eyther in payne or glory I leaue you to thinke of these important verityes For the pleasures of Touching being of the selfe same nature with the rest and hauing no more solid foundatiō then they we may draw the consequence of the same argumēt with them and conclude how this imaginary pleasure cannot seeeme to cleaue but to weaker spirits who loue only the earth because its obiect is so vile and base as we had need to abase our selues to obserue its aymes Let vs resume the ayres of our former discourses and say that the pleasures of the world do not subsist in the world but through the name onely which is giuen them For in effect they are nothing but a dreame the shadow of a shadow whose body we neuer possesse Such as loue them are not capable of loue since they fix their affections on the pourtraicts onely of imagination and of the Idea's which the wind defaceth euery moment True contentmēt consists in thinking alwayes of death And this is the onely pleasure of lyfe since it termines in the delights of Eternity How he who hath imposed the Law of Death vpon vs hath suffered al the paynes therof together CHAP. XVIII I NOTE an excesse of loue in the History of that great King who being touched with a generous desire to banish vice for euer from his Kingdome to bring in Vertue there to reigne in peace among an infinite number of Lawes which he imposed on his subiects the payne of pulling out the eyes was decreed for his punishment that should violate the most important of thē The ill lucke was that his only Sonne should fall the first into that cryme What shall he do And what shal he resolue vpon For to quit himselfe from the assaults both of loue and pitty which nature gaue him euery moment he could not do since the halfe of his bloud takes away fury from the other halfe What likelihood for one to arme himselfe against himselfe to excite his arme to vengeance to destroy his body He hath no loue but for the guilty how shall he haue passion to destroy him He sees not but by his eyes and how shall he be able to see him blind In fine he sits not on his Throne but to keepe him the place how shall he possibly mount this throne to prononce the sentence of his punishment Of necessity yet the errour must be punished if he wil not soyle the splendour of his iustice which is the richest ornament of his Crowne and the onely vertue that makes him worthy of his Empire Nature assayles him powerfully Loue giues him a thousand batteryes and euen Pitty often wrings the weapons from his hands and yet Reason for all that seemes to carry away the victory There is no remedy but needs must he yield to Nature Loue and Pitty but yet finds he a way to make Iustice triumph in satisfying the law He puls out one of his sonnes eyes for one halfe of the punishment and causes another to be pluckt forth from himselfe for to finish the chasticement What excesse of Goodnes Let vs draw now the mysticall Allegory from this history and say That our Redeemer represents this iust King at such tyme as in the terrestrial Paradise he imposed this law of obedience vnder paine of death vpon man being the Sonne of his hands as the noblest worke of his Creation This man being the first borne becomes lykewyse at that same very tyme the first guilty in contemning the commaundements of his Soueraygne He eats that fatall Apple or rather opens with his murderous teeth that vnlucky box of Pandora stuffed with all manner of euills The punishment euen followes his offence so neere as he instantly incurres the payne of death But what a prodigy of loue The Creator being touched with the miseryes of his creature takes away the rigour of the law without destroying it quite or infringing the same I meane that he seuers death from death in causing the guilty to arise agayne from his ashes for to liue eternally And the meanes wherof he serues himselfe is to dye with him and in the Chalice of his passion to drinke all the bitternes of death for to chāge the nature therof In such sort as this way of death conducts vs now to eternall lyfe O sweet Death a thousand tymes more plesing thē whatsoeuer is most pleasing in the world O sweet Death a hundred and a hundred tymes more delicious then all the pleasures vnited together O sweet Death where the body finds repose the spirit contentmēt the soule its whole felicity O sweet Death the only hope of the afflicted the sole consolation of the wisest and the last remedy for all the euils of the world O sweet Death and a thousand tymes more admirable then his goodnes that imposed the law since through the same very Goodnes he would needs be suffering the paine it selfe for to take away the payne Who durst refuse to drinke in his turne in the Chalice where God himselfe hath quenched his thirst Let vs go thē very holily to Death for to go cheerefully thither is to make loue and vertue lead vs into the sepulcher if we meane to find therein a second cradle where we may be reborne anew neuer to dye any more I cannot forget that goodly Custome of the Egyptians that when as a Sonne being armed with fury should passe to that extremity of cruelty as to take away the life from him who had giuen him the same he incurred this sweet punishment withall to be shut vp for three whole dayes in prison togeather with the body whose Parricide he was I should thinke that such as had imposed the law had this beliefe that the terrible and dreadfull obiect of the cryme was a torment of force inough for the guilty to extort the last teares from his eyes the vtmost playntes from his soule For in effect Nature neuer belyes it selfe it is alwayes it selfe it may well affoard some intermission of loue of pitty but yet at last it snatches the hart from the bowels through a violēce worthy of it selfe Let vs see now the backside of this Meddall so to draw forth the mistery out of this moral verity We represent to day this guilty sonne since we haue put our Redeemer to Death who is the common Father of our soules The punishment which the law of his Iustice hath now imposed vpon vs it to looke cōtinually on this Tree of the Crosse whereon our crymes haue made him to expire for to repayre their enormity withall O sweet punishment For spilling the bloud of him who hath filled our veynes the law exacts no more of vs then teares For hauing nayled him on the Crosse Iustice enioynes vs no other payne then that of nayling our eyes on the same pillar wherupon he is nayled For hauing crowned him with thorns he would haue vs to trample vnder foote the roses of our pleasures In fine
grow in him He would feygne haue found some rocke within this sea of loue but the Pilot who steeres the ship of his life is a Port of assurance for all the world since he cōmands the winds and tempests What pleasure needs must this great Saint take to see himselfe thus smitten with the selfe same woūds of his Maister The Crosse fayles him howsoeuer yet he hath it in the hart The Crowne of Thornes he misseth but what say I he weares it in his Soule But then at least he seemes not to be depriued but of Nayles and Gaule I deceiue my selfe For as for the nayles he caryes the markes thereof as well in hands feet as side and for gaule the tongue takes very greedily the sweet bitternes therof O great Saint thrice happy Tel vs the pleasure which is to dye since you dy so sweetly in the extasies of your felicities How irksome needs must life be to you and the earth be in contempt with you in this trāsportation of ioy wherunto you are raysed S. Stephen hath beheld the Heauens opened and you his hart who hath created them S. Paul hath seene so admirable things as might not be tould and you felt such delicious as cannot be expressed S. Peter hath beene dazeled through a beame of glory you by one of loue whose light hauing pierced your darksome body hath made it transparent to the eyes of all the world so communicating it's diuine qualityes thereinto as the markes therof remayne eternal S. Iohn hath slept vpon the bosome of his Maister and by a sweet transport your hart got through and sought within the bosome of his hart your most assured repose This same disciple hath beene a witnesse of his torments and you participant of his paynes with this glory yet moreouer of bearing as well the wounds in the Soule as the markes on the body So as your fauours are so deare as none dare enuy them for fear of presumption though otherwise they be most worthy of enuy I wonder the thoughts of Death should be displeasing since we dye with pleasure in the life we lead There are none so blind in the knowledge of themselues that know not how they dy euery houre were it not iust then that we should thinke vpon that which we are continually a doing And wherefore shall we not take pleasure at this thought if it be the most profitable sweet that we are able to conceiue It is impossible to thinke of death but we must needs be thinking of Eternall life which succeds the same or rather say we It is impossible to thinke of the Soueraigne God and not to thinke of the imaginary euill of death And where shall we be finding of thoughts both sweeter and deerer then those of our Soueraigne Good So as if for the raysing of our spirits thither we are to passe into the imaginations and idea's of death the light of the Sunne which shal serue vs for obiect shall disperse all those vayne shaddowes which subsist not but through a false opiniō The starre of the day neuer shewes more bewtifull thē when it hath escaped through flight from a shole of clouds which do hide its light Those obscure clouds so strongly relieue the flash of its light as thence it appeares to be radiant in excesse The like may we say of our Reason being as the Sunne of our life that from the tyme it escapes from all these vayne shadowes of feare and dread which do veyle its brightnes it appeares so shining as it serues for a torch to passe very confidently withall from this life to the other The Will loues but the Good it is the Needle that is alwayes a pointing at this Pole It is the Iron which incessantly followes this Adamant as its only obiect In such sort as we are not capable of loue but to purchase the good which is presented vnto vs be it false imaginary or true And therin is iudgement giuen vs to know the difference that is from the one and the others Now that life is a false good there may no doubt be made since it hath no other foundation in it then misfortunes myseries That it is an imaginary good we are enforced to belieue whiles its pleasures are but of fancyes and dreames But that death is a true good we are to hould for certaine since it is the end of the terme of our exile of our captiuity of our sufferances For we cannot enter into glory but by the gate of the tombe where being reduced to our nothing we returne to our first beginning Sweet then are the thoughtes which make the life fastidious and death pleasing yet more sweet the desires that termine all our hopes in Heauen Such as know not the Art of dying well diliciously are vnworthy to liue Impatience in the expectation of death is more sensible to a holy Soule then the greatest pleasures to a man of the world We cannot loue life but in cherishing the fatall accidents that are inseparable from it which made Terence to say That he loued not any thing of all that which was in him but the hope of a speedy dying In effect there is no greater consolarion in life then that of death For were it immortall with all the encombrances that cleaue vnto it of all the conditours that are found in nature that same of man would prooue to be the most vnfortunate The afflicted loue not but by the sweet expectation of death and the others of the hope of a second life with reason imagining with themselues that if on earth they be touched with some pleasure they shal be one day accomplished in Heauen with al desirable delights And through the good of our death it is that we possesse the soueraigne good of eternall life It is the entry of our felicity the passage from the false and imaginary to the true and alwayes permanent He is yet vnborne whose hart being glutted with al sorts of contentments hath neuer gaped after new pleasures There is not a Soule in the world how happy soeuer it thinke it selfe that points not its pretensions beyond that same which it possesseth We hold it good to be rich our desires are alwayes in chase of Good We are raysed to the top of the greatest dignities we build new Thrones in our imagination not finding on earth scope inough to satisfy our Ambition withall In so much as mā hath alwaies vnrest in the repose which he hath once proposed to himselfe which makes vs sensibly to perceiue that the obiect of our desires is forth of nature and that if we sigh in the midst of our felicityes it can be but of the hope we haue to possesse some greater then they We haue lyued long inough then in Tantalus his Hel where we are continually a thirst without being euer able to drinke We must be vsing of some violence with our selues and go couragiously before death since it is that which
withhouldes this second life from vs wherein abides the accomplishment of our happines To dye is but to cast into the wynd the last sigh of our miseries To dye is but to make a partition of our selues commending the body to the Earth the Soule vnto Heauen To dye is but to bid a last adieu to the world preferring the company of Angels before that of men To dye is to be no more vnhappy To dye is to despoyle vs of our infirmities and to reuest vs with a nature exempt from sufferances O sweet death since it leades vs to the spring of life O sweet death since it giues vs the Eternity of glory in exchange of a moment of dolour O sweet death since it makes vs to reuiue for euer in a felicity immortall O yee Soules of the world thinke then alwayes of death if you will tast with pleasure the sweetnes of life For it shal be euen in this last moment where you shal receiue the Crowne of all the others you may sigh long inough in your chaynes you are neuer like to be delyuered thence if death come not to breake the gates of your prison Go before it then and carry in your countenance the desire of meeting it rather then a feare to be touched with it We should suffer with a good cheere that same which we must of necessity endure What say I endure Were it a payne to approach to the end of ones euils Were it a payne to become for euer exempt from their sufferances Let vs rather say a Contentment since thereby do we get forth of sadnes to enter into ioy Let vs call it a Happines since so we do abandone the dwelling of misfortunes to liue eternally in that of the felicities of Heauen That there is no contentment in the world but to thinke of Death CHAP. III. DEATH hath it's delights as well as Lyfe Iob was neuer more happy nor more content then at such tyme as he saw himselfe vpon the Throne of his dunghill oppressed vnder the burden of his miseries He dyed so deliciously in the depth of his dolours as he would haue suffered alwayes and haue dyed incessantly in that manner His wounds serued him as a mirrour to his loue For in looking thereinto he became amourous of himselfe but yet loued he not himselfe but to dye continually so pleasing was death vnto him therby to obey him who had imposed that law vpon him Loue changes the nature of things From the tyme that a Soule is chastly taken with this passion it neuer suffers for the subiect which it loues The paynes and torments therof are changing the name quality within the hart They are Roses rather then Thornes For if it sigh it is of ioy and not of payne if it be necessary to dy to conserue this louely cause of its life it is no death to it but a meere rap◠of contentment which seuers it from it selfe in fauour of another selfe which its loues more then it selfe In such wise as it begins to liue content from the point it begins to dye in or rather to take its flight towards the obiect it hath proposed to it selfe of the full perfection of its loue From this goodly verity do I draw this lyke consequence That the hearts wounded with diuine loue do neuer sigh in their torments but of the apprehension they haue of their short durance Death which to vs seemes so foule and deformed vpon the sudden changing it's countenance in their respect appeares a thousand tymes more beautifull then lyfe Whence it is that they are alwayes thinking thereon to to be alwayes content since it is the point where their paynes do termine where their felicityes begin The most pleasing thoughtes which our spirit can tell which way to conceyue can haue no other obiect then that of contentment of profit and of vertue in so much as they are the three sorts of goods whereto our will is tyed Now where shall we find more pleasure then in the thought of death since it is the great day of our Fortune where we take possession of the delights of Heauen Where more profit then in the selfe same thought since the soueraygne good which is promised to vs is the But the End and Obiect thereof And where more vertue then to thinke alwayes of Death whilest with the armes of these sweet thoughts we triumph ouer vice I belieue it is impossible to tast pleasures without thinking of death in regard these delights are continually a flying away and incessantly dy with vs in such wise that if we cannot ressent the contentments but within their fruit in running alwayes after them they are rather displeasures then pleasures and therefore we hold there are no greater delights thē those of thinking of Death as being the only meane to make them eternall When I resent vnto my selfe S. Laurence extended vpon the deuouring flames but yet more burned with the fire of his loue then with that of his punishment how he cryes out with a cheerefull voyce in the midst of the heates which consume him to be turned on the other side as if he thought he should not dye but by halfes being so but halfe burned I do feele my selfe rauished with the same iumps of ioy that transported him Death is so welcome to him as he deliciously roles his body on the coles as if they were very beds of Roses So as if he be touched with any payne at all it is for not suffering it for that his life being all of loue finds its element in the fire that consumes it and therefore he sighes of gladnes in the height of his torments In effect how shall he expire admidst those heats if his hart be all aflame already his Soule of Fire For if he were to be turned into ashes the stronger must needs preuayle So as he cannot be consumed but through the fire of his loue O sweet encounter O welcome combat And yet more deere the Triumph Death assayles him with flames it assaults him with heats but the fire wherewith he is holily burned triumphes reduceth him to ashes so to render them as cōsecrated This great Martyr neuer tasted in his life more sweet pleasures thē that of feeling himselfe to dy vpon this bed of flames because resenting death he felt the delights of immortall life wherof he made himselfe a crowne Kings Princes and all those who are raysed to some great fortune confesse it to be a great pleasure to dy since they dy euery hore so sweetly amidst their greatnesses I say so sweetly for their spirits and their senses are so strongly occupyed with their continuall ioyes as the Clocke which keepes accompt of the houres of our lyfe may sound long inough its 24. houres a day and they heed it no more then if they were starke deafe And the night full of horrour which represents to vs the same of the Sepulcher cānot fright them any more then
if they were quite blind Needs must the charmes of their pleasures be strong to make them insensible to that which toucheth them so neere S. Augustin sayd how the greatnesses of the world aspersed a kind of leprosy on the soule which euen benummed all the senses of the greatest Potentats of the earth In effect all their sighes all their actions do but carry the countenance of Death with them yet perceyue they no whit therof A strange thing To liue and not to thinke of lyfe at any tyme or rather of Death since to liue and dy is but one thing It is yet true notwithstanding that we dye without euer thinking of death wherin do we spoile our selues of the sweetest contentments of lyfe because our whole felicity consists in dying well and the meanes to incurre a glorious death is alwaies to thinke of the miseries of lyfe to the end to be encouraged through hope to possesse the eternall glory which is promised vnto vs. We do naturally loue our selues with so strong affections that all the powers of the world are not able to burst the chaynes thereof But what more mighty proofes may we affoard of this verity then that of thinking continually of Death since the same is the day of our Triumph When shall I begin to liue not to dye for euer sayth the Royall Prophet Our lyfe is a continuall combat and the day of our Death is that of our Victorie All the Martyrs though they were in the thickest of the fight and alwaies in the action of defending themselues yet in this warre of the world thought themselues very happy to find the occasion where they might make to appeare the last endeauours of their courage in the midst of torments for that they found in Death the crowne of immortall lyfe O sweet lyfe and cruell the attendāce As often as we carry our thoughtes beyond nature and euen to Heauen our spirit remaines wholy satisfyed therewith because that in this diuine pitch where it sees it selfe eleuated aboue it selfe it begins to liue the lyfe of Angells The earth is in contempt with it and when the chaynes of it's body fall off in their first condition it suffers their tyranny through constraint So that if it be permitted vs at all moments to abādon the world in thought to haue thereby some feeling of heauenly delights should we be our enemies so farre as to contemne these diuine pleasures in groueling without cease in our miseryes while the only meanes to be touched with it is to thinke on Death since there is no other way in lyfe to fynd the felicity we seeke for We may piously say that the Virgin purest most holy liued on earth a lyfe litle differing from that lyfe which is liued in Heauen her spirit all diuine intertayned it selfe alwayes with the Angels or rather with God himself while she had the glory of bearing him within her sacred wombe or in her armes In so much as her life was a voluntary Death all of loue seeing that through loue she tooke no pleasure but to dye so to possesse more perfectly the onely obiect of her lyfe She prized not her dayes but in the expectation of their last night as knowing its darknes was to produce the brightnes of an eternal day wherof herselfe had beene the Aurora O how sweet would it be to be able to liue in that sort for to dye deliciously It is not a life truly immortall to be alwayes thinking of death if death afford vs immortality How fastidious is the life of the world the Prophet cryes Let vs now then be ioyning our voyce to his cryes and say that death only is to be wished for All the holy Soules which in imitation of my Sauiour haue adorned thēselues with thornes haue been turning the face to the tombwards there to gather Roses With death it is where they termine their dearest hopes So as if they liue content it is not but through the sweet hope which they haue to dye O yee prophane Spirits who sacrifice not but to voluptuousnes pull off the hood of passion that thus blinds you to destroy those aultars of Idolatry whereon you immolate your selues without thinking of it for punishment of your crymes If you will know the true pleasure indeed it consists of thinking of Death as of the Spring that produceth our delights Our Crownes are at the end of their cariere nor shall we euer come to possesse the Soueraygne God to which we aspire with so much feruour and vnrest but by the way of Death When shall I cease to lyue with men sayth Dauid He is euen troubled amidst the greatnesses of the earth His Scepter and his Crowne are so contemptible to him as he would willingly change his Throne with the dunghill of Iob on condition to dye with his constancy To liue is no more then to be sequestred from that which one loues and after God what may we loue After him what may we desire So as if now these holy affections these diuine wishes cannot looke on glory but in passing by the Sepulcher let vs thinke continually on Death as of the way we take which we are yet to make This is the onely meane to render vs content for that these thoughtes are inseparable from the eternall felicity which is promised vs. That it belongeth but only to good Spirits to thinke continually of Death CHAP. IIII. SVCH as know the Art of familiarizing death with life through continual remēbrance of their end do neuer change the countenance in any perils They looke to resume both their bloud and life at once with the same eyes they behold the things which are agreable to them so as they remayne inuincible in their miseryes through the knowledge they haue of their condition Wounds neuer hurt their soules and all the maladies wherewith they may be touched afflict but their body only Their good Spirit habituated with the ordinary encounter of a thousand sad accidents inseparable from life tasts their bitternes in its turne and feeles their thornes without any murmuring The end of all actions ought to be the first ayme of the iudgement that conceiues them if it will shun the griefe of hauing done them So as from the tyme that we are capable of reason are we to serue our selues of it to consider the necessity of our mortall and transitory condition that the continuall obiect of our end may serue as a condition meanes to arriue happily thereunto The wiser sort are those who repent at least for that which they haue done true wisedome consists in not cōmitting folly And what more great may a man admit thē that to neuer thinke of death since it is the end where all our actions receiue their prize or payne Remember thou Death the Wisemā sayth and thou shalt neuer syn O glorious remembrāce who raisest vs to so high a degree of honour as neuer to offend God which is the only
hands Behold the lesser defects of women whiles of discretion I conceale the greater but I belieue in vayne since all the world beholds thē wel inough so as if they would yet see more sensible verityes of their miserable condition let them approach to this Tombe You Courtiers I coniure you by the power of those Beauties which you haue adored so much to come hither and behould their ruine What say I nay horrour infection and putrefaction rather Theseus send thou hither thy ghost to this body where thou hadst lodged so long a tyme both thy hart and soule Behold this faire Helena whome thou hadst stolne away with the perill of thy life as idolatrous of her imaginary perfections Search now in her the baytes that charmed thee so the charmes that rauisht thee the bewty that made thee such a thrall and all those sweetnesses which haue forged the chaynes of thy seruitude Those bayts now haue no more force but to allure the wormes those charmes haue no more power but to conserue the infection and those bewties and sweetnesses changing the nature do afford amazements rather then any whit of Loue. But yet me thinks thou art well reuenged For this cruell Tyrant who had reduced thee so by little and little into ashes is euen now but ashes her selfe This mercylesse woman who would seeme to loue no man is hated of all the world This proud Dame who made her selfe adored serues as a victime to the wormes and sport to the winds Yesterday her bewty did please thee so much as thou hadst no eyes but to admire her to day is her foulenesse so hideous as thou hast no contempt but for her Yesterday thou sighedst for her loue to day the same hart euen sighes for her miseryes Yesterday her perfections did rauish thy soule to make them adored and to day her defects extort thy teares and sighes to bewayle in their fashion their ruine Looke then see heere that which thou hast loued so much and that which thou hatest so maynely See heere what thou hast admired with astonishment that which thou abhorrest with so much reason what cruell change is this from thy selfe with thy selfe or rather from the subiect of thy loue with the same subiect it selfe Shall I dare to say that this stinking Carkasse heere is the fayre Helena That this heape of rotten bones are the sad spoyles of her perfectiōs And that this little Ashes is the dolefull head of that wonder of the world Paris Returne thou from Hell into the earth agayne for to see the cause of thy disastres Approach to this Sepulcher and contemplate the infection corruption neere at hand with thou hast adored vnder the name of Helena How many tymes hast thou beene kneeling before this carkasse before these rotten bones How many mischiefes hast thou run into How many perils hast thou escaped How many seas hast thou crossed ouer How many euils hast thou suffered for to possesse this heape of wormes Thou verily belieuedst thou hadst all the riches of the world in thy ship whiles thou hadst thy Helena therein The Coffer is opē behold now wherein consist thy treasures Art thou not ashamed for hauing so made loue to this heape of Ashes and for hauing sighed so a thousand a thousand tymes after this stinking Earth Thus the glory of the world doth passe away all flyes into the Tombe Your Courtiers come yield you a last homage of visit to this Idol of your passions I haue heard indeed the Persians heertofore haue adored the Sun and that there haue beene other Paynims who in their brutishnes haue adord likewise diuers sorts of beasts but I haue neuer seene a more prodigious thing then now at this day while they adore euen Clay Corruption and Infection There is nothing more certayne then that in adoring women they become Idolatours of their putrefaction since their body is a sacke of worms Behold the goodly subiect of your watchings of your troubles of your extrauagancies How is it possible this heape of ashes heere should affoard you such ill dayes and so long nights That this sinke of infection should make you shed so many teares and send so many sighes into the wind Are you not iealous trow you that the wormes should possesse this subiect of your affection Can your wayward courages ere endure these wormes should be taking their Fees thereof in your presence to your scorne For they glut themselues of the one part of what you haue adored and for the other they make a dunghill of it These are no Fables these Looke smell your selues all is but misery and stench So passeth the glory of the world away I inuite you my Dames to a feast which the corruption of Helena's body makes vnto the wormes in the presence of Heauen Earth This Tombe which you see is the Hall where the banquet is prepared come you hither in troupes attyred all in the richest Ornaments you haue as you would go vnto a wedding-feast I licence you herin to bring a glasse with you hanging at your girdle for to admire with an dolatrous eye the good Graces you haue And if you affoard any whir of intermission at all cast but your eyes awhile vpon this stinking carcasse heere since it is the body of your shadow and the originall of your liuing pourtraicts You now see inough that you are but ashes but earth but clay but meere putrefaction and infection and yet suffer neuertheles your selues to called Goddesses and to heape yet more cryme vpon crime you accept the Sacrifices I haue not seene nor read of so prodigious Metamorphoses that euen very Clay should be raised vpon a Throne and the wormes and corruption should be meriting of titles of immortall glory You suffer them to be kneeling before you and feare not the while least the wind of your vanities be carrying away the dust whereof you are framed You walke vpon cloth of gold and after your death are the beasts trampling vnder foote your stinking earth You suffer them to kneele before you Alas what a sight to humble ones selfe before a dunghill Decke vp and adorne your carkasse as long as you please the stench at last shall discouer the miseries thereof to the sight of all the world This handfull of ashes which you see heere is the beautifull Helena whose allurements charmed harts and whose charmes did rauish soules And yet notwithstanding is there left no more of her then the meere infection which was bred with her I do euen laugh at all your vanities my Dames mocke at those who admire thē so When as your bewties do assaile me I breake the very crust of them approching to the corruption which is within it makes me hate them more then euer any man had loued them heretofore I take pleasure somtyme to behold your sweetnesses your allurements your nyceties but it is only to be touched with compassion of your miseries For whatsoeuer
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
deuoure the rest of our miseryes O happy Tombe where our soules do recouer their liberty where our bodyes do fynd the end and terme of of paynes O happy Tombe where we are reduced to corruption to arise in glory O happy Tombe where death euen dyes with vs and where lyfe reuiues with our selues for an Eternity O happy Tombe where we render to the earth the earth of our body to put our soules in possession of the inheritance of heauen O happy Tombe where we passe from death to lyfe from sadnes to ioy from infamy to glory from payne to repose and from this vale of teares vnto the mansion of delights From the tyme that the children of Israel had tasted in the desart the sweetnes of the heauenly Manna the most delicious meates of the earth were growne to be contemptible to them their harts euen chaÌ„ging their nature fell incessantly gaping after this celestiall food So likewise may I say that from the instant wherein a holy Soule is once fed with the food of the grace which is found in an innocent lyfe the world is an obiect of horrour and amazement vnto it its thoughts desires creep not on the earth any more if it sigh it is but after its last sigh if it complayne it is only for the long terme of its banishmeÌ„t in this vale of miseryes The hope of dying serues it as a coÌ„fort in its trobles and solace in its paynes it lyues in the prison of its body as slaues in the prison of their crimes with a necessary constancy alwayes attending on the last houre therof and this last moment where begins the eternity of glory Me thinkes the sentence of death which the diuine iustice pronounced once to our first Parents in that earthly Paradise was much in their fauour agaynst the euills wherewith their lyfe was fraught For if God had made the same to be immortall with all mischifes which succeeded their offence of all created things had man beene found to be the miserablest of them and most worthy of compassion but the same Goodnes which moued the Creatour to effect this goodly worke did euen moue him likewise to conserue the same His sentence was of death but in the rigour of his iustice he let his merry to appeare at the same tyme since from the payne of death we passe to the delights of a permanent and immortall lyfe In so much as this sweet coÌ„solation is inseparable from our tormeÌ„ts for they shal one day finish O sweet End since thou breakst the chaynes of our captiuity O sweet End since thou makest vs to reuiue neuer for to dy O sweet End since thou putst an end to all our sufferances O sweet End since we dye to reuiue for euer How Worldlings dye deliciously without euer thinkâ—ng thereof CHAP. XIII WE must needes confesse how the soules of the world are so deepely taken with the sleepe of their pleasures as they are euen drowned in their blindnes without feare of the precipices that encompasse them round Ioy transports them gladnes rauishes them rest charmes them hope comforts them riches moderats their feare health fortyfies their courage all the vanityes nurse them and bring them vp in the forgetfulnesse of themselues so as they may neuer be able to vse any violence for to breake the chaynes of their captiuity A pittifull thing how they neuer consider the while that this ioy wherwith they are so carryed away eueÌ„ vanishes quite lyke a flash of lightening that this gladnesse wherewith they are rauished destroyes it selfe with its owne violence in running incessantly vnto its end That the repose which charmes them coÌ„cludes with an eternall vnrest that the hope which coÌ„forts them quite changes it selfe by litle litle into despayre That these riches which do moderate their feare during their lyfe augments it at their death that the health which strengthens their courage whiles the calme and tranquility of their fortune lasts doth bread them a thousand stormes throgh the absence thereof where they run danger of ship wracke And finally that all those vanityes which serue them as a Nurse and Schoole mistresse to trayne them vp in vices are as so many bad Pylots which make a traffike of their losse and ruine When I image with my selfe the blindnesse whereto the men of this world are brought I cannot chuse but be moued with compassion for them Is it not a strang thing and worthy of pitty that they runne as fast as euer they can vnto Death without cease without intermission without fetching of their breath and without euer taking any heed of the way they hold as if they liued insensible in all their senses The Sunne which riseth euery morning sets euery euening for to let them see how the light of their life should haue at last a last setting as well as it The Age which makes them hoary and which keepes reckoning of their yeares through the accoÌ„pt of the wrinckles which it causeth to grow on their face preacheth nought els but the necessity of their departure All their Actions termine not a whit but to the ruine of the body from whence they fetch their motion since euery action of it selfe still tendes to its end How can they chuse but thinke of death if all the subiects which are found in Nature do euen cary the very lineaments thereof in the face The Sunne dyes in running his race The Moone dyes in her perpetuall inconstancy The ayre dyes with its coruption The birds seeke death in flying The brute beasts in running and the fishes in swimming in the water The seasons dye in springing againe as well as the trees The flowers dye with the day that hath seene them blow forth The earth dyes in the order of tyme since her yeares are counted The Sea sinckes it selfe by litle and litle into its proper abysses The fyre consumes it selfe in its heat and Nature it selfe that serues for a second cause in the generation of all things destroyes it selfe by litle and litle with them I speake nothing of men since they haue nothing more proper then Death What meanes trow you to forget this sweet necessity of dying whose law very happily dispenseth with none yet for all that do not doubt but there are many in the world who would neuer be dying but this were a childiâ—h language of theirs so farre from reason and common sense as one had need to declare himselfe to be a starke foole for to excuse himself of the errour or rather of the cryme We do all waies contemne the good vnknowne and as we naturally lyue in the apprehension of loosing that which we possesse we cleaue to the present so true it is that all things do escape vs and fly away froÌ„ vs. What a life were it for vs to lyue eternally in the miserable condition wherein we are borne What a life would it be to be alwayes breathing in sighes in mourning in playnts What a
its necessary sighes do pray his tongue ech one in its fashion to disclose their crymes but the same cannot speake the rigour of a thousand punishmēts makes it to be dumbe On the other side his spirit in the disorder wherein it finds it selfe can haue no other thoughts then those of sorrow for eternally abandoning that which it loues so deerly He knowes not how to expresse a last farewell to his pleasures Whatsoeuer represents it selfe to his eyes are so many obiects that renew his payne If he take heed vnto the beames of the Sun with peere into his chamber window for to take their leaue of his eyes he remembers immediately all the pleasures he hath taken through help of their fayre light in a thousand and a thousand places where it hath beene a witnes of those errors of his If the weather be foule he thinkes vpon that tyme which he hath ill spent imagining withall that the Heauens being touched with compassion of his disasters do euen weepe before hand and bewayle the losse they endure of his Soule It seemes to him that the sound of the bells doth call him to the tombe and that of the Trumpets vnto iudgement He sees nothing about him that astonishes him not He heares nothing that affrights him not He feeles nothing but his miseryes his tōgue is all of gaule wheresoeuer he layes his hand vpon himselfe he touches but the dunghill of his corruption If his spirit seeme to returne to him againe by intermission of the traunce wherein he is he quite forgets the hope of good through the ill he hath committed not being able to dispose his soule to any repentāce The sight of his friends importunes him that of his children afflicts him and the presence of his wyfe serues him as a new addition to his sorrow They behold him not but weeping he is neuer strooken with other noyse then with that of the cryes and plaints of his domestickes The Phisitian goes his wayes out of the chamber to giue place to the Cōfessour And the one knowing not how to cure the body the other hath difficulty to heale the soule by reason of the despayre wherein he is entangled Iudge now to what estate must he needs be brought His speach that fayles him by litle and litle His sight is dimme with his iudgement and all his other senses receyue the first assaults of Death They present him with the Crosse but in vayne for if his thoughtes be free he thinkes but of that which he beares of force They may cry lōg inough to him to recommend himselfe vnto God the deafnes he hath had before to his holy inspirations doth astonish him now also at this houre How many deaths endures he before his death How many dolorous sighs casts he forth into the ayre before the breathing his last All the punishments of the world cannot equall that which he endures For passing out of one litle Hel of paines he enters into a new which shall not haue end but with eternity What good then would he not willingly haue wrought But his wishes are as so many new subiects of griefe in this impotency whence he is neuer to see himselfe deliuered Into what amazement is he brought The Sunne denyes him its light so as if he behold his misfortunes it is but onely by the light of the mortuary Torches which giue him light but to conduct him to the tombe O how the Houre of these last extreames drawes forth in length Ech moment of his lyfe snatches out the hart from his bosome euery moment without putting him to death On which side soeuer he turnes himselfe both horrour and despaire beset him round He caryes Death in his soule for that which he is to incurre Death on his body for that which he now endures Death in his senses since they dye by little and little in so much as all his life is but a liuing Death that consumes him slowly to reduce him into ashes Being now brought to these streights the wicked spirits imploy the last endeauors of their power for to carry away the victory after so many conflicts had What meanes of resistance where there is no pulse no motiō no voyce no tongue His spirit is now in extremes as well as his life and his hart being hardened is now ready to send forth its last sigh in its insensibility as if it dyed in dying His eyes are now no more eyes for they see no more His eares may no more be called so for they heare not awhit and all the other senses as parts precede the ruine of their whole The Soule only resists the cruell assaults of Death in beholding its enemyes in continuall expectation of their prey but the hower presseth it must surrender O cruel necessity In fine for to finish this bloudy Tragedy the Deuils carry it away to Hell for recompence of the seruices which it had yealded to them And this is the lamentable end of synfull Soule You Soules of the world who liue not but throgh the life of your pleasures behold the fearefull Death where the life termines And since the heauens the earth the elemēts whatsoeuer els in nature moues changes without cease do you thinke to find any constancy and stability in your delights Know you not that with the very same action wherewith you runne along withall your contentments you run vnto your Death and that during the tyme it selfe that Tyme affoards them vnto you he takes euen them away from you We loose euery houre what we possesse what care soeuer we take in conseruing the same My Ladyes Keep well your gallāt beauties from the burning of the Sunne If that of the Sunne or of the fire be not able to marre them yet that of Age and Tyme doth ruine them notwithstanding all the industry of Vanity which you haue to employ about them Put your fayre Bodyes into the racke of another body of iron to conserue the proportion therof yet tyme but derides your inuentions For it assayles you within and you defend your selues but without only You haue dared the Heauens inough with an arrogant eye you must needs be stooping with the head now at last for to looke on the earth whence you are formed You must needs bow the necke to the yoke of your miseryes and resume agayne the first forme of your corruption In going to dauncing to feasts and to walke abroad you go to Death In vayne do you command your Coachman then to cary you to such a place since Tyme as I haue said conducts him also that caryes you thither In so much as on which side soeuer you turne your selues you approach vnto the tombe After you haue tasted all the pleasures of the world what shal be left you of all but a griefe of the offences in the soule the sad remembrance of their priuation in the memory this sadnes in the hart for hauing made it to sigh so after your ruine
fastings macerate my body let Sackcloth and Cilices torment my flesh let tribulations oppresse me vnder their weight let the long vigills shorten my lyfe let him there giue affronts of his contempt and heere of his cruelties let cold freeze the bloud within my veynes let the scorching of the Sun tanne me let its parching reduce me into ashes let aches cleane my head in peeces let my hart reuolt agaynst my Soule my visage loose its colour all the parts of my body stoope to their ruine let me yield my lyfe to the suffering of diuers torments let my dayes slide away in weeping continuull teares and let the wormes in fine take hould of my flesh and the corruption of my bones All this would be nothing to me so I might enioy Eternall Repose in the day of Tribulation I will belieue it O great Saint for what is it to endure al the euils of the world within Tyme for to possesse all desirable goods in the bower of Eternity O sweet residence where Ioy eternally endures and where delights are immortall Where nothing is seene but God where they know nothing but God! If they thinke it is of God if they desire it is God himselfe And howbeit the harts do there sigh without cease for loue those sighes proceed not but from the contentments of fruition where Loue alwaies remaines in its perfection Let Antiquity vaunt as much as it will of the Temple of Thessaly of the Orchards of Adonis of the Gardens of Hesperides of the pleasures of the fortunate Ilands Let Poets chaunt the pleasures of their Elizean fields and let humane Imagination assemble in one subiect whatsoeuer is more beautiful and delicious in nature they shall find in effect that all is but a vayne Idaea in comparison of the immortall pleasure of this Seat of Glory Let them imagine a Quire of Syrens and let them ioyne therto in Consort both the harpe of Orpheus and the voyce of Amphion Let Apollo and the Muses likewise be there to beare a part all this melody of these consorts were but an ircksome noyse of Windes Thunders in competency of the diuine harmony of Angels Let them make a Perfume of all what Sweets soeuer that Arabia Saba hath had let the Sea cōtribute therto all its Amber and the flowers all their Balme such a perfume notwithstanding would be but a stench infection in regard of the diuine odours which are enclosed in the Emperialll Heauen O how S. Paul had reason to dye of loue rather then griefe in his prolongation to reuiew the felicity which he admired in his rauishment I desire to dye in my self for to go to liue in him whom I loue a great deale more then my selfe sayd he at all seasons O sweet death to dye of Loue but yet the lyfe more sweet that makes this Loue eternall Me thinkes the sad accēts of that great King Dauid strike nine eares when he cryed out aloud This life to me is tedious in the absence of my Lord. This Prince possessed the goods of the Earth in aboundance and Greatnesses and Pleasures equally enuironed the Throne of his absolute Power in such sort as he had all things to his harts content But yet for all that he could not choose but be trobled in the midst of the delights of his Court since so we see his hart to send vp sighs of Sorrow vnto Heauen to liue so long a tyme on Earth What sayst thou now my Soule of the Greatnesses Magnificences of this diuine Pallace where Honour Glory and all the Maiesties together expose to view whatsoeuer els they haue more precious and more rare where Beauty appeares in its Throne in company of its graces of its sweetnesses of its baytes of its allurements and of its charmes where with power alwayes adorable it attracts the eyes to its admiration through a vertue borne with it subdues their lookes to the empire of its perfections In such sort as the eyes cannot loue but its obiect after admiring it they are so taken with the meruailes wherwith it abounds where Goodnes exercising its soueraigne power forges new chaines of loue to attract the harts vnto it and after hauing made a conquest of them it nourisheth them with a food so delicious as they neuer breath but of ioy transporting them wholy in the accōplishment of their felicity In such sort my Soule as all the pleasures together being eleuated in their first purity are there found to be collected in their origē to the end the Spirit might neuer be troubled to seek its desires Consider the difference that is betweene the Contentments of the Earth and those of heauen I would say those of the Pallace where Creatures make their aboad and of those where the Omnipotēt lodgeth Thou hast seene within this first Pallace the Meadowes enamelled with flowers the Champaygnes couered with rich haruests and the Valleys peopled with a thousand brookes but these spring vp at the peeping of the Aurora and wither at its setting These haruests fetching their being from corruption returne in an instant to their first beginning after they haue runne daunger to serue as a prey to tempests and disport to the winds And these Brookes feeble in their vertue may well moderate the ardour of a vehement thirst but not quench it wholy since the fire thereof alwayes renewes from its ashes On the contrary within this celestiall house the Lyllies wherewith the Virgins are crowned and the Roses which the Martyrs weare equally on their head remayne alwayes disclosed as if they grew continually The haruests there are eternall in behoulding them their diuine nature hath this property that it satiates the Soule through the eyes after so perfect a manner as it is rauished in its repose The Fountaynes are of bottomlesse Springs of all the immortall delights that may fall vnder the knowledge of the vnderstanding howbeit they quench not thirst yet haue they power to do it but to make their sweetnesses more sensible they entertayne the drougth within their Soules without disquietnes to the end that being allwayes a dry with a thirst of loue full of pleasure they may alwayes drinke that so without cease they may rest contented Within that first Pallace the chaunting of the Birds did charme thine eares and within this heere the sweet musicke of the Angels rauisheth Spirits Within that terrestriall dwelling the Spring the Summer Autunme were incessantly occupied in producing thy pleasures in this celestial bower an Eternity accomplisheth thee withall the goods wherto imaginatiō may attain There beneath had you diuers houses of pleasure for to walke in and heere on high the first thought of a desire is able to build a number without number within the spaces of the Heauens with a perfection of an incōparable Beauty So as if thou be delighted with the Courts of the Kings and Princes of the world to behold the Greatnesses that attend vpon them turne
it is alwayes inseparable from the mortall condition wherein you are borne You must dy and appeare in this fatall Couch not with your gorgeous Attire nor Royall Mantles but rather with shirts well steept in a cold sweate where your liues are to run shipwracke To cary your Crownes vpon your heads they are so feeble as they cannot endure the weight To hold your Scepters in your hands candles rather would beseeme you better to affoard you light to find the Sepulcher Your Subiects are already assembled about your beds to see anew this verity that you are all equall in the necessity of dying Those Titles of Maiesty which they affoard you haue no more grace with them amidst your miseries Me thinkes in truth it is very much to call you Men since you begin to be no more so It is euen iust now that you are to dy the day is come the hower approches death is already on the way to your Pallace you may do well if you please to put your Souldiers in Centinell for to stop him in the entry Behold how he knockes at your Chamber doore you must necessarily vouchsafe for to speake vnto him since he comes on the behalfe of God to signify the sentence of death vnto you I doubt me that you haue the Spirit much occupyed in the apprehension of your present affayres and that you would willingly put of the accompt to some other day but that may not be Tyme hath strooke the houre which is to beare sway at the end of your daies What sighes what sobs what plaints cast you forth to the wind the remēbrance of your Greatnesses past torments you now while your guilty consciences put your soules on the Racke like as the dolours already haue put your bodies For to cast your eyes vpō the guilded Seelings were to increase the horrour of the Sepulcher which they prepare you To behould likewise your Courtiers who stand about you the displeasure you find to leaue them makes you to turne your view another way Whereas it were better to set your eyes on the approches of Death and in the feeling of your present Miseryes to publish in dying this verity that you are but ashes durt corruption Diogenes was walking one day in a certaine Churchyard where he entertayned his sad thoughts in the meditatiō of death at what tyme Alexander surprized him by a suddaine approch demaunds of him what he was doing in so dismal solitary a place I am busied said the Philosopher in seeking out the bones of Philip your Father amidst so great a number of these you see heere but the payne which I take is vnprofitable because they are all equall This Answere is full of Mysteries for it seemes to represent vs to the life this Verity That the greatest Kings of the world differ not awhit but in goods and greatnesses only from the wretchedst that are since in the Tombe they resemble ech other so much as it were impossible to marke any difference betweene them But me thinkes the houre is already spent and that Death knockes harder now at the Chamber doore then before Behold how he enters in carrying his Sithe in the one hand an Hower-glasse in the other to let vs see that if he mow the hay of your life with his Sithe the sand of the Hower-glasse which he carries being taken for the Foundation of your vaine-glory is euen now run out so as if there remaine any little behind it is but only to giue you leasure to open your mouth for to cast forth the last breath in this last moment O fearefull momēt wheron depends the Eternity of Glory or the Eternity of paine This is that last breth which condemnes or iustifies all those who haue gone before O fearfull moment wherin is pronounced the Sentence of our second life or Death O fearefull moment since it presides the birth of our wretchednes or of our felicity O fearefull moment wherein all our good or euill consists O fearful moment wherein Paradise is offered or Hell afforded O fearefull moment wherin we are made companions for euer of the Angels or of the deuils O fearfull moment where the Soule before God findes the Eternall recompēce of its good deeds or euerlasting paynes of its crimes O fearefull moment what ioyes what sorrowes what pleasures and what dolours doest thou comprize in thy short durance As often as I thinke on thee I do tremble with feare for this moment is a great deale more dreadfull then death it selfe This only moment is it my Soule whereupon the Eternity depends Imploy thou all those of thy life vpon the thoughts of this last Thou approchest vnto it euery hower euery instant robs thee of somewhat of thy former life Whatsoeuer thou doest thy body doth nothing but dye from its transitory life depēds thy eternall life for out of the Earth canst thou merit nothing for Heauen Thinke thou alwayes on this last moment where Crownes and Punishments are prepared Crownes of an infinite glory Punishments of a dolour immortall All thy actions shall there be receiuing their price or paine Price of Paradise or payne of Hell Hence it is that the Prophet cries I shall remember the day of my death for to liue eternally Cast your eyes now vpon those Kings extended dead vpon their rich Couches What say I those Kings can Maiesty corruption be compatible together What apparence of beliefe in beholding them to be such that they are Kings since all their Royall qualities are dead with them Would not a man say they were heapes of Earth so raysed aboue the Earth where the worms are beginning to take their fees Approach to this fatall couch you proud Spirits who measure the globe of the Earth through this vayne beliefe that you merit the Empire of it and in your imagination contemplate the while those that possesse them in effect and you shall behold them quite through teares laied stretched at your feet without pulse without motion Their Maiesties are full of horrour and miseryes in their turne haue taken hold of their owne since they are all borne mortall and consequently miserable what strange Metamorphosis from Colossus's of Greatnesses quickened with a lyfe full of splendour and of glory to be chaunged in an instant into an heape of durt whose putrifaction infectes the whole world You Monarkes Kings Princes be you Idolatours of your Greatnesses as much as you please I attend you at the end of your Carriere to let you see on the backside of the Medall that you are but corruption if you doubt thereof let him that suruiues another approch to his Tombe he shall sensibly know that there is nothing more true in the world Thou miser approch to this mournfull Couch there is place inough for thee Thou needs must dye the houre is strooke but tell me how much gold and siluer dost thou leaue in thy coffers and to what end serue they but to purchase
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
after the light This fatall Mansion is fertile onely but with thornes and troubles let vs get forth of it's bounds to fynd the true tranquillity and according as we shall approach to the good of death so shall we distance our selues froÌ„ the euils of lyfe O sweet death where our miseries termine themselues O cruell life where our disasters take their begining O welcome death where our annoyes do find their sepulcher O dread life where our dolours find their cradle The most afflicted draw al their coÌ„solation from the hope of death Are we not of this number as subiect to all the disgraces of Lot and to the cruell lawes of Fortune With what sweeter hope may we mitigate our paynes then with that of a speedy breaking the chaynes of our captiuity If we dyed not euery houre there would be no contentment to liue For what likelyhood is there that a trauailour should take any pleasure to stop in the midst of his way during the tyme of a storme Now the world is neuer without tempests What remedy were it to make a stop at a flash of lightening or a cracke of Thunder in the midst of the way of our life Being pressed with a storme and encompassed with Rockes shall we not be seÌ„ding our desires before hand to the port with this griefe for not hauing wings to fly more swiftly thither So as if the ship of our life cannot land but at the shore of the sepulcher is it not at this port whither we are to aspire euery moment to put vs in the Lee from Shipwrackes whereof so many wise Pilots haue runne hazard I haue no feare but of old age said Zenon For of all euils that of life is the most intollerable In effect if we thinke on the diuers torments that pull away our life by little and little from vs we should be of Socrates his opinion who of all the momeÌ„ts of our life prizeth none but the last O happy moment irkesome to those that go before I am troubled said Dauid in the house of men when shall I arriue into that of my Lord He was alwaies going thither but the way seemed so long and tedious to him as he sighed continually after the end of his iourney All things tend to their Center the Stones being raysed from the earth do borrow wings to their weighty nature to descend downe beneath where they alwayes haue their looke The Riuers though insensible are touched with this amourous curiosity to reuisite continually their Mother And the Piramidall flames of fire do witnes they burne but with desire of ioyning theÌ„selues with their first beginning And howbeit their endeauours are vnprofitable yet haue they neuer other scope The Heauen is our Center with what more violent passions may we be quickned then with that of being rauisht from our selues to ioyne as Atomes to their vnity as rayes to the body of their light Those Torches of the night whose number is infinite and beauty incoÌ„parable not so gallaÌ„tly shew vs their twinckling baytes but to enthrall vs with their wonders They shine not to vs but to shew vs the way of their Azure vaults as being the only place of our repose And it seemes the galloping course of the Sunne goes not so turning the great globe of the Heauens but to shew the way from aloft vnto the Inhabitants of the Earth If some one had the gift of prophecy that it were foretold vs in a certaine tyme set downe that we were to possesse an ample fortune be it of goods or greatnesse all transitory a like were it not credible the day of this attendance would be to vs of a long put-off How many sighes as witnesses of our languours should we be sending forth before this felicity so promised The greatest dolour we could possibly suffer would be but of impatience for through force of passionately desiring this good all sorts of euils would be insensible to vs. The Sunne that posts so swift would then go sluggishly and its diligence could not stay vs a whit from accusing it of slouth as often as we gazed vpon Heauen Let vs now consider the mystery of this Proposition and say that our Sauiour and the King of Prophets hath giuen vs this assurance from his mouth that the last instant of our lyfe shal be the first of our immortality and so on the day of our death should we possesse an infinite number of felicityes be they in immortall goods be they in the greatnesses of nature it selfe From what sweet disquietnesses might we seeme to be exempt in the expectation of this happines The holy Soules who breath in this world the ayre of grace liue not but of the ioy they haue of continually dying With how many sighes of loue and languour smite they Heauen at all houres All the fayre dayes the Sun affoards them to their eyes seeme to be so sad lowring as hardly do they marke the differeÌ„ce between the light and darknes because they loue but the eternall dayes which are to shine to the birth of their felicity And this is the day of death where ceasing to be men we begin to be as Angels S. Frauncis wounded on all sides with a thousand darts of loue sighes in the presence of his Mayster for griefe that he cannot dye of his wounds He contemplates the wounds of his Redeemer and his lookes haue this Diuine vertue with them as â—o make his soule to ressent the smart And through the force of his sweet torments the amorous passion wherewith he is taken makes him to ressent the dolours of his Mayster in so much as the markes thereof themselues are imprinted in his stigmatized Body â—hen it is that soowning with ioy extasied with pleasure and rauished with a thousand â—orts of felicityes wholy Diuine he sequesters himselfe from the earth to approach vnto Heauen He feeles himselfe to dye of loue without being able notwithstanding to loose his lyfe for though his wounds be mortall since all termine at the hart yet their cause is immortall So as dying in his lyfe and liuing in his death he dyes he lyues without dying and without lyuing Of dying what apparence since he is sunke in the spring of lyfe Of lyuing who would belieue it Let vs then say that if he dye it is of a Death a thousand tymes more sweet then lyfe and if he liue it is of a lyfe of extasy which feeles nothing of the humane This sweet Saint seeing himselfe vnder the wound of the bloud of his Maister belieued verily he should make shipwracke through force of desiring the same in so goodly a sea whose tempests were so much the more gratefull to him as loue serued it selfe of his sighes to driue away the storme And in truth how could he loose himselfe in the presence of his Sauiour whose Crosse serues him as well for a watch-tower as for a Hauen in the midst of the torments which his wounds haue caused to
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
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
life were it to dy neuer and to suffer without cease since miseryes and paynes are the miserable accidents of our bodies it would euen be a liuing death or rather a dying life a thousand times more cruell and intollerable then death it selfe Happy then yea thrice happy is that last instant which makes vs get forth of the Empire of tyme most pleasing is the moment which leades vs into the Eternity O sweet agony ful of extasy and rauishment O glorious Ioseph guide now my pen in this faire labyrinth of death wherein it is wandering to touch at some thing of your last rauishments when as you gaue vp your soule on the lips of himselfe that created them Lyfe hath nothing so delicious as your death you dy in the armes of the mother of lyfe and of lyfe it selfe And shall I say that is a death You amorously expire on the mouth of your Redeemer that is to say on the gate of Paradise what ioy The pen fals out of my hand as if it were sensible of these incomparable pleasures wherwith the end of your holy lyfe was crowned but I hope to recouer it agayne very shortly for to speake more worthily thereof if these secret Vowes which I haue already offered you may be gratefull to you Let vs say then confidently that of all the actions of lyfe the last of death is the welcomest of al to such as haue lyued well and it is permitted to all the world to liue well Goodly Considerations vpon this important verity That whatsoeuer we do we dye euery houre without cease CHAP. XIIII THE inhabitants of Nylus are so accustomed to heare the dreadâ—ull noyse of its waters alwayes roaring as they haue no eares to feele the incoÌ„modity therof Let vs say the same in a diuers sense of men in the world that they are so habituated to this sweet feeling of dying without cease as they perceiue not theÌ„selues to dy awhit They breath in dying the aire of the Death which they sigh forth without thinking euer of Death A strange thing to liue continually in Death and to dy euery day in life without once dreaming of the necessity of their end whither they run alwaies They do nothing els but dy and they haue no care but to liue For if they speake the ayre wherof they forme their words causeth the lights to dye which is the Clocke of life the respirations the minutes these minutes are couÌ„ted and one succeding to the other the lasts strikes the houre of Death If they eate the very food that nourishes them doth putrify in their bodyes as in a dunghill in signe that they are full of corruption and this infectioÌ„ by little and little ruines the infected vessel wherein it is enclosed If they sleepe they exteriourly carry the countenance of death which they hide within In fine there is no action wherein they may be any wayes employed which is not a Symbole of Death If the foolish errours of these men of the world concluded not in an irreparable domage they would afford as much pleasure as they moue pitty For one gets into his Caroch with purpose to goe to some faire house of his in the Country without considering the while how that very way of his walke is euen the same of Death whither Tyme which is the Coachman leades him insensibly with all his company So as if they go not to lye for this dayes iourney at the lodging of the Tombe it is put of for the morrow after Another embarkes himselfe in a Pinnace for to sayle into the Indyes himselfe is a Pinnace the while embarked in the sea of the world from the moment of his birth sayling without cease at the pleasure of the wind wherewith age doth replenish the sayles and that without once being able to land but in the hauen of the Tombe This Gallant heere shal be going in post to see his Mistresse and he hath no other obiect in all his course then to arriue as soone as he can to the place where she lodgeth Foole as he is he considers not the while how that euery step he puts forward on his way he approacheth the nerer to the Tombe whither he runs with full speed vpon the same Post-horses he takes to compasse his amourous desires Another there wil be going more easily in a Litter and with lesse incommodity for feare the heate or cold may seeme to preiudice his health but let him go as easily as he will yet Death will not fayle to lead his mules in such sort as he shall but passe onely by his howses of pleasure so to go forwards in his way directly to the Tombe what digression soeuer he seemes to make to put it off Thinke on this truth my Dames during the calme and tranquility of your fortune the spring tyme of your lyfe will not alwayes last euen as the seasons of the yeare succeed ech other so those of age pursue one another But as we see often how the intemperance of the ayre causeth the winter to arriue in the midst of sommer take heed the intemperance of your humours produce not the winter of death in the midst of the spring tyme of your lyfe In vayne do you set forth all your deceiptfull markes of immotality the time scornes them and I laugh at them For if to day you be something tomorrow are you lyke to be nothing So passeth away the glory of the world all flyes into the Tombe The Tombe of the pleasures of the Sight CHAP. XV. LET all the fayrest Obiects which are in Nature appeare in my presence to behold ech one in its turne the foundation of their Sepulcher Let the Heauen shew forth open to view its serene countenance the Sun his liuely brightnes the Moone her siluer day the starres their twinckling sparkes the Ayre its fayre nakednes The birds their warblings their richest robes of plumages enamelled with euery sort of colours The Trees the ornament of their blossomes and the decking of their fruits the Meadowes the tapestry of their greenes and Mountaynes the mossy stuffe wherewith they couer their crumpt backes the forrests their thicke branches the sauadge beasts the extrauagant beauty which Nature hath impressed in their brutish kind through the diuersity of the formes which they represent the Earth the inside of its coffers replenished with all sorts of riches the Riuers the Christall of their streames the Fountaynes the liquid glasses of their waters the Sea its huge waterish maÌ„tle the fishes the infinite number of their figures wholy different Let the world yet giue forth new wonders and beauty exhibit to our view its fayrest lyuing pictures yet all those obiects taken altogether are no more then a little dust enclosed in the crust of artificiousnes which Tyme quite ruines by little and little Thou man of the world who seest but only by thine eyes in cherishing thy life so with the pleasures of the sight admire yet once in thine Idea
the obiects whose beauty heeretofore thou hast adored then represeÌ„t to thy selfe according to the argument thou canst draw from the nature of their being what is become of them or what are they like to be If it be some proud pallace wherin the order the riches the magnificence the industry of the workeman be in dispute about glory to know who shall carry away the prize consider that Tyme destroyes it at all howers and that it shall neuer giue ouer till it see the ruines of it If the charmes of Art do charme the sight in admiration of the fayrest colours laid on a rich subiect think but a little of the fraylty of those accidents For all the beautifullest colours that are do fetch their birrh from that of flowers And can we see any thing more changeable or of so small a date as they So as if the allurements of the beauties of Nature do rauish thy soule by thy eyes defeÌ„d thy self forth with through the knowledge thou hast of their misery since in effect the fayrest Lady in the world is but a masse of flesh which corrupts euery moment vntill such tyme as it be wholy formed to corruption and this corruption into wormes As for all other things whatsoeuer which thou mayest haue seene being no whit more noble then it thou Mayst well be iudging of their defects by the consequence In so much as whatsoeuer the HeaueÌ„s haue glittering the Earth rare Nature gay Art more admirable if thou seruest thy selfe of the touchstone of thy iudgement to know the matter which supports the image thou shalt soone find all to be no more then dust and so mayest feare least it happen to fly in thine eyes to make thee blind if thou lookest but too neere vpon it The Tombe of the Pleasures of the Sense of Hearing CHAP. XVI YOV Soules of the world who suffer your liberty to be taken away through your eares with the deceiptful charmes of Syrens You I say who sigh for ioy for delectation and extasy amidst the pleasures of a sweet harmony eyther of voyces or instruments leÌ„d your guilty eares to heare the reasons which seeme to condemne your errours I doubt not a whit but the purling of a siluer brook the sweet running murmur of a fountayne the pretty warbling of birds and the amourous accents of a delicate voyce ioyned with the sweet allurements of the melody of a Lute are of force inough to captiue your spirits vnder the empire of a thousaÌ„d sorts of delights But yet returne a little from this wandering of yours Content your selfe with the losse of liberty and saue your reason to repayre your domage At such tyme as you stand listening to the humming noyse of this riuer to the murmur of this fountayne imagine this truth the while That all passeth away that all slides along like to the waues Their language preacheth nought els Those birds euen call for death at the sound of their chaunting like the Swan And if the harmony of a voice or Lute so charme you coÌ„sider awhile how the pleasure of this melody is formed of the ayre and that in the same instant it resolues into ayre agayne so as the delights euen dy in their birth You let your eares be tickled with the charmes of EloqueÌ„ce imagine you that since it is true that as neither Cicero nor Demosthenes were exempt from the Tombe or corruption with al their fayre elocution so shall you neuer be able to perswade death with al your gallant discourses to prolong the terme of your life but a moment True Eloquence consists in preaching Vertue and true Harmony to hould reason alwayes at accord with the Will for to desire nothing but what is iust The Tombe of the other Pleasures that are affected to the Senses CHAP. XVII OPEN your eyes you worldlings to discouer playnly the truth of your crymes You take your pleasures to cherish daintily your bodyes as if you knew not their miseryes But why say I your pleasures Can you take any contentment to stuffe your putrified body with a new matter of corruption Whatsoeuer you eat is a symbole of Death so shall you dy in eating You do nothing but heape dung vpon dung add but infectioÌ„ to infection I graunt that your life passeth euer its dayes in continuall banquetting But I would fayne haue you let me see the pleasure which is left you of all this good cheere at the latter course Is this a contentment trow you to haue the Belly stuffed with a thousand ordures to put your spirit on the racke with the stinking fume of meates not well concocted which arise vp in the brayne Is it well with you to haue the head drousy the pulse distempered the spirit benummed reason astray Behold heere a part of the delights which succeed your delights and you haue no care but to pamper your bodyes as if you lyued but onely for them not considering the meane while how the same very food which affoards them lyfe euen brings them to death Inebriate your selfe with these brutish pleasures and by the example of the new Epicures haue no passion but to conserue them yet of necessity must the imaginary paradise of your lyfe conclude in a true Hell on the day of your death For all these roses shal be changed into thornes in that last moment Glut you and crumme your bodies for to satiate the wormes withall But this is nothing as yet Your soules being the companions of your euills must needs be euerlastingly punished in an eternity of paynes O dreadfull Eternity It seemes in a fashion that those men of the world may well be excusing their vanity that causes them to carry both amber and muske about them since they are all full of of infection and corruption which makes me belieue that they feare least men come to sent the stench of their miseries so engage them or rather inforce them to serue themselues of this cunning In effect all these odours and these perfumes smell so strong of earth as we cannot loue the smoke without runing into danger of the fire So as those who tye their spirit to these vayne idea's of pleasures are in loue with shadows and despise the bodyes They smell very well that smell not ill and such as habituate their bodyes to Perfumes can neuer endure the stinke of the mortuary Torches which shall encompasse their bâ—d at the houre of death I speake to you my Ladyes who doe so passionately affect these foolish vanityes I remit you euer to the instant of Death for to receyue the iudgement of your actions full of shame and reproach Deale you so as your soule may sauour well rather then the body since the one may euery moment be cited to the presence of God and the other serues as a prey for the worms It were better your teeth should sauour il then your actions for those are subiect to corruption and these heere shall liue eternally
you then purchase them altogeather so to make you beloued of al the world and not onely for a day but euen for euer The beauty wherof you make such accompt is a fadyng quality that subsists not but in its continuall change it flyes along with you into the Tombe but it passeth more swiftly then you for it euen gets before you by the halfe way When you are arriued but to the midday of your lyfe is it come to its full West When you enter into your Autumne it arriues to its Winter where it finds its ruine Alas that for a small number of daies you will stād so much to please men and be displeasing of God for a whole Eternity O dreadfull Eternity how profound are thy Abysses My Dames as often as this guilty desire shall possesse you to offend God in your foolish vanityes thinke a little of the Eternity of the payne which is to attend your crymes For one moment of false and imaginary pleasure you put your selues in daūger of suffering eternally an infinite number of true euils indeed What expect you of the world It aboūds but with miseryes What looke you for of Fortune She is prodigall but only in misfortunes All Riches are but of earth all Greatnesses of smoke and all Honours of wind as for the louely qualityes which are affected to the body they euen dy with it In so much as Vertue only I tell you agayne is exempt from Death You neuer thinke but of taking your pleasures without considering the while that in passing away the tyme so you suffer to slide away in hast the small remaynder of life that is left you In louing life as you do you should be striuing to prolōg your dayes and on the contrary you seeke digressions to passe them ouer without taking any heed therto as if you went to slowly vnto death and that the way to the Tombe appeared too tardy and tedious to you wherein truly you take pleasure to deceiue your selues Do not so flatter your selues my Dames you must needs dy there is nothing in you that dyes not euery howre Your fayre golden hayre which you dayly so put vnto the torture of the iron doth euen dy by little little with you For in changing its apparence it becomes of the colour of Death The wrinckles of age do soyle the polished glasse of your brow for to marre its beauty and grace Your fayre Eyes which I will heere terme two Sunnes for to please you do run like to the Sunne without cease vnto their last West whither Death conducts thē through the help of their proper light The Lyllies of your Cheekes do wither euery houre and the Gilliflowers of your lips do fade euery moment The Iuory of your teeth corrupts with the breath of tyme and of age The snow of your Necke melts and all the louely qualityes of your spirit wax old in their continuall decay I admit you to be more beautifull then Helena Helena is no more she is euen passed away like a flower and you are iust in the same way of her ruine Her charmes did rauish the whole world your bayts subdue the best part of mortalls but as all is dead with her so all dyes with you The tyme of her Empyre is expired that of your Raigne runnes alwayes away She hath beene she hath liued they haue admired her with astonishment they haue honoured her with sacrifices but all the Temples of her glory are demolished all the Aultars are ruined all the Idolatours are reduced to ashes scarcely remaynes there any memory of these things since euen the very age which hath seene them is buryed with them in the abysses of the passed You must dye my Dames and all those graces wherewith you captiue Spirits shall neuer obtayne any fauour of Death You must dye and all those enticements wherewith you rauish spirits haue not allurements inough for to violate the lawes of nature You must dye and all those charmes where with you captiue soules haue not the power to charme death in its fury You must dye and all those pretty graces that make you so admirable cannot exempt you from the Tombe nor corruption You must dye and all your perfections together cannot hinder the houre of your death for a moment only You must dye and to speake more playnely to you your golden hayre must needs perish your eyes so cleere fayre must needs make a part of the dunghill of your body The delicate skin of your face must needs discouer it s putrifyed bones and all your beautyes togeather by changing the countenance shal be taking the forme of dust since you are nothing but dust Nor do I feare yet to lye since in effect you are nothing You must dye all your rare Coulises serue but onely to consume you all your Phisitians haue no medicine for to cure the malady of your mortall condition You must dye and therefore are you carefull of your health in vayne since age pardons not any yea you dye liuing and do you what possibly you can do the terme of your lyfe is alwayes slyding You must dye nor do all the moments of the day tell you of any other thing The houres continually strike this verity in your eares the Sun neuer sets without telling you in its fashion how it only foreruns the time of the setting of your lyfe We must dye I say at last for we dye with out cease and after so many sighes of miseryes we must cast forth to the wind the last of our mishaps We must dye the sentence is giuen the execution is made and the same continues euery day before our eyes whēce they are so accustomed to weep We must dye but since there is nothing more certayne we must alwayes be in disposition to dy at all houres since we dye euery moment We must dye but we are to reuiue eternally in glory since we are created but for it only We must dye but we must be reborne agayne from our corruption for not to dye for euer Let vs dy boldly then since needs we must but let vs dye in innocency for to shun the death of death We must dye but we must rise agayne before that soueraygne Iudge who is to giue vs the recompence of our trauayles or els to impose the payne of our crimes vpon vs. We must dye but it is but for once and of that onely moment depends our whole vnhappines or felicity We must dye but we must yield accompt of the lyfe past to receyue the guerdon or paine which is due thereto for euer We must dy and to delyuer vs happily from the daunger of this sweet necessity must we liue well You must dye you Soules of the world ech one seemes to cary his tombe with him Laugh you alwayes sing continually be you euery day at your banquets and take your sports in a continuall chase of diuers pleasures after all which notwithstāding must
of the Soule and al the dolours wherwith our life is touched Now then if it be true that we dye euery moment is not euery moment I pray a Death to vs Let vs go then my soule to God since he cals vs the Sunne lends vs not its light but to shew vs the way to him The Starres shine not in heauen but to let vs see the pathes trackes therof So as if the Moone do hide her self frō our eyes by Interstitions it cannot be but of choler as sensible of the contempt we shew of her light Let vs go to this holy Land of Promise and passe the Red Sea of sufferance and punishments in exāple of our Sauiour who with no other reason then that of his Loue would purchase through his bloud the Glory he atteyned to The world can afford vs but Death Death but a Tombe and the Tombe but an infinite number of wormes which shal be fed with our carcasse They runne after the world the world is nought but misery they do loue then to be miserable What blindnes my Soule to sigh after our mishaps passionately to cherish the subiect of our losse Let vs go to this Eternity where the delights euer present raigne with in the Order of a continuall moment Let vs get forth of this mouing circle and breake the chaynes of this shameful seruitude wherein to Syn hath brought vs. Away with the world since whatsoeuer is in it is but myre and dust it is but smoke to the eyes putrifaction to the nostrills the noyse of thunder and tempests to the eares thornes to the hands smart to our feeling All those who put any trust therein are vtterly deceyued All those who follow it are absolutely lost All those that honour it are wholy despised and all those who sacrifice to its Idols shal be one day sacrificed themselues in expiation of their crimes Besides we see how all that know it do abandon it for if it promise a Scepter it reaches vs a Shephooke Thrones are seated on the brimme of a precipice nor doth it euer affoard vs any good turne but as the vigill of some misfortune Away then with the world and all that is within it since all its wōders now are but dust Whatsoeuer it hath more rare is but Earth whatsoeuer it hath more fayre is but wind Euery King is no more but a heape of Worms where Horrour Terrour and Infection astonish and offend the senses that approch vnto it Corruption sayth the Wiseman speaking of man vaunt thou as much as thou wilt behould thy selfe brought vnto the first nothing of thy first Being Let vs not liue my Soule but for Eternity since it is the true spring of lyfe Out of Eternity is there no repose out of Eternity no pleasure out of Eternity all hope is vayne Who thinkes not of Eternity thinkes of nothing since out of Eternity all things are false Let vs behould but Eternity my Soule as the onely obiect of glory All flyes away except Eternity it is it alone which is able to satiate our defires and termine our hopes I will no other comfort in all my annoyes then that of Eternity I will no other solace in all my miseryes then that of Eternity After it do I desire nothing after it do I looke for nothing I lyue not but for it and my hart sighes not but after it All discourses are displeasing to me except those of Eternity It is the But and end of all my actions it is the obiect of my thoughtes I labour but to gather its fruits al my vigils point at the pretensions of its Crownes My eyes contemne all the obiects except those that conuey my spirits to its sweet Idea's as to the only Paradise I find in this world Whatsoeuer I do I iudge my selfe vnprofitable if I refer not my actions to this diuine cause whatsoeuer I thinke whatsoeuer I say and whatsoeuer I imagine all is but vanity if those thoughtes if those words those imaginatiōs rely not in some fashion on Eternity In fine my Soule if thou wilt tast on Earth the delightes of Heauen thinke continually of Eternity for in it only it is where the accomplishment of all true contentments doth consist The Glory of Paradise AATER that rich Salomon had a thousand tymes contented his Eyes in admiration of the fairest obiects which are found in Nature That his Eares euer charmed with a sweet Harmony had deliciously tasted in their fashion the most sensible repasts they are affected to That his Mouth had relished the most delicate meates where the Tongue finds the perfection of its delight after I say he had quenched the thirst of his desires in the sea of all contentments of the world and satisfied the appetite of his senses in the accomplishment of the purest delicacies he cries out aloud That all was full of vanity The Pompe of these magnificences may well represent themselues to his remēbrance but he cryes out before it That it is but vanity His riches his Greatnesses his Triumphes all his pleasures serued him as a subiect within knowledge of their Nature for to exclayme very confidently that all was full of vanity What pleasures now after these delights may mortalls tast What Riches may they now possesse after these Treasures To what Greatnes may they aspire which is not comprized within that of his Empire To what sort of prosperities may they pretend which is not lesse then his happines And yet neuertheles after a long possession of honours delights which were inseparable to his soueraigne absolute power he publisheth this truth that all is full of smoke and wind and that nothing is sure heere beneath but death nor present but miseries Soules of the world what thinke you of that you reason not somtimes in your selues to discouer the weaknes of the foundation whereon your hopes are piched You loue your pleasures but if it be true that knowledge should alwayes precede Loue why know you not the nature of the Obiect before it predominate the power of your affections Agayne you loue not thinges at any tyme but to possesse them Ah what know you not the delights of the world do passe before our eyes as a lightning that in their excesse they incessantly find their ruyne you thinke your selfe content to day because nothing afflicts you do you cal that pleasure to runne after pleasure for it is impossible for you to possesse that imaginary contentment but in running after it since it flyes so away without resting Let them represent to themselues the greatest contētments that may be receyued in the world at the same tyme let all the diuers Spirits who haue tasted the vayne Sweetnesses appeare to tell vs in secret what remaines to them thereof Thou Miser tell vs I pray thee what pleasure hast thou to shut vp thy goulden Earth within thy coffers to lend it to the interest of thy conscience and to make it
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
nor this Line a point Eternity termines to God alone God alone to Eternity O incomprehensible Mystery that a God should recompence a sigh of Loue with an infinite loue one moment of paine with an Eternity of Glory For hauing tasted neuer so little of the vinegre of his Chalice to quench our thirst for euer in the torrent of these diuine Sweetnesses For hauing shed one teare of repentance to make vs liue eternally in ioy and smiles For hauing fasted one instant to satiate vs for euer with meats the most delicious which are found in Heauen And finally to recompence one night of trauaile with a day of eternall Repose Thinke neuer my Soule but vpon this Eternity What pleasures soeuer thou tasts in the world represent to thy selfe they shall one day finish and that in their end all the Thorns of their Roses shall assemble to make thee feele the sorrow of their priuation if thou wouldest haue content be it not but for Eternity it is to dye continually for to lyue with men and it is to liue allwayes to lyue with God It were to be vnfortunate to be happy on Earth since the true way of felicity is Heauen Felicity is as immortall as immortality it selfe and whither Tyme cannot reach to because it is out of Tyme In such wise my Soule as thou shouldst learne to speake this diuine lāguage of the Angels whose Eccho the Prophet is when he saith I languish O Lord in the expectation of seeing you in the mansion of your glory Let this Languor deuoure thee to the end that dying of loue for thy God who is soueraignely louely thou maiest go to liue for him since this is the only Spring of life Of the Infernall Paynes THE Great King Ezechias was brought to such a point of feare and astonishment when the Prophet assured him he shold dye the morrow after as that if his lot had reserued him for shipwracke he had now runne that danger in the Sea of his teares That fatall Sentēce tooke away his lyfe before he dyed for from the moment that the same was once pronounced vnto him he breathed but the ayre of Approaches to an ineuitable death where all Sorrowes heaped togeather in one what they had of bitter or rigorous to torment anew his afflicted Spirit This poore Prince had but Sighes Teares to defend himselfe withall agaynst the batteries of a soueraigne Will He plaines but of himselfe he cryes but onely to moue Pitty he armes his hand with fury against his bosome and with redoubled blowes smites his breast belieuing he layd hard on his hart the while as complice of the crymes whose punishment he carryed What shall he do the night steales away insensibly and the light which shall succeed his darknesses is not to shine but to shew him the way to the Tombe Sleepe hath already taken its leaue of his eyes for feare of being drowned in his continuall teares Repose abandons his spirit in feare of Death which possesseth him In so much as being reduced into a last point of Sufferance he apprehēds that euery sigh which he casts to the wind is to be the last of his life The remembrance of his faults so forcibly aggrauates the punishment as he dares not thinke of them but with the sorrow of heauing comitted them a Sorrow indeed so powerfull as disarmed the diuine Iustice of its Thunders This great King lifts vp his hart through Feare deiected constraines it to seeke for hope in that midst of despaire He humbly cōfesseth the truth of those crymes but with the same tongue wherewith he publisheth them he protests before his God his Iudge to commit them no more and for assurance beseeches the same God and the same Iudge to cast downe his eyes into the depth of his Soule to see the feelings therof in so much as he was heard Isay the Prophet receaues commaundement to reuoke the Sentence of his Death to prolong the terme of his life and to make the Sunne turne backe for some part of its way O admirable Goodnesse The whole course of the Vniuerse is chaunged rather thē to refuse a mans request who promiseth to God to chaūge the course of his life But what difference betweene the Sentence which the Prophet pronounceth on the behalfe of God to a guilty King that which God himselfe shal pronounce on that great day of his Iustice to the criminal Soules They are both verily two Sentences of Death but the one is signified in Time by a lyuing man to a man that is liuing yet the other is proclaymed out of Time by a God to Spirits which are criminall incapable of repentance Besides we see how the first Sentence was reuoked through grace while the other remaines inuiolable by Reason Mercy moderates the rigour of that there Iustice augmēts the paine of this heere with an Eternity O most dreadfull Sentence There was with the Persians a certaine Prison whence the guilty were neuer to go forth which they called by the name of Lethe as who would seeme thereby to represent a place of Obliuion where the Thoughts of men do neuer approach This Prison may well be compared to that of Hell from whence the Thralls do neuer get forth nor where the happy Spirits do neuer descend in thought It is a place of forgetfulnes since God remembers not the wicked Soules but to cause them only to be tortured by the instruments of his Iustice They haue no other dwelling then that of their sepulchers cryeth out the Psalmist which is as much to say as they shal be buried eternally in the tombe of Hel or as S. Augustine saith they shal be full of life in the midst of their torments in being alwaies renewed againe amidst their paynes without euer dying O cruell life Seing it is more vnsupportable then Death Let the most afflicted Soules appeare forsooth vpon the Theater of their Martyrings let Iultius recount at large the history of his sufferāces Let Persindas represent to vs sensibly the cruelty of his punishment at the light of the Sunne where he is exposed al couered with honey to the mercy of the Flies Let Lepidus Crassus communicate with vs through Contagion a part of his euill at such tyme as they straitly bound his body to a carkasse to the end the stench might serue as a Torturer to tyrannize his lyfe to death Let Phocinas the Locrian shew vs clerely by the light of the Fire which consumed him the torments wherewith he was tyrannized in feeling himselfe by little and little reduced into Ashes Let Pamindus the Philosopher expresse to vs in the Amazement of his mortall silence which the punishment of his tongue cut out had brought him to some feeble dolour of his smart Let Lysander buryed in the brasen Bull by the Tyrant of Syracusa make vs to heare the sad accents of his cryes for to publish with the language of his plaints the truth of
his torments Let Lelius Cooles discouer in his countenance the terrour and the anguish of his hart vpon the Cliffes of the Sea from whence he was cast downe headlong Let Martius Neuola mixing the wind of his sighs with those that enkindled the flames which consumed him conueigh to our eares the sad harmony of his last groanes Let Virgilia the wife of Lertius the Romā relate to vs at leasure the traunces of Martyring of a hart impoysoned by the cūning Enemy who by litle and litle extinguished her in a long course of yeares to make her sensible by degrees of all the rigors of death Let Emilia represent to vs in her despayre the anguishes of a dying Soule amidst the presse of her disastres Let the wyfe of Brutus send to our eyes the smoake of the burning coales that consumed her bowels to let vs feele the heat wherewith she was burned Let Messina before she pluckt out the Hart from her bosome partake vs with her torments where through a Sentence of her fury she condemned her self in making the one part of her Body to serue as a Hangmā to destroy the other Let Eugenia making a halter of the silke of her Harpe giue vs some testimony of the dolour of her precipitous Death Let Cleopatrae infect the Ayre with the Poyson which deuoured her life for to make vs Companions of her euils All these kinds of Martyrings these Tortures these dolours these vncouth tormēts and these euils without example and these tyrannies exercised by men more cruell thē Tygres and Beares can admit no comparison with the least paine of the damned The Thornes of these sufferances are Roses and the bitternes of these anguishes is but hony One moment of the paines in hell is more intollerable then an Age of Afflictions in this world Let them lend their eares to the lamentable cryes of Ampilaus King of the Pyroti when as being fastened to his rich Couch with the rude chaines of a thousand dolours procured through a Sciatica his torments pluckt out the hart from his bosome without snatching away the life and with a cruell encounter drew his Soule to his lips without suffering it to go forth To bewaile the rage whereto his euill had brought him makes him to throw out fire by the eyes rather then to power out water to complaine with Sighes of the excesse of his sufferances learnes him a language so dreadfull as the noyse of Thunder is not more terrible thē that of his voyce made hoarse with the force of crying They do well to decke his bed with the richest ornaments that may be found to bring him rest while his body is a Bush of Thornes wherewith his Soule is straytly hedged in In such sort as the points of its thornes do afford him a thousād prickes of dolour martyrings whose very thought is full of horrour They may cast their lookes of pitty on him long inough while Cruelty which incessantly butchers him makes them so feeble in his succour as he alwaies breaths in the death of his paines without being able euer to dye But turne we the Medall and lend the eare of our imagination to the warnings of of that great King Pharao bound in hell on a bedd of deuouring flames which burne without consuming him and which consume him without reducing him to ashes What inequality of euills and what difference of cryes The one in tyme feeles very piercing dolours vpon a couch of Thornes and the other suffers a thousand paynes all eternall vpon a bed of fire He there yields vp his miserable lyfe to the last shocke of a cruell torment and he heere reuiuing allwayes of his Ashes amidst his punishment lyues not but to dye in his sufferances of a death eternally lyuing The former comforts himselfe with the hope of a Tombe the latter finds increase of his torments in the despayre of euer seeing an end Let them thinke a litle on the sensible tormēts wherwith Tegonus that great Prince of Almaine was afflicted when as his hart serued before hand as a Coffin for the worms which gnawed him without cease to deuoure his lyfe A punishment as cruell as prodigious this was a lyuing death gliding in his bosom where it forged darts of incomparable dolour for to martyr him withal He wants for nothing in the midst of his Greatnesses and yet wants he all since all fayles him of his content His subiects are about him to receyue his Commaundements but he knowes not what to commaund them for his succour The remedyes they offer him are vnprofitable in the ignorance of his malady for the skilfullest Phisitians of them vnderstand not the cause therof which makes thē ingenious without thinking of it to afflict him a new in steeping his mouth with a thousand sorts of bitternesses He cryes out in the extremity of his languours but ech one by his eyes makes answere to his tongue in weeping at the noyse of his sobs and his complaynts And after hauing suffered as many deaths as he sent forth sighes he payed at last the tribute which he owed to Nature Cast yet the view of your imagination vpon the backside of the Medall to heare the cryes a great deale more hideous of another Prince abiding in Hell being touched with the malady of a worme which gnawes him eternally without deuouring him He sees all his Subiects about him as culpable as he but in the astonishment they are in they answere him but by the eyes only as vnable to succour him or to helpe themselues The Deuils are his Phisitians who not knowing the meanes to cure him inuental sorts of punishmēts to tyrannize his Soule But what difference of paynes That Prince of the world findes this consolation in his afflictions that after the wormes shall haue deuoured his Hart his life shall haue an end with the end of their prey and consequently his punishment And on the contrary this Prince of Hell finds alwaies the begining of his euills in the end of his paines The worme that gnawes him is immortall like as the prey which it deuoures In so much as his dolours remaine extreme in their excesse The one turning his Face to the Tomb-wards beholds there his sufferance buryed with him and the other sees himselfe buryed yet lyuing within a tombe of Fire which through a cruell property entertaines that which it burnes to the end it may neuer wāt matter What may be imagined more insupportable then the torment wherewith Charles King of Nauarre dyed of The Phisitians knowing he had a very little life left him in the body employed this vayne deuice for his comfort forsooth to sow him vp in a sheet steept in Aqua-vitae of purpose to prolong his life but the ill lucke was that the seruant who had sowed him therein burnt the end of his threed insteed of cutting it asunder where to say better he burnt the whole sheet and the King that was shut within Represent we to our selues now the
where those of Luxury reduce the chastest harts into Ashes whence it comes that that great Saint demaunded wings to carry him into the desert Hope is heere vncertayn despayre assured Happines appeareth but as a lightning and Misfortunes establish their dwelling with Empire They can desire nothing heere but in doubt of successe they can expect nothing but with feare to loose their tyme. Felicityes euen while they are possessed do free themselues by litle and litle from this seruitude of being tyed to vs So as if they destroy not themselues in their sublimity time snatches them from vs at all houres and leades vs away with them What is the world but a denne of Theeues but an Army of Mutiners but a myre of Swyne a Galley of Slaues A lake of Basiliskes and therfore the Prophet sayth shall I neuer leaue a place so foule so filthy and so full of treasons and deceipts Needs then my Soule must thou lift vp thine eyes to Heauen since the Earth is meerly barren of thy contentments Thou seekest the Soueraigne good and it hath but springs of Euill Thou seekest Eternity and whatsoeuer is therein is but vnconstancy Change thy thoughtes the treasures which thou seekest for are not heere beneath since this is the ordinary mansion of Pouerty and Misery The obiects heere most frequent are but Tombes nor do we euer open our eyes but to see them layd open Our eares are touched with no other sound then with that of Sights and Playnts The sents of our putrifaction occupy the smelling and the gaule of a nourishment dipt in our sweat vnfortunately feeds the tast of our tongue So as turne we which way soeuer we will the gulfes the rockes the fires the punishmens and mischiefes follow vs as neere as the shaddow doth the body Consider attentiuely my Soule the importance of these verities and make thy profit of anothers harme Represent to thee the horrour and amazement whereto the world was reduced with all those meruailes at such tyme as the Sunne withdrew from it his light All those proud buildings so enriched with Brasse Marble those famous Temples where Art is alwayes in dispute with Nature striuing to set forth their works appeare to be no more but Collossus's of shaddowes that strike thine eyes aswel with astonishment as with terrour during the reigne of darkenes and imagine how the pourtraite of this horrour drawes before hād its being from the Originall since in the latter day the world shall take vpon it the visage of horrour of terrour and of ruine Represent vnto thy self besids in order of these verityes how the shadowes which couer but halfe of the earth by respits shall very shortly be filling vp the space of the whole Circle according to the decree which hath beene made thereof before all ages In so much my Soule as since the day must end at last quenching its torch within the most ancient waters of the Ocean seeke betymes another Sun aboue all the Heauens that may not be subiect to Eclypses and whose light being alwayes in the East may make thy happines to shine within his splendour not for a day for a yeare or for an age but for an Eternity O sweet Eternity with how many delights enchauntest thou our spirits while we addresse our thoughtes to thee They may not tast thy baytes and not be rauished from themselues with incomparable contentmēts We wander I confesse whiles we seeke thee but thy Labyrinthes are so delicious as we are alwayes in feare to get forth therof The harts which are taken with thy loue without knowing thee sigh after thy pleasurs howbeit they haue neuer tasted its sweetnesses but by way of Idaea yet find they no repose but in hope to possesse them one day O sweet Eternity what feelings of ioy and happines dost thou breed in Soules created for thy glory How tedious is the way of this mortall and transitory life to them that liue in expectation of thy pleasures They resemble the Marriner being tossed with stormes tempests who through teares measures with his eyes a thousand tymes in a moment the humide spaces of the waues for to discouer the Port he aspires vnto for they sayling in like māner in this Sea of the world and continually dashed with tēpests of misfortunes do coūt the houres the dayes and the moneths of their annoyes in the long pretension of landing at the port of the Tombe to be reborne from very Ashes in the mansion of thy glory O sweet Eternity what sensible repasts haue thy contentmentes with them The more I thinke vpon thee and the more I would be thinking of thee my Spirit rapt in this diuine Eleuation is so violently pulled from it selfe as it liues of no other food then that of thy diuine thoughtes O how happy is he who establisheth in thee for an Essay the foundation of his felicity My Soule if thou wilt be content in the midst of thy pleasures thinke of Eternity The onely imagination of its delights shal be stronger then thine annoyes What griefe soeuer thou endurest imagine with thy selfe how it is but for a tyme and that the ioy of Eternity can neuer end The Fastings the Hayrecloth and al the sufferances of an austere life can neuer shake thy constancy if thy desires haue Eternity for obiect What accident soeuer stayes thee in the way of thy pilgrimage lift vp thine eyes to Heauē for to contemplate the Beauty of the mansiō whither thou aspirest Thou seest how for the purchase of a little glory of the world men expose their liues to a thousand dāgers and to possesse one day that same of Eternity wilt thou not hazard thy body which is nought els but corruption to the mercy of torments and paynes Consider my Soule the instability of all created things and put not thy trust in the earth since the waters snow sandes are the foundations therof As often as the meruailes of the world attract thee insensibly to their admiration breake but the crust of those goodly apparences and thou shalt see within how it is but a Schoole of Vanity a Faire of Toyes a Theater of Tragedies a labyrinth of Errours a Prison of darknes a Way beset with Thornes and a sea full of stormes and tempests That it is but a barren Land a stony Feild a greenish Meadow whose flowers do shroud Serpēts a Riuer of teares a mountaine of annoyances a vale of Miseries a sweet Poyson a Fable a dreame an Hospitall of febricitāts where euery one suffers in his fashiō Their repose is full of anguishes and their vnrest is replenished with despaire Their trauels are without fruit and their Ioyes are but counterfet where no content is found aboue a day all the rest of the life is nothing els but wretchednes So as if the euils wherewith it is propled could be counted they would surpasse in number the atomes of Democritus who could reckon the maladies of the body the passions