# The paradise of the Christian soul/Chap. I. Colloquy between Christ and Man on the way to live and die well and happily.

PART VII.
THE WORSHIP AND VENERATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.
ALSO THE CARE AND PREPARATION FOR DYING WELL AND HAPPILY.
FOR SATURDAY.
The WORSHIP of the Virgin Mary, and the care for a happy death, we have reserved for the Seventh Part, and to the seventh day, that is, the Sabbath. For throughout the six days, that is, the space of our life, we are drawing towards the day of rest, or the repose of the life eternal. For the Sabbath of the law was a type of that rest which is awaited by the faithful after this life. Therefore as, after the six days' labour, the Jews on the seventh day were free from work, so, when this life's labours are ended, we, by death, shall keep holiday, and shall spend a festal and a solemn Sabbath. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. From henceforth now, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours.
Moreover, the Church has specially dedicated the Sabbath-day to the honour of the Virgin Mother of God; and it is the common practice of pious persons on that day to venerate the Virgin Mother with particular offices of devotion, that they may so much the more successfully attain to a happy repose, by her in whose tabernacle the Lord has reposed.
Think it not strange, then, good reader, to see the Mother of life here proposed to thy consideration simultaneously with death, since it is so fully appropriate that the Mother of Mercy, our life and our hope, who has brought forth to us the Author of life, should be recommended to the dying to be their Patroness against death. By our first parent we have contracted the debt of death, but by the second (who is more ​truly the Mother of all the living) we have partaken of the Fruit of life. And therefore it is that she is justly honoured throughout the whole world, as being, as it were, the Patroness both of life and of death. And indeed the pious custom of many has now been everywhere adopted, of saying for one another reciprocally the Litany commonly known as that of Loretto, for a happy death.
With this intent the frequent use of the Angelical Salutation at each of the Hours has been recommended to Christs faithful by Pope Paul V., with an indulgence of one hundred days if to the Salutation be especially added a petition for the assistance and intercession of our blessed Mother at the hour of our death. And she assuredly will not fail faithfully to protect her clients at their death, who stood by her Son when dying upon the Cross, and has hence merited the privilege of exercising, as it were, an especial patronage over the dying.
Hence it is clear that the title of the Virgin Mother of God to our honour rests for the most part on the assistance which, as their Patroness and Mother, she ever renders to her faithful clients at the hour of death. Oh, how many has she snatched from the gulf of hell! how many has she restored to the grace of her Son and to heaven! Of this there are numerous examples occurring everywhere in history, and in writers who treat of the great things done by the most holy Virgin. Thence search them out for thyself, and likewise endeavour to obtain a happy death by the aid of the Mother of Life. And to this end, with a loving heart, frequently exclaim,
Mary, Mother of grace!
Mother of mercy!
Do thou protect us from the enemy,
And receive us in the hour of death!
CHAPTER I.
Colloquy between Christ and Man on the way to live and die well and happily.
§ 1. Motives urged for being careful to die well.
All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of the field. The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen.
Christ. Behold, O man, what thy life is upon the earth! Grass, that is green ​to-day, dry to-morrow; a wind and a shadow that flies quickly away; a smoke and a vapour that appears for a little time: hear these things, all ye nations; give ear, all ye inhabitants of the world: all you that are earthborn, and you sons of men, both rich and poor together: young men and maidens, let the old with the younger hear the words of my mouth, for you lie all of you under one immutable sentence of death: it is appointed to men once to die, and, after this, the Judgment. You must all be manifested before my Judgment-seat, and that sooner than you think, that every one may receive according as he has done in his body, whether it be good or evil. Now I judge each one such as I find him to be when I cite him to my Tribunal by my satellite, who is Death.
Rejoice, therefore, O young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart be in that which is good in the days of thy youth, and walk in the ways of thy heart, and in the sight of thy eyes. But know that for all these God will bring thee into judgment. Now, then, if thou art wise, take order with thy house, for thou shalt die, and not live. Neither hast thou any cause to trust to thy strength or to thy age. Seest thou not that even strong and vigorous young men, nay, that poor persons and little infants, die daily, often too, from a trifling cause or accident? The vessel of earthenware or of glass, whether it be new or old, is equally fragile; if it fall upon the ground it is broken. It is in vain for thee to expect white hairs, since the greater part of mankind attains them not.
Man. O my God! thou hast created man to thy own image; thou hast crowned him with glory and honour, and hast set him over the works of thy hands; and wilt thou cause me to return suddenly to dust, and cut me off, whilst I am yet but beginning? Remember, O Lord, what my substance is; for can it be that thou hast made all the children of men in vain? Behold, we all die, and, like waters that return no more, we fall down into the earth!
Christ. Who is the man that lives, and shall not see death, — that shall deliver his soul from the hand of hell? But be it that I fill him with length of days, what will he be at the last? If a man live many years, and have rejoiced in them all, must he not remember the darksome time, and the many days, which, when they shall come, the ​things past shall be accused of vanity? For all those things have passed away like a shadow, and as a ship that passes through the waves; whereof, when it is gone by, the trace cannot be found. Oh, happy are they who remember that they are as exiles and pilgrims on the earth, or rather that they are set in this world as stewards and dispensers over the goods of their Lord, who will come at an hour they think not, to take an account of his servants!
But wretched are they, alas! who, as though I were gone abroad, and were to return late, live riotously on my goods, as though forgetful of the time when I shall summon them to give an account of their stewardship! Is it thus that men, who were created by me in honour, understand not, but are compared to senseless beasts, and made like to them? as though they were to die both alike, and as though man had nothing more than a beast; whereas, I have created them to my own image and likeness, and redeemed them with my own Blood when under sentence of eternal death, that with me they might become heirs of heaven! How is it, then, that, like blind men, they run upon death, and perish for ever, though they are men bought by me at so great a price, for whose sake I came that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly? Oh, how few there are who seriously consider this in their heart, and who deem it wisdom to meditate on these things! How many persons say, as though they had entered into a league with death, and made a covenant with hell: When the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come upon us? Thus it is that they turn away their face, that they may not look upon their end; there is no fear of God nor care for death before their eyes. Therefore they spend their days in wealth, and in a moment they go down to hell.
Man. What shall I do to thee, O keeper of men? Thy hands have made me, and fashioned me wholly round about, and is it thus that thou castest me headlong down? Spare me, O Lord, for my days are as nothing. What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to corruption? Shall dust confess to thee, or declare thy truth? Shall any one in the sepulchre declare thy mercy, and thy truth in destruction? For there is no one in death that is mindful of thee, and who shall confess to thee in hell? Does it seem ​good to thee that thou shouldst oppress me, the work of thy own hands? Is it thus that my days shall be swifter than a post, that they shall flee away, and not see good? Is it thus that they shall pass more swiftly than the web is cut by the weaver, and be consumed without any hope? Oh, forgive me, that I may be refreshed before I go hence and be no more!
§ 2. The art of dying well necessary above all things.
Christ. It is not I who made death, but by the envy of the devil has death entered into the world; because by his doing it was that death entered into the world, and death by sin, in which all have sinned. Therefore it is appointed to all men once to die. But this one consolation is left to thee, that as in Adam all die, so in me shall all be made alive. But if thou desirest to profit by this my benefit, see that thou be not ruined by the second death; for the death of sinners is the worst death. But how is it, alas! that life, the time of which is so short, and the whole of it barely sufficient for even necessary duties, and above all for due reparation for death, is spent y the greater number for the most part on superfluities and trifles?
If thou wert the sole possessor of all the years, days, hours, and all the time that the world has stood, and shall stand, together with that of all the wisdom, and foresight, and industry, and all the arts, wealth, friendships, favours, and whatever aid or advantage besides could ever be had in the world, wouldst thou not do well to apply it all to making that moment a happy one, which will determine for thee thy whole eternity, from which thou wilt be either miserable or happy for ever?
Man. When I turn myself to all the works that are wrought by the hands of men, and to the labours in which they labour in vain, I see in all things vanity and vexation of mind, and that nothing is lasting under the sun. And therefore I am weary of my life, when I see that all things under the sun are evil, and that all are vanity and vexation of spirit so that in much wisdom there is much indignation; and he that adds knowledge adds also labour.
Oh, vanity of vanities, and all is vanity!
Christ. Why, then, art thou careful and troubled about many things? Of what advantage is it to mind high things? To pry into things that are subtle rather than what are useful? Why dost thou walk in things great and ​wonderful, that are above thee? Behold, one thing is necessary: To know how to die. This is truly the art of arts, and science of sciences. He who knows this will be never the worse if he knows not the rest. But he who knows not this will gain nothing, though he know all beside. Do not all other things relate to earth and its short life: but this to Heaven and its boundless eternity?
Therefore, as long as thou livest, be learning to die, and the more so, that of this art there is but one experiment to be made; which, if it fail of success, thou wilt never be able to correct thy error. In other arts, if a fault is committed the first time through carelessness or ignorance, it is easily corrected the second; but in this, if there be made but one mistake, repentance afterwards will be useless and too late. For then the gate of my mercy will be shut, and there will be no hope of pardon remaining for ever. Wheresoever the tree falls, whether to the south or to the north, there shall it be. He is wisest who often thinks upon his end, and strives now to be in his life such as he wishes to be found in his death. Who is wise, and will keep these things?
It is indeed great wisdom for a man to look into himself, to know himself, to know, I say, what man is, that has a body from the ground and a spirit from heaven, and that the one, by death, returns into its earth from whence it was taken, but the spirit returns to God who gave it, that it may receive according as it has done in the body, whether it be good or evil.
My son, meditate on these things, contemplate them, dwell on them. Remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin; and nothing will avail so much to make thee temperate in all things. For how shalt thou lift up thy heart, or what cause shalt thou have to be proud, thou who art dust and ashes, and soon to return to the dust? Will it be any pleasure to thee to foster and pamper thy flesh with luxuries, which will shortly be the portion of snakes, and vermin, and worms? How canst thou set thy heart upon the riches and honours and vanities of the world, from which cruel death will separate thee, to-day perhaps, or to-night, however unprepared and unwilling? And then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? Oh, how easy is it for him to despise all things, who is ever reflecting that he must die! Oh, that men would be wise, and would ​understand, and would provide for their last end.
Man. I acknowledge, O Lord, that the days of man are short, and that the number of his months are with thee; thou hast appointed his bounds, which cannot be passed. I know that thou wilt deliver me to death, where a house is appointed for every one that lives. And who am I, that I should answer thee, and contend with thee in my words? Thou art just, O Lord, if I plead with thee; but if thou wilt not be angry with the prayer of thy servant, I will, O Lord, ask of thee one thing: Make me know my end, and what is the number of my days, that I may know what is wanting to me. How many are the days of thy servant, in which I shall be still in warfare upon the earth, until my change come?
§3. Timely preparation for Death.
Christ. It is not for thee, my son, to know the times or the moments which the Father has put in his own power; it is for thee to watch, wait, and be ready at all hours. For thy last day is hidden, that thou mayest carefully guard them all, for there is not one among them all that may not be thy last. It is for thee to redeem the time, and to labour while it is day; for the night will come, when no man can work. It is for thee to labour, that by good works thou mayest make sure thy calling and election. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. His is the extreme of folly who lets the days that he has slip by, and promises himself others, and meanwhile is occupied with trifles, with pleasure, and with the cares of this world. But why wouldst thou know that which is not good for thee? Know this, and hold it for a truth, that my ordering the hour of men’s death to be uncertain is a signal proof of my goodness and mercy. For oh, how many, if it were known, would take from it occasion for security and slumber, and would be much more sluggish in providing for their salvation, and would put it off to the close of their lives, and to the time of their death? Is not this done everywhere already, although they have not a day, nor an hour, nor a moment that is secure from death? Alas! man knows not his own end, and yet he neglects the care of his end! And therefore, as fishes are taken with the hook, and as ​birds are caught with the snare, so men are taken in the evil time, when it shall come suddenly upon them.
But thou, my son, remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth, before the time of affliction come, knowing that it is good for a man when he has borne the yoke from his youth; for with him that fears the Lord it shall go well in the latter end, and in the day of his death he shall be blessed.
See, therefore, how thou walk circumspectly, not as unwise, but as wise. For what folly can be greater than, when the whole of eternity hangs on the brief moment of this life, and when sentence for all eternity is to be passed at the hour of death, which will adjudge thee to punishment or to glory for ever, yet to make so little provision for that risk, but to be anxiously and industriously careful about everything else, and neglect the one thing which alone, and before all others, should be every one’s care?
What needs a man to seek the things that are above him, whereas he knows not what is profitable for him in his life, in all the days of his pilgrimage, and in his time that passes like a shadow?
O ye sons of men! how long will you be dull of heart? why do you love vanity, and seek after lying? Surely man asses as an image; yea, and he is disquieted in vain. His years shall be considered as a spider. For as with much labour it weaves its web, but in doing so spends its vitals, yet catches nothing but wretched flies, so do men waste the years of their life, but with what profit to themselves at last?
Man. Behold, thou hast made my days measurable, and my substanca is as nothing before thee. For a thousand years in thy sight are as yesterday which is passed. Spare me, O Lord, for my days are nothing. Remember that I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
Christ. Wherefore, I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, to refrain yourselves from carnal desires and cares of this world, which war against the soul. Behold, a pilgrim does not loiter on the way; he does not turn aside from the path to pluck flowers and seek for pleasures, and so trifle away his time; but rather, from desire of home and friends, he pursues and hastens continually on the ​journey that he has begun. But if, from time to time, he takes rest and refreshment, it is rather for necessity than pleasure, that, when he has recovered his strength, he may proceed and walk on the way more briskly afterwards.
Do thou act in like manner, and redeem the time from those vain and transitory things in which there is nothing but vanity and affliction of spirit, and devote it to the thing that is above all things serious and necessary, — the care of a good death and a happy eternity. For thou knowest not how long thou mayest continue, and whether after a while thy Maker may take thee away. Therefore, whatsoever thy hand is able to do, do it earnestly; for the night is coming, in which no man can work. For neither work, nor reason, nor wisdom, nor knowledge, shall be in hell, whither thou art hastening. Do now what thou wilt wish done when thou canst do it no longer, and wilt passionately lament that thou hadst not done when thou couldst.
Man. O Lord! who art rich in mercy, I am distressed on every side; do not abandon me. Reach out thy right hand to the work of thy hands, and draw me out of the mire, that I may not stick fast. For behold, I cry to thee out of the depths. I resolve daily to amend my life, but I am ever putting it off from day to day; and while I purpose to do this in future, it happens that this future is always future, nay, perhaps will never take place.
Lord Jesus, how long shall I take counsels in my soul? What profit is there in my blood, if I go down to corruption? Enlighten my eyes, that I may never turn them away from the sight of death, that I may see the dangers that hang over me, and that I may never sleep unto death, lest at any time my enemy say, I have prevailed against him!
Christ. Oh, if thou didst but know how greatly the mind of one who is at tho point of death is agonised by the remembrance of the time that has been so unprofitably lost! Oh, if thou couldst but see and hear the anguish, the complaints, and the wailings of the damned, that, alas! are useless, in their torments, what counsel, thinkest thou, wouldst thou take? Lo! the thing they deplore the most of all is this, that, when they could have redeemed themselves from torments so horrible, by a labour that was short and easy, still, regardless of death, they clung fast to vanities, and meanwhile neglected the time for putting oil in their ​Page:TheParadiseOfTheChristianSoul.djvu/599 ​Page:TheParadiseOfTheChristianSoul.djvu/600 ​Page:TheParadiseOfTheChristianSoul.djvu/601 ​Page:TheParadiseOfTheChristianSoul.djvu/602 ​Page:TheParadiseOfTheChristianSoul.djvu/603 ​Page:TheParadiseOfTheChristianSoul.djvu/604 ​Page:TheParadiseOfTheChristianSoul.djvu/605 ​Page:TheParadiseOfTheChristianSoul.djvu/606 ​Page:TheParadiseOfTheChristianSoul.djvu/607 ​And what, O Lord, shall I say of thyself? Didst thou not seem to have a dread of death, when, in the garden, for the anguish of thy Heart, thy Sweat became like drops of Blood trickling down upon the ground? And when thou saidst, My soul is sorrowful even unto death, and prayedst that this chalice might be removed from thee?
§ 5. Remedy against the dread of death, and the shrinking from it.
Christ. That was because I had taken upon myself your infirmities, that thou mightst know how much I suffered for you, and how truly I carried your sorrows. But it was less death than sin that I abhorred; the destruction of which, by my death, was before my eyes. But I allowed the fear of death so far to enter in, that thou mightst fear the less to die, as one to whom, by the merit of my death, death is become the end of sin, and the entrance into life.
But now consider why many of you fear death; for the causes of this are various; and yet, if thou examine them well, not one of them are reasonable or adequate. Rather wilt thou acknowledge that, although this world’s children are perceptibly actuated by the opposite feeling, who live on securely in their vices, at the same time that they are in a horrible fear of death as the greatest of evils; yet not death, in which is no evil, but a bad life is above all evils to be dreaded, for the reason that it produces the evils which are eternal. For so it is, that the foolish people, who walk in darkness, fear where there is no fear, and where there is fear, they walk securely; by which I mean, that they fear unreal dangers, and despise the true. For what is the death of which men are so afraid, else than the separation of the soul from the body? But the death of which they are not afraid is the separation of the soul from God; a death which is so much the more to be feared, as it is worse for the soul than for the body to perish.
But say, my son, what is there to be feared and to be shrunk from in death? Is not the day of death better than the day of one’s birth? Believe me, or rather acknowledge from thy own experience, that man born of a woman, living for a short time, is filled with many miseries: who comes forth like a flower and is destroyed, and flees as a shadow, and never continues in the same state. As long as he lives he walks in the midst of snares, in the world, I mean, the whole of which is seated in wicked​ness; where there is nought but the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life. Hence it is that he sees another law in his members, fighting against the law of his mind. Oh, conflict how great and grievous! oh, victory how difficult and infrequent!
Assuredly all this has ever appeared so burdensome and painful to my friends, that while they endured their life in patience, they wished for death. Hence arose their many groanings and complaints. Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged! My soul is weary of my life! Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? &c.
Besides, the life of man is but a passage, a prison, an exile; yet in these he who fears to die desires to remain. What! art thou weary of the journey, and yet wouldst not have it ended? Shut up in a noisome and filthy prison, yet wouldst not be released from it? Who is there that, if situated in a foreign land, above all, in the midst of many dangers and enemies, would not wish to return speedily to his own? Who is there that would not account himself happy, if he were shortly to be delivered from exile? He who is unwilling to die prefers misery to happiness, exile to his own country, darkness to light, earth to heaven!
MAN. Our life, O Lord, is nought else, indeed, but a warfare, a temptation, a perpetual conflict upon earth. Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged amid so many dangers, and snares, and wiles of Satan, the world, and the flesh! What is long life to a man else than a lengthening of torment, whether that arise from the perception or from the apprehension of evils; for combats are without, fears within. Few and evil are the days of our pilgrimage, yet such is our blindness, that we wish for a long life. We fear to die, and wish to postpone, though we cannot escape it; whereas death either is, or ought to be, the end of our misery, the limit of our guilt, the gate of life, the entrance to our Home, and the vision of thy Presence!
As long as we live we are miserable; and the more so, because, as we grow older, we seldom or never become better; and even love our misery because we know it not. Open, I pray thee, my eyes, that I may see where I am, — in banishment, &c.; and to what I should aspire, namely, to reach my Home; and that I may no more fear to die, ​but rather desire to be dissolved and be united to thee. For nowhere is it well with me, nor will be ever, without thee. Oh, when wilt thou bring me out of this prison! when shall I be delivered from the body of this death! &c.
CHRIST. But many also there are who fly from death, because in the world they are flourishing in wealth, abound in riches and honours, and call happy the people which possesses these things. Alas! now bitter is death to the man that has peace in his possessions, whose ways are prosperous in all things, and that is yet able to take meat! But, oh, foolish and slow of heart! oh, men of little faith! is it hard for you, who expect heaven and the highest Good, and the state that is perfect in being the complement of all blessings, to abandon the goods of earth. Behold, eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, what things I have prepared for them that love me: nay, I will myself be their honour and glory, and inheritance and pleasure, and reward exceeding great.
MAN. I believe to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living, where we shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy House, and where one day will be better than thousands. But, why, alas! is my faith so weak, that for a clod of earth I should be no more a candidate for Heaven? Why does not my soul pant after thee, O God, as the hart pants after the fountains of water, or as the labourer waits for the end of his work? when, O Lord, thou wilt thyself be my portion in the land of the living. Thou art the portion of my inheritance and of my cup; it is thou who wilt restore my inheritance to me. Increase, O Lord, my faith, and stir up my heart and my desire.
CHRIST. See, then, that by death thou receivest things that are far greater than those that thou leavest behind thee. True it is, that, to my faithful ones, death is not loss, but gain. For instead of a life short and perishable, and full of miseries on every side, they receive one happy and immortal, where there shall be no more pain. For the perishable goods of the world, they gain the goods of the Lord in the land of the living. For the vain pleasures of the flesh they are given to drink of the torrent of eternal pleasure.
What is it, then, that binds thee to the world? Is it hard to leave thy parents, thy relations, thy friends, thy associates? But, in dying, bethink thee whither thou goest. It is to thy heavenly ​Home, where thou art awaited by the vast company of them that love thee, of Angels, Apostles, Martyrs, Virgins, and all my Elect, the sight and conversation of whom will be to thee far more delightful than ever was any friendship upon earth. Shouldst thou not pant rather after their society? Forget, therefore, thy father’s house. Go forth out of thy country, and from thy kindred; for thy portion is in the land of the living. Wouldst thou not be brought into a land flowing with honey and milk, and be with me in Paradise?
Why art thou afraid to go forth? My Elect rejoiced when they received the answer of death, and when the laying away of their tabernacle was at hand. Behold, my Vessel of election, how he desired to be dissolved and to be with me, and reckoned death for gain!
MAN. Why should not Paul desire to be dissolved? He had fought a good fight, he had kept the faith, he had finished his course; as to the rest, he knew that there was laid up for him a crown of justice, which thou, the just Judge, wouldst render to him; nay, he was certain that nothing would be able to separate him from thee. But it is because I am a sinner that I desire not to be dissolved; nay, I dread it, because I know that the death of the sinner is very evil. And how can it be other than evil, when it is not to be succeeded by life? I am afraid to go forth, and I begin to tremble all over at the very entrance of the harbour, while I fear that none is standing by to receive me when I go forth. For how can I go forth in safety, if thou, O Lord, keep not my coming in and my going out? Alas! I shall be the sport and the prey of the thieves that would intercept me, while none is near to redeem me or to save! Blessed, indeed, are the dead that die in the Lord! But man, O Lord, knows not, alas! whether he is worthy of love or of hate, and what lot that is which awaits him after death; and how can it be that he should not fear and shrink from death, the issue of which to him is so very uncertain?
CHRIST. Fear, therefore, not to die, but to live ill. To what purpose is it to shrink from that which thou canst not escape, and so to live as to incur a serious danger thereby? But yet my will is, that with fear and trembling ​thou shouldst work out thy salvation, that thou shouldst strive to go in at the strait gate, and go by the way which, though narrow, is a way that leads to life. Nothing is better able to lessen the fear of death than a life led in the continual fear of God, and contempt of the enjoyments of the present, in the hope of the life that is to come. Chastise, therefore, too, thy body with St. Paul, and bring it to subjection. To him, behold, the world was crucified, and he to the world; how, then, could he die otherwise than cheerfully? Believe me, not one who is dead already to his sins and to the world is ever unwilling to die. For of what is death able to deprive one who loves nothing that is in the world, but all whose treasure is in Heaven?
Yet hearken to what thou wilt deem a yet greater marvel, that such persons have no fear even of the death so dreaded by others; I mean, a sudden and unexpected death. And why? Is it because such a death is more evil than others? Not so; but because it commonly seizes them unprepared, and too much entangled in earthly things. For to those whom it finds prepared it is so far from being evil, that to them it is rather an easy and a ready transit from the ills of this life to the blessings that are eternal, and to the rest that shall have no end.
Oh, how secure and happy is the death of one whom no worldly affection ties down to earth! With what alacrity does one go the way of all flesh whose study it has been to trample under foot within himself all desires of the flesh? To such a one will death not be terrible and unwelcome, but rather as a tranquil slumber that comes to refresh the limbs that are wearied after labour and fatigue! Hence it is that my friends are said to die in the Lord, because, while they lived, they made me the aim and end of their life; every act and intent of it they directed to me; and to me they attain in death at last, who am the end and object of their being, and therefore in peace in the selfsame they sleep, and are at rest; where there shall be no more any mourning, or crying or sorrow, for the former things are passed away. Hence it is but just that their death should bear the name, as it has the reality, of peace.
For since the life of man is a warfare upon earth, and you have a severe conflict to wage against the princes of darkness, my Elect die in peace, because all their wars and combats are set at rest in death, and because they fought stoutly under my banner, and followed me as ​Page:TheParadiseOfTheChristianSoul.djvu/613 ​Page:TheParadiseOfTheChristianSoul.djvu/614 ​Page:TheParadiseOfTheChristianSoul.djvu/615 ​Page:TheParadiseOfTheChristianSoul.djvu/616 ​Page:TheParadiseOfTheChristianSoul.djvu/617 ​Page:TheParadiseOfTheChristianSoul.djvu/618 ​Page:TheParadiseOfTheChristianSoul.djvu/619 ​Page:TheParadiseOfTheChristianSoul.djvu/620 ​of the years of my miserable life. But for those years which, in living them, I have lost by living wickedly, despise not, O Lord, a contrite and a humbled heart! My days have declined like a shadow, and are passed away without fruit: it is impossible for me to recall them. Be pleased that I recount them to thee in the bitterness of my soul. One more petition only have I to make to thee. Grant to me to die well, so that I may sing the mercies of the Lord for ever.
CHRIST. It is not for me to break the bruised reed, nor to quench the smoking flax. Be thou faithful only to death. For I take no delight in the perdition of them that die. Commit thy way to the Lord, and trust in him, and he will do it, without whom not a hair of your head shall perish.
§ 10. Entire resignation of self to God.
MAN. I know well, O Lord, the greatness of thy love. In peace in the self-same will I sleep and take my rest, without the solicitude that is caused, whether by the love of life, or by the fear of death. My lots are in thy hands. Upon thee, O Lord, do I cast all my care, because thou art careful for me, and all the hairs of my head are numbered before thee. Thou hast set me bounds which cannot be passed over.
Thou art the Lord; do what is good in thine eyes; and who am I, that I should say to thee, Why dost thou so? Shall the clay say to the potter, What art thou making? or the thing fashioned contradict its maker? Are not we in thy hand like clay in the hand of the potter? Therefore shall thy Will be my will. If thou wilt have me live, my heart is ready, O God; but increase thy grace, that I may the more faithfully serve thee. If thou command me to die, my heart is ready; only grant that my spirit may be received in peace. Thou, O Christ, art my life, and to die is gain. If longer life shall be given to me, to thee, or to thy honour and glory, will I live. If thou wouldst have me die, death will be gain to me; for I shall obtain and possess thee, whom my soul hitherto seeks and loves. Therefore, if I walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evils, for thou art with me. Receive me, according to thy Word (for thou hast said, I desire not the death of a sinner), and I shall live: and let me not be confounded in my expectation. But this ​one favour, O Lord, I ask and expect of thee, that whensoever thou wilt have me to die, whether to-day or to-morrow, in the midst of my years, or in a good old age, to grant me to die, at least, in thy grace. Enlighten my eyes, that I may never sleep in death, lest at any time my enemy say, I have prevailed against him. Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit: thou hast redeemed me, O Lord, the God of truth! Whether living or dying, O Lord, I am thine. Let thy will be done in me; but never suffer me to be separated from thee, O my God and my all!
Here, good reader, thou hast the Doctrine of dying well, which is, as it were, a remote preparation for death, yet essentially necessary to one who would die well. The immediate preparation consists in the Acts and Exercises of a lively Faith, Hope, Charity, &c., and in the good use of the Sacraments, namely. Penance, the Eucharist, and Extreme Unction, for which see the Exercise on the Lord’s Prayer, &c., in the second Section of this Part.
* ↑ Heb. iv. 8.
* ↑ Apoc. xiv. 13.
* ↑ 1 Gen. iii. 20.
* ↑ Isa. xi. 6, 7.
* ↑ Heb. ix. 27.
* ↑ 2 Cor. v. 10.
* ↑ Eccles. xi. 9.
* ↑ Isa. xxxviii. 12.
* ↑ 2 Kings xiv. 14.
* ↑ Eccles. xi. 8.
* ↑ Wisd. v. 10.
* ↑ John x. 10.
* ↑ Isa. xxviii. 15.
* ↑ Job xxi. 13
* ↑ Ib x. 9x
* ↑ 1 Cor. xv. 22.
* ↑ Eccles. ii. 11, 17.
* ↑ Eccles. i. 18, 2.
* ↑ Luke x. 41.
* ↑ Eccles. xi. 3.
* ↑ Eccles. xii. 7.
* ↑ 2 Cor. v. 10.
* ↑ Ecclus. vii. 40.
* ↑ Deut. xxxli. 29.
* ↑ Job xiv. 5.
* ↑ Ps. xxxviii. 5.
* ↑ Acts i. 7.
* ↑ John ix. 4.
* ↑ 2 Pet. i. 10.
* ↑ 2 Cor. vi. 2.
* ↑ Eccles. ix. 12.
* ↑ Lam. iii. 27.
* ↑ Ecclus. i. 13.
* ↑ Eph. v. 15.
* ↑ Eccles. vii. 1.
* ↑ Ps. xxxviii. 7.
* ↑ Ib. xxxviii. 13.
* ↑ 1 Pet. ii. xi.
* ↑ Job xxxii. 22.
* ↑ Eccles. lx. 10.
* ↑ Ps. Ixviii. 15.
* ↑ Ps. xii. 2.
* ↑ Ps. lii. 6.
* ↑ Eccles. vii. 2.
* ↑ Job xiv. 1, 2.
* ↑ John v. 19.
* ↑ lb. ii. 16.
* ↑ Rom. vii. 23.
* ↑ Ps. cxix. 5.
* ↑ Job x. 1.
* ↑ Rom. vii. 24.
* ↑ 2 Cor. vii. 5.
* ↑ Gen. xlvii. 9.
* ↑ Ecclus. xli 1, 2.
* ↑ Ps. xxvi. 1
* ↑ Ps. xliv. 11.
* ↑ Gen. xii. 1.
* ↑ 2 Pet. i. 14.
* ↑ Phil. i. 23.
* ↑ 2 Tim. iv. 7.
* ↑ Rom. viii. 38. 30.
* ↑ Ps. xxxiii. 22.
* ↑ Phil. ii. 12.
* ↑ Isa. xlii. 3; Matt. xii. 20.
* ↑ Ps. xxxvi. 5.
* ↑ Luke xxi. 18.
* ↑ Ps. XXX. 16.
* ↑ Ps. xxxix. 18.
* ↑ Isa. xlv. 9.