ter passion. O Mary, mother of God, assist me by your holy intercession.
Meditation Fourth.
On the Certainty of Death.
I. WE must die: how awful is the decree! We must die. The sentence is passed: It is appointed for all men once to die. Heb. ix. 27. Thou art a man, and thou must die. It would be madness for any one to attempt to delude himself with the idea that he shall not die. A poor man may flatter himself that he may become rich, or a vassal that he may be a king; but who can ever hope to escape death? One dies old, another young, but all at last must come to the grave. I therefore must one day die and enter eternity. But what will be my lot for eternity? happy or miserable? My Saviour Jesus, be thou a Saviour to me!
II. Of all those who were living upon the earth at the beginning of the last century, not one is now alive. The greatest and most renowned princes of this world have exchanged their country: scarcely does there remain any remembrance of them, and their bare bones are hardly preserved in stone monuments. Make me, O God, more and more sensible of the folly of loving the goods of this world, and for the sake of them renouncing thee, my sovereign and infinite good. What folly have I not been guilty of; and how much it grieves me! I give thee thanks for having made me sensible of it.
III. A hundred years hence, at most, and neither you nor I will be any longer in this world; both will have gone into the house of eternity. A day, an hour, a moment is approaching which will
