Practical meditations upon the four last things viz. I. Death, II. Judgment, III. Hell, IV. Heaven / by R. Sherlock ...

MEDITAT. II. Of the Shortness and Frailty of this present Life.

MAN that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. * 1.1

He cometh forth like a Flower, and is cut down: he fleeth as a shadow, [unspec 2] and continueth not — In the midst of life we be in death, whilst every day we live is one day nearer to the end of life.

For what is your life? * 1.2 'tis even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then va∣nisheth away.

The time of my life past is already swal∣lowed up by death, which still dogs me at the heels to devour the short remainder of my flitting days.

Not to consider this shortness and frailty of humane life, is to make my life yet more short and frail. So Drex. vita brevis om∣nibus— Life is short unto all, but shortest unto those, who forget what is past, are negligent in what is present, and fear not what is to come.

Lord, make me to know mine end, and the number of my days, that I may be certified how long I have to live: that the length of my days is of the shortest measure: for behold thou haste made my days as a span—Verily every man living is altogether vanity: The most high and mighty, the most honoura∣ble

and wealthy are not exempt from this character: for Honours, Riches, Friends, all the delights of the Sons of men, with all the Pomp and Pleasure, and power of the world, depending upon the shortness and frailty of humane Life; * 1.3 renders every man in all that he is, in all that he has, and in all that he hopes for, in this world, a vanity of vani∣ties, an universal vanity.

The divine à Kempis gives us both the reason and the use of this doctrine: Quia per peccatum — Since by Sin we have lost our innocence, we ought with patience to ex∣pect the mercy of God, until this iniquity do pass away, and mortality be swallowed up of life. T. K. l. 1. c. 22.

S. Augustine's Meditation on this Subject. (Book St Augustine)

THE time of my Pilgrimage here up∣on earth is tedious, wearisome — for this is a miserable life, a frail life, an uncertain life, a bitter life, a laborious life, a sinful life: 'tis the mistress of er∣ror and sinfulness, and the hand-maid to death and hell—

This life is rather to be called death than life, as being through the whole course thereof, a passing from Life to Death: for whilst we pass from Infancy to Childhood, from thence to Manhood, and so to Old-age, every such change in Life is but a passage to death, or rather so

many stages of Death; for each condition of life is the death of its foregoing state and condition.

There is no condition in this life cer∣tain and setled; now we are glad, and anon sad; now we are well, and anon sick; now we are at ease, and anon in pain; now we laugh, and anon weep; now in hunger and thirst, anon in fulness and excess: in honour and dishonour, in wealth and poverty, in heats and colds, in evil report and good report, in fear and terror, and much amazement: and all this and much more than can be exprest, is too often attended by a sudden, unex∣pected death; and which is yet more mi∣serable, though there be nothing more certain than death, yet vain foolish man knoweth not, considereth not his end.

* 2.1 So the Preacher: For man also knoweth not his time, as the fishes that are taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are caught in the snare, so are the sons of men snared in an evil time when it falleth suddenly upon them.

Aristotle being ask'd, what is man? an∣swered, Imbecillitatis exemplum; Temporis. spolium; fortunae lusus; inconstantiae imago; invidiae & calamitatis trutina; reliquum vero. pituita & bilis.

Quid homo (inquit Gran.) cujus conceptio, culpa, nasci poena, vivere miseria, & mori, tormentum?

Silenus being ask'd by Midas: Quid ho∣mini optimum? answer'd: Primò, non nasci: sccundò, quam ocyssime mori.

O senseless mortals! especially being cal∣led Christians, and yet to be of so little Faith, as to doat upon a life so frail, short and uncertain, so changeable and calami∣tous, in defiance of what we daily profess to believe, Life Everlasting.

Blessed are they, and they are but a few, who in hopes and desires to enjoy the un∣changeable blessings of the life to come, do slight and despise the fallacious flattering injoyments of this world, lest being decei∣ved by the charms and fawnings thereof, the Deceiver and the Deceived perish toge∣ther.

'Tis a general complaint, that the world is deceitful, and unsatisfying in all her most alluring enjoyments; and yet so mightily the flesh prevaileth against the spirit, that most men love, (and I am a great fool among the rest) yea doatingly love to be thus deceived: too passionately desiring to injoy still this mortal life how frail soever, and attended with a numerous train of mi∣series.

But forget not, O remember and forget not, that thou art immortal (O my soul) and that death is but the change of a trouble∣some for a quiet life, of a frail for a fixed and permanent Being; of an uncertain for a certain abode, and of a temporary for life everlasting. 'Tis but the falling in pieces of an earthly Tabernacle, and when it is dis∣solved, * 2.2 thou hast a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the Heavens.

'Tis a fam'd saying of Benedict: Malus mortem, bonus vitam formidat: In the death

of the righteous is his hopes of happiness, but in the continuance of this life doth the wicked trust.

Thou wouldst not fear the end of this life, didst thou rightly hope for the begin∣ning of a better: 'Tis for want of treasures laid up in Heaven, the fruits of true holi∣ness, that thou art afraid to die, and 'twill be too late to labour for them, when death approacheth.

The Prayer.

O Almighty God, who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men, grant unto thy people (and to me with them) to love the thing which thou comman∣dest, and desire that which thou dost promise; that so among the sundry and manifold chan∣ges of the world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found, through Jesus Christ.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Job 14.1.
• * 1.2

  Jam. 4.14.
• * 1.3

  Nihil est magnum re, quod parvum tempore: nec longis dilatatur gaudiis, quicquid arcto fine concluditur. Hucher. Ep. Paran.
• * 2.1

  Eccl. 9.12.
• * 2.2

  2 Cor. 5.1.