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
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
hands of God and for that the torment of Death doth not touch him It seems to the eyes of the unwise that the Just man dies his departure out of the World appears to them an affliction They imagine that the way he takes in separating himself from others will bring him to nothing whereas it is but a passage which leads him to peace and to repose Altho' he endures a cruel Death before men yet God replenishes him with a certain hope of Immortality He suffers a little to gain much Our Lord hath tryed him by these pains of short durance and hath found him worthy of his Love 'T is Gold which he puts into the melting vessell to refine it 'T is a Victime which he sanctifies by the Sacrifice to make it revive one day in Eternity The day will come when the Just shall possess the glory of Heaven and he shall shine more brightly than the Starrs we shall behold him judging Nations and bearing sway over the people for he is the Child of the most High He shall share with him in his Kingdom and the Lord of the Just shall reign Eternally They who have confidence in him will understand this truth they shall repose in his bosom and shall enjoy the Peace which he hath prepared for his Elect. But as for the Wicked who have despised and injured the Just and who have withdrawn themselves from God they shall be chastised according to their crimes How unhappy are they to have abandonned Wisdom and shaken off the yoak of Justice For all their hopes will be vain their labours will be unprofitable and their works will remain imperfect If they have Wives they will be dishonest if they have Children they will be unnatural A curse shall fall upon their families and the posterity of Adulterers shall be exterminated 'T is in vain for them to boast of their Riches of their Power of their Health Should they live longer than other men all the years of their Life shall be counted for nothing at the day of their Death If they die old their old age shall be disquieted with the remorse of their Conscience and the World growing impatient to see them so long upon Earth will look upon them only with contempt and perhaps with indignation If they die Young they shall be deprived of the advantages they might have had in the World and of the hope of the heavenly Good Finally the Death of the wicked is the ruine of their race 't is a desolation without hope a night without light an Abysmus of miseries where nothing dwells but a dismall nothing and an eternal horrour These sentences of the sacred Scripture make us see That only Impious and Infidells need to fear Death but that Christians who are indued with piety should be so far from fearing it that they ought even to desire it Certainly a happy Life doth not consist in living a long time but in living in a perfect submission to the orders of Providence What doth it serve us to continue upon earth even to a decrepit age Is not Innocence of Life to be preferred before the duration of Life and is not purity of manners more worth than old age The Scripture speaking of the Just man who dies young hath sayd That he was snatch'd speedily out of the World Sap. 4.11 lest the Master of errour should seduce his spirit and lest Malice should corrupt his Soul But because he became perfect in a short time v. 13. 't is as if he had lived many Years and God to whom this Soul was agreable hastned to withdraw her from the midst of iniquity wherewith the whole Earth is replenished Article XXXI As St. Gregory the Pope was himself very infirm and sickly so he speaks and writes frequently of Death He is one of the Ecclesiastical Authours who hath fill'd his Works with the strongest reflections upon this subject We have drawn out four or five of them which best relate to our proposed Design I. Reflection of St. Gregory S. Gregory That the Continual view of Death is the most assured means to lead a holy and quiet Life HE who seriously considers what he ought to hope for or to fear at the article of Death Moral in c. 17. Job must needs act with great circumspection and have a continual apprehension of falling into Sin That last hour which he hath evermore present before his Eyes renders him truly living to the Eyes of God He fixes upon nothing that is perishable He desires nothing of all that which men who live without Reflection seek with so much earnestness and the disposition wherein he places himself every hour as if he were then to die makes him to look upon himself as already dead For Life is by so much the more holy and more perfect by how much it hath relation each moment to Death Holy Scripture teaches us Eccles. 7. that the more men study this Lesson and contemplate themselves in this Looking-Glass which flatters not the farther they are from falling into the snares of Sin Article XXXII 2. Reflexion of St. Gregory That naturally all the Desires and all the Actions of man tend to Death That Grace should do that in us which Nature doth of it self That according to the thought of Job Life resembles the day of a hireling a pilgrimage a warfare where no one enroll's himself but to die in fighting against the Enemies of our Salvation THe Sick person who lies languishing in pain and in sadness Lib. 2. Mor. c. 3. Lib. 12. c. 3. expects with impatience the return of the day but the Sun which brings the Light brings no remedy to his misery on the contrary it diminishes one day of his Life The Hireling finds the hours of his labour over-long and blames the Night for coming on so slowly The Covetous man counts with discontent all the moments which retard his revenues The Ambitious man who hath conceiv'd great designs would in order to hasten the success hasten the years of his Life The Husbandman makes vows to see his Harvest ripen Finally it seems that men demand nothing but to be Old altho' they apprehend nothing so much as Old-age In Winter we wish the return of the Spring Scarcely is the season of Flowers past over but we desire that of Fruits In Autumn we say that Winter hath it's pleasures Thus it is that the Spirit of Man unquiet and insupportable to it self carries on its vain desires from one time to another and not enjoying the present anticipates always upon the future and marches by a secret impatience towards his Death What we do by a hidden motion of Nature why shall we not do by the Inspiration and by the Succour of Grace Grace incessantly advertises us that this Life is short and miserable and that we ought to aspire to another Life which is everlasting and happy Sometimes the sacred Scripture teaches us this Verity by comparing Life to a