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
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
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
commit euill Hazarding thereby both body and soule Mala est vita mala sed mâ—râ— peccatorum pessima An ill life is bad but a bad death worse God does Bene perdeâ—â— iustum When his il workes for his good As in Iobs case His goods were lost but his soule was saued But the perdition of this people was generall both in their goods their honours their wiues their children their Temple their liues and their soules In a word God would that this people like Lots wife should serue for a generall warning to the whole World by notifying their punishment to all nations Deus ostendit mihi super inimicos meos Now Ostendere in holy Scripture imports a Publication Quantas ostendisti mihi tribulationes multas malaâ— What great tribulations hast thou shewed me many euill He will destroy those wicked ones Dauid craues of God That hee will not correct him in his furie neither chasten him in his displeasure Ne in furore Domine God punishes all but not in his furie Ieremy craues a Corripe but it is in judicio non in furore Correct vs ô Lord and yet in thy judgement not in thy fury This Prophet sets downe two sorts of punishments The one of an Almond tree budding Quid tu vides Ieremiah What 〈◊〉 thou Ieremy Virgam vigilantem ego video sayth hee I see a rod of an Almond tree The other of a pot seething Quid tu vides c. What seest thou Ollam succâ—â—â—sam ego video saith he I see a seething pot In the rod he represented vnto vs a light kind of punishment with a rod we vse to beat out the dust if you strike therwith but two or three strong blowâ— well layd on you will presently breake it And this kind of punishment is eueâ— more directed to amendment of life and to serue as a warning vnto vs. Ionathâ—â— eyes were opened with that honie which he had on the top of his wand But in that of the pot seething he represents vnto vs a most sharpe and seuere punishment He shall destroy those wicked ones Man is so wedded to selfe-loue that when it shall incounter with the counsell of God it will goe about to condemne it Of fiue hundred offenders that lye in prison you shall scarce finde one that will not complaine that he suffers vniustly that the Iudges sentence proceeded either out of malice or iniustice And for these there is no better course to be taken with them than to halter them as they doe Mules when they begin to play iadish trickes As well conditioned as Dauid was Nathan the Prophet was faine to hamper him in this manner that he might thereby be taught to know his own error The like order doth our Sauiour Christ take with this froward people And albeit they were so crafty and so wary that when he propounded any questions vnto them they were wonderfull carefull what answere to make him suspecting this was but a trap set for them insomuch that when our Sauiour ask't them Whether the Baptisme of Iohn Baptist were from Heauen or from Earth They answered We know not But notwithstanding all this forasmuch as there is no wisedome no prudence nor no counsaile against the Lord and that the wisedome of the Earth is but foolishnesse to that of Heauen they fell into the snare pronouncing this sentence against themselues Malos male perdet He will cruelly destroy those wicked men It was not much that the children should waxe blind beeing neere the splendour of his diuine Wisedome when as their father the Deuill who was the fountaine of Malice was strucken blinde therewith Iob that patterne of Patience saith Hee that made him will make his owne sword to approach vnto him Some Bookes haue it Applicaâ—it gladium eius ei He caused the Deuill to cut his throat with his owne knife Hee tooke vp sinne as a sword against God and against Man but the Wisedome of God so guided the blow that he sheathed his sword in his owne bowels He brought in Death and Death was his death Hee bit Eue by the heele but this biting was the brusing of his head Of Golias sword Dauid said Non est similis in terra There was not the like againe to bee had Not that there was not such another to be found in the Philistimes armories but because it found out the tricke to cut off his Masters head So the Pharisees own sentence was the sword that cut their throates Nebuchadnezar asking of his Southsayers the signification of his dreame They told him None can doe that but God Now when Daniell shall interpret it he must by your owne confession be either a God or one of Gods inward friends Malos male perdâ—t Hee will destroy those wicked ones your owne mouth condemns you Saint Chrysostome and Eutimius say That they were all of this opinion But anon after finding themselues bitten they foyst in an Absit But our Sauiour citing for his purpose that saying of the Psalmist Lapidem quem reprobauerunt c. The stone which they refused c. Their mouthes were bungd vp and their Absit would not now serue their turne And therefore he sayes vnto them Auferetur à vobis Regnum Dei The Kingdome of God shall be taken from you c. Auferetur à vobis regnum Dei The Kingdome of God shall be taken from you The prophecies of the translation from the Iewes to the Gentiles as they are many so are they most manifest As in that of Esay Quia posuisti ciuitatem in tumulum Where he treateth of this alteration and of the destruction of Ierusalem Of Osee The children of Israell shall remaine many dayes without a King Of Ieremy I haue forsaken my house I haue left my heritage Of Malachy My affection is not towards you Mathew sums vp all these prophecies in one Your habitation shall be left vnto you desolate Pope Leo hath obserued that our Sauiour Christ beeing not able to beare the heauie burthen of the Crosse the Iewes fearing he would not dye till they had fastned him thereunto hired a Gentile called Simon Cirenaeus to helpe him awhile in the bearing of it Onely thereby to show that the fruit of the Crosse was to come vnto the Gentiles Or to explaine it fuller his submitting himselfe to the Crosse amidst these cruell Iewes was not a thing done by chance but a kind of prophecie That the Gentiles should take possession of the key of Heauen The Kingdome of God shall be taken from you Here first of all he aduiseth Kings Princes and Rulers that they looke well vnto their wayes and stand in feare of this change For God is woont to transferre Kingdomes States and Seigniories from one nation to another for their sinnes sake Because of vnrighteous dealing and wrongs and riches gotten by deceit the Kingdome is translated from one people to another A King suffers his subiects to be
haue beene at a stand immagining with themselues That being there is so great a difference betweene the Old Law and the New betweene God and God a God of Vengeance and a God of Mercie betweene a Lyon and a Lambe that Christs friends should haue had a priuiledge and that scarce a house of theirs should haue knowne what sickenesse danger or death had meant In the Floud Noahs house was preserued in the flames of Sodome that of Lot and in that generall massacre of the First-borne of Aegypt the houses of the Hebrewes were vntoucht And God sending the man cloathed with Linnen which had the writers Inkehorne by his side to take notice of the people of Hierusalem hee commanded them to set a marke vpon the forehead of his friends that hee might ouerskip them and not touch them in the day of destruction But here now a friends house is not priuiledged no not the house of Peter What should be the reason of it There are many but the main reason is this With God tribulation was euermore a greater token of his loue fauor than prosperity what said Iob when he sate scraping his sores vpon the Dunghill In my prosperitie I onely heard thee but now in my affliction I see thee S. Chrysostome saith That Cain in killing Abel thought that Heauen would doe him those fauours which it did his brother but he was deceiued for God did better loue a dead Abel than a liuing Cain Non extraxisti sed incendisti Philon saith That the fire in the bush was so far from consuming or burning it that it left it fresher and greener than it was before But for all this our miseries in the Old Law were neuer seene to be so honourable as afterwards when God had clapt the thornes which were the fruit of our sinnes vpon his owne head then did they recouer so high a Being and grew to that worth that the heauier God layes his hand vpon vs the more is his loue toward vs. The marke of our happinesse is the Sonne of God not glorified but scourged spit vpon crowned with thorns torne with whips and nailed to the Crosse and therefore to bee conformed to the Image of his Sonne is fitting for vs. In the Apocalyps his feet are put into a hot firie Ouen This was a ritratto or picture of his many troubles and though this Ouen or firie Furnace speake them much yet sure they were farre greater and beyond the tongues expression The Angells did scatter the coles of Gods wrath abroad in the World sometimes lighting in one place and sometimes in another but whose coles could bee hotter than his whose feet like vnto fine Brasse lay burning as in a Furnace She was taken with a great Feuer The Euangelist heere amendeth our vsuall manner of speech for with vs it is commonly said Tengo grandes calenturas I haue a great Feuer whenas indeed the Feuer hath thee God often afflicts the soule in the sence that the soule thereby may be made sencible God like the Bridegroome to the Spouse speakes a thousand sweet words to the Soule hee courts her wooes her with an Aperi mihi soror mea c. Open to me my sister c. but this makes her the more to shut the doore against him The Soule when it is in prosperitie growes proud it is deafe and will not heare she must bee wrought vpon inter angustias she must feele the rod before she will haue any feeling Ionas in the Whales bellie the Prodigall in the pig-stie the Sicke in his Feuer thinks and calls vpon God we listen vnto the Deuill when wee are in the middest of our Feasts our Banquets our Maskings our sports and pastimes but onely hearken vnto God inter angustias when we are afflicted and in miserie God being willâ—ng to cure those that were stung with the Serpents made a Serpent of brasse and caused it to be set vp that by looking theron they might be healed Gregorie Nissen askes the question Whither it had not beene a shorter cut and a more speedie and effectuall remedie to haue made an end of all these Serpents at once But he answers thereunto If he should haue freed them from those Serpents Which of them would haue lifted vp his eyes to Heauen And therefore let those Serpents continue still and those wounds of the bodie seeing they cure those of the Soule According to that of Salomon The blewnesse of the wound serueth to purge the euill Saint Gregorie the Pope saith That the wound of the Soule is taken away by making another wound of repentance and true sorrow Euthymius citeth to this purpose that verse of Dauid Qui dat niuem sicut lanam Snow to the earth is as wooll because it keepes it warme and giues heat therevnto for to bring forth floures and fruits wherwith to glad the Spring and beautifie the Sommer AnÌ„o de nieues anÌ„o de bienes saith the Spanish Prouerbe A yere of snow a yeare of ioy The snow of sickenesse and of affliction in stead of cooling the Soule it giues it heat and fruitfulnesse that it may bring forth floures and fruits of good life She was taken with a great Feauer The Phisitions call a Calenture or burning Feuer Calorem extraordinarium An extraordinarie heat or calidam intemperiem a hot distemperature which being kindled in the heart and taking fire disperseth it selfe through all the parts of the bodie catcheth hold of them offends them and discomposeth that harmonie of the humors wherein our health consisteth Saint Isidore deriues it from Feruor or that hast and speed wherewith it runneth and disperseth it selfe through our bodies Valerius Maximus sayth That in antient time they did offer sacrifice thereunto as to a Goddesse because of all other sicknesses a Feuer is that which commonly comes to make an end of our liues For as heat well tempered giues life so beeing distempered it brings death But if we shall goe philosophising from the infirmities of the bodie by way of analogie or proportioning them to the soule Loue to the soule is as Heat to the bodie And when it doth not exceede the Laws of God which is the life of our soule it inioyes perfect health but when it growes once to an excesse it falls into a Calenture or burning Feuer And this excesse succeedeth two maner of wayes Either by louing that more which ought to be loued lesse Or by not louing that enough which ought to be loued most The Spouse sayd of her Bridgroome Ordinauit in me charitatem He showed his Loue vnto mee He made exceeding much of mee He brought me into the wine celler and Loue was his banner ouer me He stayd me with flaggons and comforted me with apples when I was sicke of Loue His left hand was vnder my head and his right hand did embrace mee Extraordinarie was this Loue of the Bridegroome to his Spouse preferring her before all other things whatsoeuer God
beleeue the immortalitie of the soule they hold a sudden death a kind of happinesse but a Christian who confesseth that there is a iudgement after death desireth a more lingring and leisurely kind of dying for to preuent future danger both of soule and bodie In Leuiticuâ— God commanded That they should not offer any câ—eature vnto him which did not chew the cud or which had not a clouen hoofe And he therefore ioyned these two things together for to swallow the meat downe whole is verie dangerous for the health and the foot not cloâ—en verie apt to slip and slide and in a mysticall kind of sence is as much as if he should haue said That he that shall swallow down so fearefull dangerous a thing as Death without chewing meditating thereon shall doubtlesse slide if not take a fall as low as Hell The onely sonne of his mother In the order of conueniencie it seemeth fitter that the old mother should haue died than the young sonne But as there is nothing more certaine than death so is there nothing more vncertaine than the time of our death the young Bird as soone falls into the snare as the old one and your greater Fish as soone taken with the hooke as your lesser Frie. If the Wicked turne not God will whet his sword bend his Bow and prepare for him the instruments of death and ordaine his Arrowes against them For old men that stand vpon the graues brinke death hath a Sythe to cut them downe for young men that stand farther off he hath his Bow and his Arrowes Saint Augustine saith That God taketh away the Good before their time that they may not receiue hurt from the Bad and the Bad because they should not doe hurt to the Good The onely sonne of his mother Not that he was her onely sonne but her best beloued sonne Salomon stiles himselfe Vnigenitum matris suae His mothers onely begotten sonne not that he was the onely sonne of Bershabe as it appeareth in the first of Chronicles but because he was so deerely beloued of his mother as if he had beene her only sonne he was his mothers darling her best beloued the light of her eyes and her hearts comfort she cherished him made much of him would not let him want any thing yet all this care and prouidence of hers could not shield him from death There is a man in the Citie that is of a strong and able bodie and abounding in all worldly happinesse There is another saith Iob that is weake hungerstarued and his wealth wasted and consumed both these death sets vpon and layes them in the graue He exemplifies in the King and the Gyant for the rest he makes no more reckoning of them than of so manie little Birds whom the least fillip striketh dead but he sets vpon a King like a Lyon a poore man hath many meanes to hasten his death but Kings seldome die of hunger of penurie of heats or of colds c. And a Gyant seemes to be a perdurable and immortall Tower of flesh but in the end both Kings and Gyants fall by the hand of Death And since that Death did dare to set vpon the Sonne of God and his blessed mother let neither High nor Low Rich nor Poore hope to find any fauour at Deaths hands Ioshuah did stop the Sunne in his course Moses the waters of the red Sea Ioseph did prophecie of things to come and many of Gods Saints wrought great Myracles but there is no myracle to be wrought against Death Ieremie tells vs of certain Serpents that cannot be charmed charm the charmer neuer so wisely of this nature is Death Ecclesiasticus introduceth a dead man who speaketh thus by way of aduice to the Liuing Memento judicij mei sic enim erit tuum Heri mihi hodie tibi That man was neuer yet borne nor shall be hereafter that shal not see death or escape this heauie iudgement Salomon commanded the child to be diuided in the middle about whom the two mothers did contend and that sentence which he did not then execute shall bee executed vpon all liuing flesh for all men beeing in regard of the bodie sonnes of the Earth and in regard of the soule the children of Heauen euerie one receiues this sentence from the Iudge at his death Let the earth returne to the earth from whence it came and the Spirit to God who gaue it life She was a Widow woman The word Erat She was carrieth with it a kind of emphasis she was a sorrowfull and forelorne Widow A Widow ought to bee a rule and patterne of perfection to all other women shee should bee the glasse wherein they should see their faults and what is amisse in them In a word shee was a woman irreprehensible and without blame Nor according to Saint Paul hath the Virgin or the Wife that tie and obligation vpon them as shee hath The one because her small experience in the deceits and vanities of the world may excuse her in many things the other the charge and care that necessarily attends Wedlocke When Absalon entred into the wiues and Concubines of his father the King gaue command they should bee shut vp like so many Recluses because they had opened the doore vnto him as if the King had beene dead And Widowes are to liue so seperated and seuered from the world as if they liued not in it Isiodore expoundeth the Spanish word Viuda which signifies a Widow to be quaâ—i vidua diuided from her husband as the Vine from the Elme which was it's prop and stay which being taken away the Vine lieth leuell with the ground and without any comfort The Hebrew deriueth the name of Widow from a certain word which signifieth both bound dumbe now to be bound and dumbe are the conditions and properties of him that is dead who is neither able to mooue nor speake So that the vulgar Translation calls a Widow Sterilem barren and vnfruitfull as it is in Iob and in Esay Another letter stiles her Eradicatam pluckt vp by the Roots as a tree that is quite rooted vp that it may neuer grow nor waxe greene againe The smell of thy garments is like the smell of Frankincense They must not smell of Amber nor of Ciuet but of Frankinsense which they offer vp in Incense for a widdow ought to lead the remnant of her dayes so neere vnto her husbands Tombe that her garments should sauour of that incensorie perfume Of such Widowes as these God hath that especiall care that none shall doe them any wrong for the teares that drop downe from their cheekes ascend as high as Heauen And as the vapours that are exhaled from the earth come downe againe in lightning and thunder and terrible tempests so prooue the Widowes teares to those that shall vniustly cause them to weep and draw those watred drops from their eyes Heliodorus pretended to rob the Temple of Ierusalem
fro with it's vnruly appetites is al one Et vita inter Effoeminatos Another Letter hath it Scortatores The connexion is good for Youth runnes it selfe quickely vpon the Rockes of death through it's sensualities and lewdnesse of life There are two daughters of the Horse-leech which still crie Giue giue And the Wiseman pointing them forth vnto vs saith The one is Infernus The other Os Vuluae The Graue the one and Lust the other And the Wiseman did linke these two together with a great deale of conueniencie and fittingnesse for if Lust bee neuer satisfied the Graue lesse This truth is likewise made good forasmuch as the Scripture stileth Sinne Death If I doe this I must die the death So said Susanna to the Iudges that made vnlawfull and dishonest loue vnto her And Cain seeing himselfe charged with fratricide at that verie instant he gaue himselfe for a dead man Whosoeuer shall meet me will kill me Youth then beeing a house whereinto the raine doth drip so fast and at so many places it is no meruaile that life should cease and soone decay It is prouerbially said Loue is as strong as Death And as Loue doth vsually set vpon Youngmen so doth Death and where Loue striketh Youth Death may spare his Dart. The Antients painted a Youngman starke naked his eyes with a Vaile or Bend before them his right hand bound behind him and his left left at libertie and Time followiâ—â— him close at the heeles and euer and anon pulling a thred out of the Vaile Hee was drawne naked to shew with what little secrecie hee had vsed his delights and pleasures with his right hand bound behind him to expresse that he did not doe any thing aright his left free and at libertie signifying that he did all things aukwardly and vntowardly he was portrayed blind because he doth not see his owne follies but Time goes opening his eyes by little and little day by day brings him to the true knowledge of his errors And he that was dead sate vp and began to speake The Dead presently obeyed the voyce of the Liuing And hee sate vp God cryeth out aloud to those that are dead in their Soules yet doe they not obey his voyce Arise thou that sleepest c. Hee began to giue thankes vnto him that had done him this so great a fauour Thou hast deliuered mee ô Lord from the dooâ—es of death and therefore I will celebrate thy prayses and magnifie thy name in the Gates amiddest the Daughters of Syon It is Saint Chrysostomes note That the word Doores is put here in the plurall number because many are the dangers out of which God deliuereth a sinner That all may speake of thy praise and talke of thy wondrous workes And there came a feare vpon all It may seeme to some That the word Loue would better haue become this place and beene fitter for this present purpose and occasion All a man would thinke should rather haue expressed their loues vnto him sung forth his prayses and offered their seruice vnto him In those former punishments of a World drowned and ouerwhelmed with Water of a Sodome burned and consumed with Fire it was verie fit and meet that it should strike feare and amasement into all But in such a case as this What should cause them to feare Hereunto I answer That nothing doth strike such a feare and terrour into man as the great and wonderfull mercies of God A Roman Souldier told Iulius Caesar It much troubles me nor can I be heart-merrie as oft as I thinke on the many fauours that I haue receiued from thy liberall hand but doe rather hold them as so many wrongs and iniuries done vnto me for they are so beyond all requitall that I must of force proue vngratefull which makes me to feare that thou wilt proceed against me for a heinous offendor in this kind In like manner so many are the mercies of God towards man and so infinite that they may be held as Vigiles of his future seuerer Iustice. Iacob did in a manner vtter the same sentence against himselfe Minor sum cunctis miserationibus tuis The least of thy mercies is greater than all my merits nor can the best seruices that I can doe thee make satisfaction for the least of those fauours which I haue receiued from thy bounteous liberalitie Grant ô Lord that what is wanting in our owne worthinesse may bee made vp in the mercies and merits of our Sauiour Iesus Christ To whom with the Father c. THE XXX SERMON VPON THE FRYDAY AFTER THE FOVRTH SVNDAY IN LENT IOHN 11.1 Erat quidam languens Lazarus Now a certaine man was sicke named Lazarus of Bethanie c. PEtrus Crysologus calls this Signum signorum Mirabile mirabilium Virtutem virtutum The signe of signes the wonder of wonders and the Vertue of vertues or the power of powers Saint Augustine Miraculorum maximum The myracle of myracles which of all other did most predicate and blazon forth Christs glorie Saint Hierome preferres it before all the rest that he wrought here vpon earth By this prenda or pledge of his Diuinitie Death remained confounded the Deuills affrighted and the lockes and barres of Hell broken Genebrard That it is the voice of a Crier which goes before a Triumpher who makes Death the triumphant Chariot of his Maiestie and glorie That a valiant Warriour should make a braue and gallant shew on horsebacke hauing his Courser adorned and set forth with curious and costly Caparisons it is not much but to seeme handsome and comely in Deaths palenesse weakenesse and foulenesse beeing so ghastly a thing to looke on God onely can doe this Ante faciem eius saith Abacuc ibit mors Death â—â—all flie before his face Christ doth deliuer vs from a double death the one of the soule the other of the bodie He deliuered them from their distresses Death is swallowed vp in victorie He that drinketh takes the cup in his hand and doth therewith what it pleaseth him so did our Sauiour deale with Death therfore he called it a cup drinking the same vp at one draught wherein he dranke a health to all Beleeuers Saint Bernard vpon this occasion saith of him Mirabilis potator es tu Thou art a strange kind of drinker O Lord before thou tastedst of this cup thou saidst Transeat Let it passe and after thou hadst dranke thereof thou saidst Sitio I thirst The Flesh was afraid but the Spirit got the victorie ouer Death with that ease as a good Drinker doth of a good cup of drinke when he is verie thirstie In a word Not onely because this was a myracle wrought vpon a dead person that had lien foure dayes buried in his graue but because the sacrilegious councell of the Scribes and Pharisees had layd their heads together and plotted the death of our Sauiour Christ as also in regard of those other circumstances That the deceased
vs it is a kind of imperfection because these affections or passions fall a balling without any reason in the world and no iust occasion being giuen But in our Sauior Christ these passions were not without cause as Saint Augustine hath noted it Saint Gregorie and Saint Hierome neither can they presse him further than hee is pleased to command them If here our anger take hold vpon vs it is like a fierce mastiffe which being set on by his Master takes hold on the Bul and will not let him go though he be rated off againe and againe In conclusion two things doth here recommend themselues vnto vs. The one That our Sauiour Christ was angrie The other That he was mooued to much compassion His anger was occasioned through the Iewes incredulitie as it is noted by Cardinall Tolet and Caietane whose hardnesse and vnbeleefe was such that hee was forced to take Lazarus his life from him to disconsolate those two kind Sisters to draw teares from their eyes and sobs from their brest and afterwards to returne himagaine vnto the world and onely that some might be drawne to beleâ—ue Saint Cyril saith That this his anger was against Death and the Deuill as if he had threatned their ouerthrow and vowed their destruction as it is prophecied by Osee O mors ero mors tua O death I will be thy death c. Vbi posuistis eum Where haue yee laid him c. O Lord Why shouldst thou aske this question I answer That he did it for two reasons The one The countenance of a Sinner is so strangely changed and is so strangely altered from what he was before he fell sicke of sinne that it is a phrase of Scripture to say God doth not know him Thou lendest thy friend thy Horse or thy Cloake the one is returned to thee so lame and so leane the other so ill vsed and so vtterly spoyled that not knowing thyne owne thou sayest This is not that which I lent Of an vntowardly and vngratious sonne the father will vsually say He is none of my sonne so said God to the foolish Virgins and to those that had wrought myracles in his name Nescio vos I know yee not Your Robbers on the Highway disfigure the faces of those whom they rob and murder to the end they may not be knowne And there is nothing that makes the Soule fouler than Sin Denigrata est facies eorum super carbones and it beeing so faire beautifull before it is no great meruaile that God should not know it So that now our Sauiour seemes not to know the place there being so great a difference betweene the one place and the other that of the life of Grace and that of the death of Sinne that he here askes Vbi posuistis eum Where haue yee layd him Saint Chrysostome alledgeth That hee vsed the like question when hee called vnto Adam saying Adam Adam vbi es Adam where are thou I find thee in a different place from that wherein I put thee I placed thee in prosperity and content and I find thee now in wretchednesse and in miserie Who caused this so great an alteration in thee Saint Cyprian saith That this question was made more to the Sinne than to the Sisters and that Lazarus representing Mankind he said speaking of our sinnes Vbi posuistis eum Where haue yee layd him I placed him in Paradice and yee haue put him in the graue The like is reported by Petrus Crysologus and he calleth the Graue the Caue wherein the Deuill hides his thefts and because the beginning of all this harme proceeded from woman he asketh the Sisters Vbi posuistis eum Where haue yee layd him For there are many women God hauing placed man in honour happinesse and health which bring man to his graue The other A Sinner through sinne is remooued so farre from God in Regionem longinqâ—am that God askes where he is For if it were possible for man to hide himselfe from the all-seeing eye of God doubtlesse he would hide himselfe in the land of Darkenesse that is of Sinne. And therefore it is said The Lord knoweth the way of the Righteous and the way of the Wicked shall perish And Iesus wept Of this sheding of teares wee haue rendred many reasons elsewhere Those which now offer themselues are these The first is of Saint Ambrose and Saint Chrysostome who say That Christ was mooued to weepe by seeing Marie and Martha weepe Christ seeing the Widow of Naim weepe said vnto her Noli flere Weepe not and in the house of the chiefe Ruler of the Synagogue he sought to diuert their teares and yet heere these of Marie seeme to extort by force the falling of these teares from his tender eyes Marie had accustomed her selfe to talke with our Sauior in this â—ind of Language it being a Cypher which onely our Sauiour vnderstood and because she talked to him in teares he answers her in teares The exhalations of Maries heart ascend vp to the heauen of Christs eyes and these humane teares draw downe diuine teares obtaining that by grace which was impossible for nature to compasse The second is of Saint Hilarie and Epiphanius who affirme That he thinking on the obstinacie of the Iewes and their finall perdition brake forth thus into teares For no man can comprehend what an offence to God is saue God himselfe and therefore none ô Lord can so truly bewaile sinne as thy selfe And it seeming to our Sauiour Christ that two eyes were too little to lament their miserie he added fiue wounds which serued as so many weeping eyes not shedding water but bloud Saint Bernard saith That in the Garden our Sauior did sweat bloud that he might weepe with all his whole bodie treating therin touching the remedie of the mysticall bodie of the Church Eusebius Emisâ—nus saith That he did groane and weepe in token that wee ought grieuously to lament and bewaile our sinnes And to this purpose saith Ieremie Call for the mourning women that they may come let them make hast and let them take vp a lamentation for vs that our eyes may cast out teares and our eye lids gush out of water And why I pray you so much weeping and lamentation Quia ascendit mors per fenestras as it followeth anon after Because death is come vp into our windowes and is entred into our Pallaces to destroy the children without and the young men in the streets The Soule is gone forth and Death hath entred in weepe therefore c. The death of the bodie is a type of that of the soule And therefore Saint Gregorie saith If I shall walke in the midst of the shadow of death He saith That the departing of the bodie from the soule is but a shadow but the departing of the soule from God is a truth and as a shadow is a refreshing in Sommer so is death to the Righteous The Wicked sticke not to say
praise of it 41 Apparell How to be limitted 235 The abuse of it 236 B Baptisme THe foundation of Christian building 558 Bethesda the figure of it 165 Beloued A name of good preheminence 502 Bells The vse of them 526 Beelzebub Why resembled to a flye 295 Benefit See Courtesie Well bestowed if much desired 546 Beautie The force of it 571 Blessing Why Isaac would haue conferred the blessing on Esau. 227 God measures out his blessings to vs more by Loue than Wisedome 262 He substracts them from the vngratefull 270 C Centurion HIs behauiour iustified 36 His faith commended 34 Capernaum The glorie of it 23 315 Why Christ would worke no myracles there 318 There began the preaching of the Gospell 315 Change A change to be seene in all things 247 Charitie See Mercy and Vnmercifulnesse Much respected of God 100 praised of Men. 307 Must be practised towards all 337 How it differs from couetousnesse 439 Chaire What is meant by Moses his Chaire 212 Chastisement See Punishment Gods chastisements whereunto resembled 244 To what purpose they serue ibid. More in shew than in substance 452 Children What care Parents should haue of them 226 If vertuous their Parents glorie 310 Christ a Schoole-master euen to these 462 Foure degrees of child-hood and whereunto alluding 602 Christ. See Death His comming to Iudgement 93 With what Maiestie it shall be 96 97 His combat with the deuill 71 How called the hope of the Gentiles 142 Why called the Sonne of Dauid rather than of Abraham 149 His transfiguration and the reasons of it 184 c. The necessitie of it 187 The qualitie 188 Glorious in his Passion three manner of waies 192 His bodie two-fold Naturall and Mysticall 193 His Passion the fountaine of our glorie ibid. He suffered onely because he would 200 His willingnesse to dye 219 Why called the Sonne of Man 223 His blood why shed in the Vine-yard 265 If conceiued in the heart soone discouered 309 His Pedigree the noblest that euer was 310 His workes of two sorts 318 No Monopoly to bee made of his Worth 326 As he was meeke in reprouing so he was stout in reuenging 359 He brings Health and Holinesse wheresoeuer he commeth 374 Compared to the Sunne 388 The onely Well of liuing Water 394 A Controller of curious nicenesse ibid. The prerogatiue of his flesh 379 More mooued at our disasters than he was at his owne 494 Why without peccabilitie 524 c. His innocency exemplified both by his life death 526 Neuer any so abused by the World as he 537 543 Hee must be sought while he may be found 543 His power neuer more seene than in his Passion 549 605 He prooues his Diuinity by no other testimonie than his workes 556 Alwayes ready to forgiue Sinners 583 Why called a Bull. 605 His life was to bring the Iewes to knowledge his death the Gentiles 605 His Humility the character of his Loue. 637 His company a sure protection 622 Euery part of him affoords a Sinner confidence 645 His Dietie when most concealed ibid. His bloud ought to be much regarded 647 The difference betwixt his Triumph those of Men. 16 Christians Led more by Custome than Deuotion 414 Many now worse enemies to Christ than were the Pharisees 267 Many Christians why called sheepe 567 Church Why persecuted 65 Likened to a Rocke ibid. Her greatest persecution is to want persecution ibid. Her firmenesse 250 Gods fauour towards her 345 Why stiled a well ordered Army 440 In her infancie she needed miracles 326 She thriues because watered with the blood of Christ and his Martyrs 251 Clemencie A profitable vertue 534 Communion Two dignities to be considered in it One of the Person that receiueth Christ the other of the Preparation wherewith he doth receiue it 33 636 Confession When to be made 203 The onely way to absolution 281 Without it no true comfort 288 Sathan would keepe vs from it ibid. Contemplation Must not bee seuered from action 488 Nor preferred before it 413 Conscience If guiltie the greatest torture 567 Cooperation Necessarie in things that concern the sauing of our Soules 147 Counsaile Where good Counsell is wanting all runs to ruine 436 State Counsells more to pill the poore than to preserue them 437 No man so wise but may need good Counsell 587 Ill Counsel produceth ill effects ibid. Countrey Euery man must loue his owne Countrey 275 316 Conuersion Three conuersions celeberated by the Church 615 That of the Theefe miraculous 616 Couetousnesse Foolish and vnnecessarie 8 The roote of all euill 234 Nothing worse than a couetous man 263 No Vice more seuerely punished ibid. None so hard to be reformed ibid. The onely God that commands the World 264 Men vsually couet what is especially commended 407 Couetousnesse and Mercy how they differ 439 Neuer satisfied 441 Naught in a Magistrate ibid. Worse in a Minister 448 457 489 Courtesie The receit of a courtesie is the ingaging of our libertie 226 A good turne is a strong fetter 253 Courteous behauiour the greatest gaine 445 Court Courtier The Courts of Princes like the poole of Bethesda 162 The life of a Courtier is wholly vpon hope ibid. Crosse. Heauens key 623 The death of the Crosse an iniurie to nature 644 Crueltie See Vnmercifulnesse Curiositie Dangerous in diuine matters 125 as also in searching into other mens liues 477 Curiositie and Temperance are stil at variance within vs. 521 D Death THe Glorious change whereunto it brings the child of God 242 No greater dishonour than to dye by the hand of a base enemie 74 Naturall to shunne Death and to seeke Life 219 Christs willingnesse to dye ibid. Christs death to be considered two manner of wayes c. 222 c. As a mans life is so is his death 243 Why called a change 247 We ought to pray against suddaine death 331 492 The death of the wicked full of terror 332 The death of the Saints is the weakening of the place in which they dye 426 Little regarded or remembred 489 The remembrance of it affoords two benefits It is incident to all 490 c. The liuing more to be pitied than the dead 494 Death a large draught but Christ swallowed it downe 499 Why termed a Sleepe 509 c. Christs death how different from ours 510. The death of the Soule a true death that of the body onely a shadow 512 Why the Heathen erected Pyramids ouer their dead 514 Christs death the Deuills worst torment 528 549 Why Christ desiring to dye fled to auâ—yd death ibid. c. Christs death did alter the nature of things 645 The Deuil neuer more deluded than by Christs death 646 Preparation against death necessarie 597 Deuill He layes vpon Man three burthens 17. His description 71. His trade is wholly to doe euill 80 Why he appeared to Eue in the forme of a Serpent 81 His subtiltie 82 A great prouoker to Gluttonie and why Ibid. His malice oftentimes outrunnes his Wit 85 He is
sinner 512 He sauours ill to all but God 514 Fierce in his appetites and desires 546 God would haue none despaire 574 Compared vnto swine 278 Slander See Reproach Souldier Onely honourable when religious 25 Sorrow Of two sorts 20 A sharpe Sword 167 If deepe dumbe 580 Soule Why knit and linked to a body of Earth 4 Her faculties 49 To heale the Soule we must wound the bodie 377 Two things cause a feuer in the Soule ibid. The great reckoning which God makes of a Soule 403 Noble when it serues God 507 God onely can satisfie it 508 Man carelesse of nothing more than of this 512 A threefold death of the Soule 513 The soule of the iust wherein differing from that of a sinner 531 Partialitie of iudgement in things spiritual the bane of the soule 532 The labour and loue of Christ in looking after a lost Soule 561 Spirit Gods spirit the best Schoole-master 32 Stoning An infamous kind of death 423 Sunday God did his greatest workes euer on this day 562 Sunne The glorie of it 521 Christ the onely true Sunne 523 Superiours Ought to respect their inferiours 216 Sutâ—rs Not to be repulsed but with much mildnesse 231 A faint suter shewes how to be denied 325 Swine Sinners resembled vnto them and why 278 T Teares OF diuers sorts 495 Faulty two manner of wayes 496 They work two effects 578 More sauorie to Christ than Wine 583 Their efficacie 614 Temptations Our Sauior hath sanctified them vnto vs. 71 The general good which is deriued from them 75 We may not thrust our selues into them 76 They wait vpon perfection 77 84 Christ could not bee tempted either by the World or the Flesh. 78 Hunger a great temptation 80 Ambition is the like 90 Two kinds of temptations 91 Temple Gods temple ought to be reuerenced and why 110 c. 450 562 The publike temple is to be frequented 161 Thankefulnesse See Ingratitude Reqâ—â—red for benefits receiued 382 475 The Doue of all fowle the most thankfull 468 Our thankefulnesse a motiue to Gods bountie 485 Theefe The conuersion of the Theefe in all respects miraculous 617 'T was the blazoning both of Gods mercy and omnipotency 618 as also of his diuine prouidence 619 By wat motiues he was induced to his conuersion 621 His Faith not to be paralleld 626 Nor his Hope ibid. Christs bountie towards him 627 Thirst. A greater torment than hunger 398 Spirituall thirst neuer satisfied 405 Thought The qualitie and varietie of mans thoughts 601 Thresh To thresh in Scripture is to rule with tyranny 307 Time How redeemed 354 Torments Hell torments euerlasting 171 Tongue It must goe with the Heart 60 A good and an euill tongue 290 No scourge to the euill one 296 Trading The best euer with God 146 Traditions How farre forth to be regarded 365 Theire varietie ibid. The Churches perdition 366 Tribulations More profitable for vs than Prosperitie 376 Gods Eye is allwayes vpon the Tribulations of his Children 478 The Preseruatiues of Vertues 506 The best Reward that God can giue his Followers ibid. Triumph Christs Triumph wherin differing from those of Men. 647 Trust. The surest tye 257 Truth Seldome welcombe vnto any 328 528 Can neuer be supprest 535 Hardly heard in Princes Courts 610 Tyrants Euer their owne torturers 299 Their ferae the mother of their fury· 100 V Vaine-glorie EVer to be auoided 379 553 Victorie Temporall victories gotten by fighting spirituall by flying 76 Vice Hard to be remooued 24 Euer afraid of Vertue 111 Neuer wants Agents 541 Vine The Vines of the faithfull spring out of the bloud of Christ. 251 Euery mans soule is a Vine to himselfe and he must dresse it 254 Of all plants it most resembleth man 255 The Spouse compared to the Vine and why ibid. Vineyard The cost which Christ was at with his 250 Gods Vineyard must not be turned into a garden 254 Virgin The Virgin Mary is not to bee too much honoured of any 309 Blessed not for bearing Christ but beleeuing in him 311 Her dignity 312 Vnkindnesse No cut to vnkindnesse 224 613 Vnmercifulnesse Of all sinnes most abhorred both of God and Man 240 The fearefull estate in which such are 240 Vnthankefulnesse See Ingratitude Vsurpation The first originall of Kingdomes 299 W Warre EVer betwixt Man and the Deuill and that by Gods owne appointment and why 75 Water The Embleme of happinesse 404 The waters of Paradise onely tasted rauish the Soule 407 What is meant by the water of Life 546 The Holy Ghost why compared to water ibid Waters aboue the Heauens what 579 Wearinesse Christ was wearie 389 Wealth Brings with it Woe 86 Weepe Why Christ wept 511 c. Whore See Harlot Wicked Haue no peace 586 Wickednesse meere foolishnesse 590 Widow What qualitie of life is required in a Widow 493 Will. Nothing so peruerse as mans will 118 505 It is his owne ouerthrow 119 469 Christ greatest labour was to correct it 120 It concurres not with Grace in our vprising 173 Wine Not allowed the Israelites till they came into the Land of promise and why 83 Wine-Presse What it signifieth in Holy Writ 250 Wisedome See Learning Despised of none but fooles 462 A wise man how profitable and whereunto resembled 463 True Wisedome euer accompanied with Humilitie 468 Gods Word the truest 469 Wisedome and Power not to bee seuered in a Prince 473 No policie preuailent against Gods Wisedome 539 588 Witnesse Three conditions required in euery Witnesse 522 c. Wiues Must do nothing without the consent of their husbands 408 c. Woman The Hieroglyphicke of weakenesse 573 Though deuout yet dangerous to conuerse with 62 411 Wanton women subiect to two great miseries 396 Two baites at which they vsually bite 402 Their Incontinencie 409 Mans disrespect a frequent occasion of their fall 417 Workes If good wishes were good workes the wicked would soone be saued 400 We must worke while we may 483 Workes outspeake words 501 Word Gods word mans best sustenance 87 Effectuall by whomsoeuer it be vttered 209 211 Compared to a looking-glasse 464 The truest Wisedome 469 The maiestie and efficacie of it 470 547 How to be heard 530 The same words out of diuers mouths may be diuersly relished 596 World Worldlings most condemned of the world 18 Nothing in it but disorder 39 Likened to the sea and why 64 Nothing but in shew 91 175 c. A mixture of good and euill 272 Worldly contents not attained without much toyle 404 The Worlds entertainment poore and base 444 Wrath. Gods wrath more violent than lasting 158 201 The longer deferred the fiercer 256 No flying from it 276 Y Youth THe qualities of youth 273 Too much libertie the bane of youth 274 Liable to many miseries and disasters 497 Z Zeale IF true it carries with it both Lightning and Thunder 362 Without action no marke of a Christian. 414 The nature of true zeale 450 Wherein different from Loue. 451 c. Erata For Callite read
ouer this life in poore Cabbins now we liue but three dayes as it were and we build houses as if we meant to liue for euer they are so strong and durable Esau sould his birthright for a messe of pottage but he excused his so doing for that he saw his death was so neere at hand En morior quid proderunt mihi primogenita i. Behold I am readie to die what will birthright profit me Saint Austen puts a doubt why the Aegyptians did so freely bestow their jewells and their gold and siluer on the Hebrews and the resolution is That seeing their first begotten were all dead they made light reckoning of those things which before they so much esteemed Abulensis moues a doubt Why the Gyants of the promised land did not deuoure the Israelites being but as grashoppers in comparison of their greatnesse Whereunto is a twofold answer The first That they came in as strangers from whom they presumed they could receiue no hurt The second That God sent a consuming plague amongst them Terra deuorat habitatores suoâ— i. The Earth deuoureth her Inhabitants And there is no man of what strength or mettall soeuer that hath not Deaths dart sticking in his sides There is a great deale of difference made of honour and wealth between the liuing and the dying man the rich Miser that would not giue Lazarus a crum would vndoubtedly when he was a dying haue beene contented he should haue had all the meat on his Table And as Death doth mortifie andmake the flesh of Birds and Beasts more tender so doth it soften in men their hard bowells and causes pittie in their Soules and is the Key that openeth their close-fistednesse We read of certaine Fooles that said To-morrow we shall die let vs therefore laugh and be merrie and inioy the pleasures of this world for these thought there was no other life but this But Paul who was sorie to see this made no such consequence but the contrary Death is neere at hand let vs vse this world therefore as we vs'd it not c. Two things saith Seneca are the summe of our life Nasci Mori To be borne and to die Gregory Nissen treating of that place of Salomon Omnia tempus habent There is a time for all things notes That this wise man ioines our Nasci with a Mori as being neere neighbors and many times the time of death preuents that of our birth c. Age paenetentiam Repent There are two things to be considered in Repentance 1 That it is alwaies good 2 That it must be decent and discreete For the first It subdues the flesh makes it willing to submit it selfe to become obedient to the spirit Read Leo. Pap. Ser. 4 de Ieiun Vide Cyp. Orat. de Ieiun de Tent. Christi and Tho. 2.2 q. 15. Peccasti saith Saint Chrysostome poenitere Millies peccasti millies poenitere i. Hast thou sinned a thousand times repent a thousand times Saint Austen saith That the Deuil being desirous that Man should not repent himselfe of his sinnes is still whispering him in the eare Why doest thou torment and afflict thy selfe It is strange that God should take pleasure to see thy destruction Bread suffers martyrdome till it be brought to the boord Siluer the same till it be wrought into a vessell of Plate Stone till it be placed in the house for which it was hewen the Sacrifice till it be laid on the Altar it is no maruell then that Christians should suffer much who so much desire to bee the Bread the Vessells the Stones and the Sacrifice for Gods House and his owne Table The second point is That our Repentance should be decent and discreet This may serue for a few for there are but few that will exceede To whom wee prescribe Saint Pauls rule Rationabile obsequium vestrum Your seruice must be weighed in the Ballance of reason A Slaue when he is stubborne and rebellious deserueth the whip but the correction must not bee so cruell as to occasion his death Ecclesiasticus treating That it is good to correct a seruant doth put this in for a counterpoise Verumtamen sine judicio nihil facias graue i. Doe nothing without discretion Nay euen towards our Beast malicious crueltie is condemned Nouit justus jumentorum suorum animas i. A rightuous man regardeth the life of his Beast He will not lay more vpon them than they can beare Viscera autem impiorum crudelia i. But the bowells of the wicked are cruell Two things are to bee considered in our Repentance the one The grieuousnesse of the fault for to make light repentance for great sinnes is a great inequalitie as Saint Ambrose noteth it And Saint Hierome saith That the Repentance ought to exceede the fault or at least equall it Not that humane weaknesse can make full satisfaction for it's heinous sins but that it be performed in some proportion The councel of Agatha declareth the custome that was vsed in this kind in the Primitiue Church to wit That they that were publike scandalous Sinners did present themselues in a kind of soutage or course Sacke-cloath before the Bishop accompanied with all the Clergie who inioyned him pennance according to his offence banishing him from the Church for some such time as they thought fit But in a word As the Flower is spoyled for want of water so is it marr'd by too much Our life is a tender Flower and stands vpon a feeble stalke Qui quasi flos egreditur conteritur and as it is spoyled with the ouermuch verdure of delights and humane pleasures so likewise it is quite marr'd through the sterilitie of moderate recreation and honest pastimes and with the too much drought of torment Columella in his booke of Husbandrie saith That Hay must not be made when the grasse is too green nor too dry Our flesh is like grasse to haue it cut in a good sâ—ason it must neither haue too much greenenesse of iollitie nor too much drinesse of trouble for the one doth rot and taint it and the other doth wast and consume it Likewise there must be a care had to the season for the cure As often therefore as a man shall find himselfe wounded by sinne so often must hee apply the plaister of Repentance And as to deferre the cure in a dangerous sicknes breeds great perill so stands it with the putting off Repentance from day to day There are three differences of Time Time past present and to come that which is past is no more that which is to come is in Gods hands and that hee should bestow it vpon vs is his liberalitie and goodnesse the present is but short and for ought I know I may presently die And herein is mans madnesse seene for there is scarce that man to bee found that thinkes it now to day a good time to repent him of his sinnes but with the Crow cries
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
his hat cloake jerken and breeches but he wrapping them close about him with the helpe of his hands and teeth he kept himselfe vnstripped by the Wind who could doe no good vpon him so he giues off Then comes me forth the Sunne who came so hot vpon him that the man within a verie litttle while was faine to fling off all and to strippe himselfe naked The verie selfe same heat and courage did the Sunne of Righteousnesse vse in that last eclipse of his life when from the Crosse he did so heat inflame the hearts of them that were present that they did teare and rent their cloathes Et Velum Templum scissum est And as the barrennest ground is made fruitfull by the Husbandmans industrie so goodnesse ouercommeth euill Fortis vt mors dilectio i. Loue is strong as Death The stoutest the valiantest and the desperatest man aliue cannot resist Death no more can he Loue. Omnis natura bestiarum domita est à natura The nature of beasts is tamed by Nature Against that harme which the Philistines receiued by Mice the Princes made Mice of Gold let thy enemie bee as troublesome to thee as they mold him into Gold and hee wil neuer hurt thee more S. Chrysostome considereth the truth of this in Saul who bearing a deuelish hatred against Dauid yet by Dauids twice pardoning him his life made him as tractable as wax and he captiuated by this his kindnesse brake out into this acknowledgement Iustior me est He is iuster than I for I returned thee il for good and thou me good for ill S. Chrysostome concludes this Historie with a strange endeering That Dauids drawing teares out of Sauls hard heart did cause him more to wonder than did Moses and Aaron when he strucke the Rocke and the waters gushed forth We want not examples of this Doctrine euen in those things that are inuisible The toughest Impostumes are made tender by Vnctions Plinie saith That the roughest sea is made calme with oyle In the Prouince of Namurca they burne stone in stead of wood and that fire will bee quenched with Oyle Against the Impostume of hatred the raging sea of an angrie brest and the flames of a furious enemie there is no better remedie than Mildnesse Sermo mollis frangit iram A soft answer mitigates wrath Orate pro persequentibus vos Pray for them that persecute you This Prayer may be grounded vpon two reasons The one That the hurt is so great to him that doth the wrong that he that is wronged ought to take pittie and compassion of him and beeing it is Damnum animae The hurt of the soule which the offended cannot repaire of himselfe hee must pray vnto God for him That he would be pleased to repaire it Philon treating of the death of Abel saith that Cain killed himself non alterum not another and that Abel was not dead but aliue because he kild but the bodie which was none of his and left him his soule which was his And of Caine That his bodie remained aliue which was none of his and his soule slaine which was his and therefore Clamat sanguis Abel The bloud of Abel cries c. The other That there are some such desperate enemies that are made rather worse than better by benefits being like therein vnto Paper which the more you supple it with Oyle the stiffer it growes or like vnto sand which the more it is wet the harder it waxeth or like vnto an anuile which is not stirred with the stroke of the hammer or like vnto Iudas who comming from the washing of our Sauiors feet went forth afterwards with a greater desire for to sel and betray him whereas being in this desperate case hee should rather haue had recourse vnto God Prayer therefore is proposed vnto vs as the greatest charme and powerfullest exorcisme against the obstinacie rebellion of an enemie For vpon such occasions as these Prayer is woont to worke miracles Saint Stephen prayd for those that stoned him to death which wrought so powerfull an effect that Saint Austen saith That the Church is beholding in some sort to this his Prayer for the conuersion of Saint Paul And Saint Luke That the Heauens were opened hereupon vnto him he saw Christ standing in glorie at the right hand of his Father And it is worth the noting That the ordinarie Language of the Scripture is That our Sauiour Christ is said to sit at the right hand of God the Father but now here in this place the word Stantem Standing is vsed as if Christ had stood vp of purpose to see so rare and strange an accident and claue the Heauens in sunder offering him all the good they did containe or that he did seeme to offer him his Seate as it were as to a child of God vt sitis filij patris vestri That yee may be the children of your Father And this grace and fauor which God shewes vnto those that pray for their enemies was peraduenture a motiue to our Sauiour Christ to make that pittifull moane vpon the Crosse bewayling the Iewes cruell pâ—oceeding against him and praying that his death might not be layd to their charge Pater ignosce illis Father forgiue them Hee might haue hoped that these his charitable prayers would haue opened the Gates of Heauen for the Sonne of Glorie to enter in But in stead thereof the Sunne was darkened and a blacke mantle as it were in mourning spred ouer all the earth whilest he himselfe vttered these words of discomfort My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The doores of Heauen are shut against me my God hath forsaken me But the mysterie is That Heauen was shut against him that it might be opened vnto you and euen then was it opened to the Theefe and to many that returned from Mount Caluarie percutientes pectora sua i. Smiting their brests as also to that Centurion that said Verè filius Dei erat iste This was truly the Sonne of God There may be rendred another reason of this our Sauiours praying vpon the Crosse Which is this That for to obtaine fauors from Gods hand there is no meanes comparable to that of praying for our enemies In me loquebantur qui sedebant in Porta in me psallebant qui bibebant vinum ego autem orationem meam ad te Domine tempus beneplaciti Deus Dauid speaking there as a figure of Christ saith That his enemies sate like judges in the Gates of the Citie entertaining themselues with stories of his life and that they went from Tauerne to Tauern and from one house to another singing Songs in dirision of him descanting and playing vpon him but I turning towards God prayed heartily for them as knowing there was not any time fitter than that for the obtaining of my request Tempus beneplaciti An acceptable time c. The like he saith in the 180 Psalm Pro eo vt me
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
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
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
liued to bee the Yron Age. But I say That this present Age which we now inioy is the happiest that euer our Church had For in those former times those that were the learnedest and the holiest men fled into the Desarts and hid themselues in Caues that they might not bee persecuted with Honours For they had no sooner notice of a holy man albeit he liued coopt vp in a corner but that they forced him thence clapping a Miter on his head and other dignities And there are verie strange Histories of this truth But to all those that liue now in these times I can giue them these glad tydings That they may inioy their quiet and sit peaceably at home in their priuat lodgings resting safe and secure that this trouble shall not come to their doores for now a dayes onely fauour or other by-respects of the flesh haue prouided a remedie for this euill Non est meum dare vobis It lies not in me to giue you Christ would rather seeme to lessen somewhat of his power than to lessen any thing of his loue And therefore he doth not say I will not doe it for that would haue beene too foule and churlish a word in the mouth of so mild a Prince and he should thereby haue done wrong to his own will who desires that all might haue such seats as they did sue to sit in Saint Ambrose vnfoldeth our Sauiours meaning Bonus Dominus maluit dissimulare de jure quam de charitate deponere He had rather they should question his right than his loue The selfe same Doctor saith That he made choice rather of Iudas than any other though to man it might seeme that hee therein wronged his wisedome for the World might from thence take occasion to say That he did not know how to distinguish of men being that he had made choyce of such an Apostle But this was done out of his especiall prouidence saith Saint Ambrose in fauour of his loue For he being in our opinion to runne the hazard of his wisedome or his loue he had rather of the two suffer in his wisedome for no man could otherwise presume of him but that he loued Iudas The History of Ionas proues this point who refused to go to Niniuie it seeming vnto him that both God and himselfe should as Nazianzen saith be discredited in the world But he willed him the second time That he should go to Niniuie and that he should preach vnto them Yet fortie dayes and Niniuie shall be ouerthrowne At last hee was carried thither perforce whither hee would or no And the reason why God carried this businesse thus was That if afterwards hee should not destroy this Citie he might happely hazard the opinion of his power but not of his loue The like is repeated by Saint Chrysostome Ionas did likewise refuse to goe to Niniuie that he might not at last be found a Lyer esteeming more the opinion of his truth than of his loue Hence ariseth in the Prelats and the Princes this word Nolumus Wee will not haue it so which sauours of too much harshnesse and tyrannie Sic volo sic jubeo sit pro ratione voluntas Their will is a Law vnto them But he that shall make more reckoning of the opinion of his willingnesse and of his loue than of his power and his wisedome will say Non possum I cannot it is not in my power to doe it It grieues mee to the verie heart and I blush for shame that I am not able to performe your desire Which is a great comfort for him that is a suitor when hee shall vnderstand that his Petition is not denied out of disaffection but disabilitie When Naboth was to bee sentenced to death the Iudges did proclaime a Fast And Abulensis saith That it was a common custome amongst the Iudges in those dayes whensoeuer they did pronounce the sentence of death against an Offendor to the end to giue the World to vnderstand That that mans death did torment and grieue their Soule For to condemne a man to death with a merrie and cheerefull countenance is more befitting Beasts than Men. When our Sauiour Christ entred Hierusalem in Triumph the ruine of that famous Citie representing it selfe vnto him hee shed teares of sorrow Doth it grieue thee ô Lord that it must be destroyed Destroy it not then I cannot doe so for that will not stand with my Iustice. O Lord doe not weepe then I cannot choose And why good Lord Because it will not stand with my Mercie And that Iudge who euer hee be if hee haue any pittie in the world in him cannot for his heart bloud when hee sentenceth a Malefactor to some grieuous punishment or terrible torment but haue some meltingnesse in his eyes and some sorrow in his heart God so pierce our hearts with pittie and compassion towards our poore afflicted brethren that hauing a fellow-feeling of their miseries wee may finde fauour at his hands who is the Father of Pittie and onely Fountaine of all Mercie THE FIFTEENTH SERMON VPON THE THVRSEDAY AFTER THE SECOND SONDAY IN LENT LVC. 16. Homo quidam erat Diues induebatur Purpura Bysso There was a certaine rich man who was cloathed in Purple and fine Linnen AMongst those Parables which our Sauiour preacht some were full of pittie and loue others of feares and terrors some for noble brests others for base and hard hearts some had set vp for their marke the encouraging of our hopes others the increasing of our feares some seruing for comfort to the Godly and some for example to the Wicked That which wee are to treat of to day hath all these comforts for the Poore which liue in hunger and in want pined and consumed with miserie And threatnings for the Rich who say vnto their riches and their pleasures I am wholly yours There was a certaine rich man c. The first thing that he was charged withall is That he was rich Not because rich men are damned because they are rich but because he is damned who placeth his happinesse in them and makes them the onely aime of his desires And hence it commeth to passe that desired riches vsually prooue more hurtfull than those that are possessed for these sometimes doe not occupie the heart but those that are desired and coueted by vs doe wholly possesse it and lead it which way they list And therefore Dauid aduiseth vs not to set our hearts vpon them Hee that longeth and desireth to bee rich euen to imaginarie riches resigneth vp his heart Saint Paul did not condemne rich men but those that did desire to bee rich The Deuill sets a thousand ginnes and snares about those that haue set their desires vpon riches What greater snare than that pit-fall which was prepared as a punishment for Tantalus who standing vp to the chinne in water could yet neuer come to quench his thirst Non est satiatus venter eius His bellie was
as the Craines haue that the taste and relish of his meat might continue the longer in it's going downe Fourthly It shortens mans life Propter â—rapulam multi abierunt By surfet haue many perished Et plures gula quam gladio periere And more by sawce haue dyed than by the sword This is the maine cause of your Apoplexies and of your speedie and sudden Deaths Clemens Alexandrinus relateth That Purpurea mors was a Prouerbe of sudden death because those that were cloathed in Purple were commonly Gluttons But for violent deaths what experience more notorious Let Ammon Dauids eldest sonne speake this and Elah King of Israell slaine by the hands of Zambri Clytus Alexâ—â—ders chiefest fauourite Menadab King of Syria Assuerus Haman his Minion and one of the Herods Saint Basyll sayth That the vice of eating well is more desperate than that of liuing ill Many loose Wantons come to be reformed but Gluttons neuer Onely Death sayes hee ends that disease This rich man Saint Luke sayth That hee dyed amidst his continuall banquettings hauing no Medium betweene his eating and his dying Saint Chrysostome layes this to this rich mans charge That he did not beleeue the immortalitie of the Soule nor the eternall happinesses and miseries of that other life And a great argument for the proofe thereof is That hee was so hastie with Abraham That he would send one from the dead to preach this Doctrine to his Kinsfolke and friends And Abraham answering That they had Moses and the Prophets He replyed Non pater Abraham Not so father Abraham I my selfe heard the testimonie of Moses and the Sermons of those other Prophets but for all this I could neuer bee persuaded that Hell was prouided for mee and Heauen prepared for Lazarus My Kinsmen are like to be of the same mind as I was and the like will succeed vnto them as hath befalne mee and therefore I pray thee let one bee sent vnto them from the dead that may put them out of this their errour c. Erat autem mendicus nomine Lazarus vlceribus plenus There was a begger named Lazarus who wus full of Sores Hee painteth foorth this poore man and his wretched and miserable condition counterposing it to those worldly felicities wherewith this rich man did abound The ones pouertie to the others riches the ones sickenesse to the others health the ones hunger to the others fulnesse the ones nakednesse to the others costly clothes the ones leanenesse to the others fatnesse the ones sorrow to the others ioy the ones inioying of no pleasure in this life to the others generall content that he tooke in all the delights and pleasures of this World Transierunt in affectum cordis Another letter hath it In picturas cordium Whatsoeuer his heart did desire it was pictured as it were before him Does a rich man desire a handsome woman Money paints her foorth vnto him does hee desire reuenge Money will draw it out for him does hee desire banquets musicke and good cloaths Money does all this and limm's them out vnto him as in a faire and curious Table Looking vpon the inequality of humane chances in matter of good and bad fortune so much happines in some so ill bestowed vpon them so much miserie in other some which they did not so wel deserue there haue bin some fooles which haue not stick't blasphemously to say Does God know well what hee doth Ecce ipsi peccatores in saeculo obtinuerunt diuitias See what an vnequall course God runs The wickedst men are commonly the most wealthie But the trueth of it is That this is a mysterie of Gods prouidence though secret and hid Hee made the rich men his sonnes and heires here vpon Earth to the end that the younger brethren might haue here their secure sustenance And hee made the poore heires of Heauen that the rich might haue there their â—ecure happinesse So that the rich by releeuing the poore and the poore by praying for the rich they might both by Gods fauour haue equall portions in Heauen Saint Paul sayth That God made some rich and some poore that the aboundance of the rich might supply the wants of the poore and the aboundance of the poore supply the wants of the rich And so their lot might be alike It succeeding with them as it did in that miracle of the Manna Hee that gathered much had no more than he that gathered little For whatsoeuer he gathered ouer and aboue vnlesse he did repart the same vnto others it stunke and did rot and putrifie Vt vestra abundantia c. I will render it you in the Apostles owne words That your aboundance may supply their lacke and that also their aboundance may be for your lacke that there may be equality As it is written He that gathereth much hath nothing ouer and he that gathereth little had not the lesse Saint Mathew sayth That it is easier for a Camell to passe through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdome of Heauen Some vnderstand this Camell to bee a Dromedary some a Cable But to him that shall aske me how can a Camell or a Cable goe through the eye of a needle I shall answere him thus That a Camell beeing burnt and beaten to poulder and a Cable vntwisted and in wound may enter thread after thread into a needles eye In like maner a rich man that puts his trust in his ritches it is hard for him to goe to Heauen or to get into the eye of this needle But he may so lessen himselfe by giuing of almes to the poore that he may c. Fiducia magna eleemosina omnibus fatientibus 〈◊〉 This so Excellent an artifice seemeth to those that apprehend it not a great disorder And as hee that turnes often about thinkes that the world goes round with him so he that hath a giddie head takes Gods prouidence to be disorder But if there be any inequalitie it is on the poore mans part because God hath made them such great Lords in heauen that the rich had need to get themselues out of their hands by Almesdeeds Daniel to Nebucadnezar Breake off thy iniquities by giuing Almes Alluding to that of the Prouerbe The ransome of a mans life are his riches Saint Chrysostome saith That God did not create the Rich for to relieue the Poore but the Poore that the Rich might not be barren of good workes And Saint Austen That Mercie stands before Hell gates seeking to diuert condemnation from the Rich. Full of Sores In this Counterposition he begins first with the sickenesse of the Poore For as health next to life is the greatest good so a long a grieuous and a painefull sickenesse is the greatest ill Ecclesiasticus saith That a poore man that is sound and lustie is better than a rich man that is sicke and feeble Health is of a greater price than either gold or siluer and
there is no treasure to be compared to a bodie that is strong and healthie And indeering this truth hee saith That death is a lesse euill than a bitter life and the graue than a long and grieuous sickenesse So that in conclusion he preferreth health before life But if to these sores of Lazarus we shall adde hunger nakednesse and weakenesse and all these in so high a degree that he was not able to lift vp his Crutches to driue away the Dogges which did licke away together with the matter and filth of his Sores his verie life from him a man can hardly comprehend a greater miserie Insuper Canes lingebant And the Dogs licked c. The greatest miserie that Lazarus indured was the crueltie of this rich man and of all his whole house for euen the yerie Dogs in the house of a cruell man are also cruel This doth this word Insuper infer Here are so many miseries heaped one vpon another that they can hardly be reduced to a summe And the Dogs licked c. The verie Dogs did sucke licke out the life of him And this crueltie may be considered two manner of wayes The one That this rich man affronted poore Lazarus speaking vnto his seruants in a commanding manner What doth this poore Rogue make here send him packing that I may see him no more and I charge you that you giue him not so much as a Cup of cold water lest like a Fowlers Whistle he may serue as a Call to inuite all the Beggers in the country to come tomorrow to my house hoping that they shall speed no worse than he hath done They performe their masters command and when they had so done they come in and tell him Sir we haue dismist him and willed him to be gone but the poore man is very importunate and loath to stir Is he so quoth he marrie then will I tell you what you shall doe turne out these Dogs vpon him and they will set him hence with a vengeance This construction Saint Augustine makes in a Sermon of his and withall leaues vs this note for our better learning Quod in lingua majorem seâ—tit ardorem quia per eam contempsit Pauperem That he felt therefore the greater heat in his tongue because with it hee had the Poore in derision and made it the Whip to lash them The other That this rich man made as though he were deafe and would not heare on that eare when the Poore cryed oâ—t vnto him though his miserable condition hunger-starued carkaâ—se though he poore soule had held his peace spake in a loud voice vnto him to bestow something vpon him Those crummes good Master that are come from your table those scraps for Gods sake that are left c. Of these two interpretations you may take which you please but I am sure neither of both but is a sinne and that a great one too In which sinne of this vncharitable Chuffe wee are to consider three verie wofull circumstances The first That it is a sinne that is generally hated and abhorr'd For all other sinnes haue some Patrons to protect them some abettors to defend them or some fauourers to excuse them if not in heauen yet at least here on earth but against this vnmercifull and hard hearted sinne God Heauen Earth Angells and Men haue so open and wide an eare and conceiue so ill of it that they thinke none deserues Hell better And therefore it is said Iudicium sine misericordia his qui non faciunt misericordiam Iudgement without mercie to those that shew no mercie When he falls no man will take pittie of him Reuelabunt Coeli iniquitatem eiâ—â— Terra consurget aduersius eum The Heauen shall declare his wickednesse and the Earth shall rise vp against him All the World will crie out against an vnmercifull minded man as on the contrarie they will praise and applaud him that is of a pittifull and tender disposition Enarrabit Eleemosynas suas omnis Ecclesia Sanctorum The whole Congregation shall talke of his praise and the Generations that are to come shall speake good things of him Whereas the other his name shall perish from off the earth but his torments in hell shall endure for euer Saint Austen is of opinion That there is not any sinne more iniurious to Nature than this You shall haue a rich man keepe in his house a Lyon a Beare fiue or sixe cast of Falcons to all which he alots dayly a liberal allowance the poore man comes vnto him makes his moane and in a pittifull and humble fashion sayes vnto him Sir I beseech you for Gods sake bestow one single pennie or a piece of bread on a poore weake creature that is not able to worke for his liuing Yet wil not the rich man giue him that which he giues vnto his Beasts ô what an inhumane thing is this and how harsh to euery good mans nature The second circumstance is this That God doth with such difficultie remit this sinne that if any be irremissable it is this not only for it's crueltie so contrarie to the bowells of Gods compassion but also for that taxing his prouidence he makes such light reckoning of the miseries of the Poore that hee weighes them by ounces and measures them out by ynches nay hee proceeds further by adding griefe vnto griefe and affliction to affliction and iudging those jerks of Gods diuine Iustice to be too gentle he lays a heauier hand greater load vpon him This is that that made Zacharie to crie out Magna ira irascor c. I am greatly incensed against your richer sort of men for I was angrie but a little and they helped forward the affliction I send the Poore a sore for the chastisement of his sinnes that thereby I may bring him to heauen these would flea him aliue The Prophet Amos thunders out a terrible threatning against them in the metaphor of fat Kyne Audite haec vaccae pingues qui confringitis c. Heare this Word yee Kyne of Bashan that are in the Mountaines of Samaria which oppresse the Poore and destroy the Needie thou hast not left one bone of them vnbroken but I sweare by my Holinesse That I will be reuenged of thee Lo the dayes shall come vpon you that I will take you away with Thornes and your Posteritie with Fish-hookes and yâ—â— shall goe out at the breaches euerie Cow forward and yee shall cast your selues out of the Pallace Thus he calleth the Princes and Gouernors which being ouerwhelmed with the great abundance of Gods benefits forgat God his poore Members and therefore he calleth them by the name of beasts and not of men No lesse fearefull is that menacing of Micah Heare ô yee Heads of Iacob and yee Princes of the house of Israell who plucke off the skin of the Poore and the flesh from off their bones who also eat the flesh of my people and
One Angel was enough to ouerthrow a mountaine one onely sufficeth to mooue these coelestiall Orbes but it is Saint Chrysostomes note That Euerie one was glad to put a helping hand to so worthie a burthen â— this As many earnestly thrust themselues forward to beare a foot a leg or an arme of some great Monarch In â—inum Abrahae Into the bosome of Abraham Some vnderstand by this his bosome the neerest place about Abraham As in that of the Euangelist All the Apostles supt with our Sauiour Christ but Saint Iohn onely leaned his head in his bosome And in that other Vnigenituâ— qui est in sinu patris c. The onely begotten who is in the bosome of the Father As also that A dextris At his right hand So likewise Many shall lie downe with Abraham Isaac and Iacob And the Church singeth Martinus Abrahae sinu laetus excipitur Mortuâ—s est autem Diues sepultus est But the rich man died and was buried The Greeke makes there a full point and then presently goes on In inferno autem cum esseâ— in tormentis But when he was in hell in torment But of Lazarus it is not said That they buried him whither it were for that he had no buriall at all or for that beeing so poore and miserable a creature Earth made no mention of him as Heauen did not of the rich man But we read of the rich man Sepultus est He was buried Hitherto did reach the jurisdiction of his riches and the peculiar of his prosperitie great Ceremonies watchfull attendance about his Corps many Mourners Doles to the Poore Tombes of Alabaster Vaults paued with Marble Lamentations odoriferous Ointments pretious Embalmings Funerall Orations solemne Banquets In all this I confesse the rich man hath a great aduantage of him that is poore But in this outward pompe lies all the rich mans happinesse and when hee hath entred the doores of darkenesse and is shut vp in his graue like the Hedge-hogge hee leaues his Apples behind him and nothing remaines with him but the prickles of a wounded conscience his howlings his lamentations weeping gnashing of teeth and whatsoeuer other torments Hell can affoord Diuitiarum jactantia quid contulit nobis The ostentation and glory of riches what good doth it bring vnto vs O would to God that I had bin some poore Sheepheard O how too late haue I fallen into an account of myne owne hurt O World would to God I had neuer knowne thee He died and was buried There is no felicitie so great that can diuert the euill of Death let the rich man liue the yeares of Nestor the ages of Methusalem in the end hee must descend into the graue The cleerest Heauen must haue it's Cloud and the brightest day must haue it's night the Sunne though neuer so shining must haue it's setting the Sea though neuer so calme must haue it's storme If the good things of this life were perpetuall they that are in loue with them might pretend some excuse but beeing that worldly pleasure is a Wheele that is alwayes moouing a Riuer that is alwayes running a Mill that is alwayes going and grinding vs to dust How canst thou settle thy selfe sure thereupon The highest places are the least secure the Moon when she is at the full foretells a waine and the Sunne when it is at the heigth admits a declination the house the higher it is built the more subiect it is to falling And the Nest saith Abdias that is neerest to the Starres God doth soonest throw it downe The rich man died He tells not how he liued but how he died for death is the eccho of mans life and he hauing led so cruell and so mercilesse a life what good could he hope for at his death Quoniam non est in morte qui memor sit tui laboraui in gemitu meo c. The first part Reason prooueth vnto vs The second Weeping howling In my life time I aske God forgiuenesse for my sinnes For the man that is vnmindfull of this in his life God doth not thinke on him at his death Many call vpon God at the houre of their death and it makes a mans haire to stand an end to see a man carelesse in so dangerous a passage only because Death is the eccho of our life Others will cal vpon Iesus but as that crucified Theefe that dyed without deuotion For that heart which is hard in his life is likewise hard in his death Cum esset in tormentis When he was in torment c. Here is an indefinite tearme put for a vniuersall For albeit euery one of the damned doe suffer the full measure and weight of his sinnes and acording to Saint Austen and Saint Gregory suffer most in that particular wherein they most offended And that therefore the rich man did suffer more in his tongue than any other member of his bodie yet notwithstanding there is not any one that is dâ—mned which doth not generally suffer in all his whole bodie and in euery part of his soule For as Heauen is a happinesse that imbraceth all happinesse so Hell is a misery that includeth all miseries There was neuer yet any tyrant in the world in whose prisons and dungeons all torments were inflicted at once But in that of Hell there is not any torment which is not felt at one and the same instant The body that shall generally suffer And for this fire and cold will suffice which are generall torments The soule shall likewise generally suffer sorrow and paine not only because the fire shall burne it which though corporall yet shall it's flames haue an operatiue vertue and working vpon the soule but because all hope being lost of any kind of joy whatsoeuer there shall therein be deposited all the reasons that may be of sorrow and of miserie Likewise there shall be particular torments for the sences of the bodie for the faculties of the soule the eyes shall enioy so much light as shall serue to see fearefull Visions so sayes Cirillus Alexandrinus and on the other side they shall suffer such thicke and palpable darknesse that they shall imagine them to be the ghastly shadowes of death Saint Chrysostome saith That they shall see the huge and infinite numbers of the Damned taking notice of all those that conuersed with them in their life time as fathers grandfathers brothers and friends And if the varietie multitude that are in a deep dungeon if the ratling of their chains the clattring of their shackles their hunger their nakednesse the noyse coyle confusion which they make cause a horrour in as many as both see and heare it what a terrour then will it be to see the miserable torments and to heare the fearefull shriâ—kes and pittifull outcries of those that are damned to the bottomlesse pit of hell The eares will suffer with their howlings their lamentations their blasphemies their cursings their ragings their dispairings
punishments Desiderium Impij mâ—nimentum est pessimorum so saith Salomon To this end the Scripture recounteth that the earth swallowed vp Korah Dathan Abiram the rest of those rebellious schismaticks wrapping them in flames smoke the Censers remaining in the midst of the fire Moses commanded that they should be taken out broad plates made of them for a couering of the Alter Vt haberent postea filij Israel quibus commonerentur That they might serue as a memoriall and warning to the children of Israell As false weights doe that are nayled vp in the Market place grounds that are ploughed with salt and the heads of malefactors in the highway Because the people of God had intangled themselues with the Moabites there perished of them twentie foure thousand but God commanded that the Princes should be hanged against the Sunne Saint Augustine saith That this was done for an admonishment to the people The Seuentie read Ostende eos Domine contra Solem That God and all the world may see them and that they may remaine as a perpetuall example to posteritie The Historie of the Machabees reports vnto vs That Nicanor vttered a most beastly blasphemie saying That his power was as great as that of God but the diuine justice punishing this his insolencie his head was set vp on the highest tower in the citie his right hand which he had held vp so proudly they nayled it against the doore of the Temple and caused his tongue to be cut in little pieces and to be cast vnto the Fowles Pharaohs and his Peoples death the booke of Wisedome saith That it was conuenient that the people of Israell should see it and consider it Vt ostenderet quemadmodum inimici eorum exterminabantur That the people might trie a meruailous passage and that these might find a strange death Theodoret brings a comparison of him that makes an Anotomie or dissection vpon a dead bodie for the instruction of those that are liuing And Zacharie paints out vnto vs a Talent of lead And this was a woman that sate in the midst of the Ephah whose name or title was Impietie or Wickednesse which hee saith was carried vnto Babylon Vt poneretur super vasem suum To be established and set vp there in her owne place that beeing set vp aloft vpon a Piller shee might continue there for a perdurable example Aulus Gellius in his Noctibus Atticis saith That Princes haue three ends in their punishments The one The amendment of the fault And to this end Pilat commaunded our Sauiour Christ to be whipt Corripiam eum c. The other The authoritie of the offended for if disrespect should not bee punished it would breed contempt The third For the terror and example of others for Iusticia aliena est disciplina propria Other mens punishment is our instruction And that man is a foole whom other mens harmes cannot make to beware When the Lyon was sicke all the beasts of the field went to visit him onely the Foxe stayed behind and would not goe vnto him and being askt the reason he answered I find the tracke of many going in but of none comming out and I am not so desperate as to cast my selfe wilfully away when as I may sleepe in a whole skinne The footsteps of the Angells that fell may aduise vs of our pride the ashes of Sodome tell vs of our filthinesse the Gallowes of Iudas forewarne vs of our auarice and the hell of this rich man restraine vs from our cruelties When God punished the Iewes hee scattered them farre and neere ouer the face of the whole earth that they might strike a feare into all other Nations A corporall medicine fits not all sores but corporall punishment meets with all faults Fili recordare quia recepisti bona in vita tua Sonne remember that thou in thy life receiuedst good things This is a dangerous trucke a fearefull exchange which makes humane happinesse not onely to be suspected but also abhorred Iob calls Death a Change Expecto donec veniat immutatio mea I stay waiting for my Change And as your Sheepe which in Syria breed fine wooll passing along to Seuill suffer a change and are apparelled with a rougher and courser sort of wooll so these your pamper'd persons of this world and those that fare daintily and deliciously euerie day shall change the soft wool of tender sheep into the harsh haires of goats camels Nature in all things hath ordered a kind of alternatiue change or interchangeable mutation as is to be seene in nights and in dayes in Sommer and in Winter The like doth succeed in the order of Grace there cannot bee two Hells neither shall there be two Glories A Phylosopher asking one Which of these two hee had rather be either Craesus who was one of the richest but most vicious men in the world or Socrates who was one of the poorest but most vertuous men in the world His answer was That in his life he would be a Croesus but in his death a Socrates So if it had beene put to this rich mans choice I doe thinke he could haue wisht in his heart to haue beene in his life Diues and in his death Lazarus Balaam shewed the like desire Moriatur anima mea morte Iustorum Let my soule die the death of the Righteous But they desire an impossibilitie for Death is a kind of trucke or exchange Fili recepisti bona in vita tua Lazarus similiter mala Sonne remember that thou in thy life time receiuedst thy pleasures and likewise Lazarus paines now therefore is he comforted and thou art tormented But I wil no longer torment your patieence God of his infinite goodnes c. THE SIXTEENTH SERMON VPON THE FRYDAY AFTER THE SECOND SONDAY IN LENT MAT. 21. MARC 12. LVC. 20. Homo quidam plantauit Vineam A certaine man planted a Vineyard THis is a Law Suit or Tryall betweene God and his People wherein according to the tenor of the Processe his people are condemned as vngratefull cruell disrespectiue forgetfull of their dutie and thrust out of all that they had as vnworthie of that good which they possessed This Storie much resembles the Statua of Nebucadnezar whose head was of gold whose brest was of siluer whose bodie of brasse whose legs of yron and whose feet of clay For God hauing begun first vnto them with many great kindnesses extraordinarie fauours and vndeserued courtesies he goes descending and declining from them till they fall into the greatest disgrace disfauor that any soule can receiue from the hands of God A certaine man planted a Vineyard He planted so perfect a Vineyard that it might truly be said What could I haue done more vnto my Vineyard And this is a strange indeering on Gods part That he should make choice of this Vine-stocke from amongst all the rest of the Countries and Nations of the World When the most High had
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
scorner loueth not him that rebuketh him neither will he goe vnto the wise Agreeing with that of Amos They haue hated him that rebuked in the gate and they abhorred him that speaketh vprightly Another cause of this their cruell determination for to throw him downe from the rock was as wel their Enuie as their Anger Enuie she sayd Do not you see how this Carpenter boasts himselfe Nonne hic est faber filius fabri sorores eius apud nos sunt Anger shee said Cast him downe headlong from the Pulpit or plucke him out of Moses Chaire for a blaspheamer by head and eares for that he goes about to make himselfe our Messias and our King A brace of fierce beasts I assure you Enuie first opened the doore to all those euils that are in the world By the Deuils enuie death entred into the world and by death a troupe of miseries For although the Deuill were the Author thereof yet did Enuy put spurs to his heeles The Trojan Horse was not that which did so much harme to Troy as that Graecian who inuented this stratagem Onely this one good Enuie bringeth with it That it prooues it's owners Hangman And for this reason Saint Augustine compares the Enuious to the Vipers who gnaw out the bowells of those that bred them And Saint Chrysostome That it is a lesser euill to haue a Serpent in our bosome than Enuie for that was a curable hurt but that of Enuie is not so Ouid in his Metamorphosis paints forth Enuies house and the qualities belonging to her person Her house is seated in a very low bottome whereunto the beames of the Sunne neuer come no light no ayre no wind for the enuious man hath not any thing on earth wherein to take comfort being therin like vnto those that are condemned to the pit of hel The qualities appertaining to her person is sadnes of countenance heauines of the eyes bitternesse of heart venimousnesse of tongue veines without bloud she loues solitude shunnes the light knowes no law nor does no right shee weepes when others laugh In a word she is Pestis mundi porta mortis the plague of the world the doore of Death the murtherer of Vertue the pit of Ignorance and the hell of the Soule And Anger is no lesse fierce a beast than Enuie Of whom Ecclesiasticus saith That as Mildenesse resideth in the bosome of the Wise so Anger abideth in the brest of the Foole. Who but a Foole saith Plutarch can suffer a cole to lie in his bosome Let not the Sunne goe downe vpon your wrath neither giue place vnto the Deuill He that goes to bed in anger inuites the Deuill to be his bedfellow There is not any vice that giues him so free an entrance nor puts him into a more generall possession of our soules for there is not that mischiefe which is not hammered and wrought in the forge of an angrie mans brest A stone is heauie and the sand weightie but a fooles wrath is heauier than them both Seneca saith That as humane industrie doth tame the fiercest beasts as the Lyon the Tygre and the Elephant so ought it to tame Anger Now to say Which of these two furies is the fiercest is not so easie a thing to be decided For if Enuie be kindled vpon light occasions as that little short Song which the Dames of Hierusalem sung in Dauids commendation if it be so large sighted that our neighbours fields of Corne and his flockes of Sheepe seeme better and bigger than our owne Iosephs partie coloured Coate seeming better to his bretheren than those Sheepeheards mantles wherewith themselues were clad if it be the vice of little children Parvulum occidi inuidia What shall wee say then to the impetuousnesse of Anger and the violence of Wrath Or who is able to withstand it's rage Anger is cruell and wrath is raging saith Salomon but he concludes with this short come-off Who can stand before Enuie Who will oppose himselfe to the violent and swift torrent of a Riuer that sweepes all before it Such a thing is Anger for the time it lasteth but that will slacke againe of it selfe as your Spring-tydes fall backe againe into their owne beds But Enuie will not so soone shift her foot she wil abide by it and neuer giue ouer And Saint Cyprian renders the reason of it Quia non habet terminum it is not to be limitted but like a Worme or a Canker by little and little rotteth and consumeth the bones Salomon calls it Putredo ossium But Anger is a thunderbolt that strikes a man dead on the sudden so sayth Seneca And if Saint Augustine terme Enuie a plague and if another great Phylosopher call it Monstrum monstrorum the Monster of monsters and the most venimous Vipar vpon earth Saint Chrysostome here on the other side saith That the Deuill being in mans bosome is lesse hurtfull than Anger Much hath beene spoken of Enuie and much of Anger and that ill cannot be said of the one which may not be affirmed of the other So that this proposed doubt Which is the worst Beast of the two may remaine for a probleme which let others resolue for I cannot But which makes fit for our purpose beeing both such fierce Beasts as we haue deliuered vnto you they did both conspire against our Sauiour Christ leading him here to the edge of a hill whereon their Citie was built to cast him downe headlong and afterwards neuer leaft persecuting him til they had nailed him to the Crosse. And they cast him out of the Synagogue c. Aristotle saith That Man gouerning himselfe according to the Lawes and rules of Reason is of all other Creatures the most perfect or to speake more properly the King of all other liuing Creatures but if he shut his eyes and wil not see reason he is more fierce and cruell than all of them put together The reason is because other creatures neuer passe beyond the bounds of their fiercenesse and crueltie receiue they neuer so much wrong Incursus suos transire non queunt Which as Seneca saith is for want of discourse But man who hath Vnderstanding for his weapon is able to inuent such strange cruelties that may exceed the fiercenesse of the fiercest beasts Nor is this any great indeering of the busines for both Bede Ambrose say vpon this place That the Nazarites were worse than the Deuil the deuill lead our Sauiour Christ vp to the top of the pinacle of the Temple those of Nazareth to the edge of the hill on the side or skirt whereof their city was built The Deuill did onely persuade him to cast himselfe downe from thence but the Nazarites would haue done this by force These saith Ambrose were the Deuills Disciples but farre worse than their Master Saint Paul saith That there are some men that inuent new mischiefes Inuentores malorum And the deuill being the vniuersall Inuenter of all
our ill the Sinner that inuents new mischiefes doth outreach the Deuill and goes beyond him And questionlesse in not passing the bounds of Gods diuine will and Empire the Deuill is more moderate than Man For the Deuill askt leaue of God for to tempt Iob but Man will not be so respectfull as to aske his leaue but will not sticke to kill thousands of men without licence Bonauenture saith That they thrust him out of the Citie for a blasphemer for proclaiming himselfe to bee the Messias It is commanded in Leuiticus That the Blasphemer should be carried forth of the Citie and bee stoned to death And therefore our Sauiour Christ extra portam passus est suffred without the gate and Saint Stephen was stoned without the Citie And our Sauiour had no sooner said in the presence of Caiphas Amodo c. Henceforth shall yee see the Sonne of Man comming in the clouds of Heauen but the Iewes presently cried out Blasphemauit He hath blasphemed So likewise our Sauior expounding that prophecie of Esay the Nazarites might also take occasion to say Blasphemauit And this their offering to throw him downe from the edge of the hill doth no way contradict their stoning of him for they might haue done that after they had thrust him downe dealing by him as Saint Hierome reports Saint Iames whom they call our Sauiours brother was dealt withall they first threw him downe from the Rocke and afterwards cut off his head To cast him headlong downe c. Methinkes it seemeth somewhat strange vnto me That our Sauiour should come down from Heauen to Nazareth for to giue life vnto men and that Nazareth should seeke to tumble him downe thereby to worke his death That with the losse of his owne life and the price of his most pretious bloud hee should redeeme them from death and that they in this vnthankefull and vnciuile manner should goe about to take away his life O vngratefull People God was not willing to bestow any miracles on them who would not entertaine so great a miracle God vseth to requite the thankes of one fauour with conferring another greater than the former So doth Saint Bernard expound that place of the Canticles He made his left hand my pillow and I doubt not but he will hug and embrace me with his right hand For I shal shew my selfe so thankefull for the one that my Spouse will vouchsafe to affoord me the other But those courtesies which Nazareth had receiued they so ill requited that euen to the houre of his death none did our Sauior Christ greater iniurie Nay in some sort this their wrong was greater than that which Hierusalem did him for this Citie treating of the death of our Sauiour did obserue some forme of Iudgement and onely the Ministers of Iustice had their hands in it but Nazareth in a most furious manner like the common people when they are in a mutinie hasted vp to the edge of the hill to throw him downe headlong contrarie to all Law and Iustice. In Hierusalem there were some that did not consent vnto his death but in Nazareth all of them conspired against him Omnes in Synagoga repleti suntira All that were in the Synagogue were filled with anger and that on the Sabboth day when it was not lawfull for them to gather stickes and make a fire c. But he passed through the middest of them and went his way The common receiued opinion is That he made himselfe inuisible to them and so got from them leauing their will and determination deluded Saint Ambrose and Beâ—â— say That he turned their hearts Cor Regis in manu Domini quo voluerit c. The heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord and hee turneth it c. Like vnto those Officers of the Scribes and Pharisees who went forth to apprehend him who altering their purpose returned saying NuÌ„quid sic loquutus c. Did euer any man speake thus He might likewise take from them their force their strength that they might not bee able to put forth a hand to hurt him and leauing them like so many blockes might passe through the middest of them as beeing the Lord both of their soules and bodies And as he once left the Iewes with their stones frozen in their hands so now leauing the Nazarits astonished Per medium illorum ibat This Ibat doth inforce a perseuerance and continuation in token that God wil leaue his best beloued countrie that citie which was most graced and fauored by him if it be so gracelesse as to prooue vngratefull When God carried Ezechiel in spirit to the Temple discouering great abhominations vnto him and said vnto him These things my People commit Vt procul recedam à Sanctuario meo They giue mee occasion thereby to forsake them and to get mee farre enough from them So hath he departed from Israell from Asia Affrica many other parts of Europ forsaking so many cities temples so much heretofore fauored by him and so much made of Nazareth signifies a Floure a Crowne or a Garland and the Nazarites were once the onely Floures in Gods Garden that is in his Church they were religious persons that were consecrated to his seruice and therefore Nazareth is by them more particularly called Christs own Countrie for that therein he had beene often spiritually conceiued But because of the Nazarits Ierem. doth lament Thatthey being more white than milke were become as blacke as a cole by reason of their vnthankfulnesse Therfore in Colledges and religious places with whom God communicates his fauours in a more large and ample manner they ought of all other to shew themselues most gratefull for the more a man receiues and the more he professeth the more he ought to doe Cum enim crescunt dona rationes etiam crescunt donorum Dei so saith Saint Gregorie But he passed through the middest of them and went his way Howbeit death to the Iust is not sudden nor can be said to take him hence vnawares Though the Righteous be preuented with death yet shall hee be in rest The Church notwithstanding doth not vse this prayer in vaine A subitanea improuisa morte libera nos Domine From sudden death good Lord deliuer vs. Saint Augustine in his last sickenesse prayed ouer the penitentiall Psalmes and shedding many teares sayd That though a man were neuer so iust and righteous yet was hee not to die without penitence Saint Chrysostome tells vs That when Feare at the houre of death doth set vpon the Soule burning as it were with fire all the goods of this life she enforceth her with a deep and profound consideration to meditate on those of that other life which is to come And although a mans sinnes bee neuer so light yet then they seeme so great and so heauie that they oppresse the heart And as a piece of timber whilest it is in the water any
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
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
likewise beeing the greatest in Nature and Essence ought to bee the greatest in our Loue and Affection Next vnder God enter those goods of Heauen of Earth And Good being the marke whereat our Loue shoots our greatest Loue should direct it selfe to the greatest good And this is to obserue an order and good temper in our Loue. Now touching the disorder of our Loue our Sauiour sayd Hee that loues Father or Mother more than mee is not worthie of mee Againe In not louing God to whom wee owe so much loue this excesse in the contrarie may turne to immodestie and impudencie And make vs breake out with those Cast-awayes in Iob into these desperate termes Get thee farre from vâ— we will haue no knowledge of thy wayes Besides In imploying our loue so wholely vpon the Creatures we may chance to choake that loue which we owe to the Creator Saint Austen expounding that place of Iohn Loue not the World neither the things that are in the world saith That our heart is like vnto a vessell which if it be filled full with the World it cannot receiue God beeing like to that peece of ground where the Tares did choake the Wheate So that of force wee must emptie the vessell and weede well the ground of our hearts that the loue of God may fructifie in vs. This inordinate loue doth set the heart like a Calenture on fire From the heart come all our euill thoughts and goe festring through the faculties of the soule And â—inne when it is finished bringeth foorth death saith Saint Iames. She was taken with a great Feuer As there are diuers kinds of Feuers so haue they a correspondencie with the diuers infirmities of the soule your young men are soone rid of their Feuers especially if their fits bee not violent but an old woman that is taken with a great Feuer wil hardly recouer her health A prisoner will easily shake off slight and slender shakles but those that are double chained and double bolted he will hardly free himselfe from them One single stick is easily broken but more beeing bound together verie hardly A threefold cord is hardly broken The like reason may be giuen of old sinnes vpon which custome hath drawne a necessitie Saint Austen treating of the State of his owne sinnes sayth That he was fast fettered with three strong chaines The one of his owne Will The other of an ill Custome that he had gotten The third of a kind of necessitie which did keepe him as it were by force in this so hard and cruell slauerie Tenebat me dura seruitus They besought him for her The motiues of this intercession were First For that this good old woman was of so sweet a disposition and so louing a nature Which was much in so old a woman and no small matter considering shee was a Mother in Law It may be Mothers in lawe in those dayes were more louing and better beloued than they are now And one great argument thereof is That our Sauiour Christ should put the loue of the Mother in law and Daughter in law in one and the same degree with that of the Children Parents as it appeareth in that place of S. Mathew I came to set a man at variance against his Father the Daughter against her Mother and the Daughter in law against her Mother in law Where you see he links them together all in one chaine And so it ought to be For if the Husband and the Wife by Matrimony remaine one flesh the Daughter in law ought likwise to be so with the Mother in law though not in the selfe same degree wholly and altogether The second motiue was the intreatie of the Apostles who as Saint Marke maketh mention interceded for her And such pittifull hearts and tender bowels as theirs were beeing sought vnto by so good an Hostesse who desired so much as she did to serue them could not chuse but take pittie of her and speake a good word for her Besides the miserable paine she was in might haue moued the hardest heart to compassion much more theirs whose eyes had seene in what an ill taking she was in And kind hearts are soone sencible of those sorrowes which the eyes shall impart vnto them They bâ—sought him for her In the intercession of Holy men God attends two things The one That we persuade our selues that they are preuailent with God and that they can effect much with his diuine Maiestie The other That he is well pleased that we should make vse of them for the honour that hee receiues thereby the good that we reape by it A King is well pleased that men should haue recourse to his Fauorit the more to honor him It was a great honour to Christ saith Gregory Nazianzen that he was the Mediator betwixt God and Man Saint Cyril giues the same attribute to the Apostles and Deutronomie to Moses Medius fui inter Deum vos I stood betweene the Lord and you But here is the difference That the Saints haue need that others should intercede for them but our Sauiour hath no such need sed accedit per teipsum ad interpellandum pro nobis Al other Mediators are through our Sauior Christ that prayer which hath not this mediation Saint Augustine saith That in stead of remoouing sinne it reneweth sinne And Saint Ambrose That Christ ought to be the Mouth by which we are to speake the Eyes by which wee are to looke and the Hands by which wee are to offer In a word The Saints of God are verie powerful with God through Christ our Lord. And therefore it is said Whatsoeuer yee shall aske the Father in my name shall be granted vnto you Some make a doubt Whither this be to be vnderstood of the Saints that are liuing or those that are dead That it is meant of the liuing there are many proofes thereof in Scripture To Iobs friends God said Goe to my seruant Iob and my seruant Iob shall pray for you for I will accept him c. Abimilecke hauing taken away Sarah and God threatning him with death and the King pleading ignorance in his excuse God said vnto him Giue Abraham his wife againe and he shall pray for thee and thou shalt liue Moses by his intercession procured the pardon of sixe hundred thousand persons The People said vnto Samuel Doe not thou cease to pray for vs. Saint Stephen prayed for those that stoned him to death And by his prayer saith Saint Augustine Paul was reduced to the Church In the Ship the same Apostle by prayer preserued the liues of two hundred seuenty six persons Saint Basil cites that place of Dauid The eyes of the Lord are vpon the Righteous his eares are open vnto their crie Those two sonnes which Ioseph had in Aegypt Ephraim and Manasses the one signifying forgetfulnesse the other Prosperitie Iacob adopted them for his owne Sicut
thousand persons besides women and children with seuen loaues a few fishes and they beeing all satisfied there were twelue baskets full remaining This miracle is mentioned by Saint Mathew and Saint Marke In the other That which the Church doth this day solemnise which was the more famous not onely for that the guests were fiue thousand besides women and children the loaues fiue the fishes two and the leauings twelue baskets full but for that all the foure Euangelists wrote thereof and much the more for that it was an occasion as it is obserued by Saint Chrysostome because our Sauiour did preach that excellent Sermon of the Mount for whose Doctrine that miracle was most important After these things our Sauiour went c. Saint Augustine and Saint Hierome are of opinion That the occasion of our Sauiours withdrawing of himselfe was the death of Iohn Baptist the ioy for whose birth beeing so generall it was not much that the sorrow for his death should be great And this sutes well with that Text of Saint Mathew who reports it to be after the death of Saint Iohn This his departure thence shewed his sorrow for his friends death but that kingdome had greatest cause to lament and bewaile Saint Iohn Baptists death and Christs going from them for what is a Kingdome without them The Saints of God are the force and strength of Kingdomes the walles and bulwarkes of Cities the hedges about a Vineyard the foundation to a Building bones to the bodie life to the soule and the chiefe essence and being of a Commonwealth And whilest they had Christ and Saint Iohn among them there was not any Citie in the world so rich as that but the one being dead and the other hauing left them Ieremie might verie well take vp his complaint and bewaile their miserie and solitude Esay treating of the misfortunes that should befall Shebna the High-Priest sayth Auferetur paxillus qui fixus fuerat in loco fideli peribit quod pependerat ex eo The Naile that is fastned in the sure place shall depart and shall be broken and fall and the burthen that was vpon it shall bee cut off Now paxillus is that which in poore mens houses is called the Racke whereon they hang spits or a shelfe whereon they set their vessels which in rich mens houses is called Aparador a Court-cupboord whereon is placed their richest pieces of plate and such as are most glorious to the eye And hereof mention is made in the one and thirtieth Chapter of Exodus and the third of Numbers But your poorer sort of People that are not scarce worth a paire of Rackes strike in certaine pinnes into the wall and as the shelfe falling all falls with it that depends thereupon so when the High-Priest being a good man dies all good perisheth with him in the Commonwealth because the chiefe good of the State dependeth thereupon The Homicâ—de had fiue Cities to flie vnto for shelter but hee could not returne home to his owne Countrie till the death of the High-Priest And Philon rendring the reason of this interdiction saith That the High-Priest is a Pariente or Kinseman of all those that liue in his Commonwealth Qui solum habet ius in viuos in mortuoâ— as euerie Citisen hath his particular Kinsemen to whom he owes an obligation to acknowledge the benefits he receiues from him and to reuenge the wrongs that are done to him In like manner the High-Priest is the common Kinseman of the Liuing to whom hee owes an Obligation to accord their discords to cut off their suits in Law to quit their wrongs and to desire the peace and prosperitie of them all In conclusion he being as it were a common father to all in so great a losse in so sencible and generall a sorrow when a common misfortune should compound particular wrongs when all mens hearts are so heauie their eyes so full of teares their minds so discomforted it is a fit season for a Homicide to returne home to his Countrie And if the death of a High-Priest who happely was no holy man causeth in a Commonwealth so generall a griefe the death of Iohn Baptist and our Sauiours departure from this People What effect of heartie sorrow ought that to worke God threatned his People by Esay The Lord shall giue you the bread of aduersitie and the water of affliction When the King of Israell commanded Micheas to be cast into prison hee said vnto him Suâ—â—enta tecum paâ—e tribulationis aqua angustiae Feed vpon the bâ—â—ad of affliction and the water of affliction In the Hebrew both places beare the same words but Esay afterwards saith That though Gods hand shall be heauie vpon them and that he shall afflict them with many miseries yet he will not take away their Doctors and Teachers from amongst them nor the light of his Doctrine I haue threatned you with the famine of my word I will send a famine in the land not a famine of bread nor a thirst of water but of hearing the Word of the Lord. But God recalls this threatning oftentimes Et non faciet auolare à te vltra Doctorem tuum and will not cause thy Teacher to flie from thee But Iohn Baptist being dead and our Sauiour withdrawne himselfe that Countrie could not rest in a more wretched estate Secondly The death of Iohn Baptist made him leaue the land and put forth to sea making a seperation betweene him and them for when God gets him gone from thy house or thy citie thou art beaten out of doores as they say with a cudgell euen then doth a man go turning backe his head like a Hart that is hunted and pursued by Hounds neuer letting him to be at rest but chasing him with open mouth from place to place God cannot absent himselfe from his Creatures nor can his immensitie giue way to the vtter abandoning of this goodly Fabricke and wonderfull Machina of the World yet so great is the hatred which he beares to sinne that he also commands vs to get vs out of that Citie where Sinne doth raigne signifying thereby vnto vs That if any thing can make him to absent himselfe from vs it is our sinnes God had his house and his residence in Hierusalem so sayes Esay God had his house and his hearth there as if hee had beene one of their fellow Citisens and a Towne dweller amongst them but their abhominations made him to abandon that place Ezechiel saw the glorie of God how it went by degrees out of the Temple staying one while here another while there resting it selfe now against this pillar now that till at last The glorie of God was cleane gone out of the Temple Their abhominations did as it were driue him out by head and shoulders shoov'd him forth by little and little The great abhominations that the House of Israell committeth here causeth me to depart from my Sanctuarie Iosephus in
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
Crosse of Christ. And those teares likewise which those men shed who did bewaile the miseries of Ierusalem whose foreheads God commanded to be marked with the letter Tau Others are shed by vs meerely out of compassion for other folks misfortunes and such as these were the teares of our Sauiour Christ He beheld the Citie and wept ouer it So likewise at Lazarus death Iesus wept Did not I weepe for him that was in trouble Was not my soule grieued for the Poore And Ieremie did neuer make an end of weeping for the miseries of his people Others the deuout meditation of Christs bitter torments extort from vs According as it was prophecied by Zach. They shall looke on me whom they haue pierced and they shall mourne for him as one mourneth for his onely sonne and shall be in bitternesse for him as one that is in bitternesse for his first borne Others gutter downe from vs out of a vehement and earnest desire wee haue to our celestiall Countrie and to the enioying of that our heauenly habitation Of this qualitie were those of Dauid Woe is mee that the time of my pilgrimage is prolonged And in another place My teares were my bread euen day and night And all these seuerall sorts of teares spring from the Fountaine of Grace and are comprehended vnder the stile of blessednesse Beati qui lugent Blessed are they that weepe c. There is another sort of teares which flow from naturall pittie and conceiued griefe for the death of our parents children kinsfolkes and friends as also for losse of wealth honour health and the like and when the Scripture mentions them it doth not reprehend them The Shunamite bewailed her dead sonne Marie Magdalen the losse of her brother Lazarus and humane Histories recommend these teares of pitty vnto vs Alexander wept when he met with a troup of poore miserable Greekes that were all totterd and torne and they who vpon such sad and miserable spectacles are not tender eyed and hearted are cruel creatures Viscera â—orum cruaelia saith Salomon and Saint Paul stiles them Siâ—â— affectione Voyd of naturall affection Now these teares may offend two manner of wayes First In their excesse for God will not haue vs to bewaile that thing much which in it selfe is little Saint Augustine hath obserued That after Iacob began to mourne for the losse of Ioseph and the bereauing him of Beniamin which mourning of his continued almost the space of twentie yeares God withdrew those Regalos and fauours from him which hee was wont to conferre vpon him before the Angells ascended and descended the ladder before the Angell gaue him strength to wrestle all night long c. before he inioyed prosperitie wiues children and victorie against Esau but afterwards the more teares the more sorrow fell vpon him for God neuer grants to the teares of the earth the comforts of Heauen And although he permit a mannerly and moderate kind of naturall pittie according to that of Ecclesiasticus Super mortuum modicum plâ—ra And in another place Quasi dira passus incipe plorare My sonne let teares fall downe ouer the Dead and begin to lament as if thou hadst suffered great harme thy selfe Such few drops he fauoureth and cherisheth but if they be excessiue or ouermuch he condemneth them as vnlawfull and as a wrong done vnto God For the losing of God or the losse of his loue thou mayst well weepe World without end because it is an incomparable losse but for the outward losses of this World Incipe plorare Begin thou to weepe but quickly make an end The second offence is That a man hauing cause enough to bewaile his owne sinnes the losse of his Soule and of God doth notwithstanding lament these earthly transitorie losses neglecting the former This disorder Christ sought to rectifie and amend in those tender-hearted women of Ierusalem who wept so bitterly to see how ill hee was vsed by the Iews and how heauie the burthen of his Crosse lay vpon him Daughters of Ierusalem weepe not for mee but weepe for your selues c. He went and touched the coffin The first place is taken vp here by his mercie which is the wel-head of al those blessings which we receiue from his bountiful hand His Prouidence doth conserue vs his wisedom protect vs gouern vs his Goodnesse sustaines vs his Liberalitie inricheth vs his Grace healeth vs And all this floweâ—h from the fountaine of his Mercie The antients stiled Iupiter Optimus maximus Because as Cicero notes it the attribute of Beneficence is more gratefull and acceptable in God than his Greatnesse and Power In the second place came in his words of comfort Noli fâ—ere weepe not In the third his hands Tetigit loculum Heere hee exerciseth his hands his tongue and his heart If we cannot imitate the hands of our Sauiour Christ in doing good yet at least imitate his heart and his tongue For Pittie and words cost nothing and are wanting to few They made a stand that bare him Here he shewed himselfe Lord both of the liuing and the dead And therefore Saint Luke vseth this word Dominâ—â— Hanâ— cum vidisset Dominus When the Lord had seene her These that bare him thus to his graue are first of all a stampe or token of the goods of this life which carrie vs step by step from our honors riches delights and pastimes to the house of eternall lamentation and mourning Secondly they are a stamp or token of il lewd companie which say to an vnexperienced ignorant yongman Come along with vs and let vs lay wait for blood They are like those highway robbers which persuade men to rob kill saying We wil make our selues rich c. Or like those carnall men which crie vnto vs Come let vs take our pleasure Of this People the Prophet Esay complained saying This is a People robbed spoyled they are all of them snared in holes they are hid in prison houses they are for a prey none deliuereth for a spoyle none saith Restore The Deuill and his Ministers lead your wilfull young men away captiue clap them into Hels Dungeon and there is none that deliuereth them or to say so much as Alas poore man whither wilt thou run on to thy destruction Young man I say vnto thee Arise He called him by the name of his age or youth because that had brought him to his graue for it is sinne that sises out our lifâ— and cuts it short Youth is a kind of broken Ship which leaks draws in water at a thousand places so that of force it must quickely sinke Elâ—hu sayd That if a young man will be obedient and be ruled he shall enioy his dayes in peace but if he will be head-strong vngouerned Morietur in tempestate anima â—ius vita inter effoeminatos The Seuentie render it In adolescentia for a Tempest at sea and Youth that is tossed too
world there shall also this that she hath done be spoken of for a memorial of her yee may chance to forget it but God will not Your Kings nominate Chroniclers to write downe the seruices of their Vassalls and the famous acts of the valiant and stout men of war Iosaphat the sonne of Eliud as we may read in the booke of the Kings erat à Commentarijs was the Chronicler But Kings either not read them or soone forget them In Assuerus his Annals is set downe the good seruice which Mardochee had done him by freeing his life from a treason that was plotted against him but Assuerus had quite forgot it But God is so farre from forgetting such seruices that he vseth to assume vnto himselfe a name from the seruice that they doe him he said vnto Iacob I am the God of Bethel where thou annointedst the Piller where thou vowedst a Vow vnto me Corresponding with that of Malachie Scriptus est liber monumenti coram eo And a booke of remembrance was written Anonother letter hath it Recordationis agreeing with the common Translation Our friend Lazarus sleepeth c. What a strange kind of thing is this that Lazarus being dead should find friends For it is the course of the world to hold him our friend that liues in plentie prosperitie and enioyes his health but not that a sicke man nay a dead man should find a friend c. Iob made it his complaint My friends and familiar acquaintance forsooke me and would not looke vpon me in my miserie And he drawes his comparison of their sudden departure from those downefalls of water in the Winter which glide away with all the speed that may be Salomon compares them to a rotten tooth and a wearie foot The Harlot is likewise the hierogliphycke of false friends whose embraces and kisses are like those of Iudas for money your Quicke-siluer is likewise a simbole of the same which forsaketh the gold in the Chrisoll these are all of them things that faile in the time of need The World hath not any one thing wherof it is more vnmindfull than the Dead Obliuioni datus sum tanquam mortuus à corde O that the Dead should be forgotten by that heart which gaue it life and that he should be forgotten by his friend who placed him in honour and in riches In a word by how much the more miserie increaseth in the world by so much the more friendship decreaseth Saint Chrysostome saith That the best friend that euer was ascended vp vnto Heauen Saint Augustine That a friend is like a Physition that loues the Patient and hates his disease but if Death come betwixt him and home his skill is at an end for he that can recouer health cannot recouer life this is onely reserued for our Sauiour Christ who is Medicamentum vitae immortalitatis gratia This Physition stiles Lazarus his friend in health in sickenesse and in death Manus eius tornatiles That Artificer which leuels his worke by his eye commonly goes crookedly to worke and commits many disproportions but he that workes in a wheele as Turners doe or in a Presse as your Printers keepes a continuall euenesse and equalitie in sickenesse and in health in prosperitie and aduersitie in Winter and in Sommer and such an Artisan was our Sauiour Christ in all his actions Our friend Lazarus sleepeth c. It is an ordinarie Language in Scripture to call Death Sleepe whither it be the death of the soule or the bodie To him that was dead in the soule Saint Paul saith Arise thou that sleepest c. Some sinners are so sound asleepe that neither lights loud calling nor shogging of them can awaken them Percussi eos non doluerunt I smote them and they grieued not Saint Augustine confesseth of himselfe That he lay long in this Lethargy and descending to vices in particuler he saith That God calling vpon your Theeues for to haue them to make restitution vpon your reuengefull natures that they should not seeke reuenge and vpon your Sensualists that they should leaue off this their beastly course of life some of them answer That they cannot others That they dare not Other Sinners there are that heare God in their sleepe taking their dreames to be reuelations considering with themselues That God is woont to speake in dreames and in visions For God speaketh once or twice in dreames and visions of the night when sleepe falleth vpon men and they sleepe vpon their beds then he openeth the eares of men by the corrections which he had sealed that he might cause man to turne away from his wickednesse that he might hide the pride of man and that his life should not passe by the Sword The death likewise of the bodie is and that verie fittingly termed sleepe First For the rest that they take The Phylosophers called it Tempestatis pâ—rtum the Hauen to our weather-beaten liues Perigrinationis finem the end of our pilgrimage here vpon earth Omnium malorum medicamentum A remedie against all diseases Secondly For the danger wherein it leaueth sinners Holofernes layd him downe to sleepe fully persuading himselfe that he should haue enioyed Iudith in his armes when he awaked but alas poore soule before euer hee was aware of it he found himselfe in Hell Abimilecke got him to bed with hope to haue his pleasure of Saraah but in the dead time of the night he found himselfe in the hands of an angrie God To the rich man that inuited his soule to take his fill for there was store enough for many yeares Hac nocte c. This night shall thy soule be taken from thee Saul slept verie soundly and carelessely in his Tent when Dauid might haue giuen him his passeport for another life And therefore no man ought to lay him downe to sleepe with lesse heedfulnesse than if hee were now lying on his death bed Your wretchlesse sinners feele a harder passage of it and farre greater torment than the Iust. Death vseth to bring great torments with it First In seperating the soule from the bodie Secondly In forgoing those things it loueth as gold siluer lands houses wife and children which are all of them strings whereunto the heart is tied besides the venture of our condemnation for euer and the agonie of so many feares that will in this dissolution seise vpon vs. From all which the Righteous though they threaten him neuer so much remaineth free and vntoucht He groaned in the spirit c. The Greeke word signifieth to roare to crie out aloud to waile to lament and to be much mooued According to that of Theophilact Et turbauit semetipsum And was troubled in himselfe It did awaken in the sensitiue part of him those affections or passions which as Aristotle saith are like vnto dogs who in hearing any noyse fall presently a barking till that their Master do still them make them hold their peace In
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
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
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
The old Iudges in Susanna's businesse behaued themselues so simply That a little child tooke them in a lye and bewrayed their folly Iosephs brethren brought the childlesse coate home to their father without anie hole or rent dipt in blood and told him A wicked beast hath deuoured him This beast had torne the flesh leauing the Coat whole Hee that buryed â—is Talent when hee was called to account answered I knew that thou wast a haâ—d man looking to reape where thou hadst not sowne If I am such a one as reape wâ—ere I doe not â—owe Why should I not reape where I doe sowe The Iewes being desirous to conceale our Sauiours resurrection did multiplie an innumerarable companie of fooleries whereof Saint Augustine conuinceth them In a word in the Sacred Scripture the sinner in euerie place beares the name of a foole but not anie one follie can compare it selfe with this Let vs kill this man for he doth manie Miracles Ieremie saith Dabis eis sontum â—ordis laborem â—â—um Saint Gregorie the Pope saith That by this labour is vnderstood all that good which God did for that people by taking flesh vpon him by being borne by liuing and by dying All this was a labour vnto him and this labour serued the people in stead of a Shield against God himselfe For they did not onely make of his Miracles and benefits Shields for to defend themselues from God but swords nayles whips and thornes for to quit God of his life Saint Paul did bewayle those Heretickes which did denie the Crosse of our Sauior Christ being the efficacie of our remedie and redemption and cals them enemies of the Crosse. No better doth it fare with those being they make poyson of Treacle and matter of infirmitie the meanes of their saluation Saint Chrysostome saith That they are worse than Diuels for one Diuell doth not persecute another but these did persecute their best friend and benefactor The Diuels held their peace and did obey and at the most They went out crying and saying Thou art the Sonne of God God commanded in Exodus That they should not boyle the Kid in the milk of the Dam and Philon expounding that place saith That he held it a thing vnmeet and vniust that that should be the instrument of it's death which had been the beginning of it's life And it sutes well with that of Gregorie Nissen who saith That the Miracles which God doth are mans milke dealing with him as with a little child This man doth many Myracles c. If hee had beene a robber on the High way but being he came to make plaine the way If hee had robbed thee of thy wealth tooke away thy life or eclypsed thine honour but being hee came to giue health to thy body to inrich thy soule and to defend and maintaine thine honour as was to be seene in the case of the Adulteresse What can bee said in your excuse S. Augustine and S. Chrysostom pondering the ill carriage of this buâ—â—nes Why say they did Esay prophesie of the Miracles of your Messias but to the end that ye should receiue him and adore him I pray take the paine to read ouer that whole chapter for your better satisfaction which will bee worth your labour but in stead of receiuing and adoring him we haue said with those Farmers in the Gospell Let vs kill the Heyre And the inheritance shall be ours If we let him thus alone all men will beleeue in him This is another most foule folly of theirs contrary to all Scripture If we let him alone say they all will beleeue in him Whereas by taking his life from him his death wherein they were deceiued in their iudgements was to be Semen fidei the seede of faith and augmâ—â—tum Ecclesia The augmentation and increase of the Church Si posuerit animam suam pro peccato videbit semen longaeuum c. It is Esayes prophesie of him When he shall make his soule an offering for sinne he shall see his seede and shall prolong his dayes and the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand He shall see of the trauell of his soule and shall be satisfied By his knowledge shall my righteous seruant iustifie many c. Let them then take away his life and there is no Arithmeticke that can summe vp our happinesse and their miserie The Romans will come and take away both our place and nation Here is another blind consequence if we let him liue the Romans will come and take away our place and nation Whereas they might rather haue inferred this conclusion The Romans will come and they likewise will beleeue in him For it is not much That he that could conuert a Iew should conuert a Roman considering that the Romans amongstall their gods had not one that could worke a Miracle to win them But suppose that the Romans should not haue beleeued and should haue treated to destroy them he that raysed vp the dead was not he of power to resist the power of the Romans One Iudith triumphed ouer Nebuchadnezzar One Elisha blinded those of Syria and led them into Samaria One Elias consumed with fire Ahabs Quinquagenarian Captaines and their souldiers And none of all these had the like power to that of our Sauiour Christ. Besides these vaine discourses they had another no lesse blind and impious If we kill him the Romans will not come It being rather an assured truth that they would come onely vpon this as it was foretold by Daniel The Messias shall bee slain and the people of the Prince that shal come shall destroy the City and the Sanctuary Had they not put our Sauiour Christ to death Ierusalem had stood and continued but hauing put him to death there shall not be one stone left vpon another Simeon and Leui brethren in euill Into their secrets let not my soule come for in their wrath they slew a man and in their selfe-will they digged downe a wall It was Iacobs prophesie against his two sonnes Simeon and Leui of whom these Pharisees did descend as it is noted by Nicholas de Lyra. Let not my soule enter into their Councell for in their wrath they kill'd a man and digg'd downe a wall All which was but a signification of their killing of our Sauiour Christ and throwing the walls of Ierusalem downe to the ground Murus ante murale Christ was the bulwarke to this wall So Esay stiles him This Councell made their Country desolate For Titus and Vespasian had not otherwise beene of power to destroy it but the Priests and the Pharisees fearfull of their euill destroyed the fountaine of all goodnesse The Romans will come Great is the torment which a soule suffereth being placed betwixt two extreames Susanna betwixt the feare of God and the feare of the Iudges of Babylon a damsell betwixt pouertie and the pursuit of a rich wanton If I consent I loose God if not I perish for want of
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
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
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
them That the one flyes like an arrow out of a bow and cuts the waues with a swift wing and that the other is a slugge and sayles very slowly And therefore of the way of a Ship in the sea and of a young man running on in a wanton course whereunto may be added the vncertaintie of the day of our death Salomon saith That they were things too wonderfull for him and past his finding out Efferebatur He was carryed out The word Efferebatur is worthy our consideration it being a plot and deuise of the diuell to carry the dead out of their Cities to bee buried for to blot the memory of the dead out of the minds of the liuing In the remembrance of death the Saints of God found these two great benefits The one Amendment of life The other Happinesse in death Touching the former it is by one common consent agreed vpon by the Fathers That the perfection of our life doth consist in the continuall meditation of death Plato called Philosophie Mortis meditationem A meditation of death affirming That the whole lesson of our life was to learne to dye The like saith Gregory Nazianzene Many Saints and Doctors haue demurr'd vpon this point In that God should deferre till the day of iudgement the reward of the body this may seeme an inequalitie to some but there is none at all in it For the dust and ashes of the body doe perswade and preach vnto vs the contempt of the world Asahel beeing slaine by Abner lying dead on the ground as many as came to the place where Asahel fell and dyed stood still as men amased This is that valiant Captaine this that vndoubted Souldier There is nothing that doth so quel the courage of Man and daunt his spirits as death it is natures terrour Those Spies that were sent out to discouer the Land of Promise were strucken into a great feare and amasement at the sight of those huge and monstrous Gyants In comparison of whom said they we seemed as Grashoppers Dreading that they were able to deuoure them aliue and to swallow them downe whole And therefore made this false relation at their return The land through which we haue gone to search it is a land that eateth vp the Inhabitants thereof but the people that raised this euill reporr died by a Plague More truly may it be said of Death That hee deuoureth the Inhabitants of the earth this is he that tameth the fiercest Gyants That dreame of Nabucadonezars which might haue beene powerfull receiuing it by reuelation to make him abate his pride and lay aside his arrogancie the Deuill presently blotted these good thoughts out of his remembrance The like course doth the Deuil now take with vs. He doth not go about to persuade vs as he did our father Adam that we are immortall But in two things he goes beyond vs and is too cunning for vs. The one That our death shall be delayed God saith Mors non tardat Death lingers not The Deuill sayes Tardat It lingers Moram faciet It loyters My Lord will delay his comming said the seruant in the Gospell But this feined supposition was his certaine perdition Ezechiel did prophecie the ruine of Ierusalem and the death and destruction of her Citisens telling them their desolation was neere at hand There shall none of my wordes be prolonged but the word which I haue spoken shall be done saith the Lord God But the Deuill did otherwise persuade with them making them to say The vision that hee seeth is for many dayes to come And hee prophecieth of the times that are farre off The wanton woman in the Prouerbes which inuited the yong man to her bed and boord sought to intice him by this meanes The good man is not at home hee is gone a long journey Therefore let vs take our fill of loue c. From this vaine hope of life ariseth that our greedinesse and couetousnesse to inioy and possesse the goods of this life And a little beeing more than enough for him yet it seemeth vnto man much cannot suffice him And it is an euill thought in man and much to be pittied that a man should afflict himselfe for that which neither hee himselfe nor all his posteritie shall liue to enioy O foolish man doost thou thinke thou shalt returne to liue againe in those goodly houses that thou hast built and to reinioy those pleasant gardens and orchards that thou hast planted No But mayst rather say to thy selfe These my eyes shall neuer see them more Why then so much carke and care for three dayes or thereabouts The Romans would not build a temple to Death nor to Pouertie nor Hunger judging them to bee inexorable gods But more inexorable is Death for man neuer returnes againe from Death to Life And therefore the Antients painted Death with the Tallons of a Griffine Saint Luke painting foorth the vigiles of the day of Iudgement and the anguish and agonie of the World he saith That many shall waxe fearefull and trouble their heads to see and thinke on those things Which shall befall the whole World Pondering in that place that they shall not bee sensible of their owne proper danger nor the aduenture wherin they stand of their saluation or condemnation yet cease not to afflict themselues with the losse of the World and that the world shall be consumed and be no more But ô thou foolish man if thou must dye return thither no more what is the world to thee when thou art at an end the World is ended with thee And if thou beest not to inioy it any more what is it to thee if God doe vtterly destroy it And all these euils arise from the forgetfulnesse of Death Hee liues secure from Danger that thinkes vpon the preuenting of Danger Saint Chrysostome expounding that place of Saint Luke He that will follow me must take vp his Crosse dayly and so come after mee Signifying that what our Sauiour pretended was That we should alwayes haue our death before our eyes I dye dayly saith the blessed Apostle Saint Paul My imagination workes that dayly vpon me which when my time is come Death shall effect There is no difficultie that is runne through at the first dash and there is not any difficultie so hard to passe through as Death A Shooe-maker that he may not loose the least peece of his leather or make any wast of it casts about how he may best cut it out to profit tries it first by some paper patterne c. Plutarch reporteth of Iulius Caesar that he beeing demaunded which was the best kind of Death Answered That which is sudden and vnlooked for Iulian the Emperour dying of a mortall wound gaue thankes vnto the gods that they did not take him out of this life tormenting him with some prolix and tedious sickenesse but by a hastie and speedie death And for that they doe not