A treatise of the difference bbtwixt [sic] the temporal and eternal composed in Spanish by Eusebius Nieremberg ... ; translated into English by Sir Vivian Mullineaux, Knight ; and since reviewed according to the tenth and last Spanish edition.

CAP. XII.

How short Life is, for which respect all things temporal are to be despised.

BEhold then what is Time, and what thy Life, and see if there can be any thing imagined more swift, and more inconstant than it. Compare Eternity, which continues ever in the same state, with Time, which runs violently on, and is ever changing; and cousider that as Eternity gives a value and estimation un•••• those things, which it preserves, so Time disparages and takes away the value of those that end in it. The least joy of Heaven is to be esteemed as infinite, because it is infinite in duration; and the greatest content of the earth is to be valued as nothing, because it ends and concludes in nothing. The least torment in hell ought to cause an immense fear, because it is to last without end, and the greatest pains of this world are not to affright us, since they are to cease and deter∣mine. By how much Eternity enobles and adds unto the greatness of those things which are eternal, by so much doth Time vilifie, and debase those things, which are temporal: and therefore as all which is eternal, although it were little in it self ought to be esteemed as infinite, so all which is temporal, although it were infinite, yet is to be esteemed as nothing, because it is to end in nothing. If a man were Lord of infinite worlds, and possest infinite riches, if they were at last to end, and he to leave them, they were to be valued as nothing; and if all things temporal have this evil property to sail and perish, they ought to have no more esteem, then if they were not. with good rea∣son then is life it self to be valued as nothing, since nothing is more frail, nothing more perishing, and in

conclusion is little more than if it had no being at all. Possessions, Inheritances, Riches, Titles, and other goods of fortune remain when man is gone, but not his Life. A little excess of cold or heat makes and end of that; a sharp winde, the infectious breath of a sick person, a drop of poison makes it vanish; in so much as no glass is so frail as it. Glass without violence may last long, but the life of man ends of it self; glass may with care be preserved for many ages, but no∣thing can preserve the life of man, it consumes it self.

All this was well understood by King David, who was the most powerful and happy Prince the Hebrews ever had, as ruling over both the Kingdoms of Judah and Israel with all which was promised by God unto the Israelites, but not until his time possessed; his Dominions besides extending over many other Provin∣ces,* 1.1 so as gold rowld up and down his House and Court, and he left at his death mighty treasures unto his Son Salomon. Yet this so fortunate a Prince con∣sidering that his greatness was to have an end, valued it as nothing, and not onely esteemed his Kingdoms and treasures as a vanity, but even his life it self Wherefore he sayes, Thou hast put, O Lord, a measure unto my dayes, and my substance is as nothing; all my Rents, all my Kingdoms, all my Trophies, all my Treasures, all which I possess, although so powerful a King, all is nothing: And presently adds, Doubtless all is vanity all what living man is,* 1.2 all his whole▪ life is vanity, and nothing that belongs to him so frail as himself. Of so mean value are the things of this world although we were to enjoy them for many a∣ges: but being to end so quickly, and perhaps more sodainly than we can imagine, what account is to be made of them? O if we could but frame a true con∣ception of the shortness of this life, how should we despise the pleasures of it? This is a matter of such importance, that God commanded the principal

his Prophets, that he should goe into the Streets and Market-places, and proclaim aloud, How frail and short was the life of man. For the Prophet Isaiah be∣ing about to prophesie of the most high and hidden mysterie, which ever God revealed unto man, which is the incarnation of the eternal Word, was suddenly commanded by the Lord to lift up his voice and to crie aloud: unto whom the Prophet replied, What is it O Lord that I must crie aloud? The Lord said, That all flesh is grass, and all the glory of it, at the flowers of the field. For as the grass, which is cut in the morning, withers before night, and as the flower is quickly fa∣ded, so is the life of all flesh, the beauty and splen∣dour of it passing and withering in a day. Upon which place saith St. Hierome,* 1.3

He who shall look upon the frailty of our flesh, and that every moment of an hour we increase and decrease without ever remaining in the same state, and that even what we now speak, dictate, or write, flyes away with some part of our life, will not doubt to say, his flesh is grass, and the glory of it as the flower of the field. And presently after; He that was yesterday an Infant is now a Boy, and will suddenly be a Youth, and even until old age runs changing through uncertain conditions of lite, and perceaves himself first to be an old man, before he begins to admire that he is not still a Boy.

In another place the same Saint meditating upon the death of Nepotianus, who died in the flower of his age, breaks out into these complaints.* 1.4

O miserable con∣dition of humane nature; Vain is all that we live without Christ: all flesh is hay, and all the glory of it as the flower of the field. Where is now, that comely visage? where is now the dignity of the whole body, with which as with a fair garment the beauty of the Soul was once cloathed? Ay pitty▪ the Lilly is withered by a Southern blast, and the pur∣ple of the Violet turned into paleness. And imme∣diately adds, Why do we not therefore consider

what in time must become of us, and what, will we or will not, cannot be far off? for should our life exceed the terme of 900 years, and that the dayes Mathusalam were bestowed upon us, yet all this length of life once past (and pass it must) were no∣thing: and betwixt him who lives but ten years, and him who lives a thousand, the end of life and the unavoidable necessity of death once come, all is the same, save onely he who lives longer, departs hea∣vier loaden with his sins.

This frailty therefore and brevity of humane life being so certain and evident, yet our Lord would have his Prophet publish it toge∣ther with the most hidden and unknown mysterie of his incarnation, and the manner of the worlds redemp∣tion, which even the most high Scraphins did not conceive possible; and all because men will not suffer themselves to be perswaded of this truth, nor practi∣cally apprehend the shortness of their life: Nay see∣ing death seiseth upon others, yet they will not believe that it shall happen unto themselves; and although they hear of it hourly, yet it appears unto them as a hidden mysterie, which they cannot understand. God therefore commanded the Prophet Isaiah, that he should proclaim and publish it with a loud voice, as a thing new and of great importance, that it might so penetrate and link into the hearts of men. Let us therefore receive this truth from God himself: All flesh is grass, All age is short, All time flyes, All life vanishes, and a great multitude of years are but a great nothing.

Let us also hear how true this is from those who lived the longest,* 1.5 and have had the greatest experience of what it is to live. Perhaps thou mayst promise thy self to live a hundred years, as though this were a long life: Hearken then unto holy Job, who lived 240 years, who knew best what it was to live, both in respect of his prosperity, and of his great troubles and afflictions, the which make life appear longer

than it is. What sayes he of all his years? My dayes, saith he, are nothing. Nothing he calls them, although they lasted almost three ages. In other places speak∣ing of the shortness of life, and declaring it with ma∣ny Comparisons and Metaphors, sometimes he sayes, His days were more speedy than a Messenger, and that they passed as a Ship under sail, or as an Eagle which stoops furiously upon his prey; sometimes, that They were more swift than a Weavers Shuttle; in one place he compares his life unto a withered leaf, born up and down by the wind, or unto drie stubble; in another he sayes, That the life of man is like the flower, which springs up to day, and to morrow is trodden under foot: and that it flies like a shadow, without ever re∣maining in the same state. How poor a thing then is life, since holy Job calls it but a shadow, though then three or four times longer, than at present? And it is no marvel, since those whose life exceeded nine hundred years, who lived before the deluge, and are now most of them in hell, complain as the Wise man relates it in this manner.* 1.6

What hath our pride pro∣fited us, or the pomp of our riches availed us? all those things are passed as a shadow, or as a messen∣ger, who runs post, or as a ship, which breaks the unquiet waves, and leaves no track or path behinde it, or like the bird, which flies through the air, and leaves no signe after her, but with the noise of her wings beats the light wind, and forces her self a pas∣sage without leaving any knowledge which way she made her flight, or like the arrow shot at the mark, which hath scarce divided the subtil Element, when it closes and joyns again in such manner as it cannot be perceived which way it went: Even so we were hardly born when upon a sodain we ceased to be.

These were the words even of those who were dam∣ned, who lived more than 800 years: and if they esteemed so long a life but as a shadow, and in the in∣stant when they died judged they were scarce born;

how canst thou think to live long in a time, wherein it is much to reach the age of 60? A life then of 800 years being no more than the flirting up and down of a little Sparrow, the flight of an arrow, or, to say better, the passage of a shadow; what then are fifty years, unto which perhaps thou mayst attain? cer∣tainly the longest tearm, whereunto humane life ex∣tends, was compared by Homer but unto the leaves of a tree, which at most endure but a Summers season. Euripides judged that too much, and said that hu∣mane felicity was to be valued but as the length of a day. And Demetrius Phalareus allowed it hut a mo∣ments space. Plato thought it too much to give it any being at all, and therefore calls it but the dream of a waking man. And St. John Chrysostome yet lessens that, calling it but a dream of those who sleep. It seems the Saints and Philosophers could find no Sym∣bol, no comparison sufficient to express the shortness of mans life, since neither a Curriere by land, nor a Ship by sea, nor a Bird in the air passes with that speed. All these things which we have now mention∣led, and others though esteemed swift, yet have not such equality of motion, but that they sometimes slac∣ken their pace, and sometimes stand still. But the im∣petuous course of our life, by which it hastens un∣to death, stops not so much as whilst we sleep; and therefore appeared unto Philemius so swift and rapid, that he said this life was no more but to be borne and die, and that at our birth we issued forth of a dark Prison, and at our death entred into a more sad and dreadful Sepulcher. Quit from this short life the time of sleep, and thou quittest from it the third part: Take from it Infancy, and other accidents which hinder the seuse and fruit of living, and there hardly remains the half of that nothing, which thou esteemest so much. That which Averroes affirmed of Time, when he said,* 1.7 that Time was a being diminished in it self, may be well verified of Life, which is in it self so little, as it is but a

point in respect of Eternity; and yet so many parts are taken from that point. Besides all this, doest thou think that this peece of life, which thou now enjoyest, is cer∣tain? thou deceivest thy self. For as the Wise man says, Man does not know the day of his end; and there∣fore as fishes, when they are most secure, are then ta∣ken with the angle, and birds with the snare, so death assails us in the evil time, when we least think of it.

Confider then how vile are all things temporal, and how frail is all the glory of the world, being grounded upon so feeble a foundation: The goods of the earth can be no greater than is life, which gives them their value; and if that be so poor and short, what shall they be?. what can the delights of man be, since his life is but a dream, a shadow, and as the twinkling of an eye? If the most long lite be so short, what can be the pleasure of that moment, by which is lost eter∣nal happiness? what good can be of value which is sustained by a life so contemptible and full of misery? A figure of this was the Statue of Nebuchodonosor, which although made of rich mettal, as of gold and silver, yet was founded upon feet of clay, so as a little stone falling upon it overthrew it unto the earth. All the greatness and riches of the world have for founda∣tion the life of him who enjoyes them, which is so frail and slippery, that not a little stone, but even the grain of a grape hath been able to ruine and over∣throw it. With reason did David say, that all which is living man is universal vanity: since the brevity of his lite suffices to vilifies and make vain all the goods which he is capable of enjoying. Vain are the honours, vain are the applauses, the riches and pleasures of life, which being it self so short and frail, makes all things vain which depend upon it, and so becomes it self a vanity of vanities, and an universal vanity. What ac∣count wouldest thou make of a Tower founded upon a quick-sand? or what safety wouldest thou hope for in a Ship bored with holes? certainly thou oughtest to

give no more esteem unto the things of this world, since they are founded upon a thing so unstable as this life. What can all humane glory be, since life, which sustains it, hath (according to David) no more consi∣stence than smoke, or (according to St. Thomas) then a little vapour, which in a moment vanishes? And al∣though it should endure a thousand years, yet coming to an end, it were equal unto that which lasted but a day: For as well the felicity of a long as a short life is but smoke and vanity, since they both pass away and conclude in death. Guerricus the Dominican, a great Philosopher and Physician, and afterwards a most fa∣mous Divine, hearing them reade the sift Chapter of Genesis, wherein are recounted the Sons and Descen∣dants of Adam in these terms, The whole life of Adam was 930 years, and he died; The life of his Son Seth was 912 years, and he died, and so of the rest, began to think with himself, that if such and so great men after so long a life ended in death, it was not sate to lose more time in this world, but so to secure his life, that losing it here, he might find it hereafter; and with this thought entred into the Order of St. Dominick, and became of a most religious life.

O what fools are men, who seeing life so short, en∣deavour to live long, and not to live well,* 1.8 since it is a thing most certain (as Seneca observes) that every man may live well, but no man, what age soever he attains unto, can live long. This folly appears more plainly by that which is said by Lactantius,* 1.9 that this life being so short, the goods and evils of it must be like∣wise short, as the goods and evils of the other must be eternal; and that God being pleased to make an e∣qual distribution of both, ordained that unto the short and transitory goods, which we enjoy unlawfully in this life, should succeed eternal evils in the next: and unto those short evils, which we suffer here for Gods sake, eternal goods and happiness should follow in the other, Wherefore Almighty God setting before

us this disserence betwixt good and evil, and leaving us in liberty of choosing which we please, how great a folly were it for the not suffering of a few evils, and those so short, to lose goods so great and eternal, and for the enjoying of goods so short and transitory, to endure evils without end?

Notes

• * 1.1

  See 1. Paralip. 29. what he left him to∣wards the build∣ing of the Temple onely.
• * 1.2

  Psal. 38.
• * 1.3

  Hieron∣in Com∣ment.
• * 1.4

  In Epi∣taph. Ne∣pot.
• * 1.5

  Jux. Isi. l. de vita & mor. Pat. c. 24.
• * 1.6

  Sap. 5.
• * 1.7

  Aver. 4. Phy. tex. 13.
• * 1.8

  Epis. 22.
• * 1.9

  Laae. lib. 6. divin. Instit.