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
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
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
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
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
the eye of Faith nor love them but with the Spirit of Charity Now Faith and Charity do not link themselves to that which is perishable He who practises these two Virtues possesses temporal Goods without permitting himself to be possessed by them He gathers Riches but 't is to distribute them liberally to the Poor He hath care of his Health without being disquieted as well knowing that all the precautions one takes to preserve it are useless and sometimes even criminal when one submits them not to the orders of Providence Altho' his Honour is dear unto him he ceases not to suffer calumnies with patitience He is tender for his Freinds without having effeminate complacencies for them Finally he resembles a Traveller in all things who comforts himself when the weather is bad or his lodging incommodious because he prepared himself for all sorts of sufferings and for that he expects no repose but in the end of his journey Thus let detraction decry him let poverty oppress him let sicknesses torment him let the loss of Freinds afflict him the desire of Death and the Hope of the other Life render his Soul unmovable amidst all these miseries This Desire and this Hope are as two Ankers which resist the most furious Tempests and which defend his Heart against the Violence of Passions and against the blows of Fortune Article VI. There are an infinity of other such-like Thoughts and Expressions in St. Augustin But it will perhaps suffice to have related these which we have collected from many passages of his Writings to serve for the Foundation and for the Principles of this Work THis holy Doctour drew from the sacred Scriptures and from the Tradition of the Church the substance of these Maxims and the Fathers who went before him Tertul. or they who followed him have explicated themselves in the same manner upon the same subject Tertullian says That the Christians were distinguished from all other men by the Desire of Death That they look upon it as a Grace which is to crown all their Graces and That it is principally that which they demand of God every day in their Prayers What I pray you is the Idea we ought to have of Christians In Apol. passim The Christians are certain people ever-more ready to die who have this thought imprinted in their Spirit and this desire engraved in their Heart who look upon Death as the end of their servitude and the beginning of their happiness 'T is as one would say a People and a Nation of men distinguish'd from all others by the contempt they have of Life Moreover they are ready to lose it and that which afflicts others comforts them for they know that Baptism hath already separated them from the World and therefore they are glad when Death comes to deliver them out of it for evermore They conceive it to be a want of Faith for one to testify the least fear of Death in the most dangerous diseases or at the sight of the most cruel torments Is there question of suffering for God One may perceive Joy painted in their countenances they disdain the Tyrants they encourage their Executioners they cast themselves with alacrity into the flames All that prolongs their Life retards their Felicity Let 's go die say they we are Christians we glory in it and the glory of a Christian is to die couragiously for his Master to happy we who being the Disciples of Christ Jesus may die as he did True Christians says Tertulian in another place desire with an extreme passion to break the Chains which tye them to the Earth and to go to reign in Heaven with Christ Jesus Our Soul 't is true is no longer a slave to the Devil since the Saviour of the World hath ransomed it but our Body is yet under his empire He can raise Persecutions against us and expose us to the rage of our Enemies Shall we fear him for so small a matter Shall we not have the courage to free our selves from his power What is it that Death hath so terrible in it since Christ Jesus hath shewed us the example of dying well There is no other way to come to the Kingdom which he hath prepared for us Le ts die with him O Christians if we will reign with him These thoughts are the ordinary entertainment of the Faithful and the continual object of their vows The Pagans are confounded and the Devils despair but the Angels rejoyce at their resolution This Constancy which the Christians testify in affronting Death and this contempt they have of Life are so linked to the Spirit of Chrystianisme that even altho' the Son of God should not have expresty signified that Christians ought to demand to die in demanding the Comming of his Kingdom yet they would not have ceased to offer up to him this Petition So true it is that the sole character of Christian ought to inspire a continual contempt of Life and an ardent desire to possess the Kingdom which Christ Jesus hath promised to his Elect. Article VII That which Tertullian hath so well expressed in few Words hath been very largly explicated by St. Cyprian in many passages of his Writings and Principally in the Discourse he composed upon Mortality We have collected some Maxims of this great-Bishop concerning this subject S. Cypri and particularly of the eagerness which true Christians ought to have to get forth of this Life The First Maxim of St. Cyprian That the Christians who fear Death are Unjust and Unreasonable since in saying to God every day in the Lords Prayer Thy Kingdom come they desire our Lord to hasten their Death WE may say that they who fear Death shew plainly that they know not the prime Principles of Christianism 'T is surely to have little love for Christ Jesus to apprehend the arrival of his Kingdom May not one say That we are the Enemies of the Son of God and that we fear he should ascend his Throne to punish them who have offended him What is there more unjust and more unreasonable than to wish every day that the Will of God may be accomplished and yet to complain when it is accomplished Nevertheless 't is this disorder into which most of us fall We do as those bad Servants and those rebellious Slaves who must be trailed against their will into the presence of their Masters We pass forth of this Life rather by necessity than by submission and by such a cowardly repugnance we make it plainly appear that we have no Faith nor any Hope to be rewarded by him who calls us Surely I cannot comprehend how 't is possible that a Christian Soul can divide her-self into such contrary Sentiments For if the Captivity of the Earth doth yet please us why do we pray that the Kingdom of Heaven may come To what end do our Lipps pronounce so frequently such holy Prayers in which we demand of God that the day of our glory
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
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
a Child of God not to tie himself to things present and perishable that he may sooner go towards his Father who stretches forth his arms to receive him This tender affection and this holy impatience spring from the purity of a good Conscience He who is enflam'd with the love of eternal Goods is not puff'd up in Prosperity nor cast down in Adversity He is as it were above the Earth and dwells already in Heaven he conserves a Spirit evermore equall in the inequality of his lives events Finally he is like him of whom it is said in Scripture You stick not either at the Benedictions or at the Maledictions of the World but you are as an Angel of our Lord. 2. Reg. c. 24. v. 17. 2. Instruction of St. Chrysostom That we should be miserable if our Life were never to end and that if we had a faithful and true belief of the Resurrection we should not only not dread Death but we should ardently desire it WHen God gives us Life In cap. 12. Gen. Hom. 32. 't is by an action of his Omnipotency but when he gives us Death In Cap. 5. Gen. Hom. 21. 't is by a wholesome effect of his Bounty What would Life be without Death A long sequell of miseries an eternal Banishment an infinite Punishment In Cap. 5. Gen. Hâ—m 67. and almost as cruel as that of Hell For what more painfull torment could be inflicted upon them who love Serm. in Verba Pauli De dormientibus nolo vos Ser. 29. than to separate them for ever from their beloved object If this Maxim is true in sensual love is it not infinitly more in the Divine love A Heart deeply engaged in this love to which one should say you shall remain always upon Earth and you shall never see God would it not have cause to esteem it self almost as miserable as the Damned It is therefore truly said That if Death is the chastisement of Adams Sin 't is also the greatest favour that God could grant to the Children of Adam after his Disobedience Before the coming of Christ Jesus Death was frightfull because men were its slaves and that they could not obtain of God any more then temporal rewards for their good actions But since he hath ransom'd us by his precious Blood since he hath loved Death and made an alliance with it it is not only no longer an Evil but 't is the greatest of all Goods 't is the source of all imaginable happinesses Thus the fear of dying ought to be consider'd as a weakness of Nature and not as an effect of Reason 'T is true that all Creatures have an extreme desire to conserve their Being but this desire is not pardonable except only in such people who know nothing of any other Life than this The true Christian who hopes after this Death a more noble and a more happy Being than this first Being which he receiv'd by being born into the World not only desires not to conserve it but burns with impatience to loose it that he may acquire the possession of a soverain Felicity There is no truth which Christ Jesus preached and assured more authentically than the Mystery of the Resurrection Ib. Serm. de tridua Domini Resurrec and there is nothing also which the Enemies of Christianism have more thwarted All the World agrees that Christ Jesus died 1 Cor. 18.23 The Jews looked upon his Cross as a Scandall and the Gentiles as a Folly But as for the Resurrection they all absolutely deny it only the Christians believe that and God gives to them all sorts of proofs thereof He permits that Souldiers should be placed around his Sepulchre he rises forth of the Tomb in their presence the Stone is overturned the Earth trembles the Guards are affrighted the Women find him not where they had layd him and the Angells assure them that he was risen He appeared to his Disciples in particular in publick in divers places in many encounters He stays with them Forty days he there drinks he there eats and when one of them protests that he would believe nothing of it unless he could see him with his Eyes and touch him with his Hands our Saviour presents himself unto him shews him the Wound of his side will have him to put his Finger into it and finally forces him by this last proof to cry out I doubt no longer John 20. v. 28.29 you are my Lord and my God Thou hast believed answered Jesus because thou hast seen Blessed are they who believe without having seen Can one desire testimonies more evident and more authentical of his Resurrection If we are Christians we must believe it If we will be Happy we must believe it without seeing it any otherwise than by the Eyes of Faith What Happiness ought we to expect from the Rusurrection and from the Promises of Jesus Christ Is it not to be resuscitated as he is that we may reign with him But to have a share in his Resurrection and in his Kingdom we must necessarily die Death therefore is an inestimable advantage and happiness and thus we ought not to dread it but with all our hearts to desire it What advantage can we find by living longer Old age and the Infirmities which accompany it do they not render us imsupportable to others and to our selves Consider an old man overwhelm'd with years his spirits dejected his Body extenuated his face full of wrinkles his eyes half shut up his voyce trembling his head hanging down towards the Earth as it were seeking for a Sepulchre wherein to be buried Is not this a kind of Monster in nature But that which is here more monstrous in him is the desire to live in despight of so many incommodities and to trail along his Soul captivated and burthened with such heavy chains Strange blindness of man This passion is more violent in the very caducity and feebleness it self than in the most tender youthfulness Whatever tye a man advanced in age hath for his dignities and for his treasures he would willingly destrip himself of all to prolong his Life for some years and he would employ these years in acquiring other honours and other riches of which he should destrip himself Madd man Weak Worm of the Earth Reffuse of the Universe Learn that in so deplorable an estate thou hast nothing more to desire but Death nor any thing to hope for but the Resurrection Serm. 20. in verba De tormientibus An Engraver hath made a fair Statue he finds it afterwards to be eaten with Rust and spoiled by the injury of time The love he hath for his own work moves him to take compassion on it he breaks it in pieces casts the mettal into the fire and frames a Figure fairer then the former This is that which God did having seen that Man who was his Image and his Head-work was disfigured by Sin By what right and upon what
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
only with wild Roots my Imagination ingenious to persecute me ceased not to entertain it self with the delights of the Roman Citty I pass'd the day in sighing and the night in weeping for my Sins But the more I strove to quench with my Tears the secret fire of my Concupiscence the more that rebell was enkindled even in the marrow of my bones If sometimes the wearinesses of my penance forced me to abandon my self to sleep I paid not that tribute to Nature but against my will and to free my self quickly from it I suffer'd my body to fall to the ground it being extenuated with watchings and as it were broken with all sorts of macerations I had no other Pillow than a Stone no other Garment then a Hayr-cloath no other Drink than Water nor other Food than Herbs and Roots and when the weakness of my Stomack obliged me to eat them boyled for a more easy disgestion I durst not satisfy my hunger fearing to commit an excess in making good cheer This Abstinence and the heat of the Climat joyned to the ardour of my temper had dryed me up like a Skeleton and one might have counted all the Nerfs through a Skin more tawny than that of the Ethiopians In this sad estate I had more horrour of my self than of the Scorpions and of the Serpents which were round about me and yet my Spirit would escape on a sodain even amidst my most holy Meditations and quit Prayer to dream of the Roman Dames running over all the assemblies I had frequented formerly where the Devil had laid his mortall Baits to entrap Chastity Then being irritated at the revolt of my Senses which these thoughts had excited against me I massacred my breast with a thousand blows and I left not off striking it untill the Grace of our Lord had calmed my Passions He knows what my sorrow was after such strange Conflicts I blushed with shame Life was insupportable unto me All the corners of my Grot all the Rocks of my Solitude seem'd to me so many Censurers of my Life and so many Witnesses of my Weaknesses For this cause I often chang'd my habitation hoping to find out some one where I might have more quiet but my evil did not change because I bore every where about me the subject of my disquiet I avouch that in the height of my torments I ardently desired to die and that I could have wished it had been permitted me to go forth of the World When one day I was press'd with this thought more violently than I was wont I took up the Book of the sacred Scripture which was my sweetest comfort and as God would have it I fell upon that passage where the Prophet Amos says these terrible Words Joel 2.11 Accursed be they who inconsiderately desire the day of our Lord. Soph. 1.15 Who urges you thus to desire it That day of our Lord is a day without Light Amos. 1.18 a day of darkness and obscurity When you shall be weary of your misery overwhelm'd with infirmities persecuted with temptations rejected by the injustices of others when you shall be disgusted with the whole World and irksom to your self expect the hour of our Lord with patience Amos. â— 19 For what doth it avail a man to shun the meeting of a Lion if he falls into the paws of a Bear S. Ierom. It is not in his power to hinder his Soul from going forth when that hour shall be come Eccl. 8.8 and he hath no right to hasten or to slacken the day of his Death After this sacred Instruction I suffered Life patiently being resolv'd to employ all the moments thereof in doing good works and being perswaded that we may well desire Death but that it is not permitted us to advance or further it nor even so much as to demand it of God with overmuch impatience because although we ought to contemn Life yet we must not omit to conserve it Article XXI An Excellent Instruction of the same St. Jerome That Death ought to be looked on as an order of the Divine Providence rather than as an effect of human Infirmity and that so we ought to die by Obedience and by Love A True Christian looks upon Death not only as upon a subject of consolation Lib. 9. in Isaiam alibi but moreover as upon an object of love and of respect because it must be granted that it is God who makes us live and die when he pleases and that the end of our days is more an effect of the Divine Will than of human infirmity For if the fall of the least Sparrows happens not without the order of God as himself says in the Gospell we ought to believe by a stronger reason That the last fall of our Body never happens but according to the immutable decree of his Will We should therefore look on Death with Love considering it as an effect of the eternal Providence We must take from it that which Nature finds horrible in it and think that God sends it not to them whom he loves but to the end they should always love him In effect the greatest testimony he can give them of his love is to withdraw them out of the World and to free them from the slavery of their Body and of Sin to render them Saints and make them eternally happy I say yet much more we are in some sort made partakers even upon Earth of this happiness when we submit to his will with this Confidence And as the last mark we can give of our Love towards God is to receive Death with an entire Obedience and even with Joy when it summons us to go forth of the World so the most perfect act of our Faith and of our Piety towards Christ Jesus is to resign our selves before hand to what ever God shall ordain of our Life and of our Death Let us therefore with David say to him Ps 89. Behold we are ready O Lord Cut of the threed of our miserable Life when you please And surely what is the duration of our days They pass away more speedily than the Word We live ordinarily but Seaventy Years and the stronger scarcely pass Fourscore But should our Life endure a Thousand years before your eyes a Thousand years are no more then yesterday which is past and gone Death hurries them away as a Whirlwind and they disappear as a Dream So that how long soever our Life is it will be counted for nothing unless it is pleasing to you Grant then Sap. 3. O Lord that we may count our days by our Good Works and that we may know their shortness to the end we may acquire Wisdom of Heart Article XXII St. Jerome or the Authour of some Epistles attributed to him which are placed at the end of his Works urges this Doctrine yet farther and teaches That a Christian ought not only not to dread Death but that he ought also to
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
Pilgrimage wherein we are to make what speed we are able Otherwhiles it compares it to a Warfare whereinto we enroll our selves to die in fighting against the Enemies of Christ Jesus At other times it represents Death unto us under the Parable of a Hireling who tills the Vinyard for the price of his days labour O Christians when the Evening shall come let not us imitate those indiscreet Vignerons who complained that they had born the burden of the day and endured the heat of the Sun Let 's not presume that we have deserv'd a larger recompense than they who have labour'd less time than we It belongs to the Master of the Vinyard to distribute his Wages as himself pleases At what ever hour he calls us to his service let us labour as long as the day lasts Our Lord knows well how to pay unto each one what appertains to him Mat. 20.12 Perhaps the last shall be first and the first last because there are many called and but few chosen Let us expect the hour of payment with Patience and with Humility That hour O Christians is the hour of Death for this Death which we so much dread is the period of our pains and the time of our reward Article XXXIII 3. Reflexion of St. Gregory That they who have the World love some reason to fear the end of it but that they who serve Christ Jesus ought not to apprehend the destruction of the World on the contrary they ought to endure with patience War Famine Pestilence Detraction Persecution and the other Scourges wherewith the hand of God chastises men because these are the signs of the second coming of our Saviour IF the scourges of God fall upon your Head lift it up and look towards Heaven Hom. 1. and 13. in Evan. because your Redemption is near at hand Behold the Fig-tree and all other Trees Luk. 21. when their fruit begins to be formed you say that Summer is coming on So when you shall see all these things arrive which the common sort of men account miseries know that the Kingdome of Christ Jesus approaches and that Christians ought to rejoyce thereat as at the greatest of all good things because they shall never possess the Kingdom of God untill that of the Devil which is the World shall be destroyed It belongs therefore to them only who have the love of the World rooted in their Heart who look not after eternal Life who even fancy that there is none It only belongs I say to those wretched Children of the World to afflict themselves for the end of the World But as for us who are the Children of God who know that our Patrimony is not upon Earth but that it expects us in the glory of the Eternal Father we rejoyce to see an end of the Worlds Tyranny which hath already too long lasted Heaven and Earth shall pass Luk. 21.33 but my Words shall not pass says our Lord. Those are the works of his Hands they shall perish but our Lord will remain Heb. 1.11 They will wax old as a Garment They will change their form as a Cloak But he who created them will be evermore the same Ps 101. v. 26.27 c. and his years will have no end The Just shall dwell with him and their Posterity shall be eternally happy Article XXXIV 4. Reflection of St. Gregory That there are few Just who can truly say with St. Paul God forbid that I should glory of any other thing than of the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ because the World is dead and crucified for me as I am dead and crucified for the World That altho ' the major part of good people employ all their Life to die to the World Gal. 6.14 yet it frequently falls out that the World dies not to them but on the contrary that it strives to corrupt them by its flatteries and by its illusions From whence this holy Doctour takes an occasion to exhort Christians to be willing to go forth of this place which is so dangerous and to desire Death as the sole Remedy of all their Evills THere is no Just Man who doth not acknowledge himself miserable during this Life Morol l. ◠c. 2.3 c. and who considers it not as a painfull and perilous Pilgrimage He knows that the Dignities and the Riches of the World are things perishable But what ever experience he dayly makes of them they cease not to leave in his spirit the same impression which the sight of a delicious Countrey leaves in the Spirit of a Traveller He doth not absolutely prefer it before his native Land but he is less impatient to get home to it What should press us to leave Life will some one say if we make good use of it Our Lord hath given us Goods let us employ them for his Glory He forbids not the enjoyment o◠Honours when one referr◠them all to him What har◠is there in hearing our Prayses published so long as w◠cease not to prayse God 〈◊〉 Thus doth the World endeavour to seduce the Jus◠man by subtle stratagems which it disguises under th◠appearances of Virtue Bu◠a true Christian grounde◠in the love of Christ Jesu◠speaks another Language 〈◊〉 you Honours of the World says he you Riches Health Commodities of Life I am not to look upon you but as the obstacles of my Salvation In this sad voyage which I make upon Earth my Soul sends forth continual sighs for the length of her exile nor can she suffer with patience that which separates her from her dear Countrey What a remisness what an imprudence is it to stay upon the Earth for the exercising of an Office and Dignity which torments us to distribute our Goods which are capable to corrupt us to acquire a Prayse which may make us proud and perhaps for some other end which is yet more vain and frivolous Ah my Soul do not thou adhere to any worldly thing thou wilt not there meet with any thing which is not unworthy of thy affection Remember the nobility of thy origin thou comest from Heaven the Earth is not for thee God did not create thee to animate eternally a lump of Flesh Death will ere long destroy this Body in which thou takest so much complacency but its loss ought not to afflict thee God will one day repair it 'T is Sin which thou oughtest to dread there is thy Death and a terrible and irreparable Death Thou wilt be exposed to the danger of this Death so long as thou sojournest upon Earth Go forth of it then my Soul go forth of thy Prison separate thy self from thy Body for I burn with a desire to die that I may go to live eternally with my Lord Jesus Behold what are the sentiments of perfect Christians They have learned in the School of so good a Master that even they who most desire to die notwithstanding that they are already
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