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
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
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
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
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
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
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
ouer-comest thy enemy and triumphest ouer him Et nemo maestus triumphat i. No man is sad when he triumpheth Fourthly because the ioy of the Spirit is great and maketh vs to continue in the seruice of God For he that once tasteth the sweetnesse of louing him hardly can forget him Vt in eo crescatis in salutem si tamen gustatis quoniam suauis est Dominus i. That yee may grow vp in him vnto saluation if so bee yee tast how sweet the Lord is And this cheerefulnesse God will not haue in the Soule onely but in the body also for it is meant of both Hilarem datorem diligit Deus And the glory of the kings daughter although Daui◠saith that it ought to be principally within Gloria filiae regis ab intus The glorie of the Kings daughter is within yet is it likewise to bee manifested outwardly In fimbrijs aureis circumamicta varietate i. Her clothing is of wrought gold and her rayment of needle worke For God hauing created all he will be serued with all For this God respected Abell and his offering and not Caine. And he was not pleased with him onely for that hee had offered vp the best of his flocke but for the willingnesse wherewith he did it and cheerefulnesse of heart and countenance And this put Cain quite out of countenance and made him to hang the head Who can offer the chaffe of his corne to God with a good face Annoint thy head God wil that we shew our selues glad cheerfull when we serue him Aaron was sad for the death of his daughters Moses reprehending him because he had not eaten that day of the Sacrifice hee told him Quomodo potui comedere aut placere Deo in Ceremonijs mente lucubri i. How could I eat or please God in the Ceremonies with a mournefull mind And the Text saith That Moses rested satisfied Baruc saith That the Starres beeing called by their Creator answered Adsumus We are here and they did giue their light Cum jucunditate With delight God had no need of their light in Heauen Lucerna eius est Agnus His light is the Lambe but because God commanded them to affoord man light they did it cheerefully If they without hope of reward serue thee with that alacritie thou whose hope is from God Vnge caput tuum Annoint thy head Annoint thy head The Gospell aduertiseth thee to be merrie the Church to mourne How are these two to be reconciled I answer That all thy felicitie consisting in thy sorrow thou mai'st verie well be merrie to see thy self sad Greene wood being put vpon the fire weepes and burnes A deepe valley is cleere on the one side and cloudie on the other Mans brest is sad in one part and ioyfull in the other Saint Paul specifies two sorts of sorrow one which growes from God the other from the world that giues life this death Saint Iohn sets down two sorts of death one verie bad the other verie good so there are two sorts of sorrow c. Baruc saith That the soule that sorroweth for his sinnes giues glorie vnto God Leuiticus commandeth That they should celebrate with great solemnitie the day of expiation Et affligetis animas vestras And yee shall afflict your soules It seemes not to sound well That men should make a great Feast with afflicting their soules but for Gods friend no Feast ought to be accounted so great as to offer vnto him a sorrowfull and contrite heart For as there is nothing more sad than sinne so is there nothing so cheereful as to bewaile it Ne vidiaris hominibus jeiunans i. That thou seeme not to men to fast For herein is a great deale of danger A Monke told the Abbot Macharius I fast quoth he in the City in that sort that it is not possible for a man to fast more in a Wildernesse Whereunto he replied For all that I think there is lesse eaten in the wildernesse though there be no eyes as baits to feed this thy vanitie Our Sauior did marke out three sorts of Eunuchs some by nature some made so by the world and some by God so likewise are there three sorts of Fasters some to preserue their Complexion some for to please the World others for Gods sake Abulensis doubting Why God permitted not vnto his People those triumphs which other nations did so much glorie in answereth That he would not suffer them because they should not fauour of them for the People said in their heart though they did not professe it with their mouth Manus nostra excelsa non Dominus fecit haec omnia i. Our own high hand and not the Lord hath done all these things Whereas they should say Non nobis Domine non nobis sed nomini tuo da gloriam i. Not vnto vs ô Lord not vnto vs but to thine owne name giue the glorie Pater tuus qui videt in abscondito i. Your Father who sees in secret On the one side the Church humbles thee by calling thee Dust on the other it raiseth thee vp by confessing thy selfe to be the sonne of such a father Pater tuus qui videt in abscondito who is of that Maiestie that mortal Man durst not presume to say he were the sonne of such a Father vnlesse he himselfe had obliged vs to acknowledge him for our Father Rupertus saith That all the Patriarkes of the old Testament had vsually in their mouth this humble confession Tu Pater noster es nos Lutum Thou art our Father we are Clay as they that on their part had much whereof to be ashamed but on Gods much to glorie in that he would giue the name of Sonne to Durt And who by his grace of Durt makes vs Gold And so much concerning the word Father Who seeth in secret He liues hid from thee but not thou from him for hee beholdeth with his eyes thy good seruices and hath such an especial care of thy wants as if his prouidence were only ouer thee and he that tooke pitty of the beasts of Niniuie and of Achabs humiliation will not easily forget a son whome he so much loueth c. Reddet tibi i. Shall recompence thee This word Reddet indeareth the worthines of Fasting Fast for Gods sake and he wil pay thee What greater worthinesse than to make God thy debtor Shall he see thee fast for him and shall not he reward thee others runne ouer their debts as if they did not mind them and perhaps neuer meane to pay them but God Reddet And therefore reade in Esay That certain that had fasted charged him with this debt Ieiunauimus non aspexisti humiliauimus animas nostras nescisti We haue fasted and thou hast not regarded vs wee haue humbled our soules and thou did'st not know it But he disingaged himselfe of this debt saying I did not tie my selfe to these Fasts you
be solicitous carefull and painefull for the sluggard Nature abhorreth and condemneth Vidisti hominem velocem stabit coram Rege i. Seest thou a man diligent in his businesse hee shall stand before Kings Diligence is pretious in all men but most in a Seruant Who can indure a lazie Seruant or a dull Beast The Ball was antiently the Symbole of a Seruant according to Cartaneus The ball one while goes flying in the ayre ouer our heads another runnes as low as our feete but neuer lies still but is continually tossed too and fro And Aristotle sayes That a Seruant is Instrumentum viuum A liuing Instrument and as an Instrument hath not his owne will but is directed by the hand of the Artificer so a Seruant is not to bee at his owne will to doe what himselfe listeth but as he is commanded and employed by his Master If Masters and Seruants would keepe these rules it would bee a happinesse for the Master to haue such a Seruant and for the Seruant to haue such a Master It hath antiently beene doubted Why amongst men so equall by nature God hath permitted so great inequalitie as there is betweene him that serueth and him that commandeth And the reason of this doubt is the more indeered for that seruitude is a thing so distastful held so great an ill that many haue preferred death before it Theodoret answereth thereunto That Seruitude was the curse of Sinne and that the first Seruant in the world was Cham on whom his father threwt his seuere malediction That he should be a Seruant to his bretheren Because he discouered the nakednesse of his father S. Austen saith in his Books De Ciuit. Dei That this penaltie began from the malediction of Eue and that those words Thou shalt be vnder the power of thy Husband implyed subiection and seruitude Saint Ambrose in an Epistle which he writes to Simpliciarius saith That Seruing is sometimes taken for a blessing and hee prooues it out of that which Isaac did to his elder sonne Esau He blessed him that he might serue his brother hauing out of a particular prouidence and loue made Esau seruant to his brother to the end that his harshnesse might bee gouerned by his discretion So that wee see that although the fortune of a Seruant speaking generally is verie bad first because libertie is a great good secondly because to serue a Tyrant is a great euil yet he that hath the good hap to serue a good Master is verie happie for such a Master serues in stead of a Father a Councellor a Tutor And this was this seruants happinesse to haue so good a Master as this Centurion heere spoken of who saith Puer meus jacet c. In domo Paraliticus At home sicke of the Palsie It is a consideration as profitable as often repeated That troubles and afflictions brings vs home to Gods House They are like those officers that follow a fugitiue sonne or seruant who bring him backe againe to his father or his master Many meanes God vseth for to bring vs home vnto him but by no meanes more than by affliction Hunger draue the Prodigall home to his Father Ioaâ—s burning of his corne made him come to Absalon the vntamed Heyfer is brought by the Goade to the Yoke There is no Collirium that so opens the eyes of the soule as miserie and trouble The gall of the Fish recouered Tobias of his eye-sight the darknesse of the Whales bellie brought Ionas forth to the light the stroke of an Arrow made Alexander know he was mortall Wormes made great Antiochus confesse he was no God and the threatning of Elias wrought repentance in Achab In a word Vexatio dat intellectum Castigasti me Domine eruditus sum Affliction causeth vnderstanding thou didst correct me ô Lord I was instructed O! how correction opens those eyes which prosperitie kept shut O! how often doth the paining of the bodie worke the sauing of the soule O! how often doe misfortunes like the rounds in Iacobs ladder serue to bring our soules vp to Heauen God dealing with these afflicted soules as the Gardner doth with the Buckets of his Well who humbles them by emptying them that hee may afterwards bring them vp full And so is that place of Iob to bee vnderstood Hee woundeth and hee healeth i. hee healeth by wounding like your cauteries which cure by hurting It is Gods owne voyce I will smite and I will make whole according to that of Ose Percutiet curabit he strikes the bodie with sicknesse and with that wound he healeth the soule But here by the way it is to be noted That there is a great difference betwixt one sinner and another for he that is hardned in sinne is made rather worse than better by correction And this is that which Esay bewaileth where hee crieth out Woe to the sinnefull Nation a People laden with Iniquitie Why should yee be stricken any more yee will reuolt more and more All the fruit that such kind of wilfull sinners reape from their punishment is to adde sinne vnto sinne like that Slaue who being whipt for swearing falls into blaspheming I haue smitten saith Ieremie your childeren in vaine they receiued no correction And in another place he compares them to reprobate siluer which being put into the Crisol of affliction to be refined and purified remaines fouler than before Others there are that are tender hearted and are as sensible of other mens miseries as if themselues were in the same case and iust so was it with this discreet Centurion Dignus est vt illi praestes i. He is worthie for whom thou shouldst doe this The Elders of the Iewes in Capernaum which were sent by the Centurion vnto Christ to beseech him to come and heale his seruant acknowledged a power in our Sauior of working miracles by that often experience they had made thereof but they did not acknowledge his Diuinitie And therefore they here notifie vnto Christ the great merit and deseruingnesse of this Centurion which if it had beene meerely for Gods sake they might the better haue pleaded it They alledge two reasons to induce him thereunto The first Diligit gentem nostram He loueth our Nation which hee hath many wayes manifested by those his good deeds and actions towards vs and this his loue and kindnesse bindes vs to solicite his cause which good will of his ought likewise to incline you to fauour this his suit The second Synagogam aedificauit nobis He hath built vs a Synagogue whereby hee hath not onely shewed his good affection to the Iewes but his religiousnesse also vnto God Dignus est ergo vt illi praestes Hee therefore deserues this fauour at thy hands Their reasons are both powerfull as well with man as with God for Loue obligeth much Saint Ambrose saith That Nature did ingraue nothing so deepely in our hearts as to loue
downe the same rule by Saint Mathew and by Saint Luke Innumerable Phylosophers haue repeated the like Lesson Laertius reporteth of Aristotle That giuing an almes to one that had done him many iniuries told him Nature not thy naughtinesse makes me to pittie thee There was amongst the Romans a Marcus Marcellus that pleaded in the Senate for his Accusers A Tiberius Gracchus a mortall enemie of the Scipio's who during that their emnitie defended them in the publique Theatre A Marcus Bibulus who hauing two of his sonnes slaine by the Gabiani and Cleopatra sending the murtherers vnto him returned them backe again without doing them any harm In Athens a Plato whom his scholler Xenocrates accusing of diuers scandalous things said It is not possible That him whom I loue should not loue mee againe A Phocion who dying vniustly by poyson and beeing asked when hee had the cup iâ— his hand What seruice he would command them to his son answered That hee should neuer thinke more of this cup but studie to forget it Many the like are related by Plutarch Seneca Saint Basil and Saint Chrysostome Lastly This being no Law of God neither as he is the Author of Grace nor as the Author of Nature it must needs bee of the Deuill as Origen inferreth For he seeing that God had engrauen in mans heart the law of loue standing out of his pride in competition with God he engraued dis-loue and left it so imprinted in the hearts of many that albeit for these many Ages God hath hammered both Angells and Saints vpon this Anuile he could neuer bring them to softnesse The occasion that might mooue those antient Doctors to this Law was either for that God had commanded Saul that he should destroy Amalec or the vengeance that he tooke of Pharaoh and his People or that of Leuiticus Pursue your enemies and they shall fall before you as if to enter into a iust warre by order from God might allow a man to doe the like to his brother out of his owne will and pleasure Or for that it is commanded in Leuiticus Thou shalt loue thy friend as thy selfe Or as Nicholaus de Lyra hath notedit That they draw this consequence from Aristotle Si amicis bene faciendum est consequens est vt inimicis sit malefaciendum If we must doe good to our friends then consequently we must doe ill to our enemies Thou shalt hate thy enemie Whence it is to be noted That that Law which gaue them licence to hate their enemie does not giue them leaue to kill him though the Deuill many times likes better of a mortall hatred and a desire of reuenge than the death of a man For Hatred is that Loadstone which drawes other sinnes along with it but the killing of a man doth vsually bring repentance with it for the many disasters that attend it Iudas till he had driuen his bargaine for the betraying of his Master had deliuered vp his heart to the Deuill but that was no sooner performed but hee repented himselfe of what he had done Saint Chrysostome calls hatred Homicidium voluntarium Some seeme to sinne meerely out of nature for custome is another nature and these that thus sinne sinne without a will or desire of sinning but he that hates must of force sinne with all his heart Ego autem dico vobÃs Diligite inimicos vestros But I say vnto you Loue your enemies Petrus Chrysologus treating of the profoundnesse of the Scripture saith That though a volume should be written vpon euerie word it were not able to containe all the mysteries belonging thereunto What shall wee say then to this word Ego whose extent and birth is so great that none can qualifie it but God None knows the Father but the Son nor the Sonne but the Father he alone can tel what it is The son for to repaire the affront and infamie of his death said to his Father Clarifica me Pater Father glorifie me And Saint Ambrose hath noted it That the originall word there saith Opinion Credit rather than Glorie as if he should haue said I haue gotten thee ô Father among men an opinion of being the true God requite me therfore in gracing me to be thy Sonne for onely thou canst doe me this honour The mouthes of men and Angells shall talke of his praise but are notable to expresse the greatnesse of this attribute Ego The immensiue greatnesse of the sea is to bee seene in this that so many Riuers and Fountaines issuing out of it they doe not onely not emptie it and draw it drie but doe not so much as lessen it or diminish it one jot Ego euer since the beginning of the world hath been the Theame of the Angels Prophets Euangelists the Saints but could neuer come to the depth of it Damasus did shut vp in seuen verses fortie foure names belonging to this word Ego From hence we will first of all draw the authoritie of the Law-giuer If the authoritie of Kings and Emperours be so great that their subiects at their command aduenture vpon many foolish and desperate actions How much greater is that of God Fulgosus in his Booke de Rebus memorabilibus reporteth That a Prince of Syria indeering to Henrie Count of Campania who was come thither vpon an Embassage the obedience of his souldiers calling to one who was Sentinel to a Tower that he should speedily come vnto him presently leapt downe from off the battlements If a Scipio's Si ego iussero If I shall command you could preuaile so much with his men What shall Gods Ego doe who melteth the Mountaines like waxe The Mountaines did melt away like waxe before the face of the Lord taketh away the breath of Princes and commandeth the sea and the winds and they obey Quis est hic quia venti mare obediunt ei Who is ihis that the winds and the sea obey him who with an Ego sum draweth honie out of stones and oyle out of the hard rocke But I say vnto you I that am the Master of the world who came to reforme the Law and to vnfold the darke places of Scripture I that am Via Veritatis Vitae The way of Truth and Life I that desire more your good than your selues For I know how much it importeth you to loue your enemies and that he that blotteth this loue out of your hearts robbeth you of a wonderful rich treasure I am the Lord that teacheth profitable things and gouerns thee in the way it is I I say that say vnto you Loue your enemies Abraham did forget the bowells of a Father Quia Maiestatem praecipientis considerauit Because he considered the Maiestie of him that commanded Christ our Sauiour doth counterpone his authoritie to that of the Law-giuers of this Law Dictum est antiquis Is was said to them of Old You haue beleeued lying Law-giuers who prescribe it vnto you
there was no better companie there And they that make description of the Holy Land report That there are bred therein many blacke and fearefull Vipers When he had fasted fortie dayes That voyce from Iordan This is my beloued Son made the Deuill the eagerer to set vpon him and to challenge him the Field But Saint Chrysostome saith that this our Sauiours fasting kept him still aloofe off from him and made him so cowardly that he was affraid to venture vpon him and therefore did our Sauiour of purpose submit himselfe vnto hunger that the Deuill might thereby be encouraged to come on the more boldly Thomas noteth it That Fasting is such a weapon that the Deuill dares not to come within the reach of it for it makes Men to be like vnto Angels And euer since that Lucifer fell from Heauen he hath liued stil in feare of his own shadow Leo the Pope saith That there are a certaine sort of terrible Deuills against whom no coniurations nor exorcismes can preuaile or doe any good onely they cannot withstand the force of Fasting And of these our Sauiour Christ saith This kind of Deuill is not cast out but by Prayer and Fasting Saint Basil saith That our Sauiour Christ would not consent that the Flesh which hee had taken of our nature vpon him should bee tempted till he had armed it with fasting Not that hee could incurre any daunger but onely to teach vs how to stand vpon our guard Athanasius sayth That the Deuill hath suborned many in this life to make show of beeing zealous of your welfare and that they should goe about to persuade you that you doe your selfe wrong in fasting and that it makes you looke leane and yellow and spoyles your complexion And as in Paradise hee persuaded our Mother by the Serpents insinuation to eat of the forbidden Fruit so now by his factors doth he persuade many to feasting but none to fasting Notable to this purpose is that Historie of the Prophet whome God sent to Bethel against King Ieroboam giuing him in charge that hee should neither eate nor drinke in that place He boldly deliuered his message but durst not receiue of the King that entertainement which he offered him but as he returned homeward a false Prorphet came foorth meeting him on the way said vnto him I pray ye depart not hence without seeing of your friends receiuing such poore cheere as wee can make you He told him that he had order from God not to do it Then sayd the false Prophet I haue had a reuelation to thecontrarie Inconclusion the true Prophet beeing deceiued by the false Prophet did eate But in his iourney home a Lyon met him and killed him God aduising him that had deceiued him of this sad Accident Whence I inferre That if it were a fault in the true Prophet to eat by giuing too light credit to the false Prophet the offence will bee no lesse in you by giuing too easie beleefe to Satans Agent who aduiseth thee that thou shouldst not fast Secondly if hee that beeing deceiued did eate doth deserue the punishment of death what shall hee deserue that did deceiue him And therefore God did notifie to the false Prophet the death of the true Prophet to the end that the inequalitie of the sin might persuade him what kind of punishment hee did deserue Thirdly the true Prophet payd the price of his sinne with the losse of his life but by repentance he saued his Soule And one assured token thereof was that the Lyon stood by him and guarded his Body till they had giuen it buriall But the false Prophet had much more to answere for and a greater reckoning to make For if a light sinne were so seuerely punished how much more a greater This Doctrine doth much concerne your cheu'rel-conscience Phisitions who vpon euery light occasion giue licences for not fasting those cockering Mothers who will not suffer their daughters to fast fearing it would spoyle their colour and marre their complexion whereas in verie deed nothing doth make the countenance so freshand so cleare as fasting doth as those Histories of Iudith and those Babilonian children sufficiently proue whose fasting made their faces as faire as if they had beene so many Angels Fortie dayes and fortie nights To what end will some say serueth so much fasting Wee are not able to imitate this act of our Sauiours I answer wee are to fast for two respects The one That many of our Sauiours miracles ought rather to bee admired than imitated The other that by this his fasting he layd thereby a greater obligation vpon vs to serue him and that wee may by those poore fasts that we keepe show therby that we much both approue and esteeme that long fast of his Hee was afterward hungrie Theodoret sayth That when the Deuill came to know that Christ began to grow hungrie he did then certainly assure himself of victorie Philon discoursing on the life of Moses That for a man to suffer hunger and thirst it is verie great torment and not to be endured Graue est Domine sitis fames In the Desert God with-held the giuing of Manna for some few daies from his People and the Text saith That he did it for to proue them And it is a great triall of our vertue to suffer hunger for Gods cause it is such a storme as is able to put a man besides his wits When Ioseph dreamed of those seuen yeares of dearth specified by those seuen leane Kyne Theodoret hath noted That he then foresaw that the hunger of his brethren would force them to fall downe and worship him whom before they so much scorned and abhorred The Deuill now thought himselfe cocke-sure and thought to make his entrie at this little hole and to get within him Ecclesiasticus saith That sinne is like the dropping of raine which by little and little sokes through the wall till at last both it and the house whereon it stands fall suddenly to the ground God commanded Ezechiel That he should take a tyle-stone and paint thereon the holy Citie of Ierusalem drawing round about it a great Armie Sume tibi laterem c. The like doth the Deuill he desires no more of thee but a Tyle-stone or the like toy and out of that he will make Towers and walles and bulwarkes and armies of souldiers to besiege thee Accessit Tentator The Tempter drew neere This word Tempter as Rupertus hath noted it containeth in it these two things The one The Deuills malice The other His craft and subtletie Touching the first he hath no other occupation saue doing of ill working of mischiefe The vnknowne Author expounding those words of Dauid They meditated deceit all the day long saith That these are those Deuils which spend all the whole day in plotting of mischiefe and in working deceit as if this were giuen them to taske and were hired so to doe There is no day-labourer bee
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
gaines Giuing vs thereby to vnderstand That hee that will not bee brought to know God by his soft hand and those sweete fauours of his Mercie shall be made to know him by the whips and scourges of his Iustice. God prospers thy house thou doost not acknowledge it for a blessing hee sends thee to an Hospitall laden with diseases that thy miserie may teach thee to know him He giues thee health thou art not thankefull vnto him for it hee casts thee downe on thy bed and then thou giuest him thankes not ceasing night and day to call vpon him and to praise and blesse his holâ— name And therefore it is truly said The Lord shall bee knowne while hee worketh judgement Our Sauioue like a good Physition tries vs first by his mild and gentle medicines but they doe no good hee therefore turnes ouer a new leafe and applies those vnto vs that are more sharpe and tart whereby we come to know as well his wisedome as his loue The second He began to cast out the Buyers and the Sellers Because no man should presume that the glorious acclamations of a King and of a Messias should endure to permit in his Temple such a foule and vnseemely buying and selling they had no sooner proclaimed him King but he tooke the whip into his hand to scourge them for their offences In a Prince in a Iudge and in a Preacher flatteries and faire words are woont to abate the edge of the Sword of Iustice wherefore to shew That true praise ought the more to oblige a King to vnsheath his Sword he betooke him to his Whip That acclamation and applause of the little children our Sauiour accounted it as perfect and good Ex ore Infantium LactantiuÌ„ perfecisti laudeÌ„ propter Inimicos tuos Yet for that a Prince a Iudge or a Preacher should not bee carried away with the praises of men our Sauiour though applauded in the highest manner that the thought of man could immagine Coepit eijcere Ementes vendentes c. Reges eos in virga ferrea saith Dauid In the name of the eternall Father thou shalt my Sonne be their Ruler their Iudge thou shalt beare in thy hand a Rod of yron which shall not be bowed as are those other limber wands of your earthly Iudges theirs are like fishing rods which when the fish bite not continue strait right but if they nibble neuer so little at the bait presently bow and bend Esay called the Preachers of his time Dumbe Dogges not able to barke And he presently renders the reason of this their dumbenesse They knew no end of their bellie To ear and to talke none can doe these two well and handsomely together and because these Dogges haue such an hungrie appetite that they neuer giue ouer eating because nothing can fill their bellie they are dumbe and cannot barke they know not how to open their mouths The third is of Saint Chrysostome and Theophilact who say That it was a kind of prophecie or foretelling that these legall Offerings and Sacrifices were almost now at an end When Kings and Princes expresse their hatred to any great Person in Court it is a prognostication of that mans fall The wrath of a King is the messenger of death Our Sauiour Christ the Prince of the Church had twice whipt out those that had prouided Beasts for the Sacrifices of his temple which was an vndoubted token of their short continuance it beeing a great signe of death that one and such a one should come twice in this manner to visit them with the Rod. This conceit is much strengthened by the words of our Sauiour Christ â—oretold by the Prophet Esay The time shall come wherein my House shall bee called a House of Prayer and not a Denne of Theeues nor a common Market of buying and selling So that hee tooke these Whips into his hands as a means to worke amendment in his Ministers and to sweepe and make his House cleane The Iudges of the earth saith Saint Hierome doe punish a Delinquent ad ruinampunc but God adcust gationem the one to his vtter vndoing the other for his amendment And therefore he vsed no other weapons to chastise them withall but Rods and Whips which worke our smart but not our death they paine vs but they doe not kill vs. Tertullian is startled and standeth much amased at that punishment which Saint Peter inflicted vpon Ananias and Saphyra and saith That to bereaue them so suddenly of their life to strike â—hem in an instant dead at his foot was the punishâ—ent of a man of one that had not long exercised nor did well know what did belong on the office of a Bishop But our Sauiour Christ being come into the world to giue men life it would not haue suited with his goodnesse to giue them death The fourth reason which all doe touch vpon was The disrespect and irreuerence which was shewne to this his Temple a sinne which God doth hardly pardon And therefore it was said vnto Ieremie Pray not therefore for this People And hee presently giues the reason why It hath committed many outrages in my House Saint Iames aduiseth That the Sicke should call vnto the Priests to get them to pray vnto God for him but for him that should commit wickednes in his Temple God willeth the Prophet Ieremie that hee should not so much as pray for them And Saint Paul saith That those who shall violate the Temple of God God shall destroy them Great is the respect which God requireth to be had to his Temple First In regard of his especiall and particular presence there Saint Austen saith That Dauid did pray be fore the Arke Quia ibi sacratior commendatior praesentia Domini erat For euermore God manifests himselfe more in his Temple than any where else that place beeing like Moses his Bush or Iacobs ladder being therefore so much the more holy by how much the more he doth there manifest himselfe c. Secondly He shewes himselfe there more exorable and more propitious to our prayers According to that request of Salomon in the dedication of the temple That his eares may be there opened And it was fit it should be so as Saint Basil hath noted it for that Prayer is a most noble act and therefore as it requires a most noble place so likewise the greater fauour appertaineth vnto it Thirdly For that Christ is there present in his blessed Sacraments And therefore as Saint Chrysostom hath obserued it there must needs be there a great companie of coelestiall Spirits for where the King is there is the Court. Fourthly For to stirre vp our deuotion by ioyning with the congregation of the Faithfull And a learned man saith That the Temples Houses of God did put a new heart and new affections into mens brests What then shall become of those who refuse these publique places of praying and praysing of God and
Coasts of Tyre and Sydon He taxes this his people of their vnthankefulnes towards him For he that doth not only not acknowledge a good turn but requites it with il shuts the gates of Heauen against his owne Soule And therefore Signum non dabiter eiâ— Rupertus hath obserued That the first fault that was committed in the World was Ingratitude For God hauing created Adam in a perfect age and sound in his judgement hauing for his recreation giuen him Paradise and for his authoritie the Seigniorie of the World yet did hee not giue him thankes for these his so great and many fauours towards him whereupon the Deuill beeing a slye and subtill Merchant tooke occasion to tempt him persuading himselfe That hee who had shewed himselfe ingratefull would with a little labour bee easily brought to be disobedient This Doctor doth soundly throughly ponder these words Serpens erat callidior The serpent was more subtill Like a craftie Huntsman hee waited but for a time that Adam by his vnthankefulnes should fall into the toile whence afterwards hee should not so easily get out Saint Ambrose sayth That Noah all that while that hee was building the Arke did not any thing though neuer so little without some especiall order from God but as soone as hee was gone out of the Arke without further expecting aduise from Heauen hee did prepare and make readie his sacrifice For that a Soule should shew it selfe thankefull to it's God it is not necessary that it should stay waighting looking for reuelations but rather hasten to expresse it as soone as it can and to vse all preuention of being put in mind of it And therfore in approbation of Noahs forwardnesse the Text sayth Odoratus est Dominus odorem suauitatis The Lord smelled a sauour of rest And shewed himselfe so well pleased and appeased therwith that he sayd in his heart he would thencefoorth curse the ground no more for mans cause There is another circumstance touching Ingratitude which is very considerable deserues our attention which is this That albeit God is woont sometimes to dissemble other faults and lets them runne on many yeares before he wil punish them yet the sins of vnthankefulnesse he will not suffer them to scape vnpunished no noâ— so much as to graunt them the forbearance of a few houres God sayth in Leuiticus Qui maledixerit Deo suo portabâ—t peccatum suum Whosoeuer shall curse his God or speake ill of him shall beare his sin no farther chastisement beeing there set downe for him But hee that shall blaspheme the name of the Lord Morte morietur shall bee put to death that is the Law The second questionlesse is a lesser sinne than the former And yet God dissembles the former and will by no meanes indure the second And the reason thereof rendred by Thomas is That those names and attributes of God doe shut vp as it were and comprehend in them those benefits which hee so liberally bestowes vpon vs and for that the blasphemer showes himselfe so vngratefull vnto God hee cannot hope for any pardon of his punishment Our Sauiour Christ then seeing that Iudea did draw poyson out of treacle and vnthankefulnesse and hardnesse of heart from the many fauours and mercies that hee had shewed towards them Secessit in partes Tyri Sydonis Went into the Coasts of Tyre and Sydon c. Ecce mulier Chananea Many and great matters are spoken of the force and power of Prayer Greeuous is that saying of God vnto Ieromie Noli orare pro populo isto neque assumes pro eis laudem orationem non obsistas mihi Thou shalt not pray for this people neither lift vp cry or prayer for them neither intreat mee least I should heare thee and so diuert mine anger Seest thou not what they doe c Seeke not therefore to hinder me in executing my vengeance against them None sayth Iob is able to resist the wrath of God But God aduiseth vs how powerfull a thing Prayer is for the appeasing of it by seeking to preuent the Prophet by putting in this caueat Non obsistas mihi Resist mee not Greeuous is that saying of God vnto Moses Desine vt irascatur furor meus Stand not betwixt mee and home that I may destroy this people O Lord who can hold thy hand when thou art willing to strike Who force thee against thy will to be quiet yes The Prayer of such a friend as Moses Orabat autem Moyses ad Dominum Deum suum Beeing one whom God so much respected And as the loue of a friend doth tye the hands of some angry Lord and keep him from striking so Prayers binds Gods hands when hee is angry with vs not suffering him to draw his sword This was no small comfort to Dauid which made him to sing the song of Thankesgiuing Benedictus Deus qui non amouit orationem meam misericordiam suam à me Blessed be God who hath not remooued either my prayer or his owne mercie from mee Saint Austen saith That as long as God shall not take from out our mouthes and our hearts our praying vnto him so long we may be well assured that he will not remoue his mercie from vs for he neuer denieth those that faithfully cal vpon him But a matter of great consideration is that which we haue here in hand Ecce mulier Cananea Behold a Canaanitish woman c. What a woman that is an Idolatresse can shee bee of that power that shee should ouercome God by prayer When a weake arme cuts a man off by the wast at a blow or hewes a bar of yron in sunder this act is not attributed so much to the force of his arme as the goodnesse of his sword so this dayes noble act is not to bee attributed to a Pagan woman who was descended of that accursed Cham but to the power of Prayer To those three diuine persons Prayers are not permitted for as Thomas noteth it Prayer is to be directed to a superiour power And if the Sonne of God did pray it was according to his humanitie hauing recourse as Saint Ambrose saith to those two obligations of Priest and Aduocate And if Saint Paul saith that the holy Ghost doth pray Postulat pro nobis gemitibus in enarrabilibus He maketh request for vs with grones that are vnspeakeable It was that he might teach vs how to pray as Saint Augustine expoundeth it The Deuills and those that are damned are not capable of prayer Albeit the couetous rich man did desire a drop of water of Abraham to coole his tongue the Deuills entreated Christ that he would giue them leaue to enter into the Swine For to pray vnto God is to turne vnto God and with a sorowfull soule and a contrite heart humbly and earnestly to call vpon him crauing pardon for our sinnes Prayer therefore onely belongs vnto men as well the Iust as the Sinner and that the
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
that had neither hand nor foot to help himselfe lying benum'd in his little cart bore before him the cause of his griefe by falling into those faults which he had formerly committed And this is inferred out of these our Sauiours words vnto him Iam noli amplius peccare Now see thou sinne no more But if any man aske me How can that man sinne that is bound hand and foot I answer That for all this his desires and thoughts are not fettered Iniquitatem mediâ—atus est in cubili suo astitit omni viae non bonae Hee that applies himselfe to euill thoughts and hath a desire vnto them there is not that wickednesse whereof he would not reap the fruits thereof From whence I cannot but note out these two things vnto thee The one That the sinnes of our thoughts and imaginations are of all other the easiest to be done How many Kniues would a Cutler make in a day if he could finish them without a Forge an Anuile or a Hammer Questionlesse â—erie many The like reason is to be rendred of the errors of our thoughts The other That they are the harder to be seene or holpen To be seene for that they are so secret Ab occultis meis munda me Clense me ô Lord from my secret sinnes To be holpen for as he that is still kept hungrie and thirstie hath neither his thirst nor his hunger satisfied but encreaseth more and more vpon him so â—e that neuer enioyes those humane delights neuer hath the hunger and thirst of his desires satisfied So that this poore sicke man perseuering in his sinne it is not much that God should perseuer in his punishments for our shorter sinnes Gods chastisements â—re also short In momento indignationis auerte faciem meam parumper i. For a moment in myne anger I hid my face from thee for a little season But for our longer longer Vir multum jurans à domo eius non recedet plaga i. The Plague shall neuer depart â—â—oÌ„ the house of him that sweareth much whence it coÌ„meth to passe that so many are â—arr'd and so few amended Which is all one with that of Ieremie Dissipati neâ—ue compuncti These are the Deuils Martyrs who suffer not onely without a reward as Saint Paul saith Si peccantes suffertis quid vobis est gratiae but treasure vp new torments vnto themselues But some one will aske How comes it to passe that this man being a sinner which waited at the Fish-poole our Sauiour should for his sake leaue other iust â—nd good men and make choice to come vnto him First as I haue told you alreadie because Sicknesse preserueth the soule from â—inne and that it is a token of Gods mercie and goodnesse towards vs. Secondly Because this poore wretch did hope to be healed his thoughts and â—is hopes laying hold vpon Gods fauour towards him with a strong and assured â—â—â—iance and this was that which this sicke man did purposely seeke after Euthimius doth much endeere his sufferance and his perseuerance neuer despairing but assuring himselfe that Heauen would yet at last bee propitious and fauourable vnto him and though yeare after yeare nay for so many yeres together he found no good many contradictions offering themselues vnto him yet his hopes did neuer faile him His sinnes were rather accessorie and accidentall than of any proposed malice or in despight as we say of God and such kind of faults as these God sooner pardoneth and farre more easily forgiueth The Scripture sometimes proposeth vnto vs Peccadores remitados Notorious sinners to whose account you cannot adde one sinne more than they haue charged themselues withall Who haue purposely departed from God Of these Iob saith Quasi de industria recesserunt à me Esay Pepigimus faedus cum mâ—rte We haue made a couenant with Death Malachie Vanus est qui seruit Deo He is vaine that serueth God These are desperate resolutions Others there are who sinne by accident In the Historie of the Kings it is said of Dauid That he arose vp from his chaire to walke vpon the Tarrasse of his Pallace and that his eye lighted by chance vpon Bersheba who was bathing her selfe in her garden this was a businesse which fell out casually and as we say by hap-hazard though his plotting how to haue his pleasure of her was a thing premeditated but his seeing and his coueting of her was as it were accidentally and by chance Whereas the desire that Dauid had to serue God was euer purposed and determined by him Iuraui statui custodire iudicia justiciae tuae So that his offending of his God was not wilful but of weaknes by meere haphazard Saul made a Proclamation That no man should eat till hee had gotten the victorie ouer the Philistines but the souldiers were so hungrie with sighting and fasting that their minds ran on nothing else saue the stanching of their hunger Et comedit populus cum sanguine The people tooke Sheepe and Oxen and Calues and slew them on the ground and did eat them with the bloud which was contrarie to Gods commandement not considering that this their eating at this time and vpon such an occasion was peccatum per accidens an accidentall sinne In a word one of the surest pledges of our predestination is to make our seruing of God the Principall and our offending him the Accessorie Hunc cùm vidisset Dominus When the Lord had seene him This his seeing of him was not by chance nor is it so to be construed of Christ but to shew that he was man hee did many things as it were by chance And therefore when he saw this mans miserie and knew how long he had layne thus and how he was forsaken of all the world and that there was no bodie to helpe him then c. It is a great matter I can assure you for a man to cast his eyes vpon the wretched estate of the Poore for from the eyes compassion growes the hearts tendernesse the one is no sooner toucht but the other melts Noli auertere faciem tuam ab vllo paupere Turne not away thy face from the Poore Tobias told his sonne That if he should not turne his eye aside from the Poore God would neuer turn away his face from him The sores of the Poore saith Saint Chrysostome being beheld by vs teach aduise and mooue vs. When Pilate presented our Sauiour Christ to the Iewes wounded from head to foot and all his bodie on a goaâ—â— bloud he said vnto them Ecce homo Behold the man but they shutting their eyes and turning their faces away from him cried out Away with him away with him whereas if they had earnestly beheld him and viewed him wel from top to toe their hearts had they beene of stone as they were little better they would haue growne soft and tender with it The reason why so little remedie now a dayes is giuen
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
left this Balsamum for the annointing and curing of it Which was a great Excesse Dauid called him a Worme a Scoffe a Taunt and the Reproch of the People for that whilest he liued in the world he tooke vpon him all the affronts and contempts that man could cast vpon him And because there is not any loue comparable to that of our Sauiour Christ nor all the loues in the world put together can make vp such a perfect loue as also for that there was not any affront like vnto his nor all the affronts of the world could equall the affronts that were offered vnto him that on the one side hee should loue so much on the other suffer so much this was a great Excesse Nazianzen seeing vs swallowed vp in this sea of miseries vseth a kind of Alchimie by ioyning his greatnesse with our littlenesse his powerfulnesse with our weakenesse his fairenesse with our foulenesse his beautie with our deformitie his riches with our pouertie the gold of his Diuinitie with the durt of our Flesh And as the greater drawes the lesser after it so our basenesse did ascend to an heigth of honour And this was a great Excesse but farre greater to esteeme this Excesse as a Glorie whence the Saints of God haue learned to stile Tribulation and the Crosse Glorie Secondly This Excesse may be termed Glorie because it was the most glorious action that God euer did For what could be greater than to see Death subdued Life restored the Empire of sinne ouerthrowne the Prince thereof dispossessed of his Throne Iustice satisfied the World redeemed and Darknes made Light Thirdly It may be said to be Glorie because that by this his death a thousand Glories are to follow thereupon Propter qoud Deus exaltauit illum c. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and giuen him a name aboue euerie name that at the name of Iesus should euerie knee bow both of things in heauen and things in earth and things vnder the earth And this was the reward of his obedience and of his death And the reason thereof was that the World seeing it selfe captiuated by so singular a benefit men should make little reckoning either of their goods or their liues for this his exceeding loue towards them but desire in all that they can to shew themselues thankefull And therefore Esay cries out O that thou wouldest breake the Heauens and come downe and that the Mountaines might melt at thy presence c. What a great change and alteration wouldest thou see in the world thou wouldst see Mountaines that is hearts that are puffed vp with pride humbled and laid leuell with the ground Thou wouldst see Waters that is brests that are cold and frozen boyle with the fire of Zeale and wholly employ themselues in thy seruice And in his sixtieth Chapter treating of the profits and benefits which we shall receiue by Christs comming he saith For brasse will I bring gold and for yron will I bring siluer and for wood brasse and for stones yron I will also make thy gouernment peace and thine exactours righteousnesse Violence shall no more be heard of in thy Land neither desolation nor destruction within thy Borders but thou shalt call Saluation thy Walls and praise thy Gates The Lord shal bee thine euerlasting Light and thy God thy Glorie Bonum est nos hic esse c. It is better being here than in Ierusalem let vs therefore make here three Tabernacles c. Saint Gregorie calls Honour Tempestatem intellectus i. The vnderstandings Storme or Tempest in regard of the danger it driues man into and the easinesse wherewith in that course he runnes on to his destruction Si dederit mihi Dominus panem ad vescendum c. It was Iacobs speech vnto God after that he had done that great fauour of shewing a Ladder vpon earth whose top reached vp to Heauen you know the Storie but the vow that hee vowed vnto God was this If God will be with me and will keepe me in this journey that I goe and will giue me bread to eat and cloathes to put on then shall the Lord be my God and I shall neuer forget this his kindnesse towards me More loue a man would haue thought he might haue shewn towards God if he had promised to serue though he had giuen him neither bread to eat nor cloathes to put on But Saint Chrysostome saith That he seeing in this vision of his the prosperitie that God was willing to throw vpon him did acknowledge the thankefull remembrance of this his promised hoped for happines For Prosperitie is euermore the comparison of Obliuion Saint Bernard expounding that place of Dauid Man being in honour hath no vnderstanding saith That the prosperitie wherein God placed man robbed him of his vnderstanding and made him like vnto the Beasts that perish And here now doth Saint Peter loose his memorie Nor is this a thing so much to be wondred at for if there be such riches here vpon earth that they robbe a man of his vnderstanding and alienate him from himselfe if the sonne that is borne of a mother who hath suffered great paines in the bringing of him forth Iam non meminit praessurae hath forgotten his mothers throwes and thinkes not on the wombe that bore him if the great loue of this world and the prosperitie thereof can make vs so farre to forget our selues it is no strange thing that we should be farre more transported and carried away with heauenly things Dauid following the pursuit of his pleasures amidst all the delights of this life he cries out Onely thy glorie can fill me that only can satisfie me Remigius vnfolds this verse of the glorie of the Transfiguration and it may be that this Kingly Prophet did see it by the light of Prophecie And if so fortunate a King as he was did forget all those other goods that he enioyed and saith That hee desires no other good nor no other fulnesse What meruaile is it that a poore Fisherman should bee forgetfull of good or ill And as hee that is full fed likes nothing but what is the cause of this his fulnesse reckoning all other meats soure though they be neuer so sweet so he that shall once come to tast of that good will say No maâ— bien I desire no other good but this What sayth Saint Paul Sed noâ— c. But we also which haue the first fruits of the Spirit euen wee doe sigh in our selues waiting for the adoption euen the redemption of our bodie c. Though Paul enioyed the first fruits of the Spirit and extraordinarie regalos and fauours yet hee groaned and trauelled in paine for Heauen What saith Saint Chrysostome Is thy soule become a Heauen and doost thou yet groane for Heauen Do not thou meruaile that I groan hauing seene that in Heauen which I haue seen QuoniaÌ„ raptus fuiâ—â— Paradisum I see the good which the
via veritatis We haue erred in the way of truth And if a man shall then see that hee hath lost fiftie yeares of good workes of Prayers Almes Fastings wherewith he thought to gaine and merit Heauen O how lamentable will that losse appeare when hee shall find that by them hee hath treasured vp more wrath against the day of vengeance more sorrow and more torment in Hell Quaeretis me Yee shall seeke me In the former Chapter hee added Non inuâ—nietis Yee shall not find me Ieremie hath the same and the reasons thereof are two The first Because he that seeketh sloathfully carelessely sildome or neuer findeth From the time that our Sauiour Christ was borne hee condemned this their sloathfulnesse The Kings came from the East to seeke him but the Pharisees would not step a foot out of doores to looke after him not hauing the light of one single Starre but of a thousand Prophecies In lapide luteo lapidatuâ— est piger stercore bonum lapidatus est piger The Greeke letter makes the sence more plaine for in stead of Lapidatus it reads Comparatus A sloathfull man is compared to a durtie stone or to the dung of an Oxe vnderstanding by these two any kind of loathsome filthinesse whatsoeuer which the hand of man will auoyd to touch which if it doe touch it is besmeered and fouled therewith The sloathfull man is no lesse odious for he that shall giue himselfe ouer vnto sloath shall be bemired in his wealth or in his honour and shal haue cause all the days of his life to weepe and complaine Two signes the Scripture sets downe of him that seekes God truly The one That hee seekes as earnestly to serue him as others desire to offend him The Spirit that dwelleth in you lusteth to enuie The Spirit is here taken in the better sence as appeareth by the Greeke Translation as also by that which followeth But he giueth more grace He saith then That the holy Ghost doth put enuie into our brests binding euerie Soule to labour for his saluation with enuie Saint Paul saith Spiritus sanctus postulat pro nobis gemitibus inenarrabilibus That is He makes vs to desire it with groanes So likewise he makes vs to desire our saluation with enuie that wee should haue the enuie of the worldly minded man and the care of the Theefe when hee goes about his thefts and his robberies The beastly Epicure hotly pursues his filthie pleasures the reuengeful man his reuenge Demosthenes did enuie a Smith that was his neighbour for that he rose vp so early to so base and foule an Occupation The Theefe watcheth all night to take a purse vpon the highway the Wanton waits nights and dayes at his mistresses window the reuengefull man will not slumber nor sleepe with the like care art thou to seeke after God The other signe If when thou seekest God thou meetest not with rest quietnesse it is a signe that thou hast not yet found him As the Needle rests in the North so our Soule rests in God Fecisti â—os Domine ad te inquietum est cor nostrum donec veniamus ad â—e We cannot haue our perfect rest and quiet in this life but he that doth enioy the same he hath it from God it comes from him But when our heart is troubled suffering continuall perturbations like the Needle in the Compasse till it be turned towards the North it is no good signe that wee haue found God as we should The second reason of thy not finding God is because thou doost not seeke him when he is to be found Esay preaching before Manasses said Seeke yee the Lord while hee may bee found call yee vpon him while hee is neere but this peruerse King as the Hebrewes report it did calumniate this his doctrine alledging That it was a great error in him to say that God could not at any time be found being that Moses had said What Nation is there so great that hath their Gods so nigh vnto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call vpon him for But the truth is That as there is a time for all things Omnia tempus habent so is there a time likewise to find God and a time not to find him the time that wee liue heere vpon Earth is no ill time for to find him For though in the Ages of man there is one time better than another none is so desperate and hopelesse but that he may bee found therein and of all the whole life of man it may bee verified Omnis qui quaerit inuenit Euerie one finds that seekes At the point of death it is no good time to seeke him not that hee that shall then truly seeke after him shall not find him but because it is a hard matter at that verie instant to performe true repentance as wee haue elsewhere declared And therefore the Scripture so often cries out vnto vs That yet while it is day we should hearken vnto him lest the night of death should suddenly ouertake vs. What saith Eccl. Ante mortem confiteri i. Confesse before thou die S. Austen expounds this place of confession of our sinnes And because no man should hope to do it in the time of his sicknesse when paines diuers other accidents diuert the Soule Eccles. addeth Viuus sanus c. Confesse thy selfe whilest thou art healthie and sound not when thou art halfe dead and therein shalt thou doe two notable things The one Thou shalt praise God The other Thou shalt glorie in his mercies After death is a desperate time for then the doore is shut to Confession to Repentance to Intercessions and to pardon A mortuo quasi nihil perijt confessio Saint Augustine reads it Quasi non sit the Greeke letter Tanquam à non existente When a mans life ends there is an end of all remedies And therefore Salomon said That a liuing Dog was better than a dead Lyon And Ieremie Giue glorie to the Lord your God before he cause darkenesse and before your feet stumble vpon the darke mountaines and while yee looke for light yee turne it into the shadow of death and make it grosse darkenesse A third reason why we doe not find God is because wee doe not perseuer in seeking him And therefore it is said Yee shall seeke me and shall not find me S Austen sayes That the Iewes did seeke after God three manner of wayes One By hoping after another Messias Another By persecuting him both in his life and in his death For that piercing of his bodie with a Speare did plainely proue now that he was dead what hatred they bore to him while he was aliue The third when they being besieged by Titus and Vespasian calling to mind that he had foretold them there should not be one stone left vpon another in Ierusalem many of them returned to our Sauiour Christ and sought after him
but with a very poore weake purpose They did inherit this euil condition of their forefathers and grandfathers of old who did neuer seeke God but when hee scourged them soundly for their sins And when that storme was past and their peace made they fell afresh to their former rebellions There are few men so past grace which doe not sometimes sigh for Heauen But the mischiefe of it is that these our sighes are quickly ouerblowne they doe not last with vs. In the darkest night there are some lightnings which breake through the clouds and cleare the ayre but in the end the darkenesse preuaileth In your duskiest cloudiest daies the Sun is woont to rush through the foggiest thickest clouds but new cloudes arising the Sunne retires himselfe and pulls in his head Saul by spurts did dart foorth many beames of light acknowledging that Dauid had done him many reall courtesies and that he had repayed him euill for good and had a purpose with himselfe vpon fits to fauor him and to honour him But the foggy clouds and mystie vapours of Enuy increasing more and more vpon him these light flashes were turned into darkenesse Balaam when King Balack sent vnto him to curse Gods people had verie good purposes and desires for a while within him He consulted with God in that businesse and knowing that it was his wil that he should not go dispatched those his messengers And the King sending others vnto him he told them That he would not go to that end if hee would giue him his house full of gold Doubtlesse these were good intensions had he continued still in the same mind But the clouds of couetousnesse did ouercast this light of his vnderstanding with so grosse a darkenesse that neither the Angel which stood before him with a naked sword in the way nor his beast which spake vnto him and turned aside could keepe him backe In peccato vestro moriemini Yee shall dye in your sinne There are great indeerings in the holy Scripture of the grieuousnesse of sinne and the hurt that comes thereby Anselmus sayth That he had rather fry without sin in the flames of Hel than with sin inioy Heauen Hee might well say so in regard of Hel. For although Saint Austen saith That one drop of the water of Paradise shall be sufficient to quench the flames of Hell yet shall it not be able to wash away the foulnesse of sinne Helias desired of God that he might dye vnder the Iuniper tree and yet he would not be rid of his life by Iezabell in regard of the sinne that tyrannicall Queen should haue committed so that euen in his mortall enemy so great an ill seemed intollerable vnto him In Scripture sinne is a cypher of all possible infelicitie and misfortune thaâ— can befall a man Saint Paul sayth That God made his Sonne sinne Him who knew no sinne hee made sinne for vs. For discharging vpon him the tempest of his wrath he made him of all other men the most miserable Nouissimum virâ—rum Iacob would not let Beniamin goe downe with his brethren to Aegypt Ioseph desiring to haue it so though Reuben had offered two of his owne sons as pledges for his safe return to the end that the good old man should haue the best securitie he could giue him Reuben sayd If he returne not Ero peccati reus I will be content to be condemned to all possible miseries whatsoeuer The like Bersabe was willing to say when she thought the raigne of her sonne Salomon should be troubled Shall I and my sonne Salomon bee counted Offenders Shall wee bee the out-casts of the world and be layd open to the vtmost of miserie The reason of all this harme is For that all possible ill that can be imagined is reduced vnto sinne as to it's Center Make a muster of all the enemies of Man as Death the Deuill the World the Flesh not any one of them nay not all of them together haue any the least power to hurt vs without sinne And therefore in our Lords prayer silencing all other our enemies only we beg of God that he would free vs from sinne But deliuer vs from euill Which howbeit some doe vnderstand it to be spoken of the Deuill yet as Saint Austen sayth he can but barke he cannot bite Onely sinne is able to doe both To this so great a hurt may be added another that is farre greater Which is obstinacie in sinne Iob painting out this euill sayth That the sinner taketh pleasure therein and that it seemeth sweet vnto him it is as pellets of Sugar to him vnder his tongue He first delights in the companie of sinne then hee marries himselfe vnto her and at last leaues her not till death them depart Parcet illi non derelinquet The seuentie read it Non parcet illi non derelinquet hee will excuse no occasion no diligence no trouble His desire thereof is insatiable There is no kind of sinne be it of Sloath or Reuenge or Couetousnesse that is continually beating vpon our actions But our thoughts are euermore hammering of wickednesse like the Smith that giues a hundred blowes vpon his Anuill and two vpon his yron or like the Barbar that makes more snips in the ayre than on the haire The Pharisees did crucifie our Sauiour Christ but once in the verie deed and act of his death but in their desires in their thoughts they had crucified him a thousand times But that we may giue the obstinacie of this people it 's full qualification we must make a briefe recapitulation of those meanes which God vsed for to mollifie their hardnesse First of all he tooke it to his charge to cure it with his Doctrine his Miracles and the Prophecies of their Prophets Well this would doe no good with them and many dyed in this their obstinacie Next he comes amongst them in his owne person taking vpon him the name and office of a Phisition Purgationem peccatorum faciens Making a purge for sinne He was willing to haue ministred Phisicke to the Iewes and with the sweet and comfortable syrrop of his Word to haue eased them of their griefes and to haue cured all the infirmities of their bodies as the sicke of the Palsey for eight and thirtie yeares together the Blind that were borne blind and such as were possessed with Deuils and the like Being willing also to haue cleansed their soules from all kind of vncleannesse But at last hee was faine to giue them ouer their diseases were growne so desperate remitting them ad hospitalium incurabilium as men without hope of recouerie For as in the body there are some sickenesses so mortall that though the sicke bee capable of health yet the malignity of the humour maketh the Phisition to despaire therof So likewise in the soule there are some diseases so mortall that through the great malignity of them and the sharpenesse of the humour the
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
hee said Quid faciam What course shall I take with these men Secondly He intimates a strange kind of sorrow arising from this perplexity If I am Lord where is my feare If I be a father where is my honour In the end hee resolued with Gaifas Let my Sonne die He indeered as much as he could the force of his loue sending him to saue these Murderers from death but this could not appease their malice To slay his Prophets was more than a great malice but to take away the life of his onely Sonne and heire was excessiue Saint Hierome saith There was no weight no number no measure in the ones clemencie nor in the others malice This was a Consummatum est a fulnesse of his meâ—cie a fulnesse of their malice Verebuntur filium meum They will reuerence my Sonne Saint Luke addeth a Fortè thereunto And the Greeke Originall a Forsitan Howbeit it may goe for an Affirmatiue as well as Vtique Forsitan petisses ab eo ipse dedisset tibi aquam c. And so againe Si crederitis Moysi crederetis forsitan mihi If yee had beleeued Moses yee would likewise haue beleeued me And so it sorts well with that Text both of Saint Mathew and Saint Marke who absolutely say Verebuntur filium meum They will reuerence my Sonne In neither of these is a May bee or a Forsitan and onely to signifie the great reuerence which was due vnto him Where by the way Saint Chrysostome hath noted this vnto vs That God for all these their outrages did desire no furtheâ— satisfaction from them than to see them abasht and ashamed ofthis their ingratitude and crueltie Benigno Domino sufficiebat sola vindicta pudoris misit enim confundere non punire It was their blushing not their bleeding that he desired hee wisht their shame and not their confusion Parum supplicij satis est patri pro â—â—lio God is so kind and louing a Father that hee thinkes a little punishment enough for his Children Saint Bernard saith That the whole life of our Sauiour Christ from the Cratch to the Crosse was to keepe vs from sinning out of meere shame and that his maine drift euer was to leaue vs confounded and ashamed of our selues that our sinnes and wickednesse should force God against his will to punish vs For he takes no delight in the death of a Sinner Ecclesiasticuâ— makes a large memoriall of those things which ought to make a man blush and be ashamed of himselfe Be ashamed of whoredome before a father and mother be ashamed of lies before the Prince and men of authoritie of sinne before the Iudge and Ruler of offence before the Congreation and People of vnrighteousnesse before a companion and friend and of theft before the place where thou dwellest before the truth of God his Couenant to lean with thine elbows vpon the bread or to be reproued for giuing or taking of silence to them that salute thee to look vpon an harlot to turn away thy face from thy Kinseman or to take away a portion or gift or to be euill minded towards another mans wife or to solicite any mans mayd or to stand by her bed or to reproach thy friends with words or to vpbraid when thou giuest any thing or to report a matter that thou hast heard or to reueale secret words Thus mayst thou well be shamefaced shalt find fauour with all men This Erubescite must be the burthen of the Song to euerie one of these Versicles It is a foule and a shamefull thing to doe any of these things in the presence of graue persons to whom we owe a respect Much more foule in the presence of God who stands at thy elbow in all thy actions But foulest of all to commit these things in the presence of the Sonne of God whome his Father sent to bee thy Master thy Tutor and nayled him to the Crosse for thy sinnes that thou mightst bee ashamed to commit the like againe considering the great torment that he suffered for thee Some deuout picture or Image doth sometimes restraine a desperate sinner from committing some foule offence What would it worke then with him had God himselfe stood there present before him It may be they will reuerence my Sonne Say that wee take this Fortâ— or Forsitâ—â— in the same sence as the words themselues sound it is a point worthie our conâ—ideration That the innumerable summe of those infinite fauours which God did to his Vineyard should end in a Peraduenture and stand vpon hap-hazard A man may thinke it somewhat strange That God should come to any place vpon vncertainties but God is so good a God that he doth not so much proportion his blessings by the measure of his Wisedome as his Loue not that he doth not certainly know what we will be but because he would faine haue vs to be what we should be For if he should reward vs according to those our actions which he in his prescience and eternall essence foresees will come to passe Who of vs should be left aliue or who of vs should bee borne Onely the Innocent saith Theodoret should then be fauoured And therefore rather than it should bee so he was willing to put it vpon the venture how or what we might prooue heereafter He knew before hand that Lucifer should fall that Adam should sin that Saul should turn disobedient that Iudas should sel him betray him yet did he not forbeare for all this to throw his fauours vpon them S. Ambrose asketh the question Why Christ would make choice of Iudas when as he knew before hand that he would betray him And his answer thereunto is That it was to justifie his loue and to shew the great desire that he had that all should bee saued yea euen Iudas himselfe And therefore knowing his couetous disposition hee made him his Purse-bearer that he might shut the doore to his excuses and that he might not haue iust cause to say That he was in want lackt mony so was forced out of meere necessitie to betray and sel his Master which otherwise he would neuer haue done but the deliuering ouer the Purse vnto him tooke away that obiection Well then What can this Traitor say for himselfe That Christ did not countenance him as he did the rest or that hee made light reckoning of him Neither will this hold water for hee had made him an Apostle hee was listed in the rolle with the rest hee wrought miracles as well as his Fellowes receiued many other fauours from his Masters hands The same reason may serue as well for the Iewes as Iudas For our Sauior knew that they should put him to death yet for all this would not he cease to shew his loue vnto them Hic est haeres venite occidamus eum nostra erit haereditas This is the heire come let vs kill him and let
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
the King of Kings our Sauiour Christ to doe him homage Hâ—c omnia tibi dabo si cadens adoraueris me All these things will I giue thee if thou wilt fall downe and worship me Or whither he were so called for that other attribute of his to wit his daringnesse and his audaciousnesse Nihil audacius musca Nothing bolder than a Flie And for this cause saith Homer did the Lacedemonians beare Flies for their Deuice in their Shields which is confirmed by Pierius The Deuill occupieth the North I will set in the sides of the North. From the North commeth all euill Your Flies they doe the like Plinie saith That your Bees are forced to forsake their hiues and to flie out of your Northerne parts for the trouble that the Flies there giue them The Deuill is importunate impudent neuer ceaseth neuer growes wearie with tempting vs And no lesse vexatiue and troublesome are your Flies Saint Gregorie calls these our sensuall imaginations Flies Pierius reporteth That to the importunate man they gaue the name of Flie And there is no such busie bodie as the Deuill Lastly Your Flies doe abound most in the Dog dayes and the greater is the heat of our sensualities the greater store of Deuills it hatcheth Of Marie Magdalen Saint Luke saith That our Sauiour Christ cast out of her seuen Deuills And howbeit there were other great Gods amongst the Gentiles according to Vatablus his report as one Balberid that is Dominus Fideus that presideth in al kind of dealing and contractations in Innes and Victualling houses and was so rich an Idoll by reason of the great Almes and deuotions which your Traders and dealers in the world did offer vnto him that by the helpe thereof Abimelech killing seuentie of his brethren carried away the Kingdome of Israell There was likewise one Belfegor who did command in Chiefe in Gluttonie and was a verie poore Idoll in regard that they who were deuoted vnto him spent all that they could rape and wring in bellie-cheere and gourmandizing Notwithstanding all these Beelzebub whom they likewise called the God of Acharon was more famous than all the rest of that rabble And the Prophets for to diuert the People from the adoration of these Idolls did impose infamous names vpon them as Beelzebub God of the Flies And the People wondred Acknowledging That they had neuer seen so prodigious a miracle in Israel Nunquam apparuit sic in Israel Insomuch that some of them whispered amongst themselues That he was the Sonne of God Nunquid â—ic est Filius Dei others did desire signes from Heauen others said In Beelzebub c. Saint Hierome saith That this was that Deuill which deceiued Eue as also he that tempted our Sauiour Iesus Christ. But here is to be seene a greater miracle than this That Christ giuing sight to this one blind man should leaue so many others more blind than he Which made Esay crie out Obstupescite admiraâ—ini Stay your selues and wonder they are blind and make you blind It were able to strike a man into amasement to see that a poore sillie old woman should see the light of Heauen and the blind likewise that is borne blind and that the Scribes and Pharisees should continue so blind as they doe The heart that is hardned is like vnto the Anuile which the more you beat vpon it the harder it waxeth Or like vnto sand which the more the waters wash it the closer it settles and growes the tougher Of Nabals heart the Scripture saith Mortuum est cor eius factum est quasi lapis That his heart dyed within him and that he was like a stone Saint Bernard giues vs fiue markes by which wee may know the hardnesse of a mans heart The first Neque compunctione scinditur It is not toucht with compunction It hath no feeling of it's hurt and perdition Our Sauiour healing one that was possest with a Deuill Suspiciens Caelum ingemuit Casting his eyes vp to Heauen he wep't and lamented mourning for him that mourned not for himselfe Alexander would haue killed himselfe for hauing killed his friend Clitus Lâ—â—cretia stab'd her selfe when she saw she had lost her honesty But the sinner is not sencible of farre greater losses than these The second Nec pietate mollitur It is not mollified with Gods Pitie and Mercie towards it The clemencie which he showeth towards it ought to reduce it to repentance But it despiseth as Saint Paul saith the riches of his goodnesse and longanimitie And these are riches that are treasured vp to their owners condemnation God treasures vp Mercie for thee and thou treasurest vp Wrath against the day of Vengeance All which shall turne to thine owne hurt The third Nec mouetur precibus It is not mooued with prayers and intreaties Tota die sayth Esay c. I haue spred out mine hand all the day long to a rebellious people The selfe same words are repeated againe by Saint Paul To begge with hands lifted vp is a ceremony which men vse with God God sayth that he vseth the like with men as if he were Man and Man God The fourth Flagellis induratur Like that of Pharaoh The more hee is punished the more his heart is hardned According to that of Iob Cor eius indurabitur quasi lapis stringetur quasi malleatoris incus His heart shall be hardned as a stone or as the anuile that is hammered on by the Smith Whereunto suteth that of Ieremy Indurauerunt facies suas super Petram They haue made their faces harder than a stone The fifth Inhumanum propter res humanas Inhumane to it selfe for humane commodities Who like Narcissus being in loue with their owne beautie will rather dye than forsake so vaine a shadow Of these men it may bee sayd Wee haue made a league with Death and a couenant with Hell The appointed time shall ouertake these men or some disperat sickenesse shall cease vpon them Thou shalt preach to one of these obstinat sinners That he confesse himselfe make his peace with God by acknowledging his sinnes by being hartily sorry for the same and by crauing pardon and forgiuenesse of God But his answere will be What Shall men thinke that I doe it out of feare No I am no such coward c. All these conditions are summed vp in those which our Sauiour vttered of the euill judge Nec Deum timeo nec homines Vereor I feare neither God nor Man Others tempted him seeking a signe from Heauen From this varietie of opinions Saint Austen inferreth the little reckoning that we are to make as well of mens iudgements as their iniuries For mine owne part leauing Saint Austen herein to your good likings Let not mine owne conscience condemne mee before God all the rest I account as nothing What sayth Esay Nolite timere opprobrium hominum Feare not the affronts and calumnies of men And Christ giues you a verie good
our ill the Sinner that inuents new mischiefes doth outreach the Deuill and goes beyond him And questionlesse in not passing the bounds of Gods diuine will and Empire the Deuill is more moderate than Man For the Deuill askt leaue of God for to tempt Iob but Man will not be so respectfull as to aske his leaue but will not sticke to kill thousands of men without licence Bonauenture saith That they thrust him out of the Citie for a blasphemer for proclaiming himselfe to bee the Messias It is commanded in Leuiticus That the Blasphemer should be carried forth of the Citie and bee stoned to death And therefore our Sauiour Christ extra portam passus est suffred without the gate and Saint Stephen was stoned without the Citie And our Sauiour had no sooner said in the presence of Caiphas Amodo c. Henceforth shall yee see the Sonne of Man comming in the clouds of Heauen but the Iewes presently cried out Blasphemauit He hath blasphemed So likewise our Sauior expounding that prophecie of Esay the Nazarites might also take occasion to say Blasphemauit And this their offering to throw him downe from the edge of the hill doth no way contradict their stoning of him for they might haue done that after they had thrust him downe dealing by him as Saint Hierome reports Saint Iames whom they call our Sauiours brother was dealt withall they first threw him downe from the Rocke and afterwards cut off his head To cast him headlong downe c. Methinkes it seemeth somewhat strange vnto me That our Sauiour should come down from Heauen to Nazareth for to giue life vnto men and that Nazareth should seeke to tumble him downe thereby to worke his death That with the losse of his owne life and the price of his most pretious bloud hee should redeeme them from death and that they in this vnthankefull and vnciuile manner should goe about to take away his life O vngratefull People God was not willing to bestow any miracles on them who would not entertaine so great a miracle God vseth to requite the thankes of one fauour with conferring another greater than the former So doth Saint Bernard expound that place of the Canticles He made his left hand my pillow and I doubt not but he will hug and embrace me with his right hand For I shal shew my selfe so thankefull for the one that my Spouse will vouchsafe to affoord me the other But those courtesies which Nazareth had receiued they so ill requited that euen to the houre of his death none did our Sauior Christ greater iniurie Nay in some sort this their wrong was greater than that which Hierusalem did him for this Citie treating of the death of our Sauiour did obserue some forme of Iudgement and onely the Ministers of Iustice had their hands in it but Nazareth in a most furious manner like the common people when they are in a mutinie hasted vp to the edge of the hill to throw him downe headlong contrarie to all Law and Iustice. In Hierusalem there were some that did not consent vnto his death but in Nazareth all of them conspired against him Omnes in Synagoga repleti suntira All that were in the Synagogue were filled with anger and that on the Sabboth day when it was not lawfull for them to gather stickes and make a fire c. But he passed through the middest of them and went his way The common receiued opinion is That he made himselfe inuisible to them and so got from them leauing their will and determination deluded Saint Ambrose and Beâ—â— say That he turned their hearts Cor Regis in manu Domini quo voluerit c. The heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord and hee turneth it c. Like vnto those Officers of the Scribes and Pharisees who went forth to apprehend him who altering their purpose returned saying NuÌ„quid sic loquutus c. Did euer any man speake thus He might likewise take from them their force their strength that they might not bee able to put forth a hand to hurt him and leauing them like so many blockes might passe through the middest of them as beeing the Lord both of their soules and bodies And as he once left the Iewes with their stones frozen in their hands so now leauing the Nazarits astonished Per medium illorum ibat This Ibat doth inforce a perseuerance and continuation in token that God wil leaue his best beloued countrie that citie which was most graced and fauored by him if it be so gracelesse as to prooue vngratefull When God carried Ezechiel in spirit to the Temple discouering great abhominations vnto him and said vnto him These things my People commit Vt procul recedam à Sanctuario meo They giue mee occasion thereby to forsake them and to get mee farre enough from them So hath he departed from Israell from Asia Affrica many other parts of Europ forsaking so many cities temples so much heretofore fauored by him and so much made of Nazareth signifies a Floure a Crowne or a Garland and the Nazarites were once the onely Floures in Gods Garden that is in his Church they were religious persons that were consecrated to his seruice and therefore Nazareth is by them more particularly called Christs own Countrie for that therein he had beene often spiritually conceiued But because of the Nazarits Ierem. doth lament Thatthey being more white than milke were become as blacke as a cole by reason of their vnthankfulnesse Therfore in Colledges and religious places with whom God communicates his fauours in a more large and ample manner they ought of all other to shew themselues most gratefull for the more a man receiues and the more he professeth the more he ought to doe Cum enim crescunt dona rationes etiam crescunt donorum Dei so saith Saint Gregorie But he passed through the middest of them and went his way Howbeit death to the Iust is not sudden nor can be said to take him hence vnawares Though the Righteous be preuented with death yet shall hee be in rest The Church notwithstanding doth not vse this prayer in vaine A subitanea improuisa morte libera nos Domine From sudden death good Lord deliuer vs. Saint Augustine in his last sickenesse prayed ouer the penitentiall Psalmes and shedding many teares sayd That though a man were neuer so iust and righteous yet was hee not to die without penitence Saint Chrysostome tells vs That when Feare at the houre of death doth set vpon the Soule burning as it were with fire all the goods of this life she enforceth her with a deep and profound consideration to meditate on those of that other life which is to come And although a mans sinnes bee neuer so light yet then they seeme so great and so heauie that they oppresse the heart And as a piece of timber whilest it is in the water any
the weakest arme is able to mooue it but beeing brought to the shore hath need of greater strength so sin whilest it floateth on the waters of this life seemeth light vnto vs but being brought to the brinke of death it is verie weightie and it will require a great deale of leisure consideration and grace to land it well and handsomely and to rid our hands of it Of this good sudden death depriueth vs And although it is apparent in Scripture That God doth sometimes permit the Iust to die a sudden death as Origen Saint Gregorie and Athanasius Bishop of Nice affirmeth as in Iobs children on whom the house fell when they were making merrie and in those who died with the fall of the Tower of Siloah who according to our Sauiours testimonie were no such notorious sinners yet commonly this is sent by God as a punishment for their sinnes Mors peccarorum pessima i. esse debet An euill death was made for an euil man And Theodoret expounding what Dauid meant by this word Pessima saith That in the proprietie of the Greeke tongue it is a kind of death like vnto that of Zenacheribs Souldiers who died suddenly And Iob treating of him that tyranniseth ouer the world saith Auferetur Spiritâ—â— oris sui Cajetan renders it Recedet in Spiritu oris sui He shal die before he be sicke without any paine in the middest of his mirth when he is sound and lustie Their life being a continuall pleasure at their death they scarce feele any paine because it is in puncto in an instant Sophonias requireth of them That they will thinke on that day before it come wherein God will scatter them like the dust Esay threatning his People because they had put their trust in the succors of Aegypt saith This iniquitie shall be vnto you as a breach that salleth or a swelling in an high wall whose breaking commeth suddenly in a moment and the breaking thereof shall be like the breaking of a Potters pot and in the breaking thereof there shall not bee found a sheard to take fire out of the hearth or to take water out of the pit And the word Requisita mentioned by the Prophet intimateth a strong wall that is vndermined rusheth downe on the sudden How much their securitie is the more so much the more is their danger because it takes the soldiers vnawares But if this so strong a wal should chance to fall vpon a Pitcheâ— of earth it is a cleere case that it would dash it into so many fitters seuerall little pieces that there would not a sheard therof be left for to take vp so much as an handfull of water or to fetch a little fire from our next Neighbours house This effect doth sudden death worke it is a desperat destruction to a sinner And therefore Christ though without sin seeks to shun it that he might teach thee that art a Sinner to auoyd it Secondly our Sauior sought to shun this violent death because his death was reserued for the Crosse as well because it was a kind of long and lingering death as also for diuers other conueniencies which wee haue deliuered elsewhere Passing through the midst of them he went his way Our Sauiour Christ might haue strooke them with blindnesse if he would as the Angell did those of Sodome or haue throwne them downe headlong from the Cliffe but because they complained That he wrought no miracles among them as he had in other places he was willing now at his departure from them to shew them one of his greatest miracles by taking their strength from them hindring the force of their armes and leauing them much astonished and dismayed Though now and then God doth deferre his punishments for that the sinnes of the Wicked are not yet come to their full growth yet we see that he spared not his Angels nor those whom he afterwards drowned in the Floud nor those of Sodome nor of others lesse sinnefull than they nor his owne children of Israell of all that huge number being more in number than the sands of the sea not suffering aboue two to enter into the land of Promise how is it possible that hee should endure the petulancie of this peremptorie people these grumbling Nazarites who in such a rude and vnciuill fashion in such an imperious and commanding voice should presume to say vnto him taking the matter in such deepe dudgeon Fac hic in Patria tua But as when the Romane Cohorts came to take our Sauiour Christ they fell backward on the ground at his Ego sum I am hee which was a fearefull Miracle for no cannon vpon earth nor any thunderbolt from Heauen could haue wrought so powerfull an effect so now passing through the midst of them with a graue and setled pace leauing them troubled angrie amased hee prooued thereby vnto them That he was the Lord and giuer both of life and death c. THE TWENTIETH SERMON VPON THE TVESDAY AFTER THE THIRD SONDAY IN LENT MAT. 18. Si peccauerit in te frater tuus If thy brother shall trespasse against thee c. OVr Sauior Christ instructing him that had offended his brother what he ought to doe giues him this admonition Go vnto thy brother and reconcile thy selfe vnto him and if thou hast offended him aske him forgiuenesse Notifying to the partie offended that he should pardon him that offended if he did intreat it at his hands but if he shall not craue pardon he instructeth Peter in him all the Faithfull What the offended and wronged person ought to doe If thy brother trespasse against thee goe and tell him his fault betweene thee and him c. and if he heare thee thou hast woon a brother but if he will not vouchsafe to heare thee proceed to a second admonition before two or three witnesses and if he will not heare them tell it vnto the Church and if he shall shew himselfe so obstinate that he will not obey the Church let him be vnto thee as a heathen man and a Publican So that our Sauiour Christs desire is That the partie wronged should pardon the partie wronging and reprooue him for it for if it bee ill not to pardon it is as ill not to reprooue For to intreat of a matter so darke and intricate that the Vnderstanidng were to take it's birth from the ordinarie execution of the Law there were not any thing lesse to be vnderstood for there is not any Law lesse practised nor any Decree in Court lesse obserued I desire that God would doe mee that fauour that he did Salomon God giue me a tongue to speake according to my mind the pen of a readie Writer cleerenesse of the case which I am to deliuer true distinction grace knowledge or as Bonauenture stiles it resolutionem in declarando and to iudge worthily of the things that are giuen me For so many are the difficulties the questions and the
arguments as well against the substance of this Law as against the manner of complying with it that there will be necessarily required great fauour and assistance from Heauen for to make any setled and ful resolution amongst so many sundrie and diuers distractions But in conclusion it is the best and the safest councell to adhere to that which is the surest and not to make any reckoning of that course which is now a dayes held in the World not of that which is in vse but that which ought to bee vsed not so much the practise of the Law as of Religion For if the abuses of the world and traditions of men were to tontiâ—ue in force by pleading of custome by that means made iustifiable they would giue the checkmate stand in competitioÌ„ with the laws of God S. Paul saith writing to the Colossians Let your speech be gratious alwayes and poudred with salt that yee may know how to answer euerie man And S. Ambrose expounding this place saith That the Apostle begs grace of God that he might know how to speake with discretion when time place and occasion shall oblige him thereunto As also when vpon the same termes to hold his peace And this is that which I now desire of God If thy brother shall trespasse against thee Here sinne is put downe in the condition of this obligation For it is a kind of monstrousnesse which wee neuer or seldome ought to see Wee stiling that a monster which comes foorth into the world against the Lawes of Nature And in this sence sinne may be sayd to bee a monster because it is against the Lawes of God Ecclesiasticus sayth That God did not wil any man to sinne nor did allow him any time wherein to sinne but alotted him a life and place wherein to serue him and a time to returne vnto him and to repent as oft as hee should offend his diuine Maiestie but to sinne he neuer gaue him the least leaue in the world Dedit ei locum poenitentia He gaue him a place for repentance sayth the Apostle Saint Paul so likewise sayth Iob. And therefore God hauing made the Heauen the Earth and al that therein is he did not then presently make Hell For if Man had not sinned there had bin no neede of it For where no faults are committed a prison is needlesse The Prophet Esay was verie earnest with God that hee would come downe vpon Earth Oh that thou wouldst breake the Heauens and come downe and that the Mâ—â—â—taines might melt at thy presence c. Hee alludeth to that Historie of Mount Sinay where God descended to giue the Law vnto his people with thundering lightening and fire wherewith he strucke such a feare and terrour into them that the people had great reuerence to the Law And therefore this holy Prophet sayth What would they doe if thou shouldest once againe come amongst them A facie tua montes fluerent The proudest of them all would let fall their plumes and humble themselues at thy feete which are here represented in the word Montes or mountaines And those soules which are now frozen and as cold as yce figured in the word Aquae or waters would gather heat and be set on fire With this desire did the sonne of God descend from the bosome of his father but he bringing that humilitie with him that was able to make the highest mountaines to stoope and to bring downe the proudest heart and fire for to burne and dry vp many waters yet mens brests waxed colder and colder and their soules were more and more swolne with pride The Glorious Apostle Saint Paul writing to the Romans That God made his Sonne our propitiation Whome God hath set foorth to bee a reconciliation through faith in his bloud to declare his righteousnesse by the forgiuenes of the sinnes that are passed c. He did exercise vpon his sonne the seuerest Iustice that euer was or shall be seene againe for the remission of precedent sinnes To the end that Man considering how deere our former wickednesse and forepassed sinnes cost our Sauiour Man should be so affraid of offending that hee should neuer returne to sinne any more Some may happily aske me the question Why the death and passion of our Sauiour beeing so powerfull and effectuall a remedie against all kind of vices whatsoeuer yet sinne still reigneth so much in the World as neuer more Wherunto I answere That vpon the Crosse our Sauiour Christ gaue sentence against all whatsoeuer both present past and those that were to come And depriued the Prince of the World of that Seigniorie which he possessed so that all of them were to suffer death and to haue an end But they did appeale from this sentence of death to the Tribunall of our passions And for that they are such interressed such blind Iudges they haue set these our Vices againe at libertie giuing them licence to worke vs as much if not more harme than they did before So that Gods sending of his sonne into the World and his suffering death for our sinnes did not generally banish all vice but did serue rather to some for their greater condemnation If thy brother shall trespasse In te against thee Saint Augustine expoundeth this In te to be contra te and in this sence it ought to be taken for it is the expresse letter of the former Texts as also of those that follow and generally agreed vpon by all the Doctors The Interlinearie hath it Si te contumelia affecerit Saint Peter anon after askes our Sauiour How oft shall my brother sinne against mee and I shall forgiue him Whereupon Theophilact taking hold of this word Contra me notes That if his brother should sinne against God hee could hardly forgiue him Saint Luke deliuers the same much more plainly and cleerely If thy brother haue trespassed against thee rebuke him if hee repent forgiue him If hee offend thee seuen times a day and seuen times a day shall turne vnto thee forgiue him Hugo Cardinalis hath obserued That if the word In te be the ablatiue case then it is the same with Coram te but if it be the accusatiue then it is all one with Contra te and the Greeke doth admit of no Ablatiues In Leuiticus God had said long before Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart but reprooue him And vpon a second admonition Take vnto thee two witnesses and tell it to the Church Manle doe concur and runne along with this sence no difficultie in the world interposing it selfe The second sence which Saint Augustine also treateth of in the same place is If he shall trespasse against thee that is before thee This opinion Thomas followeth and the greater and better part of the Schoolemen howbeit there are great arguments and strong reasons to the contrarie and many graue Authours to whom this sence doth not seeme so plaine as to ground thereupon any diuine
riches to the Poore thou shalt not worke that good thereby as thou shalt by sauing a soule for there is no price comparable with that of the Soule Fructus justi lignum vitae By liuing well himselfe and by gaining his brothers Soule Saint Augustine saith That euerie Christian should desire that all should be saued and he that contemneth correction doth in part denie this desire And the Apostle Saint Iames That he that shall conuert his brother and remooue him from his errour shall saue his soule from death In which words are comprised as well his owne as anothers soule Thomas saith Correction is eleemosina spiritualis a spirituall kind of almes and of so much more price than any other alms by how much the soule is of more price than the bodie by how much the goods of Grace are to be preferred before those of fortune and of Nature He that succours the Poore when hee giues most hee can but lay downe his corporall life for him but hee that raiseth vp him that is fallen bestowes a spirituall life on him and performes the office of an Apostle So that to correct and â—o be corrected brings with it so much interest and so much gaine that euery man may account it for a great happinesse The incorrigible man is so threatned in the sacred Scripture that the verie feare thereof is able to quell his spirits and to make him turne Coward A man that hardneth his necke when he is rebuked shall suddenly be destroyed so saith Salomon The Hebrew phrase is Vir correctionum he that liueth so ill that a man had need to carrie alwayes in his hand a rod of correction for him and instead of amending his faults dayly addes sinne vnto sinne whereby hee is ouertaken with sudden death which in a Sinner is of all other euils the greatest Other lesser threatnings are set downe by Salomon Pouertie and shame shall be to him that forsaketh discipline and now here he saith Sudden destruction shall come vpon him So long may hee perseuer in the hardnesse of his heart that Gods justice may ouertake him and shorten his dayes by sudden death The truth of this is apparent in Pharaoh to whom so many faire warnings and admonitions serued but to make the heape of his sinnes the higher till at last with those heapes of waters hee was ouerwhelmed suddenly in the sea It is written in the Booke of Wisedome That those cruell and many stripes which were bestowed vpon the Aegyptians could not draw so much as one teare from their eyes nor procure the libertie of Gods People of hard-hearted Pharaoh But when they saw the death of their firstborn then they howled wept and Pharaoh himselfe was mooued and made pittious mone and gaue present order for their departure But here I pray you obserue with mee a fearefull kind of obstinacie for they had scarce dryed their teares scarce had they couered the graues of their Dead when lo those that had intreated for their departure as fearing they should all die the death Omnes moriâ—mur for so saith the Text falling into a rash and vnaduised consideration followed after them as if they had beene a companie of Fugitiues forgetting the former torments which they had indured And a wise man rendring the reason of this so foolish a resolution saith This their hardnesse of heart carried them 〈◊〉 it were perforce to this so disastroâ—â— an end to the end that those whom the plagues which God had sent among them as so many admonitions so many warnings had not made an end of sudden death might destroy and supplie the defect of that punishment O that Sinners would bee so wise as to enter into discourse with themselues The Adulterer whom God hath freed from a thousand notorious dangers of his life and credit though his brethren haue not checkt him yet hath his owne conscience corrected him with greater seueritie and far more sharpely as also the sudden death of other his fellow Adulterers A sudden stab takes him out of the world Vt quae deerant tormentis suppleret punitio That punishment may supplie what is wanting to his torments Another in some bad fashion hazards his honour God miraculously preserues him more than once or twice that he may take warning thereby and reclaime him selfe he mixes a thousand bitter galls with his sweet delights hee affrights him with sudden assaults this doth no good on him hee strikes him with a Lethargie that depriues him of his sences thus through his owne wilfulnes hardheartednes he is haled violently as it were by the haire of the head to this so miserable an end Vt quae deâ—rant tormentis suppleret punitiâ— In fauour of the reward which the Corrected shall receiue Salomon proposeth many graue sentences to that purpose The eare that hearkneth to the correction of life shall lodge among the wise not onely in earth but in-heauen for Quicquiescit arguenti gloriabitur Amongst other pledges that a Soule may assure it selfe that God wisheth it well is the sending of a Legat vnto him to aduise him of his faults Si corripuerit me iustus in miserecordia hoc ipsum sentiam it is Saint Bernards I will receiue him as sent from God Labia â—ua distillantia myrrham primam Myrrh is bitter as before hath beene said but preserueth from corruption so are the words of my Beloued they are bitter but are directed to the sauing of my life and to preserue me from death Saint Augustine drawes a comparison from him that is franticke and one that is sicke of a Lethargie the one fals into follie the other into a profound sleepe he that bindes the one and wakes the other is troublesome to them both but beeing both recouered they both giue him thankes Thou hast gained thy brother This is the end and as Aristotle saith Finis est fundamentum omnium actionum nostrarum The end is the foundation of all our actions and the gaining of a lost brother is the end and scope of these our diligences Where I would haue you to note That hee that doth a wrong doth euer receiue more hurt than he that hath the wrong Qui alterum ladit plus sibi nocet Hee that hurts another doth most hurt to himselfe for the hurt that the wronged receiueth is outwardly and in bodie but the hurt of him that wrongeth is inwardly and in soule And therefore Saint Paul saith Yee that sinne against your brother sin against Christ he that despiseth these things despiseth not man but God And our Sauiour Christ He that shall call his brother Foole is worthie of Hell fire So that the wronged cannot receiue the third part of the harme of the partie wronging Plato is of opinion That hee that doth an iniurie to another doth the greatest to himselfe and cannot if he would studie to doe himselfe a worse mischiefe Dauid was much wronged by Absolon for what greater offence could a
as Saint Hierome saith this their slander with a truth The like befell him in the case of the Adultresse when the Pharisees askt him If they should stone her or no to death according as the Law commanded whereunto he answered Let him that is without sinne cast the first stone it is but a slouerâ—ly tricke to go about with foule hands to make another bodie cleane Aristotle faith That the eyes haue no colour nature so holding it fit to the end they might the better receiue and discerne all other colours In like manner he that will reprehend other mens faults must himselfe be blamelesse Dauids sinne was knowne to all the world yet he made confession thereof onely vnto God Against thee onely haue I sinned c. because God onely had the power to punish him For he onely saith Saint Augustine doth iustly punish in whome there is not any thing to be found that deserueth punishment and that man is fit to reprehend another in whom nothing is to bee found worthie reprehension Those of Israell sallyed twice out against those of Beniamin desiring justice at Gods hands of that cruell sinne which they had committed but were both times ouercome Saint Gregorie saith That they went forth against them to reuenge Gods honour and the wrong that was done to their Neighbour but God did not giue them the victorie because they had an Idoll amongst them which they adored Now hee that will punish another mans sinnes must first purge himselfe of his owne sinnes The representing of mans owne sinnes to himselfe is a great Tapaboca or stop-game to play vpon other mens faults To that Sinner who vseth to cast his sins like a wallet ouer his shoulder God saith Statuam contra te faciem tuam I will make thee to see that which thou doost not see and I will bring those sinnes which thou hast throwne behind thy backe before thy face to the end that being ashamed of thyne owne doings thou maist not find fault with other mens actions Woe is me I am vndone saith Esay because I am a man of polluted lips The Prophet had seene God in a Throne of great and wonderfull Maiestie and hee would haue published and proclaimed the same to all the World but hee sayth That he durst not presume to do it because his lips were polluted The Chaldae word is Grauis ore My lips are of too heauie a dulnesse for such high Misteries The seuentie Interpreters render it Vae mihi doleo compunctus My sinnes stop my mouth when I consider myne owne life I dare not question another mans The Pharisee censured Marie Magdalen to be a Sinner and our Sauiour Christ to be no Prophet but our Sauiour setâ—ing before him a reconuention of many grieuous sinnes he left him amased and ashamed God tooke away the poore innocent babe which Dauid had by Beersheba pretending therein according to Theodoret to burie this his sinne vnder ground because he beeing appointed by God to punish Adultrers Murdrers they might not tit him in the teeth say vnto him And why doe you the like Saint Paul askes the question Is God then vniust And he answers thereunto God forbid else How shall God iudge the world If thou shouldest aske a Phylosopher Whither it were possible for God to sinne He would answer It is not possible because he is Causa prima norma vniuersalis The prime cause and vniuersall rule But Saint Pauls answer is That it is not possible that God should sinne because he could not then conueniently gouerne the world For he can hardly reforme sinne in another man who had need to reforme what is amisse in himselfe Three Kings did conspire against the king of Moab they besieged his Citie and he seeing himselfe in a desperate taking tooke his eldest sonne that should haue raigned in his stead and offered him for a burnt offering vpon the wall Cajetan saith That this Sacrifice was not done to the God of Israell as some haue imagined but to those Idols which that King did worship and that after this so cruell an act there insued so great a plague in the Israelites Campe that they were forced to raise the siege Facta est indignatio magna in Israel The Hebrew hath it Ira magna The Vulgar renders it Israel was sore grieued and departed from him and returned to their Countrie but the wrath of God entred into their Armie for that they had sacrificed their sonnes daughters to Deuils according to that of Dauid Sacrificauerunt filios filias suas daemonio By whose example the King of Moab learned to offer this kind of sacrifice and God was highly offended with them for it and therefore would not suffer such as had playd the Idolaters in sacrificing their children to take away the KingdoÌ„s of other Idolaters who perhaps were lesse faulty than themselues Alexander layingit to a Pyrats charge that with two ships he had robbed at sea hee returned him this answere Thou rob'st all the World and no man sayes any thing vnto thee and I who to picke out a poore liuing put foorth to sea but with two poore little barkes must haue theft and pyracie layd to my charge The like answere did a Bishop make to Pope Gregorie the second when hee kept his Sea at Auignon Who giuing him a shrewd checke for that he did not reside in his Bishopricke he told him It is now full three score and ten yeares that the Popes Sea hath beene kept out of Rome and your Holinesse now reprehends me for liuing but three dayes from my Bishopricke To this purpose sutes that answere which Vriah gaue to King Dauid This valiant Captaine tooke vp his lodging and layd himselfe downe to sleepe in the porch of the Kings pallace And the King asking him why he did not goe home to inioy the ease and pleasure of his owne bed He made him this answere The Arke of God dwelleth in Tents and my Lord Ioab Generall of your Army and the seruants of my lord abide in the open fields shall I then beeing but an ordinarie souldier goe into my house to eate and drinke and lye with my wife By thy life and by the life of thy soule I will not doe this thing This was a seuere reprehension in Vriah to his soueraigne For if a subiect shall out of such honest respects refraine from going home to his owne house much more ought the King to haue abstained from lying with another mans wife Nor is that Historie of Iudas much amisse who being Gouernor of the people and finding Thamar great with child would needs execute that law against her of adulterous women But Thamar proued That he that was to iudge others should not himselfe be a delinquent Now wee come to the last reason of this our Sauiours sharpe and quicke answere vnto them There were two Truths prophecied of our Sauiour Christ The one his Meekenesse and Gentlenesse And of
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
pierceth into the bowells of the earth it discouereth the bottome of the Deepe in the one he hath certaine Shops or Worke-houses wherein gold siluer and pretious stones are wrought in the other Pearle and diuers other rich commodities as Corall Amber and the like But although the Sun reacheth to the vtmost corners of the earth and the most hidden secret places of this Vniuerse by his vertue and heat yet are there many which he cannot come neere vnto with his light and splendor but from the eyes of God there is not that veine or least crannie in the earth nor that shell though neuer so small in the sea that can hide it selfe Sicut tenebra eius ita lumen eius As the darkenesse is his so is the light also In that beginning when God created the World he diuided the night from the day and the light from darkenesse but this was done for humane eyes but to those diuiner eyes there is no night at all and innumerable are those places of Scripture which prooue the truth hereof vnto vs. The third That God many times affoords vs a greater fauour in publishing a secret sinne than in letting it lie hid and reserued against the day of Wrath for our eternall and publique confusion The Schoolemen make a question Which is the more grieuous the publique or the secret sinne and it is a plain case that the publique carries with it more grieuous circumstances of scandal harme and infection and therefore Dauid stiles it a Plague or Pestilence but the secret sin is always more dangerous because it is in some sort incurable there is no neighbour to admonish thee of it no witnesse to denunciate against thee nor no judge to punish thee for it nor no Prelat to reprehend thee therefore for sinne once reprehended in persons that haue any shame in them in the world turnes to amendment Saint Augustine reports in his Confessions That his mother had two Maid seruants one a well growne wench the other a little girle and that when they went for Wine to the Tauerne the bigger would drinke a good heartie draught the lesser did but sip a little but by sip after sip she grew by degrees to be a good proficient and falling out one day before their mistresse the bigger complained of the lesser That she did drinke vp the Wine whereof shee was so ashamed that she would neuer after so much as offer to take it Publique sins all labour to amend When a house is on fire there is not that Tyler or Carpenter or any neere dweller but will hast in and helpe all they can to quench it Secret sinnes are like a smokie fire which lies smothering not flaming forth wasts and consumes inwardly and this is the cause that it is conserued and continued like a secret Impostume which occasioneth our death because it cannot be cured Vpon Achans sinne they did cast lots by Tribes by households and by particular persons and when the Delinquent was discouered Iosâ—â—ah sayd Giue thankes vnto God that thy sin is brought to light and made knowne to the world and that thou shalt smart for it in this life for had it beene kept secret thy punishment had beene immortall Dauids Adulterie being brought forth vpon the open stage In conspâ—â—tu Solis huius and Nathans reproouing him for it was the future occasion of all his good It could not chuse to this adulterous woman that was thus taken in the manner Con el hurto en las manos with the theft as they say in her hand but be a wonderful griefe vexation that shee should be carried publiquely through the streets all the boyes of the Citie hooting at her men and women poynting at her with the finger and crying shame vpon her and that at last she must be brought into the Temple and there be set in the middest of that reuerend Auditorie and Assemblie as a spectacle of shame and infamie But the opening of this her wound was the curing of it this which shee thought was her ruine was her remedie this her marring was her making The World held her to be a most vnhappie woman for there being so many Adulteresses in the Citie Whorings had ouerspread the land and bloud had touched bloud that this flash of lightning should light vpon her alone and that this sudden thunder-clap should not onely voyce her dishonour but her death Whereas the Adulterer was by all adiudged to be a happie and a fortunate man that by good hap he had escaped out of the hands of Iustice either by flight or greasing the Officers in the fist Others stickt not to say Siempre quiebra la soga por lomas del gado the weakest still goes to the wall howsoeuer the more certaine truth is That she was happie and the Adulterer vnfortunate The fourth That euerie sinne is to bee made publique either in this present life or in the life to come and this sayth the aforesaid Letter Nihil opertum quod non reueletur and not onely publique notice to be taken thereof but to bee accompanied also with shame and confusion And this the Scripture prooueth vnto vs in many places and for the amending of these two mischiefes there is no meanes so powerfull as to haue recourse to repentance from whence proceed these two effects The one That it couers our sinnes Blessed are they whose sinnes are forgiuen and whose iniquities are couered The other That it doth blot them out of Gods rememberance according to that of Ezechiel At what houre soeuer a Sinner shall repent him I will no longer be mindfull of his sinne Haec mulier modo deprehensa est in adulterio This woman was taken in adulterie in the verie act c. All these words carrie wâ—th them a kind of emphasis which indeere the aggrauation of the Accusation Haec mulier For howbeit the sin of adulterie may be greater perhaps in the husband by giuing by his little respect and his bad example occasion to his wife to play the Whore For as Thomas saith He that treateth with another mans wife se suam discrimini exponiâ— exposeth himselfe and his own wife to a great deale of hazard because he soweth bitternesse in the marriage bed contrarie to that rule of Saint Paul Husbands loue your wiues and be not bitter vnto them For which cause they tooke out the gall from that beast which was sacrificed by married men vnto Iuno for that the Head which is the man ought to be obliged to more continency to more vertue to more wisedome more fortitude as Saint Augustine tells vs yet notwithstanding this fault is held fouler in the woman Eccleâ—iasticuâ— treating of an Adulteresse saith â—he getteth shame to her selfe and her reproch shall neuer be blotted out I know not whence it comes to passe that the remembrance thereof is so soone blotted out in man and that it should sticke by a woman all the dayes of
it plainely appeareth that hee noted them out to bee transgressours of the Law and to bee such a kind of people that had not the feare of God before their eyes beeing neither iust in their Iudgements nor mercifull in their Workes Let him that is without sinne c. He had recourse to the rigour of the Law by condemning the Adulteresse to be stoned to death which was an infamous kind of death Achan Naboth those false Iudges that wronged Susanna and good Saint Steuen suffered in this kind He had recourse likewise vnto his mercy by absoluing her of this her sinne For their condemning of her to be stoned who were faultie in the same kind themselues was a kind of absoluing her And this limitation as Saint Cyrill hath obserued it was iuridicall and according vnto Law For as she was to be stoned by the Law so she was to be stoned according to the Law But the Lawes doe not permit that the transgression of the Law should bee righted by those that are transgressours of the Law So that when our Sauiour sayd Let him that is among you without sinne cast the first stone at her hee vnderstood by sinne in that place the sinne of Adulterie for otherwise it had beene contrariam actionem intentare and the reconuention had not beene so strong and forcible When the Pharisees found fault with Christs Disciples for their not washing of their hands he retorted their owne weapon vpon them with a Quare vos And here treating with him touching this womans Adulterie hee giues them this answere Qui sine peccato est c. Saint Austen makes a question whether the Adulterer himselfe were there or no And his resolution is that the rest were there So that in the Accusers there were two foule faults to be found which are inexcusable The one to let goe a Delinquent for particular interest and priuate gaine as wee read in the Maccabees of Ptolomeus his freeing of Menelaus from his accusation notwithstanding he was the cause of all the mischiefe wherewith he was charged and a man that deserued death in the highest degree the Text there saying that he was Vniuersae malitiae reus The other That they who should haue beene preseruers of the Common-wealth and maintainers of Iustice should be the Caterpillars of the Common-wealth and the ouerthrowers of Iustice. And if any bodie shall aske me how they being faultie themselues should dare to accuse this woman of the same crime Saint Austen in his Confessions renders this answere Fortis inscriptio quam nulla deleuit iniquitas Though God hath priâ—ted with such deepe letters in the paper of our Consciences the hatefulnesse of sinne yet notwithstanding those many sinnes of our owne wee will not forbeare to condemne other mens sinnes though we be faultie of the same our selues A Merchant apprehends a poore petty Theefe brings him before a Iustice and causes him to be whipt not considering that himselfe is the greater Theefe of the two Diogenes told the Iudges and other subordinate Ministers of Iustice That the greater Theeues did hang the lesser Dauids adulterie beeing put in the third person hee told the Prophet Nathan As the Lord liueth the man that hath done this thing shall surely die Filius mortis est How doest thou condemne that in another which thou dissemblest and smootherest in thy selfe Fortis inscriptio quam nulla deleuit iniquitas Absalon had a great Councellor called Achitophel Dauid had another as wiâ—e as hee called Cushai now when Cushai saw that Achitophel tooke part with Absalon he said vnto Dauid I doe not so much feare thy sonne as this Councellour of his for he hath a shrewd pestilent pate of his owne wherefore I thinke it verie fit That by your Maiesties leaue I should get me likewise to the Campe to see if I can ouerthrow his councell Thither he hasted and kneeling downe before Absalon he said vnto him I am come vnto thee because I see that God doth fauour thee and I had rather worship the Sunne rising than setting Thy father is old c. Notwithstanding all this Absalon titted him in the teeth saying Is this thy loue to thy friend Where it is to be noted That though the Sonne had rebelled against his Father yet it seemed ill vnto him that a Seruant should bee false to his Master Fortis inscritpio quam nulla deleuit iniquitas Woman Where are those thine accusers Hath no man condemned thee Before that he would absolue her he would infrome himselfe Whither any bodie did accuse her or no For as long as any partie found himselfe agrieued his absolution was of no force If the oppressing of the Poore crie for vengeance What shall the dishonouring of a Virgine and the adulterated bed doe And therefore this Memento is giuen thee before thou offer thy Sacrifice Thou shalt call to mind whither thy brother haue any thing against thee or no First make attonement with thy brother and then present thy Offering to God Abimelech crauing pardon for his offence God said vnto him Deliuer the man his wife againe This must be done first No man Lord. And Iesus said Neither doe I condemne thee It is a great happinesse in a Sinner to fall into the hands of God Man the wickeder hee is the crueller he is and the more ill the lesse pittifull But God by how much the more good he is by so much he is the more mild and mercifull I will not destroy Ephraim in my furie because I am God and not Man There was not that man then that would haue borne with Ephraim nor excused his backeslidings But I am God and therefore patient long suffering and full of goodnesse Daniel when he was put in the Lyons den the King commanded the doore to be sealed with his owne seale Ne quid fieret contra Danielem Lest they should change their purpose concerning Daniel and plot some other villanie against him conceiuing the hands of these men to bee lesse secure than the clawes and teeth of those hungrie Lyons And this was the reason why Dauid when hee was to take his option of those three Scourges which God had set before him to make choice of vpon that vanitie of his in numbring the People either Famine War or Pestilence flying from the hands of men hee would by no meanes admit of Warre or Famine but of the Pestilence that he might wholly put himselfe into the hands of God God of his infinite goodnesse c. THE XXV SERMON VPON THE FOVRTH SVNDAY IN LENT IOHN 6. MAT. 14. LVC. 9. MARC 6. Post haec abijt Iesus trans Mare Galileae After these things Iesus went his way ouer the Sea of Galilee c. OVr Sauiour Christ in that matter of multiplying the loaues and the fishes prouiding for the necessitie of those people that did follow him wrought two miracles as famous as they were cheerefull In the one he gaue food to foure
God is good for heauen but not for earth Because he doth interdict their pleasures and delights This vniust censure of theirs is repeated by many of the Prophets in the name of the cast-aways of this world As Malachy for one It is in vaine to serue God and what profit is there in keeping his commandements This is the scoffing and flouting of fooles at those who serue God Saturati sumus panibus saith Ier. benè nobis erat malum non vidimus The Hebrew hath it Eramus boni id est foelices The Prophet doth reprehend his people That through their Idolatries they were come to those miseries of their captiuitie and that if they did not labour to amend he would lash them with sharper whips And this stubborne people replyeth Nay rather since we haue forsaken God the world goes well with vs for we eate and drinke we are merry sound and lusty and happier than before But since we left of sacrificing to the Moone our life hath beene a continuall misery and a perpetuall pouerty Peccaui quid mihi accidit trifte Secondly God was willing to doe this for his owne honours sake and for the good of those whom the world had deliuered vp into his hands hungrie surbated and sicke All these he heales all these he fils and all these hee comforts to the end that it may remain as a registred and notorious truth That God is a good God both in heauen and on earth When God did descend from the Mount to giue the Law Exodus saith The children of Israel saw God and did eate and drinke so that their seeing of God did not put them beside their eating and their drinking And our Sauiour Christ said That which enters in at the mouth defiles not a man And by Esay My seruants shall eate and drinke and be merry and ye shall perish Abbot Gilbertus saith That the Prodigall forsaking his fathers house entred into a stricter kind of order where he had fasting enough whereas in his fathers house the very hindes and meanest of his seruants had their bellies full of meate The world is a Cosiner and a Cheater it promiseth mountaines of gold but performeth molehills of nifles Her prouision is on the one part very bad and on the other very poore and miserable She will giue you bread but it shal be the bread of lying moulded vp with stones and sand Suauis est homini paniâ— mâ—ndacij saith Salomon This bread hath a goodly outside and carryes a very faire show with it but when thou commest to the chewing of it it will breake thy teeth Postea implâ—bitur os eius calculo Like vnto that which they gaue vnto Ieremias when he was in prison Cibauit me cinere It is a counterfeit confection to proffer you that wine that shall prooue to be your poyson Fel draconum vinum eorum venenum aspidum insanabile What stomacke can digest such bad bread and such bad wine This seeming fairenesse this sophisticated beauty may very well reuiâ—â— the remembrance of Eues Apple and that face of the Serpent which according vnto Beda had the appearance of a verie faire and beautifull Damsell And Ecclesiastâ—cus alluding hereunto sayth Flie from sinne as from the face of a Serpent Wherein poyson comes couered with a golden coat Besides her prouision is so poore that if she should giue all to one she would leaue him stil as hungry as if she had giuen him nothing at all So that he remains hungry to whom shee giues little he also to whom she giues much She gaue the Prodigal very little he remained hungry She gaue Salomon very much it seemed vnto him that all was but ayre that he had eaten Vanitas vanitatum omnia vanitas S. Ambrose citeth to this purpose the fable of Midas who was all his life time hungring after gold and besought the gods that whatsoeuer hee toucht might be turned into gold and they granting his petition hee perished through hunger For his meate and his drinke turning it selfe into gold his hunger increased ypon him till it had wrought his death Saint Iohn saith in his Apocalips That hee saw a blacke horse Et qui sedebat super eum habebat stateram in manu sua By the blacke horse Beda vnderstands sinne by him that sate thereupon the Deuill The ballance which he held in his hand was not that of Iustice but of scaricitie and miserie for to weigh the bread which hee giues in allowance to his seruants which he deliuers out vnto them by ounces and by drams And anon after he says that he saw another vpon a pale horse and his name was Death Who had power to aflict with hunger the foure quarters of the world These were the horsemen on the one side but there was heard from the other side a loud voice which sayd A measure of Wheat for a pennie and three measures of Barley for a penny But yee that take part with the blacke horse must not touch neither on the wine nor the oyle there mentioned it is not for your mowing signifying thereby that when the vassall of the Deuill of the World and of the Flesh perisheth of hunger the Iust shal haue their food good cheape They eat and were satisfied There is no mention made in this feast of drinke because meat doth increase thirst and drinke doth quench it And of Gods good blessings wee remaine alwayes more and more thirstie Dionisius the Carthusian sayth That he gaue vnto the loaues and the fishes the vertue and power of quenching their thirst Take vp that which is left that the fragments may not be lost Our Sauiour here shâ—wed great care for the sauing and gathering vp of that which was left First for to discouer the vertue of Almes deedes as Saint Cyrill obserueth it Saint â—â—sten sayth That the field of the poore is the fertilest For he that sowes in that receiues a hundred for one Nor there is not any Merchant that hath so quicke a returne of gaine and so plentifull as that husbandman that sowes his seed in such a peecâ— of ground And he that gets least is hee that ventures least But some one will say How can I want or bee in need if I keepe my fruits safe vnder locke and key c. I answere that because thou keepest them so close thou maist want them but if thou shouldst scatter theÌ„ abroad thou shouldst haue Gods plentie He that sowes not reapes not Date dabitur vobis Giue and it shall be giuen vnto you and if your store shall not increase Come and blame mee Haue I peraduenture beene to my People like a Wildernesse without fruit The like conceit doth S. Chrysostome touch vpon expounding Communicating to the necessities of the Saints Saint Gregorie treats the verie selfe same Doctrine vpon that place of Iob If I despised him that passed by because hee was not cloathed And Saint Ambrose in a Sermon
those that haue suffered shipwracke and are without present reliefe and helpe vpon casting away should more especially stretch out her armes and take them in before they sinke Secondly For that they attributed the blindnesse of Celidonius to the sinnes of his parents for albeit God doth punish the sinnes of the fathers in the children euen to the fourth generation yet this punishment is neuer in the soule but in the bodie for the soules are not by race and descent neither hath the soule of the sonne any kindred or alliance with that of the father as the bodie hath onely the sinne of Adam hath somewhat thereof as being the head and root from whom we all come Thirdly They would haue reduced this punishment to his owne proper sins for that he was borne blind for though God doth vse anticipation in doing fauours for some seruices that are to be done yet doth he neuer punish sinnes not yet committed but it is rather the blazon of his justice to punish with a slow hand as it is of his mercie to pardon speedily Fourthly to attribute punishments to faults committed is a good iudgement and an approoued censure for our owne sinnes but not for other mens When our Sauiour Christ said to his Apostles One of you shall betray me euery one lookt first into himselfe demanding of him Rabbi Master Am I the man or no And though he shewed them a faire euidence Hee that dips his hand with mee in the dish c. yet none of them fixt their eyes vpon Iudas nor tooke notice of the signe then giuen them The Pharisee is not so much condemned for his own proper sinnes as for the scorne and pride wherewith he despiseth others I thanke thee ô God that I am not like other men Emisenus saith That there can be no greater misfortune than to make those sinnes myne which another man doth commit for his pleasure or his profit both which I make to be myne by iudging rashly of them Neither hath this man sinned nor his parents but that the workes of God should bee made manifest in him Some man may aske me the question Why God should make choice of these his eyes to make them to be an instrument of manifesting his workes rather than the hands of the benummed the feet of the lame the tongue of the dumbe the raising of the dead or the torment of those that are possessed with Deuills I answer hereunto That all these miracles might serue verie well for Gods glorie And of Lazarus his death our Sauiour said That it was pro gloria Dei for Gods glorie But in the Eyes there is a more especial conueniencie as S. Chrysostome hath noted it than in other the parts of the bodie For as man is the summe and Epilogue of all the naturalities of the World for which reason they call him Microcosmos A little World so the eyes are the summe and Epilogue of man And as Aristotle saith That the Soule is all things 〈◊〉 a certaine kind of manner because all things are come vnder the compasse of iâ—'s apprehension and vnderstanding so the eyes in a manner are all things because they comprehend all things in them the heauens the planets the starres the elements birds fishes beasts plants and stones nor doe they onely see in the eyes corporall creatures and visible substances but likewise the inuisible passions of our soule as loue hate pride humilitie the like so saith Plinie And therefore Saint Augustine stiles the eyes the heralds of the heart Saint Peter tells vs That there are eyes full of adulteries In a word The eyes â—as Salomon saith are the open market place of our bosome And in another place All the wayes of man are in his eyes And Ecclesiasticus Ex visu cognoscitur vir Our Sauiour Christ did restore this man to his sight and made his eyes become cleere to the end that in them might bee cleerely manifested the most famous workes of God Irenaeus Saint Chrysostome and Saint Ambrose say That he made him without eyes that by bestowing them afterwards vpon him he might manifest to the world That God his Redeemer had created him anew Saint Austine harpt vpon the same string treating of Malchus his eare Saint Augustine saith That God making these eyes of so base a matter as câ—ay or durt intermingled with spettle representeth the mysterie of the Incarnation wherein God did raise and lift vp our nature to the admirable vnion of his heauenly condition from whence the Word became flesh which gaue light to this blind man and those that sate in the shadow of death hauing the eyes of their soules darkened with sinne Saint Ambrose affirmeth That Christ taught vs by this myracle that for to recouer our soules sight we must put durt vpon our eyes that is we must thinke vpon our owne basenesse and frailtie For the principium or beginning of Christian perfection is for a man to know himselfe Nor were his workes onely manifested in these his eyes but all his other perfections and attributes as his omnipotencie in restoring his eye-sight or rather making him new eyes molded out of durt his justice in letting the Pharisees liue in their blindnesse and his goodnesse and bountie in giuing light to this blind man Neither hee nor his parents c. Saint Chrysostome askes the question Why God would manifest his workes in this blind man so much to his cost being that he might haue taken for this purpose means of good and not of hurt Saint Ambrose saith That our Sauiour Christ was willing to take our sinnes as a pledge or gage of his glorie that he might make it thereby the surer For those that impose Tributes or settle their Rents are alwayes careful to haue good securitie and of all other assurances the best is that the State thus ingaged or impawned be properly belonging to the debtor And if God should ground his glorie on our goodnesse we cannot giue him any good securitie for it because this is others goods and not our owne but our sinnes are our owne and whatsoeuer is ill in vs properly belongeth to vs and are so perpetuated to our persons that they can neuer faile vs. Christ did redeeme vs from the captiuitie of our crimes but in this his redeeming and ransomming vs from sinne this holy Saint sayth That he had a kind of interest of his owne for although God did not remaine thereby more powerfull more mercifull more iust c. Habuit tamen quod ad cultum suae Maiestatis adiungeret He had something by the bargaine that gaue an addition to the worship of his diuine Maiestie And as it is in another place by giuing vs libertie Sibi etiam aliquid acquisiuit He got somewhat also to himselfe What did he get by it He got in a manner all his glorie by it he got to be reuerenced serued praised acknowledged and adored to bee as well a Sauiour as a God
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
There is no comfort in the end of man But Gods Saints say Thou hast couered vs with the shadow of death When the fire of Hell did threaten vs Death did shelter vs with it's shade Cada vno habla de la Feria como le va en ella Euerie one speaketh of the Market as hee makes his pennie-worths The Iust hath no cause to weepe because hee that enioyeth God enioyeth all the happinesse that can be spoken or imagined but the Sinner may crie out Ego plorans oculus meus deducens aquas quia longè factuâ— est à me consolator It being the soule of my soule and now seuered so far from me thou hast cause to bewaile a bodie without a soule It is a lamentable thing saith Saint Augustine that we should bewaile other losses and not that of our soule Quid tam malè de nobis meruit anima nostra How hath our soule so ill deserued of vs He there considers the great care we haue of a new suit of cloathes that neither the dust the moath nor the least wrinckle should hurt it but are verie curious in folding of it vp He that buyes hath an especiall eye to two things The one to looke verie well to that he buyes be it pearles apparell or horses and will first make proofe and diligent enquirie of their goodnesse c. The other To cast about with himselfe how he shall be able to pay and to driue the price as well as he can Doe thou likewise endeauour to vse the like diligences concerning thy soule consider first what kind of stuffe it is and what it is worth and then beat the price and see for what thou canst buy it Which course if thou shalt but take thou wilt looke to it the better and esteeme it the more and not set so slight by it as many doe Take yee away the stone He stinketh alreadie for he hath beene dead foure dayes Lazarus being now foure dayes dead lying stinking in his graue and with a tombe-stone vpon him doth represent a Sinner that through long custome is growne old in his sinnes That which might well haue beene cured hauing gotten strength by time is become incurable not that it is impossible to be healed but because it is a strange kind of cure and healed with a great deale of difficultie And therefore the Wiseman saith That a Young man enured to ill Age will not make him giue it ouer Chrysostome calls Custome Febrim furiosam a hot burning Feuer whose raging flame taking hold on our appetites there is no water that can quench it Phylon calls it Regem animae The King of our soule agreeing with that language of Saint Paul Let not sinne raigne in your mortall bodies Plato reprehending a certaine Scholler of his of some â—ight faults which he confessing but making light of them his Master told him Custome is no such light thing as you make it It is Saint Hieromes obseruation That Ieremie said O Lord I know not how to speake because I am but a child And Esay Woe vnto me that I haue held my peace for I am a man of polluted lips The one God cured by onely touching his mouth with his finger the other he was faine to cauterise with a hot burning cole Now the infirmitie being all one why should the remedies bee so disequall I answere That the sinne of Ieremie was but a child as it were verie young and tender and therefore any the least remedie would serue his turne but Esay was an old grown Courtier c. Saint Augustine dwells much vpon this word Quatriduanus his foure dayes lying in the graue The Euangelists make mention of three dead persons which our Sauiour raised vp to life not that he had not raised vp more but because these doe represent the deaths of our soules The daughter of the chiefe Ruler of the Synagogue which went not out of her house represent those our secret sinnes which passe in our withdrawne roomes and the closest by-corners about the house The young man of Naim those publique sinnes which proclaime themselues in the Market place and comming out of doores offer themselues to euerie mans view your widows sonnes being generally lewd and ill giuen Lazarus those that stinke and grow vnsauorie through their too long custome of sinning hauing lien long in this graue of death Saint Augustine saith That the name of three in Scripture betokeneth many sinnes but that of foure more than many And this phrase of speech is vsed by Amos For three transgressions of Moah and for foure I will not turne to it signifying thereby many more than many O terque quaterque beati implies a world of happinesse to the like sence sounds this word Quatriduanus Foure dayes since Whence it is to be noted That sins when they begin like the waters to swell so high they leaue their bed and run ouer the bankes causing a miserable inundation Gods anger growing wearie in the expectation of our amendment draws his sword at last to cut vs off The sinnes of Sodome cried out so loud that the clamor thereof came to Gods eare so shril was the noyse that it brake through those other inferiour heauens and ascended vp to the Throne of Thrones where he sate in his Imperiall Maiestie God was wondrous angrie at it yet had hee this patience with himselfe that before he would execute his wrath vpon them he said Vadam videbo I will goe downe and see whither they haue done altogether according to that crie which is come vnto me c. What greater euidence ô Lord of thy loue than these thy delayes God did beare with them yet a little while longer and hee did looke and stand waiting to see whether Sodome would amend the foulenesse of her sinne so that when hee came downe to see how things passed had he found them sorrowfull for what they had done amisse and repenting themselues of their former euill life hee would haue sheathed his sword and withdrawne his displeasure The same conceit passeth in that Parable of the Tares the Tares grew vp amongst the Wheat and the seruants asking their Master Wilt thou that we goe and plucke vp the tares He said vnto them No let them grow vp both together And why so ô Lord It may be they wil die and wither away of themselues if not the haruest will come ere long and they shall be cut downe bound vp and cast into the ouen So that Gods patience you see is great but when we perseuer in ill Gods anger comes like an inundation vpon vs. But I will conclude this point with Saint Austens owne conclusion Sub tali resuscitatore de nullo iacente desperandum est Let no man despaire of rising be he neuer so much cast downe hauing such a one to raise him vp from Death to Life as our Sauiour Christ Iesus who is all Loue and Mercie and Goodnesse and the
Ioab aduised Dauid of the siege of Rabbah and what a number of men he had lost in that seruice the King might haue iustly cut off his head for his rash and vnaduised approach to the wall But Dauid durst not condemne him and put him to death because he was an Accessorie or rather the principall in the busines and therefore Ioab charged the messenger that carried the newes saying If the Kings anger arise so that he say vnto you Why went you nigh the wall c. the storie is worth your reading then say thou Thy seruant Vriah the Hittite is also dead This point did that kingly Prophet touch vpon in those words so diuersly commented on Tibi soli peccaui O Lord my sinne was against Vrias against those souldiers that died for his occasion against those which did blaspheame thy name and against the people whom the robbing of another man of his wife and the killing of her husband hath scandalized and beene an occasion of great offence vnto them But that which doth most affâ—ict and torment me is That I haue committed this against thee and that I haue thus sinned against thee For in any other person whatsoeuer in my kingdome the rigour of Iustice might haue restrained him from so foule a sinne but this did not once enter into my thought And therefore he comes with a Tibi soli peccaui iumping with that saying of Saint Paul Qui iudicat me Dominus est He that iudgeth me is the Lord. The world hath not that man in it whom his Propria culpa The sinnes which himselfe hath committed doe not mooue or daunt him and make him turne Coward sauing Christ who was made perfect by nature Nemo mundus à sorde neque â—nfans vnius diei How can he be cleane that is borne of a woman Iohn Baptist was sanctified in the wombe of his mother and was bred vp from a child in the wildernesse Saint Peter was he that loued most Saint Iohn that was most beloued Saint Paul past through the third heauen and did afterwards defie all the world Who shall separate me from the loue of Christ And Iob was so bold to say Would my sinnes were weighed in a ballance c. And in another place Shew mee my sinnes and my iniquities what they be Also Dauid I haue run without iniquitie Iudith passing through the midst of an Armie of Barbarians breakes out into these words The Lord liueth that would not suffer his handmaid to be defiled There was not that rough-hewne souldier that did so much as offer to touch her Let vs set side by side with these Saints the vnspottednesse of those Virgins the constancie of those Martyrs and the courage of those Confessors that suffered for Christs sake In a word all the worthy squadrons of those blessed Saints that are now in heauen will say thus as Saint August hath noted of themselues which Saint Iohn did confesse If we say we haue no sinne we deceiue our selues and the truth is not in vs. As also Iob If I wash my selfe with snow water and purge my hands most cleane yet shalt thou plunge me in the pit and mine owne cloathes shall make me filthie For to be without sinne is the blazon or cognisance of God alone Many did liue very well assured of their innocencie in particular cases as Iacob That the Idols of his father in Law Laban were not receiued by the seruants of his house As Beniamin and his brethren that Iosephs cup was not in their sacks Saint Peter that he should not deny his Sauiour Christ had a thousand more importunate women set vpon him The Pharisee he thought with himselfe I am not as other men c. yet all of them may say with Saint Paul I am conscious of nothing to my selfe yet am I not hereby iustified for Gods eyes see that which mans eyes see not In a word the noble Acts of the greatnesse and power of God as his creating of the world his conseruing it his redeeming of mankinde his iustifying of soules his seeing the thoughts of the heart his calling things that are not as if they were his commanding the waters the windes death and life and all those other wonderfull things which Iob specifieth of God to whose 38 chapter I referre you may make him confidently to say Quis ex vobis arguet me de peccato Which of you can rebuke me of sinne Which of you can c. Saint Chrysostome saith That the greatest testimonie of our innocencie is that of our enemies Non est Deus noster sicut Deus eorum iâ—imici nostri sint Iudices Our God is not as their God let euen our enemies bee Iudges And fit it was that this testimonie should precede and goe before as well in regard of our Sauiours life as his death In regard of his life for publike persons that are placed in authoritie seated in high and eminent throanes that haue great gouernments offices and dignities committed vnto them are not onely bound to be vertuous and holy but also to be so esteemed which they must mainely striue and indeauour So that in a Prince be he Ecclesiasticall or Secular two obligations ought to concur in him One of Conscience The other of Fame A particular Christian which doth not giue occasion whereby to bee condemned of his neighbour may liue satisfied and well contented with the testimony of his owne conscience but not a Prince or a Prelate For if he suffer in his good name or in his fame and be ill reported of it is the destructionoftheir Subiects Saint Augustine saith That he that relyeth on his conscience and is carelesse of his good name is cruell towards himselfe We must not doe good onely in Gods sight bâ—t also before men For fame though false doth fall heauy vpon publike persons In the Temple there was a vessell of brasse a very faire one out of which there ran a conduit pipe of water and was without adorned with those Looking glasses which women that repented them of their sinnes had offered who forsaking the world had consecrated themselues to God to the end that the Priests which did enter to offer sacrifice should wash themselues in that water and behold themselues in those glasses and it was Gods intent and purpose according to Philon That they should place no lesse care in the cleanenesse of their life for to offer sacrifice than those women did in appearing good to the world beholding in those glasses the least marke or spot in the face And in the 28 chapter of Exodus God commanded That when the Priest should enter or goe foorth in the Sanctuary he should beare bells about the border of his garment to the end that the noyse and sound thereof might make his going in and his comming forth knowne And the Text addeth Ne moriatur Least hee dye the death And the glorious Saint Gregorie saith That the
vestures of the Priests are their good workes Sacerdotes tui induantur iustitiam Let thy Priests be cloathed with Righteousnesse And these are to sound aloud being not holy onely in their tongue but also in their actions There must be a bell and there must be a clapper preaching and doing must goe together one will not doe well without the other Our Sauiour Christ aduiseth vs That we should hide our works and not make them knowne Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth Least the wind of vaine-glory chance to blow away the fruit thereof But in a Prince and a Prelat God would haue their workes to be more publike that they should not onely be holy but also seeme so for the good example of the people God placed Ioseph in the gouernment of Egypt because his life was so notoriously good that his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand It is a thing worthy the consideration That a Slaue in the house of an Infidell should professe so much vertue so much truth so much faithfulnesse so much courtesie and so much modestie that he should make him ruler of his house and put all that he had in his hand Oh how well beseeming are these and the like good things for the gouernment of a kingdome In regard of his death and that likewise for many good and great reasons First it was fitting That the testimonie of our Sauiours innocencie should precede to the end that it might appeare to the world that the Diuell by this his death was robbed and spoiled of his Empire through his righteousnes Saint Augustine deliuereth three things vpon this point The one That God did iustly deliuer man ouer to the Empire of the diuell for that he suffered himselfe to be ouercome by his subtletie and cunning The other That so great is the signiorie and dominion that the diuell hath ouer him that he neither can with all the strength that he hath ouercome his temptations nor auoid death which he incurred through sinne Not that the diuell had any more right or power ouer him than a hangman hath for the tormenting of a delinquent who receiues his command from the Iudge The third and last which is likewise of Leo and Saint Gregory the Pope That God might very well free man from the slauery and bondage of the diuell by his vertue and power without doing the diuell any wrong Euen as a Iudge who hath deliuered ouer an offender to the hangman to torment him may change his mind and set him free yet notwithstanding was willing to treat this busines by way of Iustice as if the diuell had proper right thereunto First for that it had beene but small glorie to Gods greatnes that the Creator should â—onâ—est with his creature and an infinite power with a limited Secondly That he might not make his iustice suspected For he that hath the least Iustice on his side doth now and then flye to his force and power The diuell was to be ouercome saith Saint Augustine by iustice and not by might Miro aequitatis iure certatum est said Leo the Pope Whence the Princes of the earth may learne this lesson That sithence the Prince of heauen proceeded so fairely and so iustly with so base and bad a creature hauing no tye or obligation thereunto let not any Prince of the earth presume to say Sic volo sic iubeo sit pro ratione voluntas But rather hearken to that of Iob If I refused to be iudged with my seruant c. Besides it is to be noted That the diuell did exceede his Commission and that God hauing giuen him power for to torment sinners he fell a tormenting of our Sauiour Christ who was most innocent he pursued him to the death till he had placed him vpon the Crosse. The cause was propounded in the Tribunall of the most blessed Trinitie the diuell was condemned and depriued of that power which was giuen him And so is that place of Saint Paul to be vnderstood De peccato damnauit peccatum And that of Saint Iohn Now is the iudgement of this world now shall the Prince of it be cast out That hapned to the diuell which befâ—ll Adam God gaue him free leaue and full liberty to inioy all the trees in Paradise saue one onely and no more and he onely pitcht his palat vpon that and tasted but of that one and no more God gaue the diuell leaue to tempt all onely interdicting him That he should not touch vpon our Sauiour Christ and yet he pusht most at him And to the end that this fault and punishment of the diuell should remaine notorious to the world it was fit that the testimony of his innocencie should goe before and that he should say Quis ex vobis c. Which of you c. Guaricus saith That the death Crosse of our Sauiour Christ was more the diuells death and crosse than his For our Sauiour Christ rose again the third day but the diuell neuer since was able to lift vp his head And as two going forth vpon a challenge into the field are vsually both run through and slaine so our Sauiour Christ and the diuel were both nayled to the Crosse Christ to his greater glory the diuell to his vtter destruction If I say the truth why doe ye not beleeue me The truth is the Blanke and Marke of our vnderstanding and being that man ought naturally to loue it it is a metaphisicall case that he should come to abhorre it In satisfaction of which difficulty we haue already rendered three reasons Whereunto we may here adde that other which our Sauiour Christ gaue vnto the Pharisees by Saint Iohn Yee seeke to kill me because my word hath no place in you There are some stomackes so ouerladen with euill humours That they no sooner receiue good meate but they vomit it vp againe and by a depraued disposition turne that which is sweet into sowernes In like sort there are some soules so full of hatred enuy couetousnesse and vncleanenesse that they rise at Gods truths and are ready to spue them vp though they be sweeter then the hony or hony-combe To him that is sicke of a Quartane the brawne of a Capon is vnsauourie but a pickled pilchard a strong onyon and a piece of powdered beefe haue an excellent rellish with him To a brest surcharged with the things of this world of force the doctrine of heauen must be vnsauoury Eyes that are couered with clouds as with a curtaine hate the light and cannot endure the splendour of the Sun Bonitatem disciplinam sciâ—ntiam docemini Saint Ierome renders it bonum gustum And from hence ariseth one of the greatest abuses in all the world to wit That we are readier to beleeue an enemie that lyes vnto vs than a friend that tells vs the truth In
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
it's â—ld odour The adulterie of Bershabe and the murther of Vriah hath layne a â—ong time in my brest and though I haue washed and rynsed it with I know not how many â—ees and Sopes yet haue I no hope to make it as cleane as it was before and therefore ô Lord I beseech thee that thou wilt create a new heart in me wherewith I may loue thee for euer But if this cannot be because the soule is immortall perdurable and incorruptible Renew a right spirit within me that there may not remaine any sent or sauour of my former foulnes establish such a spirit in me that I may neuer fal from thy seruice a spirit that may repaire those wrongs I did before and if that were an occasion that many did blaspheme thy Name let this be such a one that it may conuert many vnto thee and that they may truly serue thee The glorious Doctor Saint Ambrose touched vpon this string Dauid saith he did desire of God That he would create him a new heart not that he should create it anew but that he should so renew it that it might seeme to be created anew for to clense it was all one as to create it It is the resolution of a man that is truly penitent to desire to leaue a lewd life and to auoyd all occasions thereof Anselme saith That the first renouation which God effecteth in our soules is in Babtisme This is the foundation of our Christian building so saith the glorious Apostle Saint Paul Afterwards the eyes of our Reason being cleered one layeth his foundation on Gold another on Siluer a third on pretious Stones a fourth on Wood a fift on Hay a sixt on Straw and though Hay and Straw be sometimes taken for Gold the fire will trie the finenesse of it and purifie all The second renouation is by Repentance When thou hast an old beastly tatterd garment thou makest thee a new one thy soule is all to be rent torne exceeding foule and filthie cloath it anew The first regalo or kindnesse which the father shewed to the prodigall child was his new apparelling of him Aâ—ferte stolam primam This is the greatest kindnesse thou canst doe to thy soule and that thou maist not doe as little children vse to doe which are well clad to day and a few dayes after are nothing but ragges and totters doe not yee make your garments of paper which the least blast of aire rents asunder but put on Iesus Christ our Sauiour and Redeemer which is a Rayment that will last for euer And it was Winter Saint Gregorie saith That the Scripture sometimes setteth downe the circumstances of time and place to signifie by them that which is not expressed by word of mouth And that this circumstance of Hyems erat It was Winter though it may be referred to our Sauiour Christs walking from place to place yet doth it declare the frostinesse and ycie coldnesse of the Iews hearts By coldnesse the Scripture vnderstandeth the malice of sinne whence it is to bee noted That the Historie of the Machabees calleth this Solemnitie The Feast of Fire Whereas we are now purposed to keepe the Purification of the Temple vpon the twentie fifth day of the moneth Chasleu wee thought it necessarie to certifie you thereof that yee also might keepe the Feast of the Tabernacles and of the Fire which was giuen vs when Nehemias offered Sacrifice after that he had built the Temple and the Altar c. It appeareth by the sixth Chapter of Leuiticus That God did conserue a perpetuall fire in his presence The Fire shall euermore burne vpon the Altar and neuer goe out At their departure into Babylon they hid their fire in a deepe pit and at their returne they found it turned into a thick water like a gellie Nehemias he takes it forth and setteth it in the Sunne and presently it became fire the drops that remained they did sprinckle or bedew the Altar therewith and they forthwith tooke fire so that it was fitly called the Feast of Fire But that they who solemnise this Feast should bee all Frost and Ice is a thing verie worthie our consideration This is our ruine and perdition That the verie same day that wee treat of renewing our soules which is the feast of the Fire of our Spirit there should bee such a great coldnesse in vs c. Take heed your flight be not in the Winter nor vpon the Sabboth Our Sauior hauing reuealed vnto his Disciples whether it were the euils that should befall Ierusalem or the insuing miseries of this world or those that should threaten the Soule at each particular mans death or all of them iointly together and supposing that none would be able to abide them but that they would be forced to flie from the euill to come hee giues them this auiso Take heed your flight c. Our Sauiour would not haue them to betake themselues to flight neither on the Sabboth day nor in the Winter Not on the Sabboth day because their Law did not giue them leaue to go any more than a thousand paces a matter of a mile But say some one should haue ventured to breake this Law and to haue gone further he could not haue lighted on an Inne-keeper to bid him welcome got no meat no fire to dresse it nor haue met with any companie on the way but haue trauelled all alone in a fearefull kind of solitude Not in the Winter in regard of innumerable inconueniences as raine durt boggs yce frost snow rising of riuers and dayes short and darke Saint Gregorie expoundeth this place of those euills which threaten vs at our death but be it in our death or in our life the world hath not any creature that is more threatned and terrified than a Sinner Who can looke Sinne in the face our best course is to flie from it and to haue recourse to the Sanctuarie of Repentance but we must take heed that we doe not flie on the Sabboth or in Winter In die illa saith Zacharie non erit lux sed frigus gelu In that day there shall bee no cleere light but darke Saint Hierome saith That the Prophet speaketh of the destruction of Ierusalem by Titus and Vespasian and because the miserie and calamitie thereof would fall out to be so terrible and so fearefull that no man durst abide it they treated of their flying from it But that time shall prooue vnto them to be extreame cold and exceeding darke as if he should haue sayd If they should haue fled for Gods seruice the Pillar of fire should haue gone before them and directed them in their way but when they shall flie to his disgrace and dishonour the dayes shall be cold and the wayes darke c. Here are condemned your cold and frozen Confessions your slacke slow restitutions your luke-warme intentions being like vnto those of the Sluggard of whom Salomon
hyred a house for terme of life with the liking and consent of it's owner for to put such a one out we must necessarily haue the absolute Posse and power of the king we must haue his authority to turne him out The diuell hauing taken a long lease of the house of thy soule with thy good liking and consent thou must haue Gods absolute power to eiect him and thrust him out Not that the diuell is so powerfull as some make him howbeit the Scripture tearmeth him Vectem concludentem a strong bolt which goes athwart a doore and Serpentem tortuosum a winding serpent which clewes himselfe vp close and vpon the least aduantage takes hold like the Cuttle-fish with his clawes but because God howbeit he can doe whatsoeuer he will is now and then content to giue him leaue to worke vpon our will This difficultie is somewhat the more increased in regard that Mary Magdalen was a woman which is the Hyerogliph of weakenes There be three things saith Salomon hidden from me yea foure that I know not The Hebrew letter saith Three or foure things are too hard for me The Hebrew renders the word Admirabiles The Seuentie Impossibiles Impossible for him to know On the one side because they are wreathing and winding too and fro on the other because they leaue no signe or print behind theÌ„ the one is of an Eagle in the aire the other of a Serpent vpon a stone the third of a ship in the midst of the sea and the fourth of a young man in his youth being so mutable a creature and so full of foolish longings Euen such is the way of an adulterous woman Which eateth and wipeth her mouth and saith I haue not done ill When a woman is greedy in deuouring good morsells in secret behind the doore and wiping her lips tells the world she hath fasted and eaten nothing all that day when shee commits folly in a corner and boasts her selfe in publike to be honest saying There is not that woman liuing that liues more honestly than I doe the diuell hauing taken such possession of her soule it is a desperate peece of businesse All these circumstances of difficultie and many more which wee omit to set downe are to be found in this storie But in those things that to vs seeme impossible God is wont to shew his wisedome and his power Great is the Lord and great is his power And as a Physition saith Saint Augustine doth take pleasure sometimes to light vpon an incurable infirmitie not so much for his gaine as his fame Non quaerens mercedem sed commendans artem So was Christ well contented with this occasion Ad informationem eorum qui credituri sunt For the better informing of those that were to beleeue To giue knowledge saith the Apostle to all sinners That there is in God a power a wisedome and a will for to heale them of their infirmities be they neuer so foule and enormious So that this conuersion is the bayte of humane hopes and the reparation of our desperation Had we none other to cast our eyes vpon in the Church but the Virgin Mary and Iohn Baptist where were our hopes The Church therefore doth set two Maries before vs. The one free from sinne the other full of sinne The one takes away Vaine-glory from all the righteous and the other banisheth Cowardise and despaire from all sorts of sinners At the presence of the Sunne all the lights of heauen withdraw themselues and hide their heads in a cowardly kind of fashion but when the Moone once begins to shine they recouer their former boldnes and libertie The Sunne presideth ouer the sonnes of the day the Moone ouer the children of the night Hee that cannot come to be a Sunne let him liue in hope to be a Moone or a Starre What sayes Hosee I will giue her the valley of Achor for the doore of Hope The Prophet there touching vpon the Historie of Achan who in the spoyles of Ierico hid the golden wedge contrary to Ioshuas proclamation wherewithall God was so offended That the Army marching to a City called Ay was ouerthrowne and the Israelites turning their backs like so many hares it seemed the doore of Hope was shut against them for entring into the Land of Promise But the delinquent being conuinced and stoned to death in the valley of Achor and all his familie God foorthwith gaue them victorie ouer their enemies And therefore he saith I will giue them the Valley of Achor for a doore of Hope Saint Ierome renders it in another letter I will giue to my Church the valley of peruersenesse or of the peruerse for to raise vp the hopes of deiected hearts as a Paul a Mary Magdalen c. All this concerneth that her condition and state of sinne wherein she stood which Saint Luke painteth forth in those his first words Behold a woman in the City which was a sinner That we may the better treat of the second State touching her Repentance it is to be supposed that Mary Magdalen had heard some sermons of our Sauioâ—r Christ as heretofore hath beene prooued and that our Lord did direct his discourse to a soule that had sustained so many losses one while proposing the shortnesse of this our life another while the fearefull horrours of death together with the bitternesse of sinne the terrour of iudgement the torments of hell c. Why shouldst thou so highly prize thy beauty that thou shouldst adore it Why being the Image of God in thy soule and thy body shouldst thou be so much affected to the foulenesse of sinne What was it that made the Angels so foule c. smelling so sweet of Amber Muske and Ciuet how canst thou endure the euill sauour of hell Pro sua in odore foetor Thy soft bed is wearisome vnto thee and being not able to abide in it all night long thou shiftest thy bed and canst thou then endure the bed of eternall flames moth-eaten mattresses sheetes of snakes and bolster and pillowes of wormes gnawing continually on thy conscience Thou changest thy gownes and thy dressings twice or thrice a day and canst thou suffer the euerlasting rayment of hell fire The daintiest dishes are set before thee to feed on and canst thou endure that hunger where tongues are bitten off and fed on Fame pascentur vt canes manducauerunt linguas suas prae dolore Thou canst not abide in thy house no not one houre and canst thou liue clapt vp in the dungeon of eternall death and damnation O how many lye there in endlesse paines and torments neuer to be released for far lesser sinnes than thine What canst thou hope for what canst thou expect Is it that the earth should swallow thee vp aliue as it did Dathan and Abiram Or that fire should come downe from heauen and consume thee as it did Sodom or that God should showre downe lightning and thunder vpon thee as
one customer or other will come vnto vs. Good is that comparison of the Physition and the Apothecarie when a Commonwealth stands sound and in health and the one saith to the other Que se haze compadre How goes the world Gossip No nada por nuestros peccados Not verie well I assure you thankes to our sins which haue drawne this punishment vpon vs And the reason of it grows from this that no longer than they are ministring of purges and syrrops they thinke their time lost So is it with a sinner that hungers after sin there are some men which euerie night get them to bed without any more adoo laden with mortall sins by the dozens and yet think themselues to be Saints But being thus heauily laden darest thou presume to lay thee down to sleep take heed lest they presse thee too hard that thou accompaniest thy sleep with death O good ghostly father say these men I know not what this heauinesse of sins meane that you talk of I find no such matter I thanke God I sleepe soundly I am not troubled with dreames but take my rest as quietly as any man in the world Say you so my masters you shal giue me leaue not to beleeue you for albeit by long custome of sinning you do not feele the weight of this tower nor the heigth of this mountain that you beare vpon your backs notwithstanding all this you shall dream as the Prophet saith fearefull dreames and howbeit wee are not to giue credit to euerie idle dreame yet may yee take these for reuelations and aduertisements and intimations from Heauen And if thou wilt see and behold whether the sinnes of thy life weigh heauie or no take out thy heart and lay it on thy shoulders and then thou shalt see whether the weight of thy sinnes bee heauie or no. Hee alludeth to an ordinarie rule in phylosophie That nothing seemeth heauie in it's owne Element When a Worme diues into the bottome of the sea and lieth there he feeleth not the weight of innumerable Quintalls of Waters which he hath vpon his backe but if vpon drie land he hath but a Cuba de agua as much water as a Hoggs bladder will hold it troubles and torments him much And therefore ô thou sinner if thy sinnes weigh not heauie it is because thou hast made thy heart their naturall center so draw it out of the element of Sinne into that of Grace and thou shalt then perceiue that thy shoulders will not bee able to beare them and that the burthen of them will be too intollerable for thee Pondus eius ferre non potui said Iob My sinnes were more than I was able to beare What shall we doe c. Thou workest myracles assure thy selfe there will be many that will say with these High-priests and Pharisees What shall wee doe Thou art a noted man for thy vertue and holynesse of life thou excellest the rest in the Citie wherein thou liuest prouide thy selfe therefore against the combats of Enuie for thou wilt be encountred therewith Scarce hath the souldier entred into the field glittering in his golden Armour and his plume of feathers dancing on his crest when lo a thousand bullets fall as thick as haile about his eares When Dauid had killed Goliah and the Damosells of Ierusalem sang Saul hath slaine his thousand and Dauid his ten thousand Enuie presently followed him at the heeles The low shrub or little tender sapling that hath his dwelling in the vale shrowding himselfe in some humble bottome is not beaten by the winds but if it grow vp like the Palme or the Cedar or be seated on the top of some high hill it is shaken with euerie blast Like the Apple tree among the trees of the Forrest so is my well-beloued among the sons of men An Apple tree in the midst of a Mountaine amongst Oakes Ashes Corke trees Brambles and Briars shall be much enuied and ill entreated What shall we doe for this man c. Before they sayd he was indaemoniated a Sorcerer a bibber of wine and a friend of sinners but now This man doth manie myracles before they were so harsh and so sowre in their reproofes and reprehensions that they brake foorth into wrongs and reproches but now in a more ciuile kind of deportment they say This man doth many myracles It is a great comfort to those Preachers who out of their zeale to God plainely and nakedly reprehend the sinnes and vices of the times for albeit some of their Auditors doe for the present speake euill of them when they shall afterwards call themselues to account they will then speake well of them Some there are that paint Vice cloathed others starke naked but amongst Painters the latter is held the more excellent peece Alexander did laugh at one of Apelles his Apprentises for painting Hellen rich in her cloaths but foule in her face Your fierie cauteries make the pained Patient to blaspheme God raile against his surgeon swearing by no small oaths That a Turk is not halfe so cruell and so hard hearted as he is but when he sees the Cancer stayd by this cauterising and that hee now waxeth well and sound he can then say Gran oficial es fulano Such a one is an excellent Surgeon It is a great comfort for vs that are Preachers when our Hearers soules shal so smart with our sharp reprehensions that they shal exclaime and crie out against vs That wee deale too roughly with them and that we lack a Ladies hand in the searching and dressing of their wounds and sores But when these men shall be freed of this their passion and shall find what good effect our Cauteries haue wrought vpon their cancer'd consciences though now they curse and reuile vs they will then thanke vs and pray to God to blesse vs. For this Man doth many myracles All the words that were vttered in this Councel were meere fopperies and fooleries and it seems verie strange much to be wondred at that the sin of malice being pecado tan pensado so premeditated a sin that they could not pick any other hole in our Sauiors coat or pitch on some other more foule and heynous offence whose circumstances might haue carryed more colour for Christs death They did foulely ouershoote themselues herein saith Osee It would make a man stand amazed as oft as hee but thinkes with himselfe That proceeding in that malicious manner as they did against him they should so much betray their ignorance But questionlesse it ariseth from that of the Philosopher Omnis peccans est ignorans Euen in the sinnes of malice ignorance hath a great stroke for a sinner knowes not well how to leaue or chuse Chrysologus saith That the diuell in tempting our Sauiour went foolishly to worke and that he had forgot the office of a Tempter Many Saints stile malice blind For there is not any sinne that treads surely but still goes hood-winkt
and let his desire fall What Moses art thou now turned coward What had it been to thee to haue lost thy life for to behold God face to face We find afterwards that desiring pardon for his People he said vnto God O Lord pardon this People though thou blot my name out of the booke of Life Wouldest thou not forgoe thy life to see Gods face and wilt thou part with this and that other life for thy people That was a particular good this a common and a Gouernor ought mainly and especially to haue an eye vnto that Those Cowes which carried the Arke to Bethshemish neuer turned their heads at the lowing of their Calfes because being guided led along with the loue zeale of the common good they forgat their particular longings and desires He that gouernes must fix his eâ—e vpon this White without turning it aside through the importunitie of wife childrâ—n or kinsfolke c. The Romans will come This was but to giue a colour to the violence of their enuie and malice All the world is a Maske or disguise Dionysius the Tyrant entring into a Temple of Idols tooke away from the chiefest amongst them a cloake of gold and being demanded Why hee did it his answere was This cloake is too heauie for the Sommer and too cold for Winter Taking likewise a golden beard from Aesculapius he said That his father Apollo hauing no beard there was no reason his sonne should weare any all which was but a maske for his couetousnesse Simâ—lata sanctitas duplex iniquitas Hence come our contrarie nick-naming of things tearming good euill and euill good sweet sowre and sowre sweet The tyrannie and crueltie wherewith Pharaoh afflicted Gods people he stiled it wisedome Come let vs deale wisely Iehu called that passion and spleene which he bare against Ahab Zeale Behold my zeale for the Lord. Those perills of life whereinto Saul put Dauid he proclaimed to be Gods quarell Goe and fight the Lords battells And here the Pharisees call this their conspiracie a Councell and their priuat profit Zeale c. Yee perceiue nothing at all neither doe yee consider c. This was Caiphas speech as for Ioseph of Arimathea of whom Saint Luke saith That he did not consent to the councell and â—eed of them And for Nicodemus and Gamaliel it is verie probable that they had no finger in the businesse but as it is in the prouerbe The head draweth the rest of the bodie after it as the Primum mobile doth the rest of the Heauens and therefore he sayd Yee know nothing for that when in a Commonwealth a Citisen differs in his opinion from a companie of impudent and wicked persons and liues therein with God and a good conscience presently they say Que sabe poco That he is a man of no vnderstanding and knoweth not what hee speakes The reason that Caiphas renders is this It is expedient for vs that one man die for the people rather than that the whole Nation should perish At that verie instant when the High-Priest was to pronounce this decree the Holy-Ghost and the Deuil mooued him therunto both at once the one directed his heart the other his tongue but in Caiphas his purpose and intention it was the wickedest Decree and the most sacrilegious determination that was euer deliuered in the World God could not bee well pleased with Caiphas for desiring the death of the Innocent nor yet displeased with his death for that it was decreed in the sacred Councel of the blessed Trinitie That one should die for the sinnes of the people But in God and Caiphas the ends were diuerse this out of malice to our Sauiour that out of loue to Mankind Nor is it inconuenient that one and the selfesame proposition should haue a different sence and meaning Destroy this Temple and I will build it vp againe in three dayes The Pharisees vnderstood this of the materiall Temple but our Sauiour Christ of the Temple of his bodie That which thou doost due quickely Our Sauiour Christ spake this of Iudas his treating to sell him but his Disciples vnderstood him as concerning the preparation of the Passeouer And so in this place It is fit that this man should die saith Caiphas that we may not become captiues to Rome and Heauen saith It is fit that hee should die because the whole World should not perish The persecution and death of a Martyr turnes to the Martyrs good but to the Tyrants hurt Surely the Sonne of man goeth his way as it is written of him but woe be to that man by whom the Sonne of man is betrayed it had beene good for that man if he had neuer beene borne Heauen could not inuent a more conuenient meanes than the death of Christ for our good but the world could not light on a worse meanes than the death of our Sauiour Christ for it 's owne ill Caiphas treated of temporall libertie the Holy Ghost of spirituall libertie Caiphas of the safetie of his owne Nation the Holâ—-Ghost of the sauing of the whole world And therefore Saint Iohn addeth Non solum pro Gente or as the Greeke Text hath it Pro ea Gente sed vt filiâ—s Deâ— qui erant disperâ—i congregaret in vnum Not onely for that Nation but that hee might gather the children of God together that were dispersed throughout the world Origen hath obserued That Caiphas prophesied but that he was no Prophet First Because one action of a Prophet doth not make the habit or denomination of a Prophet Secondly because he did not attaine vnto the sence and meaning of the Holy-Ghost the knowledge whereof in point of prophesie is necessarie S. Ambrose saith That Caiphas pretended one thing vttered another therefore that he sin'd in the sentence which he pronounced because hisintent was bad vniust as it was with Balaam who as he was a Prophet could not curse the people of Israell but as they were particular persons they did sinne and erre so that the Holy-Ghost seruing himselfe with the tongue of Caiphas as the instrument the High-Priest did but determine that which the Holy-Ghost had before decreed Whence we may take occasion to weigh and consider the good and the ill of an intention since that one and the selfe same words are so good and so ill Saint Augustine pondereth vpon those words of Saint Paul Qui filio proprio suo non pepercit sed pro nobis omnibus tradidit illum Who spared not his owne sonne but gaue him for vs all to death This word Tradidit is verified both of the Father and of the Sonne Tradidit semetipsum pro me He deliuered vp himselfe for me As also of Iudas Qui autem tradidit cum dedit signum He gaue them a signe that was to betray him And of Pilat Tradidit voluntati eorum He deliuered him vp to their will The deliuering of him vp was all one and the same but
the Father and the Sonne did this out of their mercy and loue to the world but Iudas and Pilat out of hatred treason and iniustice Saint Ambrose saith That that murmuring about the oyntment Vt quid perditio ista vnguenti facta est What needed this waste was vttered by Iudas and the Disciples in one and the same words But in them they proceeded out of a good mind but in Iudas out of auarice for the Disciples had therein a respect to the poore For this oyntment muttered they might haue beene sold for much and beene giuen to the poore But Iudas out of the profit that he might haue made thereby vnto himselfe by filching some of it away if he had come to the fingring of it Saint Hilary expounding that saying of our Sauiour Christ Pater maior me est My Father is greater than I saith That it being heard from Arrius his mouth it sauoured like gall but from our Sauiours mouth like hony In Corinth certaine Exorcists sonnes of the Prince of the Priests would take vpon them to cast out an euill spirit Pessimum the Text stiles him Who did demand of them Who gaue you licence to execute this Office Vos autem qui estis What are ye Iesus I acknowledge and Paul I know but who are ye And the man in whom the euill spirit was ranne on them and preuailed against them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded Saint Paul did cast out diuels in the name of the Lord Iesus Christ and these men likewise did vse the name of the Lord Iesus Christ How comes it then to passe that the successe was so contrary I answer The intention was different Their words were the same but not their intent It is expedient for vs that one man dye The naturall consideration of this place is the conueniencie of Christs death It was expedient for heauen earth angels men as wel the liuing as the dead Wherof I haue treated at large elswhere This spake he not of himselfe Saint Augustine Hoc in eo egit propheticum Chrisma c. The gift of prophesie made him to prophesie his owne euill life and that hee did prophesie ignorantly and foolishly Saint Chrysostome Vide quanta siâ— c. The grace of prophesie toucht the high Priests mouth but not his heart Whence Saint Chrysostome doth inferre how impertinently the Heretikes doe impugne the liues of the Priests with an intent and purpose to ouerthrow the force and power of Ecclesiasticall dignities and their sacred command and authoritie Moses his doubting did not hinder the gushing of the water out of the rocke nor the malice of Caiphas Gods good purpose Of Treacle the Physitians say That it hath a little touch of poyson in it and it being it's naturall condition and propertie to flye to the heart though it be hurtfull one way yet it carryes it's remedy with it So in like maner the holy Ghost made vse of Caiphas his tongue as the instrument of letting forth that diuine blood whose shedding was our saluation Of a leaud wicked fellow Plutarch reporteth That he vttered a very graue sentence and that Lacedamonia gaue order that it should be ascribed to another Answering to our à semetipso non dixit This was not a bird of his hatching Iob seemeth to bee somewhat mooued and offended That God should ayde the wicked in their distresse Thinkest thou it good to oppresse me and to cast off the labour of thine hands and to fauour the Councell of the wicked But the diuine prouidence is wont to make vse of the Councels of Tyrants and such as are enemies thereunto but does neuer assist and helpe them forward Saint Paul telleth vs That some did preach our Sauiour Christ through enuie others for opposition sake and by way of contention and saith withall In hoc gaudeo gaudebo In this I doe and shall reioyce And Christs Disciples aduising him that some did cast forth diuells in his name made them this answer Nolite prohibere Forbid them not For the indignitie and vnworthinesse in the person of the Minister doth not destroy the grace of his function and dignitie This spake he not of himselfe From so bad a man could not come so deepe a Mysterie onely God could put this so rare a conceit into his head as the deliuering vp of a Sonne for the redeeming of a Slaue Iesus therefore walked no more openly among the Iewes Seeing death now neere at hand he withdrew himselfe reading a Lecture therein vnto vs That when we are about to die and drawing on to our last home we should abandon the world and retyre our selues Remitte mihi saith Dauid vt refrigerer priusquam abeam amplius non ero Giue me leaue ô Lord to dispose of my selfe and to render thee an account of my life before I goe hence and be seen no more For to propound your cause before a Iudge you prepare and addresse your selfe vnto him before hand and shall you be negligent and carelesse when you are to appeare before God Amongst the Iudges of the earth you haue a Vista and a Reuista Hearing vpon hearing a primera segunda instancia a first and a second instance But with God you cannot enioy the like benefit his Court allowes no such course The Motto that is written there ouer his Tribunall is an Amplius non ero I shall bee no more We may not die twice for to amend in our second death the errors of our former life There is no reuersing of iudgement no appealing from this Iudge to that or from one Court to another That which wil concerne and import thee most is That thou condemne thy selfe before God condemne thee and that thou kill sinne in thee before God kill thee in thy sin This is the onely way to secure danger and to kill death Many sit vp so long at play that at last they are faine to goe to bed darkling This our liuing in the world is a kind of playing or gaming whose bed is Aeternitie Walke while ye haue light least the night come vpon you and darknesse ouertake you Study to giue ouer thâ—â—â—lay in some good time do not continue your sports in this world to the very 〈…〉 â—â—oppling out of the candle least ye runne the danger of going to bed darkeling He went thence into a country neere vnto the wildernesse c. If it goe ill with thee and that thou canst not liue well and quietly amongst some men flye from the societie of them Our Sauiour Christ hyes him to the wildernes amongst the beasts and carries his Disciples thither with him holding their fellowship to be lesse hurtfull and dangerous Frater fui Draconum saith Iob I am a brother to the Dragons and a companion to the Ostriches Inter Scorpiones habitaui saith Ezechiel I dwelt among Scorpions Albeit by their habit and shape they seeme to be men they are indeed no better than
saith Consultauerunt consilio They did lay their heads together they sat in Councell they did not onely thinke vpon but consent to the greatest malice and wickednesse which euer the diuell or hell could imagine Vt Lazarum interficerent To kill Lazarus This is the end of our thoughts when they are not cut off in time Sinne is so great an Vsurer that it goes dayly gayning more and more ground vpon mans brest till it hath brought it to a desperate estate They were growne to that desperation that they said vnto filthinesse I am thy seruant Saint Ierome saith That as the couetous thirst after money so doe these after dishonestie They are like those that goe downe into a deepe well they knit rope to rope and one sinne to another Why dyed I not in the birth Or why dyed I not when I came out of the wombe Why did the knees preuent me And why did I sucke the brests Wherein the Prophet painteth foorth vnto vs the foure estates of a child The first in the wombe The second when it is borne The third when it is swadled vp The fourth when they giue it the teat S. Gregorie doth applie these foure to the foure estates of sinne The first in the thought which conceiues it The second in the ill which bringeth it forth The third when we put it on like a garment The fourth when we nourish and maintaine it Saint Augustine painteth foorth these foure estates in these foure dead folkes In the daughter of the Archisinagoguian who stirred not from home In the sonne of the widow of Naim who was accompanied to his graue In Lazarus who lay foure dayes dead And in him whom our Sauiour Christ did not raise vp at al saying Let the dead bury the dead They consulted to put Lazarus to death Our Sauiours death was already concluded on and now this cruel people treated of making away Lazarus Of whom our Sauiour Christ said Vt descendat super vos omnis sanguis iustus à sanguine Abel ad sanguinem Zachariae c. It is no maruell that they sought to kill Lazarus for in him was sum'd vp all the blood of the iust that had beene shed in the world And the reason that makes this to seeme so is because all the iust that dyed in the world since Abel were a Type and figure of Christ And if they did die it was to giue testimonie of his death and had it not beene for our Sauiour Christs death his had not preceedd And for that the life of the iust was a shadow of that of our Sauiour Christ in taking away his life in whom all the liues of the world were contained they were guiltie of all the rest and as much as lay in them were the Homicides of the whole world And if he that carryes but one mans death about him findes no place of safetie vpon earth What rest shall he find that hath so many deaths crying vpon his conscience Saint Chrysostome treating of the sinne of Cain saith That it was greater than that of Adam For besides his loosing in the turning of a hand the greatest Empire that euer the world had we cannot imagine any sinne to be greater than the barring of all mankind from heauen the depriuing him of grace and of the friendship of God yet notwithstanding this seemeth to be the greater and hee proueth it by the sentence that was giuen vpon the one sin the other God sentencing Adam said Cursed is the earth for thy sake c. The blow of the curse was to fall vpon Adam and as the father which makes shew to throw the candlestick at his sons head but flings it against the next wall so God sayes Cursed is the earth for thy sake But with the Serpent and with Cain he proceeded otherwise To the Serpent he said Thou art cursed aboue all cattle and aboue euery beast of the field vpon thy belly shalt thou goe and dust shalt thou eate all the dayes of thy life To Cain Thou art cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth to receiue thy brothers blood from thine hand it shall not henceforth yeeld vnto thee her strength c. He did not forbid him to tread vpon the earth but he forbad him to enioy the fruits thereof c. Secondly The voyce of thy brothers blood cryeth vnto me from the earth Saint Ambrose saith That he heard the voyce of Abel for with God the dead speake as well as the liuing The Hebrew hath it The voyce of bloods putting it in the plurall number as Lyra hath noted it For hee had shed so many bloods as Abel might haue had children For albeit they had neither being nor life in themselues yet they might in their cause and beginning It cryes to mee from the earth Not from his body for though thy brother should haue forgiuen thee yet the earth would not pardon thee to see it selfe violated by a Traytor And if God would haue but giuen way thereunto a thousand mouths would haue opened to swallow thee vp aliue but being he would not consent thereunto it goes choking those seedes which might haue serued thee for thy sustenance and delight and shaking thee off from thence like a banished man this Writ is gone out against thee A vagabond and runnagate shalt thou be vpon the earth Thirdly All the superiour and inferiour creatures were to be his persecutors and his tormentors the heauens with thunder and lightning the Angels with fearfull apparitions the beasts of the woods and men shunning his company and God himselfe chastising him with a continuall trembling But some wil say How could God persecute him since he published a Proclamation That whosoeuer should kill Cain should be punished seuen-fold Sextuplum punietur The Seuentie Interpreters render it Septem vindictas exoluet Seuen seuerall reuenges shall bee taken of him Procopius answers hereunto That this Proclamation was made against Cain For a man cursed by God persecuted by heauen by earth by Angells by men by beasts and by himselfe would haue held it a happinesse to dye but God would not that he should inioy so great a blessing But that he should liue seuen generations and that in euery one of them God would take seuere vengeance of him Septem vindictas exoluet till that Lamech should come who gaue him a sodaine and violent death And this is a notable place against all kind of murderers and man slayers Dauid would not drinke of the water though he were thirsty which his souldiers brought him because it had cost them the hazard of their liues and therfore offered it vp in sacrifice to God They did poure forth innocent blood like water in the siege of Ierusalem Dauid did shed the water because it seemed to him to be blood and others shed blood as if it were but water some take blood for water and others water for blood Cogitauerunt vt Lazarum interficerent They consulted to
vertue and power of the eyes of our Sauiour Christ they did paint a sunne whence three Raies or bright-shining beames brake forth the one raising vp one that was dead the other did breake a stonie heart and the third did melt a snowie mountaine and the Motto was this Oculi Dei ad nos The beames of Christs eyes raise vp the dead breake rocks and melt snow A facie tua saith Esay montes defluent The fire which they hid in the transmigration of Babylon the children of Israel found at their returne turned into water but exposing it to the beames of the sunne it grew againe to be fire to the great admiration of the beholders which is a figure of Saint Peter who through his coldnes became water but the beames of the Sonne of righteousnesse raised a great fire out of this water Pliny reports of certaine stones in Phrygia that being beaten vpon by the beames of the sunne send forth drops of water But the beames of the Sonne of righteousnesse did not onely from this Petra or stone Saint Peter draw teares but whole riuers of water According to that of Dauid Which turneth the rocke into water-pooles and the flint into a fountaine of water Saint Ambrose seemeth to stand somewhat vpon it why Peter did not aske forgiuenes of his sins at Gods hands Inuenio saith he quod fleuerit nō inuenio quid dixerit lachrymas lego satisfactionem non lego I find that he wept but do not find what he said I read his teares but read not his satisfaction The reasons of this his silence and that he did not craue pardon of God by word of mouth are these First because he had runne himselfe into discredit by his rash offers and afterwards by his stiffe deniall and therefore thought with himselfe That it was not possible for him to expresse more affection with his mouth than he had vttered heretofore Etiam si oportuerit me mori tecum non te negabo c. And that tongue which had deny'd him to whom it had giuen so good an assurance could neuer as he thought deserue to be beleeued And therefore our Sauiour questioning him afterwards concerning his loue he durst not answer more than this Thou knowest ô Lord whether I loue thee or no. Secondly he askes not pardon by words because the pledges of the heart are so sure that they admit no deceit And for that Lachryma sunt cordis sanguis Tears are the hearts blood S. Ambrose therfore saith Lachrymarū preces vtiliores sunt quā sermonū quia sermo in precando fortè fallit lachryma omnino non fallit The prayers of teares are more profitable than of words for words in praying may now and then deceiue vs but teares neuer S. Chrysostome saith That our sinnes are set downe in the Table-booke of Gods memorie but that teares are the sponge which blotteth them out And indeering the force of teares he saith That in Christs souldier the noblest Act that he can do is to shed his blood in his seruice Maiorem charitatem nemo habet c. For what our blood shed for Christ effecteth that doth our teares for our sinnes Mary Magdalen did not shed her blood but she shed her teares And Saint Peter did not now shed blood but hee shed teares which were so powerfull that after that hee had wept hee was trusted with a part of the gouernment of the Church who before hee had wept had not gouernment of himselfe for teares cure our wounds cheere our soules ease the conscience and please God O lachryma humilis saith Saint Ierome tuum est regnum c. O humble Teare thine is the kingdome thine is the power thou fearest not the Iudges Tribunall thou inioynest silence to thine accusers if thou enter emptie thou doest not goe out emptie thou subduest the inuincible and bindest the omnipotent Hence it is that the diuell beareth such enuie to our Teares When Holofernes had dryed vp the fountaines of Bethulia hee held the Citie his and the Diuell when he shall come to dry vp the teares in our eyes when he hath stopt vp those waters that should flow from the soule of a sinner hee hopes he is his Elian of Tryphon the Tyrant reports of this one vnheard-of crueltie Fearing his Subiects would conspire against him he made a publike Edict that they should not talke one with another and being thus debarr'd of talking one with another they did looke very pittifully one vpon another communicating their minds by their eyes And being forbid by a second Edict that they should not so much as looke one vpon another when they saw they were restrained of that libertie likewise wheresoeuer they met one another they fell a weeping This seemed to the Tyrant the damnablest and most dangerous conspiracie of all the rest and resolued to put them to death The diuell is afraid of our words afraid of our affections but much more afraid of our teares O Lord so mollifie our sinfull hearts that whensoeuer we offend thee our words our affections and our teares may in all deuotion and humilitie present themselues before thee crauing pardon for our sinnes Which we beseech thee to grant vs for thy deare Sonne Christ Iesus sake To whom with the holy Spirit be all prayse honour and glorie c. THE XL. SERMON The Conuersion of the good Theefe MAT. 27. Cum eo crucifixi sunt duo Latrones vnus a dextris alter a sinistris There were crucified with him two theeues one at his right hand an other on his left THere are three most notable Conuersions which the Church doth celebrate That of Saint Paul That of Mary Magdalen That of the good Theefe The one liuing here vpon earth The other now raigning in heauen The third dying vpon the Crosse. Of all the rest this seemeth to be the most prodigious and most strange First because Mary Magdalen saw many of our Sauiour Christs myracles heard many of his Sermons and besides her sisters good example might worke much good vpon her Secondly Saint Paul saw Christ rounded about with glorie more resplendent than the Sunne had heard that powerfull voyce which threw him downe from his horse and put him in the hands of that dust whereof hee was created But the Theefe neither saw Miracle nor Sermon nor example nor glorie nor light nor voyce saue onely Christ rent and torne vpon the Crosse as if hee had beene as notorious a theefe as those that suffered on either side of him Againe How much the quicker is the motion and the extreames more distant repugnant and contrarie by so much the more strange and wonderfull is this change and alteration This theef was a huge way off from either beleeuing or louing our Sauiour Christ and that hee should now on the sodaine and in so short a space passe from a theefe to a Martyr from the gallowes to Paradise must needs be an admirable change Mira mutatio saith S.
Leo vt insidiator viarum vsque ad Crucem reus sit Christi repente Confessor This is a wonderfull change that a high-way robber condemned here to the Crosse should in the turning of a hand come to confesse Christ. In this one action did all the attributes of God shine and shew themselues in a most glorious manner and especially his wisedome in making these extreames to meet and ioyne together so on the sodaine and as it were in an instant Ecclesiastes saith That there is a time to bee borne and a time to dye a time to plant and a time to plucke vp that which is planted a time to slay and a time to heale a time to breake downe and a time to build a time to weepe and a time to laugh All these extreames did his wisedome knit and linke together In this action meete those two extreames of being borne and of dying for as much as wee see this theefe dye to the world and to bee borne anew to Christ. And the death of the righteous the Church stiles it a birth Those of planting and plucking vp that which is planted because grace is here planted in the soule of the theefe and sinne pluckt vp Those of slaying and healing for that our Sauiour Christ receiues these mortall wounds in his owne bodie and healeth those of the theefe Those of building and breaking downe that is built In regard that the body of sinne is destroyed and the building of grace is set vp in him Those of weeping and laughing in that the theefe doth now bewaile his sinnes and laughes for ioy to heare the gladsome newes of heauen In a word the more incurable that the diseases are which a Physitian cureth the more saith Saint Augustine is his skill and cunning to be commended Gods omnipotencie was likewise seene herein Saint Chrysostome saith That it was so great a Miracle that the Sunne should be darkened that the earth should tremble and shake that the stones should dash their heads one against another or that the vayle of the Temple should bee rent in twaine as was the inlightning of a blind vnderstanding the mollifying of a hard and stonie heart and the remoouing from the soule the vayle of it's ignorance And the truth of this may very well bee prooued by Moses his rod to whose Empire though the earth the sea the elements light darkenesse and all creatures whatsoeuer were obedient yet could it not mooue hard-hearted Pharaohs brest He likewise discouered his omnipotencie in making the Theefe an instrument to reuenge himselfe of the Diuell of the Pharisees of Pilat and of the people Of the diuell who as Saint Ambrose saith had blasoned it abroad to the world and triumphed greatly therin That our Sauiour Christ hauing but twelue Apostles he had woon one of them from him persuading him that it were the better life of the two to be a theefe than an Apostle but for a Iudas a poore base theefe which stole but blankes and farthings from the pouertie of that sacred Colledge Christ won a theefe from him which had spent his whole life in the diuels seruice and had committed many famous robberies and notorious thefts Theeues are the diuells weapons but our Sauiour Christ being the stronger of the two tooke from him the greatest theefe in the world leauing him with his owne sword confounded and ashamed I haue compared thee ô my Loue to the troupes of horses in Pharaohs charriots Salomon had great store of horses of the Aegyptian race for to furnish his charriots and to feare his enemies as the French vse to wage warre against Spaine with Spanish Gennets He then saith that as Salomon made war against the Aegyptians with the horses of Aegypt so the Church confoundeth the diuell with his owne Armes which are theeues and robbers Confounding and making ashamed Pilat the high Priests the Pharisees and the people with the tongue of a theefe There is not any thing in the world more infamous than a theefe Of all basenesse it was the greatest that our Sauiour should die as a theefe It was much that hee should become man Exinaniuit semetipsum more that hee should take vpon him the forme of a seruant Formam serui accipiens and more then that That he should be no more esteemed of than a worme of the earth and more yet then this That he should take vpon him in his Circumcision the image of a sinner but most of all that hee should die as a notable theefe betwixt two theeues In the garden he said Ye come forth to apprehend me as if I had beene a Theefe There he was taken like a theefe here condemned to death as a theefe that no man might take pittie of him There is no man that dies by the hand of Iustice but is pittied of the people saue only the theefe not one that takes compassion of him He that seeth a theefe hung vp in the high-way vseth as he passeth by to say Benedictum lignum per quod fit Iustitia Blessed be that gallowes on which such good Iustice is done The Church receiueth the Iewes the Moore and the Gentile but will not entertaine a theefe In Leuiticus God did forbid the Weasil and the Mouse and the frog also the Rat and the Lyzard and the Cameleon and the Crocodile and the Mole as vncleane and vnfit to be eaten and if you will but reade in the naturall Histories the conditions and properties of these creatures you shall see that they are all theeues It made many men maruell That the Crocodile being so great a creature the diuine Historian should reckon him vp amongst these other contemptible small creatures And Rodolphus Flauiacensis renders the reason of it to be this That they haue all of them theeuish qualities The Crocodile more particularly swims in the sea runnes on the land one while by day another while by night she layes a verie little egge which afterward growes to be a great beast and goes still increasing as long as shee liueth and is not onely the stampe and figure of a Sea-pyrat but of a Land-robber which night and day seekes all occasions to rob and steale Like vnto that theefe which in some poore country village begins first to fall a pilfring of some sixe royalls and from this so small a beginning raiseth his stock to fiftie thousand Ducats and comes at last to be a Regidor a Cauallero and a Titulado And by this so vile and errant a theefe as is here now treated of our Sauiour Christ did confound all Ierusalem He might haue made vse of the tongue of a Prophet or an Euangelist but as Sampson shewed his valour in conquering a thousand armed men with the iawe-bone of an Asse which had not approued it selfe to be so great had he made vse of Golias his sword or Hercules club or of Theseus his mace so our Sauiour Christ c. Gods mercie in this case did also shew it selfe exceedingly Saint
his freedome to performe as his tongue in defending him and his heart in louing him Secondly He did not stand waiting for the last plucks of Hope Emisenus saith That it was not his last houre but the first wherein hee knew his Sauiour Christ to be God It is now sixtie yeares since dearely beloued that some of you haue knowne him and yet yee deferre your repentance till the houre of your death Thirdly he confessed his sinnes and how deseruedly he did suffer Wee indeed receiue things worthy of that we haue done For he that will goe about to craue pardon for his sinnes the first step to forgiuenesse is to accuse himselfe of them Dauid entred in this way and the Prodigall when they cryed Peccaui so did the Publican Propitius esto mihi Peccatori And the Wise man teacheth vs to get in this way Dic tu prius iniquitates tuas vt iustificeris Iustus in principio sermonis accusator est sui Saint Bernard addeth Sui non alterius He is his owne accuser not another mans Saint Chrysostome That if the Theefe had not confest the faults of his life he would neuer haue presumed to desire Christ to remember him in his death Saint Augustine That if Adam had not sought to excuse himselfe God would neuer haue thrust him out of Paradise Saint Chrysostome doth much lament it that our Sauiour saying One of you shall betray me and prophesieng the bad end that he should make Iudas should not confesse his fault but should so boldly vtter as he did Is it I Master Hee should haue left out then Nunquid Is it I and said Ego sum I am the man then had hee not lost heauen by a word Saint Gregorie That the Theefe neuer shewed himselfe so subtill and so craftie in the office of theeuing as now for with this his last theft he repaired all the thefts of his forepassed life Alij latrones latrocinio vitam perdunt hic autem latrocinio vitam fâ—rator sempiternam Other theeues by theeuing loose their life but this theefe by theeuing handsomely robs heauen and goes cleane away with an euerlasting life Lord remember me when thou commest into thy kingdome c. As this petition was a very humble one and a modest one so was it a most discreet one First of all all mans happinesse doth consist in Gods hauing vs in his remembrance Those that are predestinated haue their names writ downe in the book of Life of the Reprobat there is no mention made in that book Dauid askes the question What is man that thou art so mindfull of him Saint Augustine saith That the second part of this verse is an answer to the former Quâ—a est homo What Quod memor es eius For man is neither more nor more worth than as farre foorth as hee is in Gods good remembrance Naturall Philosophie doth multiplie the definitions of man but in Christian Philosophie there are onely two The one Deum time mandata eius serâ—a Hoc est omnis homo All mans being doth consist in fearing God and keeping his commandements The other Quod memor es eius His good continuance in Gods memorie and this is implyed in Memento mei Remember me I do not desire that thou shouldst make me a free Denizen of thy Kingdome nor that thou shouldst honour me as thou doest those that haue truly serued thee but only that thou wilt be pleased to remember That though I do not dye here for thee yet I dye with thee And that it grieues me to the very soule that I had not known thee that I might haue suffered the torment of this Crosse in thy seruice and for thy sake and that I might haue laid down my life nay a thousand liues if I had had so many for thy loue O Lord haue therefore mercie vpon me and suffer me to suffer not onely so long as my life but as the world lasts so that at last thou wilt but thinke vpon me Considerabat saith S. Augustine facinora sua pro magno habebat si ei in fine mundi parceretur He did throughly weigh his owne wickednesse and would take it for an exceeding great fauour that when the world should haue an end he might haue his sinnes forgiuen him He had happely heard that which our Sauiour Christ said Videbitis filium hominis venientem in potestate c. Saint Gregorie doth discourse very wittily of the Theologicall and Morall vertues of this Theefe And beginning first with his faith he compares it with that of Abraham of Esay of Moses of the three Disciples of Nicodemus and Nathaniel with that of Saint Paul and that of the Canaanitish woman and hee seemes to preferre it before all theirs For if Abraham beleeued hee spake with God in person hee had many present fauours done him and faire and ample promises of fâ—r greater future blessings If Esay beleeued it was because hee saw him sitting in his throne in great State and Maiestie garded round about with Seraphins which cryed Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole world is full of his glorie If Moses beleeued it was because he beheld him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush seeing the bush burne with fire and yet the bush not consumed If the three Disciples beleeued it was because they saw him transfigured in Mount Tabor in that glorious manner That his face did shine as the Sunne and his clothes were as white as the light whilest a bright cloud shadowing them they might heare a voyce from heauen saying This is that my beloued Son in whom I am well pleased not betweene two theeues but betweene two Prophets If Saint Paul beleeued it was because he had been rapt vp to the third heauen and had seene strange sights c. If Nicodemus and Nathaniel beleeued if the woman of Canaan and many others they were mooued thereunto by the Scriptures and by our Sauiour Christs myracles But this Theefe neither saw him in his offered fauours nor in his Throne of Maiestie nor in the firie bush nor transfigured in the Mount nor knew any thing of the Scriptures nor of his myracles onely he knew that Iudas had sold him that his Disciples had forsaken him and that he was reuiled and hated of the people c. Et tanquam in gloria adorat And yet hee adores him saith Chrysostome as if hee were alreadie in glorie Videt saith S. Augustine in cruce rogat quasi sedentem in coelis Hee sees him hanging vpon the Crosse yet sues vnto him as if he were sitting in â—eauen Huic fidei quid addi possit ignoro What more may be added to this Faith I know not Those were wauering in their faith which saw him raise vp the dead and yet this Theefe firmely beleeues who saw him hang vpon the Crosse. Leo and Eusebius Emissenus indeere this his beleefe He did verily beleeue That our Sauiour
silence reseruing their Amen or So be it for the comming of our Sauiour Christ from whom all our good was to come And Theodoret giues vs this note withall That those that silenced their Amen were those that were to be fathers vnto Christ according to the flesh Fourthly in regard that this fauour is made the greater by it's quick dispatch Hodie mecum eris in Paradiso To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Theophylact and Tigurino read Amen dico tibi hodie Making there the point But this ought not to be receiued as Cassianus prooueth it but that this Hodie must goe hand in hand roundly along with Mecumeris And Iustin Martyr saith Iuxta fluenta plenissima gratiam simul accepit gloriam Grace and glorie with a full tyde came flowing in both at once vpon him S. Ambrose saith That our Sauiour Christ made this exceeding great haste Ne dilatione gratia minueretur Lest the fauour he intended to do him should be lessened by delay This fauour farre exceeding all the rest in the world besides As that of Alexander towards Perillus demanding a dourie of him for his daughter and that of the Gardiner who had the Kingdome of Sidonia giuen him or than that which Herod offered to his daughter Herodias or Assuerus to Queene Hester Si petieris dimidiam partem Regni mei c. If thou shalt aske the one halfe of my Kingdome c. And because Bis dat qui citò dat He doth a double curtesie that doth it quickly Least delay might lessen the Doners bountie Hee therefore saith Hodie mecum eris This very day shalt thou be with me c. S. Ambrose saith Quod magis veâ—ox erat premium quam petitio That the reward was quicker than the request Seneca sayes That hee that giues must not giue slowly for the willing mind wherewith it is done being therein the most to be esteemed it looseth much of it's estimation by it's slow proceeding Leo the Pope saith That it was a great fauour from Christ to put this so humble and so discreet a petition into the Theeues heart but a farre greater fauour to giue him such a good and quicke dispatch Ioseph foretelling Pharaohs seruant of his libertie being then his fellow-prisoner said vnto him Memento mei Haue me in remembrance with thee when thou art in good case But for all the others faire promises he continued two yeares after in prison But the Theefe had no sooner said Memento mei but his Sauiour saw him dispatcht O happy theefe thou didst negotiate well and with a good Iudge that could dispatch thy businesse so quickly and so well Lastly in regard of it's bountie and freenesse the reward outvying the request hauing more fauour done him than he desired Vberior saith S. Ambrose est gratia quam precatio God hath vsed and still doth the like liberalitie towards many Abraham desired a sonne to inherit his estate and a sonne was giuen him from whom God was to descend Iacob beg'd Beniamin and god gaue him both Beniamin and Ioseph Tobias desired that he might see his son in safetie God returneth him home vnto him sound rich and wel marryed Iudith craued Bethulia's libertie God gaue her that and Holofernes head into the bargaine and victory against Nebuchadnezzar Anna prayed for a sonne God gaue her one that was a Saint a Prophet Gods fauourite Salomon desired wisedome to gouerne his kingdome the better he had that and much more besides infinite store of wealth bestowed vpon him Ezechias sued vnto God for life and whereas he would haue bin contented with two years holding of it God granted him a lease of fifteen yeares to come The seruant that owed 10000 Talents desired to be but forborn for a time and the whole debt was forgiuen him But God neuer dealt so franke and freely with any man as with this theefe for he but only intreating him to be mindful of him he gaue him heauen Qui merita supplicum excedis vota sings the Church Theophylact saith That your Kings Princes and great Captains when they obtaine any notable victorie they reserue the principal captiues for their Triumph So Saul spared King Agag and the best things so the Emperors of Rome Zenobia and others Titus and Vespasian most of the young men of Iudaea But that our Sauiour Christ should enter in triumph into heauen with a theefe it seemeth a thing of small glory to the Triumpher and little honor for heauen But Abbot Guericus answers hereunto That it was a new and most noble kind of victorie Nouum pulcherrimum genus victoriae The kings of the earth get victories ouer their enemies by treading them vnder by kicking and spurning of them by contemning and tormenting them as appeareth by Histories both humane and diuine This is a tyrannous kind of reuenge and reuengefull cruelty But that of the King of heauen is a noble reuenge and a sweet victorie The enemies of a king of this world will kisse the earth for feare but those of the King of heauen for loue And therfore it is said Inimici eius terram lingent Againe S. August saith That Christ did inrich and illustrate heauen with the person of this theefe so far was he from doing him any the least dishonor For it is a great honour to heauen to haue such a Lord and Master as shall make of great Theeues great Saints S. Chrysost. hath the same and further addeth That by seeing one raigne in heauen who wanted earth to liue on euery man may liue in hope to inioy the like happinesse For it is not likely that he will be miserable to any that was so liberall to a theefe The Doctors do doubt whether this Theefe were a Martyr or no For he that is a Martyr it is not the greatnesse of the paine but the goodnesse of the cause that makes him a Martyr Achan was stoned to death and Saint Stephen was stoned to death But Achan was no Martyr because he dyed deseruedly for his sins The like reason you will say may be rendred of the theefe But S. Ierome Eusebius Nissenus and S. Cyprian stile him Martyr not because he suffered for Christ though he suffered not without Christ but because suffering with Christ so great was the sorrow which he conceiued for his sinnes that Christ taking this his torment to his account as if he had suffered for his loue made of the Crosse a Martyrdome S. August saith That on the Crosse he acknowledged Christ as if he had beene crucified for Christ. Eusebius Nissenus That albeit he began with the punishment of a Delinquent yet he ended with the glory of a Martyr And S. Cyprian That Christ did conuert the blood which he shed vpon the Crosse into the water of baptisme and that presently he placed him in Paradise Iustin Martyr and Irenaeus vnderstand here by Paradise some other place of ioy but rather earthly than heauenly Irenaeus prooues it by
him that with teares in their eyes they desired rather their owne hinderance than his absence Many nations of the world made their gods prisoners chaining them fast with strong yrons For in seeing themselues to bee forsaken by them they presently accounted themselues but dead men Pausanias reporteth that the Lacedaemonians had tyed fast the Statue of Mars with cords of silke And Alexander ab Alexandro saith That Hercules was bound fast with fetters of gold And Plutarch in his Problemes recounteth the like of Apollos Image And the sacred Scripture deliuers vnto vs That Micas the Idolater followed with teares in his eyes those theeues which had stolne away the Idols belonging to his house or his houshold gods And Laban vpon the like occasion pursued Iacob For it is impossible that any bodie should suffer or endure the absence of his God Two powerfull Loues therefore wrestling and strugling in the breast of our Sauiour Christ The one to returne to his father from whence he came The other not to depart from his Spouse here on earth his Loue did lay a plot how he might goe away and yet stay And this was the vpshot of his Loue. When the diuell had now put in the heart of Iudas c. It is noted by Saint Iohn That at the same time as our Sauiour Christ was busied about the performing a point of that so meeke and lowly a humilitie as his washing of his Disciples feet and communicating vnto them his body and blood the very same time did the diuell enter into Iudas his breast Saint Chrysostome addeth Admirans dixit That the Euangelist spake this as it were in the way of admiration Cum diabolus misisset in cor When the diuell had put it in his heart c. Our thoughts are like grauell stones got into the shoo which Satan puts into mans heart and made such hast to thrust them into Iudas his heart that he was much perplexed and troubled therewith some few dayes but the batterie continuing he fell at last to a finall resolution and when he was resolued what he would doe himselfe made the offers of selling our Sauiour Christ. Quid vultis mihi dare What will you giue me In which sale of his two notable follies are to be noted The one His selling of his Sauiour vpon trust S. Marke and S. Luke say They promised to giue him money The other His selling of him at so low a rate standing to their curtesie what they would giue him The diuell offered our Sauior Christ all the whole world But Iudas was so base That he went away well contented with three Blanks being willing to play at small game rather than to sit out For he that is a couetous wretch euen with the diuell himselfe looseth his credit And therefore the Church stiles him a very Pedlar the basest and worst of merchants Iudas mercator pessimus Saint Gregorie saith That Iudas did banish from the world three things of great price and value The one True Loue For euer since that false and treacherous kisse of Iudas mens affections haue likewise growne to be false and loue to be counterfeit and feigned vsing strange disguises Many imbracing those in their armes whose throats they cut in their hearts The other Vertue For hypocrisie puts on a shew of Sanctitie maskes her selfe with Holinesse and dissembles good desires The third Feare For he that is nor afraid to betray God What will he stand in feare of Gregorie Nazianzen saith That in selling our Sauiour Christ hee lost all the right and claime that he had to his blood for no man can challenge any right to that which he sells so that he did vtterly renounce all kind of remedie or anie soule comfort whatsoeuer Saint Bernard saith That by committing treason against the Lord both of heauen and earth he had so highly offended therein that neither of them would giue him any reception or entertainement at his death onely hauing hanged himselfe the Element of the Ayre kept him tottering there to his further disgrace When the diuell had put it in his heart There are some sinnes so foule and so enormious that for to cease vpon them a man had need to haue Iudas his heart and the diuells hands He that is weake and fraile may sinne out of a naturall inclination or some long continued custome and euery occasion will be sufficient to make him flye after his game as the Hawke doth after hir prey c. But to doe ill to him that doth vs good we had need of the helpe of a Iudas or a diuell Ioseph being woed by his wanton Mistrisse told her Quo modo potero Being bound vnto my Master with so many chaines of his loue and kindnesses towards mee How can I doe him so great a wrong Saul was much more beholding to Dauid than Ioseph to Pataphar yet the diuell tooke strong hold of him Spiritus Domini malus vrgebat Saul But let no temptation take hold on you but that which is humane He layeth aside his vpper garments S. Ierom in his Epistle to Celancia saith Nihil est imperiosius amore There is nothing of more power and command than loue Pharaoh leauing ouer the gouernment of Aegypt vnto Ioseph said vnto him Without thee shall no man lift vp his hand or his foot in all the land of Aegypt It may seem that God said the like to Loue who drew God downe from heauen to liue here vpon earth It was Loue who led him along through the streetes to Mount Caluarie triumphing there ouer his power It was Loue and onely loue O Loue if thou be so imperious as to triumph ouer God himselfe Who shall bee able to resist thee Absque tuo imperio c. Without this Loue we can neither stirre hand nor foot no not breath or liue one houre He layeth aside his garment Well did he repay that kind loue of theirs in casting their clokes before his feet when he road in Triumph through Ierusalem carrying palmes in their hands And he in stead of washing the palmes of their hands disdained not to stoope so low as to wash their feet Saint Bernard saith That the Spouse did complaine that the Gards of the Citie had taken her cloake away Tollerunt pallium meum Do not ye therefore complaine if ye bee stripped starke naked for Gods sake since he was pleased to lay aside his garments to doe you seruice He began to wash the Disciples feet He had said before Knowing that the Father had giuen all things into his hands And Hilarie addeth Etiam proditorem So that God hauing put Christ into Iudas hands Christ puts himselfe vnder Iudas his feet O Iudas saith he though thou hast giuen thy heart vnto the diuell yet I pray thee giue me thy feet that I may bath them with the tears of mine eyes Thou hast put all things vnder his feet The birds of the ayre the beasts of the field and the fishes
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
Enableth vs to doe what Nature cannot 50 The order of it different from that of Nature 108 Not obtained without diligence 166 H Haire HAire hath bin hurtfull vnto many  Harlot The price of a Harlot no lasting portion 397 Her manners ibid. Hardnesse of heart In the Iewes without paralelle 206 They that liue in it iustly suffered to dye in it 58 117 Markes whereby to know a hard heart 296 A hard heart can neuer be mollified 537 Health Life is no life without it 239 Heart It cannot loue and hate both at once 117 Mans heart Gods temple 557 c. Of the whole man God desires only the heart 369 What is vnderstood by heart 371 It hath many enemies and all within it selfe ibid. The heart of the Earth what 130. Hearers Curious hearers reprooued 124 Heauen The ioyes of it 194 Not purchased without violence 230 391 545 In our passage to it no tyes of Nature to be regarded 311 The glorie of it 627 Hell The paines of it how dreadfull 244 c. All other paines but pastimes to these 453 Honour Despised of Christ. 327 Neuer without it's burden 35 Gods children more ambitious to deserue it than inioy it 192 Earthly honours brooke no partnership 228 The desire of honour not alwayes to bee condemned 327 Honours where no merit is addes but to our shame 554 Desired of all 555 Hope More prevailent with man than feare 190 The nature of both 619 Sathans practise to depriue Iob of his hope 620 Hospitalitie Pleasing to God 375 God the onely keeper of it 443 Humilitie Twofold one of the Vnderstanding another of the Will 33 The onely way to Heauen 217 No Humilitie like our Sauiours 635 Hunger A great temptation 80 Why Christ would hunger 78 Hypocricie Feignes the good it hath not 15 A kind of Stage-play 16 The Hypocrite hath no hope of Heauen 18 The danger of hypocriticall and luke-warme Christians 268 301 Hypocrisie straines at a Gnat and swallowes a Camell 262 368 I Ego I. A Word of great authoritie 45 Iealousie A true symptome of basenesse 338 Iewes A jealous and enuious people 315 Gods many fauours toward them 316 Their subtiltie and incredulitie 565 566 The murderers of all Gods Saints 602 In nature both like the Bore and the Beare 604 Ignorance A maine cause of all our euill 401 591 Images What difference betwixt the maker of them and the worshipper 151 Incredulitie A maine let to Christs miracles 322 Incontinencie Is a Sinne which hath two properties 570 Informers Like the flyes of Aegypt in a common weale  Ingratitude The first fault that euer was committed 143 Neuer vnpunished of God 144 No cut to vnkindnesse 224 God substracts his blessings from the vngratefull 270 It is vsually the requitall of goodnesse 330 The Embleme of it 383 568 To returne euill for good a diuelish sin 635 Inheritance Gods inheritance may run a twofold danger 248 Iniuries Must be patiently digested 47 When and how to beforgiuen 333 c. To suffer them is true noblenesse 533 Intercession Not to be vnderstood but of the liuing 379 Two things required to make it effectuall 378 Ionas Whence descended 132 Reasons mouing him to flye 133 Why he would be cast into the Sea 136 The Marriners charitable affection towards him 137 Iugde No small comfort that Christ shall bee our Iudge 94 Two properties of a Iudge 95 He must not be rash 137 Iudges must incline to mercie 421 A good Iudge compared to a Crane 458 Iudgement Why attributed to Christ. 94 Iudgement how to be guided 471 c. All shall appeare in iudgement 98 The day of Iudgement desired of the Iust. 99 Pilats Iudgement against Christ. 640 The most vniust that euer was 641 Iudas Foolish two wayes in the sale of our Sauiour 634 The vilenesse of his fault ibid. Iustification A greater worke than either the creation of the World or of Angels 294 572 The first step to it is mercie and pitie 397 Set out by diuers apt similitudes 573 582 K Knowledge See Learning Wisedome TO know thy selfe the beginning of perfection 480 L Lambes A Name attributed to the iust and why 154 Law Whereunto vsefull 40 The law of Taliation 46 Lawes if many gainefull to some but losse to the most 363 Learning See Wisedome Not gotten without labour 464 c. God the giuer of it 466 Lent Why called the Spring of the Church 10 Liberalitie Must be waited on by Frugalitie 444 Life This life onely a procession of quicke and dead 489 True life is to meditate on death 1 4 490 c. Short life content with short allowance 8 542 Whether better a publique or a priuat life 107 An euill life the losse of Faith 128 Long life the enlargement of sinne 136 Life seldome wearisome to any 174 The euills of this life are onely seeming euills 179 180 Life without health no life 239 Why desperat sinners are suffered to liue long 241 Nothing permanent in this life 243 This life is onely toyle and labour both to the wicked and the iust 396 Light Twofold 188 The excellencie of that light which is spirituall 189 Christ why called the Light of the World 517 The benefit of this Light ibid. c. Reasons why some hate and shun it 519 What is meant by Light of life 522 Looking-Glasses Why placed about the Lauer in the Temple 526 Lord. A name implying Honour and Power 32 Loue To loue our selues wee need not be commaunded 42 We must loue our enemies 43 The causes why we cannot 49 How our loue must be ordered 56 The perfection of it how to be discouered 57 Neuer without feare 92 How God should be loued 377 Gods loue is alwaies working 388 435 475 c. 477 It cannot be repayd but with loue 475 No loue where no reliefe 503 Gods loue seene by his delayes in punishing 513 Loue and Hate transforme a man alike into their obiects 564 Nothing more tedious to one that loues than the absence of what he loues 633 Loue triumpheth ouer God himselfe 635 Lyar Lying The World the Flesh and the Deuill all lyars 528 The mischiefe of lying 529 M Madnesse TWofold 604 Magistrates Should bee free from what they punish in others 360 457 Like sheepe-heards they should feed their flockes rather than fleece them 437 In choice of State ministers what ought to be regarded 441 Magistrates should be bold in reforming publique abuses 454 c. More heede the conuersion of the offendor than the correction of his offence 455 Two things they should specially looke vnto their conscience and their fame 526 They must be examples 527 Christ in his proceeding against the Deuill a patterne for all magistrates ibid. That Common-wealth is lost in which the magistrates and their ministers are both bad 563 They should euer haue Gods Laws before their eyes 588 Ill Rulers sent by God to punish the people 600 They should account no time their owne but other mens 631 Malice Will
necessary 148 What we are to demand in prayer ibid. Importunitie in prayer pleasing to God 151 We must pray discreetly 157 Not with the tongue onely 370 Sicke patients may pray but not prescribe 45 Heartlesse prayers like soundlesseinstruments 501 Our prayers must not be long but strong ibid. Pride Presumption What kind of sinne 7 Mans presumption 230 The bane of the Soule 257 Neuer vnpunished 609 610 Princes See Magistrates Should regard their people 216 They little respect honest seruices 541 Profit Priuat profit regarded of euerie one 418 Prosperitie Alwayes enuied 182 Finds Freinds Aduersitie none 198 Worldly prosperity can follow no man farther than the graue 243 No sure token of Gods loue 376 The Soules bane ibid. Prouidence Distrust of Gods prouidence the cause of much euill 438 It reacheth alwayes to the preseruation of his children 563 Punishments See Chastisement Gods different from those of earthly Princes 109 He proportions them to our sinnes 102 He vseth them onely for preseruation 168 249 261 486 and yet many times prolongs them ibid. 332 We are punishable euen for our thoughts 169 The lesse wee are punished here the worse our estate 179 God labors to conceale both his Rewards and Punishments 190 207 Princes haue a threefold end in punishing 247 Great punishments not bee inflicted without great consideration 267 Gods punishments of two sorts 268 R Recreations LAwfull if moderate 10 Necessarie 428 Redemption Christ tooke great paines for it was at much cost 391 The greatnesse of it may be seene by the greatnesse of Christs shame 553 Reformation Mens reformations wherein differing from those of God 271 Religion Sinne neuer more odious than when masked with Religion 40 Mans wantonnesse in matters of Religion 122 The dishonor of Christians is to differ in Religion 298 No cost more tedious to man than that which is bestowed vpon Religion 431 Religion must not be guided by policie but contrary 594 Repentance How it is to be framed 9 The Niniuites Repantance 140 It is neuer to be delayed 10 141 624 A patterne of it 177 c. What may cause it 281 Two things required of euery true penitent 293 We must hasten it 382 484 Humilitie Obedience Faith required thereunto 484 The nature of it 486 Gods goodnes towards the truly penitent 508 Of Maries Repentance 574 Reprobation Neuer discouered to any 207 Gods prescience not the cause of it ibid. Reproches Christ more sensible of them than any other iniuries 535 Reproofes Not alwayes in seison 297 Brotherly correction is to haue place euerie where 334 He that would reprooue another must correct himselfe 338 Reproofe when to be vsed 339 c. how ibid. They must be priuat 343 We must not refuse to reprooued 348 To reprooue a sinner is the best seruice we can doe to God 350 The most faulty euer most ready to reprooue 399 424 Sharpe reproofes worke weake effects 590 Resurrection Christs Resurrection the greatest Myracle 128 c. 460 That his Death two Mysteries discouering all Gods Attributes 459 Reuenge Belongs onely to God 43 46 342 In man a symptome of cowardise 538 Riches Their vanitie 21 How they may be sought 22 Not so much respected of God as pouertie 30 They may be possessed but not desired 233 Vsually accompanied with Pride and Cruelty 239 Righteous They are the strength of the land in which they soiourne 426 God allowes them not Bread for nothing 63 Sensible of Gods wrongs 74 Very rare 544 545 Secure in all Stormes because God is with them 67 They long after the day of Iudgement 99 Called Sheepe and Lambes and why 154 They reioyce in afflictions why 185 396.566 Despicable without but â—ich within 188 Mindfull of Gods seruice not of their owne 502 So likewise of his iniuries not their owne 503 Riuers Three in this World 405 S Sacrament See Communion Sacrifice The greatnesse of the Iewish sacrifices 105 Saluation Diuersly sought after by Christians 325 Scribes and Pharisees Their austerity and hypocrisie 112 210 Their office ibid. Scripture Neuer to be searched vnto the depth 45 Scorning A vice particular to the Iewes 116 Securitie A dangerous state 532 Sermons Ought to sauour more of salt than sugar 124 Seruants How to behaue themselues towards their Masters 25 c. Seruice If good a sure motiue to draw on a recompence 29 Little regarded of earthly Princes 541 God must be serued before Man ibid. It is bad seruice to share in other mens sinnes ibid. Sheepe Gods children why so called 154 Sinne. Not feared of Men but only for the suffering 70 All sinnes not punished alike 101 170 Sinne vndermines the Soule by degrees 128 It drawes destruction after it 135 Occasions of sinne must be auoided 147 181 515 611 The foulenesse of sinne 204 372 575 It is the cause of all miserie 205 279 478 589 Desirous to doe more than it is able ibid. God not the author of it 208 Wee must not iudge of a mans sinfulnesse by his sufferings 589 They alwayes goe by sholes 264 The lesser euer punished by the greater ibid. Sin causeth the translation of Kingdomes 270 Sinne seperates Man from God and from himselfe 280 c. 511 Hard to be remoued 285 378 Of all other things most hurtfull to man 305 It driues vs farre from God 331 A monster and why 334 The sinne of Cain greater than that of Adam 603 The leauing of sinne a sure marke of Predestination 400 It is euer attended on by shame 410 Growes loathsome through satietie ibid. Foure principles concerning the secrecie of sin 415 It will discouer it selfe ibid Nothing so terrible to man as the sight of his sinnes 422 'T is onely for sinne that God forsakes vs. 427 Sinne it selfe a scourge to the sinner 453 Old sinnes must be strongly reprooued 456 Sinne the onely securitie that God could haue from man for his glorie 480 Sinne is death it selfe 497 It should be our Slaue 502 It so alters a man that God cannot know him 511 Custome in Sinne whereunto compared 513 Old Sinnes hardly cured ibid. Sinne makes the most valiant man a coward 525 No man free from it ibid. Wee may not dally with it 575 Relapses into it dangerous 577 Let vs eye our Sinnes and God will not ibid. Why God suffers his children many times to fall into Sinne. 611 Sinner To Sinners all things worke together for the worst 131 Their societie must be auoided 181 No Sinner but is sometimes touched 204 Desperate Sinners why suffered to liue long 240 Sinners Slaues to their sinnes 265 Vsually taken in their owne snares ibid. They loue not to be checkt 273 Their miserable estate 279 Whereunto compared 279 Their posture 280 Foure differences betwixt a just man and a sinner 354 Two sorts of sinners 367 We must neuer despaire of their conuersion 399 Alwayes ready to disguise excuse their sins 595 Better to suffer with the Saints than to be dignified with Sinners 500 Dead Lazarus the embleme of a
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
into a garden Euery mans soule is a vineyard to him selfe and he must dresse it The hasard wherunto the Vine-yard of the soule is exposed The vine hath no bounds no more hath the will of man The spouse compared to the vine Cant. 8.5 Gods absence from vs is nothing else but his conniuing at our sinnes From Gods conniuence growes our presumâ—tion and his seuerity Gods wrath the longer deferred the fiercer Trust is euer the surest tye Luke 19. Math. â—5 1. Tim. 2.7 Deut. 2â— Euery man may claim the fruit of his owne labors God requireth nothing at our hands but what is for our owne good Iob. 35 7. Micah 7.1 Ob. God is no racking Landlord Sol. He requâ—â—es of vs but a little Ezech. 33.6 7. Ministers in this world must expect nothing but hard measure Gods mercy is euer in competition with mans malice God in his punishing of man desires more his blushing than his bleeding Ecâ—lâ— 41.17 Gods Loue ceaseth not for mans wickednesse Nothing worse than a couetous man Ose 5.10 No vice more seuerely punished than Couetousnesse Amos 1.13 3. Reg. 20. No vice so hard to be reformed as Couetousnesse 1. Kings 22. Psal. 1. Gods course in punishing of sinne is to reuenge the lesser with the greater 1. Mac. 1. 2. Tim. 2. Sinners are vsually taken in their owne Snares Why the blood of Christ was not shed in the Vineyard Esay 65.5 Math. 27.6 Ezech. 28. Ezech. 16. God labours euery way the conuersion of a sinner Ierem. 6.8 Gen. 9.15 Esay 34. God omits no meanes to bring vs to himselfe Deut. 20.10 2. Kings 20. Many Christians now worse enemies to Christ than were the Pharisees 4. Kings 17.33 Gods punishments of two sorts Psal. 6.1 Ierem. 10.24 Selfe loue the ouerthrow of man Prou. 21.30 Iob. 40. Psal. 118.21 The translatioÌ„ of Gods kingdome from the Iewes to the Gentiles Esay 5. Osee 3.4 Ieremy 12.7 Math. 23.38 Eccl. 10. Prou. 2.22 Dâ—â— 6. Dan. 4. 3. Reg. 14.15 3. King 16. 4. King 9. God substracts his Blessings wheÌ„ we proue vngratefull 1. Reg. 2. Esay 22. 1. Kings 2. The distrubution of the matter This world is nothing but a mixture of good euill Prou. â— Eccl. 2 18. The wicked loue not to bee checkt in their proceedings Psal. 123. Psal. 10.12 Iob 22.13.14 Too much liberty the bane of youth Prou. 29.15 Eccl. 30. â—0 Eccl. 33.20 Eccl. 7 1â— Psal. 137. To forget God is to goe into a far cuntry Prou. 3. Iudg. 1. â—â— Psal. 38. Malach. 2. 3. Reg. 14. Prou. 3. Esay 38. Ier. 13. Lament 4. The wicked whereunto compared No miserie so great but sin will reduce vs vnto it Ierem. 17 Psal. 32. Ose. 5.4 The posture of a sinner is to lye groueling The remembrance of fore-passed felicity a great means to bring vsto Repentance Confession in Gods Court the onely way to Absolution Sinne is an offenceto God a wound to our owne Soules Psal. 25.10 Gods bountie often causeth our neglect The Angells reioyce at our comming vnto Heauen God aloâ—e must vntie the Deuills knots Esay 49. Coloss. 2.14 Diuersreasons why Christ paused vpon the casting out of this Deuill (1.) On our part (2.) Reasons on the Deuils part Psal. 126. Psal. 86. Gen. 3. Apoc. 9. Ephes. 6. (3) Reasons on Christs part Iob 40.20 Luc. 11. Mat. 12. Without confession no true comfort Osee. 13. The Deuils craft is to shut vp our mouths from Confession Gen. 39. Wis. 10.1 Dumb ministers the Deuills best agents Ose. 4.8 4. Kings 7.9 Iob. 2.5 Why God permits him to be so mischieuous 2. Mac. 3. Iosh. 2.9.11 1. Tim. 1.20 Esay 6. Two things required in euery true Penitent The iustifying of Soules a greater act of mercie than the creating of Angells Iob. 3. Luk. 16. Ierem. 1. Esay 14. Mat. 9. Mat. 12. Esay 29. 1. Reg. 2.5 Rom. 2. Esay 65.2 Rom. 10. No scourge to that of the Tongue Mat. 9. Prou. 26.4.5 The Deuills though at discord amongst themselues do yet vnite their forces against Man Iob. 41. Iam. 4 1. The word Sathan what it implyeth Mat. 1 â— No Theefe nor Tyrant to the Deuill Tyrants are euer their own torturest Reasons by which the deuill assures himselfe of peaceably possessing his spoiles Ob. Sol. Ill must betide all neutralls betwixt God and Sathan Apoc. 3. The casting out of Deuills not alwaies a signe of the comming of Gods Kingdome Acts 19.14 Wisd. 14. Prou. 5.22 Why Sathan is stiled the Prince of the world 1. Cor. 10. Luke 22.53 Apoc. 20. Luke 8. The Deuill finds no rest but where he may doe mischiefe Three sorts of persons possessed with Deuills Rom. 8.38 No creature so hurtfull to man as sinne A lesser ill to be possessed in bodie than in soule 1. Cor. 5.5 1. Tim. â— 20 Ose. 10 11. To thâ—esh in Scripture is to rule with tyranny Isa. 25.10 Esay 45.15 God is woont by weake means to confound the Mightie Christs conception in the heart is presently discouered Eccle. 30.3 Christs pedigree the noblest of longest continuance The Virgin not blessed for bearing Christ but beleeuing in him To bee the wife or daughter of a King a greater honour than to be his Mother Iohn 3.29 Nothing more fierce than the fury of the people Eccle. 26.5 Esay 61.7 Luke 4. Esay 26. The glory of Capernaum Esay 9.12 Iohn 21. Deut. 31. Rom. 11. T is naturall in all men to loue their Country Esay 61.1 Marc. 6.5 Luc. 10. Math. 11. Luke 14. Christs works of two sorts Why our Sauiour would worke no miracles in Capernaum Act. 7. Exod. 2. Num 23. Exod. 15. Num. 14. Num. 16. 1. Kings 19. Esay 65. Hier. 20. 3. Reg. ca. vlt. Micah 2. Luke 4. The nature of 〈◊〉 Admiration waits not but on things that are rare Math. 4. Iud. 9. To chalâ—enge any thing froÌ„ God as due is the way to go without it Psal. 30. Wisd. 1. Coloss. 1. Eph. 1 Esay 4â— Iob 11.7 Math. 13. Morc 6. Incrudelity a maine stop to Christs Miracles Math. 7.29 God somtimes neuer more our friend than when he denies vs our requests Mat. 26. â— Pet. 2. Luk. 12. Miracles neuer wrought but where Good was likely to ensue Mâ—th 4. The seueral conditions of Christians in seeking their Saluation Luke 9. Mark 9. Miracles not necessarie to Saluation nor sufficient The desire of honour 〈◊〉 alwaies to condemned 2. Cor. 11. God in the disâ—ensing of his fauors respects no persons Prou. 15.12 Amos 5.10 Enuie a dangerous beast Anger a sin no lesse hurtfull than Enuie Prou. 17.3 Prou. 27.4 The Nazarits base demeanor towardâ— Christ Ieuit. 4. Act. 7 Our Sauiour neuer any where so ill treated as in Nazareth How Christ is sayd to haâ—e passed thorough them We ought to pâ—ay against sudden death Sap. 4. Esay 30. God oft defers his punishments that our sins may grow to maturity Offences how and when to be forgiuen and reproued In treating of diuine matters we ought alwaies to craue the assistanâ—e of
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
precept But leauing this to the Schooles the precept of brotherly correction concurreth with any whatsoeuer heinous â—in or grieuous trespasse whither it be Against thy selfe Against thy neighbour or Against God For to prooue this truth diuers Authors follow these two paths The one That although our Sauior Christ in this his first instance speake of that sinne or trespasse which is committed against my selfe yet by a necessarie kind of consequence he inferreth likewise any sinne that is committed against my Neighbour and against God Against my neighbour because I ought to loue him as my selfe and to bee as sensible of his hurt as of myne owne Against God Because I am bound to prâ—ferre his glorie before myne owne good And if I being wronged God will 〈◊〉 I not onely pardon him but that I also complie with the precept of brotherly correction how much more will he tie me that I should deale â—indly in â—his kind with my brother hee hauing not sinned against me The second part is That this sinning or trespassing whither it be against my Neighbour or against God Thomas saith That I knowing it it is done against me because by scandalizing and proooking of me it doth hurt and offend me And Hadrianus the Lawyer saith That he that sinnes against God sinnes against any whatsoeuer faithfull beleeuer and leaues him iniured and offended For he that wrongs the Father in the Sonnes presence wrongeth also the Sonne and he that wrongeth the Master in the presence of the Seruant wrongeth likewise the Seruant besides Loue which makes things common makes others iniuries ours And if God take those iniuries which are done to thee to be done to himselfe as he said to Saint Paul Why doost thou persecute me And by Zachariâ— He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of myne eye it is not much that thou shouldest reckon those wrongs that are done to God to be done vnto thy selfe The zeale of thy house of thy honor authoritie seeing how the enemies of thy word slight coÌ„temne it consumes my flesh drieth my bones The like loue must make vs sencible of the sins of our neighbor for that they are members of this mysticall bodie of the Church Who is sicke saith Saint Paul and I am 〈◊〉 grieued Either forgiue them this offence or blot me out of the Booke of Life said Moses hauing a fellow feeling of his brethrens faults as had they beene his owne and therefore begs of God that he would either forgiue them or blot him our of the booke of Life Againe Another mans sinne prooues to be my hurt for Gods Iustice punisheth the Righteous with the Sinnefull For the the sinne of Achan there died in Ay three thousand souldiers for the sinnes of the sonnes of Ely Gods people were ouerthrowne by the Philistines and the Arke of the Testament taken captiue for Dauids sinne in numbring the People seuentie thousand of his subiâ—cts perished by the Pestilence By Ionas his disobedience they that went iâ— the same bottome with him were shrewdly indangered the Apostles ranne the like hazard by Iudas Moreouer Sinne is sometimes woont to make the earth barren and to shut vp the windowes of Heauen that they may not send downe any raine to water the drie and thirstie places of the Land and so Sin being a generall hurt to all it is generally done against all If thybrother shall trespasse against thee c. The verie name of a brother is a reason for this Precept for it was condemned in the Leuite and the Priest That they passed by saying their prayers to themselues but tooke no pittie of that poore man that lay almost for dead vpon the way wounded by Theeues Contrarie to that lesson of Ecclesiasticus He gaue euerie man a commandement concerning his Neighbour and a Turke or a Moore may as well bee our neighbour as another And if that housekeeper bee condemned that hath not a care of the Cat or Dog that liues within his doores for al this did S. Paul vnderstand when he said He that prouides not for those of his familie is worse than an Infidell How much more then will God that thou bee carefull of thy brothers health whâ— hath one and the same Father with thee in Heauen and to whom yee both daâ—â—â— say Our Father c. And who hath one and the same mother with thee to wâ—â— the Earth in whose wombe yee were both ingendred and borne anew by Baptisme For three transgressions of Edom saith the Lord and for foure I will 〈◊〉 turne to it because hee did pursue his brother with the sword and did cast off all 〈◊〉 c. Edom was the Metropolis of Idumea and her sinnes beeing come to the number of seuen which in Scripture expresseth a kind of infidelitie God faith I will not turne to it But suppose they were fewer yet some of them it should seem were verie foule ones amongst the rest this of their vnsheathing of their sword against their brother The Idumaeans were descended of Esau as the Iewes were of Iacob And in the conquest of the Land of Promise God commanded his People That they should not doe that hurt to the Idumaean as they had done to the rest of the Nations Quia Frater tuus est Hee is thy brother and thou ougtest to procure his good as thou wouldst thyne owne This benefit by the Idumaeans was repayed to Gods People with a thousand iniuries when the Philistines and those of Tyre ouercame the Israelites as you may read in the second of the Chronicles and the second For the Idumaeans did buy many Iews with intent to make them their slaues Likewise when Gods People had necessarie occasion asking leaue of the Edomites to passe through their Countrie in peace they withstood them with their swords in their hands In a word the enmitie which Esay bare to Iacob for his messe of pottage the blessing that he had stolne from him neither hee nor his posteritie could euer yet digest it though hee and his House had receiued many and those verie good courtesies at the others hands And therefore it is not much that God should condemne an enmitie so antient and so inueterated a hatred especially of one brother against anotheâ— Tell him his fault betweene thee and him alone c. And this is the diuine Law as it appeareth by the Epistle oâ— Saint Paul to the Galathians If a man be fallen by occasion into any fault yee whâ—ch are spirituall restore such a one with the spirit of meekenesse considering thy selfe least thou also be tempted Beare yee one anothers burthen and so fulfill the Law of Christ. And in that of his to Timothie and in that of S. Iames If any of you haue erred fâ—om the truth and some maâ— hath conuerted him Let him know That he which hath conuerted the Sinner from going astray out of his way shall saue a soule from death and shall hide a
multâ—tude of sinnes And in Leuiticus it is set downe as a Precept belonging to the Law of Nature Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart but thou shalt plainly rebuke thy Neighbour and suffer him not to sinne God hath giuen euerie man a charge concerning hâ—s Neighbour â—s we said before Saint Paul drawes his comparison from the members of the bodie which by the Law of Nature are bound reciprocally to succour one another in case of necessitie And Augustine takes his from the thorne which paining the foot carries after it the eyes eares and hands all the members of the bodie naturally inclining to the repairing of that hurt Another naturall reason which your holy Fathers learned Doctors and great Phylosophers render is That hee that can if he will hinder or put by a hurt that is readie to fall vpon his brother and doth it not is condemned to bee himselfe the hurter and harmer of him Thy poore neighbor is readie to starue and perish through hunger thou beeing able to relieue doost not doe it hee dies thou art his Deaths-man thou art the murtherer of this thy brother Si non panisti â—ccidisti saith Saint Ambrose Thy brother is sinking readie to be drowned thou mayst saue him by reaching out thy hand vnto him thou deniest him thy helpe it is thou that drownest him Thy Neighbors house is on fire it is in thy power to quench it thou wilt not doe it it is thou that hast burnt his house Tell but a Blasphemer a Drunkard or any other lewd liuer of his faults though neuer so fairely neuer so mild and gently he will begin to swagger with you and aske you Who made you sir a Iustice of Peace meddle with that which you haue to doe withall you take more paines than you haue thankes for your labour But hereunto thou or any man else that is thus charitably minded may make them this answer I haue complyed with myne obligation I am a Christian and am bound iâ— charitie and brotherhood to tell you friendly my mind and I can bee but sorie that my councell cannot preuaile with you this I am tyed vnto by the Law of God and of Nature And this position wants no proofes The necessarie circumstances of this precept are many The first is That the sinne which is to be corrected and reprooued by vs bee certaine and well knowne vnto vs and this is prooued out of this word Si pâ—â—cauerit If he shall trespasse c. as it is well obserued by Thomas Wee must not find fault vpon a bare suspition or presumption but must haue a good ground for our reproofe and go vpon an assured knowledge To goe about to pull out a sound tooth and with a sharpe inâ—trument to open the gummes it cannot chuse but be a great torment vnto him that without iust cause is thus cut and lanced No lesse grieuous and paineful is it to hunt after wickednesse in the house of the Iust or as Salomon saith to be a witnesse against thy Neighbor without a cause Many men are like vnto your Ferrets or your Bloud-hounds they go nosing and hunting after faults in other mens grounds and as Iob saith in another place When there is peace they are iealous of treason Of which kind of men Saint Austeâ— saith That prying into other mens faults they doe not looke into their owne And therefore thou oughtest not to be so busie in reprehending what is amisse in thy brother as inquisitiue in correcting thyne owne errours And therefore Saint Bernard giues vs this Item Tam diu quisque sua peccata ignorat quam diu alâ—â—na explorat See how long a man is searching into other mens sins so long is he ignorant of his owne This is the condition of ill natured men and such as complaine of the times and of Fortune The lesse fortunate things goe with vs the more suspitious wee be saith Tacitus And this is a Fate that followes base and abiect minds and therefore the Vulgar neuer put a bridle vpon their jealousies In a word this is a hard course that they take and in all sorts of men blame-worthie but most in those that haue most power for albeit by their place and office they haue freer libertie to inquire yet when their wits are thus a wooll-gathering they shamefully vse to erre qualifying euill for good and good for euill And if mens iudgements grounded vpon good probabilities and faire apparances proue many times false and therefore haue this caueat giuen vs by Christ Nolite sâ—cundum faciem iudicare Iudge not according to the face suspitions will hardly fall out to be true There are some things so notoriously bad that it were foolishnes to think them to be good othersome whom the intention makes to be good or bad but are not so in themselues The Good take these in good part leauing the true iudgement thereof vnto God as Saint Augustine hath noted and the Bad in bad part Mala mens malus animus A good Soule hath good thoughts but a bad Soule bad imaginations idle suspitions and needlesse jealousies wait vpon them Saint Augustine and Saint Hierome are both of opinion That he that suspects ill of others cannot possibly liue well himselfe Dauid desired of God That he would iudge him According to the iudgement of those that loue thy Name and take all things in good part And Saint Iames whispers in thyne eare Wâ—â— art thou that iudgest another man Hee treats there of those that iudge the secret intentions of the heart none but God hauing such iurisdiction ouer it If thy brother fall saith he his sinne is not layd to thy charge and if hee rise againe it is not put to thy reckoning he that now stands may fall and hee that is fallen may rise againe That man from whom we expect least may be a Saint and that man from whom we expect most may be a Sinner for neither is our loue certaine nor our feare secured In Leuiticus God hath commanded That none should serue in his Sanctuarie or presse to offer the bread of his God hauing either too long or too short a nose or a nose that stood awrie Where that nose is taken to be somewhat of the longest which goes nosing and senting after other mens liues and actions and that of the shortest which quickely takes snuffe and frets and fumes at the wagging of a Feather and that to bee crooked which wrests things indifferent and to the worser part And therefore God sayde by Ezechiel That he would cut off the noses and eares of his People and lay his indignation vpon them and deale cruelly with them The second circumstance is That the sinne which wee find fault withall bee grieuous for though light sinnes as Origen hath noted it deserue correction yet we haue not so precise an obligation for the reproouing of them as those that are more heinous In this circumstance sute your