end insupportable and offensiue to all kind of people yea to himselfe For hauing his nose groueling to the ground like a hogge hee will neuer bee able to lift vp his eies nor his spirit to heauen where all perfect and assured contentment is to bee found If yeelding to all this you will aske me the meanes how to bee freed of this fearefull terror I will tell you that it is to know what Deathis as it is taught in the 13. 14. and 20. Arguments and not to rely vpon doubtfull and false opinions An Obiection Euery roote bringing forth fruits worthy repentance should be carefully preserued The feare of death bringeth forth fruits worthy of repentance Therefore the feare of death should bee carefully preserued WHatsoeuer thou sayest or doest remember thy end and thou shalt neuer sinne sayth the son of Syrach Answ. the continuall meditation of death to him that knowes it rightly helpes wonderfully vnto vertue And Seneca sayeth that man is neuer so diuine as when hee doth acknowledge himselfe to bee mortall Yea it auailes in Christian duties but that the feare of death is profitable to any thing I cannot comprehend I will not deny but that many haue bene wonderfully stirred vp to piety by the feare of death as among others the historie makes mentiō of Peter Vualdo in the yeare 1178. who in the city of Lyons sometime being assembled with many of the chiefe of the Citty to recreate themselues it so happened that one of them fell downe suddenly dead Vualdo a rich man was more mooued then all the rest and seized with feare and apprehension he addicted himselfe more to do penance and to meditate true piety But who doth not see that it is not properly death which causeth this inclination to pietie but the iudgement of God which wee discerne through death as through a glasse that it is the worme of Conscience which doth awaken vs by the contemplation of Death and stirres vp sinners to iustice sanctitie It is the ignorant confusion of the second death with the first which doth so strongly amaze men Finally it is a seruile feare and not commendable yea condemned of the Pagans themselues to forbeare to doe euill for feare of punishment Let vs conclude then That this first death which is naturall and common to all men seeing that her poyson hath beene quenched in the bloud of Christ as Tertullian speaks seeing that the Crosse of Iesus Christ hath pulled away her sting triumphed ouer her and giuen a counter-poyson for the poyson of sinne it is not euill but the greatest good that can arriue to mortall men and to feare to obtayne so great a good is a vice and no vertue before all vpright Iudges The Third Argument drawne from the Impossibility That onely is to bee feared that lyes in the power of man Death lyes not in the power of man Therefore not to be feared VIce onely should hee feared to be auoyded but nothing that is without the power of man is vice as Epictetus saith in his Enchiridion Moreouer that feare is good that can preuent an imminent danger but to that which can neither bee remedied nor foreseene feare serues but to aduance it Man may preuent and auoyd that which hee holds in his owne power and will as the approbation of vice the hatred of goodnesse and of true honour rashnes passions vnlawfull loue vnrestrained heauinesse excessiue ioy vaine hope damned despaire c. But all that which blinde man by his opinion doth affect or feare so much as wealth pouertie the honour or dishonour of the world life and death are not tyed to his will nor subiect to his scepter And therefore the Philosopher will rightly say that neither pouertie nor sicknesse let vs also adde death nor any thing that flowes not from our owne mallice are to bee feared let vs follow the Doctors of wisedome saith Heluidius in Tacitus which hold honest things onely to bee good and dishonest bad power nobilitie and whatsoeuer is without the spirit of man reputation riches friends health life and all things that depend of the free will of man flow necessarily perpetually from the decree of the Eternall and to seeke to hinder their course were to striue to stay the motion of the heauen and starres This prouidence of God dispersed throughout all the members of this Vniuerse hath infused into euery mooueable thing a secret immooueable vertue as Boetius saith by the which shee doth powerfully accomplish all things decreed in its time and place and order To seeke to breake the least linke of these causes chayned together were as much as to runne headlong against a rocke to ouerturne it I will that thou knowest the howre place of thy deceasse that to auoyd it thou flyest to a place opposite vnto it that thou watchest the houre yet shalt thou find thy selfe arriued and guided to the place at the houre appointed there to receiue thy death and that which is admirable thou thy selfe insensibly wouldest haue it so and diddest make choice of it To this force let Iulius Caesar oppose all his Imperiall power let him scoffe at Spurinus his prediction of the 15. of March the day being come hee must vnderstand from his Sooth-sayer who was no lyer that the day was not past he must come to the Capitoll and there receiue 23. wounds and fall downe dead at the foote of Pompeys statue Let Domitian storme for the approching of fiue of the clocke foretold yet must he die at the houre and for the more easier expedition one comes and tells him that it had strooke sixe he beleeues it with great ioy Parthenius his groome tells that there is a pacquet of great importance brought vnto him he enters willingly into the Chamber but it was to bee slaine at that very instant which hee feared most But if these histories seeme ouer worne with age who remembers not that memorable act at the last Assembly of the Estates at Blois of that Duke who receiued aduertisement from all parts both within and without the Realme that the Estates would soone end with the ending of his life euen vpon the Eue one of his confident friends discouered the businesse vnto him going to dinner he found a note written in his napkin with these words They will kill you To which he answered They dare not but they failed not Oh God how difficult is it to finde out thy wayes Let vs then cōclude that the houre of death appoynted by the immoueable order of God is ineuitable so that as one saith We shal sooner moue God then death So the Pagans who erected Altars to all their counterfeit Deities did neuer set vs any to death This firme decree of all things gane occasion to the Pagans to figure the three Destinies whose resolution great Iupiter could not alter no not to draw his Minion Sarpedon out of their bonds Let vs speake more properly God can
doe it but he wil neuer do it or very seldome to shew his infinit power by miracle Let vs in the end say That seeing death is ineuitable it must needs follow that the feare of it is vnprofitable On the other side let vs adde that mās life is not to be cut off before the time therefore a carefull waywardnesse to prolong it auailes nothing the Destinies which haue resolued immutably to spinne it out till such a time they will doe it feare it not and in the danger of death will rather shew a miracle to preserue thee as to the Poet Simonides who supping with Scopas in a Towne of Thessalie word was brought him that two young men were at the dore to speake with him the Poet went forth but found no body at the doore but hee heard a great noyse of the chamber which sunke downe and smothered Scopas and al his guests in the ruins We reade that Gelon then a young Infant but appointed to liue longer to gouern Sicile was drawne out of the like but a stranger danger for as hee was at schoole in the presence of his master and many of his companions behold a great Wolfe enters into the school comes to Gelon layes hold of his booke and drawes it by the one end Gelon without amazement holds fast and rather suffers himselfe to bee drawne forth by the Woolfe then to let goe his hold and in the meane time the building happened to sinke and ouerwhelmed both Master and schollers Thus God shewes his prouidence preseruing by his Angels those whom he pleaseth from present and most eminent dangers So would hee saue Lot and his family from the fire of heauen almost against their will For it is written that the Angels tooke them and thrust them out of Sodome yea it is written that the Angell executioner to shew the force of prouidence told Lot that he could not doe any thing vntill hee were retired into a towne adioyning which was afterwards called Zohar into the which he was no sooner entred but the Eternall powred downe fire and brimstone vpon Sodome and Gomorah We reade of Titus Vespasian that two famous knights had conspired to kill him whereof he was aduertised but making no shew thereof he tooke them by the hands led them forth to walke and hauing called for two swords he gaue to eyther of them one as prouoking them to that which they had resolued but being amazed both of the manner and of the Emperours courage You see sayth he that destinie doth iustly hold the principalitie of the world and that in vaine men practise murthers against it be it through hope to purchase greatnesse or for feare to lose it Let vs therefore acknowledge that it is not of vs but of the word of destinie which God hath pronounced that the lengthening or shortning of our liues depends The great God is to vs a God of strength to deliuer vs and the issues of death belong vnto the Eternal therefore the Apostle sayd that Christ is dead and risen againe that he might haue power ouer the dead and the liuing and therfore this vexing care of life nor that great horror of Death cannot profit vs any thing Let vs then leaue these things and finishing our course resolutely ioyfuly let vs yeeld al into the hands of our soue raigne Master neither to tempt him nor to despaire of him for both the one and the other are equally hateful vnto him and if our soule puft vp with the vent of temptation be desquiet within vs let vs say vnto it with Dauid My soule returne vnto thy rest feare nothing Euery kinde of death of them that are beloued of God is precious in his sight verie precious sayeth S. Bernard as being the ende of labour the consummation of the victorie the port of life and the entrie to perfect felicitie The first Obiection If Death did flow from the enchayned order of destinie we should not see it without order sometimes to goe slowly sometimes to runne headlong But that is vsually seene Therefore it seemes not to flow from destinie THe vnequall Issue of life which we see happen to men doth not alter but rather corroborate destinie it is the immutable decree of the Eternal he sees who should amend or impaire in this life he that hath made all for his glory euen the wicked for the day of calamitie And therefore he soone tooke vp Enoch to himself lest that malice shold corrupt his spirit sayth the text Contrariwise if Constantine the Great who was cruel in his youth had beene cut off he had not bin a Christian neither had hee so much extended the kingdome of Christ. There is yet another reason which is the deliuerance of good men from the miseries of the world when death comes I will gather thee vp with thy fathers sayd God to Iosias the good King to the end thy eyes may not see all the miseries which I will bring vpon this place On the other-side a long life is a great languishing to the wicked So Caine after his parricide committed was cursed of God and liuing so pursued by the Iudgement of God as he often cried out that his punishment was insupportable and therefore hee should wander vpon the face of the earth and that whosoeuer should finde him would kill him but God prouided setting a brand vpon his fore-head to the end no man should slay him But how comes it that the death of some is suddaine as the shot of an harquebuze cānot bee more suddaine and so long in others which languish of some long infirmitie I answere that to search into the Counsells of God which is properly the destiny wherof we speake is more infinite then to seeke the bottome of a gulph That great Apostle rapt vp to the third heauen finds nothing but depths incomprehensible Iudgements and wayes impossible to be found out Rom. 11. Moreouer I do not see to speake truely that death is more suddaine to one then to an other is it to them that being sound and vigorous are so strooken as they die presently Yet being thus strooken they know not whether they should suruiue it or no seeing some one hath escaped being thus stroken Wherefore I do not see that death is more slow to one then to an other Is it to them that lie bedred 10. or 20. yeares yea and what know they whether they shal die the first day they take their beds To conclude I say that seeing the comming of death is imperceptible and that it is impossible for any man to say assuredly I am dead or I shal suruiue that death cannot be suddaine or slow to any man other men iudge after the euent but not before And therefore it seemes to mee that the question which is made whether a languishing death or a suddaine be most to be desired is in vaine for that we shall find that death is suddaine to all men seeing it comes
in liuing long saith the same Epist. 10â—… That the iniury of times doe anticipate and interrupt in shew the lawfull course of our dayes our apparent vertue will make our life more compleate Yea but God doth promise long life to them that shall honour their parents I answer That God doth promise prolongation of a happy life to them that shall obey him This happinesse is not in this world it is onely to bee found in heauen it is therefore of heauen whither his speech tends And although the literall sense be of the land of Canaan yet was it a figure of the mysticall and chiefe abode that is to say of he auenly Paradise which was the mould of this land flowing with milke and honey and all sorts of blessings And if any one against this probable reason will vnderstand the promise to be generall of the whole earth we may answer that God like vnto Physitions grants vnto men that haue sicke spirits not what is most profitable but what they importunatly and ignorantly desire Otherwise I will neuer yeeld that this life with what singular and extraordinary happinesse soeuer it be fauoured from heauen is better then the life eternall whereunto death doth infallibly leade the chil dren of God It is the onely cause why it pleased the Eternall to take iust Abel vnto him by death and would suffer cursed Caine to languish long It is also the reason why Iesus Christ doth not promise long life as the Lawe doth to those that shall honour him and follow him but the Crosse yea death it selfe Mat. 10. Mar. 13. It therefore remaines true that the Oracle saith Iust men are taken away from the euill enter into peace they rest vpon their bed c. And in like sort it is true that death cannot bee ill seeing it is the reward that God giues vnto his for their faithfull seruice or at the least it is the beginning if it be not the totall The Ninth Argument taken from the rule which should measure all the desire of man Man a reasonable Creature should not desire any thing but what is seasoned with reason The estate of this present life is not seasoned with good reason Therefore man should not desire the estate of this present life THe maior of this Argument cannot bee denyed by any reasonable creature to whom I speake the minor is iustified by the numbring of the three degrees of life vegetatiue sensitiue and intellectuall either of which being considered apart or all three together they haue no vaileable reason to mooue vs to loue them but let vs examine them in order In the vegetatiue life is chiefly obserued a facultie drawing retayning concocting and expulsing to nourish and make grow so as the chiefe end in the Indiuiduum is growing in this growing what reason of loue and in this what hath not a tree more then man yet no man desires to bee a tree yea should hee exceede in height that at the Indies which the Portugalls eye-witnesses sayling to Goa say to bee higher then a crossebow can shoote what auailes it man to be of a monstrous height but for a hindrance Witnesse Nicomachus the Smyrnean who growing to such a prodigious height that being but young hee could not remoue out of one place had continued an vnprofitable stocke if Aesculapius by strict dyets and violent exercises had not abated him In this then wee see no reason to desire life Let vs come vnto the sensitiue we perceiue in creatures fiue senses answering to fiue sensible obiects which are in the world And let vs obserue that the perfection of the sence is when it enioyeth his proper obiect as the perfection of the eye is to see colours of the eare to heare sounds of the nose to smell sents of the mouth to taste sauours of the hands yea of the whole body to touch tactible qualities The sight in colours obserues the sorting and mixture of diuers varieties the proportions and exact dimensions I deny not but man may take pleasure therein but it is a brutish vnreasonable pleasure if it bee not referred to the honour of the Authour of these colours if it bee religiously referred man will desire an increase of sight both of body minde the which he finds in himselfe to be obscure short and so weake that at the brightest colours it melts and is dispersed as the lightning This desire cannot bee perfect but in the new casting of the body by death and therefore Dauid said Turne away mine eyes lest they behold vanitie Psal. 119. they had seene it in Bersabee and elsewhere hee had beene almost lost But yet if in the sight lies the point of the reason of life why is not man another Linx to pierce through stone walls and to see without hindrance whatsoeuer is in the world The hearing in sounds distinguished conceiues a harmony which is no other thing but an aire beaten with many and diuers tunes followed with a iust proportion and happy incounter here vpon earth since that sinne was brought in by man Man of this Lute the world being speciall string All th' other nerues doth into discords bring And renders now for an enchanting aire A murmure so offensiue to the eare As Enion would amaze Enion the rude That th' ancient â—…arrs the Chaos made renew'd HEEre then there is no reason to desire life but rather the end to go and heare the mellodious sounds which are made in heauen diuine in their measured times and proportions which euen the poore Pagans haue acknowledged Smelling of sents seemes a certaine exhaling vapour tempered of heate and moisture but he is soone loathed bee it neuer so delightfull as of muske some cannot endure it but sound at the sent of it But besides all this there are in the world many pestiferous vapors which make man sicke yea die and therefore by consequence herein there is no more reason to desire life then death Tast feeles the sauours which are made by the seasoning of diuers liquors but in those man doth soone find a distast and repletion if he vse them without measure or discontinuance Where is then the true reason of mans good which must be taken without measure without interruption and without satiety the more it is taken the more it is desired and the more compleate it is the more it doth reioyce and content In the end comes touching the pleasure whereof cannot bee but in the feeling of smooth and polished bodies This pleasure as of the former sence if it be continued without intermission becomes very vnpleasant and the most excellent point thereof slides sooner away then it is perceiued this pleasure which the greatest hold to be so great at the very instant it passeth and giues to man two dangerous checkes one to the soule which it depriues of vnderstanding the other to the body which it driues into a falling sicknesse Aristotle doth witnesse the first Hippocrates the last
by the fauourable winde of diuine grace may to morrow str◅ke against the rockes of incredulitie haue a contrary winde and suff◅r shipwracke and so haue ◅eede of the answeres ◅ere set downe To conclude counterp◅ysons are not for the sound but for the sicke and infected these confutations are not for them which bee cleane in heart and sound in spirit but for such as irreligion and presumption of humane wisedome haue bewitched Othou the Cr◅ator of all things the Authour of our life the Inspirer of our soules the Father Sonne and holy Ghost one true and onely God I humbly beseech thee illuminate the eyes of my vnderstanding that I may plainely see the happy issue of fearefull death that it will please thee so to purifie the thoughts of my soule that shee may fully apprehend the true causes of her immortality that it will please thee so to fauour my penne that it may write worthily vpon so worthy a subiect that the worke finished thou mayest be glorified the Reader edified and my selfe fortified Amen The Combate betwixt Man and Death The first Argument taken from the Instrumentall cause of eternal life The only meanes to attaine to the perfection of that good which the world so much desireth should not giue any amazement to the world Death is the only meanes Therefore Death should not giue any amazement to the world THE first proposition of this Argument doth plainely iustifie it selfe for without exception all men desire the happinesse of life the perfection of Soueraigne good which is the beatitude of the holy Spirit called eternal life I except not ill doers for they erre in doing ill and either beleeue that it is good or the way which tends vnto it But there is but one way to attaine vnto this good which is death Now then to abhorre this death more then horror it selfe greedily to desire that good which only death can giue vs to desire health and reiect the potion whereby we may recouer it to affect the pleasures which they say are in those fortunate Ilands but without any figure in that heauenly Paradice to refuse to enter into that shippe which alone can bring vs thither were to mocke at himselfe Let vs proceed and come to the proofe of the 2. proposition for thereon is grownded the force of our Syllogisme That Death is the onely meanes to attaine vnto the perfection of life is manifest in that the perfection of euery thing is the enioying of the ends all the lines of our dessignes all the proiects of our enterprises all our sweating and toyle tend and aime at the end Who knowes not that death is the first end of life feeles not but that life in her greatest vigour driues him directly thither all men may see that life is vnited inseparably vnto death by the con tinuance of the same succession of times cōsider this time whereof the enioying is the life There are three parts that which is past the present and the future the presēt is the bond of that which is past and of the future and as this article of the present time runnes as violently towards the future as the Primum Mobile turnes in the heauē so doth ourlife run vio lently towards her end This life is a very way as soone as thou doest enter into it and makest but one step it is the first pace towards the end of the way towards the end of life which is death for the going out of the cradle is the beginning of the entry to the graue whether thou wilt or wilt not whether thou thinkest of it or not yet it is true yea as certaine as in an howre-glasse where the first graine of sand which runnes is a guide vnto the last to the end of the hower Euery day we passe carries away some part of our life yea as we grow life decreaseth this very day which we now enioy is deuided betwixt Death and vs for the first howres of the morning being past to the present in their flowing are dead to vs wherefore Seneca had often this sentence very fitly in his mouth Death hath degrees yet that is not the first Which diuides vs in twaine but of the death is the last And it is the very reason why that wise Tekohite sayd vnto Dauid in the present time For certaine we die and slide away as the waters which returne no more So many degrees as there are in life so many deaths so many beginnings of another life Let vs examine them and take speciall note of the first death to iudge of the latter for herein as in all the other workes of wise Nature the end is answerable to the beginning The first degree of mans life is when being fashioned and framed hee liues in the wombe of his mother this is a vegetatiue life a life proper to plants only wherein hee may receiue nourishment grow in this life he continues commonly but nine moneths at the end of which time hee dies but a happy death whereby he gaines the vse of the goodly sences of nature that is to say of sight hearing smelling tasting and touching behold then the first death when as the Infant by the force of nature is driuen out of that fleshie prison comming from which place he striues and stretcheth out himselfe hee is angry with nature and cries incessantly but he is ill aduised it is his good and the beginning of his perfection Now followeth the infantiue life not differing from that of beasts which extends vnto seuen yeares compleate of this life child-hood is the death which begins at eight yeares and retaines nothing of the Infancy As for the exterior of man which is the body not the flesh nor bones not the foure principall humors if that bee true which the Phisitions hold for a Maxime that our bodies change all their substance euery seuen yeares And in truth how could our sliding nature so long subsist if it were not maintained by drinke and meate the which by a certaine vertue infused into all the members of the body digested purged and applied doth transubstantiat it selfe into our very bodies proportionably as the substance decayes as appeares by the words in the booke of Wisedome cap. 5. Being borne wee suddenly desist from that being wherein wee were borne It is no more the first body which wee brought into the world that is dead wee haue an other in our child-hood the third degree of life which extends vnto 18. yeares at the end wherof his death encounters him in the which beginnes the 4. degree of life which goes vnto 22. and then dies but from this death riseth youth the 5. degree which florisheth vnto 30. yeares then his flower falls and his youth is lost but a rich losse seeing thereby man-hood the perfect age is gotten which being strong and vigorous climbes vnto 50. yeares and this is the 6. degree of life Then comes age the 7. degree of life and the
be not directed and animated from aboue he followes that which he should fly and flyes that which he should follow so as he shall neuer hit the white now win the Crowne of Iustice which is the true felicitie of man Let vs then conclude with S. Iohn That what we shal be doth not yet appeare with S. Paul That our life is hidden in Christ That it is in safe keeping and that the ende of this mortall life is the beginning of the immortall Let vs say in the ende that all things haue their Periode that wee are borne to liue We liue to die and wee die to liue againe but without any more turning for the Circle shal be returned to his point and the light of the bodie shall suffer no more eclipse Come then O gentle death which doest make an end of the miseries of this world and beginnest the happinesse of Heauen which dost free vs from mortall paine and bringest vs to enioy immortall good which doest conuert our teares and toyles into ioy rest which doest change our fantasticall treasure into that which is certaine and our temporall into spirituall and eternall Retire then O you deceitfull vanities for the charme of your pleasures cannot preuaile with me who am resolued to die hold your tongue also O vaine deception of Philosophie and humane tradition for I am taught by the death of my Sauiour by his resurrection that my greatest perfection is to acknowledge my imperfection my blindnesse my death in my sinnes and that my greatest happynesse in this world is to obteyne remission of my sinnes and to mortifie my corrupted members to the end that a good death may soone bring mee to the hauen of saluation and eternall life Amen The second Argument taken from the vicious fruits of the extreame feare of death That which breedes many inconueniences in the spirit bodie of man must bee speedily pulled away The extreame feare of death causeth great inconueniences Therefore that must be speedily pulled away SOme one sayed truely speaking of the excessiue apprehension of death that it is the ordinary obiect which troubleth the vnderstanding of man makes him to lose his Iudgement to abandon all duety and to cast himselfe into a shamefull forgetfulnesse of himselfe Let vs. see how Hee that feares death vnmeasurably he must of necessitie feare euery thing that may bring it that is all that hee sees and what he cannot discerne whereas death lyes in ambush whereby it happens that this man doth easily fall into many errours as into foolish superstition thinking by his voluntarie submissions by mâ—…toring of words not vnderstood by adoring of stocks and stones to moue God to pitty him and to turne away death which hee imagines vpon the least accident the flying of a bird or the croaking of a Crow should take him by the throate So we reade of Arislodemus King of the Messeniens who being in warre against his subiects the dogs howled like Woolues and an herbe called Dogstooth grew neere vnto his Altar the which being interpreted by his Soothsayers to bee an ill presage he concoiued such a feare as hee died And as this disordered motion of feare makes men credulous to the words of Satan so doth it make them incredulous to the assured promises of the Eternall the which prouoking the wrath of God in the end hee doth execute vpon them his sentence pronounced against the fearefull incredulous casting them into the Lake burning with fire and brimstone which is the second death Apocal. 21. O how fitly then did Saint Augustine say that by too much fearing the temporall death they did ingulfe themselues in the eternall a fearefull man not onely makes himselfe a slaue to fantasticall diuinity but also a bondman to any one that is subiect vnto him said King Lew. 11. who to assure himself against death shut himselfe vp solitarie at Plessis neere Tours yet could he not bee confident the opening of a doore amazed him he hated all those he suspected and he suspected all the world his most confident were dismisss and put from his person and hee remayned alone melancholie dreaming froward and chollericke nothing pleased him but onely displeasure he grew iealous of his sonne-in-law of his owne Sonne and his Daughter only his Phisitian possest him controlled him and kept him in awe with his words threatning death I know well said hee swearing a great oath that one of these mornings you will send mee away with the rest but you shall not liue eight dayes after Thus this imperious seruant kept his King captiue Thus this King lost his liberty more pretious then his life for maintaining whereof good men should alwaies striue Wherunto Seneca had reference when he sayd that the vilest death was to bee preferred before the honestest seruitude for that this liberty cannot safely confish but in the contempt of death as Agis King of Lacedemon taught him that demanded an assured liberty of him and in truth â—…hee that feares not death may passe freely like a Knight without feare who shall hinder him seeing the extremâ—… dangers of death cannot amaze him Moreouer fearefull persons are the ruine of States and Commonalties for in the least daÌ„gers through feare and the threats of great men they yeeld easily to a mischiefe and subiect themselues to the fauour of the wicked and the will of the base multitude Thirdly a man that trembles so at the apprehension of death runnes into assured misery which depriues him of all pleasure of life makes his facewrincle and grow pale before his time Which the Italian Gentleman will verifie who being imprisoned vpon a certaine accusation and receiuing newes that without all doubt he should lose his head the next day the feare of one night did so trouble his braine and distempered his body with shaking as he became all gray and worne But ô miserable men after all your shifts and escapes in the end you must come and yeeld your selues at the Port of Death So much the more miserable I do not call you miserable for that you are subiect vnto death but for your extreame feare that many thinking to free themselues from death haue run head-long into it some thinking to escape haue cast themselues out at a window and broken their neckes others flying their pursuing enemies swords haue leapt like fishes but without fins into a deepe riuer as into an assured Sanctuary where they haue beene drowned Nay besides all this they which thinking still to delay and escape that which they feare so extreamely when they see themselues in the bed of death then doe they vomit out their rage against heauen and exclaime iniuriously against the true God and being desperate they cast themselues into the infernall gulph Let vs conclude with Seneca That the feare of death will neuer profit any liuing man but drawing him into many miseries which are much more to be feared then death it selfe will make him in the
sentence of death pronounced to Ezekias was by his prayers teares protracted 15 yeares Answer Whatsoeuer it be Destiny as Boetius saith comming frō the immoueable beginnings of prouidence ties together by an indissoluble bond of causes all humane actions and all their euents so as the diuine prouidence is alwayes certaine and alwayes infallible in her euents not contradicting the meanes which the same diuine prouidence hath ordained whereof some are necessary others cōtingent The effects are necessary which haue their cause neer immediate conioinct necessary and they are contingent which haue a contingent cause and whose effect may happen or not happen if it happens God had so appoynted it Thou who foundest thy selfe subiect to a dropsie hast left the reumaticke ayre where thou wert hast abstained from water and hast imployed the Phisition whereby thou hast auoyded the disease and death God had so ordained it not onely for the cause but also for the meanes Yet let man determine in his full liberty let him make choyce according to his owne will yet shall hee not choose any thing but what God hath foreseene and decreed from all eternity I say there is a gulfe in this question whereat Tully suffered shipwracke rather cutting off from prouidence then diminishing any thing from humane liberty so as wherewith S. Augustine doth taxe him seeking to make men free hee hath made them sacrilegers wherefore I will strike saile for the very name of Destiny was distastfull to Saint Augustine and Saint Gregory for that the Ancients did wrest it to the disposition of the starres but if any one saith S. Augustine attributes the actions of men to Destiny for that hee vnderstands by that name the power and will of God let him retaine his vnderstanding and correct his tongue Let vs conclude with the Poet Hope not by your cries to alter Destiny Thus after the Diuines of these times and the opinion of Chrysippus hauing beene so purged as there is no more any feare to stumble at it may we vse this word of Destiny As for the sacred histories obiected they contradict not the doctrine propoūded no more then the immutability of Gods decrees That which had beene denounced to the Nineuits to Ezekias to others was with a condition if they did not repent they submitted themselues so as iustly and without preiudice to the diuine prouidence the sentence was made voyde But you will say Where is the expression of this condition It is vnderstood and drawne from an infallible consequence of the end of the denuntiation made in the name of the Eternall by Ionas and Isay Yet forty dayes and Niniue shall be destroyed cried Ionas Dispose of thy house for thou shalt dye the death and shalt not liue saith Isay to Ezekias Why were these trumpets if God meant to ruine them not to saue them in giuing them warning Therefore the decree of the fatall time both for the men of Niniue and for Ezekias was firme seeing the denuntiation of their death was but a meanes to aduance them to the end and last period of their estate and life The fourth Obiection If that which the diuine prouidece hath decreed to doe were immutable in vaine then should we imploy the meanes to aduance it or hinder it But we imploy them not in vain for that God hath commanded it Therefore what the diuine prouidence hath decreed to doe is not immutable IF all bee so disposed by a fat all necessity why then being sicke doe I call the Phisition and why am I commanded to honour him And why being found doe I preserue my selfe from diseases especially those which are contagious Answere I denie the consequence of the maior for that the position of the first and principall cause concludes not the remotion of the instrumentall the reason is that God to bring to effect his decrees would also haue the second meanes and causes imployed hee doth witnesse it in his word and in the gouernement of the world and he hath commanded vs to vse them As therefore it is not in vaine that the Sunne doth shine and is darkened nor in vaine that the fields are manured and watered from heauen It is God which hath created light and darkenesse and it is hee that makes the earth to spring In like manner it is not in vaine that being sicke wee call for the Physitian and vse his physicke it is not in vaine that wee auoyd the infected ayre and to conclude it is not in vaine that we eate and drinke although that God be the authour of our health yet it is the forsaking of 〈◊〉 grace and vertue which casts vs into diseases It is finally hee who is the powerfull and soueraigne arbitrator of the length or shortnesse of our life The reason is that God who by his absolute will and pleasure hath predestinated these ends hath withall disposed of the meanes and wayes tending to the said ends so as it appeareth it is not our intention to take from man all care of his life but onely to put away the superfluitie the immoderate excesse and particularly the extreame feare of death for that it is vnprofitable yea hurtfull vnto him and therefore a wise man will willingly obey the aduertisement of S. Basile which he directs to all Christians Submit thy selfe saith he to the will of God if thou doest march freely after it it will guide thee if thou goest backe thou doest offend it and yet she will not leaue thee to draw thee whithersoeuer she pleaseth Be it the place the time or the kinde of thy death these three things are vncertaine vnto thee out of thy disposition therefore thou shouldest rely vpon him who alone knowes the time to be borne and to dye and who holds thee fast both before behind Some one makes account to liue long but he shal dye sodainely as it is said in Iob yea at midnight a whole nation shall be shaken passe and the strong stalke carried away As for the place some one shall returne from bloudy battailes who soone after shall dye in his house finally some shall escape violent contagions who shall die of slow feuers as I haue seene any man may easily see in euery Countrie Let vs then conclude this discourse with the verses of Cleanthes the Stoicke which Seneca hath thus translated Duc me Parens celsique dominator poli Quocunque libuit nulla parendi est mora Adsum impiger fac nolle 〈◊〉 Malusque patiar quod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Father and Ruler of the lostie Skie What way thou pleasest leade and I Will follow with my will and instantly Grant I may follow with no grieued bloud Nor like an ill man beare what fits a good Whereunto he subscribes saying So wee liue so wee speake and let vs adde So we die The fift Obiection It is not possible but humane nature should bee terrified with that which is horrible of it selfe Some kind of death
this base estate I know not why I liue hauing no more to doe here to fore I had a desire to liue to see thee liue to Christ I see it why then stay I longer here and soone after yeelded vp her soule to the Spirit of all power Euen so O mortall men liue as long as you list exceede the many yeeres of Nestor or the 969. of Methusalem yet shall you not see any other thing in this world but those foure great Princesses the foure seasons of the yeere holding hands together and dancing this round continually sometimes shewing their gracious aspects sometimes their backs deformed as Philo the Iew speaks It is like Sysiphus stone which being thrust vp by force to the top of the Mountayne returnes presently backe againe to the foote of it and like the Sunne which hath no sooner toucht one of the Tropikes but hee suddenly turnes to the other To conclude it is Danaes tonne pierced full of holes they may well poure in water but they shall neuer fill it These are fictions but they haue their mysticall hidden sences The holy Scripture hath Parables and Philosophie figures let no man therefore reiect them for so did the ancient Philosophers shadow their Philosophie And as mercenarie labourers toyling and sweating in the longest day of Sommer reioyce when they see the Sunne decline and neere his setting so wee after such painefull trauaile whereunto this life doth force vs let vs reioyce when wee draw neere vnto our declining and let vs not refuse being weary and tyred to rest our selues in the sweet armes of death to the which without doubt there is no bed in the world how pleasing soeuer to be compared There is nothing here but ignorance that keepes vs backe If the Israelites had truely vnder stood the beauty and bounty of the land of Canaan if they had beene assured of the enioying thereof they had not so often murmured against Moses being ready to stone him they had not wisht for the oynions and leekes of Egypt they would haue taken courage in the midst of the desart Let vs then conclude that there is nothing but the blindnesse of man which hinders him from seeing the ioyes of heauen whereunto death is the waye Wherefore let vs open the eyes of our vnderstanding not grieue for the grosse foode of this world for in heauen there is prepared for vs the meate of Angels Obiection Any exchange from a place that is pleasing and certaine for one that is vncertaine must needs cause trouble vexation Death is the exchange of the world which is pleasing and certaine for a place wholly vncertaine MOst part of the world when the Lampe of this life is almost wasted are so perplexed as they do lose themselues In the chiefe Citie of Aragon vpon a Knights tombe this Epitaph is written in Latine I know not whither I goe I die against my will Farewell suruiuers The Emperour Titus dying said Alas must I die that haue neuer deserued it There is to be read at Rome vpō the stone of a Sepulcher of Sextus Perpenna to the Infernall gods I haue liued as I list I know not why I die Whereunto may be added the verses which the Emperour Adrian a little before his death made vnto his soule My pretty soule my daintiest My bodies sociable Guest Whither is my sweetest going Naked trembling little knowing Of that delight depriuingme That while I liu'd I had from Thee Many at this day in the light of the Gospell shew by their actions that they are no better resolued then these were although that shame will not suffer them to confesse it when as death approcheth Answer Wee deny the Minor of the Argument for it is not true that death is of it selfe to bee beloued if it appeares so it is but in comparison of some extreame misery which we apprehend in leauing it for the liuing are as we haue said like vnto them which are carried away violently with a stream who to saue themselues lay hold of that which comes first to hand yea if it were a barre of burning Iron If you will then aske them how pleasing that estate is you may easily ghesse what they will say That if they were as certaine as it is most certaine that there were no harme in death as shall appeare they would not breake out into such complaints It is also false that this place is certaine Gorgias the Rhetorician will not depose it for being demanded if hee died willingly Yea said hee for I am not grieued to leaue a lodging which is rotten and open of all sides And Epicurus had often in his mouth that against any thing in the world wee might finde some place of safety but we all liued in a City which was not fortified against death and in truth this body is but a little plot of earth commanded of euery side flanked of none hauing furious enemies without mutinous within Ingeners haue made many impregnable forts but neuer able to resist death Physitions haue drawne out the quintessence of their spirits if they haue any time found a delay yet must they in the end yeeld and pay the interest Fabulous Aeson returned to youth by the Sorceresse Medea and true Lazarus raised againe by the Sauiour of the world haue not yet for all that escaped death But you will reply It is that which wee would say that without death life shold be certaine I answere that you know not what you say for life as it is made here and whereof our question is cannot bee without death to desire to be a man and not be willing to die is not to desire to liue for it is one of the conditions of life as shall appeare in the following Argument Moreouer I adde that what incertainty of the future Estate soeuer you pretend doubtlesse it cannot bee so miserable except the reprobate as that of this life Thirdly admit that life were certaine yet the pleasures would not be so but rather the displeasures certaine That wise King of Macedon saw it feared it and protested against it For newes comming vnto him of three great prosperities that hee had won the price at the Olympike games that hee had defeated the Dardanians by his Lieutenant and that his wife had brought him a goodly sonne hee cried out with his hands lift vp to heauen O Fortune let the aduersity which thou preparest for me in exchange of thy fauours be moderate But I will sommon you Merchants which make a profession of trafficke There is a bargaine offered vnto you in the which you finde of the one side gaine to bee made and of the other losse I demand if like a good husband you will not weigh the losse with the gaine to the end that finding the losse the greater you may breake off the bargaine And why should not man obserue the like in life which is much more important Why should bee not ballance the pleasures
to heauen It is a constant opinion of the Stoickes sayth he that after all humor is consumed this world shall burne and Nature by whom this reuolution is made seemes to giue vs some notice in that the fields being burnt by the labourer or drowned by water as in Egypt as in pooles dried vp and when the sea is retired in that I say this earth remaining is found renewed fat and producing many Creatures yea great and perfect as they write namely of Nile after it is retired Now vnder the wings of these great personages I come to maintaine this combate and refell the reasons of the Obiector Wee haue in our Argument toucht two points simbolizing together although the one be Christian and the other Heathen the first is the Resurrection of the flesh which we extend to man only not of other Creatures And let vs say that he who of nothing could make all may easily ouerthrow the imagined difficulty and raise vp and restore to the same estate the bodies of dead men for he that can do more can do lesse without all controuersie and hee that could of nothing make that which was not may repaire that which was vndone But how shall this Resurrection bee made and what assurance shall wee haue Behold how In the presence of all the world of Angells of men and of diuells with vnspeakable ioy to the good and incomprehensible horror to the wicked the Lord shall come with a cry of exhortation and the voice of the Archangell and the Trumpet of God these are the very words of the text By the sound of this trumpet all the dead shall awake and rise out of their graues and they that shall liue and remaine at this comming shal be suddenly changed and of mortall shal be made immortall by his force and efficacy who can make all things subiect vnto him as the Apostle sayth The bodies of the children of God shall rise againe like the glorious bodie of Iesus Christ impassible spirituall and yet fleshly shining like stars subtil light transparent and full of all happines behold the letters of heauen We attend the Sauiour who will transforme our vile bodies and make them conformable to his glorious body We know sayeth Saint Iohn that after hee hath appeared wee shall bee like vnto him God will wipe away all teares from our eyes sayth hee death shall bee no more there shal bee no mourning cries nor labour The body sowne in corruption shall rise spirituall sayth S. Paul for that no sollide thing can hinder it it may without helpe or wings flye into remote places as Iesus Christ after his resurrection did manifest it more then sufficiently in his body finally hee shall bee spirituall for that hee shal be readily and willingly obedient to his glorified spirit In this flesh and not in any other shall I see my Sauiour sayth Iob c. 1. 9. For this mortal body must put on immortality sayth the Apostle Thirdly they which haue bin vnderstood sayth Daniel 12. shall shine like the heauens and they that bring many to Iustice shall glister like the starres for euer Also the glory of the Sunne is one the glory of the Moon another and the glory of the starres is also different euen so shall bee the resurrection of the dead whereby it followes that the bodyes raised again shal haue no grosse substance but shall be transparent like vnto glasse Fourthly beeing raised againe we shall bee taken vp into the clouds before the Lord and beeing ascended into heauen wee shall haue vnspeakeable ioy such as the eye hath not seene the eare not heard nor hath entred into the heart of man These are wonderfull things but what assurance the Spirit of God doth assure thee if thou beest of God for God doth seale vp an earnest penny of his holy Spirit in their hearts that are his as the Apostle teacheth Secondly If the soule be immortall the body must one day rise immortall to the end that this soule being created for the body may giue it life againe being reunited Moreouer as Saint Ambrose teacheth it is the order and cause of Iustice seeing that the work of man is common to the body and soule and what the soule doth fore-thinke the body effects and therefore it is reasonable that both should appeare in iudgement to receiue either punishment or glory Thirdly Iesus Christ is risen for vs and to assure vs that by the same diuine power that hath drawne him out of the graue we also shal be raised I proue the antecedent by aboue 500. witnesses which at one time haue seene Iesus Christ liuing after that he had beene crucified by the Iewes as the Apostle sheweth and Ioseph also who was a Iew doth witnesse it lib. 18. c. 2. 4. of his Antiquities He was seene precisely by women beleeued by the incredulous and for a ful assurance thereof hee would contrary to the nature of his body which aspired nothing but heauen conuerse forty dayes vpon earth Heere is reason sufficient in this matter of faith whereas reason should yeeld her selfe prisoner and yet to make it appeare visibly and to free all doubt God would both in the ancient and new alliance raise vp some that were seene and admired of the people So Lazarus being called out of his graue was beheld of all men and the malicious Pharisies tooke counsell to put him to death as well as Iesus Christ. The same God would manifest a plot of the future Resurrection to his Prophet Ezechiel when as he had transported him into a field full of drye bones which when hee had seene and prophesied ouer â—…em behold a motion the bones draw neere one vnto another and suddainely behold they had sinewes vppon them and flesh came and then the skinne couered it and in the end after a second dâ—…untiation of the word of God the spirit came and then appeared a great army of men As for this point which concernes an article of our faith the Resurrection of the flesh the Obiector dares not deny but there is matter sufficient in this world to furnish for the restoring of all the dead bodies not since an imaginary Eternity for we are now vpon tearmes of diuinity whereof wee must beleeue the principles and not question them but from the first man vnto the last that shall be Herein there is nothing that inuolues contradiction The other point was that suppose the eternity of the world after the reuolution of all things and the encounter of the same order in all points that is at this present there shall bee the same Superficies the same creatures and the same men that are at this present this also hath no implicity seeing we affirm not that all things the same creatures which haue bin shal be for euer shal be restor'd together at one instant but by degrees and euery one in his turne Behold how this first
diuers course◅ How can he in his soule get wisedome so necessary for the conduct of life seeing that vse engenders it and memory brings it forth as Afranius saith if by a number of yeeres hee gets not the vse and experience of so many affaires inuolued in this world Also how can hee preserue his bodily heath or restore it beeing decayed if he haue not the knowledge of Phisicke seeing it is a long arte and life is short saith Hippocrates Lastly he lightly passeth ouer the last and strongest reason of conscience for that I assure my selfe his conscience did bely his pen and therefore hee will entertaine vs with a certaine instinct of the vnreasonable creatures which he cōcludes in a manner to be Conscience Answer Creatures without reason and without teaching are skilfull from their first being in that which is profitable vnto them to affect it seeke it and finde it and to abhorre and flye from that which is hurtfull and in that they are so couragious to defend their young proceedes from the blood of the arteries mooued with the hearing or sight of their aduersaries which they do naturally apprehend for then the blood beeing mooued it runs luddainly to the heart and doth quicken the power of choler and thrust him on to resist and reuenge all which proceedes from the temper of the beast But conscience is a diuine vertue ingrauen in the soule which S. Paule calls the spirit of vnderstanding Ephes. 3. which applyes the knowledge of our spirit to the worke witnessing for vs or against vs of that which wee know wee haue done or not done wherof growes the prouerbe That a mans conscience serues for a thousand witnesses shee withholds vs or thrusts vs on we as shal think the thing fit to be done or not Finally she doth excuse vs or accuse vs as wee shall iudge to haue done well or ill This quality or rather act is not found but in a reasonable soule and is a true signe of her immortality and of an other life where shee is to giue an accoumpt of all her actions And although that in a wicked and depraued man this inward and immortall worme bo so deeply hidden as they must sometimes haue outward tortures to draw it out yet this doth not argue but he hath it inwardly and that in the end it will appeare in despight of him when the apprehension of an ighominious punishment shall cease a little Yea most men confesse before they come to the torture and therefore what the Obiector hath opposed doth nothing infringe our reason The 2. Argument taken from the goodly order of Nature It is not possible that goodly iustice should faile in the principall point If the soule of man were mortall this goodly iustice of nature should faile in the principall point It is not therefore possible the soule of man should bee mortall EVEN as in this world there is no Catbuncle more glistering not vertue more eminent then iustice and as man is the goodliest piece in the world and containes in himselfe the modell of all the perfections of other Creatures it is reasons will that this Iustice should adorne and beautifie this head of the world and yet it is in him if wee well obserue it that shee is most obscure and blemished in all other things man only excepted shee shines and glisters The heauens and their Starres obserue the law of the Eternall inuiolably in their motions in their influences and in their alterations the Elements change themselues one into another to preserue the sundry kinds of plants and Creatures in the world and obey their Creator religiously Plants and vnreasonable Creatures haue alwayes effects and vertues concurring with the it proper essence It is that which moued Dauid to say That the heauen the Sun and all the host of heauen did declare the power and wisedome of God Psal. 19. And in the 148 the water fire trees and vnreasonable Creatures are stirred vp to praise the Lord the which being faithfully performed by them man should die with shame that hee alone is defectiue in his duty being most bound vnto it And hereof God complaines by Esay Harken you heauens and thou earth giue care for the Eternall hath spoken saying I haue nourished children and haue bred them vp but they haue rebel led against me The Oxe knoweth his owner and the Asse his master crib c. And the Philosophers propound for an infallible Maxime That man is the most vniust of all Creatures and they searche out the causes the grossest precepts of iustice are to liue honestly to doe no man wrong to giue euery man his owne no man is ignorant hereof his naturall reason being more then sufficient to instruct him and yet who doth it Yea they are all made abominable and there is not any one that doth good sayeth the Oracle They are giuen ouer to the couetousnesse of their owne hearts to filthines to pollute their owne bodies sayth the Apostle If this complaint were true iust then it is a thousand times more at this present I call you to witnesse who trauelling haue past through Italy Spaine and France I say to witnes of the adulterie Incest Sodomie and filthynes you haue seene there or if your chast eyes could not endure the sight yet what you haue heard Then the robberies spoyles iniustice vnder the cloake of iustice which reigne now in this realme and their goodliest houses are built vpon these foundations But it is not at this time only but hath been in al ages for from the infancy of the Church there neuer wanted some swelling iniqui tie and a patient iustice saith S. Ierome As for murthers they were neuer so frequent to kill a man is but a sport great men make it their pastime But that which is worse they not only commit such iniustice but they also allow of it they fauour it they are aduanced to the highest dignities The mischiefe is cōmitted sometimes furiously when as blinde rage commands but the approbation proceeds slowly from a setled spirit and is much to be condemned so as S. Paul doth rightly make it the second degree of Iniustice But come and lift vp your eyes see and iudge who they be which hold the seate of iustice they are for the most most part the most disloyall the most impious the most vniust the most malicious among men It is not in this age alone that this Iniustice hath sprōg vp it hath beene in all seasons I haue seene sayth Salomon vnder the Sunne Impietie in the place of iudgement iniquitie in the feare of Iustice Offices be the reward of such as make straight things crooked sayth Terence Other Poets vsing the voyce of the people of their ages cry out that Pittie lyes desolate that the virgine Astraea that is iustice hath bin forced at the last to yeeld to Mas saores extortions vpon the earth This is not all