XI. Of the Body, after the Departure of the Soul.
St. Anselm The Devotions of Saint Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury torments. There all that can soothe is lacking; and everything that can appal and torment and distress, is present. The perilous bridge, from which whosoever maketh not his passage over it aright is hurled downward, is this present life; wherein whosoever liveth ill, descendeth to hell. The planks which are withdrawn when the traveller hath passed over them are the days of our life; which pass away never to return, but by growing fewer press us onwards toward our end, and compel us to hasten to our goal. The birds that hover about the bridge and beset them that pass over, are evil spirits, whose whole study is to cast men down that are set on the right way, and to hurl them into the depths of hell. We ourselves are the travellers that pass over, blindfolded by our ignorance and bound by the chain of the difficulty of doing good works, so that we cannot direct our steps freely toward God in holiness of life.
Consider therefore whether thou oughtest not in so great a strait to cry out earnestly to thy
Creator, so that, being defended by His protection, thou mayest sing in faith among the hosts of thine enemies: The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?116He is thy light against thy blindness; thy salvation against thy difficulty. These are the two evils, whereinto our first father caused us to fall, even ignorance whither we go and difficulty in seeing what we ought to do. Meditate upon these things, O my soul, think upon them; let thy mind daily exercise itself therein. Let it being intent thereon, turn away from vain and unprofitable cares and thoughts, let it burn with the fire of holy fear and blessed love to fly from these evils and lay hold upon eternal goods.
XI Of the Body, after the Departure of the Soul.
TO Thee I now turn back, O my most sweet Creator, my most gracious Redeemer, Thou fashioner and refashioner of my nature, humbly in prayer beseeching Thy goodness to teach my heart to consider with life-giving fear and wholesome trembling the foul and mournful state of my flesh after my death when bereft of that spirit which doth at present quicken it, it must be delivered over to be consumed by corruption and the worm. If it have any beauty now, wherein it taketh pride, where will it then be? where the abundance of most exquisite delights? where the delicate limbs?
Will there not then be fulfilled indeed that saying of the Prophet, All flesh is grass, and all the
Ps. xxvii. 1.