food A Physitian betwixt a great weaknesse of body and a double Pluriâ—ie if I let this sicke man blood he dyes through weaknesse if not let him blood of his griefe The rich man that enioyeth another mans goods if I restore saith he I must stand without doores and begge If not restore hells doore stands ready open forme Coelum vndique vndique pontus on the one side is Scylla on the other Charibdis So in this case say the Pharisees If we let this man alone it is ill with vs if wee take away his life worse But he that shall finde himselfe perplexed suffering out of his fearfulnesse betwixt two euils let him not once thinke of thwarting God for then both those euills will fall vpon him as it is well obserued by Saint Augustine Saint Gregorie and Saint Basil. So stood the case now with these men eyther they did beleeue that Christ was the Messias or they did not beleeue it if beleeue it it was a notorious wickednesse in them to preferre a Temporall kingdome before the open profession of their faith And if they did not beleeue it they had no cause giuen them to feare any temporall harme from the Romans but the Spirituall dammage of Religion The Prince that sayes Cut off this Heresie for the conseruation of my Crowne doth not make any great reckoning of his faith What saith Saint Augustine Quia temporale regnum spirituali praetulerunt vtrumque amiserunt Because they preferred a temporall kingdome before a spirituall they lost both Experience teacheth vs That Faith and Religion conserue Kingdomes Which Saint Chrysostome prooueth vnto vs in his 64. Homily and Achior the Ammonite notified as much to Holofernes at the siege of Bethulia And here we may take vp a iust complaint against your counterfeit Christians your dissembling Polititians and their damnable Positions who loosing in part the name of Christians and of Catholikes beare themselues high vpon the name of Polititians and Statesmen liuing wondrous well contented therewith who are a kind of cattle that doe so highly prize their Courtly carriage their curteous behauiour and faire demeanor that they seeke to reduce the cause of Religion and Faith to ciuilitie and curtesie iudging all the rest meere rusticitie and clownishnesse alledging in their defence That many things must yeeld and giue way to the times as also to dissemble with the times And that for the publike peace which ought aboue all things to be esteemed they affirme That war ought not to bee waged for matter of difference in Religion as well because it cannot be rooted out ofmens brests as also because the obligation of Religion is not so precise a thing that we should for the same aduenture and hazard eyther our goods our persons or the peace of a State They say That that which doth most of all concerne a Statesman is aboue all things to haue an eye to the good of his Country and the profit and benefit of the people therein but by no meanes to enter into a Warre nor to draw too much enuie vpon them for cause of Religion leauing that care to Clergie-men or to Preachers or to God himselfe Who if the Church shall receiue any iniurie by the new broached opinions is able of himselfe to reuenge his owne quaâ—rell In a word There is not that meere Polititian or Statesman that is not desirous to sleepe in a whole skin and to looke well enough to himselfe for one without thrusting himselfe into quarrels and contentions for points of Religion Whence it comes to passe that they forsake the Patrocinium and protection of the Church and vpon foule termes put the Catholike faith into their enemies fingers He that doth not preferre the cause of Religion before all things else whatsoeuer doth not deserue the name of a Christian for Faith Diuine Worship and Religion difference a Christian from a Gentile Hee then that shall sleight the same and make light account of it how shall he enioy this name If vnto great sinners our Sauiour saith Nescio vos I know yee not though they confesse and esteeme of faith What will he say vnto Polititians and Statesmen The generall voice of this Sect is Let vs first regard our temporall meanes be it priuat or publike for religion and truth so no hurt thereby come vnto vs let it shift for it selfe what is it to vs what hazzard it runnes Summa peruersio saith Saint Augustine frui vtendis vti fruendis Your Polititians set vp their rest and delight in enioying temporall goods and in making vse of spirituall goods Pilat was a Polititian for the Iewes alledging vnto him If thou let this man loose thou art not Caesars friend he condemned our Sauiour Christ to death preferring Caesars friendship before Christs life Ieroboam was a Polititian who made two calâ—es for the subiects of his kingdome that they might not go vp to Ierusalem Those were Polititians which in Saint Augustines time inforced him to write those his bookes de Ciuit. Dei alledging That they had many bad yeares misfortunes and disasters for professing the Law of Christ. Those were Polititians That kâ—owing Christ would not confesse him openly before men Least they should be thrust out of the Synagogue Ioseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus were Polititians for that they sought after our Sauiour Christ by night for feare of the Iewes Polititians are those of whom Ieremias said Since we haue left off to burne â—â—â—ense to the Queene of heauen and to poure out drinke offerings vnto her wee haue had scarcenes of all things and haue beene consumed by the sword and by famine Against all which our Sauiour Christ said What exchange can be made for a mans soule The temporall Monarchie of the whole world cannot be an equall Counterpoize to Râ—ligion This Sect had it's first beginning from Cain God had reuealed vnto father Adam the comming of Christ Adam vnto his sonnes and Cain supposing that he should lineally descend from Abel and that hee should be thrust out and disgraced resolued to remooue that blocke that stood in his way preferring the temporall good of the bodie before the spirituall good of the soule The Romans will come The harme was not hatched in Rome but in the enuie of your brests the generall losse did not so neerely touch you as your own priuat interest There are some Gouernors in a Commonwealth which applie themselues wholly to their priuat profit King Don Alonso of Arragon was woont to say That if he had beene Emperour when Rome flourished he would haue built a Temple before the Capitoll where the Senators should haue layd downe their owne particular benefit A conceit worthie such a King who knew verie well what Interest will worke in a Gouernor Moses did desire to see Gods face Shew me thy face But Gods answer to him was Thou canst not see my face for there shall no man see me and liue The Prophet hereupon strooke saile
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
fury headlong into Hell Paulo minus sayth Dauid vpon the same occasion habitasset in inferno anima mea A little more saith Dauid and my soule had dwelt in hell Againe The loue to our enemie must encrease by the hate to our selues and those iniuries that thou receiuest from his hand must be vnto thee motiues to loue him and from that wound that he giues thee growes thy cure As Saint Ambrose saith of that of our Sauiour Christ Vulnus inflictum erat fluebat vnguentum A wound was giuen and the oyntment issued out And this you will thinke a hard lesson That a man must learne to haâ—e himselfe The difficultie is plaine but as heauie weights become light when they are counterpoysed by greater so that heauinesse which Nature suffereth in louing her enemie is made light and easie by the counterpoyse of Grace First we are to confesse That this performance is not to bee measured by any naturall force or power of ours for it were great pride to presume That man could naturally deserue so great a reward as is prepared for vs our righteousnes being no better than a stained cloath God not crowning the merits of our Nature but those his gifts of Grace that he conferreth vpon vs. Saint Austen saith That God wrote the Law with his owne hand in token that our power of fulfilling it dependeth in the fauour of his hand The shaft that flies so nimbly through the ayre it is not it's owne lightnesse that causeth it's swiftnesse but the arme that drawes and deliuers it If thou shalt alledge That God hath not his fauour so readie at hand thou doost wrong God who is alwaies so readie at hand that thou canst blame no bodiebut thy selfe Secondly It is so easie and so sweete by those fauours that God affoordeth that a man may verie well say Iugum meum suaue est onus meum leue My yoke is pleasing and my burthen light Si dicebam motus est pes meus saith Dauid misericordia tua adiuuabat When I said my foot is moued thy mercie helped me He had scarce said Lord fauour me but his mercie presently followed him Nunquid adhaeret tibi sedes iniquitatis qui fingis laborem in praecepto Art thou a tyrannicall Prince that by making hard Lawes thou shouldest picke quarrells with thy Subiects and so oppresse and vndoe them No Thou art pittyfull franke and liberall for what thou commandest thou accompaniest with a thousand sweete blessings On the other side againe wee doubt how the old Law beeing so heauie a burthen and our Sauiour Christ adding thereunto a new load vpon the necke of that load it may be said Iugum meum suaue est I answer That there are two kinds of easing of a burden either by lessening the weight or by adding greater strength For a poore weake beast foure Arroba's a certaine measure in Spaine of some sixe gaâ—lons will bee too great a load but for a stronger twelue Arroba's will bee but a light weight And that to the poore beast the burthen may seeme the lighter the better way is to make him fat to put him in heart than wholly to quit him of his lading To him that had beene eight and thirtie yeres benummed our Sauiour sayd Tolle grauatum tuum Take vp thy bed a sickenesse of so long continuance could not but be a great burden vnto him that lay heauily vpon him but God giuing him strength to endure it it seemed light God euermore measures our burthens by his Spirit Diligite benefacite orate Loue do good pray Here are three Beneficia set against three Damna To wit Of our Thoughts our Words and our Workes And in the first place Loue is put Some will not perhappes like so well of it That he must submit himselfe so farre as to do good vnto his enemie and to pray for him But it ought not to seeme ouer burthensome to any for it stands not with reason that Grace should bee lesse powerfull than Sinne in those whose thoughts words and workes tend to what is good Saint Basil compares those that receiue a wrong to the eccho which returns you word for word in the verie same Language and tone as you your selfe shall speake vnto it But heerein lies the difference that in theeccho though the voyce may goe encreasing yet the wrong doth not But in those that thinke themselues wronged that still growes more or lesse as occasion is offered vpon replie of wordes Your Bookes of Duell haue their eccho the lye must be returned with a boxe on the eare a boxe on the eare will require a bastonadoing a bastonadoing the vnsheathing of the Sword and the Sword death God likewise hath his eccho for a cursing hee returnes a courtesie Maledicimur bâ—â—efacimus i. Wee are cursed and yet doe good for hate loue for an ill a good turne God doth not desire of thee That thou shouldest doe more for his sake than thou doost for the Deuills Which mee thinkes is a verie fayre and mannerly kinde of proceeding and such as thou canst not except against If thou canst finde in thy heart to goe see a Comedie meethinkes thou shouldest not refuse to goe heare a Sermon If thou canst giue Liueries to thy Pages it were not much for thee to cloath him that is naked If thou giuest twentie Crownes when thou hast good lucke at play to the standers by it is no great matter for thee God hauing blest thee with wealth to bestow foure vpon an Hospitall If thou canst be content to spend two or three houres in idle and light conuersation it is a small matter for thee to conuerse by Prayer halfe an houre with God it is a thing of nothing Petrus Chrysologus pursueth this Conceit a little further to whom I shall referre you Benefacite his qui oderunt vos orate pro persequentibus vos Doe good to them that hate you Pray for them that hurt you The offended that seekes meanes for his satisfaction shewes hee hath a mind to he made friends and God being willing to be friends with thee hath inuented the meanes of Fasting Prayer Almes but more particularly recommends here vnto thee a Benefacite and an Orate a Good turne and a Prayer Nature teacheth thee to repell violence with violence power by power and the sword by the sword with a Vim vi repellere licet But Grace teacheth vs another Lesson Benefacite his saith she qui oderunt vos orate c. Doe good to them that hate you and pray c. Ill is hardly ouercome with il hatred with malice or bad with worse dealing but with goodnesse and with loue with a Vince in bono malum Ouercome euill with good Plutarch reporteth That the Wind and the Sunne did lay a wager which of the two should first strip a man of his cloaths for this challenge the field was appointed the Wind stoutly bestirres himselfe and furiously sets vpon
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
knowledge not deceiuing it selfe in that which it prophecieth imposeth no such necessitie that it should succeed nor is it to be said to be the cause thereof Say not thou it is through the Lord that I fell away for thou oughtest not to doe the things that hee hateth Say not thou He hath caused me to erre for he hath no need of the sinfull man so that he there prooueth that God is not the author of our sins nor are our ignorances to be attributed vnto him The Greeke instead of Abest there reads Defeci as inferring That God is not the cause that I haue failed in that which I ought to haue done for God abhorring sinne I ought not to commit it Saint Augustine reads Ne dicas propter Deum recessi c. Say not I went backe because of the Lord hee supplanted mee for God hath no need of wicked men Suting with that of Saint Iames Let no man when hee is tempted say hee is tempted of God c. And yet it is said by Ezechiel Ego decepi Prophetam I haue deceiued the Prophet And by Saint Paul Tradidit Deus illos in reprobum sensum God hath deliuered them vp to a reprobate sence It is not to be said That God doth it but permits it As a captaine who absenting himselfe from his Armie depriuing them of his fauour permitteth them to bee ouercome Saint Augustine telleth vs That when the Scripture saith That man is deceiued by God or his heart hardned God is the cause of the poena but not of the culpa of the punishment but not of the sinne Insipientia enim hominis violat vias eius i. The follie of a man is that which peruerts his wayes In one place the Scripture saith Deus Mortem non fecit God made not Death In another That Death and Life come from God implying That God is not the Authour of Death but that hee permits it in him that deserues it That Iudge that condemnes a theefe vnto death this death is not to be imputed to the judge but to the thefts of the Theefe God desires not any mans fall or his death for as God is happy without the just so is he also without the wicked The book of Wisedome treating That God did not make death nor delighteth in the destruction of the liuing renders two reasons thereof The one That he hauing created all things that they might haue their beeing he takes no pleasure that they should not be For what Artificer takes pleasure to see the workes of his hands perish The other Sanabiles fecit Nationes orbis Terrarum The Greeke reads Salâ—tares fecit Generationes orbis Terrarum All things that God created hee created with health and soundnesse and in a good and perfect state Et non est in illis medicamentum exterminij The Greeke word which answers to Medicamentum may be taken in a good or an euill sence either for Physicke or for Poyson And here it is taken in the worser sence and implyeth thus much That God did not create the Poyson of perdition for the generations of Mankind inferred in this word Exterminij nor did God create perdition in the rest of the creatures The Interlinearie here vnderstands Sinne which banisheth and excludeth man from God wherby he is vndone and reduced to nothing From which finall destruction God deliuer vs c. THE THIRTEENTH SERMON VPON THE TVESDAY AFTER THE SECOND SONDAY IN LENT MAT. 23. Super Cathedram Moysi sederunt Scribae The Scribes sate vpon Moses Chaire THe chaire of Moses was descredited by the euil life of the Scribes and Pharisees who occupied the same Our Sauiour Christ here treateth of giuing such and so great authoritie to his Doctrine that though it should be deliuered by the coldest mouth in the world yet should not that hinder it's bringing forth of fruit And to this purpose he proposes three opinions which are no lesse certaine than important The one That a Doctor though vnholy in his owne person may sit beare rule in Cathedra sanctitatis in Moses chaire and seat of holinesse The other That the vicious life of the Teacher doth not derogate from the dignitie and authoritie of his Doctrine nor rob the Hearer of his profit The third That though a mans Doctrine be neuer so diuine yet if his life be not good it is the Teacher and not the Hearer that takes hurt thereby Super Cathedram Moysi sederunt Principes c. Euthimius saith That this Cathedra or Chaire was the Pulpit where the Scribes and Pharisees did preach the Law as it is related by Esdras in his second Booke and eigth Chapter Saint Hierome and Bede vnderstand thereby the doctrine of Moses for that it was vsuall with him that did teach to sit in a Chaire And albeit it appeareth both in Saint Luke and the Acts of the Apostles That they did preach vnto the people standing on their feet yet in your Schools your Doctors doe alwaies read sitting It is called Moses his Chaire not onely because the Law did discend from the Mount but because as some Hebrewes haue it he was the first legall Priest and exercised that office before his brother Aaron Abenezra stiles him Sacerdos Sacerdotum a Priest of Priests for that he consecrated his brother Aaron and receiued the offerings of the twelue Princes in the Tabernacle Dauid likewise giues him the same name Moses and Aaron among his Priests Philon saith That he was a King a Lawgiuer a Prophet a Priest Gregorie Nazianzen Saint Augustine and Saint Hierome jumpe together in that point From Moses God had preserued the Catholicke doctrine in the Prophets and other his Saints til Simeons time in whose days the Synagogue had it's end The Scribes and Pharisees were a kind of people that had the command of that Kingdome The Scribes did flourish in knowledge so is it reported by Epiphanius Their obligation was two fold The one To propose the Law vnto the people and to expound the hard places of Scripture and for this reason they were called Lectores Readers The other To be Iudges and Deciders of causes as it appeareth by the Chronicles betwixt Citisen and Citisen The Pharisees did flourish in Religion and were called Pharisees of Phares which signifies a separation for that they liued apart from the ordinarie and common course of life did seuer themselues from other people in a more especiall kind of obseruance Saint Hierome doth set downe the first rising of these manner of men in whom the appearances of sanctitie and outward demonstrations of holinesse of life were verie great and shew-glorious aboue the rest and whose penitences as Iosephus and Epiphanius report them were verie sharpe and verie publique but farre greater was their hypocrisie their ambition their auarice and vaine-glorie And therefore our Sauiour Christ doth here deale so curstly with them and vseth them with that sourenesse and bitternesse of words that
Dominus I will alwayes say The Lord be magnified That shall be my continuall Motto all the rest is little loialty and manifest treason Affigant onera grauia importabilia They fasten heauie burthens and impossible to be borne Those Traditions and Glosses which the Scribes and Pharisees introduced Origen and Theophilact are of opinion that they did multiplie them in fauour of their couetousnesse strengthening the same with an opinion of their simulated sanctitie Saint Chrysostome saith That the Ceremonies and Precepts of the old Law were too heauie a load to beare Agreeing with that of the Acts Nec patres nostri nec nos ferre potuimus The Pharisees did notifie them with great indeerings but did not touch them with the finger being like vnto the Viole which makes that sound which it selfe is not sencible of They did beare the Precepts of the Law about them in certaine scroles of parchment fastning them to their heads and their armes Materially vnderstanding that place of Deutronomie Thou shalt bind them for a signe vpon thy hand and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes so much signifies the word Philacterie which is all one with Conseruatoria In the borders of their garments they had their fringes and vpon the fringes of the borders they did put a ribond of blew silke as may be collected out of the fifteenth Chap. of Numbers as also out of Deut. That they might the better remember all the commandements of the Lord and doe them and be holy vnto their God not seeking after their owne hearts nor after their owne eyes after the which they went a whoring And Saint Hierome addeth further That they did put sharpe thornes to these their fringes that they might pricke them and draw bloud from them that thereby they might expresse their greater penitencie being in secret exceeding vicious and wanton In a word Princes and Prelats ought not to lay such burthens on their subiects shoulders as should breake their backes like those Taske-Masters and Ouerseers of the children of Israell in the labour and tale of their brickes For it is a vice and grieuous sinne in your Princes and their publike Ministers not to be compassionate of the poore nor to pitty their paines thinking all too little they doe pressing and oppressing them dayly more and more with intollerable Taxes and insupportable payments The Booke of Iudith recounting the death of Manasses husband to Iudith saith That he died in the Barley haruest for as hee was diligent ouer them that bound sheaues in the field the heat came vpon his head and he fell vpon his bed and died in the Citie of Bethulia It is a thing worthy the noting that there is a memorial of such an indisposition as this as if it had bin some great and extraordinarie matter But I conceiue that he made this so particular mention of it that he might giue vs therby to vnderstand Que la codiçia rompe el saâ—o That too much cramming of the bag makes it to breake and that if Manasses had taken pittie of his Reapers in a time of such extremitie of heat he had not died For the carelesnesse of your great Princes in not duly considering and not measuring according vnto prudence the strength and abilitie of their subiects is no small occasion of those many mischiefes which haue followed therevpon Iacob said to his brother Esau I will driue softly according to the pace of the Cattell which is before me and as the children bee able to endure for they are not able to goe such great journies as my Lord who seeth that the childeren are tender and the 〈◊〉 and kine with young vnder myne hand and if they should ouerdriue them one day all the Flocke would die Hercules shewed a noble spirit when seeing Atlas groane vnder the heauie weight of Heauen in pittie of him put to his owne shoulder to ease him of his load Neuer doe those Princes long enioy their Crowne who impose heauie Taxes on their Subiects not onely because they make their Vassals to pay more than they are able to pay but for that their Ministers extortions and vexations wring the bloud out of their verie hearts and the teares out of their eyes which ascending Heauen turne to lightnings and thunderbolts Super deducentem eas vpon him that causeth them Qui se exaltat humiliabitur qui se humiliat exaltabitur He that exalteth himselfe shall be humbled and he that humbleth himselfe shall be exalted Our Sauiour here treateth how much humilitie importeth a Christian and that this is the onely doore whereby wee are to enter into Heauen Saint Augustine tells thee That thou must tread the same tread that our Sauior troad and that there is no way to walke to Paradise but that wherein he himselfe walked And the first step that leads to this path is Humilitie the second stride is likewise Humilitie and the third and last must also be Humilitie And if thou shalt aske me a thousand times ouer and ouer Which is the way that leadeth to Blisse my answer must bee Humilitie Heare what Pope Leo saith Tota disciplina Christiana c. The whole course of Christian discipline consisteth in true humilitie which our Sauiour Iesus Christ made choyce of in his mothers wombe and afterwards taught the same to others From the verie bowells of his mother of all other vertues he made choice of this And in the discourse of his life he declared this to be his onely daughter and heire One reason amongst many other which hee might haue alledged is That in this life where all is storme and tempest torment warre and temptation in a word where nothing is secure and certaine Humilitie amongst these so many perills and dangers which are like so many rockes and shelfes will bring thee safe through the sea of this world to the Hauen of happinesse In a cruell storme at sea the lowest place in the ship is the safest Elias in that furious whirlewind in that terrible earthquake and that fearefull fire wrapt himselfe vp like a bottome of yarne and lay close to the earth Dauid in that his persecution by Saul saith I was humbled and he deliuered me Iob in that generall destruction of all his goods when those bad tidings were brought vnto him hee arose and rent his garments and shaued his head and fell downe vpon the ground and worshipped and said Naked came I out of my mothers wombe and naked shall I return thither the Lord hath giuen the Lord hath taken it away blessed be the name of the Lord. The tempest afterwards encreasing vpon him as byles botches leaprosie wormes and a wife he got him to a dunghil with a piece of a potsheard in his hand making choice of the humblest but safest place Giue vs grace ô Lord to imitate this his humilitie that thou mayst blesse vs in this world and in the world to come c. THE FOVRTEENTH SERMON VPON THE
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
his busines and so wholly taken therewith that he cared not for any thing else And this is expressed in the word Ibat He went Which argues a continuation in his going on Some man may make a doubt and say though vnaduisedly Had it not beene better for our Sauiour to haue beene in the mount of Oliues or in the garden of Gethseman or on the hills of Ephrem than to goe thus from house to house from Castle to Castle and from Citie to Citie Whereunto I first of all answer That it is enough that he did not so because it was not the better course Secondly because he was the same that was personally promised to that blessed Land and that there was not a corner in all that Countrie to be left out which should not finde the fauour of his diuine influences Thirdly the exercises of the life actiue and contemplatiue are those two wings whereby the soule sores vp to heauen And because one wing will not serue the turne to reach to so high a pitch we must not onely serue God in our prayers and meditations but also in the releeuing and succouring of our neighbour And therefore our Sauiour Christ spent the nights in prayer Per noctabat in oratione and the dayes in healing bodies and curing of soules Petrus Damianus vpon the life of Elias and Elisha saith That there is no remote solitary mountaine which doth not ground it's retyrednesse vpon some one example or other of the Saints One is a friend to the world and a louer thereof and this man alleages That Elias spent many dayes in the widow of Sareptaes house And that Elisha soiourned with the Shunamite that was a great and principall woman in her country And that both of them did treat with great Princes and Potentates Another is a friend and a louer of delicacies and alleageth That Elisha and Elias did accept of them But these men doe not consider That if these Prophets did forgoe their solitude it was more for the good of others that liued abroad in the world than themselues as also for the raising vp of the dead And if they did receiue good intertainment it was no more than was necessary for the sustenance of their bodies Elisha would none of Naamans gold Nor Elias be feasted by King Ahab and Iezabell his wife It is a thing worthy the consideration That our Sauiour Christ hauing not so much as one pennie of money wherewith to pay Caesar his Tribute willed Saint Peter to open the fish that he had taken with his angling rod. Our Sauiour permitted Peter that he should catch such a multitude of fishes that the nets did breake with the fulnesse of them But now hee would not haue him catch but one onely fish For a Church-man ought to fish for all the fishes that he can possibly take and the more he takes he doth God the more seruice but for those money-fishes that haue pence in their bellies he must take but one onely and that too for to pay Tribute not for himselfe nor to satisfie his owne couetous desires or his idle pleasures Ecce defunctus efferebatur Behold there was a dead man carryed out c. This word Eccè in the Scripture requires the eyes of the body and the eyes of the soule insinuating a great deale of attention But to come here with an Eccè it being so common a thing in the world as nothing more to see the dead dayly carryed forth to their buriall it seemeth a superfluous labour and a needlesse kind of diligence especially being that this our life is no other thing but a continued Procession of the quicke and the dead When Adam saw Abel was slaine and lay dead on the ground being the first man of whom death had taken possession he was so heart-strucken and so amased thereat so fearefull so sorrowfull and so sad that for many yeares after hee was not freed from this feare and horrour nor were the teares dryed vp from his eyes For albeit that God had notified vnto him That he was to dye the death yet did he not as yet know by experience what kind of thing death was But after that death had flesht himselfe in mans blood cutting downe more liues than a Sythe doth grasse in your faire and goodly medowes this his feare and horrour began by degrees to slack and fall off An Eclypse of the sunne doth strangely intertaine the sences attention not onely for to see so faire a Planet lapt vp in mourning weedes but also for that it so seldome hapneth But the Eclypses of mens liues though they be the fairest sunnes vpon earth they so hourely nay so momentarily succeede with vs that we can scarse which way soeuer we looke turne our eyes aside from them And not to speake of those lingring deaths wherein through sicknes we lye languishing a long time besides those occasioned by famine pestilence and warre yet those other sudden and vnexpected deaths which daily succeed may euery houre find our eyes occupied For wee see them euer and anon written on the wall as was that of Balthasar hanging on the oake as that of Absalon dipt in a dish of milke as that of Sisara represented in a dreame as that of Holophernes appearing at a feast as that of Iobs children put in the porridge pot as that of Elishaes Disciples Mors in olla in the bed as that of Adulterers and in the Apoplexie as that of your Gluttons Yet notwithstanding all this and that it is euery dayes example yet such and so great is the solicitude and care which the diuell takes to blot the remembrance of the dead from out the hearts and heads of the liuing That at euery step we see the dead carried forth to their graues and are so farre from ingrauing the thought thereof in our breasts that at euery step we forget it There is not that man aliue which doth not feele and experiment death in himselfe complying with that sentence of God Morte morieris Thou shalt dye the death Man is no sooner borne into the world but deaths processe is out against him which is not long in executing As the weeke wasteth the candle the worme the wood and the moath the cloath so as the discreete woman of Tekoa said to Dauid Wee must needs die and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered vp againe The riuers haue recourse to the Sea and are swallowed vp in the deepe anâ— this is the end of them so is it with our liues they bend from their very birth to the bed of death we leape from our swathling cloathes into our winding sheeâ—e This is the end of all flesh Seneca compares this our life to an houre glasse and as the sand runnes out so runnes away the houre so as time runnes on our life runs away and as it was dust so to dust it returnes When two Ships sayle each by other it seemeth to
and let his desire fall What Moses art thou now turned coward What had it been to thee to haue lost thy life for to behold God face to face We find afterwards that desiring pardon for his People he said vnto God O Lord pardon this People though thou blot my name out of the booke of Life Wouldest thou not forgoe thy life to see Gods face and wilt thou part with this and that other life for thy people That was a particular good this a common and a Gouernor ought mainly and especially to haue an eye vnto that Those Cowes which carried the Arke to Bethshemish neuer turned their heads at the lowing of their Calfes because being guided led along with the loue zeale of the common good they forgat their particular longings and desires He that gouernes must fix his eâ—e vpon this White without turning it aside through the importunitie of wife childrâ—n or kinsfolke c. The Romans will come This was but to giue a colour to the violence of their enuie and malice All the world is a Maske or disguise Dionysius the Tyrant entring into a Temple of Idols tooke away from the chiefest amongst them a cloake of gold and being demanded Why hee did it his answere was This cloake is too heauie for the Sommer and too cold for Winter Taking likewise a golden beard from Aesculapius he said That his father Apollo hauing no beard there was no reason his sonne should weare any all which was but a maske for his couetousnesse Simâ—lata sanctitas duplex iniquitas Hence come our contrarie nick-naming of things tearming good euill and euill good sweet sowre and sowre sweet The tyrannie and crueltie wherewith Pharaoh afflicted Gods people he stiled it wisedome Come let vs deale wisely Iehu called that passion and spleene which he bare against Ahab Zeale Behold my zeale for the Lord. Those perills of life whereinto Saul put Dauid he proclaimed to be Gods quarell Goe and fight the Lords battells And here the Pharisees call this their conspiracie a Councell and their priuat profit Zeale c. Yee perceiue nothing at all neither doe yee consider c. This was Caiphas speech as for Ioseph of Arimathea of whom Saint Luke saith That he did not consent to the councell and â—eed of them And for Nicodemus and Gamaliel it is verie probable that they had no finger in the businesse but as it is in the prouerbe The head draweth the rest of the bodie after it as the Primum mobile doth the rest of the Heauens and therefore he sayd Yee know nothing for that when in a Commonwealth a Citisen differs in his opinion from a companie of impudent and wicked persons and liues therein with God and a good conscience presently they say Que sabe poco That he is a man of no vnderstanding and knoweth not what hee speakes The reason that Caiphas renders is this It is expedient for vs that one man die for the people rather than that the whole Nation should perish At that verie instant when the High-Priest was to pronounce this decree the Holy-Ghost and the Deuil mooued him therunto both at once the one directed his heart the other his tongue but in Caiphas his purpose and intention it was the wickedest Decree and the most sacrilegious determination that was euer deliuered in the World God could not bee well pleased with Caiphas for desiring the death of the Innocent nor yet displeased with his death for that it was decreed in the sacred Councel of the blessed Trinitie That one should die for the sinnes of the people But in God and Caiphas the ends were diuerse this out of malice to our Sauiour that out of loue to Mankind Nor is it inconuenient that one and the selfesame proposition should haue a different sence and meaning Destroy this Temple and I will build it vp againe in three dayes The Pharisees vnderstood this of the materiall Temple but our Sauiour Christ of the Temple of his bodie That which thou doost due quickely Our Sauiour Christ spake this of Iudas his treating to sell him but his Disciples vnderstood him as concerning the preparation of the Passeouer And so in this place It is fit that this man should die saith Caiphas that we may not become captiues to Rome and Heauen saith It is fit that hee should die because the whole World should not perish The persecution and death of a Martyr turnes to the Martyrs good but to the Tyrants hurt Surely the Sonne of man goeth his way as it is written of him but woe be to that man by whom the Sonne of man is betrayed it had beene good for that man if he had neuer beene borne Heauen could not inuent a more conuenient meanes than the death of Christ for our good but the world could not light on a worse meanes than the death of our Sauiour Christ for it 's owne ill Caiphas treated of temporall libertie the Holy Ghost of spirituall libertie Caiphas of the safetie of his owne Nation the Holâ—-Ghost of the sauing of the whole world And therefore Saint Iohn addeth Non solum pro Gente or as the Greeke Text hath it Pro ea Gente sed vt filiâ—s Deâ— qui erant disperâ—i congregaret in vnum Not onely for that Nation but that hee might gather the children of God together that were dispersed throughout the world Origen hath obserued That Caiphas prophesied but that he was no Prophet First Because one action of a Prophet doth not make the habit or denomination of a Prophet Secondly because he did not attaine vnto the sence and meaning of the Holy-Ghost the knowledge whereof in point of prophesie is necessarie S. Ambrose saith That Caiphas pretended one thing vttered another therefore that he sin'd in the sentence which he pronounced because hisintent was bad vniust as it was with Balaam who as he was a Prophet could not curse the people of Israell but as they were particular persons they did sinne and erre so that the Holy-Ghost seruing himselfe with the tongue of Caiphas as the instrument the High-Priest did but determine that which the Holy-Ghost had before decreed Whence we may take occasion to weigh and consider the good and the ill of an intention since that one and the selfe same words are so good and so ill Saint Augustine pondereth vpon those words of Saint Paul Qui filio proprio suo non pepercit sed pro nobis omnibus tradidit illum Who spared not his owne sonne but gaue him for vs all to death This word Tradidit is verified both of the Father and of the Sonne Tradidit semetipsum pro me He deliuered vp himselfe for me As also of Iudas Qui autem tradidit cum dedit signum He gaue them a signe that was to betray him And of Pilat Tradidit voluntati eorum He deliuered him vp to their will The deliuering of him vp was all one and the same but