my Soule too well to preferre the pleasures of my Body before thy cōtentmēt Take then thy pleasure in the Thoughtes of Eternity since for thy entertaynement they are able to produce the true Nectar of Heauen and the purest wine of the Earth And you profane Spirits who sacrifice not but to Voluptuousnesse confesse you now that Lazarus was a great deale more happy in his Misery then was the impious Richman in his Treasure The one dyed of Famine in the world and the other dyes of Thirst in Hell Agayne what a thing were it that all wedding-feasts should be held on the Sea where the least tempest might troble the solemnityes metamorphize them into a funerall pompe And yet neuertheles is it true that the soules of the world giue themselues to banquet vpon the current of the water of this life where rockes are so frequent and shipwracks so ordinary One drinkes a dying to the health of another who drownes in his glasse some moments of his life and so all Companions of the same lot approch without cease to the Tōbe which Tyme prepares them O how sweet it is said that Poet to banquet at the Table of the Goddes because in that of men the last seruice is alwayes full of Alöes But I shall say after him what contentments without comparison receyue they at the Angels Table It is not there where the soule is replenished with this imaginary sweet wyne nor with these bitter sweetnesses of the world The food of its nourishment is so diuine as through a secret vertue it contents the appetite without cloying it euer Sigh then my Soule after this Celestiall Manna alwaies fruitful in pleasures so sweet as desire and hope are alike vnprofitable in their possession if what they possesse in thē may be imagined to be agreable to them nor suffer any more thy body since thy reason may mayster its senses to heap on its dunghill corruption vpon corruption in the midst of its banquets and Feasts where they prepare but a rich haruest for the wormes If thy body be a hungry let it feed as that of Iob with the sighes of its Misery If it be a thirst let it be quenching its thirst with the humide vapour of its teares as that of Heraclitus And if it reuolt let them put it in chaynes and fetters for so if it dy in torments it shall be resuscited anew in Glory Sardanapalus appeare thou with thy Ghost heere to represent in Idaa those imaginary pleasures which thou hast taken in thy luxuries O it would be a trimme sight to see thee by thy lasciuious Elincea disguised in a womans habit hauing a distaffe by thy side and a spindle in thy hand what are become of those allurements which so charmed thy Spirit What are become of those charmes that so rauished thy soule What are become of those extasies which so made thee to liue besides thy self those imaginary Sweetnesses those delicious imaginations those agreable deceipts and those agreements of obiects where thy senses found the accomplishment of their repose Blind as thou art thou cōsiderest not awhit that Time seemes to bury thy pleasures in their Cradle and euen in their birth how they runne Post to their end through a Law of necessity fetched from their violence The profane fire wherwith thou wast burned hath reduced thy hart into Ashes with thy body and the diuine Iustice hath metamorphized the imaginary paradise of thy life into a true Hell where Cruelty shall punish thee without cease for the cryme of thy lust I confesse that the Sunne hath lent thee its light during an Age for thee to tast very greedily the pleasures sweetnesses of transitory goods But that age is past the sweetnesses vanished thy pleasures at an end and all thy goods as false haue left thee dying but only this griefe to haue belieued them to be true Brutish Soules who sigh without cease after the like passions breake but the crust of your pleasures and cry you out with Salomon how the delights of the world are full of smoke and that all is vanity He lodged within his Pallace 360. Concubines or rather so many Mischiefes which haue put the saluation of his soule in doubt I wonder not awhit that they hoodwincke Loue so to blind our reason for it were impossible our harts should so sigh at all houres after those images of dust but in the blindnes whereto the powers of our soule are reduced O how a Louer esteemes himself happy to possesse the fauours of his mistresse He preferres this good before all those of the earth besides And in the Violence of his passion would he giue as Adam the whole Paradise for an Apple his Crowne for a glasse of water I would say that which he pretends for a litle smoke He giues the name of Goddesse to his Dame as if this title of Honour could be compatible with the Surname she beares of Miserable He adores notwithstanding this Victime and offers Incense to it vpon the same Aultar where it is to be sacrificed His senses in their brutishnes make their God of it and his spirits touched with the same error authorize their Idolatry without considering this Idoll to be a worke of Art couered with a crust of Playster full of putrifaction and which without intermissiō resums the first forme of Earth in running to its end Would they not say now this louer were a true Ixion who imbraceth but the Clouds for in the midst of his pleasures death changes his Body into a shadow full of dread and horrour He belieues he houlds in his Armes this same Idoll dressed vp with those goodly colours which drew his eyes so in admiratiō of her he sees no more of her then the ruines of the pourtraite where the wormes begin already to take their fees Away with these pleasurs of the flesh since all flesh is but hay that death serues not himselfe of his Sith but to make a haruest of it which he carryes to the Sepulcher What Glory is there in the possession of all the women in the world if the fayrest that euer yet haue beene are now but ashes in the Tombe All the flowers in their features are faded as those of the Meadowes and the one and other haue lasted but a Spring Soules of the world demaund of your Eyes what are become of those obiects which so often they haue admired Aske your Eares to know where are those sweet Harmonies which haue charmed them so deliciously make you the same demaund of all your other Senses and they shall altogeather answere you in their manner how their pleasures are vanished in an instant as the flash of a lightening and that they find nothing durable in the world but griefe for the priuation of the things which they loued Admit you haue all sorts of pleasures at a wish for how long tyme are they like to last It may be a moment it may be an houre and would you
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
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
Monarch who had so many markes of immortality with him be the prey of wormes sport of the winds what shal be your lot Whereto may Fortune seeme to reserue you Go to then I graunt you whatsoeuer you can possibly demaund I affoard your ambition an age of lyfe an Empire of a new world a happy successe to all your desires What shall become of you after all this since this long lyfe this glorious Empire all your felicityes togeather must haue an end with this world As often as you shall issue forth of your condition for to enter into the forgetfulnes of your selfe you do send your thoughtes into this tombe and you shall suddenly return from this wandering Do not flatter your selfe your Crowne is but of earth as the head that weares it Your Scepter is but a sticke of wood subiect to corruption as your hand is that holdes it and the rest of your ornaments are but a worke of wormes wherof you are the prey Iudge you then whether your vanity can subsist any long tyme vpon such feeble foūdations or no. You are accustomed lykely at such time as you build some proud pallace or other to go a walking in the compasse thereof taking pleasure to admire the goodly scituation where you haue destined the place of your dwelling do you the like with your tombe go visit euery day the solitary place where you are to lodge for so long a tyme and this wil be the onely meane to make death euen as sweet vnto you as life it selfe and to bury your pride your vanity and al your vices together before your body according to the saying of the Wiseman for he that thinkes continually of death shall neuer stray from the way of vertue He that thinkes alwayes of Death is the Richest of the world CHAP. VII I MERVAILE much that Cicero should put this Truth into Paradox That he forsooth is the richest who is most cōtent whiles there is nothing more certaine then it For the Soule hath no other riches more properly her owne nor more in affect then that of contentment In what condition soeuer where a man finds himselfe with repose of Spirit may he well be said to be perfectly rich True treasures are not of gould of siluer or of other things of like valew but rather of good actions since by their price one may buy Eternity Besides whose fruition what may we desire Besides whose glory what may we pretend Withall the riches of the world we can buy no more then the world it selfe Alas what good in the possession thereof if it be wholy stuffed with euils See we not euery momēt how it quite destroyes it selfe and that it runnes without cease to its end as the Sūne to its West The richest are ordinarily the most vnfortunate of all others for that hauing by lot of nature some little Empire on earth they fall absolutely to attribute the Soueraignity thereof to thēselues in the vayne thoughts of their greatnesses seeme neuer to sigh but for them nay they euen dy with them O dreadfull Death He then may be only said to be rich who makes profession to follow vertue his way being bordered with Thornes represents to vs that same of Death whose Roses are at the end of the course to crowne our labours withall In so much as we cannot loue vertue but with the continuall thoughts of Death since to see its Body we had need to seuer our selues from the shadowes of the Earth We much admire some feeble ray of its image only vnder the obscure veyle of our mortall condition but that only in idaea and as it were in a dreame We had need to awake yet once more and come to be reborne from our ashes againe as the Phenix in the presence of the great Sunne of Iustice. I would say that we must needs dy one day for to reuiue eternally in the accomplishment of all the felicities of Heauen Alexander hath no greater a treasure then that of his hopes The ayme or scope of his Fortune was alwayes vpon the future and what goods soeuer he possessed he euery day yet attended for more as if he had some intelligence with Chance to receiue from its prodigall hand all the effects of his desires The merchants that go in pursuite of riches vpon the Ocean liue not but of the hope of their mercinary cōquest How miserable soeuer they find themselues on the way of their nauigation they so mainly forget themselues in the sweet thoughts of their expectation as they thinke themselues the richest of the world and they wil sooner be loosing their lyfe in the midst of the rockes then the beliefe they haue thereof So much their imaginary hope seemes to carry them away Let vs say then more boldly and with more reason that such as termine all their hopes to the Eternity as to the onely obiect which is able to quench the thirst of our soules still increasing more and more may be sayd before hand to be the richest of the Earth For their hope is not that of Alexander whose vowes were addressed to Fortune much lesse that other of those old Martiners as changeable as the sea that guides them but another quite different that for foundation hath but Vertue and in the hope of possessing one day the treasures of Heauen they take the paynes to purchase them through the continuall meditation of Death as the onely lesson that teacheth vs to liue well They passe deliciously their tyme in the expectation of their last day on earth and like to those merchants stand counting all the houres of their voyage with impatient desire to see out of hand the very last of them so to be alwayes perfectly happy And howbeit this voyage be long and troublesome yet they esteeme thēselues so rich withall as they would not change their hopes for all the gold of the world In effect we must needs confesse that the only hope of glory ioyned with vertues is the only good of life for the atteyning one day of the possession of them where a holy soule may find the full accomplishmēt of its desires But it is yet to be considered that this hope and all these vertues can haue no surer foundation then that of the continuall thoughtes of Death since all our good doth absolutely depend of this last houre wherein the important sentence of our life or Death is to be signified vnto vs. Hence it is that mā being holily rich heapes vp good workes during the course of his life as diuine Treasures to enrich his soule with all the eternall felicities which may accomplish it with glory and contentment He liues alwayes contēnt and rich at once in this pleasing thought forsooth that he will neuer seeme to dye vntill such tyme as he be quite dead Whence it happens that he tramples vnderfoot very generously all sorts of greanesses and riches through the knowledge he hath of those which his spirit possesseth
for a little number of instants be reigning so long in your vices Thou seest then my Soule how false is the Good of Greatnesse and that of Riches how imaginary it is How the pleasures of Banquets full of Alôes dye in their spring and the delights of the flesh haue no other foundation then that of corruptiō It is now tyme my Soule that I let thee see sensibly this difference that is betweene the contentments of the Earth and those of Heauen to the end that in the knowledge of their nature the one so contrary to the other thou maist shunne those pleasures that fly away sigh for loue after the delights of Eternity There is this difference S. Augustine notes betweene eternall transitory things that before we possesse the transitory goods we passionately desire them and from the tyme we enioy them we fall sensibly to mislike them On the contrry the desire of eternall things we neuer thinke of yet from the tyme we possesse them we are not capable of loue but for them Consider a little you Mortals what this is but an age of pleasures whose last moment seemes to make vs forget all the others that went before in such wise as there rests but a vayne Idaea of the Tyme past Search you somwhat curiously withîn the memory of ages into that of daies which haue runne away coūt their houres if you will and you shall confesse that it seemes to you to be but yesterday since our first Father was chased out of the terrestriall Paradise so true it is that Tyme passeth and swiftly glideth away The Sage Roman sayd That if to these long yeares we adde a great number of others and of all together make vp a Raigne of a life the most happy that euer yet hath beene seene if we needs most destine a last day to performe the funerals of all the others and vpon that day a certaine houre and in this houre the last moment a great part of our life will go way in doing ill the greater in doing nothing and the whole in doing otherwise then our duty required There is alwaies a thirst of the delights of the world and though we seeme to quench the same in its puddle springs yet is it but for a moment for the heat wil be renewing againe and the desire of drinking will presse vs then more then euer Vntye thy self thē my Soule from all the feelings of the Earth and with a pitch full of loue eleuate thy Thoughtes to this sweet obiect of Eternity If thou aspirest to Greatnesses represent to thy selfe how the happy spirits trample vnderfoot both the Sun and Moone and all those Starres of the Night whose infinite number astonish our senses S. Paul was but lifted to the third Heauen and yet neuertheles could he not expresse in his language the Meruayles which he admired And S. Peter on the Mount Thabor being dazeled through the glittering of one sole Ray most confidently demaunds permission of his Mayster to build in the same place three Tabernacles hauing now quite forgot the Earth as if it had neuer beene Alas O great Saint with what extasies of ioy shouldest thou be accomplished in this diuine Bower of Eternall felicityes if one feeble reflection of light so rauished thee from thy self as made thee breath so deliciously in a lyfe replenished with clarity as thou didst put in obliuion the darknes of the world where thou madest thy abode What might thy Glory by now To what point of happines might we seeme to termine it Thou possessest the body whose Shadow thou hast adored thou behouldst vncouered that diuine Essence whose Splēdor makes the Cherubims to bow the head for not being able to endure the sweet violences of its clarity Iudge with what feeling I reuerence thy felicity if the onely throughts I haue of them do make me happy only before hand The Kings of the world my Soule establish the foundation of their Greatnesses vpō the large spaces of the earth and all the earth togeather is but a poynt in comparison of Heauen And therefore the onely obiect they haue in their combats triumphes is no other then that of the Cōquest of this little point Get forth then my Soule of its Circumference since thou art able to aspire to the possession not of the world for it is but misery but of a mansion whose extent may not be measured and whose delights are eternall Wouldst thou haue Thrones The Emperiall Heauen shall be thy foot-stoole Wouldst thou haue Crownes The same of immortall Glory shall enuiron thy head Wouldst thou Scepters Thou shalt haue alwayes in thy hand a soueraigne power which shall make thy desires vnprofitable not knowing what to desire out of thy power Hast thou a desire to haue treasures Glory and Riches are in the howse of our Lord And not this trāsitory glory of the world which chaunges into smoke but another wholy diuine that depends not a whit vpon Tyme and which reaches beyond all ages Not those riches of the Ocean nor those of the Land which are vnprofitable in their vertue full of weaknes in their power but of Riches that haue no price and which make thee owner of the Soueraigne Good wher all sorts of felicityes are comprehended If thou be delighted with Banquets heare the Prophet what he sayes Lord one day alone affoards more contentment in thy house then a whole age in the feasts of the world The diuine food wherewith the happy Spirits are fed hath not in it selfe only these sweetnesses in quality but it nature So as this is a vertue essentiall to it continually to produce what soeuer they way imagine in its chiefe perfection We reioyce in thee O Lord in remembring thy breasts a great deale more sweet then wine They write of Assuerus that he raigned in in Asia ouer one hundred twenty seauen Prouinces and that he made a Banquet in his Citty of Susa which lasted an hundred and fourescore dayes where he set forth with Prodigality all the Magnificences which Art and Nature with common accord could furnish him at the price of infinit riches But the end of this Feast did blemish the Glory of its beginning and continuance for that all the pleasures which dye are not considerable in their Birth nor in the course of their Reigne Hence it is my Soule that the only delights of these Banquets which the King of Kings prepares for thee are worthy of thy desires since they shall last for an Eternity Those there haue begunne vpon Earth for to finish one day and these heere shall beginne in Heauen for neuer to haue end Some are borne and dye in Tym◠and others are borne in Eternity to endure therein as long as it Wouldst thou lodge in Pallaces The Rich house of our Lord shal be the habitation of the iust But what house do you belieue it is Represent vnto thy self that when they enter into the Pallace of some Great Prince
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
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
them without them in their absence Thou madst profession to teach mē the language of reason and thou hast neuer beene speaking with thy selfe thereof therby to bring thee into the contempt of the earth and desire of heauen Thy light hath dazeled thee thine armes haue vanquished thee the greatnes of thy Spirit hath made thee miserable For with endeauouring to merit Crownes thou hast raysed thy selfe aboue all the Empires of the world to make thy selfe to be adored that thy Example might serue as a law vnto others thou hast beene the first Idolatour of thy selfe Thou wouldst not belieue that there was one God in heauen because thou saidst thy self to be a God on earth Thou wouldst not speake of the other lyfe as knowing wel that he who distributes the good the euill to ech one should seeme to prepare there a Hell for thee to punish thy arrogācy So as if it were once affoarded thee to re-begin thy course againe thou wouldst doubtles forget the vanity of all thy learning to be thinking continually of Death whiles these only thoughts do learne vs all manner of sciences The glory which is left thee for hauing spoken of the world is shut vp in the world and though it should last as long as it yet shall it alwayes dye with it Thy reputation is reuereneed on earth and thou art trod on vnder foot in Hell Men do honour thy name and the deuils torment thy soule Behold all the recompence of thy trauailes Let vs say boldly then that he who is alwayes thinking of Death is ignorant of nothing and that for to be esteemed wise he should liue with his thoughts as the only obiect of the glory we hope for and of the felicity we attend euery houre Plato to what purpose serues thee that faire Renowne which thou hast caused to suruiue thy ashes They speake euery one of thee but if they fetch any argument of thy wisedome they conclude vpon thy folly while Death dishonours thy lyfe We may compare thee to Hanniball for after he had triumphed ouer others he let himselfe be vanquished by himselfe hauing receyued a law from his passions a seruitude from his vices In lyke māner may we say of thee that thou hadst couragiously triumphed ouer all thy popular errours which are thy chiefe domesticke enemies after I say thou hadst left thy goodly actions for so many examples of morall vertues thou buryedst the richest Crowne within thy Sepulcher and that which surmounts all tyme and the inconstancy thereof for at thy Death thou adoredst many Gods as repenting thee of the opinions yea of the beliefe thou hadst in the course of thy lyfe Thou tookest a great deale of paynes to procure the surname of Deuine through thy diuine thoughtes but in the highest of thy soaring pitch thy spirit as an illegitimate yong Eagle not being able to endure the splendour of the sun of faith was cast down headlong from the top of the heauens to the lowest of the earth where dying alwayes in punishments and reuiuing euery momēt in their dolours it shall liue for euer in eternall paynes Let vs say then agayne once more that all sciences are but meere vanity except such as teach vs to liue well and dy happily And that after this manner who thinkes continually of Death is the wisest of the world A Contemplation vpon the Tombe of Salomon CHAP. X. RETVRNE yet once agayne O great Queene of Saba to behold this wise Salomon come attended with your magnificent trayne that euen the selfe same subiects who were the witnesses of your ioy may be the same likewise of your sadnes in this cruell change both of tyme fortune You haue passed through many a sea and happily beene quit of a thousand dangers on the land for to visit this great Monarke as the onely Abridgement of the wonders of the world Put your selfe once more into the perils of the same rockes and into a new danger of so long a voyage to see the setting of this Sun the ashes of this Phonix I would say the Tombe and corruption of this incomparable of this inimitable of this mighty King of Sages What metamorphosis The splendour of his Riches had once dazeled your eyes now the horrour of his pouerty doth begg euen teares of your compassion Heeretofore you cōtemplated his power with astonishment and now see into what plight of feeblenes haue miseries brought him You admired the greatnes of his Empire that likewise of his spirit ioyned with the perfection of his wisedome but now consider how all these goodly qualityes haue not beene able to exempt him from the Sepulcher where he serues as a prey vnto the worms You haue adored him on the Theater of his Vanities at such tyme as he represented the personage of the greatest King that euer wore a Crowne and turning the leafe within the twinckling of an eye is this very King no more then a loathsome carkasse whome horrour amazement hold in pledge vntill such tyme as he be conuerted into dust which he hath beene indeed but that is all And hardly dare we now maintaine him to be he since that in seeking him out within himselfe is he not to be found So vanisheth the glory of the world all flyes into the Tombe Solon since thou hast borne the surname of all the seauen Sages of Greece come visit this tombe of the wisest of the world of this incomparable Salomon He was great of birth great in happines great in power great in riches most great in knowledge But behold now how his rich cradle is chāged into this poore Sepulcher How his felicity hath taken the visage of misfortune How his power is bounded in the impotēcy thou seest him in He is not great but in miseries he is not rich but in wormes and in the knowledge of the follies which he hath wrought Among so many goodly lawes which thou hast gyuen to the Athenians remember thy selfe of that which nature hath imposed vpon thee to dy at all howers vntil such tyme as thou be quite dead Thou dost in vayne command thy bones to be cast into diuers places after thy Death for if they putrify not all at once ech one of thē shall produce a stench from the marrow in the place where it shal be buryed Thou must necessarily follow the lot of this great Sage since you are brothers both of the same condition Thou hast taught others long inough learne thou that which as yet thou knowest not Thou teachest all the world to liue learne thou thy selfe to dy well Thy knowledge is but vanity For though thy precepts be engrauen in marble and brasse time which deuoures all things shall deface the remembrance of them to so bury thy glory If thou lyuest not for thy soule rather then thy body they will scarce belieue thou hast lyued at all Periander come behould thy Companion of renowne so as if thou knowest
him not in the estate he is brought into touch but thy owne miseries with thy finger and thou shalt playnly discouer on their face all the draughts of his resemblāce He hath been King as wel as thou as good as wise And if thou bearst the Surname of Tyrant aboue him and that he hath not beene a Tyrant of his people yet the vanities of his life haue beene so He is dead howsoeuer and at the very same tyme wherein truly thou behold'st his putrified bones the fire of thy life hath brought thee by little and little into ashes neere vnto his ashes If thou tracest the same way with him thou shalt put the truth of thy saluation into doubt I would haue thee be a Tyrant also but that only against thy selfe to be cruell to thy passions nor euer to pardon thy faults otherwise reason shall be depriuing thee of the Surname of a Sage which thy folly hath giuen thee Pittacus be thou a partner likewise to behold the miseries of thy like and if thou wilt learne thy good spirit wisedome employ thy reason and eloquence to chase away vices from thy country rather then the Tirant though thy force and courage Thou sayest we ought to foresee the accidents afarre of which may happen to vs for to be able to suffer them with the more constancy when they light why thinkst thou not then alwayes of this accident inseparable from Death which pursues vs neerer then a shadow the body not for the suffering of the paynes with the greater constancy but rather with more profit that Death might make thee a successour of a more happy life Behould in this tombe the image of all thy errours See wherein consists the glory of the world and this vayne renowne wherof thou becōmest an idolater If this great Sage haue beene so taxed how shalt thou be able to auoyd the blame and shame at once I leaue thee to thinke and meditate vpon it Bias come and behould through curiosity the ashes of the wisest of the world to iudge whether there be any difference betweene them and those of the most fooles I know well that the horrour of the tombe will not astonish thee awhit since thou hast seene thy country sackt already with a dry eye and thy children dead before thee But in these actions it is not where thou art to make the force of thy spirit to appeare After thou hadst lost all thou oughtst to haue saued thy selfe to be rich for euer Thou belieuest thy vertue should appeare with saying that thou carryest all thou hast about thee and hadst saued all thy goods from the fire of thy towne wherein thou mistakest thy selfe For thou wert puffed greatly with thy vanity and charged with the weighty burden of thy vayne sciences Thou knowest all that which we ought to be ignorant of to become well skilled in the knowledge of true vertue indeed And to let thee say playnely thine owne folly so it is that the precepts of thy wisedome haue neuer yet saued any one of those that obserued the same Thou preachest vertue and adorest but a false image therof wisedome consists not but in alwayes thinking of death and thou hast nothing more deare then lyfe in the blindnesse wherein thou art Misfortune robs thee euery houre of a part of thy self through continuall losse of that which thou louest most and thou art insensible of all these attempts But heerin thou letst thy vanity appeare rather then any vertue at all since thou referrest not the effects of thy patience to the absolute cause which giues thee grace thereunto Thou Enemy to thy selfe thou pullest the wings of thy spirit that it may not fly aboue thy nature to know the Authour thereof Consider the glory that shall rest and be left for thee The stone of this tombe which thou seest shall wayte vpon thy flesh to couer it with all in corruption and infection and if thou will be reputed wise thinke continually vpon this verity Thales thou must be a party lykewise for to come and see the mayster of the Sages in this poore little lodging which nature hath prepared him from his birth He hath beene farre more wise then thou but yet with all his knowledge he hath hardly byn able to fynd the way of his saluation He knew so perfectly the effects of all the seconde causes as he forgot oftentymes to yield due homage vnto the first and soueraygne cause onely adorable Take thou thy profit then from the exāple of his losse Thou studyest vaynly to marke the courses of tyme consider rather how it pulls thee by litle and litle into the Sepulcher Why breakest thou thy braynes to know from whence the winds proceed since thou oughtst to feare that of vanity for it threatnes thee with shipwracke Thou further notest sundry motions of the starres it sufficeth thee that that of the Sea be fauorable to thee to shun the rockes of that other of the world wherto nature hath made thee to embarke thy selfe Thou makest lessons to thy schollers vpon thunder it is but a very curiosity of thine thou shouldest not seeke for shelters but for the thunders of diuine Iustice which shal shortly punish thee for thy foolish errours If thou wilt be wise indeed forget thou all what thou knowest nor do thou euer remember but this verity that thou art of Earth and soone shalt thou return into Earth agayne as this great King whose ashes thou beholdest enuironed with horrour and infection Go now and make a lesson to thy schollers of that which thou hast seene and then shalt thou deserue the surname of a Sage Chilon step thou a little out of thy way to come and see the ruines of this Colossus heere of Greatnesse whose vnmeasurable height astonished all the world This is the King Solomon the wonder of all the Monarkes of the earth Demaūd of him now what he hath done with his crowne with his Scepter with his Treasures with his Courtiers with his slaues and where now his pleasures are And if he answere thee not a word make the same demaunds of thine owne spirit and it shall answere for him that all is vanished like smoke that all is slid away like waues that all is rouled thence like a torrēt that al is melt a way like snow that al these shadowes haue pursued their bodyes into the ruine where thou seest it Thou oughtst to haue engraued this precept which thou gauest forth of Nosce teipsum on thy hart rather then on the Temple of Apollo For this knowledge is not compatible with thine errours Thou hast giuen forth this second Precept Of neuer coueting too much wherein truly thou art not culpable at all since thou desiredst not inough Thou assignest all thy pretensions on the earth as if thou wert borne but for it it seemes the Sunne neuer rises but to conuince thee of ingratitude since for the goodnes of its effects thou neuer didst homage to the cause from
doubt not of the rest Thinke thē of death you Courtiers since the Eternity both of glory payne depends of a moment O sweet and dreadfull moment And you my Dames you belieue you haue conquered an Empire straight as soone as you haue once subiected any spirit to you power to what end do you study so euery day since you learne ech moment but vanity and new lessons of nicenes be it for actiō or grace sake but therein what thinke you to do Your purpose is to wound harts you vndoe soules for when you make a mā passionately in loue with you you do euen make him a Foole. You cannot be taking away his hart without depriuing him of reason And to what extrauagancies is he not subiect the while during the reigne of his passion I would say of his folly You are al which he loues and very often all which he adores what cry me I should thinke it rather to please you then to saue himselfe If he looke vpon the Sun he is but to make comparison betweene the light of your eyes and that of this bewtifull starre which I leaue to you to imagine how farre frō truth He seemes to maynteyne very impudently in scorne of all created things that you are the only wonder of the world and the very abridgemēt of al that nature hath euer made bewtifull which yet no man belieues but he and you If he carry vp his thoughtes to Heauen he compares you to the Angells with these words That you haue all the qualities of them Iudge now without passiō whether these termes of Idolatry do not fully wholy passe sentence to conuince him with a thousand sorts of crymes And yet do you take pleasure to make the Deuill more potent then he is for to cause others to be damned Returne then agayne vnto your selfe and consider how you ought to render an accoumpt one day of all those spirits whose Reason you haue made to wander in the labyrinth of your charmes For she that on earth shall haue subiected the most shal be the greatest slaue in Hell What glory take you to ioyne your charmes with those of the Diuels thereby to draw both bodyes and soules vnto them I attend you at this last moment of your lyfe where your definitiue sentence is to be pronounced Thinke you alwayes of this moment if there be yet remayning in you but neuer so litle sparke of loue for your selues When you shall once haue enthralled all the Kings of the earth there would yet be a great deale more shame then honour in it since all those Kings were no more then meere corruption and infection Thinke of your selues my Dames you are to day no more the same you were yesterday Tyme which deuours all thinges defaceth ech moment the fayrest lineaments of your face nor shall it euer cease to ruine your beauties vntill such tyme as you be wholy reduced to ashes So passeth away the glory of the world all flyes into the Tombe That of all the Lawes which Nature hath imposed vpon vs that same of Dying is the sweetest CHAP. XII FROM the tyme that our first Father had violated the sacred Lawes which God had imposed vpon him Nature as altering her nature would acknowledge him no more for her child Anone she rayseth a tumult against him with all created things The Heauen armes it selfe with thunders to punish his arrogancy The Sunne hides himselfe vnder the veyle of his Eclypses to depriue him of his light The Moone his sister defending his quarrell resolues with her selfe to be often changing her countenance towards him to signify vnto him the displeasure she tooke thereat The Starres being orherwise innocent of nature became malignant of a sudden to powre on his head their naughty influences The Ayre keeping intelligence with the Earth exhales her vapours and hauing changed them into poyson infects therewith the body of that miserable wretch The Birdes take part with them they whet their beakes clawes to giue some assault or other The Earth prepares the mine of its abysses for to swallow him vp if the dread horrour of its trembling were not sufficient to take away his life The sauage beasts stand grinding their teeth to deuoure him The Sea makes an heape of an infinite number of rockes to engulfe him in their waues But this is nothing yet Nature is so set on reuenge against him as she puts on his fellowes to destroy their pourtraite I meane to combat with the shadow of their body in causing them to quench the fire of their rage with their proper bloud In so much as man hath no greater enemy then man himselfe Let vs go forward To continue these euils do miseries enter into the world accompanyed with their sad disastres and followed with despayre griefe sadnes folly rage and a thousand passions besides which do cleane vnto the senses for to seize vpon soules This poore Adam sees himselfe to be besieged on al sidess if he looke vp to Heauen the flash of the lightenings there euen dazles and astonishes him quite the dreadfull noyse of thunder makes him to wish himselfe to be deafe he knowes not what to resolue vpon since he hath now as many enemyes as he had vassals before Adam may well cry mercy for his syn what pardon soeuer he obteyne thereof yet will nature neuer seeme to pardon him for it Whence it is that in compasse also of these ages of redemption it self wherein we breath the ayre of grace we do sigh that same of miseryes So as if there be nothing more certayne according to the experience of our sense then that the Earth is a Galley wherein we are slaues that it is the prison wherin we are enchained and the place assigned vs to suffer the paynes of our crymes in can there possibly be found any soules so cuell to themselues and such enemyes to their owne repose as not to be continually sighing after their liberty after the end of their punishments and the beginning of an eternall lyfe full of pleasures What would become of vs if our lyfe endured for euer with its miseryes if it should neuer haue an end with our euill that it had no bounds or limits no more then we For then should I be condemning the laughter of Democritus and allowing of the continuall teares of his companion since the season would be alwayes to be alwaies weeping and neuer to laugh Then would it be that cryes and plaints would serue vs for pastimes and teares sighes should neuer abandon eyther our eyes or harts But we are not so brought to this extremity of vnhappines The Heauens being touched with compassion of our euills and of the greatnes of our miseryes in giuing vs a cradle for them to be borne in haue affoarded vs a Sepulcher also for to bury them in O happy Tombe that reduceth to ashes the subiect of our flames O happy Tombe where the wormes make an end to
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
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
as he stood in competēcy with his brother-in-Law about the Crowne of the whole world at once yet notwithstanding his miseries made him an homicide of himselfe through a stroke of despaire Maximus came to the Empire from the lowest degree of a seruile condition but from the tyme that he was on the ridge of Greatnesse did Fortune make him to descēd so low by the same degrees he mounted vp with as his Misfortunes had no relation with his Prosperities Thus passeth the glory of the world leauing a great deale more astonishment behind then euer it afforded admiration If a great Architect should seeme to perswade vs to belieue that our dwelling house were on the point of falling and that we were in daunger to be buried in its ruines I would imagine with my selfe we should lyue alwaies in payne to auoyd the effects of his presages seeking with all sollicitude the meanes to eschew those perils So as if I turne the Meddall it wil appeare this tottering and ruinous house to be nothing els then that of the world wherof that great Architect who hath layd the first foundations hath affoarded vs the truth of this assurance that it shall fall to ruine very soone The Heauen and the Earth shall passe away What solidity then can we establish heere beneath in this soyle as well of Pouerty as of Infamy since it shakes vnder our feet through its continuall vitissitude The ruines thereof appeare without cease before our eyes in the course of its deficiency our life pursues the same way And neuertheles with what blindnes do we fall a sleep in the ship of our deliciousnes not considering how it floats vpon the stormy sea of the world as abundant in shipwrackes as the land of Mishaps We must neuer turne away our eyes from the obiect of Inconstancy since it is naturall to all that which hath subsistence heere beneath The Monarchy began with the Assyrians It passed to the Persians from the Persians to the Macedonians from the Macedonians to the Romanes and at this day the Empire is in Germany In so much as after that this so famous and illustrious a Crowne shall haue run through the foure corners of the earth it shall resolue into earth following the course of those that shal haue possessed the title eyther by right of hazard or by the right of Birth So as if Heauē Earth do passe whatsoeuer shall beare the image of the creation is cōprized within this reuolution of Ages where all concludes in a last end There is nothing so great in the world as the Hart which contemnes all Greatnesses Tyme as Mayster of all which is in Nature le ts forth Crownes and Scepters to Kings to some for a day to others for a moneth to some others for a yeare and to others for more but after the terme is expired it giues no more dayes one succeds in the place of another vnder one and the selfe same Law of condition Let the infinite number of Kings heere present themselues that haue raygned vpon Earth and if euery one hath had his Crowne it may likewise be sayd that ech hath had his Tombe Then seeke not Greatnesses my Soule but in vertue and in the glorious contempt of things of the Earth Thou seest how Magnificences haue not charmes but for a day their glittering fadeth with their light and what foundation soeuer they haue they carry in their being the Necessity of their ruine To what end shouldst thou raise thy Ambition vpon Thrones if they be States of vnhappines and inconstancy Enuy not Kings their Crownes nor Scepters since it is the title of a transitory glory Felicity cōsists not for to rule with Empire but rather to find repose of life in the condition wherin he is borne And what more sweet repose can one looke for then that of desiring nothing in the world This is a pleasing paine to be alwayes in vnrest to find that soueraigne good which we seeke for I would say that Eternity where delightes are durable in their excesse When thou shouldst be exalted aboue all the Greatnes of the Earth what happines and what contentement would be left thee since the Tyme of their possession glides without respit with the pleasures where with they are quickned In such sort as if at the rising of the sunne thou receyuest Sacrifices in homage at the setting thou shalt find thy selfe stript by Fortune or by Death Fixe not thy thoughts then but on the obiects which hould touch with Tyme nor seeke thou euer to runne after things that fly away Thy immortall nature cannot eye but Eternity sigh then incessantly after its Glory if thou wilt one day haue it in possession There be some who seeke their repose all their pleasure in Riches as if Gould had this Vertue to eternize their contentments Set not thy hart vpon things of the world saith the Apostle When the Poets would speake of Riches they put before vs the Gould of the riuers of Hebrus and Paectolus to let vs see how they fly away from our eyes as the waters Put case a man should possesse all the treasures of the earth yet should he not seeme to be richer awhit for all that since he were but the guardian and not the owner of those treasures Riches consist not in possessing much but rather in contenting ones selfe with a little Cresus could neuer satisfy his couetous desire during his life which induced his enemies to fill his Body with the gould wherewith he could not fill his Soule What Folly to seeke Eternity in Riches where is ordinarily found but Death This very man heere made accompt to stuffe his Coffers with Gould Syluer knew at last that his Treasures were so many fatall Instruments that serued for nothing but to take away his life so as being deceiued in his hopes he became sollicitous to conserue very charily the meanes of his losse of his ruine He therfore that goes to seeke for the Riches of the East puts himselfe to the mercy of the waues and in seeking the repose of his life approaches so neere to Death as he is distant from it no more than the thicknes of the shipboard What feeblenesse of humane Spirit to put in hazard whatsoeuer one holdes most deere on Earth for the purchase of a little Earth I had rather a great deale be Iob on the dunghill then Cresus on the woodpile for the one flouted at Fortune in his miseries and the other had recourse to Solon to repent himselfe for not hauing followed the way of Pouerty rather then that of Riches since the latter led him to Death Crates the Theban considering that he floted without cease within this vast sea of the world despised Riches for feare to suffer Shipwracke with so heauy a fraight The Wheele may well run about but can neuer get forth of the lymits of its Circle so lykewise man may well trauayle runne ouer the
world to heape vp treasures but he fetches the turne only of the Circle of his lyfe the while of necessity most the Ship be landing at this last port of the Sepulcher where he finds himselfe as poore as when he entred into the cradle I know not for whome the Richman trauayles for before the iourney of his trauayle be finished his dayes are runne out and being on the point to reape the fruite of his passed paines death gathers those of the repose of his lyfe The Mercinary soules who lend forth their conscience to Interest insteed of their Money sell as in told Coyne the portion they pretend in Heauen for a little Earth Blind as they be they spin the web of their captiuity forge the Armes which are one day to reuenge the enormity of their crymes Abused soules they consider not how all the Gould of the world is yet now in the world howbeit the greatest part therof hath beene possessed by an infinite number of Mortals and so shall leaue them behind them as others how rich soeuer they be now without carrying ought els into the Tombe but griefe for not hauing made so good vse of them as they should To what point of misery was reduced the impious Richman of the Ghospell in a moment after he had possessed an infinite number of Treasures He behoulds himself in estate of begging a drop of water for to quench his thirst To what end serued all his pleasures past but to augment his present paynes He employed his Riches to purchase Hell and all his goods to gayne the euill he endures O humane Folly To put ones selfe in hazard to loose Eternity for enioying of a fading Treasure Good is not good but as permanent and yet looke they after transitory delights that subsist not but in flying Demaund they of Cyrus what hath he done with all his Riches he will answere he hath left them in the soyle that brought them forth Xerxes hath enioyed theÌ„ as well as he and as he so hath he borne no part thereof into his Sepulcher They may cause monuments to be built to their Memory but Tyme that deuoures all hath wrought new Tombes for their Tombes in such fort as if yet there be memory of their death it is but onely by reason of their lyfe They make a question which of the two was more rich eyther Alexander or Diogenes the one whose Ambition could not be bounded with the whole extent of the Earth and the other whose desire hopes were shut vp in the space of his Tub. For me I do hould with Diogenes since he is the richest who is best content I could neuer yet imagine the pleasure which Caligula tooke to wallow vpoÌ„ Gold for if the lustre of that mettall contented his eyes he might haue beheld himselfe a far of since the eye requires a distance proportioned to the force or feeblenes of its lookes but deceaued as he was he considered not the while how this Gould He differed not awhit but only in colour since they were both of Earth And in effect they can not authorize its pleasure but through the relatioÌ„ which was there of the nature of the one with that of the other The Poets represent to vs how the Goulden fleece was guarded by a Dragon lyke as the Goulden Aples of Hesperides and the Morall which may be gathered from these Fables is nothing els but the danger and payne which is inseparable from the conquest of Treasures The Historians obserue that in all the Countries where this mettall abounds the inhabitants are so poore as they haue scarse a ragge of linnen to couer their nakednesse withall What may we imagine in contemplation of this Verity but that all the Gould of the Earth cannot tell how to enrich a maÌ„ while the riches of the world are borne and dye in a pouerty worthy of compassion Then seeke not my Soule other Riches then those of Eternity Thou canst not tell how to buy heauen withall the gold of the earth and without the enioying of its felicities all goods are counterfait al Sweetnesses but full of Bitternes Imagine thee now to lyue vnder the Reigne of a goulden Age and that through an excesse of Fortune thou treadest vnder foot all the Pearles of the Ocean and all the goulden haruest of the Indies And not to loose thy selfe in this imagination consider the estate of this felicity tast in conceyt a part of the pleasures which thou wert to possesse if effects should answere to thy thoughts and then boldly confesse with the Wiseman how all these transitory goodes are treasures of Vanity that in the iust pretensions thou hast to an Eternall glory all these atomes of Greatnes can serue thee no more but for obiect of thy contempt Suppose thou wert the absolute Mistresse of the world what good couldst thou hope for in the fruition therof if all be replete with euils Crimes haue Temples there Vices haue Aultars All the Idolls are of goulden Calues and such as make professioÌ„ to follow Vertue are within the order of a malady of a contagious Spirit according to the common opinion So as through a Law of Tyme the most laudable Actions are subiect to reproaches Leaue then all the goods of the Earth to the Earth since thou art not borne for them seeke as a pledge in the sweet thoughtes of Eternity for the accomplishmeÌ„t of thy delightes The world is not able to satiate thy desires since it hath nothing in it that is not transitory And howbeit it be susteyned in its inconstancy it leaues not to wax old in changing to ruine it selfe by little and little in ruyning all things Thinke neuer then but of Eternity Speake not but of Eternity Let thy desires and thy Hopes regard but Eternity Let alwayes Eternity be in thy memory the conteÌ„pt of the world within thy hart If thou beest capabel of Hatred be it but for the Earth and if thou beest capable of Loue be it but for Heauen since it is the mansion of Eternity There are others who seeke their contentment in magnificent Pallaces as if they were shelters of proofe against disasters and misfortunes Charles the VIII tooke pleasure to build very proud Fabrikes as belieuing it may be to close his eyes in dying through the Splendour of their wonders but his lot an Enemy of his hopes snatched away his last breath being sound of health vpon a straw bed and in place encompassed round with Misery Heliogabalus likewise was deceued of his purpose for being on the point when the â—enormity of his Crymes had passed sentence of his Death on behalfe of the Gods he shuts himselfe in the fairest hall of his Pallace and prepares for his Enemies all the Richest instruments of Death he could recouer as thinking to sweeten the bitternes thereof with so goodly armes but his foresight was vnprofitable for the Gods permitted that as he had tasted the
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
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
to put him to silence in so much as his teares and sighes are feigne to speake for him to his dying daughter who makes him answere in the same language both of the eyes hart without being able to let fall a word Her mother hath her eyes glued vpon her pale and diffigured countenance and in this dumbe action of hers whereto an excesse of dolour hath brought her she suffers a great deale more payne to see her dye then she had pangs before to bring her forth And so in order al those that loued her and whome she dearely loued came in to yield her this last duty of visit But howbeit they premeditated somewhat to say vnto her their tongues became mute at their approch and their eyes made supply of discourse in their fashion For what meanes is there to speake in a dolefull place where Death goes imposing an eternall silence The Priest approacheth to the bed with a Crucifix in his hand which he presents to this foule sicke wretch she takes it with a trembling hād knowing it to be the Crosse whereupon the Omnipotent Iudge was nayled If she cast her eyes vpon his Crowne of Thornes she drawes them into her hart by her lookes in remembring the roses which she had deliciously troad vnder her feet during her lyfe But there is now no more tyme to be carying the same into the soule because her senses as halfe dead are vnsensible of their prickings If she reguard the visage of this her Sauiour all couered with comtempt she sinckes downe with the confusion of the outrages that she hath done to herself remembring the guilty care which she hath taken in playstering her face of earth and ruyning in that manner with a sacrilegious hand the sacred workmanship of heauen and of Nature and for hauing imployed the better part of her tyme in these errours to the disparagement of her soule as if the same were corruptible like the body The torments which her God and her Iudge hath suffered for her vpon this Crosse which she holds in her hand and which she neuer had borne in her hart do shamefully vpbrayd her now for the delights of her lyfe Then falls she a sighing at it but her sighs of wind are taken but for wind she weepes thereat but her teares of water are taken but for a litle water since she cannot wipe away the blot of her crymes because their spring deriues not from the hart and that her teares proceed from the feare of present death rather then from a sorrow of lyfe past There need no other witnesses to condemne her withall then the wounds of her Sauiour for as he had suffered all the paines of the world so she had tasted all the pleasures Alas if she could but turne backe againe and returne to the midst of the course of her life if her words might haue the same vertue which those of Iosue had for to cōmaund the Sunne to returne backe agayne to its East to affoard her leasure to do penaunce in is it not credible my Dames but that she would be dipping the bread of her nourishment within the water of her teares for to bewayle her sins But that is in vayne to desire the returne of life since she must dy and the houre is already strook Alas how many liuing deathes deuoure this poore body before her life be snatched away at last What strange torment seemes to racke her soule she dyes with sorrow for not being able to liue any longer and notwithstanding euery moment of life is to her an age of dolour She is so engulfed in tormēts as she imagines that all the afflictions in the Earth are assembled in her Chamber or rather in her Soule since now she is brought into extremes through the force of anguish Sorrow for the past apprehension of the future horrour of the Sepulcher and the vncertainty she is in of her saluatiō do hould her spirit continually on the racke That little which she sees is but to bid Adieu to the light that little which she vnderstands is for her last and being thus brought into this extremity now it is when the diuel lets her see to the life the pourtrait of all the offences which she hath euer committed to the end the enormity of them being ioyned with their number might make her to turne her face to despaire To make yet an exact Confession all her Spirits are in disorder and the powers of her Soule so feeble as they can serue but for resentment of her euills She would fayne speake but a mortall stuttering with-holdes her tongue halfe tyed and on the other side the smart of the payne which she suffers is so sharpe as she cannot open the mouth but to cry A dolour without cease torments her continually her dying life is wandring euery moment in the punishments she is in when she finds her selfe it is but to loose her selfe agayne in her syncopes which are the forerunners of her Death The eyes bolt out of her head as if they had this knowledge that they were vnprofitable vnto her her mouth awry and halfe open giues passage by the eye vnto her bowells to behold the torments she is in It is now tyme my Dames you present her with a Mirrour for to employ her last reguards on the sad contemplation of the dreadfull ruines of her beauty what faces makes she the while her hideous looke affrights not only little children but euen likewise the most couragious Behold your selues my Dames within this glasse if you will but apparantly see the faults which are hiddē vnder your own from point to point or rather vnder the Spanish white wherewith you are paynted Behold into what estate are reduced your alluremēts your charmes your sweetnesses and your bayts which you so put in the rancke of adorable things These are no Fables no Illusions nor Enchantements these you haue seen the other day this foule dying wretch with a lustre of beauty that dazeled all the world who to day seemes to mooue you to pitty and horrour at once Marke well all her actions but quickned with dolour and dread these are the true examples of those which you shall one day suffer it may be to morrow or euen to day who knowes And then dare you waxe so proud of your beauty as you do while the crust thereof is now thus broken as you see in the presence of so many persons who haue seene how the inside was all but full of corruption In this meane while the sicke person dyes by litle and litle It is now tyme to make the funerall of those fayre eyes since their light is thus extinct The Priest may cry in her eares long inough for death hath taken vp his lodging there and euery one knowes that she is deafe Her hands her feet are without motion as well as without heat the hart seemes to beate as yet but it is onely to bid Adieu to the Soule which is
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
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