o be bought in
this worlde with other then the coyne of labour and paine. The
entraunce indeede is hard, if our selues make it harde, comming
thither with a tormented spirite, a troubled minde, a wauering
and irresolute thought. But bring wee quietnesse of mind,
constancie, and full resolution, wee shall not finde anie
daunger or difficultie at all. Yet what is the paine that death
brings vs? Nay, what can shee doe with those paines wee feele?
Wee accuse her of all the euilles wee abide in ending our life,
and consider not howe manie more greeuous woundes or sickenesses
wee haue endured without death: or howe many more vehement
paines wee haue suffered in this life, in the which wee called
euen her to our succour. All the paines our life yeeldes vs at
the last houre wee impute to Death: not marking that life
begunne and continued in all sortes of paine, must also
necessarily ende in paine. Not marking (I saie) that it is the
remainder of our life, not death, that tormenteth vs: the ende
of our nauigation that paines vs, not the Hauen wee are to
enter: which is nothing else but a safegarde against all windes.
Wee complayne of Death, where wee shoulde complayne of life: as
if one hauyng beene long sicke, and beginning to bee well,
shoulde accuse his health of his last paynes, and not the
reliques of his disease. Tell mee, what is it else to bee dead,
but to bee no more liuing in the worlde? Absolutelie and simplie
not to bee in the worlde, is it anie payne? Did wee then feele
any paine, when as yet wee were not? Haue wee euer more
resemblaunce of Death, then when wee sleepe? Or euer more rest
then at that time? Now if this be no paine, why accuse we Death
of the paines our life giues vs at our departure? Vnlesse also
we wil fondly accuse the time when as yet we were not, of the
paines we felt at our birth? If the comming in be with teares,
is it wonder that such be the going out? If the beginning of our
being, be the beginning of our paine, is it maruell that such be
the ending? But if our not being in times past hath bene without
payne, and all this being contrarywise full of paine: whome
should we by reason accuse of the last paines, the not being to
come, or the remnant of this present being? We thinke we dye
not, but when we yeeld vp our last gaspe. But if we marke well,
we dye euery day, euery houre, euery moment. We apprehend death
as a thing vnvsuall to vs: and yet haue nothing so common in vs.
Our liuing is but