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 But as for the Wicked who have despised and injured the Just and who have withdrawn themselves from God they shall be chastised according to their crimes How unhappy are they to have abandonned Wisdom and shaken off the yoak of Justice For all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
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
Let him who rests assured upon the darkness and upon the uncertainty of this Life learn that Death hath no respect for Treasures for the greatness nor for the glory of men It neither pardons the lustre of birth De morum conversione nor of manners nor of age except only that it is at the dore of old men and that it lies in wait for young ones To ground ones hope upon all these things is to imitate that senseless person of whom the Gospel says He built his house upon the Sands Mat. 7.29 the Rain fell the Rivers overflowed the Winds blew and setting upon this house it was soon overturned and great was its ruine because it was hurried away before its time and when the owner thought least of it The Torrent hath devoured all even to the foundations Job 21. What a folly is it to consume in a perishable work the time which one ought to employ in acquiring an eternal happiness Do we not consider that this Life is but a Vapour which vanishes O thou Ambitious person hast thou obtained at last the Dignity for which so many years thou underhand laboured'st The weight of it will quickly oppress thee O thou Covetous man hast thou stuff'd thy Coffers with money Take care of losing it and beware of Theives the Harvest hath been plentifull pull down thy Barns to build greater change and re-change thy Edifices toyl heap up pole and pillage on all sides and then sit down and say Lâ—◠〈…〉 19. O my Soul how happy are we now We have Goods in store for the whole remainder of our Life Ah! how long will this Life yet last Perhaps not one Year perhaps but one Day perhaps but a Moment and perhaps in that fatal Moment in which thou makest in thy Soul these vain projects of a long possession of all these Goods God will re-demand this Soul and then who shall enjoy the fruit of thy labours It is not so with them who place all their hope in God who uncloath themselves of all affection to worldly goods who are evermore ready to quit the Earth and always enflam'd with the desire of the Heavenly goods because they have heaped such goods together as the Worms cannot devour nor the Theives purloin from them The blind Lovers of the World believe that we in this estate lead a life here below full of bitterness but 't is because the blindness of their Spirit renders them uncapable to conceive the sweetnesses wherewith the Love of Christ Jesus incessantly fills the Soul of the Just even whilst she is yet a captive within the Prison of her Flesh Surely we must not imagine that this Paradise of inward delights whereof God gives sometimes a tast even in this world to his Elect is a place which is sensible and material 'T is not the feet 't is the motion of the Heart which conducts to this enclosed Garden to this sealed Fountain which causes to issue forth of the only source of Wisdom the living water of the four Virtues In this delicious place Hope makes us feel the excellent Odours of this tree of Life of this Pomegranet-tree of the Canticles more precious than all the trees of the Forests under the shadow whereof the Bridegroom delights to refresh himself There it is that one tast's by advance with a holy greediness the incomparable pleasures of the Divine Love Nevertheless these pleasures which the eye of the sensual man cannot behold and which the spirit of the World cannot comprehend are not counted among the rewards of the eternal Life 't is but a pay of the temporal Warfare Tast says David and acknowledg the delights of our Lord. Ps 33 8. 'T is a Manna which satiates without giving any disgust But O Christians let not us imitate our Fathers who fed upon the Manna and are dead let us make provision only to continue our Journey and to get strength to overcome the difficulties of the way An incorruptible Food expects us in Heaven 't is that Celestial nourishment after which we must have an insatiable hunger Let us demand of God that he will introduce us to this delicious banquet of the Lamb without blemish where we shall sit at his Table in the company of Saints and of Angells in a happy Eternity Article XXXVIII S. Bernard proves That to the end we may not fear Death but may endure at with patience and even receive it with Joy we must prepare our selves dayly for it by sincere Repentance That by this means Grace overcomes Nature That what appears so terrible to a sinful man becomes pleasing to a just man but particularly to them who have embraced the Religious and solitary Life T Is a constant truth the more one mortifies himself De div Ser. 18. in Cant. Ser. 26 the more one hopes for Mercy and by consequence one less needs to apprehend Death A Christian who mortifies his Body In Vigil Nativ Ser. 2 Tract de Vita Solitâ—ria who entirely disengages himself from the Earth and who exercises himself in all sorts of Virtues during his Life feels his Courage and even his Joy redoubled when he is to die He looks on Death as a Sanctuary and a secure Harbour He leaps over this passage which is so short as a Bridge to thwart the impetuous torrent of this Lives bitterness Finally he desires Death as the term of his banishment as the day in which he is to shake off his fetters and to free himself for ever from the miseries which oppressed him Now if God gives this Grace to persons remaining in the World he gives it yet more abundantly to good Religious and such as are truly Solitary because they have embraced a profession into which they enter by a Spiritual Death by separating themselves from all things which affoard any adhesion to the Life of the Body In effect what is it that a true Solitary person can fear in Death or rather what will he not there find to desire He learns in his little Cell to uncloath himself of all that is in the World He makes it in his retrait his continual study to contemplate the felicity of Paradise A Cell and Heaven have a near relation to one another what is done in Heaven is done also in a Cell one is there employ'd upon God there one enjoys God and the society of Angells there one leads a Life altogether Celestial The Cell is a holy place 't is a sacred Mountain where the Soverain Master of the World uncloathing himself if we may say it of all his Majesty frequently entertains himself with his Servant without witness without reserve as one freind with another And even as the Temple is the Sanctuary of God so the Cell is the Sanctuary of a true Religious man Whether his Soul raises up her self to the enjoyment of the blessed Eternity either by fervent Prayer or by a holy Death she finds a short and easy way
the eye of Faith nor love them but with the Spirit of Charity Now Faith and Charity do not link themselves to that which is perishable He who practises these two Virtues possesses temporal Goods without permitting himself to be possessed by them He gathers Riches but 't is to distribute them liberally to the Poor He hath care of his Health without being disquieted as well knowing that all the precautions one takes to preserve it are useless and sometimes even criminal when one submits them not to the orders of Providence Altho' his Honour is dear unto him he ceases not to suffer calumnies with patitience He is tender for his Freinds without having effeminate complacencies for them Finally he resembles a Traveller in all things who comforts himself when the weather is bad or his lodging incommodious because he prepared himself for all sorts of sufferings and for that he expects no repose but in the end of his journey Thus let detraction decry him let poverty oppress him let sicknesses torment him let the loss of Freinds afflict him the desire of Death and the Hope of the other Life render his Soul unmovable amidst all these miseries This Desire and this Hope are as two Ankers which resist the most furious Tempests and which defend his Heart against the Violence of Passions and against the blows of Fortune Article VI. There are an infinity of other such-like Thoughts and Expressions in St. Augustin But it will perhaps suffice to have related these which we have collected from many passages of his Writings to serve for the Foundation and for the Principles of this Work THis holy Doctour drew from the sacred Scriptures and from the Tradition of the Church the substance of these Maxims and the Fathers who went before him Tertul. or they who followed him have explicated themselves in the same manner upon the same subject Tertullian says That the Christians were distinguished from all other men by the Desire of Death That they look upon it as a Grace which is to crown all their Graces and That it is principally that which they demand of God every day in their Prayers What I pray you is the Idea we ought to have of Christians In Apol. passim The Christians are certain people ever-more ready to die who have this thought imprinted in their Spirit and this desire engraved in their Heart who look upon Death as the end of their servitude and the beginning of their happiness 'T is as one would say a People and a Nation of men distinguish'd from all others by the contempt they have of Life Moreover they are ready to lose it and that which afflicts others comforts them for they know that Baptism hath already separated them from the World and therefore they are glad when Death comes to deliver them out of it for evermore They conceive it to be a want of Faith for one to testify the least fear of Death in the most dangerous diseases or at the sight of the most cruel torments Is there question of suffering for God One may perceive Joy painted in their countenances they disdain the Tyrants they encourage their Executioners they cast themselves with alacrity into the flames All that prolongs their Life retards their Felicity Let 's go die say they we are Christians we glory in it and the glory of a Christian is to die couragiously for his Master to happy we who being the Disciples of Christ Jesus may die as he did True Christians says Tertulian in another place desire with an extreme passion to break the Chains which tye them to the Earth and to go to reign in Heaven with Christ Jesus Our Soul 't is true is no longer a slave to the Devil since the Saviour of the World hath ransomed it but our Body is yet under his empire He can raise Persecutions against us and expose us to the rage of our Enemies Shall we fear him for so small a matter Shall we not have the courage to free our selves from his power What is it that Death hath so terrible in it since Christ Jesus hath shewed us the example of dying well There is no other way to come to the Kingdom which he hath prepared for us Le ts die with him O Christians if we will reign with him These thoughts are the ordinary entertainment of the Faithful and the continual object of their vows The Pagans are confounded and the Devils despair but the Angels rejoyce at their resolution This Constancy which the Christians testify in affronting Death and this contempt they have of Life are so linked to the Spirit of Chrystianisme that even altho' the Son of God should not have expresty signified that Christians ought to demand to die in demanding the Comming of his Kingdom yet they would not have ceased to offer up to him this Petition So true it is that the sole character of Christian ought to inspire a continual contempt of Life and an ardent desire to possess the Kingdom which Christ Jesus hath promised to his Elect. Article VII That which Tertullian hath so well expressed in few Words hath been very largly explicated by St. Cyprian in many passages of his Writings and Principally in the Discourse he composed upon Mortality We have collected some Maxims of this great-Bishop concerning this subject S. Cypri and particularly of the eagerness which true Christians ought to have to get forth of this Life The First Maxim of St. Cyprian That the Christians who fear Death are Unjust and Unreasonable since in saying to God every day in the Lords Prayer Thy Kingdom come they desire our Lord to hasten their Death WE may say that they who fear Death shew plainly that they know not the prime Principles of Christianism 'T is surely to have little love for Christ Jesus to apprehend the arrival of his Kingdom May not one say That we are the Enemies of the Son of God and that we fear he should ascend his Throne to punish them who have offended him What is there more unjust and more unreasonable than to wish every day that the Will of God may be accomplished and yet to complain when it is accomplished Nevertheless 't is this disorder into which most of us fall We do as those bad Servants and those rebellious Slaves who must be trailed against their will into the presence of their Masters We pass forth of this Life rather by necessity than by submission and by such a cowardly repugnance we make it plainly appear that we have no Faith nor any Hope to be rewarded by him who calls us Surely I cannot comprehend how 't is possible that a Christian Soul can divide her-self into such contrary Sentiments For if the Captivity of the Earth doth yet please us why do we pray that the Kingdom of Heaven may come To what end do our Lipps pronounce so frequently such holy Prayers in which we demand of God that the day of our glory
account O thou ungrateful and insolent creature thou unfortunate work of the hand of the Allmighty thou kneaded vessel of clay by what right darest thou murmure against the God who created thee since instead of this gross form which is subject to corruption he will give thee another perfect and incorruptible Our Lord Jer. 18.6 says the Prophet hath commanded me to go down into the house of the Potter I found him turning a Vessel upon the wheel but the work was spoiled as soon as it was out of the hands of the workman he broke it in pieces and made another as himself pleased And shall not I have the same power as hath this Artist And the people of Israel are they not in my hands as the Clay is in the hands of the Potter O man what art thou adds the Apostle who darest dispute against God Rom. 9.20 The Work can it say to the Workman who formed it Why have you made me so Let us therefore thank him for the Life he hath given us perishable as it is since 't is the first favour we have received from his Bounty But let us look upon it as perishable and let 's demand of him a holy Death as the happy passage to that immortal Life which he hath promised us Article XIV 3. Instruction of St. Chrysostom That Death is that which most humbles man and That Humility being the foundation of all the Virtues it follows that to be virtuous we must incessantly meditate on Death talk of it at all times familiarise our selves with it visit Sepulchers and assist dying persons because nothing doth more edify and comfort than to see the Saints die and nothing more deterrs from impiety than to see the wicked die WHether Man labours to acquire Glory In c. 5. Genes hom 67. or to raise himself into Dignities or to heap up Riches Ser. de fide lege nat nothing doth so much humble him and makes him better to resent the vanity of all these things than Death A Conquerour who makes whole Provinces desolate and who breathes nothing but Blood and Murder may in vain blind himself with a fond passion of rendring his reputation immortal if Death which he brings into all places hath spared him for some time yet he is no less sure to die and to see the course of his conquests cut off by the same lot by which he hath made thousands perish before his eyes What avails it to this Magistrate to this Minister of State to this Favorit to have a troop of adorers attending him to have honour given him and to hear himself praised to the skies 'T is in vain for Flatterers to endeavour to raise up their birth by alotting to them Ancestours they never had 'T is frivolous to labour to justify their conduct which the Publick condemns and to predict to them a long Prosperity which so many accidents can overturn Death the faithfull councellour of those people to whom none dares speak truth presents it self unto them at every hour in publick in private in the height of their employments and even amidst their pleasures but in a shape much more terrible than it appears to ordinary persons and reads to them this affrighting Lesson Remember Man that thou art made of Earth and that thou art to return to Earth I have there laid all thy Predecessours Know that had not God commanded me to leave thee hitherto in the World to exercise the Good and to punish the Wicked 't is long since that the horrour of thy crimes would have obliged me to take thee from off the face of Earth The Rich and the Covetous are no more exempt from these threats than the Ambitious and altho' they are perpetually taken up with the care of keeping their treasures they cease not to hear the voyce of Death which secretly whispers in their Ears Luc. 12.20 To morrow I will fetch back thy Soul All thou hast been heaping up so many years shall be dissipated in the space of Six Months by thy Heirs Law-suits shall consume one part Riot shall swallow up the other part and among all thy Successours not one shall be found who will so much as remember to pray for thee Thus it is that the very wicked receive instructions from Death and that they learn of it to humble themselves in the enjoyment of their false Goods to which they would adhere yet more than they do if they were not averted by these wholsom advertisements But this Lesson hath never more force than in the mouth of dying persons Certainly there 's nothing more edifies a Christian and affords him greater comfort than to see a man breath forth well his last breath in producing acts of Piety of Love and of Confidence towards God The tranquillity which appears in his countenance is an effect of the quiet of his Conscience The Charities which he hath exercised the services which he hath rendred to the poor the Pardon which he hath granted to his Enemies his Watchings his Fastings his Mortifications and finally all his good works are as so many Angel-Gardians encompassing his Soul to defend her against the assaults of the Devil In this estate he explicates his last will without any trouble of Spirit he comforts and instructs them who assist him he demands of them to joyn their Prayers with his and after the tender embraces of the Cross of his Redeemer he renders up his Soul upon that adorable instrument of his dear Saviours Passion his Life is extinguished as a Light which hath no more nourishment his beautiful Soul fly's to Heaven and his Eyes are closed with that peaceable Sleep of the Just which doth not separate the Soul from the Body but to reunite them one day in Eternity What Christian well perswaded of the truth of his Religion would not desire to die in this manner and would not avouch that this Death is more desirable a thousand times than Life The Death of the Wicked is a far different Lesson but which doth no less instruct them who know how to make their profit of it One may there observe visible signes of Gods anger a terrible effect of those celebrious Words of the Scripture You who have had no other Gods but your own passions and who have contemned my Counsells and my Chastisements wicked wretches I will render speedily unto you with usurie the taunting scoffs which you have darted against me When you shall be in the arms of Death I will abandon you to despair and to fury I will no otherwise look upon you than with disdain and I will take pleasure to insult over your misery with a mocking laughter In effect those Athiests who braved Death when they conceived it to be far from them are a thousand times more weak than others when it is near at their dores The remorse of their Crimes begins to gnaw their Hearts and yet their Ears are shut against all holy instructions They
listen to nothing but what is said concerning their Sickness they complain of the insufficiency of the Remedies and quarrell with all that come near them their Eyes are wandring and sparkling with rage and their Mouth even yet vomits forth Blasphemies In this fearful estate all the world leaves them their House falls to the pillage of their Heyrs or of their Domesticks nothing is look'd after but to secure their Goods and to preserve their Offices and their Dignities whilst their Soul is abandon'd for a Prey to the Devil And very frequently of all the Riches they possessed upon Earth there is scarcely found enough to bury them after their Death Article XV. 4. Instruction of St. John Chrysostom That we ought to have as great a joy to go forth of the World as Criminalls have to get forth of Prison when the news is brought them of the Princes favour WE are to put our selves in an estate to be ready to open the Dore to Christ Jesus at the first knock he gives at it For besides that our Resistance would be bootless against him who hath broken Hell-gates in pieces our long delay in obeying will make us lose the advantage which we may derive from our Death But to the end we may avoid this Evil we need only to represent frequently to our selves That we are in this World as Prisoners who expect every hour the grace of the Prince to be releas'd out of their Prison Rom. â— For we have not re ceiv'd the spirit of servitude but we have receiv'd the spirit of adoption of the Children of God by which we cry my Father my Father 2 Tim. 1. Let us then say to him with Job not with a spirit of Fear but of Confidence and of Courage of Love and Wisdom Lord Job 7.12 is it not long enough that my Soul languishes in the chains which keep it fettered Is it an untamable Monster Is it as furious as the Sea that you should shut it up in so strait a Prison On the contrary 't is your Image you have created it free you have ransom'd it from the bondage of Sin you have adopted her you have promis'd her your Kingdom why delay you then to give it her Are you not weary to hear us sigh and sobb within our selves in expectation of the Divine Adoption Rom. which is to be the Redemption and the Deliverance of our Bodies In effect we who are Brethren of Christ Jesus and designed to reign with him shall we be so remiss as to prefer our chains before the Crown which he hath prepared for us Yet I much fear that there are many of these remiss Christians who are so fast fetter'd to Life that they have none but base and servile Inclinations The sacred Scripture assures us Eccle. 4. that there are some who shall go forth of the Dunjoon to ascend to the Throne Sap. 18. and others who shall pass from their Prison into another more obscure They are the Children of darkness they are blind and they are senseless wretches unworthy ever to enjoy the Light Is' t not they whom the Prophet Isay threatens when he pronounces these terrible Words Isa 14.19 The Sepulcher shall not be for you a place of rest nor an inviolable Sanctuary You shall one day be drawn forth of it as they pull from the Earth the trunk of an useless Tree You shall be confounded with them whom the Sword of our Lord hath exterminated and who shall be cast into the depth of the Abysmus as rotten carkases Rouse up your self then O Christian to get forth of your Captivity as a Criminal assured of his pardon runs at the first noyse he hears to lay hold of the good news This Impatience which you shall testify to go towards God will much contribute towards the obtaining pardon for your Sins and will keep you evermore disposed to go to render him an account to the end that Death which steals upon you as a Thief Thes 5. may never surprize you Article XVI 5. Instruction of St. Chrysostom That if we lived as true Christians without tying our selves to the pleasures of the Earth if we embraced the Cross of Christ Jesus by renouncing all the Wantonnesses and Delicacies of the World we should finde no difficulty to conceive That Death is of all Good things the most desirable WE live not my dearest Brethren Hom. ad pop Antiâ—c we live not with an austerity worthy the name of Christian We love with excess this soft and delicious Life and 't is by so bad a disposition that our Heart becoms more and more insensible of the holy desires of Death But if we passed our days in Fasting in Watching and in a voluntary Abstinence from a thousand frivolous and dangerous things if we took care to curb the violence of our Passions to exercise our selves in the laborious ways of Virtue to treat our Body hardly 1 Cor. 9. and to bring it into subjection as the Apostle speaks we should not be perplexed with all the vain disquiets which self-love brings upon us nor should we any longer obey its irregular motions Finally if we walked in the narrow and painfull way which the Gospel shews us we should have such an impatience to get to the end of the course that we should never stay upon the fond amusements of the World and nothing would more lively touch us than the desire to finish such a dangerous journey The Champions observe in all things so exact a temperance 1 Cor. 9. and yet 't is but to gain a corruptible Crown whereas we labour to deserve an incorruptible one Let us run therefore in such sort as that we may winn the Prize Let 's disengage our selves from the fetters of Sin which so straitly bind us and let 's run with patience that I may make use of the same Apostles terms Heb. 12. in this carriere which is opened unto us Let us fix our Eyes upon Jesus the authour and finisher of our Faith who in stead of a quiet and happy Life which he might have enjoyed in the World Rom. 6. loaded himself with shame and with contempt Ephes â— and endured the torment of the Cross Col. 3. not staying upon the Earth but to shew us the way which leads to Heaven Will you moreover see lively examples and behold with your own Eyes the truth of my Words Take a turn into the Desert and there from the tops of the mountains contemplate those Solitary Men who pass the days and the nights in continual Mortifications and who voluntarily shut up themselves in those dismal Grotts only to cut off all commerce of all the rest of the creatures You shall not finde any one there who sighs not incessantly with an impatience to die Hom. 14. in Epist 1. ad Tâ—uoth because they well know that the end of their Life is the end of their Miseries As they
dead to the World yet the World ceases not to live to them and to ly every where in wait to entrap them sometimes by applauding their Virtues and other times by extolling their Actions It besieges them it pursues them it enchains them by secret confidences by continual visits by an ardent seeking of their freindship All these things seem only to tie an innocent knot and which may have a very good end Nevertheless the danger is great and it is a temerarious confidence to expose ones self thereto without an extreme necessity The World loses nothing in this traffick on the contrary it serves it very frequently for an honest Veil to hide its Vices but the Just man runs a great hazard thereby and sits down always with the loss The Devil who is but too ingenious to deceive us employs a thousand subtil crafts disguises himself into all manner of shapes and even into that of Virtue in order to seduce us At first he distills light distractions little solicitudes vain desires unprofitable curiosities which diminish by little and little the fervour of our devotions and which estrange from our memory the thoughts of Death Then the same Spirit which cools the Love of God enkindles insensibly in our Soul those former affections which repentance and Charity had there as it were stifled and buried Alas how few Just persons are found who entirely imitate S. Paul in this double Death of the Christian to the World and of the World to the Christian Where are they whose Conscience renders to them the same testimony as it did to this great Apostle and who have put themselves into a perfect liberty by breaking not oniy all the Chains which kept them fast tyed to the World but moreover those which tyed the World to them For 't is not enough to have despised and abandoned the World we must so order it that the World may despise and abandon us This is that which the Apostle intends to teach us when he says The World is dead and crucified for me as I am dead and crucified for the World The World was crucified to him because it was dead in his heart and was no more any thing to him but the object of his contempt and of his hatred but besides this he was also crucified to the World because having made appear an insensibility for the concerns of the Earth the world ceased to seek after him and did no longer so much as think of him If we take not heed we shall find that even in the most retired professions in the greatest disgust of the vanities of the infidelities and of the corruptions of the world when we fancy that we are for ever freed from them yet there still remain some roots thereof in our Heart We hold no more of the world but it holds us yet by imperceptible bonds We make a shew of shuning it and yet we are not sorry that it should seek after us and that it should come sometimes to trouble our solitude which would otherwise appear to us dismal and insupportable Finally with a mean Virtue one may forget the world but one must have an extraordinary Virtue to wish to be forgotten by the world This is that which holy Souls aym at which are perfectly unfettered from the world They not only suffer themselves not to be drawn by the World but moreover they draw not the World to themselves And 't is to them that may be applyed the saying of S. Paul Man and the World are reciprocally Crucified one in regard of the other because they not seeking one another nor mutually loving each other are as two dead things which can no longer have any communication But alas how few there are who can come to he happiness of this double Death The greatest Saints all crucified as they are to the World cannot without the succour of an extraordinary Grace crucify the World entirely in themselves Therefore it is that they incessantly mortify themselves and they cry out with David Lord Psal 90. save my Soul from the Ambushes of her Enemies defend her against the cunning of deceitfull Tongues deliver me from the snares of the Hunters and from the corruption of the World For altho' the Just man flies the World and is perfectly disengaged from it he evermore apprehends that he hath something in himself which engages the world to follow him But if God covers him with his Wings to make use of the Royal Prophets words what ever endeavours the world makes to seek him out it will not find him or if it finds him 't will find him Dead as to all earthly concerns doing nothing to please it nor to allure it being deaf to it's prayses insensible to it's blandishments indifferent to its interests without curiosity without pretention without disquiet doing good for goodness sake and little caring to have confederates or admirers of his Virtue On the contrary if in labouring for Gods glory he encreases his own glory he will so far humble himself in his own interiour and before others that the aversion which he will testify against all flatteries will foyl his Flatterers Finally the World which will not entertain any traffick with the Just but upon some motive of interest or of pleasure will cease to seek after him and finding there no more nourishment to live upon will die and crucify it self in him For 't is most certain that the World is in that like unto the Sea which swallows up and detains within its bosom the living Bodies but rejects the dead carkasses and leaves them upon the sands So the World lays hold upon that only which is yet living and sensible for it and abandons that which is devoyd of feeling and of Life for all such things as any way concern it Article XXXV A pithy Description made by the Great St. Gregory of the Necessities and of the Miseries of the Body and of the Soul From whence this holy Man concludes That men should desire to die in order to enjoy a better Life in which they shall be no longer exposed either to Sorrow or to Sin ONe cannot express all the Miseries to which Man is exposed by Sin Lib. Moral in c. 7. Job His Body is subject to a thousand sorts of infirmities it is expos'd to the injuries of the Ayr and of all the Elements to Dangers to Diseases to the ignorance of Physitians which is some times more to be dreaded than the Diseases themselves The natural Heat which sustains his Life devours its proper substance as soon as it wants nourishment If he reposes sloath renders him unweldy if he is employed labour drains him if he eats the meat overcharges him thirst dries him up the excess of drink makes him brutish sleep oppresses him watching wearies him cold pinches him heat stifles him and that which eases him of one incommodity casts him presently into another Finally on which ever side he turns himself he is tormented by the
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