grow in him He would feygne haue found some rocke within this sea of loue but the Pilot who steeres the ship of his life is a Port of assurance for all the world since he cōmands the winds and tempests What pleasure needs must this great Saint take to see himselfe thus smitten with the selfe same woūds of his Maister The Crosse fayles him howsoeuer yet he hath it in the hart The Crowne of Thornes he misseth but what say I he weares it in his Soule But then at least he seemes not to be depriued but of Nayles and Gaule I deceiue my selfe For as for the nayles he caryes the markes thereof as well in hands feet as side and for gaule the tongue takes very greedily the sweet bitternes therof O great Saint thrice happy Tel vs the pleasure which is to dye since you dy so sweetly in the extasies of your felicities How irksome needs must life be to you and the earth be in contempt with you in this trāsportation of ioy wherunto you are raysed S. Stephen hath beheld the Heauens opened and you his hart who hath created them S. Paul hath seene so admirable things as might not be tould and you felt such delicious as cannot be expressed S. Peter hath beene dazeled through a beame of glory you by one of loue whose light hauing pierced your darksome body hath made it transparent to the eyes of all the world so communicating it's diuine qualityes thereinto as the markes therof remayne eternal S. Iohn hath slept vpon the bosome of his Maister and by a sweet transport your hart got through and sought within the bosome of his hart your most assured repose This same disciple hath beene a witnesse of his torments and you participant of his paynes with this glory yet moreouer of bearing as well the wounds in the Soule as the markes on the body So as your fauours are so deare as none dare enuy them for fear of presumption though otherwise they be most worthy of enuy I wonder the thoughts of Death should be displeasing since we dye with pleasure in the life we lead There are none so blind in the knowledge of themselues that know not how they dy euery houre were it not iust then that we should thinke vpon that which we are continually a doing And wherefore shall we not take pleasure at this thought if it be the most profitable sweet that we are able to conceiue It is impossible to thinke of death but we must needs be thinking of Eternall life which succeds the same or rather say we It is impossible to thinke of the Soueraigne God and not to thinke of the imaginary euill of death And where shall we be finding of thoughts both sweeter and deerer then those of our Soueraigne Good So as if for the raysing of our spirits thither we are to passe into the imaginations and idea's of death the light of the Sunne which shal serue vs for obiect shall disperse all those vayne shaddowes which subsist not but through a false opiniō The starre of the day neuer shewes more bewtifull thē when it hath escaped through flight from a shole of clouds which do hide its light Those obscure clouds so strongly relieue the flash of its light as thence it appeares to be radiant in excesse The like may we say of our Reason being as the Sunne of our life that from the tyme it escapes from all these vayne shadowes of feare and dread which do veyle its brightnes it appeares so shining as it serues for a torch to passe very confidently withall from this life to the other The Will loues but the Good it is the Needle that is alwayes a pointing at this Pole It is the Iron which incessantly followes this Adamant as its only obiect In such sort as we are not capable of loue but to purchase the good which is presented vnto vs be it false imaginary or true And therin is iudgement giuen vs to know the difference that is from the one and the others Now that life is a false good there may no doubt be made since it hath no other foundation in it then misfortunes myseries That it is an imaginary good we are enforced to belieue whiles its pleasures are but of fancyes and dreames But that death is a true good we are to hould for certaine since it is the end of the terme of our exile of our captiuity of our sufferances For we cannot enter into glory but by the gate of the tombe where being reduced to our nothing we returne to our first beginning Sweet then are the thoughtes which make the life fastidious and death pleasing yet more sweet the desires that termine all our hopes in Heauen Such as know not the Art of dying well diliciously are vnworthy to liue Impatience in the expectation of death is more sensible to a holy Soule then the greatest pleasures to a man of the world We cannot loue life but in cherishing the fatall accidents that are inseparable from it which made Terence to say That he loued not any thing of all that which was in him but the hope of a speedy dying In effect there is no greater consolarion in life then that of death For were it immortall with all the encombrances that cleaue vnto it of all the conditours that are found in nature that same of man would prooue to be the most vnfortunate The afflicted loue not but by the sweet expectation of death and the others of the hope of a second life with reason imagining with themselues that if on earth they be touched with some pleasure they shal be one day accomplished in Heauen with al desirable delights And through the good of our death it is that we possesse the soueraigne good of eternall life It is the entry of our felicity the passage from the false and imaginary to the true and alwayes permanent He is yet vnborne whose hart being glutted with al sorts of contentments hath neuer gaped after new pleasures There is not a Soule in the world how happy soeuer it thinke it selfe that points not its pretensions beyond that same which it possesseth We hold it good to be rich our desires are alwayes in chase of Good We are raysed to the top of the greatest dignities we build new Thrones in our imagination not finding on earth scope inough to satisfy our Ambition withall In so much as mā hath alwaies vnrest in the repose which he hath once proposed to himselfe which makes vs sensibly to perceiue that the obiect of our desires is forth of nature and that if we sigh in the midst of our felicityes it can be but of the hope we haue to possesse some greater then they We haue lyued long inough then in Tantalus his Hel where we are continually a thirst without being euer able to drinke We must be vsing of some violence with our selues and go couragiously before death since it is that which
if they were quite blind Needs must the charmes of their pleasures be strong to make them insensible to that which toucheth them so neere S. Augustin sayd how the greatnesses of the world aspersed a kind of leprosy on the soule which euen benummed all the senses of the greatest Potentats of the earth In effect all their sighes all their actions do but carry the countenance of Death with them yet perceyue they no whit therof A strange thing To liue and not to thinke of lyfe at any tyme or rather of Death since to liue and dy is but one thing It is yet true notwithstanding that we dye without euer thinking of death wherin do we spoile our selues of the sweetest contentments of lyfe because our whole felicity consists in dying well and the meanes to incurre a glorious death is alwaies to thinke of the miseries of lyfe to the end to be encouraged through hope to possesse the eternall glory which is promised vnto vs. We do naturally loue our selues with so strong affections that all the powers of the world are not able to burst the chaynes thereof But what more mighty proofes may we affoard of this verity then that of thinking continually of Death since the same is the day of our Triumph When shall I begin to liue not to dye for euer sayth the Royall Prophet Our lyfe is a continuall combat and the day of our Death is that of our Victorie All the Martyrs though they were in the thickest of the fight and alwaies in the action of defending themselues yet in this warre of the world thought themselues very happy to find the occasion where they might make to appeare the last endeauours of their courage in the midst of torments for that they found in Death the crowne of immortall lyfe O sweet lyfe and cruell the attendāce As often as we carry our thoughtes beyond nature and euen to Heauen our spirit remaines wholy satisfyed therewith because that in this diuine pitch where it sees it selfe eleuated aboue it selfe it begins to liue the lyfe of Angells The earth is in contempt with it and when the chaynes of it's body fall off in their first condition it suffers their tyranny through constraint So that if it be permitted vs at all moments to abādon the world in thought to haue thereby some feeling of heauenly delights should we be our enemies so farre as to contemne these diuine pleasures in groueling without cease in our miseryes while the only meanes to be touched with it is to thinke on Death since there is no other way in lyfe to fynd the felicity we seeke for We may piously say that the Virgin purest most holy liued on earth a lyfe litle differing from that lyfe which is liued in Heauen her spirit all diuine intertayned it selfe alwayes with the Angels or rather with God himself while she had the glory of bearing him within her sacred wombe or in her armes In so much as her life was a voluntary Death all of loue seeing that through loue she tooke no pleasure but to dye so to possesse more perfectly the onely obiect of her lyfe She prized not her dayes but in the expectation of their last night as knowing its darknes was to produce the brightnes of an eternal day wherof herselfe had beene the Aurora O how sweet would it be to be able to liue in that sort for to dye deliciously It is not a life truly immortall to be alwayes thinking of death if death afford vs immortality How fastidious is the life of the world the Prophet cryes Let vs now then be ioyning our voyce to his cryes and say that death only is to be wished for All the holy Soules which in imitation of my Sauiour haue adorned thēselues with thornes haue been turning the face to the tombwards there to gather Roses With death it is where they termine their dearest hopes So as if they liue content it is not but through the sweet hope which they haue to dye O yee prophane Spirits who sacrifice not but to voluptuousnes pull off the hood of passion that thus blinds you to destroy those aultars of Idolatry whereon you immolate your selues without thinking of it for punishment of your crymes If you will know the true pleasure indeed it consists of thinking of Death as of the Spring that produceth our delights Our Crownes are at the end of their cariere nor shall we euer come to possesse the Soueraygne God to which we aspire with so much feruour and vnrest but by the way of Death When shall I cease to lyue with men sayth Dauid He is euen troubled amidst the greatnesses of the earth His Scepter and his Crowne are so contemptible to him as he would willingly change his Throne with the dunghill of Iob on condition to dye with his constancy To liue is no more then to be sequestred from that which one loues and after God what may we loue After him what may we desire So as if now these holy affections these diuine wishes cannot looke on glory but in passing by the Sepulcher let vs thinke continually on Death as of the way we take which we are yet to make This is the onely meane to render vs content for that these thoughtes are inseparable from the eternall felicity which is promised vs. That it belongeth but only to good Spirits to thinke continually of Death CHAP. IIII. SVCH as know the Art of familiarizing death with life through continual remēbrance of their end do neuer change the countenance in any perils They looke to resume both their bloud and life at once with the same eyes they behold the things which are agreable to them so as they remayne inuincible in their miseryes through the knowledge they haue of their condition Wounds neuer hurt their soules and all the maladies wherewith they may be touched afflict but their body only Their good Spirit habituated with the ordinary encounter of a thousand sad accidents inseparable from life tasts their bitternes in its turne and feeles their thornes without any murmuring The end of all actions ought to be the first ayme of the iudgement that conceiues them if it will shun the griefe of hauing done them So as from the tyme that we are capable of reason are we to serue our selues of it to consider the necessity of our mortall and transitory condition that the continuall obiect of our end may serue as a condition meanes to arriue happily thereunto The wiser sort are those who repent at least for that which they haue done true wisedome consists in not cōmitting folly And what more great may a man admit thē that to neuer thinke of death since it is the end where all our actions receiue their prize or payne Remember thou Death the Wisemā sayth and thou shalt neuer syn O glorious remembrāce who raisest vs to so high a degree of honour as neuer to offend God which is the only
your impatiēt desire and longing hope but will you cōfesse me the truth that it is but a day of rayne tempest For you cast forth a thousand sighes to the winds and powre out as many teares being so moued through the farewell you giue to your selues whiles you giue your selues to another without knowing for the most part your owner which yet were nothing if the clauses of your contract did not signe you out the death both of the one and the other the incertainty also who shal be the first For you must confesse that if you loue your selues perfectly indeed you dye euery houre of the apprehension you haue of an euill which neyther the one nor the other can tell which way to auoyd I will not speake a whit of the accidents and miseryes without number which are inseparable to this cōdition I leaue the knowledge therof to those who haue had the experience But I pray you to confesse freely if you be content with the felicities that remayne to you or no Thou Couetous man returne then to thy selfe after thou hast pulled off the hood of thy blindnes for to publish how the sole treasure of Grace can enrich the soule with all sorts of contentments and that with out this good are all goods false Thou Ambitious man the deuine Iustice now puts thee on the racke to make thee cōfesse this truth that in the onely possession of Grace are comprehended all the desirable greatnesses that are since he that possesseth it is the greatnest of the world You Courtiers all the Fauours which you seeke for are but wind and smoke It is tyme now to acknowledge your vanity and to bid a last adieu vnto the world The Kings Princes whome you court so are euen as miserable as your selues since they can afford you but transitory goods Alas for a handful of earth will you relinquish the pretensions you haue to heauen If you will bestow your tyme well then court you an omnipotent King as our God is whose Fauours haue no price whose Graces are infinite whose Goods are eternall as his Glory is wherewith he crownes our labours Know you not that his Almighty hand stayes and mooues agayne when he pleaseth the wheele of fortune How this blind Goddesse receiues frō his prouidence whatsoeuer she giues and that she so serues but as a channell to conuay both disasters prosperities into the Earth So as if your hart do sometymes fetch sighes of loue after those obiects of dust do you then command your spirits not to stand so gazing on the beauty of a riuer that glides away incessantly like its waues For whatsoeuer may be seene faire in Nature is but a feeble ray and a first Idea of the purest of this soueraigne and adorable Essence wherein consists the accomplishmēt of al perfection as the onely inexstaustible spring from whence they issue without spring or begining Represent vnto your selues that whatsoeuer seemes so fayre to day shal be changing the countenance to morrow In so much as for to find a permament beauty and of louely qualityes indeed that might alwayes abide in its purity we had need to acquit our selues of the worlds circuit or bounds to carry our thoughtes into Eternity as to an only mansion where all things are eternall This is the lesson of that great Prophet when he cryed Lord when shall I be able to quench my thirst in the spring of thy eternall pleasures In vaine do you seeke for a foūtaine of delights to quench the thirst of your hart withal for what greedines soeuer you haue to drinke after you haue drunke you shall find your selues more a thirst then euer and the reason is good which is that the water of this fountaine retaynes the nature of the soyle that produceth the same whence it is that all the goods of the world are not able to satiate the Ambition of one holy Soule as being created to the possession of infinite goods After one cōtentment had they sigh anone after another and so after another and another without cease Our spirit being quickened with a deuine obiect points alwaies its lookes beyond what it possesseth it permits it self sweetly to be drawn like the iron by its deuine Adamant for to vnite it selfe vnto it as to its end whither it tends without cease or intermission In effect what would become of vs if our desires hopes were buryed in the tombe Such as know what it is to liue liue not but of the hope of a sweeter life in this sweet hope do find nothing that is worthy of them but the contempt they make of all things O generous contempt of the world wherein consists our whole glory You Courtiers I leaue you to thinke vpon it vntill such tyme as you be disposed to put it in practise for to exercise withall your more hidden and secret vertues My Dames you will permit me to tell you the truth The fayrest day of your life is that of Death This is that nuptiall day of your Soule with its Creatour a day of pleasure rather then of teares since therein do you bid an eternall Adieu vnto the world and to all its myseries A day of gladnes rather then of sighes since you giue your selues through loue to him who of his goodnes hath afforded you al things In the expectation of this happy day it is that the fayrest dayes should be tedious to you Neuer cast your eyes vpon your glasse but to count the wrinckles which age makes to grow by little and little on your brow as so many presaging markes of Death approaching Represent vnto your selues sometimes how all the pleasures which you haue had are passed that those you now enioy do passe and that those which you are lyke to tast shall also passe away then imagine with your selues in what lamentable case shall you find your selues at the end of the course of your lyfe with all the Thornes of your withered Roses with how many assaults of griefe shall you haue your hart thē battered With how many alarmes the soule affrighted and with how many tortures shall the one the other be rackt Performe betymes what good soeuer you would willingly haue had done at this last houre and take you away their power and liberty from vpbrading you one day for the euill whose paines you shal carry in that last day It seemes as you lyued not but to repent you at your death for hauing lyued so ill not considering the while that slow repentances are ordinarily changed into despayre I bewayle you my Dames as often as I thinke of the infinite number of the vanities which do busy your spirit How much time you bestow euery day in trimming vp that dunghill of your body as if your guilty industry were able to driue away the miseryes from thence You do all what you can to make your selfe beloued and know you not that nothing is more louely then Vertue Do
part If thou cast thy selfe into the Sea of thy teares Ionas shal be affording thee roome within his little Oratory for the publish togeather the diuine meruailes of the Omnipotent If thou crucifiest all thy Passions S. Peter wil lend thee another halfe of his Crosse to participate of his Triumph so as in the extremest dolours shalt thou be tasting the extremest delight What may happen to thee in thy sufferāces worse then Death Ah what is more glorious then to suffer and dy for loue And after God what may we loue besides him What may we desire since his diuine presence very perfectly fils vs aswell with happines as with Glory If we must needs be stoned as S. Stephen was what ioy to haue our Soule enforced to go forth of the body with the strokes of flints that those very stones might serue as Stayres to mount vp to Heauen by If we be to be laied on the gridiron as S. Laurence was shall we seeme to complaine against the fire for reducing vs to ashes while we are but ashes ourselues And then a Hart which is truly amourous doth burne of it selfe in such wise as the flames of the world cannot but help it to dy readily which is all it desires If we be drawne in peeces with foure horses as S. Hyppolitus was are they not sweet streynes of pleasure rather then of payne for to haue the life snatched away with the armes and legs for the Glory of him who hath created the Soule of that body And besides what an honour was it to S. Hyppolitus to see his Spirit carried on a triumphant Chariot so drawne with foure horses to the Pallace of Eternity If one should be fleaed with S. Bartholomew what a happines trow you would it be to him who liuing but of the loue of God shold behould this amorous life by a thousand wounds to abandon Nature it selfe after hauing made of his bloud a Sea of loue to fynd on its waters the port of Eternall ioy If they throw vs downe headlong from a pinnacle of the Temple as S. Iames was how sweet a thing to be oppressed vnder the weight of this Crosse Should we haue so little courage amidst so many companiōs who with their bloud haue tracked vs out the way of glory The Pagans who euen buryed their hopes in their Tombe not pretending other good then that of a vayne Renowne haue let vs see some kind of magnanimity in their actions for whatsoeuer horrour and amazement Death may haue with it yet could it not daunt them awhit till the last shocke of its assaults Mutius vanquished the fire with one hand which vanquished all things in seeing it deuoured with its flames without being moued with it Rutilius foūd his country in his exile Socrates drunke vp a glasse of poyson to the health of his Spirit for to giue testimony to his friends that he was not sicke of the feare of death And Cato he made of his bosome a sheath for his poynard Ah! and what Shall all these Soules of the world haue offered such glorious triumphs to vertue without knowing it and we trample its Aultars and profane its Temples after we haue adored them for though all be impossible to base Spirits yet a generous hart can do all What a shame were it for thee my Soule to fly those perils that giue Crownes cāst thou not boldly thrust thy selfe pell-mell into a throng of ten thousand crucified fifty thousand beheaded an hundred thousand rent with Scourges two hundred thousand ouerwhelmed murderd with seuerall punishments wherein cruelty exercised its tyranny Of a million of poore Hermits and of Religious who haue happily yielded vp their life to the rigorous austerities of a number without number of dolours And finally of two Millions of holy Soules all sacrificed on the Aultar of the Crosse Darest thou go to Paradise by a way all strewed with roses knowing thy Sauiour to haue passed by that of Thornes What a shame is it for thee to be in Paradise alone without hauing suffered a litle euil for him who should bestow so much good vpon thee What wonder shines in this diuine Thought that he who hath created the world should haue suffered all the euills therof for recompence He hath made the Thornes to grow for to crowne his head withall He hath formed in the Earth the mines of Iron for to forge the nayles and with the liberal hād of his Prouidence hath he watered the trees which furnished the Iewes with those stakes wherunto he was tyed and at the same tyme fed protected the false witnesses that accused him the Iudges that condemned him and the Executioners who tormented him It is true in the order of his iustice he condemned Adam to death and in the order of his loue he executes the Sentence vpon his owne lyfe He would haue miseries to reigne in the world but it was but for himselfe since he hath suffered them altogether So as my Soule if in the extremity of thy Sorrowes the feeblenes of thy courage should make thee to let fal some complaint turne thy face to the Crosse-ward to admire the glory which is inseparable to it One cannot go from one extreme to another without passing through the midst I would say that from the Paradise of the Earth we cannot ascend to that of Heauen without passing through the fire which is that midst where we are necessarily to be purified lik◠as gould in the fornace But since the generous are more animated through Hope of Recompence then feare of payne be thou touched my Soule with the sweet feelings of the felicity which is promised vs rather then with the rigour of the Flames which are prepared Thou wouldst yield to Loue rather then to Force to the end thy desires be not mercinary And represent to thy selfe that as the punishments of the guilty are eternal so are likewise the ioyes of the blessed immortall After the tasting of a thousand yeares of pleasures they haue not yet begun after an hūdred thousand yeares of rest they find thēselues in the first moment according to our manner of speaking After a hundred thousands of millions of yeares of contentments of ioy felicity they are alwaies in the first point of their happines with so perfect a ioy of the knowledge as they do nothing but reioyce in those delights In so much as euen as long as God shal be God shall the Glory last where the happy Spirits are filled with al sorts of pleasures and consequently for euer O Eternity how profound are thy Abysses The Imagination cannot sinke its plummet into the bottome of thē but is alwaies grieued to haue so ill employed its Tyme After it hath thought all its life on the meruailes or rather on the miracles which are enclosed within thy labyrinthes it dies in the impotency of approaching to the entry This Dedalus hath no thred this Carriere hath no stop this Circumference hath no Center
withhouldes this second life from vs wherein abides the accomplishment of our happines To dye is but to cast into the wynd the last sigh of our miseries To dye is but to make a partition of our selues commending the body to the Earth the Soule vnto Heauen To dye is but to bid a last adieu to the world preferring the company of Angels before that of men To dye is to be no more vnhappy To dye is to despoyle vs of our infirmities and to reuest vs with a nature exempt from sufferances O sweet death since it leades vs to the spring of life O sweet death since it giues vs the Eternity of glory in exchange of a moment of dolour O sweet death since it makes vs to reuiue for euer in a felicity immortall O yee Soules of the world thinke then alwayes of death if you will tast with pleasure the sweetnes of life For it shal be euen in this last moment where you shal receiue the Crowne of all the others you may sigh long inough in your chaynes you are neuer like to be delyuered thence if death come not to breake the gates of your prison Go before it then and carry in your countenance the desire of meeting it rather then a feare to be touched with it We should suffer with a good cheere that same which we must of necessity endure What say I endure Were it a payne to approach to the end of ones euils Were it a payne to become for euer exempt from their sufferances Let vs rather say a Contentment since thereby do we get forth of sadnes to enter into ioy Let vs call it a Happines since so we do abandone the dwelling of misfortunes to liue eternally in that of the felicities of Heauen That there is no contentment in the world but to thinke of Death CHAP. III. DEATH hath it's delights as well as Lyfe Iob was neuer more happy nor more content then at such tyme as he saw himselfe vpon the Throne of his dunghill oppressed vnder the burden of his miseries He dyed so deliciously in the depth of his dolours as he would haue suffered alwayes and haue dyed incessantly in that manner His wounds serued him as a mirrour to his loue For in looking thereinto he became amourous of himselfe but yet loued he not himselfe but to dye continually so pleasing was death vnto him therby to obey him who had imposed that law vpon him Loue changes the nature of things From the tyme that a Soule is chastly taken with this passion it neuer suffers for the subiect which it loues The paynes and torments therof are changing the name quality within the hart They are Roses rather then Thornes For if it sigh it is of ioy and not of payne if it be necessary to dy to conserue this louely cause of its life it is no death to it but a meere rap◠of contentment which seuers it from it selfe in fauour of another selfe which its loues more then it selfe In such wise as it begins to liue content from the point it begins to dye in or rather to take its flight towards the obiect it hath proposed to it selfe of the full perfection of its loue From this goodly verity do I draw this lyke consequence That the hearts wounded with diuine loue do neuer sigh in their torments but of the apprehension they haue of their short durance Death which to vs seemes so foule and deformed vpon the sudden changing it's countenance in their respect appeares a thousand tymes more beautifull then lyfe Whence it is that they are alwayes thinking thereon to to be alwayes content since it is the point where their paynes do termine where their felicityes begin The most pleasing thoughtes which our spirit can tell which way to conceyue can haue no other obiect then that of contentment of profit and of vertue in so much as they are the three sorts of goods whereto our will is tyed Now where shall we find more pleasure then in the thought of death since it is the great day of our Fortune where we take possession of the delights of Heauen Where more profit then in the selfe same thought since the soueraygne good which is promised to vs is the But the End and Obiect thereof And where more vertue then to thinke alwayes of Death whilest with the armes of these sweet thoughts we triumph ouer vice I belieue it is impossible to tast pleasures without thinking of death in regard these delights are continually a flying away and incessantly dy with vs in such wise that if we cannot ressent the contentments but within their fruit in running alwayes after them they are rather displeasures then pleasures and therefore we hold there are no greater delights thē those of thinking of Death as being the only meane to make them eternall When I resent vnto my selfe S. Laurence extended vpon the deuouring flames but yet more burned with the fire of his loue then with that of his punishment how he cryes out with a cheerefull voyce in the midst of the heates which consume him to be turned on the other side as if he thought he should not dye but by halfes being so but halfe burned I do feele my selfe rauished with the same iumps of ioy that transported him Death is so welcome to him as he deliciously roles his body on the coles as if they were very beds of Roses So as if he be touched with any payne at all it is for not suffering it for that his life being all of loue finds its element in the fire that consumes it and therefore he sighes of gladnes in the height of his torments In effect how shall he expire admidst those heats if his hart be all aflame already his Soule of Fire For if he were to be turned into ashes the stronger must needs preuayle So as he cannot be consumed but through the fire of his loue O sweet encounter O welcome combat And yet more deere the Triumph Death assayles him with flames it assaults him with heats but the fire wherewith he is holily burned triumphes reduceth him to ashes so to render them as cōsecrated This great Martyr neuer tasted in his life more sweet pleasures thē that of feeling himselfe to dy vpon this bed of flames because resenting death he felt the delights of immortall life wherof he made himselfe a crowne Kings Princes and all those who are raysed to some great fortune confesse it to be a great pleasure to dy since they dy euery hore so sweetly amidst their greatnesses I say so sweetly for their spirits and their senses are so strongly occupyed with their continuall ioyes as the Clocke which keepes accompt of the houres of our lyfe may sound long inough its 24. houres a day and they heed it no more then if they were starke deafe And the night full of horrour which represents to vs the same of the Sepulcher cānot fright them any more then
whence hath it receiued the being and the light it hath If it had as many tongues as beames it would haue published at once both his glory and thy forgetfulnes Confesse then the errour of it if thou wouldst haue men iustly to attribute wisedome to thee Ceobulus come thou in thy turne lykewise to visit the King of Sages not in his Pallace but in the litle house which the harbingers of death haue appointed for him Thou bestowest thy tyme but ill for thou shouldest be making of verses and thou art full of them thy selfe to wit of wormes So as if thou loue thy Poesy so much make verses on thy wormes describe thy miseries and neuer speake but of thy misfortunes otherwise shalt thou loose the Surname thou hast of a Sage Thou seest well how the science thou professest teacheth not but vanity how all the world is the great maister of it True wisedome consists in possessing all the vertues and thou yet liuest in the hope of atteyning the first which is to know ones selfe Salomon was wiser then thou art and yet with all his knowledge and wisedome both was he taxed of folly He hath beene the greatest of the world this little trench which thou seest conteyneth all his greatnesses The lands of his Empire are comprised within this litle hillocke of earth whereinto he is reduced if thou wilt forgo thy vanity behould somwhat neere his miseries and thou shal learn all the Sciences of the world in the meditation of his nothing You Sages of the world if you establish the foundation of your glory on your prudence all is but vanity Behold contemplate and publish freely the truth you know I for my part will not learne other science then that of liuing wel since this is the science of the Eternity which hath for obiect an immortall glory A Contemplation vpon the Tombe of Helena CHAP. XI RETVRNE thou O Menalaus with thy Army to the conquest of this fayre Helena to triumph now at last vpon her vtmost spoyles Imagine the Tombe wherein she is enclosed to be the the proud Troy which deteynes her from thee Marshall thy Army about her Sepulcher and let the valiantest of thy soldiers well armed against the horrour and affrightes of all the infections of the world giue the first onset to this fortresse of miseryes There is no need to reduce her into ashes since she is wholy full of ashes now Encourage then thy Captains to the assaults Thou hast now no more to deale with an infinite number of men but rather with an infinite number of wormes as owners possessors of the subiect of thy victory But me thinkes some new Achilles or some Aiax hath already demolished the rampiers of this litle Troy wherein thy Helena is captiued Approach then braue Menalaus with napkin at thy nose teares in thine eyes sighs in thy mouth and plaintes in thy soule to behold the Idoll of thy passions and the obiect of the triumphes Behold this fayre Helena whome the greatest Monarks of the world haue adored Behold this fayre Helena whome Theseus tooke away and Paris rauished as a thrall of her perfections Behold this fayre Helena who hath peopled Greece with widdowes and Orphans Behold his fayre Helena who hath drowned a good part of the earth with a deluge of bloud Behold this fayre Helena the wonder of all the wonders in the world the shame of ages past the despayre of such as are to come the miracle of her present age Behold this fayre Helena whome Paynters neuer durst to represent nor haue Poets beene able euer to prayse inough Behold this fayre Helena whome no man hath admired but with Idolatry Behold this fayre Helena whose merits haue armed the one part of the world agaynst the other as if for â—er alone they would haue vtterly destroied the Vniuerse Behold at last this fayre Helena whose lyfe hath cost a million of deathes behold this stinking carcasse which heere you see this heape of putrifyed bones and this lump of infection full of wormes Commaund thy imagination to represent her vnto thee in that estate she was in at such tyme as thou adoredst her on the Throne of her graces for to acknowledge sensibly the differeÌ„ce Demand of her head what is become of that fayre golden hayre of hers so alwayes curled where Loue had wrought a thousand Labyrinths to make a thousand of the freest Soules to waÌ„derin Her hayre I say whose flash dazeled the eyes and whose wreathes captiued harts Where is that Alabaster brow where Maiesties appeared in troupes as alwaies ready to impose new lawes of respect to mortals Where are her eyes which you termed The eyes of Loue since he had not beene blind but for her sake Or rather those two fayre stars eclipsed from whence thou receiuedst both the good and the euill influences of thy life say we yet more those two fayre Suns arriued now at their last West whose splendour euer blinded the whole world What is become of them we can hardly discerne the dreadfull ruines of their being Where may that godly feature be whose flowers alwayes spread and disclosed the winter reuereÌ„ced much Where is that mouth of Coral whose voyce was an oracle of good euill fortunes Where is that necke of Iuory that snowy bosome and all the other parts of that body where Nature had imployed the last endeauours of her power I see nothing but wormes I smell nothing but a stinke All is vanished quite away The flesh of that Maiesticall brow lets her hydeous bones appeare Those fayre eyes shew forth the holes where the wormes haue built their Sepulcher The flowers of this visage are changed into thornes and this mouth sometimes of Corall is now become a sinke of Infection And for the rest of the parts of the body being al of the same nature with the whole we may know the peece by the patterne Menalaus behold the subiect of thy affection of thy pleasures of thy paynes and of thy triumphes Behold her whome thou so deerely louedst so highly reuerencedst â—or whome thou hast a thousand tymes put â—hy Scepter thy Crowne yea all Greece in daunger with thy life and honour Behold thy vanity discouered consider thy â—hame contemplate thy folly This heape of Ashes hath made thee to reduce into ashes the proudest Citty of the world This stinking Carkasse hath been conuinced in dying for putting a Million of men to death This Colossus of miseries full of infection hath changed the most flourishing Empire of the world into a meere dunghil Muster vp thine Army about this Sepulcher that thy Captaynes and Souldiers may lament with thee thy folly bewayling the tyme they haue imployed for the conquest of this heape of stinking earth So as if the Ghosts wherewith she hath peopled Hell were able to breake their prisons they would bring a new warre vpon thee as the partner of all the crymes which they haue committed in following thee I attend
you Dames neere vnto this Tombe to make the Anatomy of your beauties of your sweets of your allurements of your charmes of your baites of your wātonesse and of all your vanities together It is tyme for me to vnmask your Spirit to let you manifestly see the truth of your miseryes You make a shew to all the world of your body painted and washed euery day with the bathes of a thousand distilled waters and I will shew you the infection and putrefaction which is within You say that a woman is then faire when she hath a good body with a handsome garbe the haire flaxen and naturally curled a soft skin and as white as snow a large and polished brow the eyes blew or black and pretty bigg the chyn short and somewhat forked the rest of the parts of the body equally proportioned one to the other But this is nothing yet This goodly peece must needes be accompanyed with some Graces to be quickened with Maiesty Her flaxen and curled haire had need to be trimly dressed her skyn how soft soeuer should be nourished in water like a fish for to cōserue it in its bewty lustre The brow had need be taught to hide its pleights and wrinckles to appeare alwayes most polite Those fayre eyes must learne the art of charming harts to haue this secret industry with them to wound in their sweetnes and to kill in their choller That little mouth of Roses should be alwayes sounding in the cares the sweetest harmony of eloquence for to calme the harshest Spirits In fine ech part of the body is to learne its lesson of quaintnesse and the spirit that animates the same to teach it euery day some vanity or other and some new instructions to win loue withall or rather folly as if there were not fooles inough in the world Besides this fayre peece had yet need to be decked vp with the richest habits that may be found to giue lyfe to her grauity This gallant hayre had need to be wreathed with chaynes of pearle and diamonds to allure the eyes more sweetly in admiration of them and harts vnto their loue This delicate skin should be heightened through the shaddow of a fly This paynted visage should be daubed anew with a huge number of trumperyes and instruments of vanity be it in Rebato's of all fashions in Pendants for the eares of all colours in Carcanets of diuers inuentiōs in Veyles of different stuffes This body thus quickened with folly rather then with reason should be euery day tricked vp with new habits to the end the eyes might not be so soone weary to cōtemplate the vanityes of them In fine she should haue a magnificent traine with her of Horses Caroches and Lakeys to maintayne the greatnesse of her house But let vs now breake the crust of these wily bayts that blind our spirits so and charme our reason for to make vs run into our ouerthrow This rich peece is but a fagot or a bundle of putrifyed bones of nerues and of sinewes full of infections and whose Cemeter serues for a theater to let vs see the miseries of them Those frizled lockes are but the excrements of nature engraffed in a soyle full of lice That delicate skyn is but a peece of parchment pasted vpō bloud Her frayle beauty but that of flowers subiect to the parching of the sunne the scorcching of fire one dropp of the serene and the onely alteration of the pulse and but one night of vnrest only are inough to ruine it quite That large polite Brow is notable to saue it selfe from the assaults of the wrinckes which from moment to moment take vp the place whatsoeuer resistāce be made against them Those faire eyes are but as waterish holes subiect to 60. seuerall maladies all different being so many mischiefes disposing to their ruine a little Rheume makes them so ghastly as they are constrayned to hide them for feare they make vs not afraid That Nose and mouth are two sincks of corruption from whence infections issue at all moments And for the rest of the parts of her body being all of the same stuffe one may wel iudge of the whole peece by a patterne only On the other side the action that animate this peece is but a breath of wind which fils vp the sayles of our Arrogancy in this sea of the world where vanity serues for Pilot to hazard vs in the Shipwracke Those flaxen lockes in vayne are tricket so on the face through an art of nicenesse the inuention is as guilty as the matter frayle and contemptible Let her wash her delicate skyn day by day the selfe same water that nourisheth doth putrify it no lesse for according as the sleight therof makes her apparence to seeme yong anew nature causeth the being to wax ould That smooth Brow to no purpose hides its furrowes so whiles Age discouers them by little and little If those eyes haue the skill to charme the harts yet haue they not the tricke to charme their miseries I graunt that little mouth of Roses for a tyme may yield oracles of Eloquēce yet we must cōsider that as the words are formed of ayre so into ayre agayne do they resolue their glory is but wind and their harmony but smoake In fine let the spirits which quickē these fayre bodyes know all the lessons of vanity and quaintnesse that are may it not be said yet that the art is blacke and as pernicious as the instructions are As for the habits which decke vp this rich Peece they are but the workemanship of wormes since they haue wrought the silke Those pearles Diamonds so enchased in the hayre are of the treasures of the Indies where the Riches of Vertue are vnknowne but they are as so many subiects of contempt to holy Soules who know that Heauen is not bought with the gold of the earth And for all these toyes that serue thus for ornaments to women they are but as so many veyles to shroud their defects with all while they are so full of them Let them shew themselues as beautifull as they will yet will I count more imperfections in their bodyes then they haue hayres on their heads They appeare not abroad till Noone to shew that they employ one halfe of the day for to hide the halfe of their miseryes and during the small tyme they are seene abroade in if we looke neere into all their actions they giue forth a great deale more pitty then loue One shal be alwayes holding a napkin in her hand for to voyed a part of the corruption which she hath in her Another shal be forced in company to step aside vnto the chimney to spit forth at her pleasure the infection she holds in her breast There she shal be houlding her muffe vpō her cheeke swolne with Rheume for to couer the ill grace it hath Heere will she neuer pull of her gloues for feare of discouering the itch of her
eyther in payne or glory I leaue you to thinke of these important verityes For the pleasures of Touching being of the selfe same nature with the rest and hauing no more solid foundatiō then they we may draw the consequence of the same argumēt with them and conclude how this imaginary pleasure cannot seeeme to cleaue but to weaker spirits who loue only the earth because its obiect is so vile and base as we had need to abase our selues to obserue its aymes Let vs resume the ayres of our former discourses and say that the pleasures of the world do not subsist in the world but through the name onely which is giuen them For in effect they are nothing but a dreame the shadow of a shadow whose body we neuer possesse Such as loue them are not capable of loue since they fix their affections on the pourtraicts onely of imagination and of the Idea's which the wind defaceth euery moment True contentmēt consists in thinking alwayes of death And this is the onely pleasure of lyfe since it termines in the delights of Eternity How he who hath imposed the Law of Death vpon vs hath suffered al the paynes therof together CHAP. XVIII I NOTE an excesse of loue in the History of that great King who being touched with a generous desire to banish vice for euer from his Kingdome to bring in Vertue there to reigne in peace among an infinite number of Lawes which he imposed on his subiects the payne of pulling out the eyes was decreed for his punishment that should violate the most important of thē The ill lucke was that his only Sonne should fall the first into that cryme What shall he do And what shal he resolue vpon For to quit himselfe from the assaults both of loue and pitty which nature gaue him euery moment he could not do since the halfe of his bloud takes away fury from the other halfe What likelihood for one to arme himselfe against himselfe to excite his arme to vengeance to destroy his body He hath no loue but for the guilty how shall he haue passion to destroy him He sees not but by his eyes and how shall he be able to see him blind In fine he sits not on his Throne but to keepe him the place how shall he possibly mount this throne to prononce the sentence of his punishment Of necessity yet the errour must be punished if he wil not soyle the splendour of his iustice which is the richest ornament of his Crowne and the onely vertue that makes him worthy of his Empire Nature assayles him powerfully Loue giues him a thousand batteryes and euen Pitty often wrings the weapons from his hands and yet Reason for all that seemes to carry away the victory There is no remedy but needs must he yield to Nature Loue and Pitty but yet finds he a way to make Iustice triumph in satisfying the law He puls out one of his sonnes eyes for one halfe of the punishment and causes another to be pluckt forth from himselfe for to finish the chasticement What excesse of Goodnes Let vs draw now the mysticall Allegory from this history and say That our Redeemer represents this iust King at such tyme as in the terrestrial Paradise he imposed this law of obedience vnder paine of death vpon man being the Sonne of his hands as the noblest worke of his Creation This man being the first borne becomes lykewyse at that same very tyme the first guilty in contemning the commaundements of his Soueraygne He eats that fatall Apple or rather opens with his murderous teeth that vnlucky box of Pandora stuffed with all manner of euills The punishment euen followes his offence so neere as he instantly incurres the payne of death But what a prodigy of loue The Creator being touched with the miseryes of his creature takes away the rigour of the law without destroying it quite or infringing the same I meane that he seuers death from death in causing the guilty to arise agayne from his ashes for to liue eternally And the meanes wherof he serues himselfe is to dye with him and in the Chalice of his passion to drinke all the bitternes of death for to chāge the nature therof In such sort as this way of death conducts vs now to eternall lyfe O sweet Death a thousand tymes more plesing thē whatsoeuer is most pleasing in the world O sweet Death a hundred and a hundred tymes more delicious then all the pleasures vnited together O sweet Death where the body finds repose the spirit contentmēt the soule its whole felicity O sweet Death the only hope of the afflicted the sole consolation of the wisest and the last remedy for all the euils of the world O sweet Death and a thousand tymes more admirable then his goodnes that imposed the law since through the same very Goodnes he would needs be suffering the paine it selfe for to take away the payne Who durst refuse to drinke in his turne in the Chalice where God himselfe hath quenched his thirst Let vs go thē very holily to Death for to go cheerefully thither is to make loue and vertue lead vs into the sepulcher if we meane to find therein a second cradle where we may be reborne anew neuer to dye any more I cannot forget that goodly Custome of the Egyptians that when as a Sonne being armed with fury should passe to that extremity of cruelty as to take away the life from him who had giuen him the same he incurred this sweet punishment withall to be shut vp for three whole dayes in prison togeather with the body whose Parricide he was I should thinke that such as had imposed the law had this beliefe that the terrible and dreadfull obiect of the cryme was a torment of force inough for the guilty to extort the last teares from his eyes the vtmost playntes from his soule For in effect Nature neuer belyes it selfe it is alwayes it selfe it may well affoard some intermission of loue of pitty but yet at last it snatches the hart from the bowels through a violēce worthy of it selfe Let vs see now the backside of this Meddall so to draw forth the mistery out of this moral verity We represent to day this guilty sonne since we haue put our Redeemer to Death who is the common Father of our soules The punishment which the law of his Iustice hath now imposed vpon vs it to looke cōtinually on this Tree of the Crosse whereon our crymes haue made him to expire for to repayre their enormity withall O sweet punishment For spilling the bloud of him who hath filled our veynes the law exacts no more of vs then teares For hauing nayled him on the Crosse Iustice enioynes vs no other payne then that of nayling our eyes on the same pillar wherupon he is nayled For hauing crowned him with thorns he would haue vs to trample vnder foote the roses of our pleasures In fine
of the Soule and al the dolours wherwith our life is touched Now then if it be true that we dye euery moment is not euery moment I pray a Death to vs Let vs go then my soule to God since he cals vs the Sunne lends vs not its light but to shew vs the way to him The Starres shine not in heauen but to let vs see the pathes trackes therof So as if the Moone do hide her self frō our eyes by Interstitions it cannot be but of choler as sensible of the contempt we shew of her light Let vs go to this holy Land of Promise and passe the Red Sea of sufferance and punishments in exāple of our Sauiour who with no other reason then that of his Loue would purchase through his bloud the Glory he atteyned to The world can afford vs but Death Death but a Tombe and the Tombe but an infinite number of wormes which shal be fed with our carcasse They runne after the world the world is nought but misery they do loue then to be miserable What blindnes my Soule to sigh after our mishaps passionately to cherish the subiect of our losse Let vs go to this Eternity where the delights euer present raigne with in the Order of a continuall moment Let vs get forth of this mouing circle and breake the chaynes of this shameful seruitude wherein to Syn hath brought vs. Away with the world since whatsoeuer is in it is but myre and dust it is but smoke to the eyes putrifaction to the nostrills the noyse of thunder and tempests to the eares thornes to the hands smart to our feeling All those who put any trust therein are vtterly deceyued All those who follow it are absolutely lost All those that honour it are wholy despised and all those who sacrifice to its Idols shal be one day sacrificed themselues in expiation of their crimes Besides we see how all that know it do abandon it for if it promise a Scepter it reaches vs a Shephooke Thrones are seated on the brimme of a precipice nor doth it euer affoard vs any good turne but as the vigill of some misfortune Away then with the world and all that is within it since all its wōders now are but dust Whatsoeuer it hath more rare is but Earth whatsoeuer it hath more fayre is but wind Euery King is no more but a heape of Worms where Horrour Terrour and Infection astonish and offend the senses that approch vnto it Corruption sayth the Wiseman speaking of man vaunt thou as much as thou wilt behould thy selfe brought vnto the first nothing of thy first Being Let vs not liue my Soule but for Eternity since it is the true spring of lyfe Out of Eternity is there no repose out of Eternity no pleasure out of Eternity all hope is vayne Who thinkes not of Eternity thinkes of nothing since out of Eternity all things are false Let vs behould but Eternity my Soule as the onely obiect of glory All flyes away except Eternity it is it alone which is able to satiate our defires and termine our hopes I will no other comfort in all my annoyes then that of Eternity I will no other solace in all my miseryes then that of Eternity After it do I desire nothing after it do I looke for nothing I lyue not but for it and my hart sighes not but after it All discourses are displeasing to me except those of Eternity It is the But and end of all my actions it is the obiect of my thoughtes I labour but to gather its fruits al my vigils point at the pretensions of its Crownes My eyes contemne all the obiects except those that conuey my spirits to its sweet Idea's as to the only Paradise I find in this world Whatsoeuer I do I iudge my selfe vnprofitable if I refer not my actions to this diuine cause whatsoeuer I thinke whatsoeuer I say and whatsoeuer I imagine all is but vanity if those thoughtes if those words those imaginatiōs rely not in some fashion on Eternity In fine my Soule if thou wilt tast on Earth the delightes of Heauen thinke continually of Eternity for in it only it is where the accomplishment of all true contentments doth consist The Glory of Paradise AATER that rich Salomon had a thousand tymes contented his Eyes in admiration of the fairest obiects which are found in Nature That his Eares euer charmed with a sweet Harmony had deliciously tasted in their fashion the most sensible repasts they are affected to That his Mouth had relished the most delicate meates where the Tongue finds the perfection of its delight after I say he had quenched the thirst of his desires in the sea of all contentments of the world and satisfied the appetite of his senses in the accomplishment of the purest delicacies he cries out aloud That all was full of vanity The Pompe of these magnificences may well represent themselues to his remēbrance but he cryes out before it That it is but vanity His riches his Greatnesses his Triumphes all his pleasures serued him as a subiect within knowledge of their Nature for to exclayme very confidently that all was full of vanity What pleasures now after these delights may mortalls tast What Riches may they now possesse after these Treasures To what Greatnes may they aspire which is not comprized within that of his Empire To what sort of prosperities may they pretend which is not lesse then his happines And yet neuertheles after a long possession of honours delights which were inseparable to his soueraigne absolute power he publisheth this truth that all is full of smoke and wind and that nothing is sure heere beneath but death nor present but miseries Soules of the world what thinke you of that you reason not somtimes in your selues to discouer the weaknes of the foundation whereon your hopes are piched You loue your pleasures but if it be true that knowledge should alwayes precede Loue why know you not the nature of the Obiect before it predominate the power of your affections Agayne you loue not thinges at any tyme but to possesse them Ah what know you not the delights of the world do passe before our eyes as a lightning that in their excesse they incessantly find their ruyne you thinke your selfe content to day because nothing afflicts you do you cal that pleasure to runne after pleasure for it is impossible for you to possesse that imaginary contentment but in running after it since it flyes so away without resting Let them represent to themselues the greatest contētments that may be receyued in the world at the same tyme let all the diuers Spirits who haue tasted the vayne Sweetnesses appeare to tell vs in secret what remaines to them thereof Thou Miser tell vs I pray thee what pleasure hast thou to shut vp thy goulden Earth within thy coffers to lend it to the interest of thy conscience and to make it
fastings macerate my body let Sackcloth and Cilices torment my flesh let tribulations oppresse me vnder their weight let the long vigills shorten my lyfe let him there giue affronts of his contempt and heere of his cruelties let cold freeze the bloud within my veynes let the scorching of the Sun tanne me let its parching reduce me into ashes let aches cleane my head in peeces let my hart reuolt agaynst my Soule my visage loose its colour all the parts of my body stoope to their ruine let me yield my lyfe to the suffering of diuers torments let my dayes slide away in weeping continuull teares and let the wormes in fine take hould of my flesh and the corruption of my bones All this would be nothing to me so I might enioy Eternall Repose in the day of Tribulation I will belieue it O great Saint for what is it to endure al the euils of the world within Tyme for to possesse all desirable goods in the bower of Eternity O sweet residence where Ioy eternally endures and where delights are immortall Where nothing is seene but God where they know nothing but God! If they thinke it is of God if they desire it is God himselfe And howbeit the harts do there sigh without cease for loue those sighes proceed not but from the contentments of fruition where Loue alwaies remaines in its perfection Let Antiquity vaunt as much as it will of the Temple of Thessaly of the Orchards of Adonis of the Gardens of Hesperides of the pleasures of the fortunate Ilands Let Poets chaunt the pleasures of their Elizean fields and let humane Imagination assemble in one subiect whatsoeuer is more beautiful and delicious in nature they shall find in effect that all is but a vayne Idaea in comparison of the immortall pleasure of this Seat of Glory Let them imagine a Quire of Syrens and let them ioyne therto in Consort both the harpe of Orpheus and the voyce of Amphion Let Apollo and the Muses likewise be there to beare a part all this melody of these consorts were but an ircksome noyse of Windes Thunders in competency of the diuine harmony of Angels Let them make a Perfume of all what Sweets soeuer that Arabia Saba hath had let the Sea cōtribute therto all its Amber and the flowers all their Balme such a perfume notwithstanding would be but a stench infection in regard of the diuine odours which are enclosed in the Emperialll Heauen O how S. Paul had reason to dye of loue rather then griefe in his prolongation to reuiew the felicity which he admired in his rauishment I desire to dye in my self for to go to liue in him whom I loue a great deale more then my selfe sayd he at all seasons O sweet death to dye of Loue but yet the lyfe more sweet that makes this Loue eternall Me thinkes the sad accēts of that great King Dauid strike nine eares when he cryed out aloud This life to me is tedious in the absence of my Lord. This Prince possessed the goods of the Earth in aboundance and Greatnesses and Pleasures equally enuironed the Throne of his absolute Power in such sort as he had all things to his harts content But yet for all that he could not choose but be trobled in the midst of the delights of his Court since so we see his hart to send vp sighs of Sorrow vnto Heauen to liue so long a tyme on Earth What sayst thou now my Soule of the Greatnesses Magnificences of this diuine Pallace where Honour Glory and all the Maiesties together expose to view whatsoeuer els they haue more precious and more rare where Beauty appeares in its Throne in company of its graces of its sweetnesses of its baytes of its allurements and of its charmes where with power alwayes adorable it attracts the eyes to its admiration through a vertue borne with it subdues their lookes to the empire of its perfections In such sort as the eyes cannot loue but its obiect after admiring it they are so taken with the meruailes wherwith it abounds where Goodnes exercising its soueraigne power forges new chaines of loue to attract the harts vnto it and after hauing made a conquest of them it nourisheth them with a food so delicious as they neuer breath but of ioy transporting them wholy in the accōplishment of their felicity In such sort my Soule as all the pleasures together being eleuated in their first purity are there found to be collected in their origē to the end the Spirit might neuer be troubled to seek its desires Consider the difference that is betweene the Contentments of the Earth and those of heauen I would say those of the Pallace where Creatures make their aboad and of those where the Omnipotēt lodgeth Thou hast seene within this first Pallace the Meadowes enamelled with flowers the Champaygnes couered with rich haruests and the Valleys peopled with a thousand brookes but these spring vp at the peeping of the Aurora and wither at its setting These haruests fetching their being from corruption returne in an instant to their first beginning after they haue runne daunger to serue as a prey to tempests and disport to the winds And these Brookes feeble in their vertue may well moderate the ardour of a vehement thirst but not quench it wholy since the fire thereof alwayes renewes from its ashes On the contrary within this celestiall house the Lyllies wherewith the Virgins are crowned and the Roses which the Martyrs weare equally on their head remayne alwayes disclosed as if they grew continually The haruests there are eternall in behoulding them their diuine nature hath this property that it satiates the Soule through the eyes after so perfect a manner as it is rauished in its repose The Fountaynes are of bottomlesse Springs of all the immortall delights that may fall vnder the knowledge of the vnderstanding howbeit they quench not thirst yet haue they power to do it but to make their sweetnesses more sensible they entertayne the drougth within their Soules without disquietnes to the end that being allwayes a dry with a thirst of loue full of pleasure they may alwayes drinke that so without cease they may rest contented Within that first Pallace the chaunting of the Birds did charme thine eares and within this heere the sweet musicke of the Angels rauisheth Spirits Within that terrestriall dwelling the Spring the Summer Autunme were incessantly occupied in producing thy pleasures in this celestial bower an Eternity accomplisheth thee withall the goods wherto imaginatiō may attain There beneath had you diuers houses of pleasure for to walke in and heere on high the first thought of a desire is able to build a number without number within the spaces of the Heauens with a perfection of an incōparable Beauty So as if thou be delighted with the Courts of the Kings and Princes of the world to behold the Greatnesses that attend vpon them turne
after the light This fatall Mansion is fertile onely but with thornes and troubles let vs get forth of it's bounds to fynd the true tranquillity and according as we shall approach to the good of death so shall we distance our selues froÌ„ the euils of lyfe O sweet death where our miseries termine themselues O cruell life where our disasters take their begining O welcome death where our annoyes do find their sepulcher O dread life where our dolours find their cradle The most afflicted draw al their coÌ„solation from the hope of death Are we not of this number as subiect to all the disgraces of Lot and to the cruell lawes of Fortune With what sweeter hope may we mitigate our paynes then with that of a speedy breaking the chaynes of our captiuity If we dyed not euery houre there would be no contentment to liue For what likelyhood is there that a trauailour should take any pleasure to stop in the midst of his way during the tyme of a storme Now the world is neuer without tempests What remedy were it to make a stop at a flash of lightening or a cracke of Thunder in the midst of the way of our life Being pressed with a storme and encompassed with Rockes shall we not be seÌ„ding our desires before hand to the port with this griefe for not hauing wings to fly more swiftly thither So as if the ship of our life cannot land but at the shore of the sepulcher is it not at this port whither we are to aspire euery moment to put vs in the Lee from Shipwrackes whereof so many wise Pilots haue runne hazard I haue no feare but of old age said Zenon For of all euils that of life is the most intollerable In effect if we thinke on the diuers torments that pull away our life by little and little from vs we should be of Socrates his opinion who of all the momeÌ„ts of our life prizeth none but the last O happy moment irkesome to those that go before I am troubled said Dauid in the house of men when shall I arriue into that of my Lord He was alwaies going thither but the way seemed so long and tedious to him as he sighed continually after the end of his iourney All things tend to their Center the Stones being raysed from the earth do borrow wings to their weighty nature to descend downe beneath where they alwayes haue their looke The Riuers though insensible are touched with this amourous curiosity to reuisite continually their Mother And the Piramidall flames of fire do witnes they burne but with desire of ioyning theÌ„selues with their first beginning And howbeit their endeauours are vnprofitable yet haue they neuer other scope The Heauen is our Center with what more violent passions may we be quickned then with that of being rauisht from our selues to ioyne as Atomes to their vnity as rayes to the body of their light Those Torches of the night whose number is infinite and beauty incoÌ„parable not so gallaÌ„tly shew vs their twinckling baytes but to enthrall vs with their wonders They shine not to vs but to shew vs the way of their Azure vaults as being the only place of our repose And it seemes the galloping course of the Sunne goes not so turning the great globe of the Heauens but to shew the way from aloft vnto the Inhabitants of the Earth If some one had the gift of prophecy that it were foretold vs in a certaine tyme set downe that we were to possesse an ample fortune be it of goods or greatnesse all transitory a like were it not credible the day of this attendance would be to vs of a long put-off How many sighes as witnesses of our languours should we be sending forth before this felicity so promised The greatest dolour we could possibly suffer would be but of impatience for through force of passionately desiring this good all sorts of euils would be insensible to vs. The Sunne that posts so swift would then go sluggishly and its diligence could not stay vs a whit from accusing it of slouth as often as we gazed vpon Heauen Let vs now consider the mystery of this Proposition and say that our Sauiour and the King of Prophets hath giuen vs this assurance from his mouth that the last instant of our lyfe shal be the first of our immortality and so on the day of our death should we possesse an infinite number of felicityes be they in immortall goods be they in the greatnesses of nature it selfe From what sweet disquietnesses might we seeme to be exempt in the expectation of this happines The holy Soules who breath in this world the ayre of grace liue not but of the ioy they haue of continually dying With how many sighes of loue and languour smite they Heauen at all houres All the fayre dayes the Sun affoards them to their eyes seeme to be so sad lowring as hardly do they marke the differeÌ„ce between the light and darknes because they loue but the eternall dayes which are to shine to the birth of their felicity And this is the day of death where ceasing to be men we begin to be as Angels S. Frauncis wounded on all sides with a thousand darts of loue sighes in the presence of his Mayster for griefe that he cannot dye of his wounds He contemplates the wounds of his Redeemer and his lookes haue this Diuine vertue with them as â—o make his soule to ressent the smart And through the force of his sweet torments the amorous passion wherewith he is taken makes him to ressent the dolours of his Mayster in so much as the markes thereof themselues are imprinted in his stigmatized Body â—hen it is that soowning with ioy extasied with pleasure and rauished with a thousand â—orts of felicityes wholy Diuine he sequesters himselfe from the earth to approach vnto Heauen He feeles himselfe to dye of loue without being able notwithstanding to loose his lyfe for though his wounds be mortall since all termine at the hart yet their cause is immortall So as dying in his lyfe and liuing in his death he dyes he lyues without dying and without lyuing Of dying what apparence since he is sunke in the spring of lyfe Of lyuing who would belieue it Let vs then say that if he dye it is of a Death a thousand tymes more sweet then lyfe and if he liue it is of a lyfe of extasy which feeles nothing of the humane This sweet Saint seeing himselfe vnder the wound of the bloud of his Maister belieued verily he should make shipwracke through force of desiring the same in so goodly a sea whose tempests were so much the more gratefull to him as loue serued it selfe of his sighes to driue away the storme And in truth how could he loose himselfe in the presence of his Sauiour whose Crosse serues him as well for a watch-tower as for a Hauen in the midst of the torments which his wounds haue caused to
hands Behold the lesser defects of women whiles of discretion I conceale the greater but I belieue in vayne since all the world beholds thē wel inough so as if they would yet see more sensible verityes of their miserable condition let them approach to this Tombe You Courtiers I coniure you by the power of those Beauties which you haue adored so much to come hither and behould their ruine What say I nay horrour infection and putrefaction rather Theseus send thou hither thy ghost to this body where thou hadst lodged so long a tyme both thy hart and soule Behold this faire Helena whome thou hadst stolne away with the perill of thy life as idolatrous of her imaginary perfections Search now in her the baytes that charmed thee so the charmes that rauisht thee the bewty that made thee such a thrall and all those sweetnesses which haue forged the chaynes of thy seruitude Those bayts now haue no more force but to allure the wormes those charmes haue no more power but to conserue the infection and those bewties and sweetnesses changing the nature do afford amazements rather then any whit of Loue. But yet me thinks thou art well reuenged For this cruell Tyrant who had reduced thee so by little and little into ashes is euen now but ashes her selfe This mercylesse woman who would seeme to loue no man is hated of all the world This proud Dame who made her selfe adored serues as a victime to the wormes and sport to the winds Yesterday her bewty did please thee so much as thou hadst no eyes but to admire her to day is her foulenesse so hideous as thou hast no contempt but for her Yesterday thou sighedst for her loue to day the same hart euen sighes for her miseryes Yesterday her perfections did rauish thy soule to make them adored and to day her defects extort thy teares and sighes to bewayle in their fashion their ruine Looke then see heere that which thou hast loued so much and that which thou hatest so maynely See heere what thou hast admired with astonishment that which thou abhorrest with so much reason what cruell change is this from thy selfe with thy selfe or rather from the subiect of thy loue with the same subiect it selfe Shall I dare to say that this stinking Carkasse heere is the fayre Helena That this heape of rotten bones are the sad spoyles of her perfectiōs And that this little Ashes is the dolefull head of that wonder of the world Paris Returne thou from Hell into the earth agayne for to see the cause of thy disastres Approach to this Sepulcher and contemplate the infection corruption neere at hand with thou hast adored vnder the name of Helena How many tymes hast thou beene kneeling before this carkasse before these rotten bones How many mischiefes hast thou run into How many perils hast thou escaped How many seas hast thou crossed ouer How many euils hast thou suffered for to possesse this heape of wormes Thou verily belieuedst thou hadst all the riches of the world in thy ship whiles thou hadst thy Helena therein The Coffer is opē behold now wherein consist thy treasures Art thou not ashamed for hauing so made loue to this heape of Ashes and for hauing sighed so a thousand a thousand tymes after this stinking Earth Thus the glory of the world doth passe away all flyes into the Tombe Your Courtiers come yield you a last homage of visit to this Idol of your passions I haue heard indeed the Persians heertofore haue adored the Sun and that there haue beene other Paynims who in their brutishnes haue adord likewise diuers sorts of beasts but I haue neuer seene a more prodigious thing then now at this day while they adore euen Clay Corruption and Infection There is nothing more certayne then that in adoring women they become Idolatours of their putrefaction since their body is a sacke of worms Behold the goodly subiect of your watchings of your troubles of your extrauagancies How is it possible this heape of ashes heere should affoard you such ill dayes and so long nights That this sinke of infection should make you shed so many teares and send so many sighes into the wind Are you not iealous trow you that the wormes should possesse this subiect of your affection Can your wayward courages ere endure these wormes should be taking their Fees thereof in your presence to your scorne For they glut themselues of the one part of what you haue adored and for the other they make a dunghill of it These are no Fables these Looke smell your selues all is but misery and stench So passeth the glory of the world away I inuite you my Dames to a feast which the corruption of Helena's body makes vnto the wormes in the presence of Heauen Earth This Tombe which you see is the Hall where the banquet is prepared come you hither in troupes attyred all in the richest Ornaments you haue as you would go vnto a wedding-feast I licence you herin to bring a glasse with you hanging at your girdle for to admire with an dolatrous eye the good Graces you haue And if you affoard any whir of intermission at all cast but your eyes awhile vpon this stinking carcasse heere since it is the body of your shadow and the originall of your liuing pourtraicts You now see inough that you are but ashes but earth but clay but meere putrefaction and infection and yet suffer neuertheles your selues to called Goddesses and to heape yet more cryme vpon crime you accept the Sacrifices I haue not seene nor read of so prodigious Metamorphoses that euen very Clay should be raised vpon a Throne and the wormes and corruption should be meriting of titles of immortall glory You suffer them to be kneeling before you and feare not the while least the wind of your vanities be carrying away the dust whereof you are framed You walke vpon cloth of gold and after your death are the beasts trampling vnder foote your stinking earth You suffer them to kneele before you Alas what a sight to humble ones selfe before a dunghill Decke vp and adorne your carkasse as long as you please the stench at last shall discouer the miseries thereof to the sight of all the world This handfull of ashes which you see heere is the beautifull Helena whose allurements charmed harts and whose charmes did rauish soules And yet notwithstanding is there left no more of her then the meere infection which was bred with her I do euen laugh at all your vanities my Dames mocke at those who admire thē so When as your bewties do assaile me I breake the very crust of them approching to the corruption which is within it makes me hate them more then euer any man had loued them heretofore I take pleasure somtyme to behold your sweetnesses your allurements your nyceties but it is only to be touched with compassion of your miseries For whatsoeuer
for putting him to Death he demaundes no more at our hands but sighes and teares for to testify our sorrow for the same Who could refuse to afford him this pitty or loue who for our loue hath had such pitty vpon vs His hart hath beene melt to teares of bloud vpon the Aultar of the Crosse and shall we not drowne our selues in the sea of our teares being so prest with the storme of our sighs plaints Shall we suffer the rockes to vpbrayed vs of insensibility The Sunne hath beene darkned at the sight of our cryme and shall not we wax pale for sorrow of committing the same The Moone had beene hiding her selfe for shame and shall not our countenaÌ„ce awhit be couered therewith The earth hath quaked and shall not our hearts seeme to tremble for feare The veyle of the Temple hath beene rent in twayne and shall our bowels remayne entire In fine Nature hath suffered and shall we be exempt from suffering at the sight of our Redeemer nayled vpon the Crosse Weepe weep you mine eyes all the water of your humide springes powre you forth boldly the last teare on this Crosse where my Sauiour hath spilt the last drop of his bloud Do you imitate the Sunne in your little course drowne your selues within the sea of your teares if you would like to him be arising againe from your West and shine without him in the East of an eternall light And thou my hart vnty thy selfe a little froÌ„ all the feelings of the pleasures of the world since the only roses of true contentment are found amidst the thornes of the Crosse. The whole felicity concludes in this point of neuer hauing any other then that of carying the crosse This is the ladder of Iacob which serues vs to mount vp to Heauen with all This is the brazen Serpent that cures our soules from the poyson of the vanities of the world Without the Crosse there is no pleasure nor repose in the world He that caryes the crosse with him may well say more coÌ„fidently then Bias did that he caryes all his riches about him For therein alone are comprized all the treasures of the world therein consists the accomplishmeÌ„t of our happines O deere Crosse the only wish of my soule O deere Crosse the sweet obiect of mine eyes O deere Crosse in which alone I put my hope O deere Crosse vpon which alone do I establish the foundation of all my felicities O deere Crosse where my wishes find their end my enuy its vtmost limits O deere Crosse deere Instrument of my victory and rich Crowne of my tryumph I pretend to nothing els in the world but the Crosse I abaÌ„don al for it For as I reuiue not but through it only so will I dy with it and deliciouly expire vpon its couch And this is the only meanes to be vnsensible of Death You Soules of the World I present you with the Crosse as with a new Arke of Noe to warrant you froÌ„ the deluge of the diuine Iustice and that deadfull day of iudgment Can you refuse to kisse the wood wherupoÌ„ you haue nayled your Sauiour Behold the wonder He hath exchanged your cruelty into loue For he hath affoarded you the inuention to nayle his hands that he might haue alwayes his armes so stretched forth to imbrace you withall The like may I say that he caused his Feet to be so nayled to attend you at all houres since euery houre is he ready in his will to pardon you O prodigy of goodnes O miracle of Loue Lord graunt I beseech thee I become not vngratefull for so many fauours done me Teach my hart a language wholy diuine to thaÌ„ke you diuinely for them whiles I can offer you no more for a whole acknowledgemeÌ„t of al then the only griefe of not hauing any thing worthy of you The pleasure which is found in Liuing wel for to Dye content CHAP. XIX IT is impossible to expresse the pleasures of a holy Soule its contentments are not to be so called its sweetnesse hath another name its extasyes rauishments cannot be comprehended but by the selfe same hart which feeles them For not to lye it hath ioyes wholy of Heauene it tasts the delights most deuine and with a like grace it carries its terrestriall Paradise with it If its thoughts seeme to touch vpon earth it is but only for its contempt for anon they take their flight to heauen-wards as the onely obiect which they do ayme at at all tymes In fine as they are immortall they neuer regard but the Eternity The paynes it endures haue no bitternes with them but only in name the miseries do euen change their quality in its presence as if they awed its courage If misfortune chance to light vpon it with some sad accident or other it receiues it as a present from Heauen rather theÌ„ as any disgrace of fortune If death seeme to snatch away from it what most it Ioues it payes nature the teares it owes it and at the same very tyme satisfyes reason through generous actions with its constancy If it loose all the goods which it had for portion on earth it complaynes not awhit but of it selfe while its offences seeme to deserue a great chastizement On the other side as it placeth not its affection on the riches of the world fortune can take away nothing from it but what it is willing to loose because it hath nothing proper but the hope of possessing one â—ay the richest treasures in a Land which is wholy scituated out of the Empie of Time and inconstancy thereof Let it thunder let the sea mount vp to the Heauens vpon the backe of its waues let the warres dispeople townes and all the disasters of the world make al together an Army to set vpon it yet remaynes it firme and stable as a rocke in the midst of this Sea if it feare any thing it is but the feare of offending God O sweet feare more noble then all the courages of the world Thus liues it content amids the broyles whereof the world is so full Thus liues it most happily amids the sad accidents which land euery houre on the shore of the world Thus enioyes it a sweet repose amids the troubles and continuall tribulations of Mortals It loues not health but to employ its lyfe in the seruice of him who hath bestowed it vpon it If it laugh it is for the ioy it hath that it neuer had any such beneath since the Redeemer had neuer beene gathering but thornes and if it weep it is for the griefe of its proper miseryes rather then for those of its body being very solicitous to conserue entiere and without blemish the image and semblance of its Creatour whose impression it had receyued on the first day of its being In fine it is capable neyther of pleasure nor yet of sadnes but for the onely interests of its saluation whose thoughts are euer present with it And is
in his glorious actiōs build thee a Temple within thy selfe where ech moment of thy lyfe thou mayst addresse to him vowes thou art to make for Eternity since the goodly Pallaces of his dwelling are of proof against the inconstancy of the world If the imagination could attract to it selfe all the obiects in distance from it to represent them in an instant before thy eyes how many mischiefes should we behould How many Deathes and how many dying liues They hould there is no vacuity in nature I will easily belieue it since miseries seeme to take vp all This is the accident so inseparable to man and which accompanies him to his Graue Euery one hath his dolours affected in like sort as his pleasures are but some ripen as they put forth and others gather strength in their feeblenes to eternize their durance How dreadfull would this Theater of the world seeme to be if one should behold all the Tragedies which are acted therin Phirra quenches her fury with her fathers bloud Eumenides is reuenged of her mother through poyson Curtius buryes his brother within his cradle Pernesius plucks out the eyes of his sister Etna And Symocles being an enemy to his race sets the Pallace on fire where his parents were assembled and I should thinke the fire of his choller was the first sparke of that consuming fire Nero seekes nourishment for to satisfy his cruelty in the bowels of his mother but God permitted the Executioners should hold the place of delinquēts on the day of their death when they gaue vp their lyfe to the assaults of a thousand dolours a great deale more cruell then Death it selfe Consider all these dismall accidents my Soule which happen euery moment One is consumed with fire as Pliny another is hanged as Polycrates heere one is cast downe headlong as Lycurgus there was another burned with a thunder-bolt like Esculapius There haue some been drowned in the sea as Marcus Marcellus Curtius was swallowed vp in a bottomeles pit Eschyllus the Philosopher had his head crushed with a Tortesse shell Cesar was slaine by such as he tooke to be his friends Cicero's head was cut off vpon the boot of his caroch Euripides was deuored by dogs Cleopatra died with the sting of a serpent or rather with that of her despaire Socrates is poysoned Aristo dieth of famine Seneca through the point of a launcet Cold tooke away the lyfe from Neocles Tarquinius Priscus was strangled with a fish-bone Lucia the daughter of Aurelius dyes with the point of a needle Elacea drownes her lyfe in the ice of a glasse of water Anacreon is choked with swallowing but the kernell of a raysin And Fabius the Pretour suffered shipwracke in a messe of Milke and the encounter with a little hayre was the Rocke he fell vpon Sophocles and Diagoras dyed of ioy and Philemon with too much laughing as well as Zeuxis Fabius Maximus dyed in the field as Lepidus I will nor make vse of the examples of our ages since they are so fresh and it sufficeth that their memory is as sad as odious Thou seest then my Soule how death disportes himselfe with Crownes Thou seest how he tramples Scepters vnder foot how in the presse of the world his Sith spareth not any one Such a one to day lynes Contented who to morrow shall dye Miserable One moment onely seuers vs from death and mishap there is no other respit betweene lyuing and dying then that of an instant which makes me verily to belieue that Being and not Being in man differ not awhit since he lyues not but dying and moues not but to bound his actions in the Tombe whither he postes without stop Earth Who art but Earth Earth within the cradle Earth in the course of lyfe and Earth in the end Stay a while and if Time which leades thee will not suffer it consider in so hasting to the funerall how the Earth goes to ioyne with Earth and that whatsoeuer is in the world doth follow step by step to resume its first forme in the dust They would faine haue made Iob belieue on his dunghill that he had lost all and that in his losse he was brought to the last point of misery but I imagine the contrary for he sitting on his dunghill was found to be in his proper heritage and by how much deeper he was buryed in corruption so much was he the forwarder in the possession of himselfe if it be true that man is nought but mire and durt Let Kings make a shew of their Greatnesses eyther in feasts as Lucullus or in apparrell as Tiberius or be it in other sorts of Magnificences all their instruments of glory are of Earth and vanish into smoke as well as they If the ashes of Kings and Subiects were mingled together it were impossible to distinguish the one from the other since they are all of the same Nature and al carrying the face of a like forme The greatest Monarches are men for Death This flash of life which so dazels the eyes of subiects fades away like the beauty of the rose at the setting of the Sunne How many Kings haue there beene in the world since the birth thereof and yet were it impossible to find out the least marke of their Tombes whiles some are buryed in the Ocean as Lertius others in the flames as Hermasonus some heere in gulfes as Lentellinus others there in the ample spaces of the aire where their dust is scattered as that of Pauzenas King of the Locrians And of all together can there hardly be griped an handfull of dust so true it is they are turned to their nothing Ah! how now my Soule wilt thou see buried with a dry eye whatsoeuer Nature hath more faire the Earth more rich Art more precious Wilt thou see dye euery moment the subiects of thy Loue or rather a part of thy selfe through the alliance thou hast made with the body without abating thy vanity and humbling thy arrogancy What expects thou in the world if all its goods be false and euills true There is no assurance to be found but in Death nor consolation to be had but constantly to suffer its Misery Honours they are all of smoke Glory of wind Greatnesses of Snow and riches of Water sliding from one to another without being possessed of any Repose is not to be had but in imagination pleasure but in a dreame The Thornes spring continually and the Roses blow without cease Sweetnes makes but its passage only heere and bitternes his whole abode If this soyle do bring forth flowers they are but of Cares if it beare fruit they are but Peares of Anguish Teares are heere continuall because the anoyes are alwayes present Ioy is not seene but running and sadnes makes heere a full stop It is a place where Piety is banished as well as Iustice and where Vices reigne and Vertue is made a thrall Where the fires of Concupiscence do burne and
away with a trice the eyes of thy memory from those little Brookes of a transitory Honour admire this inexhaustible Ocean of the immortall Glory of the Heauens where all the happy Soules are engulfed without suffering shipwrack Be thou the Eccho then my Soule of those diuine words of the Prophet Dauid when he cryed out so in the extremity of his languor Euen as the Hart desires the curreÌ„t of the liuing waters so O Lord is my soule a thirst after you as being the only fountaine where I may quench the same Thou must needs my Soule surrender to the Assaults of this verity so sensible as there is nothing to be desired besides this soueraigne good whose allurements make our harts to sigh at all howers How beautifull are your Eternall Pauillions and how exceedingly am I enamoured with them saith the same Prophet My soule faints and I am rapt in extasy when I thinke I shall one day see my liuing God face to face O incomparable felicity â—o be able to coÌ„template the adorable perfections of an Omnipotent To behould without wincking the diuine Beauty of him who hath created all the goodly things that are To liue alwaies with him and in himselfe Not to breath but the aire of his Grace and not to sigh but that of his Loue Shall I afford the names of pleasures to these contentments whiles all the delights of the world are as sensible dolours in comparisoÌ„ of them For if it be true that a flash of a feeble Ray should cause our eyes to weepe in their dazeling for the temerity they haue had to regard very stedfastly its light is it not credible that the least reflexion of the diuine brightnes of the Heauens should make vs blind in punishment for glauncing on an obiect so infinitely raysed aboue our Power In so much as whatsoeuer is in Eternity can admit no comparison with that which is coÌ„prehended in Tyme The Felicities of Paradise cannot be represented in any fashion because the Spirit cannot so much as carry its thoughtes to the first degre of their diuine habitation Hence it is that S. Paul cryed out That the eye hath neuer seene the Glory which God hath prepared for the iust Whatsoeuer Saints haue said heerof may not be taken for so much as a meere delineation of its Image And when the Angels should euen descend froÌ„ the Heauens to speake to vs therof whatsoeuer they were able to say were not the least portioÌ„ of that which it is It is wel knowne that Beautitude coÌ„sists in beholding God and that in his vision the Soule doth find its soueraigne good yet for al that were this as good as to say nothing for howbeit one may imagine a thing sweet agreeable and perfectly delicious in the contemplatioÌ„ of this diuine Essence yet were it impossible this good imagined should haue any manner of relation with the Soueraigne which is inseparable to this Glory Let vs search within the power of Nature the extreme pleasures which it hath produced in the world hitherto from our Natiuity and their Flowers shal be changed at the same tyme into thornes if but compared to those plants of Felicity which grow in the Heauens Gold Pearles the Zephyrus the Aurora the Sunne the Roses Amber Muske the Voyce Beauty with all the strang allurements that Art can produce for to charme our senses with to rauish our Spirits are but meere Chimera's and vaine shadowes of a body of pleasure formed through dreames in equality to the least obiect of contentmeÌ„t which they receiue in Paradise Which makes me repeate againe those sweet words with S. Paul When shall it be Lord that I dy to my selfe for to go liue in you And with that great other Prophet I languish o Lord in expectation to see you in the mansion of your Eternall glory What Contentment my Soule to see God! If the only thought of this good so rauish vs with ioy what delights must the Hope produce and with what felicities are they not accomplished in its possession The Spirit is alwaies in extasy the Soule in rauishment and the senses in a perfect satiety of their appetits Dissolue then O Lord this soule from my body for I dye alwaies through sorrow of not dying soone inough for to go to liue with you When as those two faithfull Messengers brought equally betweene their shoulders that same goodly bunch of Grapes from the land of Promise the fruit so mightily encouraged the people of Israell to the Conquest thereof which had produced the same that all fell a sighing in expectation of the last Triumph Let vs turne the Medall and say that S. Stephen and S. Paul are those two faithfull Messengers of this land of Promise since both of them haue tasted of the fruit haue brought to Mortals the happy newes thereof So as if in effect we would behold another Grape let vs mount with S. Peter vp to the Mounth Thabor where our Sauiour made the Apparition through the splendour of the Glory which enuironed him And it is to be noted they were two to bring this fruit since there were two Natures vnited to one Person only So as my Soule if curiosity and doubt transport thy Senses to behold the body of those beautifull Shadowes of Glory which I represent to thee harkeÌ„ to S. Stephen while he assures thee that he saw the Heauens open Lend thine eare to the discourses of S. Paul when he saith How all which he had felt of sweets and pleasures in that bower of felicity cannot be expressed because it cannot be comprehended The desire which S. Peter had to build three Tabernacles vpon this mountayne all of light enforceth thee to giue credit and belieue through this shew of fruit that the soyle that beares it abounds in wonders And that thus we are to passe the Red-sea of torments and of paynes within the Arke of the Crosse of our Sauiour for to land at the Port of all those felicities They are put to sale my Soule so as if thou shouldest say to me what shold be giuen to buy the same demaund them of thy Creatour since he it is that first set price vpon them on the mouÌ„t Caluary The money for them is Patience in aduersity Humility in Greatnesses Chastity in presence of prophane obiects and finally the Exercise of all vertues together in the world where Vice so absolutely reigneth And if thou wilt buy theÌ„ with that Money which is most currant and wherof God himselfe made vse thou art to take thee to the Scourges the Nayles the Thornes and the Gaul and by a definitiue sentence to condemne thy lyfe to the sufferance of a thousand euills But let it not trouble thee awhit to pronounce this Sentence agaynst thy selfe for if thou cast thy selfe into the burning fornace of diuine loue thou shalt find the three Innocents there in coÌ„pany with the sonne of God where for to sing forth his glory thou shalt beare thy
haue heere beneath extends any further then the Sepulcher Euen as at your birth you were wrapped in Clouts so likewise dying wil they be foulding you in a sheete how rich soeuer you be And your Diademe shall remaine in your Pallace for to Crowne others withall in the selfe same way where they are to follow you since they likewise are continually to dye But this is not all you are also to passe the examine of your life before a soueraigne Iudge and dreadfull in his Iustice. You shal haue no other succour thē that of your workes If they be good their recompence is prepared and if they be naught then paynes attend them In what amazement and in what terrour is a Soule brought vnto before the face of his God whiles his crymes accuse him and condemne him to euerlasting fires O how the Iudgements of God are different frō those of men cryes that great Saint You delicate Soules whome a little griefe makes to looke pale with feare astonishment and feeblenes what will you do in Hell where euills are in their excesse without finding any end in them The noyse of a fly troubles you and that of a Caroch hinders you from sleepe Ah! What shall that be in those darcksome places where the dreadfull cryes of the Torturers and of the guilty shall continually strike your eares If you passe but one might only in the world without a winke of sleep you fall to complayning after you haue fetched a thousand a thousand sighes in expectation of day there below within those obscure dwellings the darcknesses are eternall like as the disorders and disquietnesses are One winters day killes you quite within the goodly prisons of your chambers a summers-day within that of your Halles built of proofe agaynst the heate of the sun for to auoyd alike the incommodityes both of cold and heate And in Hell shall you alwayes burne if the cold of ice doe not giue you some respites to the tormentes of your fires and by that meanes one punishmēt come to succeed another Hēce it is that the Prophet cryes Lord haue pitty vpon me in the day of thy Iustice. O day full of horrour amazement Where the liuing flames after they haue deuoured the world shall prosecute the guilty Soules in the deepest Abysses for to exercise the Iustice of the Omnipotent What vnprofitable cryes what vaine lamēts They may sigh long inough for the voyce of their repentance shal be so feeble as it shall not be able euer to cōuey its accēts to the cares of God But what disorder also of a iust cruelty The innocent shall curse the guilty Father and shall reioyce in his torments as in so many effects of the diuine Iustice for the punishments of the damned make a part of the felicity of the happy Spirits reioycing in the Iustice of God as well as in his Mercy The cryes of the accursed Soules O Lord are as so many Canticles of thy Glory since they publish incessantly the truth of thy Iustice. O impious Soules in your voluntary blindnes Why will you not suffer your reason to see how the pleasures you tast in this world do bring the consequence of the euills which you suffer in the other When will you confesse that the hope which makes you to imbrace with so much affection the future is vayne and deceiptfull that it hath for foundation of its promises but the argument of your Misfortunes You run after imaginary goods in the end of your Carriers you shall find but true euils Since repose seemes as naturally sweet vnto vs why haue we not the Eternity therof Our lyfe is a new Hell of annoyes and disquietnes and yet neuertheles within the Hell of this life we build to our selues another Hel to lyue there eternally What a prodigy of cruelty do we seeme to exercise agaynst our selues for to sell an immortall felicity for a moment of pleasures So as if the ioy which is promised vs hath not baites which are powerfull inough to attract vs to it let the payne which followes the offence purify our desires iustify all our enterprises O how S. Augustine makes on this subiect a sweet harmony to resound in our eares when he sayth I loue thee not Lord for the feare I haue of thy Hell nor for the hope of thy Paradise but rather for the loue of thy selfe How many mercinary Soules do we see in the world who haue no other obiect in their actions thē that of Glory or that of Payne in a word who loue not God but for his Paradise nor feare him awhit but for his hel What affectiō As if vertue had not Charmes inough to make it selfe beloued without the helpe of recompence and of paine Alas Lord what manner of respects would the wicked affoard you in this world if you could be without Paradise or if you had not a Hell for to exercise your Iustice in since with all your felicities your punishments they so deepely forget the Greatnesse of your infinite Glory and your equall power as to liue without yeilding to your diuine Maiesty but the least homage of thoght Who as if they were Gods themselues on earth regard not Heauen but to looke on the Starres My Soule Loue then thy God for his owne sake since he is perfectly louely nor euer thinke of his Paradise but in thinking of him since he is thy soueraigne Good Feare him in like manner without musing on the Thunders of his Iustice with an amourous feare which hath for obiect but Humility and Respect So as if in this world the Good be alwaies good content thy selfe with the satisfaction which is inseparable to it For Vertue hath this proper to it that of it selfe it recompenceth those who put its precepts in practice euen as Vice incessantly racks and tortures those who follow it All laudable actions produce in generous harts certaine feelings of ioy so extreme as when Renowne shall haue no Laurels nor Palmes for to crowne them with yet he that is the Authour of them shal not cōplayne thereof since he hath beene already rewarded for it euen before he lookt for any certaine recompence at all And the cōtrary is noted in pernicious criminall effects Payne can hardly be seuered from the Offendour nor the Hangman from the Guilty A secret torment glides in his entrailes and himselfe serues as a Hangman against himselfe for to tyrannize vpon himselfe So true it is that diuine Vertue of it selfe communicates the good of its Nature and Vice the euill But let vs not go forth of Hell with our thoughts for not to enter thereinto in effect Flatter not your selues so my Dames as to thinke that Hell belonges not to you it is for the guilty Iudge your selues without passion whether you be exempt frō cryme or no since at all tymes at euery moment you offend God diuers wayes If you will mount vp to Heauen after your
deuill who as a Monster of many heades eternally deuours the damned Their Ryuer of Cocytus or Phlegeton demonstrates to vs the tormēts of death The lake of Auernus where troubles and sadnes inhabite what els may it seeme to represent vnto vs then the dismall dwelling of the wicked Spirits The great Famine they faigne of Tantalus le ts vs cleerely to behould the scarcity and penury of all goods which the damned haue The Vultur of Titius which incessantly preyes on the hart without deuouring it doth figure nought els then the worme of vnprofitable Repentance which gnawes without end those vnhappy Spirits The wheele wherin Ixion is tortured as likewise the Pitchers which the Danaides filled in vayne are as so many witnesses of the Eternity of paynes of the damned Soules which lets vs see how euen those who establish their true Paradise in this world haue built thē without thinking of a Hell in the other where they are euerlastingly punished O cruell Eternity What torments dost thou truly comprehend in thy long durance there beneath in Hell where a million of ages in punishments cānot forme a first moment of some end After one hath endured and suffered an infinite nūber of paynes during as many years as there hath been instāts in the Tyme since the birth of the world may he not wel affirme that he had liued in those torments but for the space of an houre only if he were to liue alwayes in dying alwaies to dye liuing in Hell without release or respit My Dames I speake to you because you haue the Spirit wādering in vanity If you sigh for anguish in expectation of a Day vpon a bed of roses with what impatience will you be rackt in Hell during those Eternal Nights You shun the breath of the fire and the burning of the Sun as the enemyes of your beauty why feare you not rather the tanning and burning of the eternall flames Let me dye rather sayd Nero's wyfe then to become foule and wrinckled Would you be conseruing your beauty which is so deare vnto you for a few dayes and liue without it eternally in Hel If you could but behould the foulnes deformity of one damned Soule the onely remembrance of the horrour and amazemēt of that obiect would be an intollerable punishment to you If Nature haue not a stronger tye of loue then that wherewith it hath enchayned vs with our selfe is it possible my Dames that you can exercise such a cruelty against your selues as not to wish to liue cōtent but in the world where your pleasures are like to dye with you If Hell affright you not for its punishmēts sake let the Eternity therof breed a terrour in you to be vnhappy for euer To be in the cōpany of deuils for euer doth not the thought thereof only seeme to astonish you since there is nothing more true then it If nature as a Step-dame hath denyed you the fortitude of men at least it hath giuen you the force of a Spirit for to know your errours Loue not your beauty but to please the Angels rather then men since it is a diuine quality whose admiratiō appertaynes to them To burne alwayes Alas Seeme you not to resent in reading the lamentable history of the punishments of Fire wherewith the damned are tormēted some little sparkle of its flames through a strong apprehension of incurring one day those paynes I speake heere to Thee who readest these verities to bethinke thy selfe of this singular grace which God seemes to vouchsafe in permitting this same Booke to fall into thy hands so to discouer this sētence which I haue signifyed to thee on the behalfe of God That if you change not your life you shal be damned eternally O cruell Eternity O My Soule thinke alwayes of this Eternity what torments soeuer thou sufferest in this world say thou alwayes with Iob My euils shall one day haue an end O how happy was this man to be exposed on the dunghill of al the miseries of the world as on a moūtaine where tuning the Harpe of his feelings and of his passions to the Key of his Humility of his Patience he sung the glory of his Lord in the midst of his infamy What canst thou suffer heere beneath more cruell then the paynes of the damned And yet if thou shouldst euen suffer a part of their punishments without the priuation of grace thou shouldst be happy because those euils would termine one day to the fruitiō of thy soueraigne good Then trample thou the thornes vnder thy feet giue thy selfe in prey to dolours sufferances nor haue thou euer any other consolation then that of Iob in saying without cease My euills heere shall one day finish The Houre of Death WE MVST DYE This is a law of necessity whereof himselfe who made the same would not be exempted We must dye This is a sentence pronounced now for these six thousand yeares in the Pallace of the Terrestriall Paradise by an omnipotent God whose infinite Iustice hath not spared his proper Sonne We must dy All such as hitherto haue beene haue passed this way those who now are do hold the same they who are not as yet in approching to the Cradle do approch to the Sepulcher We must dy But we know not the hower the day the moneth nor the yeare we know not the place nor the manner of the Death whose paynes we are to suffer We must dy Since we hould the life but as borrowed of him that created the same We must dye it is an euil that hath no remedy al our children must dy as our Fathers did after they had shewed them the way which our Grandfathers had tracked for vs. We must dy at last since we dy euery hower because the aire which we breath being none of ours we cannot serue our selues of it but as others do in passing on till to morrow We must dye since that all which is in vs continually tends to death without release or intermission The very fetchings of our breath are counted as well as our steps In so much as all our actions are not wrought but for a certaine terme whence Tyme conducts vs by litle and litle to death We must dy This is a verity which experience proclaymes to all the world and to the end no man may euer doubt thereof the Sonne of God hath signed the Sentence with his bloud on the mount of Caluary You must dye great Monarkes what markes of immortality soeuer you haue Be you as eloquent as you will Demostenes is dead be you neuer so valiant Alexander is layd in his Tombe If you haue force for your inheritance Sampson is buryed vnder the ruines of the Temple which he demolished If you be faire Absalom is reduced into Ashes If rich Cresus is no more of the world if wise Salomon is now not lyuing if happy Dauid is expired in the midst of his felicities In fine what quality soeuer you haue
thee Hell Thou must yield an accompt of thy extortions and oppressions Death comes to summon thee on the behalfe of God to appeare within an houre before the Tribunal of his Iustice to heare thy sentence of death pronounced by his owne mouth What wouldest thou not giue to prolong yea but a day onely the terme of thy departure But all thy treasures cannot buy thee a moment of lyfe thou must dye O cruell necessity and yet more cruell the dolour which now seemes to martyr thy soule Thou must dye Thou maiest weep long inough for death is blind thou maiest cry as fast as thou wilt while he is deafe for to hope that the Greatnes of thy miseryes may mooue him to Pitty he neither hath hart nor bowels if he liue notwithstanding it is for nothing but to enforce al the world to dy Thy houre is come thou must dye Alas How many deaths dost thou suffer ere thou loosest thy lyfe Thou leauest thy children rich it is true but dyest miserable thy selfe in the state of damnation Behold thee well recompenced for the paynes thou hast taken in heaping so much wealth forsooth to loose thy soule Cruell to thy selfe Thou hast not lyued but for others Infidell thou hast betrayed thy selfe Murderer thou hast snatched away thy lyfe with an vnnaturall hand imploying thy care to fil thy coffers with gold and thy soule with crymes You Misers if you read the history of these Verities deriue your profit frō the domage of others for the auoyding of these piercing griefes and the intollerable dolours of this last momēt of life imploy all the others to thoughtes of the Eternity of glory or of Payne And imitating the Prophet say with him Lord I wil remēber me of the day of death for to liue eternally You must appeare my Dames ech one in her turn in this lamētable couch The watch which Death seems to cary in his hand hath strooke the hower already of the departure of the fairest She must needs dye but assist I pray at this sad spectacle Me thinkes I see her now farre different from that which she was wont to be Alas What a chaunge I seeke for the Maiesties which I haue sometymes seene in her brow and I find nothing els but horrour and amazement there I demaund of her eyes what is euen become of them for they are buryed so deepe in her head as they but loose sight of them who seeke for them Her cheekes as sticht one to the other do hinder her from opening the mouth in such sort as her tōgue can speake no more then a sad language of sighes to call vpon Pitty to contemplate her miseryes withall Her armes very carelesly stretched forth euen dy with their feeblenes In fine her body of Earth deuoures by little and little the flesh that couers it Who would say now seeing this Dame in the state whereunto she is brought that she was the other day the fayrest of the Citty Her company was a duncing with her at such a tyme where all the Gallants that were there fell a striuing to court her most One valued the Gold of her hayre another the Iuory of her teeth This heere admired the snow of her bosome and he there the alabaster of her hands The casts of her eyes did wound many of them and the allurements of her graces increased yet the number The more indifferēt to loue would become great Maisters thereof with the sight of her perfections and yet neuertheles is it true a strange thing that her hayre heertofore of gold and now staring as it were hath lost its lustre that her teeth of Iuory are become blacke with the blast of death that the snow of her bosome is dissolued that the alabaster of her hands is faded that the species of her eyes are dulled so as if they wound as yet they are but the woūds of Pitty That her graces are without grace and that in fine all those who admired the same heertofore come to repent themselues and such as had loued her when tyme was are now displeased with themselues for hauing euer so much as dreamed of her What cruell Metamorphosis my Dames If you cannot giue credit to the faithfull report which I make you of these verityes cast but your eyes vpon this doleful Couch and you shall see a lyuing image of your self or rather a dying of one now brought to the last extremes You make such accompt of your charmes behold them in the Tōbe you prize your bayts so much contemplate the same in ruine you cherish your Sweetnesses so dearly consider their feeblenes you make a shew of your deliciousnes and your alluremēts behold to what passe they are now brought Vaunt you of the Roses of your face as much as you please they are no more but Thornes If you lay forth to view the whitenes of your delicate complexion see you not how pale now dolour harh made it for to take away its beauty All those lockes so curled in nets of loue all those eye-browes so carefully elaborate with a trembling hand that face so washed and plaistered ouer with a secret art those paynted lips that necke so erected through force of endeauour those curious actions those smiles those Vn-voluntaries of hers and all those agreable fashions are vanished now in an instant and horrour and dreadfulnesse possesse their place Alas how the pourtraite of this Dame which I see there hanging at her beds head is differēt far from its originall The shadow of that body moues to loue the body of this shadow to pitty The allurements of this liueles image are all full of charmes and the draughts of this beauty yet liuing wounds with feare insteed of loue The hower in the meane tyme seemes to passe away and she must dy Alas what dolours do they feele in this cruell departure From what payne are they exempt This poore Dame beholds her selfe abandoned of all the world and which is worse of the Phisitians themselues She sees not but by the light of mortuary torches which are lighted round about her bed A confused noyse of sighes plaints doth smite her eares Her owne sauour begins to infect her and her feeling is exercised with the sufferance of a thousand sorts of paynes and all very different in thēselues Whatsoeuer she beholds afflicts her because all the obiects which are represented to her do carry the image of her dolefulnes with them Her Parents her Friends are about her indeed but they are as so many executioners that put her hart vpō the racke by reason of the griefe she feeles to forgoe them for euer Her only Brother comes to her to giue her a kisse all bedēwed with teares and his moaning plaints do euen plucke out the hart from her bosome as knowing them to be the very last Her Father oppressed with sorrow comes to bid her the last Adieu but all of sighes in regard her euill now growne to extremes seemes
now a departing and to tell you whither I leaue you to thinke Such a life such a death Let me only say That the Iudgements of God are far different from those of men Approach then to this corpes you profane Spirits through a sensible sorrow of hauing euer heertofore adored its Beautyes participate with its death Behold its hayre which once you termed golden and wherwith Loue vsed to serue himselfe to tye the Freest the lustre now is vanished from it the beauty is defaced nor can it serue for ought but to mooue pitty That brow heertofore so full of Maiesty in your eyes and where the Graces appeared in troupes these are your termes is now become an obiect of hate coÌ„tempt Those eyes which you called your Sunns resemble now two Torches newly put out whose stinke driues away as many as approch vnto them The Roses of those cheekes are changed into Thornes the coral lips are now of alabaster the iuory neck is now of earth the bosom now is no more of snow but all of ashes finally this whole beautifull body is flesh no more but euen durt And if you will not belieue me approach neerer you shall resent the infection thereof Behould O you Courtiers the Idoll of your Passions What a shame is it now for you to haue adored this carkasse so full of wormes and putrifaction You made of its presence during its lyfe an imaginary Paradise and now you would make it a true Hell Heertofore you could not liue without seeing her dayly and at this time you euen dye with the onely beholding her It is not yet three dayes since you kissed the picture with an action of Idolatry now at this present you dare not to cast your eyes vpon the originall so dreadfull and formidable it is RepreseÌ„t vnto you then for your satisfaction that all the fayrest Dames of the world shal be reduced one day to this piteous estate and that all their graces which are borrowed of Art accompany them no more then as a day of the Spring in so much as if they waxe old they passe the most part of their age out of themselues For without disseÌ„bling with the tymes a Dame when she is growne in yeares is fayre no more she liues no longer in the world they put her in the ranke of things which are past whose memory is lost Looke when a beautifull face comes to your view and make you at that instant an Anatomy of it if you cast your eyes vpoÌ„ her faire eyes represent to your selfe in that moment how they are subiect to 63. diseases all different one from another and that one drop of defluxion produceth a contagion in those who behold theÌ„ Her nose which you iudg so curious is as a Siluer box ful of ointments for one cannot defend himselfe froÌ„ the infectioÌ„ which issueth thence but with Muske and Ciuet. Her mouth is ordinarily infected with the corruption of her teeth If the Hands of this faire body seeme to please you know you not how she steepes theÌ„ euery day in lye for to make them white I would say that she is fayne to wash them euery moment to take away the spots foulnes of them In fine whatsoeuer you see of this beautifull body is but playster what appeares not otherwise but mere corruptioÌ„ Dresse then and tricke vp your selues you Dames as long as you please yet shall you not change for all that the nature you are of If you charme the world through your false allurements the world charmes you with its vayne promises Do not flatter your selues you are but clay infection and corruption So as if neuertheles you enforce any loue it is but through imposture for that couering your face with a new visage it is easy to deceiue those who haue no iudgement but in the eyes If then you would leaue of Vanity muse alwaies vpon Death since you may happen dy at any houre be it in banquetting be it in walking Go whither you wil your paces conduct you to the Tombe And at such tyme as you stand before your Glasse in the action of washing your face imagine how it shall putrify one day and perhaps to morrow and that al the care you take to make it white will not hinder the wormes froÌ„ deuouring the same Yet after you haue imployed about it a whole phiall of sweet water shed at least one salt teare of sorrow for your sins to wash your most enormous Soule What a shame is it then for you to trick trimme vp your body so euery day wherof the wormes haue already taken possession and to abandon your soule on the dunghill of your Miseryes whereunto your crymes haue brought you Hearken to the Hower that euen now strickes what know you whether if shal be your last do you find your selfe trow you in a good estate to present your selfe before a dreadful Iudge who hath so many Hells to punish the guilty Your companion is dead already and you take no heed but euen run after her euery moment without cease or without any respit How then is it possible that you can runne so to Death in the estate of damnation wherein you are Rather imitate the Parthians who in flying triumphed of their enemyes And weepe for sorrow of your life in running to Death and sigh in way of repentance to the last gaspe Imitate also that great Personage who caused himselfe to be paynted on a Bâ—ere with his face bare his hands ioyned together euen in the very same posture wherein he was to be layd forth after his Death and euery morning would he go to make his prayer before this picture which succeeded so happily with him as he dyed without any trouble or disquietnes Syrs I haue represented to you in the beginning of my Booke how there is nothing assured in this world the which me thinkes should oblige you first to lift vp your eyes to Heauen for to see the Eternity of the glory which is there promised vnto you and then as all dazeled to cast them downe agayne with the helpe of your imagination into Hel whose punishments also in part I haue described to you Then returning to your self consider how these felicities and Eternall paines depend on a moment and this is the moment of Death whereunto you approach euery houre Repose your selfe then euery day for a quarter of an houre vpon this dolefull Couch where this late beautiful Dame hath expired diuert your Spirit in this tyme of grace to thinke vpon that which you would then be thinking of when you shall come to be tyed thereunto with the chaynes of dolour anguish And these be the true Thoughtes of Eternity FINIS