ten degrees inferiour to man A liue dogge is better then a dead lyon there he is ten degrees lower then the wormes Plinie reporteth that there was a Diall set vp in Campus Martius which was to continue 30. yeres wherby they might know the course of the Sunne yet as he reporteth it did not agree with the Sunne for the space of all those thirtie yeares In the death of Christ we might haue seene such a Dial the Sunne did not alwaies agree with the Diall the better for vs. Christ is that tender Pellican who by wounding his owne breast doth restore his owne to life againe by his bloud I came sayth Christ that men might haue life and that they might haue life more aboundantly What is that more aboundantly but only this that wee haue more life in the death of Christ then euer wee lost in the death of Adam O falix culpa quae talem meruit redemptorem Happie Adam sayth Gregorie that euer he sinned because that we by his sinne haue grace superabounding As Peters spirit was but a shadowe to Christs spirit so Peters death was but a shadow to Christs death And as the death of a lyon was the life of Sampson so the death of Christ is the life of man Thus you see that the death of Christ is the death of death the death of the diuell the life of himselfe and the life of man and therefore he sayth in this fourth parte Not too much for my death For me Now the fift part followeth For your selues Not too little for your owne life for the life of man is the life of death the life of the diuell the death of himselfe the death of Christ the reason of all this is iniquitie and sinne which euen in Christes deare friends sayth Bernard is cast downe but not cast out Therefore though sinne cannot reigne in vs yet it will alwaies dwell in vs for it is so bred in our bones that vntil our bones bee with Iosephs bones carried out of Egypt that is out of the world sinne cannot bee carried out of our bones One recordeth that the Romanes got such a victorie ouer Chosâ—oes that he made a law that neuer after any King of Persia should euer warre against the Romanes Wee cannot possiblie subdue sinne in such sort but doe we what wee can doe sinne will alwaies be a Iebusite a borderer yea a traytor rebelling against the spirit which maketh the life of man to be as Chrysostome sayth a debt as it were owing and due to death For the diuell is the father of sinne and sinne is the mother of death Hereupon S. Iames sayth Sinne when it is finished trauelling with childbirth as I may say bringeth foorth death For euen as a man commeth into a house by a gate so death came into the world by sinne The corruption of our flesh did not make our soules sinfull but the sinne of our soule made the flesh corruptible Whereupon Lactantius calleth sinne Pabuluâ— mortis the reliefe or the foode of death As a fire goeth out when al the fuell is spent but burneth as long as that lasteth so death dyeth when sinne ceaseth but where sinne aboundeth there death rageth The Prophet Abacucke sinning not death was so farre from him that he was able to flye without wings but King Asa sinning death was so neere to him that hee was not able to stand vpon his feet Nay you may see this in one and the selfe same man Moses who sinning not death could not meere with him in the bottome of the red sea but sinning death did seaze vpon him in the top of Mount Nebo so that the life of man by reason of sinne is the life of death It is also the life of the diuel As one saith Tot crimina tot daemona euery man hath as many diuels in him as he hath euils euery sinne being sufficient to maintaine a diuell The godly finding no ioy on earth haue their conuersation in heauen but Sathan finding no ioy in hell hath his conuersation on earth So that the earth is a hell vnto vs but a heauen to him Here he hath his liuing as it was sayd in the beginning Thou shalt eate the dust of the earth all the daies of thy life This dust sayth Macarius is the diuels diet And therefore as a scalde curre watcheth for a bone so he goeth about daily seeking whom he may deuour waiteth continually vntill the godly shake off the dust of their feete that is shaketh off some sinne which they haue gotten by walking in the world that then he may lick it vp It is meate and drinke to him to see vs sinne he loues alife to see vs sinne euen as cursed Cham did to see Noahs nakednes And as flyes are alwaies flying about a sore place and the oxe wil eate the best grasse he can get so the diuel is as busie as he can to haue his pleasure vpon the best So sayth Theophilact It is euen a sport or a pleasure to Sathan which is a sore or a paine to man especially if he be a godly man for the good Angels reioyce most when one that is a sinner repenteth but euill Angels reioyce most when one that is a penitent sinneth If the diuel cannot keepe a man from liuing long then he will hinder him from liuing well Aut impetrat morte aut impetit mores sayth Zeo If he cannot kill a man he will corrupt him And indeede hee taketh more pleasure in corrupting one godly man then in killing an hundred wicked He was more delighted when Dauid slew Vrias then when Saul killed himselfe when Peter denied Christ then wheÌ„ Iudas betrayed him so that the life of man by reason of sinne is the life of the diuell It is on the other side the death of himselfe Oh miserable man that I am who shall deliuer me from this bodie of death The life of the godly is a very bodie of death but there death is only a shadow of death Thales being demanded what difference there is betweene life and death sayd they are all one then being asked againe if he had not rather die then liue no sayth he for they are all one but Hierome sayth excelleÌ„tly they are not all one Aliud est viuere moriturus aliud mori victurus It is one thing to liue in coÌ„tinuall daÌ„ger of death an other thing to dye in continuall hope of life Therefore Eccle. 7. 3. it is sayd that the day of death is better then the day of birth for when wee are borne wee are mortall but when we are dead we are immortall and wee are aliue in the wombe to dye in the world but are dead in the graue to liue in heauen Hence it is that the wicked are merrie at their birth day as Pharaoh made a feast at his birth day Gen. 40. 20. when his chiefe butler was hanged and Herod likewise made a feast at his birth day Matth. 14. 16. when Iohn Baptist
A MOST EXCELLENT AND HEAVENLY SERMON Vpon the 23. Chapter of the Gospell by Saint Luke THE TEXT LVKE 23. 28. Weepe not for me but weepe for your selues AT LONDON Printed for Andrew Wise. 1595. LVKE 23. 28. VVeepe not for me but weepe for your selues RIght Honourable right Worshipfull and welbeloued 4. sorts of people were about Christ when Christ was about his passion The first were executioners which tormented him the second sort were Iewes which mockt him the third were lookers on who markt him the fourth were welwillers who lamented him Now although it is like that amongst these his welwillers diuers godly mē wept for him as Ioseph of Arimathea Gamaliel Nicodemus and such like yet it is certaine that more women wept then men More women wept then men partly by the permission of men who thought that the womens weeping came rather from weakenes in themselues then for loue towardes Christ and partly by the prouidence of God who suffered more women to weepe then men that the women who bewailed Christ his death might condemne the crueltie of the mē that procured it Now the women wept also more then the men either of a naturall affection or els of a voluntarie disposition naturally subiect to many either affectionate passions or passionate affections But touching these women that which otherwise was naturall in them was here voluntarie for the sinne of a woman was the ruin of a man Therefore these women willingly wept the more that though a womā did most in the second death of the first Adam so she may do least in the first death of the second Adam For it was Eue a woman who betrayed the first Adam with an apple and caused him to sinne but it was Iudas a man who betraied the second Adam with a kisse and caused him to dye Wherefore principally indeede Christ speaketh to the womē because both more women wept then men the women also wept more then the men more women more weeping yet indifferently he speaketh to all his deare friends VVeepe not for me but weepe for your selues At the first the woman began in disobedience and tempted Adam to eate of the forbidden fruite yet since women as Mary Magdalene and Mary the Virgin and the women here with diuers others haue farre exceeded men in all obedience vnto them rather then vnto men he turneth his speech and yet saith generally VVeepe not for me but weepe for your selues In which sentence wee may obserue as many parts as there bee words eight words eight parts The first is VVeepe not that is weepe not too much The second but weepe that is weep not too little The third weepe not but weepe both together Fourthly for me not too much for my death Fiftly for your selues that is not too little for your owne liues Sixtly for me for your selues both together Seuenthly Weepe not for me Eightly Weepe not for me but weepe for your selues God graunt that our harts may be so affected with the consideration of these excellent matters as they may bee most to the encrease of our comfort in him and his glorie in vs. 1. VVeepe not c. When Iairus ruler of the Sinagogue wept bitterly for the death of his daughter Luk. 8. 52. Christ sayd vnto him VVeepe not When Rachel wept and would not be comforted for the losse of her sonne Beniamin seeing so few of her children left Iere. 31. 16. the Lord sayd vnto her Weepe not When a poore widow wept for the death of her only sonne Luk. 7. 3. Christ sayd vnto her VVeepe not And so Christ here seeing many Iairus many Rachels many widowes weeping for the son of God sayd vnto them VVeepe not Forbidding therby immoderate weeping which is condemned in nature in reason and in religion In nature the earth when it reioyceth in haruest then it is couered with corne but when it hath to too sorowfull a countenance forelorne in the winter then it is fruitles and barren The water when it is quiet and calme bringeth in all manner of Marchandize but when the sea stormes and rores too much then the very shippes doe howle and crye The ayre looking brightly and cheerefully refresheth al things but weeping too much that is rayning too much as in Noahs his floud it drowneth the whole world The fire being sprinkled with a little water burneth more cleerely but if wee cast too much water into the fire it will neither giue heate nor light The eye it selfe hath twise as many drie skinnes like sluces to stop vp the course of teares as it hath moyst humours like channels to let them flow forth If all the bodie were an eye and there were not eares in it where were then the hearing If all the eye were a moyst humour and there were no drie skins in it where were then the seeing Seeing then too much weeping is in the earth barrennes in the water shipwracke in the ayre an inundation and too much water putteth out the fire and in the eye blindnes certainly if the earth could speake and the water speake and the ayre speake and the fire speake and the eye speake they would all sing a song of fiue parts and say together We must not weep too much Mulsi nimium ingratum est which is thus translated in Prouer. 20 27. It is not good to eate too much honey and if it bee not good to eate too much honey it is naught to eate too much wormewood One sayth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 teares are like precious stones and as the Egyptian pearles which wee commonly call vnions which grow but one by one not one vpon another so teares must bee like these vnions shed easily one by one not one vpon another Seneca sayth that that which wee must doe daylie we must doe it moderatly so that if wee cannot quite stop the issue of our teares as she in the Gospell could not of her bloud yet wee must weepe so to day as we may weepe to morowe and keepe teares alwaies in store for some other occasion For we knowe that Heraclitus when hee had wept and sowsed himselfe in sorrow al his life time at length dyed of a dropsie and so as I may say drowned himselfe in his owne teares and Niobe by ouermuch weeping was turned into a stone euen as Lots wife by looking backe vnto Sodom was turned into a piller of salt It was one of Pythagoras his poesies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not to eate the heart but too much heauines eateth the heart of man which is thus expounded Prouer. 25. 20. As a moth fretteth a garment and the worme eateth the wood so heauines hurteth mans heart Now if we must not eate vp the heart of any other thing with our teeth much lesse must we eate vp our owne heart with our teares Therefore euen blind reason such as the heathē haue had doth yet cleerely see this that wee must not weepe too much But religion goeth
might be deceiued for hee knew well enought that Christ should bee borne of a Virgin but he neuer suspected that blessed Mary was a Virgin considering she was bettothed to Ioseph Therefore hee did not lye in waite to destroy the seede of the woman so as other wise he would if he had by a whoore or wife any such thing so that the birth of Christ did cosen the diuell but the death of Chrsit did conquer the diuel and that much more gloriouslie when the temple of his bodie was vpon the pinacle of the crosse then when he himselfe was vpon the pinacle of the temple for when he was vpon the temple his words spake better things then Salomon but when he was vpon the crosse his bloud spake better things thē the bloud of Abel there his words came frō his lungs out of his mouth but here his bloud came from his hart out of his side and there hee fought standing lustily to it and withstanding so then he would not throwe down himself but here he skirmished the diuel yeelding humbling himself to the death of Christ there the diuell went vp vnto him vnto the top of an high mountaine so as I may saye bad him lose at his owne gole but here Christ himselfe descended into hell and so spoyled principalities and powers and slew the great Leuiathan in the very bottome of his owne bottomlesse pit For the diuell like a greedie rauenous fish nibbing at the baite of Christs bodie as Damascen speaketh was pearced through and twitched vp with the hooke of his deitie Hence it is that before Christs passion Peter tooke money out of a fishes mouth to pay his tribute and also after Christ his passion the Disciples boyled a fish for him to feede vpon whereby we see that as Christ made a fish paye tribute to Caesar so hee made the diuell also paye tribute to death for him and that the diuell while he wēt about to catch the good fish Iesus Christ Gods sonne the Sauiour as the letters of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seuerally signifie was himselfe caught yea also killed by Christ so that all the while our Sauiour was buried in the graue the diuell was boyled in hell Wherfore as it was bootlesse for Goliah to brandish his speare against Dauid so it little auailed the diuell to shake the speare likewise in the hand of the soldier against the heart of Christ For as Dauid hauing heard Goliah prating and talke his pleasure yet when they came to the poynt at the first stroke ouerthrewe him so Christ with the very same speare which gaue him a little venue in comparison or but a fillip on the side which was soone after recured gaue the diuell soone after a deadly wound in his forehead which he shall neuer bee able to claw off againe And again as Dauid hackt off the Giants head with his owne sword so Christ wrested that shaking sword out of the Cherubines hands and therewith chopt off the serpents head and so the death of Christ by reason of righteousnes is the death of the diuell It is on the other side the life of himselfe That noble Eunuch riding in his coach read in Esay that Christ was silent before his death as the lambe before the shearer He saith not as a lambe before the butcher but before the shearer insinuating that death did not kill Christ but sheare him a little Neither yet had death Christs fleece when he was shorne for Christ taking to him a sponge full of vineger Ioh. 19. 29. that was full of our sharpe and sower sinnes did giue vs for it purple wooll full of bloud Hebr. 9. 19. that is full of his pure and perfect iustice and indeede the onely liuerie which Christ our Lord and master giueth to his seruants is a coate made of purple wooll The iust saith Dauid shall florish like a palme tree Christ is that true 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that true palme tree who although he bare al the burdens of sinne in the world vpon his backe yet then he doth most flourish of all euen as Camamile the more it is trod vpon the more it groweth and florisheth And as the palme tree hath many weights aboue many snakes beneath and yet may truely say of it selfe Nec premor nec perimor I am neither by the weights of the bowes ouermuch laden and pressed downe nor by the snakes below eaten vp or consumed So Christ neither by the weight of Gods wrath aboue is ouercharged nor by the heauines of our sinnes pressed downe but like the Swanne singeth sweetest when his death is neerest The Prophet Dauid sayth that God giueth his snowe like wooll but we may turne the sentence and say that Christ giueth his wooll like snowe For as snow couereth the ground when it is rugged and deformed so Christs coate without seame couereth our sinnes and though they were as crimson yet maketh he them white as snow And as Gedeons fleece when it was moyste the earth was drie but when it was drie the earth was moyste so when Christes fleece was moyste as a greene tree then were all wee drie like rotten stickes but when Christ his fleece was drie all the blood and water being wringed out of his pretious side then were we moystened with his grace therefore seeing Christs fleece fell not to deaths lotte when he was shorne but we haue it who beleeue in him it followeth that neither death was the better nor Christ the worse but as a lambe is much more nimble and liuelie for shearing so this shearing of Christ was a kinde of quickning to him and only a trimming to him before hee ascended to his father as Ioseph was trimmed and powled before he went to Pharaoh When Adam slept his side was opened when Christ died his side was opened Adams side being opened flesh and bone was taken out Christs side being opened water and blood was taken out Of Adams flesh and bone the woman was built of Christs water blood the church is built so the death of Christ is nothing els but the sleepe of Adam for as hee himselfe sayth of the damsels death The damsell is not dead but sleepeth so he sayth of his own death I layd me downe to sleepe and rose up againe for the Lorde susteined mee And in another place when the father saide to his sonne Awake my glorie awake my lute and harpe God the Sonne answers to his Father I will awake right early That vessell which Peter saw in a traunce which was let downe from heauen vnto the earth and knit to the foure corners and had all kind of beasts in it did betoken Christ Christ came downe from heauen vnto the earth and his glory is knit vp by the foure Euangelists and hee hath made Iewes and Gentiles yea all nations one in himselfe Now saith Cassianus it is worth the marking which the spirit of God sayth Not that the vessell was a great sheete but