reasonings of human Wit If once I am raysed above the earth John 12.32 I will draw all to my self says Christ Jesus But Lord whence comes it that you draw not all and that it seems as if the fruit of your sacred Passion were imperfect Ah! 'T is because the weight of our sins is yet stronger than the Adamant which draws us 'T is because we have not the courage to quit all that we have of terrestriall For had we never so slender a disposition to bend our selves towards Heaven thou O Lord wouldst quickly draw us thither by the power of thy Grace Give us we beseech thee this disposition and since it is impossible for man to rayse himself above the Earth but by the Cross which elevated thee upon Calvary in the view of all Nations Grant O Saviour that we may embrace this Cross with as much Gratitude for thy Bounties and Mercies as thou hast had Compassion for our Miseries Article XXVII A Comparison between true Christians and the faithfull Israelites in which St. Augustin shews That as the first comming of the Messias was the object of the continual Desires and Devotion of the true Israelites so the second comming of Christ Jesus should be the scope of the most solid Piety and of the most fervent Desires of Christians THe Elect whom the Sacred Scripture names the Children of God In Psal 136. and 143. and the Reprobate whom it calls the Children of Men or Children of the Earth have lived after a very different manner The Reprobate limit their hope to the present World and expecting no other Felicity than that of this Life Hom. 50. alibi embusy themselves in building Towns and in establishing a permanent fortune upon Earth Cain the head of the Reprobate first founded a City which he call'd by the name of his Son Nembroth raised the Tower of Babel and built Babylon But we read no such thing of the Children of God It is not said that they built any Town on the contrary they fled from Towns they walked continually from place to place and when by the order of God they stayd in any Countrey they lodged under Tents in the open Fields to avoyd the corruption of the World which is a kind of contagious Disease gotten by commerce with one another Such was the Life of Abraham of Isaac of Jacob and of other holy Patriarks Moses lived in a like manner in conducting the people of Israel in the Desart after he had freed them from the Captivity of Egypt All the events of his passage 1 Cor. 10. Heb. 7.8.9 were according to the thought of S. Paul but a Figure of that which was to befall the Elect who are the true Isralites chosen by God from all Eternity Wherefore if we will be of this beloved troop whereof our Saviour speaks in the Gospel we must not pass our Life in building Palaces and in raysing great fortunes upon Earth Let us not imitate the ingratitude and Blindness of these Hebrews who made to themselves Gods according to their own capricious brain who repined at their servitude and who upon every little incommodity hapning in their Journey murmured against their Conductour and preferr'd their slavery of Egypt before all the goods which he gave them hopes of in the Land of Promise On the contrary they who were truly touched with the desire of that dear Countrey endured with undanted courage all the difficulties of their voyage in hopes to arrive one day at that place of repose and plenty which Moses promised them But so long as they remained Captives they ceased not to sigh and weep upon the banks of the Babilonian River they hung their Harps upon the branches of Trees and when they were entreated to sing Canticles of Mirth their answer was Psal 1 36. Alas how can we sing being in a strang Land Rather let our Tongues be dryed up and all the Strings of our Harps broken than that we should be induced to sing in a place of tears and lamentation Sion was but the Figure of the Church and the captivity of Egypt was but the Image of the Tyrany of the Devil The true Israelites knew well that they could not enjoy an entire liberty untill after the coming of the Messias Therefore it was that they made so many vows and Prayers to see the arrival of that happy days foretold by all their Prophets And that Nation had evermore such ardent desires for the coming of their Redeemer that even in their greatest blindness and when they crucified the true Messias they still continued their Prayers and demanded of God that he would send him to deliver his people Let not us imitate these blind and self opinion'd Jews Let us acknowledge Christ Jesus for our Deliverer Let us couragiously support the toyls of our Pilgrimage Let us look upon the World as upon a Wilderness through which we must pass with all sorts of pains and incommodities and when we shall be ready to enter into our Celestial Countrey let 's Render Thanks to our Redeemer for that after having deliver'd us from the bondage of the Devil he hath moreover the Goodness to send us Death to accomplish the breaking of our Fetters Let us then In Psal 66. my Brethren prepare our selves to meet the coming of our Saviours Kingdom for that it will come is most certain It is I say most certain that he who came once in an estate of contempt and of humiliation will come another time in an estate of greatness and of Majesty It is certain that he who came to be judged by the World will come one day to judge the World Let us now adore him in his humiliation to the end we may not be affrighted one day by that terrible preparation of greatness and of Majesty wherewith he will come to Judgement If we love him whilst he hath yet his Arms stretched forth on the Cross we may deserve to contemplate him in his Glory He will divide his Kingdom with them who have sincerely desired that his Kingdom should come and that his Will should be don Why then desire we not to have it come Why do we not accomplish his Will His Will is no other than that of his Father who sent him Let us avouch Christ Jesus before Men for our Master if we will not have him to disavow us before his Father for his true Children But it is not enough for obtaining an entrance into the Heavenly Kingdom to say to him with our Mouths Mat. 7.21 Lord Lord We must fulfill the Will of his Father which is also his Will Now the Will of my Father says Christ Jesus is that all they who see the Son and who believe in him should have Eternal Life Job 6.40 and I will raise them up at the last day Let us then believe in him with our whole Heart and let us look upon him for the present with Eyes of Faith and of
Pains and the beginning of an Eternal Felicity Article II. The Second Principle of St. Augustin That proportionally as the Christian feels his Love for Virtue to encrease he feels also the Desire of Death to encrease within him WHen a man hath a lively and sincere Faith which gives him a sight of the place whether he is to walk during his abode upon Earth and of that where he shall arrive one day after his going forth of this World the Desire of Death ought to encrease in him according to the encrease of his Piety because it sussiceth not that Faith makes him see that Celestial dwelling where he is to be setled for euer but Charity must also make him love it and desire speedily to obtain it Now 't is impossible for him to have this Disposition in his Spirit and in his Heart without being glad to go forth of this Life An Excellent Passage of one of St. Augustins Disciples who made a Collection of his Sentences and of his chief Maxims where the tow precedent Principles are united This Collection is attribution to St. Prosper IF we consult our Faith and have the Sentiments which it ought to inspire into us we shall acknowledg that Sanctity of Life and a Desire of Death are things inseparable For one cannot be truly a Christian if one loves not God and if one aspires not to that Eternal Life which he hath promis'd to all them who love him We see it by Faith we expect it by Hope we love it and we desire it by Charity According as a man advances in the practice of these Virtues he advances also in the exercise of this holy Desire The more ardour he hath for eternal Life the less adhesion he hath to the temporal Life and considering Death as the sole issue out of this World and as the entrance into that Celestial Life which ought to be the object of all our Defires he looks with Joy upon that last moment which is to take him from off the face of the Earth So that when Faith and Charity are perfect in a Soul the Desire of Death is there at the same time so perfect that it raises it-self above that love of Life which blind and material Nature inspires into us But when Virtue is yet imperfect although Faith perswades us that Death is advantagious unto us yet Nature thwart's in us this holy Thought and we then feel that we possess Life with pleasure and should lose it with pain and difficulty whereas perfect Christians endure Life with pain and lose it with pleasure Article III. St. Augustin having establish'd these two Principles proposes to himself the Objection of some persons of Piety who fear the Judgments of God and who say That they do not believe they should do well in desiring Death and that it seems better to them to demand of God Time for Mortification and for becoming more Perfect I Know not upon what they can ground themselves Quaest Evan in Mat. q. 17. who having a sincere Faith can say nevertheless that they would not dye so soon to the end they might have more time to labour for their Salvation and their Perfection For 't is certain that the most infallible Mark which a Soul can have of her advancement in Virtue is when she advances in this holy disposition which makes her desire Death If then these persons will speak according to truth Let them not say I desire not to die so soon to the end I may have time to become more virtuous but let them rather say I desire to live longer because I am not virtuous enough to love Death Thus not to be willing to die so soon is not to the Faithfull a means to acquire more Virtue but 't is a signe that they have not yet acquired any Let them therefore who have hitherto said that they would not die to the end they might become more perfect say henceforth That they desire to die and this will make it appear that they are arrived at Christian Perfection Article IV. The Third Principle of S. Augustin That there are among Christians two sorts of Fear to displease God One of which is destroyed and the Other strengthened by Charity From whence this holy Doctor concludes That Faithful Souls which are the true Spouses of Christ Jesus fear nothing so much as to be for a long time separated from this Divine Bridegroom THere is a Fear which is banish'd by Charity In Psal 127. Tr. 9. n Epist i Joan. pass 1 Joan. 28 according to that word of Saint John Fear is not found with Charity but perfect Charity drives out Fear and he who fears is not perfect in Charity There is another Fear which the Royal Prophet calls the Fear of our Lord that pure and chaste Fear Psa 18 10. which remains for ever and ever Which gives us occasion to observe That there are two forts of the Fear of God one of which will subsist in Heaven with Charity and the other will be banish'd thence the one will perish with Life the other will remain eternally I cannot better explain unto you the Nature and the Properties of these two Fears then in placing before your Eyes a Comparison which seems to me very just and very sensible Figure to your selves two Women One of them chaste and the Other unfaithful to her Husband Is it not true that when their Husbands are absent the unfaithful Woman fears at every hour the return of her Husband and that on the contrary the chaste Woman fears lest her Husband should stay too long from coming Our Souls are the Spouses of Christ Jesus and during the state of this mortal life this Divine Bridegroom is separated from his Spouses Now if you agree to this truth there remains no more my Brethren but to ask your selves concerning the nature of the Fear which you feel to see whether it is either that imperfect Fear which Charity ought to exclude or that other tender and awful Fear which is to remain eternally O Christian Souls do not neglect this occasion which I present unto you to know well your selves Question your Conscience Will you know whether you truly love this Divine Bridegroom Do you desire that he should come presently or that he should yet for some time delay his coming Behold my Brethren and consider how your Heart is thereupon disposed and from thence you shall know what your Fear is and what is your love Alas How many Christians are there to whom if one should tell this News Christ Jesus will come to morrow to take you out of this World they would say Lord stay a little longer I have only begun to taste Life I have Youth and Health about me my House is not yet well established my Children are in their tender age and cannot pass without me I have in my mind great designs for the publick good the Poor have need of my assistance I perform
pardonable in a Child Let us then open our Eyes let 's act as reasonable men let 's live like Christians 'T is high time to conceive a horrour of our Prison and to shake off the chains which detain us in it Let 's reflect that there is another Life than this let 's awaken our Faith let 's excite our Hope and finally let us comfort our selves le ts rejoyce that our near Relations have acquired an eternal Happiness by the loss of a miserable Life le ts burn with a holy Desire of Death let 's seek with ardour and receive with joy that which will put an end to our afflictions and give a beginning to our Felicity Article X. Among all the Fathers of the Church St. Ambrose is one of them who hath spoken best of Death He made a particular Treatise De bono mortis Of the good of Death S. Ambrose where he says That it frees us from the miseries of this Life and from the servitude of Sin He teaches That 't is Death which procures Immortality to our Soul and a glorious Resurrection to our Body and finally That 't is Death which gives us the means to testify our Gratitude our Love and our Zeal to Christ Jesus Whence he concludes that if we have Faith we ought to desire Death Life is a burthen the weight whereof oppresses us and Death is the only succour which can discharge us of it Life is a punishment and Death is the sole means which remains for us to be releas'd of it Did one ever see Slaves and miserable Wretches fear to be set at freedom and to be comforted 'T is from Death alone that we must expect this Comfort and this liberty Now if we ought to love it because its frees us from the miseries of Life ought we not to love it more because it delivers us from the bondage of Sin For the most innocent of men is a Sinner as long as he is living he must die to the end he may sin no more and his Death is no less the end of his Sin than of his Life But Death doth yet much more it breaks not the bonds of Sin but to procure us the glorious liberty of the Elect. 'T is Death which re-unites men to their beginning makes them find their greatness and their felicity in the loss of their Lives 'T is Death finally which delivering them from corruption introduces them into an incorruptible and eternal Life For as soon as Sin had given birth to Death God drew from thence the Resurrection to the end that Sin ceasing by Death Nature might always subsist by the Resurrection and that man dying to the Earth and to Sin might live eternally in Glory Then this Word of the sacred Scripture wild be accomplished Death hath been absorp'd and destroyed by an entire victory 1 Cor. 15. v. 55. and we shall be able to say with the Apostle O Death where a thy victory O Death where is thy sting But the greatest advantage which we derive from Death is That it gives us the means to imitate the Charity of Christ Jesus and to do for him in some sort the same thing he hath done for us We may be in dying the Victims of his glory as he hath been the Victim of our Salvation and we may testify our gratitude by voluntarily offering to him this Sacrifice In effect how will it be possible for us to satisfy otherwise our so great obligations And moreover if we well consider it Rom. 8. What proportion is there between the sufferings of the present Life and the felicitie of the other Life between the torments of Death and that immortal glory which God is one day to discover in us Article XI An Excellent Doctrine of St. Ambrose which establishes two manners of Living and of Dying set down in the Sacred Scripture The first is that of just men who Live of Life that is who being in the Grace of God enjoy the Life of Body and of Soul And the second is that of Sinners and wicked men who Live being dead and who leading an exteriour life upon Earth are dead interiourly before God As to the two manners of dying the One is of them who die of death that is who in dying impenitent endure a double Death that of the Soul and that of the Body and the Other is of the Sole Predestinate who die to live which is understood of the Elect who endure the corporal Death with patience and with joy to go to possess an eternal and glorious Life WHen it is said in the sacred Scripture That the man who shall keep Gods Commandments De Paradiso c. 9. and shall exercise Justice and Mercy towards his Neighbour Ezech. 18. shall live the Life we must not believe that the Holy Ghost made use without design of such an extraordinary expression To live the Life or of Life is to have a double Life One of which is exteriour and corporal and the Other interiour and spiritual 't is to lead the life of a Man and of an Angel both together 't is to enjoy at the same time Health and Grace 't is to live of a general Virtue which includes all the natural and supernatural functions finally 't is the estate in which good people live upon Earth an Estate truly happy for the time but from which one may fall unless one labours continually to disengage himself from all adhesions to Life by the thought and by the desire of Death On the contrary to die the Death or of the Death Gen. 2. Exod. 21. what is it else according to the language of the Scripture but to suffer a double Death of the Body and of the Soul I mean to be deprived of the ordinary use of this transitory Life and of the possession of eternal Life And this is it which makes the misery of the reprobate who for having over much loved a criminal Life die miserably in their crimes There is moreover among Christians another manner of dying which is of them who die to life or who die in living that is who are dead and living both together And these are they who live of the life of the Body who enjoy a perfect health who have beauty strength and dexterity and yet who are dead to the Life of Grace and are not animated with the Spirit of God 'T is of these men that it is said in the Scripture That they descend alive into Hell And 't is in this sence that the words of the Apostle are to be understood Psal 54.16 The Widow who lives in delights is dead 1 Tim. 56. altho' she seems to be living And it is also the deplorable state of the wicked in this life out of which they may nevertheless get forth by sincere penance Finally the fourth kind of Christians in relation to Life and to Death and the most happy of all is of them who live by Death such are all
many good Works I render Justice without Passion and without Interest another will possess my place who will not perchance acquit himself so worthily Rather take away from the Earth those Wicked ones who only incommode the good people It concerns the honour of your sacred Name to exterminate those Atheists who contemn you it concerns your Glory to confound that Tyrant who abuses his power Why strike you not with Death that Usurer who heaps up treasures at the charge of the Widow and of the Orphan Why take you not an exemplary chastisement upon that publick Blood sucker who ruines a multitude of families But as for us who continually bless you who give Alms and who spread abroad in all places the effects of our cares and of our Liberalities leave us to live to honour you 'T is thus that the major part of Christians would speak But as for them who are arrived at such a degree of Perfection as to despise Life the World and themselves they I say who aspire to nothing else but to unite themselves to God for evermore they would make use of another manner of language Come they would say Come O thou too long exdected Hour of the Bridegrooms arrival Our Souls always burning with a desire to be with him find that all the moments of this miserable Life which separates us from him are so many ages Why do you stay O Lord Have not our Sighs given you sufficiently to understand that we lang 〈…〉 with the love of your beauty 〈…〉 You need but only knock at the door our Heart watches even whilst our Eyes seem to be shut up by Sleep Article V. Other Principles of St. Augustin That we are not happy in this Life but by the Hope and by the Desire of Eternal Goods That to be worthy to enter into the Celestial Countrey we must be willing to go forth of our Exile That the whole Life of a Christian is but a holy Desire of things to come and a generous Contempt of present Goods In Psal 83. aâ—os WE are here in the Region of Death but we are not thanks be to God to remain here always We are to pass from the Region of the Dead to that of the Living In the mean while there is nothing in this Region of the Dead but labour sorrow fear affliction temptation The persons who are unhappy in the World are there truly unhappy but they who believe themselves to the there happy do there enjoy but a false happiness and a false happiness is a true unhappiness Thus to speak truth there are none but only they who suffer not themselves to be blinded by the false felicities of this Life who can enjoy in this World a true Comfort and who can hope to enjoy one day a true Felicity in the other You then who agree to this that one is miserable in this Life listen to the Saviour of the World who tells you Mat. 5.5 Happy are they who weep and lament O how mysterious is the Felicity of these Tears Nothing is so agreeable to Misery as to Sigh and to Weep nothing is so opposite to misery as to be Happy Why then O Lord do you speak of a certain kind of men who are afflicted and who at the same time are Happy Let us endeavour my Brethren to comprehend the truth of these Words Why doth Christ Jesus call them Happy who Weep and what Happiness do they possess in lamenting This Happiness O Christians 't is the Contempt of Life 't is the Desire of Death They lament the length of their Banishment they weep out of compassion for the blindness of them who are tyed to the Earth they weep finally out of the impatience they have to come to that dear Countrey which God hath promis'd them and whatever Beauty presents it-self to their eyes upon the banks of the Rivers of Babylon they stay not upon them but to weep Blessed are they who weep in this manner because they shall be comforted Mat. 5.5.12 and because a great recompense is reserved for them in Heaven But the better to know their Happiness let us mark a little the misfortune of such as are in Criminal Joy of Worldlings Their Heart is only sensible of the objects of their Passions they make it their whole study to seek out new Pleasures yet whatever care they employ in it a disgust so closely follows the enjoyment that all their industry cannot soon enough furnish new inventions to entertain this diversity The excess of good Cheer takes away their appetit and ruins their Health a tender and constant Freindship tire's them the best entertainment grows tedious to them their own greatness perplexes and combers them if they are in company they would be alone and yet they cannot endure solitude The Rich envy 's the tranquillity of the Poor the Ambitious wishes for wealth to raise himself to honour the Voluptuous finds that every thing incommodes him and creates to himself a true torment by his solicitude in seeking for his pleasure Finally if we look upon things but only with human aspects they are extremely unhappy But the most terrible of all their miseries is That the disgust they conceive of this Life doth not move them to desire another They languish they sigh they weep sometimes in the middle of their delights but their delights will soon have an end and their tears will never be dried up And after they have wept in this Life they shall be plonged in darkness of Hell where Despair and Rage shall make them weep eternally Consequently to this Maxim St. Augustin teaches moreover elsewhere Ep. ad Probam Tract 4. in Ep. Joan passim in Psal That all the Life of a Christian ought to be but a holy desire of Death and of the goods of Eternity No man says this great Saint going from Earth shall arrive at Heaven to be there satiated with that eternal Justice which makes up all the joy of the Blessed unless he hath had an ardent thirst and an unsatiable hunger thereof whilst he was yet in the world And therefore it is Written That they who have an Hunger and they who have a Thirst of Justice Mat. 5.6 shall be happy because they shall be satiated It is then most certain That all the Justice of Man upon earth is no other thing than a Thirst and an ardent desire of the Eternal Justice But how can one desire that Eternal Justice if one love's Life if one dreads Death and if one doth not even desire to die in order to possess in Heaven this Justice which one cannot possess upon Earth For the Felicity of a Christian cannot be perfect unless his Charity is also perfect and the perfection of Charity is no other thing than this Eternal Justice which consists in knowing God and in possessing him perfectly 'T is for this reason that the true Christians look not upon all the things of the Earth but with
difficulty to undeceive themselves from the vanities of the World to contemn Life and even to take an extreme pleasure in seeking after Death because they are assured that no one can be perfectly happy S. Gregory of Nazian untill he dies for Christ Jesus and untill he reigns with him in his Heavenly Kingdom St. Gregory of Nazian in his Funeral Orations furnishes excellent thoughts concerning the obligations which Christians have to despise Life and to desire Death and particularly in the Elogium he composed for his Brother Cezarius WHen I consider the happiness which our Kindred have acquired by dying and the little they have lost in loosing this unhappy Life so far am I from afflicting my self that I feel my self transported with joy and I say to God When shall it be O Lord that you will take us as you have them out of this strange Land and that we shall go into our lovely Countrey to joyn our selves with them who are there arrived before us When shall it be that Death shall put us in a condition to partake with them the pleasures of Paradise and to lead together an eternally happy Life In effect my Brethren what can we expect during the short time which remains of our Life but to see day after day more miseries to-suffer more evils and to câ—mmit more Sins than we have hitherto committed 'T is therefore this consideration and not the loss of our Freinds 't is the danger of offending God to which we are exposed during our Life and not the grief for their Death which ought to be the true subject of our Tears Let 's weep my Brethren but let us weep as David did for that our Pilgrimage is prolonged Le ts afflict our selves for that our Exile is not ended Le ts weep because we love a Life subject to so many miseries and which incessantly exposes us to lose the Grace of God This is my Brethren a just cause 〈◊〉 our sighs and tears 〈◊〉 therefore sigh over our selves with the holy Apostle and let us say 2 Cor. c. 4. and 5. This base Cottage built of clay wherein we now lodg shall it never be destroy'd Shall we not soon dwell in that other house which is not made by the hand of man and which shall endure eternally For how long shall we yet ly oppress'd under the weight of this mortal Body And till when must we trayl after us in all places a living Sepulcher where our Soul is as it were buried in the Flesh and infected with a corruption greater than that of reall Graves 〈◊〉 my Brethren if the â—â—â—th of Sin is not the subject of your griefs and affliction you have no subject that is legitimate But that which ought to cover us with shame is That we love this Life all miserable as it is and that we make much of this Body which detain's our Soul captive 'T is true that we are unwilling to offend God but we are willing to continue in a state of offending him at least 't is that which we desire when we desire to Live Do you then know for what a true Christian ought not to afflict himself I repeat it over again to you a true Christian ought not to afflict himself 〈…〉 he lives too long 〈…〉 thing that delays his 〈◊〉 delays also his happiness but what happiness A happiness which is pure in its enjoyment immense in its greatness and eternal in its duration Finally a happiness which comprehends the possession of God himself and which consequently surpasses the intilligence and the desire of man Behold that which ought to make us sigh without creasing towards Heaven and to say with the Prophet Psal 118 v. 81. My Soul languishes O Lord she falls almost into a swoun in the expectation of your Salvation For my own part through 〈…〉 of God I fear 〈…〉 my Body should 〈◊〉 since it's nature is to be perishable I am perswaded that the ruine of that which is materiall and terrestriall in me cannot chuse but be very advantagious unto me Let 's leave to the wicked the care to flatter a Body which kills the Soul and which one cannot keep long alive Those unhappy wretches tast not the goods of the Spirit because they have no feeling of Hope for another Life And surely I do not at all wonder that they place their soveraign good in this mortall Life in Health in good cheer and in the other pleasures of the senses But for us my Brethren who are convinced that all those goods are but vanity and that they will be dissipated in less time than the dew of the morning let us say with the Apostle would to God that by a lively Faith and by an ardent Charity I had so mortified my Body that it were not capable to detain my Soul for if I could totally bury my self with Christ Jesus I should be assured to be resuscitated and to live with him eternally Article IX S. Gregory Nisse St. Gregory Bishop of Nisse hath made a Discourse to shew That we should be so far from lamenting them who go forth of this Life that we ought to envy and desire their happiness He proves this Truth by many reasons which we give in brief and in the end be explicates it by an excellent comparison of the state of men in this present Life wiih the state of an Infant enclosed in his Mothers Belly He says afterwards That they who lament the Death of their Neighbour or who are afraid to die are as little reasonable as Children who cry when they are born into the World because they are not sensible of the happiness they have in being delivered out of the most dismal of all Prisons THey who excessively afflict themselves at the Death of their Kindred and Friends Orat. de mortuis To 3. are for the most part very weak Spirits who suffer themselves to be ledd by the movings of Nature and of Custom They weep ordinarily because 't is the custome to weep upon such occasions They grieve for themselves in the person of another because in losing him they lose some advantage which they reaped from him or else they weep because they fancy a false honour of appearing to be of a tender and good nature There is moreover a certain pleasure in Tears and one delights to draw compassion or esteem from others by weeping Finally in whatever manner we weep over the Dead 't is always a weakness and we should never fall into it if we gave our selves time to consider That the orders of Providence are unalterable and that human things change incessantly For is it not a folly to grieve for the Dead as if they could have lived always and to live so as if one were never to die To get forth of this errour we need only to consider a little the difference there is between the solid and infinite goods we hope for in heaven and Goods so vain and so short
have nothing to fear upon Earth and as they possess nothing but their Soul and their Body so they look upon Death as an advantage which puts them in possession of Christ Jesus When they understand that some one among them is dead there 's a universal Joy amongst them all No one daring to say Such a one is Dead but they all say Such a one hath finished his Course At this happy tidings they chaunt forth Canticles of Joy to the praise of God humbly demanding of him for themselves the grace of a speedy and holy Death In effect as the Gladiatours have an extreme desire to get forth of the Theatre where they are perpetually expos'd to new Wounds so they who lead an austere Life and see themselves perpetually expos'd to the Temptations of Sin burn with a desire to put an end to their combats and to be delivered from the labours of this miserable Life in order to enjoy a repose which shall never be interrupted Article XVII 6. Instruction of St. John Chrysostom That the Death of Christ Jesus ought to have cured us of the dread of Death and that the Ceremonies of the Church in the Funerals of the Faithfull should afford us Comfort and Joy both for them and for our selves ST Paul says That before the birth of Christ Jesus Hom. 4. in Ep. ad Heb c. 2. Death reigned in the whole Univers and that its Empire was extended over all the Nations of the Earth Then Man began not to live but to Die without passing to a better Life But the Saviour of the World hath triumphed over Death by dying he hath destroyed its Tyranny even to the gates of Hell and those ghastly places to which it fled have acknowledged the power of our Deliverer In so much as after his Passion and his Resurrection one cannot be his Disciple without loving Death as he loved it Thus my Brethren strengthned by his Example we have no longer any cause to trouble our selves when we think of that last hour and we should do amiss to make now such complaints as our forefathers did before the coming of our Redeemer What do we see upon Earth Job 14. sayd Iob more wretched than Man He is born of a Woman amidst pains he lives a short time and suffers much his best days pass away as a shadow and he never remains constant in the same estate Were it not better for him never to have been At least there remains some hope in the Wood when 't is cut down the Stem thereof buds forth afresh and its Branches becom more thick and green than before But as for Man when the Woof of his life is once broken off 't is for evermore He comes naked forth of his Mothers womb and he shall return naked into the womb of the Earth What remaines there of man when he hath served for food to the Worms Could he not behold the Light but upon this hard condition that he must in a moment after be plunged in the darkness of the Tomb Behold what was the langage of men before the coming of the Messias But Christ Jesus hath visited us in these darknesses he hath drawn us forth of this shadow of Death wherewith we were encompassed he hath caus'd our Life to spring from our Death he hath open'd us a passage to Eternity by passing himself first by a Death ignominious in appearance but in effect glorious Thus he fought Death with its own weapons he hath pull'd out its sting 〈◊〉 23. he hath destroy'd it by it self Heb. 11. he hath subdued the Prince of Death and finally he hath cast it headlong into an eternal Abysmus ◠Cor. 25. and by this Victory he hath wiped off the Tears and rased the disgrace of his people from the face of the Earth Isay 25. Let us not my Brethren lose the advantage which he hath given us over Death Let us have no horrour of a thing which God hath rendred to usefull and so glorious unto us Rom. 8. We who possess the first fruits of the Spirit with hope to be delivered from this subjection to corruption and to be made partakers of the glory and of the liberty of the Children of God Let us remain firm in Faith let us generously brave Death If we look on it with Eyes of Faith we shall finde nothing in it that is terrible but on the contrary it will appear to us sweet and agreable and in the end we shall grow familiar with it But we must look upon it at all times and be acquainted with it if we will find it pleasing unto us We must love it and desire it by the example of our dear Master who loved it for our sakes When I behold on one side to what degree of honour Christ Jesus hath raysed us and on the other side when I consider to what lownesse we debase our selves I am altogether confounded at our remisness and negligence I see many among Christians who fear Death not only for themselves but for their Freinds This weakness is so visible among us and even among persons who seem to have much piety that the Pagans publickly mock at it For say they if the Christians believe in God whom they adore why fear they to see him and if they love him what induces them to shun the only thing which according to their own doctrine must unite them eternally unto him 'T is certainly to give occasion to the wicked to esteem all that we say of the eternall Goods and of the Resurrection of the Dead to be meer Fables They less regard what we preach than what we do You destroy by your actions what we endeavour to establish by our discourses for they judge rather of the Religion of Christ Jesus by your Life than by our Instructions In effect all the frights which you make appear shew plainly that you have little confidence in the Word of God When the Apostle S. Paul says I desire to die Philip. 1.23 and to be united to Christ Jesus he teaches us what should be the continuall desire of all true Christians Thus when you testify so great an apprehension of Death you make known to the whole world that your Faith is feeble and languishing we see that you fear to obtain that which you cannot demand with too much ardour and that instead of practising the precepts which you have heard Heb. 1. your Heart resembles those balf-open Vessels which let out all one pours into them For the rest I bless God for that he will have his Church make use in the Funerals of the Dead of such holy and august Ceremonies as condemn your remisness and which convince you of your little Faith For why think you do we there sing Hymns and Psalms and set up lighted Cierges and Torches but to teach you to look upon your Brethren whilst we are burying them as upon victorious Champions whom we ought to accompany with
honour and with pomp in their triumph What truer subject of Joy can we have for them than to be the witnesses of their liberty and of their victory What have we else to do or say but bless God for having call'd them to himself and for having crown'd his own Gifts in them by a happy Death Do we not thereby testify the acknowledgment of this favour by Words the most holy that can be found in the Scripture Finally is it not for this reason that we cause our Churches to eccho forth Cantieles of prayse and of jubilation Surely there is nothing in all the Ceremonies which invite you not to a holy alacrity For as Ecclesiasticus says Singing accords not with tears and lamentation Eccle. 91. Believe me my Brethren do not look upon Death as a frightfull thing For if you are solidly Christians if you are perswaded that there is another Life if you believe the Resurrection of the Dead you will easily comfort your selves in the loss of your Freinds and you will wish that your selves may soon pass forth of this Life so full of dangers and of myseries where one doth nothing but suffer and Sin Cor. 6. Do not therefore any longer dishonour your name by such shamefull weaknesses but acting as faithfull Ministers of God render your selves recommendable by a great Patience in Evil and by a couragious Contempt of Death be as if you were always dying although yet living as sad and yet always joyfull as poor and yet possessing all in the possession of God who is promised unto you Article XVIII An Exhortation of St. John Chrysostom where he speaks against remiss and imperfect Christians who dread Death and instructs couragious and perfect Christians to desire it YOu who make profession to believe in Christ Jesus can you love the sweets of this Life Serm. de non timenda morte c. 24. Can you dread the bitterness of Death O you remiss and faithless Christians have you forgotten the example of Christ Jesus our good Master and do you doubt whether you must die as he did The true Christians have made themselves always known by the holy desires of Death but they have not acquired this generous disposition by any other means than by unshackling themselves from all the Goods of the Earth When one hath once with a sincere heart renounced them Life is a small matter and one will consider it rather as a punishment than as a pleasure T is therefore for this unfettering of the Heart that we must labour and 't is that wherein consists the perfection of a Christian For as for Death besides that it is unavoydable it is to be desired by them who have never so little Faith and although at first it is repugnant to Nature yet Grace overcomes by little and little that repugnancy and makes us love at last that which before gave us a horrour Hear what the Apostle St. Paul 1. Et 2. ad Corinth says You who are enrolled in the sacred warfare of Christ Jesus ought to have no other care than to stand to your Arms and to fight upon all occasions A Soldier doth not involve himself in the employs of the Civil life to the end he may he wholly embusied in satisfying him who hath enrolled him Now the Warfare of Christ Jesus is to endure constantly Watchings Fastings Poverty Injuries Imprisonment Wounds and Death it self for the glory of his holy Name 'T is true that the Christian Moral appear's at the first view too severe to senfual men but if one examin's it with a Spirit untyed from the secret interest of self love and of Concupiscence one finds nothing so reasonable and so advantagious to the common good of all men nor even so profitable to particular persons whether it be for their conduct or for their comfort In effect what Religion is there in the world which proposes a more perfect Model than Christ Jesus whose Life is more pure whose Miracles are more evident and whose Doctrine is more wise and more disinterressed Do but compare it with that of the most prudent Philosophers and of the most renowned Law-makers and you will finde that in all the Words and in all the Actions of Christ Jesus there is a Character of Sanctity and of Divinity which his Enemies themselves cannot chuse but aeknowledge whereas in the other Doctrins human Wisdom is always interwoven with some extravagancy with some gross interest with some contradiction or with some errour Since therefore we make profession to follow the Lessons of so good a Master let us endeavour O Christians to imitate him in all things Let 's leave Sensualists to enjoy their Sensuality this enjoyment is so small a matter and lasts so short a time that we ought more to pitty than to envy them Let 's leave the World to reign 't is here it 's Kingdom ours is not yet come What hath our Joy common with the Joy of the Earth The World will lament whilst we laugh and we shall one day mock at it's tears as it this day mocks at ours The difference there is between it and us is That it being in our own power to rejoyce as it doth we do it not because we acknowledg the vanity of all its pleasures but it cannot enjoy the pleasures of Eternity because it hath despised them on the contrary it shall be plonged in dreadfull darkness where pains and gnashings of teeth shall never end but shall be the continuing signes of its sufferings and of its despair Let us weep then my Brethren let 's weep whilst the World rejoyces let 's weep for it's being in joy because Charity so ordains and let us be so far from loving Life as the World doth as to run to Death which it loves not because Death is not unhappy for us as it is for it but on the contrary it will end all our unhappinesses Psal 29. In the Evening we are drowed in tears and in the Morning we shall be in an eternal joy Let us never forget That our true pleasure ought to be to despise all vain pleasures and that our solid happiness is to believe there is none solid but with God Ah Christian if thou considerest thy condition as thou oughtest how wilt thou dare to complain of living without pleasure thou who art obliged to die with pleasure Article XIX As St. Jerome is one of the Doctours of the Church who hath testified the greatest desire of Death so we have few Ecclesiastical Authours who have spoken so clearly as he either of the Advantages which Death brings to Christians or of the obligation they have to prepare themselves for it S. Jerom. and continually to think of it Behold in what manner this great Saint explicates himself concerning it in several places of his Writings THe greatest mark of an irregular Life is never to think of Death and when we think but seldom of it 't is a certain Sign that we
have yet but very little Virtue and Piety Epist ad Prin. ad Euriam ad Paulinum alibi As Death is the end at which all men must arrive so the thought of Death is a faithfull guide to conduct us with safety unto it For the Scripture hath sayd That if we remember the last days of our Life Eccles. 7.40 we shall never Sin Surely then we run an hazard to sin often if we do not think that we must die We fall into the same misfortune as do those Travellers whom the night hath surprized in a Forrest and who have strayed out of their way Every one of them takes a several track and the farther they go the more they swerve from the right path Christ Jesus hath shew'd us the way He hath said I am the Way and the Truth His Light conducts us amidst the darkness his Voyce calls us He serves us for a guide but 't is by the pathway of sufferings and by the track of Calvary that he leads us and all they who will follow him must as he did carry their Cross and prepare themselves to die This different disposition which men have in regard of Death is the most visible Character of their predestination or of their reprobation And 't is that which Christ Jesus hath shew'd us in the Parable of the Virgins For he says that those five foolish Virgins did not enter to the Marriage of the Bridegroom because they had not put themselves in a readiness to receive him How can one explicate these marriages and this preparation but of the Joy of a Christian Death and of the holy disposition which one ought to have for it He teaches us at the same time that the five Wise Virgins being totally replenished with these holy thoughts deserv'd to have room in the house of the Bridegroom and there to celebrate the Marriage-feast the joy whereof shall last for all Eternity He who would not do good when he could have done it shall be justly punished with an impotency of doing it when he would do it He who would not think of Death during his Life time shall not be able to think of the true Life at the hour of Death And what doth it avail a man to avoid the remembrance of an Evil which he cannot shun and to love that which he is not sure to possess one moment What doth it avail him to adhere to a life which flies from him and to fly from Death which seeks after him Man says the Psalmist Psal 38. spins his days as the Spider spins her Web. Isai 59. After many turns and returns wherein he consumes himself with his own labour Death comes which ruins all his work and then it appears not so much as that he ever was Article XX. St. Jerome teaches us the temper we ought to keep in the disgust of Life and in the desire of Death We have added this passage for the Comfort of good people who naturally fear Death NOthing is more ordinary to man In Amos c. 5. etalibi than to be cast down in afflictions to be weary of living and to wish to die But all they who find themselves in this disposition do they believe that they are for this more perfect than others On the contrary they ought to be asham'd of it as of a defect of Faith and a want of Courage Not but that Life is despicable and that it is even meritorious to contemn it but that we should be so far from conceiving a disgust of it when it is full of afflictions as that we ought then chiefly to cherish it as a means given us by God to do penance If Death is to be desired 't is in a delicious Life where sometimes our condition exposes us to sin as it were against our will 't is in a long prosperity where we may have just cause to sigh for passing our life unprofitably and perhaps criminally upon Earth and for vainly spending the precious time which is only lent us to merit Heaven by our sufferings For my part says the Apostle St. Paul If it is permitted to boast 1. Cor. 12. I averr that I glory of my pains and of my afflictions to the end that the power of Christ Jesus may dwell in me I feel a satisfaction and a joy in my Infirmities in Injuries in Poverty in Persecutions in the pressing Adversities which I suffer for my Saviour and when I am weak 't is then that I find my self most strong The contempt therefore of Life is not always a certain mark of our Faith and of our Piety 't is sometimes a weariness of suffering for God sometimes a sadness which the austerity of devotion casts into the Heart we are asham'd to leave it and we want courage to persevere in it If the Soul is not supported by an extraordinary Grace the disgust of all things and even of Piety it self which is insinuated by little and little and the Imagination which black 's it self by dismal thoughts and by desires of dying brings her to the brinks of Despair Those persons who have lately sequestred themselves from the World are more exposed to this misery than others untill the Divine love hath fill'd up all that emptiness which the separation left in their Spirit For whatever endeavour these persons use Nature never endures the yoak of Grace without violence 't is in vain to tame this Nature by the continuall exercises of piety by mortifications by rigorous penances for that inward Law of the Body evermore resists the law of the Spirit and in the combat which is fought between them although the Spirit gets the victory yet it is sometimes weakned and foyled in its own conquests Then we would die because we find no more pleasure in living and in these sad desires 't is Nature which acts and not Grace Nature is willing to discharge herself of Life as of a Burthen which is to her insupportable Always to fight says she always to languish always to suffer Ah is it not something worse than to be dead I know it by my own experience Brethren and if it may be permitted me to glory in my infirmities and to make use of the terms of the Apostle I would tell you what I have done to quell these revolts and these impatiencies of Nature Eusebius of the Death of S Jerome relating his own Words Finding that the memory of the divertisements of my youth followed me every where as my shadow and troubled my most innocent occupations I shut up my self in a dismal Grot amidst the vast Deserts of Siria where the Rocks scorched with the ardours of the Sun furnish'd our Solitary Hermits with places of retrait which are common to them with the Savage Beasts I confess that I could not enter there without horrour but the occasions of offending God appeared to me more horrible than that Solitude Nevertheless in a dwelling so dreadfull where I nourished my self
astonished that such light and short pains should procure you a happiness so great and a felicity so infinite In effect my Brethren it seems that an exact Justice would require that one should not purchase an Eternal repose but by an Eternity of pains and it seems that you ought to labour and suffer without end to enjoy a happiness which hath no end But also on the other side if your labour should have no end how should you obtain an endless recompence It is therefore necessary that the pains should last but for a time to the end that they being ended you may taste a pleasure which shall never end God might without overmuch rigour exact of us much longer pains and much harder labours for the Eternity of pleasures which he promises us Yes my Brethren If you Labours and our Tribulations were to last many Ages If God should prolong our miseries for the space of a Thousand years What are a Thousand years in regard of Eternity Is there any proportion between the Finit and and the Infinit One cannot compare with Eternity either a Thousand years or Ten-times an Hundred Thousand years nor Millions of Millions of Ages if we were designed to live all that time But that which should exceedingly comfort us is That God would not have our pains to be either long or extreme Life is so short that it cannot make a man for any long time miserable But what do I say miserable I am sure That if a Man is good the interiour joy and sweetness which God gives him to tast of amidst the bitterness of this Life do more touch him than all his Pains and all his Afflictions Article XXV A most true and edificatory observation S. Augustin That God by a particular mercy besprinkles the greatest Sweets of this World with bitterness and permits that his Elect should be afflicted with Diseases with contradictions and with Calumnies thereby to give them cause to contemn Life and to desire Death A Soul which hath not yet a sufficient courage to walk without weariness in the way of Heaven Tract 6. in Joan. seeks among the goods of the Earth for some mitigation of the pains which she meets withall in her march In Ps 83. passim The difficulty which this Soul finds in keeping her self in a continual disposition to follow the Divine Inspirations makes her to roam after that which she conceives capable to untire her in her labours This is one of the nicest temptations which persons of piety endure But God who by a singular mercy never abandons his Servants and will unfetter them from this Life frequently intermixes bitterness among those things which we esteem to be the most innocent Why think you doth he sometimes render the Goods of the Earth so unsavoury but to take from us the gust of them and to make us desire the Goods of Heaven And when God will exercise his Elect and hinder them from dwelling upon any object which may divert them from their Salvation be takes pleasure if we may say so in raising against them Afflictions both within and without and in giving them occasions at every moment to merit new degrees of Glory by new actions of Patience and of Love for Christ Jesus Perhaps should he less frequently send them Mortifications their zeal would cool and relent at least one may be assured that they would have less Merit And it is a very particular favour of God when he makes us employ profitably for the other Life all the days of a Life so short as this is We see how they who walk faithfully in the narrow way of Heaven are upon earth as the Grapes are under the Press according to the thought of the Prophet They crush the Grapes they tread them under their feet to draw from them a Juyce which serves for the Life of men In like manner they oppress they persecute the Just in the World they are incessantly exposed to all sorts of injuries and miseries but God so permits it in order to draw from thence Good Works which serve for the perfection of the Christian by disengaging him from all that is material and impure within him to elevate him to that soverain honour which the World cannot give him Article XXVI St. Augustin teaches in many places of his Writings as an assured Doctrine That the most solid virtue of Christians and the most visible character of the Predestinate is to sigh continually in the expectation of Death and in the hope of another Life 'T Is not for this World In Psalm 53.145.247.148 that you are Born and Regenerated in Christ Jesus 'T is for Heaven It is the Celestial Kingdom you are to seek for Tract 5. in Joan. c. The sorrow for being so long separated from so great a Good is that which ought to cause all your Sighs and all your Tears Interiour sighing is a gift of the Holy Ghost When we are once enflamed with his Love how shall we chuse but sigh and languish in this our Banishment knowing that we have no true Countrey but Heaven and that this exile which separates us from it is the punishment of our Sin Carnal Christians who breath nothing but the Goods and the Pleasures of the Earth and who content themselves with a vain and transitory Felicity are afflicted at the loss of Goods at sicknesses at Imprisonments at Banishments at Shipwrecks at Calumnies They sigh but their sighing proceeds from their self love and from the adhesion they have to earthly Goods It is not the Holy Ghost nor the love of Celestial Goods which causes their affliction 't is the sorrow for their losses which makes them lament But Faithfull Souls who aspire only to the soverain Good who desire nothing but to be separated from the impurities of the Body sigh in the most peaceable enjoyment of all perishable Goods and 't is the Holy Ghost that forms these Sighs in the bottom of their Heart to the end they may be advertised by this interiour sadness of the vanity of all worldly pleasures He who looks upon them in this estate only with Carnal Eyes is perswaded that a true Christian leads a very unhappy Life and this errour hath averted many from piety But if they could comprehend the consolation which God mingles with these Sighs the secret satisfaction which he spreads in the Soul of a good man the peace the pleasure the joy which is tasted even amidst the tears poured forth in these transports of Divine Love they would surely change their opinion But certainly Sensual Souls cannot penetrate into these Mysteries they must have felt these Celestial sweetnesses who will rightly conceive them Happy and holy Experience how powerfull art thou upon Hearts Divine transports of the Love of Christ Jesus 't is you which give a contempt of this Life 't is you which make Death to be desired and you more perswade this truth in a moment then can all the
Love to the end we may behold him face to face in a blessed Eternity S. Isidor Article XXVIII An Instruction of St. Isidore of Damiet to all Christians to excite them to a perfect desire of Death SOme persons even the most pious perswade themselves oftentimes In Epist passim that they have no longer any tye and adhesion to Life nor to any thing of this World But 't is an Errour to fancy that one is entirely untyed from it if he feels not in his Heart a true desire of Death Let him who believes himself to be in so perfect an estate enter seriously into himself and he shall undoubtedly perceive that the Will of Man reigns yet in his Soul and that he is not totally uncloathed of the love of Life Let him severely examin himself let him question himself and ask of his Soul Do we no longer fear Death Doth nothing fasten us any longer to Life If we were to die within one Year within one Month within one Day if we were to die in this Moment should we be ready to render an accompt to God of our Actions And should we have no reluctancy to quit our freinds our relations our dwelling our works For we adhere to all and this adhesion is sometimes more violent for small matters than for the greatest Yet if there remains any thing that chains our Will to the World the Love which we have for God is not perfect Our Life upon Earth is a continual Warfare We bear Arms for the Glory of God He commands us to march to fight to pour forth our blood for him Why shall we not do for an Eternal Recompense that which men do for the reputation of a few days Let us then seriously examin our selves and let us see whether our heart is wholly submitted to this holy discipline of the Warfare of Christ Jesus Let us see whether according to St. Pauls precept we have taken for the Armour of our breast and back Faith and Charity Thes 5.8 and for our Helmet the Hope of Salvation For if our submission is perfect our Love will also be perfect and Death will afford us joy instead of giving us terrour Article XXIX St. Eucherius Arch-Bishop of Lyon exhorts Christians to observe attentively the different agitations of human Passions the shortness of Life and the uncertainty of Death to the end they may never engage themselves in the tumults of the World S. Eucherius and that they may be evermore prepared to die HAve you never contemplated from the Sea-shore Epist ad Valerianum the combat of the Winds disputing among themselves for the Empire of the Waves That dreadfull bellowing of the Billows which rush one upon another and push them with such violence against the Rocks whilst the mountains of Water and of Froth seem to ascend to the skyes and then sodainly to descend to the abysmus Doth not this sight inspire I know not what horrour which is nevertheless accompanyed with some pleasure and which insensibly engages the beholder to meditate upon those mervails This is the most lively and the most resembling Image we can find of the Agitations of the World But to behold them well we must stand upon the Shore and consider according to the spirit of God the joys and the afflictions the hatred and the freindship the quarrells and the reconciliations the fortune and the misfortune of men the flux and the reflux of their interests of their designs and of all their actions how they do and undo how they seek and shun the same things how one generation succeeds another how the Grandfather makes place for the Father and the Father for the Son not any of them thinking seriously during the whole course of their Life of the rapidness of this motion which trails them towards their Death Certainly this spectacle is a learned Lesson for them who know how to make their profit of it and we may say that it also affords some satisfaction when one reflects upon himself and finds that he is exempt from that trouble which overthrows the reason of all the rest of men Happy Tranquillity Adorable Peace of the love of Christ Jesus How sweet is it to them whom you have timely placed in the haven of their Salvation to behold in safety the fury of the Tempest without fearing either the winds or the waves or the rocks or the quick sands But as for us who have escaped Shipwreck by a sincere penance we I say who know the dangers out of which you our good God have delivered us give us we beseech you a holy horrour upon the sight of this terrible spectacle of the Tempests of the World and an ardent desire to be freed from them for ever by a Christian Death And surely we must not expect to enjoy a perfect calm so long as we sojourn upon Earth Should we live longer we should not be more happy The Life of our Fathers is ended our own slides dayly away Let us make place for them who are to follow us a little sooner or a little later the difference is small for they will not long survive us Finally in the same manner as the Surges of the Sea follow push and press upon one another by a precipitated motion and as the Waves which are raysed up highest fall down afterward the lowest to make room for a second the second for a third which is driven away by an infinity of other followers all which in the sequell come to be dissipated upon the shore even so the Life of one man succeeds that of another man one is elevated and the other is humbled according to the capriciousness of fortune But by how much their elevation is higher by so much the abysmus into which they sink is deeper and all terminate in Death Article XXX S. Fulgen St. Fulgentius and S. Paulinus prove That Death is a Recompense for the Just and a Chastisement for the Impious That the length of Life is to be computed by the number of Good Works one hath performed and not by the number of days one hath lived THe bad man trembles at the bare Name of Death Hath he the least indisposition Fulg. Epist 5. ad Gall. He believes 't is a mortal Sickness Paulin. Ep. 37. ad Pam. If one talks to him of God he falls into a fury He complains of the impotency of Remedies He is pierced with the apprehension of the least danger His Soul Prov. 12. and 28. says Solomon is perpetually perplexed with vain terrours Sap. 3. and 4. c. He flies when no one pursues him But the Just looks upon the danger without being affrighted and marches on like a Lion who is secure of his strength and of his courage Nothing that befalls him contristates him and if he were threatned even with Death he would be so far from being afraid that he would rejoyce at it because his Heart is in the
hands of God and for that the torment of Death doth not touch him It seems to the eyes of the unwise that the Just man dies his departure out of the World appears to them an affliction They imagine that the way he takes in separating himself from others will bring him to nothing whereas it is but a passage which leads him to peace and to repose Altho' he endures a cruel Death before men yet God replenishes him with a certain hope of Immortality He suffers a little to gain much Our Lord hath tryed him by these pains of short durance and hath found him worthy of his Love 'T is Gold which he puts into the melting vessell to refine it 'T is a Victime which he sanctifies by the Sacrifice to make it revive one day in Eternity The day will come when the Just shall possess the glory of Heaven and he shall shine more brightly than the Starrs we shall behold him judging Nations and bearing sway over the people for he is the Child of the most High He shall share with him in his Kingdom and the Lord of the Just shall reign Eternally They who have confidence in him will understand this truth they shall repose in his bosom and shall enjoy the Peace which he hath prepared for his Elect. But as for the Wicked who have despised and injured the Just and who have withdrawn themselves from God they shall be chastised according to their crimes How unhappy are they to have abandonned Wisdom and shaken off the yoak of Justice For all their hopes will be vain their labours will be unprofitable and their works will remain imperfect If they have Wives they will be dishonest if they have Children they will be unnatural A curse shall fall upon their families and the posterity of Adulterers shall be exterminated 'T is in vain for them to boast of their Riches of their Power of their Health Should they live longer than other men all the years of their Life shall be counted for nothing at the day of their Death If they die old their old age shall be disquieted with the remorse of their Conscience and the World growing impatient to see them so long upon Earth will look upon them only with contempt and perhaps with indignation If they die Young they shall be deprived of the advantages they might have had in the World and of the hope of the heavenly Good Finally the Death of the wicked is the ruine of their race 't is a desolation without hope a night without light an Abysmus of miseries where nothing dwells but a dismall nothing and an eternal horrour These sentences of the sacred Scripture make us see That only Impious and Infidells need to fear Death but that Christians who are indued with piety should be so far from fearing it that they ought even to desire it Certainly a happy Life doth not consist in living a long time but in living in a perfect submission to the orders of Providence What doth it serve us to continue upon earth even to a decrepit age Is not Innocence of Life to be preferred before the duration of Life and is not purity of manners more worth than old age The Scripture speaking of the Just man who dies young hath sayd That he was snatch'd speedily out of the World Sap. 4.11 lest the Master of errour should seduce his spirit and lest Malice should corrupt his Soul But because he became perfect in a short time v. 13. 't is as if he had lived many Years and God to whom this Soul was agreable hastned to withdraw her from the midst of iniquity wherewith the whole Earth is replenished Article XXXI As St. Gregory the Pope was himself very infirm and sickly so he speaks and writes frequently of Death He is one of the Ecclesiastical Authours who hath fill'd his Works with the strongest reflections upon this subject We have drawn out four or five of them which best relate to our proposed Design I. Reflection of St. Gregory S. Gregory That the Continual view of Death is the most assured means to lead a holy and quiet Life HE who seriously considers what he ought to hope for or to fear at the article of Death Moral in c. 17. Job must needs act with great circumspection and have a continual apprehension of falling into Sin That last hour which he hath evermore present before his Eyes renders him truly living to the Eyes of God He fixes upon nothing that is perishable He desires nothing of all that which men who live without Reflection seek with so much earnestness and the disposition wherein he places himself every hour as if he were then to die makes him to look upon himself as already dead For Life is by so much the more holy and more perfect by how much it hath relation each moment to Death Holy Scripture teaches us Eccles. 7. that the more men study this Lesson and contemplate themselves in this Looking-Glass which flatters not the farther they are from falling into the snares of Sin Article XXXII 2. Reflexion of St. Gregory That naturally all the Desires and all the Actions of man tend to Death That Grace should do that in us which Nature doth of it self That according to the thought of Job Life resembles the day of a hireling a pilgrimage a warfare where no one enroll's himself but to die in fighting against the Enemies of our Salvation THe Sick person who lies languishing in pain and in sadness Lib. 2. Mor. c. 3. Lib. 12. c. 3. expects with impatience the return of the day but the Sun which brings the Light brings no remedy to his misery on the contrary it diminishes one day of his Life The Hireling finds the hours of his labour over-long and blames the Night for coming on so slowly The Covetous man counts with discontent all the moments which retard his revenues The Ambitious man who hath conceiv'd great designs would in order to hasten the success hasten the years of his Life The Husbandman makes vows to see his Harvest ripen Finally it seems that men demand nothing but to be Old altho' they apprehend nothing so much as Old-age In Winter we wish the return of the Spring Scarcely is the season of Flowers past over but we desire that of Fruits In Autumn we say that Winter hath it's pleasures Thus it is that the Spirit of Man unquiet and insupportable to it self carries on its vain desires from one time to another and not enjoying the present anticipates always upon the future and marches by a secret impatience towards his Death What we do by a hidden motion of Nature why shall we not do by the Inspiration and by the Succour of Grace Grace incessantly advertises us that this Life is short and miserable and that we ought to aspire to another Life which is everlasting and happy Sometimes the sacred Scripture teaches us this Verity by comparing Life to a
Let him who rests assured upon the darkness and upon the uncertainty of this Life learn that Death hath no respect for Treasures for the greatness nor for the glory of men It neither pardons the lustre of birth De morum conversione nor of manners nor of age except only that it is at the dore of old men and that it lies in wait for young ones To ground ones hope upon all these things is to imitate that senseless person of whom the Gospel says He built his house upon the Sands Mat. 7.29 the Rain fell the Rivers overflowed the Winds blew and setting upon this house it was soon overturned and great was its ruine because it was hurried away before its time and when the owner thought least of it The Torrent hath devoured all even to the foundations Job 21. What a folly is it to consume in a perishable work the time which one ought to employ in acquiring an eternal happiness Do we not consider that this Life is but a Vapour which vanishes O thou Ambitious person hast thou obtained at last the Dignity for which so many years thou underhand laboured'st The weight of it will quickly oppress thee O thou Covetous man hast thou stuff'd thy Coffers with money Take care of losing it and beware of Theives the Harvest hath been plentifull pull down thy Barns to build greater change and re-change thy Edifices toyl heap up pole and pillage on all sides and then sit down and say Lâ—◠〈…〉 19. O my Soul how happy are we now We have Goods in store for the whole remainder of our Life Ah! how long will this Life yet last Perhaps not one Year perhaps but one Day perhaps but a Moment and perhaps in that fatal Moment in which thou makest in thy Soul these vain projects of a long possession of all these Goods God will re-demand this Soul and then who shall enjoy the fruit of thy labours It is not so with them who place all their hope in God who uncloath themselves of all affection to worldly goods who are evermore ready to quit the Earth and always enflam'd with the desire of the Heavenly goods because they have heaped such goods together as the Worms cannot devour nor the Theives purloin from them The blind Lovers of the World believe that we in this estate lead a life here below full of bitterness but 't is because the blindness of their Spirit renders them uncapable to conceive the sweetnesses wherewith the Love of Christ Jesus incessantly fills the Soul of the Just even whilst she is yet a captive within the Prison of her Flesh Surely we must not imagine that this Paradise of inward delights whereof God gives sometimes a tast even in this world to his Elect is a place which is sensible and material 'T is not the feet 't is the motion of the Heart which conducts to this enclosed Garden to this sealed Fountain which causes to issue forth of the only source of Wisdom the living water of the four Virtues In this delicious place Hope makes us feel the excellent Odours of this tree of Life of this Pomegranet-tree of the Canticles more precious than all the trees of the Forests under the shadow whereof the Bridegroom delights to refresh himself There it is that one tast's by advance with a holy greediness the incomparable pleasures of the Divine Love Nevertheless these pleasures which the eye of the sensual man cannot behold and which the spirit of the World cannot comprehend are not counted among the rewards of the eternal Life 't is but a pay of the temporal Warfare Tast says David and acknowledg the delights of our Lord. Ps 33 8. 'T is a Manna which satiates without giving any disgust But O Christians let not us imitate our Fathers who fed upon the Manna and are dead let us make provision only to continue our Journey and to get strength to overcome the difficulties of the way An incorruptible Food expects us in Heaven 't is that Celestial nourishment after which we must have an insatiable hunger Let us demand of God that he will introduce us to this delicious banquet of the Lamb without blemish where we shall sit at his Table in the company of Saints and of Angells in a happy Eternity Article XXXVIII S. Bernard proves That to the end we may not fear Death but may endure at with patience and even receive it with Joy we must prepare our selves dayly for it by sincere Repentance That by this means Grace overcomes Nature That what appears so terrible to a sinful man becomes pleasing to a just man but particularly to them who have embraced the Religious and solitary Life T Is a constant truth the more one mortifies himself De div Ser. 18. in Cant. Ser. 26 the more one hopes for Mercy and by consequence one less needs to apprehend Death A Christian who mortifies his Body In Vigil Nativ Ser. 2 Tract de Vita Solitâ—ria who entirely disengages himself from the Earth and who exercises himself in all sorts of Virtues during his Life feels his Courage and even his Joy redoubled when he is to die He looks on Death as a Sanctuary and a secure Harbour He leaps over this passage which is so short as a Bridge to thwart the impetuous torrent of this Lives bitterness Finally he desires Death as the term of his banishment as the day in which he is to shake off his fetters and to free himself for ever from the miseries which oppressed him Now if God gives this Grace to persons remaining in the World he gives it yet more abundantly to good Religious and such as are truly Solitary because they have embraced a profession into which they enter by a Spiritual Death by separating themselves from all things which affoard any adhesion to the Life of the Body In effect what is it that a true Solitary person can fear in Death or rather what will he not there find to desire He learns in his little Cell to uncloath himself of all that is in the World He makes it in his retrait his continual study to contemplate the felicity of Paradise A Cell and Heaven have a near relation to one another what is done in Heaven is done also in a Cell one is there employ'd upon God there one enjoys God and the society of Angells there one leads a Life altogether Celestial The Cell is a holy place 't is a sacred Mountain where the Soverain Master of the World uncloathing himself if we may say it of all his Majesty frequently entertains himself with his Servant without witness without reserve as one freind with another And even as the Temple is the Sanctuary of God so the Cell is the Sanctuary of a true Religious man Whether his Soul raises up her self to the enjoyment of the blessed Eternity either by fervent Prayer or by a holy Death she finds a short and easy way
have you heard say of them who were seen yesterday so flourishing One of them was murdered the other was drown'd another died in playing and he who seem'd to have most health expir'd sitting at table One should never have done if one should run over all the manners of Death wherewith dayly and dismall examples strike our eyes and yet what profit do we make thereof He surely is wise and happy who passes on his Life without adhering to it who sees all it's moments slide away as if each of them were to be the last and who prepares himself at the beginning of each day with the same care which he would take upon the day of his Death One acquires this happy foresight by the contempt of the World by the desire of advancing in Virtue by a sincere repentance by a blind obedience to the orders of Providence by an uncloathing and despising of ones self accompanied with a firm resolution to suffer all for Christ Jesus Let us say to him with St. Paul Lord 2 Tim. 4. I am as a Victime which hath already the aspersion to be sacrificed the time of my departure draws near I have finished my course and no more now remains for me but to expect the crown of Justice which is reserved for them who have fought valiantly Behold the state in which a true Christian should be setled Ibid. for he who hath not fought according to the Law shall not be crowned Wherefore make your profit of the strength which God hath given you and whilst you you are in health lay up a treasure of good works for the other Life Perhaps you will not be any longer in the state of performing them when you shall fall into sickness and infirmity You are not surely so great a fool as to fancy you shall always enjoy health Alas how the sentiments of man change in the bed of Death All that he esteemed great in the World appear then to him little and despicable the sin which seem'd to him small and inconsiderable becomes great and monstrous But the change of his reason serves him no more but to plunge him in Despair Learn this sacred doctrine from the mouth of Christ Jesus Lib. 3. c. 49. He who loves his Soul shall lose it Joh. 12.15 Do not imitate those self-lovers of whom the Apostle St. Paul speaks with execration Tim. 3. For nothing is worthy of your love but God alone no not even your own Soul 2 Pet. 3. Jud. 10.8 which is the most perfect image of the Divinity Mat. 16.26 If you love it you shall lose it and if you lose your Soul Mark 8. what will it avail you to have gained the whole World For having once lost your Soul by what exchange can you recover it But we shall never comprehend this truth unless the love of Jesus serves us for our Master O love of my God when wilt thou clear my spirit When wilt thou set my Heart on fire When shall I enjoy thy delights When shall I contemplate the glory of thy Kingdom Comfort me in my Banishment Sweeten my Affliction I sigh after nothing but to be with you my beloved Lord for all the comfort the World offers me doth but augment my impatience and my sorrow When I have a will to raise up my self towards Heaven my Passions draw me towards the Earth Tottering between two so opposit motions I am a burden to my self and I desire ardently to die that so there may be an end of all these combats which put me in perpetual danger to be overcome by the Enemy of my Salvation If I had still any affection for the World I would entreat you to leave me in it but since I have setled all my affections upon you what is there that should stay me upon Earth If God doth you the favour to afford you these feelings do not attribute them to your self Rom. 12. I exhort you not to elevate your selves beyond that which you ought in the sentiments you have of your selves but to contain your selves within the limits of moderation according to the measure of the gift of Faith which God hath imparted to each one of you Jer. 13. 'T is to me alone to whom glory appertains says our Lord. Do not glorify your selves because I have spoken unto you Give to me the glory of all before darkness surprizes you By this means you will profit more and more in Virtue and I will give you a tast of all the sweetnesses of a holy Death Article XXXXI The admirable Prayses which St. Laurence Justinian gives to Death from whence he concludes that 't is no wonder if the most perfect among Christians are they who most desire it WE need not mervail that the Faithful who are penetrated with the Love of Christ Jesus De incendijs Divini amoris desire to die S. Laurence since he hath rendred Death desirable by dying for us In effect 't is no longer a punishment 't is a favour and a favour by so much the greater by how much the sooner obtained For that which was a chastisement of Sin is now a temporal recompense of good Works We ought therefore to look now upon it as the object of our sweetest hopes and not as the subject of our Fears O Death thou art no longer bitter thou art no longer cruel to the Disciples of Christ Jesus as thou wert formerly to the Children of Adam Let us bless our Lord for having made the most terrible of all Evils to be so wholesome and so universal a remedy which frees us from all sorts of infirmities and miseries which exempts us from the misfortunes of poverty from the outrages of our enemies from the attacks of envy from the disquiets of avarice and of ambition in a word from the tyranny of all our passions c which is yet more desirable which exempts us from Sin Death having thus changed its nature Christians have no longer any aversion against it but on the contrary they desire it as much as other men dread it and they invite to their assistance that which the World avoyds as the cause of its destruction Now altho' all true Christians have these thoughts we must nevertheless acknowledge that the Saints are infinitly more pierced therewith As they have more love for Christ Jesus they have also a greater desire for Death The ardour of this Love gives them such an absolute contempt of Life and such an impatience to get out of it that there is not a moment in which they wish not the separation of their Soul from their Body Nothing more nearly touches than these Words of David when having his Heart transfixed with the darts of Divine Love and as it were transported out of himself by a happy and holy fury he exclams Psal 83. â— My Soul languishes and is consumed with a desire to enter into the house of our Lord. My Heart burns with
an ardent thirst to enjoy God the living God and my Body is dryed up in this desire Happy they who placing in you all their confidence have no other thought but to advance themselves towards you O Lord for one sole day in your House is more worth than a Thousand any where else I had rather be the last and upon the step of the dore in the House of my God than dwell in the tents of the Wicked In effect it seems that a Soul enflamed with the desire of seeing her God unties her self from her Body by continual Extasies and to make use of Davids expression Melts away in these transports Psal 21. as Wax melts with the heat of the Sun They who are arriv'd at so high a degree of perfection which renders them equal to Angels forget oftentimes to take such nourishment as is necessary for their Body because they are devoured by a Hunger much more pressing than that which is satisfied by food The Spiritual aliment which fills them takes from them all gust of corporal sustenance and the flames of Charity do so stifle in them the flames of concupiscence that they become insensible both as to the necessities of the Body and as to the pleasures of the Earth O Lord said a great Saint Why do we preserve with so much precaution a miserable Life Should we not laugh at a Prisoner who should spend all his time in raysing up the walls of his Prison Yet this is that which men do when they pamper their Bodies Since we must die to see you O God and since no one can entirely possess you but by losing his Life I accept the condition even from this hour Do that to day which you will do one day Behold I am ready to follow you and I demand of you this cheif favour That I may see you to the and I may die S. Teresa and that I may die to the end I may see you eternally S. Aug. Article XXXXII. It may perhaps seem strange that we should place the thoughts of St. Teresa in a collection of those of the Fathers But the Writings of this great Saint are replenish'd with so sublime a piety that one may compare them in this point to the most beautious Works which the Spirit of God ever dictated to men Wherefore we conceiv'd that it might not only be permitted but that it would prove profitable to insert here some of the admirable Sentiments she hath left us upon the meditation of Eternity and upon the desire of Death O Jesu soverainly amiable A pious exclamation after Communion sole object of my affections shall I always languish with the impatient desire of seeing you What solace will you give to a Soul which nothing upon Earth comforts and which can take no rest but in you alone O that this banishment is long O that Life is irksom to one who burns with the desire of possessing you I die because I cannot die You know it O my God you who died for the love of me know whether it is to live when one long expects what one loves No my Life is not a Life 't is a continual torment 't is a fire which devours 't is a punishment which would be as terrible as those of Hell if one had lost the Hope of seeing an end of it O Life thou enemy of my happiness Life more cruel a thousand times than Death why is it not permitted me in this moment to break the chains wherewith thou keepest me in captivity But I preserve thee because my God protects thee I have a care of thee because thou belongest to him Do not then any longer abuse his bounty nor my obedience and cease at last to oppose thy self to the impatience of my affection O desirable Death and too long expected O Sanctuary inaccessible to all the tempests of the World happy end of our miseries destruction of Sin beginning of our true Life make haste to deliver me from the Death of the World O let me die to the end I may not die 'T is the Death of Sin which I dread 'T is the Life of Grace which I desire But this dread and this desire consume me in such sort that I do not live and yet I cannot die My Life is all out of me because all my Hope is in Christ Jesus who hath promis'd unto me a better Life Alas It is very true That Love is more dreadfull then Death Cant. 2. O Love of Jesus how piercing are your darts how stinging are your wounds The rudest blows of Death are endured with less difficulty than yours There is too much of it O Lord there 's too much Turn a little aside your looks Cant. 6. for I want strength to support them Eyther burn me no longer or make an end to reduce me into ashes How will you have my Soul to divide herself between that which you demand of her and that which my Bodie requires of her Be gon from me O all you Earthly Consolations a Heart wounded with the Love of Jesus cannot be cured but by Jesus All human Remedies are too weak to asswage a Divine Sickness 'T is you my Saviour who cure and who wound when you please O Faithful Bridegroom of the Faithfull Soul with what bounty what sweetness what pleasure what ravishments what testimonies of tenderness do you heal the hurts which your Love hath made in us O my Soul let us expect yet a little and he will take compassion on our languishing condition His impatience is no less then ours we sometimes believe him to be far off when he is very near at hand Behold him descending from the mountains and traversing the hills he runs he flies to draw near unto us he knocks at the dore he calls us Enter Lord I slept but my heart watched Alas I was ready to follow you and you have stoll'n your self from me I seek you and I find you no more I call you and you do not answer What have we done my Soul who hath driven away your Bridegroom Is it not that our impatience displeases him Is it not that we love him overmuch or that we love him not enough For he is a Jealous God Exod. 34. who will be loved more than all things and will have us love nothing but himself Perhaps he will surprize us Thes 2.2 His day comes when it is least thought on as the Thief who comes in the night Let us expect with humility that dreadfull day If Jesus loves us he will not slack his coming if he doth not love us he will come but too soon for us The Conclusion of all this Collection S. Aug. As at the beginning of this Treatise we drew from St. Augustin Principles to establish this Proposition That perfect Souls desire Death and receive it with Joy we thought fit to finish this Collection with a discourse wherein the same holy Doctour shews That all
people by their proper Interest ought to desire to depart out of the World YOu complain that Truth is trampled on by the tricks of Lying and Falshood Lib. 22. de Civ c. 30. You say O Christians that they who make profession to be the Masters or the Disciples of Truth do basely abandon it Ser. 64. de Verbis Domini and that its beauty which is altogether Divine cannot fix the inconstancy of its Lovers Why then do you not aspire to Heaven Ser. 6. inter Communes where Truth glittering with all its beams triumphs over falshood and malice and frees them who love it In Psalm passim and frees them who love it from all injustice and violence You declame against the iniquity of men who neither regard desert nor virtue who bestow Offices upon birth or favour and who sleight the good people without confering on them any reward Why then do you not aspire after the glory of the Blessed in Heaven where happiness corresponds to the pains they have indured where Crowns are proportioned to the Combats they have fought and finally where rewards follow the good Works they have performed and where the most holy are most honoured Kings cannot exercise their magnificence and their Liberalitie which are their most shining virtues without being very often deceived by outwards apparences As they know not the true spirit of their Subjects they cannot discern their true deserts They frequently favour Vice when they intend to render Justice to Virtue But the God whom we adore cannot be deceived He reads in the Heart of them who serve him He discerns all our actions and as he beholds all the motions of our Will he also lets not impietie pass without punishment nor Virtue without reward You complain of the hardness of your condition you murmure for that you must always fight you grieve to be incessantly encompassed with enemies you bear them about you you nourish them within your selves and you are the theater of this intestine War where the Flesh is continually at strife with the spirit On which ever side the victory falls you cannot rejoyce without being afflicted at the same time for some loss Leave then this wretched dwelling where Life is a continual temptation and a perpetual combat Desire Death which will be the end of all these miseries Sight after that agreable habitation where the Saints enjoy a perfect victory and a peace without molestation Do not any longer complain that in despight of all the care you take to bring one part of your self to agree with the other part yet their differences are dayly renewed Or if you will complain let this your complaint serve at least to make you march more speedily towards that place of peace where you shall agree with your self and be in a perpetual repose Finally you love Life but you would not have it to be made up of miseries and of sorrows Shall God make Life for you after another manner than it was for his own Son To come to that Life which you demand you must be gon out of this Christ Jesus himself hath shew'd us that we must acquire it at that rate Why seek you not that dwelling where the Life which you desire hath his habitation From the first moment in which you shall possess Heaven you will no longer fear either poverty or misery or disease or death Why then do you not that for the enjoyment of so happy a Life which you do for the prolonging of this other unfortunate Life You abstain from Meats and from Divertisements which are hurtfull to your health Why do you not as much for that Life which will never be troubled with any sicknesses And yet the solicitudes you have to preserve your Body will not warrant it from Death All that you can pretend to is to die a little later Ah! my dear Brethren can it be possible that you should do less to live eternally No I cannot believe it and you will testifie without doubt by your actions by your sufferings and by the Holy Desires of Death that you have a Faith and Hope for another Life What would you give to be exempt from all incommodities and to be assured to live always Is it not true that all whatever you possess would not suffice to purchase so great a good altho' you were Lord even of the whole Universe Yet this so great and excellent a good is to be sold You may buy it if you will the price ought not to affright you it will not exceed your abilities you shall pay no more for it then what you are able to give you may purchase it by an Alms you may acquire it by some other good Works you may deserve it by a good desire finally you may obtain it by a penitential Life and by a holy Death Do not then despise a happiness which depends only on the will to possess it And if you have any spark of zeal left in you to promote your true Interest and to procure your own Salvation seek a dwelling where Truth is victorious where Sanctity is honoured where Peace is immutable where Life and Felicity are Eternal Approbation SInce the Death of the Just gives us the liberty to render to their memory what we ow them we may say that the Reverend Father Lalemant Prior of St. Genovefe and Chancellour of the University of Paris having studied and endeavoured by the meditation and the practise of such Truths as the Spirit of God â—nspired into the greatest men of the Church to make Death familiar unto him this Collection of the most pithy thoughts which the holy Fathers had concerning Death is one of the most considerable Monuments which remains â—o us of his sublime virtue It were â—o be wished that every one would follow the example of this great person in reading his Works and that they would learn to die Christianly by seeing how he prepared himself thereto The esteem which people most elevated by their condition and their deserts had of his Piety and his extraordinary Qualities did not at all lessen the contempt he had of Life and the desire of Death which always appeared in him according to the example of the Apostle Thus hiâ— memory shall be evermore in veneration to all them who will reaâ— this excellent Work 'T is thâ— judgment which I gave at Soâ—bon the first of March 1673. Signed Colbert FINIS