the Iewes and Romans setting to their shoulders to ouerthrowe the life of our Sauiour Christ one lost his Kingdome another his Monarchy this man his goods that man his life many both their bodies and soules This is that Interficitis vniuersi vos And as that speare which Saul threw did not touch Dauid but smote the wal So the nailes wounds scourges and thornes toucht our Sauiours Humanitie but not his Diuinitie So that the speare which was flung at him missing his Godhead and hitting onely his Manhood the Deuill was thereby taken mocked ouerthrowne amazed and astonished In Exodus God beeing willing to giue an end to the plagues of Aegypt he commanded that euerie family of the children of Israell should on a certaine night kill a Lambe and that they should sprinkle the posts of the doores of their houses with the blood thereof and that when the Angell should passe by slaying the first borne of Aegypt he should skip ouer the posts that were sprinckled with the blood of the Lambe which the Israelites that night had eaten to supper S. Chrysostome saith That the Angell did feare the blood of that Lambe because it was a type and figure of that true and most innocent Lambe who was to haue his blood sprinckled on the posts of the Crosse. If then an Angell of God were affraid of the blood of a beast because it was a figure of that blood which was to be shed on the Crosse for the sauing of sinners and such as were Gods chosen people What feare and terrour shall the blood and death of our Sauior Christ God and Man strike into Hell Saint Paul sayth Triumphans illos in semetipso Triumphing ouer them in the Crosse subduing powers principalities c. It is Anselmes obseruation that the triumphers of this world make their triumph by shedding the blood of their enemies but our Sauiour Christ triumphed ouer the deuils and ouer sinne and death by shedding his owne proper blood God did antiently in those times of old take the same course with his enemies as other tâ—â—umphers in the world were woont to doe Glorificabor in Pharaone c. I will get mâ— honour vpon Pharaoh and vpon all his Hoste vpon his Chariots and his Horsemen that the Aegyptians may know that I am the Lord. God made himselfe then to bee knowne by destroying drowning and killing of them But now hee would get himselfe a name and fame by dying himselfe on the Crosse. This strange and new kind of victorie Esay paynteth foorth by introducing our Sauiour Christ who ascendeth all bloodie vp vnto Heauen and by bringing in those Angells who aske the question Who is this that comes thus stained and dy'd in his owne blood and yet is both faire and valiant Who is this as it is in the Text that commeth from Edom with red garments from Bozrah He is glorious in his apparell and walketh with great strength Wherefore is thine apparell red and thy garments like him that treadeth in the Wine-presse And the answere to this demand is Ego propugnator ad saluandum I am mightie to saue I spake in righteousnesse and past my word to saue the World and to take them out of the hard bondage of the deuill of sinne and of death and I haue performed my promise and beene as good as my word by leauing their enemies ouercome by â—reading them vnderfoot and by stayning all my rayment with blood and by bringing downe their strength to the earth But Quare ergo rubrum est vestimenium tâ—â—m Why is thy rayment redde What a Conqueror and yet so beâ—â—â—eared with blood It is answered I trode mine enemies vnder my foot as hee tâ—at crushing grapes â—readeth in the Winepresse and my garments are sprinckled and my â—ayment stayned with their blood Calcaui eos in furore meo I troad thâ—m in â—â—â—â—â—â—ger and troad them vnderfoot in my wrath for the day of vengeance was in 〈◊〉 heart and the yeere of my redeemed was come And so I was their sauiour But how could this be said of the Deuills and of Sinne beeing that they haue neither of them blood 'T is true But humane nature hath both flesh and blood Whereof they had made themselues Lords and Masters And because I had sayth Christ put on this particular nature not in regard as it was in mee for so it was impeccable and without sinne but in regard of the rest of mankind from whome it was inseparable and not to bee remooued and so must neede Sinne whilest that was about them Christ was prodigall of his owne innocent and pretious Blood that he might saue ours which was altogether tainted and corrupted He endured the Crosse that wee might receiue the Crowne he cast himselfe into the Armes of Death that hee might rayse vs vp to eternall life for which his great and vnspeakable Mercie towards vs most wretched vile and miserable Sinners to him the Father and the Holy Ghost three Persons one true and euer liuing God bee rendred all Prayse Honour and Glorie Might Maiestie Power and Dominion as most due World without end Amen Laus Deo A Table of all the principall matters contained in this Booke A Abraham HOped where hee had no reason to hope page 68 69. In sacrificing Isaac hee sacrificed the ioy and content of his life 187 His courage was againe tried by being forced to forsake his countrey 275 Adam For a foolish longing lost the greatest Empire 273 His knowledge was infused 466 If he had accused himselfe hee had freed his posteritie 288 The sight of Abel being dead was a terror to Adam euer after 489 He layd the burden of his transgression vpon God 564 Hee knewe by reuelation that his marriage did represent that of Christ and his Church but he knew not the meanes 608 If he had not excused his fault he had not bin shut out of Paradise 625 Hee was buried where Christ was crucified 642 Admiration Whence it proceedeth 35 It is commendation ibid. It waiteth not but on things that are rare 320 345 Vsually the child of Ignorance 465 Christ on the Crosse the chiefest obiect that euer it had 639 Aduantage Against an Enemie no cowardize 551 Adulterie How punished in former times 418 The foulenesse of the Sin ibid. Condemned euen by nature 419 Affliction Beneficiall 27 But not to the wicked 28 Why God afflicteth his children 63 69 179 It altereth the verie forme of Man 638 Ambition A strong temptation 90 Blind in what it pursueth 228 It knows nor reason nor religion 229 The nurce and mother of many Cruelties 230 Three sorts of Ambition 229 Anger See Wrath. It ought to be restrained 58 Sometimes necessarie 126 As hurtfull a Sinne as Enuy. 328 c. Angels The Protectors of Gods children 89 Their Power 97 They reioyce at our comming to Heauen 282 Euill Angels To what seruices deputed 97 Antechrist His wonders shall be lying and deceitfull yet many 120 Antiquitie The
hee will that thou giue the glorie vnto him and take the profit to thy selfe That Workeman should doe ill who hauing built a house with another mans Purse should goe about to set vp his owne Armes vpon the Frontispeece Iustinian made a Law That no master-Workeman should set vp his name within the bodie of that building which hee made out of anothers cost Christ sets thee aworke and wills thee to Fast to Pray to giue Almes but Who is at the cost of this so good and great a worke God thou hast all thy materials from him the building is his it is his Purse that payes for all giue the gloâ—ie therefore and the honor thereof vnto him Gloriam meam alteri non dabo i. I will not giue my glorie to another Content thy selfe with Heauen which is promised vnto thee if thou doost well which is a sufficient reward for any seruice that thou canst doe The third That Fasting Praying giuing of Almes done onely for Gods sake is of that great price and estimation that it is ill employed on any other than God And for that God weighes all things in his hand as in a ballance and knowes the weight of euery good worke and the true value therefore it grieues him that thou shouldst doe these good things for so vile and base a price and is sorrie to see thee so poore and foolish a Merchant that thou wilt part wirh that which is as much worth as Heauen to thee for that which is lesse than earth to wit onely that the World may say Such a one fasteth Why doost thou thus crucifie thy flesh Why debarre thy bellie of food Why being readie to die for hunger doost thou not eat Why lift vp thy eyes to Heauen for so poore a thing as to winne applause vpon earth Sterni lutum quasi aurum saith Iob those works that are done for God are gold done for the world durt They lay vp this their treasure in the tongues and eyes of men which is a chest that hath neither locke nor key vnto it The fourth That Fasting is a Plaister for our wounds a Medicine for our griefes a Salue for our sinnes and a Defence against Gods wrath But thou must take heed that thou doe not make this Plaister poison this Medicine sicknesse this Salue a sore and this Defence our destruction For where God hath a Church there the Deuill hath a Chappell and where hee throwes in seed the other will sow tares Naboth a Subiect of King Achab had a Vineyard in Samaria neere vnto the Kings Palace the King had a mind vnto it Naboth will not part with it the King growes sad refuses his meat Iezabel comes to see him makes a jest of it takes pen in hand dispatches a Ticket to the Gouernors of that Citie sealed with the Kings Seale to proclaime a Fast subornes two witnesses to sweare That they heard Naboth blaspheme God the King the innocent Naboth is stoned to death and his goods confiscated In which action there are two things worthie our consideration The one That the circumstance of blaspheming God and the King vpon a solemne day of Fast as it is noted by Vatablus was so grieuous that of force hee must be condemned to die for it in so great veneration was Fasting in those dayes The other That it serued as a cloake for the taking away of the Vineyard for the falsifying of witnesses and injustice in the Iudges Who should haue then seene the People to fast would haue thought it had beene done out of zeale Gods honour and a desire to doe him seruice But it was meerely a tricke of the Deuils which hee had plotted with himselfe Hee threw poyson vpon vertue seeking to draw euill out of good Wee must therefore beware least these our good actions receiue hurt by euill intentions Like Hypocrites Hypocrisie runnes a quite contrarie course to these foure points before specified and crosses the same three or foure manner of waies First It feigneth the good which it hath not As the proud Man Humility the Cholericke Patience the Wanton Honestie the Miser Liberalitie This leger-demaine is that which hath more generally spred it selfe through mens brests being desirous that the bodie should serue for the soule as painting for the face which being blacke makes it seeme white The painted Image of diuers colours whereof Wisedome speaketh stirreth vp in Fooles a kind of pleasure and delight This stampe though it be there set vpon Idolaters may bee truly set vpon Hypocrites for the comparison will hold well in both Hee that shall truly and steddily looke vpon the face of an Hypocrite shall in him behold an Image flourished ouer with sundrie colours but counterfeit and feigned as the white of Chastitie the watched of Zeale the red of Loue. But this is but a dunghill couered ouer with snow the Hypocrite sheweth teares in his eys deuotion in his mouth sorrowfulnesse in his countenance and mortification in his flesh But he is not the man he seemes to be for the Painter though he giue the Varnish of the colour he cannot giue heate nor life hee may giue the likenesse but not the truth of a thing he painteth snow which is not cold fire which doth not burne birds which doe not flie beasts which doe not goe hee will paint a S. Hierome with a stone but it shall neuer hit him on the breast he will paint a Saint Francis with a discipline or whip in his hand which shall neuer giue him so much as one stripe or lash on the bodie like vnto that Statue which Michol put into Dauids bed clad with his cloathes which cosined the King and those that came with him Or like vnto a dead man which being beheld afarre off seemeth to be aliue or vnto Ezechiels Temple which was fairely painted without but within full of abhominations A Painter or a Statuarie frameth a verie perfect Image in the exterior parts but the Picture doth not enter into the substance of the wood or marble Nature beginneth with the inner parts it first fashioneth the heart then it organeth giueth life to the other parts of the bodie Whereas feigned Repentance beginneth in the outward parts of the body but true in the inward parts of the soule Our Sauiour in the Garden had first great sorrow in his soule and from thence that sweat of bloud was deriued to his bodie The Hypocrite hath the appearance of a Saint the apparell of a Saint the place of a Saint the figure of a Saint and nothing in him which is not Saint-like but like those Assisters at Christs death that had put on his cloathes Hee that shall see a common Hangman with Christs seamelesse coate vpon his backe wil take him to be a second Messias When Iacob saw Iosephs coat dipt in bloud thinking some wild beast had deuoured him he cried out Tunica filij mei est fera pessima deuorauit eum i. 'T is the garment
to be reuenged of him for the death of the young man hee sayd vnto them Hearken ô yee wiues of Lamech Let it not once enter into your thoughts to take reuenge on my life for though the vengeance which God appointed for the killing of Caine had a limitation yet the reuenge of my death shall be without taxe and without measure Setuplum vltio dabitur de Cain de Lamech autem septuagies septies Cain shall be reuenged seuen times but Lamech seuentie times seuen times Wherein he sets downe a finite number for an infinite In a word Lamech in this word Septuagies septies shewes That the reuenge that should bee taken thereof should be without terme without limitation wherein he seemes to make mans crueltie to contest with Gods mercie The other is Of those that hate their enemies so to the death that though they themselues die yet they will not let their hatred die with them but leaue it in their last Will and Testament to their heires to take reuenge of their wrongs and to prosecute their enemies vnto death Being herein like vnto Dido who throwing out her curses and maledictions on Aeneas and desiring the Tygres and other wild beasts to reuenge her wrong breathed her last with this inuocation Hoc precor hanc vocem extremaÌ„ cum sanguine fundo i. This is my prayer I wish no other good and this I poure forth with my latest bloud Whence I would haue you to note That this hardnesse of mans heart at his death is in punishment of his hardnesse of heart in his life Hac anima aduersione saith Saint Austen punitur peccator i. This is a sinners punishment And in another place Cor durum male habebit in nouissimo It shall goe ill with a hard heart in the latter day And Ieremie treating of those that persecuted him Reddes eis Domine vicem iusti dabis eis scutum cordis Thou shalt pay them in their owne coyne thou shalt vse them as they vsed their enemies thou shalt giue them a heart like a shield of Brasse it shall be hard in their life time and hard at their death No prayers could mollifie them nor shall their entreatie mooue thee for only the merciful shall only find mercie Now for the reforming of both these excesses Saint Paul saith Sol non occidat super iracundiam vestram Let not the Sunne goe downe before your wrath goe out Let not the one set before the other be setled Saint Chrysostome renders two reasons of this saying Sol non occidat c. The one That the Sunne doth fauour and serue you with his light and with his influences cherishing your health and your life and does not return home at night brawling and complayning that he hath bestowed this his loue seruice vpon an vngrateful vnthankful person There is no creature but wil grumble repine to serue such a one Ingemescit It sighes and groanes c. saith Saint Paul but the Sunne does not grudge at his seruing of you The second That the night is of it selfe sad melancholly and in a disposition to troublesome thoughts and immaginations Now then that your fantasie may not present you with an armie of fearefull cogitations and the dismall representations of reuenge before that the night comes on quiet that raging sea within thy brest by throwing Oyle vpon it become soft gentle by clensing thy heart of all rancour and malice If the beames of the Sunne cannot pierce through a thicke cloud they will hardly make their way through the pitchie darkenesse of the night being that they are naturally then in their augmentation When the cheerefulnesse of the day employment in businesses and the companie and comfort of our friends cannot remooue the clouds of our anger the night will hardly scatter them who is the mother of painefull thoughts For as the infirmities of the bodie encrease by the absence of the Sunne so in like sort doe the diseases of the soule I know not whither Ioshuah were toucht or no with this Spirit when hee willed the Sunne to stand still when he was in the pursuit of his enemies It seemeth vnto some That it is a verie hard matter and more than flesh and bloud can beare to pardon fresh iniuries the bloud boyling then in our brest But this is answer'd by that example of our Sauior Christ who when his wounds did poure forth bloud on euerie side yet his tongue cryde out Ignosce illis quia nesciunt quid faciunt Forgiue them for they know not what they doe Where I would haue you to note that the word faciunt is of the present Tense When they were boring his feet with nailes Saint Austen to this purpose saith Is petebat veniam à quibus adhuc accipiebat iniuriam He craued pardon for those of whom euen then hee suffered wrong For he did not so much weigh that he died by them as that he died for them Cum esset in sanguine suo saith Ezechiel dixit Viue i. When he was in his owne bloud he said Liue. And Saint Bernard That hee offered vp his life Non interpellantâ—bus sed repellentibus non inuocantibus sed prouocantibus Not for those that inuoked him but prouoked him The replies of the Flesh are infinite and without number Some say Whilest wee liue in the world we must follow the fashions of the world and liue according to it's Lawes and that if a man put vp one iniurie he shall haue a thousand put vpon him I answer hereunto That it is a fouler fault to seeke out reasons to defend and maintaine sinne than to commit it And if thou shalt tell mee thou desirest to be reuenged because thou art weake and canst not bridle thy anger I shall the rather pittie thee and shall withall councell and aduise thee to aske pardon of God for this thy weakenesse and infirmitie But that thou shouldst defend thy offence with reasons and force of argument it is not a thing to bee immagined but more against reason it is to reason against God Let vs now leaue the Gospell and the sacred Scriptures and let vs bring this businesse within the spheare of reason I say then That it is the Language of him that knowes not what reason is as if it were possible there could be any reason against God The Clowne rests so well contented with his poore Cottage that he wil not change it for the Kings Pallace And the worldly man likes so well of the lawes and fashions of the world that he sticks not to preferre them before those of God Others stand vpon their honour alledging How can a man liue in the world without the vpholding of his honour and repution I answere It is not to bee found in the Scripture That Christ doth councell any man to suffer in his honor for him or to loose his reputation Marry hee hath promised a reward vnto him that for his sake
children of Israell dwelt there was light not onely because God can free those places where his people were from that thicke darknes that oppressed the Aegyptians but also for that he can make when he listeth that very darknesse serue as a light vnto them Forsitan tenebrae conculcabunt me non illuminatio mea in dilicijs meis It were madnesse in me ô Lord to thinke that in the following of my pleasures I can hide my selfe out of thy sight for though I should hide my selfe in the thickest and most palpable darkenesse that can be immagined thou wilt make of them bright beames of light which shall discouer me vnto thee Nox illuminatio mea in dilicijs meis The Hebrew hath it Circum me I shall bee seene as easily in the night as at noone day In Genesis Iacob saith Lauabit in vino stolam suam He shall wash my garment in wine It was his Prophecie on Iudas his fourth sonne who was a Type and figure of our Sauiour Christ. But passing from the Type to the truth hee saith That comming into the world he shall wash the Church and those that are the Faithfull with his bloud Lauabit in vino stolam suam And if any one shall aske me How the Stole can remaine white being washed in bloud or in wine Diodorus and Genadius in Catena Lypomani answer That Gods power can doe this working contrarie effects to common reason As from death to draw life from tribulation comfort and from shame glorie In tribulatione dilatasti mihi saith Dauid gloriamur in tribulatione So may a garment or linnen robe bee white that is washed in the wine of his bloud Qui dat niuem sicuâ— lanam nebulam sicut cinerem spargit God can warme a man with snow as with wooll and make cold be vnto vs as a cloathing From that fire of the Babilonian furnace whereinto Nebucadnezar commanded the three children to be cast Sidrac Misac Abednego there issued forth a fresh winde and a cooling breath Quasi ventum rorâ— flantem God saith Chrysostome can take from fire it 's burning which is his proper effect and make it to giue light and to refresh his children as with a dew Mitte te deorsum scriptum est enim Angelis suis c. Cast thy selfe downe For it is written He will giue his Angells charge ouer thee The Deuill hauing now brought our Sauiour to the top of the Pinacle of the Temple beeing confident to get the conquest of him making vse of that place of Scripture first wishing him to throw himselfe downe and to relie vpon Gods preseruing of him for it is written Angelis suis Deus c. Saint Hierome Saint Ambrose Saint Bernard and Saint Gregorie say That the Deuill neuer desires to see any man climbe on high vnlesse it bee for his greater destruction For as he fell down like a thunder-bolt so doth he desire to haue all men else to fall as he did and that their sinnes may throw them headlong downe to Hell Which is one especiall effect of his pride according to that of Dauid Dejecisti eos dum eleuarentur or extollerentur as Saint Austen readeth it Thou didst cast them downe while they were lifted vp Est aliquid humilitatis c. There is somewhat in humilitie which in a wonderfull manner lifteth vp the heart and there is somewhat in pride which casteth it downe It is a miracle that Pride and Humilitie should euer meet Saint Bernard saith That at the foot of the Crosse the Deuill did repeat the same lesson againe Si Rex Israel est descendat de Cruce If thou be King of Israell come downe from the Crosse As though he had forgot the shame that Christ had put him to before Cast thy selfe Thou canst do nothing without thy selfe against thy selfe thou must put to thy helping hand Non sâ—luabit te sine te nec perdet te sine te Whence it is to bee noted That hee not onely pretendeth the holiest that is should cast himselfe headlong from the Tower of Good-workes but he that is seated on the Pinacle of the Temple and in the highest dignitie in the Church It is a lamentable case that the Prelate the Priest and the Preacher should be put to this perill Quis medebitur Incantatori à Serpente percusso Who shall heale the Inchanter that is wounded by the Serpent He hath giuen his Angels charge ouer thee The main drift of the deuil is to flatter and sooth vs vp that he may facilitate our fall to sing sweetly vnto vs to inchant vs like the Syren Ossa eius sicut fistula aeris Iob saith That his bones by which he vnderstands his strength are Flutes not of Reede like those of Mida's but of Brasse which sound more sweetly With these he vpholds his Empire and sowes the World with Heresies Moorismes and Paganismes and Hell with damned Soules They are Pipes that make strange consonancies with our inclinations and worke more powerfull effects than those tongues that are tipt with the eloquencies of all the Tullies Demostheneses and Quintilians in the world Which is but an argument of the weaknes of their hands when all their strength lies in their Tongues Your weakest influences say your Astrologers insist vpon the Tongue Woman who is the embleme of weakenesse hath her greatest force and strength in her tongue Your Ruffians and such as are swaggering fellows haue more tongue than hands but they that are truly valiant haue more hand than tongue they know not what the tongue meanes The Roman Souldiers drew a Hand for their Deuice In the Scripture the Hand signifieth Fortitude Manus eius adhuc extenta est so sayes Esay of God The Deuill therefore beeing all Tongue it followeth that he must necessarily be a verie weake creature Saint Peter calls him a Lyon not because he deuoureth but because he roares So that all our victorie consists in freeing our selues from his tongue And it may be Iob alluded hereunto when he speaketh of the Deuill in the metaphor of a Whale Wilt thou bind his tongue with a cord For the Deuill hauing all his strength in his tongue see how that fish when the harping Irons hath caught hold on him struggles on the sand and beats himselfe vpon the beach but all in vaine to get loose and at last swels bursts with anger so is it with the Deuill when we haue tied a knot vpon his tongue His Angells To those whom God loueth and such as are his children Saint Cyprian saith That God hath giuen order to his Angells to gard and protect them if a tyle should fal towards them to strike it aside if stumble to take hold on them that they should not fall How then could a person so holy so beloued of God be affraid God did his People a great fauour in giuing them an Angel to be their Guide Precedet te Angelus meus sending an Angell to Daniel to feed him to
many Bookes that are written thereof especially by a Sea of judgement where your shallow wits are vsually drowned Concerning this Article which is so notorious there is not a Prophet an Euangelist a Sybil nor any of the holy Fathers which do not make confession thereof yea the verie Angells said vnto the Disciples This Iesus who was taken from you shall So come where this particle Sic So doth not so much exprimere modum as similitudinem not the true manner of his comming but after what likenesse he shall come Now doth he sit at the right hand of his Father and shall possesse that Throne till that he shall come to iudge the world and make his enemies his footstoole According to that of Dauid Sit at my right hand Vntill I make thy enemies thy footstoole a sentence which was repeated afterwards by S. Paul to the Hebrews Not that the sitting at the right hand of his father shal euer haue any end for as Saint Chrysostome and Gregorie Nazianzen hath noted it the word Vntill doth not point at any set time but the mutation of the place which our Sauiour Christ is to make for that terme of time that the Iudgement shall last himselfe comming thither in person to set all things in order Vsque in diem restitutionis omnium so saith Saint Luke And by reason of the notoriousnesse thereof the Euangelist doth not say that hee shall come but supposeth as it were his present comming with a Cum venerit c. The Sonne of Man Iudiciarie power or this Potestas judiciaria as the Schoole-men call it is proper to all the Trinitie but is here attributed to the Sonne as Wisedome is likewise attributed vnto him which is the soule of the Iudge So that the Sonne as he is God is the eternall Iudge and the Lord vniuersall to whom the Father hath communicated this dominion by an eternall generation Generando non largiendo saith Saint Ambrose But as he is man the blessed Trinitie gaue him this power in tempore by vniting him to our nature Hee gaue him power to doe judgement And Saint Iohn giues the reason thereof Because he is the Sonne of Man it beeing held fit that Man should be saued by Man Gods mercie gaining thereby glorie and Mans meannesse authoritie And therefore it was thought fit that Man should be iudged by Man Gods justice remaining thereby iustified and Mans Cause secured For What greater securitie can man haue than that hee should bee Mans Iudge who gaue his life for Man shedding his bloud on the Crosse for Mans saluation So doth Saint Austen expound that place alledged by Saint Iohn Dedit ei judicium facere quia filius hominis est On the one side here is matter of hope comfort on the other of feare and trembling Who will not hope for pittie from a man and such a man that is my brother my aduocate my friend who to make me rich had made himselfe poore c. But who can hope for any comfort from that man that was iudged sentenced and condemned vniustly by man vnto death Who can hope for any good from that man whose loue man repaid with dis-loue and whose life with death These Yrons are too hard for the stomacke of man to digest it had need of some Ostriches helpe I will not destroy Ephraim because I am God and not Man God is woont to requite bad with good discourtesies with benefits his loue commonly encreaseth when mans diminisheth but mans brest is somewhat streighter laced In a word This his beeing Man is a matter of feare and by how much the more was Mans obligation by so much the more shall the son of mans vengeance bee For the pretious bloud of our Sauiour Iesus Christ and his cruell yet blessed wounds are the Sanctuarie of our hopes especially to those that trust in him and lay hold on him by Faith but for the vnthankefull sinner they shall be matter of cowardise and of terrour and to our Sauiour Christ minister occasion of greater punishment and a more rigorous reuenge Esay introduceth the Angels questioning our Sauior at his entrance into Heauen Quare rubrum est vestimentum tuum sicut calcantium in torculari Why are thy garments ô Lord like vnto those that tread the Wine-presse You say wel for I haue troden like the grapes my enemies vnder foot and my garments are sprinkled and stained with their bloud O Lord this bloudie spoyle would well haue beseemed thee on earth But what doost thou make with it here in Heauen Dies vltionis in corde meo The day will come when I shall bee reuenged at full of those ill requited benefits which I bestowed on my People and all that patience which I then sâ—ewed shall be turned into wrath and endlesse anger Saint Chrysostome interpreting that place of Saint Mathew Sanguis eius super nos Let his bloud be vpon vs and our children saith thus The time shall come that the bloud that might haue giuen you life shall occasion your death it shall be vnto you worse than that Fire of Babylon which the King intended for death though in the end it turned to life The bloud of Christ was intended for life but it shall end in death Hosea saith Vâ— eis cum recesserâ— ab eis Another Translation hath it Caro mea ab eis When the Sonne of mans mercie was come to that heigth as mans thought could not set it higher to wit That God in mans fauour should take mans flesh vpon him woe vnto those men who were vnmindfull of so great a blessing for this extraordinarie courtesie of his being so vnthankfully entertained and so ill requited shall be their condemnation for whose saluation it was intended Cornua eius sicut Rinocerotis saith Deutronomie The Vnicorne is the mildest the patientest beast that is and it is long ere he will be prouoked to anger but if he once grow hot and angrie there is no creature more fierce and furious than he is Ex tarditate ferocior as Pierius vseth it by way of adage Saint Austen collecteth hence another conuenience Euerie iudgement saith he requireth two especiall and important things The one That the Iudge feare not the face of the Mightie The other That he hide not his face from him that is brought before him For the first The Scripture hath it euerie where Regard not the countenance of the Mightie For the second Iob pondering the perdition of a certain Prouince saith That the Iudges thereof would not suffer themselues to be seen The earth is giuen into the hands of the Wicked he couereth the faces of the Iudges And therefore God will not be seene by the damned for by their verie seeing him they should be freed from their punishment and therefore in this respect it was fit that Christ should come to iudge the world as Man In Maiestate sua In his Maiestie The Interlinearie hath it In Diuinitate
open to others view and their owne confusion Nor shall these our sinnes bee conspicuous onely to others but euerie offendor shall see and plainely perceiue his owne particular sinnes For there is no man that fully knowes his owne sinnes while hee liueâ— here in this world And so doth Saint Basil interpret that place of the Psalmist Arguam te statuam contra te faciem tuam Euerie man shall then behold himselfe as in a glasse In a word This day will be the summing vp of all those oâ—â— former dayes wherein as in a beadroll wee shall read all the loose actions of our life all our idle words all our euill workes all our lewd thoughts or whatsoeuer else of ill that our hearts haue conceiued or our hands wrought So doth a graue Author expound that place of Dauid Dies formabuntur nemo in eis In that day shall all dayes be formed and perfected for then shall they bee cleerely knowne Et nemo in eis This is a short and cutted kind of speech idest There shall not bee any thing in all the world which shall not bee knowne in that day The other wonder shall be That all this businesse shall bee dispatcht in a moment In ictu oculi saith Saint Paul In the twinckling of an eye The Greeke Text in stead of a moment renders it Atomo which is the least thing in nature Concluding this point with that saying of Theophilact Haec est res omnium mirabilissima This is the greatest wonder of all Statuet Oues à dextris eius Haedos à sinistris He shall place the Sheepe at his right hand and the Goats at the left Dayly experience teacheth vs That what is good for one is naught for another that which helpeth the Liuer hurteth the Spleene one and the selfe same Purge recouers one and casts downe another the Light refresheth the sound Eye and offendeth the sore Wisedome saith That those Rods which wrought amendment in the Children of Israell hardned the hearts of the Aegyptians the one procured life the other death darkenes to the one was light light to the other darknesse When Ioshuah pursued the Ammorites God poured downe Hailestones Lightning and Thunder to Gods enemies they were so many Arrowes to kill them to his friends so many Torches to light them In the light of thy Arrowes saith Abacuc Death to the Wicked is bitter to the Good sweete Iudgement to the Goats is sad heauie but to the Sheep glad ioyfull to the one a beginning of their torment to the other of their glorie And therefore it is here said He shall place the Sheepe at his right hand From this beginning ariseth the Iust's earnest desiring of this our Sauiours comming and the Wicked's seeking to shun it Which is made good by Saint Austen vpon that place of Haggie Hee shall come being wished for of all Nations And his reason is because our Sauiour Christ being desired it is fit that he should be knowne and for want of this knowledge it seemeth vnto him that this place doth not so much suit with his first as his latter comming Saint Paul writing to his Disciple Timothie sayes That the Iust doe long for this judgement His qui diligunt aduentum eius Agreeing with that of Saint Paul to the Romans That the Iust passe ouer this life in sighs tribulations expecting that latter day when their bodies shall bee free from corruption and from death Saint Iohn introduceth in his Apocalyps the soules of the Iust crying out Vsque quò Domine sanctus verax Non judicas vindicas sanguinem nostrum de his qui habitant in terra How long Lord holy and true c. Saint Austen and Saint Ambrose both say That they doe not here craue vengeance on their enemies but that by his comming to judgement the Kingdome of Sinne may haue an end Which is the same with that which we dayly beg in those words of our Paternoster Thy Kingdome come And Saint Iohn in his last Chapter saith The Spirit and the Spouse say Come Come Lord come quickely make no long tarrying That the Sinner should hate this his comming is so notorious a truth that many when things goe crosse with them would violently lay hands on themselues and rid themselues out of this miserable world if it were not for feare of this Iudgement And this was the reason why Saint Paul in saying It is decreed that all men shall die once presently addeth After death Iudgement Other wise there would be many as well discreet as desperate persons that would crie out Let vs die and make an end of our selues at once for a speedie death is better than a long torment This is that that keepes these fooles in awe and quells the vaine confidence of man in generall Tunc dicet Rex his qui à dextris eius erunt vsque esuriui c. Then shall the King say to them on his right hand I was hungrie c. Hee begins with the rewarding of the Good for euen in that day of justice he will that his mercie goe before as well for that it is Gods own proper worke as also for that it is the fruit of his bloud and death Venite Benedicti Patris mei Come yee blessed of my Father a most sweet word in so fearefull a season possidete Regnum Come yee and take possession of an eternall Kingdome Quia esuriui I was hungrie c. Some man may doubt Why Christ at the day of judgement being to examine all whatsoeuer actions of vertue doth here onely make mention of mercie I answer For that Charitie is that Seale and Marke which differenceth the Children of God from those of the Deuill the good Fisâ—es from the bad and the Wheat from the Chaffe Ecce ego judico inter Pecus Pecus so saith Ezechiel and in summe it is the summe of the Law as Saint Paul writeth to the Romans Secondly He maketh mention onely of the workes of mercie for to expell that errour wherein many liue in this life to wit That this businesse of Almes-deeds is not giuen vs as a Precept whereby to bind vs but by way of councel and aduice whereby to admonish vs. And this is a great signe token of this truth for that there is scarce any man that accuseth himselfe for the not giuing of an Almes But withall it is a foule shame for vs to thinke that God should condemne so many to eternal fire for their not shewing pittie to the Poore if it were no more but a bare councell and aduice Gregorie Nazianzen in an Oration which he makes of the care that ought to bee had of the Poore proueth out of this place That to relieue the poore and the needie is not Negotium voluntarium sed necessarium not a voluntarie but a necessarie businesse And Saint Augustine and Thomas are of opinion That we are bound to relieue the necessities of
winds blow is suddenly throwne downe and carried away Optimum est gratia stabilire cor It is an excellent thing that the heart be established with grace that when ye shall be set vpon with diuers and sundrie strange Doctrines yee may stand immoouable and not be shaken with euerie vaine blast of wind Signum non dabitur eis nisi signum Ionae A signe shall not bee giuen them but that of Ionus Now Ionas his signe was the death and resurrection of our Sauiour which Austen calls Signum signorum miraculum miraculorum The signe of signes and miracle of miracles And hee that will not benefit himself by that What other miracle or signe can he expect shall doe him good It is much greater than any other vpon earth by how much the harder it is for one to come out of the heart of the earth and to bee restored to life after he is once dead a greater miracle by farre than that of Ionas his being spewed out of the Whales bellie And the said Saint prooueth that our Sauiour Christ is God and man man because hee entred dead into the bowells of the earth and God because hee came forth from thence aliue So that our Sauiour came to grant them much more than they desired For if they desired miracles from Heauen at our Sauiours death there appeared fearefull ones vnto them Athanasius saith That the Sunne was darkened in token that all those great and noble acts which God had done were eclipsed and darkened in this one of our Redemption Theophilact saith That our Sauiour after his Resurrection wrought no more miracles for that to die and rise againe by his own proper power was the vtmost both of his power and miracles Iudaei signum petunt c. The Iewes require a signe the Graecians seeke after wisedome but I preach vnto you the greatest Signe and the greatest Wisedome in the world to wit Christ crucified Eusebius Emisenus dwelleth much vpon Iacobs wrestling with the Angell In which conflict Iacob remaining Victor craueth a blessing of the Conquered And this is mystically meant of our Sauiour who representing himselfe in the shape of an Angell shewed himselfe vpon the Crosse tortured torne and ouercome yet grew thereby more powerfull and more free hearted for to blesse the world No signe shall be giuen them It is not without a mysterie that our Sauior saith No signe shall be giuen For that signe of his death and resurrection hee knew would profit them so little that it was needlesse to giue them any at all Christ treating of his bloud saith by Saint Luke Which for you and for many shall bee poured out And by Saint Mathew Which shall be poured out for all But many shall not take the benefit of this effusion of his bloud Some did wash their stoles in the bloud of the Lambe others said Sanguis eius super nos id est Let his bloud be vpon vs accusing themselues herein to bee guiltie of the shedding of his bloud And amongst the Faithfull there are many of whom Saint Paul saith Reus erit corporis sanguinis Domini who receiuing it vnworthily shall remaine guiltie of this so pretious a Treasure And in another place That they shall incurre great punishment which doe defile this bloud Et sanguinem testamenti pollutum duxerit Signum non dabitur ei nisi signum Ionae No signe shal be giuen them but that of Ionas For the miracle of Christs death and resurrection was not to bee denied to any Saint Thomas protested That he would not beleeue vnlesse hee might see the prints of our Sauiours wounds which being so strange a capitulation and to outward seeming so discourteous a proceeding our Sauiour Christ yeelded vnto his request and made towards him and made shewe thereof vnto him for the signes of our Sauiours death and Crosse were neuer yet denied to any Esay saith And in that day the root of Ishai which shall stand vp for a signe vnto the People the Nations shall seeke vnto it and his rest shall be glorious The Septuagint and Saint Hierome read Et qui stat The root of Iesse that is to say Ille qui stat in signum populorum congregabit profugos Israel dispersos Iuda colligit à quatuor plagi◠terra He shall set vp a signe to the Nations and assemble the dispersed of Israell and gather the scattered of Iuda from all the foure corners of the world Hee borrowes the metaphore from a militarie Ensigne and saith That Christ our Sauior that suffered on the Crosse and died for our sinnes and rose againe for our saluation shall gather together those that are dispersed through the foure corners of the earth Which is all one with that of Saint Iohn who said That he was not only to die for his People Sed vt Filios Dei qui dispersi erant congregaret in vnum But that he might gather together into one the children of God that were dispersed Into one that is into one Church by Faith Signum non dabitur nisi signum Ionae God did not graunt vnto them that which they desired for God will not be propitious in yeelding to our desires when they are to turne to our owne hurt Moses desired that he might see his face but God told him Faciem meam videre non poteris Hee will not giue what thou wilt demand one while because it may cost thee thy life another while because God shall no sooner turne his back but like the children of Israell thou wilt presently fall adoring the golden Calfe Saint Paul did desire freedom from his fetters those torments which hee indured But he was told Thou knowest not what thou askest for Virtus in infirmitate perficitur In a word God doth denie vs many things in his Mercie which he will grant vnto vs in his Anger as the imperfect Author noteth it In corde terrae tribus diebus tribus noctibus In the Heart of the Earth three days and three nights Beda and Euthimius vnderstand by the Heart of the earth the Sepulchre or Graue of our Sauiour Christ. And many of our Commentators make this exposition though others misinterpreting it inferre from thence that our Sauiour Christ did not descend to the lower-most partes of the earth contrarie to that of Saint Paul denying that Article of our Faith Descendit ad inferos Now in that he ascended what is it sayth the same Apostle but that hee had also descended first into the lowest parts of the Earth yet those two interpretations may bee verie well accorded forasmuch as that the Bodie remained in the graue and the Soule descended Vsque ad inferos And for the better proofe hereof it is to bee noted that it is not spoken of any other that dyed saue onely of our Sauiour that hee was in the Heart of the Earth Besides it is an vsuall phrase amongst the Hebrewes to call the Heart
God another while as a miserie incident to man The word Zagar signifies Vociferatio A crying out aloude as when a Citie is set on fire and in danger to be burnt Some perhaps may conceiue that this was too strict a commaund to inioyne this punishment vpon dumbe beasts and poore little infants that had not yet offended But first of all they did therein pretend to incline Gods mercy towards them Secondly to mooue the more repentance by a common sorrow Thirdly as at the funeralls of Princes and Generals not onely the principall and meaner persons mourne in blackes but their horses weare the like liuery of sorrow their drummes beat hoarse couered with blacke Cypres their auncients are trailed along on the ground their swords and their lances with their points the contrary way in token that both the horses the drums the auncients and the armes haue lost their Master so likewise did the case stand with the Citie of Niniuie c. Ionas put Niniuie to such a strict penance and sorrow for their sinnes that it did appease the wrath of God towards them The Prophet presumed it should be destroyed and therefore Ionas went out of the Citie and sate on the East side thereof and there made him a booth and sate vnder it in the shadow till he might see what should bee done in the Citie Thinking perhaps with himselfe that God would not now make an end of the Citie all at once but that he would destroy a great part thereof as he did in the adoration of the golden Calfe when as pardoning the people hee slew a great number of them Now God had prepared a Gourd for Ionas and made it to come vp ouer him that it might bee a shadow ouer his head and deliuer him from his griefe Other Authors giue it other names But the strangenesse of it was that it grew vp all in a day The Prophet was exceeding glad to see himselfe so wel sheltred by this Gourd from the heat of the Sunne which did shrewdly scortch him Laborauerat enim It vexed him verie sore So that before it went verie ill with him and his ioy was so much the more encreased for that he saw God had such a care to cherish and make much of him Sure thought he he makes no small account of me that vseth me thus kindly But God shortly after prepared a worme which smote the Gourd that it withered Et percussit Sol super caput Iona astuabat The Sunne beat vpon the head of Ionas and he fainted Who could haue the patience to endure this Was it the Sun or was it fire that should thus prouoke him to cry out Melius est mihi mori quam viuere It is better for me to die than to liue But God reprehended Ionas for this desperate speech of his Putas ne bene irasceris Iona How nâ—w Ionas What 's the matter with thee Doost thou well to bee angrie for the Gourd Doost thou find thy selfe grieued that I haue made this Gourd to wither which came vp in a night and perished in a night and wilt thou not suffer me to be sencible of the destruction of this so great a Citie wherein there are sixescore thousand persons which cannot discerne betwixt the right hand and the left Doth it touch thee that thou art not esteemed in thine owne Countrie And wilt thou not pittie Niniuie whom thou hast drawne by thy preaching vnto them to repentance Niniuie yeelded vnto thee at the first words of thy voyce but Iuda still stands out obstinately in her malice against my calling vpon her And therefore at the day of judgement the men of Niniuie shall condemne them for a stiffe necked generation and a hard hearted People seeing they without any miracles were conuerted and turned vnto me at the preaching of one poore â—â—nas Et ecce plus quam Ionas hîc And behold a greater than Ionas here Hierusalem seeing so many miracles perseuereth in her incredulitie and therefore Niniuie shall stand and Hierusalem shall be destroyed At the day of judgement thou shalt stand confounded and ashamed that a barbarous ignorant and vnbeleeuing Nation which is a great disgrace to a man of honor that one that is so farre inferiour to thee should come to be so farre preferred before thee As those Cities where most of our Sauiours great workes were done were vpbraided by him because they repented not pronouncing a woe to Chorazin and a woe to Bethsaida For if saith he the great workes which were done in you had been done in Tyrus and Sydon they had repented long agone in Sacke-cloath and Ashes Regina Austri The Queene of the South shall rise in judgement c. Some man may say The historie of Niniuie was sole and without example in the world it 〈◊〉 not it's fellow For which cause he sets downe another example of the Queen of the South of whom there is mention made in the third of the Kings and in the second of Chronicles The Queene of the South came from Morol an Islâ—â—â— of Aethyopia as Origen Saint Hierome Saint Austen Anselmus and Iosephus saith and onely to heare the wisedome of Salomon Et ecce 〈◊〉 quam Salomon hîc And behold a greater here than Salomon It was much that the barbarous people of Niniuie should beleeue Ionas who sought after them and not they after him But much more is it that an Aethyopian Queene should seeke after â— King to hir so great trouble and cost Ecce plus quam Salomon hîc When the Preacher is of that great power and authoritie that he both sayes and does the little fruit that they reap thereby is euermore attributed to the hardnesse of the hearer And that he might teach this People this lesson he saith Ecce plus quam Salomon hîc Behold a greater than Salomon is here He was greater than Ionas for if he were obeyed by the Niniuites our Sauiour had obeysance done him by all the Elements if Ionas had a grace in his deliuerie and spake with a spirit it was our Sauiour that gaue it him if Ionas did inlighten a Citie our Sauiour did illuminate the whole world if Ionas did preach bloud threatnings and death our Sauiour did publish our saluation life and hope of Heauen He was better than Salomon for his wisedome was humane and earthly but that of our Sauiour diuine and heauenly Salomon neuer wrought any miracles but those of our Sauiour were without number In a word betweene the Queene of the South and the Pharisees betweene our Sauiour and Salomon there is a great antithesis and contrarietie The Queene was a Barbarian and ignorant they Doctours and learned in the Lawes she wonderfull desirous to heare a man they loath to heare a God she offered to Salomon great gifts they to our Sauiour vinegar and gall shee did so wonder at Salomons wisedome that she said Fame had belied him and that Report came too short of his praise but
him what would haue become of poore Peter But vpon the sinnes of the Pharisees our Sauiour did not put any taxe or limitation That all the bloud of the Iust might light vpon their heads For they were a reprobate kind of people The liues of the Prophets he reuenged by the death of his Sonne and heire He reuenged the euill workes which they had done in that the Light beeing brought into the World they shut vp themselues in Darkenesse And with this suteth that of Esay Thou hast made their owne iniquities the instruments and as it were the hands to dash them in pieces Thou hast made them subiect to their sinnes they can doe no more than what sinne shall command them to doe If it bid them kill they shall kill if steale they shall steale In a word Sinne is their Lord and they are Sinnes â—laues And therefore the Scripture termeth those that are great Sinners Vendidos Men that are sould ouer vnto sinne Esay puts this name vpon Aâ—bab I am sould to sinne and those who denied God his Law or their Countrie did take part with those their enemies that were Infidells the first booke of the Macabees registreth them for Slaues that had sould themselues ouer vnto sinne The like saith Saint Paul of those who remaine captiues to the Deuill and that follow after his will A quo captiui tenemur ad ipsius voluntatem Out of whose snare wee must come to amendment and not suffer our selues to be taken of him at his will And the Inheritance shall be ours The Sinner summing vp his wickednesse thinkes he hath made a iust and good account So Pharaoh pursuing Gods People made this sure reckoning with himselfe Persequar I will follow them take them and spoyle them and my Soule shall haue it's desire vpon them So did it fare with these Farmers they had cast vp their reckoning and made full account that the Inheritance should be theirs They had destroyed his People his Temple his Vineyard his Syon his Prophecies his Miracles his Priesthood his Arke his Authoritie and his Glorie What could they well doe more to make themselues Lords of all But Conuertetur dolor eius in caput eius They shall bee ouertaken in their owne wickednesse and this mischiefe shall light vpon their owne heads Et ejecerunt eum extra Vineam And they cast him out of the Vineyard They cast him out of the Vineyard and slew him Saint Chrysostome saith That they cast him out of the Vineyard that his bloud might not defile it Vsing him herein like a Leaper which was no more than was prophecied by Esay Stand apart come not neere me for I am holier â—han thou The Iewes were so daintie that when Iudas repented him of what he had done and returned them their mony againe they would none of it It is not lawfull for vs to put this money into the Treasurie because it is the price of bloud And they did not onely expresse their hypocrisie in this particular but they would not likewise enter into the Praetorium or Common-Councell house That they might not be defiled with his companie And here in this place They cast him out of the Vineyard but the Diuine prouidence which did with a more especiall hand guide that action did so order the businesse that the bloud of our Sauiour Iesus Christ should be shed out of the Vineyard because it should not hinder the destruction and desolation that was to come vpon that wretched accursed City For if Ierusalem should haue beene besprinkled with the bloud of this Lambe the Angel would haue past by it and the Roman power should not haue bin able to haue ruined it and laid it leuell with the ground They cast him likewise out of the Vineyard for to inrich the Land of the Gentiles his bloud which spake better things than that of Abel being shed in their â—auour and for their good The glorious Doctor Saint Ambrose saith That the â—ield which Caine drew out Abel into was bad and barren ground it being Gods pleasure that that place should be vnfruitfull wherein that bloud should be shed â—hat was to crie for vengeance But for the bloud of our most blessed Sauiour â—nd Redeemer Iesus Christ howbeit it fell among stories yet because it spake â—etter words than that of Abel as also for that from the Crosse he poured down â—is benediction vpon it they lost their barrennesse Saint Augustine saith That as in the Garden he sweated bloud making that ground fruitfull therewith that Martyrs might bud and spring out of it so in Mount Caluarie hee also shed his bloud to the end that the Land of the Gentiles taking this diuine Balsamum into their Soules and letting it soke into their hearts they might bring forth great and plentifull Fruits euen Fruits in aboundance Quid faciet Dominus Vineae What will the Lord of this Vineyard doe Tell me yee that are learned in the Lawes What course thinke yee he will take with these Husbandmen Ezecâ—â—â—l in his twentie eigth Chapter sets out the King of Tyre with all possible glorie and greatnesse adorning him with Wisedome Beautie Riches pretious stones Pearles and brooches of Gold brought from beyond the seas But if many were these his blessings and fauours which God had bestowed vpon him the greater by far were those his sins which hee committed against him in his ingratitude disloyaltie â—yrannie dishonestie wantonnesse filthinesse c. And therefore when God shall come to take an account of vs What will the Lord of the Vinyard doe then And in the sixteenth Chapter he paints out vnto vs a poore little Infant that was cast out as it were into the Streets and no eye pittied her This poore soule the King as he passed by tooke her out of the extremitie of miserie bred her vp made much of her inricht her couered her with Silke gâ—â—ded her about with fine Linnen cloathed her with broydered workes decked her with ornaments put bracelets vpon her hands a chaine about her necke and a beautiful Crown vpon her head c. when he had bestowed all these things vpon her and that she was come of age to be his Spouse which the King of all other things desired most she left his house ranne away from him set vp for her selfe in a by-corner of the Citie playing the Harlot multiplying her Treasons lightnesses loosnes of life purchasing her selfe Louers with her Siluer not remembring the dayes of her youth when she was naked and bare and forsaken of all the world saue this good King that tooke compassion on her Now when God shall come to take an account of her concerning those courtesies which she had receiued What will the Lord of the Vineyard do then The fauors which God affâ—â—ded his People Who can recount them He sent them Prophets Miracles 〈◊〉 Victories they did sigh for his comming importuning Heauen with theâ—â— groanes The Light shined
scorner loueth not him that rebuketh him neither will he goe vnto the wise Agreeing with that of Amos They haue hated him that rebuked in the gate and they abhorred him that speaketh vprightly Another cause of this their cruell determination for to throw him downe from the rock was as wel their Enuie as their Anger Enuie she sayd Do not you see how this Carpenter boasts himselfe Nonne hic est faber filius fabri sorores eius apud nos sunt Anger shee said Cast him downe headlong from the Pulpit or plucke him out of Moses Chaire for a blaspheamer by head and eares for that he goes about to make himselfe our Messias and our King A brace of fierce beasts I assure you Enuie first opened the doore to all those euils that are in the world By the Deuils enuie death entred into the world and by death a troupe of miseries For although the Deuill were the Author thereof yet did Enuy put spurs to his heeles The Trojan Horse was not that which did so much harme to Troy as that Graecian who inuented this stratagem Onely this one good Enuie bringeth with it That it prooues it's owners Hangman And for this reason Saint Augustine compares the Enuious to the Vipers who gnaw out the bowells of those that bred them And Saint Chrysostome That it is a lesser euill to haue a Serpent in our bosome than Enuie for that was a curable hurt but that of Enuie is not so Ouid in his Metamorphosis paints forth Enuies house and the qualities belonging to her person Her house is seated in a very low bottome whereunto the beames of the Sunne neuer come no light no ayre no wind for the enuious man hath not any thing on earth wherein to take comfort being therin like vnto those that are condemned to the pit of hel The qualities appertaining to her person is sadnes of countenance heauines of the eyes bitternesse of heart venimousnesse of tongue veines without bloud she loues solitude shunnes the light knowes no law nor does no right shee weepes when others laugh In a word she is Pestis mundi porta mortis the plague of the world the doore of Death the murtherer of Vertue the pit of Ignorance and the hell of the Soule And Anger is no lesse fierce a beast than Enuie Of whom Ecclesiasticus saith That as Mildenesse resideth in the bosome of the Wise so Anger abideth in the brest of the Foole. Who but a Foole saith Plutarch can suffer a cole to lie in his bosome Let not the Sunne goe downe vpon your wrath neither giue place vnto the Deuill He that goes to bed in anger inuites the Deuill to be his bedfellow There is not any vice that giues him so free an entrance nor puts him into a more generall possession of our soules for there is not that mischiefe which is not hammered and wrought in the forge of an angrie mans brest A stone is heauie and the sand weightie but a fooles wrath is heauier than them both Seneca saith That as humane industrie doth tame the fiercest beasts as the Lyon the Tygre and the Elephant so ought it to tame Anger Now to say Which of these two furies is the fiercest is not so easie a thing to be decided For if Enuie be kindled vpon light occasions as that little short Song which the Dames of Hierusalem sung in Dauids commendation if it be so large sighted that our neighbours fields of Corne and his flockes of Sheepe seeme better and bigger than our owne Iosephs partie coloured Coate seeming better to his bretheren than those Sheepeheards mantles wherewith themselues were clad if it be the vice of little children Parvulum occidi inuidia What shall wee say then to the impetuousnesse of Anger and the violence of Wrath Or who is able to withstand it's rage Anger is cruell and wrath is raging saith Salomon but he concludes with this short come-off Who can stand before Enuie Who will oppose himselfe to the violent and swift torrent of a Riuer that sweepes all before it Such a thing is Anger for the time it lasteth but that will slacke againe of it selfe as your Spring-tydes fall backe againe into their owne beds But Enuie will not so soone shift her foot she wil abide by it and neuer giue ouer And Saint Cyprian renders the reason of it Quia non habet terminum it is not to be limitted but like a Worme or a Canker by little and little rotteth and consumeth the bones Salomon calls it Putredo ossium But Anger is a thunderbolt that strikes a man dead on the sudden so sayth Seneca And if Saint Augustine terme Enuie a plague and if another great Phylosopher call it Monstrum monstrorum the Monster of monsters and the most venimous Vipar vpon earth Saint Chrysostome here on the other side saith That the Deuill being in mans bosome is lesse hurtfull than Anger Much hath beene spoken of Enuie and much of Anger and that ill cannot be said of the one which may not be affirmed of the other So that this proposed doubt Which is the worst Beast of the two may remaine for a probleme which let others resolue for I cannot But which makes fit for our purpose beeing both such fierce Beasts as we haue deliuered vnto you they did both conspire against our Sauiour Christ leading him here to the edge of a hill whereon their Citie was built to cast him downe headlong and afterwards neuer leaft persecuting him til they had nailed him to the Crosse. And they cast him out of the Synagogue c. Aristotle saith That Man gouerning himselfe according to the Lawes and rules of Reason is of all other Creatures the most perfect or to speake more properly the King of all other liuing Creatures but if he shut his eyes and wil not see reason he is more fierce and cruell than all of them put together The reason is because other creatures neuer passe beyond the bounds of their fiercenesse and crueltie receiue they neuer so much wrong Incursus suos transire non queunt Which as Seneca saith is for want of discourse But man who hath Vnderstanding for his weapon is able to inuent such strange cruelties that may exceed the fiercenesse of the fiercest beasts Nor is this any great indeering of the busines for both Bede Ambrose say vpon this place That the Nazarites were worse than the Deuil the deuill lead our Sauiour Christ vp to the top of the pinacle of the Temple those of Nazareth to the edge of the hill on the side or skirt whereof their city was built The Deuill did onely persuade him to cast himselfe downe from thence but the Nazarites would haue done this by force These saith Ambrose were the Deuills Disciples but farre worse than their Master Saint Paul saith That there are some men that inuent new mischiefes Inuentores malorum And the deuill being the vniuersall Inuenter of all
our ill the Sinner that inuents new mischiefes doth outreach the Deuill and goes beyond him And questionlesse in not passing the bounds of Gods diuine will and Empire the Deuill is more moderate than Man For the Deuill askt leaue of God for to tempt Iob but Man will not be so respectfull as to aske his leaue but will not sticke to kill thousands of men without licence Bonauenture saith That they thrust him out of the Citie for a blasphemer for proclaiming himselfe to bee the Messias It is commanded in Leuiticus That the Blasphemer should be carried forth of the Citie and bee stoned to death And therefore our Sauiour Christ extra portam passus est suffred without the gate and Saint Stephen was stoned without the Citie And our Sauiour had no sooner said in the presence of Caiphas Amodo c. Henceforth shall yee see the Sonne of Man comming in the clouds of Heauen but the Iewes presently cried out Blasphemauit He hath blasphemed So likewise our Sauior expounding that prophecie of Esay the Nazarites might also take occasion to say Blasphemauit And this their offering to throw him downe from the edge of the hill doth no way contradict their stoning of him for they might haue done that after they had thrust him downe dealing by him as Saint Hierome reports Saint Iames whom they call our Sauiours brother was dealt withall they first threw him downe from the Rocke and afterwards cut off his head To cast him headlong downe c. Methinkes it seemeth somewhat strange vnto me That our Sauiour should come down from Heauen to Nazareth for to giue life vnto men and that Nazareth should seeke to tumble him downe thereby to worke his death That with the losse of his owne life and the price of his most pretious bloud hee should redeeme them from death and that they in this vnthankefull and vnciuile manner should goe about to take away his life O vngratefull People God was not willing to bestow any miracles on them who would not entertaine so great a miracle God vseth to requite the thankes of one fauour with conferring another greater than the former So doth Saint Bernard expound that place of the Canticles He made his left hand my pillow and I doubt not but he will hug and embrace me with his right hand For I shal shew my selfe so thankefull for the one that my Spouse will vouchsafe to affoord me the other But those courtesies which Nazareth had receiued they so ill requited that euen to the houre of his death none did our Sauior Christ greater iniurie Nay in some sort this their wrong was greater than that which Hierusalem did him for this Citie treating of the death of our Sauiour did obserue some forme of Iudgement and onely the Ministers of Iustice had their hands in it but Nazareth in a most furious manner like the common people when they are in a mutinie hasted vp to the edge of the hill to throw him downe headlong contrarie to all Law and Iustice. In Hierusalem there were some that did not consent vnto his death but in Nazareth all of them conspired against him Omnes in Synagoga repleti suntira All that were in the Synagogue were filled with anger and that on the Sabboth day when it was not lawfull for them to gather stickes and make a fire c. But he passed through the middest of them and went his way The common receiued opinion is That he made himselfe inuisible to them and so got from them leauing their will and determination deluded Saint Ambrose and Beâ—â— say That he turned their hearts Cor Regis in manu Domini quo voluerit c. The heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord and hee turneth it c. Like vnto those Officers of the Scribes and Pharisees who went forth to apprehend him who altering their purpose returned saying NuÌ„quid sic loquutus c. Did euer any man speake thus He might likewise take from them their force their strength that they might not bee able to put forth a hand to hurt him and leauing them like so many blockes might passe through the middest of them as beeing the Lord both of their soules and bodies And as he once left the Iewes with their stones frozen in their hands so now leauing the Nazarits astonished Per medium illorum ibat This Ibat doth inforce a perseuerance and continuation in token that God wil leaue his best beloued countrie that citie which was most graced and fauored by him if it be so gracelesse as to prooue vngratefull When God carried Ezechiel in spirit to the Temple discouering great abhominations vnto him and said vnto him These things my People commit Vt procul recedam à Sanctuario meo They giue mee occasion thereby to forsake them and to get mee farre enough from them So hath he departed from Israell from Asia Affrica many other parts of Europ forsaking so many cities temples so much heretofore fauored by him and so much made of Nazareth signifies a Floure a Crowne or a Garland and the Nazarites were once the onely Floures in Gods Garden that is in his Church they were religious persons that were consecrated to his seruice and therefore Nazareth is by them more particularly called Christs own Countrie for that therein he had beene often spiritually conceiued But because of the Nazarits Ierem. doth lament Thatthey being more white than milke were become as blacke as a cole by reason of their vnthankfulnesse Therfore in Colledges and religious places with whom God communicates his fauours in a more large and ample manner they ought of all other to shew themselues most gratefull for the more a man receiues and the more he professeth the more he ought to doe Cum enim crescunt dona rationes etiam crescunt donorum Dei so saith Saint Gregorie But he passed through the middest of them and went his way Howbeit death to the Iust is not sudden nor can be said to take him hence vnawares Though the Righteous be preuented with death yet shall hee be in rest The Church notwithstanding doth not vse this prayer in vaine A subitanea improuisa morte libera nos Domine From sudden death good Lord deliuer vs. Saint Augustine in his last sickenesse prayed ouer the penitentiall Psalmes and shedding many teares sayd That though a man were neuer so iust and righteous yet was hee not to die without penitence Saint Chrysostome tells vs That when Feare at the houre of death doth set vpon the Soule burning as it were with fire all the goods of this life she enforceth her with a deep and profound consideration to meditate on those of that other life which is to come And although a mans sinnes bee neuer so light yet then they seeme so great and so heauie that they oppresse the heart And as a piece of timber whilest it is in the water any
same Zona aurea or golden girdle was that same Lamina or plate of gold which beeing fastned to his Mitre did serue as a frontlet to the Priests forehead whereon was written Sanctum Domino signifying therby That that which the Priest ought more especially to haue before his eyes is the holynesse and purenesse of our Lord God To this end was directed that terrible thunder and lightning on the Mount which strooke the people into such a feare that they cryed out Non loquatur nobis Dominâ—â— Let not the Lord speake vnto vs fearing least they should bee strooken downe to the ground in a swoone Why ô Lord didst thou appeare in so terrible and feareful a manner That they might haue a respect to the Maiestie of God and stand in feare of his power that they might the better incline their hearts to keepe his Lawes The Sibarites came to the Oracle of Delphos to know how long their commonwealth should continue Plato discoursing of a Commonwealth in general in his Bookes de Republica hath put three signes or tokens of their duration and continuance The one That their Princes should not lie The other That the bad should not be more than the good The third That the goings out should not bee more than the commings in For That the Princes should bee Lyers the good few and their expences excessiue are in all Commonweales sad vigiles of their end But the Oracle made answere That that Commonwealth should so long last and continue whilest Man was not more esteemed amongst them than God Whereupon they were persuaded that their Commonwealth should indure for euer It not being able to sinke into their heads that so great a monstrousnesse as this should once succeede in their State But it afâ—erwards happened that a delinquent fled for succour to the image of Pallas the Gouernor willing his guard to lay hold on him and to take him from thence he shifted himselfe from the Goddesse and clung close to the Statua of the Kings father so that none of the Officers durst offer to touch him and so that Kingdome was ouerthrowne So this despising of Gods commandements and the preferring of their owne Traditions was the dissolution of the Iewish Synagogue For besides Apostolicall and Ecclesiastical Traditions which carrie so great authoritie in the Church treating generally of such Traditions which are certaine antient Customes inherited from our fore-fathers there are certaine other Traditions in the World annexed to particular States which in their owne nature are things indifferent As your courtesies and complements amongst Courtyers The giuing of the right hand And your Titles of Worship Lordship Excellencie and the like Such a great Lord cals for drinke his seruant brings it and deliuers it him vpon his knee Thou sneezest hee that is next vnto thee puts of his hat not that that does hinder thy farther sneezing but because it is a Tradition and a receiued custome so to do Others are reduced to Sanctitie and Holinesse A Clergie man goes in a graue habit A Friar in a patch't frocke Thou respects him for this and holdest him the holier man not that he is so but because it is Tradition The Dominicans reckon lesse of those religious orders that weare a hood of cloth the Augustines of those that weare one of Linsey-woolsie not because it mattereth much but because it is Tradition But to put as much obseruance in these Traditions as in the Lawes of God is a despising of God Irritum fecisti mandatum Dei Thou makest the Commaundement of God of no effect Of these Saint Austen sayth That euery one should keepe that custome that he finds shall make for the peace and quiet of the Church as also of those wee conuerse withall As much as in you lyeth hauing peace with all men Others there are wherein the opinion of the world can doe more than the faith of God Your great Lords will impawne their estate to maintaine a Tilting or a Tournying or in making a Maske for to doe their Mistresse seruice They will bee liberall and bountifull to a common Buffoon or Iester but will scarce giue a royall to the poore And this is Tradition Iulian the Apostata made a Proclamation that no Christian should inioy your Militarie ornaments and many tooke this for such an affront that they who before would haue fried at the Stake for God did denie him for worldly respects and for the preseruing of their honour Gentlemen not measuring their expences by their meanes it so fals out that oftentimes they want a royall to buy bread to put in their mouths yet their vanitie so farre ouerswaies them that they will not be without a coach a lackey a page an old beldame and a squire They take vp commodities at deere rates they run in debt neuer thinke of paying it and in the end are vtterly vndone this also is Tradition Your Captaines and Souldiers stand much vpon the Lawes of your Duell and highly adore them which beeing well examined are the greatest absurdest fooleries man can imagine The Lye must haue the bastonadoe the bastonado drawing of bloud and drawing of bloud death c. One shall strike thee with a cudgell that shall breake thy shoulder-blade And the Souldier will say He had good hap that hee did not lame him with a cane And this is Tradition Your hucking Merchants your cunning Tradesmen generally all that buy and sell vse to cog lye It is not good it is not good sayes euery buyer And this too is Tradition Your Catch-poles pole their prisoners your Registers register falsehoods And this is Tradition Saint Cyprian sayth That the Churches perdition hath beene that Christians are not contented with sinning through weakenesse through ignorance or through malice but through opinion whence it commeth to passe that they seeke not excuses for their sinnes but authoritie to maintaine them thereby the better to perpetuate them They that are condemned through error are easily cured but when they haue opinion in their fauour and a generall consent and are authorised by custome they are such currant money that none refuses it nor seekes to remedie the same Insanientium multitudo sayth Seneca fit sanitatis protectio The madnesse of many doth priuiledge madnesse This passeth in these foresayd Traditions And so are they receiued of all c. They sayd vnto Micheas All the Prophets with one generall consent prophecie good vnto the King But how doe they deliuer this message well if God doe reueale it to be ill It is Tradition But the Law of God ought to bee the rule whereby wee are to leuell our actions and the court wherein wee are to giue account of our doings Tertullian sayth That our Sauior Christ was not called Custome but Truth Ego sum via veritâ—â— vita I am the way the truth and the life And Custome must bee qualified by Veritie and not by Antiquitie For God hath commaunded saying Honour
that their goods forsake them the more they pursue their pleasures and indeauor to inioy them Let it be in thy Letanie That God would deliuer thee from this euill That the more thy Vices fly from the the faster thou shouldst follow after them For when thy youth inuiteth thee therunto and that thou inioyest these humane pleasures and delights euen then it is bad but when Time goes away from thee Age comes vpon thee and that it is high time that thy Vices should leaue thee or thou them that thou shouldst then follow after them that is farre worse and the very vtmost of Ill. 〈◊〉 My dayes saith Iob haue beene more swift than a Post they haue fled and haue seene no good thing They are passed as with the most swift ships and as the Eagle that flyeth to her prey Woman giue me drinke When our Sauiour craued water of her waterdropped from him and hee sweat hard for it And Saint Chrysostome sayth That Christ was willing that the Samaritane should confesse this Almes vpon him in token that the first step to our justification should be mercie and pittie Petrus Chryâ—logus saith That our Sauiour Christ did craue this humane mercie of her that towards her he might exercise his diuine pittie If you withhold the water a while in the Fountaine and keepe it backe from it's course it gusneth foorth in greater aboundance so is it with the milke in the brest and so likewise is it with Almesdeeds which still returne a double requitall Saint Ambrose expounding that place of Saint Paul Pietas ad omnia vtilis saith That the man that is pittifull though he suffer weaknesse in respect of the flesh Vapulabit sed non peribit He shall be beaten but shall not perish For there is nothing in a greater disposition to make God to pardon a sinner than is Pittie Giue me drinke God gaue way to his thirst that he might make way the better to that hunger and thirst which he hath after the soule of a Sinner which is so great that he onely is able to indeere the same it is meat and drinke vnto him and so sauorie to his tast that none is able to expresse the true relish thereof saâ—e onely he that knowes it But here he made choice to manifest this his desire rather by his thirst than by his hunger First By taking occasion from the water which this Woman drew out of the Well Secondly Because it is the more vehement passion of the two and doth commonly more afflict and torment vs yet in the end he did not drinke drowning that his thirst in that other thirst which he had after this poore soule The enamoured Spouse did not eat though shee were hungrie because her Beloued was sicke and had no stomacke to his meat Our Sauiour seeing this Samaritane had no great mind to drinke of this liuing water doth not drinke himselfe though he were athirst and much desired to quench it with this dead water Sampson hauing a Fountaine neere at hand would not drinke though he were thirstie til he had got the victorie ouer his enemies Saint Augustine saith of S. Laurence That he did not feele the fire of the Tyrant so strongly was hee affected with that diuiner fire So our Sauiour was not sencible of his owne thirst nor of his wearisomenesse nor of the Sunnes heat out of the desire that hee had to obtaine his pretended victorie Saint Ambrose expounding that place of Dauid Cucurri in siti saith That it may be read Cucurrerunt in siti and hee prooueth it out of the Greeke word as also that which followeth Ore suo benedicebant corde suo benedicebant The letter treateth of the Scribes and Pharisees so that our Sauior Christ had thirst and they had thirst he thirsted for their life they thirsted for his death And this was one of the reasons why our Sauiour Christ did sweat bloud in the garden for that the Priests the Scribes and the Pharisees had decreed his death in that their sacrilegious Councell for albeit they had alreadie treated before of his banishing of him from amongst them another while of throwing him downe from the side of a steepe hill and attempted many other disgraces and violences vpon his person yet were they not come til now nor was it euer to be supposed that they would haue beene so cruel as to desire the shedding of his diuine bloud to pursue him with that eagrenes as they did vnto death And because no other desire could satisfie that their bloud-thirstie desire than the desires of our Sauiours bloud to leape out of those his sacred veines for their and our good therefore Factus est sudor sanguinis c. To this end tended that Fac citius of Iudas he had alreadie driuen the bargaine and the price for which he sould him agreed vpon and his feet did now itch to be gone that he might receiue his money in token that Christ had a greater desire to be sould than he had to sell him and therefore hee said vnto him Quod facis fac citius That thou doest do quickly The like end he had in the institution of his blessed Sacrament the deliuerie was promised but before Iudas deliuered him vp he deliuered vp himselfe Praestabilis super malitia saith Ioel not onely because Gods mercie ouercomes Mans malice but because it preuents it How comes it that thou being a Iew requirest drinke of me When this Samaritane woman did petition our Sauiour Christ saying Sir giue me of that water he might haue made her this answer How is it that thou beeâ—â—g a Samaritane askest drink of me But she was a woman and weake and therefore she spake as she did but our Sauiour would not touch vpon that string For to take too much libertie to our selues in our owne proper cases and to vse hypocrisies and finesse in those of other men is the condition of naughtie and ill natured people Saint Chrysostome sayth That when any scruple did arise our Sauiour tooke vpon him to excuse it Christum cauere oportebat It concerned Christ to looke about him Howsoeuer it did this Samaritan woman Absalon beeing vp in rebellion against his father when Hushai the Archite Dauids friend was come vnto hâ—m and sayd vnto Absalon God saue the King God saue the King Then Absalon said vnto Hushai Is this thy kindnesse to thy friend He made no scruple to take his fathers Kingdome from him and his life but could find fault with Hushai for forsaking his friend Dauid So blind are men in seeing their own faults so apt to condemne others of that crime whereof themselues are most guiltie Yet notwithstanding this woman was not quite disheartned herewith shee was not cleane dasht out of countenance shee had her boughs rent and torne like vnto Daniels tree yet at the root shee had some greenenesse and sappe remaining Saint Iohn sayd to the Bishop of Philadelphia I know thy
pierceth into the bowells of the earth it discouereth the bottome of the Deepe in the one he hath certaine Shops or Worke-houses wherein gold siluer and pretious stones are wrought in the other Pearle and diuers other rich commodities as Corall Amber and the like But although the Sun reacheth to the vtmost corners of the earth and the most hidden secret places of this Vniuerse by his vertue and heat yet are there many which he cannot come neere vnto with his light and splendor but from the eyes of God there is not that veine or least crannie in the earth nor that shell though neuer so small in the sea that can hide it selfe Sicut tenebra eius ita lumen eius As the darkenesse is his so is the light also In that beginning when God created the World he diuided the night from the day and the light from darkenesse but this was done for humane eyes but to those diuiner eyes there is no night at all and innumerable are those places of Scripture which prooue the truth hereof vnto vs. The third That God many times affoords vs a greater fauour in publishing a secret sinne than in letting it lie hid and reserued against the day of Wrath for our eternall and publique confusion The Schoolemen make a question Which is the more grieuous the publique or the secret sinne and it is a plain case that the publique carries with it more grieuous circumstances of scandal harme and infection and therefore Dauid stiles it a Plague or Pestilence but the secret sin is always more dangerous because it is in some sort incurable there is no neighbour to admonish thee of it no witnesse to denunciate against thee nor no judge to punish thee for it nor no Prelat to reprehend thee therefore for sinne once reprehended in persons that haue any shame in them in the world turnes to amendment Saint Augustine reports in his Confessions That his mother had two Maid seruants one a well growne wench the other a little girle and that when they went for Wine to the Tauerne the bigger would drinke a good heartie draught the lesser did but sip a little but by sip after sip she grew by degrees to be a good proficient and falling out one day before their mistresse the bigger complained of the lesser That she did drinke vp the Wine whereof shee was so ashamed that she would neuer after so much as offer to take it Publique sins all labour to amend When a house is on fire there is not that Tyler or Carpenter or any neere dweller but will hast in and helpe all they can to quench it Secret sinnes are like a smokie fire which lies smothering not flaming forth wasts and consumes inwardly and this is the cause that it is conserued and continued like a secret Impostume which occasioneth our death because it cannot be cured Vpon Achans sinne they did cast lots by Tribes by households and by particular persons and when the Delinquent was discouered Iosâ—â—ah sayd Giue thankes vnto God that thy sin is brought to light and made knowne to the world and that thou shalt smart for it in this life for had it beene kept secret thy punishment had beene immortall Dauids Adulterie being brought forth vpon the open stage In conspâ—â—tu Solis huius and Nathans reproouing him for it was the future occasion of all his good It could not chuse to this adulterous woman that was thus taken in the manner Con el hurto en las manos with the theft as they say in her hand but be a wonderful griefe vexation that shee should be carried publiquely through the streets all the boyes of the Citie hooting at her men and women poynting at her with the finger and crying shame vpon her and that at last she must be brought into the Temple and there be set in the middest of that reuerend Auditorie and Assemblie as a spectacle of shame and infamie But the opening of this her wound was the curing of it this which shee thought was her ruine was her remedie this her marring was her making The World held her to be a most vnhappie woman for there being so many Adulteresses in the Citie Whorings had ouerspread the land and bloud had touched bloud that this flash of lightning should light vpon her alone and that this sudden thunder-clap should not onely voyce her dishonour but her death Whereas the Adulterer was by all adiudged to be a happie and a fortunate man that by good hap he had escaped out of the hands of Iustice either by flight or greasing the Officers in the fist Others stickt not to say Siempre quiebra la soga por lomas del gado the weakest still goes to the wall howsoeuer the more certaine truth is That she was happie and the Adulterer vnfortunate The fourth That euerie sinne is to bee made publique either in this present life or in the life to come and this sayth the aforesaid Letter Nihil opertum quod non reueletur and not onely publique notice to be taken thereof but to bee accompanied also with shame and confusion And this the Scripture prooueth vnto vs in many places and for the amending of these two mischiefes there is no meanes so powerfull as to haue recourse to repentance from whence proceed these two effects The one That it couers our sinnes Blessed are they whose sinnes are forgiuen and whose iniquities are couered The other That it doth blot them out of Gods rememberance according to that of Ezechiel At what houre soeuer a Sinner shall repent him I will no longer be mindfull of his sinne Haec mulier modo deprehensa est in adulterio This woman was taken in adulterie in the verie act c. All these words carrie wâ—th them a kind of emphasis which indeere the aggrauation of the Accusation Haec mulier For howbeit the sin of adulterie may be greater perhaps in the husband by giuing by his little respect and his bad example occasion to his wife to play the Whore For as Thomas saith He that treateth with another mans wife se suam discrimini exponiâ— exposeth himselfe and his own wife to a great deale of hazard because he soweth bitternesse in the marriage bed contrarie to that rule of Saint Paul Husbands loue your wiues and be not bitter vnto them For which cause they tooke out the gall from that beast which was sacrificed by married men vnto Iuno for that the Head which is the man ought to be obliged to more continency to more vertue to more wisedome more fortitude as Saint Augustine tells vs yet notwithstanding this fault is held fouler in the woman Eccleâ—iasticuâ— treating of an Adulteresse saith â—he getteth shame to her selfe and her reproch shall neuer be blotted out I know not whence it comes to passe that the remembrance thereof is so soone blotted out in man and that it should sticke by a woman all the dayes of
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 Chrysologus which is this That there is not that man be he neuer so powerfull neuer so valiant but doth sometimes shew the weaknes of a man in hiding and withdrawing himselfe But here he saith Artis est non timoris Sacramenti est non Pauoris It was not out of any feare or cowardize that our Sauiour fled It is a kind of daringnesse boldnesse of spirit and great courage to draw our enemie but into the field or to toll him along into the market-place and there to vanquish him in publike and obtaine an open victorie Epiphanius saith That Christ vsed this boldnesse in the garden as well in his sweating of blood as in those his prayers that he made vnto his Father so full of agonie and anguish to the end that by shewing himselfe thus weake death might the more boldly set vpon him Ioshua vsed the like slight with those of the City of Ay We flying they will follow vs then ye shall rise vp from lying in wait and destroy the City Agesilaus one of the Lacedemonian Captaines tooke the same course when he besieged the Phocenses Alcybiades with the Vizancini And the world neuer had any famous Captaine which did not doe the like vpon occasion Iulius Frontinus in his booke of Stratagemes quotes you a world of examples Be ye wise as Serpents said our Sauiour the Serpent aduantageth himselfe more by his craft and subtletie than by his strength and force the experience whereof was to our griefe to be seene in Paradise And therefore it is obserued by Gods Saints That he was more subtill than all the rest of the beasts of the field therein aduising vs That with the diuell the world and the flesh it is now and then the wiser and safer course of the two to retyre our selues and to flye from him than either to wait for him or to resist him Philip king of Macedon turned his backe and fled before the Athenians leauing his Shield behind him wherein these letters were ingrauen Bona fortuna And some souldiers vpbraiding him with this his flight he told them He that flyes may returne againe to the battell but not he that dyes There was a Captaine belonging to the Emperour Charles the fifth who made so famous and honourable a retreat out of France that it was called La bella retyrada The faire retreat Christ said vnto his Disciples If they persecute you in one citie flye vnto another Remâ—gius saith That this was a precept Thomas That it was onely a licence and permission For when a Christian man flyeth without wrong to the faith hee professeth and without detracting from the good opinion and credit of Christian Religion it is wholesome counsell And this did the Patriarches of old follow Iacob fled from Esau Moses from Pharaoh Elias from Iezabel and those Prophets which hid themselues in the house of Abdias and many Saints in the Primitiue Church flâ—d from the cruelty of the Tyrants of those times Tertullian saith That vpon no occasion it is fit for a Christian to flye But Saint Ierome auoucheth That this opinion is contrary to the doctrine both of Christ and of his Church Athanasius defending his flight made a booke concerning this subiect wherein hee prooueth That any man may flye in time 〈◊〉 persecution so that he doe not indanger his conscience but when it comes vpon those tearmes we must rather hazard the body than perill the soule and with Sampson rather incounter with a Lyon than to come to the vineyards at Timnath Aristotle saith That Fortitude is placed in the midst between Daring and Dreading Daring without Dreading is Timeritie and Dreading without Daring is Pusillaniâ—itie Saint Ambrose ponders this in his Exameron That that very Elephant which valiantly breakes through a whole Armie is mightily afraid of a mouse The great Machabean who with his valiant Acts did innoble fame and who for not to spot his honour did at last most gloriously loose his life did sometimes giue ground and make a retreat from his enemies Saint Paul escaped being let downe in a basket by the wals of Damascus And Saint Augustine saith That it had beene a tempting of God and so a sinne in him if he had not done it Yet afterwards being prisoner in Macedonia and that all the rest of the prisoners saued themselues by flight he would not then flye though hee were thereunto intreated by the Gaoler Dauid was of that true mettall and courage that he fought with Lyons and Beares making no more reckoning of them than of so many lambes and without once breaking of his Speare he slew 800 Philistims besides that stout Gyant which outbraued Israel and strooke a terrour into them And yet did it not seeme cowardize in him to flye from Saul nor from his sonne Absalon Vpon this occasion he made that his 18 Psalme wherein he giues thankes vnto God not onely for giuing him armes of brasse for to fight and euen to breake a bowe of Steele asunder but that he had giuen him likewise the feet of a Hart to flye Wherein hee alluded according to Thomas to that Historie which he recounteth in the second of the Kings when he fled from Saul through briars and bushes rocks and mountaines In a word the world stiles rashnesse daringnesse and feare cowardlinesse but God bewaileth this with a Woe be vnto ye that call good euill and euill good The third reason is That Christ withdrew himselfe out of Iudea to giue way to his enemies rage and anger For a cholericke man is so furious that if hee haue a present occasion offered him that there is not any poulder will sooner take fire than he and therfore it is Christian wisedome to flye from him The Scripture compares him to a beare Like a Beare robbed of her Whelps of whom your Naturalists report That for very rage shee will eate and deuoure her owne pawes And Iob Tygris perijt eo quod non habuit praedam And another letter hath it Vrsus perijt eo quod non est consequutus praedam Saul being inraged that hee had not ouercome his enemies slew himselfe Such a one is like a swelling riuer that ouerflowes it's bankes It is a hot fierie furnace whence issueth out a thicke smoake and after the smoake a flame Ecclesiasticus saith As the vapour and smoake of the chimney goeth before the fire so euill words rebukes and threatnings goe before blood-shedding The smoake is not that which burnes though it blinds and causeth the eyes to water but who will abide the flame thereof Who will tarry the comming of a Beare that hunteth after her prey Who the falling of a swift Torrent The soundest counsell is to flye And in the dangers of the soule this doctrine importeth vs much more As the Hart that is wounded with an arrow that is poysoned flyes to the riuers of water so the heart that is touched with the venome of the
or a milde word is enough The second is The meekenesse softnesse and euennesse of their nature and condition Beati mites Bâ—essed are the Meeke in spirit your Reprobates are soure vnsauorie and vnquiet In a word they are like Goats you shall scarce meet with a Reprobate but leads a troubled life like a Theefe that lookes euery houre when he shall be hanged or in such a distraction or deiection as Cain liued in Cur concidit facies tua Why is thy countenance falne downe And as it is in Deutronomie The Lord shall giue thee a trembling heart and a sorrowfull mind and thy life shall hang before thee and thou shalt feare both day and night and shalt haue none assurance of thy life in the morning thou shalt say Would God it were euening and at euening thou shalt say Would God it were morning for the feare of thyne heart which thou shalt feare and for the sight of thyne eyes which thou shalt see The heart of the Wicked is fearefull and euerie bush represents a Dog vnto him that bites him In the middest of all his pleasures Hell represents it selfe to the Reprobate his soule is consumed with sorrow quasi pendens ante se He lookes like one that is condemned to be hanged But the Iust doth enioy an inward comfort a heauenly ioy singing cherefully with Dauid that sweet Anthem Inhabitat gloria in terra nostra c. Surely his saluation is neere to them that feare him that Glorie may dwell in our Land The third is the point of profit For in the Sheepe which signifies the Elect there is wooll milke butter cheese and flesh But it is not so in the Goat whereby are noted the Reprobate as hath beene obserued by Saint Hilary and Saint Chrysostome The fourth is The sheepe walkes in wayes that are plaine quiet and secure But the goat goes clambring on the tops of dangerous rocks browzing amongst bushes and thornes and at last waxing weary falls down headlong to hell Ambulauimus vias difficiles lassati sumus via iniquitatis Wee haue walked through craggie paths and haue tyred our selues in the way of iniquitie Many good workes haue I shewed yee for which of these workes doe yee stone mee They tooke vp stones for to stone him and whâ—n they had them in their hands ready to fling at him he forced their attention and made them whether they would or no to hearken vnto him Many good workes haue I shewed you for which of these workes doe ye stone me It is an easier thing for a man to grow vnthankfull and forgetfull of a great number of benefits than one single good turne One or two courtesies men vsually rest thankfull for them and beare them still in memorie But as the Spaniard sayes Los muchos se vienen por muchos à oluidar Many for that they are many are forgotten by many Their muchnesse lessens their remembrance There are foure faire mothers that bring forth very foule children As Truth enimies Familiaritie contempt Hope despaire and Muchnesse of benefits muchnesse of obliuion Incontinently they forgat his workes Dauid doth there treat of the adoration of the golden calfe and his meditation thereupon is That the many fauours that that people had receiued from Gods hands being so fresh as they were in their memories as the flyes which for their sakes he sent to afflict the Aegyptians frogges gnats water turned into blood darknesse the death of their first-borne the Israelites passing safe through the red sea the drowning of Pharaoh and all his charriots and horsemen and the Law giuen them on the Mountaine yet notwithstanding these great and singular fauours these wondrous signes and tokens as the like were neuer done that yet for all this they should like a broken bow so sodainely start aside and fall so quickly into so foule a sinne as none could be more derogatory from Gods honour They sodainely forgot his workes The greater were Gods benefits the more was their obliuion And the reason of it is That laying more vpon a mans shoulders than he is well able to beare it is a thousand to one that his load and he doe not fall both to the ground The lesse the benefits are the more cheerefully a man receiues them And why so Marry I shall tell you why Because then there is some hope that a man may liue to requite them and to discharge that debt for the which in thankfulnesse he stands bound But when they are so great that we are not able to make satisfaction such extraordinarie curtesies are repayd oftentimes with vnkindnes if not with hatred Thou owest thy neighbour a summe of money be it more or lesse nor does it grieue and afflict thee to see this thy Crediter or to looke him in the face but rather takest pleasure and comfort in his companie yet if all that thou art worth shouldst thou sell thy selfe to thy very shirt be not able to discharge that debt thou hadst as liefe see the diuell as him Quintus Curtius reporteth that Alexander grew to hate Antipater and for no other reason in the world but that he had obtained so many victories and reduced so many nations to his obedience that hee did tacitely demand that requitall of him which he was not able to make him and conferring many fauours on those souldiers which had done him but little seruice he neglected Antipater that had done him most The same reason is to bee rendred of Hannibal and Carthage of Lycurgus and Lacedemonia and of Saul and Dauid but there is no example to that of a woman in this kind serue her neuer so faithfully entertaine her neuer so royally court her day and night feede her humorous disposition wa st both thy purse and thy bodie and consume all that thou hast to giue her content yet in the end will she grow to hate thee and that which thou thinkest should be the meanes of winning her will be the cause of losing her she will like a Lymbeck draw whatsoeuer is good from thee first by drops then by drams afterwards by ounces lastly by pounds till she haue suckt thee drie that thou hast wholly spent vndone thy selfe in her seruice In a word that I may grow to an end the Iews in those former times were euermore wonderfully beholding vnto God for those many benefits fauors which he had throwne vpon them but now his grace and mercie like a Riuer rising from forth it 's bed extending it selfe so farre that he came himselfe in person to visit them and in such an especiall manner as none could bee more saying particularly vnto them Non sum missus nisi ad Oues Israel I am not sent but to the Sheepe of Israel Why this was so great a fauour that it ouercommeth mans imagination the weight whereof prest both it and them to the ground But God so support vs with his grace that we may thankefully beare in
themselues downe before him and licke the earth And this is one of the greatest happinesses that can befall Gods enemie And she fell a weeping Pliny saith That one of the Offices which Nature bestowed on the eyes was That they might serue as a Limbeck or Stillatorie to the heart from whence it might distill it's sadnesse and sorrow and easing it selfe of so heauy a load it might thereby inioy some comfort Saint Gregory expounding that place of the Lamentations Mine eye casteth out water because the comforter that should refresh my soule is farre from me saith That as the Gardiner doth deriue the water from the Estanque or poole where it is kept and conueyes it to the borders in the garden or the plants in the orchard so a true Penitent ought to direct the teares of his eyes to euery one of those sinnes which he hath committed And because Mary Magdalens teares were many the Euangelist saith That she did Rigare lachrymis Showre downe teares Saint Bernard saith That teares worke two effects The one To water the heart The other To wash it And therefore he that doth not gutter downe teares hath commonly a hard and a foule heart Hard because teares are they that soften and mollifie the heart as Water doth the earth And as in a ground that is destitute of water howbeit Fruit may grow therein yet doth it neuer come to it's perfect ripenesse It withered as soone as it came vp because it wanted moysture In like sort the Soule which is not made tender with teares although it may bud forth some flowers and leaues of good intentions yet it neuer comes to beare fruit Foule because there is not that Collyrium or medicine which can so clense and cleere the eyes of the Soule as Teares though the eyes of the bodie should waxe blind with weeping She began to fall a weeping We know the beginning of these teares but not the end for that fountaine of teares which had it's Well-head and spring at the feet of our Sauiour Christ did neuer grow emptie or drie in the eyes of Marie Magdalen Saint Basil askes the question How it comes to passe that teares sometimes should come vpon vs without desiring them and at other times though we desire them neuer so much we are not able to shed a teare And his reason is That we haue them now then God being willing to giue vs a taste of them for the Soule that once tasteth of the sweetnesse of teares will not leaue them for a world for as those vapors that are exhaled from those salt and bitter waters of the sea being conuerted into clouds are afterwards resolued into a sweet and sauorie water so those sighes and sobbs arising from a sad and sorrowfull Soule for hauing offended the Maiestie of God beeing conuerted into Clouds of feare resolue themselues at last into most sweet most sauorie teares Otherwhiles God denies them vnto vs though we seeke after them neuer so much in punishment of our forepassed negligence for it is no reason that hee should on the sudden inioy so great a good who by long exercise hath not deserued them Saint Augustine after that he was conuerted saith That his eyes were two Fountaines and that he was verie well pleased they should bee so Fluebant lachrymae bene mihi erat cum illis Dauid after that he had sayd That euery night he washed his couch with teares that is Per singulas noctes Night after night according to Saint Chrysostome he addeth Amplius laua me he calleth for more and more teares still for weeping must haue a beginning but neuer haue an ending In Heauen God onely dries vp our teares once and no more God shall wipe away euerie teare from their eyes But Marie Magdalens teares many a time and oft did hee wipe for enioying through her teares so great a good shee then tooke most pleasure when she wept most Iacob had put on a purpose neuer to leaue off weeping as long as he liued Surely I will goe downe vnto the Graue to my sonne mourning I shall neuer haue drie eyes till I see my sonne Ioseph If he did desire to shed such eternall teares of sorow it is not much that Mary Magdalen should desire to shed eternall teares of joy She fell a weeping Chrysologus cites to this purpose that verse of Dauid Praise yee the Lord yee Waters that be aboue the Heauens Some vnderstand by these waters that are aboue the Heauens the Angells some the Crystalline Heauen others the waters of the Clouds which are aboue the aire which the Scripture calleth Heauen But I saith Chrysologus considering these teares that were poured forth vpon our Sauiours feet cannot but confesse That these are those Waters that be aboue the Heauens The Historie of the Kings maketh mention of the gifts which the Queene of Sheba brought to King Salomon and that none in all the world had at any time brought such rich Presents nor so pretious in their qualitie nor so many in their quantitie The like may be sayd of Marie Magdalens teares neuer was there that woman in the world that shed so many and such rich and pretious teares as she nor that presentedthe like from her eyes to the true Salomon Zachary sets forth Dauid for an example of the penitent Et erit qui offenderit ex eis in illa die sicut Dauid In the new Law it is said That sinners shall rise vp with that zeale and earnest feruour from their sinues as did Dauid But the Prophet had not then the example of Mary Magdalen if he had hee would haue preferd her before him in that deluge of teares God treating of clensing the world of it's sins he rayned down more more water but that was not a sufficient or effectuall remedy on Sodom he rayned down more more fire but that likewise would doe no good Sithence that neither water of it selfe nor fire of it selfe wil do the deed let a Lee be made of fire and water together for there is not that spot or staine which that will not take out This Lee is the teares which come from the vapours of the braine and the fire of the heart Saint Augustine weighing how mute Mary Magdalen stood sayes vnto her Quid quaeris Quid dicis Maria What wouldst thou haue What doest thou seeke after What nothing but weepe Why doest thou not speake She had found too much sorrow to find a tongue They grieue but little that can expresse their griefe No maruell then if she were dumbe-strucken that was so heart-strucken The sweet songs of the Syrens haue been turned into sorrowfull sighes the pleasing and delight fullest voyce being altered by the heat of the blood hath admitted of a change and beene turned into sad howlings and dolefull notes And as at the death of some great Captaine the drums beat harsh and dead and render a dolefull sound
saith Consultauerunt consilio They did lay their heads together they sat in Councell they did not onely thinke vpon but consent to the greatest malice and wickednesse which euer the diuell or hell could imagine Vt Lazarum interficerent To kill Lazarus This is the end of our thoughts when they are not cut off in time Sinne is so great an Vsurer that it goes dayly gayning more and more ground vpon mans brest till it hath brought it to a desperate estate They were growne to that desperation that they said vnto filthinesse I am thy seruant Saint Ierome saith That as the couetous thirst after money so doe these after dishonestie They are like those that goe downe into a deepe well they knit rope to rope and one sinne to another Why dyed I not in the birth Or why dyed I not when I came out of the wombe Why did the knees preuent me And why did I sucke the brests Wherein the Prophet painteth foorth vnto vs the foure estates of a child The first in the wombe The second when it is borne The third when it is swadled vp The fourth when they giue it the teat S. Gregorie doth applie these foure to the foure estates of sinne The first in the thought which conceiues it The second in the ill which bringeth it forth The third when we put it on like a garment The fourth when we nourish and maintaine it Saint Augustine painteth foorth these foure estates in these foure dead folkes In the daughter of the Archisinagoguian who stirred not from home In the sonne of the widow of Naim who was accompanied to his graue In Lazarus who lay foure dayes dead And in him whom our Sauiour Christ did not raise vp at al saying Let the dead bury the dead They consulted to put Lazarus to death Our Sauiours death was already concluded on and now this cruel people treated of making away Lazarus Of whom our Sauiour Christ said Vt descendat super vos omnis sanguis iustus à sanguine Abel ad sanguinem Zachariae c. It is no maruell that they sought to kill Lazarus for in him was sum'd vp all the blood of the iust that had beene shed in the world And the reason that makes this to seeme so is because all the iust that dyed in the world since Abel were a Type and figure of Christ And if they did die it was to giue testimonie of his death and had it not beene for our Sauiour Christs death his had not preceedd And for that the life of the iust was a shadow of that of our Sauiour Christ in taking away his life in whom all the liues of the world were contained they were guiltie of all the rest and as much as lay in them were the Homicides of the whole world And if he that carryes but one mans death about him findes no place of safetie vpon earth What rest shall he find that hath so many deaths crying vpon his conscience Saint Chrysostome treating of the sinne of Cain saith That it was greater than that of Adam For besides his loosing in the turning of a hand the greatest Empire that euer the world had we cannot imagine any sinne to be greater than the barring of all mankind from heauen the depriuing him of grace and of the friendship of God yet notwithstanding this seemeth to be the greater and hee proueth it by the sentence that was giuen vpon the one sin the other God sentencing Adam said Cursed is the earth for thy sake c. The blow of the curse was to fall vpon Adam and as the father which makes shew to throw the candlestick at his sons head but flings it against the next wall so God sayes Cursed is the earth for thy sake But with the Serpent and with Cain he proceeded otherwise To the Serpent he said Thou art cursed aboue all cattle and aboue euery beast of the field vpon thy belly shalt thou goe and dust shalt thou eate all the dayes of thy life To Cain Thou art cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth to receiue thy brothers blood from thine hand it shall not henceforth yeeld vnto thee her strength c. He did not forbid him to tread vpon the earth but he forbad him to enioy the fruits thereof c. Secondly The voyce of thy brothers blood cryeth vnto me from the earth Saint Ambrose saith That he heard the voyce of Abel for with God the dead speake as well as the liuing The Hebrew hath it The voyce of bloods putting it in the plurall number as Lyra hath noted it For hee had shed so many bloods as Abel might haue had children For albeit they had neither being nor life in themselues yet they might in their cause and beginning It cryes to mee from the earth Not from his body for though thy brother should haue forgiuen thee yet the earth would not pardon thee to see it selfe violated by a Traytor And if God would haue but giuen way thereunto a thousand mouths would haue opened to swallow thee vp aliue but being he would not consent thereunto it goes choking those seedes which might haue serued thee for thy sustenance and delight and shaking thee off from thence like a banished man this Writ is gone out against thee A vagabond and runnagate shalt thou be vpon the earth Thirdly All the superiour and inferiour creatures were to be his persecutors and his tormentors the heauens with thunder and lightning the Angels with fearfull apparitions the beasts of the woods and men shunning his company and God himselfe chastising him with a continuall trembling But some wil say How could God persecute him since he published a Proclamation That whosoeuer should kill Cain should be punished seuen-fold Sextuplum punietur The Seuentie Interpreters render it Septem vindictas exoluet Seuen seuerall reuenges shall bee taken of him Procopius answers hereunto That this Proclamation was made against Cain For a man cursed by God persecuted by heauen by earth by Angells by men by beasts and by himselfe would haue held it a happinesse to dye but God would not that he should inioy so great a blessing But that he should liue seuen generations and that in euery one of them God would take seuere vengeance of him Septem vindictas exoluet till that Lamech should come who gaue him a sodaine and violent death And this is a notable place against all kind of murderers and man slayers Dauid would not drinke of the water though he were thirsty which his souldiers brought him because it had cost them the hazard of their liues and therfore offered it vp in sacrifice to God They did poure forth innocent blood like water in the siege of Ierusalem Dauid did shed the water because it seemed to him to be blood and others shed blood as if it were but water some take blood for water and others water for blood Cogitauerunt vt Lazarum interficerent They consulted to
Thou art the Christ the Sonne of the liuing God Sithence then that I haue confessed and acknowledged thee to bee the Sonne of God shall I permit to see my Sauiour humble himselfe at my feet Clemens Romanus a Disciple of Saint Peter reporteth in his Apostolicall Constitutions That as often as Saint Peter did call this action of his to mind so often did he shed teares to see Christ at his feet whence wee are to weigh and consider the great modestie of Saint Peter who was not so much astonished to see Iesus Christ at the feet of Iudas as to see him at his own feet All the complements which Peter vsed with our Sauiour Christ are worthy commendation full of discretion reuerence and loue Onely his default was That hee would striue and contest with our Sauiour Christ for want of true knowledge of those ends whereunto Christs actions were directed So that if mannerlinesse may bee a fault in any man it was now in Peter for refusing to haue his feet washt the mysterie whereof had he but knowne he would not haue made so nice a matter of it Saint Cyrill treating of the ends of this act of our Sauiors saith That he desired by all means possible to ingraft Loue in Mans brest to giue vs to vnderstand That without great humilitie there can be no great Loue. Guarricus saith That our Sauior Christ did loue man so wel yea in such a maner of fashion that he resolued with himself to iumpe agree with him to shape himself according to his humour and to doe any thing whatsoeuer though neuer so meane so as it might make for his good And when he saw that Man was so proud that he would not submit himselfe to serue him he sayd Well seeing Man will not be brought to serue mee I will submit my selfe to serue him stoupe to so low and so base a seruice as to wash his feet This made him dye betweene two Theeues He was wel content at his death to want al other comforts the world could affoord him only he could not be drawne from mans side that would haue gone to the very heart of him Thou art faire my beloued and comely S. Bernard sayth That this repetition doth point out a two-fold beautie vnto vs. The one of his Diuinitie wherewith he doth beautifie deifie the Angels and the Saints The other of his Loue which made him debase himselfe so much as to wash his Disciples feet The first is of greater admiration The second of much more consolation Ibi pietas magis emicuit vbi charitas magis refulsit There Pietie did glitter most where Charitie shined most Some man may aske me the question Why the rest did not seeke to excuse themselues I answer That this courtesie being complemented and pleaded by Peter and consented vnto by Peter the rest had nothing more to doe or say therein If I shall not wash thee c. Laurentius Iustinianus saith That the good old man was somewhat daunted with this threatning and now yeelded and submitted himselfe in such sort that whereas before he had being intreated denyed to haue his feet washt being thus threatned by our Sauiour he now offers to haue both his feet and his head washt O Lord wash the whole man in vs with thy blood that we may appeare cleere in thy sight c. THE XLII SERMON Of our Sauiour Christs death IOH. 19. Baiulans sibi Crucem c. Bearing his Crosse c. WHat with the spittle stripes blowes buffets mockes scornes scourges thornes his beard and haires clotted with blood our Sauiour Christ was so much altered from that man which the Spouse paints him foorth to be Candidus rubicundus electus ex millibus My wellbeloued is white and ruddy the chiefest of ten thousand that Ieremie could say He is a man yet who can know him And Esay He had neither shape nor comelinesse Or as another letter hath it He had not the forme of a man And he himselfe did not thinke himselfe to be a man saying I am a worme and no man And it seeming vnto Pilat to be the lesser reuenge of the two to see him dead than to bee thus wounded and torne by them and that there could be no emnitie no malice so raging and so cruell which with so sad a spectacle and so woful a sight would not loose somewhat of i'ts fiercenesse and violence leaning himselfe against the window and looking wistly vpon him he breathed forth these two words Ecce homo Behold here a Man sayth S. Austen fitter for the graue than a throne yee did heretofore enuie him for the great applause which the world gaue vnto his Miracles but now his Miserie may blot that out of your brests First I would haue yeto consider what manner of thing Man was when hee was moulded by the hands of God in the Creation how rich how wise and how perfect a creature he was In his Incarnation in what a prosperous estate did he liue how mightily enuied by Hell In the Resurrection how glorious and how immortall And how God againe by the hands of Man is mocked scourged spit vpon and contemned Secondly if a Pilat taking pittie of our Sauiour Christ could say vnto the people Ecce homo Behold the Man for to mooue them vnto pâ—ttie it is not much that a Preacher of the Gospell whose dutie it is to preach Christ crucified should say vnto Christian people Ecce homo Behold the Man No man will trust the pittie and compassion of an enemy Saul remained much amazed and confounded when Dauid stole from his beds-head his speare and his pitcher and when in the caue he had cut off the lappet of his garment and with tear did propound and promise to himselfe to loue him and fauour him all his life long yet Dauid would not beleeue him because no man that is wâ—se will trust an enemie Ionas who was a figure of our Sauiour Christ beeing ouerwhelmed in the Sea the waues thereof did assuage their rage waxed calme But our Sauior Christ being ouerwhelmed in the Sea oft hese his torments hee couldnot allay the furie of those billowes which grew stil rougher and rougher in the turbulent breasts of his people for there was but little good to be expected from so professed an enemie yet hee that is a Christian hath our Sauiour Christ to bee his Friend his Lord his Father and his God And representing himselfe vnto vs in this pitifull and lamentable manner what heart is there so hard which will not bee mooued to commiserate so wretched a case Saint Paul had made vnto those of Galilee a discription of our Sauiour Christ vpon the Crosse and it seeming vnto him that they were not mooued thereat but that their hearts were hardned he cry'd out aloud vnto them O yee foolish and senselesse Galathians who hath bewiched you Is it possible that Christ crucified should not
see King Salomon with that Crowne wherewith his mother had crowned him on his wedding day and the day of the ioy of his heart But Theodoret demandeth How can a crowne of thornes become a crowne of ioy I answer As it is a crowne of Loue it may Nilus in an Epistle which hee writeth to Olimpiodorus Proconsull of Aegypt saith speaking of the Crosse Per hanc desperabundis vndique spes annuntiatur To him to whom in all seeming there remaineth no reason of hoping the Crosse promiseth hope There is no man so bad no man so sad to whom this doth not assure ioy and comfort Consider Christ from the sole of the foot to the crowne of the head and all that we there find are nothing else but reasons of confidence and of comfort His head bowing his hands broken his feet fettered his side opened with his head he beckens vs to him with his armes he imbraceth vs with his breast he doth warrant vs safetie The heart of man is inscrutable There were many that murmured at mans making because hee that molded him had not made him with a window in his bosome But though thou shouldest be iealous of all the rest yet canst thou not be iealous of Christ nor of his Loue since that he layes open his bowells vnto thee They had now set vp the Crosse leauing our Sauiour Christ naked thereupon as alreadie hath beene deliuered vnto you And that Historie of the King of Aragon Don Alonso further addeth That the most blessed Virgin being sensible of the great shame which her beloued Son suffered vpon this occasion and desiring much to couer him with the vaile which she had on her head the earth heaued it selfe vp by degrees serued in stead of a ladder to performe this good office And though the Euangelists do not set downe all the particulars that passed then and there yet this is so singular in it selfe that I thought it not fit to haue it left out Vpon the discomfort which Christ shewed in some few words that he vttered the Diuells made a great muttering and whispering amongst themselues that he was a meere man and a sinner And hauing gone alwayes on in their blindnes in not knowing of him at this last push they bewrayed their blindnesse more than euer heretofore Eusebius Caesariensis saith That albeit all the whole life of Christ was a couering and discouering of the treasure of his Diuinitie yet at his death he did hide it in that manner and kept it so close that innumerable Legions of Diuells came to flout and scoffe at him as if they had now gotten the victorie so doth that place of Esay expresse this their triumphing ouer him Infernus super te conturbatus est in occursum aduentus tui suscitauit tibi Gigantes by whom he vnderstands the diuells which said to our Sauiour Christ on the Crosse Et tu vulneratus es sicut nos nostri similis factus es detracta est ad inferos superbia tua Thou hast hitherto deceiued vs but now thou shalt cosin vs no more wee know now well enough what thou art We will now be Gods Super astra Dei exaltabo solium meum similis ero altissimo Thou wouldst faine likewise haue made thy selfe a God but thou art wounded and infected as well as we with sin Now thy eyes waxe dimme and darke thy face pale and wan thy tongue furred and swolne thy lips blacke and blew and thy whole body nothing from top to toe but stripes and goare blood Caesarius that was a Contemporarie of Saint Bernards saith That he did aske a certaine Diuel from whence he came And that he should make him this answer I come from assisting at the death of Abbot Gerardo How durst thou said the other set vpon so holy a man Whereunto the Deuâ—l answered Ego presens fui super brachium crucis quando Dei filius expirauit I was present at the crosse when the Sonne of God expired And Didimus saith That Lucifer did assist there at that time accompaned with great squadrons of Deuils in most horible and fearefull shapes Eâ—sâ—bius Caesariensâ—s expounding that verse of the 21 Psalme Circundiderunt me vitulâ— multi aperuerunt super me os suum circumdiderunt me canes multi Salua me ex ore Lâ—onis a cornibus vnicornium humilitatem meam Dogges haue compassed mee and the assembly of the wicked haue inclosed me they pierced my hands and my feet I may tell all my bones yet they behold and looke vpon mee They part my garments amongst them and cast lots vpon my Vesture But bee thou not farre off ô Lord my strength hasten to helpe me Deliuer my soule from the sword my desolate soule from the power of the dogges saue me from the lyons mouth and answere me in sauing mee from the hornes of the vnicorne c. saith That this was a Praier which the sonne made vnto his father intreating him that he would free him from the Dogges the Bulls the Lyons and the Vnicornes who comming vpon him with open mouth did cast a cloud of heauinesse and sadnesse before those his Diuine eyes Eusebius likewise expounding that verse of the 54 Psalme Timor tremor venerunt super me contexerunt me tenebrae Feare and trembling are come vpon me and an horrible feare hath couered mee sayth That as in holy Scripture many Diuels are called spirits of Fornication and of Horror so some men are called Ruffians Raggamuffins Swash-bucklers c. Contexerunt me tenebrae is there set downe to expresse the infinite number of Diuels attending then vpon our Sauiour They did couer him like a cloud but they could not comprehend him To whom may be applyed that place of Saint Iohn The light did shine in darkenes and the darkenesse comprehended it not God permitting it should be â—o to the end that that place of Saint Paul might bee verified Tentatum per omnia He was tempted in all things â—ut this Temptation prooued worse than the former to him For the baite beeing throwne out he catcht at the mortall and weaker part in God and was taken fâ—orthwith by the hooke of his Diuinitie Gregorie Nissen applyeth to this purpose that historie of Dauid when Saul throwing his speare at him hee left it sticking in the wall Dauid remaining vnhurt Quousque irruitis in hominem interficitis vniuersi vos tanquam pariete inclinato Saint Ierome expounding this place of our Sauiour Christ calls him parietem because he was our wall Murus antemurale So sayth Esay And parietem inclinatum because he hung vpon the Crosse inclinato capite maceriae repulsae like vnto a wall that is pusht and shov'd at For as some setting their shoulders against a wal and seeking by maine strength to throw it down to the ground they themselues vsually fall with it which thrust it downe one remaining without an arme another without a legge and some without their liues So
put Lazarus to death This their rage and furie can not bee sufficiently indeered Esay saith Wee roare all like beares and mourne like doues These are both extreames The Beare is a very furious beast the Doue very mild and gentle the one doth shake the mountaines with his roarings the other scarce throbs forth her mournings from her brest the one if you rob her of her young ones is all rage and fiercenesse it selfe Like a Beare robbed of her Whelpes the other is softnesse and gentlenesse it selfe who if you take away her young vseth no other resistance but mourning and a soft murmuring and therefore Osee saith that she hath no heart It was noted of this people That they were like doues that mourned with their friends but like furious beares towards their enemies What greater furie than to seeke to kill Lazarus What madnesse more notorious Marsilius Ficinus saith That there is a twofold madnesse One of the braine The other of the heart The one long the other short The one makes men madd the other angry Aulus Gellius reporteth of the Sclauonians That when they are angrie they kill like the Basiliske with their verie lookes Ecclesiasticus saith That Enuie and Wrath shorten the life and bring age before the time Salomon saith That three things mooue the earth and that the fourth is not to be endured pointing out the fourth to bee a Slaue that is made his Masters heyre for a Slaue being seated in honour growes to be so insolent that it is a thing insufferable Better may this bee verified of the appetite which being a Slaue if it once through wrath rebell against reason it treads it vnder foot captiuates it and ill intreates it Because that for his sake many of the Iewes went away and beleeued in Iesus One of the greatest miseries that can befall a soule is To make good the occasion of ill As one of the greatest pledges of Gods loue is to take occasion from ill to doe good so one of the greatest pledges of malice is to take occasion from good to doe ill God gaue vnto the children of Israel the gold and siluer of the Egyptians whether it were in requitall and payment of their troubles or that he was Lord of all and so might dispose thereof as hee listed and of this gold and siluer they afterwards made a calfe giuing thereunto that glorie and worship which was due onely vnto God Osee saith they did the like with Baal I multiplyed their siluer and gold which they bestowed vpon Baall God gaue them a brazen Serpent to the end that by looking thereon they might be healed of the bitings of the Serpents From this fauour they tooke occasion to commit Idolatrie offering incense thereunto as vnto God till such time as Ezechias brake it in peeces God doth proceede by contrary courses From Adams sinne he tooke occasion to redeeme the world and as it seemeth to Saint Augustine if Adam had not sinned God had not come in person to redeeme him And Saint Gregory calls it Foelix peccatum A happy sinne because it brought with it so soueraigne a Redeemer And in many other occasions we may say that of a sinner which Esay saith Recepit de manu domini duplicia pro omnibus peccatis suis. And that which Dauid saith ofan vngratefull people Pro iniquitate vide tentoria Aethiopiae Hee there summes vp the many and great fauours which he had receiued and in euery one of them we shall find pro iniquitate They consulted to put Lazarus to death The blanke and marke whereat they shot was to darken and eclypse the name of our Sauiour Christ and to cast a cloud ouer that glory which could not possibly but shew it selfe in seeing Lazarus to be raised vp from death vnto life This dammage the Lord did repaire with two great honours The first That most solemne triumph wherewith they receiued him wherof we shall treat hereafter The second of certaine Gentiles which came according to the custome to the feast Leo the Pope saith That the Romans made a religion of it to adore the seuerall gods of all Nations and therefore they intreated Saint Philip that he would be a meanes that they might haue a sight of our Sauiour Christ and that they might bee admitted to speake with him Saint Philip communicated this matter with Saint Andrew and they both acquainted our Sauiour therewith And Iesus answered The houre is now come that the Sonne of man shall bee made manifest The Apostles did not vnderstand the mysterie thereof but our Sauiour Christ tooke that his comming to be the despertador de su muerte the awaker and reuiuer of his death For although he imployed both his life and his person in Israel yet his death was to draw the Gentiles to his knowledg and obedience And these Gentiles being so desirous to see him and to talke with him taking this to be the Vigile of his death and vocation of the Gentiles Hee told them Now is the houre come wherein the Son of man is to be glorified not onely amongst the Iewes but the Gentiles also Hee calls his death his glorification For albeit to dye be weakenesse yet to dye as Christ dyed was vnspeakeable valour and vertue Hee neuer shewed himselfe more strong than when hee was most weake and neuer lookt sweeter than when death was in his face Hee had hornes comming out of his hands And there was the hiding of his power Those hands which were nayled to those armes of the Crosse were those hornes wherewith hee ouerthrew the power of the world and of hell Iacob said of Simeon and Leui at the houre of his death In their selfe-will they digged downe a wall which the Seuentie translate thus Eneruauerunt taurum They weakened a Bull By this bull vnderstanding our Sauiour Christ. First for it's beautie Quasi primogeniti tauri pulchritudo eius His beauty shall be like his first borne bullocke Secondly For that as the bulls strength lyes in his hornes so did Christ discouer his strength vpon the Crosse Ibi abscondita est fortitudo eius Thirdly because according vnto Pliny the Bull looseth his fiercenesse when hee but sees the shadow of the Figge-tree And our Sauiour Christ shewed himselfe most weake when hee saw the shadow of the Crosse desiring pardon then of his Father for his enemies who like dogges against a Bull had with open mouth set themselues against him Many dogs are come about mee But hee repayd though not allayd their rage with this so louing and so sweet a prayer Father forgiue them c. The Pharisees seeing themselues thus mockt and deluded and that their plots and intentions tooke not effect they brake foorth and sayd Perceiue yee not how we preuaile nothing and how that the world goeth after him And albeit Saint Chrysostome saith That these speeches were vttered by his friends thereby to persuade the Pharisees that