Chapter 9. Of the Meditation of the Life to Come

But whatever kind of trouble we be distressed, we must always look to this end, to use ourselves to the contempt of this present life, and thereby be stirred to the meditation of the life to come. For, because God knows well how much we are by nature inclined to the beastly love of this world, he uses a most fit means to draw us back, and to shake off our sluggishness, that we should not stick too fast in that love. There is none of us who does not desire to seem to aspire and endeavor all their life long to heavenly immortality. For we are ashamed to excel brute beasts in nothing: whose state should be nothing inferior to ours, unless there remains to us a hope of eternity after death. But if you examine the devices, studies and doings of every man, you shall find nothing therein but earth. Hereupon grows that senselessness, that our mind being dazzled with vain glittering of riches, power and honors, is so dulled that it cannot see far. Our heart also being possessed with covetousness, ambition and lust, is so weighed down, that it cannot rise up higher. Finally all our soul entangled with enticements of the flesh, seeks her felicity in earth. The Lord, to remedy this evil, does with continual examples of miseries teach this of the vanity of this present life. Therefore that they should not promise themselves in this life a sound and quiet peace, he suffers them to be many times disquieted and troubled either with wars, or uproars, or robberies, or other injuries. That they should not with too much greediness gape for frail and transitory riches, or rest in the riches that they already possess, sometimes with banishment, sometimes with barrenness of the earth, sometimes with fire, sometimes by other means he brings them to poverty, or at least holds them in measure. That they should not with too much ease take pleasure in the benefits of marriage, he either makes them to be vexed with the stubbornness of their wives, or plucks them down with ill children, or punishes them with want of issue. But if in all these things he tenderly bears with them, yet lest they should either swell with foolish glory, or immeasurably rejoice with vain confidence, he does by diseases and dangers set before their eyes, how unstable and vanishing be all the goods that are subject to mortality. Then only therefore we rightly profit in the discipline of the cross when we learn that this life, when it is considered in itself, is unquiet, troublesome and innumerable ways miserable, and in no point fully blessed: and that all those that are reckoned the good things thereof are uncertain, fickle, vain, and corrupted with many evils mixed with them. And hereupon we do determine, that here is nothing to be sought or hoped for but strife: and that when we think of our crown, then we must lift up our eyes to heaven. For thus we must believe. That our mind is never truly raised to the desire and meditation of the life to come, unless it have first conceived a contempt of this present life.

For between these two there is no mean, the earth must either become vile in our sight, or hold us bound with intemperate love of it. Therefore if we have any care of eternity, we must diligently endeavor to loose ourselves from these fetters. Now because this present life has many flattering pleasures with which to allure us, a great show of pleasantness, grace, and sweetness, with which to delight us: it is much needful for us to be now and then called away, that we be not bewitched with such allurements. For what, I pray you, would be done if we did here enjoy a continual concourse of good things and felicity, since we cannot with continual spurs of evils be sufficiently awakened to consider the misery thereof? Not only the learned know, but also the common people have no proverb more common than this, that man's life is like a smoke or shadow: and because they saw it to be a thing very profitable to be known, they have set it out with many notable sentences. But there is nothing that we do either more negligently consider, or less remember. For we go about all things, as though we would frame to ourselves an immortality in earth. If there be a corpse carried to burial, or if we walk among graves, then, because there is an image of death before our eyes, I grant we do marvelously well discourse like Philosophers upon the vanity of this life. Although we do not that continually, for many times all these things do nothing move us. But when it happens, our Philosophy lasts but a while, which as soon as we turn our backs, vanishes away, and leaves no step at all of remembrance behind it: finally it passes away as a clapping of hands upon a stage at any pleasant sight. And we forgetting not only death, but also that we be subject to death, as though we had never heard any report thereof, fall to a careless assuredness of earthly immortality. If any man in the meantime tell us of the proverb, that man is a creature of a day's continuance, we grant it indeed: but so heedlessly, that still the thought of everlasting continuance rests in our mind. Who therefore can deny, that it is a great profit to us all, not only to be admonished in words, but by all the examples of experience that may be to be convinced of the miserable estate of earthly life: for as much as even when we are convinced, we scarcely cease to stand amazed with perverse and foolish admiration of it, as though it contained the uttermost end of good things. But if it be necessary that God instruct us, it is our duty likewise on our behalf, to listen to him when he calls and awakens our dullness, that despising the world we may with all our hearts endeavor to the meditation of the life to come.

But let the faithful accustom themselves to such a despising of present life, as may neither engender a hatred of it, nor any unthankfulness toward God. For this life, however it is full of infinite miseries, is yet worthily reckoned among the not slender blessings of God. Therefore if we acknowledge no benefit of God in it, we are [reconstructed: guilty] of no small unthankfulness toward God himself. But especially it ought to be to the faithful a testimony of God's good will, for as much as it is wholly directed to the furtherance of their salvation. For before that he openly delivers to us the inheritance of eternal glory, his will is to show himself a Father to us by smaller examples: and these are the benefits that are daily bestowed upon us. Since therefore this life serves us to understand the goodness of God, shall we disdain it as though it had not a crumb of goodness in it? We must therefore put on this feeling and affection, to reckon it among the gifts of goodness that are not to be refused. For though there wanted testimonies of Scripture, of which there are both many and most evident, very nature itself does exhort us to give thanks to the Lord, for that he has brought us into the light of it, that he grants us the use of it, that he gives us all necessary succors for the preservation of it. And this is a much greater reason, if we consider that we are in it after a certain manner prepared to the glory of the heavenly kingdom. For so the Lord has ordained that they which in time to come shall be crowned in heaven, must fight certain battles in earth, that they should not triumph, till they had overcome the hard adventures of the battle, and obtained the victory. Then another reason is, that we do by diverse benefits begin in it to taste the sweetness of God's liberality, that our hope and desire should be whetted to long for the revealing of it. When this is determined, that it is a gift of God's clemency that we live this earthly life, for which as we be bound to him, so we ought to be mindful and thankful: then we shall in fit order come to consider the most miserable condition of it, to this end that we may be delivered from too much greediness of it, to which as I have before said, we are of ourselves naturally inclined.

Now whatever is taken from the wrongful desire of this life, ought to be added to the desire of a better life. I grant indeed that they thought truly, who thought it best not to be born, and the next, to die quickly. For what could they, being destitute of the light of God and true religion, see in it but unhappy and miserable? And they did not without reason mourn and weep at the births of their friends, and solemnly rejoiced at their burials, but they did it without profit, because being without the right doctrine of faith, they did not see how that may turn to good to the godly, which is of itself neither blessed nor to be desired: and so they ended their judgment with desperation. Let this therefore be the mark of the faithful in judging of mortal life, that when they understand it to be of itself nothing but misery, they may resort wholly the more freshly and readily to the eternal life to come. When we come to this comparison, then this present life may not only be safely neglected, but also utterly despised and loathed in comparison of the other. For if heaven be our country, what is the earth else but a place of banishment? If the departing out of the world be an entering into life, what is the world but a grave? To abide in it, what is it else but to be drowned in death? If to be delivered from the body is to be set in perfect liberty, what is the body else but a prison? If to enjoy the presence of God is the highest sum of felicity, is it not miserable to lack it? But until we be escaped out of the world, we wander abroad from the Lord. Therefore if the earthly life be compared with the heavenly life, doubtless it ought to be despised and trodden under foot. But it is never to be hated, but in respect that it holds us in subjection to sin, and yet that hatred is not properly to be laid on our life. But however it be, yet we must be so moved either with weariness or hatred of it, that desiring the end of it, we may be also ready at the will of the Lord to abide in it: so that our weariness may be far from all grudging and impatience. For it is like a place in battle array, in which the Lord has placed us, which we ought to keep till he call us away. Paul indeed laments his state that he is held bound in the bonds of the body longer than he wished, and sighs with fervent desire of his redemption: nevertheless to obey the commandment of the Lord, he professed himself ready to both, because he acknowledges himself to owe this to God, to glorify his name, either by death or life: and that it is in God to determine what is most expedient for his glory. Therefore if we must live and die to the Lord, let us leave to his will the time of our life and death: but so that we be still fervent in desire of death, and be continually occupied in meditation of it, and despise this life in comparison of the immortality to come, and wish to forsake it when it shall please the Lord, because of the bondage of sin.

But this is monstrous, that in stead of that desire of death, many that boast themselves to be Christians, are so afraid of it, that they tremble at every mention of it, as of a thing betokening unluckily and unhappy. Truly it is no marvel, if natural sense in us does quake for fear when we hear of the dissolving of us. But this is in no wise tolerable, that there be not in a Christian man's breast the light of godliness, that should with greater comfort overcome and suppress that fear, however great it be. For if we consider that this unsteadfast, faulty, corruptible, frail, withering, and rotten tabernacle of our body, is therefore dissolved, that it may afterward be restored again into a steadfast, perfect, incorruptible and heavenly glory: shall not faith compel us fervently to desire that which nature fears? If we consider that by death we are called home out of banishment, to inhabit our country, yes a heavenly country, shall we obtain no comfort thereby? But there is nothing that does not desire to abide continually. I grant, and therefore I affirm, that we ought to look to the immortality to come, where we may attain a steadfast state that nowhere appears in earth. For Paul does very well teach, that the faithful ought to go cheerfully to death: not because they would be unclothed, but because they desire to be newly clothed. Shall brute beasts, yes and lifeless creatures, even stocks and stones, knowing their present vanity, be earnestly bent to looking for the last day of the resurrection, that they may with the children of God be delivered from vanity, and shall we that are endued with the light of wit, and above wit enlightened with the Spirit of God, when it stands upon our being, not lift up our minds beyond this rottenness of earth? But it pertains not to my present purpose, nor to this place, to speak against this perverseness. And in the beginning I have already professed, that I would not here take upon me the large handling of common places. I would counsel such fearful minds, to read Cyprian's book of Mortality, unless they were fit to be sent to the philosophers, that they may begin to be ashamed when they see the contempt of death that those do show. But this let us hold for certainly determined, that no man has well profited in Christ's school, but he that does joyfully look for the day both of death and of the last resurrection. For both Paul describes all the faithful by this mark, and also it is common in the Scripture, to call us there as often as it will set forth a ground of perfect gladness. Rejoice (says the Lord) and lift up your heads, for your redemption comes near at hand. Is it reasonable, I pray you, that the thing which he willed to be of so great force to raise up joy and cheerfulness in us, should breed nothing but sorrow and discouragement? If it be so, why do we still boast of him as our schoolmaster? Let us therefore get a sounder mind, and however the blind and senseless desire of the flesh does strive against it, let us not doubt to wish for the coming of the Lord, not only with wishing, but also with groaning and sighing, as a thing most happy of all other. For he shall come a redeemer to us, to draw us out of this infinite gulf of evils and miseries, and to lead us into that blessed inheritance of his life and glory.

This is certainly true: all the nation of the faithful, so long as they dwell in earth, must be as sheep appointed to slaughter, that they may be fashioned like Christ their head. Therefore they were in most lamentable case, unless they had their mind raised up into heaven, and surmounted all that is in the world, and passed over the present face of things. Contrariwise, when they have once lifted their heads above all earthly things, although they see the wealth and honors of the wicked flourishing, if they see them enjoying quiet peace, if they see them proud in gorgeousness and sumptuousness of all things, if they see them abound in plentiful store of all delights, beside that if they be spoiled by their wickedness, if they sustain reproachful dealings at their pride, if they be robbed by their covetousness, if they be vexed by any other outrage of theirs: they will easily uphold themselves in such adversities. For that day shall be before their eyes, when the Lord shall receive his faithful into the quiet of his kingdom, when he shall wipe all tears from their eyes, when he shall clothe them with the robe of glory and gladness, when he shall feed them with the unspeakable sweetness of his delicacies, when he shall advance them to the fellowship of his high estate: finally when he shall vouchsafe to impart his felicity with them. But these wicked ones that have flourished in the earth, he shall throw into extreme shame, he shall change their delights into torments, their laughing and mirth into weeping and gnashing of teeth, he shall disquiet their peace with terrible torment of conscience, he shall punish their daintiness with unquenchable fire, and shall put their heads in subjection to those godly men, whose patience they have abused. For this is righteousness (as Paul testifies) to give release to the miserable and to them that are unjustly afflicted, and to render affliction to the wicked that do afflict the godly, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven. This truly is our only comfort, which if it be taken away, we must of necessity either despair, or flatteringly delight ourselves with the vain comforts of the world to our own destruction. For even the prophet confesses that his feet staggered, when he tarried too long upon considering the present prosperity of the wicked: and that he could not otherwise stand steadfast, but when he entered into the sanctuary of God, and bent his eyes to the last end of the godly and the wicked. To conclude in one word, then only the cross of Christ triumphs in the hearts of the faithful upon the Devil, flesh, sin and the wicked, when our eyes are turned to the power of the resurrection.

But whatever kind of affliction distresses us, we must always keep this end in view: to train ourselves in contempt of this present life and thereby be stirred to meditation on the life to come. For because God knows well how much we are by nature inclined to a beastly love of this world, He uses the most fitting means to draw us back and shake off our sluggishness, so that we do not cling too tightly to that love. Every one of us wants to appear to aspire toward heavenly immortality throughout our lives. For we are ashamed to be no better than animals, whose condition would be no worse than ours if no hope of eternity after death remained to us. But if you examine the plans, pursuits, and actions of any person, you will find nothing in them but earth. From this comes that blindness: our minds, dazzled by the empty glitter of riches, power, and honors, are so dulled that they cannot see further. Our hearts, taken over by greed, ambition, and desire, are so weighed down that they cannot rise higher. Finally, our whole soul, entangled in the enticements of the flesh, seeks its happiness in the earth. The Lord, to remedy this evil, uses continual examples of misery to teach the vanity of this present life. So that we should not promise ourselves a stable and peaceful life in this world, He allows us to be frequently disturbed and troubled by wars, upheavals, robbery, or other injuries. So that we should not too greedily grasp for fragile and passing riches, or rest complacently in riches already possessed, He sometimes through exile, sometimes through crop failure, sometimes through fire, and sometimes through other means brings us to poverty — or at least keeps us within bounds. So that we should not take too easy a pleasure in the blessings of marriage, He either troubles people with difficult wives, or crushes them with wayward children, or punishes them with childlessness. But if in all these things He deals with them gently, still — lest they swell with foolish pride or rejoice with reckless confidence — He sets before their eyes through diseases and dangers how unstable and fleeting all possessions subject to mortality really are. We rightly profit from the discipline of the cross only when we learn that this life, considered in itself, is restless, troubled, and miserable in countless ways — never fully blessed — and that all the things counted as its good things are uncertain, fleeting, empty, and corrupted by many evils mixed in with them. From this we conclude that nothing is to be sought or hoped for here but struggle, and that when we think of our crown, we must lift our eyes to heaven. For this we must believe: our mind is never truly raised to the desire and meditation of the life to come until it has first conceived a contempt of this present life.

For between these two there is no middle ground — the earth must either become worthless in our eyes, or it will hold us captive with its excessive love. Therefore if we have any care for eternity, we must diligently work to loosen ourselves from these chains. Now because this present life has many flattering pleasures to allure us, a great show of pleasantness, charm, and sweetness to delight us — we very much need to be called away from time to time, so that we are not bewitched by such enticements. For what would happen if we enjoyed here a constant stream of good things and happiness — when we cannot even be sufficiently awakened by the constant pressures of evil to consider how miserable this life is? Not only the educated, but ordinary people have no more common saying than that a person's life is like smoke or a shadow. And because they saw it was a truth well worth knowing, they have adorned it with many striking sayings. But there is nothing we consider more carelessly or remember less. We go about everything as if we were building ourselves an immortality on earth. If a coffin passes by or we walk among gravestones, then — because death's image is right before our eyes — we do indeed speak very philosophically about the vanity of this life. Though we do not do so consistently, since often such things move us not at all. But when it does happen, our philosophy lasts only a moment — as soon as we turn our backs it vanishes without leaving a trace, fading like the applause in a theater at some entertaining spectacle. And we, forgetting not only death but also our own mortality, as though we had never heard a word about it, settle back into a careless certainty of earthly immortality. If someone reminds us of the saying that a person is a creature of a day, we do indeed agree — but so carelessly that the thought of permanent continuance still lingers in our minds. Who then can deny that it is greatly beneficial to all of us to be convinced — not only by words but by every kind of practical experience — of the miserable condition of earthly life? For even when we are convinced, we can barely stop marveling at it with perverse and foolish admiration, as if it contained the highest good. But if it is necessary that God instruct us, it is likewise our duty on our part to listen when He calls and stirs our dullness — so that despising the world we may with all our hearts press toward the meditation of the life to come.

But let the faithful train themselves in such a contempt of the present life as neither produces hatred of it nor ingratitude toward God. For this life, however full it is of countless miseries, is still rightly counted among the not insignificant blessings of God. If we acknowledge no benefit of God in it, we are guilty of no small ingratitude toward Him. But especially for the faithful it ought to be a testimony of God's goodwill — since it is entirely directed toward the advancement of their salvation. For before He openly bestows on them the inheritance of eternal glory, His will is to show Himself a Father to them through lesser proofs — and these are the benefits daily given to us. Since, therefore, this life serves to help us understand God's goodness, shall we despise it as if it contained not a crumb of goodness? We must therefore put on this disposition: to count it among the good gifts that are not to be refused. For even if Scripture did not testify to this — though it does, both abundantly and plainly — nature itself urges us to give thanks to the Lord for having brought us into its light, for granting us its use, and for providing all necessary help for preserving it. And this is all the more reason for gratitude when we consider that we are through it in some manner being prepared for the glory of the heavenly kingdom. For the Lord has ordained that those who will be crowned in heaven must first fight certain battles on earth, so that they may not triumph until they have overcome the hard challenges of the fight and won the victory. Then there is another reason: through various blessings in this life we begin to taste the sweetness of God's generosity, so that our hope and longing may be sharpened toward its full revelation. Once this is settled — that earthly life is a gift of God's mercy, for which we are bound to Him and ought to be mindful and grateful — then we will be in the right frame of mind to consider its most miserable condition. The purpose is so that we may be freed from the excessive love of it to which, as I said before, we are naturally inclined.

Now whatever is taken away from the disordered desire for this life ought to be added to the desire for a better life. I grant that those spoke truly who thought it best not to be born, and next best to die quickly. For what could people, deprived of the light of God and true religion, see in this life but unhappiness and misery? They had reason to mourn and weep at their friends' births and to celebrate formally at their deaths — but they did so without profit, because lacking the right teaching of faith, they could not see how what is of itself neither blessed nor desirable might yet turn to good for the godly. And so their conclusion ended in despair. Therefore let this be the mark of the faithful in judging mortal life: that understanding it to be in itself nothing but misery, they may turn all the more eagerly and freely to the eternal life to come. When we reach this comparison, this present life may not only be safely set aside, but utterly despised and even rejected in comparison with that other. For if heaven is our homeland, what is the earth but a place of exile? If departing the world is entering into life, what is the world but a grave? To remain in it — what is that but to be submerged in death? If being freed from the body is being set in full freedom, what is the body but a prison? If enjoying the presence of God is the highest sum of happiness, is it not misery to lack it? But until we escape the world, we are wandering far from the Lord. Therefore when earthly life is compared with heavenly life, it plainly ought to be despised and set underfoot. Yet it is never to be hated except insofar as it keeps us in bondage to sin — and even that hatred is not properly directed at life itself. However it may be, we must be moved by such weariness or distaste for this life that, desiring its end, we are also ready to remain in it as long as the Lord wills — so that our weariness is entirely free from all resentment and impatience. For it is like a battle post where the Lord has stationed us, which we are to hold until He calls us away. Paul did lament that he was held in the bonds of the body longer than he wished and sighed with fervent longing for his redemption — yet, to obey the Lord's command, he declared himself ready for either outcome, acknowledging that he owed it to God to glorify His name in both death and life, and that it was God's prerogative to determine what was most suitable for His glory. Therefore if we are to live and die to the Lord, let us leave to His will the timing of our life and death — yet in such a way that we remain fervent in our desire for death, continually occupied in meditating on it, despising this life in comparison to the coming immortality, and willing to leave it whenever the Lord pleases because of the bondage of sin.

But it is monstrous that instead of that desire for death, many who boast of being Christians are so afraid of it that they tremble at every mention of it as if it were an omen of misfortune. Truly it is no wonder that natural feeling in us recoils with fear when we hear of our dissolution. But what is entirely intolerable is that there should be no light of godliness in a Christian's heart to overcome and suppress that fear — however great — with greater comfort. If we consider that this unstable, flawed, corruptible, frail, withering, and rotting body is dissolved so that it may afterward be restored into a firm, perfect, incorruptible, and heavenly glory — will not faith compel us to fervently desire what nature fears? If we consider that by death we are called home out of exile to inhabit our true country — yes, a heavenly country — will we find no comfort in that? But there is nothing that does not naturally want to continue existing. I grant it — and therefore I insist that we must look to the coming immortality, where we may obtain a stability found nowhere on earth. For Paul teaches very well that the faithful ought to go to death cheerfully — not because they want to be unclothed, but because they desire to be newly clothed. Shall brute animals, indeed even lifeless creation — stocks and stones — knowing their present vanity, earnestly long for the last day of the resurrection so that they may be delivered from vanity along with the children of God? And shall we, endued with the light of reason, and beyond reason enlightened by God's Spirit, fail when it matters most to lift our minds above this earthly decay? But it is not my purpose or the right place here to argue extensively against this perverseness. I said at the beginning that I would not take on the extended treatment of common topics. I would advise such timid minds to read Cyprian's book On Mortality — unless they are fit to be sent to the philosophers, so that they might begin to be ashamed when they see the contempt of death shown by those without the Gospel. But this let us hold as firmly settled: no one has truly profited in Christ's school who does not joyfully look forward to both the day of death and the day of the last resurrection. For Paul marks all the faithful by this very sign, and Scripture commonly calls us to this whenever it wants to set before us the solid foundation of perfect joy. 'Rejoice,' says the Lord, 'and lift up your heads, for your redemption draws near.' Is it reasonable, I ask, that the thing He intended to have such power to raise up joy and gladness in us should produce nothing but sorrow and discouragement? If it does, why do we still boast of Him as our Teacher? Let us therefore adopt a sounder mind and — however much the blind and senseless craving of the flesh fights against it — let us not hesitate to long for the Lord's coming, not only in desire but in groaning and sighing, as the happiest thing of all. For He will come as our Redeemer, to draw us out of this immeasurable gulf of evils and miseries and to lead us into the blessed inheritance of His life and glory.

This is certainly true: all the company of the faithful, as long as they live on earth, must be like sheep appointed for slaughter, so that they may be conformed to Christ their head. They would therefore be in the most pitiful condition — unless their minds were lifted up to heaven and raised above everything in the world, passing beyond the present appearance of things. But once they have lifted their heads above all earthly things, even if they see the wealth and honors of the wicked flourishing, see them enjoying quiet peace, see them proud in the splendor and abundance of everything, see them overflowing with all kinds of pleasures — and even if they are plundered by the wicked's greed, suffer contemptuous treatment from their pride, are robbed by their covetousness, or vexed by any other violence from them — they will easily sustain themselves in such adversities. For that day will be before their eyes: the day when the Lord will receive His faithful into the quiet of His kingdom; when He will wipe all tears from their eyes; when He will clothe them with the robe of glory and gladness; when He will feed them with the unspeakable sweetness of His delights; when He will elevate them to share in His high estate; and finally, when He will be pleased to share His own happiness with them. But the wicked who have flourished on earth He will cast into extreme shame; He will turn their pleasures into torments; their laughter and merriment into weeping and gnashing of teeth; He will disturb their peace with terrible torment of conscience; He will punish their self-indulgence with unquenchable fire; and He will place their heads in subjection to those godly people whose patience they abused. For this is righteousness, as Paul testifies: to give relief to the miserable and to those unjustly afflicted, and to repay with affliction the wicked who afflicted the godly, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven. This is truly our only comfort — and if it is taken away, we must inevitably either despair or soothe ourselves with the world's empty comforts, to our own destruction. Even the prophet confesses that his feet nearly slipped when he dwelt too long on the present prosperity of the wicked, and that he could only stand firm when he entered into the sanctuary of God and directed his eyes to the final end appointed for both the godly and the wicked. To conclude in a single sentence: the cross of Christ triumphs in the hearts of the faithful over the devil, the flesh, sin, and the wicked only when our eyes are turned to the power of the resurrection.