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
Faith procure but he would signifie thereby that it was in his power to doe it and that very easily and it is an ordinarie phrase amongst vs to say It is but a word speaking Saint Chrysostome indeereth the modestie and curteous carriage of this Captaine that he bearing that great loue to his Seruant that hee was as sencible of this his sickenesse and the danger he was in as if the case had beene his owne He did not desire any indecent thing of our Sauiour nor lash out into passion transported by his affection but proceeded therein with great prudence and sobrietie not onely hauing a care to that which was fitting for his seruant but with what respect also and reuerence hee was to carrie himselfe towards our Sauiour Christ. Onely say the word c. From hence Chrysostome proueth That the Centurion did beleeue the Diuinitie of Christ For if hee had thought him to bee but a Saint and not a God hee would haue said I pray Sir speake a good word for me but he vseth not that phrase of speech but That himselfe would command him to be whole But it is to bee noted That though all the antient Saints doe grant That the Centurion beleeued that Christ was both God and man yet Gregorie Nazianzen Saint Chrysostome and Saint Austen doe note That speaking absolutely of doing a miracle with empire and command is not prenda that is a token of God onely for any man may doe the like to whom God shal giue the power If thou hadst saith our Sauior but so much faith as a graine of mustard seed thou mightst command mountaines to remooue and they shal obey thee But to worke a miracle commanding the same to be done by his own proper power vertue that is a token of Gods power onely And that the Centurion pretended this it is prooued first by the great curtesie vsed by him Lord I am not worthie that thou shouldst come vnder my roofe which was as manerly as any man could speake it Secondly because a Saint may verie well do miracles and by commandement too but so that hee must haue this power from God but withall it shall not be lawfull for any man to craue them in that kind for the power of doing miracles is neuer so tied to the will of any Saint that he may worke miracles where and when he will himselfe Thirdly the comparison vsed by the Centurion prooueth the supreme power to reside in Christ our Sauiour Nam ego homo sum sub potestate constitulus i. For I also am a man put in authoritie c. Thou Lord hast souldiers so haue I thou with absolute power I with subordinate these obey me punctually who am but an Emperors Vicegerent what shall those thee who art aboue all the Kings and Emperors of the earth Saint Hierome and Origen vnderstand by Gods souldiers the Angells whom the Scripture calls his Ministers by whom he works his miracles Saint Chrysostome vnderstands by these souldiers death life sickenesse and health Saint Luke sayes Hee rebuked the Feuer the words are short but full but it is cleere that all the creatures of God whatsoeuer are Gods Ministers For as he hath command ouer the Angells death life sickenesse health the seas and the winds Quis hic quia venti mare obediunt ei Who is this that the winds and the sea obey him So he commandeth they should be called his soldiers because they execute his will From these words Sub potestate constitutus this moralitie may bee drawne That euerie subordinate dignitie implyeth subiection and heauinesse I call it subordinate being compared with a greater Monarch vnder whose command the person subordinate liues which Doctrine is so plaine that it is prooued dayly by a thousand experiences and the power of Christ himselfe was subordinate to that of his Father so sayes Esay Cuius imperium super humerum eius i. Whose gouernment is vpon his shoulder so that there is not any honour which hath not a burthen with it which many times makes the heart of man to ake and groane vnder it Miratus est Iesus Fidem Centurionis Iesus admired the Centurions Faith Admiration as Saint Austen saith proceedeth either from the ignorance of the cause of a thing or from the singularitie of it In Christ could there neither be the one nor the other for hee did not onely know the faith of the Centurion but had also beene the author thereof Quis fecerat ipsam fidem saith Saint Austen nisi ipse qui mirabatur i. Who had caused that faith but he that did admire it So that it seemeth that this admiration is a commendation which our Sauiour gaue of the Capâ—aines faith For to admire a thing euen amongst prophane Authors is an extraordinarie kind of commending it For Christ had seene by a blessed and infused knowledge that faith which was hidden in the heart of the Centurion but because hee did manifest the same in his presence admiring it he commended it and therefore it is said Miratus est He admired Saint Austen on the other side distinguisheth Admiration from Commendation Some things saith he are commended but not admired others are both commended and admired Christ perceiuing this his faith by admiring it did commend it not for any interior admiration that was in himselfe but to confirme and establish ours For all the world might well wonder to see so great faith in a Souldier Suting with that which Saint Austen saith in another place That Christ had shewne some motions and signes of admiration without perturbation being motions and signes of a Master whereby he read a lecture vnto vs that we should doe the like Thomas puts vpon our Sauiour Scientiam experimentalem an experimentall knowledge and consequently an experimentall admiration And albeit by a blessed and infused kind of knowledge he did know all things and that his wisedome could not erre yet it is said of him That he encreased in knowledge He went onwards in wisedome and in stature So that his admiring of the Centurions faith was not so much his knowing of any wonderful and singular thing but an experimentall knowledge thereof as that of the Astrologer who knowes before hand that there shall bee such an eclipse yet notwithstanding when it comes hee admires it So that our Sauior hauing this experimental knowledge the admiration could not be so great as otherwise it would haue beene had hee not foreknowne it But some man perhaps will say I doe not see any such rare circumstances in the Faith and words of the Centurion as should cause in vs any great admiration for I doe not see him shed teares with Marie Magdalen nor adore him with the knee with Regulus nor clamour him with importunitie with the Cananite c. I answer Will yee expect this courtship from a souldier and a swordman Let Ieremie and Daniel weepe for a souldier it sufficeth that he make
downe the same rule by Saint Mathew and by Saint Luke Innumerable Phylosophers haue repeated the like Lesson Laertius reporteth of Aristotle That giuing an almes to one that had done him many iniuries told him Nature not thy naughtinesse makes me to pittie thee There was amongst the Romans a Marcus Marcellus that pleaded in the Senate for his Accusers A Tiberius Gracchus a mortall enemie of the Scipio's who during that their emnitie defended them in the publique Theatre A Marcus Bibulus who hauing two of his sonnes slaine by the Gabiani and Cleopatra sending the murtherers vnto him returned them backe again without doing them any harm In Athens a Plato whom his scholler Xenocrates accusing of diuers scandalous things said It is not possible That him whom I loue should not loue mee againe A Phocion who dying vniustly by poyson and beeing asked when hee had the cup iâ— his hand What seruice he would command them to his son answered That hee should neuer thinke more of this cup but studie to forget it Many the like are related by Plutarch Seneca Saint Basil and Saint Chrysostome Lastly This being no Law of God neither as he is the Author of Grace nor as the Author of Nature it must needs bee of the Deuill as Origen inferreth For he seeing that God had engrauen in mans heart the law of loue standing out of his pride in competition with God he engraued dis-loue and left it so imprinted in the hearts of many that albeit for these many Ages God hath hammered both Angells and Saints vpon this Anuile he could neuer bring them to softnesse The occasion that might mooue those antient Doctors to this Law was either for that God had commanded Saul that he should destroy Amalec or the vengeance that he tooke of Pharaoh and his People or that of Leuiticus Pursue your enemies and they shall fall before you as if to enter into a iust warre by order from God might allow a man to doe the like to his brother out of his owne will and pleasure Or for that it is commanded in Leuiticus Thou shalt loue thy friend as thy selfe Or as Nicholaus de Lyra hath notedit That they draw this consequence from Aristotle Si amicis bene faciendum est consequens est vt inimicis sit malefaciendum If we must doe good to our friends then consequently we must doe ill to our enemies Thou shalt hate thy enemie Whence it is to be noted That that Law which gaue them licence to hate their enemie does not giue them leaue to kill him though the Deuill many times likes better of a mortall hatred and a desire of reuenge than the death of a man For Hatred is that Loadstone which drawes other sinnes along with it but the killing of a man doth vsually bring repentance with it for the many disasters that attend it Iudas till he had driuen his bargaine for the betraying of his Master had deliuered vp his heart to the Deuill but that was no sooner performed but hee repented himselfe of what he had done Saint Chrysostome calls hatred Homicidium voluntarium Some seeme to sinne meerely out of nature for custome is another nature and these that thus sinne sinne without a will or desire of sinning but he that hates must of force sinne with all his heart Ego autem dico vobÃs Diligite inimicos vestros But I say vnto you Loue your enemies Petrus Chrysologus treating of the profoundnesse of the Scripture saith That though a volume should be written vpon euerie word it were not able to containe all the mysteries belonging thereunto What shall wee say then to this word Ego whose extent and birth is so great that none can qualifie it but God None knows the Father but the Son nor the Sonne but the Father he alone can tel what it is The son for to repaire the affront and infamie of his death said to his Father Clarifica me Pater Father glorifie me And Saint Ambrose hath noted it That the originall word there saith Opinion Credit rather than Glorie as if he should haue said I haue gotten thee ô Father among men an opinion of being the true God requite me therfore in gracing me to be thy Sonne for onely thou canst doe me this honour The mouthes of men and Angells shall talke of his praise but are notable to expresse the greatnesse of this attribute Ego The immensiue greatnesse of the sea is to bee seene in this that so many Riuers and Fountaines issuing out of it they doe not onely not emptie it and draw it drie but doe not so much as lessen it or diminish it one jot Ego euer since the beginning of the world hath been the Theame of the Angels Prophets Euangelists the Saints but could neuer come to the depth of it Damasus did shut vp in seuen verses fortie foure names belonging to this word Ego From hence we will first of all draw the authoritie of the Law-giuer If the authoritie of Kings and Emperours be so great that their subiects at their command aduenture vpon many foolish and desperate actions How much greater is that of God Fulgosus in his Booke de Rebus memorabilibus reporteth That a Prince of Syria indeering to Henrie Count of Campania who was come thither vpon an Embassage the obedience of his souldiers calling to one who was Sentinel to a Tower that he should speedily come vnto him presently leapt downe from off the battlements If a Scipio's Si ego iussero If I shall command you could preuaile so much with his men What shall Gods Ego doe who melteth the Mountaines like waxe The Mountaines did melt away like waxe before the face of the Lord taketh away the breath of Princes and commandeth the sea and the winds and they obey Quis est hic quia venti mare obediunt ei Who is ihis that the winds and the sea obey him who with an Ego sum draweth honie out of stones and oyle out of the hard rocke But I say vnto you I that am the Master of the world who came to reforme the Law and to vnfold the darke places of Scripture I that am Via Veritatis Vitae The way of Truth and Life I that desire more your good than your selues For I know how much it importeth you to loue your enemies and that he that blotteth this loue out of your hearts robbeth you of a wonderful rich treasure I am the Lord that teacheth profitable things and gouerns thee in the way it is I I say that say vnto you Loue your enemies Abraham did forget the bowells of a Father Quia Maiestatem praecipientis considerauit Because he considered the Maiestie of him that commanded Christ our Sauiour doth counterpone his authoritie to that of the Law-giuers of this Law Dictum est antiquis Is was said to them of Old You haue beleeued lying Law-giuers who prescribe it vnto you
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
to be reuenged of him for the death of the young man hee sayd vnto them Hearken ô yee wiues of Lamech Let it not once enter into your thoughts to take reuenge on my life for though the vengeance which God appointed for the killing of Caine had a limitation yet the reuenge of my death shall be without taxe and without measure Setuplum vltio dabitur de Cain de Lamech autem septuagies septies Cain shall be reuenged seuen times but Lamech seuentie times seuen times Wherein he sets downe a finite number for an infinite In a word Lamech in this word Septuagies septies shewes That the reuenge that should bee taken thereof should be without terme without limitation wherein he seemes to make mans crueltie to contest with Gods mercie The other is Of those that hate their enemies so to the death that though they themselues die yet they will not let their hatred die with them but leaue it in their last Will and Testament to their heires to take reuenge of their wrongs and to prosecute their enemies vnto death Being herein like vnto Dido who throwing out her curses and maledictions on Aeneas and desiring the Tygres and other wild beasts to reuenge her wrong breathed her last with this inuocation Hoc precor hanc vocem extremaÌ„ cum sanguine fundo i. This is my prayer I wish no other good and this I poure forth with my latest bloud Whence I would haue you to note That this hardnesse of mans heart at his death is in punishment of his hardnesse of heart in his life Hac anima aduersione saith Saint Austen punitur peccator i. This is a sinners punishment And in another place Cor durum male habebit in nouissimo It shall goe ill with a hard heart in the latter day And Ieremie treating of those that persecuted him Reddes eis Domine vicem iusti dabis eis scutum cordis Thou shalt pay them in their owne coyne thou shalt vse them as they vsed their enemies thou shalt giue them a heart like a shield of Brasse it shall be hard in their life time and hard at their death No prayers could mollifie them nor shall their entreatie mooue thee for only the merciful shall only find mercie Now for the reforming of both these excesses Saint Paul saith Sol non occidat super iracundiam vestram Let not the Sunne goe downe before your wrath goe out Let not the one set before the other be setled Saint Chrysostome renders two reasons of this saying Sol non occidat c. The one That the Sunne doth fauour and serue you with his light and with his influences cherishing your health and your life and does not return home at night brawling and complayning that he hath bestowed this his loue seruice vpon an vngrateful vnthankful person There is no creature but wil grumble repine to serue such a one Ingemescit It sighes and groanes c. saith Saint Paul but the Sunne does not grudge at his seruing of you The second That the night is of it selfe sad melancholly and in a disposition to troublesome thoughts and immaginations Now then that your fantasie may not present you with an armie of fearefull cogitations and the dismall representations of reuenge before that the night comes on quiet that raging sea within thy brest by throwing Oyle vpon it become soft gentle by clensing thy heart of all rancour and malice If the beames of the Sunne cannot pierce through a thicke cloud they will hardly make their way through the pitchie darkenesse of the night being that they are naturally then in their augmentation When the cheerefulnesse of the day employment in businesses and the companie and comfort of our friends cannot remooue the clouds of our anger the night will hardly scatter them who is the mother of painefull thoughts For as the infirmities of the bodie encrease by the absence of the Sunne so in like sort doe the diseases of the soule I know not whither Ioshuah were toucht or no with this Spirit when hee willed the Sunne to stand still when he was in the pursuit of his enemies It seemeth vnto some That it is a verie hard matter and more than flesh and bloud can beare to pardon fresh iniuries the bloud boyling then in our brest But this is answer'd by that example of our Sauior Christ who when his wounds did poure forth bloud on euerie side yet his tongue cryde out Ignosce illis quia nesciunt quid faciunt Forgiue them for they know not what they doe Where I would haue you to note that the word faciunt is of the present Tense When they were boring his feet with nailes Saint Austen to this purpose saith Is petebat veniam à quibus adhuc accipiebat iniuriam He craued pardon for those of whom euen then hee suffered wrong For he did not so much weigh that he died by them as that he died for them Cum esset in sanguine suo saith Ezechiel dixit Viue i. When he was in his owne bloud he said Liue. And Saint Bernard That hee offered vp his life Non interpellantâ—bus sed repellentibus non inuocantibus sed prouocantibus Not for those that inuoked him but prouoked him The replies of the Flesh are infinite and without number Some say Whilest wee liue in the world we must follow the fashions of the world and liue according to it's Lawes and that if a man put vp one iniurie he shall haue a thousand put vpon him I answer hereunto That it is a fouler fault to seeke out reasons to defend and maintaine sinne than to commit it And if thou shalt tell mee thou desirest to be reuenged because thou art weake and canst not bridle thy anger I shall the rather pittie thee and shall withall councell and aduise thee to aske pardon of God for this thy weakenesse and infirmitie But that thou shouldst defend thy offence with reasons and force of argument it is not a thing to bee immagined but more against reason it is to reason against God Let vs now leaue the Gospell and the sacred Scriptures and let vs bring this businesse within the spheare of reason I say then That it is the Language of him that knowes not what reason is as if it were possible there could be any reason against God The Clowne rests so well contented with his poore Cottage that he wil not change it for the Kings Pallace And the worldly man likes so well of the lawes and fashions of the world that he sticks not to preferre them before those of God Others stand vpon their honour alledging How can a man liue in the world without the vpholding of his honour and repution I answere It is not to bee found in the Scripture That Christ doth councell any man to suffer in his honor for him or to loose his reputation Marry hee hath promised a reward vnto him that for his sake
because wee setting our whole delight vpon them wee make them prooue vaine vnto vs. A clock is accounted a vaine thing when it strikes not true but miscounts it's houres The harmonie of this World is like a clocke if a man imploy it wholly in his pleasures it makes him become vaine But Salomon spake not a word of these things till hee had made triall of them When the Prodigall went out of his Fathers house Paradises of delights were presented vnto him but when he was gone far from him all was hunger nakednesse miserie This punishment inflicted vpon him made him open his eies and see his errour Amnon enamoured of Thâ—mâ—r was readie to dye for her loue it seeming vnto him that his life did consist in the inioying of her nay hee counted it his heauen But hee had no sooner had his pleasure of her but he kicked her out of doores and could not indure the sight of her The possessing of riches is not of it selfe either good or bad onely the good vse of them makes them good the bad bad And therefore beeing desired by vs Saint Paul stileth them temptation and Sathans snare Qui volunt diuites fieri inâ—idunt in tentationem in laqueum Diaboli i. They that will bee rich fall into Temptation and into the snare of the Deuill So that your imaginarie goods worke more vpon vs and with more aduantage than those which wee inioy and possesse And the reason is for that the Deuill doth represent more glorie to the imagination in such an office such a dignitie such riches such beautie and such delights than is true Facinatio enim nugacitatis obscurat bona inconstantia concupiscentiae transuertit sensum His cunning witch-craft doth peruert the vnderstanding and makes vs take Ill for Good This is that which our Sauiour Christ called Crapulam ebrietatem saeculi A kind of drunkennes wherwith the men of this World are ouertaken Et inconstantiam concupiscentiae And the Greeke text vseth the word Funda For as that goes alwayes round so doth concupiscence euerie moment altering our desires There are some kind of pictures which if you looke one way vpon them seeme faire and beautifull if another way foule and ougly and full of horror Such doth the Deuill set before thee Thou must haue therefore an eye to the one as to the other looke as wel what is to come as what is present before thee least the Deuill chance to deceiue thee Si cadens adoraueris me If thou wilt fall downe and worship me How earnest and how importunate is the Deuill Saint Gregorie saith That there are two kinds of temptation one sudden as that of Lucifer who as soone as he saw the Sun of Grace begin to rise presently opposed himselfe against him sweeping away with him a third part of the Stars as you may read in the Reuelation And as that of Dauid in the case of Bershabe and as that of Peter when he was suddenly set vpon by the Maid in Caiphas house The other taking more leisure as that of Iudas whom the Deuil went by little and little importuning by his suggestions as an enemie that ouercomes by lengthening out the warre or as a Physition cures a disease by prescribing a long and tedious dyet or as a Moath imperceptibly mars the cloath and the Worme destroyes the wood The Hebrewes call the Deuill Belzebub which is as much to say as Deus Muscarum The God of Flies Now the World hath not a more busie or troublesome creature than your Flies and Gnats in Autumne and in the time of Haruest nor Man a more busie enemie than the Deuill in the Autumne and Haruest of our Soules when we should labour most for Heauen and prouide for a deere yeare Your Flie amongst the Aegyptians was a symbole of importuning and therefore it is said by way of aâ—age The wickednesse of the Flie. There are sinnes which like the Cow we chew the cud vpon we ruminate vpon them and our thoughts are neuer off from them Iob did point out vnto vs these two kinds of temptations the one in the stone that being rent from the top of an high hill falls suddenly down carrying away before it all that stands in it's way it beeing impossible to preuent conueniently the danger thereof Lapis transfertur de loco suo The other in the water which beeing so soft as it is yet by little and little hollowes the hardest stone Homineâ— ergo similiter perdes tota die impugnans tribulauit me Onely Importunitie is the shrewdest temptation Sampson yeelded vnto Dalila tyred out with her re-iterated importunings And there are a thousand Sampsons in these dayes which doe not yeeld themselues so much to sinne by the batterie of temptation as by importunate treaties Si cadens adoraueris me If falling downe thou worship me This was a strange kind of impudencie in the Deuill but he no sooner saw his maske taken away and that our Sauiour had discouered him and his trickes but he hid his head for shame Vade retro Sathana Goe behind me Sathan Saint Hierome saith That with this verie word our Sauiour Christ tumbled him headlong downe to the bottomlesse pit of Hell whereinto he entred howling and making such a hideous noyse and lamentable out-crie that hee strooke a great feare into all those infernall Spirits The strong one was bound and trodden in pieces with the foot of the Lord. Beda hath almost the verie same words This imprisonment of his was enlarged afterwards by Christs death according to that of the Apocalyps He bound him for a thousand yeares In a word He was so ashamed and so out of countenance with this answer of our Sauiours that for many days he did not so much as once offer to peepe out of Hel. Where Pride is there will bee Reproch so saith Salomon That place of Deutronomie whence our Sauior tooke this authoritie doth not say Adorabis Thou shalt adore but Timeâ—is Thou shalt feare as if the truest way to worship God were to feare him The Scripture attributes two names vnto Christ the one of Spouse the other of Lord in the one he shewes his loue in the other the feare which is due vnto him in the one the securitie wherewith wee may come vnto him and offer him our Petitions in the other the respect and reuerence which we owe to so great a Maiestie They are things that are so cimented and ioynted together that he affectionatly loues who humbly fears But I feare I haue bn too long and therefore I will here make an end THE SIXTH SERMON VPON THE MVNDAY AFTER THE FIRST SVNDAY IN LENT MAT. 25. Cum venerit Filius Hominis When the Sonne of Man shall come I Haue treated of this Theame at large in fiue seueral Chapters vpon the Parables But the Sea is neuer emptied by those waters which the Riuers take from it nor those diuine Mysteries lessened by those
our neighbour be it with food or apparell or councell or our assistance according to the measure of their necessitie and our abilitie gouerning our selues therein according to the rules of wisedome Hence it followeth that the sinne of crueltie carries with it a kind of desperation For as Saint Augustine saith he must be condemned to eternal fire who hath not cloathed the naked who hath not fed the hungrie he that strips another man of his cloathes and he that â—natcheth a morcell of meat from the mouth of the hungrie and what shall become of him in the end Iudicium sine misericordiâ— his qui non faciunt misericordiam Let not him saith Saint Iames looke for mercie in the world to come that shewes not mercie in this life One of the reasons why Hamon King Assuerus his great Fauourit found no pittie in Queen Esters nor the Kings brest though he besought it on his knees and with teares in his eyes was for that he had plotted such a mercilesse tyrannie as to destroy all the Iews both men women and children at one blow and therefore deserued no fauour Nathan pâ—opounding to Dauid that Parable of him That hauing many Sheepe of his owne had robbed his Neighbour of his onely Sheepe hauing no more besides in all the world was so incensed against this so great an iniurie that he held him for the present vnworthie of pardon As the Lord liueth he is the child of death In a word the Word of God cannot faile And Amos in his fourth and sixth Chapter threatneth those powerfull cruell ones with most seuere punishments And Salomon saith That the hard heart shall haue many a shrewd pang when he lies on his death bed This Doctrine hath in it's fauour three powerfull reasons The first In the secular state for the elder brother is bound to maintaine his younger brothers and vpon this condition is hee made the heire of his house otherwise he should be condemned for vnkind and cruell God saith Saint Basil made the rich man the elder brother that he might relieue his younger brother the Poore And Malachie saith That the hungrie the naked and the maimed man on whom the rich man bends his brow is his brother that they haue one and the same God to their Father one and the same Church to their Mother The second Our Sauiour Christ is not contented that thou shouldst make account that thou giuest thy brother an almes but thy selfe And he doth reueale this truth and notifie it vnto thee to the end that thou shouldst not despise the Poore Haec requies mea reficite lassum hoc est meum refrigerium How is it possible ô Lord that the succouring of the Poore should be thy ease and thy refreshing Because I saith our Sauiour am that poore Man and happie is hee who vnder the ragges of the Poore diuideth the riches of God The third That this charitie towards the Poore giues vs an assurance of Heauen Charitie affoords great confidence to all that practise it and will not suffer their soule to goe into darkenesse Besides Dauid calls that man happie whose sinnes are couered Beatus vir cuius tecta sunt peccata And Salomon and Saint Peter affirme That Charitie couers a multitude of sinnes Vniuersa peccata operit Charitas Discedite in ignem eternum Goe into euerlasting fire This is a most cruell punishment in regard of the despaire of any future comfort Micheas treating of a punishment that God was to inflict vpon his People saith I will make a wailing like the Dragons mourning as the daughters of the Owle Quia desperata est plaga eius For her wound is incurable O with what teares ô with what hideous shreekes ought man to bewaile the desperate torments of Iudgement and of Hell This punishment all the damned shall equally suffer nor there is not the immagination of any thing that can so much affright and dismay vs. But in those other punishments some shall suffer more than other-some their shame confusion and their hellish torments being answerable to the nature of their offences The first sort that shall suffer the seuerest punishment shall be the Iewes who in crucifying our Sauiour Christ committed the greatest sin and the heinousest offence that euer was committed in the World Who when at the day of judgement they shall see and perceiue whom they so impudently abused shamefully mocked cruelly scourged scornefully crowned rigorously handled spit vpon buffeted and crucified and all vndeseruedly beeing one that wisht them all good hugg'd them vnder his wing as the hen clocketh her chickens wept ouer them and mourned for them they shall remaine so thunder-strucken so astonished so daunted and so dead with feare and the horror of their punishment that they shall cry vnto the mountaines and call vnto the hills with a Cadite super nos Fall vpon vs. This lamentable and wretched condition of theirs Zachary pointeth at in these words Et aspicient ad me quem confixerunt They shall looke vpon mee whome they haue pierced And Saint Iohn Videbunt in quem crucifixerunt They shall see whom they haue crucified And in the Apocalips Videbit eum omnis oculus Euery eye shall see him But especially they Qui eum pupâ—gerunt That goard him O what a cruell taking must they bee in who are guilty to themselues in that day how cruelly they vsed the Sauiour of the World The second sort are those cast-awayes that haue made a couenant with Hell whilest they liued here on Earth Of whom Esay sayth Percussimus foedus cum morte cum inferno fecimus pactum i. Those desperate theeues that haue made a league with the Gallowes And those vnworthie Communicants of whome Saint Paul That they eate and drinke their owne condemnation Iudicium sibi manducat bibit Of these the sayd Esay asketh Which of you can dwell with the deuouring Fire Aut quis habitabit cum ardoribus sempiternis Are ye of that mettall that yee can suffer eternall fire who are not able to indure temporall heate Let the most desperat amongst you he that imagines he is able to indure any torment put but his finger awhile into the flame but of a candle and hee will soone tell mee another tale The third sort are those that professe a perpetuall and euerlasting hatred to Vertue and Goodnesse follow tyranny with delight and take a pleasure in sinning thinking there is no life to that which is vicious According to that of Esay Hee that departeth from euill maketh himselfe a prey It is death to them to doe otherwise And as Hosea hath it Sanguis sanguinem tetigit Against these God shall come armed with a corslet of Iustice and with robes of Vengeance and with a cloake of Zeale and like a swift torrent he shall sweepe away these reeds and bulrushes c. The fourth sort are those who deny God eyes to see the infinite summe and masse of those things that
winds blow is suddenly throwne downe and carried away Optimum est gratia stabilire cor It is an excellent thing that the heart be established with grace that when ye shall be set vpon with diuers and sundrie strange Doctrines yee may stand immoouable and not be shaken with euerie vaine blast of wind Signum non dabitur eis nisi signum Ionae A signe shall not bee giuen them but that of Ionus Now Ionas his signe was the death and resurrection of our Sauiour which Austen calls Signum signorum miraculum miraculorum The signe of signes and miracle of miracles And hee that will not benefit himself by that What other miracle or signe can he expect shall doe him good It is much greater than any other vpon earth by how much the harder it is for one to come out of the heart of the earth and to bee restored to life after he is once dead a greater miracle by farre than that of Ionas his being spewed out of the Whales bellie And the said Saint prooueth that our Sauiour Christ is God and man man because hee entred dead into the bowells of the earth and God because hee came forth from thence aliue So that our Sauiour came to grant them much more than they desired For if they desired miracles from Heauen at our Sauiours death there appeared fearefull ones vnto them Athanasius saith That the Sunne was darkened in token that all those great and noble acts which God had done were eclipsed and darkened in this one of our Redemption Theophilact saith That our Sauiour after his Resurrection wrought no more miracles for that to die and rise againe by his own proper power was the vtmost both of his power and miracles Iudaei signum petunt c. The Iewes require a signe the Graecians seeke after wisedome but I preach vnto you the greatest Signe and the greatest Wisedome in the world to wit Christ crucified Eusebius Emisenus dwelleth much vpon Iacobs wrestling with the Angell In which conflict Iacob remaining Victor craueth a blessing of the Conquered And this is mystically meant of our Sauiour who representing himselfe in the shape of an Angell shewed himselfe vpon the Crosse tortured torne and ouercome yet grew thereby more powerfull and more free hearted for to blesse the world No signe shall be giuen them It is not without a mysterie that our Sauior saith No signe shall be giuen For that signe of his death and resurrection hee knew would profit them so little that it was needlesse to giue them any at all Christ treating of his bloud saith by Saint Luke Which for you and for many shall bee poured out And by Saint Mathew Which shall be poured out for all But many shall not take the benefit of this effusion of his bloud Some did wash their stoles in the bloud of the Lambe others said Sanguis eius super nos id est Let his bloud be vpon vs accusing themselues herein to bee guiltie of the shedding of his bloud And amongst the Faithfull there are many of whom Saint Paul saith Reus erit corporis sanguinis Domini who receiuing it vnworthily shall remaine guiltie of this so pretious a Treasure And in another place That they shall incurre great punishment which doe defile this bloud Et sanguinem testamenti pollutum duxerit Signum non dabitur ei nisi signum Ionae No signe shal be giuen them but that of Ionas For the miracle of Christs death and resurrection was not to bee denied to any Saint Thomas protested That he would not beleeue vnlesse hee might see the prints of our Sauiours wounds which being so strange a capitulation and to outward seeming so discourteous a proceeding our Sauiour Christ yeelded vnto his request and made towards him and made shewe thereof vnto him for the signes of our Sauiours death and Crosse were neuer yet denied to any Esay saith And in that day the root of Ishai which shall stand vp for a signe vnto the People the Nations shall seeke vnto it and his rest shall be glorious The Septuagint and Saint Hierome read Et qui stat The root of Iesse that is to say Ille qui stat in signum populorum congregabit profugos Israel dispersos Iuda colligit à quatuor plagi◠terra He shall set vp a signe to the Nations and assemble the dispersed of Israell and gather the scattered of Iuda from all the foure corners of the world Hee borrowes the metaphore from a militarie Ensigne and saith That Christ our Sauior that suffered on the Crosse and died for our sinnes and rose againe for our saluation shall gather together those that are dispersed through the foure corners of the earth Which is all one with that of Saint Iohn who said That he was not only to die for his People Sed vt Filios Dei qui dispersi erant congregaret in vnum But that he might gather together into one the children of God that were dispersed Into one that is into one Church by Faith Signum non dabitur nisi signum Ionae God did not graunt vnto them that which they desired for God will not be propitious in yeelding to our desires when they are to turne to our owne hurt Moses desired that he might see his face but God told him Faciem meam videre non poteris Hee will not giue what thou wilt demand one while because it may cost thee thy life another while because God shall no sooner turne his back but like the children of Israell thou wilt presently fall adoring the golden Calfe Saint Paul did desire freedom from his fetters those torments which hee indured But he was told Thou knowest not what thou askest for Virtus in infirmitate perficitur In a word God doth denie vs many things in his Mercie which he will grant vnto vs in his Anger as the imperfect Author noteth it In corde terrae tribus diebus tribus noctibus In the Heart of the Earth three days and three nights Beda and Euthimius vnderstand by the Heart of the earth the Sepulchre or Graue of our Sauiour Christ. And many of our Commentators make this exposition though others misinterpreting it inferre from thence that our Sauiour Christ did not descend to the lower-most partes of the earth contrarie to that of Saint Paul denying that Article of our Faith Descendit ad inferos Now in that he ascended what is it sayth the same Apostle but that hee had also descended first into the lowest parts of the Earth yet those two interpretations may bee verie well accorded forasmuch as that the Bodie remained in the graue and the Soule descended Vsque ad inferos And for the better proofe hereof it is to bee noted that it is not spoken of any other that dyed saue onely of our Sauiour that hee was in the Heart of the Earth Besides it is an vsuall phrase amongst the Hebrewes to call the Heart
WEDNESDAY AFTER THE SECOND SONDAY IN LENT MAT. 20.18 Ecce ascendimus Hierusalem Behold we goe vp to Ierusalem OVr Sauiour Christ walking to Ierusalem where hee was to giue vs life and to lose his owne hee went discoursing of his death of the persons that should occasion it and of those circumstances which were to accompanie it For a traueller doth busie his thoughts in nothing more than in that which he is to doe when hee comes to his journeys end Pharaoh persecuting the children of Israell did eagerly pursue them and casting with himselfe what course he should take with them when he once ouertooke them I will take away saith hee the riches that they haue rob'd vs of and diuide the spoyle so shall my soule bee reuenged of them and my anger rest satisfied Those holy women which went to the Sepulchre to annoint our Sauiour Christ said amongst themselues as they walked along Who shall rolle vs away the stone from the doore of the Sepulchre This is not only a businesse well beseeming vs vpon the way but discouereth likewise the pleasure and content that the Traueller takes therein Commonly trauelling is tedious and wearisome vnto vs which that it may the better bee passed ouer he that vndertaketh a journey imployeth his thoughts vpon such things as may delight him most and by that means beguiles the wearisomenesse of the way Besides they that loue a thing well and haue their minds set vpoâ— it vsually take pleasure in talking thereof saith Plutarch refreshing thereby the remembrance of those things that are best beloued by them Epipha 〈…〉 saith That our Sauiours so much talking of his death was thereby to engage himselfe therein the more for by making all those that were there present with him witnesses of his words That he should now die it stood vpon his honour his credit and his truth there was now no stepping backe but with extreamâ— losse of his reputation But he being throughly resolued to die makes here vnto vs a more especiall and particular description of his death Behold we goe vpâ—â— Ierusalem this shall bee the last time that euer I shall goe vp to Ierusalem noâ— many goe along with me but ere long I shall bee left all alone The Sonne oâ— man shall be deliuered vnto the chiefe Priests and vnto the Scribes and theâ— shall deliuer him to the Gentiles to mocke and to scourge him to beat and buffet him about the cheekes to reuile him to his teeth and to spit in his face beeing relinquished and forsaken of all men For it is written I will smite their Sheapeheard and the sheepe shall be scattered The persons that shall take my life from mee shall be the Princes of the Priests and the Romane power the circumstances scoffes scornes scourges c. But after this so foule a storme I shall recouer a very cheerefull Hauen and rest in safety The third day will I rise againe Behold we go vp to Hierusalem Saint Marke saith Iesus went before and they were amased and as they followed they feared Where we are to consider That hee that goes to receiue Death showes great content great courage and great valour But those that go to receiue Life great cowardize great sorrow and great feare Whence it came to passe that our Sauiour Christ went apace before and that his Disciples followed slowly after He went before them The pleasures hee tooke therein clapt wings to his feet Some may aske How can this his ioy sute with the sorrow which he suffered in the garden But this ioy was verie fitting and conuenient for him to the end that they who hereafter should see him sad might thinke that the winde of this his sorrow blew it selfe out of another corner the contentment of his death continuing still on foot Epiphanius sayth That this our Sauiours sorrow grew from the desire that he had to dye For if hee should alwayes haue exprest this his willingnesse that he had to dye the Deuil fearefull of his owne hurt would haue sought to haue diuerted it And as Pilats wife was drawne to solicite his life so would he likewise haue solicited all Hierusalem to saue him had hee so well knowne then as he did afterwards that Christs death would haue bin so aduantagious to mankind He was willing likewise to prouoke thereby his and our aduersary to put him more eagerly vpon the businesse persuading himselfe that this his sorrow proceeded out of feare Most men sayth Epiphanius feare to dye only our Sauiors feare was not to dye Christ by his feare of life sought to secure his death Howbeit we must withall acknowledge that he did truely both greeue and feare And as they followed they feared That our nature should suffer cowardize and feare seeing death neere at hand as wee haue seene the experiment of it in the greatest Saints that are in Heauen as in Elias Iob and Saint Paul so not to feare death is the priuiledge and fauour of Grace To feare it is the condition of nature which doth naturally desire the conseruation of it's beeing and the preseruation of it's life Nor is it much that Nature should discouer in man this weakenesse and cowardize when as being vnited to the God-head in our Sauiour Christ he did begge and intreat according to this his inferiour part to wit his humanity If it be possible let this cup passe from me Whereupon Leo the Pope sayth Ipsa vox non exaâ—diti magna est expositio sacramenti The mystery that Christ should begge and not be heard is That our Nature would not willingly purchase any good thing at so deere a rate as the price of it's life and being Nolumus spoliari sed superuestiri We would not be stripped but ouer-clothed And albeit the Disciples had so many lectures of death read vnto them yet could they not remooue the feare of death from them And if humane nature wrought vpon our Sauiour Christ according to that inferiour portion of his though so well incountered with his content and readinesse to dye it is not much that his Disciples should lagger behind and shâ—w themselues so lazie and cowardly as they did Filius hominis tradetur principibus sacerdotum c. The sonne of Man shall be deliuered to the chiefe Priests c. The reasons why our Sauiour made such a particular peice and exact draught of his death of his torments and his crucifixion are very many whereof some haue been formerly related and those that now offer themselues are as followeth The first Our Sauiour proceeded therein very leasurely with a great deale of deliberation for this so sad a storie that it may be of profit vnto vs is not to be posted ouer in hast nor to bee looked on all at once but by peecemeale and a leasurely gazing thereupon For there is not a wheale nor a stripe in that diuine Body but may very well take vp our thoughts in the contemplation
not satisfied saith Iob The Hebrew Non nouit pacem he knew not peace He that sayes Peace sayes a quiet and peaceable possession of that which he possesseth and yet cannot enioy it Hee that suffers perpetuall hunger when hee hath the world at will what greater snare than in this his great plentie to be extream poore Magnas inter opes inâ—ps it is Horaces and An ordinarie thirst extrema pauperiate deterior est is worse than extreame pouertie so sayes â—yon And the reason of it is cleere The poore man saith Salomon eateth to the contentation of his mind and remaineth satisfied therewith but the bellie of the Rich is still emptie and can neuer be filled What greater snare than to denie a morcell of bread to the hungrie pitty being so proper and naturall to the brest and bowells of man But this he too vsually doth that desires to be rich for he that goes alwayes in chase in propriam satietatem to glut his owne bellie will hardly relieue another mans hunger What greater snare than for a rich man to walke ouerlading and bruising his bodie with the weight of gold of all other mettalls the most massie and to no profit in the world vnlesse it be to bring him the sooner to his graue Esay saith That hee saw a Lyon a Lyonesse a Viper and a firie flying Serpent comming against those that shall beare their riches vpon the shoulders of the Colts and their treasures vpon the bunches of the Cammells to a strange Countrie where it shal do them no good By the Lyon and Lyonesse the Viper and the firie flying Serpent the Prophet vnderstandeth those Deuills whom Dauid stiles Aspes and Basiliskes Lyons and Dragons and by those Colts and Cammells rich men laden with treasures whose Carriers are the Deuills who driue them along till they bring them to Hell with their backes galled and their bodies bruised bearing this Motto in their forehead Lassati sumus via iniquitatis Wee are wearied in the way of Iniquitie Origen hath obserued That those rich men whom God wished well to in the Old Testament he bestowed liuing riches vpon them as flocks of Sheepe heards of Cattell Bread Wine and Oyle which are the principall floures and best fruits of the earth And the Patriarkes did desire these prosperities and blessings for their children Iacob pouring out his blessings vpon Ioseph said God blesse thee with blessings of the brest and of the wombe let thy Ewes eane and bring forth Lambes by paires c. But gold and siluer which are dead riches were not Gods blessing Vestiebatur purpura bysso He was clothed in Purple fine Linnen Three principles do condemne the excesse of apparell The one For a man to place too much pleasure and happinesse therein as if he had been borne for no other end but to weare rich and gay cloathes The other To ordaine them to a bad end Saint Augustine saith That wee should not so much intend the vse of pompous and glorious apparell as the end for which wee vse them Non vsus sed libido in culpa est The loose Wanton adornes himselfe with Silkes with Diamonds and brooches of gold the Priest he adornes himselfe with a rich Stole with a Cope curiously embroydred the one to enamour poore sillie Soules the other to offer Sacrifice decently before his God The one offendeth the other pleaseth because Non vsus sed libido in culpa est He that hath trauelled abroad and beene long from home in forrain Countries claps good cloathes on his backe thinking that those will adde more credit to his person than is answerable to his fortunes Non vsus sed libido iâ— culpa est It is not our lacke but our lust which must be blamed A married wife trickes vp herselfe and dresses her selfe neat the better to please her husband and her familie for a wife is the beautie the joy and life of a house The Whore shee pranks vp her selfe too but onely to allure loose beholders Salomon commending a manly mettled woman sayes That she cloathed her selfe with Purple and with Silke The Apocalyps condemning that Whore of Babylon who held a cup of poyson in her hand saith That it was couered with gold In the one was Vertue in the other Vice and therefore not our need but our nicenesse is in fault Many for to complie with the authoritie of their dignities and places of honour haue outwardly worne rich and costly cloaths but inward next to their skinnes shirts of haire as Theodosius Nepotianus and others For as that which enters in at the mouth doth not defile the soule so outward cloathes do not hurt the inward man Sed libido in causa est The third Principle is out of Saint Augustine Homo circumferens mortalitatem circumfert testimonium peccati sui Man that beares mortalitie about him doth likewise beare about him a testimonie of his sinne God cloathing man with the skinnes of dead beasts gaue vs thereby to vnderstand That these our cloathes serue as so many witnesses of mans sin and mortalitie as the casting of the blacke cloake vpon the shoulders of some great Bashaw shewes that hee hath offended the grand Seigniour and that his death is at hand The Spanish Nation heares ill abroad for the often change of fashions in their cloathes running dayly out of one into another it is a vice that they are much taxed for And therefore one painting forth the particular fashions of apparell belonging to all Nations whatsoeuer when he commeth to portray forth a Spaniard he sets him vpon a shop-boord with a peece of stuffe before him and a paire of sheeres in his hand to the end that hee might cut out his cloathes into what kind of fashion his fancie should best affect Expressing therein that he was so fantasticall so various and so mutable that euerie day he would haue a new inuention And to this purpose sutes that Hierogliphycke of Augustinus Celius It beeing brought to the gods knowledge That the Moone wandered vp and downe naked ouer hills dales they sent Mercurie vnto her to cut her out a garment and to make it vp for her But he could neuer come to take any true measure of her by reason of her ordinarie creasings and wanings not knowing what course in the world to take vnlesse he should euerie day make her a new gowne In a word this rich mans robe was Prides ensigne Luxuries nest and Deaths Mantle Heretofore Purple and fine Linnen Silkes and Veluets were onely cloathing for Kings and such as were eminent persons in Court and were dayly in his Maiesties eye waiting and attending his person But now euerie one will in his weare and fashion seeme to be that which he is not The Clerke will goe as the Squire the Squire as the Knight the Knight as the Lord the Lord as a Grande a Grande as a King and a King as God The Prouerb That it is not
that blaspheming money in publique they adored it in priuate Gluttons that desiring health of God they did dayly ouerthrow their bodies by ouer-eating and ouerdrinking themselues till they fell a vomiting as they sate at boord Of those that can be content to fare well themselues and not bring good tydings to their brethren The leaprous men in the fourth of the Kings could find fault therwith when they said one to another Wee doe not well this day is a day of good tydings and we hold our peace And that was dumbe It is strange That the Deuil getting so much as he dayly doth by mans speech should labour to make him dumbe more harme growing to man by the former than the latter First It is to bee prooued That of a hundred that were possessed with Deuills you shall finde but one onely that was dumbe they are all of them exceeding great talkers flatterers and lyers And that they might prate the more they talke in diuers tongues not onely in that which is their owne naturall Language but also in Latine in Greeke c. Saint Ambrose hath noted it That the Deuills downefall tooke it's beginning from his talking Dicebat enim in corde suo ascendam in Caelum For he said in his heart I will ascend vp into Heauen And our destruction began with the conuersation that hee had with Eue. Iulian the Apostata makes a jeast of it That a Serpent should speake Which Saint Ciril chose rather to proue by the testimonies of Phylosophers Poets than by Scripture because this blasphemous wretch gaue more credit to them than to the Word of God Homer sayth That Vlisses his Horse spake vnto him forewarning him of his death Porphyrius saith that Caucasus spake that Pythagoras passing by it saluted him with a Salue Pythagora Phylostratus saith That Apollonius comming to the Gymnosophistae an Elme vnder whose shade being wearie he sate him downe spake vnto him and told him That he was verie welcome And Siginius reporteth of Iupiters Bull That he spake like a man If the Deuill then can speake by Horses by Bulls by Trees and the like hee may as well speake by a Serpent And why not by that Serpent more than any other that was to be the instrument to ouerthrow all Mankind Secondly Out of many places of holy Scripture obseruations of the Saints of God and out of the opinions of many learned Doctors Phylosophers and Poets in fauor of this point two manifest truths are proued to arise from hence and haue their first beginnings The one That an euill tongue is the leauen of all our ill The other That a good tongue is the summe of all our good The first Experience at euerie turne teacheth it vnto vs. Whose are those blasphemies against God and his holy Saints but of a sacrilegious tongue Whos 's those inconsiderate iniuries but of a rash and vnaduised tongue Whos 's those infamies and detractions but of a backbiting tongue Whose those dishonest words and lasciuious Songs but of a filthie tongue Whose those sowings of discord amongst brethren those dissoluings of marriages those blottings of mens good names those soylings of your Clergies Coat your Priests Surplices your Bishops Rotchets your Widowes decent dressing your Maidens modest attyre but of a durtie slabbering tongue Saint Hierome saith That the Deuill left Iobs lips vntoucht hoping that with them he would haue cursed God as he promised to himselfe before hand Stretch out thy hand and touch but his bones and his flesh and then see if he will not blaspheme thee to thy face Saint Ambrose saith Plagam suam silentio vicit He subdued his paine by silence And the selfe same father saith That if Eue had not spoken with the Serpent or if shee had but eaten the Apple had said nothing therof to Adam we had not come to that so great miserie and misfortune whereinto we fel. The Deuill did not desire to make Eue so much a Glutton as a Pratler her talking with Adam did vndoe vs all S. Iames qualifies both these tongues The one he termes a fire that burns and consumes all that comes in it's way and to be the onely maine cause of all mischiefe Of the other he saith That man is perfect that offends not in his tongue In our Booke De Amore we haue a whole Chapter touching this ill and this good But how is it possible that the Deuill should seeke to fauour the ill and disfauor the good Saint Augustine answeres this in one word This man hauing beene heretofore a great talker the Deuill made him dumbe lest by confessing his faults he might repaire those losses which hee had runne into by ouerlashing with his tongue Dumbe deafe blind and possessed with a Deuill This massacre which the Deuill wrought vpon the bodie of this man represents that cruell massacre which he dayly executes vpon mens soules For though he takes pleasure in the possession of a mans bodie yet his maine pretence is to preiudice the soule and like a Worme in wood to eat out the verie heart and pith thereof Imagine a Horse prepared for the Kings owne riding beautifull and richly betrapt let thy thought represent such a one vnto thee and a Rogue that hath neuer a shoo to his foot nor a rag to his tayle mounted thereupon and proudly bestriding him Imagine a bed like that of Salomons or that of the Spouse cleane neat and strewed with Flowers and an Oyle-man a Collyer or a Scullion put into it so is it with the Soule possessed by the Deuill It is a common doubt yet fit for this Storie Why God permitteth that the Deuill should doe so much mischiefe to man We know that this the Deuills rage towards man began euer since that God purposed to make his Sonne man and holding himselfe affronted that he was not an Angell hee vowed and swore the death of man And therefore it is said of him Hee was a Murtherer from the beginning And this made our Sauiour to say vnto the Pharisees Yee are of your Father the Deuill for that yee seeke to fulfill his will Who putting Christ to death did accomplish that which the Deuill had sworne And hence ariseth that hatred and emnitie which he beareth to man in generall and the harme which hee either does or seekes to doe him thinking with himselfe as Tertullian noteth it that the greater hurt hee doth vnto man the greater stones hee throwes against God But suppose That without the will of God he cannot doe vs any harme Why doth hee permit that this his liuing Temple consecrated with his holy oyle being the habitation of his delight should be made a Hogs-stie for Deuils When Heliodorus prophaning the holy Temple of Ierusalem entred thereinto there met him an armed Knight in harnesse of gold sitting vpon a fierce Horse richly barbed who smote at Heliodorus with his fore-feet throwing him downe to the ground This was no sooner done but there
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
the weakest arme is able to mooue it but beeing brought to the shore hath need of greater strength so sin whilest it floateth on the waters of this life seemeth light vnto vs but being brought to the brinke of death it is verie weightie and it will require a great deale of leisure consideration and grace to land it well and handsomely and to rid our hands of it Of this good sudden death depriueth vs And although it is apparent in Scripture That God doth sometimes permit the Iust to die a sudden death as Origen Saint Gregorie and Athanasius Bishop of Nice affirmeth as in Iobs children on whom the house fell when they were making merrie and in those who died with the fall of the Tower of Siloah who according to our Sauiours testimonie were no such notorious sinners yet commonly this is sent by God as a punishment for their sinnes Mors peccarorum pessima i. esse debet An euill death was made for an euil man And Theodoret expounding what Dauid meant by this word Pessima saith That in the proprietie of the Greeke tongue it is a kind of death like vnto that of Zenacheribs Souldiers who died suddenly And Iob treating of him that tyranniseth ouer the world saith Auferetur Spiritâ—â— oris sui Cajetan renders it Recedet in Spiritu oris sui He shal die before he be sicke without any paine in the middest of his mirth when he is sound and lustie Their life being a continuall pleasure at their death they scarce feele any paine because it is in puncto in an instant Sophonias requireth of them That they will thinke on that day before it come wherein God will scatter them like the dust Esay threatning his People because they had put their trust in the succors of Aegypt saith This iniquitie shall be vnto you as a breach that salleth or a swelling in an high wall whose breaking commeth suddenly in a moment and the breaking thereof shall be like the breaking of a Potters pot and in the breaking thereof there shall not bee found a sheard to take fire out of the hearth or to take water out of the pit And the word Requisita mentioned by the Prophet intimateth a strong wall that is vndermined rusheth downe on the sudden How much their securitie is the more so much the more is their danger because it takes the soldiers vnawares But if this so strong a wal should chance to fall vpon a Pitcheâ— of earth it is a cleere case that it would dash it into so many fitters seuerall little pieces that there would not a sheard therof be left for to take vp so much as an handfull of water or to fetch a little fire from our next Neighbours house This effect doth sudden death worke it is a desperat destruction to a sinner And therefore Christ though without sin seeks to shun it that he might teach thee that art a Sinner to auoyd it Secondly our Sauior sought to shun this violent death because his death was reserued for the Crosse as well because it was a kind of long and lingering death as also for diuers other conueniencies which wee haue deliuered elsewhere Passing through the midst of them he went his way Our Sauiour Christ might haue strooke them with blindnesse if he would as the Angell did those of Sodome or haue throwne them downe headlong from the Cliffe but because they complained That he wrought no miracles among them as he had in other places he was willing now at his departure from them to shew them one of his greatest miracles by taking their strength from them hindring the force of their armes and leauing them much astonished and dismayed Though now and then God doth deferre his punishments for that the sinnes of the Wicked are not yet come to their full growth yet we see that he spared not his Angels nor those whom he afterwards drowned in the Floud nor those of Sodome nor of others lesse sinnefull than they nor his owne children of Israell of all that huge number being more in number than the sands of the sea not suffering aboue two to enter into the land of Promise how is it possible that hee should endure the petulancie of this peremptorie people these grumbling Nazarites who in such a rude and vnciuill fashion in such an imperious and commanding voice should presume to say vnto him taking the matter in such deepe dudgeon Fac hic in Patria tua But as when the Romane Cohorts came to take our Sauiour Christ they fell backward on the ground at his Ego sum I am hee which was a fearefull Miracle for no cannon vpon earth nor any thunderbolt from Heauen could haue wrought so powerfull an effect so now passing through the midst of them with a graue and setled pace leauing them troubled angrie amased hee prooued thereby vnto them That he was the Lord and giuer both of life and death c. THE TWENTIETH SERMON VPON THE TVESDAY AFTER THE THIRD SONDAY IN LENT MAT. 18. Si peccauerit in te frater tuus If thy brother shall trespasse against thee c. OVr Sauior Christ instructing him that had offended his brother what he ought to doe giues him this admonition Go vnto thy brother and reconcile thy selfe vnto him and if thou hast offended him aske him forgiuenesse Notifying to the partie offended that he should pardon him that offended if he did intreat it at his hands but if he shall not craue pardon he instructeth Peter in him all the Faithfull What the offended and wronged person ought to doe If thy brother trespasse against thee goe and tell him his fault betweene thee and him c. and if he heare thee thou hast woon a brother but if he will not vouchsafe to heare thee proceed to a second admonition before two or three witnesses and if he will not heare them tell it vnto the Church and if he shall shew himselfe so obstinate that he will not obey the Church let him be vnto thee as a heathen man and a Publican So that our Sauiour Christs desire is That the partie wronged should pardon the partie wronging and reprooue him for it for if it bee ill not to pardon it is as ill not to reprooue For to intreat of a matter so darke and intricate that the Vnderstanidng were to take it's birth from the ordinarie execution of the Law there were not any thing lesse to be vnderstood for there is not any Law lesse practised nor any Decree in Court lesse obserued I desire that God would doe mee that fauour that he did Salomon God giue me a tongue to speake according to my mind the pen of a readie Writer cleerenesse of the case which I am to deliuer true distinction grace knowledge or as Bonauenture stiles it resolutionem in declarando and to iudge worthily of the things that are giuen me For so many are the difficulties the questions and the
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
Iudignatio mea in manu tua God had put this chastisement into the hands of a tyrant as his instrument who had not the wit to carrie himselfe accordingly therefore he punished him according to his desarts He rebuked the Feuer and it left her Saint Augustine deliuereth some mens opinions who affirme That things without life as Sickenesse Pestilence Famine were occasioned by euill Angells one while for our good another while for our hurt but alwayes for the seruice of God and to shew themselues obedient to his Empire And this is the true sence and meaning of Imperauit febri He rebuked the Feuer and of Vocauit famem He called a Famine Not that a Feuer or Famine haue any eares to heare or vnderstand any thing but because the Angell to whom the power is committed doth heare and obey his will In this Article there are two manifest truths The one That the Angells as well good as bad are many times ministers of our punishments by famine pestilence barrennesse tempests sicknesse death And this truth is made good by innumerable stories in Scripture as in that of Iob whose Corne the Deuill destroyed threw downe his Houses carried away his Cattell and killed his Children That of Sarah who had seuen husbands slaine by Asmodeus the Deuill Those plagues of Aegypt whereof saith Dauid the Deuills were the Instruments He cast vpon them the fiercenesse of his anger indignation and wrath and vexation by the sending out of euill Angells where God makes them his Hangmen or Executioners And in another place Fire and haile snow and vapours stormie winds which execute his Word c. Of good Angels there are likewise many stories as that of those that came to Sodom and that of the Angell that slew the souldiers of Zenacherib The other That to haue things without life to be obedient to the Empire of our Sauiour Christ there is no such necessitie that they should bee mooued and gouerned by Angels either good or bad as Saint Hierome and Saint Augustine haue both obserued For albeit towards vs and in themselues they are insencible yet towards God they are not so He calls the things that are not as if they were Nor is it any thing strange that the Heauens or the Earth should haue eares or that those things should answer and obey at Gods call whose end is Gods glorie the waters at Gods command gather themselues into heapes and when he sayes but the word they againe withdraw themselues he prescribes bounds to the Sea Hitherto shalt thou come and no further at his Word againe the Sea is made drie land he layes his command vpon the fire to giue light but not burn curbing this his actiue qualitie as it did in the â—irie Furnace when the childeren came forth vntoucht At this Word the waters gushed out of the hard Rocke the Winds are at his command death and life sicknesse and health and al things else whatsoeuer doe truly and punctually obey his will and so in this place he had no sooner said the word But her Feuer left her And rising vp she presently ministred vnto them In regard that shee was an old woman she might verie well haue excused her selfe from doing this seruice but her health was so perfect her recouerie so sound and her strength so increased that without further tarriance She presently ministred vnto them Your earthly Physicke is long a working and the Cures prooue imperfect but Gods physick workes continâ—ò presently for All Gods workes are perfect But it is not so in nature Pierius makes the Vulture the emblem of nature Auolatus tarditate being a kind of Tortoise in his flying First of all it is intimated here vnto vs What hast a Sinner ought to make to get vp S. Peter being in prison the Angell said vnto him Surge velociter Arise quickely and without any more adoe not staying vpon his gyues chaines the gates or the guards he presently riseth vp and gets him gone with all the speed he could Noah puts the Crow out of the Arke Dimisit Corvum qui egrediebatur non reuertebatur The Hebrew Text hath it Exiuit exeundo redeundo He began to make wing but seeing such a vastnesse of waters fearing to faile in his flight he returned backe againe but being entred carrying about him the sent of those dead carcasses which had perished by the Floud he went to and fro so long till at last he went his way and was neuer seene any more Many there are that will put one foot forward and pull two backeward make you beleeue that they meane to goe on well in vertue and goodnesse but beeing discouraged with the difficultie of getting vp that hill and hauing a monthes mind to follow the sent of their former stinking howsoeuer to them sweet seeming sinnes at last they are vtterly lost and neuer more heard of so apt is sinfull man to leaue the best and take the worst Secondly By this her seruice this good deuout old woman made known her bodily health and by the ioy and comfort shee tooke therein shee manifested her soules health At the verie first voyce of Ezechiel the boughes began to mooue but as yet they had not life in them Ossa arida audite Verbum Domini they were afterwards knit and ioyned together and set in verie good order but they had need of another kind of voice than Ezechiels to giue them spirit life Saint Augustine expounding that place of Saint Iohn Verba mea Spiritus vita sunt saith That this Spirit and life is in himselfe and not in thee For that Poenitent which doth not giue some signe or token of life hath not yet obtained life and that He that in his seruice and attendance doth not make shew that he is free of his former Sickenesse his health may iustly be suspected Saint Paul giues vs this Lesson He that steales let him steale no more but c. Hee must not onely content himselfe with not stealing or with working for his liuing and that it is enough for him to haue laboured hard but of that which hee hath got by the sweat of his browes hee must giue part thereof to the Poore if not for the satisfaction of his former thefts yet to shew himselfe a good Christian by obseruing the rules of charitie Zacheus did performe both these the one in making a fourefold restitution to those whom he had defrauded by forged cauillation the other by giuing to the Poore the one halfe of his goods Let all bitternesse and anger and wrath crying and euill speaking saith the Apostle bee put away from you with all maliciousnesse First of all there must not abide in your brests the least smacke of bitternesse anger wrath euill speaking nor any other maliciousnesse But because it is not enough to shun euill vnlesse wee doe also he thing that is good he addeth in the second place that which
ballance weigheth so is the World before thee and as a drop of the morning dew that falleth downe vpon the earth S. Ambrose questions God Why ô Lord so much for so little And his answer is That this doth indeere thy ingratitude and his loue This is a thing to stunne a man and to make him stand astonished that the Sea should goe after a drop of water as if therewith it should augment it's immensitie and vastnesse that Totum should seeke after Nihil he that is all in all after a thing of nothing as if thereby he should better his Being that God should seeke after a wench that was a water carrier and being so wearie as he was he should sit him downe vpon Iacobs Well and there entertaine himselfe in talke with her How can she euer be able to requite so great and vndeserued a kindnesse This reason is also the more indeered considering how little it concernes God and how much it imports man What is it to God Nothing What caâ—st thou giue vnto him If thou shouldst vndoe thy selfe in his seruice thou shalt not adde one dramme of glorie vnto him What is it to Man The greatest happinesse that can befall him in that God should tyre out himselfe for him who is not worthie the looking after Much saith Saint Bernard ought man to meditate on this his wearinesse considering how deere man did cost God It were meere idlenesse in man to thinke that God made him for nothing or to sit still be idle In the sweat of thy browes shalt thou eat thy bread This was poena culpae a punishment appointed him for the fault he had coÌ„mitted that euery bit of bread should cost him a drop of sweat and this lighted vpon our Sauiour himselfe as being our Suretie the debt was ours but he standing bound for vs was forced to pay it we failing therein Meus cibus est vt faciam voluntatem patris And here the meat that he was to feed vpon was a hard crust to gnaw vpon The conuersion of this woman he was to tug for it and sweat for it Hee shall see of the trauell of his soule and shall be satisfied His bodie trauelled with wearinesse his soule with thoughts and cares but he shall see that which he desired and bee satisfied Saint Ambrose discoursing of these our Sauiours paines saith That for that he did esteeme so highly of them they are not to be considered as pains but as the price of our Redemption And if the price of thy ransome cost God a great deale of labour and sweat it is not much that the price of finding God should be thy labour and thy sweat Laurentius Iustinianus saith That God had contriued it so that the Ninâ—uites should see Ionas gaping for breath al-to-berayed with the filthie slime and oyle of the Whale to the end that this so sad and sorrowful a spectacle should be of equiualencie to those miracles which he wrought amongst them and should persuade them to Fastings Sackecloath and Ashes c. Philon declaring that place of Deutronomie That hee that had planted a Vineyard and not eaten of the fruit thereof and that he that had built him an house and not dwelt therein and that he that had married a wife and had not enioyed her companie should returne backe from the Warre this learned Doctor saith That the reason of this Proclamation was for that it was not held fit that another should for a song as they say and doing little or nothing for it come to inioy the fruit of another mans labours Will God That thou shalt not enioy another mans house or his Vineyard for nothing and shall hee giue thee Heauen for nothing Zenon inferreth the selfe same consequence from that place of Genesis He will not but thou shalt get thy bread with the sweat of thy browes And doest thou thinke thou shalt purchase Heauen without taking of paines This is a strange and harsh kind of doctrine to our daintier sort of people and nice Worldlings who cannot be without their coaches their warming-pannes their perfumes their muffes their banquets their musicke their Comedies their Gardens of pleasure c. as if this were the way to goe to Heauen But I would haue thee to know saith Greg. Nizen that Heauen may be here fitted and prepared for vs but not enioyed Doe not thou wearie out thy selfe in seeking after that which our Sauiour Christ could not find When I see a man fare daintily and delicately choise and nice in his dyet and his cloathes and as greedie after his profit as his pleasure I would faine know of him being so great a Louer as he is of a merrie and pleasant kind of life being wholly giuen to iollitie How he dares to goe treading and counting these his steps towards Hell Doth he thinke to lead the same life there Iesus then wearied in the iourney sat downe on the Well A Trauailer comes all dust and sweat and exceeding wearie to a fountaine hee washes himselfe makes himselfe cleane drinkes sits downe and so seekes to shake off his wearinesse But our Sauiour comming extreame wearie to this fountaine neiâ—her washes himselfe makes himselfe cleane nor drinkes but onely sate thus as beeing wearied that this woman might take notice of his wearisomenesse and this his troublesome iourney and so Caietane and the Cardinall of Toledo doe expound the word sic that he sate euen thus vpon the Well The ends why God exprest himselfe to be thus wearie are no lesse deepe and profound than the former First Because out of this his wearinesse the sinner might apprehend his loue Theodoret deriueth the name of God from a Greeke word which signifieth To runne And they gaue this name vnto God who tooke the starres to bee Gods Damascene that hee was therefore called God because he succours our miseries and releeues our necessities with that hast and speede that thereby we may perceiue how much he loues vs. Leo the Pope expounding that place of Saint Luke My God my God why hast thou forsaken me sayth That these words which our Sauiour vsed to his father were not words of complaint but a Lecture which he read vnto Man making vpon the Crosse a muster or beade-rolle of all those troubles that he had both in his life and death suffered for him And therefore cryeth out I beseech thee deere Father that thou wilt giue Man eyes to see The end why thou hast forsaken mee For that thy naturall sonne should come to this so miserable and wretched an estate it was neither disaster nor disgrace nor force nor any thing else that could cause it but the great loue which I bore vnto Man seeing his disease was so desperate that it was requisite that I should tast of this so bitter a potion and that if I had been so necessitated and so sick as Man was I could not haue done more for my selfe We haue two principall
that their goods forsake them the more they pursue their pleasures and indeauor to inioy them Let it be in thy Letanie That God would deliuer thee from this euill That the more thy Vices fly from the the faster thou shouldst follow after them For when thy youth inuiteth thee therunto and that thou inioyest these humane pleasures and delights euen then it is bad but when Time goes away from thee Age comes vpon thee and that it is high time that thy Vices should leaue thee or thou them that thou shouldst then follow after them that is farre worse and the very vtmost of Ill. 〈◊〉 My dayes saith Iob haue beene more swift than a Post they haue fled and haue seene no good thing They are passed as with the most swift ships and as the Eagle that flyeth to her prey Woman giue me drinke When our Sauiour craued water of her waterdropped from him and hee sweat hard for it And Saint Chrysostome sayth That Christ was willing that the Samaritane should confesse this Almes vpon him in token that the first step to our justification should be mercie and pittie Petrus Chryâ—logus saith That our Sauiour Christ did craue this humane mercie of her that towards her he might exercise his diuine pittie If you withhold the water a while in the Fountaine and keepe it backe from it's course it gusneth foorth in greater aboundance so is it with the milke in the brest and so likewise is it with Almesdeeds which still returne a double requitall Saint Ambrose expounding that place of Saint Paul Pietas ad omnia vtilis saith That the man that is pittifull though he suffer weaknesse in respect of the flesh Vapulabit sed non peribit He shall be beaten but shall not perish For there is nothing in a greater disposition to make God to pardon a sinner than is Pittie Giue me drinke God gaue way to his thirst that he might make way the better to that hunger and thirst which he hath after the soule of a Sinner which is so great that he onely is able to indeere the same it is meat and drinke vnto him and so sauorie to his tast that none is able to expresse the true relish thereof saâ—e onely he that knowes it But here he made choice to manifest this his desire rather by his thirst than by his hunger First By taking occasion from the water which this Woman drew out of the Well Secondly Because it is the more vehement passion of the two and doth commonly more afflict and torment vs yet in the end he did not drinke drowning that his thirst in that other thirst which he had after this poore soule The enamoured Spouse did not eat though shee were hungrie because her Beloued was sicke and had no stomacke to his meat Our Sauiour seeing this Samaritane had no great mind to drinke of this liuing water doth not drinke himselfe though he were athirst and much desired to quench it with this dead water Sampson hauing a Fountaine neere at hand would not drinke though he were thirstie til he had got the victorie ouer his enemies Saint Augustine saith of S. Laurence That he did not feele the fire of the Tyrant so strongly was hee affected with that diuiner fire So our Sauiour was not sencible of his owne thirst nor of his wearisomenesse nor of the Sunnes heat out of the desire that hee had to obtaine his pretended victorie Saint Ambrose expounding that place of Dauid Cucurri in siti saith That it may be read Cucurrerunt in siti and hee prooueth it out of the Greeke word as also that which followeth Ore suo benedicebant corde suo benedicebant The letter treateth of the Scribes and Pharisees so that our Sauior Christ had thirst and they had thirst he thirsted for their life they thirsted for his death And this was one of the reasons why our Sauiour Christ did sweat bloud in the garden for that the Priests the Scribes and the Pharisees had decreed his death in that their sacrilegious Councell for albeit they had alreadie treated before of his banishing of him from amongst them another while of throwing him downe from the side of a steepe hill and attempted many other disgraces and violences vpon his person yet were they not come til now nor was it euer to be supposed that they would haue beene so cruel as to desire the shedding of his diuine bloud to pursue him with that eagrenes as they did vnto death And because no other desire could satisfie that their bloud-thirstie desire than the desires of our Sauiours bloud to leape out of those his sacred veines for their and our good therefore Factus est sudor sanguinis c. To this end tended that Fac citius of Iudas he had alreadie driuen the bargaine and the price for which he sould him agreed vpon and his feet did now itch to be gone that he might receiue his money in token that Christ had a greater desire to be sould than he had to sell him and therefore hee said vnto him Quod facis fac citius That thou doest do quickly The like end he had in the institution of his blessed Sacrament the deliuerie was promised but before Iudas deliuered him vp he deliuered vp himselfe Praestabilis super malitia saith Ioel not onely because Gods mercie ouercomes Mans malice but because it preuents it How comes it that thou being a Iew requirest drinke of me When this Samaritane woman did petition our Sauiour Christ saying Sir giue me of that water he might haue made her this answer How is it that thou beeâ—â—g a Samaritane askest drink of me But she was a woman and weake and therefore she spake as she did but our Sauiour would not touch vpon that string For to take too much libertie to our selues in our owne proper cases and to vse hypocrisies and finesse in those of other men is the condition of naughtie and ill natured people Saint Chrysostome sayth That when any scruple did arise our Sauiour tooke vpon him to excuse it Christum cauere oportebat It concerned Christ to looke about him Howsoeuer it did this Samaritan woman Absalon beeing vp in rebellion against his father when Hushai the Archite Dauids friend was come vnto hâ—m and sayd vnto Absalon God saue the King God saue the King Then Absalon said vnto Hushai Is this thy kindnesse to thy friend He made no scruple to take his fathers Kingdome from him and his life but could find fault with Hushai for forsaking his friend Dauid So blind are men in seeing their own faults so apt to condemne others of that crime whereof themselues are most guiltie Yet notwithstanding this woman was not quite disheartned herewith shee was not cleane dasht out of countenance shee had her boughs rent and torne like vnto Daniels tree yet at the root shee had some greenenesse and sappe remaining Saint Iohn sayd to the Bishop of Philadelphia I know thy
selling of birds and beasts in the Temple bee so offensiue in the sight of our Lord God What shall the selling in the Church bee of benefices and Ecclesiasticall dignities Who although they make no publike sale of them or open profession of it yet do these men sell Doues in the Temple Qui de impositione manus pretium accipiunt Hinc enim est quod sacri Canones symoâ—iacam haeresim damnant The second If God so punish this slight respect which is showne to his Temple where there was neither the Arke of the Testament Aarons rod the pot of Manna nor the booke of the Law How will he punish the prophaning of that Temple where himselfe is consecrated in the Sacraments of his blessed body and bloud and where his holy word is preached The third If he be so highly offended with the prophaning of a dead Temple what will he say to the prophaning of that liuing Temple of thy soule which he made choice of for his delight recreation Delitia meae esse cum filijs hominuÌ„ Origen expounding that place of Exod. Dominus Zelotes nomen eiâ—â— saith That there is not any thing that puts more iealousie into Gods bosome than that soule which after it hath receiued Baptisme confessed the Faith and made a marriage with God by receiuing his blessed Sacraments should afterwards become a whoore to the Deuill the World and the Flesh. The last If hee did driue out of this earthly Temple the Merchants and Priests in this sharpe and seuere manner and with such a deale of disgrace What will hee doe when hee shall come to cast them out of that glorious Temple of Heauen Foris canes impudici Out with these dogges And till they come thither the good and bad fishes shall bee both together the chaffe and the corne the tares and the wheate the ministers of Christ and the priests of Beliall But then that powerfull voyce of the Iudge pronouncing this heauie sentence Ite maledicti in ignem aeternum shall seperate the one from the other with an eternall banishment Destroy this Temple and in three dayes I will build it vp againe The turbation of this scourging being ouerpast the Iewes came vnto our Sauiour and asked him Quod signum ostendis nobiâ— quod haec facis What signe showest thou vnto vs that thou doost these things The rest of the Euangelists renders it thus In qua potestate haec faciâ— By what power or authoritie doost thou doe these things Seeming tacitely to grant that it was ill done and worse permitted that any market should bee kept there But because it did not appertaine vnto al to amend those things that are amisse but to him that hath power authoritie so to do they said to him Wherby wilt thou make it appeare vnto vs that thou doost not vsurpe another mans office and meddle with that which belongs not vnto thee Whereunto our Sauiour answered Soluite Templum hoc in tribus diebus excitabo illud In which words he did prefigure forth vnto them his Death and Resurrection Which were two such Mysteries as did most discouer all Gods Attributes Touching his death our Sauiour had said already Si exaltaueritis filium Hominis cognoscetis quia ego sum But they were like blind men groping against a wall in this knowledge of his person And therefore hee said vnto them When yee shall haue lifted mee vp vpon the Crosse ye shall then know Quis ego sum Who I am Which ego sum is a blazon onely belonging vnto God and this the Crosse did discouer Zacheus clambered vp vpon a tree that he might see our Sauior Christ as well in regard that hee could not come neere vnto him for the prease of the people the throng was so great as also by reason that hee was but a little man and of a low stature Whereupon Origen giues this note That there are not any Gyants in the world no not the tallest of them all but are Pigmies and dwarfes when they come to looke God in the face and must bee faine to clamber vp to those faire goodly trees of the vertues to the top bough of perfection which will cost vs a great deale of trouble and labor before we can get vp so high And therefore our Sauiour Christ to saue vs so much paines and that wee maywith greater ease come vnto him he saith Exaltate c. Put me vp vpon the Crosse and not onely you that boast your selues of Learning and Religion but the ruder rable those souldiers that whipt mee and those that did execution vpon my bodie shall come to know me And this shall be your Cognoscetis quia ego sum These wordes Vidimus gloriam eius gloriam quasi vnigeniti à patre We haue seene his glorie as the glorie of the onely begotten of the Father Saint Chrysostome declares them of his death for then he shewed himselfe of what house hee came and whose son he was Saint Paul saith If they had knowne what they had done they would neuer haue crucified the Lord of Glorie Where Chrysostome obserueth That in a gallant season they called him the Lord of Glorie hauing neuer before shewed himselfe such a glorious Lord as then His armes stretched out vpon the Crosse were those two spreading wings wherewith hee flew vp to Heauen and vnder which he did clocke and defend vs here vpon Earth from the rapine of the Deuill as the Hen doth her Chickins from the Kyte S. Ierome and Hugo Cardinalis alledge vpon this occasion that verse of Dauid Et sub pennis eius sperabis As also that place of Malachie Orietur vobis sol Iustitiae sanitas in pennis eius And the Sunne pulled in his head as well for shame as sorrow when hee saw another Sunne to appeare that was greater than himselfe whose beames spred abroad saluation to the whole World The Title of the fourth Psalme is Pro sanguinolento For the bloudie man Another letter hath it Danti aternitatem To the giâ—er of eternitie The one agreeing well with the other for that Sanguinolentus to wit our Sauiour that suffered for vs vpon the Crosse and there shed his bloud for the Remission of our sinnes was that which did dare nobis aeterâ—itatem giâ—e vs eternitie His Resurrection Saint Chrysostome declares in these words Qui praedestinatus est filius Dei ex resurrectione mortuorum Another letter hath it Qui declaratus est this following afterwards vpon the necke of it Soluite templum hoc c. Where it is noted by Saint Cyril That our Sauiour did not commaund them to destroy his bodie but did thereby aduise them what they would doe vnto him Ye shall destroy the Temple of my bodie and I will build it vp againe the third day and this shall be a manifest a certaine and a sure signe vnto you Other his Miracles though they were signes sufficient enough yet were they not so effectuall because by those
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
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
partie was nobly borne and that many of good Qâ—alitie came to visit him in his sickenesse and did weepe and bewaile his death did our Sauiour performe this myracle Amongst all those myracles which our Saour Christ wrought Saint Augustine giues to this the first and prime place and indeed it seemes to be an epitome and short summe of all those other myracles that he wrought in the whole course of his life for in the resurrection of one that is dead there is giuen sight to the Blind eares to the Deafe a tongue to the Dumbe feet to the Lame motion to the Paraliticke c. And therefore Saint Iohn with this myracle doth as it were shut vp and giue a close to the proouing of his Diuinitie A certaine man was sicke named Lazarus c. Therefore his Sisters sent vnto him Here we may consider the good aduisement and discretion of this noble paire of Sisters When Marie Magdalen treated of the reparation of her own soule she went her selfe in person passing through a world of inconueniences but for the restoration of her brother to his bodily health she thought it would be sufficient and serue the turne well enough to send her Seruant with a letter to our Sauiour The Worldling for the health of his bodie will round the world but will not stirre a foot for his soules health For to esteeme of things as they are and to giue them their true weight and to put euerie thing in it's proper place is not onely the marke of a prudent but of a predestinated person Aegypt taxed Moses of ingratitude as Phylon hath noted in his life for that hee did forgoe Pharaohs Pallace refused to be called the sonne of Pharaohs daughter and chose rather to suffer aduersitie with the People of God those poore Israelites than to weare the Crowne of Aegypt and to enioy the pleasures of the Court esteeming as Saint Paul saith the rebuke of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Aegypt But first of all he was not vngratefull for concerning those good blessings which he enioyed he was more bound to God for them than to the King Secondly he shewed he was no foole in doing as he did for better is one crumme of bread in the Lords house than all the prosperitie of the world without it Than to enioy to vse Saint Pauls words the pleasures of sinne for a season I had rather be a Doore-keeper saith Dauid in the house of the Lord than to dwell in Tabernacles of sinners Nazianzen reporteth That the Emperour Valens offering Saint Basil his fauour and to be a friend vnto him if he would but bee a friend to Eâ—doxius the Arian he told him That he should highly esteem of the Emperours fauour and friendship but hee was to esteeme more of Gods Saint Augustine saith That Adam did eat of the Apple Ne contristaret delitias c. least he should grieue his Loue not led along with carnall concupiscence but with a friendly affection Suting with that of Saint Paul That Adam was not deceiued but the woman was deceiued but it had beene better for Adam to haue displeasâ—d his wife than to grieue the spirit as Saint Paul speaketh of a sinner In a word fathers mothers chiâ—dren wiues friends and all our kindred and acquaintance are to be had in lesse esteeme than our soules and our God And therefore Marie Magdalen went in person for to seeke out Christ for her God and for her soule but did not so for her brother Behold he whom thou louest is sicke c. The Saints doe much ponder the discretion of this letter The first consideration is It 's briefenesse and shortnesse of stile Imagination caâ—not desire an elegancie more briefe nor a briefenesse more copious Apâ—leiusâ—coffes â—coffes at the long and spatious Orations which the Priests made of their Syrian Goddesse Elias mockt at those of Baals Priests continuing from morning to high noone Clamate voce maiori said he Crie aloud for he is a god that either talketh or pursueth his enemies or is in his journey or it may be that he sleepeth and must be awaked c. Our Sauior Christ aduising vs how we ought to pray saith When yee pray vse no vaine repetitions as the Heathen for they thinke to bee heard for their much babling It is now the fashion of the World to amplifie reasons and to inlarge it's discourses with the ornaments of Eloquence the floures of Rhetoricke choice Phrases and a great deale of artifice and cunning but that of Heauen consists of few words but is full of spirit and deuotion one single Paâ—er noster vttred with feruour is of more force than many vosario's without it When a Vessell sounds it is a signe it is emptie Moses treating with God sayd O my Lord I am not eloquent neither at any time haue beene c. but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue Moses was herin mistaken for I would haue thee to know that a talking tongue and a dumbe heart doe not sute wel together Diuine Bernard askes the question Why God in the Lords Prayer did put this word Qui est in Coelis Which art in Heauen being that he is present euerie where and in all places And his answer is That his desire was that our prayers should proceed with that feruencie and forcible ejaculations as if God could not heare vs vnlesse by our prayers we pierced Heauen As for our harpes we hanged them vp vpon the Willoughes Ruffinus saith That your Willoughes are but barren Trees and without fruit and when Prayer proceeds from a drie heart and a barren and vnfruitfull soule it is like the Harpe there spoken of that hangs vpon the Willoughes by the waters of Babylon In a word your Laconicall kind of Language that which is short full Nazianzen saith That it is The vttering of much matter in a few words and the fewer the words are the greater are the voyces of our desires When the Deuill left Iobs lips onely free from byles and sores he did not doe it out of any pittie towards him but out of a desire that hee had to draw some word of impatience or blasphemie from them but he was both deceiued and ashamed when he saw that he imployed them in these only foure praise-worthie words Sit nomen Domini benedictum Blessed be the name of the Lord. And say the Deuill should haue bereaued him of the vse of his lips and that he should not haue beene able to haue vttered a word yet his desires would haue spoken their mind in a loud voyce Cum inuocarem exaâ—diuit me Deus justiciae mea He calls him Deum justiciae meae The God of my righteousnesse not The God of my Prayer And why so The reason is Because Workes out-speake Words Saint Iohn saith That hee saw vnder the Alter the soules of the Martyrs Crying with a loud voyce How long Lord c. But if these soules
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
Ioab aduised Dauid of the siege of Rabbah and what a number of men he had lost in that seruice the King might haue iustly cut off his head for his rash and vnaduised approach to the wall But Dauid durst not condemne him and put him to death because he was an Accessorie or rather the principall in the busines and therefore Ioab charged the messenger that carried the newes saying If the Kings anger arise so that he say vnto you Why went you nigh the wall c. the storie is worth your reading then say thou Thy seruant Vriah the Hittite is also dead This point did that kingly Prophet touch vpon in those words so diuersly commented on Tibi soli peccaui O Lord my sinne was against Vrias against those souldiers that died for his occasion against those which did blaspheame thy name and against the people whom the robbing of another man of his wife and the killing of her husband hath scandalized and beene an occasion of great offence vnto them But that which doth most affâ—ict and torment me is That I haue committed this against thee and that I haue thus sinned against thee For in any other person whatsoeuer in my kingdome the rigour of Iustice might haue restrained him from so foule a sinne but this did not once enter into my thought And therefore he comes with a Tibi soli peccaui iumping with that saying of Saint Paul Qui iudicat me Dominus est He that iudgeth me is the Lord. The world hath not that man in it whom his Propria culpa The sinnes which himselfe hath committed doe not mooue or daunt him and make him turne Coward sauing Christ who was made perfect by nature Nemo mundus à sorde neque â—nfans vnius diei How can he be cleane that is borne of a woman Iohn Baptist was sanctified in the wombe of his mother and was bred vp from a child in the wildernesse Saint Peter was he that loued most Saint Iohn that was most beloued Saint Paul past through the third heauen and did afterwards defie all the world Who shall separate me from the loue of Christ And Iob was so bold to say Would my sinnes were weighed in a ballance c. And in another place Shew mee my sinnes and my iniquities what they be Also Dauid I haue run without iniquitie Iudith passing through the midst of an Armie of Barbarians breakes out into these words The Lord liueth that would not suffer his handmaid to be defiled There was not that rough-hewne souldier that did so much as offer to touch her Let vs set side by side with these Saints the vnspottednesse of those Virgins the constancie of those Martyrs and the courage of those Confessors that suffered for Christs sake In a word all the worthy squadrons of those blessed Saints that are now in heauen will say thus as Saint August hath noted of themselues which Saint Iohn did confesse If we say we haue no sinne we deceiue our selues and the truth is not in vs. As also Iob If I wash my selfe with snow water and purge my hands most cleane yet shalt thou plunge me in the pit and mine owne cloathes shall make me filthie For to be without sinne is the blazon or cognisance of God alone Many did liue very well assured of their innocencie in particular cases as Iacob That the Idols of his father in Law Laban were not receiued by the seruants of his house As Beniamin and his brethren that Iosephs cup was not in their sacks Saint Peter that he should not deny his Sauiour Christ had a thousand more importunate women set vpon him The Pharisee he thought with himselfe I am not as other men c. yet all of them may say with Saint Paul I am conscious of nothing to my selfe yet am I not hereby iustified for Gods eyes see that which mans eyes see not In a word the noble Acts of the greatnesse and power of God as his creating of the world his conseruing it his redeeming of mankinde his iustifying of soules his seeing the thoughts of the heart his calling things that are not as if they were his commanding the waters the windes death and life and all those other wonderfull things which Iob specifieth of God to whose 38 chapter I referre you may make him confidently to say Quis ex vobis arguet me de peccato Which of you can rebuke me of sinne Which of you can c. Saint Chrysostome saith That the greatest testimonie of our innocencie is that of our enemies Non est Deus noster sicut Deus eorum iâ—imici nostri sint Iudices Our God is not as their God let euen our enemies bee Iudges And fit it was that this testimonie should precede and goe before as well in regard of our Sauiours life as his death In regard of his life for publike persons that are placed in authoritie seated in high and eminent throanes that haue great gouernments offices and dignities committed vnto them are not onely bound to be vertuous and holy but also to be so esteemed which they must mainely striue and indeauour So that in a Prince be he Ecclesiasticall or Secular two obligations ought to concur in him One of Conscience The other of Fame A particular Christian which doth not giue occasion whereby to bee condemned of his neighbour may liue satisfied and well contented with the testimony of his owne conscience but not a Prince or a Prelate For if he suffer in his good name or in his fame and be ill reported of it is the destructionoftheir Subiects Saint Augustine saith That he that relyeth on his conscience and is carelesse of his good name is cruell towards himselfe We must not doe good onely in Gods sight bâ—t also before men For fame though false doth fall heauy vpon publike persons In the Temple there was a vessell of brasse a very faire one out of which there ran a conduit pipe of water and was without adorned with those Looking glasses which women that repented them of their sinnes had offered who forsaking the world had consecrated themselues to God to the end that the Priests which did enter to offer sacrifice should wash themselues in that water and behold themselues in those glasses and it was Gods intent and purpose according to Philon That they should place no lesse care in the cleanenesse of their life for to offer sacrifice than those women did in appearing good to the world beholding in those glasses the least marke or spot in the face And in the 28 chapter of Exodus God commanded That when the Priest should enter or goe foorth in the Sanctuary he should beare bells about the border of his garment to the end that the noyse and sound thereof might make his going in and his comming forth knowne And the Text addeth Ne moriatur Least hee dye the death And the glorious Saint Gregorie saith That the
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
and let his desire fall What Moses art thou now turned coward What had it been to thee to haue lost thy life for to behold God face to face We find afterwards that desiring pardon for his People he said vnto God O Lord pardon this People though thou blot my name out of the booke of Life Wouldest thou not forgoe thy life to see Gods face and wilt thou part with this and that other life for thy people That was a particular good this a common and a Gouernor ought mainly and especially to haue an eye vnto that Those Cowes which carried the Arke to Bethshemish neuer turned their heads at the lowing of their Calfes because being guided led along with the loue zeale of the common good they forgat their particular longings and desires He that gouernes must fix his eâ—e vpon this White without turning it aside through the importunitie of wife childrâ—n or kinsfolke c. The Romans will come This was but to giue a colour to the violence of their enuie and malice All the world is a Maske or disguise Dionysius the Tyrant entring into a Temple of Idols tooke away from the chiefest amongst them a cloake of gold and being demanded Why hee did it his answere was This cloake is too heauie for the Sommer and too cold for Winter Taking likewise a golden beard from Aesculapius he said That his father Apollo hauing no beard there was no reason his sonne should weare any all which was but a maske for his couetousnesse Simâ—lata sanctitas duplex iniquitas Hence come our contrarie nick-naming of things tearming good euill and euill good sweet sowre and sowre sweet The tyrannie and crueltie wherewith Pharaoh afflicted Gods people he stiled it wisedome Come let vs deale wisely Iehu called that passion and spleene which he bare against Ahab Zeale Behold my zeale for the Lord. Those perills of life whereinto Saul put Dauid he proclaimed to be Gods quarell Goe and fight the Lords battells And here the Pharisees call this their conspiracie a Councell and their priuat profit Zeale c. Yee perceiue nothing at all neither doe yee consider c. This was Caiphas speech as for Ioseph of Arimathea of whom Saint Luke saith That he did not consent to the councell and â—eed of them And for Nicodemus and Gamaliel it is verie probable that they had no finger in the businesse but as it is in the prouerbe The head draweth the rest of the bodie after it as the Primum mobile doth the rest of the Heauens and therefore he sayd Yee know nothing for that when in a Commonwealth a Citisen differs in his opinion from a companie of impudent and wicked persons and liues therein with God and a good conscience presently they say Que sabe poco That he is a man of no vnderstanding and knoweth not what hee speakes The reason that Caiphas renders is this It is expedient for vs that one man die for the people rather than that the whole Nation should perish At that verie instant when the High-Priest was to pronounce this decree the Holy-Ghost and the Deuil mooued him therunto both at once the one directed his heart the other his tongue but in Caiphas his purpose and intention it was the wickedest Decree and the most sacrilegious determination that was euer deliuered in the World God could not bee well pleased with Caiphas for desiring the death of the Innocent nor yet displeased with his death for that it was decreed in the sacred Councel of the blessed Trinitie That one should die for the sinnes of the people But in God and Caiphas the ends were diuerse this out of malice to our Sauiour that out of loue to Mankind Nor is it inconuenient that one and the selfesame proposition should haue a different sence and meaning Destroy this Temple and I will build it vp againe in three dayes The Pharisees vnderstood this of the materiall Temple but our Sauiour Christ of the Temple of his bodie That which thou doost due quickely Our Sauiour Christ spake this of Iudas his treating to sell him but his Disciples vnderstood him as concerning the preparation of the Passeouer And so in this place It is fit that this man should die saith Caiphas that we may not become captiues to Rome and Heauen saith It is fit that hee should die because the whole World should not perish The persecution and death of a Martyr turnes to the Martyrs good but to the Tyrants hurt Surely the Sonne of man goeth his way as it is written of him but woe be to that man by whom the Sonne of man is betrayed it had beene good for that man if he had neuer beene borne Heauen could not inuent a more conuenient meanes than the death of Christ for our good but the world could not light on a worse meanes than the death of our Sauiour Christ for it 's owne ill Caiphas treated of temporall libertie the Holy Ghost of spirituall libertie Caiphas of the safetie of his owne Nation the Holâ—-Ghost of the sauing of the whole world And therefore Saint Iohn addeth Non solum pro Gente or as the Greeke Text hath it Pro ea Gente sed vt filiâ—s Deâ— qui erant disperâ—i congregaret in vnum Not onely for that Nation but that hee might gather the children of God together that were dispersed throughout the world Origen hath obserued That Caiphas prophesied but that he was no Prophet First Because one action of a Prophet doth not make the habit or denomination of a Prophet Secondly because he did not attaine vnto the sence and meaning of the Holy-Ghost the knowledge whereof in point of prophesie is necessarie S. Ambrose saith That Caiphas pretended one thing vttered another therefore that he sin'd in the sentence which he pronounced because hisintent was bad vniust as it was with Balaam who as he was a Prophet could not curse the people of Israell but as they were particular persons they did sinne and erre so that the Holy-Ghost seruing himselfe with the tongue of Caiphas as the instrument the High-Priest did but determine that which the Holy-Ghost had before decreed Whence we may take occasion to weigh and consider the good and the ill of an intention since that one and the selfe same words are so good and so ill Saint Augustine pondereth vpon those words of Saint Paul Qui filio proprio suo non pepercit sed pro nobis omnibus tradidit illum Who spared not his owne sonne but gaue him for vs all to death This word Tradidit is verified both of the Father and of the Sonne Tradidit semetipsum pro me He deliuered vp himselfe for me As also of Iudas Qui autem tradidit cum dedit signum He gaue them a signe that was to betray him And of Pilat Tradidit voluntati eorum He deliuered him vp to their will The deliuering of him vp was all one and the same but
the Father and the Sonne did this out of their mercy and loue to the world but Iudas and Pilat out of hatred treason and iniustice Saint Ambrose saith That that murmuring about the oyntment Vt quid perditio ista vnguenti facta est What needed this waste was vttered by Iudas and the Disciples in one and the same words But in them they proceeded out of a good mind but in Iudas out of auarice for the Disciples had therein a respect to the poore For this oyntment muttered they might haue beene sold for much and beene giuen to the poore But Iudas out of the profit that he might haue made thereby vnto himselfe by filching some of it away if he had come to the fingring of it Saint Hilary expounding that saying of our Sauiour Christ Pater maior me est My Father is greater than I saith That it being heard from Arrius his mouth it sauoured like gall but from our Sauiours mouth like hony In Corinth certaine Exorcists sonnes of the Prince of the Priests would take vpon them to cast out an euill spirit Pessimum the Text stiles him Who did demand of them Who gaue you licence to execute this Office Vos autem qui estis What are ye Iesus I acknowledge and Paul I know but who are ye And the man in whom the euill spirit was ranne on them and preuailed against them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded Saint Paul did cast out diuels in the name of the Lord Iesus Christ and these men likewise did vse the name of the Lord Iesus Christ How comes it then to passe that the successe was so contrary I answer The intention was different Their words were the same but not their intent It is expedient for vs that one man dye The naturall consideration of this place is the conueniencie of Christs death It was expedient for heauen earth angels men as wel the liuing as the dead Wherof I haue treated at large elswhere This spake he not of himselfe Saint Augustine Hoc in eo egit propheticum Chrisma c. The gift of prophesie made him to prophesie his owne euill life and that hee did prophesie ignorantly and foolishly Saint Chrysostome Vide quanta siâ— c. The grace of prophesie toucht the high Priests mouth but not his heart Whence Saint Chrysostome doth inferre how impertinently the Heretikes doe impugne the liues of the Priests with an intent and purpose to ouerthrow the force and power of Ecclesiasticall dignities and their sacred command and authoritie Moses his doubting did not hinder the gushing of the water out of the rocke nor the malice of Caiphas Gods good purpose Of Treacle the Physitians say That it hath a little touch of poyson in it and it being it's naturall condition and propertie to flye to the heart though it be hurtfull one way yet it carryes it's remedy with it So in like maner the holy Ghost made vse of Caiphas his tongue as the instrument of letting forth that diuine blood whose shedding was our saluation Of a leaud wicked fellow Plutarch reporteth That he vttered a very graue sentence and that Lacedamonia gaue order that it should be ascribed to another Answering to our à semetipso non dixit This was not a bird of his hatching Iob seemeth to bee somewhat mooued and offended That God should ayde the wicked in their distresse Thinkest thou it good to oppresse me and to cast off the labour of thine hands and to fauour the Councell of the wicked But the diuine prouidence is wont to make vse of the Councels of Tyrants and such as are enemies thereunto but does neuer assist and helpe them forward Saint Paul telleth vs That some did preach our Sauiour Christ through enuie others for opposition sake and by way of contention and saith withall In hoc gaudeo gaudebo In this I doe and shall reioyce And Christs Disciples aduising him that some did cast forth diuells in his name made them this answer Nolite prohibere Forbid them not For the indignitie and vnworthinesse in the person of the Minister doth not destroy the grace of his function and dignitie This spake he not of himselfe From so bad a man could not come so deepe a Mysterie onely God could put this so rare a conceit into his head as the deliuering vp of a Sonne for the redeeming of a Slaue Iesus therefore walked no more openly among the Iewes Seeing death now neere at hand he withdrew himselfe reading a Lecture therein vnto vs That when we are about to die and drawing on to our last home we should abandon the world and retyre our selues Remitte mihi saith Dauid vt refrigerer priusquam abeam amplius non ero Giue me leaue ô Lord to dispose of my selfe and to render thee an account of my life before I goe hence and be seen no more For to propound your cause before a Iudge you prepare and addresse your selfe vnto him before hand and shall you be negligent and carelesse when you are to appeare before God Amongst the Iudges of the earth you haue a Vista and a Reuista Hearing vpon hearing a primera segunda instancia a first and a second instance But with God you cannot enioy the like benefit his Court allowes no such course The Motto that is written there ouer his Tribunall is an Amplius non ero I shall bee no more We may not die twice for to amend in our second death the errors of our former life There is no reuersing of iudgement no appealing from this Iudge to that or from one Court to another That which wil concerne and import thee most is That thou condemne thy selfe before God condemne thee and that thou kill sinne in thee before God kill thee in thy sin This is the onely way to secure danger and to kill death Many sit vp so long at play that at last they are faine to goe to bed darkling This our liuing in the world is a kind of playing or gaming whose bed is Aeternitie Walke while ye haue light least the night come vpon you and darknesse ouertake you Study to giue ouer thâ—â—â—lay in some good time do not continue your sports in this world to the very 〈…〉 â—â—oppling out of the candle least ye runne the danger of going to bed darkeling He went thence into a country neere vnto the wildernesse c. If it goe ill with thee and that thou canst not liue well and quietly amongst some men flye from the societie of them Our Sauiour Christ hyes him to the wildernes amongst the beasts and carries his Disciples thither with him holding their fellowship to be lesse hurtfull and dangerous Frater fui Draconum saith Iob I am a brother to the Dragons and a companion to the Ostriches Inter Scorpiones habitaui saith Ezechiel I dwelt among Scorpions Albeit by their habit and shape they seeme to be men they are indeed no better than
of his loue why God did not say vnto him I now know that thou louest God The reason is That when a iust man comes to the top and heigth of his loue he may presume of himselfe that he hath then begun to loue And for that feare is the first step to loue he sayd Nunc cognoui quod timeas c. By the whole drift of this discourse that conclusion of Ecclesiasticus remaineth cleere Lift not thy selfe vp in the thought of thy soule like the Bull. Let not thy thoughts and hopes make thee doe the things that are vaine and foolish Hee instances in the bull an vntamed beast which doth not acknowledge heauen Why wilt thou leaue thy leafes and thy fruit and remaine like a dotard in the desart Iob saith If he layd folly on his Angels how much more on them that liue in houses of clay If in the purest steele he found rust and in the finest cloth the Moth c. S. Augustine saith Nullum peccatum facit homo quod non possit facere alter homo si desit rector per quem factus est homo Man doth not commit that sinne which another may not â—oe if that Ruler doe not direct man by whom man is made The second occasion on Peters part was the Pallace of Caiphas Saint Ambrose saith That Peter comming to warme himselfe at the Pallace came to denie the truth For where Truth it selfe was taken prisoner he had need of a great deale of courage that should not incline to a lye Aeneas Syluius reporteth That Fredericke Archduke of Austria would goe a nights disguised through the Tauerns and Victualing houses belonging to the Court only to heare what they sayd of himselfe and his Ministers being demanded why he did expose his person to that perill his answer was Because in Court they neuer tell truth Plutarch recounteth of King Antiochus That hauing lost himselfe a hunting hee lighted vpon a Cottage where were a companie of shepheards and asking them being at supper What the world said of the King and his Ministers The King said they hath the report of a good honest gentleman but that the State was neuer worse gouerned than now for it is serued by the greediest and the gripingest Ministers that were in the world and when he came backe againe to Court he told those that were about him Since I first tooke possession of this my Kingdome I neuer heard the truth of things till yesterday Amongst foure hundred Prophets which Ahab consulted onely hee met with one that would not lye vnto him and the King hated him for telling him the truth Saint Ambrose calls the Pallace Basilica deriuing it from the Basiliske which kills with it's looke Of this creature Aelian saith That he vomiteth forth his poyson vpon a stone And it fits well for Peter whom our Sauiour Christ termed Petram vpon whom the diuell whom the Scripture stiles a Basiliske vomited foorth his poyson Our Sauiour Christ receiued much kindnesse and courtesie in the house of Martha of Zacheus and the Pharisee but in Herods Pallace they made a foole of him In that of Pilat they whipt him and crowned him with thornes and in that of Caiphas he receiued so many affronts that God onely knowes what they were according to that which Dauid said in his name Tu scis impropirum meum confusionem meam The third occasion was That hee would enter into the Pallace by being brought in by the hands of a woman Saint Bernard saith Si infidelitas intrat quid mirum si infideliter agat Maximus Tirronensis saith That Peters sinne was much like vnto that of Adam there being imployed in both of them a man a woman and a diuell Adam had a warning not to eate Peter not to denie Eue was the occasion that Adam did eate and Cayphas maid-seruant that Peter did denie In a word a woman was the instrument of all our deaths and threw downe to the ground those two Columbs and pillars of the world but Peters fall was the fouler for Eue proceeded with inticements and flatteries and Adam suffered himselfe to be ouercome Ne contristaret delitias Lest he should grieue his Loue. But this woman saith Saint Augustine proceeded with threatnings now a woman is very powerfull in matter of allurements inticings dalliance and deceiuing through profession of loue but in matter of feare as Saint Gregorie hath obserued shee is very weake A woman triumphed ouer Sampson Dauid Salomon Sisera and Holophernes by making loue and vsing deceit but here a maid with only a bunch of keyes hanging at her girdle triumphed ouer Peter by feare The fourth occasion was Saint Peters offering to thrust into the Pallace Ioseph could not auoid the occasion because his Mistresse called him vnto her Dauid did cast his eye aside by chance but Peter did seeke occasion And he that loues anger shall perish by it He doth not say He that loues warre or victorie but he that loues danger Many of the children of Israel did cut off the thumbs from their fingers because they would excuse themselues from prophanation by singing the songs of Sion and being importuned thereunto Sing vnto vs one of the songs of Sion They answered How shall we sing one of the Lords songs in a strange land c. Osee saith Non vocabis me vltra Baalim sed vocabis me vir meus Baalim is the same as Vir meus But because there was an Idol that was called Baalim God said Doe not call me Baalim to the end that no man may presume that thou yet bearest Baalim still in thy mind or for to take all occasion from thee of thinking thereof any more On Gods part there are likewise very good reasons The first shall be of Saint Gregorie Saint Peter being to bee a Pastor it was fit that he should fall into so foule a fault least that afterwards he should be scandalized by other mens offences and carry too sharpe and hard a hand towards sinners Saint Augustine touches vpon the same reason in his bookes de Ciuitate Dei persuading the Bishops of Galilea That Clemencie should sway more with them than seueritie loue than power softnesse than sharpnesse for there is no man that liues without sinne And if our Sauiour Christ should haue censured Peter after his first deniall he would not haue reapt from thence so much fruit as now he did The second shall be of Saint August who sayes That it is a wholesomâ— medicine for a proud man to suffer him to fall into some grieuous and manifest sinne to the end that the foulenesse of that fault may abate his pride Saint Peter was so peremptorie and so presumptuous that he did presse this point with such a deale of confidence and boldnesse that he told his Master Though that all men shall be offended by thee yet will I neuer bee offended And Christ then telling him that hee should denie him thrice
he presently reply'd thereupon Though I should dye with thee yet will I not denie thee but you see how this his courage was afterwards cooled Which presumption of his when he saw his great weaknesse he humbly bewailed with many a bitter teare which turned to his exceeding great good And this reason is confirmed by Saint Chrysostome who saith That God permitted Peter to denie his Master that he might thereby learne to relie more vpon God than himselfe Saint Peter gaue lesse credit to Christs words than his owne resolution but the successe thereof did put him out of his errour Leo the Pope saith That God did suffer Peter thus to fall that the holiest might take heed not to trust too much to their owne strength Euthimius further addeth that this negation of his was as it were a Fiador or suretie against anie bosting or glorying in those so many miracles which were afterwards to bee wrought by Peter Saint Paul saith of himselfe That the pricks that he had in his flesh did serue as so many Piguelas or lines to your hawkes iesses that hee might not sore too high being puffed vp with these his many reuelations Ne magnitudo reuelationum extollat me The third shall be of Leo the Pope who saith That God did permit in Peter so great a sin Vt in Ecclesia remedium poenitentiae conderetur For the better founding and establishing in the Church the authoritie and efficacie of repentance The like reason is rendred by Saint Ierome By Peters fall saith he was manifested the vertue of repentance against the poyson of sinne which is all one with that of Saint Paul I was a blasphemer a persecuter c. And God was content to giue way thereunto for the better instruction of those that were to beleeue hereafter He that makes treacle tryes it first vpon his owne child c. God sent Ieremie to the Potters shop that he might see how the broken vessell was to be new molded againe and come out better than before And shall not I be able to do as much with you as the Potter with his clay Where it is to be noted That as the clay oftentimes receiues a better forme and fashion than at first and for more honourable vse So saith Saint Chrysostome and Euthymius Peter was made much the better by this First because it was a very good warning vnto him not to presume any more on himselfe And therefore Christ asking him whether he loued him He durst neither say I nor no. Secondly because God pardoning this his disloyaltie it was but a further inflaming of his loue and setting his heart more on fire in the zeale of his seruice according to that saying of our Sauiour Christ He little loues to whom little is forgiuen In a word it was a fulfilling of Abacucs prophesie If thou didst heretofore tread one step in the way of death thou shalt now tread ten for it in the way of life Then he began to curse himselfe and to sweare c This his negation or deniall was foretold by Dauid I looked on my right hand and beheld but there was none that would know me As also by Ieremie They haue denyed the Lord and said it is not he S. Peter had learned in the schoole of Christ Let your Communication be yea yea and nay nay The maid asked him if he were not one of Christs Disciples He answered I am not But she reply'd vnto him Thou art For thy speech doth bewray thee But he that he might auoid all spies or any further inquirie Began to fall a cursing c. How now Peter Art thou well in thy wits knowest thou what thou doest Thou that sawst thy Sauiour so glorious in Tabor Thou that confessedst him to be the Sonne of the liuing God Thou whom hee called together with thy brother Andrew to be fishers of men Thou to whom he stretcht foorth his hand in the sea to saue thee from drowning doest thou not know him I know him not O Peter lament thy ignorance for thou hast beene more cruell to thy Master than all they that conspired against him and laid their heads together to torment him for as for them some bound his hands others his necke others spat in his face these buffeted him those platted thornes on his head others pulled him by the beard and tugged him by the haire one pierced his side but thou didst runne him through the heart O Peter saith Saint Augustine What is become of your courage now What of your great brags What of this your protestation and strong resolution I will lay downe my life for thee And of that your Why should I not follow thee and die with thee There was no torment that troubled Iob so much as that his friends should forsake him My friends and familiar acquaintance stood afarre off from me Dauid was not so sensible of any of all his persecutions as that of his sonne Absalon And Iulius Caesar tooke it not halfe so tenderly at any of the other Traytors hands as of his sonne Brutus and therfore said vnto him when he stabd him Et tu quoque Brute Ha Brutus art thou in this Conspiracie Gentiles and Iewes Ecclesiasticks and Seculars Patritians and Plebeyans did all conspire against Christ but none of those iniuries that they offered him toucht his heart so neere as Peters Deniall of him That Iudas should sell him betray him and deliuer him vp into his enemies hands that the high Priests Herod and Pilat should desire his death and consent thereunto it was nothing because they hated him and were his professed enemies But that Peter should denie him to whom he had made such glorious promises and hauing so often made offer vnto him of his life that he should play the Renegado and deale thus and thus c. Then the Lord turned backe and looked vpon Peter and Peter went out and wept bitterly Saint Luke like a good Painter drawes me Peter first with a cole but now he giues him his more liuely colours The first variegation and garnishment that he giues this peece was our Sauiour Christs looking back vpon Peter How he looked on him we haue handled elsewhere The effect which this his looking on him wrought was the making of his heart to melt like waxe and the turning of Christs eye the turning of Peters eyes into two fountaines The Astrologers say That he that is borne in the aspect of Mars is sterne and cruell in that of Iupiter mercifull and courteous in that of Mercurie industrous and eloquent The beams of the sun inlighten the ayre dispellclouds fertilize the fields breeds pearles in the shels of the riuers corall in the bottome of the sea gold siluer and other mettalls in the veynes of the earth and like a well ordred clocke gouernes all the world What shall the Son of righteousnesse doe then with the beames of his Eyes Sidonius Apolinaris reports of those of Thracia That for to signifie the
make your hearts to melt within yee This is a meere stupidnesse and insensibilitie Behold the Man If it will not moue vs to behold him thus tormented as a Man let it greeue vs at least to see God suffer so much miserie for Man Vidimus eum sayth Esay quasi percussum à Deo quasi percussum Deum For so Saint Chrysostome renders it Beatus qui intelligit super egenum pauperem Happie is hee who vnder the humanitie of man will find out the humanity of God Lindanus commenting vpon this verse saith That the word Super in the Hebrew with it's points or prickes signifieth God So that in the first sence it may be sayd Beatus qui intelligit Deum egenum pauperem Blessed be those eyes that vnder so many miseries behold Gods greatnesse Zacharias doth paint out Iesus the Priest with loathsome and vnseemely garments and that a stone with seuen eyes stood looking vpon him Can the stones find eyes to see God whipt spit vpon crowned with thornes And shall man bee so blind as not to behold him Saint Luke titles Christ mortem spectaculum Men see many things with admiration but they see not the Angells and many see the Angels but they see not God But our Sauiour Christ torne and tormented on the Crosse Men Angells and God may behold this with admiration if it were possible that God could be subiect to admiration but men are apt to be taken therewith The Angells also did admire the ensignes of the Crosse. And to God the Sonne said My God my God looke vpon me In a word if there be any thing that may cause a generall astonishment and admiration in all creatures whatsoeuer it is our Sauiour Christ crucified The flood was a cause of great amasement beholding the waters the heauens and the dead bodies The burning of Sodom and the swallowing vp of Dathan were things to be admired but to see Christ so cruelly tormented as he was and Pilat in pittie of him leaning himselfe in the window and saying Ecce homo doth drowne all other kinds of astonishment and admiration Et baiulans fibi crucem And taking vp his Crosse. When Pilat did looke that the Iewes would haue rested satisfied and well contented then did they cry out louder than before Away with him away with him crucifie him crucifie him And being ouercome by the confused noyse of that rascall â—abble going from the window vp vnto his Throne which the Euangelist cals Lithostratos a place paued with square stones pronouncing sentence against him hee condemned him to the death of the Crosse. Saint Chrysostome saith Sentenâ—iam non tulit sed tradendo eum permisit illos sua vti tyrannide That he did not pronounce sentence against him but by deliuering him vp into their hands he permitted them to vse their owne Tyrannie Hee deliuered him vnto them to doe what they would with him But the more probabilitie is that he pronounced sentence against him First because Saint Iohn saith He sat downe in the iudgement seat There being no need of his sitting downe had he not beene to pronounce sentence Gâ—llius Vlpianus and Plinie report That with the Roman Iudges it was so inuiolable a custome to sit downe when they pronounced sentence that they accounted that for no sentence which was pronounced standing In token that any sentence either ciuill or criminall ought to proceede from a well setled mind and a stayed iudgment Secondly Saint Luke saith Pilat gaue sentence That it should be as they required Where we are to weigh the word Adiudicauit Gaue sentence Thirdly The Iewes had alledged for themselues It is not lawfull for vs to put any man to death Which is to bee vnderstood as the Cardinall of Toledo prooues it Vnlesse the sentence of the Iudge doe precede and goe before and then they may The Tenor or substance of that which Pilat pronounced your graue Doctors deliuer the same in different words but the summe of it is this We Pontius Pilat by the will of the immortall gods and by the authoritie of Roman Princes being President of this sacred Empire condemne vnto death Iesus of Nazareth for hauing made himselfe King of the Iewes as appeareth by the testimonie of the High Priests of Ierusalem Wherefore we will and command that he be carryed from this place forth of the Citie to the place of Execution commonly called Golgotha and there to be crucified betweene two theeues Dismas and Gismas here conuicted and condemned for their thefts and robberies to the end that this his death may make for the good and safetie of this people and for the peaceablenesse of this Common wealth Dated in Ierusalem in Lithostratos vulgarly cald the Pauement Pasquo parasceuae or Preparation of the Passeouer about the sixt houre No age euer knew a more cowardly Iudge or a more vniust sentence First because hauing said in publike Ego nullam in eo inuenio causam I find no cause of death in him and thereupon washing his hands before the multitude he made protestation That he was innocent of the blood of this iust man God not suffering him to haue a mouth to say the contrarie Secondly because the innocencie of our Sauiour Christ was notorious not onely because all the Prophets had giuen sufficient testimonie thereof Huic omnes prophetae testimonium perhibent but the people Bene omnia fecit Pilats wife Iudas the Diuels and the President himselfe who as Sixtus Senensis reports writing to Tiberius Casar confessed That the High Priests had accused him out of enuie and that by the common voyce and consent of the people he had deliuered him vp to their will against the testimonie of his owne conscience Thirdly Because both the Iudge and the Accusers did proceed against him contrary to all Law and Iustice. First by receiuing those as sufficient witnesses against him which in all right and equitie ought not to be admitted Sciebat quod per inuidiam tradidissent eum And which was more offering themselues to bee witnesses contrary to the Law Vnius Secondly because no Iudge can condemne any vnlesse he himselfe confesse or be conuicted of the fact that is laid against him whereas our Sauiour Christ was not onely innocent of any crime but in right of law likewise because no man could conuince him of sinne for although he was falsely accused yet was he not conuicted And when the Iudge knowes that the accused is innocent he ought strictly to examine the witnesses seeking occasion to free him as Daniel did in the case of Susanna but Pilat was willing to winke at the matter albeit he saw well enough that the testimonies were not conuenient and fitting And therfore Saint Ambrose saith of him That he washed his hands but not his heart He did likewise swallow downe one circumstance of great consequence to wit a new Edict of Tiberius Caesars wherein expresse commandement was giuen as Suetonius sets it
the Iewes and Romans setting to their shoulders to ouerthrowe the life of our Sauiour Christ one lost his Kingdome another his Monarchy this man his goods that man his life many both their bodies and soules This is that Interficitis vniuersi vos And as that speare which Saul threw did not touch Dauid but smote the wal So the nailes wounds scourges and thornes toucht our Sauiours Humanitie but not his Diuinitie So that the speare which was flung at him missing his Godhead and hitting onely his Manhood the Deuill was thereby taken mocked ouerthrowne amazed and astonished In Exodus God beeing willing to giue an end to the plagues of Aegypt he commanded that euerie family of the children of Israell should on a certaine night kill a Lambe and that they should sprinkle the posts of the doores of their houses with the blood thereof and that when the Angell should passe by slaying the first borne of Aegypt he should skip ouer the posts that were sprinckled with the blood of the Lambe which the Israelites that night had eaten to supper S. Chrysostome saith That the Angell did feare the blood of that Lambe because it was a type and figure of that true and most innocent Lambe who was to haue his blood sprinckled on the posts of the Crosse. If then an Angell of God were affraid of the blood of a beast because it was a figure of that blood which was to be shed on the Crosse for the sauing of sinners and such as were Gods chosen people What feare and terrour shall the blood and death of our Sauior Christ God and Man strike into Hell Saint Paul sayth Triumphans illos in semetipso Triumphing ouer them in the Crosse subduing powers principalities c. It is Anselmes obseruation that the triumphers of this world make their triumph by shedding the blood of their enemies but our Sauiour Christ triumphed ouer the deuils and ouer sinne and death by shedding his owne proper blood God did antiently in those times of old take the same course with his enemies as other tâ—â—umphers in the world were woont to doe Glorificabor in Pharaone c. I will get mâ— honour vpon Pharaoh and vpon all his Hoste vpon his Chariots and his Horsemen that the Aegyptians may know that I am the Lord. God made himselfe then to bee knowne by destroying drowning and killing of them But now hee would get himselfe a name and fame by dying himselfe on the Crosse. This strange and new kind of victorie Esay paynteth foorth by introducing our Sauiour Christ who ascendeth all bloodie vp vnto Heauen and by bringing in those Angells who aske the question Who is this that comes thus stained and dy'd in his owne blood and yet is both faire and valiant Who is this as it is in the Text that commeth from Edom with red garments from Bozrah He is glorious in his apparell and walketh with great strength Wherefore is thine apparell red and thy garments like him that treadeth in the Wine-presse And the answere to this demand is Ego propugnator ad saluandum I am mightie to saue I spake in righteousnesse and past my word to saue the World and to take them out of the hard bondage of the deuill of sinne and of death and I haue performed my promise and beene as good as my word by leauing their enemies ouercome by â—reading them vnderfoot and by stayning all my rayment with blood and by bringing downe their strength to the earth But Quare ergo rubrum est vestimenium tâ—â—m Why is thy rayment redde What a Conqueror and yet so beâ—â—â—eared with blood It is answered I trode mine enemies vnder my foot as hee tâ—at crushing grapes â—readeth in the Winepresse and my garments are sprinckled and my â—ayment stayned with their blood Calcaui eos in furore meo I troad thâ—m in â—â—â—â—â—â—ger and troad them vnderfoot in my wrath for the day of vengeance was in 〈◊〉 heart and the yeere of my redeemed was come And so I was their sauiour But how could this be said of the Deuills and of Sinne beeing that they haue neither of them blood 'T is true But humane nature hath both flesh and blood Whereof they had made themselues Lords and Masters And because I had sayth Christ put on this particular nature not in regard as it was in mee for so it was impeccable and without sinne but in regard of the rest of mankind from whome it was inseparable and not to bee remooued and so must neede Sinne whilest that was about them Christ was prodigall of his owne innocent and pretious Blood that he might saue ours which was altogether tainted and corrupted He endured the Crosse that wee might receiue the Crowne he cast himselfe into the Armes of Death that hee might rayse vs vp to eternall life for which his great and vnspeakable Mercie towards vs most wretched vile and miserable Sinners to him the Father and the Holy Ghost three Persons one true and euer liuing God bee rendred all Prayse Honour and Glorie Might Maiestie Power and Dominion as most due World without end Amen Laus Deo A Table of all the principall matters contained in this Booke A Abraham HOped where hee had no reason to hope page 68 69. In sacrificing Isaac hee sacrificed the ioy and content of his life 187 His courage was againe tried by being forced to forsake his countrey 275 Adam For a foolish longing lost the greatest Empire 273 His knowledge was infused 466 If he had accused himselfe hee had freed his posteritie 288 The sight of Abel being dead was a terror to Adam euer after 489 He layd the burden of his transgression vpon God 564 Hee knewe by reuelation that his marriage did represent that of Christ and his Church but he knew not the meanes 608 If he had not excused his fault he had not bin shut out of Paradise 625 Hee was buried where Christ was crucified 642 Admiration Whence it proceedeth 35 It is commendation ibid. It waiteth not but on things that are rare 320 345 Vsually the child of Ignorance 465 Christ on the Crosse the chiefest obiect that euer it had 639 Aduantage Against an Enemie no cowardize 551 Adulterie How punished in former times 418 The foulenesse of the Sin ibid. Condemned euen by nature 419 Affliction Beneficiall 27 But not to the wicked 28 Why God afflicteth his children 63 69 179 It altereth the verie forme of Man 638 Ambition A strong temptation 90 Blind in what it pursueth 228 It knows nor reason nor religion 229 The nurce and mother of many Cruelties 230 Three sorts of Ambition 229 Anger See Wrath. It ought to be restrained 58 Sometimes necessarie 126 As hurtfull a Sinne as Enuy. 328 c. Angels The Protectors of Gods children 89 Their Power 97 They reioyce at our comming to Heauen 282 Euill Angels To what seruices deputed 97 Antechrist His wonders shall be lying and deceitfull yet many 120 Antiquitie The
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
building Circumstances of Time and Place in Holy Writ of great significancie Ierem. 6. 2. Mac. 1.18 The feast of Fire Leuit. 6.13 Zach. 14 6. God wil helpe those that flie for him but not from him PeniteÌ„ce compared to a Storme Prou. 30. Christ omits no meanes euen to reclaim the Reprobatâ— if it might be Exod. 3. 1. Cor. 15. God did his greatest works always on the Sunday God will haue his Temples honoured Lost is that Common-wealth in which Magistrates and their Ministers are both faulty Luk. 23. God will not suffer his children to fall into the hands of the vngodly Eccl. 21.9 Entry of all sin the worst and hardest to be cared Men are euer ready to vnburthen themselues of their miseries Esay 63. Gen. 3. The subteltie of the Iewes in circumuenting our Sauiour Psal. 19. The Iewes wanted nothing to make them beleeue but a willingnes to beleeue 1. Iohn 5.7 Ioâ— â— 39 Act. 10.43 Mat. 11. Why our Sauiour would prooue his Diuinitie by no other testimonie than his works Mat. â—1 A true Christian glorieth in nothing more than in his sufferings for Christ. Hot fierie Spirits vnfit for the Ministery Gen. 4. Deut. 28.65 66 67. No torture to a guilty conscience Psal. 85. The vngratefulnesse of mans nature Foure faire mothers that euer bring forth foule children Psal. 106. The Circumstances of Maries perdition The sin of dishonestâ—e hath two pâ—operties (1.) It sticks of all others the closest to the Soule Gen. 6. 3. Reg. 11. (2.) It bliâ—â—s the VnderstaÌ„ding The force of Beautie â—osea 7. Adultry compared to a heated Ouen Gods glorie greater in our conuersion than creation Psal. 108. To conuert a sinner is a worke of wondrous difficultie in regard of mans peruersnesse Zachar. 14. The iustification of a sinner set out by diuers apt similitudes Esay 44. Eccles. 3.16 Prou. 30. Woman the hieroglyphike of weaknes Prou. 30. Maries conuersion affordeth hope to the most desperate sinners Osee 2. Of Maries repentance The foulenes of sinne We may dally with the sicknes of the bodiâ— not of the soule The fairenes of vertue Psal. 78. Good occasions must be embraced with speed Cant. 5.4 Ier. 3. Relapses into sin are dangerous God will neuer eâ—e our sins if we wil eye them our selues The way to flie from God is to flie vnto him The office of the Eye Teaâ—es worke two effeâ—â—s Teares sometimes denied vs for our punishment Teares for sin must neuer haue an end Teares the delight of a Penitent Psal. 14â— What is meant by waters aboue the heauens 3. Reg. 10. Deepe sorrow wants a tongue Why Christ should not suffer his Apostles to wash his feet when he had washed theirs Gen. 22. Cont. 9.4 The Haire hurtfull vnto many Maries entertainement of our Sauiour expressed in two things The nature of a Prophet should be rather sweet than sharpâ— True zeale neuer disheartneth but encourageth the weake God in a moment can make of a sinner a Saint The efficacie of penitentiall teares 2. Reg. 19. To Christ they are more sauourie than wine The reason of the demand Christ euer ready to forgiue sinners Sathan can do little without vs. Gal. 5. Esay 67. Iob 41. The wicked haue a league no loue The world consisteth of nothing but opposition Exod. 18. Good counsell a pretious Genâ—me Gal. 2. Ill counsell produceth ill effects Eccl. 2. Exod. 1.8 2 Mac. 4. Psal 2. Exod 17. As the iust hunger and thirst after right so doe the wicked after bloud Sap. 3. Ieremie Caâ—t 2. Sharpe reproofes work sweet effects Wickednes is meere folishnesse Gen. 37. Philip. 3. Esay 53. Dan. 9. Gen. 49. Iud. 5. Ier. 44. Priuat interest must giue way to the generall good Exod. 33. 4. Reg. 10. 1. Reg. 18. Luk. 3. Mat. 26. The same words out of diuers mouths may be diuersly relished Rom. 8. Mat. 26. Act. 19. Iob 10. Preparation against death necessarie Iob 30. God the onely Lord of all Apoc. 19. Deut. 32. Ill Rulers sent by God to punâ—sh the people 3. Reg. 10. Four estates of a child and whereunto alluding The Iewes were murderers of all Gods Saints Esay 59. A twofold madnesse Eccl. 30. To take occasion from good to do ill is hellish malice Osee 2. 4. Reg. 18. Christs death his glorification Abacuc 3. Christ why called a Bull. Deut 33. Psal. 32. Act. 5. Two opinions concernâ—ng Peters deniall Mar. 16. Luk. 22. How Peter may be said to haue lost his faith Of Peters Fall The occasions of it Maâ— 23. 3. Reg. 20. Gen. 31. God not called the God of any man while he liueth Iob 4. Truths seldome heard in Princes Courts 3. Reg. 22. S. Peters sinne like that of Adam Man bya sight of his owne weaknesse is taught to pity an others Reasons why Christ suffered Peter to deny him Mâ—t. 26. Peter more iniurious to Christ than all his enemies Psal. 142. 〈◊〉 â— 12 The power of Christs eyes Psal. 114. The efficacie of Teares Eccl. 3. Cant 1. 1. Cor. 10. Mat. 3. Exod. 32. Dan. 1â— Act 4. Psal. 2. Heb. Esay 43. Iob 58. Iob 38.22 Mat. 24. The nature of Hope and Feaâ—e Gen. 49. Iude. Num. 33. Sathans practise to depriue Iob of Hope Gen. 4. Motiues iuducing the theefe to his conuersion Ioâ— 5. Mar. 15. Patience the badge of Christs Diuinitie The Crosse is heauens Key 3. Reg. 2. Repentance must not be delayed Man is nothing but as God remembers him Two definitiâ—ons of man Gen. 15. Isay 6. Exod. 5. Mat. 17. No more was his Hope Psal. 4. The glorie of the heauenly Paradise Mar 9. Esterâ— His reward exceeds our requests Christ neuer counted any thing his but our happines Esay 55. Gen. 2. No loue like to that of our Sauiour towards vs. Three kinds of friendship Iudas banished out of the world all Vertâ—â— Loue and Feare Loue triumphed euen ouer God himselfe Gen. 41.44 No humilitie like our Sauiours God hath two houses The holy Sacrament not to be receiued but with a great deale of preparation No preparation sufficient for the Holy Supper Christs Humilitie the character of his Loue. Our Sauiours art in gaining of wretched Man Affliction alters the verie forme of Man Cant. 5. Hier. 29. Esay 43. Psal. 21. Châ—â—st on the Crosse the only obâ—ect of Admiâ—ation Iob. 1â— Luke 23. Pilat pronounced the sentence of death against Christ. Pilat a cowardly Iudge Cap. Testes q. 3. Leg. Vaius §. de quaest Testium vltro accusandi non est credendum Feare and Iealousie spurred vp the Iewes to crucifie Christ. Mount Caluarie why so called Christ suffered in the midst of the world Psal. 74.12 Ezech 5. Christs nayling the cruellest part of his Passion Two reasons proouing him more sensible of this torment than any other Zachar. 12. Euery part of Christ affords a sinner confidence Christs Deitie more concealed at his death than any time before Malice is euer it 's own foe Coloss. 2. The difference betwixt our Sauiourâ— triumph and those of Men. Exod. 14. Esay 63.