Article I. The First Principle of St. Au­gustin. S. Aug. That the Difference which is between a Perfect and Imperfect Christian, is, That the first desires Death with Ardour, and endures Life with Patience; where­as the second only receives Death with Submission, and hath not yet quitted all the Tyes which ordinarily fasten men to Life.

WIll you know what Progresse you have made in Charity?In Epist. [...]. Joan. tract 9. Examin your-self upon these Words of St. John: The Perfection of our Love towards God, con­sists in having an entire Con­fidence in him for the day of Judgment. So that Charity is perfect in all them who have this Confidence. What is it, to have this Confidence for the day of Judgment? 'Tis not to dread its com­ming.

Some there are who do not believe this day will come. I speak not of these impious Wretches; for what likelyhood is there that they can either desire of dread [Page 3]that which they believe will never come to pass?Epist. 1. Joan. c. 4. v. 18. But as soon as a man begins to be­lieve the day of Judgment he must also begin to fear it. True it is that so long as he only fear's it, he hath not yet Confidence, because he is not replenish'd with this Charity which animates Faith. Nevertheless this Fear ceases not to produce excel­lent Effects. It is a begin­ning of Mortification and of good Works; and it ordi­narily falls out that by these exercises of Virtue, they come to desire what former­ly they only dreaded. Then a Soul looks no longer upon that last day, but as the first of her Happiness; nor doth [Page 4]she go against her own Sen, timents, when she Prays-saying; Lord, Let your King­dom come. In effect, He who fears lest the Kingdom of God should come, fears also lest his Prayer should be heard. Judg now in what manner one Prays, when one fears to obtain what one demands: whereas he who Prays with that Considence which perfect Charity gives him, desires effectually that what he demands may be speedily granted him.

We may therefore say that there are yet some im­perfect persons, to whom Sufferings and Death serve only for an exercise of their Patience and of their Cou­rage; [Page 5]and who are not yet strong enough to desire to Suffer or to Die. These, be­cause they desire to live lon­ger, simply suffer Death when it befalls them. But there are others more perfect, who are so unfetter'd from Life, that in lieu of loving it as a good thing, they en­dure it as an Evil.

All that the former can do, is to conquer the repug­nance of Nature, and to sub­mit themselves to the Will of God: because finally they like rather to conform them­selves to what he hath or­dained concerning them, than to leave themselves to be transported with a boot­less weakness in following [Page 6]their own will. Thus, al­tho' the desire of this pre­sent Life struggles in their Heart against the necessity of Dying; yet they arm themselves with Fortitude and with Patience to receive Death with Peace and with Submission. One may say, That the Christians who are in this Estate, suffer Death with Patience.

But the Others, who de­sire with the Apostle, that their Souls may be untyed from their Bodies to be uni­ted to Christ Jesus; are not content to suffer Life as a necessary Evil: but they re­ceive Death it self with Joy as a great Good: because they find nothing in this present [Page 7]Life but subjects of Disquiet and of Sorrow, and that they find in Death the end of all these Pains, and the beginning of an Eternal Fe­licity.

Article. II. The Second Principle of St. Au­gustin, That proportionally as the Christian feels his Love for Virtue to encrease; he feels also the Desire of Death to en­crease within him.

WHen a man hath a live­ly and sincere Faith, which gives him a sight of the place whether he is to walk during his abode upon Earth; and of that where he shall ar­rive [Page 8]one day, after his going forth of this World: the De­sire of Death ought to en­crease in him, according to the encrease of his Piety: be­cause it sussiceth not that Faith makes him see that Ce­lestial dwelling, where he is to be setled for euer; but Cha­rity must also make him love it, and desire speedily to ob­tain it. Now 'tis impossible for him to have this Disposi­tion in his Spirit and in his Heart, without being glad to go forth of this Life.

Article III. St. Augustin having establish'd these two Principles; proposes to himself the Objection of some persons of Piety, who fear the Judgments of God, and [Page 12]who say, That they do not be­lieve they should do well in de­siring Death; and that it seems better to them to demand of God Time for Mortifica­tion, and for becoming more Perfect.

I Know not upon what they can ground themselves,Quaest. Evan in Mat. q. 17. who having a sincere Faith, can say nevertheless that they would not dye so soon, to the end they might have more time to labour for their Sal­vation and their Perfection. For 'tis certain that the most infallible Mark which a Soul can have of her advancement in Virtue, is when she ad­vances in this holy dispositi­on which makes her desire [Page 13]Death. If then these persons will speak according to truth, Let them not say, I desire not to die so soon, to the end I may have time to become more virtuous; but let them rather say, I desire to live longer, because I am not vir­tuous enough to love Death. Thus, not to be willing to die so soon, is not to the Faithfull a means to acquire more Virtue; but 'tis a signe that they have not yet acqui­red any. Let them therefore who have hitherto said, that they would not die to the end they might become more per­fect, say henceforth, That they desire to die: and this will make it appear, that they are arrived at Christian Perfe­ction.

Article IV. The Third Principle of S. Au­gustin: That there are among Christians two sorts of Fear to displease God; One of which is destroyed, and the Other strengthened by Charity. From whence this holy Doctor concludes, That Faithful Souls which are the true Spouses of Christ Jesus, fear nothing so much as to be for a long time separated from this Divine Bridegroom.

THere is a Fear which is banish'd by Charity,In Psal. 127. Tr. 9. n Epist. i Joan. & pass. 1 Joan. 28 ac­cording to that word of Saint John: Fear is not found with Charity; but perfect Charity [Page 15]drives out Fear: and he who fears, is not perfect in Charity. There is another Fear, which the Royal Prophet calls, the Fear of our Lord; that pure and chaste Fear,Psa. 18 10.which remains for ever and ever. Which gives us occasion to observe, That there are two forts of the Fear of God, one of which will subsist in Heaven with Cha­rity, and the other will be banish'd thence; the one will perish with Life, the o­ther will remain eternally.

I cannot better explain un­to you the Nature and the Properties of these two Fears, then in placing before your Eyes a Comparison which seems to me very just and ve­ry sensible. Figure to your [Page 16]selves two Women, One of them chaste, and the Other unfaithful to her Husband: Is it not true, that when their Husbands are absent, the un­faithful Woman fears at eve­ry hour the return of her Husband; and that on the contrary, the chaste Woman fears lest her Husband should stay too long from coming?

Our Souls are the Spouses of Christ Jesus, and during the state of this mortal life, this Divine Bridegroom is se­parated from his Spouses. Now if you agree to this truth, there remains no more, my Brethren, but to ask your selves concerning the nature of the Fear which you feel; to see whether it is either [Page 17]that imperfect Fear, which Charity ought to exclude, or that other tender and awful Fear, which is to remain eter­nally. O Christian Souls! do not neglect this occasion which I present unto you, to know well your selves. Que­stion your Conscience: Will you know whether you truly love this Divine Bridegroom? Do you desire that he should come presently? or that he should yet for some time de­lay his coming? Behold, my Brethren, and consider how your Heart is thereupon di­sposed, and from thence you shall know what your Fear is, and what is your love. Alas! How many Christians are there to whom if one [Page 18]should tell this News, Christ Jesus will come to morrow to take you out of this World, they would say; Lord, stay a little longer, I have only begun to taste Life, I have Youth and Health about me; my House is not yet well esta­blished; my Children are in their tender age and cannot pass without me; I have in my mind great designs for the publick good; the Poor have need of my assistance; I per­form many good Works; I render Justice without Passi­on and without Interest; ano­ther will possess my place, who will not perchance ac­quit himself so worthily. Ra­ther take away from the Earth those Wicked ones, [Page 19]who only incommode the good people: It concerns the honour of your sacred Name to exterminate those Atheists who contemn you; it con­cerns your Glory to confound that Tyrant who abuses his power. Why strike you not with Death that Usurer who heaps up treasures at the charge of the Widow and of the Orphan? Why take you not an exemplary chastise­ment upon that publick Blood sucker who ruines a multitude of families? But as for us, who continually bless you, who give Alms, and who spread abroad in all pla­ces the effects of our cares and of our Liberalities, leave us to live to honour you. 'Tis [Page 20]thus that the major part of Christians would speak. But as for them who are arrived at such a degree of Perfection as to despise Life, the World, and themselves; they, I say, who aspire to nothing else but to unite themselves to God for evermore; they would make use of another manner of language. Come, they would say, Come, O thou too long exdected Hour of the Bridegrooms arrival! Our Souls always burning with a desire to be with him, find that all the moments of this miserable Life which sepa­rates us from him, are so ma­ny ages. Why do you stay, O Lord? Have not our Sighs given you sufficiently to un­derstand [Page]that we lang [...] with the love of your beauty [...] You need but only knock at the door, our Heart watches, even whilst our Eyes seem to be shut up by Sleep.

Article V. Other Principles of St. Au­gustin: That we are not happy in this Life, but by the Hope and by the Desire of Eternal Goods: That to be worthy to enter into the Celestial Coun­trey, we must be willing to go forth of our Exile: That the whole Life of a Christian is but a holy Desire of things to come, and a generous Contempt of present Goods.

In Psal. 83. & a­ [...]os.WE are here in the Re­gion of Death; but we are not, thanks be to God, to remain here always. We are to pass from the Region of the Dead to that of the Li­ving. In the mean while, there is nothing in this Regi­on of the Dead but labour, sorrow, fear, affliction, tem­ptation. The persons who are unhappy in the World, are there truly unhappy; but they who believe themselves to the there happy, do there enjoy but a false happiness; and a false happiness is a true unhappiness. Thus, to speak truth, there are none but on­ly they who suffer not them­selves to be blinded by the [Page 23]false felicities of this Life, who can enjoy in this World a true Comfort, and who can hope to enjoy one day a true Felicity in the other.

You then who agree to this, that one is miserable in this Life, listen to the Saviour of the World, who tells you,Mat. 5.5. Happy are they who weep and lament. O how mysterious is the Felicity of these Tears? Nothing is so agreeable to Misery as to Sigh and to Weep: nothing is so opposite to misery, as to be Happy. Why then O Lord, do you speak of a cer­tain kind of men who are af­flicted and who at the same time are Happy? Let us endeavour, my Brethren, [Page 24]to comprehend the truth of these Words. Why doth Christ Jesus call them Hap­py who Weep; and what Happiness do they possess in lamenting? This Happiness, O Christians, 'tis the Con­tempt of Life, 'tis the De­sire of Death. They lament the length of their Banish­ment; they weep out of compassion for the blindness of them who are tyed to the Earth; they weep finally out of the impatience they have to come to that dear Countrey which God hath promis'd them: and what­ever Beauty presents it-self to their eyes upon the banks of the Rivers of Babylon, they stay not upon them but to weep.

Blessed are they who weep in this manner, because they shall be comforted,Mat. 5.5.12.and because a great recompense is reserved for them in Heaven. But the better to know their Happi­ness, let us mark a little the misfortune of such as are in Criminal Joy of Worldlings. Their Heart is only sensi­ble of the objects of their Passions: they make it their whole study to seek out new Pleasures: yet what­ever care they employ in it, a disgust so closely follows the enjoyment, that all their industry cannot soon enough furnish new inven­tions to entertain this di­versity. The excess of good Cheer takes away their ap­petit [Page 26]and ruins their Health; a tender and constant Freind­ship tire's them; the best entertainment grows tedious to them; their own great­ness perplexes and combers them; if they are in com­pany they would be alone, and yet they cannot endure solitude. The Rich envy's the tranquillity of the Poor; the Ambitious wishes for wealth to raise himself to honour; the Voluptuous finds that every thing in­commodes him, and creates to himself a true torment by his solicitude in seeking for his pleasure, Finally, if we look upon things but only with human aspects, they are extremely unhappy. [Page 27]But the most terrible of all their miseries, is, That the disgust they conceive of this Life, doth not move them to desire another. They languish, they sigh, they weep sometimes in the middle of their delights: but their de­lights will soon have an end and their tears will never be dried up: And after they have wept in this Life, they shall be plonged in darkness of Hell, where Despair and Rage shall make them weep eternally.

Consequently to this Maxim, St. Augustin teaches moreover elsewhere: Ep. ad Probam. Tract. 4. in Ep. Joan: passim in Psal. That all the Life of a Christian ought to be but a holy desire of Death and of the goods of Eterni­ty. [Page 28]No man, says this great Saint, going from Earth shall arrive at Heaven, to be there satiated with that eternal Justice, which makes up all the joy of the Blessed; unless he hath had an ar­dent thirst, and an unsatia­ble hunger thereof, whilst he was yet in the world. And therefore it is Written, That they who have an Hun­ger and they who have a Thirst of Justice,Mat. 5.6.shall be happy, be­cause they shall be satiated. It is then most certain, That all the Justice of Man upon earth, is no other thing than a Thirst and an ardent de­sire of the Eternal Justice. But how can one desire that Eternal Justice, if one love's [Page 29]Life, if one dreads Death, and if one doth not even de­sire to die in order to possess in Heaven this Justice which one cannot possess upon Earth? For the Felicity of a Christian cannot be perfect unless his Charity is also perfect; and the perfection of Charity is no other thing than this Eternal Justice, which consists in knowing God and in possessing him perfectly. 'Tis for this rea­son that the true Christians look not upon all the things of the Earth but with 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. [Page 30]He who practises these two Virtues, possesses temporal Goods, without permitting himself to be possessed by them. He gathers Riches, but 'tis 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 [Page 31]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, [Page 32]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: [Page 33]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 [Page 34]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. 'Tis, 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 [Page 35]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 [Page 36]break the Chains which tye them to the Earth, and to go to reign in Heaven with Christ Jesus. Our Soul, 'tis 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 [Page 37]us. Lets 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 [Page 38]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 [Page 39]concerning this subject,S. Cypri. and particularly of the eager­ness which true Christians ought to have to get forth of this Life.

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 [Page 63]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 'tis the custome to weep upon such occasions. They grieve for themselves. in the person of another, be­cause in losing him they lose [Page 64]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, 'tis 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 which we possess upon Earth: and we shall clearly see, That if Christians ought to weep, 'tis not for that their Friends are too soon dead, but for that they them­selves live too long. For the greatest of all miseries, is to languish in the World a­midst all manner of Evils, and to be for a long time deprived of the happiness which those very Freinds possess whose loss we lament.

I demand therefore of you, my Brethren, in the first [Page 66]place, wherein do you be­lieve that Mans soveraign Good doth consist? For if we will reason acccording to the Rules of Christian Phyloso­phy, the only Good which deserves to be eall'd Good, is that which belongs to all, and for always. The Pagan Phylosophy which reasons only upon false lights, gave formerly the name of Good to such things as regard on­ly either mens Bodies of their Fortunes. But is it not a horrid blindness, to esta­blish the soverain Good in Beauty, in Strength, in Dex­terity, and in such other like exteriour Qualities? These wise profane people, did they not perceive that [Page 67]these things, which are gi­ven but to a few, diminish with age, perish in a short time, and are accompanied with so many misfortunes, that one must be very stupid not to aspire after a better happiness? Did they not see, I say, what we now see, That Riches, Dignities, and even Crowns, which without doubt raise men to the highest pitch of this false Felicity, pass from one Fa­mily to another; that the most elevated Thrones fall down to the ground; that the most glittering Fortune is but a smoke which is dis­sipated in an instant, and which leaves nothing else behind it but the smut of [Page 68]the bad actions which were done to acquire it? These men who affected the name of Wise, were they senseless enough not to know, That the best grounded Glory is subject to the darts of Detra­ction, and that the people, by one and the same capri­ciousness, sets up and pulls down the reputation of the greatest men? If one makes use of Treasures, they are consumed; if one hides them, they are useless: But what matters it whether it be Covetuousness or Prodi­gality which makes us poor, since the miseries which ac­company poverty are not so unsupportable as are the dis­quiets which attend upon [Page 69]riches? Finally, these Wise persons who had so great a knowledge of human things, could they not comprehend that all the Goods of this Life are meer illusions; they who had every day the expe­rience thereof? Ha, my Bre­thren, it was because Faith did not clear them: it was be­cause in the darkness of Paga­nism Pride being the soul of all their thoughts and of all their actions, they sought in themselves a Good which can­not be found without re­nouncing those false Goods and ones own self.

It is not so with Christi­ans; they seek their soveraign happiness in Humility, in the contempt of Life, and in [Page 70]their self-annihilation: be­cause they are perswaded that one possesses all in possessing God, and one possesses not him but by uncloathing ones self of all things; and by con­sequence, that one must make no other provision for Hea­ven but that of good Works; For there one shall neither suffer hunger, nor cold, nor the injuries of Ayr, nor the cruelties of the wicked. One shall not there be embusied in labouring nor in sowing the earth, in sayling on the Sea, in building Palaces, in traficking, in pleading, in filling the Spirit with Sci­ences, in inventing laws, nor in causing them to be kept. There will neither be [Page 71]War, nor Process, nor Ty­ranny, nor Malady, nor Po­verty: and as the Goods there will be without end and with­out mixture, so nothing can there either corrupt or change them.

Surely, when I consider the weakness, of them who afflict themselves for their Freinds departure out of the world, and who themselves fear to follow them, I cannot sufficiently admire it. If a man, after he had pass'd the time of his tender Youth in an obscure Prison, and liv'd as it were in a continuall night, should be displeas'd with them who obtain'd his liberty to go forth to con­template the Sun, the Starrs, [Page 72]the Earth cover'd with fruits, and the other Beauties of the Univers, and finally to place him in a full liberty: what would you think of this man who had such strange humours? Without doubt, my Brethren, you would be­lieve that he had lost his Wits, and you would strive to cure him of so extrava­gant a folly. Permit me to tell you that your selves are in the same state, and that your errour is perhaps more deplorable than his. You are displeas'd at the happi­ness which your Freinds en­joy in being delivered out of this, miserable Prison of the Body, and your selves fear to go forth of it to go to [Page 73]contemplate in his glory the Creator of the Sun, of the Starrs, and of all the Beau­ties of the Universe.

For my part, I avouch to you that I cannot conceive the cause of so great a stray­ing in the human spirit, unless it is that the criminal curiosity of the first man hath plunged all his poste­rity in such a profound ig­norance, that men know not even what is convenient for them. One may say that we are become like unto a Child, who being yet shut up in his Mothers Belly, hath not so much as the use of his Senses. This Child hath Eyes, and he sees not, he hath Ears, and he hears not; he [Page 74]hath a rational Soul, and he knows not; he neither un­derstands what he is, nor what must become of him; finally, he hath no know­ledg of Life, which never­theless is the sole Good in which he ought to be con­cerned. Is it not true that if this Child could reason, he would surely judge that Na­ture had not furnished him with all these faculties and all these organs, to be al­ways deprived of their fun­ctions? That having a Mouth, he was not to be nourished like a Plant? That having Feet and Hands and all the other parts which compose his Body, he was not de­sign'd to be always a lump [Page 75]of Flesh, nor to live among nastinesses, and to be close shut up in a Dungeon? Is it not true, I say, that by making these reflexions, he would assuredly come to the knowledge of the Life he was to lead upon Earth? But because this Child doth not reason, that which should rejoyce him, afflicts him: he receives as an Evil all the advantages of his birth and of his liberty; and as if he lost a great Good in going forth of his Mothers Belly, he complains as soon as he comes into the World.

Behold, if I am not de­ceived, an image very much resembling these weak men, whom I undertook to con­vince. [Page 76]Now if there is any of them who hear me, who is of the number of those blind persons who will not see the light: Ah, my dear Brethren, I conjure you to take some compassion of his blindness. 'Tis surely a shame for a Christian to la­ment for the Death of his Freinds, and to fear his own Death. This weakness is on­ly pardonable in a Child. Let us then open our Eyes, let's act as reasonable men, let's live like Christians, 'Tis 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 [Page 77]our Faith; let's excite our Hope, and finally let us comfort our selves; lets re­joyce that our near Relati­ons have acquired an eter­nal Happiness by the loss of a miserable Life: lets 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, [Page 78]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 'tis Death which procures Im­mortality to our Soul, and a glorious Resurrection to our Body: and finally, That 'tis 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, [Page 79]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? 'Tis 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. 'Tis Death which re-unites men to their beginning, makes them find their greatness and their fe­licity in the loss of their Lives. 'Tis 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 [Page 81]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 [Page 82]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 [Page 83]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 [Page 84]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; 'tis to lead the life of a Man and of an Angel both together; 'tis to enjoy at the same time Health and [Page 85]Grace; 'tis to live of a ge­neral Virtue, which includes all the natural and superna­tural functions; finally, 'tis 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 [Page 86]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. 'Tis of these men that it is said in [Page 87]the Scripture That they des­cend alive into Hell. And 'tis 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 the Holy Martyrs, who expose not themselves to die but in hopes to live: the Body dies for a time, and the soul lives for an eterni­ty. [Page 88]Ah, my Brethren, let us beware of being like to them who live outwardly being dead within. Let us desire to be rather of the number of those happy Dead, who die in apparence to live in effect. This was the sen­timent of St. Paul in those celebrious Words: I desire to be disengaged from the bonds of this Body, Philip. 1.23. and to be with Christ Jesus. It was also the thought of David, when he exclaims in one of his Psalms: Alas! Psal. 119.5. how irksom is my exile! I live here as a Stranger; my Soul is troubled to remain so long among the Enemies of peace. Behold this is proper­ly the state of the Predesti­nate, who are afflicted at [Page 89]their stay upon Earth among the snares and the miseries wherewith this Life is re­plenished, instead of going to enjoy in Heaven those in­finit Goods in their full great­ness as well as in their eter­nal duration; and which are the sole object of their Hope and of their Desires.

Article XII. The Homelies of St. John Chrysostom are full of ex­cellent Instructions concerning Death. We have made choyce of such as seem'd most pro­per for this Work.
1. S. Chry­sost. Instruction of St. John Chrysostom; where he shews what it is to be a Chri­stian, and that his princi­pal Character is to desire and to love Death.

A Christian evermore con­siders himself upon Earth as a man going onward in his way;Hom. 24. in Epist. ad Hebr. In Psal. 119. and the continual reflexion which he makes upon this quality of a Stran­ger and of a Traveller,Ad The­od lapsum. c. 3. is the foundation of all his Virtues. For he who hath sojourned upon Earth as a Stranger, shall be a Citi­zen in the Kingdom of Christ Jesus. What is the care of a Traveller? 'Tis to cumber [Page 91]himself with nothing but what is necessary for his journey, to take the path which is shortest and most secure, to use all the dili­gence he possibly can, and not to fix his heart upon any thing he finds in his way, because he reserv's all his affections for his dear Countrey. According as he draws nearer to it he feels his impatience encrease to arrive at it; and as soon as he discovers it, he is so trans­ported with Joy that he for­gets the pain he hath en­dured, and the dangers he hath incurred: or if he keeps them in his memory, 'tis but as a valiant Champion remembers his wounds after [Page 92]he hath gain'd the Victory.

In effect, what is it that a Christian can love or fear upon Earth, which is not unworthy his affection or his fear? Can all the fa­vours of fortune give him a more glorious Title than that of Son of the most High, and of Brother of Christ Je­sus? For 'tis Christ Jesus himself who honours with this quality all them who have receiv'd his Word. And when the Pharisees say, that 'tis to commit a Blasphemy to give this honour to men, Jesus answers;John. 10.34. Is it not writ­ten in your Law, I have said, you are Gods? Can the Scri­pture fail? Wherefore, O Christians, labour so long [Page 93]as you please to agrandise your selves in the World: Endeavour to become Rich, Learned, Conquerours, Princes, Kings, if you will. Procure even, if it is possi­ble, that your Kingdom may be extended over the whole Earth: what is there in all this which can be compared with the Kingdom which God hath promised you?

You have therefore no­thing to hope for in the World; Let us see now what you have to fear: Hunger or Thirst, say you? But hath not God said:Mat. 5.6. Bles­sed are they who are Hungry and Thirsty, for they shall be satisfied? Is it Poverty? He [Page 94]hath also said; Blessed are the Poor, for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them. v. 3. Do you fear Injuries, Persecuti­ons, Afflictions, Sicknesses? On the contrary it is Writ­ten; Rejoyce, give your minds to gladness, v. 11. and 12. you who endure couragiously all these things for the glory of our Master, be­cause you shall receive an am­ple reward in Heaven.

You have then nothing else to dread, O Christians, but the delay of these re­wards. And what can for­ward them but Death? It is not therefore an Evil, as men of the vulgar sort be­lieve; on the contrary, 'tis a Good for them who have Faith; not an ordinary Good, [Page 95]but the greatest of all transi­tory Goods. For if our sove­raign Good is to possess the Celestial Kingdom, our greatest Good is surely that which hastens the possession hereof.

Wonder not therefore af­ter this, O you Sensualists, if a Christian fully perswad­ed of these Truths, run's to Death with more ardour, than you run after Pleasures. Be no more surprized that he disdains your promises, that he despises your threats, that he treads under his feet your Idols, and that he tri­umphs over your Tyranny. Know that it shall sooner be drained dry in inventing torments, than the constan­cy [Page 96]of Christians will be shaken with your cruelty: because Death is a desira­ble Good for them who hope another Life, and because our Kingdom is not of this World. John. 18.36. For were our Kingdom of this World, we would fight to defend it against our Ene­mies.

Nevertheless, do not fan­cy that the Christian remains upon the Earth, altogether stupid and insensible, as the trunk of a barren tree, which expects nothing but the mor­tal blow which must sepa­rate it from its roots. 'Tis true that the Christian de­sires Death, because it will end his pains: but yet he ceases not to make a holy [Page 97]use of Life He employs all the moments thereof in good works; but whatever he doth in this Life, is only to procure him a happy end of it. For these holy Desires of Death do not hinder him from cherishing his Neigh­bours, from serving his Friends, from loving his Brethren, and from acquit­ting himself of all Christian duties, more faithfully than they who perform them ha­ving only profane ends in their Friendships. But doth God ordain that he should quit them to come to him? he is evermore ready to de­part: and although, accor­ding to the resentments of Nature, his Heart is as much [Page 98]afflicted in being separated from his Freinds, as his Body in being separated from his soul; yet he ceases not to desire to be separated from them, to the end he may always possess them with God; and he prefers this eternal en­joyment before a possession of longest durance, from which one can only derive a weak and uncertain conso­lation. Wherefore he says at all times with the Apo­stle: Christ Jesus is my Life; and Death is a gain for me. Philip. 1.21 Un­happy man that I am! Who will deliver me from the bonds of this mortal Body, Rom. 7▪ 24. that I may no longer be fastned to any thing but to Christ Jesus?

'Tis in effect the proper­ty [Page 99]of a Christian and of a Child of God, not to tie himself to things present and perishable, that he may sooner go towards his Fa­ther, who stretches forth his arms to receive him. This tender affection and this ho­ly impatience, spring from the purity of a good Con­science. He who is enflam'd with the love of eternal Goods, is not puff'd up in Prosperity, nor cast down in Adversity. He is as it were above the Earth, and dwells already in Heaven; he conserves a Spirit ever­more equall in the inequali­ty of his lives events: Final­ly, he is like him, of whom it is said in Scripture:

You [Page 100]stick not either at the Benedi­ctions, or at the Maledictions of the World: but you are as an Angel of our Lord. 2. Reg. c. 24. v. 17.
2. Instruction of St. Chry­sostom: That we should be miserable if our Life were ne­ver to end; and that if we had a faithful and true be­lief of the Resurrection, we should not only not dread Death, but we should ardent­ly desire it.

WHen God gives us Life,In cap. 12. Gen. Hom. 32. 'tis by an acti­on of his Omnipotency; but when he gives us Death,In Cap. 5. Gen. Hom. 21. 'tis by a wholesome effect of his Bounty. What would Life be without Death? [Page 101]A long sequell of miseries, an eternal Banishment, an infinite Punishment,In Cap. 5. Gen. H [...]m. 67. and al­most as cruel as that of Hell. For what more pain­full torment could be infli­cted upon them who love,Serm. in Verba Pauli, De dormienti­bus nolo vos. Ser. 29. than to separate them for ever from their beloved ob­ject? If this Maxim is true, in sensual love, is it not in­finitly more in the Divine love? A Heart deeply en­gaged in this love, to which one should say, you shall remain always upon Earth, and you shall never see God; would it not have cause to esteem it self almost as mi­serable as the Damned? It is therefore truly said, That if Death is the chastisement [Page 102]of Adams Sin, 'tis also the greatest favour that God could grant to the Children of Adam after his Disobedi­ence.

Before the coming of Christ Jesus, Death was frightfull, because men were its slaves, and that they could not obtain of God any more then temporal rewards for their good actions. But since he hath ransom'd us by his precious Blood, since he hath loved Death and made an alliance with it; it is not only no longer an Evil, but 'tis the greatest of all Goods, 'tis the source of all imaginable happinesses. Thus the fear of dying ought to be consider'd as a [Page 103]weakness of Nature, and not as an effect of Reason. 'Tis true that all Creatures have an extreme desire to conserve their Being; but this desire is not pardona­ble, except only in such peo­ple who know nothing of any other Life than this. The true Christian who hopes after this Death a more noble and a more hap­py Being than this first Be­ing which he receiv'd by being born into the World, not only desires not to con­serve it, but burns with im­patience to loose it, that he may acquire the possession of a soverain Felicity.

There is no truth which Christ Jesus preached and [Page 104]assured more authentically than the Mystery of the Re­surrection:Ib. & Serm. de tridua Domini Resurrec. and there is no­thing also which the Ene­mies of Christianism have more thwarted. All the World agrees that Christ Jesus died:1 Cor. 18.23. The Jews looked upon his Cross as a Scandall, and the Gentiles as a Folly. But as for the Resurrection, they all absolutely deny it: only the Christians believe that, and God gives to them all sorts of proofs thereof, He permits that Souldiers should be placed around his Sepulchre; he rises forth of the Tomb in their presence; the Stone is overturned; the Earth trembles; the Guards are affrighted; the [Page 105]Women find him not where they had layd him; and the Angells assure them that he was risen: He appeared to his Disciples in particular, in publick, in divers places, in many encounters: He stays with them Forty days, he there drinks, he there eats; and when one of them protests that he would be­lieve nothing of it, unless he could see him with his Eyes, and touch him with his Hands, our Saviour pre­sents himself unto him, shews him the Wound of his side, will have him to put his Finger into it, and finally forces him by this last proof to cry out: I doubt no longer; John. 20. v. 28.29. you are my Lord and my God. [Page 106]Thou hast believed, answered Jesus, because thou hast seen: Blessed are they who believe without having seen. Can one desire testimonies more evi­dent and more authentical of his Resurrection? If we are Christians, we must be­lieve it: If we will be Hap­py, we must believe it with­out seeing it any otherwise than by the Eyes of Faith. What Happiness ought we to expect from the Rusurre­ction and from the Promi­ses of Jesus Christ? Is it not to be resuscitated as he is, that we may reign with him? But to have a share in his Resurrection and in his Kingdom, we must ne­cessarily die. Death therefore [Page 107]is an inestimable advantage and happiness: and thus, we ought not to dread it, but with all our hearts to desire it.

What advantage can we find by living longer? Old age and the Infirmities which accompany it, do they not render us imsupportable to others and to our selves? Consider an old man over­whelm'd with years, his spi­rits dejected, his Body ex­tenuated, his face full of wrinkles, his eyes half shut up, his voyce trembling, his head hanging down to­wards the Earth, as it were seeking for a Sepulchre wherein to be buried: Is not this a kind of Monster [Page 108]in nature? But that which is here more monstrous in him, is the desire to live in despight of so many incom­modities, and to trail along his Soul captivated and bur­thened with such heavy chains. Strange blindness of man! This passion is more violent in the very caduci­ty and feebleness it self, than in the most tender youth­fulness. Whatever tye a man advanced in age hath for his dignities and for his treasures, he would willing­ly destrip himself of all to prolong his Life for some years; and he would em­ploy these years in acqui­ring other honours and other riches, of which he should [Page 109]destrip himself. Madd man! Weak Worm of the Earth! Reffuse of the Uni­verse! Learn that in so de­plorable an estate thou hast nothing more to desire but Death, nor any thing to hope for but the Resurrecti­on!

Serm. 20. in verba. De tormi­entibus.An Engraver hath made a fair Statue; he finds it afterwards to be eaten with Rust, and spoiled by the injury of time. The love he hath for his own work, moves him to take compas­sion on it; he breaks it in pieces, casts the mettal into the fire, and frames a Figure fairer then the former. This is that which God did, ha­ving seen that Man who [Page 110]was his Image and his Head­work was disfigured by Sin. By what right and upon what 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: [Page 111]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 'tis 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 [Page 112]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 [Page 114]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? 'Tis in vain for Flat­terers to endeavour to raise up their birth by alotting to them Ancestours they never had; 'Tis 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 [Page 115]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, 'tis 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 [Page 116]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 [Page 117]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 [Page 118]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 [Page 119]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. [Page 120]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 [Page 121]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 [Page 122]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. [...] For we have not re ceiv'd the spirit of servitude, [Page 124]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, 'tis 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 [Page 125]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. [Page 126]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 [Page 127]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. An­ti [...]c. we live not with an austerity wor­thy the name of Christian. [Page 129]We love with excess this soft and delicious Life; and 'tis 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 [Page 130]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 'tis 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 [Page 131]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. [...] ▪ 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, [Page 132]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 T [...]uoth. because they well know that the end of their Life is the end of their Mi­series. As they have nothing to fear upon Earth, and as they possess nothing but their Soul and their Body; so they look upon Death as an advantage which puts [Page 133]them in possession of Christ Jesus. When they under­stand that some one among them is dead, there's a uni­versal Joy amongst them all: No one daring to say, Such a one is Dead: but they all say, Such a one hath fi­nished his Course. At this happy tidings they chaunt forth Canticles of Joy to the praise of God, humbly demanding of him for them­selves the grace of a speedy and holy Death. In effect, as the Gladiatours have an extreme desire to get forth of the Theatre where they are perpetually expos'd to new Wounds; so they who lead an austere Life, and see themselves perpetually [Page 134]expos'd to the Temptations of Sin, burn with a desire to put an end to their com­bats, and to be delivered from the labours of this miserable Life, in order to enjoy a repose which shall never be interrupted.

Article XVII.
6. Instruction of St. John Chrysostom: That the Death of Christ Jesus ought to have cured us of the dread of Death: and that the Ceremonies of the Church in the Funerals of the Faith­full, should afford us Comfort and Joy, both for them and for our selves.

ST. Paul says, That before the birth of Christ Jesus, Hom. 4. in Ep. ad Heb c. 2. Death reigned in the whole Univers, and that its Empire was extended over all the Na­tions of the Earth: Then Man began not to live but to Die, without passing to a better Life. But the Sa­viour of the World hath tri­umphed over Death by dy­ing; he hath destroyed its Tyranny even to the gates of Hell; and those ghastly places to which it fled, have acknowledged the power of our Deliverer. In so much as after his Passion and his Resurrection, one cannot be his Disciple without loving Death, as he loved it. Thus [Page 136]my Brethren, strength­ned by his Example, we have no longer any cause to trouble our selves when we think of that last hour; and we should do amiss to make now such com­plaints as our forefathers did before the coming of our Redeemer.

‘What do we see up­on Earth,Job. 14. sayd Iob, more wretched than Man, He is born of a Woman amidst pains, he lives a short time and suffers much; his best days pass away as a shadow, and he never remains con­stant in the same estate; Were it not better for him, never to have been? At least, there remains some hope in [Page 137]the Wood when 'tis cut down; the Stem thereof buds forth afresh, and its Branches becom more thick and green than before: But as for Man, when the Woof of his life is once broken off, 'tis for evermore. He comes naked forth of his Mothers womb, and he shall return naked into the womb of the Earth. What remaines there of man when he hath served for food to the Worms? Could he not be­hold the Light, but upon this hard condition, that he must in a moment after be plunged in the darkness of the Tomb?’

Behold what was the lang­age of men before the coming [Page 138]of the Messias. But Christ Je­sus hath visited us in these darknesses: he hath drawn us forth of this shadow of Death wherewith we were encompassed: he hath caus'd our Life to spring from our Death: he hath open'd us a passage to Eternity, by passing himself first by a Death ignominious in ap­pearance, but in effect glo­rious. Thus, he fought Death with its own weapons, he hath pull'd out its sting, [...]. 23. he hath destroy'd it by it self: Heb. 11. he hath subdued the Prince of Death, and finally he hath cast it headlong into an eternal Abys­mus: [...] Cor. 25. and by this Victory he hath wiped off the Tears, and rased the disgrace of his peo­ple [Page 139]from the face of the Earth. Isay. 25.

Let us not, my Brethren, lose the advantage which he hath given us over Death: Let us have no horrour of a thing which God hath rendred to usefull and so glorious unto us.Rom. 8. We who possess the first fruits of the Spirit with hope to be delive­red from this subjection to cor­ruption, and to be made par­takers of the glory and of the liberty of the Children of God. Let us remain firm in Faith, let us generously brave Death: If we look on it with Eyes of Faith, we shall finde nothing in it that is terrible; but on the con­trary it will appear to us sweet and agreable; and in [Page 140]the end we shall grow fa­miliar with it. But we must look upon it at all times, and be acquainted with it, if we will find it pleasing unto us. We must love it and desire it, by the exam­ple of our dear Master, who loved it for our sakes.

When I behold on one side to what degree of ho­nour Christ Jesus hath ray­sed us, and on the other side when I consider to what lownesse we debase our selves, I am altogether con­founded at our remisness and negligence. I see many among Christians who fear Death, not only for them­selves, but for their Freinds. This weakness is so visible [Page 141]among us, and even among persons who seem to have much piety, that the Pa­gans publickly mock at it. For, say they, if the Chri­stians believe in God whom they adore, why fear they to see him? and if they love him, what induces them to shun the only thing which according to their own doctrine, must unite them eternally unto him?

'Tis certainly to give occa­sion to the wicked, to esteem all that we say of the eternall Goods, and of the Resurrec­tion of the Dead, to be meer Fables. They less regard what we preach, than what we do. You destroy by your ac­tions, what we endeavour [Page 142]to establish by our discourses; for they judge rather of the Religion of Christ Jesus by your Life, than by our In­structions. In effect, all the frights which you make ap­pear, shew plainly that you have little confidence in the Word of God. When the Apostle S.Paul says; I de­sire to die, Philip. 1.23. and to be united to Christ Jesus, he teaches us what should be the continu­all desire of all true Christi­ans. Thus when you testify so great an apprehension of Death, you make known to the whole world, that your Faith is feeble and languish­ing; we see that you fear to obtain that which you can­not demand with too much [Page 143]ardour; and that instead of practising the precepts which you have heard, Heb. 1. your Heart resem­bles those balf-open Vessels which let out all one pours into them.

For the rest, I bless God for that he will have his Church make use in the Fu­nerals of the Dead, of such holy and august Ceremonies as condemn your remisness, and which convince you of your little Faith. For why think you do we there sing Hymns and Psalms, and set up lighted Cierges and Tor­ches, but to teach you to look upon your Brethren, whilst we are burying them, as upon victorious Champi­ons, whom we ought to ac­company [Page 144]with honour and with pomp in their triumph? What truer subject of Joy can we have for them, than to be the witnesses of their liberty and of their victory? What have we else to do or say, but bless God for having call'd them to him­self, and for having crown'd his own Gifts in them by a happy Death? Do we not thereby testify the acknow­ledgment of this favour, by Words the most holy that can be found in the Scrip­ture? Finally, is it not for this reason that we cause our Churches to eccho forth Cantieles of prayse and of jubilation? Surely there is nothing in all the Ceremo­nies [Page 145]which invite you not to a holy alacrity. For as Ecclesiasticus says, Singing ac­cords not with tears and lamen­tation. Eccle. 91.

Believe me, my Brethren, do not look upon Death as a frightfull thing. For if you are solidly Christians, if you are perswaded that there is another Life, if you believe the Resurrection of the Dead; you will easi­ly comfort your selves in the loss of your Freinds, and you will wish that your selves may soon pass forth of this Life so full of dan­gers and of myseries, where one doth nothing but suffer and Sin.Cor. 6. Do not therefore any longer dishonour your name by [Page 146]such shamefull weaknesses: but acting as faithfull Ministers of God, render your selves re­commendable by a great Pati­ence in Evil, and by a coura­gious Contempt of Death; be as if you were always dying al­though yet living; as sad, and yet always joyfull; as poor, and yet possessing all in the possession of God, who is promised unto you.

Article XVIII. An Exhortation of St. John Chrysostom; where he speaks against remiss and im­perfect Christians who dread Death: and instructs couragi­ous and perfect Christians to desire it.

YOu who make profession to believe in Christ Je­sus, can you love the sweets of this Life?Serm. de non timen­da morte. c. 24. Can you dread the bitterness of Death? O you remiss and faithless Christians! have you forgotten the example of Christ Jesus our good Master, and do you doubt whether you must die as he did? The true Christians have made themselves al­ways known by the holy desires of Death; but they have not acquired this ge­nerous disposition by any other means than by un­shackling themselves from all the Goods of the Earth. When one hath once with [Page 148]a sincere heart renounced them, Life is a small mat­ter; and one will consider it rather as a punishment, than as a pleasure. Tis there­fore for this unfettering of the Heart that we must la­bour, and 'tis that wherein consists the perfection of a Christian: For as for Death, besides that it is unavoyda­ble, it is to be desired by them who have never so lit­tle Faith: and although at first it is repugnant to Na­ture, yet Grace overcomes by little and little that re­pugnancy; and makes us love at last that which be­fore gave us a horrour. Hear what the Apostle St. Paul, 1. Et 2. ad Co­rinth. says: You who are en­rolled [Page 149]in the sacred warfare of Christ Jesus, ought to have no other care than to stand to your Arms, and to fight upon all oc­casions. A Soldier doth not in­volve himself in the employs of the Civil life, to the end he may he wholly embusied in satisfying him who hath enrolled him. Now the Warfare of Christ Jesus, is to endure constantly Watch­ings, Fastings, Poverty, In­juries, Imprisonment, Wounds, and Death it self, for the glo­ry of his holy Name.

'Tis true, that the Chri­stian Moral appear's at the first view too severe to sen­fual men: but if one ex­amin's it with a Spirit un­tyed from the secret interest of self love and of Concu­piscence; [Page 150]one finds nothing so reasonable and so advan­tagious to the common good of all men, nor even so pro­fitable to particular persons, whether it be for their con­duct or for their comfort. In effect, what Religion is there in the world which proposes a more perfect Mo­del than Christ Jesus, whose Life is more pure, whose Miracles are more evident, and whose Doctrine is more wise and more disinterressed? Do but compare it with that of the most prudent Philoso­phers, and of the most re­nowned Law-makers; and you will finde that in all the Words and in all the Acti­ons of Christ Jesus there is [Page 151]a Character of Sanctity and of Divinity, which his Ene­mies themselves cannot chuse but aeknowledge; whereas in the other Do­ctrins, human Wisdom is always interwoven with some extravagancy, with some gross interest, with some contradiction, or with some errour.

Since therefore we make profession to follow the Les­sons of so good a Master; let us endeavour, O Christi­ans, to imitate him in all things. Let's leave Sensualists to enjoy their Sensuality: this enjoyment is so small a matter, and lasts so short a time, that we ought more to pitty than to envy them. [Page 152]Let's leave the World to reign; 'tis here it's King­dom, ours is not yet come. What hath our Joy com­mon with the Joy of the Earth? The World will la­ment whilst we laugh, and we shall one day mock at it's tears, as it this day mocks at ours. The difference there is between it and us, is, That it being in our own power to rejoyce as it doth, we do it not, because we acknowledg the vanity of all its plea­sures: but it cannot enjoy the pleasures of Eternity, be­cause it hath despised them: on the contrary it shall be plonged in dreadfull dark­ness, where pains and gnash­ings of teeth shall never end, [Page 153]but shall be the continuing signes of its sufferings and of its despair. Let us weep then, my Brethren, let's weep whilst the World re­joyces; let's weep for it's being in joy, because Chari­ty so ordains; and let us be so far from loving Life as the World doth, as to run to Death which it loves not; because Death is not unhap­py for us as it is for it: but on the contrary it will end all our unhappinesses.Psal. 29. In the Evening we are drowed in tears, and in the Morning we shall be in an eternal joy.

Let us never forget, That our true pleasure ought to be to despise all vain plea­sures: and that our solid [Page 154]happiness is to believe there is none solid but with God. Ah, Christian, if thou con­siderest thy condition as thou oughtest, how wilt thou dare to complain of living without pleasure, thou who art obliged to die with plea­sure?

Article XIX. As St. Jerome is one of the Doctours of the Church, who hath testified the greatest de­sire of Death; so we have few Ecclesiastical Authours who have spoken so clearly as he, either of the Advanta­ges which Death brings to Christians, or of the obliga­tion [Page 155]they have to prepare themselves for it,S. Jerom. and con­tinually to think of it. Be­hold in what manner this great Saint explicates him­self concerning it, in several places of his Writings.

THe greatest mark of an irregular Life, is never to think of Death: and when we think but seldom of it, 'tis a certain Sign that we 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. [Page 156] 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 'tis by the pathway of sufferings, and by the track of Calvary that he leads us: and all they [Page 157]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 'tis 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 [Page 158]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. [Page 159]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 [Page 161]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, 'tis in a delicious Life, where sometimes our condition ex­poses us to sin, as it were, against our will; 'tis in a long prosperity where we may have just cause to sigh for passing our life unprofi­tably, and perhaps crimi­nally [Page 162]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, 'tis 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; 'tis sometimes a weariness of [Page 163]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 [Page 164]which the separation left in their Spirit. For what­ever endeavour these per­sons use, Nature never en­dures the yoak of Grace without violence; 'tis 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 'tis Nature which acts [Page 165]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 [Page 166]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 only with wild Roots, my Imagination in­genious to persecute me ceas­ed not to entertain it self with the delights of the Roman [Page 167]Citty. I pass'd the day in sighing, and the night in weeping for my Sins. But the more I strove to quench with my Tears the secret fire of my Concupiscence, the more that rebell was enkind­led even in the marrow of my bones. If sometimes the wearinesses of my penance forced me to abandon my self to sleep; I paid not that tribute to Nature but against my will: and to free my self quickly from it, I suffer'd my body to fall to the ground, it being extenuated with watchings, and as it were broken with all sorts of macerations. I had no o­ther Pillow than a Stone, no other Garment then a [Page 168]Hayr-cloath, no other Drink than Water, nor other Food than Herbs and Roots: and when the weakness of my Stomack obliged me to eat them boyled, for a more easy disgestion; I durst not satisfy my hunger, fearing to com­mit an excess in making good cheer. This Abstinence and the heat of the Climat joyned to the ardour of my temper, had dryed me up like a Skeleton; and one might have counted all the Nerfs through a Skin more tawny than that of the Ethi­opians. In this sad estate, I had more horrour of my self, than of the Scorpions and of the Serpents which were round about me; and [Page 169]yet my Spirit would escape on a sodain even amidst my most holy Meditations, and quit Prayer to dream of the Roman Dames, running over all the assemblies I had frequented formerly, where the Devil had laid his mor­tall Baits to entrap Chastity. Then being irritated at the revolt of my Senses which these thoughts had excited against me, I massacred my breast with a thousand blows, and I left not off striking it, untill the Grace of our Lord had calmed my Passions. He knows what my sorrow was after such strange Conflicts. I blushed with shame. Life was insupportable unto me. All the corners of my Grot, [Page 170]all the Rocks of my Soli­tude, seem'd to me so ma­ny Censurers of my Life and so many Witnesses of my Weaknesses. For this cause I often chang'd my habita­tion, hoping to find out some one where I might have more quiet, but my e­vil did not change, because I bore every where about me the subject of my disquiet. I avouch that in the height of my torments I ardently desired to die, and that I could have wished it had been permitted me to go forth of the World. When one day I was press'd with this thought more violently than I was wont, I took up the Book of the sacred Scrip­ture [Page 171]which was my sweet­est comfort, and as God would have it, I fell upon that passage where the Pro­phet Amos says these terri­ble Words:Joel. 2.11. Accursed be they who inconsiderately desire the day of our Lord. Soph. 1.15. Who urges you thus to desire it? That day of our Lord is a day without Light, Amos. 1.18. a day of darkness and obscurity. When you shall be weary of your misery, over­whelm'd with infirmities, persecuted with temptations, rejected by the injustices of others; when you shall be disgusted with the whole World, and irksom to your self; expect the hour of our Lord with patience.Amos. [...].19. For what doth it avail a man to shun the [Page 172]meeting of a Lion, if he falls into the paws of a Bear? S. Ierom. It is not in his power to hinder his Soul from going forth when that hour shall be come; Eccl. 8.8. and he hath no right to hasten or to slacken the day of his Death.

After this sacred Instru­ction, I suffered Life pati­ently, being resolv'd to em­ploy all the moments there­of in doing good works; and being perswaded that we may well desire Death, but that it is not permitted us to advance or further it, nor even so much as to de­mand it of God with over­much impatience; because al­though we ought to contemn Life, yet we must not omit to conserve it.

Article. XXI. An Excellent Instruction of the same St. Jerome: That Death ought to be looked on as an order of the Divine Providence, rather than as an effect of human Infirmi­ty: and that so we ought to die by Obedience and by Love.

A True Christian looks upon Death not only as upon a subject of consolati­on,Lib. 9. in Isaiam; & alibi. but moreover as upon an object of love and of respect; because it must be granted that it is God who makes us live and die when he pleases; and that the end [Page 174]of our days is more an effect of the Divine Will, than of human infirmity. For if the fall of the least Sparrows happens not without the order of God, as himself says in the Gospell; we ought to believe by a stronger reason, That the last fall of our Bo­dy never happens but accord­ing to the immutable decree of his Will. We should therefore look on Death with Love, considering it as an effect of the eternal Providence. We must take from it that which Nature finds horrible in it; and think that God sends it not to them whom he loves, but to the end they should always love him.

In effect, the greatest testimony he can give them of his love, is to withdraw them out of the World and to free them from the slave­ry of their Body and of Sin, to render them Saints and make them eternally happy. I say yet much more, we are in some sort made par­takers even upon Earth of this happiness, when we submit to his will with this Confidence. And as the last mark we can give of our Love towards God, is to re­ceive Death with an entire Obedience, and even with Joy, when it summons us to go forth of the World: so the most perfect act of our Faith and of our Piety [Page 176]towards Christ Jesus, is to resign our selves before hand to what ever God shall or­dain of our Life and of our Death. Let us therefore with David say to him:Ps. 89. Behold we are ready, O Lord, Cut of the threed of our miserable Life when you please. And surely, what is the duration of our days? They pass away more speedily than the Word: We live ordinarily but Seaventy Years, and the stronger scarce­ly pass Fourscore. But should our Life endure a Thousand years: before your eyes, a Thousand years are no more then yesterday which is past and gone: Death hurries them away as a Whirl­wind, and they disappear as a Dream. So that, how long so­ever [Page 177]our Life is, it will be coun­ted for nothing, unless it is pleasing to you. Grant then, Sap. 3. O Lord, that we may count our days by our Good Works, and that we may know their shortness, to the end we may acquire Wis­dom of Heart.

Article XXII. St. Jerome, or the Authour of some Epistles attributed to him, which are placed at the end of his Works; urges this Doctrine yet farther; and teaches, That a Christian ought not only not to dread Death, but that he ought also to desire it and to love it if he will imitate Christ Jesus.

'TIs a small matter not to dread Death, since Pa­gan Philosophers, who ima­gined they lost all in losing Life, were free from this fear. Is it a matter of more difficulty to overcome Death with the Christian Faith, than with the profane Phy­losophy?

Let us familiarize our selves with this Bugbeare; it affrights only them who dare not look near at hand upon it. But it suffices not to learn to die, when old Age or Diseases threaten us with Death. 'Tis in the flourishing years of Youth, and in the vigour of Health, that we should most seri­ously [Page 179]apply our selves to this study. For who told us, that we should have time enough to prepare our selves thereto? Since it's blows are unavoydable, let us resolve to endure them. So many Martyrs, so many Virgins have affronted it with cou­rage, why shall we not imi­tate them? God doth not always demand these bloody Sacrifices: but as for the sacrifice of our Will, he de­mands it every hour; and I dare say that there is more merit to offer unto him our Life in all the moments wherein he conserves it un­to us, than to lose it once by the cruelty of the Execu­tioners.

Let us aspire yet to a grea­ter Perfection, since we are Christians. Let us change our Dread into Desire, and our Aversion into Affection. We have the honour to be Heyrs to a Man-God, who hath changed the punish­ment of our Crime into a Sacrifice of Piety. Let us desire Death as he desired it: lets love Death, and lets seek it even between the arms of the Cross, as Christ Jesus there sought it. Lets render to him in dying the same Obedience which he rendred to his Eternal Fa­ther. Finally let us rejoyce to go to find our Master, since we are his Disciples. Let us depart with alacrity [Page 181]to come to our Father, since we are his Children. For if we have no love for him, nor Desire to be near him, we are supposititious Chil­dren, Children of darkness; unworthy to see the Light, and to reign one day with Christ Jesus.

Article XXIII. The order of time demands now that we return to St. Au­gustin: For besides the Principles of Doctrine, upon which we in the beginning established the whole design of this Treatise; there are moreover found in his Wri­tings an infinity of pithy pas­sages, [Page 182]where he repeats and deeply prosecutes this matter.S. Au­gustin.
An Excellent Morall of St. Au­gustin against them who fear Temporal death, and who do not apprehend Eternal Death.

ALL men are apprehen­sive of the Death of the Body;Tract 49. in Joan. but few there are who fear the Death of the Soul. All the World strives to hinder that first from seizing on them, which ne­vertheless will infallibly one day come upon him; and scarcely and one labours to avoid that Death of the Soul,Epist. 45. ad Arma­mentari­um. which will no less in­fallibly follow unless timely prevented. Was there ever [Page 183]any greater extravagancy than this? For the Death of the Body is but the sha­dow and the Image of the Death of the Soul. The Man who must necessarily die upon Earth, uses all his endeavours not to die there; and the same man who is designed to live eternally in Heaven, uses no diligence to render himself worthy of that happy Life. Thus, ha­ving a will to do that which he cannot, and having no will to do that which he ought, his endeavours are useless and criminal. When he attentively considers that Death is inevitable, he trou­bles and disquiets himself to retard it at least for some [Page 184]Months: But why doth he not rather consider, that by leading a holy life, he would secure an infinite hap­piness, he would suffer no dis­quiet, and that he should die even with joy, because he might justly hope to live happily in Eternity? We expose our selves dayly to contempt, to a thousand per­plexities, and to all sorts of vexations, and even to the dangers of losing our Lives, in seeking out the means to conserve it. And this pas­sion of living long, doth so strangely blind men, that they sometimes die with the sole-fear of dying. To fly from a furious Beast, they cast themselves headlong in­to [Page 185]a River. To avoid a Ship­wreck, they throw their Victuals into the Sea. Fear doth that in them which rashness could not do. An affrighted man knows no longer any danger. Such a one to escape the kind of Death which he dreaded, exposes himself to a thou­sand Deaths more terrible than that wherewith he was threatned.

What torments doth not the Iron and the Fire cause them to suffer, who put them selves into the Chirurgions hands? They endure to have a part of their Body cut off, to save the other. A man who loves his health, sub­mits himself as a Slave to all [Page 186]that the Physitians ordain him to do or suffer: and although he knows the va­nity of their Art, he omits not to obey them in all things; nor can his own ex­perience, nor the uselesness of their applications, nor the uncertainty of their skill, undeceive him. This man more sick of Imagination than of any other Disease; feeds himself with a false hope of being cured, try's all sorts of remedies, and hastens his Death by the Me­dicines which are given him to prolong a little while his Life. But the most horrible of all the effects which are caus'd by so blind and so irregular a passion, is, That [Page 187]Men to live a little longer, adventure sometimes to of­fend him mortally, who is the very Source of Life. For fear­ing to lose a Life which must necessarily end, they lose a life which must never end. And yet God commands us but few things, and those very easy, to deliver us from the true Death; which we ne­vertheless neglect to put in practise. We our selves on­ly are to be blamed if we obtain not a Life which will eternally preserve it self without the help of men, and whereof our Enemies can ne­ver deprive us. But as for this death which we so much fear, we cannot possibly avoid it, and are most sure to suffer it, [Page 188]though never so much a­gainst our will.

Article XXIV. A pithy reflection of St. Au­gustin, upon the shortness of this Life, and upon the Eter­nity of the other; to stir up Christians to unfetter them­selves more and more from the Earth, and ardently to breath after Heaven.

O Men,In Psal. 36. Serm. 107. de diversis. who are engaged in the course of this Life, and who prepare your selves to end it well: do not bound your considerati­on only upon the places through which you must [Page 189]pass; consider that place where you are to arrive. You shall indeed suffer much in this journey, but you surely shall come at the end to an eternal rest. Cast your Eyes upon the recom­pense which is prepared for you, and you will look with contempt upon the miseries you endure on Earth. For if you compare the Evils you suffer, with the felicity which is promised you; you will be astonished that such light and short pains, should procure you a happiness so great, and a felicity so in­finite.

In effect, my Brethren, it seems that an exact Justice would require that one [Page 190]should not purchase an Eter­nal repose, but by an Eter­nity of pains; and it seems that you ought to labour and suffer without end, to enjoy a happiness which hath no end. But also on the o­ther side, if your labour should have no end, how should you obtain an endless recompence? It is there­fore necessary that the pains should last but for a time; to the end that they being ended, you may taste a pleasure which shall never end.

God might, without over­much rigour, exact of us much longer pains, and much harder labours for the Eternity of pleasures which [Page 191]he promises us. Yes, my Brethren, If you Labours and our Tribulations were to last many Ages; If God should prolong our miseries for the space of a Thousand years: What are a Thousand years in regard of Eternity? Is there any proportion be­tween the Finit and and the Infinit? One cannot compare with Eternity either a Thou­sand years, or Ten-times an Hundred Thousand years, nor Millions of Millions of Ages, if we were designed to live all that time.

But that which should exceedingly comfort us, is, That God would not have our pains to be either long or extreme. Life is so short [Page 192]that it cannot make a man for any long time misera­ble: But what do I say, miserable? I am sure, That if a Man is good, the interi­our joy and sweetness which God gives him to tast of a­midst the bitterness of this Life, do more touch him, than all his Pains and all his Afflictions.

Article XXV. A most true and edificatory ob­servation S. Augustin, That God by a particular mercy, besprinkles the greatest Sweets of this World with bitter­ness; and permits that his Elect should be afflicted with [Page 193]Diseases, with contradictions, and with Calumnies, thereby to give them cause to con­temn Life, and to desire Death.

A Soul which hath not yet a sufficient courage to walk without weariness in the way of Heaven;Tract. 6. in Joan. seeks among the goods of the Earth for some mitigation of the pains which she meets withall in her march.In Ps. 83. & passim. The difficulty which this Soul finds in keeping her self in a continual disposition to follow the Divine Inspirati­ons, makes her to roam af­ter that which she conceives capable to untire her in her labours. This is one of the [Page 194]nicest temptations which persons of piety endure. But God who by a singular mer­cy never abandons his Ser­vants and will unfetter them from this Life, frequently intermixes bitterness among those things which we esteem to be the most innocent. Why think you doth he sometimes render the Goods of the Earth so unsavoury, but to take from us the gust of them, and to make us desire the Goods of Heaven? And when God will exer­cise his Elect, and hinder them from dwelling upon any object which may divert them from their Salvation; be takes pleasure, if we may say so, in raising against them [Page 195]Afflictions both within and without, and in giving them occasions at every moment to merit new degrees of Glo­ry, by new actions of Pati­ence and of Love for Christ Jesus.

Perhaps should he less frequently send them Mor­tifications, their zeal would cool and relent: at least one may be assured that they would have less Merit. And it is a very particular favour of God, when he makes us employ profitably for the other Life, all the days of a Life so short as this is.

We see how they who walk faithfully in the nar­row way of Heaven, are upon earth as the Grapes [Page 196]are under the Press, accord­ing to the thought of the Prophet. They crush the Grapes, they tread them un­der their feet, to draw from them a Juyce which serves for the Life of men: In like manner they oppress, they persecute the Just in the World; they are incessantly exposed to all sorts of inju­ries and miseries: but God so permits it, in order to draw from thence Good Works which serve for the perfection of the Christian, by disengaging him from all that is material and impure within him, to elevate him to that soverain honour which the World cannot give him.

Article XXVI. St. Augustin teaches in many places of his Writings, as an assured Doctrine: That the most solid virtue of Christi­ans, and the most visible cha­racter of the Predestinate, is to sigh continually in the ex­pectation of Death, and in the hope of another Life.

'TIs not for this World,In Psalm. 53.145.247.148. that you are Born and Regenerated in Christ Je­sus: 'Tis for Heaven. It is the Celestial Kingdom you are to seek for:Tract. 5. in Joan. &c. The sor­row for being so long sepa­rated from so great a Good, [Page 198]is that which ought to cause all your Sighs and all your Tears. Interiour sighing is a gift of the Holy Ghost: When we are once enflam­ed with his Love, how shall we chuse but sigh and lan­guish in this our Banish­ment, knowing that we have no true Countrey but Heaven; and that this ex­ile which separates us from it, is the punishment of our Sin? Carnal Christians who breath nothing but the Goods and the Pleasures, of the Earth, and who content themselves with a vain and transitory Felicity, are af­flicted at the loss of Goods, at sicknesses, at Imprison­ments, at Banishments, at [Page 199]Shipwrecks, at Calumnies. They sigh, but their sighing proceeds from their self love, and from the adhesion they have to earthly Goods. It is not the Holy Ghost, nor the love of Celestial Goods which causes their affliction; 'tis the sorrow for their losses which makes them lament. But Faithfull Souls, who as­pire only to the soverain Good, who desire nothing but to be separated from the impurities of the Body, sigh in the most peaceable enjoy­ment of all perishable Goods; and 'tis the Holy Ghost that forms these Sighs in the bot­tom of their Heart, to the end they may be advertised by this interiour sadness, of [Page 200]the vanity of all worldly pleasures. He who looks up­on them in this estate only with Carnal Eyes, is per­swaded that a true Christian leads a very unhappy Life, and this errour hath averted many from piety. But if they could comprehend the con­solation which God mingles with these Sighs, the secret satisfaction which he spreads in the Soul of a good man, the peace, the pleasure, the joy which is tasted even a­midst the tears poured forth in these transports of Divine Love; they would surely change their opinion. But certainly, Sensual Souls can­not penetrate into these Mysteries: they must have [Page 201]felt these Celestial sweet­nesses who will rightly con­ceive them. Happy and holy Experience, how powerfull art thou upon Hearts! Di­vine transports of the Love of Christ Jesus! 'tis you which give a contempt of this Life; 'tis you which make Death to be desired; and you more perswade this truth in a moment, then can all the reasonings of hu­man Wit. If once I am ray­sed above the earth, John. 12.32. I will draw all to my self, says Christ Jesus. But, Lord, whence comes it that you draw not all, and that it seems as if the fruit of your sacred Passion were imperfect? Ah! 'Tis because the weight [Page 202]of our sins is yet stronger than the Adamant which draws us: 'Tis because we have not the courage to quit all that we have of terrestri­all. For had we never so slender a disposition to bend our selves towards Heaven, thou O Lord, wouldst quickly draw us thither by the pow­er of thy Grace. Give us, we beseech thee this dispo­sition; and since it is im­possible for man to rayse himself above the Earth, but by the Cross which elevated thee upon Calvary, in the view of all Nations; Grant, O Saviour, that we may embrace this Cross with as much Gratitude for thy Bounties and Mercies, [Page 203]as thou hast had Compassi­on for our Miseries.

Article XXVII. A Comparison between true Christians and the faithfull Israelites, in which St. Au­gustin shews, That as the first comming of the Messias was the object of the conti­nual Desires and Devotion of the true Israelites, so the second comming of Christ Je­sus should be the scope of the most solid Piety and of the most fervent Desires of Christians.

THe Elect whom the Sa­cred Scripture names the Children of God,In Psal. 136. and 143. and the Reprobate whom it calls the Children of Men, or Chil­dren of the Earth, have li­ved after a very different manner. The Reprobate li­mit their hope to the pre­sent World, and expecting no other Felicity than that of this Life,Hom. 50. & alibi. embusy them­selves in building Towns, and in establishing a perma­nent fortune upon Earth. Cain, the head of the Repro­bate, first founded a City which he call'd by the name of his Son. Nembroth raised the Tower of Babel, and built Babylon. But we read no such [Page 205]thing of the Children of God. It is not said that they built any Town, on the contrary they fled from Towns, they walked conti­nually from place to place; and when by the order of God they stayd in any Coun­trey, they lodged under Tents in the open Fields, to avoyd the corruption of the World, which is a kind of contagious Disease got­ten by commerce with one another. Such was the Life of Abraham, of Isaac, of Ja­cob, and of other holy Pa­triarks. Moses lived in a like manner, in conducting the people of Israel in the Desart, after he had freed them from the Captivity of [Page 206] Egypt. All the events of his passage,1 Cor. 10. Heb. 7.8.9. were (according to the thought of S. Paul) but a Figure of that which was to befall the Elect, who are the true Isralites chosen by God from all Eternity. Wherefore if we will be of this beloved troop whereof our Saviour speaks in the Gospel, we must not pass our Life in building Palaces, and in raysing great for­tunes upon Earth. Let us not imitate the ingratitude and Blindness of these He­brews, who made to them­selves Gods according to their own capricious brain, who repined at their servi­tude, and who upon every little incommodity hapning [Page 207]in their Journey, murmur­ed against their Conductour, and preferr'd their slavery of Egypt before all the goods which he gave them hopes of in the Land of Promise. On the contrary, they who were truly touched with the desire of that dear Countrey, endured with undanted cou­rage all the difficulties of their voyage, in hopes to arrive one day at that place of repose and plenty which Moses promised them. But so long as they remained Captives, they ceased not to sigh and weep upon the banks of the Babilonian Ri­ver; they hung their Harps upon the branches of Trees; and when they were entreat­ed [Page 208]to sing Canticles of Mirth, their answer was;Psal. 1 36. Alas! how can we sing being in a strang Land? Rather let our Tongues be dryed up, and all the Strings of our Harps broken; than that we should be induced to sing in a place of tears and lamentation.

Sion was but the Figure of the Church, and the cap­tivity of Egypt was but the Image of the Tyrany of the Devil. The true Israelites knew well that they could not enjoy an entire liberty untill after the coming of the Messias▪ Therefore it was that they made so many vows and Prayers to see the arrival of that happy days, foretold by all their Pro­phets. [Page 209]And that Nation had evermore such ardent desires for the coming of their Re­deemer, that even in their greatest blindness and when they crucified the true Mes­sias, they still continued their Prayers, and demand­ed of God that he would send him to deliver his peo­ple. Let not us imitate these blind and self opinion'd Jews. Let us acknowledge Christ Jesus for our Deli­verer. Let us couragiously support the toyls of our Pilgrimage. Let us look up­on the World as upon a Wilderness, through which we must pass with all sorts of pains and incommodities: and when we shall be ready [Page 210]to enter into our Celestial Countrey, let's Render Thanks to our Redeemer, for that after having deli­ver'd us from the bondage of the Devil, he hath more­over the Goodness to send us Death, to accomplish the breaking of our Fetters.

Let us then,In Psal. 66. my Brethren, prepare our selves to meet the coming of our Saviours King­dom; for that it will come is most certain. It is, I say, most certain, that he who came once in an estate of con­tempt and of humiliation, will come another time in an estate of greatness and of Majesty. It is certain, that he who came to be judged by the World, will come [Page 211]one day to judge the World. Let us now adore him in his humiliation, to the end we may not be affrighted one day by that terrible prepara­tion of greatness and of Ma­jesty, wherewith he will come to Judgement. If we love him whilst he hath yet his Arms stretched forth on the Cross, we may deserve to contemplate him in his Glory. He will divide his Kingdom with them who have sincerely desired that his Kingdom should come, and that his Will should be don. Why then desire we not to have it come? Why do we not accomplish his Will? His Will is no other than that of his Father who [Page 212]sent him. Let us avouch Christ Jesus before Men for our Master, if we will not have him to disavow us be­fore his Father for his true Children. But it is not e­nough for obtaining an en­trance into the Heavenly Kingdom, to say to him with our Mouths,Mat. 7.21. Lord, Lord, We must fulfill the Will of his Father, which is also his Will: Now the Will of my Father, says Christ Jesus, is, that all they who see the Son, and who believe in him, should have Eternal Life, Job. 6.40. and I will raise them up at the last day. Let us then believe in him with our whole Heart, and let us look upon him for the present with Eyes of Faith [Page 213]and of Love, to the end we may behold him face to face in a blessed Eternity.S.Isidor.

Article XXVIII. An Instruction of St. Isidore of Damiet to all Christians, to excite them to a perfect desire of Death.

SOme persons even the most pious perswade themselves oftentimes,In Epist. passim. that they have no longer any tye and adhesion to Life, nor to any thing of this World. But 'tis an Errour to fancy that one is entirely untyed from it, if he feels not in his Heart a true desire of Death. Let [Page 214]him who believes himself to be in so perfect an estate, en­ter seriously into himself, and he shall undoubtedly perceive that the Will of Man reigns yet in his Soul, and that he is not totally un­cloathed of the love of Life. Let him severely examin himself, let him question himself, and ask of his Soul: Do we no longer fear Death? Doth nothing fasten us any longer to Life? If we were to die within one Year, with­in one Month, within one Day; if we were to die in this Moment; should we be rea­dy to render an accompt to God of our Actions? And should we have no reluctan­cy to quit our freinds, our [Page 215]relations, our dwelling, our works? For we adhere to all, and this adhesion is some­times more violent for small matters than for the greatest. Yet, if there remains any thing that chains our Will to the World, the Love which we have for God is not perfect. Our Life upon Earth is a continual War­fare. We bear Arms for the Glory of God. He commands us to march, to fight, to pour forth our blood for him. Why shall we not do for an Eternal Recompense, that which men do for the reputa­tion of a few days? Let us then seriously examin our selves, and let us see whether our heart is wholly submitted [Page 216]to this holy discipline of the Warfare of Christ Jesus. Let us see, whether accord­ing to St. Pauls precept, we have taken for the Armour of our breast and back, Faith and Charity; Thes. 5.8. and for our Helmet, the Hope of Salvation. For if our submission is perfect, our Love will also be perfect, and Death will afford us joy, in­stead of giving us terrour.

Article XXIX. St. Eucherius Arch-Bishop of Lyon, exhorts Christians to observe attentively the dif­ferent agitations of human Passions, the shortness of Life, and the uncertainty of [Page 217]Death, to the end they may never engage themselves in the tumults of the World,S. Euche­rius. and that they may be ever­more prepared to die.

HAve you never contem­plated from the Sea­shore,Epist. ad Valeria­num. the combat of the Winds disputing among themselves for the Empire of the Waves! That dread­full bellowing of the Bil­lows, which rush one up­on another and push them with such violence against the Rocks, whilst the moun­tains of Water and of Froth seem to ascend to the skyes, and then sodainly to descend to the abysmus? Doth not this sight inspire I know not [Page 218]what horrour, which is nevertheless accompanyed with some pleasure; and which insensibly engages the beholder to meditate up­on those mervails? This is the most lively and the most resembling Image we can find of the Agitations of the World. But to behold them well, we must stand upon the Shore, and consi­der according to the spirit of God, the joys and the afflictions, the hatred and the freindship, the quarrells and the reconciliations, the fortune and the misfortune of men, the flux and the re­flux of their interests, of their designs, and of all their acti­ons; how they do and un­do, [Page 219]how they seek and shun the same things; how one generation succeeds ano­ther; how the Grandfather makes place for the Father, and the Father for the Son; not any of them thinking seriously during the whole course of their Life of the rapidness of this motion which trails them towards their Death. Certainly, this spectacle is a learned Lesson for them who know how to make their profit of it: and we may say, that it also affords some satisfaction, when one reflects upon him­self, and finds that he is ex­empt from that trouble which overthrows the rea­son of all the rest of men. [Page 220]Happy Tranquillity, Ado­rable Peace of the love of Christ Jesus! How sweet is it to them whom you have timely placed in the haven of their Salvation; to be­hold in safety the fury of the Tempest, without fear­ing either the winds, or the waves, or the rocks, or the quick sands? But as for us, who have escaped Ship­wreck by a sincere penance: we, I say, who know the dangers out of which you, our good God, have delive­red us; give us we beseech you a holy horrour upon the sight of this terrible spectacle of the Tempests of the World, and an ardent desire to be freed from them [Page 221]for ever by a Christian Death. And surely we must not expect to enjoy a per­fect calm, so long as we so­journ upon Earth. Should we live longer, we should not be more happy. The Life of our Fathers is ended, our own slides dayly away. Let us make place for them who are to follow us, a little sooner or a little later, the difference is small, for they will not long survive us. Finally, in the same man­ner as the Surges of the Sea follow, push, and press upon one another by a pre­cipitated motion, and as the Waves which are ray­sed up highest fall down af­terward the lowest, to make [Page 222]room for a second, the se­cond for a third, which is driven away by an infinity of other followers, all which in the sequell come to be dissipated upon the shore: even so the Life of one man succeeds that of another man; one is elevated and the other is humbled accord­ing to the capriciousness of fortune. But by how much their elevation is higher, by so much the abysmus into which they sink is deep­er; and all terminate in Death.

Article XXX. S. Ful­gen. St. Fulgentius and S. Pauli­nus prove, That Death is a Recompense for the Just, and a Chastisement for the Im­pious: That the length of Life is to be computed by the number of Good Works one hath performed, and not by the number of days one hath lived.

THe bad man trembles at the bare Name of Death. Hath he the least indisposi­tion? Fulg. Epist 5. ad Gall. He believes 'tis a mortal Sickness. Paulin. Ep. 37. ad Pam. If one talks to him of God, he falls in­to a fury. He complains of [Page 224]the impotency of Remedies. He is pierced with the ap­prehension of the least dan­ger. His Soul,Prov. 12. and 28. says Solomon, is perpetually perplexed with vain terrours.Sap. 3. and 4. &c. He flies when no one pursues him. But the Just looks upon the danger without being affrighted, and marches on like a Lion, who is secure of his strength and of his cou­rage. Nothing that befalls him, contristates him: and if he were threatned even with Death, he would be so far from being afraid, that he would rejoyce at it; because his Heart is in the 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 [Page 225]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. 'Tis Gold which he puts into the melting vessell to refine it. 'Tis 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, [Page 226]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 [Page 227]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. 'Tis 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 [Page 228]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; 'tis 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 [Page 229]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. 'tis as if he had [Page 230]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 [Page 232]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 [Page 234]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 [Page 235]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 [Page 236]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 Pilgrimage, where­in we are to make what speed we are able. Other­whiles it compares it to a Warfare, whereinto we en­roll our selves to die in fight­ing against the Enemies of Christ Jesus. At other times it represents Death unto us under the Parable of a Hire­ling, who tills the Vinyard for the price of his days la­bour. O Christians, when the Evening shall come, let not us imitate those in­discreet [Page 237]Vignerons, who complained that they had born the burden of the day, and endured the heat of the Sun. Let's not presume that we have deserv'd a larger recompense than they who have labour'd less time than we. It belongs to the Ma­ster of the Vinyard to dis­tribute his Wages as him­self pleases. At what ever hour he calls us to his ser­vice, let us labour as long as the day lasts. Our Lord knows well how to pay un­to each one what appertains to him.Mat. 20.12. Perhaps the last shall be first, and the first last, because there are ma­ny called and but few cho­sen. Let us expect the hour [Page 238]of payment with Patience and with Humility. That hour, O Christians, is the hour of Death; for this Death which we so much dread, is the period of our pains, and the time of our reward.

Article XXXIII. 3. Reflexion of St. Gregory: That they who have the World, love some reason to fear the end of it; but that they who serve Christ Jesus, ought not to appre­hend the destruction of the World: on the contrary, they ought to endure with patience, War, Famine, [Page 239]Pestilence, Detraction, Per­secution, and the other Scour­ges wherewith the hand of God chastises men; because these are the signs of the se­cond coming of our Saviour.

IF the scourges of God fall upon your Head, lift it up, and look towards Heaven; Hom. 1. and 13. in Evan. because your Redemption is near at hand. Behold the Fig-tree, and all other Trees, Luk. 21. when their fruit begins to be formed, you say that Summer is coming on. So when you shall see all these things arrive, which the common sort of men account miseries, know that the King­dome of Christ Jesus approach­es, and that Christians ought to rejoyce thereat as at the [Page 240]greatest of all good things; because they shall never pos­sess the Kingdom of God, untill that of the Devil, which is the World, shall be destroyed. It belongs therefore to them only who have the love of the World rooted in their Heart, who look not after eternal Life, who even fancy that there is none: It only belongs, I say, to those wretched Children of the World, to afflict themselves for the end of the World. But as for us, who are the Chil­dren of God, who know that our Patrimony is not upon Earth, but that it expects us in the glory of the Eter­nal Father; we rejoyce to [Page 241]see an end of the Worlds Tyranny, which hath al­ready too long lasted. Hea­ven and Earth shall pass, Luk. 21.33. but my Words shall not pass, says our Lord. Those are the works of his Hands; they shall perish, but our Lord will remain; Heb. 1.11. They will wax old as a Garment; They will change their form as a Cloak: But he who created them will be evermore the same, Ps. 101. v. 26.27. &c. and his years will have no end. The Just shall dwell with him, and their Posterity shall be eter­nally happy.

Article XXXIV. 4. Reflection of St. Gregory: That there are few Just who [Page 242]can truly say with St. Paul: God forbid that I should glory of any other thing than of the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; be­cause the World is dead and crucified for me, as I am dead and crucified for the World: That al­tho' the major part of good people employ all their Life to die to the World,Gal. 6.14. yet it frequently falls out that the World dies not to them; but on the contrary that it strives to corrupt them by its flatteries and by its illu­sions. From whence this ho­ly Doctour takes an occasion to exhort Christians to be willing to go forth of this place which is so dangerous, [Page 243]and to desire Death as the sole Remedy of all their Evills.

THere is no Just Man who doth not acknow­ledge himself miserable dur­ing this Life,Morol. l. [...]. c. 2.3. &c. and who con­siders it not as a painfull and perilous Pilgrimage. He knows that the Dignities and the Riches of the World are things perishable. But what ever experience he dayly makes of them, they cease not to leave in his spirit the same impression which the sight of a delicious Coun­trey leaves in the Spirit of a Traveller. He doth not absolutely prefer it before his native Land; but he is [Page 244]less impatient to get home to it. What should press us to leave Life, will some one say, if we make good use of it? Our Lord hath gi­ven us Goods, let us employ them for his Glory▪ He for­bids not the enjoyment o [...] Honours, when one referr [...] them all to him. What har [...] is there in hearing our Pray­ses published, so long as w [...] cease not to prayse God [...] Thus doth the World en­deavour to seduce the Jus [...] man by subtle stratagems which it disguises under th [...] appearances of Virtue. Bu [...] a true Christian grounde [...] in the love of Christ Jesu [...] speaks another Language. [...] you Honours of the World [Page 245]says he, you Riches, Health, Commodities of Life, I am not to look upon you but as the obstacles of my Salvati­on. In this sad voyage which I make upon Earth, my Soul sends forth continual sighs for the length of her exile, nor can she suffer with patience that which sepa­rates her from her dear Countrey. What a remisness, what an imprudence is it, to stay upon the Earth for the exercising of an Office and Dignity which torments us, to distribute our Goods which are capable to cor­rupt us, to acquire a Prayse which may make us proud, and perhaps for some other end which is yet more vain [Page 246]and frivolous? Ah, my Soul▪ do not thou adhere to any worldly thing; thou wilt not there meet with any thing which is not unwor­thy of thy affection. Remem­ber the nobility of thy ori­gin, thou comest from Hea­ven; the Earth is not for thee: God did not create thee to animate eternally a lump of Flesh. Death will ere long destroy this Body, in which thou takest so much complacency: but its loss ought not to afflict thee, God will one day repair it. 'Tis Sin which thou ough­test to dread, there is thy Death, and a terrible and irreparable Death. Thou wilt be exposed to the dan­ger [Page 247]of this Death so long as thou sojournest upon Earth. Go forth of it then, my Soul, go forth of thy Prison; separate thy self from thy Body: for I burn with a de­sire to die, that I may go to live eternally with my Lord Jesus.

Behold what are the sen­timents of perfect Christians. They have learned in the School of so good a Master, that even they who most desire to die, notwithstand­ing that they are already 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 [Page 248]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 [Page 249]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 [Page 250]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 'tis 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, [Page 251]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 [Page 252]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 [Page 253]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 'tis 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 [Page 254]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 [Page 255]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, 'twill 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 [Page 256]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 'tis 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 [Page 257]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 [Page 259]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 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 [Page 260]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 'tis 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 [Page 261]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, [Page 262]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 [Page 263]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 [Page 264]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. 'Tis 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 [Page 265]the same subject, notwith­standing that 'tis 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 [Page 266]in this little number of days design'd for thy Pilgrimage up­on Earth, which pass as the sha­dow of a smoak: 'Tis 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 [Page 267]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. [Page 268] 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, [Page 269]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 [Page 270]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 [Page 271]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 [Page 272]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 [Page 273]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 com [...]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 [Page 274]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.

'Tis 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 [Page 275]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 [Page 277]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 [Page 278]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, [...]ap. 17. O Lord? Whilst the [Page 279]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 [Page 280]our Lot is rich and delicious. Our hereditary share is of an incomparable excellency.S. Ber.'Tis 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 [Page 281]an infinite number of mise­ries. 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, [Page 282]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 [Page 283]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:L [...] [...] 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 [Page 284]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 'tis 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 [Page 285]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. 'Tis not the feet, 'tis 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 [Page 286]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, 'tis but a pay of the temporal War­fare. Tast, says David, and acknowledg the delights of our Lord. Ps. 33, 8. 'Tis a Manna which satiates, without giving any disgust.

But, O Christians, let not [Page 287]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: 'tis 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.

TIs 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 So­lit [...]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 [Page 290]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 [Page 291]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, 'tis 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 [Page 292]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 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 [Page 293]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 [Page 295]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 [Page 296]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 [Page 297]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 [Page 298]the pains of Life, as a Mar­tyr; or to afflict ones self by voluntary Mortifications, as a Penitent? For 'tis 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, [Page 299]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, [Page 300]a Moysture and an Ʋnction 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 [Page 301]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 [Page 302]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 [Page 303]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 [Page 304]men have we seen whom Death hath surpriz'd in the height of their great enter­prises? How often have you heard say, of them who were seen yesterday so flourishing: One of them was murdered, the other was drown'd, another died in playing; and he who seem'd to have most health, expir'd sitting at table? One should never have done, if one should run over all the manners of Death, where­with dayly and dismall ex­amples strike our eyes; and yet what profit do we make thereof? He surely is wise and happy, who passes on his Life, without adhering to it; who sees all it's mo­ments [Page 305]slide away, as if each of them were to be the last; and who prepares himself at the beginning of each day with the same care which he would take upon the day of his Death! One acquires this happy fore­sight by the contempt of the World, by the desire of advancing in Virtue, by a sincere repentance, by a blind obedience to the or­ders of Providence, by an uncloathing and despising of ones self, accompanied with a firm resolution to suffer all for Christ Jesus. Let us say to him with St. Paul; Lord, 2 Tim. 4. I am as a Vi­ctime which hath already the aspersion to be sacrificed: the [Page 306]time of my departure draws near, I have finished my course, and no more now remains for me, but to expect the crown of Justice which is reserved for them who have fought va­liantly. Behold the state in which a true Christian should be setled;Ibid. for he who hath not fought according to the Law, shall not be crowned. Wherefore, make your pro­fit of the strength which God hath given you: and whilst you you are in health, lay up a treasure of good works for the other Life. Per­haps you will not be any longer in the state of per­forming them, when you shall fall into sickness and infirmity. You are not sure­ly [Page 307]so great a fool as to fan­cy you shall always enjoy health. Alas! how the sentiments of man change in the bed of Death: All that he esteemed great in the World, appear then to him little and despicable: the sin which seem'd to him small and inconsiderable be­comes great and monstrous. But the change of his rea­son serves him no more but to plunge him in De­spair.

Learn this sacred doctrine from the mouth of Christ Jesus:Lib. 3. c. 49. He who loves his Soul shall lose it? Joh. 12.15. Do not imi­tate those self-lovers of whom the Apostle St. Paul speaks with execration.Tim. 3. For no­thing [Page 308]is worthy of your love but God alone; no, not e­ven your own Soul,2 Pet. 3. Jud. 10.8. which is the most perfect image of the Divinity:Mat. 16.26. If you love it, you shall lose it; and if you lose your Soul, Mark. 8. what will it a­vail you to have gained the whole World? For having once lost your Soul, by what exchange can you recover it? But we shall never comprehend this truth, unless the love of Je­sus serves us for our Ma­ster. O love of my God, when wilt thou clear my spirit? When wilt thou set my Heart on fire? When shall I enjoy thy delights? When shall I contemplate the glory of thy Kingdom? Comfort me in my Banish­ment. [Page 309]Sweeten my Afflicti­on. I sigh after nothing but to be with you, my belo­ved Lord, for all the com­fort the World offers me, doth but augment my im­patience and my sorrow. When I have a will to raise up my self towards Heaven, my Passions draw me to­wards the Earth. Tottering between two so opposit mo­tions, I am a burden to my self, and I desire ardently to die, that so there may be an end of all these com­bats which put me in per­petual danger to be over­come by the Enemy of my Salvation. If I had still any affection for the World, I would entreat you to leave [Page 310]me in it: but since I have setled all my affections upon you, what is there that should stay me upon Earth?

If God doth you the fa­vour to afford you these feelings, do not attribute them to your self:Rom. 12. I exhort you not to elevate your selves beyond that which you ought, in the sentiments you have of your selves; but to contain your selves within the li­mits of moderation, accor­ding to the measure of the gift of Faith which God hath im­parted to each one of you. Jer. 13. 'Tis to me alone to whom glory ap­pertains, says our Lord. Do not glorify your selves, because I have spoken unto you. Give to me the glory of all, before [Page 311]darkness surprizes you. By this means you will profit more and more in Virtue, and I will give you a tast of all the sweetnesses of a holy Death.

Article XXXXI. The admirable Prayses which St. Laurence Justinian gives to Death: from whence he concludes, that 'tis no wonder if the most perfect a­mong Christians are they who most desire it.

WE need not mervail that the Faithful who are penetrated with the Love of Christ Jesus,De incen­dijs Divi­ni amoris. desire [Page 312]to die;S. Lau­rence. since he hath ren­dred Death desirable by dying for us. In effect, 'tis no longer a punishment, 'tis a favour, and a favour by so much the greater, by how much the sooner ob­tained. For that which was a chastisement of Sin, is now a temporal recompense of good Works. We ought therefore to look now upon it as the object of our sweet­est hopes, and not as the subject of our Fears. O Death! thou art no longer bitter, thou art no longer cruel to the Disciples of Christ Jesus, as thou wert formerly to the Children of Adam. Let us bless our Lord, for having made the most [Page 313]terrible of all Evils, to be so wholesome and so uni­versal a remedy, which frees us from all sorts of in­firmities and miseries; which exempts us from the misfortunes of poverty, from the outrages of our enemies, from the attacks of envy, from the disquiets of avarice and of ambition; in a word, from the tyranny of all our passions: &c, (which is yet more desirable) which exempts us from Sin. Death having thus changed its nature, Christians have no longer any aversion a­gainst it; but on the con­trary, they desire it as much as other men dread it: and they invite to their assistance that which the World avoyds [Page 314]as the cause of its destruction.

Now altho' all true Chri­stians have these thoughts, we must nevertheless ac­knowledge that the Saints are infinitly more pierced therewith. As they have more love for Christ Jesus, they have also a greater desire for Death. The ardour of this Love gives them such an absolute contempt of Life, and such an impatience to get out of it, that there is not a moment in which they wish not the separation of their Soul from their Body. Nothing more nearly touches than these Words of David, when having his Heart trans­fixed with the darts of Di­vine Love, and as it were [Page 315]transported out of himself by a happy and holy fury; he exclams:Psal. 83. [...]. My Soul languishes and is consumed with a desire to enter into the house of our Lord. My Heart burns with an ardent thirst to enjoy God, the living God; and my Body is dryed up in this desire. Happy they who placing in you all their confidence, have no other thought but to ad­vance themselves towards you, O Lord: for one sole day in your House, is more worth than a Thousand any where else. I had rather be the last, and upon the step of the dore in the House of my God, than dwell in the tents of the Wicked. In effect, it seems that a Soul enflamed with the desire of seeing her God, unties her self from [Page 316]her Body by continual Ex­tasies; and, to make use of Davids expression, Melts away in these transports, Psal. 21. as Wax melts with the heat of the Sun.

They who are arriv'd at so high a degree of perfection which renders them equal to Angels, forget oftentimes to take such nourishment as is necessary for their Body; because they are devoured by a Hunger much more pressing than that which is satisfied by food. The Spi­ritual aliment which fills them, takes from them all gust of corporal sustenance; and the flames of Charity do so stifle in them the flames of concupiscence, that they become insensible, both as [Page 317]to the necessities of the Body, and as to the pleasures of the Earth. O Lord, said a great Saint, Why do we preserve with so much pre­caution a miserable Life? Should we not laugh at a Prisoner who should spend all his time in raysing up the walls of his Prison? Yet, this is that which men do, when they pamper their Bodies. Since we must die to see you, O God, and since no one can entirely pos­sess you but by losing his Life; I accept the conditi­on even from this hour. Do that to day which you will do one day. Behold I am rea­dy to follow you, and I de­mand of you this cheif fa­vour, [Page 318] That I may see you to the and I may die, S. Teresa. and that I may die to the end I may see you eternally. S. Aug.

Article XXXXII. It may perhaps seem strange that we should place the thoughts of St. Teresa in a collection of those of the Fa­thers. But the Writings of this great Saint are replen­ish'd with so sublime a piety, that one may compare them in this point to the most beautious Works which the Spirit of God ever dictated to men. Wherefore we con­ceiv'd that it might not only be permitted, but that it [Page 319]would prove profitable to in­sert here some of the admi­rable Sentiments she hath left us upon the meditation of Eternity, and upon the de­sire of Death.

O Jesu, soverainly amiable,A pious exclamati­on after Commu­nion. sole object of my affe­ctions, shall I always lan­guish with the impatient desire of seeing you? What solace will you give to a Soul, which nothing upon Earth comforts, and which can take no rest but in you alone? O that this banishment is long? O that Life is irksom to one who burns with the desire of possessing you! I die because I cannot die. You know it, O my God, you [Page 320]who died for the love of me, know whether it is to live when one long expects what one loves!

No, my Life is not a Life, 'tis a continual torment, 'tis a fire which devours, 'tis a punishment which would be as terrible as those of Hell, if one had lost the Hope of seeing an end of it. O Life, thou enemy of my happiness, Life more cruel a thousand times than Death! why is it not permitted me in this moment to break the chains wherewith thou keep­est me in captivity. But I preserve thee because my God protects thee. I have a care of thee, because thou belongest to him. Do not [Page 321]then any longer abuse his bounty nor my obedience, and cease at last to oppose thy self to the impatience of my affection.

O desirable Death, and too long expected! O San­ctuary, inaccessible to all the tempests of the World, happy end of our miseries, destruction of Sin, beginning of our true Life, make haste to deliver me from the Death of the World. O let me die, to the end I may not die. 'Tis the Death of Sin which I dread. 'Tis the Life of Grace which I desire. But this dread and this desire consume me in such sort, that I do not live, and yet I cannot die. My Life is all [Page 322]out of me, because all my Hope is in Christ Jesus, who hath promis'd unto me a better Life.

Alas! It is very true, That Love is more dreadfull then Death. Cant. 2. O Love of Jesus, how piercing are your darts? how stinging are your wounds? The rudest blows of Death are endured with less difficulty than yours. There is too much of it, O Lord, there's too much; Turn a little aside your looks, Cant. 6. for I want strength to support them. Eyther burn me no longer, or make an end to reduce me into ashes. How will you have my Soul to divide herself between that which you demand of her, [Page 323]and that which my Bodie requires of her?

Be gon from me, O all you Earthly Consolations; a Heart wounded with the Love of Jesus, cannot be cu­red but by Jesus. All hu­man Remedies are too weak to asswage a Divine Sick­ness. 'Tis you my Saviour, who cure and who wound when you please. O Faithful Bridegroom of the Faithfull Soul, with what bounty, what sweetness, what plea­sure, what ravishments, what testimonies of tender­ness, do you heal the hurts which your Love hath made in us.

O my Soul, let us expect yet a little, and he will take [Page 324]compassion on our languish­ing condition. His impati­ence is no less then ours; we sometimes believe him to be far off, when he is very near at hand. Behold him descend­ing from the mountains, and traversing the hills, he runs, he flies to draw near unto us, he knocks at the dore, he calls us. Enter, Lord, I slept, but my heart watched: A­las! I was ready to follow you, and you have stoll'n your self from me. I seek you, and I find you no more. I call you, and you do not answer.

What have we done, my Soul, who hath driven a­way your Bridegroom? Is it not that our impatience [Page 325]displeases him? Is it not that we love him overmuch, or that we love him not enough? For he is a Jealous God, Exod. 34. who will be loved more than all things, and will have us love nothing but himself. Per­haps he will surprize us.Thes. 2.2. His day comes when it is least thought on, as the Thief who comes in the night. Let us expect with humility that dreadfull day. If Jesus loves us, he will not slack his coming; if he doth not love us, he will come but too soon for us.