Homo quia cinis es Remember Man that thou art but Dust. THE remembrance of death saith Climachus is amongst other remembrances as bread amongst other meats howbeit it is more necessarie for the soule than bread for the bodie For a man may liue many dayes without bread but the soule cannot doe so without the remembrance of death And it is the generall opinion of all the best and holiest Writers Perfectissimam vitam esse continuam mortis meditationem i. That the most perfect life is a continuall meditation of death Chrysostome expounding that place of Saint Luke Qui vult venire post me i. He that will follow me saith That Christ commandeth vs not to beare vpon our backes that heauie burthen of the woodden Crosse but that we should alwayes set our death before our eyes making that of Saint Paul to be our Imprese Quotidiè morior i. I die dayly In the second of the Kings it is recounted that the holy King Iosias did clense the people from their Altars their Groues and high places where innumerable Idolatries dayly increased and to amend this ill he placed there in their stead bones skulls and the ashes of dead men Whose iudgement herein was very discreete For from mans forgetting of his beginning his end arise his Idolatries and so reuiuing by those bones the rememberance of what they were hertofore what they shal be hereafter he did make them amend that mischief Verie many nay numberlesse are those men which adore the noblenesse of their Linage and out of a desire that they haue to make good their descent and beginning they multiplie Coats one vpon another hang vp Scutchions blazon forth their Armes tell you large histories of their pedigrees and genealogies and many times most of them meere lies and fables Ezechiel did represent these vnto vs in those twentie fiue yong men which were besotted and rauished in beholding the Sunne which by way of exposition signifieth the adoring of the glorie of their birth But leauing these as fooles who glorie in the gold that glisters the Church teacheth thee another lesson and sayes vnto thee Memento homo Remember man c. God created Adam of the basest matter of verie durt but this Durt being molded by Gods owne hand and inspiring it with so much wisedome councell and prudence Tertullian calls it Cura diuini ingenij i. The curiousnesse of Gods wit but man growing proud hereupon and hoping to be a God himselfe God doomed him to death and wrapped him againe in his durtie swadling clouts with this inscription Puluis es in puluerem reuerteris i. Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne Adam did not without some mysterie cloath himselfe with greene leaues for as Saint Ambrose hath noted it he gaue therein as it were a signe and token of his vaine and foolish hopes But as the mother when theâ—ee hath stung her childs finger runnes with all hast to get a little durt and claps it to her little one which doth assuage the swelling and giue it ease so those busie Bees of hel dayly stinging vs striking into our breasts the poyson of their pride arrogancie the Church with dust and ashes with a Cinis es incinerem reuerteris i. Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne abates this pride and tells vs of that swelling arrogancie of ours When God reuealed to Nebucadnezar how little a while his Empire was to last he shewed him a statue of diuers mettalls the head gold the brest siluer the bellie brasse the legges yron the feet clay and a little stone which descended from the mountaine lighting on the feet dasht the statue in pieces But in stead of taking this as a forewarning of his end and to haue it still before his eyes he made another statue of gold from top to toe which is held to be a durable and lasting mettal so that the more God sought to dis-deceiue him the more was he deceiued with his vaine hopes And this is a resemblance of that which dayly hapneth vnto vs for God aduising vs that our best building is but durt our idle thoughts vaine hopes imagine it to be of gold And mans life being so short that as Nazianzen said it is no more than to goe out of one graue to enter into another out of the wombe of our particular mother into that of the common mother of vs all which is the Earth we flatter our selues with the enioying of many long yeres of life But the Church being desirous to cut off this error saith Memento homo i. Remember man By Ezechiel God threatned his people with a great slaughter that they only should escape that were marked in the forehead with the Hebrew letter Tau which is the last in the alphabet some say that it hath the figure of a crosse and it may be that when Ezechiel did write this he had that figure before him and S. Hierome saith That in stead of Tau the Samaritanes did vse the figure of a crosse The Hebrews by this letter vnderstand the end as beeing the last in the ABC And God was willing that those that bore this marke in their forehead that is should haue their end before their eyes should liue but that those that liued forgetfull of their end that they should die And the Church beeing desirous that her children should escape this danger prints this in their minds Terra es Earth thou art c. It is well weighed by Rupertus that after God had condemned Adam to death he bestowed vpon his wife the name of Life Mater cunctarum gentium i. The mother of al the liuing Scarce had God condemned him to punishment but he by- -by shews that he had forgot it And therfore did God permit the death of innocent Abel to the end that in Abel he might see thâ— death of the body and in Caine the death of the soule for to quicken his memorie From Adam we inherit this forgetfulnes not remembring to day what we saw but yesterday the general desire of man striues all it can to perpetuate our life which if it were in our hands we would neuer see death But because the loue of life should not rob vs of our memorie and that fearing as we are mortall wee might couet those things that are eternall seeing that walles towers marble and brasse molder away to dust we may euer haue in our memorie Memento homo Remember man c. Many holy Saints haue stiled the memorie the stomach of the soule as Gregorie Bernard Theodoret Austen Nazianzen c. And God commanding Ezechiel That he should notifie vnto his people certaine tâ—â—ngs that he had reuealed vnto him and charging him that he should remember himselfe well of them he said Comede quaecunque ego do tibi i. Eat whatsoeuer I giue thee And in another placehe commanded him that he should eat a Book wherin were written Lamentationes
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
commit euill Hazarding thereby both body and soule Mala est vita mala sed mâ—râ— peccatorum pessima An ill life is bad but a bad death worse God does Bene perdeâ—â— iustum When his il workes for his good As in Iobs case His goods were lost but his soule was saued But the perdition of this people was generall both in their goods their honours their wiues their children their Temple their liues and their soules In a word God would that this people like Lots wife should serue for a generall warning to the whole World by notifying their punishment to all nations Deus ostendit mihi super inimicos meos Now Ostendere in holy Scripture imports a Publication Quantas ostendisti mihi tribulationes multas malaâ— What great tribulations hast thou shewed me many euill He will destroy those wicked ones Dauid craues of God That hee will not correct him in his furie neither chasten him in his displeasure Ne in furore Domine God punishes all but not in his furie Ieremy craues a Corripe but it is in judicio non in furore Correct vs ô Lord and yet in thy judgement not in thy fury This Prophet sets downe two sorts of punishments The one of an Almond tree budding Quid tu vides Ieremiah What 〈◊〉 thou Ieremy Virgam vigilantem ego video sayth hee I see a rod of an Almond tree The other of a pot seething Quid tu vides c. What seest thou Ollam succâ—â—â—sam ego video saith he I see a seething pot In the rod he represented vnto vs a light kind of punishment with a rod we vse to beat out the dust if you strike therwith but two or three strong blowâ— well layd on you will presently breake it And this kind of punishment is eueâ— more directed to amendment of life and to serue as a warning vnto vs. Ionathâ—â— eyes were opened with that honie which he had on the top of his wand But in that of the pot seething he represents vnto vs a most sharpe and seuere punishment He shall destroy those wicked ones Man is so wedded to selfe-loue that when it shall incounter with the counsell of God it will goe about to condemne it Of fiue hundred offenders that lye in prison you shall scarce finde one that will not complaine that he suffers vniustly that the Iudges sentence proceeded either out of malice or iniustice And for these there is no better course to be taken with them than to halter them as they doe Mules when they begin to play iadish trickes As well conditioned as Dauid was Nathan the Prophet was faine to hamper him in this manner that he might thereby be taught to know his own error The like order doth our Sauiour Christ take with this froward people And albeit they were so crafty and so wary that when he propounded any questions vnto them they were wonderfull carefull what answere to make him suspecting this was but a trap set for them insomuch that when our Sauiour ask't them Whether the Baptisme of Iohn Baptist were from Heauen or from Earth They answered We know not But notwithstanding all this forasmuch as there is no wisedome no prudence nor no counsaile against the Lord and that the wisedome of the Earth is but foolishnesse to that of Heauen they fell into the snare pronouncing this sentence against themselues Malos male perdet He will cruelly destroy those wicked men It was not much that the children should waxe blind beeing neere the splendour of his diuine Wisedome when as their father the Deuill who was the fountaine of Malice was strucken blinde therewith Iob that patterne of Patience saith Hee that made him will make his owne sword to approach vnto him Some Bookes haue it Applicaâ—it gladium eius ei He caused the Deuill to cut his throat with his owne knife Hee tooke vp sinne as a sword against God and against Man but the Wisedome of God so guided the blow that he sheathed his sword in his owne bowels He brought in Death and Death was his death Hee bit Eue by the heele but this biting was the brusing of his head Of Golias sword Dauid said Non est similis in terra There was not the like againe to bee had Not that there was not such another to be found in the Philistimes armories but because it found out the tricke to cut off his Masters head So the Pharisees own sentence was the sword that cut their throates Nebuchadnezar asking of his Southsayers the signification of his dreame They told him None can doe that but God Now when Daniell shall interpret it he must by your owne confession be either a God or one of Gods inward friends Malos male perdâ—t Hee will destroy those wicked ones your owne mouth condemns you Saint Chrysostome and Eutimius say That they were all of this opinion But anon after finding themselues bitten they foyst in an Absit But our Sauiour citing for his purpose that saying of the Psalmist Lapidem quem reprobauerunt c. The stone which they refused c. Their mouthes were bungd vp and their Absit would not now serue their turne And therefore he sayes vnto them Auferetur à vobis Regnum Dei The Kingdome of God shall be taken from you c. Auferetur à vobis regnum Dei The Kingdome of God shall be taken from you The prophecies of the translation from the Iewes to the Gentiles as they are many so are they most manifest As in that of Esay Quia posuisti ciuitatem in tumulum Where he treateth of this alteration and of the destruction of Ierusalem Of Osee The children of Israell shall remaine many dayes without a King Of Ieremy I haue forsaken my house I haue left my heritage Of Malachy My affection is not towards you Mathew sums vp all these prophecies in one Your habitation shall be left vnto you desolate Pope Leo hath obserued that our Sauiour Christ beeing not able to beare the heauie burthen of the Crosse the Iewes fearing he would not dye till they had fastned him thereunto hired a Gentile called Simon Cirenaeus to helpe him awhile in the bearing of it Onely thereby to show that the fruit of the Crosse was to come vnto the Gentiles Or to explaine it fuller his submitting himselfe to the Crosse amidst these cruell Iewes was not a thing done by chance but a kind of prophecie That the Gentiles should take possession of the key of Heauen The Kingdome of God shall be taken from you Here first of all he aduiseth Kings Princes and Rulers that they looke well vnto their wayes and stand in feare of this change For God is woont to transferre Kingdomes States and Seigniories from one nation to another for their sinnes sake Because of vnrighteous dealing and wrongs and riches gotten by deceit the Kingdome is translated from one people to another A King suffers his subiects to be
haue beene at a stand immagining with themselues That being there is so great a difference betweene the Old Law and the New betweene God and God a God of Vengeance and a God of Mercie betweene a Lyon and a Lambe that Christs friends should haue had a priuiledge and that scarce a house of theirs should haue knowne what sickenesse danger or death had meant In the Floud Noahs house was preserued in the flames of Sodome that of Lot and in that generall massacre of the First-borne of Aegypt the houses of the Hebrewes were vntoucht And God sending the man cloathed with Linnen which had the writers Inkehorne by his side to take notice of the people of Hierusalem hee commanded them to set a marke vpon the forehead of his friends that hee might ouerskip them and not touch them in the day of destruction But here now a friends house is not priuiledged no not the house of Peter What should be the reason of it There are many but the main reason is this With God tribulation was euermore a greater token of his loue fauor than prosperity what said Iob when he sate scraping his sores vpon the Dunghill In my prosperitie I onely heard thee but now in my affliction I see thee S. Chrysostome saith That Cain in killing Abel thought that Heauen would doe him those fauours which it did his brother but he was deceiued for God did better loue a dead Abel than a liuing Cain Non extraxisti sed incendisti Philon saith That the fire in the bush was so far from consuming or burning it that it left it fresher and greener than it was before But for all this our miseries in the Old Law were neuer seene to be so honourable as afterwards when God had clapt the thornes which were the fruit of our sinnes vpon his owne head then did they recouer so high a Being and grew to that worth that the heauier God layes his hand vpon vs the more is his loue toward vs. The marke of our happinesse is the Sonne of God not glorified but scourged spit vpon crowned with thorns torne with whips and nailed to the Crosse and therefore to bee conformed to the Image of his Sonne is fitting for vs. In the Apocalyps his feet are put into a hot firie Ouen This was a ritratto or picture of his many troubles and though this Ouen or firie Furnace speake them much yet sure they were farre greater and beyond the tongues expression The Angells did scatter the coles of Gods wrath abroad in the World sometimes lighting in one place and sometimes in another but whose coles could bee hotter than his whose feet like vnto fine Brasse lay burning as in a Furnace She was taken with a great Feuer The Euangelist heere amendeth our vsuall manner of speech for with vs it is commonly said Tengo grandes calenturas I haue a great Feuer whenas indeed the Feuer hath thee God often afflicts the soule in the sence that the soule thereby may be made sencible God like the Bridegroome to the Spouse speakes a thousand sweet words to the Soule hee courts her wooes her with an Aperi mihi soror mea c. Open to me my sister c. but this makes her the more to shut the doore against him The Soule when it is in prosperitie growes proud it is deafe and will not heare she must bee wrought vpon inter angustias she must feele the rod before she will haue any feeling Ionas in the Whales bellie the Prodigall in the pig-stie the Sicke in his Feuer thinks and calls vpon God we listen vnto the Deuill when wee are in the middest of our Feasts our Banquets our Maskings our sports and pastimes but onely hearken vnto God inter angustias when we are afflicted and in miserie God being willâ—ng to cure those that were stung with the Serpents made a Serpent of brasse and caused it to be set vp that by looking theron they might be healed Gregorie Nissen askes the question Whither it had not beene a shorter cut and a more speedie and effectuall remedie to haue made an end of all these Serpents at once But he answers thereunto If he should haue freed them from those Serpents Which of them would haue lifted vp his eyes to Heauen And therefore let those Serpents continue still and those wounds of the bodie seeing they cure those of the Soule According to that of Salomon The blewnesse of the wound serueth to purge the euill Saint Gregorie the Pope saith That the wound of the Soule is taken away by making another wound of repentance and true sorrow Euthymius citeth to this purpose that verse of Dauid Qui dat niuem sicut lanam Snow to the earth is as wooll because it keepes it warme and giues heat therevnto for to bring forth floures and fruits wherwith to glad the Spring and beautifie the Sommer AnÌ„o de nieues anÌ„o de bienes saith the Spanish Prouerbe A yere of snow a yeare of ioy The snow of sickenesse and of affliction in stead of cooling the Soule it giues it heat and fruitfulnesse that it may bring forth floures and fruits of good life She was taken with a great Feauer The Phisitions call a Calenture or burning Feuer Calorem extraordinarium An extraordinarie heat or calidam intemperiem a hot distemperature which being kindled in the heart and taking fire disperseth it selfe through all the parts of the bodie catcheth hold of them offends them and discomposeth that harmonie of the humors wherein our health consisteth Saint Isidore deriues it from Feruor or that hast and speed wherewith it runneth and disperseth it selfe through our bodies Valerius Maximus sayth That in antient time they did offer sacrifice thereunto as to a Goddesse because of all other sicknesses a Feuer is that which commonly comes to make an end of our liues For as heat well tempered giues life so beeing distempered it brings death But if we shall goe philosophising from the infirmities of the bodie by way of analogie or proportioning them to the soule Loue to the soule is as Heat to the bodie And when it doth not exceede the Laws of God which is the life of our soule it inioyes perfect health but when it growes once to an excesse it falls into a Calenture or burning Feuer And this excesse succeedeth two maner of wayes Either by louing that more which ought to be loued lesse Or by not louing that enough which ought to be loued most The Spouse sayd of her Bridgroome Ordinauit in me charitatem He showed his Loue vnto mee He made exceeding much of mee He brought me into the wine celler and Loue was his banner ouer me He stayd me with flaggons and comforted me with apples when I was sicke of Loue His left hand was vnder my head and his right hand did embrace mee Extraordinarie was this Loue of the Bridegroome to his Spouse preferring her before all other things whatsoeuer God
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
sixe for their dowrie and being so due a debt as it was hee went so long deferring the payment thereof that if God had not taken his part he might haue returned home for ought I know with the staffe that he brought with him Mutasti mercedem meam decem vicibuâ— Thou hast deceiued me and changed my wages ten times There is no honestie in such kind of dealing there are too many of these now a dayes but God amend them And so I commend you to God THE TENTH SERMON VPON THE FRYDAY AFTER THE FIRST SVNDAY IN LENT IOANNIS 5.1 Erat dies Festus Iudaeorum erat Hierusalem probatica piscina There was a Feast of the Iewes and there is at Ierusalem by the place of the Sheepe a Poole AMongst those many other Fish-pooles which belonged to Ierusalem besides those which Salomon had made for his own particular vse and pleasure Extruxi mihi Piscinas aquarum I made Cisternes of water c. this of all the rest was the most famous Iosephus calls it Stagnum Salomonis because it was built by this King neere vnto the Temple for the seruice of sacred things it was a Poole that was walled round about whereunto your heards and flockes of cattell could not come and some say That this was the place where the Priests hid the holy Fire which Nehemias afterwards found to bee conuerted into a thicke water It was walled round about and had fiue seuerall open porches full of diseased people some of one infirmitie and some of another This Hospitall ioyned to the backe of the Temple to shew that the poore haue no other prop in this life to vphold them saue Gods backe this must bee their strength hereunto must they leane it is our Sauiours shoulders that must not onely beare vs vp but our infirmities by taking them vpon himselfe In Saint Chrysostomes time the Hospitals were set apart from the Temples for feare of receiuing infection from those contagious diseases For the poore did lie like so many Dogges at the doores of Gods house A Theefe that he may the better enter that house where there are many doggs holds it his best course to stop their mouths with somthing or other We are all Theeues and that we may enter peaceably into Gods House there is no better meanes than to giue something to the poore which like so many Dogges lie at the gate Twice in the Old Testament hath God commanded That no man should petition him with emptie hands Non apparebis in conspectu meo vacuus And Saint Chrysostome expounding this place saith He enters emptie handed who comming to craue something of God doth not first bestow an Almes vpon the poore according to that rule of our Sauior Christ What yee shall doe to one of these little ones c. Citing likewise for confirmation of this Doctrine that place of Ecclesiasticus Ante Orationem prepara animam tuam Before thou prayest prepare thy self c. When thou hast enough remember the time of hunger and when thou art rich thinke vpon pouertie and need To shew pittie to the poore he termes it Animae preparationem A preparing of the soule And it is not much that God should take pleasure therein seeing men are so well pleased therewith I will appease him with gifts saith Iacob when he went forth to meet his brother Esau. And Ester comming before Assuerus to beg a boone at his hand it is said That one of her maids of Honour bare vp her arme and the other her traine This is a Type of Prayer accompanied with Fasting and Almes-deeds which two are able to negotiate any thing with God and where there is such an Ester there is not any Assuerus though neuer so great who will not bow the Scepter of his mercie towards her Ecclesiasticus saith Giue an almes to the poore and it shall entreat for thee and preuaile There is in Ierusalem by the place of the Sheepe a Poole God did honour his Temple with this Poole where there was a perpetuall prouision for health and it was a prouidence full of conueniencie that God should conferre his fauours where his name is praysed and that Man should receiue them there where hee praiseth him Te decet Hymnus Deus in Syon tibi reddetur votum in Hierusalem In Syon ô Lord they sing Hymnes vnto thee in Ierusalem they make their vowes Open in these places the hands of thy bountie Et replebimur in bonis domus tuae And we shall bee filled with the good things of thy house Amongst other fauours which God promised to his house this was one In loco isto dabopacem â—n that place I will grant thee peace The name of Peace intimateth all manner of good things whatsoeuer here art thou to beg and here to receiue the granting of thy petitions And for this cause God calls his house the house of Prayer which is ordained to begge those things of God which we stand in need of and to praise him for what he giues and we receiue The Court is the Worlds Epitome an abreuiation or short abridgement of this greater Vniuerse for that it hath in it whatsoeuer is dispersed throughout the face of the earth And this Poole is a figure of the Court First of all in this Poole there are a great many of sicke diseased persons those of verie foule and filthie diseases blind wasted in their bodies benumm'd withered lame and maimed Iacere To lie in Scripture is spoken of those that are dead as it appeareth in Exodus in the Booke of Tobias and so of those that lie at the point of death as likewise of Lazarus when he lay at Diues his gate So saith Saint Iohn in this place Multitudo languentium iacebaâ— i. There lay a great multitude of sicke men In the Court there are a great many that lie sicke of diuers and sundrie diseases of the Soule an Apoplexy seiseth vpon all the sences of the bodie one pretension or other possesseth the sences of the bodie and the faculties of the Soule and vpon all whatsoeuer belongs vnto man as his honour his wealth his conscience and truth c. This man came to the Poole benumm'd and at the end of thirtie eight yeares was more benumm'd than at first and if our Sauiour Christ had not helped him it is probable he would haue perished Many come to the Court to recouer themselues of an infirmitie that followes them called Pouertie and after many yeares trauell and paines taking they prooue poorer than before and oft die of that disease whereas if they had bin contented with their former meane estate they might perhaps not haue died so soone And although they get the Office they pretend yet doe they neuer come to be rich because their profits doe not equall their charges Seneca saith That if these men would haue taken councell of those who haue tryed this poole some few yeares they would alter their mind If
he had placed Watch-towers on this mountaine Suting with that of the Prophet Osee O yee Priests heare this Iudgement is towards yee because yee haue beene a snare vpon Mizpah and a net spred vpon Tabor The Priests and Princes catching the poore people in their snares as the Fowlers doe the birds in these two high Mountaines In a word This Mountaine is famous for verie many things but for none more than that it was honoured by our Sauiour with his presence and inriched with his glorie And for this cause Saint Bernard calls it Montem Spei The Mountaine of our hopes For he that leads a godly life here vpon earth may well hope to receiue a glorified life in Heauen Et transfiguratus est ante eos And he was transfigured before them Let vs here expound foure truths which are acknowledged by the whole bodie of Diuinitie The one That our Sauiour Christ liung amongst vs was not onely seene of vs himselfe seeing and knowing all things but was happinesse it selfe The other That he was so from the verie instant of his conception The third That being happie in Soule he must likewise be so in his body The fourth That the glorie of his Soule remained after that he had left his bodie Touching the proofe of the first Truth notable is that place of Saint Iohn No man hath seene God at any time that onely begotten Sonne which is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him The Glosse hath it Who is neerest to his father not onely in respect of his loue towards him but by the bond of nature and for the vnion or one-nesse that is betweene them whereby the Father and the Son are one God reuealed him and shewed him vnto vs whereas before hee was vnder the shadowes of the Law so that the quickenesse of the sight of our mind was not able to perceiue him for whosoeuer seeth him seeth the Father also The Euangelist pretendeth here to prooue that onely our Sauiour Christ is the author of Grace and of Truth and that neither Moses nor any of the Patriarks could see God as he was himselfe which is Truth it selfe by essence but as he is the Sonne and therefore he onely can be the author thereof Men may see God in his creatures and know many of his perfections And in this sence Iob said All men see him and behold him afarre off Saint Gregorie and Saint Paul implie as much For the inuisible things of him that is his eternall power and Godhead are seene by the creation of the world considered in his workes Men may likewise see him in some image or figure sometimes of a man sometimes of an Angell sometimes of Fire representing himselfe in those formes sometimes by the eyes of the Soule and sometimes those of the Bodie So Esay saw him I saw the Lord sitting vpon an high Throne And Iacob I saw the Lord face to face Thirdly God may be seene by Faith as the Faithfull now see him Now we see through a glasse darkely Fourthly in his humanitie Afterward he was seene vpon earth saith Buruch and dwelt among men Fiftly in himselfe and in his essence not in his creatures not in his image not in his humanitie but in himselfe Sicuti est As hee is This sight is so farre aboue all the rest that it makes men happie as also the Angels Moreouer Saint Iohn saith That with a cleere sight at least comprehensible no man euer yet saw God but by the Sonne And being that God is our happines when he is cleerely seene it followeth that our Sauiour Christ is happie The selfe same argument our Sauiour vsed to Nicodemus No man ascended to Heauen but he which descended from Heauen the Sonne of Man who is in Heauen Ye will not giue credit to these earthly things how will yee credit those then that are heauenly And condemning this their incredulitie he saith No man ascended vp into Heauen There is not any man that can make true report of the things that are there because no man hath ascended thither to see them only I who liued in Heauen and descended downe from Heauen am able to tell ye the things that are in Heauen Our being in Heauen then being all one with the seeing of God and the seeing of God beeing our happinesse it followeth that our Sauiour Christ is happie The second Truth That he was so from that verie time that hee first tooke our nature vpon him Saint Augustine collects it out of the sixtie fift Psalm Blessed is the Man whom thou chusest and receiuest vnto thee he shall dwell in thy Court and shall be satisfied with the pleasure of thy house c. The same Eusebius Caesariensis inferreth vpon the twentie second Psalme Thou art hee that tooke me out of my mothers wombe or as the Chaldee letter hath it Leuaui me in robore tuo I got vp to bee ioyned equall with God Which testimonies of Scripture are confirmed by all your Scholasticall Doctors The third Truth That our Sauior Christ must needs be happie both in soule and in bodie Iohannes Damascenus prooues it out of that strict vnion of the Diuinitie which Death it selfe cannot vndoe Saint Augustine affirmes That the glorie of the soule is naturally conueyed to the bodie as the light of a candle to a paine of glasse The fourth Truth That our Sauior Christ was transfigured by giuing licence to the glorie of his soule that it should transferre it selfe to the bodie not that glorie which he was able to giue it but that which his Disciples eyes were able to endure as it is noted by Saint Chrysostome treating on this point Et transfiguratus est And he was transfigured We haue elsewhere set downe the causes of our Sauiours transfiguration but none so often repeated by the Saints and Doctors as his discouering thereby the hidden treasures of his glorie as the reward that calls vnto vs and stayes for vs haling as it were our thoughts and hopes after it Such is the condition of man that commonly he makes interest and priuat gain the North-starre of his labours and endeauours this he thinkes on dreames of and adores But as to the Worldling the worlds wealth is his North-starre so the North-starre of the Sonne of God is the glorie of God Now our Sauiour Christ discouereth vnto vs a streake or a line as it were of that happinesse which though it doth not fully expresse vnto vs what God is yet it remooueth from vs all those difficulties which might diuert vs from his seruice And therfore Saint Ambrose saith Ne quis frangatur c. He allureth our mind with this so soueraign a good that the troubles of this life may not disquiet it nor driue it to despaire So furious are the tempests of this Sea so raging the waues and tossings too and fro of this life that if God did not temper the distasts thereof with the hope of another life
Hierosolimitanus saith That not onely his face did shine but all his whole bodie Saint Austen Quod caro illuminata per vestimenta radiabat For it was not fit as Lyra hath it that his garment should shine and not his hands His face shined like the Sunne Who would haue thought that behind so poore a vaile there should bee found such great treasure But it passeth so likewise in this world that he that seemeth most poore is oftentimes most rich and he that seemeth most rich is most poore The greatnesse of Rome Saint Iohn painteth forth in the forme of a woman clothed in Purple bedecked with pretious stones and in her hand a sprig of Gold but that which did not appeare to the eyes was all abhomination filthinesse and beastlinesse The Altars of Aegypt were euery one of them a Treasure-house of Pearles pretious Stones Gold Iewells and Silkes but in euerie one of these their Altars they had a Toad or a Serpent The Mezquita or Turkish Temple that honoureth the bones or Reliques of Mahomet is stored with that infinite riches that you would take him to be some great God whereas indeed he is but vn çancarron de vn puerco but the withered leg of a Hog a base borne fellow and of no worth in the world The Idols of the Gentiles though neuer so much gilded ouer with Gold are no better than stockes and stones One said in the Apocalyps I am rich and stand in need of nothing But it was answered him from Heauen Thou art poore and much to be pittied These are ordinarily the stampes of your powerfull persons and great Princes of this world that seeming to be as bright as the Sunne in their bodies are as blacke as a cole in their soules But those that are the Saints of God carrying a besmeered countenance and a patcht garment beare in their soules the Sunne Sicut Tabernacula Cedar sicut pellis Salomonis Rich within though poore without Et ecce aparuerunt Moses Elias And behold Moses and Elias appeared On Moses his part there is a strong reason Amongst the Assei it was a receiued opinion which those now follow whom wee call Atheists That the Soules did die together with the bodies And it seemeth that Cicero did fauour the same when he said in his Amicitia Sicut in morte nihil est boni sic certè nihil est mali As there is no good so there is no hurt in death That couetous rich man in the Gospell was surely of this opinion in his life time but being put out of this his errour in that other life he presently desired Abraham to send one in all hast from the dead to preach vnto his kindred that they might forsake this their errour but hee receiued this short answer Habent Moysen Prophetas They haue Moses and the Prophets Where there is Scripture there is no need of miracles And Saint Peter saith That Prophecie hath more assurance in it than the euidence of miracles This is a truth hard to be vnderstood First Because a miracle as Saint Hierome saith is as it were the Apostolicall Seale and the Apostles did confirme their Faith by miracles and those miracles that were prophecied of our Sauiour Christ heretofore did declare him to be the Sonne of God Saint Augustine treating at large vpon this place saith That Prophecies and Miracles haue one and the selfe same certitude because they proceed from one and the selfe same God but that Prophecie is the stronger and more forcible of the two for a Miracle may bee found fault withall as the Pharisees did with that Miracle of him that was possessed with a Deuil telling our Sauiour In Belzebub the Prince of Deuills thou doost cast out Deuills And that same Pythonisse made the Deuill to appeare in the forme of Samuel But Abraham tells Diues They haue Moses and the Prophets And no man can taxe the Scripture or challenge it of any fault Saint Chrysostome askes the question Why he did not fetch some of the Damned out of Hell First of all he answereth thereunto That we haue many pictures of Hel in this life but of Heauen very few For although that the World be as it were the Entresuelo or middle roome of these two extreames Heauen and Hell yet more are the fumes vapours that ascend vp from beneath than those gustos contents which descend from aboue There were a sort of Heretickes that denied there was a Hell it seeming vnto them that the life of a Sinner was a Hell of it selfe and that it stood not with Gods mercie that there should be two Hels alledging that of Nahum Godiudgeth not one and the same thing twice Secondly God to many of his friends discouered the torments of Hell and many of his enemies haue beene visibly snatcht away thither And those Aetna's of fire which are in the world though happely engendred by particular causes are as it were symboles representing vnto vs that eternall fire Thirdly It is an vsuall fashion with God to discouer the reward and to conceale the chastisement for that man would bee ashamed that others should see him punished God did shut the port of Noahs Arke without and hung the key at his owne girdle because hee should not haue any desire to see that lamentable deluge and generall destruction of mankind He charged Lots wife that shee should not so much as looke towards Sodome that she might not behold those flames which did voice out Gods vengeance At the end of the world at that dreadfull day of judgement when God shall shew himselfe most angrie the Sun and the Moone shall be darkened because God will haue his chastisements inflicted in the darke Fourthly Hope doth worke more generous effects in our brests than Feare It cannot be denied but that Feare hath verie powerfull effects Herod for feare of loosing his Kingdome made that butcherly slaughter of so many innocent Babes not sparing his owne children For feare of loosing his Citie the King of Moab was his owne sonnes hangman quitting him of his life vpon the wall For feare of dying by the cruell hands of hunger many mothers haue eaten the birth of their owne bowells For feare least they should be made captiues and led in triumph by their enemies many valiant men haue made an end of themselues And for that Feare doth not onely extend it selfe to an absent good as well as Hope but likewise to a present and for that to loose the present good which a man possesseth causeth a greater sorrow than to loose the good which we doe but hope for it seemeth that Feare is more powerfull than Hope Yet notwithstanding all this Antiquitie hath giuen the Palme to Hope and the reasons on that side are verie cleere The first If Feare come to effect great things it is by the helpe and fauor of Hope for there cannot be any feare without hope of escaping the ill or the danger that
is feared Him whom the feare of some great hurt apprehendeth maketh choice to kill himselfe that he may escape that harme The second Thomas and Aristotle both affirme That Delight is the authour of noble deeds and difficult enterprises Whence the Phylosopher inferreth That that thing cannot long continue which wee doe not take delight in Delight then being the child of Hope and Sorrow the sonne of Feare Feare is lesse noble than Hope The third Loue and Hope carrie vs along as Prisoners in their triumph yet as free vsing vs like noble persons And as they lead vs along so are we willing to goe with them But Feare carrieth vs away Captiues haling vs by the haire of the head tugging and pulling vs as a Sergeant doth a poore Rogue who goes with an ill will along with him making all the resistance that he can And for that Heauen consists wholly of noble persons and that the condition of God is so noble and the reward which he proposeth so honourable we should do him great wrong to suffer our selues to be drawne by force to so superexcellent a good howbeit with those that haue hung backe our Sauiour Christ hath vsed the threatnings and feares of Death of Iudgement and of Hell And his Prophets Preachers are therin to follow his example Those that are his children he still desireth to lead them in the triumph of Hope And for this cause Zacharie cals them the prisoners of Hope Turne yee to the strong Hold ye prisoners of Hope Saint Ambrose saith That hee made choice of Elias and Moses to shew That in Gods House the Poore is as much respected as the Rich. Moses in his yonger yeares was a Prince of Aegypt afterwards the chiefe Commander and Leader of Gods People Elias was alwayes poore and halfe hunger-starued cloathed with Goats haire yet both these did enioy the glorie of Tabor The like judgement may be made of Elizeus and Dauid of Lazarus and of Abraham and of diuers others Saint Luke addeth Visi sunt in Maiestate They were seene in State For great was the Maiestie wherewith Elias and Moses appeared And Tertullian saith That they appeared glorious In claritatis praerogatiâ—a So that those new Disciples Peter Iames and Iohn might by seeing these his antient followers so happie bee thereby the better encouraged and hope to enioy the like happinesse Origen and Epiphanius are of the same opinion Saint Hierome against Iouinianus and Tertullian in his booke De Iejunio say That Elias and Moses did fast fortie dayes as well as our Sauiour Christ in the Wildernesse and that therefore they seemed as glorious as himselfe Whence they inferre That hee that will bee transfigured with Christ must fast with Christ. Loquebantur de excessu They spake of his departure Touching that death which our Sauiour Christ was to suffer in Hierusalem there could not bee any conuersation more conformable to that estate and condition of his For beeing that our Sauiour was to merit the glorie of the body by his death he could not so much reioyce in any thing as in the brauenesse of that noble and renowned Action and the worthinesse thereof In Gods house good seruices are much more esteemed than recompence or reward And more reckoning is made of deseruing honour than inioying it When those his Disciples desired such and such seates of honour our Sauiour sayd vnto them Potestis bibere calicem c. In my Kingdome more honourable is the Cuppe that I drinke of than the chaire that ye would sit in In our Sauiours Ascension when hee came to Heauen-gates the Angells beganne to wonder at his bloudie garments Quis est iste qui venit de Edom tinctis vestibus de Bosra In a place so free from sorrow and torment such a deale of bloud and woundes But that which made their admiration the more was that hee should make this his Gala the only gallant clothes that he could put on Formosus in stola sua And for that this his bloud had beene the meanes of his taking possession of this glorie both for himselfe and for vs he could not cloth himselfe richer nor doe himselfe more honour than to weare this bloudy roabe that had beene dyed in the winepresse of his Passion Saint Austen sayth That the Prouidence of God had so disposed it that the markes of the Martyres torments should not bee blotted out in Heauen For albeit that happy estate doth repaire all manner of maimes take away all deformities and cleare all the spots and blemishes of our body and though they shall appeare much more glorious than the Sun yet notwithstanding those stigmata and markes of their martyrdome shall adde an accidentall glorie vnto them as those colours that are gained in warre beautifies his Coat who weares them in his scutchion The Greekes read Loquebantur de gloria quam completurus erat They spake of the glorie which hee was to fulfill Our Sauiour Christ being vpon the Crosse the Sunne was darkened Tenebrae factae sunt super vniuersam terram in token that when Iesus Christ was crucified for our sinnes there was no need of seeing the Sunne any more nor any more Heauen or glorie to be desired In mount Tabor Christ did not discouer all his glorie to the eyes of Faith and therefore it was necessarie that the Heauens should be opened that a cloud should come downe and a voice be heard from his Father saying Hic est filius meus dilectus This is my beloued sonne Saint Chrysostome expounding that place of Saint Iohn sayth Vidimus gloriam eius quasi vnigeniti à patre Signifying That this is to bee vnderstood of that glorie which our Sauiour Christ discouered on the Crosse that there hee shewed whose sonne he was c. Saint Paul seemeth somewhat to allude thereunto when hee sayd God forbid sayth hee that I should be so foolish as to glorie in any thing saue the glorie of the Crosse. And the Spouse His Crosse and his Ensignes are to me as a bundle of Myrrh I will beare it betweene my brests as my delight and my treasure Three manner of wayes may it bee taken that this Excesse of our Sauiour Christ is Glorie The first That his passion and death and the rest of those Excesses which he did for our saluation for all these may bee termed Excesses Christ did take them to be a glorie vnto him Adam sinning hee seemed to make little account of God and his creatures which in him was a great Excesse But God did remedie this Excesse with other infinite Excesses Saint Bernard obserueth That our Sauiour Christ would not enioy the Balme which the three Maries brought to annoint him after he was dead but did reserue it for his liuing bodie For in Christ wee are to consider two bodies the one Naturall the other Mystical which is the Church And as hee left the first nayled and fastned to the Crosse for the second so he
there is no treasure to be compared to a bodie that is strong and healthie And indeering this truth hee saith That death is a lesse euill than a bitter life and the graue than a long and grieuous sickenesse So that in conclusion he preferreth health before life But if to these sores of Lazarus we shall adde hunger nakednesse and weakenesse and all these in so high a degree that he was not able to lift vp his Crutches to driue away the Dogges which did licke away together with the matter and filth of his Sores his verie life from him a man can hardly comprehend a greater miserie Insuper Canes lingebant And the Dogs licked c. The greatest miserie that Lazarus indured was the crueltie of this rich man and of all his whole house for euen the yerie Dogs in the house of a cruell man are also cruel This doth this word Insuper infer Here are so many miseries heaped one vpon another that they can hardly be reduced to a summe And the Dogs licked c. The verie Dogs did sucke licke out the life of him And this crueltie may be considered two manner of wayes The one That this rich man affronted poore Lazarus speaking vnto his seruants in a commanding manner What doth this poore Rogue make here send him packing that I may see him no more and I charge you that you giue him not so much as a Cup of cold water lest like a Fowlers Whistle he may serue as a Call to inuite all the Beggers in the country to come tomorrow to my house hoping that they shall speed no worse than he hath done They performe their masters command and when they had so done they come in and tell him Sir we haue dismist him and willed him to be gone but the poore man is very importunate and loath to stir Is he so quoth he marrie then will I tell you what you shall doe turne out these Dogs vpon him and they will set him hence with a vengeance This construction Saint Augustine makes in a Sermon of his and withall leaues vs this note for our better learning Quod in lingua majorem seâ—tit ardorem quia per eam contempsit Pauperem That he felt therefore the greater heat in his tongue because with it hee had the Poore in derision and made it the Whip to lash them The other That this rich man made as though he were deafe and would not heare on that eare when the Poore cryed oâ—t vnto him though his miserable condition hunger-starued carkaâ—se though he poore soule had held his peace spake in a loud voice vnto him to bestow something vpon him Those crummes good Master that are come from your table those scraps for Gods sake that are left c. Of these two interpretations you may take which you please but I am sure neither of both but is a sinne and that a great one too In which sinne of this vncharitable Chuffe wee are to consider three verie wofull circumstances The first That it is a sinne that is generally hated and abhorr'd For all other sinnes haue some Patrons to protect them some abettors to defend them or some fauourers to excuse them if not in heauen yet at least here on earth but against this vnmercifull and hard hearted sinne God Heauen Earth Angells and Men haue so open and wide an eare and conceiue so ill of it that they thinke none deserues Hell better And therefore it is said Iudicium sine misericordia his qui non faciunt misericordiam Iudgement without mercie to those that shew no mercie When he falls no man will take pittie of him Reuelabunt Coeli iniquitatem eiâ—â— Terra consurget aduersius eum The Heauen shall declare his wickednesse and the Earth shall rise vp against him All the World will crie out against an vnmercifull minded man as on the contrarie they will praise and applaud him that is of a pittifull and tender disposition Enarrabit Eleemosynas suas omnis Ecclesia Sanctorum The whole Congregation shall talke of his praise and the Generations that are to come shall speake good things of him Whereas the other his name shall perish from off the earth but his torments in hell shall endure for euer Saint Austen is of opinion That there is not any sinne more iniurious to Nature than this You shall haue a rich man keepe in his house a Lyon a Beare fiue or sixe cast of Falcons to all which he alots dayly a liberal allowance the poore man comes vnto him makes his moane and in a pittifull and humble fashion sayes vnto him Sir I beseech you for Gods sake bestow one single pennie or a piece of bread on a poore weake creature that is not able to worke for his liuing Yet wil not the rich man giue him that which he giues vnto his Beasts ô what an inhumane thing is this and how harsh to euery good mans nature The second circumstance is this That God doth with such difficultie remit this sinne that if any be irremissable it is this not only for it's crueltie so contrarie to the bowells of Gods compassion but also for that taxing his prouidence he makes such light reckoning of the miseries of the Poore that hee weighes them by ounces and measures them out by ynches nay hee proceeds further by adding griefe vnto griefe and affliction to affliction and iudging those jerks of Gods diuine Iustice to be too gentle he lays a heauier hand greater load vpon him This is that that made Zacharie to crie out Magna ira irascor c. I am greatly incensed against your richer sort of men for I was angrie but a little and they helped forward the affliction I send the Poore a sore for the chastisement of his sinnes that thereby I may bring him to heauen these would flea him aliue The Prophet Amos thunders out a terrible threatning against them in the metaphor of fat Kyne Audite haec vaccae pingues qui confringitis c. Heare this Word yee Kyne of Bashan that are in the Mountaines of Samaria which oppresse the Poore and destroy the Needie thou hast not left one bone of them vnbroken but I sweare by my Holinesse That I will be reuenged of thee Lo the dayes shall come vpon you that I will take you away with Thornes and your Posteritie with Fish-hookes and yâ—â— shall goe out at the breaches euerie Cow forward and yee shall cast your selues out of the Pallace Thus he calleth the Princes and Gouernors which being ouerwhelmed with the great abundance of Gods benefits forgat God his poore Members and therefore he calleth them by the name of beasts and not of men No lesse fearefull is that menacing of Micah Heare ô yee Heads of Iacob and yee Princes of the house of Israell who plucke off the skin of the Poore and the flesh from off their bones who also eat the flesh of my people and
One Angel was enough to ouerthrow a mountaine one onely sufficeth to mooue these coelestiall Orbes but it is Saint Chrysostomes note That Euerie one was glad to put a helping hand to so worthie a burthen â— this As many earnestly thrust themselues forward to beare a foot a leg or an arme of some great Monarch In â—inum Abrahae Into the bosome of Abraham Some vnderstand by this his bosome the neerest place about Abraham As in that of the Euangelist All the Apostles supt with our Sauiour Christ but Saint Iohn onely leaned his head in his bosome And in that other Vnigenituâ— qui est in sinu patris c. The onely begotten who is in the bosome of the Father As also that A dextris At his right hand So likewise Many shall lie downe with Abraham Isaac and Iacob And the Church singeth Martinus Abrahae sinu laetus excipitur Mortuâ—s est autem Diues sepultus est But the rich man died and was buried The Greeke makes there a full point and then presently goes on In inferno autem cum esseâ— in tormentis But when he was in hell in torment But of Lazarus it is not said That they buried him whither it were for that he had no buriall at all or for that beeing so poore and miserable a creature Earth made no mention of him as Heauen did not of the rich man But we read of the rich man Sepultus est He was buried Hitherto did reach the jurisdiction of his riches and the peculiar of his prosperitie great Ceremonies watchfull attendance about his Corps many Mourners Doles to the Poore Tombes of Alabaster Vaults paued with Marble Lamentations odoriferous Ointments pretious Embalmings Funerall Orations solemne Banquets In all this I confesse the rich man hath a great aduantage of him that is poore But in this outward pompe lies all the rich mans happinesse and when hee hath entred the doores of darkenesse and is shut vp in his graue like the Hedge-hogge hee leaues his Apples behind him and nothing remaines with him but the prickles of a wounded conscience his howlings his lamentations weeping gnashing of teeth and whatsoeuer other torments Hell can affoord Diuitiarum jactantia quid contulit nobis The ostentation and glory of riches what good doth it bring vnto vs O would to God that I had bin some poore Sheepheard O how too late haue I fallen into an account of myne owne hurt O World would to God I had neuer knowne thee He died and was buried There is no felicitie so great that can diuert the euill of Death let the rich man liue the yeares of Nestor the ages of Methusalem in the end hee must descend into the graue The cleerest Heauen must haue it's Cloud and the brightest day must haue it's night the Sunne though neuer so shining must haue it's setting the Sea though neuer so calme must haue it's storme If the good things of this life were perpetuall they that are in loue with them might pretend some excuse but beeing that worldly pleasure is a Wheele that is alwayes moouing a Riuer that is alwayes running a Mill that is alwayes going and grinding vs to dust How canst thou settle thy selfe sure thereupon The highest places are the least secure the Moon when she is at the full foretells a waine and the Sunne when it is at the heigth admits a declination the house the higher it is built the more subiect it is to falling And the Nest saith Abdias that is neerest to the Starres God doth soonest throw it downe The rich man died He tells not how he liued but how he died for death is the eccho of mans life and he hauing led so cruell and so mercilesse a life what good could he hope for at his death Quoniam non est in morte qui memor sit tui laboraui in gemitu meo c. The first part Reason prooueth vnto vs The second Weeping howling In my life time I aske God forgiuenesse for my sinnes For the man that is vnmindfull of this in his life God doth not thinke on him at his death Many call vpon God at the houre of their death and it makes a mans haire to stand an end to see a man carelesse in so dangerous a passage only because Death is the eccho of our life Others will cal vpon Iesus but as that crucified Theefe that dyed without deuotion For that heart which is hard in his life is likewise hard in his death Cum esset in tormentis When he was in torment c. Here is an indefinite tearme put for a vniuersall For albeit euery one of the damned doe suffer the full measure and weight of his sinnes and acording to Saint Austen and Saint Gregory suffer most in that particular wherein they most offended And that therefore the rich man did suffer more in his tongue than any other member of his bodie yet notwithstanding there is not any one that is dâ—mned which doth not generally suffer in all his whole bodie and in euery part of his soule For as Heauen is a happinesse that imbraceth all happinesse so Hell is a misery that includeth all miseries There was neuer yet any tyrant in the world in whose prisons and dungeons all torments were inflicted at once But in that of Hell there is not any torment which is not felt at one and the same instant The body that shall generally suffer And for this fire and cold will suffice which are generall torments The soule shall likewise generally suffer sorrow and paine not only because the fire shall burne it which though corporall yet shall it's flames haue an operatiue vertue and working vpon the soule but because all hope being lost of any kind of joy whatsoeuer there shall therein be deposited all the reasons that may be of sorrow and of miserie Likewise there shall be particular torments for the sences of the bodie for the faculties of the soule the eyes shall enioy so much light as shall serue to see fearefull Visions so sayes Cirillus Alexandrinus and on the other side they shall suffer such thicke and palpable darknesse that they shall imagine them to be the ghastly shadowes of death Saint Chrysostome saith That they shall see the huge and infinite numbers of the Damned taking notice of all those that conuersed with them in their life time as fathers grandfathers brothers and friends And if the varietie multitude that are in a deep dungeon if the ratling of their chains the clattring of their shackles their hunger their nakednesse the noyse coyle confusion which they make cause a horrour in as many as both see and heare it what a terrour then will it be to see the miserable torments and to heare the fearefull shriâ—kes and pittifull outcries of those that are damned to the bottomlesse pit of hell The eares will suffer with their howlings their lamentations their blasphemies their cursings their ragings their dispairings
made hast to forsake those bodies they possessed Saint Ierome saith That our Sauiour Christ speaketh here of this imprisonment How can any one enter into the strong mans c. Fourthly By our Sauiour Christs death did the Deuill seeke to shake off this his feare and cowardise by mustring vp all the rest of his forces God so permitting it that the Victorie might bee the more glorious and the more famous This is that which our Sauiour Christ sayd vnto the Pharisees as ministers of Hell This is your very houre and the power of darkenesse But after this hee remained in straighter imprisonment than before As you may read in the Apocalips I saw an Angell come downe from Heauen hauing the key of the bottomelesse-pit and a great chaine in his hand And hee tooke the Dragon that old Serpent which is the Deuill and Satan and he bound him a thousand yeares And cast him into the bottomelesse-pit and sealed the doore vpon him that he should deceiue the people no more til the thousand yeares were fulfilled for after that he must be loosed for a little season By these thousand yeares the Saints doe vnderstand that space or terme of time which is to be before the comming of Antechrist and those effects which did succeed after the death of our Sauiour Christ prooue that till then his imprisonment was to be more straight and that the Angell did not onely tye a chaine to his feete but also put a barnacle about his rongue and a ring in his nosthrils that not onely the strongest men should escape his snares but those that were little children and tender infants When the vncleane spirit is gone out of a man he walketh through drie places seeking rest and when he findeth none he sayth c. Euthimius hath obserued That our Sauiour Christs casting out of the Deuills the Euangelists call it a going or comming foorth Exibant ab eo daemonia clamantia per loca in aquosa The Deuils went out crying in watrie places S. Mathew vseth the word Arida Drie places The Greeke word signifies both these Origen by these places vnderstandeth Hell But since those Deuills which entred into the swine of Gennezaret did desire of our Sauiour Christ that he would giue them that mansion it is not to be beleeued that when they goe out of mens bodies they would for their pleasure make choyce of the bottomlesse pit Saint Ierome declares the same in the word Solitudines And your Exorcists doe coniure them to get them to the mountaines and the woods pretending to excuse the hurt which they do remaining among the concourse or presse of people The Angell which accompanied yong Tobias imprisoned the Deuil called Asmodeus who had killed Saras seuen husbands in the desarts of Aegypt And further sayth That the deuill could not there find any rest because he should not there meet with any people to deceiue them Not that the deuill can haue any rest but in doing mischiefe hee feeles the lesse torment Cheering himself like the enuious man with other mens miseries I will returne sayth hee vnto mine house whence I came out Not that he can freely returne thither when he listeth but because he striues and indeuours to doe it And for that his experience teacheth him that he there suffers least paine He taketh to him seuen other spirits worse than himselfe He lights vpon a house whence all Vertue is banished Well fitted for such a guest and seuen more such companions as himselfe There are three sorts of persons possessed with Deuills One sort of them are spiritually possessed by reason of their mortal deadly sinnes For he that commiteth sinne makes himselfe the seruant of sinne and willingly puts himselfe into the power of the deuill Others are corporally possessed as the Energumeni and such as are Lunatick· And Saint Austen reporteth that many young children beeing baptized suffer this torment And Cassianus sayth That many Saints of God haue suffered the like God so permitting it that they might bee refined and purified as gold in the crisole The third consisteth of both those kinds Now which of these three doe you take to be the worst Saint Crysostome and Gregorie Nazianzen doe affirme That the partie that is spiritually possessed is in the worst and most dangerous estate And the reasons are as strong as they are cleare Which indeed are most cleere The first is That the deuill can doe vs little harme vnlesse we fall into sinne For without the helpe of sin the deuill cannot destroy both soule bodie For though the deuill doe put it into the fire it is our owne heart that must forge the worke Saint Paul doth defie all the creatures both of Heauen Earth and Hell And why For I am persuaded saith he that neither Death nor Life nor Angells nor Principalities nor Powers nor things Present nor things to Come nor Heigth nor Depth nor any other creature shall be able to seperate vs from the Loue of God which is in Iesus Christ yet he durst not defie sinne For that alone is more powerfull to doe vs hurt than all other creatures put together Saint Chrysostome askes the question Why the deuill persuaded Iosephs brethren to put him first into a pit and then afterwards to sell him And he answeres that it was the enuie and hatred which they bare vnto him for his dreames sake And that other weapons the deuill needed none And in that Parable of the Tares where the deuill sow'd his Tares amongst the Wheat it is said That although he had not sowne them yet the good seed would haue beene lost through the carelesnesse negligence of the husbandmen For negligence in things so necessarie is a greater deuil than that of Hell In this sence Saint Gregorie Nazianzen sayd of Arrius Satius illi esset a daemonio vexari It had bin better for him to haue beene tormented by a Deuill The second is For that the goods of the bodie are not comparable to those of the soule Tange cuncta quae possidet Touch all that he hath Sayd the Deuill to God when he talked with him concerning Iob. In a word touching the goods of the soule the least thereof is of more worth than all the world And the goods not beeing able to bee compared one with another neither can their ill Nay rather to loose these goods of the bodie turnes oftentimes to our greater gaine Perieramus nisi perijssemus We had perished if we had not perished It was the saying of a Philosopher in a storme when the throwing of his goods ouerboord was the sauing of his life But that Soule that shall cast his sinnes ouerboord and drowne them in the bottome of the Sea that they may neuer be able to rise vp in iudgement against him is a happinesse beyond all happinesse and not to bee exchanged for the whole Empire of the World What booteth it a man to gaine all the
a Kid with this deceit he grieued both his father and his brother but he was paid at length in his owne coyne Iosephs brethren sell him they dip his Coat in the bloud of a Kid so the same tricke that he had put vpon another was afterwards put vpon himselfe Vzziah would needs play the Priest and when hee was putting on that sane lamina or Frontlet which the High-Priests did vse in their pontificiall Ceremonies behold he was leaprous in his forehead see how he was payd in his owne coyne he had no sooner put it on his forehead but he was punished in his forehead King Ahab did bring home the grapes of Naboths Vineyard in Baskets he is payd in his owne coyne for the heads of his sonnes were likewise deliuered vp in baskets A seruant of Alexander Seuerus sould lying fauourâ— words that were but smoke but see how he was payd in his owne coyne he was stifled to deaâ—h with smoke fumo pereat qui fumoâ— vendit It is noted by Saint Gregorie That the great rich mans greatest sins lay in his tongue and therfore he suffered more paine and torment in his tongue than in any other part of his bodie Saint Paul Before he was conuerted busied himselfe wholly in chaines gyues fetters and imprisonments hee went purposely to Damascus with a full resolution not to leaue one man aliue but he suffered afterwards in that wherein he had sinned and was payd home in his owne coyne for as it appeareth in the Acts of the Apostles he himselfe had beene imprisoned sixteene seuerall times and as one that had beene set vp as a sea marke to bid others beware of running the same course as he had done he aduiseth Ne quis circumâ—eniat in negotio fratrem suum qâ—oniam vindex est Dominus de his omnibus The second consideration is That the wrong which thou shalt doe vnto another shall not onely be repaid thee in the same coyne but with vse vpon vse thou shalt pay double the principal Redditurum fanorâ— noris saith Hesiod And Iob If any blot hath cleaned to my hands let me sow and let anotherreape yea let my plants be rooted out And againe If myne heart hath beene deceiued by a woman or if I haue layd â—ait at the doore of my neighbour Let my wife grind vnto another man and let other men bow downe vpon her It is miserie enough to be payd home in his owne coyne and men for the most part when they haue returned wrong for wrong rest reasonably well contented therewith but with God I must let thee know that the case is far otherwise for it is vsual with him to reueng wrongs seuenfold The Prophet said to Dauid Because thou hast taken the wife of Vriah to be thy wife I will take thy wiues before thyne eyes and giue them vnto thy Neighbour and hee shall lie with thy wiues in the sight of this Sunne thou tookest one wife from thy Neighbour and thy Neighbour shall take many from thee This was that which Dauid charged Saul withall when hee marched ouer the mountaines with his People persecuting him to the death The King of Israell is come out to seeke a flea as one would hunt a Partridge in the Mountaines Why should the King my Lord be at so much paines and cost to take away my life from me it is as if thou shouldst goe about to kil a flea or take a Partridge A great Lord goes a hawking with twentie Horse and as many Spaniels and I know not how many cast of Hawkes hee returnes home at night with one poore partridge in his poutch which is scarce worth two Royals the charge thereof comming to two hundred and the tiring out of his bodie to two thousand Now if he should imploy all this in hunting after a Flea farre greater were his follie All the hurt you can doe me is no more than the killing of a Flea but the harme that you receiue thereby is exceeding great as well in regard of the wasting of your Treasure as in the toiling and trying out of your person Yee also transgresse the Commandements of God by your Traditions The zeale of good is good but when men are zealous of the lesse and neglectfull of the more it is not zeale but passion When your lightning doth not accompanie your thunder all is wind there are some zealous Professors that are all thunder and no lightning they make a great noyse with their words the wind whereof growes high but the light of their good workes doth not shine to the World The Pharisees were a kind of Alharaquientos men that would make a great deale of doe and pudder about nothing they keepe a strange kind of coyle about the washing and not washing of the hands a thing scarce worth the talking of despising in the meane while the keeping or not keeping of Gods Commandements A Stacke of straw is on fire and a Princes Pallace full of infinite riches is all on a flame thou runnest to saue the stacke of straw not caring what becomes of the Pallace Art thou more carefull of straw than of gold The like saith Saint Gregorie hapneth in mens vices Pilate tooke a great deale of care that Christs death might not be laid to his charge and washing his hands as if he had no hand in the businesse sticks not to say I am innocent c. but made no reckoning of deliuering him ouer to the will and pleasure of the people The Iewes held it to be a heinous sinne to enter into the Praetorium or Iudgement Hall Lest they should be defiled but they accounted it no sinne at all to nayle our Sauiour Christ to the Crosse when they cryde Sanguis eius super nos they held it a grieuous sinne that the bodies of those that were crucified out of the obseruance to their Sabboth should hang vpon the Crosse but accounted it no sinne at all to thrust a Speare into our Sauiours side after that he was dead shewing in his death the loue they bare him in his life they take no offence that Christ calls them Hypocrites false Prophets and Transgressors of the Commandements of God but when he tells them That which enters in at the mouth defileth not the Man this is that they are angrie at and this is Tragarse el Camelo y desalar el mosquito To swallow a Camel and straine at a Gnat to see a moat in another mans eye and not the beame that is in his owne Like vnto that Whale which swallowed vp Ionus at a bit his bodie and cloathes all at once and deuoures Pilchers one by one and this was the Pharisees fault Origen obserueth That the washing of the hands was now turned to superstition for therein they placed a great part of their fouls saluation Who can chuse but laugh at these mens ignorance and blindnesse that they should swallow and digest many other foule faults and should here be so
thousand persons besides women and children with seuen loaues a few fishes and they beeing all satisfied there were twelue baskets full remaining This miracle is mentioned by Saint Mathew and Saint Marke In the other That which the Church doth this day solemnise which was the more famous not onely for that the guests were fiue thousand besides women and children the loaues fiue the fishes two and the leauings twelue baskets full but for that all the foure Euangelists wrote thereof and much the more for that it was an occasion as it is obserued by Saint Chrysostome because our Sauiour did preach that excellent Sermon of the Mount for whose Doctrine that miracle was most important After these things our Sauiour went c. Saint Augustine and Saint Hierome are of opinion That the occasion of our Sauiours withdrawing of himselfe was the death of Iohn Baptist the ioy for whose birth beeing so generall it was not much that the sorrow for his death should be great And this sutes well with that Text of Saint Mathew who reports it to be after the death of Saint Iohn This his departure thence shewed his sorrow for his friends death but that kingdome had greatest cause to lament and bewaile Saint Iohn Baptists death and Christs going from them for what is a Kingdome without them The Saints of God are the force and strength of Kingdomes the walles and bulwarkes of Cities the hedges about a Vineyard the foundation to a Building bones to the bodie life to the soule and the chiefe essence and being of a Commonwealth And whilest they had Christ and Saint Iohn among them there was not any Citie in the world so rich as that but the one being dead and the other hauing left them Ieremie might verie well take vp his complaint and bewaile their miserie and solitude Esay treating of the misfortunes that should befall Shebna the High-Priest sayth Auferetur paxillus qui fixus fuerat in loco fideli peribit quod pependerat ex eo The Naile that is fastned in the sure place shall depart and shall be broken and fall and the burthen that was vpon it shall bee cut off Now paxillus is that which in poore mens houses is called the Racke whereon they hang spits or a shelfe whereon they set their vessels which in rich mens houses is called Aparador a Court-cupboord whereon is placed their richest pieces of plate and such as are most glorious to the eye And hereof mention is made in the one and thirtieth Chapter of Exodus and the third of Numbers But your poorer sort of People that are not scarce worth a paire of Rackes strike in certaine pinnes into the wall and as the shelfe falling all falls with it that depends thereupon so when the High-Priest being a good man dies all good perisheth with him in the Commonwealth because the chiefe good of the State dependeth thereupon The Homicâ—de had fiue Cities to flie vnto for shelter but hee could not returne home to his owne Countrie till the death of the High-Priest And Philon rendring the reason of this interdiction saith That the High-Priest is a Pariente or Kinseman of all those that liue in his Commonwealth Qui solum habet ius in viuos in mortuoâ— as euerie Citisen hath his particular Kinsemen to whom he owes an obligation to acknowledge the benefits he receiues from him and to reuenge the wrongs that are done to him In like manner the High-Priest is the common Kinseman of the Liuing to whom hee owes an Obligation to accord their discords to cut off their suits in Law to quit their wrongs and to desire the peace and prosperitie of them all In conclusion he being as it were a common father to all in so great a losse in so sencible and generall a sorrow when a common misfortune should compound particular wrongs when all mens hearts are so heauie their eyes so full of teares their minds so discomforted it is a fit season for a Homicide to returne home to his Countrie And if the death of a High-Priest who happely was no holy man causeth in a Commonwealth so generall a griefe the death of Iohn Baptist and our Sauiours departure from this People What effect of heartie sorrow ought that to worke God threatned his People by Esay The Lord shall giue you the bread of aduersitie and the water of affliction When the King of Israell commanded Micheas to be cast into prison hee said vnto him Suâ—â—enta tecum paâ—e tribulationis aqua angustiae Feed vpon the bâ—â—ad of affliction and the water of affliction In the Hebrew both places beare the same words but Esay afterwards saith That though Gods hand shall be heauie vpon them and that he shall afflict them with many miseries yet he will not take away their Doctors and Teachers from amongst them nor the light of his Doctrine I haue threatned you with the famine of my word I will send a famine in the land not a famine of bread nor a thirst of water but of hearing the Word of the Lord. But God recalls this threatning oftentimes Et non faciet auolare à te vltra Doctorem tuum and will not cause thy Teacher to flie from thee But Iohn Baptist being dead and our Sauiour withdrawne himselfe that Countrie could not rest in a more wretched estate Secondly The death of Iohn Baptist made him leaue the land and put forth to sea making a seperation betweene him and them for when God gets him gone from thy house or thy citie thou art beaten out of doores as they say with a cudgell euen then doth a man go turning backe his head like a Hart that is hunted and pursued by Hounds neuer letting him to be at rest but chasing him with open mouth from place to place God cannot absent himselfe from his Creatures nor can his immensitie giue way to the vtter abandoning of this goodly Fabricke and wonderfull Machina of the World yet so great is the hatred which he beares to sinne that he also commands vs to get vs out of that Citie where Sinne doth raigne signifying thereby vnto vs That if any thing can make him to absent himselfe from vs it is our sinnes God had his house and his residence in Hierusalem so sayes Esay God had his house and his hearth there as if hee had beene one of their fellow Citisens and a Towne dweller amongst them but their abhominations made him to abandon that place Ezechiel saw the glorie of God how it went by degrees out of the Temple staying one while here another while there resting it selfe now against this pillar now that till at last The glorie of God was cleane gone out of the Temple Their abhominations did as it were driue him out by head and shoulders shoov'd him forth by little and little The great abhominations that the House of Israell committeth here causeth me to depart from my Sanctuarie Iosephus in
beleeue the immortalitie of the soule they hold a sudden death a kind of happinesse but a Christian who confesseth that there is a iudgement after death desireth a more lingring and leisurely kind of dying for to preuent future danger both of soule and bodie In Leuiticuâ— God commanded That they should not offer any câ—eature vnto him which did not chew the cud or which had not a clouen hoofe And he therefore ioyned these two things together for to swallow the meat downe whole is verie dangerous for the health and the foot not cloâ—en verie apt to slip and slide and in a mysticall kind of sence is as much as if he should haue said That he that shall swallow down so fearefull dangerous a thing as Death without chewing meditating thereon shall doubtlesse slide if not take a fall as low as Hell The onely sonne of his mother In the order of conueniencie it seemeth fitter that the old mother should haue died than the young sonne But as there is nothing more certaine than death so is there nothing more vncertaine than the time of our death the young Bird as soone falls into the snare as the old one and your greater Fish as soone taken with the hooke as your lesser Frie. If the Wicked turne not God will whet his sword bend his Bow and prepare for him the instruments of death and ordaine his Arrowes against them For old men that stand vpon the graues brinke death hath a Sythe to cut them downe for young men that stand farther off he hath his Bow and his Arrowes Saint Augustine saith That God taketh away the Good before their time that they may not receiue hurt from the Bad and the Bad because they should not doe hurt to the Good The onely sonne of his mother Not that he was her onely sonne but her best beloued sonne Salomon stiles himselfe Vnigenitum matris suae His mothers onely begotten sonne not that he was the onely sonne of Bershabe as it appeareth in the first of Chronicles but because he was so deerely beloued of his mother as if he had beene her only sonne he was his mothers darling her best beloued the light of her eyes and her hearts comfort she cherished him made much of him would not let him want any thing yet all this care and prouidence of hers could not shield him from death There is a man in the Citie that is of a strong and able bodie and abounding in all worldly happinesse There is another saith Iob that is weake hungerstarued and his wealth wasted and consumed both these death sets vpon and layes them in the graue He exemplifies in the King and the Gyant for the rest he makes no more reckoning of them than of so manie little Birds whom the least fillip striketh dead but he sets vpon a King like a Lyon a poore man hath many meanes to hasten his death but Kings seldome die of hunger of penurie of heats or of colds c. And a Gyant seemes to be a perdurable and immortall Tower of flesh but in the end both Kings and Gyants fall by the hand of Death And since that Death did dare to set vpon the Sonne of God and his blessed mother let neither High nor Low Rich nor Poore hope to find any fauour at Deaths hands Ioshuah did stop the Sunne in his course Moses the waters of the red Sea Ioseph did prophecie of things to come and many of Gods Saints wrought great Myracles but there is no myracle to be wrought against Death Ieremie tells vs of certain Serpents that cannot be charmed charm the charmer neuer so wisely of this nature is Death Ecclesiasticus introduceth a dead man who speaketh thus by way of aduice to the Liuing Memento judicij mei sic enim erit tuum Heri mihi hodie tibi That man was neuer yet borne nor shall be hereafter that shal not see death or escape this heauie iudgement Salomon commanded the child to be diuided in the middle about whom the two mothers did contend and that sentence which he did not then execute shall bee executed vpon all liuing flesh for all men beeing in regard of the bodie sonnes of the Earth and in regard of the soule the children of Heauen euerie one receiues this sentence from the Iudge at his death Let the earth returne to the earth from whence it came and the Spirit to God who gaue it life She was a Widow woman The word Erat She was carrieth with it a kind of emphasis she was a sorrowfull and forelorne Widow A Widow ought to bee a rule and patterne of perfection to all other women shee should bee the glasse wherein they should see their faults and what is amisse in them In a word shee was a woman irreprehensible and without blame Nor according to Saint Paul hath the Virgin or the Wife that tie and obligation vpon them as shee hath The one because her small experience in the deceits and vanities of the world may excuse her in many things the other the charge and care that necessarily attends Wedlocke When Absalon entred into the wiues and Concubines of his father the King gaue command they should bee shut vp like so many Recluses because they had opened the doore vnto him as if the King had beene dead And Widowes are to liue so seperated and seuered from the world as if they liued not in it Isiodore expoundeth the Spanish word Viuda which signifies a Widow to be quaâ—i vidua diuided from her husband as the Vine from the Elme which was it's prop and stay which being taken away the Vine lieth leuell with the ground and without any comfort The Hebrew deriueth the name of Widow from a certain word which signifieth both bound dumbe now to be bound and dumbe are the conditions and properties of him that is dead who is neither able to mooue nor speake So that the vulgar Translation calls a Widow Sterilem barren and vnfruitfull as it is in Iob and in Esay Another letter stiles her Eradicatam pluckt vp by the Roots as a tree that is quite rooted vp that it may neuer grow nor waxe greene againe The smell of thy garments is like the smell of Frankincense They must not smell of Amber nor of Ciuet but of Frankinsense which they offer vp in Incense for a widdow ought to lead the remnant of her dayes so neere vnto her husbands Tombe that her garments should sauour of that incensorie perfume Of such Widowes as these God hath that especiall care that none shall doe them any wrong for the teares that drop downe from their cheekes ascend as high as Heauen And as the vapours that are exhaled from the earth come downe againe in lightning and thunder and terrible tempests so prooue the Widowes teares to those that shall vniustly cause them to weep and draw those watred drops from their eyes Heliodorus pretended to rob the Temple of Ierusalem
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
vs it is a kind of imperfection because these affections or passions fall a balling without any reason in the world and no iust occasion being giuen But in our Sauior Christ these passions were not without cause as Saint Augustine hath noted it Saint Gregorie and Saint Hierome neither can they presse him further than hee is pleased to command them If here our anger take hold vpon vs it is like a fierce mastiffe which being set on by his Master takes hold on the Bul and will not let him go though he be rated off againe and againe In conclusion two things doth here recommend themselues vnto vs. The one That our Sauiour Christ was angrie The other That he was mooued to much compassion His anger was occasioned through the Iewes incredulitie as it is noted by Cardinall Tolet and Caietane whose hardnesse and vnbeleefe was such that hee was forced to take Lazarus his life from him to disconsolate those two kind Sisters to draw teares from their eyes and sobs from their brest and afterwards to returne himagaine vnto the world and onely that some might be drawne to beleâ—ue Saint Cyril saith That this his anger was against Death and the Deuill as if he had threatned their ouerthrow and vowed their destruction as it is prophecied by Osee O mors ero mors tua O death I will be thy death c. Vbi posuistis eum Where haue yee laid him c. O Lord Why shouldst thou aske this question I answer That he did it for two reasons The one The countenance of a Sinner is so strangely changed and is so strangely altered from what he was before he fell sicke of sinne that it is a phrase of Scripture to say God doth not know him Thou lendest thy friend thy Horse or thy Cloake the one is returned to thee so lame and so leane the other so ill vsed and so vtterly spoyled that not knowing thyne owne thou sayest This is not that which I lent Of an vntowardly and vngratious sonne the father will vsually say He is none of my sonne so said God to the foolish Virgins and to those that had wrought myracles in his name Nescio vos I know yee not Your Robbers on the Highway disfigure the faces of those whom they rob and murder to the end they may not be knowne And there is nothing that makes the Soule fouler than Sin Denigrata est facies eorum super carbones and it beeing so faire beautifull before it is no great meruaile that God should not know it So that now our Sauiour seemes not to know the place there being so great a difference betweene the one place and the other that of the life of Grace and that of the death of Sinne that he here askes Vbi posuistis eum Where haue yee layd him Saint Chrysostome alledgeth That hee vsed the like question when hee called vnto Adam saying Adam Adam vbi es Adam where are thou I find thee in a different place from that wherein I put thee I placed thee in prosperity and content and I find thee now in wretchednesse and in miserie Who caused this so great an alteration in thee Saint Cyprian saith That this question was made more to the Sinne than to the Sisters and that Lazarus representing Mankind he said speaking of our sinnes Vbi posuistis eum Where haue yee layd him I placed him in Paradice and yee haue put him in the graue The like is reported by Petrus Crysologus and he calleth the Graue the Caue wherein the Deuill hides his thefts and because the beginning of all this harme proceeded from woman he asketh the Sisters Vbi posuistis eum Where haue yee layd him For there are many women God hauing placed man in honour happinesse and health which bring man to his graue The other A Sinner through sinne is remooued so farre from God in Regionem longinqâ—am that God askes where he is For if it were possible for man to hide himselfe from the all-seeing eye of God doubtlesse he would hide himselfe in the land of Darkenesse that is of Sinne. And therefore it is said The Lord knoweth the way of the Righteous and the way of the Wicked shall perish And Iesus wept Of this sheding of teares wee haue rendred many reasons elsewhere Those which now offer themselues are these The first is of Saint Ambrose and Saint Chrysostome who say That Christ was mooued to weepe by seeing Marie and Martha weepe Christ seeing the Widow of Naim weepe said vnto her Noli flere Weepe not and in the house of the chiefe Ruler of the Synagogue he sought to diuert their teares and yet heere these of Marie seeme to extort by force the falling of these teares from his tender eyes Marie had accustomed her selfe to talke with our Sauior in this â—ind of Language it being a Cypher which onely our Sauiour vnderstood and because she talked to him in teares he answers her in teares The exhalations of Maries heart ascend vp to the heauen of Christs eyes and these humane teares draw downe diuine teares obtaining that by grace which was impossible for nature to compasse The second is of Saint Hilarie and Epiphanius who affirme That he thinking on the obstinacie of the Iewes and their finall perdition brake forth thus into teares For no man can comprehend what an offence to God is saue God himselfe and therefore none ô Lord can so truly bewaile sinne as thy selfe And it seeming to our Sauiour Christ that two eyes were too little to lament their miserie he added fiue wounds which serued as so many weeping eyes not shedding water but bloud Saint Bernard saith That in the Garden our Sauior did sweat bloud that he might weepe with all his whole bodie treating therin touching the remedie of the mysticall bodie of the Church Eusebius Emisâ—nus saith That he did groane and weepe in token that wee ought grieuously to lament and bewaile our sinnes And to this purpose saith Ieremie Call for the mourning women that they may come let them make hast and let them take vp a lamentation for vs that our eyes may cast out teares and our eye lids gush out of water And why I pray you so much weeping and lamentation Quia ascendit mors per fenestras as it followeth anon after Because death is come vp into our windowes and is entred into our Pallaces to destroy the children without and the young men in the streets The Soule is gone forth and Death hath entred in weepe therefore c. The death of the bodie is a type of that of the soule And therefore Saint Gregorie saith If I shall walke in the midst of the shadow of death He saith That the departing of the bodie from the soule is but a shadow but the departing of the soule from God is a truth and as a shadow is a refreshing in Sommer so is death to the Righteous The Wicked sticke not to say
There is not any thing so hid and buried that though it lie couered for a time is not in the end discouered Of Fire and of Loue Vlisses saâ—d Quis enim celauerit ignem Who can hide them but the same may be better verified of the Truth Well may falshood and passion assisted by tyranny and power hide and bury it selfe but in the end There is nothing so secret but shall be reuealed For time is a great discouerer of truths Plutarch reporteth in his Apothegmes That at the sacrifices of Saturne whom they adored for the god of Time the Priests had their heads couered till the Sacrifice was fully ended a ceremonie which was not suffered by any other of the gods And the mystery thereof was That Time doth couer things now and then for a while but discouers them at last And therefore Pindarus said That the latter dayes were the faithfullest witnesses Time sometime sleepeth but it awakes againe But in case it fall asleep and neuer wake any more Est qui quaerat iudicet God is still ready at hand who searching out the truth will iudge his owne cause Obliuion hath two bosomes wherein she burieth those things which she most desireth to blot out of the remembrance of the world The one the bottom of the Sea The other the bowels of the Earth Into the Sea many Tyrants haue throwne the bodies and ashes of the Saints to the end that being deuoured by fishes or drowned in the deepe they might not be adored on earth as we may reade in the History of Saint Clâ—â—ent and diuers others In the earth men burie the Dead Highway Robbers their spoyls Theeues their thefts they that are either subdued by conquest or banished their country their treasure as Cacus did those cowes he had stolne in his caue But God causeth those things that are the heauiest and the weightiest and cast into the bottome of the Sea to swim like corke aboue water and maketh the earth to vomit forth her most secret and hidden treasures For Nihil occultum c. There is nothing so secret which shall not be reuealed There is one that seeketh it and iudgeth it O Lord Thou remittest this cause to thy father and thy father remits all vnto thee I answer when I tooke the rod to reuenge the wrongs and iniuries of the world I was not to be like vnto sparks that are quickly kindled nor subiect to any the least passion of anger for a Iudge that is so affected cannot be a competent Iudge in his owne cause And therfore Est qui quaerat iudicet My Father is to redresse this wrong he is to looke vnto it Whence I inferre That if our Sauiour Christ in whom there could nâ—t be any kind of passion did remit to his Father the iudging of his cause hardly can a Iudge of flesh sentence his owne cause King Dauid being at the point of death willed his sonne Salomon that he should take away the liues of Ioab and Shimei He thereupon caused Ioab to be slaine but onely confined Shimei The reason that induced him to mittigate Shimei his sentence and not that of Ioâ—b was because the offences which Ioab had committed were not done directly against his father Dauid but against Abner and Amasa whom he had ill killed Whereas Shimeis fault was in affronting the Kings person and because it might happily be thought that he might be carried away with too much passion or affection in this his fathers cause hee deferred his death till hee should fall through his owne default which he afterwards did and then Salomon reckoned with him for the old and the new The woman of Tekoah receiuing her instructions from Ioab entred the Palace and hauing put on mourning apparell as a woman that had now long time mourned for the dead and falling downe on her face to the ground and doing her obeysance she spake thus vnto him I am a poore widow my husband is dead and thine handmaid had two sonnes and they two stroue together in the field and there was none to part them so the one smot the other and slew him And behold the whole family is risen against thine handmaid crying out Deliuer him that smot his brother that we may kill him for the soule of his brother whom he slew that we may destroy the heyre also So shall they quench my sparkle that is left and shall not leaue to mine husband neither name nor posteritie vpon the earth and I my selfe shall remaine a miserable mother not hauing any child left me to be a stay and comfort vnto me in my old dayes Woe is me that I must be depriued of both my sons in one day The King pittying her wretched condition said vnto her I will take order for the freeing of thy sonne And to send her away well satisfied vowed vnto her by that his vsuall asseueration as the Lord liueth there shall not one haire of thy sonne fall to the earth Whereupon she taking her leaue said vnto him Let my Lord the King shew himselfe as free from passion in his owne proper cause as he hath in another mans Wilt thou free my sonne that hath slaine his brother and wilt thou not free Absalon that slew Ammon Rupertus saith That Eâ—es hurt consisted in the misprision of the fruit and the ill iudgement that shee made in the choice of the apple For being too much wedded to her owne appearing good opinion the eyes of the body persuaded those of the soule that in so faire a fruit it was impossible to find death Then tooke they vp stoâ—es to cast at him Tyranny and persecution euermore attended the Saints of God But there was this difference betwixt them and our Sauiour Christ That your Tyrants did seeke to reduce these other to the adoring of their gods one while with promises another while by threatnings now with curtesies and kindnesses and by and by againe with sundry sorâ—s of torments There was scarce any famous Martyr which did not tread in his martyrdome in this path nor any Tyrant which did not take this course with them And perhaps they followed herein the steps of Nebuchadnezzar who as the glorious Doctor Saint Chrysostome hath obserued for those who would not adore his Statue had a hot fierie furnace whose flames ascended forty nine cubits in heigth and for those that did adore it he had all sorts of exquisite musicke and choice instruments warring against vertue with pleasure and with paine But our Sauiour Christ was alwayes ill intreated by the world In the desart the diuell once offered him stones The Pharisees many times When he was borne in Bethlem he had not wherewithall to defend him from the cold but was forced to be laid in the cratch among the beasts Whilest he liued here in the world he had not any to relieue his hunger The day that hee entred in Triumph into Ierusalem he went forth into the field to
some fryed on the Gridyron some sawne some dragged at the â—ailes of horses some with their skinnes pluckt ouer their eares and some tormented with sundrie other torments the Deuill blowing the coles of crueltie in the mouthes and hearts of the Executioners But in the end those cuts and slashes passe no further than the cloake they wound the bodie but not the soule God of his mercie giue vs the grace to endure this our fireie triall when persecution shall set vpon vs that being purified in the Furnace of Tribulation we may be like Gold that is refined and shine with glorie in the sight of God To whom c. THE XXXIIII SERMON VPON THE TUESDAY AFTER PASSION SVNDAY IOHN 7. Ambulabat Iesus in Galileam non enim volebat in Iudaeam ambulare quia quaerebant Iudaei interficere AFter these things Iesus walked in Galilee and would not walke in Iudaea for the Iewes sought to kill him After these things that is after those great myracles which he had wrought in Capernaum and after that most deepe and learned Sermon of his bodie and bloud Saint Iohn saith That our Sauiour Christ retyring himselfe from Iudaea went and wrought myracles in the Cities of Galilee because the Iews sought to kill him And because the enuious Murmurer may chance to say That hee withdrew himselfe from Iudaea lest the Scribes and Pharisees should discouer his trickes and find out his false play the Euangelist addeth That there was no such matter to be feared but that waiting for the houre of his death alreadie determined in Heauen he was desirous in the interim to slinke out of the way to free and deliuer his bodie from that malice and danger which he saw it was like to be subiect vnto in Iudaea The Greeke Texts read In Iudaea Galilaea but Saint Augustine Saint Cyril and Saint Chrysostome read it in the Acusatiue In Iudaeam Galileam id est Per Galileam Saint Chrysostome saith Non poterat ambulare in Iudaeam which is all one with Nolebat He could not that is He would not which is an vsuall phrase of speech Iesus walked in Galilee c. It is made a generall doubt amongst all the Commentators Why our Sauiour Christ being able to triumph so easily ouer the power and malice of his enemies should withdraw himselfe from their presence whom he might if he would haue trampled vnder his feet To prooâ—e which point were a needlesse labour there beeing so many Prophecies and so many places of the one and the other Testament which say as much and those loud shrieking cries which the Deuills roared forth affrighted and turning cowards in his presence are sufficient proofes thereof likewise Deaths cowardlinesse confirmes the same Egredietur Diabolus ante faciem eius ibit Mors the ouerthrowing of the Roman Cohorts with one onely word his causing the stones to freeze to their fingers that had so often sought to stone him to death his leauing them lying on the ground in a swoune that came to apprehend him are testimonies without exception Why then at euery step doth Christ retyre himselfe and seeke to get from them Saint Augustine makes this difficulty seeme greater in his bookes de Ciuit. Dei For reprehending Cato Vticensis who that he might not fall into Caesars hands killed himselfe he saith That for a man to flye from tribulation and danger is a kind of Cowardize And Saint Paul saith I know that bonds and afflictions abide for me at Ierusalem but I passe not at all neither is my life deare vnto me c. Esay going about to relate in his 52 chapter that which our Sauiour was to suffer doth first set downe by way of interrogation Who will beleeue that which Gods arme is to suffer He calls his diuine power his Arme because God shewed his power in nothing more than in his passioÌ„ Tertullian in his book de Patientia saith That God did not expresse his power so much in parcendo as in patiendo in pardoning as in suffering That saying of the Church is worthy the weighing Qui omnipotentiam tuam parcendo maxime miserando manifestus Who shewest thy omnipotency in nothing more than in pittying and pardoning offenders But what hath the strength of suffering to doe with the weaknesse of flying Petrus Chrisologus in a Sermon of his De fuga Domini taxeth the Euangelists for relating our Sauiour Christs flying For a souldier saith he should publish his constancie his valour the strength of his arme and aduance the noble Acts and conquests of his Captaine but not his weakenesses and his feares Behold againe the difficultie in regard of that our Sauiours great anguish both in body and soule before he was to dye None in the world did euer more desire to dye than he did as hath already been proooued vnto you If then sweet Iesus thou doest so much desire death and that the Iewes hunt after thee for no other end Why doest thou flye Before that I resolue this doubt we are to confesse and acknowledge with all possible humilitie that mans vnderstanding comes farre short of Gods thoughts Esay saith see how much distance there is betweene heauen and earth so much is there betweene the imaginations of God and man And therefore the Spouse said That they were high and black high like the Palme tree and blacke as the Rauens quill Who saith Ecclesiasticus can count the sands of the sea the drops of the deaw or the dayes of the world Now if humane wisedome cannot attaine vnto those things which she hath as it were betweene her hands she will lesse be able to search into the secret counsells of God And therefore the Wise man doth aduise thee Seeke not into those things that are too high for thee This way being thus made let vs now proceed to the reasons of the Saints The first is of Saint Augustine and Saint Chrysostome Our Sauiour Christ was God according to his Diuine nature and man according to his humane nature and the confession of the one being as necessary as the other he had in all his actions a great respect vnto them both All his words and deeds still tended to this that he might be beleeued to be both God and man Saint Augustine saith That his withdrawing himselfe aside as a man did not withdraw from his power as hee was God and his throwing downe of his enemie flat on the ground as he was God did not take from him his weaknesse as he was man If Christ should not haue showen in the flesh the condition of flesh in vaine had he taken flesh vpon him and if he should alwayes haue done the workes and actions of a God and giuen perpetuall pledges of his Diuine nature to what vse would haue serued his cloathing himselfe with humane flesh If Christ should haue beene a continuall Miracle what roome would there haue been left for faith or what reward could that haue receiued The second is
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
praise of it 41 Apparell How to be limitted 235 The abuse of it 236 B Baptisme THe foundation of Christian building 558 Bethesda the figure of it 165 Beloued A name of good preheminence 502 Bells The vse of them 526 Beelzebub Why resembled to a flye 295 Benefit See Courtesie Well bestowed if much desired 546 Beautie The force of it 571 Blessing Why Isaac would haue conferred the blessing on Esau. 227 God measures out his blessings to vs more by Loue than Wisedome 262 He substracts them from the vngratefull 270 C Centurion HIs behauiour iustified 36 His faith commended 34 Capernaum The glorie of it 23 315 Why Christ would worke no myracles there 318 There began the preaching of the Gospell 315 Change A change to be seene in all things 247 Charitie See Mercy and Vnmercifulnesse Much respected of God 100 praised of Men. 307 Must be practised towards all 337 How it differs from couetousnesse 439 Chaire What is meant by Moses his Chaire 212 Chastisement See Punishment Gods chastisements whereunto resembled 244 To what purpose they serue ibid. More in shew than in substance 452 Children What care Parents should haue of them 226 If vertuous their Parents glorie 310 Christ a Schoole-master euen to these 462 Foure degrees of child-hood and whereunto alluding 602 Christ. See Death His comming to Iudgement 93 With what Maiestie it shall be 96 97 His combat with the deuill 71 How called the hope of the Gentiles 142 Why called the Sonne of Dauid rather than of Abraham 149 His transfiguration and the reasons of it 184 c. The necessitie of it 187 The qualitie 188 Glorious in his Passion three manner of waies 192 His bodie two-fold Naturall and Mysticall 193 His Passion the fountaine of our glorie ibid. He suffered onely because he would 200 His willingnesse to dye 219 Why called the Sonne of Man 223 His blood why shed in the Vine-yard 265 If conceiued in the heart soone discouered 309 His Pedigree the noblest that euer was 310 His workes of two sorts 318 No Monopoly to bee made of his Worth 326 As he was meeke in reprouing so he was stout in reuenging 359 He brings Health and Holinesse wheresoeuer he commeth 374 Compared to the Sunne 388 The onely Well of liuing Water 394 A Controller of curious nicenesse ibid. The prerogatiue of his flesh 379 More mooued at our disasters than he was at his owne 494 Why without peccabilitie 524 c. His innocency exemplified both by his life death 526 Neuer any so abused by the World as he 537 543 Hee must be sought while he may be found 543 His power neuer more seene than in his Passion 549 605 He prooues his Diuinity by no other testimonie than his workes 556 Alwayes ready to forgiue Sinners 583 Why called a Bull. 605 His life was to bring the Iewes to knowledge his death the Gentiles 605 His Humility the character of his Loue. 637 His company a sure protection 622 Euery part of him affoords a Sinner confidence 645 His Dietie when most concealed ibid. His bloud ought to be much regarded 647 The difference betwixt his Triumph those of Men. 16 Christians Led more by Custome than Deuotion 414 Many now worse enemies to Christ than were the Pharisees 267 Many Christians why called sheepe 567 Church Why persecuted 65 Likened to a Rocke ibid. Her greatest persecution is to want persecution ibid. Her firmenesse 250 Gods fauour towards her 345 Why stiled a well ordered Army 440 In her infancie she needed miracles 326 She thriues because watered with the blood of Christ and his Martyrs 251 Clemencie A profitable vertue 534 Communion Two dignities to be considered in it One of the Person that receiueth Christ the other of the Preparation wherewith he doth receiue it 33 636 Confession When to be made 203 The onely way to absolution 281 Without it no true comfort 288 Sathan would keepe vs from it ibid. Contemplation Must not bee seuered from action 488 Nor preferred before it 413 Conscience If guiltie the greatest torture 567 Cooperation Necessarie in things that concern the sauing of our Soules 147 Counsaile Where good Counsell is wanting all runs to ruine 436 State Counsells more to pill the poore than to preserue them 437 No man so wise but may need good Counsell 587 Ill Counsel produceth ill effects ibid. Countrey Euery man must loue his owne Countrey 275 316 Conuersion Three conuersions celeberated by the Church 615 That of the Theefe miraculous 616 Couetousnesse Foolish and vnnecessarie 8 The roote of all euill 234 Nothing worse than a couetous man 263 No Vice more seuerely punished ibid. None so hard to be reformed ibid. The onely God that commands the World 264 Men vsually couet what is especially commended 407 Couetousnesse and Mercy how they differ 439 Neuer satisfied 441 Naught in a Magistrate ibid. Worse in a Minister 448 457 489 Courtesie The receit of a courtesie is the ingaging of our libertie 226 A good turne is a strong fetter 253 Courteous behauiour the greatest gaine 445 Court Courtier The Courts of Princes like the poole of Bethesda 162 The life of a Courtier is wholly vpon hope ibid. Crosse. Heauens key 623 The death of the Crosse an iniurie to nature 644 Crueltie See Vnmercifulnesse Curiositie Dangerous in diuine matters 125 as also in searching into other mens liues 477 Curiositie and Temperance are stil at variance within vs. 521 D Death THe Glorious change whereunto it brings the child of God 242 No greater dishonour than to dye by the hand of a base enemie 74 Naturall to shunne Death and to seeke Life 219 Christs willingnesse to dye ibid. Christs death to be considered two manner of wayes c. 222 c. As a mans life is so is his death 243 Why called a change 247 We ought to pray against suddaine death 331 492 The death of the wicked full of terror 332 The death of the Saints is the weakening of the place in which they dye 426 Little regarded or remembred 489 The remembrance of it affoords two benefits It is incident to all 490 c. The liuing more to be pitied than the dead 494 Death a large draught but Christ swallowed it downe 499 Why termed a Sleepe 509 c. Christs death how different from ours 510. The death of the Soule a true death that of the body onely a shadow 512 Why the Heathen erected Pyramids ouer their dead 514 Christs death the Deuills worst torment 528 549 Why Christ desiring to dye fled to auâ—yd death ibid. c. Christs death did alter the nature of things 645 The Deuil neuer more deluded than by Christs death 646 Preparation against death necessarie 597 Deuill He layes vpon Man three burthens 17. His description 71. His trade is wholly to doe euill 80 Why he appeared to Eue in the forme of a Serpent 81 His subtiltie 82 A great prouoker to Gluttonie and why Ibid. His malice oftentimes outrunnes his Wit 85 He is
sinner 512 He sauours ill to all but God 514 Fierce in his appetites and desires 546 God would haue none despaire 574 Compared vnto swine 278 Slander See Reproach Souldier Onely honourable when religious 25 Sorrow Of two sorts 20 A sharpe Sword 167 If deepe dumbe 580 Soule Why knit and linked to a body of Earth 4 Her faculties 49 To heale the Soule we must wound the bodie 377 Two things cause a feuer in the Soule ibid. The great reckoning which God makes of a Soule 403 Noble when it serues God 507 God onely can satisfie it 508 Man carelesse of nothing more than of this 512 A threefold death of the Soule 513 The soule of the iust wherein differing from that of a sinner 531 Partialitie of iudgement in things spiritual the bane of the soule 532 The labour and loue of Christ in looking after a lost Soule 561 Spirit Gods spirit the best Schoole-master 32 Stoning An infamous kind of death 423 Sunday God did his greatest workes euer on this day 562 Sunne The glorie of it 521 Christ the onely true Sunne 523 Superiours Ought to respect their inferiours 216 Sutâ—rs Not to be repulsed but with much mildnesse 231 A faint suter shewes how to be denied 325 Swine Sinners resembled vnto them and why 278 T Teares OF diuers sorts 495 Faulty two manner of wayes 496 They work two effects 578 More sauorie to Christ than Wine 583 Their efficacie 614 Temptations Our Sauior hath sanctified them vnto vs. 71 The general good which is deriued from them 75 We may not thrust our selues into them 76 They wait vpon perfection 77 84 Christ could not bee tempted either by the World or the Flesh. 78 Hunger a great temptation 80 Ambition is the like 90 Two kinds of temptations 91 Temple Gods temple ought to be reuerenced and why 110 c. 450 562 The publike temple is to be frequented 161 Thankefulnesse See Ingratitude Reqâ—â—red for benefits receiued 382 475 The Doue of all fowle the most thankfull 468 Our thankefulnesse a motiue to Gods bountie 485 Theefe The conuersion of the Theefe in all respects miraculous 617 'T was the blazoning both of Gods mercy and omnipotency 618 as also of his diuine prouidence 619 By wat motiues he was induced to his conuersion 621 His Faith not to be paralleld 626 Nor his Hope ibid. Christs bountie towards him 627 Thirst. A greater torment than hunger 398 Spirituall thirst neuer satisfied 405 Thought The qualitie and varietie of mans thoughts 601 Thresh To thresh in Scripture is to rule with tyranny 307 Time How redeemed 354 Torments Hell torments euerlasting 171 Tongue It must goe with the Heart 60 A good and an euill tongue 290 No scourge to the euill one 296 Trading The best euer with God 146 Traditions How farre forth to be regarded 365 Theire varietie ibid. The Churches perdition 366 Tribulations More profitable for vs than Prosperitie 376 Gods Eye is allwayes vpon the Tribulations of his Children 478 The Preseruatiues of Vertues 506 The best Reward that God can giue his Followers ibid. Triumph Christs Triumph wherin differing from those of Men. 647 Trust. The surest tye 257 Truth Seldome welcombe vnto any 328 528 Can neuer be supprest 535 Hardly heard in Princes Courts 610 Tyrants Euer their owne torturers 299 Their ferae the mother of their fury· 100 V Vaine-glorie EVer to be auoided 379 553 Victorie Temporall victories gotten by fighting spirituall by flying 76 Vice Hard to be remooued 24 Euer afraid of Vertue 111 Neuer wants Agents 541 Vine The Vines of the faithfull spring out of the bloud of Christ. 251 Euery mans soule is a Vine to himselfe and he must dresse it 254 Of all plants it most resembleth man 255 The Spouse compared to the Vine and why ibid. Vineyard The cost which Christ was at with his 250 Gods Vineyard must not be turned into a garden 254 Virgin The Virgin Mary is not to bee too much honoured of any 309 Blessed not for bearing Christ but beleeuing in him 311 Her dignity 312 Vnkindnesse No cut to vnkindnesse 224 613 Vnmercifulnesse Of all sinnes most abhorred both of God and Man 240 The fearefull estate in which such are 240 Vnthankefulnesse See Ingratitude Vsurpation The first originall of Kingdomes 299 W Warre EVer betwixt Man and the Deuill and that by Gods owne appointment and why 75 Water The Embleme of happinesse 404 The waters of Paradise onely tasted rauish the Soule 407 What is meant by the water of Life 546 The Holy Ghost why compared to water ibid Waters aboue the Heauens what 579 Wearinesse Christ was wearie 389 Wealth Brings with it Woe 86 Weepe Why Christ wept 511 c. Whore See Harlot Wicked Haue no peace 586 Wickednesse meere foolishnesse 590 Widow What qualitie of life is required in a Widow 493 Will. Nothing so peruerse as mans will 118 505 It is his owne ouerthrow 119 469 Christ greatest labour was to correct it 120 It concurres not with Grace in our vprising 173 Wine Not allowed the Israelites till they came into the Land of promise and why 83 Wine-Presse What it signifieth in Holy Writ 250 Wisedome See Learning Despised of none but fooles 462 A wise man how profitable and whereunto resembled 463 True Wisedome euer accompanied with Humilitie 468 Gods Word the truest 469 Wisedome and Power not to bee seuered in a Prince 473 No policie preuailent against Gods Wisedome 539 588 Witnesse Three conditions required in euery Witnesse 522 c. Wiues Must do nothing without the consent of their husbands 408 c. Woman The Hieroglyphicke of weakenesse 573 Though deuout yet dangerous to conuerse with 62 411 Wanton women subiect to two great miseries 396 Two baites at which they vsually bite 402 Their Incontinencie 409 Mans disrespect a frequent occasion of their fall 417 Workes If good wishes were good workes the wicked would soone be saued 400 We must worke while we may 483 Workes outspeake words 501 Word Gods word mans best sustenance 87 Effectuall by whomsoeuer it be vttered 209 211 Compared to a looking-glasse 464 The truest Wisedome 469 The maiestie and efficacie of it 470 547 How to be heard 530 The same words out of diuers mouths may be diuersly relished 596 World Worldlings most condemned of the world 18 Nothing in it but disorder 39 Likened to the sea and why 64 Nothing but in shew 91 175 c. A mixture of good and euill 272 Worldly contents not attained without much toyle 404 The Worlds entertainment poore and base 444 Wrath. Gods wrath more violent than lasting 158 201 The longer deferred the fiercer 256 No flying from it 276 Y Youth THe qualities of youth 273 Too much libertie the bane of youth 274 Liable to many miseries and disasters 497 Z Zeale IF true it carries with it both Lightning and Thunder 362 Without action no marke of a Christian. 414 The nature of true zeale 450 Wherein different from Loue. 451 c. Erata For Callite read
Eccle. 24.23 Eccle. 5 23. He that tasteth the well of life will no more relish the bucket of Samaria Prou. 31. Men vsually couer what is specially commended Ob. So◠〈◊〉 30 1â— Gal. 6.1 Baruc. 3 3â— Wiues â—ot to doe any thing without the 〈◊〉 of their Husbâ—â—d Maâ—ach 2. Womens incontinencie Sinne at one time or other growes loathsome through saâ—â—etie Worldly pleasures whereunto compared What is typified by the Mount of Oliues Luk. 10. Esay 1.6 Cant. 1. Our Sauiours ordinarie Stations and employments Action is to be preferred before contemplation Ob. Sol. Most Christians are led by custome more than by deuotioâ— Gen 4. Sin if nothing will be it owne discouerer Iob. 24.14 Psalm 104.20 Eccle. 23.18 Sin cannot bee concealed froÌ„ God Sin while it is hid more dangerous to the Soule than when it is discouered Iosh 7. Hose 4. Mans disrespect is oft an occasion of the womans fall Adultery how punished in former times Prou. 6. The foulnesse of this sin and how heinously the Saints haue thought of it Iob. 31. Iud. 20.6 Dan. 13. Osee 7. Iob. 3â— Adulterie disalowed euen by Nature Prou. 6.35 2. Reg. 2. 1. Cor. 7. Leuit. 20. Deut. 22. Iohn 7.51 Dan 7. Iudges must incline to mercie Ob. Sol. Psal. 25. Ierem. 17.13 Iob. 13. Ierem. 22. 2. Reg. 12. Satisfaction must goe before absolution Gen. 20. Mercie an argument of goodnesse in whomsoeuerit be found Hosea 11. 2. Reg. 24. When the Saints either dye or otherâ—wise depart from a places it is much weakned Esay 30.20 3. Reg. 22. Hose 8.11 Esay 31.9 Esech 8.6 Deut. 31. Iud. 16.20 Marc. 6. â—â— Luk. 11. Râ—st is to be â—ounted pains wâ—eâ— we take iâ— but to enable vs for further paines Psal. 34. Eccles. 37. A true friend hard to bee found 3. Reg. cap. 1. A true friend hard to be found 3. Reg. 3. Iud. 18. Malach. 1. No labour or cost more tedious to man than that which is bestowed vpon Religion Esther 5. Iob. 27.19 1. Sam 6. The eye is a preualent orator with God Num. 21. Leuit. 25. 3. Reg. 8.29 Psal. 145. Psal. 147. Cant. 4. â— Gen. 22 3 Reg. 17. Gods care to work his children to mercy Good counsell the only prop of euery commonwâ—ale Eccl. 22.16 3. Reg. 12. Christ neuer commanded vs to sheare the sheepe but to feede them Philip regarded more Christs purse than his power and so doe many their owne Psal. 65. Act. 14.17 Onely our Sauior impouerished himselfe to make others rich Mat. 22.4 Ester 1. The Church why stiled a well ordered Armie â— Chron. 22. Want oforder brings in all confusion Partiality in all things to be auoided Ministers of State seldome good if needy if couetous neuer Couetousnesse neuer satisfied Clergie men ought to be liberall Then God haue mercie vpon many Iob. 13. The worlds entertainment meane and vncertaine Ecc. 21. Apoc. 6. Liberalitie must be waited oâ— by frugalitie Luc. 6. Ier. 2. Mat. 16. Marc. 8. Iob. 38. Courteous behauiour is the greatest gaine Fit qualities for a King The greatest miracle that ouâ— Sauiour euer wrought was this Zephan 2. Ier. 11. Esay 16. Esâ—y 60. Deut. 14. The honor of Priesthood Exod. 28. Numb 18. Couetousnes worst when cloked witâ— a shew of Holinesse Malac. 2.3 Iosh. 5. The nature of â—â—ue zeale Loue and zeale wherein different Gods chastisemeâ—ts here more in shew than substance Mat. 24. Wisd 3.5 Iob 40. God hath two wayes one of iustice another of mercy Prou. 5. Ezech 28 1â— God needs no weapons to destroy the wicked All paines but pastimes to those of hell Magistrates must be bold in reforming publike abuses Eccles. 47. 2. Reg. 23. 1. Chron. Magistrates must heede morethe conuersion of the offendor than the correction of his offence 1. Reg. 10. Sap. â—1 20 Act. 17.30 Mercy to be preferred before justice Zac. 4. Prou. 23. Old sores requiâ—e much scraping Ezech. 22.26 Iob. 24. Sale of offices the ruine of a Kingdome Act. 3. Apoc. 22. Apoc. 22. Act. 2.3.4.5 Iohn 21. Iob. 6. Iob. 11 Leuit. 25. Ioh. 6.40 Iob 13. Wisd. cap. 8. Christs doctrine pleasing and profitable Esay 48.17 Iob. 8. Cant. 5.13 Wisedome despised of none but fooles Iob 28. Prou. 3. Prou. 1. 1. Cor. 8. Eccl. 4. Zachar. 5. Iames 1. Learning is not gotten without laboâ— Eccl. 1. Prou. 2. Admiration vsually the child of ignorance Mat. 13. Mark 9 2. Tem. 2. Deut. 29. 3 Reg. 5. 2. Chron. 2. Iohn 3.34 1. Reg. â— Amos 1. Gal. 1. Mat. 10.20 Iohn 5.45 Iohn 12. Marc 9.37 1. Cor. 15.10 Ier. 23.15 Ezech. 13.3 Cant. 4. 1. Coâ— â— 7 1. Cor. 4.7 1. Cor. 8.2 Prou. â—0 2 A Preacher should neuer boast of his parts The Doue of all Fowles the most thankful Iohn 3. Iohn 6. Gods word the truest wisedome Psal. 119. Hosâ—a 10. Iohn 8. Ierem 1.10 Cant. 1.8 Amos. 7. Deut. 17. Wisd. 6. Deut. 1. Rash iudgement altogether to bee auded Power and Wisedome are not to be seuered in a prince The eye of diuine pitty euer fixed vpon pouertie Iohn 9.39 Esay 9.2 Esay 59.9 Esay 29.14 Esay 6â— 1 Iob. 3 9. Ezech. 16. Loue cannot be repaied but with loue Christ euen in his sufferings mindfull of our solace Cant. 5. Pitty euer profitable to them that vse it 1. Kings 30. Iob. 6. Whom God once fauours he still followes Gen. 21. Psal. 142. 4. Reg. 19. Sin the occasion of all euill Man the Epitome of the World the Eye of Man The Eye is the Hearts market place 2. Pet. 2. Sin the only Security that God could haue of man for his Glory Reasons why God suffereth many corporall defects and weaknesses in man 2. Reason 3. Reason God neuer takes any thing â—rom vs but 〈◊〉 return a better 4. Reason Nothing which God inflicts vpon vs can sauour of injustice 5. Reason No man but dâ—serueth more than God doth lay vpon him 6 Reason 7 Reason It is God aloue must fashion vs anew Baruc 6. 1. Reason 2. Reason 3. Reason Wee must make hay while the Sun shines Humilitie a great helpe to the curing of a sicke soule 4. Reg. 5. The like are Obedience Faith Sicke patients may pray but not prescribe Eccl. 47. Esay 35. Psal. 68. Act. 9. Dan. 3. Naturall inclinations hardly admit a chaÌ„ge Contemplation and action must neuer be seuered This life is nothing but a Procession of quicke deâ—d No obiects more vsuall than those of our mortalitie None lesse regarded or remembred 2. Reg. 14. Prou. 30. The remembraÌ„ce of death affoords two benefits 2. Reg. 2. Why the reward of the bodie is deâ—erred till the day of Iudgement Nâ—m 13. Ezech. 12. Prou. 7. We should set it alwaies before our eyes Luk. 9. 1. Cor. 1â— Neither youth nor age can priuiledge from death Psal. 7. As soon goes the Rich as the Poore the strong as the weake Ier. â— Iob. 24. Esay 2â— 1. Thess. 4. Eccl. 22. Iob. 7. Châ—ist more mooued with those disasters which happen vnto vs than we
our selues 2. Cor. 2. Philip. â— Ezech. 9. Iohn 11.35 Zach. 1â— 10 Eccl. 22. Eccl. 38. Gods mercie the Spring from whence all his blessings flow Prou 31. Sin is death it selfe The character of a yong man The raising of Lazarus Christs greatest myracle Psal. 107. â—0 1. Cor. 15.54 Death is a large draught but Christ swallowed it downe 3. Reg. 1â— Mat. 6.7 God regards not the length of our praiers but their strength Exod. 4. Psal. 137. Workes out-speake Words Cant. 4. â— 3 Reg. 1â— Beloued a name of great preheminence Gods fauours seldome come single 4. Reg. 20.3 The â—ighteous euer mind full of Gods seruice forgetful of their Mat. 25. Iniuries done to God more greeuous to the righteous than if done to themselues Psal. 39. No loue where no releefe 4. Reg. 1. Osee 4.12 Ezech. 21.21 4. Reg. 19. Psal. 37.5 His will must be ours The peruersenesse of mans will Esay 58.3 The best reward that God can giue his followers Mans miserie the blason of Gods Maiesty Iob. 6.2.3 Iob. 1. Nothing more properly ours than Vertue In all humane goods the cretures haue the start of man The goodnes of Gods condition toward Penitents expressed two manner of wayes First he neuer remembers their sinnes Esay 38.17 Secondly hee neuer forgets our seruices Mat. 26. 2. Reg. 8.16 Gen. 31.13 Malach. 3.16 Death whither temporall or spirituall called a Sleep that fitly Iob. 33. Iud. 3. Gen. 20. Luk. 12. 1. Reg. 2.6 Christs passions differing from ours Sin discoasts a man froÌ„ God Psal. 1.6 Reasons why Christ wept Ier. 9.17.18 Ibid. 21. The death of the soule is a true death that of the bodie but a shadow Men carelesse of nothing more than of their soules Dead Lazarus the embleme of a Sinner Old sins like old sores hardly cured A threefold death of the Soule Amos 11. Gods loue seene by the delayes he vseth in his punishing Genes 1â— Iob. 7. Why the heathen erected Pyramides ouer their deceased Psal. 29. The difference betwixt Lazarus rising out of the graue our Sauiour Occasions to sin must bee auoyded Why God appeared to Moses in a Bush. Gods iudgement euerie way compleat 1. Reg. 16. Christ why called the Light of the world 1. Ioâ—n 1.5 1. Tim. 6.16 The benefit of this Light Gen. 3. Baruc 3.34 The reason why some hate and shunne it Iohn 6. Iob. 29. Iob. 7. In mans life theâ—e are two wayes and he had need of a Guide The glorie of the Sunne Mat. 5. Rom. 8. Luc. 17. Christ testified by many yet not embraced of the Pharisees Three conditions required in euery Testimonie Christ the â—â—ly true Sunne that seeth all things Eccl. 23. Hier. 17. Apoc. 3. Inconueniences which would haue followed the peccabilitie of Christ. Apoc. 7. 2. Reg. 11. Sinne maketh the most valiant man a Coward Iob 25. No man free from sinne Iob 9.30 Iob 38. Two things required in men of eminencie and place conscience and fame Publike persons must looke to their fame as well as to their conscience Looking-glasses why placed about the Lauer of the Temple The vse of Belâ— in the border of the Priests garment Priuat persons must conceale their workes but men of publike ranke must shew themâ—elues examples Gen. 39.3 Our Sauiours innocencie exemplified by his death Christs equal proceeding against the diuell a patterne for all Magistrates Ioh. 11. The Crosse and death of Chriâ—ttormented the diuell more than himselfe Ioh. 8. Truth lesse welcome to the â—ares of men than flatteries and lies The World the Flesh â—nd the Diuell all lyars Prou. 18. Eccl. 21. Mat 28. What mischiefes haue proceeded from lying Gods word how to be heard that the heariâ—g it may testifie our Predestiâ—ation Foure circumstances requiâ—red to the hearing of Gods Word Act. 13. 1. Tim. 6. Prou. 23. The soule of the just that of a sinner wherein differing Men are neuer worse than when they thinke all is well Passion alters all properties to it selfe Better to be mad than passionate Patience when most to be applauded Luc. 22. Marc. 11.1 To suffer iniuries a great noblenesse Iob. 18. A patient man whereunto resembled Iobâ— Clemencie a profitable vertue Exod. 32. Gods honour must euer be preferred before our own Truth can neuer be altogether supprest Mat. 10. ObliuioÌ„ hath two bosomes Iudges ought to be free from passion 2. Râ—g 14. Daniel 3. Why Christ withdrew himselfe from the Pharisees A hard heart can neuer be mollified Prou. 26. Luke 23.16 Reuenge in man a sâ—mptome of Cowardize â—erem 3. No policie preualent against the word and wisdome of God Enuie of all vices the most vnfortunate to it selfe fortunate to others Mat. 23. Luk. 11. Like Priest like People Psal. 106. Num. 25. 1. Pet. â— Prou. 1. â— Iosh. 1. Honest seruice little respected by earthly Princes No policie preualent against the wisedome of God God must be serued by vs before man Gen. 3. It is bad seruice to share in other mens sinnes Our longest life but little 2. Mac. 7.36 2. Mac. 6. Iob 9. Christ must be sought while he may be found Amos 2. Act. 2. Good neuer truly liked till lost Neuer any mâ—â— so hated of the world as Christ. Time a pretious Iewell Leuit 23. Num. 29. Why instituted Leuit. 23.43 Pride incident to Man Good men are verie rare â—sal 71. Eccl. 49. Apoc. 12. Heauen not gotten without paines No appetite so fierce as that of a sinner Ier. â— Exod. 4. Dan. 7. What ment by the water of life Esay 42 43 44. Prou. 5. Ezecâ— 35. Ioel. 2. The Holy Ghost Why compared to water 2. Cor. 4. The power of Gods word The force of Eloquence Gods power neuer more seene than in his Passion Acts 20. Why Christ desiring to die did flâ—e to auoide death Gods Counsells vnsearchable Mat. 6. Iosh 8. Aduantage against an enemy no Cowardize Men flye sometimes to come on the fiercer To flye in time of persecution how farre lawfull 1. Mac. â— 9.9 In some cases it is fortitude to flye 2. Reg. 4. Iob 40. Eccles. 22. Why Christ desiring to die would flye to auoid death Power should neuer bee showne but in extremity The greater Chrisâ—â— shame the greater our redemption 3. Reg. 15. Vaine-glory not to be affected Men couet honor though with the hazard of others God vseth no partialitie in the dispensation of his fauours We must not relye on others Vertue but our owne Honor where no merit is ads to our shame not to our shining Worship should not wait but vpon worth Honour a bait which all men bite at Eccl. 43. Kindred the ouerthrow of many Prelats Enuy neuer greater than amongst brethren Kindred will cleaue to a man in his prosperity but neuer look on him in aduersitie Three Feasts of dedication among the Iewes 3. Reg. 8. Esdr. â— 1 Mach. 1. Mans Heart Gods Temple 2. Cor. 6. Leuit 26. Mans Soule must bee renewed to make it a fit habitation for God Psal. 51. Baptisme the fouâ—datâ—on of Christian