termine themselues eyther to your losse or safety You vnbury the gould and siluer out of the earth not considering the while that you are going to occupy their place in the same earth You buy with their money the pleasures of your lyfe and you sell those of your death for lyuing in delightes you dye in torments Know you not that whatsoeuer is on earth is but Earth Wherefore tye you then your affections so to that which you cannot loue without hating your selfe what will you do when you dye with your treasures I doubt very much you wil leaue them to your children but yet the crymes which you haue committed in procuring thē shall stil be abiding with you so as to make your Heires passe deliciously this life you shall loose the eternal which is promised vs. You damne your selues for them as you were not borne but for others Quit the world before it quit you bid an eternall adieu to its vanityes Cresus was all gould as you
deuoure the rest of our miseryes O happy Tombe where our soules do recouer their liberty where our bodyes do fynd the end and terme of of paynes O happy Tombe where we are reduced to corruption to arise in glory O happy Tombe where death euen dyes with vs and where lyfe reuiues with our selues for an Eternity O happy Tombe where we render to the earth the earth of our body to put our soules in possession of the inheritance of heauen O happy Tombe where we passe from death to lyfe from sadnes to ioy from infamy to glory from payne to repose and from this vale of teares vnto the mansion of delights From the tyme that the children of Israel had tasted in the desart the sweetnes of the heauenly Manna the most delicious meates of the earth were growne to be contemptible to them their harts euen chaÌ„ging their nature fell incessantly gaping after this celestiall food So likewise may I say that from the instant wherein a holy Soule is once fed with the food of the grace which is found in an innocent lyfe the world is an obiect of horrour and amazement vnto it its thoughts desires creep not on the earth any more if it sigh it is but after its last sigh if it complayne it is only for the long terme of its banishmeÌ„t in this vale of miseryes The hope of dying serues it as a coÌ„fort in its trobles and solace in its paynes it lyues in the prison of its body as slaues in the prison of their crimes with a necessary constancy alwayes attending on the last houre therof and this last moment where begins the eternity of glory Me thinkes the sentence of death which the diuine iustice pronounced once to our first Parents in that earthly Paradise was much in their fauour agaynst the euills wherewith their lyfe was fraught For if God had made the same to be immortall with all mischifes which succeeded their offence of all created things had man beene found to be the miserablest of them and most worthy of compassion but the same Goodnes which moued the Creatour to effect this goodly worke did euen moue him likewise to conserue the same His sentence was of death but in the rigour of his iustice he let his merry to appeare at the same tyme since from the payne of death we passe to the delights of a permanent and immortall lyfe In so much as this sweet coÌ„solation is inseparable from our tormeÌ„ts for they shal one day finish O sweet End since thou breakst the chaynes of our captiuity O sweet End since thou makest vs to reuiue neuer for to dy O sweet End since thou putst an end to all our sufferances O sweet End since we dye to reuiue for euer How Worldlings dye deliciously without euer thinkâ—ng thereof CHAP. XIII WE must needes confesse how the soules of the world are so deepely taken with the sleepe of their pleasures as they are euen drowned in their blindnes without feare of the precipices that encompasse them round Ioy transports them gladnes rauishes them rest charmes them hope comforts them riches moderats their feare health fortyfies their courage all the vanityes nurse them and bring them vp in the forgetfulnesse of themselues so as they may neuer be able to vse any violence for to breake the chaynes of their captiuity A pittifull thing how they neuer consider the while that this ioy wherwith they are so carryed away eueÌ„ vanishes quite lyke a flash of lightening that this gladnesse wherewith they are rauished destroyes it selfe with its owne violence in running incessantly vnto its end That the repose which charmes them coÌ„cludes with an eternall vnrest that the hope which coÌ„forts them quite changes it selfe by litle litle into despayre That these riches which do moderate their feare during their lyfe augments it at their death that the health which strengthens their courage whiles the calme and tranquility of their fortune lasts doth bread them a thousand stormes throgh the absence thereof where they run danger of ship wracke And finally that all those vanityes which serue them as a Nurse and Schoole mistresse to trayne them vp in vices are as so many bad Pylots which make a traffike of their losse and ruine When I image with my selfe the blindnesse whereto the men of this world are brought I cannot chuse but be moued with compassion for them Is it not a strang thing and worthy of pitty that they runne as fast as euer they can vnto Death without cease without intermission without fetching of their breath and without euer taking any heed of the way they hold as if they liued insensible in all their senses The Sunne which riseth euery morning sets euery euening for to let them see how the light of their life should haue at last a last setting as well as it The Age which makes them hoary and which keepes reckoning of their yeares through the accoÌ„pt of the wrinckles which it causeth to grow on their face preacheth nought els but the necessity of their departure All their Actions termine not a whit but to the ruine of the body from whence they fetch their motion since euery action of it selfe still tendes to its end How can they chuse but thinke of death if all the subiects which are found in Nature do euen cary the very lineaments thereof in the face The Sunne dyes in running his race The Moone dyes in her perpetuall inconstancy The ayre dyes with its coruption The birds seeke death in flying The brute beasts in running and the fishes in swimming in the water The seasons dye in springing againe as well as the trees The flowers dye with the day that hath seene them blow forth The earth dyes in the order of tyme since her yeares are counted The Sea sinckes it selfe by litle and litle into its proper abysses The fyre consumes it selfe in its heat and Nature it selfe that serues for a second cause in the generation of all things destroyes it selfe by litle and litle with them I speake nothing of men since they haue nothing more proper then Death What meanes trow you to forget this sweet necessity of dying whose law very happily dispenseth with none yet for all that do not doubt but there are many in the world who would neuer be dying but this were a childiâ—h language of theirs so farre from reason and common sense as one had need to declare himselfe to be a starke foole for to excuse himself of the errour or rather of the cryme We do all waies contemne the good vnknowne and as we naturally lyue in the apprehension of loosing that which we possesse we cleaue to the present so true it is that all things do escape vs and fly away froÌ„ vs. What a life were it for vs to lyue eternally in the miserable condition wherein we are borne What a life would it be to be alwayes breathing in sighes in mourning in playnts What a
יהוה Annos aeternos in mente habui Memorare nouissima tua THE SWEETE THOVGHTS OF DEATH and Eternity Written by Sieur de la Serre AT PARIS 1632. TO THE RIGHT HONOVRABLE HENRY NEVILL BARON OF ABERGAVENY SYR YOV may behold heer a sensles Statue made to the Life but vvithout Life till the Promethean Fire of your vvell knovvn piercing Iudgment gracing it giue it a true subsistence It hath a Mouth vvithout VVords VVords vvithout Spirit till you the Mecaenas through your Honours gracious acceptation affoard it strength energy As for the Heart expressed in the pure Intentiō of this Addresse to your Honour it is vvholy yours nor needs the spoiles of feigned Deityes to giue it breath to make it more your ovvne then novv it is Or rather if you please you haue heer tvvo nevv-borne Tvvins put forth thus naked as you see into the vvide VVorld to shift for themselues and like to be forlorne vnles your Lordship pittying their pouerty take thē into your Honourable Patronage and safe Protection France hath had the happinesse to giue them their first birth your Honour shall haue the trouble to afford them a secōd That to haue bred a Spirit able to conceiue and bring forth such issues And your Lordship through your noble Fauour to make them free Denizens of this Kingdome Or lastly to speake more properly I heer present your Lordship vvith the Svveet Thoughts of Death and Eternity expressed in our tongue Not to vndertake to make that svveet vnto you vvhich othervvise vvere bitter vvho through a fayr preparation of a Christian and vertuous life haue confidence inough to looke grim Death in the face and vvith good serenity of conscience to vvayt on Eternity but rather that your Lordship vvould please to commend the same to others of like quality vvho follovving the vogue of the allurements pleasures and delights of this vvorld may haue need of such noble Reflections as Monsieur de la Serre Authour of this VVorke vvell versed vvith people of that ranke hath learnedly and piously shevved to this more free and dissolute age So shall your Honour do a charitable vvork of mercy the vvorld be edified and I vvell satisfied to haue put to my hand Your Honours most humbly and truly deuoted H. H. THE TABLE OF CHAPTERS Chap. 1. OF the sweet Thoughtes of Death pag. 1. Chap. 2. What Pleasure it is to thinke of Death pag. 6. Chap. 3. That there is no contentment in the world but to thinke of Death pag. 22. Chap 4. That it belongeth but only to good Spirits to thinke continually of Death pag. 30. Chap. 5. How those spirits that thinke continually of Death are eleuated aboue all the Greatnesse of the Earth pag. 41. Chap. 6. A Contemplation vpon the Tombe of Alexander the Great pag. 50. Chap. 7. He that thinkes alwayes of Death is the Richest of the world pag. 61. Chap. 8. A Contemplation vpon the Tombe of Cresus pag. 66. Chap. 9. That he who thinkes alwaies of Death is the Wisest of the world pag. 73. Chap. 10. A Contemplation vpon the Tombe of Salomon pag. 80. Chap. 11. A Contemplation vpon the Tombe of Helena pag. 90. Chap. 12. That of all the Lawes which Nature hath imposed vpon vs that same of Dying is the sweetest pag. 113. Chap. 13. How Worldings dye deliciously without euer thinking thereof pag. 119. Chap. 14. Goodly Considerations vpon this important verity That whatsoeuer we do we dye euery houre without cease pag. 124. Chap. 15. The Tombe of the pleasures of the Sight pag. 127. Chap. 16. The tombe of the Pleasures of the Sense of Hearing pag. 130. Chap. 17. The Tombe of the other Pleasures that are affected to the Senses p. 132. Chap. 18. How he who hath imposed the Law of death vpon vs hath suffered all the paynes therof together pag. 135. Chap. 19. The pleasure which is found in Liuing well for to Dye content pag. 143. Chap. 20. The Picture of the Life and Death of a sinfull Soule pag. 148. Chap. 21. A goodly Consideration and very important both for lyfe and death pag. 159. THOVGHTS OF ETERNITY The Triumph of Death pag. 3. The Glory of Paradise pag. 55. Of the Infernall Paynes pag. 190. The Houre of Death pag. 145. Of the svveet Thoughtes of Death CHAP. I. THERE are no sweeter Thoughtes then those of Death Spirits being raysed to the knowledge of Diuine thinges do euer occupy themselues in counting the tyme of their banishment in this strange Land where we sigh vnder the burden of our Euils Slaues liue not but of the hope to see themselues at liberty their prisons and their irons are obiects both of horrour and dread which put their soules vpon the racke The Sun shines not for them at all and all the sundry pleasures agreable to their senses changing their nature serue but to afflict them So as in their captiuity they breath the ayre of a dying lyfe whose moments last for ages We are those slaues so enchained within the prison of our bodies as exiled from the paradise of our delights where the first innocency of our parents had established vs a Mansion so true it is their disobedience hath changed our bodies into prisons and the delightes of our Soules into thraldome What feelings then may we haue in this seruile condition whereunto we are brought but those of an extreme dolour and bitter sorrow to see our selues depriued of the Soueraygne God where Soules do find the accomplishment of their rest The harts being holily enamoured speake so sweet a language both of sighes sobbs in the absence of that they loue as if the Angels were touched with enuy they would desire to learne it to make therof a new Canticle of glory in their Eternity Of all the dolours that may tyrannize a soule such as know what it is to loue find not a more intollerable then that of the absence of the Subiect with they loue perfectly indeed And if it be true that affections draw their force from their merit what should our loue be towards this Sauiour whose perfection so wholy adorable cannot brooke comparison but with thēselues And how be it this great God be infinitly louely yet would he needs be borrowing a hart of nature to resent the draughts of our loue to dye on the Crosse of their woundings What excesse of goodnes How may they resist the sweet strokes of his mercy He espouses our Condition for to suffer all the miseryes therof sinne and ignorance only remayning without power agaynst his person in so much as dying he changed the countenance of death and makes it so beautifull as generous harts at this tyme sigh not but in expectation of their last sigh since euen the selfsame moments that lead vs to the Tombe conduct vs also to immortality The paynes which my Sauiour hath suffered on Mount Caluary haue beene fruitfull to bring forth diuers punishments in fauour of the infinite number of Martyrs who
loued not life but to ressent it's death His Nayles haue forged them others of that sort His Thornes haue thence produced new Thornes and the forme of his Crosse hath made them to inuent some others of the lyke and the turning vpside downe of his hath serued S. Peter for a Couch to dye in For ioy rather then of payne I would say that all the deadly instruments of the passion of my Redeemer haue beene the preparatiues of the Triumph that a million of soules haue carryed away in their Martyrdom The Scourges haue been for S. Bartholomew the Nayles for S. Andrew the Sword for S. Paul the wounds for S. Francis and the Crosse serues on earth for a new subiect of Enuy for the whole world togeather since that euery one can pretend no better then to this glory to sacrifice his life vpon the same Aultar where the Authour of life hath beene immolated O how the amourous plaintes of that great Apostle make all to resound with a sweet melody Me thinkes the sweet accēts of his cryes do euē rauish my Spirit through mine eares The tyme of my lyfe is too long sayd he in the strength of his Passion I am troubled to reckon vp the moments of it's durance When shall it be that I shall liue forth of my selfe to go to liue in him whom I loue much better then my selfe Quite contrary to those guilty Soules who stand discoursing of death as of a losse where he desires it for recompence So as the Sun had neuer a fayre day for him and Nature so beautifull in its diuersities and so fruitfull to bring forth so many wonders was barren for his contentment in so much as the obiects of his pleasures was quite without the world and yet through a Miracle worthy of him he liued and dyed of Loue at once O sweet Life But yet more happy death The Swan after she hath measured diuers tymes the humide spaces of the banckes euen tyred out with lyuing calles for death vnto her succour with accents of melody so sweet and so pittifull withall as that it cannot choose but then euen yield to the assaults of Compassion This bird being richly dressed vp with innocency proclaymes the truth of her Death to Forrests to Champaygnes and to Rockes by the sad accents of her tunefull notes whose harmony doth rauish all those that haue sense of feeling in them and giues them a desire to dy with her This Diuine Apostle dying on the shore of his teares represents to vs this bird For being now weary to liue so long tyme absented from his lyfe he sends vp his amourous sighs to Heauen-wards with a voyce full of allurements cryes out how he desires to abandon his body for to go to behould the God of his Soule The harmony of his cryes so powerfully attracts the harts vnto him as all those who are able to heare but the Eccho of it and to perceyue i'ts sweetnesse doe borrow wings of al sides to fly out of themselues while the Earth is in contempt with them You Soules of the world I inuite you heere to hearken to this Consort of Musike where the Angells hold their part but you must purify your senses if you wil be rauished with Pleasure and Ioy. What Pleasure it is to thinke of Death CHAP. II. A TRAVAILLER strayed from his way and puzled in the full of the night within a thicke forrest finds himselfe on a sudden brought into streights through a thousand assaults of feare wherwith his Soule is strooken He casts his eyes on euery side but sees nothing but shadowes of horrour which presage the sun-set of his life The noyse of the impetuous winds that puts a garboyle into the boughes beate so roughly on his eares as he breathes but in a deadly feare more intollerable well nigh then death His imagination being troubled lets him see in dreame in the midst of the darknes as many precipices as the steppes he makes on his way In so much as he belieues euery momēt he is buryed quick in some pit or other with the whole burden of his euils The feare of being deuoured by the sauage beasts makes him to apprehend a new punishment whose dolour redoubles euermore through the sensible apparence of some euident danger The heauens earth being hid alike from his eyes within obscurity for remedy represent to him despaire in effect his Iudgement being now stupid with terror hath not the liberty of discourse but to conclude vpon his losse al things the while cōtributing to his most disaduantage Himselfe sees not himselfe awhit as if already he were quite besides himselfe the little sense he hath left him serues him but to suffer euils which in their excesse do rob him of his speach Thus brought to this extremity where death is more present with him then life since he wholy dyes and liues but to halfes he lifts now at last his eyes to Heauen-wards where he discryes a ray of light to disclose through the birth of the Aurora which serues him as a Beakon or Watch tower to remit him into the path of his way which he had lost The day by little little makes the shadowes of death with enuirone him to vanish out of sight with the hope of lyuing affoards him the contentmēt to behold the precipices which he hath escaped in so much as he arriues to the places of his desires with a great deale more pleasure then he felt paine Let vs now say We are these Trauaylours wandering in the thicke Forrest of this world during the darknes of Synne which enwraps vs one euery side The winds of temptations bluster without cease in our eares euery stepp we seeme to make forwards leads vs into the Tombe since we dye euery houre and the abysses are alwayes open to swallow vs vp as culpable of a thousand sortes of crimes Being brought to this estate the Heauen hides it selfe from our eyes as not able to pretend awhit for it's glory So as being oppressed with diuers disasters we breath the ayre of a lyfe full of annoyes and of vnsufferable afflictions The light of Eternity which shines to vs in the port of the Sepulcher is this goodly Aurora whose day disperses the shadowes of our night for euer What contentment to arriue at this port amidst so many stornes What happinesse to enioy the brightnes of a Sun which is not subiect to Eclypses after so many tedious nights We are all Pilgrimes who continually trauayle from this world into the other The darknes of sinne is the shadow of our bodies since they accompany vs without cease What incomparable felicity to go forth of our selues to find out that day which should illumine vs eternally What may we desire in Slauery but Liberty In darknes but light and in Trauayle but Rest This earth is a prison let vs neuer thinke then but to recouer our liberty This vnlucky dwelling is a place of obscurity let vs gape
withhouldes this second life from vs wherein abides the accomplishment of our happines To dye is but to cast into the wynd the last sigh of our miseries To dye is but to make a partition of our selues commending the body to the Earth the Soule vnto Heauen To dye is but to bid a last adieu to the world preferring the company of Angels before that of men To dye is to be no more vnhappy To dye is to despoyle vs of our infirmities and to reuest vs with a nature exempt from sufferances O sweet death since it leades vs to the spring of life O sweet death since it giues vs the Eternity of glory in exchange of a moment of dolour O sweet death since it makes vs to reuiue for euer in a felicity immortall O yee Soules of the world thinke then alwayes of death if you will tast with pleasure the sweetnes of life For it shal be euen in this last moment where you shal receiue the Crowne of all the others you may sigh long inough in your chaynes you are neuer like to be delyuered thence if death come not to breake the gates of your prison Go before it then and carry in your countenance the desire of meeting it rather then a feare to be touched with it We should suffer with a good cheere that same which we must of necessity endure What say I endure Were it a payne to approach to the end of ones euils Were it a payne to become for euer exempt from their sufferances Let vs rather say a Contentment since thereby do we get forth of sadnes to enter into ioy Let vs call it a Happines since so we do abandone the dwelling of misfortunes to liue eternally in that of the felicities of Heauen That there is no contentment in the world but to thinke of Death CHAP. III. DEATH hath it's delights as well as Lyfe Iob was neuer more happy nor more content then at such tyme as he saw himselfe vpon the Throne of his dunghill oppressed vnder the burden of his miseries He dyed so deliciously in the depth of his dolours as he would haue suffered alwayes and haue dyed incessantly in that manner His wounds serued him as a mirrour to his loue For in looking thereinto he became amourous of himselfe but yet loued he not himselfe but to dye continually so pleasing was death vnto him therby to obey him who had imposed that law vpon him Loue changes the nature of things From the tyme that a Soule is chastly taken with this passion it neuer suffers for the subiect which it loues The paynes and torments therof are changing the name quality within the hart They are Roses rather then Thornes For if it sigh it is of ioy and not of payne if it be necessary to dy to conserue this louely cause of its life it is no death to it but a meere rap◠of contentment which seuers it from it selfe in fauour of another selfe which its loues more then it selfe In such wise as it begins to liue content from the point it begins to dye in or rather to take its flight towards the obiect it hath proposed to it selfe of the full perfection of its loue From this goodly verity do I draw this lyke consequence That the hearts wounded with diuine loue do neuer sigh in their torments but of the apprehension they haue of their short durance Death which to vs seemes so foule and deformed vpon the sudden changing it's countenance in their respect appeares a thousand tymes more beautifull then lyfe Whence it is that they are alwayes thinking thereon to to be alwayes content since it is the point where their paynes do termine where their felicityes begin The most pleasing thoughtes which our spirit can tell which way to conceyue can haue no other obiect then that of contentment of profit and of vertue in so much as they are the three sorts of goods whereto our will is tyed Now where shall we find more pleasure then in the thought of death since it is the great day of our Fortune where we take possession of the delights of Heauen Where more profit then in the selfe same thought since the soueraygne good which is promised to vs is the But the End and Obiect thereof And where more vertue then to thinke alwayes of Death whilest with the armes of these sweet thoughts we triumph ouer vice I belieue it is impossible to tast pleasures without thinking of death in regard these delights are continually a flying away and incessantly dy with vs in such wise that if we cannot ressent the contentments but within their fruit in running alwayes after them they are rather displeasures then pleasures and therefore we hold there are no greater delights thē those of thinking of Death as being the only meane to make them eternall When I resent vnto my selfe S. Laurence extended vpon the deuouring flames but yet more burned with the fire of his loue then with that of his punishment how he cryes out with a cheerefull voyce in the midst of the heates which consume him to be turned on the other side as if he thought he should not dye but by halfes being so but halfe burned I do feele my selfe rauished with the same iumps of ioy that transported him Death is so welcome to him as he deliciously roles his body on the coles as if they were very beds of Roses So as if he be touched with any payne at all it is for not suffering it for that his life being all of loue finds its element in the fire that consumes it and therefore he sighes of gladnes in the height of his torments In effect how shall he expire admidst those heats if his hart be all aflame already his Soule of Fire For if he were to be turned into ashes the stronger must needs preuayle So as he cannot be consumed but through the fire of his loue O sweet encounter O welcome combat And yet more deere the Triumph Death assayles him with flames it assaults him with heats but the fire wherewith he is holily burned triumphes reduceth him to ashes so to render them as cōsecrated This great Martyr neuer tasted in his life more sweet pleasures thē that of feeling himselfe to dy vpon this bed of flames because resenting death he felt the delights of immortall life wherof he made himselfe a crowne Kings Princes and all those who are raysed to some great fortune confesse it to be a great pleasure to dy since they dy euery hore so sweetly amidst their greatnesses I say so sweetly for their spirits and their senses are so strongly occupyed with their continuall ioyes as the Clocke which keepes accompt of the houres of our lyfe may sound long inough its 24. houres a day and they heed it no more then if they were starke deafe And the night full of horrour which represents to vs the same of the Sepulcher cānot fright them any more then
if they were quite blind Needs must the charmes of their pleasures be strong to make them insensible to that which toucheth them so neere S. Augustin sayd how the greatnesses of the world aspersed a kind of leprosy on the soule which euen benummed all the senses of the greatest Potentats of the earth In effect all their sighes all their actions do but carry the countenance of Death with them yet perceyue they no whit therof A strange thing To liue and not to thinke of lyfe at any tyme or rather of Death since to liue and dy is but one thing It is yet true notwithstanding that we dye without euer thinking of death wherin do we spoile our selues of the sweetest contentments of lyfe because our whole felicity consists in dying well and the meanes to incurre a glorious death is alwaies to thinke of the miseries of lyfe to the end to be encouraged through hope to possesse the eternall glory which is promised vnto vs. We do naturally loue our selues with so strong affections that all the powers of the world are not able to burst the chaynes thereof But what more mighty proofes may we affoard of this verity then that of thinking continually of Death since the same is the day of our Triumph When shall I begin to liue not to dye for euer sayth the Royall Prophet Our lyfe is a continuall combat and the day of our Death is that of our Victorie All the Martyrs though they were in the thickest of the fight and alwaies in the action of defending themselues yet in this warre of the world thought themselues very happy to find the occasion where they might make to appeare the last endeauours of their courage in the midst of torments for that they found in Death the crowne of immortall lyfe O sweet lyfe and cruell the attendāce As often as we carry our thoughtes beyond nature and euen to Heauen our spirit remaines wholy satisfyed therewith because that in this diuine pitch where it sees it selfe eleuated aboue it selfe it begins to liue the lyfe of Angells The earth is in contempt with it and when the chaynes of it's body fall off in their first condition it suffers their tyranny through constraint So that if it be permitted vs at all moments to abādon the world in thought to haue thereby some feeling of heauenly delights should we be our enemies so farre as to contemne these diuine pleasures in groueling without cease in our miseryes while the only meanes to be touched with it is to thinke on Death since there is no other way in lyfe to fynd the felicity we seeke for We may piously say that the Virgin purest most holy liued on earth a lyfe litle differing from that lyfe which is liued in Heauen her spirit all diuine intertayned it selfe alwayes with the Angels or rather with God himself while she had the glory of bearing him within her sacred wombe or in her armes In so much as her life was a voluntary Death all of loue seeing that through loue she tooke no pleasure but to dye so to possesse more perfectly the onely obiect of her lyfe She prized not her dayes but in the expectation of their last night as knowing its darknes was to produce the brightnes of an eternal day wherof herselfe had beene the Aurora O how sweet would it be to be able to liue in that sort for to dye deliciously It is not a life truly immortall to be alwayes thinking of death if death afford vs immortality How fastidious is the life of the world the Prophet cryes Let vs now then be ioyning our voyce to his cryes and say that death only is to be wished for All the holy Soules which in imitation of my Sauiour haue adorned thēselues with thornes haue been turning the face to the tombwards there to gather Roses With death it is where they termine their dearest hopes So as if they liue content it is not but through the sweet hope which they haue to dye O yee prophane Spirits who sacrifice not but to voluptuousnes pull off the hood of passion that thus blinds you to destroy those aultars of Idolatry whereon you immolate your selues without thinking of it for punishment of your crymes If you will know the true pleasure indeed it consists of thinking of Death as of the Spring that produceth our delights Our Crownes are at the end of their cariere nor shall we euer come to possesse the Soueraygne God to which we aspire with so much feruour and vnrest but by the way of Death When shall I cease to lyue with men sayth Dauid He is euen troubled amidst the greatnesses of the earth His Scepter and his Crowne are so contemptible to him as he would willingly change his Throne with the dunghill of Iob on condition to dye with his constancy To liue is no more then to be sequestred from that which one loues and after God what may we loue After him what may we desire So as if now these holy affections these diuine wishes cannot looke on glory but in passing by the Sepulcher let vs thinke continually on Death as of the way we take which we are yet to make This is the onely meane to render vs content for that these thoughtes are inseparable from the eternall felicity which is promised vs. That it belongeth but only to good Spirits to thinke continually of Death CHAP. IIII. SVCH as know the Art of familiarizing death with life through continual remēbrance of their end do neuer change the countenance in any perils They looke to resume both their bloud and life at once with the same eyes they behold the things which are agreable to them so as they remayne inuincible in their miseryes through the knowledge they haue of their condition Wounds neuer hurt their soules and all the maladies wherewith they may be touched afflict but their body only Their good Spirit habituated with the ordinary encounter of a thousand sad accidents inseparable from life tasts their bitternes in its turne and feeles their thornes without any murmuring The end of all actions ought to be the first ayme of the iudgement that conceiues them if it will shun the griefe of hauing done them So as from the tyme that we are capable of reason are we to serue our selues of it to consider the necessity of our mortall and transitory condition that the continuall obiect of our end may serue as a condition meanes to arriue happily thereunto The wiser sort are those who repent at least for that which they haue done true wisedome consists in not cōmitting folly And what more great may a man admit thē that to neuer thinke of death since it is the end where all our actions receiue their prize or payne Remember thou Death the Wisemā sayth and thou shalt neuer syn O glorious remembrāce who raisest vs to so high a degree of honour as neuer to offend God which is the only
perfection of the Soule next to the knowing him and louing him withall O glorious remembrance which changest our frayle and guilty Nature into one which is wholy innocent O glorious remembrance that makest vs deliciously to breath the ayre of Grace since they liue in the estate to dye euery hower for to liue eternally O glorious remembrance which on earth makest vs the inhabitants of Heauen O glorious remembrance where the Spirit finds both its Good and repose When I represent to my selfe the pittiful estate of our Condition I am afrayd of my selfe for disasters and miseryes do so attend vs at the heeles as there is almost no medium betweene dying and lyuing We sigh without cease the whole ayre we breath our very being that so tumbles alwayes towards its end wisheth not but it s not being whither euery instant leades it without intermission What better thoughtes may we now conceiue then of these verities since it is too true that we are borne vnhappy for to liue miserable vntill the point of dying And the only meane to change this misery into happines is euery moment to thinke vpon it for feare of falling euer into neglect or forgetfulnes of our selues There are feeble Spirits who dare not carry their thoughts vnto the end of the cariere of their life they euen faynt in the mid way their shadow affrights them they feare euery thing they imagine without considering the obiect of their feare subsists not but in their fancy only and how by that meanes to become ingenious to torment themselues To feare death is to feare that which is not since it is but a mere priuatiō and to haue a further feare of the thought is to fly the shadow of his shadow which is nothing Wherein these Spirits do but feed their owne weaknes liuing in death and dying in their life without dreaming once of Death But what goodly matter will they say so to mayntaine their errour for one to thinke of that which naturally all the world abhors Is it not to be miserable inough to be borne and to lyue dye in myseries without one be burying his spirit before his Body through the continual memory of his end It is euen as much as to make ones selfe vnhappy before hand so to dreame of the euils which we cānot auoyd It is inough to endure thē constantly when they arriue without going to meet with thē as if it could euer arriue too late Feeble apparences of Reason Admit that Nature abhorres Death as the ruine of this strait vniō of the body with the soule know we not also how this nature blind in all its passions and brutish in all its feelings takes alwayes the false good for the true not being able to worke but by the Senses which as materiall take its part To belieue now that our miseryes augment by this thought that we lyue dye miserable were much while on the cōtrary we do blunt the point of their thornes in so thinking of them in regard this continuall consideration of our misfortunes in this life makes vs to take the way of vertue for the attayning one day the glory and felicity of the other To imagine it also to be a griefe to dreame assiduously of Death as of an ineuitable euill is a meere imaginatiō which cannot subsist but within it selfe For we are neuer to thinke of Death but as of a necessary good rather then of an infallible euill since otherwise it i◠nothing of it selfe We should only represent to our selues that we are to change both condition and life and how this change can be no wayes made but at the end of our course whither we are continually running and that without pause awhit Our being of it selfe destroyes it selfe by little and litle withall things els of the world besides It is a funerall Torch burning by a Sepulcher that shines as long as the wax of our body lasts while euen the least blast of disaster is able to extinguish it for euer For howbeit the earth be large and spacious yet hath it noe voyd place in its whole extent but where to point euery one his Tombe euen as nature which though fruitfull of it selfe to produce many wonders yet finds an impotency withall to engender twice its lyuing workes The Fables informe vs well how Euridice was delyuered from her chaines in Hell but not from her prison she had the power to approach vnto the bounds of the dismall place of her captiuity but not to set her selfe at liberty So as if the Poets within the Empire which they haue established to themselues haue religiously held this inuiolable law of not to be able to dye twice with what respect ought we to adore the truth so knowne to euery one and so sensible to all the world And the knowledge which we haue thereof should vncessantly draw our pirits to these thoughtes to the end they sstray not in the labyrinths of sin which is the only Death of the Soule When I represent to my selfe the faces which these men of the world do make when they are spoken to of Death I haue much ado to belieue they are capable of reason since they faile thereof in the consideration of this important verity that they are but meere putrefaction and a little dust ready to be cast into the wind in the twinckling of an eye That walke they where they will they but trample their Tombe vnderfoote since the earth seemes to chalēge its earth whereof they are moulded and framed They shut their eares to the discourses that are made to them of Death which they are one day to incurre and open them to hearken to the Clocke whose houres minutes insensibly cōduct them into the Sepulcher whither willingly they would neuer go In so much as howbeit they are hasting euery moment to death yet they dare not be casting their eyes on the way they hould as if the sight could forward their paces wherin truly I can not abide nor excuse their pusillanimity since the danger whereinto they put themselues produceth an irreparable domage This same is an infallible maxime That such as neuer dreame of death do neuer thinke of God forasmuch as one cannot come at him but by Death onely On the other-side not to thinke euer of the end which should crowne our workes were as much as to contemne the meanes of our Saluation and so to forget our Sauiour who with his proper lyfe hath ransomed ours The eye cannot see at one and the selfe same tyme two different obiects in distance one from the other The lyke may we say of the Spirit though it's powers be diuerse yet can it not fasten its affections vpon two subiects at once vnequall and seuerall one from the other If it loue the Earth then is Heauen in contempt with it if it haue an extreme passion of selfe-loue to its lyfe the discourses of death are dreadfull to it And by how much it sequesters it selfe
from thoughtes of its end the lesse approacheth it to God through those very thoghts Lord I will thinke of my last dayes sayd the Prophet for to remember thee This great King and great Saint withall did belieue the memory of Death was inseparable from that of his Mayster since dye he needs must one day himselfe O sweet Death and yet more sweet the remembrance if it be true that it powerfully resists agaynst all manner of vice We cannot know good spirits but throgh good actions there is none better in lyfe then then of preparing ones selfe for death Whatsoeuer we can do which is admirable indeed looseth the whole admiration if it haue not relatiō therunto nor may a man be thought to haue lyued but to dy rather who thinkes not euer of this sweet necessity whereof the law dispenseth with no man The greatest perfection consists for one to know himselfe so as the Spirit cannot make its Eminency appeare but by beholding it selfe in its nature created to render the continuall homage of respect to its Creatour And being abased in this necessary submission it should consider that its immortality boūds vpon eyther an eternall payne or els on a lyke glory and that it is not at all but to be happy for euer or eternally vnhappy Vpon these considerations it may found the verity of its glory since it could not tell how to purchase eyther a iuster or a greater then that of knowing well it selfe For as then its diuine thoughts make it to take it's flight towards the place of its origin not prizing the earth but to purchase there the merit of Crownes which it pretends to possesse in Heauen Among the infinite number of errours which make the greatest part of the world to be guilty of crime this same is one of the most common of al To esteeme forsooth those extremely who are eloquent be it of the tongue or pen and to put them in the rancke of the more excellent Spirits As those also who through a thousand sleights being al very criminal cā tell how to amasse a great deale of riches to ariue to the highest dignityes Thus do the spirits of the world and are so esteemed by such as they But I answere with the Prophet how all their wisedome is folly before God The good spirits indeed are alwaies adhering to good and there is no other in lyfe then that to be allwayes thinking of death for to learne to dy well Since in this apprentiship only are comprized all the sciences of the world Eloquennce hath saued neyther Cicero nor Demosthenes Riches haue vndone Cresus greatnesses haue thrown Belus King of Cyprus out of his Throne into a dunghill To what purpose serues it to know how to talke well if we speake not of things more necessary and more important of our saluauation To what end serues it to be rich since we must needs be a dying miserable On the other side there is no other riches then that of Vertue and I had much rather possesse one aboue then the crownes of all the Kings of the World below What pleasure may a man take to behold himselfe raysed to Thrones since he must needs in a moment be descending into the Sepulcher What is become of all those who haue beene mounting the degrees of Fortune beene seene on the top of most eminent dignities Disastres or time which changes all things haue let them fall into the Tombe so as there remaynes no more of thē but the bare remembrance that sometymes they haue beene Consider we then and boldly let vs say how it belongs to good Spirits only to be euery houre thinking of Death since we dy euery hower That these thoughtes are the most sublime where with a good soule may entertaine it selfe That of al the wayes which may lead vs to Heauen there is none more assured then that of continually thinking of the last instant which must iustify or condemne all the other of our life for that our actiōs take their Rule frō these thoughtes to receiue the price of them All the rest is but vanity and meere folly Out of these thoughtes there is no good Out of these thoughtes there is no repose Who thinks not of death thinks of nothing since al seeme to termine at this last moment The most happy are miserable if this thoght make not vp the greatest part of their happines And the richest are in great necessity if they dreame not of that of their mortall condition Whatsoeuer is said if Death be not the obiect of the whole discourse they are but words of smoke that turne into wynd Whatsoeuer is done if Death be not the obiect of the actions all the effects are vnprofitable In fine all glory all good all repose all the contentment of the world consists in thinking alwayes of Death since these thoughtes are the only meanes to atteyne the eternall felicity wherto they termine And a generous Spirit cannot giue forth more pregnant proofes of its goodnes then in thinking on the Death of the body whiles euen of this moment depends the life of the soule How those spirits that thinke continually of Death are eleuated aboue all the Greatnesse of the Earth CHAP. V. IT is impossible to know the world without contemning it since the disastres and miseryes wherewith it is stuft are the continuall obiects of this knowledge And from the point that our iudgment hath broken the visards of the false and imaginary goods which vnder the maske of their goodly apparences deceyue our will it suddenly abhors in them that very same which passionately heertofore it seemed to cherish Whence it happens that we can neuer enter into knowledg of the world but we acquit our selues of it at the same time throgh a sorrow for not hauing despised it sooner since all its goods are but in apparence onely and its euils in effect So as if it be a Tree we may boldly say that miseryes are the leaues therof misfortunes the branches and death the fruit And it is vnder the shadow of this vnhappy Tree where our forefathers haue built our first tombe Man may seeme to disguise himselfe if he will vnder the richest ornaments of Greanes with the fayrest liueries of Fortune Well may he trample Scepters and Crownes vnderfoot in the proudest condition whereto Nature and Lot might haue raysed him vp He is yet the same I meane a peece of corruption shut vp in a skin of flesh whereof the wormes haue taken possession already from the momēt of his birth Let him measure as long as he will a thousand tymes a day the ample spaces of the world with this proud ambition to make a conquest of them all yet he must be fayne to let them fall if he would find the true measures of them without compasse enclosed all within seauen foot of earth which shall marke out his Tombe If he assemble with the same ambition all the Thrones of Kings
for to make them serue as Aultars whereof himselfe shall be the Idol he shall not choose but lend his eares to the Oracles of sweet Necessity though cruel for him for he must dy and consequently serue one day as a victime vpon those very Aultars where they shall be yielding of Sacrifices to his person Let him bestow Empires as fauours Kingdomes for presents and whole Citties for the least recompence and then when he returnes into himselfe for to know what he wants he shall find that he needs no more but a peece of a sheet to shrowd with all his miseryes the horrour of his infection and corruption Let the Sunne neuer rise but to giue light to his triumphes if he ioyne not â—o his victories those other of his passions â—e shall celebrate but his owne ouerthrow â—nd triumph on himselfe without thinking of it Let the heauens be rayning on his head as many felicityes as there are disasters on earth all his happynes concludes with Death while by the way of his prosperities he goes on euery moment to the Sepulcher In fine although through his great possessioÌ„ of goods he know not what to desire not what to looke for yet shall I not forbeare ere the lesse to put him in the rancke of the most miserable of the world if vertue be not the richest of his treasures For not changing his condition awhit in the accomplishmeÌ„t of his greatnesses and of all his delightes he is alwayes the same a little ashes a little dust a little earth And howbeit of the ashes of the wood of Libanum of the dust of Azure or of some more noble or fertile earrh yet is al but meere putrefaction and the crust of all these goodly apparences is full of infection I esteeme him very happy great rich who contents himselfe with the meriting of these greatnesses these felicities and these riches for the glorious contempt which he makes of theÌ„ for being abused in the knowledge of himselfe he beholds all the world beneath him and desires but the continuatioÌ„ of his repose since in the only thought of Death he possesseth al the goods of life The great Monarkes of the world seeke the inteÌ„tions of lyuing happy in their greatnesses he the meane of dying content in his miseries they are alwayes in care to extend the bounds of their Empire he pleaseth himselfe to bound his ambition with what he possesseth since he wants not any thing for his voyage They make a masse of riches he takes glory in pouerty knowing that the richest are robbed at the end of the course of â—ife and that we go forth of the world in â—ike manner as we enter into it with the first habit of those miseries which we haue inherited from our parents In such sort as â—hinking perpetually of Death in the way where it is to approach euery moment he casts not his eyes vpon greatnesses but to haue pitty on those who possesse them He contemplates not the fauours of Fortune but to publish the inconstancy thereof So â—f he regard Thrones it is but to measure â—he depth of the precipices that enuiron theÌ„ since all crownes for him are made both of tare and thornes And the Scepters as light as reedes giue him not any other Enuy â—hen that of trampling them vnderfoot insteed of holding them in his hands since â—hey are the markes of a glory of smoake which resolues into nothing to returne to its first beginning There is no doubt but such as thinke coÌ„tinually of Death are raysed aboue all the greatnesses of the earth because Eternity is the obiect of their thoughtes So as if they desire greatnesses they wish they may be eternall if they enuy Treasures they marke the possession of them beyond Nature to the end Inconstancy of tyme may not bereaue them of them They haue no ambitioÌ„ for this vayne glory of the world which the least mischance may change into infamy nor for these Crownes which a litle wind of disgrace makes to fal from the head All their glory is to thinke of death for to be able to attayne at the last instant of lyfe the Crowne of immortality wherein consists the perfection of all felicityes possible to be desired Greatnesses are of the same nature with those who possesse theÌ„ they are but smoke they are but wind for we see theÌ„ to vanish away in the twinckling of an eye with their subiect So as if they seeme to subsist notwithstanding in their continuall flight they are changing the countenance euery houre To be great aboue the common sort of men in honours and in riches onely iâ— to be miserable if the true greatnes of man consist in meriting all and possessing nothing In so much as he who thinkes oâ— Death in despising the felicityes of this life makes himselfe to be worthy of the glory of the other and in these only thoughtes is he raised so aboue himself as if he were capable of vanity he would not know himself For from the tyme that he ioynes the thoughts of Death to the verity of his mortall condition he tasts before hand in the midest of his course the sweetnes of the goods which he pretends to receyue at the end I would say that the sensible imaginations which he hath of dying coÌ„tinually as there is nothing more certayne then it makes him to tread vnder foote all the greatnesses of the earth since that his soule directs his lookes vnto Heauen In effect were it not as much as to offeÌ„d a Prince to offer him at sea the Crowne of a Kingdome in the midst of stormes and tempests wherewith his ship were miserably tossed or els at such tyme as he were seene to be taken with a mortall disease For he might answere very pertinently they should attend him to make him those offers on the shore or when he were recouered of his health Now we seeme to represent this Prince since like vnto him do we floate vpon this sea of this world where the Ship of our life is incessantly tossed with diuers misfortunes Fortune comes to present vs in the fury of this tempest both Scepters and Crownes would it not be accounted rash now for vs to receiue them at her hands in this pittifull estate whereinto we are reduced not to hope for a calme or cessation for feare of seeing our hopes quite buryed with our life in a cruel shipwracke whose danger euen followes vs as neere as the shadow doth the body So as if she make vs the same offers during the mortal malady wherewith we are seised from the moment of our natiuity since we begin to dy from the instant that we begin to liue were it not a folly to accept them And for vs to answere her and to wish her to expect till we come vpon the shore is a vayne attendance while there is no other port in the sea of life then that of the tombe and to attend also for the cure of
this contagious malady which we haue taken of our parents were to expect that same which shall neuer come to passe So as indeed we should be throwing al these Crownes at her head and make vse of the Scepter she presents vs with as of a staffe to be auendged of her for her perfidiousnes to testify to her that our constancy scornes her leuity and that our contentment repose depends not awhit of the rowling of her wheele if we learne euery day to liue forth of her Empire Let vs conclude then and say that spirits that know wel the art of thinking of Death do marke out the thrones of their glory in heauen not being able to find any thing on Earth that were worthy of their greatnes Hence it is they take such pleasure to dy without cease and to increase their contentment yet further that they alwayes are thinking vpon it O sweet remembrance of death a thousand times more sweet then all the delights of life O cruell forgetfulnes of this necessity a thousand tymes more cruell then all the paynes of the world O sweet memory of our end where begins our only felicity O glorious obliuion of our mortal conditiō the only cause of our disasters Let vs not liue then but to thinke on the delight of Death let vs not dye but to contemne the pleasure of lyfe let vs forget all but the remembrance of Death Let vs loue nothing but its thoughtes and neuer essteeme but the only actions which haue relation to this last since this is that alone whence we are to receyue eyther price or payne A Contemplation vpon the Tombe of Alexander the Great CHAP. VI. O ALL yee Great Kings Loe I heere sommon you to appeare about this Tombe to behould therein the wormes the corruption and infection of the greatest the happyest the mightiest the most dreadfull Monarch of the world to say all in a word of Great Alexander whose Valour could neuer admit comparison whose Victories haue had no other bounds then those of the Vniuerse and whose Triumphes haue had all the Heauens for witnes all the Earth for Spoyles for slaues all Mortalls for Trumpet Renowne Fortune for Guide Descend then from your thrones vpon this dunghill where lyes the companion of your glory and your greatnesses Behould and contemplate this Pourtrait of your selues drawne to the lyfe after the originall of your miseries Cyrus approach you vnto this vnlucky place vpon your Chariot al of massy gould and come attended with that magnificent pompe which made all the world idolatrous in admiration of it that the infinite number of your subiects may be an infinite number of witnesses to conuince you of vanity and folly in behoulding this Victorious Prince heere beseiged by all sorts of miseryes with in a litle hole which serues as bounds and limirs to his power Cōsider how this great Taker of Townes is surprized himselfe by the wormes how this Triumphant souldier is defeated by thē how this Inuincible captaine hath beene vanquished by death and brought into this deplorable estate wherein you see him Are you not ashamed to be seated in that glittering Chariot since needs you must descend thence to enter into this dismall dwelling where the wormes attend your corruption This great number of subiects which enuiron you on all sides to set forth your glory is a troup of the miserable For they dye in following you and on which side soeuer you go Tyme conducts you all togeather into the Tombe Impose your lawes vpon al the people of the Earth yet needs must you receiue those same of Death Build you as long as you wil a thousand proud Pallaces in your Empire you cānot hold them but in fee-farme though you be the proprietary thereof because euery moment you are at the point of departing Well may you decke your selfe vp with the richest robes of vanity and play the God heere beneath with Crowne on the head and scepter in the hand yet looke what you are consider what you are like to be contemplate your miseries at leysure in the mirour of this sepulcher To day you loure on Heauen with an arrogant eye and to morrow you shal be seene metamorphozed into a stinking peece of earth To day you make your selfe adored of such as haue no iudgment but in the eyes only and to morrow shall you be sacrificed in the sight of all the world for expiatiō of your crimes and hardly shall be found a handfull of your ashes so true it is that you are nothing Xerxes descend you a little from the top of that mountayne of annoyes where they sad thoughtes do hould you besieged within this Vale of disasters and of miseryes to behold therein the pittifull ouerthrow of the proudest Conquerour of the world Spare your teares to mourne vpon his Tombe if you will but acquit your selfe of the iustest homage you may yield to his memory You weep before hand for the Death of your souldiers in foreseeing their end with that of the world What will you say now of the death of this great Captayne who for a last glory after so many triumphes is deuoured of wormes and metamorphosed into a stuffe al of corruption encompassed all with horrour and amazement So as if you will needs be satisfying your selfe afford your teares for your owne proper harmes since you are to incurre the same lot without respect eyther of your greatnes or power All your armyes are not of force inough to warrant you from Death you must bow your necke vnder the yoke of this necessity whose rules are without exceptiō whose law dispenseth not with any Alexander is dead Cyrus his predecessour hath dyed also after a thousand other Kings who haue gone before him and you runne now after them but to me it seemes you carry too great a port of Greatnes with you The earth wherof you are moulded framed demaunds but her earth you must quit your selfe of all and your scepter and crowne shall not be taken for more at that last instant then as sheephookes for that if we be different in the manner of liuing we are yet all equall in the necessity of dying Now therfore it is a vanity to say you are of the race of Gods Come see heere the place of your first begining for as you are borne of corruption so you returne to putrefaction If you doubt thereof as yet approach with your infected flesh to these rotten bones with your clay to these ashes If they differ in ought it can be but in coulour only Tell me to what end serue all those Statues of your resemblance which you caused to be erected on the lands of your Empire since tyme destroyes ruines the original Thinke you belike they dare not medle with those pourtraits which are but vayne shadowes of a body of smoke You trouble your selfe too much to make it credulous to the world that you are immortall as if
this beliefe could affoard you immortality If you haue but neuer so litle knowledge in you know you not your owne misfortunes If you haue sense haue you no feeling of your miseries I know well you are a King but a King of the dead since al those to whome you giue the law do receyue it from Tyme which makes them to dye euery houre Admit you be the chiefe of men yet if they be miserable all of them together as subiect to a thousand sorts of accidents may we not well say that you are the vnhappyest of them all You play the omnipotent when you are set vpon your Throne of snow not considering the while that within your Pallace as well as without you are but a heap of dust which euery litle blast of wind may scatter on the ground to dissolue it into nothing Apelles thou took'st a pride to be called the Paynter of Alexander come then and see the subiect of thy glory if thy heart serue thee to endure the horrour of it This same is that Alexander whose Maiesty so dazeled thee heertofore and whose stench at this tyme so infects the whole world I mistrust thy audacious pensill to be able to represent the greatnes of his miseryes to the lyfe Dost thou remember him at such tyme as thou drewest him armed at all points vpon his Bucephalus euen vpon the point of his forcible retayning the last crowne of his Triumphes not hauing ought to conquer els besides And sometymes agayne sitting on his Throne with the Crowne of a Conquerour on his head and with the Scepter of the Empire of the world in his hand Durst thou maintayne now these ashes are the draughts of thy originall if thou wilt saue thy credit from reproach do thou imitate Thymantes draw the curteyne ouer Alexanders face that he may not be knowne so is he no more himselfe And thou Lisyppus who employed so oft hast made vse of such rich materials to mantaine this great Monarch on foot these rotten bones which make vp this Carkasse which thou seest haue beene the subiect both of thy glory and thy labours If it be true that water eates into the stone then weep thou freely on thy owne workes to destroy them thy selfe since their obiect is buryed while tyme prepares their Sepulcher Cesar Mark-Antony Pompey Annibal and Scipio step you a little aside from the way of your Triumphs to come and see as you passe the miserable spoyles of this great King alwayes victorious of this great Monarke alwayes triumphant Approach you vnto his Tombe behold contemplate smell the horrible corruption would you say this carkasse heere that stinkes so abhominably were the body of that inuincible Alexander whose valour hath despoyled the earth of its Laurelles and who being not able yet to bound his ambition with the compasse of one world goes seeking him another howsoeuer in digging the earth he hath found but the place of this Sepulcher where he is buryed with all his greatnesses All those gallant Courtiers that followed him are changed into wormes and are nothing els but meere putrefaction and their proud Pallaces into this litle trench and all their ornaments into these spiders webbes which encompasse him round Cast your eyes vpon these images of horrour This is the draught of him who stiled himselfe the sonne of Iupiter-Ammon who exacted Aultars from men to make himself adored Iudge you now of the perfection of this Idol Go your wayes into all places where your ambition guides you conquer all triumph vpon all and for a last victory make Fortune herselfe as your Tributary that the rouling of her wheele may receaue its motion from that of your wills al these Victoryes and all these Triumphes accompanied with all the glory of the world shal not warrant you awhit from Death nor shall all the perfumes of Arabia exempt your flesh from putrefaction Cesar dispute no more with Mark-Antony about the Empire of the earth Nature would haue you to take vp this difference betweene you since neyther of you both cā iustly pretend but to seauen foot thereof And if you can hardly belieue it measure you the spaces of Alexanders Tombe who hath worne the Crowne vpon his head which you desire This is the onely meane to finish your quarrell rather then to quenh your fury in the bloud of your subiects Cesar play not the proud man so in the midst of thy felicityes it is now a long while since that death hath stood waiting vpon thee vnder the Throne where thou sittest in the Senate for to let thee know and perceaue at once that he mockes at thy greatnesses and contemnes thy power by drowning thy lyfe within thy bloud Stoope a little to the pitch of thy vanity Mark-Anthony there is no likelyhood at all thou shouldst euer be triumphing ouer thin enemy since thou canst not so much as vanquish thy passions which is the best victory that we can possibly obteyne of our selues Thou shalt euen loose the Empire of all the Earth where thou shalt find so shamefull a Tombe as they shall not dare to speake of thy lyfe by reason of thy Death Anniball thou gloriest much in entring in Triumph within thy proud Citty of Carthage after so many and so great victories which rayse thee to the highest Throne of Honour but takst not heed the while that if thou leadest thine enemies in triumph vices seeme to triumph vpon thy soule fitter that miseries do the like with thy body And againe if Fortune fauour thee to day as king she will dregg thee to morrow as a slaue To day the Lawrels grow on thy head and to morrow thorns shal grow beneath thy feet to let thee see that nothing is certaine in the world but change since it changes euery houre in making all things else to change their countenance withall I do euen flout at thy vanity for the witnesses of thy glory very Carthage it selfe which is the theatre therof shal follow soone after the course of of thy ruine Pompey flatter not thy selfe thus in thy prosperities the very same Sunne which hath seene them grow vp shall see them wither ere long It is true that all the world euen trembles at thine armes Renowne hath no voyce but to publish thy valour but how then knowest thou not how the self same fate which affords thee Crownes Scepters takes them away againe when it pleaseth Victory pursues thee euery where both on sea and land but this is but for a while After the moment of thy birth death aymes at thy head to pull off all the Lawrells thence wherewith thou hast so often crowned it and knowing that the sea hath no rockes for thee it hath scored out thy Sepulcher already on the shore Weepe weepe you great Kings at the sight of these miseries or rather at the feeling of your owne If the greatest of the world be nought but corruption what shall become of you If this inuincible
are and now is he all dust The flash of his riches did dazle all the world except Solon who discouering his miseries in the midest of his greatnesses maintayned him to be poore with all his treasure Go you sometymes before your death and imagine the houre which you breath in to be your last and then consult with the Oracle of your iudgement for to know the good which you would haue done before this cruell separation of your selfe from your selfe And after it shall haue taught you your duty suffer not your selfe to be ouertaken by the sundry disasters which euery moment may be taking away your lyfe Serue your selfe of your Riches without glewing your affection to them Since you are the mayster of them suffer them not to be your mayster You haue found them in the earth and there let them rest for you nor let any one be fetching thē forth Wel may you be hiding them in your coffers for a tyme but the day of Death discouers all it is in your hands to make vp the last accompt eyther of the profit or domage which they shall peraduēture haue caused to you You might haue purchased Heauen with your almes where it may be you haue rather bought euē Hell with your prodigalities You might haue built Temples to the glory of him who hath bestowed them on you you haue offered them in sacrifices vpon the Aultar of your passions to the Idols of your soules Will you neuer open your eyes to discouer the precipices which encompasse you round Will you be alwayes cruell to your selues to the preferring of the mansion of the earth before that of heauen the delights of the world before those of Eternity and the vayne riches of heere beneath before the treasures of the eternall glory Imagine you that before you were borne you were nothing that being borne you haue but quickened a peece of corruption whose life cōceales the infection and whose Death bewrayes the same Say now then you Rich men as Cresus shall I terme you miserable with Solon since Death takes all away from you saue only the sorrow of hauing liued so ill a life That he who thinkes alwaies of Death is the wisest of the world CHAP. IX VERITY is the obiect of all Sciences And of all verityes there is none more knowne nor is more sensible then that of our mortall condition since we dye continually without cease In so much as the best science of the world consists in the knowledge of ones self The disasters and miseries that befal vs euery houre are goodly schooles for vs to become learned As for me I hould that the onely meditation of death instructs vs in all that which is necessary for vs to know Who doubtes but that he who thinkes alwayes of his end is a great Deuine if all the goodly Maximes of this diuine science termine at the eternall life which followes death That he is a Philosopher we must needs belieue for if Philosophy learne vs the art of reasoning we can serue our selues of reason no wayes better then to be alwayes a thinking of death and the contemp of lyfe That he be an Astrologer is a meere necessity because throgh the mouing of his lyfe he vnderstands that same of the stars which shine vpon him imagining with himselfe that as he goes by litle and litle to finish his course in the Tombe so lykewise the Sun approches to the end of its lucid race where it is to fynd at last its vtmost That he is a Mathematician the resemblances are too playne since that according to the measure of the knowledge he hath of himselfe he can measure the height depth and breadth of all things being of the same nature with him That he should be ignorāt of Arithmetick it were not credible for since he can tell how to compt all the moments of his life he must needs be very skilfull in numbers I should thinke he had skil in musike too since he puts his passions in accord to charme his spirit with their sweet harmony He must of necessity be a great Phisitian since he busyes his soule so in the chiefe health of his innocency to attaine immortality in musing alwayes vpon Death So as with reason might we hould him to be the wisest of the world and the wisest that are to authorize my saying may well be glad to imitate him Aristotle thou hast ill imployed thy tyme to stand so much in discourse of the world without knowing the miseries thereof For if thou hadst had the knowledge of them why hadst thou not followed the example of Alexander in seeking forth a new one not for to conquer it as he but for to liue in eternally happy And as his valour had put the conceipt into his head so might thy spirit haue giuen thee the same proiect It is playne therefore thou hast spoken of the Earth with the language of heauen and of heauen with the language of the earth Thou hast made an Anatomy of nature discoursing with iudgemēt of all the second causes which do make the springs of the whole to moue Thou hast gyuen the definition of al things but only of thy self as if thou couldst not haue remembred them all but with forgetting thy selfe Thou wast busyed much in counting the nūber of the heauens without assigning thy place there put aloft Thou hast noted the diuers motions of the Sunne thou hast spoken of it's Eclypses without once informing thy selfe of the cause which hath giuen it the being and light Thou hast discourst very aptly of the reuolution of ages and of the continuall vicissitude of tyme without taking any heed to the perpetuall inconstancy of thy life Thou hast maintayned that whatsoeuer subsists in the world runnes post to it's ruine and yet as if thou perceiuedst not thy self to runne awhit towards the Tōbe with the rest of created things thou hast spoken not a word of this second life wherein abides the perfection of all our happines Thou hast yielded the Sunne to be eclypsed Thou hast afforded the Moone to take diuers coūtenāces vpon her Thou hast giuen leaue to Serpents to be changing their skin and to the Phenix to reuiue of it's ashes and cruell to thy selfe the while thou hast taken away the hope from thee of euer arising againe Thy spirit hath beene like to a torch which consumes it selfe to giue others light For thou labourest to discouer to men all the goodlyest secrets of nature and hast voluntarily hidden from thy selfe the secrets of thine owne saluation Thou hast lent Ariadnes threed to an infinite number of spirits who were intangled in the labyrinth of the world without once being able to get forth thy selfe though the knowledge of its causes and effects thou hast euen damned thy selfe Fooles speake not but of thy Prudence and wise men of thy Folly It had beene a great deale better for thee thou hadst possest all the Vertues then to speake so of
whence hath it receiued the being and the light it hath If it had as many tongues as beames it would haue published at once both his glory and thy forgetfulnes Confesse then the errour of it if thou wouldst haue men iustly to attribute wisedome to thee Ceobulus come thou in thy turne lykewise to visit the King of Sages not in his Pallace but in the litle house which the harbingers of death haue appointed for him Thou bestowest thy tyme but ill for thou shouldest be making of verses and thou art full of them thy selfe to wit of wormes So as if thou loue thy Poesy so much make verses on thy wormes describe thy miseries and neuer speake but of thy misfortunes otherwise shalt thou loose the Surname thou hast of a Sage Thou seest well how the science thou professest teacheth not but vanity how all the world is the great maister of it True wisedome consists in possessing all the vertues and thou yet liuest in the hope of atteyning the first which is to know ones selfe Salomon was wiser then thou art and yet with all his knowledge and wisedome both was he taxed of folly He hath beene the greatest of the world this little trench which thou seest conteyneth all his greatnesses The lands of his Empire are comprised within this litle hillocke of earth whereinto he is reduced if thou wilt forgo thy vanity behould somwhat neere his miseries and thou shal learn all the Sciences of the world in the meditation of his nothing You Sages of the world if you establish the foundation of your glory on your prudence all is but vanity Behold contemplate and publish freely the truth you know I for my part will not learne other science then that of liuing wel since this is the science of the Eternity which hath for obiect an immortall glory A Contemplation vpon the Tombe of Helena CHAP. XI RETVRNE thou O Menalaus with thy Army to the conquest of this fayre Helena to triumph now at last vpon her vtmost spoyles Imagine the Tombe wherein she is enclosed to be the the proud Troy which deteynes her from thee Marshall thy Army about her Sepulcher and let the valiantest of thy soldiers well armed against the horrour and affrightes of all the infections of the world giue the first onset to this fortresse of miseryes There is no need to reduce her into ashes since she is wholy full of ashes now Encourage then thy Captains to the assaults Thou hast now no more to deale with an infinite number of men but rather with an infinite number of wormes as owners possessors of the subiect of thy victory But me thinkes some new Achilles or some Aiax hath already demolished the rampiers of this litle Troy wherein thy Helena is captiued Approach then braue Menalaus with napkin at thy nose teares in thine eyes sighs in thy mouth and plaintes in thy soule to behold the Idoll of thy passions and the obiect of the triumphes Behold this fayre Helena whome the greatest Monarks of the world haue adored Behold this fayre Helena whome Theseus tooke away and Paris rauished as a thrall of her perfections Behold this fayre Helena who hath peopled Greece with widdowes and Orphans Behold his fayre Helena who hath drowned a good part of the earth with a deluge of bloud Behold this fayre Helena the wonder of all the wonders in the world the shame of ages past the despayre of such as are to come the miracle of her present age Behold this fayre Helena whome Paynters neuer durst to represent nor haue Poets beene able euer to prayse inough Behold this fayre Helena whome no man hath admired but with Idolatry Behold this fayre Helena whose merits haue armed the one part of the world agaynst the other as if for â—er alone they would haue vtterly destroied the Vniuerse Behold at last this fayre Helena whose lyfe hath cost a million of deathes behold this stinking carcasse which heere you see this heape of putrifyed bones and this lump of infection full of wormes Commaund thy imagination to represent her vnto thee in that estate she was in at such tyme as thou adoredst her on the Throne of her graces for to acknowledge sensibly the differeÌ„ce Demand of her head what is become of that fayre golden hayre of hers so alwayes curled where Loue had wrought a thousand Labyrinths to make a thousand of the freest Soules to waÌ„derin Her hayre I say whose flash dazeled the eyes and whose wreathes captiued harts Where is that Alabaster brow where Maiesties appeared in troupes as alwaies ready to impose new lawes of respect to mortals Where are her eyes which you termed The eyes of Loue since he had not beene blind but for her sake Or rather those two fayre stars eclipsed from whence thou receiuedst both the good and the euill influences of thy life say we yet more those two fayre Suns arriued now at their last West whose splendour euer blinded the whole world What is become of them we can hardly discerne the dreadfull ruines of their being Where may that godly feature be whose flowers alwayes spread and disclosed the winter reuereÌ„ced much Where is that mouth of Coral whose voyce was an oracle of good euill fortunes Where is that necke of Iuory that snowy bosome and all the other parts of that body where Nature had imployed the last endeauours of her power I see nothing but wormes I smell nothing but a stinke All is vanished quite away The flesh of that Maiesticall brow lets her hydeous bones appeare Those fayre eyes shew forth the holes where the wormes haue built their Sepulcher The flowers of this visage are changed into thornes and this mouth sometimes of Corall is now become a sinke of Infection And for the rest of the parts of the body being al of the same nature with the whole we may know the peece by the patterne Menalaus behold the subiect of thy affection of thy pleasures of thy paynes and of thy triumphes Behold her whome thou so deerely louedst so highly reuerencedst â—or whome thou hast a thousand tymes put â—hy Scepter thy Crowne yea all Greece in daunger with thy life and honour Behold thy vanity discouered consider thy â—hame contemplate thy folly This heape of Ashes hath made thee to reduce into ashes the proudest Citty of the world This stinking Carkasse hath been conuinced in dying for putting a Million of men to death This Colossus of miseries full of infection hath changed the most flourishing Empire of the world into a meere dunghil Muster vp thine Army about this Sepulcher that thy Captaynes and Souldiers may lament with thee thy folly bewayling the tyme they haue imployed for the conquest of this heape of stinking earth So as if the Ghosts wherewith she hath peopled Hell were able to breake their prisons they would bring a new warre vpon thee as the partner of all the crymes which they haue committed in following thee I attend
life were it to dy neuer and to suffer without cease since miseryes and paynes are the miserable accidents of our bodies it would euen be a liuing death or rather a dying life a thousand times more cruell and intollerable then death it selfe Happy then yea thrice happy is that last instant which makes vs get forth of the Empire of tyme most pleasing is the moment which leades vs into the Eternity O sweet agony ful of extasy and rauishment O glorious Ioseph guide now my pen in this faire labyrinth of death wherein it is wandering to touch at some thing of your last rauishments when as you gaue vp your soule on the lips of himselfe that created them Lyfe hath nothing so delicious as your death you dy in the armes of the mother of lyfe and of lyfe it selfe And shall I say that is a death You amorously expire on the mouth of your Redeemer that is to say on the gate of Paradise what ioy The pen fals out of my hand as if it were sensible of these incomparable pleasures wherwith the end of your holy lyfe was crowned but I hope to recouer it agayne very shortly for to speake more worthily thereof if these secret Vowes which I haue already offered you may be gratefull to you Let vs say then confidently that of all the actions of lyfe the last of death is the welcomest of al to such as haue lyued well and it is permitted to all the world to liue well Goodly Considerations vpon this important verity That whatsoeuer we do we dye euery houre without cease CHAP. XIIII THE inhabitants of Nylus are so accustomed to heare the dreadâ—ull noyse of its waters alwayes roaring as they haue no eares to feele the incoÌ„modity therof Let vs say the same in a diuers sense of men in the world that they are so habituated to this sweet feeling of dying without cease as they perceiue not theÌ„selues to dy awhit They breath in dying the aire of the Death which they sigh forth without thinking euer of Death A strange thing to liue continually in Death and to dy euery day in life without once dreaming of the necessity of their end whither they run alwaies They do nothing els but dy and they haue no care but to liue For if they speake the ayre wherof they forme their words causeth the lights to dye which is the Clocke of life the respirations the minutes these minutes are couÌ„ted and one succeding to the other the lasts strikes the houre of Death If they eate the very food that nourishes them doth putrify in their bodyes as in a dunghill in signe that they are full of corruption and this infectioÌ„ by little and little ruines the infected vessel wherein it is enclosed If they sleepe they exteriourly carry the countenance of death which they hide within In fine there is no action wherein they may be any wayes employed which is not a Symbole of Death If the foolish errours of these men of the world concluded not in an irreparable domage they would afford as much pleasure as they moue pitty For one gets into his Caroch with purpose to goe to some faire house of his in the Country without considering the while how that very way of his walke is euen the same of Death whither Tyme which is the Coachman leades him insensibly with all his company So as if they go not to lye for this dayes iourney at the lodging of the Tombe it is put of for the morrow after Another embarkes himselfe in a Pinnace for to sayle into the Indyes himselfe is a Pinnace the while embarked in the sea of the world from the moment of his birth sayling without cease at the pleasure of the wind wherewith age doth replenish the sayles and that without once being able to land but in the hauen of the Tombe This Gallant heere shal be going in post to see his Mistresse and he hath no other obiect in all his course then to arriue as soone as he can to the place where she lodgeth Foole as he is he considers not the while how that euery step he puts forward on his way he approacheth the nerer to the Tombe whither he runs with full speed vpon the same Post-horses he takes to compasse his amourous desires Another there wil be going more easily in a Litter and with lesse incommodity for feare the heate or cold may seeme to preiudice his health but let him go as easily as he will yet Death will not fayle to lead his mules in such sort as he shall but passe onely by his howses of pleasure so to go forwards in his way directly to the Tombe what digression soeuer he seemes to make to put it off Thinke on this truth my Dames during the calme and tranquility of your fortune the spring tyme of your lyfe will not alwayes last euen as the seasons of the yeare succeed ech other so those of age pursue one another But as we see often how the intemperance of the ayre causeth the winter to arriue in the midst of sommer take heed the intemperance of your humours produce not the winter of death in the midst of the spring tyme of your lyfe In vayne do you set forth all your deceiptfull markes of immotality the time scornes them and I laugh at them For if to day you be something tomorrow are you lyke to be nothing So passeth away the glory of the world all flyes into the Tombe The Tombe of the pleasures of the Sight CHAP. XV. LET all the fayrest Obiects which are in Nature appeare in my presence to behold ech one in its turne the foundation of their Sepulcher Let the Heauen shew forth open to view its serene countenance the Sun his liuely brightnes the Moone her siluer day the starres their twinckling sparkes the Ayre its fayre nakednes The birds their warblings their richest robes of plumages enamelled with euery sort of colours The Trees the ornament of their blossomes and the decking of their fruits the Meadowes the tapestry of their greenes and Mountaynes the mossy stuffe wherewith they couer their crumpt backes the forrests their thicke branches the sauadge beasts the extrauagant beauty which Nature hath impressed in their brutish kind through the diuersity of the formes which they represent the Earth the inside of its coffers replenished with all sorts of riches the Riuers the Christall of their streames the Fountaynes the liquid glasses of their waters the Sea its huge waterish maÌ„tle the fishes the infinite number of their figures wholy different Let the world yet giue forth new wonders and beauty exhibit to our view its fayrest lyuing pictures yet all those obiects taken altogether are no more then a little dust enclosed in the crust of artificiousnes which Tyme quite ruines by little and little Thou man of the world who seest but only by thine eyes in cherishing thy life so with the pleasures of the sight admire yet once in thine Idea
eyther in payne or glory I leaue you to thinke of these important verityes For the pleasures of Touching being of the selfe same nature with the rest and hauing no more solid foundatiō then they we may draw the consequence of the same argumēt with them and conclude how this imaginary pleasure cannot seeeme to cleaue but to weaker spirits who loue only the earth because its obiect is so vile and base as we had need to abase our selues to obserue its aymes Let vs resume the ayres of our former discourses and say that the pleasures of the world do not subsist in the world but through the name onely which is giuen them For in effect they are nothing but a dreame the shadow of a shadow whose body we neuer possesse Such as loue them are not capable of loue since they fix their affections on the pourtraicts onely of imagination and of the Idea's which the wind defaceth euery moment True contentmēt consists in thinking alwayes of death And this is the onely pleasure of lyfe since it termines in the delights of Eternity How he who hath imposed the Law of Death vpon vs hath suffered al the paynes therof together CHAP. XVIII I NOTE an excesse of loue in the History of that great King who being touched with a generous desire to banish vice for euer from his Kingdome to bring in Vertue there to reigne in peace among an infinite number of Lawes which he imposed on his subiects the payne of pulling out the eyes was decreed for his punishment that should violate the most important of thē The ill lucke was that his only Sonne should fall the first into that cryme What shall he do And what shal he resolue vpon For to quit himselfe from the assaults both of loue and pitty which nature gaue him euery moment he could not do since the halfe of his bloud takes away fury from the other halfe What likelihood for one to arme himselfe against himselfe to excite his arme to vengeance to destroy his body He hath no loue but for the guilty how shall he haue passion to destroy him He sees not but by his eyes and how shall he be able to see him blind In fine he sits not on his Throne but to keepe him the place how shall he possibly mount this throne to prononce the sentence of his punishment Of necessity yet the errour must be punished if he wil not soyle the splendour of his iustice which is the richest ornament of his Crowne and the onely vertue that makes him worthy of his Empire Nature assayles him powerfully Loue giues him a thousand batteryes and euen Pitty often wrings the weapons from his hands and yet Reason for all that seemes to carry away the victory There is no remedy but needs must he yield to Nature Loue and Pitty but yet finds he a way to make Iustice triumph in satisfying the law He puls out one of his sonnes eyes for one halfe of the punishment and causes another to be pluckt forth from himselfe for to finish the chasticement What excesse of Goodnes Let vs draw now the mysticall Allegory from this history and say That our Redeemer represents this iust King at such tyme as in the terrestrial Paradise he imposed this law of obedience vnder paine of death vpon man being the Sonne of his hands as the noblest worke of his Creation This man being the first borne becomes lykewyse at that same very tyme the first guilty in contemning the commaundements of his Soueraygne He eats that fatall Apple or rather opens with his murderous teeth that vnlucky box of Pandora stuffed with all manner of euills The punishment euen followes his offence so neere as he instantly incurres the payne of death But what a prodigy of loue The Creator being touched with the miseryes of his creature takes away the rigour of the law without destroying it quite or infringing the same I meane that he seuers death from death in causing the guilty to arise agayne from his ashes for to liue eternally And the meanes wherof he serues himselfe is to dye with him and in the Chalice of his passion to drinke all the bitternes of death for to chāge the nature therof In such sort as this way of death conducts vs now to eternall lyfe O sweet Death a thousand tymes more plesing thē whatsoeuer is most pleasing in the world O sweet Death a hundred and a hundred tymes more delicious then all the pleasures vnited together O sweet Death where the body finds repose the spirit contentmēt the soule its whole felicity O sweet Death the only hope of the afflicted the sole consolation of the wisest and the last remedy for all the euils of the world O sweet Death and a thousand tymes more admirable then his goodnes that imposed the law since through the same very Goodnes he would needs be suffering the paine it selfe for to take away the payne Who durst refuse to drinke in his turne in the Chalice where God himselfe hath quenched his thirst Let vs go thē very holily to Death for to go cheerefully thither is to make loue and vertue lead vs into the sepulcher if we meane to find therein a second cradle where we may be reborne anew neuer to dye any more I cannot forget that goodly Custome of the Egyptians that when as a Sonne being armed with fury should passe to that extremity of cruelty as to take away the life from him who had giuen him the same he incurred this sweet punishment withall to be shut vp for three whole dayes in prison togeather with the body whose Parricide he was I should thinke that such as had imposed the law had this beliefe that the terrible and dreadfull obiect of the cryme was a torment of force inough for the guilty to extort the last teares from his eyes the vtmost playntes from his soule For in effect Nature neuer belyes it selfe it is alwayes it selfe it may well affoard some intermission of loue of pitty but yet at last it snatches the hart from the bowels through a violēce worthy of it selfe Let vs see now the backside of this Meddall so to draw forth the mistery out of this moral verity We represent to day this guilty sonne since we haue put our Redeemer to Death who is the common Father of our soules The punishment which the law of his Iustice hath now imposed vpon vs it to looke cōtinually on this Tree of the Crosse whereon our crymes haue made him to expire for to repayre their enormity withall O sweet punishment For spilling the bloud of him who hath filled our veynes the law exacts no more of vs then teares For hauing nayled him on the Crosse Iustice enioynes vs no other payne then that of nayling our eyes on the same pillar wherupon he is nayled For hauing crowned him with thorns he would haue vs to trample vnder foote the roses of our pleasures In fine
for putting him to Death he demaundes no more at our hands but sighes and teares for to testify our sorrow for the same Who could refuse to afford him this pitty or loue who for our loue hath had such pitty vpon vs His hart hath beene melt to teares of bloud vpon the Aultar of the Crosse and shall we not drowne our selues in the sea of our teares being so prest with the storme of our sighs plaints Shall we suffer the rockes to vpbrayed vs of insensibility The Sunne hath beene darkned at the sight of our cryme and shall not we wax pale for sorrow of committing the same The Moone had beene hiding her selfe for shame and shall not our countenaÌ„ce awhit be couered therewith The earth hath quaked and shall not our hearts seeme to tremble for feare The veyle of the Temple hath beene rent in twayne and shall our bowels remayne entire In fine Nature hath suffered and shall we be exempt from suffering at the sight of our Redeemer nayled vpon the Crosse Weepe weep you mine eyes all the water of your humide springes powre you forth boldly the last teare on this Crosse where my Sauiour hath spilt the last drop of his bloud Do you imitate the Sunne in your little course drowne your selues within the sea of your teares if you would like to him be arising againe from your West and shine without him in the East of an eternall light And thou my hart vnty thy selfe a little froÌ„ all the feelings of the pleasures of the world since the only roses of true contentment are found amidst the thornes of the Crosse. The whole felicity concludes in this point of neuer hauing any other then that of carying the crosse This is the ladder of Iacob which serues vs to mount vp to Heauen with all This is the brazen Serpent that cures our soules from the poyson of the vanities of the world Without the Crosse there is no pleasure nor repose in the world He that caryes the crosse with him may well say more coÌ„fidently then Bias did that he caryes all his riches about him For therein alone are comprized all the treasures of the world therein consists the accomplishmeÌ„t of our happines O deere Crosse the only wish of my soule O deere Crosse the sweet obiect of mine eyes O deere Crosse in which alone I put my hope O deere Crosse vpon which alone do I establish the foundation of all my felicities O deere Crosse where my wishes find their end my enuy its vtmost limits O deere Crosse deere Instrument of my victory and rich Crowne of my tryumph I pretend to nothing els in the world but the Crosse I abaÌ„don al for it For as I reuiue not but through it only so will I dy with it and deliciouly expire vpon its couch And this is the only meanes to be vnsensible of Death You Soules of the World I present you with the Crosse as with a new Arke of Noe to warrant you froÌ„ the deluge of the diuine Iustice and that deadfull day of iudgment Can you refuse to kisse the wood wherupoÌ„ you haue nayled your Sauiour Behold the wonder He hath exchanged your cruelty into loue For he hath affoarded you the inuention to nayle his hands that he might haue alwayes his armes so stretched forth to imbrace you withall The like may I say that he caused his Feet to be so nayled to attend you at all houres since euery houre is he ready in his will to pardon you O prodigy of goodnes O miracle of Loue Lord graunt I beseech thee I become not vngratefull for so many fauours done me Teach my hart a language wholy diuine to thaÌ„ke you diuinely for them whiles I can offer you no more for a whole acknowledgemeÌ„t of al then the only griefe of not hauing any thing worthy of you The pleasure which is found in Liuing wel for to Dye content CHAP. XIX IT is impossible to expresse the pleasures of a holy Soule its contentments are not to be so called its sweetnesse hath another name its extasyes rauishments cannot be comprehended but by the selfe same hart which feeles them For not to lye it hath ioyes wholy of Heauene it tasts the delights most deuine and with a like grace it carries its terrestriall Paradise with it If its thoughts seeme to touch vpon earth it is but only for its contempt for anon they take their flight to heauen-wards as the onely obiect which they do ayme at at all tymes In fine as they are immortall they neuer regard but the Eternity The paynes it endures haue no bitternes with them but only in name the miseries do euen change their quality in its presence as if they awed its courage If misfortune chance to light vpon it with some sad accident or other it receiues it as a present from Heauen rather theÌ„ as any disgrace of fortune If death seeme to snatch away from it what most it Ioues it payes nature the teares it owes it and at the same very tyme satisfyes reason through generous actions with its constancy If it loose all the goods which it had for portion on earth it complaynes not awhit but of it selfe while its offences seeme to deserue a great chastizement On the other side as it placeth not its affection on the riches of the world fortune can take away nothing from it but what it is willing to loose because it hath nothing proper but the hope of possessing one â—ay the richest treasures in a Land which is wholy scituated out of the Empie of Time and inconstancy thereof Let it thunder let the sea mount vp to the Heauens vpon the backe of its waues let the warres dispeople townes and all the disasters of the world make al together an Army to set vpon it yet remaynes it firme and stable as a rocke in the midst of this Sea if it feare any thing it is but the feare of offending God O sweet feare more noble then all the courages of the world Thus liues it content amids the broyles whereof the world is so full Thus liues it most happily amids the sad accidents which land euery houre on the shore of the world Thus enioyes it a sweet repose amids the troubles and continuall tribulations of Mortals It loues not health but to employ its lyfe in the seruice of him who hath bestowed it vpon it If it laugh it is for the ioy it hath that it neuer had any such beneath since the Redeemer had neuer beene gathering but thornes and if it weep it is for the griefe of its proper miseryes rather then for those of its body being very solicitous to conserue entiere and without blemish the image and semblance of its Creatour whose impression it had receyued on the first day of its being In fine it is capable neyther of pleasure nor yet of sadnes but for the onely interests of its saluation whose thoughts are euer present with it And is
not this a sweet lyfe So as if Time strike the houre of its retrayt from its first disposition to death it deduceth a last for to yield vp it selfe into the hands of him that created it In vaine doth euill seeke to afflict its senses the light of its constancy would be alwayes appearing through the shadowes of its sad countenance To what condition soeuer had it beene raysed vnto it takes no care to quit the greatnesses because it had neuer tyed its affections thereunto The Sun may well arise and sett agayne yet she beholds it alwayes with the selfe same eye It s East and West are equall to it though they be different attending without anxiety the West of the torch of its lyfe The labour which it hath to prepare it selfe for death is not very great since still it hath lyued in this preparation Notwithstanding as we cannot employ all our tyme in so important a busines it deliciously spends the remaynder of its lyfe therein It smyles to behold all the world to weep about its bed and being not able to speake any more to cōplaine of their plaints it sighs to heare them sigh For it suffers not but what it sees others to suffer All the griefe is in the body and if it seeme a litle to reflect vpon it it is but a griefe of loue with sighing in expectation of its last sigh for to behold the onely obiect of its good Let the wyfe cry the children pull their hayre and the neerest of its kyn be carying on their visage the sadnes which they haue in their hart let the best friends be partners of this condolement and euery one in his fashion complayn of the disaster so befalne him yet she alone stands praysing the heauens for it and blesseth the day and houre now ready to produce this last moment where the eternity of its glory should begin Well may death seeme to make its visage pale but not the hart for loe it appeares in these last extremes more refulgent then euer lyke a cādle which is ready to go forth it hath the voyce of a dying Swan which is able to charme all the dolours that enuirone it round The Diuells are astonished to behold it so deuoyd of astonishment the force of its inuincible courage doth so weaken their power as they are constrayned to pretend nothing to triumph at In such sort as with the armes of Vertue it caryes away the crowne vnto the end of the race euen dying with the desire it hath to dye rather then of sorrow for not lyuing long inough Thus through force of the sighes of loue it sends forth at last through a last push of loue the last sigh from the bowels and so flyes away vpon its wings vnto the fellowship of the Angels into Heauen where its holy thoughtes had now along tyme established their dwelling O sweet dwelling O happy death which conducts vs thither O welcome dwelling and most delicious the moment which affoards the Eternity thereof The Picture of the Life and Death of a sinfull Soule CHAP. XX. OF all the miserable conditions wherto a man may be reduced that same of lyuing in Mortall Sin is the most vnhappy and vnfortunate The Slaues in the Galleyes are a great deale more happy then such a one For their bondage is limited to a terme and that of sin to a payne of an eternall seruitude It is impossible a guilty man should liue content in the midst of all the pleasures of the world for his cryme is his hangman and torture If he be present at bāquets the remembrance of his offences is mingling of some aloes in his delicious meates If he quench his thirst with the sweetest nectar in the world the same very thought wil be distilling a droppe of gaule into his Cuppe If he walk into some goodly garden the imaginatiō of his faults being alwayes present with him makes him to feele the Thornes of the Roses he admires If he go a hunting the Torturer of his guilty conscience runs after him Let him goe where he wil through the world his cryme is his shadow which followes him throughout Whatsoeuer he doth he is euer ready to thinke of what shal become of him what fortune soeuer he possesseth it is neuer great inough to put his spirit in repose The least accident that happens to him brings him to Deathes doore because that finding himself to be guilty he lyues alwais on the poynt of paying for his cryme If it rayne he imagins straight the Heauens are prepared to powre a new deluge vpon him for to punish him with If it thunder he perswades himself presently that the lightening hath no other ayme then to light on his guilty head If the weather be fayre he sees a sommer without a winter within for his brutish passions produce a continual tempest in his soule If fortune present him with Scepters he regards them but as one apprehending thē shortly to be taken away from him since he deserues them not In fine he wanders in vaine in the labyrinth of all vanityes and returnes to himselfe agayne at all tymes to confesse of force that he is the most wretched of the world in the most of all his greatnesses If he be taken with a sicknes behold him on the racke there are not Priests inough to be found nor Religions to confesse him yet knowes he not what to say For the nūber of his offences are without number and his troubled memory can but only represēt to him the least part of them The disease seemes to presse him hard in the meane tyme his paynes do put him anew on the racke Of all whatsoeuer is represented vnto him there is nothing likes him so much as the Phisitian doth but he is now in the point to try his last remedy after he hath turned ouer all his old Bookes The Doctours are assembled togeather about his bed but it is only to bid him Adieu in a language which he vnderstands not Behold all the comfort they giue him in so much as to see the Phisitians so assembled about him and set by his bed in chayres of Grauity one would say they were the Princes of the Senate that come to pronounce the sentence of Death vpon this guilty wretch He hearkens attentiuely to them without hearing them For the feare he hath of vnderstanding all which they say makes him euen deafe to the halfe The Syncopes are the Hangmen which present themselues to him for to execute this cruell sentence of Death Then the hope of his curing begins to leaue him Behold him yet once againe in the strongest pangs of his agony He would confesse the euil he hath done and that which he endures doth hinder him from it He would recount the history of his life but the dolours of his present Death will not permit him to do it His hart through its vehement sighes his eyes through their forced teares and his Soule by
its necessary sighes do pray his tongue ech one in its fashion to disclose their crymes but the same cannot speake the rigour of a thousand punishmēts makes it to be dumbe On the other side his spirit in the disorder wherein it finds it selfe can haue no other thoughts then those of sorrow for eternally abandoning that which it loues so deerly He knowes not how to expresse a last farewell to his pleasures Whatsoeuer represents it selfe to his eyes are so many obiects that renew his payne If he take heed vnto the beames of the Sun with peere into his chamber window for to take their leaue of his eyes he remembers immediately all the pleasures he hath taken through help of their fayre light in a thousand and a thousand places where it hath beene a witnes of those errors of his If the weather be foule he thinkes vpon that tyme which he hath ill spent imagining withall that the Heauens being touched with compassion of his disasters do euen weepe before hand and bewayle the losse they endure of his Soule It seemes to him that the sound of the bells doth call him to the tombe and that of the Trumpets vnto iudgement He sees nothing about him that astonishes him not He heares nothing that affrights him not He feeles nothing but his miseryes his tōgue is all of gaule wheresoeuer he layes his hand vpon himselfe he touches but the dunghill of his corruption If his spirit seeme to returne to him againe by intermission of the traunce wherein he is he quite forgets the hope of good through the ill he hath committed not being able to dispose his soule to any repentāce The sight of his friends importunes him that of his children afflicts him and the presence of his wyfe serues him as a new addition to his sorrow They behold him not but weeping he is neuer strooken with other noyse then with that of the cryes and plaints of his domestickes The Phisitian goes his wayes out of the chamber to giue place to the Cōfessour And the one knowing not how to cure the body the other hath difficulty to heale the soule by reason of the despayre wherein he is entangled Iudge now to what estate must he needs be brought His speach that fayles him by litle and litle His sight is dimme with his iudgement and all his other senses receyue the first assaults of Death They present him with the Crosse but in vayne for if his thoughtes be free he thinkes but of that which he beares of force They may cry lōg inough to him to recommend himselfe vnto God the deafnes he hath had before to his holy inspirations doth astonish him now also at this houre How many deaths endures he before his death How many dolorous sighs casts he forth into the ayre before the breathing his last All the punishments of the world cannot equall that which he endures For passing out of one litle Hel of paines he enters into a new which shall not haue end but with eternity What good then would he not willingly haue wrought But his wishes are as so many new subiects of griefe in this impotency whence he is neuer to see himselfe deliuered Into what amazement is he brought The Sunne denyes him its light so as if he behold his misfortunes it is but onely by the light of the mortuary Torches which giue him light but to conduct him to the tombe O how the Houre of these last extreames drawes forth in length Ech moment of his lyfe snatches out the hart from his bosome euery moment without putting him to death On which side soeuer he turnes himselfe both horrour and despaire beset him round He caryes Death in his soule for that which he is to incurre Death on his body for that which he now endures Death in his senses since they dye by little and little in so much as all his life is but a liuing Death that consumes him slowly to reduce him into ashes Being now brought to these streights the wicked spirits imploy the last endeauors of their power for to carry away the victory after so many conflicts had What meanes of resistance where there is no pulse no motiō no voyce no tongue His spirit is now in extremes as well as his life and his hart being hardened is now ready to send forth its last sigh in its insensibility as if it dyed in dying His eyes are now no more eyes for they see no more His eares may no more be called so for they heare not awhit and all the other senses as parts precede the ruine of their whole The Soule only resists the cruell assaults of Death in beholding its enemyes in continuall expectation of their prey but the hower presseth it must surrender O cruel necessity In fine for to finish this bloudy Tragedy the Deuils carry it away to Hell for recompence of the seruices which it had yealded to them And this is the lamentable end of synfull Soule You Soules of the world who liue not but throgh the life of your pleasures behold the fearefull Death where the life termines And since the heauens the earth the elemēts whatsoeuer els in nature moues changes without cease do you thinke to find any constancy and stability in your delights Know you not that with the very same action wherewith you runne along withall your contentments you run vnto your Death and that during the tyme it selfe that Tyme affoards them vnto you he takes euen them away from you We loose euery houre what we possesse what care soeuer we take in conseruing the same My Ladyes Keep well your gallāt beauties from the burning of the Sunne If that of the Sunne or of the fire be not able to marre them yet that of Age and Tyme doth ruine them notwithstanding all the industry of Vanity which you haue to employ about them Put your fayre Bodyes into the racke of another body of iron to conserue the proportion therof yet tyme but derides your inuentions For it assayles you within and you defend your selues but without only You haue dared the Heauens inough with an arrogant eye you must needs be stooping with the head now at last for to looke on the earth whence you are formed You must needs bow the necke to the yoke of your miseryes and resume agayne the first forme of your corruption In going to dauncing to feasts and to walke abroad you go to Death In vayne do you command your Coachman then to cary you to such a place since Tyme as I haue said conducts him also that caryes you thither In so much as on which side soeuer you turne your selues you approach vnto the tombe After you haue tasted all the pleasures of the world what shal be left you of all but a griefe of the offences in the soule the sad remembrance of their priuation in the memory this sadnes in the hart for hauing made it to sigh so after your ruine
their Eminency and the Lawes of the world persuade vs to belieue that great Misfortunes are tyed to great Powers Whence it is that great Monarches do neuer seeme to resent little dolours nor suffer any thing with feeble displeasures The least storme with comes vpon them is a kind of ship wracke to their resentments all their wounds all mortall they cannot fall but into precipices and the crosses of their Fortune make them to keep company with Iob on the dungill Let them tread Cloth of Gould vnder their feet as Tiberius did let them satiate their hunger with pearles as did Marke-Antony let them metamorphize the feelings of their Pallaces lyke to a starry Heauen as Belus King of Cyprus and with the help of Art let them hold the seasons at their becke for their contentments as Sardanapalus notwithstanding needs must these Magnificences and these Pleasures vanish before them in an instant to let them see the weakenes of their Nature since the inconstancy of Time is annexed to all that which subsists heere beneath In such sort as their Greatnesses and delights do insensibly glide away with life though their reigne hath beene ful of flowers the remembrance therof brings forth but thornes If Kings establish the foundation of their greatnesses vpon their Crownes let them cast their eyes vpon their figures round euer mouing and thereby shall they know the instability thereof And then besids it is no great matter to be able to commaund a world of people if they make their lawes absolute through force of Reason rather then that of Tyranny There is a great deale more honour to merit a Crowne then to possesse it which made Thales Melesinus say that a vertuous man enuoyed all the riches of the world if vertue be the greatest treasure of it So that if they trust in their Scepters to defend themselues from the strokes of Fortune they consider not the while she is able inough to snatch them out of their hands and cruell inough to metamorphize them into a sheephooke and to reduce them to such a state as shall moue Pitty rather then Enuy. What vanity were it for one to haue a Scepter in the hand and a Crowne vpon the head if with all these markes of Greatnesses he approches to the Tombe to bury vp the Glory of it What pleasure to see the greatest part of the world to be vnder him if they haue altogether the self same way of Death The great ones run as swift as the little in this carriere where Miseries Misfortunes accompany our steps How is it possible that man which is but dust ashes can find assurance in Greatnesses Ah! What say you then is it not well knowne that dust and ashes are so much the more subiect to be carried away with the wind as they are set in a higher place The Mountaines are alwaies enuironed with precipices and thunders neuer turne their faces but to the highest tops So as they who apprehend a Fall should clip the winges of their Ambition for not to fly too high But if one would seeke for Greatnesses it were necessary to be in vertue The Magnificences of Darius his Army serued but as a funerall pompe to his Death The Preparations to his Triumph were the instruments of his Ouerthrow In so much as the Lawrels of his Hopes crowned him not but in the Tombe in signe that in dying he had vanquished all the mishaps of his life So do we see the Glory of the world to fly before our eyes with such swiftnes as we can hardly follow it throgh the amazement wherein she hath left vs. I admire the last thoughts of Celadine when as he ordayned that after his Death they should cause his shirt to be shewed to the whole Army and that he who carried it should cry aloud Behould heere that which the greatest of the world seems to carry from the world This valiant Captaine knew the verity of his miseries by the vigill of his Shipwracke seeing that of all his Treasures he could carry away with him but the valew of a Shirt This is the share of the greatest Kings Nature thinks good to afford them Scepters in the cradle she must rob thē in the Sepulcher And howbeit they are borne as little Gods on Earth yet sticke they not to dye like other men so as if they differ in the māner of lyuing they are all equall in the necessity of dying S. Lewis would rest vpon a bed of Ashes before his Death to let vs see that he was but Ashes yet is it to be considered that the beliefe which he had proceeded from the diuine Fire wherwith he was inflamed and resenting in that manner the diuine flames by little and little he went consuming of his life he would become ashes vpon ashes both throgh loue and humility Dauid did charge himselfe with a sacke of Ashes to diminish the flash of his Greatnesses and the trouble that possessed him The knowledge of himselfe perswaded him to serue himselfe with this cūning shewing forth without what was within His Flesh couered his ashes for to couer his defects and he would haue his Ashes to couer his flesh for to discouer the miseries of his Nature When I consider how the greatest of the Earth are of Earth and that all their Riches and all their Greatnesses may not be had but in flying towards the Center of their ruine where they finish with them I cry out as that Philosopher did how the world is a Body of smoke which the Ayre of Tyme disperseth by little and litle for the eyes behould quite through their teares the continuall decay of the best obiects and they can hardly be knowne within their inconstancy so different are they from themselues It is a pleasure to read the Histories of Ages past because all the wonders which appeare vpon the Theather of their Reigne are but dreames and vayne Idea's that subsist not but by the opinion of those that will lend credit vnto them It were in vayne to seeke Rome at this day within Rome when scarce can be found within the Temple of memory that of the ruine of its Aultars Tyber only which is alwayes a flying hath remayned stable and permanent The golden Pallace of Nero the Stoues of Diocletiant he Bathes of Antoninus the Sephizone of Seuerus the Colossus of Iulius and the Amphitheater of Pompey all these proud wonders haue not beene able to resist the encounters of a first Age and the second hath caused the day of their ruine to spring with it So as the Labourers the works their proprietaries haue followed the lot of the decay which was naturall to them If they enquire what are become of those magnificences of Cyrus those pōps of Mark-Antony those prosperities of Alexander those greatnesses of Darius I shall answere with that Philosopher that they haue passed away like a waue without leauing any signe of their being behind thē Philip that great
King of Macedon gaue in charge to one of his Pages to awake him euery morning with the sweet harmony of this discourse forsooth To remember that he was man by consequence subiect to death This Generous Prince was afraid to be dazeled by the flash of Fortune and to forget himselfe in the presence of his Greatnesses which therfore made him to impose this law vpon himselfe of musing euery day on the Miseries of his condition for feare least forgetfulnes should conuince him of this vanity which ordinarily is annexed vnto great prosperities He set open his eares to the soūd of this verity that he and al his Greatnesses were nothing els but dust and that the cruel necessity of dying was continually occupied in building him his Tombe to bury there with him both his Glory his Fortune Remember that you are Man said the Page to him or to say better least yet the name of Man may seeme to flatter you that you are a little Corruptiō shut vp within a skin of flesh quickened with a little breath of life whose light may be extinguished with the least wind you are notwithstanding all that the greatest of Men but yet are not your Greatnesses exempt from Death nor the Miseries that forerunne its ariuall Remember that you are man and that your Scepter and your Crowne shal not ransome you from the Tombe Remember that you are man subiect to a great deale more disasters then the Heauen hath Starres and the sea Rockes Remember that you are man that is to say the shutle-cocke of Fortune brought into so deplorable an estate as you can afford but matter of Pitty in consideration of your Miseries Remember that you are man to serue as pasture one day to the wormes and as matter to the ayre and wynd for to play with your dust as with a subiect proper to their sports Remember that you are man yet a slaue of this soueraigne and absolute power whose Scepter and Crowne you hold in homage not knowing the limits of the tyme of your Reigne Remember that you are man it may be for an instant or els for an houre or yet for a day the which should make this remembrance alwaies present to you how your condition is mortall transitory You are man dying without cease and running without intermission towards the Tombe withal things of the world This great King was affraid to wander within the Labyrinth of his Greatnesses this feare of his was founded vpon the reason of humane weakenes wherewith we are all borne He saw himselfe raysed vpon the highest Throne of Fortune with the power to commaund a world of people as tributaries all of his Authority His Armes alwayes victorious found no resistance but in sight of Humility His enemies enuious of his good hap would change both their hatred and their enuy into admiration So as being accomplished with the sweetest prosperities which are found in life he feared with reason the shifting of the wheele and iustly apprehended the turning of the Medall as he was most cunning in the knowledge of the maximes of the world which had taught him by experience how Tempests attend a calme vpon the waters on the land griefes do succeed contentments Hence it was that he tooke such pleasure in the acmonishment of the Page when as euery morning he so made him to remember that he was Man that it was tyme to rise to looke into the accidents wherewith our life is full This great Prince is dead in musing vpon Death and he that aduertised him so pursued full neere the paces of his course The King the Scepter the Crowne the Riches the Greatnesses the kingdome and all his subiects together are vanished frō our eyes and are slid into the Abysses of Tyme where things that seemed most durable to vs are quite buryed Nabuchodonozor led the Princes of Ierusalem as prisoners into Babylon but the Iaylour the Prisoners and the Prison it selfe are ingulfed within the nothing The Emperour Maximilian caused his Coffin to be carried before him taking much pleasure to behould the house where he was to make so long soiourning Away then with all these vayne Greatnesses of the world since they so post away like a Torrent since they melt like snow and since they passe like a lightning All those who now are their Idolatours shal one day sacrifice themselues with griefe for hauing runne so long tyme after those vayne shadowes for as many as loue them loue not themselues all those who gape after them are enemies of their proper senses forcing by an extreme Tyranny their wil to run the way of precipices The staires that serue to mount vp by haue the same vse in descending so as from the highest top of Thrones Empires there is seene no other way then that of the fall By those waies of Greatnes they mount not vp to heauen the glory of the Earth shuts vp its course within the earth whence it comes that the Palmes Lawrels which Honor doth prodigally share to men do fade wither how greene soeuer in the same soyle where they began to spring Well may they reckon vp the Crownes which Alexander purchased with his combats but not let vs see their matter since all is dead with him They speake much of Scipio's triumphs but that is all for tyme hath imposed silēce to the Oracles of al the Muses that published his renown Let them bring forth hardly if they can vpon the Theater of the world the happyest Monarch of the Ages past If Hanniball appeare the first they shall seeme to represent him but as after hauing beene Conquerour of a world of men he was vanquished by his owne vices and consequētly reduced to such a point of infamy misfortune at once as they talk rather of his defeats then of his triumphs If Pompey appeare after him they shal cōsider how his disasters defaced the lustre of his first prosperities If Cesar come in his rancke they shall marke how the Thornes of his death did wither the Roses of his lyfe The great Pyrrhus cannot appeare but ouerwhelmed with the burden of his misfortunes through the blow of a stone or rather by a heape of earth in signe that his greatnesses and his Tropheys were to be buried in the earth by a relation of the nature of this Element with that of his Glory Nero may heere appeare with splendour during those fiue yeares of his raygne but so remēbred as that hauing caused his Statues to be adored he was trāpled vnder foot in punishment of this vanity Parmenides enioyed a calme of lyfe but he found rockes and tempests in his Death by the poyson that was gyuen him Pelosidas was happy in his Spring in his Summer in his Antumne but the Winter of his old age made him resent a great deale of more miseries then he had tasted pleasures in his younger yeares Marke-Antony was raysed to so high a degree of Honour
sweetest pleasures of life he should feele in Death the cruelst dolours Hermenides had to much purpose surely caused very stately Pallaces to be erected in the dominion of his Empire since he was to dy in his Charriot as in a rouling House that should conduct him to his Tombe That famous Temple of Salomon was twice ruined by the Assyrians then reedified by the Iewes and againe was ruined by the Romanes And after that Traian had caused that Magnificient Bridge to be built vpō Danubius the waues neuer left roaring vntill such tyme as they had buried in their bosome the last marke of its being These Piramids of Egypt which with their sharp points seemed to outface the Heauens haue beene quite ouerthrowne by tyme within such an Abysse of ruine as they put them now in the rancke of dreames and fables Besides it seemes in all these magnificēt Fabrikes how Art Nature contribute but a backewardnes The Stones and Tymber are made to be dragged by force and if they lend but eares to the pushes of this cōstraint they shall marke how the waggons that beare them and the Engines which susteine them seeme to grone vnder the burthen as if they complayned of their Folly I esteeme a farre greater pleasure to dy vnder the roofe of a Cottage then vnder the fret-worke seeling of a Pallace because in that they cannot be touched with griefe to abandō the dwelling and in this place the Riches they admire therein seeme to make vs very sensible of the priuation To what end serued the great Buildings which the Queene Semiramis caused to be erected on the face of the Earth but for matter of shame and confusion in their Ruine The Queene of Saba had a whole towne for her House and after her Death both she and all her Greatnesses were enclosed within a little space of a Cubits breadth What folly to go about to build vpon a Territory where one lodges not but in passing as a Pilgrime From the tyme we are borne if we were but capable of Action we should be occupied in making our Sepulcher since Tyme seemes to lead vs thereunto unto with an incredible swiftnes So as if the infirmity of building do seize possesse vs let vs build Temples to the Glory of him who prepares the Eternity What is become of that proud Babylon is it not credible that its onely ruine eternized the name The Locrians built a Temple to the Sun but the Moone its Sister being iealous of this Glory obteyned of the Destines the sentence of it ruine for during the raygne of the Night the Ayre and wind did satiate their hūger with its Ashes When I thinke of this dreadfull vicissitude of Tyme which alters all things vnto the point of making vs quite to loose the remēbrance of them I contemne whatsoeuer is presented to my eyes and make no reckoning thereof since so in a moment the fayrest obiects change the face If your first Father were now risen agayne he would quite forget the world for a thousand tymes in an age hath it changed the countenance Let vs loue the change then in this inconstant and transitory lyfe and let euery one follow his lot without constraynt without tyranny in the way of vertue for to arriue at this pleasing habitation of Eternity Man makes greatly to appeare both his vanity and his Pride in these Buildings where he would seeme to establish if he could the foundation of some shelter that might be of proofe agaynst the stormes of death But the crime of his vnknowledgement is so enormous a thing as seemes to pull on his head the thunders of Heauen Learne thou Earth sayth Wisedome speaking of man to put thy selfe vnder foot it is thy property so to be trampled on for if thou flewest in the Ayre it could be but as dust so as thine Arrogancy cannot subsist but in folly If man would consider without cease to what point he is reduced his spirit would not be able to conceiue but thoughtes of Humility Before his birth he was nothing after his birth he is so smal as we dare not speake it for in a word is he nothing but a dunghill couered ouer with snow where the disposition of corruption prepares a food and nourishment for the wormes whereof then should he seeme to wax proud whose end is pouerty and corruption So as if he take any vanity at the Suns rising for the Greatnes he possesseth at the setting of this Starre we shall all be equall Marke attentiuely sayth S. Iohn Chrysostome the sepulchers of Dead men seeke round about for some signes of their passed Greatnesses For if those Tombes do send forth any flash of Magnificēce to thine Eyes conuey thy Thoughtes thereinto and thou shalt find but corruption Their ioy is extinct with their life their pleasures past ouer with their dayes and all their riches are abiding in their Coffers for to publish their folly touching the vnprofitable care they haue had in heaping them together They haue left their Pallaces at the first terme of their possessiō without so much leasure only as to accompt with their Host. Earth that art but Earth in thy natiuity Earth in thy lyfe in Earth the end wherfore art thou proud since thou art but flesh in apparence putrifaction in effect I commend greatly the custome of those of the Molucca's who build not their houses but for the tyme only they imagine to lyue and so dying oblige their children to do the same Arpilaus King of the Medes had caused a very stately Pallace to be built where he would end his dayes but from the instant that Tyme had strooke the houre of his retrait his enemyes entred into this Pallace and cast him forth of the window Cleophon the Lydian dyed ouerwhelmed with the ruines of his house and Iulianus notes how he had no other tombe Rid thy selfe my Soule from these vayne ambitions so to lodge in Pallaces knowing how the worms in pledge do harbour with in the house of thy body Thou beholdest so many goodly Edifices whose Gould and Marble seeme to defye Tyme as not able to destroy them yet within an age they abate their pride and with easy paces begin to follow the way of their ruine reteyning somthing of the nature of those workemen Iob had a farre better grace vpon his dunghill then on a Throne for what spectacle was it to put ashes corruptiō vpon cloth of gold Leaue these pallaces to men of the world who blind with a brutish ignorāce do establish the foūdation of their pleasures in thē Thou knowest that death enters euery where and since thy God dyed in a desert Mountayne wherein the excesse of his Misery he had not a drop of water to quench his thirst shut thine eyes to the glistering of those guilded feelings and suffer not this foule reproach at any tyme to expire vpon flowers whiles thy Sauiour gaue vp the ghost on thorns Do thou follow him then
in his glorious actiōs build thee a Temple within thy selfe where ech moment of thy lyfe thou mayst addresse to him vowes thou art to make for Eternity since the goodly Pallaces of his dwelling are of proof against the inconstancy of the world If the imagination could attract to it selfe all the obiects in distance from it to represent them in an instant before thy eyes how many mischiefes should we behould How many Deathes and how many dying liues They hould there is no vacuity in nature I will easily belieue it since miseries seeme to take vp all This is the accident so inseparable to man and which accompanies him to his Graue Euery one hath his dolours affected in like sort as his pleasures are but some ripen as they put forth and others gather strength in their feeblenes to eternize their durance How dreadfull would this Theater of the world seeme to be if one should behold all the Tragedies which are acted therin Phirra quenches her fury with her fathers bloud Eumenides is reuenged of her mother through poyson Curtius buryes his brother within his cradle Pernesius plucks out the eyes of his sister Etna And Symocles being an enemy to his race sets the Pallace on fire where his parents were assembled and I should thinke the fire of his choller was the first sparke of that consuming fire Nero seekes nourishment for to satisfy his cruelty in the bowels of his mother but God permitted the Executioners should hold the place of delinquēts on the day of their death when they gaue vp their lyfe to the assaults of a thousand dolours a great deale more cruell then Death it selfe Consider all these dismall accidents my Soule which happen euery moment One is consumed with fire as Pliny another is hanged as Polycrates heere one is cast downe headlong as Lycurgus there was another burned with a thunder-bolt like Esculapius There haue some been drowned in the sea as Marcus Marcellus Curtius was swallowed vp in a bottomeles pit Eschyllus the Philosopher had his head crushed with a Tortesse shell Cesar was slaine by such as he tooke to be his friends Cicero's head was cut off vpon the boot of his caroch Euripides was deuored by dogs Cleopatra died with the sting of a serpent or rather with that of her despaire Socrates is poysoned Aristo dieth of famine Seneca through the point of a launcet Cold tooke away the lyfe from Neocles Tarquinius Priscus was strangled with a fish-bone Lucia the daughter of Aurelius dyes with the point of a needle Elacea drownes her lyfe in the ice of a glasse of water Anacreon is choked with swallowing but the kernell of a raysin And Fabius the Pretour suffered shipwracke in a messe of Milke and the encounter with a little hayre was the Rocke he fell vpon Sophocles and Diagoras dyed of ioy and Philemon with too much laughing as well as Zeuxis Fabius Maximus dyed in the field as Lepidus I will nor make vse of the examples of our ages since they are so fresh and it sufficeth that their memory is as sad as odious Thou seest then my Soule how death disportes himselfe with Crownes Thou seest how he tramples Scepters vnder foot how in the presse of the world his Sith spareth not any one Such a one to day lynes Contented who to morrow shall dye Miserable One moment onely seuers vs from death and mishap there is no other respit betweene lyuing and dying then that of an instant which makes me verily to belieue that Being and not Being in man differ not awhit since he lyues not but dying and moues not but to bound his actions in the Tombe whither he postes without stop Earth Who art but Earth Earth within the cradle Earth in the course of lyfe and Earth in the end Stay a while and if Time which leades thee will not suffer it consider in so hasting to the funerall how the Earth goes to ioyne with Earth and that whatsoeuer is in the world doth follow step by step to resume its first forme in the dust They would faine haue made Iob belieue on his dunghill that he had lost all and that in his losse he was brought to the last point of misery but I imagine the contrary for he sitting on his dunghill was found to be in his proper heritage and by how much deeper he was buryed in corruption so much was he the forwarder in the possession of himselfe if it be true that man is nought but mire and durt Let Kings make a shew of their Greatnesses eyther in feasts as Lucullus or in apparrell as Tiberius or be it in other sorts of Magnificences all their instruments of glory are of Earth and vanish into smoke as well as they If the ashes of Kings and Subiects were mingled together it were impossible to distinguish the one from the other since they are all of the same Nature and al carrying the face of a like forme The greatest Monarches are men for Death This flash of life which so dazels the eyes of subiects fades away like the beauty of the rose at the setting of the Sunne How many Kings haue there beene in the world since the birth thereof and yet were it impossible to find out the least marke of their Tombes whiles some are buryed in the Ocean as Lertius others in the flames as Hermasonus some heere in gulfes as Lentellinus others there in the ample spaces of the aire where their dust is scattered as that of Pauzenas King of the Locrians And of all together can there hardly be griped an handfull of dust so true it is they are turned to their nothing Ah! how now my Soule wilt thou see buried with a dry eye whatsoeuer Nature hath more faire the Earth more rich Art more precious Wilt thou see dye euery moment the subiects of thy Loue or rather a part of thy selfe through the alliance thou hast made with the body without abating thy vanity and humbling thy arrogancy What expects thou in the world if all its goods be false and euills true There is no assurance to be found but in Death nor consolation to be had but constantly to suffer its Misery Honours they are all of smoke Glory of wind Greatnesses of Snow and riches of Water sliding from one to another without being possessed of any Repose is not to be had but in imagination pleasure but in a dreame The Thornes spring continually and the Roses blow without cease Sweetnes makes but its passage only heere and bitternes his whole abode If this soyle do bring forth flowers they are but of Cares if it beare fruit they are but Peares of Anguish Teares are heere continuall because the anoyes are alwayes present Ioy is not seene but running and sadnes makes heere a full stop It is a place where Piety is banished as well as Iustice and where Vices reigne and Vertue is made a thrall Where the fires of Concupiscence do burne and
of the Soule and al the dolours wherwith our life is touched Now then if it be true that we dye euery moment is not euery moment I pray a Death to vs Let vs go then my soule to God since he cals vs the Sunne lends vs not its light but to shew vs the way to him The Starres shine not in heauen but to let vs see the pathes trackes therof So as if the Moone do hide her self frō our eyes by Interstitions it cannot be but of choler as sensible of the contempt we shew of her light Let vs go to this holy Land of Promise and passe the Red Sea of sufferance and punishments in exāple of our Sauiour who with no other reason then that of his Loue would purchase through his bloud the Glory he atteyned to The world can afford vs but Death Death but a Tombe and the Tombe but an infinite number of wormes which shal be fed with our carcasse They runne after the world the world is nought but misery they do loue then to be miserable What blindnes my Soule to sigh after our mishaps passionately to cherish the subiect of our losse Let vs go to this Eternity where the delights euer present raigne with in the Order of a continuall moment Let vs get forth of this mouing circle and breake the chaynes of this shameful seruitude wherein to Syn hath brought vs. Away with the world since whatsoeuer is in it is but myre and dust it is but smoke to the eyes putrifaction to the nostrills the noyse of thunder and tempests to the eares thornes to the hands smart to our feeling All those who put any trust therein are vtterly deceyued All those who follow it are absolutely lost All those that honour it are wholy despised and all those who sacrifice to its Idols shal be one day sacrificed themselues in expiation of their crimes Besides we see how all that know it do abandon it for if it promise a Scepter it reaches vs a Shephooke Thrones are seated on the brimme of a precipice nor doth it euer affoard vs any good turne but as the vigill of some misfortune Away then with the world and all that is within it since all its wōders now are but dust Whatsoeuer it hath more rare is but Earth whatsoeuer it hath more fayre is but wind Euery King is no more but a heape of Worms where Horrour Terrour and Infection astonish and offend the senses that approch vnto it Corruption sayth the Wiseman speaking of man vaunt thou as much as thou wilt behould thy selfe brought vnto the first nothing of thy first Being Let vs not liue my Soule but for Eternity since it is the true spring of lyfe Out of Eternity is there no repose out of Eternity no pleasure out of Eternity all hope is vayne Who thinkes not of Eternity thinkes of nothing since out of Eternity all things are false Let vs behould but Eternity my Soule as the onely obiect of glory All flyes away except Eternity it is it alone which is able to satiate our defires and termine our hopes I will no other comfort in all my annoyes then that of Eternity I will no other solace in all my miseryes then that of Eternity After it do I desire nothing after it do I looke for nothing I lyue not but for it and my hart sighes not but after it All discourses are displeasing to me except those of Eternity It is the But and end of all my actions it is the obiect of my thoughtes I labour but to gather its fruits al my vigils point at the pretensions of its Crownes My eyes contemne all the obiects except those that conuey my spirits to its sweet Idea's as to the only Paradise I find in this world Whatsoeuer I do I iudge my selfe vnprofitable if I refer not my actions to this diuine cause whatsoeuer I thinke whatsoeuer I say and whatsoeuer I imagine all is but vanity if those thoughtes if those words those imaginatiōs rely not in some fashion on Eternity In fine my Soule if thou wilt tast on Earth the delightes of Heauen thinke continually of Eternity for in it only it is where the accomplishment of all true contentments doth consist The Glory of Paradise AATER that rich Salomon had a thousand tymes contented his Eyes in admiration of the fairest obiects which are found in Nature That his Eares euer charmed with a sweet Harmony had deliciously tasted in their fashion the most sensible repasts they are affected to That his Mouth had relished the most delicate meates where the Tongue finds the perfection of its delight after I say he had quenched the thirst of his desires in the sea of all contentments of the world and satisfied the appetite of his senses in the accomplishment of the purest delicacies he cries out aloud That all was full of vanity The Pompe of these magnificences may well represent themselues to his remēbrance but he cryes out before it That it is but vanity His riches his Greatnesses his Triumphes all his pleasures serued him as a subiect within knowledge of their Nature for to exclayme very confidently that all was full of vanity What pleasures now after these delights may mortalls tast What Riches may they now possesse after these Treasures To what Greatnes may they aspire which is not comprized within that of his Empire To what sort of prosperities may they pretend which is not lesse then his happines And yet neuertheles after a long possession of honours delights which were inseparable to his soueraigne absolute power he publisheth this truth that all is full of smoke and wind and that nothing is sure heere beneath but death nor present but miseries Soules of the world what thinke you of that you reason not somtimes in your selues to discouer the weaknes of the foundation whereon your hopes are piched You loue your pleasures but if it be true that knowledge should alwayes precede Loue why know you not the nature of the Obiect before it predominate the power of your affections Agayne you loue not thinges at any tyme but to possesse them Ah what know you not the delights of the world do passe before our eyes as a lightning that in their excesse they incessantly find their ruyne you thinke your selfe content to day because nothing afflicts you do you cal that pleasure to runne after pleasure for it is impossible for you to possesse that imaginary contentment but in running after it since it flyes so away without resting Let them represent to themselues the greatest contētments that may be receyued in the world at the same tyme let all the diuers Spirits who haue tasted the vayne Sweetnesses appeare to tell vs in secret what remaines to them thereof Thou Miser tell vs I pray thee what pleasure hast thou to shut vp thy goulden Earth within thy coffers to lend it to the interest of thy conscience and to make it
felicityes adore the diuine Obiect of their Glory And while thine eyes shal be tasting in their fashion the delights which are foūd in the admiration of things perfectly fayre lend thine eares to that sweet harmony wherwith al those happy Spirits make vp a Consort in singing without cease Holy Holy Holy is our Lord the Heauens and Earth are filled with the maiesty of his Glory O diuine melody How powerfull are thy streynes since through our thoughtes they make thēselues so sensible to our harts With how many different pleasures and all perfectly extreme art thou rauished now my Soule With what rauishments of Ioy art thou transported besides thy selfe In what sweet extasies art thou not wādering After what sort of goods canst thou seeme to aspire vnto Thou beholdest all Greatnesses in their Thrones Riches in their mynes Glory in its Element and the Vertues in their Empire Thou tastest the true Contentments in their purity after a manner so diuine as thou possessest all without desiring any thing yet neuertheles not all since the obiect of thy delights is infinite which makes thee tast new Sweetnesses not in the order of increase of pleasure but in that of the accomplishment of the rest as being alwayes perfectly content Nor yet is this all my Soule to make thee admire in Idaea the Meruailles of all these diuine obiects of glory and of felicity It behoues me now to represent vnto thee besides the strayte vnion that ioynes the happy Spirit with his soueraigne Good I would say the Soule with God But how may it be done God cannot produce a Species or an Image of himselfe which is able to represent him in regard the Species and the Image are alwayes more pure more simple then is the Obiect whence they proceed Now what Species or Image may be purer and more spirituall then God Besides that all the Species and all the Images are so determined in the forme of the thing they represent as they cannot seeme to represent another And it is true that God is not a thing determinate because it hath not a particular Being separated from others in such sort as he eminently conteynes ech thing as the Apostle saith Portans omnia verbo virtutis sue There is no Species which is able to determine this God indeterminate there is no Image created or produced that can represent this God increated Hence it is that God cānot vnite himself to the Soule through a Species or Image as we do other things The Deuines say that God vnites himselfe to the Soule per se really they call this vnion per modum species But for to cleere the obscurity which is in all this mystery you must note that when as God vnites himselfe to the Soule he eleuates the same to a being which is supernaturall and diuine In so much as it resēbles God himselfe not so as it looseth its proper Essence but within the perfectiō wherto it is eleuated it deriues from the Obiect which cōmunicates to it al the glory that it possesseth 〈◊〉 relatiōs to his similitude in such sort as in regarding this happy Soule they behold God Moreouer it may be said more cleerely that God vnites himself to the Soule in such manner as the Fire is vnited to the Iron forasmuch as the Fire as agent is more noble then the Iron it conuertes the Iron into its semblance with so much perfection as one would say the Iron had chaunged its proper forme into that of the Fire yet notwithstanding the Iron looseth not awhit of its essence Now this vnion of Fire with Iron is a reall vnion per se and not through Species nor through Image So God who is called the Deus noster ignis consumens est is vnited to our Soule per se really and receyuing the same into himselfe reduceth it to a being supernaturall and deified in so much as it seemes to be no more a Soule but God himselfe A verity which S. Iohn publisheth when he saith we shal be like vnto him From the Tyme that a Soule is vnited with God he illumines it with a light of glory to the end it may see him and contēplate him at its pleasure and with him all things which are in him formally and eminently to vse the termes of the Schoole-men in so much as it is ignorāt of nothing within the perfection of its wisedome O admirable Science Then shall it be when it shall cleerely see within the Abysses of diuine secrets that which God did before he created the world How he produced eternally another himselfe without multiplication of Deities and how betweene the producent and the person produced proceeds an eternall loue of him who engenders and of him who is engendred which is this adorable Trine-vnity It shal see besides how this God being engēdred Eternally in himselfe without mother might be borne once on earth of the most glorious Virgin without Father With what Prouidence he gouernes all things with what Goodnes he created Man with what Loue he redeemed him How he iustifies inuisibly without forcing the liberty How the works of his Iustice accord with those of his mercy How he saues through his grace How he leaues them reprobate without fault How his infallible Science agrees without the Contingency of things How the Predestinate may damne himselfe and the Reprobate be saued though the Science of God remayne alwaies infallible and immutable as it is The verity of all these secrets shal be represented to its eyes more cleere then the Sunne O what Science my Soule or rather what incomparable felicity proceeds from all these sundry pleasures When shall this be that thou cryest out with the Queene of Saba speaking to thy Lord in lyke manner as she spake vnto Salomon What wisedome is thine O great King what glory and what magnificence admire they in thy Kingdome What Citty is this same replenished with so many goods what delicious meates and what precious wines do they tast at the table of thy banquets What lustre of greatnes appeares in all those that attend vpon thee Renowne may well publish thy prayses in all places of the Earth if al the Heauēs together are not large inough to conteyne the rumour of them O happy Spirits who reigne in the mansion of this immortall glory I wonder not awhit at your so trampling vnder foot the Crownes and Scepters of the world in iust pretension to the felicity you possesse What fires what torments and what new punishments would not one suffer for to purchase this soueraygne good where repose is so durable Gibbets Hangmen all the instruments of Death are as so many Trophies of the glory which succeeds shame and payne O how these diuine words of S. Augustin do cause a sweet melody to resound while he sayes Let the deuills prepare me from henceforth as many ambushes as they will let them addresse the last assaults of their power to encounter me let
influences make them to blow forth At last they lay you on a bed most refulgent all gorgeous in riches and whereon it seemes as if the happy Arabia had powred forth a part of its odours and to attract the sleepe more sweetly into your eyes you cause to be sent for some pleasing Musike of a Voyce which rauishes your senses with so much sweetnes as they dye with ioy without dying notwithstanding Are not these great pleasures trow you if they could last I speake to Soules who seeke their Paradise on Earth But the common calamity so preuailes as these delights euē dy in their birth their priuation affords them a great deale more torments then doth their presence produce sweetnesses Let vs cast now our eyes at the last on the backside of this Medall consider the cruel Metamorphosis of these contentments in the intollerable punishments which Eternally torment a damned Soule Let vs behould the cruell exercise of its paynfull progresse in Hell You must take no great heed to the terms of Day of Mattins of Euening or Morning-calles whereof I serue my selfe in this ensuing description for that I am forced thereunto to keepe some order in my discourse The deuils in the morning then come to awake this damned Soule howbeit indeed she sleepeth not a wincke through the dreadfull noyse of their howlings These are the Chambermaydes which fetch her out of her bed all of fire for to conduct her into a Cabinet all of Ice not of Myrrors for she durst not haue lookt thereinto for feare of the feare of her selfe so hideous and dreadful she is These wicked Spirits do help to dresse her after they haue made her take a draught of Sulphure within a rotten Vessell where the worms do breed in sholes One combes her head and that with a combe of iron with sharp points which makes the bloud to follow Another colors her cheekes with the red of Spayne with a pensill of fire He there washes her face with puddle water scalding hot withall and he heere puts on a robe of liuing coales on her backe and in this equipage a new Deuill more hideous then death presents himselfe to her serues her as an Vsher to conduct her to a burning Chariot to conuey her not to a Temple but to the foote of a dreadfull Aultar where she is cruely sacrificed without loosing her life They lead her afterwards in the same chariot into a dismall Pallace where she finds the tables couered and set with all sorts of poysonous and contagious Serpents wherwith they feast her All that dinner while a hideous noyse of howlings and dreadful cryes serues for the Musike to charme her eares withall After repast is she brought backe agayne to her Cabinet where all the obiects of horrour and amazement are assembled togeather for to afflict the sense of her sight And after that a Deuill sings her an Ayre whose ditty is the Sentence of her condemnation and this verity the burden of it How the paynes she endures shall be eternall What a Song The tyme of her walking approaches they bring then the fyery Chariot before the gate of her darkesome Pallace She mounts into it and thence rage despayre fury and cruelty draw her into an obscure forrest of Cypres where the Owles and Rauens do screech incessantly so as she heares but the noyse of death not being able to procure death She is now returned she finds the same Table spread agayne and with the like Cates whereof she feeds of force to the noyse of a like Musike to that of dinner Being risen from Table the Deuill that hath the charge to wayte vpon her comes againe into her Cabinet and sings her likewise the same Canzonet of her dreadful Sentence with the selfe same burden as before How the paynes which she endures shal be eternall In the meane tyme they bring her to a bed of thornes whereinto they cast her at such tyme as she was wont to take her rest in the world and thus passeth she ouer the night in these torments without euer seing any end thereof Is not this a fearefull life Behould my Dames the exercise of those who haue imitated you in your pleasures Behold the employments of their whole progresse These are no fables I tell you for like as the noise of the swindge of the world doth hinder you from hearing the sweet harmony of the motions of the Heauens so the selfe same noyse seemes to hinder you likewise from vnderstanding the hideous cryes of a Cain of a Pharao of an impious Richmā and of a thousand of others your like who haue hitherto after so lōg a tyme beene burning in Hell and so shall burne for euer without hope to see any end of their panes That depends now on you my Dames to chuse to you one of these two liues heere If you be tasting of hony in your youth you shall haue but bitternes in your old age If you gather the Roses in your spring the Thornes shal be reserued for your winter Chuse hardly behold your selues expressed as Vlisses at the entrance of two wayes far different the one from the other That of Vertue is stwowed with Nettles and couered with Stones that of Vice is enamelled with flowers and bordered with brookes whose sweet murmur inuites you to follow the traces of their course So as if you would needs know where both these ways do termine themselues the one in eternall Death and the other in Life And herein the example of an infinite number which haue beene saued by the one lost by the other may seeme to put you out of doubt All the Saints in word all those who are in Paradise haue held the first al the dāned haue wretchedly followed the other Demaund you of the Rich-man what way he tooke he will answere you that he hath alwayes walked vpon Flowers that he neuer met with Thornes till the arriuall at his Sepulcher Make you the same demaund of Lazarus you shall heare of him that he hath neuer trod but vpon the Earth all couered with bryars nettles and sharpe stones and that euen at the end of his trauailes he found the beginning of his glory Thinke not my Dames to be gathering of the Flowers in this world and then to be reaping of the Fruits in the other All things are created in a Species of Contraries which serues as a Ciment to hould them togeather The faire weather of your life seemes to menace Rayne at your Death and God graunt it be not a Floud of vnprofitable teares where without thinking thereof you find not your Shipwracke The calme of your daies presages the storm of your nights and take heed you find not some rocke in the tyme of the tempest I must needs confesse how the Poets haue hid very excellent verities vnder the veyle of their Fables that Cerberus with three heades whome they figure to vs in hell is nothing els but the
deuill who as a Monster of many heades eternally deuours the damned Their Ryuer of Cocytus or Phlegeton demonstrates to vs the tormēts of death The lake of Auernus where troubles and sadnes inhabite what els may it seeme to represent vnto vs then the dismall dwelling of the wicked Spirits The great Famine they faigne of Tantalus le ts vs cleerely to behould the scarcity and penury of all goods which the damned haue The Vultur of Titius which incessantly preyes on the hart without deuouring it doth figure nought els then the worme of vnprofitable Repentance which gnawes without end those vnhappy Spirits The wheele wherin Ixion is tortured as likewise the Pitchers which the Danaides filled in vayne are as so many witnesses of the Eternity of paynes of the damned Soules which lets vs see how euen those who establish their true Paradise in this world haue built thē without thinking of a Hell in the other where they are euerlastingly punished O cruell Eternity What torments dost thou truly comprehend in thy long durance there beneath in Hell where a million of ages in punishments cānot forme a first moment of some end After one hath endured and suffered an infinite nūber of paynes during as many years as there hath been instāts in the Tyme since the birth of the world may he not wel affirme that he had liued in those torments but for the space of an houre only if he were to liue alwayes in dying alwaies to dye liuing in Hell without release or respit My Dames I speake to you because you haue the Spirit wādering in vanity If you sigh for anguish in expectation of a Day vpon a bed of roses with what impatience will you be rackt in Hell during those Eternal Nights You shun the breath of the fire and the burning of the Sun as the enemyes of your beauty why feare you not rather the tanning and burning of the eternall flames Let me dye rather sayd Nero's wyfe then to become foule and wrinckled Would you be conseruing your beauty which is so deare vnto you for a few dayes and liue without it eternally in Hel If you could but behould the foulnes deformity of one damned Soule the onely remembrance of the horrour and amazemēt of that obiect would be an intollerable punishment to you If Nature haue not a stronger tye of loue then that wherewith it hath enchayned vs with our selfe is it possible my Dames that you can exercise such a cruelty against your selues as not to wish to liue cōtent but in the world where your pleasures are like to dye with you If Hell affright you not for its punishmēts sake let the Eternity therof breed a terrour in you to be vnhappy for euer To be in the cōpany of deuils for euer doth not the thought thereof only seeme to astonish you since there is nothing more true then it If nature as a Step-dame hath denyed you the fortitude of men at least it hath giuen you the force of a Spirit for to know your errours Loue not your beauty but to please the Angels rather then men since it is a diuine quality whose admiratiō appertaynes to them To burne alwayes Alas Seeme you not to resent in reading the lamentable history of the punishments of Fire wherewith the damned are tormēted some little sparkle of its flames through a strong apprehension of incurring one day those paynes I speake heere to Thee who readest these verities to bethinke thy selfe of this singular grace which God seemes to vouchsafe in permitting this same Booke to fall into thy hands so to discouer this sētence which I haue signifyed to thee on the behalfe of God That if you change not your life you shal be damned eternally O cruell Eternity O My Soule thinke alwayes of this Eternity what torments soeuer thou sufferest in this world say thou alwayes with Iob My euils shall one day haue an end O how happy was this man to be exposed on the dunghill of al the miseries of the world as on a moūtaine where tuning the Harpe of his feelings and of his passions to the Key of his Humility of his Patience he sung the glory of his Lord in the midst of his infamy What canst thou suffer heere beneath more cruell then the paynes of the damned And yet if thou shouldst euen suffer a part of their punishments without the priuation of grace thou shouldst be happy because those euils would termine one day to the fruitiō of thy soueraigne good Then trample thou the thornes vnder thy feet giue thy selfe in prey to dolours sufferances nor haue thou euer any other consolation then that of Iob in saying without cease My euills heere shall one day finish The Houre of Death WE MVST DYE This is a law of necessity whereof himselfe who made the same would not be exempted We must dye This is a sentence pronounced now for these six thousand yeares in the Pallace of the Terrestriall Paradise by an omnipotent God whose infinite Iustice hath not spared his proper Sonne We must dy All such as hitherto haue beene haue passed this way those who now are do hold the same they who are not as yet in approching to the Cradle do approch to the Sepulcher We must dy But we know not the hower the day the moneth nor the yeare we know not the place nor the manner of the Death whose paynes we are to suffer We must dy Since we hould the life but as borrowed of him that created the same We must dye it is an euil that hath no remedy al our children must dy as our Fathers did after they had shewed them the way which our Grandfathers had tracked for vs. We must dy at last since we dy euery hower because the aire which we breath being none of ours we cannot serue our selues of it but as others do in passing on till to morrow We must dye since that all which is in vs continually tends to death without release or intermission The very fetchings of our breath are counted as well as our steps In so much as all our actions are not wrought but for a certaine terme whence Tyme conducts vs by litle and litle to death We must dy This is a verity which experience proclaymes to all the world and to the end no man may euer doubt thereof the Sonne of God hath signed the Sentence with his bloud on the mount of Caluary You must dye great Monarkes what markes of immortality soeuer you haue Be you as eloquent as you will Demostenes is dead be you neuer so valiant Alexander is layd in his Tombe If you haue force for your inheritance Sampson is buryed vnder the ruines of the Temple which he demolished If you be faire Absalom is reduced into Ashes If rich Cresus is no more of the world if wise Salomon is now not lyuing if happy Dauid is expired in the midst of his felicities In fine what quality soeuer you haue
it is alwayes inseparable from the mortall condition wherein you are borne You must dy and appeare in this fatall Couch not with your gorgeous Attire nor Royall Mantles but rather with shirts well steept in a cold sweate where your liues are to run shipwracke To cary your Crownes vpon your heads they are so feeble as they cannot endure the weight To hold your Scepters in your hands candles rather would beseeme you better to affoard you light to find the Sepulcher Your Subiects are already assembled about your beds to see anew this verity that you are all equall in the necessity of dying Those Titles of Maiesty which they affoard you haue no more grace with them amidst your miseries Me thinkes in truth it is very much to call you Men since you begin to be no more so It is euen iust now that you are to dy the day is come the hower approches death is already on the way to your Pallace you may do well if you please to put your Souldiers in Centinell for to stop him in the entry Behold how he knockes at your Chamber doore you must necessarily vouchsafe for to speake vnto him since he comes on the behalfe of God to signify the sentence of death vnto you I doubt me that you haue the Spirit much occupyed in the apprehension of your present affayres and that you would willingly put of the accompt to some other day but that may not be Tyme hath strooke the houre which is to beare sway at the end of your daies What sighes what sobs what plaints cast you forth to the wind the remēbrance of your Greatnesses past torments you now while your guilty consciences put your soules on the Racke like as the dolours already haue put your bodies For to cast your eyes vpō the guilded Seelings were to increase the horrour of the Sepulcher which they prepare you To behould likewise your Courtiers who stand about you the displeasure you find to leaue them makes you to turne your view another way Whereas it were better to set your eyes on the approches of Death and in the feeling of your present Miseryes to publish in dying this verity that you are but ashes durt corruption Diogenes was walking one day in a certaine Churchyard where he entertayned his sad thoughts in the meditatiō of death at what tyme Alexander surprized him by a suddaine approch demaunds of him what he was doing in so dismal solitary a place I am busied said the Philosopher in seeking out the bones of Philip your Father amidst so great a number of these you see heere but the payne which I take is vnprofitable because they are all equall This Answere is full of Mysteries for it seemes to represent vs to the life this Verity That the greatest Kings of the world differ not awhit but in goods and greatnesses only from the wretchedst that are since in the Tombe they resemble ech other so much as it were impossible to marke any difference betweene them But me thinkes the houre is already spent and that Death knockes harder now at the Chamber doore then before Behold how he enters in carrying his Sithe in the one hand an Hower-glasse in the other to let vs see that if he mow the hay of your life with his Sithe the sand of the Hower-glasse which he carries being taken for the Foundation of your vaine-glory is euen now run out so as if there remaine any little behind it is but only to giue you leasure to open your mouth for to cast forth the last breath in this last moment O fearefull momēt wheron depends the Eternity of Glory or the Eternity of paine This is that last breth which condemnes or iustifies all those who haue gone before O fearfull moment wherin is pronounced the Sentence of our second life or Death O fearefull moment since it presides the birth of our wretchednes or of our felicity O fearefull moment wherein all our good or euill consists O fearful moment wherein Paradise is offered or Hell afforded O fearefull moment wherin we are made companions for euer of the Angels or of the deuils O fearfull moment where the Soule before God findes the Eternall recompēce of its good deeds or euerlasting paynes of its crimes O fearefull moment what ioyes what sorrowes what pleasures and what dolours doest thou comprize in thy short durance As often as I thinke on thee I do tremble with feare for this moment is a great deale more dreadfull then death it selfe This only moment is it my Soule whereupon the Eternity depends Imploy thou all those of thy life vpon the thoughts of this last Thou approchest vnto it euery hower euery instant robs thee of somewhat of thy former life Whatsoeuer thou doest thy body doth nothing but dye from its transitory life depēds thy eternall life for out of the Earth canst thou merit nothing for Heauen Thinke thou alwayes on this last moment where Crownes and Punishments are prepared Crownes of an infinite glory Punishments of a dolour immortall All thy actions shall there be receiuing their price or paine Price of Paradise or payne of Hell Hence it is that the Prophet cries I shall remember the day of my death for to liue eternally Cast your eyes now vpon those Kings extended dead vpon their rich Couches What say I those Kings can Maiesty corruption be compatible together What apparence of beliefe in beholding them to be such that they are Kings since all their Royall qualities are dead with them Would not a man say they were heapes of Earth so raysed aboue the Earth where the worms are beginning to take their fees Approach to this fatall couch you proud Spirits who measure the globe of the Earth through this vayne beliefe that you merit the Empire of it and in your imagination contemplate the while those that possesse them in effect and you shall behold them quite through teares laied stretched at your feet without pulse without motion Their Maiesties are full of horrour and miseryes in their turne haue taken hold of their owne since they are all borne mortall and consequently miserable what strange Metamorphosis from Colossus's of Greatnesses quickened with a lyfe full of splendour and of glory to be chaunged in an instant into an heape of durt whose putrifaction infectes the whole world You Monarkes Kings Princes be you Idolatours of your Greatnesses as much as you please I attend you at the end of your Carriere to let you see on the backside of the Medall that you are but corruption if you doubt thereof let him that suruiues another approch to his Tombe he shall sensibly know that there is nothing more true in the world Thou miser approch to this mournfull Couch there is place inough for thee Thou needs must dye the houre is strooke but tell me how much gold and siluer dost thou leaue in thy coffers and to what end serue they but to purchase
thee Hell Thou must yield an accompt of thy extortions and oppressions Death comes to summon thee on the behalfe of God to appeare within an houre before the Tribunal of his Iustice to heare thy sentence of death pronounced by his owne mouth What wouldest thou not giue to prolong yea but a day onely the terme of thy departure But all thy treasures cannot buy thee a moment of lyfe thou must dye O cruell necessity and yet more cruell the dolour which now seemes to martyr thy soule Thou must dye Thou maiest weep long inough for death is blind thou maiest cry as fast as thou wilt while he is deafe for to hope that the Greatnes of thy miseryes may mooue him to Pitty he neither hath hart nor bowels if he liue notwithstanding it is for nothing but to enforce al the world to dy Thy houre is come thou must dye Alas How many deaths dost thou suffer ere thou loosest thy lyfe Thou leauest thy children rich it is true but dyest miserable thy selfe in the state of damnation Behold thee well recompenced for the paynes thou hast taken in heaping so much wealth forsooth to loose thy soule Cruell to thy selfe Thou hast not lyued but for others Infidell thou hast betrayed thy selfe Murderer thou hast snatched away thy lyfe with an vnnaturall hand imploying thy care to fil thy coffers with gold and thy soule with crymes You Misers if you read the history of these Verities deriue your profit frō the domage of others for the auoyding of these piercing griefes and the intollerable dolours of this last momēt of life imploy all the others to thoughtes of the Eternity of glory or of Payne And imitating the Prophet say with him Lord I wil remēber me of the day of death for to liue eternally You must appeare my Dames ech one in her turn in this lamētable couch The watch which Death seems to cary in his hand hath strooke the hower already of the departure of the fairest She must needs dye but assist I pray at this sad spectacle Me thinkes I see her now farre different from that which she was wont to be Alas What a chaunge I seeke for the Maiesties which I haue sometymes seene in her brow and I find nothing els but horrour and amazement there I demaund of her eyes what is euen become of them for they are buryed so deepe in her head as they but loose sight of them who seeke for them Her cheekes as sticht one to the other do hinder her from opening the mouth in such sort as her tōgue can speake no more then a sad language of sighes to call vpon Pitty to contemplate her miseryes withall Her armes very carelesly stretched forth euen dy with their feeblenes In fine her body of Earth deuoures by little and little the flesh that couers it Who would say now seeing this Dame in the state whereunto she is brought that she was the other day the fayrest of the Citty Her company was a duncing with her at such a tyme where all the Gallants that were there fell a striuing to court her most One valued the Gold of her hayre another the Iuory of her teeth This heere admired the snow of her bosome and he there the alabaster of her hands The casts of her eyes did wound many of them and the allurements of her graces increased yet the number The more indifferēt to loue would become great Maisters thereof with the sight of her perfections and yet neuertheles is it true a strange thing that her hayre heertofore of gold and now staring as it were hath lost its lustre that her teeth of Iuory are become blacke with the blast of death that the snow of her bosome is dissolued that the alabaster of her hands is faded that the species of her eyes are dulled so as if they wound as yet they are but the woūds of Pitty That her graces are without grace and that in fine all those who admired the same heertofore come to repent themselues and such as had loued her when tyme was are now displeased with themselues for hauing euer so much as dreamed of her What cruell Metamorphosis my Dames If you cannot giue credit to the faithfull report which I make you of these verityes cast but your eyes vpon this doleful Couch and you shall see a lyuing image of your self or rather a dying of one now brought to the last extremes You make such accompt of your charmes behold them in the Tōbe you prize your bayts so much contemplate the same in ruine you cherish your Sweetnesses so dearly consider their feeblenes you make a shew of your deliciousnes and your alluremēts behold to what passe they are now brought Vaunt you of the Roses of your face as much as you please they are no more but Thornes If you lay forth to view the whitenes of your delicate complexion see you not how pale now dolour harh made it for to take away its beauty All those lockes so curled in nets of loue all those eye-browes so carefully elaborate with a trembling hand that face so washed and plaistered ouer with a secret art those paynted lips that necke so erected through force of endeauour those curious actions those smiles those Vn-voluntaries of hers and all those agreable fashions are vanished now in an instant and horrour and dreadfulnesse possesse their place Alas how the pourtraite of this Dame which I see there hanging at her beds head is differēt far from its originall The shadow of that body moues to loue the body of this shadow to pitty The allurements of this liueles image are all full of charmes and the draughts of this beauty yet liuing wounds with feare insteed of loue The hower in the meane tyme seemes to passe away and she must dy Alas what dolours do they feele in this cruell departure From what payne are they exempt This poore Dame beholds her selfe abandoned of all the world and which is worse of the Phisitians themselues She sees not but by the light of mortuary torches which are lighted round about her bed A confused noyse of sighes plaints doth smite her eares Her owne sauour begins to infect her and her feeling is exercised with the sufferance of a thousand sorts of paynes and all very different in thēselues Whatsoeuer she beholds afflicts her because all the obiects which are represented to her do carry the image of her dolefulnes with them Her Parents her Friends are about her indeed but they are as so many executioners that put her hart vpō the racke by reason of the griefe she feeles to forgoe them for euer Her only Brother comes to her to giue her a kisse all bedēwed with teares and his moaning plaints do euen plucke out the hart from her bosome as knowing them to be the very last Her Father oppressed with sorrow comes to bid her the last Adieu but all of sighes in regard her euill now growne to extremes seemes
I doubt very much least death do astonish you but if you neuer do thinke vpon it it will astonish you a great deale worse when you shall see it indeed If to liue and dy be but one and the selfe same thing make the Thought of death while you liue so familiar to your selfe that you neuer thinke of any other thing since you neuer do other thing but dy So as if to feare it and neuer to thinke of it do make its visage the lesse hideous I would counsayle you to banish this Thought out of your spirit but so as you be in good estate But on the contrary the forgetfulnes you haue of it makes it so dreadfull vnto you at the least remembrance therof that comes into your mynd as you seeme almost to be in danger of dying by the only feare of dying I cannot abide the weaknes of those spirits who apprehend an euill so much which they cānot auoyd whereas the euill of the feare which they haue is often tymes a great deale more bitter then that which they feare But the only meane to be cured of this feare is to liue alwayes in that of God For the strōgest apprehension of Death proceeds from the great number of the Offences which one hath committed in his life A good man feares rather to liue too long then to dy too soone because he hopes for the recompence of his trauayles at the end of his course whiles the wicked can attend but for the chastizement of his sins So as for to banish this feare from our soule we had need to haue banished the offences thence The innocēt hath no feare but for the iudgement of God this feare is inseparable frō his loue he feares him not but through loue so as this very feare produceth contētment and banisheth sadnes in the meane tyme. I leaue you this truth to meditate vpon that a life of Roses brings forth a death of Thornes Let vs say now for Conclusion of this worke that if one will auoyd this manner of Death he must alwayes be thinking of Death There is nothing more sweet then these thoughts nothing more welcome thē this remembrance Without the thoughts of Death there is no pleasure in life without the thoughts of Death there is no comfort in anoyes without the thoughtes of Death there is no remedy for our euils In fyne to finish all he who is alwayes thinking of Death doth thinke continually of the meanes of attaining eternal life O sweet thoghtes I would not haue my spirit to be capable of a thought but onely to thinke euery moment of death since it is the onely good the onely contentment and the only Repose of lyfe A goodly Consideration and very important both for lyfe and death CHAP. XXI I SHOVLD thinke there were no greater pleasures in the world then to contemne thē all at once since in effect the best spirits do neuer find repose but in the contempt thereof I know well there are certayne chast Pleasures which we cannot misse but as the soule hath its senses affected lyke vnto the body we are to hinder our spirit from mixing its feelings with those of Nature euer feeble and frayle therby not to tast its delights too deliciously Our iudgement hath beene giuen vs as a Torch to guide our steps by our actions and our thoughtes in this sea of the world wherein we are as Slaues in the Galley of our bodyes and the pleasures we seeke therein are the rockes where we find our shipwracke I know well also that we are to be strongly armed for to defend our selues while our proper senses do so warre vpon vs. But in this manner of combat the excesse of payne produceth the excesse of glory let vs breake the crust to see this verity discouered The greatest Saynts and the wisest men haue beene forced to confesse after a thousand proofes of experience that we can not tast any manner of contentment without the grace of God Thou Couetous man in vayne thou rests thy vn-rests on the coffers of thy treasures I deny thee to be held content for if thou reasonest euen reason condemnes thee If thou seruest thy selfe of thy iudgement to be able to do it what argument soeuer thou makest it but fully concludes agaynst thy opinions So as thou cāst neuer enter into the knowledg of thy vayne pleasures without departing from that of thy selfe In a word thou canst not be a man and be content togeather in thy miserable condition since reason and thy contentmēt can neuer subsist in one subiect Thou Ambitious man I would lend thee wings for to fly to the heauens of fortune it seemes to me already that I see thee seated in her throne but looke what greatnes soeuer thou possessest thou dar'st not say for al that thou wert well content for feare the truth should happē to bely thee And knowest thou not how Ambition and Repose do alwayes breake fellowship the one with the other That Pleasure and Feare cannot couple together and that desires as well as hopes do make the soule to be thirsty Represent to thy selfe then the disquietnes which thou findst in thy greatnesses since thy Ambition cannot limit its ayme within their fruition How the pleasures of thy possessiōs are mixt with the feare of their short durance that by vehemently wishing more more thou makst thy selfe vnhappy In such sort as thou maiest not dare to cal thy selfe happy without flattering thy selfe or rather without blushing for shame You Courtiers let me see the pictures of your felicities bring to light what seemes most to afford it the lustre and splendour it hath I graunt that in the midst of the spring tyme of your life loue and fortune with a prodigall hand haue bestowed vpon you what they had most rare beautifull with them yet would you dare to maynteyne with al this that you are content during the reigne of your Empire Whereas if any one haue the boldnes to perswade weake spirits thereunto let him truly recount vs the history of his pleasures I know that he will streight be shewing vs some Roses but I know withall that he wil be hiding the Thornes vnder their leaues as frayle as his contentments though they were of the flowers of a restles remembrance gathered in the sad memory of things past since delights are of the same nature alwayes dying and subiect to receiue their tombe frō the very same day they first sprong vp As for the presents of Fortune if she giue them with one hand she takes them away agayne with the other So as her fauorites are ordinarily the most vnhappy of all because that in snatching away the goods from thē agayne which she hath once bestowed vpon them she dragges them often along for to bury thē vnder their ruines And will you call that a pleasure My Dames you have but one fayre wedding day in all your lyfe whose feast you do secretly celebrate in
you needs dy and in this cruell separation of you frō your selues your laughings chāge to teares your songs of gladnes into lamentable cryes of sorrowes and all your banquets pleasures into bitter plaints which torment your hart and put your soule vpon the racke There might be some manner of satisfaction perhaps to heare the discourses which men of the world do hould if their blindnes the while do not afford mattter of compassion One takes paynes to recount al the pleasures he hath taken during his life another keepes account of the good fortunes he hath had a third assures vs that he hath possessed heertofore a great number of treasures a fourth endeauours to perswade as many as will belieue him that he hath beene on the top of the greatest dignityes What discourses of smoke are these For he that hath tasted so many contentments hath nothing left him but the sad remembrance of the hauing once had the possession of them Another who yet now thinkes on the good fortunes which once he hath had makes himselfe a new vnhappy through the memory of his passed felicities He that casts his eyes on the ashes of his riches insensibly consumes himselfe in the selfe same fire that consumed them And another that reares vp his head aloft for to behold through his teares the place from whence he fell euen looseth the force for euer to rise againe notwithstāding that it be good for him to sleepe often so to be a framing of these dreames For euē as all those pleasures and goods are slid vanished away with the things that seemed the most durable so all the contentment all the goods which may any wayes appertaine vnto vs shall fly away and the worst is that we run after them for to signe out our Tombe in their Sepulcher Salomon hath had so many pleasures Cresus passessed so much riches Alexander receiued so great honours Helena so many prayses for her incomparable beauty But Salomon is no more but dust with all his riches Alexander but earth with all his honours nor Helena any more then corruption with all her graces Trust you not then to your pleasures you great Kings for their Roses shall wither and their Thornes endure for euer Put not your hopes in Riches since they are of earth as well as you Despise you Honours since all glory is due to Vertue only And you my Dames employ from hence-forth all your cares and labours to decke your Soules rather then your bodyes if you wil haue Angels enamoured and men to be emulous of you For so euery one shal striue for glory to imitate you in this glorious enterprize This is the counsayle I giue you and with it will I finish my Booke The end of the svveet Thoughtes of Death THOVGHTS OF ETERNITY Distributed into foure Parts To wit The Triumph of Death To wit The Ioyes of Paradise To wit The Infernall Paynes To wit The Houre of Death VVritten in French by Sieur de la Serre translated into English Permissu Superiorū M. DC XXXII THOVGHTES OF Eternity The Triumph of Death O HOW sweet is it to thinke continually on eternall things All flies away before our eyes in the course of their fight by little and little lyfe escapes away from vs. The Sunne doth well to rise euery day anew the moments of its Reigne are measured within the order of Nature It must of necessity follow the decay of time wherof it is the dyall and after it hath presided to all the vnhappy accidents heere beneath it lends the light of its torch at last to its proper ruine Though the stars of the night appeare thicke in the Heauens with the same aspect alwayes glittering in wonders yet can they not choose but wax old euery instant robbes them of somewhat of their durance since they shine within Tyme for not to shine within Eternity Though the heauens being quickned by the soueraigne Intelligēce of the Primum mobile renew their paces euery yeare within the round spaces of their Circles their turnings yet are counted and though they returne agayne by the same way they incessantly approach to the point that is to termine their Course The Fire which entertaynes it selfe in its Globe insensibly deuoures it selfe for that Region of its dwelling is a part of the body which consumes it selfe The Ayre that takes vp all yet can not fill vp the voydnesse of the Tombe which the last instant of tyme prepareth for it Though the Phoenix-King of its subiects find a second Cradle within its first Sepulcher yet at last another selfe shall aryse againe from its Ashes though yet vnlike since it shal not haue the same power to communicate the same vertue to the Species of its of spring So as it shall dye at last through sorrow of its sterility Though the Serpent shift the skinne neuer so much yet doth its Prudence extend no further whiles Age fals a laughing at its cunning in deuouring vp its being The Trees that do euery yeare waxe young agayne continually grow old The Spring the Summer and the Autumne are of force indeed to make them change the countenance but not their Nature and the Brookes affrighted with this continual vicissitude go flying into the bosome of their Mother belieuing they are shrowded but in vayne for the Ocean carryes their Wracke within the valley of its waues The Seasons growing from the end of one another as the day from the end of night shal be disioyned and seuered by a new Season which with it shall bury all the others The fayrest mayster-peeces of Art forasmuch as they are layed vpon the ground pay cotinuall homage to the ruine of Tyme as he that presides within his Empire witnesse those wonders of the world which subsist no more then in the memory of men for a signe onely of what the famous Athens the triumphant Carthage the proud Troy haue beene heeretofore they are now buryed so deep in their ruine as one can hardly belieue they haue euer beene They go seeking thē in historyes but the memory of their raigne is so ould as they are no otherwise found then in Fables only Let vs speake of diuers People rather thē of Townes That great world of men which the Earth hath borne a thousand tymes on its bosome and the Sea vpon its waues was drowned at last in the riuer of Xerxes teares for which he prepared a tombe an hundred yeares before The Kings haue followed their subiects in this common shipwrack all the Pourtraits of Apelles and the Statues of Lysippus of Phidias haue runne like hazard with them by this inuiolable necessity that the shadow euer followes the body Well might Alexander cause himself to be surnamed Immortall but yet purchast not Immortality He tooke the paynes to seeke out another world and in the midst of his Triumphes had need of no more then seauen foote of earth to be buried in Cyrus would fayne haue it
belieued that he was Inuincible yet could Death know wel how to find the defect of his Armes like as that of Achilles Nero would needs be adored but he was sacrificed in punishmēt of his crime Cresus the richest of all men carried nothing into his Tōbe but this only griefe of hauing had so much Treasure so little Vertue his riches exempted him not ◠whit from the euils wherof our life is full and at the end of his terme he dyed as others with the Pouerty incident thereunto Cesar Pyrhus and Pompey who had so many markes of Immortality had the worse sort of Death since they al three were vnhappily cōstrayned to render their lyues to the assaultes of a most precipitous Death The which doth let vs see very sensibly how things that seeme to vs most durable do vanish as lightning after they haue giuen vs some admiration of their being The wise men as well as the valiant all slaues of one and the selfe same fortune haue payed the same Tribute to nature Plato Socrates Aristotle may well cause a talke of them but that is all for with their learning they haue yet beene ignorant of the Truth They haue loued their memory a great deale more then themselus following a false opinion for to please that of others wherewith they were puffed vp in all their Actions They are passed away notwithstanding and their diuine Spirits haue neuer beene able to obtaine this dispensation of the Destinies to cōmunicate their diuinity to bodies which they haue viuified so as there is nothing left of them but a little dust which the aire and wind haue shared betweene them The seauen Sages of Greece are dead with the reputation of their worldly wisedome which is a Folly before God They were meere Idolatours of their wordly Prudēce which is a Vertue of the phantasy more worthy of blame then prayse when it hath but Vanity for the obiect As many Philosophers as haue studied to seeke the knowledge of naturall things without lifting the eye a little higher haue let their life runne into a blindnes of malice and haue left nothing behind them but a sad remembrance of their pernicious errours Let vs speake of those meruailous works wherin Nature takes pleasure to giue forth the more excellent essayes of her power I would say of those beauties of the world which rauish hearts before they haue meanes to present them to them As of a Helena of a Cleopatra of a Lucretia of a Penelope and of a Portia All these beauties truely were adorable in the East euen as the Persians Sunne but in the South the feruour of their Sacrificers began to extinguish and in the West they destroyed the very Aultars that were erected to their glory Their Baytes their Charmes their Attractions following in their Nature the course of Roses haue lasted but a day of the Spring they haue vanished with the Subiect wherunto they were tyed nor doth there remaine any more of them then a meere astonishment of their shorte durance Thus it is that the best things run readily to their end Time deuoures all and his greedines is so great as it cannot be satisfied but with deuouring it selfe Who were able to number the men to whome the Sunne hath lent its light since the birth of the world and by that meanes keepe accompt of the proud Citties of the magnificent Pallaces whereof Art hath giuen the Inuention to men to the shame of Nature the imagination is too seely to reach vnto this But. And yet how great soeuer the Name therof be the shadowes of their bodies appeare no more to the light of our daies the steps of their foundations and the memory of their being are buried within the Abysses of Tyme and nothing but Vertue can be said to be exempt from Death All things of the world hauing learned of Nature the language of change neuer speake in their fashion but of their continuall vicissitude The Sunne running from his South to its West seemes to preach in its lāguage nothing els vnto vs but this cruell necessity which constraynes it to fly repose and to cōmence without cease to warpe the lightsome webbe of dayes and length of Ages I admire the Ideas of that Philosopher whiles he would mantayne that all created thinges do find their beginning within the concauity of the Moone without doubt the inconstancy of this Starre afforded him those thoughtes since euery thing subsisting heer beneath is subiect to a continuall flow and ebbe The Heauens tell vs in running round their circles how they pull all with them The Starres illumine not the night but to the comming of the last which is to extinguish their light The Elements as opposits reygne not but within the tyme of the truce which nature afforded them since the ruine of the Chaos and their emnity therefore is yet so great as they are not pleased but with destructiō of all the workes they do If they demaund the Rockes Forests what they are doing they will answere they are a counting their yeares since they can do nothing but grow old The fayrest Springes and the youngest Brookes publish aloud with the language of their warbles and of their sweet murmur that euery thing in the world inseparably pursues the paces of its Course yea the Earth it selfe which is immoueable as the Center where all concludes being not able to stirre to fly far from it selfe lets it selfe to be deuoured by the Ocean the Ocean by Tyme and Tyme by the soueraygne decrees which from all Eternity haue limited its durance S. Augustine endeauouring to seeke out the soueraigne God within Nature demaūded of the Sunne if it were God and this Starre let him see that it borrowed its light from another Sun without Eclypse which shined within the Bower of Eternity He made the like demaūd of the Moone whose visage alwayes inconstant made answere for it and assured this holy Personage that it had nothing diuine but light within it which yet it held in homage of the Torch of day He enquired of the Heauens the selfe same thing but their motion incompatible with an essence purely diuine put him out of doubt How many are there seene of these feeble spirits who seeke the soueraygne God within Greatnesses but what likelyhood is there to find it there Thrones and Empires subsist not but in the spaces which Fortune affords them her bowle serues them as a foūdation Alas what stability can we establish in their being Crownes haue nothing goodly in them but the name only nor rich but apparence for if they knew how much they weighed and if the number of cares thornes which are mingled with the Rubies Pearles wherwith they are enriched could be seene the most vnhappy would be trampling them vnderfoot to auoyd the encounter of new misfortunes Kings and Princes are well the greatest of the Earth but yet not the happiest for that their Greatnes markes their ruyne in