difficulty to undeceive themselves from the vanities of the World to contemn Life and even to take an extreme pleasure in seeking after Death because they are assured that no one can be perfectly happy S. Gregory of Nazian untill he dies for Christ Jesus and untill he reigns with him in his Heavenly Kingdom St. Gregory of Nazian in his Funeral Orations furnishes excellent thoughts concerning the obligations which Christians have to despise Life and to desire Death and particularly in the Elogium he composed for his Brother Cezarius WHen I consider the happiness which our Kindred have acquired by dying and the little they have lost in loosing this unhappy Life so far am I from afflicting my self that I feel my self transported with joy and I say to God When shall it be O Lord that you will take us as you have them out of this strange Land and that we shall go into our lovely Countrey to joyn our selves with them who are there arrived before us When shall it be that Death shall put us in a condition to partake with them the pleasures of Paradise and to lead together an eternally happy Life In effect my Brethren what can we expect during the short time which remains of our Life but to see day after day more miseries to-suffer more evils and to câ—mmit more Sins than we have hitherto committed 'T is therefore this consideration and not the loss of our Freinds 't is the danger of offending God to which we are exposed during our Life and not the grief for their Death which ought to be the true subject of our Tears Let 's weep my Brethren but let us weep as David did for that our Pilgrimage is prolonged Le ts afflict our selves for that our Exile is not ended Le ts weep because we love a Life subject to so many miseries and which incessantly exposes us to lose the Grace of God This is my Brethren a just cause 〈◊〉 our sighs and tears 〈◊〉 therefore sigh over our selves with the holy Apostle and let us say 2 Cor. c. 4. and 5. This base Cottage built of clay wherein we now lodg shall it never be destroy'd Shall we not soon dwell in that other house which is not made by the hand of man and which shall endure eternally For how long shall we yet ly oppress'd under the weight of this mortal Body And till when must we trayl after us in all places a living Sepulcher where our Soul is as it were buried in the Flesh and infected with a corruption greater than that of reall Graves 〈◊〉 my Brethren if the â—â—â—th of Sin is not the subject of your griefs and affliction you have no subject that is legitimate But that which ought to cover us with shame is That we love this Life all miserable as it is and that we make much of this Body which detain's our Soul captive 'T is true that we are unwilling to offend God but we are willing to continue in a state of offending him at least 't is that which we desire when we desire to Live Do you then know for what a true Christian ought not to afflict himself I repeat it over again to you a true Christian ought not to afflict himself 〈…〉 he lives too long 〈…〉 thing that delays his 〈◊〉 delays also his happiness but what happiness A happiness which is pure in its enjoyment immense in its greatness and eternal in its duration Finally a happiness which comprehends the possession of God himself and which consequently surpasses the intilligence and the desire of man Behold that which ought to make us sigh without creasing towards Heaven and to say with the Prophet Psal 118 v. 81. My Soul languishes O Lord she falls almost into a swoun in the expectation of your Salvation For my own part through 〈…〉 of God I fear 〈…〉 my Body should 〈◊〉 since it's nature is to be perishable I am perswaded that the ruine of that which is materiall and terrestriall in me cannot chuse but be very advantagious unto me Let 's leave to the wicked the care to flatter a Body which kills the Soul and which one cannot keep long alive Those unhappy wretches tast not the goods of the Spirit because they have no feeling of Hope for another Life And surely I do not at all wonder that they place their soveraign good in this mortall Life in Health in good cheer and in the other pleasures of the senses But for us my Brethren who are convinced that all those goods are but vanity and that they will be dissipated in less time than the dew of the morning let us say with the Apostle would to God that by a lively Faith and by an ardent Charity I had so mortified my Body that it were not capable to detain my Soul for if I could totally bury my self with Christ Jesus I should be assured to be resuscitated and to live with him eternally Article IX S. Gregory Nisse St. Gregory Bishop of Nisse hath made a Discourse to shew That we should be so far from lamenting them who go forth of this Life that we ought to envy and desire their happiness He proves this Truth by many reasons which we give in brief and in the end be explicates it by an excellent comparison of the state of men in this present Life wiih the state of an Infant enclosed in his Mothers Belly He says afterwards That they who lament the Death of their Neighbour or who are afraid to die are as little reasonable as Children who cry when they are born into the World because they are not sensible of the happiness they have in being delivered out of the most dismal of all Prisons THey who excessively afflict themselves at the Death of their Kindred and Friends Orat. de mortuis To 3. are for the most part very weak Spirits who suffer themselves to be ledd by the movings of Nature and of Custom They weep ordinarily because 't is the custome to weep upon such occasions They grieve for themselves in the person of another because in losing him they lose some advantage which they reaped from him or else they weep because they fancy a false honour of appearing to be of a tender and good nature There is moreover a certain pleasure in Tears and one delights to draw compassion or esteem from others by weeping Finally in whatever manner we weep over the Dead 't is always a weakness and we should never fall into it if we gave our selves time to consider That the orders of Providence are unalterable and that human things change incessantly For is it not a folly to grieve for the Dead as if they could have lived always and to live so as if one were never to die To get forth of this errour we need only to consider a little the difference there is between the solid and infinite goods we hope for in heaven and Goods so vain and so short
Chrysostom That we ought to be as ready to go forth of the World as Criminalls are ready to go forth of their Prison when one brings to them the Princes pardon p. 122. XVI Article The Fifth Instruction of St. Chrysostom That if we lived as beseems true Christians we should not have any difficulty to conceive Death to be the most desirable of all good things p. 128. XVII Article The Sixth Instruction of St. John Chrysostom That the Death of Christ Jesus should have cured us from the fear of Dying and that the Ceremonies of the Church in the Funerals of the Faithfull ought to give us Joy and Comfort p. 134. XVIII Article An Exhortation of St. John Chrysostom where he declaims with much vehemence against the lazy and imperfect Christians who fear Death and instructs after an admirable manner the zealous and perfect Christians who desire Death p. 146. XIX Article The Sentiments of St. Jerome concerning the Advantages which Death brings to Christians and the Obligation they have to prepare themselves for it and to think continually upon it p. 154. XX. Article St. Jerome teaches us what temper we ought to observe in the disgust of Life and in the desire of Death p. 160. XXI Article An Excellent Instruction of the same St. Jerome p. 173. XXII Article St. Jerome or the Authour of some Epistles attributed to him which are at the end of his Works presses this Doctrin farther and expresly teaches That a Christian ought not only not to fear Death wherein he would do no more than many Pagans have done but that he ought also to represent it often to himself to desire it and to love it if he will imitate Christ Jesus p. 177. XXIII Article We return following the Order of the time of St. Augustin and we relate some more Sentiments of this holy Doctour which confirm the Truths we have establish'd by his Principles p. 181. An Excellent Moral of St. Augustin against them who fear a temporal Death and dread not the Eternal Death p. 182. XXIV Art A pithy Reflexion of St. Augustin upon the shortness of the Life of the Body and upon the Eternity of the Life of the Soul p. 188. XXV Art A most true and edificatory Observation of St. Augustin That God by a particular Mercy besprinkles the most pleasing Sweets of this World with Bitterness and permits his Elect to be afflicted with Infirmities which Contradictions with Calumnies and with Crosses to oblige them to despise Life and to desire Death p. 193. XXVI Article St. Augustin teaches in several places of his writings as an assured Doctrine That the most solid Virtue of Christians and the most Visible Character of the Predestinate is to sigh continually in the expectation of Death and in the Hope of another Life p. 197. XXVII Article A Comparison of Faithful Christians with the Faithful Isralites In which St. Augustin shews That as the first coming of the Messias was the object of the continual Desires and of the devotion of the true Isralites so also the second coming of Christ Jesus ought to be the Aym of the most solid Piety and of the most fervent Desires of Christians p. 203. XXVIII Article An Instruction of S. Isidore of Damiet to all Christians to excite in them a perfect desire of Death p. 213. XXIX Article St. Eucherius Arch-Bishop of Lion exhorts Christians to observe attentively the different Agitations of human Passions the shortnesse of Life and the uncertainty of Death to the end they may never engage themselves in the Tumults of the World and that they may be evermore prepared to die p. 216. XXX Article St. Fulgentius and St. Paulinus prove That Death is a Recompence for the Just and a Chastisement for the Wicked That Life is to be counted by the quantity of good Works which one hath done and not by the number of Years one hath lived p. 223. XXXI Article Reflections of St. Gregory Pope upon the Subject which is proposed in this work p. 231. 1. Reflexion That the continual view of Death is the most assured means to lead a Holy and Quiet Life p. 231. XXXII Art 2. Reflexion of St. Gregory That naturally all the Desires and all the Actions of Man tend to Death That Grace should do in us that which Nature doth of it self c. p. 233. XXXIII Art 3. Reflexion of St. Gregory That they who love the World have some reason to fear the end thereof but That they who serve Christ Jesus ought not to be apprehensive of the Worlds destruction c. p. 238. XXXIV Art 4. Reflexion of St. Gregory That there are few Just persons who can truly say with St. Paul god forbid that I should glory in any other thing than in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ because the World is dead and crucified to me as I am Dead and Crucified to the World p. 241. XXXV Art A pithy Description which St. Gregory the Great makes of the necessities and of the Myseries of the Body and of the Soul whence this holy Pope concludes That men ought to desire Death for â—he enjoyment of a better Life in which they shall no longer be exposed either to Sorrow or to Sin p. 257. XXXVI Art S. John Climachus distinguishes the Desires of Death which the Devil suggests unto us from those which Grace inspires into us and he composed one Degree of his holy Ladder upon this subject where he shews That the Meditation of Death is the most profitable of all Spiritual Practices p. 270. XXXVII Art St. Bernard Teaches us That Hope is the portion of true Christians and That this Virtue makes them to love Death and to suffer patiently all the evils of this Life p. 277. XXXVIII Art St. Bernard proves That to the end we may not dread Death but receive it which Patience and even with Joy we must prepare our selves for it every day by 〈◊〉 true Repentance That by this meanâ— Grace overcomes Nature That what appears so terrible to a sinful man becomes pleasing to a just man but particularly to such as have embraced a Religious and solitary Life p. 288. XXXIX Art The Sentiments of St. Bernard touching the Comtempt which perfect Christians ought to have of Life and of Health From whence he takes Occasion to speak of the Patience which they ought to have in their Infirmities and of the Joy which the continual thought of Death ought to afford them p. 294. XXXX Art An Extract of some passages of the Book of the Imitation of Christ where it is treated of the Contempt of Life and of the desire of Death p. 299. XXXXI Art The admirable Prayses which St. Laurence Justinian gives to Death From whence he concludes That it is no wonder if they who are the most perfect among Christians are they who most desire it p. 311. XXXXII. Art A Collection of some of the admirable Sentiments which St. Teresa hath left us in her Writings touching the
desire it and to love it if he will imitate Christ Jesus 'T Is a small matter not to dread Death since Pagan Philosophers who imagined they lost all in losing Life were free from this fear Is it a matter of more difficulty to overcome Death with the Christian Faith than with the profane Phylosophy Let us familiarize our selves with this Bugbeare it affrights only them who dare not look near at hand upon it But it suffices not to learn to die when old Age or Diseases threaten us with Death 'T is in the flourishing years of Youth and in the vigour of Health that we should most seriously apply our selves to this study For who told us that we should have time enough to prepare our selves thereto Since it's blows are unavoydable let us resolve to endure them So many Martyrs so many Virgins have affronted it with courage why shall we not imitate them God doth not always demand these bloody Sacrifices but as for the sacrifice of our Will he demands it every hour and I dare say that there is more merit to offer unto him our Life in all the moments wherein he conserves it unto us than to lose it once by the cruelty of the Executioners Let us aspire yet to a greater Perfection since we are Christians Let us change our Dread into Desire and our Aversion into Affection We have the honour to be Heyrs to a Man-God who hath changed the punishment of our Crime into a Sacrifice of Piety Let us desire Death as he desired it le ts love Death and le ts seek it even between the arms of the Cross as Christ Jesus there sought it Le ts render to him in dying the same Obedience which he rendred to his Eternal Father Finally let us rejoyce to go to find our Master since we are his Disciples Let us depart with alacrity to come to our Father since we are his Children For if we have no love for him nor Desire to be near him we are supposititious Children Children of darkness unworthy to see the Light and to reign one day with Christ Jesus Article XXIII The order of time demands now that we return to St. Augustin For besides the Principles of Doctrine upon which we in the beginning established the whole design of this Treatise there are moreover found in his Writings an infinity of pithy passages where he repeats and deeply prosecutes this matter S. Augustin An Excellent Morall of St. Augustin against them who fear Temporal death and who do not apprehend Eternal Death ALL men are apprehensive of the Death of the Body Tract 49. in Joan. but few there are who fear the Death of the Soul All the World strives to hinder that first from seizing on them which nevertheless will infallibly one day come upon him and scarcely and one labours to avoid that Death of the Soul Epist 45. ad Armamentarium which will no less infallibly follow unless timely prevented Was there ever any greater extravagancy than this For the Death of the Body is but the shadow and the Image of the Death of the Soul The Man who must necessarily die upon Earth uses all his endeavours not to die there and the same man who is designed to live eternally in Heaven uses no diligence to render himself worthy of that happy Life Thus having a will to do that which he cannot and having no will to do that which he ought his endeavours are useless and criminal When he attentively considers that Death is inevitable he troubles and disquiets himself to retard it at least for some Months But why doth he not rather consider that by leading a holy life he would secure an infinite happiness he would suffer no disquiet and that he should die even with joy because he might justly hope to live happily in Eternity We expose our selves dayly to contempt to a thousand perplexities and to all sorts of vexations and even to the dangers of losing our Lives in seeking out the means to conserve it And this passion of living long doth so strangely blind men that they sometimes die with the sole-fear of dying To fly from a furious Beast they cast themselves headlong into a River To avoid a Shipwreck they throw their Victuals into the Sea Fear doth that in them which rashness could not do An affrighted man knows no longer any danger Such a one to escape the kind of Death which he dreaded exposes himself to a thousand Deaths more terrible than that wherewith he was threatned What torments doth not the Iron and the Fire cause them to suffer who put them selves into the Chirurgions hands They endure to have a part of their Body cut off to save the other A man who loves his health submits himself as a Slave to all that the Physitians ordain him to do or suffer and although he knows the vanity of their Art he omits not to obey them in all things nor can his own experience nor the uselesness of their applications nor the uncertainty of their skill undeceive him This man more sick of Imagination than of any other Disease feeds himself with a false hope of being cured try's all sorts of remedies and hastens his Death by the Medicines which are given him to prolong a little while his Life But the most horrible of all the effects which are caus'd by so blind and so irregular a passion is That Men to live a little longer adventure sometimes to offend him mortally who is the very Source of Life For fearing to lose a Life which must necessarily end they lose a life which must never end And yet God commands us but few things and those very easy to deliver us from the true Death which we nevertheless neglect to put in practise We our selves only are to be blamed if we obtain not a Life which will eternally preserve it self without the help of men and whereof our Enemies can never deprive us But as for this death which we so much fear we cannot possibly avoid it and are most sure to suffer it though never so much against our will Article XXIV A pithy reflection of St. Augustin upon the shortness of this Life and upon the Eternity of the other to stir up Christians to unfetter themselves more and more from the Earth and ardently to breath after Heaven O Men In Psal 36. Serm. 107. de diversis who are engaged in the course of this Life and who prepare your selves to end it well do not bound your consideration only upon the places through which you must pass consider that place where you are to arrive You shall indeed suffer much in this journey but you surely shall come at the end to an eternal rest Cast your Eyes upon the recompense which is prepared for you and you will look with contempt upon the miseries you endure on Earth For if you compare the Evils you suffer with the felicity which is promised you you will be
pardonable in a Child Let us then open our Eyes let 's act as reasonable men let 's live like Christians 'T is high time to conceive a horrour of our Prison and to shake off the chains which detain us in it Let 's reflect that there is another Life than this let 's awaken our Faith let 's excite our Hope and finally let us comfort our selves le ts rejoyce that our near Relations have acquired an eternal Happiness by the loss of a miserable Life le ts burn with a holy Desire of Death let 's seek with ardour and receive with joy that which will put an end to our afflictions and give a beginning to our Felicity Article X. Among all the Fathers of the Church St. Ambrose is one of them who hath spoken best of Death He made a particular Treatise De bono mortis Of the good of Death S. Ambrose where he says That it frees us from the miseries of this Life and from the servitude of Sin He teaches That 't is Death which procures Immortality to our Soul and a glorious Resurrection to our Body and finally That 't is Death which gives us the means to testify our Gratitude our Love and our Zeal to Christ Jesus Whence he concludes that if we have Faith we ought to desire Death Life is a burthen the weight whereof oppresses us and Death is the only succour which can discharge us of it Life is a punishment and Death is the sole means which remains for us to be releas'd of it Did one ever see Slaves and miserable Wretches fear to be set at freedom and to be comforted 'T is from Death alone that we must expect this Comfort and this liberty Now if we ought to love it because its frees us from the miseries of Life ought we not to love it more because it delivers us from the bondage of Sin For the most innocent of men is a Sinner as long as he is living he must die to the end he may sin no more and his Death is no less the end of his Sin than of his Life But Death doth yet much more it breaks not the bonds of Sin but to procure us the glorious liberty of the Elect. 'T is Death which re-unites men to their beginning makes them find their greatness and their felicity in the loss of their Lives 'T is Death finally which delivering them from corruption introduces them into an incorruptible and eternal Life For as soon as Sin had given birth to Death God drew from thence the Resurrection to the end that Sin ceasing by Death Nature might always subsist by the Resurrection and that man dying to the Earth and to Sin might live eternally in Glory Then this Word of the sacred Scripture wild be accomplished Death hath been absorp'd and destroyed by an entire victory 1 Cor. 15. v. 55. and we shall be able to say with the Apostle O Death where a thy victory O Death where is thy sting But the greatest advantage which we derive from Death is That it gives us the means to imitate the Charity of Christ Jesus and to do for him in some sort the same thing he hath done for us We may be in dying the Victims of his glory as he hath been the Victim of our Salvation and we may testify our gratitude by voluntarily offering to him this Sacrifice In effect how will it be possible for us to satisfy otherwise our so great obligations And moreover if we well consider it Rom. 8. What proportion is there between the sufferings of the present Life and the felicitie of the other Life between the torments of Death and that immortal glory which God is one day to discover in us Article XI An Excellent Doctrine of St. Ambrose which establishes two manners of Living and of Dying set down in the Sacred Scripture The first is that of just men who Live of Life that is who being in the Grace of God enjoy the Life of Body and of Soul And the second is that of Sinners and wicked men who Live being dead and who leading an exteriour life upon Earth are dead interiourly before God As to the two manners of dying the One is of them who die of death that is who in dying impenitent endure a double Death that of the Soul and that of the Body and the Other is of the Sole Predestinate who die to live which is understood of the Elect who endure the corporal Death with patience and with joy to go to possess an eternal and glorious Life WHen it is said in the sacred Scripture That the man who shall keep Gods Commandments De Paradiso c. 9. and shall exercise Justice and Mercy towards his Neighbour Ezech. 18. shall live the Life we must not believe that the Holy Ghost made use without design of such an extraordinary expression To live the Life or of Life is to have a double Life One of which is exteriour and corporal and the Other interiour and spiritual 't is to lead the life of a Man and of an Angel both together 't is to enjoy at the same time Health and Grace 't is to live of a general Virtue which includes all the natural and supernatural functions finally 't is the estate in which good people live upon Earth an Estate truly happy for the time but from which one may fall unless one labours continually to disengage himself from all adhesions to Life by the thought and by the desire of Death On the contrary to die the Death or of the Death Gen. 2. Exod. 21. what is it else according to the language of the Scripture but to suffer a double Death of the Body and of the Soul I mean to be deprived of the ordinary use of this transitory Life and of the possession of eternal Life And this is it which makes the misery of the reprobate who for having over much loved a criminal Life die miserably in their crimes There is moreover among Christians another manner of dying which is of them who die to life or who die in living that is who are dead and living both together And these are they who live of the life of the Body who enjoy a perfect health who have beauty strength and dexterity and yet who are dead to the Life of Grace and are not animated with the Spirit of God 'T is of these men that it is said in the Scripture That they descend alive into Hell And 't is in this sence that the words of the Apostle are to be understood Psal 54.16 The Widow who lives in delights is dead 1 Tim. 56. altho' she seems to be living And it is also the deplorable state of the wicked in this life out of which they may nevertheless get forth by sincere penance Finally the fourth kind of Christians in relation to Life and to Death and the most happy of all is of them who live by Death such are all
the Holy Martyrs who expose not themselves to die but in hopes to live the Body dies for a time and the soul lives for an eternity Ah my Brethren let us beware of being like to them who live outwardly being dead within Let us desire to be rather of the number of those happy Dead who die in apparence to live in effect This was the sentiment of St. Paul in those celebrious Words I desire to be disengaged from the bonds of this Body Philip. 1.23 and to be with Christ Jesus It was also the thought of David when he exclaims in one of his Psalms Alas Psal 119.5 how irksom is my exile I live here as a Stranger my Soul is troubled to remain so long among the Enemies of peace Behold this is properly the state of the Predestinate who are afflicted at their stay upon Earth among the snares and the miseries wherewith this Life is replenished instead of going to enjoy in Heaven those infinit Goods in their full greatness as well as in their eternal duration and which are the sole object of their Hope and of their Desires Article XII The Homelies of St. John Chrysostom are full of excellent Instructions concerning Death We have made choyce of such as seem'd most proper for this Work 1. S. Chrysost Instruction of St. John Chrysostom where he shews what it is to be a Christian and that his principal Character is to desire and to love Death A Christian evermore considers himself upon Earth as a man going onward in his way Hom. 24. in Epist ad Hebr. In Psal 119. and the continual reflexion which he makes upon this quality of a Stranger and of a Traveller Ad Theod lapsum c. 3. is the foundation of all his Virtues For he who hath sojourned upon Earth as a Stranger shall be a Citizen in the Kingdom of Christ Jesus What is the care of a Traveller 'T is to cumber himself with nothing but what is necessary for his journey to take the path which is shortest and most secure to use all the diligence he possibly can and not to fix his heart upon any thing he finds in his way because he reserv's all his affections for his dear Countrey According as he draws nearer to it he feels his impatience encrease to arrive at it and as soon as he discovers it he is so transported with Joy that he forgets the pain he hath endured and the dangers he hath incurred or if he keeps them in his memory 't is but as a valiant Champion remembers his wounds after he hath gain'd the Victory In effect what is it that a Christian can love or fear upon Earth which is not unworthy his affection or his fear Can all the favours of fortune give him a more glorious Title than that of Son of the most High and of Brother of Christ Jesus For 't is Christ Jesus himself who honours with this quality all them who have receiv'd his Word And when the Pharisees say that 't is to commit a Blasphemy to give this honour to men Jesus answers John 10.34 Is it not written in your Law I have said you are Gods Can the Scripture fail Wherefore O Christians labour so long as you please to agrandise your selves in the World Endeavour to become Rich Learned Conquerours Princes Kings if you will Procure even if it is possible that your Kingdom may be extended over the whole Earth what is there in all this which can be compared with the Kingdom which God hath promised you You have therefore nothing to hope for in the World Let us see now what you have to fear Hunger or Thirst say you But hath not God said Mat. 5.6 Blessed are they who are Hungry and Thirsty for they shall be satisfied Is it Poverty He hath also said Blessed are the Poor for the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to them v. 3. Do you fear Injuries Persecutions Afflictions Sicknesses On the contrary it is Written Rejoyce give your minds to gladness v. 11. and 12. you who endure couragiously all these things for the glory of our Master because you shall receive an ample reward in Heaven You have then nothing else to dread O Christians but the delay of these rewards And what can forward them but Death It is not therefore an Evil as men of the vulgar sort believe on the contrary 't is a Good for them who have Faith not an ordinary Good but the greatest of all transitory Goods For if our soveraign Good is to possess the Celestial Kingdom our greatest Good is surely that which hastens the possession hereof Wonder not therefore after this O you Sensualists if a Christian fully perswaded of these Truths run's to Death with more ardour than you run after Pleasures Be no more surprized that he disdains your promises that he despises your threats that he treads under his feet your Idols and that he triumphs over your Tyranny Know that it shall sooner be drained dry in inventing torments than the constancy of Christians will be shaken with your cruelty because Death is a desirable Good for them who hope another Life and because our Kingdom is not of this World John 18.36 For were our Kingdom of this World we would fight to defend it against our Enemies Nevertheless do not fancy that the Christian remains upon the Earth altogether stupid and insensible as the trunk of a barren tree which expects nothing but the mortal blow which must separate it from its roots 'T is true that the Christian desires Death because it will end his pains but yet he ceases not to make a holy use of Life He employs all the moments thereof in good works but whatever he doth in this Life is only to procure him a happy end of it For these holy Desires of Death do not hinder him from cherishing his Neighbours from serving his Friends from loving his Brethren and from acquitting himself of all Christian duties more faithfully than they who perform them having only profane ends in their Friendships But doth God ordain that he should quit them to come to him he is evermore ready to depart and although according to the resentments of Nature his Heart is as much afflicted in being separated from his Freinds as his Body in being separated from his soul yet he ceases not to desire to be separated from them to the end he may always possess them with God and he prefers this eternal enjoyment before a possession of longest durance from which one can only derive a weak and uncertain consolation Wherefore he says at all times with the Apostle Christ Jesus is my Life and Death is a gain for me Philip. 1.21 Unhappy man that I am Who will deliver me from the bonds of this mortal Body Rom. 7 24. that I may no longer be fastned to any thing but to Christ Jesus 'T is in effect the property of a Christian and of
dead to the World yet the World ceases not to live to them and to ly every where in wait to entrap them sometimes by applauding their Virtues and other times by extolling their Actions It besieges them it pursues them it enchains them by secret confidences by continual visits by an ardent seeking of their freindship All these things seem only to tie an innocent knot and which may have a very good end Nevertheless the danger is great and it is a temerarious confidence to expose ones self thereto without an extreme necessity The World loses nothing in this traffick on the contrary it serves it very frequently for an honest Veil to hide its Vices but the Just man runs a great hazard thereby and sits down always with the loss The Devil who is but too ingenious to deceive us employs a thousand subtil crafts disguises himself into all manner of shapes and even into that of Virtue in order to seduce us At first he distills light distractions little solicitudes vain desires unprofitable curiosities which diminish by little and little the fervour of our devotions and which estrange from our memory the thoughts of Death Then the same Spirit which cools the Love of God enkindles insensibly in our Soul those former affections which repentance and Charity had there as it were stifled and buried Alas how few Just persons are found who entirely imitate S. Paul in this double Death of the Christian to the World and of the World to the Christian Where are they whose Conscience renders to them the same testimony as it did to this great Apostle and who have put themselves into a perfect liberty by breaking not oniy all the Chains which kept them fast tyed to the World but moreover those which tyed the World to them For 't is not enough to have despised and abandoned the World we must so order it that the World may despise and abandon us This is that which the Apostle intends to teach us when he says The World is dead and crucified for me as I am dead and crucified for the World The World was crucified to him because it was dead in his heart and was no more any thing to him but the object of his contempt and of his hatred but besides this he was also crucified to the World because having made appear an insensibility for the concerns of the Earth the world ceased to seek after him and did no longer so much as think of him If we take not heed we shall find that even in the most retired professions in the greatest disgust of the vanities of the infidelities and of the corruptions of the world when we fancy that we are for ever freed from them yet there still remain some roots thereof in our Heart We hold no more of the world but it holds us yet by imperceptible bonds We make a shew of shuning it and yet we are not sorry that it should seek after us and that it should come sometimes to trouble our solitude which would otherwise appear to us dismal and insupportable Finally with a mean Virtue one may forget the world but one must have an extraordinary Virtue to wish to be forgotten by the world This is that which holy Souls aym at which are perfectly unfettered from the world They not only suffer themselves not to be drawn by the World but moreover they draw not the World to themselves And 't is to them that may be applyed the saying of S. Paul Man and the World are reciprocally Crucified one in regard of the other because they not seeking one another nor mutually loving each other are as two dead things which can no longer have any communication But alas how few there are who can come to he happiness of this double Death The greatest Saints all crucified as they are to the World cannot without the succour of an extraordinary Grace crucify the World entirely in themselves Therefore it is that they incessantly mortify themselves and they cry out with David Lord Psal 90. save my Soul from the Ambushes of her Enemies defend her against the cunning of deceitfull Tongues deliver me from the snares of the Hunters and from the corruption of the World For altho' the Just man flies the World and is perfectly disengaged from it he evermore apprehends that he hath something in himself which engages the world to follow him But if God covers him with his Wings to make use of the Royal Prophets words what ever endeavours the world makes to seek him out it will not find him or if it finds him 't will find him Dead as to all earthly concerns doing nothing to please it nor to allure it being deaf to it's prayses insensible to it's blandishments indifferent to its interests without curiosity without pretention without disquiet doing good for goodness sake and little caring to have confederates or admirers of his Virtue On the contrary if in labouring for Gods glory he encreases his own glory he will so far humble himself in his own interiour and before others that the aversion which he will testify against all flatteries will foyl his Flatterers Finally the World which will not entertain any traffick with the Just but upon some motive of interest or of pleasure will cease to seek after him and finding there no more nourishment to live upon will die and crucify it self in him For 't is most certain that the World is in that like unto the Sea which swallows up and detains within its bosom the living Bodies but rejects the dead carkasses and leaves them upon the sands So the World lays hold upon that only which is yet living and sensible for it and abandons that which is devoyd of feeling and of Life for all such things as any way concern it Article XXXV A pithy Description made by the Great St. Gregory of the Necessities and of the Miseries of the Body and of the Soul From whence this holy Man concludes That men should desire to die in order to enjoy a better Life in which they shall be no longer exposed either to Sorrow or to Sin ONe cannot express all the Miseries to which Man is exposed by Sin Lib. Moral in c. 7. Job His Body is subject to a thousand sorts of infirmities it is expos'd to the injuries of the Ayr and of all the Elements to Dangers to Diseases to the ignorance of Physitians which is some times more to be dreaded than the Diseases themselves The natural Heat which sustains his Life devours its proper substance as soon as it wants nourishment If he reposes sloath renders him unweldy if he is employed labour drains him if he eats the meat overcharges him thirst dries him up the excess of drink makes him brutish sleep oppresses him watching wearies him cold pinches him heat stifles him and that which eases him of one incommodity casts him presently into another Finally on which ever side he turns himself he is tormented by the
Evil or by the Remedy The Soul hath no less weak nesses and miseries than the Body You see her one day deceived by Hope and on the morrow troubled with Fear Anger transports her Sadness dejects her Joy dissipates her Envy gnaws her and nothing contents her One Passion follows another and sometimes for one that is destroy'd there spring up a thousand The sacred Scripture compares this agitation to the dreadful Tempests which are raised upon the Waters Isa 57 20. Who can then says the Prophet number all the Waves of the Sea Nevertheless 't is yet a harder task to count the desires of Man who goes astray in the errour of his Heart Jacob. v. 6. He will and he will not at the same time the same things He seeks with impatience what he hath not and he is presently disgusted with what he possesses Vice is followed with remorse Virtue is accompanied with pains he knows not to which of the two he should apply himself His first motion inclines him to Good and yet he doth the Evil by reflexion at the same time when he condemns it The Apostle St. Paul says Rom. 7.18 I find in my self a Will to do Good but I find not the means to accomplish it For I do not the Good to which I have a will and I do the Evil which I would not There is nothing good in Man He is submitted both together to the Law of God according to the Spirit and to the Law of Sin according to the Flesh God and the World draw him by turns He is a Compound of all that which is most motley in Nature always and in every thing unlike to himself His manners his opinions his desires all his actions all his thoughts are in a continuall instability Finally one may sooner stop the course of the Winds and the rapidity of a Torrent than fix his inconstancy by the sole force of Reason Thus the more our Soul examins her self the less she knows her self Who am I for example I who make so many reflections upon others What is the Beginner that stirs all the parts of my Body By what means do they come to know the orders of my Will How can they execute them with so much readiness But this will what makes it spring up in me Whence proceeds this intelligence which guides it these lights which clear it these darknesses which sometimes encompass it It walks upon the wings of the winds upon the points of the Waves it penetrates the highest Heavens it descends into the center of the Earth it carries its curiosity into every corner and yet the most common and the most sensible objects hide themselves from its knowledge in a word it knows not what it self is Man thinks and he knows not what it is to think he reasons and he cannot say what reason is The Soul is united to the Body and she conceives not how she is united to it she enters not there and she goes not from thence when she pleases the matter which she animates serves her for a Prison and by an inclination opposit to her nature she loves this Prison which keeps her captive The Senses which should be in all things subject unto her revolt incessantly against her deceive her and corrupt her 'T is an assembly of qualities which are mortal and immortal which are corruptible and incorruptible Water is not so contrary to Fire as these Qualities are contrary among themselves yet all agree together in one and the same subject notwithstanding that 't is impossible to say either what makes their mutual intelligence or what breaks it One cannot number all the kinds of Diseases which may separate the Soul from the Body and yet the Soul acts as if nothing were able to separate her from it She heaps up designs upon designs hopes upon hopes and there needs no more than a blast to overturn all O Man thou confused Pile of uncertainties and of miseries Eccles. 7 and 8. learn not to pry into that which is above thee since thou knowest not thy own self since thou art ignorant of that which is proper to thy self during thy Life and in this little number of days design'd for thy Pilgrimage upon Earth which pass as the shadow of a smoak 'T is the Wisest among men who hath said No one knows how he is to finish his course And even as the Fishes are caught by the hook of the Fisher and Birds are taken in the Nets of the Fowler so Men fall into the ambushes of Death when they least dream of it What is Man O my God that he should by you be so highly honoured Why do you east your eyes and employ your thoughts upon a Vessel so feeble and so full of iniquity Job 7.19 You visit him in the Morning and presently you exercise him by strong Tryalls He hath scarcely begun to see the day light before he falls into Darkness Psal 15. His Body is but a heap of dust and his Life fleets away as the Grass it blooms in Morning like the Flowers of the Field and in the Evening the smallest blast of wind withers it it dwindles away and there remains no track of the place where it but now flourished It seems as if after you had formed man you had abandon'd him to his own conduct Eceli 15. You have set before his eyes the Water and the Fire Life and Death Good and Evil to the end you might leave him the liberty of choyce which is almost always unlucky to him There are none who have understanding Psal 13. and light There are none who seek God They are gon astray from the right path They are all corrupted There is not any one who of himself doth good no there is not one Lord why do you leave them to be a prey to their Passions and to the hardness and malignity of their own Heart Know you not that our fall is inevitable as soon as you withdraw your hand from holding us up Do not then estrange your self from us O Lord you who are our only prop and our strength Draw us out of the mire of the World that we may not sink down and be drown'd in it Deliver us from those worldlings who have made choyce of this present Life for their portion S. Gregory Overwhelm them with an abundance of your riches and of your treasures wherewith they may satiate their cupidity But as for us who have placed our treasure in Heaven our Heart is where our Treasure is Grant then O my God that we may perfectly renounce all the goods of the Earth and that we may surmount all the miseries of our Nature 2 Cor. 4. Grant that we may carry evermore in our Body the death of our Lord Jesus to the end that the Life of Jesus may appear also in our Body For we who live for him are every hour deliver'd up to Death for him that we may live
from the Cell to Heaven The weight of earthly of affections hinders not her flight thither The Love of God wherewith she is enflamed lifts her above the Earth by a secret force like that of the Adamant They who are in so sublime an estate have not only acquired Sanctity but moreover the perfection of Sanctity and the very height of perfection it self But let them give thanks to the Authour of these Favours with a profound Humility For as Pride caus'd the most perfect Angells to fall from the height of Heaven so the same Pride hath caus'd many Solitary persons to perish If God inspires us with a contempt of this Life and an ardent desire of Death let us attribute to his sole Bounty such Sentiments which are so contrary to our Nature and let us humbly expect that he will hear our Prayers Article XXXIX Reflections of St. Bernard concerning the contempt which perfect Christians ought to have of Health and of Life From whence he takes occasion to speak of the Patience they are to practise in their Infirmities and of the Joy which the continual thought of Death affords them if they are true Disciples of Christ Jesus Hypocrates pretends to teach us the method of preserving and prolonging our Life Scr. 30. in Cant. Epicurus seeks the means to make us pass it over pleasantly But Christ Jesus instructs us to despise it and to lose it or to render it more short and more painfull Which side will you take To which of these Masters will you become Disciples In my Judgement the choyce contains no difficulty I am not in pain to determine my self either concerning the Sentiments which I ought to follow or concerning the Doctrine which I am to propose unto you I am no Disciple either of Hypocrates or of Epicurus I am the Disciple of Christ Jesus and I speak to the Disciples of Christ Jesus I should be a Prevaricator if I should teach you other Maxims than his Hypocrates undertakes to preserve the health of the Body Epicurus would banish from it all sorrow and cause Pleasure to reign in the Soul On the eontrary Christ Jesus my Master ordains us to endure Sicknesses to love Sorrows and to shun Pleasures Thus the Physitian ayms only to entertain for a long time the union of the Soul and of the Body the Phylosopher thinks on nothing but how to render this Union delightfull and both of them finally confine their spirit to this mortal and perishable Life which they cannot with all their Science either prolong one day or exempt one hour from miseries But Christ Jesus who levells his Doctrine only at an immortal Life and who knows that the Labours and Pains of the transitory Life are absolutly necessary to deserve the repose and the pleasures of Eternity speaks of nothing but of hating our selves and of loving sufferings and Death Doth he not tell us in the sacred Scripture He who hath a desire to save himself John 12.26 let him lose himself and he who shall lose himself for the love of me and of the Gospel shall save himself And what is it to lose ones self if it is not to abandon ones self to the misfortunes and to the pains of Life as a Martyr or to afflict ones self by voluntary Mortifications as a Penitent For 't is a kind of Martyrdom to suffer constantly Sicknesses or the injuries of Fortune and to Mortify the Flesh by a severe Penance and by a continual meditation of Death We have hereupon the example of the Holy Fathers I pist 384. and of our blessed Predecessours Why think you did they make choyce of shady low and moyst Valleys for the building of their Monasteries It was surely to the end that the bad Ayr causing frequent Infirmities to befall the Religious there residing those sicknesses might exercise their Patience and render Death to them more familiar and more desirable In a word my Brethren the Science of the saints consists in suffering for some time Pains and Afflictions Serm. 21. de dversis in order to acquire a happyness full of Joy and of Rest in Eternity Article XXXX Altho' the Book of the Imitation of Christ is in every ones hands yet it will not be unprofitable to extract out of it some pithy passages concerning the contempt of Life There is if we may say it a Moysture and an Vnction of Sanctity in all the Words of that Authour Imitation of Ch. which penetrate even to the bottom of the heart and which give an admirable Idea of the Death of the Saints There is surely Just cause of admiration that so many persons of Piety who continually read this Work and approve of it should still nevertheless passionatly love Life and tremble with fear when one speaks to them of Death FAir day of Eternity which art not darkned by the return of Night Calm and cleer day in which sparkle all the lights of soverain truth Lib. 3. c. 48. and cl 20. Celestial City Happy habitation of the Saints Residence full of joy Place of rest and of delights Lib. 1. c. 23. the possession whereof is not troubled by any of those changes which overthrow the felicities of the Earth Lib. 3. c. 49. c. When will this happy day shine for us When O Lord shall we see this dear Countrey And why do we not uncloath our selves even at this hour of every thing that hinders us from arriving there Alas the brightness of that day shines not yet to us but only afar off We make our interview of it only through the thick darkness of our ignorance Whilst the Citizens of that holy Jerusalem abandon themselves to the transports of their joy and incessantly chant forth Canticles to the glory of the Most high to the glory of his thrice holy Name the Children of Eve unfortunate Heyrs of her Chastisement creep upon the Earth and sigh at the length of their banishment Is that call'd a Living which we live here below All our days are full of darkness of bitterness and of sorrow Our Soul is there upon the rack through a continual fear of Sin Our Heart is there disquieted by a thousand solicitudes dissipated by curiosity transported by ambition blinded by errour beaten down by labour beseiged by temptations effeminated by delights languishing in poverty in Sicknesses and in all sorts of Calamities O Man acknowledge that if it is grievous unto thee to die it ought to be yet more grievous unto thee to live O the Strange stupidity of the human Heart amidst so many miseries Man is to day and to morrow he appears no more Nevertheless he scarcely ever thinks of the uncertainty of his condition Senseless that he is he makes projects for many years as if he were assured to live a long time he who hath not one sole day certain How many men have we seen whom Death hath surpriz'd in the height of their great enterprises How often
have you heard say of them who were seen yesterday so flourishing One of them was murdered the other was drown'd another died in playing and he who seem'd to have most health expir'd sitting at table One should never have done if one should run over all the manners of Death wherewith dayly and dismall examples strike our eyes and yet what profit do we make thereof He surely is wise and happy who passes on his Life without adhering to it who sees all it's moments slide away as if each of them were to be the last and who prepares himself at the beginning of each day with the same care which he would take upon the day of his Death One acquires this happy foresight by the contempt of the World by the desire of advancing in Virtue by a sincere repentance by a blind obedience to the orders of Providence by an uncloathing and despising of ones self accompanied with a firm resolution to suffer all for Christ Jesus Let us say to him with St. Paul Lord 2 Tim. 4. I am as a Victime which hath already the aspersion to be sacrificed the time of my departure draws near I have finished my course and no more now remains for me but to expect the crown of Justice which is reserved for them who have fought valiantly Behold the state in which a true Christian should be setled Ibid. for he who hath not fought according to the Law shall not be crowned Wherefore make your profit of the strength which God hath given you and whilst you you are in health lay up a treasure of good works for the other Life Perhaps you will not be any longer in the state of performing them when you shall fall into sickness and infirmity You are not surely so great a fool as to fancy you shall always enjoy health Alas how the sentiments of man change in the bed of Death All that he esteemed great in the World appear then to him little and despicable the sin which seem'd to him small and inconsiderable becomes great and monstrous But the change of his reason serves him no more but to plunge him in Despair Learn this sacred doctrine from the mouth of Christ Jesus Lib. 3. c. 49. He who loves his Soul shall lose it Joh. 12.15 Do not imitate those self-lovers of whom the Apostle St. Paul speaks with execration Tim. 3. For nothing is worthy of your love but God alone no not even your own Soul 2 Pet. 3. Jud. 10.8 which is the most perfect image of the Divinity Mat. 16.26 If you love it you shall lose it and if you lose your Soul Mark 8. what will it avail you to have gained the whole World For having once lost your Soul by what exchange can you recover it But we shall never comprehend this truth unless the love of Jesus serves us for our Master O love of my God when wilt thou clear my spirit When wilt thou set my Heart on fire When shall I enjoy thy delights When shall I contemplate the glory of thy Kingdom Comfort me in my Banishment Sweeten my Affliction I sigh after nothing but to be with you my beloved Lord for all the comfort the World offers me doth but augment my impatience and my sorrow When I have a will to raise up my self towards Heaven my Passions draw me towards the Earth Tottering between two so opposit motions I am a burden to my self and I desire ardently to die that so there may be an end of all these combats which put me in perpetual danger to be overcome by the Enemy of my Salvation If I had still any affection for the World I would entreat you to leave me in it but since I have setled all my affections upon you what is there that should stay me upon Earth If God doth you the favour to afford you these feelings do not attribute them to your self Rom. 12. I exhort you not to elevate your selves beyond that which you ought in the sentiments you have of your selves but to contain your selves within the limits of moderation according to the measure of the gift of Faith which God hath imparted to each one of you Jer. 13. 'T is to me alone to whom glory appertains says our Lord. Do not glorify your selves because I have spoken unto you Give to me the glory of all before darkness surprizes you By this means you will profit more and more in Virtue and I will give you a tast of all the sweetnesses of a holy Death Article XXXXI The admirable Prayses which St. Laurence Justinian gives to Death from whence he concludes that 't is no wonder if the most perfect among Christians are they who most desire it WE need not mervail that the Faithful who are penetrated with the Love of Christ Jesus De incendijs Divini amoris desire to die S. Laurence since he hath rendred Death desirable by dying for us In effect 't is no longer a punishment 't is a favour and a favour by so much the greater by how much the sooner obtained For that which was a chastisement of Sin is now a temporal recompense of good Works We ought therefore to look now upon it as the object of our sweetest hopes and not as the subject of our Fears O Death thou art no longer bitter thou art no longer cruel to the Disciples of Christ Jesus as thou wert formerly to the Children of Adam Let us bless our Lord for having made the most terrible of all Evils to be so wholesome and so universal a remedy which frees us from all sorts of infirmities and miseries which exempts us from the misfortunes of poverty from the outrages of our enemies from the attacks of envy from the disquiets of avarice and of ambition in a word from the tyranny of all our passions c which is yet more desirable which exempts us from Sin Death having thus changed its nature Christians have no longer any aversion against it but on the contrary they desire it as much as other men dread it and they invite to their assistance that which the World avoyds as the cause of its destruction Now altho' all true Christians have these thoughts we must nevertheless acknowledge that the Saints are infinitly more pierced therewith As they have more love for Christ Jesus they have also a greater desire for Death The ardour of this Love gives them such an absolute contempt of Life and such an impatience to get out of it that there is not a moment in which they wish not the separation of their Soul from their Body Nothing more nearly touches than these Words of David when having his Heart transfixed with the darts of Divine Love and as it were transported out of himself by a happy and holy fury he exclams Psal 83. â— My Soul languishes and is consumed with a desire to enter into the house of our Lord. My Heart burns with