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
my Soule too well to preferre the pleasures of my Body before thy cōtentmēt Take then thy pleasure in the Thoughtes of Eternity since for thy entertaynement they are able to produce the true Nectar of Heauen and the purest wine of the Earth And you profane Spirits who sacrifice not but to Voluptuousnesse confesse you now that Lazarus was a great deale more happy in his Misery then was the impious Richman in his Treasure The one dyed of Famine in the world and the other dyes of Thirst in Hell Agayne what a thing were it that all wedding-feasts should be held on the Sea where the least tempest might troble the solemnityes metamorphize them into a funerall pompe And yet neuertheles is it true that the soules of the world giue themselues to banquet vpon the current of the water of this life where rockes are so frequent and shipwracks so ordinary One drinkes a dying to the health of another who drownes in his glasse some moments of his life and so all Companions of the same lot approch without cease to the Tōbe which Tyme prepares them O how sweet it is said that Poet to banquet at the Table of the Goddes because in that of men the last seruice is alwayes full of Alöes But I shall say after him what contentments without comparison receyue they at the Angels Table It is not there where the soule is replenished with this imaginary sweet wyne nor with these bitter sweetnesses of the world The food of its nourishment is so diuine as through a secret vertue it contents the appetite without cloying it euer Sigh then my Soule after this Celestiall Manna alwaies fruitful in pleasures so sweet as desire and hope are alike vnprofitable in their possession if what they possesse in thē may be imagined to be agreable to them nor suffer any more thy body since thy reason may mayster its senses to heap on its dunghill corruption vpon corruption in the midst of its banquets and Feasts where they prepare but a rich haruest for the wormes If thy body be a hungry let it feed as that of Iob with the sighes of its Misery If it be a thirst let it be quenching its thirst with the humide vapour of its teares as that of Heraclitus And if it reuolt let them put it in chaynes and fetters for so if it dy in torments it shall be resuscited anew in Glory Sardanapalus appeare thou with thy Ghost heere to represent in Idaa those imaginary pleasures which thou hast taken in thy luxuries O it would be a trimme sight to see thee by thy lasciuious Elincea disguised in a womans habit hauing a distaffe by thy side and a spindle in thy hand what are become of those allurements which so charmed thy Spirit What are become of those charmes that so rauished thy soule What are become of those extasies which so made thee to liue besides thy self those imaginary Sweetnesses those delicious imaginations those agreable deceipts and those agreements of obiects where thy senses found the accomplishment of their repose Blind as thou art thou cōsiderest not awhit that Time seemes to bury thy pleasures in their Cradle and euen in their birth how they runne Post to their end through a Law of necessity fetched from their violence The profane fire wherwith thou wast burned hath reduced thy hart into Ashes with thy body and the diuine Iustice hath metamorphized the imaginary paradise of thy life into a true Hell where Cruelty shall punish thee without cease for the cryme of thy lust I confesse that the Sunne hath lent thee its light during an Age for thee to tast very greedily the pleasures sweetnesses of transitory goods But that age is past the sweetnesses vanished thy pleasures at an end and all thy goods as false haue left thee dying but only this griefe to haue belieued them to be true Brutish Soules who sigh without cease after the like passions breake but the crust of your pleasures and cry you out with Salomon how the delights of the world are full of smoke and that all is vanity He lodged within his Pallace 360. Concubines or rather so many Mischiefes which haue put the saluation of his soule in doubt I wonder not awhit that they hoodwincke Loue so to blind our reason for it were impossible our harts should so sigh at all houres after those images of dust but in the blindnes whereto the powers of our soule are reduced O how a Louer esteemes himself happy to possesse the fauours of his mistresse He preferres this good before all those of the earth besides And in the Violence of his passion would he giue as Adam the whole Paradise for an Apple his Crowne for a glasse of water I would say that which he pretends for a litle smoke He giues the name of Goddesse to his Dame as if this title of Honour could be compatible with the Surname she beares of Miserable He adores notwithstanding this Victime and offers Incense to it vpon the same Aultar where it is to be sacrificed His senses in their brutishnes make their God of it and his spirits touched with the same error authorize their Idolatry without considering this Idoll to be a worke of Art couered with a crust of Playster full of putrifaction and which without intermissiō resums the first forme of Earth in running to its end Would they not say now this louer were a true Ixion who imbraceth but the Clouds for in the midst of his pleasures death changes his Body into a shadow full of dread and horrour He belieues he houlds in his Armes this same Idoll dressed vp with those goodly colours which drew his eyes so in admiratiō of her he sees no more of her then the ruines of the pourtraite where the wormes begin already to take their fees Away with these pleasurs of the flesh since all flesh is but hay that death serues not himselfe of his Sith but to make a haruest of it which he carryes to the Sepulcher What Glory is there in the possession of all the women in the world if the fayrest that euer yet haue beene are now but ashes in the Tombe All the flowers in their features are faded as those of the Meadowes and the one and other haue lasted but a Spring Soules of the world demaund of your Eyes what are become of those obiects which so often they haue admired Aske your Eares to know where are those sweet Harmonies which haue charmed them so deliciously make you the same demaund of all your other Senses and they shall altogeather answere you in their manner how their pleasures are vanished in an instant as the flash of a lightening and that they find nothing durable in the world but griefe for the priuation of the things which they loued Admit you haue all sorts of pleasures at a wish for how long tyme are they like to last It may be a moment it may be an houre and would you
from thoughtes of its end the lesse approacheth it to God through those very thoghts Lord I will thinke of my last dayes sayd the Prophet for to remember thee This great King and great Saint withall did belieue the memory of Death was inseparable from that of his Mayster since dye he needs must one day himselfe O sweet Death and yet more sweet the remembrance if it be true that it powerfully resists agaynst all manner of vice We cannot know good spirits but throgh good actions there is none better in lyfe then then of preparing ones selfe for death Whatsoeuer we can do which is admirable indeed looseth the whole admiration if it haue not relatiō therunto nor may a man be thought to haue lyued but to dy rather who thinkes not euer of this sweet necessity whereof the law dispenseth with no man The greatest perfection consists for one to know himselfe so as the Spirit cannot make its Eminency appeare but by beholding it selfe in its nature created to render the continuall homage of respect to its Creatour And being abased in this necessary submission it should consider that its immortality boūds vpon eyther an eternall payne or els on a lyke glory and that it is not at all but to be happy for euer or eternally vnhappy Vpon these considerations it may found the verity of its glory since it could not tell how to purchase eyther a iuster or a greater then that of knowing well it selfe For as then its diuine thoughts make it to take it's flight towards the place of its origin not prizing the earth but to purchase there the merit of Crownes which it pretends to possesse in Heauen Among the infinite number of errours which make the greatest part of the world to be guilty of crime this same is one of the most common of al To esteeme forsooth those extremely who are eloquent be it of the tongue or pen and to put them in the rancke of the more excellent Spirits As those also who through a thousand sleights being al very criminal cā tell how to amasse a great deale of riches to ariue to the highest dignityes Thus do the spirits of the world and are so esteemed by such as they But I answere with the Prophet how all their wisedome is folly before God The good spirits indeed are alwaies adhering to good and there is no other in lyfe then that to be allwayes thinking of death for to learne to dy well Since in this apprentiship only are comprized all the sciences of the world Eloquennce hath saued neyther Cicero nor Demosthenes Riches haue vndone Cresus greatnesses haue thrown Belus King of Cyprus out of his Throne into a dunghill To what purpose serues it to know how to talke well if we speake not of things more necessary and more important of our saluauation To what end serues it to be rich since we must needs be a dying miserable On the other side there is no other riches then that of Vertue and I had much rather possesse one aboue then the crownes of all the Kings of the World below What pleasure may a man take to behold himselfe raysed to Thrones since he must needs in a moment be descending into the Sepulcher What is become of all those who haue beene mounting the degrees of Fortune beene seene on the top of most eminent dignities Disastres or time which changes all things haue let them fall into the Tombe so as there remaynes no more of thē but the bare remembrance that sometymes they haue beene Consider we then and boldly let vs say how it belongs to good Spirits only to be euery houre thinking of Death since we dy euery hower That these thoughtes are the most sublime where with a good soule may entertaine it selfe That of al the wayes which may lead vs to Heauen there is none more assured then that of continually thinking of the last instant which must iustify or condemne all the other of our life for that our actiōs take their Rule frō these thoughtes to receiue the price of them All the rest is but vanity and meere folly Out of these thoughtes there is no good Out of these thoughtes there is no repose Who thinks not of death thinks of nothing since al seeme to termine at this last moment The most happy are miserable if this thoght make not vp the greatest part of their happines And the richest are in great necessity if they dreame not of that of their mortall condition Whatsoeuer is said if Death be not the obiect of the whole discourse they are but words of smoke that turne into wynd Whatsoeuer is done if Death be not the obiect of the actions all the effects are vnprofitable In fine all glory all good all repose all the contentment of the world consists in thinking alwayes of Death since these thoughtes are the only meanes to atteyne the eternall felicity wherto they termine And a generous Spirit cannot giue forth more pregnant proofes of its goodnes then in thinking on the Death of the body whiles euen of this moment depends the life of the soule How those spirits that thinke continually of Death are eleuated aboue all the Greatnesse of the Earth CHAP. V. IT is impossible to know the world without contemning it since the disastres and miseryes wherewith it is stuft are the continuall obiects of this knowledge And from the point that our iudgment hath broken the visards of the false and imaginary goods which vnder the maske of their goodly apparences deceyue our will it suddenly abhors in them that very same which passionately heertofore it seemed to cherish Whence it happens that we can neuer enter into knowledg of the world but we acquit our selues of it at the same time throgh a sorrow for not hauing despised it sooner since all its goods are but in apparence onely and its euils in effect So as if it be a Tree we may boldly say that miseryes are the leaues therof misfortunes the branches and death the fruit And it is vnder the shadow of this vnhappy Tree where our forefathers haue built our first tombe Man may seeme to disguise himselfe if he will vnder the richest ornaments of Greanes with the fayrest liueries of Fortune Well may he trample Scepters and Crownes vnderfoot in the proudest condition whereto Nature and Lot might haue raysed him vp He is yet the same I meane a peece of corruption shut vp in a skin of flesh whereof the wormes haue taken possession already from the momēt of his birth Let him measure as long as he will a thousand tymes a day the ample spaces of the world with this proud ambition to make a conquest of them all yet he must be fayne to let them fall if he would find the true measures of them without compasse enclosed all within seauen foot of earth which shall marke out his Tombe If he assemble with the same ambition all the Thrones of Kings
is the frailest in the world is not so frayle as your nature is whatsoeuer is more variable heere beneath is not so changeable as your being is I dare hardly eye you any long tyme for feare least euen while I looke vpon you you vanish from my eyes since you dye euery hower Flatter not your selues my Dames before your Glasse your body is euen iust of the same nature with the shaddow which you see therin You are indeed nothing But if you force me to say you are somthing you are a meere dunghill couered with snow a sinke of infection enuironed with flowers a rich coffer full of wormes and in a word an abridgement of all the miseryes of the world You Courtiers take a pride forsooth for hauing caryed away a thousand Fauours froÌ„ the hands of Ladies either through the force of your spirit or thorugh the charms of your subtilties One bragges for hauing enthralled a Lady with the chaynes of her owne hayre Another for inueagling a new Mistresse in his loue through letters written with his owne haÌ„d There one more perfect theÌ„ the rest shal be publishing his triumphes Heere another more happy yet shal auouch al his passioÌ„s to haue beene crowned There shal not faile some one that wil be ordinarily busiyng his spirit with these vaine thoughts that he was euen borne into the world to tempt the pudicity of Ladyes so louely he is But let vs pul the wings of this proud one make these bodyes of earth to walke vpon the earth who rayse their Spirits vpon Thrones of smoke belieuing they do well Thou that vauntest thy selfe for enthralling thy mistresse with her owne chaynes what glory it is whiles the hayre which so charily thou keepest within a box of muske are but the rootes of lice which shall putrify in sight and thou shalt sent them anone in despight of al thy powders perfumes So as if thou wilt needs haue me call those wreathes of excremeÌ„ts so full of infection by the name of chaynes they are euen the chaynes which the Deuill put into thy hands to help thee to draw that body which thou hast idolatrized into Hel but takest not heed the while that in drawing it thither they draw thee and haling it thither they hale thee also Behould a trimme peece of Glory to be proud off Thou that hast yet more secret tyes of Friendship with a Lady written with her hand and with her bloud if thou thinkst so thou art rich indeed if thy treasure consist in a peece of paper bespotted ouer blurred with blacke or red yet to heare thee speake of this fauour of hers they would verily say thou possessedst the Empire of the world An intolerable vanity the while For admit that all the fayrest Ladies of the world had signed to thee with their guilty and corrupt bloud that they loued thee perfectly indeed on which side wouldest thou find thy glory in these assurances In so promising their loue to thee they but promise thee to get thee damned since a loue so vnlawfull as that leades soules into Hell And And dost thou make any reckoning of these promises then poore soule All the testimonyes of their passions do witnes thy folly agaynst thy selfe and takest thou pleasure to blind thy selfe with their hood not to see the precipices that beset thee round Thou imaginest it strayght to be a great honour to be fauoured of Ladyes represent to thy selfe what a glory it were for thee that a peece of Clay being quickened with lyfe should seeme to be beloued of a Dunghill Whiles thou becommest thus an Idolatour of a beautifull body thou euen adorest the wormes the infection and corruption it selfe where with it is stuffed What a crime is this And thou Companion of vanity and folly at once that so vauntest thy selfe to haue dispeopled the earth of Myrrhes to crowne thy amourous triumphes withall tell me what is become of this glory and of this contentment which thou seemest to exalt so much I graunt thou hast trampled on flowers But where art thou now If therein thou hast found the way of roses thou shalt enter anone into that of Thornes For this is the order and course of things in the world that Pleasure begets Sorrow Eyther thy delighs are past or present if past thou art already in the Hell of their priuation if present thou art lykewise in another Hell of their cryme and of the apprehension to loose them In so much as which way soeuer thou admirest thy fortune if it be a body misfortune is the shadow What glory doest thou thinke thou hast gotten by the victory of thy guilty enterprises Thou hast peopled Hell with an infinite number of soules Are not these very glorious actions trow you Thou hast lent thy cunning to the euill spirits to deceyue thy neyghbours as if he were not deceaued inough with his owne deceypts and yet still thou braggst thereof thereby â—o heape cryme vpon cryme I summon you Courtiers to appeare in â—hought and imagination vpon the thorny bed where you shall cast forth to the winds â—his breath of life and to represent withal to your self before hand once a day the horrour amazement you shall then haue of your â—elfe when you shal be calling to mind the â—essons of the vanity and folly which you haue giuen to an infinite number of feeble â—pirits whose companions in losse you haue â—uer beene Put off the tyme to this last hower to make your accompt of the fauours which you haue euer receiued from Ladyes if you wil know the true price of them TheÌ„ euen then it is when you shall feele very liuely the assaults of your guilty conscieÌ„ce the crust of your pleasures shal be broken you shall playnely see what lyes within Your spirit vnmasked of the veyle of your passions shall sensibly discerne the truth of its passed offences but there is no more returne to be had vnto life to do pennance in for them You must go further theÌ„ sorrows What sorrow soeuer I am able to expresse is no part of that which you shall suffer All torments whatsoeuer being ioyned together haue not gal inough to compreheÌ„d the least part of the bitternes of that cruell Adieu which is then to be made to the world TheÌ„ it is I say that you shall sigh but not of loue Then it is that you shall play the extasyed and dead person not in presence of your Mistresse but before your crucified Iudge Your tongue so eloquent before shal be then struck dumbe in punishment of your too much speach So as of force shall you court Death in your fashion and according to the sad humour which shall then possesse you You must of necessity be playing your part in this last momeÌ„t vpon the theater of youâ— bed I would be loath for my part to troublâ— the Reader with the faces which you shalâ— make it sufficeth that you imagine the one part and that you
I doubt very much least death do astonish you but if you neuer do thinke vpon it it will astonish you a great deale worse when you shall see it indeed If to liue and dy be but one and the selfe same thing make the Thought of death while you liue so familiar to your selfe that you neuer thinke of any other thing since you neuer do other thing but dy So as if to feare it and neuer to thinke of it do make its visage the lesse hideous I would counsayle you to banish this Thought out of your spirit but so as you be in good estate But on the contrary the forgetfulnes you haue of it makes it so dreadfull vnto you at the least remembrance therof that comes into your mynd as you seeme almost to be in danger of dying by the only feare of dying I cannot abide the weaknes of those spirits who apprehend an euill so much which they cānot auoyd whereas the euill of the feare which they haue is often tymes a great deale more bitter then that which they feare But the only meane to be cured of this feare is to liue alwayes in that of God For the strōgest apprehension of Death proceeds from the great number of the Offences which one hath committed in his life A good man feares rather to liue too long then to dy too soone because he hopes for the recompence of his trauayles at the end of his course whiles the wicked can attend but for the chastizement of his sins So as for to banish this feare from our soule we had need to haue banished the offences thence The innocēt hath no feare but for the iudgement of God this feare is inseparable frō his loue he feares him not but through loue so as this very feare produceth contētment and banisheth sadnes in the meane tyme. I leaue you this truth to meditate vpon that a life of Roses brings forth a death of Thornes Let vs say now for Conclusion of this worke that if one will auoyd this manner of Death he must alwayes be thinking of Death There is nothing more sweet then these thoughts nothing more welcome thē this remembrance Without the thoughts of Death there is no pleasure in life without the thoughts of Death there is no comfort in anoyes without the thoughtes of Death there is no remedy for our euils In fyne to finish all he who is alwayes thinking of Death doth thinke continually of the meanes of attaining eternal life O sweet thoghtes I would not haue my spirit to be capable of a thought but onely to thinke euery moment of death since it is the onely good the onely contentment and the only Repose of lyfe A goodly Consideration and very important both for lyfe and death CHAP. XXI I SHOVLD thinke there were no greater pleasures in the world then to contemne thē all at once since in effect the best spirits do neuer find repose but in the contempt thereof I know well there are certayne chast Pleasures which we cannot misse but as the soule hath its senses affected lyke vnto the body we are to hinder our spirit from mixing its feelings with those of Nature euer feeble and frayle therby not to tast its delights too deliciously Our iudgement hath beene giuen vs as a Torch to guide our steps by our actions and our thoughtes in this sea of the world wherein we are as Slaues in the Galley of our bodyes and the pleasures we seeke therein are the rockes where we find our shipwracke I know well also that we are to be strongly armed for to defend our selues while our proper senses do so warre vpon vs. But in this manner of combat the excesse of payne produceth the excesse of glory let vs breake the crust to see this verity discouered The greatest Saynts and the wisest men haue beene forced to confesse after a thousand proofes of experience that we can not tast any manner of contentment without the grace of God Thou Couetous man in vayne thou rests thy vn-rests on the coffers of thy treasures I deny thee to be held content for if thou reasonest euen reason condemnes thee If thou seruest thy selfe of thy iudgement to be able to do it what argument soeuer thou makest it but fully concludes agaynst thy opinions So as thou cāst neuer enter into the knowledg of thy vayne pleasures without departing from that of thy selfe In a word thou canst not be a man and be content togeather in thy miserable condition since reason and thy contentmēt can neuer subsist in one subiect Thou Ambitious man I would lend thee wings for to fly to the heauens of fortune it seemes to me already that I see thee seated in her throne but looke what greatnes soeuer thou possessest thou dar'st not say for al that thou wert well content for feare the truth should happē to bely thee And knowest thou not how Ambition and Repose do alwayes breake fellowship the one with the other That Pleasure and Feare cannot couple together and that desires as well as hopes do make the soule to be thirsty Represent to thy selfe then the disquietnes which thou findst in thy greatnesses since thy Ambition cannot limit its ayme within their fruition How the pleasures of thy possessiōs are mixt with the feare of their short durance that by vehemently wishing more more thou makst thy selfe vnhappy In such sort as thou maiest not dare to cal thy selfe happy without flattering thy selfe or rather without blushing for shame You Courtiers let me see the pictures of your felicities bring to light what seemes most to afford it the lustre and splendour it hath I graunt that in the midst of the spring tyme of your life loue and fortune with a prodigall hand haue bestowed vpon you what they had most rare beautifull with them yet would you dare to maynteyne with al this that you are content during the reigne of your Empire Whereas if any one haue the boldnes to perswade weake spirits thereunto let him truly recount vs the history of his pleasures I know that he will streight be shewing vs some Roses but I know withall that he wil be hiding the Thornes vnder their leaues as frayle as his contentments though they were of the flowers of a restles remembrance gathered in the sad memory of things past since delights are of the same nature alwayes dying and subiect to receiue their tombe frō the very same day they first sprong vp As for the presents of Fortune if she giue them with one hand she takes them away agayne with the other So as her fauorites are ordinarily the most vnhappy of all because that in snatching away the goods from thē agayne which she hath once bestowed vpon them she dragges them often along for to bury thē vnder their ruines And will you call that a pleasure My Dames you have but one fayre wedding day in all your lyfe whose feast you do secretly celebrate in
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
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
Monarch who had so many markes of immortality with him be the prey of wormes sport of the winds what shal be your lot Whereto may Fortune seeme to reserue you Go to then I graunt you whatsoeuer you can possibly demaund I affoard your ambition an age of lyfe an Empire of a new world a happy successe to all your desires What shall become of you after all this since this long lyfe this glorious Empire all your felicityes togeather must haue an end with this world As often as you shall issue forth of your condition for to enter into the forgetfulnes of your selfe you do send your thoughtes into this tombe and you shall suddenly return from this wandering Do not flatter your selfe your Crowne is but of earth as the head that weares it Your Scepter is but a sticke of wood subiect to corruption as your hand is that holdes it and the rest of your ornaments are but a worke of wormes wherof you are the prey Iudge you then whether your vanity can subsist any long tyme vpon such feeble foūdations or no. You are accustomed lykely at such time as you build some proud pallace or other to go a walking in the compasse thereof taking pleasure to admire the goodly scituation where you haue destined the place of your dwelling do you the like with your tombe go visit euery day the solitary place where you are to lodge for so long a tyme and this wil be the onely meane to make death euen as sweet vnto you as life it selfe and to bury your pride your vanity and al your vices together before your body according to the saying of the Wiseman for he that thinkes continually of death shall neuer stray from the way of vertue He that thinkes alwayes of Death is the Richest of the world CHAP. VII I MERVAILE much that Cicero should put this Truth into Paradox That he forsooth is the richest who is most cōtent whiles there is nothing more certaine then it For the Soule hath no other riches more properly her owne nor more in affect then that of contentment In what condition soeuer where a man finds himselfe with repose of Spirit may he well be said to be perfectly rich True treasures are not of gould of siluer or of other things of like valew but rather of good actions since by their price one may buy Eternity Besides whose fruition what may we desire Besides whose glory what may we pretend Withall the riches of the world we can buy no more then the world it selfe Alas what good in the possession thereof if it be wholy stuffed with euils See we not euery momēt how it quite destroyes it selfe and that it runnes without cease to its end as the Sūne to its West The richest are ordinarily the most vnfortunate of all others for that hauing by lot of nature some little Empire on earth they fall absolutely to attribute the Soueraignity thereof to thēselues in the vayne thoughts of their greatnesses seeme neuer to sigh but for them nay they euen dy with them O dreadfull Death He then may be only said to be rich who makes profession to follow vertue his way being bordered with Thornes represents to vs that same of Death whose Roses are at the end of the course to crowne our labours withall In so much as we cannot loue vertue but with the continuall thoughts of Death since to see its Body we had need to seuer our selues from the shadowes of the Earth We much admire some feeble ray of its image only vnder the obscure veyle of our mortall condition but that only in idaea and as it were in a dreame We had need to awake yet once more and come to be reborne from our ashes againe as the Phenix in the presence of the great Sunne of Iustice. I would say that we must needs dy one day for to reuiue eternally in the accomplishment of all the felicities of Heauen Alexander hath no greater a treasure then that of his hopes The ayme or scope of his Fortune was alwayes vpon the future and what goods soeuer he possessed he euery day yet attended for more as if he had some intelligence with Chance to receiue from its prodigall hand all the effects of his desires The merchants that go in pursuite of riches vpon the Ocean liue not but of the hope of their mercinary cōquest How miserable soeuer they find themselues on the way of their nauigation they so mainly forget themselues in the sweet thoughts of their expectation as they thinke themselues the richest of the world and they wil sooner be loosing their lyfe in the midst of the rockes then the beliefe they haue thereof So much their imaginary hope seemes to carry them away Let vs say then more boldly and with more reason that such as termine all their hopes to the Eternity as to the onely obiect which is able to quench the thirst of our soules still increasing more and more may be sayd before hand to be the richest of the Earth For their hope is not that of Alexander whose vowes were addressed to Fortune much lesse that other of those old Martiners as changeable as the sea that guides them but another quite different that for foundation hath but Vertue and in the hope of possessing one day the treasures of Heauen they take the paynes to purchase them through the continuall meditation of Death as the onely lesson that teacheth vs to liue well They passe deliciously their tyme in the expectation of their last day on earth and like to those merchants stand counting all the houres of their voyage with impatient desire to see out of hand the very last of them so to be alwayes perfectly happy And howbeit this voyage be long and troublesome yet they esteeme thēselues so rich withall as they would not change their hopes for all the gold of the world In effect we must needs confesse that the only hope of glory ioyned with vertues is the only good of life for the atteyning one day of the possession of them where a holy soule may find the full accomplishmēt of its desires But it is yet to be considered that this hope and all these vertues can haue no surer foundation then that of the continuall thoughtes of Death since all our good doth absolutely depend of this last houre wherein the important sentence of our life or Death is to be signified vnto vs. Hence it is that mā being holily rich heapes vp good workes during the course of his life as diuine Treasures to enrich his soule with all the eternall felicities which may accomplish it with glory and contentment He liues alwayes contēnt and rich at once in this pleasing thought forsooth that he will neuer seeme to dye vntill such tyme as he be quite dead Whence it happens that he tramples vnderfoot very generously all sorts of greanesses and riches through the knowledge he hath of those which his spirit possesseth
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
its necessary sighes do pray his tongue ech one in its fashion to disclose their crymes but the same cannot speake the rigour of a thousand punishmēts makes it to be dumbe On the other side his spirit in the disorder wherein it finds it selfe can haue no other thoughts then those of sorrow for eternally abandoning that which it loues so deerly He knowes not how to expresse a last farewell to his pleasures Whatsoeuer represents it selfe to his eyes are so many obiects that renew his payne If he take heed vnto the beames of the Sun with peere into his chamber window for to take their leaue of his eyes he remembers immediately all the pleasures he hath taken through help of their fayre light in a thousand and a thousand places where it hath beene a witnes of those errors of his If the weather be foule he thinkes vpon that tyme which he hath ill spent imagining withall that the Heauens being touched with compassion of his disasters do euen weepe before hand and bewayle the losse they endure of his Soule It seemes to him that the sound of the bells doth call him to the tombe and that of the Trumpets vnto iudgement He sees nothing about him that astonishes him not He heares nothing that affrights him not He feeles nothing but his miseryes his tōgue is all of gaule wheresoeuer he layes his hand vpon himselfe he touches but the dunghill of his corruption If his spirit seeme to returne to him againe by intermission of the traunce wherein he is he quite forgets the hope of good through the ill he hath committed not being able to dispose his soule to any repentāce The sight of his friends importunes him that of his children afflicts him and the presence of his wyfe serues him as a new addition to his sorrow They behold him not but weeping he is neuer strooken with other noyse then with that of the cryes and plaints of his domestickes The Phisitian goes his wayes out of the chamber to giue place to the Cōfessour And the one knowing not how to cure the body the other hath difficulty to heale the soule by reason of the despayre wherein he is entangled Iudge now to what estate must he needs be brought His speach that fayles him by litle and litle His sight is dimme with his iudgement and all his other senses receyue the first assaults of Death They present him with the Crosse but in vayne for if his thoughtes be free he thinkes but of that which he beares of force They may cry lōg inough to him to recommend himselfe vnto God the deafnes he hath had before to his holy inspirations doth astonish him now also at this houre How many deaths endures he before his death How many dolorous sighs casts he forth into the ayre before the breathing his last All the punishments of the world cannot equall that which he endures For passing out of one litle Hel of paines he enters into a new which shall not haue end but with eternity What good then would he not willingly haue wrought But his wishes are as so many new subiects of griefe in this impotency whence he is neuer to see himselfe deliuered Into what amazement is he brought The Sunne denyes him its light so as if he behold his misfortunes it is but onely by the light of the mortuary Torches which giue him light but to conduct him to the tombe O how the Houre of these last extreames drawes forth in length Ech moment of his lyfe snatches out the hart from his bosome euery moment without putting him to death On which side soeuer he turnes himselfe both horrour and despaire beset him round He caryes Death in his soule for that which he is to incurre Death on his body for that which he now endures Death in his senses since they dye by little and little in so much as all his life is but a liuing Death that consumes him slowly to reduce him into ashes Being now brought to these streights the wicked spirits imploy the last endeauors of their power for to carry away the victory after so many conflicts had What meanes of resistance where there is no pulse no motiō no voyce no tongue His spirit is now in extremes as well as his life and his hart being hardened is now ready to send forth its last sigh in its insensibility as if it dyed in dying His eyes are now no more eyes for they see no more His eares may no more be called so for they heare not awhit and all the other senses as parts precede the ruine of their whole The Soule only resists the cruell assaults of Death in beholding its enemyes in continuall expectation of their prey but the hower presseth it must surrender O cruel necessity In fine for to finish this bloudy Tragedy the Deuils carry it away to Hell for recompence of the seruices which it had yealded to them And this is the lamentable end of synfull Soule You Soules of the world who liue not but throgh the life of your pleasures behold the fearefull Death where the life termines And since the heauens the earth the elemēts whatsoeuer els in nature moues changes without cease do you thinke to find any constancy and stability in your delights Know you not that with the very same action wherewith you runne along withall your contentments you run vnto your Death and that during the tyme it selfe that Tyme affoards them vnto you he takes euen them away from you We loose euery houre what we possesse what care soeuer we take in conseruing the same My Ladyes Keep well your gallāt beauties from the burning of the Sunne If that of the Sunne or of the fire be not able to marre them yet that of Age and Tyme doth ruine them notwithstanding all the industry of Vanity which you haue to employ about them Put your fayre Bodyes into the racke of another body of iron to conserue the proportion therof yet tyme but derides your inuentions For it assayles you within and you defend your selues but without only You haue dared the Heauens inough with an arrogant eye you must needs be stooping with the head now at last for to looke on the earth whence you are formed You must needs bow the necke to the yoke of your miseryes and resume agayne the first forme of your corruption In going to dauncing to feasts and to walke abroad you go to Death In vayne do you command your Coachman then to cary you to such a place since Tyme as I haue said conducts him also that caryes you thither In so much as on which side soeuer you turne your selues you approach vnto the tombe After you haue tasted all the pleasures of the world what shal be left you of all but a griefe of the offences in the soule the sad remembrance of their priuation in the memory this sadnes in the hart for hauing made it to sigh so after your ruine
dayly to increase through thy guilty cares and thy fruitles watches If the vaine Glory to be accōpted rich possessed thee thou hast beene neuer so but in opinion and apparence only since in the state whereunto age now bringes thee all the Riches thou hast heaped togeather and which yet thou art gathering are fruits whereof thou hast but the flowers by reason of their frailty Thou mayest carry the key of thy Coffers long inough thou art but the keeper of thy treasures and as a meere Depositarian thereof for thy auarice lets thee frō disposing them and consequently to gyue forth thy selfe to be the true owner of them If thou couldst haue any moment of cessation in thy folly I would demaund the reason of thy actions to know where thy hopes do bound and what glory is the But therof It may be thou wouldst dye rich what feeblenes knowest thou not thou hast need but of a sheet only for to couer thy Miseryes withall Hast thou heaped vp money in thy Cabinets with purpose to erect thee some stately Monument after thy death Foole as thou art thou hast past all thy lyfe without considering where thy Soule shall lodge after thy death and thou studiest now to prepare a house for thy body or rather for the worms which shall gnaw the same as if putrifactiō were some rare and precious thing If thou hast a desire to leaue thy children rich true Riches consist not but in Vertue onely with its sweet liquour oughtest thou to milch their infancy to murse them continually with its diuine nourishment Suppose through excesse of happines thou gainst the whole world a sport of Fortune and by a blow of a sad mischance whereto thy vices shall haue smoothed the way thou loose thy Soule in the last moment of thy lyfe what glory past what-domage present The Reigne of thy Greatnesses shall finish so and that of thy paynes shall then begin Verily thou shalt haue possest all the goodes of the earth but in truth likwise shalt thou feele therfore all the euills within the order of a diuine Iustice which shall make thy dolours eternal Be thou cōuinced thē by reason not to follow the way of a lyfe the most vnhappy that euer yet quickned the body and confesse with me how there hath beene but one Matthew Apostle whom this vast sea of the world hath saued from the shipwracke whereinto the weight of gold siluer went about to engage him Bias despoyled himselfe indeed of all his Riches but not of all his errours Laertius Neuola puts ouer the right of Maiority to his brother and consequently his richest pretensiōs but in despising one good he imbraced not the other Consider I pray to what point of pouerty was the Richman brought vnto in an instant since of all his Riches there was not left him meanes to buy a drop of could water to quench his thirst Confesse then Miser thy pleasures to be false and how they subsist not in thy spirit but through a deceiptful opiniō that blindes thee to cast thee into a pricipice The keeper of a Vineyard that resembles thee without imitatiō of thee is a great deale more happy then thou art for after he hath stirred the earth he gathers at the end of his daies-worke in the repose a sweet sleepe the fruit of his paines and thou on the contrary the thornes of thy thornes since an eternal torment succeds the dolours of thy dying life So as Couetous men in seeking of gould siluer in the bowells of the earth find hell without piercing into it which is the Cēter therof Thou proud and ambitious Man tell vs I pray thee what are thy pleasures I know well how thy Spirit full of vanity pitches thy hopes vpon the highest Throne of Fortune that blind in the knowledge of thy faults thou findst no glory which is not far beneath thy merit But wherin consists thy Contentment if it be to expect Thrones and attend to Crownes Did one euer see a feebler pleasure since the nature of it is nothing els but wind and smoke Thou tramplest the Earth with a disdainfull foot as if thou hadst reasons inough to persuade vs that it were not thy Mother Thou out-facest the heauens with an arrogant looke and the force of thy ashes is dispersed in the aire not being able to fly any higher Againe thou makest no doubt that if the Heauens haue found thunder to punish the insolency of the Angels it were like to want new punishments to chastize the vanity of men It may be thou flatterest thy selfe with this vaine beliefe that being raysed aboue the common sort thou hast beene formed in some new kind of mould and that thou art so dispensed with in this law condemning vs to the sufferance of all manner of paines Returne I pray thee from this wandering and open thine eyes to consider thy ruine Thy Pride and thy Arrogancy are the plumes of the Peacocke sustayned by two foundations of Misery figured by the feet of this Foule Carry thy head as high as thou wilt it must necessarily fall of its pride in declining to the Earth And if thou letst thy selfe be dazeled with the glittering of thy sumptuous Apparell this verity conuinceth thee of folly since all thou wearest is but the worke of wormes nor do I wonder now that they deuoure vs so after death for it is but to pay themselues for the paynes they haue taken in laying the web wherewith we couer our nakednes So as if thou regardest thy selfe neere thou shalt see how the wormes of thy apparell couer those of thy body that therefore thy Arrogancy hath no other foundation then that of thy corruption And vpon this assurance tell me now what are the delights of thy vanity And you great Monarkes who find the Earth too little to bound within its spaces the extent of your Empire do you I pray make vs participant of your Contentments and tell vs something of the Sweetnesses which you tast during the raigne of your absolute powers It is a pleasure you will say to commaund a world of people to impose thē lawes after your owne humour A feeble Pleasure Whiles it proceeds but from a Soueraignty which subiects the spirit of him that commaunds because indeed he ought to correspond with the actions of his Subiects You do what you will your selfe It is true but that is not the way to content your selfe if your deeds be not exempt frō reproch If they feare you it is but for the knowledge they haue of your Tyranny If they loue you to what end serues the affectiō of your subiects while you seeme not to merit the same You go into al places whersoeuer your desires call you without euer meeting with resistance in your designes but why follow you not the path of vertue Displeasures rather then delights attend you at the end of the Carriere I know well how Greatnesses Riches and all Magnificences
Death first descend into Hell during your life and represent to your selues liuely the deplorable estate whereto the miserable are reduced I meane those Soules which haue lodged heretofore in as beautifull bodyes as yours are and pursue you with your thoughts the toilesome occupations whereunto they are eternally condemned You rise in the morning to take a liquour all of Amber for its sweetnes and of Pearles for its price and going forth of your bed you enter into your sumptuous Cabinet where your faire Mirrour attends you to represent you as faire as euer There it is where you consider at leasure the dumbe Oracles of its deceiptfull Glasse of purpose to learne of it some new secret or other in fauour of your Beauty be it to shadow it with a little fly or with some tresse of hayre disheueled in disorder on your cheekes vpon your brow least the wrinkles cause not a feare in your Thralls What new charmes what graces neuer seene before do you borrow from the care you take to cultiuate the Flowers of your face of Earth You passe ouer at your pleasure three houres of tyme and a full whole day if the humour take you to teach your eye with what grace how and with what force it should cast its looke for to wound the hart withall with what smiles and with what proportion you should open the mouth to let the doble rowes of your pearles appeare or rather to speak truly of your rotten teeth which incessantly deuoure the pleasures of your life You shamefully lay open your bosome all of Snow which melts with the glaunce of the eye and by a meanes which you haue taught it you make it sigh with pauses for to moue the rocky harts with its sweet pulses What crime so playne to make the whole world guilty For the furthering of these errours you dresse vp your body all of dust earth with the richeh Ornamēts and then it is that imitating the Peacocke you waxe proud of the beauty of your plumes without casting your eyes the while vpon the miseries which serue you as foūdation What turnings windings of Vanity do you fetch before your glasse But which way soeuer you turne if you open the eyes of your spirit you shall see the corruption which you couer vnder a fraile skin bedawbed al ouer with a plaister Issuing forth of your Pallace you go to visit the Temples to profane them for insteed of adoring God who hath guided your steppes thither you make your Vassals to adore you there through a guilty power snatch away the vowes and sacrifices which belong to their Creatour You are now returned againe into your Pallace you count the number of your cōquests your naughty Genius alwayes in action to deceiue you persuads you to belieue that your eyes worke the same miracles which the Thunders do since they wound the harts without any feeling of the bodyes and in this beliefe you commit a thousād crimes of vanity In the meane while a Page comes to call you to the Table where all the delicious meates are serued in by order before you And during the repast after an eloquent Parasite shall haue charmed your Spirit with the melody of prayses which you deserue not a Musike of instruments charmes your eares with new allurements of Sweetnes They present in the plates of your latter course the sweetest spoyles of the foure Seasons And while of custome the Musitians are tuning the Motect of your Perfections you sollicitously enquire of some one of yours what manner of weather it is If it chāce to rayne you shut your selfe vp after dinner within your Cabinet of pleasure for to heare in particular the sweet voyce of a Page whome you cause to sing the Ayre which best agrees with your passion The rayne is blowne ouer and the Caroch attends you at the gate of your Pallace for you to walke abroad in the company of those who are most agreable to you into the Forrests and Parkes whose wayes are bordered with flowers and enriched al along with cleere fountaynes where the water appears so limpide as persuades harts with the dumbe language of their purling to quench in their siluer streames the thirst they feele In the meane tyme the Sun is set to cause freshnes to arise from the humide imbraces of its deere Thetis and then it is when the Aire powres on the plants the drops of the sweate which the heate of the Sun hath caused in it during the tyme of its course whiles the Birds fall a bathing thēselues in singing in the litle waters of this dew The night comes slowly on and its returne seemes to bring you a thousand pleasures for during the repose of its reigne an infinite number of sunnes whereof art is the workeman hung vpon the seeling of your chāber illumine its obiects for to make the beauty therof appeare What idle discourses are there broght forth in iest The flatterers play anew their parts in the presēce of your blind Spirit and in their Comedyes they represent to you the fabulous History of your Actes worthy of prayse with warrant of their credit but full of reproch according to the truth The Tyme notwithstanding is slipt away they call you to Supper where the appetite is contented with delicious meates whose sweetnes art seemes to vary diuers wayes After the repast you returne to your Cabinet or rather into your terrestriall Paradise where the Musike attends you for to charme the senses of your eare since those of the eyes of the smell of the tongue haue beene satisfyed already The Clocke which euer wakes doth admonish you without thinking of it how the night is slid away for to fetch vs day agayne which sweetly constraynes you to passe from the repose of your waking to that of sleep for to giue more liberty to your spirit to entertayne it selfe with dreames But then to bring you a sleepe more sweetly you still cause delicious Musike to be sounded euen to your bed The Damosells bring in your bags prepare your night-stuffe which attends you at your glasse where before you vndresse your selfe you admire anew the Sweetnesses the Graces the Moles the Charmes the Allurements the curiosity of your Beauty with an Idolatrous eye you often cōtemplate the imaginary perfections of your face Thē glaūcing your eyes on the very same eyes you loue them now more then euer in remēbraūce of the new cōquests they haue made that day your cheeks of lilyes roses your necke of iuory your snowy bosom alabaster hāds these are the foolish termes of your seruants which haue part in this affection as hauing contributed their power to the achieuemēt of these conquests And then do you cultiuate yet more according to your custome by a guilty care those Roses and those Lillyes of your feature that they wither not in the absence of the Sun I would say during the Ecclypse of that of your Eyes whose sweet
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