Homo quia cinis es Remember Man that thou art but Dust. THE remembrance of death saith Climachus is amongst other remembrances as bread amongst other meats howbeit it is more necessarie for the soule than bread for the bodie For a man may liue many dayes without bread but the soule cannot doe so without the remembrance of death And it is the generall opinion of all the best and holiest Writers Perfectissimam vitam esse continuam mortis meditationem i. That the most perfect life is a continuall meditation of death Chrysostome expounding that place of Saint Luke Qui vult venire post me i. He that will follow me saith That Christ commandeth vs not to beare vpon our backes that heauie burthen of the woodden Crosse but that we should alwayes set our death before our eyes making that of Saint Paul to be our Imprese Quotidiè morior i. I die dayly In the second of the Kings it is recounted that the holy King Iosias did clense the people from their Altars their Groues and high places where innumerable Idolatries dayly increased and to amend this ill he placed there in their stead bones skulls and the ashes of dead men Whose iudgement herein was very discreete For from mans forgetting of his beginning his end arise his Idolatries and so reuiuing by those bones the rememberance of what they were hertofore what they shal be hereafter he did make them amend that mischief Verie many nay numberlesse are those men which adore the noblenesse of their Linage and out of a desire that they haue to make good their descent and beginning they multiplie Coats one vpon another hang vp Scutchions blazon forth their Armes tell you large histories of their pedigrees and genealogies and many times most of them meere lies and fables Ezechiel did represent these vnto vs in those twentie fiue yong men which were besotted and rauished in beholding the Sunne which by way of exposition signifieth the adoring of the glorie of their birth But leauing these as fooles who glorie in the gold that glisters the Church teacheth thee another lesson and sayes vnto thee Memento homo Remember man c. God created Adam of the basest matter of verie durt but this Durt being molded by Gods owne hand and inspiring it with so much wisedome councell and prudence Tertullian calls it Cura diuini ingenij i. The curiousnesse of Gods wit but man growing proud hereupon and hoping to be a God himselfe God doomed him to death and wrapped him againe in his durtie swadling clouts with this inscription Puluis es in puluerem reuerteris i. Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne Adam did not without some mysterie cloath himselfe with greene leaues for as Saint Ambrose hath noted it he gaue therein as it were a signe and token of his vaine and foolish hopes But as the mother when theâ—ee hath stung her childs finger runnes with all hast to get a little durt and claps it to her little one which doth assuage the swelling and giue it ease so those busie Bees of hel dayly stinging vs striking into our breasts the poyson of their pride arrogancie the Church with dust and ashes with a Cinis es incinerem reuerteris i. Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne abates this pride and tells vs of that swelling arrogancie of ours When God reuealed to Nebucadnezar how little a while his Empire was to last he shewed him a statue of diuers mettalls the head gold the brest siluer the bellie brasse the legges yron the feet clay and a little stone which descended from the mountaine lighting on the feet dasht the statue in pieces But in stead of taking this as a forewarning of his end and to haue it still before his eyes he made another statue of gold from top to toe which is held to be a durable and lasting mettal so that the more God sought to dis-deceiue him the more was he deceiued with his vaine hopes And this is a resemblance of that which dayly hapneth vnto vs for God aduising vs that our best building is but durt our idle thoughts vaine hopes imagine it to be of gold And mans life being so short that as Nazianzen said it is no more than to goe out of one graue to enter into another out of the wombe of our particular mother into that of the common mother of vs all which is the Earth we flatter our selues with the enioying of many long yeres of life But the Church being desirous to cut off this error saith Memento homo i. Remember man By Ezechiel God threatned his people with a great slaughter that they only should escape that were marked in the forehead with the Hebrew letter Tau which is the last in the alphabet some say that it hath the figure of a crosse and it may be that when Ezechiel did write this he had that figure before him and S. Hierome saith That in stead of Tau the Samaritanes did vse the figure of a crosse The Hebrews by this letter vnderstand the end as beeing the last in the ABC And God was willing that those that bore this marke in their forehead that is should haue their end before their eyes should liue but that those that liued forgetfull of their end that they should die And the Church beeing desirous that her children should escape this danger prints this in their minds Terra es Earth thou art c. It is well weighed by Rupertus that after God had condemned Adam to death he bestowed vpon his wife the name of Life Mater cunctarum gentium i. The mother of al the liuing Scarce had God condemned him to punishment but he by- -by shews that he had forgot it And therfore did God permit the death of innocent Abel to the end that in Abel he might see thâ— death of the body and in Caine the death of the soule for to quicken his memorie From Adam we inherit this forgetfulnes not remembring to day what we saw but yesterday the general desire of man striues all it can to perpetuate our life which if it were in our hands we would neuer see death But because the loue of life should not rob vs of our memorie and that fearing as we are mortall wee might couet those things that are eternall seeing that walles towers marble and brasse molder away to dust we may euer haue in our memorie Memento homo Remember man c. Many holy Saints haue stiled the memorie the stomach of the soule as Gregorie Bernard Theodoret Austen Nazianzen c. And God commanding Ezechiel That he should notifie vnto his people certaine tâ—â—ngs that he had reuealed vnto him and charging him that he should remember himselfe well of them he said Comede quaecunque ego do tibi i. Eat whatsoeuer I giue thee And in another placehe commanded him that he should eat a Book wherin were written Lamentationes
his busines and so wholly taken therewith that he cared not for any thing else And this is expressed in the word Ibat He went Which argues a continuation in his going on Some man may make a doubt and say though vnaduisedly Had it not beene better for our Sauiour to haue beene in the mount of Oliues or in the garden of Gethseman or on the hills of Ephrem than to goe thus from house to house from Castle to Castle and from Citie to Citie Whereunto I first of all answer That it is enough that he did not so because it was not the better course Secondly because he was the same that was personally promised to that blessed Land and that there was not a corner in all that Countrie to be left out which should not finde the fauour of his diuine influences Thirdly the exercises of the life actiue and contemplatiue are those two wings whereby the soule sores vp to heauen And because one wing will not serue the turne to reach to so high a pitch we must not onely serue God in our prayers and meditations but also in the releeuing and succouring of our neighbour And therefore our Sauiour Christ spent the nights in prayer Per noctabat in oratione and the dayes in healing bodies and curing of soules Petrus Damianus vpon the life of Elias and Elisha saith That there is no remote solitary mountaine which doth not ground it's retyrednesse vpon some one example or other of the Saints One is a friend to the world and a louer thereof and this man alleages That Elias spent many dayes in the widow of Sareptaes house And that Elisha soiourned with the Shunamite that was a great and principall woman in her country And that both of them did treat with great Princes and Potentates Another is a friend and a louer of delicacies and alleageth That Elisha and Elias did accept of them But these men doe not consider That if these Prophets did forgoe their solitude it was more for the good of others that liued abroad in the world than themselues as also for the raising vp of the dead And if they did receiue good intertainment it was no more than was necessary for the sustenance of their bodies Elisha would none of Naamans gold Nor Elias be feasted by King Ahab and Iezabell his wife It is a thing worthy the consideration That our Sauiour Christ hauing not so much as one pennie of money wherewith to pay Caesar his Tribute willed Saint Peter to open the fish that he had taken with his angling rod. Our Sauiour permitted Peter that he should catch such a multitude of fishes that the nets did breake with the fulnesse of them But now hee would not haue him catch but one onely fish For a Church-man ought to fish for all the fishes that he can possibly take and the more he takes he doth God the more seruice but for those money-fishes that haue pence in their bellies he must take but one onely and that too for to pay Tribute not for himselfe nor to satisfie his owne couetous desires or his idle pleasures Ecce defunctus efferebatur Behold there was a dead man carryed out c. This word Eccè in the Scripture requires the eyes of the body and the eyes of the soule insinuating a great deale of attention But to come here with an Eccè it being so common a thing in the world as nothing more to see the dead dayly carryed forth to their buriall it seemeth a superfluous labour and a needlesse kind of diligence especially being that this our life is no other thing but a continued Procession of the quicke and the dead When Adam saw Abel was slaine and lay dead on the ground being the first man of whom death had taken possession he was so heart-strucken and so amased thereat so fearefull so sorrowfull and so sad that for many yeares after hee was not freed from this feare and horrour nor were the teares dryed vp from his eyes For albeit that God had notified vnto him That he was to dye the death yet did he not as yet know by experience what kind of thing death was But after that death had flesht himselfe in mans blood cutting downe more liues than a Sythe doth grasse in your faire and goodly medowes this his feare and horrour began by degrees to slack and fall off An Eclypse of the sunne doth strangely intertaine the sences attention not onely for to see so faire a Planet lapt vp in mourning weedes but also for that it so seldome hapneth But the Eclypses of mens liues though they be the fairest sunnes vpon earth they so hourely nay so momentarily succeede with vs that we can scarse which way soeuer we looke turne our eyes aside from them And not to speake of those lingring deaths wherein through sicknes we lye languishing a long time besides those occasioned by famine pestilence and warre yet those other sudden and vnexpected deaths which daily succeed may euery houre find our eyes occupied For wee see them euer and anon written on the wall as was that of Balthasar hanging on the oake as that of Absalon dipt in a dish of milke as that of Sisara represented in a dreame as that of Holophernes appearing at a feast as that of Iobs children put in the porridge pot as that of Elishaes Disciples Mors in olla in the bed as that of Adulterers and in the Apoplexie as that of your Gluttons Yet notwithstanding all this and that it is euery dayes example yet such and so great is the solicitude and care which the diuell takes to blot the remembrance of the dead from out the hearts and heads of the liuing That at euery step we see the dead carried forth to their graues and are so farre from ingrauing the thought thereof in our breasts that at euery step we forget it There is not that man aliue which doth not feele and experiment death in himselfe complying with that sentence of God Morte morieris Thou shalt dye the death Man is no sooner borne into the world but deaths processe is out against him which is not long in executing As the weeke wasteth the candle the worme the wood and the moath the cloath so as the discreete woman of Tekoa said to Dauid Wee must needs die and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered vp againe The riuers haue recourse to the Sea and are swallowed vp in the deepe anâ— this is the end of them so is it with our liues they bend from their very birth to the bed of death we leape from our swathling cloathes into our winding sheeâ—e This is the end of all flesh Seneca compares this our life to an houre glasse and as the sand runnes out so runnes away the houre so as time runnes on our life runs away and as it was dust so to dust it returnes When two Ships sayle each by other it seemeth to
tuam libera me de aquis multis Aquae multae non potuerunt extinguere charitatem The proportions of this word Aqua are two The one That the troubles of the Godly doe passe away like waters That though the waters be now and then troubled they afterwards grow cleere againe But Hell is stiled with the name of Stagnum a standing Poole Missi sunt in Stagnum ignis because it is a punishment that alwaies stands at one stay and is stil the same c. The heart of the Godly finds this ease that it liues in hope of recouerie and the euills of the Righteous are neuer so many but that they haue some shadow of good Adam did supplie his nakednesse with Figge leaues Death which is the greatest ill to mans life dulleth the sence which is a kind of good but Hell giues no hope of ease no shew of comfort From which God of his mercie keepe vs c. THE ELEVENTH SERMON VPON THE SATVRDAY AFTER THE FIRST SONDAY IN LENT AND VPON THE SECOND SONDAY IN LENT MAT. 17. MARC 9. LVC. 9. Assumpsit Iesus Petrum Iacobum Iohannem Iesus tooke vnto him Peter and Iames and Iohn OVr Mother Church solemnizing once a yeare the Mysteries of our Sauiour Christ this it solemniseth twice one day after another giuing vs thereby a sauour of that glorie which is represented in this Mysterie on these two accustomed festiuall dayes Here in this world they are ended the verie selfe same day they are celebrated and the ending of that dayes pleasure is the beginning of our next dayes labour But in that other world saith Esay Erit mensis ex mense Sabathum ex Sabatho From moneth to moneth and from Sabboth to Sabboth shall all Flesh come to worship before me Amongst your Iewes the first day of your moneths and your Sabboths were verie solemne things And Esay taking the moneth for the first day saith In that glorie which we looke for one moneth shall ouertake another and there shal be Sabboth vpon Sabboth He might haue said without vsing any kind of figure a perpetuall Feast a perpetuall Sabboth and a perpetuall Rest. Mans happines in this life is like to a Rose that is beset round about with Thorns which to day costs vs deere to get and tomorrow is withered away But that supreame happinesse shall not onely be eternall and perdurable but without any the least prickle of sinne to offend our tender Soules He tooke vnto him Peter c. First of all Damascene saith That our Sauiour did not carrie all his Apostles with him vp to the Mount for it was not fit that Iudas should enioy so great a blessing in whom that prophecie of Esay was fulfilled In terra sanctorum iniquè gessit non videbit gloriam Dei Hee who in so holy a companie committed such a vile treacherous act as to betray and sell his Master for the loue of a little money did not deserue to enioy the glory of Tabor So that to the end Iudas might not complaine That Christ had discarded him and quite shut him out from this blessing this holy Saint saith That those other good holy men were for his sake debard of that good whence we may gather what hurt many an honest man receiues by keeping a lewd knaue companie But because it might haue seemed a scandalous piece of businesse to haue left Iudas all alone by himselfe the rest remained with him Iudas his companie being no lesse dangerous to the Colledge of Iesus his Disciples than it was tedious and wearisome to our Sauiour himselfe Insomuch that when Iudas was gone out of the house where Christ supt with his Disciples which he did presently vpon the receiuing of the sop he said Nunc glorificatus est Filius hominis Now is the Sonne of man glorified When Christ multiplied his miracles Saint Iohn saith Non erat Spiritê° datus quia Christus nonduÌ„ erat glorificatus The holy Ghost was not yet giuen because that Iesus was not yet glorified Why Christ being neere vnto his death should hold himselfe to be glorified and in the working of miracles not to be glorified For the decision of that point I shal referre you vnto Saint Augustine You see here how the wind was come about Iudas was no sooner gone out but he saith hee is glorified but before knowing who should betray him hee told Peter Vos mundi estis sed non omnes i. Yee are cleane but not all The Cockle was taken away and the Wheate now pure and cleane and our Sauiour tooke it for a great glorie vnto him to see himselfe thus wholly rid of his companie Secondly Gregory Nazianzen sayth That hee tooke those three along with him because he alwayes loued them best Showing thereby that Princes may lawfully haue their Priuadoes and Fauourites to whome they may giue more grace and countenance than to others but withall that they ought to bee such as should bee disinterressed and not desire any more for themselues than their Princes grace leauing the rest of his fauours to bee communicated to others as well as themselues Saint Iude once askt of our Sauiour Christ How comes it to passe that thou shouldst manifest thy selfe vnto vs and not vnto the World Hee thought that the Sunne should inlighten all But because he did first bestow his light on the mountaine tops it was fit that the grace which they receiued they should gratis confer vpon others Like good Stewards The Euangelist cals Saint Peter foole because hee would haue all for himselfe and those that were there with him And if Elias and Moses were admitted to mount Tabor it was because they were louers of the common good Moses once disired of God that he would let him see his face but God told him hee could not see his face and liue It seemeth that here Moses shewed himselfe to bee but a coward What to inioy a poore life for the present wouldst thou forgoe so great a happinesse But it was not the loue of his owne life but the loue that he bare to his people who would haue had a great misse of him Whereof there was afterwards verie good proofe when God sayd vnto him Let me make an end of this people at once and I will make thee a mightier and a better Nation Whereunto hee answered I am so farre from giuing way to this That I shall beseech thee either to pardon them or to blot me out of the Booke of life for I had rather not liue than liue without them Doost thou offer to lay down thy life for thy people And wilt thou not loose it to see God face to face The one was a particuler the other a common good Thirdly Hee tooke onely three along with him manifesting thereby that hee was as sparing of his Glorie in this life as he was liberall of his Crosse. Tertullian sayth That hee tooke those three with him not so much to make
them That the one flyes like an arrow out of a bow and cuts the waues with a swift wing and that the other is a slugge and sayles very slowly And therefore of the way of a Ship in the sea and of a young man running on in a wanton course whereunto may be added the vncertaintie of the day of our death Salomon saith That they were things too wonderfull for him and past his finding out Efferebatur He was carryed out The word Efferebatur is worthy our consideration it being a plot and deuise of the diuell to carry the dead out of their Cities to bee buried for to blot the memory of the dead out of the minds of the liuing In the remembrance of death the Saints of God found these two great benefits The one Amendment of life The other Happinesse in death Touching the former it is by one common consent agreed vpon by the Fathers That the perfection of our life doth consist in the continuall meditation of death Plato called Philosophie Mortis meditationem A meditation of death affirming That the whole lesson of our life was to learne to dye The like saith Gregory Nazianzene Many Saints and Doctors haue demurr'd vpon this point In that God should deferre till the day of iudgement the reward of the body this may seeme an inequalitie to some but there is none at all in it For the dust and ashes of the body doe perswade and preach vnto vs the contempt of the world Asahel beeing slaine by Abner lying dead on the ground as many as came to the place where Asahel fell and dyed stood still as men amased This is that valiant Captaine this that vndoubted Souldier There is nothing that doth so quel the courage of Man and daunt his spirits as death it is natures terrour Those Spies that were sent out to discouer the Land of Promise were strucken into a great feare and amasement at the sight of those huge and monstrous Gyants In comparison of whom said they we seemed as Grashoppers Dreading that they were able to deuoure them aliue and to swallow them downe whole And therefore made this false relation at their return The land through which we haue gone to search it is a land that eateth vp the Inhabitants thereof but the people that raised this euill reporr died by a Plague More truly may it be said of Death That hee deuoureth the Inhabitants of the earth this is he that tameth the fiercest Gyants That dreame of Nabucadonezars which might haue beene powerfull receiuing it by reuelation to make him abate his pride and lay aside his arrogancie the Deuill presently blotted these good thoughts out of his remembrance The like course doth the Deuil now take with vs. He doth not go about to persuade vs as he did our father Adam that we are immortall But in two things he goes beyond vs and is too cunning for vs. The one That our death shall be delayed God saith Mors non tardat Death lingers not The Deuill sayes Tardat It lingers Moram faciet It loyters My Lord will delay his comming said the seruant in the Gospell But this feined supposition was his certaine perdition Ezechiel did prophecie the ruine of Ierusalem and the death and destruction of her Citisens telling them their desolation was neere at hand There shall none of my wordes be prolonged but the word which I haue spoken shall be done saith the Lord God But the Deuill did otherwise persuade with them making them to say The vision that hee seeth is for many dayes to come And hee prophecieth of the times that are farre off The wanton woman in the Prouerbes which inuited the yong man to her bed and boord sought to intice him by this meanes The good man is not at home hee is gone a long journey Therefore let vs take our fill of loue c. From this vaine hope of life ariseth that our greedinesse and couetousnesse to inioy and possesse the goods of this life And a little beeing more than enough for him yet it seemeth vnto man much cannot suffice him And it is an euill thought in man and much to be pittied that a man should afflict himselfe for that which neither hee himselfe nor all his posteritie shall liue to enioy O foolish man doost thou thinke thou shalt returne to liue againe in those goodly houses that thou hast built and to reinioy those pleasant gardens and orchards that thou hast planted No But mayst rather say to thy selfe These my eyes shall neuer see them more Why then so much carke and care for three dayes or thereabouts The Romans would not build a temple to Death nor to Pouertie nor Hunger judging them to bee inexorable gods But more inexorable is Death for man neuer returnes againe from Death to Life And therefore the Antients painted Death with the Tallons of a Griffine Saint Luke painting foorth the vigiles of the day of Iudgement and the anguish and agonie of the World he saith That many shall waxe fearefull and trouble their heads to see and thinke on those things Which shall befall the whole World Pondering in that place that they shall not bee sensible of their owne proper danger nor the aduenture wherin they stand of their saluation or condemnation yet cease not to afflict themselues with the losse of the World and that the world shall be consumed and be no more But ô thou foolish man if thou must dye return thither no more what is the world to thee when thou art at an end the World is ended with thee And if thou beest not to inioy it any more what is it to thee if God doe vtterly destroy it And all these euils arise from the forgetfulnesse of Death Hee liues secure from Danger that thinkes vpon the preuenting of Danger Saint Chrysostome expounding that place of Saint Luke He that will follow me must take vp his Crosse dayly and so come after mee Signifying that what our Sauiour pretended was That we should alwayes haue our death before our eyes I dye dayly saith the blessed Apostle Saint Paul My imagination workes that dayly vpon me which when my time is come Death shall effect There is no difficultie that is runne through at the first dash and there is not any difficultie so hard to passe through as Death A Shooe-maker that he may not loose the least peece of his leather or make any wast of it casts about how he may best cut it out to profit tries it first by some paper patterne c. Plutarch reporteth of Iulius Caesar that he beeing demaunded which was the best kind of Death Answered That which is sudden and vnlooked for Iulian the Emperour dying of a mortall wound gaue thankes vnto the gods that they did not take him out of this life tormenting him with some prolix and tedious sickenesse but by a hastie and speedie death And for that they doe not
fro with it's vnruly appetites is al one Et vita inter Effoeminatos Another Letter hath it Scortatores The connexion is good for Youth runnes it selfe quickely vpon the Rockes of death through it's sensualities and lewdnesse of life There are two daughters of the Horse-leech which still crie Giue giue And the Wiseman pointing them forth vnto vs saith The one is Infernus The other Os Vuluae The Graue the one and Lust the other And the Wiseman did linke these two together with a great deale of conueniencie and fittingnesse for if Lust bee neuer satisfied the Graue lesse This truth is likewise made good forasmuch as the Scripture stileth Sinne Death If I doe this I must die the death So said Susanna to the Iudges that made vnlawfull and dishonest loue vnto her And Cain seeing himselfe charged with fratricide at that verie instant he gaue himselfe for a dead man Whosoeuer shall meet me will kill me Youth then beeing a house whereinto the raine doth drip so fast and at so many places it is no meruaile that life should cease and soone decay It is prouerbially said Loue is as strong as Death And as Loue doth vsually set vpon Youngmen so doth Death and where Loue striketh Youth Death may spare his Dart. The Antients painted a Youngman starke naked his eyes with a Vaile or Bend before them his right hand bound behind him and his left left at libertie and Time followiâ—â— him close at the heeles and euer and anon pulling a thred out of the Vaile Hee was drawne naked to shew with what little secrecie hee had vsed his delights and pleasures with his right hand bound behind him to expresse that he did not doe any thing aright his left free and at libertie signifying that he did all things aukwardly and vntowardly he was portrayed blind because he doth not see his owne follies but Time goes opening his eyes by little and little day by day brings him to the true knowledge of his errors And he that was dead sate vp and began to speake The Dead presently obeyed the voyce of the Liuing And hee sate vp God cryeth out aloud to those that are dead in their Soules yet doe they not obey his voyce Arise thou that sleepest c. Hee began to giue thankes vnto him that had done him this so great a fauour Thou hast deliuered mee ô Lord from the dooâ—es of death and therefore I will celebrate thy prayses and magnifie thy name in the Gates amiddest the Daughters of Syon It is Saint Chrysostomes note That the word Doores is put here in the plurall number because many are the dangers out of which God deliuereth a sinner That all may speake of thy praise and talke of thy wondrous workes And there came a feare vpon all It may seeme to some That the word Loue would better haue become this place and beene fitter for this present purpose and occasion All a man would thinke should rather haue expressed their loues vnto him sung forth his prayses and offered their seruice vnto him In those former punishments of a World drowned and ouerwhelmed with Water of a Sodome burned and consumed with Fire it was verie fit and meet that it should strike feare and amasement into all But in such a case as this What should cause them to feare Hereunto I answer That nothing doth strike such a feare and terrour into man as the great and wonderfull mercies of God A Roman Souldier told Iulius Caesar It much troubles me nor can I be heart-merrie as oft as I thinke on the many fauours that I haue receiued from thy liberall hand but doe rather hold them as so many wrongs and iniuries done vnto me for they are so beyond all requitall that I must of force proue vngratefull which makes me to feare that thou wilt proceed against me for a heinous offendor in this kind In like manner so many are the mercies of God towards man and so infinite that they may be held as Vigiles of his future seuerer Iustice. Iacob did in a manner vtter the same sentence against himselfe Minor sum cunctis miserationibus tuis The least of thy mercies is greater than all my merits nor can the best seruices that I can doe thee make satisfaction for the least of those fauours which I haue receiued from thy bounteous liberalitie Grant ô Lord that what is wanting in our owne worthinesse may bee made vp in the mercies and merits of our Sauiour Iesus Christ To whom with the Father c. THE XXX SERMON VPON THE FRYDAY AFTER THE FOVRTH SVNDAY IN LENT IOHN 11.1 Erat quidam languens Lazarus Now a certaine man was sicke named Lazarus of Bethanie c. PEtrus Crysologus calls this Signum signorum Mirabile mirabilium Virtutem virtutum The signe of signes the wonder of wonders and the Vertue of vertues or the power of powers Saint Augustine Miraculorum maximum The myracle of myracles which of all other did most predicate and blazon forth Christs glorie Saint Hierome preferres it before all the rest that he wrought here vpon earth By this prenda or pledge of his Diuinitie Death remained confounded the Deuills affrighted and the lockes and barres of Hell broken Genebrard That it is the voice of a Crier which goes before a Triumpher who makes Death the triumphant Chariot of his Maiestie and glorie That a valiant Warriour should make a braue and gallant shew on horsebacke hauing his Courser adorned and set forth with curious and costly Caparisons it is not much but to seeme handsome and comely in Deaths palenesse weakenesse and foulenesse beeing so ghastly a thing to looke on God onely can doe this Ante faciem eius saith Abacuc ibit mors Death â—â—all flie before his face Christ doth deliuer vs from a double death the one of the soule the other of the bodie He deliuered them from their distresses Death is swallowed vp in victorie He that drinketh takes the cup in his hand and doth therewith what it pleaseth him so did our Sauiour deale with Death therfore he called it a cup drinking the same vp at one draught wherein he dranke a health to all Beleeuers Saint Bernard vpon this occasion saith of him Mirabilis potator es tu Thou art a strange kind of drinker O Lord before thou tastedst of this cup thou saidst Transeat Let it passe and after thou hadst dranke thereof thou saidst Sitio I thirst The Flesh was afraid but the Spirit got the victorie ouer Death with that ease as a good Drinker doth of a good cup of drinke when he is verie thirstie In a word Not onely because this was a myracle wrought vpon a dead person that had lien foure dayes buried in his graue but because the sacrilegious councell of the Scribes and Pharisees had layd their heads together and plotted the death of our Sauiour Christ as also in regard of those other circumstances That the deceased
of his loue why God did not say vnto him I now know that thou louest God The reason is That when a iust man comes to the top and heigth of his loue he may presume of himselfe that he hath then begun to loue And for that feare is the first step to loue he sayd Nunc cognoui quod timeas c. By the whole drift of this discourse that conclusion of Ecclesiasticus remaineth cleere Lift not thy selfe vp in the thought of thy soule like the Bull. Let not thy thoughts and hopes make thee doe the things that are vaine and foolish Hee instances in the bull an vntamed beast which doth not acknowledge heauen Why wilt thou leaue thy leafes and thy fruit and remaine like a dotard in the desart Iob saith If he layd folly on his Angels how much more on them that liue in houses of clay If in the purest steele he found rust and in the finest cloth the Moth c. S. Augustine saith Nullum peccatum facit homo quod non possit facere alter homo si desit rector per quem factus est homo Man doth not commit that sinne which another may not â—oe if that Ruler doe not direct man by whom man is made The second occasion on Peters part was the Pallace of Caiphas Saint Ambrose saith That Peter comming to warme himselfe at the Pallace came to denie the truth For where Truth it selfe was taken prisoner he had need of a great deale of courage that should not incline to a lye Aeneas Syluius reporteth That Fredericke Archduke of Austria would goe a nights disguised through the Tauerns and Victualing houses belonging to the Court only to heare what they sayd of himselfe and his Ministers being demanded why he did expose his person to that perill his answer was Because in Court they neuer tell truth Plutarch recounteth of King Antiochus That hauing lost himselfe a hunting hee lighted vpon a Cottage where were a companie of shepheards and asking them being at supper What the world said of the King and his Ministers The King said they hath the report of a good honest gentleman but that the State was neuer worse gouerned than now for it is serued by the greediest and the gripingest Ministers that were in the world and when he came backe againe to Court he told those that were about him Since I first tooke possession of this my Kingdome I neuer heard the truth of things till yesterday Amongst foure hundred Prophets which Ahab consulted onely hee met with one that would not lye vnto him and the King hated him for telling him the truth Saint Ambrose calls the Pallace Basilica deriuing it from the Basiliske which kills with it's looke Of this creature Aelian saith That he vomiteth forth his poyson vpon a stone And it fits well for Peter whom our Sauiour Christ termed Petram vpon whom the diuell whom the Scripture stiles a Basiliske vomited foorth his poyson Our Sauiour Christ receiued much kindnesse and courtesie in the house of Martha of Zacheus and the Pharisee but in Herods Pallace they made a foole of him In that of Pilat they whipt him and crowned him with thornes and in that of Caiphas he receiued so many affronts that God onely knowes what they were according to that which Dauid said in his name Tu scis impropirum meum confusionem meam The third occasion was That hee would enter into the Pallace by being brought in by the hands of a woman Saint Bernard saith Si infidelitas intrat quid mirum si infideliter agat Maximus Tirronensis saith That Peters sinne was much like vnto that of Adam there being imployed in both of them a man a woman and a diuell Adam had a warning not to eate Peter not to denie Eue was the occasion that Adam did eate and Cayphas maid-seruant that Peter did denie In a word a woman was the instrument of all our deaths and threw downe to the ground those two Columbs and pillars of the world but Peters fall was the fouler for Eue proceeded with inticements and flatteries and Adam suffered himselfe to be ouercome Ne contristaret delitias Lest he should grieue his Loue. But this woman saith Saint Augustine proceeded with threatnings now a woman is very powerfull in matter of allurements inticings dalliance and deceiuing through profession of loue but in matter of feare as Saint Gregorie hath obserued shee is very weake A woman triumphed ouer Sampson Dauid Salomon Sisera and Holophernes by making loue and vsing deceit but here a maid with only a bunch of keyes hanging at her girdle triumphed ouer Peter by feare The fourth occasion was Saint Peters offering to thrust into the Pallace Ioseph could not auoid the occasion because his Mistresse called him vnto her Dauid did cast his eye aside by chance but Peter did seeke occasion And he that loues anger shall perish by it He doth not say He that loues warre or victorie but he that loues danger Many of the children of Israel did cut off the thumbs from their fingers because they would excuse themselues from prophanation by singing the songs of Sion and being importuned thereunto Sing vnto vs one of the songs of Sion They answered How shall we sing one of the Lords songs in a strange land c. Osee saith Non vocabis me vltra Baalim sed vocabis me vir meus Baalim is the same as Vir meus But because there was an Idol that was called Baalim God said Doe not call me Baalim to the end that no man may presume that thou yet bearest Baalim still in thy mind or for to take all occasion from thee of thinking thereof any more On Gods part there are likewise very good reasons The first shall be of Saint Gregorie Saint Peter being to bee a Pastor it was fit that he should fall into so foule a fault least that afterwards he should be scandalized by other mens offences and carry too sharpe and hard a hand towards sinners Saint Augustine touches vpon the same reason in his bookes de Ciuitate Dei persuading the Bishops of Galilea That Clemencie should sway more with them than seueritie loue than power softnesse than sharpnesse for there is no man that liues without sinne And if our Sauiour Christ should haue censured Peter after his first deniall he would not haue reapt from thence so much fruit as now he did The second shall be of Saint August who sayes That it is a wholesomâ— medicine for a proud man to suffer him to fall into some grieuous and manifest sinne to the end that the foulenesse of that fault may abate his pride Saint Peter was so peremptorie and so presumptuous that he did presse this point with such a deale of confidence and boldnesse that he told his Master Though that all men shall be offended by thee yet will I neuer bee offended And Christ then telling him that hee should denie him thrice