make the poor Philosopher to forbear his dinner and not to relish one morsel of the Feast with pleasure Thou then who art no more secure of thy life than he how canst thou delight in the pleasures of the world he who every moment expects death ought no moment to delight in life This onely consideration of death according to Ricardus was sufficient to make us distaste all the pleasures of the earth A great danger or fear suffices to take away the sense of lesser joyes and what greater danger then that of Eternity Death is therefore uncertain that thou shouldest be ever certain to despise this life and dispose thy self for the other Thou art every hour in danger of death to the end that thou shouldest be every hour prepared to leave life What is death but the way unto eternity A great journey thou hast to make wherefore doest thou not provide in time and the rather because thou knowest not how soon thou mayest be forced to depart The People of God because they knew not when they were to march were for forty years which they remained in the Wilderness ever in a readiness Be thou then ever in a readiness since thou mayst perhaps depart to day Consider there is much to do in dying prepare thy self whilest thou hast time and do it well For this many years were necessary wherefore since thou knowest not whether thou shalt have one day allowed thee why doest thou not this day begin to dispose thy self If when thou makest a short journey and hast furnished and provided thy self of all things fitting yet thou commonly findest something to be forgotten how comes it to pass that for so long a journey as is the Region of Eternity thou thinkest thy self sufficiently provided when thou hast scarce begun to think of it Who is there who does not desire to have served God faithfully two years before death should take him if then thou art not secure of one why doest thou not begin Trust not in thy health or youth for death steals treacherously upon us when we least look for it for according to the saying of Christ our Redeemer it will come in an hour when it is not thought on And the Apostle said the day of the Lord would come like a theef in the night when none were aware of it and when the Master of the house was in a profound sleep Promise not thy self to morrow for thou knowest not whether death will come to night The day before the Children of Israel went forth of Egypt how many of that Kingdom young Lords and Princes of Families promised themselves to doe great matters the next day or perhaps within a year after yet none of them lived to see the morning Wisely did Messodamus who as Guido Bituricensis writes when one invited him forth the next day to dinner answered My friend why doest thou summon me for to morrow since it is many years that I durst not promise any thing for the day following every hour I look for death there is no trust to be given to strength of Body youthful years much riches or humane hopes Hear what God sayes to the Prophet Amos Amos 8. In that day the Sun shall set at midday and I will over-cast the earth with darkness in the day of light What is the setting of the Sun at midday but when men think they are in the middest of their life in the flower of their age when they hope to live many years to possess great wealth to marry rich wives to shine in the world then death comes and over-shadows the brightness of their day with a cloud of sorrow as it happened in the Story related by Alexander Faya Alex. Faya To. 2. Ladislaus King of Hungary and Bohemia sent a most solemn Embassage unto Charles King of France for the conducting home of that Kings Daughter who was espoused unto the Prince his Son The chief Embassador elected for this journey was Vdabricas Bishop of Passaw for whose Attendants were selected 200 principal men of Hungary 200 of Bohemia and other 200 of Austria all persons of eminent Birth and Nobility so richly clad and in so brave an Equipage that they appeared as so many Princes To these the Bishop added an hundred Gentlemen chosen out of his own Subjects so that they passed through France 700 Gentlemen in company most richly accoutred and for the greater Pomp and Magnificence of the Embassage there went along with them 400 beautiful Ladies in sumptuous habits and adorned with most costly jewels the Coaches which carried them were studded with gold and enchased with stones of value Besides all this were many Gifts and rich Garments of inestimable price which they brought along with them for Presents But the very day that this glorious Embassage entred Paris before they came at the place appointed for their entertainment a Curriere arrived with the news of the death of the espoused Prince Such was the grief that struck the heart of the French King with so unexpected a news as he could neither give an answer to the Embassage nor speak with the Embassadour or those who accompanied him and so they departed most sorrowful from Paris and every one returned unto his own home In this manner God knows by the means of death to fill the earth with darkness and sorrow in the day of greatest brightness as he spake by his Prophet Since then thou knowest not when thou art to dye think thou must dye to day and be ever prepared for that which may ever happen Trust in the mercies of God and imploy them incessantly but presume not to deferre thy conversion for a moment For who knows whether thou shalt ever from hence forward have time to invoke him and having invoked him whether thou shalt deserve to be heard Know that the mercy of God is not promised to those who therefore trust in him that they may sin with hope of pardon but unto those who fearing his Divine Justice cease to offend him wherefore St. Cregory says The mercies of Almighty God forget him Greg. in moral who forgets his Justice nor shall he find him merciful who does not fear him just For this it is so often repeated in Scripture That the mercy of God is for those who fear him And in one part it is said The mercy of the Lord from eternity unto eternity is upon those who fear him And in anothâ—r As the Father hath mercy on his Son so the Lord hath mercy on these who fear him In another According to the height from earth unto heaven he has corroborated his mercy upon those that fear him Finally the very Mother of mercy sayes in her Divine Canticle That the mercy of the Lord is from generation to generation upon those who fear him Thou seest then that the Divine mercy is not promised unto all and that thou shalt remain excluded from it whilest thou presumest and doest not fear his justice And
arrogant clay an insolent dust and a sparkle which in a moment is extinguished a flame which quickly dies a light which vanishes into air a dead leaf withered hay faded grass a nature which consumes it self to day threatens and to morrow dies to day abounds in wealth and is to morrow in his grave to day hath his brows circled with a diadem and to morrow is with worms he is to day and to morrow ceases to be triumphs and rejoyces to day and to morrow is lamented immeasurably insolent in prosperity and in adversity admits no comfort who knows not himself yet is curious in searching what is above him is ignorant of what is present and scoffs at what 's to come he who is mortal by nature and out of pride thinks himself eternal he who is an open house of perturbations a game of divers infirmities a concourse of daily calamities and a receptacle of all sorrow O how great is the Tragedy of our baseness and how many things have I said But it cannot better be declared than by the voice of the Prophet In vain doth man who lives trouble himself For truly the things of this life which shine and glister most are of less profit than a putrified Carcase This is of St. John Chrysostome in which he clearly sets forth the misery of Man the shortness of his life and the vanity of things temporal § 3. And that the perfect knowledge of our selves may not be wanting unto us Man is not onely thus vile and base whilest he lives and much more being dead but even his Soul whilest it remains in his Body is not of much greater esteem For although the Soul be of it self of a most noble substance yet our vices do so much vilifie it that they make it more abominable than the Body And without doubt the Soul when it is dead in mortal sin is more corrupt and stinking in the sight of the Angels than a Body dead eight days agoe for if that Body be full of worms this is full of devils and vices And even whilest the Soul lives and is free from any mortal sin yet by committing those which are but venial it becomes full of imperfections and although it be not dead yet it is more weak feeble and languishing than a sick Body and if a man knew himself well he would be more affrighted at the misery of his Soul than at that of his Flesh The devout Father Alfonso Roderiguez a most excellent Master in matters of spirit writes of a holy Woman who desired light from God to know in what condition she was and saw in her self such ugliness and deformity that she was not able to suffer it and therefore besought God again saying Not so much O Lord for I shall faint and be dismaid Father Master John d'Avila saith that he knew a person who often had importuned God to discover unto him what he was It pleased God to open his eyes but a very little and yet that little had like to have cost him dear for he beheld himself so ugly and abominable that he cried out aloud Lord of thy mercy take from before mine eyes this mirrour I desire not any more to behold my figure Donna Sancha Carillo that most fervent servant of Christ after she had led a most perfect and admirable life besought our Lord to give her a sight of her Soul that seeing the filthiness of her sins she might be further moved to abhorre them Our Lord was pleased to grant her request and shewed it her in this form One night as she sat alone in her Sala the door open there passed before her an ancient Hermite his hair all gray and in his hand a staffe to support him She amazed at the sight of such a man in such a habit at so unseasonable an hour was a little surprised with fear yet recollecting her self said unto him Father what seek ye for here to whom he answered Lift up my Cloak and you shall see She did so and beheld a little Girle sickly pale and weak with the face all covered over with flies She took it in her armes and demanded of him Father what is this Doest thou not remember replyed the Hermite when thou earnestly desired'st of our Lord that he would give thee a view of thy Soul Behold the figure of it after this manner it is This said the Apparition vanished and she remained so confused and affrighted that it seemed unto her accordingly as she after confessed that all her bones were displaced with such grief and pain as had it not been for the great favour and mercy of God it had been impossible for her to endure it She passed that night almost overwhelmed with the waves of her sad and troubled thoughts The manner of that Girle so feeble and discoloured afflicted her extremely contemplating it as the image of her Soul especially when she reflected on the face covered with those impertinent and troublesome little creatures her grief was doubled and it seemed unto her as if it had smelt like something that was dead or some old sore which made her send up a thousand sighs unto heaven and to desire a remedy and mercy from our Lord. No sooner did the day so much desired by her appear but she repaired instantly unto her Confessor a person of great vertue and learning and desired him with many tears to explicate unto her the meaning of that Vision and to tell her whether those little creatures did signifie any grievous and hidden sins which her soul knew not of The Confessor took some short time to recommend his answer unto our Saviour which done he returned and said unto her Madam trouble not your self but render hearty thanks unto God for the favour which he hath done you and know that the feebleness which appeared in the Image of your Soul was an effect of venial sins which weaken but kill not cool but extinguish not the charity in our Souls for if they had been mortal sins the Girle would have been dead for those deprive the Soul wholly of life those which be venial onely take away our fervour and promptness in the service of God and the perfect accomplishing of his holy Law If then the Souls of so great Servants of God are so full of miseries wherein can miserable man boast since he is so both in soul and body CAP. IX How deceitful are all things Temporal FRom what hath hitherto been said may be collected how great a lie and cozenage is all that which passes in time and that the things of the earth besides that they are base inconstant and transitory are also deceitful and full of danger This is signified unto us in the Apocalyps by the Harlot by which was denoted humane prosperity who sat upon that monstrous Beast which is the World And amongst other Ornaments as the Scripture sayes she was adorned with gilded gold which gives us to understand her falshood Since it was
will it cause when a Sinner in the instant of Gods judgment shall see himself delivered over into the power of the infernal Dragon without all hopes of ever escaping from him who will seize upon a Soul and carry her to the abyss of hell Let us call to mind with dread that which the holy Prophet feared and said of the Devil God grant he lay not hold on my soul like a Lion when there will be none that will set me at liberty or relieve me O what a lamentable thing will it be for one to see himself in the power of Lucifer not onely abandoned by Men but also by the Angels and by the Queen of Men and Angels and even of God himself Father of all mercies Let us provide our selves in time for that which is to be done in a moment on which depends our Eternity O moment in which all time is lost if a Soul doth lose it self in it and remains lost for ever how much doest thou avail us Thou givest an assurance to all the good works of this life and causest an oblivion of all the pleasures and delights thereof to the end that Man may not wholly give himself over to them since they will then be of no benefit to him and persevere in vertue since it will not secure him unless he persevere in it to the last §. 2. How can men be careless seeing so important a business as is the salvation of their Souls to depend upon an instant wherein no new diligence nor preparations will avail them Since therefore we know not when that moment will be let us not be any moment unprovided this is a business not to be one point of time neglected since that point may be our damnation What will a hundred years spent with great penance and austerity in the service of God profit us if in the end of all those years we shall commit some grievous sin and death shall seise upon us before repentance Let no man secure himself in his past vertues but continue them until the end since if he die not in grace all is lost and if he doe what matters it to have lived a thousand years in the greatest troubles and afflictions this world could lay upon him O moment in which the just shall forget all his labours and shall rest assured of all his vertues O moment in which the pains of a Sinner begin and all his pleasures end O moment which art certain to be uncertain when to be and most certain never to be again for thou art onely once and what is in thee determined can never be revoked in another moment O moment how worthy art thou to be now fixed in our memory In vit PP l. 5. p. 565. apud Rot that we may not hereafter meet thee to our eternal mine and perdition Let us imitate the Abbot Elias who was accustomed to say That three things especially made him tremble The first when his Soul was to be pluckt out of his Body the second when it was to appear before God to receive judgment and the third when sentence was to be pronounced How terrible then is this moment wherein all these three things so terrible are to pass Let a Christian often whilest he lives place himself in that instant from whence let him behold on one part the time of his life which he is to leave and on the other the eternity whereunto he enters and let him consider what remains unto him of that and what he hopes for in this How short in that point of death did those near-hand a thousand years which Mathusala lived appear unto him and how long one day in Eternity In that instant a thousand years of life shall appear unto the Sinner no more than one hour and one hour of torments shall appear a thousand years Behold thy life from this Watch-tower from this Horizon and measure it with the eternal and thou shalt find it to be of no bulk nor extension Sec how little of it remains in thy hands and that there is no escaping from the hands of Eternity O dreadful moment which cuts off the thread of Time and begins the web of Eternity let us in time provide for this moment that we may not lose Eternity This is that precious pearl for which we ought to give all that we have or are Let it ever be in our memory let us ever be sollicitous of it since it may every day come upon us Eternity depends upon death death upon life and life upon a thread which may either be broken cut or burnt and that even when we most hope and most endeavour to prolong it A good testimony of this is that which Paulus Aemilius recounts of Charles King of Navarre Paulus Aemilius l. 9. Aâ—cidita anno 1387. who having much decayed and weakned his bodily forces by excess of lust unto which he was without measure addicted the Physicians for his cure commanded Linnens steeped in Aqua vitae to be wrapped close about his naked body He who sewed them having nothing in readiness to cut the thread made use of a candle which was at hand to burn it but the thread being wet in those spirits took fire with such speed as it fired the Linnen and before it could be prevented burnt the body of the King in that manner as he immediately dyed Upon a natural thread depended the life of this Prince which concluded in so disastrous a death and no doubt but the thread of life is as easily cut as that of flax time is required for the one but the other is broken in an instant and there are more causes of ending our life than are of breaking the smallest twist Our life is never secure and therefore we ought ever to fear that instant which gives an end to Time and beginning unto Eternity Wonderful are the wayes which death finds out and most poor and contemptible those things upon which life depends It hangs not only upon a thread but sometime upon so small a thing as a hair So Fabius a Roman Senatour was choaked with a hair which he swallowed in a draught of milk No door is shut to death it enters where air cannot enter and encounters us in the very actions of life Small things are able to deprive us of so great a good Valer. Max. lib. 6. A little grain of a grape took away the life of Anacreon and a Pear which Drusus Pompeius was playing with fell into his mouth and choaked him The affections also of the Soul and the pleasures of the Body become the high way unto death Homer dyed of grief and Sophocles of an excess of joy Dionysius was kill'd with the good news of a victory which he obtained Aurelianus dyed dancing when he married the Daughter of Domiâ—ian the Emperour Thales Milesius beholding the sports in the Theater dyed of thirst Vid. Andream Eborensem de morte non vulgari and Cornelius Gallus and
not to an ordinary River but to a River of fire for the greatness and severity of the rigour shall be repressed for 30 or 40 years during the life of a man what an infinity of wrath will it amass together and with what fury will it burst out upon the miserable Sinners in the point of death All this rigour and severity shall the wretched Caytif behold in the face of the offended Judge And therefore the Prophet Daniel saith that a River of fire issued from his Countenance and that his Throne was of flames and the wheels of it burning fire because all shall then be fire rigour and justice He sets forth unto us his Tribunal and Throne with wheels to signifie thereby the force and violence of his omnipotency in executing the severity of his justice all which shall appear in that moment when Sinners shall be brought into judgment when the Lord as David sayes shall speak unto them in his wrath and confound them in his fury The which is also declared by other Prophets in most terrible and threatning words Isai 56. Isaias saith The Lord will come cloathed in garments of vengeance and covered with a robe of zeal and will give unto his adversaries his indignation and his enemies shall have their turn And the Wise-man to declare it more fully saith His zeal that is his indignation shall take up arms and shall arm the creatures to revenge him of his enemies he shall put on justice as a brest-plate be shall take the bead-piece of righteous judgment and embrace the inexpugnable shield of equity and shall sharpen his wrath as a lance Osee 13. The Prophet Osee declares the same proposing the Judge unto us not onely as an enraged and armed man but a fierce and cruel Beast and therefore speaking in the person of God saith I will appear unto them in that instant at a Bear that hath been robbed of her whelps I will tear their entrails in pieces and will devour them as a Lyon There is no beast more fierce of nature than a Lyon or Bear which hath lost her young ones the which will furiously assault him she first meets with and yet God whose nature is infinite goodness would compare himself unto so savage and cruel beasts to express the terrour of his justice and rigour with which he is in that day to shew himself against Sinners The consideration of this wrought so much with Abbot Agathon when he was at the point of dying In vitis Pat. that he continued three dayes in admiration his eyes for fear and dread continually broad open without moving from one side to the other Certainly all comparisons and exaggerations fall short of what it shall be since that day is The day of wrath and calamity That is the day when the Lord shall speak aloud in lieu of the many dayes wherein he hath been silent That is the day of which he spake by his Prophet I held my peace and was mute but I will then cry out as a woman in labour That day shall take up all his justice and shall recompence for all his years of sufferance That day shall be purely of justice without mixture of mercy hope of compassion help favour or any other patronage but of our works This is signified in that which Daniel saith that the Throne and Tribunal of God was of flames and that there shall proceed from his face a river of fire because fire besides that it is the most active nimble and vehement of all the Elements is also the most pure not admitting the mixture of any thing The earth contains Mines of Mettals and Quarries of Stone the water suffers in her bosome variety of Fishes the Air multitudes of vapours and exhalations and other bodies but Fire endures nothing it melts the hardest mettals reduces stones into cinders consumes living creatures converts trees into it self in so much as it is not onely impatient of a companion but infuses its own qualities into what it meets withall and turns even what is contrary unto it into its own substance and nature it does not onely melt snow but makes it boyl and makes cold iron burn So shall it be in that day all shall be rigour and justice without mixture of mercy nay the very mercies which God hath used towards a Sinner shall then be an argument and food for his justice O man which hast now time consider in what condition thou shalt see thy self in that instant when neither the blood of Christ shed for thee nor the Son of God crucified nor the intercession of the most blessed Virgin nor the Prayers of Saints nor the Divine mercy it self shall avail thee but shall onely behold an incensed and revenging God whose mercies shall then onely serve to augment his justice Thou shalt then perceive that none will take thy part but all will be against thee The most holy Virgin who is the Mother of mercy the mercy of God himself and the blood of thy Redeemer will all be against thee and onely thy good works shall stand for thee This life once past thou art to expect no Patron no Protector but thy vertuous actions onely they shall accompany thee and when thy Angel Guardian Theophan an 20. Herac. Imper. ut habetur in tom 2. p. 2. Concil in notis ad vitam Theodori Papae and all the Saints thy Advocates shall leave thee they onely shall not forsake thee See that thou provide thy self for that day take care thou now benefit thy self by the blood of Christ for thy salvation if not it will onely serve for thy greater damnation The whole world was amazed at the manner of the condemnation of Pyrrhus the Heretick by Pope Theodâ—rus who calling a Councel at Rome and placing himself close by the body of St. Peter in the presence of the whole Assembly took the consecrated Chalice and pouring the blood of Christ into the Ink did with his own hand write the Sentence of excommunion and Anathema by which he separated Pyrrhus from the Church of Christ This dreadful manner of proceeding brought a fear upon all those who heard it Do thou then tremble unto whom it may happen that the blood of thy Redeemer shall onely serve as a Sentence of thy eternal death For so severe will the Divine justice be in that day against a Sinner that if it were needful for his condemnation to confirm the Sentence with the blood of Christ it should although once shed upon the Cross for his salvation then onely serve to his damnation and eternal reprobation If this be true as nothing can be more certain how come we to be so careless how come we to laugh and rejoyce In vitis Pat. lib. 5. With great reason an old Hermite in the Desert beholding another laugh reprehended him for it saying We are to give a strict account before the Lord of Heaven and Earth the most inflexible Judge and darest thou be