doe it but he wil neuer do it or very seldome to shew his infinit power by miracle Let vs in the end say That seeing death is ineuitable it must needs follow that the feare of it is vnprofitable On the other side let vs adde that mās life is not to be cut off before the time therefore a carefull waywardnesse to prolong it auailes nothing the Destinies which haue resolued immutably to spinne it out till such a time they will doe it feare it not and in the danger of death will rather shew a miracle to preserue thee as to the Poet Simonides who supping with Scopas in a Towne of Thessalie word was brought him that two young men were at the dore to speake with him the Poet went forth but found no body at the doore but hee heard a great noyse of the chamber which sunke downe and smothered Scopas and al his guests in the ruins We reade that Gelon then a young Infant but appointed to liue longer to gouern Sicile was drawne out of the like but a stranger danger for as hee was at schoole in the presence of his master and many of his companions behold a great Wolfe enters into the school comes to Gelon layes hold of his booke and drawes it by the one end Gelon without amazement holds fast and rather suffers himselfe to bee drawne forth by the Woolfe then to let goe his hold and in the meane time the building happened to sinke and ouerwhelmed both Master and schollers Thus God shewes his prouidence preseruing by his Angels those whom he pleaseth from present and most eminent dangers So would hee saue Lot and his family from the fire of heauen almost against their will For it is written that the Angels tooke them and thrust them out of Sodome yea it is written that the Angell executioner to shew the force of prouidence told Lot that he could not doe any thing vntill hee were retired into a towne adioyning which was afterwards called Zohar into the which he was no sooner entred but the Eternall powred downe fire and brimstone vpon Sodome and Gomorah We reade of Titus Vespasian that two famous knights had conspired to kill him whereof he was aduertised but making no shew thereof he tooke them by the hands led them forth to walke and hauing called for two swords he gaue to eyther of them one as prouoking them to that which they had resolued but being amazed both of the manner and of the Emperours courage You see sayth he that destinie doth iustly hold the principalitie of the world and that in vaine men practise murthers against it be it through hope to purchase greatnesse or for feare to lose it Let vs therefore acknowledge that it is not of vs but of the word of destinie which God hath pronounced that the lengthening or shortning of our liues depends The great God is to vs a God of strength to deliuer vs and the issues of death belong vnto the Eternal therefore the Apostle sayd that Christ is dead and risen againe that he might haue power ouer the dead and the liuing and therfore this vexing care of life nor that great horror of Death cannot profit vs any thing Let vs then leaue these things and finishing our course resolutely ioyfuly let vs yeeld al into the hands of our soue raigne Master neither to tempt him nor to despaire of him for both the one and the other are equally hateful vnto him and if our soule puft vp with the vent of temptation be desquiet within vs let vs say vnto it with Dauid My soule returne vnto thy rest feare nothing Euery kinde of death of them that are beloued of God is precious in his sight verie precious sayeth S. Bernard as being the ende of labour the consummation of the victorie the port of life and the entrie to perfect felicitie The first Obiection If Death did flow from the enchayned order of destinie we should not see it without order sometimes to goe slowly sometimes to runne headlong But that is vsually seene Therefore it seemes not to flow from destinie THe vnequall Issue of life which we see happen to men doth not alter but rather corroborate destinie it is the immutable decree of the Eternal he sees who should amend or impaire in this life he that hath made all for his glory euen the wicked for the day of calamitie And therefore he soone tooke vp Enoch to himself lest that malice shold corrupt his spirit sayth the text Contrariwise if Constantine the Great who was cruel in his youth had beene cut off he had not bin a Christian neither had hee so much extended the kingdome of Christ. There is yet another reason which is the deliuerance of good men from the miseries of the world when death comes I will gather thee vp with thy fathers sayd God to Iosias the good King to the end thy eyes may not see all the miseries which I will bring vpon this place On the other-side a long life is a great languishing to the wicked So Caine after his parricide committed was cursed of God and liuing so pursued by the Iudgement of God as he often cried out that his punishment was insupportable and therefore hee should wander vpon the face of the earth and that whosoeuer should finde him would kill him but God prouided setting a brand vpon his fore-head to the end no man should slay him But how comes it that the death of some is suddaine as the shot of an harquebuze cānot bee more suddaine and so long in others which languish of some long infirmitie I answere that to search into the Counsells of God which is properly the destiny wherof we speake is more infinite then to seeke the bottome of a gulph That great Apostle rapt vp to the third heauen finds nothing but depths incomprehensible Iudgements and wayes impossible to be found out Rom. 11. Moreouer I do not see to speake truely that death is more suddaine to one then to an other is it to them that being sound and vigorous are so strooken as they die presently Yet being thus strooken they know not whether they should suruiue it or no seeing some one hath escaped being thus stroken Wherefore I do not see that death is more slow to one then to an other Is it to them that lie bedred 10. or 20. yeares yea and what know they whether they shal die the first day they take their beds To conclude I say that seeing the comming of death is imperceptible and that it is impossible for any man to say assuredly I am dead or I shal suruiue that death cannot be suddaine or slow to any man other men iudge after the euent but not before And therefore it seemes to mee that the question which is made whether a languishing death or a suddaine be most to be desired is in vaine for that we shall find that death is suddaine to all men seeing it comes
are indifferent is false for it is to teare in pieces the sacred communion of the soule with the body of man with his neighbour to kill himselfe Man is not borne for himselfe but after God for his Country which hee depriueth of a good son such as he ought to bee Aristotle hath seene it and hath written it saying That he that kils himselfe doth wrong vnto the Comonalty but to doe wrong is no indifferent thing Moreouer it is a sinne against nature for euery man loues himselfe naturally 〈◊〉 and desires to preserue his being also wee do not see any other Creature but man to kill himselfe through impaciency of paiue The 2. reason which speakes so much of li berty is friuolous and ridiculous for what liberty is there in a dead man who hath neither the power nor the will to chase away a fly that stings him who is made subiect to all sorts of wormes rottennes and stench what is liberty but a power to do what we list but death neither hath will action nor my power it a â—…s mosâ—… dry in my opinion to produce this defence As for the third poysons are giuen by the earth rather to preserue life theÌ„ to destroy it to make antidotes preseruatiues against malignant and venimous diseases and a thousand vnexpected accidents by the biting of mad or venimous beasts omitting the true cause of diuines that the sinne of man hath infected all powring forth his poyson vpon the Creatures which eâ—…uiron him therefore as Saint Paul sayth they sigh and long after their future restauration Finally examples binde vs not but rules wee liue not according vnto others but as we ought the Law of God is plaine sealed in the particular nature of euery one Thou shalt not kill by the which we are forbidden the simple homicide of our neighbor for that he is of humaine blood next the parricide of father or mother for we are their blood which doth much augment the hainousnes of the offeÌ„ce 3. The murthering of our selues which exceeds parricide in a degree of horror To this we must haue regard not vnto what Zeno or Cleanthes haue done And the Stoickes who in all other places so much recommend vnto their Disciples seemelines honesty and duty seeme to me in this point forgetfull blind preuaricators what shal we then do That which a wise Pagan did aduise vs It is for valiant men sayd he rather to contemne death theÌ„ to hate life Many times faint hearted meÌ„ are driuen to a base coÌ„tempt of theÌ„selues throgh the wearines of labor but vertue will trie al things Seeing theÌ„ that death is the end of all things it is sufficieÌ„t to go ioyfully vn to it To his words we adde That our inteÌ„t is not to take away life but the terror of death when it comes a wise man wil liue ioyfully so long as it shall please the Lord of life He wil die also more ioyfully when it shall please the same Lord. This is that he ought to do and doubtlesse man may without sin desire yea pray vnto the Lord that hee may liue long for many reasons but especially for 2. The one concernes the glory of God in the administratioÌ„ of the charge which hee hath committed vnto vs therefore the Son of God in dying would saue his Disciples by that voice full of vertue which he vsed to the Romaine souldiers and Iewes If you seeke me let them go the which preserued them long especially his well-beloued S. Iohn whom he retained in life vnto ninety yeares The other respects our children parents and friends of whom we may and ought in conscience haue a care seeing that by the censure of the Apostle hee which hath not a care of his family hath denied the faith and is worse then an Infidell But besides these reasons and some others which doe simbolize I say that the desire to liue were not fit if there were no other reason sor there is no ceasing from finne so long as life doth last so as the longer wee liue the more â—…lpable we are before God So as I maintaine that the feare to vndergo death I meane death simply is alwayes vicious foolish and ignorant But to be a Murtherer of himselfe without comparison it is much more execrable the Lawes of euery well gouerned Common-weale haue thundred against it yea the Grecians in the midst of â—…rmes whereas lawes are silent would not in signe of indignitie burne the body of Aiax according to their custome for that hee had slaine himselfe The virgins of Milesia for that they had furiously straÌ„gled themselues were drawne by publike ignominie through the streets of the Citie and in such cases God doth vsually shew visible signes of his reuenging wrath So in Parthenay a towne in Poitou a certaine woman in the absence of her husband was taken with a deuilish despaire she tooke the little children when shee had smothered them and hanged them then she came vnto her selfe went vp on a stoole and hung her selfe and and thrust awaie the stoole with her foote but the rope brake and she falling downe halfe dead found a knife the Diuell is a readie officer to furnish instruments to doe euill which she takes and thrusts into her bosome The next day the matter being knowne all the world ranne thither with the iudges who caused her bodie to be cast out vpon a dunghill neere vnto the towne wall Not far from it there was a corps de gard and neere it a place for a sentinell the gard being set for it was in time of warre the sentinell heard a fearfull noise in the ayre right against this Carcasse and after a long stay was forced to leaue his stand the gard also amazed with this noyse thought to flie awaie Thus the Diuells made sport with this poore desperate woman The 19. Argument taken from the contradiction of man touching Death Not any thing that is sometimes called for by vs with ioy being come should be trouble some Death is sometimes called for by vs with great ioy THe Pagans to describe the pittifull estate of man in this life haue fained that Prometheus mingling the slime of the earth with tears made â—…antherof wherunto a Latine Poet hath alluded saying Teares bâ—… the our Births 〈◊〉 all inteares we liue And Death in teares Many alarums doth giue But what need of testimony but the continuall feare and feuers which spring from the apprehension of those infirmities wherof we haue made mentioÌ„ Thy bowells wroung with the cholicke a thousand gripes and throwes at euerie child bearing if thou beest a woman the pinching cares that trouble the mind make thee by interruption soden exclaming to desire death not without reason seeing that the Prophet Elias serues thee for a patterne who not knowing how to auoyd the ambushes that were layed against him did wish to dye But let vs cast our eyes vpon those miseries that make vs
Olaus Magnus by certaine Venetian Ambassadors by a Iacopin of Vlmes others but I leaue the interpretation free to the iudgement of the reader Thirdly if it were a worke without the compasse of reasō Plutarque Herodotus nor Plato wold euer haue beene credited in writing that one Thespesius Aristeus and Erus were raised vp againe Plinie who beleeued nothing but what hee saw among many that were raysed vp he reports of a woman which was dead seuen dayes and raised againe and that one Gabienus a valiant souldier of Caesars being put to death by order of iustice and left vpon the publike place was found afterwards speaking and asking for Pompey who came vnto him and had much speech with him Melchior Flauian makes mention of a woman whom hee had seene whose name was Mellula neere vnto Damas in Syria raysed vp againe the 6. day after her death in the yeare 1555. God will bring such tokens to assure the world of a future and vniuersall Resurrection As for the Maxime that there is no returning againe to the habite it is abusiue not only to God who can do all but euen to nature and to the order of the world which hath his forces limited So in a little child whose teeth haue beene pulled out the vegetatiue vertue will bring vp new So we reade of a certaine Abbesse who being an 100. yeares olde grewe young againe had her monethly courses her teeth put forth againe her haire grew black the wrinckles of her face filled vp Finally shee became as fresh and as faire as shee had beene at the age of 20. yeeres And if wee may beleeue histories she was not alone but followed and preceded by many others The naturall vertue at a certaine time as trees in the Spring did renue her worke euen foure times as to that man seene in the yeere 1536 by the Viceroy of the Indies who examined it carefully and found out the truth Fourthly that which shewes an insenfible impression of nature of the future Resurrection is the earnest and generall care to burie the dead honorably yea to keep them from corruption by balmes and Aromaticall sents by images of brasse and nayles fastened in the bodies for that brasse hath a speciall vertue against corruption There are yet other deuices which the Egyptians haue and doe vse and particularly obserued by thē of Arran an insularie region whereas the bodyes hang in the ayre and rot not so as the families without any amazement know their Fathers Grandfathers and great-grandfathers and a long band of their predecessors Peter Martir of Milan writes the same of some West-Indians of Comagra Moreouer I deny that man may alwayes see the tayle of that wherof he sees the head the resurrection of the body seeing the immortality of the soule that he must needes see the consequent if he discouers the Antecedent for the one hiding it selfe the other appeares sometimes to the sight of the vnderstanding And to conclude I deny not but that it is true which mans reason cannot verifie vntill it hath found out why the Adamant doth so powerfully draw iron vnto it and holds it fast by an vnknowne vertue why forked sticks of Elder are proper to discouer veines of gold and siluer Why long aftrr a man is dead the bloud will gush out if the murtherer approcheth Why if some desperate man hang himselfe will there rise suddaine stormes and tempests Why the stone called the Amede drawes iron to it on the one side and reiects it on the other with infinite other secrets of Na ture The third Obiection We onely feare that which wee think should be hurtfull vnto vs. The soule feareth death Therfore the soule thinks death should be hurtfull vnto her SOme make a question how the soule can be immortall seeing she hath so great feare of death Men laugh at the attempt of little children be they neuer so in choler for that they cannot hurt them why should not the soule thē mock at death Doth she not in like manner see the immortality feele it in her selfe without giuing so great apprehension to the poore◅ body which of it selfe without her should neuer feare death no more then a bruit beast Why is not the power of death dissolued whereas the authority of immortality intercedes as Tertullian speakes in the first booke of the Trinity Answer This is a most euident signe not of the mortality of the soule but that man is degenerate and corrupt That her Port is no more so free and braue But casts her eye downe like a fearefull slaue He seeles in his Conscience that he is guilty of high treason to God that this voluntary offence must soon or late bring a necessary punishmēt he feels in this life some smal touch he fears not without reason if by faith repentance his pardon bee not inrowled and his absolution sealed that at the departure from this life the executioner of diuine vengeance should stand lurking behind death to take him by the throat and to punish him according to his merits Wherefore if corruption did not generally possesse al men she would suppresse this fear reuerence her Creator and do her duty vnto him and then she should see that by that respectiue feare to offend her God she should be fully deliuered from all other feare shee should see that fearing onely the death of the soule which is onely to be feared shee should not feare that of the body which is to be desired But for that most men as S. Augustine doth teach feare the separation of the soule from the body and not the true death which is the separation from God it happens that fearing that they fall often into this So the soule beeing willing to shake off this feare of the Creator she must needes feare euery creature euen the smallest frogs mice and flies which flying about awake him suddainely and many times trouble him much but in the end death is aboue all extreame feares the most fearefull And why is this if like vnto bruite beasts all dyed in him and if in death there were nothing to bee feared Wherefore Propertius saith The spirit is something death leaues it in store The palest shadowes scapes to the burning shore But to conclude The soule hauing beene too familiar with the flesh shee hath gotten a habite she hath drawne such corruption as being ignorant of the happinesse which attends her in heauen shee cannot leaue this valley of misery this obscure prison but with great griefe being like vnto the man which being carried away an Infant by a she wolfe was nourished by wolues did houle with them and did liue and would liue among them and if hee were taken by other men he would leaue them to returne to his wolues as the History makes mention of one verifying the Prouerbe That nourishment passeth nature The sixt Argument from the efficient cause of Immortalitie The eleuation aboue time and place is the
by the fauourable winde of diuine grace may to morrow str◅ke against the rockes of incredulitie haue a contrary winde and suff◅r shipwracke and so haue ◅eede of the answeres ◅ere set downe To conclude counterp◅ysons are not for the sound but for the sicke and infected these confutations are not for them which bee cleane in heart and sound in spirit but for such as irreligion and presumption of humane wisedome haue bewitched Othou the Cr◅ator of all things the Authour of our life the Inspirer of our soules the Father Sonne and holy Ghost one true and onely God I humbly beseech thee illuminate the eyes of my vnderstanding that I may plainely see the happy issue of fearefull death that it will please thee so to purifie the thoughts of my soule that shee may fully apprehend the true causes of her immortality that it will please thee so to fauour my penne that it may write worthily vpon so worthy a subiect that the worke finished thou mayest be glorified the Reader edified and my selfe fortified Amen The Combate betwixt Man and Death The first Argument taken from the Instrumentall cause of eternal life The only meanes to attaine to the perfection of that good which the world so much desireth should not giue any amazement to the world Death is the only meanes Therefore Death should not giue any amazement to the world THE first proposition of this Argument doth plainely iustifie it selfe for without exception all men desire the happinesse of life the perfection of Soueraigne good which is the beatitude of the holy Spirit called eternal life I except not ill doers for they erre in doing ill and either beleeue that it is good or the way which tends vnto it But there is but one way to attaine vnto this good which is death Now then to abhorre this death more then horror it selfe greedily to desire that good which only death can giue vs to desire health and reiect the potion whereby we may recouer it to affect the pleasures which they say are in those fortunate Ilands but without any figure in that heauenly Paradice to refuse to enter into that shippe which alone can bring vs thither were to mocke at himselfe Let vs proceed and come to the proofe of the 2. proposition for thereon is grownded the force of our Syllogisme That Death is the onely meanes to attaine vnto the perfection of life is manifest in that the perfection of euery thing is the enioying of the ends all the lines of our dessignes all the proiects of our enterprises all our sweating and toyle tend and aime at the end Who knowes not that death is the first end of life feeles not but that life in her greatest vigour driues him directly thither all men may see that life is vnited inseparably vnto death by the con tinuance of the same succession of times cōsider this time whereof the enioying is the life There are three parts that which is past the present and the future the presēt is the bond of that which is past and of the future and as this article of the present time runnes as violently towards the future as the Primum Mobile turnes in the heauē so doth ourlife run vio lently towards her end This life is a very way as soone as thou doest enter into it and makest but one step it is the first pace towards the end of the way towards the end of life which is death for the going out of the cradle is the beginning of the entry to the graue whether thou wilt or wilt not whether thou thinkest of it or not yet it is true yea as certaine as in an howre-glasse where the first graine of sand which runnes is a guide vnto the last to the end of the hower Euery day we passe carries away some part of our life yea as we grow life decreaseth this very day which we now enioy is deuided betwixt Death and vs for the first howres of the morning being past to the present in their flowing are dead to vs wherefore Seneca had often this sentence very fitly in his mouth Death hath degrees yet that is not the first Which diuides vs in twaine but of the death is the last And it is the very reason why that wise Tekohite sayd vnto Dauid in the present time For certaine we die and slide away as the waters which returne no more So many degrees as there are in life so many deaths so many beginnings of another life Let vs examine them and take speciall note of the first death to iudge of the latter for herein as in all the other workes of wise Nature the end is answerable to the beginning The first degree of mans life is when being fashioned and framed hee liues in the wombe of his mother this is a vegetatiue life a life proper to plants only wherein hee may receiue nourishment grow in this life he continues commonly but nine moneths at the end of which time hee dies but a happy death whereby he gaines the vse of the goodly sences of nature that is to say of sight hearing smelling tasting and touching behold then the first death when as the Infant by the force of nature is driuen out of that fleshie prison comming from which place he striues and stretcheth out himselfe hee is angry with nature and cries incessantly but he is ill aduised it is his good and the beginning of his perfection Now followeth the infantiue life not differing from that of beasts which extends vnto seuen yeares compleate of this life child-hood is the death which begins at eight yeares and retaines nothing of the Infancy As for the exterior of man which is the body not the flesh nor bones not the foure principall humors if that bee true which the Phisitions hold for a Maxime that our bodies change all their substance euery seuen yeares And in truth how could our sliding nature so long subsist if it were not maintained by drinke and meate the which by a certaine vertue infused into all the members of the body digested purged and applied doth transubstantiat it selfe into our very bodies proportionably as the substance decayes as appeares by the words in the booke of Wisedome cap. 5. Being borne wee suddenly desist from that being wherein wee were borne It is no more the first body which wee brought into the world that is dead wee haue an other in our child-hood the third degree of life which extends vnto 18. yeares at the end wherof his death encounters him in the which beginnes the 4. degree of life which goes vnto 22. and then dies but from this death riseth youth the 5. degree which florisheth vnto 30. yeares then his flower falls and his youth is lost but a rich losse seeing thereby man-hood the perfect age is gotten which being strong and vigorous climbes vnto 50. yeares and this is the 6. degree of life Then comes age the 7. degree of life and the
end insupportable and offensiue to all kind of people yea to himselfe For hauing his nose groueling to the ground like a hogge hee will neuer bee able to lift vp his eies nor his spirit to heauen where all perfect and assured contentment is to bee found If yeelding to all this you will aske me the meanes how to bee freed of this fearefull terror I will tell you that it is to know what Deathis as it is taught in the 13. 14. and 20. Arguments and not to rely vpon doubtfull and false opinions An Obiection Euery roote bringing forth fruits worthy repentance should be carefully preserued The feare of death bringeth forth fruits worthy of repentance Therefore the feare of death should bee carefully preserued WHatsoeuer thou sayest or doest remember thy end and thou shalt neuer sinne sayth the son of Syrach Answ. the continuall meditation of death to him that knowes it rightly helpes wonderfully vnto vertue And Seneca sayeth that man is neuer so diuine as when hee doth acknowledge himselfe to bee mortall Yea it auailes in Christian duties but that the feare of death is profitable to any thing I cannot comprehend I will not deny but that many haue bene wonderfully stirred vp to piety by the feare of death as among others the historie makes mentiō of Peter Vualdo in the yeare 1178. who in the city of Lyons sometime being assembled with many of the chiefe of the Citty to recreate themselues it so happened that one of them fell downe suddenly dead Vualdo a rich man was more mooued then all the rest and seized with feare and apprehension he addicted himselfe more to do penance and to meditate true piety But who doth not see that it is not properly death which causeth this inclination to pietie but the iudgement of God which wee discerne through death as through a glasse that it is the worme of Conscience which doth awaken vs by the contemplation of Death and stirres vp sinners to iustice sanctitie It is the ignorant confusion of the second death with the first which doth so strongly amaze men Finally it is a seruile feare and not commendable yea condemned of the Pagans themselues to forbeare to doe euill for feare of punishment Let vs conclude then That this first death which is naturall and common to all men seeing that her poyson hath beene quenched in the bloud of Christ as Tertullian speaks seeing that the Crosse of Iesus Christ hath pulled away her sting triumphed ouer her and giuen a counter-poyson for the poyson of sinne it is not euill but the greatest good that can arriue to mortall men and to feare to obtayne so great a good is a vice and no vertue before all vpright Iudges The Third Argument drawne from the Impossibility That onely is to bee feared that lyes in the power of man Death lyes not in the power of man Therefore not to be feared VIce onely should hee feared to be auoyded but nothing that is without the power of man is vice as Epictetus saith in his Enchiridion Moreouer that feare is good that can preuent an imminent danger but to that which can neither bee remedied nor foreseene feare serues but to aduance it Man may preuent and auoyd that which hee holds in his owne power and will as the approbation of vice the hatred of goodnesse and of true honour rashnes passions vnlawfull loue vnrestrained heauinesse excessiue ioy vaine hope damned despaire c. But all that which blinde man by his opinion doth affect or feare so much as wealth pouertie the honour or dishonour of the world life and death are not tyed to his will nor subiect to his scepter And therefore the Philosopher will rightly say that neither pouertie nor sicknesse let vs also adde death nor any thing that flowes not from our owne mallice are to bee feared let vs follow the Doctors of wisedome saith Heluidius in Tacitus which hold honest things onely to bee good and dishonest bad power nobilitie and whatsoeuer is without the spirit of man reputation riches friends health life and all things that depend of the free will of man flow necessarily perpetually from the decree of the Eternall and to seeke to hinder their course were to striue to stay the motion of the heauen and starres This prouidence of God dispersed throughout all the members of this Vniuerse hath infused into euery mooueable thing a secret immooueable vertue as Boetius saith by the which shee doth powerfully accomplish all things decreed in its time and place and order To seeke to breake the least linke of these causes chayned together were as much as to runne headlong against a rocke to ouerturne it I will that thou knowest the howre place of thy deceasse that to auoyd it thou flyest to a place opposite vnto it that thou watchest the houre yet shalt thou find thy selfe arriued and guided to the place at the houre appointed there to receiue thy death and that which is admirable thou thy selfe insensibly wouldest haue it so and diddest make choice of it To this force let Iulius Caesar oppose all his Imperiall power let him scoffe at Spurinus his prediction of the 15. of March the day being come hee must vnderstand from his Sooth-sayer who was no lyer that the day was not past he must come to the Capitoll and there receiue 23. wounds and fall downe dead at the foote of Pompeys statue Let Domitian storme for the approching of fiue of the clocke foretold yet must he die at the houre and for the more easier expedition one comes and tells him that it had strooke sixe he beleeues it with great ioy Parthenius his groome tells that there is a pacquet of great importance brought vnto him he enters willingly into the Chamber but it was to bee slaine at that very instant which hee feared most But if these histories seeme ouer worne with age who remembers not that memorable act at the last Assembly of the Estates at Blois of that Duke who receiued aduertisement from all parts both within and without the Realme that the Estates would soone end with the ending of his life euen vpon the Eue one of his confident friends discouered the businesse vnto him going to dinner he found a note written in his napkin with these words They will kill you To which he answered They dare not but they failed not Oh God how difficult is it to finde out thy wayes Let vs then cōclude that the houre of death appoynted by the immoueable order of God is ineuitable so that as one saith We shal sooner moue God then death So the Pagans who erected Altars to all their counterfeit Deities did neuer set vs any to death This firme decree of all things gane occasion to the Pagans to figure the three Destinies whose resolution great Iupiter could not alter no not to draw his Minion Sarpedon out of their bonds Let vs speake more properly God can
so swiftly as no man can feele it For so was the will of the Eternall to the end that mortall man should bee alwayes ready to die and not delay when hee feeles it for it is insensible The second Obiection It is a vaine and pernicious thing to giue eare to Astrologers in their predictions The former discourse seemes to perswade a man vnto it It is therefore vaine and pernicious EXperience hath and doth dayly verifie that they which haue easily giuen credit to the predictions of future things are for the most part in the end deceiued Niceas King of Syracusa found it true to his cost for confidently beleeuing his diuines that his death was neere he wasted his treasure in all kinds of excesse and liued in want all the remainder of his life which did far exceed the terme of his prediction Aboue all the lamentable taking of Constantinople by the Turkes is memorable The Grecians bewitched with a certaine old prediction that the day would come when a mighty enemie shold seaze vpon most of the forts of Constantinople but being come to the great place called the brazen Bull he should be represt and driuen out by the Inhabitants who to resist him had seazed vpon this place The Constantinopolitanes giuing credit he eunto hauing abandoned their strongest defences retire into this place wher they attend the Turke but they falnt are put to flight slaine and sackt and so to the great preiudice of Greece the Imposture of their Prophecie was manifest Answer I grant the Maior of the proposition and doe confirme it by the Law of God Let no diuiner be among you vsing diuinations nor regarders of times nor any that vse predictions nor Sorcerer c. Whosoeuer vseth any such thing is abominable to the Lord. And what should not Christian Magistrats doe herein seeing they are forbidden by infidels Mecaenas speaking to Augustus the Emperor of the gouernment of the Common weale sayth That there ought not to be any Soothsaier in the Common weale for all such kinde of men in speaking sometimes truth most commonly lie and are the cause of Innouations and troubles The Turkes Empire obserue the like prohibition according to the Al◅aron which sayth that all kinde of diuining is vaine and that God alone knowes all secrets But according to this deposition I denie the Minor and add that in all my precedent discours there is not a word which tends any way to the maintayning of Astrologers to heare and beleeue them I did produce some Histories to proue that our dayes are so determined by God as they cannot exceed their bounds prescribed and this doctrine is true holy diuine Behold the Oracles Man borne of a woman is of a short life fall of cares c. His daies are determined thou hast the number of his moneths with thee thou hast prescribed his limits which he shal not passe And Dauid sayth vnto God My times are in thy hand and therefore Christ is dead and risen that he might cōmand both ouer the dead liuing sayth S. Paul Rom 14. 9. The Iewes would haue put Christ to death before his time but they could not they sought sayth the Gospell to lay hold of him but no man did it for that his houre was not yet come The time of Iesabels death and the ende of her wickednes was accompli shed the time of her death the place had bin foretold by the Prophet Elias Iehu was chosē to execute this decree he did it without any regard till after the euent He runnes furiously into the towne of Iesrehel where Iesabel was after whom he sought Iesabel thought to stay him with her painted face and with the charme of her affected looks which she cast from her chāber window but Iehu commanded they should cast her downe which was done and her bloud rebounded against the wall against her houses the Scripture addes being entred he did eate and drinke after sayd Go now and burie this cursed woman for she is the daughter of a king but they found nothing remayning but the skull the feete palmes of the hands whereof they made report to Iehu who said It is the word of the Lord which he had deliuered by his seruant Elias say ing that in the field of Iesreel the dogs shold eate the flesh of Iesabel And as God for the edification of his Church wold rayse vp Prophets to de clare his promses or threats so w◅uld he somtimes thurst on certen men to denounce his Iudgements to the world to make them amazed in their euents to these fortellers whensoēuer we finde in them the Propheticall zeale of the Lord we ought to giue credit as soone as they haue pronounced the word But to these latter spirits most commonly Lyars we must neuer giue any credit vntill after the euent of that which they haue foretold For the thing being past it is no more doubtfull we may then beleeue it but not before and this was the meaning of the former discourse Otherwise it is not lawful to inquire of doubtfull euents of any Magitian Astrologer Mathematician yet a wise and iudicious man may without scruple of cōscience by certen coniectures gathered from the reading of good books from the vse of things the obseruatiō of the like he may I say conceiue presume or suspect which way the destinie tends and what his ende is but fearefully without confidence not to make a profession of it God only can search the bottome of his decrees none other without his particular and expresse assistance no not the Angels neither good nor bad the determinatiō of our dayes is one of his decrees it can neither be knowne nor stayed by vs. Behold letters from heauen to the end we may doubt no more Man saith Solomon knowes his time no more then fishes which are taken in the net and birds in the snare so men are snared in the bad time when it falls suddenly vpon them In vaine therefore doe we feare that which cannot be corrected by vs. The third Obiection If the cause of death be euitatabl◅ the effect also shal be But the cause of death is euitable Ergo. IT is writtē that a wiseman shal rule the stars for that finding himselfe inclyned to some mortall disease by some malignant influence of the stars he will change the ayre correct that bad complexion that it impaire not We are also commanded to honor the Physition for necessities sake by reason of the Phisicke which he ministers for the preseruation of life Moreouer Gods prouidence hath not imposed any necessity in humaine actions whereof he is Lord and especially of those which depend of his free will as who can hinder a man from killing himselfe if he please as many haue done We reade also in the booke of truth that the periode of the ruine of Niniuie assigned to 40. daies was altered by their repentance also the execution of the
hydeous feare The king saw him among the rest and admired him and obseruing his pale colour he inquired of him the cause of his palenes and was informed of his disease the king thinking that by his cure his force and valour would increase caused his Physitions to recouer him but the effect prooued contrarie for the souldiar being cured had no other care but to liue and this care made him to feare euery thing yea the shadow of a leafe his furious humor was gone down to his feet to fly away Where fore we must therfore thinke of death know it and contemne it To this end the ancients did set dead bodies at the doores of their houses to be seene of passengers for the same reason the Egyptians did cause an image of death to be carried about in their bankets and set vpon the table not to strike terror into them but rather a disdaine by the frequent beholding of what it is And so it was at Constantinople in the election creation of a new Emperor they were wont to breathe into his heart vertue valour when as being set in his highest Throne of glorie a mason came neare to him and made a shew of an heape of stones of diuers formes to the ende hee might choose which did best please him to build his tombe It is the same reason why at the Coronation of the Popes when as he that is new called passeth before S. Gregories Chappell the master of the Ceremonies holding an handfull of flaxe at the ende of a drie reed setts fire to it and cries with a loud voyce Pater sancte sic transit gloria mimdi O I would to God that both they and wee did thinke seriously of this that remembring how lightly this life passeth away wee might make haste for feare to be sodainly surprized euery man to doe his dutie according to his vocation euen as they doe which liue at Court being set at the table make what haste they can in feeding least the meat be taken away before they haue dyned VVhy stay wee then Let vs make hast to attaine to that royall dignitie which hee deserues best that is most at libertie and hee is most that least feares death Behold what a tragical Poet sayth Hee is a King that conquers feare And th'ills that dèsperate bosomes beare That in his Towre set safe and free Doth all things vnderneath himsee Encounters willingly his Fate Nor grudges at his mortall state From those golden verses the golden memory of Heluidius an ancient Romain shal for euer shine who seeing the ancient liberty captiuated by Vespasian and being commanded by him that hee should not come into the Senate hee answered That whilest he was a Senator hee would come vnto the Senat Vespasian replyed Bee in the Senate and hold thy peace Heluid Let no man then aske my opinion Vâ—…sp But I must in honour demand it Heluid Then must I in iustice speake what my conscience commands me Vesp. If thou speakest it I will put thee to death Heluid You may do what you please and I what I ought Let this example bee alwayes before our eyes and especially to vs Christians that of the twelue Apostles who neuer yeelded to the cruell assaults of death but alwayes reioyced with an inuincible courage as the text saith to be held worthy to suffer reproach for the Name of Christ. Wherefore aboue all the world they haue purchased a most holy fame yea their twelue names are written in the twelue foundations of the celestiall and eternall City O what a worthy reward for so great valour in the contempt of death The eight Argument taken from the worke of God The reward wherewith the Eternall doth sometimes recompence them he fauors cannot be euill Death is that wherewith hee doth sometimes reward them he fauors Therefore Death cannot bee euill IF that be true which Silenus in Tully and others with reason report that the first degree of happinesse is not to be borne and not to fall into the dangers of the present life That the second is to die in being borne without all doubt the third must bee not to continue long in the miseries of the world but hauing beheld the workes of God the wandring couse of the stars the swift motion of the heauens the inuariable changing of day and night presently to die Say not that thou art taken in thy youthfull age that is a priuiledge which God giues thee to free thee from a thousand Combats of vice which thou shouldest endure or it may be thou shouldest be conquered as Salomon was by voluptuousnsse or as Nero by cruel ty Looke vpon the insolencie and corruption of that time it will appeare that thou hast more cause to feare then to hope in liuing longer sayed Seneca to Marullus epist. â—…00 If this were in those times what shall it be in this age which is as many times impayred as there haue since slowed yeares and daies And admit thou wert assured to continue alwayes vertuous and victorious yet shouldest thoube continually couered with dust altered with thirst full of bitternesse and old with anguish Enoch pleased God and was beloued of him he was rapt vp into heauen that the malice of the world should not change his vnderstanding sayeth the text c. 44. Cleobis and Biton religious and dutifull children for that they tooke the yoake and drew the Charriot of their deceased mother vp the hil for want of Mules and the houre of the interment pressing on they receiued the night following in recompence of their singular piety a happy death Marcellus Nephew to Augustus Caesar adopted by him Marcellus vpon whom the hope of all the Romaine Empire did depend dyed in the 18. yeare of his age a thousand others yea innumeraable haue bene cut off in their vigorous youth the most excellent as the ripest cheries are the first taken it happens to these timely wits as to the ripest fruit they fall first and Homer writes that the Heroes and Demigods neuer extended their dayes euen vnto the threshold of old age Seneca reports that his predecessors had secne an infant of great stature at Rome but they saw him die presently according to the opinion of euery man of iudgement whereupon hee addes that maturity is a signe of imminent ruine that whereas the increasings are consumed they desire the end Moreouer hee abuseth himselfe much which thinkes he hath liued long because hee hath past many yeares if he shew no other signes but his pale face and his gray head Behold what the wise man saith Man is not gray for that hee hath liued many yeares but for that hee hath liued wisely long age must bee measured by the honest conditions and manners not by the number of dayes It depends of another saith Seneca how long wee shall liue but of our selues how good we are the importance is to liue well and not long yet many times liuing well doth not consist
this base estate I know not why I liue hauing no more to doe here to fore I had a desire to liue to see thee liue to Christ I see it why then stay I longer here and soone after yeelded vp her soule to the Spirit of all power Euen so O mortall men liue as long as you list exceede the many yeeres of Nestor or the 969. of Methusalem yet shall you not see any other thing in this world but those foure great Princesses the foure seasons of the yeere holding hands together and dancing this round continually sometimes shewing their gracious aspects sometimes their backs deformed as Philo the Iew speaks It is like Sysiphus stone which being thrust vp by force to the top of the Mountayne returnes presently backe againe to the foote of it and like the Sunne which hath no sooner toucht one of the Tropikes but hee suddenly turnes to the other To conclude it is Danaes tonne pierced full of holes they may well poure in water but they shall neuer fill it These are fictions but they haue their mysticall hidden sences The holy Scripture hath Parables and Philosophie figures let no man therefore reiect them for so did the ancient Philosophers shadow their Philosophie And as mercenarie labourers toyling and sweating in the longest day of Sommer reioyce when they see the Sunne decline and neere his setting so wee after such painefull trauaile whereunto this life doth force vs let vs reioyce when wee draw neere vnto our declining and let vs not refuse being weary and tyred to rest our selues in the sweet armes of death to the which without doubt there is no bed in the world how pleasing soeuer to be compared There is nothing here but ignorance that keepes vs backe If the Israelites had truely vnder stood the beauty and bounty of the land of Canaan if they had beene assured of the enioying thereof they had not so often murmured against Moses being ready to stone him they had not wisht for the oynions and leekes of Egypt they would haue taken courage in the midst of the desart Let vs then conclude that there is nothing but the blindnesse of man which hinders him from seeing the ioyes of heauen whereunto death is the waye Wherefore let vs open the eyes of our vnderstanding not grieue for the grosse foode of this world for in heauen there is prepared for vs the meate of Angels Obiection Any exchange from a place that is pleasing and certaine for one that is vncertaine must needs cause trouble vexation Death is the exchange of the world which is pleasing and certaine for a place wholly vncertaine MOst part of the world when the Lampe of this life is almost wasted are so perplexed as they do lose themselues In the chiefe Citie of Aragon vpon a Knights tombe this Epitaph is written in Latine I know not whither I goe I die against my will Farewell suruiuers The Emperour Titus dying said Alas must I die that haue neuer deserued it There is to be read at Rome vpō the stone of a Sepulcher of Sextus Perpenna to the Infernall gods I haue liued as I list I know not why I die Whereunto may be added the verses which the Emperour Adrian a little before his death made vnto his soule My pretty soule my daintiest My bodies sociable Guest Whither is my sweetest going Naked trembling little knowing Of that delight depriuingme That while I liu'd I had from Thee Many at this day in the light of the Gospell shew by their actions that they are no better resolued then these were although that shame will not suffer them to confesse it when as death approcheth Answer Wee deny the Minor of the Argument for it is not true that death is of it selfe to bee beloued if it appeares so it is but in comparison of some extreame misery which we apprehend in leauing it for the liuing are as we haue said like vnto them which are carried away violently with a stream who to saue themselues lay hold of that which comes first to hand yea if it were a barre of burning Iron If you will then aske them how pleasing that estate is you may easily ghesse what they will say That if they were as certaine as it is most certaine that there were no harme in death as shall appeare they would not breake out into such complaints It is also false that this place is certaine Gorgias the Rhetorician will not depose it for being demanded if hee died willingly Yea said hee for I am not grieued to leaue a lodging which is rotten and open of all sides And Epicurus had often in his mouth that against any thing in the world wee might finde some place of safety but we all liued in a City which was not fortified against death and in truth this body is but a little plot of earth commanded of euery side flanked of none hauing furious enemies without mutinous within Ingeners haue made many impregnable forts but neuer able to resist death Physitions haue drawne out the quintessence of their spirits if they haue any time found a delay yet must they in the end yeeld and pay the interest Fabulous Aeson returned to youth by the Sorceresse Medea and true Lazarus raised againe by the Sauiour of the world haue not yet for all that escaped death But you will reply It is that which wee would say that without death life shold be certaine I answere that you know not what you say for life as it is made here and whereof our question is cannot bee without death to desire to be a man and not be willing to die is not to desire to liue for it is one of the conditions of life as shall appeare in the following Argument Moreouer I adde that what incertainty of the future Estate soeuer you pretend doubtlesse it cannot bee so miserable except the reprobate as that of this life Thirdly admit that life were certaine yet the pleasures would not be so but rather the displeasures certaine That wise King of Macedon saw it feared it and protested against it For newes comming vnto him of three great prosperities that hee had won the price at the Olympike games that hee had defeated the Dardanians by his Lieutenant and that his wife had brought him a goodly sonne hee cried out with his hands lift vp to heauen O Fortune let the aduersity which thou preparest for me in exchange of thy fauours be moderate But I will sommon you Merchants which make a profession of trafficke There is a bargaine offered vnto you in the which you finde of the one side gaine to bee made and of the other losse I demand if like a good husband you will not weigh the losse with the gaine to the end that finding the losse the greater you may breake off the bargaine And why should not man obserue the like in life which is much more important Why should bee not ballance the pleasures
with the displeasures and finding these greater and more grieuous why should hee feare to lose the pleasures to auoyd the displeasures A Poet speaking of a solitary life sayd That if there be not so great ioy without doubt there is not so great paine If death haue not the ioyes of this world it hath not the torments of life which are farre greater Obserue it for a certaine Maxime that there are three things here below which march equally with an inconstant pace the estate of the aire which they call time life and the opinion of man And that which is worse there are more cloudy dayes then cleere more miserable dayes for man then happy and more changes to bad then good But that which should fully assure vs going out of this life is Iesus Christ who protests That no man shall pull his sheepe out of his hands Ioh. 10. We know whose wee are by the faith that is in vs by the which we are fully perswaded that God will keepe our pledge vntill that day 2. Tim. 1. Moreouer we are assured of the end by the beginning for to him that hath shal be giuen more Luc. 19. Finally we doubt no more For the holy Spirit doth witnesse with our Spirit that we are the children of God Rom. 8. 16. This is certaine but admit that it were not so there is no pleasure in the world be it neuer so short but it leaues behind a venimous sting of serious repentance I see thy large possessions thy stately houses the amiable aspect of thy children thy treasure the greatnesse of thine honors finally all the pompe in the world raise thee vp with their goodly shewes but beleeue me these things are not so happy as thou doest hold them for proofe looke vpon them that haue them in a higher degree then thy selfe if notwithstanding they bee not miserable they be transitory things if thou leauest not them first they will leaue thee if thou doest affect them more then as an exercise for thy spirit thou hast neither witt nor iudgement This vnderstanding which makes the man should not crouch vnder these carnall things it must rayse vp himselfe to those which are eternall to the beauties bounties exquisite workmanship of this vniuers All the pinching care which thou takest for the world is but a toyle to the bodie vexation of minde and a losse of time do what thou wilt enioy all the possessions of the earth but know this for certaine that one onely houre can take them from thee Doest thou not see that all runnes to change in this world like vnto the Moone which immediatly doth gouerne it Art thou mounted to the highest degree thou must descend againe he that loues thee wil hate thee he whom thou hast saued it may be will kill thee as it happened to Iulius Caesaer thou doest laugh to day it may be to thou shalt weep to morrow Doest thou triumph to day an other day thou shalt be led Captiue finally art thou aliue to day another day will carrie thee to the graue and not knowing what day if thou art wise thou wilt suspect euery day like vnto that good old man Messodan who being inuited by one of his friends to a feast the next day sayed vnto him Doest thou put me off vntill tomorrow who after so many yeares did neuer hold any one day assuredly mine but I haue held euery day as if it had beene my last a resolution which differs much from these young old men who hauing one footein the graue yet thinke they may liue one yeare more at the least and the yeare being past yet another and so alwaies what is this but against the order of nature to thinke to liue euer The 12. Argument from the condition of life No man should hate any essentiall condition of that which he pursues Death is an essentiall condition of life Therefore no man should hate Death that seekes life IT wee consider of death not in her introduction but as she hath beene blest by God since by his grace it is no fearefull paine to life as we conceiue but an inseparable qualitie Life is a burning Lampe the body is the cotten the radicall humour the oyle the naturall heate the fire this fire consumes the oyle and cotten by little and little and in few houres had deuoured it all if nutriment supplied and changed by a secret vertue did not kepe it repayred yet can it not preserue life from naturall ruine but for a time for that the vertue ingrafted into all the members of the body wearing by degrees in the transubstantiation of meates and application thereof to the fading substance comes in the ende to waste the humor dryes vp the fire is quenched death followes and seeing that we see death inclosed in the bodie of life he should be verie indiscreet that would seeke life and hate death and hee wise and vertuous that will no more regard death then life seeing it concernes his dutie Heare what Pompey the Great returning out of Sicily with Corne to famished Rome in a great storme said vnto the Master of the ship being halfe dead Gowe goe we the question is not to liue but to goe This great personage did consider that it was as naturall for man to dye as to liue and in truth all that haue liued are dead what force soeuer they pretended to oppose the most puissant beasts in the world the Elephants goe to dust yea Nature willing to shew how little that is which here seemes great and how vpon the least occasion all force decayes shee suffereth the Elephant at the sight of the least and basest creatures of a Mouse or an Ant to bee so seazed with feare as he trembles strangely The Tyrants were smothered with lightning in the Phlegrean fields The Tyrant Maximine with his 8 foot in length with his great thumb carrying his wiues bracelet for a ring who drew carts laden brake an horse teeth with his fist and did split trees with his hands Although he thought himselfe immortall by reason of his force yet he lyes slaine by his subiects In the same estate is Marius whose fillips were like blowes with a hammer Among the Moderns George Castriot Prince of Albania valiant and fortunate in his exployts who with his owne hands had slain 2000 Turks who neuer gaue but one blow to cleaue a man in two and to ouerthrow the strongest yet in the end death subdued him and layd him in his graue Let the Idolatrous Turkes search his Tombe for his bones and from those reliques draw an inuincible force to themselues yet hee is dead doth not this suffice Behold Cities Common weales and kingdomes they haue their youth and vigor so in like manner their age and death where is Thebeâ—… that great City whereof the name is scarce remaining where are those 〈◊〉 Cities of Candie where is Sparta and Athens wherof there remains nothing but the base ruines And thou the
〈◊〉 to say death iâ—… we take it as the argument giues it I answere That if there bee a great difference not to haue beene 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be he haâ—… the 〈◊〉 â—…nefit that is no more for hee hath this aboueâ—… the other that he hath enioyed life and the fruits thereof which the other haâ—… vnlesâ—… you will deny that hâ—… which hath bin admitted into the Kings Chamber 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 assâ—… 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—…th not any 〈◊〉 abâ—…ue â—…im that hath not beene admitted at all and that hee which hath beene a Maior or a Consul in a free Citie is not more honored then hee which hath neuer beene But the Obiector supposeth one thing which is not That this life is adorned which most excellent gifts being full of most sharpe agonies as is iustified in the 18. Argument and theâ—…fore I deny the consequence of his Minor and to prooue the falsehood I produce that which Salomon saith Eccles. 4. that hee more esteemes the dead then those which bee liuing yea hee esteemes him that hath not beene more happy then the one or the other Secondly the losse of fight of sences of the habit of sâ—…iences is grieuous to a liuing man who hath enioyed them for a time for that he is capable of sorrow but to make it a conclusion to a dead man who should be more grieued to haue lost all this and life it selfe there is no consequence for that death is incapable of sorrow and mourning wherein the Prouerbe of Hesiodus may be verrified The moitie is more then the whole the losse of sences and reason are more grieuous and more to bee lamented then the priuation of life Thirdly I deny that man dying loseth any thing hee was but Vsufructuarie of life God the proprietarie demands it and he restores it what losse Thou art not angry if any curious sercher of the most exquisite rarities of the world if hauing suffered thee to see his Cabinet he afterwards drawes the curtaine thou wilt take it patiently how great soeuer thou art If the Seigneurie of Venice hath done theâ—… the honour to see their stately treasure haue dazled thine eyes with the glistering of those 14. Pearles of their Ducall Bonet of the 12. Crownes of gold and of other most rich ornaments wouldest thou not take it patiently to giue place after some houres Know then that it is reasonable that the Lord of Lords hauing brought thee into his house there to behold the golden studdes which adorne the firmament to obserue the diuers motions of the 7. Planets and among the rest of the Sunne the eye of the world to touch and comprehend the 4. Elements and other infinite goodly creatures if it be his pleasure and hee make signe vnto thee to giue place to others that suruiue it is reason thou shouldest dislodge and thanke the Lord for his fauour Finally I maintayne that the depth and horrour is as great to reason to liue perpetually here without end the same life which wee now breathe for our discourse is of this life as great I say and greater then to bee dead depth for who can perfectly comprehend a life without end horrour for who would alwayes liue with the feare of a hundred millions of horrible miseries which may happen in a hundred millions of yeeres not making mention of the vices and sinnes whervnto man is subiect which a good man should feare more then death As for the authoritie of S. Paul it is not nature only but the heauenly grace which makes him to speake so and they that shall be partakers of this grace in the same degree may braue death with S. Paule and say vnto him O death where is thy victory O graue where is thy sting And if S. Paule in this place did contemplate in spirit the excellent ornaments which hee had seene in the third heauen in his extacie and on the other side toucht to the quicke with the venemous sting of sinne he makes no mention but of the simple deliuerance as if it had beene sufficient for him O wretched man that I am sayth he who shall deliuer me from the body of this death Hee makes mention of deliuerance for that he felâ—… Coâ—…bate in himselfe and found himselfe prisoner to the Law of sinne as the verse going before doth declare But you will reply There is nothing to be compared to life it is a naturall desire and common to all men Ansâ—… Man desireth not only to be and to liue but to beeâ—…t ease else what is hee that like to Ixion in the Poet would alwayes liue to be fastened to a wheâ—…le Who would alwayes liue the damnable life of Satan and his angells in the middest of an vnquenchable fire but mad men and fooles And in truth the desire wee haue to roule on alwayes from day to day is that by an abusiue hope we promise vnto our selues some future pleasure and content The Apostles desire better ordered and grounded was to put off this mortall body and to put on one that was bâ—…essed and immortall not vpon earth where it is not to be found but in heauen and by a diuine and celestiall power But that doth contradict this assertion That man desires as much or more to end the miseries of this life as to continue this miserable life and therefore certaine wise men of the world did settle their resolution vnto death vpon this Dilemma saying Either we shal be happy in death if the soule escapes or else we shal be without paine or misery if all remaine No small aduantage doubtlesse seeing the greatest point of happinesse in this life is to beeleast vnhappy The 11. Argument taken from two resemblances of Death Sâ—…ounding is a kinde of Death and the shadow of the body is an Image of it But in swounding there is no paine nor in the shadow any amazement BY Syncope I vnderstand the strongest and most extended swounding not that which is gentle which happeneth sometimes at the opening of a veine in the which the patient neither loseth feeling nor speech but that which carries away all the forces of a man his natural I say and principally his vitall Sleepe is nothing to represent death in regard of this symptome for it is death it selfe only there is in this sometimes a returning to life and there none I haue seene it and obserued it in my father being an old man I haue conferred it with some that were apparantly dead yet could I not finde any difference he lay without any shewe of soule in any of his â—…ects notwithstanding that he was continually rolled vp and downe in a chamber his pulse was not to bee felt he was in a cold swet ouer all the extreamities of his body were exceeding cold And these are the very signes of a right Syncope by the which the truth of our Maior is iustified that to fall into the Syncope is to fall into death for as death is a cessation
from all action and motion so the Syncope interrupts all motion and all the functions both of sense and life And that in this accident there is not any paine experience doth witnesse and the report of such as reuiue is to bee credited and serue for as good a testimony to the curious and incredulous as if they were â—…isen from the dead They depose and will depose that in the incursion of this death there is nothing but quiet rest so sound a sleepe as the naturall is nothing in comparison of this And in truth when my father was restored to his health and as it were returned to life againe hee was much amazed to see the company which came to succour him and his first words were What is the matter Be ing demanded if hee had felt no paine he answered No did not remember that hee had any accident so as all the time betwixt the first accesse of his disease and his separation was without his feeling or memory Thus if the body becomes so insensible that the soule although it be present suspends her action and agitation what shall it then be in death when being separated shee shall haue no communion with it how much more shall it bee without paine As for the bodies shaddow there are none but litle children that are afraid being not able for the weakenesse of their iudgement to know what it is But they that haue any vnderstanding and take a little leasure to obserue this obscure Image moouing at the shaking of their bodies finde that it is only a priuation of the light in the ayre opposed to their bodyes for the Sun the candle or any other thing that shines not able by his beams to pierce through a solid body is forced to fall vpon the Superficies so as it cannot lighten the ayre which is beyond the said body Wherevpon it remains obscure and without light and is fashioned according to the proportion of the body Man therefore being assured that death is nothing to the body but the priuation of life by reason of the leâ—… which happens in the light of life which is the soule the which notwithstanding no lesse then the Sun or a Candle doth retaine her life and remaine immortall Man I say being assured of this truth hee should not feare death no more then the shadow of the body for neither the shadow nor death haue any setling of any thing but onely a simple priuation of another The seuenteenth Argument taken from diuersity which is pleasant to man That wherein the nature of man is pleased should not displease the minde The nature of man is pleased in diuersitie c. WE proue the maior of our argument by the suffrages of many wise men No man can erre sayth Cicero that follows nature for his guide And againe To follow the conduct of good nature is to follow and obey God Chrysippus doth willingly heare nature according to the which wee must liue conformably sayth Laertius it is common nature and properly humaine whervnto Seneca wil giue his conseÌ„â—… Sen. de vit beat c. 8. Naturae rerum asseÌ„tior saith he Moreouer it is our intent to liue ac cording to nature for sayth he to liue according to it to be happy is the samething This common nature is interpreted by the Stoicks to be God as Clemens AlexaÌ„drinus doth witnes The Stoicks sayth he haue setled the end of man to liue according to nature changing the name of God into the beautie of nature Let the world sayth Philon consent and concurre with the Law and the Law with the world Let euery good man as soone as he is made a Cittizen of the world direct his actions according to the arbitrement and will of Nature by the which all this vniuers is gouerned We are afflicted saith Seneca with diseases but curable for Nature which hath made vs perfect if wee demande correction helps vs Wherefore S. Ierome saith that in our spirits there is a certen naturall sanctitie if we may so speake the which being president in the fortresse of the spirit exerciseth the iudgement of good and euill which is saith he in the same place that Law which by the testimonie of the Apostle is infused into al men and as it were written in the tables of the heart Wherefore the spirit of man should neuer part from the motions of this nature according to which all this world moues anâ—… 〈◊〉 entertayned But to come to the minor of our 〈◊〉 that nature is pleased in diuers chaÌ„ges we see that this world doth neuer subâ—…ist any moment of time in one estate not heauen nor the seasons much lesse the earth our common mother For Nature hauing with a varied loue Wounded the Heart Not able to remoue The formes of all the fauorâ—… to one part And at one time she takes into the heart Forme after forme so that one face embraces Forme by that Tract aâ—…ther forme defaces But aboue all there is no poulpe nor Proteus so changeable as maâ—… for what pleaseth him in the euening is in the morning distastful euery day he layes new foundations for his life sayth Senâ—… he reuiues new hopes at the end yea before the last periode of the thing hoped for he often changes aduice and turnes to the contrary of that which he pursued and therefore life is to many a very sport sayth hee No man knowes what he would haue and yet he is alwaies in quest still desirous to change place as if he might there plant his change sayth Lucretius And seeing that man delights so much in change seeing that his particular complexion leades him and forceth him vnto it seeing that the vniuer sall nature guides him to it as by the hand seeing that in this life a death rather then life he could not find his contentment but misery vpon misery why doth he not run ioyfully to the end of this life and seeke to finde a better Obiection Man cannot lose that which is pleasant vnto him without displeasure But life is pleasant to man c. IN this Theater of the world there is nothing so admirable as man sayth Abdala Sarasin he may if hee will take the part of God and bee happy and ioyfull in this world for by his free wil he may become wise and be in a good happy and pleasing estate as certaine Philosophers do shew I will not sayth Seneca to his Lucilius that thou euer want content I will that it grow in thy house which it shall doe if it dwell within thee other petty ioyes fill not the spirit but make smooth the brows they are light vnlesse thou wilt hold him ioyfull that laughes the spirit should be cheerefull assured and eleuated aboue all and presently after he sayth the ioy whereof I speake is sollid and the greater for that it is deepe in the heart And in another place the spirit of a wise
the refutation in the meane time for witnes of my saying I propound that great Diuine S. Augustin writing that which followeth The present life is doubtfull blind miserable beaten with the flowing and ebbing of humors weakened with paines dried vp with heate swelled with meate vndermined with famine coÌ„founded with sports consumed with sorrowes distempered with cares dâ—…lled with pride pufâ—… vp with riches deiected with pouertie shaken in youth made crooked in age broken by diseases and tuined by 〈◊〉 c. Many great men who haâ—… not wanted any thing for the enioying of all pleasures yet would they in their life time haue writteÌ„ vpon the Marble which should couer them dead for a conclusion of the Epitaph these last words The life and biâ—…h of mortall men is nothing but toyle and death as one waue driues on another so one miserie thrusts on another the one is no sooner flying but the other followes him And as in the eye one teare springs of another so one sorrow riseth out of another as Buchanan hath learnedly written in his Tragedie of Iepthe The 3. Obiection It is not lawful of himselfe and without other some Command to remaine in a place that is bad and troublesome Life is a place bad and troublesome It is not therefore lawfull of himselfe without other command to remayne in life THis long Iliade of calamities of this present life seems to perswade man to the doctrine of the Stoicks which is to depart when it is too troublesome so speaks Seneca A wise man liues as long as he ought not solong as hee could he will see how with whom how he should liue and what he should doe if many things fal out troublesome crosse his tranquillitie he frees himselfe and he doth it not only in the vrgent necessitie but as soone as fortune seemes suspect vnto him he coÌ„siders that it imports not whether he giue himselfe his ende or that he receiue it Moreouer that it is wretched to liue in necessitie but there is no necessity to liue in necessitie Diogenès meeting one day with Speusippus being sickly causing himselfe to be carried by reason of the Gout he called vnto him in these tearmes God giue thee a good day Diogenes to whom he answered But God giue you no good day that being in this estate hast the patience to liue With the sharpnes of these Cynicall wordes Speusippus was so moued as contrarie to the precepts of his sect he ended his owne life But let vs produce if you please some reasons by the which these men haue debated there follie The 1. Life and death say they are indifferent things and therefore man acoording to his commoditie may vse them indifferently Wherefore saith 〈◊〉 As one that is inuited hauing feasted taken his refection retyres himselfe so being glutted with life why dost thou not depart O foole why doest thou not imbrace a pleà fing rest what interest hast thou that death should come vnto thee or thou goe vnto it Perswade thy selfe that this speech is false and proceeds from an indiscreet man It is a goodly thing to dye his death for it is alwayes thy death and especially that which thou hast procured to thy self The 2. Death is the goodliest port to libertie which is the fruite of wisedome I will not serue said that LaeedemoniaÌ„ child cast him down a precipice who learned to dye in contempt of seruitude he is free from all power what doth a prison a dungeon or fetters touch him he hath an open port The 3. Wherefore hath nature giueÌ„ so streight an entrance vnto life and hath preseÌ„ted vnto man so many large issues vnto death if it shal not bee lawfull for him to depart when he pleaseth On which side soeuer said Seneca thou shalt cast thy miseries thou shalt finde the end of thy miseries doest thou see this precipice by which they descend to liberty doest thou see this sea this riuer this pit there is liberty in the bottome doest thou see this little tree crooked cursed Liberty hangs at it Doest thou see thy throat thy heart These be the fruits of seruitude Plinie saith that the earth our common pareÌ„t hath for pitties sake ordained poysons to this end that beeing able to swallow them easily we may with equall facility dislodge out of this world So in old time Kings and great men did keepe certaine poyson ready for any suddaine vse in the doubtfull euents of fortune as Titus Liuius reports and therefore many haue poysoned themselues being valiant and esteemed great personages Zeno being 98. yeeres old yet strong and lusty returning from the Schoole hee stumbled and fell and being down hee strooke the ground with his hand saying â—…re I am what wilt thou And being come to his house hee layd downe his life of himselfe Cleanthes hauing an Vlcer in his mouth and hauing abstained two dayes from meat by the aduice of the Phisitions was cured Beeing then perswaded by them to eate againe Oh no said he hauing past the greatest part of the way I will not I will not returne againe and so he died of abstinence We could produce many others much coÌ„mended as Lucrece Cato and others if they were not sufficiently knowne Answer I deny that the swarme of miseries of this present life is a sufficient cause to depart when wee please the great God which hath placed vs here must first come and take vs away Pythagoras in Tully forbids to leaue the Corpes de guarde without commandement of the Captaine as a prisoner breaking prison agrauates his crime so the spirit violating his body makes himself guilty of a double torment And he that hath so strictly forbiddeÌ„ to kil meant it as well of himselfe as of others And therefore Virgil platonizing sings vnto vs that they which haue inhumanly slaine themselues hold the first place in hell As for the vertue which they pretend in it the most quick sighted Philosopher hath seene nothing but feare and foolishnesse thus he speaks It is the part of a coward and not of a valiant man to dye by reason of pouerty of loue or for any other thing that is troublesome it is a faintnesse to flie difficult things and after He suffers not death as a good thing but flying the euill Finally he that murthers himselfe wipes himselfe for euer out of the booke of life for that he dies impenitent in the act of sinne neuer to haue remission after this life nor as Saint Augustine sayth any indulgence of correction But to come neerer to our Stoickes wee will first appeale srom Seneca to Epictetus O men sayth hee haue patience attend God vntill hee giue the signe that hee hath dismist you from this ministery then returne vnto him But for the present support couragiously inhabite this region in the which he hath placed you this habitation is short easie not burthensome c. The 1. reason inferring that life and death
to desire Death not as wee propounded them nor as we haue found them but as they make themselues known If we shall indge of the streame by the spring what may we hope for of the life of man conceiued betwixt the vrine and excrements borne naked all in tears but only a perpetuall flux of corruption pouertie and calamities therefore it is not without reason that S. Bernard sayd That man is but a stinking sperme a nourishment for wormes a sacke of excrements and such should wee see him within if the skinne did not stay our sight outwardly Doe we doubt of it seeing of this liuing substāce there are ingendred wormes about an ell long and being dead serpents in the pithe of the backe as Plinie writes and experience teacheth Plutarke reports that the king of Egypt hauing caused the body of Cleomenes to be hanged and the garde hauing discouered a great serpent wound about his head they called the people who running to this spectacle called Cleomenes as a demy-God The like happened to a young man a Germaine who would neuer suffer his picture to be drawn in his life time but onely granted to his kinsfolkes who importuned him that some dayes after his interment they might take him vp and draw him as they found him Being taken out of the graue they saw about the Diaphragma the pith of the backe many little Serpents to verifie what the authour of Ecclesiasticus faith When man dyerh he becoms the inheritance of serpents The life of man is a candle exposed to all winds saith Epictetus His body is a store-house of all sorts of diseases saith another his flower his most excellent point of glory is such as he is alwayes in paine and martyrdome and this point passeth away dazling the eye like a flash greatnesse and worldly riches are no more sssured then the waues of the sea they flowe suddainely and ebbe no l◅sse violently Sesostris King of Egypt causing himselfe to bee drawne in a Chariot of pure gold by foure Kings his prisoners one of them held his eye fixed vpon the wheele which did rolle vp and down by him Sesostris obseruing it demanded of him the cause of his countenance who answered That looking vpon the wheele and obseruing the spoaks to bee sometimes aloft and suddainely downe againe I call to minde the rolling change of my selfe and my companions Sesostris considers hereof abates his pride and giues liberty to his Captiues Such is the estate of the affaires of this world like vnto a marke subiect to infinite darts of aduersity No man knowes what the night brings sayd one in Titus Liuius the pleasures are vncertaine but the displeasures most certaine Nature giues vs a taste at our comming into the world where wee enter weeping And according to this instinct of nature the Thraci ns wept at the birth of their children numbring what miseries they should suffer in the world For the same reason the Getes a religious people held that it was better to die then to liue therefore they lamented at their child-birthes and sung at their burialls And wise Salomon saith that the day of death is better then that of birth Looke into Erasmus vpon the prouerbe Optimum non nasci Sophocles in like manner giues aduice that it is more reasonable to weepe at the birth of their children as beeing entred into great miseries and beeing dead to carry them ioyfully to the graue as freed from the miseries of this life And who will doubt any more of this seeing he that neuer lies calls this life death Ioh. 5. saying Hee that heares my words and beleeues in him that sent me shall passe from death to life The Lycians law ordayned that they which wold mourn should put on womens robes for that it did in no sort befit graue and discreete men to weepe for the dead but for passionate women Vpon this law a Lawyer of Padoua groūded his testament although he be taxed by another First hee charged his heire vpon great comminations to banish all blacke cloth from his Funeralls and that he should prouide singers and players on Iustruments to sing and play going among the Priests both before and behinde the Corpes to the number of fifty to euery one of which he bequeathed halfe a Ducate for his paines Moreouer hee ordained that 12. young virgines attired in greene should carry his body vnto Saint Sophias Temple in which he should be interred suffering them to sing ioyfull songs with a loud voyce and for a reward hee bequeathed them a certaine summe of money to helpe them at their marriage All sorts of Priests and Monkes might assist except such as were barred with blacke lest that colour should darken the beauty and cheerefulnesse of his Funeralls he had seene with Heraclitus that during the dayes of this miserable life there is no subiect but of teares and that at our departure we should reioyce with Demoeritus And therefore Plato doth rightly call death a medicine for all miseries and Seneca esteemes it the end of seruitude Let vs seale vp this discourse with the memorable aduice which Epictetus gaue to the Emperour Adrian enquiring why they set garlāds vpon the dead It is in signe answered he that at the day of their death they haue triumphed ouer the diuers assaults of this life Let vs then dye when it shall please the prince of this life to cease the teares and alarmes of this life and to beginne the life of heauen whereas God will wipe away all teares from our eyes whereas death shall be no more and there shal be no more mourning crying nor labour Obiection If men call for death and being come refuse it so much it is a signe that it is very horrible But the antecedent is true Therfore the consequent is also true IT is reported in Laertius that the Philosopher Antisthenes tyed to his bed by a greeuous disease and the more grieuous the more he loued his life was visited by Diogenes who knowing the man had taken a naked sword vnder his gowne Antisthenes perceiuing him cried out O God who shall deliuer me from hence Diogenes answered presently that shal this shewing him his sword But Antisthenes replied more sodainly I meane from these paines and not from my life It seemes that most of those crier sout for death make that their refuge when she approcheth neere them Esope in the Apologue hath naturally described it by that old man who being laden with a great burthen and falling into a Ditch he grew to despaire and calling for death death came and commands him to follow him O no said he I call thee to helpe me vp with my burthē that I may returne Answer I know well that many feare death much not for any desire to liue nor for the pleasures they haue in life for the two examples obiected shew the contrarie but for that they know not what death is And thereunto tends this
Combate to kil this feare of death in man I therefore persist in my opinion that it is nothing but the feare which man hath to fall into some greater miserie as we haue shewed doth make him so much apprehēd death But there is no euill in this as appeares in the following argument Therefore there is no reason of feare which reason should gouern a reasonable man Let vs not trust to those distrustful spies which being returned from the point of death cry out Horror horror for they faile more in corage then in bodie and deserue the like punishment to them that went to discouer the land of Canaan who being returned brought nothing but bad and slanderous tydings to al the people as the holy Scripture doth witnes Let vs rather beleeue wise and valiant men produced heereafter vpon the Theater who like vnto Iosua◅ spies depose ioyntly that God hath deliuered death into our hands that it is quencht for our sakes Next it is not true that all men flie death being called many haue bin greeued returning to health after some great sicknesse which they thought should haue swallowed vp their life Giue me leaue to speake this truth of my selfe being 120. leagues from my parents about 14. yeares since studying in a towne streightly besieged and famished I fell sicke of a bloudie flux whereof many dyed whereof my master was dead In this estate I was resolued to dye but when I found that God gaue me force to vanquish my disease I was verie melancholike in the beginning held it a losse to be recouered And therefore notwithstanding this opposition wee will close vp our discourse with Seneca saying That death is the cause that life is no martirdome The 20. Argument taken from the remouing of the euill of death No euill consisting in a falfe opinion and nothing in effect is to be feared Death is an euill consisting in a false opinion and nothing in effect c. IT is a great aduantage as great Captaines say to haue obserued and measured his enemy from head to foote Let vs in like manner obserue and measure death and we shall find it is but an Anatomy a vaine name a Picture and Image a scar-crow a bable a fantasticke feare an imaginary fire which some men see in an euening walking in Church-yards An ideot at the sight thereof would be amazed sweare that hee hath seene a spirit walking but a wiseman will vnderstand that it is an oyly exhalation which by agitation takes fire Ignorant opinion makes man beleeue that death is very euill when it is a priuation from all euil hee is amazed with a false alarme So women and weake spirits dare not remaine alone in their Chambers for that they imagine they shal see spirits and apparitions little children are afraid to see their parents masked Astianax could not endure the sight of Hector armed but lay aside these armes take away the maske you shall conuert their feare into assurance and their cries into ioy So pull away these false maskes of hideous lookes and the trembling cries of them that die they are but fained or sorrowes grownded in the aire of an imaginary euill So Cassander did tremble at the sight of Alexanders picture dead long before the table would not bite him yet hee quaked as if it had beene some furious beast the reason was that his imagination being impayred hee thought that Alexander was wonderfully in choller against him Wil you haue an apparent signe that in this horrible apprehension of death mans iudgement is troubled and therefore suspected to bee false The strongest and most vigorous the yongest and most iust do least feare the losse of life who in reason should apprehend it most if it were to be feared hauing more interest in it but old men and such as are subiect to the cholike stone and malefactors feare it without measure Maecenas tormented continually with a feauer was content to bee cut and mangled so as with all his paines hee might prolong his life How many Messales offenders would liue in torture or broken vpon the wheele so as they might not end their liues What is the reason of this but that his iudgement is peruerted beleeuing that all the paine he feeles shall be doubled in death If he be a reprobate and vnderstands it of the second death and not of the first whereof wee now discourse his iudgement is right but for a good man to thinke that there is any great paine in a naturall death hee erres much It is not the death said Aeschines but the violent passion against death which is horrible If they thinke there bee any discomodity in death sayd the old man Bassus let them know it comes from them that die not from death which frees them of all paine Pindarus sayth of man that he is but the dreame of a shaddow but let vs speake it and with more reason of death a dreame is false and a shaddow the opposition of a sollide body to the light So death the priuation of life is an euill dreamed and false Good God who can represent that which is not vnder what idea can the Painter imagine to draw it he will present vnto vs bones bound with sinewes without flesh and naked hauing a sythe in his hand this is something but be well aduised to thinke that death doth subsist beyond this representation as a liuing man doth subsist longer then his picture you should bee foully deceiued for take away this representation and all other imagination and you take away all that is of death for it is nothing at all therefore the portrait is false May a man paint a voice the which although it be inuisible yet it falls vnder the sence of hearing but death in what sence so euer you take it is incapable of all sence and by consequence not to bee drawne by any pencel What is death then it is a word of few letters which hath no subsistāce but in imagination nothing in nature nothing in effect We laugh at the Bourgondian spies who in their war against the French King Lewes 11. being sent to discouer the Country fled at the sight of certaine Thistles as if they had discouered a troupe of men at Armes If we had the vnderstanding to know death as the sight hath to distinguish thistles we should find that they are more ridiculous which fly amazed from the incounter of death for it is nothing at all whereas thistles are at the least pricking plants Let vs then say boldly That to feare that whereof neuer any man yet felt the sting to draw from a wandering fantasie proceeding from an vnsetled braine a true and sensible paine is a meere folly Oh God! what paine can there be at the very instant when life flies away in a body depriued of all sence Let a sicke body endure all the extremities of paine yet in death there is none at all doest thou not
apparitions shadowes and walking spirits to wrestle with them The statue of Nicon the wrestler borne at Tasos did witnesse it without words when as one who had enuied and hated Nicon at the sight of this statue fell into his old spleene which he had borne him liuing who taking a staffe layd vpon the image to despight the memory of Nicon the image to bee reuenged of this affront fell vpon him with all his weight and crusht him to death This was an accident but it was well and iustly ordained But behold another more euident Fabia wife to the Emperour Heraelius Being carried dead to her tombe it happened that a maiden by mischance did spit out at a window vpon the body for which she was taken burnt in the same fire that was prepared to reduce the body of Fabia to ashes In such recommendation they had in those dayes the honor of the dead The rage of Sylla is iustly held detestable who not content to haue done all the violence he could to his enemies whilest they liued after their death would draw their bones out of their graues and cast them into the riuer The death of the Saints is pretious before God let vs also say the death of vertuous men is pretious before men and if any one hath bene blemished in his life it should be buried in his graue Lewis 11. of France a great King hath verified it in his owne person towards his enemy the faire Agnes whom some of those times supposed that the Kings Father had entertained After her death she was intoÌ„bed in the Church of the Castle of Laches and by reason of a certaine rent shee gaue vnto it her body was layd in the middest of the Quire Lewis comming thither some time after there was suite made vnto him by a Priest that hee would suffer them to remoue that Tombe to some other place for that it did incomodate them The King beeing informed who lay there answered That which you demand is vniust although this woman were in her time very opposite vnto me yet will I not violate her Sepulcher Moreouer I cannot conceiue that you haue laid this body in so eminent 〈◊〉 place without some rich present performe that to your Benefactor being dead which you promised her being alâ—… and remooue her not from thence to bind you more strictly towards her I giue you for an increase sixe hundred pounds starling If this were done in a life which was blemished what shall it bee in one that is all pure and vntainted If it be obserued towards them that dye a drie death how much more towards them that are vniustly slaine by Tyrantâ—… Behold a memorable history among many which intimates that God hath a watchfull eye ouer them Perdinand fourth Mâ—…g of Spaine transported with choler vppon a suspition ill grounded for a murther committed commanded two bretheren of the house of 〈◊〉 to bee throwne headlong from the top of a rocke Going to their execution these Gentlemen protest and crie out that they dye innocents and seeing the Kings eares were shut vp to their iust defence they cited him to apear within 30. dayes before the soueraigne Iudge The dayes run on and the King is carelesse vntill that vpon the 30. day hee found himselfe seazed at the first but with a light infirmity but it increased so suddainely as hee dyed the same day Consider hereof you to whom honour is more pretious then life and who liuing feele the stings of Enuy and slander more then your bodies are followed with their shaddowes Take comfort heerein for God by your death will preuent these vniust pursuites and make an end of these iniurious taxations Enuy assaults the man liuing but lying in the bed of death she leaues him at rest as the Poet saith and then due honour is giuen to men of merit O you which meditate day and night on your learned writings writings either to chase away ignorance or to reforme men deformed with all sorts of vices in this debaucht age faint not for any malice they beare you liuing death will smother this rancor consume this enuy we see it daily and before vs Cate the Cenfor did taxe it sharpely I know saith hee that many ignorant of true honour will traduce my writings if I publish them but I let their babling fall to the ground meaning the graue whereas the sharpest stings of slander are abated and buried and the bookes which during the life of their Authors durst not looke vpon the light no more then Owles after their death flie out like young Eagles and behold the Sunne Obiection Whatsoeuer God and men hold to be euill is euill God and men iudge death to be euill Ergo c. THIS Argument is grounded vpon the Diuine Oracle pronounced to Adam That day thou shalt eate of the fruite of the tree of knowledge of good and euill thou shalt die the death the Apostle saies that Death is the reward of sin As for men in Cities wel gouerned their lawes impose the punishment of death for theeues murtherers sedicious c. I answer That death in her beginning is bad but not in her deriuation but it is good in respect of his power and wisedome who drawes light from darkenes good from euill life from death for now by the blessing of God death serues as a ladder to the faithfull to ascend vp into heauen So the diuersity of tongs sent at the building of the Tower of Babel proceeded from the fury of God kindled against the builders to frustrate their enterprize Yet the same tongs haue bene since imparted to the Apostles vpon White-sonday by the fauour of God thereby to haue the mysteries of the Lord declared So garments were inuented in token of the losse of our naked Innocency and yet in continuance they are become an honorable ornament for our bodies as wee see Euen so in the beginning God sent death in his fury and since he sent it in fauour to Enoch to Iosias and to all them hee loues The holy Ghost speaking by the penne of Salomon sayth that hee more esteemes the dead which are already dead then the liuing which are yet liuing As for malefactors death is not inflicted vpoÌ„ theÌ„ as it is simply death but for two reasons adiaceÌ„t the one is that depriuing them of all motion it makes them cease to commit any more euill frees the Country of such vermine The other that it is imposed for a publike infamy and therefore they are set vpon scaffolds and gibbets in publike place this deserued infamy is the true torment of the punishment death is but an accident and do wee not see many delinquents desire an honorable graue more then life the which they would not do if they held death to bee the worst of euills and not rather an extreame dishonor in which they feele their soules to suruine Bias therefore did answere wittily being demanded which of all
kind of death was the worst That sayth hee which the Lawes haue ordained inferring thereby that a naturall death is not euill but that which crimes haue deserued the which is not giuen by nature but by a hangman and yet not so much by the execu tioner who is but the instrument as by a villanie perpetrated which is the true cause So sayd S. Peter Let none of you suffer as a murtherer theese malefactor or too curious in other mens affaires But if any one suffer as a Christian let him not be ashamed but let him glorifie God in that behalfe The 24. Augument taken from the testimonie of wise men All wise men in the conflict of Death depose that death is not euill But that is true which all wise men depose c. THe troupes of Christian Martirs heathen Philosophers marching so boldly vnto death are so many witnesses without reproch to conuince them of falshood which hold death to be so great an euill Let vs be carefull lest this blasphemie creep into our thoughts that they were in despaire or mad No no their verie enemies dare not speake it haâ—…ng knowne that they were for the most part men famous in pietie iustice vertue and wisedome and for such as were recommended by all men The Ecclesiasticall Historie is gored with thousands of such Martires the author of the tables hath set downe some in the end of his first booke of whom I make no mention But behold the manly courage of Blandina who by her ioyfull countenance doth summon vs vnto death whereunto she doth march with such a grace and state as if she had gone to a nuptiall feast Then followes happie Tiburtins conuerted vnto Christ by Vrban in the yeare 227 who marching vpon burning coales seemed to tread vpon Roses These Christians with infinite others as well ancient as moderne had neuer any horror of death but haue desired it yea sought it as a refreshing and refection to their bodies soules but for that no man doubts but the zeale of Christians hathmade them continue constant vnto the death and the diuine power had so fortified their resolutioÌ„s that neither their reason could be swallowed vp nor drowned by the horror of persecution Let vs come to others of a multitude let a few suffise Socrates accused by the Athenians to thinke ill of the Gods for that he reiected pluralitie adored an vnitie was condemned to dye before the which he would first censure his iudges saying To feare death O my Lords Areopagites is to make shew to be wise and not to be for it is to seem to know death to be euil which they vnderstand not He did so little apprehend death as when as eloquent Lisias had giuen him an Oration artificially penned which hee should vse for his Apologie whereby hee should be absolued he read it and found it excellent yet he sayd vnto Lycias If thou hadst brought me Sicionian shoes admit they had beene fit for my foote yet would I not vse them for that they were not decent for me So thy discourse is most eloquent and fluent but not fit for men that are graue and resolute The executioner then presented him poysoÌ„ in a cup which Socrates tooke with a constant hand and demanded of him as a sicke patient would doe of the Physition to recouer health how he should swallow it then without any stay drunk it vp after which he walked a little then tooke his bed his boy vncouering him felt his parts to grow cold Socrates being wak't directed his speech to Criton who aboue all others wished him a longer life and to make him thinke of it had propounded vnto him his children his deare friends that for their sakes if not for his owne hee would preserue his life which was necessarie for them No no answered hee God who hath giuen me my childreÌ„ wil care for them when I shall be gone from â—…ce I shall finde friends either like vnto you or better neither shall I bee long depriued of your company for you must soone come to the same place Then as if he had by this potion recouered his health hee cried â—…ut O Criton we owe a Cock to Aesculapius be not forgetfull to sacrifice vnto him Let vs obserue that in the last passages of life he was in no sort amazed but dying ioyfully comforted his suruiuing friend and let vs not doubt but hee who was the first among the seuen Sages of Greece knew before Demosthenes that which this Orator spake couragiously to Phiâ—… King of Macedon who threatned him to cause his head to be câ—…t off Well saith hee if thou giuest mee death my Countrey will giue mee immortality And doublesse Socrates liues and will liue eternally so the suruiuing hauing seene the assurance of his death held him most happy as going to liue another life and in another place And Aristippus that ioyfull Philosopher beeing demanded in what sort Socrates was dead In that manner said he that I my selfe desire Inferring that death was more to bee wished for then a happy life Let vs heare a second that is Theramenes to whom they presented a great cup of poyson the which he dranke resolutely and returned the cup to Critiâ—… the most cruell of the 30. Tyrants which had condemned him Theramenes therein alluding to the manner obserued at this day in Germanie which is that hee which drinkes to any one sends him the same glasse full of wine that hee may pledge him These deathes are full of courage but behold a woman dying who exceedes them all and that onely to incourage her husband to dy it is Arria the wife of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This woman being aduertised that Petus was condemned to what death hee would choose went vnto him to perswade him both by word the effect to dislodge out of this life she had a naked dagger vnder her gowne and giuing her husband heâ—… last â—…well shee thrust her selfe to the hart and drawing it forth againe with the like courage she held it vnto Petus and spake these her last words vnto him Pâ—… non doleâ—… Pete O my deere Petus it doth not paine mee and then dyed Let vs seale vp these examples with two women who commonly doe passionatly loue the presentation of their children yet a certen Lacedemonian hauing heard that her Son fighting valiantly had beene slaine in battaile O sayd shee this was a braue Sonne not lamenting the death of her Sonne but reioycing at his vertue Another hearing that her Sonne returned safe from battaile and that hee had â—…d shed cryed out vnto him There is a bad report of thee thou must eyther deface it or not liue holding it better to dye then to suruiue an Ignominie Obiection If the greatest fauorites of God haue feared death it is to bee feared But Dauid Ezechias and others fauored by God feared Death and especially Iesus Christ the only and wel-beloued Sonne of God feared
impossible that at the soules departure from the body there should be any great paine the soule leaues the body as the light doth the ayre which it doth inuest as Viues speakes after S. Augustine Wee must not then imagine heere a grosse tearing of the soule from the body as of a piece of cloth for the vnion of the soule with the body is spirituall and incomprehensible But of the pretended paine in death there is sufficiently spoken in the Obiection following As for the two other enemies it is true that the conscience presents vnto a dying man the foulenesse of his sinne and it is true that Satan tempts man to despaire to precipitate him into eternall perdition But for all this must a man that feares God feare death and feare to lose the battaile No but hee ought rather to assure himselfe of the victory and present himselfe boldly to the Combate as a valiant fortunate Champion against one that is weake and vnfortunate They that are for vs are stronger then they that are against vs God which hath begunne continues his worke in vs and ends it to his glory the faith which he hath prāted in vs wil quench the inflamed darts of the wicked spirit the full assurance of the remission of sins by Iesus Christ dead for our sinnes and risen for our iustification will pacifie the conscience and shew him Iesus Christ in heauen sitting on the right hand of God and stretching out his armes to him Thirdly the seales of the holy Ghost in vs for by it we are sealed to the day of Redemption Baptisme the Communion of the body of Christ and the Spirit of sanctification will terrifie Satan and make him flie Finally the good Angels which from our birth and throughout the whole course of our liues haue administred vnto vs guided and comforted vs will redouble their loue and courage in the like offices at our greatest need and at our last gaspe Let vs not feare seeing we haue such assurance in the Word of God which doth plainely witnesse that the Angells are administring Spirits sent to serue for their sakes that shall receiue the inheritance of saluation Here then is no subiect of desperate feare but rather of an assured resolution The 4. Obiection All paine is euill In dying there is paine EPicharmus by the testimony of Cicero sayd that he would not die but to be dead he cared not The reason is in my opinion for that he feared the passage of death not death it selfe which hee thought with vs had no paine There are many at this day of this opinion abhorring death like an internall gulfe for that they conceiue there is some sharp and violent paine which they endure before it comes and thereunto tends the prouerbe He is in bad case that dies And S. Augustine seemes to attribute I know not what sharpe feeling and force against nature in the diuulsion of the soule from the body which were vnited together Answere If death be terrible by reason of the paine we apprehend in it then life by the same reason should be more for in it some man endures more by the cholicke the stone the sciatica yea by the tooth ach and by many other infirmities without death then an other hath felt in dying And there is this aduantage in death that it comes but once wheras the aboue mentioned infirmities are often reiterated in life But to haue a perfect view if this paine bee so great as opinion a bad counsellor doth make vs beleeue let vs search with reason into the immediate cause of that which doth engender this paine in our bodies The pathes which leade man to death are infinite but all bend to one of these foure high wayes outward force subtraction of meate and drinke inward sicknesse and old age These foure kinds of death may happen to al men yea to wise men although by iniustice touching the first by some rare accident as touching the second concerning the third by ordinary corruption of humors and by an infallible defect of nature touching the fourth Paine according to the definition of learned Phisitions is the feeling of some thing that is offensiue and troublesome to the nature of the body for that it is contrary to the health thereof the which happens either by the dissoluing and cutting of his continued substance or by the alteration thereof which alteration proceeds from the intemperate heate or cold for as for humidity and drinesse they are rather passiue qualities then actiue whose operation is very slow and the paine in the member that is altered is suddaine not gentle as if you be exceeding cold and come to a very sensible paine cold settles his paine in disioyning heate in burning and it is to bee noted that any sence may be wounded yet little or nothing is his paine in comparison of that of touching the which is dispersed ouer the whole body from which no other vessell of the sences is exempt which is the cause that wee sometimes feele prickings in the eyes and shootings in the eares c. Let vs now come to the application Death which comes to man by extreame age can be no cause of paine there being nothing in him that tortures his body nothing that doth suddainely alter and change him by extreame cold or heate but his life goes out presently like vnto a Candle that wants tallow by the losse of his radicall humour deuoured by little and little since his birth by his naturall heate and although this heate doth yet striue as it hath formerly done to conuert the meate which is familiar and fit for the body into radicall humor to repaire his losse yet she can worke no more her vertue failes her euery agent hath his vertue limited what soeuer doth act suffers in acting through vse and in continuance of time this heate decayes dissolues is lost and death ensues So as it hath bene disputed in vaine whether life might bee continued this radicall humor being restored by some fit nutriment for that humor being at the first a certaine ayery onely portion of that seede which doth reside in all the sollide parts it is impossible that such an humour and so much as is needefull should be supplied in it's place The only fruite of the tree of life which was in Eden had this secret vertue by the diuine ordinance to make man immortal that shold eate therof and therefore according to the opiniō of the Fathers God suddenly after the sin chased Adam and Eue out of Eden least they should lay hold of that fruite and become immortally miserable with the diuells In processe of time there happens two notable changes to this radicall humour the one in the quality for that it degenerates by little and little of naturall becomes strange the other in the quantity for that it is wholy wasted whereunto man being once reduced he can suffer no paine if hee complaines
it is rather for griefe that hee must dye or some other distemperature and not the death which doth cause some troublesome alteration in his sinewes sensible parts As for death which proceeds from diseases there are some long others short If they be long the paine is little for that nature doth accustome it selfe to that which comes by degrees it turnes to a habite and hee feares no griefe or very little there being nothing but the suddain alteration which nature cannot endure that which causeth pain is that which changeth the good temperature the which in very long languishing diseases comes slowly and insensibly As for example in an Hectick feuer they grow leane and consume away by little and little and dye with paine which is in a manner imperceptible there is nothing but an heauinesse of the spirits but in their bodyes feele no paine It is euen so of the paine of the Lights whereon the rheume distilling it doth consume them by little and little as a spout of water doth a stone so as in the end this infirmity brings the patient insensibly to death As for short diseases the paine is short What great pain can there be in a swoun ding in an Appoplexie that happens by the sudaine dissipation of the spirits What great paine can a moment of time bring to man But you wil reply that there are diseases wonderfully sharpe It is true but if you will obserue them they are least dangerous for death whereof our discourse is Nature giuing death knowes how to mortifie the members so wel and to weaken the vertue of the sinewes as man cannot discerne when death seazeth on him no more thē when sleep surprizeth him It is an Aphorisme of Hipocrates When a sicke body saith he feeles no paine playes with the couering of his bed and pulls off the wooll it is a signe of death and no likelihood of life what paine then when as hoping to recouer and feeling ease of his paine hee shall dye As for famine and thirst which quench the spirit of life that happens very seldome and the Annales in 16. ages haue scarce obserued two the one vnder the Empire of Honorius at what time in the Theater at Rome there was this strange voyce heard You must set a price vpon humane flesh The other vnder Iustinian at what time they did not only eate mans flesh but euen the excrements of men Here in truth is great horror but little paine neither can I beleeue whatsoeuer they say that he which dies of hun ger feeles no great torment examine it by your selfe whē you haue fasted long you shall feele a great debility a great appetite or a great heate in all your members but no great paine it is in the sinewes to feele where the paine lies which sinewes do not suffer any thing in the extreamity of hunger or thirst but the principal parts which receiue the nourishment therefore in this most pittifull and pitty is here taken for the paine Let the death of Charles 7. the French King be an example vnto vs who being full of suspition and way wardnesse entertained in that humor by the dayly reports of his household flatterers that they would attempt against his person yea a Captaine in whom he trusted most assured him that they meant to poyson him he gaue such credit to this aduice as he resolued neither to eate nor drinke in which capricious humor hee continued seuen dayes But in the end being prest not with paine but by his Phisitions and house hold seruants who laid before him the danger of life whereinto he did voluntarily bring his person when hee would haue eaten he could not by reason sayth the History the passages of the stomake were shrunke Let vs weigh these last words and acknowledge that this naturall fire in vs wherewith the lampe of our life is kindled is like vnto the Elementary alwayes actiue wherefore wanting his ordinary nutriment hee turnes himselfe violently vpon that which beares it vpon the radicall humidity the which it doth waste and consume in a short time and this humidity being consumed the members remaine dry and without vigour so as when they offer them the accustomed remedy hauing lost their vsuall vertue they disgest it not but cast it vp againe It is the same reason why such as obserue a certaine houre for their meales when this houre is come they feele certaine motions of an appetite in their stomacke which requires meate But if they passe this houre either by fasting or by diets they lose their appetites for that this heate being frustrated of his ordinary repast falls either vpon the peccant humor or that failing vpon the vitall humour and as we suffer it to do more or lesse so we receiue more or lesse preiudice Now if in the first and most sensible touches of this natural heate we feele no great torment as euery man may try in the religious fasts of the Church which passe the ordinary time of eating three or foure houres I cōclude necessarily that the longer they abstaine from meate the lesse they suffer for the heate decaying still by the want of nourishment the actiue vertue also decreaseth and his subiect the body suffereth lesse by such a languishing action also the body which for his part decayes in force is daily lesse susceptible of paine vntill that all his humor being exhausted and his heate euaporated hee must die Last in ranke come good men who are vniustly put to death by Tyrants to whom the paine is sensible according to the horror of the punishment But I answere First that it happens seldome God holding in his power the Tyrannous resolutions of great men that they may not execute their wicked designes against his seruants wickednesse shall neuer preuaile so much she shal neuer conspire so strongly against vertue but the name of wisedome shall alwayes remaine sacred and venerable Secondly God who suffers it giues them ease in their torments knowes how to restraine and suspend their paines as hee did to his seruants Sidrac Mizac and Abednego in the burning furnace as they go ioyfully to death and sing the praises of the Lord cheerefully in the middest of the fire as hath bene seene in the Martyrs And thus much for this point But if after all these reasons they persist still in a fantasticall apprehension of some great paine in the article of death wee will adde that it is not fitting to accuse death it is life the remainders whereof cause the paine and death is the end Wherefore Diogenes being demanded if death were euil How can it be sayd hee seing we neuer feele it present and that which is absent cannot bee hurtfull to any man whilest that man hath feeling he hath life but if he bee dead hee hath no feeling and that which is not felt is not hurtfull And therefore hee concludes that it was not death which was euill but the way to
death which was miserable which if we feare what is all the life said he but a path tending vnto death And S. Augustine aboue named means no other thing whilst they haue feeling they are yet liuing if liuing they are rather sensible before death then in death by whose comming all sense is lost The 25. Argument taken from the indignity That which is repugnant to one of the principall vertues is vnworthy of man The extreame feare of death is repugnant to fortitude one of the principall vertues WE meane not here to speak of bodily force but of that of the minde by the which Caesar but of a weake body did more braue exployts thē Hercules There is nothing more worthy of a man then Fortitude a vertue whereunto he should aime al the actions of his life for that alone doth neuer faile to yeeld a recompence either aliue or dead saith Seneca Epist. 81. and hee doth not perish that dies adorned with vertue saith another Saint Augustine confirmes this when he attributes the disdain of life and the contempt of death to the force of the minde The greater and more desperate the danger is the more doth magnanimity increase in a generous minde to free all difficulties that hee shall encounter And seeing that the end is better and more excellent then that which tends vnto it hee will conclude with reason That hee were better to lose his life then vertue But Fortitude one of the foure cardinall vertues besides the generall hath a particular reason why man should seeke to preserue it in her greatest perfection for by it hee enioyes the true tranquility of the minde the which as Cicero reports is nothing else but a quiet sweete and pleasing disposition of the soule in all the euents of life Which carries two Crownes patience in paine resolution in death By which the confirmation of the Minor is inferred there beeing nothing that doth more oppugne and in the end ouerthrow all force and resolution then the extreame feare of death Feare and especially that of death beeing destitute of reason iudgement wounds the soule with amazement alienates his right sense makes it idle and without action it doth waste him vndermine him and consume him as rust doth Iron and the worme an apple A man alwayes shaking with feare is without heart and courage but halfe a man such as histories report Claudius Caesar the 5. Emperour to haue beene whom nature had begun but not finished for that hee was base and faint-hearted Moreouer feare by the terrible obiect of death causeth the heate which is the chariot of force to retire into the bottome of the belly in stead of drawing it about the heart as courage doth so as the heart is alwayes panting and which is worse whereas it should extend it selfe by dilatation in his natural motion hee shrinkes himselfe vp against nature whereby there followes a great debility in all the members of the body and sometimes death as it happened to Lycas who vppon the very report of Hercules force was so terrified as beeing retired into the corner of an Altar dyed there But a generous man resolute to death will not feare any thing that shall present it selfe to crosse him in the course of his duty like vnto Anaxarchus whom Alexander threatning to hang he said Threaten thy Courteours who feare death for my part I care not whether I rot aboue or vnder the earth Socrates also beeing blamed by one for that hee did a thing which would cause his death he answered My friend thou art not well informed if thou thinkest that a man of honor shold apprehend danger yea death in his actions but only consider whether they bee iust or vniust good or bad Such was the courage of the Prophet Micheas when he resisted King Achas and told Israel of his sinnes being filled with vertue by the Spirit of the Eternal with iudgement and with force as he himselfe speakes Thirdly feare not onely hurts it selfe causing his arms to fall out of his hands and laying him open to his enemies darts but like vnto the plague it infects others And therefore King Agamemnon would not that a rich man and a fearefull should goe to the warres of Troy but to stay him he would haue sent him a distaffe if he would not eouer his shame honestly But on the other side a valiant man finds meanes to free himselfe in the greatest dangers So Aristomenes a Lacedemonian being taken prisoner and deliuered bound to two souldiers hee found meanes to burne his bonds and his flesh to the quicke then falling couragiously vpon his guardes hee slue them and so escaped It is a common saying among men That vertue hath no vertue if it be not in paine and the greatest paine in the opinion of man is when hee is at the point of death then should a valiant heart shew his inuincible courage to vāquish this terror of death It is this courage which made Saint Paule to say That if he did serue for an aspersion vpon the sacrifice seruice of faith hee was ioyfull It is the same Spirit that made Ignatius to say beeing condemned by Infidels to be cast to wild beasts I am the wheate of God I shall bee ground in the teeth of beasts to bee made pure and cleane bread If the Trumpet which sounds an alarme be pleasing to a valiant Souldier what shall death bee to a vertuous man when shee shall sound with her siluer Trumpet ordained by God to call the assembly the Church to heauen and to make men leaue the earth where they haue no a biding place what feare we They that haue the chollicke and the gout are not so much terrified with the returne of their paine and can vertuous men so much feare death which hath not so much paine no none at all seeing that what we feel whē death approcheth is of the re mainder of life not of death to what end serues this cowardly feare Fly an honorable death of the one side and a shamefull end will find thee of the other So Sisera left his Armie and fled into the house of Iahel but when he thought to take his rest Iahel came and draue a nayle of the Tabernacle into the temples of his head and slue him But to haue this courage and resolution to resist the terror of death it is not sufficient to speake in the time of health as Souldiers do of their valour at the table learned discourses sayth Seneca make no demonstrations of true magnanimity the most feareful will sometimes speak more boldly then they shold We must meditate seriously of death according to the obiects which are presented vnto vs and not make any difficulty to go and comfort our dying neighbours for it is better to enter into the house of mourning then of seasting sayth the wise man To offer ourselues to al dangers of death when our vocation doth call vs like
to this death they which haue condemned mee are more vniust then I am Inferring thereby that he died well and honestly seeing they put him to death wrongfully and without cause Plato doth teach vs that Socrates was wont to insult ouer death in these tearmes I haue beene carefull said he to liue well in my youth and to die well in my age I am not tormented within me with any paine I am not vnwilling to dye for seeing my life hath beene honest I attend death ioyfully This is much but it is nothing in regard of Saint Paule who protesting that he felt not himselfe guilty in any thing cried out with a bold spirit that hee was assured that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principalities nor powers neither things present nor things to come nor height nor depth should separate him from the loue of God Let vs theÌ„ be careful to polish our soules and to settle our consciences let vs apply our selues to a well ordered equity let the body subiect it selfe vnto the soule and follow her motions Let the inferiour powers of the soule obey the commandements of reason Let reason guided by the holy Ghost obserue the Law grafted in euery creature by nature especially in man and most of all the Law of Moses To doe this is to be vertuous and to be vertuous is to haue a good conscience We must then direct all our actions to vertue if wee desire to liue in the world without feare without paine in peace and ioy vertue doth first of all make the soule perfect in her intellectuall part disperseth the clouds of error ignorance illuminating reason doth adorne it with prudence Secondly she labours to polish the will of man and hauing reformed it by her orderly course shee giues him the habite of Iustice. Thirdly she doth temper the angry part pulls away the extreame feare and on the other side prunes away the sprouts of rashnes and plants betwixt both valour and haâ—… dy feare Finally it doth also bridle the faculty of concupiscence and restraines the motions of voluptuousnesse and makes them obedient to the command of Temperance It is in a few words the true meanes to get a pure and vpright conscience especially if we bee carefull to be as honest in our priuate secret actions as if all the world did behold vs Seneca doth recommend this vnto vt in many places Wee reade of one called Virginius whose History was written by Cluuius who presented it vnto the sayd personage and sayd vnto him If there be any thing written otherwise then thou wouldest pardon mee and reforme it Oh no answered Virginius whatsoeuer I haue done hath bene done in that manner to that end that it might bee free for all to write at their pleasures a worthy speech of a noble spirit and content with his conscience in his actions Iulius Drusus when as one promised a great sum of mony to his Master mason that his house might not be subiect to the view of any man and I sayd he will giue twice so much if thou canst build my house in that sort as all men may see into it what is done there This was to saue his conscience not to do more in secret then before all the world And what a madnesse is it in most men not to feare God nor their conscience and yet to feare men who can do least in the correction of their faults What shall we then feare in this world One only God for his feare will inspire our hearts with an hardy courage against the greatest feares The 27. Argument taken from the frequent thinking of Death He that will receiue Death ioyfully must propound it often to his thoughts Wee all desire to receiue it ioyfully c. SOme sayth Seneca come to their death in choler but no man receiues it when it comes with a cheerefull countenance but he that hath long before prepared himselfe for it Let vs try this remedy it cannot be bad In the night after our first sleepe in bed let vs presuppose that we are dead and by a strong imagination let vs settle our selues in that sort as hauing no sence nor feeling that our soule and reason tells vs that it is euen so in death that there is no other difference but that our soule is yet present in the body and then let vs goe vnto our friends or to any other that die let vs view them talke vnto them and touch them being dead and we shall finde that in all this there is nothing to be feared that all is quiet that there is nothing but opinion that 〈◊〉 abuse man Let vs proceed enter the Church-yards and go down into their graues wee shall finde that 〈◊〉 the dead rest in peace yeaâ—… so profound 〈◊〉 peace as no liuing creature can interrupt them Let vs yet go on farther there is no danger for by the saying of Plato the knowledge of death is the goodliest science that man can attaine vnto Let vs do like vnto Iohn Patriarke of Alexandria build our tombes and not finish them but euery day lay one stone Let vs haue some Anatomy or MoÌ„mie in our houses and let vs not passe a day without beholding it let vs handle it it is death Little children by little and little grow familiar with that which they did strangely fly and in the end they play with it and know that it is but a dead image of copper which so terrified them Wee shall also see in death that it was but a shaddow that so amazed vs. Let vs yet do more waking and not dreaming let vs dispose our selues of purpose as Philippe King of Macedon did by chance who wrestling vpon the sand after the manner of the Country saw and measured the length of his body and admired the littlenes thereof in the shape printed in the sand where he had fallen Finally let vs not forget what the Emperour Maximilian 2. or 3. yeares before his death commanded carefully to be done that they should carry with him a coffin of oake in a chest with an expresse command that being dead they should couer his body with a course sheete hauing put lime in his eares nosestrills and mouth and then to lay him in the ground Let vs follow these great examples both high low and wee shall see that when death shall present her selfe vnto vs it will bee without amazement But if wee flie from euery image of death from al thought therof if the ringing of bells a shew of some mans death doth importune vs finally if euery word of death be troublesome as there haue beene such I doubt not but to them death is wonderfull terrible Obiection If the most reasonable feare Death most it is by reason to be feared But the antecedent is true therefore the Consequent must follow SEneca yea experience doth teach vs that Infants little children and such as haue lost their
there is a third degree yet more abhominable more iniurious to Iustice when as good men are opprest by the wicked and Iustice troden vnder foot by Iniustice what good or iust man is there but sees it and feels it Why doest thou hold thy peace said Abacuck to the Lord the wicked oppressing the iust So Caine slue Abel so Esau persecuted Iacob so the PagaÌ„s haue alwaies mo lested the Israelites sought to ruine them so the Iewes Infidels haue afflicted Christians so the Arrian Heretikes did with all violence persecute the Catholikes Pompey with the iust Senate was vanquished by Caesar Cato murmures and despayring kills himselfe So the Romaine Emperors haue euen glutted their rage vpon the innocencie of Martirs so the Goathes Barbarians tormented the Romaines as soone as they were become Christians Thirtie Tyrants inuade and ruine that goodly Common-weale of Athens The Turke at this day holds the reynes of the Empire of the world triumphing euery where ouer Christian armies Finally what are these great kingdomes but great thefts as a Pirate did fitly obiect to Alexander the Great who made him to keepe silence with shame This iniustice being obserued by many hath giuen occasion to thinke that all things are turned by chance as Claudian doth represent it Graphically and Dauid himselfe confesseth that hee hath beene readie to leaue the good way and to forsake the partie of God for that he saw the wicked in such abundance These men saies he for all that they possesse Are nothing worth yet still we see they spend There liues whole length in varied happinesse Pamper'd with all things to their very end What shall we then thinke yea whereon can wee assure our selues without wauering that the life of man in this world is a List and Careere in which as he hath wrestled and combated so being departed hee shall receiue either the Crowne of glory or the shame of infamy and this shall bee when as iustice shall appeare in her greatest beauty and lustre But in the mean 〈◊〉 this diuine prouidence will that the good as corne in the aire be thrasht fanned and sifted to the end at their departure they may be laid vp in the granier and on the other side the chaffe that is to say the wicked who haue beene alwayes in ioy shal be cast into the fire that is neuer quenched Affliction is the narrow way into the which he must enter who desires to come into the Kingdome of heauen The reproche of Christ is the honour of the child of God the Crosse of Christ is his Scepter his stripes torments are roses and gilloflowers So Moses saith the text held the reproch of Christ to be greater riches then the treasures of Egypt yea hee did rather choose to bee afflicted with the people of God then to enioy for a time the pleasures of sinne So S. Paule did rather choose the trauells imprisonments beatings and death then all the honour he could expect to be a Pharisian Doctor among the Iewes So a million of Martyrs haue rather made choice of chains fires and of death of serue Christ then of Diadems triumphs and wordly felicitie So Regulus did choose rather to bee tormented in a pipe stucke full of nayles at Carthage then to giue preiudiciall counsell to his countrey Socrates had rather dye then adherre to Pagan Idolatrie Seneca preferred death before the flattering of his vicious Prince verifying by effect the words of his Epistle I loue not torments saith he but if there be question to suffer them I desire to carry my selfe brauely couragiously and honestly Cato spake more as the Poet reports Patience most ioyes when most her crosse abounds Most honor costs most and most ioy redounds But for what reason S. Ambrose saith The wise man is not broken by the paines of the body nor vexed by the discommodities in the midst of miseries he is alwayes happy for that the happinesse of life doth not consist in the tickling pleasures of the body but in the coÌ„science purged from all filth of sinne What wilt thou then doe in this secure peace of the wicked in this continuall ware-fare of good men haue a little patience And thou in the'nd shalt say with comfort driuen Thy vowes are heard euen from the highest heauen The Gods sayth Homer suffer not the sinnes of men to passe vnpunished although they deserre the punishment yet by the waight they recoÌ„pence the slownes If the diuine wrath be slow yet it is violent sayth another It is that which did most fortifie Cyrus in the assurance of the immortality of the soule seeing the wicked in this life to prosper good men decay And what shall wee Christians then doe Wee will attend with Dauid that the measure of sinne may be full and then when they haue made an end to fill vp the measure of their fathers they cannot auoyde the iudgement of Hell fire sayth Iesus Christ I know for a certaine sayth Dauid that God will doe iustice I know the Lord th' afflicted will Reuenge and iudge the poore All these wicked riâ—… men which haue had their pleasures and abundance in this world shall haue miseries in the other and 〈◊〉 â—…se poore Lazares which haue beene here diuersly tormented shal be comforted and enioy an eternall rest as the Euangelist speakes Finally the wicked after this life changing opinion and sighing with the anguish of theirminds wil say among themselues Behold him whom wee haue sometimes derided made prouerbs of dishonor wemad men held his life to be mad and his death infamous and how is hee accounted of a the children of God his portion among the Saints And thus doth a wise man discourse We may therefore conclude that seeing lustice this pretious pearle doth east forth but sun-beames in this world vpon vnreasonable creatures and that her bodie beautiful in perfection is in heauen whither she was forced flying the earth to haue recourse there to receiue such as had cherished sought her vpon earth and contrariewise to banish for euer such as had persecuted her with all violence Wee may I say necessarily coÌ„clude That the soules of men are immortal to the end that the happy may be crowned with this iustice and the wicked cast by the heauie burthen of their iniustice to the bottomlesse pit of hell Amen Obiection If the soule did escape the graue shee might fing the prayses of God But she cannot THE Minor is proued directly by a text of the holy Scripture There is no mention of thee in death who shal worship thee in the graue saith Dauid being grieuously sicke And The dead do no more praise the Lord neither they which descend whereas they speake not Ezechias fearing death speakes thus vnto the Lord the graue shall not worship thee death shall not praise thee and they that descend into the
death of man-hood at what time the spirit is fortified and growes more ripe in good Counsell and wiser in his actions this life ascends vnto the decrepit age as they call it which begins at 70. yeares where rests the death of age and so runnes on vnto the graue all the remainder of his life and this is the 8. degree of life In the end succeeds in his turne the last principall and most to be desired death I say the principall for that it makes an end of all the other deathes that went before and feares no more the miseries of life I say to be desired for she alone doth crowne the actions of mortal life with glorious immortality it is the hand which sets vpon our heads the flourishing Diadem of eternall life It is the last staffe of the ladder manifested vnto Iacob by vision ordained by God to the end wee may thereby ascend vp into heauen It is that dun horse that is to say pale and mournefull to our opinions but yet wee must backe him to runne the carreere of death to passe vnto that most happy aboad Poore man thou tremblest at the shadow of death thou doest crie and howle when she layes hold on thee euen so thou diddest when thy mothers strength cast thee out of her wombe if then thou haddest had thy iudgement neate as now thou hast thou wouldest haue held thy selfe happy to haue left a most filthy prison within the circuite of that round Citty In like sort if now thou hadst thy vnderstanding and Spirit transformed and renewed as the Apostle speakes thou shouldest see plainely that what doth terrifie thee is that which should assure thee But yet if God hath not imparted vnto thee the light of his grace take aduice of humane reason call Seneca vnto thee who had but the eyes of a man and consider what he sayth thou shalt find that in it are no ambushes nor constraint it is onely pure and simple nature which speakes by reason it is an vndoubted Maxime that nature alwayes tends and attaines for the most part to the perfection of her worke Man is her Master peece all other Creatures are made for him the perfection of man is his perpetuity in a most happy life nature leads man by degrees to this perfection We see she failes not in the second degree seeing that the Infant borne is much more perfect then that which is newly ingendred in the wombe it failes no more in the third nor cōsequently to the eighth as I haue shewed Let vs conclude thereby that it is impossible she shold faile in the principall which is the ninth degree of life which shee must perfectly finish wee must iudge of the end of the worke by the beginning and progresse Finally if the study of Philosophy bee a kinde of death as Philosophers hold for that man is sequestred from the company of men and the vanities of the world to haue his spirit free and at liberty in his braue meditations and if in this estate man is more accomplished and more perfectly happy without comparison then they that trouble themselues continually with the affaires of this actiue life Oh what shall it bee when as the soule purged from the infection of the senses freed from all commerce with the body shall be wholly in it selfe ennobled with a supernaturall grace illuminated with a celestiall flame inspired with an vnspeakeable ioy how beautifull happy and ioyfull shall shee be To this death then let vs direct our vowes and our eies let vs take acquaintance and be familiar with her shee is our friend since that Iesus Christ did vanquish and subdue her for our sakes shee is prepared for vs as a way into which wee must of necessity enter to goe into our Countrey which is heauen It is the onely meanes ordained of God to go vnto that most blessed Mansion Let vs then stretch out our armes couragiously and with a smiling countenance when we shall see her turned towards vs making signe that shee will imbrace vs let vs receiue her for shee is a necessary gift to our cortupted nature which wee must not reiect but imbrace as Saint Chrysostome saith The first Obiection Euery end of a worke is not the finall cause therefore it followes not that death is the finall cause of life although it be the extreame end THere are three cōditions necessary to a finall cause the one is that it be the last point of the operation the other is that the worke bee finished for the loue thereof if the first bee found in death the second which is the principal falls seeing that the actions of life tend not vnto death as to their deare and best beloued Answer I said not that death was the finall cause of life but the way yea the onely way which leades vs vnto it and that for the loue of that great and foueraigne good which is ioyning to the gate of death we should desire it and not bee amazed at it after the example of S. Paule who writing to the Philippians desired to be dissolued and to be with Christ the which was farre better for him that he might bee crowned with a crowne of Iustice and enioy that vnspeakeable good as hee saith else-where But some Infidels will say I demand proofes hereof fauorable to my reason I answer that hee hath put the flame of reason into thy vnderstanding who doth illuminate euery man which commeth into the world hath presented his grace vnto thee in the Gospell to beleeue and there is nothing but the barre of thy sinnes that doth hinder thee neither is this Gospell concealed from any but such as haue the eyes of their vnderstanding blinded by the Prince of this world But if thy reason beeing blinded cannot apprehend the souereigne Good which is in death yet shall you plainly see a meere priuation from all miseries an absolute rest and a tranquility which cannot be interrupted and therfore if there were no other but this reason death should cause no amazement but rather giue contentment considering the estate of this life The second Obiection All demolishings carry deformity and cause horror Death is a demolishing of man therefore death causeth horror PAllaces Temples and other buildings yeeld a pittifull spectacle when we see them ruined and what shall man doe who exceedes in excellency all buildings yea the earth the heauen and all that we behold what can hee doe lying vpon the earth in death but perplexe our mindes To this I answer by distinction to the similitude and then I flatly deny the application I say therefore to the first proposition that there are two sorts of demolishings the one is necessary and wisely vndertaken for a better structure the other is preiudiciall and vndiscreetly done by reuenge for a totall ruine I confesse that this in its deformity should giue cause of horror but I cannot confesse that the like is in death in the
demolition of man but onely the first for as a wise master of a familie when hee sees that his house threatneth ruine that it sinks in many places and the walls open commands it to be pulled downe that with the ruines and materials hee may raise another to cōtinue many yeares euen so nature a most expert Architectrice seeing man ladē with woūds deiected with misery and melancholy cōsumed with age and grown cro◅ked with the gou◅e catar◅es sowe◅ him co◅uptible in the graue that after many changes she may raise him incorruptible by the powerful voice of Christ. If the earthly habitation of this mansion bee destroyed saith the Apostle S. Paule we haue a dwelling with God that is to say an eternal house in heauen which is not made with hands and therefore we sigh and desire so much to be cloathed with our mansion which is in heauen and this is for our soule expecting the Resurrection of her body And this body sayth the same Apostle being sown in dishonour shall rise againe in glory sowne in weakenesse shall rise in strength and sowne a sensuall body shall rise a spirituall body What thē can man produce against this but onely some murmuring of his Incredulity that it exceedes the bounds of reason without the which hee will not assure himselfe of any thing I answer that the full perswasion of that which is written in the holy word is well grounded vpon faith a particular gift of heauen to all true Christians touching the returning of our bodies as for the reasonable coniecture of our future life after death I deny that this hath beene altogether vnknowne to men guided onely by the instinct of nature and I will proue my assertion sufficiently in the 39. Argument if God so please To this first consolation we will adde a second that is nature finding the declining and wasting of the substance of man came by a sacred mariage to stay some portion in the matrix of his deare moity and to fashion and bring forth many other reasonable creatures at diuers times creatures which haue the same flesh and bones of father and mother And if it be true that a good friend is a second selfe what shal a good sonne bee but himselfe without any addition whereby is plainly manifested what Macrobius saith that the body recoiues three aduantages of the reasonable soule that is to say he liues he liues well and in succession of time he remaines immortall Ecclesiasticus goeth ◅art her saying That if the father of a childe dyes it is all one as if hee were not dead for hee hath left his like behind him hee hath seene him and hath ioyed hauing left one who shall take reuenge of his enemies and requite his friends And this was it which moued that great Law-giuer Plato to make a law that euery man at a comperent age should marrie a wife else he shuld be called before the Iudge condemned in a fine and declared infamous for that as he afterwards sayth euery man should consider in himself that there is a certen power efficacie of nature which makes men to purchase an Immortalitie he would inferre that whosoeuer leaues children doth reuiue in some sort in them It is an order of nature which we must inviolablie obserue ingendring we perish of the one side but we begin again of the other If our parents by their fading and dying substance had not giuen vs life we could not haue entred into it of our selues what wrong is it if nature doth that of vs for our children which she bath done of our Parents for vs Moreouer death which is a priuation of life is a beginning of life in nature remayning in the first matter by the which she disposeth her selfe to a new forme not to continue still at this deformed spectacle Thirdly wha◅ great deformitie see you in death which is not in him that sleeps Fourthly that deformitie which may be is not seene by him whom it concernes it is to the suruiuor◅ that it should be hideous but most commonly they find it pleasing reaping by that meanes large successions elboe roome freedome from comptroll and if it were otherwise the world would not be able to containe vs. And thus much for the first part of the obiection As for the 2. which resembleth the demolishing of building to death this similitude hath no proportion yea it is contrary to the state of the question for what makes a ruined building deformed It is the disorder we see in it it is but a heape of stones and timber the stones are not layd in order one vpon another neither is the timber raised as it ought to be It is then the forme that wants when as the materialls remaine but in man or rather a dead carcase the soule which is the forme receiues no blemish she is freed from the surprises of the graue Thou doest not complaine that the egge-shell is broken when a chicken comes forth neither is the body of man to be lamented when as the soule flies away But what great difformitie doest thou see in a dead body thou seest little or no difference at all with one that sleeps this doth not terrifie thee why should the other amaze thee especially if thou doest consider that the body which is dead is truely asleepe the which is a subiect of an other discourse as we shall see if God please But all things haue their period the ladder his last staffe and life her last degree Thou diddest ascend ioyfully so must come downe againe with the like content if in the last steppe or in the midst thou beest not carried away accidentially by some violent death but to returne to the place where thou hast beene taken thy nature doth exhort thee yea it forceth thee If too vniust thou doest not willingly giue thy consent looke into the degrees of life and this contemplation will giue thee cōsolation against death when thou wert borne into the world there was found in thee an appetite to some substāce or meat without thy selfe the which hauing beene supplied thee and sent by the mouth into the stomacke was conuerted into a conco◅ted iuyce and then transformed into bloud by the liuer refined into spirits by the heart and finally fitted to thy decaying body thou didst receiue nourishment force and Ioy these are the first degrees of life then climing higher thou hast extended the fiue faculties of thy senses thine eye to see beautiful things thine eares to heare melodious sounds thy nose to smell pleasing sents thy mouth to tast holesome and delightfull sauours and thy hand to handle smooth and wel polished things these are other degrees of the same life At length the reasonable soule comes to play his part the vnderstanding desires to know whatsoeuer the sences apprehend whatsoeuer his eye sees his eare heareth his hands touch and moreouer what they neither see heare nor touch reason flying to