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O senseless mortals! especially being called Christians, and yet to be of so little faith as to dote upon a life so frail, short and uncertain, so changeable and calamitous, in defiance of what we daily profess to believe, Life Everlasting. Blessed are they, and they are but a few, who in hopes and desires to enjoy the unchangeable blessings of the life to come, do slight and despise the fallacious flattering enjoyments of this world; lest being deceived by the charms and fawnings thereof, the deceiver and the deceived perish together.

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

But forget not, O remember and forget not, that thou art immortal, O my soul, and that death is but

1

the change of a troublesome for a quiet life, of a frail for a fixed and permanent being, of an uncertain for a certain abode, and of a temporary for life everlasting. It is but the falling in pieces of an earthly tabernacle; and "when it is dissolved, thou hast a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens "."

It is a famed saying of Benedict, Malus mortem, bonus vitam formidat: In the death of the righteous is his hopes of happiness, but in the continuance of this life doth the wicked trust.

Thou wouldest not fear the end of this life, didst thou rightly hope for the beginning of a better: it is for want of treasures laid up in Heaven, the fruits of true holiness, that thou art afraid to die; and it will be too late to labour for them when death approacheth.

The Prayer.

O Almighty God, Who alone canst order the unruly wills and affections of sinful men, grant unto Thy people (and to me with them) to love the thing

r 2 Cor. v. 1.

which Thou commandest, and desire that which Thou dost promise; that so among the sundry and manifold changes of the world, our

hearts may surely there be fixed where true joys are to be found, through Jesus Christ

MEDITATION III.

OF THE FREQUENT REMEMBRANCE OF DEATH.

1. This present life is the school of death, wherein we are taught the several lessons of living to die well, or so to die that we may live eternally.

Climacus records a story of a brother, who had lived negligently for many years, and was at last surprised with such a desperate disease, that he was for so long a time deprived of his senses that he was supposed to be absolutely dead: but recovering again, he immediately secluded himself from all society, and continued for twelve years, which was the remainder of his time, in that solitary separate condition, lamenting continually the negligences and sins of his by-past life, and the sad condition of all such persons who die in their sins unrepented.

flocked to him, desiring to hear some more than ordinary instructions, and directions from him for the good of their souls: but all that he would say was this, as the sum of Christian wisdom-"If you desire so to live that ye may die happily, then meditate continually upon death: for it is scarce possible for that man to sin who with due regard remembers death, the wages of sin."

It is said by the said Climacus, that "the meditation of death is as necessary to preserve the health of the soul in the life of grace, as is daily bread to preserve the body in the life of nature."

2. The forgetfulness of death is the seminary of all the sins of the sons of men: hence the neglect of all the duties we owe to God and man: hence the abuse of all the blessings of God, whe⚫ Scal. grad. vi.

And when the time of his death indeed approached, many of his fraternity

ther relating to this or the other world: hence all luxury, and all the sinful pleasures of the flesh: hence all covetousness, and carnal cares for the things of this life hence all forgetfulness of the great account we must make of all the works done in the body, together with the banishment from our minds of all fears of Hell, and hopes of Heaven. it is therefore good advice the wise Syracides gives us ; "Remember thy end, and let enmity cease: remember corruption and death, and abide in the commandments"."

I should not surely dare to sin against my God, would I but seriously consider in every act I do, and in every moment I breathe, I am hastening to my last breath, and that then I must give account as of every moment of my time, so of every work, both good and evil, at what time soever perform

ed.

And it was thus surely St. Paul "died daily "."

3. To die the death of the righteous is the desire even of the wicked; but his last end shall be very unlike the other's*.

Ecclus. xxviii. 6.

y Psalm cxix. 109.

Ut tibi mors fœlix contingat, vivere disce :

Ut fœlix possis vivere, disce mori.

The only way to die well, is to live well; and he that will live well, must live by dying principles; saying with holy David, "My soul is continually in my hand';" and for aught I know, it may expire at my next breathing, since many thousands in this very moment do breathe their last.

And it is only this moment I can call mine: for what time of my life is past cannot return again to be enjoyed; and what is to come is not in mine, but in the Lord's power: time is in Thy hand." "In Him we live, and move, and have our beinga."

My

Quam fælix et prudens

"He is both a wise and a happy man, whose endeavours are so to be qualified in his life, as he desires to be found in his death "." In order hereunto, it is the wholesome advice of a Father, Cum mane fuerit"When it is morning, think that perhaps thou mayst not see the evening; and when evening comes, remember that it is uncertain

u 1 Cor. xv. 31. Psalm xxxi. 17.

b Thos. à Kemp. De Imit. Christ., lib. i. cap. 23.

Numb. xxiii. 10. a Acts xvii. 28.

whether thou shalt see morning."

Those Indian wise men called Brachmans had their sepulchres before their doors; that both upon their going out and coming in they might remember their approaching death, as a curb to restrain them from all extravagant lustings after the pleasures, riches and honours of this mortal life.

It is recorded of John the famous Patriarch of Alexandria, that whilst he was in perfect health he had his monument framed, but not finished; and that he gave order, upon every festival, after the public offices of the Church were ended, one of the Priests should say unto him aloud, "Holy Father, your monument should be finished, because it is not known at what hour the thief cometh".""

I cannot better advise both myself and my reader, than that in every thing we go about we would every man of us ask himself this question: Would I now do this, if I were ready to die? It is the Wise Man's advice, "Whatsoever thou takest in hand, remember the end, and thou shalt never do amissd."

c Mat. xxiv. 43.

When an Emperor of the East was newly proclaimed, before he spake to any person in the style of majesty, a mason comes to him, and shewing him several kinds of marble, demands of which of those kinds of stone he would have his sepulchre made: intimating unto him, that although he was made an Emperor, he was not to forget he was a mortal; and therefore it concerned him with such justice and mercy to govern his earthly kingdom, that he might not forfeit the loss of the kingdom of Heaven.

From the forgetfulness of my death, and the uncertainty of my life, from every evil work whereunto such forgetfulness may betray me, and from a sudden and an unprepared death, good Lord deliver me.

4. The Lord clothed our first parents with the skins of beasts, to put them in mind of that mortality and corruption of the flesh they had contracted by their disobedience to His commands: the which as we their sinful offspring do daily bear about us, so ought we also to have the same in a continual remembrance for the keeping under the unruly lusts of

d Ecclus. vii. 36.

the flesh, that we finally pass not from a spiritual to death eternal.

And thus every truly pious man thus remembers daily the unavoidable death of his corruptible body, so as to keep his soul unspotted of the world, and alive from the death of sin, " continually mortifying all his evil and corrupt affections, and daily proceeding in all virtue and godliness of living." And thus, in the sense of the holy Apostle of our Lord, to die daily, is not only daily to remember death, but daily to die unto sin, and live unto righteousness unto the hopes of eternal happiness slighting all the false and flattering felicities of this fawning world, as being not only empty and unsatisfying, but also mortal and dying.

A holy confidence to die well, and in hopes to enjoy life eternal after death, is begotten in the heart (saith the spiritual à Kempise), "1. By a perpetual contempt of the world. 2. By a thorough self-denial. 3. By a fervent desire and en

deavour for proficiency in grace. 4. By the love of discipline, or strict corporeal austerities. 5. By the unwearied labour of true repentance. 6. By a willing and ready obedience to all God's commands. 7. By suffering contentedly, yea, even joyfully all adversities, for the love of Christ."

And thus prepare for thy change to come, looking not (as becomes an immortal soul) "at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal."

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• à Kempis de Imit. Christ., lib. i. c. 23.

f 2 Cor. iv. 18.

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