Three Books on the Death of Christ and Self-Reflection, and Two Books on the Study of Divine and Human Philosophy

2

as it pertains to the fear of the thought of our own death, we shall treat this subject so that the force of anger may be restrained within due limits. We shall teach, as much as lies within our power, how to uproot, eradicate, and destroy vices in general, and how to plant virtues in their place.
3

Finally, we shall apply our hands to a third part, in which we shall strive to demonstrate as far as we can, from the constant thought of both deaths, that all vices can be specifically and individually exploded, or rather, completely eliminated; and of one's own death? that virtues can be most easily summoned and introduced to the mind so that they may bear fruit abundantly. We shall make it plain that these very meditations are of the greatest assistance to us for those things which we ought to believe, what we ought to hope for, and what we ought to do; and also that they urge us most powerfully to love God and our neighbor. But just as in the first part, this will be done by what are, as it were, common arguments, sometimes drawn from the writings of philosophers and theologians in order to satisfy the learned; so in the last, we shall pursue the same things with simpler arguments, so that anyone at all may be satisfied. But now, cutting short the delay of the preface, let us approach the first book.