that he delighted himself much in often feasting and being reproved for it by some friends of his he gave them this answer If feasting were not a good thing men would not honour God and the Saints so much with it Lo here Beloved the natural consequence of Church-feasts they are nothing else but an Apology for luxury For when the Ministers of God shall out of these and the like places reprove superfluity of diet the people have their answer ready If this were a fault then why is Christ and his Saints thus honoured with it This splendor of feasting and eating in memory of the Saints hath a little dazel'd the eyes of some great persons St. Hierom although a great Clerk and singular contemner of secular superfluities yet we see in what a strange passion he was when he wrote his book against Vigilantius And what think you might be the cause of so much heat Understand you must that there was a custom in the Church in sundry places for men and women young and old of all qualities and conditions upon the Vigils of the Martyrs to come together by night and meet in Church-yards and there eat and drink upon the Tombs of the Martyrs This corruption Vigilantius had reproved And good cause I think he had so to do Nox vinum mulier when men women maids shall meet together by night in Church-yards to eat and drink I think your own discretion will easily suggest unto you what fruits were like to come It seems the Churches found some which they liked not well of for by common consent these kinds of meetings have been long since laid down and in some Churches express Canons by Synods have been made to decry them Yet the maintenance of this was that great matter which cast St. Hierom into so great choler Yet these men have brought feasts into the Militant Church what shall we think of those who have brought feasting into the Church Triumphant There was an error in the Church very ancient and very general called the error of the Millenaries which arose immediately after the Apostles times and strongly prevailed with almost all the Fathers of the Church before the Nicene Council These men taught that there would be a time when our Saviour should come from Heaven and raise out of the dust all those that were his and reign with them here on earth a thousand years in all abundance in all secular pomp imaginable Would you know what bâ—essings these men did expect in that imaginary Kingdom Let Irenaeus Bishop of Lyons in France tell it you who was one of the great Patrons of that error and lived within two hundred yeares of Christ He bringing in our Saviour discoursing to his Disciples concerning the state of that Kingdom amongst other instances of great happinesse there to be found makes him report this There shall be saith he in a field ten thousand vines every vine shall have ten thousand branches every branch ten thousand stalks every stalk ten thousand clusters every cluster ten thousand grapes and every grape viginti quinque metretas five and twenty pottles of wine More to that purpose doth that Father speak by which he evidently betrayed what a childish gross conceit he had of the spiritual Kingdome of Christ which he took to be like Mahomets Paradise and measured out the Kingdome of Heaven by meats and drinks which above all things in the world that carry any necessity in them are the most vain Again for the better countenance of this outward jollity in the Church I see some men have attempted to entitle our Saviour Jesus Christ himself unto it for First it is espied in Scripture that our Saviour is often found at feasts Now for the rest that which the Scripture cannot do Tradition shall help us out in for in the Second place Tradition will instruct us that the seamlesse Coat which he wore was of a precious stuff and admirable texture Thirdly Tradition will tell us that he had a silver cup wherein at his last Supper he gave the Wine and that this cup is to be seen at this day in some one of the Parish-Churches of Rome Fourthly in the publick Treasury of the Common-wealth of Genoa there is a Charger made of an holy Emerald a very rich and precious piece If we consult with Tradition that will tell us and the whole Common-wealth of Genoa doth believe it that this was the dish wherein our Saviour Christ had his diet served Thus Beloved we who should frame the world to fit Christ have framed a Christ to fit the world And if we hearken but a little to the belly the issue of all will be this not onely the World but the Church Religion Heaven Christ himself will turn to good-fellowship If the world joyn with the belly and meats it doth what becomes it Habent enim qualitatem symbolam they sympathize all three for as God shall destroy both it and them so must this world pass away and the form of it onely let Christians and the Churches hope be immortality Give me leave to conclude with the very words with which I began What then remains but that we take the counsel which St. Ambrose gives us Tanquam defunctus c. THE FOURTH SERMON MAT. 23.38 Behold your House is left unto you desolate SEverity in God seems to be a quality not natural but casual and occasioned unto which in a manner he is constrained besides his nature {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} For God saith Trismegistus hath but one onely property one quality and that is Goodness Prior bonitas Dei secundum naturam posterior severitas secuncum causam illa ingenita haec accidens illa propria haec accommodata illa edita haec adhibita saith Tertullian The prime quality in God is goodnes for that is natural severity is later as being occasioned that is eternal this is adventitious that is proper unto him this is but borrowed that inwardly flowes from him this is forreignly fixed upon him We usually observe that if we would know things what they are by nature and of themselves we must consider their first actions and operations which voluntarily flow from them before that either Art or Custom hath altered them Beloved will you know the truth of what I but now spake that God of himself and by his nature is onely good then observe his first actions into which his own nature carried him Number all his acts from the Creation till the Fall of Man and you shall find in them nothing but goodness When he created this beautiful frame of Heaven and Earth Men and Angels in that wonderful order who counselled him or what moved him thus to do He was of himself all-sufficient and needed nothing why then did he thus break out into action certainly because he was good For goodness otium sui naturá non patitur hinc censetur si agatur Goodness is a restless thing alwayes in doing and
of all consider what reasons we may find out why God should hold so unrespective a hand and secondly we will draw some Uses from the Doctrines And first of the reasons why God doth thus proceed And first I ask what if peradventure we were able to render no reason at all of this action of God ought this to prejudice or call in question the justice of it Alas we are men of dull and slow understanding when we have turned our Books and spent our daies and nights in study and wearied our selves in searching out the causes of naturall things yet with all this sweat with all this oyle we cannot attain so far as to know why the grasse which growes under our feet is rather green then purple or scarlet or any other colour And think we then to dive into supernaturalls and search out those causes which God hath locked up in his secret Treasures St. Austin having written to a scholar of his and opened many points unto him tells him that if he had given him at all no reason of such things as he had written yet he ought to be with him of such authority and credit that he should take them upon his word without any farther question Was it thus betwixt St. Austin and his scholar how much more then ought it to be so betwixt God and us how readily ought we to take him on his word and willingly believe him above against our reason Hiero King of Sicilie when he had seen those wonderfull devises and engines which Archimedes that great Mathematician and Engineer had fram'd and considered what marvellous effâ—cts they were able to produce beyond all expectation he commanded to be proclaimed that whatsoever Archimedes hereafter affirmed how unlikely soever it seem'd to be yet sans question it should be taken to be true Beloved the great Geometrician of Heaven which made all things in number weight and measure hath infinitely surpassed all human inventions whatsoever and can we do him less honour then Hiero did to Archimedes then cause it to be proclaimed throughout the world that whatsoever he saith or doth shall be taken for just and true howsoever no probability no reason can be assigned The whole disputation of the book of Job doth drive at this very Doctrine for when that God had afflicted Job in that fearfull manner and his friends were come to comfort him there arises a question concerning the reason why Job should thus be handled His friends grounding themselves upon this conclusion that all affliction is for sin lay folly and iniquity to his charge and tell him that though he had made fair shew in publick yet certainly he had been a close irregular and though he had escaped the eye of the world yet the judgement of God had found him out But Job on the contrary stoutly pleades his innocency and marvels for what reason the hand of God should be so heavy upon him And when their controversie could have no issue behold Deus è machina God himself comes down from Heaven and puts an end unto the question and having condemned Job of ignorance and imbecillity tels him that it was not for him to seek a cause or to call his judgments in question Secondly it may well be that we may save our labour that we need not move the question or seek a reason at all For in these common calamities which befall whole Kingdoms it may be God doth provide for the righteous and deliver him though we perceive it not It is the property of God {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to find means when all mens inventions faile He bringeth down into the grave and raiseth up again saith Hannah in the first of Samuel Some examples in Scripture make this very probable The old world is not drowned till Noah be provided for Sodom cannot be fired till Lot be escaped Daniel and his fellowes though they go away into captivity with rebellious Juda yet their captivity is sweetned with honours and good respect in the land into which they go And who knows whether God be not the same upon all the like occasions How many millions of righteous persons have thus peradventure been delivered whose names notwithstanding are no where recorded It was an observation of the Junior Plinie Facta dictaque virorum illustrium alia clariora alia majora All men have not gained credit in the world according to their desert Some things of no great worth are very famous in the world whereas many things of better worth are less spoken of or perchance ly altogether buried in obscurity caruerunt quia vate sacro because they lighted not on such who might transmit their memory to posterity The examples of Daniel and Lot and sundry others which because they stand upon record take up the talk and speech of the world may peradventure be of this rank perchance they are onely clariora they are onely more spoken of and others whose memory is lost are non minora sed obscuriora are no whit lesse then they onely they are lesse spoken of St. Austin observes out of Sallust that divers reading the ancient Stories and finding many famous persons mention'd in them much commended those times because they thought that all the men had been such as those As this was an errour in those that read the ancient Stories so let us take heed lest we reading the holy Stories of the Bible fall upon a contrary errour and finding the memory of Daniel and Lot and others so strangely in these generall plagues delivered suppose there were none but these Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona doubtless both before and since millions have made the like escapes though their memory lies buried in oblivion Thirdly be it granted that in these oecumenical these general plagues the righteous and sinner speed alike yet there is great reason it should be so For though in great and crying sins the righteous partake not with the wicked yet in smaller sins the righteous and sinner evermore concur For who is amongst the sons of men that can presume himself free from these kind of sins Now the greatest temporall punishment that is imaginable is far too little for the smallest sin you can conceive for the due reward of the smallest sin that is can be no lesse then eternall torment in hell This is enough to clear God of all injustice for who can complain of temporall that doth justly deserve eternall paines Or why should they be severed in the penalty that are thus joyned together in the cause And what though the fault of the one be much the lesse it will not therefore follow that the punishment should be lesse It will seem a paradox that I shall speak unto you yet will it stand with very good reason Great cause many times there is why the smaller sin should be amerced and fined with the greater punishment In the Poenitential Canons he that kills his mother is enjoyned ten years penance
but he that kills his wife is enjoyned a far greater and the reason is immediately given not because it is the greater sin but because men are commonly more apt to fall upon the sin of murdering their wives than their mothers Beloved the reason is larger than the instance and it teaches us thus much That in appointing the mulct for a sin men ought not onely to consider the greatness of it but the aptness of men to fall into it It is a note that St. Austin layes upon smaller sins that they are tantò crebrïora quantò minora because they be less men presume the oftner to commit them It is good wisdom therefore when ordinary punishment will not serve to redress them to enhance and improve their penalty A. Gellius reportes that there was a law in Rome that he that gave a man a box on the ear was to pay him about the summe of twelve pence of our money Now there was a loose but a rich fellow that being â—isposed to abuse the law was wont to walk the streets with a purse of money and still as he met any man he would give him a box on the ear and then a twelve-pence and a box of the ear and so a twelve-pence to represse the insolency of such a fellow there was no way but to increase the value of the mulct Beloved the same course doth God take with us when his ordinary and moderate punishments will not serve to restrain us from falling into smaller sins he sharpens the penalty lest we should make the gentlenesse of the law an occasion of sin And hence it seems it doth proceed that God many times layes so great penalties upon the righteous person and couples him with the grosser sinner in these general plagues which by his providence do befall the world A fourth reason I will borrow from St. Austin who in his first Book De Civitate Dei touching upon this question Why the righteous partake with the wicked in common calamities notes one special cause to be that they use not that liberty which they ought in reprehending sinners but by their silence seem to consent and partake in their sin and therefore justly partake in their punishment For Beloved it is not as you think that this duty of reprehension is impropriate and pertains onely to the Ministry it is a common duty for as Tertullian spake in another case In majestatis reos publicos hostes omnis homo miles est Against Traytors and common enemies every man is a souldier so is it true here every one that is of strength to pull a soul out of the fire is for this business by counsel by advice by rebuking a Priest neither must he let him lye there to expect better help Thou shalt not see thy brother sin but thou shalt rebuke and save thy brother saith God in Leviticus He speaks it not unto the Priest but to the people Cura animarum the cure of Soules is committed to every man as well as to the Priest Every one of you hath cure of Soules either of his child or his servant or of his friend or of his neighbour and if any of these perish through your default his blood shall be required at your hands The man in the Gospel that fell amongst theeves when he was neglected by the Priest and the Levite the Samaritan undertook the cure of him Though thou be but a Samaritan though but a Lay-person yet if thou findest thy brother faln into the devils hands thou must not send for the Priest or the Levite but dischaâ—ge the cure thy self For God that commands thee to bring home thy brothers beast if thou find him going astray much more meant that thou shouldest bring home thy straying brother Common charity requires thus much at thy hand and to make question of it is as if thou shouldest ask with Cain Am I my brothers keeper The neglect of this duty as in it self it is a great sin so is it in another respect much greater because it interests us in other mens sins For were we frequent in discharging this duty in all likelyhood sin would not be so rife whereas now by neglect of it we as it were pull down the banks and open a wide gap to sin and wickedness No marvel therefore if sometimes the righteous person find himself overwhelmed with those flouds to which himself hath opened the way And let this suffice for the reasons which may be drawn to clear Gods Justice from all imputation in the execution of his general judgments Let us now a little see what Uses we may make of this Doctrine And first of all the consideration of the general judgments of God is a notable argument to work out the conversion of the obstinate sinner For howsoever many times sinners in the heat and prosecution of their sins forget and neglect themselves yet when they shall be put in mind what a train their sin hath how it may enwrap their posterity their family their whole country how like it is unto the Dragons tayl in the Revelation which drew down the stars from Heaven how even good men and the Saints of God may fall within its compass and smart for it if they have not put off all sense of common humanity this must needs make them return and consider of their wayes For as on the one side we say commonly Non nobis solis nati sumus partem amici partem patria c. No man is born onely for his own good but for the good of his friends for the good of his Country and millions more beside himself so is it true on the other side no man sinnes unto himself alone but with the hazard of his friends with the hazard of his Country and infinite more beside The thought of this must needs break the heart of a sinner that is not quite turned to flint We read in our books that when Ulysses feigned himself mad because he would not goe to the Trojan War and in his madnesse drove his plough fantastically those who were sent to discover him layd his young son Telemachus in the furrow to see if he would drive over him at the sight of whom all his mask of madness fell off Beloved though sinners run mad in sin though they drive as furiously as Jehu did yet if we lay before them their wives and children dulcia pignora if any sense remain they will forget their madnesse and not drive over them It is a great means of loosenesse in many men that they stand alone and have none to depend from them none to care for but themselves And those who seek out persons whom they may employ in desperate purposes will soonest fasten upon such an one who is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} sine re sine spe without house or lands or kindred for such commonly are the fittest pieces to make instruments of villany who have nothing to lose But Beloved in the case we now speak of no man can assure himself he stands alone and sins onely to his own danger for if he live amongst men he sins with the losse and hazard of millions more besides himself Our second Use shall be a note of comfort for those good men who bear a part in any common calamity it is this That they be not disheartned to see themselves yoked in punishment with wicked persons as if that God held the same esteem of the one and of the other For that is most true which St. Austin spake Manet dissimilitudo passorum etiam in similitudine passionum howsoever the penalties be alike yet God sees a great difference betwixt the Patients though the world perchance cannot distinguish them The gold and the drosse lye in one fire yet the Workman can distinguish them and puts the one into his Treasury the other to the Dunghil The Wheat and the Chaff are both under one Flail yet the Husbandman severs them the one to the Granary the other to the Fire God in very good wisdom may and doth refuse to discover his love by any outward token of distinction Amongst the sons of Jacob it occasioned much mischief that their Father in token of his love had given his son Ioseph a gayer Coat than unto the rest of his brethren To take therefore away from us all strife and emulation it pleased God to clothe us all alike and to leave no difference betwixt the Coats of Ioseph and his brethren It is the property of servants many times if they discover their masters love to be cranck and bear themselves proud of it and so contemne their fellow-servants That this befall not us it pleased God to conceal his love untill time convenient and mean while to give both good and bad the same Livery the same look and countenance Let us therefore with patience expect the day of separation and since this world is the place wherein we must be cleansed and purified let no man be disheartned if he find himself in the same fire with the dross in the same floor with the chaff in the same punishment with the wicked FINIS R. Luâ—â—â—â— Private persons first beget errors in the multitude and make them publick and publickness of them begets them again in private persons