God would not haue that which was the beginning of it's life to be the instrument of it's death And this may be verified of the wearinesse and wounds of our Sauiour Christ neither the torments of the Deuill nor the fire of Sodom nor the water of the Floud which drowned all the world nor hel it selfe ought so much to feare thee as to see thy God thus wearied and wounded for thee Sedebat sic He sate thus Saint Chrysostome Euthymius and Theophilact say Sedebat sic non in cella aut in loco honoratiori sed in terra He sat thus not in a chaire or some more honorable place but on the ground Conforming himselfe according to the time and place he sate him downe as well as he could not being curious of the softnesse easinesse or conueniencie thereof Wherein are condemned two sorts of persons The one They who for one houres paines will haue a thousand dainties to delight themselues withall and for one houres labour a thousand refreshings They indeere this storme and tempest of theirs more than any Galley-slaue that tugs at the oare they extoll their labour so high aboue the skies that there is no earthly reward that can recompence their paines It is such a strange thing for them to put themselues to any trouble and so vaine is their presumption that the sea and the sands are too little to content them And this is commonly the condition of base people that are preferred to honourable place The other They who will not be pleased with accommodating themselues as well as they can or content themselues with that which is sufficient for them but are still seeking after more than is enough And this is too common amongst vs. He sate thus vpon the Well A woman saith Saint Augustine eame to the well and found a Fountaine there which she little thought of And he farther sayth That he sate him downe vpon the Well to the end that we should not seeke to draw water out of this depth but endeauour to draw water out of that Fountaine which is aboue all the waters in the world This Well is the water of life let vs draw from hence that we may drinke of the cup of Saluation One of the attributes of Christ is Oyle or Balsamum poured forth and scattered abroad whose propertie and qualitie is to swimme vpon the water The water drawne from the Well giues a great deale of trouble and little satisfaction it is a brackish water that quenches not the thirst but this soueraigne Fountaine affoordeth vs that sweet and comfortable water which quencheth the flames of the firie lusts and affections of this life and allayeth the thirst of our sinnes Of that water of the mysticall Rocke which in those dayes of old did quench the thirst of sixe hundred thousand persons Thomas and Lyra affirme That it followed the Campe and that God would not that any other water should giue them reliefe but the water of the Rocke which was a figure of our Sauior Christ This Water was Christ. This woman came for water to Iacobs Well but this could not quench neither her nor thy thirst but another Fountaine that sate vpon the lid or couer of this Well His Disciples were gone into the Citie to buy meat Saint Chrysostome hath obserued That our Sauior Christ and his Disciples had but little care of their bellie yet it being now high noone and hauing had so long and painfull a journey they were inforced to goe buy them some victuals Wâ—â— vnto that land whose Princes eat betimes in the morning and Woe vnto them that rise vp early to follow drunkennesse He that hath not broke fast at one of the Clocke in the afternoone what will he say or thinke of him that rises vp to eat by day-breake Seneca saith That Glâ—ttonie hath reached farther than possibly the wit of man could reach Natâ—â—e makes gold and pearles Art money and jewels of all this Gluttony makes a daintie dish to please the palate And in another Epistle he saith That we need not so much wonder at our many sickenesses and infirmities hauing so many Cookes and Kitchen Bookes so many inuentions of sundrie sorâ—â— of dishes and seuerall kinds of seruices euerie one of them beeing it selfe a sâ—â—knesse Philon paints forth a Glutton in the Serpent to whom God said Terram comedes First Because he trailes his brest vpon the earth which is his food Secondly In regard of the poyson which he alwaies beares in his mouâ—h so the Glutton hath alwaies his mind on that which he is to eat and poyson in his mouth because he goes eating of that which shortens his life Thirdly For that God admitting the excuse of Adam and Eue did not allow of the Serpents excuse Maledictus super omnia animantia Cursed art thou aboue all the Creatures c. Which was all one as if he should haue said That others sinnes might receiue excuse but to forsake God for to fill the bellie is inexcusable They went into the Citie to buy meat Saint Chrysostome saith That it is superâ—â—uous prouidence in a Traueller to carrie with him an Alforias or a Walleâ— because he shall neuer want vpon the way that which shall be sufficient to â—â—â—â—sfie his hunger and he farther addeth That it is a needlesse care in the Souldiers of Iesus Christ. The fiercest beast dies not of hunger nor the Corke tree in the Desert though neuer so much pilled at any time sâ—arueth All the trees of the field shall be filled c. And can the Seruant of God then want When I sâ—ntâ—yee forth without a scrip was there any thing wanting vnto you If there be any need at all of prouision saith the said Chrysostome it is for our journy for that other life for besides that it is a long one and a narrow one there is no baiâ—ing place by the way no Inne no Victualling house no Fountaine no Well no Brooke nor Sheepheards Cottage It is a Sea voyage wherein you must carrie all your Matalotage and prouision with you readie killed powdred vp The rich Glutton when he was gone hence because he made not his prouision before hanâ— could not meet with so much as one drop of water It was about the sixt houre Saint Cyril saith That the Euangelist sets downe this word About in token that euen in the least things we should haue a great care of the truth considering how hatefull a thing a lie is And here hee giues a reason of his Sedebat why he sate there The one was His extreame heat and wearinesse The other which was the maine cause His expecting of the woman of Sâ—maria's comming to the Well waiting there for her as an Hunâ—sâ—an for his Game and het want of water makes the way for her to come thither Iesâ—â— sitting there all the while Saint Augustine saith Sedeâ—aâ— iuxta pâ—tâ—um â—ed 〈◊〉 quiâ—sâ—ebat He sate by the Well but tooke no
him Now the Church seeing that true death kills a man and that that which represents it giueth life like vnto the brazen Serpent which being beholden and lookt vpon gaue life to those which had beene wounded by those true Serpents it cannot be too often inculcated Memento c. Those that entred triumphantly into Rome had a thousand occasions giuen them to incite them to pride arrogancie and vanitie as their great number of Captiues their Troupes of Horse their Chariots drawne with Elephants or Lyons and Ladies looking vpon them from their windowes and the like But the Senat considring the great danger of the Triumpher ordred one to sit by his side to whisper this stil in his eare Hominem memento te i. Remember thy self to be a man The Princes of the earth haue many motiues to make them forget themselues not regarding the complaints of the poore and needie yet Nullus ex regibus aliud habuit natiuitatis initium i. No King had euer any other beginning of birth They are as other men Terrigenae filij hominum i. The off-spring of the earth and the children of men And to them also it is said Terra es Earth thou art c. The third attribute giuen to the name of man is Excellencie and Dignitie Faciamus hominem ad imaginem similitudinem nostram i. Let vs make man after our owne similitude and likenesse Vpon this point see Gregor Nissenum de Opific Hom. cap. 16. Tho. 1. p. q. 97. art 2. ad 4. But man did fall from this heigth of happinesse and being lost through sinne God seeks to restore him by putting him in mind Puluis es Dust thou art c. Lastly I would haue you to note that the word Memento doth implie a continuall remembrance and a deepe meditation that it may stirre vp fire in vs according to that of Dauid In meditatione mea exardescet ignis i. A fire waxed hot in my heart while I was musing Meditation is like gunpouder which in a mans hand is dust and earth but if you put fire thereunto it will ouerthrow Towers walls and whole Cities a light remembrance and a short meditation of what thou art is like that dust which the wind scattereth away but a quicke liuely memorie and inflamed considerations of our own wretched estates will blow vp the towers of our pride cast downe the walls of our rebellious natures and ruine these Cities of clay wherein we dwell As the Phoenix fannowing a fire with her wings is renewed againe by her owne ashes so shalt thou become a new kind of man by remembring what thou art Moses casting ashes into the aire made the Inchanrers and their Inchantments vanish the ashes scattered by Daniel put the King out of doubt made it appeare vnto him that that was no God which he adored Iob came forth from his ashes in better estate than hee was before and as Ioseph came out of prison from his taâ—tâ—â—'d ragges had richer robes put vpon him so you from out these your ashes shall be stript of the old man put on the new Memento homâ— Remember man c. Forgetfulnesse of other things may bee good sometimes but of thy selfe and what thou art neuer this will require a continuall Memento This Memento is the father of two good effects first it mooueth man to repentance by putting him in mind of his frailtie for beeing dust and ashes how dare he contest with his Creator Vae qui contradicit factori suo testa c. Wo to him that gainsaith this the pot against the Potter c. Thou glasse of Venice thou dish of China why contendest thou with him who as hee made thee can in an instant dash thee in pieces Secondly it inclines God to mercie Memento quaso quod sicut lutum feceris me Consider ô Lord that thou madest me of earth as a cheese that is prest thou didst mold vp in me a masse of bones sinewes and flesh if thou shalt lay thy heauie hand vpon me what strength is mine that it should be able to indure it if thou shalt not take pitty of this poore piece of earth this crazie vessel of clay what will become of thy mercie of old and of all thy woonted kindnesse if that steele and stronger mettall of the Angells was broken by thee it is no great matter if earth split and breake in sunder This Memento is so powerfull with God that it workes two great effects with him the one that it inclines him to clemencie the other that it makes him to bridle his power First no father so pitties his children when hee sees them miserable Quomodo miseretur paterfiliorum i. As a father pittieth his children saith Dauid of an infant that falleth into the dirte and is bemoyled and bebloodyed and all because he is weake and ignorant the like pittie doth God take of those that feare him and presently giues a reason of this his pittie Recordatus est quoniam puluis sumus i. He remembreth that wee are but Dust. The like is elsewhere rendred where it is said Non accendit iram suam recordatus est quia carâ— sumus i. He kindleth not his wrath because he calls to mind wee are but flesh God in Deutr. speaking of the iudging of his people fayth he will take pittie of them in regard of their miserie and frailtie Vidit quod infirmata sit manus i. Hee saw the weaknesse of their strength and considered their poore abilities and this did often occasion him to alter the purpose of his vengeance That the wind should struggle with the Oake that resists his rage and that he should teare his limbes from him and rent him himselfe vp by the roots it is not much that he should take that course with him for his proud resistance but with the Reede or the Rush that submits and humbles itselfe obeying his Empire and acknowledging his power his furie falls not vpon them c. Secondly The acknowledgement of our miserie and weakenesse it bridles the omnipotencie of God Iob debating this businesse cries out Et dignum due is super huiusmodi I am a Flower that is withered within the compasse of a few houres I am a shaddow that at euery step changeth it selfe and vanisheth away Et dignuÌ„ ducis super huiusmodi Canst thou think it an honor vnto thee to reuenge thy self vpon so sillie miserable a worme as man Contra felium quod vento rapitur ostendis potentiam tuam stipulam siccam persequeris I am but as the leafe of a Tree one while the East wind of pride tosses me this way anotherwhile the West wind ofdespaire driues me that way one while the South wind of luxury another the North of rage anger Memorare qua mea substantia Remember what my substance is The Lyon preyes not vpon children and women nor the Eagle vpon the lesser birds nor your Irish Greyhounds vpon shepheards
ouer this life in poore Cabbins now we liue but three dayes as it were and we build houses as if we meant to liue for euer they are so strong and durable Esau sould his birthright for a messe of pottage but he excused his so doing for that he saw his death was so neere at hand En morior quid proderunt mihi primogenita i. Behold I am readie to die what will birthright profit me Saint Austen puts a doubt why the Aegyptians did so freely bestow their jewells and their gold and siluer on the Hebrews and the resolution is That seeing their first begotten were all dead they made light reckoning of those things which before they so much esteemed Abulensis moues a doubt Why the Gyants of the promised land did not deuoure the Israelites being but as grashoppers in comparison of their greatnesse Whereunto is a twofold answer The first That they came in as strangers from whom they presumed they could receiue no hurt The second That God sent a consuming plague amongst them Terra deuorat habitatores suoâ— i. The Earth deuoureth her Inhabitants And there is no man of what strength or mettall soeuer that hath not Deaths dart sticking in his sides There is a great deale of difference made of honour and wealth between the liuing and the dying man the rich Miser that would not giue Lazarus a crum would vndoubtedly when he was a dying haue beene contented he should haue had all the meat on his Table And as Death doth mortifie andmake the flesh of Birds and Beasts more tender so doth it soften in men their hard bowells and causes pittie in their Soules and is the Key that openeth their close-fistednesse We read of certaine Fooles that said To-morrow we shall die let vs therefore laugh and be merrie and inioy the pleasures of this world for these thought there was no other life but this But Paul who was sorie to see this made no such consequence but the contrary Death is neere at hand let vs vse this world therefore as we vs'd it not c. Two things saith Seneca are the summe of our life Nasci Mori To be borne and to die Gregory Nissen treating of that place of Salomon Omnia tempus habent There is a time for all things notes That this wise man ioines our Nasci with a Mori as being neere neighbors and many times the time of death preuents that of our birth c. Age paenetentiam Repent There are two things to be considered in Repentance 1 That it is alwaies good 2 That it must be decent and discreete For the first It subdues the flesh makes it willing to submit it selfe to become obedient to the spirit Read Leo. Pap. Ser. 4 de Ieiun Vide Cyp. Orat. de Ieiun de Tent. Christi and Tho. 2.2 q. 15. Peccasti saith Saint Chrysostome poenitere Millies peccasti millies poenitere i. Hast thou sinned a thousand times repent a thousand times Saint Austen saith That the Deuil being desirous that Man should not repent himselfe of his sinnes is still whispering him in the eare Why doest thou torment and afflict thy selfe It is strange that God should take pleasure to see thy destruction Bread suffers martyrdome till it be brought to the boord Siluer the same till it be wrought into a vessell of Plate Stone till it be placed in the house for which it was hewen the Sacrifice till it be laid on the Altar it is no maruell then that Christians should suffer much who so much desire to bee the Bread the Vessells the Stones and the Sacrifice for Gods House and his owne Table The second point is That our Repentance should be decent and discreet This may serue for a few for there are but few that will exceede To whom wee prescribe Saint Pauls rule Rationabile obsequium vestrum Your seruice must be weighed in the Ballance of reason A Slaue when he is stubborne and rebellious deserueth the whip but the correction must not bee so cruell as to occasion his death Ecclesiasticus treating That it is good to correct a seruant doth put this in for a counterpoise Verumtamen sine judicio nihil facias graue i. Doe nothing without discretion Nay euen towards our Beast malicious crueltie is condemned Nouit justus jumentorum suorum animas i. A rightuous man regardeth the life of his Beast He will not lay more vpon them than they can beare Viscera autem impiorum crudelia i. But the bowells of the wicked are cruell Two things are to bee considered in our Repentance the one The grieuousnesse of the fault for to make light repentance for great sinnes is a great inequalitie as Saint Ambrose noteth it And Saint Hierome saith That the Repentance ought to exceede the fault or at least equall it Not that humane weaknesse can make full satisfaction for it's heinous sins but that it be performed in some proportion The councel of Agatha declareth the custome that was vsed in this kind in the Primitiue Church to wit That they that were publike scandalous Sinners did present themselues in a kind of soutage or course Sacke-cloath before the Bishop accompanied with all the Clergie who inioyned him pennance according to his offence banishing him from the Church for some such time as they thought fit But in a word As the Flower is spoyled for want of water so is it marr'd by too much Our life is a tender Flower and stands vpon a feeble stalke Qui quasi flos egreditur conteritur and as it is spoyled with the ouermuch verdure of delights and humane pleasures so likewise it is quite marr'd through the sterilitie of moderate recreation and honest pastimes and with the too much drought of torment Columella in his booke of Husbandrie saith That Hay must not be made when the grasse is too green nor too dry Our flesh is like grasse to haue it cut in a good sâ—ason it must neither haue too much greenenesse of iollitie nor too much drinesse of trouble for the one doth rot and taint it and the other doth wast and consume it Likewise there must be a care had to the season for the cure As often therefore as a man shall find himselfe wounded by sinne so often must hee apply the plaister of Repentance And as to deferre the cure in a dangerous sicknes breeds great perill so stands it with the putting off Repentance from day to day There are three differences of Time Time past present and to come that which is past is no more that which is to come is in Gods hands and that hee should bestow it vpon vs is his liberalitie and goodnesse the present is but short and for ought I know I may presently die And herein is mans madnesse seene for there is scarce that man to bee found that thinkes it now to day a good time to repent him of his sinnes but with the Crow cries
ouer-comest thy enemy and triumphest ouer him Et nemo maestus triumphat i. No man is sad when he triumpheth Fourthly because the ioy of the Spirit is great and maketh vs to continue in the seruice of God For he that once tasteth the sweetnesse of louing him hardly can forget him Vt in eo crescatis in salutem si tamen gustatis quoniam suauis est Dominus i. That yee may grow vp in him vnto saluation if so bee yee tast how sweet the Lord is And this cheerefulnesse God will not haue in the Soule onely but in the body also for it is meant of both Hilarem datorem diligit Deus And the glory of the kings daughter although Daui◠saith that it ought to be principally within Gloria filiae regis ab intus The glorie of the Kings daughter is within yet is it likewise to bee manifested outwardly In fimbrijs aureis circumamicta varietate i. Her clothing is of wrought gold and her rayment of needle worke For God hauing created all he will be serued with all For this God respected Abell and his offering and not Caine. And he was not pleased with him onely for that hee had offered vp the best of his flocke but for the willingnesse wherewith he did it and cheerefulnesse of heart and countenance And this put Cain quite out of countenance and made him to hang the head Who can offer the chaffe of his corne to God with a good face Annoint thy head God wil that we shew our selues glad cheerfull when we serue him Aaron was sad for the death of his daughters Moses reprehending him because he had not eaten that day of the Sacrifice hee told him Quomodo potui comedere aut placere Deo in Ceremonijs mente lucubri i. How could I eat or please God in the Ceremonies with a mournefull mind And the Text saith That Moses rested satisfied Baruc saith That the Starres beeing called by their Creator answered Adsumus We are here and they did giue their light Cum jucunditate With delight God had no need of their light in Heauen Lucerna eius est Agnus His light is the Lambe but because God commanded them to affoord man light they did it cheerefully If they without hope of reward serue thee with that alacritie thou whose hope is from God Vnge caput tuum Annoint thy head Annoint thy head The Gospell aduertiseth thee to be merrie the Church to mourne How are these two to be reconciled I answer That all thy felicitie consisting in thy sorrow thou mai'st verie well be merrie to see thy self sad Greene wood being put vpon the fire weepes and burnes A deepe valley is cleere on the one side and cloudie on the other Mans brest is sad in one part and ioyfull in the other Saint Paul specifies two sorts of sorrow one which growes from God the other from the world that giues life this death Saint Iohn sets down two sorts of death one verie bad the other verie good so there are two sorts of sorrow c. Baruc saith That the soule that sorroweth for his sinnes giues glorie vnto God Leuiticus commandeth That they should celebrate with great solemnitie the day of expiation Et affligetis animas vestras And yee shall afflict your soules It seemes not to sound well That men should make a great Feast with afflicting their soules but for Gods friend no Feast ought to be accounted so great as to offer vnto him a sorrowfull and contrite heart For as there is nothing more sad than sinne so is there nothing so cheereful as to bewaile it Ne vidiaris hominibus jeiunans i. That thou seeme not to men to fast For herein is a great deale of danger A Monke told the Abbot Macharius I fast quoth he in the City in that sort that it is not possible for a man to fast more in a Wildernesse Whereunto he replied For all that I think there is lesse eaten in the wildernesse though there be no eyes as baits to feed this thy vanitie Our Sauior did marke out three sorts of Eunuchs some by nature some made so by the world and some by God so likewise are there three sorts of Fasters some to preserue their Complexion some for to please the World others for Gods sake Abulensis doubting Why God permitted not vnto his People those triumphs which other nations did so much glorie in answereth That he would not suffer them because they should not fauour of them for the People said in their heart though they did not professe it with their mouth Manus nostra excelsa non Dominus fecit haec omnia i. Our own high hand and not the Lord hath done all these things Whereas they should say Non nobis Domine non nobis sed nomini tuo da gloriam i. Not vnto vs ô Lord not vnto vs but to thine owne name giue the glorie Pater tuus qui videt in abscondito i. Your Father who sees in secret On the one side the Church humbles thee by calling thee Dust on the other it raiseth thee vp by confessing thy selfe to be the sonne of such a father Pater tuus qui videt in abscondito who is of that Maiestie that mortal Man durst not presume to say he were the sonne of such a Father vnlesse he himselfe had obliged vs to acknowledge him for our Father Rupertus saith That all the Patriarkes of the old Testament had vsually in their mouth this humble confession Tu Pater noster es nos Lutum Thou art our Father we are Clay as they that on their part had much whereof to be ashamed but on Gods much to glorie in that he would giue the name of Sonne to Durt And who by his grace of Durt makes vs Gold And so much concerning the word Father Who seeth in secret He liues hid from thee but not thou from him for hee beholdeth with his eyes thy good seruices and hath such an especial care of thy wants as if his prouidence were only ouer thee and he that tooke pitty of the beasts of Niniuie and of Achabs humiliation will not easily forget a son whome he so much loueth c. Reddet tibi i. Shall recompence thee This word Reddet indeareth the worthines of Fasting Fast for Gods sake and he wil pay thee What greater worthinesse than to make God thy debtor Shall he see thee fast for him and shall not he reward thee others runne ouer their debts as if they did not mind them and perhaps neuer meane to pay them but God Reddet And therefore reade in Esay That certain that had fasted charged him with this debt Ieiunauimus non aspexisti humiliauimus animas nostras nescisti We haue fasted and thou hast not regarded vs wee haue humbled our soules and thou did'st not know it But he disingaged himselfe of this debt saying I did not tie my selfe to these Fasts you
him that loueth vs. Saint Austen saith That it is a hard heart that repayes not loue with loue agreeing with that of Marcilius Ficinus That Loue is Tanti pretij a thing so vnualuable that nothing can recompence it but Loue. First From this ground we may gather the foulnesse of our dis-loue towards God Ipse prior dilexit saith Saint Iohn He loued vs first if he had not vouchsafed to loue vs mans brest had neuer had a stocke whereon to graft his loue towards him Hauing therefore lou'd vs first and out of his loue done vs such great and speciall fauours it were extraordinarie basenesse and impietie in vs not to loue him againe hee beeing so willing to accept of our loue Many there are which stand vpon it as a point of honour not to bestow their loue vpon euerie one that seekes their loue but onely vpon those that haue giuen them some pledges of their loue Now if thou doost esteeme thy loue at that rate that thou wilt not conferre it vpon him to whom thou doost not owe it yet oughtest thou haue the honesty to repay thy loue to him to whom thou doost owe it especially being Nature abhorreth that they that loue should not be beloued Moreouer many times thou louest those that neuer loued thee nay euen those that haue hated thee Is it much then that thou shouldst loue him that hath loued thee neuer will leaue off to loue thee and cannot but loue though thou shouldst grow cold S. Bernard saith That we are wonderfully beholding vnto Christ for the treasures of his loue because thereby he gaue vs matter to worke vpon to repay this incomparable good of Loue with Loue. No other of Gods fauours towards vs can we make repayment of in the same coyne onely his loue is left vnto vs to be repaid with loue 2 The second reason is no lesse powerfull He hath built vs a Synagogue For where some seruice hath preceded it is as it were a pledge with God of fauours to bee receiued Howbeit in matter of giuing we can gaine nothing by the hand For Quis prior dedid illi Saint Chrysostome treating of the miracle which Saint Peter and Saint Iohn did at the doore of the Temple called Beautifull vpon that poore Cripple which begged an almes for Gods sake pondereth how boldly and securely they entered to aske a fauour in Gods House who had first exercised their charity vpon the Poore strengthning and preuenting those prayers of the poore with those that they were to make themselues vnto God To this end is it still in vse that the poore lyes at the doore of the Temple as the same Doctor obserueth that the Faithfull entring to aske Mercie of God for to secure their petition that they should first shew Mercy Subuenite oppresso sayth Esay Before thou enterest into my House bestowe thine almes vpon some poore begger or other For my stampe is ingrauen vpon him hee is mine owne picture and therefore see you releeue him And then Venite arguite me i. Come and reason with mee If I shall not then helpe thee challenge me for it Saint Luke recounting the resurrection of Dorcas otherwise called Tabitha sayth That the poore and the widowes came vnto Peter showing him those cloathes and shirts which shee had giuen them Circumdederunt eum viduae flentes ostendentes tunicas i. Widowes compassed him about and showed him their coats c. One sayd shee gaue mee this coate another this smocke and God hauing receiued so many seruices towards the poore from the hands of this holy Woman it is fit that she should find this fauour and that you should not sticke much vpon it to restore her her life and the Text sayth That hee presently raised her vp aliue No lesse to this purpose serues that raising againe to life of the Widows son which nourished the Prophet Elias Behold ô Lord thou hast afflicted a poore Widow that lodged mee and sustained mee for thy sake and therfore thou art bound to repay her this seruice It is one of the abuses of these times that in the day of prosperity thou neuer thinkest vpon the poore bee he thy neighbour or a stranger or if thou dooest it is but to quarrell with him to murmure against him thou neuer giuest him any thing but sharpe words but if thy house shall bee visited with any misfortune of fire or otherwise or with sickenesse thou lookest that hee should come vpon his knees to thee and offer thee his seruice These reasons did the Elders of Capernaum alledge to our Sauiour might haue alledged greater than these as his Faith and his Deuotion But it is noted by Saint Chrysostome That they shewed themselues fooles in alledging the dignitie and worth of this Souldier and forgetting the pitty and humanity of the Lord of Hosts Martha and Mary were much more discreet in pressing him with his Loue. For all other things whatsoeuer that we can alledge on our part are to weake to bind him vnto vs. Ego veniam curabo eum i. I will come and cure him 1. They could not haue desired a sweeter or a speedier answere If a Captaine that hath beene maimed in the warres come to one of our Princes heere of this World to demand his pay or some recompence for his seruice hee shall dye a hundred deaths before they will giue him so much as one poore six-pence But the Prince of Heauen wee haue scarce represented our necessities vnto him but hee presently answereth Ego veniam curabo eum i. I will come and cure him And euen then when hee sayd I will goe and heale him euen then was his health restored vnto him so hand in hand goes Gods Power with his Will Meliora sunt vbera tua vino i. Thy breasts are better than wine sayd the Spouse to her Beloued Wherein wee are to weigh the facilitie and the easinesse wherewith the brest affoords it milke and the paines and difficultie wherewith the grapes yeeld foorth their wine For wee must first gather them then tread them then squiese them in the Presse then poure them from one vessell into another c. And therefore is it sayd Thy milke is of more worth than all the wine in the World not onely for it's pleasantnesse and sweetnesse but for it's readinesse at hand Esay pointing at this readinesse in God sayth Ad vocem clamoris statim respondebit tibi i. Hee will answere out of hand the voice of thy crie Assure thy selfe hee is so pittifull that he will not suffer thee to weepe and mourne But thou shalt scarce haue called vnto him when straight thou shalt haue an answere Whereas to the Princes of this World thou shalt put vp a thousand memorials and shalt haue so many more references order vpon order and yet no order taken for thee But the Prince of Heauen Statim respondebit tibi i. Hee will answere
sorrow The other which is likewise noted by Saint Basil and Clemens Alexandrinus That as in the Sea the greater Fishes deuour the lesser Fry by a kind of tyrannicall violence so the powerfull men of this world oppresse the poorer sort and swallow them vp According to that of Habacuc Facies homines sicut pisces maris i. Thou makest men as the fishes of the Sea Gregorie Nazianzen putteth two other proportions The one That as he who saileth in the Sea leads a life very neere vnto death hauing but a poore plancke betwixt him and it Exiguo enim ligno credunt homines animas suas i. For men trust a small piece of wood with their liues So hee that walkes in the dangerous wayes of this world may say with Dauid Vno tantum gradu ego mors diuidimur i. Ther 's but one degree betwixt me and death The other that those who take pleasure in going to Sea come to make the waues thereof their winding sheete So those that are wedded to the world receiue their death at the worlds hands The deceits of the world are like those of the Sea And for this cause perhaps the Scripture giues the Sâ—a the name of Heart Transferentur montes in cor maris i. The mountaines shall bee translated into the Heart of the Sea And sometimes of Hands Mare magnum spatiosum manibus i. The Sea hath wide and spacious Hands Sometimes of Eyes and Feet Mare vidit fugit i. the sea saw it and fled Sometimes of Tongue Desolabit Dominus linguam maris i. the Lord shall destroy the tongue of the sea And last of all Iob paints it foorth like a most fierce beast shut vp in an yron grate or strong prison Num quid mare ego sum quia circumdedisti me in isto carcere i. Am I a sea that thou shouldest keepe mee continually in hold From hence followeth another proportion or conueniencie which is a verie cleare one For as the way of the Sea is full of dangers of Pyrats of Shelfes and of Rockes and as it is not possible that mans wisdome and experience can preuaile against them euen so is it with the world The way by Land is of lesse difficultie Euery man knowes how to make his necessary prouision as a horse a man a cloake-bagge and a good purse And suppose some of these should faile vs wee may furnish our selues afresh at the first good place wee come at And if wee passe ouer mountaines where there is suspition of theeues we may perceiue the perill and preuent it but for those that goe by Sea the like prouision and preuention cannot be made especially if fortune doe not fauour vs. Est via qui videter homini recta nouissima autem eius ducunt ad mortem i. There is a way which seemeth right to a man but the end of it leadeth to death A ship shall goe sayling with the winde in the Poope of it with a great deale of content and delight and on the suddaine it shall bee split in pieces and no memoriall remayne thereof The like successe befalleth men in this world euery steppe that they tread And therefore Saint Austen sayth That it is as great a miracle for a man to walke vpon the waues of the World without sinking as it was for Saint Peter to walke vpon the waues of the Sea Many other conueniencies there are which I omit to mention this World beeing in conclusion a Sea our life a sayling therein and euery particular man a ship Sicut naues poma portantes c. and therefore subiect to stormes Et nauis erat in medio maris And the Ship was in the midst of the Sea This Shippe was a figure of the Church which God permitteth to be persecuted For his owne sake For the Churches and For those that looke thereupon For his owne sake For should it haue no enemies to persecute it hotly to assaile her Gods omnipotencie would not shew it 's glorious splendor to the world The force of fire is seene when the water cannot quench it of light when darkenesse cannot obscure it of sweete odours when the filthiest sents cannot ouercome their fragrancie of power when the whole strength of the world nay the Deuill and Hell it selfe cannot preuaile against it And this succeedeth vnto God in the persecution of his Church for the enemies thereof haue been maimed and put to flight Gods Arme remaining still strong sound Pharaoh came brauely on with his Chariots and Horsemen boasting as hee went Persequor comprehendam illos euaginabo gladium meum interficiet eos manus mea I will pursue them and ouertake them I will vnsheath my Sword and my hand shall slay them But God beckned vpon the waues and they swallowed vp aliue both him and all his Host. And the Text saith That the Hebrewes saw the powerfull hand of God charging vpon them hauing planted there in that sea the ensigne of his power Tertullian saith of Iob That God made him a triumphant Chariot of the spoyles of Hell and that he dragged thereat along in the durt his enemies ensignes to the greater dishonour of the Deuill The like doth God doe in the Church with Iewes Moores and Heretickes himselfe remaining still firme against all their furious violences like a rock in the midst of the sea Some rocks are to be seene euen where the Seas are deepest which it seemeth God placed there of purpose in scorne and contempt of that ouerswelling pride and furious raging of the sea For though they haue beene lashed and beaten by them from the beginning of the world to this present day they could neuer mooue much lesse remooue them because they haue sure rooting in the bottome of the Sea And this is a Type of the Church which God hath placed in the middest of this Sea of the World for to make a mocke of as many as are her enemies But some one will say How can the Church be called a Rocke beeing figured here by this little Ship which the waues thus tosse vp and down in the aire I answer That Ezechiel in his twentie seuenth Chapter speaketh of Tyrus in the metaphor of an Isle My beautie is perfect and my abode is in the midst of the Sea And presently changing that metaphor he termes it a Galley which is all one as if he should haue said That with Gods helpe a Galley may be an Isle and without God an Isle may be a Galley So likewise the Church albeit it be a Ship in the middest of the tempestuous waues of the Sea yet by the assistance of his holy Spirit it may bee a perdurable Rocke And as Saint Austen hath noted it the Executioners haue often wanted strength and inuentions to torment but there neuer wanted courage in the Martyrs for to suffer by the diuine power and fauour of God Howsoeuer therefore the waues shall beate against this Barke
open to others view and their owne confusion Nor shall these our sinnes bee conspicuous onely to others but euerie offendor shall see and plainely perceiue his owne particular sinnes For there is no man that fully knowes his owne sinnes while hee liueâ— here in this world And so doth Saint Basil interpret that place of the Psalmist Arguam te statuam contra te faciem tuam Euerie man shall then behold himselfe as in a glasse In a word This day will be the summing vp of all those oâ—â— former dayes wherein as in a beadroll wee shall read all the loose actions of our life all our idle words all our euill workes all our lewd thoughts or whatsoeuer else of ill that our hearts haue conceiued or our hands wrought So doth a graue Author expound that place of Dauid Dies formabuntur nemo in eis In that day shall all dayes be formed and perfected for then shall they bee cleerely knowne Et nemo in eis This is a short and cutted kind of speech idest There shall not bee any thing in all the world which shall not bee knowne in that day The other wonder shall be That all this businesse shall bee dispatcht in a moment In ictu oculi saith Saint Paul In the twinckling of an eye The Greeke Text in stead of a moment renders it Atomo which is the least thing in nature Concluding this point with that saying of Theophilact Haec est res omnium mirabilissima This is the greatest wonder of all Statuet Oues à dextris eius Haedos à sinistris He shall place the Sheepe at his right hand and the Goats at the left Dayly experience teacheth vs That what is good for one is naught for another that which helpeth the Liuer hurteth the Spleene one and the selfe same Purge recouers one and casts downe another the Light refresheth the sound Eye and offendeth the sore Wisedome saith That those Rods which wrought amendment in the Children of Israell hardned the hearts of the Aegyptians the one procured life the other death darkenes to the one was light light to the other darknesse When Ioshuah pursued the Ammorites God poured downe Hailestones Lightning and Thunder to Gods enemies they were so many Arrowes to kill them to his friends so many Torches to light them In the light of thy Arrowes saith Abacuc Death to the Wicked is bitter to the Good sweete Iudgement to the Goats is sad heauie but to the Sheep glad ioyfull to the one a beginning of their torment to the other of their glorie And therefore it is here said He shall place the Sheepe at his right hand From this beginning ariseth the Iust's earnest desiring of this our Sauiours comming and the Wicked's seeking to shun it Which is made good by Saint Austen vpon that place of Haggie Hee shall come being wished for of all Nations And his reason is because our Sauiour Christ being desired it is fit that he should be knowne and for want of this knowledge it seemeth vnto him that this place doth not so much suit with his first as his latter comming Saint Paul writing to his Disciple Timothie sayes That the Iust doe long for this judgement His qui diligunt aduentum eius Agreeing with that of Saint Paul to the Romans That the Iust passe ouer this life in sighs tribulations expecting that latter day when their bodies shall bee free from corruption and from death Saint Iohn introduceth in his Apocalyps the soules of the Iust crying out Vsque quò Domine sanctus verax Non judicas vindicas sanguinem nostrum de his qui habitant in terra How long Lord holy and true c. Saint Austen and Saint Ambrose both say That they doe not here craue vengeance on their enemies but that by his comming to judgement the Kingdome of Sinne may haue an end Which is the same with that which we dayly beg in those words of our Paternoster Thy Kingdome come And Saint Iohn in his last Chapter saith The Spirit and the Spouse say Come Come Lord come quickely make no long tarrying That the Sinner should hate this his comming is so notorious a truth that many when things goe crosse with them would violently lay hands on themselues and rid themselues out of this miserable world if it were not for feare of this Iudgement And this was the reason why Saint Paul in saying It is decreed that all men shall die once presently addeth After death Iudgement Other wise there would be many as well discreet as desperate persons that would crie out Let vs die and make an end of our selues at once for a speedie death is better than a long torment This is that that keepes these fooles in awe and quells the vaine confidence of man in generall Tunc dicet Rex his qui à dextris eius erunt vsque esuriui c. Then shall the King say to them on his right hand I was hungrie c. Hee begins with the rewarding of the Good for euen in that day of justice he will that his mercie goe before as well for that it is Gods own proper worke as also for that it is the fruit of his bloud and death Venite Benedicti Patris mei Come yee blessed of my Father a most sweet word in so fearefull a season possidete Regnum Come yee and take possession of an eternall Kingdome Quia esuriui I was hungrie c. Some man may doubt Why Christ at the day of judgement being to examine all whatsoeuer actions of vertue doth here onely make mention of mercie I answer For that Charitie is that Seale and Marke which differenceth the Children of God from those of the Deuill the good Fisâ—es from the bad and the Wheat from the Chaffe Ecce ego judico inter Pecus Pecus so saith Ezechiel and in summe it is the summe of the Law as Saint Paul writeth to the Romans Secondly He maketh mention onely of the workes of mercie for to expell that errour wherein many liue in this life to wit That this businesse of Almes-deeds is not giuen vs as a Precept whereby to bind vs but by way of councel and aduice whereby to admonish vs. And this is a great signe token of this truth for that there is scarce any man that accuseth himselfe for the not giuing of an Almes But withall it is a foule shame for vs to thinke that God should condemne so many to eternal fire for their not shewing pittie to the Poore if it were no more but a bare councell and aduice Gregorie Nazianzen in an Oration which he makes of the care that ought to bee had of the Poore proueth out of this place That to relieue the poore and the needie is not Negotium voluntarium sed necessarium not a voluntarie but a necessarie businesse And Saint Augustine and Thomas are of opinion That we are bound to relieue the necessities of
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
gaines Giuing vs thereby to vnderstand That hee that will not bee brought to know God by his soft hand and those sweete fauours of his Mercie shall be made to know him by the whips and scourges of his Iustice. God prospers thy house thou doost not acknowledge it for a blessing hee sends thee to an Hospitall laden with diseases that thy miserie may teach thee to know him He giues thee health thou art not thankefull vnto him for it hee casts thee downe on thy bed and then thou giuest him thankes not ceasing night and day to call vpon him and to praise and blesse his holâ— name And therefore it is truly said The Lord shall bee knowne while hee worketh judgement Our Sauioue like a good Physition tries vs first by his mild and gentle medicines but they doe no good hee therefore turnes ouer a new leafe and applies those vnto vs that are more sharpe and tart whereby we come to know as well his wisedome as his loue The second He began to cast out the Buyers and the Sellers Because no man should presume that the glorious acclamations of a King and of a Messias should endure to permit in his Temple such a foule and vnseemely buying and selling they had no sooner proclaimed him King but he tooke the whip into his hand to scourge them for their offences In a Prince in a Iudge and in a Preacher flatteries and faire words are woont to abate the edge of the Sword of Iustice wherefore to shew That true praise ought the more to oblige a King to vnsheath his Sword he betooke him to his Whip That acclamation and applause of the little children our Sauiour accounted it as perfect and good Ex ore Infantium LactantiuÌ„ perfecisti laudeÌ„ propter Inimicos tuos Yet for that a Prince a Iudge or a Preacher should not bee carried away with the praises of men our Sauiour though applauded in the highest manner that the thought of man could immagine Coepit eijcere Ementes vendentes c. Reges eos in virga ferrea saith Dauid In the name of the eternall Father thou shalt my Sonne be their Ruler their Iudge thou shalt beare in thy hand a Rod of yron which shall not be bowed as are those other limber wands of your earthly Iudges theirs are like fishing rods which when the fish bite not continue strait right but if they nibble neuer so little at the bait presently bow and bend Esay called the Preachers of his time Dumbe Dogges not able to barke And he presently renders the reason of this their dumbenesse They knew no end of their bellie To ear and to talke none can doe these two well and handsomely together and because these Dogges haue such an hungrie appetite that they neuer giue ouer eating because nothing can fill their bellie they are dumbe and cannot barke they know not how to open their mouths The third is of Saint Chrysostome and Theophilact who say That it was a kind of prophecie or foretelling that these legall Offerings and Sacrifices were almost now at an end When Kings and Princes expresse their hatred to any great Person in Court it is a prognostication of that mans fall The wrath of a King is the messenger of death Our Sauiour Christ the Prince of the Church had twice whipt out those that had prouided Beasts for the Sacrifices of his temple which was an vndoubted token of their short continuance it beeing a great signe of death that one and such a one should come twice in this manner to visit them with the Rod. This conceit is much strengthened by the words of our Sauiour Christ â—oretold by the Prophet Esay The time shall come wherein my House shall bee called a House of Prayer and not a Denne of Theeues nor a common Market of buying and selling So that hee tooke these Whips into his hands as a means to worke amendment in his Ministers and to sweepe and make his House cleane The Iudges of the earth saith Saint Hierome doe punish a Delinquent ad ruinampunc but God adcust gationem the one to his vtter vndoing the other for his amendment And therefore he vsed no other weapons to chastise them withall but Rods and Whips which worke our smart but not our death they paine vs but they doe not kill vs. Tertullian is startled and standeth much amased at that punishment which Saint Peter inflicted vpon Ananias and Saphyra and saith That to bereaue them so suddenly of their life to strike â—hem in an instant dead at his foot was the punishâ—ent of a man of one that had not long exercised nor did well know what did belong on the office of a Bishop But our Sauiour Christ being come into the world to giue men life it would not haue suited with his goodnesse to giue them death The fourth reason which all doe touch vpon was The disrespect and irreuerence which was shewne to this his Temple a sinne which God doth hardly pardon And therefore it was said vnto Ieremie Pray not therefore for this People And hee presently giues the reason why It hath committed many outrages in my House Saint Iames aduiseth That the Sicke should call vnto the Priests to get them to pray vnto God for him but for him that should commit wickednes in his Temple God willeth the Prophet Ieremie that hee should not so much as pray for them And Saint Paul saith That those who shall violate the Temple of God God shall destroy them Great is the respect which God requireth to be had to his Temple First In regard of his especiall and particular presence there Saint Austen saith That Dauid did pray be fore the Arke Quia ibi sacratior commendatior praesentia Domini erat For euermore God manifests himselfe more in his Temple than any where else that place beeing like Moses his Bush or Iacobs ladder being therefore so much the more holy by how much the more he doth there manifest himselfe c. Secondly He shewes himselfe there more exorable and more propitious to our prayers According to that request of Salomon in the dedication of the temple That his eares may be there opened And it was fit it should be so as Saint Basil hath noted it for that Prayer is a most noble act and therefore as it requires a most noble place so likewise the greater fauour appertaineth vnto it Thirdly For that Christ is there present in his blessed Sacraments And therefore as Saint Chrysostom hath obserued it there must needs be there a great companie of coelestiall Spirits for where the King is there is the Court. Fourthly For to stirre vp our deuotion by ioyning with the congregation of the Faithfull And a learned man saith That the Temples Houses of God did put a new heart and new affections into mens brests What then shall become of those who refuse these publique places of praying and praysing of God and
end that the inspirations of thy holy Spirit may not pierce them through And if they that are hard deserue to be hardly dealt withall it is not amisse that our Sauiour should say vnto them Generatio mala adultera signum quaerit A wicked and adulterous generation seekes after a signe c. The third reason discouers it selfe in this word Volumus What Will they preferre their owne proper will in the presence of God beeing the summe of his Doctrine is Qui vult venire post me abneget semetipsum He that will follow mee must denie himselfe Saint Augustine treateth at large in his bookes De Ciuitate Dei That the materialls of Babylon were their owne proper will And if these men had not beene too much wedded to their owne will Ierusalem had flourished more than al the Cities of the world besides The greatest affront that former or future Ages haue seene or shall see was that which the Iewes offered to our Sauiour Iesus Christ judging him more worthie the Gallowes than Barabas All which pâ—oceeded from their owne proper will Whom will yee that I should let loose vnto you It was Pilats proposition vnto them and when it was left to their owne proper will saith Saint Bernard and that it was left to their choyce and that the power was now in their hands In proprium desaeuit authorem They rage against him that made them Once when our Sauiour Christ made petition to his Father in the name of that inferiour portion Father if it be possible let this Cup depart as beeing jealous of his owne proper will he presently had recourse to his Fathers will Yet not as I will but as thou wilt And in another place I came downe from heauen not to doe my owne will but the will of him that sent me O sweet Iesu Thy will conforming it selfe to the will of thy Father Why shouldest thou bee affraid It was to teach thee That if our Sauiour Christ stood in feare of his owne will it being impossible for him to will more than what stood with his Fathers will thou that doost not conforme thy selfe according to the will of God it is not much that thou shouldst be affraid thereof Seneca saith in one of his Epistles That the seuerest Rod that we can desire is to desire of God that he wil fulfil our wil our seeking after that good from which we ought to flie Hence it commeth to passe That our owne will is the Leuen of our owne hurt as also of Gods wrath and displeasure towards vs. And Thomas renders the reason thereof for Voluntas in homine est Regina potentiarum hâ—manarum Mans Will is the Queene of humane faculties To whose charge is committed the treating and obtaining of our desired ends and is so absolute a Soueraigne that although the Vnderstanding be in it selfe so noble as nothing more it speaketh vnto it by memorialls and representing thereunto the reason of that which shee propoundeth vnto it in the end she comes to follow her owne liking And forasmuch as Diuine Will is that vniuersall Empresse against whom none ought to display their Banner she finds her selfe especially offended and counts it a kind of high treason that humane Will should rebel against her there being no other Wil neither in heauen nor in earth more than the Wil of God And this Lesson we are taught in our Pater noster Thy Kingdome come thy Will be done in earth as it is in heauen The earth is thy Kingdome as well as the heauen and therefore thy Will be done in earth as it is in heauen Now the Scribes and Pharisees growing into competition with the Will of God saying Volumus it is no meruaile that our Sauiour should say vnto them Generatio mala adultera c. Gregorie Nissen saith That as we are all wounded in Paradice by our Father Adam by that sore poyson of Disobedience and by the sword of our owne Selfe-will so are we all healed by our obedience to the Will of God which is the graue sepulchre as Climachus hath it of our proper Will and this we dayly craue in these words Thy Will be done And Petrus Chrysologus doth bewaile the wretched estate of this World for it's fulnesse of Selfe-loue We would see a signe from thee What Were not those miracles sufficient which our Sauiour had done alreadie They might haue satisfied the Vnderstanding but they could not satisfie the Will S. Iohn was the Light and many were cheered with it Exultauerunt in luce eius but the Will stood not affected therevnto And Deutronomie saith That God wrought great signes and wonders in Aegypt but the Children of Israell had not a heart to vnderstand them Et non dedit vobis cor intelligens Which is all one with that which Dauid deliuereth in somewhat darker words Vâ—x Domini intercidentis flammam ignis For God is woont in the fire to diuide the light from the flame giuing light to the Vnderstanding but not fire to the Will That therefore now a dayes in the Church there should be so many Sermons so many Preachers so much Light and so little Fruit thereof the reason of it is That the Vnderstanding is informed but the Wil is not conformed the former being contented but the latter not conuinced The Deuill did endeauour that our Sauiour Christ should doe a miracle sine fructu to no good in the World when he lay at him to turne the stones into bread which might haue amased his Vnderstanding but not haue abated his Will And the Scribes and Pharisees like the Sonnes of such a Father taking this their Selfe-will from their Sire place therein their chiefest foelicitie Gregorie Nissen saith That when that lasciuious Ladie tooke hold of Iosephs cloake and kept it still in her hands and would not let it goe a man would haue thought that hee might haue escaped from her to his lesse cost But the Deuill who had put that Will into her had likewise put to his helping hand in making her take hold on his cloake And against two Deuills one incarnate and another spiritual What can a holy young man doe lesse than leaue his cloake behind him From whence I inferre a conclusion of no small consequence That one of the greatest things that God had to doe in the World was to affectionate our Will. All the actions of our Sauiours life and death had two intents The one To redeeme vs from the seruitude and slauerie of the Deuill The other To infuse loue into our hearts I came to set fire on the earth and what remaines but that it burne With this double charge of his which cost him no lesse than his life and the shedding of his most pretious bloud he left a free entrance for vs to get into Heauen And if any man shall aske me Which was the greater cost of the two I answer That our Sauiour found greater difficultie in
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
God another while as a miserie incident to man The word Zagar signifies Vociferatio A crying out aloude as when a Citie is set on fire and in danger to be burnt Some perhaps may conceiue that this was too strict a commaund to inioyne this punishment vpon dumbe beasts and poore little infants that had not yet offended But first of all they did therein pretend to incline Gods mercy towards them Secondly to mooue the more repentance by a common sorrow Thirdly as at the funeralls of Princes and Generals not onely the principall and meaner persons mourne in blackes but their horses weare the like liuery of sorrow their drummes beat hoarse couered with blacke Cypres their auncients are trailed along on the ground their swords and their lances with their points the contrary way in token that both the horses the drums the auncients and the armes haue lost their Master so likewise did the case stand with the Citie of Niniuie c. Ionas put Niniuie to such a strict penance and sorrow for their sinnes that it did appease the wrath of God towards them The Prophet presumed it should be destroyed and therefore Ionas went out of the Citie and sate on the East side thereof and there made him a booth and sate vnder it in the shadow till he might see what should bee done in the Citie Thinking perhaps with himselfe that God would not now make an end of the Citie all at once but that he would destroy a great part thereof as he did in the adoration of the golden Calfe when as pardoning the people hee slew a great number of them Now God had prepared a Gourd for Ionas and made it to come vp ouer him that it might bee a shadow ouer his head and deliuer him from his griefe Other Authors giue it other names But the strangenesse of it was that it grew vp all in a day The Prophet was exceeding glad to see himselfe so wel sheltred by this Gourd from the heat of the Sunne which did shrewdly scortch him Laborauerat enim It vexed him verie sore So that before it went verie ill with him and his ioy was so much the more encreased for that he saw God had such a care to cherish and make much of him Sure thought he he makes no small account of me that vseth me thus kindly But God shortly after prepared a worme which smote the Gourd that it withered Et percussit Sol super caput Iona astuabat The Sunne beat vpon the head of Ionas and he fainted Who could haue the patience to endure this Was it the Sun or was it fire that should thus prouoke him to cry out Melius est mihi mori quam viuere It is better for me to die than to liue But God reprehended Ionas for this desperate speech of his Putas ne bene irasceris Iona How nâ—w Ionas What 's the matter with thee Doost thou well to bee angrie for the Gourd Doost thou find thy selfe grieued that I haue made this Gourd to wither which came vp in a night and perished in a night and wilt thou not suffer me to be sencible of the destruction of this so great a Citie wherein there are sixescore thousand persons which cannot discerne betwixt the right hand and the left Doth it touch thee that thou art not esteemed in thine owne Countrie And wilt thou not pittie Niniuie whom thou hast drawne by thy preaching vnto them to repentance Niniuie yeelded vnto thee at the first words of thy voyce but Iuda still stands out obstinately in her malice against my calling vpon her And therefore at the day of judgement the men of Niniuie shall condemne them for a stiffe necked generation and a hard hearted People seeing they without any miracles were conuerted and turned vnto me at the preaching of one poore â—â—nas Et ecce plus quam Ionas hîc And behold a greater than Ionas here Hierusalem seeing so many miracles perseuereth in her incredulitie and therefore Niniuie shall stand and Hierusalem shall be destroyed At the day of judgement thou shalt stand confounded and ashamed that a barbarous ignorant and vnbeleeuing Nation which is a great disgrace to a man of honor that one that is so farre inferiour to thee should come to be so farre preferred before thee As those Cities where most of our Sauiours great workes were done were vpbraided by him because they repented not pronouncing a woe to Chorazin and a woe to Bethsaida For if saith he the great workes which were done in you had been done in Tyrus and Sydon they had repented long agone in Sacke-cloath and Ashes Regina Austri The Queene of the South shall rise in judgement c. Some man may say The historie of Niniuie was sole and without example in the world it 〈◊〉 not it's fellow For which cause he sets downe another example of the Queen of the South of whom there is mention made in the third of the Kings and in the second of Chronicles The Queene of the South came from Morol an Islâ—â—â— of Aethyopia as Origen Saint Hierome Saint Austen Anselmus and Iosephus saith and onely to heare the wisedome of Salomon Et ecce 〈◊〉 quam Salomon hîc And behold a greater here than Salomon It was much that the barbarous people of Niniuie should beleeue Ionas who sought after them and not they after him But much more is it that an Aethyopian Queene should seeke after â— King to hir so great trouble and cost Ecce plus quam Salomon hîc When the Preacher is of that great power and authoritie that he both sayes and does the little fruit that they reap thereby is euermore attributed to the hardnesse of the hearer And that he might teach this People this lesson he saith Ecce plus quam Salomon hîc Behold a greater than Salomon is here He was greater than Ionas for if he were obeyed by the Niniuites our Sauiour had obeysance done him by all the Elements if Ionas had a grace in his deliuerie and spake with a spirit it was our Sauiour that gaue it him if Ionas did inlighten a Citie our Sauiour did illuminate the whole world if Ionas did preach bloud threatnings and death our Sauiour did publish our saluation life and hope of Heauen He was better than Salomon for his wisedome was humane and earthly but that of our Sauiour diuine and heauenly Salomon neuer wrought any miracles but those of our Sauiour were without number In a word betweene the Queene of the South and the Pharisees betweene our Sauiour and Salomon there is a great antithesis and contrarietie The Queene was a Barbarian and ignorant they Doctours and learned in the Lawes she wonderfull desirous to heare a man they loath to heare a God she offered to Salomon great gifts they to our Sauiour vinegar and gall shee did so wonder at Salomons wisedome that she said Fame had belied him and that Report came too short of his praise but
pascat eos so saith Ezechiel I will set vp a Sheepheard ouer them and he shall feed them Saint Peter calls him Principem pastorum and he prooues himselfe to be a Sheepheard by his going forth to seeke after this lost Sheepe And if we mean to haue our habitation in Heauen to be of the same Fold with the Saints we must first be this Sheepheards Sheepe vpon earth before wee can come to be his Saints in Heauen For albeit the Iust beare the name of Sheepe as is noted by Saint Hierome Saint Augustine Saint Gregorie and Saint Cyprian yet all that haue this name shall not come to Heauen for many of Sheepe shall become Wolfes First The proportion of our Sauior Christs giuing to his the name of Sheep and of Lambes consists first of all in their innocencie and simplicitie whereof the Sheepe and the Lambe are the true symbole and hieroglyphicke as it is prooued by Saint Gregorie and Saint Cyprian in the place before alledged Quid per Oues nisi â—nnocentia designatur What but innocencie is pointed at by Sheepe saith Saint Gregorie Oues nominat vt innocentia Christiana Ouibus aequetur He calls theâ— Sheep to shew that Christian innocencie should equall that of theirs saith Saint Cyprian When the Angel with that his naked Sword in his hand went making that fearefull slaughter amongst the Israelites Dauid humbly kneeling on his knees makes his mones vnto God and saith Isti qui Oues sunt quidfecerunt What haue these poore Sheepe done these innocent Lambes it is I that haue sinned smite mee and not them Let thy hand I pray bee against mee and my fathers House but spare these thy Sheepe who syllie harmelesse Creatures haue no way offended thee Secondly This proportion consists in that wonderfull obedience which the Sheepe carrie to the Sheepeheard who with a word or a whistle bridleth their appetites and keepes them within their bounds not offering to stray into strange Pastures This is that which Dauid said His eare was obedient to me And our Sauiour Christ My Sheepe heare my voyce Thirdly In that those that are lost and gone astray shew their discomfort by bleating and following from hill to hill from pasture to pasture path to path the steps of his Sheepheard lifting vp his head and bending his eare on the one side and listning whither he can heare the sound of his voyce and many times he will leane one eare to the ground the better to helpe his attention Saint Ambrose saith That one of the greatest pledges that a Sinner can desire of his Predestination is to be like vnto the lost Sheepe to shew himselfe sad and heauie when he misseth his Sheepheard that should protect him and looke well vnto him to make his moane send out sighes and sobs like so many bleaâ—ings to follow the tracke of his footsteps to listen to his whistle to hearken to his voyce and to giue eare vnto his call for that sinner that shal do so it is an euident token that he was borne for Heauen Fourthly There is nothing in a Sheepe whatsoeuer it be but is good profitable as the flesh the bloud the milke the wooll and the fell but nothing that is hurtfull besides it is a most fruitfull creature Oues fatosae abundantes in faetibus suis Our Sheepe bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets The just man is likewise full of goodnesse and full of profit in his words and in his workes in his thoughts in his wealth in his pouertie in his health and in his sickenesse but nothing in him that is hurtfâ—ll Saint Paul reckoning the conditions and properties of Charitie repeateth first the good that it doth Patiens est benigna est c. Loue suffereth long it is bountifull c. And anon after he enumerateth the euills which it doth not Non aemulatur c. Loue enuieth not Loue doth not boast it selfe it is not puffed vp it doth no vncomely thing it seeketh not her owne things it is not prouoked to anger it thinketh no euill it reioyceth not in iniquitie c. Fiftly It 's patience and gentlenesse when they sheere him and robbe him of his Fleece turning him this way or that way when they bind his legs or otherwise vse him hardly and put him to paine he scarce offereth to bleat or open his mouth he goes as willingly to the Butchers blocke as to his greene pastures and when the Butcher puts his knife to his throat hee beholds him with a gentle and louely looke In a word Esay endeering the infinite patience of our Sauiour Christ could not find any comparison fitter for him than that of the Sheepe and the Lambe Sicut Ouis ad occisionem ductus est sicut Agnus coram tondente se obmutuit He went like a Sheepe to the slaughter and like a Lambe before the shearer hee opened not his mouth This then is the nature and qualitie of the mysticall Sheep of the Church Caeduntur gladijs c. They are smitten with swords yet neither murmure nor complaine Sixtly Saint Basil and Saint Ambrose both affirme That the Sheepe ordinarily do eat and chew the cud but then most of all by a naturall instinct when Winter drawes on and then he feeds a great deale faster and with more eagernesse as diuining that through the inclemencie of the Heauens and the bitternesse of the cold he shall not find feeding sufficient for him And this is a lesson for vs to teach vs what we are to doe The Sheep of Christs flocke vsually are to seeke for their feeding in the pastures of Vertue either by ruminating meditating or contemplating but when they see death approching neere vpon them they must fall more speedily and more earnestly to their meat for when the Winter of death shall come vpon them they will not find whereon to feed And therefore worke righteousnesse before thou die like vnto the Ant who prouides in the Summer against the rigour of the Winter Quoniam non est apud inferos inuenire cibum In hell there is no meat to be got for any money and the hunger in Hell is so strange that the Damned feed vpon their owne tongues For these his Sheep God came into the world Quantum ad efficaciam though he came also for all the whole world in generall Quantum ad sufficientium effectually for His but sufficiently forall And it is a fearefull thing to thinke on which is noted by Saint Bernard to wit That he that shal not be a sheepe in this life shall after death be damned to Hell Sicut Oues in inferno positi sunt They lie in Hell like sheepe and death gnaweth vpon them As here we take the fleece from off our Sheepe and leaue them naked and poore so there the Wolfe shall be fleeced of his riches and of all the pleasures and comforts that hee tooke in this world and be left not only naked but full likewise of
left this Balsamum for the annointing and curing of it Which was a great Excesse Dauid called him a Worme a Scoffe a Taunt and the Reproch of the People for that whilest he liued in the world he tooke vpon him all the affronts and contempts that man could cast vpon him And because there is not any loue comparable to that of our Sauiour Christ nor all the loues in the world put together can make vp such a perfect loue as also for that there was not any affront like vnto his nor all the affronts of the world could equall the affronts that were offered vnto him that on the one side hee should loue so much on the other suffer so much this was a great Excesse Nazianzen seeing vs swallowed vp in this sea of miseries vseth a kind of Alchimie by ioyning his greatnesse with our littlenesse his powerfulnesse with our weakenesse his fairenesse with our foulenesse his beautie with our deformitie his riches with our pouertie the gold of his Diuinitie with the durt of our Flesh And as the greater drawes the lesser after it so our basenesse did ascend to an heigth of honour And this was a great Excesse but farre greater to esteeme this Excesse as a Glorie whence the Saints of God haue learned to stile Tribulation and the Crosse Glorie Secondly This Excesse may be termed Glorie because it was the most glorious action that God euer did For what could be greater than to see Death subdued Life restored the Empire of sinne ouerthrowne the Prince thereof dispossessed of his Throne Iustice satisfied the World redeemed and Darknes made Light Thirdly It may be said to be Glorie because that by this his death a thousand Glories are to follow thereupon Propter qoud Deus exaltauit illum c. Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and giuen him a name aboue euerie name that at the name of Iesus should euerie knee bow both of things in heauen and things in earth and things vnder the earth And this was the reward of his obedience and of his death And the reason thereof was that the World seeing it selfe captiuated by so singular a benefit men should make little reckoning either of their goods or their liues for this his exceeding loue towards them but desire in all that they can to shew themselues thankefull And therefore Esay cries out O that thou wouldest breake the Heauens and come downe and that the Mountaines might melt at thy presence c. What a great change and alteration wouldest thou see in the world thou wouldst see Mountaines that is hearts that are puffed vp with pride humbled and laid leuell with the ground Thou wouldst see Waters that is brests that are cold and frozen boyle with the fire of Zeale and wholly employ themselues in thy seruice And in his sixtieth Chapter treating of the profits and benefits which we shall receiue by Christs comming he saith For brasse will I bring gold and for yron will I bring siluer and for wood brasse and for stones yron I will also make thy gouernment peace and thine exactours righteousnesse Violence shall no more be heard of in thy Land neither desolation nor destruction within thy Borders but thou shalt call Saluation thy Walls and praise thy Gates The Lord shal bee thine euerlasting Light and thy God thy Glorie Bonum est nos hic esse c. It is better being here than in Ierusalem let vs therefore make here three Tabernacles c. Saint Gregorie calls Honour Tempestatem intellectus i. The vnderstandings Storme or Tempest in regard of the danger it driues man into and the easinesse wherewith in that course he runnes on to his destruction Si dederit mihi Dominus panem ad vescendum c. It was Iacobs speech vnto God after that he had done that great fauour of shewing a Ladder vpon earth whose top reached vp to Heauen you know the Storie but the vow that hee vowed vnto God was this If God will be with me and will keepe me in this journey that I goe and will giue me bread to eat and cloathes to put on then shall the Lord be my God and I shall neuer forget this his kindnesse towards me More loue a man would haue thought he might haue shewn towards God if he had promised to serue though he had giuen him neither bread to eat nor cloathes to put on But Saint Chrysostome saith That he seeing in this vision of his the prosperitie that God was willing to throw vpon him did acknowledge the thankefull remembrance of this his promised hoped for happines For Prosperitie is euermore the comparison of Obliuion Saint Bernard expounding that place of Dauid Man being in honour hath no vnderstanding saith That the prosperitie wherein God placed man robbed him of his vnderstanding and made him like vnto the Beasts that perish And here now doth Saint Peter loose his memorie Nor is this a thing so much to be wondred at for if there be such riches here vpon earth that they robbe a man of his vnderstanding and alienate him from himselfe if the sonne that is borne of a mother who hath suffered great paines in the bringing of him forth Iam non meminit praessurae hath forgotten his mothers throwes and thinkes not on the wombe that bore him if the great loue of this world and the prosperitie thereof can make vs so farre to forget our selues it is no strange thing that we should be farre more transported and carried away with heauenly things Dauid following the pursuit of his pleasures amidst all the delights of this life he cries out Onely thy glorie can fill me that only can satisfie me Remigius vnfolds this verse of the glorie of the Transfiguration and it may be that this Kingly Prophet did see it by the light of Prophecie And if so fortunate a King as he was did forget all those other goods that he enioyed and saith That hee desires no other good nor no other fulnesse What meruaile is it that a poore Fisherman should bee forgetfull of good or ill And as hee that is full fed likes nothing but what is the cause of this his fulnesse reckoning all other meats soure though they be neuer so sweet so he that shall once come to tast of that good will say No maâ— bien I desire no other good but this What sayth Saint Paul Sed noâ— c. But we also which haue the first fruits of the Spirit euen wee doe sigh in our selues waiting for the adoption euen the redemption of our bodie c. Though Paul enioyed the first fruits of the Spirit and extraordinarie regalos and fauours yet hee groaned and trauelled in paine for Heauen What saith Saint Chrysostome Is thy soule become a Heauen and doost thou yet groane for Heauen Do not thou meruaile that I groan hauing seene that in Heauen which I haue seen QuoniaÌ„ raptus fuiâ—â— Paradisum I see the good which the
but with a very poore weake purpose They did inherit this euil condition of their forefathers and grandfathers of old who did neuer seeke God but when hee scourged them soundly for their sins And when that storme was past and their peace made they fell afresh to their former rebellions There are few men so past grace which doe not sometimes sigh for Heauen But the mischiefe of it is that these our sighes are quickly ouerblowne they doe not last with vs. In the darkest night there are some lightnings which breake through the clouds and cleare the ayre but in the end the darkenesse preuaileth In your duskiest cloudiest daies the Sun is woont to rush through the foggiest thickest clouds but new cloudes arising the Sunne retires himselfe and pulls in his head Saul by spurts did dart foorth many beames of light acknowledging that Dauid had done him many reall courtesies and that he had repayed him euill for good and had a purpose with himselfe vpon fits to fauor him and to honour him But the foggy clouds and mystie vapours of Enuy increasing more and more vpon him these light flashes were turned into darkenesse Balaam when King Balack sent vnto him to curse Gods people had verie good purposes and desires for a while within him He consulted with God in that businesse and knowing that it was his wil that he should not go dispatched those his messengers And the King sending others vnto him he told them That he would not go to that end if hee would giue him his house full of gold Doubtlesse these were good intensions had he continued still in the same mind But the clouds of couetousnesse did ouercast this light of his vnderstanding with so grosse a darkenesse that neither the Angel which stood before him with a naked sword in the way nor his beast which spake vnto him and turned aside could keepe him backe In peccato vestro moriemini Yee shall dye in your sinne There are great indeerings in the holy Scripture of the grieuousnesse of sinne and the hurt that comes thereby Anselmus sayth That he had rather fry without sin in the flames of Hel than with sin inioy Heauen Hee might well say so in regard of Hel. For although Saint Austen saith That one drop of the water of Paradise shall be sufficient to quench the flames of Hell yet shall it not be able to wash away the foulnesse of sinne Helias desired of God that he might dye vnder the Iuniper tree and yet he would not be rid of his life by Iezabell in regard of the sinne that tyrannicall Queen should haue committed so that euen in his mortall enemy so great an ill seemed intollerable vnto him In Scripture sinne is a cypher of all possible infelicitie and misfortune thaâ— can befall a man Saint Paul sayth That God made his Sonne sinne Him who knew no sinne hee made sinne for vs. For discharging vpon him the tempest of his wrath he made him of all other men the most miserable Nouissimum virâ—rum Iacob would not let Beniamin goe downe with his brethren to Aegypt Ioseph desiring to haue it so though Reuben had offered two of his owne sons as pledges for his safe return to the end that the good old man should haue the best securitie he could giue him Reuben sayd If he returne not Ero peccati reus I will be content to be condemned to all possible miseries whatsoeuer The like Bersabe was willing to say when she thought the raigne of her sonne Salomon should be troubled Shall I and my sonne Salomon bee counted Offenders Shall wee bee the out-casts of the world and be layd open to the vtmost of miserie The reason of all this harme is For that all possible ill that can be imagined is reduced vnto sinne as to it's Center Make a muster of all the enemies of Man as Death the Deuill the World the Flesh not any one of them nay not all of them together haue any the least power to hurt vs without sinne And therefore in our Lords prayer silencing all other our enemies only we beg of God that he would free vs from sinne But deliuer vs from euill Which howbeit some doe vnderstand it to be spoken of the Deuill yet as Saint Austen sayth he can but barke he cannot bite Onely sinne is able to doe both To this so great a hurt may be added another that is farre greater Which is obstinacie in sinne Iob painting out this euill sayth That the sinner taketh pleasure therein and that it seemeth sweet vnto him it is as pellets of Sugar to him vnder his tongue He first delights in the companie of sinne then hee marries himselfe vnto her and at last leaues her not till death them depart Parcet illi non derelinquet The seuentie read it Non parcet illi non derelinquet hee will excuse no occasion no diligence no trouble His desire thereof is insatiable There is no kind of sinne be it of Sloath or Reuenge or Couetousnesse that is continually beating vpon our actions But our thoughts are euermore hammering of wickednesse like the Smith that giues a hundred blowes vpon his Anuill and two vpon his yron or like the Barbar that makes more snips in the ayre than on the haire The Pharisees did crucifie our Sauiour Christ but once in the verie deed and act of his death but in their desires in their thoughts they had crucified him a thousand times But that we may giue the obstinacie of this people it 's full qualification we must make a briefe recapitulation of those meanes which God vsed for to mollifie their hardnesse First of all he tooke it to his charge to cure it with his Doctrine his Miracles and the Prophecies of their Prophets Well this would doe no good with them and many dyed in this their obstinacie Next he comes amongst them in his owne person taking vpon him the name and office of a Phisition Purgationem peccatorum faciens Making a purge for sinne He was willing to haue ministred Phisicke to the Iewes and with the sweet and comfortable syrrop of his Word to haue eased them of their griefes and to haue cured all the infirmities of their bodies as the sicke of the Palsey for eight and thirtie yeares together the Blind that were borne blind and such as were possessed with Deuils and the like Being willing also to haue cleansed their soules from all kind of vncleannesse But at last hee was faine to giue them ouer their diseases were growne so desperate remitting them ad hospitalium incurabilium as men without hope of recouerie For as in the body there are some sickenesses so mortall that though the sicke bee capable of health yet the malignity of the humour maketh the Phisition to despaire therof So likewise in the soule there are some diseases so mortall that through the great malignity of them and the sharpenesse of the humour the
of his life and the accursednes of his death being no way able to take hold vpon him Those verie things saith he that blind thee ought to conuince thee and to affectionate thee vnto him for none but God could doe thus much for thee And it is a lamentable case that those good things that hee did for thee that thou mightest beleeue in him and loue him should be motiues vnto thee for to offend him God hauing commanded that Ierusalem should bee re-edified after their first freedome from Babylon there were some graue men grounded in Iudaisme who misinterpreting as Saint Hierome hath noted it the prophecie of Ezechiel said Haec est lebes nos autem carnes This Citie is the caldron and we be the Flesh For God to command vs to rebuild this Citie is as if he should will vs to make a Caldron wherein to boyle our selues Of his loue they made a loathing and interpreted his fauour to be an iniurie God took this their vnthankefulnesse so ill that he quitted them the second time both of their countrie and their libertie It is you that haue made Ierusalem a Caldron of the prophets I will bring you out of the middest thereof and deliuer you into the hands of strangers yee shall fall by the sword and this Citie as yee falsly suppose shall not be your Caldron neither shall yee be the flesh in the midst thereof The same reason is repeated by the Prophet Ose I gaue yee wine wheat oyle gold and siluer but yee spent it in the seruice of the Idoll Baal therefore will I take from yee my wine my wheat c. Filius hominis tradetur The Sonne of man shall be deliuered The death of our Sauiour Christ may be considered two manner of wayes Either as a Historie Or as it is Gospell As a Historie it is so sad and so lamentable as that it cannot but cause great pittie and compassion The relation which Pilate made to the Emperor of Rome is sufficient of it selfe to melt stones into teares which was as followeth In this Kingdome there was a wonderfull strange man his behauiour beautie beyond all other in the world his discretion and wisedome coelestiall his grauitie and sobernesse of carriage beyond all comparison his words mystical the grace wherewith he deliuered them strooke his enemies with astonishment neuer any man saw him laugh weepe they haue his workes sauoured of more than man he neuer did any man harme but much good hath he done to many he healed by hundreds such as had been sicke of incurable diseases he did cast out Deuills he raised the Dead and his miracles beeing numberlesse they were done all for others good he did not worke any miracle wherein was to be seene the least vanitie or boasting in the world The Iewes out of enuie layd hold on him and with a kind of hypocrisie and outward humilitie rather seeming than being Saints trampled him vnder foot and marred his cause I whipt him for to appease their furie and the people being about to mutine I condemned him to the death of the Crosse. A little before he breathed his last hee desired of God that he would forgiue those his enemies which had nailed him to the Crosse. At his death there were many prodigious signes both in heauen and earth the Sunne was darkened and the graues were opened and the Dead arose After he was dead a foolish Iew thrust a Speare into his side shewing the hatred in his death which the Iewes bare vnto him in his life What Tragedie can bee more mournefull or what imaginarie disaster can appeare more lamentable As it is Gospel you shall see in this his death innumerabie truths First of all let not the asperousnesse and hardnesse to the way of happinesse discourage any man for hauing such a good guide as our Sauior Iesus Christ it shall though 〈◊〉 be neuer so hard to hit be made plaine and easie vnto vs Howbeit it bee elsewhere said The way to heauen is streight and inaccessable because there are few that tread in that tracke Yet now the case is altered and Saint Paul cals thus vnto vs Accedamus ad eum qui imitiauit nobis viam It will cost vs some sweat and some labour yet not so much as may dishearten vs and it shall be a wholesome sweat and a safe and sure labour Iacob saw God holding the Ladder which reached to Heauen whereunto hee set his helping hand the better to secure it to the end that euerie man as Philon hath noted it might without feare climbe vp to the top of it S. Hierome goes a little further and says That hee did not thereby onely promise safetie but helpe for God did stretch out his hand from aboue and did reach it forth vnto those that were willing to get vp According to that of Dauid Emitte manum tuam de alto i. Send out thy hand from aboue Lysias when he had gathered about fourescore thousand Foot with all the Horsemen he had he came against the Iewes thinking to make Ierusalem an habitation of the Gentiles and because of his great number of Footmen his thousands of Horsemen and his fourescore Elephants the Captains and Souldiers of Gods people were quite out of heart making prayers with weeping and teares before the Lord That hee would send a good Angell to deliuer Israell And as they were besides Ierusalem there appeared before them vpon horsebacke a man in white cloathing shaking his harnesse of gold Then they praised the mercifull God all together and tooke heart insomuch that they were readie not onely to fight with men but with the most cruell beasts and to breake downe walls of yron Marching then forward in battell array hauing an helper from heauen running vpon their enemies like Lyons they slew eleuen thousand footmen and sixteene hundred Horsemen and put all the other to flight Another Horseman was he that Saint Iohn saw vpon a white Horse bearing this for his Motto Vincens vt vinceret Which takes from vs all feares of atchieuing the victorie for Heauen Secondly it assureth vs That he that offereth vs so much can denie vs nothing he could not well giue vs more nor would hee giue vs lesse than that which he hath alreadie so liberally bestowed vpon vs. Yet this gift may receiue increase as Saint Bernard hath noted it according to the manner of it For in all things whatsoeuer are to be considered the thing What and the thing How or Why the Accident and the Substance and sometimes Gods Attributes doe shine more in the Accident than in the Substance Whence I inferre That he that gaue so much with so much loue and sees that it is all cast away and that his loue is so ill requited it is not much if he be much offended with vs. Ergo in vacuum laborani c. In vaine then haue I laboured and to no purpose haue I spent my strength Whom will it not grieue
an old Horse whose mouth is presumed to be shut preferring their loose Kindred and such as haue jadish trickes before deuout and irreprehensible persons A Prelat shall bestow a hundred Ducats pension vpon a poore Student and he will be bound à reâ—ar el diuino officio to pray ouer all the good prayers that be for him but hee shall bestow a twentie or thirtie thousand Ducats on his Kinseman and he shall scarce rezar el rosario turne ouer his beads for him Dic vt sedeant bi duo filij mei Grant that these my two sonnes may sit c. Now the mother intreats with the loue and affection of a mother so it seemeth to Saint Ambrose and Saint Hilarie and as it is to be collected out of Saint Marke and from that You know not what you aske As also by that Can you drinke of my Cup Whither they were thrones in Heauen as Saint Chrysostome would haue it or on earth which though neuer so prosperous they could imagine at most to be but temporall I will not stand to dispute it if of heauen few vnderstand it if of earth they would make this their pilgrimage a permanent habitation And if they held Peter to be a foole because he would haue had Tabernacles built on Mount Tabor What shall wee say to these that would haue perpetuall seats of honour All the Courts of the earth are but portches and gatehouses to those Pallaces ofheauen where the lackey and the scullion as well c. Nescitis quid petatis Yee know not what ye aske They did first of all imagine That from the death of Christ his Crown and Empire was to take it's beginning Now to desire seats of honour of one that was scourged spit vpon stripâ— naked and crucified and to seeke that his bloud should be the price of theâ—â— honour was meere fooliâ—â—nesse When the people would haue made a King of our Sauâ—our Christ he â—â—ed from them to the mountaine taking it as an affront thâ—â— they should offer to clap an earthly Crowne vp-his hâ—ad So doth Thomas expound that place of Saint Paul Who for the joy that was set before him endured the Crosse and despised the shame When a Kings Crown was proposed vnto him by the World he made choice of the Crosse holding that affront the lesse of the two What then might he thinke when treating of his death they should craue chaires of honour making lesse reckoning of his bloud than of their owne aduancement For three transgressions of Israell sayth Amos and for foure I will not turne to it because they sould the Righteous for siluer and the Poore for shooes That is made more reckoning of the mucke of the world than mens liues Galatinus Adrianus Finus and Rabbi Samuel transferre this fault vpon those Pharisees which sould our Sauiour to secure their wealth and their honours The Romans will come and take both our Kingdome and our Nation from vs. Wherein these his Disciples seemed to suit with them for the Pharisees treated of our Sauiours death that they might not loose their Chaires and his Disciples that they might get them Yee know not c. Why would they not haue Peter share with them in their fauour and their honour In Mount Tabor he was mindfull of Iames and Iohn but Iames and Iohn did not once thinke vpon Peter The reason whereof is for that the glorie of heauen is easily parted and diuided with others And because God will that all should bee saued man is likewise willing to yeeld thereunto But for the glorie of the earth there is scarce that man that will admit a copartner And if Christ our Sauiour had granted them their request they would presently haue contested which should haue sate on his right hand For in these worldly aduancements and honours brother will be against brother and seeke to cut each others throat Iacob and Esau stroue who should be borne first get away the blessing from the other Potestis bibere calicem Can yee drinke of the Cup c. Ambition like the Elephant out of a desire to command will not sticke to beare Castles Towers on his backe till it be readie to breake with the weight of it's burthen Why should Peter couet honour if like a Tower it must lie heauily vpon him King Antiochus had three hundred Elephants in his Army and euerie one bare a Tower of wood vpon his backe and in them thirtie persons â— piece The ambitious man like Atlas will make no bones to beare vp heauen with his shoulders though it make him to groane neuer so hard and that in the end he must come tumbling downe with it to the ground Many pretend that which makes much for their hurt presuming that they deserue what they desire In matter of presumption there is not that man that will know or acknowledge any aduantage Many men complaine of the badnesse of the Times of the hardnesse of their fortune of the small fauour that they find as also of their want of health but few or none of their want of sufficiencie or their lacke 〈◊〉 vnderstanding Seneca saith That Vnderstanding is noâ— a thing that can 〈◊〉 bought or borrowed Nay more That if it were to be sould at an open outcry and in the publique market place there would not a Chapman bee found 〈◊〉 deale for it For the poorest Vnderstanding that is will presume to bee able 〈◊〉 giue councell to Seneca and to Plâ—to Absalon wooing the peoples affecâ—â—on breakes out in Court into this insinuating but traiterous phrase of speech 〈◊〉 that I were made Iudge in the Lâ—â—d that euerie man thaâ— hath any matter 〈…〉 might come to 〈◊〉 that I might do him Iustice. Traitor as thou art thou goest aboâ—â— to take away thy fathers Kingdome his life from him and yet the plea 〈◊〉 thou pretendest is forsooth to doe euery man right and justice Possumus Saint Bernard sets downe three sorts of Ambition The one Modest and bashfull which vseth it's diligences but withall such as are lawfull and honest For it is a lawfull thing to pretend honour though not to pretend it be the greater vertue The other Arrogant and insolent looking for kneeling and adoration The third Mad and furious that will downe with all that stands in it's way and hale Honour by the lockes and with his poinyard in his hand seeke to force her Saint Cyprian in an Epistle of his preacheth the selfe same doctrine Of these three sorts of Ambition the first is the most tollerable and the least scandalous The third is cruell The second which in Court is the most common is most base and vile howbeit according to Saint Bernard it is Vicium magnatum A vice that followes your greatest and grauest Councellours and your principall Prelats not your meaner and ordinarie persons It is a secret Poyson which pierâ—eth to the heart of this mysticall bodie of the Church For this name Esay giues to the
liued to bee the Yron Age. But I say That this present Age which we now inioy is the happiest that euer our Church had For in those former times those that were the learnedest and the holiest men fled into the Desarts and hid themselues in Caues that they might not bee persecuted with Honours For they had no sooner notice of a holy man albeit he liued coopt vp in a corner but that they forced him thence clapping a Miter on his head and other dignities And there are verie strange Histories of this truth But to all those that liue now in these times I can giue them these glad tydings That they may inioy their quiet and sit peaceably at home in their priuat lodgings resting safe and secure that this trouble shall not come to their doores for now a dayes onely fauour or other by-respects of the flesh haue prouided a remedie for this euill Non est meum dare vobis It lies not in me to giue you Christ would rather seeme to lessen somewhat of his power than to lessen any thing of his loue And therefore he doth not say I will not doe it for that would haue beene too foule and churlish a word in the mouth of so mild a Prince and he should thereby haue done wrong to his own will who desires that all might haue such seats as they did sue to sit in Saint Ambrose vnfoldeth our Sauiours meaning Bonus Dominus maluit dissimulare de jure quam de charitate deponere He had rather they should question his right than his loue The selfe same Doctor saith That he made choice rather of Iudas than any other though to man it might seeme that hee therein wronged his wisedome for the World might from thence take occasion to say That he did not know how to distinguish of men being that he had made choyce of such an Apostle But this was done out of his especiall prouidence saith Saint Ambrose in fauour of his loue For he being in our opinion to runne the hazard of his wisedome or his loue he had rather of the two suffer in his wisedome for no man could otherwise presume of him but that he loued Iudas The History of Ionas proues this point who refused to go to Niniuie it seeming vnto him that both God and himselfe should as Nazianzen saith be discredited in the world But he willed him the second time That he should go to Niniuie and that he should preach vnto them Yet fortie dayes and Niniuie shall be ouerthrowne At last hee was carried thither perforce whither hee would or no And the reason why God carried this businesse thus was That if afterwards hee should not destroy this Citie he might happely hazard the opinion of his power but not of his loue The like is repeated by Saint Chrysostome Ionas did likewise refuse to goe to Niniuie that he might not at last be found a Lyer esteeming more the opinion of his truth than of his loue Hence ariseth in the Prelats and the Princes this word Nolumus Wee will not haue it so which sauours of too much harshnesse and tyrannie Sic volo sic jubeo sit pro ratione voluntas Their will is a Law vnto them But he that shall make more reckoning of the opinion of his willingnesse and of his loue than of his power and his wisedome will say Non possum I cannot it is not in my power to doe it It grieues mee to the verie heart and I blush for shame that I am not able to performe your desire Which is a great comfort for him that is a suitor when hee shall vnderstand that his Petition is not denied out of disaffection but disabilitie When Naboth was to bee sentenced to death the Iudges did proclaime a Fast And Abulensis saith That it was a common custome amongst the Iudges in those dayes whensoeuer they did pronounce the sentence of death against an Offendor to the end to giue the World to vnderstand That that mans death did torment and grieue their Soule For to condemne a man to death with a merrie and cheerefull countenance is more befitting Beasts than Men. When our Sauiour Christ entred Hierusalem in Triumph the ruine of that famous Citie representing it selfe vnto him hee shed teares of sorrow Doth it grieue thee ô Lord that it must be destroyed Destroy it not then I cannot doe so for that will not stand with my Iustice. O Lord doe not weepe then I cannot choose And why good Lord Because it will not stand with my Mercie And that Iudge who euer hee be if hee haue any pittie in the world in him cannot for his heart bloud when hee sentenceth a Malefactor to some grieuous punishment or terrible torment but haue some meltingnesse in his eyes and some sorrow in his heart God so pierce our hearts with pittie and compassion towards our poore afflicted brethren that hauing a fellow-feeling of their miseries wee may finde fauour at his hands who is the Father of Pittie and onely Fountaine of all Mercie THE FIFTEENTH SERMON VPON THE THVRSEDAY AFTER THE SECOND SONDAY IN LENT LVC. 16. Homo quidam erat Diues induebatur Purpura Bysso There was a certaine rich man who was cloathed in Purple and fine Linnen AMongst those Parables which our Sauiour preacht some were full of pittie and loue others of feares and terrors some for noble brests others for base and hard hearts some had set vp for their marke the encouraging of our hopes others the increasing of our feares some seruing for comfort to the Godly and some for example to the Wicked That which wee are to treat of to day hath all these comforts for the Poore which liue in hunger and in want pined and consumed with miserie And threatnings for the Rich who say vnto their riches and their pleasures I am wholly yours There was a certaine rich man c. The first thing that he was charged withall is That he was rich Not because rich men are damned because they are rich but because he is damned who placeth his happinesse in them and makes them the onely aime of his desires And hence it commeth to passe that desired riches vsually prooue more hurtfull than those that are possessed for these sometimes doe not occupie the heart but those that are desired and coueted by vs doe wholly possesse it and lead it which way they list And therefore Dauid aduiseth vs not to set our hearts vpon them Hee that longeth and desireth to bee rich euen to imaginarie riches resigneth vp his heart Saint Paul did not condemne rich men but those that did desire to bee rich The Deuill sets a thousand ginnes and snares about those that haue set their desires vpon riches What greater snare than that pit-fall which was prepared as a punishment for Tantalus who standing vp to the chinne in water could yet neuer come to quench his thirst Non est satiatus venter eius His bellie was
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
fley off the skinne from them and breake their bones and chop them in pieces as for the pot and as flesh within the Caldron They shall cry vnto me saith the Lord in the time of their trouble but I will not heare them I will euen hide my face from them at that time because they haue done wickedly in their workes O that men should be so vnnaturall as to â—lay the skinne from the flesh and then presently to teare the flesh from the bone God puts a poore man into pouertie but he doth not â—lay him nor kill him but the rich man does thus tormenting him anew whom God hath alreadie punished enough Because they haue smitten those whome I haue smitten and haue added new wounds to those that I haue alreadie inflicted vpon them The third circumstance is taken out of Iob where he treateth of another rich man like vnto this of whom we now speake of Non remansit de cibo eius propterea nihil permanebit de bonis eius There shall none of his meat be left and there shall bee no memoriall of his goods When he shall be filled with his aboundance he shal be in paine and the hand of all the Wicked shall assaile him he shall bee about to fill his bellie but God shall send vpon him his fierce wrath shall cause to raine vpon him euen vpon his meat He shall flie from the Yron Weapons and the Bow of Steele shall strike him through the Arrow is drawne out and commeth forth of the bodie and shineth out of his gall so feare commeth vpon him All darkenesse shall bee hid in his secret places the fire that is not blowne shall deuoure him and that which remaineth in his Tabernacle shall be destroyed The Heauen shall declare his wickednesse and the Earth shall rise vp against him the increase of his house shall goe away it shall flow away in the day of his wrath This is his portion from God the heritage that he shall haue of God For he that was so vnmercifull that he would not affoord the crummes that fell from his Table to the Poore shal be so far from enioying the least good though it be but a drop of water that God will rather cause him to vomit vp those good things which he hath eaten in this life He hath deuoured substance and he shall vomit it for God shall draw it out of his bellie Hee shall vomit it forth with a great deale of paine if he shall call for drinke the Deuills shall say vnto him Spew vp that which thou hast drunke if for meat Vomit vp that which thou hast eaten He shall sucke the gall of Aspes and the Vipers tongue shall slay him He shall not see the riuers nor the Flouds and Streames of Honey and Butter Hee shall restore the labour and deuoure no more euen according to his substance shall be his exchange and he shall enioy iâ— no more For he hath vndone many hee hath forsaken the Poore and hath spoyled houses which hee builded not surely he shall find no quietnes in his bodie neither shal he reserue of that which he desired Factum est autem vt moreretur mendicus But it came to passe that the Begger died First Lazarus dies for God euermore makes more hast to drie vp the teares of the Iust than the plaints of the Sinner Ad vesperum demorabitur fletâ—â— c. Their teares shall continue to the euening c. Amongst many reasons which the Saints doe render Why Gods Iustice comes commonly with a leaden foot that of Saint Gregorie is an excellent one which is That so great is the wretchednesse which waits vpon a Reprobate that it is not much that God should permit him to enioy some few yeares more of his miserable and vnhappie happinesse A pittifull Iudge is woont sometime to deferre the Delinquents sentence of death but when carelesse of his doome he sees him game eat and sleepe he sayes Let him alone and let him make himselfe as merrie as he can for this world will not last long with him for his destruction is at hand and the stroke of death hangs ouer his head and when it comes it will come suddenly vpon him Many great sinners liue to be verie old men before they die and the reason of it is for that God who is a God of patience suffers them to liue here the longer for that after their death a bitter portion remaineth for them Et portaretur ab Angelis And he was carried of Angells Euerie torment is so much the more cruell by how much the more it suffereth in the extreames that are opposite thereunto Iob pondering that of Hell saith That those that are there tormented passe from snow to fire Ab aquis niuium ad nimium colorem The like succeedeth in content which is so much the greater by how much we goe from a greater sorrow to a greater joy Such then was the condition of Lazarus passing from the pawes of Dogs to the hands of Angells from the Portch of a Tyrant to the bosome of Abraham from the greatest miserie to the greatest happinesse that they who were euen the most blessed did then enioy The Dogs in Scripture is the symbole or hierogliphick of a most filthie vile and base thing Abner sayd vnto Ishbosheth Am I a Dog that thou thus despisest mee The Poet giues him this beastly Epithite Obsaenoque Cane And Saint Mathew by way of scorne Non licet sanctum dare Canibus But the Angells are the noblest of all other creatures and the purest for God molded them with his owne hands So that Lazarus went from the vilest and the basest to the cleanest and the noblest hands Saint Chrysostome reports of the Roman Triumphants That some entred Rome in Chariots drawne with pyde Horses others with Elephants others with Lyons and others with Swannes but the Chariot of Apollo was drawne by swift and nimble footed Gynnets There was a Tyrant that had his Chariot drawne with those Kings that hee had conquered But Lazarus his Chariot did far exceed all these for this was drawn by the hands of Angells Sabellicus saith That when Tullyes banishment was reuersed they bore him throughout all Italy vpon their shoulders Totius Italiae humeris eâ—ectus est Dauid saith That Gods Chariot is drawne with Cherubines Ascendit super Cherubim volauit God then lending Lazarus this his Chariot it is no meruaile if in a trice hee flew vp into the bosome of Abraham Sâ—lomon when he was proclaimed King rode on his Fathers Mule Mordechâ—i for his more honour was mounted on Assuerus his owne Horse but Lazarus to surpasse these went in triumph to heauen in Gods owne Chariot This must needs breed a great confusion and amasement in this rich man that the Angells should carrie him being dead into heauen on whom he would not vouchsafe to looke nor bestow a morcell of bread being aliue And he was carried of Angels
One Angel was enough to ouerthrow a mountaine one onely sufficeth to mooue these coelestiall Orbes but it is Saint Chrysostomes note That Euerie one was glad to put a helping hand to so worthie a burthen â— this As many earnestly thrust themselues forward to beare a foot a leg or an arme of some great Monarch In â—inum Abrahae Into the bosome of Abraham Some vnderstand by this his bosome the neerest place about Abraham As in that of the Euangelist All the Apostles supt with our Sauiour Christ but Saint Iohn onely leaned his head in his bosome And in that other Vnigenituâ— qui est in sinu patris c. The onely begotten who is in the bosome of the Father As also that A dextris At his right hand So likewise Many shall lie downe with Abraham Isaac and Iacob And the Church singeth Martinus Abrahae sinu laetus excipitur Mortuâ—s est autem Diues sepultus est But the rich man died and was buried The Greeke makes there a full point and then presently goes on In inferno autem cum esseâ— in tormentis But when he was in hell in torment But of Lazarus it is not said That they buried him whither it were for that he had no buriall at all or for that beeing so poore and miserable a creature Earth made no mention of him as Heauen did not of the rich man But we read of the rich man Sepultus est He was buried Hitherto did reach the jurisdiction of his riches and the peculiar of his prosperitie great Ceremonies watchfull attendance about his Corps many Mourners Doles to the Poore Tombes of Alabaster Vaults paued with Marble Lamentations odoriferous Ointments pretious Embalmings Funerall Orations solemne Banquets In all this I confesse the rich man hath a great aduantage of him that is poore But in this outward pompe lies all the rich mans happinesse and when hee hath entred the doores of darkenesse and is shut vp in his graue like the Hedge-hogge hee leaues his Apples behind him and nothing remaines with him but the prickles of a wounded conscience his howlings his lamentations weeping gnashing of teeth and whatsoeuer other torments Hell can affoord Diuitiarum jactantia quid contulit nobis The ostentation and glory of riches what good doth it bring vnto vs O would to God that I had bin some poore Sheepheard O how too late haue I fallen into an account of myne owne hurt O World would to God I had neuer knowne thee He died and was buried There is no felicitie so great that can diuert the euill of Death let the rich man liue the yeares of Nestor the ages of Methusalem in the end hee must descend into the graue The cleerest Heauen must haue it's Cloud and the brightest day must haue it's night the Sunne though neuer so shining must haue it's setting the Sea though neuer so calme must haue it's storme If the good things of this life were perpetuall they that are in loue with them might pretend some excuse but beeing that worldly pleasure is a Wheele that is alwayes moouing a Riuer that is alwayes running a Mill that is alwayes going and grinding vs to dust How canst thou settle thy selfe sure thereupon The highest places are the least secure the Moon when she is at the full foretells a waine and the Sunne when it is at the heigth admits a declination the house the higher it is built the more subiect it is to falling And the Nest saith Abdias that is neerest to the Starres God doth soonest throw it downe The rich man died He tells not how he liued but how he died for death is the eccho of mans life and he hauing led so cruell and so mercilesse a life what good could he hope for at his death Quoniam non est in morte qui memor sit tui laboraui in gemitu meo c. The first part Reason prooueth vnto vs The second Weeping howling In my life time I aske God forgiuenesse for my sinnes For the man that is vnmindfull of this in his life God doth not thinke on him at his death Many call vpon God at the houre of their death and it makes a mans haire to stand an end to see a man carelesse in so dangerous a passage only because Death is the eccho of our life Others will cal vpon Iesus but as that crucified Theefe that dyed without deuotion For that heart which is hard in his life is likewise hard in his death Cum esset in tormentis When he was in torment c. Here is an indefinite tearme put for a vniuersall For albeit euery one of the damned doe suffer the full measure and weight of his sinnes and acording to Saint Austen and Saint Gregory suffer most in that particular wherein they most offended And that therefore the rich man did suffer more in his tongue than any other member of his bodie yet notwithstanding there is not any one that is dâ—mned which doth not generally suffer in all his whole bodie and in euery part of his soule For as Heauen is a happinesse that imbraceth all happinesse so Hell is a misery that includeth all miseries There was neuer yet any tyrant in the world in whose prisons and dungeons all torments were inflicted at once But in that of Hell there is not any torment which is not felt at one and the same instant The body that shall generally suffer And for this fire and cold will suffice which are generall torments The soule shall likewise generally suffer sorrow and paine not only because the fire shall burne it which though corporall yet shall it's flames haue an operatiue vertue and working vpon the soule but because all hope being lost of any kind of joy whatsoeuer there shall therein be deposited all the reasons that may be of sorrow and of miserie Likewise there shall be particular torments for the sences of the bodie for the faculties of the soule the eyes shall enioy so much light as shall serue to see fearefull Visions so sayes Cirillus Alexandrinus and on the other side they shall suffer such thicke and palpable darknesse that they shall imagine them to be the ghastly shadowes of death Saint Chrysostome saith That they shall see the huge and infinite numbers of the Damned taking notice of all those that conuersed with them in their life time as fathers grandfathers brothers and friends And if the varietie multitude that are in a deep dungeon if the ratling of their chains the clattring of their shackles their hunger their nakednesse the noyse coyle confusion which they make cause a horrour in as many as both see and heare it what a terrour then will it be to see the miserable torments and to heare the fearefull shriâ—kes and pittifull outcries of those that are damned to the bottomlesse pit of hell The eares will suffer with their howlings their lamentations their blasphemies their cursings their ragings their dispairings
besides the vntunable and harsh musicke of the Deuills roaring and yellowing like so many mad Bulls that with the dinne and hideousnesse of the noyse Heauen and Earth might haue seemed to come together and the whole frame and machine of the Orbes to haue crackt and fallen in sunder The smell the taste the touch the will the vnderstanding and the memorie both irrascible and concupiscible shall not be employed vpon any thing as Saint Augustine hath noted it from whence they shall not receiue most grieuous paine and torment But of all other torments that of their desperation will be the greatest because there will be no wading through this Lake that burnes with fire and brimstone nor no end at all to these their endlesse miseries That ten thousand nay a hundred thousand yeares continuance in hell shall not suffice to satisfie for their sinnes that the fountaine of mercie should be shut vp for euer not affoording them so much as one drop of cold water to coole the tongue that God will not admit for the offences of three dayes the satisfaction of seuentie times seuen thousands of yeares This is that Magnum Chaos inter vos nos This is that great Chaos that huge Gulfe which is set betweene you and vs it is Chaos impertransibile that impassable Gulfe wherein to fall it is easie but to get out impossible Many of the Saints vpon this consideration deepely weighing these things with themselues haue made great exclamations as S. Chrysostome Petrus Crysologus and others If we beleeue say they that this imprisonment is perdurable tâ—is fire is eternall and that these torments are endlesse How comes it to passe that we eat liue and sleepe as we do O the madnesse of those men who seeke fit and handsome dwellings for three dayes and omit to thinke of those eternall habitations which continue world without end O the sottishnesse of those which couet such short and transitorie contentments O the blindnesse of those who for a moment of pleasure wil aduenture an eternitie of pain Is it much that these holy Saints should exclaime Is it much that they should weepe teares of bloud who beleeue that this rich man doth frie in perpetuall flames because he was pittiles voyd of mercy seeing on the one side so many Lazaruses naked ful of sores driuen if not beaten away from our dores whose beds are the hard benches and open porches of the Rich whose meat are the scraps and offalls and oftentimes onely the bare crummes of the rich mans boord whose drinke are the waters of those Riuers and Fountaines where the Beasts doe drinke whose wardrobe are rags whose cattle vermine whose store miserie whose tables are their knees and whose cups are their hands And on the other side so many Gluttons who feeding like beasts vomit forth that they eat at their tables where they sit Mensae repletae sunt vomitu beeing as emptie of pittie as they are full of wine Optimo vino delibuti non compatiebantur super contritionem Ioseph who dying like Oxen in a stall fat and ful fed it is no meruaile if as Esay sayth they make Hells sides to stretch and cracke againe Propter hoc dilatauit infernus Os suum I would faine aske some one of those which heare me this day My friend tel me I pray thee thinkest thou or hast thou any hope that thou art the only man in this world that shall liue here for euer Doost thou beleeue that Death shall one day come to the threshold of thy doore and call for thee and that thou must hereafter giue a strict account of thy workes words and thoughts before the tribunall seat of God If thou doost tell me then againe Whither thou hadst rather desire the felicitie of Lazarus in that other life or the eternall torments of this rich man Art thou persuaded that thou canst weare out two thousand yeares in a bed of fire But if the verie thought thereof cause feare and horror in thee and makes euerie bone and ioynt in thy bodie to shake and tremble Why doost thou not seeke to flie from so great a danger Flie saith Saint Austen yet now euen to day whilest thou hast time Pater Abraham rogo vt mittas Lazarum aut vnum ex mortuis Father Abraham I pray thee send Lazarus or one from the Dead c. Origen saith That this rich man did desire That either Lazarus or some one from the Dead might bee sent to preach this point thinking with himselfe That Abraham might happely send him vnto himselfe as to one that by this time verie wel knew his owne errour and that so by this meanes he might haue some pause or breathing time from these his torments Whither this was so or no it may by some be doubted but this is a cleere case That the maine motiue that mooued him thereunto was the desire that he had that his brethren and kinsfolke might be drawne vnto repentance and thereby come to be saued and escape those intollerable torments which he indured Saint Chrysostome saith That Abraham did not yeeld to the rich mans petition because hee was not absolute Lord of that place But that our Sauiour Christ supplied that defect and carried himselfe like a most mercifull and kind louing Lord to the end that that stiffe necked Nation might not alledge in their excuse That hee had not sent them a Preacher from that other life to aduise them what passed there But our Sauiour for whom this businesse was reserued did not raise vp Lazarus the Poore but Lazarus the Rich who vpon occasion preacht great notable things vnto them concerning the life to come And he likewise raised vp the sonne of the widow of Naim that hee might also doe the like But those that will not beleeue the Prophets it is our Sauiours owne saying will lesse beleeue the Dead Quia crucior in hac flamma Because I am tormented in this flame Gods chastisements are like Lightning which kill one but fright many and the vengeance which God taketh of one sinner is an occasion giuen to the Iust to wash their hands in his bloud According to that of Dauid Cum viderit vindictam manus suas lauabit in sanguine peccatoris And Saint Gregorie expoundeth it thus That the Iust doth wash his hands in the bloud of a Sinner when by another mans punishment he learnes to amend his owne life There is nothing doth more terrifie a Theefes heart than the gallowes and rope wherewith his fellow was hanged Funes peccatorum circumplexi sunt me Legem tuam non sum oblitus when I saw another strangled those cords which choked him sate likewise close to my necke but giuing thee thankes ô Lord that thou hadst kept mee from comming to so bad an end I did resolue with my selfe that I would not forget thy Law And therefore God would haue vs to lay vp in an euerlasting remembrance as it were his seuerest and sharpest
punishments Desiderium Impij mâ—nimentum est pessimorum so saith Salomon To this end the Scripture recounteth that the earth swallowed vp Korah Dathan Abiram the rest of those rebellious schismaticks wrapping them in flames smoke the Censers remaining in the midst of the fire Moses commanded that they should be taken out broad plates made of them for a couering of the Alter Vt haberent postea filij Israel quibus commonerentur That they might serue as a memoriall and warning to the children of Israell As false weights doe that are nayled vp in the Market place grounds that are ploughed with salt and the heads of malefactors in the highway Because the people of God had intangled themselues with the Moabites there perished of them twentie foure thousand but God commanded that the Princes should be hanged against the Sunne Saint Augustine saith That this was done for an admonishment to the people The Seuentie read Ostende eos Domine contra Solem That God and all the world may see them and that they may remaine as a perpetuall example to posteritie The Historie of the Machabees reports vnto vs That Nicanor vttered a most beastly blasphemie saying That his power was as great as that of God but the diuine justice punishing this his insolencie his head was set vp on the highest tower in the citie his right hand which he had held vp so proudly they nayled it against the doore of the Temple and caused his tongue to be cut in little pieces and to be cast vnto the Fowles Pharaohs and his Peoples death the booke of Wisedome saith That it was conuenient that the people of Israell should see it and consider it Vt ostenderet quemadmodum inimici eorum exterminabantur That the people might trie a meruailous passage and that these might find a strange death Theodoret brings a comparison of him that makes an Anotomie or dissection vpon a dead bodie for the instruction of those that are liuing And Zacharie paints out vnto vs a Talent of lead And this was a woman that sate in the midst of the Ephah whose name or title was Impietie or Wickednesse which hee saith was carried vnto Babylon Vt poneretur super vasem suum To be established and set vp there in her owne place that beeing set vp aloft vpon a Piller shee might continue there for a perdurable example Aulus Gellius in his Noctibus Atticis saith That Princes haue three ends in their punishments The one The amendment of the fault And to this end Pilat commaunded our Sauiour Christ to be whipt Corripiam eum c. The other The authoritie of the offended for if disrespect should not bee punished it would breed contempt The third For the terror and example of others for Iusticia aliena est disciplina propria Other mens punishment is our instruction And that man is a foole whom other mens harmes cannot make to beware When the Lyon was sicke all the beasts of the field went to visit him onely the Foxe stayed behind and would not goe vnto him and being askt the reason he answered I find the tracke of many going in but of none comming out and I am not so desperate as to cast my selfe wilfully away when as I may sleepe in a whole skinne The footsteps of the Angells that fell may aduise vs of our pride the ashes of Sodome tell vs of our filthinesse the Gallowes of Iudas forewarne vs of our auarice and the hell of this rich man restraine vs from our cruelties When God punished the Iewes hee scattered them farre and neere ouer the face of the whole earth that they might strike a feare into all other Nations A corporall medicine fits not all sores but corporall punishment meets with all faults Fili recordare quia recepisti bona in vita tua Sonne remember that thou in thy life receiuedst good things This is a dangerous trucke a fearefull exchange which makes humane happinesse not onely to be suspected but also abhorred Iob calls Death a Change Expecto donec veniat immutatio mea I stay waiting for my Change And as your Sheepe which in Syria breed fine wooll passing along to Seuill suffer a change and are apparelled with a rougher and courser sort of wooll so these your pamper'd persons of this world and those that fare daintily and deliciously euerie day shall change the soft wool of tender sheep into the harsh haires of goats camels Nature in all things hath ordered a kind of alternatiue change or interchangeable mutation as is to be seene in nights and in dayes in Sommer and in Winter The like doth succeed in the order of Grace there cannot bee two Hells neither shall there be two Glories A Phylosopher asking one Which of these two hee had rather be either Craesus who was one of the richest but most vicious men in the world or Socrates who was one of the poorest but most vertuous men in the world His answer was That in his life he would be a Croesus but in his death a Socrates So if it had beene put to this rich mans choice I doe thinke he could haue wisht in his heart to haue beene in his life Diues and in his death Lazarus Balaam shewed the like desire Moriatur anima mea morte Iustorum Let my soule die the death of the Righteous But they desire an impossibilitie for Death is a kind of trucke or exchange Fili recepisti bona in vita tua Lazarus similiter mala Sonne remember that thou in thy life time receiuedst thy pleasures and likewise Lazarus paines now therefore is he comforted and thou art tormented But I wil no longer torment your patieence God of his infinite goodnes c. THE SIXTEENTH SERMON VPON THE FRYDAY AFTER THE SECOND SONDAY IN LENT MAT. 21. MARC 12. LVC. 20. Homo quidam plantauit Vineam A certaine man planted a Vineyard THis is a Law Suit or Tryall betweene God and his People wherein according to the tenor of the Processe his people are condemned as vngratefull cruell disrespectiue forgetfull of their dutie and thrust out of all that they had as vnworthie of that good which they possessed This Storie much resembles the Statua of Nebucadnezar whose head was of gold whose brest was of siluer whose bodie of brasse whose legs of yron and whose feet of clay For God hauing begun first vnto them with many great kindnesses extraordinarie fauours and vndeserued courtesies he goes descending and declining from them till they fall into the greatest disgrace disfauor that any soule can receiue from the hands of God A certaine man planted a Vineyard He planted so perfect a Vineyard that it might truly be said What could I haue done more vnto my Vineyard And this is a strange indeering on Gods part That he should make choice of this Vine-stocke from amongst all the rest of the Countries and Nations of the World When the most High had
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
arguments as well against the substance of this Law as against the manner of complying with it that there will be necessarily required great fauour and assistance from Heauen for to make any setled and ful resolution amongst so many sundrie and diuers distractions But in conclusion it is the best and the safest councell to adhere to that which is the surest and not to make any reckoning of that course which is now a dayes held in the World not of that which is in vse but that which ought to bee vsed not so much the practise of the Law as of Religion For if the abuses of the world and traditions of men were to tontiâ—ue in force by pleading of custome by that means made iustifiable they would giue the checkmate stand in competitioÌ„ with the laws of God S. Paul saith writing to the Colossians Let your speech be gratious alwayes and poudred with salt that yee may know how to answer euerie man And S. Ambrose expounding this place saith That the Apostle begs grace of God that he might know how to speake with discretion when time place and occasion shall oblige him thereunto As also when vpon the same termes to hold his peace And this is that which I now desire of God If thy brother shall trespasse against thee Here sinne is put downe in the condition of this obligation For it is a kind of monstrousnesse which wee neuer or seldome ought to see Wee stiling that a monster which comes foorth into the world against the Lawes of Nature And in this sence sinne may be sayd to bee a monster because it is against the Lawes of God Ecclesiasticus sayth That God did not wil any man to sinne nor did allow him any time wherein to sinne but alotted him a life and place wherein to serue him and a time to returne vnto him and to repent as oft as hee should offend his diuine Maiestie but to sinne he neuer gaue him the least leaue in the world Dedit ei locum poenitentia He gaue him a place for repentance sayth the Apostle Saint Paul so likewise sayth Iob. And therefore God hauing made the Heauen the Earth and al that therein is he did not then presently make Hell For if Man had not sinned there had bin no neede of it For where no faults are committed a prison is needlesse The Prophet Esay was verie earnest with God that hee would come downe vpon Earth Oh that thou wouldst breake the Heauens and come downe and that the Mâ—â—â—taines might melt at thy presence c. Hee alludeth to that Historie of Mount Sinay where God descended to giue the Law vnto his people with thundering lightening and fire wherewith he strucke such a feare and terrour into them that the people had great reuerence to the Law And therefore this holy Prophet sayth What would they doe if thou shouldest once againe come amongst them A facie tua montes fluerent The proudest of them all would let fall their plumes and humble themselues at thy feete which are here represented in the word Montes or mountaines And those soules which are now frozen and as cold as yce figured in the word Aquae or waters would gather heat and be set on fire With this desire did the sonne of God descend from the bosome of his father but he bringing that humilitie with him that was able to make the highest mountaines to stoope and to bring downe the proudest heart and fire for to burne and dry vp many waters yet mens brests waxed colder and colder and their soules were more and more swolne with pride The Glorious Apostle Saint Paul writing to the Romans That God made his Sonne our propitiation Whome God hath set foorth to bee a reconciliation through faith in his bloud to declare his righteousnesse by the forgiuenes of the sinnes that are passed c. He did exercise vpon his sonne the seuerest Iustice that euer was or shall be seene againe for the remission of precedent sinnes To the end that Man considering how deere our former wickednesse and forepassed sinnes cost our Sauiour Man should be so affraid of offending that hee should neuer returne to sinne any more Some may happily aske me the question Why the death and passion of our Sauiour beeing so powerfull and effectuall a remedie against all kind of vices whatsoeuer yet sinne still reigneth so much in the World as neuer more Wherunto I answere That vpon the Crosse our Sauiour Christ gaue sentence against all whatsoeuer both present past and those that were to come And depriued the Prince of the World of that Seigniorie which he possessed so that all of them were to suffer death and to haue an end But they did appeale from this sentence of death to the Tribunall of our passions And for that they are such interressed such blind Iudges they haue set these our Vices againe at libertie giuing them licence to worke vs as much if not more harme than they did before So that Gods sending of his sonne into the World and his suffering death for our sinnes did not generally banish all vice but did serue rather to some for their greater condemnation If thy brother shall trespasse In te against thee Saint Augustine expoundeth this In te to be contra te and in this sence it ought to be taken for it is the expresse letter of the former Texts as also of those that follow and generally agreed vpon by all the Doctors The Interlinearie hath it Si te contumelia affecerit Saint Peter anon after askes our Sauiour How oft shall my brother sinne against mee and I shall forgiue him Whereupon Theophilact taking hold of this word Contra me notes That if his brother should sinne against God hee could hardly forgiue him Saint Luke deliuers the same much more plainly and cleerely If thy brother haue trespassed against thee rebuke him if hee repent forgiue him If hee offend thee seuen times a day and seuen times a day shall turne vnto thee forgiue him Hugo Cardinalis hath obserued That if the word In te be the ablatiue case then it is the same with Coram te but if it be the accusatiue then it is all one with Contra te and the Greeke doth admit of no Ablatiues In Leuiticus God had said long before Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart but reprooue him And vpon a second admonition Take vnto thee two witnesses and tell it to the Church Manle doe concur and runne along with this sence no difficultie in the world interposing it selfe The second sence which Saint Augustine also treateth of in the same place is If he shall trespasse against thee that is before thee This opinion Thomas followeth and the greater and better part of the Schoolemen howbeit there are great arguments and strong reasons to the contrarie and many graue Authours to whom this sence doth not seeme so plaine as to ground thereupon any diuine
water whither it bee this naturall water or the symbolicall water of humane delights he wil quickely become thirstie againe For neither with the one water is the thirst of the bodie allayed nor with the other of humane pleasures that of the Soule but hee that shall drinke of that liuing water that I shall giue them shall thirst no more reseruing it's satisfaction and fulnesse to that other life This sence the Cardinall of Toledo followes Yet me thinkes there is a plainer explication of this place to wit That he that shall drinke of this dead water be it naturall or symbolicall shall haue thirst both here and there in this and in that other life in this because the more water he drinketh the more hee thirsteth in that other because Hell is a lake where there is no water The couetous rich man could not there get so much as one poore drop of water the thirst there is too raging and too hot to be quenched So that this verie word Iterum Againe doth implie an eternitie in their thirst but hee that shall drinke of the liuing Water shall not suffer an eternall thirst because this his thirst shall bee allayed in Heauen Shall thirst no more In part it may be verified of the fulnesse of this life First Because albeit the holy-Ghost doth augment the thirst of those diuine goods giuing the Righteous a taste thereof as he did in Tabor to the three Disciples when he gaue them a relish of his glorie yet that thirst desire which they had at first to enioy that good was not wearisome and troublesome vnto them but rather that one little droppe that one small crumme seemed so â—auorie to Peter that hee could haue rested well contented therewith for many Ages So that those drops of water which are deriued from the foâ—â—â—ain of that celestiall Paradice howbeit they augment our desire yet they giue vs withall such a pleasing taste that Christ calls those happie that enioy them And Ecclesiasticus saith That they surpasse in sweetnesse the hony and the hony combe The remembrance of me is sweeter than honey and myne Inheritance sweeter than the honey combe They that eat me shall haue the more hunger and they that drink me shall thirst the more And Saint Augustine saith That as in Heauen there is fulnesse without fastidiousnesse so on earth there is a desire a hope but no grieuous torment Whereof we haue proofe from many places of Scripture which inuite vs to drinke of these liuing Waters As in Esay All yee that thirst c. Thou sweatest and labourest and all to no purpose because thou betakest thy selfe to those false brackish waters haue recourse rather to those faithfull Waters which as Ieremie saith make that good which is promised in Ecclesiasticus Draw neere vnto me yee vnlearned and dwell in the house of Learning Wherfore are yee slow and what say you of these things seeing your soules are verie thirstie Your soules perish for verie thirst and only the water of Wisedome is able to quench it And this is the Argument of the eight chapter of Wisedome which is verie excellent to this purpose Secondly Because this liuing Water doth in the Righteous quench the thirst of humane delights and this woman heere had scarce heard the newes of this Water but she leaues her bucket and her rope behind her as if she cared not now any more for earthly water or worldly pleasures Meliorâ— sunt vbera tâ—a vino Another letter hath it Amores tui the wine of the Vine makes me sleepe but the sweetnesse that I taste from thee and thy deere loue my Beloued doe in a manner rauish me and quite alienate me from my selfe and doe assuage in my brest my disordinate appetites One drop of the water of Heauen is able to quench the flames of Hell fire And this made the rich man in Hell to beg the same of Abraham Introduxit me rex in cellam vinariam in domum vini Saint Ambrose reads it Et ordinauit in me charitatem He gaue me to drinke of the wine of this cellar and my loue was reformed Before I loued but now I abhor that which I loued and loue that which I abhorred Wine is vsually a spurre to sensuality but my Beloued did not giue me of this Wine but of that which King Lemuel gaue to those that were comfortlesse and of a sorrowfull heart Noli Regibus dare vinum c. It is not fit for Kings to drinke wine nor for Princes strong drinke lest he drinke and forget the Decree and change the iudgement of all the châ—lderen of affâ—â—ction giue yee strong drink to him that is readie to perish and wine vnto them that haue griefe of heart let him drinke that he may forget his pouertie and remember his miserie no more True it is that in this life our thirst cannot be fully quenched by reason of those manifold sinnes whereinto out of our weakenesse we cannot chuse but fall and that verie often while we beare these bodies of sinne about vs. Domine da mihi hanc aquam Lord Giue me of this water Our Sauiour Christ had so indeered this water that he set an edge vpon this womans desire to enioy it The Serpent spake so much of the forbidden Fruit that Eue contrarie to Gods commaund did eate thereof The Queene of Sheba heard so much good spoken of Salomons wisedome that she vndertook a wonderful great journey that she might both see and heare him Abigal did so highly recommend to Dauid the noblenes of pardoning of an offence that of a fierce Lyon she made him as gentle as a lamb the woman of Tecoa told Dauid so handsome a tale that he pardoned his sonne Absalon Some do seeme to wonder that the sinne of dishonestie beeing so hatefull a thing in Gods sight that permitting other sinnes in his Apostolicall Colledge as Pride Couetousnesse and Treason he did neuer winke at this kind of sinne and hauing antiently so seuerely punished them that hee should now with this woman deale so mildly and so gently The drowning of the World was for wantonnesse such like dishonesties the burning of Sodom for vnnaturall vncleannes The punishing of Dauid by the vntimely death of Bersabes son by visiting himselfe with sicknesse was for his adulterie with Vriaâ—s wife Ezechiell cals Ierusalem a pot and the Princes thereof flesh because that Citie was much giuen to sensualitie And he sayth that he will put fire thereunto vntill all the flesh be consumed and that the pot be melted How is it ô Lord that thou weâ—t then so seuere and art now become so milde I answere That it is wisdome in a Physition to apply different medicines sometimes Lenitiues and sometimes Corasiues The sinnes of Ierusalem were growne hard and brawnie saith Ieremie Why cryest thou for thine affliction Thy sorrow is incurable because thy 〈◊〉 were increased I haue done these things
from him Nor is there any man so rich or so happy that is not forced to be one of Gods beggars And that Kingly Prophet Dauid saith the like of the beasts of the field in diuers places The eyes of all waite vpon thee ô Lord and thou giuest them their meat in due season Thou openest thy hand and fillest all things liuing with plentiousnesse Hee giueth fodder vnto the Cattell and feedeth the young Rauens that call vpon him By Cattell hee vnderstandeth whatsoeuer beasts of the field And by the Rauen whatsoeuer fowle of the ayre And hee did purposely and more particularly put here the Rauen either because those old ones doe not acknowledge their young for that they are white when they are hatcht the damme and her mate beeing of a contrarie colour Or because it is such a rauening bird that according to Ariâ—â—otle and Pliâ—ie the old ones doe banish their young ones as soone as they are able to flie and shift for themselues into some other region further off that they may not rob them of their food and sustenance In a word great and small high and low haue their maintenance from God Who is it but God that feedeth the yong Rauens when they call vpon him Of the trees and plants that holy King Daâ—id sayth Saturabuntur ligna campi Ceâ—ri Libani c. Of the Angells Planets Starres a Phylosopher saith Greges Astrorum semper pasciâ— And as the Sheepheard numbreth his sheepe and puts a marke vpon euerie one of them so our Lord God doth number the multitude of the Starres and caâ—â—eth them by their names The glorious Saint Chrysostome tells vs in a metaphoricall language That in those immense spatious walkes in Heauen there are other more beautifull fields other Fountaines other Floures other Groues and that God doth sustaine and maintaine them all All liue vnder his protection Since then that all things liue so secure vnder his diuine prouidence Why should man distrust especially seeing that he hath an eye and a care to his wants and necessities Who is like vnto the Lord our God who dwelleth in the highest clouds and yet doth behold from aboue whatsoeuer is in heauen or in earth The sight is not qualified by seeing great things but by perceiuing the least atomes or motes that are in the Sunne In an Epistle which the glorious Apostle Saint Paul wrote to the Romans he calleth God the God of Hope for he looking downe vpon vs doth inrich vs with such assured hopes that we may hold them more firme and sure vnto vs than any present possession of those lands or goods which we enioy The second reason is That if any thing can grieue Gods heart it is our miserie and necessitie and therefore he makes such hast to helpe vs as if it were his owne case My sister my Spouse thou hast wounded my heart with one of thyne eyes and with one haire of thy necke The haires are the symbole of thoughts and cares for as the head is full of haire so is it full of care The â—ye of the Huntsman doth more harme than the Arrow which hee shoots for he that doth not throughly eye his game seldome kills and therefore the Spouses Beloued sayes vnto her Euerie one of thy cares especially when I see thee looke vpon me are so many darts sticking in my heart Abbot Guaricus discoursing of the Prodigall saith That when his father saw him so ill accoutred compassion did more strongly possesse him than the passion of sorrow for his sins did his sonne When Abraham was swallowed vp as it were with sorrow as hee vnsheathed his sword to sacrifice his son Isaac Dominus videbit saith the Text id est prouidebit which was the good old mans answer when his sonne askt him Vbi est victima pater mi My father where is the Lambe for the burnt Offering The Septuagint read Apparebit the Tigurine Videbitur For God seeing vs suffer for his sake is of it selfe a present helpe in our time of need Many of the Saints do ponder the griefe which God did discouer for that dearth which Israel indured and the care that he tooke in allaying the sharpenesse and tartnesse of Elias his austere and sowre disposition who when he had caused the windows of heauen to be shut vp for three yeares yet he appointed him a Rauen to bee his Steward to bring him in prouision that hee might not suffer in that common calaâ—â—â—tie yet giuing him this checke by the way It is not fit that thou alone shouldeâ—t eat and 〈◊〉 the rest of my people starue but since I haue past my word this Rauen shal take care of thee Saint Chrysostome saith That this was a seuere reprehension of the Prophet Elias That a Bird that hath no pittie of her owne brood should take pittie of thee that a bird that by nature is cruell and liues vpon rapines and spoyle of others should be a Minister of mercie vnto thee and thou that shouldest haue been a mediator betwixt God and his people shouldst be a prouoker of him to vengeance he cries out against him Absurdum est ô Elias Thou hast committed a great absurditie ô Elias Saint Augustine further addeth That the Rauen which heretofore shewed himselfe vnthankefull in not returning again to Noahs Arke is now so farre altred from that he was that he brings thee bread and flesh affoording thee thy dayly food it had not been much for thee to haue expected an alteration likewise in the Children of Israell Procopius tells vs That the Rauen is an vncleane creature by the Law and beeing that I who was the Law-giuer did dispense that thou shouldest take thy food from him Why mightst not thou as well haue asked a dispensation of me for this so long an interdiction And he entertained them kindly The griefe which our Sauiour had conceiued for the death of Iohn Baptist did not cause him to withdraw his sweet and comfortable countenance from others For the mourning for the Iust is not a hooding of the face to conceale our selues and our sorrow from the world The Saints of God lament the losse which the Earth sustaines by the taking away of the righteous from amongst vs but not their death For hee beholdeth not his death with the eyes of death but quickely passes it ouer It is the foole that thinkes all is ended with them in death But it is nothing so Whence shall wee buy bread that these may eat He here tooke counsell what were best to be done in this case It beeing as Plato sayth amongst all other things the most Sacred and the most Diuine And Ecclesiasticus telleth vs that counsel makes things stable durable secure As a frame of wood ioyned together in a building cannot bee loosed with shaking so the heart that is established by aduised counsel shal feare at no time Whence shall wee buy bread Here our Sauiour consults with Philip how
his busines and so wholly taken therewith that he cared not for any thing else And this is expressed in the word Ibat He went Which argues a continuation in his going on Some man may make a doubt and say though vnaduisedly Had it not beene better for our Sauiour to haue beene in the mount of Oliues or in the garden of Gethseman or on the hills of Ephrem than to goe thus from house to house from Castle to Castle and from Citie to Citie Whereunto I first of all answer That it is enough that he did not so because it was not the better course Secondly because he was the same that was personally promised to that blessed Land and that there was not a corner in all that Countrie to be left out which should not finde the fauour of his diuine influences Thirdly the exercises of the life actiue and contemplatiue are those two wings whereby the soule sores vp to heauen And because one wing will not serue the turne to reach to so high a pitch we must not onely serue God in our prayers and meditations but also in the releeuing and succouring of our neighbour And therefore our Sauiour Christ spent the nights in prayer Per noctabat in oratione and the dayes in healing bodies and curing of soules Petrus Damianus vpon the life of Elias and Elisha saith That there is no remote solitary mountaine which doth not ground it's retyrednesse vpon some one example or other of the Saints One is a friend to the world and a louer thereof and this man alleages That Elias spent many dayes in the widow of Sareptaes house And that Elisha soiourned with the Shunamite that was a great and principall woman in her country And that both of them did treat with great Princes and Potentates Another is a friend and a louer of delicacies and alleageth That Elisha and Elias did accept of them But these men doe not consider That if these Prophets did forgoe their solitude it was more for the good of others that liued abroad in the world than themselues as also for the raising vp of the dead And if they did receiue good intertainment it was no more than was necessary for the sustenance of their bodies Elisha would none of Naamans gold Nor Elias be feasted by King Ahab and Iezabell his wife It is a thing worthy the consideration That our Sauiour Christ hauing not so much as one pennie of money wherewith to pay Caesar his Tribute willed Saint Peter to open the fish that he had taken with his angling rod. Our Sauiour permitted Peter that he should catch such a multitude of fishes that the nets did breake with the fulnesse of them But now hee would not haue him catch but one onely fish For a Church-man ought to fish for all the fishes that he can possibly take and the more he takes he doth God the more seruice but for those money-fishes that haue pence in their bellies he must take but one onely and that too for to pay Tribute not for himselfe nor to satisfie his owne couetous desires or his idle pleasures Ecce defunctus efferebatur Behold there was a dead man carryed out c. This word Eccè in the Scripture requires the eyes of the body and the eyes of the soule insinuating a great deale of attention But to come here with an Eccè it being so common a thing in the world as nothing more to see the dead dayly carryed forth to their buriall it seemeth a superfluous labour and a needlesse kind of diligence especially being that this our life is no other thing but a continued Procession of the quicke and the dead When Adam saw Abel was slaine and lay dead on the ground being the first man of whom death had taken possession he was so heart-strucken and so amased thereat so fearefull so sorrowfull and so sad that for many yeares after hee was not freed from this feare and horrour nor were the teares dryed vp from his eyes For albeit that God had notified vnto him That he was to dye the death yet did he not as yet know by experience what kind of thing death was But after that death had flesht himselfe in mans blood cutting downe more liues than a Sythe doth grasse in your faire and goodly medowes this his feare and horrour began by degrees to slack and fall off An Eclypse of the sunne doth strangely intertaine the sences attention not onely for to see so faire a Planet lapt vp in mourning weedes but also for that it so seldome hapneth But the Eclypses of mens liues though they be the fairest sunnes vpon earth they so hourely nay so momentarily succeede with vs that we can scarse which way soeuer we looke turne our eyes aside from them And not to speake of those lingring deaths wherein through sicknes we lye languishing a long time besides those occasioned by famine pestilence and warre yet those other sudden and vnexpected deaths which daily succeed may euery houre find our eyes occupied For wee see them euer and anon written on the wall as was that of Balthasar hanging on the oake as that of Absalon dipt in a dish of milke as that of Sisara represented in a dreame as that of Holophernes appearing at a feast as that of Iobs children put in the porridge pot as that of Elishaes Disciples Mors in olla in the bed as that of Adulterers and in the Apoplexie as that of your Gluttons Yet notwithstanding all this and that it is euery dayes example yet such and so great is the solicitude and care which the diuell takes to blot the remembrance of the dead from out the hearts and heads of the liuing That at euery step we see the dead carried forth to their graues and are so farre from ingrauing the thought thereof in our breasts that at euery step we forget it There is not that man aliue which doth not feele and experiment death in himselfe complying with that sentence of God Morte morieris Thou shalt dye the death Man is no sooner borne into the world but deaths processe is out against him which is not long in executing As the weeke wasteth the candle the worme the wood and the moath the cloath so as the discreete woman of Tekoa said to Dauid Wee must needs die and are as water spilt on the ground which cannot be gathered vp againe The riuers haue recourse to the Sea and are swallowed vp in the deepe anâ— this is the end of them so is it with our liues they bend from their very birth to the bed of death we leape from our swathling cloathes into our winding sheeâ—e This is the end of all flesh Seneca compares this our life to an houre glasse and as the sand runnes out so runnes away the houre so as time runnes on our life runs away and as it was dust so to dust it returnes When two Ships sayle each by other it seemeth to
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
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
vs it is a kind of imperfection because these affections or passions fall a balling without any reason in the world and no iust occasion being giuen But in our Sauior Christ these passions were not without cause as Saint Augustine hath noted it Saint Gregorie and Saint Hierome neither can they presse him further than hee is pleased to command them If here our anger take hold vpon vs it is like a fierce mastiffe which being set on by his Master takes hold on the Bul and will not let him go though he be rated off againe and againe In conclusion two things doth here recommend themselues vnto vs. The one That our Sauiour Christ was angrie The other That he was mooued to much compassion His anger was occasioned through the Iewes incredulitie as it is noted by Cardinall Tolet and Caietane whose hardnesse and vnbeleefe was such that hee was forced to take Lazarus his life from him to disconsolate those two kind Sisters to draw teares from their eyes and sobs from their brest and afterwards to returne himagaine vnto the world and onely that some might be drawne to beleâ—ue Saint Cyril saith That this his anger was against Death and the Deuill as if he had threatned their ouerthrow and vowed their destruction as it is prophecied by Osee O mors ero mors tua O death I will be thy death c. Vbi posuistis eum Where haue yee laid him c. O Lord Why shouldst thou aske this question I answer That he did it for two reasons The one The countenance of a Sinner is so strangely changed and is so strangely altered from what he was before he fell sicke of sinne that it is a phrase of Scripture to say God doth not know him Thou lendest thy friend thy Horse or thy Cloake the one is returned to thee so lame and so leane the other so ill vsed and so vtterly spoyled that not knowing thyne owne thou sayest This is not that which I lent Of an vntowardly and vngratious sonne the father will vsually say He is none of my sonne so said God to the foolish Virgins and to those that had wrought myracles in his name Nescio vos I know yee not Your Robbers on the Highway disfigure the faces of those whom they rob and murder to the end they may not be knowne And there is nothing that makes the Soule fouler than Sin Denigrata est facies eorum super carbones and it beeing so faire beautifull before it is no great meruaile that God should not know it So that now our Sauiour seemes not to know the place there being so great a difference betweene the one place and the other that of the life of Grace and that of the death of Sinne that he here askes Vbi posuistis eum Where haue yee layd him Saint Chrysostome alledgeth That hee vsed the like question when hee called vnto Adam saying Adam Adam vbi es Adam where are thou I find thee in a different place from that wherein I put thee I placed thee in prosperity and content and I find thee now in wretchednesse and in miserie Who caused this so great an alteration in thee Saint Cyprian saith That this question was made more to the Sinne than to the Sisters and that Lazarus representing Mankind he said speaking of our sinnes Vbi posuistis eum Where haue yee layd him I placed him in Paradice and yee haue put him in the graue The like is reported by Petrus Crysologus and he calleth the Graue the Caue wherein the Deuill hides his thefts and because the beginning of all this harme proceeded from woman he asketh the Sisters Vbi posuistis eum Where haue yee layd him For there are many women God hauing placed man in honour happinesse and health which bring man to his graue The other A Sinner through sinne is remooued so farre from God in Regionem longinqâ—am that God askes where he is For if it were possible for man to hide himselfe from the all-seeing eye of God doubtlesse he would hide himselfe in the land of Darkenesse that is of Sinne. And therefore it is said The Lord knoweth the way of the Righteous and the way of the Wicked shall perish And Iesus wept Of this sheding of teares wee haue rendred many reasons elsewhere Those which now offer themselues are these The first is of Saint Ambrose and Saint Chrysostome who say That Christ was mooued to weepe by seeing Marie and Martha weepe Christ seeing the Widow of Naim weepe said vnto her Noli flere Weepe not and in the house of the chiefe Ruler of the Synagogue he sought to diuert their teares and yet heere these of Marie seeme to extort by force the falling of these teares from his tender eyes Marie had accustomed her selfe to talke with our Sauior in this â—ind of Language it being a Cypher which onely our Sauiour vnderstood and because she talked to him in teares he answers her in teares The exhalations of Maries heart ascend vp to the heauen of Christs eyes and these humane teares draw downe diuine teares obtaining that by grace which was impossible for nature to compasse The second is of Saint Hilarie and Epiphanius who affirme That he thinking on the obstinacie of the Iewes and their finall perdition brake forth thus into teares For no man can comprehend what an offence to God is saue God himselfe and therefore none ô Lord can so truly bewaile sinne as thy selfe And it seeming to our Sauiour Christ that two eyes were too little to lament their miserie he added fiue wounds which serued as so many weeping eyes not shedding water but bloud Saint Bernard saith That in the Garden our Sauior did sweat bloud that he might weepe with all his whole bodie treating therin touching the remedie of the mysticall bodie of the Church Eusebius Emisâ—nus saith That he did groane and weepe in token that wee ought grieuously to lament and bewaile our sinnes And to this purpose saith Ieremie Call for the mourning women that they may come let them make hast and let them take vp a lamentation for vs that our eyes may cast out teares and our eye lids gush out of water And why I pray you so much weeping and lamentation Quia ascendit mors per fenestras as it followeth anon after Because death is come vp into our windowes and is entred into our Pallaces to destroy the children without and the young men in the streets The Soule is gone forth and Death hath entred in weepe therefore c. The death of the bodie is a type of that of the soule And therefore Saint Gregorie saith If I shall walke in the midst of the shadow of death He saith That the departing of the bodie from the soule is but a shadow but the departing of the soule from God is a truth and as a shadow is a refreshing in Sommer so is death to the Righteous The Wicked sticke not to say
Resurrection of all those that rely vpon him by Faith He stinketh alreadie Martha here showed herselfe of somewhat a queasie stomach and too daintie a nose but so did not our Sauiour Christ. Giuing vs thereby to vnderstand That a sinner sauours ill to all the world but not to Gods nosthrils When God shewed vnto Peter the sheet full of snakes and lizards and willed him to eate it caused a verie great horrour in him But vnderstanding afterwards that the mysterie was in that which was signified thereby and not in the doing of it hee did acknowledge that there was not that sinner vpon earth that was cast out from Gods bosome You may come to be loathsome vnto your selfe but not vnto God I am a burthen vnto my selfe Iob said this of himselfe euen then when Gods eyes were gratious vnto him and looked fauourably vpon him My flesh is clothed with wormes and filthinesse of the dust my skinne is rent and become horrible I cannot indure the ill sauour that I beare about me I haue not eyes to behold mine owne wretchednesse But God hath an eye to looke vpon thee and a heart to indure thee and loues thee more than thou louest thy selfe Those fiue and twentie young men which Ezechiel painteth forth clapping nosegaies to their noses some say that it was to defend them from the euill sauour as if they should haue giuen Iob a pomander to drowne the stench of his sores beeing on the one side nothing but plaisters and noisome vnctions and onthe other amber and muske But Isidorus Cladius reads Applicant odorem malum ad nares meos They turne their eyes towards the Sunne and putting their faces from mee they seeke to auoid the euill sauour that comes from mee The translation of Ionathas doth fauour this conceit Obuertebant podicum faciebus eorum In the honour of their Idols and in their scorne of mee they did vse the greatest inciuilitie could be offered vnto any They are a stampe and embleme of those sinners before whom Vertue and Holinesse of life sauoureth ill but the myre of Vice and Sinne smelleth sweet We know that the sauour of God is a sweet smelling sauour Christi bonus odor sumus We are a sweet smelling sauour vnto Christ. His name is a precious balme His garments smell of sweetnesse But as vnto weake eyes the Sunne is hatefull so to a depraued sent this sweete odour is vnsauourie Yet God will not take a loathing at sinners though like Lazarus they lye stinking in their graues For albeit their sinnes doe offend his nosthrils yet will hee not turne away his eye from a sinner nor pull backe his hand from the dressing and curing of him And as the father is not squemish and queasie stomacht to helpe his child that is falne into the myre and is nothing all ouer but filth and dyrt but doth take him vp and comfort him and wash him and cloths him cleanlier and neater than he was before so doth God with Sinners when they haue falne ouer head and eares into most foule and loathsome sinnes c. Hee cryed with a loud voice Lazarus come foorth Hee cryed out aloud for many following the errour of Pythagoras did verily beleeue that the soules of the dead did remaine in the graue with their bodies To this purpose were erected those famous Pyramides of Memphis and of other parts of the World I say these their Pyramides were directed to this end for they persuading themselues that the soule was a fierie substance they imagined it to be in forme like a Pyâ—amis Saint Austen saith That at the sound of this voice Death was strucke with astonishment Dauid in a Psalme of his setteth forth the obedience which all creatures beare to the voyce of God as well lightning raine thunder as the rest The voyce of the Lord breaketh the Cedars 〈◊〉 the Cedars of Libanon There is not the tallest Cedar in Libanon which a flash of lightning or a cracke of thunder will not rent and teare vp by the rootes and consume it to ashes The voyce of the Lord maketh the Wildernesse to tremble it diuideth the flames of fire it maketh the Hindes to calue and discouereth the Forrests there is not that least of liuing creatures the poorest or the smallest Worme that hides it selfe in holes and in the Rockes which is not brought to light and shewes himselfe when God calls vnto him Phylon prosecuting this argument weighes with himselfe the forcible violence of the Winds in that they turn vp the sturdiest okes making the roots euen with the tops in that they ouerwhelme the tallest ships and that they leuell with the ground the goodliest and the greatest buildings Yet all these are nothing compared with the powerfulnesse of this our Sauiour Christs voyce which made Hell gates to shake strooke Death dead and made the Deuills roare for feare c. Then he that was dead came forth â—oâ—nd hand foot with hands c. This dead man came forth his feet and his hands being bound which caused Saint Baâ—il to crie out Miraculum in miraculo Here 's one myracle vpon another To raise vp one that was dead was a strange and a ghastly kind of myracle but that beeing now aliue he should goe being bound hand and foot was another as strange great a myracle Lazarus had God beene so pleased might haue left his winding sheet in the graue his Kerchiefe and the napkin that couered his face and eyes as our Sauiour Christ did in his Sepulchre but Lazarus here brings them out with him in token that he did rise to die againe but our Sauiour Christ rose neuer to die any more though Lazarus died some thirtie yeares after this his resurrection as it is left vs vpon Recoâ—d by Epiphanius And this was the reason why the Sepulchre of our Sauiour remained shut and that of Lazarus left open Loose him and let him goe Here Christ wills to be taken from him all those occasions that might cause him to stumble If therefore thou wilt not fall shun the occasions of falling flie as farre from them as thou canst Saint Bernard finds fault with Eue and reprehends her seuerely for it That shee would presume to looke vpon the tree of Life that tree of good and euill which she was so strictly enioyned to abstaine from where the Text saith The woman saw that it was good and the eye no sooner saw but the heart consented But if any man shall replie and say That the eyes or the hands doe onely incline a man to this or that let him take this also from me That the eyes are an Indicium and manifest signe of a sinne committed at least a great occasion of that which may bee committed Saint Cyril saith That God appearing vnto Moses and those twentie Elders or Antients of the People in a throne of Saphyres of the colour of Heauen was done onely to take away all occasion from that People
And therefore whilest our Sauior Christ was writing on the ground with his finger the sins of those that accused the Adulteresse they sneaked thence and shrunke away one by one Vnus post vnum It seemeth a thing impossible that the Light beeing so louely and so amiable so faire and so beautifull that any man should hate and abhorre it and curse and damne it to the pit of Hell But it should seeme me thinkes much more impossible that this Light beeing God himselfe that mans eye should find any thing in it that may draw on a dislike and hatred thereunto But Saint Iohn pondering the distasted palat of a sinner saith They loued Darkenesse more than Light And the booke of Wisedome renders the reason thereof Doe not you maruaile that we should abhorre it seeing that the Light doth discouer vnto vs the foulenesse of our liues the treasons and trecheries of our hearts and bosomes which wee seeking to couer with the nights mantle it proposeth vs to the open view of the world and to the shame of the day Oculus adulteri saith Iob obseruat caliginem The eye of the adulterer waiteth for the twilight They digge through houses in the darke but the morning is euen to them as the shadow of Death Many are the deceits and errours of the night He that trauailes in a darke night takes Rockes to be Castles Trees to be Houses Bushes to be Men Stubble fields to be standing Pooles high bankes to bee euen ground and that which is far off to be neere at hand In the Citie a man is taken for a woman a woman for a man a widow for a maid a maid for a married wife the mistresse for the maid the knight for his foot-man and the church-man for a whoores champion All is maskes and vizards and disguises and it is onely the Light that doth banish these deceits and false dealing I am the Light of the World c. The other occasion that offered it selfe for this Reuelation was the great noise and clamor of the people Some crying out that he was a Prophet others that he was the Christ but the Pharisees that hee was a Galilean Out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet In conclusion There was dissension amongst the people for him They could not see the light without the beames of the Light And therefore he saith vnto them Ego sum lux mundi And condemning those that were most passionately bent against him calling him in disgrace Galilean and that so bad a Countrey could not afford a prophet while they were vpbraiding this vnto him he tels them Ego sum lux mundi Galilee could not giue any lustre to him that was the light of the World The countrey doth not giue an honor to the Man that was borne there but the Man to the countrey Your most populous Cities haue your most heynous Delinquents Amaziah King of Iuda sent a proud message to Ioash King of Israell Come let vs see one another in the face To whom Ioash reâ—urned this answere The thistle that is in Lebanon sent to the Cedar c. As if he should haue giuen him this short come-off To boast to bee borne in Lebanon and to be but a poore thistle is an infamie and reproach vnto thee But to bee borne in a barren Desart and become a Cedar is a great honour and reputation What bootes it thee to bee a King lineally descended from Dauid and that thou wast borne in Ierusalem if the coursenesse of thy actions bewray thee to bee a thistle There are many that are an honour to their house and many againe that are a disgrace vnto it Many innoble their countrey and many make it to bee accounted base and had in contempt Some are made to honour it some to dishonour it Eue was made of better earth than Adam yet wee see in her actions shee was lesse noble c. He that followeth mee shall not walke in darkenesse c. That a man may not erre in his way hee hath not onely need of a light but a guide also Thou trauailest in the night thou comest to two seuerall wayes and thou meetest with no man the day appeares the light ouercomes the darkenesse but not thy doubting of the way and therefore thou hadst need to haue a guide In this iourney of mans life there are two wayes The one the narrow way that leads vnto Heauen the other the broad way that leades vnto Hell the one to good the other to ill The light that dispelleth the darkenesse will not serue the turne but wee must likewise haue a guide to direct vs and to tell vs This is the way and those are the towers of the Citie Salomon saith That there are wayes which seeme vnto man to secure life but lead vnto death Cogitationes mortalium timidae incertae prouidentiae nostrae There is no humane thought certaine no prouidence secure And therefore wee had need of a guide Saint Austen craueth of God in his Confessions Heale mee ô Lord of my painefull greefe and ease me of my heauy load for whatsoeuer I say or doe is for me a doubtfull question Et ipse est languor meus As necessitie doth alledge for her part that it is necessarie to eat for to liue for if our naturall heat did not find something whereupon to work and spend it's force our life would quickely be at an end But as the hauing recourse to this necessitie is sweet to the sence of our Tast it alledgeth that this maintenance is the medicine of hunger and that to the Sicke we are not to giue physicke by ounces who hath a good stomacke and is continually hungry and for that what we eat must necessarily passe through the Tast our delight presseth it selfe forward importuning for the Tasts sake that something more be done than that which is due to necessitie and because necessitie will be satisfied with a little and much will not suffice our Tast Factus sum quaestio The like plea passeth with the eyes I place them vpon colours vpon the beautie of Floures and Roses vpon the curious Pieces of the famousest Painters and vpon those more liuely Pictures which God hath painted presently there growes in me a contention betwixt Curiositie and Temperance for Curiositie doth so flatter sooth vp the eyes that it makes them oft-times to slip awrie Periculosa illecebrosa dulcedine This befalling me many times before euer I doe so much as once dreame or thinke vpon it hapning as it were vnawares which is one of the greatest miseries and the most to be pittied either in myne owne or any other mans life For I know not how farre my passions may trespasse vpon me they hauing taken possession of my heart and liuing like Inne-mates within the doores of myne owne house Nay rather euen then when I thinke my selfe to be freest from them and most secure as if they had roused themselues from some heauie sleepe they
Ioab aduised Dauid of the siege of Rabbah and what a number of men he had lost in that seruice the King might haue iustly cut off his head for his rash and vnaduised approach to the wall But Dauid durst not condemne him and put him to death because he was an Accessorie or rather the principall in the busines and therefore Ioab charged the messenger that carried the newes saying If the Kings anger arise so that he say vnto you Why went you nigh the wall c. the storie is worth your reading then say thou Thy seruant Vriah the Hittite is also dead This point did that kingly Prophet touch vpon in those words so diuersly commented on Tibi soli peccaui O Lord my sinne was against Vrias against those souldiers that died for his occasion against those which did blaspheame thy name and against the people whom the robbing of another man of his wife and the killing of her husband hath scandalized and beene an occasion of great offence vnto them But that which doth most affâ—ict and torment me is That I haue committed this against thee and that I haue thus sinned against thee For in any other person whatsoeuer in my kingdome the rigour of Iustice might haue restrained him from so foule a sinne but this did not once enter into my thought And therefore he comes with a Tibi soli peccaui iumping with that saying of Saint Paul Qui iudicat me Dominus est He that iudgeth me is the Lord. The world hath not that man in it whom his Propria culpa The sinnes which himselfe hath committed doe not mooue or daunt him and make him turne Coward sauing Christ who was made perfect by nature Nemo mundus à sorde neque â—nfans vnius diei How can he be cleane that is borne of a woman Iohn Baptist was sanctified in the wombe of his mother and was bred vp from a child in the wildernesse Saint Peter was he that loued most Saint Iohn that was most beloued Saint Paul past through the third heauen and did afterwards defie all the world Who shall separate me from the loue of Christ And Iob was so bold to say Would my sinnes were weighed in a ballance c. And in another place Shew mee my sinnes and my iniquities what they be Also Dauid I haue run without iniquitie Iudith passing through the midst of an Armie of Barbarians breakes out into these words The Lord liueth that would not suffer his handmaid to be defiled There was not that rough-hewne souldier that did so much as offer to touch her Let vs set side by side with these Saints the vnspottednesse of those Virgins the constancie of those Martyrs and the courage of those Confessors that suffered for Christs sake In a word all the worthy squadrons of those blessed Saints that are now in heauen will say thus as Saint August hath noted of themselues which Saint Iohn did confesse If we say we haue no sinne we deceiue our selues and the truth is not in vs. As also Iob If I wash my selfe with snow water and purge my hands most cleane yet shalt thou plunge me in the pit and mine owne cloathes shall make me filthie For to be without sinne is the blazon or cognisance of God alone Many did liue very well assured of their innocencie in particular cases as Iacob That the Idols of his father in Law Laban were not receiued by the seruants of his house As Beniamin and his brethren that Iosephs cup was not in their sacks Saint Peter that he should not deny his Sauiour Christ had a thousand more importunate women set vpon him The Pharisee he thought with himselfe I am not as other men c. yet all of them may say with Saint Paul I am conscious of nothing to my selfe yet am I not hereby iustified for Gods eyes see that which mans eyes see not In a word the noble Acts of the greatnesse and power of God as his creating of the world his conseruing it his redeeming of mankinde his iustifying of soules his seeing the thoughts of the heart his calling things that are not as if they were his commanding the waters the windes death and life and all those other wonderfull things which Iob specifieth of God to whose 38 chapter I referre you may make him confidently to say Quis ex vobis arguet me de peccato Which of you can rebuke me of sinne Which of you can c. Saint Chrysostome saith That the greatest testimonie of our innocencie is that of our enemies Non est Deus noster sicut Deus eorum iâ—imici nostri sint Iudices Our God is not as their God let euen our enemies bee Iudges And fit it was that this testimonie should precede and goe before as well in regard of our Sauiours life as his death In regard of his life for publike persons that are placed in authoritie seated in high and eminent throanes that haue great gouernments offices and dignities committed vnto them are not onely bound to be vertuous and holy but also to be so esteemed which they must mainely striue and indeauour So that in a Prince be he Ecclesiasticall or Secular two obligations ought to concur in him One of Conscience The other of Fame A particular Christian which doth not giue occasion whereby to bee condemned of his neighbour may liue satisfied and well contented with the testimony of his owne conscience but not a Prince or a Prelate For if he suffer in his good name or in his fame and be ill reported of it is the destructionoftheir Subiects Saint Augustine saith That he that relyeth on his conscience and is carelesse of his good name is cruell towards himselfe We must not doe good onely in Gods sight bâ—t also before men For fame though false doth fall heauy vpon publike persons In the Temple there was a vessell of brasse a very faire one out of which there ran a conduit pipe of water and was without adorned with those Looking glasses which women that repented them of their sinnes had offered who forsaking the world had consecrated themselues to God to the end that the Priests which did enter to offer sacrifice should wash themselues in that water and behold themselues in those glasses and it was Gods intent and purpose according to Philon That they should place no lesse care in the cleanenesse of their life for to offer sacrifice than those women did in appearing good to the world beholding in those glasses the least marke or spot in the face And in the 28 chapter of Exodus God commanded That when the Priest should enter or goe foorth in the Sanctuary he should beare bells about the border of his garment to the end that the noyse and sound thereof might make his going in and his comming forth knowne And the Text addeth Ne moriatur Least hee dye the death And the glorious Saint Gregorie saith That the
vestures of the Priests are their good workes Sacerdotes tui induantur iustitiam Let thy Priests be cloathed with Righteousnesse And these are to sound aloud being not holy onely in their tongue but also in their actions There must be a bell and there must be a clapper preaching and doing must goe together one will not doe well without the other Our Sauiour Christ aduiseth vs That we should hide our works and not make them knowne Let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doth Least the wind of vaine-glory chance to blow away the fruit thereof But in a Prince and a Prelat God would haue their workes to be more publike that they should not onely be holy but also seeme so for the good example of the people God placed Ioseph in the gouernment of Egypt because his life was so notoriously good that his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand It is a thing worthy the consideration That a Slaue in the house of an Infidell should professe so much vertue so much truth so much faithfulnesse so much courtesie and so much modestie that he should make him ruler of his house and put all that he had in his hand Oh how well beseeming are these and the like good things for the gouernment of a kingdome In regard of his death and that likewise for many good and great reasons First it was fitting That the testimonie of our Sauiours innocencie should precede to the end that it might appeare to the world that the Diuell by this his death was robbed and spoiled of his Empire through his righteousnes Saint Augustine deliuereth three things vpon this point The one That God did iustly deliuer man ouer to the Empire of the diuell for that he suffered himselfe to be ouercome by his subtletie and cunning The other That so great is the signiorie and dominion that the diuell hath ouer him that he neither can with all the strength that he hath ouercome his temptations nor auoid death which he incurred through sinne Not that the diuell had any more right or power ouer him than a hangman hath for the tormenting of a delinquent who receiues his command from the Iudge The third and last which is likewise of Leo and Saint Gregory the Pope That God might very well free man from the slauery and bondage of the diuell by his vertue and power without doing the diuell any wrong Euen as a Iudge who hath deliuered ouer an offender to the hangman to torment him may change his mind and set him free yet notwithstanding was willing to treat this busines by way of Iustice as if the diuell had proper right thereunto First for that it had beene but small glorie to Gods greatnes that the Creator should â—onâ—est with his creature and an infinite power with a limited Secondly That he might not make his iustice suspected For he that hath the least Iustice on his side doth now and then flye to his force and power The diuell was to be ouercome saith Saint Augustine by iustice and not by might Miro aequitatis iure certatum est said Leo the Pope Whence the Princes of the earth may learne this lesson That sithence the Prince of heauen proceeded so fairely and so iustly with so base and bad a creature hauing no tye or obligation thereunto let not any Prince of the earth presume to say Sic volo sic iubeo sit pro ratione voluntas But rather hearken to that of Iob If I refused to be iudged with my seruant c. Besides it is to be noted That the diuell did exceede his Commission and that God hauing giuen him power for to torment sinners he fell a tormenting of our Sauiour Christ who was most innocent he pursued him to the death till he had placed him vpon the Crosse. The cause was propounded in the Tribunall of the most blessed Trinitie the diuell was condemned and depriued of that power which was giuen him And so is that place of Saint Paul to be vnderstood De peccato damnauit peccatum And that of Saint Iohn Now is the iudgement of this world now shall the Prince of it be cast out That hapned to the diuell which befâ—ll Adam God gaue him free leaue and full liberty to inioy all the trees in Paradise saue one onely and no more and he onely pitcht his palat vpon that and tasted but of that one and no more God gaue the diuell leaue to tempt all onely interdicting him That he should not touch vpon our Sauiour Christ and yet he pusht most at him And to the end that this fault and punishment of the diuell should remaine notorious to the world it was fit that the testimony of his innocencie should goe before and that he should say Quis ex vobis c. Which of you c. Guaricus saith That the death Crosse of our Sauiour Christ was more the diuells death and crosse than his For our Sauiour Christ rose again the third day but the diuell neuer since was able to lift vp his head And as two going forth vpon a challenge into the field are vsually both run through and slaine so our Sauiour Christ and the diuel were both nayled to the Crosse Christ to his greater glory the diuell to his vtter destruction If I say the truth why doe ye not beleeue me The truth is the Blanke and Marke of our vnderstanding and being that man ought naturally to loue it it is a metaphisicall case that he should come to abhorre it In satisfaction of which difficulty we haue already rendered three reasons Whereunto we may here adde that other which our Sauiour Christ gaue vnto the Pharisees by Saint Iohn Yee seeke to kill me because my word hath no place in you There are some stomackes so ouerladen with euill humours That they no sooner receiue good meate but they vomit it vp againe and by a depraued disposition turne that which is sweet into sowernes In like sort there are some soules so full of hatred enuy couetousnesse and vncleanenesse that they rise at Gods truths and are ready to spue them vp though they be sweeter then the hony or hony-combe To him that is sicke of a Quartane the brawne of a Capon is vnsauourie but a pickled pilchard a strong onyon and a piece of powdered beefe haue an excellent rellish with him To a brest surcharged with the things of this world of force the doctrine of heauen must be vnsauoury Eyes that are couered with clouds as with a curtaine hate the light and cannot endure the splendour of the Sun Bonitatem disciplinam sciâ—ntiam docemini Saint Ierome renders it bonum gustum And from hence ariseth one of the greatest abuses in all the world to wit That we are readier to beleeue an enemie that lyes vnto vs than a friend that tells vs the truth In
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
Diuell of the world or the flesh must flye vnto that fountaine which is God My soule thirsteth after God who is the fountaine of life The fourth That though he were able to haue trod downe all his enemies vnder his feet yet he flyeth from themâ— For a man will not alwayes shew all that he knowes nor doe all that he can Your foolish Princes make ostentation of their power but wise Princes of their Iustice. The one make their power their reason the other make their reason their power Sit pro ratione voluntas Pilat pressed our Sauiour Christ with his power Knowest thou not that I haue power to set thee free but because he was a Tyrant he forgot his iustice But our Sauiour Christ he forgot his power and reades vnto vs a Lecture of Prudence Teaching vs that we must reserue our power and our wisedome for some good occasion The fifth and last That albeit our Sauiour Christ felt the anguish and agonies of death yet were they nothing like vnto those his enemies felt for to worke his death For his death was not to be at their appointment nor how and when they would haue it The Pharisees sought to make him away secretly in a corner but he would dye in the face and sight of all the world For the greater his shame was the greater was our redemption The Pharisees would not haue it on a festiuall day Our Sauiour Christ that it should be vpon a festiuall day for it was to be the greatest feast that was euer made for man The Pharisees would haue had him rid out of the way presently Christ that it should not be till his houre was come and that he had finished all things that his Father had giuen him in charge And for this cause when they sought after him hee fled from them and when they did not seeke after him he came himselfe into the Shambles Elias fled from Iezabel that he might not dye by her hand and yet afterwards sitting vnder the Iuniper tree he desired death The Iuniper tree was a Type and figure of the Crosse for which was reserued not onely a willingnes but also a sit season to die His brethren therefore said vnto him Depart hence and goe into Iudâ—a These great and wondrous workes of thine said his brethren are not fit for these Galileans being that they are but a rude ignoraÌ„t people Get thee to Iudea for there are the High Priests and the Doctors of the Law for whom the examination and iudgement of these wonders is reserued Euthymius saith That our Sauiours brethren went hypocritically to worke and that making honour the bayt they would with that haue drawne him along to Iudaea Saint Chrysostome That they did herein taxe Christ of a kind of Dastardlinesse and fearefulnesse as if they should haue said Lord thou doest on the one side pretend honour an don the other side thou art afraid that thy Miracles should be examined and come to the touch and this makes thee flye from Iudaea So that it seemeth to this sacred Doctour That Christs kinsmen were doubtfull of the truth of his workes Whence it followeth That those whom the Euangelist here calleth Christs brethren were not of the Twelue because he sayth of them His brethren beleeued not in him But others We know and beleeue that thou art the Sonne of God But that place of Saint Matthew doth prooue it more plainely where when Christ preached one came vnto him and told him Thy mother and thy brethren stay without to speake with thee But hee stretching out his hand to his Disciples said These are my mother and my brethren In the first chapter of the Acts naming the Apostles and amongst them Iacobus Alphei Simon and Iudas he presently sayes These did perseuere in prayer with the women with the mother of our Lord and with his brethren Now his brethren were not of the number of the Apostles And of this opinion is Saint Augustine and Saint Chrysostome Saint Augustine saith That the end of this their counsell was Ambition and that it seeming vnto them that they should haue some share thereby in Christs glory said vnto him Transi hinc And to him that shall obiect that of S. Iohn His brethren beleeued not in him I answer thereunto That they did not beleeue that he was the promised Messias But withall That they did not doubt of the truth of his workes but did onely desire to see them qualified and approued by the Scribes and Pharisees who were well skild in all the prophesies My time is not yet come Two things make this opinion of Saint Augustines very probable The one That it is very common and vsuall with men to seeke to get honor and profit from the prosperitie and glory of a kinseman And albeit it is very likely that they did know that in Iudaea they would seeke to take away his life from him yet the thirst of their ambition was so great that they affected honour though it were to bee effected at the cost of their kinsmans life as the sonnes of Zebedee did their seates And he might as well haue sayd vnto them Ye know not what ye aske for it is not Gods fashion to conferre fauours for respect of country or kindred The Princes of the earth oftentimes take this course making a coward a Captaine and putting a Hare into a Lyons place But God doth not hold him worthy of reward or of the least praise who is not priuiledged as well for it by his owne proper vertue as by blood and alliance The Iewes accounted it a great honour vnto them that they were the sonnes of Abraham but because there was no shew of worth in themselues our Sauiour takes them vp very short telling them Ye are of your father the diuell And therefore there is no honour due vnto you And it is Aristotles saying in his Ethnickes Ab hu quae à natura insunt nec laudamur nec vituperamur Many Pagan Princes did follow this tracke Plutarch reporteth of King Antigonus That a young Souldier preferring a suit vnto him he returned him this answer I euermore bestow my fauours on those that deserue the same in themselues and not in others Pirrhus King of the Epyrots his sonnes vrging him to tell them which of them should be his heire and succeed him in his Kingdome answered He whose sword hath the sharpest edge The other Is our Sauiours Christ own answer My time is not yet come Which according to Saint Augustine was as if he should haue said ye would haue glory and take no paines for it And therefore he saith vnto them Your time is alwayes readie but with me my Crosse must goe before my glory I must mount by humilitie Now from these two considerations I will draw this one profitable pâ—int That when a fauour is throwne vpon a man vpon any other Title or Claime saue his owne proper vertue and
it's â—ld odour The adulterie of Bershabe and the murther of Vriah hath layne a â—ong time in my brest and though I haue washed and rynsed it with I know not how many â—ees and Sopes yet haue I no hope to make it as cleane as it was before and therefore ô Lord I beseech thee that thou wilt create a new heart in me wherewith I may loue thee for euer But if this cannot be because the soule is immortall perdurable and incorruptible Renew a right spirit within me that there may not remaine any sent or sauour of my former foulnes establish such a spirit in me that I may neuer fal from thy seruice a spirit that may repaire those wrongs I did before and if that were an occasion that many did blaspheme thy Name let this be such a one that it may conuert many vnto thee and that they may truly serue thee The glorious Doctor Saint Ambrose touched vpon this string Dauid saith he did desire of God That he would create him a new heart not that he should create it anew but that he should so renew it that it might seeme to be created anew for to clense it was all one as to create it It is the resolution of a man that is truly penitent to desire to leaue a lewd life and to auoyd all occasions thereof Anselme saith That the first renouation which God effecteth in our soules is in Babtisme This is the foundation of our Christian building so saith the glorious Apostle Saint Paul Afterwards the eyes of our Reason being cleered one layeth his foundation on Gold another on Siluer a third on pretious Stones a fourth on Wood a fift on Hay a sixt on Straw and though Hay and Straw be sometimes taken for Gold the fire will trie the finenesse of it and purifie all The second renouation is by Repentance When thou hast an old beastly tatterd garment thou makest thee a new one thy soule is all to be rent torne exceeding foule and filthie cloath it anew The first regalo or kindnesse which the father shewed to the prodigall child was his new apparelling of him Aâ—ferte stolam primam This is the greatest kindnesse thou canst doe to thy soule and that thou maist not doe as little children vse to doe which are well clad to day and a few dayes after are nothing but ragges and totters doe not yee make your garments of paper which the least blast of aire rents asunder but put on Iesus Christ our Sauiour and Redeemer which is a Rayment that will last for euer And it was Winter Saint Gregorie saith That the Scripture sometimes setteth downe the circumstances of time and place to signifie by them that which is not expressed by word of mouth And that this circumstance of Hyems erat It was Winter though it may be referred to our Sauiour Christs walking from place to place yet doth it declare the frostinesse and ycie coldnesse of the Iews hearts By coldnesse the Scripture vnderstandeth the malice of sinne whence it is to bee noted That the Historie of the Machabees calleth this Solemnitie The Feast of Fire Whereas we are now purposed to keepe the Purification of the Temple vpon the twentie fifth day of the moneth Chasleu wee thought it necessarie to certifie you thereof that yee also might keepe the Feast of the Tabernacles and of the Fire which was giuen vs when Nehemias offered Sacrifice after that he had built the Temple and the Altar c. It appeareth by the sixth Chapter of Leuiticus That God did conserue a perpetuall fire in his presence The Fire shall euermore burne vpon the Altar and neuer goe out At their departure into Babylon they hid their fire in a deepe pit and at their returne they found it turned into a thick water like a gellie Nehemias he takes it forth and setteth it in the Sunne and presently it became fire the drops that remained they did sprinckle or bedew the Altar therewith and they forthwith tooke fire so that it was fitly called the Feast of Fire But that they who solemnise this Feast should bee all Frost and Ice is a thing verie worthie our consideration This is our ruine and perdition That the verie same day that wee treat of renewing our soules which is the feast of the Fire of our Spirit there should bee such a great coldnesse in vs c. Take heed your flight be not in the Winter nor vpon the Sabboth Our Sauior hauing reuealed vnto his Disciples whether it were the euils that should befall Ierusalem or the insuing miseries of this world or those that should threaten the Soule at each particular mans death or all of them iointly together and supposing that none would be able to abide them but that they would be forced to flie from the euill to come hee giues them this auiso Take heed your flight c. Our Sauiour would not haue them to betake themselues to flight neither on the Sabboth day nor in the Winter Not on the Sabboth day because their Law did not giue them leaue to go any more than a thousand paces a matter of a mile But say some one should haue ventured to breake this Law and to haue gone further he could not haue lighted on an Inne-keeper to bid him welcome got no meat no fire to dresse it nor haue met with any companie on the way but haue trauelled all alone in a fearefull kind of solitude Not in the Winter in regard of innumerable inconueniences as raine durt boggs yce frost snow rising of riuers and dayes short and darke Saint Gregorie expoundeth this place of those euills which threaten vs at our death but be it in our death or in our life the world hath not any creature that is more threatned and terrified than a Sinner Who can looke Sinne in the face our best course is to flie from it and to haue recourse to the Sanctuarie of Repentance but we must take heed that we doe not flie on the Sabboth or in Winter In die illa saith Zacharie non erit lux sed frigus gelu In that day there shall bee no cleere light but darke Saint Hierome saith That the Prophet speaketh of the destruction of Ierusalem by Titus and Vespasian and because the miserie and calamitie thereof would fall out to be so terrible and so fearefull that no man durst abide it they treated of their flying from it But that time shall prooue vnto them to be extreame cold and exceeding darke as if he should haue sayd If they should haue fled for Gods seruice the Pillar of fire should haue gone before them and directed them in their way but when they shall flie to his disgrace and dishonour the dayes shall be cold and the wayes darke c. Here are condemned your cold and frozen Confessions your slacke slow restitutions your luke-warme intentions being like vnto those of the Sluggard of whom Salomon
apprehend Dauid Michal saued his life by letting him out a window Why did they not follow in pursuit of him being so much offended as they were at this tricke which Michâ—l had put vpon them Some Hebrewes make answer hereunto That God had damd vp the window or cast a myst before their eyess that they could not perceiue the manner of his escape Ecclesiasticus saith The congregation of the wicked is like tow wrapped together Their end is a flame of fire to destroy them An Armie of Reprobates can no more stand against the godly than bundles of Towe or Flaxe before a flaming fire How long c. The Iewes comming round about our Sauiour they said vnto him Quousque c. How long doest thou make vs doubt As Loue transformeth a man so doth Hate Vulnerasti cor meum soror mea said the Bridegroome to his Spouse Another letter hath it Excordasti Which alludeth vnto that which the Spouse answered Ego Dormio cor meum vigilat But how can the Spouse sleepe and her heart wake yes her husband had stolne away her heart and that waked with him when she was asleepe Now Hate no lesse transformeth than Loue. Saul did not liue in himselfe but in Dauid Haman not in himselfe but in Mardochee the Pharisees not in themselues but in Christ. And therfore they say Thou causest our soules to doubt Thou hast robd vs of our soules we are not our selues but as bodies without a soule And in token that the cause of this their suspension was Enuie they confesse these their so many distractions vexations and torments of the mind All other kind of sinnes bring paine and torment with them but it is after they haue tasted of their sinnes but Enuie torments before hand The Pharisees had scarce seen Christs Miracles and the applause which his doctrine had in the world when they began to suffer and to be grieued And this is the reason why this Vice is harder to be cured than any other Good doth ordinarily quench ill as water quencheth fire But Enuie because it makes another mans good his ill that which to other vices is death is to Enuy life It is the fire of brimstone which the more water you throw on it the more it burneth They came about mee like so many Bees who are exasperated and grow angry with those that doe them no harme but good They waxed hot like fire among thornes which no water can quench Animam nostram tollis Where I would haue thee to weigh the word Tollis Thou takest away our soule thou makest vs to doubt c. Thou art in fault that we liue in this paine and passion It is the common course of your greatest sinners to lay the blame of their sinne vpon God O Lord Why hast thou made vs to erre from thy wayes saith Esay and hardned our heart from thy feare It is a sin inherited from Adam who laid the fault of eating the apple vpon God The woman which thou gauest me to be with me c. She that thou gauest me to be my companion to be my cherisher and my comforter Who would haue thought that she would haue intreated any thing at my hands that should not haue beene very lawfull and honest The sicke man is wont to lay the fault on the Clymat wherein hee liueth and on those meates wherewith hee is nourished Seneca tells a tale of a certaine Shee-slaue who one morning when she awaked finding her selfe blind laid the fault that she could not see vpon the house desiring that she might be remooued to another The cause of your Eclypses is the earth which interposes it selfe betweene the Sunne and the Moone Whereas hee that shall impute the fault to the Sun shall but betray his ignorance Of the Eclipses of these Iewes the cause thereof was their passions their couetousnesse and their enuie If our Sauiour Christ preached vnto them they desired Miracles if he wrought Miracles they desired Doctrine from his workes they appealed to his words and from his words to his workes and laying the fault on the Sun they said Animam nostram tollis Thou makest vs to doubt If thou be the Christ tell vs plainly In three words they vttered three notorious lies The first Dic nobis palam Tell vs plainly for all that thou hast hitherto sayd vnto vs is as nothing The second Dic nobis palam and we will beleeue thee The third Dic nobis palam for that is the reason why wee haue not hitherto beleeued thee Saint Augustine and Saint Chrysostome haue both obserued that in these their lies there was a great deale of craft subtletie which was this That the Iewes did still presume that our Sauiour Christ would boast himselfe to bee King of the Iewes and that he was temporally to sit in Dauids Throne they went about to draw this from him that they might haue some ground of accusation against him and therefore they thus cried out vnto him Dic nobis palam Tel vs plainly for in all the rest that they desired of him our Sauiour Christ had giuen them full satisfaction For if Palam be to publish a thing openly and not to doe it in hugger-mugger or in some by-corner or other I haue alwayes preached publiquely in your Synagogues and in the middest of your Market-places And I sayd nothing in secret If Palam shall carrie with it a kind of boldnesse and libertie yee may call to mind my whipping of you out of the Temple the seueritie of my reprehensions and that I called yee the children of the Deuill that I might publish your euill thoughts to the world c. If Palam shall signifie Cleerely or Manifestly what more cleere or manifest truth could ye heare than that which I haue preached vnto you Wil you that I shal tel you in a word who I am I and the father am one Of the materiall Sunne a man may complaine That an earnest eying of it and a steadie fixed looking thereupon may make vs blind but on the Sunne of Righteousnesse no man can lay this fault for hee himselfe giues that light whereby our eyes are inabled to see The commandement of the Lord is pure and giueth light vnto the eyes And therefore Saint Paul calls the old Law Night and the Law of Grace Day In that Law the Sunne had not shewed it selfe all was clouds and darkenesse and albeit they did inioy some light it was but a glimpse or as the light of a candle through some little chinke but when the Sonne of God appeared in the flesh that darkenesse of the night was driuen away and the day appeared c. I told yee and yee beleeue not the workes that I doe in my fathers name they beare witnesse of me Our Sauiour Christ had prooued himselfe to be both God and Man by such conuenient meanes that it had beene follie if not meere madnesse to haue desired better
and in stead of shrill and cheerefull flourishes the trumpets sound hoarse so now in this our Mary Magdalens death who was the chiefe Captaine and Ring-leader of the vices of that Citie a hollow sound of sighes was heard and a grieuous noyse of confused grones and broken throbs breathing out these wofull words ô my good Lord I haue beene like vnto the Serpent for on the one side I sustained my selfe by the earth without once offering to lift mine eyes from the earth on the other side I did prostrate my selfe laying traps and snares for thy feet soliciting the men of this City to tread thy Lawes vnder their feet Oh Lord since I haue thus playd the Serpent tread thou vpon mee crush me in the head and bruise out all the venome that is in me O sweet Iesus the Serpent vseth to enter in betweene the rocks and rub off her old skinne and leauing it there behind her to renew her selfe againe I much desire to cast off my old skinne and to leaue it in the wounds of these thy feet and on my strong rocke Christ Iesus I wot well ô Lord that so vile and lewd a woman as I am is to be made no more reckoning of than the durt that is trod vnder foot in the streetes Mulier fornicaria quasi stercus in via conculcabitur But many times the dung of the earth doth serue for the rootes of trees and other plants and because thou art that Diuine plant whose branches reach vp as high as heauen permit ô Lord that I though but durt and dung may lye at thy feet The Cananitish woman did shew a great deale of humility when she tearmed her selfe a dogge but Mary Magdalen much more â—earming her selfe dung And she wiped his feet with the haires of her head S. Ambrose asketh the question Why some of his Apostles did not wash our Sauiours feet either before or after that he had washt all theirs He renders two reasons The one for that Mary Magdalen had washt them and hee would not that this lustre which those her tears had giuen them should be lost by washing them with ordinarie and common water And the comparison is good For he that is washed with the water of Angels will refuse to be washed with any other water The other saith Saint Ambrose for that we should wash those his diuine feet with the teares of our eyes That mysticall lauing of the Apostles feet which was directed to the cleansing of their soules could not fit with our Sauiour Christ who was free from the least filth of sinne If any Lauatorie likes him it is that of our teares because in them the heart is softned Besides Those eyes and hayres which were so well imployed did expresse her good desire and thoughts And there is not any Sacrifice so acceptable vnto God as to see the desires and thoughts of our hearts to be offered vp at his feet Chrysologus saith That after God had seene the resolution and courage of Abraham in the sacrificing of his sonne he cared not a rush for all the rest and therefore cryed vnto him Lay not thine hand vpon the child neyther doe any thing vnto him for now I know thou fearest God c. For I take no pleasure in the death of the Innocent nor in the shedding of blood my delight is to see thy will submit it selfe at my feet My sister my spouse thou hast wounded mine heart Thou hast wounded my heart with one of thine eyes and with a hayre of thy necke Following the selfe-same Metaphor to wit That the hayres are the thoughts and the eyes the desires As if her beloued should haue said vnto her One desire one thought my spouse one resolute determination one firme purpose hath quite robd me of my heart And he that shall indeere the delight that he takes in one single hayre will take much more pleasure in that whole skayne of gold Bonauenture sayes That shee did behold our Sauiour by stealth and peeping through the lattice of her hayres did euer and anon snatch a sight of him But after that she had once inioyed the brightnes of his face and the sweetnes of his eyes whence he shot forth such sweet shafts of loue and that did light so right vpon her that her heart was taken therewith It seeming vnto her That the skie was now cleere and the weather very faire and prosperous she did vnruffle the sides of her haires and spred them abroad to the wind finding so good a gale And as he that hath escaped many dangerous fits of death at sea is neuer satisfied with kissing the earth when hee comes ashoare so Mary Magdalen thought shee could neuer haue her fill of kissing the blessed earth of those her Sauiours most holy feet And as the Traueller that hath passed through the deserts of Arabia his mouth being as dry as those sandie grounds or as tinder that is ready to take fire being driuen to drinke of foule and vnsauourie puddles no sooner comes to a cleere fountaine but hee rushes hastily to the water and neuer makes an end of drinking so did it fare with Mary Magdalen c. With her hayres Absalons hayre was Absalons halter Sampsons lockes serued as bands to bind him fast the Philistims by those hayres haling him to prison My hayres haue been no lesse cruell to me than theirs were to them God he is said to haue a head of gold but hayres as blacke as the Rauen. But I being a Rauen in my soule for blacknesse had my hayres of gold c. And annoynted them with oyntment Saint Gregorie saith That Mary Magdalen entertained our Sauiour Christ at this feast with two great regalos or dainties The one That it was she that made him the feast For albeit the Pharisee had inuited him he had not set before him one sauourie morsell For what could sauour well in the house of a proud scorner that is giuen to mocke and scoffe And howbeit for the body the cheere was good enough yet if it had not beene for Mary Magdalen the soule might haue fasted But she did supply that defect by affording matter to our Sauiour to taxe the Pharisee of discourtesie c. Seest thou this woman I entred into thy house and thou gauest me no water to my feete but she hath washed my feet with teares Thou gauest me no kisse But shee since the time that I came in hath not ceased to kisse my feet Mine head with oyle thou didst not annoynt but she hath annoynted my feet with oyntment c. The other That at the feet of our Sauiour she made a generall sacrifice of all those things wherewith she had before offended him as of her eyes mouth hayres hands heart and soule not leauing out so much as that her oyntment which is that which women are loathest to leaue and doe latest and hardliest part withall Saint Bernard saith That Mary Magdalen did climbe vp to heauen
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
saith Consultauerunt consilio They did lay their heads together they sat in Councell they did not onely thinke vpon but consent to the greatest malice and wickednesse which euer the diuell or hell could imagine Vt Lazarum interficerent To kill Lazarus This is the end of our thoughts when they are not cut off in time Sinne is so great an Vsurer that it goes dayly gayning more and more ground vpon mans brest till it hath brought it to a desperate estate They were growne to that desperation that they said vnto filthinesse I am thy seruant Saint Ierome saith That as the couetous thirst after money so doe these after dishonestie They are like those that goe downe into a deepe well they knit rope to rope and one sinne to another Why dyed I not in the birth Or why dyed I not when I came out of the wombe Why did the knees preuent me And why did I sucke the brests Wherein the Prophet painteth foorth vnto vs the foure estates of a child The first in the wombe The second when it is borne The third when it is swadled vp The fourth when they giue it the teat S. Gregorie doth applie these foure to the foure estates of sinne The first in the thought which conceiues it The second in the ill which bringeth it forth The third when we put it on like a garment The fourth when we nourish and maintaine it Saint Augustine painteth foorth these foure estates in these foure dead folkes In the daughter of the Archisinagoguian who stirred not from home In the sonne of the widow of Naim who was accompanied to his graue In Lazarus who lay foure dayes dead And in him whom our Sauiour Christ did not raise vp at al saying Let the dead bury the dead They consulted to put Lazarus to death Our Sauiours death was already concluded on and now this cruel people treated of making away Lazarus Of whom our Sauiour Christ said Vt descendat super vos omnis sanguis iustus à sanguine Abel ad sanguinem Zachariae c. It is no maruell that they sought to kill Lazarus for in him was sum'd vp all the blood of the iust that had beene shed in the world And the reason that makes this to seeme so is because all the iust that dyed in the world since Abel were a Type and figure of Christ And if they did die it was to giue testimonie of his death and had it not beene for our Sauiour Christs death his had not preceedd And for that the life of the iust was a shadow of that of our Sauiour Christ in taking away his life in whom all the liues of the world were contained they were guiltie of all the rest and as much as lay in them were the Homicides of the whole world And if he that carryes but one mans death about him findes no place of safetie vpon earth What rest shall he find that hath so many deaths crying vpon his conscience Saint Chrysostome treating of the sinne of Cain saith That it was greater than that of Adam For besides his loosing in the turning of a hand the greatest Empire that euer the world had we cannot imagine any sinne to be greater than the barring of all mankind from heauen the depriuing him of grace and of the friendship of God yet notwithstanding this seemeth to be the greater and hee proueth it by the sentence that was giuen vpon the one sin the other God sentencing Adam said Cursed is the earth for thy sake c. The blow of the curse was to fall vpon Adam and as the father which makes shew to throw the candlestick at his sons head but flings it against the next wall so God sayes Cursed is the earth for thy sake But with the Serpent and with Cain he proceeded otherwise To the Serpent he said Thou art cursed aboue all cattle and aboue euery beast of the field vpon thy belly shalt thou goe and dust shalt thou eate all the dayes of thy life To Cain Thou art cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth to receiue thy brothers blood from thine hand it shall not henceforth yeeld vnto thee her strength c. He did not forbid him to tread vpon the earth but he forbad him to enioy the fruits thereof c. Secondly The voyce of thy brothers blood cryeth vnto me from the earth Saint Ambrose saith That he heard the voyce of Abel for with God the dead speake as well as the liuing The Hebrew hath it The voyce of bloods putting it in the plurall number as Lyra hath noted it For hee had shed so many bloods as Abel might haue had children For albeit they had neither being nor life in themselues yet they might in their cause and beginning It cryes to mee from the earth Not from his body for though thy brother should haue forgiuen thee yet the earth would not pardon thee to see it selfe violated by a Traytor And if God would haue but giuen way thereunto a thousand mouths would haue opened to swallow thee vp aliue but being he would not consent thereunto it goes choking those seedes which might haue serued thee for thy sustenance and delight and shaking thee off from thence like a banished man this Writ is gone out against thee A vagabond and runnagate shalt thou be vpon the earth Thirdly All the superiour and inferiour creatures were to be his persecutors and his tormentors the heauens with thunder and lightning the Angels with fearfull apparitions the beasts of the woods and men shunning his company and God himselfe chastising him with a continuall trembling But some wil say How could God persecute him since he published a Proclamation That whosoeuer should kill Cain should be punished seuen-fold Sextuplum punietur The Seuentie Interpreters render it Septem vindictas exoluet Seuen seuerall reuenges shall bee taken of him Procopius answers hereunto That this Proclamation was made against Cain For a man cursed by God persecuted by heauen by earth by Angells by men by beasts and by himselfe would haue held it a happinesse to dye but God would not that he should inioy so great a blessing But that he should liue seuen generations and that in euery one of them God would take seuere vengeance of him Septem vindictas exoluet till that Lamech should come who gaue him a sodaine and violent death And this is a notable place against all kind of murderers and man slayers Dauid would not drinke of the water though he were thirsty which his souldiers brought him because it had cost them the hazard of their liues and therfore offered it vp in sacrifice to God They did poure forth innocent blood like water in the siege of Ierusalem Dauid did shed the water because it seemed to him to be blood and others shed blood as if it were but water some take blood for water and others water for blood Cogitauerunt vt Lazarum interficerent They consulted to
put Lazarus to death This their rage and furie can not bee sufficiently indeered Esay saith Wee roare all like beares and mourne like doues These are both extreames The Beare is a very furious beast the Doue very mild and gentle the one doth shake the mountaines with his roarings the other scarce throbs forth her mournings from her brest the one if you rob her of her young ones is all rage and fiercenesse it selfe Like a Beare robbed of her Whelpes the other is softnesse and gentlenesse it selfe who if you take away her young vseth no other resistance but mourning and a soft murmuring and therefore Osee saith that she hath no heart It was noted of this people That they were like doues that mourned with their friends but like furious beares towards their enemies What greater furie than to seeke to kill Lazarus What madnesse more notorious Marsilius Ficinus saith That there is a twofold madnesse One of the braine The other of the heart The one long the other short The one makes men madd the other angry Aulus Gellius reporteth of the Sclauonians That when they are angrie they kill like the Basiliske with their verie lookes Ecclesiasticus saith That Enuie and Wrath shorten the life and bring age before the time Salomon saith That three things mooue the earth and that the fourth is not to be endured pointing out the fourth to bee a Slaue that is made his Masters heyre for a Slaue being seated in honour growes to be so insolent that it is a thing insufferable Better may this bee verified of the appetite which being a Slaue if it once through wrath rebell against reason it treads it vnder foot captiuates it and ill intreates it Because that for his sake many of the Iewes went away and beleeued in Iesus One of the greatest miseries that can befall a soule is To make good the occasion of ill As one of the greatest pledges of Gods loue is to take occasion from ill to doe good so one of the greatest pledges of malice is to take occasion from good to doe ill God gaue vnto the children of Israel the gold and siluer of the Egyptians whether it were in requitall and payment of their troubles or that he was Lord of all and so might dispose thereof as hee listed and of this gold and siluer they afterwards made a calfe giuing thereunto that glorie and worship which was due onely vnto God Osee saith they did the like with Baal I multiplyed their siluer and gold which they bestowed vpon Baall God gaue them a brazen Serpent to the end that by looking thereon they might be healed of the bitings of the Serpents From this fauour they tooke occasion to commit Idolatrie offering incense thereunto as vnto God till such time as Ezechias brake it in peeces God doth proceede by contrary courses From Adams sinne he tooke occasion to redeeme the world and as it seemeth to Saint Augustine if Adam had not sinned God had not come in person to redeeme him And Saint Gregory calls it Foelix peccatum A happy sinne because it brought with it so soueraigne a Redeemer And in many other occasions we may say that of a sinner which Esay saith Recepit de manu domini duplicia pro omnibus peccatis suis. And that which Dauid saith ofan vngratefull people Pro iniquitate vide tentoria Aethiopiae Hee there summes vp the many and great fauours which he had receiued and in euery one of them we shall find pro iniquitate They consulted to put Lazarus to death The blanke and marke whereat they shot was to darken and eclypse the name of our Sauiour Christ and to cast a cloud ouer that glory which could not possibly but shew it selfe in seeing Lazarus to be raised vp from death vnto life This dammage the Lord did repaire with two great honours The first That most solemne triumph wherewith they receiued him wherof we shall treat hereafter The second of certaine Gentiles which came according to the custome to the feast Leo the Pope saith That the Romans made a religion of it to adore the seuerall gods of all Nations and therefore they intreated Saint Philip that he would be a meanes that they might haue a sight of our Sauiour Christ and that they might bee admitted to speake with him Saint Philip communicated this matter with Saint Andrew and they both acquainted our Sauiour therewith And Iesus answered The houre is now come that the Sonne of man shall bee made manifest The Apostles did not vnderstand the mysterie thereof but our Sauiour Christ tooke that his comming to be the despertador de su muerte the awaker and reuiuer of his death For although he imployed both his life and his person in Israel yet his death was to draw the Gentiles to his knowledg and obedience And these Gentiles being so desirous to see him and to talke with him taking this to be the Vigile of his death and vocation of the Gentiles Hee told them Now is the houre come wherein the Son of man is to be glorified not onely amongst the Iewes but the Gentiles also Hee calls his death his glorification For albeit to dye be weakenesse yet to dye as Christ dyed was vnspeakeable valour and vertue Hee neuer shewed himselfe more strong than when hee was most weake and neuer lookt sweeter than when death was in his face Hee had hornes comming out of his hands And there was the hiding of his power Those hands which were nayled to those armes of the Crosse were those hornes wherewith hee ouerthrew the power of the world and of hell Iacob said of Simeon and Leui at the houre of his death In their selfe-will they digged downe a wall which the Seuentie translate thus Eneruauerunt taurum They weakened a Bull By this bull vnderstanding our Sauiour Christ. First for it's beautie Quasi primogeniti tauri pulchritudo eius His beauty shall be like his first borne bullocke Secondly For that as the bulls strength lyes in his hornes so did Christ discouer his strength vpon the Crosse Ibi abscondita est fortitudo eius Thirdly because according vnto Pliny the Bull looseth his fiercenesse when hee but sees the shadow of the Figge-tree And our Sauiour Christ shewed himselfe most weake when hee saw the shadow of the Crosse desiring pardon then of his Father for his enemies who like dogges against a Bull had with open mouth set themselues against him Many dogs are come about mee But hee repayd though not allayd their rage with this so louing and so sweet a prayer Father forgiue them c. The Pharisees seeing themselues thus mockt and deluded and that their plots and intentions tooke not effect they brake foorth and sayd Perceiue yee not how we preuaile nothing and how that the world goeth after him And albeit Saint Chrysostome saith That these speeches were vttered by his friends thereby to persuade the Pharisees that
they should not tyre out themselues any longer in persecuting of him seeing it was to no end but all went crosse with them Saint August yet saith That they were the speeches of his enemies which bemoned their owne disgrace and misfortune There could not bee any blindnesse more foule and beastly than that of the high Priests and Pharisees who hauing had so many tryalls how little their power and their trickes could preuaile against our Sauiour Christ that all this while they could not perceiue that this was Gods businesse against which nor counsell nor wisedome can preuaile Saint Peter preaching Christs resurrection the high Priests and Pharisees called him before them notifying vnto him That he should not any more touch vpon that point but hee told them That he was bound rather to obey God than man And perceiuing his resolution Dissecabantur cordibus suis They burst for anger when they heard it and consulted to slay both him and his companions But Gamaliel a Doctour of the Law being there present and one that was honoured of all the people aduised those that sat there in Councel to put the Apostles forth for a little space out of the Councell house which done he then said vnto them Men of Israel bee well aduised what ye doe concerning these men Time will prooue whether this be a Truth or a Lye that these men vtter It is not long since that one Theâ—des boasted himselfe to be a Prophet who was followed by some foure hundred Disciples but in the end he was condemned to death and they al which obeyed him were scattered and brought to nought After this man rose vp Iudas of Galilee and drew away much people after him but he in the end also perished and all his followers And therefore I now say vnto ye forbeare a while and refraine your selues from these men and let them alone For if this their doctrine be of men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot destroy it In a word Time will bring this to light but to go about to take away their liues now from them were to set your selues to fight against God The like did the Prince of the Ammonits deliuer to Nebuchadnezzars Lieutenant Generall at the Siege of Bethulia If God fauour and protect this people all Nebuchadnezzars forces are not able to subdue them And this was that which made Iob so confident Be thou on my side and let all the world be against me I care not Saul did vse all his best endeauours and employed all the force and strength he had to worke Dauids death one while in his owne person seeking to nayle him with his Speare to the wall another while by setting vpon him with his souldiers but neuer yet could the power of a King preuaile without Gods permission against a silly flye Gods protection is aboue all his workes so the Princes of the earth the high Priests the Pharisees the Clergie and the Laytie did cry out against Christ but were forced to say in the end We preuayle nothing at all They were strangely blinded that they could not perceiue Gods power herein Lord so open our eyes that we may see the light of thy glorious Gospell To whom c. THE XXXIX SERMON MAT. 26. MARC 14. LVC. 22. IOH. 18. Of St. Peters Deniall and Teares OF Peters deniall there are two opinions as opposite as false The one That Peter had lost his Faith Grounding the same vpon the testimonie of Saint Ambrose Postquam Petrus fidem se perdidisse defluit maiorem gratiam reperit quam amiâ—it After that Peter had bewailed his lost faith the grace he found was more than that he lost And in that our Sauiours reprehension to his Disciples at his departure to heauen Hee reprooued their vnbeleefe and hardnesse of heart Where he excepted not Peter This opinion is primarily contrary to those words of our Sauiour Christ I haue prayed for thee Peter that thy faith might not faile thee Secondly it is contrary to naturall reason For to passe sodainly from one extreame to another though God doth it by extraordinary wayes yet neyther Nature nor Art nor the Diuell doth it be it either from ill to good or from good to ill Nemo repentè turpissimus said the Poet. The sanctitie of Peter sure was one of the greatest and to passe sodainely from a Saint to an Infidell which is numbred amongst those sins that are the most hainous it cannot sinke into my head Besides Faith is like vnto your Ermine who had rather mori quam foedari rather dye than durtie it selfe And therefore Faith is cloathed in white a colour wherein the least spot or soyle shewes foulest Corresponding with that of Saint Paul Hauing the mysterie of faith in a pure conscience The conscience wherein Faith is to reside must be pure and cleane and as it goes soyling so it goes lessening and losing it selfe And as is the blood of the soule and the last humour which is vomited forth as it is to be seene in those that are sea-sicke so is it in the vertues of Faith Peruenit gladius saith Ieremie vsque ad animam The sword hath entred euen vnto my soule Saint Ierome That the sword is come vnto the soule Quando nihil in anima vitale reseruatur When there is not any vitall thing that is reserued in the soule when all goodnesse is gone out of it But Saint Peter was not come to that desperate passe his case was farre otherwise And if Saint Ambrose say That he lost his Faith he vnderstood thereby that loyaltie and fidelitie which Peter ought better to haue kept or that confession of his faith which vpon that occasion he was bound to haue made according to that of Saint Paul With the heart we beleeue vnto righteousnesse but with the mouth wee confesse vnto saluation And for that reprehension which our Sauiour Christ bestowed vpon his Disciples at his departure for heauen it is a cleere case that it was not directed to Peter as appeareth by the words following where it is said That the rest when they were told by the women that he was risen from the dead it seemed vnto them as a feigned thing neither beleeued they them But Peter was one of the first that ranne vnto our Sauiours Sepulchre and reuealed to the rest the glorious resurrection of his Lord and Sauiour Other Doctours excusing Peter say That in this Deniall he spake Amphibologically his words carrying a doubtfull or double meaning and yet might admit a good construction and this opinion S. Ambrose S. Hilary and S. Cyril toucht vpon but the truth is that S. Peter did grieuously sinne therein and that he had lost his loue but not his faith Some treating of the occasions that made God to turne his eye from Peter some they say were on Peters part others on our Sauiours And the first and chiefest occasion was Saint Peters confidence and
Leo vt insidiator viarum vsque ad Crucem reus sit Christi repente Confessor This is a wonderfull change that a high-way robber condemned here to the Crosse should in the turning of a hand come to confesse Christ. In this one action did all the attributes of God shine and shew themselues in a most glorious manner and especially his wisedome in making these extreames to meet and ioyne together so on the sodaine and as it were in an instant Ecclesiastes saith That there is a time to bee borne and a time to dye a time to plant and a time to plucke vp that which is planted a time to slay and a time to heale a time to breake downe and a time to build a time to weepe and a time to laugh All these extreames did his wisedome knit and linke together In this action meete those two extreames of being borne and of dying for as much as wee see this theefe dye to the world and to bee borne anew to Christ. And the death of the righteous the Church stiles it a birth Those of planting and plucking vp that which is planted because grace is here planted in the soule of the theefe and sinne pluckt vp Those of slaying and healing for that our Sauiour Christ receiues these mortall wounds in his owne bodie and healeth those of the theefe Those of building and breaking downe that is built In regard that the body of sinne is destroyed and the building of grace is set vp in him Those of weeping and laughing in that the theefe doth now bewaile his sinnes and laughes for ioy to heare the gladsome newes of heauen In a word the more incurable that the diseases are which a Physitian cureth the more saith Saint Augustine is his skill and cunning to be commended Gods omnipotencie was likewise seene herein Saint Chrysostome saith That it was so great a Miracle that the Sunne should be darkened that the earth should tremble and shake that the stones should dash their heads one against another or that the vayle of the Temple should bee rent in twaine as was the inlightning of a blind vnderstanding the mollifying of a hard and stonie heart and the remoouing from the soule the vayle of it's ignorance And the truth of this may very well bee prooued by Moses his rod to whose Empire though the earth the sea the elements light darkenesse and all creatures whatsoeuer were obedient yet could it not mooue hard-hearted Pharaohs brest He likewise discouered his omnipotencie in making the Theefe an instrument to reuenge himselfe of the Diuell of the Pharisees of Pilat and of the people Of the diuell who as Saint Ambrose saith had blasoned it abroad to the world and triumphed greatly therin That our Sauiour Christ hauing but twelue Apostles he had woon one of them from him persuading him that it were the better life of the two to be a theefe than an Apostle but for a Iudas a poore base theefe which stole but blankes and farthings from the pouertie of that sacred Colledge Christ won a theefe from him which had spent his whole life in the diuels seruice and had committed many famous robberies and notorious thefts Theeues are the diuells weapons but our Sauiour Christ being the stronger of the two tooke from him the greatest theefe in the world leauing him with his owne sword confounded and ashamed I haue compared thee ô my Loue to the troupes of horses in Pharaohs charriots Salomon had great store of horses of the Aegyptian race for to furnish his charriots and to feare his enemies as the French vse to wage warre against Spaine with Spanish Gennets He then saith that as Salomon made war against the Aegyptians with the horses of Aegypt so the Church confoundeth the diuell with his owne Armes which are theeues and robbers Confounding and making ashamed Pilat the high Priests the Pharisees and the people with the tongue of a theefe There is not any thing in the world more infamous than a theefe Of all basenesse it was the greatest that our Sauiour should die as a theefe It was much that hee should become man Exinaniuit semetipsum more that hee should take vpon him the forme of a seruant Formam serui accipiens and more then that That he should be no more esteemed of than a worme of the earth and more yet then this That he should take vpon him in his Circumcision the image of a sinner but most of all that hee should die as a notable theefe betwixt two theeues In the garden he said Ye come forth to apprehend me as if I had beene a Theefe There he was taken like a theefe here condemned to death as a theefe that no man might take pittie of him There is no man that dies by the hand of Iustice but is pittied of the people saue only the theefe not one that takes compassion of him He that seeth a theefe hung vp in the high-way vseth as he passeth by to say Benedictum lignum per quod fit Iustitia Blessed be that gallowes on which such good Iustice is done The Church receiueth the Iewes the Moore and the Gentile but will not entertaine a theefe In Leuiticus God did forbid the Weasil and the Mouse and the frog also the Rat and the Lyzard and the Cameleon and the Crocodile and the Mole as vncleane and vnfit to be eaten and if you will but reade in the naturall Histories the conditions and properties of these creatures you shall see that they are all theeues It made many men maruell That the Crocodile being so great a creature the diuine Historian should reckon him vp amongst these other contemptible small creatures And Rodolphus Flauiacensis renders the reason of it to be this That they haue all of them theeuish qualities The Crocodile more particularly swims in the sea runnes on the land one while by day another while by night she layes a verie little egge which afterward growes to be a great beast and goes still increasing as long as shee liueth and is not onely the stampe and figure of a Sea-pyrat but of a Land-robber which night and day seekes all occasions to rob and steale Like vnto that theefe which in some poore country village begins first to fall a pilfring of some sixe royalls and from this so small a beginning raiseth his stock to fiftie thousand Ducats and comes at last to be a Regidor a Cauallero and a Titulado And by this so vile and errant a theefe as is here now treated of our Sauiour Christ did confound all Ierusalem He might haue made vse of the tongue of a Prophet or an Euangelist but as Sampson shewed his valour in conquering a thousand armed men with the iawe-bone of an Asse which had not approued it selfe to be so great had he made vse of Golias his sword or Hercules club or of Theseus his mace so our Sauiour Christ c. Gods mercie in this case did also shew it selfe exceedingly Saint
that he did him and the great reward hee bestowed vpon him Amongst other Motiues the first shall be the Title of the Crosse Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum Iesus of Nazareth King of the Iewes It was prophesied That his Kingdome should take it's beginning from the Crosse Dominus regnabit à ligno The Iewes did secretly honour the word à ligno The Saints did openly reuerence it Christ had giuen great pledges in his birth that hee was à King by Angels Shepheards and Kings In his life by the obedience of all sorts of creatures Who is this whom the winds and seas obey By the voices of the Diuells themselues by the whips of the Temple and by his last Supper Here bee some standing here which shall not taste of death vntill c. In his passion My kingdome is not of this world and ye shall see the Son of man comming in power But in his death hee gaue farre greater pledges All the creatures gaue testimonie of their Creator The diuels cried out so sayes Eusebius Caesariensis Pan magnus interijt And howbeit on Pilats and the peoples part the Title of the Crosse was placed there in scoffe and scorne of him yet the diuine prouidence made vse of these liuing instruments And as in the creation he walked on the waters so in the reparation of mankind he passed through punishments and paines of our Sauiour Christ making their iests turne to earnest The same consideration being likewise to be had concerning the Crowne the Scepter and the Robe of purple which in derision they put vpon him c. Hilarie and Bonauenture both say That our Sauiour Christs Patience was one great Motiue In heauen the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost beare witnesse In earth the Holy Ghost Water and Blood All these testimonies proue the Diuinitie of Christ. But to let passe those of heauen The Holy Ghost doth prooue that hee was a Diuine person whose voyce was so powerfull when the Spirit tooke his leaue of his body that it forced the Centurion to say Vere filius Dei erat iste Truely this man was the Son of God The Water which was miraculous prooues that he was a Diuine person for it is not possible that water should naturally flowe from a dead body The Blood that prooues it not onely in regard of it's muchnesse but that it was shed with so much patience For though his wounds were many and his torments great yet like a sheepe before the Shearer he neuer once opened his mouth or shew'd the least resistance And Euthymius and Theophylact adde That the prayer which he heard him make to his Father Father forgiue them which was the first that he vttered on the Crosse did worke that amasement in this theefe That he said with himselfe Sure this is no man And thereupon began to haue an assured hope of the forgiuenesse of his sinnes For thought he he that is so desirous to pardon those that had vsed him so cruelly not onely tormenting him in his body but also scoffing and flouting at him to vexe if it were possible his soule will surely farre more willingly pardon me who being heartily sorry for my sinnes desire to become his seruant I haue heard that the Kings of Israel are mercifull but none of them all had so generous and free a heart as our Sauiour Christ. Tertullian saith That hee came into the world for to shew himselfe a God in his suffering making Patience the badge and marke of his Diuinitie And that the power which he shewed in pardoning being so great much greater was that which hee shewed in suffering It was much that he should suffer for man much more in that he suffered for man when as man would not suffer him to be God To admit a Traytour to his boord to bid him welcome to feast him and make much of him that finding himselfe so kindly vsed he may make him surcease from his plotted treasons winning him vnto him by these and the like courtesies well may a man doe this but that God should admit a Iudas to his table that he should eate with God God witting That he would goe from the table to execute his treason to sell God and to deliuer him vp into the hands of his enemies onely God and his patience could suffer so great an iniurie which made Saint Augustine to say A potentia discimus patientiam S. Chrysostome Origen and S. Ierome are or opinion That the alteration of the sunne and the elements wrought the same effect vpon the theefe as it did vpon Dyonisius in Athens when he cryed out Either the world is at an end or this man is God Vincent Ferrariensis saith That the shadow of our Sauiour Christ did inlighten this Theefe And that the shadow of Saint Peter healing bodies it was not much that the shadow of Christ should heale soules Whereunto may be applyed that of Dauid Thou hast shadowed my head in the day of battaile Petrus Damianus saith That the blessed Virgin might bee a meanes of this Theeues Conuersion by intreating her sonne that he would be pleased to open the eyes of his soule Whether she were mooued thereunto because the good theefe did not reuile Christ or whether which Saint Augustine reports though some attribute the same to Anselmus That in her iourney to Aegypt hee being Captaine of the Theeues did the blessed Virgin many good seruices being much taken with the prettinesse of the child and the sober and modest countenance of the mother sure I am that it was a happines so sole in the world consisting of such strange circumstances That no man did or euer shall enioy the like good lucke And as we cannot expect a second death of our Sauiour Christ so such a second happy incounter as this was cannot bee hoped for This Theefe came in that good time when as heauen did shoure downe mercies when there was a plenary Indulgence and Iubilee granted when God did poure forth the balme of his Blood for to ransome man when the doores of heauen and the wounds of Christ were equally open when the fountaine of liuing water did cry out in the middest of the world If any man thirst let him come vnto mee and drinke when our Sauiour had such a longing desire to see the fruit of his labors and sweats when he had put that petition to his Father which began with Ignosce illis Forgiue them And it seeming vnto him That his Father was too slow in granting his request he did thus pittifully complaine vnto him O my God my God why hast thou forsaken me Why came I into the world Why was I borne in pouertie liued in labour and dyed in sorrow What Haue I laboured then in vaine Secondly it was his happinesse as Saint Gregory Nissen hath obserued That he inioyed our Sauiour Christs side and his shadow that he was so close vnder his wing He that sayles in a little Barke with a
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
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.
paine and torment Mors depascet eos Death shall gnaw vpon them and dying to life they shall liue to death Venit adorauit eum dicens Domine adiuua me Came and worshipped him saying Lord helpe me As there are some kind of fires which recouer more force by throwing water vpon them so the heart of this woman did recouer more courage by this our Sauiors disgrace in not vouchsafing her an answer thinking thereby to quench the heat of her zeale And falling downe prostrate before him and adoring him as God said vnto him Lord am I thy Sheepe or not thy Sheepe camest thou for me or not for me I dare not be so bold to dispute that with thee yet giue mee leaue considering the wretchednesse of my case to call vnto thee for helpe and to beat at the doores of thine eares with a Domine adjuva me with a Helpe me good Lord. Here are those hot impatient violent and firie dispositions condemned for whom those two louely Twinnes Hope and Patience were neuer borne with whom euerie little delaying of their desires and deferring of their hopes driues them to the depth of desperation and is as a thousand deaths vnto them They are like vnto your hired Horses who come so hungrie to their Inne that they will not stay the plucking off of their bridle though thereby they should the better come at their meat Osee compares them to a young Heyfer that hath been vsed to tread out corne who is no sooner taken from the cart or the Plough before her yoke is taken off would faine runne to the threshing floore Ephraim vitula est doctaÌ„ diligere trituram So affected to her feeding that she hath not the patience to put a meane betweene her treading and her eating Non est bonum sumere panem Filiorum mittere Canibus It is not good to take the Childrens Bread and giue it to Doggs This was so cruell a blow that any bodie else would hardly haue indured it But God alwayes proportions his fauours and disfauours according to the measure of our capacitie To thee hee giues riches because he distrusts thy weakenesse to another pouertie because hee knowes his strength Fidelis Deus qui non patietur vos tentare vltra id quod potestis God is so good a God that hee will not suffer yee to bee tempted aboue your power And this reason alone ought to make men rest contented with that state and condition of life whereinto God hath put them Christ you see carries himselfe scornefully to this woman yet poore soule shee patiently suffers and indures all Whether or no for that it is an ordinarie thing with God to be then most kind when he seemes to bee most curst How did he deale with Abraham touching his sonne Isaac Hee makes him draw his sword set an edge vpon it and lift vp his arme to strike but when hee was readie to giue the blow hee holds his hand and bestowes a blessing vpon him for this his great faith and obedience Non est bonum sumere panem filiorum It is not good to take the childrens bread What shall I giue the childrens bread vnto dogges It is not fitting My Miracles and my Doctrine were meant to the children for so was Israel called Filius meus primogenitus Israel It was prouided principally promised vnto them vpon a pact or couenant which God had made with Abraham In a well ordered house the dogs are not allowed to eat the childrens bread worser scraps will serue their turne it is enough that they haue that which is necessarie to nourish their bodie Oculi omnium in te sperant Domine The eyes of all things wait vpon thee ô Lord and thou giuest them their meate in due season such as is fitting for them But the choyce bread of his Law and of his presence this is reserued for his owne house and familie those that are his children and his owne people Of whom Saint Paul sayth Credita sunt illis eloquia Dei And Dauid Non fecit taliter omni nationi Hee hath not dealt so with any nation besides Your Turkes the Moores and the Negros in a scorne and contempt of them wee call them dogges And wee inherit this name from the Moores who when they were Lords of Spaine bestowed that nick-name on vs. The Scripture giues this name of base minded men Nunquid caput canis ego sum Am I a dogges head It was Abuers saying to Ishbosheth As if hee should haue sayd shall I be so base as to pocket such a wrong Againe Shall I take off this dogges head that curseth my King It was Abishays speech of Shimei as making no more reckoning of him than of a dogge Againe Is thy seruant a dogge that I should be so deuoyd of all pittie and humanitie It was Hazaells answere to Elisha when hee told him of the euill that he should doe vnto the children of Israell And Saint Paul aduiseth the Philippians to beware of dogges alluding to Heretickes And the Iewes gaue this attribute of dogge to the Gentiles Etiam Domine nam callite Yes Lord for euen the Whelpes Here this Canaanitish woman taking her Cu caught him at his word She had him now and as Saint Chrisostome noteth held herselfe now as good as alreadie dispatcht and that her sute was at an end Inferring hereupon ô Lord I account my selfe a most happy woman that I may be admitted into thy house though it be but in the nature of a dog First because that dogs beeing faithfull and louing affectionate thereby their Masters vnto them And none shall be more louing and loyall vnto you than I who shall still wait vpon you be neuer from your heeles and follow you vnto death And secondly for that to dogs were neuer yet denyed the crums that fell from their Masters table I would not poore vnworthy creature as Theophilact makes her speake desire any of those thy greater miracles which thou keepest for thine own children the least that thou hast will content me be it but as a crum in comparison of the whole loafe O how humbly and discreetly did this Canaanitish woman goe to worke How meane and yet how great a courtesie did shee beg of our Sauiour For in Gods house the least crumme of his bread is sufficient to make vs happy for euer and neuer more to suffer hunger as the least drop of his bloud is able to cleanse thousands of soules from their sinnes Elegi abiectus esse in dâ—mo Dei mei I had rather bee a doore-keeper in the house of my God c. Another letter hath it Ad limen Dei mei At the threashold of my God I had rather bee a begger and craue an Almes at the grouncell or lowest greese in Gods house than to triumph and liue in pompe in the pallaces of Princes Moses would rather haue his scrip with a morsell of bread and