SIX EXCELLENT TREATISES of LIFE and DEATH, Collected (and published in French) by PHILIP MORNAY, Sieur du Plessis: And now (first) Translated into English.  
Imprinted at London by H.L. for Matthew Lownes: and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Bishop's head, 1607.   

The Treatises, and Discourses contained in this Volume.  

PLATO his Axiocus; a Dialogue entreating of Death.  
A Discourse of TULLIUS CICERO'S, concerning Death.  
Collections out of SENECA'S Works, touching Life & Death.  
A Sermon of mortality, made by S. CYPRIAN Bishop of Carthage, and a Martyr of JESUS CHRIST.  
A Treatise of Saint AMBROSE, Bishop of Milan, touching the benefit & happiness of Death.  
Certain places of Scripture, Prayers & Meditations, concerning Life and Death.    

The Translator to the Reader.  
Here know, that the first Discourse, mentioned in the Advertisement ensuing, is none of these six here set down; but another precedent to these, and formerly translated by the Countess of Pembroke.   

The French Authors Advertisement to the Reader.  
COncerning the Argument of this discourse, it tendeth principally to the abating of that hope, and presumption, which we usually have, to obtain, in this life, that which never was enjoyed here since the transgression of our first Parents, nor never shall be; as it is very well inferred, especially in the first Discourse, by the description of man, from his beginning, while he leaves this world. As for this word Fortune, the which ye shall here meet withal, in divers passages, entertain it, out of the toleration of Custom and Use, or rather, indeed, out of the necessity of our tongue; the which, in stead of quite abolishing, doth too stiffly retain the use hereof: because those things which commonly happen, without it being known why, or wherefore, unto men; they were referred by our Ancestors, according to the heathen phrase, to Fortune. And, to conclude: whereas Plato, Cicero, and Seneca, who were called Philosophers, are brought in, speaking by way of Dialogue, after the first Discourse, let not this be understood, of any want we had of more Authentic Authors, that is to say, amongst the ancient Christians, upon this argument (seeing we have in like manner produced two in this second edition, which are Saint Cyprian, and S. Ambrose): but this was only thought a better means to awake us thoroughly, by the cry of these strange witnesses, who tasting only, but out of their natural judgement, and some knowledge and experience which they had of the vanities of man; it seems, they would fain hail us along to some better Port, and Retreat, than themselves have attained for them, or witnessed unto others by their example.   

AXIOCUS. A Dialogue, written by PLATO, or by some other heathen Philosopher, containing a discourse against death; between SOCRATES, CLINIAS, and AXIOCUS.  
SOCRATES.  
MInding to go to Cynosarges, and being come near to Elissus, I heard a man's voice, calling me out aloud by my name: and so turning back to see who it was, I might perceive Clinias, Axiocus his son, together with Damon the Musician, and Charmides the son of Glaucon, running towards the fair fountain: I presently left my own way, to go meet them, to the end we might more conveniently discourse & talk together. Then Clinias, weeping bitterly, said unto me; Socrates, now is the time, wherein thou mayest put that great wisdom in trial, which makes thee so highly esteemed of every one. For, my Father is suddenly fallen so grievously sick, that we look rather for his death than life; for which cause he seems to be wonderfully perplexed, although when he was in perfect health, he laughed at them, that feared death (as though it had been some hideous Hobgoblin, or grisly Antic) taunting, and scornfully mocking them for the same▪ I pray you therefore, come and see him, that he may be fortified by your good instructions, as you know very well how to do it, that he may patiently and acceptably attend his death. And for my part, this will be one of the last dutiful offices, which I shall perform towards my Father. For me, Clinias, than I answered, you shall ever find me ready to endeavour myself for you in any thing within my power; but especially in a respect, so devout and religious. Wherefore let us go quickly; for if it be so, we must not delay time. Clin. I am sure that your very presence will much comfort my Father, if he be yet alive; for, by such good means he hath oftentimes escaped, of dangerous maladies. Socr. Well, we found Axiocus in reasonable good state of body; but in his mind so afflicted, that he stood in great need of some consolation: for he never left turning, sometimes on the one, and then on the other side, sighing and lamenting with a great agitation & motion of his arms. Seeing him in this state, I began thus to break with him. Why, Axiocus, what means this? what's become of your daily brags, and commendations of Virtue? where is now your invincible courage? when you have showed yourself so valiant throughout the whole combat, & now drawing near to the end, when you should receive the reward, and recompense of your travails, silly Champion, do you now faint? why do you not better observe the condition of all mankind, you being a man well experienced by your years, and an Athenian? Do you no more remember, what all men have often in their mouths, that this our life is but a Pilgrimage? and that after having honestly passed over our days, we must then cheerfully and merrily remove out of this present life? But to be thus dejected, and to leave this world, with as much grief, as a little child would do; this ill beseems that wisdom and prudence, which is expected to be in men of your years. Axio. It is true, Socrates, and you do advertise me for my good: but I know in what manner; for when it comes to the point, and to be apprehended indeed, all this bravery of words closely slinkes away, without so much as a cogitation thereon: and in stead thereof, a certain fear takes place, which surpriseth my mind, when I think that I must be deprived of this light, of so much worldly goods, to lie and rot, I know not where, in a place where I shall not not be seen, or heard, of any body, there to be changed into worms and loathsome creatures. Soc. This falls out unto thee Axiocus, because through incircumspection, and without thinking well thereupon, you couple sense, and the state of death together; so that your words and deeds are one repugnant to the other: For you consider not, that at one instant, you grieve for the loss of sense, and the putrefaction which you fear to feel, together with the prevention of the delights of this life: even as if after death, you were to lead another earthly life, and to enjoy the senses which now you do; whereas your body shall be dissolved as it was before your conception. And, as you felt no kind of evil, in that time, when Draco and Calisthenes governed the Commonwealth (for, than you were not existent, to feel either good or evil) so after death your body shall be sensible of nothing, it being then free from the touch of any discommodities. Away therefore with all these apprehensions, and be assured, that after our dissolution, and that the soul is returned to her proper place, the body which remains behind is not that which we call man, but rather a lump of earth and clay, without reason or sense. And to say the truth, we are and should rightly be termed soul; which is an immortal creature, enclosed in a corrupt body, as within a stinking prison. As for this fleshly tabernacle, Nature hath environed us therewith, for our chastisement; the pleasures thereof being inconstant, ready swiftly to fly away, and intermingled with many diseases: whereas, on the contrary, the vexations are vehement, and of long continuance, being destitute of all kind of consolation. What should I speak of diseases, of the heat and concupiscence of our senses, and of the vices which lurk, and are couched in the same? The soul being diffused, & spread through all the conduits of the body, is urged to cry out, & sigh after heaven, which she so truly resembles, desiring this life and releasement, as affectionately, as the thirsty do pant and breath after the cool and fresh waters: and so the departure from this our life, is a change from evil to good. Axi. But, Socrates, if you term this life so evil, why do you tarry in it; seeing you are of far greater understanding, than we simple people are? Socrat. Axiocus, you speak not of me as you should do; but, after the example of Athens, you suppose that I am a very wise man, because I dispute, and argue of one thing and another; for my part, I desire to know even that which is common; so far off am I, from thinking myself able to resolve of so important matters as these, whereof we now entreat. In effect, whatsoever before I delivered, was taken out of the discourses of wise Prodicus, whom you know well, & to whom I have given money twice or thrice: For he never reads a Lecture to any for nothing; for in his mouth he hath ordinarily that saying of Epicharmus, One hand must wash another; we must give one thing to receive another. Lastly, when we were at Callias his lodging, he that is the son of Hippocin, this Prodicus minding to utter his whole sufficiency, produced so many reasons, against the love of this life, as I was ready to have hastened my own death: and after that, my soul did nothing but desire death. Axi. What said he then? Soc. I will rehearse it unto you, so far as I can remember. He therefore used this speech: Is any part of our age without vexations? doth not the Infant weep at his coming out of his mother's womb, beginning his days in affliction? he never finds repose in any of his actions: want, cold, heat, or some burning, torments him; he not being able to recount his accidents, but always crying, and by this only sign, he sufficiently enough discovers his misery. After much trouble, when he comes to be seven years old, than his executioners lay hold on him; that is to say, his Tutors, Masters, and Teachers of all exercises. When he grows greater, than he is environed, with Instructors, & often discourse, with overseers, with Mathematicians, with Captains, and briefly with a great troop of Lords and Gallants. Afterwards, if he attain to manlike years, his miseries draw nearer unto him, being carried from the Licaeum, to the Academy, into places of public exercise, and into many evils, as well of body as mind. All the years of his youth are subject to his Master's correction, and to such Tutors as are appointed for the education of his youth. When he is gotten once out of this strait, new cares assail and enforce him to resolve what course he should take: and, if we compare the discommodities of his youth, with those that afterwards set upon him, they will appear to be but pleasant and supportable; and, to speak in a word, but childish scarecrows, in respect of the other. For, he must go to the wars, take blows, be in perpetual combat, and fight: and then old age comes on, fair and softly, being the right rendez-vous of all calamities, and remediless evils. If any man be long a dying, and paying of this debt, Nature, like a rigorous creditor, that will be paid at his just day, sues out an Execution against her debtors; taking from one his sight, from another his hearing, and sometimes both of them together. And then if thou tarriest yet any longer in the world, she foundereth, maimeth, and disnerves thee. It is true, that some have a long and vigorous old age; but then they renew and verify the Proverb, which says, that old men become children again. And therefore the immortal God, knowing well the state & condition of human life, he quickly takes them from hence, whom he loves best. Let Agamedes, and Trophonius be witness hereof, who after they had built the Temple of Apollo Delphic, & prayed instantly that God, to grant them that, which would be most beneficial for them, they went to take their last sleep; for the day after they were found dead. Also, the sons of that Presbyteresse of Argos, their mother having prayed the Goddess juno, to recompense their piety and devotion, in that, wanting horses, they themselves had drawn their Mother, in her chariot to the Temple; the same night, after her prayers made, gave up the ghost. On the other side again, it would be a tedious thing, to recite the lamentations which Poets make (these being men that prognosticate of things to come) when in their excellent poems, they describe the condition of all worldly things. At this time, I will only bring forth the testimony of a principal man amongst them, who affirms, the Immortal Gods to have sentenced, that the life of man should be miserable; & that considering the travails and troubles of all other creatures, they are nothing, in respect of the misery of man. What says Amphiaraus to this matter? though jupiter and Apollo loved him so dearly above all others, yet could he never attain unto perfect old age. But I will proceed no further, for fear of extending my discourse more largely than I promised, by discoursing upon other matters. But, I pray you, Is there any travail, either of mind or body, wherein thou hast not some just occasion to complain? Dost thou patiently accept of whatsoever is prefented unto thee? By the way, let us but consider of men of any Art or Mystery, which labour night after night, and yet they can scarcely thereby furnish their necessary wants, even bedewing the works of their hands, with tears, and sighs. Shall we come to those that traffic by Sea? Behold the life of a certain kind of men, that cut the waves, amidst a thousand perils and dangers: so that Bias had very good reason to say, that those which sail by sea, were to be esteemed amongst those, neither living, nor dead. For, man being created to live upon the earth, he launches out into the waters (minding at one instant to participate of two contrary elements) and casts himself desperately into the arms of Fortune. Thou wilt peradventure say, that the labour, and tillage of the earth is a pleasant thing. I agree thereunto: but with how many miseries is this contentment accompanied? Doth it not bring forth every day some occasion of grief and sorrow? now rain, by and by drought; to day burning heat, to morrow nipping frost; and thus, by times, either unseasonable scorchings, or immoderate cold. But, not to insist upon many other vocacations of life, to how many perils is the government of State's subject, whereof many do so highly esteem? The joy and pleasure therein comprehended, resembleth fitly an ulcer, or violent beating of the pulse: the being put beside the saddle, in such offices, makes the ambitious cold at heart, & procures them more discontentment, than if they were to suffer a thousand deaths. Can a man be happy, while he lives at the discretion of the vulgar, what reputation (otherwise) soever he be in, or though every one reverence him never so much? seeing he is but the people's puppet, who may disgrade him, hiss at him, condemn him to penalty, bring him to misery, and sometimes also puts him to death. I demand of thee, Axiocus, because thou hast swayed this Sceptre of Magistracy, where died Miltiades, Themistocles, Ephialtes, with other Princes, and great Captains which preceded them? For my part, I would never accept of their suffrages, supposing it a thing very unproper for me, to be an associate, or head of so dangerous a beast, as the common people: but Theramines and Callixines, together with their guard, sending judges the day after (constituted upon purpose) condemned to death all those, that any ways were their opposites, without permitting them any hearing. As for thee, Axiocus, thou, with Triptolemus, upheldest equity, although in the assembly there were thirty thousand of a contrary opinion, & which gave negative voices. Axi. You say but truth, Socrates: and since that time, I have had enough of such conventions, & nothing seems unto me more harsh and unsavoury, than the management of public affairs. They that ever had to do therein, can well aver so much: as for yourself, you speak but afar off, and as one judging, by the blows, which have light upon others. But we, that have played our part therein, may speak by better proofs. In very truth, my friend Socrates, the people are very ingrate, cumbersome, cruel, envious, evil taught, compounded of the very dregs of men, and of those that are insolent, and great mockers. I judge him to be most miserable, that will be too familiar with such a beast. Soc. Why then, Axiocus, seeing you detest the fairest employment of all others, what may we say of the rest? must we not shun them? But for the remainder, I have heard this Prodicus, adding to the other discourses, this also ensuing; that death concerned not either the living or the dead. Axio. What's this you affirm, Socrates? Socr. Why, because Death is no ways hurtful to those that are living: and for the dead, they are out of his jurisdiction. And therefore now it does not endamage you, because yet you live: and when you shall not be alive, he can have no power over you, because than you are past his stroke any more. It is therefore but a vain sorrow, for Axiocus to lament that, which neither doth, nor shall hereafter concern him; no otherwise, than as it would be a notable folly to be afeard of monsters which thou seest not, which presently have no existence, and that after thy death have no being. That which is redoubtfull therein, is hideous only to those, that forge fears to themselves. For, is there any thing that can bring terror to the dead? Axioc. You have stolen these wise persuasions, from the Orators, that at this day bear all the sway: for they are the men, that make these pleasant relations, to sooth, and humour young men: but I, for my part, am exceeding loath, to leave these worldly goods, whatsoever you are able to allege unto me (in your conference) of pleasing appearance; & my mind finds no perfect contentment, in this smooth course of words, which do but a little delight and tickle in their utterance. They bear a good show with them, but they are too remote from truth: and our cogitations are not fed with fantasies; but with things firm and , that are able inwardly to pierce, & settle themselves. Soc. But, Axiocus, you inconsiderately couple together those things which should not be conjoined; in making us believe, that to feel evil, and be deprived of good, are the self same things: for the suffering of evil, brings grief unto him, that loseth a good. Now, you forget, that being dead you are no more; and he that is not, cannot perceive this privation: how can he therefore be grieved at a thing, whereof he shall have no apprehension? If at the first you had resolved with me, that in death our bodies are deprived of sense, you would never have been so fond, as to fear death: Now, you contradict yourself, in fearing to be deprived of your soul; joining this soul, to your imagined loss. For in fearing to lose your sense, you suppose by the same sense to comprehend an evil, which you build unto yourself in the air, and that you are afraid to feel. Besides this above alleged, there are many excellent arguments, to prove the immortality of the soul. For, a mortal nature would never have undertaken such great matters, as to contemn the violence of cruel beasts, to cross the Seas, to build cities, to establish public governments, to contemplate the heavens, to observe the course of the stars, of the Sun and of the Moon, their Eclipses, and sudden restitutions, the rising and falling of the Pleyades, the Equinoctials, the Solstice of Winter and Summer, the winds, violent rains, with flashings, lightnings, and thunder. She would not have comprehended in writing, nor consecrated to eternity, those things that fall out in the world, were she not accompanied with some divine Spirit, to have the intelligence, and knowledge of such high and mystical matters. And therefore, Axiocus, thou must pass unto an immortal life, and not to death: thou shalt not be stripped of all, but enjoy true goods, thou shalt have pleasures, no way intermingled with this mortal body, but absolutely pure, and indefective, and such as most truly deserve to be called pleasures. For, thou being loosed out of this prison, and become truly free, thou shalt go unto a place, where there is no travel, nor lamentation, from whence sorrow and old age are banished: thy life shall be exempted from all evil, replenished with secure repose, and eternal joys. Thou shalt there behold the nature of all things: conferring no more thy minds travel, to their affections, who honour thee in this world; but to resplendent, and most excellent verity herself. Axi. Thy discourse hath made me change my mind; & I am now so far from fearing death, that contrariwise I ardently desire the same: and to express myself more magnanimiously, I am already, in a manner, out of the world, and begin to enter into these divine and eternal paths; so that being wholly eased of my infirmity, I am quite become another man than that I was before.   

CICERO, in his dialogue of old age, towards the end.  
THere remains a fourth reason, which seems to vex, and torment old age; that is to say, the approach of Death, which at that time, can not be far off. But, I think that old man to be very miserable, which in the space of so long time before, never learned, that death simply was not to be feared, but rather to be contemned, if it destroy the soul, as some think: but according to my opinion, it ought to be desired; seeing it leads man to a place where he shall live eternally. We cannot find any one betwixt these two opinions. What should I then fear, if I either feel no misery at all, or if I shall be happy after death? Besides this, is there any man so foolish, how young a Gul soever he be, to suppose, that he hath a Patent of his life, but till the evening? He is so far from that, that even youth itself is subject to many more kinds of death than old age: young men sooner fall into diseases, they are more grievously sick, and hardlier healed: so that it is rare, to see men live to be old. If this were not, we should live more wisely, and happily: for old men are endued with the understanding of counsel and wisdom; and without them, Commonwealths could not stand on foot. But, let us come to this fear of present death: and in that, old age is wrongfully charged to be subject to this apprehension; seeing this is a more common accident with youth. For my part, I felt in the death of my son, & your brothers, of whom great hope of good, hereafter, was conceived, that death threatens all ages. Some body may reply, that a young man hopes to live long: which one aged, cannot expect. This hope, is truly the hope of a young man, that is to say, of a light head. For, is there a greater sottishness, than to make sure and certain of that, which is altogether uncertain, and unsure? But an old man hath no reason in the world to conceive any such hope: and I affirm that his condition herein, is far better, than a young man's, in that he hath obtained what the young man doth but hope for; and that is long life, which the old man hath passed. I pray you, what length do you find in a man's life? fet down unto me, the longest of all others: Let us consider the age of the King of the Tartessians; for I find in books, that one Arganthonius reigned fourscore, and lived sixscore years: but I see that there is nothing long, but tendeth to some period; the which being attained unto, all the rest is gone and passed, there remaining nothing but what thou hast obtained by justice and piety. The hours pass away, so do the months: that past, never returns again, & what will come hereafter we know not. Every one must be contented, with the time allotted him to live. For, as he that plays a Part upon a stage, needs not to repeat the whole Comedy from one end to the other (to make him be accounted a good Actor) so that in the Part which he properly playeth, he give contentment to the spectators: no more is it requisite, that the wise man should live as long as the oldest man that ever lived in the world; because a short life is long enough, for a man to carry himself therein honestly, and virtuously. And so if our days shoot out at length, we must be no more weary of them than labourers, that after the beauty of the Spring time, see Summer ensue, and then Autumn. For, the Spring time resembles youth, and makes some demonstration of the fruits which afterward must be reaped. Other ages are proper, to gather, and lay up the increase of the earth: and the fruit of old age, is the remembrance of those goods which we have formerly purchased: whatsoever is done according to nature, we may place in the rank of good things. But, what is more natural, than to see old men die? The same falls out to youth: but, somewhat against Nature; and, as it were, in despite of her: so that when young men die, me thinks I see as it were a great fire, quenched by an huge quantity of water: where as contrariwise, old men drop away of themselves, without any violence offered, like to a fire that quencheth of itself. And, even as apples, but green and unripe, fall not from the trees, except we violently pluck them off; & being ripe, they fall off without using any great force thereto: so also young men seem to die, not without some violence offered to their nature: & old men quite otherwise. The which so cheers me up that the nearer I approach unto death, the nearer I discern myself to hale in with that harbour, and port, where I pretend to anchor, after so long, & dangerous a navigation. All the ages of our life, are limited but only old age, wherein we live virtuously, as long as the means yet remains to labour in our vocation; and otherwise, to hold death in contempt: the which may be the reason also, that old age is more ardent and courageous, than youth. This is that, which Solon answered to the Tyrant Lisistratus, who interrogated him concerning virtue, wherewith he so braved him, and was always opposite to his designs, because, said Solon, I am old: but the end of this life is then most sweet, and excellent, when the same Nature which built, defaceth also her work, when a man till the last retains his senses, & understanding, entire. For even as the Carpenter, or Architect, can easily, when he lists, pluck the ribs and beams of his ship asunder, or the other pluck down that building which he had erected: even so, Nature most properly dissolveth a man, whom she before had soldered together of two so different pieces: now, all kind of Soder, and conglutination lately made, is hardly dissolved; but in that old and long worn, it is otherwise: and so the remainder of life is not much desired, or sighed after, by the aged; who have reason rather to be ready to dislodge, expecting minutally the great Captain's commandment, which is God: without whose will and pleasure, as Pythagoras said, we are prohibited to leave our Guarison, & Corpse du guard, wherein we are constituted in this world. There is a notable saying, ascribed to the wise Solon, wherein he would have his friends to mourn and lament his death: which makes me think, that his meaning only was herein, that they should show, to have made great account of him. But, the Poet Ennius, peradventure hit better upon this point, when he forbade his death to be lamented, or that any mourning funerals should be performed: he supposing, that such a death was not to be deplored, which was seconded by immortality. For the rest, if there be some sense or feeling in death, and in our last gaps, it lasts not long, especially in a very aged man: and as for any feeling after death, it is either nothing at all, or else a thing to be much desired. But we must have learned betimes to contemn death: for without this Meditation, none, can have any repose in mind; seeing it is most certain, that die we must, not knowing when: and it may be, at the same moment, or instant of our thought. How can that man therefore enjoy a peaceable soul, if he fear death, which threatens him, every minute of his life? I need not dilate more at large, of this, when I call to mind, not only Lucius Brutus, who was slain in the delivery of his country; or of the two Deccis, who violencly plunged themselves, the one, within an huge deep Dell; and the other within a Battalion of armed men, amongst whom he verily thought to have been slain; or Marcus Attilius, who courageously returned to cruel punishment, choosing rather to lose his life, than break his oath, which he had plighted to his enemies; and the two Scipios, that exposed their bodies to the enemy's fury, for the stopping of a passage; or Lucius Paulus, who by his own death, defaced the temerity & rashness of his collegued Consul, in the discomfiture of the Romans at Cannae; and also Marcus Marcellus, who being dead, was honoured with a Tomb, by his most mortal enemy: but I will also set before your eyes our modern Regiments, which have oftentimes cheerfully, and with noble courage assaulted those places, from whence no one of the troops, ever hoped to come off. Should it be said, that learned old men, do fear that, which youth, and those rustical & ignorant, for the most part, valiantly despise? And moreover, me thinks the being satisfied with all things else, makes one also well satisfied with living. Infancy hath certain disports and recreations, which young men desire not to put in practice. Old age feels no contentment in the pleasures of youth; and men of ancient years, seek not after that, wherein men delight, that are yet in the flower of their age: and old age discerns the very last employments of our life; but yet in such sort, that all in the end vanisheth away, as the exercises of precedent times have done: the which coming to pass, to be satisfied with living, clearly shows, that then it is high time to die. For my part, I see nothing that hinders me, from setting down my opinion touching death: and me thinks, I may speak thereof, with good motive, seeing it appeareth so near unto me. Out of doubt, Scipio, & Laelius, I think that your fathers, which were honourable men, & my best friends, though dead to the world, do yet live; and such a life, as only deserves to be so called. For, while we are enclosed within these strait precincts of the body, we travel, and we must (will we, nill we) yield, unto the yoke and burden; the celestial soul, and offspring of the highest Tabernacle, being overwhelmed, and, as it were buried in earth, this being a contrary habitation to eternity, and a divine nature. But, I believe, that the immortal Gods have planted souls in human bodies, to the end there might be people to replenish, & preserve the world, to contemplate the beautiful course of heavenly bodies, & to imitate them, in constancy, and regular life. Besides many reasons and arguments, which have induced me to believe this, the authority and reputation of the greatest Philosophers, hath much furthered me: I have heard say, that Pythagoras, and the Pythagoreans, sometimes named the Philosophers of Italy (& consequently, inhabitants of our country) were always of opinion, that our souls were extracted from Divinity. I have understood also of Socrates his discourse (who was judged by the Oracle of Apollo, to be the wisest man of the world) toward the later part of his life, about the immortality of souls. What need we any more? behold my opinion herein. Seeing the souls of men are so pregnant, so retentive and mindful of things past, foresee so discreetly those to come, have invented so many mysteries, and divers other worthy Sciences, & excellent matters, it is impossible, that a nature capable of so great good, should be mortal. And the soul having perpetual motion, without receiving any inferior beginning thereof, considering that she only moves of herself, it must necessarily follow, that she shall have this motion for ever, because she can never abandon herself. Also, in that the nature of the soul is simple, there concurring in her no mixed difference, she cannot be divided. And so, being judicial, she is by consequent immortal. For, this is a manifest proof, that men are intellectual, before their being born, in that children, learning the most difficult Sciences, do suddenly comprehend such an infinity of things, that we may suppose, they begin not then to know what is, but only remember, & call again unto mind: These are almost the very words of Plato. On the other side, the great Cyrus, of whom Xenophon hath written at large, at the hour of his departure, said thus unto his children: My dear beloved, though I remain no more amongst you, yet do not think, for all this, that I have afterwards no more being, nor am resident in any place; for when I was in your company, you could not perceive my soul: but only you imagined it to be within my body, by my exterior actions. Believe therefore, that this soul remains so still, although you see the body no more. The virtuous should not be honoured after death, if their souls had performed nothing worthy of their memorial long time before their death. I could never yet be persuaded, that if souls live within mortal bodies, that ever they can die, issuing out of the same: or that the soul going out of the body, which of itself is stupid and senseless, becometh then also inexistent, & insensible: but, on the contrary, when she is freed from all commixtion with this body, she than beginneth to be pure, and entire; then say I, she is mounted unto the height and top of all wisdom. Moreover, it being so, that human nature, is dissolved by death, we plainly see whither all other things tend, that is to say, thither from whence they were first extracted; the soul only excepted, the which we neither see enter, sojourn, nor issue out of the body. But, for the rest, you see there is nothing which so truly resembles death, as sleep: And, the souls of them that sleep, clearly in this point show their divinity, that being free, and in repose, they foresee things to come; which plainly argues their being, after their relaxation from these corporal bonds. The which being granted, honour me then as a thing divine: but if the soul were to perish with the body, yet for all this, forbear not to fear the Gods, which support and govern this principal work of theirs, that is called man; the which (like to good children) performing, you shall inviolably preserve the memorial of my name. This was Cyrus his discourse, a little before his death: But if I shall not herein be too burdensome unto you, hearken what I will deliver unto you, in mine own behalf. No body shall ever persuade me, O Scipio, that either your predecessors, or other men of great note, whom it is not requisite to name, would ever have enterprised such memorable exploits to all posterities, but that they considered, that their being in the world was to no other end, but to procure the good of their successors. Think you (to speak plainly, and after the manner of old men, which love to set forth themselves) that I would have so traveled, both day and night, in war & peace, if my renown, and glory, should finish with this present life? would it not be better then, to live idle, and in repose, without any trouble or vexation? But, my soul, I know not in what manner, gathering together new forces, regardeth happiness, with such a penetrant eye, as if departing this world, she should but only then begin to live. And if it were otherwise, that souls were not immortal, honest men would not aspire unto a perpetual glory. What is the meaning of this, that every wise man dies willingly; and the wicked with great grief? Think you not that the soul, which sees far clearer, and further off, knows well, that she is going to a better place? and, on the contrary, he which hath an heavy and disturbed soul, sees not the like. Surely, I desire nothing more, than to see your Fathers, whom I have honoured and cherished. And, besides the desire which I have to draw near them, that I have known, I would willingly also talk with those of whom I have heard, which showed themselves unto me by their books, and whose names I have set down, amongst mine own writings. Now that I draw near unto them, it would displease me much to hang backward, or to be rolled down again, as we might do with a round ball. And if some God had permitted me to return again, into my infancy, and to cry in my cradle, I would very constantly, and flatly refuse such an offer: for, seeing I have almost run my race, I would not be called back again from my goal, to the first setting forward. Is there any true commodity in this life? Is it not troublesome, through all the periods thereof? But, admit there are some commodities therein, yet are we far from finding satisfaction, or obtaining of our wished ends and desires. I will not rail against the same, as divers learned men have oftentimes done; neither repent I, that I have lived: for I have so passed my time, that I am of opinion, I have done some good in the world: I go out of this life, as out of an Inn, not as out of mine own house; seeing Nature hath sent us forth hither, for a little time, to pass forward in our journey, and not continually here to inhabit. Oh, happy will that day be, when I shall departed to this celestial assembly of souls, and leave the rascallity of this world: for, I shall not only, then, be with those good men, abovenamed, but also with mine own son, one of the best men, that ever the earth brought forth: whose body I have seen brought to ashes; whereas in reason, he should rather have seen the like by mine. But see: his soul never leaves me, but continually fixing her looks upon me, she is flown up now into those places whither she knows that I must follow. I bore this loss patiently, as it appears: but yet I confess that I was much troubled therewith; ever comforting myself, with this Meditation, that there should be no long space, between her departure and mine.   

Out of the Epistles of SENECA.  

Epist. XXIIII.  
RVminate, I pray thee, in thine own mind, what thou hast often heard, and as often spoken: but then make trial of it, by effect, if you have either heard, or seriously uttered the same. For, it would be too great a baseness in us, as men use to cast in our teeth, that we should only use the words and not the works of Philosophy. As I remember, I have heard you sometimes handle this common place; that we fall not suddenly upon death, but march towards the same by little and little. To say the truth, we die every day: for, every day a piece of our life slides away; whatsoever is past and gone of our years, Death hath it already in his hands: yea, and ever when we ourselves do grow, our life decreaseth: First, we lose our Infancy, than our Adolescency, and then our youth. Even to the day before this, what time soever is past is lost and gone: & the present day which now we pass, we share stakes therein with Death. So ought we always to be confirmed, both in the one, and the other, that we do not too much love nor hate our life: we must end it when reason summons us thereunto: but we must not desperately nor rashly leave it, like one, that takes his run, to fetch the better rise. A wise, and magnanimous man, must never fly nor shun this life, except when he is departing therefrom; but avoid, like a rock, a vicious passion which surpriseth and lays hold of many, which is to say, the desire and hastening of death.   

Epist. XXVI.  
Doubtless I debate with myself, I discuss, & make exact examination, as if my trial were at hand, and the day already comen, that must give sentence of all my years, and days past. Whatsoever we have either done or said hitherto, is nothing: they are but vain and slight testimonials of our courage, intermixed with much deceit & cozenage. Death only will assure me, what I have profited in Philosophy. I therefore prepare myself, without all fear, for that day, wherein (without all sophistication) I shall be able to judge, whether I have been faint hearted, or magnanimous, both in word and deed, when I used to bulk forth so many injurious and reproachful words against Fortune.  
Concerning the esteem we are in amongst men, it is always doubtful, and declining, on every side: also, concerning thy studies, and endeavours, examine well all thy whole life: Death shall denounce sentence upon thee. I say, that disputations, learned discourse, sentences collected from the precepts of wise men, and speech adorned, show not the true force of courage: the greatest cowards have many times the hardiest talk: than it will only appear what thou hast profited, when thou comest to combat with Death. I am well content, with human condition; I have no fear of this judgement. Thou art younger: what cares he? Here is no account made of years: no man knows in what place Death attends him: look for him therefore in all places. Consider, said a certain Philosopher, whether is most commodious, that Death come to us, or we go to Death; that we lay hold of him, or he of us. Mark the meaning hereof. It is an excellent thing to learn to die: but it will be superfluous, mayest thou say, seeing we can but once put it in practice. Why, with the greater reason, we should the more carefully understand & meditate thereupon. For, we must always study thereon, because till that hour, we can make no just trial of our own sufficiency. He which exhorts to meditate on Death, exhorts to meditate on liberty: and he that hath learned to die, hath forgotten to be servile. For, this is above all other power, or, at the least, out of the power of any other thing whatsoever. What cares he for prisons, for guards, for iron bars? He hath always a gate open. There is but one chain only, which keeps us bound, which is the love of this life: and this must not wholly be shaken off, but extenuated, and loosened: that when occasion serves, nothing may hold or hinder us.   

Epist. XXVII.  
But above all other things, we must endeavour that our vices may die before ourselves; & that in like manner, we give over all these vain pleasures; the which, though they do no great hurt, yet they are mutable, and soon pass away: virtue, only, is a secure, solid, & perpetual delight: if any other thing present itself unto us, it is but like a fog or cloud, which can never obscure the brightness of the Sun.   

Epist. XXX.  
IT is an excellent thing, my good friend Lucilius, and that which should be well learned long before, to departed cheerfully from hence, whensoever this inevitable hour comes. He hath never been willing to live, that is unwilling to die. For, Life was given us, with a condition to die, and with such a proviso: we must merrily meet Death, the which in no ways we are to fear, considering there is nothing more certain than the same, and usually we look after certain things, and fear those uncertain: but Death brings an equal and inevitable necessity over all. Now, who can complain, for being of such a condition, as from which no man else is exempted? for the first and chiefest point of equity, is equality: and wouldst thou never stand in fear of Death? why then, think thereupon continually.   

Epist. XXXII.  
OH, what a goodly matter it is, to perfect, & accomplish our life, before our deaths! Oh, when shalt thou see the times when thou mayest know, that thou hast nothing to do with Time, that thou shalt be quiet, and still, not careful for to morrow, and plentifully replenished only with thyself!   

Epist. XXXVI.  
A Child that were borne in Parthia, would quickly learn to bend a bow. If it were in Germany, every lad would throw a Dart. If in our forefather's days, he would be expert in riding of an horse, and to charge the enemy. These be things which the discipline of each country enjoineth, and layeth upon every one. What then of this? Marry hereupon we must consider that against all kinds of darts, against all kinds of enemies, there is not any thing more properly prevalent, than to make no reckoning of death: which surely no man doubts, but that it hath in it some thing terrible, that offends our minds and courages, which nature hath compounded and framed, with a love of themselves; for otherwise there were no need of any preparation or fortification of ourselves against that, whereunto we all did willingly run, out of a natural instinct and desire, as we use to go in cases of our preservation and defence. Out of question, no man learns how he should lie, if need were, upon a bed of roses; but, how he might endure torments, rather than to speak any thing against his faith; how, if necessity required, he might pass an whole night without sleep; being sore wounded, how to be wary of leaning so much as against a Pike, for fear sleep surprise him not, when he thus rests himself. But, death hath no discommodity in it at all. For then there must needs be something in the same thus incommodious. For, if thou desirest greatly long life, think that of all things, which are hidden from thine eyes, and are concealed in nature (by whom either they are already, or presently to be brought forth) nothing is clean consumed. They finish, indeed, their time, but so they perish not: And, the death, which we so much fear and fly, takes not from us life, but, gives it only a truce, and intermission for a little time: A day will come, to bring us again to that light, which many would fear, but that they shall be reduced to such a state, as wherein, they shall not remember whatsoever is past. But hereafter I will more precisely declare, that all this, which seems to perish, doth only but change. He should departed willingly, that goes to come back again. Observe how all things return in their due season. Thou mayest see, that in this world there is nothing utterly extinct, but it descends, and ascends again by turns. The summer, is it past? The next year brings it again. The Winter, is it done? his due months will reduce it again. Hath the night obscured the sight of the Sun? why, the next day will discover it again. The course of the stars is performed through the same circles, which before they passed. Always, some part of the heavens riseth up, & another goes downward. In brief, to conclude, I affirm, that neither children, nor mad men fear death: and how base a part would it then be, that reason should not be as able to furnish us with security, as they are fortified by their simplicity and idiotism?   

Epist. L.  
THe swiftness of time is incomprehensible: and so it appears principally to those that look backward to it. For, it deceives them that are too intentive, on present things: So swift is the passage, of so precipitant a flight: that which we live, is but, as it were, a minute, nay, and less, if it were possible, than a minute, and yet notwithstanding, as little as it is, Nature hath distributed and divided it, as if it were some long space. Of this minute, she hath allotted part to our Infancy, another proportion to Adolescency, the other part to those years which decline from youth, tending to old age; and to another part, old age itself. Mark but how many degrees she hath constituted, in so narrow rooms. Even now I pursued it, and this very now, is a portion of our life; of which, one day, we shall conceive the brevity. Sometime, I thought not time swift footed. but now his violent course seems unto me incredible; wherefore I wonder at those, that in this little space employ the greatest part thereof, in superfluous things: we must no longer amuse on these matters of nothing: we have a greater business in hand: Death pursues me; Life flies from me. Arm me against this, set down unto me some prescription, whereby I may not fear Death, & that life may not thus slip from me: Teach me how the happiness of this life consists not in the length, but in the usage of the same; & that it so may, and doth oftentimes fall out, that he which lives longest, hath lived least time; & he living lest while, longest. Nature hath sent us into the world very docile: She gave us an imperfect reason, which by our endeavours may be made more perfect.   

Epist. LVII.  
Our body's ebb, and turn back, like the course of the waters: All the time, which thou seest, flits away with the time itself. Nothing remains of all that we see: Even I, while I am now saying, that all things are changed, am changed myself. Is it not that which Heraclitus affirmed: we in a manner descend, & not descend, in one and the self same river? the river retains the same name, but the waters fall away. The like is in man, but, that it may more easily be discerned in a river: we are transported, with no less swift course than this. And therefore, I can not but wonder at our folly, that we should so dearly love a thing, that so quickly leaves us; I mean this body: of whose death, we are so much afraid: seeing every moment of this life is the death of the other. Wilt thou fear that once, which is acted always? fearest thou to die once, when thou diest every day, by little and little?   

Epist. LXII.  
I Endeavour, that every day may be unto me, as all the rest of my life: and yet I follow it not hard, as if it were the last; but questionless, as potentially it may be the last. In the same manner I wright unto you this Letter, even as if in writing the same, Death should call me away: I am now ready to departed, and yet enjoy still this life. For, making no great account of future time, I labour to live well, before old age; & in my old age to die well. To die well is no other thing but to die willingly. Take a course, that in all things which requisitely thou must perform, thou dost not anything by compulsion. Constraint, and necessity, is for those that resist: and not for those that do things willingly. He that doth of his own accord, is not urged, nor constrained. And therefore, I say, that he which willingly embraceth commandments, is acquitted of the most burdensome part of servitude: which is, to do that, we would not. He is not miserable, that doth any thing by command; but he, that doth it in despite of his own will. Let us therefore so frame our courage, and wills, that we may affect whatsoever the thing requireth, & above all, without sorrow, let us think on our end: for it is convenient to prepare for death, before Life. Life is well enough furnished of itself; but we are too eager after the provisions of the same: we daily do, & will think, that still we want something. Neither years nor days hinder our living long enough, but only our own wills and desires. I have lived, my dear friend Locilius, so long, as is sufficient: I expect death, as being fully replenished & satisfied with life.   

Epist. LXXI.  
WE must one day arrive at this pleasant Port, and we ought not to refuse it: but, if any one come there to anchor in his first years, he must no more complain therefore, than he which hath quickly made his voyage by Sea. For, as you know well, the winds hold and detain some long upon the Sea, or he is hindered by retardation of calms, when others run their course swiftly, with a fuzzing, & gallant gale: Imagine, it so falls out with us. Life carries some speedily, to the place, whither they must have come at last, though at leisure. Others she holds a long time, & scorcheth them in their course: but we ourselves must never seek to detain her. For, properly it is not a good to live, but to live well: and therefore a wise man lives as long as he should, though not as long as he might. Not one of us, amongst a thousand, considers, that one day we must leave this earthly tabernacle: we do like the ancient inhabitants of a place, which by habit and custom, continue their abode, though with a thousand injuries and oppressions. But wouldst thou be free, in despite of this body? in habit it, as before the changing of a lodging: propound unto it, that one day, thou must leave that habitation. Thou shalt, by this means, be the more courageous against the necessity of thy departure: but how can he truly think of his end, that endlessly wishes for, & desires all? There is nothing wherein ordinary Meditation, is so necessarily required.   

Epist. LXXVIII.  
THere is not so stupid, or gross amam, which knows not, that one day he must die: and yet when he comes to the point, he turns his back, he trembles, he laments. I pray you, he that should mourn, because he had not lived a thousand years ago, would you not judge him the veriest sot in the world? As very a fool is he, that weeps because he shall not live a thousand years hence. These be like things: Thou shalt not be, and, thou wert not. All these two times belong to an other. To this present point thou art reduced: and admit thou extendst the same a little, whither supposest thou to extend it? Why lamentest thou? what desirest thou? thou losest but thy labour: Never think that God's pre-ordination will be diverted by thy prayers: It is firm, irrevocable, and conducted by a wonderful, and eternal necessity. Thou shalt go, whither all things go: what thing is new unto thee? thou wert borne to this condition: the same happened to thy Father, thy Mother, to all thy predecessors, & those went before thee, as also to all them that shall come after thee: It is an indissoluble chain, an immutable order, which attracts, & concatenates unto it all things. There is no path but hath his end. Miserable wretch as thou art, thou makest thyself a slave unto men, a slave unto goods, a slave unto Life. For, where there is not virtue, and willingness to death, life is but a servitude. And what hast thou, I pray thee, for which thou attendest? Thou hast consumed all those pleasures, which might slothen, or detain thee: There is nothing new unto thee, nay more, there is nothing, which may not justly stir up in thee a disdain; so well shouldest thou be satisfied. And yet, forsooth, these are the things, from which thou so unwillingly dost departed: For, what didst thou ever, worthy to come to light? Confess the truth: it is not for thy love of the Palace or Court, nor for a grief to leave the nature of things, that thou drawest back from dying: Thou leavest, with grief, the market place, where thou leftest nothing behind thee. It stands with life, as with a Stage-play; It is no matter, how long it last, but how well it is acted: wheresoever thovendest, it is all one: end where thou wilt, so thou concludest with a good period.   

Epist. XCIIII.  
WE chide Destiny every day: why takes not death such an one? why takes he him in the midst of his course? why doth such an one tenter out an old age, irksome to himself and others? I pray you, which is more reasonable, that Nature should obey you, or you Nature? & why takest thou care, at what hour thou shalt departed, seeing from hence thou art sure to go. We must not be careful, how to live long, but how to live sufficiently. To live long, depends on Destiny; to live sufficiently depends on thine own will. That life is long, which is accomplished; & than it is accomplished, & fulfilled, when the will is content, when the mind enjoys her happiness, and is settled in her own power. What good hath such an one, by having idly passed over fourscore years? He hath not properly lived, but sojourned in this life. He died not slowly, but long; seeing his life was no other but a death. But, thou wilt say, he lived fourscore years; thou must observe from what day thou reckonest his death: for the unprofitable part thereof hath been but death. On the contrary, another, although he died in his vigour, and strength, discharged the offices of a good citizen, a good friend, & a good child: he omitted nothing of his duty; though his age were unperfect, yet his life was perfect. Why then, dear friend Lucilius, let our life be unto us, as the most precious things are: let us measure it, not according to the time, but according to our actions; not according to the continuance, but after the effects of the same. We may commend, and repute him happy, that well employed the little time he had to live. Age is an external thing, and without ourselves. Though I be here, yet this depends of another thing; but, to be an honest man, depends on myself. Require you of me, that I pass not my time obscurely, as it were in darkness, that I lead a true life, that my time be not lost? demand you, which is the longest life? It is to live, while we attain to wisdom: he which comes to this point, though he arrive not to the longer mark, at least yet he hath obtained the principal. Death passeth over all: He that killed, follows him that was slain. It is nothing, for which we take so much care. And what matter is it, how long thou avoidest, that which in the end cannot by any means be avoided: why fliest thou back from that, which thou canst not shun?   

Epist. C.  
Observe the swiftness of time, consider the shortness of this career, the which we also run so speedily. Mark the following on of all human kind, tending all to one place: They which seem to be far off, follow notwithstanding hard after others. He who thou supposest to be dead, is but only sent before. Can there be a more unreasonable matter, than when thou must necessarily perform the same journey, to weep for him, which hath outgone thee in the way? Whosoever laments for any ones death, laments only because he was a man. one self all the world. Whosoever was first born, must afterwards die. We are distinguished, by measurable space, but equal in the issue. One goes before, another follows, but both go the same way. All things are dissolved, all things pass into their contrary; this being Dame Nature's pleasure. In all these revolutions of human things, there is nothing certain, but Death; and yet every one complains of that which never failed, nor deceived any body. But he died being an infant: I will not in this point also affirm, that it was the better for him, to be so soon dispatched out of this life. But, let us come to him that hath lived to old years; I pray you what great matter hath he gained of this Infant? In understanding, and ideally, propound unto thyself, this wonderful distance of time, and comprehend it all together. Afterwards compare me, with this Infinite, the ordinary age of man, & then thou shalt see how small a matter it is, that we desire, and how little it is, that we extend out in length. And yet of this age, let us but consider how much is spent in grief, how much in cares, how much in the conceit of death, before it comes to our wished desire; how much in sickness, how much in fears, & briefly, how much in our young and unprofitable years: And, notwithstanding, of all this we even sleep out the moiety. Add hereunto, the troubles, sorrows, and dangers: you shall see, that in the longest life of all, the time which we truly live is the least of al. Life is neither good, nor evil, but it is the place of good or evil. He that dies in his youth (in that by all likelihood he might aswell have impaired as amended) is like one that hath lost a die, wherewith he might rather have lost, than won. In brief, for the brevity of age, if you compare it to the infinity of time, we are all equally young and old: for the most extended age of a man is but as a point, or minute.   

Epist. CII.  
Each day, each hour teacheth us, that we are nothing, & by some very fresh and unanswerable argument, puts us in mind of our fragility, when we would otherwise forget it; urging us to have an eye unto death, when intellectually we conceive in ourselves some eternity. Graft peartrees, plant vines in order, said a certain man: Oh, what a foolish thing it is to proportion out our age! we have not so much as the power of to morrow in our hands. Oh what a wonderful foolery their hopes come unto, which enter into long and tedious affairs! I will buy, I will build, I will put out for profit, I will exact, I will purchase Honours: and then in time we come to these resolutions: but I am old, and my old age being satisfied in all these things, I will lead it in repose and quiet. Believe, that even to those, deemed most happy, all things are doubtful: No man can promise any thing to himself of future things; and that which we hold, slips even out of our hands: that hour itself, which we instantly run, some incommodity or other, glides between our fingers. Time passes away, according to a certain and immutable law, but concealed from us. Now what have I to do, whether this be certain, and known unto Nature or not, seeing it is uncertain, and unknown unto me? We many times propound unto ourselves long navigations, & not to return again in a long time, while we have run vaging about, and discovering many strange coasts: we propound to ourselves the wars, and the slow recompenses of our military endeavours; briefly, of place, honours, and advancement from one office to another. And, in the mean while, Death comes upon us, without ever thinking thereon, if it be not sometimes exposed to our eyes, by the examples of others mortality: which takes no longer impression also in our minds, than we wonder at the same. But, what greater sottishness is there, then to wonder, that the thing which falls out every day, should happen one day? Our limits are expressly set down, where the inexorable necessity of Destiny hath placed them: but no man knows, how near the time is. Let us therefore so frame our minds, as if it were already come unto the point: Let us not defer, nor procrastinate. He that setteth his last hand every day to his life, hath nothing to do with time. Therefore, my friend Lucilius, make haste to live, and think that as many days as thou leadest, so many lives thou livest. He that lives in hope, the nearest time ever slips him: and he is possessed with such a greediness of living, that the fear of death maketh him most miserable. Lame him of an hand, of a foot, of a thigh, break his back, dash out all his teeth, so he liveth, it is enough for him, all goes well. Moreover, is it such a misery to die? He desires the extremest evils, and that which is most hard to endure, he wisheth, to prolong and undergo a great time: And at what price? for what reward? To obtain long life. But then, what manner of life is this? A linger death. Is there any one that would request to linger in torment, to perish member after member? or, that would rather lose his life by little and little, than to be suddenly and quickly dispatched? Deny now therefore, if you can, that it is not a great benefit of Nature, this necessity of death imposed upon us. Many are ready to make worse bargains: to betray their friends, for to live longer themselves; to prostitute their own children, that they may see the day of testimonial of so many impieties. We must shake off this desire of living, and say, it is no matter when we suffer, seeing that one day, suffer it we must. It imports not how long thou livest, but how well. And long life, is often a prejudice to living well.   

Epist. CIII.  
WE attend another original, and state of things. Wherefore without fear expect this definitive hour, which shall fetch thee from hence. All that thou seest about thee, suppose it to be but movable, & the necessaries of thine Inn: thou hast further to go. Nature satisfieth men at their departure, as well as at their entry. We carry away no more than we brought; all that covers thee must be taken away: thy skin shallbe thy last covering. And this thy skin also, thy flesh, thy blood dispersed, & diffused over all thy body, these bones, these veins and sinews, which nourished the fluent parts, shall be snatched and taken away from thee. The day which thou fearest to be thy last, shall be thy nativity to an eternal life. Thou criest and lamentest: so doth he that is borne. Wherefore art thou sad? so ordinarily is he. So the coverings and swathing bands of those that are borne, perish, & come to nothing? How lovest thou these things as thine own? these are things wherewith thou art but covered: But, a day will come wherein thou shalt be laid open, & that shall draw thee from the habitation of this stinking & corruptible body. From this time forward, meditate on higher things: The secrets of Nature shall one day be discovered unto thee: There shall be a dissipation of this darkness, and a most clear light shall reverberate on all our parts: Imagine to thyself, that it shall be the resplendence of a number of stars, joining their lights together. There shall be no more vapour, or shadow, to obscure the clear air: all quarters of heaven shall be equally relucent: the day and the night, which come by turns, are but accidents of this inferior air. Thou wilt say, thou livedst here in darkness, when being perfect and entire, thou beholdest the whole light itself, which now thou hast but a glimpse of, by the narrow casements of thine eyes, and thou admirest it afar off. What wilt thou then think of divine light, when thou seest it in the proper place? This contemplation, will suffer nothing, base, abject, or vile, to creep into the mind. It intimates unto us, that God is a witness to all our actions: it command's us to approve ourselves before him, to prepare ourselves hereafter for him, to set before our eyes that eternity; the which whosoever comprehends in his intellect, he is afraid of no army, nor daunted with the sound of the trumpet, nor trembleth for any threats that can be used against him. For, what can he justly fear, which hopes to die? Conceive how beneficial good examples are, and then thou wilt see, that the memory of worthy men, is no less profitable than their presence.   

Epist. CVIII.  
WHy, it is no such excellent thing to live. Thou art entered into a long and tedious way: thou must fall, and rise up again, droop, & be weary. Here thou leavest one companion, there thou carriest another to his grave; and in another place art put thyself in the same fear. Must this rough and uneven way be passed, amids so many obstacles? Must we needs die? Let the mind be prepared against all things. Let him know, that he is come into a goodly place, where tears and cares make their residence; where pale sickness, and sad old age, have chosen their habitation. We must necessarily pass our life in such company: These things cannot be avoided. Thou mayest well contemn, and make little reckoning of them: But you cannot make this slight regard, when you often think thereon, and cast your count as of things that must come to pass. There is no man but he approaches more courageously to that, whereunto of long time he hath been prepared, and makes the more forcible resistance: whereas contrariwise a man taken on the sudden, & not prepared, is astonished with the least matters. Now, seeing all things are cumbersome, though it were but for their instability, and novelty; by ruminating thereon continually, thou shalt be not apprentice, or unskilful of any evil: Let us admire nothing whereunto we are born. And none can complain of them, because they are equal to all; equal I mean in this point, in that he which once escaped them, is subject to incur them another time. For, the law is not said, to be just, and equal, because all men equally use the same; but in that it was justly constituted for all. Let our minds be reduced to an equity; and without complaining of our mortal nature, let us pay our tribute cheerfully. Doth Winter bring cold? why, cold is necessary. The Summer is it hot? why, heat also we must have. Doth intemperate air prejudice our health? Sickness cannot be avoided: Sometimes a savage beast encounters us, and an otherwhile a man, more pernicious than the wild beasts themselves. Fire consumes one, water another. We cannot tell how to change the nature of things. The best is, to pay that we cannot be released of, and to second, and follow the will of God, without murmuring; from whom all things have their original. It is the part of a bad Soldier, to follow his captain mournfully. Destiny leads him by the hand that goes willingly, and drags him along, that goes by compulsion. So must we live, so must we speak, that Death may find us ready, jocund, & not hanging back. He is, truly, of an haughty and generous courage, that thus rangeth his own mind: and, contrariwise, that man is degenerate, and base, which strives against it, thinking corruptly of this worldly ordinance, that will rather correct God, than himself.   

Epist. CXXI.  
A Man is never so divine, as when he considereth well of his mortal nature, and conceives, that he was borne a man, to die; and that this body, is not his proper habitation, but rather an Inn; nay, and that but a baiting place, the which he must presently leave. It is a great argument, of a spirit descended from above, if he esteem these places where he converseth, base, and incapacious, not fearing to departed from thence. For, in that he knows, from whence he is come, and often calls the same to mind, he also knows whither he must return. Do we not see, how many discommodities we undergo, and that this body of ours evil befits us? One while we complain of our bellies, another of our breasts, and then of our throats: sometimes our sinews, and then our feet torment us: one while a dejection, and then some distillation. Now there is too much blood, and then too little; we are tempted, and harried, hither, and thither: For, so it ordinarily falls out with him that dwells in another man's house. And, notwithstanding being endowed with such a goodly body, we here propound unto ourselves eternal things: and as far as human age can extend itself, so far we promise to ourselves, by hopes. We are content with no riches, with no puistance. Can there be a more shameless, or sottish thing than this? We were created to die, and yet even when we are ready to die, nothing seems enough unto us. For, every day we are nearer to our last period: and there is no hour, which spurs us not forward to the place, wherein we must be laid. See, how human understanding is dazzled And, therefore, a great spirit, which in the end comes to discover a better nature, than this bodily structure, takes an order to bear himself industriously and honestly, in the place, allotted unto him: as for the rest of all the things before him, he esteems not one of them his own; only using them, as belonging unto him for a time, like to the Pilgrim, and traveler.   

Out of the first Book of tranquillity of life.  
ALl our whole life, is but as it were a service: and we must enure ourselves to the condition thereof, complaining as little as may be, and embracing all that, which hath properly any commodity in itself. There is nothing so harsh, wherein a mild spirit may not find some consolation. He lives evil, that knows not how to die: He that fears death, shall never perform any manlike action while he lives: but he that understands, how this was allotted unto him, from his conception, will live regularly, and with like courage take order, that whatsoever may hap, it light not on him suddenly, or unlooked for. Sickness, imprisonment, decay of estate, fire; none of these will be sudden to him. For, saith the wise man, I know in what a tumultuous house, Nature hath placed me. So many times the alarm hath been given, hard by me, so many times there have been untimely funerals gone by my gate, oftentimes the fall of a ruinus house hath thundered in mine ears: one night hath taken from me many of those, which the Court, and familiar conversation had conjoined with me, and cut them off, even hard at mine elbow. I wonder, that so many dangers coming about me, they have always failed. But see on the contrary, the greatest number of men, when they embark, they never dream of a storm. No man thinks, how the same which happens to one, may fall out to any other whosoever. For, every one that had but made a goodimpression of this, even in his bowels, and diligently observed other men's harms, the same having as free access to himself, he would be well armed, long before his being assailed. It is too late after a danger, to frame his courage to bear peril patiently: but rather he says, I thought such a thing would never have been; I could never be brought to believe, that it would have come thus to pass: And why not? Where are the riches, which poverty, famine, and beggary do not follow, step by step? Where are the dignities, the augural, and Consular robes, that are not subject to putting out of their place, or banishment, to some blemish of infamy, or to some extreme ignominy? Where is the kingdom, whose ruin is not threatened, whose executioner, and headsman is not at hand, etc.   

Out of the Book, of the shortness of life.  
PAulinus, the greatest part of mortal men, complain of Nature's malignity, that we are begotten for so short an age; and that the time allotted us, passeth so violently & swiftly away, that life than leaves the greater part of men, when they have scarcely made their preparation for to live. But the time which we have is not small: only we lose much thereof. Our life, that is given us, is large, & long enough to compass great matters, if it were well employed. But when it runs away in delights, & idleness, when we employ it in nothing that is good, extreme necessity pressing us in the end, we then perceive our life is gone, without discerning how it went away. Thus much it imports: we received not a short life, but have made it so short ourselves. We are no ways indigent of life, but prodigal. Even as great opulency, and wealth, when it comes into the hands of an evil husband, is wasted in a moment; and mean riches on the contrary, increaseth by the employment of a thrifty man, the more that he useth the same: so, this our age is wonderfully extended, by him that can dispose well of it. Why complain we then of Nature? she hath been very courteous, and benign towards us. Life is long enough, if thou canst but tell how to use it. One is possessed with insatiable avarice, another vexeth himself, with double diligence, in superfluous labours: one is imbrued in wine, another languisheth in idleness: this man is tormented, and tossed, with an ambition, depending on another's voice, and suffrage: that man with an hope of gain, in the precipitant desire of traffic, runs over all countries, and Seas. Others are in travail with a great desire of war, being ever occupied either in their own dangers, or in persuading other men to perils. There are also some, who like to follow no course; but Death lays hold of them, languishing, and gasping with annoy and weariness: so that I make no doubt of the truth of that, which the greatest amongst Poets pronounced, by way of oracle: Of all our life, that which we live, is the least part: For the rest; all that other space, is not properly a life, but a time. Every one alotteth his life, to divers things: they are miserable, and sparing in holding their patrimony, but prodigal in losing of time; of time, I say, wherein avarice is only honest, and not ignominious. But choose we one, out of the troop of the most ancient in years: Very well Sir, we see you have attained to the very top of human nature, even as far, as a man's age may possibly reach. You go on the hundredth year, or more: well, call your years a little to an account. Of all this time, tell me how much your creditor hath taken from you, how much your Love & Mistress, how much the commonwealth, how much your friend; then after this, how many conflicts you have had with your wife, what punishment you have inflicted upon your servants, what running up and down the city you have been driven unto, for your familiars, and acquaintance. annex hereunto the diseases which you have fallen into, by your own default: and add also, unto this, that which remained, without any good employment: Thou shalt them see, that thy years are fewer, than thou makest reckoning of. Cal to mind, when in thyself, thou wert resolute in any determination, how many days passed away conformably to that which in thy mind thou didst set down; how many of them profited thee: when thy countenance was fresh, thy heart without fear, what great need you had of so long a life: then, how many sundry men have as it were stolen, and impaired it, you no ways perceiving, when, or what you lost: how much hath some causeless grief taken away from you, sottish contentments, some unsavoury desire, or flattering conversation: briefly, after all these abstractions, how little remains, that was properly thine own; and then thou shalt see, that for all this thou diest, before thou art full ripe, and before thy best time. Who is the cause hereof? Why, you live as though you should live for ever. Good husbandry never comes into your mind; you never consider what time is spent and gone; you spend and waste, as though you had abundance; you fear like a mortal man, and covet all, like one immortal: Hear what the most of them use to allege. At fifty years I will betake myself to mine ease, when I am threescore year old I will give over all public office: I pray ye tell me, where made you purchase of such a long life? who gave you Letters Patents for living a longer time? who can have the patience, while these things take effect, even as you have ordained & set them down? Art thou not ashamed to reserve the refuse of thy life only to wisdom, and assign such an age unto that, which can no more be employed in anything else? Oh, it is too late to begin then to live, when we must leave living. Is not this a sottish oblivion of out mortal nature, to defer good & healthful counsel, till the fiftieth year, and to begin to live at such years, unto which few ever attain unto? Thou shalt many times hear the greatest and mighti'st personages utter words to this effect, that they desire repose, they commend, & prefer it before all other goods: They would, if securely they might, give over all the sollitie, and triumph, wherein they live. That great Emperor Augustus, to whom God vouchsafed more favours than to any one, ceased not to sigh after this repose, & to wish for vacations, that he might be exempted from public negotiations: all his speech tended, for the most part, to this end. This rest & tranquillity seemed unto him so precious a thing, that not being able effectually to enjoy it, he apprehended it in conceit. He which saw all things depend on himself, which imposed on all nations what stood with his will and pleasure, thought that day most happy, when he might but lay aside his worldly greatness. He knew well, how great toil, the goods of Fortune, which are so estimable upon earth, put us to, and how many secret cares they harbour. It would but be superfluous, to make mention of divers, that unto others appeared to be very happy, and yet they themselves proved faithful testimonials to the contrary, when the whole accounts of their years were cast up. But by these complaints, they could never persuade others nor themselves: for even at the very instant, when such words escaped them, their affections returned to their old wont. Out of question, though our life should extend even to a thousand years, yet would it be restrained, & brought into a little compass; the several ages would consume all that: & that space, which although Nature conceal, reason might exspatiate, if it were well guided, it must needs fly from us in a moment. For, we redeem not this time, we do not retain, nor slacken it, by being circumspect and industrious in all things; but do rather suffer it to roll away, as a superfluous thing, that may be again recovered. Throughout our whole life, we must learn to live: and, which is yet more strange, through every hour of our life, we must learn to die. There have been many great men, that leaving their places, renouncing their estates, offices, and pleasures, in the height of their age they sought after no other thing but to know how to live well: and yet the most of them left this life, confessing even then, they had not attained to this understanding. Every one hurries on his life, and travels in the desire of future things, and weariness of present times: but he, which bestows his whole time in this practice, and truly disposeth all his days, in such a life, neither desires nor fears, what may happen the day after. What comes to pass? how busy soever thou art, thy life passeth away; and Death will presently surprise thee: for then (will ye, nill ye) you must be at leisure. They accommodate their lives with their lives expense and charge, they discourse and cast above the Moon. Now the greatest loss, that can be in life, is retardation: Delay, takes up the first years, and plucks from thee things present, while it promiseth thee those future. An attending life procures great impediments, which loseth to day, and depends on to morrow. Thou disposest of that, which is in the hands of Fortune, and leaves that at random, that is in thine own. Whereon castest thou thine eye? what wouldst thou attempt? All future things are accompanied with uncertainty; wouldst thou know why the elder sort live not long? Why, but observe, how old men, even when they dote, desire longer life: They beg by vows, and prayers, the proroguement of a few years. They conceit themselves to be younger than they are, they are flattered with fantasies, and are as sillily gulled, as if they meant at an instant to go beyond both Death, and Destiny. But if any infirmity put them in mind, that they are mortal; Oh, how dastardly they die! It seems not that they go, but rather that they are haled out of this life. Then they can say, how they had been fools; and that, by reason of their folly, they had not lived out half their life: but, if they could escape this disease, they would live quietly, and abandon all affairs. Then they call to mind, how they had borrowed, in vain, that which they were not always to enjoy; and that all their labour, and travel, is now come to nothing. But they are only wise, and they only live, which find time and leisure, wherein to learn wisdom. For, they do not only bear their years well; but, they add all the time past, unto their own. All the years, which passed before them, they have overtaken: and so we likewise, if we be not too ingrate. The famous Authors, of these excellent & sacred opinions, were born for our sakes, they prepared a life for us. By other men's labours we are conducted to admirable things, drawn and digged out of darkness, to bring them to light and knowledge. There are no ages forbidden us, we may enter into al. And when we take pleasure, out of a great mind, to issue a little out of the strait siege of human imbecility, there is fit time enough to fetch our walks abroad at large. We may dispute with Socrates, doubt with Carneades, take repose with some, & with others vanquish, and subdue human nature. Now, seeing Nature admitteth us to the communion, and fellowship of all ages past, let us not therefore lose this little and frail passage of time, but addict our selves with our whole hearts, to things supernatural, eternal, and that participate with the best. These people, that hitch from office to office, that importune both others and themselves, when they have well scudded the streets, trotted sound up and down, from gate to gate, when there is not an open door but they have peeped in at, when they have jetted, with salutations from one house to another; in an huge city, transported away with other delights, how many would there be, that they should never see? how many that will absent themselves from them, and send them away with a flea in their ear, because they would either sleep, or pass their time in lasciviousness? Let us therefore be mindful of better offices: All men, whatsoever, may, when they will, have private conversation, with Zeno, Pythagoras, Democritus, Aristotle, Theophrastus and with other principal and famous Authors of good and liberal Sciences. He shall find none of them otherwise occupied, none but he will find leisure to entertain him, none that will not send him back, more happy, more content, and more desirous of his amity, none that will let him departed empty handed.   

Out of the Book of Consolation.  
IT is therefore a singular consolation, to think, that whatsoever all men before have passed, and all to come must likewise undergo, shall or may happen to himself. And Nature, in my opinion, made that which was most grievous, most common unto all; to the end, that such an equality, might assuage the rigour and severity of Death. Go to then, cast thine eye on every side, upon all mortal men: and over all thou shalt easily discern great and continual occasion of grief. One is vexed with an ambition that never hath repose: Poverty calls another daily to his work. Another fears the same wealth, which erst he desired, and is tormented with his own wishes. One is afflicted with care; another, with labour; a third, importuned with a troop of people, that daily lay siege to the portal of his house. Here's one angry for having children, there's another laments for having lost them. Tears sooner fail us, than just cause to lament. Mayest thou not perceive what manner of life Nature hath allotted us, when she ordained, that whosoever was borne, should enter into the world with cries and tears? We came into the world with such a beginning; and all the sequel of our years, is correspondent to the same: in this manner we pass over our whole life. All those goods wherein we delight through a certain pleasure but in appearance, being inwardly replenished with cozenage & deceit (I say, treasure, dignities, power, authority, with divers other things, by which the blind avarice of human care becomes stupid & besotted) we possess them with wonderful molestation, men envy us the enjoying them, and even amongst those that have them, they rather threaten, than make the owner more powerful: they are smooth, and slippery; one can never possess them securely, there's ever some danger of their peril and shipwreck. And though one did not fear any thing to come, yet the only preservation of a great worldly state, is full fraught with cares. If thou wilt give credit to them, which do more profoundly look into truth, our whole life is a punishment, we are here launched forth into this deep & inconstant sea, where there is always flood, and ebb; which one while hoystes up with the waves, & then throws us down again with the more damage, daily tossing, and tormenting us, whether it raise us up, or bring us down; we, I say, most miserable, have never any settled, or assured place: we ever hang in suspense, we always float, we always rush one against another and oftentimes even suffer wrack. We are never out of fear in this vast Sea, subject to all kind of tempests, and storms; and those that sail therein, have no other Port, to make withal, but Death.   

Out the Book of Divine providence. In what manner divers evils light on good men.  
YOu required of me, Lucilius, if it were so, that the world was governed by providence divine, how it could come to pass, that so many inconveniences fell to honest men's shares. I will yield you hereof a more lively reason, in my written work; wherein I determine to prove, that God's providence is over all things, and that GOD himself, dwells, and converseth amongst us. There is an amity between GOD, and honest men, which virtue maketh and contracteth; and not only a friendship, but also a near alliance, and resemblance. For, an honest man differs from God, but only in time; he is his disciple, his imitator, and his true offspring. And therefore this magnificent Father, which exacts hardly of his own, that they should be virtuous, he brings them up hardly, as severe father's use to do. When as, therefore, thou seest honest men, and those so near unto God, travel, and take pains, mounting up, by rough and craggy ascents: and contrariwise, the wicked, to spend their time in follies, being drowned in sensual pleasures; imagine how we delight to rain in our own children, and lose the rains to our slaves progeny. For the one, we contain them within their duties, by a severe, & sharp discipline: for the other, we lay the bridle on their necks. Thou mayst evidently perceive the like taken by God: He lets not an honest man have his head; he proves, he tries, he prepares him for his service.   

Out of the same Book. Of the means how to endure adversity.  
WHy do so many evils happen unto good men? there can nothing occur, which is evil, to a good man. Contrary things move him not. He esteems all adversities, as so many exercises. Who is that honourable man, which is not desirous of some noble and virtuous labour, and even with hazard, and peril, to go forward in honourable endeavours? virtue pines and wears away, if it have not an opposite. Then she appears what she is, of what value, and what she is able to perform, when by patience, she discovers her puissance. Let honest men therefore take every thing in good part, and turn unto good whatsoever happens unto them. It is all one, what thou sufferest: but how thou sufferest, take great heed. seest thou how fathers, & mothers sometimes entreat their children. Father's command their children to endeavour, to go about a thing speedily, they cannot endure that they should be idle, no, not on Holy & Festival days; and in brief, they oftentimes bring both sweat, & tears into their eyes. Contrariwise mothers, they would have them always under their noses, in the chimney corner, & in the cool shade: they would never have them cry by their wills, never afflicted, annoyed, or any ways troubled. God carries a Father's heart, towards honest men, his is a more manlike love, he tosses and harry's them up and down, with travail, grief, and loss, to the end they should purchase by this means, true and powerful force: But those bodies, that we put out to grass, do not only faint under labour, but they languish in idleness; and under their own burden, and weight, sink, and fall down. That felicity, which was never so much as shaken, cannot stand out a great storm. Amongst many other singular sayings of our friend Demetrius, this pleaseth me well, the which is always fresh in my memory, & soundeth as it were in mine ears. I think no man, saith he, more unhappy than he that never had any adversity, or evil Fortune. The more labour, and toil, the greater and truer honour.   

Out of the same Book. Of Prosperity.  
Prosperity falls out to the vulgar sort, to base and abject spirits: but it is proper to a worthy & famous man, to subdue calamities, & whatsoever daunteth mortal men. I judge thee miserable, in that thou never wert so; & unfortunate, in never meeting with any mishap. Thou hast passed all thy life, without having an enemy: no man by this can discern of thy worth, nor thou thyself of thine own. To know ourselves well, it is needful to make some trial: & who can do this, that never came to proof? virtue desires danger, and observes to what it tends, what the scope thereof is; and not what she must endure, for to attain to the same: For, even her very endurance, is a great part of her glory. A Pilot may be well known in time of a tempest; a soldier, in the heat of battle. How shall I know thy courage in resisting of poverty, as long as thou swimmest in wealth? How may I discern, with what constancy of mind, thou art able to withstand Infamy, Ignominy, and the people's hate, if thou wallowest in general applause; if an insupplantable favour, by a certain inclination of hearts and affections, prosecute thee perpetually? Thy calamity, is a spur unto virtue: whom God loves, therefore, those he proves, he hardens, he acknowledgeth, he visits, he exerciseth. Contrariwise, those whom he seems to flatter, and spare, he doth but weaken, & effeminate them, for evils to come. Why doth God afflict the better sort, with sickness, grief, and discommodities? Why, in a camp, are the most perilous actions committed to the most courageous, and valiant? Why do Captains send out choice soldiers to give the enemy a Camisado, to discover a way, to win a passage, and to drive them away that guard the same? There is none of them will say, my Captain hath done me wrong; but rather, he holds me in great esteem: The same must they allege, that endure evils sent from God, whereat cowards, and effeminate men lament. God thought us worthy, as in whom to make trial, how much human nature is able to suffer and endure. Eat pleasures, fly this feeble and effeminate felicity, which distempers & intenerates the heart, drowning it in a perpetual drunken sleep, if sometimes there happen not another contrary accident, to put him in mind of his human conditition. Ah, is it not far better to support a continual infelicity, which inviteth unto virtue, than to stoop under an infinite burden of prosperities? And therefore God deals with honest men as masters do with their scholars, who set them the greatest lesson, & task, of whom most hope is conceived. I pray you tell me, Do you think that the Lacedæmonians hated their children, when they made such a trial of their nature, and condition, as to whip them publicly? Their fathers themselves, animated them to bear courageously the jerks of the whips: and being lamentably lashed, and half dead, they yet requested them to add lash unto lash. No marvel then, though God tempt, and hardly entreat, the more generous spirits. To be in daily danger, makes us lightly esteem the same. Thus are the bodies of Mariners hardened unto the Sea. Thus grow knobs in the poor Labourers hands. Thus are the soldiers arms trained up to throw a dart: The members of those that run, made nimble to pass the race. To conclude, that part is strongest in any one, that most is exercised. There is not so firm nor  a tree, as that which the wind oftenest beateth upon: for, by being thus beaten and blasted, it knits together, and spreadeth his roots more firmly in the earth. I remember also, that I heard this courageous speech from Demetrius: O immortal Gods, said he, I complain of you for this one thing, that you made me not sooner to understand your will: For, I would have come thither of myself, whither I go now, but being sent. Will you take away my children? Why, here they are. Will you have away one part of my body? why, take it freely. It is no great matter, which I promise: for I must leave it all, ere it be long. Will you have my soul? Why not? it belongs not to me, I will not hinder you, from taking that which you have given me: you shall, with heart & good will, have whatsoever you demand. But what then? I had rather offer it myself, than give it, when I am demanded: what need you to have taken it away from me? You may indeed take it, but you shall not take it from me; for nothing is taken away, but from him that resists: but I am not constrained, I endure it not against my will, & herein I yield not to God, but only consent to his will. The fire tries gold, and misery men of courage. But why then doth God endure the injuries done to good men? Why, quite contrary, he doth not endure it. He removes all evils, far off from them, wickedness, ill thoughts, corrupt counsels, covert luxuries, and avarice, which is always prying into other men. He guards them himself, and keeps them close by him: would any body peradventure require of God, to guard their goods and chattels also? They discharge God of this labour, in making no account of external things. Among others, Democritus removed all his wealth far off; he supposing, that it would but be a burden, to a good understanding. Imagine therefore, that God thus speaketh unto thee; Why complain ye of me, you that have delighted in equity? I have environed others with false prosperities, & occupied their spirits with a long and lying dream. I have outwardly adorned them with gold, silver, & ivory, when as inwardly they are of no value. Those which, at the first sight, seem happy, if you but observe them well, not in the place where you meet them, but secretly some where else, they are sordid, base, and miserable, and are but like their own walls, outwardly painted, & set forth. This is not true, and perfect felicity: it is but a rind or bark; and that also, but slight, and thin. And therefore while they can hold out, & show themselves in no place, but where they like best, they glitter, and abuse men's judgements: but if an accident fall out, that doth but discover, and display them, than we may easily perceive, what deep villainy lies hid under adulterate shows. But, to you, on the contrary, I have given certain goods, and those that will continue. The oftener they are turned, or beheld on every side, the better and more resplendent they will seem; which is to say, lightly to esteem of any thing that is feared, and to disdain that which ordinarily is desired: you do not shine outwardly: all your goods stand inward. So doth all this world: it contemns external parts, being content with the contemplation of itself: All the wealth thereof is inward. Your felicity is to have nothing to do with worldly happiness.    

A Sermon of Saint CYPRIANS, Bishop of Carthage, concerning Mortality.  
THE ARGUMENT.  
IN this Sermon, made for the consolation of such Christians, as then were visited with the plague, Saint CYPRIAN exhorteth all those that truly love the Lord, cheerfully to leave this earthly life, when God calls them away; confirming the same by divers reasons, and showing afterwards that death is a way, which the wicked also must go: and he teacheth every one how to observe the difference betwixt the one, and the other; that is to say, the good are called to happy rest, and the wicked, to eternal punishment.  
THough many, amongst you, my dear brethren, have your understandings so settled, your faith so firm, and your souls so elevated up to heaven, that they are not so much as shaken, by seeing the plague, on all sides, to sweep away so many: but, like a rock immovably planted, they withstand, without bouging, the violent storms of the world, breaking the raging waves of this present life, in stead of being battered or broken by them; & finally are not overthrown, but only proved by temptations: Yet, seeing some among the people half daunted and discouraged, either for want of good resolution, by reason of their little faith, respect of the love which they bear to this world, or through the tenderness of their sex, or (which is worse) for want of good instruction; so as we can not see them employ that celestial force, and vigour, wherewith their hearts should be armed: I could not contain myself according to my weak power, from suppressing this effeminate cowardice, by a prevalent discourse taken out of the holy scripture; to the end, that those which have begun to feel, that God is their Father, and jesus Christ their Saviour, they may do nothing unworthy of a Christian, or of the true child of God. For, most dear brethren, he that fights under the ensign of God, which inhabiting in the celestial pavilions, aspireth to none but high matters, he must truly know himself, and we must not in any wise be dejected, or astonished at the torments, or tempests of this world: seeing God hath advertised us, that these things must come to pass: instructing and teaching us, by the exhortation of his loving, & careful voice, and preparing and fortifying the people of his Church, to bear such things, as must happen, patiently; he having declared, & foretold, that the earth should be afflicted in every quarter, by war, famine, plagues, & earthquakes. As also, for fear we should fall into despair, through the strangeness of so many evils at once oppressing us, he hath divulged before, that the afflictions should be far sharper in the later times. Seeing whatsoever he foretold, is now accomplished, let us conceive hereby that all his other promises in like manner shall be fulfilled, as he himself hath spoken, When you see all these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. My dearest brethren, this kingdom hath already begun to come unto us: for, the reward of life, the joy of eternal salvation, perpetual bliss, the possession of Paradise, which were lost by sin, return unto us, so soon as we leave the world. Now, when celestial things succeed the terrestrial; great, those but little; and eternal, those transitory and frail; Is there then any occasion to be in grief and anguish of mind? and who is that affrighted and daunted man, but he that is destitute of Faith, & hope? In effect, it only belongs to him to fear death, that would not go unto Christ: and he refuseth to go unto Christ, which believeth not, that then he gins to reign with Christ.  
It is written, 
Abac 2. Rom. 1.  The just man lives by faith. If thou be'st just, and livest by faith, firmly believing in God, why art thou not forward to go to Christ, who calls thee? Why dost thou not embrace God's promises? Why rejoicest thou not, to be delivered from the power of the wicked? Simeon the just, which in true faith yielded himself to God's obedience, knowing by revelation, that he should not die, before he had seen Christ, and the little Infant called jesus; being come into the Temple with his Mother, he knew then that Christ was born: whom having seen, he knew that the end of his life approached: wherefore, rejoicing in his death so near at hand, and being assured that God would presently call him, he took the Infant in his arms, & praising God, he cried out, and said, Lord, thou sufferest now thy servant, to departed in peace, according to thy Word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. By this he did declare, and make evident, that God's servants are in peace, and enjoy a free and quiet repose, when we are drawn from the violent waves of this world, and that we enter into the Port of eternal security and safety; when after the defacement of this present life, we attain to most glorious immortality. For, this is our repose, our assured peace, our firm, and perdurable security: and in this world, what is there more to be found but a daily conflict and combat with the devil? a continual war, where we must be daily at hand blows, to receive and entertain his charges? We carry on our arms, in front, upon the flank, and on the back, avarice, impudicity, choler and ambition: we must wrestle incessantly, & with loss of breath, against the desire of the flesh, & the allurements of the world. Man's understanding, being assaulted & battered on all sides by Satan's artillery, knows not whither to retire, or how to resist, but with great danger. If avarice be vanquished, than concupiscence marcheth fair & large: if this be repelled, ambition gives the onset. Ambition being discomfited, choler is in a mutiny, pride mounts on horfebacke, drunkenness storms, envy gives th'alarm, discord cuts off all hope of reconciliation. Thou art urged to do that which the law forbids: thou promisest that which is not lawful for thee to perform. Seeing the soul is continually subject to so many evils, seeing so many dangers attend us without ceasing, is it possible that we can take any great pleasure, to be here amongst the devils glittering & trenchant blades? We might rather be desirous, by a ready and sudden death, to be quickly conveyed to jesus Christ, as he himself hath sufficiently summoned us, saying: Verily, verily, 
john 16.  I say unto you, you shall weep and lament, and the world shall rejoice: but your sadness shall be converted into joy. I know no man but he takes delight to go to a place, where mirth is: and no body seeks after sadness and mourning. The same Lord sets down, when our sadness shall be turned into joy, saying: I will see you once again, and your hearts shall rejoice, when no man shall be able to take your joy away from you. Seeing then that there is nothing but joy, in seeing of jesus Christ, and that we cannot be truly joyful, but in seeing of him; what a blindness, and folly is it, to love anguish, & the travels and miseries of the world, in stead of cheerfully embracing the life & joys eternal.  
This falls out, my dear brethren, for want of faith: Men think, that what God promiseth (who is truth itself, and whose word is eternal, and inviolable towards those that believe) should not be performed. If any honourable man of authority, and place, should promise thee this, or that, thou wouldst make account of it, believing that he, whonthou knowest to be very observant of his word, would not abuse, or deceive thee. Hearken therefore to God who speaks unto thee: & yet like a disloyal wretch as thou art, wilt thou still waver in inconstancy? God promiseth unto thee perpetual & eternal life at thy departure out of this world: doubtest thou thereof? This is the true ignorance of God, to offend by incredulity, jesus Christ, the Doctor of all believers, to live faithless, in the house of faith, which is the Church. Christ the Author of our good & salvation, shows the profit which redownds unto us, by death: when he observed his disciples sadness, because he had told them of his departure out of this world, he said unto them, If you loved me, 
john 14.  you would be joyful for my going to my Father: teaching us by this, to be merry, and not sad, when our friends do but as it were dislodge out of this life. Saint Paul being mindful of such a matter, entreateth thereof in one of his Epistles, and sayeth; Christ is gain unto me both in life and death: he reputing it for a wonderful gain, to be no longer detained by the snares of this world, 
Phil. 3.  to be no more subject to the sins and vices of the flesh, to be exempted from all afflictions, delivered from the devils jaws, and to go into the joys of eternal salvation, whither his Saviour called him.  
Some wonder, to see the heat of this disease, lay hold on Christians, aswell as on Infidels: as if Christians had received the promises of the Gospel, to be touched with no discommodities before the performance of the same, but to enjoy at their pleasures, the happiness of this world: whereas on the contrary he is tormented with a thousand evils here below, that by this means he may conceive how eternal joys are reserved for him. But whereas we find it strange, that the plague should sweep away Christians, aswell as Infidels; have we any privilege in this world, from others, so long as we are clad in this mortal body, correspondent to the law of our first birth? While we live here below, we are joined with other men, by the bonds of this corruptible flesh: but so in spirit we are separated from them. While therefore this corruptible puts on incorruption, our mortal parts be made immortal, and that we ascend to God our Father, all the discommodities of the world are common to us, and we have our shares therein with other men. For example, when any Frosts procure the earth's sterility, every one hath his part in the famine ensuing: If an enemy take into his hands any town, all the inhabitants lose their liberty together: when the seasons are clear and scorching, all are constrained to endure this drought: and if the rocks split a ship asunder, the passengers perish. We are subject, as others be, to the infirmity of the eyes, to burning agues, and to all kinds of diseases, that afflict all the members of the body, as long as we live a mortal life in this world, aswell as other men. Nay, and if a Christian man do but well understand, upon what covenants he believed in God, he will conceive, and be clearly resolved, that he ought to be in conflict, more than others, by reason he hath a continual war above all others, against the devil.  
The holy Scriptures teach & admonish us of this: saying, My son, when thou interest into God's service, be firm in righteousness; fear, and prepare thy soul for temptation. Also, persever in sorrow, and fear, be patiented in humility; for iron tries both gold and silver. In this manner, job, having lost his goods, and children, and being all spread over with botches and sores, yet was he not vanquished for all this, but only tried: considering that in all his pains, and grief, he showed the patience of a man, that feared God, when he said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb: 
job 1. & 2  and naked I must return to the earth again. GOD gave, and GOD took away, as God would, so hath it happened: blessed be the name of the Lord. And his wife importuning him to grow impatient, and to belch out some blasphemous complaint against God; his answer was: thou speakest like a fool; for if we have received good from God's hand, why should we not also suffer evils from him? During all these hard accidents, job never let any thing slip out of his mouth, wherein God might be offended. For, so God himself witnesseth, saying unto Satan, Hast thou well considered my servant job, how there is not his like in the world? Tobias, after so many religious works, and so high commendations of his charitable pity, became blind: and yet for all this he feared and blessed God in his affliction: and he was the more worthy of praise, in withstanding his wives temptation, who would have corrupted him, saying, Where are thy good deeds. 
Tob. 2.  Thou sound feelest now, the evils which thou endurest: but, he being settled in the love of God, and armed with the reverence of his name, to support all affliction, he yielded not in fury to such an assault, but honoured the Lord the more, by this his second patience: so that afterwards this testimonial was given him by Raphael, saying: It is an excellent thing, to understand, and magnify the works of God: for when thou and thy fair daughter Sarra prayed, I presented the same before the face of the Lord. And when thou didst bury the dead with out delay, rising even from the table for this purpose, I was sent to prove thee, and to heal thee, and thy fair daughter Sarra: for I am Raphael, one of the holy Angels, which assisteth, and am conversant before God's brightness.  
The righteous always showed themselves patiented, and the Apostles knew well the lords meaning herein, that his servants should not murmur in adversity; but courageously, and patiently endure whatsoever fell to their share in this world. There was no sin that the jewish people ran oftener into, than this of murmuring, and impatience against God; as he himself declareth, when he addeth, Let them cease from despiting me, and they shall not die. Dearest brethren, we must not murmur in adversity, but patiently and constantly endure whatsoever may happen, calling to mind what is written, that an afflicted spirit is an acceptable sacrifice 
Psal. 51.  unto God; and that he rejects not the humble and contrite heart. The holy Ghost also speaks by the mouth of Moses, The Lord thy God shall afflict thee, & send thee famine, to make thee look into thine own heart, whether thou keepest his commandments or no. Also, 
Deut. 8.13.  the Lord your God, tempteth you, to know whether you love the Lord your God, withal your heart, and with all your soul. Observe, how Abraham was acceptable unto God, when to obey him, he made no account to lead his own son to death, and so was ready to be a parricide. Thou, which canst not lose thy son, he being subject to death as others are, what wouldst thou do, if God should sentence thee, to put thyself to death? Faith & the fear of God, should make thee ready to perform whatsoever his pleasure is. Though thou losest thy goods, though diseases vex and torment thee on all sides: though thy wife, thy children, thy friends be haled from thee by death, all this should not make thee to shrink, although such blows be very heavy: such trials ought not to quail and daunt the faith of a Christian, but rather stir up his force, and courage to fight; considering that the assurance of a future good, should make us contemn the annoyance of all present evils. There can be no Victory, before the battle fought: if after the coming to hand-blows, the field be left by either side, than the victor obtains a glorious crown. A good Pilot is discovered in the storm, and a good soldier in the conflict. It is but ridiculous, to brave and brag, when blows are far off: to set up the bristles against adversity, is a certain brand and mark of virtue. The tree, deep rooted in the earth, is not shaken with the blustering of winds, the ship that is well keeled, and strongly ribbed, may well be tossed, but never pierced by the waves: when we winnow the corn in the open air, the sound grain fears not the wind, which quickly blows away the straws and chaff. Even so the Apostle S. Paul, after his shipwrecks, whip, long and durable afflictions of body, protested, that such trials hurt him not at all, but rather did stand him in great stead, so that in the full course of all these calamities, he profited the more in good. An angel of Satan, 
2. Cor. 12.  said he, the sting of my flesh was sent to buffer me, for fear that I might be puffed up: for the which I thrice prayed unto the Lord, that it might be removed from me; and he said, Let my grace suffice thee, for my virtue is perfected in infirmity. When as therefore some infirmity, weakness, or other adversity doth rage, than our virtue is made more perfect: If proved faith persever, at last it is crowned: according to that which is said, that the furnace tries the potter's vessels; and temptations, righteous men. For the rest, they which know not God, differ from us in this point, that they murmur and complain in adversity: and, contrariwise, afflictions are so far from distracting us, from piety, and justice; that we are rather fortified by them amidst griefs, and sorrow itself. If the bloody flux did weaken us, if heat make the infirmities of our mouths more grievous, if our stomach be sore with continual vomiting, if our eyes look red like blood, if any one lose his feet, or other members, when he is constrained to cut them off, because they are ready to fall away in pieces; if by divers languors & maladies, happening to the body, the strength of the legs come to diminish, the hearing be deafened, or the sight dulled, all this learns us to profit more and more in the grace of God. What notable valour is this, to enter courageously into the field, against so many plagues and evils? Can any man obscure his excellency, that stands firm, amidst so sundry resolutions, without declining or falling to them, that put not their trust in God? He must unfeignedly rejoice, and think the time well employed, when in making trial of his faith, and travailing courageously, we march unto heaven by the straight gate, to receive from Christ our judge the reward of our faith, and of eternal life. Let him fear death, who having never been regenerate with water, and the spirit, is ordained to hell fire. He that hath no part in the cross and death of Christ, he that enters by the first, into the second death; he, that when he leaves this present life, is tormented with perpetual flames: he, that only stands, through God's patience, whose sorrow and grief is only differred, and not forgotten: Let such an one, I say, fear death. Many of our brothers are dead of this plague, which is to say, many of them are delivered out of the world. As such a mortality is a plague to the jews, & Painimes, who are Christ's enemies; so is it a comfortable departure to the servants of God.  
Though the just die, aswell as the unjust, yet think not that good men die the like death as the wicked. The children of God are taken into a place of ease, & repose; but the reprobate are drawn to the punishment of eternal fire: the believers are presently taken into protection; and the infidels receive such punishment, as they deserve. My dear brethren, we are evil advised, being ingrateful & forgetful of God's benefits, & not acknowledging the graces, which he hath bestowed upon us. See how our daughters carry their honour unspotted out of this world, fearing neither the menaces, violation, or villainies, of the enemies of Christ's religion: young lads have, by this means, escaped the slippery paths of youth, and have happily gotten the goal, to obtain the crown of their continency, and innocency: the tender woman needs no more to fear torments, having gained by a light, & easy death, this privilege, that the hangman's hand hath now no power over her. The time, and apprehension of such a death heateth the lukewarm, confirms the feeble, rouseth the sleepy, constraineth those revolted to return unto the Church, induceth Idolaters to embrace the doctrine of the Gospel, procures the faithful, that, of long time, have made proiession of this Religion, to enter into repose; & they lately come into the Church, in great number, gather assured strength & courage, from that time forward to fight, without any fear of death, when dangers present themselves; being entered into the skirmish, in so troublesome, and perilous a time. Furthermore, dear brethren, is it not a commendable, and necessary thing, that by this mortal malady, the thoughts and affections of every one should be revealed? We may now see whether the found will assist the sick, whether one kinsman, according to God, hath loved another; if Masters have had compassion of their slaves languishing; if Physicians have visited those patients, that implored their help, if the insolent refrained their violence, if thieves and pilierers, by the fear of death, have given over their insatiable thirst of avarice, if the proud have bowed their heads, if the wicked have bridled their impudency, and briefly, whether the rich, that have lost their children, & nearest kindred, seeing themselves now destitute of heirs, & successors, do distribute their alms liberally to the poor.  
And though the plague served to no other end, but to put into Christians a desire to shed their blood for Religion, learning in such a time not to fear death, this would be a singular benefit. This visitation is rather an exercise, than a death unto us: It gives occasion to the mind to glory in the force given unto it, and making death contemptible, it disposeth us to run hastily to the receiving of our crown. But some body perhaps will reply, and say, That which grieves me in this mortality, is, that being prepared to maintain Religion, and feeling myself disposed to endure death courageously and joyfully for God's name, I am deprived of this benefit, by the prevention of death. I answer first, That to suffer for jesus Christ, lies not in thine own power, but is a gift of God: and then, thou canst not justly complain, for losing of that, which peradventure was not requisite for thee. For the rest, God which searcheth and knoweth the heart, and the secret thoughts thereof, sees thee; &, if thou speakest from a pure & uncorrupted heart, he approves & commends thy good will; and discerning the virtue which he himself put into thee, he will reward thee for the same. When Cain offered sacrifice unto God, he had not yet killed his brother; and God, notwithstanding, condemned his paricidie, not then perpetrated, having discovered his deep malice, and pernicious determination: and even so, when the servants of God secretly resolve and determine in themselves stoutly to maintain the truth, with the expense of their own blood, God who sees their good minds and hearts doth crown them, aswell as if they had performed the combat. There is a great difference, between saying, that will was wanting to Martyrdom, and that martyrdom was wanting to will. Such as God finds thee, when he calls thee, so he judgeth thee; even as he himself protests, saying, And all the Churches shall know, that I search the reins, and heart. For, in other respects, God demands not our blood, but our faith. Neither Abraham, Isaac, nor jacob were slain: and yet nevertheless, they are ranked amongst the chief patriarchs, bearing the titles of faith, and righteousness; & whosoever is faithful, just, and worthy of praise, he comes to the table, & banquet of these patriarchs.  
To resume our former discourse, let us call to mind, that we must perform God's will, and not our own; following that prayer, which jesus Christ hath taught us. What is it, but to disturb, & over throw all piety, when demanding that the will of God may be fulfilled, we recoil, and draw back, when he would take us out of the world. When we thus hang tail, and like rebellious slaves, come not in our master's presence, but with evil will, and by compulsion, leaving the world, because it would be a fault to do otherwise, & notthrough any desire we have to rest satisfied in the will of God, how can we request, at his hands, the heavenly rewards, to which we do not approach, but by compulsion? Why do we pray, that his kingdom may come, seeing we take such delight to remain in the prison of the world? Why heap we prayers upon prayers, that the general restoration of all things may approach, if our greater, & more affectionate desires would rather serve here below, the enemy of our salvation, than to reign above with jesus Christ? But, that the testimonies of divine providence may the better be laid open, & that we may understand, that the Lord (who foreknoweth all things to come) hath care of his children's salvation, it so happened, that one of our companions in the ministery, being plucked down by this disease, and perceiving himself near to death, demanding the Eucharist, as if he aspired to God, and had been drawing his last gasp, an honourable young man, very majestical, high of stature, and well-favoured of countenance, being so relucent, that no human eye could firmly behold him, appeared, & was seen by this man, being rather out of, than in this world. Then this glorious young man, with a loud voice, and as it were in choler, said unto him sick: You fear adversity, you would not willingly remove; what should I do unto you? It is a voice, which chides, and admonisheth us, & jumps not with their desires which fear persecution, and care not for going to God, but to provide still for hereafter. Our brother, and companion in dying, learned a thing, which all survivants ought to think upon: for, he understanding it, when he went out of the world, it was told him, to the end, that he should deliver it unto others, and he understood it, not only for himself, but for us. For though he have need to learn, that is ready to go out of this world, yet this man learning at his last hour, he was lively admonished, to the end that we, which survive after him, may learn to understand that which is expedient, and necessary for us. How often have we, of little faith, understood? how often hath the Lord vouchsafed to teach us? How often hath he commanded me, to protest and preach, incessantly before you all, that you should not lament for your brethren, when it pleaseth God to call, and to deliver them out of this world, seeing I know, that they do not perish, but precede, and go before those that remain behind; and that we may be grieved, or a little touched for them, as for friends that remove to some other place, or that embark themselves, to arrive in a good Port: But we must not lament, nor wear mourning weeds for them, here below on earth, seeing they have now put on white robes in heaven: We must not give the paynim just occasion to tax, & reprehend us, when they shall see, that through immoderate love, we seem to judge those perished, & forgotten, whom otherwise we affirm, to be living with GOD; when they perceive, that by evident testimonial of our thoughts, we condemn the faith, whereof we make profession by mouth. In this wise, we should overthrow our hope and belief: that which we say, would but proceed from hypocrisy: It is nothing to appear courageous in words, if we subvert the truth by effects.  
The Apostle S. 
1. Thes. 4.  Paul condemns, & sharply reprehends those, that are too sorrowful for the death of their kinsmen, and friends. Brethren, said he, I would not that you should be ignorant concerning those that sleep; to the end, you may not lament like those that have no hope. For if we believe, that jesus Christ died, and was raised again, in like manner they that sleep in jesus, God will bring them unto him. He says, that they, which are void of hope, sorrow for the death of their friends. But we that live by hope, which believe in God, which are assured that Christ died, and rose again for us, remaining in Christ, & rising again, in, and by him; why should we refuse to go out of this world? why do we mourn, and lament for our friends, which GOD takes to himself, as if they perished? Why give we not ear to our Lord and God, jesus Christ, admonishing us, and saying, 
joh. 11.  I am the resurrection; he that believes in me, though he be dead, shall live: and whosoever lives, and believes in me, shall never die. If we believe in jesus Christ, let us give ear unto his sayings & promises; that, in stead of dying eternally, we may undoubtedly and joyfully come unto our Saviour, with whom we shall live and reign for ever. For, this our temporal death, it is but a passage unto immortality, and we cannot attain to everlasting life, before we dislodge, and remove out of this world. Death is not a going forth, but a passage, and transportation out of the way of this life, to eternal rest. Who is he, that doth not merrily go forward, when there is any possibility of his honour & profit? Who refuseth to be transformed & changed into the image of Christ, and quickly to come to the graces of God? Our conversation, 
Phillip 3.  saith S. Paul, is in heaven, from whence we look for the Lord jesus Christ, who shall change our vile bodies, to the end they may be conformable to his glorious body. Our Lord jesus Christ promiseth, that we shall be such, when he entreated his father for us, that we might be with him, that we might live in his eternal mansion, and that we might rejoice in his heavenly kingdom: Father, said he, I desire, that those whom thou hast given me, may be where I must be, and that they may see the glory, which thou gavest me, before the world ever was. He that is to go to the Court of jesus Christ, & into the light of the kingdom of heaven, should not weep and lament; but rather, according to the promise of the Lord, and the certainty of his word, he should rejoice at his departure, and transportation. To this end we read, that Enoch was translated, it so pleasing God, and the holy Scripture affirming, in Genesis, 
Gen. 5.  Enoch walked according to God, and was no more seen, for God took him up. See what it is to please God; for, it is to be taken from the corruptions & contagions of this world.  
The holy Ghost also teacheth us by the mouth of the wise man, 
Eccle. 14.  that those whom God loves, he quickly delivers out of this world; for fear, lest sojourning there too long, they might be infected with the ordures thereof. 
Wisd. 4.  The just man, saith he, was taken away, to the end that malice might not deprave his understanding: for his soul pleased God, and therefore made haste to be removed from out the midst of iniquity. In the self same manner, the faithful & devout soul runs a great spiritual pace, towards her God, saying: 
Psa. 84.  O God of armies, my soul sighs, & makes haste towards God's Courts.  
For the rest, it belongs to him, that takes all his pleasure in the world, that suffers himself to be caught with the bait of earthly delights, and the flatteries of the flesh: such an one, I say, it concerns to desire to tarry long in the world. But seeing the world hates the children of God, why lovest thou thine enemy? why followest thou not, rather, jesus Christ thy Redeemer, who so ardently loves thee? Saint john admonisheth us very earnestly in his first Epistle, saying, Love not the world, 
1. joh. 2.  nor the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For, all that is in the world (that is to say, the concupiscence of the flesh, the desire of the eyes, & the pride of life) are not of the Father, but of the world. The world, and the desires thereof pass away: but he that performs the will of God, lives for ever, even as God himself is eternal. Let us therefore, dear brethren, attend patiently, whatsoever God sends, with a pure understanding, an assured faith, and a constant resolution. Let us drive away, far from us, the apprehension of death, and be mindful of the immortality which is to succeed. Show we ourselves such, as our profession imports, not to lament the death of our friends; but our hour being come, let us merrily, and cheerfully go to the Lord, when he calls. For, seeing Gods servants should be always prepared to this point, they ought most of all to be so now, considering how the world declines; it being assieged with infinite evils that overwhelm it. We have seen, and passed many dangers: these are but slight evils, in respect of those that are to come: we may therefore think our gain great, in going out of the same so quickly. If the walls of thine house shake with age, if thy roof totter, if thy hole edifice, not being able any longer to stand, presage a near fall, and ruin, wouldst thou not make more than ordinary haste to be gone? If thou wert sailing in the main sea, and that a furious storm, swelling the waves with the wind, should threaten thy shipwreck, wouldst thou not endeavour to recover some Port? Behold the world, how it shakes, and is ready to dissolve, manifesting in the end, her utter ruin: Why therefore thinkest thou not on God? Why rejoicest thou not the condition wherein thou standest, seeing thyself taken betimes out of those ruins, & shipwreck, and warranted from the blows, that threaten those which survive.  
We must consider, dear brethren, and seriously meditate, how we have renounced the world; & that we reside therein, but for a time, as pilgrims and strangers. Let us even embrace that day, which summoneth every one of us, to his proper dwelling place, which hales and pulls us out of the snares of this life, to put us in possession of the kingdom of heaven. He that travels up and down countries, to some far place, desires he not to return to his own home? If any man be under sail, in the course towards his country, desires he not a good wind, to fall quickly with the land, & the more speedily by this means, to come to the embracements of his kindred and friends? We call Paradise our country, and the patriarchs our Fathers? Why run we not then, with all speed, to see our country, and to salute our Parents? A great number of friends, kinsfolks, brothers, and children, already assured of their immortality, and desirous of our good, do there attend and wish for us. What a joy will this be both to them & us, there to review, and meet one another? what pleasures there are amongst the inhabitants of the heavenvly kingdom, which now fear death no more, and are sure to live for ever? There is the glorious company of the Apostles, the troops of Prophets, rejoicing in God, the innumerable armies of martyrs; who, after having valiantly fought, and suffered, are immortally crowned. In this place, the Virgin's triumph, which subdued their own concupiscence, & bodily pleasures, by the vigour of true continence: the charitable, that by alms deeds, and divers other good works towards the poor, showed themselves the performers of righteousness, and who having obeyed the commandments of God, heaped up unto themselves a treasure in heaven, where they are richly recompensed. My most dear brethren, let us with all affection run towards them, and desire to be there quickly, and so to come unto our Saviour. God behold our cogitations and thoughts: the Lord jesus Christ vouch safe to cast his eye on the resolution, which our hearts, in his promises, have undertaken, that they may have the richest and most glorious rewards, that with most ardent and zealous affection, desire his presence. Amen.   

A Treatise of S. AMBROSE, Bishop of Milan, who flourished twenty years after S. CYPRIAN, which is to say, 370 years after the birth of CHRIST.  
Of the happiness of death.  
THE ARGUMENT.  
IN this Treatise, being divided into 12. Chapters, S. Ambrose shows in what sense Death may be called good or evil; and how many kinds of death there are: Also, what it is, which the holy Scripture calls life & death, and what the meaning is of spiritual death. Afterwards, he proves, that death is happiness to the faithful, seeing it is an end of sin, and by the same, the world was redeemed. Hereupon he concludes, that therefore it is not to be feared; teaching us, how we should meditate thereupon: But the better to take away all apprehension and bitterness, he discourseth upon all the dangers, that in this world environ us, and upon the discommodities of this life. And then he reenters into his former argument, showing that there is nothing terrible in death, but the opinion thereof. Then he proves, that the soul doth not perish with the body, and entreats of the great contentment of souls after this present life, as also of the happiness of the celestial kingdom; and what ways we should take to come thereunto.  

Of the happiness of Death. CHAP. 1. In what sense death may be termed good, or evil.  
BEing to entreat of the happiness of death, we must first conceive, in what respect it may be called good, or evil. If it therefore hurt the soul, it appears to be an evil thing; and, on the contrary, if the soul be endamaged nothing thereby, it cannot justly be blamed. Now that which is not evil, is good: for, that which is vicious, is evil also; and so, oppositely, whatsoever is without vice; may be reputed good: & therefore good is contrary to evil, and evil to good. In brief, where there is no will to hurt, that may be called innocence: and him we term culpable, that is not innocent; & he that pardons, merciful; & so him cruel that will not pardon, nor remit. But, some may reply, that there are no things more contrary than life, and death. If life then be reputed a special good, must not death be esteemed as great an evil? We must then observe, what life, & death is. Life is the enjoying of breath; and death the privation thereof. Many think, that it is a great happiness to breath: to enjoy life therefore, is a good unto them; and a death it is, to be deprived thereof. So the Scripture saith, Behold, 
Eccl. 15.  I have set before thee, life, & death; good, and evil; calling life, good, 
Gen. 2.3.  and death evil, comparing them one with another. And to produce yet a more express testimony hereof, the first man was placed in the garden of Eden, to eat of the fruit of the Tree of life, & of other fruits in the garden, with a precise prohibition, that he should not eat the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil; threatening him, that he should that day die the death, when he did eat thereof. He went beyond his commission, lost the Tree of life, & being driven out of the garden, tasted of death. Wherefore it follows, that death is a notable evil, seeing it is the reward of transgression and condemnation.   

CHAP. 2. That there are three kinds of Death.  
But there are three kinds of death: The first is the death of sin: of which it is written: 
Ezek. 18.  The soul which sinneth shall die. The second is, death mystical, when any one dies to sin, and lives to God: of which the Apostle saith, that we are buried with jesus Christ, 
Rom. 6.  in his death by Baptism. The third is, the end of our course & vocation in this world, which is to say, the separation of the soul from the body: we see therefore, that there is an evil death, that is, when we die in sin; another, good; wherein whosoever dies, he is delivered from sin; and the third, betwixt both; for honest men repute it good, and others stand in fear of it. Though it delivers all men, yet are there but a few that take pleasure therein: but, that proceeds not from any vice that is in death, that is, in the separation of the soul from the body, but from our infirmities; in that giving ourselves over to the pleasures of the flesh, and delights of this life, we are afraid to see so quick an end of this our earthly course, wherein notwithstanding, there is more gall, than honey. Virtuous men, & such as fear God, have always done otherwise; for the long continuance of their travels in this world, made them to mourn, and think it much better, to be separated from this body, 
Phil. 2.  to be with jesus Christ: so that some of them have grown to such a point, as to detest the day of their birth: witness he who said, 
job 3.  And let the day, wherein I was borne, perish. For, what pleasure is there here in this life, full of anguish & care, replenished with a million of calamities & miseries, with the tears and lamentations of the afflicted, wholly destitute of all consolation? Therefore it is, that Solomon, in his book of Ecclesiastes, rather commends the condition of the dead, than of the living: 
Eccles. 4.  and further addeth: Nay, and I think him better than them both, that never was borne; for he never saw the wicked works that are committed under the Sun. In another place he holds opinion, that the dead infant, is in better state and condition, than an old man, by reason he never saw the evils that are wrought in the world, he never came into this darkness, he never walked in the vanities of this present life: and therefore, he that never entered into the world, enjoys more peace & repose, than he that is come into the same. And in deed, what good can a man reap in this world, that walks therein but as an image, and can never be satisfied with the desires thereof? If there be any wealth to devour, he loseth his peace, being constrained to have his eye always over that which with miserable greediness he sought after, most miserably to possess that, which can stand him in no true stead: could there be a greater slavery, than to see a man labour to amass, and heap those goods together, that bring him no profit? If this present life then be a continual and insupportable burden, we must needs count the same for a great comfort. This end is death: and comfort is a good thing; it follows therefore, that death is a good thing. That was the cause, why Simeon so rejoiced: who knowing that he should not die before he had seen the anointed of the Lord, when they brought jesus into the Temple, he took him in his arms, and said, Lord, thou lettest now thy servant departed in peace, as if he before had remained in this life, rather by compulsion, then of his own free-will, he requiring to be set at liberty; as if being hampered in some bonds, he had then gone to take possession again of his freedom. This body is as it were chained, yea, and (which is worse) with the chain of temptations; which shackles, binds, & torments outrageously, by reason of the cruelty of sin. For, we see in dying, how the soul of man loseth itself, by little and little, from the bands of the flesh, and being let out by the mouth, flies away, being delivered out of the dungeon of this body. David made haste to go out of this temporal course, saying, I am a stranger, 
Psal. 39  and pilgrim before thee on the earth, as all my Fathers were: wherefore, as a stranger he ran speedily towards the common country of all the Saints, requiring before death, pardon of his sins, wherewith he was defiled, while he sojourned on the earth; For, he that obtains not pardon of his sins in this world, shall never attain to eternal life. And, therefore, David adds: Let me retire myself, suffer that I may be refreshed, before I go, and be no more. Why pant we therefore after this life, wherein the longer any one remains, the more he is surcharged with sin? The Lord himself saith, Every day is content with his own misery. 
Mat. 6.  And jacob complained, that the hundred & thirty years of his life, 
Gen. 47.  were short, and irksome: not that the days were tedious of themselves, but because malice here increaseth, as the days pass away. For, there is not a day that passeth over our heads, wherein we do not offend. And therefore the Apostle said very well: 
Phil. 1.  Christ is gain unto me, both in life and death: in the one, having relation to the necessity of his life, for the service of the Church; and in the other, to the particular benefit, which he received by dying: as we also live in serving of Christ; towards whom, his servants must needs show their good affection, in delivering unto others the doctrine of his Gospel. And as for Simeon, who said: Now thou sufferest thy servant, he stayed because of Christ, who is our King; so that we may not omit nor reject his commandments. How many men were there, that the Roman Emperors caused to remain in remote, and strange Regions, in hope of future recompense, and honours? Came they from thence without their masters leave? and without all comparison, is it not a more excellent thing to obey the will of God, than of men? CHRIST therefore is gain to the believer, as well in life, as in death: for in the quality of a servant, he refuseth not to serve in this life; and as a wise man, he embraceth the gain of death. It is a great gain to be out of the harvest of sin, to be removed from evil, and in full possession of good. Saint Paul also addeth, My desire is to remove, and be with Christ, which were far better for me: but, for you, it is more necessary, that I should remain in the flesh. He set down this word necessary, by reason of the fruit of his travels; and the word better, by reason of his celestial grace, and thrice happy conjunction with Christ.   

CHAP. 3. What death is, and what life, according to the Testimony of the holy Scriptures: and of spiritual death.  
SEeing then the Apostle teacheth, that whosoever leaves this mortal body, goes to Christ, if he hath truly known, & served him: let us a little consider, what death, & what life is. We know, because the holy Scriptures aver it, that death is a losing of the soul from the body, and, as it were, the separation of a man: For, in dying, the soul is disjoined from the body. David, therefore, seems to allude hereunto when he says: Thou hast broken my bonds; 
Psal. 116.  I will offer thee sacrifice and praise. The precedent verse of this Psalm, because the death of the Saints is precious in the eyes of the Lord, showeth, that by these bonds is understood, the conjunction of our bodies, with the soul. And therefore, foreseeing even then, that he was in the number of those faithful, that had devoutly rendered their lives into the hands of Christ, he rejoiceth on his part; he also faithfully offering up himself for the people of God, to fight with huge Goliath hand to hand, and by himself alone, to remove the opprobry, & peril, which then threatened the people of God: In which, when he presented himself frankly unto death, to appease the wrath of God, being ready in the name of all others and for their comfort, to bear the scourge of GOD: he knew well, that it was far greater glory to die for Christ, than to reign in this world: can there be a more excellent thing, than to offer up ourselves unto CHRIST?  
Although therefore, the Scripture speaketh of diverse Sacrifices of David, yet is there a mention of this one particular, in this Psalm, which saith, I will sacrifice unto thee praise, and thanksgiving: he said not, I do sacrifice; but, I will; minding hereby to infer, that a sacrifice is then perfect, when every believer is delivered out of the bands of this body, to appear before the Lord, & then presents himself to him in a sacrifice of praise; because no praise, nor thanksgiving, is perfect, or accomplished, before death: and no man can be truly praised in this life, by reason of the uncertainty of that to come. Death therefore is a separation of the soul from the body; for that which further remains, we said before, how S. Paul declared, That to be dissolved, & be with Christ, he esteemed a far better thing than to tarry here still. What else procureth this separation, but the dissolution of the body, and bringing of it to repose; & as for the soul, it is her freedom, & introduction to peace, & joy, that is to say, to live with Christ, if it believe. The children of God, therefore, do nothing in this world but purify themselves from the contaminations of the body, which are as bands to tie us in, & labour to free themselves from these difficulties, renouncing of pleasures, shunning dissoluteness, & the flames of concupiscence. Is it not then true, that every faithful soul, living here below, is conformed and joined unto death, when she studies to die in herself to all carnal delights, and to all the desires, and allurements of the world. Thus was the Apostle dead, when he said: 
Gal. 6.  The world is crucified to me, and I to the world. In fine, to the end we might know, that death is in this life, and that it is good, he exhorteth us to bear in our bodies, the death, or mortification of our Lord jesus: for, he who hath in him the death of the Lord jesus, he shall have his life also in his body. Death therefore is necessary in us, to the end, that life may be necessary also. There is a good life after death; that is to say, a great felicity after victory, a good life at the end of the combat, when the law of the flesh, can no more contradict the law of understanding; when death strives no more against the body, but that the victory over death is enclosed in the same. And I know not whether of these two are more effectual: 
2. Cor. 4.  this life, or this death; considering the Apostles authentic testimony, who saith, Death therefore is necessary in us, & life in you. How many nations were revived by the death of one man? The Apostle then as you see, 
2. Cor. 4.  teacheth, that those who enjoy this present life, must also desire this present death; to the end that the death of Christ may appear in our bodies, and that we may participate of this felicity, by which our external man is destroyed, to the end, that heavens mansion place may be open unto us. He therefore conforms himself well unto death, that retires from the earnest desires of the world, & that looseth the bands, whereof the Lord speaks in Esay: Lose the bands of unrighteousness, 
Esa. 51.  break the obligations of unjust exchange: let them go free, that are trodden under foot, untie the knots of wickedness. He approacheth near unto death, that strips himself of the pleasures of the world, that disintangleth himself, from terrestrial cogitations, and raiseth his mind to the heavenly Tabernacle, within the which Saint Paul was conversant, even while he lived here below: otherwise he would not have said, 
Phil. 1.  Our conversation is in heaven: the which may also be applied to the zeal & meditations of this holy man: for his thoughts were there, there his soul frequented, the studies and endeavours of his mind, were raised up thither, the limits of this body being indeed too straight, to comprehend the apprehensions of a man truly wise; who aspiring to such a good, separates, for the time, his soul from his body, and hath no more to do with the same, in contemplating of that truth, which he desires openly to see; for which cause he seeks nothing more, than to be freed from the snares, & darkness of this body. For, we cannot with our hands, with our eyes, or our ears, conceive this celestial truth, because things visible are temporal; and those invisible, eternal. And beside, our sight is oftentimes deceived: and we discern things far otherwise than indeed they are: our hearing also deceives us; and therefore we must look to invisible things, if we will not be deceived. When may we then be assured, that our foul is not deceived? When is it that she lays hold on the throne of verity? even when she is separated from the body, which then can abuse, nor deceive her no more? The same deceived her by the regard of the eyes, & by the hearing of the ear: & therefore it is necessary, that she should leave & abandon it. And therefore the Apostle minding to show, that it was not by bodily repose, but by the elevation of the soul, & the heart's humility, that had found out the truth, he saith, that our conversation is in heaven. He therefore sought in heaven, that which is truth, and shall so remain for ever. And thus retiring his thoughts and all the force of his understanding, without revealing himself to any other: but knowing and considering well of himself, resolving to follow that, which he took to be truth, and perceiving that to be false, & flitting which the flesh desires, and chooseth fraudulently; he rightly blazoned this body, calling it the body of death. For, who can discern, with his eyes, the brightness of virtue? Who can gripe righteousness with his hands, or see wisdom with his bodily eyes? Briefly, when we meditate on any thing, we would not willingly see any body, we like not to hear any noise about our ears; having sometimes our minds so fixed, as we see not that, which is before our eyes. And in the night our cogitations are more firm, and we conceive the better of that in our hearts, which serves for our document and instruction; whereunto that saying of the Prophet, in the 4. Psalm, hath reference: Ponder with yourselves, upon your beds. oftentimes also, divers men close their eyes, when they would profoundly consider of any affair, avoiding at such a time the impediment of sight. Otherwhiles we seek out solitary places, to the end, that no body may trouble us, or by his prattle turn us out of the right way, into some straying and bypath. Even so this body procures divers occupations, which dull the soul's point, and slacken our intentions: so as the holy man job, said well to this purpose; 
job. 10.  Thou hast made me of clay and slime. If this body be of clay, we are only plastered therewith: but it dissolves not, nor distempers the soul, with the filth of his Intemperance. Thou hast appareled me (saith he) with skin, and flesh: thou hast interlaced me with bones and sinews. So that our soul is confined and extended thorough the sinews of the body: many times she is as it were stiff, and otherwhiles crooked. He addeth, Thou hast not exempted me from iniquity: but if I be wicked, accursed be I: & yet if I were just, I durst not lift up my head, because I am all confusion; for thou hast environed me with temptation: What is this life, but a place full of gins and snares. We walk amidst the nets, and converse in the thickest of many dangers. Before, job had said, The life of man, is it not a battle upon earth? It is very material that he said, upon earth; for there is a life for man in heaven: 
job 7.  His life (addeth he) is like a labourer's work, (which is to say, spent in toy! e and travel) consuming itself in vanities, ebbing away in words, having a mansion place in dust, a life in slime, and clay, without resolution, or constancy. In the day he desires night; before he eats, he cries, and weeps at the time of his repast▪ there is nothing but tears in this life, grief, fear, carefulness, incessant troubles, travel without solace, anger, and horrible anguish. Many wish death, & cannot obtain it: if they obtain this good, they rejoice; because it is only death, that bringeth a man to repose.   

CAAP. 4. That Death is altogether good; aswell because it procures an end to sin, as in that the world is thereby redeemed.  
But I hear some reply, how it is written that God made not Death: that life was in the Garden of Eden, wherein God had planted the Tree of life, and life is the light of men; and so consequently the death that entered in is evil. I demand in what sense, one may term it evil, if according to the opinion of the heathen, it hath no more feeling? or if, according to the Apostle, Christ is gain, with whom it were better to be? How then can death be an evil thing, if after the same we have no feeling at all? For where there is no sense of feeling, there can be no grief, seeing to be grieved, is to feel one's self evil: Or if there be any sense, and ceiling after death, there is then life after death, and the soul which useth sense, and hath life, surviveth the body after a separation by death. But seeing the life and soul remain after death, that which is good continues, it not being annihillated by death, but contrariwise it is augmented: for there is no impediment of death, that can detain the soul, but she labours with the more efficacy, being intentive on those things that properly belong unto her without being tied to the body; which in stead of pleasuring, overchargeth, & makes the soul to sink under her burden. What evil then receives the soul, if it be maintained in purity, that is to say, in the knowledge and fear of God. But if she have done otherwise, death, notwithstanding, is not evil; but the life, which was not a true life: for, we cannot rightly call the course & race of mankind, a life, which is so daily assaulted, and corrupted by sin. Why then do we accuse death, which doth give the reward of life, or else which finisheth the afflictions, & miseries of the world. I conclude therefore, that either death enjoys the happiness of his repose, or is tormented by reason of the evil of a precedent life. Now, consider me this point well: If life be a burden death is then a discharge, and releasement thereof: if life be a punishment, death is a deliverance: if there be any judgement after death, there is then a life after death: Shall we then say, that such a death is not good? When as life here below is good, how can the death out of the world be evil, seeing there is no apprehension, which we need to fear, during this life? What makes this mortal life good, but piety, & righteousness? Life therefore is not good, in respect of the soul & body's union; but because by the fear of God, it putteth to flight this evil, and obtains the happiness of death, more performing that which concerneth the good of the soul, than that which pertains to the society and conjunction of the soul & body together. If we call life good, which is the mirror of the soul, separated from the body, and if the soul be good, which raiseth and retireth itself from the company of the body: out of question death is good, which frees and delivers the soul, from the society and company of the body. In what sense therefore soever we take it, death is good, both because it separates two adverse parties, for fear lest they should ruin one another; and in that it is a Port of refuge to those who having roved up and down the sea of this world, search by faith the haven of repose; as also because it makes not our condition worse, but reserves us to a judgement to come, such as particularly we are found: hereunto may be added, that it holds us at rest, it withdraws us from their malice, that survive in the world, and replenisheth us with the enjoyance of those things, which before we desired & expected. To this we may also annex, that it is in vain, for men to fear death, as if it brought an end to Nature. For, in calling to mind, that God made not Death; but man, after he fell to sin, received the sentence of his disloyalty, and revolt, which was, that he should return to dust, out of which he was framed, we shall find, that death is the end of sin; for fear, lest if life had been prolonged, sin might the more have augmented. The Lord therefore suffered Death to enter into the world, to the end, that sin might cease. And to prevent, that Nature might not end in death, he hath set down a day, when all shall rise again: so that Death doth extinguish sin, and makes our nature perdurable for ever. And thus death is the portion of all the living. And thou must pass it with a good courage: for, so we go from corruption, to incorruption, from death to immortality, from labour to repose. Let not therefore the very name of death terrify thee: but rather rejoice in the commodities of so excellent a passage. For what other thing is death, but the funeral of our vices, and resurrection of our virtues? and therefore there was one that said very truly: Let my life die the death of the Just, which is to say, let it finish, for the laying aside of imperfections, and putting on of that grace which is imparted to all the faithful, which bear the mortification of our Lord jesus, in their soul and body. Now, this mortification consists in the remission of sins, in the wiping away of offences, in the oblivion of error, and in the participation of mercy: what can we say further of the benefit of death, except we should also once more add, that the world was thereby redeemed.   

CHAP. 5.  
But I pray you, let us deliver somewhat of the death which is common to all. Why should we fear it, seeing it procures no hurt or prejudice unto the soul? For, it is written: Fear not them, which kill the body, and cannot kill the soul. Now by the means of this death, the soul is delivered, being separated from the body, and disentangled from these troublesome snares. For which cause, while we are in this body, let us prepare ourselves for death, let us raise our souls above the bed of our flesh: and, to speak aptly, let us rise out of this sepulchre, let us retire from the conjunction of the body, let us leave all earthly things, to the end that the adversary coming, he may find nothing, that belongs to him, in us. Let us cheerfully march towards this eternal happiness, let us mount up, & with the flight of love & charity, soar up from hence, which is to say, from these frail and worldly things, hearing this exhortation from the Lord: Rise up, depart from hence; minding that every one should leave the earth, reform his soul, which hangs backward, lift it up to heaven, rouse up his Eagle-flight, that he may enjoy the benefit of this promise; 
Psal. 103.  Thy youth shall be renewed, as that of the Eagle: this was spoken to the soul. Let our souls therefore soar up aloft like the Eagle: for she flies above the clouds, she glitters & shines again, by the renovation of her plumes, she raises her flight, even up to the skies, where she cannot be entrapped by any snare: for, the bird, which descends from aloft downward, is oftentimes taken with the whistle, and snare, or by some other subtle devise. And so let our souls also take heed, of descending down upon the earth. There is a snare in gold, and silver is limed: there be nets in possessions, and pricks in the pleasures of this world. In running after gold, the snare lays hold on our necks, in seeking after silver, we are taken in the lime: and setting down our feet in possessions, the nets catch us. Why contend we after that gain, which serves for nothing, but to ruin the soul, that is so precious? All the world is nothing, in comparison of the loss of one soul: for, what benefits it a man, 
Luk. 10.  to have won all the world & lost his his own soul? What wilt thou give in exchange of thy soul? It cannot be redeemed, neither by gold, nor silver, and yet it is gold that makes it to perish. Adulteries, wrath, choler, and all other passions, are so many spikes which are fastened in our souls, and that pierce our very bowels, and entrails. Let us therefore shun these evils, & raise up our souls to the image and similitude of God. To fly sin, is a resemblance unto God, whose image & similitude is purchased by piety, and righteousness.   

CHAP. 6. That all the world is full of gins and snares.  
THere be Principalities of the air, & Powers of the world, that labour to throw us down headlong, from the rampire of the soul: either they hinder us from marching upright, or seek the means to overthrow us: if we fly a little aloft, beating us down again to the earth: but even then let us strive the more, to mount up our souls to heaven, having the word of God, for our guide. These Principalities do blow, into thy eyes, the vanities of the world, to make thee stumble: but, oh, faithful soul, the more zealously guide thy steps towards jesus Christ: If they solicit thee by the avarice of gold, silver, or of possessions; for the purchase of which thing they would have thee excuse thyself, from his banquer, that invites thee to the marriage of his Son, which is his eternal word; take heed of making any excuse, but contrariwise put on thy marriage garment, be at the banquet of this rich man; for fear, if thou deferrest, and entanglest thyself in the affairs of this world, he call others, and shut thee out of doors. The powers of the world propound also, unto thee, the desire of honour, that thou mightst grow proud like Adam; and so comparing, and equalling thyself to God, thou mayest contemn his commandments, and begin to lose the true riches, which thou didst enjoy: for, he which hath not, shall lose even that which he hath. How often, in our prayers (wherein we draw neeter unto God, than by any other mean) are our thoughts seized upon, by wicked, and vile cogitations, to the end to hinder our affections, from striving to Godward? How often doth carnal concupiscence lay hold of us? How often are we encountered with wanton eyes, to assault a modest heart, & to pierce it suddenly, with the dart of wicked desires? How often are bad words fixed in thy will, and secret thoughts, of no value, against the which God speaks: Take heed of harbouring, in thine heart, wicked thoughts, lest the Lord say unto thee; Why thinkest thou evil in thine heart? or else, when thou hast heaped together gold, silver, and riches enough, thou mayest say unto me, my virtue, 
Deu. 8.13  and wisdom hath purchased this, and so thou forget the Lord thy God? Behold the obstacles which that soul meets withal, that bends her flight up to heaven: But for thee, loving brother, fight like a good soldier of jesus Christ; & forgetting base matters, and contemning earthly things, aspire to those celestial, and eternal: raise up thy soul, that it be not alured, with the bait of the snare. The pleasures of this world are baits: and, which is worse, they are the baits of sin and temptations. In seeking after delights thou lightest on the gin: for the eye of lust, is the snare, which entrappes him, that treadeth on the same: as also her words are another snare, which for a time taste as sweet as honey; but when sin comes to be feelingly pricked, in a vanquished Conscience, then is it but gall, and sharp bitterness. Other men's goods, alluring the eye, are likewise a gin: there be no paths throughout the whole course of our life, which are not laid all over with them. And therefore righteous David said: they have laid snares for me, 
Psal. 142.  in my ways: but see that thou follow the way which saith; I am the way, 
john 14.  the truth, and the life, to the end that thou mayest affirm. I restore my soul, and she conducts me by the paths of righteousness, for the love of his name. Let the world therefore be dead unto our eyes, let us die to the wisdom of the flesh, which is enemy to God. Subject we our souls only to jesus Christ, that every one may truly say, My soul, 
Psal. 62.  is it subject unto God? then it is not subject unto the earth, nor this world. The covetous rich man cannot say so: It is the just and temperate man's protestation. But, the covetous man saith, My soul, thou hast goods enough for many years, enjoy good days, eat, drink, and make good cheer: for the avaricious soul is subject to the pleasures of the flesh; whereas, on the contrary, the righteous man's soul useth her body only as an instrument: or, as the handicraftsman disposeth of his work, as he pleaseth, and makes such inventions as are best liking to himself, she setting forth such virtues as are best pleasing; singing sometimes an Hymn of chastity, otherwhiles a song of temperance, a verse of sobriety, the melody of integrity, the harmony of virginity, and then the solemn music of widowhood and continence. It is true, that the Musician addapts himself, sometimes to his instrument. But, howsoever, sing none but honest & religious ditties; to the end, that the voice and instrument may be truly accorded.   

CHAP. 7. That life is annoyed, with many evils and discommodies.  
But why make I mention of the snares that are without us? we had need take heed of those gins that are laid within ourselves: for, within our bodies there are too many, scattered abroad, on every side, which we ought to shun. We must not commit the guard of ourselves to this body, nor mingle our souls therewith. join with thy friend, and not with thine enemy: thy flesh is thine enemy, because it contradicteth the law of understanding, and contends after nothing, but to sow enmities, seditions, quarrels, and troubles: Mingle not thy soul therewith, for fear thou confound, and defile it altogether. For, making this commixtion, thy flesh, which should be subject, comes to contemn the soul, which ought to command as Sovereign, seeing she gives life to the body; and the flesh on the contrary, effects the death of the soul. This would therefore be an overthrowing of the operation, and almost a confounding, both of the one and other substance. Shall we then affirm, that the soul receiveth into itself, the insensibility of a dead body? and that the body likewise communicates with the virtues of the soul? Though the soul be infused into the body, yet we may not think, that she is there confounded. Consider the light, for an example; though it pierce into every place, yet is it not for all this mixed therewith: We must not therefore confound the offices, and effects of so different substances; but let the soul reside in the body, to quicken; govern, and enlighten the same. To this we agree, that it suffers with the body; for she is sad: and jesus said, My soul is sad, even to the death; discovering, in himself, human passion, and affection. The Prophet sayeth also, My soul is troubled. And as the Musician is moved, according to the song which he singes or playeth upon a Recorder, harp, or Organs, and by his countenance we may discern his passion: so the soul, which toucheth, & playeth on this body, as on an instrument of Music, if she be sage, and wise, she will express with the ends of her fingers, the most inward parts, which is to say, the affections; so that a pleasant harmony of good manners, will redound thereof, and we shall see her observe such melody in her thoughts & actions, as that her deliberations, and executions, will most sweetly accord. It is the soul therefore, that needs the body but as an instrument. And therefore sovereignty is one thing, and service another, and there is difference between that which we are, and that which is our own. Whosoever loves the beauty of the soul, he mav well affirm, that he loves the person also: but he that loves only the bodily beauty thereof, loves not the whole person, but only an external appearance, which withers, and consumes away, in a small time. We rise up every day to eat, and drink, and yet there is not any one so replenished, as that he may justly say, I need to eat no more. We seek to gain, day after day, and yet there is no end of our desires. The eye (saith the wiseman) is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing. He that loveth silver, cannot be satisfied therewith: 
Eccles. 1.4. & 7.  We never leave traveling, and yet never can we reap the fruit of abundance. We desire, without intermission, to understand new things: and, I pray you, what is all human Science, but a new breaking of the brain, and an augmentation of dolour, and grief? Whatsoever is, hath heretofore been: and under the Sun there is nothing new; but, All is vanity. I do hate all the parts of this life; said Ecclesiastes: But, he that hated life, must needs have thought well of death; yea, he did certainly think better of the condition of the dead, than of the living, & judged him happy, that never made entrance into the world, nor had any part in vanity. My heart, said he, turned aside to discover the pleasures, annoyance and brags of the wicked & I found them more bitter than death itself: not that death in itself is bitter, but because it is so to the wicked. And life is also more bitter than death; for, without all comparison, it is a more grievous thing to live in sin, than to die: for, as long as a wicked man lives, his iniquity increaseth; if he die, his sin comes to an end. Many are glad, when they are absolved of their crimes; & they do well herein, if they determine to amend: but they are very sottish in this, if their wills still stand to the propagation of offences; and better it had been for them, to have been condemned betimes, for impairing the great heap of their sins and misdeeds. The Apostle speaks very well, and gravely to this purpose, 
Rom. 1.2.  That not only those, which commit wickedness, but they also which approve of it, are worthy of death: and they which perform that, that in others they greatly condemn, are inexcusable, and condemned by their own sentence; for, in condemning of others, they judge themselves. He addeth, that such men should not flatter themselves; although for a time they seem guiltless, & exempted from punishment: seeing that even then, they are grievously tormented in their own consciences, being guilty, by their own sentence, while every body else justifies them; & in themselves double afflicted, whensoever, and as often as they condemn their neighbours faults. But, take good heeds, O thou man, (said the Apostle) how thou contemnest the treasure of patience, and the goodness of God, who calls thee to repentance, and summons thee to change of life; but, for thy obstinacy, & headstrong perseverance in error, augments the severity of judgement to come, to the end thou mayest then receive the due reward of thine iniquities. Out of all this before spoken, let us conclude, that death in itself, is not an evil thing; for there is no death, either for those in this world, or those out of it. For the living, it is nothing to them, because they live: and for the dead, they are out of his clutches. And so it is no evil, or discommodity to the living, who have nothing to do therewith, nor to those, which in respect of the body, are insensible, and in their souls freely delivered from the same.   

CAAP. 8. That it is not Death itself, of which men are afraid: the opinion, and apprehension thereof only terrifies.  
IF death be redoubted of the living, I say, it is not death itself, but the apprehension thereof, as every one applies the same, to his own affections; or in respect of his conscience, as it is touched therewith, whose wounds we may well accuse, and not the sharpness of death. For the rest, death is the gate of repose to the righteous; as on the contrary, it is the shipwreck, and ruin of the wicked. Out of question it is not the passage of death, that offendeth them, that fear to die: but it is the apprehension, and horrible conceit of this passage, that thus tormenteth them. In brief, as I said before, death grieves us not, but the apprehension thereof. Now, this terrible apprehension is grounded upon a precedent opinion of our infirmity, and contrary to truth: for, verity encourageth; opinion daunteth us. I will further aver, opinion itself hath a reference to life, and not to death: and, we shall find, that it is life itself, which we judge grievous: where upon it appears, that the apprehension, which we have of death, must not be referred to death itself but to life: for, if we have done nothing in our lives, whereof to be afeard, we have no just cause to fear death; for, punishment deserved by reason of offences committed, feareth those of true judgement: and to commit sin, is an action of the living and not of the dead. Life therefore hath relation to us; and the vigour, and propagation of the same, is supposed to be in our power: but, death (which is the separation of the soul from the body) doth prejudice us nothing at all. The soul is delivered, and the body returns unto dust, from whence it came. The delivered part rejoiceth: the body which goes to the earth, feels nothing; and consequently, hath no apprehension thereof. But, if death be an evil thing, how comes it to pass, that young men fear not to grow old, and fly not the neighbour age unto death? From whence proceeds it, that one which foresees his own death, dieth more willingly, than another, whom death surpriseth of a sudden? So that I suppose, they are very well satisfied, which took death to be an evil thing; and it were but for this only reason (amongst many others) that by life we pass to death, and by death we return to life: for, none can rise again, except he first die. It is true, that fools fear death, as the worst thing that can befall them: but, the wise desire it, because it is the ease of their labours, and the end of their travels. For, that which otherwise may be said, there are two reasons, why fools fear death; one is, that they call it death, & annihilation: which in deed cannot be, considering that the soul lives, when the body is reduced to ashes; & beside, the body itself also, must rise again: Another is, because they fear the torments & punishments, whereof Poetical books make often mention; that is to say, the barkings of Cerberus, the terrible profundity of the river Cocytus, the Ferryman Charon, the troops of Furies, the Infernal depths, wherein the monster Hydra remains, that devours all; where we may see Titius, whose entrails renew, & grow again, after they have been eaten by a great huge Vulture, which never ceases to torment him: In like manner Ixion, who rowles incessantly the great stone, with the huge rock hanging just over their heads that make good cheer, being ready to fall upon them. These be the Poet's fables. But so, that we must not deny, but there is punishment after death: And, if we refer that to death, which happens after it, let us also refer unto life, that which falls out after life. Punishment therefore must have no relation unto death; the which as before was delivered, is but a separation of the soul from the body. And this separation is not evil, seeing that to be dissolved, 
Phil. 1.  and live with jesus Christ, is the best thing of all others, saith the Apostle. It followeth then, that death of itself is not evil. True it is, that the death of sinners is evil. From whence I collect, that therefore all death in general is not bad, but that only of sinners, in particular: for, 
Psal. 14. & 116.  the death of the righteous is precious: the which once more declares, that the evil lies not indeath, but in sin. The Grecians expressed death, by a word, which imported, to have end, because it is the end of this earthly life. The Scripture also calleth death a sleep: witness hereof, that which JESUS CHRIST said, 
john 10.  Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I will go, and wake him. Sleep is a good thing: for than we take repose, according unto that which was written: 
Psal. 3.  I slept, took my rest, & awaked again, because the Lord received me into his protection. The sleep of death therefore, is a sweet repose. Furthermore, the Lord awakes, and raiseth up them that sleep, for he is the resurrection. There is also a notable sentence in the Scripture, which saith, 
Eccle. 2.  Praise no man before his death; for, every one is known at the end of his life, and he is judged in his children, if he have taught, and instructed them, in his own knowledge: for, the children's misgovernment, is ever ascribed to the father's negligence. And because every living man is subject to offend, old age itself, not being exempted here-from: we read, that Abraham died in a good old age, because he continued still constant in the good affection, which he had to serve God. Death, therefore, serves for a testimony to a precedent life. For, if the Pilot be not worthy of his commendation, before he hath brought his ship secure into the port; what reputation can we hold a man in before the hour of his death? He is his own Pilot amongst the storms, and waves of this life: as long as here he sojourns, he is in danger to perish. The Captain receiveth not his triumphant Crown, before the victory be won; the Soldier layeth not aside his Arms, nor hath his due recompense, before the overthrow of the enemy. The conclusion is, that death is the full and entire payment of the faithful man's wages; it is the sum of his reward, and his final Quietus est. Let us also consider what job saith, 
job 29.  That the blessing of the dead came upon him: for, though ISAAC blessed his children dying, and JACOB also blessed the patriarchs, these benedictions can not be referred to any further matter, but to that, which the benedicents considered in those, whom they blessed, or to their fatherly affection. But here we neither see the one, nor the other, more than the privilege only of death; the benediction of him who dies, being of such efficacy, as the holy Prophet desired to be made partaker thereof. Let us meditate, and consider well on this verse, to the end, that when we see the poor man die, we may assist him, and every one of us say, the blessing of the dead come upon me. If we see any body sick, let us not abandon him; if he be forsaken of others, let not us draw back, but let us remember to desire, that the benediction of the dead may come upon us. How many men hath this short verse procured to be blessed? How often hath it made me blusn, when I forgot the dying, when I visited not the sick, when I despised the poor, when I have suffered the poor captive to be oppressed in prison, or when I contemned and neglected the ancient man? Let this therefore be deeply imprinted in our hearts, for the spurring forward of the more dull, and for the further encouragement of all those, which are already in a good course. Let the last words of a dying man resound in thine ears: and let his soul, issuing out of his body, carry with it from thee, this benediction: Deliver him, that is led to die, and who had perished, without thy succour; to the end thou mayest then justly say to thyself, The blessing of the dead light upon me.   

CHAP. 9 That the soul perisheth not together with the body.  
WHo can then make any doubt, but that death is good? seeing that which troubleth us, that maketh us ashamed, that is our enemy, that which is violent, tempestuous, alluring to all vices, remaineth then unprofitable for the earth, and as it were enclosed in an iron cage, that is, in the grave. On the contrary; Virtue, Science, Honour, justice, and Piety, fly up to heaven; the soul continues with immortal goodness, being conjoined and dwelling in him, 
Act 17.  from whom she had her being, as one said very well; that we are his line & progeny. For the rest, it is most certain, that the soul dies not with the body: for it is not of the body, as the Scripture proves, by divers reasons. 
Gen. 2.  Adam received from our Lord God the spirit of life, & was made a living soul. And David said, 
Psal. 116.  My soul, return to thy rest: because the Lord hath done good unto thee. But wherein? He hath (said he) delivered my feet from destruction. Thou seest, how he rejoiceth to be assured of this death, wherein all error takes end, & where sin, and not nature faileth. Afterwards being stripped, and at full liberty, as it were, he addeth: I will please the Lord in the land of the living. Heaven is the land of the living, where fowls have repose, and where sins enter not, but where virtues have their true force and vigour. But, the world is a region full of the dead, because it is replenished with sin: and in all reason it was well said: 
Mat. 8.  Let the dead bury the dead. It is said in another Psalm, 
Psal. 23.  His soul shall lodge amidst riches, and his seed shall have the earth to their inheritance: which is to say; His soul, that feareth God, shall be placed in the midst of riches and wealth, so as it shall remain near, & amidst the same. This may also be understood of him, that lives in the body, who inhabiteth in the midst of riches, converseth in celestial places, if he fear God, possesseth his body, and the sovereignty thereof, having brought it into servitude, briefly, he enjoys the inheritance of glory, and the promises of salvation. If we would therefore be placed amidst wealth and riches, after the death of this body, let us take heed, that our soul be not combined, mingled, nor united to this body; for fear it draw her out of the right way, and make her stagger to fall like a drunken man, being disturbed by the illusions of the same: let her defy it, and the recreations thereof, that she may not be overruled by the external senses. For the eye may run into error, and be fond deceived, by reason this member may be mistaken: the like may fall out, to hearing, and taste. In sum, it is not in vain, that the wise man saith unto us: Let thine eyes behold that which is right, 
Prou. 4.  let not thy tongue utter perverse things; whereof we should not be admonished, were it not, that the senses erred very often. If thou hast beheld a shameless woman, & hast been taken in her looks, or hast lusted after her, as she was fair: thine eyes have looked astray, they have seen pernicious things, and have reported that, unto thee, which they ought not to have done: For, if they had beheld as they should, they would have discovered the villainous desires of this impudent woman, her detestable impudency, her shameless immodesty, her stinking ordures, her infamous villainy, the wounds of the soul, and the scars of the conscience. He hath committed adultery with a woman in his heart, whom he beheld at any time, to desire her. Thou seest that such an one sought after deceit, in desiring the adulteress, and not truth; because he desired to see, to covet, and not to understand truth. The eye therefore looks astray, when the affection leaves the true path, the which deceives, as the eye also doth: and therefore it was said unto thee; Be not taken, that is, Let not thy soul be taken by thine eyes; for a woman takes the precious souls of men. 
Prou. 6.  The hearing also deceiveth, and by speech alluding unto wantonness, hath often seduced, abused, and cousined evil instructed youth. Let us therefore defy these traps and snares, which deceive, and surprise: for hearts are tempted, and thoughts entangled by the senses. In stead of following these allurements, let us adhere to that which is good, and prosecute it. For, the presence, and communication thereof, makes us the better, this company gives tincture and gloss unto our manners: for, he which cleaveth to good, draws good therefrom. The soul that cleaves to the invisible, & immortal good, which is God, flying, & abandoning frail, earthly, and mortal things, becomes like unto the good, which she desires, wherein she lives, & finds true nourishment; & so leaning to that immortal, she is no more mortal. The sinful soul dies; not because she turns to nothing, but in that she dies to God, and lives to sin. On the contrary, the soul which works not iniquity, dies not at all; for she remains still in her first substance, & afterwards, in her full perfection and glory. How can the substance thereof perish, seeing it is the soul that gives life? he that receives the soul, receives life; and when the soul departs, life flies away. The soul therefore, is life: for, how can that die, which is directly opposite to death? For, as snow cannot receive heat, but that it presently melts; & light doth not receive, but dissipates all darkness by his clarity; as at the approach of heat, the ice turns to water: even so the soul, which creates life, cannot receive death, nor any ways die.   

CHAP. 10. Testimonies of Scripture, to prove, that the soul dieth not with the body, but remains immortal.  
TO the reasons before deduced, let us add that which the Lord saith, I have power to leave my soul, and to take it again. You see therefore, that it perisheth not with the body; seeing he might leave in, and take it again, after he had recommended it into the hands of God the Father. But, because thou shalt not reply, that Christ had this particular power; although we might answer thee, that he was like unto us: yet hearken what he saith, to exhort us, not to linger out the time at length: 
Luk. 13.  What knowest thou, whether this night thy soul may be demanded of thee? Said he, thy soul shall die this night within thee? No, but it shall be redemanded. That is redemanded which remains, & not that which perisheth: for, how should the soul perish? of which the wisdom of God saith, 
Mat. 10.  Fear not those that can kill the body; and cannot kill the soul: Of which the Prophet speaketh: 
Psal. 119  My soul is always in thine hands: always, saith he, and not at certain times only. As for thee, commend thy soul to the Lord, not only at the departure thereof, out of thy body, but also as long as it there inhabiteth: for, it is the Lord which keepeth it, and thou knowest not from whence it comes, nor whither it goes. Thy soul is in thee, and with God also. Behold, here under set down, more ample and express testimonies, of the soul's immortality.   

CHAP. 11. Of the joys of souls after this life.  
FOr the joys of faithful souls, we must consider it, according to certain degrees. First, they shall be victorious over sin, and warranted from all the allurements of the flesh. Secondly, they shall enjoy the reward of their fidelity, and of the preservation of their innocency, without having been defiled with errors, and perturbations, as wicked souls are, nor tormented with the remembrance of their vices, or surcharged with boiling apprehensions. Thirdly, they rest in this testimony, that they pleased God; to whose will, they have so applied themselves, as they need not be doubtful, or fear the last judgement. Fourthly, they then begin to know their repose, and to foresee their greater glory in the last resurrection: and so, being fed with this consolation, they peaceably rest in their mansions, being environed with an infinite number of Angels. Fiftly, they participate of an inexplicable joy & delight, in that they are freed out of the prison of this corruptible body, 
Apoc. 14.  to enter into the kingdom of light, and liberty, where they enjoy the inheritance, that was promised them. There is an order of rest, as there is an order of resurrection: and as all die in Adam, so shall all be quickened in Christ, 
1. Cor. 15.  sayeth the Apostle: every one in his rank; the first fruits, that is Christ; afterwards, those that are of Christ, shall be quickened by his coming, and then comes the end. There shall be then divers orders of brightness and glory, as there have been servants, some more excellent, than othersome. Sixtly, the faithful shall perceive a light splendour to environ them, making them to shine, like the Sun, & resembling the stars: but so notwithstanding, as this brightness, shall not be subject to change; or decline. Seventhly, they shall rejoice in their security, and be secure instantly, they shall be merry without fear, having no other desire but to behold his face, to whom they have submitted themselves out of a frank and free will; and calling to mind the grace, whereof he hath made them partakers, which is to hate sin, and be wholly dedicated to his service, they shall receive the glorious guerdon of their easy travels, and then perceive, that all the sufferings of the world are not worthy, in any sort, to be recompensed with such a glory in heaven. Behold the repose of souls, and the beginning of their glory to come, before that in their eternal habitations, they shall perfectly enjoy this unspeakable happiness, the which they must have all together, in the day of the body's resurction.   

CHAP. 12. Of the happiness of the eternal kingdom, and how we should endeavour to come thereinto.  
BEing thus defensed with authentic testimonials out of the word of God, let us courageously march, towards the Lord jesus Christ our Saviour, towards the assembly of the patriarchs, and Abraham our Father; and when this day is come, let us cheerfully advance forward, to the company of the Saints and righteous. For, we shall go to meet our Fathers, the instructors of our life: and though we be naked, and destitute of good works, faith will assist us, & our promised inheritance will be our warrant: we shall go to the place, where Abraham hath his bosom open, to receive the poor, as he received Lazarus, and where all they have rest, that were afflicted in this world. Oh most heavenvly Father, I beseech thee, extend forth thy hands, to embrace the poor, expatiate thy lap, enlarge thy bosom to receive the great number of believers. It is true, that iniquity abounds, & charity waxeth cold, though the faith hath taken good increase: we shall then go to meet them, that sit at the table with Abraham, Isaac, & jacob, in the kingdom of God; and with those, who being called to the banquet, sought not to excuse themselves. We shall go to the Paradise of true delights, where Adam (who was once so evil entreated by spiritual thieves) ceaseth his lamentations, for the wounds he had received: and the thief himself there rejoiceth, because of his entertainment into the celestial kingdom: there are no clouds, there are no thunders, no lightnings, whirlwinds, nor darknesses; the seasons there change not their course; frost, hail, rain, the Sun, the Moon, & the stars, are not there in use. There shall be no other brightness, but that of the everliving Lord, who will be a light to all: & this true light, which illuminates all men, shall shine unto all the happy for ever. We shall all go to those habitations, that the Lord jesus hath prepared for his humble servants, to the end we may be where he is. Seeing his pleasure is, it should be so: Attend, what manner of dwelling places these are. 
john 14.  In my Father's house there are many mansions, saith he: when at his good pleasure he declareth that which follows: I will come, & take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also. But thou wilt peradventure allege that he spoke this only to his disciples, & that he made this promise only to them. Did he then prepare many habitations, only for eleven persons? 
Mat. 8.  Why said he in another place, that there should come, out of all quarters of the world, those that should sit in the kingdom of God? Do we doubt of the performance of his divine will? The will, and deed of our Saviour, are all one. Besides, he points out the way, and deciphers the place, saying, You perceive whither I go, & know the way. The place is in heaven, with the Father; Christ is the way, as he himself saith: I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; 
john 14.  none can come to the Father, but by me. Let us therefore enter into this Way, embrace this Truth, & follow this Life. This is the Way, which guides us; the Truth, that confirms us; and the Life is given us. And to the end we might be resolved of his bounteous and frank will, he afterwards addeth: Father, my desire is, that those whom thou hast given me, may be there where I am, with me, 
john 17.  to the end they may see my glory. O, Lord JESUS, we follow thee; but, call thou us, that we may march the more cheerfully: for, no man can advance forward, without thee; thou being the Way, the Truth, the Life, the Possibility, the Faith, the Reward. Receive us, seeing thou art the Way; confirm, & quicken us, seeing thou art the Truth, and the Life. Manifest unto us, that happiness, which David desired to see, when he should dwell in the house of the Lord. There is also treasure, without sin, where eternal life is. He saith in another place, 
Psal. 27.  We shall be replenished with the riches of thy house: Discover therefore unto us, O Lord, 
Psal. 63.  this true happiness, which imparts unto us, true life, true being, and sanctified motion. We have motion in the way, and being in eternal life. Cause us to see that felicity, which is always like to himself, indissoluble, immutable, in whom we are eternal, in whom we know all good; in whom there is entire and perfect rest, immortal life, perpetual grace, holy inheritance for the soul, and a secure tranquillity, not being subject unto death, but absolved and freed from the same, without tears or lamentations. For wherefore should any one there lament, seeing no body there offendeth either God, his neighbour, or himself? Briefly, it is in this land of the living, where the Saints are delivered from all error, from care, from ignorance, from folly, from pride, from fears, from perturbations, covetous desires, passions; and lastly, from all other contamination. Seeing the land of the living is in heaven, we must account this world, the Region of the dead: the which is most true, seeing there are the shadow, the body, & the gates of death. Notwithstanding, if the righteous man govern himself according to the will of God, to do the same, he shall live, & then come to the Region of the living, where life is not confined, but free; where, in stead of shadow, there is glory. S. Paul, being in this world, was not yet in glory: he mourned in this body of death, and said, that our life was laid up with Christ, in God, 
Rom. 1.  but when Christ our life should appear, we should also appear with him in glory. Let us therefore cheerfully advance forward towards the way. He that enters into the true way, 
Coloss. 3.  shall live. We have testimony thereof, 
Luk. 1.  in the woman, which touched but the hem of Christ his garment, and she was delivered from death, as he said unto her, Thy faith hath saved thee, go away in peace. For, if he that touched a dead man, was defiled, he that toucheth the living, shall certainly be quickened. Let us therefore seek after the Lord of life. But so we must be careful, not to search after him, amongst the dead, lest it be said unto us, as it was unto the women: Why seek you him living, amongst the dead? he is not here, but risen up: The Lord himself showeth, where it is, that he would have us seek for him, saying: Go unto my brethren, and tell them, I ascend up to my Father, and your Father; to my God, and your God. 
john 20.  Let us inquire for him, where john his disciple inquired for him, and found him out; that is to say, living with his Father, from the beginning, and being his eternal Son. We must seek him out, in these last times, embracing his feet, and worsnipping him; that so, he may vouchsafe to say unto us, Fear not: which imports thus much: Fear not the sins of this age, nor the world's iniquities, or the furious waves of carnal passions; for I am the remission of sins: fear not darkness, I am the Light: fear not death, I am the Life. Whosoever cometh to me, shall never see death. As the plenitude and fullness of all Deity is in him: so, to him be ascribed all honour, glory, and immortality, for ever, and ever. Amen.    

Certain places, and sentences of the holy Scriptures, concerning Life, and Death.  

The rule, & scope of our life.  
SEek first the kingdom of God, and the righteousness thereof, & then all things shall be administered unto you. Mat. 6.33.  
All things which you would men should do unto you, do unto them again: for this is the Law and the Prophets. Mat. 7.12. Luk. 6.37.   

Eternal life promised to those that observe the commandments of God.  
Observe my laws and judgements: the which if a man keep, he shall live by them, saith the Lord. Levit. 18.5.  
Keep my commandments, and my law, as the apple of thine eye, and thou shalt live. Prou. 7.3.  
I have given them my commandments, and showed them my judgements; the which, if a man perform, he shall live by them. Ezech. 20.11.  
If thou wouldst enter into life, keep my commandments. Mat. 19  
Good Master, what might I do, to obtain eternal life? jesus answered, thou knowest the commandments: do that and thou shalt live. Mark 10.17. Luke 10.28. & 18.18.  
The Law is not of faith: but the man that doth these things shall live by the same. Galat. 3.12.   

That we cannot fulfil the commandments of God, and consequently not obtain eternal life by the Law: but contrariwise, we lose life by transgressing the Law.  
WE knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but by faith in jesus Christ: we also believed in jesus Christ, to the end that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the Law: because no flesh shall be justified, by the works of the Law. Galat. 2.16.  
All those that depend on the works of the Law, are under the curse: for it is written, Accursed be he that continues not in all those things, which are written in the book of the Law, to perform them. Galat. 3.10.  
Enter not into judgement with thy servant: for no living man shall be justified in thy presence. Psal. 143.  
There is no man, but he sinneth. 1. King. 46.  
The children of God say always: Forgive us our sins. Math. 6.11.  
The reward of sin, is death. Rom. 6.23.   

Eternal life, which we lose by our corruption and transgression, is restored again unto us by jesus Christ.  
THe gift of God is eternal life, by jesus Christ our Lord. Rom. 6.23.  
At the same time, when we were dead in sin, he revived us together by Christ, by whose grace you are saved. Ephe. 2.5.  
The determination, and grace of God, is manifested unto us, by the apparition of our Lord jesus Christ, who hath destroyed death, and brought to light, life and immortalititie, by the Gospel. 2. Timot. 1.10.  
In this the love of God appeared unto us, when he sent his only Son into the world, to the end we might live by him. 1. john 4.9.  
And this man is witness, that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 1. john 5.11.   

To whom eternal life is given.  
GOd so loved the world, as he gave his only begotten Son, that no man which believeth in him, might perish, but have everlasting life. He that believeth in the Son, hath eternal life: but he that believeth not in the Son, shall not see life, but the wrath of GOD shall remain upon him. john 3.15, 36.  
Verily, verily I say unto you, whosoever heareth my words, and believeth in him that sent me, he hath eternal life, and shall not come into condemnation, but pass from death to life. This is the will of my Father, which sent me, That whosoever sees the Son, and believes in him, he may have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believes in me hath eternal life. john 5.24. and 6.40, 47.  
jesus said, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live. john 11.25.  
These things are written, that you may believe, that jesus Christ is the Son of God, & that in believing you may have life in his Name. john 20.31.  
God shall give to every one according to his works; which is to say, to those that with patience in well-doing, seek glory, honour, and immortality, eternal life. Rom. 2.6, 7.  
Being now delivered from sin, and made the servants of God, you have your fruit in sanctification, and for your end eternal life. Rom. 6.22.  
If we be children, we are also heirs: heirs, I say, to God, and coheirs with jesus Christ; that is to say, if we suffer with him, that with him we may also be glorified. Rom. 8.17.  
Seek peace with all men, and holiness; without which none can see the Lord. Hebr. 12.14.   

The excellency of eternal life.  
WHen the account is cast: I think the sufferances of this present time, no ways equivalent to the glory to come, which shall be revealed in us. Rom. 8.18.  
The things which the eye hath not seen, the ear heard, and that never entered into the heart of man, are those which God hath prepared for those that love him. 1. Cor. 2.9.   

This present life is limited.  
THe days of a man are short: the number of his months remain with thee: thou hast set down limits, which he must not exceed. Ioh 14.5.   

The shortness, and vanity of the same.  
WE are strangers and foreigners before thee, as our Fathers were, our days are as the shadow upon the earth, and there is no mention of them. 1. Chron. 29.15.  
Man, borne of a woman, is but of little continuance, and those few days are replenished with trouble & sorrow: he cometh out like a flower, and is gathered up, he flies away like a shadow, and stays not: Are not his days set down? job 14.1, 2, 5.  
Thou hast assigned my days, the measure of an handbreadth; and my life time is before thee, as nothing, in effect: there is nothing but vanity, with every man that lives. As soon as thou chastisest a man, reprehending him for his iniquity, thou consumest all his excellency like a moth, so slight a thing is every man. Psal. 39.12.  
The sons of men are nothing, they are but the liars of great Princes: so that if they were all put together in a balance, they would be found lighter than vanity itself. Psal. 62.10. The days of our life, are threescore and ten years; and of those that live longest, but fourscore: and yet the best of them are but affliction & misery, they soon pass hence, and we ourselves fly away swiftly. Psal. 90.10. The days of a man are like the grass, and flourish like the flower of the field. Psal. 103.13. Man is like to nothing, his days are as the shadow, which vanisheth away. Psal. 144.4. See throughout all salomon's Ecclesiastes.  
All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof, is as the flower of the field, Isa. 40.6.  
I tell you this, my brethren, that the time is short. 1. Cor. 7.29.  
What is this your life? it is certainly but a vapour, which appeareth for a while, and then vanisheth away. james 4.14.   

The end of man's life.  
WHether you eat, or drink, or whatsoever you do, do it all to the glory of God. 1. Cor. 10.31.   

The first death, which is the separation of the soul from the body; and the second, which is eternal death, proceed from sin.  
THe day wherein thou eatest of the fruit of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt die the death. Gen. 2.17.  
As by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death: so death came upon all men, because all men sinned. Rom. 5.12.   

The first death is common to all.  
IT is ordained that all shall once die, and after that comes judgement. Heb. 9.27.   

The Children of God ought to fear death.  
Fear not those that can slay the body, and not kill the soul. Math. 10.28.  
He that loveth his life, shall lose it: and whosoever hates this world, he shall find it in eternal life. john 12.25.  
We know when our terrestrial lodging is defaced, we have a dwelling place in God, an house not made with hands; but eternal, which is in heaven. 2. Corint. 5.1.  
I am enclosed on the one side, and the other; desiring to be dissolved, and to be with Christ: the which were much better for me. Phil. 1.23.   

Death destroyed by jesus Christ.  
Jesus Christ hath destroyed Death, and brought to light, Life, and immortality, by the Gospel. 2. Tim. 1.10.  
Death is swallowed up in victory. 1. Cor. 15.54.  
Who sits at the right hand of God, having swallowed up death, that we might be made partakers of eternal life. 1. Pet. 3.22.   

What opinion we should hold of the dead.  
Happy are those, that die in the Lord: yea, saith the holy Ghost, for they rest from their labours, and their works follow them. Apo. 14.3.   

We must not mourn for the dead, as profane persons do.  
ALso my brethren, I would not have you ignorant, concerning those which sleep, to the end you may not be sorrowful, as others are, that have no hope. 1. Thes. 4.13.   

Their souls, which die in the Lord, are received into rest and glory, in heaven.  
ANd it happened that Lazarus died, and was borne by the Angels into Abraham's bosom. job 16.22.  
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, thou shalt be this day with me in Paradise: Lue. 23.43. They stoned Steven, who cried out, and said; Lord jesus receive my spirit. Acts. 7.59. We know, when the earthly habitation of this our body, is destroyed, we have a building in God; which is to say, an eternal mansion in heaven, which is not made with hands. 2. Cor. 5.1.  
I am enclosed on all sides, my soul longing to remove, and be with Christ: which would be far better for me. Philip. 1.23.   

The Soul of man is immortal.  
LEt dust return to the earth from whence it was taken, and let the soul mount up unto God, who gave it. Eccles. 12.7.  
Fear not those, that kill the body, and cannot kill the soul: but fear him, that can send both body, and soul, into hell fire. Math. 10.28.  
I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and jacob: God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Math. 22.32.  
He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. john 11.25.   

Testimonies of the Resurrection of the body.  
I Know my Redeemer liveth, and that in the last day, he will take me out of the earth, and I shall be clad again with my skin, and thou my flesh shalt see God: job 19.25, 26.  
Many of those that sleep, in the dust of the earth shall awake; some to eternal life, & others to perpetual shame. Daniel, 12.2.  
As concerning the resurrection of the dead, have you not read, what God said unto you, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of jacob? He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Matth. 23.31, 32.  
The day cometh, wherein all those that are in the graves, shall hear the voice of the Son of God. john 5.28.  
Martha said unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the last day. joh. 11.24.  
If we preach, that Christ is raised from the dead, how do some amongst you say, that there is no resurrection of the dead? 1. Cor. 15.12. Look over all that Chapter.   

What shall come to pass after the resurrection of the body, in the last day.  
When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, & this mortal, immortality, then shall those words which are written, be fulfilled, Death is swallowed up in victory, 1. Cor. 15.54.  
They which are dead in Christ, shall first rise: and afterwards those that live, and remain, shall be taken up together with them into the clouds, before the Lord, in the air: & so we shall be always with the Lord. 1. Thes. 4.16, 17.  
When the Son of man shall come in glory, and all the holy Angels with him, then shall he sit upon his throne of glory. And all the nations shall be assembled before him, and he shall separate the one from the other, as the shepherd doth distinguish the sheep from the goats: and he will set the sheep on his right hand, and the goats on the left. Then shall the heavenly king say unto those, on his right hand; Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit that kingdom, which was prepared for you, before the beginning of the world. To them then on the left hand he will say: Go, you accursed, depart from me into everlasting fire, which is prepared for the devil, and his angels. And so they shall go into eternal torments; but the just shall be taken into eternal life. Matth. 23.31, etc.    

Prayers, and Meditations concerning Life and Death.  

Meditation 1.  
THE life of a Christian man should be employed, in the consideration of those things, which here-under ensue, to put them in practice: that is to say, oftentimes to remember the benefits he hath received from GOD, to thank him, with his heart, & mouth, incessantly for the same; to love him, who is bounty and goodness itself; to fear, and worship him, seeing he is almighty, and wise; and so by the love which they bear unto God, to be also excited to the love of their neighbours. The love of God withdraweth us, from the love of corruptible things, raiseth us up to heaven, and inflames our hearts, with holiness of life. The love of our neighbour holds us back from all prejudice, either in will or deed, and excites us to integrity, and beneficence.   

Another.  
LEt us often think on that, which we are. The soul is our principal part, which is endowed with understanding, reason, and judgement, to know the chief good which is in God, to love, adhere, and be united unto him, to be partakers of his immortality, and happiness: But we contemn this Sovereign good, to grovel on the earth, and to stamp into the ditch of carnal desires, applying the vigour and force of our understanding and judgements to things which are not worthy of the pains we take about them: We bury ourselves alive, if we may so say; of celestial, we become terrestrial; and of men created for eternal life, we endeavour, as much as in us lieth, to be like to the brute beasts themselves. And yet our most merciful and good God forsaketh us not, for all this, notwithstanding that our ingratitude deserve as much, but by his word, in the mean while, he graciously calleth us, and presenteth us with infinite testimonies of his loving favour; daily he continueth the fame, he supporteth us, he exhorteth, he counseleth, adviseth, and fatherly chastiseth us: and yet, for all this, we remain blind, deaf, and stupid, contemning these graces; either in not using them, as we should, or else in abusing of them. And, which is worse, we love vain and transitory things better, and are too intentive, and perseverant in the same. God reacheth forth his hand to conduct us: but we draw back our own, and fly away, when he calleth us. If he bring us into the way of salvation, we mourn for the world, we look behind us, we defer, and procrastinate our desire of well doing. We must therefore rouse up ourselves, & not remain still in the mire: we must be fortified in his virtue, and power, who supports & comforts us: let us a little attempt to despise corruptible things, and to desire those truly good, and eternal: when God calleth us, we must hearken to him: if he be our guide we must follow him, for to arrive in his house: Let us receive his benefits, and himself too, for he gives himself unto us, in the person of his Son: he causeth us to see the means, how to come into heaven: we must therefore require of him, that he will vouchsafe to bestow upon us, will, and desire to come thither, by faith, repentance, hope, and charirie, and to maintain his gifts and graces in us, to the end, that we may mourn in this mortal life, & attend, in the assurance of his mercy, for the end of this world and our last day, which shall be the beginning of our true life.   

A Meditation, and a Prayer.  
HOw great are the delusions, and impostures, of the enemy of our salvation? He showeth us vain and ridiculous things, afar of, and persuadeth us, that all is magnificence, and happiness: he terrifies us, with such things as we should not be afraid of: and maketh us fly that, which we should embrace. He calls, summons, allures, and flatters us, by the interposition of our concupiscences: if this be not enough, he stormeth, and rageth, endeavouring to terrify us both within and without. O eternal light, and truth, Oh heavenly Lord, & most merciful Father, scatter and dissipate these clouds of ignorance and error, illuminate our understandings, and permit us not to approach unto that, which thou commandest us to fly, which is pernicious and hurtful to us; that we may desire nothing but that which is truly to be desired: that is to say, thyself, who art the source, and spring of all goodness, and of our life and eternal felicity. All flesh is grass, and the glory of a man is as the flower of the field: procure then, that we may seek for our stay and contentment in the grace, which thy Son brought unto us, that our life may be enclosed in him; so that in the day of separation of our souls from their bodies, we may absolutely find it again in heaven, in expecting cheerfully, and with assured joy, the most happy resurrection of this flesh: wherein all corruption, infirmity, and reproach being abolished, and death itself swallowed up in victory, we may live eternally with thee, in an incomprehensible felicity, wherewith thou shalt be glorified. Maintain therefore thy children, good Lord, in this faith & hope, accomplishing in them thy work till they entirely be with thyself, to enjoy the inheritance, & glory, which thy only Son purchased for them, by his merits: Amen.   

A Prayer.  
O Lord jesus Christ, creator, & redeemer of mankind, who didst say, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life: I beseech thee, by that unspeakable charity, which thou showedst in offering thyself up to death for us, that thou wilt not permit me, to serve a whit, from thee, that art the Way, or to distrust in thy promises, seeing thou art Truth, & performest whatsoever thou dost promise. Make me to take delight only in thee, who art eternal Life; without whom there is nothing worthy to be desired, either in heaven, or earth. Thou hast taught us the true, and only way to salvation, that we might not go wandering up and down in the bypaths of this world; revealing unto us, more clearly than the Sun at noon days, what we ought to believe, perform, and hope after, & wherein we should rest satisfied, and contented: It is thou, that madest us to understand, how unhappy we were in Adam, & that there is no means to escape the perdition, wherein we are altogether plunged, but by faith in thee. Thou art that resplendent light, which appearest unto those, that travel thorough the desert of this life; and who, having delivered us out of the darkness of spiritual Aegypt● dost disperse the clouds of our understanding, and enlightenest us, that we may contend after the promised inheritance, which is eternal life: into the which the unfaithful shall never enter; but those, who assuredly rely, on thy holy promises. Oh, what goodness hast thou vouchsafed to send down, from the bosom of thy Father (and his eternal throne) upon earth, in putting on our beggarly nature, and (of a Master) to become a servant, that by thy doctrine, thou mightest chase away the darkness of our ignorance, prepare, and address our feet, unto the way of peace, and make plain unto us, the way of salvation: such a way being appointed us, in following whereof, no man can go astray, or be weary; seeing thy grace, and power, doth accompany us therein, all the days of our life. And moreover by the comfort of thy holy Spirit, thou dost strengthen us, and redouble our courage in passing the same. Thy word is the bread, wherewith we are nourished, and thy promise is the staff whereon we lean. Thou thyself, by a secret, and incomprehensible power, dost conduct, and maintain us therein, after an admirable manner, that we might the more courageously march towards thee both in foul and fair weather. And as thou hind'rest and preservest us, from falling into the snares of the world and Satan: even so, in that thou art the truth itself, thou removest far from us all doubts, scruples, and distrusts, that might any ways disturb, arrest, or divert us, during this our course: Thou makest us to discern the end and scope of heavenly vocation, the world's misery, and vanity, the fragility of this present life, the gate of death, and the happy and blessed life, which is within the same. And as thou art this true life, even in this world, thou dost quicken us by thy truth, that are poor miserable dead wretches in sin. Thou augmentest this life by the ministery, and efficacy of thy holy Gospel, and confirmest it by the use of the Sacraments, which thou hast ordained for the fortification of thy children's faith, while our corruption, and that which is mortal in us, being defaced, by the resurrection, we may exist, and live eternally with thee in body and soul, then, when thou shalt be all in all. Eternal life is to know the true God, & thee his Son, who was sent unto us. Now we behold thee by faith, as in a mirror, obscurely; but one day, we shall see thee face to face, to be transformed into thy glory, & wholly reform according to thine own image. I beseech thee, most merciful Saviour, that thou wilt increase my faith, that I may be so well grounded in the doctrine of my salvation, as nothing may be able to mislead me: augment, in mine heart, the reverence which I own unto thee, that I may never serve from thy obedience: strengthen me, in such a sort, that neither allurements, nor threatenings, either catch, or astonish me, but that I may adhere constantly to thee (who art my life) even unto death. Procure, that in the power of thy promises, and holy spirit, I may be heated, more and more, in thy love; and so leaving behind the things of this world, I may bend myself, to that which is , and perfect. Increase thy grace in me, that from day to day I may die in myself, to be revived, and conducted by thy favour; fearing none, but thee, O most mighty and puissant God; loving none but thee, even as there is nothing truly amiable but thy glorious self; boasting in nothing but thy grace and mercy, which is that whereof only thy servants should glory, they seeking after none other happiness but thee, nor desiring nothing but thyself, who art the full and perfect felicity of all the faithful: Amen.   

Another.  
LOrd jesus, that art always merciful, and ceasest not to be my Saviour, as well in adversity, as prosperity; grant me the grace, to rest satisfied with all humble obedience, in thy will, whensoever it shall please thee, to mix some sour, amongst so much sweet, as thou hast caused me to taste, in living under thy protection. Thou art admirable, graciously good, in time of affliction, in that by such means, thou healest our spiritual maladies; and visiting us, thus, in this world, thou framest us to meditate on a better life, thou thyself having showed us a lively example thereof. It is true, that I find it hard to digest; but thou wert brought to another manner of condition, when to redeem me from hell, thou didst descend thither, and for the reconciling me to thy heavenly Father, didst undergo his curse. By reason of my sins, I have so many times deserved hell, and everlasting fire, and thou deliveredst me, I being secure, that I have a part in thy merit, and obedience, and that I am one of thy coheirs, to reign one day with thee in thy kingdom, and even at this present, in the midst of all afflictions, to be seated nevertheless in heavenly places. Having therefore my part in so many felicities, why should I grudge, to suffer a little time, by means whereof, thou meanest to awake, improve, and draw me nearer to thee? But, seeing thou knowest me better than I know myself: if thou pleasest to make some trial of me, grant me necessary power, and patience, to glorify thee, converting all the evil which may occur unto me to my good and salvation. And, if in graciously supporting my debility, thy benignity do vouchsafe to advertise me, by some light affliction, effect that this thy clemency, may draw me, more and more to love and honour thee, to give thee thanks for the care thou hast of thy poor humble servant: and by this means, dispose me to attend, and expect thee in death, that after the same I may find that life, which I obtained by thy death, and there be made partaker with thee, of perpetual joy, and rest for evermore: Amen.   

Another.  
O Lord God, heavenly Father, when I consider how many ways I have offended before thy presence, and high Majesty, I abhor myself: in thinking how many times I have forsaken thee, my favourable and gentle Father, I detest my ingratitude, when I see, into what servitude of sin, I have too often thrown myself headlong down, selling (as far as in me lay) the precious liberty, which thy Son purchased for me; I condemn my folly, I absolutely discover myself, I see nothing but death and malediction hang over my head, my conscience rising up against me, for a judge and testimony of mine iniquities: But, when I behold, on the other side, thy infinite mercy, which surmounteth all thy other works, and wherein (if I may dare so to speak) thou exceedest thyself; my soul is then somewhat comforted. And, indeed, why should I doubt to find grace in his sight, that so often, and gently calleth, and summoneth sinners to repentance; expressly protesting, that he desireth not the death of a sinner, but that he should be converted and live? Moreover, thy only Son, hath so assured us, that we shall find grace in thy presence, by the goodly parables, which he himself propounded; as of the mite, of the lost sheep, and of the prodigal child, whose lively image I acknowledge to be in myself: as, I should be ingrate, incredulous, and very wicked, to recoil, and be ashamed of thy presence, though I be never so miserable, seeing that thou puttest forth thine hand, with so merciful an affection, to draw me to thee. O loving Father, I have faintly forsaken thee, I have scattered thy grace's most unhappily, in cleaving to the desires of my flesh, and swerving from thy obedience, I have entangled myself in the base servitude of sin, I am fallen into extreme misery, I know not whither to retire, but to thee, whom I have forsaken. Let thy mercy receive thy poor suppliant; whom, during his error, thou didst support. I am unworthy to lift up mine eyes to thee, or to call thee Father: but, I humbly beseech thee, abase thine eyes, to look down upon me, seeing thy pleasure is so, and that otherwise I must needs fall into the power of thine enemies. The regard of thy countenance will quicken, and lead me towards thee: I already feel some effect thereof: seeing in some sort, I plainly discover myself, I know thou dost behold me: thou gavest me eyes to discern the dangers wherein I stood, thou didst seek and find me out in the world, and death, and out of thy mercy hast granted my desire, to enter into thine house. I dare not require, that thou shouldest embrace or kiss me, or that thou shouldest weep for joy, in having found out thy poor servant, and slave: I look not for those precious ornaments, wherewith thou honourest thy greatest servants, and best affected children: it sufficeth me, to be in the troop of the least in thine house, amongst the greatest sinners, that have obtained pardon of thee, and that are vouchsafed some retiring place in thy heavenly palace, where there are so many several habitations. And that even in thy house, I may be as the least that pleaseth thee, so thou do but avow me, thine own, for ever. O merciful Father, I beseech thee, for the love of thy best beloved Son, my only Saviour, to vouchsafe me thy holy Spirit, for the cleansing of my heart, and strengthening of me, after such a sort, that I may always remain in thine house, there to serve thee in righteousness, and holiness, all the days of my life: Amen.   

Another.  
WHat do we in this world, but heap sin upon sin? So as the present day is ever somewhat worse than the day before, and we never cease to draw upon us thy wrath and indignation: But, when we shall be out of this world, in thine inheritance, we shall be wholly assured of perfect and eternal felicity; the miseries of the body being laid apart, and the vices, and contaminations of the soul, quite annihilated. O heavenly Father, increase in us thy faith, that we may cast no doubt of things so infallible: Imprint thy grace and love in our hearts, for the raising up, & fortifying of us in thy fear. And, because thou hast seated us in this world, there to remain so long as pleaseth thee, without manifesting unto us the day of our departure, which is only known to thyself, I beseech thee take me from hence, when thou seest the fit time come; and then to vouchsafe me this favour, that I may willingly acknowledge the same, and in the mean while, that I may dispose of myself, as thou hast ordained in thy most holy word: Amen.   

Another.  
THis body is the soul's prison, and a prison that is obscure, close, and uncomfortable: We are as banished men in this world, and our life is but grief, and misery: But contrariwise, O Lord, it is in thy heavenly kingdom, where we shall find our liberty, our natural country, and most perfect contentment. Rouse up our souls by thy word, to the remembrance, and apprehension, of such a good: engrave, in our hearts, the desire of goods eternal, and which only are to be sought after: afford our consciences some taste of this joy, wherewith the blessed in heaven are fully replenished, that I may esteem that, which worldlings account so beautiful (and so earnestly covet, retaining the same with obstinate avarice, and even adoring it with such mad frenzy) but filth and dirt. And procure, that I feeling no taste, but in thy verity and grace, calling continually upon thy Name, I may attend the day of my true deliverance, by JESUS CHRIST thy Son; to whom, with thee, and the holy Ghost, be ascribed eternal glory and praise. Amen.   

Another.  
Lord JESUS, the only saving health of the living, and the eternal life of those that die, I wholly submit myself to thy will, whether it shall please thee, yet a little while, to suffer this soul, in my body, to serve thee, or that thou mindest to take it out of this prison: I being assured, whatsoever thou wilt preserve, can not perish. I am content, with a very good heart, that my body should return to the earth, out of which it was taken, believing in the last resurrection, which shall make it immortal, incorruptible, and full of glory. I humbly beseech thee to strengthen my soul against all temptations, cover me with the buckler of thy mercy, to hold out Satan's darts. As for me, I am but weakness itself: but yet I will rely on thy goodness, and power. I can allege nothing good before thee, wherein to glory: but contrariwise, alas, my sins, in infinite number, accuse and torment me; but yet do thy merits assure me that I shall be saved. For, I hold this for most certain, that thou wert borne for me, that thou wert tempted, and wert obedient to GOD the Father, and that thou hast bought and purchased eternal life for me. Seeing therefore thou hast bestowed thyself on me, with all other thy benefits, suffer not such a donation, to prove void, and unprofitable. Let thy blood wipe away the corruption of my offences, and thy righteousness cover mine iniquities: Let thy merits procure me grace and favour, before thy heavenly throne. If my sins increase, augment thou also in me thy grace; that neither Faith, Hope, nor Charity may grow dead, but be corroborated in me; that the apprehension of Death discourage me not; but even when this my body shall be, as it were, clean dead, cause the eyes of my soul to look up unto heaven; and let my heart then feruentlly cry out to thee, and say, O Lord, I commend my soul into thy hands, accomplish thine own work, for thou didst redeem me: I am thine, by thy Father's gift; to whom, with thee, and the holy Spirit, be given all glory and praise. Amen.  
FINIS.    

AT LONDON Imprinted by H. L, for Matthew Lownes: and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Bishop's head. 1607.