living could yield; but fome time before his fickness, with a free and ftrong judgment, he would frequently upbraid himself, and contemn, the world, for those unfeasonable as well as unchriftian liberties, that fo much abound in it; which apprehenfion increased by the inftruction of a long and sharp sickness: He would often defpife their folly, and abhor their guilt; breathing, with fome impatience, after the knowledge of the beft things, and the best company; lofing as little time as he could, that he might redeem the time he had loft; testifying often, with a lively relish, to the truth of religion, from the fenfe he had of it in his own breaft: Frequently profeffing, he knew no joy ⚫ comparable to that of being affured of the Love and Mercy of God.' Which as he often implored with ftrong convictions, and a deep humility and reverence, fo he had frequently tastes thereof before his laft period; preffing his relations and friends, in a most ferious and affectionate manner, to love God and one

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another More, and this vile world lefs.' And of this he was fo full, it was almost ever the conclusion of his moft inward difcourfes with his family; though he fometimes faid, he could have been willing to have lived, if God had pleased, to fee his younger children ? nearer a fettlement in the world; yet he felt no defire to live longer in the world, but on the terms of living better in it: For that he did not only think virtue the safest, but the Happieft way of living: Commending and Commanding it to his children upon his laft bleffing.

I fhall conclude this chapter of Retired, Aged, and Dying Perfons, with fome collections I have made out of the life of a perfon of great piety and quality of the French nation.

§. XXXIX. Du RENTY, a young nobleman of France, of admirable parts, as well as great birth, touched with a fenfe of the vanity of the world, and the sweetness of a retired and religious life, notwithstanding the honours and employments that waited for him, abandons the pride and pomp of the world, to enjoy a life of more

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communion with God: Do but hear him: I avow (faith he) that I have no guft in any thing, where I find not Jefus Chrift. And for a foul that speaks not of him, or in which we cannot taste any effect of Grace flowing from his Spirit (which is the Principle of Operations, both inward and outward, that are folidly Chriftian) fpeak not to me at all of fuch an · one. Could I (as I may fay) behold both miracles ' and wonders there, and yet not Jefus Chrift, nor • hear any talk of Him, I count all but amusement of fpirit, lofs of time, and a very dangerous precipice. 'Let us encourage ourselves to lead this life unknown and wholly hid from men, but most known to, and intimate with God; divefting ourselves, and chafing out of our minds all thofe many fuperfluities, and thofe many amufements, which bring with them fo great a damage, that they take up our minds, instead of God. So that when I confider that which thwarts ⚫ and cuts into fo many pieces this holy, this fweet and • amiable Union, which we fhould have continually with God, it appears, that it is only a monsieur, a madame, a compliment, and chatting, indeed a mere foolery; which, notwithstanding, doth ravish and wreft from us the time that is fo precious, and the fellowship that is fo holy and fo defirable. Let us quit this, I pray you, and learn to court it with our own Mafter. Let us well understand our part, our own world (as we here phrase it); not that world, I mean, which we do renounce, but that wherein the children of God do their duties to their Father. There is nothing in this world fo feparate from the world, as God; and the greater the faints are, the greater is their retirement INTO HIM: This our Saviour taught us, whilst he lived on earth, being in all his visible employments united to God, and retired into the < bofom of his Father. Since the time that I gave up my liberty to God, as I told you, I was given to underftand, to what a ftate of Annihilation the foul < must be brought, to render it capable of Union with him: I saw my foul reduced into a small point, con⚫ tracted

tracted and shrunk up to Nothing: And at the fame ⚫ time I beheld myself, as if encompaffed with whatfoever the world loves and poffeffeth; and, as it were, <a hand removing all this far from me, throwing it <into the ocean of annihilation. In the first place, I faw removed all Exterior Things, Kingdoms, Great Offices, Stately Buildings, Rich Houfhold-ftuff, Gold ́and Silver, Recreations, Pleafures; all which are great Incumbrances to the foul's paffing on to God; of which therefore his pleasure is, that fhe be stripped, that he may arrive at the point of nakedness and death, which will bring her into poffeffion of folid riches, and real life. Affure yourself, there is no fecurity in any eftate, but this of Dying and Annihilation; which is, to be "baptized into Christ's "death," that we live the life of mortification. Our best way is therefore, to diveft ourselves of All, that the Holy Child Jefus may govern all. All that can be imagined in this lower world, is of small concernment, though it were the lofing of all our goods, and the death of all the men in it; this poor ant-hill is not worthy of a ferious thought. Had < we but a little Faith, and a little Love, how happy fhould we esteem ourselves, in giving away all, to ⚫ attend no more, save on God alone; and to say, Deus < meus, & omnia! My God, and my All!-Being (faith he) in a chapel richly wainscotted, and adorned with ⚫ very excellent sculpture, and with imagery, I beheld < it with fome attention, having had fome skill in these things, and faw the bundle of flowers-de-luces, ‹ and of flowers in form of borders, and of very curious workmanship; it was on a fudden put into my mind, "The Original of what thou feeft, would "not detain thee at all in feeing it." And I perceived, that indeed all thefe, and thofe flowers them¶ felves (not in Pictures) would not have taken me up; ¶ and all the ornaments which architecture and art invent, are but things moft mean and low, running in a manner only upon Flowers, Fruits, Branches,

Harpies,

Harpies, and Chimera's; part whereof are, in their very being, but things common and low, and part ⚫ of them merely imaginary; and yet man (who croucheth to every thing) renders himself amorous and a flave of them; no otherwife than as if a Good workman fhould ftand to copy out, and counterfeit, fome trifles and fopperies. I confidered by this fight how poor man was to be cheated, amufed, and diverted from his Sovereign Good. And fince that time, I could make no more ftand to confider any of these things: And if I did it, I fhould reproach myself for it; as no fooner feeing them in churches, or elfewhere, but this is prefently put upon my fpirit, "The Original is Nothing, the Copy and the Image is c yet lefs: Each thing is Vain, except the Employ"ment of ourselves about GoD alone." An abfolute • Abnegation will be neceffary to all things, to follow in Simplicity, without Referve or Reflection, what our Saviour fhall work in us, or appoint for us, let < it be this or that. This way was fhewed me, in which I ought to walk towards him; and hence it is, that all things to me ordinarily are without any guft or delight. I affure you, it is a great fhame to a Chriftian to pafs his days in this world more at ease than Jefus Chrift here paffed his. Ah! Had we but a little faith, what repofe could we take out of the Crofs !' I will conclude his fayings with his dying bleffing to his furviving children.

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⚫ I pray God bless you; and may it please him to blefs you, and to preferve you by his Grace from the evil of the world, that you may have no part therein: and above all, my children, that you may live in the fear and love of God, and yield due obedience to your mother,'

Expreffions of that weight and moment to the immortal good of men, that they abundantly prove, to all fenfible readers, that the author was a man of an enlightened mind, and of a foul mortified to the world, and quickened to fome taftes of a fupernatural life.

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Let his youth, let his quality, adorned with fo much zeal and piety, fo much felf-denial and conftancy, become exemplary to thofe of worldly quality, who may be the readers of this book. Some, perhaps, will hear that truth from the feveral authors I have reported, whofe names, death and time have recovered from the envy of men, that would hardly endure it from me, if at all from the living. Be it as it will, I fhall abundantly rejoice, if God fhall please to make any part of this difcourfe effectual to perfuade any into the love of holinefs, without which,' certain it is, no man shall fee the Lord: But the pure in heart fhall behold • him for ever.'

To conclude; I cannot pass this reflection upon what is obferved of the fayings of Dying Men, and which to me feems to have great inftruction in it; viz. All men agree, when they come to die, it is beft to be Religious; to live an Holy, Humble, Strict, and felfdenying Life; Retired, Solitary, Temperate, and Difincumbered of the World. Then loving God ABOVE ALL, and our neighbours as ourselves, forgiving our enemies, and praying for them, are folid things, and the effential part of religion, as the true ground of man's happiness. Then all fin is exceeding finful,' and yields no more pleasure: But every inordinate defire is burthenfome, and feverely reproved. Then the world, with all the lawful comforts in it, weighs light against that sense and judgment, which fuch men have between the temporal and the eternal. And fince it is thus with dying men, what inftruction is it to the living, whofe pretence, for the most part, is a perpetual contradiction? O! that men would learn to "Number their days, that they might apply their "hearts to wisdom;" of which "the fear of the Lord " is the true and only beginning." And "Bleffed are they that fear always, for their feet shall be "ferved from the fnare of death."

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