The holy court in five tomes, the first treating of motives which should excite men of qualitie to Christian perfection, the second of the prelate, souldier, states-man, and ladie, the third of maxims of Christianitie against prophanesse ..., the fourth containing the command of reason over the passions, the fifth now first published in English and much augemented according to the last edition of the authour containing the lives of the most famous and illustrious courtiers taken out of the Old and New Testament and other modern authours / written in French by Nicholas Caussin ; translated into English by Sr. T.H. and others.

THE THIRD PART. Touching the State of the other World.

XV. MAXIM. Of DEATH.

THE PROPHANE COURT.	THE HOLY COURT.
That it is to no purpose to think upon death so far off, and that it always cometh soon enough without thinking on it.	That the best employment of life is to bewel prepared for death, and that good thoughts of death, are the seeds of immortalitie.

1. IT is a strange thing that men, being all made out of one and the same mass, are so different in beliefs, in reasons, in customs, and actions, as the Proteus in Poetical fables. Our manners dai∣ly * 1.1 teach us a truth, which says: There is not any thing so mutable upon earth, as the heart of man.

Yet we see in the world many honourable persona∣ges, and good men who travel apace to this trium∣phant Citie of God, this Heavenly Jerusalem, look∣ing on the blessings of the other life, with an eye pu∣rified by the rays of faith, and expecting them with a hope, for which all Heaven is in bloom. But there * 1.2 are an infinite number of black souls marked with the stamp of Cain, who consider all is said of the state of the other world, as if it were some imaginary Island, feigned to be in the Ocean to amuze credulous spi∣rits, and fill them partly with pleasing dreams, partly with irksom visions.

If these people could find some apparent proofs, they would easily perswade themselves there were no death; but their senses convinced of the contrary from experience of all Ages, they believe that which they dare not think on▪ and commonly die after so bruit∣ish a fashion, that a man may say, They had convert∣ed the lights of an immortal spirit wholly into flesh.

But you, generous souls, whom at this present I in∣tend to guid through the hopes and terrours of the other life, observe this first step you must make, to en∣ter into a new world with constancy, not unworthy a soul sensible of its immortality.

2. Life and death are two poles, on the which all * 1.3 creatures rowl: life, is the first act moveable and continual of the living thing; death, the cessation of the same act. And as there are three notable actions in things animated, the one whereof tendeth to nourishment and increase, the other to sense, the third to understanding, so there are three sorts of lives, * 1.4 the vegetative, the sensitive, and the intellectual: the vegetative in plants, sensitive in beasts, the intellectual, which onely appertaineth to God, Angels, and men. The intellectual life is divided into two other, which are the life of grace and glory. In Heaven (the place of things eternal) reign those great and divine lives which never die and which are in a perpetual vigour, being applied to the first source of lives, which is God. But in the more inferiour rank of the world are dy∣ing lives, of which we daily see the beginning, pro∣gress, and end. Here properly is the dominion of death, and our onely mystery is to die well. Some do

it of necessity, others every day anticipate it by vir∣tue. Now it is my desire here to shew you; That death in the state wherein the world is at this present, is a singular invention of Divine Providence, whether we consider the generality of men, whether we look on the vicious, or fix our thoughts on the just.

3. Some complain of death, but you would see * 1.5 much other complaints, if in such a life as we live, there were no death. You would see men worn with years and cares, daily to charge altars with vows and pray∣ers, men insupportable to all the world, irksom to life, inexpugnable to death, men old as the earth, inces∣santly calling upon the hour of death, and almost eat∣ing one another with despair. God hath herein (saith Plato) well provided; for seeing the soul was to be * 1.6 shut up in the body as in a prison, he hath at least made it chains mortal.

What makes you so much desire life? I find (saith the worldling) it is a pleasure to behold the light, the star, elements, and seasons. There will be much more delight to see them one day under your feet, than there is now to behold them over your head? Are there now so many years you have been upon the earth, and have you not yet sufficiently looked up∣on the elements? There were certain people among the Pagans, who by laws forbade a man of fifty years to make use of the Physitian, saying, It discovered too much love of life; and yet with Christians you may find at the age of four-score, who will not en∣dure a word of the other world, as if they had not yet one days leisure to look into it. But I must still * 1.7 perform the actions of life. Have you not done them enough? See you not that to live long, is to be long in the entertainment of travel and misery, which ex∣tend their power over our heads, according as the web of our life lengtheneth? Do you not consider we are in this life as fish in the sea, perpetually in fear of nets or hooks? Will you not say, we live here in the midst of misery and envie, as between Scylla and Charybdis, and that to decline once perishing, we dai∣ly make ship wrack? Notwithstanding we are pleased with life, as if man were not so much a mortal crea∣ture, as an immortal misery.

Do you not know life was given by God to Cain, * 1.8 the most wicked man on earth, for a punishment of his crime, and will it rest with you as a title of re∣ward? There is great cause to desire life. Were there no other miseries, (which are but too frequent) this anxiety and turmoil of relapsing actions would tyre us. What is life but clothing and unclothing, rising and down-lying, drinking, eating, sleeping, ga∣ming, scoffing, negotiating, buying, selling, masonry, carpentery, quarreling, cozening, rowling in a laby∣rinth of actions, which perpetually turn and return, filling and emptying the tub of the Danaïdes, and to be continually tied to a body, as to the tending of an infant, a fool, or a sick man? That is not it which withdraweth me, (say you) But I must see the world, and live with the living. Had you been all your life * 1.9 time shut up in a prison, and not seen the world but through a little grate, you had seen enough of it. What behold you in the streets but men, houses, hor∣ses, mules, coaches, and people, who tumble up and down like fishes in the sea, who have many times no other trade, but to devour one another, and besides some pedling trifles hanged out on stals? When I have seen all this but for half an hour, I say: O God, how little is the world? Is it for this we deceive, we swear, and make a divorce between God and us!

But admit we were not interessed in this action, must we not rest on the law of God, who maketh life and ordaineth death, by the juridical power of his wisdom, ever to be adored by our wills, though little penetrable to understanding? Will you I pronounce an excellent saying of Tertullian: The world is the * 1.10 belly of Nature, and men are in it as children in the mothers womb: the birth of men are the world's child-bearings, death its lying in, and deliveries. Would you not die, to hinder the world from bring∣ing forth, and unburdening it self by the way the Sovereign Master hath appointed it? We have seen Tyrants of all sorts, some invented exquisite tor∣ments and tryals, others forbade eating and drinking, some to weep, some caused children to be taken from the teat, to strangle them and cut their throats, as Pharaoh and Herod. But never was there any amongst them, who forbade women with child to be deliver∣ed. The world hath for a long space been big with you, and would not you have it to be delivered at the time God's counsels have ordained? Were it a handsom thing think you to see an infant presently to have teeth, and articulate speech, and yet (if it might be) would stay in the mothers womb, using no other reason but that there is warm being.

Judge now, and take the even ballance; if the world be the belly of nature, if this good mother bare us the time Gods providence appointed, if she now seek her deliverie, that we may be born in the land of the li∣ving, in a quite other climate, another life, another light, are not we very simple to withstand it, as little infants who crie when they issue out of bloud and or∣dure, at the sight of day-light, yet would not return thither from whence they came.

4. Behold the Providence of God in that which * 1.11 concerneth death in the generality of all men. Let us see in this second point the like providence towards the wicked, the vicious, rich, and proud Great-ones, who spit against Heaven. We must first establish a most undoubted maxim, that there is nothing so unhappy as impunity of men abandoned to vice, which is the cause the paternal providence of God arresteth them by the means of death, dictating unto them an excel∣lent lesson of their equality with other men.

Mortals circumvolve in life and death, as Heaven on the pole artick and antartick, from east to west; the same day which lengtheneth our life in the morning, shorteneth it in the evening, and all Ages walk that way, not any one being permitted to return back a∣gain▪ Our fore-fathers passed on, we pass, and our po∣steritie follows us in the like course; you may say, they are waves of the sea where one wave drives another, and in the end, all come to break against a rock. What a rock is death? There are above five thousand years that it never ceaseth to crush the heads of so many mortals, and yet we know it not.

I remember to this purpose a notable tradition of the Hebrews, related by Masius upon Josuah, to wit, * 1.12 that Noah in the universal deluge which opened the flood-gates of Heaven, to shake the columns of the world, and bury the earth in waters, in stead of gold, silver, and all sort of treasure, carried the bones of Adam into the Ark, and distributing them among his sons, said: Take children, behold the most precious inheritance your father can leave you: you shall share lands and seas, as God shall appoint; but suffer not your selves to be intangled in these vanities, which are more brittle than glass, more light than smoke, and much swifter than the winds. My chil∣dren, all glideth away here below, and there is no∣thing which eternally subsisteth. Time it self which made us, devours and consumeth us. Learn this les∣son from these dumb Doctours, the relicks of your grand-father, which will serve you for a refuge in your adversities, a bridle in your prosperities, and a mirrour at all times.

Moreover, I affirm death serves for a perfect lesson of justice to the wicked, which they were never wil∣ling throughly to understand, for it putteth into e∣quality all that which hazard, passion, and iniquity had so ill divided into so many objects.

Birth maketh men equal, since they receive nought else from their mothers womb, but ignorance, sin,

debility, and nakedness; but after they come out of the hands of the midwife, some are put into purple and gold, others into rags and russets: some enter up∣on huge patrimonies, where they stand in money up to the throat, & practise almost nothing else through∣out their whole life, but to get by rapine with one hand, and profusely spend with the other. Some live basely and miserably necessitous. A brave spirit, able to govern a large Common-wealth, is set to cart by the condition of his poverty. Another becomes a servant to a coxcomb, who hath not the hundreth part of his capacity.

It is the great Comedie of the world, played in sun∣dry fashions, for most secret reasons known to Di∣vine Providence; would you have it last to eternity? See you not Comedians having played Kings and beggars on the stage, return to their own habit, un∣less they day and night desire to persist in the same sport? And what disproportion is there, if after eve∣ry one have played his part in the world, according to the measure of time prescribed him by Provi∣dence, he resume his own habit?

I also adde, it is a kind of happiness for the wicked to die quickly, because it is unfit to act that long, which is very ill done. And since they so desperately use life, it is expedient, not being good, it be short, that shortness of time may render the malice of it less hurtfull. If examples of their like, who soon die make them apprehensive of the same way, and how season∣ably to prepare for death, it is a singular blessing for them. But if persisting in contempt, they be punished, it is God's goodness his justice be understood, and that it commandeth even in hell.

5. But if at this present you reflect on the death of the Just, which you should desire, I say, God's Provi∣dence there brightly appeareth in three principal things, which are, cessation from travels and worldly miseries, the sweet tranquility of departure, and frui∣tion of crowns and rewards promised.

First, you must imagine what holy Job said, That * 1.13 this life is to the just as a myne, wherein poor slaves are made to labour, that they may hit upon the veins of gold and silver. And Tertullian had the like con∣ceit, when he said, The first man was clothed with skins by the hand of God, to teach him he entered into the world as a slave into a myne. Now as these hirelings, who cease not to turn up the earth with sweat on their brows, tears in their eyes, and sighs in their hearts, no sooner have they met with the hoped vein, but they rejoyce and embrace one another, for the content∣ment they take to see their travels crowned with some good event: So after such combates, such rough temptations, so many calumnies, so many litigious wranglings, such persecutions, such vexations and toils which chosen souls have undergone in the thraldom of this body, when the day comes wherein they by a * 1.14 most happy death, meet the veins of the inexhaustible treasure, whereof they are to take possession, they con∣ceive most inexplicable comfort. Then is the time they hear these words of honey: Go confidently faith∣full souls, go out of those bodies, go out with alacritie, go out in full peace and safetie: the Eternal Mountains, to wit, the Heavens, and all the goodly companie of An∣gels, and most blessed spirits which inhabit them, will re∣ceive you with hymns of triumph: Go confidently on, behold God, who is readie to wipe away your tears with his own fingers. There shall be no more death, no more tears, no more clamours, no more sorrows, behold a state wholly new, what repose, what cessation of arms, what peace!

Do you not sometimes represent unto your self these poor Christians (of whom it is spoken in the acts of S. Clement) men of good place, banished for * 1.15 the faith, who laboured in the quarreys of Chersone∣sus, with a most extream want of water, and great in∣conveniencies, when God, willing to comfort their travels, caused on the top of a mountain a lamb mar∣vellously white to appear, who struck with his foot, and instantly made fountains of lively water to distil? What comfort, what refreshment for the drowthie * 1.16 multitude! But what is it in comparison, when a brave and faithful Christian, who hath passed this life in no∣ble and glorious actions, great toyls and patience, be∣holds the Lamb of God Omnipotent, which calleth him to the eternal sources of life? What a spectacle to see S. Lewis die, after he had twice with a huge army passed so many seas, tempests, monsters, arms, & battels for the glory of his Master? What a spectacle to see S. Paul the Hermit die, after he had laboured an hun∣dred years under the habit of Religion.

The second condition of this death, is great tran∣quility; for there is nothing at that time in all the world able to afflict, or by acts unresigned to shake a soul firmly united to its God. But what, say you: Just men if they be rich, do they not bear in this last agonie some affection to their riches and possessions?

Nay, so far is it otherwise, that they with alacrity go out of all worldly wealth, as a little bird from a silver cage, to soar in the fields at the first breath of the spring-tide. I pray tell me, that I may pronounce before you an excellent conceit of S. Clement the Ro∣man, * 1.17 in the third of his Recognitions: If a little chicken were shut up in an egg, the shell whereof were guilded, and set out with curious and delicate paint∣ings, and had reason, and choice given it either to remain in this precious prison, or enjoy day-light with all other living creatures under Heavens vault, think you it would abide in a golden shell, to the pre∣judice of its liberty? And imagine with your self, what are all the brave fortunes which have so much lustre in the world? they are guilded shells, no way comparable to the liberty of Gods children. A good rich man dieth as Abraham, who says in Origen: My * 1.18 God, if I have been wealthy, it was for the poor; I went out of my house, to become a house for those who stood in need of it, and am perswaded, that thou hast made me a Steward of thy goods, to distribute them, and not to brood them, as the hen her eggs.

But if the Just man die poor, he is by so much the better pleased to forsake wretched lodgings of straw and morter, to go into an eternal Palace. But doth it not trouble him to leave a wife, children, and allies? He leaves all that under the royal mantle of the eternal Providence, and firmly believes, that he who hath care of the flowers in the field, birds, bees, and ants, will not forsake reasonable creatures, so they rest in their duty. But if they must suffer in this world, he will make of their tribulations, ladders and foot∣stools of their glory.

What shall we say of the body? Doth not the soul ill to leave it? The body is to the soul, as the shadow of the earth in the eclipse of the Moon. See you not how this bright star, which illuminateth our nights, seemeth to be unwillingly captived in the dark, but sparkleth to get aloft, and free it self from earthly im∣pressions? So the faithfull soul readily untwineth it * 1.19 self from the body, well knowing it hath a much better house in the inheritance of God, which is not a manufacture of men, but a monument of the hands of the great Workman. Represent unto your self Job on the dung-hill, a great anatomy of bones co∣vered with a bloudy skin, a body which falleth in pieces, and a soul on the lips, ready to issue forth as a lessee from a ruinous dwelling. Think you he is trou∣bled to leave his body? Nay, rather he dieth as a Phenix on the mountain of the Sun, in the odours of his heroick virtues.

But that which maketh this death more sweet and honourable than any thing, is the hope of beatitude, whereof I will speak in the nineteenth Maxim. Note, that worldlings die here, some like unto swallows, others as spiders; the evil rich, pass away as swallows,

who leave no memory of them, but a nest of morter and straw; for such are all the fair riches of the earth. The ambitious perish as spiders, who present wretch∣ed threeds, and some little flies in them; such are al∣so the snares, pursuits, and businesses of the world. But the Just forsake us like the silk-worm. For this little creature, had it understanding, would be well pleased issuing forth of her prison, to become a but∣terflie, to see the goodly halle of great men, Church∣es and Altars to smile under her works. What a contentment to the conscience of a just man in death, to consider the Churches adorned, Altars covered, poor fed, sins resisted, virtues crowned, like so many pieces of tapistry, by the work of his hands! Hath he not cause to say: I entered into the list, I valiantly * 1.20 fought, I have well ended my race, there remains nothing more for me, but to wear the Crown of Justice, which God keeps for me as a pledge.

6. I yet come again to thee, (worldly man) who so much fearest this last hour. Learn from this discourse to fortifie thy self against these vain apprehensions of death, which have more disturbance for thee, than the Sea surges. Is it not a goodly thing to see thee tremble at thy enterance into so beaten a path, wherein so many millions have passed along before thee, and the most timorous of the earth have fi∣nished their course as well as the rest, without any contradiction? All that which seemeth most uneasie in this passage, is much sweetened by two considera∣tions, the first whereof is, That God made it so common, that there is no living creature exempt; and the other, That to dispose us to a great death, we eve∣ry night find in our sleep a little death.

Wilt thou then still doubt to set thy foot-steps firmly in the paths which the worlds Saviour, with his holy Mother, imprinted with their tracks? Af∣ter thou hast slept so many years, and so long passed through the pettie miseries of death, shalt thou never come to the great? Why art thou so apprehensive of death? Sickness and miseries of the world will one day perhaps make thee desire that, which thou now most fearest. Were it not better to do by election, what must be suffered by necessity? Hast thou so lit∣tle profited in the world, that thou hast not yet some friend, some one dearly beloved, who passed into the other life? Needs must thou have very little affection in store for him, if thou fearest the day, which should draw thee near to his company.

What is it maketh all these apprehensions arise in thy mind? Is it so ill with thee to forsake a world so treacherous, so miserable, so corrupt? If thou hast been therin perpetually happy, which is very rare, cou∣ragiously set a seal upon thy felicity, and be not wea∣ry of thy good hap, which may easily be changed in∣to a great misfortune. Many have lived too long by one year, others by one day, which made them see what they feared more than death. But if thou be afflicted and persecuted in this life, why art thou not ashamed when God calleth thee to go out faintly, from a place where thou canst not stay without calamitie?

Deplorest thou thy gold, silver, costly attire, houses, and riches? Thou goest into a Countrey where thou no longer shalt need any of that. They were remedies given thee for the necessities of life, now that thy wounds shall be cured, wouldest thou still wear the plaisters? Bewailest thou loss of friends? There are some who expect thee above, which are better than the worldly, more wise, more assured, and who will never afford thee ought but comfort.

Thou perhaps laments the habit of body, and pangs of this passage. It is not death then which makes thee wax pale, but life thou so dearly lovedst. It hath been told thee in the last agonies of death, the body feeleth great disturbances, that it turns here and there, that one rubs the bed-cloths with his hands, hath convulsions, shuts fast the teeth, choaketh words, hath a trembling lower lip, pale visage, sharp nose, troubled memory, speech fumbling, cold sweat, the white of the eye sunk, and the aspect totally changed.

What need we fear all that which perhaps will ne∣ver happen to us? How many are there who die ve∣ry sweetly, and almost not thinking of it? You would say, they are not there when it happens. Caesar the Pretour died, putting on his shoes, Lucius Lepidius striking with his foot against a gate, the Rhodian Em∣bassadour, having made an Oration before the Senate of Rome, Anacreon drinking, Torquatus eating a cake, Cardinal Colonna tasting figs, Xeuxes the Painter, laughing at the Picture of an old woman he was to finish, and lastly Augustus the Monarch, performing a complement. But if something must be endured, think you the hand of God is stretched out to torment you above your force, or shortened to comfort you? He will give you a winter according to your wool (as it is said) sufferings according to the strength of your body, and a crown for your patience.

You fear nothing (say you) of all that I mention, but you dread Judgement: Who can better order that than your self? Had you been the most despe∣rate sinner in the world, if you take a strong resolu∣tion to make hereafter an exact and effectual conver∣sion, the arms of God are open to receive you. He will provide for your passage, doubt it not, as he took care for your birth. He will accompany you with his Angels, he will hold you under the veil of his face, under the shadow of his protection, & if he must purge you by justice, he will crown you by his mercy.

The fifteenth EXAMPLE upon the fifteenth MAXIM. The manner of dying well, drawn from the Model of our LADIE.

ONe of the most important mysteries in the world, is to die well. It is never done but once, and if one fail to perform it well, he is lost without recovery. It is the last lineament of the table of our life, the last blaze of the torch extinguish∣ed, the last lustre of the setting Sun, the end of the race, which gives a period to the course, the great seal which signeth all our actions. One may in death correct all the defects of an ill life, and all the virtues of a good are defaced, and polluted by an evil death. The art of dying well being of so great consequence, it seems God permitted the death of his Mother, to teach us what ours ought to be. The death of the Virgin Mary, is the death of a Phenix, which hath three conditions, resolution, disengagement, and union.

I begin with resolution of conformity to the will * 1.21 of God, which is the first quality should be had to die well. That is to hold life in your hands, as a loan borrowed from Heaven, ever ready to restore it at the least summons you shall have from the will of God. It is not perfection not to care for life through impatience, nor to have an ear not deaf to death, through faintness of courage. This resigna∣tion was most excellent, and very admirable in our Ladie, for two reasons. First, the great knowledge she had of beatitude. Secondly, the ineffable love she bare to her Son. For I leave you to think, if our desires follow the first rays of our knowledges, and if we be so much the more earnest after a good, as we are the better informed of its merit, what impa∣tience * 1.22 must our Ladie needs have of life, since she received a science of beatitude, strong, powerful, and resplendent above all other creatures, God giving her leave to see in Calvarie the abyss of his glories, in the depth of his dolours.

It is no wonder we so very easily affect life, seeing we are as the little children of a King, bred in the house of a shepheard, as the gloss upon Daniel report∣eth, touching the education of Nebuchadnezzar. We know not what a scepter, Kingdom, or crown is, in this great meaness of a life, base and terrestrial. But had we talked onely one quarter of an hour with a blessed soul, and discoursed of the state of the other life, our hearts would wholly dissolve into desires. Which makes me say, It was an act of a most heroical resolution in the blessed Virgin, in those great know∣ledges she had of Paradise, to have continued so ma∣ny years in this life, and if you consider the most ar∣dent love she bare her Son, who was the adamant of all loves, you shall find the holy Virgin, who had born all the glory of Paradise in her womb, more me∣rited in this resignation she made, to see her self sepa∣rated the space of thirty years both from Paradise and her Son, than all the Martyrs did in resigning them∣selves to deaths strange, bloudy, and hydeous.

There is nothing comparable to the martyrdom of * 1.23 love. It is an exhalation in a cloud. It is a fire in a myne; a torrent shut up in ditches; a night of separa∣tion lasteth Ages, and all waxeth old for it, but its desires. Now this holy Mother to be thirty years up∣on the cross of love without repining, without com∣plaint or disturbance, peaceably expecting the stroke of her hour, what virtue, and how far are we from it.

So now adays throughout the world you see no∣thing * 1.24 but mourners, who are loth to live, or faint-hearted that would never die. Some crie out: Come to me, (O sluggish death) thou hast forgotten me, what do I here? I am but a living death, and an unprofitable bur∣den to the earth? Ah (death) hast thou ears of brass, and diamond for me alone? Canst thou not shut up mine eyes, which I daily drown in my tears? Much otherwise, when we see one die young, fresh, flourishing, in ho∣nour, wealth, health, prosperity, we crie out upon death as if it were cruel and malicious. To take (saith one) this young betrothed, this poor maid, this husband inten∣ded, this excellent man, who so well played the Rhodo∣mont: to lay hold of one so necessarie for the publick, in the flower of his age! Why took it not away this cripple, this beggar, who hath not wherewith to live? Why took it not away this other, who daily dies, yet cannot die once? O our manners! O dainty conceits! O fit language! Were it not some little humane respect, we would take Gods Providence by the throat.

Whom do we contend withal? The indifferency we daily see in the death of men, where as soon the young is taken as the old, the happie as the miserable, the Emperour as the porter, is one of the greatest signs of Gods Providence to be admired Why then com∣plain we that God maketh us to leave life when he pleaseth? It is not a punishment, but a wholesom do∣ctrine, by which we learn the power of the Divine Wisdom. First, when we entered into life, our advise was not required whether we would be born in such or such an Age, such a day, such a year, such an hour; so when we must be gone from hence, there is no reason to ask our counsel. Let us onely yield up this last loan, and not murmure against the father of the family. Let us not say, this man should go before, and this after. Who knows them better than God? You complain this miserable creature lives so long, how know you whether he accomplish the years of his purgatory? How know you whether God suffers him to become a spectacle unto you of his patience? Why gnash you your teeth for anger, that this man rich, that man fortunate, and that other so qualified, is taken hence in his flourishing youth? How know you the misadventures and shipwracks which attended him, had he still continued in the world? You say, he was necessary? why, God will shew there is not any thing necessary in the world but himself. * 1.25

Poor eyes of a bat, which see nothing but darkness, you would give eyes to Argus, and light to the Sun. If you desire to take part in the prudence of the just, handle the matter so, that for the first sign of a good death, you be ever indifferent to live or die, accord∣ding to our Ladies example. Daily expect death, stand perpetually on your guard. Do as the brave bird the Grecians call Onocratalus, which is so well practised * 1.26 to expect the Hawk to grapple with her, that even when sleep shuts up her eyes, she sleepeth with her beak exalted, as if she would contend with her ad∣versary. Know we are continually among rocks and dangers, that there needs but one hour to get all, or loose all, that the day of Judgement comes with the pace of a thief, and that we must be ready to re∣ceive it, and resolute to combat with death, to gain immortalitie. Hold this concluding sentence of * 1.27 Tertullian, as an Oracle: Amongst the rocks and shelves of this sea, called life, Christian faith passeth on, breaking the waves, filling the sails with Gods spirit, ever assured, yet ever distrustful, and perpe∣tually fearless, yet still carefull of the future. As for the rest, it sees under its feet an abyss not to be passed by swimming, and inexplicable ship wrack for those who are drenched, a gulf which suffocates all such, as it once swalloweth.

The second quality of a good death, is the ready and constant adieu given to the world, as did the Blessed Virgin, who was so disengaged from it to∣wards death, that she touched not earth at all, but with the soles of her feet.

Philo saith, God gave Moses leave to live very long, perpetually in glorious actions, in contemplations, in lights, so that his body was worn, wasted, and almost wholly vapoured out into the substance of his spirit. By a much stronger reason may one say the like of the Mother of God▪ For it is certain her life was no∣thing else but a divorce from the world. But as Physitians observe, that the breath of storks is pu∣rified and made sweet in the proportion as they in∣crease in age, in such sort, that becoming old, they yield forth most odoriferous exhalations: So the life of this holy Mother, which was ever hang∣ing about the heart of her Son, ever in the contem∣plation of the great mysteries of our salvation, perpe∣tually in the furnace of love, wholly transformed it self into her well-beloved, as one wax melted into an∣other, as a drop of water poured into a great vessel of wine, as incense wasted into flames. O what sweet∣ness of breath! what odour of virtues in her old age! Her body seemed to be exhaled, and to vapour out * 1.28 all in soul; the soul, which is the knot of life, and which possesseth in us the most inferiour part of spirituality, dissolved wholly into spirit, which is in the middle, and the spirit melted entirely into the understanding, which hath the highest rank in the soul, and which bears the image of the most holy Trinitie. Her memory in a silent repose was freed from all rememberances of the world, her will re∣sided in languishing fervours, and her understand∣ing was wholly engulfed in great abysses of lights; there was not one small threed of imagination, which tied her to earth. O what an adieu to the world! It is very well declared in the Canticles by these * 1.29 words: Who is it that ascendeth through the desert, like a thin vapour composed of odours, myrrb, incense, and all the most curious perfumes.

Which saith in a word, the holy Virgin was whol∣ly spiritualized, wholly vapour, all perfume, all spirit, and had (as it were) nothing of body, massiness, or earth.

O how many unreasonably fail in this second con∣dition! When death comes to sound his trumpet in our ears, and saith to us: Let us go, thou must dislodge from thy lands & inheritances, never to return again, from thy kinred, from the house thy father gave thee, to wit, thy bodie; how harsh that is to ill mortified spirits,

and which hold of the world by roots as deep as hell, and as big as arms. Go out of thy land. O how hard is this first step, to go out of the land, to forsake the land, not at all to pretend to the land, to the gold, to the silver, to those jewels, that inheritance, to all that glorious glitter of fortune? See the first tor∣ment of worldly spirits. Such there have been, who * 1.30 seeing themselves in the last approaches of inevitable death, have swallowed their gold like pills; other to eternize themselves on earth, have caused formidable sepulchers to be built, wherein they put all their wealths, as the Aegyptian King Cheopes, who prostitu∣ted even his own daughter, to raise unto himself a Pyramid for burial, so enormous, that it seemed the earth was too weak to bear it, and Heaven too low to be freed from its importunity. Besides, he caused to be engraven upon it, that the manufactures alone of this sepulcher, had cost six millions of gold in cole∣worts and turneps. Others caused to be buried with them dogs, horses, slaves, apparrel, dishes to serve them in the other world.

Yea, it is not long ago, since there was found in * 1.31 Rome a coffin of marble eight foot long, and in it a robe embroidered with Gold-smiths work, which yielded six and thirty pounds of gold, besides fourty rings, a cluster of emeralds, a little mouse made of an∣other precious stone, and amongst all these precious magnificencies, two leg-bones of a dead corps, known by the inscription of the tomb, to be the bones of the Emperess Marie, daughter of Stilicon, and wife of the Emperour Honorius, who died before consummation of marriage. About twelve hundred years were pas∣sed, after she was buried with all these goodly toys, which (no doubt) gave much ease to her soul. My God, how are we tied to earth! Tell me not, the like is not done now adays, for it is worse, since they were buried after death with their riches, and you (O mortals) alive as you are, build your sepulchers there∣on. We see men, who having already one foot in the grave, if you speak to them of the affairs of their con∣sciences, all the spirit yet remaining, is perhaps for two or three hours besieged by an infinite number of thoughts of worldly wealth. Death crieth out aloud in their ears, saying: Go from thy land, and you pull it to you as with iron hooks.

After that cometh kinred, allies, table-frends, friends for game, buffons, amourists, and all the de∣lights of former companies. Some weep, others make shew of tears, the rest under a veil of sorrow, make bones-fires in their hearts, they seem all to appear a∣bout the bed, and to sing this sad song of S. Augustine: * 1.32 Alas, do you leave us, and shall we hereafter meet no more together? Farewel pleasing amities. Adieu feasts, adieu sports, adieu loves. This nor that will any long∣er be permitted from this moment for ever. Behold another very slipperie and dangerous step, notwith∣standing you must leave it: Death hasteneth, and says: Go from thy kinred.

In the last, the body and flesh is presented, which seems to say: Ah my soul, whither goest thou? My dear hostess, whither goest thou? Thou hast hitherto so tenderly pampered me, so pompously clothed me, so wantonly cherished me. I was thy Idol, thy Pa∣radise, thy little Goddess, and where will you put me? into a grave with serpents and worms? what shall I do there, and what will become of me? Behold a hard task, principally for such of both sexes, as have dearly loved their bodies, like the Dutchess of Ve∣nice, * 1.33 of whom Cardinal Petrus Damianus speaketh, who was plunged into sensuality with so much pro∣fusion, that she could not endure to lodge but in chambers full of delicious perfumes of the East, she would not wash her self, but in the dew of Heaven, which must be preserved for her with much skill. Her garments were so pompous, that nothing remain∣ned but to seek for new stuffs in Heaven, for she had exhausted the treasures of earth. Her viands so dain∣ty, that all the mouthes of Kings tasted none so ex∣quisite, nor would she touch her meat, but with gold∣en forks and precious stones. God, to punish this cursed superfluity, cast her on a bed, and assailed her with a maladie so hydeous, so stinking and frightfull, that all her nearest kin were enforced to abandon her, none staying about her, but a poor old woman alrea∣dy throughly accustomed to stench and death, yet could not this proud creature part with her infamous body but with sorrow. She was of those souls that Plato calleth Phylosemates, which tie themselves to flesh as much as they can, and after death would glad∣ly still walk round about their flesh, to find a passage into it again.

Know you what is to be done to die well? Cut off in good time, the three chains which straightly bind foolish and sensual souls. For the first passage that * 1.34 concerneth earthly goods, seasonably dispose of your temporal. Entangle not your hands for so short a time as you are to live in great affairs, perilous, and uncertain, which will perplex you all your life, and throw you down to death. Do not like evil travel∣lers, who stay to reckon and contend with their ho∣stess, when it is already fair day-light, and that the guid wrangles and sweareth at them. Digest your little business, that you may leave no trouble in your family after death. Make a Will clear and perspicu∣ous, which draweth not suits after it. Preserve your self carefully from imitating that wicked man, who caused all his gold and silver to be melted into one mass, to set his heirs together by the ears, who killed one another, sprinkling the apple of discord, and the object of their avarice, with their bloud. Say to your self, I brought nothing into the world, nor will car∣ry any thing away, no not the desire of it. Behold one part of my goods, which must be restored to such and such; these are true debts that must necessarily be discharged. Behold another for pious legacies. An∣other for alms to persons needy and indigent, another for my servants male and female, and my poor friends who have faithfully served me. They have wasted their bodies and lives, to contribute all they might to my will; there is no reason I should forget them. Nay, I desire mine enemies have some part in my will. As for my children and heirs, the main shall go to them, they will be rich enough, if they be virtuous enough. Be∣hold how the temporal should be disposed.

And for so much as concerneth kinred, give the benediction of God to your children, and all your family; leave worthy examples of contempt of the world, of humility, of patience, of charity: procure a full reconciliation with your enemies, entertain your friends with sage discourses, which may shew you gladly accept Gods visitations, that you die full of resolutions to prepare them a place, and that you expect from their charity, prayers and satisfactions for your negligence and remisness. If needs some small tribute must be paid to nature in two or three drops of tears, it is tolerable. But take away these whyning countenances, these petty furies, these merce∣nary weepers, who weep, not knowing why, nor for what they mourn.

As for that which toucheth the state of your bo∣dy, it would be a goodly thing for you to be wail it, after you have had so many troubles in it. Go out of it like a Tennant from a ruinous house, go from it as from a prison of earth and morter: Go out of it as on the sea from a rotten leaky ship, to leap on the shore, and care not much what will become of it af∣ter death, so it be on holy land. Souls well mortified speak not of flesh, considering the state of sin, but with horrour. Yea, we find in the bequests of one of the sons of S. Lewis, Count of Alencon, these words: I will * 1.35 the Tomb that shall cover my stinking flesh, exceed not the charge of fiftie livres, and that which encloseth my

evil heart pass not thirty livres. Behold how the son of one of the greatest Kings in the world speaketh of his body, and would you idolatrize yours?

Lastly, for the third condition of a good death, it * 1.36 must have union with God, whereof our Lady gi∣veth us a perfect example. For it being well verified by Theologie, that there are three unions superna∣tural, and as it were wholly ineffable, the first whereof is the sacred knot of the most holy Trini∣tie, which tieth three persons in one same Essence, the second, is the tie of the Word with humane na∣ture, which subsisteth by the hypostasis of the same Word, and the third, the intimate conjunction of a Son-God with a Mother-Virgin; I affirm, the Vir∣gin being a pure creature cannot equal either the union of the Trinity, or the hypostatical union, yet notwithstanding hath the highest place of all created unions; as she who was united to God when she li∣ved in the world, in the most sublime and sacred manner, the spirits of the most exalted Seraphins might imagine, which was most divinely expressed by S. Bernard: She entered into a deep abyss of divine * 1.37 wisdom, so that she was united to light inaccessible, so much as a creature might be permitted, not arriving to the personal union of God.

But saying this, I not onely speak of the union she had in quality of the Mother of God, being one same flesh, and one same substance with her Son, but of the union of contemplation, devotion, and sub∣mission to the will of God, which alone was the cen∣ter of her felicity, as witnesseth S. Augustine: My Mother whom you call happie, hath all her happiness, not so much because the Word was made man in her, as for that she kept the word of God, who made her, and who af∣terward allied himself to humane nature in her womb; as he would say, Our Lady was more happy to have conceived God in her heart, and continually kept spiritual union with him, than to have once brought him forth according to flesh.

We cannot arrive at this sublime union of the Mo∣ther of God: but howsoever at least in the last pe∣riod of thy life, having bid adieu to the world, and drawn the curtain between thee and creatures, en∣deavour to be united as perfectly as is possible, to thy Creatour. First by good and perfect confession of the principal actions of all thy life, Secondly by a most religious participation of thy viaticum in presence of thy friends, in a manner the most sober, well ordered▪ & edificative thou maist. In the third place seasonably receiving extream unction, thy self answering if it be possible, to the prayers of the Church, and causing to be read in the approaches of this last combate some part of the passion. Lastly, by the acts of faith, hope, charity, and contrition.

I approve not the manner of some, who make studied remonstrances to dying men, as if they were in a pulpit, nor of those who blow incessantly in their ears unseasonable words, and make as much noise with the tongue, as heretofore Pagans with their kettles in the eclipse of the Moon. We must let those good souls depart without any disturbance in the shades of death. S. Augustine would die in great silence, desiring not to be troubled with lamentations nor visits, for ten days together, where having hanged some versi∣cles of Psalms about his bed, he fixed his dying eyes upon them with a sweetness most peacefull, and so gave up the ghost. It is good to say:

My God I believe, assist my incredulitie. I know my * 1.38 Redeemer is living, and that I shall see him in the same flesh, which I at this present disarray. Though I must walk into the shades of death, I will fear nothing, be∣cause (Oh my God) thou art with me. What have I to desire in heaven, and what would I of thee on earth? My flesh and my heart are entranced in thee, O the God of my heart, and my portion for all eternitie. Wherefore art thou so sad (O my soul) and why dost thou trouble me? Turn now to thy rest, because God hath afforded thee mercie.

Behold how the Virgin, our Ladie died, behold how Saint Lewis died, behold how Saint Paula de∣parted, of whom Saint Hierom (a) 1.39 said: The holy Lady rendering up her life, put her finger on her mouth, as desirous to imprint the sign of the Cross upon it, turning the gasps of death, and last breath of the soul, into the praises of God, whom she so faith∣fully had served.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Diversitie of men.
• * 1.2

  Opinion con∣cerning the other life.
• * 1.3

  Life & death the two poles of the world.
• * 1.4

  Divers kinds of life.
• * 1.5

  Providence of God con∣cerning the sentence of death, in the generality of men.
• * 1.6

  Plato in Ti∣maeo. Pater misericors illis mortalia vin∣cula faciebat.
• * 1.7

  Ambr. l. 2. de Abel & Cain. Non advertitis senectutem hanc aerumna∣rum esse vete∣ranam, proces∣sionibusque ae∣tatis miseria∣rum crescere stipendia, Scyl∣l••o quodam usu circumsonari nos quotidianis naufragiis?
• * 1.8

  Revolution troublesom.
• * 1.9

  Baseness of the world.
• * 1.10

  Ʋterus naturae. An excellent cōceit drawn from the words of Ter∣tullian.
• * 1.11

  Providence in the death of the vicious Boet. l. 4. de consol. Cum supplicis carent, ines•• illis aliquid al∣teriu•• mali, ips•• impunit••s. S. Eucher. in paraenesi.
• * 1.12

  Masius in Jo∣suah. Notable action of No∣ah.
• * 1.13

  The sweetnes of the death of the just. Iob 3. Qui expectant mortem, quasi effodientes the∣saurum. Tert. de pal∣lio. Homo pellitus orbi, quasi me∣tallo datur.
• * 1.14

  Isaiah 38. In laetitia egre∣diemini, & in pace deduce∣mini: montes & colles can∣tabun•• coram vobis laudem. Apoc. 21. Absterget De∣us omnem la∣ehrymam ab o∣culis eorum, & mors ultra non erit, neque lu∣ctus, neque cla∣mor, neque do∣lor erit ultra: quia prima a∣bierunt, ecce nova faci•• om∣nia.
• * 1.15

  Acta Clement.
• * 1.16

  Psal. 35. Quoniam apud tefons vitae, & in lumine tuo videbimus lu∣cem.
• * 1.17

  Clemens Rom. Recognit.
• * 1.18

  Dives fui sed pauperi; extor∣ris patria, do∣mus nescius, ipse omnium fui domus, & patria: sciens me non incu∣batorem, sed dispensatorem divinae largita∣tis.
• * 1.19

  2 Cor. 5. Scimus quoni∣am si terrestris domus nostra hujus habits∣tionis dissolva∣tur, quod aedi∣ficationem ex Deo habemus domum non manufactam, sed aeternam in caelis. Job 29. 18. In nidulo meo moriar, & si∣cut Phoenix multiplicabo dies.
• * 1.20

  1 Tim. 4. Bonum certa∣men certav••, cursum con∣summavi, in re∣liquo reposita est mihi corona justitiae. Exhortation to such nice people as fear death.
• * 1.21

  1. Quality of good death, is the indiffer∣ency of time and manner.
• * 1.22

  Patience of our Lady to endure life.
• * 1.23

  Martyrdom of love.
• * 1.24

  Worldly ir∣resolutions of death. Boet. Carm. 1. Eheu cur dura miseros averte∣ris aure, Et stentes oculos claudere saeva negos?
• * 1.25

  Ʋn•• a••ulso non deficit al∣ter aureus.
• * 1.26

  Instinct of the Onocrata∣lus. Constancy of faith.
• * 1.27

  Tertul. Idol. c. 2. Hos inter sco∣pulos velisicata spiritu Dei fi∣des navigat, tuta si cauta, secura si atto∣nita. Caeterúm ineluctabile ex∣cussis profun∣dum, inexpli∣cabile impactis naufragium, irrespirabile •• devoratis hy∣pocriphium. Second qua∣lity of good death. Philo l. 3. de vita Mosis in fine. Notable speech of Phi∣lo of Moses his state. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• * 1.28

  Harph. c. 49. libri de my∣stic. Theol.
• * 1.29

  Cantic. 1. 6. Quae est ista quae ascendit per desertum sicut virgula fumi, ex aro∣matibus myr∣rhae, & thuris, & univers•• pulveris pig∣mentarii. The three ties of the world. Genes. 12. Egredere de terra tua, de cognationetua, & de domo pa∣tris tui.
• * 1.30

  Desperate desire of worldly goods. Joannes Nider.
• * 1.31

  Anno 1544. Belforest. Goodly mo∣nument of the Emperess Marie.
• * 1.32

  Aug. Confes. 6. 11. Dimit∣tis ne nos & a momento illo non erimus te∣cum ultra in aeternum? Et a momento isto non licebit hoc & illud ultra in aeternum?
• * 1.33

  Damian. o∣pusc. in instit. ad Blanch. c. 11. The prodiga∣lity of a Ve∣netian Ladie, and her pu∣nishnent.
• * 1.34

  The way how to be well provided for death.
• * 1.35

  Modesty of a son of S. Lew∣is.
• * 1.36

  The third quality of a good death.
• * 1.37

  Profundissi∣mam divinae sapientiae pene∣travit abyssum, & quantum si∣ne personali u∣nione creatu∣r•• conditio pa∣titur, luci illi inaccesibili videatur im∣mersa. D. Ber∣nard. serm. in signum ma∣gnum. Mater mea quàm appella∣tis foelicem, in∣de foelix, quia verbum Dei custodit, non quia in illa Verbum caro factum est, &c. Aug. tract. 10 in Joan.
• * 1.38

  Cr••do Domine, adjuva incre∣dulitatem me∣am. Marc. 9. Scio quod Re∣demptor meus vivit, &c. Job 9. Si ambulavero in medio um∣brae mortis non timebo mala, quoniam tu mecum es. Psal. 22. Quid mihi est in coelo, &c. Psal. 72. Quare tristis es anima mea, &c. Psal. 83.
• (a) 1.39

  Hier. ep. 27. ad Eustoc. Digitum ad •• tenens crucis signum pinge∣bat in labiis. Anima erumpere gestiens ipsum stridorem quo mortalis vita finitur in laudes convertebat.