when he comes home at night he presently askes what newes there is stirring And is well pleased with any tidings that are told him especially of other mens misfortunes Plutarch makes this simile That as in Cities there vse to be some vnlucky gates wherat nothing enters or goes out that is good saue dunghils that lye in the streete and persons that are condemned to death so likewise into the eares of the Curious nothing enters that is good It was the saying of a certaine Philosopher that of all kind of winds those were most troublesome which did whirle our clokes from off our shoulders In like manner of all sortes of men the Curious are most to be abhorred which vnwrap the clokes of our shame blow open our disgrace and rip vp the graues of the dead and as Xenocrates said of them They enter not into other mens houses with their feet but their eyes He saw c. This might very well assure them that he lookt vpon him with the eye of Loue. First because it is Gods nature and condition when he doth one fauour to ingage himselfe for many other courtesies And therefore hauing done him the fauour to looke vpon him he was now obliged to giue him his sight Cicero saith That it is the property of a noble brest to him that owes much to desire to make that man more his debtor Est animi ingenui cui multum debeas eidem plurimum velle debere The bestowing of one fauour vpon mee saith Ecclesiasticâ—â— makes me the bolder to beg another And since thou hast stuck vnto me in my life ô Lord doe the like in my death God did reueale vnto Dauid by the Prophet Nathan perpetuitie of his Kingdome and after this so great a fauour he further addeth Therefore is thy seruants heart readie to pray vnto thee Ezechias had receiued extraordinarie kindnesses from Gods hand and these were motiues to make him intercede for farther fauours In a word one courtesie conferred vpon vs incourageth vs to craue a second But that the conferring of one fauor â—hould lay an obligation or make one desirous to doe another on the necke of that this onely holds in God as a peculiar noblenesse belonging vnto him And for to secure vs of all those fauours which wee can expect from his greatnesse the Church saith of our Sauiour Christ that was offered vp for vs Nobis pignus datur A pledge is giuen vs. Now a pledge is alwayes pawned for lesse than it is worth Hauing therefore thus impawned the infinit treasure of his person what will he not bestow vpon vs If he haue giuen thee eyes will hee not giue thee hands And if he haue giuen thee hands will he not giue thee a heart So that Gods doing of one fauour is the assuring of many In the Wildernesse when all Agars bread and water was spent and seeing her sonne ready to dye for thirst she lifted vp her eyes to Heauen calling vpon God Et exaâ—diuit dominus vocem â—â—eri And the Lord heard the voyce of the child His giuing eare vnto her was a signe that he would giue her water suddenly a Well was discouered vnto her c. Here were two fauours done her alreadie First His hearing her Secondly His granting her her request But God did not stop here In gentem magnam faciam cum I will make him a great Nation Secondly Because mans wants and necessities being looked on by the eye of Gods loue and pittie his goodnes neuer leaues him till his remedie be wrought And therfore it is said by the Psalmist I poured out my complaint before him I shewed before him my trouble so that when I present my griefes tribulations before him if he once but looke vpon them I am sure he wil help me This kind of cunning Martha Mary vsed with him Behold he is sick whom thou louest Ezechias opening Zenacharibs letter in the Temple fraught with such a deale of pride arrogancie exercised the same trick Lord open thyne eyes and see bow downe thyne eare and heare the words of Zenacharib c. And as our sinnes doe crie vnto God for vengeance so our miseries doe crie vnto him for mercie God plagued the Princes of the Philistines with that foule and grieuous disease of the Emmerods but vpon their presenting the Images of them before the Arke he freed them of that euill Thou knowest my shame and my reproch c. And if my prayers doe not sometimes pierce Heauen it is because my persecutions and afflictions haue ascended thither and notified my miserie and when man is ashamed to speake yet that will speake for him Who did sinne this man or his parents Saint Cyril saith That the Disciples hauing whispered amongst themselues touching this mans misfortune they askt our Sauiour Quis peccauit c. Wherein they went wisely to worke in attributing punishment in the generall to sinne for by attributing them many times to naturall causes as to the Sunne aire water and other distemperatures the fruit of Gods chastisements is lost Petrus Crysologus treating of those teares which our Sauiour shed at Lazarus death saith That he did not bewaile his buriall for he knew how happie he was in being out of the world but the occasion He thought vpon Adams apple that had beene the cause of so much hurt and this was it that made him to weepe And this his weeping was as if hee should haue said What a deale of sorrow hath this one act of disobedience in him brought vpon all mankind and consequently vpon me who must beare the burthen of his and their offence O Sinne How deere will it cost both Man and me In a word There is not any one thing so often repeated in Scripture as That Sin is the cause of our miseries De humo non egreditur dolor And in this respect verie iust and lawfull was this their demand touching Quis peccauit Who sinned First Because they did desire to see it verified whether this fauour which they muttered amongst themselues were well employed or no for it is a common custome in Court when the King shall cast a fauourable eye vpon any one and gratiously looke vpon him not onely to examine his life and to question what hee is but to rip vp that of his fathers and predecessours to flea those that are aliue and to disinterre those that are dead And howbeit for prouisions of offices and for the conferring of Court dignities and other publique preferments in the Commonwealth it is fitting for Kings and Princes to take a strict view and examination concerning the honestie and abilitie of those they aduance yet in the relieuing of wants necessities al such diligences are vnnecessarie and vniust For a Prince or any other rich and powerfull person sayth Saint Chrysostome ought to be like a good port or hauen which should receiue into her protection all sort of passengers whatsoeuer but to
pierceth into the bowells of the earth it discouereth the bottome of the Deepe in the one he hath certaine Shops or Worke-houses wherein gold siluer and pretious stones are wrought in the other Pearle and diuers other rich commodities as Corall Amber and the like But although the Sun reacheth to the vtmost corners of the earth and the most hidden secret places of this Vniuerse by his vertue and heat yet are there many which he cannot come neere vnto with his light and splendor but from the eyes of God there is not that veine or least crannie in the earth nor that shell though neuer so small in the sea that can hide it selfe Sicut tenebra eius ita lumen eius As the darkenesse is his so is the light also In that beginning when God created the World he diuided the night from the day and the light from darkenesse but this was done for humane eyes but to those diuiner eyes there is no night at all and innumerable are those places of Scripture which prooue the truth hereof vnto vs. The third That God many times affoords vs a greater fauour in publishing a secret sinne than in letting it lie hid and reserued against the day of Wrath for our eternall and publique confusion The Schoolemen make a question Which is the more grieuous the publique or the secret sinne and it is a plain case that the publique carries with it more grieuous circumstances of scandal harme and infection and therefore Dauid stiles it a Plague or Pestilence but the secret sin is always more dangerous because it is in some sort incurable there is no neighbour to admonish thee of it no witnesse to denunciate against thee nor no judge to punish thee for it nor no Prelat to reprehend thee therefore for sinne once reprehended in persons that haue any shame in them in the world turnes to amendment Saint Augustine reports in his Confessions That his mother had two Maid seruants one a well growne wench the other a little girle and that when they went for Wine to the Tauerne the bigger would drinke a good heartie draught the lesser did but sip a little but by sip after sip she grew by degrees to be a good proficient and falling out one day before their mistresse the bigger complained of the lesser That she did drinke vp the Wine whereof shee was so ashamed that she would neuer after so much as offer to take it Publique sins all labour to amend When a house is on fire there is not that Tyler or Carpenter or any neere dweller but will hast in and helpe all they can to quench it Secret sinnes are like a smokie fire which lies smothering not flaming forth wasts and consumes inwardly and this is the cause that it is conserued and continued like a secret Impostume which occasioneth our death because it cannot be cured Vpon Achans sinne they did cast lots by Tribes by households and by particular persons and when the Delinquent was discouered Iosâ—â—ah sayd Giue thankes vnto God that thy sin is brought to light and made knowne to the world and that thou shalt smart for it in this life for had it beene kept secret thy punishment had beene immortall Dauids Adulterie being brought forth vpon the open stage In conspâ—â—tu Solis huius and Nathans reproouing him for it was the future occasion of all his good It could not chuse to this adulterous woman that was thus taken in the manner Con el hurto en las manos with the theft as they say in her hand but be a wonderful griefe vexation that shee should be carried publiquely through the streets all the boyes of the Citie hooting at her men and women poynting at her with the finger and crying shame vpon her and that at last she must be brought into the Temple and there be set in the middest of that reuerend Auditorie and Assemblie as a spectacle of shame and infamie But the opening of this her wound was the curing of it this which shee thought was her ruine was her remedie this her marring was her making The World held her to be a most vnhappie woman for there being so many Adulteresses in the Citie Whorings had ouerspread the land and bloud had touched bloud that this flash of lightning should light vpon her alone and that this sudden thunder-clap should not onely voyce her dishonour but her death Whereas the Adulterer was by all adiudged to be a happie and a fortunate man that by good hap he had escaped out of the hands of Iustice either by flight or greasing the Officers in the fist Others stickt not to say Siempre quiebra la soga por lomas del gado the weakest still goes to the wall howsoeuer the more certaine truth is That she was happie and the Adulterer vnfortunate The fourth That euerie sinne is to bee made publique either in this present life or in the life to come and this sayth the aforesaid Letter Nihil opertum quod non reueletur and not onely publique notice to be taken thereof but to bee accompanied also with shame and confusion And this the Scripture prooueth vnto vs in many places and for the amending of these two mischiefes there is no meanes so powerfull as to haue recourse to repentance from whence proceed these two effects The one That it couers our sinnes Blessed are they whose sinnes are forgiuen and whose iniquities are couered The other That it doth blot them out of Gods rememberance according to that of Ezechiel At what houre soeuer a Sinner shall repent him I will no longer be mindfull of his sinne Haec mulier modo deprehensa est in adulterio This woman was taken in adulterie in the verie act c. All these words carrie wâ—th them a kind of emphasis which indeere the aggrauation of the Accusation Haec mulier For howbeit the sin of adulterie may be greater perhaps in the husband by giuing by his little respect and his bad example occasion to his wife to play the Whore For as Thomas saith He that treateth with another mans wife se suam discrimini exponiâ— exposeth himselfe and his own wife to a great deale of hazard because he soweth bitternesse in the marriage bed contrarie to that rule of Saint Paul Husbands loue your wiues and be not bitter vnto them For which cause they tooke out the gall from that beast which was sacrificed by married men vnto Iuno for that the Head which is the man ought to be obliged to more continency to more vertue to more wisedome more fortitude as Saint Augustine tells vs yet notwithstanding this fault is held fouler in the woman Eccleâ—iasticuâ— treating of an Adulteresse saith â—he getteth shame to her selfe and her reproch shall neuer be blotted out I know not whence it comes to passe that the remembrance thereof is so soone blotted out in man and that it should sticke by a woman all the dayes of
silence reseruing their Amen or So be it for the comming of our Sauiour Christ from whom all our good was to come And Theodoret giues vs this note withall That those that silenced their Amen were those that were to be fathers vnto Christ according to the flesh Fourthly in regard that this fauour is made the greater by it's quick dispatch Hodie mecum eris in Paradiso To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Theophylact and Tigurino read Amen dico tibi hodie Making there the point But this ought not to be receiued as Cassianus prooueth it but that this Hodie must goe hand in hand roundly along with Mecumeris And Iustin Martyr saith Iuxta fluenta plenissima gratiam simul accepit gloriam Grace and glorie with a full tyde came flowing in both at once vpon him S. Ambrose saith That our Sauiour Christ made this exceeding great haste Ne dilatione gratia minueretur Lest the fauour he intended to do him should be lessened by delay This fauour farre exceeding all the rest in the world besides As that of Alexander towards Perillus demanding a dourie of him for his daughter and that of the Gardiner who had the Kingdome of Sidonia giuen him or than that which Herod offered to his daughter Herodias or Assuerus to Queene Hester Si petieris dimidiam partem Regni mei c. If thou shalt aske the one halfe of my Kingdome c. And because Bis dat qui citò dat He doth a double curtesie that doth it quickly Least delay might lessen the Doners bountie Hee therefore saith Hodie mecum eris This very day shalt thou be with me c. S. Ambrose saith Quod magis veâ—ox erat premium quam petitio That the reward was quicker than the request Seneca sayes That hee that giues must not giue slowly for the willing mind wherewith it is done being therein the most to be esteemed it looseth much of it's estimation by it's slow proceeding Leo the Pope saith That it was a great fauour from Christ to put this so humble and so discreet a petition into the Theeues heart but a farre greater fauour to giue him such a good and quicke dispatch Ioseph foretelling Pharaohs seruant of his libertie being then his fellow-prisoner said vnto him Memento mei Haue me in remembrance with thee when thou art in good case But for all the others faire promises he continued two yeares after in prison But the Theefe had no sooner said Memento mei but his Sauiour saw him dispatcht O happy theefe thou didst negotiate well and with a good Iudge that could dispatch thy businesse so quickly and so well Lastly in regard of it's bountie and freenesse the reward outvying the request hauing more fauour done him than he desired Vberior saith S. Ambrose est gratia quam precatio God hath vsed and still doth the like liberalitie towards many Abraham desired a sonne to inherit his estate and a sonne was giuen him from whom God was to descend Iacob beg'd Beniamin and god gaue him both Beniamin and Ioseph Tobias desired that he might see his son in safetie God returneth him home vnto him sound rich and wel marryed Iudith craued Bethulia's libertie God gaue her that and Holofernes head into the bargaine and victory against Nebuchadnezzar Anna prayed for a sonne God gaue her one that was a Saint a Prophet Gods fauourite Salomon desired wisedome to gouerne his kingdome the better he had that and much more besides infinite store of wealth bestowed vpon him Ezechias sued vnto God for life and whereas he would haue bin contented with two years holding of it God granted him a lease of fifteen yeares to come The seruant that owed 10000 Talents desired to be but forborn for a time and the whole debt was forgiuen him But God neuer dealt so franke and freely with any man as with this theefe for he but only intreating him to be mindful of him he gaue him heauen Qui merita supplicum excedis vota sings the Church Theophylact saith That your Kings Princes and great Captains when they obtaine any notable victorie they reserue the principal captiues for their Triumph So Saul spared King Agag and the best things so the Emperors of Rome Zenobia and others Titus and Vespasian most of the young men of Iudaea But that our Sauiour Christ should enter in triumph into heauen with a theefe it seemeth a thing of small glory to the Triumpher and little honor for heauen But Abbot Guericus answers hereunto That it was a new and most noble kind of victorie Nouum pulcherrimum genus victoriae The kings of the earth get victories ouer their enemies by treading them vnder by kicking and spurning of them by contemning and tormenting them as appeareth by Histories both humane and diuine This is a tyrannous kind of reuenge and reuengefull cruelty But that of the King of heauen is a noble reuenge and a sweet victorie The enemies of a king of this world will kisse the earth for feare but those of the King of heauen for loue And therfore it is said Inimici eius terram lingent Againe S. August saith That Christ did inrich and illustrate heauen with the person of this theefe so far was he from doing him any the least dishonor For it is a great honour to heauen to haue such a Lord and Master as shall make of great Theeues great Saints S. Chrysost. hath the same and further addeth That by seeing one raigne in heauen who wanted earth to liue on euery man may liue in hope to inioy the like happinesse For it is not likely that he will be miserable to any that was so liberall to a theefe The Doctors do doubt whether this Theefe were a Martyr or no For he that is a Martyr it is not the greatnesse of the paine but the goodnesse of the cause that makes him a Martyr Achan was stoned to death and Saint Stephen was stoned to death But Achan was no Martyr because he dyed deseruedly for his sins The like reason you will say may be rendred of the theefe But S. Ierome Eusebius Nissenus and S. Cyprian stile him Martyr not because he suffered for Christ though he suffered not without Christ but because suffering with Christ so great was the sorrow which he conceiued for his sinnes that Christ taking this his torment to his account as if he had suffered for his loue made of the Crosse a Martyrdome S. August saith That on the Crosse he acknowledged Christ as if he had beene crucified for Christ. Eusebius Nissenus That albeit he began with the punishment of a Delinquent yet he ended with the glory of a Martyr And S. Cyprian That Christ did conuert the blood which he shed vpon the Crosse into the water of baptisme and that presently he placed him in Paradise Iustin Martyr and Irenaeus vnderstand here by Paradise some other place of ioy but rather earthly than heauenly Irenaeus prooues it by
friend but he that doth not onely loue his friend but his enemie also hee shall be sure of a double reward Introduxit me Rex in cellam vinariam ordinauit in me charitatem i. The King brought me into the Banquetting house and his banner ouer me was Loue. Origen notes That that which the Soule desires of her Husband is not to loue or to hate for this being a naturall perfection it is not possible it should faile the will is neither idle nor in vaine for it must of force wish either well or ill All the kindnesse that shee desires of her husband is his ordering of his loue for in disorder intollerable errours arise Of all the Predicaments God is the highest and hee ought to bee the principall marke of our well ordered affection Dilexi quoniam audiuit Deus vocem orationis meae i. I loued because the Lord heard the voyce of my prayer Loued Whom hast thou loued A prudent wil which placeth it's felicitie in the obseruance of the Law wee must not aske of it Whom it loueth This is a question to be asked of a Reprobate or Cast-away In a word He that man ought chiefly to loue is God and next man for the loue of God be he friend or be he foe And because when it doth not reach extend it self to our enemie it cannot be said to be perfect loue it is said Estote perfecti sicut Pater vester Be ye perfect as your Father The reason is Because in the rest of the actions of vertue humane respects may come athwart vs one may fast because abstinence importeth his health another giue Almes because he affecteth vaine-glorie a third not seeke to be reuenged for feare of those inconueniences that follow after it a fourth be chast for the auoyding of shame c. But to loue a mans enemie that must onely proceed from our loue to God it must needs be done only for Gods sake and God onely can requite it Secondly he reduceth this perfection to the loue of our enemie because it is a sure pledge for Heauen When Elias and Baals Priests were both of them to offer Sacrifice in triall of the true God it was conditioned That that God that should send downe fire from Heauen vpon the Alter should bee held to bee the true God Baals Priests ball'd vpon him but all would not doe but Elias when he had set vp his Alter with the wood vpon it the beasts about it and had poured water thereupon to the filling vp of the Trench he had no sooner pour'd forrh his Prayer but such great store of fire descended from Heauen that it burnt the flesh the wood the stones and likewise wasted and consumed the water That it should burne the beasts the wood and the stones it was no such wonder but that it should take hold on it's contrarie which is water it was a manifest signe that it was the fire of Heauen That your loue should cleaue to your owne flesh bloud it is not much that it should take hold of the wood and stone that likewise is no great wonder but that it should worke on it's contrarie on one that desires to make an end of thee to consume thee this is loue indeed this is charitie this is the fire of Heauen Thirdly The loue to our enemie doth more discouer the perfection of our loue because it is without any hope of temporall reward Elisaeus filled the widdows emptie cruses with Oyle and thou must replenish with thy loue and good workes those emptie brests that haue nothing in them to deserue it For where there is some deseruingnesse and reason of merit the Gentile the Publican doe the like Fourthly It argueth more perfection for that the loue of our enemie is that glosse which sets before our eyes our owne faults and offences When Shimei reproched Dauid to his face and gaue him such opprobrious language that his Captaines and Commanders that were then about him were impatient of it and would haue killed him Dauid withstood it and would not suffer them to take away his life and the reason was because it put him in mind of his own sinnes and he that lookes well vpon his owne takes no great notice of another mans And this made him to say Peccatum meum contra me est semper My sinne warres more against me than mine enemie Againe though thy enemie doe persecute thee without a cause it is not without cause that thou doost thus suffer for as Tertullian hath it Nullus iniustè patitur No man suffers wrongfully So that thou must not looke so much vpon him that iniures thee as vpon thine owne sinnes for the which God permits them to iniure thee It is Ieremies Who euer said Let it bee done though the Lord command it not Let vs search our owne wayes Take but thy life into examination and thou wilt find that thy sinnes deserue a thousand times more Dauid would by no means consent that his People should reuenge those disgracefull words which Shimei spake vnto him and What was the reason Onely for that he was Gods Instrument S. Austen vpon the 31 Psalme pondering those words of Iob Dominus dedit Dominus abstulit The Lord hath giuen and the Lord hath taken noteth That he did not say Dominus dedit Diabolus abstulit The Lord gaue and the Deuill tooke away For those whips and scourges which God sendeth though they be inflicted vpon vs by the hands of the Deuill yet are we to account them to come from God Out of the whole drift of this Chapter I will inferre one cleere and manifest consequence which is this If to hate our enemie be so much condemned both of Heauen and Earth those excesses and exorbitances which fall out vpon this occasion be it in respect of the time and place or of the person or the act it self or our deepe disaffection they are all of them here condemned Two kind of faults God doth extreamely hate and abhorre The one Of those who haue no measure or moderation in their reuenge saying with the Idumaeans Exinanite exinanite vsque ad fundamentum in ea Raze raze them to the verie foundation They would not haue one stone left vpon another in Hierusalem wishing that they might say Etiam periere ruinae The verie ruines are also perished Wherby it seemeth that mans cruelty would stand in competition with Gods clemencie And that as God is not willing that any man should set a taxe and size vpon his mercie so these men will haue no man to put a rate vpon their reuenge Saint Peter asked our Sauiour Christ How many times hee should forgiue his brother Will seuen serue saith he Our Sauiour answered I say not seuen times but seuentie times seuen times Whence Tertullian hath noted That hee had an eye therein to mans excesse in reuenge Lamech slew Caine and the yong man that waited vpon him and the women going about
passe amongst men First because in themselues they are materiall and God is a pure Spirit and incorporeall and therefore they dreame hee hath no eyes to see our actions Secondly because humane actions are oftentimes so nastie and so loathsome that God will not vouchsafe to stoope so low as to looke vpon them Et dixerunt non videbit Dominus nec intelligit Deus Iacob Against these men sayth Dauid Intelligite insipientes in populo The Hebrew stiles them Bestiales Heare ô yee brute beasts harken ô you beasts and be wise Et stulti aliquando sapite O yee fooles when will yee vnderstand Qui plantauit aurem non audiet aut qui finxit oculum non considerat God gaue man eares eyes vnderstanding and reason and shall all these faculties be wanting to him All the perfection of these effects are most eminent in the primary cause And therfore if God gaue man his hearing his sight his vnderstanding much more must hee inioy them who was the Author and onely giuer of them Qui corripit gentes non arguet Qui docet hominem scientiam i. He that correcteth the Nations shall he not reprooue He that teacheth man knowledge c. The fift sort are those who acknowledging in God his Prouidence and his Iustice yet will not bee persuaded that it can be so seuere in that day So saith the Psalmist Secundum multitudinem irae suae non quaeret And the cause is presently rendred Diuisi sunt ab ira vultus eius Sophonia painting out certaine men vnto vs drowned in their vices saith Defixos in faecibus eius They are drowned in the dregges of their sinnes And by and by giueth a reason for it Dicunt enim in cordibus suis non faciet Dominus bene non faciet Dominus male On the one side they make this reckoning with themselues That God is good liberall mercifull and that hee will not doe vs much harme and that on the other side as he is just hee will not doe vs much good In this sinne liue they who hearing from the Prophets and the Preachers of Gods Word the horrors and terrors of that day say in their heart In multos dies in longa tempora hic Prophetat as Ezechiel relates it vnto vs Manda remanda expecta reexpecta As Esay complaines What need these Prophets beate their brains keep such a stir about the day of Iudgement c. And this fault is by so much the greater by how much God doth so often inculcate reiterate in holy Scripture the terribleâ—es of that day For there is not that Prophet which doth not multiplie his meditations doth not indeere the horror of that day vsing many fearefull comparisons for to strike a dread terrour vnto vs in the woful expression of them All which Esay shuts vp in these few words In nouissimis diebus intelligetis ea Peraduenture you that now heare me tell you this do not persuade your selues that this is true nor beleeue what I speake vnto you but in the end vnlesse God giue you the grace to be of another mind yee will too late and yet too soone to your owne griefe acknowledge and confesse your errour The last sort are those who beeing puffed vp with their prosperitie doe disesteeme and despise those that wrestle with aduersitie and grone vnder the burthen of their miseries thinking with themselues That those blessings which God hath bestowed vpon them in this world shall continue with them in that other The Wicked liue and are comforted with Riches saith Iob but in Hel the Poore beeing in Paradise and they in torment they shal be forced to crie out and say of the Poore and Hungrie and the Naked These are they whom wee sometimes scorned To whom Salomon makes this replie Parata sunt derisoribus judicia eius They shall be brought vpon that perdurable and eternall Stage of laughter and scorne set vp by the Deuills of Hell neuer to bee pulled downe who shall represent themselues vnto these mocke-games now that were once mockers and deriders of their poore brethren in that formidable and gastly manner as shall make their haire stand an end whilest they shall heare to aggrauate their griefs that seuere Sentence and that irreuocable Doome pronounced from the infinite Maiestie of an austere and angrie Iudge Goe yee into euerlasting fire c. From which the Lord c. THE SEVENTH SERMON VPON THE TVESDAY AFTER THE FIRST SVNDAY IN LENT MAT. 21. Cum introisset Iesus Hierosolymam commota est vniuersa Ciuitas When Iesus entred into Ierusalem the whole Citie was troubled THe Storie of this Gospell is set downe at large in those two Chapters In Tomo miraculorum which was a fit place to treat thereof For Origen saith That this was a greater miracle than Christs turning of Water into Wine at the Wedding in Canaan And Saint Hierome That it was greater than any other of our Sauiours miracles Inter Signa omnia quae fecit hoc videtur mirabilius And the reason is For that in Lazarus that was dead and in the Man that was blind hee met with no contradiction or repugnancie but for to mooue so many nay so innumerable wills as those of Ierusalem and that they should be drawne to receiue him as their King and Messias whom the Clergie and Nobilitie did so much hate abhorre carries with it a plaine and manifest resistance And as Saint Augustine saith That to iustifie a Soule is more than to create Heauen and Earth in regard of the opposition which the will of Man may make thereunto so for our Sauior to mooue those that were aliue in that most populous Citie was more than to raise the dead And for confirmation of this Doctrine let vs suppose that the earth is of that stabilitie and firmenesse that to mooue it is a Blazon or Cognisance only belonging vnto God Ecclesiasticus saith Terra autem in eternum stat And Athanasiâ—s giuing the reason thereof saith That God did knit and fasten it in the middest of the world with such strong chains that it remained altogether immoouable as beeing the Center to all the rest which God had created Qui fundasti terram super stabilitatem suam The Greeke reads it Securitatem or Infallibilitatem And therefore many Phylosophers were of opinion That all the power of the Gods were not able to mooue it from it's place But because nothing is impossible vnto God and his omnipotent power the Scripture almost in euerie place saith That the Heauen the earth and that which is vnder the earth and all the firmenesse and strong foundation thereof are mooued and shake and tremble at the twinckling of his eyes If then to mooue the Earth which is a dead thing and which cannot make resistance nor contradiction bee onely the Blazon and Cognisance of God What a thing then is it to mooue this liuing Earth which enioyes it's owne libertie and may
out of it's stubbornenesse say vnto God I will not But admit it should say I will the miracle is no lesse but rather a manifest token of Gods diuine power and omnipotencie It is likewise to be noted That all the entrances which our Sauiour Christ made were with a great deale of noyse and clamour In that first which he made in the world Haggie prophecied That he should turne the Heauen and the Earth topsi-turuie And God did performe it vsing as his Instrument therein the Emperour Octauianus Augustus In that which hee made into Aegypt he did trouble all that Kingdome by throwing their Idolls downe to the ground as it was prophecied by Esayas Commouebuntur simulachra Aegypti So doth Procopius declare it Eusebius Athanasius and Saint Austen But say That in these his entrances there was a generall motion yet was there not a generall obedience But here Commota est vniuersa Ciuitas The Greeke saith Velut terrae motu concussa fuit As if it had suffered an vniuersal earthquake there was neither old man nor woman nor child c. This is a great encarecimiento or endeering of the matter First Because our Sauiour preaching about the Cities and Townes of that Kingdome the Euangelists deliuer vnto vs That all the Inhabitants that were in those parts left their houses and their villages emptie and forsaken and only for to follow him S. Marke he saith Et conueniebant ad eum vndique vt iam non posset manifeste introire in Ciuitatem sed in Desertis locis esset And Saint Luke That they troad one another vnder foot and crusht the breath out of their bodies and only to presse to heare him Ita vt se mutuò suffocarent But it is to be supposed that many likewise staid at home but in this his entrance into Hierusalem God would haue this lot to light vpon all and therefore it is said Vniuersa Ciuitas The whole Citie Seâ—ondly In regard of the infinite number of Inhabitants that were in that Citie which as Plinie reporteth was in those dayes the famousest in all the East And in a manner all those that haue writ thereof make mention of foure millions of persons Iosephus relateth That the President of Syria beeing desirous to render an account vnto Nero of the greatnesse of that Commonwealth did desire of the high Priests that they would giue him a true note of the number of those Lambs which they sacrificed one Sabboth which were afterwards eaten by seuerall companies and Housholds some consisting of ten some of 15 and some 20 soules and they found that they did sacrifice at euerie one of those their solemne Sabboths two hundred fiftie six thousand and fiue hundred Lambes which according to the rate of fifteene persons in a companie amount to foure millions and fiue hundred thousand But withall it is to be noted that neither the Sicke nor the children were present thereat But here Vniuersa Ciuitas The whole Citie came some out of passion and some out of affection Thirdly For that our Sauior Christ was alreadie condemned to death by the Chapter house of the Clergie who had called a Conuocation to send out Serjeants and Souldiers for the apprehending of him and had published Proclamations of rewards to those that should bring him bound vnto them that then and at such a time the whole Citie should receiue him with Songs and acclamations of King Messias and God being a proscribed man and doomed to death Haec mutatio dextrae excelsi This was an alteration which could not proceed but from the most High Commota est vniuersa Ciuitas The whole Citie was mooued Ierusalem had beene long settled in it's vices Visitabo super viros defixos in sordibus suis Moab requieuit in faecibus suis I will search Ierusalem with candles and punish the men that are settled on their lees c. And as the wise Phisitions stirre and trouble the humours cause loathings and gripings in the stomacke so our Sauiour Christ in the breast of euerie one causeth a squeamishnesse of the stomacke by moouing and stirring those foule dregges of sinne wherewith they were corrupted Et commota est vniuersa Ciuitas Many old diseases are woont to be cured with some sudden passion as of sorrow or feare or by some great and violent vomit for euerie one of these accidents make a pause in the humours and detaine the spirits An Ague hath been seen to be put out of his course and quite taken away by the sudden drawing of a sword vpon the Patient and a Palsey driuen away with the sight of a mans enemie And Horace telleth vs That a couetous Miser was recouered of a great Lethargie by the Physitions feigning that his heires were carrying away his bagges of money and the Chests wherein his Treasure lay In like manner in the infirmities of the Soule one turbation one disquieting one breaking vp of those Chests wherein our sinnes are massed vp may bee the recouerie of our perdition This made Dauid to say of his Soule Sana contritiones eius quia commota est O Lord my Soule is troubled within me when I consider the foulenesse of my sinnes it is sad and melancholy for the verie griefe thereof it is much disquieted And therefore ô Lord Sana contritiones eius affoord me thy helping hand for it is now high time to cure me of my sore Quis est hic Who is this This was a question of the enuious and appassionated Pharisees Howbeit it seemeth to Origen That it should proceed from some good honest people c. Howsoeuer it was a question whereunto no man could fully answer put Theologie the sacred Scripture the Doctors the Saints the Councells the Arts the Sciences and all the Hierarchies of Angells put them all I say together and put this question vnto them and after that they haue said all they can say all will be too little to satisfie this demand of Quis est hic Who is this One of Iobs friends treating of the Maiestie and greatnesse of God and how incomprehensible a thing it was saith Forsitan vestigia Dei comprehendes Et vsque ad perfectum omnipotentem reperies Canst thou by searching find out Gods footsteps Canst thou find out the Almightie vnto perfection By the tracke of his footsteps he vnderstandeth these inferior things that are guided and gouerned by his prouidence And by perfection which is the head of all the highnesse of his Wisedome In a word In all God is altogether inuestigable in regard of his heigth the Heauens come short of him Excelsior Coelo est see then if thou canst reach vnto him Which consideration made Saint Austen to say That God is not onely present in earth which is his footstoole and in Heauen which is his Throne but in those which are to be immagined elsewhere How then canst thou reach vnto him beeing more deepe than Hell longer than the Earth and broader than the
Coasts of Tyre and Sydon He taxes this his people of their vnthankefulnes towards him For he that doth not only not acknowledge a good turn but requites it with il shuts the gates of Heauen against his owne Soule And therefore Signum non dabiter eiâ— Rupertus hath obserued That the first fault that was committed in the World was Ingratitude For God hauing created Adam in a perfect age and sound in his judgement hauing for his recreation giuen him Paradise and for his authoritie the Seigniorie of the World yet did hee not giue him thankes for these his so great and many fauours towards him whereupon the Deuill beeing a slye and subtill Merchant tooke occasion to tempt him persuading himselfe That hee who had shewed himselfe ingratefull would with a little labour bee easily brought to be disobedient This Doctor doth soundly throughly ponder these words Serpens erat callidior The serpent was more subtill Like a craftie Huntsman hee waited but for a time that Adam by his vnthankefulnes should fall into the toile whence afterwards hee should not so easily get out Saint Ambrose sayth That Noah all that while that hee was building the Arke did not any thing though neuer so little without some especiall order from God but as soone as hee was gone out of the Arke without further expecting aduise from Heauen hee did prepare and make readie his sacrifice For that a Soule should shew it selfe thankefull to it's God it is not necessary that it should stay waighting looking for reuelations but rather hasten to expresse it as soone as it can and to vse all preuention of being put in mind of it And therfore in approbation of Noahs forwardnesse the Text sayth Odoratus est Dominus odorem suauitatis The Lord smelled a sauour of rest And shewed himselfe so well pleased and appeased therwith that he sayd in his heart he would thencefoorth curse the ground no more for mans cause There is another circumstance touching Ingratitude which is very considerable deserues our attention which is this That albeit God is woont sometimes to dissemble other faults and lets them runne on many yeares before he wil punish them yet the sins of vnthankefulnesse he will not suffer them to scape vnpunished no noâ— so much as to graunt them the forbearance of a few houres God sayth in Leuiticus Qui maledixerit Deo suo portabâ—t peccatum suum Whosoeuer shall curse his God or speake ill of him shall beare his sin no farther chastisement beeing there set downe for him But hee that shall blaspheme the name of the Lord Morte morietur shall bee put to death that is the Law The second questionlesse is a lesser sinne than the former And yet God dissembles the former and will by no meanes indure the second And the reason thereof rendred by Thomas is That those names and attributes of God doe shut vp as it were and comprehend in them those benefits which hee so liberally bestowes vpon vs and for that the blasphemer showes himselfe so vngratefull vnto God hee cannot hope for any pardon of his punishment Our Sauiour Christ then seeing that Iudea did draw poyson out of treacle and vnthankefulnesse and hardnesse of heart from the many fauours and mercies that hee had shewed towards them Secessit in partes Tyri Sydonis Went into the Coasts of Tyre and Sydon c. Ecce mulier Chananea Many and great matters are spoken of the force and power of Prayer Greeuous is that saying of God vnto Ieromie Noli orare pro populo isto neque assumes pro eis laudem orationem non obsistas mihi Thou shalt not pray for this people neither lift vp cry or prayer for them neither intreat mee least I should heare thee and so diuert mine anger Seest thou not what they doe c Seeke not therefore to hinder me in executing my vengeance against them None sayth Iob is able to resist the wrath of God But God aduiseth vs how powerfull a thing Prayer is for the appeasing of it by seeking to preuent the Prophet by putting in this caueat Non obsistas mihi Resist mee not Greeuous is that saying of God vnto Moses Desine vt irascatur furor meus Stand not betwixt mee and home that I may destroy this people O Lord who can hold thy hand when thou art willing to strike Who force thee against thy will to be quiet yes The Prayer of such a friend as Moses Orabat autem Moyses ad Dominum Deum suum Beeing one whom God so much respected And as the loue of a friend doth tye the hands of some angry Lord and keep him from striking so Prayers binds Gods hands when hee is angry with vs not suffering him to draw his sword This was no small comfort to Dauid which made him to sing the song of Thankesgiuing Benedictus Deus qui non amouit orationem meam misericordiam suam à me Blessed be God who hath not remooued either my prayer or his owne mercie from mee Saint Austen saith That as long as God shall not take from out our mouthes and our hearts our praying vnto him so long we may be well assured that he will not remoue his mercie from vs for he neuer denieth those that faithfully cal vpon him But a matter of great consideration is that which we haue here in hand Ecce mulier Cananea Behold a Canaanitish woman c. What a woman that is an Idolatresse can shee bee of that power that shee should ouercome God by prayer When a weake arme cuts a man off by the wast at a blow or hewes a bar of yron in sunder this act is not attributed so much to the force of his arme as the goodnesse of his sword so this dayes noble act is not to bee attributed to a Pagan woman who was descended of that accursed Cham but to the power of Prayer To those three diuine persons Prayers are not permitted for as Thomas noteth it Prayer is to be directed to a superiour power And if the Sonne of God did pray it was according to his humanitie hauing recourse as Saint Ambrose saith to those two obligations of Priest and Aduocate And if Saint Paul saith that the holy Ghost doth pray Postulat pro nobis gemitibus in enarrabilibus He maketh request for vs with grones that are vnspeakeable It was that he might teach vs how to pray as Saint Augustine expoundeth it The Deuills and those that are damned are not capable of prayer Albeit the couetous rich man did desire a drop of water of Abraham to coole his tongue the Deuills entreated Christ that he would giue them leaue to enter into the Swine For to pray vnto God is to turne vnto God and with a sorowfull soule and a contrite heart humbly and earnestly to call vpon him crauing pardon for our sinnes Prayer therefore onely belongs vnto men as well the Iust as the Sinner and that the
that had neither hand nor foot to help himselfe lying benum'd in his little cart bore before him the cause of his griefe by falling into those faults which he had formerly committed And this is inferred out of these our Sauiours words vnto him Iam noli amplius peccare Now see thou sinne no more But if any man aske me How can that man sinne that is bound hand and foot I answer That for all this his desires and thoughts are not fettered Iniquitatem mediâ—atus est in cubili suo astitit omni viae non bonae Hee that applies himselfe to euill thoughts and hath a desire vnto them there is not that wickednesse whereof he would not reap the fruits thereof From whence I cannot but note out these two things vnto thee The one That the sinnes of our thoughts and imaginations are of all other the easiest to be done How many Kniues would a Cutler make in a day if he could finish them without a Forge an Anuile or a Hammer Questionlesse â—erie many The like reason is to be rendred of the errors of our thoughts The other That they are the harder to be seene or holpen To be seene for that they are so secret Ab occultis meis munda me Clense me ô Lord from my secret sinnes To be holpen for as he that is still kept hungrie and thirstie hath neither his thirst nor his hunger satisfied but encreaseth more and more vpon him so â—e that neuer enioyes those humane delights neuer hath the hunger and thirst of his desires satisfied So that this poore sicke man perseuering in his sinne it is not much that God should perseuer in his punishments for our shorter sinnes Gods chastisements â—re also short In momento indignationis auerte faciem meam parumper i. For a moment in myne anger I hid my face from thee for a little season But for our longer longer Vir multum jurans à domo eius non recedet plaga i. The Plague shall neuer depart â—â—oÌ„ the house of him that sweareth much whence it coÌ„meth to passe that so many are â—arr'd and so few amended Which is all one with that of Ieremie Dissipati neâ—ue compuncti These are the Deuils Martyrs who suffer not onely without a reward as Saint Paul saith Si peccantes suffertis quid vobis est gratiae but treasure vp new torments vnto themselues But some one will aske How comes it to passe that this man being a sinner which waited at the Fish-poole our Sauiour should for his sake leaue other iust â—nd good men and make choice to come vnto him First as I haue told you alreadie because Sicknesse preserueth the soule from â—inne and that it is a token of Gods mercie and goodnesse towards vs. Secondly Because this poore wretch did hope to be healed his thoughts and â—is hopes laying hold vpon Gods fauour towards him with a strong and assured â—â—â—iance and this was that which this sicke man did purposely seeke after Euthimius doth much endeere his sufferance and his perseuerance neuer despairing but assuring himselfe that Heauen would yet at last bee propitious and fauourable vnto him and though yeare after yeare nay for so many yeres together he found no good many contradictions offering themselues vnto him yet his hopes did neuer faile him His sinnes were rather accessorie and accidentall than of any proposed malice or in despight as we say of God and such kind of faults as these God sooner pardoneth and farre more easily forgiueth The Scripture sometimes proposeth vnto vs Peccadores remitados Notorious sinners to whose account you cannot adde one sinne more than they haue charged themselues withall Who haue purposely departed from God Of these Iob saith Quasi de industria recesserunt à me Esay Pepigimus faedus cum mâ—rte We haue made a couenant with Death Malachie Vanus est qui seruit Deo He is vaine that serueth God These are desperate resolutions Others there are who sinne by accident In the Historie of the Kings it is said of Dauid That he arose vp from his chaire to walke vpon the Tarrasse of his Pallace and that his eye lighted by chance vpon Bersheba who was bathing her selfe in her garden this was a businesse which fell out casually and as we say by hap-hazard though his plotting how to haue his pleasure of her was a thing premeditated but his seeing and his coueting of her was as it were accidentally and by chance Whereas the desire that Dauid had to serue God was euer purposed and determined by him Iuraui statui custodire iudicia justiciae tuae So that his offending of his God was not wilful but of weaknes by meere haphazard Saul made a Proclamation That no man should eat till hee had gotten the victorie ouer the Philistines but the souldiers were so hungrie with sighting and fasting that their minds ran on nothing else saue the stanching of their hunger Et comedit populus cum sanguine The people tooke Sheepe and Oxen and Calues and slew them on the ground and did eat them with the bloud which was contrarie to Gods commandement not considering that this their eating at this time and vpon such an occasion was peccatum per accidens an accidentall sinne In a word one of the surest pledges of our predestination is to make our seruing of God the Principall and our offending him the Accessorie Hunc cùm vidisset Dominus When the Lord had seene him This his seeing of him was not by chance nor is it so to be construed of Christ but to shew that he was man hee did many things as it were by chance And therefore when he saw this mans miserie and knew how long he had layne thus and how he was forsaken of all the world and that there was no bodie to helpe him then c. It is a great matter I can assure you for a man to cast his eyes vpon the wretched estate of the Poore for from the eyes compassion growes the hearts tendernesse the one is no sooner toucht but the other melts Noli auertere faciem tuam ab vllo paupere Turne not away thy face from the Poore Tobias told his sonne That if he should not turne his eye aside from the Poore God would neuer turn away his face from him The sores of the Poore saith Saint Chrysostome being beheld by vs teach aduise and mooue vs. When Pilate presented our Sauiour Christ to the Iewes wounded from head to foot and all his bodie on a goaâ—â— bloud he said vnto them Ecce homo Behold the man but they shutting their eyes and turning their faces away from him cried out Away with him away with him whereas if they had earnestly beheld him and viewed him wel from top to toe their hearts had they beene of stone as they were little better they would haue growne soft and tender with it The reason why so little remedie now a dayes is giuen
knowledge not deceiuing it selfe in that which it prophecieth imposeth no such necessitie that it should succeed nor is it to be said to be the cause thereof Say not thou it is through the Lord that I fell away for thou oughtest not to doe the things that hee hateth Say not thou He hath caused me to erre for he hath no need of the sinfull man so that he there prooueth that God is not the author of our sins nor are our ignorances to be attributed vnto him The Greeke instead of Abest there reads Defeci as inferring That God is not the cause that I haue failed in that which I ought to haue done for God abhorring sinne I ought not to commit it Saint Augustine reads Ne dicas propter Deum recessi c. Say not I went backe because of the Lord hee supplanted mee for God hath no need of wicked men Suting with that of Saint Iames Let no man when hee is tempted say hee is tempted of God c. And yet it is said by Ezechiel Ego decepi Prophetam I haue deceiued the Prophet And by Saint Paul Tradidit Deus illos in reprobum sensum God hath deliuered them vp to a reprobate sence It is not to be said That God doth it but permits it As a captaine who absenting himselfe from his Armie depriuing them of his fauour permitteth them to bee ouercome Saint Augustine telleth vs That when the Scripture saith That man is deceiued by God or his heart hardned God is the cause of the poena but not of the culpa of the punishment but not of the sinne Insipientia enim hominis violat vias eius i. The follie of a man is that which peruerts his wayes In one place the Scripture saith Deus Mortem non fecit God made not Death In another That Death and Life come from God implying That God is not the Authour of Death but that hee permits it in him that deserues it That Iudge that condemnes a theefe vnto death this death is not to be imputed to the judge but to the thefts of the Theefe God desires not any mans fall or his death for as God is happy without the just so is he also without the wicked The book of Wisedome treating That God did not make death nor delighteth in the destruction of the liuing renders two reasons thereof The one That he hauing created all things that they might haue their beeing he takes no pleasure that they should not be For what Artificer takes pleasure to see the workes of his hands perish The other Sanabiles fecit Nationes orbis Terrarum The Greeke reads Salâ—tares fecit Generationes orbis Terrarum All things that God created hee created with health and soundnesse and in a good and perfect state Et non est in illis medicamentum exterminij The Greeke word which answers to Medicamentum may be taken in a good or an euill sence either for Physicke or for Poyson And here it is taken in the worser sence and implyeth thus much That God did not create the Poyson of perdition for the generations of Mankind inferred in this word Exterminij nor did God create perdition in the rest of the creatures The Interlinearie here vnderstands Sinne which banisheth and excludeth man from God wherby he is vndone and reduced to nothing From which finall destruction God deliuer vs c. THE THIRTEENTH SERMON VPON THE TVESDAY AFTER THE SECOND SONDAY IN LENT MAT. 23. Super Cathedram Moysi sederunt Scribae The Scribes sate vpon Moses Chaire THe chaire of Moses was descredited by the euil life of the Scribes and Pharisees who occupied the same Our Sauiour Christ here treateth of giuing such and so great authoritie to his Doctrine that though it should be deliuered by the coldest mouth in the world yet should not that hinder it's bringing forth of fruit And to this purpose he proposes three opinions which are no lesse certaine than important The one That a Doctor though vnholy in his owne person may sit beare rule in Cathedra sanctitatis in Moses chaire and seat of holinesse The other That the vicious life of the Teacher doth not derogate from the dignitie and authoritie of his Doctrine nor rob the Hearer of his profit The third That though a mans Doctrine be neuer so diuine yet if his life be not good it is the Teacher and not the Hearer that takes hurt thereby Super Cathedram Moysi sederunt Principes c. Euthimius saith That this Cathedra or Chaire was the Pulpit where the Scribes and Pharisees did preach the Law as it is related by Esdras in his second Booke and eigth Chapter Saint Hierome and Bede vnderstand thereby the doctrine of Moses for that it was vsuall with him that did teach to sit in a Chaire And albeit it appeareth both in Saint Luke and the Acts of the Apostles That they did preach vnto the people standing on their feet yet in your Schools your Doctors doe alwaies read sitting It is called Moses his Chaire not onely because the Law did discend from the Mount but because as some Hebrewes haue it he was the first legall Priest and exercised that office before his brother Aaron Abenezra stiles him Sacerdos Sacerdotum a Priest of Priests for that he consecrated his brother Aaron and receiued the offerings of the twelue Princes in the Tabernacle Dauid likewise giues him the same name Moses and Aaron among his Priests Philon saith That he was a King a Lawgiuer a Prophet a Priest Gregorie Nazianzen Saint Augustine and Saint Hierome jumpe together in that point From Moses God had preserued the Catholicke doctrine in the Prophets and other his Saints til Simeons time in whose days the Synagogue had it's end The Scribes and Pharisees were a kind of people that had the command of that Kingdome The Scribes did flourish in knowledge so is it reported by Epiphanius Their obligation was two fold The one To propose the Law vnto the people and to expound the hard places of Scripture and for this reason they were called Lectores Readers The other To be Iudges and Deciders of causes as it appeareth by the Chronicles betwixt Citisen and Citisen The Pharisees did flourish in Religion and were called Pharisees of Phares which signifies a separation for that they liued apart from the ordinarie and common course of life did seuer themselues from other people in a more especiall kind of obseruance Saint Hierome doth set downe the first rising of these manner of men in whom the appearances of sanctitie and outward demonstrations of holinesse of life were verie great and shew-glorious aboue the rest and whose penitences as Iosephus and Epiphanius report them were verie sharpe and verie publique but farre greater was their hypocrisie their ambition their auarice and vaine-glorie And therefore our Sauiour Christ doth here deale so curstly with them and vseth them with that sourenesse and bitternesse of words that
Saints and Doctors doe multiplie the motiues of this his longing to be gadding abroad But the malne Motiue was that hee was yong and desirous of libertie He that names the word Youth names ignorance small experience infinite longings a sudden quicknesse in entertaining them and a foolish rashnesse in inioying them Through a foolish longing Adam and Eue lost the greatest Empire that euer was acknowledged by the World in lesse than six houres being presently turned out of Gods blessing as they say into the warme Sunne and out of a Paradise into a place of miserie They were yong and there is not that Vice as Saint Austen saith which will not seeke to lodge it selfe in youths bosome They were youngmen which Ezechiell saw with their backes turned to the Sancta sanctorum entertaining themselues with the fragrant sweet sent of flowers They were yongmen which in the Booke of Wisedome plant in all hast a Vineyard of Vices Vtamur Creatura tanquam in inuentute celeritur They were yongmen which lost Rehoboam his kingdome He was a yongman saith Salomoâ— whom the married wife in her husbands absence inuited to her house and to her bed being led along by her as an Oxe that goeth to the slaughter or as a Foole to the stockes for correction Hee was a young-man that would take vpon him to guide the horses and chariot of the Sun Yongmen are those whom misfortunes dayly make an end off in the prime and â—lower of their youthfull yeares In regard of whose manifold dangers Dauid did desire of God That he would not take him away in the dayes of his youth His sonne Salomon was many dayes together much vexed with the rawnesse and ignorance of his heire that was to succeed him as diuining of the disasters which were to ensue so prosperous a raigne I hated all my labour wherein I had trauailed vnder the Sunne which I shall leaue to the man that shall bee after mee And who knoweth whether he shall be wise or foolish The second motiue was That he might be farre out of sight from his fathers presence which he thought too great an eye-sore hauing a desire to be free from the respect and reuerence which was due vnto him from his instructions admonitions inquiries and chidings This was the end why hee was willing to trauell and the beginning of his ruine The just man hath euer God before his eyes As the eyes of a maiden vnto the hands of her Mistris euen so our eyes waite vpon the Lord our God The sinner would not that Gods eyes should see him nor his eyes see God that he might sinne the more freely and therefore hee saith to himselfe Tush God hath forgotten hee hideth away his face and he will neuer see it How should God know can he iudge through the darkenesse The Cloudes hide him that â—e cannot see and he walketh through the circle of Heauen In a word this yong man did seeke to shake off from his shoulders all those obligations which the presence of his father might lay vpon him But it seemeth to Saint Austen that the cause of his perdition was Pride his not acknowledging of subiection nor superioritie This was the sinne of Lucifer in Heauen and of Adam in Paradice Initium superbiae hominis apostatare a Deo This doctrine of Saint Austens hath a great deale of reason on it's side as is obserued by Thomas For all other vices make a man goe departing from God by degrees wheeling about as it were and fetching a compasse but Pride standing out stiffe against God and seeking as it were to out face him fals presently to an absolute neglect of his diuine Maiestie But it fareth with him as with the Sunne in those parts when it sets it sinkes on the sudden and it is instantly night So when the Proude man fals he fals suddenly and a present darkenesse ouerspreds his soule beeing throwne headlong downe into the bottomelesse pit of Hell where the blacke mantle of eternall darkenesse shall be cast ouer him The third motiue according to Petrus Crysologus was couetousnesse of money This saith he draue him out of his fathers doores banished him from his Countrie blotted his fame and blemished his honour left him naked poore and made him submit himselfe to the basest seruice in the world And this conceit hath in its fauour a verie forcible reason for the libertie of Youth though it would runne on to it's owne destruction yet without money it is lame it wants both it's hands and it's feet and this defect doth detaine him as a woodden clog doth a mad Bullocke But when Youth shall be left to it's own swinge and bee still supplied and fed with moneys which are the instruments of mischiefe in il gouerned yeres Who can restrain it or what hand though neuer so strong hold it in But to omit these and many other motiues elsewhere deliuered by vs Clemens Alexandrinus saith That one of the greatest affronts that Man can do vnto God is for to forgoe the comfort and libertie of his owne house to follow the World the Flesh and the Deuill Saint Augustine saith That it is a woful thing that all that should seeme honie to a man which is offered him by the Deuil and all that gall which is profered him by God It is a more naturall thing in the Creature to obey their Creator than to follow their owne proper inclination The natural place of the water was to couer the earth Et aqua erant super faciem abissi but God commanding them to retyre themselues they did instantly obey his voyce The libertie which the Angells enioy is more perfect than that of man yet cannot they diuert their will from the will of God What saith Salomon My sonne receiue my councell and hearken to the instruction that I shall giue thee Put thy feet in Gods Stockes clap his coller of yron about thy necke let his linkes binde thy legs for the more he shal lade thee with yrons with gyuâ—s and with fetters the more free shalt thou liue and more at libertie Diuisit illis substantiam He diuided vnto them his substance Here the Doctors and other learned Diuines make a doubt How so wise and discreet a father could bee brought to fauour such an vnaduised longing such a rash and inconsiderate course A man would haue thought that hee should rather haue crost controlled and hindered this his idle and giddie resolution But to impart his substance to a yong man that had no gouernment of himselfe and was so apt to vndoe himselfe it seemeth somewhat strange Platâ— saith That a yong man ought to be harder tyed and faster bound than a Beast because for the most part he is more wild more vnruly and vntamable And the Lawes where Parents are wanting tye Tutors and Guardians to haue a great care in preuenting those perills that are incident to Youth A child set at libertie maketh his mother
Fastings are payable to the Soule Prayers to the Goods Almes and these debts are so many darts in the Deuills sides It did belong therefore to our Sauiour Christ as being our elder brother and the Guardian of our Soules to disanull this sale Saint Paul saith That whatsoeuer act Adam had done as the chiefe head and principall root of Mankind our Sauiour Christ had now cancelled the same vpon the Crosse Putting out the hand writing of Ordinances that was against vs which was contrarie vnto vs he euen tooke it out of the way and fastned it vpon the Crosse. And for as much as euerie man through his manifold sinnes sells himselfe ouer and ouer to the Deuill not once but many times it was fitting that our Sauiour Christ should as often blot and cancell this bill and make it to be of none effect And here saith our Euangelist Erat Iesus eijciens Daemonium Iesus was casting forth a Deuill This word Erat implying the difficultie of getting him out as also the long time of his continuance there Erat Iesus eijciens Daemonium Christ did not presently cast out this Deuil but stayed and paused a while vpon the matter shewing thereby that it was not so easie a thing to bee done as some thought it to be but rather full of difficultie What can there bee any difficultie for God to doe Is it possible that any thing should seeme hard vnto him The Saints of God and learned Doctours of the Church render some reasons thereof on our part some on the Deuills and some on our Sauiour Christs On our part God hauing free and absolute power ouer our Will Who is able to oppugne his omnipotency When Lucifer his followers playd the Rebels in Heauen it seeming to God too base an Office to punish them by his owne person he commanded Saint Michaell the Arch-Angell that hee should throw them thence like thunderbolts These Deuills beeing thus tumbled downe headlong from that so high a Tower they sought out another stronger hold wherein to defend themselues which was Man and making themselues masters of this Fort they made fast the Windowes and the Doores shutting close the Eyes Eares and Mouth of Man God himselfe in our person laboured to put them out But Man abusing that libertie which God hath left vnto him resigning it vp into the Deuills hands is the onely cause that they maintaine and defend this Fort against God Gregorie Nazianzen saith That wee play the Traytors and conspire against God against his Crosse and against his Bloud by selling our selues dayly anew vnto the Deuill Our Sauiour Christ had payd the ransome for all our sinnes vpon the Crosse tearing that our handwriting obligation in pieces which we had made ouer to the Deuil But we as if we repented our selues thereof make him a new bond and bind our selues anew vnto him Which is a great basenesse in Man Wilt thou receiue an Apostata a Traitour a Fugitiue and one that is condemned for euer to the Gallies There is no Inne halfe so vile or so bad as thy Soule For if this harbour a theefe or a murderer or a robber on the highway-side it is vpon hope of profit But thou doost not onely giue him entertainement but also spendest thy purse vpon him and doost protect and abett him against God So that God hath a great deale more to doe with poore silly Man being but as a worme of the earth than with the greatest Deuill in Hell There is also another reason on our part To wit The so often repeating of our sins ouer and ouer their antient standing and their spreading like a Cancker still farther farther vpon our soules Insomuch that it will find God worke cannot chuse but cost him much labor And the sores of our sins may be in that desperat case that he is not able to cure them by ordinary means but must vse therin some great and strange Miracle Thou puttest foorth to Sea thou saylest in the same ship with another passenger thy friend and acquaintance ye Cabbin togegether eat together and sleepe together continuing in this louing league of friendship some six moneths or more Thou boordest thy selfe with thy neighbour liuest vnder the same roofe with him some thirty yeares and vpwards and all this while ye continue verie good freinds Sure it must be a very great occasion that must part yee twaine and either coole or blot out this your so long grounded affection But if besides this tye of friendship thou take extraordinary contentment in it there is no gaine-saying of it Such a one thou art wont to say she is my Life my Soule my deere Heart deerer vnto mee than mine owne eyes Though thou hast liued thus and thus many yeares and so much to thy content and delight in conuersation and friendship with the Deuil though I must confesse it is a hard matter to come off handsomely from him yet God hath wrought thy freedom but at a great price and hath brought thee off cleere but with much paine But let me tell thee withall that when thy demoniated soule shall place all it's whole pleasure and delight in the Deuils company make him her best beloued hug him in her armes and spred out the lappet of her garment for him then shal it be in my Letanie Lord haue mercie vpon thee For when sinne growes to that height it is almost out of reach to doe any good vpon it Pope Clement saith of Simon Magus that he could not be cuâ—ed Quia voluntarie agrâ—tabat Because he was willing to be sicke And that his soule had made such an inseperable knot with the Deuill Que quien le apartara le matara That he that should pull him from him must pull away life and soule together Saint Marke tels vs That his Disciples being not able to dispossesse a young man of the Deuill they brought him to our Sauiour Christ. And hee demaunding of them that brought him vnto him how long he had beene tormented with him They answered From his childhood Our Sauiour healed him But I remember the Text sayes Factus est sicut mortuus ita vt multi dicerent quia iam mortuus est Hee was as one dead in so much that many sayd He is dead This young man was so wedded to the Deuill that many could not pull him from him and being taken from the Deuill he was as a dead man He had kept him companie so long that the Deuill was to him as his life And this is the marke of such persons as giue themselues ouer to the pleasures of this World For liuing without them but three dayes in the Holy-weeke they thinke themselues dead On the Deuils part there are likewise many forcible reasons First of all This foule Fiend leaues a Soule so blind so deafe and so dumbe that he doth not feele the hurt of so infamous a dwelling And therefore the Church vseth to pray
that blaspheming money in publique they adored it in priuate Gluttons that desiring health of God they did dayly ouerthrow their bodies by ouer-eating and ouerdrinking themselues till they fell a vomiting as they sate at boord Of those that can be content to fare well themselues and not bring good tydings to their brethren The leaprous men in the fourth of the Kings could find fault therwith when they said one to another Wee doe not well this day is a day of good tydings and we hold our peace And that was dumbe It is strange That the Deuil getting so much as he dayly doth by mans speech should labour to make him dumbe more harme growing to man by the former than the latter First It is to bee prooued That of a hundred that were possessed with Deuills you shall finde but one onely that was dumbe they are all of them exceeding great talkers flatterers and lyers And that they might prate the more they talke in diuers tongues not onely in that which is their owne naturall Language but also in Latine in Greeke c. Saint Ambrose hath noted it That the Deuills downefall tooke it's beginning from his talking Dicebat enim in corde suo ascendam in Caelum For he said in his heart I will ascend vp into Heauen And our destruction began with the conuersation that hee had with Eue. Iulian the Apostata makes a jeast of it That a Serpent should speake Which Saint Ciril chose rather to proue by the testimonies of Phylosophers Poets than by Scripture because this blasphemous wretch gaue more credit to them than to the Word of God Homer sayth That Vlisses his Horse spake vnto him forewarning him of his death Porphyrius saith that Caucasus spake that Pythagoras passing by it saluted him with a Salue Pythagora Phylostratus saith That Apollonius comming to the Gymnosophistae an Elme vnder whose shade being wearie he sate him downe spake vnto him and told him That he was verie welcome And Siginius reporteth of Iupiters Bull That he spake like a man If the Deuill then can speake by Horses by Bulls by Trees and the like hee may as well speake by a Serpent And why not by that Serpent more than any other that was to be the instrument to ouerthrow all Mankind Secondly Out of many places of holy Scripture obseruations of the Saints of God and out of the opinions of many learned Doctors Phylosophers and Poets in fauor of this point two manifest truths are proued to arise from hence and haue their first beginnings The one That an euill tongue is the leauen of all our ill The other That a good tongue is the summe of all our good The first Experience at euerie turne teacheth it vnto vs. Whose are those blasphemies against God and his holy Saints but of a sacrilegious tongue Whos 's those inconsiderate iniuries but of a rash and vnaduised tongue Whos 's those infamies and detractions but of a backbiting tongue Whose those dishonest words and lasciuious Songs but of a filthie tongue Whose those sowings of discord amongst brethren those dissoluings of marriages those blottings of mens good names those soylings of your Clergies Coat your Priests Surplices your Bishops Rotchets your Widowes decent dressing your Maidens modest attyre but of a durtie slabbering tongue Saint Hierome saith That the Deuill left Iobs lips vntoucht hoping that with them he would haue cursed God as he promised to himselfe before hand Stretch out thy hand and touch but his bones and his flesh and then see if he will not blaspheme thee to thy face Saint Ambrose saith Plagam suam silentio vicit He subdued his paine by silence And the selfe same father saith That if Eue had not spoken with the Serpent or if shee had but eaten the Apple had said nothing therof to Adam we had not come to that so great miserie and misfortune whereinto we fel. The Deuill did not desire to make Eue so much a Glutton as a Pratler her talking with Adam did vndoe vs all S. Iames qualifies both these tongues The one he termes a fire that burns and consumes all that comes in it's way and to be the onely maine cause of all mischiefe Of the other he saith That man is perfect that offends not in his tongue In our Booke De Amore we haue a whole Chapter touching this ill and this good But how is it possible that the Deuill should seeke to fauour the ill and disfauor the good Saint Augustine answeres this in one word This man hauing beene heretofore a great talker the Deuill made him dumbe lest by confessing his faults he might repaire those losses which hee had runne into by ouerlashing with his tongue Dumbe deafe blind and possessed with a Deuill This massacre which the Deuill wrought vpon the bodie of this man represents that cruell massacre which he dayly executes vpon mens soules For though he takes pleasure in the possession of a mans bodie yet his maine pretence is to preiudice the soule and like a Worme in wood to eat out the verie heart and pith thereof Imagine a Horse prepared for the Kings owne riding beautifull and richly betrapt let thy thought represent such a one vnto thee and a Rogue that hath neuer a shoo to his foot nor a rag to his tayle mounted thereupon and proudly bestriding him Imagine a bed like that of Salomons or that of the Spouse cleane neat and strewed with Flowers and an Oyle-man a Collyer or a Scullion put into it so is it with the Soule possessed by the Deuill It is a common doubt yet fit for this Storie Why God permitteth that the Deuill should doe so much mischiefe to man We know that this the Deuills rage towards man began euer since that God purposed to make his Sonne man and holding himselfe affronted that he was not an Angell hee vowed and swore the death of man And therefore it is said of him Hee was a Murtherer from the beginning And this made our Sauiour to say vnto the Pharisees Yee are of your Father the Deuill for that yee seeke to fulfill his will Who putting Christ to death did accomplish that which the Deuill had sworne And hence ariseth that hatred and emnitie which he beareth to man in generall and the harme which hee either does or seekes to doe him thinking with himselfe as Tertullian noteth it that the greater hurt hee doth vnto man the greater stones hee throwes against God But suppose That without the will of God he cannot doe vs any harme Why doth hee permit that this his liuing Temple consecrated with his holy oyle being the habitation of his delight should be made a Hogs-stie for Deuils When Heliodorus prophaning the holy Temple of Ierusalem entred thereinto there met him an armed Knight in harnesse of gold sitting vpon a fierce Horse richly barbed who smote at Heliodorus with his fore-feet throwing him downe to the ground This was no sooner done but there
as Saint Hierome saith this their slander with a truth The like befell him in the case of the Adultresse when the Pharisees askt him If they should stone her or no to death according as the Law commanded whereunto he answered Let him that is without sinne cast the first stone it is but a slouerâ—ly tricke to go about with foule hands to make another bodie cleane Aristotle faith That the eyes haue no colour nature so holding it fit to the end they might the better receiue and discerne all other colours In like manner he that will reprehend other mens faults must himselfe be blamelesse Dauids sinne was knowne to all the world yet he made confession thereof onely vnto God Against thee onely haue I sinned c. because God onely had the power to punish him For he onely saith Saint Augustine doth iustly punish in whome there is not any thing to be found that deserueth punishment and that man is fit to reprehend another in whom nothing is to bee found worthie reprehension Those of Israell sallyed twice out against those of Beniamin desiring justice at Gods hands of that cruell sinne which they had committed but were both times ouercome Saint Gregorie saith That they went forth against them to reuenge Gods honour and the wrong that was done to their Neighbour but God did not giue them the victorie because they had an Idoll amongst them which they adored Now hee that will punish another mans sinnes must first purge himselfe of his owne sinnes The representing of mans owne sinnes to himselfe is a great Tapaboca or stop-game to play vpon other mens faults To that Sinner who vseth to cast his sins like a wallet ouer his shoulder God saith Statuam contra te faciem tuam I will make thee to see that which thou doost not see and I will bring those sinnes which thou hast throwne behind thy backe before thy face to the end that being ashamed of thyne owne doings thou maist not find fault with other mens actions Woe is me I am vndone saith Esay because I am a man of polluted lips The Prophet had seene God in a Throne of great and wonderfull Maiestie and hee would haue published and proclaimed the same to all the World but hee sayth That he durst not presume to do it because his lips were polluted The Chaldae word is Grauis ore My lips are of too heauie a dulnesse for such high Misteries The seuentie Interpreters render it Vae mihi doleo compunctus My sinnes stop my mouth when I consider myne owne life I dare not question another mans The Pharisee censured Marie Magdalen to be a Sinner and our Sauiour Christ to be no Prophet but our Sauiour setâ—ing before him a reconuention of many grieuous sinnes he left him amased and ashamed God tooke away the poore innocent babe which Dauid had by Beersheba pretending therein according to Theodoret to burie this his sinne vnder ground because he beeing appointed by God to punish Adultrers Murdrers they might not tit him in the teeth say vnto him And why doe you the like Saint Paul askes the question Is God then vniust And he answers thereunto God forbid else How shall God iudge the world If thou shouldest aske a Phylosopher Whither it were possible for God to sinne He would answer It is not possible because he is Causa prima norma vniuersalis The prime cause and vniuersall rule But Saint Pauls answer is That it is not possible that God should sinne because he could not then conueniently gouerne the world For he can hardly reforme sinne in another man who had need to reforme what is amisse in himselfe Three Kings did conspire against the king of Moab they besieged his Citie and he seeing himselfe in a desperate taking tooke his eldest sonne that should haue raigned in his stead and offered him for a burnt offering vpon the wall Cajetan saith That this Sacrifice was not done to the God of Israell as some haue imagined but to those Idols which that King did worship and that after this so cruell an act there insued so great a plague in the Israelites Campe that they were forced to raise the siege Facta est indignatio magna in Israel The Hebrew hath it Ira magna The Vulgar renders it Israel was sore grieued and departed from him and returned to their Countrie but the wrath of God entred into their Armie for that they had sacrificed their sonnes daughters to Deuils according to that of Dauid Sacrificauerunt filios filias suas daemonio By whose example the King of Moab learned to offer this kind of sacrifice and God was highly offended with them for it and therefore would not suffer such as had playd the Idolaters in sacrificing their children to take away the KingdoÌ„s of other Idolaters who perhaps were lesse faulty than themselues Alexander layingit to a Pyrats charge that with two ships he had robbed at sea hee returned him this answere Thou rob'st all the World and no man sayes any thing vnto thee and I who to picke out a poore liuing put foorth to sea but with two poore little barkes must haue theft and pyracie layd to my charge The like answere did a Bishop make to Pope Gregorie the second when hee kept his Sea at Auignon Who giuing him a shrewd checke for that he did not reside in his Bishopricke he told him It is now full three score and ten yeares that the Popes Sea hath beene kept out of Rome and your Holinesse now reprehends me for liuing but three dayes from my Bishopricke To this purpose sutes that answere which Vriah gaue to King Dauid This valiant Captaine tooke vp his lodging and layd himselfe downe to sleepe in the porch of the Kings pallace And the King asking him why he did not goe home to inioy the ease and pleasure of his owne bed He made him this answere The Arke of God dwelleth in Tents and my Lord Ioab Generall of your Army and the seruants of my lord abide in the open fields shall I then beeing but an ordinarie souldier goe into my house to eate and drinke and lye with my wife By thy life and by the life of thy soule I will not doe this thing This was a seuere reprehension in Vriah to his soueraigne For if a subiect shall out of such honest respects refraine from going home to his owne house much more ought the King to haue abstained from lying with another mans wife Nor is that Historie of Iudas much amisse who being Gouernor of the people and finding Thamar great with child would needs execute that law against her of adulterous women But Thamar proued That he that was to iudge others should not himselfe be a delinquent Now wee come to the last reason of this our Sauiours sharpe and quicke answere vnto them There were two Truths prophecied of our Sauiour Christ The one his Meekenesse and Gentlenesse And of
nice and daintie as to quarrell with our Sauiour about his Disciples washing or not washing of their hands Your Traditions saith our Sauiour because for couetousnesse of gaine they had introduced many and amongst the rest this of the frequent and often washing of the hands Non manducant panem saith Saint Marke nisi crebrâ— lauerint manus They eat no bread till they haue often washt their hands Theophilact reads it Cubitaliter vp to the elbowes At our Sauiours owne Table and at other places where now and then they were inuited they euer behaued themselues in a decent ciuil manner as Petrus Chrysologus notes it vnto you but they made little reckoning of this superstition and of many others which the Pharasaicall auarice had brought in as to denie sustenance to our Parents to sweare by the Temple but not by the gold of c. for by making the gold more sacred they presumed men would feare to filch any of it away The Priests did purposely multiply Laws for where there are many Laws there are many transgressions and where there are many transgressions there are many gainfull commings in God complaineth by the mouth of Esay Exactores spoliauerunt populum meum The Extortioners beat my people to pieces and grinde the faces of the Poore Vatablus renders it Racemando spoliant for by plucking off now a bunch and then a bunch they leaue not in all the Vineyard a Grape that is scarce worth the gleaning Nicetas by these Exactors and Extortioners vnderstandeth the Priests and saith That as your couetous Misers after they haue cutdowne their Corne and made it into great cocks carried home their haruest fall a raking a gleaning ouer and ouer againe contrarie to the Leuiticall Law so these men hauing deuoured the greater part of the Richer sort they fall a raking of the poore and take from them that little that they haue by ordaining most vniust Lawes The Sonnes of Ely the Scripture calls the Sonnes of Belial and farther sayth That they did not know what did belong to the Priests Office Nescientes Dominum neque Officium Sacerdotum Which Vatablus renders thus Nescientes Domiâ—â—â— ius fecerunt contra populum Not knowing the Lord as they ought to haue done they made a Law against the people in fauour of their owne couetousnesse â— for they being to receiue the Offerings of the flesh sod to the end that they might not pouder it vp and keepe it to themselues they brought in a new custome That they should giue it them raw that they might either put it into past salt it sell it or otherwise doe what they list with it The World was alwaies and will bee still the same that which wee see the Scribes and Pharisees did then the like course doe they now take which gouern the Commonwealth with your Vintners your Victuallers your Butchers your Fruiterers your Hearbe-wiues and a world of other Trades imposing manie Lawes vpon them not so much for that they import the good gouernment of the Commonwealth as for the priuate benefit and maintenance of your Clerkes of the Market your Alguazils Attornies Promoters and all the rest of that rabble which liue vpon these fees of Hell And the knauerie hereof is to be seene in this that when these Officers meet with false weights or water mixt with wine the like it is a wonder if they prohibit them to come any more to the Market or to banish them the Country but rather clapping a mulct vpon them they continue them and keepe them still a foot as an Inheritance that brings them in profit or as a Farme that affoords a set rent to their purses You shal haue a Vintner brought a dozen times one after another into the court and as often fined and yet be suffered still to sell wine â—ee the Officers wel and yee shall fell at what rates and with what weights you will In a word No man breakes in his trading but hee that cannot content these Exactoâ—s 〈◊〉 saith That Couetousnesse is the onely God that commands the World and one while it incounters with a brother another with a father and now and then with God and is the onely Tyrant that doth most domineere ouer our soules Saint Paul cured a certaine maid hauing a Spirit of Diuination which gate her masters much vantage by diuining but now when her Masters saw that the hope of their gaine was gone they caught hold of Paul and bringing him before the Magistrate they complained of him That he troubled the Citie For Couetousnesse is such a Deuill that the Deuill himselfe cannot though hee would cast it out of doores where it concernes a mans particular intereâ—â— And when the Deuill shall affoord a man apparell for his backe meat for his mouth and money in his purse if God should cast this Deuill out the partie possessed would complaine for the losse of his companie In Andaluzia out of meere couetousnesse they suffer their she-slaues euerie yeare to be got with child that she may bring them a Turke or a Moore as others keepe Mares for breeders that when they grow vp and are able to worke for their liuing they may bring them in dayly gaines like horses that are hired out albeit they lead therein a course of life contrarie to all both humane and diuine Lawes But they suffer this Deuill to dwell in their house for couetousnesse sake but that this Deuill shouâ—â— dwell in Priests Sine miserabili gemitu saith Saint Bernard dicendum non est It is a most miserable and lamentable thing For your Traditions c. Sometimes the cause of a sinne is greater than the sinne it selfe To breake the Law is ill but for to maintaine their Traditions worse for this is a contempt of the law of him that established the same Euerie-foot the Prophets repeat Haec dicit Dominus Thus saith the Lord it seeming vnto them That there can be no contradicting of this Proclamation no reason giuen against it For to acknowledge God to be infinitely wise and to alledge reasons withall against that which he commandeth is to make him ignorant In Leuiticus God said Stand in awe of entring within my Sanctuarie notifying thereby vnto vs That there should dwell in our soules such a reuerend opinion of Gods Maiestie and omnipotencie that whatsoeuer was not God we should account as nothing compared therewith Amongst other his Robes and ornaments belonging to his place Calling the high Priest had his Rationale Iudicij his 〈◊〉 auream it was rayment of silke set with twelue stones wherein were grauen the names of the twelue Tribes and in the middest thereof certaine letters which spake thus Vrim Thummim Illumination and Perfection which our Interpreter expounds to bee Doctrine and Truth in token that the Doctrine of the Law which is the perfection of our vnderstanding ought to bee grauen in the Priests brest and communicated to the People That
Church And for this cause God calls them both but one flesh They are 〈◊〉 more twaine but one flesh let not man therefore put â—sunder that which God hath coupled together Where if you note it hee speakes in the singular for oâ—herwise they would not conueniently represent so strict a vnion Secondly Because God is the authour of marriage God created man and woman and being wedded each to other he said For this cause shall man leaâ—e father and mother and cleaue vnto his wife And for Dauid his adulterie the Lord said vnto him The Sword shall neuer depart from thy house because thou hast despised me and taken the wife of Vriah the Hittite to be thy wife it was not Vriah but I thâ—â— was despised Where I would haue thee to weigh well the word Me who in the beginning of the world did authorise marriage Me who in the Law of Grace was personally present at my friends marriage and there vnfolded the sailes of my Omnipotencie working there and at that wedding my first miracle S. Paul saith If the husband be of the houshold of the Faithfull and the wife of the Vnfaithfull non dimittat illam let him not forsake her but if she shall be vnfaithfull to her husband he may lawfully then leaue her So that God seemeth to be more offended that she should not keep her faith toher husband than that she should not professe the Faith of Christ. But this they said to tempt him They put on a shew of zeale and feigned a dissembled desire of knowledge and to be satisfied concerning this point but the truth was that they went a fishing to see if they could catch our Sauiour in some answer that he should giue them contrarie to the Law to the end that they might accuse him as a Transgressour The Scribes they were jealous of their Law the Pharisees of their Religion the one sought to picke a hole in his coat vpon some quirke and quiller of the Law the other for the wronging of their Religion and therefore they said vnto him Seeing thou art a Master to whom it belongeth to expound our Lawes and that thou takest vpon thee at euerie bout to vnfold Moses his meaning Moses law commandeth That such should bee stoned What sayst thou therefore Euthimius saith That they tooke our Sauiour Christ to be so mercifull a minded man that they did well hope that hee would wrest and wind the Law which way he listed if not vtterly ouerthrow it And they did ground these their suspitions vpon some Sermons of his which he had preached wherein he had deliuered to the People That it was lawfull to cure the Sicke on the Sabboth day which was a new kind of doctrine in their Law Saint Gregorie and Saint Ambrose doe both affirme That they did verily persuade themselues That our Sauiour Christ could not chuse but â—e caught in the trap and necessarily fall into an errour one while by pardoning contrarie to the Law another while by condemning contrarie to Grace Iesus autem inclinans se deorsum But Iesus stooped downe inclining his head towards the ground Saint Chrysostome saith That for the Pharisees it was a most seuere act of Iustice but for the Adultresse a most noble act of mercie These Hypocriâ—â— hee depriued of â—is sight and would not cast his countenance towards them which is one of Gods seuerest chastisements Thou turnedst away thy face from me saith the Psalmist and I was troubled For a King to turne away his face from a Fauorite it wil shrewdly trouble him What perturbation must that then cause When God shall not cast his eye towards vs but turne his fauourable countenance from vs Hide not thy face ô Lord from me lest I be like vnto those that descend into the pit O Lord to denie the light of thy countenance is to condemne me vnto Hell and the greatest torment of the Damned is that they are debarr'd thy sight Cur faciem 〈◊〉 abscondâ—â— arbitrarâ—◠〈◊〉 inimicum tuum All my happinesse consists in those thy eyes and to denie them vnto me is to vse me like an enemie Towards the Adulteresse our Sauior carried himselfe as became a soueraigne Prince for it is a common thing with Kings and Princes to turne their eyes aside from a woman that is shamelesse and of a lewd and infamous life the sight of a husband is a fearefull thing to a wanton wife so is the eye of a seuere father to a gracelesse sonne so the austere looke of a King to his seruant that hath played the Traitor how then shall Gods countenance skare vs when hee shall looke askew vpon vs and knit the brow of his heauie displeasure When the Adultresse did behold her selfe in that Crystall Glasse Christ Iesus in whome there was no spot nor least specke of blemish in the world and did see what a freckled soule she had of her owne how foulely bespeckled with a loathsome morphew of this ouerspreading sinne In what a confusion must she needs bee and how dasht out of countenance Dauid was as valiant a King and as braue a soldier as euer drew sword one that fought the Lords battels yet he considering the foulnesse of this his adulterous sin weeping sorrowing for the same when he saw Gods eye was fixed on his fault and that hee had withdrawne his woonted fauor from his person he felt such torment in himselfe that in the bitternesse of his soule he was forced to crie out Turne away thy face ô Lord from my sinnes What then should this weake this poore and wretched woman do in this case Iesus stooped downe Saint Cyril saith That our Sauiour herein did aduise your Iudges that before they proceed to sentence they should well and truly consider of the cause alone by themselues and proceed with a great deale of leisure deliberation Before that God did condemne the pride of those that built the Tower of Babell he said Descendam videbo I will goe downe and see what they doe And the crie of the sinnes of Sodome comming to his eares hee sayd the same againe for there is no wisdome nor discretion in it as Nicodemus said to condemne a man Vnlesse he first heare him speake for himselfe and know what hee hath done This is that which Dauid said Doe righteous iudgement ô ye sons of men Suting with that of our Sauior Iudge not according to the face or outward appearance Daniel summarily shuts it vp all in this The Iudgement was set and the Bookes opened He stooped downe For albeit a Iudge ought to beare himselfe vpright yet he ought still to stoope and incline himselfe to mercie Christ looked downe vpon the earth and considered with himselfe that he had made this woman of earth If a Iudge may euen in justice saue a Delinquent if hee shall find a way open for mercie he may comfort himselfe that it is Gods fashion so to doe and this may be
Crosse of Christ. And those teares likewise which those men shed who did bewaile the miseries of Ierusalem whose foreheads God commanded to be marked with the letter Tau Others are shed by vs meerely out of compassion for other folks misfortunes and such as these were the teares of our Sauiour Christ He beheld the Citie and wept ouer it So likewise at Lazarus death Iesus wept Did not I weepe for him that was in trouble Was not my soule grieued for the Poore And Ieremie did neuer make an end of weeping for the miseries of his people Others the deuout meditation of Christs bitter torments extort from vs According as it was prophecied by Zach. They shall looke on me whom they haue pierced and they shall mourne for him as one mourneth for his onely sonne and shall be in bitternesse for him as one that is in bitternesse for his first borne Others gutter downe from vs out of a vehement and earnest desire wee haue to our celestiall Countrie and to the enioying of that our heauenly habitation Of this qualitie were those of Dauid Woe is mee that the time of my pilgrimage is prolonged And in another place My teares were my bread euen day and night And all these seuerall sorts of teares spring from the Fountaine of Grace and are comprehended vnder the stile of blessednesse Beati qui lugent Blessed are they that weepe c. There is another sort of teares which flow from naturall pittie and conceiued griefe for the death of our parents children kinsfolkes and friends as also for losse of wealth honour health and the like and when the Scripture mentions them it doth not reprehend them The Shunamite bewailed her dead sonne Marie Magdalen the losse of her brother Lazarus and humane Histories recommend these teares of pitty vnto vs Alexander wept when he met with a troup of poore miserable Greekes that were all totterd and torne and they who vpon such sad and miserable spectacles are not tender eyed and hearted are cruel creatures Viscera â—orum cruaelia saith Salomon and Saint Paul stiles them Siâ—â— affectione Voyd of naturall affection Now these teares may offend two manner of wayes First In their excesse for God will not haue vs to bewaile that thing much which in it selfe is little Saint Augustine hath obserued That after Iacob began to mourne for the losse of Ioseph and the bereauing him of Beniamin which mourning of his continued almost the space of twentie yeares God withdrew those Regalos and fauours from him which hee was wont to conferre vpon him before the Angells ascended and descended the ladder before the Angell gaue him strength to wrestle all night long c. before he inioyed prosperitie wiues children and victorie against Esau but afterwards the more teares the more sorrow fell vpon him for God neuer grants to the teares of the earth the comforts of Heauen And although he permit a mannerly and moderate kind of naturall pittie according to that of Ecclesiasticus Super mortuum modicum plâ—ra And in another place Quasi dira passus incipe plorare My sonne let teares fall downe ouer the Dead and begin to lament as if thou hadst suffered great harme thy selfe Such few drops he fauoureth and cherisheth but if they be excessiue or ouermuch he condemneth them as vnlawfull and as a wrong done vnto God For the losing of God or the losse of his loue thou mayst well weepe World without end because it is an incomparable losse but for the outward losses of this World Incipe plorare Begin thou to weepe but quickly make an end The second offence is That a man hauing cause enough to bewaile his owne sinnes the losse of his Soule and of God doth notwithstanding lament these earthly transitorie losses neglecting the former This disorder Christ sought to rectifie and amend in those tender-hearted women of Ierusalem who wept so bitterly to see how ill hee was vsed by the Iews and how heauie the burthen of his Crosse lay vpon him Daughters of Ierusalem weepe not for mee but weepe for your selues c. He went and touched the coffin The first place is taken vp here by his mercie which is the wel-head of al those blessings which we receiue from his bountiful hand His Prouidence doth conserue vs his wisedom protect vs gouern vs his Goodnesse sustaines vs his Liberalitie inricheth vs his Grace healeth vs And all this floweâ—h from the fountaine of his Mercie The antients stiled Iupiter Optimus maximus Because as Cicero notes it the attribute of Beneficence is more gratefull and acceptable in God than his Greatnesse and Power In the second place came in his words of comfort Noli fâ—ere weepe not In the third his hands Tetigit loculum Heere hee exerciseth his hands his tongue and his heart If we cannot imitate the hands of our Sauiour Christ in doing good yet at least imitate his heart and his tongue For Pittie and words cost nothing and are wanting to few They made a stand that bare him Here he shewed himselfe Lord both of the liuing and the dead And therefore Saint Luke vseth this word Dominâ—â— Hanâ— cum vidisset Dominus When the Lord had seene her These that bare him thus to his graue are first of all a stampe or token of the goods of this life which carrie vs step by step from our honors riches delights and pastimes to the house of eternall lamentation and mourning Secondly they are a stamp or token of il lewd companie which say to an vnexperienced ignorant yongman Come along with vs and let vs lay wait for blood They are like those highway robbers which persuade men to rob kill saying We wil make our selues rich c. Or like those carnall men which crie vnto vs Come let vs take our pleasure Of this People the Prophet Esay complained saying This is a People robbed spoyled they are all of them snared in holes they are hid in prison houses they are for a prey none deliuereth for a spoyle none saith Restore The Deuill and his Ministers lead your wilfull young men away captiue clap them into Hels Dungeon and there is none that deliuereth them or to say so much as Alas poore man whither wilt thou run on to thy destruction Young man I say vnto thee Arise He called him by the name of his age or youth because that had brought him to his graue for it is sinne that sises out our lifâ— and cuts it short Youth is a kind of broken Ship which leaks draws in water at a thousand places so that of force it must quickely sinke Elâ—hu sayd That if a young man will be obedient and be ruled he shall enioy his dayes in peace but if he will be head-strong vngouerned Morietur in tempestate anima â—ius vita inter effoeminatos The Seuentie render it In adolescentia for a Tempest at sea and Youth that is tossed too
were seuered from their bodies how could they crie Saint Gregorie resolues it thus That their desires did crie out aloud Moses did not vnfold his lips nor once open his mouth and yet God said vnto him Why doost thou 〈◊〉 vnto me onely because his desires did set out a throat So Abels bloud was said to crie out against Cain So that with God a few words will suffice Besides your better sort of women ought to be verie sparing of their words Auaritia in verbis saith Plautâ—s in fâ—eminis semper laudabilis Of a lewd and naughtie woman Salomon reporteth That she inuiting a young man irretiuit â—um sermonibus prouoked him with her words Ecclesiasticus saith That wisedome and silence in a woman is the gift of God Nature may giue beautie bloud prosperitie and other good gifts but wisedome and silence God giues Sicut vitâ—a cocciâ—â—â— labia tuâ— Thy lips are like a thred of scarlet and thy talke iâ— comely Those your womens haires which are dis-sheâ—â—led and blowne abroad with the wind they did vse to brâ—id bind them vp with a red ribbond And therefore the Bridegroome compareth his spouses lips to a thred of Scarlet or some red coloured fillet to bind them vp the better to show that she should not be too lauish of her tongue but of few words and those too vpon fit occasion The second consideration in this their discretion was That they called him Lord Domine c. Your greatest Kings and most powerfull Princes vpon earth haue no dominion or empire ouer the soule neither are they able to adde or take away one dramme of the spirit But thou ô Lord Thou art the vniuersall Lord both of Heauen and Earth and we are thy handmaides and seruants and therefore thou canst not denie vs thy fauour Saint Ambrose expounding those wordes of Dauid Seruus tuus sum ego I am thy seruant saith That they who haue many Lords and Masters here vpon earth cannot cleaue vnto God Seruâ—â— tâ—us sum ego serui dominati sunt nostri Those creatures which God hath giuen vs to be our slaues flesh the dainties the delicacies the delights pleasant pastimes of this world shall haue dominion ouer them The third Quem amas He whom thou louest Amatus or beloued is a more honourable name than that of Angell Apostle Martyr Confessor or Virgine Lucifer was an Angell Iudas an Apostle The Heretick will not sticke to say that hee dyes for Christs cause and that he is a Martyr and a Confessor your Vestalles stiled themselues Virgines yet all these names haue beene lyable to sinne to misfortune and Hell But the name of Beloued is not compatiblâ— in that kind And Christ hath got the start of Man in his loue For hee loued vs first And where he once loues he neuer leaues off Besides Two things I would haue you to note which are vsuall with the Saints and children of God The one to set before their eyes the fauours they haue receiued to alledge them to shew themselues thankefull for them and to praise and commend them The other Not to shew themselues forgetful of their seruices towards God Knowing that it is Gods condition and qualitie when he bestoweth one fauour to ingage himselfe for a greater Ezechias alledged vnto God his holinesse and goodnesse of life O Lord remember now how I haue walked before theein truth and with a perfect heart and haue done that which is good â—n thy sight Saint Gregorie presseth hereupon Were it not better to alledge thy miserie than to represent those many good things which thou hast done all which thou hast receiued from his hand But with God to alledge them and to shew our selues thankefull for former receiued fauors is a powerfull meanes for the receiuing of far greater benefits and blessings from him After that Dauid had made a large muster of his tribulations He sayth Conuersus viuificasti me de abissis terrae iterum reduxisti me Thou hast quickned mee and hast brought mee againe from out the deepes of the Earth Where I would haue you to ponder the word iterum For God neuer does one single fauour Secondly the righteous are forgetfull of their owne seruices for that they hold them so meane and so vile that they iudge them vnworthy Gods sight And when in that generall iudgement God shall say I was naked and yee couered me c. The Saints shall answere Lord when did we see thee naked c. And it is noted by Theodoret that these are not words of courtesie or out of mannerlines but of meere forgetfulnesse For it is their fashion so to despise their owne seruices and deseruings that they doe wholy forget them The fourth consideration of their discretion was That so especiall is the fauor which God showes vnto his friends and the griefe which he conceiueth of any that shall befall them that they held it a greater point of Wisedome to alledge that hee was his friend than their brother Saint Bernard sayth That albeit the defect of my seruices doe dishearten mee yet Gods great mercies and his many fauours doe incourage mee For it is not Gods fashion to forsake his friends And therfore saith Saint Austen Non enim amas deseris The Princes of the Earth are now and then well content their friends should suffer because in them Power and Loue is not equall But those in whom these attributes goe hand in hand ought not to suffer their friends to miscarrie They would seeme here to put this vpon Christ and to make this cause his owne O Lord That wee should loose our brother it is no great losse because in thee wee haue a brother But thou ô Lord amongst so many thy professed enemies hast lost a great friend It is the condition of Gods Saints to greeue for the death of the Iust because God receiues a losse in them and to resent their own proper iniuries not for that these iniuries are done to themselues but for that they are iniuries done vnto God Tabescere me fecit zelus meus quia obliti sunt verba tua inimici mei Vpon which place Genebrard giues this exposition That mine owne iniuries doe not so much offend mee for that they are mine but because they are offences done vnto thee And Dauid in his thirtith Psalme treateth of some crosses and affliction that God by sickenesse had layd vpon him after he had built his pallaces Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled I was loath to dye not for mine owne sake for it were happinesse to me if I should dye to day or to morrow but not for thee What profit is there in my bloud when I go downe to the pit What seruice can Dauid do thee when he is layd in his sepulchre But ô Lord in his life in his honor in his crowne and in his kingdome he may do thee good seruice This ô Lord concernes thee and
were able to disperse the Clouds and cleere the Skie that he might haue light he is in as pittifull case if not worse as he that is tormented with a shaâ—pe burning Feuer or with a furious Apoplexie in a long and tedious winter night for he may better passe it ouer with the conueniencie of a good bed and Chamber cleane linnen and a little sleepe comforting himselfe that the day will at last appeare and that he shall see the light And if in a daintie fine Aprill morning it giues a man such great content to see the Trees apparelled in greene the lights and the shadowes which the Sunne beames paint them forth withall the drooping and wither-starued hearbes raising vp their hanging heads holpen by the dew of Heauen the Flowers and the Roses discouering the beautie of their faces the singing of the Birds which with their musicke entertaine the light the bleating of the Kids and Lambekins the Heardsman going forth with his Cattell the Faulkener with his Hawkes and the Huntsman with his Hounds What discomfort on the contrarie must he take that hath lost himselfe in avast Wildernesse in the manner afore mentioned or keepes his bed tired out with a long and tedious sickenesse c. Ego sum Lux Mundi I am the Light of the world c. Out of the desire that man had to enioy more light than God had giuen him bayted with the Deuills promise he bit Eritis said the Deuill sicut Dij scientes bonum malum Yee shall be as gods knowing good and euill By which offence he was clouded with the darkenesse of sinne verifying therein that which was afterwards verified by Esay We looked for light and behold darkenesse In the beginning of the World when all things remained in that darke Chaos euerie thing was so poore and miserable as nothing more by Light God drew light out of darkenesse he therewith did beautifie and inrich his Creatures hee did cheare and cleere the Elements he did banish darkenesse he gaue those goodly and liuely colours to the whole Vniuerse and all of them ioyntly remained so jocond so merrie and so well pleased that in their dumbe kind of Language they gaue great thankes to that Light Man remained in a Chaos no lesse darke through sinne and those that had the best sight did confesse Wee groaped like blind men against a wall at noone day God did prepare great Lights for to rid away this grosse Darkenesse as Patriarkes Prophets Kings and famous Captaines but as in the darkenesse of Aegypt That bright flame of the Starres could not illighten that horrible darke night So likewise in that night of the old Law those though most excellent cleere Lights could not expell that darkenesse God for to repayre his Peoples discomfort did promise to giue them a great Light The People that sate in darkenesse saw a great Light That is The people shall see it so saith one of the Prophets for for the more assurance of the Prophecie they vse to put the preterperfect for the future Orietur vobis Sol Iusticiae saith another Prophet A Sâ—n of Righteousnesse shall rise vnto you The People cried vnto God That he would fulfill his word they did weepe lament sigh and mourne all the Creatures at last remained so perfect so prosperous and so rich and held themselues so happie that cloathing themselues with new ioy they gaue the good day to this Light The Histories are full of those prodigies and wonders which hapned at our Sauiours birth Baruc The Starres shine in their watch and reioyce When he calleth them they say Here we be and so with cheerefulnesse they shew light vnto him that made them And though those three Suns had giuen aduice thereof which Plinie speaketh of and those nine Sunnes whereof Bartolomeo Risana maketh mention besides those Kings Sheepheards Sybils Symeon Anna and the Prophecies yet this Light had not displayed his beames but now cleering the earth with his wonderful Myracles he saith Ego sum lux muÌ„di I am the Light c. Two occasions offered themselues for this Reuelation The one The libertie and life of the Adultresse for the freeing of whome he discouered the secret sinnes of her accusers leauing them not onely amased and ashamed but agrieued and offended and it seemeth that he answers to this their complaint Ego sum Lux mundi Of force the Light must driue away Daâ—knesse and discouer those secrets which are hidden vnder the cloake of the night This is the argument of that Parable No man lighteth a candle and putteth it vnder a bushell but sets it on a candlesticke that it may giue light to all that are in the house My Father did not send this Torch into the world to put it vnder a bushell and therefore you need not to be so angrie or thinke you are wronged One of the fearefullest accidents that euer was or shall be seene was That the Light comming into the world and all other creatures remaining so rap't with sudden joy at this so rich a treasure Man only should shut his eyes against his own good giuing Ieremie iust cause to crie out Stand astonished ô yee Heauens at this That the Thirstie should despise the Fountaines of the waters of Life and that the Blind should mislike the Light Whosoeuer saith Saint Bernard had but seene our Sauiours teares sighs and sufferings and all for our sinnes and to redeeme vs from damnation would haue sworne no newes could bee so welcome as the comming of this Sunne of Righteousnesse to illuminate the world and to lighten those that sate in darkenesse But as your Quaile rages when the Sunne riseth and as Plinie saith of the Athlantes That they curse it with a thousand curses because it parcheth and burnes vp their grasse and as those saith Iob thaâ—â—â—sh for Whales doe curse the day and as hee that is asleepe is offended when the light awakes him and as weake infirme eyes cannot indure the beames of the Sunne so these Pharisees were offended and grew verie hot and angrie that the glorious Light of our Sauiour Christ should discouer their sinnes Some man perhaps may aske whence this hatred growes Saint Iohn resolues it thus As in the naturall World amongst birdes and beasts there are many that cannot indure the light of the day comming in the night out of their caues holes seeke their food in darkenes according to the Prophet They seeke it from God But when the Sun begins to peep forth he shuts them vp in their dennes and makes them affraid to show their heads so in the Morall World there are children of darkenes and of the night which cannot abide the light of the day That their Actions may not be called into question The night is the sinners cloake The Light the Herald that proclaimes all humane Actions such are those of these men that they haue not the face to come abroad or to stand in the light
can befall a Soule is To become so appassionated to it 's own disagreeable disposition it 's disjoynted iudgement and erronious opinion that it persuadeth it selfe that it proceedeth prudently and wisely in all that it doth not sticking to say in it's heart I thanke God I haue my wits about me I am in the right way I doe well in this and in that in persecuting this man and bringing that other to the stake flattering and soothing vp themselues with a Nâ—me benedicimus Do we not do wel in so doing The phrantick man vseth to cal the Physition that cures him Foole the Blockhead him that is discreet Cockescombe the Ruffian him that is religious Distracted and heere the Pharisees accuse our Sauiour Christ to haue a Deuill and to be a breaker of the Law And it were well if they would stay here but they make the matter farre worse by saying Say we not well To sinne is not so great an ill as to ground our sinne vpon reason not so great a fault to commit it as it is to maintaine it it is an euil thing to worke reuenge but farre worse to seeke to defend thy reuenge by reason for that is but to wage an argument against God and his Law to denie vnto him Prouidence and Wisedome and to firme and set as it were vnder thine own hand That God did not see so much reason as thou didst to reuenge thy selfe alledging in fauour thereof some particular exception more than God did euer wot of against this his generall rule Passion saith Aristotle blinding Reason as smoke doth the eyes maketh white seeme blacke Enuie so blinded Iosephs brethren that the Scripture saith That they could not affoord him a gâ—â—ll wâ—rd nor speake vnto him in a mild and ciuile manner but in this their malicious humour were fully persuaded that they did him no wrong at all first in throwing him into the pit and afterwards in selling him Zoylus the Rhethorician syâ—amed the Dog for his foule mouth and euill language would raile against Plato Socrates and other graue Phylosophers and being asked the reason Why hee should wrong these good men answered For myne owne part I could haue beene content to haue spared such good people but Passion would not giue way thereunto O this Passion What an euill propertie it hath it makes Innocencie Sinne Christ a Witch God a Deuill Clemens Alexandrinus reporteth of Antisthenes That he had rather be a mad than a passionate man for the passionate man will seeke a knot in a bulrush so will not the mad man In conclusion when a man shall secure himselfe in his sinne and the Soule goe confidently on to it 's owne perdition yet persuades it selfe that it is in the right and runnes on fairely towards the goale that man and his Soule should be thus blinded Saint Cyprian saith That it is a great and strong euidence of Gods anger for such not acknowledging their errour will hardly craue pardon besides the passionate man liues so secure and yet so deceiued that those of Hell do not make a more rash censure of the Iust Nos insensati vitam illorum estimabamus insaâ—iam Say we not well c. God doth not say so nor the Angells nor Heâ—uen nor Earth but we â—ay so we that are Pharisees say so and thinke we say well in so saying There are a certaine kind of men that would seeme to know more than God himselfe When some man of power or some great rich person shall say I know it is so it is receiued as Gods Oracle though God oftentimes betrayes their ignorance to the world to shew them their errour It is a great hauâ—ines and pride of heart in any man to stand so much vpon the authoritie of his person as to say Basta qúe yo lo diga It is enough that I haue sayd it Pilat saw no cause why he should crucifie our Sauior Christ but the Pharisees roundly told him it is enough that we haue deliuered him vp into thy hands without thy further enquiring into the cause The Deuill when he cannot persuade a sinne by reason he alledgeth the authoritie of some noted person or other and by how many great and graue men it is approoued c. Suting with that of Seneca Insanientium multitudo est sanitatis protectio I haue not a Deuill c. Other whiles our Sauiour nipt the Pharisees tooke them vp short and vsed sharpe reprehensions to them as You are of your father the Deuill a wicked and adulterous Generation c. But here he is as mild with them as a Lambe and makes them this soft and gentle answer I haue not a Deuil Which temperate behauiour of his was grounded vpon three reasons First of all because he that vpon the vying of an iniurie will not though he haue the better cards in his hand and that it bee in his power to put the other to the worst reuie vpon him but let it passe manifests to the world a more noble and more glorious testimonie of his mildnesse and patience than he that suffereth and endureth when he cannot otherwise chuse wanting not so much will as power to reuenge a receiued wrong That is a generous patience when a man hath a smooth and easie way to worke reuenge and yet rather chuseth to pocket than to presse an iniurie On the Vigiles of our Sauiours beeing apprehended our Sauiour Christ sayd vnto his Apostles Hee that hath none let him sell his coat and by a sword Whereupon sayth Saint Ambrose Sweet Iesus Why Swords beeing thou wilt not giue thy Apostles leaue to draw them and wert angrie with Peter and didst reprooue him for drawing his sword in thy defence Whereunto this glorious Doctour maketh vs this answere That their patience might appeare more noble by hauing Swords by their sides and yet not offering to draw them Let a Christian therefore weare a Sword but let him not vnsheath his sword to the end that all men may see that if he doe not reuenge an iniurie it is not for want of a weapon to right himselfe but out of a superaboundance of sufferance and patience Isiodorus Pelusiota disputing the reason why Christ cursed the Fig-tree leauing it fruitlesse for euer Neuer man eat fruit of thee hereafter while the world standeth saith That the Iewes considering those innumerable myracles which our Sauiour wrought and more particularly for the good and benefit of that people might happely presume That Christ had power to doe good but not to doe hurt and therefore that it might appeare vnto them that hee had power of and ouer all howbeit he did not in many of them punish their wickednesse and ingratitude yet did he punish it in the Fig-tree which was their true type and figure Secondly Christ would teach vs this lesson That the best meanes to breake anger in an enemie and to assuage his choller are either soft words or silence Saint Chrysostome saith That
apprehend Dauid Michal saued his life by letting him out a window Why did they not follow in pursuit of him being so much offended as they were at this tricke which Michâ—l had put vpon them Some Hebrewes make answer hereunto That God had damd vp the window or cast a myst before their eyess that they could not perceiue the manner of his escape Ecclesiasticus saith The congregation of the wicked is like tow wrapped together Their end is a flame of fire to destroy them An Armie of Reprobates can no more stand against the godly than bundles of Towe or Flaxe before a flaming fire How long c. The Iewes comming round about our Sauiour they said vnto him Quousque c. How long doest thou make vs doubt As Loue transformeth a man so doth Hate Vulnerasti cor meum soror mea said the Bridegroome to his Spouse Another letter hath it Excordasti Which alludeth vnto that which the Spouse answered Ego Dormio cor meum vigilat But how can the Spouse sleepe and her heart wake yes her husband had stolne away her heart and that waked with him when she was asleepe Now Hate no lesse transformeth than Loue. Saul did not liue in himselfe but in Dauid Haman not in himselfe but in Mardochee the Pharisees not in themselues but in Christ. And therfore they say Thou causest our soules to doubt Thou hast robd vs of our soules we are not our selues but as bodies without a soule And in token that the cause of this their suspension was Enuie they confesse these their so many distractions vexations and torments of the mind All other kind of sinnes bring paine and torment with them but it is after they haue tasted of their sinnes but Enuie torments before hand The Pharisees had scarce seen Christs Miracles and the applause which his doctrine had in the world when they began to suffer and to be grieued And this is the reason why this Vice is harder to be cured than any other Good doth ordinarily quench ill as water quencheth fire But Enuie because it makes another mans good his ill that which to other vices is death is to Enuy life It is the fire of brimstone which the more water you throw on it the more it burneth They came about mee like so many Bees who are exasperated and grow angry with those that doe them no harme but good They waxed hot like fire among thornes which no water can quench Animam nostram tollis Where I would haue thee to weigh the word Tollis Thou takest away our soule thou makest vs to doubt c. Thou art in fault that we liue in this paine and passion It is the common course of your greatest sinners to lay the blame of their sinne vpon God O Lord Why hast thou made vs to erre from thy wayes saith Esay and hardned our heart from thy feare It is a sin inherited from Adam who laid the fault of eating the apple vpon God The woman which thou gauest me to be with me c. She that thou gauest me to be my companion to be my cherisher and my comforter Who would haue thought that she would haue intreated any thing at my hands that should not haue beene very lawfull and honest The sicke man is wont to lay the fault on the Clymat wherein hee liueth and on those meates wherewith hee is nourished Seneca tells a tale of a certaine Shee-slaue who one morning when she awaked finding her selfe blind laid the fault that she could not see vpon the house desiring that she might be remooued to another The cause of your Eclypses is the earth which interposes it selfe betweene the Sunne and the Moone Whereas hee that shall impute the fault to the Sun shall but betray his ignorance Of the Eclipses of these Iewes the cause thereof was their passions their couetousnesse and their enuie If our Sauiour Christ preached vnto them they desired Miracles if he wrought Miracles they desired Doctrine from his workes they appealed to his words and from his words to his workes and laying the fault on the Sun they said Animam nostram tollis Thou makest vs to doubt If thou be the Christ tell vs plainly In three words they vttered three notorious lies The first Dic nobis palam Tell vs plainly for all that thou hast hitherto sayd vnto vs is as nothing The second Dic nobis palam and we will beleeue thee The third Dic nobis palam for that is the reason why wee haue not hitherto beleeued thee Saint Augustine and Saint Chrysostome haue both obserued that in these their lies there was a great deale of craft subtletie which was this That the Iewes did still presume that our Sauiour Christ would boast himselfe to bee King of the Iewes and that he was temporally to sit in Dauids Throne they went about to draw this from him that they might haue some ground of accusation against him and therefore they thus cried out vnto him Dic nobis palam Tel vs plainly for in all the rest that they desired of him our Sauiour Christ had giuen them full satisfaction For if Palam be to publish a thing openly and not to doe it in hugger-mugger or in some by-corner or other I haue alwayes preached publiquely in your Synagogues and in the middest of your Market-places And I sayd nothing in secret If Palam shall carrie with it a kind of boldnesse and libertie yee may call to mind my whipping of you out of the Temple the seueritie of my reprehensions and that I called yee the children of the Deuill that I might publish your euill thoughts to the world c. If Palam shall signifie Cleerely or Manifestly what more cleere or manifest truth could ye heare than that which I haue preached vnto you Wil you that I shal tel you in a word who I am I and the father am one Of the materiall Sunne a man may complaine That an earnest eying of it and a steadie fixed looking thereupon may make vs blind but on the Sunne of Righteousnesse no man can lay this fault for hee himselfe giues that light whereby our eyes are inabled to see The commandement of the Lord is pure and giueth light vnto the eyes And therefore Saint Paul calls the old Law Night and the Law of Grace Day In that Law the Sunne had not shewed it selfe all was clouds and darkenesse and albeit they did inioy some light it was but a glimpse or as the light of a candle through some little chinke but when the Sonne of God appeared in the flesh that darkenesse of the night was driuen away and the day appeared c. I told yee and yee beleeue not the workes that I doe in my fathers name they beare witnesse of me Our Sauiour Christ had prooued himselfe to be both God and Man by such conuenient meanes that it had beene follie if not meere madnesse to haue desired better
Enableth vs to doe what Nature cannot 50 The order of it different from that of Nature 108 Not obtained without diligence 166 H Haire HAire hath bin hurtfull vnto many  Harlot The price of a Harlot no lasting portion 397 Her manners ibid. Hardnesse of heart In the Iewes without paralelle 206 They that liue in it iustly suffered to dye in it 58 117 Markes whereby to know a hard heart 296 A hard heart can neuer be mollified 537 Health Life is no life without it 239 Heart It cannot loue and hate both at once 117 Mans heart Gods temple 557 c. Of the whole man God desires only the heart 369 What is vnderstood by heart 371 It hath many enemies and all within it selfe ibid. The heart of the Earth what 130. Hearers Curious hearers reprooued 124 Heauen The ioyes of it 194 Not purchased without violence 230 391 545 In our passage to it no tyes of Nature to be regarded 311 The glorie of it 627 Hell The paines of it how dreadfull 244 c. All other paines but pastimes to these 453 Honour Despised of Christ. 327 Neuer without it's burden 35 Gods children more ambitious to deserue it than inioy it 192 Earthly honours brooke no partnership 228 The desire of honour not alwayes to bee condemned 327 Honours where no merit is addes but to our shame 554 Desired of all 555 Hope More prevailent with man than feare 190 The nature of both 619 Sathans practise to depriue Iob of his hope 620 Hospitalitie Pleasing to God 375 God the onely keeper of it 443 Humilitie Twofold one of the Vnderstanding another of the Will 33 The onely way to Heauen 217 No Humilitie like our Sauiours 635 Hunger A great temptation 80 Why Christ would hunger 78 Hypocricie Feignes the good it hath not 15 A kind of Stage-play 16 The Hypocrite hath no hope of Heauen 18 The danger of hypocriticall and luke-warme Christians 268 301 Hypocrisie straines at a Gnat and swallowes a Camell 262 368 I Ego I. A Word of great authoritie 45 Iealousie A true symptome of basenesse 338 Iewes A jealous and enuious people 315 Gods many fauours toward them 316 Their subtiltie and incredulitie 565 566 The murderers of all Gods Saints 602 In nature both like the Bore and the Beare 604 Ignorance A maine cause of all our euill 401 591 Images What difference betwixt the maker of them and the worshipper 151 Incredulitie A maine let to Christs miracles 322 Incontinencie Is a Sinne which hath two properties 570 Informers Like the flyes of Aegypt in a common weale  Ingratitude The first fault that euer was committed 143 Neuer vnpunished of God 144 No cut to vnkindnesse 224 God substracts his blessings from the vngratefull 270 It is vsually the requitall of goodnesse 330 The Embleme of it 383 568 To returne euill for good a diuelish sin 635 Inheritance Gods inheritance may run a twofold danger 248 Iniuries Must be patiently digested 47 When and how to beforgiuen 333 c. To suffer them is true noblenesse 533 Intercession Not to be vnderstood but of the liuing 379 Two things required to make it effectuall 378 Ionas Whence descended 132 Reasons mouing him to flye 133 Why he would be cast into the Sea 136 The Marriners charitable affection towards him 137 Iugde No small comfort that Christ shall bee our Iudge 94 Two properties of a Iudge 95 He must not be rash 137 Iudges must incline to mercie 421 A good Iudge compared to a Crane 458 Iudgement Why attributed to Christ. 94 Iudgement how to be guided 471 c. All shall appeare in iudgement 98 The day of Iudgement desired of the Iust. 99 Pilats Iudgement against Christ. 640 The most vniust that euer was 641 Iudas Foolish two wayes in the sale of our Sauiour 634 The vilenesse of his fault ibid. Iustification A greater worke than either the creation of the World or of Angels 294 572 The first step to it is mercie and pitie 397 Set out by diuers apt similitudes 573 582 K Knowledge See Learning Wisedome TO know thy selfe the beginning of perfection 480 L Lambes A Name attributed to the iust and why 154 Law Whereunto vsefull 40 The law of Taliation 46 Lawes if many gainefull to some but losse to the most 363 Learning See Wisedome Not gotten without labour 464 c. God the giuer of it 466 Lent Why called the Spring of the Church 10 Liberalitie Must be waited on by Frugalitie 444 Life This life onely a procession of quicke and dead 489 True life is to meditate on death 1 4 490 c. Short life content with short allowance 8 542 Whether better a publique or a priuat life 107 An euill life the losse of Faith 128 Long life the enlargement of sinne 136 Life seldome wearisome to any 174 The euills of this life are onely seeming euills 179 180 Life without health no life 239 Why desperat sinners are suffered to liue long 241 Nothing permanent in this life 243 This life is onely toyle and labour both to the wicked and the iust 396 Light Twofold 188 The excellencie of that light which is spirituall 189 Christ why called the Light of the World 517 The benefit of this Light ibid. c. Reasons why some hate and shun it 519 What is meant by Light of life 522 Looking-Glasses Why placed about the Lauer in the Temple 526 Lord. A name implying Honour and Power 32 Loue To loue our selues wee need not be commaunded 42 We must loue our enemies 43 The causes why we cannot 49 How our loue must be ordered 56 The perfection of it how to be discouered 57 Neuer without feare 92 How God should be loued 377 Gods loue is alwaies working 388 435 475 c. 477 It cannot be repayd but with loue 475 No loue where no reliefe 503 Gods loue seene by his delayes in punishing 513 Loue and Hate transforme a man alike into their obiects 564 Nothing more tedious to one that loues than the absence of what he loues 633 Loue triumpheth ouer God himselfe 635 Lyar Lying The World the Flesh and the Deuill all lyars 528 The mischiefe of lying 529 M Madnesse TWofold 604 Magistrates Should bee free from what they punish in others 360 457 Like sheepe-heards they should feed their flockes rather than fleece them 437 In choice of State ministers what ought to be regarded 441 Magistrates should be bold in reforming publique abuses 454 c. More heede the conuersion of the offendor than the correction of his offence 455 Two things they should specially looke vnto their conscience and their fame 526 They must be examples 527 Christ in his proceeding against the Deuill a patterne for all magistrates ibid. That Common-wealth is lost in which the magistrates and their ministers are both bad 563 They should euer haue Gods Laws before their eyes 588 Ill Rulers sent by God to punish the people 600 They should account no time their owne but other mens 631 Malice Will
necessary 148 What we are to demand in prayer ibid. Importunitie in prayer pleasing to God 151 We must pray discreetly 157 Not with the tongue onely 370 Sicke patients may pray but not prescribe 45 Heartlesse prayers like soundlesseinstruments 501 Our prayers must not be long but strong ibid. Pride Presumption What kind of sinne 7 Mans presumption 230 The bane of the Soule 257 Neuer vnpunished 609 610 Princes See Magistrates Should regard their people 216 They little respect honest seruices 541 Profit Priuat profit regarded of euerie one 418 Prosperitie Alwayes enuied 182 Finds Freinds Aduersitie none 198 Worldly prosperity can follow no man farther than the graue 243 No sure token of Gods loue 376 The Soules bane ibid. Prouidence Distrust of Gods prouidence the cause of much euill 438 It reacheth alwayes to the preseruation of his children 563 Punishments See Chastisement Gods different from those of earthly Princes 109 He proportions them to our sinnes 102 He vseth them onely for preseruation 168 249 261 486 and yet many times prolongs them ibid. 332 We are punishable euen for our thoughts 169 The lesse wee are punished here the worse our estate 179 God labors to conceale both his Rewards and Punishments 190 207 Princes haue a threefold end in punishing 247 Great punishments not bee inflicted without great consideration 267 Gods punishments of two sorts 268 R Recreations LAwfull if moderate 10 Necessarie 428 Redemption Christ tooke great paines for it was at much cost 391 The greatnesse of it may be seene by the greatnesse of Christs shame 553 Reformation Mens reformations wherein differing from those of God 271 Religion Sinne neuer more odious than when masked with Religion 40 Mans wantonnesse in matters of Religion 122 The dishonor of Christians is to differ in Religion 298 No cost more tedious to man than that which is bestowed vpon Religion 431 Religion must not be guided by policie but contrary 594 Repentance How it is to be framed 9 The Niniuites Repantance 140 It is neuer to be delayed 10 141 624 A patterne of it 177 c. What may cause it 281 Two things required of euery true penitent 293 We must hasten it 382 484 Humilitie Obedience Faith required thereunto 484 The nature of it 486 Gods goodnes towards the truly penitent 508 Of Maries Repentance 574 Reprobation Neuer discouered to any 207 Gods prescience not the cause of it ibid. Reproches Christ more sensible of them than any other iniuries 535 Reproofes Not alwayes in seison 297 Brotherly correction is to haue place euerie where 334 He that would reprooue another must correct himselfe 338 Reproofe when to be vsed 339 c. how ibid. They must be priuat 343 We must not refuse to reprooued 348 To reprooue a sinner is the best seruice we can doe to God 350 The most faulty euer most ready to reprooue 399 424 Sharpe reproofes worke weake effects 590 Resurrection Christs Resurrection the greatest Myracle 128 c. 460 That his Death two Mysteries discouering all Gods Attributes 459 Reuenge Belongs onely to God 43 46 342 In man a symptome of cowardise 538 Riches Their vanitie 21 How they may be sought 22 Not so much respected of God as pouertie 30 They may be possessed but not desired 233 Vsually accompanied with Pride and Cruelty 239 Righteous They are the strength of the land in which they soiourne 426 God allowes them not Bread for nothing 63 Sensible of Gods wrongs 74 Very rare 544 545 Secure in all Stormes because God is with them 67 They long after the day of Iudgement 99 Called Sheepe and Lambes and why 154 They reioyce in afflictions why 185 396.566 Despicable without but â—ich within 188 Mindfull of Gods seruice not of their owne 502 So likewise of his iniuries not their owne 503 Riuers Three in this World 405 S Sacrament See Communion Sacrifice The greatnesse of the Iewish sacrifices 105 Saluation Diuersly sought after by Christians 325 Scribes and Pharisees Their austerity and hypocrisie 112 210 Their office ibid. Scripture Neuer to be searched vnto the depth 45 Scorning A vice particular to the Iewes 116 Securitie A dangerous state 532 Sermons Ought to sauour more of salt than sugar 124 Seruants How to behaue themselues towards their Masters 25 c. Seruice If good a sure motiue to draw on a recompence 29 Little regarded of earthly Princes 541 God must be serued before Man ibid. It is bad seruice to share in other mens sinnes ibid. Sheepe Gods children why so called 154 Sinne. Not feared of Men but only for the suffering 70 All sinnes not punished alike 101 170 Sinne vndermines the Soule by degrees 128 It drawes destruction after it 135 Occasions of sinne must be auoided 147 181 515 611 The foulenesse of sinne 204 372 575 It is the cause of all miserie 205 279 478 589 Desirous to doe more than it is able ibid. God not the author of it 208 Wee must not iudge of a mans sinfulnesse by his sufferings 589 They alwayes goe by sholes 264 The lesser euer punished by the greater ibid. Sin causeth the translation of Kingdomes 270 Sinne seperates Man from God and from himselfe 280 c. 511 Hard to be remoued 285 378 Of all other things most hurtfull to man 305 It driues vs farre from God 331 A monster and why 334 The sinne of Cain greater than that of Adam 603 The leauing of sinne a sure marke of Predestination 400 It is euer attended on by shame 410 Growes loathsome through satietie ibid. Foure principles concerning the secrecie of sin 415 It will discouer it selfe ibid Nothing so terrible to man as the sight of his sinnes 422 'T is onely for sinne that God forsakes vs. 427 Sinne it selfe a scourge to the sinner 453 Old sinnes must be strongly reprooued 456 Sinne the onely securitie that God could haue from man for his glorie 480 Sinne is death it selfe 497 It should be our Slaue 502 It so alters a man that God cannot know him 511 Custome in Sinne whereunto compared 513 Old Sinnes hardly cured ibid. Sinne makes the most valiant man a coward 525 No man free from it ibid. Wee may not dally with it 575 Relapses into it dangerous 577 Let vs eye our Sinnes and God will not ibid. Why God suffers his children many times to fall into Sinne. 611 Sinner To Sinners all things worke together for the worst 131 Their societie must be auoided 181 No Sinner but is sometimes touched 204 Desperate Sinners why suffered to liue long 240 Sinners Slaues to their sinnes 265 Vsually taken in their owne snares ibid. They loue not to be checkt 273 Their miserable estate 279 Whereunto compared 279 Their posture 280 Foure differences betwixt a just man and a sinner 354 Two sorts of sinners 367 We must neuer despaire of their conuersion 399 Alwayes ready to disguise excuse their sins 595 Better to suffer with the Saints than to be dignified with Sinners 500 Dead Lazarus the embleme of a