inevitable necessity and passage of death, therefore we ought to take our death when God will, wilfully and gladly, without any grutching[1] or contradiction, through the might and boldness of the will of our soul virtuously disposed and governed by reason and very discretion; though the lewd[2] sensuality and frailty of our flesh naturally grutch or strive there against. And therefore Seneca saith thus : Feras, non culpes, quod immutare non vales. suffer easily and blame thou not, that thou mayst not change nor void. And the same clerk added to, and saith : Si vis ista cum quibus urgeris effucere, non ut alibi sis oporteat, sed alius. If thou wilt escape that thou art straitly be-wrapped[3] in, it needeth not that thou be in another place, but that thou be another man.
Furthermore, that a Christian man may die well and seemly,[4] him needeth that he con[5] die, and as a wise man saith : Scire mori est paratum cor suum habere, et animam ad superna : ut quandocunque mors advenerit, paratum cum in- veniat ut absque omni retractione eam recipiat, quasi qui socii sui dilecti adventum desideratum expectat. To con die is to have an heart and a soul every ready up to Godward, that when-that-over death come, he may be found all ready; withouten any retraction[6] receive him, as a man would
