A new history of ecclesiastical writers containing an account of the authors of the several books of the Old and New Testament, of the lives and writings of the primitive fathers, an abridgement and catalogue of their works ... also a compendious history of the councils, with chronological tables of the whole / written in French by Lewis Ellies du Pin.

Of Death.

S. Chrysostom's Homilies are full of excellent Instructions concerning Death; wherein he shews, that instead of fearing Death, a Christian ought to desire it.

To what purpose, saith he in the 5th. Homily of Statues, should a Man fear sudden Death? Is it, because it brings us the sooner to our Haven, and hastens our passage to an happy life? What folly is this? We expect eternal felicity, and those good things which no Eye hath seen, no Ear heard, and which ne∣ver entred into the Heart of Man; and yet we doe not only put off the fruition of them, but we fear it, yea we abhor it.

He tells us in other places, That this life, being but a journey, a train of Miseries, a banishment from our own Country, &c. we should be very miserable if it never were to end.

See the 21st. and 32d. Homilies upon Genesis; the Discourse upon these Words of S. Paul, Be not sorry for the death of your Brethren; where he carries this Notion further, and saith, That we should be as glad to go out of this World as Criminals are to get out of Prison. See the 1st. Homily upon Genesis, the 14th. upon the Epistle to Timothy, and the 7th. upon the Epistle to the Hebrews.

Last of all, He hath one Sermon to prove that Death is not to be feared.

From these Principles, he concludes in several places, that we ought not to weep for the Dead, but on the contrary rejoyce; for that they have quitted this miserable life, to enter into one which is both eternal and happy. See the 34th. Homily upon S. Matthew, the 62d. upon S. John, the 21st. upon the Acts, the 6th. upon the Epistle to the Thessalonians, and the 4th. upon the Epistle to the Hebrews.