Meditation upon Eternity and upon the Desire of Death p. 318. The Conclusion of this whole Collection How as from the beginning of this Treatise we have drawn from St. Augustin such Principles as were proper to establish this Proposition That perfect Souls desire Death and receive it with Joy So we end this Collection with a Discourse which the same holy Doctour made upon the same Subject wherein he pretends to engage all Men by their proper Interest to desire to pass forth of this World p. 326. To the devout Peruser of these Collections IF in the Mouth of two or three Witnesses every word is established Mat. 18.16 You have here devout Reader above six times that number of irrefragable Testifiers of that Truth which is intended to be established in this short Treatise to wit That Christians ought to despise Life and desire Death I. S. Augustin Leads the Van whose Principles are the Basis of the following Building He was one of the most famous and learned Fathers of the Church and the renowned Bishop of Hippo in Africa where he flourished in admirable Sanctity in year of our Redemption 400. and died in the year 433. The Fathers who preceded and who followed S. Augustin deliver the same Doctrin upon the same subject to wit II. Tertullian Who flourished in the Year 230. III. St. Cyprian The most Eloquent and holy Bishop of Carthage who was crown'd with Martyrdom in the Year 250. IV. St. Gregory Bishop of Nazian surnam'd the Divine the equal of St. Basil and the Companion of his studies who flourished in the Year 370. V. St. Basil Surnam'd the Great Arch-Bishop of Cesarea in Cappadocia who flourished at the same time to wit 370. VI. St. Gregory Bishop of Nyce the Brother of St. Basil who flourish'd in the Year 380. VII St. Ambrose Bishop of Milan who died in the Year 397. VIII St. John Chrysostom Bishop of Constantinople who died about the Year 407. IX St. Ireneus Bishop of Lyons in France who suffered under Severus in the Y. 180. X. St. Jerome Priest and Doctour of the Church who died in the Year 420. XI St. Isidor Bishop of Sevil in Spain who died in the Year 636. XII St. Eucherius Bishop of Lyons in France who died about the Year 433. XIII St. Fulgentius Bishop of Ruspen in Africa who died in the Year 529. XIV St. Paulinus Bishop of Nola in Campania who died in the Year 431. XV. St. Gregory The first most holy Hope of that Name deservedly sirnamed the Great who died in the Year 604. XVI St. John Climacus A holy Abbot in Mount Sina who flourished in the Year 560. XVII St. Bernard Abbot of Claraval an Apostolical man of great Sanctity who died in the Year 1153. XVIII The Author Of the Books of the Imitation of Christ XIX St. Laurence Justinian The 1. Patriark of Venice died in the Year 455. XX. St. Teresa A holy Virgin in Spain who lived and dyed in the last age Vpon the view of these many Evidences and multitudes of Authorities and upon the frequent perusall of these Collections you will undoubtedly by degrees render your Life more easy unto you and remove that vulgar and universal errour out of your mind concerning the dreadful apprehension of Death which you will familiarly behold and hourly expect as the happy period of your painfull and dangerous Pilgrimage and as the desirable passage opening to eternal Life eternal rest eternal felicity THE Holy Desires OF DEATH Article I. The First Principle of St. Augustin S. Aug. That the Difference which is between a Perfect and Imperfect Christian is That the first desires Death with Ardour and endures Life with Patience whereas the second only receives Death with Submission and hath not yet quitted all the Tyes which ordinarily fasten men to Life WIll you know what Progresse you have made in Charity In Epist â— Joan. tract 9. Examin your-self upon these Words of St. John The Perfection of our Love towards God consists in having an entire Confidence in him for the day of Judgment So that Charity is perfect in all them who have this Confidence What is it to have this Confidence for the day of Judgment 'T is not to dread its comming Some there are who do not believe this day will come I speak not of these impious Wretches for what likelyhood is there that they can either desire of dread that which they believe will never come to pass Epist 1. Joan. c. 4. v. 18. But as soon as a man begins to believe the day of Judgment he must also begin to fear it True it is that so long as he only fear's it he hath not yet Confidence because he is not replenish'd with this Charity which animates Faith Nevertheless this Fear ceases not to produce excellent Effects It is a beginning of Mortification and of good Works and it ordinarily falls out that by these exercises of Virtue they come to desire what formerly they only dreaded Then a Soul looks no longer upon that last day but as the first of her Happiness nor doth she go against her own Sen timents when she Prays-saying Lord Let your Kingdom come In effect He who fears lest the Kingdom of God should come fears also lest his Prayer should be heard Judg now in what manner one Prays when one fears to obtain what one demands whereas he who Prays with that Considence which perfect Charity gives him desires effectually that what he demands may be speedily granted him We may therefore say that there are yet some imperfect persons to whom Sufferings and Death serve only for an exercise of their Patience and of their Courage and who are not yet strong enough to desire to Suffer or to Die These because they desire to live longer simply suffer Death when it befalls them But there are others more perfect who are so unfetter'd from Life that in lieu of loving it as a good thing they endure it as an Evil. All that the former can do is to conquer the repugnance of Nature and to submit themselves to the Will of God because finally they like rather to conform themselves to what he hath ordained concerning them than to leave themselves to be transported with a bootless weakness in following their own will Thus altho ' the desire of this present Life struggles in their Heart against the necessity of Dying yet they arm themselves with Fortitude and with Patience to receive Death with Peace and with Submission One may say That the Christians who are in this Estate suffer Death with Patience But the Others who desire with the Apostle that their Souls may be untyed from their Bodies to be united to Christ Jesus are not content to suffer Life as a necessary Evil but they receive Death it self with Joy as a great Good because they find nothing in this present Life but subjects of Disquiet and of Sorrow and that they find in Death the end of all these
only with wild Roots my Imagination ingenious to persecute me ceased not to entertain it self with the delights of the Roman Citty I pass'd the day in sighing and the night in weeping for my Sins But the more I strove to quench with my Tears the secret fire of my Concupiscence the more that rebell was enkindled even in the marrow of my bones If sometimes the wearinesses of my penance forced me to abandon my self to sleep I paid not that tribute to Nature but against my will and to free my self quickly from it I suffer'd my body to fall to the ground it being extenuated with watchings and as it were broken with all sorts of macerations I had no other Pillow than a Stone no other Garment then a Hayr-cloath no other Drink than Water nor other Food than Herbs and Roots and when the weakness of my Stomack obliged me to eat them boyled for a more easy disgestion I durst not satisfy my hunger fearing to commit an excess in making good cheer This Abstinence and the heat of the Climat joyned to the ardour of my temper had dryed me up like a Skeleton and one might have counted all the Nerfs through a Skin more tawny than that of the Ethiopians In this sad estate I had more horrour of my self than of the Scorpions and of the Serpents which were round about me and yet my Spirit would escape on a sodain even amidst my most holy Meditations and quit Prayer to dream of the Roman Dames running over all the assemblies I had frequented formerly where the Devil had laid his mortall Baits to entrap Chastity Then being irritated at the revolt of my Senses which these thoughts had excited against me I massacred my breast with a thousand blows and I left not off striking it untill the Grace of our Lord had calmed my Passions He knows what my sorrow was after such strange Conflicts I blushed with shame Life was insupportable unto me All the corners of my Grot all the Rocks of my Solitude seem'd to me so many Censurers of my Life and so many Witnesses of my Weaknesses For this cause I often chang'd my habitation hoping to find out some one where I might have more quiet but my evil did not change because I bore every where about me the subject of my disquiet I avouch that in the height of my torments I ardently desired to die and that I could have wished it had been permitted me to go forth of the World When one day I was press'd with this thought more violently than I was wont I took up the Book of the sacred Scripture which was my sweetest comfort and as God would have it I fell upon that passage where the Prophet Amos says these terrible Words Joel 2.11 Accursed be they who inconsiderately desire the day of our Lord. Soph. 1.15 Who urges you thus to desire it That day of our Lord is a day without Light Amos. 1.18 a day of darkness and obscurity When you shall be weary of your misery overwhelm'd with infirmities persecuted with temptations rejected by the injustices of others when you shall be disgusted with the whole World and irksom to your self expect the hour of our Lord with patience Amos. â— 19 For what doth it avail a man to shun the meeting of a Lion if he falls into the paws of a Bear S. Ierom. It is not in his power to hinder his Soul from going forth when that hour shall be come Eccl. 8.8 and he hath no right to hasten or to slacken the day of his Death After this sacred Instruction I suffered Life patiently being resolv'd to employ all the moments thereof in doing good works and being perswaded that we may well desire Death but that it is not permitted us to advance or further it nor even so much as to demand it of God with overmuch impatience because although we ought to contemn Life yet we must not omit to conserve it Article XXI An Excellent Instruction of the same St. Jerome That Death ought to be looked on as an order of the Divine Providence rather than as an effect of human Infirmity and that so we ought to die by Obedience and by Love A True Christian looks upon Death not only as upon a subject of consolation Lib. 9. in Isaiam alibi but moreover as upon an object of love and of respect because it must be granted that it is God who makes us live and die when he pleases and that the end of our days is more an effect of the Divine Will than of human infirmity For if the fall of the least Sparrows happens not without the order of God as himself says in the Gospell we ought to believe by a stronger reason That the last fall of our Body never happens but according to the immutable decree of his Will We should therefore look on Death with Love considering it as an effect of the eternal Providence We must take from it that which Nature finds horrible in it and think that God sends it not to them whom he loves but to the end they should always love him In effect the greatest testimony he can give them of his love is to withdraw them out of the World and to free them from the slavery of their Body and of Sin to render them Saints and make them eternally happy I say yet much more we are in some sort made partakers even upon Earth of this happiness when we submit to his will with this Confidence And as the last mark we can give of our Love towards God is to receive Death with an entire Obedience and even with Joy when it summons us to go forth of the World so the most perfect act of our Faith and of our Piety towards Christ Jesus is to resign our selves before hand to what ever God shall ordain of our Life and of our Death Let us therefore with David say to him Ps 89. Behold we are ready O Lord Cut of the threed of our miserable Life when you please And surely what is the duration of our days They pass away more speedily than the Word We live ordinarily but Seaventy Years and the stronger scarcely pass Fourscore But should our Life endure a Thousand years before your eyes a Thousand years are no more then yesterday which is past and gone Death hurries them away as a Whirlwind and they disappear as a Dream So that how long soever our Life is it will be counted for nothing unless it is pleasing to you Grant then Sap. 3. O Lord that we may count our days by our Good Works and that we may know their shortness to the end we may acquire Wisdom of Heart Article XXII St. Jerome or the Authour of some Epistles attributed to him which are placed at the end of his Works urges this Doctrine yet farther and teaches That a Christian ought not only not to dread Death but that he ought also to
THE Holy Desires OF DEATH OR A COLLECTION Of some Thoughts of the Fathers of the Church to shew how Christians ought to despise Life and to desire Death By the R. F. Lalemant Prior of St. Genovefe and Chancellour of the University of Paris Englished by T. V. at the Intrance of a Person of Honour Printed in the Year 1678. Qui Perfectus est Patienter vivit Delectabiliter moritur The Perfect Man Lives Patiently Dies Pleasantly St. Augustin in his Expositioâ— upon the 1 Epist of St. John Tract 9. AN ADVERTISEMENT THis Collection entituled The Holy Desires of Death was only in its beginning a Simple and Literal Translation of some Passages of the Fathers of the Church which the Author made in his continual Infirmities for the Comfort of himself and of some persons of Piety Afterwards his Manuscript having been view'd by very Prudent and Illuminated persons they judg'd that it ought to be published but withall that it was fit it should be first enlarged and explicated by a kind of Paraphrase upon some of the Conceptions of the Holy Fathers which are couched in this Work thereby to render it usefull to more people by rendering it intelligible to all You will therefore find in some places that the Authour hath pick'd out only the Sense and as one may say the Sap and the Juyce of the Doctrine of these great Saints in explicating their Conceptions and in adding to their Expressions yet so as not to swerve from their Sentiments nor stray from the Character of their Spirits It was also conceiv'd that it might be permitted to support their Reasonings with the authority of the sacred Scripture and as that is the source of all their Lights to rely principally thereupon to strengthen this Work And this Liberality appeared to be so much the more tolerable by how much it was sometimes even Necessary to render the Discourse more consequent more connected more forcible and finally more capable to serve for the Edification of our Neighbour which is the sole Intention we had and which indeed one can justly have For the rest it ought not to be taken amiss if among the divers Conceptions here collected from the Scriptures and from the Fathers there are found some which resemble one another since even that Resemblance hath also great Advantages For besides that thereby it is made manifest that these Conceptions are not particular Opinions it is more over a sensible Mark of the spirit of Truth which dictated them and 't is to be hoped that they who shall Read them in the same Spirit will always derive from them some new Instructions We have plac'd St. Augustin in the first Rank of the Church Fathers whose Sentiments are here related because we found his Discourses so effectual that we belive'd we had reason to make them the Foundation of this Work and to style them by the Name of Principles because in effect all that which ensues whether out of the same St. Augustin or out of the other Fathers relates to the first Maxims which we have drawn from him as Consequences from their Principles It would have been very Natural and certainly very profitable to joyn in this Treatise the Example of the Holy Fathers to their Doctrine but the Authour having already traced the History of their holy Death in his Book Of the Death of the Just you may thither have recourse The CONTENTS of the Principal Matters contained in this Book I. Article THe First Principle of St. Augustin That the Difference which is between Perfect and Imperfect Christians is That the One love Death and endure Life and that the Other love Life and endure Death pag. 1. II. Article The Second Principle of St. Augustin That proportionably as the Christian feels his love for Virtue to encrease he also feels the Desire of Death to enerease in himself p. 7. The Vnion of the Two precedent Principles p. 9. III. Article St. Augustin having established these Two Principles answers an Objection p. 11. IV. Article The Third Principle of St. Augustin That there are among Christians two sorts of Fear to displease God p. 14. V. Article Other Principles of St. Augustin That we are not happy in this Life but by the Hope and by the Desire of Eternal Goods c. p. 21. VI. Article The Fathers who preceded and followed St. Augustin explicated themselves in the same manner as he did upon the same Subject p. 32. Tertullian says That Christians are distinguish'd from all other Men by the Desire they have of Death That they look upon it as a Grace which is to crown all the other Graces and That it is principally that which they dayly demand of God in their Prayers p. 33. VII Article Some Maxims of St. Cyprian collected from several places of his Writings and principally from the Discourse he composed Of Mortality p. 38. The First Maxim of St. Cyprian That Christians who dread Death are Vnjust and Vnreasonable because in saying every day to God in the Lords Prayer Thy Kingdom come they pray him to hasten their Death p. 39. The Second Maxim of St. Cyprian That 't is no mervail that Infidells and Wicked people dread Death but that this Weakness is not tolerable in Christians p. 43. The third Maxim of St. Cyprian That Christians ought not to love the World since the World hates Christians c. p. 46. The Fourth Maxim of St. Cyprian That Death ought to be consider'd by Christians as a passage from the Miseries of this Life to a glorious Immortality p. 48. VIII Article The Sentiments of St. Gregory of Nazian concerning the obligation which Christians have to contemn Life and to cover Death p. 54. IX Article The Abridgment of a Discourse of St. Gregory Bishop of Nisse Wherein he shews That we should be so far from lamenting them who go forth of this Life that we should rather envy and desire their Happiness p. 62. X. Article An Abridgment of a Treatise which St. Ambrose made de bono Mortis of the good of Death where he says That 't is Death which delivers us from the Miseries of this Life and from the servitude of Sin c. p. 77. XI Article An excellent Dostrine of St. Ambrose who establishes two manners of Living and of Dying observed in the Sacred Scripture p. 82. XII Article Divers Instructions of St. John Chrysostom p. 89. 1. Instruction where he shews what is it to be a Christian and that his principal Character is to desire and to love Death p. 90. XIII Article The Second Instruction of St. John Chrysostom That we should be miserable if our Life were never to end c. p. 100. XIV Article The Third Instruction of St. Chrysostom That Death is that which most of all humbles Man and that Humility being the Foundation of all Virtues it follows That to be virtuous we must meditate incessantly upon Death c. p. 112. XV. Article The Fourth Instruction of St. John
Chrysostom That we ought to be as ready to go forth of the World as Criminalls are ready to go forth of their Prison when one brings to them the Princes pardon p. 122. XVI Article The Fifth Instruction of St. Chrysostom That if we lived as beseems true Christians we should not have any difficulty to conceive Death to be the most desirable of all good things p. 128. XVII Article The Sixth Instruction of St. John Chrysostom That the Death of Christ Jesus should have cured us from the fear of Dying and that the Ceremonies of the Church in the Funerals of the Faithfull ought to give us Joy and Comfort p. 134. XVIII Article An Exhortation of St. John Chrysostom where he declaims with much vehemence against the lazy and imperfect Christians who fear Death and instructs after an admirable manner the zealous and perfect Christians who desire Death p. 146. XIX Article The Sentiments of St. Jerome concerning the Advantages which Death brings to Christians and the Obligation they have to prepare themselves for it and to think continually upon it p. 154. XX. Article St. Jerome teaches us what temper we ought to observe in the disgust of Life and in the desire of Death p. 160. XXI Article An Excellent Instruction of the same St. Jerome p. 173. XXII Article St. Jerome or the Authour of some Epistles attributed to him which are at the end of his Works presses this Doctrin farther and expresly teaches That a Christian ought not only not to fear Death wherein he would do no more than many Pagans have done but that he ought also to represent it often to himself to desire it and to love it if he will imitate Christ Jesus p. 177. XXIII Article We return following the Order of the time of St. Augustin and we relate some more Sentiments of this holy Doctour which confirm the Truths we have establish'd by his Principles p. 181. An Excellent Moral of St. Augustin against them who fear a temporal Death and dread not the Eternal Death p. 182. XXIV Art A pithy Reflexion of St. Augustin upon the shortness of the Life of the Body and upon the Eternity of the Life of the Soul p. 188. XXV Art A most true and edificatory Observation of St. Augustin That God by a particular Mercy besprinkles the most pleasing Sweets of this World with Bitterness and permits his Elect to be afflicted with Infirmities which Contradictions with Calumnies and with Crosses to oblige them to despise Life and to desire Death p. 193. XXVI Article St. Augustin teaches in several places of his writings as an assured Doctrine That the most solid Virtue of Christians and the most Visible Character of the Predestinate is to sigh continually in the expectation of Death and in the Hope of another Life p. 197. XXVII Article A Comparison of Faithful Christians with the Faithful Isralites In which St. Augustin shews That as the first coming of the Messias was the object of the continual Desires and of the devotion of the true Isralites so also the second coming of Christ Jesus ought to be the Aym of the most solid Piety and of the most fervent Desires of Christians p. 203. XXVIII Article An Instruction of S. Isidore of Damiet to all Christians to excite in them a perfect desire of Death p. 213. XXIX Article St. Eucherius Arch-Bishop of Lion exhorts Christians to observe attentively the different Agitations of human Passions the shortnesse of Life and the uncertainty of Death to the end they may never engage themselves in the Tumults of the World and that they may be evermore prepared to die p. 216. XXX Article St. Fulgentius and St. Paulinus prove That Death is a Recompence for the Just and a Chastisement for the Wicked That Life is to be counted by the quantity of good Works which one hath done and not by the number of Years one hath lived p. 223. XXXI Article Reflections of St. Gregory Pope upon the Subject which is proposed in this work p. 231. 1. Reflexion That the continual view of Death is the most assured means to lead a Holy and Quiet Life p. 231. XXXII Art 2. Reflexion of St. Gregory That naturally all the Desires and all the Actions of Man tend to Death That Grace should do in us that which Nature doth of it self c. p. 233. XXXIII Art 3. Reflexion of St. Gregory That they who love the World have some reason to fear the end thereof but That they who serve Christ Jesus ought not to be apprehensive of the Worlds destruction c. p. 238. XXXIV Art 4. Reflexion of St. Gregory That there are few Just persons who can truly say with St. Paul god forbid that I should glory in any other thing than in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ because the World is dead and crucified to me as I am Dead and Crucified to the World p. 241. XXXV Art A pithy Description which St. Gregory the Great makes of the necessities and of the Myseries of the Body and of the Soul whence this holy Pope concludes That men ought to desire Death for â—he enjoyment of a better Life in which they shall no longer be exposed either to Sorrow or to Sin p. 257. XXXVI Art S. John Climachus distinguishes the Desires of Death which the Devil suggests unto us from those which Grace inspires into us and he composed one Degree of his holy Ladder upon this subject where he shews That the Meditation of Death is the most profitable of all Spiritual Practices p. 270. XXXVII Art St. Bernard Teaches us That Hope is the portion of true Christians and That this Virtue makes them to love Death and to suffer patiently all the evils of this Life p. 277. XXXVIII Art St. Bernard proves That to the end we may not dread Death but receive it which Patience and even with Joy we must prepare our selves for it every day by 〈◊〉 true Repentance That by this meanâ— Grace overcomes Nature That what appears so terrible to a sinful man becomes pleasing to a just man but particularly to such as have embraced a Religious and solitary Life p. 288. XXXIX Art The Sentiments of St. Bernard touching the Comtempt which perfect Christians ought to have of Life and of Health From whence he takes Occasion to speak of the Patience which they ought to have in their Infirmities and of the Joy which the continual thought of Death ought to afford them p. 294. XXXX Art An Extract of some passages of the Book of the Imitation of Christ where it is treated of the Contempt of Life and of the desire of Death p. 299. XXXXI Art The admirable Prayses which St. Laurence Justinian gives to Death From whence he concludes That it is no wonder if they who are the most perfect among Christians are they who most desire it p. 311. XXXXII. Art A Collection of some of the admirable Sentiments which St. Teresa hath left us in her Writings touching the
account O thou ungrateful and insolent creature thou unfortunate work of the hand of the Allmighty thou kneaded vessel of clay by what right darest thou murmure against the God who created thee since instead of this gross form which is subject to corruption he will give thee another perfect and incorruptible Our Lord Jer. 18.6 says the Prophet hath commanded me to go down into the house of the Potter I found him turning a Vessel upon the wheel but the work was spoiled as soon as it was out of the hands of the workman he broke it in pieces and made another as himself pleased And shall not I have the same power as hath this Artist And the people of Israel are they not in my hands as the Clay is in the hands of the Potter O man what art thou adds the Apostle who darest dispute against God Rom. 9.20 The Work can it say to the Workman who formed it Why have you made me so Let us therefore thank him for the Life he hath given us perishable as it is since 't is the first favour we have received from his Bounty But let us look upon it as perishable and let 's demand of him a holy Death as the happy passage to that immortal Life which he hath promised us Article XIV 3. Instruction of St. Chrysostom That Death is that which most humbles man and That Humility being the foundation of all the Virtues it follows that to be virtuous we must incessantly meditate on Death talk of it at all times familiarise our selves with it visit Sepulchers and assist dying persons because nothing doth more edify and comfort than to see the Saints die and nothing more deterrs from impiety than to see the wicked die WHether Man labours to acquire Glory In c. 5. Genes hom 67. or to raise himself into Dignities or to heap up Riches Ser. de fide lege nat nothing doth so much humble him and makes him better to resent the vanity of all these things than Death A Conquerour who makes whole Provinces desolate and who breathes nothing but Blood and Murder may in vain blind himself with a fond passion of rendring his reputation immortal if Death which he brings into all places hath spared him for some time yet he is no less sure to die and to see the course of his conquests cut off by the same lot by which he hath made thousands perish before his eyes What avails it to this Magistrate to this Minister of State to this Favorit to have a troop of adorers attending him to have honour given him and to hear himself praised to the skies 'T is in vain for Flatterers to endeavour to raise up their birth by alotting to them Ancestours they never had 'T is frivolous to labour to justify their conduct which the Publick condemns and to predict to them a long Prosperity which so many accidents can overturn Death the faithfull councellour of those people to whom none dares speak truth presents it self unto them at every hour in publick in private in the height of their employments and even amidst their pleasures but in a shape much more terrible than it appears to ordinary persons and reads to them this affrighting Lesson Remember Man that thou art made of Earth and that thou art to return to Earth I have there laid all thy Predecessours Know that had not God commanded me to leave thee hitherto in the World to exercise the Good and to punish the Wicked 't is long since that the horrour of thy crimes would have obliged me to take thee from off the face of Earth The Rich and the Covetous are no more exempt from these threats than the Ambitious and altho' they are perpetually taken up with the care of keeping their treasures they cease not to hear the voyce of Death which secretly whispers in their Ears Luc. 12.20 To morrow I will fetch back thy Soul All thou hast been heaping up so many years shall be dissipated in the space of Six Months by thy Heirs Law-suits shall consume one part Riot shall swallow up the other part and among all thy Successours not one shall be found who will so much as remember to pray for thee Thus it is that the very wicked receive instructions from Death and that they learn of it to humble themselves in the enjoyment of their false Goods to which they would adhere yet more than they do if they were not averted by these wholsom advertisements But this Lesson hath never more force than in the mouth of dying persons Certainly there 's nothing more edifies a Christian and affords him greater comfort than to see a man breath forth well his last breath in producing acts of Piety of Love and of Confidence towards God The tranquillity which appears in his countenance is an effect of the quiet of his Conscience The Charities which he hath exercised the services which he hath rendred to the poor the Pardon which he hath granted to his Enemies his Watchings his Fastings his Mortifications and finally all his good works are as so many Angel-Gardians encompassing his Soul to defend her against the assaults of the Devil In this estate he explicates his last will without any trouble of Spirit he comforts and instructs them who assist him he demands of them to joyn their Prayers with his and after the tender embraces of the Cross of his Redeemer he renders up his Soul upon that adorable instrument of his dear Saviours Passion his Life is extinguished as a Light which hath no more nourishment his beautiful Soul fly's to Heaven and his Eyes are closed with that peaceable Sleep of the Just which doth not separate the Soul from the Body but to reunite them one day in Eternity What Christian well perswaded of the truth of his Religion would not desire to die in this manner and would not avouch that this Death is more desirable a thousand times than Life The Death of the Wicked is a far different Lesson but which doth no less instruct them who know how to make their profit of it One may there observe visible signes of Gods anger a terrible effect of those celebrious Words of the Scripture You who have had no other Gods but your own passions and who have contemned my Counsells and my Chastisements wicked wretches I will render speedily unto you with usurie the taunting scoffs which you have darted against me When you shall be in the arms of Death I will abandon you to despair and to fury I will no otherwise look upon you than with disdain and I will take pleasure to insult over your misery with a mocking laughter In effect those Athiests who braved Death when they conceived it to be far from them are a thousand times more weak than others when it is near at their dores The remorse of their Crimes begins to gnaw their Hearts and yet their Ears are shut against all holy instructions They
desire it and to love it if he will imitate Christ Jesus 'T Is a small matter not to dread Death since Pagan Philosophers who imagined they lost all in losing Life were free from this fear Is it a matter of more difficulty to overcome Death with the Christian Faith than with the profane Phylosophy Let us familiarize our selves with this Bugbeare it affrights only them who dare not look near at hand upon it But it suffices not to learn to die when old Age or Diseases threaten us with Death 'T is in the flourishing years of Youth and in the vigour of Health that we should most seriously apply our selves to this study For who told us that we should have time enough to prepare our selves thereto Since it's blows are unavoydable let us resolve to endure them So many Martyrs so many Virgins have affronted it with courage why shall we not imitate them God doth not always demand these bloody Sacrifices but as for the sacrifice of our Will he demands it every hour and I dare say that there is more merit to offer unto him our Life in all the moments wherein he conserves it unto us than to lose it once by the cruelty of the Executioners Let us aspire yet to a greater Perfection since we are Christians Let us change our Dread into Desire and our Aversion into Affection We have the honour to be Heyrs to a Man-God who hath changed the punishment of our Crime into a Sacrifice of Piety Let us desire Death as he desired it le ts love Death and le ts seek it even between the arms of the Cross as Christ Jesus there sought it Le ts render to him in dying the same Obedience which he rendred to his Eternal Father Finally let us rejoyce to go to find our Master since we are his Disciples Let us depart with alacrity to come to our Father since we are his Children For if we have no love for him nor Desire to be near him we are supposititious Children Children of darkness unworthy to see the Light and to reign one day with Christ Jesus Article XXIII The order of time demands now that we return to St. Augustin For besides the Principles of Doctrine upon which we in the beginning established the whole design of this Treatise there are moreover found in his Writings an infinity of pithy passages where he repeats and deeply prosecutes this matter S. Augustin An Excellent Morall of St. Augustin against them who fear Temporal death and who do not apprehend Eternal Death ALL men are apprehensive of the Death of the Body Tract 49. in Joan. but few there are who fear the Death of the Soul All the World strives to hinder that first from seizing on them which nevertheless will infallibly one day come upon him and scarcely and one labours to avoid that Death of the Soul Epist 45. ad Armamentarium which will no less infallibly follow unless timely prevented Was there ever any greater extravagancy than this For the Death of the Body is but the shadow and the Image of the Death of the Soul The Man who must necessarily die upon Earth uses all his endeavours not to die there and the same man who is designed to live eternally in Heaven uses no diligence to render himself worthy of that happy Life Thus having a will to do that which he cannot and having no will to do that which he ought his endeavours are useless and criminal When he attentively considers that Death is inevitable he troubles and disquiets himself to retard it at least for some Months But why doth he not rather consider that by leading a holy life he would secure an infinite happiness he would suffer no disquiet and that he should die even with joy because he might justly hope to live happily in Eternity We expose our selves dayly to contempt to a thousand perplexities and to all sorts of vexations and even to the dangers of losing our Lives in seeking out the means to conserve it And this passion of living long doth so strangely blind men that they sometimes die with the sole-fear of dying To fly from a furious Beast they cast themselves headlong into a River To avoid a Shipwreck they throw their Victuals into the Sea Fear doth that in them which rashness could not do An affrighted man knows no longer any danger Such a one to escape the kind of Death which he dreaded exposes himself to a thousand Deaths more terrible than that wherewith he was threatned What torments doth not the Iron and the Fire cause them to suffer who put them selves into the Chirurgions hands They endure to have a part of their Body cut off to save the other A man who loves his health submits himself as a Slave to all that the Physitians ordain him to do or suffer and although he knows the vanity of their Art he omits not to obey them in all things nor can his own experience nor the uselesness of their applications nor the uncertainty of their skill undeceive him This man more sick of Imagination than of any other Disease feeds himself with a false hope of being cured try's all sorts of remedies and hastens his Death by the Medicines which are given him to prolong a little while his Life But the most horrible of all the effects which are caus'd by so blind and so irregular a passion is That Men to live a little longer adventure sometimes to offend him mortally who is the very Source of Life For fearing to lose a Life which must necessarily end they lose a life which must never end And yet God commands us but few things and those very easy to deliver us from the true Death which we nevertheless neglect to put in practise We our selves only are to be blamed if we obtain not a Life which will eternally preserve it self without the help of men and whereof our Enemies can never deprive us But as for this death which we so much fear we cannot possibly avoid it and are most sure to suffer it though never so much against our will Article XXIV A pithy reflection of St. Augustin upon the shortness of this Life and upon the Eternity of the other to stir up Christians to unfetter themselves more and more from the Earth and ardently to breath after Heaven O Men In Psal 36. Serm. 107. de diversis who are engaged in the course of this Life and who prepare your selves to end it well do not bound your consideration only upon the places through which you must pass consider that place where you are to arrive You shall indeed suffer much in this journey but you surely shall come at the end to an eternal rest Cast your Eyes upon the recompense which is prepared for you and you will look with contempt upon the miseries you endure on Earth For if you compare the Evils you suffer with the felicity which is promised you you will be
Love to the end we may behold him face to face in a blessed Eternity S. Isidor Article XXVIII An Instruction of St. Isidore of Damiet to all Christians to excite them to a perfect desire of Death SOme persons even the most pious perswade themselves oftentimes In Epist passim that they have no longer any tye and adhesion to Life nor to any thing of this World But 't is an Errour to fancy that one is entirely untyed from it if he feels not in his Heart a true desire of Death Let him who believes himself to be in so perfect an estate enter seriously into himself and he shall undoubtedly perceive that the Will of Man reigns yet in his Soul and that he is not totally uncloathed of the love of Life Let him severely examin himself let him question himself and ask of his Soul Do we no longer fear Death Doth nothing fasten us any longer to Life If we were to die within one Year within one Month within one Day if we were to die in this Moment should we be ready to render an accompt to God of our Actions And should we have no reluctancy to quit our freinds our relations our dwelling our works For we adhere to all and this adhesion is sometimes more violent for small matters than for the greatest Yet if there remains any thing that chains our Will to the World the Love which we have for God is not perfect Our Life upon Earth is a continual Warfare We bear Arms for the Glory of God He commands us to march to fight to pour forth our blood for him Why shall we not do for an Eternal Recompense that which men do for the reputation of a few days Let us then seriously examin our selves and let us see whether our heart is wholly submitted to this holy discipline of the Warfare of Christ Jesus Let us see whether according to St. Pauls precept we have taken for the Armour of our breast and back Faith and Charity Thes 5.8 and for our Helmet the Hope of Salvation For if our submission is perfect our Love will also be perfect and Death will afford us joy instead of giving us terrour Article XXIX St. Eucherius Arch-Bishop of Lyon exhorts Christians to observe attentively the different agitations of human Passions the shortness of Life and the uncertainty of Death to the end they may never engage themselves in the tumults of the World S. Eucherius and that they may be evermore prepared to die HAve you never contemplated from the Sea-shore Epist ad Valerianum the combat of the Winds disputing among themselves for the Empire of the Waves That dreadfull bellowing of the Billows which rush one upon another and push them with such violence against the Rocks whilst the mountains of Water and of Froth seem to ascend to the skyes and then sodainly to descend to the abysmus Doth not this sight inspire I know not what horrour which is nevertheless accompanyed with some pleasure and which insensibly engages the beholder to meditate upon those mervails This is the most lively and the most resembling Image we can find of the Agitations of the World But to behold them well we must stand upon the Shore and consider according to the spirit of God the joys and the afflictions the hatred and the freindship the quarrells and the reconciliations the fortune and the misfortune of men the flux and the reflux of their interests of their designs and of all their actions how they do and undo how they seek and shun the same things how one generation succeeds another how the Grandfather makes place for the Father and the Father for the Son not any of them thinking seriously during the whole course of their Life of the rapidness of this motion which trails them towards their Death Certainly this spectacle is a learned Lesson for them who know how to make their profit of it and we may say that it also affords some satisfaction when one reflects upon himself and finds that he is exempt from that trouble which overthrows the reason of all the rest of men Happy Tranquillity Adorable Peace of the love of Christ Jesus How sweet is it to them whom you have timely placed in the haven of their Salvation to behold in safety the fury of the Tempest without fearing either the winds or the waves or the rocks or the quick sands But as for us who have escaped Shipwreck by a sincere penance we I say who know the dangers out of which you our good God have delivered us give us we beseech you a holy horrour upon the sight of this terrible spectacle of the Tempests of the World and an ardent desire to be freed from them for ever by a Christian Death And surely we must not expect to enjoy a perfect calm so long as we sojourn upon Earth Should we live longer we should not be more happy The Life of our Fathers is ended our own slides dayly away Let us make place for them who are to follow us a little sooner or a little later the difference is small for they will not long survive us Finally in the same manner as the Surges of the Sea follow push and press upon one another by a precipitated motion and as the Waves which are raysed up highest fall down afterward the lowest to make room for a second the second for a third which is driven away by an infinity of other followers all which in the sequell come to be dissipated upon the shore even so the Life of one man succeeds that of another man one is elevated and the other is humbled according to the capriciousness of fortune But by how much their elevation is higher by so much the abysmus into which they sink is deeper and all terminate in Death Article XXX S. Fulgen St. Fulgentius and S. Paulinus prove That Death is a Recompense for the Just and a Chastisement for the Impious That the length of Life is to be computed by the number of Good Works one hath performed and not by the number of days one hath lived THe bad man trembles at the bare Name of Death Hath he the least indisposition Fulg. Epist 5. ad Gall. He believes 't is a mortal Sickness Paulin. Ep. 37. ad Pam. If one talks to him of God he falls into a fury He complains of the impotency of Remedies He is pierced with the apprehension of the least danger His Soul Prov. 12. and 28. says Solomon is perpetually perplexed with vain terrours Sap. 3. and 4. c. He flies when no one pursues him But the Just looks upon the danger without being affrighted and marches on like a Lion who is secure of his strength and of his courage Nothing that befalls him contristates him and if he were threatned even with Death he would be so far from being afraid that he would rejoyce at it because his Heart is in the