with the winde should threaten thy shipwrack wouldest thou not indeuour to recouer some Port Behold the world how it shakes and is ready to dissolue manifesting in the ende her vtter ruine Why therfore thinkest thou not on God Why reioicest thou not the condition wherein thou standest seeing thy selfe taken betimes out of those ruines shipwrackes and warranted from the blowes that threaten those which suruiue Wee must consider deare brethren and seriously meditate how we haue renounced the world that we reside therin but for a time as pilgrims and strangers Let vs euē embrace that day which summoneth euery one of vs to his proper dwelling place which hales and puls vs out of the snares of this life to put vs in possessiō of the kingdom of heauen He that trauels vp and downe countreys to some farre place desires he not to returne to his owne home If any man be vnder saile in the course towards his countrey desires he not a good winde to fall quickly with the land the more speedily by this meanes to come to the imbracemēts of his kinred and friends We call Paradise our countrey and the Patriarkes our Fathers Why run wee not then with all speed to see our countrey and to salute our Parēts A great number of friēds kinsfolks brothers and children already assured of their immortalitie and desirous of our good doe there attend and wish for vs. What a ioy will this bee both to them vs there to review and meet one another what pleasures there are amongst the inhabitants of the heauēly kingdom which now feare death no more and are sure to liue for euer There is the glorious cōpany of the Apostles the troups of Prophets reioicing in God the innumerable armies of martyrs who after hauing valiantly fought and suffered are immortally crowned In this place the Virgines triumph which subdued their own concupiscence bodily pleasures by the vigor of true continēce the charitable that by almes deedes and diuers other good workes towards the poor shewed themselues the performers of righteousnes and who hauing obeyed the commandements of God heaped vp vnto themselues a treasure in heauē where they are richly recompensed My most deare brethren let vs with all affection runne towards them and desire to bee there quickly and so to come vnto our Sauiour God behold our cogitations and thoughts the Lord Iesus Christ vouch safe to cast his eye on the resolutiō which our hearts in his promises haue vndertaken that they may haue the richest and most glorious rewards that with most ardent and zealous affectiō desire his presence Amen A Treatise of S. AMBROSE Bishop of Milan who flourished twenty yeers after S. CYPRIAN which is to say 370 yeeres after the birth of CHRIST Of the happinesse of death THE ARGVMENT IN this Treatise being diuided into 12. Chapters S. Ambrose shewes in what sense Death may be called good or euil and how many kinds of death there are Also what it is which the holy Scripture calles life death and what the meaning is of spiritual death Afterwards he prooues that death is happinesse to the faithfull seeing it is an end of sinne and by the same the world was redeemed Hereupon he cōcludes that therfore it is not to be feared teaching vs how wee should meditate thereupon But the better to take away all apprehension and bitternes he discourseth vpō al the dangers that in this world enuiron vs and vpon the discommodities of this life And then hee reenters into his former argument shewing that there is nothing terrible in death but the opinion thereof Then he proues that the soule doeth not perish with the body and entreats of the great contentment of soules after this present life as also of the happinesse of the celestiall kingdom and what wayes wee should take to come thereunto Of the happines of Death CHAP. 1. In what sense death may bee tearmed good or euill BEing to intreat of the happines of death wee must first conceiue in what respect it may bee called good or euill If it therefore hurt the soule it appeares to be an euil thing and on the contrary if the soule be endamaged nothing therby it cānot iustly be blamed Now that which is not euil is good for that which is vitious is euill also and so oppositely whatsoeuer is without vice may bee reputed good therfore good is contrary to euill and euill to good In briefe where there is no will to hurt that may be called innocēce and him we tearm culpable that is not innocent he that pardons merciful so him cruel that wil not pardon nor remit But some may replie that there are no things more cōtrary thā life and death If life thē bee reputed a speciall good must not death be esteemed as great an euill We must then obserue what life death is Life is the enioying of breath and death the priuation thereof Many thinke that it is a great happinesse to breathe to enioy life therefore is a good vnto them and a death it is to bee depriued thereof So the Scripture sayth Beholde Eccl. 15. I haue set before thee life death good and euill calling life good Gen. 2.3 and death euill comparing them one with another And to produce yet a more expresse testimony hereof the first man was placed in the garden of Eden to eate of the fruit of the Tree of life of other fruits in the garden with a precise prohibition that he should not eate the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and euill threatning him that he should that day die the death when he did eate therof He went beyond his cōmission lost the Tree of life being driuen out of the garden tasted of death Wherfore it followes that death is a notable euill seeing it is the rewarde of transgression and condemnation CHAP. 2. That there are three kinds of Death BVt there are three kindes of death The first is the death of sinne of which it is writtē Ezek. 18. The soule which sinneth shall die The second is death mysticall when any one dies to sinne and liues to God of which the Apostle sayth that wee are buried with Iesus Christ Rom. 6. in his death by Baptisme The third is the end of our course vocation in this worlde which is to say the separation of the soule from the body we see therefore that ther is an euill death that is when we die in sin another good wherin whosoeuer dies he is deliuered from sin and the third betwixt both for honest men repute it good and others stand in feare of it Though it deliuers all men yet are there but a few that take pleasure therein but that proceeds not from any vice that is in death that is in the separation of the soule from the body but from our infirmities in that giuing our selues ouer to the pleasures of the flesh and delights of
Did hee then prepare many habitations onely for eleuen persons Mat. 8. Why sayd he in another place that ther should come out of all quarters of the world those that should sit in the kingdome of God Do we doubt of the performance of his diuine will The will and deede of our Sauiour are all one Besides hee points out the way and deciphers the place saying You perceiue whither I go knowe the way The place is in heauen with the Father Christ is the way as he himselfe sayth I am the Way the Trueth and the Life Iohn 14. none can come to the Father but by mee Let vs therefore enter into this Way imbrace this Trueth follow this Life This is the Way which guides vs the Truth that confirmes vs and the Life is giuen vs. And to the end we might be resolued of his bountious and franke will he afterwards addeth Father my desire is that those whom thou hast giuen me may be there where I am with mee Iohn 17. to the ende they may see my glory O Lord IESVS we follow thee but call thou vs that wee may march the more chearfully for no man can aduance forward without thee thou being the Way the Trueth the Life the Possibilitie the Faith the Rewarde Receiue vs seeing thou art the Way confirme quicken vs seeing thou art the Trueth and the Life Manifest vnto vs that happinesse which Dauid desired to see whē hee should dwell in the house of the Lord. There is also treasure without sinne where eternal life is He saith in another place Psal 27. We shal be replenished with the riches of thy house Discouer therefore vnto vs O Lord Psal 63. this true happines which imparts vnto vs true life true being and sanctified motion We haue motion in the way and being in eternall life Cause vs to see that felicitie which is alwayes like to himselfe indissoluble immutable in whom wee are eternall in whome we knowe all good in whome there is entire and perfect rest immortall life perpetuall grace holy inheritance for the soule and a secure tranquillitie not beeing subiect vnto death but absolued and freed from the same without tears or lamentations For wherefore should any one there lament seeing no body there offendeth either God his neighbour or himselfe Briefly it is in this land of the liuing where the Saints are deliuered from all errour from care from ignorance from follie from pride from feares from perturbations couetous desires passions and lastly from all other cōtamination Seeing the land of the liuing is in heauē we must account this world the Region of the dead the which is most true seeing there are the shadow the body the gates of death Notwithstanding if the righteous man gouerne himselfe according to the will of God to doe the same he shall liue then come to the Region of the liuing where life is not confined but free where in stead of shadowe ther is glory S. Paul being in this worlde was not yet in glory hee mourned in this body of death and sayd that our life was layed vp with Christ in God Rom. 1. but when Christ our life should appeare we should also appeare with him in glory Let vs therefore chearefully aduance forwarde towardes the way Hee that enters into the true way Coloss 3. shall liue Wee haue testimony thereof Luk. 1. in the woman which touched but the hem of Christ his garment and she was deliuered from death as hee sayd vnto her Thy faith hath saued thee goe away in peace For if hee that touched a dead man was defiled he that toucheth the liuing shall certainely bee quickened Let vs therefore seeke after the Lord of life But so we must be carefull not to search after him amongst the dead lest it be said vnto vs as it was vnto the women Why seeke you him liuing amongst the dead hee is not here but risen vp The Lorde himselfe sheweth where it is that hee woulde haue vs seeke for him saying Go vnto my brethren and tell them I ascend vp to my Father and your Father to my God and your God Iohn 20. Let vs inquire for him where Iohn his disciple enquired for him and founde him out that is to say liuing with his Father from the beginning and being his eternall Sonne Wee must seeke him out in these last times imbracing his feete and worsnipping him that so he may vouchsafe to say vnto vs Fear not which importes thus much Feare not the sinnes of this age nor the worlds iniquities or the furious waues of carnall passions for I am the remission of sinnes feare not darknes I am the Light feare not death I am the Life Whosoeuer commeth to mee shal neuer see death As the plenitude and fulnesse of all Deitie is in him so to him be ascribed all honour glory and immortality for euer and euer Amen Certain places and sentences of the holy Scriptures concerning Life and Death The rule scope of our life SEek first the kingdome of God and the righteousnes therof then all things shall be administred vnto you Mat. 6.33 Al things which you would men should doe vnto you do vnto them againe for this is the Law and the Prophets Mat. 7.12 Luk. 6.37 Eternall life promised to those that obserue the commaundements of God OBserue my lawes and iudgements the which if a man keep he shall liue by them saith the Lorde Leuit. 18.5 Keepe my commandements and my lawe as the apple of thine eie and thou shalt liue Prou. 7.3 I haue giuen them my commaundements and shewed them my iudgements the which if a man performe he shall liue by them Ezech. 20.11 If thou wouldest enter into life keepe my commandements Mat. 19. Good Master what might I doe to obtaine eternall life Iesus aunswered thou knowest the commaundements doe that and thou shalt liue Mark 10.17 Luke 10.28 18.18 The Lawe is not of faith but the man that doth these things shall liue by the same Galat. 3.12 That we cannot fulfill the commaundements of God and consequently not obtaine eternall life by the Lawe but contrariwise we lose life by transgressing the Lawe WE knowing that a mā is not iustified by the works of the Lawe but by faith in Iesus Christ wee also beleeued in Iesus Christ to the ende that wee might be iustified by faith in Christ and not by the workes of the Lawe because no flesh shall be iustified by the workes of the Law Galat 2.16 All those that depend on the workes of the Lawe are vnder the curse for it is writtten Accursed bee hee that continues not in all those things which are written in the booke of the Lawe to performe them Galat. 3.10 Enter not into iudgement with thy seruant for no liuing man shall bee iustified in thy presence Psal 143. There is no man but hee sinneth 1. King 46. The children of God saye alwayes Forgiue vs
this life wee are afrayde to see so quicke an ende of this our earthlie course wherin notwithstanding there is more gall than honie Vertuous men such as feare God haue alwaies done otherwise for the long continuāce of their trauels in this world made them to mourne and think it much better to bee separated from this body Phil. 2. to bee with Iesus Christ so that some of them haue growen to such a point as to detest the day of their birth witnes he who said Iob 3. And let the day wherin I was borne perish For what pleasure is ther here in this life ful of anguish care replenished with a million of calamities miseries with the tears and lamentations of the afflicted wholly destitute of all consolation Therefore it is that Salomon in his booke of Ecclesiastes rather cōmends the conditiō of the dead than of the liuing Eccles 4. and further addeth Nay and I thinke him better than them both that neuer was borne for he neuer sawe the wicked workes that are committed vnder the Sunne In another place hee holds opinion that the dead infant is in better state and condition than an olde man by reason hee neuer sawe the euils that are wrought in the world hee neuer came into this darknes he neuer walked in the vanities of this present life and therefore he that neuer entered into the worlde enioyes more peace repose thā he that is come into the same And in deed what good can a man reape in this world that walkes therein but as an image and can neuer be satisfied with the desires thereof If there be any wealth to deuoure hee loseth his peace being constrained to haue his eye alwaies ouer that which with miserable greedines he sought after most miserably to possesse that which can stād him in no true stead could there be a greater slauery thā to see a man labour to amasse and heap those goods together that bring him no profit If this present life then be a continuall and insupportable burden we must needs coūt the same for a great cōfort This end is death and comfort is a good thing it followes therefore that death is a good thing That was the cause why Simeon so reioyced who knowing that hee should not die before he had seene the annointed of the Lord when they brought Iesus into the Temple he tooke him in his armes and sayd Lord thou lettest now thy seruant depart in peace as if hee before had remained in this life rather by compulsion then of his own free-will hee requiring to be set at libertie as if being hampred in some bonds he had then gone to take possession again of his freedome This bodie is as it were chained yea and which is worse with the chaine of temptations which shackles bindes torments outragiously by reason of the cruelty of sinne For we see in dying how the soule of man loseth it selfe by little and little from the bands of the flesh and beeing let out by the mouth flies away being deliuered out of the dungeon of this body Dauid made haste to go out of this temporall course saying I am a stranger Psal 39. and pilgrime before thee on the earth as all my Fathers were wherfore as a stranger he ranne speedily towards the common countrey of all the Saints requiring before death pardon of his sinnes wherewith he was defiled while he soiourned on the earth For hee that obtaines not pardon of his sinnes in this world shall neuer attaine to eternall life And therefore Dauid addes Let me retire my selfe suffer that I may bee refreshed before I goe and be no more Why pant we therfore after this life wherin the lōger any one remains the more he is surcharged with sin The Lord himselfe sayth Euery day is content with his owne miserie Mat. 6. And Iacob complained that the hundred thirty yeeres of his life Gen. 47. were short and irksome not that the dayes were tedious of thēselues but because malice here increaseth as the dayes passe away For there is not a day that passeth ouer our heads wherein wee doe not offend And therefore the Apostle sayde very well Phil. 1. Christ is gain vnto me both in life and death in the one hauing relation to the necessity of his life for the seruice of the Church and in the other to the particular benefit which he receiued by dying as wee also liue in seruing of Christ towards whō his seruants must needs shew their good affection in deliuering vnto others the doctrine of his Gospel And as for Simeon who said Now thou sufferest thy seruāt hee stayed because of Christ who is our King so that wee may not omit nor reiect his commandements How many men were there that the Romane Emperors caused to remaine in remote and strange Regions in hope of future recompense and honors Came they from thence without their masters leaue and without all comparison is it not a more excellent thing to obey the will of God than of men CHRIST therefore is gaine to the beleeuer as well in life as in death for in the qualitie of a seruant hee refuseth not to serue in this life and as a wise man hee embraceth the gaine of death It is a great gayne to bee out of the haruest of sinne to be remooued from euill and in full possession of good Saint Paul also addeth My desire is to remooue and be with Christ which were far better for me but for you it is more necessary that I should remaine in the flesh Hee set down this word necessary by reason of the fruit of his trauels and the worde better by reason of his celestial grace and thrise happie coniunction with Christ CHAP. 3. What death is and what life according to the Testimony of the holy Scriptures and of spirituall death SEeing then the Apostle teacheth that whosoeuer leaues this mortall bodie goes to Christ if he hath truely knowen serued him let vs a little consider what death what life is We knowe because the holy Scriptures auerre it that death is a loosing of the soule frō the body and as it were the separation of a man For in dying the soule is disioined frō the bodie Dauid therefore seems to allude hereunto when he sayes Thou hast broken my bonds Psal 116. I will offer thee sacrifice and praise The precedent verse of this Psalm because the death of the Saints is precious in the eyes of the Lord sheweth that by these bonds is vnderstood the coniunction of our bodies with the soule And therefore foreseeing euen then that hee was in the number of those faithfull that had deuoutly rendred their liues into the handes of Christ he reioyceth on his part hee also faithfully offring vp himselfe for the people of God to fight with huge Goliath hand to hand and by himselfe alone to remoue the opprobrie peril which then threatned the
into some straying and by-path Euen so this bodie procures diuers occupatiōs which dull the soules point and slacken our intentions so as the holy man Iob said well to this purpose Iob. 10. Thou hast made mee of clay and slime If this body be of clay we are onely plaistered therewith but it dissolues not nor distempers the soule with the filth of his Intemperāce Thou hast apparelled me saith he with skin and flesh thou hast interlaced me with bones and sinewes So that our soule is confined and extended thorow the sinewes of the bodie many times shee is as it were stiffe and otherwhiles crooked Hee addeth Thou hast not exempted me from iniquitie but if I bee wicked accursed be I yet if I were iust I durst not lift vp my head because I am all confusion for thou hast inuironed me with temptation What is this life but a place ful of ginnes and snares We walke amidst the nets and conuerse in the thickest of many daungers Before Iob had said The life of man is it not a battell vpon earth It is very materiall that hee said vpon earth for there is a life for man in heauen Iob 7. His life addeth he is like a labourers work which is to say spent in toy e and trauel consuming it selfe in vanities ebbing away in words hauing a mansion place in dust a life in slime and clay without resolution or constancie In the day he desires night before he eates he cries and weeps at the time of his repast there is nothing but teares in this life grief feare carefulnes incessant troubles trauell without solace anger and horrible anguish Many wish death cannot obtaine it if they obtaine this good they reioice because it is only death that bringeth a man to repose CAAP. 4. That Death is altogether good aswell because it procures an end to sin as in that the world is thereby redeemed BVt I heare some replie how it is written that God made not Death that life was in the Garden of Eden wherein God had planted the Tree of life and life is the light of men and so consequently the death that entred in is euill I demaund in what sense one may tearme it euill if according to the opinion of the heathen it hath no more feeling or if according to the Apostle Christ is gaine with whom it were better to be How then can death be an euill thing if after the same wee haue no feeling at all For where there is no sense of feeling there can bee no griefe seeing to be grieued is to feele ones selfe euill Or if there be any sense and seeling after death there is then life after death and the soule which vseth sense and hath life suruiueth the body after a separation by death But seeing the life and soule remain after death that which is good continues it not being annihillated by death but contrariwise it is augmented for there is no impediment of death that can detaine the soule but shee labours with the more efficacie being intentiue on those things that properly belong vnto her without being tied to the body which in stead of pleasuring ouerchargeth makes the soule to sinke vnder her burden What euill then receiues the soule if it be maintained in puritie that is to say in the knowledge and feare of God But if she haue done otherwise death notwithstanding is not euill but the life which was not a true life for wee cannot rightly call the course race of mankind a life which is so dayly assaulted and corrupted by sinne Why then doe we accuse death which doeth giue the reward of life or else which finisheth the afflictions miseries of the world I conclude therfore that either death enioyes the happines of his repose or is tormented by reason of the euill of a precedent life Now consider me this point well If life be a burden death is then a discharge and releasement thereof if life bee a punishment death is a deliuerance if there be any iudgement after death there is then a life after death Shall wee then say that such a death is not good Whē as life heere belowe is good how cā the death out of the world be euil seeing there is no apprehension which wee neede to feare during this life What makes this mortall life good but pietie righteousnes Life therfore is not good in respect of the soule bodies vniō but because by the feare of God it putteth to flight this euill and obtaines the happinesse of death more performing that which concerneth the good of the soule than that which pertaines to the society and coniunction of the soule body together If we call life good which is the mirrour of the soule separated from the body and if the soule be good which raiseth and retireth it selfe from the cōpany of the body out of question death is good which frees and deliuers the soule from the society and company of the body In what sense therfore soeuer wee take it death is good both because it separates two aduerse parties for fear lest they should ruine one another and in that it is a Port of refuge to those who hauing roued vp and downe the sea of this world search by faith the hauen of repose as also because it makes not our condition worse but reserues vs to a iudgement to come such as particularly wee are found hereunto may be added that it holds vs at rest it withdrawes vs frō their malice that suruiue in the world and replenisheth vs with the enioyance of those things which before we desired expected To this we may also annexe that it is in vain for men to fear death as if it brought an end to Nature For in calling to minde that God made not Death but man after he fell to sinne receiued the sentence of his disloyaltie and reuolt which was that he should returne to dust out of which hee was framed wee shall finde that death is the ende of sinne for feare least if life had beene prolonged sinne might the more haue augmented The Lord therfore suffered Death to enter into the world to the ende that sinne might cease And to preuent that Nature might not end in death he hath set down a day when all shall rise againe so that Death doeth extinguish sinne and makes our nature perdurable for euer And thus death is the portion of all the liuing And thou must passe it with a good courage for so we go from corruptiō to incorruption from death to immortalitie from labor to repose Let not therefore the very name of death terrifie thee but rather reioice in the commodities of so excellent a passage For what other thing is death but the funerall of our vices and resurrection of our vertues and therfore there was one that said very truely Let my life die the death of the Iust which is to say let it finish for the laying
vs conclude that death in it self is not an euill thing for there is no death either for those in this world or those out of it For the liuing it is nothing to them because they liue and for the dead they are out of his clouches And so it is no euill or discommoditie to the liuing who haue nothing to do therwith nor to those which in respect of the bodie are insensible and in their soules freely deliuered from the same CAAP. 8. That it is not Death it selfe of which men are afraid the opinion and apprehensiō therof only terrifies IF death be redoubted of the liuing I say it is not death it selfe but the apprehension thereof as euery one applies the same to his owne affections or in respect of his conscience as it is touched therwith whose wounds we may well accuse and not the sharpnes of death For the rest death is the gate of repose to the righteous as on the contrary it is the shipwracke and ruine of the wicked Out of question it is not the passage of death that offendeth them that feare to die but it is the apprehension and horrible conceit of this passage that thus tormenteth them In briefe as I saide before death greeues vs not but the apprehension thereof Now this terrible apprehension is grounded vpon a precedent opinion of our infirmitie and contrarie to trueth for veritie encourageth opinion daunteth vs. I will further auerre opinion it selfe hath a reference to life and not to death and we shal find that it is life it self which we iudge grieuous wher upon it appeares that the apprehensiō which we haue of death must not be referred to death it selfe but to life for if we haue done nothing in our liues whereof to be afeard wee haue no iust cause to feare death for punishment deserued by reason of offences committed feareth those of true iudgemēt and to commit sinne is an action of the liuing and not of the dead Life therefore hath relation to vs and the vigor and propagatiō of the same is supposed to be in our power but death which is the separation of the soule frō the body doth preiudice vs nothing at all The soule is deliuered and the bodie returnes vnto dust from whence it came The deliuered part reioiceth the body which goes to the earth feeles nothing and consequently hath no apprehension therof But if death bee an euill thing how comes it to passe that young men feare not to growe old and flie not the neighbour age vnto death From whence proceeds it that one which foresees his owne death dieth more willingly than another whom death surpriseth of a sudden So that I suppose they are very well satisfied which tooke death to be an euill thing and it were but for this onely reason amongst many others that by life we passe to death and by death we return to life for none can rise again except he first die It is true that fooles feare death as the worst thing that can befall them but the wise desire it because it is the ease of their labours and the end of their trauels For that which otherwise may bee said there are two reasons why fooles feare death one is that they call it death annihilation which in deed cānot be cōsidering that the soule liues when the body is reduced to ashes besides the bodie it selfe also must rise againe Another is because they fear the torments punishments wherof Poeticall books make often mention that is to say the barkings of Cerberus the terrible profunditie of the riuer Cocytus the Ferri-man Caron the troups of Furies the Infernall depths wherein the monster Hydra remaines that deuoures all where wee may see Titius whose intrailes renew growe again after they haue been eaten by a great huge Vulture which neuer ceases to torment him In like manner Ixion who rowles incessantly the great stone with the huge rock hanging iust ouer their heads that make good cheare beeing ready to fall vpon them These be the Poets fables But so that wee must not denie but there is punishment after death And if wee referre that to death which happens after it let vs also referre vnto life that which fals out after life Punishment therefore must haue no relation vnto death the which as before was deliuered is but a separation of the soule from the bodie And this separation is not euill seeing that to be dissolued Phil. 1. and liue with Iesus Christ is the best thing of all others saith the Apostle It followeth then that death of it selfe is not euill True it is that the death of sinners is euill From whence I collect that therefore all death in generall is not bad but that only of sinners in particular for Psal 14. 116. the death of the righteous is precious the which once more declares that the euil lies not indeath but in sinne The Grecians expressed death by a word which imported to haue end because it is the end of this earthly life The Scripture also calleth death a sleep witnesse hereof that which IESVS CHRIST sayde Iohn 10. Our friende Lazarus sleepeth but I will goe and wake him Sleepe is a good thing for then wee take repose according vnto that which was written Psal 3. I slept tooke my rest awaked againe because the Lord receiued mee into his protection The sleep of death therfore is a sweete repose Furthermore the Lord awakes and raiseth vp them that sleepe for he is the resurrection Ther is also a notable sentēce in the Scripture which sayth Eccle. 2. Praise no man before his death for euery one is knowen at the end of his life and he is iudged in his children if he haue taught and instructed them in his owne knowledge for the childrens misgouernment is euer ascribed to the fathers negligence And because euery liuing man is subiect to offend old age it selfe not being exempted here-from we read that Abraham died in a good old age because hee continued still constant in the good affection which he had to serue God Death therfore serues for a restimonie to a precedent life For if the Pilot be not worthy of his commendation before he hath brought his ship secure into the Porte what reputation can we holde a man in before the houre of his death Hee is his owne Pilot amongst the stormes and waues of this life as long as here hee soiournes he is in danger to perish The Captaine receiueth not his triumphaunt Crowne before the victorie be wonne the Souldier layeth not aside his Armes nor hath his due recompense before the ouerthrowe of the enemie The conclusion is that death is the full and entire payment of the faithfull mans wages it is the summe of his rewarde and his finall Quietus est Let vs also consider what Iob sayth Iob 29. That the blessing of the dead came vpon him for though ISAAC blessed his children dying and
our sinnes Math. 6.11 The reward of sinne is death Rom. 6.23 Eternall life which wee lose by our corruption and transgression is restored again vnto vs by Iesus Christ THe gift of God is eternall life by Iesus Christ our Lorde Rom. 6.23 At the same time when we were dead in sinne hee reuiued vs together by Christ by whose grace you are saued Ephe. 2.5 The determination and grace of God is manifested vnto vs by the apparition of our Lord Iesus Christ who hath destroyed death and brought to light life and immortalititie by the Gospel 2. Timot. 1.10 In this the loue of God appeared vnto vs when he sent his onely Sonne into the worlde to the end wee might liue by him 1. Iohn 4.9 And this man is witnesse that God hath giuen vs eternall life and this life is in his Sonne 1. Iohn 5.11 To whom eternall life is giuen GOd so loued the world as he gaue his only begotten Son that no man which beleeueth in him might perish but haue euerlasting life He that beleeueth in the Son hath eternall life but he that beleueth not in the Son shall not see life but the wrath of GOD shal remaine vpon him Iohn 3.15 36. Verely verely I say vnto you whosoeuer heareth my words and beleeueth in him that sent mee he hath eternall life and shall not come into condemnation but passe from death to life This is the will of my Father which sent me That whosoeuer sees the Sonne and beleeues in him he may haue eternall life and I will raise him vp at the last day Verely verely I say vnto you hee that beleeues in mee hath eternall life Iohn 5.24 and 6.40 47. Iesus sayde I am the resurrection and the life hee that beleeueth in me although hee be dead shall liue Iohn 11.25 These things are written that you may beleeue that Iesus Christ is the Sonne of God that in beleeuing you may haue life in his Name Iohn 20.31 God shal giue to euery one according to his workes which is to say to those that with patience in well-doing seeke glory honor and immortalitie eternall life Rom. 2.6 7. Being now deliuered from sinne and made the seruants of God you haue your fruit in sanctification and for your ende eternall life Rom. 6.22 If we be children we are also heires heires I say to God and coheirs with Iesus Christ that is to say if wee suffer with him that with him wee may also bee glorified Rom. 8.17 Seeke peace with all men and holinesse without which none can see the Lord. Hebr. 12.14 The excellencie of eternall life WHen the account is cast I think the sufferances of this present time no wayes equiualent to the glory to come which shall be reuealed in vs. Rom. 8.18 The things which the eye hath not seene the eare heard and that neuer entred into the heart of man are those which God hath prepared for those that loue him 1. Cor. 2.9 This present life is limited THe dayes of a man are short the number of his moneths remaine with thee thou hast set downe limits which hee must not exceede Ioh 14.5 The shortnesse and vanitie of the same WE are strangers and forreiners before thee as our Fathers were our dayes are as the shadow vpon the earth and there is no mention of them 1. Chron. 29.15 Man borne of a woman is but of little continuance and those few dayes are replenished with trouble sorrowe hee cometh out like a flower and is gathered vp hee flies away like a shadow and stayes not Are not his dayes set downe Iob 14.1 2 5. Thou hast assigned my dayes the measure of an hand-breadth and my life time is before thee as nothing in effect there is nothing but vanitie with euery man that liues As soon as thou chastisest a man reprehending him for his iniquity thou consumest all his excellencie like a moth so slight a thing is euery man Psal 39.12 The sonnes of men are nothing they are but the lyers of great Princes so that if they were all put together in a ballance they would bee found lighter than vanitie it selfe Psal 62.10 The dayes of our life are threescore and ten yeeres and of those that liue longest but fourescore and yet the best of them are but affliction miserie they soon passe hence and we our selues flie away swiftly Psal 90.10 The dayes of a man are like the grasse and flourish like the flower of the fielde Psal 103.13 Man is like to nothing his dayes are as the shadowe which vanisheth away Psal 144.4 See thorowout all Salomons Ecclesiastes All flesh is grasse and all the glory thereof is as the flower of the field Isa 40.6 I tell you this my brethren that the time is short 1. Cor. 7.29 What is this your life it is certainely but a vapour which appeareth for a while and then vanisheth away Iames 4.14 The end of mans life WHether you eat or drinke or whatsoeuer you doe do it al to the glory of God 1. Cor. 10.31 The first death which is the separation of the soule from the body and the second which is eternal death proceede from sinne THe day wherein thou eatest of the fruite of the Tree of knowledge of good and euill thou shalt die the death Gen. 2.17 As by one man sinne entred into the worlde and by sinne death so death came vpon all men because al men sinned Rom. 5.12 The first death is common to all IT is ordained that all shall once die and after that comes Iudgement Heb. 9.27 The Children of God ought to feare death FEare not those that can slay the bodie and not kill the soule Math. 10.28 Hee that loueth his life shall lose it and whosoeuer hates this worlde hee shall finde it in eternall life Iohn 12.25 We knowe when our terrestrial lodging is defaced we haue a dwelling place in God an house not made with handes but eternall which is in heauen 2. Corint 5.1 I am inclosed on the one side and the other desiring to be dissolued and to be with Christ the which were much better for me Phil. 1.23 Death destroyed by Iesus Christ IEsus Christ hath destroyed Death and brought to light Life and immortality by the Gospel 2. Tim. 1.10 Death is swallowed vp in victorie 1. Cor. 15.54 Who sits at the right hand of God hauing swallowed vp death that we might be made partakers af eternall life 1. Pet. 3.22 What opinion wee should hold of the dead HAppie are those that die in the Lord yea saith the holy Ghost for they rest from their labours and their works follow them Apo. 14.3 We must not mourne for the dead as profane persons doe ALso my brethren I would not haue you ignorant concerning those which sleep to the end you may not be sorrowfull as others are that haue no hope 1. Thes 4.13 Their soules which die in the Lord are receiued into rest and glory in heauen ANd it happened that
our saluation Hee sheweth vs vaine and ridiculous things afarre of and perswadeth vs that all is magnificence and happines he terrifies vs with such things as we should not be afraid of and maketh vs flie that which we should embrace He calles summons allures and flatters vs by the interposition of our concupiscences if this bee not enough hee stormeth and rageth endeuouring to terrifie vs both within and without O eternall light and truth Oh heauenly Lord most mercifull Father scatter and dissipate these clowdes of ignorance and errour illuminate our vnderstandings and permit vs not to approach vnto that which thou commādest vs to flie which is pernicious and hurtfull to vs that we may desire nothing but that which is truely to be desired that is to say thy selfe who art the source and spring of all goodnes and of our life and eternal felicitie All flesh is grasse and the glorie of a man is as the flower of the fielde procure then that we may seeke for our stay and cōtentment in the grace which thy Sonne brought vnto vs that our life may bee inclosed in him so that in the day of separation of our soules from their bodies wee may absolutely finde it again in heauen in expecting chearfully and with assured ioy the most happie resurrection of this flesh wherein all corruption infirmitie and reproach being abolished and death it selfe swallowed vp in victory we may liue eternally with thee in an incōprehensible felicitie wherwith thou shalt be glorified Maintain therefore thy childrē good Lord in this faith hope accōplishing in them thy worke till they intirely be with thy self to enioy the inheritāce glory which thy onely Sonne purchased for them by his merits Amen A Prayer O Lord Iesus Christ creator redeemer of mankind who didst say I am the Way the Truth and the Life I beseech thee by that vnspeakeable charitie which thou shewedst in offering thy selfe vp to death for vs that thou wilt not permit me to swarue a whit frō thee that art the Way or to distrust in thy promises seeing thou art Trueth performest whatsoeuer thou doest promise Make me to take delight only in thee who art eternal Life without whō ther is nothing worthy to bee desired either in heauen or earth Thou hast taught vs the true and onely way to saluation that we might not goe wandring vp and downe in the by-paths of this world reuealing vnto vs more clearely than the Sunne at noon dayes what wee ought to beleeue performe and hope after wherin we should rest satisfied and contented It is thou that madest vs to vnderstand how vnhappy we were in Adam that there is no meanes to escape the perdition wherein wee are altogether plunged but by faith in thee Thou art that resplendent light which appearest vnto those that trauell thorow the desert of this life and who hauing deliuered vs out of the darkenesse of spirituall Aegypt◠doest disperse the clowdes of our vnderstanding and enlightenest vs that wee may contend after the promised inheritāce which is eternall life into the which the vnfaithfull shall neuer enter but those who assuredly relie on thy holy promises Oh what goodnesse hast thou vouchsafed to send down from the bosome of thy Father and his eternall throne vpon earth in putting on our beggerly nature and of a Master to become a seruant that by thy doctrine thou mightest chace away the darkenesse of our ignorance prepare and addresse our feete vnto the way of peace and make plaine vnto vs the way of saluation such a way being appointed vs in following whereof no man can goe astray or bee wearie seeing thy grace and power doeth accompanie vs therein all the dayes of our life And moreouer by the comfort of thy holy Spirit thou doest strengthen vs and redouble our courage in passing the same Thy worde is the breade wherewith we are nourished and thy promise is the staffe wheron we leane Thou thy selfe by a secret and incomprehensible power doest conduct and maintain vs therein after an admirable maner that we might the more couragiously march towards thee both in foule and faire weather And as thou hindrest and preseruest vs from falling into the snares of the world and Sathan euen so in that thou art the trueth it selfe thou remouest farre from vs all doubtes scruples and distrusts that might anie wayes disturbe arrest or diuert vs during this our course Thou makest vs to discerne the ende and scope of heauenly vocation the worlds miserie and vanitie the fragilitie of this present life the gate of death and the happie and blessed life which is within the same And as thou art this true life euen in this worlde thou doest quicken vs by thy truth that are poore miserable dead wretches in sinne Thou augmentest this life by the ministerie and efficacie of thy holy Gospel and confirmest it by the vse of the Sacraments which thou hast ordained for the fortification of thy childrens faith while our corruption and that which is mortall in vs being defaced by the resurrection wee may exist and liue eternally with thee in bodie and soule then when thou shalt bee all in all Eternall life is to knowe the true God thee his Sonne who was sent vnto vs. Now wee behold thee by faith as in a mirror obscurely but one day we shal see thee face to face to be trāsform'd into thy glory wholly reformed according to thine owne image I beseech thee most mercifull Sauiour that thou wilt increase my faith that I may bee so well grounded in the doctrine of my saluation as nothing may be able to misleade mee augment in mine heart the reuerence which I owe vnto thee that I may neuer swarue from thy obedience strengthen me in such a sort that neither alluremēts nor threatnings either catch or astonish mee but that I may adhere constantly to thee who art my life euen vnto death Procure that in the power of thy promises and holy spirit I may bee heated more and more in thy loue and so leauing behinde the things of this world I may bend my selfe to that which is solide and perfect Encrease thy grace in mee that from day to day I may die in my selfe to bee reuiued and conducted by thy fauour fearing none but thee O most mighty and puissaunt God louing none but thee euen as there is nothing truely amiable but thy glorious selfe boasting in nothing but thy grace and mercie which is that whereof onely thy seruants should glorie they seeking after none other happinesse but thee nor desiring nothing but thy selfe who art the full and perfect felicitie of all the faithfull Amen Another LOrd Iesus that art alwayes mercifull and ceasest not to bee my Sauiour as well in aduersitie as prosperitie graunt mee the grace to rest satisfied with all humble obedience in thy will whēsoeuer it shal please thee to mixe some sower amongst so much sweete as thou hast caused mee
SIX EXCELLENT TREATISES of LIFE and DEATH Collected and published in French by PHILIP MORNAY Sieur du Plessis And now first Translated into English Imprinted at London by H.L. for Mathew Lownes and are to be sold at his shop in Pauls Church-yard at the signe of the Bishops head 1607. The Treatises and Discourses contained in this Volume PLATO his Axiocus a Dialogue entreating of Death A Discourse of TVLLIVS CICERO'S concerning Death Collections out of SENECA'S Works touching Life Death A Sermon of mortality made by S. CYPRIAN Bishop of Carthage and a Martyr of IESVS CHRIST A Treatise of Saint AMBROSE Bishop of Milan touching the benefit happinesse of Death Certain places of Scripture Prayers Meditations concerning Life and Death The Translator to the Reader Here knowe that the first Discourse mentioned in the Aduertisement ensuing is none of these sixe here set down but another precedent to these and formerly translated by the Countesse of Pembroke The French Authors Aduertisement to the Reader COncerning the Argument of this discourse it tēdeth principally to the abating of that hope and presumption which wee vsually haue to obtain in this life that which neuer was enioyed here since the transgression of our first Parēts nor neuer shall be as it is very well inferred especially in the first Discourse by the description of man frō his beginning while he leaues this world As for this word Fortune the which ye shal here meet withall in diuers passages entertain it out of the toleration of Custome and Vse or rather indeed out of the necessity of our tōgue the which in stead of quite abolishing doth too stiffely retaine the vse hereof because those things which commonly happen without it being known why or wherfore vnto men they were referred by our Ancestors according to the heathen phrase to Fortune And to conclude wheras Plato Cicero and Seneca who were called Philosophers are brought in speaking by way of Dialogue after the first Discourse let not this be vnderstood of any want we had of more Authentike Authors that is to say amōgst the ancient Christians vpon this argumēt seeing we haue in like maner produced two in this second edition which are Saint Cyprian and S. Ambrose but this was onely thought a better meanes to awake vs thorowly by the crie of these strāge witnesses who tasting only but out of their naturall iudgement and some knowledge and experience which they had of the vanities of man it seems they would fain hail vs along to some better Port and Retrait than themselues haue attained for them or witnessed vnto others by their example AXIOCVS A Dialogue written by PLATO or by some other heathen Philosopher conteining a discourse against death between SOCRATES CLINIAS and AXIOCVS SOCRATES MInding to goe to Cynosarges and being come neer to Elissus I heard a mans voice calling me out alowd by my name and so turning backe to see who it was I might perceiue Clinias Axiocus his sonne together with Damon the Musician and Charmides the sonne of Glaucon running towards the faire fountaine I presently left my owne way to go meete them to the end we might more conueniently discourse talk together Then Clinias weeping bitterly sayd vnto me Socrates now is the time wherin thou mayest put that great wisedom in triall which makes thee so highly esteemed of euery one For my Father is suddēly fallen so grieuously sicke that wee looke rather for his death than life for which cause he seemes to bee wonderfully perplexed although when he was in perfect health he laughed at them that feared death as though it had bin some hideous Hobgoblin or grisly Antick taunting and scornfully mocking them for the same I pray you therefore come and see him that he may be fortified by your good instructions as you know very well how to doe it that hee may patiently and acceptably attend his death And for my part this will bee one of the last dutifull offices which I shall performe towards my Father For me Clinias then I answered you shall euer finde mee ready to endeuour my selfe for you in any thing within my power but especially in a respect so deuout and religious Wherfore let vs goe quickly for if it be so we must not delay time Clin. I am sure that your very presence will much comfort my Father if he be yet aliue for by such good means he hath oftē-times escaped of dangerous maladies Socr. Well wee found Axiocus in reasonable good state of bodie but in his minde so afflicted that he stood in great neede of some consolation for he neuer left turning sometimes on the one and then on the other side sighing and lamenting with a great agitation motion of his armes Seeing him in this state I began thus to breake with him Why Axiocus what meanes this what 's become of your dayly brags and commendations of Vertue where is now your inuincible courage when you haue shewed your selfe so valiant throughout the whole combat now drawing neer to the end whē you should receiue the reward and recompence of your trauailes silly Champion doe you now faint why doe you not better obserue the condition of all mankind you being a man well experienced by your yeares and an Athenian Doe you no more remember what all men haue often in their mouthes that this our life is but a Pilgrimage and that after hauing honestly passed ouer our dayes we must then chearfully and merily remoue out of this present life But to be thus deiected and to leaue this world with as much grief as a little childe would doe this ill beseemes that wisedome and prudence which is expected to be in men of your yeeres Axio It is true Socrates and you do aduertise me for my good but I knowe in what maner for when it comes to the point and to be apprehended indeed all this brauery of wordes closely slinkes away without so much as a cogitation theron and in stead therof a certain feare takes place which surpriseth my minde when I think that I must bee depriued of this light of so much worldly goods to lie and rot I knowe not where in a place where I shall not not be seen or heard of any body there to bee changed into wormes and loathsome creatures Soc. This falles out vnto thee Axiocus because through incircumspection and without thinking well thereupon you couple sense and the state of death together so that your wordes and deedes are one repugnant to the other For you consider not that at one instant you grieue for the losse of sense and the putrefaction which you fear to feele together with the preuention of the delights of this life euen as if after death you were to leade another earthly life and to enioy the senses which now you doe whereas your body shall bee dissolued as it was before your conception And as you felt no kind of euill in that time when Draco and
who honor thee in this world but to resplendent and most excellent verity her self Axi Thy discourse hath made mee change my mind I am now so far from fearing death that contrariwise I ardently desire the same and to expresse my selfe more magnanimiously I am already in a maner out of the world and begin to enter into these diuine and eternall paths so that being wholly eased of my infirmity I am quite become another man than that I was before CICERO in his dialogue of old age towards the end THere remaines a fourth reason which seems to vexe and torment olde age that is to say the approach of Death which at that time can not bee farre off But I think that old man to be very miserable which in the space of so long time before neuer learned that death simplie was not to bee feared but rather to bee cōtemned if it destroy the soule as some thinke but according to my opinion it ought to bee desired seeing it leades man to a place where he shall liue eternally Wee cannot finde any one betwixt these two opinions What should I then feare if I either feele no misery at all or if I shall bee happie after death Besides this is ther any man so foolish how yong a Gul soeuer he be to suppose that he hath a Patent of his life but til the euening He is so farre from that that euen youth it self is subiect to many more kinds of death than old age yong men sooner fall into diseases they are more grieuously sicke and hardlier healed so that it is rare to see men liue to bee olde If this were not wee should liue more wisely and happily for old men are indued with the vnderstanding of counsel and wisedome and without them Cōmon-wealths could not stand on foote But let vs come to this feare of present death and in that olde age is wrongfully charged to be subiect to this apprehension feeing this is a more common accident with youth For my part I felt in the death of my sonne your brothers of whom great hope of good hereafter was cōceiued that death threatens all ages Some body may reply that a yong man hopes to liue long which one aged cannot expect This hope is truely the hope of a yong man that is to say of a light head For is there a greater sottishnes than to make sure and certain of that which is altogether vncertaine and vnsure But an old man hath no reason in the world to cōceiue any such hope and I affirme that his condition herein is far better thā a yong mans in that he hath obtained what the young man doth but hope for and that is long life which the olde man hath passed I pray you what length doe you find in a mans life fet down vnto me the longest of all others Let vs consider the age of the King of the Tartessians for I find in bookes that one Arganthonius reigned fourescore and liued sixescore yeeres but I see that ther is nothing long but tendeth to some period the which being attained vnto all the rest is gone and past ther remaining nothing but what thou hast obtained by Iustice and pietie The howers passe away so doe the moneths that past neuer returnes againe what will come hereafter we knowe not Euery one must be contented with the time allotted him to liue For as hee that playes a Part vpon a stage needes not to repeat the whole Comedie from one end to the other to make him be accompted a good Actor so that in the Part which he properly plaieth he giue contentmēt to the spectatours no more is it requisite that the wise man should liue as long as the oldest man that euer liued in the worlde because a shorte life is long enough for a man to carrie himselfe therein honestly and vertuously And so if our dayes shoot out at length we must be no more weary of them than labourers that after the beautie of the Spring time see Summer ensue and then Autumne For the Spring time resembles youth and makes some demonstration of the fruits which afterward must be reaped Other ages are proper to gather and lay vp the increase of the earth and the fruit of olde age is the remembraunce of those goods which wee haue formerly purchased whatsoeuer is done according to nature we may place in the rank of good things But what is more naturall than to see old men die The same falles out to youth but somewhat against Nature and as it were in despite of her so that when yong men die me thinkes I see as it were a great fire quenched by an huge quantity of water where as contrariwise old men droppe away of thēselues without any violence offered like to a fire that quencheth of it selfe And euen as apples but greene and vnripe fall not from the trees except we violently pluck them off being ripe they fall off without vsing any great force thereto so also young men seeme to die not without some violence offered to their nature old men quite otherwise The which so cheares mee vp that the neerer I approach vnto death the neerer I discerne my selfe to hale in with that harbor and port where I pretend to anchor after so long dangerous a nauigatiō All the ages of our life are limited but only old age wherein wee liue vertuously as long as the means yet remaines to labour in our vocation and otherwise to hold death in contempt the which may bee the reason also that old age is more ardent and couragious than youth This is that which Solon answered to the Tyrant Lisistratus who interrogated him concerning vertue wherewith he so braued him and was alwaies opposite to his designes because sayd Solon I am old but the ende of this life is then most sweet and excellent when the same Nature which built defaceth also her worke whē a man til the last retains his senses vnderstāding entire For euen as the Carpenter or Architect can easily when he lists plucke the ribs and beames of his ship asunder or the other plucke downe that building which he had erected euen so Nature most properly dissolueth a man whom shee before had sodered together of two so different pieces now al kind of Soder and conglutination lately made is hardly dissolued but in that old and long worn it is otherwise and so the remainder of life is not much desired or sighed after by the aged who haue reason rather to be ready to dislodge expecting minutally the great Captains comandement which is God without whose will and pleasure as Pythagoras sayd wee are prohibited to leaue our Guarison Corps du guard wherin we are constituted in this worlde There is a notable saying ascribed to the wise Solon wherin hee would haue his friends to mourne and lament his death which makes me thinke that his meaning onely was herein that they should shewe to
haue made great accompt of him But the Poet Ennius peraduenture hit better vpon this point when he forbade his death to be lamented or that any mourning funerals should bee performed he supposing that such a death was not to bee deplored which was seconded by immortality For the rest if there bee some sense or feeling in death and in our last gaspes it lasts not long especially in a very aged man and as for any feeling after death it is either nothing at all or else a thing to be much desired But wee must haue learned betimes to contemne death for without this Meditation none can haue any repose in minde seeing it is most certaine that die wee must not knowing when and it may be at the same moment or instant of our thought How can that man therefore enioy a peaceable soule if hee fear death which threatens him euery minute of his life I neede not dilate more at large of this wen I call to mind not only Lucius Brutus who was slain in the deliuery of his countrey or of the two Decij who violēcly plunged themselues the one within an huge deepe Dell and the other within a Battalion of armed men amongst whom he verily thought to haue beene slaine or Marcus Attilius who couragiously returned to cruell punishment choosing rather to lose his life than breake his oath which hee had plighted to his enemies and the two Scipioes that exposed their bodies to the enemies furie for the stopping of a passage or Lucius Paulus who by his owne death defaced the temerity rashnes of his collegued Consull in the discomfiture of the Romanes at Cannas and also Marcus Marcellus who being dead was honored with a Toombe by his most mortall enemie but I will also set before your eyes our moderne Regiments which haue often-times chearefully and with noble courage assaulted those places from whence no one of the troupes euer hoped to come off Should it be sayd that learned old men doe feare that which youth and those rusticall ignorant for the most part valiantly despise And moreouer me thinkes the being satisfied with all things else makes one also well satisfied with liuing Infancie hath certain disports and recreations which young men desire not to put in practise Old age feeles no contentment in the pleasures of youth and men of auncient yeeres seek not after that wherin men delight that are yet in the flower of their age and olde age discernes the very last employments of our life but yet in such sort that all in the end vanisheth away as the exercises of precedent times haue done the which comming to passe to bee satisfied with liuing clearely shewes that then it is high time to die For my part I see nothing that hinders me from setting down my opinion touching death and me thinkes I may speake thereof with good motiue seeing it appeareth so neer vnto me Out of doubt Scipio Laelius I thinke that your fathers which were honorable men my best friends though dead to the world doe yet liue and such a life as onely deserues to bee so called For while we are inclosed within these straite precincts of the body we trauell and we must will we nill wee yeeld vnto the yoak and burden the celestiall soule and off-spring of the highest Tabernacle being ouerwhelmed and as it were buried in earth this being a contrary habitation to eternitie and a diuine nature But I beleeue that the immortal Gods haue planted soules in humane bodies to the end there might be people to replenish preserue the world to contemplate the beautifull course of heauenly bodies to imitate them in constancie and regular life Besides many reasons and arguments which haue induced me to beleeue this the authority and reputation of the greatest Philosophers hath much furthered me I haue heard say that Pythagoras and the Pythagoreans somtimes named the Philosophers of Italy consequently inhabitants of our countrey were alwayes of opinion that our soules were extracted from Diuinity I haue vnderstood also of Socrates his discourse who was iudged by the Oracle of Apollo to be the wisest man of the world toward the later part of his life about the immortality of soules What neede wee any more behold my opinion herein Seeing the soules of men are so pregnant so retentiue and mindfull of things past foresee so discreetly those to come haue inuented so many mysteries and diuers other worthy Sciences excellent matters it is impossible that a nature capable of so great good should be mortal And the soule hauing perpetual motion without receiuing any inferiour beginning thereof considering that she onely moues of her self it must necessarily follow that she shall haue this motion for euer because shee can neuer abandon her selfe Also in that the nature of the soule is simple there concurring in her no mixed difference shee cannot be diuided And so being iudiciall she is by consequent immortall For this is a manifest proofe that men are intellectual before their being born in that children learning the most difficult Sciences doe suddenly comprehend such an infinitie of things that we may suppose they begin not then to knowe what is but onely remember call againe vnto minde These are almost the very words of Plato On the other side the great Cyrus of whome Xenophon hath written at large at the hower of his departure sayd thus vnto his children My deare beloued though I remaine no more amongst you yet do not thinke for all this that I haue afterwardes no more being nor am resident in any place for when I was in your cōpany you could not perceiue my soule but only you imagined it to be within my body by my exteriour actions Beleeue therefore that this soule remaines so still although you see the body no more The vertuous should not be honoured after death if their soules had performed nothing worthy of their memoriall long time before their death I could neuer yet bee perswaded that if soules liue within mortall bodies that euer they can die issuing out of the same or that the soule going out of the body which of it selfe is stupid and senselesse becommeth then also inexistent insensible but on the contrary when she is freed from all commixtion with this body shee then beginneth to be pure and entire then say I shee is mounted vnto the height and top of all wisedome Moreouer it being so that humane nature is dissolued by death wee plainely see whither all other things tend that is to say thither from whence they were first extracted the soule onely excepted the which wee neither see enter soiourne nor issue out of the body But for the rest you see there is nothing which so truely resēbles death as sleep And the soules of them that sleep clearly in this point shew their diuinitie that being free and in repose they foresee things to come which plainly argues their being after their relaxation from
these corporall bonds The which being granted honor mee then as a thing diuine but if the soule were to perish with the body yet for all this forbeare not to feare the Gods which support and gouerne this principall worke of theirs that is called man the which like to good children performing you shall inuiolably preserue the memoriall of my name This was Cyrus his discourse a little before his death But if I shall not herein bee too burdensom vnto you hearken what I will deliuer vnto you in mine owne behalfe No body shall euer perswade me O Scipio that either your predecessors or other men of great note whō it is not requisite to name would euer haue enterprised such memorable exploits to all posterities but that they cōsidered that their being in the world was to no other ende but to procure the good of their successors Think you to speake plainely and after the manner of old men which loue to set foorth themselues that I would haue so trauelled both day and night in warre peace if my renowne and glory should finish with this present life would it not be better then to liue idle and in repose without any trouble or vexation But my soule I know not in what maner gathering together new forces regardeth happinesse with such a penetrant eye as if departing this world shee should but only then beginne to liue And if it were otherwise that soules were not immortall honest men would not aspire vnto a perpetuall glory What is the meaning of this that euery wise man dies willingly and the wicked with great grief Think you not that the soule which sees farre clearer and further off knowes well that shee is going to a better place and on the contrary hee which hath an heauie and disturbed soule sees not the like Surely I desire nothing more thā to see your Fathers whom I haue honoured and cherished And besides the desire which I haue to drawe neere thē that I haue knowen I would willingly also talke with those of whō I haue heard which shewed thēselues vnto mee by their bookes and whose names I haue set downe amongst mine owne writings Now that I drawe neere vnto them it would displease me much to hang backward or to bee rowled downe againe as wee might doe with a round ball And if some God had permitted me to returne againe into my infancie and to crie in my cradle I would very constantly and flatly refuse such an offer for seeing I haue almost run my race I would not be called backe again from my goale to the first setting forward Is ther any true commoditie in this life Is it not troublesome through al the periods thereof But admit there are some cōmodities therein yet are we far from finding satisfactiō or obtaining of our wished ends and desires I will not raile against the same as diuers learned men haue often-times done neither repent I that I haue liued for I haue so passed my time that I am of opinion I haue done some good in the world I goe out of this life as out of an Inne not as out of mine own house seeing Nature hath sent vs forth hither for a litle time to passe forward in our iourney and not cōtinually here to inhabit Oh happy will that day be when I shall depart to this celestiall assembly of soules and leaue the rascallitie of this world for I shal not only then bee with those good men aboue-named but also with mine owne sonne one of the best men that euer the earth brought foorth whose body I haue seen brought to ashes wheras in reason hee should rather haue seen the like by mine But see his soule neuer leaues mee but continually fixing her lookes vpon me she is flowen vp now into those places whither she knowes that I must follow I bare this losse patiently as it appeares but yet I confesse that I was much trobled therwith euer comforting my selfe with this Meditatiō that ther should bee no long space betweene her departure and mine Out of the Epistles of SENECA Epist. XXIIII RVminate I pray thee in thine owne minde what thou hast often heard and as often spoken but then make triall of it by effect if you haue either heard or seriously vttered the same For it would bee too great a basenes in vs as men vse to cast in our teeth that we should only vse the words and not the workes of Philosophie As I remember I haue heard you sometimes handle this common place that we fall not suddenly vpō death but march towards the same by little and little To say the trueth wee die euery day for euery day a peece of our life slides away whatsoeuer is past and gone of our yeeres Death hath it already in his hands yea and euer when we our selues doe growe our life decreaseth First we lose our Infancie then our Adolescencie and then our youth Euen to the day before this what time soeuer is past is lost and gone the present day which now we passe we share stakes therein with Death So ought we alwayes to be confirmed both in the one and the other that we doe not too much loue nor hate our life we must end it when reason summons vs thereunto but wee must not desperatly nor rashly leaue it like one that takes his runne to fetch the better rise A wise and magnanimious man must neuer flie nor shun this life except when he is departing there-from but auoide like a rock a vicious passion which surprizeth and layes holde of many which is to say the desire and hastening of death Epist. XXVI DOubtlesse I debate with my self I discusse make exact examination as if my triall were at hande and the day already comne that must giue sentence of al my yeeres and dayes past Whatsoeuer wee haue either done or said hitherto is nothing they are but vaine and slight testimonials of our courage intermixed with much deceit cousinage Death only will assure mee what I haue profited in Philosophie I therefore prepare my selfe without all feare for that day wherein without all sophistication I shall bee able to iudge whether I haue been faint hearted or magnanimious both in word and deed when I vsed to bulke forth so many iniurious and reproachfull words against Fortune Concerning the esteem we are in amongst men it is alwaies doubtfull and declining on euery side also concerning thy studies and endeuors examine well al thy whole life Death shal denounce sentence vpon thee I say that disputatiōs learned discourse sentences collected from the precepts of wise men and speach adorned shew not the true force of courage the greatest cowardes haue many times the hardiest talke then it will onely appeare what thou hast profited when thou commest to combate with Death I am well content with humane condition I haue no feare of this iudgement Thou art yonger what cares he Here is no accompt made of yeeres no man
knowes in what place Death attends him look for him therefore in all places Consider sayd a certain Philosopher whether is most commodious that Death come to vs or we go to Death that we lay hold of him or he of vs. Marke the meaning hereof It is an excellent thing to learne to die but it will bee superfluous mayest thou say seeing we can but once put it in practise Why with the greater reason we should the more carefully vnderstand meditate therupon For we must alwayes studie thereon because till that hower we can make no iust triall of our owne sufficiencie He which exhorts to meditate on Death exhorts to meditate on liberty and he that hath learned to die hath forgotten to bee seruile For this is aboue all other power or at the least out of the power of any other thing whatsoeuer What cares hee for prisons for guardes for yron barres He hath alwaies a gate open There is but one chaine onely which keeps vs bound which is the loue of this life and this must not wholly bee shaken off but extenuated and loosened that when occasion serues nothing may hold or hinder vs. Epist. XXVII BVt aboue all other things we must endeuour that our vices may die before our selues that in like maner wee giue ouer all these vain pleasures the which though they do no great hurt yet they are mutable and soone passe away vertue only is a secure solid perpetual delight if any other thing present it self vnto vs it is but like a fogge or clowd which can neuer obscure the brightnes of the Sunne Epist XXX IT is an excellēt thing my good friend Lucilius and that which should bee well learned long before to depart chearfully from hence whensoeuer this ineuitable hower comes He hath neuer been willing to liue that is vnwilling to die For Life was giuen vs with a condition to die and with such a prouiso we must merily meet Death the which in no wayes wee are to feare considering there is nothing more certain than the same and vsually we looke after certaine things and feare those vncertaine but Death brings an equall and ineuitable necessitie ouer all Now who can complaine for being of such a cōdition as from which no man else is exempted for the first and chiefest point of equity is equalitie and wouldest thou neuer stand in feare of Death why then thinke thereupon continually Epist. XXXII OH what a goodly matter it is to perfect accomplish our life before our deaths Oh when shalt thou see the times when thou mayest know that thou hast nothing to do with Time that thou shalt be quiet and still not carefull for to morrowe and plentifully replenished onely with thy selfe Epist XXXVI A Childe that were borne in Parthia would quickly learne to bend a bowe If it were in Germany euery ladde would throwe a Dart. If in our forefathers dayes he would bee expert in riding of an horse and to charge the enemie These be things which the discipline of each coūtrey enioineth and layeth vpon euery one What then of this Marry hereupō we must consider that against all kinds of darts against al kinds of enemies there is not any thing more properly preualent than to make no reckoning of death which surely no man doubts but that it hath in it some thing terrible that offends our mindes and courages which nature hath compounded and framed with a loue of themselues for otherwise there were no neede of any preparation or fortification of our selues against that whereunto we all did willingly run out of a naturall instinct and desire as wee vse to goe in cases of our preseruation and defence Out of question no man learnes how he should lie if need were vpon a bed of roses but how hee might endure torments rather than to speak any thing against his faith how if necessitie required hee might passe an whole night without sleep being sore wounded how to be wary of leaning so much as against a Pike for feare sleep surprize him not when he thus rests himself But death hath no discommodity in it at all For then ther must needs be somthing in the same thus incommodious For if thou desirest greatly long life thinke that of all things which are hidden from thine eyes and are concealed in nature by whō either they are already or presētly to be brought forth nothing is cleane consumed They finish indeede their time but so they perish not And the death which wee so much feare and flie takes not from vs life but giues it only a truce and intermission for a little time A day will come to bring vs again to that light which many would feare but that they shall be reduced to such a state as wherein they shal not remember whatsoeuer is past But hereafter I will more precisely declare that all this which seemes to perish doth onely but change He should depart willingly that goes to come backe againe Obserue how all things returne in their due season Thou mayest see that in this world there is nothing vtterly extinct but it descends and ascends againe by turnes The summer is it past The next yeere brings it againe The Winter is it done his due moneths will reduce it again Hath the night obscured the sight of the Sunne why the next day will discouer it againe The course of the starres is performed through the same circles which before they passed Alwayes some part of the heauens riseth vp another goes downeward In briefe to conclude I affirme that neither children nor mad men feare death and how base a part would it then bee that reason should not be as able to furnish vs with security as they are fortified by their simplicitie and idiotisme Epist. L. THe swiftnesse of time is incomprehensible and so it appeares principally to those that looke backward to it For it deceiues them that are too intentiue on present things So swift is the passage of so precipitant a flight that which we liue is but as it were a minute nay and lesse if it were possible then a minute and yet notwithstanding as little as it is Nature hath distributed and diuided it as if it were some long space Of this minute she hath allotted part to our Infancie another proportion to Adolescencie the other part to those yeeres which decline from youth tending to old age and to another part old age it selfe Marke but howe many degrees shee hath constituted in so narrow roumes Euen now I pursued it and this very now is a portion of our life of which one day wee shall conceiue the breuitie Somtime I thought not time swift footed but now his violent course seems vnto me incredible wherefore I wonder at those that in this little space employ the greatest part thereof in superfluous things wee must no longer amuse on these matters of nothing we haue a greater businesse in hand Death pursues me Life flies from mee Arme mee
against this set down vnto me some prescription whereby I may not feare Death that life may not thus slip from me Teach me how the happinesse of this life consistes not in the length but in the vsage of the same that it so may and doeth often-times fall out that he which liues longest hath liued least time hee liuing least while longest Nature hath sent vs into the worlde very docile She gaue vs an imperfect reason which by our indeuours may be made more perfect Epist. LVII OVr bodies ebbe and turne backe like the course of the waters All the time which thou seest flits away with the time it selfe Nothing remains of all that wee see Euen I while I am now saying that all things are changed am changed my selfe Is it not that which Heraclitus affirmed wee in a manner descend not descend in one and the selfe same riuer the riuer retaines the same name but the waters fall away The like is in man but that it may more easily be discerned in a riuer wee are transported with no lesse swift course than this And therefore I can not but wonder at our follie that wee should so dearly loue a thing that so quickly leaues vs I meane this body of whose death wee are so much afraid seeing euery moment of this life is the death of the other Wilt thou feare that once which is acted alwayes fearest thou to die once when thou diest euery day by little and little Epist. LXII I Endeuour that euery day may be vnto me as all the rest of my life and yet I followe it not hard as if it were the last but questionlesse as potētially it may be the last In the same manner I wright vnto you this Letter euen as if in writing the same Death shuld cal me away I am now ready to depart and yet enioy still this life For making no great account of future time I labor to liue wel before old age in my olde age to die well To dy wel is no other thing but to die willingly Take a course that in all things which requisitely thou must performe thou doest not anything by compulsion Constraint and necessitie is for those that resist and not for those that doe things willingly He that doth of his own accord is not vrged nor constrained And therefore I say that he which willingly embraceth commandements is acquited of the most burdensome part of seruitude which is to doe that we would not Hee is not miserable that doth any thing by command but he that doth it in despite of his owne will Let vs therfore so frame our courage and willes that we may affect whatsoeuer the thing requireth aboue al without sorrow let vs thinke on our end for it is conuenient to prepare for death before Life Life is well enough furnisht of it self but we are too eager after the prouisions of the same we daily do wil think that still we want somthing Neither yeers nor dayes hinder our liuing long enough but onely our owne willes and desires I haue liued my deare friend Locilius so long as is sufficient I expect death as being fully replenished satisfied with life Epist. LXXI WE must one day arriue at this pleasant Port and wee ought not to refuse it but if any one come there to anchor in his first yeeres hee must no more complaine therefore than he which hath quickly made his voyage by Sea For as you knowe well the windes hold and detaine some long vpon the Sea or he is hindred by retardatiō of calms when others runne their course swiftly with a fuzzing gallāt gale Imagine it so falles out with vs. Life caries some speedily to the place whither they must haue come at last though at leasure Others she holds a long time scorcheth them in their course but we our selues must neuer seeke to detain her For properly it is not a good to liue but to liue well and therfore a wise man liues as lōg as he should though not as long as he might Not one of vs amongst a thousand considers that one day wee must leaue this earthly tabernacle wee doe like the ancient inhabitants of a place which by habite and custome continue their abode though with a thousand iniuries and oppressions But wouldest thou be free in despite of this bodie in habite it as before the chāging of a lodging propound vnto it that one day thou must leaue that habitatiō Thou shalt by this means be the more couragious against the necessitie of thy departure but how can hee truely thinke of his end that endlesly wishes for desires al Ther is nothing wherein ordinary Meditation is so necessarily required Epist. LXXVIII THere is not so stupide or grosse amā which knowes not that one day he must die and yet when hee comes to the point he turnes his backe he trembles he laments I pray you he that should mourne because he had not liued a thousand yeeres agoe would you not iudge him the veriest sotte in the world As very a foole is he that weepes because he shall not liue a thousand yeers hence These bee like things Thou shalt not be and thou wert not All these two times belong to an other To this present point thou art reduced and admit thou extendest the same a litle whither supposest thou to extend it Why lamentest thou what defirest thou thou loosest but thy labour Neuer think that Gods preordination will bee diuerted by thy prayers It is firme irreuocable and conducted by a wonderful and eternall necessitie Thou shalt goe whither all things go what thing is new vnto thee thou wert borne to this condition the same happened to thy Father thy Mother to all thy predecessors those went before thee as also to all them that shal come after thee It is an indissoluble chaine an immutable order which attracts concatenates vnto it all things Ther is no path but hath his end Miserable wretch as thou art thou makest thy selfe a slaue vnto men a slaue vnto goods a slaue vnto Life For where there is not vertue and willingnesse to death life is but a seruitude And what hast thou I pray thee for which thou attendest Thou hast consumed all those pleasures which might slothen or detain thee There is nothing new vnto thee nay more there is nothing which may not iustly stir vp in thee a disdaine so well shouldest thou be satisfied And yet forsooth these are the things from which thou so vnwillingly doest depart For what didst thou euer worthy to come to light Cōfesse the truth it is not for thy loue of the Palace or Court nor for a griefe to leaue the nature of things that thou drawest back from dying Thou leauest with griefe the market place where thou leftest nothing behind thee It stands with life as with a Stage-play It is no matter how long it last but how well it is acted whersoeuer
thouendest it is all one end where thou wilt so thou concludest with a good periode Epist. XCIIII WE chide Destiny euery day why takes not death such an one why takes he him in the middest of his course why doeth such an one tenter out an old age irkesome to himself and others I pray you which is more reasonable that Nature should obey you or you Nature why takest thou care at what hour thou shalt depart seeing frō hence thou art sure to go We must not be careful how to liue long but how to liue suficiently To liue long depēds on Destiny to liue sufficiētly depēds on thine owne will That life is long which is accōplished then it is accomplisht fulfilled when the will is content when the mind enioies her happinesse and is settled in her own power What good hath such an one by hauing idlely passed ouer fourescore yeares Hee hath not properly liued but soiourned in this life He died not slowely but long seeing his life was no other but a death But thou wilt say hee liued fourescore yeeres thou must obserue frō what day thou reckonest his death for the vnprofitable part thereof hath been but death On the contrary another although he died in his vigor and strength discharged the offices of a good citizen a good friend a good childe hee omitted nothing of his duety though his age were vnperfect yet his life was perfect Why then dear friend Lucilius let our life bee vnto vs as the most precious things are let vs measure it not according to the time but according to our actions not according to the continuance but after the effectes of the same Wee may commend and repute him happy that wel emploied the little time he had to liue Age is an externall thing and without ourselues Though I be here yet this depends of another thing but to be an honest man depends on my selfe Require you of mee that I passe not my time obscurely as it were in darkenesse that I leade a true life that my time bee not lost demaunde you which is the longest life It is to liue while we attaine to wisedom he which comes to this point though he arriue not to the longer mark at least yet he hath obtained the principall Death passeth ouer all He that killed followes him that was slain It is nothing for which we take so much care And what matter is it how long thou auoidest that which in the ende cannot by any meanes bee auoided why fliest thou backe from that which thou canst not shunne Epist. C. OBserue the swiftnes of time consider the shortnesse of this carriere the which we also runne so speedily Marke the following on of all humane kind tending all to one place They which seem to be farre off followe notwithstanding hard after others Hee who thou supposest to bee dead is but onely sent before Can there bee a more vnreasonable matter than when thou must necessarilie performe the same iournie to weep for him which hath out-gone thee in the way Whosoeuer lamēts for any ones death laments onely because hee was a man One selfe all the world Whosoeuer was first born must afterwards die We are distinguished by measurable space but equall in the issue One goes before another followes but both goe the same way All things are dissolued all things passe into their contrary this being Dame Natures pleasure In all these revolutions of humane things there is nothing certaine but Death and yet euery one cōplaines of that which neuer failed nor deceiued any body But he died being an infant I will not in this point also affirme that it was the better for him to be so soone dispatched out of this life But let vs come to him that hath liued to olde yeeres I pray you what great matter hath hee gained of this Infant In vnderstanding and ideally propound vnto thy selfe this wonderful distance of time and comprehend it all together Afterwards compare me with this Infinite the ordinary age of man then thou shalt see how small a matter it is that wee desire and how little it is that we extend out in length And yet of this age let vs but consider how much is spent in griefe how much in cares how much in the conceit of death before it comes to our wished desire how much in sicknesse how much in fears briefly how much in our yong and vnprofitable yeers And notwithstanding of all this we euen sleep out the moity Adde hereunto the troubles sorows and daungers you shall see that in the longest life of all the time which we truly liue is the least of al. Life is neither good nor euill but it is the place of good or euill Hee that dies in his youth in that by all likelihoode hee might aswell haue impaired as amēded is like one that hath lost a die wherwith he might rather haue lost thā won In briefe for the breuitie of age if you compare it to the infinitie of time we are al equally young and old for the most extended age of a man is but as a point or minute Epist CII EAche day eache hower teacheth vs that we are nothing by some very fresh and vnanswerable argumēt puts vs in minde of our fragility whē we would otherwise forget it vrging vs to haue an eye vnto death when intellectually we conceiue in our selues some eternitie Graft Pear-trees plant vines in order said a certain man Oh what a foolish thing it is to proportion out our age we haue not so much as the power of to morrowe in our hands Oh what a wonderful foolerie their hopes come vnto which enter into long and tedious affairs I will buy I will build I will put out for profit I will exact I will purchase Honors and then in time wee come to these resolutions but I am old and my old age being satisfied in all these things I will lead it in repose and quiet Beleeue that euen to those deemed most happie all things are doubtfull No man can promise any thing to him selfe of future things and that which we hold slippes euen out of our hands that hower it self which we instantly run some incommodity or other glides betweene our fingers Time passes away according to a certaine and immutable lawe but cōcealed from vs. Now what haue I to doe whether this bee certain and knowen vnto Nature or not seeing it is vncertaine and vnknowen vnto me We many times propound vnto our selues long nauigations not to returne againe in a long time while we haue run vaging about and discouering many straunge coastes wee propound to our selues the wars and the slowe recompenses of our military indeuours briefly of place honours and aduancement from one office to another And in the meane while Death comes vpon vs without euer thinking thereon if it bee not sometimes exposed to our eyes by the examples of others mortality which takes no longer impression
also in our mindes than wee woonder at the same But what greater sottishnesse is there then to woonder that the thing which falles out euery day should happen one day Our limites are expresly set downe where the inexorable necessitie of Destinie hath placed them but no man knowes howe neere the time is Let vs therefore so frame our minds as if it were already come vnto the point Let vs not deferre nor procrastinate Hee that setteth his last hand euery day to his life hath nothing to do with time Therefore my friend Lucilius make haste to liue and thinke that as many dayes as thou leadest so many liues thou liuest Hee that liues in hope the neerest time euer slippes him and he is possessed with such a greedinesse of liuing that the feare of death maketh him most miserable Lame him of an hande of a foote of a thigh breake his back dash out all his teeth so hee liueth it is enough for him all goes well Moreouer is it such a miserie to die He desires the extreamest euils and that which is most hard to endure he wisheth to prolong and vndergoe a great time And at what price for what reward To obtain long life But then what maner of life is this A lingering death Is there any one that would request to linger in torment to perish member after member or that would rather lose his life by little and little than to be suddenly and quickely dispatcht Denie now therfore if you can that it is not a great benefit of Nature this necessitie of death imposed vpon vs. Many are ready to make worser bargaines to betray their friends for to liue longer themselues to prostitute their owne children that they may see the day of testimoniall of so many impieties We must shake off this desire of liuing and say it is no matter when wee suffer seeing that one day suffer it wee must It imports not how long thou liuest but how wel And long life is often a preiudice to liuing well Epist. CIII WE attend another originall and state of things Wherfore without fear expect this diffinitiue houre which shall fetch thee from hence All that thou seest about thee suppose it to bee but moueable the necessaries of thine Inne thou hast further to go Nature satisfieth men at their departure as well as at their entrie Wee carrie away no more than wee brought all that couers thee must be taken away thy skinne shal be thy last couering And this thy skin also thy flesh thy blood dispersed diffused ouer al thy body these bones these veins and sinewes which nourished the fluent parts shall bee snatcht and taken away frō thee The day which thou fearest to bee thy last shall be thy natiuity to an eternall life Thou criest and lamentest so doeth hee that is borne Wherfore art thou sad so ordinarily is hee So the couerings and swathing bands of those that are borne perish come to nothing How louest thou these things as thine owne these are things wherewith thou art but couered But a day wil come wherein thoushalt be laid opē that shall drawe thee frō the habitatiō of this stinking corruptible body From this time forward meditate on higher things The secrets of Nature shall one day be discouered vnto thee There shall be a dissipation of this darkenesse and a most cleere light shall reverberate on all our parts Imagine to thy selfe that it shall be the resplendence of a number of starres ioyning their lights together There shall be no more vapor or shadow to obscure the cleere ayre all quarters of heauen shall be equally relucent the day and the night which come by turnes are but accidents of this inferiour ayre Thou wilt say thou liuedst here in darknesse when being perfect and entire thou beholdest the whole light it selfe which now thou hast but a glimpse of by the narrowe casements of thine eyes and thou admirest it a-far off What wilt thou then thinke of diuine light when thou seest it in the proper place This contemplation will suffer nothing base abiect or vile to creepe into the minde It intimates vnto vs that God is a witnesse to all our actions it cōmands vs to approue our selues before him to prepare our selues hereafter for him to set before our eyes that eternity the which whosoeuer comprehēds in his intellect he is afraid of no armie nor daunted with the sound of the trumpet nor trembleth for any threates that can bee vsed against him For what can he iustly feare which hopes to die Cōceiue how beneficiall good examples are and then thou wilt see that the memorie of worthy men is no lesse profitable than their presence Epist. CVIII WHy it is no such excellent thing to liue Thou art entred into a long and tedious way thou must fall and rise vp againe droop be weary Here thou leauest one companion there thou cariest another to his graue and in another place art put thy self in the same fear Must this rough and vneuen way bee passed amids so many obstacles Must we needs die Let the minde be prepared against all things Let him knowe that hee is come into a goodly place where teares and cares make their residence where pale sicknesse and sad olde age haue chosen their habitation We must necessarily passe our life in such company These things cannot bee auoided Thou mayest well contemne and make litle reckoning of them But you cannot make this slight regard when you often think theron and cast your compt as of things that must come to passe There is no man but he approaches more couragiously to that whereunto of long time he hath been prepared and makes the more forcible resistāce whereas contrariwise a man taken on the sudden not prepared is astonished with the least matters Now seeing all things are cumbersome thogh it were but for their instability and noueltie by ruminating thereon cōtinually thou shalt be not apprentise or vnskilfull of any euil Let vs admire nothing wherunto we are born And none can cōplaine of them because they are equall to all equall I meane in this point in that he which once escaped them is subiect to incurre them another time For the law is not sayd to bee iust and equall because all men equally vse the same but in that it was iustly constituted for all Let our mindes bee reduced to an equity and without complaining of our mortall nature let vs pay our tribute chearfully Doth Winter bring colde why colde is necessary The Summer is it hot why heate also wee must haue Doeth intemperate ayre preiudice our health Sicknesse cannot be auoyded Somtimes a sauage beaste encounters vs and an otherwhile a man more pernicious thā the wild beasts themselues Fire consumes one water another We cannot tel how to change the nature of things The best is to pay that we cannot be released of and to second and follow the will of God without murmuring from whō all
all our life that which we liue is the least part For the rest all that other space is not properly a life but a time Euery one allotteth his life to diuers things they are miserable and sparing in holding their patrimonie but prodigall in losing of time of time I say wherein auarice is onely honest and not ignominious But chuse we one out of the troup of the most ancient in yeares Verie wel Sir wee see you haue attained to the very toppe of humane nature euen as farre as a mans age may possiblie reache You goe on the hundreth yeer or more wel cal your yeers a little to an accompt Of all this time tell me how much your creditor hath taken from you how much your Loue Mistresse howe much the commō-wealth how much your friend then after this how manie conflicts you haue had with your wife what punishment you haue inflicted vpon your seruāts what running vp and downe the citie you haue been driuen vnto for your familiars and acquaintance Annexe hereunto the diseases which you haue fallen into by your owne default and adde also vnto this that which remained without any good imploymēt Thou shalt thē see that thy yeers are fewer thā thou makest reckoning of Cal to mind whē in thy selfe thou wert resolute in any determination how many daies passed away conformably to that which in thy minde thou diddest set down how many of thē profited thee when thy countenance was fresh thy heart without feare what great neede you had of so long a life then how many sundry men haue as it were stolen and impaired it you no wayes perceiuing when or what you lost how much hath some causelesse griefe taken away from you sottish contentments some vnsauory desire or flattering cōuersation briefly after all these abstractions how little remains that was properly thine owne and then thou shalt see that for al this thou diest before thou art ful ripe and before thy best time Who is the cause hereof Why you liue as thogh you should liue for euer Good husbandry neuer comes into your mind you neuer cōsider what time is spent and gone you spend and waste as though you had abundance you feare like a mortall man and couet all like one immortall Heare what the most of them vse to alleage At fiftie yeers I will betake my selfe to mine ease when I am threescore yeer old I wil giue ouer all publike office I pray ye tell me where made you purchase of such a long life who gaue you Letters Patēts for liuing a longer time who can haue the patience while these things take effect euen as you haue ordained set them downe Art thou not asham'd to reserue the refuse of thy life only to wisdom and assigne such an age vnto that which can no more be imployd in anything else Oh it is too late to begin then to liue when we must leaue liuing Is not this a sottish obliuiō of out mortal nature to defer good healthfull coūsel til the fiftith yeer and to begin to liue at such yeers vnto which fewe euer attaine vnto Thou shalt many times heare the greatest and mighti'st personages vtter words to this effect that they desire repose they commend preferre it before all other goods They would if securely they might giue ouer all the sollitie and triumph wherin they liue That great Emperour Augustus to whom God vouchsafed more fauours than to any one ceased not to sigh after this repose to wish for vacations that hee might bee exempted from publike negotiations all his speach tended for the most part to this ende This rest tranquillity see med vnto him so precious a thing that not being able effectually to enioy it he apprehended it in conceit He which saw all things depend on himself which imposed on all nations what stood with his will and pleasure thought that day most happy when hee might but lay aside his worldly greatnesse He knew wel how great toile the goods of Fortune which are so estimable vpon earth put vs to and how many secret cares they harbor It would but bee superfluous to make mention of diuers that vnto others appeared to bee very happie and yet they themselues proued faithfull testimonials to the contrary when the whole accounts of their yeeres were cast vp But by these cōplaints they could neuer perswade others nor thēselues for euen at the very instant when such wordes escaped them their affectiōs returned to their olde wont Out of question though our life should extend euen to a thousand yeeres yet would it be restraind brought into a little compasse the seuerall ages would consume al that that space which although Nature conceale reason might exspatiate if it were well guided it must needs flie from vs in a moment For wee redeeme not this time wee doe not retayne nor slacken it by being circumspect and industrious in all things but doe rather suffer it to rowle away as a superfluous thing that may bee againe recouered Throughout our whole life wee must learn to liue and which is yet more strange through euery hower of our life we must learne to die There haue been many great men that leauing their places renouncing their estates offices and pleasures in the height of their age they sought after no other thing but to knowe how to liue well and yet the most of them left this life confessing euen then they had not attained to this vnderstanding Euery one hurries on his life and trauels in the desire of future things and wearinesse of present times but he which bestowes his whole time in this practise and truly disposeth all his dayes in such a life neither desires nor feares what may happen the day after What comes to passe how busie soeuer thou art thy life passeth away and Death wil presently surprise thee for then will ye nill ye you must bee at leasure They accōmodate their liues with their liues expence and charge they discourse and cast aboue the Moone Now the greatest losse that can bee in life is retardation Delay takes vp the first yeeres and plucks from thee things presēt while it promiseth thee those future An attending life procures great impediments which loseth to day and depends on to morrowe Thou disposest of that which is in the handes of Fortune and leaues that at randome that is in thine owne Wheron castest thou thine eye what wouldest thou attempt All future things are accompanied with vncertaintie wouldest thou knowe why the elder sort liue not long Why but obserue how olde men euen when they doate desire longer life They beg by vowes and prayers the proroguement of a fewe yeeres They conceit thēselues to be yonger than they are they are flattered with fantasies and are as sillily gull'd as if they meant at an instant to go beyond both Death and Destinie But if any infirmitie put them in mind that they are mortall Oh how dastardly they
is not his like in the worlde Tobias after so many religious workes and so high commendations of his charitable pitie became blind and yet for all this he feared and blessed God in his afflictiō and he was the more worthy of praise in withstāding his wiues temptation who would haue corrupted him saying Where are thy good deedes Tob. 2. Thou soundly feelest now the euils which thou endurest but hee being settled in the loue of God and armed with the reuerence of his name to support all affliction he yeelded not in furie to such an assault but honoured the Lorde the more by this his second patience so that afterwards this testimoniall was giuen him by Raphael saying It is an excellent thing to vnderstand and magnifie the workes of God for when thou and thy faire daughter Sarra prayed I presented the same before the face of the Lord. And when thou didst bury the dead with out delay rising euē frō the table for this purpose I was sent to proue thee and to heale thee and thy faire daughter Sarra for I am Raphael one of the holy Angels which assisteth and am cōuersant before Gods brightnes The righteous alwaies shewed themselues patient and the Apostles knew well the Lordes meaning herein that his seruaunts should not murmure in aduersitie but couragiously and patiently endure whatsoeuer fell to their share in this world There was no sinne that the Iewish people ran oftener into thā this of murmuring and impatience against God as he himselfe declareth whē he addeth Let them cease from despiting me and they shall not die Dearest brethren wee must not murmure in aduersity but patiently and constantly indure whatsoeuer may happen calling to minde what is writtē that an afflicted spirit is an acceptable sacrifice Psal 51. vnto God and that hee reiects not the humble and contrite hart The holy Ghost also speakes by the mouth of Moyses The Lord thy God shal afflict thee send thee famine to make thee looke into thine owne hart whether thou keepest his commaundements or no. Also Deut. 8.13 the Lord your God tempteth you to knowe whether you loue the Lord your God withall your heart and with all your soule Obserue how Abraham was acceptable vnto God when to obey him he made no account to lead his owne sonne to death and so was ready to be a paricide Thou which canst not loose thy sonne hee being subiect to death as others are what wouldest thou doe if God should sentence thee to put thy selfe to death Faith the feare of God should make thee ready to performe whatsoeuer his pleasure is Though thou losest thy goods though diseases vexe and torment thee on all sides though thy wife thy children thy friends be haled frō thee by death all this should not make thee to shrink although such blowes bee very heauie such trials ought not to quaile and daunt the faith of a Christian but rather stirre vp his force and courage to fight considering that the assurance of a future good should make vs contemne the annoyaunce of all present euils There can bee no Victorie before the battel fought if after the comming to hand-blowes the fielde bee left by either side then the victor obtains a glorious crowne A good Pilot is discouered in the storm and a good souldier in the conflict It is but ridiculous to braue and brag when blowes are far off to set vp the bristles against aduersitie is a certaine brand and marke of vertue The tree deep rooted in the earth is not shakē with the blustring of windes the ship that is well keeled and strongly ribbed may well bee tossed but neuer pearced by the waues when wee winnowe the corne in the open ayre the sounde graine feares not the winde which quickly blowes away the straws and chaffe Euen so the Apostle S. Paul after his shipwracks whippings long and durable afflictiōs of body protested that such trials hurt him not at all but rather did stand him in great stead so that in the full course of all these calamities hee profited the more in good An angel of Sathan 2. Cor. 12. said he the sting of my flesh was sent to buffer mee for feare that I might bee puffed vp for the which I thrice prayed vnto the Lord that it might bee remooued from mee and hee sayd Let my grace suffice thee for my vertue is perfected in infirmitie When as therefore some infirmitie weaknesse or other aduersity doth rage then our vertue is made more perfect If proued faith perseuer at last it is crowned according to that which is sayd that the furnace tries the potters vessels and temptatiōs righteous men For the rest they which knowe not God differ from vs in this point that they murmure and complaine in aduersity and contrariwise afflictions are so farre from distracting vs from pietie and Iustice that wee are rather fortified by them amidst griefes and sorrow it selfe If the bloody fluxe did weaken vs if heate make the infirmities of our mouthes more grieuous if our stomacke be sore with continuall vomiting if our eyes looke red like blood if any one lose his feete or other members when hee is constrained to cut them off because they are ready to fal away in pieces if by diuers lāguors maladies happening to the body the strength of the legs come to diminish the hearing be deafened or the sight dulled all this learnes vs to profit more and more in the grace of God What notable valour is this to enter couragiously into the field against so many plagues and euils Can any man obscure his excellencie that stands firme amidst so sundry resolutions without declining or falling to them that put not their trust in God Hee must vnfainedly reioyce and thinke the time well employed when in making trial of his faith and trauailing couragiously we march vnto heauē by the strait gate to receiue from Christ our Iudge the reward of our faith and of eternall life Let him feare death who hauing neuer beene regenerate with water and the spirit is ordained to hell fire He that hath no part in the crosse and death of Christ hee that enters by the first into the second death he that when he leaues this present life is tormented with perpetuall flames hee that onely stands through Gods patience whose sorrow and griefe is only differred and not forgotten Let such an one I say feare death Many of our brothers are dead of this plague which is to say many of them are deliuered out of the worlde As such a mortalitie is a plague to the Iewes Painimes who are Christs enemies so is it a comfortable departure to the seruants of God Though the iust die aswell as the vniust yet think not that good men die the like death as the wicked The children of God are taken into a place of ease repose but the reprobate are drawen to the punishment of eternal fire the beleeuers are presently taken
oftē hath the Lord vouchsafed to teach vs How often hath he cōmaunded mee to protest and preach incessantly before you al that you should not lament for your brethren whē it pleaseth God to call and to deliuer them out of this worlde seeing I knowe that they do not perish but precede and go before those that remaine behind and that we may be grieued or a little touched for them as for friendes that remooue to some other place or that embarke themselues to arriue in a good Port But wee must not lament nor weare mourning weeds for them here belowe on earth seeing they haue now put on white roabes in heauen We must not giue the Painims iust occasiō to tax reprehend vs when they shal see that throgh immoderate loue wee seem to iudge those perished forgottē whō otherwise we affirme to be liuing with GOD whē they perceiue that by euident testimoniall of our thoughts we cōdemne the faith wherof we make profession by mouth In this wise we should ouerthrowe our hope and beleefe that which we say would but proceed frō hypocrisie It is nothing to appeare couragious in wordes if we subuert the trueth by effects The Apostle S. 1. Thes 4. Paul condemnes sharply reprehends those that are too sorrowfull for the death of their kinsmen and friends Brethren said hee I would not that you should bee ignoraunt concerning those that sleep to the end you may not lamēt like those that haue no hope For if we beleeue that Iesus Christ died and was raised again in like manner they that sleepe in Iesus God will bring thē vnto him He sayes that they which are void of hope sorrow for the death of their friends But we that liue by hope which beleeue in God which are assured that Christ died and rose again for vs remaining in Christ rising againe in and by him why should we refuse to goe out of this worlde why do we mourn and lament for our friends which GOD takes to himselfe as if they perished Why giue we not eare to our Lorde and God Iesus Christ admonishing vs and saying Ioh. 11. I am the resurrectiō he that beleeues in me though he be dead shall liue and whosoeuer liues and beleeues in me shall neuer die If wee beleeue in Iesus Christ let vs giue eare vnto his sayings promises that in stead of dying eternally we may vndoubtedly and ioyfully come vnto our Sauiour with whom we shal liue and reigne for euer For this our temporall death it is but a passage vnto immortality and we cannot attaine to euerlasting life before we dislodge and remoue out of this world Death is not a going foorth but a passage and transportation out of the way of this life to eternall rest Who is he that doth not merrily go forward when there is any possibility of his honor profit Who refuseth to be trāsformed chāged into the image of Christ and quickly to come to the graces of God Our conuersation Phil 3. saith S. Paul is in heauen frō whence we look for the Lord Iesus Christ who shal chāge our vile bodies to the end they may be conformable to his glorious body Our Lord Iesus Christ promiseth that we shall be such when he intreated his father for vs that we might bee with him that wee might liue in his eternal mansion and that wee might reioice in his heauenly kingdome Father said he I desire that those whom thou hast giuen me may be where I must be and that they may see the glory which thou gauest mee before the world euer was He that is to go to the Court of Iesus Christ into the light of the kingdom of heauē should not weep and lament but rather according to the promise of the Lord and the certaintie of his word he should reioice at his departure and transportation To this end we read that Enoch was trāslated it so pleasing God and the holy Scripture affirming in Genesis Gen. 5. Enoch walked according to God and was no more seene for God tooke him vp See what it is to please God for it is to be taken frō the corruptions contagions of this world The holy Ghost also teacheth vs by the mouth of the wise man Eccle. 14. that those whom God loues he quickly deliuers out of this world for feare lest soiourning there too long they might be infected with the ordures thereof Wisd 4. The iust man saith he was takē away to the end that malice might not depraue his vnderstanding for his soule pleased God and therefore made haste to be remooued from out the midst of iniquity In the self same maner the faithfull deuout soule runs a great spirituall pase towards her God saying Psa 84. O God of armies my soule sighes makes haste towards Gods Courts For the rest it belongs to him that takes all his pleasure in the worlde that suffers himselfe to be caught with the bait of earthly delights and the flatteries of the flesh such an one I say it concernes to desire to tarrie long in the world But seeing the world hates the childrē of God why louest thou thine enemie why folowest thou not rather Iesus Christ thy Redeemer who so ardently loues thee Saint Iohn admonisheth vs very earnestly in his first Epistle saying Loue not the worlde 1. Ioh. 2. nor the things that are in the world If any man loue the worlde the loue of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world that is to say the concupiscence of the flesh the desire of the eyes the pride of life are not of the Father but of the world The world and the desires thereof passe away but hee that performes the will of God liues for euer euen as God himselfe is eternall Let vs therefore deare brethren attend patiently whatsoeuer God sends with a pure vnderstanding an assured faith and a constant resolution Let vs driue away far from vs the apprehension of death and bee mindfull of the immortality which is to succeed Shew we our selues such as our profession imports not to lament the death of our friēds but our hour being come let vs merrily and chearfully goe to the Lord when hee calles For seeing Gods seruants should bee alwayes prepared to this point they ought most of all to be so now considering how the world declines it being assieged with infinite euils that ouerwhelm it We haue seene and passed many dangers these are but slight euils in respect of those that are to come we may therfore thinke our gaine great in going out of the same so quickly If the wals of thine house shake with age if thy roofe totter if thy hole edifice not being able any longer to stand presage a neer fall and ruine wouldest thou not make more thā ordinary haste to bee gone If thou wert sayling in the main sea and that a furious storme swelling the waues
people of God In which when he presented himselfe frankly vnto death to appease the wrath of God being readie in the name of all others and for their comfort to beare the scourge of GOD he knew well that it was farre greater glory to die for Christ than to raigne in this world can there bee a more excellent thing than to offer vp our selues vnto CHRIST Although therefore the Scripture speaketh of diuerse Sacrifices of Dauid yet is there a mentiō of this one particular in this Psalme which sayth I will sacrifice vnto thee praise and thankesgiuing hee said not I doe sacrifice but I will minding hereby to inferre that a sacrifice is then perfect whē euery beleeuer is deliuered out of the bandes of this body to appeare before the Lord then presents himself to him in a sacrifice of praise because no praise nor thanksgiuing is perfect or accomplished before death and no man can be truely praised in this life by reason of the vncertaintie of that to come Death therefore is a separation of the soule from the body for that which further remaines we said before howe S. Paul declared That to be dissolued be with Christ he esteemed a farre better thing than to tarrie here still What else procureth this separation but the dissolution of the bodie and bringing of it to repose as for the soule it is her freedome introduction to peace ioy that is to say to liue with Christ if it beleeue The chrildren of God therefore do nothing in this worlde but purifie thēselues frō the contaminations of the body which are as bands to tie vs in labor to free thēselues from these difficulties renouncing of pleasures shunning dissolutenes the flames of cōcupiscēce Is it not thē true that euery faithful soule liuing here belowe is conformed and ioyned vnto death whē she studies to die in her selfe to all carnall delights and to all the desires and allurements of the world Thus was the Apostle dead when hee said Gal. 6. The world is crucified to mee and I to the world In fine to the end wee might knowe that death is in this life and that it is good he exhorteth vs to bear in our bodies the death or mortificatiō of our Lord Iesus for he who hath in him the death of the Lord Iesus hee shall haue his life also in his body Death therefore is necessarie in vs to the end that life may be necessary also There is a good life after death that is to say a great felicitie after victory a good life at the end of the combate whē the law of the flesh can no more contradict the lawe of vnderstanding when death striues no more against the bodie but that the victory ouer death is inclosed in the same And I knowe not whether of these two are more effectual 2. Cor. 4. this life or this death considering the Apostles authentike testimony who sayth Death therefore is necessary in vs life in you How many nations were reuiued by the death of one man The Apostle then as you see 2. Cor. 4. teacheth that those who enioy this present life must also desire this present death to the ende that the death of Christ may appeare in our bodies and that wee may participate of this felicitie by which our external man is destroyed to the end that heauens mansion place may bee open vnto vs. He therefore conformes himself well vnto death that retires from the earnest desires of the world that looseth the bands wherof the Lord speaks in Esay Loose the bands of vnrighteousnes Esa 51. break the obligations of vniust exchange let them goe free that are troden vnder foote vntie the knots of wickednes Hee approcheth neere vnto death that strips himselfe of the pleasures of the world that disintangleth himselfe from terrestriall cogitations and raiseth his minde to the heauenly Tabernacle within the which Saint Paul was conuersant euen while he liued here belowe otherwise hee woulde not haue sayde Phil. 1. Our conuersation is in heauen the which may also be applied to the zeale meditatiōs of this holy man for his thoughts were there there his soule frequented the studies and indeuours of his minde were raised vp thither the limits of this body being indeed too strait to comprehend the apprehensions of a man truely wise who aspiring to such a good separates for the time his soule from his body and hath no more to doe with the same in contemplating of that trueth which he desires openly to see for which cause he seekes nothing more than to bee freed from the snares darknesse of this body For wee cannot with our hands with our eyes or our eares conceiue this celestiall trueth because things visible are temporall and those inuisible eternal And besides our sight is oftentimes deceiued and we discerne things farre otherwise than indeed they are our hearing also deceiues vs and therfore wee must looke to inuisible things if wee will not bee deceiued When may we then be assured that our foule is not deceiued When is it that she layes hold on the throne of veritie euen when she is separated frō the body which then can abuse nor deceiue her no more The same deceiued her by the regard of the eyes by the hearing of the eare therefore it is necessarie that she should leaue abandon it And therefore the Apostle minding to shew that it was not by bodily repose but by the eleuatiō of the soule the harts humility that had found out the trueth he sayth that our conuersation is in heauen He therfore sought in heauen that which is trueth and shal so remaine for euer And thus retiring his thoghts and all the force of his vnderstanding without reuealing himselfe to any other but knowing and considering well of himselfe resoluing to followe that which he tooke to bee trueth and perceiuing that to be false flitting which the flesh desires and chooseth fraudulently he rightly blasoned this body calling it the body of death For who can discerne with his eyes the brightnesse of vertue Who can gripe righteousnesse with his hands or see wisedom with his bodily eyes Briefly when we meditate on any thing wee would not willingly see any body we like not to heare any noyse about our eares hauing somtimes our minds so fixed as wee see not that which is before our eyes And in the night our cogitatiōs are more firme and we conceiue the better of that in our hearts which serues for our document and instruction where-vnto that saying of the Prophet in the 4. Psalme hath reference Ponder with your selues vpon your beds Often-times also diuers men cloase their eyes when they would profoundly consider of any affaire auoiding at such a time the impediment of sight Otherwhiles we seeke out solitarie places to the end that no body may trouble vs or by his prattle turne vs out of the right way
of the flesh which is enemie to God Subiect wee our soules onely to Iesus Christ that euery one may truely say My soule Psal 62. is it subiect vnto God then it is not subiect vnto the earth nor this world The couetous rich man cannot say so It is the iust and temperate mans protestation But the couetous man saieth My soule thou hast goods enough for many yeers enioy good dayes eate drinke and make good cheare for the auaricious soule is subiect to the pleasures of the flesh whereas on the contrary the righteous mans soule vseth her bodie onely as an instrument or as the handicrafts-man disposeth of his work as he pleaseth and makes such inuentions as are best liking to himselfe shee setting forth such vertues as are best pleasing singing sometimes an Hymne of chastitie otherwhiles a song of temperance a verse of sobrietie the melody of integrity the harmonie of virginitie and then the solemne musick of widdowhood and cōtinence It is true that the Musician addapts himselfe sometimes to his instrument But howsoeuer sing none but honest religious ditties to the end that the voice and instrument may be truely accorded CHAP. 7. That life is annoied with many euils and discōmodies BVt why make I mētion of the snares that are without vs we had need take heede of those ginnes that are layed within our selues for within our bodies there are too many scattered abroad on euery side which we ought to shunne We must not committe the guard of our selues to this body nor mingle our soules therewith Ioine with thy friend and not with thine enimie thy flesh is thine enemie because it contradicteth the law of vnderstanding and contends after nothing but to sowe enimities seditions quarrels and troubles Mingle not thy soule therewith for fear thou confound and defile it altogether For making this cōmixtion thy flesh which should be subiect comes to contemne the soule which ought to command as Souereign seeing she giues life to the body and the flesh on the contrary effects the death of the soule This would therefore bee an ouerthrowing of the operation and almost a confounding both of the one and other substance Shall wee then affirme that the soule receiueth into it selfe the insensibilitie of a dead bodie and that the body likewise communicates with the vertues of the soule Though the soule be infused into the body yet wee may not thinke that shee is there cōfounded Consider the light for an example though it pearce into euery place yet is it not for all this mixed therewith Wee must not therefore confound the offices and effects of so different substances but let the soule reside in the body to quicken gouerne and enlightē the same To this we agree that it suffers with the body for she is sad and Iesus sayd My soule is sad euen to the death discouering in himselfe humane passion and affection The Prophet sayeth also My soule is troubled And as the Musician is mooued according to the song which he singes or plaieth vpon a Recorder Harpe or Organs and by his countenance wee may discerne his passiō so the soule which toucheth plaieth on this bodie as on an instrument of Musicke if she be sage and wise shee will expresse with the ends of her fingers the most inwarde parts which is to say the affections so that a pleasant harmony of good manners will redound thereof and we shal see her obserue such melody in her thoughts actions as that her deliberations and executions will most sweetely accord It is the soule therfore that needes the body but as an instrument And therfore souereigntie is one thing and seruice another and there is difference betweene that which we are and that which is our owne Whosoeuer loues the beauty of the soule hee mav well affirme that he loues the person also but he that loues onely the bodily beautie therof loues not the whole person but onely an external appearāce which withers and consumes away in a small time We rise vp euery day to eate and drinke and yet there is not any one so replenished as that hee may iustly say I need to eate no more We seeke to gayne day after day and yet there is no ende of our desires The eye saith the wiseman is not satisfied with seeing nor the eare with hearing Hee that loueth siluer cannot bee satisfied therewith Eccles 1.4 7. Wee neuer leaue trauelling and yet neuer can we reape the fruite of abundaunce Wee desire without intermission to vnderstand new things and I pray you what is all humane Science but a new breaking of the braine and an augmentation of dolor and griefe Whatsoeuer is hath heretofore been and vnder the Sunne there is nothing new but All is vanitie I doe hate all the parts of this life sayd Ecclesiastes But he that hated life must needs haue thought well of death yea hee did certainely think better of the condition of the dead than of the liuing iudged him happie that neuer made entrance into the world nor had any part in vanitie My hart said he turned aside to discouer the pleasures annoiance and bragges of the wicked I found them more bitter than death it selfe not that death in it selfe is bitter but because it is so to the wicked And life is also more bitter than death for without all comparison it is a more grieuous thing to liue in sin than to die for as long as a wicked man liues his iniquitie encreaseth if he die his sinne comes to an ende Many are glad when they are absolued of their crimes they doe well herein if they determine to amend but they are very sottish in this if their willes still stand to the propagation of offences and better it had been for them to haue beene condemned betimes for impairing the great heape of their sins and misdeedes The Apostle speakes very wel and grauely to this purpose Rom. 1.2 That not onely those which committe wickednes but they also which approue of it are worthie of death and they which performe that that in others they greatly condemne are inexcusable and condemned by their owne sentence for in condemning of others they iudge thēselues He addeth that such mē should not flatter thēselues although for a time they seeme guiltles exempted frō punishment seeing that euen then they are grieuously tormēted in their own consciences being guilty by their own sentence while euery body else iustifies them in themselues double afflicted whensoeuer and as often as they condemne their neighbors faultes But take good heeds O thou man sayd the Apostle how thou contemnest the treasure of patience and the goodnesse of God who calles thee to repentāce and summons thee to change of life but for thy obstinacie head-strong perseuerance in error augments the seueritie of iudgement to come to the ende thou mayest then receiue the due reward of thine iniquities Out of al this before spoken let
away The soule therfore is life for how can that die which is directly opposite to death For as snowe cannot receiue heate but that it presently melts light doth not receiue but dissipates all darkenesse by his claritie as at the approach of heate the yce turns to water euen so the soule which creates life cannot receiue death nor anie wayes die CHAP. 10. Testimonies of Scripture to proue that the soule dieth not with the body but remaines immortall TO the reasons before deduced let vs adde that which the Lord saith I haue power to leaue my soule and to take it againe You see therefore that it perisheth not with the body seeing hee might leaue in and take it againe after he had recōmended it into the hands of God the Father But because thou shalt not replie that Christ had this particular power althogh we might answere thee that he was like vnto vs yet hearken what hee sayth to exhort vs not to linger out the time at length Luk. 13. What knowest thou whether this night thy soule may be demāded of thee Said he thy soule shall die this night within thee No but it shall bee redemaunded That is redemaunded which remaines not that which perisheth for how should the soule perish of which the wisdom of God saith Mat. 10. Feare not those that can kil the bodie and cannot kil the soule Of which the Prophet speaketh Psal 119 My soule is alwayes in thine hands alwaies saith he and not at certain times onely As for thee commend thy soule to the Lord not only at the departure thereof out of thy body but also as long as it there inhabiteth for it is the Lord which keepeth it and thou knowest not from whence it comes nor whither it goes Thy soule is in thee and with God also Behold here vnder set downe more ample and expresse testimonies of the soules immortalitie CHAP. 11. Of the ioyes of soules after this life FOr the ioies of faithfull soules we must consider it according to certain degrees First they shall bee victorious ouer sin and warranted frō all the allurements of the flesh Secondly they shall enioy the reward of their fidelitie and of the preseruation of their innocencie without hauing bin defiled with errors and perturbatiōs as wicked soules are nor tormented with the remembrance of their vices or surcharged with boyling apprehēsiōs Thirdly they rest in this testimonie that they pleased God to whose will they haue so applied themselues as they need not be doubtfull or fear the last iudgemēt Fourthly they then beginne to knowe their repose and to foresee their greater glory in the last resurrection and so being fed with this consolation they peaceably rest in their mansions being enuironed with an infinite number of Angels Fiftly they participate of an inexplicable ioy delight in that they are freed out of the prison of this corruptible body Apoc. 14. to enter into the kingdome of light and libertie where they enioy the inheritance that was promised them Ther is an order of rest as ther is an order of resurrection and as all die in Adam so shall all bee quickened in Christ 1. Cor. 15. sayeth the Apostle euery one in his ranke the first fruits that is Christ afterwardes those that are of Christ shall bee quickened by his comming and then comes the ende There shall bee then diuers orders of brightnesse and glorie as there haue been seruants some more excellent than othersome Sixtly the faithfull shall perceiue a light splendour to enuiron them making them to shine like the Sunne resembling the stars but so notwithstanding as this brightnesse shall not bee subiect to chaunge or decline Seuenthly they shall reioyce in their security and be secure instantly they shall bee merrie without fear hauing no other desire but to behold his face to whom they haue submitted thēselues out of a franke and free will and calling to mind the grace wherof he hath made thē partakers which is to hate sin and bee wholly dedicated to his seruice they shall receiue the glorious guerdon of their easie trauels and then perceiue that all the suffrings of the worlde are not worthy in any sort to be recompensed with such a glory in heauen Behold the repose of soules and the beginning of their glory to come before that in their eternal habitations they shall perfectly enioy this vnspeakeable happinesse the which they must haue all together in the day of the bodies resurction CHAP. 12. Of the happinesse of the eternall kingdom and how we should endeuour to come therinto BEing thus defensed with authenticke testimonials out of the word of God let vs couragiously march towards the Lord Iesus Christ our Sauiour towardes the assemblie of the Patriarkes and Abraham our Father and when this day is come let vs chearefully aduance forward to the companie of the Saintes and righteous For wee shall goe to meete our Fathers the instructours of our life and though wee bee naked and destitute of good workes faith will assist vs our promised inheritāce wil be our warrant we shal goe to the place where Abraham hath his bosome open to receiue the poore as he receiued Lazarus and where all they haue rest that were afflicted in this world Oh most heauēly Father I beseech thee extend forth thy hands to imbrace the poore expatiate thy lappe enlarge thy bosome to receiue the great number of beleeuers It is true that iniquity abounds charity waxeth cold though the faith hath taken good increase we shall then goe to meete them that sit at the table with Abraham Isaac Iacob in the kingdome of God and with those who being called to the banquet sought not to excuse themselues We shall goe to the Paradise of true delights where Adam who was once so euill intreated by spirituall theeues ceaseth his lamentations for the wounds hee had receiued and the theefe himselfe there reioiceth because of his entertainement into the celestiall kingdome there are no cloudes there are no thunders no lightnings whirle-winds nor darknesses the seasons there chāge not their course frost haile rain the Sun the Moone the stars are not there in vse There shall be no other brightnesse but that of the euerliuing Lorde who wil be a light to all this true light which illuminates all men shal shine vnto all the happy for euer Wee shall all go to those habitations that the Lord Iesus hath prepared for his humble seruants to the end we may be where he is Seeing his pleasure is it should bee so Attend what maner of dwelling places these are Iohn 14. In my Fathers house there are many mansions saith he when at his good pleasure hee declareth that which followes I will come take you to my self that where I am you may be also But thou wilt peraduēture alleage that he spake this only to his disciples that hee made this promise only to them
Lazarus died and was borne by the Angels into Abrahams bosome Iob 16.22 Verely verely I say vnto thee thou shalt be this day with mee in Paradise Lue. 23.43 They stoned Steuen who cryed out and sayd Lord Iesus receiue my spirit Acts. 7.59 Wee know whē the earthly habitation of this our body is destroyed wee haue a building in God which is to say an eternall māsion in heauen which is not made with handes 2. Cor. 5.1 I am enclosed on all sides my soule longing to remoue and be with Christ which would be farre better for mee Philip. 1.23 The Soule of man is immortall LEt dust returne to the earth frō whēce it was taken and let the soule mount vp vnto God who gaue it Eccles 12.7 Feare not those that kill the bodie and cannot kill the soule but feare him that can send both bodie and soule into hell fire Math. 10.28 I am the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob God is not the God of the dead but of the liuing Math. 22.32 He that beleeueth in me though hee were dead yet shall hee liue Iohn 11.25 Testimonies of the Resurrection of the body I Knowe my Redemer liueth and that in the last day he will take me out of the earth and I shall bee clad againe with my skin and thou my flesh shalt see God Iob 19.25 26. Many of those that sleepe in the dust of the earth shall awake some to eternall life others to perpetual shame Daniel 12.2 As concerning the resurrection of the dead haue you not read what God said vnto you I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob He is not the God of the dead but of the liuing Matth. 23.31 32. The day commeth wherin all those that are in the graues shal heare the voice of the Sonne of God Iohn 5.28 Martha said vnto him I know that he shall rise again in the last day Ioh. 11.24 If we preach that Christ is raised from the dead how doe some amongst you say that there is no resurrectiō of the dead 1. Cor. 15.12 Looke ouer all that Chapter What shall come to passe after the resurrection of the body in the last day WHē this corruptible shall haue put on incorruption this mortall immortality then shal those words which are written bee fulfilled Death is swallowed vp in victorie 1. Cor. 15.54 They which are dead in Christ shall first rise and afterwardes those that liue and remaine shall bee taken vp together with them into the clowds before the Lord in the ayre so wee shall be alwayes with the Lord. 1. Thes 4.16 17. When the Sonne of man shall come in glory and all the holy Angels with him then shal he sit vpon his throne of glory And all the nations shall be assembled before him and he shall separate the one from the other as the sheepherd doeth distinguish the sheepe from the goates and hee will set the sheepe on his right hand and the goates on the left Then shall the heauenly king say vnto those on his right hand Come you blessed of my Father inherite that kingdome which was prepared for you before the beginning of the world To them then on the left hand hee will say Goe you accursed depart frō me into euerlasting fire which is prepared for the diuell and his angels And so they shall goe into eternall torments but the Iust shall be taken into eternall life Matth. 23.31 c. Prayers and Meditations concerning Life and Death Meditation 1. THE life of a Christian man should bee imployed in the consideration of those things which here-vnder ensue to put them in practise that is to say oftentimes to remember the benefits he hath receiued frō GOD to thanke him with his hart mouth incessantly for the same to loue him who is boūtie and goodnes it selfe to feare and worship him seeing he is almightie and wise and so by the loue which they beare vnto God to be also excited to the loue of their neighbors The loue of God withdraweth vs from the loue of corruptible things raiseth vs vp to heauen and enflames our hearts with holinesse of life The loue of our neighbour holds vs backe from all preiudice either in will or deede and excites vs to integritie and benificence Another LEt vs often think on that which we are The soule is our principall part which is endowed with vnderstanding reason and iudgement to knowe the chiefe good which is in God to loue adhere and be vnited vnto him to be partakers of his immortallitie and happinesse But wee contemne this Soueraigne good to grouell on the earth and to slampe into the ditch of carnall desires applying the vigor and force of our vnderstanding and iudgements to things which are not worthy of the paines wee take about them Wee burie our selues aliue if wee may so say of celestiall we become terrestriall and of men created for eternall life wee endeuour as much as in vs lieth to bee like to the brute beastes themselues And yet our most merciful and good God forsaketh vs not for all this notwithstāding that our ingratitude deserue as much but by his word in the meane while he graciously calleth vs and presenteth vs with infinite testimonies of his louing fauour dayly he continueth the fame hee supporteth vs hee exhorteth he counselleth aduiseth and fatherly chastiseth vs and yet for all this wee remaine blinde deafe and stupide contemning these graces either in not vsing them as we should or else in abusing of them And which is worse wee loue vaine and transitorie thinges better and are too intentiue and perseuerant in the same God reacheth forth his hand to conduct vs but we draw backe our owne and flie away when he calleth vs. If he bring vs into the way of saluation we mourne for the world wee looke behinde vs we deferre and procrastinate our desire of well doing We must therefore rouse vp our selues not remain still in the myre we must be fortified in his vertue and power who supports cōforts vs let vs a little attempt to despise corruptible things and to desire those truly good and eternall when God calleth vs we must hearken to him if hee bee our guide wee must followe him for to arriue in his house Let vs receiue his benefites and himselfe too for hee giues himselfe vnto vs in the person of his Son hee causeth vs to see the meanes how to come into heauen wee must therfore require of him that hee will vouchsafe to bestowe vpon vs wil and desire to come thither by faith repentance hope and charirie and to maintaine his gifts and graces in vs to the end that we may mourne in this mortall life attend in the assurance of his mercie for the ende of this world and our last day which shall bee the beginning of our true life A Meditation and a Prayer HOw great are the delusions and impostures of the enemie of
to taste in liuing vnder thy protection Thou art admirable graciously good in time of affliction in that by such meanes thou healest our spirituall maladies and visiting vs thus in this world thou framest vs to meditate on a better life thou thy selfe hauing shewed vs a liuely example thereof It is true that I finde it hard to digest but thou wert brought to another maner of conditiō when to redeeme mee from hell thou didst descend thither and for the reconciling mee to thy heauenly Father diddest vnder-goe his curse By reason of my sinnes I haue so many times deserued hell and euerlasting fire and thou deliueredst mee I being secure that I haue a part in thy merit and obedience and that I am one of thy coheires to reigne one day with thee in thy kingdome and euen at this present in the middest of all afflictions to be seated neuerthelesse in heauenly places Hauing therefore my part in so many felicities why should I grudge to suffer a little time by meanes whereof thou meanest to awake improoue and drawe me neerer to thee But seeing thou knowest me better than I know my selfe if thou pleasest to make some triall of me grant me necessary power and patience to glorifie thee conuerting all the euill which may occurre vnto mee to my good and saluation And if in graciously supporting my debilitie thy benignitie doe vouchsafe to aduertise mee by some light affliction effect that this thy clemencie may drawe mee more and more to loue and honour thee to giue thee thanks for the care thou hast of thy poore humble seruant and by this meanes dispose me to attend and expect thee in death that after the same I may finde that life which I obtained by thy death and there bee made partaker with thee of perpetuall ioy and rest for euermore Amen Another O Lord God heauenly Father whē I consider howe many wayes I haue offended before thy presence and high Maiestie I abhorre my selfe in thinking howe many times I haue forsaken thee my fauorable and gentle Father I detest my ingratitude when I see into what seruitude of sinne I haue too often throwen my selfe headlong downe selling as farre as in mee lay the precious libertie which thy Sonne purchased for mee I condemne my folly I absolutely discouer my selfe I see nothing but death and malediction hang ouer my head my conscience rising vp against mee for a iudge and testimonie of mine iniquities But when I behold on the other side thy infinite mercie which surmounteth al thy other works and wherein if I may dare so to speake thou exceedest thy selfe my soule is then somewhat comforted And indeed why should I doubt to find grace in his sight that so often and gentlie calleth and summoneth sinners to repentance expresly protesting that hee desireth not the death of a sinner but that hee should bee conuerted and liue Moreouer thy onely Sonne hath so assured vs that wee shall finde grace in thy presence by the goodly parables which he himselfe propounded as of the mite of the lost sheepe and of the prodigall childe whose liuely image I acknowledge to be in my selfe as I should bee ingrate incredulous and verie wicked to recoyle and bee ashamed of thy presence though I be neuer so miserable seeing that thou puttest foorth thine hand with so mercifull an affection to drawe me to thee O louing Father I haue faintly forsaken thee I haue scattered thy graces most vnhappily in cleauing to the desires of my flesh and swaruing frō thy obedience I haue entangled my selfe in the base seruitude of sinne I am fallen into extreame miserie I knowe not whither to retire but to thee whom I haue forsaken Let thy mercie receiue thy poore suppliaunt whom during his error thou didst support I am vnworthy to lift vp mine eyes to thee or to call thee Father but I humbly beseech thee abase thine eyes to looke downe vpon me seeing thy pleasure is so and that otherwise I must needs fall into the power of thine enemies The regard of thy countenaunce will quicken and leade mee towards thee I already feele some effect therof seeing in some sort I plainly discouer my selfe I knowe thou doest beholde mee thou gauest me eyes to discerne the daungers wherein I stood thou diddest seek and finde mee out in the worlde and death and out of thy mercie hast graunted my desire to enter into thine house I dare not require that thou shouldest imbrace or kisse me or that thou shouldest weep for ioy in hauing found out thy poore seruant and slaue I look not for those precious ornaments wherwith thou honorest thy greatest seruaunts and best affected children it sufficeth mee to be in the troupe of the least in thine house amongst the greatest sinners that haue obtained pardon of thee and that are vouchsafed some retiring place in thy heauenly palace where ther are so many seuerall habitations And that euen in thy house I may be as the least that pleaseth thee so thou doe but auow mee thine owne for euer O mercifull Father I beseech thee for the loue of thy best beloued Sonne my onely Sauiour to vouchsafe mee thy holy Spirit for the cleansing of my heart and strengthening of mee after such a sort that I may alwayes remaine in thine house there to serue thee in righeousnesse and holinesse all the dayes of my life Amen Another WHat doe wee in this worlde but heape sinne vpon sinne So as the present day is euer somewhat worse than the day before and we neuer cease to draw vpon vs thy wrath and indignation But when wee shall be out of this worlde in thine inheritance wee shall bee wholly assured of perfect and eternall felicitie the miseries of the bodie being layd apart and the vices and contaminatiōs of the soule quight annihilated O heauenly Father encrease in vs thy faith that wee may cast no doubt of things so infallible Imprint thy grace and loue in our heartes for the raising vp fortifying of vs in thy fear And because thou hast seated vs in this worlde there to remaine so long as pleaseth thee without manifesting vnto vs the day of our departure which is only knowen to thy selfe I beseech thee take mee from hence when thou seest the fit time come and then to vouchsafe mee this fauour that I may willingly acknowledge the same and in the meane while that I may dispose of my selfe as thou hast ordained in thy most holy word Amen Another THis bodie is the soules prison and a prison that is obscure close and vncomfortable Wee are as banished men in this world and our life is but griefe and miserie But contrariwise O Lord it is in thy heauenly kingdome where we shall finde our libertie our naturall countrey and most perfect contentment Rowse vp our soules by thy Worde to the remembraunce and apprehension of such a good engraue in our hearts the desire of goods eternall and which onely are to bee sought after affoord our consciences some taste of this ioye wherewith the blessed in heauen are fully replenished that I may esteeme that which worldlings account so beautifull and so earnestly couet retaining the same with obstinate auarice and euen adoring it with such mad frenzie but filth and dyrte And procure that I feeling no taste but in thy veritie and grace calling continually vpon thy Name I may attend the day of my true deliuerance by IESVS CHRIST thy Sonne to whome with thee and the holie Ghost bee ascribed eternall glorie and prayse Amen Another LOrde IESVS the onely sauing health of the liuing and the eternall life of those that die I wholly submitte my selfe to thy will whether it shall please thee yet a little while to suffer this soule in my bodie to serue thee or that thou mindest to take it out of this prison I being assured whatsoeuer thou wilt preserue can not perish I am content with a very good heart that my bodie should returne to the earth out of which it was taken beleeuing in the last resurrection which shall make it immortall incorruptible and full of glorie I humbly beseech thee to strengthen my soule against all temptations couer me with the buckler of thy mercie to holde out Sathans dartes As for mee I am but weaknesse it selfe but yet I will relie on thy goodnesse and power I can alleadge nothing good before thee wherin to glorie but contrariwise alas my sins in infinite number accuse and torment mee but yet doe thy merits assure mee that I shall bee saued For I holde this for most certaine that thou wert borne for me that thou wert tempted and wert obedient to GOD the Father and that thou hast bought and purchased eternall life for mee Seeing therefore thou hast bestowed thy selfe on mee with all other thy benefites suffer not such a donation to prooue voide and vnprofitable Let thy blood wipe away the corruption of my offences and thy righteousnesse couer mine iniquities Let thy merites procure me grace and fauour before thy heauenly throne If my sinnes encrease augment thou also in mee thy grace that neither Faith Hope nor Charitie may growe dead but bee corroborated in mee that the apprehension of Death discourage mee not but euen when this my bodie shall bee as it were cleane dead cause the eyes of my soule to looke vp vnto heauen and let my heart then feruentlly crie out to thee and say O Lord I commend my soule into thy handes accomplish thine owne worke for thou diddest redeeme mee I am thine by thy Fathers gift to whome with thee and the holy Spirit bee giuen all glorie and prayse Amen FINIS AT LONDON Imprinted by H. L for Mathew Lownes and are to bee sold at his shoppe in Pauls Church-yarde at the signe of the Bishops head 1607.
things haue their originall It is the part of a badde Souldier to follow his captain mournfully Destiny leads him by the hande that goes willingly and drags him along that goes by cōpulsion So must we liue so must we speake that Death may finde vs ready iocund not hanging back He is truely of an haughty and generous courage that thus rangeth his own mind and contrariwise that man is degenerate and base which striues against it thinking corruptly of this worldly ordinance that will rather correct God than himselfe Epist CXXI A Man is neuer so diuine as when hee considereth well of his mortall nature and conceiues that he was borne a man to die and that this body is not his proper habitation but rather an Inne nay and that but a baiting place the which hee must presently leaue It is a great argument of a spirit descended from aboue if he esteeme these places where hee conuerseth base and incapacious not fearing to depart from thēce For in that he knowes frō whence hee is come and often calles the same to mind he also knowes whither hee must returne Doe wee not see how many discommodities wee vndergoe and that this bodie of ours euill befittes vs One while we complaine of our bellies another of our breasts and then of our throats sometimes our sinewes and then our feete torment vs one while a deiection and then some distillation Now there is too much blood and then too little we are tempted and harried hither and thither For so it ordinarily fals out with him that dwelles in another mans house And notwithstanding being endowed with such a goodly body wee here propoūd vnto our selues eternall things and as farre as humane age can extend it selfe so farre wee promise to our selues by hopes Wee are content with no riches with no puistance Can there bee a more shamelesse or sottish thing than this Wee were created to die and yet euen when wee are ready to die nothing seems enough vnto vs. For euery day wee are neerer to our last periode and there is no hower which spurs vs not forwarde to the place wherein we must be layed See how humane vnderstanding is dazeled And therefore a great spirit which in the end comes to discouer a better nature than this bodily structure takes an order to beare himselfe industriously and honestly in the place allotted vnto him as for the rest of all the things before him he esteems not one of them his owne onely vsing them as belonging vnto him for a time like to the Pilgrim and Traueller Out of the first Booke of tranquillitie of life ALl our whole life is but as it were a seruice and we must inure our selues to the cōdition thereof complaining as little as may be and imbracing all that which hath properly any commodity in it self There is nothing so harsh wherin a mild spirit may not find some consolation He liues euil that knowes not how to die He that feares death shall neuer performe any man-like action while hee liues but he that vnderstāds how this was allotted vnto him from his conception will liue regularly and with like courage take order that whatsoeuer may happē it light not on him suddenly or vnlooked for Sickenes imprisonment decay of estate fire none of these will bee sudden to him For saith the wise man I know in what a tumultuous house Nature hath placed mee So many times the alarme hath bin giuē hard by me so many times there haue bin vntimely funerals gone by my gate oftentimes the fall of a ruinus house hath thundred in mine eares one night hath taken from me many of those which the Court and familiar conuersation had conioined with me and cut them off euen hard at mine elbowe I wonder that so many daungers cōming about me they haue alwayes failed But see on the cōtrary the greatest number of men when they embark they neuer dreame of a storme No man thinks how the same which happens to one may fal out to any other whosoeuer For euery one that had but made a goodimpression of this euen in his bowels and diligently obserued other mens harmes the same hauing as free accesse to himself he wold be well armed long before his being assailed It is too late after a danger to frame his courage to beare perill patiently but rather hee sayes I thought such a thing would neuer haue beene I could neuer be brought to beleeue that it would haue come thus to passe And why not Where are the riches which pouertie famine and beggerie doe not followe steppe by steppe Where are the dignities the Augurall and Consular roabes that are not subiect to putting out of their place or banishment to some blemish of infamie or to some extream ignominie Where is the kingdome whose ruine is not threatned whose executioner and heads-man is not at hand c. Out of the Booke of the shortnes of life PAulinus the greatest part of mortall men complaine of Natures malignity that wee are begotten for so short an age and that the time allotted vs passeth so violently swiftly away that life then leaues the greater part of men when they haue scarcely made their preparatiō for to liue But the time which wee haue is not smal only we lose much thereof Our life that is giuē vs is large long enough to cōpasse great matters if it were well employed But when it runnes away in delights idlenes when we employ it in nothing that is good extreame necessitie pressing vs in the end wee then perceiue our life is gone without discerning how it went away Thus much it imports we receiued not a short life but haue made it so short our selues We are no waies indigent of life but prodigall Euen as great opulencie and wealth when it comes into the hands of an euil husbād is wasted in a moment and mean riches on the contrary increaseth by the imployment of a thrifty man the more that hee vseth the same so this our age is wonderfully extended by him that can dispose well of it Why complaine we then of Nature she hath beene very courteous and benigne towards vs. Life is long enough if thou canst but tell how to vse it One is possest with insatiable auarice another vexeth himself with double diligence in superfluous labours one is imbrued in wine another languisheth in idlenesse this man is tormented and tossed with an ambition depēding on anothers voice and suffrage that man with an hope of gaine in the precipitant desire of trafficke runnes ouer al Countreys and Seas Others are in trauaile with a great desire of warre being euer occupied either in their own daungers or in perswading other men to perils There are also some who like to follow no course but Death layes hold of them languishing and gasping with annoy and wearinesse so that I make no doubt of the truth of that which the greatest amongst Poets pronounced by way of oracle Of
die It seemes not that they goe but rather that they are haled out of this life Then they can say how they had been fooles and that by reason of their follie they had not liued out halfe their life but if they could escape this disease they would liue quietly and abandon all affaires Then they call to mind how they had borrowed in vaine that which they were not alwaies to enioy and that all their labour and trauell is now come to nothing But they are only wise and they onely liue which finde time and leasure wherein to learne wisedome For they doe not only beare their yeares well but they adde all the time past vnto their owne All the yeeres which passed before them they haue ouertaken and so we likewise if we be not too ingrate The famous Authors of these excellent sacred opinions were born for our sakes they prepared a life for vs. By other mens labors we are conducted to admirable things drawen and digged out of darkenesse to bring them to light and knowledge There are no ages forbiddē vs we may enter into al. And when we take pleasure out of a great minde to issue a little out of the straight siege of humane imbecillitie there is fitte time enough to fetch our walkes abroade at large We may dispute with Socrates doubt with Carneades take repose with some with others vanquish and subdue humane nature Now seeing Nature admitteth vs to the communion and fellowship of all ages past let vs not therefore lose this little and fraile passage of time but addict our selues with our whole hearts to things supernaturall eternall and that participate with the best These people that hitch from office to office that importune both others and themselues when they haue well scudded the streets trotted soundly vp and downe from gate to gate when there is not an open doore but they haue peept in at when they haue ietted with salutations from one house to another in an huge citie transported away with other delights how many would there bee that they should neuer see how many that will absent themselues from them and sende them away with a flea in their eare because they would either sleep or passe their time in lasciuiousnesse Let vs therfore be mindfull of better offices All men whatsoeuer may when they will haue priuate cōuersatiō with Zeno Pythagoras Democritus Aristotle Theophrastus and with other principall and famous Authors of good and liberall Sciences Hee shall find none of them otherwise occupied none but he wil find leasure to entertaine him none that will not send him back more happy more content and more desirous of his amitie none that will let him depart emptie handed Out of the Booke of Consolation IT is therefore a singular consolation to thinke that whatsoeuer all men before haue passed and all to come must likewise vndergoe shall or may happen to himselfe And Nature in my opinion made that which was most grieuous most common vnto all to the end that such an equalitie might asswage the rigor and seuerity of Death Goe to then cast thine eye on euery side vpon all mortall men and ouer all thou shalt easily discern great and continuall occasion of griefe One is vexed with an ambition that neuer hath repose Pouerty calles another dayly to his work Another feares the same wealth which erst hee desired and is tormented with his owne wishes One is afflicted with care another with labour a third importuned with a troupe of people that dayly laye siege to the portall of his house Here 's one angry for hauing children there 's another laments for hauing lost them Teares sooner faile vs than iust cause to lament Mayest thou not perceiue what maner of life Nature hath allotted vs when she ordained that whosoeuer was borne should enter into the world with cries and teares Wee came into the world with such a beginning and all the sequel of our years is correspondent to the same in this maner wee passe ouer our whole life All those goods wherein we delight through a certain pleasure but in apparāce being inwardly replenished with cosinage deceit I say treasure dignities power authoritie with diuers other things by which the blind auarice of humane care becomes stupide besotted wee possesse thē with wōderfull molestation men enuie vs the enioying them and euen amōgst those that haue them they rather threaten than make the owner more powerfull they are smooth and slippery one can neuer possesse them securely there 's euer some dāger of their perill and shipwrack And though one did not fear any thing to come yet the only preseruatiō of a great worldly state is full fraught with cares If thou wilt giue credit to thē which doe more profoundly looke into truth our whole life is a punishment we are here lanched foorth into this deepe inconstant sea where ther is always flood and ebbe which one while hoystes vp with the waues then throwes vs down again with the more damage dayly tossing and tormenting vs whether it raise vs vp or bring vs downe wee I say most miserable haue neuer any settled or assured place we euer hang in suspence wee alwaies floate we alwayes rush one against another and often-times euen suffer wracke We are neuer out of feare in this vast Sea subiect to all kinde of tempests and storms and those that sayle therein haue no other Port to make withall but Death Out the Booke of Diuine prouidence In what maner diuers euils light on good men YOu required of me Lucilius if it were so that the worlde was gouerned by prouidence diuine how it could come to passe that so many inconueniences fell to honest mens shares I wil yeeld you hereof a more liuely reason in my written worke wherein I determine to prooue that Gods prouidence is ouer all things and that GOD himselfe dwelles and conuerseth amongst vs. There is an amity betweene GOD and honest men which vertue maketh and contracteth and not onely a friendship but also a neere alliaunce and resemblance For an honest man differs from God but onely in time he is his disciple his imitator and his true off-spring And therfore this magnificent Father which exactes hardly of his own that they should be vertuous hee brings them vp hardly as seuere fathers vse to doe When as therfore thou seest honest men and those so neer vnto God trauell and take paines mounting vp by rough and craggie ascents and contrariwise the wicked to spende their time in follies being drowned in sensuall pleasures imagine how wee delight to raine in our owne children and loose the raines to our slaues progenie For the one wee containe them within their dueties by a seuere sharp discipline for the other wee lay the bridle on their necks Thou mayst euidently perceiue the like taken by God Hee lets not an honest man haue his head he proues hee tries hee prepares him for his seruice