Memorare Novissima

Memorare novissima, et in ceterniun non feccahis.

— " Remember the last things, and thou shalt never sin." — Ecclus vii, 40.

If there were any question among men, whether the words of holy Scripture or the doctrine of any secular author were of greater force and effect to the weal and profit of man's soul (though we should let pass so many short and weighty words spoken by the mouth of our Saviour Christ Himself, to whose heavenly wisdom the wit of none earthly creature can be comparable), yet this only text written by the wise man in the seventh chapter of Ecclesiasticus is such, that it containeth more fruitful advice and counsel to the forming and framing of man's manners in virtue, and avoiding of sin, than many whole and great volumes of the best of old philosophers or any other that ever wrote in secular literature.

Long would it be to take the best of their words and compare it with these words of holy writ. Let us consider the fruit and profit of this in itself; which thing well advised and

DE ^ATUOR NOFISSIMIS pondered shall well declare that of none whole volume of secular literature shall arise so very fruitful doctrine. For what would a man give for a sure medicine that were of such strength that it should all his life keep him from sickness, namely, if he might by the avoiding of sickness be sure to continue his life one hundred years?

So is it now that these words give us all a sure medicine (if we forsloth* not the receiving) by which we shall keep from sickness not the body — which none health may long keep from death, for die we must in few Die we must. years, live we never so long — but the soul, which, here preserved from the sickness of sin, shall after this eternally live in joy and be preserved from the deadly life of everlasting pain.

The physician sendeth his bill to the apothecary, and therein writeth sometime a costly receipt I of many strange herbs and roots, fetched out of far countries, long lien drugs, all the strength worn out, and some none such to be gotten. But this physician sendeth his bill to thyself, no strange thing therein, nothing costly to buy, nothing far to fetch, but to be gathered

• i.e., foreg"o by neg-ligence. t i.e., recipe.

all times of the year in the garden of thine own soul.

Let us hear then what wholesome receipt this is: " Remember," saith this bill, " thy last things, and thou shalt never sin " * in this world. Here is first a short medicine, containing only four herbs, common and Death, doom, ^^gU known, that is to wit, death, pain and loy., • j •

^ -^ -^ doom, pam and joy.

This short medicine is of a marvellous force, able to keep us all our life from sin. The physician cannot give no one medicine to every man to keep him from sickness, but to divers men divers, by reason of the diversity of divers complexions.! This medicine serveth every man. The physician doth but guess and conjecture that his receipt shall do good; but this medicine is undoubtedly sure.

How happeth it then, thou wilt haply say, that so few be preserved from sin, if every man have so sure a medicine so ready at hand? For folk fare commonly as he doth that goeth forth fasting among sick folk for sloth rather than he will take a little treacle before.

Thou wilt say peradventure that some part of this medicine is very bitter and painful to

• Ecclus vii, 40. + i.e., constitution, temperament.

DE QUA'TUOR NOVISSIMIS receive. Surely there can be nothing so bitter but wisdom would brook it for so great a profit. But yet this medicine, though thou make a sour face at it, is not so bitter as thou makest for. For well thou wottest, he biddeth thee not take neither death nor doom nor pain, but only to remember them, and yet the joy of heaven therewith, to temper them withal. Now if a man be so dainty-stomached, that going where contagion is, he would grudge to take a little treacle, yet were he very nicely wanton if he might not at the leastwise take a little vinegar and rose-water in his handkerchief.

Yet wot I well that many one will say that the bare remembrance of death alone, if a man consider it and ad-Remembrance of ^^isg it ^eii ^.gre able to be-death. rurea- r n ^u i

^Q *» reave a man of all the pleasure of his life. How much more then should his life be painful and grievous, if to the remembrance and consideration of death a man should add and set to the deep imagination of the dreadful doom of God, and bitter pains of purgatory or hell, of which every one passeth and exceedeth many deaths! This is the sage saws of such as make this world their heaven and their lust their God.

Now see the blindness of us worldly folk, rUE FOUR LAST THINGS how precisely we presume to shoot our foolish bolts in those matters most in which we least can skill. For I little doubt but that among four thousand taken out at adventure, we shall not find four score, but they shall boldly affirm it for a thing too painful busily to remember these four last things. And yet durst I lay a wager that of those four thousand ye shall not find fourteen that have deeply thought on them four times in all their days.

If men would vouchsafe to put in proof and experience the operation and working of this medicine, the remembrance of these four last things, they should find therein not the pleasure of their life lost, but so great a pleasure grow thereby that they never felt the like before, nor would have supposed that ever they should have felt any such. For it is to be known that like as we be made of two Of two substances, f^f divers and unlike subSpintual pleasure. ^ ^u u j j tu

Fleshly delight. stances, the body and the soul, so we be apt and able to receive two divers and unlike pleasures, the one carnal and fleshly, the other ghostly and spiritual. And like as the soul excelleth the body, so doth the sweetness of spiritual pleasure far pass and excel the gross and filthy pleasure of all fleshly delight, which is of truth

DE S^ATUOR NOFISSIMJS no very true pleasure, but a false counterfeit iaiage of pleasure. And the cause why men be so mad thereon is only for ignorance and lack of knowledge of the other, as those that lack insight of precious stones hold themselves as well content and satisfied with a beryl or crystal well counterfeited as with a right natural diamond. But he that by good use and experience hath in his eye the right mark and very true lustre of the diamond, rejecteth anon and listeth not to look upon the counterfeit, be it never so well handled, never so craftily polished. And trust it well that in like wise if men would well accustom themselves in the taste of spiritual pleasure, and of that sweet feeling that virtuous people have of the good hope of heaven, they should shortly set at nought and at length abhor the foul delight and filthy liking that riseth of sensual and fleshly pleasure, which is never so pleasantly spiced with delight and liking but that it bringeth therewith such a fdenfe!"^"""" g^"<lg« * ^"d grief of conscience that it maketh the stomach wamble and fare f as it would vomit.

• i.e., remorse.

• i.e., heave and be in a state to vomit.

And that notwithstanding such is our blind custom that we persevere therein without "care or cure of the better, as a sow content with draff, * dirt and mire, careth neither for better meat nor better bed.

Think not that everything is pleasant that men for madness laugh at. For thou shalt in Bedlam f see one laugh at the knocking of his own head against a post, and yet there is little pleasure therein. But ye think, peradventure, this ensample as mad as the madman, and as little to the purpose. I am content ye so think. But what will ye say if ye see men that are taken and reputed wise, laugh much more madly than he? Shall ye not see such laugh at their own craft when they have, as they think, wilily done their neighbour wrong? Now whoso seeth not that his laughter is more mad than the laughter of the madman, I hold him madder than they both. For the madman laughed when he had done himself but little hurt by a knock of his head to the post; this

• i.e., refuse.

t A lunatic asylum in London. The word Bedlam is derived from Bethlehem Hospital, which was formerly a relig-ious house dedicated to St Mary of Bethlehem.

Other sage fool laugheth at the casting of his own soul into the fire of hell, for which he hath cause to weep all his life. And it cannot be hut the grudge * and fear thereof followeth his laughter, and secret sorrow marreth all such outward mirth. For the heart of a A wicked ^yicked wretch is like a stormy sea that cannot rest.-f except a man be fallen down into the dungeon of wretchedness, and the door shut over his head. For when a sinner is once fallen into the depth he waxeth a desperate wretch and setteth all at nought, and he is in the worst kind of all and farthest from all recovery. For like as in the body his sickness is most incurable that is sick and feeleth it not, but weeneth \ himself whole (for he that is in that case is commonly mad), so he that by a mischievous custom of sin perceiveth no fault in his evil deed, nor hath no remorse thereof, hath lost the natural light of reason and the spiritual light of faith, which two lights of knowledge and understanding quenched, what remaineth in him more than the bodily senses and sensual wits common to man and brute beasts?

Now, albeit so that the fleshly and worldly

• i.e., remorse. f Isa. Ivii, 20. i i.e., thinketh.

pleasure is of truth not pleasant but bitter, and the spiritual pleasure is of truth so \Vorldlyand gweet that the sweetness thereof pleasure. many times darketh '•' and minisheth the feeiing of bodily pain, by reason whereof good virtuous folk feel more pleasure in the sorrow of their sins and affliction of their penance than wretches feel in the fulfilling of their foul delight; and credible is it that the inward spiritual pleasure and comfort, which many of the old holy martyrs had in the hope of heaven, daiked and in manner overwhelmed the bodily pains of their torments; yet, this notwithstanding, like as a sick man feeleth no sweetness in sugar, and some women with child have such fond lust that they had liefer f eat terre| than treacle, and rather pitch than marmalade, and some whole people love tallow better than butter, and Iceland loveth no butter till it be long barrelled, so we gross carnal people, having our taste infected by the taste sickness of sin and filthy custom of fleshly lust, find so great liking in the vile and stinking delectation of fleshly delight that we list§ not once [to] prove what manner of

• i.e., darkens or obscures.

t i.e., more willingly.

X i.e., earth. § i.e., desire.

lO DE ^ATUOR NOFISSIMIS sweetness good and virtuous folk feel and perceive in spiritual pleasure. And the cause is why, because we cannot perceive the one, but if we forbear the other. For like as the ground that is all foregrown with nettles, briars and other evil weeds, can bring forth no corn till they be weeded out, so can our soul have no place for the good corn of spiritual pleasure as long as it is overgrown with the barren weeds of carnal delectation. For the ^^}^^^inmexM to puHing out of which weeds by pull out the fu ^ 4.U • 4.

weeds of the soul. ^^^ root there is not a more meet instrument than the repleaYuTe Hseth. membrance of the four last things, which, as they shall pull out these weeds of fleshly voluptuousness, so shall they not fail to plant in their places not only wholesome virtues but also marvellous ghostly pleasure and spiritual gladness, which in every good soul riseth of the love of God and hope of heaven, and inward liking that the godly spirit taketh in the diligent labour of good and virtuous business.

I would not so long tarry in this point, nor make so many words of the pleasure that men may find by the receipt of this medicine, were it not that I well perceive the world so set upon the seeking of pleasure that they set by pleasure much more than by profit. And, therefore, to the intent that ye may perceive that it is not a fantasy founden of mine own head, that the abandoning and refusing of carnal pleasure, and the ensuing of labour, travail, penance and bodily pain, shall bring therewith to a Christian man, not only in the world that is coming but also in this present life, very sweetness, comfort, pleasure and gladness, I shall prove it to be true by their testimony and witness whose authority, speaking of their own experience, there will (I ween) none honest man mistrust.

Lo! the holy doctor, St Austin, exhorting penitents and repentant sinners to sorrow for their offences, sayeth unto them: St Austin. "Sorrow," saith this holy man, ^lrfo\T^ '" " ^"^ ^^ glad of thy sorrow." In vain should he bid him be glad of his sorrow if man in sorrow could not be glad. But this holy father sheweth by this counsel not only that a man may be joyful and glad for all his sorrow, but also that he may be and hath cause to be glad because of his sorrow.

Long were it to rehearse the places that prove this point among the holy doctors of Christ's Church. But we will, instead of them all, allege you the words of Him that is

Doctor of them all, our Saviour Jesu Christ. He saith that the way to heaven is strait and aspre * or painful. And therefore He saith that few folk find it out or walk therein. f And yet saith He for all that: " My yoke is easy and My burden light." % How could these two sayings stand together were it not that, as the labour, travail and affliction of the body is painful and sharp to the flesh, so the comfort and gladness that the soul conceiveth thereof, rising into the love of our Lord and a hope of His glory to come, so tempereth and overmastereth the bitterness of the grief that it maketh the very labour easy, the sourness very sweet and the very pain pleasant?

AV'ill ye see the sample? Look upon His holy apostles, when they were taken and scourged with whips for Christ's sake, did it grieve them, think ye? Imagine yourself in the same case, and I think ye will think yea. Now see then, for all that pain of their flesh what joy and pleasure they conceived in their soul. The holy Scripture saith § that they rejoiced and joyed that God had accounted them worthy for Christ's sake not only to be scourged, but also — which would be far greater

• i.e., rough, rugged. f Matt, vii, 14. X Matt, xi, 30. § Acts v, 41.

grief to an honest man than the pain itself — to be scourged with despite and shame, so that the more their pain was the more was their joy. For, as the holy doctor St ChrySt Chrysostom. gostom saith, though pain be Pleasant pain.. r ^u ^. r ^u

^ grievous for the nature of the afHiction, yet is it pleasant by the alacrity and quick mind of them that willingly suffer it. And, therefore, though the nature of the torments make great grief and pain, yet the prompt and willing mind of them that were scourged passed and overcame the nature of the thing, that is to wit, mastering the outward fleshly pain with inward spiritual pleasure. And surely this is so true that it may A token of God's ^^^^^ f^^. ^ certain token ravour.._^ ^ -^ / i • ^.i ^ that a penitent begmneth to profit and grow in grace and favour of God, when he feeleth a pleasure and quickness in his labour and pain taken in prayer, PuSLTo^rv!" ^J'^'is-deed, pilgrimage, fasting, discipline, tribulation, affliction and such other spiritual exercise, by which the soul willingly worketh with the body by their own punishment, to purge and rub out the rusty, cankered spots that sin hath defiled them with in the sight of God, and to leave the fewer to be burnt out in the fire of purgatory. And whensoever, as I say, that a man feeleth in this pain a pleasure, he hath a token of great grace and that his penance is pleasant to God. For, as the holy Scripture saith, our Lord loveth a glad giver.* And on the other side, whereas one doth such spiritual business with a dulness of spirit and weariness of mind, he doth twice as much, and thereby taketh four times as much pain, sith his bodily pain is relieved with no spiritual rejoice nor comfort. I will not say that his labour is lost, but I dare be bold to say that he profiteth much less with much more pain. For certain it is that the best souls, and they that have best travailed in spiritual business, find Comfort, most comfort therein. And, therefore, if they most pleased God that in the bodily pain of their penance took less spiritual pleasure, it should thereof follow that the farther a man proceeded in the perfection of spiritual exercise, in the worse case he were. Which can in no wise be so, sith f that we see the holy apostles and other holy men and women, the better that they were, the more pleasure they perceived in their fleshly afflictions, either put unto them by God or taken by themselves for God's sake.

• 2 Cor. ix, 7. f i.e., since, seeing that.

Therefore let every man, by the labour of his mind and help of prayer, enforce himself in all tribulation and affliction, labour, pain and travail, without spot of pride or ascribing any praise to himself, to conceive a Pleasure in delight and pleasure in such spiriercise. ' ^^^'^ exercise, and thereby to rise in the love of our Lord, with an hope of heaven, contempt of the world, and longing to be with God. To the attaining of which mind by the putting away of the malicious pleasures of the devil, the filthy pleasures of the flesh, and the vain pleasures of the world, which once excluded, there is place made and clean purged to receive the very sweet and pure pleasure of the spirit, there is not any one thing lightly, as I have said, more accommodate nor more effectual than this thing that I have begun with and taken in hand to entreat,* that is, to wit, the remembrance of the four last things, which is, as the Scripture saith, so effectual that if a man remember it well he shall never sin.

Thou wilt haply say that it is not enough that a man do none evil, but he must also do good. This is very truth that ye say. But

• i.e., to treat of.

first, if there be but these two steps to heaven, he that getteth him on the one helvenf^' ^"^ '^ half-way up. And over that,

' whoso doth none evil, it will be

The m.nd never ^,^^^, ^^^^ ^^^ j^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^^ good, sith man's mind is never idle, but occupied commonly either with good or evil.

And, therefore, when folk have few words and use much musing, likewise as among many words all Ije not always well and Musing. wisely set, so when the tongue lieth still, if the mind be not occupied well, it were less evil, save for worldly rebuke, to blabber on trifles somewhat sottishly, than, while they seem sage in keeping silence, secretly, peradventure, the meanwhile to fantasy with themselves filthy, sinful devices, whereof their tongues, if they were set on babbling, could not for shame utter and speak the like.

I say not this for that I would have folk fall to babbling, well wotting * that, as the Scripture saith, in many words lacketh notsin,t sn^i^ce"^* but that I would have folk in their si-

1 ence. ]gj^(>g ^^ke good heed that their minds be occupied with good thoughts; for unoccu-

• i.e., knowing. f Prov. ix, 19.

pied be they never. For if ever the mind were empty, it would be empty when the body sleepeth. But if it were then all empty, we should have no dreams. Then, if the fantasies leave us not sleeping, it is not likely that ever they leave us waking. Wherefore, as I say, let us keep our minds occupied with good thoughts, or else the devil will fill them with evil.

And surely everything hath its mean. There is, as scripture saith, time to speak and time to keep thy tongue.* Whensoever the communication is naught f and ungodly, it is better to hold thy tongue and think on some better thing the while, than to give ear thereto and underpin | the tale. And yet better were it than holding of thy tongue, properly to speak, and with some good grace and pleasant fashion to break into some better matter, by which thy speech and talking thou shalt not only profit thyself as thou shouldst have done by thy well-minded silence, but also amend the whole audience, which is a thing far better and of much more merit. Howbeit, if thou canst find no proper mean to break the tale, then, except thy bare authority suffice to When to keep command silence, it were peradventure good rather to keep a o[Ood

• Eccles iii, 7. f i.e., bad or corrupt. J i.e., support, silence thyself, than blunt forth rudely and irrit them to anger, which shall haply therefor not lef*^ to talk on, but speak mucli the more, lest they should seem to leave [off] at thy commandment. And better were it for the while to let one wanton word pass uncontrolled than give occasion of twain. But if the communication be good, then is it better not only to give ear thereto, but also first well and prudently to devise with thyself upon the same; and then moderately and in good manner, if thou find aught to the purpose, speak thereto and say thy mind therein. So shall it appear to the presence f that your mind was well occupied the while, and your thought not wandering forty miles thence while your body was there. As it often happeth that the very face sheweth the mind walking a pilgrimage, in such wise that, not without some note and reA vagrant mind. proach of such vagrant mind, other folk suddenly say to them, " A penny for your thought." Which manner of wandering mind in company may percase \ be the more excusable sometime by some chargeable business of the party, but surely it is never taken for wisdom nor good manner.

• i.e., cease. t i.e., those present.

X i.e., perchance.

But now to return to my purpose, Sith the remembrance of these four last things is of such force and efficacy that it is able always to keep us from sin, and sith we can never be long void of both, it must thereof ensue that we shall consequently do good; and thereof must it needs follow that this only lesson, well learned and busily put in use, must needs lead us to heaven.

Yet will ye peradventure say that ye know these four things well enough, and if the knowledge thereof had so great effect as the Scripture speaketh of, there should not be so many naught ■'^ as there be. For what Christian man is he that hath wit and discretion, but he hath heard, and having any faith believeth these four last things? Of which the first, that is to say, death, we need no faith to believe, w^e know it by daily proof and experience.

I say not nay, but that we know them either by faith or experience. And yet not so very thoroughly as we might peradventure, and hereafter undoubtedly shall, which if we knew once thoroughly, and so feelingly perceived as we might percase,t and namely j as we surely shall, there would be little doubt but the

• i.e., bad. ti.e., perhaps.

X i.e., particularly.

least of all the four would well keep us from sin. For as for yet, though we have heard of the doom,* yet were we never at it. Though we have heard of hell, yet came we never in it. Though we have heard of heaven, yet came we never to it. And though we daily see men die, and thereby know the death, yet ourselves never felt it. For if we knew these things thoroughly, the least of all four were, as I said, enough to keep us from sin.

Howbeit the foresaid words of Scripture biddeth thee not know the four last things, but remember thy four last things; Knowledge with- ^^id then, he saith, thou shalt out remembrance little profiteth. "^ver sm.

Many thmgs know we that we seldom think on. And in the things of the soul the knowledge without the remembrance litde profiteth. What availeth it to know that there is a God, which thou not only believest by faith, but also knowest by reason? What availeth that thou knowest Him, if thou think little of Him? The busy minding of thy four last things, and the deep consideration thereof, is the thing that shall keep thee from

• This is the noun from the word deem = to judge. A judi^e in old Eng-Jish or Lowland Scotch was called a dempster, and his sentence was a doom.

sin. And if thou put it in a say * and make a proof, thou shalt well find by that thou shalt have no lust to sin for the time that thou deeply thinkest on them; that if our frailty could endure never to remit or slake in the deep devising of them, we should never have delight or pleasure in any sinful thing.

For the proof whereof let us first begin at the remembrance of the first of these four last, which is undoubtedly far the least of the four; and thereby shall we make a proof what marvellous effect may grow by the diligent remembrance of all four towards the avoiding of all the trains,! darts, sleights, enticings and assaults of the three mortal enemies, the devil, the world and our own flesh.

• i.e., put it to the test. + i.e., stratag-ems.