A golden treatise of mental prayer/A meditation for Wednesday: of death
A MEDITATION FOR WEDNESDAY.
This day thou shalt meditate on death: the consideration of which, is very profitable to attain unto true wisdom, to beat down sin, and to excite men timely to cast up their accounts, which they are to make in the latter day.
Consider, first, the uncertainty of that hour, wherein death is to seize upon thee, thou knowest not the day, nor the place, nor the state wherein it shall find thee; only thou believest that thou must die, for other things thou art wholly ignorant of, except that it sometimes setteth upon a man when he little dreameth of it, and thinketh it to be furthest of
Consider, secondly, that grievous separation, which shall be at the point of death, not only from every thing of this present life, wherein thou lookest content, but also betwixt the- soul and body, whose society was most ancient, most loving and dear. If a man taketh it grievously to be banished, to be thrust out of his native soil, and to be deprived of that air wherein he first breathed, although he should carry all others, his dearest things with him, how far more bitterly would he take that general exile, wherein he most weaned from all worldly things, his house, his means, his father, his mother, his children, his friends, uncertain whither he himself must go. Then, shall he be deprived of the light and the commerce of all human creatures?
If the ox when he is disjoined from his fellow, with whom he was wont in the same yoke to be coupled, with bellowing doth express his sorrow, what sobs, what sighs wilt thou fetch, when thou shalt perceive thyself to be violently pulled from these thy confederates.
Consider, also, that anxiety wherewith the mind of the dying is tormented, when abstracted from all corporal business, he only thinketh what shall become of his body, and what shall betide his soul, how his body must be cast seven foot into the earth, to be eaten of worms; and what will become of his soul, where it is to remain, he is altogether uncertain; which cogitation doth surely much trouble the mind of him that dieth, when he certainly knoweth there is heaven or hell to be expected, and he, at equal distance, from them both, neither can he tell which of these two contraries will fall to his share.
Another no less affliction followeth, that presently he must give a strict account of all his forepassed life, to the eternal judge, which men of great sanctity were wont to fear, when Arsenius in the last point of life, was seen of his disciples to weep and tremble, they asked him why he feared death, he answered: Revera filioli, metus hie quo me videtis affiei nunquam omnino a me recessil ex quo factus sum Monachtis. Indeed, my children, the fear wherewith ye see me now afflicted, hath quite left me from the time I was first made a monk.
Then all the sins of a man's former life come rushing into his memory, representing themselves unto him, as it were in battle array, to destroy him, but especially, his grievous sins wherein he took greatest delight, are continually present to his fancy, which do so torment him that they drive him into a dangerous despair of his salvation, and the remembrance of those pleasures, which before were grateful, are now most bitter unto him. That the wise man saith true:[1] "Ne intuaris vinum quando flavescit cum splenduerit in vitro color ejus ingreditur hlaiide, et novissimo mordehit ut coluber, et sicut regulus venema difftundet." "Behold not wine when it waxeth yellow, when the color thereof shall shine in the glass; it goeth in pleasantly, but in the end it will bite like a snake, and as a basilisk it spreads abroad his passions."
Such a poisoned cup the enemy of mankind presenteth to the lovers of the world to drink. Such is the liquor of the outward gilded cup of Babylon.
Wicked man seeing himself environed with so many accusers, beginneth then to fear the success of his latter judgment, and to bewail himself with bitter outcries, O miserable and unhappy man that have lived thus long in darkness, and walked in the footsteps of iniquity, what shall now become of me? if St. Paul saith[2] such as a man soweth, such he shall reap. T that have sowed nothing else but the works of the flesh, what should I expect but corruption?
If St. John saith, that no unclean thing shall enter into that heavenly city, which is paved with burnished gold, what part shall I have therein, that am defiled with all kind of luxury.
Then follow the sacraments of the church: confession, communion, extreme unction, which are the last helps of our holy mother the Catholic Church, to succor his dying soul.
From all these aforesaid circumstances, thou mayest gather with what anxiety a wicked man is oppressed at the hour of his departure. Then he will wish that he had led a better life, and what great austerity he would use if longer time might be permitted to him. Then would he vehemently implore the divine assistance, but the greatness of his infirmity, and the pangs of death approaching, will not suffer him, which will be so great that he shall scarce be able to turn his thoughts upon God.
Behold, after these, the symptoms of this last infirmity, forerunners of death, and harbingers of thy last end, which certainly in themselves are horrible, and to the beholders terrible. The stomach swelleth, the speech faileth, the feet begin to die, the knees wax cold, the nostrils fall, the eyes sink, the face waxeth pale, the tongue can no longer perform its office; finally, the striving of the soul going out of the body, disturbeth all the senses, and leaveth them wholly without vigor.
But who is able to express the anguish of the soul, which is far greater? for then it is in a mighty agony, both in regard of the doubtful event of her salvation, and of the strict account she is presently to make of the deeds of her whole life; as also, because she naturally loveth the body; she cannot be separated from it but with great affliction, especially, knowing not what shall become of her.
Having well contemplated the soul departing the body, thou must yet make two journies more: one in accompanying the body to the grave, the other in following the soul to the deciding of her cause. And thou shalt see the event of both. Mark, therefore, the dead carcass how they prepare a winding sheet for it. What expedition they use to carry it out of the house. Consider the solemnity and rites wherewith it is carried to the grave. How the bells ring, and every one inquire of the dead. The office of the church also, the prayers of the standers by, the doleful tune of the church, while the body is carried to the grave and buried. The tears of friends and kindred, and all those ceremonies which are wont to be performed about the dead.
Leaving the body under the earth, accompany the soul passing to a new and unknown region, where she expecteth the sentence of the eternal judge. Imagine with thyself that thou art present at this tribunal, and the whole court of heaven, waiting with deep silence, and great attention, the event and sentence of this judgment, here must be given a strict account of all receivings and disbursements. I say account, of thy life, of thy goods, of thy family, of the divine inspirations, of the means and occasions to live well, and finally, of the blood of Jesus Christ, and the use of his sacraments, and according as his account is, so the sentence shall be pronounced.