kernells of so many seuerall seedes somewhat before or at the Spring doe grow shoot vp and become so great that they are Plants and young Trees in the Summer or in the Autumne following Shall wee say that the same God who hath giuen this vertue to seedes is not able to doe as much in the most noble of his creatures and made expresly for his glory Christ Iesus propoundeth this argument when hee sayth in the 12. Chapter of S. Iohn Verily verily I say vnto you if the wheat corne falling into the earth doe not dye it abideth alone but if it dye it bringeth forth much fruit And S. Paul in the fifteenth Chapter of the first to the Corinthians Vers 35. c. But some man will say How are the dead raised vp and with what bodies come they forth O foole that which thou sowest is not quickened except it dye and as for that which thou sowest thou sowest not that which shall come vp againe but bare corne as it falleth of wheat or of other graine But God giueth it a body as hee will and to euery seede his owne body The Patriarch Iob in his fourteenth Chapter describing the frailty of our life in earth prayeth God in these tearmes Turne from the man that is afflicted let him be at rest till hee come to the end of his life as a hireling Then he addeth For if a Tree be cut downe there is hope and it will yet sprout and his branches shall not fayle Although the root thereof waxe old in the earth and the stocke thereof be dead in the ground yet feeling water it will bud and bring forth bowes as a Tree newly planted But man dyeth and all his strength is gone yea man breatheth out his last gaspe then where is hee These are the complaints of Iob extreamely afflicted beholding in his condition the condition of such like himselfe not speaking precisely nor determinately much lesse after the manner and meaning of Epicures On the contrary both his wordes of the tree cut downe and growing greene againe and that which hee addeth presently after makes it plaine what sense and feeling hee had in his soule of the doctrine concerning the resurrection The waters saith he flow from the Sea and the Riuer decayes and is dryed so mans lies in the earth and riseth not to wake againe till the heauens be no more they shall not to wake and they shall not be awakened from their sleepe It is well said for our bodies being cut off and layd vpon the earth and in the earth in the day of death shall take root againe haue bud and fruit that is shall liue againe They shall indeed rest in the earth vntill the end of the world And as S. Peter declareth in the third Chapter of his second Epistle Verse 10. The day of the Lord shall come as a theefe in the night In that day the heauens shall passe away with a whizzing tempestuous noyse It is that which Iob denoteth by these words There shall be no more heauens and the Elements shall melt with heate and the earth and all the workes therein shall be quite burnt vp But moreouer the same Patriarch maketh a plaine confession of his faith vpon this Article in the 19. Chap. Vers 25. saying As for me I know that my Redeemer liueth and that he shall stand the last day on the earth and although after my skinne wormes destroy this body I shall see God in my flesh whom I my selfe shall see and mine eyes shall behold him and none forme So then it may bee demonstrated from the first testimony of the tree cut downe after growing greene againe that the resurrection of the flesh is not aboue nor beyond besides nor against nature Notwithstanding wee acknowledge that the mighty power of God shall then bee seene as it was when hee raysed vp Christ Iesus shut vp in the graue as the Apostle witnesseth Rom. 1. 4. Ephes 1. 19. 20. And in the third Chapter of the Philippians at the end From heauen sayth hee wee looke for the Sauiour and the Lord Iesus Christ who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned and made conformable to his glorious body according to the working and efficacy whereby hee is euen able to subdue all things to himselfe Among the ancient Theologians S. Basil doth propose and set out an image of the resurrection in those Insects which wee call Silke wormes Wherefore doe you wonder sayth he in his exposition of the six daies at the change which shall bee of our bodies at the day of the resurrection Seeing you see so many mutations and changes in the very insectes especially in the horned Indian worme It is first a Caterpiller which turnes to a Silke-worme Moreouer it keepes not this forme but is changed into a Butter-flye You those women who artificially winde vp your quilles and bobbins of silke and so cunningly and wittily twisted on your fine skaines and clues to make the most costly and curious garments that can be worne Remember you the diuersitie of this admirable worme to gather from it a cleere and certaine testimonie of the resurrection and beleeue that one day our bodies shall be otherwise then they be in this present life and in the graue Tertullian in the booke which he penned of the resurrection of the flesh confirmeth this Article of our faith by reasons worthy memory What difference is there at the first beginning to giue vs our life and after to restore it againe We cannot dispise the flesh of man except wee would also dispise the Lord and Creator of the same flesh The earth from whence the body of our flesh was taken is vile but that which is abiect and contemptible in his originall may bee excellent in regard of his very subsistence and matter Gold is but yellow earth and yet is much more precious then any other earth Doe we call the flesh vile wherein God hath infused the breath of his Spirit which the Sonne of God hath prised hath willed to be baptised and commanded to receiue the holy signes of the Sacrament with thankesgiuing True it is that the workes of the flesh that is of mans nature corrupted by sinne are condemned but not the flesh it selfe which the Sonne of God hath resumed and taken into the vnity of his person being God-man euerlastingly Moreouer the accomplishment of the last iudgement should bee imperfect if the whole man should not appeare there to the end that hee who hath suffered in his body for the confession of the truth may receiue remission and repose and that hee whosoeuer hath made the members of his body slaues to execute wickednesses may be punished Also it is meete that we should take vpon vs to spanne with our fingers and measure with our arme the miracles of God who alone as all people who are not altogether brutish doe auouch doth wonderfull workes of purpose that there might bee many choyce and rare
things in the world and not to be paralleld whereof the reason is hid from vs though we see the things themselues But there is a great difference betweene the destruction or annihilation and the change of nature As we beleeue the resurrection of this our flesh so is it certaine that the nature of the same flesh shall subsist and remaine in the life eternall But the condition shall be changed in as much as this flesh vile and miserable shall be made glorious and happy These are some proofes brought by Tertullian Lactantius Firmianus in his Booke of the Heauenly Reward Chap. 23. obserueth That the Pagan Philosophers who desired to discourse of the last resurrection haue confounded and soyled this Article of our faith as al the Poets haue done Pythagoras maintained that the soule did transmigrate and passe out of one mans body into anothers and that he himselfe in the Troian warre was Euphorbus Chrysippus the Stoicke hath made a better answere who in his Booke De Prouidentia discoursing of the restauration of the world addeth This being so wee see that it is not impossible that after our death at the end of the reuolutions of some ages wee may bee restored againe into the state and condition wherein we are now But as Lactantius addeth the faith of Christians is much otherwise and their hope much more certaine For they vndoubtedly beleeue the resurrection of the flesh confirmed by most sacred and inuincible proofes of the holy Scripture by the promises of God and by the motions of the Spirit which raysed vp Christ Iesus from the dead as the Apostle declares it in the eight Chapter to the Romanes saying If the Spirit of him that raysed vp Iesus from the dead dwell in you hee that raysed vp Christ from the dead shall quicken also your mortall bodies because of the Spirit dwelling in you True it is that the wicked shall rise againe in their bodies but this shall not bee for any communion they haue with the body of Christ Iesus nor with his Spirit but simply by the absolute power of God who shall giue them againe their being life and motion to suffer the second death being for euer damned in their bodies and soules So then such a resurrection cannot be counted grace nor called regeneration nor a resurrection to life but a repairing to condemnation whereof S. Iohn writes these wordes in the twentith Chapter of the Apocalips Verse eleuenth c. I saw a great white throne and one that sate on it from whose face fled away the earth and the heauen and their place was no more found I saw the dead great and small standing before God and the Bookes were opened and another Booke was opened which is the Booke of Life and the dead were iudged by the things which were written in the bookes according to their workes and the Sea gaue vp her dead which were in her and death and hell deliuered vp the dead which were ion them and they were iudged euery man according to their workes And the wicked were cast into the lake of fire this is the second death And whosoeuer was not found written in the Booke of Life was cast into the lake of fire Blessed then bee God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ who by his great mercy hath regenerated vs into a liuely hope by the resurrection of Christ Iesus from the dead to obtain an incorruptible inheritance which cannot bee defiled nor fade away reserued in the heauens for vs who are kept by the power of God thorough faith to haue the saluation prepared to be reuealed at the last day wherein we reioyce being now made heauy by diuers temptations as it is meete to the end that the triall of our faith much more precious then gold which perisheth and yet is tried in the fire may turne to our prayse honour and glory when Iesus Christ shall be reuealed who speaketh thus vnto vs in the person of his Disciples in the beginning of the 14. Chapter of S. Iohn Let not your hearts bee troubled You beleeue in God beleeue also in me There are many dwelling places in my Fathers house I goe to prepare a place for you and when I shall be gone hence and shall haue prepared a place for you I will come againe and will receiue you to my selfe that where I am there may you be also Then shall be the true regeneration and restauration of Gods children when the soule emptied of all errour ignorance and malice shall be filled with new illumination perfect righteousnesse and holinesse when the body clothed with glory and immortalitie shall see death swallowed vp in victory In him there shall be no fainting decâ—ying drooping nor old age The bodies of the Saints sayth S. Augustine in the 19. chap. of his Manuel shal rise againe without blemish without deformity without corruption heauines or impediment This shall as easily be done as their felicity shall be consummated for which cause wee call them spirituall although their bodies ought still to remaine not to be changed into Ghosts and Spirits As for the corruption which now presseth downe the soule and the vices by whose meanes the flesh lusteth against the spirit such flesh shall cease to be because it could not be able to possesse the Kingdome of God In regard of the substance of the same flesh it shall not be abolished but still remaine but euerlastingly glorified For this cause S. Paul said That the body being sowen a fleshly body shall rise againe a spirituall body because there shall be so strong an vnion betweene the soule and the body that the soule making the body to liue without any supply of nourishment and hauing no more combate and striuing within vs betweene the spirit and the flesh all being then spirit we shall not feele any enemies assaults nor dangers whatsoeuer without nor within but shall be repleat compassed about saciated crowned with permanent glory Behold as touching this point of the resurrection of the flesh The beleefe of this Article encourageth all Christians but particularly wise old men patiently to beare their infirmities and maladies remembring the counsell of the Apostle S. Peter in the third Chapter of his second Epistle Seeing that so it is sayth he that the heauens and the earth must be dissolued what manner of persons ought wee to bee in holy couersation and holy workes looking for and hasting vnto the comming of the day of the Lord by whom the heauen being set on fire shall bee dissolued and the Elements shal melt with heate But according to his promise wee looke for new heauens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousnesse Wherefore beloued seeing ye looke for such things be diligent that ye may bee found of him in peace without spot and blamelesse Let vs strengthen this Article of the resurrection by the notable sayings of S. Paul to the Corinthians Chap. 5. of the 2. Epistle We must all appeare before the iudgement
the Beastes doe suour the earth and desire nothing but that which is earthie and of the earth Man on the contrary as the wisest of the Heathens especially Plato and Cicero in diuers passages of their writings doe obserue hath a diuine and heauenly soule which being enfranchised and deliuered out of the prison of the bodie returneth to the place of his originall And the more generous the mind of man is the more he lusteth after and desireth heauenly thinges meditating and looking for a better state and condition then he enioyeth in this present life From thence it commeth to passe that he despiseth losses and troubles calamities wounds and death it selfe holding it a great honour to yeeld vp his soule in some valiant and vertuous exployt and enterprise for the seruice and safetie of his Countrie to the end to goe to the other life where good men haue their reward Salust sayth that the vertuous effectes and suffringes of the minde are no lesse immortall then the soule it selfe which to vs is common with God but the body assimilateth and a greeth with the beastes Another reason hath strongly perswaded the auncient Philosophers to beleeue the immortality of mans soule That God should seeme otherwise vniust if he should suffer the vau-neantes treacherous dissolute to prosper in the world after to escape his vengeance and good men who are industrious and imploy themselues to preserue humane societie should vtterly perish in death without hope of rest at the end of their trauailes and of ioy after so many disquiets and griefes of minde and of a crowne at the end of so many thousand fought battailes and combatts Vndoubtedly prophane persons who are bold to thinke and affirme the soule of man to bee mortall doe abolish as much as in them lyes all pietie and religion they ouerthrow all vertuous and laudable actions and enterprises and as S. Ambrose very well sayth in his exposition of the worke of the six dayes they are madd-men Furthermore what is more avers preposterous and ill beseeming then to haue a straight body and a crooked soule alwayes groveling and stooping to the earth never lifting or rouzing vp it selfe toward heauen her true dwelling place But as God our creator hath plainly instructed vs in his word touching the originall end and soueraigne good of man It is also from the same word that wee must gather the infallible doctrines which we doe handle Mans soule was not composed of the elements nor fabricated or formed of the dust of the earth but the Lord God inspired it and endowed it with diuers gifts Little children doe obtaine even a soule of God their creator to wit a reasonable soule not of the seed of their fathers and mothers but by the singular fauour and benefit of him whom the Apostle Hebr. 12. calleth the Father of spirits and not without cause For although that he be the father of our bodies yet notwithstanding he created not our soules by corporall helpes but hath placed them in our bodies as excellent lampes and lights as Salomon speakes of them Prov. 20. 7. We call them immortall for two reasons first by reason of their essence which is spirituall and originarie or primarie from God the giuer of it Secondly in regard of the grace peculier to the children of God for so much as we haue communion with Iesus Christ the eternall Word of the Father the Prince and author of life This immortall and eternall life is the true happie life and so much to be desired so much recommended in the Scripture whereof Saint Paul sayth The just shall liue by faith Rom. 1. 17. Also who beleeueth in me hath eternall life Iohn 6. 47. And the Apostle sayth Iesus Christ hath abolished death and brought life and immortalie vnto light thorough the Gospell 2 Timoth. 1. 10. For although the soules of the wicked in regard of their essence sense and motion be immortall neuerthelesse they suffer death in as much as they are depriued of the iustice light beatitude and glorious life of God vpon which cause the wicked who triumph and braue it for a while in the world are called dead and after this present life it is sayd that they goe into condemnation and into eternall death because the state wherein they are then to be and remaine in perpetuall torments deserueth rather the name of death then life Prophane people talke they know not what in obiecting vnto vs that neuer any came from the other world as they babble and prattle to tell newes of them O the greatest fooles and idiots among people O silly sotts will they be still madde miserable and more brutish them beasts who beleeue nothing but what they see with their eyes and touch with their hands According to their babble they ought to giue ouer to beleeue that they doe participate of reason seeing they doe not see their soule Let them giue ouer to beleeue that our friends dwelling remote and farre from vs doe liue and are at their ease and content desiring to see vs againe and that because wee see them no more But to proceed it is not simply true that neuer any returned from the other life on the contrary the Histories of the Old and New Testament doe furnish vs with examples of men and women of young striplings and damsells raised againe from death The Prince of our faith the head of all Christians our Lord Iesus descending from heauen to assume our humaine nature in earth hath tould vs ample and gladsome newes of the state of heauen and of life eternall His ascension to heauen in bodie and soule is an assured pledge that we also shall ascend into heauen in our bodies and soules S. Paul caught vp into the third heauen where he was informed of the high and deepe mysteries and secrets of God from thence came to tell vs afterward many particularities of the Church Christ Iesus is in heauen and we shall liue there For although that death dissolue the bodie into dust from whence it was taken death cannot let the soule to returne to him that gaue it And when we die young and old let vs after the example of Christ Iesus and of Dauid recommend our soules to God rendring them into his hands as into the handes of a most faithfull keeper and gardian of them And let vs say with S. Stephen Lord Iesus receiue my soule being well assured that at the same houre when it shall be fit for vs to goe out of this present life we haue part in that gracious promise of the sonne of God made to the sinner conuerted Verely I say vnto thee that this day thou shalt be with me in Paradize This is the sweete voyce which still ought to be sounding in the heart of the wise Vieillard to the end that being at the poynt to leaue this world as his age plainely shewes him his conscience doe not smite and checke him to be a prophane person and a contemner
is mortall in vs may bee swallowed vp of life In heauen which indeed is the land of the liuing we shall be stripped of all that is vile contemptible mortall fraile and corruptible in vs and shall bee clothed with a robe of glory and blessed immortality In which countrey as Saint Augustine in some place saith we shall finde true and faithfull dealing and from whence all impostures errour and falshood is banished as there our ioy shal be a true ioy so there our life also shall bee a true life Now although the damned doerise againe yet to speake properly they shall not liue for their life shall bee in perpetuall torments and therefore are they stil kept aliue that their tortures should neuer haue end that their gnawing worme die not and that their fire of torment goe not out That life onely is to bee accounted a life which is both euerlasting and happy God hauing no purpose therefore that his elect children should mewe vp or confine their felicitie within the little narrow compasse of a brittle and perishing life but should seeke out and looke for another countrey where they may liue at more libertie and for euer hath beene contented to giue them a most assured testimony thereof before the law and before the flood in the person of the Patriarch Henoch then vnder the law in the middle age of the world in the person of his Prophet Eliah and in the last age of the world in the person of Iesus Christ Which three persons are now gone into heauen The first two as young schollers and disciples purposely trained vp and chosen to bee heires of eternall life that they might bee to all others worthy witnesses of euerlasting happinesse and that the men of their times might euidently see and bee assured by that which fell out in the liues of these two great persons whom Tertullian in his Booke of the resurrection of the flesh surnameth The white robed Saints of eternitie that there is another land of the liuing where wee shall one day meete together as well in body as in soule And as for Christ Iesus our Sauiour he as head of the Church and as a tryumphing conquerour of death and hell is ascended into heauen to prepare a place in his kingdome for those that be his to draw vnto him at the appointed time all the members of his mysticall body Then shall be fulfilled all the words of the Prophet mentioned in the end of the hundred and second Psalme Thou hast afore all times laid the foundation of the earth and the heauens are the worke of thy hands they shall perish but thou shalt endure they shall waxe old as a garment thou shalt alter and change them as a garment and they shall be altered and changed But thou art alwayes the same thy yeares shall bee at a stay and neuer faile the children of thy seruants shal dwell in thy presence and their seed shall remaine and be established in thy sight CHAP. III. Of the tree of Life and of the tree of Knowledge of good and euill MOst happy was the state and condition of our father Adam before his fall in that excellent Garden where his Creator had placed him Where so long as he would doe that which God commanded him hee liued at pleasure and hearts ease was in fauour with God who created him good he wanted neither meat nor drinke conuenient nor any good thing The tree of Life was a strong guard to his person to defend him against the assaults of old age that it durst not come neere to approch or seize on him he needed not to feare sicknesse or any outward thing to hurt or annoy him hee had there perfect health of body and tranquilitie of minde This Saint Augustine affirmes of him in his 14. Booke De Ciuitate Des chap. 16. Let vs adde that which Damascene writes of him in the eleuenth Chapter of Orthodoxall faith in these words That Gods will and purpose being to create man after his owne image and to make him the prime Monarch ouer all the world hee prepared and built him a most stately and sumptuous Palace where hee might lead his life in all happinesse And this was the Garden of Eden a store house of all sorts of spices and of all things else which might giue him content and delight a place very temperate radiant and shining with a most cleere wholesome pure and fresh ayre strewed all ouer with greene hearbes and with most fragrant and sweet smelling flowers In the middest was planted the tree of Life and the tree of knowledge of good and euill to no other end but to prooue and exercise his obedience and that hee might see that Gods will was not that hee should be distracted with diuers and wandring imaginations and that his chiefest businesse should bee to prayse and blesse his Creator and to make it his solace and delight to sixe his thoughts and affections on him These testimonies of Saint Augustine and Damascene doe explaine the wordes of Moyses who saide that the earthly Paradise for so is the Garden of Eden commonly called was not an allegoricall and imaginary Garden or some Orchard hanging in the ayre and not really in nature but it was the sight of a goodly countrey surueyed by measure had his bounds and abuttments vpon a certaine angle of the world towards the East where Eue was framed and carued out of the side of Adam and where trees and fruits did naturally growe and was the foode by which they did liue And this Garden of Eden was not the whole continent of the earth for Adam and Eue after their fall were banished and driuen out of it to goe to seeke there dwelling elsewhere All Diuines doe affirme that in the History of Adams creation as things are penned and set downe by Moyses in the three first Chapters of Genesis there were many mysteries contained But it followes not as Saint Augustine in his eight Booke vpon Genesis according to the litterall text learnedly cleares the point that in the said History of Adams first estate there was nothing conteined but Allegories Idenes and things mysticall As it must not bee inferred vnder the collour and pretext that the pillar which followed the people in the Desert was Christ that there was not a materiall and naturall rocke out of which gushed out waters which did naturally quench the peoples thirst in the Desert If then a mysticall and typicall sense bee the matter in question Saint Ambrose in his fourth Volume and Tractat Saint Augustine in his second Booke vpon Genesis vrging the words of the text litterally against the Manichees and Damascene in the place before alledged doe also say that the Garden of Eden was a figure of the Paradise and felicity of the Church in the middest whereof was planted Christ the true tree and bread of life out of which followeth riuers of heauenly and euerlasting life As also that it signified and
wherewith the iudge of the world can danton and keepe vnder the mighty and meane persons who neuer haue care of their consciences It sufficeth mee that they themselues are sensible witnesse of them or if they remaine for a time stupide and sencelesse that the Almighty hath sharpe roddes of fearefull vengeance in store wherewith he doth whip them at last though he spareth them a while Let vs speake a word of choller or anger which like a thunderbolt killes millions of young and old men with the sword or with suddained seases Histories declare that in former times Valentiaian the Emperour and of late in our time Mathias King of Hungarie giuing way and suffering themselues to bee ouercome with choler and anger dyed both of an Apoplexie It hath beene seen that many old men furiously transported with choler and anger haue fallen into soundings convulsions of the synewes and other incurable diseases Women of ripe age who are too much giuen to anger and fretting are commonly seene as a reward of their indiscretion punished with the suffocation of the mother the falling sicknesse and other such fearefull scourges Couetousnesse ambition and the loue of the world make many men so hide bound with anguish and griefe that it is impossible to cure or comfort them when they haue most need of helpe Soft handed sloth and idlenesse contrariwise excessiue labours and violent exercises and countries that are too cold marish and moyst doe all giue an helping hand to make vp an vnseasonable old age But I haue not taken vpon mee to score vp all the accidents and occasions to further old age Happy is hee that in his youth giueth not the bridle to the furious bounding and rising of his vnlawfull desires and in his generall and particular calling amuseth and applieth himselfe to all laudable exercises and sincere holy duties doing all good offices and seruice with a franke and free heart to God and to his neighbours and hauing a care to keepe himselfe temperate and vnspotted from the impure and rude manners of the world CHAP. VI. Of the Climactericall yeares SOmetimes as men meete together they fall in talke of the Climactericall years especially when occasion is offered to speake of mens ages and the dayes of their death Plinie in the seuenth booke of his Historie of Nature 49. Chap. And Censorinus in his booke of Natiuities doe treate of them at large These two namely Censorinus doe obserue that euery seuenth yeare notable changes haue fallen out in some mens liues and Physicians doe hold the seuenth yeare to bee Climactericall and fatall Those that doe calculate mens Natiuities doe hold that yeare fortie nine which is compounded of seuen times seuen and the yeare sixtie three compounded of nine times seuen is more perillous then any other and they haue shewed that at the periodes and ends of these yeares many worthy and great persons haue dyed Plato iudged the yeare eightie one which is compounded of nine times nine to be the Climactericall yeare which was most to bee feared which hee calleth the square number Censorinus doth not thinke the yeare sixtie three so dangerous and maketh mention of some men who haue dyed at the yeare of their age eightie one as also of others who haue liued longer whereof wee haue many examples in our dayes The iudiciarie Astrologers are full of vncertaintie and vanitie in their Art and profession besides considering the great and infinite deuersity of humane chances and casualties of mens constitutions of the iudgements of God they are to presumptuous to limit the life of man to certaine periodes and numbers of dayes which they call Climactericall The members of the body haue not efficacy or ability of themselues there is necessarily required a symmetry and proportion betweene the agent and the patient as betweene the body and the disease betweene the disease and the cure The number of seuen is otherwise iudged of in the holy Scriptures then in the Colledge of the Physicians who haue their criticall or iudiciary dayes And yet there are learned Physicians who differ in opinion about them by reason of the diuers costitutions of mens bodies of diseases whereof some are more some lesse violent of the different ayres of countries according to which men that liue in them are to gouerne themselues of the skill of Physicians wherein some haue better iudgement and better successe then others and other reasons whereby at this day is discouered that there are other dayes beside the seuenth day which appeare to be criticall The obseruations of Diuines vpon the seuenth day being grounded vpon the textes of Moyses are mysticall and not naturall nor Astrologicall For according to the obseruation of Basil and S. Augustine the number of seuen which is very often found in the bookes of the holy Prophets and Apostles sometimes indefinitely sometimes definitely doth in his definite sence whether wee take the number of seuen dayes or seuen yeares simply or multiplied signifie compleatnes or perfection liberty or rest The Lord rested the seuenth day The Iewes had their feasts which lasted seuen dayes In the seuenth yeare the ground was lay and vnploughed and bond slaues were set at libertie The Climactericall yeares of Iubile compounded of seuen times seuen were a figure of the perfect rest which the Church shall enjoy in heauen after her so many reuolutions and alterations vpon earth But that which we haue hitherto treated of old age doth teach wise old men to call to minde their dayes past and to thinke vpon the louing mercy of their Creator who hath so many wayes vpholden them to pray vnto him that the shortnesse of their dayes may cause them to conceiue and consider so much the more his louing patience toward them and to take occasion thereby to walke with greater reuerence and feare before his face and leaning vpon the staffe of repentance done in true faith to say vnto him in all humilitie O Lord my God let my mouth be filled euery day with thy prayse and glory cast me not off in the time of mine old age forsake mee not when my strength falleth mee for mine enemies haue spoken of me and those that lay waite for my soule take counsell together against me saying God hath forsaken him pursue and take him for their is none to deliuer him O God goe not farre from mee O my God hast thee to helpe mee Let them bee confounded and consumed that are against my soule let them be couered with reproach and shame that seeke my hurt But I will waite continually and will prayse thee more and more My mouth doth rehearse daily thy righteousnes and the deliuerance thou giuest to those that are thine although I know not the number of them I will march forward in the strength of the Lord who is euerlasting I will make mention of thy righteousnesse onely O God thou hast taught me from my youth and hitherto I haue declared thy wondrous workes and yet O God
with a deuout zeale and courage But let vs yet come neerer and according to our proiect and purpose let vs see what helpe and comfort Philosophie and faith doe yeeld and afford vs against our naturall frailtie While we are in this world wee cannot haue freedome and ease from all our affections perturbations and passions nor from all sense of our miserie Then seeing it is so let vs at least take a course to moderate them and with patience to beare our condition which we shall easily doe if we call to minde what our sinnes doe deserue and how great the wisedome and goodnesse of God is in turning our aduersities and troubles to be profitable and wholesome medicines and helpes vnto vs. Let vs then first acknowledge in our originall and naturall frailtie that which is remarkable and to be obserued in all the children of Adam S. Bernard sayth in one of his Sermons vpon the Canticles Man being aduanced and raised to honour is become as a brute Beast he dwelt in a garden and had a pleasant dwelling and very delightfull was not pressed with any care or annoyances wanted nothing was surrounded with sweet smelling flowers with fruits pleasing to the taste was crowned with glory and honour was supervisor and Lord ouer all the workes which his Creator had made But his chiefest excellency consisted in this that he was created after the Image of God was a companion with the Angelles and with all the companies of the hoste of Heauen But hee hath changed this glorie and is become like to the Beastes O lamentable and woefull change That man a trimmer of a garden of pleasure Lord of the earth a cittizen of Heauen a domestique of the Lord God of hostes an heire of heauenly happinesse by a suddaine change is become naked miserable poore like to the beastes which with a bridle we awe and keepe vnder Now as man is come naked out of his mothers belly so shall hee returne to the earth carrying nothing with him of all his labour and trauayle For to draw some comfort from that which hath beene spoken let vs now and then ponder and weigh with our selues that it is our fault and misdoinges hath brought these euils and miseries and others much more grieuous and heauie vpon vs that we must not blame God but our owne disobedience Then let vs consider in God such a mercie as doth easily swallow vp all the miseries of this present life in as much as he turneth and changeth them to medicines profitable to vs. To which purpose S. Augustine said vpon the exposition of the Psalme 22. Man knows that God is a Phisitian that affliction is a remedie procuring his saluation and not a punishment effectuating his damnation When a remedie is sought for the Phisitian brings a searing iron and fire thou cryest thy Phisitian heares well enough thy roarings and clamours but he heares not to doe as thou wouldest haue him to doe but to heale thee Behold according to S. Paul in the fift Chapter of the Epistle to the Romaines how the Phisicke workes Tribulation brings forth patience and patience experience and experience hope Let vs then haue before our eyes this molehill of earth whereof the bodie is kneaded and made and the grace of the holy Ghost proceeding out of the most hidden treasures of Gods loue whose will it hath bin that this vile masse of earth should bee a vessell of his glory Let vs make reckoning of it in as much as our bodies so sayth the Apostle 1 Cor. haue beene made members of Iesus Christ temples of the holy Ghost Let vs not be lesse considerate and ingrate then the incredulous and prophane Gentiles who haue so deepely considered the frailtie viletie miserie of our originall as Lactantius in the second booke of his Institutions Chap. 12. collects out of the first booke of Ciceroes lawes that they haue acknowledged that this wretched poore liuing creature in whom is seene such wisedome prudence wit memory a large and deepe vnderstanding and reason was created of the high God to be eleuated and aduanced to an excellent state and condition Although then other liuing creatures devoid of reason seeme better prouided and armed touching the bodie then man Some being very swift of foote as Hares Does and Stagges others armed with sharpe clawes and hornes as Lyons and Bulles others dight trimmed and sheltered with feathers and wings as Birds and Fowles yet notwithstanding this is done by the exquisite prouidence of God as Chrysostome notes well That all the power and strength of man should be in the soule and that man should be so much the more strong in God as he is more weake and naked without This mystery and secret long agoe was acknowledged by Dauid and all wise old men to teach the younger ought to remember it Thou hast sayth he speaking to God put thy strength in the mouth of little children and sucking babes Surely in this first age sustained gouerned guarded and protected by a speciall wisedome and admirable power of the Creator he seemes to lay as the first foundations of his power and might to make them manifest to them that haue any vnderstanding thereby to quell and confound with shame the enemies of his name Atheists and prophane persons which dare contest and contend against him In the Psalme 22. the Prophet strengthened by his owne experience sayth assuredly O God thou art hee which drewest me out of my mothers belly thou gauest me assurance and safetie at my nurses brest I haue been in thy custodie tuition and charge from the wombe thou art my strong God from my conception And in the Psalme 139. Thou hast possessed my reines from the time that I was lapped vp and couered in my mothers wombe I will celebrate and prayse thee for that I was made in so strange and wonderfull a manner Thy workes are wonderfull and my soule knowes it right well The good proportion and setting in order of my bones was not hid from thee when I was made in a secret place and curiously fashioned beneath in the earth Thine eyes did see me when I was as a formelesse embryon all these things were written in thy booke before they were O mighty God how precious then vnto me are the considerations of thy workes and how great is the number of them will I take vpon mee to count them they are more in number then the smallest sands These are the holy meditations of Dauid So then casting our eyes to the ground vpon this little heape of earth whereof our bodies are formed wee learne to hang downe the head and bowe downe the crest and to abate more then three parts of our pride and selfe conceit On the contrary lifting vp our eyes to heauen from whence our soules tooke their beginning and where the great Father of spirits dwelles we haue cause giuen vs to reioyce and occasion with all alacritie and readinesse to trample vnder our feete all
principle The iust shall liue by faith CHAP. IIII. What old age is and how many species and kindes of old age there be THE disloyaltie and fearefulnesse of Adam and Eue was the violent downefall of themselues and their posteritie vnto death and vnto all the forerunners of death as consumption diseases and wanne and pale old age which is the respectacle center and sinke of all mans miseries To speake properly God onely is incorruptible immortall immutable alwayes the same and whose yeares alter not And although it be said that the soule of man is immortall as Saint Augustine affirmeth in his first booke De Trinitate yet the true immortality is a perfect immutability and vnchangeablenes which no creature hath In God onely there is no variablenesse nor shadow of change as saith Saint Iames Chap. 1. 17. Verse Contrariwise our liues are variable and subiect to suddaine reuolutions changes and chances and our faire outside and feature of body turnes to bee as a moth eaten garment Our dayes as the Patriarch Iacob said to the king of AEgypt are few and euill or wearisome vpon earth Galen knowing well that old age a naturall infirmity which could not be auoyded did iustly reproue a certaine Philosopher who braggingly gaue it out that hee had a receipt would preserue a man from growing old Although saith hee old age be naturall and ineuitable and withall further addeth that this Philosopher being growen to the age of fourescore yeares dyed of a hectique feauer At that time when Saint Cyprian liued the whole world was iudged to be very much weather-beaten to be growen old and that all her former good dayes were gone and past Behold what this couragious Martyr of Iesus Christ saith of the world in his tractate of death If the old walles of your house should stand totteringly if the battlement and roofe should shake if the maine building should leane awry and the rafters postes groundsells and principall timbers should bee weake and rotten all of them giuing you warning of the perill yee are in if yee tarry in it would yee stand to delay and pawse on the matter and not get yee gone in all hast The whole frame of the world doth totter and reele and being old and neere her end shee cryes out that shee stands vpon her last legges and is quite downe and you deferre to serue God to seeke your owne safety and good by preuenting those euils which with her crimes are ready to fall vpon you and may bee escaped if you timely giue ouer the world Many learned Astronomers haue prooued by firme and sure demonstrations that the celestiall Planets haue altered their course and motions and that the Sun is come neerer to the earth that by his warme neighbour-hood such is the speciall prouidence and will of God the Elements which are become weake in their influences might be the better relieued Most certaine it is that the world is growen old that Kingdomes Common-weales and Cities haue their flourishing times and times of decaie kindreds also and whole families are rooted out and not a man of them to bee seene aboue ground and all the creatures which serue to our vse and are subiect to vanitie doe after their manner groaningly desire and looke for an end as the Apostle saith Rom. 8. 20. But to returne to our Vieillard or old man who is the subiect of this discourse what other thing is old age then the road way to death For seeing that death is a suffocating and quenching of the naturall heate of the body old age makes way to him to enter and seize vpon the body the sooner The older men are the more weake and feeble they are in euery thing they doe and take in hand and this weakenesse of old age can in no sort be holpen and redressed though wee striue to doe it by keeping the heare from faintings and failings and in continuall motion For life and action end both at once it being impossible that the liuing creature should die so long as the heart receiues motion by the bodies action Moreouer old men who are of a dry and cold constitution are lesse fit to vndertake many actions exploites or imploiments They are not quicke enough of apprehension their senses fayling them by little and little the synewes lineaments and all the members of their body doe shrinke languish and decay their sight and hearing failes them they are chap-fallen and their teeth deny to champ and grinde the bread they must eat And as God hath appointed euery mans race of life how long it shall be and the stages hee must passe before he come to the end of it whereof old age is the last stage of all it is not euery mans desteny to goe so farre some waxe old sooner then others some beare their age very well some looke old and are not So that old age must not be iudged by the wrinkles in the fore-head by the white haires by the vnweldinesse or witherednesse of the body there being on the contrary some very old that haue a ruddy face and well coloured a sleeked and smooth skin and their haire of a cole-blacke or nutt-browne colour But it is fit rather to referre our selues to the wordes of the Psalmist in the nineteenth Psalme where mention is made of the yeares of mans life and of those things which often happen therein and of the many and manifold troubles and discommodities wherewith old men are besieged and compassed about Moreouer the Naturalists and Philosophers haue vsed to diuide old age as it were into certaine spaces paces or progresses The first pace and progresse is from fifty to threescore yeares at which age a man is yet lusty strong and youthfull especially those men who haue beene wise to liue abstinently and continently flying gluttony drunkennesse whooredome effeminacies excessiue paines taking and labours more hurtfull then necessary for the welfare and strength of the body ouermuch carking and caring and ouer violent passions of the minde which ouerwhelme the soule not suffering it to rest in quiet or making it to goe gadding and madding heere and there to and fro as it happeneth to the licentious ambitious couetous reuengefull irefull froward fearefull and such like persons who being tempested with disordered thoughts and vnruly passions are carried with the rage and fury of them so farre out of the way of reason and besides themselues that they can hardly hit the right way againe to the house and citie of God And though that after fifty yeares the strength of nature doth wane and by little and little doth abate and grow weake yet wee see that men at that age and after vntilll they bee threescore and fiue yeeres old and vpwardes are fit persons to bee imployed in publike places of charge and command as well for their counsell and wisedome to direct as for their ability and valour to execute and performe wherof we haue infinit examples in our owne Chronicles and moderne Histories
to ouercome and stand against the slights and assaults of the Deuill and hauing ouercome all things stand fast Stand fast then hauing your loynes girded about with veritie hauing on the brest-plate of righteousnesse and your feete shod with the preparation of peace Aboue all laying hold on the shield of faith wherewith you may quench all the fierie darts of the wicked one Take also the helmet of saluation and the sword of the spirit which is the Word of God Praying alwayes with all manner of prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseuerance These are the words of the Apostle But because it is not enough to name and shew weapons to a man if he know not how rightly to vse and to handle them We are more particularly to enquire after and to discourse and set forth the practise of this military Art as much as the consolation which we purpose to propose to wise old men doth require Saint Ambrose in his commentary vpon the sixt Chapter to the Ephesians speakes well to the purpose that although the Apostle names many specialties and partes of Armour yet faith it is that makes vs keepe to our tackling and to stand fast and whereof principally we haue need in this spirituall combat In deed what auailes it to read much to heare many Sermons of the prouidence grace and mercy of God if faith be not added to his Word And what auailes it to beleeue this word to be true if you tremble not when it soundes lowder in your eares then vsually it hath done if you stedfastly settle not your ioy and assurance in the promises of saluation which it propoundeth vnto you if you doe not in humilitie revere and honour your heauenly Father if you dread not his wrath indignation more then ten thousand deathes if you bee not wholly resolued that God speakes to condemne you if you perseuere and goe on to prouoke him and to offer you grace if you amend your liues and beleeue in the Gospell To what purpose serue so many Sermons touching Iesus Christ his obedience his merit his miracles his loue to saue his elect And what are so many exhortations good for if this Sauiour dwell not in your hearts by faith if he doe not rule amend and reforme them if by his spirit of sanctification and adoption he seale them not vp in them if he doe not stampe and engraue his loue and truth in them The Apostle S. Iohn speaking of the speciall graces of God who is Almighty and good to his children wisely and necessarily ioynes these two together To wit that he hath giuen vs eternall life that this life is in his Sonne so that whosoeuer hath the Sonne consequently hath an assured guard of defence against death and all the temptations which goe before and precede it Afterward that God hath giuen vs knowledge and vnderstanding to the end we may know him and be certainely assured that hee herein is true in this Author of all good which is Christ The same Apostle doth vpon good right call this assurance our victorie that is our warlike furniture and armour wherewith we ouercome the world and throw downe to the ground all her strong holdes For this cause according to the example of the Apostles wee ought deuoutly to pray to God to giue vs faith and daily to increase it in our hearts What dastardes and cowardes were the Disciples of our Lord What a hard harsh diffused noyse was it and not to be endured to heare of their Maisters death before the vertue and efficacie of a liuely faith did actuate and enlarge it selfe in them Wee may see what the Euangelistes sayde of them Saint Matthewe Chapter 16. verse 23. Saint Luke 18. 34. Saint Iohn 16. 6. The eleauenth Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrewes contaynes a great number of worthie examples by which we may learne how great the efficacie and power of a true and liuely faith is in all manner of afflictions Wee reade the same in the auncient and moderne Historie of the Church where wee see a great number of men and women of diuerse and differing Ages of young boyes and girles that made proofe of an inuincible Faith as well in the fierie Furnace of persecutions as in the deepe dungeon and prison of all sortes of troubles and calamities and had the victorie and now are crowned with prayse and immortall glorie in the Pallace of GOD in his triumphant Church So wee must conclude with the Prophet in the Psalme 73. that God is good to Israell yea to all those which serue him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of their life although on the contrary the flesh the world and Sathan doe grumble gnash their teeth and snarle at it And in another place Psalme 66. the Prophet sayth O inhabitants of the earth blesse our God and sound aloud his prayse It is he that hath reestablished our soule in life and hath not suffered our feete to slip For thou O God hast prooued vs thou hast tryed and purified vs as siluer is tryed and purified As if he did say iustly thou mightest consume vs and thou art content to try vs cleansing vs from the filth of so many scandâ—lls and imputations wherewith we haue beene disgraced and diffamed Wee are fallen into the fire of afflictions which should burne and waste vs to nothing and are vp to the eares in the water of extreame anguish and agonie of bodie and minde where if we had our deserts we should be stifled and strangled but thou hast enlarged and set vs at ease The peace and holy libertie which we enioy by thy free gift is as a Mansion or dwelling in a large pleasant country to all those that desire to liue and without ceasing to prayse thee Behold how faith doth accommodate it selfe is willing and readie sweening and mitigating all the paines griefes and discommodities of this present life quenching also all the fierie dartes of Sathan especially despaire and distrust It is shee which hath the custodie and charge of all the Armour of God which shrowdes vs vnder the helmet of saluation with the strong shield of affiance hath the sword of the word of truth in her hand is well shod with the preparation of the Gospell of peace doth crosse and resist all impediments and letts and bestirres her selfe on euery side in the enemies campe If then as S. Cyprian sayth writing to those of Thibara men practise and learne to fence and to fight pell mell not sparing life nor lymme making great reckoning of a corruptible Crowne which is set vpon their heads in the presence of the Emperour how much more excellent and glorious is the combat whereof God is the Emperour and soueraigne and his Angels are not onely spectators but moderators and Iudges and propound to vs a Crowne of glorie Let vs then arme our selues sayth he with a simple and pure vnderstanding a sound and sincere faith and
downe the head will cry within himselfe O wretch that I am God hath made me by the gift of knowledge capable of infinite wonderfull secrets and mysteries and I seeke contentment in vanitie He hath created me Lord and commander of all things and I am the slaue of the Creatures I ought to serue God alone and I am in subiection to mine owne inordinate passions He hath created me vpright the more easily to behold and looke vp to the place of my felicitie but I am more brutish then a beast which lookes still downe to the ground Christ hath made mee a King and a Priest to God his Father and sensualitie doth tyrannize and domineer over me and I sacrifice to mine owne insolencies and lewdnesse O what misery Ought I not to be fruitfull and abound in all good workes being a tree of righteousnesse and a heauenly plant What doe I I draw no breath of life but from the world I bring forth nothing but iniquitie nothing but poyson for my selfe and others Am I created after the Image of God to be changed into a Beast What resteth more for me but to be like the image of God! Should I I then be a lyar a villaine a slanderer an enemy of godlinesse righteousnesse holinesse I am a little world a world of wounders shall I then become a bottomlesse gulfe of wickednesse I am the end and measure of things but I am like the mad man which killeth himselfe with his owne knife like the wicked rich man that damneth himselfe and by the winding stayres of his riches goes downe to hell I ought to be the benefit and well-fare of my house and familie of my neighbour-hood of a whole country to procure true peace and quietnesse to rule there and I trouble mine owne peace and rest and other mens too I that am the measure and rule of all things am my selfe out of all measure and order as much as can bee spoken and more The vessell appoynted to honour which will fill it selfe with stinking myre and filth The temple of the holy Ghost a most holy place wherein Christ onely ought to enter and lodge but so prophaned that I am ashamed to thinke on it Thou sayest thou art a Christian and thou makest no conscience to wallow in impurities and hypocrisies ioyning thy selfe with Sathan Antichrist and the world so little thou regardest God Iesus Christ and his Church Thou that art light art nothing but darkenesse Thou that art a sheepherd art become a wolfe Thou that art the salt of the earth art vnsauory and tastelesse Thou that art the glory and peace of the world thou sowest disgrace reproch and trouble therein Thou that art the brother friend and Table-guest of Christ doest thou betray him with a kisse Thou that art a member of Christ where are the motions that thou hast of the spirit Thou that art Christes Lieutenant in earth or in thy house or familie or over many houses or families wilt thou daily warre against thy Lord Christ is thy garment and thou puttest it off to cloath thee with shame ryot dissolutenesse disorder Thou art within three stepps within three fingers breadth of death and thou thinkest not on the true life and thinkest onely on the transitorie and perishing life But thinke on the blessinges and honours which God hath bestowed on thee on the dangers which he hath guarded and protected thee from of the true pleasures which he offers vnto thee and thou wilt bee ashamed of the false pleasures which vndoe thee thou wilt blush be apalled to liue and die as thou doest by a poore sorry fire Thou wilt repent and fly to the throne of grace to the end that hauing obtained it thou render him thankes for the same who in speciall regard of his patience sheweth himselfe wonderfull towardes vs and submitting thy selfe to obey his truth thou wilt goe on in silence to glorifie him to the end Loe here a little coppie and patterne of some sighinges and groanings for euery wise old man remembring himselfe and calling to minde Iesus Christ CHAP. XVII Consolations against death and how it ought to be feared or not feared WE present now some consolations to the wise Vieillard to strengthen him against death and doe shew him how he ought to feare or contemne it For in this point it is that wise men at last shew what they are He that hath not learned to die betimes can hardly die well and for one that doth it thousands lagg behinde where they perish Many according to the saying of Cicero thinke old age is miserable because it is so neere approching to death which among the most terrible things being terrible to the children of this world for that it destroyes the structure frame of this mortall bodie and endeth the life which wee keepe and maintaine with so much carking and caring We are not able to relate how great and many the terrors be which the apprehension of death causeth in most persons which liue in the world yea euen in those men and women which vnder the weight and burthen of extreame anguishes and griefes desire nothing more then to be gone hence This terror floweth from the sense and feeling of the wrath of God and a bad conscience with which when wicked ones come to feele themselues tormented they haue no rest nor can conceiue nothing else but euill for them in death Therefore we cannot too much allaude and commend the saying of Sineca in the Epistle 62. where he sayth before I grew old I endeuoured and studied to liue well In my old age I frame and dispose my selfe to die well It is well spoken For according to the counsell of Saint Augustine in his second booke of Christian doctrine he cannot die ill who hath liued well and hardly shall any man whosoeuer make a good end which hath lead a wicked life But they are grossely deceiued who thinke that old men and none else are lodged in deaths quarter and that they onely are prest and obliged resolutely to awaite and looke for him Seeing that in all places and at all tymes he lyeth in waite for persons of all ages and sexes and sayth vnto them Stand I take thee prisoner by the great Kinges commandement packe hence away come before thy Iudge Death respectes neither babe young nor old man nor woman rich nor poore high nor low strong nor weake The poore mans cottage built very low Death doth demolish and quite ouerthrow The rich mans Pallace high towring and strong He shiuers in peeces and layes it along Who knoweth not that warre and the pestilence doth sweepe away out of the world many more little children or strong able men then aged persons verely all the life of man is nothing else but a road way to death Wee came into the world vpon this condition to goe out of it In this wee greatly erre and beguile our selues as many most learned Philosophers and Diuines haue long
crimes and offences doe banish for euer the malefactors from humane society Who shall dare to say that it is iniquity in God the Lord of the permanent and durable City if he eternally banish out of his kingdome of glory his sworne enemies the wicked who continually offend him And the polluted prophane vniust reprobates who plot and conspire against God and their neighbours remaine for euer vnder the wrath and curse of the Lord For iustification of all consider onely the corruption of humane nature and what the sonnes of Adam are in themselues For howsoeuer the beleefe touching the immortality of mans soule be orthodox and most true yet may it fitly bee sayd that the soule is subiect to a certaine kind of death Wee call it immortall because it ceaseth not to liue and in some sort to haue sence and feeling The body is mortall because it may bee depriued of life which consistes in the residence of the soule in it from whence floweth that which doth maintaine it not liuing of it selfe but by the soule which doth gouerne and mooue it But the death of the soule is when God doth abandon it and depriue it of his grace And wee say that man is vtterly dead when the soule is quite gone out of the body and that God doth abandon the soule finally adiudged to euerlasting torments S. Augustine will that the name of death bee deriued from the venomous morsure or sting of the infernall serpent the diuel then by him brought into the world when hee first bit and stung out first mother Eue leauing fast sticking in vs the sting of sinne which the Apostle calleth the sting of death This sting being blunted and taken away death ceaseth mortally to sting vs. When S. Ambrose writeth in his Treatise of the benefit of death Chap. 1. 2. that death hurteth not the soule consequently is not euill seeing that nothing but sinne hurteth the soule it is to bee vnderstood of the bodily death in respect of Gods children Therefore hee maketh a â—hree-fold distinction of death the one good the other euill the third good or euill The good is the mysticall death when a man dyeth to sinne and liueth to God whereof the Apostle speaketh That we are buried with Christ Iesus into his death by Baptisme The euill is the death of sinne whereof it is written Then soule that sinneth shall dye And the third is the end of our race and calling in this world that is the separation of the soule from the body of good men accounted good of wicked men euill Although death doth vnshackle and set all persons at liberty very few yet are to bee found which take pleasure therein But this proceedeth not from any offence that is in death that is in the separatiof the soule from the body but from the infirmity of mortall men who suffering themselues to goe on in their carnall pleasures and delights of this life doe tremble and feare to see themselues at the end of their race in the earth louing long life there to liue euilly that is there to dye hourely O how sweet is the good death to wise old men to men and women who are the seruants of God who watch who pray who cry to their Lord in repentance in faith and charity who manfully fight against all temptations And how bitter is the euill death to those euill soules vnbeleeuers stiffe necked ones hypocrites who wrap themselues in their sinnes who haue no pleasure hope nor comfort but in this world These things being so it is easie to shew how death is to be feared or not Certainely the death of sinners is euill who not content to be borne in sinne liue still in all manner of iniquities But the death of the Saints is precious being the end of their labours and toyles the conseruation and custos of their victory the doore of life and the entrance into an assured perfect glorious rest Those are to bee bewayled in their death who haue hell for their prison But it beseemes vs to reioyce and bee glad at their departure whom God doth bid welcome into his heauenly Palace where they magnifie him for euer If any one aske vs sayth Lactantius in the third Booke of his Christian Institutions whether death be good or euill wee will answere that the qualitie thereof doth consist in the consideration of life in it selfe Death in it selfe cannot bee sayd to bee good pleasing and to be desired on the contrary it is the destruction of nature and the reward of sinne But wee must esteeme it a thing worthy great prayse pleasing and full of grace and delight when wee dye ioyfully in the true knowledge of Christ Iesus to goe out of the prison of this mortall body out of this valley of miseries out of this desart where we are exiled persons to returne to our Father our countrey and heauenly city He dyeth well who with the Apostle sayth in sincerity of conscience all my desire is to depart hence and to bee with Christ Iesus Particularly as touching my selfe I haue fought the good fight I haue finished my course I haue kept the faith also the crowne of righteousnesse is layd vp and reserued for mee which the Lord the iust Iudge shall in that day giue vnto me not to me onely but to those who loue his appearing Againe death and the remembrance and apprehension of it is wonderfull irkesome and bitter to a man which trusteth in his riches liuing in all ease in full strength of body and prosperity Here we demand what we are to judge of the death of those who are cruelly quartered and dismembred by hangmen or by fierce and wilde beastes are swallowed vp in the belly of fishes are stifled with a suddaine apoplexie are bereaued of wit sense and reason by some hot burning feaver or who die franticke and madd As for those who are put to cruell death for the name of Christ Iesus the answere is that their death cannot bee tearmed and accompted but deare and precious in the sight of the Lord and of all his Church For if the heathen Philosophers haue had some reason to say that a vertuous man leaues not to be happie though he bee put to a violent death why should we not say the same of the true vertuous to wit the holy Martyrs seeing we haue so certaine testimonies and so many famous examples of their faith charitie patience and constancie in death The Epistle to the Hebrewes is herein expresse for it conteyneth the heroicall trophies of faith also the opprobries disgracefull reuilings and cruell torments of the invincicible Champions of Christ Iesus But I pray you what torments can dismay and terrifie him which glorieth in the crosse of Christ Iesus among all others a shamefull and terrible torment and death Turtullian obserueth in his Apologetico that in his tyme Christians were called Sarmentitij Semissij bavinistes and poore snakes because they were bound to a stake which
cost but six Liards three halfe pence or thereabouts and there were burned with faggotts of reedes or brush wood which were set round about them Behold sayth he our equipage our munition and armour of victorie this is out triumphall Chariot Eusebius writeth in the fiftie booke of his Historie of a holy martyr burned aliue with certaine plates of iron made red hot and set to his naked bodie notwithstanding which tormentes hee made a constant profession of the Christian faith even to the last gaspe Eusebius addeth that this sheweth that nothing is terrible to him which feeles that God loueth him and that whosoeuer seekes the glory of Christ Iesus is guarded and saued harmelesse from euery painefull and terrible accident and casuall event As for the vncouth and strange diseases and kindes of hideous death whereunto to mans life is exposed as they are to be seene in the horrible convulsions of Epilepsies falling sicknesses in the violent fittes of Apoplexies in cruell and hot burning feavers these are pittifull cases to behold and incident to our fraile and sinnefull nature But they are also certaine monitors of a better life seeing that our health and happinesse consisteth not in a sound temperature of humours but in this that our names are written in heauen and that wee haue bin dedicated to Iesus Christ For the Lord God who knoweth our heartes who in his secret judgement exerciseth some more then others regardes and considers what he hath done for vs and what the holy Ghost who comforteth vs in such accidents and cases doth for vs by vnspeakeable groanings not the intemperature of our bodies nor the effectes of it For this is an assured thing that there is no condemnation to those that are in Christ Iesus and that nothing is able to seperate vs from the loue which the father of heauen beares vs for his sonnes sake yea that all things doe helpe together for the good of those whom according to his determinate counsell he hath called to the participation of his grace Therefore all Christians ought to remaine vndoubted and resolued in this poynt that there is no kinde of maladie torment or death which doth hurt Gods elect that there is no death happie ioyful peaceable to the wicked vnbeleeuers and miscreants whom God often times for a while doth vphold in this world to the end more heauily to punish them after hee hath dragged and haled them out of the earth Hereupon it will be demanded wherefore then so many great personages members of the Church of God and Christ Iesus himselfe the head thereof did feare death and prayed to be guarded and secured from it I answere that there was something of singular note in our Lord and which must be differenced and distinguished from others In that he not onely bore and felt a common death or seperation of the soule from the bodie but also vnder-went and sustayned the wrath of God and all the torments and agonies that may be imagined without sinne notwithstanding because hee was an hostage and pledge for vs Neuerthelesse in such sort that he did not yeeld nor shrinke vnder the burthen nor murmured a whit against God but voluntarily offred himselfe in sacrifice stood not demurring and shifting of death with natures delayes wholly submitted himselfe to the will of God his Father as it was foretold and figured by Dauid in the fortieth Psalme Here am I O God that I may doe thy will Behold as touching the head of the Church who had had no subiect of combat and victorie if he had not felt the tormentes and terrors of death without sinne or any offence and fault on his part In respect then we are his members let vs keepe and obserue this rule That wee cannot commend euery refusal or euery desire of death nor discommend all contempt of death Some wish death not so much for any desire they haue of a better life as for the despite and dislike they conceiue against their abode and stay in the world where they see miseries which their weake mindes cannot brooke and endure and which giue terrible shockes and assaults to the most resolued and stoutest hearts The Israelites wanting bread in the wildernesse wished death as also when newes was brought them that the Cananites were men of a very tall stature Iob in the depth of his panges and griefes desired to die as also the Prophet Eliah did during his escape in the Desert On the contrary Dauid Ezechias and other great personages very much feared death and instantly besought the Lord to guard and saue them from it But this was for a speciall consideration to wit in as much as they being afraide of the threatninges and judgements of God the approach of death appeared more terrible vnto them or because they wished to continue longer to aduance Gods glory and to yeeld their helpe and seruice to the edification of the Church Againe the same personages banished all feare from them looking vpon death according as now it is made vnto vs by the grace of God the rest from our labours the passage to a better life In this sense the Patriarch Iob spake in the 19. Chapter I know that my redeemer liueth and that I shall rise againe at the last day that I shall be againe cloathed with my skin and shall see the Lord in my flesh So Dauid did sing in the 16. Psalme For this cause my heart is glad my tongue reioyceth Moreouer my flesh resteth in assurance for thou wilt not leaue my soule in the graue And in the 23. Psalme Though I should walke in the shadow of death I will feare no euill because thou art with me CHAP. XVIII The sequele of the poynts propounded in the former Section concerning the resolutions and consolations against Death IF there be any men bound to meditate ordinarily vpon death to be armed with remedies against the alarumes of it to procure that their children friends and families doe liue as prest and readie to die wise old men are especially they whose true Philosophie is called the Meditation of death To draw them so much the more easily vnto it we will remember to euery one of them some sayings of wise Pagans and Heathens which will cause vs to say to all persons who vaunt themselues of the name of Christians At least doe not afflict and torment your selues more with the death of the your selues and yours then the silly Heathens who had no hope who so manfully contemned the approches of death who with so great constancie haue embraced it and striuen against it I speake thus considering the cowardize of some Christians who haue nothing so much in their mouthes and take so little to heart as death S. Ierome in the Epistle to Heliodorus shewing how we ought to be more resolute against the assaults of death and all accidents and casualties of humaine life then Infidells were maketh mention of Xerxes that mightie Monarch who ouerthrew mountaines and paved