Fear And Death

Primam mortem scilicet corporis, debet peccator timere ob ablationem omnium delectabilium, et ob eternitatem omnium mediarum, et ob multitudinem penarum, et ob desperationem remediorum et suffragiorum post hanc vitam, Iob xxvii: Dives cum dormierit nihil secum aufert, aperiet oculos suos et nihil inveniet, ubi Gregorius sufficienter de hoc Marolaium xviii. Exemplificans de divite epulone sepulto in inferno Luce xvi. et Luce xii de stulto proponente dilatare horrea sua. Cui dictum est, hac nocte repetent animam tuam, que autem parasti cuius erunt. Sapienta v: Quid vobis profuit superbia, et ad pene exaggerationem predicta erunt, et evenient impio tempore quo non estimat, Iob xxxiiii: Subito morientur et media nocte et cetera. Et de hoc Gregoris Moralium xxv: Quod subitum est quod ante non cogitatur, et ideo dicuntur mori subito quia non procogitant, vere ergo mors peccatorum pessima et ideo timenda, Ecclesiastici xliii: O mors quam amara est memoria tua homini iniusto, unde ad maiorem pene aggravationem quibusdam impiis antequam exeant de vita ostendit Deus penas infernales, prout ait Beda De gestis angelorum de quidam insolente, qui cum infirmaretur monuit eum rex Sandereus vel Geuredus ut confiteretur, qui respondit quod tunc non faceret ne sodales ei insultarent, sed cum surgeret ab infirmitate aggravante hoc faceret. Iterato visitavit enim rex, cui ait ille: quod tunc nulla fuit utilitas eum visitare, eo quod duo iuvenes pulci intraverunt, quorum unus portabat librum in quo scripta erant bona que feci, sed pauca postea intravit exercitus malignorum spirituum quorum maior protulit librum horrende visionis, enormis magnitudinis, et ponderis importabilis in iuvenes, quid vos hic, iste noster est, quibus illi, verum est, ducite eum in tumulum damnationis, duo quoque percutiant unus in caput alius in pedes, et cum ad se pervenient ictus moritur, et portatus a demonibus in infernum protrehatur, et sic factum est. Non pro se vidit cui ista non pro fuere, sed pro aliis qui differunt penitere, ait Beda. Ibidem etiam narrat de quodam fabro vivente ignobiliter, et sustentabatur in monasterio a fratribus propter operum necessitatem, serviebat quoque ebrietati, et aliis magisque nocte residere in officina sua consuevit quam ad psallendum ire, qui infirmatus et ad extrema perductus vocavit fratres eisque narravit videre se inferos aprtos, et Sathanam in profundum dimersum cum Caypha et ceteris qui Christum occiderunt, sibi quod locum preparatum iuxta, et cum hortaretur ad penitentiam, ait desperans quod non erat ei locis mutandi vitam, ex quo vidit iudicium suum iam esse impletum, et sine viatico obiit extraque monasterium sepultus est, nec aliquis pro eo oravit hec vidit ut desparata salute miserabilius periret, sicut beatus Stephanus vidit celos apetos ut letius ascenderet. Omni ergo impio est timenda mors prima, et multo etiam magis alle mortes, quia mors carnis non est nisi umbra mortis prout ait Gregorius Moralium xi. super illud Iob xiii producat in lucem umbram mortis. Et somnus est ut ait idem Moralium xii. super Iob xiiii: Nec consurget de somno suo, mors enim peccati sive anime per peccatum magis timenda est quod mors corporis, quia mors anime est cum eam deserit Deus, mors corporis cum ipsum deserit anima, ait Augustinus xiii. De civitate dei capitulo primo: Quanto ergo melior Deus anima tanto peius deseria Deo quam ab anima. Ideo sancti sustinuerunt mortem corporis ut vitarent peccatum prout ait Susanna Danielis xiii: Melius est mihi absque opere incidere in manus vestras quam peccare in conspectu Dei. Johannes Gallensis, Communiloquium sive Summa Collationum, Pars Sexta, Distinctio secunda, Capitulum secundum, Pars Secunda Source: here, p232

The sinner should fear the first death, which is obviously of the body, because of the loss of every delight, and the eternity of being amid a multitude of punishments, and the hopelessness of any remedy and support after this life. 'The rich man when he sleeps takes nothing with him, he opens his eyes and he finds nothing,' 1 which Gregory sufficiently speaks of in the eighteenth book of the Moralia. 2 This is exemplified by the feasting rich man who was buried for hell in the sixteenth chapter of Luke, 3 and in the twelfth chapter concerning the foolish man who proposed to expand his barns, to whom it was said, 'This night your soul is demanded of you; and these things you prepare, who are they for?' 4 In the fifth chapter of Wisdom: 'How did your pride profit you?' 5 Such great gain foretold and in time there comes upon the impious man what he does not expect. 'Suddenly they perish in the middle of the night', 6 And Gregory says in the twenty fifth book of the Moralia: 'That which is sudden is not thought of before and therefore they say that to die suddenly is because it is unforeseen, truly therefore the death of the sinner is the worst,' 7 and so must be feared. Ecclesiasticus chapter forty three: 'O death, how bitter the thought of you to the unrighteous man,' 8 whence it is gravely troublesome to impious folk before they pass away from this life if God should reveal infernal punishment. Which Bede relates in his history of the English, concerning a certain insolent fellow who when he sickened was warned by the king Sandereus or Geuredus that he should confess, 9 and he answered that he would not, lest the warriors mock him, but that when he had recovered from his grave infirmity he would do so. Again the king came to him, and the man said to him that now there was no point in him visiting because two fair youths had come in, one who was carrying a book in which was written all the good things he had done, but a little after, there came in a host of wicked spirits, the greatest of whom brought before them a book hideous to see, of much larger size, and they pressed on the youths most terribly, saying 'Why are you here? This man is ours.' To which they said, 'It is true. Lead him off to the heap of the damned. And also one of two of you strike him on the head and the other on the feet. And when the blow of death comes to him, he shall be borne off by the demons and taken to hell.' And so it was. This man did not see what was to come for his own sake, but for others who defer penitence, says Bede. In the same place he tells the story of a certain smith who lived shamefully, being supported by the brothers of a monastery for his needful works, who was also a slave of drunkenness and was much more accustomed to spend his time with others in his workshop than to go and sing Psalms. Now when he sickened and was reaching his last hours, he called the brothers and told them that he had seen hell opened, and Satan sunk in the depths of it, along with Caiaphas and the others who killed Christ, and that a place had been prepared for him next to them. Then when he was exhorted to penance, he said despairingly that he had no scope to change his own life, and so he saw his own judgement fulfilled, and he died without viaticum and was buried outside the monastery, lest someone pray for him who saw that he must perish wretchedly despairing of his salvation. 10 So saint Stephen saw the heavens opened so that he would ascend joyfully. 11 Thus every wicked man must fear the first death, yet the other deaths are more fearful, because the death of the flesh is nothing but the shadow of death, as Gregory says in the eleventh book of the Moralia on the twelfth chapter of Job 'He brings into light the shadow of death.' 12 And a sleep is the same, he says in the twelfth book of the Moralia on the fourteenth chapter of Job, 'He shall not rise from his sleep,' 13 for the death of the soul by sin should be feared more than the death of the body, since the death of the soul is when it is abandoned by God, and the death of the body is when it is abandoned by the soul, as Augustine says in the thirteenth book On The City of God, in the first chapter: 'By how much better God is to the soul, so much worse is the loss of God from the soul.' 14 Therefore the saints endure the death of the body that they might avoid sin, as Susanna says in the thirteenth chapter of Daniel: 'Better for me to do nothing and fall into your hands than sin in the sight of the Lord.' 15 John of Wales, The Communiloquium, The Sixth Part, Second Distinction, Second Chapter, of The Second Part 1 Job 27.19 2 Gregory Moral 18.28-29 3 Lk 16.22 4 Lk 12.16 5 Wisdom 5.8 6 Job 34.20 7 Greg Moral, Ps 33.22 8 Sirach 41.1 9 Actually Coenred of Mercia, Bede Eccl His 5.13 10 Bede Eccl His 5.14 11 Acts 7.55 12 Greg Moral 11.26, Job 12.22 13 Greg Moral 12.10, Job 14.12 14 Aug Civ De 13.2 15 Dan 13.23