grow in him He would feygne haue found some rocke within this sea of loue but the Pilot who steeres the ship of his life is a Port of assurance for all the world since he cōmands the winds and tempests What pleasure needs must this great Saint take to see himselfe thus smitten with the selfe same woūds of his Maister The Crosse fayles him howsoeuer yet he hath it in the hart The Crowne of Thornes he misseth but what say I he weares it in his Soule But then at least he seemes not to be depriued but of Nayles and Gaule I deceiue my selfe For as for the nayles he caryes the markes thereof as well in hands feet as side and for gaule the tongue takes very greedily the sweet bitternes therof O great Saint thrice happy Tel vs the pleasure which is to dye since you dy so sweetly in the extasies of your felicities How irksome needs must life be to you and the earth be in contempt with you in this trāsportation of ioy wherunto you are raysed S. Stephen hath beheld the Heauens opened and you his hart who hath created them S. Paul hath seene so admirable things as might not be tould and you felt such delicious as cannot be expressed S. Peter hath beene dazeled through a beame of glory you by one of loue whose light hauing pierced your darksome body hath made it transparent to the eyes of all the world so communicating it's diuine qualityes thereinto as the markes therof remayne eternal S. Iohn hath slept vpon the bosome of his Maister and by a sweet transport your hart got through and sought within the bosome of his hart your most assured repose This same disciple hath beene a witnesse of his torments and you participant of his paynes with this glory yet moreouer of bearing as well the wounds in the Soule as the markes on the body So as your fauours are so deare as none dare enuy them for fear of presumption though otherwise they be most worthy of enuy I wonder the thoughts of Death should be displeasing since we dye with pleasure in the life we lead There are none so blind in the knowledge of themselues that know not how they dy euery houre were it not iust then that we should thinke vpon that which we are continually a doing And wherefore shall we not take pleasure at this thought if it be the most profitable sweet that we are able to conceiue It is impossible to thinke of death but we must needs be thinking of Eternall life which succeds the same or rather say we It is impossible to thinke of the Soueraigne God and not to thinke of the imaginary euill of death And where shall we be finding of thoughts both sweeter and deerer then those of our Soueraigne Good So as if for the raysing of our spirits thither we are to passe into the imaginations and idea's of death the light of the Sunne which shal serue vs for obiect shall disperse all those vayne shaddowes which subsist not but through a false opiniō The starre of the day neuer shewes more bewtifull thē when it hath escaped through flight from a shole of clouds which do hide its light Those obscure clouds so strongly relieue the flash of its light as thence it appeares to be radiant in excesse The like may we say of our Reason being as the Sunne of our life that from the tyme it escapes from all these vayne shadowes of feare and dread which do veyle its brightnes it appeares so shining as it serues for a torch to passe very confidently withall from this life to the other The Will loues but the Good it is the Needle that is alwayes a pointing at this Pole It is the Iron which incessantly followes this Adamant as its only obiect In such sort as we are not capable of loue but to purchase the good which is presented vnto vs be it false imaginary or true And therin is iudgement giuen vs to know the difference that is from the one and the others Now that life is a false good there may no doubt be made since it hath no other foundation in it then misfortunes myseries That it is an imaginary good we are enforced to belieue whiles its pleasures are but of fancyes and dreames But that death is a true good we are to hould for certaine since it is the end of the terme of our exile of our captiuity of our sufferances For we cannot enter into glory but by the gate of the tombe where being reduced to our nothing we returne to our first beginning Sweet then are the thoughtes which make the life fastidious and death pleasing yet more sweet the desires that termine all our hopes in Heauen Such as know not the Art of dying well diliciously are vnworthy to liue Impatience in the expectation of death is more sensible to a holy Soule then the greatest pleasures to a man of the world We cannot loue life but in cherishing the fatall accidents that are inseparable from it which made Terence to say That he loued not any thing of all that which was in him but the hope of a speedy dying In effect there is no greater consolarion in life then that of death For were it immortall with all the encombrances that cleaue vnto it of all the conditours that are found in nature that same of man would prooue to be the most vnfortunate The afflicted loue not but by the sweet expectation of death and the others of the hope of a second life with reason imagining with themselues that if on earth they be touched with some pleasure they shal be one day accomplished in Heauen with al desirable delights And through the good of our death it is that we possesse the soueraigne good of eternall life It is the entry of our felicity the passage from the false and imaginary to the true and alwayes permanent He is yet vnborne whose hart being glutted with al sorts of contentments hath neuer gaped after new pleasures There is not a Soule in the world how happy soeuer it thinke it selfe that points not its pretensions beyond that same which it possesseth We hold it good to be rich our desires are alwayes in chase of Good We are raysed to the top of the greatest dignities we build new Thrones in our imagination not finding on earth scope inough to satisfy our Ambition withall In so much as mā hath alwaies vnrest in the repose which he hath once proposed to himselfe which makes vs sensibly to perceiue that the obiect of our desires is forth of nature and that if we sigh in the midst of our felicityes it can be but of the hope we haue to possesse some greater then they We haue lyued long inough then in Tantalus his Hel where we are continually a thirst without being euer able to drinke We must be vsing of some violence with our selues and go couragiously before death since it is that which
where those of Luxury reduce the chastest harts into Ashes whence it comes that that great Saint demaunded wings to carry him into the desert Hope is heere vncertayn despayre assured Happines appeareth but as a lightning and Misfortunes establish their dwelling with Empire They can desire nothing heere but in doubt of successe they can expect nothing but with feare to loose their tyme. Felicityes euen while they are possessed do free themselues by litle and litle from this seruitude of being tyed to vs So as if they destroy not themselues in their sublimity time snatches them from vs at all houres and leades vs away with them What is the world but a denne of Theeues but an Army of Mutiners but a myre of Swyne a Galley of Slaues A lake of Basiliskes and therfore the Prophet sayth shall I neuer leaue a place so foule so filthy and so full of treasons and deceipts Needs then my Soule must thou lift vp thine eyes to Heauen since the Earth is meerly barren of thy contentments Thou seekest the Soueraigne good and it hath but springs of Euill Thou seekest Eternity and whatsoeuer is therein is but vnconstancy Change thy thoughtes the treasures which thou seekest for are not heere beneath since this is the ordinary mansion of Pouerty and Misery The obiects heere most frequent are but Tombes nor do we euer open our eyes but to see them layd open Our eares are touched with no other sound then with that of Sights and Playnts The sents of our putrifaction occupy the smelling and the gaule of a nourishment dipt in our sweat vnfortunately feeds the tast of our tongue So as turne we which way soeuer we will the gulfes the rockes the fires the punishmens and mischiefes follow vs as neere as the shaddow doth the body Consider attentiuely my Soule the importance of these verities and make thy profit of anothers harme Represent to thee the horrour and amazement whereto the world was reduced with all those meruailes at such tyme as the Sunne withdrew from it his light All those proud buildings so enriched with Brasse Marble those famous Temples where Art is alwayes in dispute with Nature striuing to set forth their works appeare to be no more but Collossus's of shaddowes that strike thine eyes aswel with astonishment as with terrour during the reigne of darkenes and imagine how the pourtraite of this horrour drawes before hād its being from the Originall since in the latter day the world shall take vpon it the visage of horrour of terrour and of ruine Represent vnto thy self besids in order of these verityes how the shadowes which couer but halfe of the earth by respits shall very shortly be filling vp the space of the whole Circle according to the decree which hath beene made thereof before all ages In so much my Soule as since the day must end at last quenching its torch within the most ancient waters of the Ocean seeke betymes another Sun aboue all the Heauens that may not be subiect to Eclypses and whose light being alwayes in the East may make thy happines to shine within his splendour not for a day for a yeare or for an age but for an Eternity O sweet Eternity with how many delights enchauntest thou our spirits while we addresse our thoughtes to thee They may not tast thy baytes and not be rauished from themselues with incomparable contentmēts We wander I confesse whiles we seeke thee but thy Labyrinthes are so delicious as we are alwayes in feare to get forth therof The harts which are taken with thy loue without knowing thee sigh after thy pleasurs howbeit they haue neuer tasted its sweetnesses but by way of Idaea yet find they no repose but in hope to possesse them one day O sweet Eternity what feelings of ioy and happines dost thou breed in Soules created for thy glory How tedious is the way of this mortall and transitory life to them that liue in expectation of thy pleasures They resemble the Marriner being tossed with stormes tempests who through teares measures with his eyes a thousand tymes in a moment the humide spaces of the waues for to discouer the Port he aspires vnto for they sayling in like māner in this Sea of the world and continually dashed with tēpests of misfortunes do coūt the houres the dayes and the moneths of their annoyes in the long pretension of landing at the port of the Tombe to be reborne from very Ashes in the mansion of thy glory O sweet Eternity what sensible repasts haue thy contentmentes with them The more I thinke vpon thee and the more I would be thinking of thee my Spirit rapt in this diuine Eleuation is so violently pulled from it selfe as it liues of no other food then that of thy diuine thoughtes O how happy is he who establisheth in thee for an Essay the foundation of his felicity My Soule if thou wilt be content in the midst of thy pleasures thinke of Eternity The onely imagination of its delights shal be stronger then thine annoyes What griefe soeuer thou endurest imagine with thy selfe how it is but for a tyme and that the ioy of Eternity can neuer end The Fastings the Hayrecloth and al the sufferances of an austere life can neuer shake thy constancy if thy desires haue Eternity for obiect What accident soeuer stayes thee in the way of thy pilgrimage lift vp thine eyes to Heauē for to contemplate the Beauty of the mansiō whither thou aspirest Thou seest how for the purchase of a little glory of the world men expose their liues to a thousand dāgers and to possesse one day that same of Eternity wilt thou not hazard thy body which is nought els but corruption to the mercy of torments and paynes Consider my Soule the instability of all created things and put not thy trust in the earth since the waters snow sandes are the foundations therof As often as the meruailes of the world attract thee insensibly to their admiration breake but the crust of those goodly apparences and thou shalt see within how it is but a Schoole of Vanity a Faire of Toyes a Theater of Tragedies a labyrinth of Errours a Prison of darknes a Way beset with Thornes and a sea full of stormes and tempests That it is but a barren Land a stony Feild a greenish Meadow whose flowers do shroud Serpēts a Riuer of teares a mountaine of annoyances a vale of Miseries a sweet Poyson a Fable a dreame an Hospitall of febricitāts where euery one suffers in his fashiō Their repose is full of anguishes and their vnrest is replenished with despaire Their trauels are without fruit and their Ioyes are but counterfet where no content is found aboue a day all the rest of the life is nothing els but wretchednes So as if the euils wherewith it is propled could be counted they would surpasse in number the atomes of Democritus who could reckon the maladies of the body the passions
they find the particular seates of all his Subiects before that of his dwelling The like is it in this stately Pallace of the Vniuerse which this Almighty King hath built with a word only where al his Creatures make their aboad as in certaine Tenemēts which he hath destined to them The Ayre serues them for a Cage the Sea for a Fishpoole the Forrests for a parke the Champaignes for orchards the Mountayns for their Towers and the diuers Villages are as sundry places of pleasure which Kings Princes hold as tenants of Time Walke then boldly my Soule within this vast Pallace of the world since it is the place of thy dwelling The starry Heauen is the feeling thereof the Moone the torch of the night and the Sunne that of the day the birds learne not to sing of nature but to charme thine eares through the sweet harmony of their warbling The Sunne the Aurora and the Zephyrus take paines ech one in its turne to cultiuate the Earth for to helpe it in the shouting forth of its delicate Flowers from whome beautifull Iris hath robd the pourtaite of their colours for to dresse vp her Arke whence it is that thine eyes continually admire it The trees euer stooping vnder the burden of their fruits grow not but for thy delight The woods they people their trunkes with leaues of purpose to make thee tast the pleasures of their shades in the chiefest of the heats And the Rockes though vnsensible contribute to the perfection of thy contentmēt a thousand goodly fountaynes which with the murmur of their purling fetch sleepe into thy eyes for to charme sometymes the annoyes of thy life The Meadowes do neuer seeme to present themselues to thee but with the countenance of Hope knowing well how it comforts the whole world its Champaignes as witty to deceiue thee do hide their treasures vnder goulden Cases to the end to dazle thine eyes through the glittering of so goodly a shew And now my Soule if in this Pallace where the Subiects of him who hath built the same do soiourne thou seest but wonders euery where to what degree of admiration shalt thou be raysed when passing further thou discouerest the dwelling of the soueraigne Maister Thou needst but mount vp an eleauen steps onely to behold the spaciousnes of the place where is assembled all his Court Go then faire and softly because vpon euery step thou shalt be discouering of new subiects of wonder and astonishment at once The first step is the Heauen of the Moone whereby passing only thou shalt admire the clarity wherewith it is adorned to giue light to all those that mount which is noted in the Pallaces of great men where the Stayer-cases are made very light-some The Moone presids in the midst of its Heauen and within its Circle is it alwayes waxing and wayning where the diuine Philosopher Plato hath established the spring of the Idaea's of all the things heere beneath and then consider how in the space of this degree might a thousand worlds be built The second Stayre is the Heauen of Mercury The third the Heauen of Venus The fourth that of the Sunne names which the Astrologers assigne vnto the Heauens Cōtemplate heere at leasure this Stare of the day whose benigne influences do make the earth so fruitfull whose light giues pride to colours and consequently the vertue to all beautifull things to become admirable It was this very Sunne which Iosue arrested in the midst of its Course and which the Persians heeretofore haue adored not considering the while it was subiect to Eclypses how it borrowed its light and all its other essentiall qualities from a soueraigne absolute Cause which had giuen it the Being The fifth Stayre is the Heauen of Mars The sixth of Iupiter and the seauenth of Saturne They eight Stayre is the Firmament The ninth the Primum mobile Stay heere a little my Soule vpon this Step for to listen as you passe along to the sweet Harmony of the mouing of the Heauens and of al that is in nature for by the swindge of this Heauen as with a Mayster-wheele are all the springs of the world moued and are no otherwise capable of action then through its mouing But the motion is so melodious through continuance through the iustnes of the correspondency of all the parts with their ground as Plato that great Philopher was not touched with any other desire thē that of hearing this Harmony The tenth Staire is the Cristalline Heauen Heere it is my Soule where thy feeling and thy thoughts are to be attentiue This tenth Step is beyond the limits of the world Thou beginst but now to enter into the Mansion of the Glory of thy Lord mingle respect heere amidst thy ioy ioine humility with thy contentments Thou beholdst thy self now illumined with another light then that of the Sunne Moone not suffering intermission in its durance It shines alwayes and thou maiest know in the neere admiration of its diuine Clarity the price of the delights it communicats to thee Let vs finish our voyage and mount we now to the Emperiall Heauen whither S. Paul was rapt where he saw wonders which had no name where he tasted Sweetnesses whose Idaea's are incomprehēsible and where he felt pleasures whereof his very Senses could not talke euen when they had the vse of speach But thou mayest yet cry with S. Stephen how thou seest the Heauens open for now behold thee vpon the last step and at the gate of that great Emperiall Heauen It is not permitted thee my Soule to enter into a place so holy and sacred do thou only admire by order the Porch without and the infinite greatnes of the miraculous wonders there whence all the Saints incessantly publish the Glory of the Omnipotent who hath wrought them Contemplate the perfect Beauty of the Angels ech one in his Hierarchy that of the Archangels that of Powers that of the Vertues that of the Principalities that of the Dominations and that of the Seraphims with this Astonishment to behold how in clarity they surpasse the Sunne Admire all the happy Spirits ech one seated in the Throne of Glory which he hath merited the Virgins the Confessours the Martyrs the Apostles the Prophets and the Patriarches being raysed all to the degrees of Felicity which they haue purchased Represent vnto thy selfe besides the incomparable happines wherewith the Immaculate Virgin Mother of our Sauiour is accomplished Cast thine eyes vpon her Throne and euen rauished in astonishment of her Greatnesses publish with confidence how they are without comparison and that the Sun the Moone and all the Starres are of a matter to vile and profane for her to tread vpon And if thou wilt be casting thy view vpon the Tabernacle of thy God do thou shroud it from the flash of his rayes vnder the Robe of the Cherubims and being rauished as they in the dazeling where they breath accomplished withal sorts of
Monarch who had so many markes of immortality with him be the prey of wormes sport of the winds what shal be your lot Whereto may Fortune seeme to reserue you Go to then I graunt you whatsoeuer you can possibly demaund I affoard your ambition an age of lyfe an Empire of a new world a happy successe to all your desires What shall become of you after all this since this long lyfe this glorious Empire all your felicityes togeather must haue an end with this world As often as you shall issue forth of your condition for to enter into the forgetfulnes of your selfe you do send your thoughtes into this tombe and you shall suddenly return from this wandering Do not flatter your selfe your Crowne is but of earth as the head that weares it Your Scepter is but a sticke of wood subiect to corruption as your hand is that holdes it and the rest of your ornaments are but a worke of wormes wherof you are the prey Iudge you then whether your vanity can subsist any long tyme vpon such feeble foūdations or no. You are accustomed lykely at such time as you build some proud pallace or other to go a walking in the compasse thereof taking pleasure to admire the goodly scituation where you haue destined the place of your dwelling do you the like with your tombe go visit euery day the solitary place where you are to lodge for so long a tyme and this wil be the onely meane to make death euen as sweet vnto you as life it selfe and to bury your pride your vanity and al your vices together before your body according to the saying of the Wiseman for he that thinkes continually of death shall neuer stray from the way of vertue He that thinkes alwayes of Death is the Richest of the world CHAP. VII I MERVAILE much that Cicero should put this Truth into Paradox That he forsooth is the richest who is most cōtent whiles there is nothing more certaine then it For the Soule hath no other riches more properly her owne nor more in affect then that of contentment In what condition soeuer where a man finds himselfe with repose of Spirit may he well be said to be perfectly rich True treasures are not of gould of siluer or of other things of like valew but rather of good actions since by their price one may buy Eternity Besides whose fruition what may we desire Besides whose glory what may we pretend Withall the riches of the world we can buy no more then the world it selfe Alas what good in the possession thereof if it be wholy stuffed with euils See we not euery momēt how it quite destroyes it selfe and that it runnes without cease to its end as the Sūne to its West The richest are ordinarily the most vnfortunate of all others for that hauing by lot of nature some little Empire on earth they fall absolutely to attribute the Soueraignity thereof to thēselues in the vayne thoughts of their greatnesses seeme neuer to sigh but for them nay they euen dy with them O dreadfull Death He then may be only said to be rich who makes profession to follow vertue his way being bordered with Thornes represents to vs that same of Death whose Roses are at the end of the course to crowne our labours withall In so much as we cannot loue vertue but with the continuall thoughts of Death since to see its Body we had need to seuer our selues from the shadowes of the Earth We much admire some feeble ray of its image only vnder the obscure veyle of our mortall condition but that only in idaea and as it were in a dreame We had need to awake yet once more and come to be reborne from our ashes againe as the Phenix in the presence of the great Sunne of Iustice. I would say that we must needs dy one day for to reuiue eternally in the accomplishment of all the felicities of Heauen Alexander hath no greater a treasure then that of his hopes The ayme or scope of his Fortune was alwayes vpon the future and what goods soeuer he possessed he euery day yet attended for more as if he had some intelligence with Chance to receiue from its prodigall hand all the effects of his desires The merchants that go in pursuite of riches vpon the Ocean liue not but of the hope of their mercinary cōquest How miserable soeuer they find themselues on the way of their nauigation they so mainly forget themselues in the sweet thoughts of their expectation as they thinke themselues the richest of the world and they wil sooner be loosing their lyfe in the midst of the rockes then the beliefe they haue thereof So much their imaginary hope seemes to carry them away Let vs say then more boldly and with more reason that such as termine all their hopes to the Eternity as to the onely obiect which is able to quench the thirst of our soules still increasing more and more may be sayd before hand to be the richest of the Earth For their hope is not that of Alexander whose vowes were addressed to Fortune much lesse that other of those old Martiners as changeable as the sea that guides them but another quite different that for foundation hath but Vertue and in the hope of possessing one day the treasures of Heauen they take the paynes to purchase them through the continuall meditation of Death as the onely lesson that teacheth vs to liue well They passe deliciously their tyme in the expectation of their last day on earth and like to those merchants stand counting all the houres of their voyage with impatient desire to see out of hand the very last of them so to be alwayes perfectly happy And howbeit this voyage be long and troublesome yet they esteeme thēselues so rich withall as they would not change their hopes for all the gold of the world In effect we must needs confesse that the only hope of glory ioyned with vertues is the only good of life for the atteyning one day of the possession of them where a holy soule may find the full accomplishmēt of its desires But it is yet to be considered that this hope and all these vertues can haue no surer foundation then that of the continuall thoughtes of Death since all our good doth absolutely depend of this last houre wherein the important sentence of our life or Death is to be signified vnto vs. Hence it is that mā being holily rich heapes vp good workes during the course of his life as diuine Treasures to enrich his soule with all the eternall felicities which may accomplish it with glory and contentment He liues alwayes contēnt and rich at once in this pleasing thought forsooth that he will neuer seeme to dye vntill such tyme as he be quite dead Whence it happens that he tramples vnderfoot very generously all sorts of greanesses and riches through the knowledge he hath of those which his spirit possesseth
are and now is he all dust The flash of his riches did dazle all the world except Solon who discouering his miseries in the midest of his greatnesses maintayned him to be poore with all his treasure Go you sometymes before your death and imagine the houre which you breath in to be your last and then consult with the Oracle of your iudgement for to know the good which you would haue done before this cruell separation of your selfe from your selfe And after it shall haue taught you your duty suffer not your selfe to be ouertaken by the sundry disasters which euery moment may be taking away your lyfe Serue your selfe of your Riches without glewing your affection to them Since you are the mayster of them suffer them not to be your mayster You haue found them in the earth and there let them rest for you nor let any one be fetching thē forth Wel may you be hiding them in your coffers for a tyme but the day of Death discouers all it is in your hands to make vp the last accompt eyther of the profit or domage which they shall peraduēture haue caused to you You might haue purchased Heauen with your almes where it may be you haue rather bought euē Hell with your prodigalities You might haue built Temples to the glory of him who hath bestowed them on you you haue offered them in sacrifices vpon the Aultar of your passions to the Idols of your soules Will you neuer open your eyes to discouer the precipices which encompasse you round Will you be alwayes cruell to your selues to the preferring of the mansion of the earth before that of heauen the delights of the world before those of Eternity and the vayne riches of heere beneath before the treasures of the eternall glory Imagine you that before you were borne you were nothing that being borne you haue but quickened a peece of corruption whose life cōceales the infection and whose Death bewrayes the same Say now then you Rich men as Cresus shall I terme you miserable with Solon since Death takes all away from you saue only the sorrow of hauing liued so ill a life That he who thinkes alwaies of Death is the wisest of the world CHAP. IX VERITY is the obiect of all Sciences And of all verityes there is none more knowne nor is more sensible then that of our mortall condition since we dye continually without cease In so much as the best science of the world consists in the knowledge of ones self The disasters and miseries that befal vs euery houre are goodly schooles for vs to become learned As for me I hould that the onely meditation of death instructs vs in all that which is necessary for vs to know Who doubtes but that he who thinkes alwayes of his end is a great Deuine if all the goodly Maximes of this diuine science termine at the eternall life which followes death That he is a Philosopher we must needs belieue for if Philosophy learne vs the art of reasoning we can serue our selues of reason no wayes better then to be alwayes a thinking of death and the contemp of lyfe That he be an Astrologer is a meere necessity because throgh the mouing of his lyfe he vnderstands that same of the stars which shine vpon him imagining with himselfe that as he goes by litle and litle to finish his course in the Tombe so lykewise the Sun approches to the end of its lucid race where it is to fynd at last its vtmost That he is a Mathematician the resemblances are too playne since that according to the measure of the knowledge he hath of himselfe he can measure the height depth and breadth of all things being of the same nature with him That he should be ignorāt of Arithmetick it were not credible for since he can tell how to compt all the moments of his life he must needs be very skilfull in numbers I should thinke he had skil in musike too since he puts his passions in accord to charme his spirit with their sweet harmony He must of necessity be a great Phisitian since he busyes his soule so in the chiefe health of his innocency to attaine immortality in musing alwayes vpon Death So as with reason might we hould him to be the wisest of the world and the wisest that are to authorize my saying may well be glad to imitate him Aristotle thou hast ill imployed thy tyme to stand so much in discourse of the world without knowing the miseries thereof For if thou hadst had the knowledge of them why hadst thou not followed the example of Alexander in seeking forth a new one not for to conquer it as he but for to liue in eternally happy And as his valour had put the conceipt into his head so might thy spirit haue giuen thee the same proiect It is playne therefore thou hast spoken of the Earth with the language of heauen and of heauen with the language of the earth Thou hast made an Anatomy of nature discoursing with iudgemēt of all the second causes which do make the springs of the whole to moue Thou hast gyuen the definition of al things but only of thy self as if thou couldst not haue remembred them all but with forgetting thy selfe Thou wast busyed much in counting the nūber of the heauens without assigning thy place there put aloft Thou hast noted the diuers motions of the Sunne thou hast spoken of it's Eclypses without once informing thy selfe of the cause which hath giuen it the being and light Thou hast discourst very aptly of the reuolution of ages and of the continuall vicissitude of tyme without taking any heed to the perpetuall inconstancy of thy life Thou hast maintayned that whatsoeuer subsists in the world runnes post to it's ruine and yet as if thou perceiuedst not thy self to runne awhit towards the Tōbe with the rest of created things thou hast spoken not a word of this second life wherein abides the perfection of all our happines Thou hast yielded the Sunne to be eclypsed Thou hast afforded the Moone to take diuers coūtenāces vpon her Thou hast giuen leaue to Serpents to be changing their skin and to the Phenix to reuiue of it's ashes and cruell to thy selfe the while thou hast taken away the hope from thee of euer arising againe Thy spirit hath beene like to a torch which consumes it selfe to giue others light For thou labourest to discouer to men all the goodlyest secrets of nature and hast voluntarily hidden from thy selfe the secrets of thine owne saluation Thou hast lent Ariadnes threed to an infinite number of spirits who were intangled in the labyrinth of the world without once being able to get forth thy selfe though the knowledge of its causes and effects thou hast euen damned thy selfe Fooles speake not but of thy Prudence and wise men of thy Folly It had beene a great deale better for thee thou hadst possest all the Vertues then to speake so of
belieued that he was Inuincible yet could Death know wel how to find the defect of his Armes like as that of Achilles Nero would needs be adored but he was sacrificed in punishmēt of his crime Cresus the richest of all men carried nothing into his Tōbe but this only griefe of hauing had so much Treasure so little Vertue his riches exempted him not ◠whit from the euils wherof our life is full and at the end of his terme he dyed as others with the Pouerty incident thereunto Cesar Pyrhus and Pompey who had so many markes of Immortality had the worse sort of Death since they al three were vnhappily cōstrayned to render their lyues to the assaultes of a most precipitous Death The which doth let vs see very sensibly how things that seeme to vs most durable do vanish as lightning after they haue giuen vs some admiration of their being The wise men as well as the valiant all slaues of one and the selfe same fortune haue payed the same Tribute to nature Plato Socrates Aristotle may well cause a talke of them but that is all for with their learning they haue yet beene ignorant of the Truth They haue loued their memory a great deale more then themselus following a false opinion for to please that of others wherewith they were puffed vp in all their Actions They are passed away notwithstanding and their diuine Spirits haue neuer beene able to obtaine this dispensation of the Destinies to cōmunicate their diuinity to bodies which they haue viuified so as there is nothing left of them but a little dust which the aire and wind haue shared betweene them The seauen Sages of Greece are dead with the reputation of their worldly wisedome which is a Folly before God They were meere Idolatours of their wordly Prudēce which is a Vertue of the phantasy more worthy of blame then prayse when it hath but Vanity for the obiect As many Philosophers as haue studied to seeke the knowledge of naturall things without lifting the eye a little higher haue let their life runne into a blindnes of malice and haue left nothing behind them but a sad remembrance of their pernicious errours Let vs speake of those meruailous works wherin Nature takes pleasure to giue forth the more excellent essayes of her power I would say of those beauties of the world which rauish hearts before they haue meanes to present them to them As of a Helena of a Cleopatra of a Lucretia of a Penelope and of a Portia All these beauties truely were adorable in the East euen as the Persians Sunne but in the South the feruour of their Sacrificers began to extinguish and in the West they destroyed the very Aultars that were erected to their glory Their Baytes their Charmes their Attractions following in their Nature the course of Roses haue lasted but a day of the Spring they haue vanished with the Subiect wherunto they were tyed nor doth there remaine any more of them then a meere astonishment of their shorte durance Thus it is that the best things run readily to their end Time deuoures all and his greedines is so great as it cannot be satisfied but with deuouring it selfe Who were able to number the men to whome the Sunne hath lent its light since the birth of the world and by that meanes keepe accompt of the proud Citties of the magnificent Pallaces whereof Art hath giuen the Inuention to men to the shame of Nature the imagination is too seely to reach vnto this But. And yet how great soeuer the Name therof be the shadowes of their bodies appeare no more to the light of our daies the steps of their foundations and the memory of their being are buried within the Abysses of Tyme and nothing but Vertue can be said to be exempt from Death All things of the world hauing learned of Nature the language of change neuer speake in their fashion but of their continuall vicissitude The Sunne running from his South to its West seemes to preach in its lāguage nothing els vnto vs but this cruell necessity which constraynes it to fly repose and to cōmence without cease to warpe the lightsome webbe of dayes and length of Ages I admire the Ideas of that Philosopher whiles he would mantayne that all created thinges do find their beginning within the concauity of the Moone without doubt the inconstancy of this Starre afforded him those thoughtes since euery thing subsisting heer beneath is subiect to a continuall flow and ebbe The Heauens tell vs in running round their circles how they pull all with them The Starres illumine not the night but to the comming of the last which is to extinguish their light The Elements as opposits reygne not but within the tyme of the truce which nature afforded them since the ruine of the Chaos and their emnity therefore is yet so great as they are not pleased but with destructiō of all the workes they do If they demaund the Rockes Forests what they are doing they will answere they are a counting their yeares since they can do nothing but grow old The fayrest Springes and the youngest Brookes publish aloud with the language of their warbles and of their sweet murmur that euery thing in the world inseparably pursues the paces of its Course yea the Earth it selfe which is immoueable as the Center where all concludes being not able to stirre to fly far from it selfe lets it selfe to be deuoured by the Ocean the Ocean by Tyme and Tyme by the soueraygne decrees which from all Eternity haue limited its durance S. Augustine endeauouring to seeke out the soueraigne God within Nature demaūded of the Sunne if it were God and this Starre let him see that it borrowed its light from another Sun without Eclypse which shined within the Bower of Eternity He made the like demaūd of the Moone whose visage alwayes inconstant made answere for it and assured this holy Personage that it had nothing diuine but light within it which yet it held in homage of the Torch of day He enquired of the Heauens the selfe same thing but their motion incompatible with an essence purely diuine put him out of doubt How many are there seene of these feeble spirits who seeke the soueraygne God within Greatnesses but what likelyhood is there to find it there Thrones and Empires subsist not but in the spaces which Fortune affords them her bowle serues them as a foūdation Alas what stability can we establish in their being Crownes haue nothing goodly in them but the name only nor rich but apparence for if they knew how much they weighed and if the number of cares thornes which are mingled with the Rubies Pearles wherwith they are enriched could be seene the most vnhappy would be trampling them vnderfoot to auoyd the encounter of new misfortunes Kings and Princes are well the greatest of the Earth but yet not the happiest for that their Greatnes markes their ruyne in
as he stood in competēcy with his brother-in-Law about the Crowne of the whole world at once yet notwithstanding his miseries made him an homicide of himselfe through a stroke of despaire Maximus came to the Empire from the lowest degree of a seruile condition but from the tyme that he was on the ridge of Greatnesse did Fortune make him to descēd so low by the same degrees he mounted vp with as his Misfortunes had no relation with his Prosperities Thus passeth the glory of the world leauing a great deale more astonishment behind then euer it afforded admiration If a great Architect should seeme to perswade vs to belieue that our dwelling house were on the point of falling and that we were in daunger to be buried in its ruines I would imagine with my selfe we should lyue alwaies in payne to auoyd the effects of his presages seeking with all sollicitude the meanes to eschew those perils So as if I turne the Meddall it wil appeare this tottering and ruinous house to be nothing els then that of the world wherof that great Architect who hath layd the first foundations hath affoarded vs the truth of this assurance that it shall fall to ruine very soone The Heauen and the Earth shall passe away What solidity then can we establish heere beneath in this soyle as well of Pouerty as of Infamy since it shakes vnder our feet through its continuall vitissitude The ruines thereof appeare without cease before our eyes in the course of its deficiency our life pursues the same way And neuertheles with what blindnes do we fall a sleep in the ship of our deliciousnes not considering how it floats vpon the stormy sea of the world as abundant in shipwrackes as the land of Mishaps We must neuer turne away our eyes from the obiect of Inconstancy since it is naturall to all that which hath subsistence heere beneath The Monarchy began with the Assyrians It passed to the Persians from the Persians to the Macedonians from the Macedonians to the Romanes and at this day the Empire is in Germany In so much as after that this so famous and illustrious a Crowne shall haue run through the foure corners of the earth it shall resolue into earth following the course of those that shal haue possessed the title eyther by right of hazard or by the right of Birth So as if Heauē Earth do passe whatsoeuer shall beare the image of the creation is cōprized within this reuolution of Ages where all concludes in a last end There is nothing so great in the world as the Hart which contemnes all Greatnesses Tyme as Mayster of all which is in Nature le ts forth Crownes and Scepters to Kings to some for a day to others for a moneth to some others for a yeare and to others for more but after the terme is expired it giues no more dayes one succeds in the place of another vnder one and the selfe same Law of condition Let the infinite number of Kings heere present themselues that haue raygned vpon Earth and if euery one hath had his Crowne it may likewise be sayd that ech hath had his Tombe Then seeke not Greatnesses my Soule but in vertue and in the glorious contempt of things of the Earth Thou seest how Magnificences haue not charmes but for a day their glittering fadeth with their light and what foundation soeuer they haue they carry in their being the Necessity of their ruine To what end shouldst thou raise thy Ambition vpon Thrones if they be States of vnhappines and inconstancy Enuy not Kings their Crownes nor Scepters since it is the title of a transitory glory Felicity cōsists not for to rule with Empire but rather to find repose of life in the condition wherin he is borne And what more sweet repose can one looke for then that of desiring nothing in the world This is a pleasing paine to be alwayes in vnrest to find that soueraigne good which we seeke for I would say that Eternity where delightes are durable in their excesse When thou shouldst be exalted aboue all the Greatnes of the Earth what happines and what contentement would be left thee since the Tyme of their possession glides without respit with the pleasures where with they are quickned In such sort as if at the rising of the sunne thou receyuest Sacrifices in homage at the setting thou shalt find thy selfe stript by Fortune or by Death Fixe not thy thoughts then but on the obiects which hould touch with Tyme nor seeke thou euer to runne after things that fly away Thy immortall nature cannot eye but Eternity sigh then incessantly after its Glory if thou wilt one day haue it in possession There be some who seeke their repose all their pleasure in Riches as if Gould had this Vertue to eternize their contentments Set not thy hart vpon things of the world saith the Apostle When the Poets would speake of Riches they put before vs the Gould of the riuers of Hebrus and Paectolus to let vs see how they fly away from our eyes as the waters Put case a man should possesse all the treasures of the earth yet should he not seeme to be richer awhit for all that since he were but the guardian and not the owner of those treasures Riches consist not in possessing much but rather in contenting ones selfe with a little Cresus could neuer satisfy his couetous desire during his life which induced his enemies to fill his Body with the gould wherewith he could not fill his Soule What Folly to seeke Eternity in Riches where is ordinarily found but Death This very man heere made accompt to stuffe his Coffers with Gould Syluer knew at last that his Treasures were so many fatall Instruments that serued for nothing but to take away his life so as being deceiued in his hopes he became sollicitous to conserue very charily the meanes of his losse of his ruine He therfore that goes to seeke for the Riches of the East puts himselfe to the mercy of the waues and in seeking the repose of his life approaches so neere to Death as he is distant from it no more than the thicknes of the shipboard What feeblenesse of humane Spirit to put in hazard whatsoeuer one holdes most deere on Earth for the purchase of a little Earth I had rather a great deale be Iob on the dunghill then Cresus on the woodpile for the one flouted at Fortune in his miseries and the other had recourse to Solon to repent himselfe for not hauing followed the way of Pouerty rather then that of Riches since the latter led him to Death Crates the Theban considering that he floted without cease within this vast sea of the world despised Riches for feare to suffer Shipwracke with so heauy a fraight The Wheele may well run about but can neuer get forth of the lymits of its Circle so lykewise man may well trauayle runne ouer the
for a little number of instants be reigning so long in your vices Thou seest then my Soule how false is the Good of Greatnesse and that of Riches how imaginary it is How the pleasures of Banquets full of Alôes dye in their spring and the delights of the flesh haue no other foundation then that of corruptiō It is now tyme my Soule that I let thee see sensibly this difference that is betweene the contentments of the Earth and those of Heauen to the end that in the knowledge of their nature the one so contrary to the other thou maist shunne those pleasures that fly away sigh for loue after the delights of Eternity There is this difference S. Augustine notes betweene eternall transitory things that before we possesse the transitory goods we passionately desire them and from the tyme we enioy them we fall sensibly to mislike them On the contrry the desire of eternall things we neuer thinke of yet from the tyme we possesse them we are not capable of loue but for them Consider a little you Mortals what this is but an age of pleasures whose last moment seemes to make vs forget all the others that went before in such wise as there rests but a vayne Idaea of the Tyme past Search you somwhat curiously withîn the memory of ages into that of daies which haue runne away coūt their houres if you will and you shall confesse that it seemes to you to be but yesterday since our first Father was chased out of the terrestriall Paradise so true it is that Tyme passeth and swiftly glideth away The Sage Roman sayd That if to these long yeares we adde a great number of others and of all together make vp a Raigne of a life the most happy that euer yet hath beene seene if we needs most destine a last day to performe the funerals of all the others and vpon that day a certaine houre and in this houre the last moment a great part of our life will go way in doing ill the greater in doing nothing and the whole in doing otherwise then our duty required There is alwaies a thirst of the delights of the world and though we seeme to quench the same in its puddle springs yet is it but for a moment for the heat wil be renewing againe and the desire of drinking will presse vs then more then euer Vntye thy self thē my Soule from all the feelings of the Earth and with a pitch full of loue eleuate thy Thoughtes to this sweet obiect of Eternity If thou aspirest to Greatnesses represent to thy selfe how the happy spirits trample vnderfoot both the Sun and Moone and all those Starres of the Night whose infinite number astonish our senses S. Paul was but lifted to the third Heauen and yet neuertheles could he not expresse in his language the Meruayles which he admired And S. Peter on the Mount Thabor being dazeled through the glittering of one sole Ray most confidently demaunds permission of his Mayster to build in the same place three Tabernacles hauing now quite forgot the Earth as if it had neuer beene Alas O great Saint with what extasies of ioy shouldest thou be accomplished in this diuine Bower of Eternall felicityes if one feeble reflection of light so rauished thee from thy self as made thee breath so deliciously in a lyfe replenished with clarity as thou didst put in obliuion the darknes of the world where thou madest thy abode What might thy Glory by now To what point of happines might we seeme to termine it Thou possessest the body whose Shadow thou hast adored thou behouldst vncouered that diuine Essence whose Splēdor makes the Cherubims to bow the head for not being able to endure the sweet violences of its clarity Iudge with what feeling I reuerence thy felicity if the onely throughts I haue of them do make me happy only before hand The Kings of the world my Soule establish the foundation of their Greatnesses vpō the large spaces of the earth and all the earth togeather is but a poynt in comparison of Heauen And therefore the onely obiect they haue in their combats triumphes is no other then that of the Cōquest of this little point Get forth then my Soule of its Circumference since thou art able to aspire to the possession not of the world for it is but misery but of a mansion whose extent may not be measured and whose delights are eternall Wouldst thou haue Thrones The Emperiall Heauen shall be thy foot-stoole Wouldst thou haue Crownes The same of immortall Glory shall enuiron thy head Wouldst thou Scepters Thou shalt haue alwayes in thy hand a soueraigne power which shall make thy desires vnprofitable not knowing what to desire out of thy power Hast thou a desire to haue treasures Glory and Riches are in the howse of our Lord And not this trāsitory glory of the world which chaunges into smoke but another wholy diuine that depends not a whit vpon Tyme and which reaches beyond all ages Not those riches of the Ocean nor those of the Land which are vnprofitable in their vertue full of weaknes in their power but of Riches that haue no price and which make thee owner of the Soueraigne Good wher all sorts of felicityes are comprehended If thou be delighted with Banquets heare the Prophet what he sayes Lord one day alone affoards more contentment in thy house then a whole age in the feasts of the world The diuine food wherewith the happy Spirits are fed hath not in it selfe only these sweetnesses in quality but it nature So as this is a vertue essentiall to it continually to produce what soeuer they way imagine in its chiefe perfection We reioyce in thee O Lord in remembring thy breasts a great deale more sweet then wine They write of Assuerus that he raigned in in Asia ouer one hundred twenty seauen Prouinces and that he made a Banquet in his Citty of Susa which lasted an hundred and fourescore dayes where he set forth with Prodigality all the Magnificences which Art and Nature with common accord could furnish him at the price of infinit riches But the end of this Feast did blemish the Glory of its beginning and continuance for that all the pleasures which dye are not considerable in their Birth nor in the course of their Reigne Hence it is my Soule that the only delights of these Banquets which the King of Kings prepares for thee are worthy of thy desires since they shall last for an Eternity Those there haue begunne vpon Earth for to finish one day and these heere shall beginne in Heauen for neuer to haue end Some are borne and dye in Tym◠and others are borne in Eternity to endure therein as long as it Wouldst thou lodge in Pallaces The Rich house of our Lord shal be the habitation of the iust But what house do you belieue it is Represent vnto thy self that when they enter into the Pallace of some Great Prince
loued not life but to ressent it's death His Nayles haue forged them others of that sort His Thornes haue thence produced new Thornes and the forme of his Crosse hath made them to inuent some others of the lyke and the turning vpside downe of his hath serued S. Peter for a Couch to dye in For ioy rather then of payne I would say that all the deadly instruments of the passion of my Redeemer haue beene the preparatiues of the Triumph that a million of soules haue carryed away in their Martyrdom The Scourges haue been for S. Bartholomew the Nayles for S. Andrew the Sword for S. Paul the wounds for S. Francis and the Crosse serues on earth for a new subiect of Enuy for the whole world togeather since that euery one can pretend no better then to this glory to sacrifice his life vpon the same Aultar where the Authour of life hath beene immolated O how the amourous plaintes of that great Apostle make all to resound with a sweet melody Me thinkes the sweet accēts of his cryes do euē rauish my Spirit through mine eares The tyme of my lyfe is too long sayd he in the strength of his Passion I am troubled to reckon vp the moments of it's durance When shall it be that I shall liue forth of my selfe to go to liue in him whom I loue much better then my selfe Quite contrary to those guilty Soules who stand discoursing of death as of a losse where he desires it for recompence So as the Sun had neuer a fayre day for him and Nature so beautifull in its diuersities and so fruitfull to bring forth so many wonders was barren for his contentment in so much as the obiects of his pleasures was quite without the world and yet through a Miracle worthy of him he liued and dyed of Loue at once O sweet Life But yet more happy death The Swan after she hath measured diuers tymes the humide spaces of the banckes euen tyred out with lyuing calles for death vnto her succour with accents of melody so sweet and so pittifull withall as that it cannot choose but then euen yield to the assaults of Compassion This bird being richly dressed vp with innocency proclaymes the truth of her Death to Forrests to Champaygnes and to Rockes by the sad accents of her tunefull notes whose harmony doth rauish all those that haue sense of feeling in them and giues them a desire to dy with her This Diuine Apostle dying on the shore of his teares represents to vs this bird For being now weary to liue so long tyme absented from his lyfe he sends vp his amourous sighs to Heauen-wards with a voyce full of allurements cryes out how he desires to abandon his body for to go to behould the God of his Soule The harmony of his cryes so powerfully attracts the harts vnto him as all those who are able to heare but the Eccho of it and to perceyue i'ts sweetnesse doe borrow wings of al sides to fly out of themselues while the Earth is in contempt with them You Soules of the world I inuite you heere to hearken to this Consort of Musike where the Angells hold their part but you must purify your senses if you wil be rauished with Pleasure and Ioy. What Pleasure it is to thinke of Death CHAP. II. A TRAVAILLER strayed from his way and puzled in the full of the night within a thicke forrest finds himselfe on a sudden brought into streights through a thousand assaults of feare wherwith his Soule is strooken He casts his eyes on euery side but sees nothing but shadowes of horrour which presage the sun-set of his life The noyse of the impetuous winds that puts a garboyle into the boughes beate so roughly on his eares as he breathes but in a deadly feare more intollerable well nigh then death His imagination being troubled lets him see in dreame in the midst of the darknes as many precipices as the steppes he makes on his way In so much as he belieues euery momēt he is buryed quick in some pit or other with the whole burden of his euils The feare of being deuoured by the sauage beasts makes him to apprehend a new punishment whose dolour redoubles euermore through the sensible apparence of some euident danger The heauens earth being hid alike from his eyes within obscurity for remedy represent to him despaire in effect his Iudgement being now stupid with terror hath not the liberty of discourse but to conclude vpon his losse al things the while cōtributing to his most disaduantage Himselfe sees not himselfe awhit as if already he were quite besides himselfe the little sense he hath left him serues him but to suffer euils which in their excesse do rob him of his speach Thus brought to this extremity where death is more present with him then life since he wholy dyes and liues but to halfes he lifts now at last his eyes to Heauen-wards where he discryes a ray of light to disclose through the birth of the Aurora which serues him as a Beakon or Watch tower to remit him into the path of his way which he had lost The day by little little makes the shadowes of death with enuirone him to vanish out of sight with the hope of lyuing affoards him the contentmēt to behold the precipices which he hath escaped in so much as he arriues to the places of his desires with a great deale more pleasure then he felt paine Let vs now say We are these Trauaylours wandering in the thicke Forrest of this world during the darknes of Synne which enwraps vs one euery side The winds of temptations bluster without cease in our eares euery stepp we seeme to make forwards leads vs into the Tombe since we dye euery houre and the abysses are alwayes open to swallow vs vp as culpable of a thousand sortes of crimes Being brought to this estate the Heauen hides it selfe from our eyes as not able to pretend awhit for it's glory So as being oppressed with diuers disasters we breath the ayre of a lyfe full of annoyes and of vnsufferable afflictions The light of Eternity which shines to vs in the port of the Sepulcher is this goodly Aurora whose day disperses the shadowes of our night for euer What contentment to arriue at this port amidst so many stornes What happinesse to enioy the brightnes of a Sun which is not subiect to Eclypses after so many tedious nights We are all Pilgrimes who continually trauayle from this world into the other The darknes of sinne is the shadow of our bodies since they accompany vs without cease What incomparable felicity to go forth of our selues to find out that day which should illumine vs eternally What may we desire in Slauery but Liberty In darknes but light and in Trauayle but Rest This earth is a prison let vs neuer thinke then but to recouer our liberty This vnlucky dwelling is a place of obscurity let vs gape
after the light This fatall Mansion is fertile onely but with thornes and troubles let vs get forth of it's bounds to fynd the true tranquillity and according as we shall approach to the good of death so shall we distance our selues froÌ„ the euils of lyfe O sweet death where our miseries termine themselues O cruell life where our disasters take their begining O welcome death where our annoyes do find their sepulcher O dread life where our dolours find their cradle The most afflicted draw al their coÌ„solation from the hope of death Are we not of this number as subiect to all the disgraces of Lot and to the cruell lawes of Fortune With what sweeter hope may we mitigate our paynes then with that of a speedy breaking the chaynes of our captiuity If we dyed not euery houre there would be no contentment to liue For what likelyhood is there that a trauailour should take any pleasure to stop in the midst of his way during the tyme of a storme Now the world is neuer without tempests What remedy were it to make a stop at a flash of lightening or a cracke of Thunder in the midst of the way of our life Being pressed with a storme and encompassed with Rockes shall we not be seÌ„ding our desires before hand to the port with this griefe for not hauing wings to fly more swiftly thither So as if the ship of our life cannot land but at the shore of the sepulcher is it not at this port whither we are to aspire euery moment to put vs in the Lee from Shipwrackes whereof so many wise Pilots haue runne hazard I haue no feare but of old age said Zenon For of all euils that of life is the most intollerable In effect if we thinke on the diuers torments that pull away our life by little and little from vs we should be of Socrates his opinion who of all the momeÌ„ts of our life prizeth none but the last O happy moment irkesome to those that go before I am troubled said Dauid in the house of men when shall I arriue into that of my Lord He was alwaies going thither but the way seemed so long and tedious to him as he sighed continually after the end of his iourney All things tend to their Center the Stones being raysed from the earth do borrow wings to their weighty nature to descend downe beneath where they alwayes haue their looke The Riuers though insensible are touched with this amourous curiosity to reuisite continually their Mother And the Piramidall flames of fire do witnes they burne but with desire of ioyning theÌ„selues with their first beginning And howbeit their endeauours are vnprofitable yet haue they neuer other scope The Heauen is our Center with what more violent passions may we be quickned then with that of being rauisht from our selues to ioyne as Atomes to their vnity as rayes to the body of their light Those Torches of the night whose number is infinite and beauty incoÌ„parable not so gallaÌ„tly shew vs their twinckling baytes but to enthrall vs with their wonders They shine not to vs but to shew vs the way of their Azure vaults as being the only place of our repose And it seemes the galloping course of the Sunne goes not so turning the great globe of the Heauens but to shew the way from aloft vnto the Inhabitants of the Earth If some one had the gift of prophecy that it were foretold vs in a certaine tyme set downe that we were to possesse an ample fortune be it of goods or greatnesse all transitory a like were it not credible the day of this attendance would be to vs of a long put-off How many sighes as witnesses of our languours should we be sending forth before this felicity so promised The greatest dolour we could possibly suffer would be but of impatience for through force of passionately desiring this good all sorts of euils would be insensible to vs. The Sunne that posts so swift would then go sluggishly and its diligence could not stay vs a whit from accusing it of slouth as often as we gazed vpon Heauen Let vs now consider the mystery of this Proposition and say that our Sauiour and the King of Prophets hath giuen vs this assurance from his mouth that the last instant of our lyfe shal be the first of our immortality and so on the day of our death should we possesse an infinite number of felicityes be they in immortall goods be they in the greatnesses of nature it selfe From what sweet disquietnesses might we seeme to be exempt in the expectation of this happines The holy Soules who breath in this world the ayre of grace liue not but of the ioy they haue of continually dying With how many sighes of loue and languour smite they Heauen at all houres All the fayre dayes the Sun affoards them to their eyes seeme to be so sad lowring as hardly do they marke the differeÌ„ce between the light and darknes because they loue but the eternall dayes which are to shine to the birth of their felicity And this is the day of death where ceasing to be men we begin to be as Angels S. Frauncis wounded on all sides with a thousand darts of loue sighes in the presence of his Mayster for griefe that he cannot dye of his wounds He contemplates the wounds of his Redeemer and his lookes haue this Diuine vertue with them as â—o make his soule to ressent the smart And through the force of his sweet torments the amorous passion wherewith he is taken makes him to ressent the dolours of his Mayster in so much as the markes thereof themselues are imprinted in his stigmatized Body â—hen it is that soowning with ioy extasied with pleasure and rauished with a thousand â—orts of felicityes wholy Diuine he sequesters himselfe from the earth to approach vnto Heauen He feeles himselfe to dye of loue without being able notwithstanding to loose his lyfe for though his wounds be mortall since all termine at the hart yet their cause is immortall So as dying in his lyfe and liuing in his death he dyes he lyues without dying and without lyuing Of dying what apparence since he is sunke in the spring of lyfe Of lyuing who would belieue it Let vs then say that if he dye it is of a Death a thousand tymes more sweet then lyfe and if he liue it is of a lyfe of extasy which feeles nothing of the humane This sweet Saint seeing himselfe vnder the wound of the bloud of his Maister belieued verily he should make shipwracke through force of desiring the same in so goodly a sea whose tempests were so much the more gratefull to him as loue serued it selfe of his sighes to driue away the storme And in truth how could he loose himselfe in the presence of his Sauiour whose Crosse serues him as well for a watch-tower as for a Hauen in the midst of the torments which his wounds haue caused to
withhouldes this second life from vs wherein abides the accomplishment of our happines To dye is but to cast into the wynd the last sigh of our miseries To dye is but to make a partition of our selues commending the body to the Earth the Soule vnto Heauen To dye is but to bid a last adieu to the world preferring the company of Angels before that of men To dye is to be no more vnhappy To dye is to despoyle vs of our infirmities and to reuest vs with a nature exempt from sufferances O sweet death since it leades vs to the spring of life O sweet death since it giues vs the Eternity of glory in exchange of a moment of dolour O sweet death since it makes vs to reuiue for euer in a felicity immortall O yee Soules of the world thinke then alwayes of death if you will tast with pleasure the sweetnes of life For it shal be euen in this last moment where you shal receiue the Crowne of all the others you may sigh long inough in your chaynes you are neuer like to be delyuered thence if death come not to breake the gates of your prison Go before it then and carry in your countenance the desire of meeting it rather then a feare to be touched with it We should suffer with a good cheere that same which we must of necessity endure What say I endure Were it a payne to approach to the end of ones euils Were it a payne to become for euer exempt from their sufferances Let vs rather say a Contentment since thereby do we get forth of sadnes to enter into ioy Let vs call it a Happines since so we do abandone the dwelling of misfortunes to liue eternally in that of the felicities of Heauen That there is no contentment in the world but to thinke of Death CHAP. III. DEATH hath it's delights as well as Lyfe Iob was neuer more happy nor more content then at such tyme as he saw himselfe vpon the Throne of his dunghill oppressed vnder the burden of his miseries He dyed so deliciously in the depth of his dolours as he would haue suffered alwayes and haue dyed incessantly in that manner His wounds serued him as a mirrour to his loue For in looking thereinto he became amourous of himselfe but yet loued he not himselfe but to dye continually so pleasing was death vnto him therby to obey him who had imposed that law vpon him Loue changes the nature of things From the tyme that a Soule is chastly taken with this passion it neuer suffers for the subiect which it loues The paynes and torments therof are changing the name quality within the hart They are Roses rather then Thornes For if it sigh it is of ioy and not of payne if it be necessary to dy to conserue this louely cause of its life it is no death to it but a meere rap◠of contentment which seuers it from it selfe in fauour of another selfe which its loues more then it selfe In such wise as it begins to liue content from the point it begins to dye in or rather to take its flight towards the obiect it hath proposed to it selfe of the full perfection of its loue From this goodly verity do I draw this lyke consequence That the hearts wounded with diuine loue do neuer sigh in their torments but of the apprehension they haue of their short durance Death which to vs seemes so foule and deformed vpon the sudden changing it's countenance in their respect appeares a thousand tymes more beautifull then lyfe Whence it is that they are alwayes thinking thereon to to be alwayes content since it is the point where their paynes do termine where their felicityes begin The most pleasing thoughtes which our spirit can tell which way to conceyue can haue no other obiect then that of contentment of profit and of vertue in so much as they are the three sorts of goods whereto our will is tyed Now where shall we find more pleasure then in the thought of death since it is the great day of our Fortune where we take possession of the delights of Heauen Where more profit then in the selfe same thought since the soueraygne good which is promised to vs is the But the End and Obiect thereof And where more vertue then to thinke alwayes of Death whilest with the armes of these sweet thoughts we triumph ouer vice I belieue it is impossible to tast pleasures without thinking of death in regard these delights are continually a flying away and incessantly dy with vs in such wise that if we cannot ressent the contentments but within their fruit in running alwayes after them they are rather displeasures then pleasures and therefore we hold there are no greater delights thē those of thinking of Death as being the only meane to make them eternall When I resent vnto my selfe S. Laurence extended vpon the deuouring flames but yet more burned with the fire of his loue then with that of his punishment how he cryes out with a cheerefull voyce in the midst of the heates which consume him to be turned on the other side as if he thought he should not dye but by halfes being so but halfe burned I do feele my selfe rauished with the same iumps of ioy that transported him Death is so welcome to him as he deliciously roles his body on the coles as if they were very beds of Roses So as if he be touched with any payne at all it is for not suffering it for that his life being all of loue finds its element in the fire that consumes it and therefore he sighes of gladnes in the height of his torments In effect how shall he expire admidst those heats if his hart be all aflame already his Soule of Fire For if he were to be turned into ashes the stronger must needs preuayle So as he cannot be consumed but through the fire of his loue O sweet encounter O welcome combat And yet more deere the Triumph Death assayles him with flames it assaults him with heats but the fire wherewith he is holily burned triumphes reduceth him to ashes so to render them as cōsecrated This great Martyr neuer tasted in his life more sweet pleasures thē that of feeling himselfe to dy vpon this bed of flames because resenting death he felt the delights of immortall life wherof he made himselfe a crowne Kings Princes and all those who are raysed to some great fortune confesse it to be a great pleasure to dy since they dy euery hore so sweetly amidst their greatnesses I say so sweetly for their spirits and their senses are so strongly occupyed with their continuall ioyes as the Clocke which keepes accompt of the houres of our lyfe may sound long inough its 24. houres a day and they heed it no more then if they were starke deafe And the night full of horrour which represents to vs the same of the Sepulcher cānot fright them any more then
this contagious malady which we haue taken of our parents were to expect that same which shall neuer come to passe So as indeed we should be throwing al these Crownes at her head and make vse of the Scepter she presents vs with as of a staffe to be auendged of her for her perfidiousnes to testify to her that our constancy scornes her leuity and that our contentment repose depends not awhit of the rowling of her wheele if we learne euery day to liue forth of her Empire Let vs conclude then and say that spirits that know wel the art of thinking of Death do marke out the thrones of their glory in heauen not being able to find any thing on Earth that were worthy of their greatnes Hence it is they take such pleasure to dy without cease and to increase their contentment yet further that they alwayes are thinking vpon it O sweet remembrance of death a thousand times more sweet then all the delights of life O cruell forgetfulnes of this necessity a thousand tymes more cruell then all the paynes of the world O sweet memory of our end where begins our only felicity O glorious obliuion of our mortal conditiō the only cause of our disasters Let vs not liue then but to thinke on the delight of Death let vs not dye but to contemne the pleasure of lyfe let vs forget all but the remembrance of Death Let vs loue nothing but its thoughtes and neuer essteeme but the only actions which haue relation to this last since this is that alone whence we are to receyue eyther price or payne A Contemplation vpon the Tombe of Alexander the Great CHAP. VI. O ALL yee Great Kings Loe I heere sommon you to appeare about this Tombe to behould therein the wormes the corruption and infection of the greatest the happyest the mightiest the most dreadfull Monarch of the world to say all in a word of Great Alexander whose Valour could neuer admit comparison whose Victories haue had no other bounds then those of the Vniuerse and whose Triumphes haue had all the Heauens for witnes all the Earth for Spoyles for slaues all Mortalls for Trumpet Renowne Fortune for Guide Descend then from your thrones vpon this dunghill where lyes the companion of your glory and your greatnesses Behould and contemplate this Pourtrait of your selues drawne to the lyfe after the originall of your miseries Cyrus approach you vnto this vnlucky place vpon your Chariot al of massy gould and come attended with that magnificent pompe which made all the world idolatrous in admiration of it that the infinite number of your subiects may be an infinite number of witnesses to conuince you of vanity and folly in behoulding this Victorious Prince heere beseiged by all sorts of miseryes with in a litle hole which serues as bounds and limirs to his power Cōsider how this great Taker of Townes is surprized himselfe by the wormes how this Triumphant souldier is defeated by thē how this Inuincible captaine hath beene vanquished by death and brought into this deplorable estate wherein you see him Are you not ashamed to be seated in that glittering Chariot since needs you must descend thence to enter into this dismall dwelling where the wormes attend your corruption This great number of subiects which enuiron you on all sides to set forth your glory is a troup of the miserable For they dye in following you and on which side soeuer you go Tyme conducts you all togeather into the Tombe Impose your lawes vpon al the people of the Earth yet needs must you receiue those same of Death Build you as long as you wil a thousand proud Pallaces in your Empire you cānot hold them but in fee-farme though you be the proprietary thereof because euery moment you are at the point of departing Well may you decke your selfe vp with the richest robes of vanity and play the God heere beneath with Crowne on the head and scepter in the hand yet looke what you are consider what you are like to be contemplate your miseries at leysure in the mirour of this sepulcher To day you loure on Heauen with an arrogant eye and to morrow you shal be seene metamorphozed into a stinking peece of earth To day you make your selfe adored of such as haue no iudgment but in the eyes only and to morrow shall you be sacrificed in the sight of all the world for expiatiō of your crimes and hardly shall be found a handfull of your ashes so true it is that you are nothing Xerxes descend you a little from the top of that mountayne of annoyes where they sad thoughtes do hould you besieged within this Vale of disasters and of miseryes to behold therein the pittifull ouerthrow of the proudest Conquerour of the world Spare your teares to mourne vpon his Tombe if you will but acquit your selfe of the iustest homage you may yield to his memory You weep before hand for the Death of your souldiers in foreseeing their end with that of the world What will you say now of the death of this great Captayne who for a last glory after so many triumphes is deuoured of wormes and metamorphosed into a stuffe al of corruption encompassed all with horrour and amazement So as if you will needs be satisfying your selfe afford your teares for your owne proper harmes since you are to incurre the same lot without respect eyther of your greatnes or power All your armyes are not of force inough to warrant you from Death you must bow your necke vnder the yoke of this necessity whose rules are without exceptiō whose law dispenseth not with any Alexander is dead Cyrus his predecessour hath dyed also after a thousand other Kings who haue gone before him and you runne now after them but to me it seemes you carry too great a port of Greatnes with you The earth wherof you are moulded framed demaunds but her earth you must quit your selfe of all and your scepter and crowne shall not be taken for more at that last instant then as sheephookes for that if we be different in the manner of liuing we are yet all equall in the necessity of dying Now therfore it is a vanity to say you are of the race of Gods Come see heere the place of your first begining for as you are borne of corruption so you returne to putrefaction If you doubt thereof as yet approach with your infected flesh to these rotten bones with your clay to these ashes If they differ in ought it can be but in coulour only Tell me to what end serue all those Statues of your resemblance which you caused to be erected on the lands of your Empire since tyme destroyes ruines the original Thinke you belike they dare not medle with those pourtraits which are but vayne shadowes of a body of smoke You trouble your selfe too much to make it credulous to the world that you are immortall as if
them without them in their absence Thou madst profession to teach mē the language of reason and thou hast neuer beene speaking with thy selfe thereof therby to bring thee into the contempt of the earth and desire of heauen Thy light hath dazeled thee thine armes haue vanquished thee the greatnes of thy Spirit hath made thee miserable For with endeauouring to merit Crownes thou hast raysed thy selfe aboue all the Empires of the world to make thy selfe to be adored that thy Example might serue as a law vnto others thou hast beene the first Idolatour of thy selfe Thou wouldst not belieue that there was one God in heauen because thou saidst thy self to be a God on earth Thou wouldst not speake of the other lyfe as knowing wel that he who distributes the good the euill to ech one should seeme to prepare there a Hell for thee to punish thy arrogācy So as if it were once affoarded thee to re-begin thy course againe thou wouldst doubtles forget the vanity of all thy learning to be thinking continually of Death whiles these only thoughts do learne vs all manner of sciences The glory which is left thee for hauing spoken of the world is shut vp in the world and though it should last as long as it yet shall it alwayes dye with it Thy reputation is reuereneed on earth and thou art trod on vnder foot in Hell Men do honour thy name and the deuils torment thy soule Behold all the recompence of thy trauailes Let vs say boldly then that he who is alwayes thinking of Death is ignorant of nothing and that for to be esteemed wise he should liue with his thoughts as the only obiect of the glory we hope for and of the felicity we attend euery houre Plato to what purpose serues thee that faire Renowne which thou hast caused to suruiue thy ashes They speake euery one of thee but if they fetch any argument of thy wisedome they conclude vpon thy folly while Death dishonours thy lyfe We may compare thee to Hanniball for after he had triumphed ouer others he let himselfe be vanquished by himselfe hauing receyued a law from his passions a seruitude from his vices In lyke māner may we say of thee that thou hadst couragiously triumphed ouer all thy popular errours which are thy chiefe domesticke enemies after I say thou hadst left thy goodly actions for so many examples of morall vertues thou buryedst the richest Crowne within thy Sepulcher and that which surmounts all tyme and the inconstancy thereof for at thy Death thou adoredst many Gods as repenting thee of the opinions yea of the beliefe thou hadst in the course of thy lyfe Thou tookest a great deale of paynes to procure the surname of Deuine through thy diuine thoughtes but in the highest of thy soaring pitch thy spirit as an illegitimate yong Eagle not being able to endure the splendour of the sun of faith was cast down headlong from the top of the heauens to the lowest of the earth where dying alwayes in punishments and reuiuing euery momēt in their dolours it shall liue for euer in eternall paynes Let vs say then agayne once more that all sciences are but meere vanity except such as teach vs to liue well and dy happily And that after this manner who thinkes continually of Death is the wisest of the world A Contemplation vpon the Tombe of Salomon CHAP. X. RETVRNE yet once agayne O great Queene of Saba to behold this wise Salomon come attended with your magnificent trayne that euen the selfe same subiects who were the witnesses of your ioy may be the same likewise of your sadnes in this cruell change both of tyme fortune You haue passed through many a sea and happily beene quit of a thousand dangers on the land for to visit this great Monarke as the onely Abridgement of the wonders of the world Put your selfe once more into the perils of the same rockes and into a new danger of so long a voyage to see the setting of this Sun the ashes of this Phonix I would say the Tombe and corruption of this incomparable of this inimitable of this mighty King of Sages What metamorphosis The splendour of his Riches had once dazeled your eyes now the horrour of his pouerty doth begg euen teares of your compassion Heeretofore you cōtemplated his power with astonishment and now see into what plight of feeblenes haue miseries brought him You admired the greatnes of his Empire that likewise of his spirit ioyned with the perfection of his wisedome but now consider how all these goodly qualityes haue not beene able to exempt him from the Sepulcher where he serues as a prey vnto the worms You haue adored him on the Theater of his Vanities at such tyme as he represented the personage of the greatest King that euer wore a Crowne and turning the leafe within the twinckling of an eye is this very King no more then a loathsome carkasse whome horrour amazement hold in pledge vntill such tyme as he be conuerted into dust which he hath beene indeed but that is all And hardly dare we now maintaine him to be he since that in seeking him out within himselfe is he not to be found So vanisheth the glory of the world all flyes into the Tombe Solon since thou hast borne the surname of all the seauen Sages of Greece come visit this tombe of the wisest of the world of this incomparable Salomon He was great of birth great in happines great in power great in riches most great in knowledge But behold now how his rich cradle is chāged into this poore Sepulcher How his felicity hath taken the visage of misfortune How his power is bounded in the impotēcy thou seest him in He is not great but in miseries he is not rich but in wormes and in the knowledge of the follies which he hath wrought Among so many goodly lawes which thou hast gyuen to the Athenians remember thy selfe of that which nature hath imposed vpon thee to dy at all howers vntil such tyme as thou be quite dead Thou dost in vayne command thy bones to be cast into diuers places after thy Death for if they putrify not all at once ech one of thē shall produce a stench from the marrow in the place where it shal be buryed Thou must necessarily follow the lot of this great Sage since you are brothers both of the same condition Thou hast taught others long inough learne thou that which as yet thou knowest not Thou teachest all the world to liue learne thou thy selfe to dy well Thy knowledge is but vanity For though thy precepts be engrauen in marble and brasse time which deuoures all things shall deface the remembrance of them to so bury thy glory If thou lyuest not for thy soule rather then thy body they will scarce belieue thou hast lyued at all Periander come behould thy Companion of renowne so as if thou knowest
doubt not of the rest Thinke thē of death you Courtiers since the Eternity both of glory payne depends of a moment O sweet and dreadfull moment And you my Dames you belieue you haue conquered an Empire straight as soone as you haue once subiected any spirit to you power to what end do you study so euery day since you learne ech moment but vanity and new lessons of nicenes be it for actiō or grace sake but therein what thinke you to do Your purpose is to wound harts you vndoe soules for when you make a mā passionately in loue with you you do euen make him a Foole. You cannot be taking away his hart without depriuing him of reason And to what extrauagancies is he not subiect the while during the reigne of his passion I would say of his folly You are al which he loues and very often all which he adores what cry me I should thinke it rather to please you then to saue himselfe If he looke vpon the Sun he is but to make comparison betweene the light of your eyes and that of this bewtifull starre which I leaue to you to imagine how farre frō truth He seemes to maynteyne very impudently in scorne of all created things that you are the only wonder of the world and the very abridgemēt of al that nature hath euer made bewtifull which yet no man belieues but he and you If he carry vp his thoughtes to Heauen he compares you to the Angells with these words That you haue all the qualities of them Iudge now without passiō whether these termes of Idolatry do not fully wholy passe sentence to conuince him with a thousand sorts of crymes And yet do you take pleasure to make the Deuill more potent then he is for to cause others to be damned Returne then agayne vnto your selfe and consider how you ought to render an accoumpt one day of all those spirits whose Reason you haue made to wander in the labyrinth of your charmes For she that on earth shall haue subiected the most shal be the greatest slaue in Hell What glory take you to ioyne your charmes with those of the Diuels thereby to draw both bodyes and soules vnto them I attend you at this last moment of your lyfe where your definitiue sentence is to be pronounced Thinke you alwayes of this moment if there be yet remayning in you but neuer so litle sparke of loue for your selues When you shall once haue enthralled all the Kings of the earth there would yet be a great deale more shame then honour in it since all those Kings were no more then meere corruption and infection Thinke of your selues my Dames you are to day no more the same you were yesterday Tyme which deuours all thinges defaceth ech moment the fayrest lineaments of your face nor shall it euer cease to ruine your beauties vntill such tyme as you be wholy reduced to ashes So passeth away the glory of the world all flyes into the Tombe That of all the Lawes which Nature hath imposed vpon vs that same of Dying is the sweetest CHAP. XII FROM the tyme that our first Father had violated the sacred Lawes which God had imposed vpon him Nature as altering her nature would acknowledge him no more for her child Anone she rayseth a tumult against him with all created things The Heauen armes it selfe with thunders to punish his arrogancy The Sunne hides himselfe vnder the veyle of his Eclypses to depriue him of his light The Moone his sister defending his quarrell resolues with her selfe to be often changing her countenance towards him to signify vnto him the displeasure she tooke thereat The Starres being orherwise innocent of nature became malignant of a sudden to powre on his head their naughty influences The Ayre keeping intelligence with the Earth exhales her vapours and hauing changed them into poyson infects therewith the body of that miserable wretch The Birdes take part with them they whet their beakes clawes to giue some assault or other The Earth prepares the mine of its abysses for to swallow him vp if the dread horrour of its trembling were not sufficient to take away his life The sauage beasts stand grinding their teeth to deuoure him The Sea makes an heape of an infinite number of rockes to engulfe him in their waues But this is nothing yet Nature is so set on reuenge against him as she puts on his fellowes to destroy their pourtraite I meane to combat with the shadow of their body in causing them to quench the fire of their rage with their proper bloud In so much as man hath no greater enemy then man himselfe Let vs go forward To continue these euils do miseries enter into the world accompanyed with their sad disastres and followed with despayre griefe sadnes folly rage and a thousand passions besides which do cleane vnto the senses for to seize vpon soules This poore Adam sees himselfe to be besieged on al sidess if he looke vp to Heauen the flash of the lightenings there euen dazles and astonishes him quite the dreadfull noyse of thunder makes him to wish himselfe to be deafe he knowes not what to resolue vpon since he hath now as many enemyes as he had vassals before Adam may well cry mercy for his syn what pardon soeuer he obteyne thereof yet will nature neuer seeme to pardon him for it Whence it is that in compasse also of these ages of redemption it self wherein we breath the ayre of grace we do sigh that same of miseryes So as if there be nothing more certayne according to the experience of our sense then that the Earth is a Galley wherein we are slaues that it is the prison wherin we are enchained and the place assigned vs to suffer the paynes of our crymes in can there possibly be found any soules so cuell to themselues and such enemyes to their owne repose as not to be continually sighing after their liberty after the end of their punishments and the beginning of an eternall lyfe full of pleasures What would become of vs if our lyfe endured for euer with its miseryes if it should neuer haue an end with our euill that it had no bounds or limits no more then we For then should I be condemning the laughter of Democritus and allowing of the continuall teares of his companion since the season would be alwayes to be alwaies weeping and neuer to laugh Then would it be that cryes and plaints would serue vs for pastimes and teares sighes should neuer abandon eyther our eyes or harts But we are not so brought to this extremity of vnhappines The Heauens being touched with compassion of our euills and of the greatnes of our miseryes in giuing vs a cradle for them to be borne in haue affoarded vs a Sepulcher also for to bury them in O happy Tombe that reduceth to ashes the subiect of our flames O happy Tombe where the wormes make an end to
world to heape vp treasures but he fetches the turne only of the Circle of his lyfe the while of necessity most the Ship be landing at this last port of the Sepulcher where he finds himselfe as poore as when he entred into the cradle I know not for whome the Richman trauayles for before the iourney of his trauayle be finished his dayes are runne out and being on the point to reape the fruite of his passed paines death gathers those of the repose of his lyfe The Mercinary soules who lend forth their conscience to Interest insteed of their Money sell as in told Coyne the portion they pretend in Heauen for a little Earth Blind as they be they spin the web of their captiuity forge the Armes which are one day to reuenge the enormity of their crymes Abused soules they consider not how all the Gould of the world is yet now in the world howbeit the greatest part therof hath beene possessed by an infinite number of Mortals and so shall leaue them behind them as others how rich soeuer they be now without carrying ought els into the Tombe but griefe for not hauing made so good vse of them as they should To what point of misery was reduced the impious Richman of the Ghospell in a moment after he had possessed an infinite number of Treasures He behoulds himself in estate of begging a drop of water for to quench his thirst To what end serued all his pleasures past but to augment his present paynes He employed his Riches to purchase Hell and all his goods to gayne the euill he endures O humane Folly To put ones selfe in hazard to loose Eternity for enioying of a fading Treasure Good is not good but as permanent and yet looke they after transitory delights that subsist not but in flying Demaund they of Cyrus what hath he done with all his Riches he will answere he hath left them in the soyle that brought them forth Xerxes hath enioyed theÌ„ as well as he and as he so hath he borne no part thereof into his Sepulcher They may cause monuments to be built to their Memory but Tyme that deuoures all hath wrought new Tombes for their Tombes in such fort as if yet there be memory of their death it is but onely by reason of their lyfe They make a question which of the two was more rich eyther Alexander or Diogenes the one whose Ambition could not be bounded with the whole extent of the Earth and the other whose desire hopes were shut vp in the space of his Tub. For me I do hould with Diogenes since he is the richest who is best content I could neuer yet imagine the pleasure which Caligula tooke to wallow vpoÌ„ Gold for if the lustre of that mettall contented his eyes he might haue beheld himselfe a far of since the eye requires a distance proportioned to the force or feeblenes of its lookes but deceaued as he was he considered not the while how this Gould He differed not awhit but only in colour since they were both of Earth And in effect they can not authorize its pleasure but through the relatioÌ„ which was there of the nature of the one with that of the other The Poets represent to vs how the Goulden fleece was guarded by a Dragon lyke as the Goulden Aples of Hesperides and the Morall which may be gathered from these Fables is nothing els but the danger and payne which is inseparable from the conquest of Treasures The Historians obserue that in all the Countries where this mettall abounds the inhabitants are so poore as they haue scarse a ragge of linnen to couer their nakednesse withall What may we imagine in contemplation of this Verity but that all the Gould of the Earth cannot tell how to enrich a maÌ„ while the riches of the world are borne and dye in a pouerty worthy of compassion Then seeke not my Soule other Riches then those of Eternity Thou canst not tell how to buy heauen withall the gold of the earth and without the enioying of its felicities all goods are counterfait al Sweetnesses but full of Bitternes Imagine thee now to lyue vnder the Reigne of a goulden Age and that through an excesse of Fortune thou treadest vnder foot all the Pearles of the Ocean and all the goulden haruest of the Indies And not to loose thy selfe in this imagination consider the estate of this felicity tast in conceyt a part of the pleasures which thou wert to possesse if effects should answere to thy thoughts and then boldly confesse with the Wiseman how all these transitory goodes are treasures of Vanity that in the iust pretensions thou hast to an Eternall glory all these atomes of Greatnes can serue thee no more but for obiect of thy contempt Suppose thou wert the absolute Mistresse of the world what good couldst thou hope for in the fruition therof if all be replete with euils Crimes haue Temples there Vices haue Aultars All the Idolls are of goulden Calues and such as make professioÌ„ to follow Vertue are within the order of a malady of a contagious Spirit according to the common opinion So as through a Law of Tyme the most laudable Actions are subiect to reproaches Leaue then all the goods of the Earth to the Earth since thou art not borne for them seeke as a pledge in the sweet thoughtes of Eternity for the accomplishmeÌ„t of thy delightes The world is not able to satiate thy desires since it hath nothing in it that is not transitory And howbeit it be susteyned in its inconstancy it leaues not to wax old in changing to ruine it selfe by little and little in ruyning all things Thinke neuer then but of Eternity Speake not but of Eternity Let thy desires and thy Hopes regard but Eternity Let alwayes Eternity be in thy memory the conteÌ„pt of the world within thy hart If thou beest capabel of Hatred be it but for the Earth and if thou beest capable of Loue be it but for Heauen since it is the mansion of Eternity There are others who seeke their contentment in magnificent Pallaces as if they were shelters of proofe against disasters and misfortunes Charles the VIII tooke pleasure to build very proud Fabrikes as belieuing it may be to close his eyes in dying through the Splendour of their wonders but his lot an Enemy of his hopes snatched away his last breath being sound of health vpon a straw bed and in place encompassed round with Misery Heliogabalus likewise was deceued of his purpose for being on the point when the â—enormity of his Crymes had passed sentence of his Death on behalfe of the Gods he shuts himselfe in the fairest hall of his Pallace and prepares for his Enemies all the Richest instruments of Death he could recouer as thinking to sweeten the bitternes thereof with so goodly armes but his foresight was vnprofitable for the Gods permitted that as he had tasted the
of the Soule and al the dolours wherwith our life is touched Now then if it be true that we dye euery moment is not euery moment I pray a Death to vs Let vs go then my soule to God since he cals vs the Sunne lends vs not its light but to shew vs the way to him The Starres shine not in heauen but to let vs see the pathes trackes therof So as if the Moone do hide her self frō our eyes by Interstitions it cannot be but of choler as sensible of the contempt we shew of her light Let vs go to this holy Land of Promise and passe the Red Sea of sufferance and punishments in exāple of our Sauiour who with no other reason then that of his Loue would purchase through his bloud the Glory he atteyned to The world can afford vs but Death Death but a Tombe and the Tombe but an infinite number of wormes which shal be fed with our carcasse They runne after the world the world is nought but misery they do loue then to be miserable What blindnes my Soule to sigh after our mishaps passionately to cherish the subiect of our losse Let vs go to this Eternity where the delights euer present raigne with in the Order of a continuall moment Let vs get forth of this mouing circle and breake the chaynes of this shameful seruitude wherein to Syn hath brought vs. Away with the world since whatsoeuer is in it is but myre and dust it is but smoke to the eyes putrifaction to the nostrills the noyse of thunder and tempests to the eares thornes to the hands smart to our feeling All those who put any trust therein are vtterly deceyued All those who follow it are absolutely lost All those that honour it are wholy despised and all those who sacrifice to its Idols shal be one day sacrificed themselues in expiation of their crimes Besides we see how all that know it do abandon it for if it promise a Scepter it reaches vs a Shephooke Thrones are seated on the brimme of a precipice nor doth it euer affoard vs any good turne but as the vigill of some misfortune Away then with the world and all that is within it since all its wōders now are but dust Whatsoeuer it hath more rare is but Earth whatsoeuer it hath more fayre is but wind Euery King is no more but a heape of Worms where Horrour Terrour and Infection astonish and offend the senses that approch vnto it Corruption sayth the Wiseman speaking of man vaunt thou as much as thou wilt behould thy selfe brought vnto the first nothing of thy first Being Let vs not liue my Soule but for Eternity since it is the true spring of lyfe Out of Eternity is there no repose out of Eternity no pleasure out of Eternity all hope is vayne Who thinkes not of Eternity thinkes of nothing since out of Eternity all things are false Let vs behould but Eternity my Soule as the onely obiect of glory All flyes away except Eternity it is it alone which is able to satiate our defires and termine our hopes I will no other comfort in all my annoyes then that of Eternity I will no other solace in all my miseryes then that of Eternity After it do I desire nothing after it do I looke for nothing I lyue not but for it and my hart sighes not but after it All discourses are displeasing to me except those of Eternity It is the But and end of all my actions it is the obiect of my thoughtes I labour but to gather its fruits al my vigils point at the pretensions of its Crownes My eyes contemne all the obiects except those that conuey my spirits to its sweet Idea's as to the only Paradise I find in this world Whatsoeuer I do I iudge my selfe vnprofitable if I refer not my actions to this diuine cause whatsoeuer I thinke whatsoeuer I say and whatsoeuer I imagine all is but vanity if those thoughtes if those words those imaginatiōs rely not in some fashion on Eternity In fine my Soule if thou wilt tast on Earth the delightes of Heauen thinke continually of Eternity for in it only it is where the accomplishment of all true contentments doth consist The Glory of Paradise AATER that rich Salomon had a thousand tymes contented his Eyes in admiration of the fairest obiects which are found in Nature That his Eares euer charmed with a sweet Harmony had deliciously tasted in their fashion the most sensible repasts they are affected to That his Mouth had relished the most delicate meates where the Tongue finds the perfection of its delight after I say he had quenched the thirst of his desires in the sea of all contentments of the world and satisfied the appetite of his senses in the accomplishment of the purest delicacies he cries out aloud That all was full of vanity The Pompe of these magnificences may well represent themselues to his remēbrance but he cryes out before it That it is but vanity His riches his Greatnesses his Triumphes all his pleasures serued him as a subiect within knowledge of their Nature for to exclayme very confidently that all was full of vanity What pleasures now after these delights may mortalls tast What Riches may they now possesse after these Treasures To what Greatnes may they aspire which is not comprized within that of his Empire To what sort of prosperities may they pretend which is not lesse then his happines And yet neuertheles after a long possession of honours delights which were inseparable to his soueraigne absolute power he publisheth this truth that all is full of smoke and wind and that nothing is sure heere beneath but death nor present but miseries Soules of the world what thinke you of that you reason not somtimes in your selues to discouer the weaknes of the foundation whereon your hopes are piched You loue your pleasures but if it be true that knowledge should alwayes precede Loue why know you not the nature of the Obiect before it predominate the power of your affections Agayne you loue not thinges at any tyme but to possesse them Ah what know you not the delights of the world do passe before our eyes as a lightning that in their excesse they incessantly find their ruyne you thinke your selfe content to day because nothing afflicts you do you cal that pleasure to runne after pleasure for it is impossible for you to possesse that imaginary contentment but in running after it since it flyes so away without resting Let them represent to themselues the greatest contētments that may be receyued in the world at the same tyme let all the diuers Spirits who haue tasted the vayne Sweetnesses appeare to tell vs in secret what remaines to them thereof Thou Miser tell vs I pray thee what pleasure hast thou to shut vp thy goulden Earth within thy coffers to lend it to the interest of thy conscience and to make it