pardonable in a Child Let us then open our Eyes let 's act as reasonable men let 's live like Christians 'T is high time to conceive a horrour of our Prison and to shake off the chains which detain us in it Let 's reflect that there is another Life than this let 's awaken our Faith let 's excite our Hope and finally let us comfort our selves le ts rejoyce that our near Relations have acquired an eternal Happiness by the loss of a miserable Life le ts burn with a holy Desire of Death let 's seek with ardour and receive with joy that which will put an end to our afflictions and give a beginning to our Felicity Article X. Among all the Fathers of the Church St. Ambrose is one of them who hath spoken best of Death He made a particular Treatise De bono mortis Of the good of Death S. Ambrose where he says That it frees us from the miseries of this Life and from the servitude of Sin He teaches That 't is Death which procures Immortality to our Soul and a glorious Resurrection to our Body and finally That 't is Death which gives us the means to testify our Gratitude our Love and our Zeal to Christ Jesus Whence he concludes that if we have Faith we ought to desire Death Life is a burthen the weight whereof oppresses us and Death is the only succour which can discharge us of it Life is a punishment and Death is the sole means which remains for us to be releas'd of it Did one ever see Slaves and miserable Wretches fear to be set at freedom and to be comforted 'T is from Death alone that we must expect this Comfort and this liberty Now if we ought to love it because its frees us from the miseries of Life ought we not to love it more because it delivers us from the bondage of Sin For the most innocent of men is a Sinner as long as he is living he must die to the end he may sin no more and his Death is no less the end of his Sin than of his Life But Death doth yet much more it breaks not the bonds of Sin but to procure us the glorious liberty of the Elect. 'T is Death which re-unites men to their beginning makes them find their greatness and their felicity in the loss of their Lives 'T is Death finally which delivering them from corruption introduces them into an incorruptible and eternal Life For as soon as Sin had given birth to Death God drew from thence the Resurrection to the end that Sin ceasing by Death Nature might always subsist by the Resurrection and that man dying to the Earth and to Sin might live eternally in Glory Then this Word of the sacred Scripture wild be accomplished Death hath been absorp'd and destroyed by an entire victory 1 Cor. 15. v. 55. and we shall be able to say with the Apostle O Death where a thy victory O Death where is thy sting But the greatest advantage which we derive from Death is That it gives us the means to imitate the Charity of Christ Jesus and to do for him in some sort the same thing he hath done for us We may be in dying the Victims of his glory as he hath been the Victim of our Salvation and we may testify our gratitude by voluntarily offering to him this Sacrifice In effect how will it be possible for us to satisfy otherwise our so great obligations And moreover if we well consider it Rom. 8. What proportion is there between the sufferings of the present Life and the felicitie of the other Life between the torments of Death and that immortal glory which God is one day to discover in us Article XI An Excellent Doctrine of St. Ambrose which establishes two manners of Living and of Dying set down in the Sacred Scripture The first is that of just men who Live of Life that is who being in the Grace of God enjoy the Life of Body and of Soul And the second is that of Sinners and wicked men who Live being dead and who leading an exteriour life upon Earth are dead interiourly before God As to the two manners of dying the One is of them who die of death that is who in dying impenitent endure a double Death that of the Soul and that of the Body and the Other is of the Sole Predestinate who die to live which is understood of the Elect who endure the corporal Death with patience and with joy to go to possess an eternal and glorious Life WHen it is said in the sacred Scripture That the man who shall keep Gods Commandments De Paradiso c. 9. and shall exercise Justice and Mercy towards his Neighbour Ezech. 18. shall live the Life we must not believe that the Holy Ghost made use without design of such an extraordinary expression To live the Life or of Life is to have a double Life One of which is exteriour and corporal and the Other interiour and spiritual 't is to lead the life of a Man and of an Angel both together 't is to enjoy at the same time Health and Grace 't is to live of a general Virtue which includes all the natural and supernatural functions finally 't is the estate in which good people live upon Earth an Estate truly happy for the time but from which one may fall unless one labours continually to disengage himself from all adhesions to Life by the thought and by the desire of Death On the contrary to die the Death or of the Death Gen. 2. Exod. 21. what is it else according to the language of the Scripture but to suffer a double Death of the Body and of the Soul I mean to be deprived of the ordinary use of this transitory Life and of the possession of eternal Life And this is it which makes the misery of the reprobate who for having over much loved a criminal Life die miserably in their crimes There is moreover among Christians another manner of dying which is of them who die to life or who die in living that is who are dead and living both together And these are they who live of the life of the Body who enjoy a perfect health who have beauty strength and dexterity and yet who are dead to the Life of Grace and are not animated with the Spirit of God 'T is of these men that it is said in the Scripture That they descend alive into Hell And 't is in this sence that the words of the Apostle are to be understood Psal 54.16 The Widow who lives in delights is dead 1 Tim. 56. altho' she seems to be living And it is also the deplorable state of the wicked in this life out of which they may nevertheless get forth by sincere penance Finally the fourth kind of Christians in relation to Life and to Death and the most happy of all is of them who live by Death such are all
difficulty to undeceive themselves from the vanities of the World to contemn Life and even to take an extreme pleasure in seeking after Death because they are assured that no one can be perfectly happy S. Gregory of Nazian untill he dies for Christ Jesus and untill he reigns with him in his Heavenly Kingdom St. Gregory of Nazian in his Funeral Orations furnishes excellent thoughts concerning the obligations which Christians have to despise Life and to desire Death and particularly in the Elogium he composed for his Brother Cezarius WHen I consider the happiness which our Kindred have acquired by dying and the little they have lost in loosing this unhappy Life so far am I from afflicting my self that I feel my self transported with joy and I say to God When shall it be O Lord that you will take us as you have them out of this strange Land and that we shall go into our lovely Countrey to joyn our selves with them who are there arrived before us When shall it be that Death shall put us in a condition to partake with them the pleasures of Paradise and to lead together an eternally happy Life In effect my Brethren what can we expect during the short time which remains of our Life but to see day after day more miseries to-suffer more evils and to câ—mmit more Sins than we have hitherto committed 'T is therefore this consideration and not the loss of our Freinds 't is the danger of offending God to which we are exposed during our Life and not the grief for their Death which ought to be the true subject of our Tears Let 's weep my Brethren but let us weep as David did for that our Pilgrimage is prolonged Le ts afflict our selves for that our Exile is not ended Le ts weep because we love a Life subject to so many miseries and which incessantly exposes us to lose the Grace of God This is my Brethren a just cause 〈◊〉 our sighs and tears 〈◊〉 therefore sigh over our selves with the holy Apostle and let us say 2 Cor. c. 4. and 5. This base Cottage built of clay wherein we now lodg shall it never be destroy'd Shall we not soon dwell in that other house which is not made by the hand of man and which shall endure eternally For how long shall we yet ly oppress'd under the weight of this mortal Body And till when must we trayl after us in all places a living Sepulcher where our Soul is as it were buried in the Flesh and infected with a corruption greater than that of reall Graves 〈◊〉 my Brethren if the â—â—â—th of Sin is not the subject of your griefs and affliction you have no subject that is legitimate But that which ought to cover us with shame is That we love this Life all miserable as it is and that we make much of this Body which detain's our Soul captive 'T is true that we are unwilling to offend God but we are willing to continue in a state of offending him at least 't is that which we desire when we desire to Live Do you then know for what a true Christian ought not to afflict himself I repeat it over again to you a true Christian ought not to afflict himself 〈…〉 he lives too long 〈…〉 thing that delays his 〈◊〉 delays also his happiness but what happiness A happiness which is pure in its enjoyment immense in its greatness and eternal in its duration Finally a happiness which comprehends the possession of God himself and which consequently surpasses the intilligence and the desire of man Behold that which ought to make us sigh without creasing towards Heaven and to say with the Prophet Psal 118 v. 81. My Soul languishes O Lord she falls almost into a swoun in the expectation of your Salvation For my own part through 〈…〉 of God I fear 〈…〉 my Body should 〈◊〉 since it's nature is to be perishable I am perswaded that the ruine of that which is materiall and terrestriall in me cannot chuse but be very advantagious unto me Let 's leave to the wicked the care to flatter a Body which kills the Soul and which one cannot keep long alive Those unhappy wretches tast not the goods of the Spirit because they have no feeling of Hope for another Life And surely I do not at all wonder that they place their soveraign good in this mortall Life in Health in good cheer and in the other pleasures of the senses But for us my Brethren who are convinced that all those goods are but vanity and that they will be dissipated in less time than the dew of the morning let us say with the Apostle would to God that by a lively Faith and by an ardent Charity I had so mortified my Body that it were not capable to detain my Soul for if I could totally bury my self with Christ Jesus I should be assured to be resuscitated and to live with him eternally Article IX S. Gregory Nisse St. Gregory Bishop of Nisse hath made a Discourse to shew That we should be so far from lamenting them who go forth of this Life that we ought to envy and desire their happiness He proves this Truth by many reasons which we give in brief and in the end be explicates it by an excellent comparison of the state of men in this present Life wiih the state of an Infant enclosed in his Mothers Belly He says afterwards That they who lament the Death of their Neighbour or who are afraid to die are as little reasonable as Children who cry when they are born into the World because they are not sensible of the happiness they have in being delivered out of the most dismal of all Prisons THey who excessively afflict themselves at the Death of their Kindred and Friends Orat. de mortuis To 3. are for the most part very weak Spirits who suffer themselves to be ledd by the movings of Nature and of Custom They weep ordinarily because 't is the custome to weep upon such occasions They grieve for themselves in the person of another because in losing him they lose some advantage which they reaped from him or else they weep because they fancy a false honour of appearing to be of a tender and good nature There is moreover a certain pleasure in Tears and one delights to draw compassion or esteem from others by weeping Finally in whatever manner we weep over the Dead 't is always a weakness and we should never fall into it if we gave our selves time to consider That the orders of Providence are unalterable and that human things change incessantly For is it not a folly to grieve for the Dead as if they could have lived always and to live so as if one were never to die To get forth of this errour we need only to consider a little the difference there is between the solid and infinite goods we hope for in heaven and Goods so vain and so short
have yet but very little Virtue and Piety Epist ad Prin. ad Euriam ad Paulinum alibi As Death is the end at which all men must arrive so the thought of Death is a faithfull guide to conduct us with safety unto it For the Scripture hath sayd That if we remember the last days of our Life Eccles. 7.40 we shall never Sin Surely then we run an hazard to sin often if we do not think that we must die We fall into the same misfortune as do those Travellers whom the night hath surprized in a Forrest and who have strayed out of their way Every one of them takes a several track and the farther they go the more they swerve from the right path Christ Jesus hath shew'd us the way He hath said I am the Way and the Truth His Light conducts us amidst the darkness his Voyce calls us He serves us for a guide but 't is by the pathway of sufferings and by the track of Calvary that he leads us and all they who will follow him must as he did carry their Cross and prepare themselves to die This different disposition which men have in regard of Death is the most visible Character of their predestination or of their reprobation And 't is that which Christ Jesus hath shew'd us in the Parable of the Virgins For he says that those five foolish Virgins did not enter to the Marriage of the Bridegroom because they had not put themselves in a readiness to receive him How can one explicate these marriages and this preparation but of the Joy of a Christian Death and of the holy disposition which one ought to have for it He teaches us at the same time that the five Wise Virgins being totally replenished with these holy thoughts deserv'd to have room in the house of the Bridegroom and there to celebrate the Marriage-feast the joy whereof shall last for all Eternity He who would not do good when he could have done it shall be justly punished with an impotency of doing it when he would do it He who would not think of Death during his Life time shall not be able to think of the true Life at the hour of Death And what doth it avail a man to avoid the remembrance of an Evil which he cannot shun and to love that which he is not sure to possess one moment What doth it avail him to adhere to a life which flies from him and to fly from Death which seeks after him Man says the Psalmist Psal 38. spins his days as the Spider spins her Web. Isai 59. After many turns and returns wherein he consumes himself with his own labour Death comes which ruins all his work and then it appears not so much as that he ever was Article XX. St. Jerome teaches us the temper we ought to keep in the disgust of Life and in the desire of Death We have added this passage for the Comfort of good people who naturally fear Death NOthing is more ordinary to man In Amos c. 5. etalibi than to be cast down in afflictions to be weary of living and to wish to die But all they who find themselves in this disposition do they believe that they are for this more perfect than others On the contrary they ought to be asham'd of it as of a defect of Faith and a want of Courage Not but that Life is despicable and that it is even meritorious to contemn it but that we should be so far from conceiving a disgust of it when it is full of afflictions as that we ought then chiefly to cherish it as a means given us by God to do penance If Death is to be desired 't is in a delicious Life where sometimes our condition exposes us to sin as it were against our will 't is in a long prosperity where we may have just cause to sigh for passing our life unprofitably and perhaps criminally upon Earth and for vainly spending the precious time which is only lent us to merit Heaven by our sufferings For my part says the Apostle St. Paul If it is permitted to boast 1. Cor. 12. I averr that I glory of my pains and of my afflictions to the end that the power of Christ Jesus may dwell in me I feel a satisfaction and a joy in my Infirmities in Injuries in Poverty in Persecutions in the pressing Adversities which I suffer for my Saviour and when I am weak 't is then that I find my self most strong The contempt therefore of Life is not always a certain mark of our Faith and of our Piety 't is sometimes a weariness of suffering for God sometimes a sadness which the austerity of devotion casts into the Heart we are asham'd to leave it and we want courage to persevere in it If the Soul is not supported by an extraordinary Grace the disgust of all things and even of Piety it self which is insinuated by little and little and the Imagination which black 's it self by dismal thoughts and by desires of dying brings her to the brinks of Despair Those persons who have lately sequestred themselves from the World are more exposed to this misery than others untill the Divine love hath fill'd up all that emptiness which the separation left in their Spirit For whatever endeavour these persons use Nature never endures the yoak of Grace without violence 't is in vain to tame this Nature by the continuall exercises of piety by mortifications by rigorous penances for that inward Law of the Body evermore resists the law of the Spirit and in the combat which is fought between them although the Spirit gets the victory yet it is sometimes weakned and foyled in its own conquests Then we would die because we find no more pleasure in living and in these sad desires 't is Nature which acts and not Grace Nature is willing to discharge herself of Life as of a Burthen which is to her insupportable Always to fight says she always to languish always to suffer Ah is it not something worse than to be dead I know it by my own experience Brethren and if it may be permitted me to glory in my infirmities and to make use of the terms of the Apostle I would tell you what I have done to quell these revolts and these impatiencies of Nature Eusebius of the Death of S Jerome relating his own Words Finding that the memory of the divertisements of my youth followed me every where as my shadow and troubled my most innocent occupations I shut up my self in a dismal Grot amidst the vast Deserts of Siria where the Rocks scorched with the ardours of the Sun furnish'd our Solitary Hermits with places of retrait which are common to them with the Savage Beasts I confess that I could not enter there without horrour but the occasions of offending God appeared to me more horrible than that Solitude Nevertheless in a dwelling so dreadfull where I nourished my self
Evil or by the Remedy The Soul hath no less weak nesses and miseries than the Body You see her one day deceived by Hope and on the morrow troubled with Fear Anger transports her Sadness dejects her Joy dissipates her Envy gnaws her and nothing contents her One Passion follows another and sometimes for one that is destroy'd there spring up a thousand The sacred Scripture compares this agitation to the dreadful Tempests which are raised upon the Waters Isa 57 20. Who can then says the Prophet number all the Waves of the Sea Nevertheless 't is yet a harder task to count the desires of Man who goes astray in the errour of his Heart Jacob. v. 6. He will and he will not at the same time the same things He seeks with impatience what he hath not and he is presently disgusted with what he possesses Vice is followed with remorse Virtue is accompanied with pains he knows not to which of the two he should apply himself His first motion inclines him to Good and yet he doth the Evil by reflexion at the same time when he condemns it The Apostle St. Paul says Rom. 7.18 I find in my self a Will to do Good but I find not the means to accomplish it For I do not the Good to which I have a will and I do the Evil which I would not There is nothing good in Man He is submitted both together to the Law of God according to the Spirit and to the Law of Sin according to the Flesh God and the World draw him by turns He is a Compound of all that which is most motley in Nature always and in every thing unlike to himself His manners his opinions his desires all his actions all his thoughts are in a continuall instability Finally one may sooner stop the course of the Winds and the rapidity of a Torrent than fix his inconstancy by the sole force of Reason Thus the more our Soul examins her self the less she knows her self Who am I for example I who make so many reflections upon others What is the Beginner that stirs all the parts of my Body By what means do they come to know the orders of my Will How can they execute them with so much readiness But this will what makes it spring up in me Whence proceeds this intelligence which guides it these lights which clear it these darknesses which sometimes encompass it It walks upon the wings of the winds upon the points of the Waves it penetrates the highest Heavens it descends into the center of the Earth it carries its curiosity into every corner and yet the most common and the most sensible objects hide themselves from its knowledge in a word it knows not what it self is Man thinks and he knows not what it is to think he reasons and he cannot say what reason is The Soul is united to the Body and she conceives not how she is united to it she enters not there and she goes not from thence when she pleases the matter which she animates serves her for a Prison and by an inclination opposit to her nature she loves this Prison which keeps her captive The Senses which should be in all things subject unto her revolt incessantly against her deceive her and corrupt her 'T is an assembly of qualities which are mortal and immortal which are corruptible and incorruptible Water is not so contrary to Fire as these Qualities are contrary among themselves yet all agree together in one and the same subject notwithstanding that 't is impossible to say either what makes their mutual intelligence or what breaks it One cannot number all the kinds of Diseases which may separate the Soul from the Body and yet the Soul acts as if nothing were able to separate her from it She heaps up designs upon designs hopes upon hopes and there needs no more than a blast to overturn all O Man thou confused Pile of uncertainties and of miseries Eccles. 7 and 8. learn not to pry into that which is above thee since thou knowest not thy own self since thou art ignorant of that which is proper to thy self during thy Life and in this little number of days design'd for thy Pilgrimage upon Earth which pass as the shadow of a smoak 'T is the Wisest among men who hath said No one knows how he is to finish his course And even as the Fishes are caught by the hook of the Fisher and Birds are taken in the Nets of the Fowler so Men fall into the ambushes of Death when they least dream of it What is Man O my God that he should by you be so highly honoured Why do you east your eyes and employ your thoughts upon a Vessel so feeble and so full of iniquity Job 7.19 You visit him in the Morning and presently you exercise him by strong Tryalls He hath scarcely begun to see the day light before he falls into Darkness Psal 15. His Body is but a heap of dust and his Life fleets away as the Grass it blooms in Morning like the Flowers of the Field and in the Evening the smallest blast of wind withers it it dwindles away and there remains no track of the place where it but now flourished It seems as if after you had formed man you had abandon'd him to his own conduct Eceli 15. You have set before his eyes the Water and the Fire Life and Death Good and Evil to the end you might leave him the liberty of choyce which is almost always unlucky to him There are none who have understanding Psal 13. and light There are none who seek God They are gon astray from the right path They are all corrupted There is not any one who of himself doth good no there is not one Lord why do you leave them to be a prey to their Passions and to the hardness and malignity of their own Heart Know you not that our fall is inevitable as soon as you withdraw your hand from holding us up Do not then estrange your self from us O Lord you who are our only prop and our strength Draw us out of the mire of the World that we may not sink down and be drown'd in it Deliver us from those worldlings who have made choyce of this present Life for their portion S. Gregory Overwhelm them with an abundance of your riches and of your treasures wherewith they may satiate their cupidity But as for us who have placed our treasure in Heaven our Heart is where our Treasure is Grant then O my God that we may perfectly renounce all the goods of the Earth and that we may surmount all the miseries of our Nature 2 Cor. 4. Grant that we may carry evermore in our Body the death of our Lord Jesus to the end that the Life of Jesus may appear also in our Body For we who live for him are every hour deliver'd up to Death for him that we may live
eternally in his Glory S. Climacus Article XXXVI St. John Climacus distinguishes the desires of Death which the Devil suggests unto us from those which Grace inspires and of this Doctrine he composes one degree of his holy Ladder Degree 6. n. 4. where he shews That the Meditation of Death is the most profitable of all Spiritual practises AS all apprehensions of Death are not criminal Degree 8. n. 3. 4. Ibid. 8. so all the desires of Death are not always lawfull According to Nature Man dreads to die and Christ Jesus himself was apprehensive of it to make it clearly appear to men that he had taken upon him all the weaknesses of humanity and that there were two Natures united in his Person If God had not given to the Soul this natural adhesion for her Body she would not remain there shut up one instant This adhesion is therefore an order of Providence and not a disorder of Sin But to know whether the Desires or Fears of Death are criminal or commendable we must examine the reasons which move us to dread it or to desire it There are some who by a motive of Despair desire to die when they find themselves oppress'd with sickness or with affliction and these are very faulty in not receiving these chastisements from the hand of God with patience and humility Others after they have imbraced a Penitent Life are discouraged and grow weary of suffering for the expiation of their Sins and these surely are very unhappy for they lose the fruit of all the good works which they have formerly performed They have kept their Lamps along time lighted and they let them go out at the hour perhaps in which the Bridegroom is ready to come Others there are who being puffed up with a vain presumption imagin that they are arrived at the soverein peace of Soul and have gotten a comâ—eat victory over all their Passions because they have no longer any fear of Death They perceive not that this Pride is a thousand times worse than the fear of Death and that the malice of our invisible Enemies is so great 7. Degree n. 68. that they convert the seeds of Virtues into Vices Some others more conformable to the Spirit of Christianism seeing that the violence of their evil Customs makes them to relapse incessantly into Sin desire Death with thoughts of repentance and of humility These sentiments are laudable 22. Degree n. 25. and yet they are but the beginning of Christian perfection One arrives at this perfection when being dead to all the affections of the World to the World it self 6. Degree n. 20. and to Sin one desires to die upon no other motive than only to be entirely united to Christ Jesus 'T is by this mark that one may know the difference between the natural apprehensions of Death 6. Degree n. 6. and the fear which proceeds not from the feeling of Nature between the Impatience which comes from Despair and the desire which the hope of a better Life produces For he who hath not renounced all created things and his own will 6. Degree n. 20. and 11. betrays himself and is like to a Soldier who should present himself with his hands tyed in the day of Battle They who during their Lifetime have their Heart and Spirit link'd to Heaven 26. Degree n. 106. mount up to Heaven after their Death But they who have had their Soul link'd to the Earth descend under the Earth 26. Degree n. 377. The goods and the honours of the World are as so many rotten steps of a Ladder upon which the humble man cannot set his foot without puting himself in danger to lose his Humility He who voluntarily resigns himself to Death and who expects it without fear 6. Degree n. 12. hath some Vertue But he who at every hour desires it may pass for a Saint We cannot live holily one sole day if we do not desire that it may be the last day of our Life rather than to offend God in it The continual thought of Death extinguishes at last all Vices And as a perfect Charity renders a man exempt from falling into Sin so a perfect Meditation of Death renders him uncapable to fear any thing but the Judgements of God Ib. n. 14. And surely there is reason to admire that the Pagans themselves have said something not unlike unto this when they declared That Phylosophy or the love of Wisdom is nothing else but a continual study of Death Article XXXVII St. Bernard teaches us That Hope is the portion of true Christians and that this Virtue enables them to suffer patiently all the evills of this Life and to Love and Desire Death THe Children of darkness sleep in the night season Ser. 6. in Ps 90. alibi but as for us my Brethren who are Children of light let us watch in expectation of the days coming in which we are to sleep the sleep of Death S. Bernard Let us arm our selves with a holy Hope to fight against this drowsiness of the World Let Sensualists shut their eyes against the beams of this Hope and let them repose in the wantonness of a voluptuous Life Let them say we are in peace and in security who can discover us what can trouble the enjoyment of our pleasures The day will come when they shall be overwhelm'd with an un-foreseen ruine as a Woman is surprized by the pangs of Childing How terrible are your judgments how incomprehensible are your words â—ap 17. O Lord Whilst the Wicked insult over the holy Nation of your Elect and flatter themselves that they shall always domineer a stroke of your hand lays these fugitive slaves in the dust who fancied they could steal themselves from your eternal Justice They who were seen to triumph over your Patience are all enwrap'd in the shadows of a long and dismall night as many Criminalls are fast linked together with one and the same Chain As for us O my God! who have no share in their Sleep nor in their Blindness we lift up our Eyes incessantly towards Heaven from whence we expect our help You O Lord Psal 15. are our good and all our portion This part which is fallen to our Lot is rich and delicious Our hereditary share is of an incomparable excellency S. Ber. 'T is for this that our Heart rejoyceth and that we sing with alacrity because you will not leave the Soul of the Just in Hell nor will you suffer him whom you have made holy to see corruption Thus O Lord the inheritance of the Children of Jacob is more worth than the riches of the Children of Esau for when they should possess the whole Earth when the Goods which the World promises them should be great the possession thereof is not peaceable the duration is but short the end is uncertain and the loss of them is follow'd with an infinite number of miseries
from the Cell to Heaven The weight of earthly of affections hinders not her flight thither The Love of God wherewith she is enflamed lifts her above the Earth by a secret force like that of the Adamant They who are in so sublime an estate have not only acquired Sanctity but moreover the perfection of Sanctity and the very height of perfection it self But let them give thanks to the Authour of these Favours with a profound Humility For as Pride caus'd the most perfect Angells to fall from the height of Heaven so the same Pride hath caus'd many Solitary persons to perish If God inspires us with a contempt of this Life and an ardent desire of Death let us attribute to his sole Bounty such Sentiments which are so contrary to our Nature and let us humbly expect that he will hear our Prayers Article XXXIX Reflections of St. Bernard concerning the contempt which perfect Christians ought to have of Health and of Life From whence he takes occasion to speak of the Patience they are to practise in their Infirmities and of the Joy which the continual thought of Death affords them if they are true Disciples of Christ Jesus Hypocrates pretends to teach us the method of preserving and prolonging our Life Scr. 30. in Cant. Epicurus seeks the means to make us pass it over pleasantly But Christ Jesus instructs us to despise it and to lose it or to render it more short and more painfull Which side will you take To which of these Masters will you become Disciples In my Judgement the choyce contains no difficulty I am not in pain to determine my self either concerning the Sentiments which I ought to follow or concerning the Doctrine which I am to propose unto you I am no Disciple either of Hypocrates or of Epicurus I am the Disciple of Christ Jesus and I speak to the Disciples of Christ Jesus I should be a Prevaricator if I should teach you other Maxims than his Hypocrates undertakes to preserve the health of the Body Epicurus would banish from it all sorrow and cause Pleasure to reign in the Soul On the eontrary Christ Jesus my Master ordains us to endure Sicknesses to love Sorrows and to shun Pleasures Thus the Physitian ayms only to entertain for a long time the union of the Soul and of the Body the Phylosopher thinks on nothing but how to render this Union delightfull and both of them finally confine their spirit to this mortal and perishable Life which they cannot with all their Science either prolong one day or exempt one hour from miseries But Christ Jesus who levells his Doctrine only at an immortal Life and who knows that the Labours and Pains of the transitory Life are absolutly necessary to deserve the repose and the pleasures of Eternity speaks of nothing but of hating our selves and of loving sufferings and Death Doth he not tell us in the sacred Scripture He who hath a desire to save himself John 12.26 let him lose himself and he who shall lose himself for the love of me and of the Gospel shall save himself And what is it to lose ones self if it is not to abandon ones self to the misfortunes and to the pains of Life as a Martyr or to afflict ones self by voluntary Mortifications as a Penitent For 't is a kind of Martyrdom to suffer constantly Sicknesses or the injuries of Fortune and to Mortify the Flesh by a severe Penance and by a continual meditation of Death We have hereupon the example of the Holy Fathers I pist 384. and of our blessed Predecessours Why think you did they make choyce of shady low and moyst Valleys for the building of their Monasteries It was surely to the end that the bad Ayr causing frequent Infirmities to befall the Religious there residing those sicknesses might exercise their Patience and render Death to them more familiar and more desirable In a word my Brethren the Science of the saints consists in suffering for some time Pains and Afflictions Serm. 21. de dversis in order to acquire a happyness full of Joy and of Rest in Eternity Article XXXX Altho' the Book of the Imitation of Christ is in every ones hands yet it will not be unprofitable to extract out of it some pithy passages concerning the contempt of Life There is if we may say it a Moysture and an Vnction of Sanctity in all the Words of that Authour Imitation of Ch. which penetrate even to the bottom of the heart and which give an admirable Idea of the Death of the Saints There is surely Just cause of admiration that so many persons of Piety who continually read this Work and approve of it should still nevertheless passionatly love Life and tremble with fear when one speaks to them of Death FAir day of Eternity which art not darkned by the return of Night Calm and cleer day in which sparkle all the lights of soverain truth Lib. 3. c. 48. and cl 20. Celestial City Happy habitation of the Saints Residence full of joy Place of rest and of delights Lib. 1. c. 23. the possession whereof is not troubled by any of those changes which overthrow the felicities of the Earth Lib. 3. c. 49. c. When will this happy day shine for us When O Lord shall we see this dear Countrey And why do we not uncloath our selves even at this hour of every thing that hinders us from arriving there Alas the brightness of that day shines not yet to us but only afar off We make our interview of it only through the thick darkness of our ignorance Whilst the Citizens of that holy Jerusalem abandon themselves to the transports of their joy and incessantly chant forth Canticles to the glory of the Most high to the glory of his thrice holy Name the Children of Eve unfortunate Heyrs of her Chastisement creep upon the Earth and sigh at the length of their banishment Is that call'd a Living which we live here below All our days are full of darkness of bitterness and of sorrow Our Soul is there upon the rack through a continual fear of Sin Our Heart is there disquieted by a thousand solicitudes dissipated by curiosity transported by ambition blinded by errour beaten down by labour beseiged by temptations effeminated by delights languishing in poverty in Sicknesses and in all sorts of Calamities O Man acknowledge that if it is grievous unto thee to die it ought to be yet more grievous unto thee to live O the Strange stupidity of the human Heart amidst so many miseries Man is to day and to morrow he appears no more Nevertheless he scarcely ever thinks of the uncertainty of his condition Senseless that he is he makes projects for many years as if he were assured to live a long time he who hath not one sole day certain How many men have we seen whom Death hath surpriz'd in the height of their great enterprises How often