mightie proud of his trees and fruits and shadowes very likely that doating on them he would not so soone haue parted with thē as Adam did Yes possibly much sooner if possibly that might be when he shewed himselfe so fantasticall any toy would soone haue turned him who was vp and downe with such trifles 10 Hereafter do not maruell that the Lord forbiddeth men to glorie in greater matters Let not the wise man glorie in his wisedome nor the strong man glorie in his strength neither the rich man glorie in his riches but let him that glorieth glorie in this that he vnderstandeth and knoweth me when a Prophet shall be pleased in such silly shadowes as if it were in some celestiall ioy For the emphasis of the word doth intend that he was very highly pleased And yet it is a thing much vaine to set too great affection on strength or wit or wealth or any terrestriall matter For do we not a wrong to God and much spoile him of his honour that when we are to loue him with all our heart and all our soule to thinke of him to rest in him to make him our meditation and to vse all other creatures but as his gifts and blessings by a million of degrees subordinate to himselfe and only to be employed to the setting forward of his seruice we will dreame of them and thinke of them sleeping and waking in company and alone Do not parents thus oftentimes set their hearts vpon their children and make almost Gods of them at euery word my sonne or my boy or little girle and when they grow somewhat bigger there are no children like their children the wind may scant blow on them the very ground is the better that they do go vpon the sleepe is neuer too much broken nor the belly too much pinched to heape vp trash for these children Yea from whom will they not pull euen the widow and the fatherlesse to enrich this their delight Do they not grieue to part with a peny to the vse of the most holy businesses because it may diminish their portions This made Saint Austen say For whom do they keepe their riches for their children he aunswereth and they againe for their children and the third descent for theirs But what is here for Christ what is here for thy soule Is euery whit for thy children Among their sonnes on earth let them thinke vpon one brother aboue in heauen on whome they should bestow all or at the least deuide with him But Christ and God shall stand backe when it commeth to these daintie children Now to speake plainly was this the end wherefore thou beggedst children at the hand of thy maker to delight thy soule with them Was this the cause wherefore God gaue them that they might thrust him out from the habitation of thy heart Thou doest vse his blessings fairely to ioy more of the gift then thou doest of the giuer not to thinke who sent the tree but to ioy onely in the shadow It is oddes of many to one but that thy wantons afterward will worke thee as much ioy as Elies children did to their doting father that is bring a curse on thee or them or as Dauids sonnes did to him when Amnon rauished Thamar and Absolon slue Amnon 11 Looke what is here said of children is as true also of beautie God doth giue to some the countenance of a Ioseph or a Hester of purpose to remember them that as their bodies exceed so their soules should go beyond their fellowes in deuotion in sanctitie and all vertue else the out-side will be faire and the in-side will be foule it will be but a painted sheath it will be but a whited sepulcher But it falleth out oftentimes that in steed of thankfulnesse and humilitie there groweth such an ouer-liking of this fraile and brittle shew that God is displeased therewith Heathen men haue thought vpon the fading of this flowe◠Forma bonum fragile est Beautie is but a brittle good thing O formose puer nimium ne crede colori O faire boy do not trust too much to thy colour Both Salomon and his mother although she were a woman and certainly very faire yet haue recorded this for euer that fauour is deceitfull and beautie is but vanity Yet do we not know that some take more pleasure in this then Ionas did in his shadow For he did this onely for a day but they do it all the prime of their youth and that with such affectation such earnestnesse and such labour as indeede pride is painfull that in the morning and euening their cogitations are set on their clothing and kemming yea perhaps on Iezabels art and it may be that in their sleepe they dreame of it too If that Pambo of whome Socrates doth write were now aliue he might haue worke many times For he once beholding a woman most curiously trimmed and exquisitly tifted vp broke foorth into bitter teares and being asked the reason he assigned two causes of it one was that she should take such paines to helpe forward the destruction of her owne soule and the other was that she was more carefull of her face to entise men vnto lust then she was of pleasing God I thinke now he might much sooner find examples of such things then Diogenes could find a man But for the male sexe are there not which take more care of their slicking and of their platting then of the kingdome of heauen Did Ionas more set his heart on the shadow of his head then they do on their haire He chode with God for the one they will stand to the vttermost with Gods officers his vice-gerents vpon earth for the other yea be thrust from a societie or be clapped vp in prison rather then part with that fleece There were such in the dayes of Seneca whose words if they be too bitter lay the fault vpon him and imagine that I do but cite them How are they angry saith he if ought be cut off from this mane if ought be out of order if euery thing fall not into those round rings or hoopes Which of these had not much leifer that all the state should be troubled then his haire be displotted who is not much more carefull of the grace of his head then of his health who maketh not more account to be compt then to be honest Will you thinke that these men are idle who haue so much worke as they haue betweene the combe and the glasse If this speech do seeme somewhat hard the fault must lye vpō Seneca but surely he saw some as proud and glad of their tricknesse as Ionas was of his shadow Saint Austen was not so Stoicall but a more sociable man let vs rather therefore heare him Thou art not well powled saith a graue man vnto a wanton youth it doth not become thee to go with such feakes and lockes But he
thee Plato for thee Seneca then for many who liue not in Ethnicisme or Barbarisme but in a ciuill nation in the cleare light of the Gospell in a countrey of good learning yet do make dispute of the being of their Creator But I leaue these wicked Atheists and returne to our idolaters who did not stay at these prayers but went yet one step farther They fall to casting lots And they said euery man to his fellow come let vs cast lots 17 They see that there was some thing in it beyond the cōmon course of nature The sodainnesse of the tempest and the violence of the storme shewed some God to be angrie It may be that other ships which were at sea did go quietly or the wind did beate and strike most of all vpon this ship But without doubt they saw it to be extraordinarie and thereupon their hearts by and by did giue them that in all likelyhood it was for sin they knew not what nor in whom but for sinne they were well assured Which may be a memoriall to vs Christians that if anie crosse do come straungely or if anie noted thing do befall vs whereof our owne hearts may best of all be iudges that straightway with feare and trembling we examine our selues enter into our consciences and sift them in sinceritie as in the sight of God whether sinne do not plucke that on vs. It troubled the Israelites much when going in a good cause to take vengeaunce vpon the Beniamites for the abuse of the Leuites concubine there perished of them in two dayes no lesse then fortie thousand They went and wept before the Lord and fasted till the euening to know what the cause was But whē they who came before presuming vpon their multitude had learned to humble themselues they obtained that which they desired If any thing should happen straungely as while we be in this mortalitie we may verie well expect we can take no better course then with these ship-men presently to feare least iniquitie be the authour of it But we must not alwayes follow their meanes for they fell to casting lots 18 The vse of lots is anciēt wherin the custome was in causes of great importāce to take stickes or stones or shels or to write names in a paper or to draw strawes or cuts so to determine that which otherwise without strife could not be accorded or to put that vnto God which mē could not decide So S. Austen doth describe it A lot is such a thing as in the doubts of men doth shew the will of God So whē men knew not who it was that had taken the excommunicate thing the lot shewed it to be Achan for so the most do expound it So when no man could tell Saule that Ionathas was the man who so contrarie to the rash oath of Saule had tasted of the honie it was found by lot who it was Least strife should arise and parts be taken about Ioseph and Mathias which of them should be admitted into the roome of Iudas the Apostles made the triall by a lot So Homer doth report that Nestor gaue the counsell that it should be determined by a lot which of the nine worthiest of the Greekes should fight in combat with Hector Each man marked his lot and put it into the helmet of Agamemnon The first turne fell to Aiax But whereas according to the rules of diuinitie these lots should be vsed but in speciall causes and that with great iudgement and meditation because it is a trying of God in a kinde of sentence and we are not to tempt him rashly in some men superstition in some other a hope of gaine and a sort of deceiuing fraude haue wrought great abuses in them Proude Haman in the booke of Hester made lots to be drawne before him from the first moneth to the twefth to see what moneth or day should be fortunate to attempt the mouing of his great matter the murther of all the Iewes O Haman in that thy lot thou wast blind as well as bloudie Caesar telleth in his Commentaries that the women among the Germanes did vse to diuine by lots what dayes were good to fight on or to begin a battell This is heathenish superstition Some casting lots to get money haue made a profession of it as the counterfeit Aegyptians in telling of fortunes The lawes contra sortilegos were made by worthie Princes against such kinde of men and other of much like qualitie God sometimes doth suffer these in verie truth to hit that themselues and such as follow them attending to strong delusion may make vp their owne dānation These abuses haue made some to thinke all lots vnlawfull and not to be vsed at all Yea Hierome speaketh somewhat doubtfully of them who vpon this place saith that this deede of the mariners should not be drawne to an example of attributing any thing to lots neither should any in holy Scriptures because they were speciall motions and euents giuen by God to speciall men and not by other to be attempted or put in practise 19 But the Scripture is not so straight the lot is cast into the lap but the whole dispositiō therof is of the Lord. And elsewhere it is commended The lot causeth contentions to cease and maketh a partion among the mightie So S. Austen doth teach that there is no euill in the lot And in another place Those things vvhich are giuen by lot are giuen vnto vs by God And in his hundreth and eightith Epistle disputing that question of the flying of a Minister in the time of persecution and supposing that there be diuerse pastours in one congregation whereof some are to depart for a time and some to stay if it cannot be agreed saith he who shall do the one and who shall do the other let it be decided by a lot Indeede he doth not like that lots should be made of euerie thing as of the leaues of the Gospell which it seemed that some in his time vsed to do because he thought it not to be fit that diuine matters should by a superstitious custome be applied to profane vses There the abuse is in the manner of doing not in the thing But the question which ariseth from this difference of iudgement may easily be resolued by considering the seuerall sortes of lots which are found to be three For there are either lots appointed to diuide or intended to consult or vsed of purpose to diuine The first of these three is lawfull that is to diuide lands or goods or any like thing when otherwise contention would arise as Salomon doth import in the place which I named before In this kind did Iosuah part out the land of Canaan by lot to the people of Israell The second is not vnlawfull that is to consult what shal be done when matters stand in an equalitie of reason so that there be no offending in the
Lord himselfe speaketh if men be not impudent euen their faces of brasse and their bowels of the adamant they must needes shew a conformitie in acknowledging the equitie of his exclamations against sinne howsoeuer in some mysteries they yeeld not their consent Petrus Maffeus a Iesuite reporteth in his historie that when his fellowes came first to preach in the East Indyes the Gentiles and Infidels there hearing the ten Commaundements did exceedingly commend and magnifie the equity and vprightnesse of them For what could be thought they more reasonable or more holy or iust then that men should not steale or murther one another or liue in adulterie or dishonour those that bare them or abuse the name of him whom they accounted for their God and so of the rest Thus ignorant men do assent that there is a good and an euill a lawfulnesse and vnlawfulnesse that vertue is to be praysed and sinne deserueth punishment and this opinion well rooted in the men of Niniue doth make much for the Prophet Secondly it is manifest that his threates were of such daungers as were soone after to follow so that wrath was at their gates and vengeance at their doores and would quickly breake in vppon them But onely fortie dayes space and all must to destruction If it had bene yeares or ages they might haue contemned but they are put to their dayes and fortie dayes God knoweth will soone bee expired The long suffering of the Lord maketh Atheistes to scorne and deride Where is the promise of his comming and the opinion of impunitie or scaping scot-free vntill the daie of iudgement maketh the wantons of the world persist in disobedience But here is no such remoouing nor putting off of time no repriuing till next Assises or binding to expect iudgement a hundred yeares after as once the Iudges at Athens serued a woman whose cause they knew not how to sentence It is a daunger which is to follow immediatly that will make men looke about them Tell a scorner in his iolity that he must dye one day he answereth vvhat remedy and maketh no more of it but let him heare that which Ezechias did Set thine house in order for now thou must dye or as Nero sent word to diuerse that they by their owne hands must foorthwith make away themselues or else they should dye with torture and this ruffler is by and by abated in his courage groweth pale in his countenance and is deiected like a miserable caytife Cato had oftentimes cryed out that Carthage must be destroyed by the Romanes that it was too neare a neighbour to their citie For a long space together he made no speech in the Senate house about whatsoeuer businesse but that was brought in as his conclusion in euery Oration But this earnestnesse of his preuailed not And that so much the rather because Scipio Nasica with a contrary opinion did in euery speech maintaine that it was for the good of the Romane common-wealth that Carthage should continue Yet as Pliny writeth when Cato on a day brought a greene figge into the Senate house among them and auowed vnto them that but three dayes before that figge was growing in Carthage he made plaine demonstration to them that if the wind did serue and all other things were ready within the space of three dayes an enemy might come from Carthage to Rome with a fleete of ships and an armie and besiege them in their Citie And the nearenesse of this daunger did so much mooue and earnestly affect the beholders that whereas they could neuer before be brought to it they gaue not ouer till Carthage were layd on the ground Beware of euill at hand it is that which stingeth in earnest The word of God coupled with these two attendants first that sinne deserueth punishment and then that this plaguing was immediatly to follow hath preuailed so farre from the mouth of Ionas 6 A thousand things beside these do waite vpon the word of God as allurements reasons promises of infinite variety and that doth fasten one way which doth not catch another and that is done one day which is not done another Then let the faithfull Pastour who standeth betweene the Lord and the consciences of the people still hope the best of his labours that his haruest may be great although yet he reape little of an of-ward and vntoward and stif-necked congregation Let him plant with diligence and let him waite with patience let him teach and let him pray and God will giue an increase But let not him appoint the time and be wiser then his maker It is the Lords owne word a softening seasoning piercing a working winning word and by the force thereof he who hath fished a whole night and caught nothing may make a draught to be wondered at in a Sermon of one houre That sinfull man Ionas who lately by his notorious disobedience and sleeping vpon his fault had prouoked the Lords high displeasure and was accordingly chastised for it hath his labours so countenanced and graced euery way by his maister that he stirred the greatest city that all the world had to fasting and repentance And shall thy single heart deuote it selfe to the Lord and consecrate all his ability sincerely and entierly to the honour of his name and to the enlarging of his kingdome and shall not a blessing follow thee yea an inestimable blessing Onely see that thou do serue him in integrity of thy soule and go in and out as thou shouldest without halting or paultring and if thou gaine not much yet thy ioy is with the highest and thy comfort is with that blessed one that thy heart doth beare thee true witnesse that the fault is not in thee He who laboureth to draw other vnto euill although he preuaile not yet he is punished as a naughty man for his wils sake when he speedeth not this most plainely appeareth in cases of treason And God forbid that the pastour who endeuoureth to bring the stray sheepe home to Christs fold should loose his reward with the Lord for his willing trauels sake although he should be refused or reiected by men This is the comparison of Saint Austen And he addeth farther afterward that Christ wept ouer Hierusalem and professed that he would haue gathered them together as a hen gathereth her young ones vnder her winges and yet they would not By this sayth he he intended to teach vs that if we striue to conuert men to grace and do not obtaine our purpose we should not thereupon sinke and be discouraged in our hearts because Christ sped so before vs. So if we do our dutie we are sure on euery side To winne nothing is the worst that in reason can befall vs yet we our selues do fare well But if our faith bee stedfast and we apply the meanes without fainting we may build so farre vppon God in the confidence of his promises that for his owne
no straunge matter that speech of the great abashment of his people should be brought to this King for the crye of common miseries and open desolations will preasse into the Court and to the hearing of the Prince who although he seeme to be aboue ordinarie yet in care he is possessed by small things and such as be but contemptible in shew The abūdance of the earth saith Salomō is aboue all the King consisteth by the field that is tilled Thē the greatest cannot stand without husbandry and feeding of cattell The infection of the plague euen among very beggers will trouble the mightiest The Generall is not safe if an enemie hath made an irruption into the tents of any of his souldiers That Emperour may well stir in his owne person on whose land and coastes an armie is entred and that King is not free whose imperiall citie where himselfe resideth is in the brinke of daunger Galienus the Emperour is condemned as vnwise when he so neglected his prouinces that he made no more of it when Egypt was lost then to say cannot we be without the flaxe and linnen of Egypt and when Fraunce was gone cannot the commonwealth stand sine sagis trabeatis without those souldiers cassockes which France doth send vnto vs Wise mē do neuer thus but although themselues be as the head they will looke to the feet Therefore it is not this which I hold so necessarie to be obserued that the king should know of it but rather that so soone it should come vnto him for immediatly vpon the crye of Ionas against them the best vnderstoode of it Which albeit it may be imputed to the amazednesse of the people who were not aduised whither else to seeke or to the idle curiositie of some who were glad to carie newes of any thing yet I rather ascribe it to the good gouernment of the King and his orderly proceeding that his house was so setled and his Court so disposed that matters of moment were imparted to himselfe He himself did not stand still as an image wrapped in gold very glorious without yet neither seeing nor hearing but putting all ouer to other but he saw with his owne eyes and heard with his owne eares and with his owne heart considered And vnto this opinion of him I am induced by reason of those gracious parts which the text recordeth to be performed by him could not haue beene so done vnlesse there had bene in him a sensible feeling with great vnderstanding of his place office which groweth by practise 4 The manner of some Courts is that to satisfie the auaritious or ambitious affections of some few in place the humor of the Prince is fed with faire tales or iests or delights yea wantonnesse peraduenture that the other may sway all things at their pleasure Placentia are sung and that which may content If Sara a faire woman although a straunger come into Egypt the Princes of Pharao will thinke that to be a tale woorth the carying to their maister but if it be businesse which toucheth neuer so neere that must not be told for feare lest it should disquiet Thus by his voluptuousnesse the King is made a child and as Salomon saith Wo is to the land when the King is a child not in age so much as in manners the land is impouerished the subiects are iniuried iustice is troden downe iniquitie preuaileth a confusion of all things is begunne and continued and he who should amend it silly man is brought a bed with folly and securitie So no man is more a straunger to his owne charge and the heauie burthen which lyeth vpon him then he who is most interested in it Vopiscus in the life of Aurelian doth vtter to this purpose a good speech which as it seemeth he borrowed from Diocletian who sometimes had made triall of it Foure or fiue in the Court gather themselues together and take counsell to deceiue the Emperour They tell him what is to be liked and allowed of The Emperour who in the meane while is shut vp at home doth not know the truth He must onely know that which they will speake to him He maketh such Iudges as be not fit for the place he remooueth such from the Common-wealth as he should keepe and in briefe the good Emperour the honest and wary Emperour is bought and sold by them If the good be thus dealt with how pitifully are they vsed who willingly fancy and embrace all delights tendered to them by their seruants and are nusseled of purpose that they might vnderstand nothing and thinke very well of it In such places and with such persons it is likely that a messenger who should haue brought such melancholike newes to the king might haue stayd without doores or perhaps haue bene sent backe againe as wise as he came 5 But this monarke of Niniue is not made of that mettall Such cases as much import are brought to his hearing He knoweth that the Prince as the father of the countrey is set ouer the people for their good That the foundation of iustice remaineth in his owne person and is thence deriued vnto other men that if he cease to do iustice in his owne person if the case do so require he should by right cease to raigne and giue ouer the name of a King as a woman once sayd to Hadrian the Emperour and truth cannot be knowne but by taking and admitting speech from the parties themselues This is the cause why the report of Ionas is first brought to his owne hearing that he may know and iudge and take order accordingly This may be a lesson to all the Princes of our time that they themselues be partakers of all great causes of estate that they leane not wholly vpon other because the Lord hath layd the charge vpon them but especially that their eares be open to Gods word when it shall be deliuered by the Prophets that they may be taught thence what is healthfull for their people and acceptable to their maker on whose seruice their prosperity doth wholly depend Here may we conceiue the happinesse of our kingdome where God hath placed a gouernesse who thinketh vpon such things Hence also the Magistrate and euery housholder in his priuate family may learne to giue easie accesse to sober information that if there be any thing that doth make for the good of their houshold or other charge it may not be reiected It is best to quench fire while it is but in the sparke to stop a water-course at first to bind vp a wound betimes to kill young foxes in the neast to meete with daunger while it appeareth yet a great way off and in such things not to rest on those who will faile but to trust thine owne eyes thine owne eares thine owne knowledge So many euill matters shall be met with in the egge good things shall be aduanced and promoted opportunely and as among the
6 My next obseruation in this generall compasse is that Ionas is here described to haue sinned once againe This plentifully appeareth in the first Chapter so it doth in this last chapter by the reproofe of God himselfe vsed toward him and the words of my text do necessarily include it for to be grieued at the Lords will and to be angry at his workes is a very high transgression And so much the higher because it is in a Prophet a sanctified seruant sequestred for Gods businesse and attendance on himselfe more enlightened then ordinarie and better acquainted with diuine mysteries then other men Then from this man it is euident as well as from Dauid from Salomon from Iosiah from Hezechiah from Peter that the greatest in this life fall and fall to the ground There is no man that sinneth not The iust man doth fall seauen times and ariseth againe In many things vve sinne all sayth the Apostle Saint Iames. And Saint Iohn doth second it If vve say we haue no sinne vve deceiue our selues and there is no truth in vs. Ionas being once freed and deliuered from his sinne by the mercy of the Lord which purged him by a suffering is a second time in and yet remaineth Gods seruant and a member of the Church cleane contrary to that heresie which the Nouatians held who denying repentance to sinnes after Baptisme and secluding offendours from acceptance into the congregatiō among the faithful much impeached Gods mercy and layd an intollerable burthen vpon mens consciences Why should the seruant be hard where the maister is easie and gentle Where the wise owner is well pleased why is the steward straight When he whom it most concerneth hath proclaimed by his Prophet that if a sinner repent be it once or be it often from the bottome of his hart God will put away his sins quite out of his remembrance Indeed from the falles of the old Patriarkes we should not learne to aduenture vpon iniquities with greedinesse and boldnesse lest presuming we come short of that which was granted vnto them For if we will prouoke God in hope of that which in likelyhood will neuer be giuen to vs because we would so prouoke him who can tell whether the Lord will turne and repent and abate his furie The end wherefore the examples of fals in the greatest men are proposed to our reading is not to incourage vs to ill for that were to abuse the kindnesse of God and out of a good flowre to sucke deadly poyson Yet it is a thing too common for Libertines and carnall men so to apply good to euill Many vvill fall with Dauid sayth Saint Austen and will not arise vvith Dauid There is not proposed to thee any example of falling but of arising when thou art fallen Take heed thou do not fall Let not the slip of the greater be the delight of the lesser but let the fall of the greater be a trembling to the lesser What he there sayth of Dauid may most fitly be applied to the rest of the Patriarkes and other Prophets that by any thing of theirs we must not be intised to disobedience 7 Saint Chrysostome taketh occasion by Dauid of whom Austen also spake to draw a threefold benefit from the example of his transgression which I thinke not amisse to be mentioned in this place Dauid sayth he for three reasons vvas suffered to go astray First that he might make the righteous man to looke more earnestly to his way He perhaps sayth to himselfe I am a religious man I am famous for many merites now I haue done those things which appertaine to the garland Deceiue not thy selfe sayth he thou hast done no more then Dauid His meaning is that if such captaines and leaders in the faith so gracious with the Highest so acceptable in Gods sight yet by humane infirmities haue fallen and fallen notoriously then no man shold be proud none senslesly secure no man confidently foolish because his turne may be next He should set a watch before his heart and a hatch before his lips that nothing may enter thither nothing may come out thence which is not weighed and ballanced And that this is one of the causes why the ouersights of the best are made knowne in the Scriptures Saint Austen also consenteth The sinnes of great men are vvritten to this purpose that the saying of the Apostle may euery vvhere be trembled at vvhere he sayth Let him that standeth take heede lest he fall The second reason in Saint Chrysostome is that it might appeare that Christ Iesus alone in mans body vvas pure from all offence For if the holiest creatures and most sanctified sonnes of women men vpright and fearing God men after the Lords owne heart the best men of famous memory yet bore about them a body which was heauy to the soule and were shamefully ouertaken with crimes which their inferiours knew to be enormous then the single prerogatiue and that priuiledge of innocency and vnspottednesse which is not to be communicated to any of Adams children appeareth to belong onely to Christ. He alone could say to the Iewes Which of you can rebuke me of sinne But all other haue this sinne on them although it raigne not in them The iust man must confesse that of Hierome to be very true that while vve dwell here in the tabernacle of this body and are compassed with fraile and brittle flesh we may moderate our affections and rule our perturbations but cut them off we cannot we cannot roote them out Then all arrogant merite-mongers may boast themselues while they will of meriting of saluation and Pelagius he may vaunt that he can keepe the law but we account those speeches to be cursed and hereticall and derogatory from the eminency of Christ. We say to thē as Orosius sometimes wrote to that heretike Pelagius Thou sayest that it is possible that a man should be without sin I repeate it againe oftentimes the mā which can do this is Christ the Son of God Either take that name vnto thee or lay aside thy boldnesse God hath giuen that but to one and that is he which is chiefe and first borne among many brethren Then other yea the Virgin Mary her selfe must renounce themselues and all their possibility and admire the vnspotted beauty of Iesus our Redeemer 8 The third reason in Chrysostome is a matter of more comfort The faults of others are vvritten that sinners may the lesse despaire of their owne errours but if any one haue offended let him daily confesse his sinnes yea if he haue sinned a thousand times yet let him go forward to confesse a thousand times Forthere is nothing vvorse then distrust or despaire This sentence of turning againe a thousand times to God was it whereof Socrates speaketh that Chrysostome did dare to teach this in that time which was so filled with the Nouatian heretikes And this