euery strange thing hee heares of and to haue euery costly thing which he sees how can this loue of Christ bo in him He which hateth his brother whom he daily sees how can hee loue his Sauiour whom hee neuer saw When the concupiscence of the eye is waxen dimme and the faire forbidden fruit is faded Alas how will yee wish that yee had seene lesse and lesse loued that yee saw and more loued him whom yee neuer saw Behold him in his members behold him in his poore distressed membes behold him harbourlesse and naked behold him hungry and thirsty Cloth him lodge him feed him if you loue him that when you shall see him comming in the Clouds with glory yee may heare Come yee blessed for when I was hungry you fed mee when I was naked you clothed mee Which happinesse Hee grant vs that liueth and raigneth with the Father and Holy Ghost to whom bee all praise and glory euermore Amen The end of the third Sermon THE FOVRTH SERMON Of the frailty of Man 1. PET. 1.24 All flesh is as grasse and all the glory of man as the flower of grasse THIS is the echo of a cry in the fortieth chapter of Esay the sixth verse rebounding from the solidity of Peter The voice said cry Because all flesh the whole world must heare And because the whole world is so ingurgitate in the dulnesse of flesh that without a cry they cannot heare It seemes then that God will haue this cry to bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 à resonance in our eares which no melodie of pleasure should take away The Heathen man caused one to cry daily vnto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Remember thou art a man And there are two maine cries in the Scripture The one puts vs in minde of our immortality which S. Ierom saith hee heard alwaies sounding in his eares Arise you dead and come to iudgement The second of our mortality and is of necessity precedent to the former proclaimed by this Harbinger Omnis caro foenum All flesh is grasse and all the glory of man Wherefore hee that hath eares to heare let him heare 1. the common meannesse of his nature al flesh is grasse All there is the community Flesh that is the name of his nature thirdly Grasse there is the meanenesse of his nature In the second part the meanenesse of the excellency of his nature The glory of man that is the execllency The flower of grasse there is the frailty of his excellence Lastly without exception all all the glory of man is as the flower of the grasse All flesh is grasse For God hauing made all men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of one bloud although they haue variety of distinction yet they all meete in this ground that they are grasse I am no better then my fathers saith Elias And the Apostles make themselues leuell in the same vaile of miserie with the common people of Iconium that they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subiects of the same sufferings For this cause the Holy Ghost calles the poore mans body the flesh of the rich Despise not thou thine owne flesh Now the second poynt is the name of our nature which is here called flesh The body is our worse halfe and flesh the worse of the worse for it is tender and subiect to change and losse Further the flesh lusteth against the spirit Therfore S. Gregori cals it with coÌ„tempt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this enuious little flesh By this name the Scripture calling the body or the whole man and vsing the part for the whole yet would not haue the part to bee the whole for then we should bee like the Cretians who were nothing but belly and beast or as the Israelites who seeking to fat their flesh the Psalmist saith that God sent leanesse into their soules Howsoeuer then you interpret the word flesh either of the body or of the nature and estate of man which confisteth much of things bodily or of carnalitie which is perishing of the soule in fauour of the body Of all these the Prophet cries aloud Omnis caro foenum all flesh is grasse To enter then vpon this argument which is the grassie substance of our nature did not the first man spring out of the earth and though he grew amongst the delicious fruits of paradice and had no poyson in his roote yet he continued not in honour but being transplanted into that common where we grow spred his degenerous of-spring ouer the whole earth whose seed multiplying innumerable was nourished with no other food vntill the floud came and corrupted the vertue thereof Since which time although our diet bee changed and flesh be nourished with flesh yet the chiefe of that flesh is but grasse concocted and conuerted into flesh and the flesh of men and beasts are both resolued into one dust which dust by perpetuall reuolution in the same circuit sends forth againe that aliment which sustames both them and vs. Before that iust and vniversall deluge had discoloured the earth it seemeth probable that as the dayes of man were of a greater length so the vegerable verdure of the earth was of more continuance in all habitable elymates thereof But after that calamitie immediatly in the distinction which tho Almighty established a greater portioÌ„ was allotted to the harder times the sweet seasons of the yeare were contracted and decaying Autumne the aspetitie of barren Winter prolonged Agreeably whereunto the spaces of our life were measured The yong springall soone passeth through his greene hopes and ripe manhood being straightned in the middest encroching age extends the rest in trouble and tempest vntill death There is Cruda viridisque senoctus whom the Greekes call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who through the indulgence of a milde Winter besides the venorable antiquitie of their gray haires which is the uncture of wifedome and sage experience haue also fresh vigour in their bloud and actinity in their wittes and vnderstandings But for the most part the strength of these yeares is labour and sorrow for it is soone cut downe and with one blast of Gods anger they flye away So the famous Champion sighed to see his â—ere and dead armes And Helen wept when shee sawe her withered beautie in the glasse So that the Philosophy of nature doth restraine our pride comprising the progresse and persection of our life within the period of one yeare Quale gonus foliorum tale est hominum There is a time of growing and a time of fading but no part of our time passeth out of this coÌ„passe Which affordeth matter of consideration For as plants depend vpon the planots and are more beholding to the Suimne their father then the Earth their mother so that which we liue although it be supplied by an inward cause like to that power where with the earth was first indued by the creating Word yet the fauour or displeasure of heauen conferreth more to this effect then either the natiue
as Suctonius reporteth whom all others thought vnworthy of common buriall they sent yearely some with flowers and odours to adorne his sepulcher Thus as Saint Ierome saith there are men which admire none but the basest wits and obscurest Authours Neque est fere tam ineptus scriptor quin sui similem inueniet lectorem What stupidity to preferre Cartright Brightman such trash before all the Worthies both new and old What is this but in our iourny towards heauen to forsake the glorious Lampes which haue guided all our Ancestors and to follow euery Ignis fatâ—â—s euery new light These are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 senselesse appetites 1. Tim. 6.9 as Saint Paul cals them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is of meÌ„ whose iudgements are corrupted and out of taste Wherefore almighty God is not so much displeased with Israel for her spirituall fornications although hee was displeased as that shee doated vpon such beastly and clownish louers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Asses and stallions Ezechiel 23.30 Septuag Like Pasiphae which doted on a Bull. The like infection is in all-those vnderstandings which relish nothing that is plaine and profitable ancient and honest but profane nouelties Euery worthy man hath his imperfections There is no fish without bones yet some embrace nothing but these Colligentes spinas librorum Gathering thornes out of bookes whence proceed all these bitter pamphlets and inuctiues All these are appetites of absurd Cainites whom Saint Iohn did in these wordes preuent And iointly all of that humour peruerse louers and peruerse imitators which thing also in his third Epistle and verse 11 hee generally forbiddeth Beloued be not imitators of that which is euill the Holy Ghost fore-saw that such besotted iniquities would arise that the examples of wickednesse would bee so abused therefore hee thought it not needlesse to set this marke vpon them Not as Cain enuious and murtherous and Heb. 12.16 not as Esau fornicators and prophane It is the crooked disposition of man to promote his sinfull actions by such examples as should restraine him So whereas amongst the Grecians some vsed to drinke out of a dead mans scull to moderate their pleasures by consideration of their mortality others applyed it to the prouocation of intemperance saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let vs eate and drinke for to morrow wee shall dye Further if they doe not thus peruert examples yet how little are they moued by them wherefore doth the world still offend vpon the same and no sinne can be consumed by punishment although the monuments of precedent ages doe exclaime against vs and there is no offender which hath not seene others perish by the same sinne O seeke not your death in the error of your life looke vpon your predecessors Thou intendest murder behold Caine how he is stricken with the palsie of an affrighted conscience a quaking runnagate restlesse when he resteth tormented with repentlesse horrour and vnprofitable griefe And is not euery homicide signed in the forehead Now followeth the description of this wicked person first of his nature and badnesse of disposition he was of the Diuell Euery worker of imquity is the Diuels bastard and the Diuell is a father not by substantiall procreation but by originall cause and similitude of disposition For as there is semen Dei the incorruptible seed whereby the begotten of God are the sonnes of God so there is semen Diabolt and that is concupiscence which conceiueth and bringeth forth vnto the Diuell hence sloweth that similitude of nature which discouereth the true father of the children first in countenance none are like vnto him but they that paint saith Tertullian but in speech in gesture in action innumerable in speech all slaunderers and detracters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he Diuels and she Diuels Tit us 2.3 In gesture hee that winketh with his eye treades with his foote signifieth with his fingers for to raise dissention he is a sonne of Beliall Pro. 6.13 as Salomon describeth and as for action when iniquity is growne to ripe age and maturitie of defection the children of Sathan doc so resemble their father that they bee often supposed fiends incarnate so S. Paul calleth Elimas the Magician son of the Diuell Acts 13.10 because he was replenished with all deceit Now Caine is not onely begotten but first begotten of this euill one the first branch of sinne the first propagated euill Marke how soone ill weeds shoote vp the mother is corrupted of the serpent and the first she beares is a serpent who no sooner growne able but declares his father the father the first murtherer of soules the sonne the first murtherer of bodies the father procures the first curse vpon the earth the sonne procures the second the father first brought in death the sonne vntimely death And sure if you obscrue the progeny of Satan let no discreet man bee offended you shall finde that it much tanne vpon the elder brothers First besides that Satan may bee called an elder brother being the chiefe of the wayes of God Iob. 34. Cain was the first eldest brother in the old world then cutsed Cham the eleldest of the new world and wild Ismael the eldest to the father of the faithfull and prophane Esau which sold his birth-right the father of all vnthrifty heires which sell their honour for their pleasure Lastly Ruben which desiled his fathers bed But we reade in the Gospel that the elder liued soberly at home the running Prodigall was a yonger brother This I obserue first to note the despite of Satan because the first borne is Gods therefore he endeuoureth his vtmost for that secondly how the Almightie suffers him to carry it oftentimes perhaps to signifie that these first fruits of nature are not in such high request with God there is a new creature a second Adam which he esteemeth which therefore he causeth to spring often out of yonger inscrior Nature because the excellencies of nature were so vngratefull vnto him Againe to abate the admiration of prime Nature wherewith the most spirituall sonnes of God haue been taken O that Ismael might liue in thy sight saith Abraham And Isaac would gladly haue blessed Esau but God would not So Ioseph would gladly put the right hand of his father vpon Manasseth and in Iacob I heare the voyce of Nature Iamenting Ruben my eldest sonne my might and the beginning of my strength the excellency of dignitie and the excellency of power thou wast light as water thou canst not be excellent and thy dignitie is gone To conclude seeing in this corrupt masse of humanitie the first generation that was formed was euill it argues that no man is good which is not first regenerated out of euill Nemo bonus qui non ex malâ— bonus saith S. Augustine against the spirit of Pelagius Who knowes not the vanitie of the Manichies and the dotage of Illirieus who out of this and other places made sinne substantiall
and little Zacheus who climed the Tree to looke downe vpon him that was higher then the skie Then the Wise men of the East were not worthy of that name who came so farre to see him Saint Ierome might haue made a better wish then aboue all things to haue seene Christ in the flesh But our Sauiour himselfe condemnes these men when he saith the Queene of Saba shall rise vp in iudgement against this Generation for shee came farre to heare the wisedome of Salomon and behold a greater then Salomon is heere And Luke 10.25 Blessed are the eyes that haue seene what you see for I say vnto you many Prophets haue desired to see that which you see and could not see it Which is ment of seeing Christ Iesus in his mortall estate Foelix qui potuit fontem boni visero lucidum To apply that speech vnto this sence If the eye of a man were suddenly made able to behold the Heauens the Sun and Moone and Starres in their iust splendure and bignesse Or to see the whole earth with all the creatures in it at once Vuo distincto intuitu How would his mind bee rapt with admiration But the sight of God manifested in the flesh was a farre more admirable obiect the extasie of men and Angels and as I may say the proper end why the eye was created Of which fight if the senselesse creatures had beene made capable How thinke you would the Sunne haue desired to shine continually in that climate where Hee breathed And the other parts of the earth haue contended that they also might haue receiued the impression of His sacred feete enuying the felicity of Canaan Then let all true Christians honour the happy memories of those blessed Saints who were ordained to see that Iust One and to bee eye-witnesses of that Mysterie into which the immateriall Angels do delight to pry And as for vs wee that had not that prerogatiue to see him in the flesh yet for increase of our deuotion let vs euer beare Him in our fancies and vse all meanes that wee may seeme to see him that with a readier passage wee may feele him and beare him in our hearts This is the recompence of absence and onely solace vnto true loue by imagination to fill vp the distance of time and place and transforme things past into things present Quem vidistis pastores whom saw yee shepheards tell vs tell vs. We saw the Omnipotent infant and Angels worship him But where and when and how tell mee some circumstance that I may seeme to see him Vidimus Deum parvulum pannis inuolutum matrem vbera admouentem Wee saw God a little one swadled and lying in a cribbe and his mother giuing him suck O happy sight O vnspeakeable mysterie O gratissimi vagitus per quos eternos ploratus euasimus O foelices pannim quibus peccatorum sordes abstersimus O praesepe splendidum vbi iacuit panis angelorum Lacta Maria creatorem tuum lacta virgo gloriesa O foelicia oscula lactentis labijs impressa It is S. Austens meditation Sapientia si oculis cerneretur quantos amores excitaret sui Wisedome saith Plato if it could be seene with bodily eyes how would it stirre vp men to loue it But the wisedome of God became visible and manifested in the flesh and how should it stirre vp men to loue it This did so inflame the beloued Disciple him which dranke wisedome our of the bosome of our Lord that his Epistle which is wholly precepts of loue hee beginnes with mention of seeing Christ and repeates the same word againe and againe That which wee haue seene with our eyes which wee haue looked vpon and our hands haue handled of the word of life For the life appeared and we haue seene it and it appeared that I say which wee haue seene and heard declare wee vnto you And the whole number of the twelue when after his last farewell hee ascended how stood they gazing on him as being loth to loose the last minute of his visible presence And no maruell for the very sight no doubt conueighed vnto the faithfull a benigne influence prefigured in the old Testament where to looke stedfastly vpon the brasen Serpent was soueraigne against the poysonfull sting of fierie Serpents What deuout Christian now liuing would not giue the whole world if he had it for to see him To see him either in his childe-hood or in in his youth in his humilitie or in his maiestie When it pleased him sometimes to make his glorious deitie shine through his man-hood as Saint Ierome thinkes he did when he called S. Peter S. Andrew who therefore presently laid away and followed him Heare the meditation of the blessed Father S. Austen vpon this poynt Hei mihi quia videre non potui Dominum angelorum heu quod tam inaestimabili pietati presens obstupescere non merui And further Cur ô anima c. Wherfore ô my soule wast thou not present that thou mightst haue beene pierced through with sharpest griefe when thy Sauiours side was pierced with a speare where thou couldst not haue endured to haue seene the hands and feet of thy maker rent with nailes that thou mightst haue swounded to haue seene the bloud of thy redeemer spilt that thou mightest haue condoled with the blessed virgin O gracious good Lady what streames of teares may I thinke flowed out of thy most chaste eyes when thou beheldedst thy innocent thy onely son bound scourged murdered flesh of thy flesh bone of thy bone so cruelly cut mangled And further vtinā cum felice Iosepho dominum meū de cruce deposuissem cur non fui deosculatus loca vulnerum c. Thus holy men were wont to incense their loue and their deuotion to cleanse their imaginations from the idols of carnall beautie which hauing entred at the eyes haunt the disquiet fancies of poore youth and cannot be spelled nor expelled but with the image of God incarnate For this cause our venerable ancestors from all clymates of the Christian world haue resorted to the holy Cittie that although they could not see their Sauiour yet they might see and worship where his feete had trode or walked where he wept and swet and bled and died There was the price of our redemption numbred that earth and that heauens shal witnesse that there the summe was tendered and that innocent heart-bloud powred out which none can powre into his breast againe This made good Paula and her daughter Eustochium Romane Ladies of the honourable family of the Grachi remoue with all their substance to Bethleem and there they liued and there they died with S. Ierom. This made S. Helen honour of our English nation the happy mother of great Constantioe so deuoutly to visite euery place where our Lord conuersed and euery where to erect so many famous memories so many goodly Churches This caused S. Ierom to spend the greatest part of his life there There hee
commented there he indited there hee translated And for this cause many learned Diuines amongst whom S. Ierom Eusebius with diuers of late memorie haue carefully described all the sacred places and religious monuments of the Holy land that those which haue not seene them really might see them imaginarily and nourish their Diuine cogitations without supestition without any great cost or trouble I that they might see Canaan a farre off as Moses did from mount Phasga Now looke what hath been said concerning deuotion nourished by sight the same is true likewise of the other learned sense namely hearing as the hearing of musicke or eloquent discourse which being vsed without curious scrupulositie and affectation how greatly they increase the loue of God and of his true worship it appeares to any liberall and ingenious disposition vnlesse any man thinke the vse of musicke proper to stirre vp vanity to nourish pleasure to maintaine lightnesse and obscenitie And not 1 To raise vp mens minds to meditation of heauenly ioyes whereof musick may seeme a kinde of type 2 To confider the harmonie and consent of the world how all Ages all Nations all Languages praise Him 3 Out of the mouthes of Babes sucklings hee prepareth praise 4 To expiate the eares which haue beene polluted by wanton madrigals and lasciuious ditties 5 To kindle the affections with loue of God 6 Lastly to praise him with learned hymnes who is the giuer of all excellencies Vnlesse any man thinke that eloquence was giuen naturally to adorne folly and flatteries to ouerthrow right to colour falshood and deceaue simplicity and to be misvsed when it is appliyed to strengthen truth to sweeten diligence and commend pietie Quis ita desipiat vt hoc sapiat saith Saint Augustine 4. de Dectrina Chr. And if any man obiect that Saint Austin could not resolue himselfe concerning the lawfull vse of artificiall Musicke in Churches it is false For though hee speakes of his owne experience that the delight of his sense did sometimes preuaile aboue reason yet hee confesses the excellent vse of Musick for deuotion And for being too scrupulous hee checkes himselfe calling it nimia seueritas and concludes that hee approues the custome of the Church Vt per oblectamenta aurium infirmior animus in affectum pietatis assurgat That by delight of the eare the weake minde of man might rise vp into pious affections whereof hee makes himselfe an example with delightsome remembrance how hee was moued to teares at the hearing of artificiall Church Musicke Cum reminiscor lachrymas quas fudi ad cantus ecclesiae tuae magnam instituti huius vtilitatem agnosco Besides what Saint Austine saith there of artificiall musicke may bee as well an argument against plaine song and common tunes in Churches which affect some men as much and of many are sung with as great affectation Againe if for this difficulty they would wholy reiect the lawfull vse of musicke let them reade the two chapters next going before they shal find that he maketh the same difficulty in the vse of all the senses which if they will refuse therefore then must they neither see nor smell nor eate nor drinke But this holy man there expresses his carefulnesse to auoide sin as also did Saint Athanasius whom hee there citeth But how farre their spirit was from preiudicing others or from scrupling mens consciences in the vse of the approued Institutions of the Church their other speeches and actions are sufficient witnesses Wherefore to shorten this discourse let vs all endeuour to haue a zealous and deuout loue of Christ both that which riseth out of knowledge and vnderstanding and that which riseth out of sense and affection And to this purpose vse all those meanes which the practise of most holy Fathers and the law of Nature her selfe doth warrant which is not sensuall loue but affectionate and holy raised out of sense As they which saw Christ loued him the more not for the lineaments of his body but being enflamed with consideration that they should see their Creator become Flesh who is in his owne Nature inuisible That they should see the same passions as in themselues in him which was Impassible and all their owne infinrmities without deformitie of sinne That man might not now chuse but loue God vnlesse he would not loue himselfe This I say bred admiration and loue in them a spirituall loue yet raised out of sense and is chiefe part of that which wee properly call deuotion And thus much of the first part of my Text namely the loue of Christ being seene Where I haue shewed how much sight augmenteth loue And how all other sensible meanes and externall practises are incitements and inuitations to encrease deuotion Deuotion which is the onely happinesse of this life and to be preferred before wisedome subtilty or discourse being indeed the end and perfection of all The delicious taste of heauenly ioyes which God giues vnto his Saints here that they may long after the fruition of the whole Whereof Saint Austine speakes in the 40 chap. of the 10. booke of his Confessions Et aliquando intromittis me Domine in affectum multum inusitatum introrsum ad nescio quam dulcedinem quaesi perficiatur in me nescio quid erit quod vita ista non erit Now to the second part which is the loue of Christ not seene Quem cum non videritis diligitis whom yee loue though yee haue not seene This not onely S. Peter heere but S. Paul also with many other Worthies haue admired to see how soone the world without compulsion consented to follow and to loue Him whom they neuer saw How so many thousands and millions were moued with such a strange instinct to leaue their goods their wiues their children parents their deerest Country and lastly to loose their liues so willingly for loue of him whom they neuer saw This amazed the vnbeleeuing world to see her number daily minished and most furious persecutors become the hottest louers What secret influence so raigned in mens hearts what cruel loue made them so impatient that they ranne showting to their death Wherefore forsooke they all their present ioyes which they not onely saw but caryed in their eyes to loue him whom they saw not Crying Hunc amemus huno amemus Nothing could bribe them or abalienate their mindes Youth was not moued with beauty nor old age with money nor children with feare of death nor States-men with preferment No contumelies no disgraces preuailed they suffered all things they endured all things and all this for the loue of him whom they neuer saw The new married preferred the graue before the bed Honourable and beautifull maides choose rather to bee called virgins of Christ then queenes to great Princes The fraile sexe was crowned with Martyrdome and compassionate mothers ouercomming nature beheld with cheerefull countenance their swete infants killed for the loue of Christ as wee read of that happy childe which died