SECOND POINT.
THIS desire of death, to be really good, must be divested of self-love. We sometimes wish for death, that we may be delivered from an unhappy life; now, this desire is not entirely pure. A fervent soul never desires to be freed from this fife merely because it is an unhappy one,full of pains and trials: on the contrary, if there were no other evil in it, she would do all in her power to preserve it; since the more pains and trials we have, the greatest sacrifices we may make, to God, and the more we may prove our love to him. We may wish for death, because it will bring us to the possession of the object of our creation—the enjoyment of God ; we may wish for it, because after death we shall be no longer exposed to the danger of offending God. The Saints desired, death for these reasons, and so also may we.
THIRD POINT.
THE purest and best motive for desiring death is, because we cannot live without sinning, and instead of becoming more and more pleasing in the eyes of God, we disobey him daily — adding sin to sin. Who, that loves God, can help wishing for death from this motive? What pain can be so insupportable as to love God ardently, and yet see ourselves in a sort of impossibility to avoid offending him, either through the evil inclinations of our corrupt nature, or the habits we have contracted by the sins of our past life?
O my God! when I reflect that not a day passes in which I do not offend thee, and commit even the sins I would wish most to avoid, that I do so little good, not even the good I desire to do; how can I help wishing to be delivered from the body of this death? What are all the sufferings of this world, compared with the misfortune of offending my God! It is not the happiness of the blessed I sigh for, so much as the joy and happiness of no more offending thee, my God; of being no more unfaithful to thy grace.
Come then, O Death! that I may no more offend my God, no more oppose his will.
