CHAP. I. Of the first Precept of this Art of Dying well, which is, That he who desy­reth to dye well, do liue well.

I Begin now to treat of the precepts or rules of this Art which I will deuide into two parts. In the first, we wil set downe rules which men should obserue, whiles they are in good health. In the second others which shall be necessary when they are dange­rously [Page 2] sicke, and by all probability in danger to dye soone. In the first part, we shall deliuer the precepts which apper­tayne vnto the vertues; then those which appertayne vnto the Sacraments. For by these two wayes we are most of al holpē both to liue, and to dye well.

But before both these, this generall rule is to be premised, to wit that he liu [...] well, that desires to dye well: for since that death is the end of our life, certainly euery one who liueth vertuously vntil the end, doth dye well: and he cannot dye ill, who neuer liued ill. As on the other side, he who hath alwayes liued ill doth so dye; and he cannot but dye ill who neuer liued well; and so it fareth in all other like things. For euery one who keepeth on the right way to the place where he goeth, arryueth without any missing or going out of the way: but he who mistaketh the right way shal neuer come to the end he would; he who stu­dyeth diligently to attayne learning, wil soone become learned, & doctor also in that he professeth; and he who goeth alwayes to schoole, but applyeth not his mynd vnto learning, doth but le [...]se both [Page 3] tyme and labour.

Some perhaps will alleadge the example of the good theefe, who alwa­yes liued ill, and dyed well, and made a happy end. But it is not so: For that good theefe rather liued deuoutly and re­ligiously, and therfore dyed also so saint­ly. For notwithstanding that he spent the greatest part of his life wickedly, yet he so well bestowed the other, as he easily blotted out all former offences, & attay­ned vnto great & singular merits. For en­flamed with charity towards God, he openly defended Christ from the flaun­ders of the Iewes; and hauing the like loue towards his neighbour he warned and checked his blaspheming compani­on, and endeauored all he could to recall him to a better life; for as yet he was in this mortall life when he said vnto his fellow, neque tu times Deum qui in eadem dam­natione es? Et nos quidem iustè: nam digna factis recipimus; hic verò nihil mali gessit? Neyther doest thou feare God who art in the same condemnation? and we indeed iustly: for we receaue according to our deserts; but this mā what hath he done amisse? Ney­ther was the same theefe as yet departed [Page 4] this life whē he spake those noble words in which he confessed Christ, Luc. 23. and in­plored his help, Domine memento mei cùm veneris in regnum tuum: O Lord remember me when thou shalt come into thy King­dome: and therefore this good theefe seemeth to be one of those who came last into the vinyard, & receaued his reward before the first.

Matth. 20.True then, & generall is this principle he who liueth well, doth dye well. And this o­ther in like manner, he who liueth ill, doth dye ill. Neyther can it be denyed that it is a very dangerous matter to delay the chan­ge of our life frō vice to vertue vntill the last cast; and those to be far happier, who begin to beare the yoke of the law of God, Thren. 3. as Hieremy saith, ab adolescentia sua, from their youth; and those in euery res­pect to be happiest of all, Apoc. 14. who as the Apostle saith, empti sunt ex hominibus primitiae Deo et Agno, were bought from among men the first fruites vnto God and the Lambe, who, not only, were not defiled with women, but neither, was there any lye found in their mouth; & they are without spot before the throne of God. Such was Hieremy the Prophet, S. Iohn Baptist, & aboue al, the Mother of our [Page 5] Lord, and many other Saints of both sexes, which the knowledg of God alone doth comprize.

Wherefore let this principle stand without all checke, or controle, that the rule of dying well, dependeth vpon the other rule of a good life.

CHAP. II. Of the second precept of dying well, which is to dye first to the world.

NOw then to proceed that a man do liue well aboue all things, it is neces­sary that he dye to the world, before he dye to this corporall life. For all such as liue to the world, are dead to God; and it is impossible that any can begin to liue to God vnles he first dye vnto the world. This verity is so euidently deliuered in the holy scriptures, as it cannot be called into question but by Infidells and misbe­lieuers: and that in the mouth of 2. or 3. witnesses euery word may stand, I will alleadge the holy Apostles, S. Iohn, S. Iames, and S. Paul, witnesses beyond all [Page 6] exception, as in whome the holy Ghost, who is the spirit of truth, did most cleer­ly speake. So then writeth S. Iohn the Apostle & Euangelist, Ioan. 14. or rather affirmeth Christ thus to speake, Venit Princeps mundi huius, & in me non habet quicquam, the Prince of this world cometh, and in me he that nothing: where by the Prince of the world he vnderstandeth the deuill, who is the Prince of all the wicked, and by the world the company of all synners who loue the world, and are beloued of the world: and the Euangelist addeth a litle after, si mūdus vos odit, Ioan. 15. scitote quia me priorem vobis odio habuit: si de mundo fuissetis, mundus quod suum erat diligeret, quia verò de mundo non estis, sed ego elegi vos de mundo, propterea odit vos mundus. If the world doe hate yow, know ye that it hated me before it hated you: if you had bene of the world the world would loue his owne, but because you are not of the world, and I haue chosen you out of the world, Ioan. 17. therefore doth the world hate you: and in another place, ego non pro mundo rogo, sed pro eis quos dedisti mihi: I pray not for the world, but for those whome thou hast giuen vnto me. In which wordes our Sauiour plainly declareth by the word world, to be vnderstood those who with [Page 7] their Prince the deuill shall heare in the last day of Iudgement that sentence pro­nounced against them, Ite maledicti in ig­nem aeternum, go ye accursed into hell fier. The same Apostle in his epistle addeth, nolite diligere mundum ne (que) ea quae in mūdo sunt. &c. Doe not loue the world nor those things which be in the world: if any man loue the world, the charity of the father is not in him, because whatsoeuer is in the world is the cōcupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and pride of life, which is not of the father, but of the world, and the world passeth a­way, and the concupiscence thereof; he who doth the will of Go [...] remaineth for euer.

Now [...] vs [...]eare his fellow-Apostle S. Iame [...] who thus speaketh in his epistle Adulteri, nescitis quia amicitia huius mundi inimica est Dei? Iacob. 4. quicum (que) ergo voluerit esse amicui saeculi huius, inimicus Dei constituitur. Aduouterers, know you not that the frendship of this world is the enemy of God? whosoeuer therfore will be a friend of this world is made the enemy of God. Finally let vs heare S. Paul fellow-Apostle of them both and the vessell of election: [Page 8] he in his first epistle to the Corinthians, 1. Cor. 5. writing vnto all the faithfull saith, debue­ratis de hoc mundo exysse, you should haue gone forth out of this world: and againe in the same epistle, dum iudicamur à Domino, corripimur, 1. Cor. 11. vt non cum hoc mundo damnemur, whiles we are iudged of our Lord we are punished, that we may not be damned with this world. Where euidently he de­clareth the whole world to be damned at the latter day, and therfore by the world he vnderstandeth not heauen and earth, nor all the people of the world, but those only who loue the world; for the iust and vertuous in whose brests the loue of God, and not the lust of the flesh doth raigne and preuaile, are in deed in the world, but are not of the world; but the wic­ked and vngodly are not only in the world, but are of the world, and for that cause not the charity of God doth rule and raigne in their harts but the concupiscence of the flesh, that is leachery, and the concupiscence of the eyes, that is couetousnes; & pride of life, that is swelling ābition, by which they aduaunce themselues aboue others, and imitate the arrogancy and pride of Lucifer, and not the humility and [Page 9] meekenes of Iesus Christ.

And this being so, if any man will indeed learne this art of dying well, he must seriously, not in word & tongue, but in worke and truth, go out of the world, yea & dye also to the world, & say with the Apostle, mihi mundus crucifixus, Galat. 6. est & ego mundo, the world is crucifyed to me, & I to the world. This great & weighty affayre is not ludus puerorum, sport and pastime of children, but a most important and difficult matter: and for that cause our Lord being demanded, whether the number of such as are to be saued were small, answered, contendite intrare per angustā portam: striue to ēter in at the narrow gate; Luc. 13. and more largely in S. Matthew, intrate per angustan portam, quia lata est porta, & spa­tiosa via est quae ducit ad perditionem, Matth. 7. & multi sunt qui intrant per eam: quàm augusta porta & arcta via est quae ducit ad vitam, & pauci sunt qui inueniunt eam? Enter in at the narrow gate because the gate is wide, & way is broad which leadeth to perdition, and many there be who do enter by it: how nar­row is the gate and strait is the way that leadeth vnto life, and few there be that do find it?

To liue in the world and to con­temne the commodities of the world, is a most hard and difficult thing: to see faire things and not to loue them, to tast sweet things and not to be delighted with thē; to despise honours, to desire labours, to put himselfe in the lowest place, to yield vnto others all higher degrees, and final­ly without flesh as it were to liue in flesh, is rather to be tearmed an Angelicall thē a humane life; and yet the Apostle wri­ting to the Church of Corinth, in which almost euery one liued togeather with their wiues, and consequently were ney­ther Clergy men, nor Monkes, nor An­chorets, but as we now vse to tearme them, were secular men; in this manner notwithstanding he speaketh vnto thē: hoc itaque dico fratres, 1. Cor. 7. tempus breue est &. This therefore my brethren I say vnto you, the tyme is short; it remayneth that such as haue wiues, be as though they had them not, and those who weep as though they wept not, & those who are glad as though they were not glad, & those who buy a [...] though they did not possesse, & they wh [...] vse this world as though they vsed it not for the figure of this world doth passe a­way. [Page 11] Of which words this is the sense, that the Apostle exhorteth the faithfull, that hauing their hope fixed on heauen­ly happines, they be so litle addicted to worldly thinges, as though they had no­thing at all to do with them: that they loue their wiues, but with so moderate loue as if they had them not; if necessity cause them to mourne for the losse of their children or goods, that they mourne in such manner as though they were ney­ther grieued nor mourned at all; if they haue cause to reioyce for the wealth or honour they haue gotten, that this ioy be so small as if they did not reioyce, that is, as if their ioy apperteyned not vnto them: if they buy lands or howses, to shew so little affection to those things as if they did not possesse them as their owne; and finally the Apostle commaun­deth vs so to liue in the world, as if we were strangers, guests, or pilgrimes in the same, and not true inhabitants: which the Apostle S. Peter more plainly teacheth saying: 1. Pet. 2. Obsecro vos tāquam aduenas & peregri­nos abstinere vos à carnalibus desiderijs quae mili­tant aduersus animam: I beseech you as stran­gers, and pilgrims to refraine your selues [Page 12] from all carnall desires, which warre a­gainst the soule. By which wordes this most blessed Prince of the Apostles will haue vs so to liue euen in our owne town and howse, as if we liued in another mans howse, and in some forren countrey abroad; not heeding at all whether ther [...] be plenty or want in the place: whic [...] therefore he doth commaund vs, That w [...] may absteyne from carnall desires which warre a­gainst the soule, for these carnall desires doe not so easily assault vs when we see other mens things that do not belong vnto v [...] as when we see those which we esteem our own. This then is to be in the world and not to be of the world, which properly concerneth them who are dead t [...] the world, and liue to God, and for tha [...] cause they feare not temporall death, which endomageth them nothing, bu [...] rather is gainfull vnto them, according to that of the Apostle, Phil. 1. mihi viuere Christ [...] est, & mori lucrum, Christ is my life, and death my gaine.

But how many (trow you) shall we fynd in these dayes so dead to the world, as that they haue already learned to dye also well to the flesh, and thereby [Page 13] to make sure their saluation? Truly I doe not doubt but that in the Cath. Church, not only in Monasteryes, & in the Cler­gye, but amongst secular people also ma­ny holy men may be found, and such as are truly dead to the world, who haue learned this Art how to dye well: yet withall this cannot be denyed, that far many more without comparisō are to be foūd not only not dead to the world, but so without measure tyed and addicted to the same, and so feruent louers of plea­sures, honours, riches, and the like, that vnles they determine with themsel­ues to dye to the world, and doe dye in­deed, will doubtles come to a miserable death, and as the Apostle sayth, be damned with the world.

But these Worldlings will say, it is too hard a matter to dye to the world, whiles yet we liue in it; and to neglect these benefits which God hath created for men to enioy. To these I answere, that God doth neyther will, nor commaund men altogeather to cast away wealth, ho­nours, and other worldly emoluments: for Abraham was a speciall friend of God, and yet abounded in riches. Dauid also [Page 14] and Ezechias, and Iosias were very rich Princes, and withall deere friends vnto Almighty God: and the same we may say of many Christian Kings & Emperours, and therefore the commodityes of this world, riches, honours, pleasures a [...]e not absolutly forbidden vnto Christian people, but the immoderate loue of the things of this world, which are called of S. Iohn, the concupiscence of the flesh, concupis­cence of the eyes, and pride of life. Abraham certes was exceeding wealthy, but he not only vsed moderatly his riches, but was most ready presently a [...] the commaund of God to spend them all: for he who spared not his only Sonne, most vertuous and most deere vnto him, when God cō ­maunded that euen by the hands of Abraham himselfe he should be sacrificed; how easily at the same comaund had he bestowed or giuen away al his other we­alth? Therefore Abraham was rich in sub­stance, but richer in faith and charity, & for that cause was not of the world, but rather dead vnto it: & the same we may say of other holy men, who abounded with riches, power, and glory, yea with Kingdomes also and Empires, because [Page 15] being poore in spirit, dead to the world, and liuing, only to God, they had most e­xactly learned this art how to dye well. And therefore not abundance of wealth, or sublimity of honour, or Kingdome, or Empire make a man to be of the world, or that he liue in the world, but concupis­cence of the flesh, concupiscence of the eyes, and pride of life, which in one word is called Cupidity, or disordinate affection, & is op­posite to the Theologicall vertue of Cha­rity; & therefore if any through the grace and mercy of God begin to loue God for himselfe, and for his sake his neighbour, he beginneth to go out of the world; and this Charity increasing, the other disor­derly appetite will go lesse and lesse, and so he will begin to dye to the world: for charity cannot increase without the di­minution of the other: & by this meanes it will come to passe also that, that thing which whiles those other passions were predominant seemed impossible, to wit, that a mā liuing in the world should not be of the world, through this increase of the loue of God, & decrease of disordinat affections, will become most easy; for that which to this cupidity is a hard and [Page 16] insupportable yoke, is vnto charity a sweet yoke and light burthen.

That then which before we said, to wit, that to go out of the world, and to dye to the world, is not the play of boyes, or pastime of babes, but a most weighty and difficult thing, & most tru­ly said of such as haue not knowne the power of the grace of God, nor tasted the sweetnes of his charity, and of such as are sensuall without spirit: for he who hath once tasted of the spirit of God, doth loath whatsoeuer flesh & bloud do sug­gest: therefore euery one who earnestly desireth to learne this art of dying well, vpon which his euerlasting weale, and all true happines doth depend, let him protract no tyme, but presently go out of the world, & perfectly dye to the world; when as otherwise it cannot possibly be, that a man can liue to the world & God togeather, and at once enioy both earth and heauen.

CHAP. III. Of the third precept of the Art of dying well: which is of the three Theologicall vertues.

VVE haue shewed in the former chapter that he cannot dye wel who goeth not out of the world, & dy­eth not to the same. Now is to be added what he is to doe, who is dead to the world that he may liue to God, because it is graunted to none to dye well, that haue not liued well in this life, as I haue written in the first chapter. The briefe summe of liuing well is expressed by the Apostle in his first to Timothy in these wordes: Finis praecepti caritas de corde puro & conscientia bona, & fide non ficta: the end of the commaundement is charity from a pure hart, and a good conscience, 1. Tim. 1. and an vnfeyned faith: the Apostle was not ig­norant of the answere which our Saui­our did giue to him who demaunded, quid faciendo vitam aeternam possidebo? Matth. 19. what shall I doe to attayne euerlasting life? For he sayd: Si vis ad vitam ingrediserua mandata, if thou wilt enter into life keep the com­maundements, [Page 18] but he would explicate in few words the end of the principal com­maundement, on which the whole law and the vnderstanding & fulfilling ther­of, and the way to euerlasting life doth depend; and withall he would teach vs what vertues, are necessary to perfection, of which elswhere he said, nunc manent fi­des, spes, caritas, maior autem est caritas: now there remayne fayth, 1. Cor. 13. hope, and charity but the greater of those is charity, he saith therefore that charity is the end of the cō ­maundement, that is, the end of al the com­maundements, the obseruance of which cōmaundements, is necessary vnto good life: and this end is so placed, in cha­rity, as that he who hath the Charity of God, fulfilleth all the commaunde­ments which apperteyne vnto the first table, and he who hath the charity of his neighbour, fulfilleth all the commaun­dements which belong to the second table. This later part which might seeme more obscure he declareth in his epistle to the Romans, saying, Qui diligit proximū &c. He who loueth his neighbour hath fulfilled the law, for thou shalt not com­mit adultery, thou shall not kill, thou [Page 19] shalt not steale, thou shalt not beare false witnesse, and if there be any o­ther commaundement it is comprized in this word, thou shalt loue thy neighbour as thy selfe: the loue of thy neighbour worketh no ill, the fullnes therfore of the law, is loue. Out of which discourse e­uery one by himselfe may perceaue al the commaundements which are referred to the worship of God, to be fullfilled by charity alone; for as the charity of our neighbour towards our neighbour wor­keth no euill, so neyther doth the charity of God towards God worke any euill, & therefore the fullnes of the law, as well towards God as towards our neighbour is loue or charity.

Now, which is true and perfect cha­rity as well towards God as our neigh­bour, the same Apostle declareth saying, Charitas ex corde puro, conscientia bona, & fide non ficta, charity out of a pure hart, a good conscience, and vnfeigned faith; in which wordes by a good conscience, we doe vnderstand with S. Augustine, Praefat. in psal. 31. the vertue of hope, which is one of the three Theo­logicall vertues, and Hope is called a good conscience, because it proceedeth from a [Page 20] good conscience, as desperation procee­deth from a bad: hence is that say­ing of S. Iohn: Carissimi &c. my deerest if our hart doe not reprehend vs, 2. Ioan. 3. we haue confidence towards God: there are ther­fore three vertues in which the perfecti­on of our Christian law doth consist, Charity from a pure hart, Hope from a good conscience, and Faith not feigned: and as charity if we respect the order of pefection is the first, because most perfe­ctest, so if we respect the order of their proceeding, to wit how they are produ­ced, then faith is the first according to the prescript of the Apostle, nunc manent fides, &c. Now there remaine faith, hope, and charity, these three, but the greatest of these is charity.

Let vs begin with Faith, which first of all before the other is in the hart of him who is to be iustifyed. Not with­out cause did the holy Apostle add vnto faith this condition non ficta, not faigned, for faith beginneth our iustification if it be true and sincere, not if it be false and feigned; the faith of heretikes beginneth not iustification, because it is not true but false: the faith of ill Catholikes begin­neth [Page 21] not their iustification, because it is not sincere but feigned: a feigned faith is taken two wayes, as when one indeed doth not belieue and yet feigneth him­selfe to beleeue; or else indeed he doth be­lieue but liueth not as his beliefe teacheth him that he should; and the words of S. Paul to Titus seeme to beare both the one, and other sense, and to be vnderstood of them both: confitentur se nosse deum, Hierom. in com. Aug. ser. 31. de verb. Apost. factis au­tem negant; they confesse themselues to know God, but in their deeds deny him, for so the holy Fathers S. Hierome, and S. Augustine do interpret them.

And out of this first vertue of a iust man it may easily be cōceaued how great the multitude is of such who doe not liue well, and consequently come to an ill death. I let passe Inf [...]dells, Pagans, Here­tikes, and Atheists who know nothing of this art how to liue well: amongst Ca­tholikes how great number is there of those who in wordes confesse that they know God, but deny him in their deeds? Who confesse Christ to be the Iudge of the liuing and the dead, and yet so liue as though they had no Iudge at all? Who confesse the Mother of our Lord to be a [Page 22] Virgin, and by their blasphemyes feare not to call her a Harlot? who commend prayers, fastings, almes and other works of vertue, and yet alwayes practise the contrary vices? I omit the rest which are knowne vnto all; let them not therefore brag and vaunt that they haue not a fey­gned Fayth, who eyther do not belieue at all that which falsly they affirme to be­leeue, or else they liue not as the Catho­like faith doth commaund them to liue: and by this they may know that as yet they haue not begunne to liue well, ney­ther let them hope to dye well, vnles through the help of Gods grace they learne in tyme this Art we treat of.

The other vertue of a man truly iust is Hope, or else a good conscience, as our maister S. Paul the Apostle hath thought fit in this place to call it, this vertue pro­ceedeth from fayth, for no man can hope in God who eyther knoweth not the true God, or else doth not beleeue him to be either powerfull or mercifull: but to stir vp, and strengthen hope, in so much that it may be tearmed not hope only but also confidence, nothing so much auai­leth as a good conscience: for with what face [Page 23] will he come vnto God, and aske any blessings and benefitts of him, who is guilty of sinne committed against him, which yet by true pennance he hath not blotted out? For who will aske for any fauours at his enemyes hands? Or who thinketh that such an one will help him whom he knoweth to be greuously incē ­sed against him? Heare I pray you what the Wise man sayth of the hope of the wicked, Spes impij tanquam lanugo &c. Sap. 5. The hope of the wicked is like light dust which is caried away with the wynd, or as thinne froth of water which by the tempest is dispersed, or like smoke which is dissolued by the wynde, or as the me­mory of a passenger that stayeth but one day: so the Wise man, who most wisely warneth the wicked that their hope is a fraile and no solid thing, short and not permanent: for they whiles yet they are aliue, in some sort hope that they may do pennance and be reconciled vnto God, but when death shall approach, vnlesse God of his speciall mercy preuent them, and moue their harts to doe pennance, their hope will be turned into desperati­on, & they will say with the other wic­ked [Page 24] that which followeth in the same place; Errauimus &c. We haue erred from the way of truth, and the light of iustice hath not appeared vnto vs: what hath our pride auailed vs, or what hath the boasting of our riches holpen vs? All haue passed away like a shaddow. Thus the Wiseman, who grauely aduiseth vs, that if we will liue well, and dye happi­ly that we presume not to liue one mi­nute of an hower in synne, deceauing our selues with a vaine persuasion that as yet we haue a longe tyme to liue, and that hereafter at fitter opportunity we wil do penance; for this vaine hope hath decea­ued many, and will still deceaue them, vnlesse prudently they learne this Art whiles yet they haue tyme to doe it.

There remayneth the third vertue which worthily is called the Queene of Vertues, to wit, Charity, with which none can perish, & without which none can liue, eyther in the passage of this life, or in our desired home of euerlasting happines: that charity is sayd to be true and sincere which proceeds from a pure hart, not for that purity of hart doth pro­perly beget charity, for charity, as S. [Page 25] Iohn sayth, is from God, and S. Paul, 1. Ioan. 4. Rom. 5. The charity of God is powred forth in our harts, by the holy Ghost which is giuen vs; wherefore charity is said to be from a pure hart, because it cannot be kindled in an impure, but in such a one as is pur­ged from all errour by diuine Fayth, accor­ding to that of S. Peter the Apostle, Act. 15. fide puri­ficans corda eorum, cleansing their hart by faith: and by diuine hope, being cleansed from al loue and desire of earthly things: for euen as fire is not kindled in greene, stickes full of moist humours, but in dry; euen so the fire of charity requireth clean harts purged frō al earthly loue & vaine confidence in our own strength & forces.

By this may we vnderstand which is true Charity, which false & counterfeit: for if any one do willingly speake of God, shed teares through compunctiō of mynd in his prayers, and do other good workes, as giuing much almes, and fa­sting often, yet so as he enterteyneth im­pure loue in his brest, vaine glory, ha­tred towards his neighbour and the like, which make the hart impure and filthy; this man hath not diuine and true chari­ty but a vaine shew or resemblance there­of: [Page 26] for which cause the Apostle most pru­dently named not absolutly faith, hope & charity when he spake of true and perfect vertue; but said Finis praecepti &c. The end of the commaundement is charity from a pure hart, and a good conscience, and faith not feigned: and this indeed is the true Art of liuing well, and of a happy death, if any perseuere vnto the end in this true and perfect charity.

CHAP. IIII. Of the fourth precept of the Art of dying well, which conteyneth three Euan­gelicall documents.

ALTHOVGH to liue and dye well that which we haue said, of faith, hope, and charity may seeme to suffice; yet to performe the same the better, and wit [...] more facility, Christ himselfe hath vouc [...] saued in the Ghospell to giue vs thre [...] lessons or documents: for thus he sayth in the Euangelist S. Luke: Sint lumbi vestr [...] &c. Luc. 12. Let your loynes be girt, & burning candles in your hands, and be you lik [...] vnto men expecting their Lord when h [...] retourneth frō the Marriage, that whē he [Page 27] shall come & knocke, they may presently open (the gate) vnto him; blessed are those seruants whom our Lord when he shall come, shall fynd watching. This parable may be vnderstood two waies, either for the preparatiō to be made for the cōming of our Lord at the day of iudgment, or els for his cōming at the death of euery par­ticuler man, & this later which is the ex­position of S. Gregory, maketh more for our purpose in hand: Greg. hō. 13. in Euang. for the expectation of the last day shall apperteyne only to those, who shall then liue, and Christ spake this parable to his Apostles and to vs all; certainly the Apostles and those who succeeded them were by many ages very farre off from the last day; againe there shall many signes goe before the last day, which shall stir vp men to atten­dance: for Christ saith, Erunt signa &c. There shall be signes in the sunne, and moone, and starrs, and the earth, Luc. 21. great ca­lamity of nations, men withering away for feare and expectation of those things which shal come vpon the whole world. But no certayne signes shall go before the comming of God to particuler iudgemēt which euery man is called vnto at the [Page 28] hower of his death; and this coming is signifyed by those wordes so often repea­ted in the holy Scriptures, that our Sa­uiour will come as a theefe, to wit when he is least thought vpon or expected.

Let vs now then briefly expound this Parable, & let vs well conceaue that this preparation to death is a thing most of all to be respected of al, because of al other things it is most necessary. Three things doth our Lord heere commaund vs: first that we haue our loynes girded, that we haue candles burning in our hand, last of al that we watch & expect his cō ­ming, who when he will come, we know as little, as most men do when the theefe will come to robbe their howses. Let vs explicate the first sentence: Sint lumbi vestri praecincti. Let your loynes be girded: this is the literall sense of these wordes, that we be ready and stopped by no entangle­ments to runne to meet with our Lord when he shal call vs by death to this par­ticuler iudgement. This similitude of gir­ding the loynes is taken from the custome of the Easterne people, who did weare long garments almost to their feet, and when they were to walke apace, they did ga­ther [Page 29] vp their garment and girded there­with all their loynes, least the length of their weed might hinder their hast, and make them go more leasurely: for which cause it is said of the Angell Raphael, who [...]ame to accompany the younger Toby; Tunc egressus &c. Then Tobias going forth, Tob. 5. found a faier young man standing girt, & as it were ready to walke. By occasion of this custome of the Easterne people, 1. Pet. 1. S. Peter wrote; propter quod succincti lumbos men­tis vestrae, soby perfectè sperate &c. For the which cause hauing the loynes of your mynd girded, sober, hope perfectly &c. and S. Paul to the Ephesians, state succincti lum­bos vestros in veritate: stand yee hauing your loynes girded in truth.

Now to haue our loynes girded, doth signify two thinges, first the vertue of chastity, secondly a promptitude or readines to meet with Christ, whether he come to the particuler or generall iudge­ment. Aug. lib. de contien­tia. Loco citat. The first sense is admitted by S. Ba­sil in his exposition of the first chapter of the prophet Isaias, by S. Augustine and S. Gregory: and truly amongst all the passions and perturbations of the mynde no one doth so much hinder our swift and ready [Page 30] passadge to meet with Christ, as the con­cupiscence of the flesh; as on the other side nothing maketh a man more ready to runne and follow Christ, then doth vir­ginall chastity, Apoc. ca. 14. 1. Cor. 7. for we read in the Apoca­lips, that the Virgins doe follow Chris [...] whersoeuer he shall goe: to this doth S. Paul exhort vs saying, qui sine vxore est &c. He who is without a wife is careful of those thinges which concerne our Lord how he may please God, but he who is with his wife is carefull how he may please his wife, & is deuided.

But the other exposition which doth not restraine and limit these girded loyns to chastity alone, but extendeth it to prompt obedience of Christ in al thinges, is of S. Cyprian, Lib. de ex­hor. Mart. cap. 8. and is generally admitted by all Commentours on S. Lukes Gospell [...] the meaning then of this place of th [...] Ghospell is, that all the affaiers of this world, albeit very good and necessary, should not so farre forth possesse our myndes, as that they should hinder this chiefest & most principall care of being ready to meet our Sauiour when he shall call vs by death to yield an account of all our workes, yea also of our words, and [Page 31] thoughts, euen our idle words, & vayne cogitations. For what shall men wholy drowned in the world at that tyme doe when death at vnawares and not looked or prouided for, shall come, who in the whole course of their life haue neuer thought of giuing an account vnto God of all their workes, of all their wordes, of all their thoughts, of all their desires, of all their omissions? shall such, think you, be able to haue their loynes girt, & runne to meet with Christ? Or rather shall they not be tossed & entangled in their filthy life, and become both dumbe and despe­rate? What wil they answere to the Iudge when he shall demaund of them, why did you not giue eare vnto my wordes by which I warned you, saying: Seeke first for the Kingdome of God and the righteousnes ther­of, and all these thinges shall be giuen vnto you? why did you not consider the words so often and so publickly song and sayd in the Church, Martha, Martha, sollicita es &c. Martha, Martha, thou art carefull and troubled about many things, but one is necessary, Mary hath chosen the best part which shall not be taken from her? If I haue reprehended the care of Martha, [Page 32] who most deuoutly desired to serue my selfe, doe you thinke that your care of ga­thering superfluous riches, of greedy ga­ping after dangerous honours, of satisfy­ing your hurtfull appetites, and in th [...] meane tyme forgetting the Kingdom [...] of God, and the righteousnes thereof, which aboue al things in this life is most necessary, can please & content me?

But let vs come to another duty of a diligent and faithfull seruant, & lu­cernae ardentes in manibus vestris, and burning candles in yours hands: it is not inoug [...] for a good seruant that his loynes be gir [...] whereby he may freely and without le [...] runne to meet with his Lord, but it i [...] further exacted of him that there be also a burning candle in his hands, which may shew him the way in the night, at what tyme his Lord is expected to return [...] from this marriage feast. The candle in this place signifyeth the law of God, which sheweth vs indeed a good way to walke in: Lucerna (sayth Dauid) pedibus meis verbum tuum. Psal. 111. Thy word is a candle to my feet: and lex lux, sayth Salomon in his Prouerbes, Prouer. 6. the law is a light; but this candle giueth no light to a traueller, or [Page 33] sheweth any way at al if it be left at home or in our chamber, and therefore if we will haue it to shew vs the way, we must cary it in our hands: many there be that know the diuine and humane lawes; but therefore they commit many sinnes and pretermit many necessary good workes, because they cary not this candle in their hands, that is, they apply not their knowledge vnto the workes of the law. How many great learned men are there who commit most grieuous of­fences because in their actions they take not direction from the law of God, but are transported by their owne anger lust, or some other disordinate passion of their mynd? When King Dauid saw Bersabee na­ked, had he recurred to this law, he had found, Non concupisces vxorem proximi tui, thou shalt not lust after thy neighbours wife, and had neuer falne into such an e­normous crime, but because he made no further recourse then to the womans be­auty, fogetting the law of God, though otherwise a very iust & holy man, he cō ­mitted adultery. We must not then haue this candle hid and shut vp in our cham­ber, but must still haue it in our handes, & [Page 34] obey the voyce of the holy Ghost, which commaundeth vs that we meditate day and night on the law of our Lord, Psal. 1. and that we say with the Prophet; Tu man­dasti &c. Psal. 118. Thou hast commaunded thy cō ­maundements most diligently to be kep [...] I would to God my wayes may be dire­cted to keep thy iustifications. He who hath alwayes the candle of Gods law be­fore the eyes of his soule, Psal. 118. will securely meet with our Sauiour at his retourne from the marriage.

There remayneth the third office or duty of a faithfull seruant, that he al­wayes watch, because he is vncertayne when his maister will come: Blessed are those seruants (saith Christ) whome their maister when he shall come shall fynde watching. God Almighty would not haue all men at a certeyne tyme or period of their age to depart this life, least they should bestow all the tyme of their life til then in gluttony and drunkennes, plaies and desportes, or in other ill works, and then, afterwards a little before their death to recal themselues & retourne vn­to God: wherefore his diuine prouidence hath so ordeyned that nothing should be [Page 35] more vncerteyne then the houre of our death, whiles some as we see dye in their mothers wombe, others as soone as they are borne, if not in their very birth, some in hoary old age, others in the very flo­wer of their youth: againe some we see by long lingring to languish away, others to dye sodenly, some to recouer from a most desperate sicknes, others to be but a little sicke & whiles they seeme free from death, the disease increaseth and they de­part this life: and to make vs the better see this vncertaynty our Sauiour sayd; Et si venerit &c. Luc. 12. If he shall come in the second watch, or if in the third watch, & so shall fynd his seruants (to wit watching) blessed are those seruants, for know you this that if the maister of the house shold know at what houre the theefe would come, truly he would watch and not suf­fer his house to be ransacked; and be you prepared because the Sonne of man will come at such an hower as you thinke not on. Moreouer that we might vnderstand of what weight this matter is, to be well perswaded of the vncertainty of our life, & of the houre in which our Lord will call vs to iudgement, eyther in the death [Page 36] of euery particuler, or else at the later day, the Scripture doth repeate nothing so often as that one word Vigilate, watch; and the similitude of a theefe, who vseth not as you know to come, but at such a tyme and place, where and when he is least expected; the word watch is in ma­ny places repeated in the Ghospells of S. Mathew, Marke and Luke, and the simili­tude of a thiefe is not only in the Gospels but also in the Epistles of the Apostles & Apocalyps of S. Iohn.

Of all which we may euidently perceaue how great the negligence and ignorance, not to say madnes and folly of most men is, that so often admonished by the spirit of truth, by the pens of the Apostles, who could not lye nor deceaue vs, that we be still prepared for death as a thing most great and difficult, and on which dependeth our greatest and euer­lasting happines, or our greatest and euer­lasting destruction; and yet that there be so few that are stirred vp by these wordes or rather thunderings of the holy Ghost to prepare themselues thereunto.

Heer some will say, what counsaile do you giue vs that we may watch as we [Page 37] should, and by watching be prepared to make a happy end? I can thinke of no­thing better then that we often prepare our selues to death by a serious and due examination of our conscience: and truly Catholike people when they come euery yeare to confession omit not to examine their consciences, and againe when they begin to be sicke; and the Phisitians by the decree of Pope Pius V. are forbid­den to come the second tyme vnto them vnlesse after the examination of their conscience they haue also made a confes­sion of their syns; finally there are none in the Catholike Church, but neere the hower of their death examine their cons­ciences and confesse their synnes. But what shall we say of such as are taken a­way by soden death? What of such as become mad or leese their witts before they can make their confession? What of those who are so ouerburthened with the extremity of sicknes as they cannot so much as thinke how many, or what sins they haue cōmitted? What of those who in dying do synne, or in synning doe dye, as those who fight in vniust warre, or in single combat, or are taken in adulte­ry?

To auoid therefore prudently and religiously these and the like inconueni­ences, nothing better can be deuised then that all those who esteeme and make ac­count of their saluation, do twice euery day, to wit at noone and night diligently discusse their conscience, what the night or day before they haue done, what they haue sayd, what they haue desired, what they haue thought, in which any spot of synne may be found; and if they fynd any such, espe­cially any thing that may seeme a mor­tall synne, let them not delay the remedy of true contrition, with firme purpose at the first opportunity to come to the Sa­crament of pennance; wherefore let them aske of God the gift of true compunction and sorrow, let them call to mynde the grieuousnes of synne, let them detest from their hart the fault committed, let them seriously discusse who it is that doth of­fend, & whome he hath offended, to wit a vile wretch Almighty God, an vnpro­fitable seruant the Lord of heauen and earth; let not their eyes cease from teares, nor their hands frō knocking their brest, [Page 39] and finally let them make a true and reso­lute purpose neuer more to prouoke Gods wrath, nor to offend their most louing Father. This examination if it be well made morning and euening, or at least once in the day, it can very hardly happē that any one in dying should synne, or in synning dye, or be preuented with gid­dines, madnes or other like misfortunes, and so being well prepared to dye, ney­ther the vncertainty can hurt vs, or we be depriued of the glorious reward of euer­lasting life.

CHAP. V. Of the fifth precept or rule of the Art of dying well; in which is detected the er­rour of the Rich men of this world.

TO that which hath been sayd we are to adioyne the refutation of a cer­teyne errour very vulgar amongst the rich men of this world, and it much hin­dereth the good life and death we haue spoken of. The errour consisteth in this [Page 40] that rich men do esteeme the goods which they possesse to be absolutely and truly their owne, if they possesse them by due clayme & tytle, and therefore that they may lawfully wast them, giue them as they list, neyther may any man say vnto them why do you thus? Why go yo [...] so braue in apparell? Why do you fa [...] and feast so daintely? Why are you so pro­digall and lauish in feeding doggs o [...] hawkes, or in play at d [...]ce or cardes, o [...] in like delighting pastimes? For the will forth with answere you, what [...] that to you? May I not do with my [...] owne goods what I list? or must I ask [...] your leaue and counsaile how to bestow them? This truly is a most grieuous and pernicious errour. For suppose the rich of this world are true owners of their owne wealth, if they be cōpared vnto o­ther men who can lay no claim vnto thē; yet if they be compared vnto God, they are not maisters but administratours, o [...] stewards or bayliffs of them; which I ca [...] proue by many authorityes. Heare the kingly Prophet what he saith hereof, Psal. 23. Do­mini est terra (saith he) &c. The earth is "our Lords, and all the plenty thereof, the [Page 41] whole world and all that dwell therin. And againe in another place: Psal. 29. Meae sunt om­nes &c. All the wild beasts of the forests, and all the cattle on the mountaynes are myne, if I shall be hungry I will not tell it vnto thee, for myne is the whole world and the plenty therof: & in the first book of Paralipomenon, when as Dauid had of­fered towards the building of the temple three thousand talents of gold, 1. Paralip. 29. and se­uen thousand talents of most pure siluer, and wonderfull great store of white marble, and when the other Gouernours of the Tribes following the example of the King had offered fiue talents of gold ten of siluer, & eighteene of brasse, besides a hundred thousand talents of irō, Dauid sayd vnto God: Tua est Domine &c. All ma­iesty and power and glory O Lord is thyne, 1. Paralip. 29. all things which are in heauen & in earth are thyne; thine is the Kingdom and thou art ouer all Princes; thyne are riches, and thine is glory, thou rulest all: who am I, and who is my people that we may promise thee all these things? All things are thyne, and what we haue re­ceaued at thy hands, that we haue giuen thee. Againe by the Prophet Aggaeus God [Page 42] saith, Aggaei 2. myne is siluer, and myne is gold, which therefore our Lord did say, that the people might know that there should nothing be wanting for the buylding of the temple, seing it was he that com­maunded it to be buylt who is true Lord and owner of all the gold and siluer, and what else soeuer is in the whole world.

To these testimonyes of the old testament I wil add two more of the new, taken out of the very wordes of our Sa­uiour. There is a parable in S. Luke of the wicked Bailiffe: Luc. 16. Homo quidam erat diues &c. There was a certayne man that was rich (saith Christ) and he had a bailiffe who was ill spoken of to his maister, as one that had wasted his goods, and he called him and sayd vnto him, How comes it that I heare this of thee? Render an ac­count of thy bailifship, for thou canst no more be bailiffe. By this rich man there can be no doubt but that God is meant, who, as now out of Aggaeus we haue heard saith meum est argentum & meum est aurum, all siluer and gold is myne: by the name of a bailiffe or steward as it is in the Greeke copyes, is vnderstood a rich man, as the [Page 43] holy Fathers S. Iohn Chrysostome, S. Angu­stine, S. Ambrose, S. Bede, Theophilact, Euthi­mius, and others on this passage of Saint Lukes Gospell doe interprete: euery rich man then of this world if he belieue the Ghospell, must confesse that all the ri­ches he enioyeth, whether by iust or vn­iust claime, not to be his owne; for if his tytle vnto them be good, then is he only the bailiffe and steward of God: if vniust then is he a theefe & a robber.

That this worldly rich man in this world is not the true maister of the goods he possesseth is cleerly euinced, because he is chardged with iniustice before God, who eyther by bodily death, or beggary dischargeth him of his Bailiffe­ship, for so much doe these wordes im­port, Redde rationem villicationis tuae, iam e­nim non poteris villicare, Yield an account of thy bailiffeship for thou canst no longer be bailiffe. Neyther doth God want wayes to make rich men poore, and to put them from their bailiffeship, for he can send them shipwarcks, robberies, haile, wormes that deuoure the herbes, and vynes, too much rayne, too much droth, too great stormes, and other the [Page 44] like: these are the words of God which h [...] sayd vnto the rich man non poteris diutiu [...] villicare, thou canst no longer be bailiffe

That clause in the end of th [...] parable where our Lord sayth, Make y [...] frendes of the mammon of iniquity, that when y [...] faile they may receaue you into the eternall tabernacles; doth not signify that we are to giu [...] almes out of vnlawfull riches, but tha [...] almes are to be giuen out of those riche [...] which indeed are not such, but only th [...] shadow of riches; which is euidently g [...] thered out of the same place of the Go [...] pell of S. Luke where our Sauiour sayth If you haue beene vnfaithfull in the wicked mammon who will trust you for that which is the true The meaning of which wordes is, Luc. 16. if [...] wicked mammon, to wit in false riches, yo [...] haue not beene faithfull and bountifully bestowed them on the poore, who wil [...] commit true riches vnto your charge, the riches I meane of vertue which in­deed doe make a man rich? Cyprian. lib. de ope­re & elee­mosyna. Aug. Quaest. Euang. quaest. 34. So S. Cypria [...] vnderstood and explicated this place: and not much vnlike is the exposition of S. Augustine when he sayth, the mammon of i­niquity, is that riches which only wicked men and fooles repute for such; whereas [Page 45] the good & wise men make no account of it, but affirme the spirituall gifts of grace alone to be the treasure of the faithful.

The other place of the Gospell is al­so in S. Luke, Cap. 16. which may serue for a com­mentary of the former parable now men­tioned of the wicked Bailiffe: Homo qui­dam (sayth our Sauiour) erat diues &c. There was a certayne rich man who was clad in purple and silke, and fared euery day sumptuously, and there was a certayn beggar called Lazarus who did lye at his gate full of soares, desiring to be fed with the crumms that fel from the table of the rich man, & no body did giue them vnto him, but the dogs did come & licke his soares, and it came to passe that the poore man dyed and was caryed by the Angells into Abrahams bosome, and the rich man dyed & was buryed in hel. Doubtles this rich glutton was one of them who estee­med themselues true Lords and owners of their riches, and not the bailiffs or ste­wards of God, and consequently he was perswaded that he did not synne against God although he wore purple and silke and fared euery day daintily, and fed ma­ny doggs, and perhaps some Comicall [Page 46] iesters & stage-plaiers also, for he sayd [...] himselfe I spend myne owne goods, [...] doe no man wrong, I doe not transgres [...] the lawes of God, I doe not blaspheme [...] I doe not forsweare my selfe, I keepe t [...] sabboth, I honour my parents, I neyth [...] kil nor cōmit adultery, nor steale, nor gi [...] false witnes, nor seeke after another m [...] wife, or any other thing of his; but if t [...] case stand thus, why is he buried in he [...] fire? truly heere we must needes grant a [...] such to be in errour who perswade the [...] selues that they are the absolute Lords maisters of their goods, for if this r [...] glutton had, had other synnes more normous, the holy Scripture some w [...] or other had insinuated so much; but s [...] ing that nothing is said more, it seem [...] necessarily to be vnderstood of this, w [...] that the superfluous setting himselfe forth in braue apparell, his daily and great cost in banquetts, the number o [...] his retinew, and dogges, togeather wit [...] his want of all charity towards a poo [...] man full of sores, to haue beene a sufficient cause why he is buried in hell, for euer to be tormented in those euerlastin [...] flames.

Let this then be the infallible law of liuing and dying well, often to thinke and seriously to consider and ruminate in our mynde, that there is an account to be made to God of all superfluous cost bestowed in pallaces, in gardens, in coa­ches, in multitude of attendants, in co­stly apparell, in banquetts, in heaping vp of riches, and all other whatsoeuer not necessary expenses, by which means there is iniury done to the great num­ber of poore and sicke people who want that, with which the other are sur­chardged, who doubtles do now cry vnto Almighty God, and will not cease in the day of Iudgement to cry, vntill these also be deliuered ouer for euer, to be punished in vnquenchable fier.

CHAP. VI. Of the sixth precept of the Art of dying well, in which are explicated three Morall Vertues.

ALBEIT the three Theological ver­tues conteyne as it were in a short [Page 48] abridgement all the precepts of good life, and consequently also of this whole Art, yet the holy Ghost principall Authour of of all diuine Writ, for the better vnder­standing of this most vholsome Art o [...] dying well would further add, three m [...] rall vertues which exceedingly do help, man to liue and dye well, and these a [...] Sobriety, Iustice, and Piety, of all whic [...] S. Paul speaketh in this manner in his Epistle to Titus: Tit. 2. Apparruit gratia Dei Saluator nostri omnibus hominibus &c. The grace o [...] God our Sauiour hath appeared vnto [...] men, instructing vs that we renounci [...] impiety, and secular desires do liue soberly, iustly, and prou [...]ly in this world expecting the blessed hope & commin [...] of the glory of the great God, an [...] of our Sauiour Iesus Christ. This the [...] shall be the sixt rule of this Art, that w [...] renouncing impiety and secular desires, do liue soberly, iustly, and piously in this world. Here we haue the summe and ef­fect of all Gods law, with admirable bre­uity contracted into one short sentence: Declina à malo, & fac bonum, Decline from euill and doe good, saith the holy Pro­phet Dauid. Psal. 36. In synne there are two [Page 49] things, an aduersion from God, and con­uersion vnto creatures; according to that of Hieremy: Duo mala &c. Hierem. 20 Two euills my people haue done me; they haue left me the springe, or fountayne of liuely waters, and haue digged for them­selues cesternes which can hold no wa­ter. What then is he to do who will a­uoid both the one and other euill? He will renounce impiety and secular desires. For impie­ty turnes him from God, and secular de­sires draw him to the creatures, and then (which apperteyneth vnto the other part of doing good) doe we fulfill the law, when we liue soberly, iustly, and piously, that is, when we are sober towards our selues, iust towards our neighbours, and pious towards God.

But it will not be amisse to handle these points more largely, that this most wholesome and briefe precept may the better be put in practise: what then is impiety? A vice contrary to piety. What is piety? A vertue or gift of the holy Ghost by which we regard God, worship him, & reuerence him as our Father. We are therefore commaunded so to renounce impiety, that we may liue piously in this world, [Page 50] or which is all one, so to liue piously i [...] this world as we renounce all impiety: bu [...] why are both these members set downe when as one alone had been sufficient Truly it pleased the holy Ghost so [...] speake, to the end we should know th [...] we ought (if we will please God) so t [...] imbrace piety as that it haue no admix­ture of impiety with it: for there wa [...] not Christians who imbrace piety whiles they pray vnto God, whiles the [...] are present at the dreadfull sacrifice [...] whiles they heare the Priest to preac [...] but in the meane tyme, at their pl [...] they blaspheme God, they sweare by hi [...] name without occasion, and fulfill no [...] the vowes which they haue made vnto him: and what is this else then piously to worship God, and yet to be impious a­gainst him? Wherefore such as desire [...] liue wel that they may obteyn that grace at Gods hands as to dye wel, ought so pi­ously to worship God that they renounce all impiety, yea euery shadow although ne­uer so little of impiety, for it auaileth little to heare Masse euery day, & to worship Christ in that dreadfull mystery if in the meane while thou do impiously blasphē [Page 51] God, or sweare falsly by his name.

And this also is diligently to be no­ted, that the Apostle sayd not, re­nouncing impiety in generall, but omnem impietatem: that is all manner of impiety great or small, damnable or light, which is spoken against them who make it a small matter to sweare when there is no need, to looke with a wanton and las­ciuious eye vpon women, euen in holy places, to talke in the tyme of Masse, & to commit other the like lighter offences as if they did not beliue God to be present to see all things & to note all their faults although neuer so small. Exod. 20. For God is a iea­lous God, chastizing the iniquity of the parents on their children vntill the third and fourth generati­on of such as haue hated him; and on the other side, he sheweth mercy on thousands to such as loue him and keepe his commandements. And this did the sonne of God teach vs by his own example, who although he were both meeke and humble, and when he was re­uyled, did not reuyle, when he suffered he did not threaten, 1. Pet. 2. yet kindled with great zeale hauing made a whippe of coards he cast the buyers and sellers out of the temple, Ioan. 2. ouerthrew the bankers ta­bles [Page 52] and sayd: It is written that my howse is [...] howse of prayer, and you haue made it a denne o [...] theeues: and this he did twice, once in th [...] first yeare of his preaching as S. Iohn reco [...] deth, and once in the last, as all the oth [...] three Euangelists do testify.

Let vs proceed to the second vertue which directs our actions toward our neighbour. The second vertue is Iustice, of which the Apostle sayd, Renounci [...] secular desires let vs liue iustly; and heere al [...] that generall sentence taketh place, decli [...] à malo & fac bonum, decline from euill a [...] do good: for there can be no true iustic [...] towards our neighbour where those secular desires do yet remayne; for wh [...] else do these desires signify but the conc [...] piscence of the flesh, the concupiscenc [...] of the eyes, and pride of life, which ar [...] not of God but of the world? Therefore as iustice cannot be vniust, so neyther can these desires be any way conioyned wit [...] true iustice. A child of this world ma [...] counterfeyt in word and toung true iustice, but indeed and truth he cannot possibly performe it; most prudently there­fore did the Apostle not only say, let vs liue iustly, but promised before, abnegantes saecularia [Page 53] desideria, renouncing secular desires, to signify that the root infected with the poysō of concupiscēce, is first to be pulled out, before the good tree of iustice can be planted in a vertuous & Religious hart.

What it is to liue iustly, seemes a mat­ter of it selfe so perspicuous, as it cannot be doubted of, for all men know that iu­stice doth commaund, Rom. 13. that we giue to euery man his owne: reddite (sayth the A­postle) omnibus debita &c. Yield you vnto al that which is due vnto them; to whom tribute, tribute; to whome custome, cu­stome; to whome feare, feare; to whom honour, honour. Tribute is due vnto the Prince, honour to our parents, Malach. 1. feare to our maisters: for so God sayth by the pro­phet Malachy; If I be a Father, where is my honour? And if I be a Lord or a maister, where is my feare? A iust price is due to the seller, a iust reward to the workeman, and so of others after the same manner; and with no lesse reason but rather with much more those vnto whome the distributi­on of the common goods of a Kingdome or common wealth pertayne ought to be­stow the same according to the prescript of distributiue iustice, to such I meane as [Page 54] deserue them best, not according to the acception of persons, as vnto their kins­folkes, and such as they affect and fauour. If any I will then learne well this art, let him heare the Wiseman thus calling vp­on men of authority in the beginning of his booke; Sap. 1. Loue iustice you who iudge the earth. And let them heare S. Iames lamen­ting in his Epistle: Behold the reward of the workemen who haue reaped your ground which is defrauded by you, Iacob. 5. doth cry, and their cry hath entred into the eares of the Lord of Sabbaoth.

There remayneth the third vertu [...] vnto which these secular desires are no lesse contrary then vnto iustice; neyther do we vnderstand in this place by Sobriety that vertue only which is contrary to drun­kennes, but in generall the vertue of Tem­perance or moderation which make a man to measure these things which con­cerne the care or preseruation of his body by the rule of reason, and not according to his sensuall desire: and this vertue is rarely found amongst men: for secular de­sires seeme to haue filled all the houses of rich men, but those who are wise are not to looke vnto that which fooles do, al­though they be neuer so many & almost [Page 55] innumerable, but vnto that which wise men do. Doubtles Salomō was a most wise man, Prouer. 30. and yet he made this prayer vnto God saying, Duo rogaui te &c. Two things I haue prayed for that thou wouldest not deny me before I dye, to wit, that thou neyther graunt me beggary or riches, but those things only giue me which are ne­cessary for my life. 1. Tim. 6. S. Paul was also a wise man, and yet he sayd: Habentes &c. Ha­uing wherewith to couer our nakednes, let vs be contented: for we brought no­thing into this world, & without doubt neyther can we cary any thing hence. Which reasō is most witty, for why shold we take such immoderate care for super­fluous riches, seeing we cannot cary them with vs to that place vnto which by death we come vnto? Christ our Lord was not only wiser then Salomon and S. Paul, but was very wisdome it selfe, & yet he sayd. Luc. 6. Luc. 9.19. Deut. Blessed be the poore, and woe be to you that be rich: And of himselfe he sayd: The foxes haue holes, and the fowles of the ayre nests, but the sonne of man hath not where to repose his head. If e­uery word is to stand in the verdict of two or three witnesses, how much more ought it to stand in the verdict of these [Page 56] three most wise men? What if we should yet adde that the riches which we haue more then our necessityes require are not our own, but are the substāce of the poore as is the cōmon opinion of holy Father and schoole Doctours? are not then suc [...] men very fooles who with so great dili­gence keep that, for which by God him­selfe they shall be condemned to hell fire?

He then who will learne this ar [...] of liuing and dying wel, let him not imi­tate the multitude or common people who belieue or esteem nothing but wh [...] they see; but let him follow Christ an [...] his Apostles, who in word and deed hau [...] taught vs that the things of this world are to be contemned, and that we are to expect, The great hope and comming of the glory of the great God, and of our Sauiour Iesus Christ. Truly the thing is so great which w [...] hope for at the comming of our Lord Ie­sus Christ frō heauen vnto iudgment, that al the glory & al the riches, & al the ioyes past of this world are in respect therof to be esteemed nothing, or as though they had neuer beene, and they are to be held most foolish and most vnhappy who in a matter of this consequence will rather [Page 57] giue credit vnto fooles, then vnto wise men.

CHAP. VII. Of the seauenth precept of the Art of dy­ing well, which is of Prayer.

OVT of that which hitherto hath beene sayd, we haue drawne the precepts of dying well frō the three theo­logicall vertues Faith, hope and charity, and also from three morall, Sobriety, iu­stice and piety, of all which the Apostle Saint Paul hath admonished vs: now I will further adioyne another precept of three other workes of vertue, of prayer, fasting and almes, which we haue learned of the Angell Raphael, for we read in the booke of Toby, the Angell to haue spoken in this manner: Prayer is good with fasting & almes, and better then to heape vp treasures of gold. And this threefold nūber of these works is the frute of three vertues, of Religion, of mercy, of temperance, which haue great re­semblance with piety, iustice, and sobriety before mentioned: for as piety concerneth [Page 58] God, iustice our neighbour, sobriety our selues; So prayer which is an act of reli­gion respecteth God, almes which is an act of mercy respecteth our neighbour, fasting which is an act of abstinence res­pecteth our selues. Of Prayer many Au­thours haue written many things, we for our present purpose will explicate three only; one of the necessity of prayer, ano­ther of the vtilityes, and the third of the manner how we may fruitfully make it.

The necessity of prayer is so euident and perspicuous in the Scriptures as tha [...] nothing can be more cleerly commaun­ded or deliuered then the same: for not­withstanding that God do know what we want, as he sayth of himselfe in Saint Matthew, yet will he haue vs to demaund them & receaue them as it were by spiri­tuall hands, or some instrument fit for that purpose. Luc. 18. Heare our Lord in S. Luke VVe must alwayes pray and neuer cease. Againe, VVatch ye praying at all tymes. Heare S. Paul, Pray without intermission. Luc. 21. 1. Thess. 5. Eccles. 18. Heare Ecclesiasticus: Be not stopped from continuall prayer. Which precepts or commaunds do not import that we should do nothing else but pray, but that we should neuer forget this most [Page 59] wholesome exercise, but very often haue recourse thereunto, which both our Lord and his Apostles by their example haue taught vs; for Christ and his Apostles did not so alwayes pray, but that they bestowed some tyme in teaching the people, and in confirming their doctrine with signes, and miracles; and yet they may be sayd alwayes to haue beene in prayer, because they did pray very often: and other phrases in the Scripture of like tenour are to be vnderstood in the same manner, as, My eyes are alwayes on our Lord, Psal. 24. and his prayse is alwayes in my mouth, Psal. 33. and that of the Apostles, they were alwayes in the tēple praysing and blessing our Lord. Luc. 24.

Touching the vtilityes of prayer three are most eminent, to wit, merit, satisfacti­on, and impetration: of merit we haue the testimony of our Lord in the Ghospell, Cùm oratis &c. When you pray, you shall not be like hypocrites who affect to pray standing in the synagogs, and in the cor­ners of the streets that they may be seene of men. Amen I say vnto you, that they haue receaued their reward: but thou whē thou shalt pray, enter into thy chamber and the dore being shut, pray thy Father [Page 60] in secret, and thy Father who seeth the in secret will reward thee: by whic [...] words our Sauiour doth not forbid prayers to be made in publicke; for he himself [...] did publickly pray before he raised Lazarus, Ioan. 11. but he forbiddeth a man to pray i [...] publike when he doth it with intentio [...] be seene of many, to wit out of the desir [...] of vaine glory: for else we may pray i [...] the temple, and therein also fynde th [...] chamber of our hart, and in that cham­ber pray vnto our Father in secret: thes [...] wordes, reddet tibi, will repay or rewar [...] thee, do signify merit. For as before h [...] sayd of the Pharisee, recepit mercedem suam, he hath receaued his reward, to wit, hu­mane prayse; so of him who prayeth in the chamber of his hart, regarding God alone is to be vnderstood this repayment, to wit, that he so shall receaue his reward from his Father who seeth him in secret. Of satisfaction for our syns past, it is e­uident by the practise of the Church, in which when any satisfaction is imposed, with almes & fasting is conioyned pray­er, yea oftentymes almes and fasting are not enioyned, but prayer is neuer omit­ted; lastly that it is impetratory, or of [Page 61] force to obteyn vs many great blessings & benefits, S. Iohn Chrysostome doth excellen­ly declare in two books which he wrote of this subiect, in which he vseth the si­militude of our hands: for as a man is borne weake, naked, and needy of all thinges, and yet cannot complaine of his Creatour, because he hath giuē him hāds, which are the instrument of instru­ments, by which a man may prouide for himselfe meat, clothes, a howse, armour and what else soeuer; so a spirituall man can do nothing without the help of God, but he hath the vertue of prayer, the in­strument of all spirituall instruments, by which he may obteyne whatsoeuer he shall want, or be in need of.

Besides these three principall fruites, there are very many other: for first prayer doth illuminate or lighten our mynd; for it cannot otherwise be, but that he who fixeth fast the eyes of his mynd on God who is all light, but that he be lightened, accedite ad eum (sayth Dauid) & illuminamini: Psal. 33. come you vnto him and be lightned. A­gaine prayer doth nourish our hope and confidence, for by how much the more often we speake vnto one, by so much the [Page 62] more confidently do we confidently com [...] vnto him: thirdly it enflameth our charity and maketh our mynd more capabl [...] to receaue greater gifts as S. Augustine dot [...] affirme: Lib. 2. de serm dom. in monte cap. 7. fourthly it increaseth humilit [...] and chast feare, for he who commeth t [...] pray, perceaues himselfe to be a beggar o [...] God, and therefore is wont with all hu­mility to appeare in his sight, and most diligētly to take heed least he offend him whose help in all thinges he doth want. Fifthly prayer engenders in the mynde of the maker the contempt of all tempo­rall things, for it cannot possibly be, bu [...] that all earthly thinges must seeme base and filthy vnto him, who daily contem­plateth those things which are heauenly and euerlasting: Cap. 1. & 10. see S. Augustine in the 9. booke of his Confessions. Sixthly it be­getteth incredible delight, when as by the same a man beginneth to tast how sweet our Lord is, which sweetnes how great it is, from hence we may gather, that we haue knowne many not only to haue bestowed the whole night, but to haue ioyned whole dayes with whole nights without any difficulty in prayer. To conclude, besids the profit & pleasure, [Page 63] prayer yeldeth great dignity and honour to the maker; for the Angells themselues honour that soule which they see so fa­miliarly, and so often to be admitted to the speach of his diuin Maiesty. See S. Iohn Chrysostome in his first booke of prayer.

It remayneth that we say somewhat of the māner how to pray well, in which this art of liuing Well doth chiefly con­sist, and consequently also of dying Well, for that our Lord sayd, Aske, and ye shall receaue: and euery one who asketh doth receaue, which S. Iames in his Epistle declared to be vnderstood with this condition, If we aske well: You aske (sayth he) and do not receaue because you aske ill: out of which rule we may thus discourse, he who asketh well the gift of good life, shall certeinly re­ceaue it, and he who asketh well for the perseuerance of the same vntill death shal doubtles receaue it. Let vs briefly expli­cate the conditions of good prayer, that we may learne to pray well, to liue well, to dye well.

The first thinge required is Fayth, as witnesseth S. Paul saying; How shall they call vpon him in whome they haue not belieued? With whome accordeth Saint [Page 64] Iames: Let him aske in faith without w [...] uering: Rom. 10. but this necessity of faith is no [...] so to be taken as though is were necessary for vs certeinly to belieue that Go [...] will do those things that we desire, Iacob. 1. for [...] should our faith be very often found fal [...] and consequently we should obteyne nothing; we are therefore to belieue tha [...] God is most potent, most wise, mos [...] good, most faithfull, and for that caus [...] to be able, to know, and to be ready t [...] doe that which we desire, in case he thinke it fit for himselfe to bestow it, o [...] expedient for vs to receaue it. Matth. 9. This fait [...] did Christ require of the two blynd men who desired to be cured; Do ye belieue that [...] am able to do (this cure) for you? With the same faith did Dauid pray for his Childe that was sick; for that he did not belieue certainly that God would do it, yet belieued he vndoubtedly that God could do it, as these his words do demonstrate: VVh [...] can tell whether our Lord perhaps may not bestow him vpon me? 1. Reg. 12. and no doubt but S. Paul pray­ed with the same faith, that the sting of flesh might be taken from him, for he prayed out of faith, and his fayth had beene falfe, if he had certainly belieued [Page 65] that God would haue graunted him that thinge which then he demanded, for at that tyme he obteyned it not; neyther doth the Church pray with any other fayth, when she prayeth that all heretikes Pagans, Scismatickes, and ill liuers may be conuerted and doe pennance, and yet it is certayne that all will not be conuer­ted: Lib. 1. c. 4. of which matter read S. Prosper in his booke of the calling the Gentills.

Another condition of a good pray­er and that very necessary is hope or confi­dence, for albeit we must not determyne absolutely by faith (which is a worke of our vnderstanding) that God will doe what we desire him, yet must we by hope and confidence (which is an action of our will) stedfastly adhere vnto his diuine goodnes, and certainly confide that he will graunt vs those thinges which we aske him: this condition did our Sauiour require in him who was sicke of the pal­sey, vnto whome he sayd: Confide fili &c. Haue confidence my sonne, Matth. 9. thy synnes are for­giuen thee: and the same doth the Apostle require of all men when he sayth: Heb. 4. Let vs come with confidence to the throne of his grace, that we may obteyne mercy: and long [Page 66] before him the Psalmist maketh God [...] say: Psal. 90. Because he hath hoped in me I wil deliuer hi [...] & because this confidence springeth fro [...] perfect faith, therefore the Scripture w [...] in great matters it requireth faith, a [...] deth commonly something apperteyni [...] vnto confidence, and so we read in Sa [...] Marke: whosoeuer shall say vnto this mountayne thou taken hence and cast into the sea, Mar. 11. and shall wauer in his hart, but shall belieue that whats [...] ­uer he sayth may be done, it shall be done vnto hi [...] of which fayth begetting confidence, to be vnderstood that of the Apostle: 1. Cor. 13. I [...] had so great faith as that I were able to remo [...] mountaynes. For which cause Cassian in h [...] Collation or Conference of prayer wr [...] teth, Colla. 9. cap. 52. that it is a certein signe of obteyni [...] that we wold haue, if any one in his pra [...] er do certainly cōfide that he shal recea [...] the thinge he asketh for, & doth no w [...] stagger, but fyndeth in the same, himse [...] much moued with spirituall comfort.

The third condition of prayer charity or iustice by which we are iustifyed from our synnes, for none are sure to obteyne the graces and blessings of God but they who are his friendes; for so sait [...] Dauid in his psalmes, They eyes of our Lord ar [...] [Page 67] ouer the iust, Psal. 33. Psal. 65 [...]. and his eares are (attent) vnto their prayers: & in another place, If I haue looked vpon iniquity in my hart, our Lord will not heare me: Ioan. 15. and in the new testament Christ doth say: If you shall abide in me and my wordes (that is my commaundements) remayne in you, you shall aske whatsoeuer you to wil and it shall be done for you. And the beloued disciple: 1. Ioan. 3. If our hart reprehend vs not, we haue confidence in God, and whatsoeuer we shall aske, we shall receaue, because we keep his commaundements, and doe those things which are pleasing before him. Neyther doth it contradict this doctrine that the publi­can crauing pardon of God for his sinnes returned iustifyed; for this remission a penitent synner doth obteyne, not as he is a synner, but as he is penitent, for as he is a synner he is the enemy of God, but as he is penitent he entreth into his friend­ship. He who synneth doth that which displeaseth God, whome it grieueth to haue offended, and doth that which is most pleasing vnto him.

The fourth condition is humility, whereby he that doth pray relyeth not on his owne righteousnes, Isay 66. but on Gods mercy. VVhome shall I regarde (sayth God) but the poore & cōtrite in spirit, & him that reue­renceth [Page 68] my wordes? Eccles. 35. And Ecclesiasticus addeth: The prayer of him who humbleth himselfe shall pierce the clowdes, and it shall not depart vntill the highest do behold it.

The fifth condition is deuotion, which causeth him that doth pray, not to pray negligently as many vse to do, but atten­tiuely, carefully, diligently, and feruen­tly. Matt. 15. Our Lord doth grieuously checke such who do pray only with their lipps, This people honoureth me with their lipps but their hart is farre from me; this deuotion we speak of ariseth from a liuely faith, and such as is not only in habit but in act also and o­peration; for he who attentiuely and with firme faith doth ponder, how great the maiesty of God is, how great our profit how great the thing which we aske, i [...] cannot otherwise be, but that he wil [...] come to his prayers with deep humility reuerence, deuotion, and fauour.

It will not be amisse heere to se [...] downe two notable testimonyes of the holy Fathers. S. Hierome in his dialogue against the Luciferians: Ad orationem assisto &c. I stand at my prayer; I would not pray vnlesse I did belieue. But in case I did truly belieue, I would make cleane [Page 69] that hart with which God is seene, I would knocke my brest with my hands, I would water my cheeks with teares, I would tremble in body, wax pale in vi­sage, I would lye prostrate at my Lordes feet, and with weeping bedew them, I would wype them with my haire, I would sticke fast to the crosse & would hot thence till I had obteyned mercy; but now very often in my prayer I walke through the galleryes, or cast vp the ac­counts of vsury; or caried away with a filthy thought do thinke on those things, which cannot without shame be spoken. Where is our faith? Do we think that Ionas prayed thus? That thus the three childrē? That thus Daniel amongst the lyons? Or that thus the thiefe on the crosse? So he. And S. Bernard in his sermon of the foure wayes of praying sayth: Omnino nos opor [...]et &c. It is altogeather necessary that in [...]he tyme of prayer we do enter into the court of Heauen, that Court truly in which the King of Kings sitteth in his throne of starres, compassed about with an innu­merable and vnspeakable army of Blessed spiritts: with how great reuerence then, with how great feare, with how great [Page 70] humility ought a base little frog, going forth and creeping out of his puddle ap­peare in that place? How trembling, how suppliant, how humble and solicitous, & how with all his mynd attentiue ough [...] a poore wretched man to stand before the maiesty of glory, in the presence of An­gells, in the Councell and congregation of the iust? Truly in all our actions there is great need of watch and vigilancy, bu [...] especially in our prayers.

The sixth condition is perseuerance, which our Lord in two Parables hat [...] commended vnto vs in S. Luke; Luc. 11. the first i [...] of him who went at midnight to his friend and requested that he would lend him three loaues, Luc. 18. who although he were often reiected because it was at an vnsea­sonable tyme, yet perseuering in his de­maund, he got what he desired; the s [...] cond is of the widdow that called vpo [...] the Iudge that he would deliuer her from her enemy; which Iudge although he were a very bad man, and neyther feared God or respected man, yet ouercom [...] with the perseuerance and importunity of the woman, deliuered her from he [...] aduersary; out of which our Saui­our [Page 71] maketh this collection, that much more are we to perseuere in prayers vnto God, who is both iust and merciful, Iacob. 1. & as Saint Iames doth adde, giueth vnto all men a­bundantly and vpbraideth not; That is, he gi­ueth liberally to all such as aske his gifts and neuer vpbraideth their importunity in that they are too troublesome vnto him in as­king, for God is without measure rich, without measure mercifull. S. Augustine hereunto doth add in the explication of the last verse of the sixt Psalme on those wordes, Blessed be God who hath not remoued my prayer and his mercy from me, sayth: If thou shalt perceaue that thy prayer is not remoued, be secure, because his mercy is not remoued from thee.

CHAP. VIII. Of the eight precept of the Art of dying well, which is of fasting.

IT followeth that briefly now we speake of fasting according to the me­thod obserued by the Angell, and omit­ting many things which Deuines dis­pute of in this matter, we will only bring that which maketh to the matter in hand. [Page 72] Our purpose is only so far forth to touc [...] the art of liuing well, as it maketh wa [...] to the other art of wel dying, & to this ar [...] these three things may seeme to suffic [...] which we haue spoken of prayer; the n [...] cessity of fasting doth depend vpon a tw [...] fold law, Diuine and Humane: of th [...] Diuine, Ioel. 1. Ioel is witnes, who in the perso [...] of God sayth: Be you conuerted vnto me with [...] your hart in fasting, weeping, and mourning; [...] the same we haue from Ionas the Prophet who testifyeth, the Niniuites, to the en [...] they might please God, to haue preache [...] fasting, and sack-cloth; and yet at th [...] tyme there was not any set law for f [...] sting: Matth. 6. and the same is gathered out of t [...] wordes of our Sauiour in S. Mathew: [...] thou doest fast annoint thy head that thou mayst seeme vnto men to be fasting, but to thy Father [...] seeth thee in secret, and thy Father who seeth th [...] in secret, will reward thee.

Let vs alleadge one or two of th [...] Fathers in this behalfe. S. Augustine thus speaketh in his Epistle to Casulanus: I sear­ching into this matter do see that fasting is commaunded in the Euangelicall and Apostolicall writte, and in the whole book which is called the new Testament, [Page 73] but on what dayes we ought not to fast, or on which we ought, I fynde not ey­ther by the commaundement of our Lord or his Apostles to be determined. So he. And Saint Leo in his sermon of the fast of the tenth moneth: Serm. 4. Illa quae rerum futurarum figuras gerebant &c. Those thinges which prefigured thinges to come, are at an end when the things which they did prefigu­re are accomplished, but the grace of the new Testament hath not taken away the vtility of fasting, but with religious ob­seruāce hath imbraced abstinence as pro­fitable vnto the body and soule, for as that still continueth in Christian know­ledge, Dominum Deum tuum adorabis, & illi soli seruies, thou shalt adore the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serue, and other the like commaundements; so like­wise what is commanded in the same bookes of the sanctifying of fasts, is not shifted of by any glosse. So S. Leo, whose meaning is not that Christians are to fast the same tyme that the Iewes did, but the commandement of fasting deliuered to the Iewes is to be obserued of Christi­ans according to the appointmēt of those who gouerne the Church, as farre forth [Page 74] as concerneth the tyme & manner; whic [...] determination is better knowne vnto al, then that it needeth my declaration: and so much for the necessity of fasting.

As for the fruites & vtilityes of fasting these we shall easily declare: and first of all fasting is most profitabl [...] to prepare our soule to prayer, and to the contemplation of cele­stiall things, as the Angell Raphael insinua­ted when he sayd, prayer is good with fasting thus did Moyses by fasting forty dayes pre­pare his soule, before he durst aduentur [...] to come to the speach of Almighty God: so did Elias fast forty dayes that he migh [...] in such maner as he could, talke with Go [...] in the mount Horeb: so Daniel by thre [...] weeks fast was prepared and made fit to receaue the reuelations of God: so th [...] Church hath appointed fasts on the eue [...] of the chiefe feasts, that the Christian may be the better disposed to attend [...] heauenly things: and auncient Fathers do in many places expresse this vtility of fasting; let the Reader see Saint Athanasius in his booke of virginity, Saint Basil in his first and second oration of fasting, Saint Ambrose in his booke of Elias and fasting, Saint Bernard in his sermon on the eue of [Page 75] Saint Andrew; but the wordes of S. Iohn Chrysostome because they are few and ex­cellent I will not omit to recite: Fasting (fayth see) is the food of the soule, and maketh it light fethers that it may be carryed aloft, and con­template most high and supreme things.

Another vtility of fasting is to tame the flesh, and for this respect it greatly plea­seth God that we crucify our flesh with the vices and concupiscences thereof, as the Apostle teacheth in his Epistle to the Galathians, who also for this cause sayd, Galat. 5. I chastise my body and bringe it into subiection, 1. Cor. 9. least whiles I shall preache to others I become reprobate my selfe. For so Saint Chrysostome & Theophi­lact in their commentaryes expound these wordes of fasting, as also Saint Ambrose in his Epistle to the Church of Versells. This vtility also doe the Fathers extoll: Saint Cyprian in his sermon of fasting, and Saint Basil in his oration of the same, S. Chryso­stome in his first homily on Genesis, Saint Hierome in his Epistle to Eustochium of the keeping of virginity, Saint Augustine in his first booke of Confessions the 21. chapter, and the whole Church in the of­fice of the first houre out of the hymne of Saint Ambrose doth sing, carnis terat superbi­am [Page 76] potus cibiue parcitas, Let the parsimony of meat & drink tame the prid of the flesh.

The third vtility is to worship God, for God esteemeth it as honour done vn [...] him when we fast, for so sayth the A­postle in his Epistle to the Romans: 1. Rom. 12. Obsec [...] vos &c. I beseech you that you yield you [...] bodyes a liuing sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, your reasonable seruice, for whic [...] in the Greek it is [...], Luc. 1. which [...] reasonable worship; and of this worshi [...] S. Luke speaketh when he sayth of An [...] the widow, Shee did not depart from the Tē [...] seruing God day and night in fasting and prayer [...] and the great Councell of Nice in the fif [...] canon calleth the fast of Lent a cleane a [...] solēne gift that is offered of the Chur [...] vnto God: and Tertullian speaketh after t [...] same manner in his booke of the resurrec [...] on of the flesh, where he calleth stale & d [...] meates acceptable sacrifices vnto God: & Saint Leo in his second sermon on the fa [...] of the 10. moneth, sayth: For the full rece [...] of all the fruites of the earth the sacrifice of absti­nence is most worthily offered to God, the bestowe [...] of them. Last of all, Saint Gregory in his 16. homily writeth, that by the fast of Lent, are offered vnto God the tythes and first [Page 77] fruites of our life.

The fourth vtility is satisfaction of our synnes, and this first of all doe the ex­amples of holy Scriptur demonstrate: Ioan. 3. the Niniuites as Ionas writeth pacified God by fasting; 1. Reg. 7. the same did the Iewes who fa­sting with Samuel asswaged Gods wrath, and got the victory ouer their enemyes: Achab a wicked King by fasting and hair­cloth in part mitigated Gods displeasure against him, Iudith. 4. Hester. 4. the Iewes in the tyme of Iu­dith and Hester by no other sacrifice then by fasting, weeping, & mourning found mercy with God: this doctrine haue the ancient Fathers alwayes taught. Tertullian in his book of fasting sayth: As first of all the vse of meat did destroy vs, so let fasting make satis­faction vnto God. S. Cyprian: Serm. de lapsis. Orat. 1. de leiunio. Hom. 1. in Genes. Lib. de E­lia & ieiu­nio. Com. ad 3. cap. Ionae. Let vs appease the wrath & offēce of God as himself warneth vs with fasting is fruitelesse and vayne: by fasting do thou satisfy God. S. Iohn Chrysostome: God as an in­dulgent Father hath sound out this cure which is affected by fasting. Saint Ambrose: Fasting is the death of synne, the destruction of vices, the remedy of saluation. Saint Hierome: Haircloth and fa­sting are the armour of penitents, the helpes of syn­ners. Saint Augustine: Let no man fast for hu­mane [Page 78] prayse, Serm. 60. de tempor. but let him fast to obteyne pardon [...] his synnes. Saint Leo affirmed God to be pacifyed with the sacrifice of fasting: & la [...] of all Saint Bernard: Leo. serm. 4. dé ieiun. 7. mensis Bern. serm. 66. in Cant. I sometymes do make a [...] stinence, but my abstinence is a satisfaction for [...] synnes, not a superstition for impiety.

Finally, the fifth vtility of fastin [...] is, that it is meritorious, and very much auaileable to obteyne benefits from God Anne the wife of Elcana being barren, by f [...] sting obteyned a sonne, for so doth Sain [...] Hierome in his second booke against Io [...] nian interpret these wordes of the Scrip­ture: 1. Reg. 1. Porrò illa stebat, & non capiebat cibu [...] But she wept and tooke no meate, Anna, (saith this Father) inanem cibo ventrem, f [...] lio meruit implere: Anne merited to fill h [...] belly empty from meate with a Sonn [...] Sara by three dayes fasting is deliuer [...] from the Deuil, as is recorded in the boo [...] of Toby. Tob. 3. And there is a notable place f [...] the merit of fasting in the Gospell: fo [...] thus speaketh our Sauiour, Matth. 6. Tu autem cù [...] ieiunas &c. Bu [...] when thou doest fast an­noynt thy head and wash thy face that thou mayst not seeme to men to fast, and thy Father which seeth thee in secret will repay thee. Where the wordes will repay, si­gnify [Page 79] that he wil pay them their reward, for they are opposed to those other, They disfigure their faces, that they may appeare vnto men to fast; Amē I say vnto you they haue receaued their reward. So as the hypocrites receaue the reward of their fasting, to wit the prayse and applause of men: and the iust also re­ceaue their reward giuen them (not by the tongues of the people) but by the handes of God: neyther doe there want most euident testimonyes of the ancient Saints. S. Iohn the Euangelist being to write his Ghospel, appointed solemne fa­sting that he might obteyne the grace of writing well, as Saint Hierome auoucheth in the preface of his commentaries on S. Matthew, and out of him Venerable Bede on the first of Saint Iohn: and Tertullian insinu­ateth the same in his booke of fasting: Fa­stings do merit of God euen the knowledge of my­steryes; New mai­sters. Saint Ambrose in his Epistle to the Church of Versells sayth: VVho be these new maisters that will haue no merit to be in fasting? S. Athanasius; Whosoeuer is vexed with an vncleane spirit, Ath. lib. d [...] ieiunio. Bas. or. 1. de ieunio. must be fully perswaded these wicked sprits tormented with fa­sting to leaue their hold, as fearing the force thereof. Saint Basil: Fasting is profitable [Page 80] both for the eschewing the miseries of this world, & also for the atteyning of the things that be good. S▪ Gregory Nazianzen explicating with wha [...] weapons a certayne holy virgin repelle [...] the Diuell from her, sayth, that she opposed against him the remedy of fastin [...] and lying on the bare ground. Chry. serm. 1. de ieiun. Saint Ioh [...] Chrysostome sayth: Fast, because thou hat [...] synned, fast that thou mayst not sinne, fa [...] that thou receaue (spiritual blessings,) fa [...] that those thinges which thou hast receaued may not be lost. Saint Hierome in hi [...] booke against Iouinian doth of set purpose dispute and proue the merit of fasting. S. Augustine sayth: serm. 62. Fasting is eyther a remedy or [...] reward, that is, eyther is procureth vs pardon o [...] our synnes, or the reward of the Kingdome of he [...] uen. Last of all, Saint Leo: By the humility of fasting we doe merit Gods assistanc [...] agaynst all our enemyes. Ser. 1. de ieiunio 7. mensis.

We haue then the necessity & fruit of fasting: there remayneth only the man­ner, that we also briefly shew how we are to fast, that our fasting may auayle vs to good life, & thereby also to dye wel. Ma­ny there be that doe fast on all the dayes appointed by the Church, to wit, on eues, on ember dayes, and in Lent, and there are [Page 81] some who also voluntatily fast in Aduent, [...]reby deuoutly to prepare themselues [...] celebrate the fast of our Sauiours nati­uity; some on euery friday for the memo­ [...] of his passion; and some on the satur­day in the honour of the Blessed Virgin [...]nd mother of God: but whether they do [...] fast as that they reape the fruites of fa­sting may well be doubted. The first and principall fruite of fasting is mortificati­on of the flesh, that our spirit may becom more stronge: and to attayne this end it is necessary that we feed on sparing and course diet: and truly our mother the Church insinuateth this when she com­mandeth vs to eat not twice but one in the day, and to eat not flesh and white meate but hearbes, pease, beames, fish and the like: this Tertullian explicateth in two words when he calleth lenten fare, ser as & aridas escas, stale and dry meates; Lib. de res. Carnis. ce [...]teinly they do not obserue this, who when they do fast eate as much at one dinner as in other dayes they do at din­ner and supper togeather; and who in that dinner dresse so many dishes of all sortes of fish and other meates as they seeme not to prepare a dynner for mourners and pe­nitents, [Page 82] but a marriage supper that [...] last for a great part of the night, such [...] so fast without question reape not [...] fruites of fasting.

Neyther in like manner attayne th [...] this fruit who though they feed not [...] daintily but much more moderately, y [...] on the fasting dayes do no more refra [...] from plaies and sportes, from brawlin [...] & wranglings, from wanton songs & [...] cētious mirth, & that which is more g [...] uous, from synnes & naughtines: then [...] pon other dayes which are not faste [...] heare what the Prophet Isaias sayth [...] such fasters: Isay 58. Behold in the day of your fast y [...] selfe-will is found, and you call all your debters to [...] count; behold you fast to make debates and wr [...] lings and wickedly strike with your fist; fast no [...] you haue done hitherto, that your cry may be he [...] on high. This kinde of fasting did Go [...] mislike in the Iewes, because in the f [...] sting dayes which are dayes of pennan [...] they would follow their owne wills a [...] not the will of God, and that they wou [...] not only not forgiue their poore deb­tours, as they desired to be forgiuen o [...] God, but that they would not so much a [...] graunt them any respit in the payment; [Page 83] againe for that the tyme which those who truly fast ought to haue bestowed on prayers vnto God, they bestowed in prophane wrangling and contention: & last of all that not only as was requisite in fasting dayes did not attēd vnto spirituall matters, but adding syn to sinne, they did wickedly beate their neighbours & abuse them. Vertuous men must beware and a­uoyd these and the like offences, if they desire indeed to haue their fasting grate­full vnto God, and profitable vnto them­selues that f [...]om thence they may be able to hope for a good life & a pretious death. There remayneth of the three workes Almes which the Angell Raphael praysed, & proposed vnto all to imitate.

CHAP. IX. Of the ninth precept of the Art of dying well, which is of Almesdeeds.

OF Almesdeeds three things briefly are to be explicated as in the former, the necessity, fruite, and manner. That there is a precept of giuing almes no man hath e­uer [Page 84] doubted of, for in case we had no [...] ther testimony, the sentence of the [...] iust & supreame Iudge might abund [...] ly suffice, who in the last iudgement [...] say vnto the wicked: Matt. 25. Discedite à me [...] ledicti in ignem aeternum &c. Depart from ye accursed into euerlasting fire whic [...] prepared for the Diuell and his Ange [...] for I was hungry and you gaue me n [...] eate, I was thirsty and you gaue me [...] drinke, I was a stranger and you en [...] teyned me not, I was naked and you [...] not cloth me, I was sicke and in pris [...] you did not visit me. And a little aft [...] added: As long as you did it not to one of [...] lesser ones, you did it not vnto me. Our of wh [...] we do gather that none are bound to g [...] almes but such as are able, for our L [...] himselfe is not recorded to haue giue [...] [...] ny, but only to haue commaunded [...] part of the money that was giuen h [...] [...] be bestowed on the poore, as may appear out of that place of the Ghospell, wh [...] when our Lord had sayd vnto Iudas: Q [...] facis fac citiùs: That which thou doest d [...] quickly, the Apostles did thinke that [...] had commaunded him out of the pu [...] which he did beare, to giue somewha [...] the poore.

But the deuines will haue this precept [...] conteyned in that commandement: not a parentes, honour thy parents; others that, non occides, thou shalt not kill; but it not necessary that this precept be con­ [...]yned in the ten commandments. When [...] almes belongeth vnto charity, and the [...]ommandements of both tables vnto iu­ [...]ice; but if all morall precepts be to be [...]educed to the ten commandements, the [...]pinon of Albertus the Great is probable, [...]ho will haue this commaundement of [...]iuing almes to belonge vnto that non fu­ [...]aheris, thou shalt not steale, for it is a kind [...]f theft, not to giue that vnto the poore which we owe vnto them; but more pro­ [...]able is the opinion of Saint Thomas of A­ [...]uin who assigneth it to the first comman­dement of the second table Honora parentes, honour thy parents, for by the honour of our parents in this place, is not vnder­stood only a reuerentiall honour or duti­full respect, but also the prouision of all necessaryes for their life and sustenance, which is a certeyne almes which special­ [...]y we do owe to our principall neigh­ [...]ours, as Saint Hierome saith, In com. ad 15. Matth. of which we [...]nfere that this almes is due also vnto [Page 86] other neighbours that are in want; m [...] ouer for that the precept of giuing a [...] is not negatiue but affirmatiue: bu [...] [...] mongst all the commandements of th [...] [...] cond table there is none affirmatiue [...] only the first. Honour thy parents; but to [...] pute more of this matter stādeth not [...] my purpose in this place, & this may [...] fice for the necessity of almes.

Now for the fruite of this v [...] that is most copious and abundant, [...] first is that Almes deliuer a man from e [...] [...] sting death, whether this be done by w [...] satisfaction, or by way of disposition [...] to grace, or by any other way; this [...] haue cleerly in the Scriptures, Tob. 12. in Toby [...] reade: Almes doth deliuer a man from all [...] and from death, and permitteth not a soule to g [...] to darkenes; And in the same booke the [...] gell Raphael sayth in expresse wordes. [...] deliuereth from death, and it is almes whic [...] [...] geth synnes, and makes a man fynde mercy [...] uerlasting life; Dan. 4. and Daniel vnto King N [...] chodonsor sayth: VVherefore O King follo [...] counsaile, and redeeme thy synnes with almes, thy iniquities with the mercyes of the poore.

Againe almes if it be done by a [...] man & out of true charity, hath the [...] [Page 87] of euerlasting life, of the truth whereof Christ himselfe wilbe wittnes when be­ing Iudge of the liuing and dead he shall say in the last day: Come ye blessed of my Father, Matt. 25. receaue a Kingdome which is prepared for you from the beginning of the world, for I was hungry and you gaue me to eate. And afterwards, That which you haue done to one of my least brethren you haue done to me.

Thirdly almes hath the effect of a cer­tayne Baptisme, to wit of cleansing sinne, as wel the fault as the punishmēt, Ecclesiasticus telling vs: As water quencheth fire, so doth almes extinguish sinne; And water doth so qu nch the fire as it leaueth not so much as any smoke, and this also is the doctrine of the ancient Fathers: so S. Cyprian, Saint Ambrose Saint Chrysostome, and Saint Leo do teach. S. Cyprian in his sermon of almes thus wri­teth; As the fier of hell is quenched with the lauer of healthfull water, so with almes and good workes is allayed the flame of our faults: Saint Ambrose: Serm. 31. Almes in a certayne manner is an other lauer of our soules, as our Lord sayth, Giue almes and all thinges are cleane vnto you: and without preiudice of fayth be it spoken, almes is more indulgent or remissiue then the lauer, for the lauer is giuen but once, and [Page 88] once also it doth pardon, but as often as thou giuest almes so often doest thou merit pardon. Saint Io [...] Chrysostome: There is no synne that almes canno [...] mak cleane, Hom. 25. in Act A­post. Leo. serm. 5. de Coll. or that it cannot quite blot out. Saint Leo: Almesdeeds do blot out syns, do kill death, an [...] take away the punishment of euerlasting fire. And this is a great prerogatiue of this vertue & ought to stirre vp all men to the loue the­reof. But this is not to be vnderstood of all almes whatsoeuer, but of that alone which proceedeth in vs from great con­trition, and great feruour of charity: such was the almes of Saint Mary Magdalen, who out of the teares of her contrition bathed our Sauiours feet, and annoynted the same with the almes of a most preti­ous oyntment.

Fourthly, almes do increase our confi­dence to God, and engender a spirituall ioy or comfort in vs: and although that this be common to all vertues, yet in speciall manner it apperteyneth vnto this, wher­by in one action we performe a double duty, and that very gratefull both to God and our neighbour, & is a worke which not by signes or deductions, but of his owne nature is most euidently descerned to be good. Tob. 4. Hence is it, that Toby sayd, [Page 89] almes will yeild great confidence before the suprem or soueraigne God vnto all such as giue it: Heb [...]. 10. And that o [...] the Apostle, You haue had compassion on the imprisoned, do not therefore leese your confi­dence. And to conclude, Saint Cyprian in his sermon of almesdeeds, calleth it, the comfort of the faithfull.

Fifthly, almes getteth the loue and good will of m [...]ny who doe pray vnto God for their benefactours, and obteyne of God for them eyther the grace of their conuersion, or the gift of perseuerance, or the increase of grace and glory; for all these wayes may that saying of our Sauiour be vnderstood, Make your selues frendes of the mammon of iniqui­ty, that when ye shall fayle, Luc. 16. they may receaue you into their euerlasting tabernacles.

Sixthly, almes is a disposition vnto our iustifying grace, of which fruit Salomon spea­keth in the prouerbes when he sayth: Syns are cleansed by almes and faith: Prouer. 15. and Christ ha­uing heard of the liberality of Zachaeus say­ing, Behold I giue halfe of my goods vnto the poore, & if I haue defrauded any man, I render him foure tymes as much; he sayd vnto him: To day sal­uation is brought to this house. And in the Acts of the Apostles it is recorded of Cornelius not yet a Christian, who was a bountiful [Page 90] bestower of almes: Act. 10. Thy almesdeeds haue ascen­ded into the remembrance in the sight of God: o [...] of which place Saint Augustine prouet [...] Cornelius by his almes to haue obteyned o [...] Almighty God the grace of Christiā faith and perfect iustification. Lib. 1 de praedestin. Sanctor. cap. 7.

Last of all almesdeeds are oftentimes the cause that our temporall store doth increase, and is augmented: which Salomon doth approue when he sayth: he taketh vsury of our Lord who hath compassion of the poore: and againe: he who giueth to the poore shall neuer wa [...]; which our Sauiour confirmed by his owne example, when he commanded his Disciples to distribute fiue loaues and two fishes, Prouerb. 19. Prouerb. 26. which was al he then had, amongst the multitude, and so handled the mat­ter as they gathered vp twelue baskett [...] full of the leauings of the bread and fishe [...] which sufficed his Disciples for many dayes after; Tobias who imparted so libe­rally his goods to the poore, got in short tyme great wealth: the widdow of Sareph­ta who bestowed a little meale and oyle on the Prophet Elias, receaued that bles­sing at Gods hand that herselfe neuer wā ­ted for for a long tyme eyther meale or oyle: there are many and most worthy [Page 91] examples in this kinde extant in the fifth booke of the history of France written by Saint Gregory of Towers; Cap. 105. & 201. in Leontius in the life of S. Iohn the Almenor; and Sophronius in prato spiritualli, and the same auerreth Saint Cyprian in his sermon of fasting & almes, and Saint Basil in an oration he made vn­to rich men, in which by an excellent si­militude he compareth riches vnto well-water, out of which if much be drawne there do spring continually more abun­dant and better waters, if they be let to to stand still, they decrease and corrupt: rich men as they wil not willingly heare these matters, so will they scarce belieue them: but after this life they shall know it to be so, and belieue it to be true, when their knowing, and belieuing shall steed them nothing.

Let vs now speake of the manner of bestowing Almes for that is necessary more then any other thing, that we may vertuously liue & dye most happily. First it is necessary that we giue almes with a most sincere intention of pleasing God, and not for seeking of popular prayse: this doth Christ teach vs when sayth: VVhen thou doest giue almes, do not sound the trumpet, and let [Page 92] not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth, Matth. 6. Saint Augustine explicateth this place in his commentary on the Epistle of Saint Iohn, where by the left hand he vnderstandeth the intention of giuing almes for tempo­rall honour, [...]ract. 6. or whatsoeuer commodity: by the right hand he wil haue to be signi­fyed the intention of giuing almes in res­pect of euerlasting life, of the glory of God, and charity towardes our neigh­bour.

Againe, our almes is to be giuen rea­dily, and with facility, that it may not seeme to be wrunge out by intreaty, nor delaied from day to day when it may pre­sētly be dispatched. Say not (saith the wise­man) go thy wayes and come againe, to morrow I will giue thee somwhat, when thou canst giue it pre­sently. Abraham the friend of God requested the passengers that they would come to his howse, and expected not to be intrea­ted by them; and his nephew Lot did doe the same: so neyther did Toby expect that the poore people should come vnto him, but he himselfe did seeke for them.

Thirdly, it is requisite that our almes be giuen cheerfully and not with grudging. [...]ap. 31. In euery thing (sayth Ecclesiasticus) thou giuest, [Page 93] shew a cheerfull countenance: and the Apostle, Not out of sadnes, or out of necessity, for our Lord doth loue cheerfull giuer.

Fourthly, it is necessary that our almes be giuen with humility in such manner, as the giuer may know himselfe to receaue more then he giueth, of which point thus writeth Saint Gregory: Lib. 21. Moral. ca. 14. multum ad e­domandum dantis superbiam valet &c. It hel­peth much to check the pride of the giuer of almes if when he bestoweth his earth­ly substance he do weigh well the words of the heauenly maister, Make you frinds of the mammon of iniquity, that when you shall faile they may receaue you into the euerlasting tabernacles; for if by the friendship of the poore we do gaine the eternall tabernacles, doubtlesse we who giue are to perswade our selues, that we do rather offer presents to our benefa­ctours, then bestow almes on the poore.

Fifthly, it behoueth that we giue a­bundantly according to the proportion or measure of our ability, for so did Toby that famous almes-giuer: As thou shalt be able, Tob. 4. so be thou pittifull to the poore, if thou haue much giue plentifully, if thou haue but little study how to giue [Page 94] that little willingly: and the Apostle teachet [...] vs that an almes is to be giuen as a bles­sing, Serm. 3. ad pop. Ant. not as couetousnes; and S. Chrysostome addeth: not to giue only but to giue abundantly i [...] to be called almes, and in the same Sermon he addeth that such as desire to be heard of God when they cry, Haue mercy on me o Lord God according to thy great mercy, must also haue mercy on the poore according to their great almes.

Last of all it is specially required that he who will be saued and dye well do di­ligently search out eyther by his owne reading and meditation, or by other de­uout & learned men whether a man may keepe superfluous riches without synne, or whether such be not of necessity to be giuen to the poore; & then further which are to be deemed superfluous riches, which necessary, for the case may so stād that meane riches to one be may superflu­ous, and great wealth to another may seeme necessary. And for that this small treatise cannot comport any prolixe dis­pute of scolastical questions, I wil briefly repeat certeyn passages of the holy Scrip­tu [...]es, and Fathers as well ancient as mo­derne, and so conclude this difficulty.

The places of the Scripture are the [Page 95] sixth of S. Mathew: You cannot serue God and mammon; the third of S. Luke: He who hath [...]wo coates let him giue to him that hath none; and [...]nd he that hath meate let him do the like: and in [...]he twelth of the same Ghospell it is sayd to a rich man, who so abounded in sub­stance as that he scant knew where to lay them: Tom. 7. ex. 50. Thou foole this very night they will take from thee thy soule: which wordes S. Augu­stine doth thus expound, that this rich mā was euerlastingly damned, because he re­teyned superfluous wealth.

The chiefest authorityes of the an­tient Father for this matter are these. S. Basil; And art not thou a theefe or robber, Basil. orat. ad diuites. who e­steemest that as thine owne which thou hast recea­ued only to dispense and giue away? And a little after: wherefore thou doest iniury to so many poore, as thou wert able to giue vnto. S. Ambrose; Ambr. ser. 81. VVhat iniustice is there, if I who take not other mens goods from thē do diligently keep myne owne? O impudent assertion! Doest thou call them thine owne? VVhich are they? And after: It is no lesse a cryme when thou art able and wealthy to deny almes to the poore, then to steale or take away from him that hath it. S. Hierome; Ep. ad He [...]. quest. 1. VVhatsoeuer thou hast more then is necessary for thy diet and apparell, that bestow (on the poore) and know that for so [Page 96] much thou art a debter. S. Chrysostome: D [...] thou possesse that which is thyne own? Chrysost. hom. 34. ad pop. Antioch. the goods of poore are committed to thy custody, whether t [...] possesse them out of thyne owne iust labour, or b [...] ne all descent of inheritance. Saint Augustin [...] The thinges that are superfluous to the rich, are [...] cessary to the poore, they who possesse more then t [...] want possesse more then is theirs. S. Leo: Ear [...] and corporall riches do come vnto vs from the boun [...] ty of God, Aug. trac. in psal. 147. and therefore worthily is he to exact [...] account of these thinges, which he hath no more c [...] mitted vnto vs to possesse, then to disburse or distri­bute. Leo. ser. 5. de Collect. S. Gregory: Such are to be warned who ney­ther desire other mens goods, nor bestow their own, that they attentiuely know that the earth of which we are all made is common vnto all, 3. p. Past. admonit. 22. and therfore in common yeldeth sustenance for all; and in vaine do they thinke themselues without fault who challenge as their owne that gift of God, Ber. ep ad Henric. Arch. Sen. which h [...] hath bestowed vpon all. S. Bernard: The poore cry out & say it is our goods that you wast, it is with cruelty taken from vs, which you so vainely spend. S. Thomas of Aquine: 22. Quae. 66. art. 7. Quast. 87. a [...]. 1. Distin. 15. The things which some haue more then they need is by the law of nature dew vnto the maintenance is the poore. And: Our Lord commaundeth not only the tyth or tenth part, but whatsoeuer is superfluous to be giuē to the poore. And vpon the fourth booke of Sentences he [Page 97] affirmeth this to be the common doctrin of all deuines. Heere if any will contend [...]hat these superfluous goods are not to be giuen vnto the poore out of the rigour of [...]he law, yet truly he cannot deny but [...]hat they are to be giuen them out of cha­rity, & it importeth little God wot, whe­ [...]her a man go to hel for want of iustice, or for want of charity.

CHAP. X. Of the tenth precept of dying well, which is of the Sacrament of Baptisme.

HAVING explicated the vertues which teach vs the art to liue well, we will adioyne somwhat out of the do­ctrine of the Sacraments which concurre no lesse then the former to the atteyning of this art. The Sacraments ordeyned by Christ are seauen, Baptisme, Confirmation, Eucharist, Pennance, Order, Matrimony, Ex­treme-vnction: all which are as it were di­uine instruments which God vseth by the ministery of his seruants to giue his people grace, to increase it, to re­store [Page 98] it. That being freed from the bon­dage of the Diuell, and adopted with th [...] honour of being the sonnes of God, the [...] may at length come to be partakers of e­uerlasting blessednes with the holy An­gells in heauen. Out of these Sacrament then, our purpose is briefly to shew who profiteth and who faileth in this art of good life, that so he may know how to hope for a happy death, and who on the contrary may looke for a miserable end, vnlesse he do the sooner change his life & behauiour.

Let vs beginne with the first Sa­crament. Baptisme Baptisme. in order and number of the Sacraments is the first, and is fittly called the gate or entrance of the Sacra­ments, for vnlesse baptisme go before, no man can be fit to receaue the other Sacra­ments: In the Sacrament of baptisme these rites or ceremonyes are obserued; first of all who is to be baptized must ey­ther by himselfe or his God-fathers make confession of the Catholike fayth, then he must renounce the Diuell, his Pompes, & workes, thirdly he is to be baptized in Christ, in which Baptisme he is transla­ted from the thraldome of the Diuell vn­to [Page 99] the grace of the children of God, and al his synnes being blotted quite out, he re­ceaueth the gifte of heauenly grace, by which he is now made the adopted son of God, the heir I say of God, and fellow heyre of Christ. Fourthly there is giuen him a white stole, & he is willed to preserue the same cleane & vnspotted vntill death; fifthly there is giuen him a burning candle which signifyes good workes, which whiles he liueth he must ioyne with the former purity signified by the white stole, for so sayth our Lord in the Ghospell, Let your light so shine before men as that they may see our good workes and glorify your Father which is in heauen.

These are the chiefest ceremonyes which the Church doth vse in the admi­nistration of this Sacrament; I omit the rest which apperteyne not vnto this matter: out of this euery man may con­ceaue whether he haue alwayes liued wel from the tyme he receaued his Baptisme vnto this present yeare of his age: I do ve­ry much doubt that there are very few to be foūd who haue performed these things which they haue promised to do, Matth. 20. Matth. 5. or truly which they were bound to do, For many are [Page 100] called, but few are chosen: and, narrow is the way that leadeth vnto life, and few there be that do fynd it out.

Let vs beginne with the Apostles Creed: how many countrey people, how many beggars, how many inferiour ar­tificers are there who eyther cannot say their Creed, or neuer learnt it, or know how to say the wordes, but vnderstand little or nothing at all of the sense? And yet they in Baptisme by their God-fathers & God-mothers answered vnto euery ar­ticle that they did belieue: and if Christ be to dwell in our harts by fayth as S. Paul doth testify, Ephes. 3. how shall he dwell in their harts who can scantly rehearse the words of their Creed, and haue nothing at all thereof in their harts? and if God by faith do purify our harts as Saint Peter the Apostle sayth, Actor. 15. how impure will their harts be, who haue not in their hatts re­ceaued the fayth of Christ, although in flesh they haue receaued his Baptisme? I speake of such as haue the vse of reason & not of infants, for infants by the habit of grace of fayth, hope, & charity are iustify­ed, but when they are growne in yeares, they ought to learn their Creed, & in hart [Page 101] belieue the Christian faith for righteous­nes, and confesse it in word for saluation: Rom 10. as the Apostle teacheth in the Epistle to [...]he Romans.

Let vs come to another rite. All Christians eyther by themselues or by the helpe of others who answere for them, being demaunded whether they renoūce the Diuell, his pompes, and workes, doe answere I renounce; but how many be there that in word renounce, but renounce not indeed? Or rather how few be there who with al their hart do not loue and follow the pomps and workes of the Diuell? And yet God seeth all and cannot be illuded: he then who desireth to liue and dye wel, let him enter into the closet of his hart, & and let him not deceaue himselfe, but se­riously and attentiuely thinke and thinke againe, whether he be delighted with the pompes of this world, or with the works of the Diuell, and whether in his hart, in his deeds, in his wordes, he haue giuen place vnto them; for so eyther a good conscience shall comfort him; or a bad conscience bring him to repentance.

In the third rite is layd open vnto vs a benefit of God so high, so deepe, so [Page 102] long, so lardge, that in case we bestowed whole dayes and nights in admiratio [...] thereof, and in yelding his diuine goodnes thankes for the same, we should do nothing in respect of the thing it selfe: good God, who can conceaue, who is not a­stonished, who doth not languish away and is not resolued into deuout teares, when he considers how a wretched man most iustly condemned vnto hell, soden­ly by vertue of this Baptisme of Christ t [...] passe from this most miserable thral­dome to the right and claime of a most happy and euer enduring King­dome?

And by how much this benefit is the greater, by so much is the vngratitud [...] of most men more detestable; for there are not a few who as soone as they arriue vn­to the vse of reason, returne this admi­rable benefit backe vpon God againe, and deliuer themselues vp for slaues to the di­uell; for what is it in the flower of our age to follow the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and pride if life, but to contract league and friendship with the Diuell, and in deeds and facts to deny Christ? They are rare [Page 103] to finde who preuented with the speciall grace of God doe diligently keepe this Baptismall grace, Thren. 3. and as Hieremy speaketh beginne to beare the yoke of our Lord ab adolescentia sua, from their youth: but vn­lesse we keepe well this grace, or by true pennance do againe renounce the di­uell and retourne to the seruice of Christ, and remayne therein vntill our death, it cannot be that we liue well, or be deliue­red from an euill death.

The fourth ceremoniall rite con­sisteth in this, that he who is baptized re­ceaueth a white stole, and is commaunded to beare the same vntill he come before the face of our Lord. By which as we said is signified innocēcy or purity of life obtey­ned by the grace of Baptisme, and dili­gently to be kept vntill the hower of our death: but who can expresse how many snares there be of the Diuell, the continu­all enemy of mankind, who lauours no­thing more then to defile this garment with all manner of spotts? And therefore very few are found who if they liue any while do auoyd this filth. Psal. 118. Truly holy Da­uid pronoūced them happy who remaine immaculate in the way (of this life) and [Page 104] walke in the law of our Lord: & by how much the difficulty is more great to wall in a durty and filthy way without spots so much more glorious is the conquest & Crowne of an innocent life. Wherefore all that desire to liue and dye well, ought by all means to keep this white garment of innocency, and if perchance it should happen to be spotted, that then againe & againe they make it white in the bloude of the Lambe, which is done by true cō ­trition and repentant teares. Holy Dauid after he had bewayled a longe tyme his synne, reposed at length in the hope of mercy, and yielding thankes vnto God confidently, sayd: Thou shalt sprinkle me with hissope and I shall be made cleane; thou shalt wash me and I shalbe made more white then snow.

The last rite is to receaue a lighted candle, and to beare it in our hands, which signifies nothing else, as I haue sayd, but our workes, which must accompany in­nocency of life: what these good workes are which must be done of the regenerate in Baptisme, 2. Tim. 4. the Apostle teacheth vs whē he saith: I haue fought a good cōbat, I haue ended my course, I haue kept my fayth; as for the rest there [Page 105] is layd vp for me a Crown of Iustice, with the Iust Iudge at that day will render me: in these few wordes are briefly set downe all the good workes which are to be done of the rege­nerate in Baptisme by Christ. For we must fight stoutly against the tentatiōs of the diuell, who, As a roaring Lion goeth about seeking whom he may deuoure. We must also ac­cōplish or end this course of good works in the obseruance of Gods commaunde­ments according to that of the psalme, I haue runne the way of thy commaundements when thou hast enlardged my hart. We must finally fulfill our promise to God in multiplying his tallents, in cultiuating his vineyard, in the baylifship committed vnto vs, or in the gouernement of his family impo­sed vpon vs, or in whatsoeuer other im­ployments committed to our charge: for albeit that it hath pleased the high wis­dome of God to admit his adopted chil­dren vnto the heauenly inheritance; yet that this might be effected with his and our greater glory, it hath pleased the same wisdome that we should merit the same heauenly inheritance, that is, euerlasting blessednesses, by our owne good workes, proceeding from his grace and our owne [Page 106] free will; therefore that most rich and most glorious inheritance shall not be gi­uen to such as sleepe, as loyter, as play, but vnto such as watch, as labour, as per­seuere vnto the end of their liues in good workes.

Now let euery man discusse his workes, let him diligently examine his life and manners, if he will liue and dye well, and if his conscience yield him te­stimony that he hath fought a good com­bat with vices, and concupiscences, and with all the tentations of the old serpent, and that he hath happily ended his course in all the commaundements and iustifica­tions of our Lord without complaint, & that he hath beene faithful to our Lord in all the charges or offices committed vn­to him, then let him securely reioyce and say with the Apostle, There is layed vp for me a crowne of Iustice, which our Lord the iust Iudge will giue me: If so be that our conscience e­xactly discussed do testify that in this cō ­flict with the enemy of mankind it hath been grieuously wounded, and that his fiery darts haue penetrated euen vnto the very soule, & that also not once but often: & further that it hath often fayled in the [Page 107] course of good workes; and that not on­ [...]y it hath not runne on cheerfully but [...]hrough faintnes to haue sit downe, yea [...]ayne along in the way; and finally if [...]n the thinges committed vnto it by God it hath not kept promise, but that eyther vayne glory, or acception of persons, or the like haue taken part of the gaine, let him recurre without delay to the Sacra­ment of pennance, and vnto God himselfe as his Phisitian, & let him not delay this businesse of all businesses the greatest, vn­till another tyme, because we neyther know the day, nor houre of our death.

CHAP. XI. Of the eleuenth Precept of dying well, which is of Confirmation.

AFTER the Sacrament of Baptisme followes the Sacrament of Confirma­tion, out of which we may draw a docu­ment of good life no lesse agreable to that we treate, then from Baptisme: for not­withstanding that Baptisme be a Sacra­ment more necessary then is the Sacramēt [Page 108] of Confirmation, yet is the Sacrament of Cō ­firmation more noble then the sacramen [...] of Baptisme: which may be proued from the minister, from the matter, from the effect. The ordinary minister of Baptisme is the priest or deacon, and in tyme of ne­cessity, whosoeuer. The ordinary mini­ster of Confirmation is the Bishop, and by dispensation of the supreame Pastour the Priest alone. The matter of Baptisme i [...] naturall water, the matter of Confirma­tion is pretious oyle mingled with balm, and consecrated by the bishop; the effect of Baptisme is grace and the Character, such a one as is necessary to frame a spiri­tual child according to that of Saint Peter; As children newly borne seeke or hunger yee after milke; the effect of Confirmation is grace and the character, such as is requisite to make a Christian souldier to fight against inuisible enemyes, Ephes. 6. as S. Paul writeth: VVe haue not to encounter with flesh and bloud, but a­gainst the Princes and powers, against the Gouer­nours of the world, of this darkenes, against the spi­ritualls of wickednes, that are aboue in the ayre, as S. Hierome and S. Ambrose interpret it. Last of all in Baptisme salt is giuen vnto the infants to tast; in Confirmation there is a [Page 109] blow giuen them, that the Christian soul­ders may learn to fight, not by striking but by paciēt suffering for the loue of Christ.

But that we may the better per­ceaue the office or duty of a man annoyn­ted with holy oile, that is to say of a Chri­stian souldier, let vs see what the Apostles receaued in their Confirmation which was giuen then vpon White sonday. The Apostles were not properly confirmed by the Sacrament of holy Chrisme but recea­ued from Christ the Prince of priests the effect of the Sacrament without the Sa­crament, and they receaued three giftes, VVisdome, Eloquence, and Charity, in the hi­ghest degree; and besides this the gift of miracles most profitable for the conuer­siō of Infidels vnto the faith, & these gifts did the fiery toungs which appeared on the day of Pentecost signify, as likewise the great noise that then was heard; for the light of fire signifyeth Charity, the figure of the tounge Eloquence, and the great noise the gift of Miracles: the Sacramēt of our confirmatiō bringeth not with it the gift of diuers tongus, nor the gift of mira­cles, because these things were not requisit for the good and perfectiō of the Apostles [Page 110] further thē for the conuersion of Infidell but it brings the gift of spirituall wisd [...] and the gift of charity which is gentle patient, & in signe of this patience whic [...] is a most rare & most pretious vertue, [...] Bishop openly giueth a blow to the pa [...] cōfirmed, that he may know that by th [...] Sacramēt, he is made the souldier of christ, not to fight but to suffer, not to do any iniu [...]yes but to beare them; for so in Chri­stian warfare are we to fight not agains [...] men whom we see, but against the Diuel [...] whome w [...] see not, & so our Captayne & Emperour Christ did both fight & ouer­come, who nayled to the Crosse subdued the powers of the ayre; and so did the A­postles fight who newly confirmed were grieuously whipped in the Conuenticle of the Iewes, Act. 5. And they went from the sight of the Councell reioycing, for that they were foūd wor­thy to suffer reproach for the name of Christ. This certes is the grace of the Sacrament of cō ­firmation to effect that a man vniustly in­iured do not thinke of reuenge, but re­ioyce that for iustice sake he is sound worthy to suffer all wrongs and iniuryes.

And here againe let him that is con­firmed enter into his owne hart and care­fully [Page 111] attend whether he finde in the same [...]e gifts of the holy Ghost, and especially [...]isdome and fortitude; let him marke I [...]y whether he find the wisdom of Saints [...]hich highly prizeth Eternall thinges, [...]nd despiseth temporall; and the fortitud [...]f the souldiers of Christ, who more wil­lingly do receaue iniuries then offer them: [...]nd least there shold be any mistaking let him com to the practice, let him examine his conscience; for if indeed he fynd himselfe prompt and ready to giue almes, not to heape vp riches, and hauing taken an iniury if he do not thinke on reuenge, but doth most easily & willingly pardon the same, he may well reioyce in spirit, as one that hath in his hart the pledge of the adoption of the Sonnes of God: but if after the taking of the Sacrament of Con­firmation, he perceaue himselfe no lesse desirous of riches, no lesse couetous, no lesse angry, no lesse impatient; and when triall shall be made, doth with great difficulty endure a little gold or siluer to go out of his purse to help the poore; and on the other side he finde himselfe wholy enclined to snatch at all occasions of gaine, and fynde himselfe very prone [Page 112] vnto anger, and requested euen by [...] friendes to pardon an offence, will bec [...] inexorable, what else can he gather h [...] reof but that he hath receaued the Sac [...] ment, but not the grace which it yield o [...] to the well disposed receauer.

These thinges I haue sayd for suc [...] as are of riper age, when they come to receaue this Sacrament, for such as come to receaue it very younge, &c as yet scarce c [...] pable of deceyt, to such because nothin [...] doth hinder, it is to be thought the gifts and vertues mentioned to be infused, but they are to feare least for their sinns after committed, & by to long protracting of penance that they do not extinguish this spirit receaued in Confirmation, that is that they do not loose the grace of the ho­ly Ghost.

Therefore he that will liue and dye well, let him greatly regard the grace of the Sacraments, which are the vessells of celestiall treasures, & amongst others these especially, whose grace being once lost cā no more be found, as is the Sacrament of Confirmation, in which is receaued an incomparable treasute. For though the Character of all Sacraments cannot be [Page 113] blotted out, yet the Character without [...]e gifts of grace yeldeth no comfort, but [...]creaseth the punishment of our confu­ [...]on.

CHAP. XII. Of the twelfth precept of the Art of dy­ing well, which is the Eucharist, of Sacrament of the Altar.

THE most holy Eucharist is the grea­test of all Sacraments, in which not grace only is most abundantly conteined, but the Authour also himselfe of grace & glory is giuen. That a Christian man may liue and dye well in respect of this Sacra­ment two thinges are necessary: one is, that sometymes he take this sacred food, our Sauiour warning vs: Ioan. 6. Vnlesse you eate the flesh of the sonne of man you shall not haue life in you, another thing that he do receaue wor­thily so excellent a meate, 1. Cor. 11. for else as the Apostle sayth vnto the Corinthians: who ea­teth and drinketh vnworthily, eateth and drinketh iudgement to himselfe not discerning the body of our Lord (from other meates.) Now the que­stiō [Page 114] is how often it is expedient to receaue this food, and what preparation is estemed sufficient that we may worthly, and not vnworthily, come vnto thi [...] celestiall banquet.

Touching the former question we fyn [...] many & these also differēt customs to hau [...] beene vsed. In the primitiue Church the faithful did very oftē receaue the body of our Sauiour, & therfore did S. Cyprian in his Sermon on our Lords prayer expl [...] cat those words of this B. Sacrament, Gi [...] vs to day our daily bread, & teacheth vs that it is to be receaued euery day, vnlesse a man be hindered by some lawfull let: after­wards charity waxing cold many did di­fferre this communion for some yeares; wherefore Innocentius the third set forth a decree that once euery yeare as well men as women, at the tyme of Easter should be bound to receaue the holy Eucharist; & and now it seemeth to be common opi­nion of learned men, that it is very godly and laudable that such as are not Priests should not neglect to come to receaue this Blessed Sacrament euery Sonday, and fe­stiuall day: that saying is famous amongst Authours as held to be Saint Augustines: [Page 115] Euery day to receaue the holy Eucharist, I neyther prayse, nor mislike: but I persuade and exhort all to communicate euery Sonday; and although the booke De Ecclesiasticis dogmatibus, of Eccle­siasticall doctrines, out of which this short sentence is taken, seeme not to be [...]he worke of S. Augustine, yet was it writ­ [...]en by an ancient Authours & is not con­ [...]rary to the doctrine of same Father, who in his Epistle to Ianuarius expresly teacheth neyther them to erre who thinke we are daily to communicate, Epist. 118. nor those who de­ny it, and thinke we are to communicat more seldome. Truly he who so speaketh would in no wise fynd fault with those who would follow the middle way bet­weene both extremes, which is to come at least on the Sondayes to this Sacramēt; and the same ro haue been the opinion of Saint Hierome is playne by his commenta­ry on the epistle to the Galathians, Cap. omnis de Panit. & remiss. where expounding the fourth Chapter thus he writeth: As it is lawfull for vs euer to fast, or e­uer to pray and without intermission, hauing recea­ued the body of our Lord, ioyfully to celebrate the sonday: so is it not lawfull for the Iewes to sacrifice their lambe &c. And this opinion liked well Saint Thomas in the third part of his Quaest. 80. art. 10. [Page 116] theologicall Summe.

As touching the other point of pre­paration to receaue so great a Sacrament, that it may be receaued to the health of our soule, and not to our iudgement an [...] condemnation, first of all is required tha [...] our soule be liuing with the life of grace, & not dead with the death of mortal sin, because for this respect it is called meat & giuen vnder the forme of bread, for that it is not the meate of the dead, but of the li­uing, as (sayth our Sauiour in S. Iohn) He that eateth this bread shall liue for euer; & in the same place, my flesh is truly meat; & the Coū ­cell of Trent addeth further, that it is not a sufficient preparation to receaue duly this celestiall food, that he who is defiled with mortall synne content himselfe with cō ­trition alone, but that he be carefull to purge his synnes by the Sacrament of pē ­nance in case he can haue a Ghostly Fa­ther. Againe for that this Sacrament is not only bread but also a medicine, and that an excellent one, and most wholsom against all the diseases of vices, therefore secondly is required that a man do desire perfect health and to be cured from all the maladyes of synne, and principally from [Page 117] [...]he chiefest of them as leachery, couetous­nes, pride. That this Blessed Sacrament is a medicine Saint Ambrose cleerly auoucheth: Lib. de Sac. Cap. 4. He that is wounded (sayth he) seeketh for a me­ [...]icine; the wound we haue is because we are vnder [...]ynne, the medicine is the heauenly and venerable [...]acrament. So he: and Saint Bonauenture: He [...]ho reputeth himselfe vnworthy, let him thinke [...]hat so much the more he needeth, and hath necessa­ry occasion to seeke for the Phisitian by how much more he feeleth himselfe to be sicke. And Saint Bernard warneth his brethren that they at­tribute it to the grace and vertue of this Sacrament, that they fynd their bad incli­nations, & other infirmityes of the mynd to be diminished.

Lastly this most holy Sacrament is not only the food of trauellers, and me­dicine of the sicke, but is also a most lear­ned and most louing Phisitian, and ther­fore when he cometh to visit vs he is to be receaued with all ioy and reuerence, and the howse of our soule is to be adorned with all manner of vertues, and in parti­culer with the ornaments of faith hope, Charity, Deuotion, Piety, and with the fruites of good works, as of prayer, fasting and almes. For these ornaments doth this [Page 118] sweet guest of our soule require, who yet wanteth nothing of that which we ar [...] able to giue him; againe consider that thi [...] Phisitian who cometh vnto vs, is bot [...] King, and God, whose purity is infini [...] and requireth a most cleane tabernacle [...] our brest: Let vs heare Saint Iohn Chryso­stome in this matter: Then what should not he be more pure who enioyeth this sacrifice? Serm. 66 ad pop. Antioch. then wh [...] sunne beame ought he not to be more resplenden [...] who deuideth this flesh? The mouth that is repleni­shed with this spirituall fire?

Now let any one who is desirous to liu [...] and dye well make recourse to his owne soule, and shutting the dore against all distractiue businesses let him consider a­lone with his owne hart before God who searcheth the reynes and harts of all, how often and with what preparation he doth cōmunicate & receaue this Sacrament of our Lords body, and if he fynde that by Gods grace he doth often and with fruit receaue it, and thereby in spirituall life to be nourished, and by little and little to be cured from the diseases of synne; and mor­ouer that he doth more and more daily profit and proceed in vertue, and good deeds; let him reioyce with trembling & [Page 119] go on to serue God in feare, not with that seruile of slaues, but with that sincere and chast which is of children. But if he be one of those who contented with com­municating once in the yeare do neuer more thinke on this most wholsome Sa­crament, but forget to eate this bread of life, by how much more they grow fat & broad in body, by so much the more are their soules weakened and do wither a­way: and let such a one know that he wā ­teth wit, and is farre of from the King­dome of God; the yearely communicating is not decreed by the holy generall Coun­cell for this end that none should commu­nicat but once in the yeare, but that once in the yeare they should be compelled thereunto, vnlesse they would be cast out of the Church, and deliuered ouer to Sa­than. And Such men for the most part do not receaue their Lord in the Sacrament with filiall loue but with seruile feare, & soone after returne to the huskes of hoggs, to the pleasures of the world, to temporall commodityes and ambitious­ly to gape after false & fugitiue honours, that so at the day of their death they may heare with the rich Glutton: Memento fili, [Page 120] quia recepisti bona in vita tua. Remember so [...] that thou hast receaued good thinges [...] this life, & therefore must not expect f [...] any more in the next: and if any be foun [...] who maketh oft recourse to the mistery [...] of this most holy Sacrament and that e [...] uery Sonday, or else euery day if perhap [...] he be Priest, and yet neyther refrayneth from mortall synnes, nor seriously exer­cyseth himselfe in good workes, nor [...] not yet truly gone out of the world but a [...] other men who are of the world thirste [...] after riches, is caryed away with carnall delights, seeth and sigheth after higher degrees of honours, and dignityes, he tru­ly eateth the flesh of our Lord to his iudg­ment, and by how much the more he vn­worthily frequenteth these mysteryes, by so much the more neerly doth he imitate Iudas the traytour, of whome our Lord sayd: Melius erat eisi natus non fuisset homo ille, it had been better for him if ho had neuer beene borne. Let no man despayre of his saluation whiles yet he liueth, and ther­fore let him with himselfe cal to account his yeares, and workes and then he shall fynd that hitherto he hath runne much astray out of the path of saluation, let him [Page 121] know that yet there is tyme left to re­turne, so that he will seriously do pen­nance, & come againe into the way of [...]ruth.

I thinke it conuenient to end this [...]hapter withall, that I adioyne what S. Bonauenture writeth in the life of the holy Father S. Francis, I meane of the admi­rable deuotion and loue of this most holy man towards this diuine Sacrament, that by the example of his feruour our tepidity or coldnes rather may be kindled. He was enflamed (sayth S. Bonauenture) with the feruour of al his soule towards the Sacrament of our Lords body, admiring with wonderfull great asto­nishment that most deere humility, and most hūble charity. He did often so deuoutly communicat that he made others to become deuout; when he came to the sweet tast of the immaculate lambe, as it were drunke in spirit, he was for the most partrapt into a trance or rauishment of minde. So he: From which deuotion not only many lay men that communicate, but many Priests also who celebrat are farre short especially such of the latter as say Masse with incre­dible hast, as they seeme not to know themselues what they do, nor permit o­thers that heare thē, to consider with any [Page 122] attentiō so great a mystery, or that which else they would at that tyme contempla [...]

CHAP. XIII. Of the thirteenth precept of dying well, which is Pennance.

AFTER the Eucharist followeth the Sacrament of Pennance, which it respect of him who receaueth, consisteth specially in three vertues, in contrition of hart, confession of mouth, and satisfaction of work. For they who performe these three thinges well, do without al doubt obteyn forgiuenes of their synnes: but it is most diligently to be seene and considered, whether our contrition be true, our cō ­fession entiere, or satisfaction be full and agreable to the offences committed.

Let vs beginne with contrition. Ioel the Prophet cryeth out: Contriti­on. Rend your harts & not your garments. The Iewes when they would make remonstrance or signe of sor­row they did cut or teare their garments: the holy prophet then warneth vs that if in the sight of God we will shew true [Page 123] and inward griefe for our sinnes commit­ [...]d, that we cut or teare our harts, and the prophet Dauid wil not haue vs only to cut o [...] teare them, be to pound them small & [...]ing them into dust, as we do thinges that are beaten in a morter, Thou wilt not o God (sayth he) despise a hart (so) broken & hum­bled: which similitudes do euidently shew that to pacify God by pennance, it is not sufficient in word only to say, I am sory that I haue offended, but there is required inward and great griefe of hart, which without many sobbs, sighs, and teares is hardly found; and wonder it is to behold how seuerely the ācient Fathers do speak of true contrition. S. Cyprian in his ser­mon of such as were fallen from the faith hath these words: Looke how great our sinnes are, let vs so greatly also deplore them: to a deepe wound let there not want a diligent and long cure, let not the pennance be lesse then the fault; it behoueth vs to pray and callon God more earne­stly to passe the day in mourning, to spend the night in watching and weeping, to bestow all our tyme in teares and lamentations, and lying on the bare gro­und, to be sprinckled with ashes, to trumble and turne in a hairecloth and ragges. Lib. 3. cap. 17 all. 24. Clemens Alexan­drinus, as we haue in Eusebius in his history, [Page 124] calleth pennance Baptismum lacrimarum, th [...] Baptisme of teares. Orat. 2. de bapt. Ca. 1. S. Gregory Nazianz [...] sayth: I willingly receaue penitents if I shall them bedewed with teares. Theodoretus in [...] abridgement writeth that the woun [...] receaued after Baptisme are indeed c [...] ­pable, Ep. diuin. decret. cap. de poenit. but not with so light labour as befo [...] the lauer of regeneration, but by mani [...] teares and toylsom works.

These things and the like haue a [...] the holy Fathers left written of the tru [...] of contrition: many now adayes come [...] confession who shew either very little o [...] no contrition at all; but such as sincerel [...] desire to be reconciled vnto God, that the may liue well and socurely dye, must enter into their owne harts, and exclu­ding all other matters of lesse moment, with all attention must seriously reuolue these and the like things in their mynde, and sayech one to himselfe: wo be to me poore wretch what haue I done whē I cō ­mitted this and this synne? First I haue offended that most sweet Authour of all goodnes, & my most louing Father, who on all sides, as with a rampier, hath cōpa­ssed me about with his benefits, of whose great charity I see so many signes as I see [Page 125] good things in my selfe or others. But [...]hat shall I say of my louing Redeemer Christ, who hath loued me being his ene­my, and vnworthy, and he hath giuen [...]mselfe vp for me, Ephes. 5. an oblation and sacrifice vnto God in an odour of suauity? And I still vn­ [...]ateful & wretched man do not cease frō [...]ffending him? How great is my hard­ [...]es & cruelty? My Lord was beaten with [...]odds, was crowned with thornes, was fastened to the Crosse with nailes that so he might cure my old sinnes and offences, and yet shall I neuer cease to add more & more new? He hanging naked on the Crosse did cry out that he thirsted my sal­uation, & do I stil offer him gall & vine­gar to drinke? who also shall explicate from how great glory I haue fallen when I committed this and that deadly synne? I was an heyre of the Kingdome of hea­uen, of a life eternall, and most happy: from this felicity and truly so noble and euery way so great, haue I fallen by that most short pleasure, by those wordes ey­ther contumelious against men, or blas­phemous against God, by which I reaped no profit or commodity at all; and from that so great felicity to what state am I [Page 126] fallen? to the thraldome of the Diuell [...] most cruel enemy, & as soone as the rott [...] wall of my body shall be beaten down [...] which expects euery moment to fall, [...] soone also shall I without al hope of re [...] uery descend into hell fire. Alas po [...] wretch that I am, perhaps to marow, pe [...] ­haps this night, I shall beginne to dwe [...] in these eternall fires, But aboue all thing [...] my ingratitude of a sonne and most vile seruant against his most louing Father & most soueraigne Lord doth torment and wound my hart, for by how much the more he hath heaped his benefits vpō me, by so much more grieuously haue I by my synnes offended him.

These and the like things if thou wilt with thy self carefully cōsider who­soeuer thou be who vouchsafest to reade this title treatise, I hope that thou shalt re­ceaue the gift of contrition of our most mercifull Lord: the penitent King Dauid once entred into the desert solitud of his hart after his aduoutry committed, and presently hauing gotten true contrition he began for to wash his bed with teares: Saint Peter did the like after the deniall of his maister, and presently fleuit amarè, he [Page 127] wept bitterly. S. Mary Magdalen also entred [...]to her hart, and forth with, she began to [...]ash our Sauiours feet with her teares, and to dry [...]em with the hayre of her head; these are thē [...]e fruites of contrition, which do not [...]row but in the solitude or desert of our [...]art.

Now let vs speake a word or two of confession. I see many men to come to [...]his Sacramēt with very little or no fruit [...]t all, Confessi­on. and that for no other cause but [...]or that they enter not into their hart when they prepare themselues for to mak their confession. Some there be who goe about this matter so negligently, that in generall only and after such a confuse fa­shion they can say that they haue broken all the commaundements and committed all the deadly synnes; to such there should be giuen no other then a general and con­fuse absolution, yea they are not worthy of this; for they confesse perhaps that which they haue not done, & that which indeed they haue done they confesse not: others there be that haue learned distin­ctly and orderly to recount their synnes, but they make no account of the quality, of the person, of the place) of the tyme, of [Page 128] the number and of other circumstance which is a notable and dangerous neg [...] gence, for it is one thing to strike a pri [...] another to strik a lay man, when as to t [...] the former is annexed an excommu [...] cation, and not to the latter; againe it one thing to haue carnal knowledg w [...] a virgin, another thinge with a religio [...] Nun, another thing with a married w [...] mā, another thing with his own kinsw [...] ­mā another thing with a harlot. Morou [...] it is one thingto haue committed it on [...] another thing to haue fallen ten times in­to the same synne, for the same synne of­tentymes repeated is not one syn but ma­nifold. Finally there are some (which is more to be wondered at) who are persu [...] ­ded that the inward synnes as the desires of fornication, adultery, murther, theft and the like are not synnes, vnlesse they be actually cōmitted by the exteriour wor [...]. Yea they scarce account wanton looks, or lasciuious wordes to be synnes, and yet our Sauiour Christ sayth in plain tearms: He who shall see a (maryed) Woman to lust after her, Matth. 5. hath already committed adultery in his hart: Wherefore he who will haue care or his conscience and make a profitable & good [Page 129] confession, let him reade some good book of the art of confessing his synnes, or let himselfe seeke out a vertuous and learned ghostly Father, and let him enter into his owne hart discusse his conscience, & that not hastily and briefly but exactly & seriously, and let him diligently examine his thoughts, desires, deeds, words, and also omissions, and then let him lay open his soule vnto his vertuous & skilful Phi­sitian, let him humbly craue absolution of him, and be ready to do that pennance which his Ghostly Father shal thinke ne­cessary to impose.

There remayneth satisfaction, of which our Ancestours most wise and prudent men did make more far account then we seeme now to do, for they when serious­ly they did consider that it was far more easy to make satisfaction vnto God on earth then in purging flames of the next life, did impose most heauy and very long penaltyes; and as for tyme they enioy­ned pennances of seauen yeares, of fifteen, of thirty, and sometymes of their whole life; and as for the quality they enioyned very frequent fasts, and yet more frequent prayers; agayne they did forbid their pe­nitents [Page 130] to go to the bathes, that they shold not ride, go in coach, or vse any brauery in apparell; that they should absteyn [...] from playes, from sports, from spectacles in the open theaters; and finally thei [...] whole life was consumed as it were i [...] griefe and mourning as became true pe­nitents: I will alleadge one only ex­ample.

In the tenth Toletan Councell we reade the Bishop of Bracchara called Pota­mius, for that he had defiled himselfe with touching a woman (for so speaketh the Councell) without all compulsion of o­thers voluntarily of his owne accord to haue shut himselfe vp in prison, and for nyne moneths to haue done pennance, & then by his own letters freely to haue ma­nifested this his synne and pennance, which he had vndergone vnto the Con­cell of the Bishops. And then the Coun­cell further to haue determined that he should continue in doing pennance al the dayes of his life, when as notwithstan­ding the Councell there declareth that it had delt more fauourably and mercifully with him then the rules and seuerity of the Ancient Fathers did permit. This [Page 131] was the ancient seuerity. Now we are become so weake and tender, forsooth, that a pennance imposed of fasting in bread and water for a few dayes, with the seauen psalmes and letanyes to be rehear­sed in the same, and an almes of a little mony bestowed on the poore, doth seeme seuere inough, although it be imposed for cleansing the soule f [...]m many great syns and enormityes. But that wherein heere we fauour selues we shall grieuously smok for in purgatory, Gods iustice requiring full satisfaction, vnlesse in this life our contrition be so great as proceeding from most feruent charity, that it be able to ob­teyne of the mercy of God full remission and pardon of all synne, and punishment due vnto the same: truly a contrite and humble hart doe much mooue the bow­els of the mercy of God our Father, for the goodnes of our Lord is such as he can­not hold whē he seeth the prodigall child truly penitent, but that he must goe and meet him, but that he must imbrace him, but that he must kisse him, but that he must giue him a ring of peace, but that he must wipe away all teares of sorrow, & replenish him with teares of ioy, more [Page 132] sweet then all hony; and what else can be deuised more comfortable.

CHAP. XIIII. Of the fourteenth Precept of the Art dying well, which is of the Sa­crament of Order.

THE two Sacraments that ensue now briefly to be considered do not ap­perteyne vnto all Christians, but one to Clergy men to wit Order, the other to lay men to wit matrimony: let vs speake a little of the first, I meane not all things that be­long to this Sacrament, but those things only which are necessary to this art of li­uing & dying well.

Orders in number are seauen, fower lesser, and three greater: of which the chi­fest which is Priesthood is deuided into two, for there are greater Priests which are called Bishops, and lesser which are single priests; before all these Orders is giuen prima tonsura, which is it were a gate vnto all the Orders, and properly maketh them clarks or Clergy men; and for that [Page 133] the things which are required of these in­feriour Clarks, especially what concer­neth vertuous & religious life, by greater reason are to be exacted of thē who haue taken the lesser or greater Orders, and es­pecially of Priests and Bishops: therefore I will restraine my speach to consider and explicate those things only which do be­long to these inferiour Clarkes.

Two thinges there be in these Clarks that require explication. First the rite or manner of their ordering, then the office which they are to exercise in the Church. The rite or manner of their ordering, as appeareth by the Pontificall is this, that first of all some little part of their haires be clip­ped of, by which ceremony is signifyed the casting off of all superfluous thoughts and desires, as are the thoughts and desires of temporall things, riches, honours, plea­sures and the like: and that they be com­manded whiles the Bishop cutteth away their hayers to say that verse of the 15. psalme, Our Lord is the portion of myne inheri­tance, and of my cuppe: thou (O Lord) shall re­store me againe myne inheritance; Then doth the Bishop call for a surplise and causeth the new Clarke to put it on, saying that of [Page 134] the Apostle to the Ephesians: God vest thee with the new man, which is created according to God in iustice and holines of truth: Cap. 4. but there is no of­fice assigned to this new Clarke, but out of the ancient custome, we gather his of­fice to be to serue the priest when he sayth Masse in, ease he say it priuately.

Now let vs contemplate what height of perfectiō is required in a clark, and if so much be required in a Clarke, what is required in an Acolite, in a Sub­deacon, in a Deacon, in a Priest, in a Bi­shop. Truly I find in my selfe a horrour of mynd to thinke theron, when as there are scant found these thinges in many priests which by vertue of the ordering is required in a simple Clarke. The Clarke is willed to cast away superfluous thoughts and desires which are proper vnto secular men, that is to say men which apperteyne vnto this world, who are of the world & who do alwayes thinke and desire the goods of the world: a good Clarke is cō ­maunded to seeke no other part or porti­on or inheritance but God, that God a­lone be his riches and inheritance, & that he may truly be sayd and found to be the part and inhertance of God. O height of [Page 135] Clericall perfection, which forsakes the whole world that it may possesse God, & may agayne by reciprocall loue be posses­sed of God alone.

This is the meaning of the words of the psalme, Our Lord is the part of my inheritance and of my cuppe, pars haeredita­tis, the part of my inheritance. This part is called that portion which out of the di­uision of an inheri [...] amongst many brothers, doth befall to ech one a part, the sense then of the wordes is not that a Clergy man should make God one part of his inheritance, and earthly riches an­other, but that from his hart he desire that God be all his part, portion, or inheri­tance: that is al that he may expect in this world, and that whatsoeuer here he may haue, out of a religious affection he may make it all ouer vnto God. Betwene the cuppe and the inheritance there is this diffe­rence, that the cuppe belongeth vnto plea­sure and delights, the inheritance vnto we­alth and honours. Wherefore the full and entiere sense of the verse is: O my Lord God, from hence forward whatsoeuer I might hope for in this world of riches, of delights, of temporall commodityes, all [Page 136] that whatsoeuer it be I doe desire to haue in thee alone, thou alone doest abundan­tly suffise for all other things, and for that the plenty of heauenly riches is not to be found on earth, therefore doth this Clark go on in his prayer, & saith tu es qui restitu [...] haereditatem meam mihi, thou art he who shal restore me agayne myne inheritance; for what I haue contemned and cast away for thy sake eyther i [...] giuing it to the poore, or in freely pardoning them that haue ta­ken it from me: thou hast layd vp all safely for me, and in due tyme thou wilt restore it, not in the same corruptible substance but in thy selfe, the inexhaust fountayne of all goodnes.

But least that any should cal in doubt our explication, I will confirme it by two witnesses not liable to reproofe, to wit Saint Hierome and Saint Bernard. Saint Hierome in his Epistle to Nepotianus of the life of Clergy men sayth: Therefore let the Clergy mā that serueth Gods Church expoūd his own name, & hauing defined it, let him endeauour to be that which he is called, for if [...] in Greek do in La­tin signify a lot, therefore they are called Clergy mē, eyther for that they are of our [Page 137] Lords lot, or for that our Lord is the lot, [...]hat is to say the part or possession of Cler­gy mē, & he who eyther is the part of our Lord or hath our Lord for his part, ought [...]o to behaue himselfe that he may possesse God, and be possessed of him: be who pos­sesseth our Lord and can say with the pro­phet pars mea Dominus, our Lord is my part, can haue nothing besides him; for if he haue any thing besi [...]s our Lord, our Lord shal not be his part; or example if he haue gold, siluer, possessions, store ot hou­should stuffe, with these partes our Lord will non vouchsafe to be made a part. So he. Whose whole epistle he that listes to reade, shall fynd truly a very great perfe­ction of life to be required in Clergy men. To Saint Hierome let vs add Saint Bernard who not only alloweth the opinion of the sayd Saint, but sometymes vseth his wordes, although he name him not: so then he speaketh in that very prolixe de­clamation vpon the wordes of Saint Peter in Saint Mathews Gospell: Behold we haue left all and haue followed thee. The Clergy man who hath part in earth shall haue no part in heauen. If a Clergy man haue any thing else besides our Lord, our Lord will not be his part, [Page 138] and a little after declaring what a Clergy man may keepe to himselfe out of his Ec­clesiasticall benefices, he sayth, Not [...] giue the goods of the poore vnto the poor [...] is no lesse a synne then sacriledge: certayn­ly it is taken with sacrilegious cruelty fr [...] the patrimony of the poore, whatsoeuer the Ministers and dispensers, not Lords & owners of the goods of the Church doe take more then is necessary for their diet and apparell: so Saint Bernard, who with Saint Hierome doth not speake that which is false, but that which is perfect.

There followeth the rite of putting on the white surplice with those wordes of the Apostle, Ephes. 4. Put on the new man who is made according to God in iustice & holines of truth: For it sufficeth not Clergy men that they be not wealthy, but it is further required that they liue an innocent and cleane life, because they are dedicated to the ministe­ry of the Altar, in which the lambe with­out spot is dayly sacrifyced: moreouer to put on the new man is nothing else then to shake of the vices of the old Adam, who corrupted his wayes and put on the ver­tues of the second Adam, that is of Christ, who being borne after a new manner of [Page 139] the Virgin ordeyned a new way in iustice [...]nd holines of truth: That is not only in mo­ [...]all Iustice, but also in most true and su­ [...]ernaturall holines, which Christ shew­ [...]d in himselfe, who (as Saint Peter witnesseth) committed no synne, neyther was there any deceit sound in his mouth. 1. Pet. [...]. O that we had many such Clergy men who in their life abd conuersation would performe that which their white garment doth be tokē & signify.

Finally it is the duty of Clergy men with Angelicall purity deuoutly, grau [...] ­ly, dayly and diligently to assist at the di­uine sacrifyce, in which dayly the lambe of God is offered. I know that in the Church there are many deuout Clergy men: and I do not only know but I haue very often seene many very male part of the same ranke, so casting their eyes hither and thither when they were at the Altar, as if they were about a matter not only not full of sacred horrour, but triuiall, light, and of no account: and perhaps this great fault is not so much to be impu­ted vnto the minister as to the priest that doth celebrate, who sometymes doth so huddle vp his words, and so without de­uotion [Page 140] cary himselfe as he seemeth not [...] know or vnderstand what he doth: [...] both the one and the other heare what [...] Iohn Chrysostome speaking of the time of ce­lebrating of Masse sayth: Lib. 6. de sacerdotio. At the tyme [...] the sacrifice the Angells assist the Priest, [...] the whole Order of the heauenly power [...] are heard, and the place neere the Altar in the honour of him who is offered, i [...] filled with the quiers of Angels. Which without further proofe by reason of th [...] singular sacrifice then offered we may ea­sily belieue. Let them also heare S. Grego­ry who writeth heereof as a thing not doubted of saying: 4. Dialog. cap. vltim. What faithfull man can make any doubt that in the tyme of the sacrifice, at the voice of the priest that the heauens are opened, the quiers of An­gells are present, the lowest and highest things are coupled togeather, earthly thinges, are conioyned which heauenly, and one thing made of visible and inui­sible & thinges togeather. So he: which if the Priest that doth celebrate and the Clarke that doth serue did seriously pon­der, how could it be that they shold hādle so great a matter in such sort as they doe? O how doleful and lamentable a spectacle [Page 141] were it (in case the eyes of our soule were [...]pen) to see the Priest handling the di- [...]iuine mysteryes, enuironed on all sides with quiers of Angells, who all stand a­ [...]onished tremble and make spirituall cla­mours at that which they see him to do, whiles the Priest himselfe in the middest of them all is cold, and as one without sense doth neyther marke what he doth, nor vnderstand what he sayth, and so to poast to an end, as he distinguisheth not the ceremonyes, & choppeth vp his words as he seemeth not to know what he doth; and in the meane tyme the Clarke who serues him is alwayes gazing on this and that, or tatling with some other body; so is God scorned, so are the most sacred my­steryes contemned, & so is occasion giuen vnto Heretiks to detract: & contemne our rites and religion. Which being so, I ad­monish all Clergy men as well greater as lesser, & as much as I can do exhort them that being dead to the world they liue to God alone, that they seeke not for abun­dance of tēporall things, that with great zeale they preserue purity of life, that re­ligiously, as it is fitting, they do handle diuine things, and that they procure the [Page 142] s [...]me to be done of others: so shall they [...] great confidence in God, and shall co [...] nually fill the Church of Christ with sweet and fragrant odour of their g [...] example.

CHAP. XV. Of the fiftee [...] precept of the Art [...] dying well, which is of Matrimony.

VVE come now to Matrimony which hath a twofold institu­tion or ordinance: one as it is a ciuill con­tract: by the law of nature, another as it is a Sacrament of grace by the law Euāgeli­cal; both which we wil speak not abso­lutely, but according to the subiect of this worke which is only in respect of liuing and dying well. The first institution was appointed by God in the earthly paradise for these words of God, It is not good for man to be alone, let vs giue him a help like himselfe, can­not well be vnderstood but of the help to propagate mankind, Lib. 9. de Gen. ad lit. cap. 7. and bringe vp chil­dren: for as S. Augustine well noteth, men [Page 143] need not the help of women in any thing [...]t in these respects; for in other thinges [...]en are better holpen by men then by [...]omen; and therfore a little after that the [...]oman was made, Adam out of diuine in­ [...]piration sayd: A man shall leaue his Father & mother and adhere vnto his wife: which words our Sauiour in Saint Mathewes Gospell at­ [...]ributeth not to Adam but vnto God him­selfe saying: Matth. 1 [...]. Haue you not read that he who from [...]he beginning made man, made them man and wo­man, and sayd, for this shall a man leaue his Father and mother and shall cleaue to his wife, and they shal be two in one flesh? That therefore which God hath conioyned let not man separate. Our Lord then doth asscribe these wordes vnto God, be­cause that Adam did not speake them of himselfe, but by his inspiration. And this was the first institution of Matrimony.

Another institution or rather ad­uancement of Matrimony is the excellen­cy of a Sacrament: Ephes. 5. this we haue in the A­postle in these wordes of his Epistle to the Ephesians: For this cause shall a man leaue his Father and mother and shall cleaue to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh, this is a great Sacra­ment, but I say this in Christ and his Church; and that Matrimony is a true Sacrament Saint [Page 144] Augustine doth teach saying: Lib de bo­no Coniu. cap. 18. In the Marri [...] of our women the sanctify of the Sacrament is [...] to be valewed then the frutefullnes of the wom [...] And againe: The good of matrimony with all na­tions and people standeth in the cause of beget [...] children and in the fidelity of coniugall that chastity [...] in respect of the people of God it consisteth also in the Sanctity of the Sacrament. Cap. 24. Lib. de fide & oper. cap. 7. And in anoth [...] booke: in the Citty of our Lord and in his [...] hill, that is in the Church, not only the band of Marriage, but also the Sacrament is commendab [...] but to dispute more exactly of this point belongeth not to our present purpose, but rather this more properly apperteyneth thereunto, that we explicate how men & women ioyned in matrimony may so liue as that confidently they may trust to dye well.

Three thinges in Schooles are cal­led the good of Matrimony, if it be well vsed, to wit issue, fidelity, and the grace of the Sacrament: he who will vse Matri­mony well must not only haue care to be­get children, but also and that much more to bring them vp well; and o [...] the other side he most grieuously sinneth who see­keth not for children by Marriage, but only for carnall pleasure: for this cause [Page 145] one of the sonnes of Iudas the Patriarcke is [...]arply reprehēded for that whē he knew is wife, he cast out the seed on the earth [...]at no child might be born: for this is not [...]o vse, but to abuse Matrimony: and if sō ­ [...]mes it happen that the vertuous parents [...]re ouerburdened with multitude of their [...]ssue in so much as (by reason of their po­ [...]erty) they cannot mainteyne them; there [...] a remedy in it selfe, good and gratefull vnto God by continuall consent to sepa­ [...]ate thēselues from the bed, & knowledge of each other, and for the tyme to come to attend vnto prayer and fasting: for it it be gratefull & acceptable vnto God for man and wife to continew stil euen vnto their old age in virginity, after the example of the mother of God and Saint Ioseph, whose example Saint Henry the Emperour, and Chunegunda his Empresse, Saint Edward the Confessour King, and Editha his Queene, Elizearius Earle, and his Lady Dalphina, & many others did follow, why shold it dis­please God or men that marryed folke ha­uing now children, by mutuall consent should refraine from copulation, that they may bestow what resteth their life in fasting & prayer?

Moreouer it is a grieuous synne for any in the state of Matrimony to [...] glect his children, and let them want eyther vertuous education, or necessary maintenance of clothes, diet, and the li [...] many examples there are extant of th [...] matter at well in sacred as prophane hi­storyes, but for that I intend to be briefe [...] will content myselfe with one which [...] in the first booke of Kings. Thus in that place doth God himselfe speake: In that [...] I will raise vp all these thinges which I haue spoke [...] against the house of Heli. I will begin, and I will end. For I foretold him that I was to iudge his house for euer for the iniquity thereof, because he knew that his children did wickedly behaue themselues & he did not correct them, therefore haue I s [...]orne to the house of Heli, that the iniquity of his houses shall not be blotted out for euer with victimes or gifts: This did our Lord fortell, and a little af­ter did execute: for the children of He [...] were slaine in warre, and Heli himselfe s [...] ­ting on his seat fell backeward, brake his necke, & dyed miserably: if then Heli who was otherwise a good man, & iust Iudge of the people, for the synnes of his chil­dren which he had not brought vp so wel as he should haue done, and when after­wards [Page 147] they became worse and worse he [...]ad not cheked and amended them, came [...]ith his Children to a miserable end, and [...] the gouernment or principality ouer [...]he people: what shall become of them [...]ho not only do not endeauour to bring vp their children well, but by their own example of bad life teach them to do ill? Surely they can expe [...] nothing else for themselues or their children, but a dread­ful death vnlesse they amend be tyme and do pennance condigne to their former offences.

Another good of matrimony is fi­delity, which consisteth in this, that ech of the maried couple do know that their bo­dyes are not their owne but that the body of the wife is the husbands, and the body of the husband is the wiues, and as the one cannot deny coniugall duty vnto the o­ther, so can neyther of them both yield their bodyes to be vsed by any other: the signe of this fidelity is the ring giuen in the solemnity of Marriage, this do­ctrin is cleerly deliuered by the Apostle saying; Let the husband render duty to his wife & shee likewise to her husband: the woman hath not power ouer her but the husband, 1. Cor. 7. and likewise [Page 148] the husband hath not power ouer his body but the woman; defraude not one another vnlesse it b [...] mutuall consent for a tyme, that you may atten [...] prayer. This is the Apostolicall doctri [...] which all Christian maried folkes m [...] diligently obserue, if they desire to liue dye well: if there be any publike adulte­rers, eyther the Iudges do iustly puni [...] them, or else the friends and kinsfolk [...] of the party reuenge the wronge offered by that disgrace: but for secret adulterers who are many more then the open, the Al­mighty and most iust Iudge from whome no secrets lye hid, will doubteles in the end condemne them to euerlasting tor­ments.

The third good or perfection of Ma­trimony and that most noble, is the grace of the Sacrament, which God powreth into the harts of the marryed couple if in the tyme of their Marriage they be duly dis­posed and prepared thereunto: this grace besides other good which it bringeth with it, is of wonderfull force to effect mutuall loue betweene both the partie, notwithstanding that different iudge­mēts, maners, diseases, diuersitys of disposi­tions of body & mind, may easily sow dis­sensions [Page 149] betweene them, but aboue all the [...]mitation of the wedlocke or Marriage [...]hat is betweene Christ and his Church maketh this corporall Marriage most [...]weet and blessed, of which matter thus writteth S. Paul. Viridiligite vxores vestras &c. Ephes. 5. Husbands loue your wiues as Christ hath loued his Church and deliuered vp him­selfe for it that he might sanctifye it, cle­ [...]nsing it by the lauer of water in the word of life, that he might present or exhibite vnto himselfe a glorious Church, not ha­uing spot or wrinkle. Which Blessed A­postle also admonisheth women saying: Let women be subiect to their husbands as vnto our Lord: because the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the Church: But as the Church is subiect to Christ so let the wo­men be subiect in all thinges to their hus­bands: and in fine thus he concludeth, Let euery one loue his wife as himselfe, and let the wife feare or reuerence her husband. This do­ctrine if it be so considered and practised as is requisite, will make the Marriages happy both in earth & heauen,

Let vs in briefe explicate this Aposto­licall doctrine of Saint Paul: first of all he exhorteth husbands to loue their wiues [Page 150] as Christ loued his Church; Truly Christ lo­ued his Church Amore amicitiae, with a fi [...] ­endly loue, as Schooles do speake, and [...] more concupiscentiae, with the loue of desiring any thing for himself; he sought the goo [...] of the Church, the profit of the Church the saluation of the Church, not any pro­fit or pleasure of his owne. And therfore they do not imitate christ who loue their wiues for their great beauty, allured with the loue of her fairenes, or for her dow [...] of many thousand crownes, or for some rich and wealthy inheritance, for such do not loue their wiues but themselues, de­siring to satiate or satisfy the concupis­cence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes which is tearmed couetousnes. So S [...] ­lomon wise in the beginning and a foole [...] the end, loued wiues and concubines, not for the loue of them, but for the loue o [...] his owne lust, desiring not to gratify a [...] do them good, but to fulfill his owne car­nall desire, with which he was so blinded as he made no conscience to sacrifice to strange Gods, least he should neuer s [...] little crosse his delights. That Christ i [...] this wedlocke did not seeke himselfe, th [...] is his own profit or pleasure, but the good [Page 151] only of the Church his spouse, is cleere by [...]he wordes that follow: And he deliuered [...]imselfe vp for her that he might sanctify her, cle­ [...]nsing it in the lauer of water by the word of life. This indeed is true and perfect charity, to [...]ield himselfe vp vnto torments for the e­ [...]erlasting saluation of the Church his [...]pouse: and Christ did not only loue his Church Amore amicitiae, and not concupiscen­ [...]iae, but with an euer [...]ting loue, not for tyme only, for as he neuer left of our hu­ [...]ane nature which once he assumed, so [...]lso did he knit this Church vnto him by [...]he band of indissoluble wedlocke: In ca­ritate perpetua dilexi te, Hiir. 31. sayth God by the Prophet, I haue loued thee with endles charity, and this is the cause why matri­mony consummated by the coniugall act [...]mongst Christians is inseparable, because [...]t is a Sacrament signifying the marriage of Christ with his Church, which wed­ [...]ocke cannot possibly be dissolued, whe­reas the matrimony of Iewes and Pagans in some cases may be broken off, & made voyde.

After this the Apostle doth add in­structing women, and teaching them that they be subiect vnto their husbands as the [Page 152] Church is subiect vnto Christ: this p [...] ­cept Iezabel who would domineer ot­her husband, did not obserue and there [...] ouerthrew her himselfe, him, and all hi [...] children: and I would to God there we [...] not many women amongst vs who stri [...] to beare rule ouer their husbands: but per­haps this is the fault of the mē who know not how to keepe their authority o [...]er their wiues. 3. Reg. 21. 4. Reg. 10. Truly Sara the wife of Abrahā was so subiect and obedient to her hus­band, as that she called him her Lord: I am (sayth shee) growne farre in yeares and my Lord is olde: which vertue of Sara Saint Peter in his first Epistle doth commend saying: The holy women were subiect to their husbands, as Sara obeyed Abraham calling him Lord. And it seemeth strange that the Apostles S. Peter and Saint Paul do alwayes teach that hus­bands ought to loue their wiues, 1. Pet. 3. are to feare their husbands, or which is al one, to be subiect vnto them; but is not the wife also bound to loue her husband? she is tru­ly to loue her husband, and to be beloued of her husbād: but she must loue him with feare and reuerence, so as that loue do not hinder feare, for otherwise the woman becomes a tyrant: for so Dalila mocked her [Page 153] husband Sampson (though otherwise most [...]trong) not so much as her husband, Iudic. 16. as her [...]ue: and in the third booke of Kinges it [...]s recounted of a King enamoured of his concubine who permitted this his harlot to sit on his right hand, 3. Reg. 4. Genes. 2. to take the Crowne from the Kings head and put it on her owne, yea and with her hand to strike the King himselfe; therfore it is no meruaile that God sayd vnto the first wo­man: Thou shalt be vnder the power of thy husband and he shall beare rule ouer thee. For which cause there is much wisdome required in the husband, that he loue and gouerne his wife, & withall that he warne and teach her, & if need be correct and amend her; yet so, as he truely loue her as part of his owne body, & procure likewise that shee loue him, & be assuredly perswaded that she is so beloued, and that his admonish­ments proceed out of Charity, & not out of hatred: an example we haue in Saint Monica mother of S. Augustine, who albeit her husband was a fierce man, and a Pa­gan, yet did she so prudently & religious­ly endure him, that she was beloued of him, and he afterwards was conuerted to the Christian faith. The Reader may re­paire [Page 154] vnto the bookes of Confessions of S. Augustine, and there fynd more hereo [...]

CHAP. XVI. Of the sixteenth precept of the Art of dying well, which is of the Sacra­ment of Extreme Vnction.

THERE now remayneth only the last Sacrament which is called Extrem [...] Vnction, out of which is gathered a most profitable document, not for the end on­ly but for the whole course of our life, for at that tyme are annoynted al the parts of the body in which are the fiue senses, and at euery one it is sayd, God pardon th [...] in whatsoeuer thou hast offended, by thy sight &c. and so of the rest. From whence we are giuen to vnderstand the fiue senses to be the gates by which all manner of synnes do enter in to our soules, and therefore if any keepe well these gates he shall easily eschew a great multitude of synnes, and consequently shall liue and dye most hap­pily.

Let vs speake somewhat of the cu­stody [Page 155] of these fiue gates. Sight. That the eye is a gate by which all the synnes that apper­ [...]eyne vnto leachery do enter, he who is maister of vs all, Christ himselfe I meane doth teach vs when he sayth: Matth. 5. whosoeuer shall see a woman to lust after her, hath already cō ­mitted aduoutry in his hart: if thy right eye do scan­dalize or offend thee, plucke it out, and cast it from thee, for it is better that one of thy members should perish then for thy whole body to be cast into hell: And we know that the old men who saw Susanna naked were kindled with lust to­wardes her, and for that cause came to miserable ends; we know also that Dauid that great friend of God at the sight only of Bersabee washing her selfe to haue fallen into adultery, out of which followed mā slaughter and innumerable other calami­tyes. And the reason hereof is euident because the beauty of a woman is very forcible to allure a man to loue it, as the beauty of a man worketh the same effect in a woman, and this loue neuer resteth vntill it come to carnall copulation, the effect of concupiscence remayning in vs after originall synne: which calamnity the Apostle doth deplore saying: I see ano­ther law in my members repugning to the law of my [Page 156] mynde, and keeping me captiue in the law of syn [...], which is in my members; I vnhappy man who s [...] deliuer me from the body of this death? The gra [...] of God by Iesus Christ our Lord. So the Apostle.

What remedy shall we fynde out a­gainst this great tentation? The remedy i [...] at hand, and that with the helpe of God very easy if any list to vse it, and this [...] ­medy is extant in Saint Augustine, in an [...] ­pistle of his where he setteth down a rule for Nunnes, Ephes. 109. & thus amongst other thing he speaketh vnto them: If your eyes by chance be cast on any, let them be fixed on none: For a bare only seemes a thing vnauoidable, but it cannot, or truly is not wont to wound the hart vnlesse it endure longer, and ther­fore although of set purpose one should accustome himselfe to see such women or by casualty light into their company, if he presently turne his eyes frō them, there will be no danger, for not the sight but th [...] delay in seeing as S. Augustine sayth, is dan­gerous, and this is that which holy Iob taught vs out of his owne example when he sayd: I haue made a pact with myne eyes that I would not so much as thinke on a mayde. Where he sayth not, that I haue made a pact that I would not see her, but that I would not [Page 157] thinke vpon her, that is that I would not stand long in beholding her, in so much [...]s that the sight might pierce the hatt, & [...]o I do begin to thinke on her beauty, and by little and little to desire her talke and company; and he yieldeth an excellent reason hereof well worthy of so holy a man: For then what part should God haue in me? As if he would haue sayd, God is my part and all my good, and a good aboue all goods, then which no better can be imagi­ned, and God loueth none but such as are chast & vertuous.

And to this also tendeth that ad­monition of our Sauiour, If thyne eye shall scandalize thee, pull it out. That is, so possesse it, as if thou didst not possesse it at all, & so accustome thy selfe to keepe thyne eyes from such sights, as if thou wert blind; and truly such as from their youth begin this care and practise, they fynd no difficulty to eschew and auoyde these vices; such as haue accustomed themselues vnto them fynd it more hard, but yet with the grace of God they are sufficiently able to change their life and escape this most pernici­ous snare & entanglement.

But some will say perhaps, why hath [Page 158] God made fayre men, and women if [...]e will not haue them to be seene, will [...] haue them to be loued? there is an easy [...] twofold answere to this demaund. For that God hath made men and women f [...] wedlocke, and so he sayd from the begin­ning: It is not good that man be solitary alone, let vs make him a help like himselfe: But the m [...] doth not neede the helpe of the woman but only to beget and bringe vp children, as we sayd before out of Saint Augustine, Lib. 9. de Gen. ad lit. Cap. 2. & the man and woman would not easily for all their liues agree so well togeather vn­lesse there were beauty to delight them both, & make them loue ech other; wher­fore sithence that the woman by nature i [...] adorned with beauty that she may be be­loued of her husband, she court not be be­loued of any other husbād with that loue which prouokes to generation, for which cause it is prohibited so expresly in the law, Thou shalt not lust after the wife of the nei­ghbour, Exod. 20. Ephes. 5. & the Apostle sayth vnto husbands, Yee husbands loue your wiues. Furthermore there are many good thinges and those al­so fayre, which all are not to be desired or sought for, but of such only vnto whome they belong, and to whom they agree: the [Page 159] [...]he eating of flesh and drinking of wyne [...]re good thinges, but for such as are in health, not for such as are daungerously sicke; so likewise the beauty of men and women after the common resurrection when we shall be perfectly cured from all inordinate concupiscence with which mortall men in this life are troubled, may securely be beloued of all. And therefore euen in this life it must not seeme strange if it be graunted vnto all, euen with de­light to behold the sunne, moone, starrs, the flowers of the field, and the like beau­tifull obiects, which nourish not the in­bred corruption of lust, and yet it is not permitted to behold with delight faire women or faire men least that aspect doe increase & nourish that malady.

After the sense of seeing followeth the other of hearing, Hearing. no lesse carefully to be kept then the former, but with the eares is cōioyned the tongue which is the instrument of speech, for wordes be they good or bad come not to our hearing vn­lesse first they be deliuered by the instru­ment of the tongue, & for that the tongue vnles it be most vvatchfully guarded is the cause and founteyne of very many euills, [Page 160] therefore Saint Iames sayth: he who offendeth not in word is a perfect man: And a little af [...] Behold a little fire how it kindleth a great wood, [...] the tongue is a fire, and a whole world of iniquity. Three things doth the holy Apostle teac [...] vs in this place. First, that to keepe we [...] the tongue is a matter of singular difficul­ty, and such as know how to keepe the same, to be very few and perfect men; se­condly frō a bad tōgue in very short space great hurt to proceed, which he explica [...] by the similitude of a small sparke of fire which vnlesse it be suddenly quenched, is able to consume a great wood of many trees: so one word spokē vnawares is able to cause suspitions of some crime commit­ted, whence presently follow emnityes, brawles, contentions, murthers, and [...] subuersion sometymes of a whole family; lastly the Apostle teacheth a bad tongue not to be one single euill, but to compri [...] a great multitude of euills togeather, [...] by the same all mischiefs are eyther pre­pared, as whoredoms and thefts, or com­mitted, as periuryes and false testimonyes or else defended, as when a wicked ma [...] eyther excuseth the fault he hath com­mited, or dissembles the good that he [Page 161] hath not done; again the tōgue is worthi­ [...]y called a whole world of iniquity, because by [...]he tongue a man synnes against God by [...]lasphemy and periury, against his neigh­ [...]ours by detraction and railing, against [...]imselfe by boasting of the deeds which [...]ndeed he hath not done, or by lying in [...]he denyall of that which he hath com­mitted.

To this testimony of Saint Iames I will add another of the Prophet Dauid, Psal. 119. where he sayth: O Lord deliuer my soule from wicked lipps, and from a bad tongue. If this ho­ly king had such feare of a wicked and de­ceitfull tongue, what ought priuate men to do, and much more if they be not only priuate but poore, base, and obscure? The Prophet doth add: VVhat may be given vnto thee, or what may be added vnto thee, to a deceitfull tongue? The words are obscure by reason of the hebrue phrase, but they seeme to me to beare this sense; not without cause am I affrayed of a wicked and deceitful tongue because such a tongue is so great an euill that nothing (as it seemes) can be added vnto it: the Prophet goeth on and sayth, The sharpe arrowes of the mighty with burning & consuming coales: in which wordes is layed [Page 162] open an excellent similitudc to decla [...] how great a mischiefe a wicked tongu [...] is, for the Prophet compareth it vnto fie­ry arrowes cast forth from a strong hand [...] first arrowes do strike a farre off, and fl [...] with so great swiftnes as it is hard to a­uoyd their blow; againe these arrowes vn­to which the tongue is compared are said to be shot from a stronge arme, and migh­ty shooter; thirdly is added that these ar­rowes are sharp that is made of a cunnin [...] workeman who knew wel how to point them; and lastly these arrowes are like vn­to kindled coales that are able to consume any thing be it neuer so hard; so that a de­ceitful and wicked tongue is not so much like vnto the arrowes of men, as vnto ar­rowes cast downe from heauen as are thū ­ders and lightnings in the ayre, against which nothing is able to resist. Truly this Propheticall description of the wic­ked and guylefull tongue is such as no e­uill can be imagined so great that can be compared thereunto.

And that we may the better vnder­stand this matter, I will add two example [...] taken out of the Scriptures, one of that most wicked Doeg the Idumean who accu­sed [Page 163] Achimelech the Priest vnto King Saul for that he had conspired with Dauid a­gainst the King, which was a meere slan­der and deceit, 1. Reg. 22. yet because King Saul at that tyme was very ill affected towardes Dauid, he did easily belieue all, and forth­with commaunded not only the priest A­chimelech an innocent man to be slaine, but also all the other priests to the number of fourescore and fiue men, who had not offended the King at all: neyther was Saul satisfyed with this slaughter, but com­maunded all the inhabitants of the prie­stly citty Nobe to be slaine, and he not on­ly raged against all the men and women, but also against young children and suc­king babes, yea he extended his cruelty e­uen vnto beasts (a greater beast himselfe) and slew their sheepe, oxen, & asses. And it is probable that Dauid in the wordes of the psalme which we haue now expoun­ded of the wicked and deceitfull tongue, did speake of this Doeg the Idumean, and this example sheweth vs of what power a bad tongue is in working mischiefe.

Another example we haue in the Gospell of Saint Marke, the daughter of Herodias dācing before Herod the Tetrarch & [Page 164] his nobility, so much did that daunci [...] delight the King as he sware before al th [...] were presēt that he would giue the youn [...] mayde whatsoeuer she should demaun [...] although it were halfe of his Kingdom [...] this foolish and rash oath was the cause o [...] much mischiefe. First the maide deman­ded of Herodias her mother what she should aske, who bid her tou [...]e for the head of Saint Iohn Baptist, and presently was th [...] head of our Lords precursour cut off, an [...] brought to him in a dish; how many mis­chiefs in one fact? The mother most grie­uously sinned in asking a thing most vn­iust; neyther was Herods sinne lesse then his wiues, in that he commaunded a most i [...] ­nocent man to be slaine, and such a on [...] as was the Precursour of Christ, mor [...] then a Prophet, & then whome there had not risen a greater amongst the begotte [...] of women; such a one I say whome Her [...] himselfe knew to be both a iust and holy man, and all this without cause, with­out Iudgement or forme of law, at the tyme of a solemne supper, at the reque [...] of a dancing girle. But let vs heare the p [...] nishment who haue now heard the o [...] ­fence. Herod soone after was deposed by [Page 165] the Emperour Caius from his principali­ [...]y, and condemned to perpetuall banish­ [...]ent, and he who sware that he would giue halfe of his Kingdome, did leese the whole, and exchaunged the same with [...]erpetual exile as witnesseth Iosephus in his history; the daughter of Herodias whose dancing was the cause of Saint Iohns death passing ouer a riuer that was frozen, Lib. 18. c. 9. the yce breaking she fell downe with all her body sauing the head which was cut of in the fall, and leaped ouer the yce, that all might perceaue wherefore she came to so lamētable an end. Herodias her mother hea­ring this il newes ouercome with griefe did presently dye and followed her daugh­ter into hell fire: Lib. 1. c. 2 which tragedy Nicephorus Calistus hath related in his history: & here we may behold the manyfold harmes as well in respect of the offence, as also of the punishment that haue ensued of the foolish and rash oath which Herode made.

Let vs come to the remedy which by wise and vertuous men is to be apply­ed against these synnes of the tongue. The holy Prophet Dauid in the beginning of his 38. Psalm. 8. psalme sheweth what remedy him selfe vsed laying: I said I will keepe my wayes, [Page 166] that I may not offend in my tongue: That is, th [...] I may fly the synnes of the tongue, I d [...] diligently obserue my wayes, for I do ney­ther speake, nor thinke, nor do any thing without due premeditation & pondering well of these thinges which I am to doe, speake, or thinke: these be the wayes by which men do go in this life, therefore the remedy against hurtfull words & not only against hurtfull wordes, but against hurtfull deeds, hurtfull desires, or hurtful thoughts, is forethinking or premedita­tion of those thinges which I am to do, to thinke, or to desire: and this is the pro­per character of a man (vnlesse he will de­generate & become a beast) not to do any thinge rashly, but reflect his considerati­on those thinges that are to be done, & then if they stand with reason to do thē; if not, to leaue them vndone. And what I say of the worke is to be vnderstood also of our speach, of our desires, and other workes of our soule, will, or vnderstan­ding.

But in case that some are not able to premeditate all thinges which they are to doe or speake; truly there should be no man of wit and desirous of euerlasting [Page 167] saluation that would not euery day early [...] the mourning before he went about o­ [...]er temporall affayres recurre first vnto [...]od by prayer, and desire that his wayes, [...]is deeds, his wordes, his desires, his thoughts may be directed to the glory of God and health of his soule: & then whē the day is ended before he go to bedd to sleep to discusse his conscience & cal him­selfe to an account whether he haue offen­ded God by thought, word, deed, or de­sire, and if he fynd any offence of God es­pecially mortall, let him not shut his eyes to sleep vntill he be reconciled vnto God by true repentance, making a firme and set purpose to keep his wayes that he of­fend not in his tongue, or in his workes, or in his desires. And this may suffice for the custody of the tongue.

Touching the sense of hearing litle is to be sayd, Hearing. for the tongue brideled by reason that it breake not forth into bad wordes, there is nothing that can hurt the sense of hearing. Foure sorts of wordes there be against which the dore of our hearing is to be shut, least by our eares they enter so farre as to corrupt the hart: the first of which are the wordes that are s [...]o­ken [Page 168] against faith, which (such is the cu­riosity of men) are not vnwillingly heard, and yet if they once penetrate they take [...] way fayth from our harts, which is the root and beginning of all our spirituall good: and amongst these wordes of incr [...] ­dulity none are more hurtefull then the wordes of such as eyther deny the proui­dence of God, or the immortality of the soule of man: for these wordes do not so much make heretikes as Atheists, and lay open a wide gappe to all villanyes. Ano­ther kind of these words is in detractions, which quite destroy all fraternall charity, & are greedily heard but of the curious ō ­ly, Psal. 100. for holy Dauid who was a man accor­ding to the hart of God saith in the psalm, I persecuted him who did secretly detract his neigh­bour; & for that detractions do very often happen to be table-talke, Saint Augustine to preuent this abuse at his owne table, as re­counteth Possidius in his life, caused these two verses to be written in the wal ouer,

The third kinde of ill wordes are such as be adulatory, for flattering speeches all men do heare willingly, and yet they breed animosity and pride; and pride is the Queene of all vices and most repug­nant against God. The fourth kind is of ill wordes that belonge vnto carnality, & consisteth in amorous speeches; and lasci­uious or wanton songes, then which by the louers of this world no thing is heard with more delight, when as no­thinge is more hurtefull or dange­rous: these wanton songs are like vn­to the songes of Mermaydes recoun­ted by Poets which for no other end delighted the passengers then that they might therby cast them into the sea & de­uoure them.

Against all these dangerous darts one soueraigne remedy is to haue honest and good friends, and withall care to be separated from the wicked; for such as are strangers dare not detract, speake any he­resy, flattering or lasciuious speeches vn­to them whome before they neuer saw, or haue no aquaintance withall. And there­fore Salomon instructing his sonne in the beginning of his Prouerbes, setteth downe [Page 170] his first lesson in these wordes: Audi fili &c. My sonne heare the instruction of thy Fa­ther: if synners shall seduce thee yeild not vnto them, if they shall say come with vs, let vs lay snares for bloud, let vs lay a trap against the innocent, let vs swallow him like hell aliue, and whole as one descen­ding into the lake, we shall fynde all pre­tious substance, we shall fill our howses with spoiles, cast in thy lot with vs, let there be but one purse amongst vs. My son walke not with them, they ly in wait for their owne bloud, and machinate deceits against their owne soules. So he, and this counsaile of a most wise man can easily re­medy this sense of hearings that a man be not led away with ill wordes, especially if we add thereunto that sentence of our Sauiour who was more wise then Salomon, who plainly sayth that, The enemyes of a man are those who dwell within him. And so much of hearing.

Smelling.The third sense is Smelling of which I shall not need to speak because this sense respecteth only sweet odours which haue no great power to hurt the mynde, and pretious perfumes are not for all but con­cerne a very few, such as are common, as [Page 171] of flowers, roses, [...]llyes, and the like, are harmelesse, and may be vsed without of­fence.

The fourth sense is of Tasting; Tasting. the synnes that enter in at this gate to destroy the soule generally speaking are two, glut­tony and drunkennes, but from these two many more do flow, and of both the one and the other we haue one admonition of our Sauiour in Saint Luke: Luc. 21. See that your harts be not ouercharged with gluttony and drunkennes; and another of the Apostle, not in bankettings and drunkennes. And these two synnes in the Scriptures are reckoned among the mor­tall or deadly crymes by Saint Paul in his epistle to the Galathians saying: Rom. 13. The workes of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, vn­cleannes, lasciuiousnes, seruings of Idolls, witch­crafts, murthers, drunkennes, banquettings, & the like, which as I haue foretold you so do I againe for­tell that they which do such things shall not possesse the Kingdome of God. Neither is this alone the punishment of these sins; but besides, this surfet and drunkennes do ouercharg mens harts in such manner, that they are not able to rise vp to thinke and im­brace diuine and spirituall things, which our Sauiour hath thaught vs, and S, Basil [Page 172] in an oration of fasting doth explicate by two most fit similituds; the first of the su [...] and vapours; for as the grosse vapou [...] which ascēd out of moyst places do with their clowdes so couer the heauen as they hinder the beames of the sunne from shi­ning on the earth, so out of gluttony and drunkennes there are raised vp certeyne smokes and vapours in vs, which darken the heauen of our vnderstanding, & take frō vs the heauenly beames of Gods grace The other similitud is drawn from smoke and bees, for as bees, the cunning artifi­cers of hony, are driuen out of their hiues with smoke; so likewise the wisdome of God which like vnto a bee doth engender in our myndes the hony of vertues, of grace, and heauenly comforts is no wayes so soone expelled as by the smoke of glut­tony & drunkennes.

Adde hereunto that gluttony and drunkennes are both very hurtfull to our corporall health. Antiphanes a most skilfull Phisitian, as Clemens Alexandrius reporteth, did affirme that there was but one cause of all sickenesses, Lib. 2. Ped. to wit, multitude & vari­ety of meates: and on the other side S. Ba­sil iudged it fit to call abstinence the mother [Page 173] of good health. And it is the custome euery where of Phisitians, first to prescribe ab­stinence to the sicke, and commaund them to forbeare from flesh and wyne; yea this riotous surfet of meat and drinke is not only hurtfull vnto the body and soule, but also to our temporall estate and substance, for this excesse of feeding hath made ma­ny rich men to become poore, and finally it depriueth the poore and needy from the almes of rich, for such as are not contented with moderate diet, do easily wast al their goods on their own voluptuous pleasures, that nothing is left to giue to the poore, and that of the Apostle is fulfilled, one doth hunger, & the other is drunke.

But leauing this let vs come to the remedyes, the first of which may be the e­xample of al the Saints of God: I omit ho­ly Hermits and Monkes of whome S. Hie­rome writeth to Eustochium that to eate any sod meat was held for lasciuious diet. De custod. Virginit. ad Eusto [...]. I o­mit Saint Ambrose who as writeth Paulinus in his life, did fast euery day but on great holydayes and sundayes; I omit S. Augustine who as writeth Possidius had alwayes for himselfe set one the table pulse, as beanes, pease &c. and herbes, and sometimes for [Page 174] his guests, or such as were sicke, flesh. I omit all other Saints, let this suffice tha [...] if any one attentiuely consider what he w [...] is Lord and Father of all did doe when he tooke vpon him the office of feeding the people in the desert, without doubt he sh [...]l need no other Maister to teach him this art of sobriety, for God who is only po­werfull, only wise, and only good, who could, and knew, and would well prouide for his beloued people, he I say for fourty yeares togeather did rayne them Manna from heauen, and caused water to flowe out of the rocke. This Manna was lik a cake made of meale and hony, as is sayd in the booke of Exodus: behold with what sobrie­ty our most wise & prouident Lord wold haue his people to dyne & sup: a cake was their meate, water their drinke, and yet were all in health, all sound vntill such tyme as they began to desire flesh.

The sonne of this euerliuing Father Christ Iesus in whom were All the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of God, Coloss. 2. imitating the former example, Ioan. 6. whereas he would make a dinner and supper for many thou­sands of his auditour, he layd before them pieces of bread and fish, & drink of water, [Page 175] and this he did not only whiles yet he re­mained in this mortall life, but also after his resurrection when as there was giuen him all power in heauen and in earth, Matt. vlt. he made a dinner for his Apostles at the sea side of a little bread and fish, Ioan. 21. and there is no men­tion there of wyne or any other thinge: o how farre are the counsayles of God differ­ent from counsailes of men! The King of heauen taketh pleasure in the simplicity of the earth, is delighted with sobriety, & specially carefull for the enriching, filling, and cherishing of our soule: and yet men had rather giue care vnto their owne cō ­cupiscence, vnto the diuel their enemy thē vnto God, Philip vnlesse we conclude with the Apostle, that the God of carnall men is no other but their belly.

There resteth the sense of touching Touching. which of all the rest is most grosse, & yet most quicke and full of life: by this sense the works of the flesh do enter in to defile our soule and corrupt others, which the B. Apostle recounteth saying: The workes of the flesh are manifest which are fornication, vncleannes, lasciuiousnes. So as in three words he expres­sed all the kindes of leachery, neyther is it needfull to proceed further in the explica­tion [Page 176] of these thinges which should rather be vnknown amongst Christians, & their names not so much as once to be heard o [...] for so sayth the same Apostle writing vn­to the Ephesians: Let not fornication or any vn­cleannes be named amongst you, Ephes. 5. as it becomme [...] Saints.

These remedyes occur vnto me a­gainst all the synnes in this kinde, & they a [...]e in māner the same wherwith Phisitiās doe vse to cure the sicke. First they begin with fasting or abstinence, they forbid such as fall sicke the eating of flesh, and drinking of wine: the selfe same must he do that is giuen to carnall lust, abstaine I say from ouer liberall diet, and excesse in drinking: the same did Saint Paul prescribe vnto Timothy saying: Vse a little wyne for your stomacke, and for your frequent infirmityes: That is to say, vse wine for the weaknesse of your stomacke, but a little, to auoyd lust for in wine is leachery. Againe the Phisitians do assigne bitter potions, Ephes. 5. letting of bloud and the like, which are repugnant to na­ture: 1. Cor. 9. so holy men did say with the Apostle, I do chastize my body and bringe it into subiection least whiles I preach to others I become reprobat my selfe: hence it comes that the ancient Her­mites [Page 177] and monks did institute new orders [...]f life quite repugnant to the delights and [...]leasures of the flesh, in fastings, in wat­chings, in lying one the ground, in disci­ [...]lins, in haire-cloths, not for hate of their [...]ody, but for hate of their rebellious flesh; out of many I will alleadge one example.

Saint Hilarion as testifyeth Saint Hierome in his life when he was tempted with lasciuious thoughts, Ego, sayth he, speaking to his body, faciam, vt non &c. I will take order that thou mayest not kicke, I will not feed thee with barley but with straw, I will make thee to starue for hunger & thirst, I will loade thee well with weight, I will follow thee through heate and could, that thou mayest thinke more vpon thy meate then vpon wan­ [...]onnes. So he. Besides this the Phisitians appoint moderate exercise of the body as walking, playi [...]g at ball, or the like to to preserue health, and this also doth much help for the health of the soule: that is to say, if a man desirous of euerlasting saluation bestow one houre euery day in meditating on the mysteryes of our re­demption, or on the foure last thinges death, iudgement, heauen, and hell, or in [Page 178] some such like arguments of deuotion, if the meditatiō succeed not as we would, [...]t least let him bestow some tyme euery da [...] in reading the holy Scriptures, or othe [...] spirituall bookes, or else in the liues of Saints.

Finally to ouercome all the tenta­tions of the flesh and synnes of leachery, the only and most effectuall remedy is to auoid idlenes, for none is so much subiect vnto filthy thoughts as he who hat [...] nothing to do, and bestowes his tyme i [...] loking on such as walke vp and down be­fore his window, or in talking with his frinds, or in play and gaming. And againe none are more free from impure thoughts then such as for whole days togeather are imployed in tilling the ground, or conti­nuall exercise in other occupations, for which cause our Lord and maister Christ did chuse poore parents that they might get their liuing by their owne labour, and himselfe also before he would vn­dertake the labour of preaching, would haue his supposed Father to be a Carpen­ter, and did help him to labour in t [...] same trade, for the people sayd of him, I [...] not this the Carpenter the Sonne of Mary? This [Page 179] haue I thought good to adioyn in the end of this booke that artificers and husband­men may not repent them of their state of life, seeing that the wisdome God chose the same state for himselfe and for his mo­ther, and for the holy man Ioseph his sup­posed Father, not for that they needed this remedy, but that they might warne vs that are weake to fly all sloth in case we will auoyd many other synnes.

CHAP. I. Of the first Precept of dying well, when our death is neere, which is of the Meditation of Death.

WE deuided in the beginning this Art of dying well into two Partes; in the first of which are set downe those precepts of dying well which belong vnto that tyme in which Death might seeme to be further off: in this other [Page 182] which we haue now in hand, we will lay downe those which apperteyne vn [...]o Death when it is present or neere at hand Death is said to be at hand or expecting v [...] at the gate, when we are eyther worne out with old age, the Apostle telling v [...] Quod antiquatur & senescit, prope interitum est, That which groweth auncient & waxeth old is neere vnto death or destruction; Heb. 8. or else are taken with some great sicknes & in the iudgement of Phisitians very dange­rous whether this do befall an old man or a young, a youth or a child. Of this second ranke it seemes to vs the first precept to be the meditatiō of death, for although Death be thought vpon and considered with ne­uer so great diligence or attention whiles we are in our youthfull yeares, yet doth it very little moue vs, because we apprehend it as farre off, and therefore lesse dreadfull; but when we see it so present as it may in a manner be felt with our handes, then it stirreth vs vp indeed, and the considerati­on thereof is very profitable: all Artes are better attayned by practise then by teach­ing: and those who (if not more often) did twice at least dye, as Saint Christine, & Drithelmus the English man of whome I [Page 183] made mention in my booke De gemnitu Co­ [...]umbae (of the mourning of the Doue) the noble woman raysed by Saint Malachy, of whome I shall speake in the 8. chapter, and that Hermite whose history Climacus doth relate, of whome also we in the end of this Chapter will say somewhat, it is euident that they died cheerfully; but for vs who are permitted to dye but once, there is no better way then to meditate & to thinke often of what is done, or to be done in that houre.

First then we are to thinke that then there shalbe a separation made of the soule from the body, & that neyther the soule is to be extinguished, nor the body to fall & be resolued to dust without hope of rising againe and being reunited vnto the soule, for in case the soule should be annihilated and the body be subiect to eternal corrup­tion as the Atheists do surmize, then shold they seeme to haue spoken well who con­temned death and sayd: Edamus & bibamus, eras enim moriemur: Let vs eate, let vs drink for to morrow we shall dye: which pro­uerbe is most ancient as we may see in the Prophet I say, Cap. 22. Cap. 15. and in the first of S. Paul to the Corinthians: and surely there are some [Page 184] euen amongst Christians who in wordes say that they do belieue, but deny it by their deeds, which may be proued out [...] this principle: that very many euen i [...] their old decrepit age neuer thinke vpon death, as though that they were neuer [...] dye, or as if they thought with the death of the body, the soule also did perish and resolue to nothing; but whatsoeuer such men do dreame, the separation of the body from the soule as it were of th [...] spouse from her husband is but an absenc [...] for a while, not a perpetuall diuorce, for the soule is immortall, and the flesh with­out all doubt shall rise againe at the later day.

We must therefore if we be Chri­stians, and haue any wit, dayly thinke of death at hand: in this standeth the totall summe of all our weale, that we dye well. In this life the passage is not hard fro [...] vertue to vice, and with the grace of God from vice vnto vertue; for he who is now heir of the Kingdom of God may to mor­row by synne fall from the inheritance o [...] God and become guilty of hell fire; & co [...] ­trarywise he who is a slaue of the Diuell may be deliuered from that bondage, and [Page 185] be againe enrolled amongst the children [...]f God and heyres of the heauenly King­ [...]ome. But he who dyes the enemy of God [...]nd guilty of euerl [...]sting fire, he shall al­wayes remayne the enemy of God, & tyed to these torments: and on the other side he who dyeth the friend of God, and heir of the Kingdome of heauen shall neuer fall from grace and that most excellent glory: wherefore all our felici [...]y or infelicity de­pendeth vpō our good or bad death; who then that hath not lost all is wit and iud­gement will aduenture to depart out of this life vntill withall diligence he hath learned, and prepared also himselfe to dye well.

Another consideratiō & that most pro­fitable touching death may be to conceaue well, that although, death be most certeyn the prophet worthily demaunding; VVho is the man that liueth and shall not see death? Psal. 88. with whome Saint Paul agreeth, saying, It is de­creed for all men once to dye; Heb. 9. Yet is there no­thing more vncerteyne then the day and houre of our death: which the Scripture cleerly pronounceth saying, VVatch, because that you do not know the day nor houre: many are taken away in their infancy, some arryue [Page 186] arryue vnto crooked old age, some dy [...] young, some at matures yeares, and which is more miserable, some do dy so sodēly as they haue no leasure left then to call vpo [...] God, or to commend their soules to his mercy: and these thinges doth the diui [...] prouidence of God according to the trea­sures of his wisdome for no other cause ordeyne after this manner, but to the end that none of his elected children and ser­uaunts should presume, or be so hardy as to remayne for one moment plunged i [...] the durt of deadly synne: and therefore whosoeuer thou be that doest reade thes [...] thinges if perhaps thy conscience giue te­stimony against thee of a deadly synne, be not so bold as to stay till to morrow in it, nor yet to expect till the end of this day or houre, but presently with a contrite and humble hart before God, detest and be sorrowfull for the same.

The third Consideration no lesse profitable then the former may be, if in the morning before thou go out to thy daily busines, & at night before thou goest to bed, least soden death should tak [...] thee at vnawares, that thou diligently ex­amin thy conscience what thou hast done [Page 187] the night past, what the day immediately [...]efore, especially whether there be any [...]ing that may seeme a deadly syn; and if [...]ou find nothing yield thanks vnto God [...]e Authour of all good; and it thou fynd [...]y thinge committed against God seri­ [...]usly repent thee from thy hart, and at the [...]rst occasiō prostrating thy selfe at the feet of the Priest confesse the same, receaue willingly the pennance imposed, & faith­fully performe it: [...]his method of exami­ [...]ing our selues twice in the day, wonder­ [...]ully helpeth that death neuer take vs hēce [...]nprouided.

The fourth consideration may be that which Ecclesiasticus setteth downe that: In euery thinge thou doest remember the last things [...]nd thou shalt neuer synne. For how can he o [...] ­ [...]end in any worke who first doth weigh [...]ll his works in the ballance of Gods iud­gement as they shalbe weighed at his death? To which purpose we may apply that remarkeable saying of a man twice dead, which Climacus in his booke entitu­ [...]ed the Ladder, recoūteth: for thus he saith: Grad. 6. Non omittā &c. I wil not pretermit to recoūt the history of that Anchoret who dwelled in Choreb: this man after that he had liued [Page 188] most negligently for a longe tyme togeather, and had, had no care at al of his soule taken at length with sicknes and by [...] ­nes with the death, when as he was p [...] ­fectly departed, after the space of an ho [...] the soule retourned againe to the bod [...] [...] then he desired vs that were present [...] incontinently we would all depart, [...] then stopping vp the dore of his cell wi [...] stones he remained there for twelue year [...], neuer speaking one word to any, or [...] tasting any other thing then bread & w [...] ­ter, and sitting with great amazement [...] reuolued in his mynd the thinges whi [...] in the tyme of his departure he had seene and that with so stedfast apprehension a [...] he neuer changed his countenāce, but re­mayning alwayes astonished he shed in si­lence great abundance of teares; but when the tyme of his departure was at ha [...], breaking downe the wall and opening the dore we went in vnto him, and humbly intreating him to speake somewhat for our instruction; this only we heard fro [...] him: Nemo qui reuerà mortis memoriam agn [...] ­rit peccare vmquam poterit: No man who in­deed shall throughly conceaue the remem­brance of death, can euer synne. Hither­to [Page 189] Climacus. Now let the Reader consider [...]ell and know that this is a true history [...]d no fiction or fable, written by one [...]ho was a very holy man, and he wrote [...] otherwise then he saw with his owne [...]s, & heard with his eares.

Out of which it is easy to perceaue [...]w important a thinge it is daily to me­ [...]ate vpon death, & alwayes to haue the s [...]e present in our remembrance: this mā had beene before very negligent in procu­ring his owne saluation, but out of the great mercy of God he tasted death and ri­si [...]g againe vnto life for twelue yeares to­geather he did daily thinke vpon death, & moreouer bewayled his synnes with con­ [...]i [...]uall teares, and those thinges which be­ [...]e his first death he accounted light, and [...]iall matters; hauing tasted the bitter­ [...] of death he iudged to be most grieuous, [...]nd such as required the penitential teares [...]welue yeares to blot thē out. This then [...]he true commentary of these wordes of [...] Scripture, Remember the last thinges (to wit [...]th, iudgement, heauen, and hell) and [...] shalt neuer synne; & if the remembrance [...] one only of these foure was so auailable [...] this Monke, as that for twelue yeares [Page 190] pennance he redeemed the euerlasting to [...] ment of hellfyre, and gayned the glory [...] a neuer ending Kingdome, what will [...] perpetuall memory of al foure work in [...] in case we wold exercise our selues theri [...] I would to God men would but know [...] try this short and compendious way to [...] great and vnspeakable a gaine.

CHAP. II. Of the second Precept of dying well, whe [...] our Death is neere, which is of the last day of Iudgment.

THE second of the foure last thinges i [...] Iudgment which is twofold, the one particuler in which euery soule in parti­culer is iudged at the departure from the body; the other generall which shal be of altogeather in the later day: both are most horrible and dreadfull vnto the wicked; delightfull and glorious vnto the good And often and attentiuely to thinke of t [...] one and other is most profitable for s [...] as desire to atteyne a happy death. No [...] can doubt but that the particuler Iudge­ment [Page 191] of euery man alone is to be made pre­ [...]ntly at his death; when as in the Coun­ [...]ell of Florence it is declared against the he­ [...]etiks that such as depart out of this life in [...]eadly sinne streight wayes to descend in­ [...]o hell fire; and those who dye out of the [...]tate of deadly synne, but with the debt of [...]emporal punishment to be caried to pur­gatory: and finally such as after baptisme are free from synne, and debt of punish­ment presently to ascend into heauen to receaue euerlasting felicity.

And it is very credible as Deuines do hold, S. Tho. in 4. dist. 47. Dom. Soto in 4. dist. 45. the iudiciall sentence of Christ eyther to be signifyed vnto them by An­gells or to be reuealed immediately vnto their soules by God himselfe: and the soules of the vertuous guarded by Angells either to ascend into heauen or to descend into Purgatory; but the soules of the dā ­ned to be carryed by the Diuells and by them to be cast headlong into hell. This iudgement may be dispatched in a mo­ment because the Iudge is present, who being God and man according to his di­uine nature is euery where, and as he is man doth know all things. For most tru­ly did Saint Peter say vnto our Sauiour. [Page 191] Domine tu omnia nosti, Ioan. 21. O Lord thou know­est all thinges: the accuser which is the Diuell, called in the Apocalips, Accusator fra­trum nostrorum, the accuser of our brethren is at hand & he runneth to such as are sick and ready to dye as a wolfe, lion, or dogg to his prey. The witnes is also ready the cōscience it selfe of the soule which now separated from the body can no more be deceaued by ignorance or obliuion, but throughly knoweth it selfe, and inconti­nently seeth whether it be gratefull, or hatefull vnto God, and therefore nothing hindereth but that this iudgement may presently be made and put in execution: this iudgement is to be called priuate, if it be compared with the iudgement at the the later day which shalbe publike & ge­nerall before all the Angells and men of the world.

But heere briefly is to be yelded a reason why it is required that such shold be iudged againe, who not only are iud­ged already but are also eyther punished in hell, [...] rewarded in heauen: for this point no [...] one reason alone but six may b [...] allead [...]. The first is in respect of God, for in this li [...] there want not many who see­ing [Page 193] many vertuous men to be vniustly af­ [...]licted and punished by the wicked, & on [...]he other side many wicked mē to abound with temporall wealth & prosperityes do [...]uspect that eyther God doth not see these [...]hinges, or else that he hath no care of [...]hem: therefore that all mankind may [...]now this world to be most prudently [...]uyded by God, he hath determined at [...]he later day, before all the Angells and men to manifest his iustice, and to render vnto euery man according to his deserts; rewards to the good, punishments to the wicked, Apoc. 16. that all may be compelled to a­uouch and say Iustus es Domine, vera & iusta iudicia tua: thou art iust o Lord & thy Iud­gements are true and iust.

2 The second reason is, that Christ who before men was so vniustly iudged [...]nd suffered so many grieuous and most vnworthy torments, may be seene before all the world in his high throne to iudge all synners, to the end that it may be ful­filled which is written in the booke of Iob: Iob. 16. Thy cause is iudged as the cause of a wicked mā, thou shalt receaue or take to thy selfe both cause and Iudgement; And therefore the ignomi­nious shame of the passion of the sonne of [Page 194] God, shall be iustly recompensed with the glory of his being Iudge, and maiestical­ly sitting in the Theatre of whole world, and then shalbe fulfilled that of the Apo­stle, At the name of Iesus, let euery knee be bow­ed, of all that are in heauen, in earth, a [...] hell.

3 The third reason is that the reward of the good may be full and entiere: the reward of vertue is honour and glory, & for that many men for their vertue most excellent haue openly beene put to death as wicked malefactours, it is meete that their vertue and innocency should be de­clared in that open Court and Theatre of the world. To this ranke the holy Martirs of God do specially apperteyne, who shall there appeare triumphantly crowned be­fore the eyes of their persecutours Pagans or heretiks, Princes or Kings, or of what degree soeuer.

4 The fourth reason is for the con­fusion of hypocrites, for there are some who dye with the opinion of Sanctity, wheras indeed they are impure and wicked, as are all heretikes, Caluinists, A [...] ­baptists and the like, and such were they of whome Saint Cyprian writeth in his [Page 195] booke of the vnity of the Church: Ardeant [...]icet flāmis &c. Let them burne in flames, & [...]et them leese their liues eyther by the fire [...]r beasts, that death of theirs shall not be [...]he crowne of faith, but the punishment [...]f their perfidiousnes: it shall not be estee­med the glorious issue of religious vertue, [...]ut a wicked or desperate death. So he. Therfore it is necessary that the hipocri­ [...]y of seducers or seduced people be at least detested and layed open in the vniuersall Iudgement, which in the particuler can­not so conueniently be done.

5 The fifth reason is, that the soules & bodyes may be iudged both togeather, for in the particuler iudgement only the soules are iudged, and receaue eyther re­ward or punishment, but in the generall [...]udgement, the whole men must appeare both in soule and body, and because the soules haue synned togeather with the bo­dyes, or else haue done well and merited, so likewise is it expedient that after the resurrection the soules receaue togeather with their bodyes eyther glory or confu­sion, happines or woe, ioy or torment.

6 To conclude, the sixth and last rea­ [...]on is, that not only the good or bad deeds [Page 196] which we haue don in this life may haue their rewards or punishments, but also the good or il which do proceed from [...] good or bad workes, and are propagated, spread, and continued vnto the end of the world, that such in the end of the wo [...]d may haue their due praise or reproofe.

And to make this more plaine we will expresse it by some examples, there want not good men who do build hospi­talls, or monasteryes, or schooles in which many sicke recouer their health, many re­ligious are trayned vp in vertue, many schollers are instructed in learning, & thes [...] works well founded continew for a long tyme: some write bookes profitable for the spreading abroad of wisdome, of artes, of vertue, of all good actions, by which many in all ages do profit, and help their neighbours. On the other side there b [...] many lewd men who with their wāto [...] or seditious, or hereticall books do seduce and destroy many, and building vp Thea­ters for Fencers, or Stageplayers, or the like do hurt their neighbours for a long time after their death: wherfor seing th [...] in the end of the world, all process [...] shall haue also an end, and [...]he meritt [...] [Page 197] and demeritts of all shalbe finished, it is very meet that in that day of all others which euer were from the beginning of the world most remarkable, the defi­nitiue sētence of the most suprem power­ful, & most iust iudge be deliuered, to end, decide, & determyne all.

These are the causes why besides the particuler iudgment which shall be made in the death of euery particuler man; there is another generall to be expected in the end of the world. It remayneth now to explicate who shall be the Iudge in this dreadful iudgement from whence he shal come, to what place he shall come, whom he shall iudge and what shall be the sen­tence. The Iudge, without al doubt shalbe our Lord Iesus Christ, Matt. 25. Act. 10. for thus himselfe speaketh in S. Matthew: VVhen the Sonne of man shall come in his maiesty, & all his Angells with him, then he shall fit on the seat of his maiesty and all na­tions shalbe gathered togeather before him, and the rest which followeth. The same is con­firmed by the Apostles Saint Peter, Saint Paul and Saint Iohn. Saint Peter sayth in the Acts: It is he who is appointed Iudge of the liuing and dead. Saint Paul in the same Acts: Act. 17. God hath appointed a day in which he is to iudge the [Page 198] would in iustice, by the man whome he hath ordey­ned raising him from death. Ioan. 5. S. Iohn thus wri­teth in his Ghospell, The (Father) hath gi­uen him power to do iustice, because he is the Sonne of man. And in another place, The Father iudgeth not any man, but hath giuen all iudgement to the Sonne.

The place from whence he shal come to iudgement is from heauen, and he shall come as farre as the ayre neere vnto the earth that he may be seene and heard of all that shal be on the earth vnder him. Heare I pray Christ himselfe in Saint Matthew; You shall see the Son of man comming in the clowds of heauen. 1. Thess. 4. Heare the Apostle Saint Paul wri­ting vnto the Thessalonians: VVe shalbe taken vp with them to meet with Christ in the ayre; Ioel. 3. And the same did the Prophet Ioel foretell say­ing; All nations shalbe gathered togeather, and I will bring them into the vale of Iosaphat, & there will I pleade with them: Out of the wordes, in­to the vale of Iosaphat, we may well gather this iudgement to be the greatest that euer was, for the hebrue word Iosaphat signifyes properly the iudgement of God: and for that the vale of Iosaphat is neere vnto Hierusalem (at the East side of the Temple, as S. Hie­rome testifyeth in his Commentary on the [Page 199] third chapter of Ioel) then which no place can be more fit for so great a iudgement, for from thence is seen Hierusalem whē our Lord did preach, and foretold that the last iudgement should be from thence: also is seene mount Caluary where Christ for the redemption of mankynd was nayled on the Crosse, and mount Oliuet from whence as a Conquerour, he ascended into hea­uen.

To this place Christ shall come in the clouds of heauen with al his Angels which are at the least thousands of thousands, & ten thousand hundred thousands, Daniel 7. as Da­niel writeth; I say at least, for in the opini­on of Saint Denis Areopagita, and S. Thomas the number of holy Angells exceeds the number of all corporall things; there also will be present with Christ the King, all the multitude of Saints, in glorious bo­dyes, of whome it is sayd in the Apocalips: I saw a great multitude which no man was able to count of all Nations, tribes and tongues standing be­fore the throne.

There will be then in this iudge­ment such a spectacle as the like was ne­uer from the beginning of the world, nor shalbe againe: for all the wicked shall be [Page 200] guilty of hel fire who in their resumed [...]o­dyes shall stand naked and dolefull wh [...] excessiue and vncredible griefe on th [...] arth, brought by the Angells from a [...] places of the world to the vale of Iosaph [...] and places adioyning, and the number [...] such shall be farre greater then the num­ber of Saints, for our Lord himselfe hath sayd; Matth. 7. many are called few are chosen: and more plainly; narrow is the way that leadeth vnto lif [...] and few there be that do fyn [...]e it. The way [...] large that leadeth to perdition and many there be that enter by the same: which i [...] it be true, as it is most certeyne, that t [...] great multitude of Saints cannot be num­bred, how much lesse can be numbred the multitude of the reprobate. To these also shall be adioyned the wicked spirits who also are inumerable.

Those thinges thus disposed before the sentence of the Iudge be pronounced, the books of accounts will be opened as appears by Daniel & Saint Iohn: Daniel 7. Apoc. 20. what those bookes are which shalbe opened in this iudgement Saint Paul doth explicate to the Corinthians saying: Do not ye iudge before the tyme vntill our Lord come, 1. Cor. 4. who will bring to light the hidden thinges of darkenes, and make manifest [Page 201] the Counsayles of harts: For God will powre [...]orth such a light, that in the same all the [...]onsciences of wicked men may be seene, [...]ea all that shall be in that Theatre or [...]ublike spectacle shall see the consciences [...]f all men, and thereby their deeds, their words, their thoughts, their desirs. O what a spectacle will this be to see all the cons­ciences of hypocrites of lyers, of traytours of cauillours who made no accoūt to per­iure themselues by all the sacred thinges they cold name. By out of this publishing of the sinnes and villanies of al men wher­by they will come to know the sentence before it be giuen, that will follow which we read in the Apocalips: Reges terrae &c. Apoc. 6. The Kings of the earth and Princes, and Tri­bunes, and Rich men, and Captaines, & bond men and free shall hide themselues in caues and in the rocks of the mountaynes, and they shall say vnto the mountaynes & rockes fall vpon vs, and hide vs from the face of him that sitteth on the throne and from the wrath of the Lambe, because the great day of theirs is come, and who shalbe able to stand? And the same hath our Saui­our foretold in the Ghospell when as he caryed the Crosse on his sholders speaking [Page 202] vnto the vertuous womē that beheld him: Daughters of Ierusalem weep not ouer me but [...] ouer your selues and your children, for behol [...] dayes shall come in which they shall say, Luc. 23. Blessed [...] the barren and the wombes that haue not borne [...] the papps that haue not giuen sucke: then they s [...] beginne to say vnto the mountaynes, fall vpon vs, a [...] to the hills couer vs: Last of all the sentence shall be pronounced by the Iudge, Venite be­nedicti, ite maledicti, come you Blessed, de­part you cursed; Matth. 25. and the good shall go int [...] euerlasting life, and the wicked into euer­lasting fire.

And now I beseech my Readers to thinke, and thinke agayne both often and with attention that themselues also shall be present in this Theatre, & the [...]fore now whiles they haue tyme let them seriously deliberate what is to be done; neyther let them obiect that the day of iudgement is farre of and it were bootles to trouble o [...] afflict themselues so long before the tyme, as if the day of iudgement were at hand: for although this generall iudgement be not so neere, yet is not the particuler farre of but at hand and expectes vs at the gate: and looke what the sentence shalbe of the particuler iudgement the same stalbe also [Page 203] of [...]e generall: he therefore that is wise [...]ht so to prepare himselfe to heare the [...]en [...]e of Gods iudgement, as though it [...]e to day or to morrow to be deliue­ [...], for the houre of this iudgement is no [...]u [...]ther of then the houre of our death, & [...]he houre of death from an old man, or who is grieuously sicke cannot be farre of: therefore whiles we expect this great iud­gement in which standeth all our hope or ruine, we must earnestly call vpon our ad­uocate who is the Iudge himselfe. 1. Ioan. 2. VVe haue an aduocat Iesus Christ the iust, as S. Iohn teach­eth vs, & moreouer to sollicite the frendes o [...] the Aduocate, & first of all the most be­n [...]gne Virgin the Mother of our Aduocat, then the Angels and holy Saints: neyther is [...] conuenient that we come to our Aduocat or his friends with empty words only, but also with gifts, for the Saints refuse not gifts which auaile them nothing but the poore mēbers of Iesus Christ, for they be­ing blessed for all eternity in heauen wāt none of our temporall commodityes on earth.

CHAP. III. Of the third Precept of the A [...] of dy [...] well, when our Death is neere which is of Hell.

AFTER the consideration of death [...] Iudgment, it is also conuenient [...] thinke with earnest attention on the p [...] nishments of Hell, and ioyes of hea [...] for of the foure last thinges these are the two last of all, and only euerlasting: of which two Christ being the Iudge ey­ther the one or the other will befall vnto euery man; and these two are so contra­ry both in nature and their effects, as that the one maketh vs most miserable, the o­ther most happy: but for that we haue written of both these in the booke of the Ascending of our mynde vnto God towards the end, and of the Ioyes of the ce­lestiall Paradise in a whole booke of that argument, entituled of The eter­nall felicity of Saints, and of the tor­ments of hell in the second booke of The mourning of the Doue, and of the good [Page 205] and profit, we reape by teares, and finally [...] all the foure last thinges in our Latin [...]r [...]ons; and what occurred touching [...]is subiect we did then both deliuer to [...]e people, and left in writing, I iudge it best in this place to touch the heades of matters already treated whereon a man may profitably entertayne his thoughts [...]hiles he expecteth death and with ioy prepare himselfe to receaue, and meet the same.

Therefore touching the most vn­ [...]ppy state of the damned to hell, three [...]ings occurre to be considered, the place, The Place. [...]e tyme, the manner. The place is depth; [...]e tyme eternity; the manner, without [...]easure. I say that the place is depth, for [...]at the reprobate persons for their great synnes committed against the diuine Ma­ie [...]y of God, shall haue their prison in the deepest place of the world, and which is furthest of from the pallace of God which is in heauen, for it was conuenient that the pride of the Diuell and of proud men shold be condemned to this ptnishment, Isa. 14. for the Diuell sayd, I will ascend into heauen, I will aduance my throne ouer the starrs, I will be like vnto the highest; but it was answered him, [Page 206] Thou shalt be throwne down into hell, into the depth of the lake; and the same shall befall vnto all such as are the children of pride.

Out of this first infelicity o [...] the re­probate there do flow three other, dar­kenesse, straitnes of place, and beggary. For whereas hell is in the center of the earth, to which place neyther the beames of the sunne, Moone, or starrs can pene­trate, there can be no [...]ight therein mor [...] then that which proceedeth frō the brim­stone fire which shall increase and not di­minish their torment, for by that darke & stinking light they shall see the Diuells their most cruell enemyes, they shall see al­so those men whether their frends or kins­folkes who were cause of their destructi­on; they shall finally see, their owne na­kednesse, their beggary, their bandes or chaines, their owne torments, all which perhaps they would desire not to see; cer­teine it is that any thing which may yeld them any comfort they shall neuer see. O darkenesse, not darkenesse! darkenesse to keep from our sight all that is good, no [...] darkenes in laying open before vs all that may be to our discomfort, affliction, and torment.

As for the straitnesse of place, that [...]halbe so great as it shall scarce be able to [...]ake the multitude of the damned bodyes. For if the whole earth seeme in compari­ [...]on of the vastnes of heauen to be as ( Pliny with morall Philosophers say) but an in­ [...]iuisible point or pricke of a pen, and the place of hell comprizeth not the whole [...]arth nor yet the one halfe, but the lower part and center only, and the number of the damned be farre greater then the num­ber of the saued, Apoc. 5. of which notwithstan­ding we reade in the Apocalyps, I saw a [...]reat multitude which no man was able to number; who can conceaue or imagine what straites there be in hell? Now let the great Kings Nabuchodonosor, Darius, A­lexander, Iulius Caesar and others whome the whole world cold not cōteyn whiles they liued on earth, go and enlarge if they can their straite habitation in hell, let them see with all their wit and power if they can procure to lye more at ease, or more mildely to be tormented. O vanity of vanityes! all mortall men labour to ex­tend and enlarge their fields, their ter­ritoryes, their Kingdomes, that for a short time they may vaunt and brag of the great [Page 208] multitude that is vnder their commaund and neuer thinke what a strait place ex­pects them in hell, where not for a short tyme, but for all tyme and eternity will they nill they, they must dwell.

Now what shall I say of the incre­dible beggary of the damned? All the in­habitants of hell want all thinges that be good and are only in the abundance and multitude of then to [...]ments rich: there shall the rich remember how they wallo­wed in their delights whiles they did liue on earth eyther in meate and drink, or in braue apparell, or in hunting or hauking or in gardens or vineyards, or in thea­ters, playes or other disportes, but all this remembrance shall increase their punish­ment, when they shall see themselues na­ked in hell, lying in torments, contem­ned and most miserably despoiled of all their wealth and prosperityes; then will they say that which we read in the booke of wisdom spoken in the person of such men: Sap. 5. VVhat hath our pride profited vs, and what haue we goften by the bragging of our wealth? All these thinges haue passed away like a shadow.

Let vs come to the second head which is Tyme. Tyme. How long shall this banishment [Page 209] of the damned endure in hell fire? I would [...]o God no longer then was the length of our mortall life. But there will be no cō ­ [...]arison betweene the one and the other [...]ndurance; for to tyme past there shall not succeed a set tyme to come, but eterni­ [...]y, which is beyond all tyme: therefore so [...]onge shall the wicked dwell in these tor­ments as long as the eternity of God him­selfe shal endure, which as it wanteth a be­ginning so is it without al end euerlasting: [...]he wicked shall be tormented so long as [...]he Saints shall be in glory, and the dam­ned shall dye as long as God shall liue, and vnlesse God do cease to be that which he [...]s (which is impossible) the reprobat shall neuer cease to be in the torments wherin they are. O deadly life, o mortall death! If thou be life, how doest thou kill? If thou be death, how doest thou endure? Truly thou art neyther to be tearmed de­ath nor life, for eyther of them haue some good thing in them; life hath rest, and death an end. But thou hast neyther rest nor end. What then shall we say, that thou art but the heape of all that euill which life and death haue in them? A great thing doubtles it were if we could but meanly [Page 210] vnderstand what the eternity of torments doth meane; this thought alone as a bridle would hinder all licentious liberty, & so make vs order and direct our liues [...]s we should all seeme not to be Christians only but most holy Anchorets, most vertuous & religious men.

There remayneth of three things proposed the māner Manner. only, which as we said is punishment without measure, for the punishment of hell is not one particuler punishment, but the heape of all punish­ments and torments togeather: for in hell al the powers of our vnderstanding, soule, and all the senses as well internall as ex­ternal are tormented, & that not by course or one after the other, but all these tor­ments like a torrent rush on altogeather violently vpon man: here on earth as we haue no triall or experience of the gene­rall ioyes or comforts of Saints, so neyther of the generall calamnityes of the dam­ned: for heere he that hath sore eyes, hath not commonly at the same tyme a king teeth, and he who is troubled with hi [...] teeth complaines not of his eyes, & so lik­wise in the rest of the senses and corporall infirmityes: but in hell at the selfe same [Page 211] tyme are susteined most cruell torments in all and euery member togeather, when as th [...] fire compasseth about the whole bo­dy, most seuerely torments it, and yet con­sumes it not. Goe you (sayth the Iudge) into euerlasting fire: and the Prophet Isay: Matth. 25. Isa. 66. their worme doth not dye, and their fire is not quenched: which wordes our Sauiour Christ thrice repeated in one chapter of Saint Marke the better to imprint in our harts the punish­ments of hell for durance to be eternall, Marc. 9. and for this eternity most cruelly to tor­ment the bodyes of the damned with in­credible griefe. Those who on earth by order of iustice haue seene a man bur­ned in the fire, haue beene scant able to endure the sight of that torment, which yet is dispatched as it were in a moment; but in case one neuer so faulty should en­dure for a whole day in the flames, cer­teinly none were able to endure so dre­adfull a spectacle. Let then euery one within himselfe make this discourse: if I cannot endure to see the burning of a man aliue, with whome I haue nothing to doe, how shall I be able to endure the burning of myne owne bodye for an howre, day, moneth, or yeare? And if [Page 212] this breed in me so great horrour and dread that I cannot so much as thinke v­pon it, with what intollerable folly doe I put my selfe in so great danger as to burn for euer? If we belieue not the matter to stand thus, where is our fayth? If we belieue it where is our iudgement? where is our wit? If we be Christians, if we belieue the holy Scriptures, how can it be that so great danger hanging ouer our head, we are not waked, and stirred vp to preuent it? He truly that will be saued let him enter into his hart, and hauing di­ligently weighed all these thinges in their owne ballance, let him so cary himselfe as that death may fynd him prepared, & hell fire not receaue him, but rather he may happily deserue to enter into the ioyes of his Lord.

CHAP. IIII. Of the fourth Precept of the Art of dying well, when our Death is neere, which is of the glory of the Saints.

THERE remain [...]th now the last of the four last things which is of the glory of Saints, in hādling wherof I wil briefly consider the three heads aboue mentioned in the former chapter of Hell torments, the place, the tyme, and the manner. The place of the glory of the Blessed Saints is the heauenly Paradise, the tyme eternity which hath no end, the manner is celesti­all happines exceeding all measure. Let vs beginne with the first.

The celestiall Paradise is a place Place. most high aboue all the mounteynes of the earth, aboue all the elements, aboue al the starrs and therefore the Kingdom of hea­uen is called in the Scriptures The howse of God, the citty of the great King, the citty of the li­uing God, the celestiall Ierusalem.

Out of the most high situation of [Page 214] this Citty we may easily perceaue that there are many priuiledges of this place aboue all the places of this world: firs [...] by how much this place is higher a [...]ongst worldly thinges created, by so much it is the greater and more capable for re­ceipt, for the forme or fashion of this world as it includeth heauens & elements as we see is crowned [...]n so much as all the whole earth is but the center thereof and the highest heauen or vtmost sphere in­cluding al the rest must needs be of infinit capacity, a thing so euident as it needeth no proofe.

The place therefore of the Saints as it is most high, so is it also most large and spatious; as on the contrary side the the place of the damned as it is of al others most low so is it also most streight as we haue sayd. Againe the place that is most high is also most pure, for certeinly the water is purer then the earth, the ayre thē the water, & fire then the ayre & hea­uen then fire, & the supreme heauen then that of the starrs: finally the place that i [...] most high is most secure, in so much as there can no harme reach thereunto, and no scourge as the psalmist sayth can come [...]l. 60. [Page 215] neere vnto his tabernacle.

First then the seate of Saints is most [...]m [...]le and large that they may freely go [...]rom o [...]e place to another: neither is there any danger least they be wearyed by their trauell: for hauing the gift of agility or nimblenes they can in a moment passe frō place to place without labour or difficul­ty, now what pleasure and delight will it be now to passe from the east to the west, now to transport our selues frō the south to the north, and in an instant to com­passe or go about the whole world whils the damned in hell being bound, hand & foot remayne for all eternity without fur­ther motion in the same place? and this felicity of Saints shall be the greater, for that they enioy that most pure refreshing in heauen, which neyther darkenes, nor clowdes, nor vapours, nor blasts of wynd nor any contagion can defile, whiles the most miserable captiues of hell are con­strayned to lye in the thicke darkenesse & smoke of that burning fornace, in that place so ouercharged with horrour with­out al hope or expectation of any though neuer so little refreshment.

Now what shal I say of that super­nall [Page 216] Citty, most safe from all trea [...]on and harme? Prayse Hierusalem our Lord, prayse [...]y God o Sion, Psal. 147. because he hath made stronge the b [...]s thy gates; This defending or making strong of the gates, doth not signify that whi [...] the wordes seeme to sound, for it is sa [...] in the Apocalips of the heauenly Citty; Et portae eius non claudentur per diem, nox enim no [...] erit illic. The gates thereof shall not be sh [...] in the daytime for there is no night there, and therefore God hath made stronge th [...] barrs of the gates because he hath made i [...] impregnable by reason of the height: and although the Dragon fought in heau [...] with Michael the Archangell, the cause thereof is not for that he ascended out of hell into heauen, but that being created in heauen before his confirmatiō in grace he rebelled against God, and puffed vp with pride affected his equality, but because t [...] heauenly Hierusalem is fonded in peace, [...] enemy of peace could not stay therin, but presētly like a flash of lightning fell from heauen, and after that time could neuer set his foot therein, & from that time no ma [...] is admitted to inhabit this Hierusalem vn­lesse he be grounded and perfectly confir­med in peace. And so much of the place.

Let vs speake now of the tyme: the time of inhabiting the celestiall Hierusalem is [...]ft [...] the fall of the diuell, Tyme. a tyme without [...]yme, that is an euerlasting durance with­out the enterchange of daies and nights: so in the Apocalips the Angell swore by him that liueth for euer, that there shall be no more tyme, and Christ in the Ghospell, the iudgement being ended will say, Hi i­bunt sic in ignem aeternum, iusti autem in vitam ae­ [...]ernam, so they shall go (to wit the wic­ked) into euerlasting fire, and the iust into euerlasting life, but this difference there shall be between these eternities that they damned shall against their will endure theirs, and shall seeke for death and shall not fynde it; but contrarily the iust shall heare nothing so ioyfully as their eternity that is, a life without feare of dying, standing in vertue without feare of fal­ling.

It resteth that in few wordes we explicate the manner how the Saints shal be in heauen after the resurrection. Manner. And I hold this may most truly be affirmed that whatsoeuer good thinges are wished for on earth although combined & mingled with many bad, the same, but farre better [Page 218] and without all mixture of any euill [...]o be enioyed of the Saints in heauen. The thinges that on earth are valued and es [...]eemed for good are these three, honou [...]s, ri­ches, pleasures: the honour of the Saints in heauen is such as it seemeth incredible vnlesse it were warranted by his worde who cannot lye, heare our Sauiour Christ who is truth it selfe thus speaking in the Apocalips of Saint Iohn: To him that ouercō ­meth I will graunt to sit in my throne, Apocal. 3. as I also haue ouercome and sitten in my Fathers throne: & what I pray you can be added to this honour? Doubtles the throne of the Sonne of God is the highest in heauen, and he who sitts thereon may well be thought to haue got­ten vnspeakable honour: what applauses, what prayses shall there sound out in hea­uen before God and all the Angels, when as a man once mortall, and frayle shall by the hands of God himself be placed in the throne of the Sonne of God, who is the Prince of all Kings of the earth, and King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, nothing I say can be added vnto this glory.

As touching the power of a Saint that also shalbe so great as that we are scāt able to imagine it, for there is extant a [Page 219] promise of the same Christ the eternall [...]ruth in the Ghospell of the faythfull ser­ [...]ant: Matth. 24. [...] men I say vnto you he shall mak him gouer­ [...]ur ouer [...]ll his goods: which words do plain­ [...]y shew this faithfull seruant to be made partaker of that power in heauen which God himselfe hath ouer all his creatures: and how great thinke you is the power of God ouer all creatures? Truly most great, most incomparable: therfore al the Saints shall be called, and truly shalbe Kinges of the whole world, not for a few yeares but for euer: and this is the sentence which Christ the supreme Iudge will pronounce in the last iudgement when he shall say to the iust, Come ye Blessed of my Father, Matth. 25. possesse a Kingdome prepared for you from the beginning of the worlde.

Of the riches of the Saints this a­lone might suffice, that the riches shall be most copious and for euer permanent, the Prophet telling vs: Psalm. 112. Glory and riches are in his howse: and, God himselfe wilbe all in all, as the Apostle sayth in his epistle to the Corinthi­ans: 1. Cor. 15. which wordes Theophilact and S. An­selme do so expound as they make them to yield this sense: God shall be all in all, for heere meate is one thinge vnto vs, drinke ano­ther, [Page 220] another our garment, another our howse, another honour, another power in heauen: after the resurrection Go [...] him­selfe will be to all his Saints mea [...], drinke, garments, house, riches, pleasure, honou [...] power; all things then that the Saints shal haue in heauen shall be most precious, all incorruptible, all diuine, all God him­selfe. Saint Hierome addeth in his epistle to Amandus, that God will be all thinges vnto the Saints, not only corporall but also spi­rituall, for now all diuine graces are not giuen vnto all, but vnto one wisdome as vnto Salomon, to another piety as vnto Da­uid, to another patience as vnto Iob, but when the end of all thinges shalbe, then shall all thinges be in all, that so euery one of the Saints only may possesse al vertues, all gifts, all thinges. What I beseech you would a couetous man giue in this world that he might possesse alone all the ri­ches and wealth thereof? what the leache­rous man that he might atteyne all the wanton pleasures which he doth desire? What the ambitious that he may get all the honours and preferments which he doth aspire vnto? And yet are these tem­porall matters, and soone to be lost, and [Page 221] which is more miserable, after a very [...]ort tyme are to be exchanged with euer. [...]sti [...]g beggary, griefe, and shame. Why [...]en do we not seeke God in whom alone [...]e shall possesse all spirituall and corpo­ [...]all blessings which shall last & continew [...]ith vs for euer.

But what finally shall we say of the ioy and pleasure of Saints? Isay and Saint Paul do preach and [...]ell vs: The eye hath not seene, the eare hath not heard, nor hath it entred [...]to the hart of man what God hath prepared for such as do loue him. Truly God hath prepared [...]or the Saints who loue him in their hea­ [...]enly home ioy, mirth, pleasure, delights, [...]weetnes, and that such as no mortall mā hath euer tasted, or was euer able to haue imagined: three thinges are required to procure delectation, the power of the soule, the obiect, and the vnion or con­iunction of one with the other: and by how much these are the greater, by so much also the delectation which is cau­sed by thē is the greater: there is no power created greater or more liuely, or more capable of delight then the will of man or Angells, there is no obiect more noble, more amiable, and sweet then the essence [Page 222] of our Creatour: Psal. 33. Gustate & vi [...]te [...] (sayth Dauid) quoniam suauis est dominus, tast and see for that our Lord is sweet; and the wise man speaking of the sunne & star [...]s sayth: VVith whose beauty if they being delighted thought them to be Gods, Sap. 13. let them know how much [...] beautifull their maker is, for the Authour of beauty hath made all these thinges: and there can be no coniunction or vnion more great then is that of God with a reasonable wil, the A­postle telling vs, 1. Cor. 6. That, he who adhereth [...] God is made one spirit with him. The coniun­ction of bodyes for the most part is but superficiall, and doth not penetrate all the interiour parts, and yet this corporal plea­sure so rauisheth mens myndes as it makes them almost to become mad: what sua­uity, what sweetnesse then shall the soule tast when it shall be inwardly conioyned with God who is infinit sweetnes, and [...]e made one spirit with him? Heere I wa [...] wordes and am no way able to expresse what with my selfe I conceaue and rumi­nate.

Add hereunto that all humane pleasure which is caused by the creaturs is bu [...] momentary, or certainly very short; but the pleasure that ariseth out of the con­iunction [Page 223] of mens spirit with God who is [...]nfinit sweetnes will neuer be ended, and yet so great madnes is in many mē as they had ra [...]her enioy carnall pleasures, base, [...]mall, and for a short tyme, then those [...]hat are most great, most pure, most per­ [...]ect, and to continew for all eternity: and [...]his may suffice in this place for the foure [...]ast thinges Death, Iudgement, Hell, and Heauen.

CHAP. V. Of the fifth Precept of the Art of dying well, when our Death is neere, which is of making our last will and Testament.

THE consideration of Death at hand and the foure last thinges being premised, it followeth that he who maks himselfe ready to go out of the world doe dispose of his house: Isay. 38. for so the Prophet I­say warned King Ezechias saying; Dispose of thy house for thou shalt not liue, from which trouble all Religious men are dis­charged, who can say with the Apostle: [Page 224] Ecce nos reliquimus omnia & secutisu [...]s te: Be hold we haue left all and haue followed thee: Matt. 19. of which number Saint Augustine was one, of whome Possidius writeth th [...] in his life: He made no will or testament, because the poore seruant of Christ had not whereof to make it; for albeit he were a Bishop, yet according to the cu­stome of Religious men he kept nothing as his owne.

But this Wil is to be mad at the begin­ning of the sicknes in case the patiēt haue not prudently preuented it by making it whiles he was in good health; & they doe much hurt & hinder themselues who neuer thinke on making a Will, vntill (their sicknes still increasing) they be for­ced thereunto by their friendes, at what tyme they eyther beginne to leese their senses, or certainly cannot then dispose of their thinges with that wisdome, iudge­ment, and maturity as they had disposed them, had they made their Wills whiles they were in good health.

First of all before the sicke men make their wills, they must think of pay­ing their debts if so be that they be char­ged with any, then to leaue their good vnto them, to whome of right and equi­ty they shall know them to appertayne, & [Page 225] not suffer themselues to be caryed away with affectiō towards those persons whō they most loue, in case this be any way re­pugnant to iustice. In such thinges as de­pend on their owne free gift let them first lay before their eyes the glory of God and then the necessityes of their neighbours, and if they be very rich, those thinges which before they ought to haue giuen to the poore, let them not now thinke to haue satisfyed their conscience if with their other synnes they confesse also this vnto the priest their ghostly Father, vnles they take order that the same thinges be giuen to the poore, or rather vnlesse that they themselues do presently giue them. For it is a common opinion of the holy Fathers and chiefe schoole Doctours, that all superfluous thinges which the rich en­ioy are due vnto the poore, of which thing we haue writen in the former book and ninth chapter, and it is not needfull heere againe to repeate what I haue there sayd: but of thinges which they may dis­pose of at their pleasure, let them conferre with vertuous discreet men which be the workes of charity that then for the tyme and place are more acceptable vnto God: [Page 226] somewhere perhaps it will more import to buyld a Church or place for common buriall, elswhere to place poore maydes in honest wedlocke, elswhere to [...]uyld an Hospitall to help the number of sicke persons, elswhere to bestow almes on such as begge in the streets, elswhere to redeeme captiues and the like: and finally in such distributions there if no better rule to be obserued, Lib. 3. off. Cap. 48.3. p. Past. adm. 21. then, as Saint Ambrose sayth, sin­cere Fayth and discreet prouidence: or as Saint Gregory sayth: Charity with prudence, or pru­dence conioyned with charity.

This in my iudgement is of speci­all moment and seriously to be considered that the almes which are giuen by the li­uing, or else are appointed to be giuen by such as are to dye, that then they be speci­ally giuen or appointed when as he that giueth or appointeth them is gratefull vn­to God, for then both to the one & other they are very meritorious, and such boun­tifull almes-giuers are receaued of their good friendes into the euerlasting tabernacles, according vnto Christ his promise in S. Luke; for if they be giuen or appointed to be giuē by a wicked man, the almes auaile nothing to euerlasting life, whatsoeuer it [Page 227] doe in respect of other merits, neyther for them are the giuers receaued into the euer­lasting tabernacles: wherefore the party that is guilty of mortall synne, and hath made his last will and testament in that state, is to aske counsaile of a discreet ghostly Fa­ther, or some other of his vertuous frends that after a Confession entierly and per­fectly made, he confirme, allow and rati­fy whatsoeuer he had disposed in his for­mer will, especially for the bestowing of almes on the Church or poore people af­ter his death.

Hereunto last of all is to be added that he who in his last will and testament hath beene liberall vnto his neighbours, that he be not vnmyndfull of his owne soule, when as it may very well fall out that he go not directly after his death in­to heauen but first passe through the place of purging fire: wherefore he shall do both prudently and religiously if he command one part of the almes to be giuen vnto Priests who may offer vp sacrifices vnto our Lord for his soule, for as the Scripture testifyeth: It is a holy and wholsome thought to pray for the dead, 2. Mach. Cap. 12. that they may be deliuered from their syns: so in the second of the Machabees: [Page 228] out of which place Saint Augustine gathe­reth à fortiore that the soules of faythfull Christians departed this life are much more holpen by the sacrifyce of the body & bloud of Christ in the Masse, then they other were by the sacrifices of beasts in the old testament.

CHAP. VI. Of the sixt Precept of this Art of dying well, when our Death is neere, which is of the Confession of our sinnes.

AFTER the consideration of the for­mer points it is necessary that a man gone in yeares, or taken with a dangerous sicknes, do seriously casting aside all other cares apply his mynd duly to receaue the Sacrament of Pennance, for it often hap­pens that at what tyme the Sacrament of Pennance is most necessary, that then it is with lesse disposition receaued of the Pe­nitent: such as are grieuously sicke, or hin­dered with sorrowes, or weakenesse, or want of iudgement, or horrour of death [Page 229] at han [...], or loue of their deere frends whō vnwillingly they leaue, make a very may­med and imperfect confession, for being in those [...]nguishes they can hardly stirre thē ­selues vp vnto true and sincere contrition or sorrow for their offences.

My selfe can be a witnesse of this dif­ficulty which such for the most part doe fynd: for when at a tyme I visited a frend, a rich Gentleman, (who by reason of a great synne he had committed, fell into a deadly disease) & told him, that there was nothing better for him to seeke for, as thinges then stood, then true repentance and contrition for his synne, because that God neuer despiseth a contrite and hum­bled hart: he answered me with this de­maund: VVhat is Contrition? I do not vnderstand what you would haue me do. I replyed, that which I require, is that frō your hart you abhorre your synnes and be sory that you haue offended God thereby, and firmely determyne with your selfe if longer life should be graunted you, neuer more to of­fend God, and al this for the loue that you be are his diuine Maiesty who hath besto­wed vpon you innumerable benefitts, and to whome you most vngratefull for bene­fitts [Page 230] haue retourned iniuryes. He ans­wered agayne, I vnderstand you not, I am not capable of these matters: and so dyed, leauing behind him euident signes of his damna­tion. These and the like examples are ad­monitions for vs that whiles we are well we do so disburthen our conscience & do true pennance, as though euery confessi­on were the last that euer we shoulde make.

Yet notwithstanding euen in the sickenes it selfe a confession is to be made with as great diligence as may be, especi­ally the sicke man is to be stirred vp to cō ­trition out of true griefe for his sinnes past and firme purpose of not sinning againe if his life should be prolonged, and we must not only do pennance for our sinnes com­mitted, but also for the omission of good workes, to which by reason of our office, or out of charity we were bound to doe: for many there be that do curiously in­ough consider theyr sinnes committed a­gainst God and their neighbour, but ea­sily forget their omissions, or set light by them. I can add for demonstration hereof a very profitable example.

A very learned and deuout Bishop [Page 231] was deadly sicke, there came a Priest vnto him that was his frend and myne of whō I heard what I now relate; he demaun­ded of the Bishop as a familiar frend whe­ther his conscience were quiet and free from trouble; the Bishop answered that by the grace of God all was wel, that since his last confession he could call to mynde nothing of momen [...] wherein he had of­fended God; the Priest further demaun­ded whether his conscience did not accuse him of Omissions, 2. Tim. 4. seing that the Apostle so carefully warned Timothy a Bishop say­ing: I testify before God and Christ Iesus who shall iudge the liuing and the dead, by his comming and Kingdome, preach the word, be vrgent in season, out of season, reproue, beseech, rebuke, in all patience and doctrine: the Bishop hearing this did sigh, and sayd; indeed my omissions doe much terrify me, and foorthwith there came from his eyes whole streames of teares.

But aboue all Contrition is requi­site for one that will dispose himselfe to dye well, for confession without contriti­on or true attrition is not sufficient for saluation, and without contrition satis­faction is inualid, or of no force, which [Page 232] yet at that tyme can hardly be performed of the sicke man, but contrition which in his owne nature includeth charity, al­though with confession and satisfaction when they cannot be performed is alone sufficient; for as we sayd a little before God will not despise a contrite and humbled hart, the sicke man then must carefully la­bour to haue true contrition of which en­deauour we haue a notable example in S. Augustine as Possidius testifyeth, who in his last sicknesse whereof he dyed caused to be written out for him the psalmes of Dauid which belonge vnto pennance, and se [...] ­ting the leaues against the wal lying in his bed he did looke on them and reade them: Et iugiter & vbertim flebat, and did always & that abundantly weepe, and he tooke or­der before that none should hinder or di­stract him, for ten dayes before his de­parture he gaue order that none of hi [...] house shold enter or come vnto him, but at such tyme of the Phisitians came to visit him, or else when he was to take some meate, all the other tyme he bestowed in prayer: O most Blessed and most prudent man, he liued after his Baptisme, and af­ter that the sinnes of his former life were [Page 233] remitted him, three and fourty yeares, in which euen vntill his last sicknes he day­ly preached the word of God, he wrote innumerable bookes and most profitable for the whole Church, he liued without complaint an innocent and most holy life; and yet at the very end of his yeares, and in his sicknes he so gaue himselfe for ma­ny dayes togeather [...]o contrition & pen­nance, that in reading the penitentiall psalmes he continually and abundantly wept: and these two wordes are much to be noted iugiter, & vbertim, continually & abundantly, for this study to attayne con­trition was not for one day or houre, but for many dayes, and he did very often and with great abundance of teares bewayle his synnes: and what manner of synnes were they which this most holy man did thus bewayle? Truly I am of opinion that they were only veniall, that so he might not only be deliuered from hell fire, but from Purgatory also, and so presently as­cend into heauen. And if so holy and wise a man did weepe continually and abundantly for so many dayes togeather his veniall synnes, what should they doe who are yet to mak satisfaction vnto God [Page 234] not only for their venial, but also for their mortall synnes.

Therefore let all old men who are neere the end of their dayes, so dis­pose of themselues before they fall sicke that they may not need in their old age or sicknesse to blot out any deadly syn­nes, but to do pennance only for such as are light and veniall, and let them be­fore hand so prouide to arme themselues against che snares of the Diuell by holy Confession, Communion, and Extreme Vnction, that God being their guyde and their good Angell acccompayning them they may happyly arryue vnto their heauenly countrey.

CHAP. VII. Of the seauenth Precept of the Art of dy­ing well, when our Death is neere, which is of the B. Sacrament thē giuen for a Viaticum, or parting-food.

THE auncient Christians in the ad­ministration of this sacred food, & [Page 235] Extreme vnction vnto the sicke, did first an­ [...]ise the sick with holy oyle, & then after [...]ue vnto then the most sacred body of [...]r Sauiour: and to alleadge a testimony [...] two for this matter, there is extant in the first tome of Surius the life of S. VVil­lian Archbishop of Bourges in France, who liued in the time of Pope Innocent the third, in which it is sayd: He humbly and deuoutly receaued the Sacrament of Vnction, and hauing receaued that, he desired most earnestly the Blessed Sacrament to be giuē him, that being armed with so good a guyde for his iourney he might the better passe through all the squadrons of his e­nemyes. So he: and the same is related in the life of Saint Malachias written by Saint Bernard, to wit, that he tooke his last voy­age foode, the most Blessed Sacrament I meane, after that he had receaued the Sa­crament of Extreme vnction.

Besides these two testimonyes which shew the order obserued betweene the two Sacraments, Extreme Vnction and [...]he holy Eucharist, there may be produced [...]wo other which shew the Blessed Sacra­ [...]ent to haue beene the last, although no [...]ention be made in them of extreme Vn­ction: [Page 236] In the life of Saint Ambrose which Paulinus wrote, there is mentioned that he at the point of death receaued this heauē ly food, and hauing receaued it presently departed this life; and the same writeth Methaphrast of Saint Iohn Chrysostome in his life, so as it is cleere that this was the last Sacrament that was giuen to the sicke in [...]ncient tymes.

Now a day [...]s we first arme the sicke with the Blessed Sacrament & then after some dayes the disease continuing or encreasing we anneyle them with holy oyle: both customes haue their reasons for approuance, the ancient Fathers did cōsider the Sacrament of Extreme Vnction to be instituted both for the recouery of per­fect health and to take away synnes or the relikes that remayned of them, for so speaketh Saint Iames: Is there any sicke a­mongst you? Iac. 5. Let him fetch the Priests of the Church, and let them pray ouer him, annoynting him with oyle in the name of our Lord, and the prayer of faith shall saue the sicke, and our Lord shall rayse him vp, and if he be in sinns they shall be forgiuen him. The ancients then hoping by this sacred Vn­ction the corporall health of the diseased, delayed not this Sacrament vntill that [Page 237] tyme when in the iudgement of Phisiti­ [...]ns the disease was desperate, but as soone [...]s it seemed in their iudgement to be dan­ [...]erous presently they made recourse vnto [...]he holy vnction, which also may be ga­thered of that which Saint Bernard wri­teth, in the life of Saint Malachy: the same Saint being sicke came downe on his feet from his chamber which was in the top of the howse, to the Church, that first he might receaue the holy Vnction, then the Blessed Sacrament, and hauing receaued them both he returned againe on his feet without the helpe of any to his chamber, & bed. But now a dayes when they heare any mention to be made of extreme Vnction they thinke all at an end, & that the sicke man cannot escape, for which cause the kinsfolkes and friendes of the partyes that be sicke, not to terrify them with the apprehension of present death do delay as long as they can this Sa­crament.

There is also another reason here­of which moued the ancients first to an­ [...]eyle the sicke, & then to giue them their [...]eauenly foode, because in the Sacramēt of Extreme Vnction the synnes are forgiuen [Page 238] as we haue heard out of the Apostle Sain [...] Iames, and therefore of some ancient wri­ters Extreme Vnction is called Po [...]nitenti [...] infirmorum, the pennance of the sicke: and remission of synnes togeather with pen­nance are most worthily premised as a preparation or dispositiō to the most high & diuine Sacramē [...] of the Eucharist, which requireth the greatest p [...]ity that can be gotten in this life.

Finally all the Sacraments are en­ded and as it were sealed vp with the Sa­crament of the body of our Lord, and so we see that such as are of rype age when they are baptized, as Turkes, Iewes & the like are presently after their baptisme con­firmed, admitted to be present at the sa­crifyce of the Masse, and to receaue the holy Eucharist, so likewise such as did pu­blike pennance, after their pennance per­formed, at least according to the auncient custome, al wayes receaued the Blessed Sa­crament, and they who take Orders whe­ther the lesser or greater after they haue taken them, come to the holy communi­on; and lastly, such as are marryed doe strengthen and confirme the Sacrament of Marryage with the Sacrament of the [Page 239] Altar: now in our dayes this order is alte­ [...]ed and that not without a iust cause. For oftentymes it happynes that Extreme Vn­ [...]tion (that the sicke person may not be a­ [...]frighted) is put of for a longe tyme, and there is danger least he leese his senses or vse of [...]eason, or for some other cause be­come vnfit if not vnable to receaue the B. Sacrament, and ther [...]fore this wholsome food is giuen before, for it is better that the order of giuing these Sacraments be changed, then that the sicke should be de­priued of the one, & that also most whol­some and comfortable: and Extreme Vncti­on may be giuen vnto the sicke, albeit he be in his agony or last pangs and conflicts with death, although he neyther vnder­stand or feele what is done, so as yet he be aliue, for the dead are capable of no Sa­craments: and so much of the order of mi­nistring these Sacraments to the sicke.

Now I come to speake of the pretious body of Christ to be fruitfully giuē to the sicke, and first I will briefly explicate what the sicke man is to doe, before this Sacrament be brought vnto him, then what the same sicke man is to do whē the body of Christ is present, lastly how he [Page 240] ought to behaue himself after that he hath receaued it.

As for the first my counsayle shol [...] be (vnlesse his Ghostly Father should sug­gest some other thinge according to the present occasions more necessary) that the sicke man diligently ponder these wordes of Saint Thomas: O sacred banquet, in whi [...] Christ is receaued, the remembrance of his pass [...] is recounted, the soule is filled with grace, & a pledge is giuen vs of the glory to come. First then he shal attentiuely consider the holy Eucharist to be giuen to vs trauellers (which tytle by Deuines is applyed vnto all mortall men) by way of food, that we faint not in the way in which we trauell towards out countrey, especially at that tyme in the which we being wearyed with a longe iuorney we become weake and feeble: this food is called a banquet and a sacred bā ­quet, for although it be giuē vnder the for­me of bread alone, yet is it an entiere & great banquet, & a banquet not prophane but sacred, not of the body but of the soule and therefore it is added, In quo Christus sa­mitur, in which Christ is receaued, for vn­der the formes or accidents of bread is the true body of Christ not separated from [Page 241] his soule and diuinity, and for that it is a most great, most excellent and most pre­tious thinge, a great and most sweet ban­quet, farre exceeding the tast of all earth­ [...]y sweetnes, but fit to feed and delight the [...]oule, not the body.

What the fruites or commodityes are of this food, is added when it is sayd: The remembrance of our [...]auiour his passion is re­counted, the soule is filled with grace, and a pledge is giuen vs of our future glory. The first fruite then is the remembrance of our Sauiours passion, for which cause the body & bloud of our Lord are consecrated vnder the twofold formes of bread and wyne, that the forme of breade may represent his bo­dy separated from the bloud, and so con­sequently dead, and the forme of wyne re­present his bloud separated from the body although that Christ be entiere & liuing both vnder the one and other forme. Our Lord then would that by these mysteryes there should be extant amongst vs a con­tinual & daily remēbrance of his passion, by which we haue escaped all euill & ob­teined al good: hēce it came that our Lord said vnto his Apostles speaking of this Sa­crament: Do ye this in my remembrance: & the [Page 242] Apostle S. Paul expounding these-wordes of our Lord, sayth: As often as ye shall eate this bread and drinke the cup, you shall shew forth the death of our Lord vntill hecome; That is to say, as often as you shall come vnto this most sacred mystery, you shalbe mindfull that Christ left his life for you, and this remem­brance shall still endure or continew vn­til the second coming of our Lord, that is euen vntill the end of the world. And our Lord wold haue vs daily to be mindful of his passion & death, because he knew this remembrance to be very profitable for vs that being mindeful of his great charity towards vs, we should as well in our life as in our death, repose all our trust or confi­dence in him, for what will he be able to deny them, for whome so freely and libe­rally he hath bestowed his owne life?

Another fruit of this celestiall ban­quet is designed in these wordes mens in­pletur gratia, the soule is replenished with grace, which is the singular priuiledge of this Blessed Sacrament when it is recea­ued with due preparation and disposition of the receauer, for as corporall food is but one thinge and by eating is conueyed in­to the stomacke, yet notwithstanding it [Page 243] doth repayre, nourish, strengthen & com­ [...]rt all the members of the body; and con­ [...]ary wise to much abstinence from meate [...]ot only makes the stomake empty, but [...]eakens and extenuates all the members, it maketh them vgly, and languishing, & in fine kills the body: so this Diuine meat doth repaire, nourish and strengthen all the spirituall power of our soule, the me­mory by this sacred food is filled with grace of the most sweet remembrance of the benefits of God, and especially of our Lords passion, by which we are deliue­red and saued; our vnderstanding by this food is filled with the grace of fayth not habituall only but also actuall, and fayth purifyes the hart from very many errours, and filleth our mind with the knowledge of duiine things which breeds an vnspea­kable ioy and comfort within vs; and last of all the wil by this diuine food is fil­led with the grace of most certeyne hope, and most ardent charity, which for that shee is the Queene of vertues drawes all vertues vnto it, with the possession wher­of a man becometh most rich of spirituall wealth. By these meanes then is our soule filled with grace by this most Diuine Sa­crament, [Page 244] and on the other side too much abstinence from this food hinders all the former effects, it makes vs in them al [...] feeble, weake, deformed, and drawes in the end vnto spirituall death.

The last fruite is, futurae gloriae [...] pignus datur, there is a pledge giuen vs [...] this most soueraygne Sacrament of th [...] glory to come: the metaphor of a pledge [...] taken from the ordinary condition an­nexed to a promise made amongst men, because that which is promised cannot be denyed when there is a pledge giuen for the performance: our Lord left his body in the Sacramēt of the Eucharist as a pledge of our heauenly felicity, and therefore he who at his death receaueth his Blessed bo­dy with due purity of mynde and reue­rence, he shall before his Redeemer shew his pledge and cannot be excluded from hi [...] celestiall happinesse. And he indeed she­weth this pledge who dyeth vnited with Christ by true charity, which the wor­thy receauing of this Sacrament did leaue in the soule, for then the soule issueth forth of the body, as an Espouse leaning vpō her beloued. Cant. 8.

And this is that which S. Iohn wri­teth [Page 245] in the Apocalips, when he sayth: Apoc. 14. Blessed [...]re the dead who dye in our Lord; That is, bles­ [...]ed are they who do dye conioyned vnto [...]ur Lord as members vnto their head: Ioan. 3. No man ascendeth into heauen but he who came downe from heauen, the Sonne of man who is in heauen. The Sonne of man is Christ who ascen­ded not without his body of which he is the head, and for thi [...] cause only such doe dye in our Lord, who in their deaths doe adhere vnto him as mēbers to their head, which blessing al they do get who a little before they dy do worthily receaue Christ in the holy Eucharist.

And this hitherto haue we sayd tou­ching the preparation of the sicke man to receaue his last food and heauenly Manna before that it be present & brought vnto him. For as soone as it is brought the sick man must as he is able lift himselfe vp and eyther on his knees, or with humble bo­wing downe his head adore his Lord and Sauiour: & often it falls out that our Lord giueth such strength and vigour that men euē ready to dye do rise at that tyme & fal on their knees: and so we reade of Saint VVilliam Archbishop Bourges in France: Vt autem &c. When he knew that his Lord & [Page 246] Creatour was come vnto him, presently recouering his strength he lept out of the bed as though that the ague had quite left him, not without the amazement of such as were present, especially for that he seemed to be at the last gaspe, & went wi [...] a speedy pace to meet his Sauiour, chari [...] yielding him strength thereunto, & kneeling downe all bede wed with teares, he adored him, and to the end he might of­ten kneele he was often lifted vp from his knees, and with singular deuotion he cō ­mended his last agony vnto Christ; ear­nestly praying that if yet any thinges re­mayned to be purged that he would heere cleanse it, that the wicked enemy might fynd nothing in him. So farre the histo­ry of his life.

Now it seemeth to me a thing most requisite and to be practised at that tyme; that before the sicke man do receaue the body of his Lord, he repeat, or heare an other read vnto him those verses of Saint Thomas of Aquin, which at once do professe our fayth, stirre vp our hope, and kindle our charity; the verses are these.

Hauing dououtly sayd or heard these verses, hauing made the ordinary confes­sion which beginneth with Confiteor Deo &c. and hauing taken the absolution and blessing of the priest, and sayd, Domine non sum dignus, let him add with as great [...] ­mility & deuotion as he can these wordes, Into thy handes O Lord I commend my soule, and then he may securely [...]ceaue this sacred & celestiall Sacrament.

After the communion there remay­neth thanksgiuing vnto God for this so excellent a benefit, and besides vocall pray­ers which he may reade out of some pious bookes: it were also very behofull that he who hath now receaued his last food for his iourney and passadge vnto heauen, should enter into the closet of his hart and meditate with himselfe in silence on those most sweet wordes of our Lord Iesus in the Apocalips: I stand at the dore and knock, if any shall open it vnto me, Apoc. 3. I will enter in vnto him, I will sup with him, and he shall sup with me: for these wordes doe most fittly agree with those who come from the holy communion: for our Lord who instituted this Sacrament in the forme of a bāquet, desireth nothing more then that all Christians should re­paire [Page 249] vnto this feast, and this is signifyed [...]y those wordes: Ego sto ad ostium & pulso, I [...]tand at the dore and knocke, that is, I doe [...]nuite my selfe to this common feast, that [...] may also be fed; si quis mihi aperuerit, if any shall open the dore vnto me assenting vn­to this good desire which I haue inspired, that we may feed and feast togeather, in­trabo ad eum, I wil enter in vnto him, by the communion of this holy banquet, Psal. 103. I will sup with him, & he shall sup with me; Because that God is sayd to sup with vs when he is delighted with our spirituall progresse in vertue, according to that of the Psalmist: Our Lord will reioyce in his workes; And in a­nother place: Let my speach be delightfull vnto him, and I will be delighted in our Lord: in which wordes is expressed the mutuall delight & as it were a sweet banquet of God with the soule, and of the soule with God: for God is delighted with the spirituall pro­fit of the soule, and the soule is delighted with the benefitts receaued from God, of which the chiefest is that by this sublime Sacrament, he vouchsafeth to linke and v­nite himselfe after a sweet manner with our soule.

Wherefore let the faythfull soule af­ter [Page 250] the receauing of this Sacrament reflec [...] and thinke with it selfe how sweet & so­ueraigne a thing it is to haue Christ himselfe as a guest within it, whiles the Sa­cramentall formes remayne, not only as God but also as man, and to be able to deale confidently with him & to conferre with him our dangers and anguishes [...] our passadge from this body, from his ha [...] to commend himselfe vnto him, and to desire of him to beate backe the common tempter of mankynd then most busy, to send vs an Angell to accompany vs, and to bring vs safely into the port of salua­tion.

CHAP. VIII. Of the eight Precept of the Art of dying well, when our Death is neere, which is of Ex­treme Vnction.

THE last Sacrament is holy Vnction which is able to yield great comfort vnto the sicke if the force and vertue ther­of be well vnderstood, and the Sacramēt [Page 251] itselfe taken in due tyme. There be two [...]fects of this Sacrament as we sayd in the [...]rmer Chapter, corporall health and re­ [...]ission of synnes: let vs speake a little of [...]yther. Of the first thus writeth S. Iames: [...]s any sicke among you? Let him bring in the priests [...]f the Church and let them pray ouer them, annoyn­ [...]ing them with oyle in the name of our Lord, and [...]he prayer of fayth shall saue the sicke; These wordes are playne and conteyne a pro­mise.

Two reasons may be giuen why in our dayes so few sicke men do recouer their sickenes, notwithstanding that they receaue this Sacrament: one is, for that now a dayes this remedy is applyed to the sicke later then it should, for we must not expect miracles by this or any other Sa­crament, and it were a miracle if one that is at the last gaspe should presently reco­uer, but if this Sacrament were ministred vnto then when first of all they beginne to be daungerously sicke, we should then of­ten see this effect of recouery, which wold not be done in a moment, but would fol­low in tyme: and this is the cause why that such as are to be executed by way of iustice are not anneyled, because that they [Page 252] cannot without a manifest miracle be deliuered from the danger of death. Anoth [...] reason is, because it is not expedient eu [...] for the sicke man to he deliuered from h [...] disease, but rather it is better for him to dy, and the prayer of the Church which is made in this Vnction doth not absolutely desire the health of the sicke party but on­ly to recouer his health at that tyme, if i [...] be auayleable for his saluation.

Another effect of this Sacrament is remission of sinnes; for thus speaketh Saint Iames: Et si in peccatis fuerit remittentur ei: and if he shall be in synnes they shall be forgi­uen him. But for that the remission of o­riginall synne doth belong properly vnto Baptisme, the remission of actuall to bap­tisme also in case the baptized be growne in yeares, or to the Sacrament of pēnance for syns committted after baptisme, there­fore the Deuines do teach the sins which are remitted in the Sacrament of Extreme Vnction to be the relickes or remuants of synne, of which relikes or remnants there be two sorts, sometymes relikes of synnes are called eyther the mortall or venial sins which are committed after that we haue receaued the Sacrament of pennance, and [Page 253] are no: afterward confessed to our ghostly Father, [...]yther out of ignorance for that [...]he penitent did no take them for mortall; or out of forgetfulnes because he did not [...]hen remember them, and therefore the sicke man sought not for a priest to whom he might confesse them. These reliks doth the Sacramēt of Extreme Vnction take away, and of this kynde of synnes Saint Iames sayth: If he shall be in sinnes they thall be remitted him; which the Councels of Florence & Trent doe teach, especially the latter in the 14. session & second Canon.

Another kind of the relikes of syns is a certayne horrour or stupidity, or ra­ther sorrow and heauines which oppresse sicke, to which apperteyneth the promise of Saint Iames: Et alleuiabit eum Dominus, and our Lord will lift him vp: this Sacramēt recomforteth the sicke, when they marke the diuine promises expressed in the same, and for that cause it should not be differ­red vntill the last houre when the sicke man doth not heare, or else vnderstandeth nothing at all.

What vtility is reaped out of this Sacrament may be gathered by the words of the forme thereof. Fiue places there be [Page 254] which are specially annoynted, in which the fiue sēses are scituated: to wit the sense of seeing, the sense of hearing, the sense of smelling, the sense of tasting, and the sense of touching: and in the meane tyme the priest sayth: Indulgeat tibi Dominus quic­quid deliquisti per visum, auditum &c. Our Lord pardon or forgiue thee in whatso­euer thou hast synned by sight, by hearing, and so of the rest: and because that prayer is the forme of the Sacrament without all controuersy it effectually worketh that which the words doe sound and signify, vnlesse there be some impediment on the behalfe of the receauer.

How great the bountifulnesse and mercy of our Lord God is in this Sacra­ment, he will soone fynde that shall con­sider with himselfe what a mayne multi­tude of synnes do flow from these fiue fountaynes: and this was the occasion why Saint Malachy a Bishop of Ireland, whose life Saint Bernard wrote, after that for some houres he had delayed to minister this Sa­crament of Extreme Vnction to a certeyne noble woman that was sicke, and she the meane tyme had departed out of this life, he so farre foorth repented himselfe that [Page 255] with his priests he lay in the chamber of [...]e dead woman all the night praying, [...]d lamenting & imputing it to his owne [...]ult that the vertuous woman eyther had [...]ot recouered by the vertue of Extreme Vnction, or had not receaued that ample pardon of her sins from the liberall mercy of our louing Lord: and because this ho­ly Bishop was the friend of God, by his prayers and tear [...] [...] obteyned of him that the sayd woman should come agayne to life & receaue from the hands of the same Saint, both the effects of this holy Vnctiō, for she recouered her health & liued ma­ny yeares after; & as we may piously con­iecture gayned also the pardon of her sins. This example of so worthy a man, and of another most holy man faithfully related is inough to persuade all who with reasō or authority wil be perswaded how much they ought to esteeme, this venerable Sa­crament.

CHAP. IX. Of the ninth Precept of this Art of dying well, when our Death is neere, which is of the first tentation of the Diuell, to wit, Heresy.

VVHEN our death drawes neere, our aduersary the diuel as a ro [...] ring lyon is not wanting to himselfe, but swiftly approacheth as vnto a prey, & with all his power assayles the sicke man in his last conflict, and he is wont to make his first assault with the tentation concerning fayth, for the things which we belieue do transcend not only our sense, but also na­turall reason, and fayth it selfe the ground of our iustification, and that being ouer­throwen, all the buylding of our good workes falleth downe: this of all other tentations it most grieuous, because we are to encounter with an Aduersary not only most learned & subtile, but trained in this warfare from the beginning of the world. He it is that hath seduced all the heads or [Page 257] ringleaders of heretikes, of whome not a [...]w were excellent and very wise men: [...]ell therefore doth the Apostle warne vs: [...]ur combat or conflict is not agaynst flesh & bloud: Ephes. 5. [...]hat is to say agaynst men) but against the [...]iritualls of wickednes, that are aboue, That is [...]gaynst the Diuels which are spirits, most [...]icked and crafty spirits, and see vs, all from the ayre aboue called Coelum aëreum the aiery heauen: our weapons in this bat­ [...]ell are not disputations but simple beliefe of the truth, for so do the two chiefe A­ [...]ostles teach vs. S. Peter sayth: Ephes. 6. Your aduer­ [...]ary the Diuell goeth round about as a roaring lion [...]eking whome he may deuoure, agaynst whome mak [...]esistance being stronge in sayth: and Saint Paul. 1. Pet. 6. In all things taking the shield of fayth in which you may be able to quench all the fiery darts of the most wic­ked (enemy.) Therefore out of the doctrine of the Apostles we must dispute with the Diuell, but with the shield of fayth take all his darts and beate them backe agayne, al­though they seeme to be both fiery and burning, that is efficacious & subtle.

There is a very dreadfull example hereof in Peter Barocius Bishop of Padua, who wrote three bookes of the methode of dying well: he his second booke thus [Page 258] speaketh: Fuere quemadmodum audiui &c. Two there were as I haue heard in their tyme most learned and of all others of th [...] vniuersity in which they studied the chi [...] fest disputers, both of good behauiour an [...] very deuout, of which one of them aft [...] his death appeared vnto the other at suc [...] time as he was in his library and studyin [...] of the holy Scriptures, and that all in bu [...] ning fire; the student a mighted at this spectacle, and asking what the cause shol [...] be of so great torment, the other wit [...] griefe and sighes replyed saying: when I was to depart out of this life the enemy o [...] mankynd, to wit the Diuell, came vn [...] me, and for that he knew me to be we [...] learned he beganne to aske me about m [...] fayth what I did belieue, I answered that [...] belieued whatsoeuer was conteyned in the Apostles Creed, he willed me to expli­cate somethinges vnto him which seemed not to be so cleere, I did so, and that in such manner as I had reade in the Creed of Athanasius, for I thought that they could not be more carely, or more truly explica­ted. Then the Diuell: It is not so as tho [...] doest surmize, for those thinges which be­long to God the Father are in part playne [Page 259] and true, in part obscure and false, for [...] indeed is eternall, but as he hath euer [...]ene God, so hath he not euer beene a fa­ [...]er, but first God, and after a Father; a­ [...]inst this when that I cryed out and sayd [...]at it was an heretical position, & diabo­ [...]call doctrine, the Diuell sayd this matter [...] not to be decided by clamours but argu­ [...]ents if we be moued, with desire of fyn­ [...]ing out of truth. I can easily alleadge rea­ [...]ons for my opinion, as for your opini­on defend it if you can, and then shall you deliuer me from a great errour: I poore wretch who presumed more on my wit [...]nd learning then was fit, beganne seriou­sly to dispute with him as with some or­dinary man, till at length by little & little with the arguments that he obiected a­gainst me, he drew me into that wicked errour as now I neyther belieued the Son nor the holy Ghost to be God, presently death tooke my soule hence, and in what state it found it, in the same it presented it vnto the Iudge, and by him I am adiud­ged vnto this fire, which although most raging, yet in some sort I should thinke more tolerable if that after a thousand, thousand yeares it might haue an end, but [Page 260] it is eternall and there withall so great tha [...] none whatsoeuer that euer hath been [...] seene in earth can match it, in so much [...] almost euery houre I repēt me of my lea [...] ning, which hath brought me to thi [...] dreadfull destruction. And hauing th [...] spoken he vanished away: but the othe [...] exceedingly astonished as well for the n [...] uelty of the thing, a [...] with the miserab [...] case of his dāned frend, as soone as he reco­uered himselfe cōferred with such as we [...] his greatest frends touching this vision, & asked their counsayle what they thought best in such a case to be done; and it w [...] determined by them all, that euery one a [...] such a tyme and occasion should without dispute refer himselfe to that faith which the Catholicke Church doth mayntayne. Not longe after he fell into a sickenesse whereof he dyed; when loe the same ene­my emboldened with the successe of the former dispute, asked him of his fayth what he did belieue, to whome he ans­wered that he did belieue that which the holy mother the Church did belieue: a­gayne the Diuell demaunded what doth the Church belieue, he answered: the same that I belieue, and in this manner in the [Page 261] hearing of all that were present, as though [...]e had s [...]oken vnto him he neuer ceased [...]om saying, I belieue what the Church [...]liueth, and the church belieueth what I [...]elieue, vntill he gaue vp the ghost: and by this meās deluding the subtilty of the ene­my he passed into heauen. And a few days after he appeared vnto his friends of whō before he had asked [...]unsayle what was to be done in such a case, in a farre differēt shape from that wherin his fellow before had appeared vnto him, and he gaue them thanks for that by their coūsaile he passed all difficultyes and aryued vnto heauen; which things we haue not thought amisse to set downe as they hapned, that so eyther out of feare by the misfortune of the one, or out of confidēce by the good successe of the other euery one may learn that there is no disputing with the Diuell, & that it is inough to referre himselfe to that fayth which the Catholike Church doth teach & mainteyne. Hitherto Barocius, & I need not heerin say any more, then he already hath sayd.

CHAP. X. Of the tenth Precept of the Art of [...] ing well, when our Death is neere which is of the second tenta­tation of the Diuell, to wit, of Desperation.

ANOTHER tentation at this tym [...] wont to be touching Despayre, b [...] which the Diuell if often wont to trouble not only wicked men, but also such as be very vertuous: and truly as for wicked me [...] when their death is at hand, he easily ca­steth downe into the pit of desperation, for he layes before their eyes al the offence [...] which in the whole course of their life they haue committed, as Venerable Bede in the fifth book of his history recounteth of a certayne souldier in these wordes: Fuit quidam temporibus Coenredi, qui post Edilre­dum regnauit &c. There was one in the time of Coenred who raygned after Edilred, a lay man and by profession a souldier, who by how much the more gratefull he was to the King for his exteriour diligēce, so much [Page 263] was he displeasing vnto him for the inte­ [...]our negligence of himself, and therefore [...]e King carefully warned him that he [...]ould confesse his synnes, that he would [...]mend & leaue them, before that he were [...]rprized by death, and before that it were [...]olate for him to repent and amend them, but the souldier notwithstanding his oftē admonitions despised all good counsaile, and promised his Admonitours that af­terwards he would doe pennance; in the meane time falling sicke he lay on his bed, [...]nd beganne to be tormented with great [...]ayne: whome the King visiting (for he [...]eerly esteemed him) did earnestly per­ [...]uade him that now at last before he de­parted, that he would doe pennance for his synnes: but he answered that he wold not then confesse them but would doe it after that he were recouered, least that his fellowes should vpbraide him and say that he had done that out of feare in his sicknes which he would not do whiles he was in good health, speaking as he thought cou­ragiously, but indeed as after appeared mi­serably deluded by the Diuell: for the sick­nes increasing when as the King came a­gaine to visit & admonish him, he foorth­with [Page 264] with cryed out with a pitifull voice, what wil you now haue? for what are you come hither? now there is no more saluation t [...] be hoped for; vnto whome the Kin [...] sayd: speake not in this manner, see that now you leese not your selfe. I am not ma [...] quoth he, but I haue now my most wic­ked conscience before myne eyes; a little since there entred into my chamber two most beautifull young men, and they sate by me, one at my head and the other at my feet, and one of them tooke out a booke very fayre but wonderfull little, and gaue it me to read, and reading the same I foūd registred therein all the good deeds that I had done, and these were to few, and to little or small; then presently rushed in an army of wicked and horrible spirits, and he who for the darkenesse of his clowdy face, and for his preferment in sitting see­med to be chiefe, brought foorth a booke of a dreadfull aspect, of an excessiue great­nes, and for weight almost importable, and commaunded the same to be brought me to read by one of his guarde, which when I had read I found all my wiked­nes and whatsoeuer I had offended in, not only in worke and word, but also in my [Page 265] secretest thought to be written most cleer­ly in vgly letters. Thus spake this despe­rate wretch, and soone after dyed, and that pennance which for a short tyme he omit­ted to do with the fruite and pardon of re­mission of his synnes, he now without all fruite doth vndergo in euerlasting tor­ments. Hitherto Saint Bede. Where euiden­tly we see the Diuell first to haue persua­ded this miserable souldier not to do pen­nance vnder the precept of longer life, and then to haue brought him into desperati­on.

There is another example in the same Authour in the next Chapter where thus he writeth. Noui ipse fratrem &c. Lib. 5. c. 1 historiae Angl. I knew a brother whome I would to God I had not knowen, whose name also I could tell if the telling thereof wold auayle any thing, who was placed in a famous monastery though he liued infamously: this man be­ing ouertaken with sicknesse and brought euen vnto the point of death, called for the brethren of the monastery and with great dolour like a damned wretch beganne to tell them that he saw hell open, and the Diuell drowned in the depth of the pit, & neere vnto him Caiphas and others that [Page 266] killed our Lord giuē ouer to those reuēging flams: neere also vnto thē, he said, Owre t [...] that I am, I see a place prepared for [...] euerlasting dānation: the Brethrē hearing this began earnestly to perswade him that yet whiles he was in his body he would repent; he vtterly despayring answered, it is now to late to chaunge my life, seeing that I haue seene my iudgement ended, & thus speaking without receauing the B. Sacrament he departed this life, and was buried in the vtmost part of the monaste­ry. So Saint Bede, and whereas this wret­ched Monke sayd there was now no tym [...] left to amend his life, he speake not that out of truth but out of the suggestiō of the Diuell, for the holy Ghost expresly pro­nounceth by the Prophet Ezechiel: [...]zechiel. [...]. & 33. that God is alwayes ready to imbrace such who are conuerted from synne to repentance: and more plainly S. Leo in his epistle to Theodo­rus Bishop of Forotulia in these wordes: To the mercy of God we can assigne no measure or a­point any tyme, to whose presence a true conuersion fyndes no delay, the spirit of God saying in the Prophet, when thou shalt lament thy sin, then thou shalt be saued.

I will add an example or two more to [Page 267] shew that vertuous men also at their pas­sadge out of this life are often tempted with the sin of desperation: there is extant in Surius the life of the Count Eleazarus who liued a Virgin with his wife Dalphina and shined after his most holy death with ma­ny miracles: this Count notwithstanding at his death endured most stronge tentati­ons, for thus writeth the Authour of his life in the last Chapter: Ad extremum in agone positus &c. At last in the agony of death he shewed a very dreadfull looke, whereby it might be coniectured that he was in per­plexity for somethings that were obiected vnto him; & in this conflict he cryed out, the power of the Diuells is great, but the force and meritts of the sacred incarnati­on and passion of Iesus Christ hath broken and made weake their forces: and a little after cryed out agayne; Planè vici. Now I haue ouercome: a little after that agayne with a strong cry he sayd: I do commit my selfe wholy vnto the iudgment of God, & so saying his contenance retourned to the former wont, and graced with a fayre red in his cheeks, with a splendour, and very much beauty he yielded vp his soule vnto God.

There is another example much more dreadfull then this in Iohn Climacus who r [...] counteth that a certeyne very Vene [...]able Monk called Stephen after that he had liued well neere forty yeares in the wildernes, in fasting, watching, teares and prayers, be­ing adorned with many vertues, he came at length to dye, and when in his last ago­ny the Diuells had found him guilty of many great crimes ther [...]by to cast him in­to despayre, he was sodenly amazed in mynde, and his eyes being open with a loud voice he beganne to say sometymes thus: Ita sanè, reuera ita est, sed poenitentia & la­chrimis crimen dilui: It is iust as you say, so indeed it is but with pennance and teares I haue washed away that spot: sometymes thus: Non estita, mentimini, it is not so, you doe bely me, Then agayne: Verum loquimi­ni, sed fleui, sed ministraui: you speak the truth but I haue wept, I haue serued: in some o­ther things he sayd: Verè me accusatis, & quid respondeam non habeo. You do truly charg [...] me and I know not what to answere, and so dyed, leauing it in doubt whether he were saued or damned. These thē & other the like examples do admonish vs with all diligence to cleanse our conscience before [Page 269] that houre, that so we may not distrust in [...]he mercy of our Lord.

CHAP. XI. Of the eleuenth Precept of the Art of dy­ing well, when our Death is neere, which is of the third tentatiō, that is of the hatred of God.

OVR Aduersary the Diuell doth not only labour as much as he can to rob such as are to dye, of their fayth and hope, to draw them into heresy & desperation, but also striues to separate the friendes of God from his frendship and to draw them into his hatred, by blasphemies, & magical arts; these men for the most part neyther feare death nor hel, persuading themselues that in hell they shall lead a merry life be­ing now become the fellowes of Diuells, who raygne and rule in those parts: of this point writeth Grillandus, Lib. desor quaest. 9. num. 2. lib. 6. d [...] mag. ca 1. sect. 3 and out of him Martinus Delrio affirming that whē the wit­ches are taken by the officers as themselues haue often confessed, that then the Diuell seeketh for no more, or is busied in any o­ther [Page 270] thing but in persuading them to re­mayne obstinate euen vntill death, y [...] though they shold be brought to the plac [...] of execution, and the fire should be kind­led, promising them to deliuer their bo­dyes from the halter or fire, and to procure that they shold feele no payns in the flams, or in case they should dye by that burning yet that their death should be without all sense or feeling of any paine, and so to passe without torment out of this life into the happines of the next, that there they shalbe like the Diuels themselues endued with as great strength knowledge, wealth, power, pleasure as the Diuell himselfe is. So doth the lying Diuell delude and deceaue them.

There is also another sorte of these people who albeit they be not properly witches or magitians, yet are so blinded with the inordinate loue of worldly wealth as that they differ very little from Infidells: [...]hes. 5. [...]lloss. 3. neyther was it without cause that the Apostle called couetousnes the worship of Idols, for that wealth is the Idoll, the God, and all the loue and de­light of the couetous.

My selfe going one day to visit one that was sick & very neere his death, when [Page 271] I beganne to speake vnto him about the [...]reparing of himselfe to dy, he with stout courage and without all feare answered me and sayd: I haue desired, Sir, to speake with you not for my selfe but for my wife and children; for I now hasten vnto hell, so as you need not for me to trouble your selfe any further. And this he spake with as great a peace and quiet of mind as if he had talked of walking into the fields, or going to some towne neere at hand, for so farre foorth had the Diuell subdued & po­ssessed his soule, as now it desired not, nay it would not be separated from him, and yet was this man no Magitian or Necro­mancer, but practised an art which was very dangerous and wholy set vpon gains whether by right or wrong: and thus he forgot not only God but also his owne soule. The conclusion in fine was that ha­uing longe laboured to reclaime him and draw him to a better mynde, I could doe nothing with him. Some perhaps wil de­sire to know of what profession this man was, of which to the end his death may be a warning vnto others that practise the same in case that any be like him as there are to many, I will not dissemble: he was a [Page 272] lawyer but one of the number of thē which care full little whether the cause whic [...] they doe defend be iust or wronge, a [...]d a [...] little doe they care though the iniure both partes, so that they may fill their owne purses.

And for that I am fallen into this mattter, I will add this also: when on a tyme a very learned lawyer talked with me and explicated the [...]quity of a certayne cause, I breaking off his speech sayd: you seeme to me to defend a bad cause. The la­wyer answered that so indeed it was, but quoth he, I am not an Attorney for truth or iustice, but for my clyent, I am to make the best of the cause with I haue taken v­pon me to defend, let the Iudge looke how he pronounce the sentence and in fauour of whome. I replyed that in this matter I did not desire that he should belieue me, but that he shold belieue Saint Thomas of A­quin a most learned, 2. quaest. p [...]art. 3. & most holy Doctour, who writeth in this manner: Respondeo, Dicendum &c. I answere, and conclude that it is vnlawfull for any man to cooperate eyther by counsayling, helping, or con­senting to doe euill, because he who is the counsailour or cooperatour is in some sort [Page 273] also the dooer: & the Apostle writing vn­ [...] the Romans sayth: that not only such as [...]o sin [...]t such also as consent to the doers [...]e worthy of death, and hence followeth [...] before hath beene sayd, that all such are [...]ound to restitution: but it is cleere that [...]he Lawier, Attourney, or Aduocate doth [...]ffoard his client both help and counsayle & therfore if wittingly he defēd a wrong cause, doubtles he sinneth grieuously and [...]s bound to the restitution of whatsoeuer [...]osse the other party hath incurred by his meanes, helpe, or assistance: if out of ig­norance he do defend an vniust cause thinking it to be iust, he is excused in such sort as ignorance can be excused. So farre Saint Thomas, and his Commentour Car­dinall Caietan explicateth the last wordes of Saint Thomas saying: Qui omnino defendisset &c. He who had defended the cause whe­ther it were iust or vniust, although he know it not to be vniust doth pleade vn­iustly not out of ignorance but with ig­norance, which doth not excuse, and they also who care not to see and penetrate whether the cause that they maynteyne be iust or vniust, do manifestly neglect to know that, which they are boūd to know. So he.

To these tentatiōs another may be added which doth not so much hurt as help [...] although the Diuell vse it with in [...] only of hurting: for the Diuel vseth ofte [...] tymes to be present & to shew himselfe i [...] most dreadfull & vgly shape to such as a [...] tody, that in case he be not able to deceaue them yet, that therby at least he may hin­der their alacrity and feruour of prayer: so writeth Sulpitius of Sai [...]t Martin, to wit that the Diuell appeared vnto him when he was to dye, vnto whome Saint Martin sayd VVhat stāds thou heere for thou bloody beast? Thou shalt fynde no filth in me: and the ven [...] ­rable man Petrus Damianus, in the life of S. Odilo doth write that the Diuell appeared to the same Saint in a most fearefull shape a little before his death, of whome Saint Odilo is recounted to haue spoken: In the hower of my departure in that corner (for he pointed as it were at the place with his finger) I saw a cruell & most dreadfull shape which endeauoured to strike a horrour and dread into me of a most monstrous vi­sion, but Christs grace assisting me it could do me no hurt: And Saint Adelinus Bishop of Sagium writeth of Saint Oportuna the Virgin, ex­tant in Surius that the Diuell appeared vn­to her when shee was to dye in the forme [...]2. April. [Page 275] of a blackemore, from whose a head and [...]eard did drop downe hoat and liquid [...]ytch his eyes were like burning iron that [...]s taken out of the forge when it casts out many sparkes, out of his mouth and nose issued foorth a flame of fire, and a stinking vapour like vnto brimstone.

The cause why God permitteth ho­ly men to be tempted with those fearefull visions, is deliuered by an Angell of our Lord in the life of Saint Aicardus to be seen in Surius, 15. Sep [...]. for whereas the Diuell at a certeyne monastery was busy to get his prey, a holy Angell who was the Guar­dian Angell of that monastery sayd vnto the diuell. Thou shalt heere haue an im­ployment fruitfull for the monkes, but not profitable for thee, for the Monkes to cleanse their synnes, for thee to confusion: and the diuell replying, am I bound eyther to these or to any other Christians to fur­ther their saluation? The Angell answered in this thou art bound, because whatsoe­uer is in them that is to be cut of, through the horrour of thy vision shall be purged or made cleane. And a little after the same Angell speaking of the diuell sayd vnto S. Aicardus: Be not afraid of him, he hath no [Page 276] power giuen him to hurt any in this fami­ly, but that only his vgly visiō shall cast the beholders now ready to departe out of their bodyes into a wholsom feare which shal take away whatsoeuer yet remayneth to be purged.

CHAP. XII. Of the twelfth Precept of the Art of dy­ing well, when our Death is neere, which is of the first remedy a­gainst the Tentations of the Diuell.

VVE haue layed open in the for­mer Chapters foure tentations which do much molest such as are to dye, against which tentations there may be ap­plied two sorts of remedies; one of them is for such as yet haue the vse of reason and can both heare and vnderstand what is sayd vnto them, the other is more generall and common vnto all, and it is most pro­fitable, & secure.

Concerning the first, if the tentati­on impugne the Catholike faith, it is no [Page 277] way conuenient as before we sayd to dis­pute with the Diuell: but in generall such as be [...]o tēpted are to be aduertised that if the tentation be touching the nature of God whom we are to belieue to be one in substance, and three in person; the sicke man is to be taught that he reflect with himselfe that there be many things crea­ted not only spiritua [...] but also corporall of which we are ignorant; for most men wil not be drawn easily to belieue al the starrs of the firmamēt to be greater thē the whol world, and yet the mathematitians do ea­sily demonstrate it to be most true: and in case this thinge which is corporall be of many not vnderstood who yet belieue le­arned men that affirme the same, why wil they not belieue those thinges which God himselfe by his Apostles & Prophets hath reuealed of his owne nature, and by so ma­ny, so great signes and miracles hath con­firmed the same?

If the tentation be touching those things which we beliue God to haue done or still to doe, as specially the transmuta­tion of bread and wyne into the body and bloud of Christ, the accidents of bread & wyne remayning as before, diuers exāples [Page 278] are to be alleadged of innumerable thinge [...] which we beliue God to haue done when as yet we are able to yield no reaso [...] hero [...] Who can conceaue the whole worlde a [...] the only will and commaund of God to haue beene able to be made of nothinge? And yet many doe belieue it, who yet can­not be brought to belieue the mystery of the Blessed Eucharist? Who also (were it not warranted by di [...]ine authority) wold belieue the bodyes of all dead men turned into ashes, or into dust, or deuoured by beasts or changed into grasse in a moment at the commaund of our Lord to rise a­gayne? And yet all Catholikes belieue this and confesse it in their Creed, and the same belieued the holy Iob before some thou­sands, Iob. 19. of yeares for he sayth: I know that my Redeemer doth liue, and in the last day I shall rise a­gaine out of the earth, and shall be clad againe with my skinne: out of these then and other wō ­derfull workes of God which f [...]r surpasse our reach and capacity and are by the ho­ly Catholike Church propounded for all to belieue, we may be induced to belieue the other, because the Church as testifyeth the Apostle is: 1. Tim. 3. The piller & foundation of Truth. These things and the lik may be proposed [Page 279] vnto such as are tempted about matters be­ [...]onging vnto fayth.

Such as are tempted about their hope, to them the greatnes of Gods mercy which is infinit and farre exceeding the number or greatnes of all our synnes, is to be explicated. Holy Dauid sayth in the psalme: Our Lord is gratious and mercifull, Psal. 144. he is patient and very mercifull, our Lord is good vnto all and his mercyes are ouer [...]ll his workes. Againe he is to be put in mynde of the propitiation or sacrifice to appease Gods wrath offered vp by the mediatour of God & man Christ Iesus vpō the crosse, of which S. Iohn saith: He is the propitiatiō for our sins, & not for our [...]alon, 1. Ioan. 2. but also for the sins of the whole world. Thirdly the force of pennance is to be layed open before him, which if it proceed from a hart truly contrite, it neuer hath any re­pulse from God, for the prophet most tru­ly wrote: Psalm. 50. God will not despise a contrite & hum­bled hart; Then also let such a one call to his remembrance the example of the prodigall childe who had scarsely pronounced these wordes: Father I haue sinned against heauen and before thee: when as presently the bowells of his louing Father were moued to com­passion, and he cast himselfe on his sonnes [Page 280] armes, imbraced him, vested him a new, put a ring on his fingar, and caused a grea [...] banquet to be made ready for him, and all this because his sonne that had beene lost was now found agayne.

Last of all the example of the Apostle S. Paul is to be proposed, who whiles yet he did persecute the Church was preuen­ted by the grace of God and changed from a persecutour into a pr [...]acher, and this as the same Apostle writeth hapned to him, that all sinners by his example might be conuerted, & no mā though neuer so wic­ked might despaire of the mercy of God: This is a faythful saying & worthy of al acceptance, that Christ Iesus came into this world to saue sin­ners, of whome I am the first or chiefe: but therefore haue I obteyned mercy that in me Christ Iesus might shew all his patience for the instruction of such as should heerafter belieue in him to euerlasting life.

But such as are tempted with the most grieuous tentation of al other, I mean with that which is against the loue of God, and are prouoked to hate him, and to loue the Diuell: First they are to be taught that the Diuell is a lyar: for thus sayd our Saui­our of him: VVhen the Diuell speaketh a lye he speaketh of his owne, because he is a lyar, and Fa­ther [Page 281] of it: where these words, and Father of it, Tract. 41. in Ioan. hom. 42. in Ioan. Genes. 3. do signify the Diuell to be the Father of lyes, as both Saint Augustine and Saint Chry­sostome doe teach, for the Diuell first before all other beganne to lye when he sayd vn­to Eue and by her vnto Adam: nequaquam mo­riemini, you shall not dye: for God had said vnto Adam, that he should not eate of the forbidden tree if he would neuer dye: on the other side the Diuell sayd, that they should eate because they should not dye: therefore there is no credit to be giuen vn­to the Diuell because he is a lyar, and the Father of lyes: agayne the Diuell is already adiudged vnto hell fire withall his com­plices, for thus God will speake vnto the wicked at the day of iudgement: Goe yee ac­cursed into hell fire which is prepared for the Diuell and his Angells; they do therfore greatly erre who submit themselues to the Diuell ho­ping after death to rule and raigne in hell with him, and there to haue great wealth and all manner of pleasures; and finally it is cleere by experience that al the promises of the Diuell are deceatfull: for hitherto there hath not beene one found that euer I could heare of who hath euer receaued the great treasures which the Diuell promised [Page 282] him, or being condemned by lawfull au­thority to prison, or to the galleys, or to death, hath beene able by his meanes [...]o be deliuered.

These three things if they were se­riously considered of such as desire their owne saluation, perhaps there would be very few, or rather none at all that would euer presume to fall from him who is true God, & truly most powerfull, most wise most good, to the diuel most lying, most beggarly, most miserable.

Of the fourth tentation we need not speake seeing that it hath euidently beene shewed that this tentatiō is not so hurtfull as healthfull vnto such as doe dye; or if any desire a remedy out of the Scriptures to be able the better to beare & endure the same, let him whils that horrible spectacle doth last, eyther reade or cause to be read vnto him the six & twentith psalme, which be­ginneth thus, Dominus illuminatio mea & salus mea quem timebo? Our Lord is my light, and my saluation, whome shall I feare?

CHAP. XIII. Of the thirteenth Precept of this Art of dying well, when our Death is neere, which is of the secōd remedy against the tentation of the Diuell.

VVE haue [...]spatched the first re­medy against the particuler as­saults of the Diuell, now we wil explicat the second which is common to all tenta­tions: this great and soueraygne remedy consisteth in prayers made vnto God whe­ther the sicke man be able to pray for him­selfe, or whether others pray for him, or whether both the one, and the other, that is the prayer of the sicke man, and prayers of such as shall then be about him be vni­ted iointly togeather, for certayne it is the prayers of such as feare God to be of great force, especially seeing that we know for certeyne that the Diuell can no further tempt vs then it shall please God to permit him, for like a roaring lyon, or mad dog he is bound with an iron chaine, and can not byte at his pleasure, but as far forth as [Page 284] God who with his Almighty hand doth gouerne the same cnayne, permit him t [...] byte. This we haue in Saint Augustine ex­pounding these wordes of the psalme: Psal. 34. Di [...] animae meae salus tua ego sum: Say vnto my soule I am thy saluation: where alleadging the example of Iob thus he writeth: Ostendit hoc Deus &c. This doth G [...]d shew in the true cause of that holy Iob, because the di­uell himselfe hath no power to take away these temporall thinges vntill he haue re­ceaued it from that supreme power: he could enuy at the holy man, but could he hurt him? He could accuse him, but cold he condemne him? Was he able to take a­ny thing from him? Was he able to take so much as one naile of his hands or feet? Could he hurt the least hayre of his head, vntill he sayd vnto God: Mitte manum tuam, extend thy hand? What is meant by this speach extend thy hand? Giue me power: well; he receaued power, he did tempt, the other was tempted, yet he that was tempted did conquer, and the tempter was vanquished. For God who permitted the D [...]u [...]ll to take all a­way from the Saint; he interiourly left not his seruant, but made the soule of his [Page 285] seruant a sword to subdue the Diuel him­ [...]elfe. What power is this? I speake of man: [...]or man in Paradise is ouercome, and Iob, ouercometh on the dunghill: in Paradise man was ouercome of the Diuell by the woman; here Iob ouercame the Diuell and the woman togeather.

The same thinge which Saint Au­gustine teatheth to wit that the Diuell can do no more then God permitteth him, S. Antony, and S. Francis haue taught vs by their examples, of the former thus spea­keth Saint Athanasius who wrote his life: Antonius multitudine daemoniorum vallatus &c. Antony being enuironed with a multi­tude of diuells as one that scorned his e­nemyes, sayd vnto them, if that you had any strength one were inough for the cō ­bat, but for that God hauing weakened you, your strength is lost, and you striue by multitudes to cast vs into feare, wher­as this very attempt is a great signe of weakenesse, because you take vpon you the shapes of vnreasonable beasts: agayne with great confidence he sayd; if you be able to doe any thing, if our Lord hath giuen you power ouer me, deuoure what is graunted you; and if you cannot, why [Page 286] doe you leese your labour in vayne? The signe of the Crosse, and fayth towards our Lord is an inpregnable bulwarke fo [...] our defence.

Saint Bonauenture relateth almost the very same of Saint Francis saying: Loca so­litaria quaerens &c. In vita ca. 10. Seeking for solitary places, to them and to forlorne Churches he went in the night tyme to pray, where he oftentymes endured most horrible as­saults of the Diuells, who sensibly con­tending with him laboured to hinder his earnest desire of prayer; but he defended with heauenly armour, by how much more strongly he was assayled by his ene­myes, by so much the more strong was he & more feruent in his actions; confident­ly saying vnto Christ, protect me vnder the shadow of thy wings, from the face of the wicked that haue afflicted me: and then to the diuells he sayd, doe what you can agaynst me you wicked and deceatfull fiends: for you can doe no more then the hand of God per­mitts you, and I stand here ready with all comfort and ioy to suffer whatsoeuer he hath determined to be inflicted: which courage of mynde the proud diuells not enduring departed with confusion. S [...] he. [Page 287] And this firme and sure foundation being layed, that the diuell can do no more then that God permits him, it cannot be doub­ted of, but that a feruent prayer made vn­to God, eyther by the sicke man, or stan­ders by or all togeather is of great force in this behalfe especially if such as pray be in Gods frendship & fauour.

There is a most notable example of this thing in Saint Gregory who affirmeth this example to haue hapned in his owne monastery and sayth, that he had spoken thereof in a sermon to the people: these are his wordes: Is de quo &c. 4. Dialog Cap. 37. He of whome I remember to haue made mention in my homilyes made before the people was a very vnquiet childe, his name was Theodo­rus, who more out of necessity then any de­sire entred with his brother into our mo­nastery, to whome euery thinge seemed troublesome which any did speake vnto him for his saluation, for the thinges that were good he could not only not doe, but neyther could he endure to heare them, & by swearing, fretting, and scoffing, pro­tested that he would neuer take the habit of the holy rule: in the last contagious sicknesse which tooke away no small part [Page 288] part of the people of this Citty; the infe­ction took him about his groine, and was brought so low as that he was rea [...]y to dye; and being in his agony the brethren came about him to help his passage with their prayers: now his body from the vt­ter parts was dead, and the vitall heate did only pant within his brest, all the bre­thren beganne so much the more earnest­ly to pray for him, by how much they saw his end more and more to hasten: then on a soden he beganne to cry out to the bre­thren there present, and with great noyse to break of their prayers, or at least to hin­der them saying: depart, depart, behold I am giuen ouer to a dragon to be deuoured who for that you are present cannot de­uoure me: he hath taken in my head into his mouth, depart I pray that he may tor­ment me no more, but let him doe that he is come for; if I be giuen ouer to him to be deuoured why for your sake do I stay? The brethren beganne to say vnto him: what is that thou sayst brother? Make the signe of the holy Crosse: he answered say­ing I would signe my selfe, but I am not able because I am prest downe with the scales of this dragon: when the brethren

lasting happynesse, when as no man can fal away from that happines, but he must fall into the gulfe of endles perdition.

To conceaue this matter the bet­ter as being of greatest importance I haue thought it expedient briefly to ponder the wordes of Saint Paul in his second e­pistle to the Corinthians: Id enim quod in praesenti est momentanem &c. 2. Cor. 4. For our tribu­lation which in this life is momentary and light, worketh in vs aboue measure on high an euerlasting weight of glory, we not contemplating the things that are seene, but which are not seene: for the thinges which are seene are temporall, the thinges which are not seene eterna [...]. These Apostolicall and golden words to a spirituall man are most easy and plaine, and out of them alone without al [...] diffi­culty he learnes the art of liuing, and the art of dying well: but to a carnall & sen­sual man, they are as obscure as any Cym­merian darkenes, and sound as the He­brue or Arabicke tongues do to one who knoweth no other but the Latyn or Greeke.

A spirituall man gathereth out of these wordes the tribulations of this life [Page 306] although most grieuous, endured & born fo [...] the loue of God to be most light, and most short, albeit they should last for ma­ny yeares, because whatsoeuer hath an end cannot be properly sayd to be of long continuance; and the same tribulations to merit before God so great riches as that an vnmeasurable & euer during treasure of glory, and all good things is purchased by them; out of which al men of capacity may see that these tribulations are not to be feared, but we are to feare our sins, ney­ther are temporall emolumēts to be much regarded, but eternall only. And hence it followeth that men are to liue well on earth, that they may happily raigne in heauen, and consequently liue & dy most securely.

But sensuall men, that haue no spirit, who in wordes say that they be­lieue the words of the Scripture, and deny it in deeds, they doe plainly peruert the words of the Apostle, and say, if not with their tongue, yet in their hart, that po­uerty, ignorance, ignominy, iniuryes, tribulations are most grieuous, & there­fore with all care to be auoyded, preuen­ted, & repelled; albeit they should for that [Page 307] end lye, deceaue, commit murther, offend God, and afterwards go to hell fir [...] [...]or say these men, who knoweth whether a­ny where there be a hell? Or who hath euer seene this eternall weight of glory? But we fynde by experience, we know for certeyne, yea we feele with our hands pouerty, ignominy and iniuryes to be ill. Thus doth the world and such as are of the world not deliuer in wordes, but te­stify in their actions, and this is the cause why the greatest part of men doe liue ill, and dye most miserably.

And to alleage an example or two of the bad death of the damned, we haue in the fourth booke of S. Gregoryes Dialogues, the example of one Crisorius, who be­ing one of them whom I now described, a politike fellow, wise, and in worldly affayres very practicall, but withall as S. Gregory noteth very proud, and couetous; this man being now come to the end of his life, opening his eyes saw most filthy and vgly spirits to stand before him, & to draw neere that they might take him away perforce, and carry him into hell; the poore man began to tremble, to wax pale, and with lo [...]d cryes to aske for re­spit, [Page 308] crying and saying: Inducias vel vsq [...] [...]ane, inducias vel vsque mane: res­ [...]it [...] till to morow, respit but till to morrow, and whiles he thus cryed, euen in the very speaking his soule was taken away from his body: by which it is most cleere that he saw that vision for our instruction that it might be a warning to vs, seeing that in respect of himselfe it was nothing auayleable. And this vsually hapneth vnto such as differ or delay their amendment vntill the last houre of their life, and of this number are they to be re­ckoned who as Saint Gregory sayth in the beginning of his fourth booke, doe not easily belieue any thinge that they do not see with their eyes, or if they belieue, they doe not belieue as they should, by refor­ming their liues to the prescript of vertue.

Another example is in the same place where Saint Gregory writeth of a Monke that was an Hypocrite, who was thought to fast whiles in the mea [...]e tym he did secretly eate and drinke: and the same Saint affirmeth the sayd Monke to be damned in hell fire, for he acknowled­ged his synne but did no pennance for it: for God on the one side would haue his [Page 309] Hipocrisy detected, and on the other gaue him not grace to repent, that oth [...] [...]ay learne not to delay their cōfession [...]pe [...] nance vntill the end of their life. But not to stay longer in discoursing of such who through their owne negligence haue not learned the art of liuing well & therfore haue miscaryed in their ends; I returne to the wordes of S. Paul which are very full of mysteryes & most wholsom documēts.

First it is good to note how far the Apostle doth extenuate his owne me­rits, and labours endured for Christ, and extolleth the glory of the Kingdome of heauen which is the reward of our me­rits: That (sayth he) of our tribulation is mo­mentary and light, this is the extenuation of his merits. The Apostle with all possible endeauour had laboured almost fourty yeares, for when he was called by a voice from heauen vnto Christ he was a young man, Cap. 7. for so it is written in the Acts of the Apostles: the stoners of Saint Stephen, deposuerunt vestimenta sua secus pedes adolescen­tis qui vocabatur Saulus: they layed their gar­ments at the feet of a young man called Saul. He liued a Christian euen vnto his old age, for so he writeth of himselfe vn­to [Page 310] Philemon: cùm sis sicut Paulus senex, seeing th [...] ar [...] like Paul an old [...]an, & therfore he [...]towed his youth, his middle and old age in the seruice of Christ, and yet h [...] sayeth, that his tribulations which were continuall without intermission, from his conuersion vntill his Martyrdō, were out momentary: and what he sayth is true, if his tribulations be compared vnto the eternity of euerlasting felicity, though in respect of our tyme they dured for a long while.

To the shortnes he addeth their lightnes: Momentaneum & leue tribulationis nostrae; And yet how shar [...] and cruell his tribulations were, himself declareth whē in the first to the Corinthians he sayth: 1. Cor. 4. Vs (que) in hanc horam &c. Euen vnto this houre we hunger and thirst, are naked and are bea­ten or buffetted with fists, and haue no place of aboad and labour with our own hands; we are cursed, and we blesse; we suffer persecution, and endure it; we are blasphemed and we entreat, we are made as it were the filth of the worlde and the scum of all euen vntill this present tyme: and in his other Epistle vnto the same Corinthians he addeth further: 2. Cor. 11. In laboribus [Page 311] plurimis &c. In very many labours, in pri­sons more often, in strips aboue measure, in deaths often, of the Iewes fiue [...]es had I fourty lashes saue one, thrice was I beaten with rodds, once was I stoned, thrice I suffered shipwracke, night & day I was in the depth of the sea, often in trau [...]ll, in dangers of waters, in dangers of theeues, in daungers by myne owne countrymen, in dangers by Gentiles, in daungers in the citty in daungers in the wildernes, in dangers on the sea, in dan­gers amongst false brethren; in labour & trouble, in often watching, in hunger & thirst, in often fasting, in cold and na­kednes. These are the tribulations which he calleth light, which although in thē ­selues most heauy yet the loue of Christ & greatnes of reward made them worthily to seeme most light.

The Apostle annexeth the great­nes of reward saying: that this momen­tary tribulation worketh in vs on high the euerlasting weight of glory; where af­ter the manner of holy Scripture which accommodates it selfe to our capacity, the Apostle describeth the reward of our labours by the similitude of the greatnes [Page 312] of some corporall thing: for a corporall thing is then sayd to be great when it is hig [...], permanent, large, and deep: of the height of the glory of Saints he sayth, a­boue measure in height, that is, the reward of ou [...] labours shalbe aboue measure high, in so much as no height can be conceaued greater; of the durance or length he sayth aeternum eternall, to wit, it shall haue no end, in comparison whereof all durance is most short and may be tearmed momē ­tary; of the largenes and depth he sayth, the weight of glory; the name of glory signi­fyeth the blessednes of Saints to be like vnto splendour or light which is spred a­broad and filleth all thinges: the word weight signifieth the depth of some solide and full thing, and which is not superfici­all and empty, but most solid, most full. The glory then of the Saints shall be a certayne thing aboue al manner and mea­sure high, it shall be eternall, most solid, most full, most happy.

And for that sensuall men cōceaue not these things, the inhabitants I meane of this world, the Apostle added: we not be­holding the things that are seene, but the things that are not seene, for the thinges that are seene are [Page 313] temporall, the thinges which are not seene eternall: this is the entiere, and true cause why so few do learne this art we treate of, fo [...] ey­ther men do not at all think, or else think not seriously as they should on these things which are not seene and are eter­nall, but are altogeather busied in consi­dering the beauty and vtility of corporal and transitory thinges which are seene with their mortall eyes, and this only is the difference betwixt brute beasts & sen­sual men without spirit, that beasts think on nothing but that which is present be­fore their eyes, because they are not ca­pable of reason whereby they might re­flect on thinges to come which are eter­nall: but carnall and sensuall men do not thinke or consider things to come and e­ternall, because they being taken and tyed with the birdlime of carnall concu­piscence will not lift vp their mynds frō their present delights, and direct it to thinges to come which alone are truly great, pretious, euerlasting: and this much of the first consideration of the words of S. Paul.

Another consideration no lesse pro­fitable and fruitfull is peculiar for them [Page 314] that already haue descended into the pit of perdition, for they whose eyes of their soule, the smart of torments which they endure, hath opened, which in this life synne had shut; they I say do now mani­festly perceaue the prosperityes of this world, as riches, honours, delights, King­domes, and Empires in respect of their e­uer during, neuer ending torments, to haue beene both momentary and light, and yet for the att [...]yning of them they are not only thus punished, but haue also lost vnspeakable ioy, and euerlasting glo­ry, for which cause they shall still with excessiue griefe lament, and shall fynd no comfort, because whiles they liued on earth they were such fooles as for so fraile and transitory thinges, not indeed good but the shadowes rather of good things, to loose these heauenly riches, which haue aboue measure in height the e­uerlasting weight or poyse also of glo­ry.

Let vs heare their wordes in the booke of wisdome for it pleased the holy Ghost in that booke to set downe the speaches of these fooles, nothing at all a­uayleable to the speakers, but vnto vs if [Page 315] we will our selues they may be very fru­itfull and profitable: thus they speake: Ergo erauimus à via veritatis, & iustitiae lu [...]en non luxit nobis &c We haue erred therefore from the way o [...] truth, and the light of iustice hath not shined vnto vs: we are wearyed in the way of iniquity & perdi­tion, and we haue walked hard ways, but we haue not knowne the way of our Lord: what hath pride auayled vs, or what hath the vanting of our riches yiel­ded vs? All these things haue passed away like a shadow, and as a forerunning me­ssenger, and as a ship that passeth ouer the wauing water, whereof when it is past no signe can be seene, and like a bird that flyeth through ayre, of whose pas­sadge there is no marke or token. So the wise man. Out of which we do not on­ly perceaue that sensuall men are to doe pennance in hell for that for this small & temporall trash they haue lost infinite great and eternall wealth, but also for that they haue so much laboured and we­aryed themselues in pursuying and pre­seruing these temporall commodityes, which is most true: & oftē it falls out that such as contemne all earthly thinges doe [Page 316] liue more merily & cheerfully then those who abound with all wealth and ho­nour.

Truly Saint Paul whose words we endeauoured to explicate, sayth of him­selfe, Repletus sum consolatione, super abundo gaudio in omni tribulatione nostra. 2. Cor. 7. I am filled with comfort, I do ouer abound with ioy in all our tribulation. Saint Athanasi­us in the life of Saint Anthony who had left all, writeth; that he was neuer seene to be sadd: and the same may be sayd of all the Saints, although most poore and labou­ring perpetually in prayer, in fasting, & mortification of their owne flesh: and therefore they who for the gayning and getting of worldly riches are not afrayd to leese eternall, they do only altogeather leese the later, but for the most part they leese their internall comfort and ioy; and so whiles they seeke for earthly happy­nes, they leese both earthly and heauen­ly togeather.

Is it not therefore expedient that we who are yet liuing should learne to be wise by the example of such as haue gone before vs? truly if when we make a iourney one should tell vs that the way [Page 317] we tooke did not leade vnto the place where we meant to go, but to a dāgerous downfall or den of theeues; there is no man but would thanke his admonisher, and presently put himselfe into the right way: and if we haue so great care in a corporall and temporall danger, truly it is meete that much more willingly and cheerfully we do the same where the dā ­ger is both corporall and spirituall, tem­porall & euerlasting.

Lastly there remayneth a conside­ration for these men who are so carnal & sensuall that they esteeme not the losse of eternall life, and that glory which surpa­sseth all vnderstanding: these men are to be warned that in case they esteeme not the glory of heauen which they neuer saw; at least they contemne not the fire & brimstone and other corporall punish­ments which they know, and which in hell are found to be most outragious: tru­ly carnall pleasure which in this life is light and momentary doth worke in the wicked aboue measure an euerlasting weight of misery. And truly our Lord & Sauiour Christ in the last day in few words will make this euident, saying: go [Page 318] ye accursed into euerlasting fire prepared for the Diuell & his Angells.

But S. Iohn i [...] his Apocalips hath expressed more fully what māner o [...] tor­ments are prepared for the Diuell and his Angells & for men circumuented & sedu­ced by these Apostata spirits of the Diuell Prince of the wicked: thus we reade in the Apocalips: Apoc. 20. Et Diabolus &c. And the Diuell who seduced them was cast into the sake of fire, and brimstone where the beast & the false Prophet shall be tormented day and night for euer: & in the next Chap. of others condemned to hell he sayth: Cap. 21. to the fearfull & vnbelieuing, and to the exe­crable & murtherers, & fornicatours and sorcerers & idolaters, & al lyars, their part shalbe in the lake that burneth with fire & brimstone, which is the second death: of which words, the very first only nee­deth explicatiō, for the other sins are ma­nifest & cleere. S. Iohn calleth the fearefull, those who dare not resist the tempter be he Diuell or man, but presently yield and consent to the tentatation; to such S. Iames sayth: resistite Diabolo & fugiet à vo [...]is, resist the Diuell & he will fly from you, & there are not a few but rather innume­rable [Page 319] who haue not learned to fight in our Lords warfare, but without all resi­stance receaue the wounds of the Diuell, & dy the first death which is deadly syn, & because they are fearfull also in doing pennance, whiles they dare not chastise their body & bring it in subiection, they fall vpon the second death which is hell: & therfore S. Iohn put the fearefull in the first place, because this timidity drawes infinit men into hell.

What heere will carnall men say? For that all temporale moluments what­soeuer are momentary & light, we haue all learned by our owne and other mens experience: that the torments of hell fire are most weighty & to ēdure for euer, the holy Scripturs, in which no falsity can be cōteyned, do cleerly testify. Out of which it followeth that the total summe of this Art of dying well is, that which is com­prized in the three ensuing propositions, or which is euinced in the sillogisme fol­lowing in the next, and last Chapter of this booke.

CHAP. XVII. The Summe, or Abridgement of the Art of dying well.

AS well the comfort as the tribulati­on of this life is momentary, and small; the comfort and tribulation of the next life is for durāce euerlasting, for gre­atnesse without measure: therefore they are fooles who contemne the comfort & tribulation of the next life. The first pro­position of this argument is cleere by ex­perience, the assumption is more cleare in the Scriptures which are penned by the holy Ghost; the conclusion followeth in­euitably out of them both; if thē any one will easily and soone learne this art, let him not content himselfe with the rea­ding of this or the like bookes, but let him attentiuely consider not once but of­ten, not of curiosity to learne, but out of sincere intention to liue and dye well what distance there is betweene momen­tary things and euerlasting, betweene thinges of no moment, and such as are of [Page 321] most importance, most weighty? and if he desire to be throughly grounded in this most profitable & perspicuous truth let him call to mynde the examples of such as haue beene before vs, whether by good life they came to a good end, or by their il behauiour haue euerlastingly pe­rished; & to case him of the labour of se­king after examples, I will help him to three payre of them, one of Kings, one of priuate men, & the last payre of Cler­gy men; and all these I wil take out of the holy Scripture.

The first shall be of Saul and Dauid. Saul whiles that he was a priuate man, & poore, was so honest and good as that the Scripture testifyeth there was not a bet­ter then he amongst the children of Israel: being made King he changed his beha­uiour, 1. Reg. 9. in so much as there was not found a worse then he: for he persecuted Dauid who was innocent euen vnto death, and that for no other cause, but for that he suspected that Dauid should be a King & raigne after him: and when he had ray­gned 20. yeares he was slayne in warre & descended to hell. Dauid a faythfull and vertuous man, after a long persecution procured by Saul, was declared King, and [Page 322] for forty yeares raygned & gouerned his Kingdome most prudently and iustly, in which tyme he endured many tribulati­ons, & at length rested in peace.

Now let vs compare togeather the comforts and tribulations of them both, & see whether of thē had better learned the art of liuing & dying well. Saul whils he liued had not that cleere and perfect delight, which yet of all others is wont to be greatest in Kings, and men of su­preme authority, whiles he swayed the scepter, & that for the great hatred wher­with he pursued Dauid, & therfore he ta­sted not in the twenty yeares of his raign the sweetnes of his crowne without the gall of enuy: those yeares being expired all the pleasure of this life left him, and there succeeded a perfect, and euerlasting calamity: and now for the space well neere of two thousand threescore & ten yeares, his chiefest part to wit his soule, liueth in vnspeakable torments, & that which is more miserable these torments are to endure for euer. Dauid on the other side liued 70. yeares and raigned of that number forty, and although he tasted of tribulations, and these neyther few nor small, yet found he very frequent & sin­gular [Page 323] comforts out of the reuelations he had from God which he expressed in his most sweet and heauenly psalmes, & af­ter his death descended not into tormēts but with the holy Fathers into repose, & the bosome of Abraham, and after the re­surrection of our Sauiour, he ascended with Christ into the euerlasting King­dome of heauen.

Let the Reader now iudge whe­ther the passadge of the wicked frō their body be not most miserable; although it be of Kings, and Emperours, and the pa­ssage of the iust most happy be it also ey­ther of Kings or Emperours. Saul as I sayd raygned twenty yeares and now after his death for two thousand yeares and more hath remayned without all rest in hell fire: what comparison (deere Christian) is there betweene twenty and two thou­sand yeares? who would desire to haue twenty yeares of all possible and perfect pleasure in this life, if for certeyn he shold know that for the same he shold remayn two thousand yeares in a burning for­nace? And is there any so sensles who would vndergo the greatest torment that can be deuised, I say not for two thousand but two hundred yeares, that he might [Page 324] here enioy neuer so great pleasure? Wha [...] if hereunto I should add the torment of hel which is not to endure for two thou­sand yeares only, but for euer without a­ny end at all? Surely this eternity of tor­ments, without all intermission, with­out all rest of repose is so great a matter as it may make euen an iron hart, or brazen brest to stoope and do pennance. And the same consideration may the reader apply vnto Dauid, and weigh as it were in a bal­lance his tribulation which was momē ­tary and light, with that eminent and e­uerlasting glory and pleasure, which the same King now after his death atteyned in heauen; although the torments of hell vse more to moue vs then the ioyes of pa­radise.

The second example shalbe of the Glutton and Lazarus in S. Luke. The rich Glutton for a small while made merry with his friends, for he was clad in pur­pose and silke, and feasted euery day sūp­tuously. Lazarus on the other side was a beggar & lay sicke at the gate of the glut­ton full of soares, and desired to b [...] fedd with the crummes which fell f [...]m the rich mans table, & no man did giue thē: but a little after al these things were chā ­ged [Page 325] and turned vpside downe: the rich [...]lutton dyed and descended into hell: La­ [...]arus also dyed & was caryed by the An­ [...]ells into a place of rest, to wit, into the [...]osome of Abraham. And truly the Glutton [...]fter a very short comfort beganne to be [...]ormented in the infernall flames, and [...]here now is tormented, and for euer shal [...]e without all rest or stop. Lazarus being [...]oore, patient, and vertuous, after a short [...]ribulation passed vnto rest in the bosom of Abraham, and after the resurrection of Christ entred into heauen, where for euer he shall remayne in glory. Certainly had we liued at that tyme few or none of vs would haue desired to be like Lazarus, but all or the most part had desired to be like the rich Glutton, and yet now all of vs doe esteeme Lazarus to be most happy, and the Glutton most miserable: why then do we not now whiles the choyce is in our hands chuse the vertue of Laza­rus rather then the vices of the glutton? I say not that riches are to be condemned, seeing that Abraham, Dauid, and many o­ther Sa [...]ts were rich, but gluttony, ryot, vanity [...]ant of compassion, and other vices which brought this Glutton vnto hell fire are to be condemned: neyther do [Page 326] we only looke on the pouerty and soares of Lazarus, but we commend his patience & piety although that this be much more to be admired in vs, that we knowing things to stand thus, and esteeming the glutton most foolish, and Lazarus most wise, yet that there are so many found that continually imitate the folly of the gluttō, when as they may be assured that they shall be like vnto him in torments, as they haue been like him in their vici­ous life and wicked courses

The third example that remayneth is of Iudas the traytour and S. Matthias, [...] 1. [...] who succeeded the sayd Iudas in the Apostle­ship. Iudas was vnhappy in this world, & most vnhappy in the next; [...] [...]ra three yeares he followed our Sauiour, still labouring by sacrilegious theft to fill his purse; not contēted with that mony which he took for himself out of the cōmon allowance, but the infectiō of couetousnes pricking him forward he came at last to that point as he sold his Lord and maister, but after­wards being driuē by the diuell into des­paire, he restored the mony, and hanged himself, & so lost both tempora [...] & euer­lasting life: & therefore our S [...]our pro­nounced that dreadfull sent [...]e of him: [Page 327] It had beene good for him that he had neuer beene born. S. Matthias w [...] succeeded him, Matth. 2 that is to say was chosen in his place, endured a momētary labour & trouble not without great abōndance of heauenly delights; & now al his labour & trouble being ended he raigneth most happily with Christ in heauen, whome most faithfully he serued & honoured vpon earth.

This comparison of Iudas with S. Mat­thias perteyneth vnto Bishops & religious mē. Iudas was an Apostle & consequent [...] designed to be Bishop, for of Iudas and S Matthias S. Peter interpreted these words of the psalm, Let another tak his Bishoprike; & the same Iudas is to be reckoned among the religious, because S. Peter sayd of al the Apostles: Behold we haue left all & haue followed thee, what shall we haue for the same? Iudas then of al others most vnfortunat, after he had fallen down from the soueraigne state of perfection, by restoring the mony he lost that little gayn which he had so il gottē, & making himselfe his own hang-mā, is now damned to endles punishment; who may be an example vnto al Bishops & re­ligiou [...] men to looke about them, & see how th [...] [...]alke, & what dāger hangs o­uer their h [...]ds vnles by good life they be [Page 328] answereable to the perfe [...]ō of their sta [...] vnto which God h [...] [...] called thē: for Sa [...] & the Glutton departed by death frō the tēporal felicity, & came into endles mis [...] ry: Iudas had no tēporal felicity at all, bu [...] the shadow ōly & hope of felicity, & y [...] by killing himself he came to euerlastin [...] dānation & that more grieuous then th [...] o [...]her, eyther Saul I mean or the gluttō. An [...] in case that Iudas had enriched himself a­ [...] all mē of the world, & yet had afte [...] [...]on to eternall pouerty, & endles tor­ments of hell, as indeed he came, what good had the huge heap of all his riches done him?

Let then the argument which I made in the beginning of this Chap. & which now I repeat out of the wordes of the A­postle, remayn most firme & vncōtroled. Our tribulation which now is but for a moment & light, worketh aboue measure, most eminently, an euerlasting weight of glory in vs: we not looking at the things that are seene, but at the things that are not seene: for the things that are seene are Tem­porall, but the thinges which are not seene are E­ternall