made hast to forsake those bodies they possessed Saint Ierome saith That our Sauiour Christ speaketh here of this imprisonment How can any one enter into the strong mans c. Fourthly By our Sauiour Christs death did the Deuill seeke to shake off this his feare and cowardise by mustring vp all the rest of his forces God so permitting it that the Victorie might bee the more glorious and the more famous This is that which our Sauiour Christ sayd vnto the Pharisees as ministers of Hell This is your very houre and the power of darkenesse But after this hee remained in straighter imprisonment than before As you may read in the Apocalips I saw an Angell come downe from Heauen hauing the key of the bottomelesse-pit and a great chaine in his hand And hee tooke the Dragon that old Serpent which is the Deuill and Satan and he bound him a thousand yeares And cast him into the bottomelesse-pit and sealed the doore vpon him that he should deceiue the people no more til the thousand yeares were fulfilled for after that he must be loosed for a little season By these thousand yeares the Saints doe vnderstand that space or terme of time which is to be before the comming of Antechrist and those effects which did succeed after the death of our Sauiour Christ prooue that till then his imprisonment was to be more straight and that the Angell did not onely tye a chaine to his feete but also put a barnacle about his rongue and a ring in his nosthrils that not onely the strongest men should escape his snares but those that were little children and tender infants When the vncleane spirit is gone out of a man he walketh through drie places seeking rest and when he findeth none he sayth c. Euthimius hath obserued That our Sauiour Christs casting out of the Deuills the Euangelists call it a going or comming foorth Exibant ab eo daemonia clamantia per loca in aquosa The Deuils went out crying in watrie places S. Mathew vseth the word Arida Drie places The Greeke word signifies both these Origen by these places vnderstandeth Hell But since those Deuills which entred into the swine of Gennezaret did desire of our Sauiour Christ that he would giue them that mansion it is not to be beleeued that when they goe out of mens bodies they would for their pleasure make choyce of the bottomlesse pit Saint Ierome declares the same in the word Solitudines And your Exorcists doe coniure them to get them to the mountaines and the woods pretending to excuse the hurt which they do remaining among the concourse or presse of people The Angell which accompanied yong Tobias imprisoned the Deuil called Asmodeus who had killed Saras seuen husbands in the desarts of Aegypt And further sayth That the deuill could not there find any rest because he should not there meet with any people to deceiue them Not that the deuill can haue any rest but in doing mischiefe hee feeles the lesse torment Cheering himself like the enuious man with other mens miseries I will returne sayth hee vnto mine house whence I came out Not that he can freely returne thither when he listeth but because he striues and indeuours to doe it And for that his experience teacheth him that he there suffers least paine He taketh to him seuen other spirits worse than himselfe He lights vpon a house whence all Vertue is banished Well fitted for such a guest and seuen more such companions as himselfe There are three sorts of persons possessed with Deuills One sort of them are spiritually possessed by reason of their mortal deadly sinnes For he that commiteth sinne makes himselfe the seruant of sinne and willingly puts himselfe into the power of the deuill Others are corporally possessed as the Energumeni and such as are Lunatick· And Saint Austen reporteth that many young children beeing baptized suffer this torment And Cassianus sayth That many Saints of God haue suffered the like God so permitting it that they might bee refined and purified as gold in the crisole The third consisteth of both those kinds Now which of these three doe you take to be the worst Saint Crysostome and Gregorie Nazianzen doe affirme That the partie that is spiritually possessed is in the worst and most dangerous estate And the reasons are as strong as they are cleare Which indeed are most cleere The first is That the deuill can doe vs little harme vnlesse we fall into sinne For without the helpe of sin the deuill cannot destroy both soule bodie For though the deuill doe put it into the fire it is our owne heart that must forge the worke Saint Paul doth defie all the creatures both of Heauen Earth and Hell And why For I am persuaded saith he that neither Death nor Life nor Angells nor Principalities nor Powers nor things Present nor things to Come nor Heigth nor Depth nor any other creature shall be able to seperate vs from the Loue of God which is in Iesus Christ yet he durst not defie sinne For that alone is more powerfull to doe vs hurt than all other creatures put together Saint Chrysostome askes the question Why the deuill persuaded Iosephs brethren to put him first into a pit and then afterwards to sell him And he answeres that it was the enuie and hatred which they bare vnto him for his dreames sake And that other weapons the deuill needed none And in that Parable of the Tares where the deuill sow'd his Tares amongst the Wheat it is said That although he had not sowne them yet the good seed would haue beene lost through the carelesnesse negligence of the husbandmen For negligence in things so necessarie is a greater deuil than that of Hell In this sence Saint Gregorie Nazianzen sayd of Arrius Satius illi esset a daemonio vexari It had bin better for him to haue beene tormented by a Deuill The second is For that the goods of the bodie are not comparable to those of the soule Tange cuncta quae possidet Touch all that he hath Sayd the Deuill to God when he talked with him concerning Iob. In a word touching the goods of the soule the least thereof is of more worth than all the world And the goods not beeing able to bee compared one with another neither can their ill Nay rather to loose these goods of the bodie turnes oftentimes to our greater gaine Perieramus nisi perijssemus We had perished if we had not perished It was the saying of a Philosopher in a storme when the throwing of his goods ouerboord was the sauing of his life But that Soule that shall cast his sinnes ouerboord and drowne them in the bottome of the Sea that they may neuer be able to rise vp in iudgement against him is a happinesse beyond all happinesse and not to bee exchanged for the whole Empire of the World What booteth it a man to gaine all the
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
curs nor foâ—sting hounds he that wrestles and he that runnes a race will not stand in competition with him that is notoriously inferiour vnto them because they shal get no glorie by such a victorie That Emperor was much condemned that warred with Flies and tooke great pleasure in the killing of them Being then that I am a shaddow a flower of the field a reed or rather a thing of nothing What honour canst thou reape by my ruine c. Puluis es in Puluerem reuerteris Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt returne The end euer holds a correspondencie with it's beginning Nudus egressus sum nudus reuertar illuc so saith Iob. The riuers come from the sea and thither againe they returne so doth the Sunne from the East and thither it retyres again That Image of gold siluer brasse iron that had it's feet of earth must in the end turn to dust Baruc asks Vbi sunt Principes gentium His answere is Ad inferos descenderunt the earth hath swallowed them vp all S. Basil commenting vpon this place makes the like question and giues the same answer Nonne omnia puluis Nonne fabula Nonne in paucis ossibus memoria eorum conseruatur The greatest and famousest of vs all haue been and are but dust and there is no memorial left of them but a few rotten and stinking bones Vpon this point see Nazianzen Orat. de Humana natura Epictetus in Sententijs in Euchiridion cap. 22. c. Dust thou art c. From this Principle I will inferre three or foure conclusions of great fruit and consequence The first If thou art ashes Quid superbis terra cinis i. Whereof art thou proud ô thou dust and ashes Of thy beginning No Of thy end No Of what then If thou shouldest see thy selfe seated betweene the hornes of the Moone De fundamento cogità humilitatis Thinke on the basenesse of thy beginning and thou shalt then see that pride was not borne for man nor anger and pettishnesse appointed for womans condition pride cannot sute with durt nor curstnesse with womans softnesse Ab occultis meis munda me Domine ab alienis parce seruo tuo i. Lord clense me from my secret sinnes and spare thy seruant for those that are strange By alienis S. Hierome vnderstands those of pride for it is a stranger as it were another kind of thing differing much from mans base and vile condition and the Hebrew letter saith A superbijs parce seruo tuo Whereupon Saint Chrysostome noteth That there is not any sinne more alien to mans condition than pride or that carries with it lesse excuse Those fooles that Genesis painteth forth going about to build a Tower that should ouertoppe the Clouds did in their verie first word Venite faciamus lateres i. Come let vs make vs Brickes bewray their foolishnesse What go about vpon earth to reare a foundation that should emulate Heauen God said vnto Ezechiel Take thou a tyle portray vpon it the Citie of Hierusalem the walls the ditches the Towers the Temple and a great armie of men Strange yet true we see it is that the strength of cities the power of Armies is contained in a poore brittle tile-stone Esay threatned those of Moab with whips scourges because they insulted and proudly triumphed vpon the walls and towers of his Citie Loquimini plagas ijs qui lataÌ„tur super munâ—s cocti lateris i. Speake punishment to those that reioyce in walls that are made of brick What can earthen walls raise vp such pride in men Samuel beeing to annoint Saul God gaue him for a signe that he would haue him Prince ouer his People That he should find two men as soone as he was gone from him neere vnto Rachels Sepulchre God might haue giuen him some other signe but he chose rather to giue him this to quell the pride and haughtinesse of this his new honor as if he should admonish and put thee in mind That the ashes of so faire a creature as Rachel should read a lecture vnto thee what thou must be And this is the reason why the Church though she might vse other metaphors to expresse the misery and shortnesse of mans life as is often mentioned in Scripture as by a leafe a flower a shaddow yet it makes more particular choyce of Dust Ashes besides those be metaphoricall and these litterall for nothing more properly appertaineth vnto man than Dust and therefore the Scripture termeth death a mans returning againe to the earth from whence he came Conuertetur in terram suam proiectus est in terram suam The flower the leafe haue some good in them though of short continuance as colour odor beauty vertue and shade and albeit not good in themselues yet they are the image representation of good but Dust Ashes speake no other good Amongst the elements the Earth is the least noble and the most weake the fire the water and the ayre haue spirit and actitude but the Earth is as it were a prisoner laden with weightinesse as with gyues A certaine Poet stiles the Earth Bruta not onely for that it hath an vnpleasant countenance as Desarts Quick-sands Dens and Caues but also for that it is the Inne of Serpents Tygres Panthers and the like So that it is neither good to the tast nor the smell nor the feeling nor the hearing nor the seeing thou beeing therefore Earth Quid superbis terra cinis i. Why art thou proud ô Dust and Ashes The second conclusion is If thou art Ashes Quid vtilitatem saginando corpore Why such a deale of care in pampering thy bodie which the wormes are to deuour tomorrow Looke vpon that flesh which thy fathermade so much of that now rotten stinking carkasse and this consideration will moderate thy desire of being ouer daintie and curious in cherishing thine owne Isaac on the night of his nuptialls placed his wifes bed in the chamber where his mother died Tobias spent all the night with his Spouse in prayer being mindfull of the harme which the Deuill had done to her former husbands as being aduised from Heauen that he should temper with the remembrance of death the delights pleasures of this short life of ours The Cammomile the worse you treat it and the more you tread on it the better it thriues other Plants require pruning and tending to make them fruitfull but this herbe hath a quite contrarie condition that with ill vsage it growes the better It is the pamper'd flesh that brings forth thistles and thorns but the flesh that is trodden downe and humbled that yeelds store of fruit The third If thou art Dust and must tomorrow become Dust Why such a deale of coueting of honours and riches Why such great and stately houses so richly furnished Our forefathers liued eight hundred yeares and vpwards and those seeming but few they past
hee will that thou giue the glorie vnto him and take the profit to thy selfe That Workeman should doe ill who hauing built a house with another mans Purse should goe about to set vp his owne Armes vpon the Frontispeece Iustinian made a Law That no master-Workeman should set vp his name within the bodie of that building which hee made out of anothers cost Christ sets thee aworke and wills thee to Fast to Pray to giue Almes but Who is at the cost of this so good and great a worke God thou hast all thy materials from him the building is his it is his Purse that payes for all giue the gloâ—ie therefore and the honor thereof vnto him Gloriam meam alteri non dabo i. I will not giue my glorie to another Content thy selfe with Heauen which is promised vnto thee if thou doost well which is a sufficient reward for any seruice that thou canst doe The third That Fasting Praying giuing of Almes done onely for Gods sake is of that great price and estimation that it is ill employed on any other than God And for that God weighes all things in his hand as in a ballance and knowes the weight of euery good worke and the true value therefore it grieues him that thou shouldst doe these good things for so vile and base a price and is sorrie to see thee so poore and foolish a Merchant that thou wilt part wirh that which is as much worth as Heauen to thee for that which is lesse than earth to wit onely that the World may say Such a one fasteth Why doost thou thus crucifie thy flesh Why debarre thy bellie of food Why being readie to die for hunger doost thou not eat Why lift vp thy eyes to Heauen for so poore a thing as to winne applause vpon earth Sterni lutum quasi aurum saith Iob those works that are done for God are gold done for the world durt They lay vp this their treasure in the tongues and eyes of men which is a chest that hath neither locke nor key vnto it The fourth That Fasting is a Plaister for our wounds a Medicine for our griefes a Salue for our sinnes and a Defence against Gods wrath But thou must take heed that thou doe not make this Plaister poison this Medicine sicknesse this Salue a sore and this Defence our destruction For where God hath a Church there the Deuill hath a Chappell and where hee throwes in seed the other will sow tares Naboth a Subiect of King Achab had a Vineyard in Samaria neere vnto the Kings Palace the King had a mind vnto it Naboth will not part with it the King growes sad refuses his meat Iezabel comes to see him makes a jest of it takes pen in hand dispatches a Ticket to the Gouernors of that Citie sealed with the Kings Seale to proclaime a Fast subornes two witnesses to sweare That they heard Naboth blaspheme God the King the innocent Naboth is stoned to death and his goods confiscated In which action there are two things worthie our consideration The one That the circumstance of blaspheming God and the King vpon a solemne day of Fast as it is noted by Vatablus was so grieuous that of force hee must be condemned to die for it in so great veneration was Fasting in those dayes The other That it serued as a cloake for the taking away of the Vineyard for the falsifying of witnesses and injustice in the Iudges Who should haue then seene the People to fast would haue thought it had beene done out of zeale Gods honour and a desire to doe him seruice But it was meerely a tricke of the Deuils which hee had plotted with himselfe Hee threw poyson vpon vertue seeking to draw euill out of good Wee must therefore beware least these our good actions receiue hurt by euill intentions Like Hypocrites Hypocrisie runnes a quite contrarie course to these foure points before specified and crosses the same three or foure manner of waies First It feigneth the good which it hath not As the proud Man Humility the Cholericke Patience the Wanton Honestie the Miser Liberalitie This leger-demaine is that which hath more generally spred it selfe through mens brests being desirous that the bodie should serue for the soule as painting for the face which being blacke makes it seeme white The painted Image of diuers colours whereof Wisedome speaketh stirreth vp in Fooles a kind of pleasure and delight This stampe though it be there set vpon Idolaters may bee truly set vpon Hypocrites for the comparison will hold well in both Hee that shall truly and steddily looke vpon the face of an Hypocrite shall in him behold an Image flourished ouer with sundrie colours but counterfeit and feigned as the white of Chastitie the watched of Zeale the red of Loue. But this is but a dunghill couered ouer with snow the Hypocrite sheweth teares in his eys deuotion in his mouth sorrowfulnesse in his countenance and mortification in his flesh But he is not the man he seemes to be for the Painter though he giue the Varnish of the colour he cannot giue heate nor life hee may giue the likenesse but not the truth of a thing he painteth snow which is not cold fire which doth not burne birds which doe not flie beasts which doe not goe hee will paint a S. Hierome with a stone but it shall neuer hit him on the breast he will paint a Saint Francis with a discipline or whip in his hand which shall neuer giue him so much as one stripe or lash on the bodie like vnto that Statue which Michol put into Dauids bed clad with his cloathes which cosined the King and those that came with him Or like vnto a dead man which being beheld afarre off seemeth to be aliue or vnto Ezechiels Temple which was fairely painted without but within full of abhominations A Painter or a Statuarie frameth a verie perfect Image in the exterior parts but the Picture doth not enter into the substance of the wood or marble Nature beginneth with the inner parts it first fashioneth the heart then it organeth giueth life to the other parts of the bodie Whereas feigned Repentance beginneth in the outward parts of the body but true in the inward parts of the soule Our Sauiour in the Garden had first great sorrow in his soule and from thence that sweat of bloud was deriued to his bodie The Hypocrite hath the appearance of a Saint the apparell of a Saint the place of a Saint the figure of a Saint and nothing in him which is not Saint-like but like those Assisters at Christs death that had put on his cloathes Hee that shall see a common Hangman with Christs seamelesse coate vpon his backe wil take him to be a second Messias When Iacob saw Iosephs coat dipt in bloud thinking some wild beast had deuoured him he cried out Tunica filij mei est fera pessima deuorauit eum i. 'T is the garment
No trustie harbor for a ship said the Poet A mountain of theeus a Citie without defence That Farmer is a foole saith Saint Austen who putteth his corne into moist Granaries where it may rot or bee deuoured and consumed by the Weesell That which most importeth thee is To place thy Treasure vpon the Poore for they are Christs owne Banke for whatsoeuer they receiue our Sauiour accepts of it and he secures it and returnes it with vse What saies Chrysologus If thou wert to bee Ciuis perdurabilis A durable Citizen vpon earth it were wisely done in thee ro treasure vp vpon earth but being that thou art to make a speedie journey for Heauen Why wilt thou haue aboundance of that here which shall occasion thy want there THE SECOND SERMON ON THE THVRSEDAY AFTER ASHWEDNESDAY MAT. 8. LVC. 7. When he entred into Capernaum Cum introisset Capernaum c. IN Capernaum the Metropolis of Galilee a city in buildings glorious in prouision aboundant in reuenues rich in people populous in a word Capernaum implies all that which may expresse a place of comfort This Citie was then in great glorie but neuer receiued more honour than by the presence of Christ the miracles that he wrought there insomuch that Saint Mathew out of this respect calls it his Citie and Nazareth which was the place where our Sauiour had beene bred vp tooke it in such dudgeon that shee sent him that message related by Saint Luke Quanta audiuimus facta in Capernaum fac haec in Patria tua i. The great things which we haue heard thou hast done in Capernaum doe them also in thine owne Countrie Lord art thou so liberall towards strangers and so short handed towards thine own Countrimen In Capernaum thou hast healed Peters mother in law many that were tormented with Deuils especially one woman of a talking Deuill him that was sicke of a dead Palsey whom they let down through the roofe of the house the son of Regulus diuers others Let vs see thee now exercise these thy fauours in thine own country Rome had a hundred souldiers there in garrison as it had in other places of the Empire the Captaine whereof in regard of his office was called Centurion This Commander had a seruant that was sicke whome he loued verie well Hee sollicited our Sauiour for the curing of this his seruant by a third person yet discouering therein so much deuotion and faith that hee remained a chiefe Master of the faithfull in Gods Church Saint Chrysostome Euthimius seeme to differ about this miracle For the one sayth That the Centurion came and besought him himselfe The other That he onely sent vnto Christ to intreat him to doe this courtesie for him But it beeing so difficult to beleeue two miracles both in Capernaum both at one and the same time in one Master and in one Seruant let vs run along with all the rest of the Doctors who are of opinion It was onely one miracle Saint Austen cleareth this controuersie For the Scripture sayth he is wont to attribute that vnto thee which thou doost by a third person As when King Achab went to take possession of Naboths Vineyard Elias meeting with him told him Occidisti in super possidisti i. Thou hast killed him and art possessed of his Vineyard The King had not killed him but the Queene and the Councell But because hee was well contented therewith and consented vnto it hee sayd vnto him Occidisti possidisti Nathan spake to Dauid in the same language Vriam Etheum occidisti gladio filiorum Amon i. Thou hast slaine Vrias the Hittit with the sword of the children of Ammon Not that hee himselfe slue him but because hee willed his Captaine Ioab to doe it The Iewes tooke away our Sauiours life by the hands of the souldiers and though they would haue washt their hands of it with a Nobis non licet interficere quenquam i. T is not lawfull for vs to put any man to death Yet Saint Peter chargeth them therewith Authorem vero vitae interfecistis i. Yee haue killed the Lord of Life And because God was the mediate cause of his death Dauid tels him Tu vero repulisti eum destruxisti despexisti i. Thou hast broken him off destroid him c. In a word As hee that is married by a third person is married by himselfe And as hee that speakes by another speakes by himselfe as Kings doe by their Embassadors and as hee that despiseth an Embassador despiseth him that sent him and as our Sauiour sayth Qui vos audit me audit qui vos spernit me spernit i. He that heareth you heareth me and hee that despiseth you despiseth mee So the Centurion procuring the Antients of Capernaum to speake to Christ for him the Euangelist sets it downe that hee spake himselfe Accessit Centurio i. There came a Centurion There are some kind of people that haue had so antient possession of ill that they will hardly bee brought to any good Tradesmen and Merchants plead prescription for their buying How many yeares since sayth Salomon hath it beene the custome that the seller commends his ware and the buyer dispraises it Bonum est bonum est dicit omnis emptor In Receiuers and Proctors it hath beene an antient fashion with them to pill and to poll in Seruants to flatter in Souldiers to boast robbe and rauish Assueti latrocinijs as Egesippus sayth of them And as a Merchant can scarce liue in the world without lying no more can a Souldier without sinning In matter of gluttony they are Bacchusses Effundunt se in luxum epulas saith Tacitus In matter of filthy lust Priapusses In matter of bragging and swaggering men that would make a shew to outface Hector and Achilles or Mars himselfe such as will breake glasse windowes and threaten at euerie word to kill their poore Host but when the enemie comes vpon them more feareful than hares and betake them to their heeles The greatest crueltie that euer was committed was the scourging and crucifying of Christ And this the souldiers did so saith S. Iohn In a word that young man that lists himselfe for a souldier shakes hands almost with al kind of vertue But to leaue this Theme that my discourse may not seeme tedious in the enumeration of their vices though among souldiers there are a refuse kind of sort which Quintus Curtius calles Purgamenta vrbium suarum The Off-scum of Commonwealths yet there are many of them that are valiant discreet Christian and religious The Scripture maketh mention of three Centurions one Ioseph Decurion a noble gentleman who was captain of a Roman companie when our Sauiour suffered who scorning the power and ill will of all Ierusalem went boldly to begge his bodie of Pilat for to giue it burial There was another Centurion called Cornelius who not knowing Christ was so religious so full of good workes so giuen
to prayer and so fearing God that an Angel was sent vnto him to illuminate his vnderstanding Of another S. Mathew makes mention who when the lights of Heauen were darkned yet his sight was so cleere that hee saw Christ our Sauiour was the Sonne of God Vere filius Dei erat iste Besides this Centurion we now speake of whose Faith our Sauiour did admire Saint Austen celebrates another Captaine which in the midst of Armes tooke wonderfull care to know the things of God But that we may not weary our selues with counting the good ones one by one heauen it selfe hauing great Squadrons of souldiers this may suffice to honor this kind of Calling not onely for it's Faith but for it's loue and charitie Many did petition our Sauiour for their sicke brethren children and friends but for a Seruant this Centurion onely maketh suit Puer meus jacet in domo Paraliticus My child or my seruant lyeth at home sicke of the Palsey The common saying is Quot seruos tot hostes So many seruants so many enemies Iob complaineth That his seruants would haue eaten him piecemeale Who shall giue vs of his flesh that we may be filled If they then that serue so good a Master be his enemies who shal be his friend Seneca seemeth to make the word Seruant to signifie Indifferencie and that it is in the Maisters choice to make him either his friend or foe In this matter there are some rules of prudence nobilitie and Christianitie The first on the Masters part who are to treat their seruant with much loue and kindnesse like a brother saith Ecclesiasticus and in another place indeering it more Sit tibi quasi anima tua Let him be vnto thee as thy soule or as the Greeke hath it Sicut tu As thy selfe Horace calls a mans friend The one halfe of his soule Sicut viscera mea suscipe Receiue him as my owne bowells saith Saint Paul recommending his seruant Onesimus to Philemon No man is a seruant by nature and being that God might haue made thee of a master a seruant how oughtest thou to respect thy seruant being a master This noblenesse of nature shewed it selfe apparently in this our Centurion Puer meus jacet My child lieth sicke hee cals his seruant Child a word of loue and of kindnesse and signifies in the originall a Sonne And Saint Luke doth expresse it with a great deale of tendernesse Erat illi pretiosus Hee was deere vnto him Condemning those masters which vse their seruants as they doe their shooes who when they waxe old and are worne out cast them out vpon the dunghill Saint Paul calles these Sine affectione Men without compassion who no sooner shall their seruant fal sick but they presently bid away with him to the Hospitall if at the day of iudgment God will lay to our charge That wee did not visit the sick in other mens houses What will become of vs in that day when wee be charged with casting them out of our owne The second That all seruants are not so equall and alike that they should deserue either like loue or vsage Ecclesiasticus saith That as fodder and the whip belong to the Asse so doth meat and correction vnto a sloathful seruant But euermore inclining more to lenitie than crueltie The third That a Master bee not sharpe and bitter for there are manie like vnto Spiders which turne all into poyson good and bad seruice foolish and discreete words are all alike vnto them With some masters saith Macrobius snorting and spitting are accounted discourtesies inciuilitie Saint Austen sayes That it is a pride vnworthie mans heart to looke to be serued with more respect by thy seruant than thou doost serue thy God If euerie one of thy fooleries and misdemeanors God should punish them with the rod of his wrath what would become of thee Seneca writing to Licinius tells him That it is a great deale of wisedome and discretion in a Master to vse his seruants well And Clemens Alexandrinus That a Master must not vse his seruants like beasts that he that doth not now and then conuerse with them and communicate his mind vnto them doth not deserue to be a master The fourth That hee bee franke and liberall and a cheerefull rewarder of his seruants labours For if the light of Nature teacheth vs That wee should bee good vnto our Beasts a greater Obligation lyes vpon vs towards our Seruants Plutarch taxeth Cato Censorinus amongst his many other vertues of this one inhumane action That hee sould away his Slaues when they were old and vnable to doe him seruice as Gentlemen turne those Horses that were for their owne Saddle to a Mill to grind when they grow old and stiffe and are not able to trauell as they were woont to doe In a word a Master must consider That albeit the seruants bee the foot yet the feet are as needfull to goe as the eyes to see And the aduantage that the master hath of the seruant is not of Nature but fortune not by his birth for both haue Adam for their father on earth and God in Heauen Both of them say Pater noster qui es in Coelis scientes quoniam illorum vester Dominus est in Coelis i. Our Father which art in heauen knowing that both their and your Lord is in Heauen Not in his bodie for the Pope is made of no better dust than the poore Sexton nor the King than the Hangman Not in regard of the Soule for the price of their redemption were both alike Not of the vnderstanding for many slaues haue that better than they as Aesop Epictetus and Diogenes Not of vertue for many seruants therein exceed their masters But let vs descend now from the Masters to the Seruants dutie and what rules belong to them The first rule is Faithfulnesse and Loue. Salomon saith He that keepeth the Fig-tree shall eat the fruit therof so he that waiteth vpon his master shal come to honour Instancing rather in the Fig-tree than any other for it's sweetnesse and great store of fruit in token that he that shall sow good seruices shall reap good profit The second That he do not serue principally for his own proper interest for he that serueth for profit only and meerly to make gain of his master deserueth neither cherishment nor fauour A master stands in stead of God now we must not principally serue God for the good which he doth vnto vs but as he is our God The Scripture reporteth of Ioseph That his Master hauing trusted him with the gouernment of his house all his wealth he did not deceiue him of a farthing There are some seruants like your Iuy which suckes out the sap withereth the Tree whereunto it leanes it selfe remaining fresh and greene They are those Spunges which soake vp their Masters wealth making their Masters poore and themselues rich The third That a Seruant
as a Law Thou shalt hate thy enemie But giue you credit vnto me for I am a true Law giuer It is a hard case that truth should be in lesse esteeme than lying Heauen than Earth the true God than false Gods But though they lie neuer so much at thee to hate thyne enemie I shall neuer leaue beating it into your brests That you loue your enemie Laban when he pursued Iacob came verie eagerly vpon him at the first with a Valet manus mea reddere malum pro malo I am able to returne euill for euil but his courage was quickely cooled with a Caue ne quidquam durius loquaris contra Iacob â—eware thou speake not hardly against Iacob For the God of Iacobs father had charged him to the contrarie Where it is to be noted out of the Text That Laban did not say My God but The God of his father Whence I make this conclusion That if he that doth not take me for his God for Laban was you know an Idolater shall obey my command and not be his owne caruer in his reuenge What ought a Christian to do S Chrysostom seemeth to be much grieued that in matter of iniuries and reuenging of wrongs the World the Flesh and the Deuill should doe more with vs than God to whom onely vengeance belongeth What will not the Purse doe with some with other-some the intreatie of a great Person Dauids souldiers fingers itcht would faine haue set vpon Saul when they had him cub'd vp in the caue but Confregit illos sermonibus He detained them and wan them with good words to let him alone which they did not so much for Gods sake as for Dauids But I say vnto you Many presume so much on themselues that they wil not sticke to suffer martyrdome if occasion should be offered and haue sometime euen sought after it But that poore little valour which they experiment in themselues in matter of suffering and pardoning of iniuries may bewray this their errour vnto them For as Saint Gregorie saith He that shall faint in suffering an iniurie Quid faceret in dolore poenarum What will he doe in the midst of torment can he suffer the straining of the Racke or the rage of fire that cannot indure a hard word or brooke a slight iniurie Symon Metaphrastes reporteth of Sapricius That he would not pardon Nicephorus his enemie no though hee had oftentimes askt him forgiuenesse on his knees He was not long after apprehended in Antiochia for a Christian hee was condemned and carried forth to be martyred and in the way Nicephorus returnes againe to entreat his pardon but could not obtaine it Being brought to the place of martyrdome hee fainted and flew backe causing therewith so great a sorrow in Nicephorus that hee cried out aloud I am a Christian and will die in his place But I say vnto you S. Ambr. expounding that place of S. Paul Datus est mihi c. A Goad was giuen me in the flesh vnderstandeth by this pricke the persecutions of his enemies Carnis meae that is of mine owne Kindred and Countrie And Caietane addeth That this pricke was so necessarie for the Apostles saluation that without it he had beene damned When Saul vnderstood that Dauid had giuen him his life said I know now assuredly that thou shalt raigne ouer Israel And verie well doth that man deserue a Crowne not only here on earth but in heauen who spareth his enemies life But I say vnto you Antiently Lex Talionis was in vse with the Iewes and the Gentiles Oculum pro oculo dentem pro dente An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth And this to many seemed a naturall and iust Law as you may read in Aristotle Aulus Gellius Alexander and others Iulius reporteth That the first of the House of the Cornelij that was burned after his death was Scilla fearing the punishment of this same Lex Talionis for that hee had before pul'd his enemie Marius out of his graue But our Sauiour Christ crossing this Law saith This was the Law of Old An Eye for an Eye and a Tooth for a Tooth but I say vnto you That he that shall strike you on the one cheeke to him shall you turne the other Saint Austen expounding this place obserueth these two things the one That we are to answer an iniurie with two suffrings or a double kind of sufferance and that is to turne the other cheeke The other That to him that shall strike vs on the one cheeke we are to shew him a good countenance not giuing him halfe a face or ill face and this is to turne the other cheeke And Nazianzen addeth That if a man had ten cheekes he should turne them all vnto him But I say vnto you Nothing doth more greeue a Father than to see discord amongst his children Inimicitiae fratrum parentibus graâ—issimae Dauid when news was brought him That Absalon had killed all the Kings sonnes he grieued exceedingly Now if earthly fathers who are but fathers in Law haue so great a feeling thereof What shall God then Ego autem I who feele your hurtes I who loue euerie one of you as if you were all but one I who preferre your wrongs before mine owne and will sooner reuenge them if you loue me I say vnto you Dâ—ligite inimicos vestros Loue your enemies And that this senciblenesse may be the better perceiued two differences are to be noted The one That earthly fathers doe ordinarily loue their children disequally one better than another I know not why nor wherefore but God loueth all alike and maketh as much of one as another Philon asketh the question Why the precepts of the Decalogue speake to euerie one in particular as if they spake only to him alone Thou shalt not sweare Thou shalt not steale c. his answer is That euerie particular person by himselfe is as deere vnto God as all mankind put together And he prooueth it by this That he faith vnto euerie one I am thy God being the God of all The second That earthly fathers loue themselues better than their children but God loues his children better than himself his punishmeÌ„ts are likewise lesse seuere as we may see in Adam and in Caine. Againe in the Law of Matrimonie to marrie with an vnbeleeuing wife doth not dissolue that bond if shee consent not thereunto Non dimittat illam Let him not put her away it is S. Pauls but if she afterwards become an Adulteresse he might be diuorced from her and shee be condemned to be stoned to death Item in that precept Thou shalt not sweare a lawfull oath is not prohibited for composing of differences betwixt neighbour and neighbour and if in matter of profit one man shall exact vpon another and will not forgiue a mite let him assure himselfe that God will loose nothing of his right For three transgressions I will turne saith Amos
his hat cloake jerken and breeches but he wrapping them close about him with the helpe of his hands and teeth he kept himselfe vnstripped by the Wind who could doe no good vpon him so he giues off Then comes me forth the Sunne who came so hot vpon him that the man within a verie litttle while was faine to fling off all and to strippe himselfe naked The verie selfe same heat and courage did the Sunne of Righteousnesse vse in that last eclipse of his life when from the Crosse he did so heat inflame the hearts of them that were present that they did teare and rent their cloathes Et Velum Templum scissum est And as the barrennest ground is made fruitfull by the Husbandmans industrie so goodnesse ouercommeth euill Fortis vt mors dilectio i. Loue is strong as Death The stoutest the valiantest and the desperatest man aliue cannot resist Death no more can he Loue. Omnis natura bestiarum domita est à natura The nature of beasts is tamed by Nature Against that harme which the Philistines receiued by Mice the Princes made Mice of Gold let thy enemie bee as troublesome to thee as they mold him into Gold and hee wil neuer hurt thee more S. Chrysostome considereth the truth of this in Saul who bearing a deuelish hatred against Dauid yet by Dauids twice pardoning him his life made him as tractable as wax and he captiuated by this his kindnesse brake out into this acknowledgement Iustior me est He is iuster than I for I returned thee il for good and thou me good for ill S. Chrysostome concludes this Historie with a strange endeering That Dauids drawing teares out of Sauls hard heart did cause him more to wonder than did Moses and Aaron when he strucke the Rocke and the waters gushed forth We want not examples of this Doctrine euen in those things that are inuisible The toughest Impostumes are made tender by Vnctions Plinie saith That the roughest sea is made calme with oyle In the Prouince of Namurca they burne stone in stead of wood and that fire will bee quenched with Oyle Against the Impostume of hatred the raging sea of an angrie brest and the flames of a furious enemie there is no better remedie than Mildnesse Sermo mollis frangit iram A soft answer mitigates wrath Orate pro persequentibus vos Pray for them that persecute you This Prayer may be grounded vpon two reasons The one That the hurt is so great to him that doth the wrong that he that is wronged ought to take pittie and compassion of him and beeing it is Damnum animae The hurt of the soule which the offended cannot repaire of himselfe hee must pray vnto God for him That he would be pleased to repaire it Philon treating of the death of Abel saith that Cain killed himself non alterum not another and that Abel was not dead but aliue because he kild but the bodie which was none of his and left him his soule which was his And of Caine That his bodie remained aliue which was none of his and his soule slaine which was his and therefore Clamat sanguis Abel The bloud of Abel cries c. The other That there are some such desperate enemies that are made rather worse than better by benefits being like therein vnto Paper which the more you supple it with Oyle the stiffer it growes or like vnto sand which the more it is wet the harder it waxeth or like vnto an anuile which is not stirred with the stroke of the hammer or like vnto Iudas who comming from the washing of our Sauiors feet went forth afterwards with a greater desire for to sel and betray him whereas being in this desperate case hee should rather haue had recourse vnto God Prayer therefore is proposed vnto vs as the greatest charme and powerfullest exorcisme against the obstinacie rebellion of an enemie For vpon such occasions as these Prayer is woont to worke miracles Saint Stephen prayd for those that stoned him to death which wrought so powerfull an effect that Saint Austen saith That the Church is beholding in some sort to this his Prayer for the conuersion of Saint Paul And Saint Luke That the Heauens were opened hereupon vnto him he saw Christ standing in glorie at the right hand of his Father And it is worth the noting That the ordinarie Language of the Scripture is That our Sauiour Christ is said to sit at the right hand of God the Father but now here in this place the word Stantem Standing is vsed as if Christ had stood vp of purpose to see so rare and strange an accident and claue the Heauens in sunder offering him all the good they did containe or that he did seeme to offer him his Seate as it were as to a child of God vt sitis filij patris vestri That yee may be the children of your Father And this grace and fauor which God shewes vnto those that pray for their enemies was peraduenture a motiue to our Sauiour Christ to make that pittifull moane vpon the Crosse bewayling the Iewes cruell pâ—oceeding against him and praying that his death might not be layd to their charge Pater ignosce illis Father forgiue them Hee might haue hoped that these his charitable prayers would haue opened the Gates of Heauen for the Sonne of Glorie to enter in But in stead thereof the Sunne was darkened and a blacke mantle as it were in mourning spred ouer all the earth whilest he himselfe vttered these words of discomfort My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The doores of Heauen are shut against me my God hath forsaken me But the mysterie is That Heauen was shut against him that it might be opened vnto you and euen then was it opened to the Theefe and to many that returned from Mount Caluarie percutientes pectora sua i. Smiting their brests as also to that Centurion that said Verè filius Dei erat iste This was truly the Sonne of God There may be rendred another reason of this our Sauiours praying vpon the Crosse Which is this That for to obtaine fauors from Gods hand there is no meanes comparable to that of praying for our enemies In me loquebantur qui sedebant in Porta in me psallebant qui bibebant vinum ego autem orationem meam ad te Domine tempus beneplaciti Deus Dauid speaking there as a figure of Christ saith That his enemies sate like judges in the Gates of the Citie entertaining themselues with stories of his life and that they went from Tauerne to Tauern and from one house to another singing Songs in dirision of him descanting and playing vpon him but I turning towards God prayed heartily for them as knowing there was not any time fitter than that for the obtaining of my request Tempus beneplaciti An acceptable time c. The like he saith in the 180 Psalm Pro eo vt me
many Bookes that are written thereof especially by a Sea of judgement where your shallow wits are vsually drowned Concerning this Article which is so notorious there is not a Prophet an Euangelist a Sybil nor any of the holy Fathers which do not make confession thereof yea the verie Angells said vnto the Disciples This Iesus who was taken from you shall So come where this particle Sic So doth not so much exprimere modum as similitudinem not the true manner of his comming but after what likenesse he shall come Now doth he sit at the right hand of his Father and shall possesse that Throne till that he shall come to iudge the world and make his enemies his footstoole According to that of Dauid Sit at my right hand Vntill I make thy enemies thy footstoole a sentence which was repeated afterwards by S. Paul to the Hebrews Not that the sitting at the right hand of his father shal euer haue any end for as Saint Chrysostome and Gregorie Nazianzen hath noted it the word Vntill doth not point at any set time but the mutation of the place which our Sauiour Christ is to make for that terme of time that the Iudgement shall last himselfe comming thither in person to set all things in order Vsque in diem restitutionis omnium so saith Saint Luke And by reason of the notoriousnesse thereof the Euangelist doth not say that hee shall come but supposeth as it were his present comming with a Cum venerit c. The Sonne of Man Iudiciarie power or this Potestas judiciaria as the Schoole-men call it is proper to all the Trinitie but is here attributed to the Sonne as Wisedome is likewise attributed vnto him which is the soule of the Iudge So that the Sonne as he is God is the eternall Iudge and the Lord vniuersall to whom the Father hath communicated this dominion by an eternall generation Generando non largiendo saith Saint Ambrose But as he is man the blessed Trinitie gaue him this power in tempore by vniting him to our nature Hee gaue him power to doe judgement And Saint Iohn giues the reason thereof Because he is the Sonne of Man it beeing held fit that Man should be saued by Man Gods mercie gaining thereby glorie and Mans meannesse authoritie And therefore it was thought fit that Man should be iudged by Man Gods justice remaining thereby iustified and Mans Cause secured For What greater securitie can man haue than that hee should bee Mans Iudge who gaue his life for Man shedding his bloud on the Crosse for Mans saluation So doth Saint Austen expound that place alledged by Saint Iohn Dedit ei judicium facere quia filius hominis est On the one side here is matter of hope comfort on the other of feare and trembling Who will not hope for pittie from a man and such a man that is my brother my aduocate my friend who to make me rich had made himselfe poore c. But who can hope for any comfort from that man that was iudged sentenced and condemned vniustly by man vnto death Who can hope for any good from that man whose loue man repaid with dis-loue and whose life with death These Yrons are too hard for the stomacke of man to digest it had need of some Ostriches helpe I will not destroy Ephraim because I am God and not Man God is woont to requite bad with good discourtesies with benefits his loue commonly encreaseth when mans diminisheth but mans brest is somewhat streighter laced In a word This his beeing Man is a matter of feare and by how much the more was Mans obligation by so much the more shall the son of mans vengeance bee For the pretious bloud of our Sauiour Iesus Christ and his cruell yet blessed wounds are the Sanctuarie of our hopes especially to those that trust in him and lay hold on him by Faith but for the vnthankefull sinner they shall be matter of cowardise and of terrour and to our Sauiour Christ minister occasion of greater punishment and a more rigorous reuenge Esay introduceth the Angels questioning our Sauior at his entrance into Heauen Quare rubrum est vestimentum tuum sicut calcantium in torculari Why are thy garments ô Lord like vnto those that tread the Wine-presse You say wel for I haue troden like the grapes my enemies vnder foot and my garments are sprinkled and stained with their bloud O Lord this bloudie spoyle would well haue beseemed thee on earth But what doost thou make with it here in Heauen Dies vltionis in corde meo The day will come when I shall bee reuenged at full of those ill requited benefits which I bestowed on my People and all that patience which I then sâ—ewed shall be turned into wrath and endlesse anger Saint Chrysostome interpreting that place of Saint Mathew Sanguis eius super nos Let his bloud be vpon vs and our children saith thus The time shall come that the bloud that might haue giuen you life shall occasion your death it shall be vnto you worse than that Fire of Babylon which the King intended for death though in the end it turned to life The bloud of Christ was intended for life but it shall end in death Hosea saith Vâ— eis cum recesserâ— ab eis Another Translation hath it Caro mea ab eis When the Sonne of mans mercie was come to that heigth as mans thought could not set it higher to wit That God in mans fauour should take mans flesh vpon him woe vnto those men who were vnmindfull of so great a blessing for this extraordinarie courtesie of his being so vnthankfully entertained and so ill requited shall be their condemnation for whose saluation it was intended Cornua eius sicut Rinocerotis saith Deutronomie The Vnicorne is the mildest the patientest beast that is and it is long ere he will be prouoked to anger but if he once grow hot and angrie there is no creature more fierce and furious than he is Ex tarditate ferocior as Pierius vseth it by way of adage Saint Austen collecteth hence another conuenience Euerie iudgement saith he requireth two especiall and important things The one That the Iudge feare not the face of the Mightie The other That he hide not his face from him that is brought before him For the first The Scripture hath it euerie where Regard not the countenance of the Mightie For the second Iob pondering the perdition of a certain Prouince saith That the Iudges thereof would not suffer themselues to be seen The earth is giuen into the hands of the Wicked he couereth the faces of the Iudges And therefore God will not be seene by the damned for by their verie seeing him they should be freed from their punishment and therefore in this respect it was fit that Christ should come to iudge the world as Man In Maiestate sua In his Maiestie The Interlinearie hath it In Diuinitate
Saint Chrysostome In Gloria Saint Luke In Maiestate sua in Patris sanctorum Angelorum Where it is noted by Saint Ambrose That his Maiestie was greater than that of his father Quia Patri inferior videri non poterat For in what place soeuer the Father should be it could not bee presumed that hee should be lesse than his Son but of his Son it might perhaps haue bin presumed otherwise into which errour Arrius did afterwards fall In Maiestate sua c. Our words here want weight and our weake apprehension matter and forme worthie so great a Maiestie In a Prince a Lord and in a Iudge is necessarily required a kind of presence and authoritie beyond other ordinarie men Esay reporteth of his People That seeing a man of a goodly presence and well clad they said vnto him Thou hast rayment be our Prince Nor is this onely necessarie but that his greatnesse and his Maiestie bee euerie way answerable to the largenesse of his Commission and Iurisdiction And therefore our Sauiour Christ being then to shew himselfe a King of Kings and a Lord of Lords and an vniuersall Iudge ouer all persons and ouer all causes since the first beginning of the world to the end thereof his Maiestie must needs be incomparable First In respect of his person whose splendor and brightnesse shall eclipse and darken all the lights of the World At this his comming his glorie at the first I mean of his soule was reserued and hid so that therein they might not see the fearefulnesse of their punishment but in his comming to Iudgement the light of his bodie shall be so shining and so extreamely bright that the Sunne in comparison of it shall seeme as a candle Saint Ambrose calleth the Sunne the Grace of Nature the Ioy of the World the Prince of the Planets the bright Lanterne of the World the Fountaine of Life the Image of God whom for it's beautie so many Nations adored as a God But in that day the Sunne and the Moon it 's Vicegerent whom they call the Queene of Heauen shall be like vnto those lights of the Sheepheards which are hardly to be discerned afarre off Saint Iohn made in his Apocalyps a description of this Maiestie and beautie hee saw the Heauen opened and that a Horseman came forth riding on a white Horse from his eyes flamed forth two Torches of fire from his mouth issued a two edged Sword in his hand he had a Rod of Yron on his head many Crowns and on his thigh a Letter which beeing read spake thus The King of Kings and Lord of Lords Great Armies of Horsemen did attend him all on white Horses This is a figure and Type of our Sauiour Christs comming to Iudgement The white horse is his most holy and vnspotted Humanitie Those flaming Torches of his eyes betoken That all things both great and small shal be laid open to his sight there shall not be any sinne so secret nor any fault so buried vnder ground which shall not appeare at that generall Triall that beeing then to be verified of euery Sinner which God said to Dauid touching his murder and adulterie Thou hast done it secretly but I will doe it in the sight of the Sunne The two edged Sword signifies the finenesse and sharpenesse of the Iudges proceeding and that he is able to cut in sunder the marrow and bones of a Sinner and like a Razor meet with the least haire of euill that shall shew it selfe His Rod of Yron shewes the firmenesse and constancie of his Iudgment which shall not like those white Wands which the Iudges bare before be wrested this way and that way at pleasure Those many Diadems on his head intimate those Crownes that he shall clap on the heads of the Righteous and those that haue done well That glorious Letter of Rex Regum because he shal there shew himselfe to be King of Kings Lord of Lords many Kings of the earth shall haue their knees smitten like Balthazar 's and their hearts throb within them when they stand before his presence expecting their fearefull doome Lastly hee shall come accompanied with many Horsemen on white Horses to shew vnto vs that hee shall bee waited on by all the Court of Heauen Salomon saith Tria sunt quae bene gradiuntur quartum quod foelicitèr incedit Three creatures haue a goodly kind of gate the Sheepe the Lyon and the Cocke but a King whom none can resist carries more state with him than them all Saint Gregorie typifieth this prouerbe to our Sauiour Christ who did gallantly beare himselfe in foure of his most famous mysteries First In that of his Redemption represented in the sheep which is made readie for the Sacrifice Secondly In his Resurrection figured in the Lyon Vicit Leo de Tribu Iuda Whereunto Saint Paul doth attribute our justification Resurrexit propter justificationem nostram Thirdly In his preaching of the Gospell fitly expressed in the Cocke who with his crowing and clapping of his wings awakeneth those that are asleepe in sinne But his comming to judgement which is deciphered vnto vs in his beeing a King doth farre exceed all the rest For many were not bettered by his Death nor his Resurrection nor his Doctrine though these were most pretious Treasures proffered to Mankind because that Age wherein Christ came was an Age of contradiction but in this his comming to judgement that prophecie of Zacharie shall be fulfilled And there shall bee one Lord ouer all the earth and his name shall be one Till then this King shall goe by little and little ouercomming and subduing his enemies but when he shall come in his glorie then shall wee see a most stately triumph and a quiet and peaceable possession and that Stone which Daniel saw loosed and vnfastned from the Mountaine shall then cease to pound and beat into pouder all the Empires and Seigniories of the earth Thou shalâ— breake them like a Potters Vessell In a word in this world while wee liue heere God is not absolutely obâ—yed nor serued by vs as he should bee no not of the Iust themselues and those that are the Elect children of God So doth Saint Austen declare that place of the Canticles Exui me tunica mea quomodo induâ— illa Laui pedes meos quomodo inquinabo illos I haue put off my coat How shall I put it on I haue washed my feet How shall I defile them How is this to be borne withall how is this to be suffered saith this sacred Doctor that the Spouse should vse this libertie with her best Beloued Whereunto he answereth That the Iust do not denie vnto God his entrance into the house of their Soules but the Spouse doth there discouer the resistance which the Soule makes in the behalfe of the Sences at that time when as God calls her vnto him But in the day of Iudgement the Soule shall be no more mis-led by the Sences but
out of it's stubbornenesse say vnto God I will not But admit it should say I will the miracle is no lesse but rather a manifest token of Gods diuine power and omnipotencie It is likewise to be noted That all the entrances which our Sauiour Christ made were with a great deale of noyse and clamour In that first which he made in the world Haggie prophecied That he should turne the Heauen and the Earth topsi-turuie And God did performe it vsing as his Instrument therein the Emperour Octauianus Augustus In that which hee made into Aegypt he did trouble all that Kingdome by throwing their Idolls downe to the ground as it was prophecied by Esayas Commouebuntur simulachra Aegypti So doth Procopius declare it Eusebius Athanasius and Saint Austen But say That in these his entrances there was a generall motion yet was there not a generall obedience But here Commota est vniuersa Ciuitas The Greeke saith Velut terrae motu concussa fuit As if it had suffered an vniuersal earthquake there was neither old man nor woman nor child c. This is a great encarecimiento or endeering of the matter First Because our Sauiour preaching about the Cities and Townes of that Kingdome the Euangelists deliuer vnto vs That all the Inhabitants that were in those parts left their houses and their villages emptie and forsaken and only for to follow him S. Marke he saith Et conueniebant ad eum vndique vt iam non posset manifeste introire in Ciuitatem sed in Desertis locis esset And Saint Luke That they troad one another vnder foot and crusht the breath out of their bodies and only to presse to heare him Ita vt se mutuò suffocarent But it is to be supposed that many likewise staid at home but in this his entrance into Hierusalem God would haue this lot to light vpon all and therefore it is said Vniuersa Ciuitas The whole Citie Seâ—ondly In regard of the infinite number of Inhabitants that were in that Citie which as Plinie reporteth was in those dayes the famousest in all the East And in a manner all those that haue writ thereof make mention of foure millions of persons Iosephus relateth That the President of Syria beeing desirous to render an account vnto Nero of the greatnesse of that Commonwealth did desire of the high Priests that they would giue him a true note of the number of those Lambs which they sacrificed one Sabboth which were afterwards eaten by seuerall companies and Housholds some consisting of ten some of 15 and some 20 soules and they found that they did sacrifice at euerie one of those their solemne Sabboths two hundred fiftie six thousand and fiue hundred Lambes which according to the rate of fifteene persons in a companie amount to foure millions and fiue hundred thousand But withall it is to be noted that neither the Sicke nor the children were present thereat But here Vniuersa Ciuitas The whole Citie came some out of passion and some out of affection Thirdly For that our Sauior Christ was alreadie condemned to death by the Chapter house of the Clergie who had called a Conuocation to send out Serjeants and Souldiers for the apprehending of him and had published Proclamations of rewards to those that should bring him bound vnto them that then and at such a time the whole Citie should receiue him with Songs and acclamations of King Messias and God being a proscribed man and doomed to death Haec mutatio dextrae excelsi This was an alteration which could not proceed but from the most High Commota est vniuersa Ciuitas The whole Citie was mooued Ierusalem had beene long settled in it's vices Visitabo super viros defixos in sordibus suis Moab requieuit in faecibus suis I will search Ierusalem with candles and punish the men that are settled on their lees c. And as the wise Phisitions stirre and trouble the humours cause loathings and gripings in the stomacke so our Sauiour Christ in the breast of euerie one causeth a squeamishnesse of the stomacke by moouing and stirring those foule dregges of sinne wherewith they were corrupted Et commota est vniuersa Ciuitas Many old diseases are woont to be cured with some sudden passion as of sorrow or feare or by some great and violent vomit for euerie one of these accidents make a pause in the humours and detaine the spirits An Ague hath been seen to be put out of his course and quite taken away by the sudden drawing of a sword vpon the Patient and a Palsey driuen away with the sight of a mans enemie And Horace telleth vs That a couetous Miser was recouered of a great Lethargie by the Physitions feigning that his heires were carrying away his bagges of money and the Chests wherein his Treasure lay In like manner in the infirmities of the Soule one turbation one disquieting one breaking vp of those Chests wherein our sinnes are massed vp may bee the recouerie of our perdition This made Dauid to say of his Soule Sana contritiones eius quia commota est O Lord my Soule is troubled within me when I consider the foulenesse of my sinnes it is sad and melancholy for the verie griefe thereof it is much disquieted And therefore ô Lord Sana contritiones eius affoord me thy helping hand for it is now high time to cure me of my sore Quis est hic Who is this This was a question of the enuious and appassionated Pharisees Howbeit it seemeth to Origen That it should proceed from some good honest people c. Howsoeuer it was a question whereunto no man could fully answer put Theologie the sacred Scripture the Doctors the Saints the Councells the Arts the Sciences and all the Hierarchies of Angells put them all I say together and put this question vnto them and after that they haue said all they can say all will be too little to satisfie this demand of Quis est hic Who is this One of Iobs friends treating of the Maiestie and greatnesse of God and how incomprehensible a thing it was saith Forsitan vestigia Dei comprehendes Et vsque ad perfectum omnipotentem reperies Canst thou by searching find out Gods footsteps Canst thou find out the Almightie vnto perfection By the tracke of his footsteps he vnderstandeth these inferior things that are guided and gouerned by his prouidence And by perfection which is the head of all the highnesse of his Wisedome In a word In all God is altogether inuestigable in regard of his heigth the Heauens come short of him Excelsior Coelo est see then if thou canst reach vnto him Which consideration made Saint Austen to say That God is not onely present in earth which is his footstoole and in Heauen which is his Throne but in those which are to be immagined elsewhere How then canst thou reach vnto him beeing more deepe than Hell longer than the Earth and broader than the
Sea God tharefore beeing on the one side so embowelled in and beneath the Earth and on the other so wholely out of the same as Saint Hilarie prooueth it Intus extra super omnia internus in omnia How can hee fully know all that is in Heauen in Hell in the bowells of the Earth or in the bottome of the Sea Many perhaps cannot giue a full answer to this but the Pharisees had they not beene blinded with enuie might haue contented themselues with that of Moses For he hath written of me or of Ezechiel who did prophecie of him That he was the King and Sheepheard of Israell or of Iohn Baptist who pointed him out vnto them as it were with the finger or of his Workes and Miracles For they beare witnesse of me of the Father who proclaimed him in Iordan to be his Sonne of the Deuils of Hell who with open voyce acknowledged him to be the Sonne of God of the little children who cried out Hosanna to the Sonne of Dauid blessed is he that commeth in the name of the Lord. Quis est hic Who is this Diuers and sundrie times Christ had entred into Hierusalem and they had neuer askt this question before but now the triumph and the Maiestie of this King awakens the tongues of these enuious People who now begin to aske Quis est hic It hath beene an antient question doubted of of old Which is the better life that of a publique or a priuate person Seneca in an Epistle of his seemeth to fauour the former Miserable saith he is that mans fortune who hath no enemie to enuie him And Persius saith That it is a great glorie to haue men point with the finger and to say There goes the Kings Fauourite But Iob hee seemeth to like better of the latter O that I had giuen vp the ghost and no eye had seene me would I had beene as though I had not beene and that I had beene carried from the wombe to the graue Wishing himselfe to haue beene of that short continuance in the world that no man might haue knowne whither he had died or liued And Horace Neque vixit malè qui natus moriensque fefellit His life let none bemone who liu'd and di'd vnknowne Both liues haue so much to be said on either side that the question remaines yet vnresolued But admit that a publike life be the more desired yet it is not the safest for alwayes the more honour the more danger Who is this Your great Persons and those that prosper in the world carrie wheresoeuer they goe such a noyse with them that they giue occasion to the People to aske Quis est hic Iohn Baptist when hee thundered out in the Desert clad in Camells haire That the Kingdome of God was at hand iudging him to be some coelestiall Monster they sent out to enquire of him with a Tu quis es Who art thou The Angells seeing our Sauiour Christ ascend vnto Heauen with such a deale of Maiestie and glorie as was neuer seene before began to aske Quis es iste qui venit de Edom Who is he that commeth from Edom And Esay speaking of a great Tyrants comming downe to Hell saith Hell was troubled at thy comming In a word it is true in nature That the loftie Cedars and the highest and tallest Pine Trees make the greatest noyse when they are shaken with the wind and the greatest Riuers the greatest roaring And therefore it is no meruaile they should aske Who is this When a Merchant shall go apparelled and attended like a Knight or some great Lord and his wife and daughters like a great Ladie and her children Who will not aske Quis est hic I knew his Grandfather c. And for that the Pharisees were enuious they did speake reprochfully of our Sauiour euerie foot vpbraiding him That he was a Carpenter and the sonne of a Carpenter and seeing him now enter Ierusalem like a King they demanded in scorne Quis est hic Hic est Iesus Propheta à Nazareth Galileae This is Iesus By name a Sauiour and by office a Prophet Alluding to that promise made in Deutronomie I will raise vp a Prophet of thine owne Nation Beeing a plaine Prophesie of our Sauiour Christ as appeareth in the third of the Acts His Countrie Nazareth where he was bred they not knowing that he was borne in Bethlem Now these wise men of this World asking with this scorne Who is this and the foolish ones answering with that discretion This is Iesus c. agrees well with those thankes which our Sauiour gaue vnto his father Because thou hast hid these things from the Wise and hast reuealed them to Babes It is Gods fashion to ouercome a Pharaoh with Flies and by a sillie woman to confound the Learned who said In Belzebub the Prince of Deuills he casts out Deuills by a blind man the Iudges of Hierusalem by a low Zacheus a tall Gyant The order of Grace is different from that of Nature God as a naturall Author Media per summa gubernat Gouernes the meane things by the highest saith Dionysius First he communicateth his vertue his power to the supream causes and by them to the meaner and the lowest The Sunne shines first vpon the Mountaines and then shewes it selfe in the Vallies c. But Grace oftentimes doth first illuminate the lowest Bottoms and shines oftner in them than on the Mountaines it called the Sheepeheards before it called the Kings it appeared vnto the Ignorant before the Wise and shewed it selfe to Balaams Asse before his Master tooke notice of it And therefore Ecclesiasticus saith That the Soule of a Iust man attaineth to more truth than those Watch-Towers that are reared on the highest Walls vnderstanding thereby your greatest Clerkes A just and vpright man will now and then affoord you better councell than many wise men howbeit in matters of difficultie and deepe points of knowledge and of Faith we must alwayes haue recourse to the Wise. Caepit eijcere omnes ementes vendentes He began to cast out all the Buyers and the Sellers Zacharie prophecying of this entrance saith Ecce Rex tuus veniet tibi mansuetus Behold thy King shall come vnto thee meeke How can these two suit together Mansuetus and Triumphator gentle and yet a Conqueror Teares in his eyes and yet so angrie that hee neuer shewed himself more I haue giuen some reasons hereof in another place those that now offer themselues are these The first That Mercie and Iustice are the two Poles of Gods gouernment By those teares in his eyes and by those words of lamentation from his mouth and by moouing the hearts of that hard hearted Citie our Sauiour gaue notable proofes of his mercie But finding this insufficient to make himselfe knowne amongst them his Iustice then did display it's power by whipping those Merchants and in them the Priests who had a share in their
being so iustly incensed against them but must needs breake out into these termes with them A wicked generation c. God complained by his Prophets That the sinnes of his people had quite altered his naturall condition Let Samaria perish saith Osee because she hath prouoked her God And anon after he saith the same of Ephraim Gods heart being so mild so gentle so louing and so full of compassion the sinnes of Samaria and of Ephraim had prouoked it to bitternes Ieremie in his Lamentations complaineth Repleuit me amaritudinibus inebriauit me absynthio He hath filled me with bitternesse he hath made me drunken with Wormwood Ezechiel stiles the people Domus exasperans A House which doth exasperate Gods nature being so noble so free so pittifull Of Iudas Saint Luke saith Suspensus crepuit medius He burst asunder in the midst and all his bowells gushed out And this was not without some great mysterie That his vitall spirit should not goe out at his throat being streightned with the halter nor through his mouth for that therewith though treacherously he had kist his Sauiour but out of the verie heart and bowells of him for there it was that his hatred lay And though in other outward things there may be feigning and dissembling the heart cannot loue and hate at once And therefore beeing so many monstrous mis-shapes in the rest of the parts of mans bodie as two heads two hands two feet and the like yet did Nature neuer consent that there should be two hearts onely it is vsed as an embleme to expresse a traitor who loues with the one and hates with the other Woe to them that are of a double heart saith Salomon Simeon and Leui had double hearts when they dealt so deceitfully with the Prince of Sichem And because we might not think that their father had a hand in it and that they did it by his aduice at the houre of his death he called them Instruments of crueltie Ezechiel calls them Foxes who deuoure the grapes of the Vine and hide themselues vnder the leaues thereof Quafi Vulpes in Deserto Prophetae tui Chrysologus That they wage warre against Vertue with Vertue against Fasting with Fasting against Prayer with Prayer against Mercie with Mercie and against Miracles by crauing other Miracles And if it were abhominable before God that a man should put on womans apparell and a woman mans as it is in Deutronomie much worse will it seem in his sight that the euill man should put on the disguise of him that is good that Vice should put on Vertue 's cloathes In Ecclesiasticus God threatneth the Hypocrites That he wil pull off their maskes and disguises in the midst of all the People Attende ne reuelet Deus absconsa tua in medio Synagogae elidat te Our Sauiour had a faire occasion offered vnto him for to discredit and disgrace them and therefore plucking their maskes from off their faces he said A wicked and adulterous Generation seeketh a signe c. We would sâ—e a signe from thee The second reason is The insenciblenesse of this people that amongst so many such strange miracles they should as if all the rest were worth nothing require other newer and greater miracles Potest ne quisquam saith Saint Chrysostome adeo stolidus inueniri Can any man bee found so foolish Nor is that particle Tunc which is referred to a summe of miracles which summe can hardly be reduced to a summe of the least consideration in this place Tunc Then when they should haue kneeled downe before him to haue kissed his feet and acknowledged how much they were bound vnto him Tunc Then when they should haue seemed to be astonished and wonder-strucken at his miracles Tunc Then when they were to haue beene conuinced and like Paul to haue fallen into a trance Then do they obstinatly perseuer in their malice This holy doctor saith that Ionas was a type figure of this so profound a sleep The tempest driues the sea before it seeming for feare to runne away from the furie of those fierce and terrible winds and yet Ionas sleepeth The waues couer the Clouds and discouer the bottomlesse Gulfes striking a terrour both in the Mariners and the passengers and yet Ionas sleepeth the sayles and tackling are all to-be rent and torne the helme broken and lost and none left to gouerne the Ship and yet Ionas sleepeth the maine-mast is split in sunder a planke is sprung the Pylots and the Mariners multiplie their prayers to their false Gods which are painted in the prow of their ship Viridesque Deos quibus aequora curae and yet Ionas sleepeth nay hee routs and snoarts in securitie and is not sencible of the great danger he is in The like effect did Christs comming worke with his people There was a generall hurrie both in Heauen and Earth such an Inquietudo and turbation as was prophecied by the Prophet Haggie Behold yet again I will mooue the Heauen and the Earth And this people hauing with teares with sighes desired that they might be so happie as to see their Sauiour is now fast asleep The Dead liue the Deafe heare the Blind see the Lame goe the stones of the Temple are torne in sunder the Graues open the Sun is eclipsed and the Moone darkened and this great Ship of the World is tossed to and fro with the furie of the winds and yet this people sleepeth and would to God they were but asleepe for he that sleepeth euerie little noyse will awaken him but these men hauing the eyes of their bodie open are as blind as any Beetle in those of their soule They are in condition like vnto those Deuills of whom Iob speaketh Cor eius indurabitur quasi lapis extinguetur quasi malleatoris incus He compares their heart to a stone and thinking this too short a comparison for that the hardest stone is cut and hewne with the Cheesill and Hammer he compares it to a Smiths Anuile which the more it is beaten vpon the harder it growes And Saint Gregorie hath obserued That on the Anuile all other mettalls are made soft are wrought to bee plyable and are reduced to diuers formes and shapes but the Anuile it selfe continues still harder and harder In the said chapter Iob saith That the bodie of Leuiathan was ioyned and knit together and that the mettall of his scales was like strong Shields surely fastned together Alluding as it should seeme to that which Ieremie speaketh of his Children Dabis eis scutum cordis c. Thou shalt giue them ô Lord a heart like a shield of Brasse which shall rebound backe vpon thine own bosome those shafts that thou shalt shoot against them for those fauours and those blessings which thou bestowest vpon them make their hearts the harder and they are so blinded through their sinnes that their hearts are become as hard as a Target of yron to the
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
affectionating vs for Heauen than in purchasing Heauen for vs or in conquering the Deuill and Hel For one onely drop of his bloud was sufficient to do this but for to affectionate our will all his bloud in his bodie would scarce suffice And therefore Saint Cyprian saith That he was willing to suffer so much though he might and that in rigour haue satisfied with so little For though a little might haue serued the turne for to worke our redemption yet a little was not enough for to inflame our hearts with the fire of his loue This sence may suit with that saying of Saint Paul so diuersly commented Gaudeo in passionibus meis adimpleo quae desunt passionum Christi in carne mea I reioyce in my sufferings for you and fulfill the rest of the afflictions of Christ in my Flesh. Why should the Apostle say so For what can be wanting to those passions of Christ which were so aboundant and all sufficient Marry That wee might make true benefit thereof and that hee might infuse this affection into our hearts the Apostle saith I desire to be dissolued and to be with Christ. Volumus a te signum videre i. We would haue a signe from thee Saint Luke addeth De coelo from Heauen alij tentantes signum de coelo quaerebant It is the condition and nature of Hypocrites to be friends and fauourers of Miracles which make a great noise in the world but doe little or no good at all They are Admirationis magis quam pietatis things rather of admiration than pietie An Hypocrite will outwardly cloath himselfe with the Camels haire of a Iohn Baptist with the mortification of a Saint Ierome and with Penitence it selfe but because in the inward man Charitie is wanting vnto him his bowels haue no compassion but are full of extortion and crueltie And therefore Saint Paul giueth this caueat vnto vs and it is a good one Nemo vos seducat volens in humilitate religione Angelorum Let no man deceiue you with feigned humilitie nor a dissembled deuotion reuealing vnto yee that they haue had the vision of Angels and that they appeared thus and thus vnto them for if to remooue mountaines from one place to another without Charitie be but a beating of the Ayre quasi aerem verberans or like the sound of bels which suddenly vanisheth so likewise these their visions without charitie shall be but vaine and idle Of Antechrist the Apocalips saith That hee shall cause fire to come downe from Heauen and Saint Efrem that hee shall remooue Islands and mountaines and that hee shall walke vpon the waues of the Sea as on drie Land and that hee shall flie in the Ayre and take no harme And Rabanus That hee shall make the fields to brinâ— forth flowers in the heart of Winter as if it were in the midst of May That he shall discouer the bottomelesse beds of the Sea that hee shall raise vp the dead and put Nature quite out of her course But all these shall bee false and lying Prodigies which shall be directed to a kind of vaine and deceitfull admiration In prodigus signis mendacibus as Saint Paul hath it So in like manner the Hypocrite lyeth with his countenance his eyes his feet his hands his mouth and his apparell Vendiâ— fumum sayth Chrysologus emit applausum Hee selleth smoake and buâ—es the applause and acclamation of men Our Sauiour Christ was those waters of Shiloa which did runne silently along and did quench the thirst of those that were ready to die through drought Which was meant of our Sauiour as Epiphanius hath it in his exposition vpon that place of Esay Pro eo quod abiecit populus iste aquas Siloe quae currunt cum silentio Because this people hath refused the waters of Shiloh that runne softly now therefore c. He was that tree of Life whose verie leafes did affoord health to all those that were vnder the shaddow thereof And peraduenture these Pharisees did require signes from Heauen because by that benefit which the people did receiue by his miracles here on earth he carried all the world after him We would haue a signe from heauen What after so many miracles These Pharisees are the stampe and figure of certaine Consciences which haue a continual conflict within themselues or to speake more properly they are a Chancerie consisting of Iudges guiltie persons and Pleaders Inuicem se accusantium defendentium as Saint Paul tels vs Accusing and excusing one another Reason is the Iudge Selfe-will is the guiltie person and the Pleader is that Worme which accuseth and gnaweth their conscience And when the guiltie person seeth that the Pleader accuseth him and that the Iudge condemnes him though miracles doe abound yet hee appealeth to some other miracle like vnto a bad debtour who when his time of payment is come craues a longer day One findes himselfe at Death's doore and sees that he is like to die and that in all likelihood he is to goe to Hell for that his ill gotten wealth condemnes him hee weeps cries out makes grieuous lamentation purposeth promiseth and resolueth to amend his life and to make restitution God heares him giues him life and health and when he sees that he is sound well and that his Pleader presseth him to make restitution he appeales to another miracle Another findes that he hath slipt a thousand times vpon this or that occasion he knowes his owne weakenesse and that he cannot looke but he must lust and purposing without any ill intention in the world to entertaine honest conuersation with this and that woman returnes too day like the Swine againe to his mire and too morrow appeales to another miracle Saint Austen reports in his Confessions That hee had a great conflict within himselfe his Will had a purpose to leaue these human delights and pastimes and when the day of his purpose and promise was come this Pleader puts him in mind of it but he appeales to another day This then was a great part of this peoples fault that they did complaine That God did not deale so kindly with them as he was woont We haue not seene our signes there is now no Prophet The greatest of all the Prophets that euer were or shall bee came amongst them and did more miracles than all of them put together and when they should haue confest themselues to haue beene conuicted with so many miracles they appeale to another miracle The Pharisee which inuited our Sauiour tooke him to be no Prophet because he did not diue into the depth of that loathsome and sinnefull brest of Marie Magdalen If thought he hee were a Prophet hee could not chuse but know what kind of woman this was But finding afterwards that he knew Magdalens heart and that his own did not beleeue he was a Prophet he appealed to another miracle We would see a signe c. To what
end serue miracles from Heauen if thou hast not eyes to behold those that are done on earth It were better for thee to craue eyes of God than miracles Agar beeing readie to die for thirst in the Desert shee had water iust before her but she was so blinded with passion and her stomacke did so swell against her mistresse that shee did not see it And God opened her eyes Saint Chrysostome compareth the Pharisees to a sandie ground which though it sucke in neuer so much water yet it still remaines hard and drie And albeit God had showred downe such store of miracles vpon them yet all was as nothing because they were not disposed to take notice of them nor to make that good vse of them as they ought to haue done Hee that goes on his way musing on this or t'other thing though many passe along by him yet in this his melancholly humour his thoughts being otherwise taken vp he neither mindes nor sees any thing Philon compares them to Statua's because they see things as though they saw them not Two qualities or especiall properties had those miracles of our Sauiour Christ by which euerie man might haue knowne them The first That they all tended to the profit and benefit of man Tunc apperientur oculi caecorum Then shall the eyes of the blind be opened said Esay Caeci vident Claudi ambulant Leprosi mundantur The Blind see the Lame walke and the Lepers are clensed saith Saint Mathew Virtus de illo exibat sanabat omnes Vertue went out of him and healed all saith Saint Luke And in our Creed we confesse Propter nos propter nostram salutem descendit de Coelis For vs and for our saluation hee descended from Heauen So that those miracles which hee was to shew heere vpon earth is a condition and qualitie so notorious of those which were prophecied and foretold of the Messias that to haue them to come from Heauen was a thing vnknowne to the learned Doctors of those times Thou sendest thy seruant on an errand and saist vnto him In such a walke thou shalt meet with a man clad in greene wearing a hat with a feather in it of such and such colours c. Now if he should so farre mistake himselfe as to goe to one that were cloathed all in blacke and deliuer thy message vnto him wouldst thou not hold him to be a foole Saint Austen in his Exposition vpon those words of the seuentieseuenth Psalme Immissiones per Angelos malos saith That commonly those signes which direct themselues to ill are of the Deuill as those which hee did in destroying Iobs Substance Ignis de Coelo cecidit as also those which shall bee wrought by Antechrist But God alwaies directs his miracles to our good But here by the way it is to be noted That with the Ill Ill can doe much and Good little Theodoret in those his Questions vpon Genesis saith That when Pharaoh perceiued that God began his Plagues with such poore things as Flies he lost a great part of that feare which he had before but that if he had begun where he left which was the death of al the first born his heart would haue treÌ„bled in his breast The Philistines tooke Armes against the Israelites thinking with themselues That God had spent the greatest part of his power in Aegypt In a word with the Ill ill is most powerfull And for all the miracles of our Sauiour Christ were directed vnto good Saint Ambrose saith Luuriabantur iâ— Christo Nothing would please their palate but daintie morcells like little children who are cockered vp vnder their mothers wing or like Gluttons who when their bellies are full and cloyed with ordinarie dishes seeke after nicer and choicer fare to prouoke their appetite The Scribes and Pharisees in like manner hauing taken a surfet of those miracles which our Sauior wrought vpoâ— earth would needs out of daintinesse desire miracles from Heauen which if they would haue beene bettered by them he would not haue stucke with them to haue let them had them either from Heauen or Hell but hee knew it was to no purpose And therefore God one while as the Authour of Nature another while as the Authour of Grace doth euermore abhorre all excesse except in cases of necessitie And he that created all things In pondere numero mensura In weighâ— number and measure cannot but abhorre all superfluous and vnprofitable things And this may serue for an instruction to vs to part with the superfluities of our House Quod superest date pauperibus Giue the remainder of that which is left to the poore King Achazâ—id â—id ill for that he would not aske a signe and the Pharisees did worse in demanding one from Heauen the one offended in the lesse the other in the more the one was too backeward the other too forward For God hauing descended downe from Heauen in his owne person they could not than this desire a greater miracle But they were the sonnes of those fathers who enioying the bread of Angells were quickely wearie of it and long'd for Quailes insomuch that God was forced to take away their liues from them because he knew not how to satisfie their longings The second qualitie and propertie of our Sauiours miracles was That he did them with Empire and command ioyning this his Empire with his doctrine they did cleerely prooue that he was God as it is noted by Thomas Saint Chrysostome brings in here a comparison which makes much to the purpose that wee haue in hand Thou entrest saith he into a Pallace thou knowest not the Prince or Lord thereof thou espiest one before whom all the rest stand bare and rising vp from their seats obey whatsoeuer hee commandeth Now when thou seest this thou canst not be so simple but thou must needs know that this is their king and chiefe commander In the Iewes it was not much that they should doubt whither our Sauior Christ were Lord of heauen earth or no but when they saw that the Winds did obey him the Waues the Dead the Liuing Heauen and Earth and that he did command all creatures with that supreame power and Empire they might then verie well haue fallen into this reckoning as to say This is the Lord of all The Centurions though they had no learning yet did they light vpon this truth Verè Filius Dei erat iste This was truly the Sonne of God The one of them led thereunto when he saw in what a strange manner the whole world was troubled The other when in good manners with a Domine Noli vexari Lord Trouble not thy selfe he seemed loath to giue our Sauiour that trouble saying vnto him I am but a poore Captaine an ordinarie Commander and yet when I lay my commandment vpon my seruants they obey me much more reason then is it that sickenesse should be subiect to thy Empire c. And
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
the middle part borowing that metaphore from all other liuing creatures who haue their heart placed in the midst of the bodie Tribus ditbus tribus noctibus Three dayes and three nights Our Sauiour Christ was buried about the sixth watch in the Euening and rose againe vpon Sunday morning According to which account hee remaineed onely two nights in the graue Saint Austen S. Ierome Beda and Theophilact say That by the figure Syâ—ecdoche they are to be taken for three nights and three dayes taking the part for the whole But peraduenture the plainer exposition will be this that wee should vnderstand by three dayes and three nights three naturall dayes consisting of twentie fouâ—e houres apiece it being an ordinarie phrase amongst the Iewes to confound the day and the night making them all one as it appeareth in Genesis Exodus Deutronomie and in the booke of the Kings For in very deed our Sauiour Christ did not continue in the graue three nights but abode there some part of three naturall dayes Viri Niniuitae surgent in Iudicio The Men of Niniuie shall rise vp in judgement Some interpret this threatning to be an effect of justice others of mercie of justice by charging this people with the repentance of Niniuie No man will spare his enemie if he can catch him vpon the hip The Groome of the Stable that shall play the Rogue and the Theefe with thee thou wilt call him to a reckoning euen for his Curry-combe and his Apron and afterwards turne him out of doores But of a good Seruant and one that hath beene faithfull vnto thee thou wilt take no account at all his honestie shall excuse him O yee false Hypocrites yee Scribes and Pharisees Why would yee call vengeance vpon your selues by saying Let all the bloud of the Righteous come vpon vs This will make yee pay at last that which perhaps ye did not thinke yee did owe. To a Sinner Omnia cooperantur in malum All things turne to the worst And therefore all creatures shall rise vp against these wicked and stiffe necked Iewes The Heauens shall he call from aboue and the earth to iudge his People The Scripture it selfe shall bring in euidence against them for their ingratitude The Oxe knoweth his Owner To him that shall not acknowledge Christ and his Church the Asse shall beare witnesse against him Et Asinus prâ—sepe domini sui To him that shall despise the inspirations of Heauen the Kyte shall accuse him Câ—gnouit miluus tempus suum To him that shall be carelesse of his eternall good he shall be tit in the teeth with the Ant Vade piger ad formicam To him that is disobedient the Historie of Ionas shall be alledged against him but as the Whale swallowed Ionas but sent him forth again without any harm done vnto him so our Sauiour Christ was swallowed vp by the Earth but not to his hurt and both it and all the Elements acknowledged him to be their Lord and Master which was more than the Pharisees would doe To Saint Chrysostome this threatning seemeth to be an effect of mercie For by proposing vnto them the example of Niniuie he desires to draw them to repentance It was another kind of threatning that God vsed towards his people for worshipping the golden Calfe Let me goe that I may destroy them and blot out their name Theodoret is of opinion That this was Gods great mercie towards them For by that threatning he set before Moses the wickednesse of the people and did thereby aduise him that he should make intercession for them that he might not punish them in his wrath After that generall deluge and inundation of waters which drowned the whole world God did set a bow in heauen and it may be he might haue tooke it in his hand for to threaten the Earth But Saint Ambrose hath noted That to the end that the World should take it as a token of Gods mercie towards them he made the points or ends of it to touch the earth that the World might thereby be assured That Gods Iustice would not shoot any more Arrowes downe from heauen Tertullian treating vpon that place of the Apocalips Repent or else I wil come against thee shortly and wil remooue thy Candlesticke out of his place except thou amend he saith That so great is the goodnesse of God that though hee might with a great deale of reason denie vs his mercie he doth not only not deny it vs but he threatneth vs and also intreateth for vs to the end that we may accept of this his mercie for no father can be immagined to be halfe so pittifull as he is Saint Austen crieth out O Lord what am I that thou shouldst command me to loue thee What am I that thou shouldest be offended with me And Why doost thou threaten me with great miseries if I doe not loue thee I am much bound vnto thee for the one but more for the other In louing thee I see how much I get by it in threatning mee I see how much reckoning thou makest of me S. Ephrem discoursing of those of Niniuie saith That God had mercie of them and that he forgaue them their sinnes Et mendax potius haberi quam crudelis tâ—dit He would rather be held a lyar than accounted â—ruell The men of Niniuie shall rise vp in judgement Some Diuines grant That the Niniuites in that generall judgement shall be Iudges ouer many that shall be condemned by a judgement of comparison so a Niniuite shall condemne a Pharisee He did credit a stranger one that was spewed out of a whales mouth one that had neuer wrought any miracles nor had any prophecies in his fauour but thou proud Pharisee didst not beleeue thy naturall Lord whom his Doctrine his miracles heauen and earth had declared to be thy Messias and thy God This Niniuite fasted put on sack cloath and ashes but thou didst not lay aside thy delicacies and thy dainties He made the Beasts of his house to fast but thou didst not so much as will thy Seruants to abstaine A Moore shall condemne in a comparatiue kind of judgement a bad Christian This Moore entred into his Mesquitae with a great deale of respect reuerence humbling himselfe on his knee to a thing of nothing but thou prophanest my Temples and blasphemest mee to my face In a word If the fruits of repentance weigh downe the ballance of eternall punishment Why should we preferre temporall pleasures before eternall happinesse but because those Iudges are in that day to sit Sedebitis super Sedes duodecim and the Accusers to stand face to face to the Accused the sence thereof in this place shall not be ill vnderstood if we shall say That they shall condemne them by accusing them for we likewise commonly say That the Accuser condemneth him that is guiltie when by his testimonie hee doth conuince him Viri Niniuitae This Citie of Niniuie Eusebius
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
willingnesse to be whole Vis sanus â—iers but in the Court before thou commest to the Fiat of thy pretension thou hast eaten out thy cloake and it is wonder if the courtesie quit the cost Seuenthly The Angell that came to the Fiâ—h-poole as all the Commentators vpon this place haue it was one and the same no accepter of persons but left euerie one to his owne diligence and industrie and hee that could soonest get into the water he was the man that was cured Had he been an Angel of court as he was of Heauen he must haue beene aduised some houres before his comming of the businesse and peraduenture he would haue taken gifts and rewards not onely of those that were to haue their estate bettered by him but of al other the Pretenders And it were no ill councell that there should be but one onely in Court that should heale vs in this case and not to haue them so often changed for those which are put out remain fat and full and those that newly come in weake and hunger-staru'd And as those Flies that are alreadie full doe lesse afflict the wounds of the Poore so c. Baruch tells vs That the Iewes that were in Babylon sent great store of money to those that were in Ierusalem that they should pray vnto God for the life of Nabucadonazzar Balthazar his son And though this may seeme rather a tricke of Court than otherwise and to sauour of flatterie yet that which makes for our porpose is That they did desire the life of those Tirants for feare lest God should send them worse in their stead The like was spoken by a woman to Dyonisius the Tyrant whose death was generally desired of all Angelus autem Domini descendebat de Caelo But the Angell of the Lord came downe from Heauen The Angell did descend at certaine times and with onely touching the Water hee did inrich it with so powerfull a vertue that no infirmitie was incurable for it This water doth much expresse that health which the Saints enioy in Heauen that drop of water which the rich man desired doth much expresse its comfort and happinesse for that the tip of the least finger dipped therein was powerful enough to quench those euerlasting flames It was much that the water touched by the Angell should free all infirmities and take away all the tormenting paines vpon earth but how much I pray if this Angell were God For the common receiued opinion is which is followed by Saint Austen That God representing himselfe in the Old Testament in the forme of an Angell or an Angell appearing in the person of God saith Ego Deus nomen meum Iehouah I am God my name is Iehouah And he said vnto Iacob Cur quaeris nomen meum quod est mirabile Why inquirest thou aftâ—â— my name which is is Wonderfull And in verie deed hardly could an Angell by his owne proper vertue and power leaue the waters of the Fish-poole so rich not being able to doe or vndoe any thing in nature nor suddenly either to take away or adde accidents to any thing And Saint Ambrose saith That this Angell did represent the Holy Ghost to whom are attributed the effects of Sanctification But suppose that it were not God himselâ—e nor any Minister representing his person but one of those Angells which serue as Messengers to his Maiestie this case is worth our consideration if we will but looke vpon that which Goâ— doth and the loue which he sheweth to a poore sicke man without helpe neglâ—cted and forgotten he sends a Prince of his Pallace to heale him and to set hiâ— free from any disease whatsoeuer God stileth the Angell his Face and his Countenance Praecedet te facies meâ— My Face shall goe before him the rest of the creatures he calleth Vestigiâ— Pedum suorum The prints of his feet And amongst these Vestigia those that are benumm'd in their limmes those that are sicke of the Palsey and those that are Iame seeme sitting in their chaires and vnable to goe to be the verie dregs and off-scumme of the earth now that God should command his Angells that they should take vpon them the care of the Poore such sillie wormes and poore snakes as they bee is a great indeering of his loue towards them which made Saint Paul to say Omnes sunt administratorij Spiritus They are all ministring Spirits To those of the Spirit it might verie well be but that God should minister helpe to filthie loathsome and miserable flesh God could not endure to doe such kindnesses vnlesse hee had an especiall loue vnto them The Scripture scarce any where makes mention of the righteous man that is afflicted here vpon earth but that an Angel comes from Heauen to comfort him And for this may suffice that generall Proclamation Quod vni ex minimis meis fecistis c. What ye haue done to the least of mine c. This truth is made good vnto vs by many Histories as that of Agar Daniel Tobias Elias and Ioseph Nay to God himselfe an Angell came to comfort him when he was so ful of sorrow and heauinesse in the Garden And this was it that mooued the Apostle to say Gloriamur in tribulationibus We glorie in tribulations For there is no Loadstone that drawes the yron more vnto it than Tribulation doth the Regalos and comforts of Heauen And as the flameâ—worketh most vpon that wood which is trodden downe with the feet so the glorie of God worketh most vpon that heart which is most oppressed c. Mouebatur aqua The water was mooued Saint Ambrose obserueth That the moouing of the water did serue to aduise the comming of the Angell for little would his comming haue imported them if the noyse thereof had not giuen them notice of it for hidden treasure and concealed wisedome are neither vsefull nor profitable And of this miraculous motion there may be rendred some naturall reason for that wee see that your Lakes and your Pooles are more vnquiet and naturally make more noyse when there is much raine towards Other literall and moral reasons are set down elsewhere vpon this place Sanabatur vnus One was healed A Fish-poole Porches Angells Water Motion What a do is here Some men may thinke that this is too large a circuit for so small a building I answer That with God it is as hard to heale one as many and he that can cure one man who is a little world of himselfe can with as much ease giue remedie to the greater But those were barren yeares and Gods mercie was yet in Heauen Misericordia Domini in Coelo saith Dauid and as before a great rain some few drops begin first to fall so now at the stooping of the Heauens at the breaking forth and showring vpon the earth the great mercies of God it is no meruaile that some small drops should precede In barren yeres bread is giuen vs by ounces
giue them present death it giues them a heart to desire it Elias found himselfe so out of heart when he sate him downe vnder the Iuniper tree in the Wildernesse flying from the furie of Iesabel who sought after his life that he desired in this his melancholly mood that hee might die What despaire then may not that sorrow driue a wretched poore soule into whose griefe is as long as great and as great as it is long Seneca tells vs Melius est semel scindi quam semper premi Better is a short than a lingering death Iob passed ouer many a sorrowfull day and many a mournfull night Dies vacuos noctes laboriosas Companilesse and comfortlesse and his wife thinking it the lesser ill to die out of hand than to liue in such perpetuall torment said vnto him pittying his grieuous paine Benedic Deo morere Play the Renegado once curse God to his face that thou maist oblige him thereby to take away thy life But say that Iobs affliction was great it was not of 38 yeares standing as this poore mans was Eight and thirtie yeares Here we are to consider That this sicke man was at least fiftie yeares old and we may make this coniecture That hee lay in a little carre with his bed vnder him together with such ragges and clouts as were for his necessarie vse Whence it followeth that God had laid this long sickenesse of thirtie eight yeares vpon him for his sinnes as Saint Chrysostome Irenaeus and many other Saints inferre vpon that command which God laid vpon him Noli amplius peccare See thou sinne no more It seemeth that hee had committed these sinnes when he was but twelue yeares old for many times Praeuenit malicia peccatum it so falls out that our wickednes outstrips our age and that wee runne into great sinnes before wee come to great yeares young Youthes beeing herein like vnto Cakes that are baked vpon coles which are burnt before they come to their baking According to that of Osee Factus es Ephraim subcineritius panis qui non reuersatur i. Ephraim is as a Cake on the hearth not turned And this ought to be a warning-piece to those that are old and antient sinners and haue not yet beene questioned for their lewd liues nor neuer felt the lash of Gods wrath They that keepe Lyons vse to whip their young whelpes that they may make the greater Lyons to feare and liue in awe of them Fewer are the faults but more the stripes which the Poore feele a bad signe for the Rich that doe runne ryot Aristotle saith That punishments were inuented for the deterring of men from euill Saint Chrysostome That the marke which God set vpon Cain was not so much for his particular defence as for a forewarning to others and therefore God granted him so long a life that his example might adde terrour to posteritie Some punishments are quickely past ouer and therefore doe not so much good and others are verie profitable by reason of their length continuance Iob saith That God had as it were nailed his shafts on his sides they stucke so close to his ribs Esay and Malachie take their comparison from the Siluer-smith who sits long at his worke Et sedebit constans c. Now God by these his long afflictions punisheth him whom he loueth to the end that the sinner may take warning thereby and learne to feare the Lord Non videbit interitum cuâ— viderit Sapientes morientes i. He shall not see destruction when he shall see that Wisemen die Eight and thirtie yeares According to the common course which God taketh of punishing sinne in this life this of thirtie eight yeares seemeth somewhat too rigorous a correction Vpon this doubt diuers reasons are rendered and one more principall than the rest is That this prolongation was not because God wished him ill or loued him the lesse but because there is not any Medicine that preserues a man more from the plague of vice and of sinne than a long sickenesse Prisons and Fetters saith Vlpianus were not so much inuented for the punishing of disorders as the restraining of them being as a great logge of wood to an vntamed and vnruly Hey far a strap to the fleet Hound or a bridle to a Horse Iob calleth the Gout a paire of Stockes Posuisti in trunco pedem meum Thou puttest my feet in the Stockes and lookest narrowly to all my paths and makest the print thereof in the heeles of my feet And he stiles his dunghill his prison Nunquid Caete ego sum aut Mare quia circumdedisti me in isto carcere Am I a Sea or a Whale-fish that thou keepest me in ward Our Sauiour Christ healing a woman that bowed her bodie so downward to the earth that shee could not looke vp to heauen said Hanc filiaÌ„ Abrahae quam c. Ought not this daughter of Abraham whom Sathan hath bound eighteene yeares be loosed from this bond Salomon compares a Physition to a Iaylor for when God commits a delinquent to his couch causing him there to remaine prisoner hauing fettered as it were his feet to his sheets the Physition lookes vnto him and hath a care that hee stirre not from thence till God releaseth him of his sickenesse Thus did hee deale with this poore man who lay thirtie eight yeres as it were by the heeles vnable to wagge either hanâ— or foot so strangely was he benumm'd in all his limmes Some man will say 〈◊〉 haue a shrewd burning Feuer but this is a more common than proper phrase oâ— speech And the Euangelist corrects it thus Socrus autem Petri tenebatur magâ—â— febribus She had not the Feuer but the Feuer had her Infrenabo te ne interâ—â— With the bridle of Sickenesse he will hold thee backe that thou maist not headlong râ—n down the Rocke that leads to vtter destruction both of bodie soule Homer feignes That the Goddesse Pallas for the loue which she bare to Achilles kept him backe when he would haue encountred with Agamemnon King of the Greekes Dauid gaue thankes to Abigal because he beeing resolued to destroy Nabal and all his house she had withheld him from it Quâ—a prohibuisti me c. So may we likewise giue thankes vnto sickenesse because it detaines vs turns vs aside from the forbidden paths of humane pleasures so that these thirtie eight yeares are so farre from the rigour of Iustice that it is rather an act of mercie and pittie But if we consider these thirtie eight yeares in reason of Iustice it will not seeme rigorous to any He is not to be accounâ—ed an austere seuere Iudge who doth keepe a Delinquent long in prison if when he is in prison hee returne to a relapse in his delicts What hope can a Iudge haue that such a one should proue good being set at liberty or of a theef that shal fal a stealing while he is in prisoÌ„ Now this man
he had placed Watch-towers on this mountaine Suting with that of the Prophet Osee O yee Priests heare this Iudgement is towards yee because yee haue beene a snare vpon Mizpah and a net spred vpon Tabor The Priests and Princes catching the poore people in their snares as the Fowlers doe the birds in these two high Mountaines In a word This Mountaine is famous for verie many things but for none more than that it was honoured by our Sauiour with his presence and inriched with his glorie And for this cause Saint Bernard calls it Montem Spei The Mountaine of our hopes For he that leads a godly life here vpon earth may well hope to receiue a glorified life in Heauen Et transfiguratus est ante eos And he was transfigured before them Let vs here expound foure truths which are acknowledged by the whole bodie of Diuinitie The one That our Sauiour Christ liung amongst vs was not onely seene of vs himselfe seeing and knowing all things but was happinesse it selfe The other That he was so from the verie instant of his conception The third That being happie in Soule he must likewise be so in his body The fourth That the glorie of his Soule remained after that he had left his bodie Touching the proofe of the first Truth notable is that place of Saint Iohn No man hath seene God at any time that onely begotten Sonne which is in the bosome of the Father he hath declared him The Glosse hath it Who is neerest to his father not onely in respect of his loue towards him but by the bond of nature and for the vnion or one-nesse that is betweene them whereby the Father and the Son are one God reuealed him and shewed him vnto vs whereas before hee was vnder the shadowes of the Law so that the quickenesse of the sight of our mind was not able to perceiue him for whosoeuer seeth him seeth the Father also The Euangelist pretendeth here to prooue that onely our Sauiour Christ is the author of Grace and of Truth and that neither Moses nor any of the Patriarks could see God as he was himselfe which is Truth it selfe by essence but as he is the Sonne and therefore he onely can be the author thereof Men may see God in his creatures and know many of his perfections And in this sence Iob said All men see him and behold him afarre off Saint Gregorie and Saint Paul implie as much For the inuisible things of him that is his eternall power and Godhead are seene by the creation of the world considered in his workes Men may likewise see him in some image or figure sometimes of a man sometimes of an Angell sometimes of Fire representing himselfe in those formes sometimes by the eyes of the Soule and sometimes those of the Bodie So Esay saw him I saw the Lord sitting vpon an high Throne And Iacob I saw the Lord face to face Thirdly God may be seene by Faith as the Faithfull now see him Now we see through a glasse darkely Fourthly in his humanitie Afterward he was seene vpon earth saith Buruch and dwelt among men Fiftly in himselfe and in his essence not in his creatures not in his image not in his humanitie but in himselfe Sicuti est As hee is This sight is so farre aboue all the rest that it makes men happie as also the Angels Moreouer Saint Iohn saith That with a cleere sight at least comprehensible no man euer yet saw God but by the Sonne And being that God is our happines when he is cleerely seene it followeth that our Sauiour Christ is happie The selfe same argument our Sauiour vsed to Nicodemus No man ascended to Heauen but he which descended from Heauen the Sonne of Man who is in Heauen Ye will not giue credit to these earthly things how will yee credit those then that are heauenly And condemning this their incredulitie he saith No man ascended vp into Heauen There is not any man that can make true report of the things that are there because no man hath ascended thither to see them only I who liued in Heauen and descended downe from Heauen am able to tell ye the things that are in Heauen Our being in Heauen then being all one with the seeing of God and the seeing of God beeing our happinesse it followeth that our Sauiour Christ is happie The second Truth That he was so from that verie time that hee first tooke our nature vpon him Saint Augustine collects it out of the sixtie fift Psalm Blessed is the Man whom thou chusest and receiuest vnto thee he shall dwell in thy Court and shall be satisfied with the pleasure of thy house c. The same Eusebius Caesariensis inferreth vpon the twentie second Psalme Thou art hee that tooke me out of my mothers wombe or as the Chaldee letter hath it Leuaui me in robore tuo I got vp to bee ioyned equall with God Which testimonies of Scripture are confirmed by all your Scholasticall Doctors The third Truth That our Sauior Christ must needs be happie both in soule and in bodie Iohannes Damascenus prooues it out of that strict vnion of the Diuinitie which Death it selfe cannot vndoe Saint Augustine affirmes That the glorie of the soule is naturally conueyed to the bodie as the light of a candle to a paine of glasse The fourth Truth That our Sauior Christ was transfigured by giuing licence to the glorie of his soule that it should transferre it selfe to the bodie not that glorie which he was able to giue it but that which his Disciples eyes were able to endure as it is noted by Saint Chrysostome treating on this point Et transfiguratus est And he was transfigured We haue elsewhere set downe the causes of our Sauiours transfiguration but none so often repeated by the Saints and Doctors as his discouering thereby the hidden treasures of his glorie as the reward that calls vnto vs and stayes for vs haling as it were our thoughts and hopes after it Such is the condition of man that commonly he makes interest and priuat gain the North-starre of his labours and endeauours this he thinkes on dreames of and adores But as to the Worldling the worlds wealth is his North-starre so the North-starre of the Sonne of God is the glorie of God Now our Sauiour Christ discouereth vnto vs a streake or a line as it were of that happinesse which though it doth not fully expresse vnto vs what God is yet it remooueth from vs all those difficulties which might diuert vs from his seruice And therfore Saint Ambrose saith Ne quis frangatur c. He allureth our mind with this so soueraign a good that the troubles of this life may not disquiet it nor driue it to despaire So furious are the tempests of this Sea so raging the waues and tossings too and fro of this life that if God did not temper the distasts thereof with the hope of another life
our life were but a Hell Saint Bernard saith That the end which our Sauiour had in transfiguring himselfe was that we might settle our thoughts and our hopes on that glorie whereunto he inuiteth vs for that mans happinesse wholly consisteth in enioying the presence of God Saint Basil expounding that place of Saint Mathew Estote perfecti c. Be yee perfect euen as your Father is perfect saith That the plainest way to enioy God is to thinke so continually on him that our Soules should be translated as it were into himselfe wee playing therein the Painters who for to take a picture perfectly neuer haue their eye from off the originall Saint Cyprian saith That there is not any thing that doth so much glad the eyes of God as our thinking on the reward which is set before vs. Many Saints turmoyled with a thousand miseries did euermore liue merily by being onely cheered vp with these good thoughts and hopes Salomon tells vs A reward is as a stone pleasant in the eyes of them that haue it Nor is there any pretious stone that so gladdeth his possessour as hope cheereth the Righteous Gregorie Nissen calleth Affliction the Floure of Glorie Fructuum qui sperantur flos As he that is to eat of the fruit takes pleasure in the floure for that neighbouring hope which is neere at hand so the Righteous through hope reioyce in Affliction Our Sauiour therefore being desirous that we should liue in hope vnfolded part of that Glorie which he retained in his Soule that placing our eyes and hearts thereupon all troubles whatsoeuer though neuer so great might seeme little in regard of our hoped-for reward Hence it followeth how ill they proceed and what a desperate and indirect course they take to whom God hauing deputed the Earth for their hopes and Heauen for their blisse peruert this his order by making the Earth their Heauen It is an ordinarie phrase of speech in Scripture to call our life a Warrefare now souldiers that are wise and valiant reuerse their pleasures till the battell is ended and the victorie obtained De torrente in via bibit propterea exaltauit caput He dranke of the torrent by the way therefore hath hee lift vp his head Saint Chrysostome expoundeth this verse of our Sauiour Qui non acquieuit in diebus carnis sua Who rested not in the dayes of his flesh vntill he had ouercome Death and Hel. Saint Ambrose declaring that place of the Apostle Non est nobis colluctatio c. Wee fight saith he with the Princes of Darkenesse for coelestiall goods for they loosing them by our occasion they are vnwilling that wee should enioy them And because Reward is that which giues the Souldier both heart and hands the last Sonday we proposed the Warre this the Reward The Deuill offered our Sauiour the glorie of the World but our Sauiour offers vs the glorie of God the hopes of this are better than the enioying of that Saint Bernard saith That the time of this life is the vigil of that feast which we hope for in glory whence he inferreth these two things The one That it were folly in vs to make the Vigile the Feast Which is all one with that of S. Austen Summa peruersitas est vti fruendis frui vtendis It is no good chop considering the vnequalnesse of the tearmes God gaue vs the Earth that we might vse it Heauen that we might inioy it And it is a beastly kind of ignorance to make the Earth Heauen The other That the Feast beeing so great the fast of the Vigile ought not to seeme so long vnto vs. Saint Paul making a counter position ofthat which may be suffered heere and that which may be hoped for there after that hee had sayd that the one was light and momentary the other weightie perdurable he added Supra modum in sublimitate It is a highnes aboue all highnesse the altitude thereof alone cannot be taken Nor can the tongue of man indeare it so much but it must fall short therof This made Saint Gregorie to say Qua lingua c. What tongue or what vnderstanding is able to vtter the great and wonderfull ioyes of that coelestiall Citie Saint Gregorie opening that place of Ieremie Patres nostri c. Our fathers eatâ— sowre grapes and our teeth were set on edge He stâ—les the pleasures of this life to be sowre grapes and fruits that are not yet come to their true ripenesse which are good for nothing else but to set our teeth on edge Philon calls them Fâ—riâ— Coeli For pleasures are not for the earth hee that inioyes them steales them from Heauen And as hee that steales inioyes what he hath so got with a great deale of feare and iealousie so may wee be sayd to inioy these humane feasts and pastimes That sacrifice of Abrahams was held the most acceptable that euer any man in the old Testament offered vnto God For in sacrificing his son Isaac hee did sacrifice all the ioy and content of this his life For Isaac by interpretation signifies laughter Risum fecit mihi Dominus The like may bee considered in his casting Agar out of his house which signifies a stranger Resoluing with himselfe beeing but as a stranger in this world not to ioy in the contents of this life Ieremie whose ordinarie occupation was weeping sayd Diem hominis non desideraui That is the day of prosperitie and of pleasure haue I not desired And Saint Bernard hath this note vpon it That hee might haue sayd That he did neither desire it nor inioy it Dauid grew wearie of his passe-times and pleasures Renuit consolari anima mea If any thing can affoord mee comfort it is the meditation of euerlasting ioy Base is that minde that liues merrie and contented with the inioying of the goods of this life Base are the thoughts of that Prince who keeping himselfe close in a Sheapheards cottage shall deeme himselfe happie in that poore estate not so much as once thinking on that crown which he ought to hope for Saint Austen declaring that place of Saint Iames Fratres sufferentiam Iob audistis finem Domini vidistis Yee haue heard Brethren of Iob's suffering and yee haue seene the end of the Lord. God sets before vs as patternes of patience the life of Iob and the death of Christ where it is to be obserued that he doth not set before vs the end of Iob because God giuing him a larger increase of wealth of children and other contents in this life his end was not by him to bee desired But that of our Sauiour was most painefull vnto him And therefore it is sayd Learne of Iob to suffer in this life and of our Sauiour in his death Leauing our hopes to relye vpon that other life Et transfiguratus est And hee was transfigured It was likewise fit that our Sauiour should be transfigured for the confirmation of our Faith For if these
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
world wanteth and the ill which the Prodigall endured he did groane and sigh in the Pigge-stie when he called to mind his fathers goodly houses Saint Hierome treating of the raptures of his Spirit saith That he found himselfe many times among Quires of Angells hee saith That he liued a whole weeke without any sence of bodily necessitie nor was it much he enioying the conuersation of Angells and the fellowship of God Diuinae visionis intuitu but when I came againe to my selfe I did bewaile the good that I had lost But that Peter may not groane with Saint Paul nor weepe with Saint Hierome knowing how the world went here beneath said Let vs not leaue that place which we may haue cause to weepe for when we are once gone from it For what good is there vpon earth be it neuer so good which hath not some ill with it's good Obtaine if thou canst of God that hee will but once giue thee leaue to tast of the goods of Heauen and thou wilt soone forget whatsoeuer is on earth The reason why these fraile transitorie goods are so much desired and sought after with so great thirst and couetousnesse is because those eternall goods which call continually vnto vs stand in so farre a distance from our hearts and our thoughts for if thou shouldst but taste one drop of the water of that coelestiall Fountain or but one crumme of that diuine Table thou wouldst say with a full and resolute purpose No mas mundo Let the world goe I will no more of it The Hound when he neither sees nor sents his Game goes slow and soft diuerting himselfe here and there as if hee had no life in him but he no sooner spies the Hare but he flies with the wind Robbed of the content of Heauen I said All whatsoeuer is in the earth is a Lye Peter was rob'd of himselfe and therefore he desired to stay still there The first that tasted Wine though he were so graue a man as Noah it made him commit a great excesse insomuch that it gaue occasion to his owne sonne to mocke him And how should not the first that tasted of the glorie which our Sauiour Christ had manifested in Tabor though so graue a one as Peter be so drunken therewith that he should vtter so great an excesse But whatsoeuer was taken from himselfe hee did adde it all whatsoeuer it were more or lesse to the glorie of Christ. Non enim sciebat quid diceret For he knew not what he said Erras Petre saith Saint Hierome Peter thou art in a mightie errour First In iudging that for a happinesse that was so short and transitorie there being no felicitie but in things that are permanent Immagine all possible happinesse measure it with the duration of Ages and with that time which in the end must end and when it is ended thou wilt hold it an vnhappinesse and infelicitie Peter thou desirest to inioy glorie here in this world which is to end toomorrow And for that the glorie which thou desirest is not to last so long as the world nay scarce an houre in this world thou art in a mightie errour Peter Saint Luke saith That to the hungry bellie the remembrance of his forepassed fulnesse shal be a torment vnto him and to the sorrowful his former laughters and contentments shal but the more augment his griefe c. Secondly Peter did erre in preferring a particular before a publicke good especially beeing a Prelat and Pastor of the Church The hand and the foot renouncing their proper right offer themselues to incounter with any danger for to defend the head and saue the life Amongst the Elements the Water the Earth and the Ayre forsake their Center for to assist common necessitie A good Citisen must bee wanting to his owne house and person for to further the common good Saint Austen sayth That Prelates must make profession of a double obligation One of Sheapheards for their sheepe another of Christians for themselues For the first they must haue recourse to the necessitie of their subiects with a great deale of care and vigilancie For the second they are to exercise themselues in all kind of vertue and holinesse But many of them practise the contrary They are Christians for others willing them to exercise themselues in vertue and holynesse and Pastors for themselues caring too much for their owne pleasures and profit The King of Sodome sayd vnto Abraham Giue mee the persons take the goods to thy selfe Hee regarded more the freedome and libertie of his subiects than the ransoming of his treasures And howbeit hee was a bad man yet hee shewed himselfe a good sheapheard Dauid cried out vnto God Lord keepe my soule and deliuer Israel out of all his troubles Hee ioyned his owne and the common cauâ—e together that God might be the better pleased therewith and the sooner graunt his request Thirdly Peter erred in his too too cold commendation of this Glorie for the which a greater praise had beene insufficient Thou desirest a Painter to show thee a picture He takes out one thou desirest a better hee takes out another that contents thee not At last he shewes thee the best that he hath Thou coldly commendst it and sayst it is a pretie good peece so so He growes wearie of thee and takes it away from thee God made in the world diuers pictures euery one of them beeing good apart and all of them put together exceeding good Thou sayst ô Lord these doe not satisfie my desire I would see the best peece that euer past through thy hands He carryes thee vp to mount Tabor hee there showes thee his master-peece his Glorie Peter giues it onely this cold commendation Master it is good Peter thou errest sayth the Euangelist For hee knew not what hee sayd Fourthly Peter did erre in debasing so much that glorie which had no need at all of any Tabernacles or houses to defend them from the Sunne c. For as he did not thinke then vpon eating so he might haue had as little mind of sleeping Saint Ambrose defines Happinesse to bee Omnia bona in omni bono Hee need not desire a Sunne to giue him light because he inioyeth another Sunne that neuer setteth and another Moone which neuer is in it's wane or increase Thou shalt haue no more Sunne to shine by day saith Esay neither shall the lightnesse of the Moone shine vnto thee Thy Sunne shall neuer goe downe neither shall thy Moone be hid For the Lord shall bee thine euerlasting light and the dayes of thy sorrow shall be ended But here our felicitie is in the wane and our happinesse suffers an eclipse Neither is our light cleare saith Saint Bernard nor our refâ—ction full nor our mansion safe Cloudes obscure it's light hunger marres it's fulnesse and alterations it 's firmenesse and security Gregorie Nissen sayth That Necessitie brought in Rule and Dominion For that there
should bee a Lord and Ruler there is a necessitie in it And that there should be a greater Lord there is a greater necessitie in it For Man had neede of the creatures and God made him Lord ouer them If a man could runne as fast as a horse hee were not Lord ouer the horse if he had the clawes and strength of a lyon hee were not Lord ouer the lyon But in Heauen there is not any the least signe of necessitie for there both the Sunne the Moone the Creatures Fountaines Plants Fruits Flowers and Houses are all superfluous So that Peter when hee talkt of building Tabernacles he knew not what he sayd Adhuc eo loquente eccè nubes lucida And as he yet spake behold a bright Cloud Scarce had Peter ended his speech when a bright shining cloud like a glorious Curtaine ouerspred them all Thomas sayth That in this cloud the holy Ghost descended downe as hee did in that Baptisme in the forme of a Doue Theophilact That in the old Testament God appeared in darke clouds which strooke terrour and amasement but now he comes in a bright cloud because he came to teach and to giue light The holy Ghost is the Author of the light of our soules Wisedome cals him Spiritum intelligentiae The spirit of vnderstanding And the Church dayly begges of him that hee will lighten our darkenesse and illuminate our sences Accendâ— lumen sensibus From the cloud there went out a voice like vnto thunder which sayd This is my beloued Sonne heare him And Saint Chrysostome hath noted it That Moses and Elias disappeared and were not to bee seene to the end that the Disciples might vnderstand that this voice was onely directed to our Sauiour Christ. Howbeit hauing seene beefore in his face that treasure of glorie and Peter hauing acknowledged him to bee the Sonne of the euerliuing God in the name of the whole Colledge and Societie of the Apostles it could not bee presumed otherwise The voice beeing past the cloud vanished and the Disciples remained as dead men Our Sauiour Christ quit them of their feare and comming againe to themselues like those that are awakened from a heauie sleepe they saw none but onely Iesus in the garden They were falne all asleepe and they slept so soundly that our Sauiour Christ could hardly wake them Heere likewise they failed for they awaked with an earnest desire to enioy that glorie which they had seene but they did not see it any more First because those eyes that shut themselues to labour do not deserue to see such glorie Secondly because vpon earth though it be from Heauen no good can continue long Thomas saith That the body of our Sauiour Christ did inioy this glorie as it were by transition or a passing by And that those glories which are enioyed here on earth are short momentarie they are no better than grasse and hay which are soone cut down withered they are Winter Sun-shinesand Summer-Floods soone gone Mans dayes are like the grasse and as the flowre of the field so shall hee flourish But that the glorie of God should stand vpon these ticklish tearmes I cannot wel tell what to say to it nor doe I know which is the greater miracle of the two either that the glorie of the Earth should continue or that of Heauen haue an end But the truth is those goods do not last long with vs which Heauen it selfe communicateth vnto vs. Saint Bernard sayth That those pensions which God bestows on his friends are verie good but verie short Saint Austen That it is a sweete but a short good that God giues vs in this World Hugo de Sancto Victore That Gods Regalos or Regales delitiae haue two discountings or diminutions of debt in this life The one that they are not full the other that they are not long for a cloud presently comes and ouershadowes them Saint Bernard treating of the cherishments and comforts of the Spouse vnder the name of kisses saith Heu rara hora parua mora One while he saith that he suffered his thoughts to be carried away with the sweetnes of these daintie delights conceiuing it to bee a great happinesse but then hee sayth againe O si durasset Those that trauell abroad reserue all their content they take therin for their Countrie so that their ioy shal not only be ful but permanent They shal be drunke with the plentifulnes c. Of Nebridius a friend of his Saint Augustine saith And he applieth his mouth to that Fountaine from whence he drew all his happinesse Pro jucunditate sua sine fine foelix Happie for the pleasure of it without end Ipsum audite Heare him Here the World did receiue so great a good that the Father did giue vs his Sonne to be our Master and Law-giuer So that it lyes vpon him to teach vs and vpon vs to obey him Tertullian sayth That the presence of Moses and Elias made much for that present purpose but more now their absence for that it gaue vs thereby to vnderstand That this supreame Master and Lawgiuer did far outstrip the office of Moses and the zeale which Elias had of the Law Quasi jam offâ—cio honore perfunctis For in this best beloued sonne of God Iesus Christ two things are to be seene the one as he was a Lawgiuer the aduantage that he had of the Law the other That Moses was now put to silence and that we were onely to hearken to our Sauiour Christ. At his Baptisme that verie selfe same voice was heard This is my beloued sonne but we find not there an Ipsum audite Heare him Not notifying him then to the World for a Master so that it seemeth that this was reserued for our Sauiour Christ against he had past ouer the rigour of Fasting and Pennance signifying That God placeth not him in the office of a Preacher who hath not run through these strict courses Bene patientes erunt vt annuntient Christ had no need to doe pennance but thou hast great need to doe so Locus est communis Descendentibus illis c. And when they came down from the Mount he charged them to say nothing to any man He inioyned them silence First saith Saint Hierome Ne incredibile videretur lest the greatnesse and strangenesse thereof should make men to thinke it to be an old wiues tale And if Christ said to Nicodemus If when I tell yee earthly things yee beleeue not how will yee be brought to beleeue those high and heauenly mysteries of the Kingdome of God Here occasion may bee taken to taxe those who comming from beyond the seas are all in their Hyperboles abusing others eares with their loud lyes but giuing the lye most to their owne soules Secondly He inioyned them silence for that the fauours and regalos which thou shalt receiue from God in priuate thou art not to bring them vpon the stage in publique or to
his Iustice For albeit Charitie saith Saint Gregorie makes him sweet and louely yet his zeale to justice must make him to bee sharpe and seuere Many of these Prelats hath the Church formerly enioyed and enioyeth now at this present as well in supreame Bishops as inferiour Ministers whereby this prophecie is fulfilled Secundum opera eorum nolite facere According to their workes doe not Samuel did obey Ely the Priest but did not imitate his remissenesse and sluggishnesse Daniel did reuerence Nebucadnezar but adored not his Statua It is a miserable case that a man should bee able to teach others and not himselfe There is not any one fault threatned more in Scripture than this Qui praedicaris in Lege c. And thinkest thou this ô thou man that iudgest them that doe such things and doost the same that thou shalt escape the iudgment of God Thou shalt be like the Sieue which giueth Corne to others and keepes the Chaffe to it's selfe Like the Candle that lightens others and is itselfe in darkenesse And like vnto that Carpenter who making the Arke saued others and was himselfe drowned in the waters of the Floud Saint Augustine saith That the lips and the heart of him that liueth ill and preacheth well are at great defiance one with another for the heart belyes what the mouth persuades When the Angell threatned Moses with death and made shew as if hee meant to kill him Rupertus and Lyra are both of opinion That it was for the neglect and carelesnesse which hee had committed in circumcising one of his children in such a season when as the Law did oblige him thereunto And the fault was much more in Moses than in any other ordinarie man for that as a Law-giuer he was to haue published this verie Law But more to the matter is that reason which Saint Augustine rendreth which is That the Angells threatning of him was for that he being to persuade the Hebrewes to goe out of Aegypt and to take their wiues and childeren along with them they might haue presumed that he had one thing in his mouth and another in his heart and that his workes did not correspond with his words Experience teacheth vs That many things which humane eloquence cannot persuade example doth effect for the way by words is about and verie tedious but that of example short and quickely rid The earth will not follow the motion of the heauens though yee preach vnto it neuer so much but the Sheepe wil soone learne to follow the example of his Sheepheard The Prophets are full of the complaints and threatnings which God poureth forth against the bad example of Pastors As in Osee the fift O yee Priests heare this and hearken yee ô house of Israell and giue yee eare ◠house of the King for judgement is toward yee because yee haue beene a snare on Mizpah and a net spred vpon Taborpunc And in the ninth Chapter he repeateth the same Lesson againe Esay in his fiftie sixth Chapter calls them Blind Sentinells and dumbe Dogs Ezechiel bewailes them Vae Pastoribus Israel c. Woe bee vnto the Sheepeheards of Israell that feed themselues Should not the Sheepheards feed the flocks Yee eat the fat and yee cloath yee with the wool yee kill them that are fed but yee feed not the Sheep The weake ye haue not strengthened the sicke haue ye not healed neither haue yee bound vp the broken c. The whole Chapter runs along in this straine wherevnto I referre thee Cannot they be content to drinke of the cleere water of the Fountain but that they must make it vnwholsome for their flock foyling it with their durtie feet For What is bad life and good doctrine but a foule foot in cleere water Saint Gregorie declareth this place concerning such Prelats Who hauing drunke themselues of the pure and cleere Fountaine of Truth trouble the same by their euill workes and bad example giuing occasion thereby to these their sillie Sheepe not to follow their doctrine but to imitate their life Touching this Theame there is a whole Chapter in the second part of our Booke De Amore. Doe not as they doe This for his Disciples was a most necessarie lesson but for the Pharisees a most seuere reprehension And a late Doctor hath obserued That they beeing the most part Leuits and Priests hee silenced the Priesthood in token of the respect and reuerence that is due thereunto Whereby such are condemned who too lightly giue credit to the faults of the Clergie and entertaine themselues therewith beeing that God himselfe giues them this caueat Nolite tangere Christos meos Touch not mine Annoynted Wherein he doth not lay an Interdiction on their violent hands onely or on their blasphemous tongues either before their face or behind their backes but likewise on their jealousies and suspitions and on their rash censures and on the pleasure which some take in the slips and falls of Priests which is a great signe of Reprobation According to that of Ecclesiasticus They shall perish by the snare that reioyce in the fall of the Righteous Doe not as they doe The Couetous are here chiefely taxed they will giue you councell but Mercede Balaam effusi sunt King Balacks Embassadours bringing money in their hands shall buy their prophecies of them Our Sauiour complained of them That they deuoured widdowes houses And Saint Paul alluding hereunto saith God is my witnesse how I desire you all in the bowels of Christ. He saith not In my bowells but In the bowells of Iesus Christ. Quis ibit nobis Who shall goe for vs It was Gods question but he could find few that would follow him but if to gainethe world and to get wealth hee shall but aske the question Quis ibit he shall haue infinite numbers to troupe after him But asking Quis ibit nobis Who shall goe for vs he shall scarce haue one to goe along with him Euerie yeare a great number of Preachers offer themselues to this enterprise but they doe not vnderstand whither or to what end they goe As Saint Augustine signifieth vnto vs in his Confessions Esay complained That his lips were foule He might better to my seeming haue complained of his eyes than his lips because he had seene God with them For to murmure eyes are more necessarie than lips but to preach lips are more necessarie than eyes If he that studies would but consider with himselfe why God hath giuen him wit abilitie and learning he would then peraduenture acknowledge how vnworthie he is of so high a Calling as to sit in Moses Chaire or to goe vp into the Pulpit Cicero saith That the Orators motiue is Amoris ardor A desire to be beloued and esteemed So it goes now but not so well for the loue which a Preacher is to pretend and the credit which hee is to hunt after is the loue of God and the seeking after his glorie Dicam semper magnificetur
seeing that the malice thereof hath gone so farre as to take away the life of the God of Heauen there is not that ill which wee ought not to feare Wee are to feare the Sea euen then when it promiseth fairest weather This speech of our Sauiours might likewise seeme vnto them to be some Parable for that which the Will affecteth not the Vnderstanding doth not halfe well apprehend it He sayd vnto the Iewes Oportet exaâ—tari â—ilium hominis The sonne of man must be lifted vp And they presently tooke hold of it The Angels told Lot that Sodome should be consumed with fire and brimstone from Heauen and he aduising his sonnes in law thereof He seemed vnto them as one that mocked Precept must be vpon precept line vpon line here a little and there a little Often doe the Prophets repeat Haec mandat Dominus Expecta Dominum sustine Dominum modicum adhuc modicum ego visitabâ— sanguinem c. abscondere modicum Thus sayth the Lord Waâ—te for the Lord yet a little while and a little while I wil visit the Bloud c. They that â—eard Esay mockt at him in their feasts and banquets saying Wee know before hand what the Prophet will preach vnto vs. And this is the fashion of Worldlings to scoffe at those whom God sends vnto them for their good Tunc accessit mater filiorum Zebedâ—i c. Then came vnto him the mother of the sonnes of Zebedee c. Adonias tooke an vnseasonable time hauing offended Sâ—lâ—mâ—n with those mutinies which hee had occasioned to make himselfe King and euen then when hee ought to haue stood in feare of his displeasure he vndaduisedly craues of him to giue him his fathers Shunamite to wife This seemed to Salomon so foolish and so shamelesse a petition that he caused his life to be taken from him Accessit mater The mother came Parents commonly desire to leaue their children more rich and wealthy than holy and religious A mother would wish her daughter rather beautie than vertue a good dowrie than good endowments Saint Augustine saith of himselfe That he had a father that tooke more care to make him a Courtier of the earth than of Heauen desired more that the world should celebrate him for a wise and discreet man than to be accounted one of Christs followers Saint Chrysostome saith That of our children wee make little reckoning but of the wealth that we are to leaue them exceeding much Being like vnto that sicke man who not thinking of the danger wherein he is cuts him out new cloathes and entertaineth new seruants A Gentleman will take more care of his Horse and a great Lord of his estate than of his children For his Horse the one will looke out a good rider and such a one as shal see him well fed and drest The other a very good Steward for his lands but for their children which is their best riches and greatest inheritance they are carelesse in their choice of a good Tutor or Gouernor In his Booke De Vita Monastica the said Doctour citeth the example of Iob who did not care so much that his children should be rich well esteemed and respected in the world as that they should be holy and religious He rose vp early in the morning and offered burnt Offerings according to the number of theâ— all For Iob thought It may be my sons haue sinned and blasphemed God in their hearts Thus did Iob euerie day Saint Augustine reporteth of his mother That she gaue great store of almes and that she went twice a day to the Church and that kneeling downe vpon her knees shee poured forth many teares from her eyes not begging gold nor siluer of God but that he would be pleased to conuert her son and bring him to the true Faith The mother came These her sonnes thought themselues now cocke-sure for they knew that our Sauiour Christ had some obligation to their mother for those kindnesses which she had done him and for those good helpes which hee had receiued from her in his wants and necessities deeming it as a thing of nothing and as a sute already granted That he would giue them the chiefest places of gouerment in that their hoped for Kingdom Whence I infer that to a gouernor it is a shrewd pledge ofhis saluation to receiue a curtesie for that he is thereby as it were bought and bound to make requitall And as in him that buyes 〈◊〉 is not the goodnesse or badnesse of such a commoditie but the money that 〈◊〉 most stood vpon as in gaming men respect not so much the persons they play with as the mony they play for so this businesse of prouiding for our childreâ— is a kind of buying to profit and a greedie gaining by play The King of Sodome said vnto Abraham Giue me the persons and take the goods to thy selfe 〈◊〉 Abraham would not take so much as a thred or shooe-latchet of all that was his and that for two verie good reasons The one That an Infidell might not hereafter boast and make his brag saying I haue made Abraham rich it was I that made him a man The other That he might not haue a tie vpon him and so buy out his liberty For guifts as Nazianzen saith are a kind of purchase of a mans freehold 〈◊〉 giue for meere loue cannot be condemned because it is a thing which God hiâ—â—selfe doth to whom the Kings and Princes of the earth should come as neere as they can But to giue to receiue againe is a clapping of gyues and fetters on the receiuer And the poorer sort of men being commonly the worthiest because they haue not wherewithall to giue they likewise come not to get any thing Theodoret pondereth the reasons why Isaac was inclined to conferre the blessing on Esau. First Because he was his first borne to whom of right it belonged Secondly For that he had euer beene louing and obedient vnto him Thirdly Because he was well behaued and had good naturall parts in him Fourthly and lastly hee addeth this as a more powerfull and forcible reason than all the rest That being as he was a great Hunter he brought home so many Regalos and daintie morcells for to please his fathers palate which wrought more vpon aged Isaac than his being his sonne And if gifts are such strong Gyants that they captiuate the Saints of God Munera crede mihi excacant homines qùe Deosque What are we to expect from sinners Saint Bernard complaineth That in his time this moth had entred not onely vpon the distribution of secular honours but also vpon Ecclesiasticall preferments He earnestly exhorteth Pope Eugenius That he place such Bishops in the Church who out of widdowes dowries the patrimonie of the crucified God should not inrich their Kindred who take more pleasure in the pampering of a young Mule spred ouer with a faire foot-cloath than to clap caparisons on
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
the Cowle that makes the Monke is verified of all Estates But as the richnesse of the garnishing addes not any finenesse to the Sword the comparison is Seneca's so a mans cloathes doe not better his being nor adde any worth to him that weares them but though he be not bettered in his being yet hee is so much bettered in his seeming that a man had need of some particular reuelation to know which is which and to whom we owe a respect and reuerence To a Coward who like Hercules had lapt himselfe in a Lyons skinne Diogenes said If thou didst but see how ill this weare doth become thee thou wouldst blush for shame You shall haue a finical Taylor fling away his money and peraduenture is worth halfe so much more vpon a Silken suit as if honour did consist in Silke and if you find fault with him for this his vanitie his answer will be vnto you My neighbour Fulano goes thus and thus and I scorne but to goe as well clad as hee my purse and my credit is as good as his when God knowes he comes farre short of him in both and this vanitie hath vndone many a man Pharaoh and his People marched through the bottom of the sea and the occasion of this his so bold aduenture was That he had seene the Israelites goe that way before him O yee foolish Aegyptians Had yee God for your Captaine Had yee the Rod of Moses to diuide the waters and to make them stand like walls on either side The like may I say to this Taylor Hast thou as good meanes as thy neighbour Esaâ— going forth to meet Iacob who came from Mesopotamia after a few brotherly embracements and other kind complements of their loue each to other Esau entreated his brother that he would goe along with him and beare him companie But Iacob made this discreet answer vnto him Sir I beseech you to excuse me I must needs wait vpon my children and my flocks and if to do you seruice I should bring them out of the way they are in they would all perish When the vanitie of one that is more powerfull and wealthier than thy selfe shall inuite thee to follow his humor and call vnto thee to go side by side with him thou wilt if thou beest wise make vse of Iacobs excuse telling him If I shall runne this course I shall ruine both my children and my estate Seneca writing to Lâ—cilius tells him If thou conforme thy selfe to what Nature will bee well contented withall thou shalt be rich but if what Vanitie will egge thee vnto thou shalt be poore Clemens Alexandrinus hath a particular Discourse vpon this Argument and that so large and so full that it seemeth he had beene in all the houses of the Citie where he dwelt and had diligently obserued what had past in euerie one of them To what end saith he serueth a Bed with pillars of siluer and pommels of gold if thou sleepest as well if not better in one of Wood To what end serue Curtaines of silke interwouen with gold and Quilts curiously embroydered if those of woollen keepe thee warmer To what end a Cup of Crystall if one of Glasse will as well serue the turne For to dig into the earth thou wilt not make thee a Spade or Mattocke of siluer because that were a superfluous and needlesse thing As needlesse and superfluous a thing is it to haue a Bed of Yuorie Ebonie c. But which is worse than all the rest Saint Chrysostome saith That for to feed our vanities wee neuer want meanes nor moneys but to pay our debts or to bestow an Almes or to relieue a friend in necessitie there is no money to be found One of the greatest charges and most without excuse which God will charge your rich and powerfull men withall is God hath giuen thee all this thy present prosperitie which thou enioyest thy Lands thy Rents thy Lordships thy Tenants thy Gold thy Siluer c. And that God who hath thus blest and prospered thee in the World standing poore naked and hunger-starued at thy doore thou hast faire Liueries for seruants rich furniture for thy horses siluer Garrotes or Wrests to packe vp and fasten thy Sumpter vpon thy strong backed Mules costly Banquets for thy friends but not so much as a rag or a crum to bestow vpon him who hath thus inriched thee with all these Inexcusabilis es ô Homo Neither thou nor all the World knowes how to make answer to this obiection Saint Hierome makes the like complaint discoursing of those Ladies whose Coaches may rather be said to be of gold than guilded whose necks are laden with chains of Pearle their fingers with Diamonds and that they should liue thus in their jollitie plentie and Christ die at their doores for hunger it is such a charge that when it comes to be laid home vnto them it will admit no excuse Epulabatur quotidiè splendidè He fared diliciously euerie day Many of Gods Saints haue made Feasts and Banquets for their Kinsfolkes and friends as Abraham Tobie Iob and others but these their Feasts were modest and moderate they were great but not often And neither can or will any man make dayly Feasts vnlesse it bee such a one as makes his bellie his God and thinkes that he was borne for no other end but to pamper vp the flesh and to make much of himselfe Euerie vice whatsoeuer is as a linke to a chaine which drawes many other after it but that of Gluttony of all other is the most tyrannous and the most violent First of all It drawes dishonestie after it as heretofore hath beene prooued Saint Paul doth so wedge and glew these two vices together as if they were but one and the selfe same thing Non in conuiuijs impudicitâ—â—s And in another place he saith That eating prouoketh the bodie and that the bodie desireth and lusteth after eating Secondly It spoyles and marres the tongue as Saint Gregorie prooueth it There are two things saith Salomon that are able to nay doe ouerthrow the World a Slaue sitting in the Kings Throne that is one of them the other a Foole whose bellie is glutted with meat and whose head is full of wine And if too much eating and drinking make the most discreet and best aduised man to lose the reyns of reason what will it worke vpon a foole Thirdly It doth darken the Vnderstanding as Saint Chrysostome hath noted it alledging the example of Esau who after he had eaten and drunken his fil made light reckoning of the selling of his birthrigh The fogges and vapours of the earth cloud Heauen those of the stomacke Reason What greater blindnesse saith Lucian than that of the Tast extending it selfe no further than foure fingers bredth in the palate Earth Sea and Ayre are not sufficient to satisfie the same Aristotle reports of Philogonus That hee desired of the gods That they would giue him such a necke
as the Craines haue that the taste and relish of his meat might continue the longer in it's going downe Fourthly It shortens mans life Propter â—rapulam multi abierunt By surfet haue many perished Et plures gula quam gladio periere And more by sawce haue dyed than by the sword This is the maine cause of your Apoplexies and of your speedie and sudden Deaths Clemens Alexandrinus relateth That Purpurea mors was a Prouerbe of sudden death because those that were cloathed in Purple were commonly Gluttons But for violent deaths what experience more notorious Let Ammon Dauids eldest sonne speake this and Elah King of Israell slaine by the hands of Zambri Clytus Alexâ—â—ders chiefest fauourite Menadab King of Syria Assuerus Haman his Minion and one of the Herods Saint Basyll sayth That the vice of eating well is more desperate than that of liuing ill Many loose Wantons come to be reformed but Gluttons neuer Onely Death sayes hee ends that disease This rich man Saint Luke sayth That hee dyed amidst his continuall banquettings hauing no Medium betweene his eating and his dying Saint Chrysostome layes this to this rich mans charge That he did not beleeue the immortalitie of the Soule nor the eternall happinesses and miseries of that other life And a great argument for the proofe thereof is That hee was so hastie with Abraham That he would send one from the dead to preach this Doctrine to his Kinsfolke and friends And Abraham answering That they had Moses and the Prophets He replyed Non pater Abraham Not so father Abraham I my selfe heard the testimonie of Moses and the Sermons of those other Prophets but for all this I could neuer bee persuaded that Hell was prouided for mee and Heauen prepared for Lazarus My Kinsmen are like to be of the same mind as I was and the like will succeed vnto them as hath befalne mee and therefore I pray thee let one bee sent vnto them from the dead that may put them out of this their errour c. Erat autem mendicus nomine Lazarus vlceribus plenus There was a begger named Lazarus who wus full of Sores Hee painteth foorth this poore man and his wretched and miserable condition counterposing it to those worldly felicities wherewith this rich man did abound The ones pouertie to the others riches the ones sickenesse to the others health the ones hunger to the others fulnesse the ones nakednesse to the others costly clothes the ones leanenesse to the others fatnesse the ones sorrow to the others ioy the ones inioying of no pleasure in this life to the others generall content that he tooke in all the delights and pleasures of this World Transierunt in affectum cordis Another letter hath it In picturas cordium Whatsoeuer his heart did desire it was pictured as it were before him Does a rich man desire a handsome woman Money paints her foorth vnto him does hee desire reuenge Money will draw it out for him does hee desire banquets musicke and good cloaths Money does all this and limm's them out vnto him as in a faire and curious Table Looking vpon the inequality of humane chances in matter of good and bad fortune so much happines in some so ill bestowed vpon them so much miserie in other some which they did not so wel deserue there haue bin some fooles which haue not stick't blasphemously to say Does God know well what hee doth Ecce ipsi peccatores in saeculo obtinuerunt diuitias See what an vnequall course God runs The wickedst men are commonly the most wealthie But the trueth of it is That this is a mysterie of Gods prouidence though secret and hid Hee made the rich men his sonnes and heires here vpon Earth to the end that the younger brethren might haue here their secure sustenance And hee made the poore heires of Heauen that the rich might haue there their â—ecure happinesse So that the rich by releeuing the poore and the poore by praying for the rich they might both by Gods fauour haue equall portions in Heauen Saint Paul sayth That God made some rich and some poore that the aboundance of the rich might supply the wants of the poore and the aboundance of the poore supply the wants of the rich And so their lot might be alike It succeeding with them as it did in that miracle of the Manna Hee that gathered much had no more than he that gathered little For whatsoeuer he gathered ouer and aboue vnlesse he did repart the same vnto others it stunke and did rot and putrifie Vt vestra abundantia c. I will render it you in the Apostles owne words That your aboundance may supply their lacke and that also their aboundance may be for your lacke that there may be equality As it is written He that gathereth much hath nothing ouer and he that gathereth little had not the lesse Saint Mathew sayth That it is easier for a Camell to passe through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the Kingdome of Heauen Some vnderstand this Camell to bee a Dromedary some a Cable But to him that shall aske me how can a Camell or a Cable goe through the eye of a needle I shall answere him thus That a Camell beeing burnt and beaten to poulder and a Cable vntwisted and in wound may enter thread after thread into a needles eye In like maner a rich man that puts his trust in his ritches it is hard for him to goe to Heauen or to get into the eye of this needle But he may so lessen himselfe by giuing of almes to the poore that he may c. Fiducia magna eleemosina omnibus fatientibus 〈◊〉 This so Excellent an artifice seemeth to those that apprehend it not a great disorder And as hee that turnes often about thinkes that the world goes round with him so he that hath a giddie head takes Gods prouidence to be disorder But if there be any inequalitie it is on the poore mans part because God hath made them such great Lords in heauen that the rich had need to get themselues out of their hands by Almesdeeds Daniel to Nebucadnezar Breake off thy iniquities by giuing Almes Alluding to that of the Prouerbe The ransome of a mans life are his riches Saint Chrysostome saith That God did not create the Rich for to relieue the Poore but the Poore that the Rich might not be barren of good workes And Saint Austen That Mercie stands before Hell gates seeking to diuert condemnation from the Rich. Full of Sores In this Counterposition he begins first with the sickenesse of the Poore For as health next to life is the greatest good so a long a grieuous and a painefull sickenesse is the greatest ill Ecclesiasticus saith That a poore man that is sound and lustie is better than a rich man that is sicke and feeble Health is of a greater price than either gold or siluer and
there is no treasure to be compared to a bodie that is strong and healthie And indeering this truth hee saith That death is a lesse euill than a bitter life and the graue than a long and grieuous sickenesse So that in conclusion he preferreth health before life But if to these sores of Lazarus we shall adde hunger nakednesse and weakenesse and all these in so high a degree that he was not able to lift vp his Crutches to driue away the Dogges which did licke away together with the matter and filth of his Sores his verie life from him a man can hardly comprehend a greater miserie Insuper Canes lingebant And the Dogs licked c. The greatest miserie that Lazarus indured was the crueltie of this rich man and of all his whole house for euen the yerie Dogs in the house of a cruell man are also cruel This doth this word Insuper infer Here are so many miseries heaped one vpon another that they can hardly be reduced to a summe And the Dogs licked c. The verie Dogs did sucke licke out the life of him And this crueltie may be considered two manner of wayes The one That this rich man affronted poore Lazarus speaking vnto his seruants in a commanding manner What doth this poore Rogue make here send him packing that I may see him no more and I charge you that you giue him not so much as a Cup of cold water lest like a Fowlers Whistle he may serue as a Call to inuite all the Beggers in the country to come tomorrow to my house hoping that they shall speed no worse than he hath done They performe their masters command and when they had so done they come in and tell him Sir we haue dismist him and willed him to be gone but the poore man is very importunate and loath to stir Is he so quoth he marrie then will I tell you what you shall doe turne out these Dogs vpon him and they will set him hence with a vengeance This construction Saint Augustine makes in a Sermon of his and withall leaues vs this note for our better learning Quod in lingua majorem seâ—tit ardorem quia per eam contempsit Pauperem That he felt therefore the greater heat in his tongue because with it hee had the Poore in derision and made it the Whip to lash them The other That this rich man made as though he were deafe and would not heare on that eare when the Poore cryed oâ—t vnto him though his miserable condition hunger-starued carkaâ—se though he poore soule had held his peace spake in a loud voice vnto him to bestow something vpon him Those crummes good Master that are come from your table those scraps for Gods sake that are left c. Of these two interpretations you may take which you please but I am sure neither of both but is a sinne and that a great one too In which sinne of this vncharitable Chuffe wee are to consider three verie wofull circumstances The first That it is a sinne that is generally hated and abhorr'd For all other sinnes haue some Patrons to protect them some abettors to defend them or some fauourers to excuse them if not in heauen yet at least here on earth but against this vnmercifull and hard hearted sinne God Heauen Earth Angells and Men haue so open and wide an eare and conceiue so ill of it that they thinke none deserues Hell better And therefore it is said Iudicium sine misericordia his qui non faciunt misericordiam Iudgement without mercie to those that shew no mercie When he falls no man will take pittie of him Reuelabunt Coeli iniquitatem eiâ—â— Terra consurget aduersius eum The Heauen shall declare his wickednesse and the Earth shall rise vp against him All the World will crie out against an vnmercifull minded man as on the contrarie they will praise and applaud him that is of a pittifull and tender disposition Enarrabit Eleemosynas suas omnis Ecclesia Sanctorum The whole Congregation shall talke of his praise and the Generations that are to come shall speake good things of him Whereas the other his name shall perish from off the earth but his torments in hell shall endure for euer Saint Austen is of opinion That there is not any sinne more iniurious to Nature than this You shall haue a rich man keepe in his house a Lyon a Beare fiue or sixe cast of Falcons to all which he alots dayly a liberal allowance the poore man comes vnto him makes his moane and in a pittifull and humble fashion sayes vnto him Sir I beseech you for Gods sake bestow one single pennie or a piece of bread on a poore weake creature that is not able to worke for his liuing Yet wil not the rich man giue him that which he giues vnto his Beasts ô what an inhumane thing is this and how harsh to euery good mans nature The second circumstance is this That God doth with such difficultie remit this sinne that if any be irremissable it is this not only for it's crueltie so contrarie to the bowells of Gods compassion but also for that taxing his prouidence he makes such light reckoning of the miseries of the Poore that hee weighes them by ounces and measures them out by ynches nay hee proceeds further by adding griefe vnto griefe and affliction to affliction and iudging those jerks of Gods diuine Iustice to be too gentle he lays a heauier hand greater load vpon him This is that that made Zacharie to crie out Magna ira irascor c. I am greatly incensed against your richer sort of men for I was angrie but a little and they helped forward the affliction I send the Poore a sore for the chastisement of his sinnes that thereby I may bring him to heauen these would flea him aliue The Prophet Amos thunders out a terrible threatning against them in the metaphor of fat Kyne Audite haec vaccae pingues qui confringitis c. Heare this Word yee Kyne of Bashan that are in the Mountaines of Samaria which oppresse the Poore and destroy the Needie thou hast not left one bone of them vnbroken but I sweare by my Holinesse That I will be reuenged of thee Lo the dayes shall come vpon you that I will take you away with Thornes and your Posteritie with Fish-hookes and yâ—â— shall goe out at the breaches euerie Cow forward and yee shall cast your selues out of the Pallace Thus he calleth the Princes and Gouernors which being ouerwhelmed with the great abundance of Gods benefits forgat God his poore Members and therefore he calleth them by the name of beasts and not of men No lesse fearefull is that menacing of Micah Heare ô yee Heads of Iacob and yee Princes of the house of Israell who plucke off the skin of the Poore and the flesh from off their bones who also eat the flesh of my people and
One Angel was enough to ouerthrow a mountaine one onely sufficeth to mooue these coelestiall Orbes but it is Saint Chrysostomes note That Euerie one was glad to put a helping hand to so worthie a burthen â— this As many earnestly thrust themselues forward to beare a foot a leg or an arme of some great Monarch In â—inum Abrahae Into the bosome of Abraham Some vnderstand by this his bosome the neerest place about Abraham As in that of the Euangelist All the Apostles supt with our Sauiour Christ but Saint Iohn onely leaned his head in his bosome And in that other Vnigenituâ— qui est in sinu patris c. The onely begotten who is in the bosome of the Father As also that A dextris At his right hand So likewise Many shall lie downe with Abraham Isaac and Iacob And the Church singeth Martinus Abrahae sinu laetus excipitur Mortuâ—s est autem Diues sepultus est But the rich man died and was buried The Greeke makes there a full point and then presently goes on In inferno autem cum esseâ— in tormentis But when he was in hell in torment But of Lazarus it is not said That they buried him whither it were for that he had no buriall at all or for that beeing so poore and miserable a creature Earth made no mention of him as Heauen did not of the rich man But we read of the rich man Sepultus est He was buried Hitherto did reach the jurisdiction of his riches and the peculiar of his prosperitie great Ceremonies watchfull attendance about his Corps many Mourners Doles to the Poore Tombes of Alabaster Vaults paued with Marble Lamentations odoriferous Ointments pretious Embalmings Funerall Orations solemne Banquets In all this I confesse the rich man hath a great aduantage of him that is poore But in this outward pompe lies all the rich mans happinesse and when hee hath entred the doores of darkenesse and is shut vp in his graue like the Hedge-hogge hee leaues his Apples behind him and nothing remaines with him but the prickles of a wounded conscience his howlings his lamentations weeping gnashing of teeth and whatsoeuer other torments Hell can affoord Diuitiarum jactantia quid contulit nobis The ostentation and glory of riches what good doth it bring vnto vs O would to God that I had bin some poore Sheepheard O how too late haue I fallen into an account of myne owne hurt O World would to God I had neuer knowne thee He died and was buried There is no felicitie so great that can diuert the euill of Death let the rich man liue the yeares of Nestor the ages of Methusalem in the end hee must descend into the graue The cleerest Heauen must haue it's Cloud and the brightest day must haue it's night the Sunne though neuer so shining must haue it's setting the Sea though neuer so calme must haue it's storme If the good things of this life were perpetuall they that are in loue with them might pretend some excuse but beeing that worldly pleasure is a Wheele that is alwayes moouing a Riuer that is alwayes running a Mill that is alwayes going and grinding vs to dust How canst thou settle thy selfe sure thereupon The highest places are the least secure the Moon when she is at the full foretells a waine and the Sunne when it is at the heigth admits a declination the house the higher it is built the more subiect it is to falling And the Nest saith Abdias that is neerest to the Starres God doth soonest throw it downe The rich man died He tells not how he liued but how he died for death is the eccho of mans life and he hauing led so cruell and so mercilesse a life what good could he hope for at his death Quoniam non est in morte qui memor sit tui laboraui in gemitu meo c. The first part Reason prooueth vnto vs The second Weeping howling In my life time I aske God forgiuenesse for my sinnes For the man that is vnmindfull of this in his life God doth not thinke on him at his death Many call vpon God at the houre of their death and it makes a mans haire to stand an end to see a man carelesse in so dangerous a passage only because Death is the eccho of our life Others will cal vpon Iesus but as that crucified Theefe that dyed without deuotion For that heart which is hard in his life is likewise hard in his death Cum esset in tormentis When he was in torment c. Here is an indefinite tearme put for a vniuersall For albeit euery one of the damned doe suffer the full measure and weight of his sinnes and acording to Saint Austen and Saint Gregory suffer most in that particular wherein they most offended And that therefore the rich man did suffer more in his tongue than any other member of his bodie yet notwithstanding there is not any one that is dâ—mned which doth not generally suffer in all his whole bodie and in euery part of his soule For as Heauen is a happinesse that imbraceth all happinesse so Hell is a misery that includeth all miseries There was neuer yet any tyrant in the world in whose prisons and dungeons all torments were inflicted at once But in that of Hell there is not any torment which is not felt at one and the same instant The body that shall generally suffer And for this fire and cold will suffice which are generall torments The soule shall likewise generally suffer sorrow and paine not only because the fire shall burne it which though corporall yet shall it's flames haue an operatiue vertue and working vpon the soule but because all hope being lost of any kind of joy whatsoeuer there shall therein be deposited all the reasons that may be of sorrow and of miserie Likewise there shall be particular torments for the sences of the bodie for the faculties of the soule the eyes shall enioy so much light as shall serue to see fearefull Visions so sayes Cirillus Alexandrinus and on the other side they shall suffer such thicke and palpable darknesse that they shall imagine them to be the ghastly shadowes of death Saint Chrysostome saith That they shall see the huge and infinite numbers of the Damned taking notice of all those that conuersed with them in their life time as fathers grandfathers brothers and friends And if the varietie multitude that are in a deep dungeon if the ratling of their chains the clattring of their shackles their hunger their nakednesse the noyse coyle confusion which they make cause a horrour in as many as both see and heare it what a terrour then will it be to see the miserable torments and to heare the fearefull shriâ—kes and pittifull outcries of those that are damned to the bottomlesse pit of hell The eares will suffer with their howlings their lamentations their blasphemies their cursings their ragings their dispairings
diuided the Nations and when he had separated the sonnes of Adam Esay calls it Germen dilectabile His pleasant Plant. Ieremie Vineam electam his elect and choyce Vine Saint Hierome Vineam Sorec which is a Vine-plant whose grapes according to some had no stones in them And he compassed it with an hedge whereby some Commentators vnderstand the Angels protecting of it others Gods garding of it himselfe others the feare of punishment For Feare keepes the Vineyard safe And this Gods owne Inheritance may runne a twofolde danger First In regard of the Deuills malice and against this God opposeth himselfe by making a hedge about it and by drawing a line beyond which the Deuill cannot passe Secondly In regard of our libertie against which hee hath placed the Feare of the Law and the seueritie of Gods chastisements For it is Feare that keepeâ— the Vineyard safe If there be any thing that puts a bridle to these our vnlawful longings it is this Feare as hath beene alreadie prooued in that our former discourse treating of the rich mans being in Hell God hath so seuerely punished some sinnes that in mans seeming he might be thought to haue gone a little too farre and to haue exceeded therein as in that of Ananias and Saphira and many others which as Tertullian hath verie well obserued were as so many Proclamations pasted vp on the principall posts of the Citie to aduise the people what his diuine Iustice meant to doe hereafter in the like kind of delicts And to this end God would that those his primary executions of his Iustice should remaine as a perpetuall memoriall to posteritie As that of the Angells against our pride that of Sodome against our lawlesse lusts that of Caine against our enuie that of Zenacharib against our arrogancie that fire of Gods wrath which consumed those that called for Quailes against our Gluttonie that of the Israelites early rising vp to gather Manna against our sloathfulnesse that punishment occasioned by the golden Calfe against our Idolatrie So that It is Feare that keepes the Vineyard safe This is that hedge wherewith it is compassed this that strong wall of defence and this the surest obseruance of the Law It is said in Deutronomie Si custodieris Praecepta mea ipsa custodient te If thou shalt keepe my Commandements they shall keepe thee And in Ecclesiasticus Si seruaueris seruabunt te Achior chiefe Captaine to the sonnes of Ammon notified this truth to Holofernes If this people haue kept the Laws commandements of their God let my Lord passe by lest their Lord defend them and their God bee for them and wee become a reproch to all the World For assure your selfe as long as they shall serue him he will serue as a Wall vnto them Where it is to be noted That as in a Wall there must not be any breach because thereby Cities commonly come to be lost so likewise must there not bee any breach in the obseruance of the Law for the transgression of one Commandement will serue to condemne thee as well as of the whole Decalogue and the failing in one vertue is the failing in all Thy bellie is as an heape of Wheat compassed about with Lillies The dangers are numberlesse that threaten this heape of wheat in the threshing floore Creditors Theeues Beasts Birds and Pismires But far more in number are those dangers that threaten our Soule those vertues which are to stand round about her must guard and defend her Circundate Syon complectimini eam Et Sepe circumdedit eam And he compassed it about with a hedge Hee had no sooner planted his Vineyard but he compassed it about with an Hedge To shew vnto vs That when a man hath once setled himselfe his house his wife his children and his familie he ought presently to compasse it in with a Wal which Wal must be the Feare of God and the keeping of his Lawes It must be like Salomons bed which had threescore strong men round about it of the valiant men of Israell such as could handle the Sword and were expert in warre euerie one hauing his sword vpon his thigh for the Feare by night Propter timores nocturnos Admonishing vs to keepe good watch and ward so many and so secret are those perills that attend vs that without the protection of God and his Angels we shall hardly be able to defend our selues Saint Paul sayes of himselfe Gratia Dei sum id quod sum By the grace of God I am that I am Whereunto Saint Augustine hath added Gratia Dei non sum id quod non sum By the grace of God I am not that which I am not By the grace of God thy house and thy lands may continue to thee and thy posterity to the worlds end by the grace of God thy eyes may abstaine from that which is euill Totus mundus in maligno positus est All the world is set vpon mischiefe The world is a continuall warre a long inlarged temptation And Saint Ambrose calls it Piraterium A Sea fraught with Pirats For as Saint Augustine saith therein there is nothing safe In Paradice the forbidden Fruit nor the Tree of Life were not secure and therefore God placed a Cherubin before the gate to gard it the surer Salomon had not his bed-chamber safe though it were garded with so many strong men How shall it be with that house then that is without walls or any defence at all Vbi non est saepes diripietur possessio saith Ecclesiasticus A Vineyard that is without a Mount giue it for lost Edificauit Turrim He built a Tower in it This Tower Origen and Saint Hierome vnderstand to be the Temple of Ierusalem which was built in a high place Irenaeus would haue it to be the same Citie whereof Esay said Venite ascendamus ad montem Domini Saint Ambrose and Saint Hilarie The heigth of the Law Others that place where the fruits of the Vineyard were to be kept Abundantia in Turribus tuis Other Schoolemen and Doctors take it to be the Churches Beacon or Watch-Tower Others to be our Faith whose sight extends it selfe to earth heauen and hell There is nothing that imports the World more than the eyes of this Tower Some seeking out the principall cause of the Worlds perdition say Couetousnesse is the root thereof Radix omnium malorum cupiditas Others Ignorance alledging that of the Phylosopher Omnis peccans est Ignorans But the truth is it is the want of Faith Et fodit in ea Torcular He digged a Pit for the Winepresse By this pit of the Winepresse Origen and Saint Hierome vnderstand the Sacrifice of our Sauiours bodie and bloud Saint Hilarie The Crosse of Christ Saint Gregorie The chastisement of Hierusalem The Owner of this Vineyard had made it so perfect and so absolute that the Renters thereof liued in a manner idle and had little or nothing more to
and flourish for euer in that eternall and glorious Paradise of Heauen The Holy-Ghost hath compared the Spouse to a Wall her brests to the branches of the Vine which goe clasping and compassing the same about And in another place the Angells aske Who is this that commeth vp out of the Wildernesse leaning vpon her Welbeloued Yee need not wonder so much at it for it is the Vine which desereth to be ioyned in perpetuall loue with Christ and hauing so good a prop it cannot but reach to the highest part of Heauen In a word Thou maist ô Lord mold man like a peece of waxe if thou wilt thou canst make a Deuill of him as thou didst of Iudas and if thou wilt thou canst make an Angell of him as thou didst of Iohn Baptist Thou canst make a just man mount aboue the Clouds and to sore vp to the highest part of Heauen And on the contrarie thou canst maxe a sinner to sinke downe as low as the deepest dungeon in Hell Peregrè profectus est And he went into a strange Countrie When the Scripture saith That God sleepeth or is afarre off it is according to Saint Basil a reciprocall kinde of Language Nor are we thereby to vnderstand that God either sleepeth or is farre off For he is neuer farre from any of vs but it is thou that art farre off and it is thou that sleepest when thou doost depart from such a Citie or when going to sea thou leauest the land it being thou that leauest the land and not the land thee for that remaines still immooueable Iust so stands the case between God and thee but is befitting his authoritie to behold things as if they were afarre off for in the notifying of his presence the World in one day would be turned quite topsi-turuie This made him say vnto Moses It is not fit that I should lead forth this People and be their Captaine Commander for their impudencies would oblige me to make an end of them at once For such is the wickednesse of this World that it is as vnable as vnfitting to abide his presence And therefore absenting himselfe he saith Peregrè profectus est Hee doth beare with our iniquities he doth patiently expect our amendment hee doth dissemble his displeasure and doth make as if he did not see what we did From whence grow these two inconueniences The one Our boldnesse and presumption It will be long ere my Lord will come And this false presumption makes a naughtie seruant carelesse and negligent Because I held my peace and said nothing and for that I seemed not to see them the wicked haue forgot that there is a God The other The rigour and seueritie of the punishment wherewith God doth recompence this his slackenesse and long tarrying Saint Gregorie compares the wrath of God to a Bow which the more it is bent the stronger it shoots it's Shaft He may vnbend it for a time butthat is but to make the draught the stronger when he takes it againe into his hand Excitatus est tanquam dormiens Dominus tanquam potens crapulatus à Vino percussit inimicos in posteriora Hee compares him here to a sleeping man and one that hath dranke hard who if hee bee valiant and a stout man in deed if his enemies make a May-game of him in his sleepe and offer to abuse him they were as good awake a sleeping Lyon for he no sooner opens his eyes but he presently takes notice of their ill dealing towards him and when he hath once rowsed vp himselfe vents his choller and executes his vengeance He went to trauell Hence grew the mischiefe of these Renters for they thought with themselues That their Lord being gone into a farre Countrie ◠would be long before he would return to require these his Fruits So that al ou◠hurt proceeds from our presuming that we shall liue so long that we may laugh and be merrie as long as our youth lasteth afterwards haue time enough to repent at leisure The Sinner he complaines of the shortnesse of his life Nos nati fere statim desiuimus esse We are no sooner borne but wee are cut downe and gone The righteous man complaines That his pilgrimage heere vpon Earth is too long He◠mihi quia incolatus meus prolongatus est But the truth is That thou makest thy life short by being forgetfull of the end for which it was giuen thee God gaue it thee to gaine Heauen and thou mispendest it in worldly businesses so that though life be little the losse is much If thou beest borne to be rich honourable and much made of thou wouldst thinke the yeares of thy life to bee but a few in regard of the great desire that thou hast to enioy those thy earthly blessings But if thou beest borne for Heauen Who will say that he wants time though he liue but a few yeares to prepare himselfe for that journey From the Cradle many young innocent Babes haue beene borne vp to Heauen and yet their yeares are neuer a whit the lesse but the more And some the more yeres they haue the more is their hurt For that day saith S. Gregory thou must reckon amongst those of thy life which thou foundest did make for thy Souleshealth He went to trauell Not to forget his Vine for that was alwayes before his eys but for to shew the great trust confidence that he had in these his Farmers and Renters and to oblige them thereby the more vnto him For that lord that trusts little ties a man the lesse When God had deliuered ouer Paradise vnto Adam and quietly seated him in the peaceable possession of it it is said That he forthwith vanished and went his way Hee that is Master of an estate hath not his eye continually vpon his seruants for that would fauour more of a tyrant than a master That husband that alwayes stayes at home and neuer goes out of his house is extreame wearisome to his wife but if he begin once to mistrust her peraduenture she will not sticke to giue him iust canse so to doe That Prelat which is alwayes gagging and pricking the sides of his subiects is an intollerable burthen And Dauid himselfe complaines thereof saying Imposuisti hominem super Capita nostra Saint Luke and Saint Mathew cite two Parables of Masters that did recommend to their seruants the charge of their house and of their wealth and say That presently thereupon they absented themselues and went into farre and remote Countries El que fia mucho obliga mucho He that trusteth much obligeth much Ioseph held himselfe so much bound vnto his master in that he trusted him with all that he had that he said being tempted by his Mistresse Quomodo possum peccare contra Dominum meum How can I prooue such a villaine to my Master as to wrong him in his Loue who hath loued me so well Saint Paul writes to Timothie
That he thought himselfe exceedingly bound to the seruice of our Sauiour Iesus Christ that he had ordained him a Preacher and an Apostle and a Teacher of the Gentiles in Faith and veritie and that he had trusted him with the ministrie and defence of his Church being that he had persecuted and blasphemed him heretofore Young Tobias said vnto the Angell Raphael Albeit I should spend all my life in thy seruice yet should I not satisfie that obligation which I haue to serue thee These are the respects of noble brests and he that shall thinke vpon these things truly may consider with himselfe how much greater benefits fauours he hath receiued from Gods hands He went into a farre Countrie He got him away to Heauen where for the loue which he beares to his Vine he thinkes himselfe a stranger The Disciples which went to Emaus said vnto him Tusolus peregrinus in Ierusalem Art thou only a stranger in Ierusalem Wherein they spake truer than they were aware of calling him by the name of Stranger when as hee was now glorified For as long as he liued here vpon earth he was contented for our sakes to be a stranger in heauen And though hee himselfe were in heauen yet his Spouse was on earth O Lord where then art thou Where I would bee there where my Spouse is Vbi thesaurus ibi cor Where a mans treasure is there also is his heart Nazianzen cals vs The Riches of God And this saith he we are to esteeme as a singular fauour Quia nos pro diuitijs suis habet That he will vouchsafe vs so much honor as to account vs his Riches And we are not onely his Riches but his Delight and Recreation Et delitiae meae esse cum filijs hominum I made it my pleasure to remaine among the children of men Though my head were rounded with Starres and circled about with a Crowne of infinite Glorie yet did I humble my thoughts as low as Man And here are we to ponder on the particle Et And if Kings haue a care of their Parkes and make great reckoning of their Gardens and houses of pleasure for that they are their entertainment and recreation How much more ought God to esteeme of his Vine holding it to bee his Riches his Pleasure and Delight Cum autem tempus Fructum appropinquaret misit Seruos vt acciperent Fructus When the time of the Vintage was at hand he sent his Seruants to the husbandmen to receiue the fruits thereof Here you see how he did wait til the season that this his Vineyard was fit to yeeld him Fruit and that the time of the Vintage drew neere Not before for it were meere tyrannie to demand that which is not yet due vnto thee Nor after for so a Lord may runne the hazard of loosing his Fruits vnlesse his Farmer be the honester man Euery Plant hath it's due time and season to yeeld it's Fruit and albeit our season bee the whole terme of our life yet there are some seasons so precise that not to giue Fruit therein is held to be a wonderfull bad signe God commanded his People That when they came to inioy the Land of Promise they should offer vnto him of the first of all the fruit of the earth This was a strict and precise occasion in them and in vs as oft as we begin to enioy Gods fauours and blessings towards vs. And this conceit is comprehended in this verie Parable which is here deliuered vnto vs. To receiue the Fruits thereof And here first of all it is to bee noted That in this he did not doe them any wrong in the World What wrong doth that man doe to a Vineyard that hath planted and pruned it if he at the time of it's Frâ—â—t require Grapes What wrong doth the Pope to the Cardinall the Bishop and the Chanon or the King to his Minister or the Generall to his Frier to craue of them That they shall complie with their Obligations especially if the Superiour comply as he ought with his Who planted this Vineyard Who hedged it about Who made a Winepresse therein Who built a Tower to it The husbandmen No it was God Is it much then that hee should looke for the Fruits thereof Secondly God herein did them a great and singular fauour For Saint Paul saith That these Fruits are Loue Ioy Peace Long suffering Gentlenesse Goodnesse Faith Meekenesse and Temperance And being these are the Fruits that we should bring forth yet hee is pleased to call them his Fruits for in all our actions he principally desireth our good and our profit God being equally honoured in punishing the Bad as in rewarding the Good If thou be righteous what giuest thou vnto him or what receiueth he at thyne hand What addest thou to his glorie saith Iob and Thomas for if he desires our praises our thanksgiuings and our seruices he doth not so much pretend therein his owne glorie as our good for he is fulnesse of Glorie it selfe But by praising and seruing of him we acknowledge him to be our God and therein submit our selues to his diuine will whereby we come to receiue a great reward Saint Augustine saith That when we make vowes and promises vnto God he commaunds vs strictly to performe them not because that he hath any need that we should fulfill them but because in fâ—lfilling of them we shall reape the fruit of them and the more we giue vnto God the more still we haue Benignus exactor est non â—genus non vâ— crescat ex redditis sed vt crescere faciat redditores Nam quod eis redditur reddente additur Hee is a louing not a needie exactor not to increase his owne rentâ— but to increase ours not to raise them but vs For what we render vnto him he renders it backe to vs with aduantage To receiue the Fruits thereof The griefe of it was That he sonding his Seruants at the time of it's Fruit they could scarce finde a bunch in all the Vineyard they were not able to gleane any thing out of it Non est botrus ad commedendum saith Micheas My Soule desired the first ripe Fruits but there is no cluster to eat Perijt sanctus de terra The good man is perished out of the earth and there is none righteous among men In a place that is generally infected you shal scarce find a sound man so likewise in this Vine be it in the Law Naturall in the Law Written or in the Law of Grace you shall hardly meet with good Fruit. For to meet with a good and righteous man you must looke and looke againe first search this and then that other Stocke and when you haue done all ye can doe in stead of sweet grapes you shall gather those that are soure and in stead of wine haue the gall of Dragons and the poyson of Aspes But some perhaps will say That the husbandmen were not
vnto them but they loued Darknesse their Messâ—â— came and they killed him What will the Lord of the Vineyard doe He did direct this question to the repairing of their perdition for as yet they were in the state of saluation And 〈◊〉 they would but haue beene ashamed of that which they had done and repented them of their sinnes hee would haue runne with open armes to haue receiued them into grace Plutarch saith That Loue takes any occasion bee it neuer 〈◊〉 light to doe good vnto him whom he loueth it hath no need of baits snares himselfe beares those baits about him wherewith he is taken for Gods loue neuer takes his leaue of a Sinner Our Lord and Sauiour Iesus Christ remained dead in Mount Caluarie yet for all that did he not forsake vs but he returnes 〈◊〉 hundred times and more intreating and calling vnto vs Be thou instructed ô Ierusalem lest my Soule depart from thee lest I make thee desolate as a land that 〈◊〉 inhabiteth In that generall inundation he repented him of what he had 〈◊〉 and promised neuer to doe so no more Nequaquam vltra There shall bee no 〈◊〉 waters of a floud to destroy all flesh What will the Lord of the Vineyard doe He askes the question What he 〈◊〉 doe and takes councell with himselfe signifying thereby vnto vs That great chastisements require great consideration The Prophet Esay threatning Edom saith He will measure it out with a Line that he may bring it to naught No man doth measure a Building to destroy it the Rule and the Square were ordained for to build I answer Amongst your Artificers here vpon earth it passeth so as thou sayest but he that was that onely Artizan of Heauen dwelt longer vpon the destroying of Niniuie than hee would haue done in building of it Cogitauit Dominus dissipare murum filiae Syon tetendit funiculum The Lord hath determined to destroy the wall of the Daughter of Syon he stretched out a Line he hath not withdrawn his hand from destroying The Lord had a determination to destroy the citie of Ierusalem but first hee tooke a measure thereof as wee say by line and by leisure Rupertus hath noted it that he was seuentie yeres about taking this measure Lastly he askes the question What shall the Lord of the Vineyard doe because to destroy and to kill is to bee vsed where no other meanes will serue the turne After that they had ill intreated his Seruants stoned some slaine other-some and last of all his heire yet euen after all this doth he seeke to make peace with them In the twentieth of Deutronomie God hath commanded That when thou commest neere vnto a citie to fight against it before thou shalt set vpon the same thou shalt offer it peace Abishai besieging Abel a woman cryed out there within Knowst thou not that they spake in the old time saying They should first aske peace of Abel and hence it is said Qui interogant interogent in Abel Why doost thou not first demand Sheba of vs wee shall deliuer Sheba vp into thy hands Quare pracipitas hereditatem Domini Why wilt thou destroy the Lords Inheritance Chrysostome saith That Gods sending of Ionas to preach Yet forty days and Niniuie shall be destroyed was no other but a profering of peace vnto them What shall the Lord of the Vineyard doe All these and other larger proffers God vseth to make to Christendome in generall and to euery one of the Faithfull in particular He hath planted a Church hee hath watred it with his owne bloud and that of the Apostles and Martyrs he hath ploughed and tilled it and sowne it with the seed of his Doctrine he hath affoorded thee strange fauours as riches discretion beautie the dainties of the Earth of the Ayre and of the Sea and all these hast thou made as weapons to offend him Quid faciet Dominus Vinia It is no meruaile that many Christians are worse now in part than the Pharisees were then for in the brests of the Pharisees there was no faith nor no knowledge of Christ which occasioned their sinnes against Christ but the Christians beleeuing in him and adoring him doe not sticke to offend him The Pharisees would not receiue Christ our Sauior Redeemer because then they must haue laid aside their couetousnesse their ambition their hypocrisie dissimulation but they beeing so proud a People would not admit of so humble a God A poore King and rich Vassals doe not sute well together but to beleeue in him and yet not to regard him this is a foule fault among Christians Samaria being subiect to the Assyrians God sent a fearefull scourge amongst them Lyons which euerie where slew them and tore them in pieces The King desiring to repaire this losse sent Priests among them to instruct them in the Law of that Land and to persuade them to the feare of God and to teach them the manner of the God of the Countrie but the Text saith They feared the Lord but serued their Idols withall They offered their Vnderstanding to God but their Will vnto Idolls The like kind of course a great part of Christendome taketh they acknowledge a God but adore Vice and their Faith they thinke shall serue them for a safe Conduct that God may not destroy them in his wrath Beeing herein like vnto your Marshalls men who onely therefore serue the Marshall that they may liue the looser and sinne with more safetie Two mischiefes seeme to threaten such kind of Christians The one That this their Faith may turne to their greater condemnation The other That they may runne the hazard of loosing it By Balaams aduice the King of Moab sent many faire and beautifull women to Gods People to the end to draw on their loue the more but charging them withall that they should not in any hand yeeld to their longings and their lustings vnlesse they would first worship those Idolls which they themselues adored And it so fell out Affection ouer-ruling Religion that many of the Faithfull by this meanes fell away and did linke themselues in marriage with them making little or no scruple of the condition whereunto they were tyed Wee may verie well giue great thankes to our Vices and vnto God who hath so ordred the businesse for vs that though our Vices bring with them vnlawful pleasures and delights yet they doe not bring Idols with them which if they did I feare me that many would echaran la soga tras el Caldero Hurle the rope after the kettle or as we say by way of Prouerbe Fling the helme after the hatchet Aiunt illi Malos male perdet They say vnto him He shall destroy those wicked ones Him in Scripture we call ill who does ill Si ergo vos cum sitis mali nostis bona dare filijs vestris c. Wee dayly pray vnto God to deliuer vs from euill yet sticke not dayly to
commit euill Hazarding thereby both body and soule Mala est vita mala sed mâ—râ— peccatorum pessima An ill life is bad but a bad death worse God does Bene perdeâ—â— iustum When his il workes for his good As in Iobs case His goods were lost but his soule was saued But the perdition of this people was generall both in their goods their honours their wiues their children their Temple their liues and their soules In a word God would that this people like Lots wife should serue for a generall warning to the whole World by notifying their punishment to all nations Deus ostendit mihi super inimicos meos Now Ostendere in holy Scripture imports a Publication Quantas ostendisti mihi tribulationes multas malaâ— What great tribulations hast thou shewed me many euill He will destroy those wicked ones Dauid craues of God That hee will not correct him in his furie neither chasten him in his displeasure Ne in furore Domine God punishes all but not in his furie Ieremy craues a Corripe but it is in judicio non in furore Correct vs ô Lord and yet in thy judgement not in thy fury This Prophet sets downe two sorts of punishments The one of an Almond tree budding Quid tu vides Ieremiah What 〈◊〉 thou Ieremy Virgam vigilantem ego video sayth hee I see a rod of an Almond tree The other of a pot seething Quid tu vides c. What seest thou Ollam succâ—â—â—sam ego video saith he I see a seething pot In the rod he represented vnto vs a light kind of punishment with a rod we vse to beat out the dust if you strike therwith but two or three strong blowâ— well layd on you will presently breake it And this kind of punishment is eueâ— more directed to amendment of life and to serue as a warning vnto vs. Ionathâ—â— eyes were opened with that honie which he had on the top of his wand But in that of the pot seething he represents vnto vs a most sharpe and seuere punishment He shall destroy those wicked ones Man is so wedded to selfe-loue that when it shall incounter with the counsell of God it will goe about to condemne it Of fiue hundred offenders that lye in prison you shall scarce finde one that will not complaine that he suffers vniustly that the Iudges sentence proceeded either out of malice or iniustice And for these there is no better course to be taken with them than to halter them as they doe Mules when they begin to play iadish trickes As well conditioned as Dauid was Nathan the Prophet was faine to hamper him in this manner that he might thereby be taught to know his own error The like order doth our Sauiour Christ take with this froward people And albeit they were so crafty and so wary that when he propounded any questions vnto them they were wonderfull carefull what answere to make him suspecting this was but a trap set for them insomuch that when our Sauiour ask't them Whether the Baptisme of Iohn Baptist were from Heauen or from Earth They answered We know not But notwithstanding all this forasmuch as there is no wisedome no prudence nor no counsaile against the Lord and that the wisedome of the Earth is but foolishnesse to that of Heauen they fell into the snare pronouncing this sentence against themselues Malos male perdet He will cruelly destroy those wicked men It was not much that the children should waxe blind beeing neere the splendour of his diuine Wisedome when as their father the Deuill who was the fountaine of Malice was strucken blinde therewith Iob that patterne of Patience saith Hee that made him will make his owne sword to approach vnto him Some Bookes haue it Applicaâ—it gladium eius ei He caused the Deuill to cut his throat with his owne knife Hee tooke vp sinne as a sword against God and against Man but the Wisedome of God so guided the blow that he sheathed his sword in his owne bowels He brought in Death and Death was his death Hee bit Eue by the heele but this biting was the brusing of his head Of Golias sword Dauid said Non est similis in terra There was not the like againe to bee had Not that there was not such another to be found in the Philistimes armories but because it found out the tricke to cut off his Masters head So the Pharisees own sentence was the sword that cut their throates Nebuchadnezar asking of his Southsayers the signification of his dreame They told him None can doe that but God Now when Daniell shall interpret it he must by your owne confession be either a God or one of Gods inward friends Malos male perdâ—t Hee will destroy those wicked ones your owne mouth condemns you Saint Chrysostome and Eutimius say That they were all of this opinion But anon after finding themselues bitten they foyst in an Absit But our Sauiour citing for his purpose that saying of the Psalmist Lapidem quem reprobauerunt c. The stone which they refused c. Their mouthes were bungd vp and their Absit would not now serue their turne And therefore he sayes vnto them Auferetur à vobis Regnum Dei The Kingdome of God shall be taken from you c. Auferetur à vobis regnum Dei The Kingdome of God shall be taken from you The prophecies of the translation from the Iewes to the Gentiles as they are many so are they most manifest As in that of Esay Quia posuisti ciuitatem in tumulum Where he treateth of this alteration and of the destruction of Ierusalem Of Osee The children of Israell shall remaine many dayes without a King Of Ieremy I haue forsaken my house I haue left my heritage Of Malachy My affection is not towards you Mathew sums vp all these prophecies in one Your habitation shall be left vnto you desolate Pope Leo hath obserued that our Sauiour Christ beeing not able to beare the heauie burthen of the Crosse the Iewes fearing he would not dye till they had fastned him thereunto hired a Gentile called Simon Cirenaeus to helpe him awhile in the bearing of it Onely thereby to show that the fruit of the Crosse was to come vnto the Gentiles Or to explaine it fuller his submitting himselfe to the Crosse amidst these cruell Iewes was not a thing done by chance but a kind of prophecie That the Gentiles should take possession of the key of Heauen The Kingdome of God shall be taken from you Here first of all he aduiseth Kings Princes and Rulers that they looke well vnto their wayes and stand in feare of this change For God is woont to transferre Kingdomes States and Seigniories from one nation to another for their sinnes sake Because of vnrighteous dealing and wrongs and riches gotten by deceit the Kingdome is translated from one people to another A King suffers his subiects to be
ouerladen with Taxes when they are not able to beare them Giue that Kingdome for lost The wicked shall be cut-off from the Earth and the transgressors shall bee rooted out of it Daniel pronounceth as much God changeth times and ages he translateth kingdomes and establisheth them The most high beareth rule ouer the kingdome of men and giueth it to whomsoeuer he will And those that walke in pride hee is able to abase And in the fourth chapter He setteth vp a meane man in their steed The examples of this in Gods people are more in number than the starres of Heauen We see the house of Ieroboam destroyed and vtterly rooted out by the hands of Baasha That of Baasha by Zambri and that of Ahab by Iehu In the land of promise God tooke away one and thirtie Kingdomes from those Kings and bestowed them on his owne people Alios laborauerunt vos in laborem eorum introistis Others tooke the paines and yee reap't the profit But he did deferre the possession of these for some few yeares because the sinnes of the Amorites were not yet come vnto their heigth Salmanazer carried away tenne of the Tribes captiue to the land of the Medes Nebuchadnezzar destroyd the City and Temple of Ierusalem and leading the people away captiue vnto Babilon he left the land wast and desolate as it appeareth in the Lamentations of Ieremie Haereditas nostra versa est ad alienos Our inheritance is turned ouer vnto strangers The Monarchy of the Assirians and Babilonians was transferred to the Medes and Persians that of the Persians to the Grecians and Macedonians and that of the Macedonians to the Romans as was prophecied by Daniel in that prodigious Statua which Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dreame The Empire of Constantinople was translated to the Ottoman Family In a word numberlesse are those Kingdomes which haue suffered their alterations and translations Their sinnes beeing the onely cause of this their change Secondly He aduiseth those of the middle sort on whome God hath bestowed wealth houses honours and health wherewithall conueniently to passe this life of theirs That they proue not vngratefull vnto God For he knowes as well how to take away from them as to giue to them all these his good blessings and to bring them by meanes neuer dreamt of to the Hospitall and to shamefull pouertie and dishonour According to that saying vttered by God himselfe They that despise me shall be despised As also by the mouth of Osee. This People doth not acknowledge that I giue them Wine Wheate and Oyle and therefore I shall make them to acknowledge it by taking these things from them leauing them poore hungrie and miserable Thirdly Hee aduiseth the Faithfull to procure to preserue the goods of Grace and the right and hope which they haue in the Kingdome of Heauen lest God should translate the same to a Nation that should bring forth better fruit leauing them in the darkenesse of errours heresies without Priests without Sacraments without Scriptures without God and passing these his good graces ouer to a People that haue not knowne his Law For though God chops and changes Kingdomes yet hee neuer takes away his Riches and his blessings Tene quod habes â—e alius accipiat Coronam tuam Hold fast that thou hast lest another come and take thy Crowne from thee It is Saint Iohns in his Apocalyps God remooued Adam out of Paradice God will raise seed out of stones and make barren places to bring forth fruit Et dabitur Genti facienti fructum And it shall be giuen to a Nation that shall bring forth fruit The Princes of the earth takes away the wealth of one of his Ministers giues it to another puts away a bad seruant takes in a worse remooues a full fed Flie and claps a leane Carrion in his roome Ioshuah tooke ten stones out of Iordan and put other ten in the places of them This is a figure of the Worlds Reformation Offices are euerie day chopt and changed twelue pibble Stones are rowled out of the Court and twelue others are tumbled in in their stead But God is of another kind of temper he makes choice of a people that shall bring forth Fruit Hee takes the Kingdome from Saul giues it vnto Dauid I will giue it to one that is better than thy selfe Hee toke away the Priesthood from Shebna who grew fat therein like a Capon in a Coope and gaue it to Eliakim Who was as it were a father of the Inhabitants of Ierusalem The sons of Ely died and Samuel succeeded in the Priesthood Suscitabo mihi Sacerdotem fidelem I will raise vnto me a faithfull Priest God raise vs vp all to newnesse of life and let not our vnthankfulnesse cause him to thrust vs out of this vineyard which he hath planted for vs but that we may return him some fruits thereof that he may be glorified here by vs on Earth and we receiue from him a Crowne of eternall glory in Heauen THE SEVENTEENTH SERMON VPON THE SATVRDAY AFTER THE SECOND SONDAY IN LENT LVC. 15. Homo quidam habuit duos filios A certaine man had two Sonnes c. AMongst the rest of the Parables this Parable is treated of and is diuided into foure parts The first relates the resolution of an idle young fellow desirous to see the world and to haue his fathers leaue to trauell The second His vnaduised actions lewd courses lauish expences and the miseries that befell him thereupon The third The consideration of his own wretched estate his returning home to his fathers house all totter'd and torne weake and hungerstarued The fourth His fathers kind reception of him and the joy that he took in this his lost sonne This followes verie fitly that former Parable of the Vineyard That being full of feare this of hope That of the rigour of justice this of the regalos of mercie That checkes a sinner in his sinnes this spurs him on to repentance And these are those two Poles whereon the whole gouernement of God dependeth A certaine man had two sonnes In these two sons are represented vnto vs the just and the sinnefull man For this life is a Net which holds all sorts of fishes it is an heape of Corne where the Chaffe is mixed with the Wheat it is a flock of Sheep and Goats a bodie consisting of contrarie humors a ground of good seed and of tares All are the sonnes of God by creation but not by adoption Fathers may haue sonnes alike in fauour but not in conditions Adam to his Abel had a Caine Noah to his Shem had a Cham Abraham to his Isaac had an Ismael Isaac to his Iacob had an Esau Dauid to his Salomon had an Absalon and Salomon himselfe had a Rehoboam So haue most men that haue many children and God himselfe hath some crosse froward and peruerse children Adolescentior ex illis The younger of them The
ashamed it is Salomons And Ecclesiasticus saith Laugh not with thy son leâ—t thou be sorie with him and lest thou gnash thy teeth in the end Giue him no libertie in his youth and winke not at his follie Bow downe his necke while he is young beat him on the sides whilest he is a child lest he wax stubborne and be disobedient vnto thee and so bring sorow to thine heart c. Men ought to be verie circumspect in giuing too much licence and libertie to young Gentlemen whilest they are in the heat and furie of their youth and that their wanton bloud boyleth in their veines It is no wisdome in parents to giue away their wealth from themselues and to stand afterwards to their childrens courtesie Giue not away thy substance to another lest it repent thee no not to thine owne children For better it is that thy children should pray vnto thee than that thou shouldest looke vp to the hands of thy children To this doubt satisfaction hath formerly beene giuen by vs in a Discourse of ours vpon this same Parable but that which now offers it selfe a fresh vnto vs is That albeit the Father saw that his libertie his monys his absence would be his Sonnes vndoing yet hee likewise saw his amendment his repentance and what a future warning this would be vnto him And so hee chose rather to see him recouered after he was lost than violently to detaine him and to force him to keepe home against his will which would bring forth no better fruits than lowring and grumbling Saint Augustine saith That it seemed a lesser euill to God to redresse some euills than not to permit any euill at all Melius judicauit de malis benefacere quam mala nulla esse permittere God would not haue thee to sinne neither can he be the Author of thy sinnes but if men should not commit sinnes Gods Attributes would lose much of their splendor Saint Paul speaking of himselfe saith That God had forgiuen him though he had beene a persecuter and blasphemer of his holy Name c. And why did hee doe this Vt ostenderet omnem patientiam gratiam My sinnes saith he were the occasion that God pardoned me and his pardoning of mee was the cause of the Worlds taking notice of his long suffering and his great goodnesse This may serue for a verie good instruction to those that are great Princes and Gouernours of Commonwealths and may teach them how to punish and how to beare with their subiects and it belongeth no lesse to the name of a good Gouernour to tollerate with prudence than to punish with courage And Salomon giues thee this caueat Noli esse multum justus Et not thou iust ouermuch Congregatis omnibus When he had gathered all together What a strange course was this that this young man ranne First of all hee leuelled all accounts with his father shutting the doore after him to all hope of receiuing so much as one farthing more than his portion If he had left some stocke behind him that might haue holpe him at a pinch if he should chance to miscarrie in this his journey for he was not sure that he should still hold Fortune fast by the wing he had done well and wisely but he made a cleane riddance of all as well mooueables as immooueables Et congregatis omnibus c. Secondly What a foolish part was it in him to leaue so good a Father and so sweet and pleasant a Countrie being both such naturall tyes of loue to Mans brest The loue of a Father is so much indeered in Scripture that great curses and maledictions are thundred out against vnlouing and vnkind childeren And the loue of a mans Countrie is such a thing saith Saint Augustine that God made choice to trie of what mettal Abraham was made by such a new strange kind of torment as to turne him out of his Countrie Egredere de Terra tua de Cognatione tua Goe from thy Land and from thy Kindred Saint Chrysostome saith That euen those Monkes which left the world for their loue to God and to doe him seruice did notwithstanding shew themselues verie sencible of their absence from their natiue soyle and their fathers house But those sorrowes and lamentations which the Children of Israell made when they were on their way to Babylon indeere it beyond measure If I forget thee ô Ierusalem let my right hand forget her cunning If I doe not remember thee let my tongue cleaue to the roofe of my mouth yea if I prefer not Ierusalem in my mirth c. But much more fearefull is the resolution of this young man in the thing that is signified thereby To wit That a Sinner shall so exactly summe vp all his reckonings with God that he shall not haue any hope at all left him neither in his life nor his death of one onely dramme of mercie There are some Sinners that giue their wealth to the World but not all some giue God their lips but not their hearts some their memorie but not their will some their will but not their vnderstanding some are dishonest and yet Almesgiuers some couetous and yet deuout like those Assyrians which liued in Samaria who acknowledged God his Law yet worshipped Idolls But to giue all away as the Prodigall did is a desperate course Besides It is a miserable case that this Prodigall should not bee sencible of leauing so good a Father as God of renouncing so rich an Inheritance as Heauen and of being banished for euer from so sweet and pleasant an habitation But he is so blind that he loueth darkenesse and abhorres the light which is a case so lamentable that it made Ieremie to crie out Obstupescite Coeli Be amazed 〈◊〉 Heauens Profectus est in Regionem longinquam He tooke his journey into a farre Countrie No man can flie from God per distantiam loci be the place neuer so farre off no distance can bring vs out of his reach If I ascend vp vnto Heauen thou art there if descend into Hell thou art there also And certainly if there were any one place free from his presence all the Prodigals of the world would make that their Rendezuous and liue there Ionas flying from God left the earth and entred into the sea where there were so many Serjeants waiting to arrest him who tooke hold of him and threw him into prison that darke dungeon of the Whales bellie So that there is not any thing saith Anselmus in the Concaue of Heauen which can escape the eye of Heauen no though a man should flie from East to West and from the South vnto the North. So this Prodigall flying from his Fathers house fell vpon a poore Farme flying from Fulnesse lighted vpon Hunger and these were Gods executioners appointed to punish his follie Into a farre Countrie He came to the Citie of Obliuion whose Inhabitants are without
was fit that Heauen should put a taske and a tye vpon this our tongue least it should lash out too farre And therefore her Sonne when he was vpon the Crosse and tooke his last farewell of his mother he said vnto her Woman behold thy sonne giuing her that name rather than of Mother least some superstitious people might attribute the Diuine nature vnto her and so rob God of his honour And the brests which thou hast suckt She praiseth her wombe and her brests There are two things entertaine a sweet correspondencie a womans conception in her wombe and the manifestation thereof in her brests Iust so doth it succeed with the Soule in it's conception of God and the brest of the iust man who thereupon doth manifest the guest that lodgeth there Betweene the Vine and the Wine there is that good correspondencie that the floures of the Grape participating of it's sweetnesse sends forth a most pleasant odour So likewise when the floures of Christ beginne to bud in the Soule the brest of Man doth streightway thereupon breath forth a most sweet and redolent odour Beatus venter Blessed is the wombe This was Mans first Heauen the first place wherein God bestowed this his greatest happinesse and blessing vpon Man It is a happinesse to Man when his Vnderstanding sees God and when his Will loues him taking pleasure therein as in his chiefest good Now the first eyes that saw God and the first will that loued God and placed his ioy delight therein was that of our Sauior Christ and Maries wombe being the receptacle of this happinesse it came to bee mans first Heauen The first Adam was earthly because formed of earth the second heauenly because formed of Heauen Before this time he had no set habitation For hee dwelt not in any house from the day that he brought the Children of Israel out of Aegypt c. His glorie was represented in Tabernacles Tents poore Pallaces ywisse for God Salomon did better it with his Temple which Fabrick was the worlds wonder but not so worthie God that our eyes could see him well might our will be good But this most blessed Virgin had fitted and prepared so rich a temple for him in her womb that God himself came down to dwel there Some seeme to doubt or rather wonder why God should so long deferre his comming in the flesh He stayd so long that the Holy-Ghost might prepare and dresse vp this Temple of the Virgins Wombe Vt dignum filij tui habitaculum offici mereretur spiritu sancto cooperante praeparasti Thou didst trim vp ô Lord the bodie and soule of this blessed Virgine and didst furnish her with thy cheese Graces that shee might be made a fit and worthy pallace for thy Sonne Blessed is the Wombe This commending of the Sonne was a great honor to the Mother The common currant is That children doe battle much vpon their parents worth And therefore they doe so vsually blazon forth the noble actions of their Ancestors And by how much the more antient they are the more glorious is their coat of Armes True it is that fathers doe sometimes participate of the glorie of their sonnes according to that of Ecclesiasticus Hee that teacheth his sonne greeueth the enemy and before his friends he shall reioyce of him Of meane men they many times come to be famous and renowned throughout the World Homer relates of Hylacius that the valour of his sonnes did giue him amongst the Cretenses the name of God And when the Senate of Rome did crown any of their Citisens their fathers were innobled thereby And Ioseph hauing incurred the hatred and displeasure of his brethren because he dreamt that the Sunne the Moone and the twelue starres did adore him the sacred Text sayth That the father Rem tacitus considerabat did lay it vp in his heart as one that did imagine that from the prosperitie of the sonne there might some honour redound to the father Cornelius Tacitus relateth in his Annals that the Emperour Tiberius beeing importuned by many that amongst other his surnames he would assume some one of his Mothers for his greater honour made answere That the Mother was not to honour the Emperour but the Emperour the Mother But this their glorie is so short that looking backe whence they came they can make it scarce reach so farre as their great Grandfathers But the glorie of our Sauiour Iesus Christ our Redeemer did reach as farre as vnto King Dauid and could draw his Pedegree from the Patriarch Abraham Whome that hee might honour them the more he stiles himselfe in the Gospell to be their sonne Filij Dauid filij Abraham where it is to be noted that after so many ages so many changes and alterations both of the times and the people of Kings Iudges and Captaines in the end there being an interuention of two and fortie generations the glorie of Christ attained to the hundred Grandfather And by calling himselfe the sonne of Dauid and of Abraham hee reuiued their remembrance and made them thereby more famous And if in so large a distance of time it wrought so noble an effect treading so neer vpon the tract of these latter times that there was no wall now betweene the Mother and the Sonne her blessed Wombe and his most happie Birth what a glorie must it be vnto her what a happines vnto vs Emisenus treating in a Sermon of his touching the assumption of our Lady and with what honour shee was receiued into Heauen sayth Those great riuers of glorie which the Sonne had gained both in Heauen and in Earth returned backe againe that day imploying their best speediest course in the honoring of his Mother Saint Ambrose stiles her the forme of God Either because shee was the forme or mold through which God did thus transforme himselfe by taking our humane shape vpon him or else because the graces of God though not in so great a measure were translated or transferred ouer vnto her A mould made of earth is not bettered by the mettall which it receiueth though it be neuer so good gold But by the gold of Christs Diuinitie the Vâ—gines Wombe was much the better and the purer by it And therefore it is sayd Beata quae credidisti Blessed art thou that didst beleeue For all c. the types figures and promises of God remained more compleat and perfect in thee than in any other creature Quin imo beati qui audiunt Verbum Dei custodiunt illud But hee sayd yea rather blessed are they that heare the Word of God and keepe it These words may carrie with them a threefold sence The one That the word Quin imo may be aduersatiua implying a kind of repugnancie or contradiction and that correcting as it were what Marcella sayd he doth mend and better her speech Doost thou saith hee terme my mother blessed Thou art deceiued for shee is not blessed for that
shee bare mee but because she heard my word And this sence is taken out of two places of Saint Augustine The one in his tenth tract vpon Saint Iohn where he saith Mater quam appellas foelicem non inde foelix quia in ea verbum caro factum est sed quia Verba Dei custodit That mother of myne whom thou callest blessed was not therefore blessed because in her the Word was made Flesh but because she layd vp the word of God in her heart The other in his thirtie eight Epistle which he writes to a Gentleman called Letus who being newly conuerted was shrewdly layd at by his mother persuading him all that she possibly could that he should not proceed in this his determination And proouing vnto him That in this cause he ought to denie and hate that mother that had brought him forth according to the flesh and to follow the Church by which he was regenerated borne anew according to the Spirit Amongst many other weightie reasons to mooue him thereunto hee vrgeth this amongst the rest Thy King and thy Emperour Christ saith he had a mother and such a mother as neuer man had the like and being one day busie in preaching which was Heauens businesse they told him That his mother and his brethren were without at the doore expecting that he should come forth vnto them But he stretching out his hand to his Disciples said Quae mater Et qui fratres mei Who is my mother and who my bretheren My mother and my brethren are they who doe the will of my Father as for any other Kindred or bloud I acknowledge none Summing vp saith Saint Augustine in this number etiam ipsam Virginem Mariam euen the Virgin Marie her selfe For the name of Mother is terrestriall temporall and transitorie but that kindred which is contracted by hearing Gods Word is celestiall and euerlasting If this doubt had had it's occasion thus or that the case stood so that this good and holy woman Marcella had not knowne and acknowledged our Sauiour Iesus Christ to be God nor the blessed Virgin to be his mother this â—ence had then beene verie plaine and no scruple to be made of it for the dignitie of mother should not haue come to a lesser degree of grace than that which the Virgin inioyed The second sence or meaning is That this particle Quin imo is comparatiua comparatiuely spoken or by way of comparison Thou callest my mother blessed for that she is my mother thou sayest well but more blessed is shee in that she heares my Word This sence is likewise taken out of Saint Augustine Libro de sancta Virginitatepunc Where he saith Beatior suit Maria concipiendo â—ente quam ventre Marie was happier in the conception of her mind than of her wombe And anon after Foelicius gestauit corde quam carâ—e She bore him more happily in the Spirit than the Flesh. This opinion is followed by Saint Cyprian Iustine Martyr and generally by all the moderne Doctours and this of all other is the plainest and that which doth best open oâ—r Sauiour Christs intention and purpose First Because the Greeke word which answereth to Quin imo is neither a Negatiue nor an Affirmatiue Secondly because this happinesse beeing granted vnto those who saw and beheld our Sauior Christ with their eyes it is not to be supposed that it should bee denyed to his Mother that had brought him foorth and bred him vp Besides the Virgine said of her selfe All nations shall call me blessed Not only for that aboundance of grace which God had bestowed vpon her but also for that he had inriched her with so many great priuiledges whereof the dignitie of a Mother was not the least Saint Austen indeering the greatnesse thereof saith That the heart could not conceiue it nor the tongue expresse it And Anselmus That next to the greatnesse of the Son there was not any greatnesse either in Heauen or in Earth which was any way comparable to that of the Mother And S. Bernard That by how much the more was her vicinitie with the word by so much the more was her excellencie in Heauen Whence some Schoolemen inferre that this dignitie doth exceed al those other treasures of grace which were to be found in the Virgine Iustine sayth of Olimpia that howbeit she might boast herselfe much of the Kingdome of Troy from whence she was descended from other kingdomes which she might claime from her father her brother and her husband who was Philip King of Macedon yet could she glorie in no one thing more than that she was Mother to Alexander the Great who was Emperor of the world How much more strongly doth this reason hold in the most blessed Virgine Yet notwithstanding all this nothing comparable is the dignitie of a Mother to that of a daughter or a wife And if it had bin left to this our most blessed Virgins choice whether she had rather haue been the Mother of God or his Spouse and best Beloued shee would questionlesse haue rather chosen to haue beene his Beloued And the same is implyed by those seueral imployments of Martha and Mary As the Virgin was a Mother she did Marthas office affoording her breâ—â—s to our Sauior Christ wrapping him vp in his swadling clouts breeding him and attending vpon him But as she was a Daughter and a Spouse she did Maries dutie hauing her eare still eyed to his mouth and diligently listening to those heauenly words that proceeded from thence And there arising a quarrell betwixâ— these two sisters which of them loued our Sauior best our Sauior soon decided the controuersie when he sayd Mary hath chosen the better part And this is made cleere in the example of the Queene Mother and the Prince that is heire to his Fathers Kingdome The Queene no doubt hath a great part in the King and Kingdome But the Prince more who must one day commaund all King Sâ—lomon honoured his Mother much and as soone as he had taken possession of the Kingdome he offered his seruice vnto her and that he and all that he had was at her commaund but in conclusion he left that to his sonne Rehoboam Of his 〈◊〉 will saith Saint Iames begot he vs with the word of truth that we should be at the 〈◊〉 fruits of his creatures Vt Simus initium One Commentator hath it Vt principaâ—um habeamus that we may haue principalitie The Greeke That wee may bee the Majorasgos The elder sonnes and heires of his Kingdome In the Stockes and Linages of men there are innumerable differences of more and of lesse of higher and lower But that which doth aduance and aduantage vs most is the hearing of Gods word The glorious Doctor Saint Austen sayâ—h That which passeth amongst Naâ—â—ons passeth likewise amongst Men. God preferred the Iewes before all other Nations Non fecit taliter â—â—ni nationi c. He had not dealt so with any other
Citie such a new and strange kind of Doctrine there was a great deale of reason that he should confirme the same by miracles For put case that this had not beene his owne natiue Country yet was it a generall debt which he had paid to other Cities Thirdly because in expounding that place of Esay The Spirit of the Lord is vpon me because he hath annointed me that I should preach the Gospell to the poore he said That that prophecie was fulfilled in himself being that annointed Messias there spoken of Which being so it was fit that hee should prooue it by those signes and miracles which were prophecied of the Messias Fourthly This difficultie is indeered by that which the Euangelist S. Marke reporteth of our Sauiour Christ to wit That hee could doe no great workes in Nazareth As if his vertue and power had beene hindered and debarred of doing them insomuch that it made our Sauiour Christ to meruaile much at it Fiftly If the sinnes of Nazareth did thus bind his hands more were those of Capernaum which he compared to Sodome For if the miracles had beene done in Tyrus and Sydon which haue beene done in you they had a great while a goe repented sitting in Sackcloth and Ashes Therefare it shall be easier for Tyrus and Sydon at the Iudgement than for you Greater were those of Bethsaida and Chorazin Vae tibi Bethsayda vae tibi Chorazin c. And greater were those of Ierusalem whereof Ezechiel said Samaria dimidium peccatorum tuorum non peccauit vicisti eas sceleribus tuis Sixtly He had done other greater honours to Nazareth there he was incarnated in the wombe of the Virgin Marie which of all other miracles was the greatest He tooke his name from Nazareth as it appeareth by that his title vpon the Crosse by that which the Deuills roared forth and by that which our Sauiour himselfe said to Saint Paul I am Iesus of Nazareth Ego sum Iesus Nazarenus c. And therefore hauing giuen the more it was not much hee should giue the lesse Seuenthly Miracles were that milke which the Iews were bred vp with and had beene antiently accustomed vnto Iudea signa petunt c. The Iewes demand a signe Esay importuned King Achab That he would aske signes from Heauen Earth or Hell Pete tibi signum à Domino c. Moses and Gideon desired signes and therefore his children should haue beene bettered thereby and more especially those of his owne Countrie After that Ioseph had furnished Aegypt with corne he set open Granaries to the neighbouring Prouinces Lastly It was prophecied of the Messias That hee should bee no accepter of persons He was Lord of al to al in al reason he should shew himselfe equall and indifferent so that it seemeth to carrie a great shew of sorrow and resentment with it which those of Nazareth obiected vnto him We haue heard what thou hast done in Capernaum doe it here likewise in thine owne Countrie But for the better vnderstanding of that which our Sauior Christ did answer to this complaint and accusation of theirs First of all we must suppose That our Sauiour Christ shewed himselfe with his most blessed Mother in foure occasions For albeit it bee a holy thing for the children to honour their parents yet this honour is to be done them when Gods cause interposeth not it selfe who is the vniuersall Father of vs all But when there shall be an incounter of our liking and loue towards two seueral fathers he that created me and he that begot mee wee are to haue recourse vnto our heauenly Father in regard of whom all the other fathers in the world are but Stepfathers In this sence Saint Gregorie doth expound that place of Saint Luke He that forsaketh not father and mother to follow me is not worthie of me Which is to be vnderstood in such things which appertaine to our spiritual saluation as it is noted by the said Doctor and Clemens Alexandrinus Secondly Saint Austen noteth That in our Sauiour Christ two kind of works may be considered The one Of a pure Man The other Of a Redeemer and heauenly Master In the first he was subiect to his mother and his father Ioseph so saith S. Luke Et erat subditus illis In the second he was to haue recourse vnto his heauenly Father And therefore he said Nesciabitis quod in his quae patris mei sunt oportet me esse He was at the Wedding by his mothers appointment but when hee came to the working of the miracle he said Quid mihi tibi Mulier Woman what haue I to doe with thee And when they aduised him whilest he was preaching That his mother and his Kinsefolkes were waiting there for him hee answered Quae est Mâ—ter mea c. Thirdly We haue two Countries Earth the one Heauen the other In that our Bodies were borne In this our Soules Now when the desires of the Earth incounter with those of Heauen our recourse must be to Heauen following therein the aduice of Dauid Audi Filiâ— vide obliuiscere populum tuum domus patris tui Heare ô Daughter and see forget thy owne people and the house of thy father Our Sauiours naturall Countrie was Heauen but here on earth Nazareth Now this Countrie did not desire miracles for to increase their beleefe but for other respects which wee will declare hereafter And therefore Christ would not worke any miracles amongst them And assuming those reasons which Christ might alledge for himselfe The first is prooued by that Prouerbe which our Sauiour cited No Prophet is accepted in his owne Countrie Or as Saint Mathew and Saint Marke haue it There is no Prophet that is honoured in his owne Countrie nay rather doth not suffer dishonour And this is made good both by diuine and humane learning and there are more instances thereof than there are sands in the sea Moses being but a child his parents put him into the riuer leauing him to his venture to sinke or swim Exposito autem illo which the Syriacke reads Cumque fuisset expositus à populo suo When he came to be a man one of his own Nation put him in danger of his life Pharaoh sending after him to haue him apprehended Afterward being Captaine and Commander of the People they did often mutinie and not onely did murmure in secret against him but with open throat did publiquely blaspheme Aaron and Marie that were so neere allyed vnto him vsed him like a Turke or a Moore because he had married an Aethyopian woman Dathan and Abiram vpbraided him to his face asking him Whither hee meant tyrannously to vsurpe the Gouernment Ioseph was so honoured by the Aegyptians that they accounted him as a second King Vno tantum regni solio te praecedam His brethren put him downe into a pit and sould him for a Slaue Dauid was beloued and honored of the people and
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
precept But leauing this to the Schooles the precept of brotherly correction concurreth with any whatsoeuer heinous â—in or grieuous trespasse whither it be Against thy selfe Against thy neighbour or Against God For to prooue this truth diuers Authors follow these two paths The one That although our Sauior Christ in this his first instance speake of that sinne or trespasse which is committed against my selfe yet by a necessarie kind of consequence he inferreth likewise any sinne that is committed against my Neighbour and against God Against my neighbour because I ought to loue him as my selfe and to bee as sensible of his hurt as of myne owne Against God Because I am bound to prâ—ferre his glorie before myne owne good And if I being wronged God will 〈◊〉 I not onely pardon him but that I also complie with the precept of brotherly correction how much more will he tie me that I should deale â—indly in â—his kind with my brother hee hauing not sinned against me The second part is That this sinning or trespassing whither it be against my Neighbour or against God Thomas saith That I knowing it it is done against me because by scandalizing and proooking of me it doth hurt and offend me And Hadrianus the Lawyer saith That he that sinnes against God sinnes against any whatsoeuer faithfull beleeuer and leaues him iniured and offended For he that wrongs the Father in the Sonnes presence wrongeth also the Sonne and he that wrongeth the Master in the presence of the Seruant wrongeth likewise the Seruant besides Loue which makes things common makes others iniuries ours And if God take those iniuries which are done to thee to be done to himselfe as he said to Saint Paul Why doost thou persecute me And by Zachariâ— He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of myne eye it is not much that thou shouldest reckon those wrongs that are done to God to be done vnto thy selfe The zeale of thy house of thy honor authoritie seeing how the enemies of thy word slight coÌ„temne it consumes my flesh drieth my bones The like loue must make vs sencible of the sins of our neighbor for that they are members of this mysticall bodie of the Church Who is sicke saith Saint Paul and I am 〈◊〉 grieued Either forgiue them this offence or blot me out of the Booke of Life said Moses hauing a fellow feeling of his brethrens faults as had they beene his owne and therefore begs of God that he would either forgiue them or blot him our of the booke of Life Againe Another mans sinne prooues to be my hurt for Gods Iustice punisheth the Righteous with the Sinnefull For the the sinne of Achan there died in Ay three thousand souldiers for the sinnes of the sonnes of Ely Gods people were ouerthrowne by the Philistines and the Arke of the Testament taken captiue for Dauids sinne in numbring the People seuentie thousand of his subiâ—cts perished by the Pestilence By Ionas his disobedience they that went iâ— the same bottome with him were shrewdly indangered the Apostles ranne the like hazard by Iudas Moreouer Sinne is sometimes woont to make the earth barren and to shut vp the windowes of Heauen that they may not send downe any raine to water the drie and thirstie places of the Land and so Sin being a generall hurt to all it is generally done against all If thybrother shall trespasse against thee c. The verie name of a brother is a reason for this Precept for it was condemned in the Leuite and the Priest That they passed by saying their prayers to themselues but tooke no pittie of that poore man that lay almost for dead vpon the way wounded by Theeues Contrarie to that lesson of Ecclesiasticus He gaue euerie man a commandement concerning his Neighbour and a Turke or a Moore may as well bee our neighbour as another And if that housekeeper bee condemned that hath not a care of the Cat or Dog that liues within his doores for al this did S. Paul vnderstand when he said He that prouides not for those of his familie is worse than an Infidell How much more then will God that thou bee carefull of thy brothers health whâ— hath one and the same Father with thee in Heauen and to whom yee both daâ—â—â— say Our Father c. And who hath one and the same mother with thee to wâ—â— the Earth in whose wombe yee were both ingendred and borne anew by Baptisme For three transgressions of Edom saith the Lord and for foure I will 〈◊〉 turne to it because hee did pursue his brother with the sword and did cast off all 〈◊〉 c. Edom was the Metropolis of Idumea and her sinnes beeing come to the number of seuen which in Scripture expresseth a kind of infidelitie God faith I will not turne to it But suppose they were fewer yet some of them it should seem were verie foule ones amongst the rest this of their vnsheathing of their sword against their brother The Idumaeans were descended of Esau as the Iewes were of Iacob And in the conquest of the Land of Promise God commanded his People That they should not doe that hurt to the Idumaean as they had done to the rest of the Nations Quia Frater tuus est Hee is thy brother and thou ougtest to procure his good as thou wouldst thyne owne This benefit by the Idumaeans was repayed to Gods People with a thousand iniuries when the Philistines and those of Tyre ouercame the Israelites as you may read in the second of the Chronicles and the second For the Idumaeans did buy many Iews with intent to make them their slaues Likewise when Gods People had necessarie occasion asking leaue of the Edomites to passe through their Countrie in peace they withstood them with their swords in their hands In a word the enmitie which Esay bare to Iacob for his messe of pottage the blessing that he had stolne from him neither hee nor his posteritie could euer yet digest it though hee and his House had receiued many and those verie good courtesies at the others hands And therefore it is not much that God should condemne an enmitie so antient and so inueterated a hatred especially of one brother against anotheâ— Tell him his fault betweene thee and him alone c. And this is the diuine Law as it appeareth by the Epistle oâ— Saint Paul to the Galathians If a man be fallen by occasion into any fault yee whâ—ch are spirituall restore such a one with the spirit of meekenesse considering thy selfe least thou also be tempted Beare yee one anothers burthen and so fulfill the Law of Christ. And in that of his to Timothie and in that of S. Iames If any of you haue erred fâ—om the truth and some maâ— hath conuerted him Let him know That he which hath conuerted the Sinner from going astray out of his way shall saue a soule from death and shall hide a
so many vultures so many harpies so many fowles of rapine and still the more the more hard the prey is to bee got What then shall that heart doe which hath not wherewithall to defend it selfe And the greater is our feare saith Origen for that all this Armie of our enemies stands armed against vs euen within our owne doores For sinne is so farre foorth sinne as it is voluntarie For if our Will would but stand sentinell without it were impossible for sinne to enter So that the greatest enemie that wee haue is our owne proper Will And therefore our Sauiour sayth That From the Heart come murders c. These are those spots wherewith mans soule is sullied These the staines wherewith he is defiled For those things which man eateth Non coinquinant hominem do not defile man By the Prophet Esay God prophecied of the wretched ruine and miserable desolation of Babilon and paints it forth so to the full that there shall remaine no more reliques thereof than of Hierusalem It shall be made saith he a dwelling for Hedge-hoggs and a standing Poole of filthie stinking waters and as a Citie that is vtterly ouerthrowne and destroyed all shall be as heapes of earth and hollow bankes wherein shall be bread all kind of creeping wormes and vermine and venimous creatures all shall bee pits wherein shall be puddles of water for to make an habitation for Toads Snakes Adders and Serpents This shall bee the wretched condition and miserable estate of this great Babylon He farther addeth That he will sweepe it with a broome a place so foule and so sluttish as well in respect of those heapes of earth and rubbish as also those filthie pooles and stinking puddles of water How is it possible that he should come to sweepe it and make it cleane I will sweepe it cleane from it's sinnes For all other kind of filthinesse whatsoeuer in respect of the foulenesse of sinne are nothing filthie The Hedge-hog the Adder and the Serpent in the holes of the earth nor the poysonfull Toads in the puddles of water are not able to debarre vs of entrance into Heauen but he that is sullied in sin and is not washt cleane with the bloud of our Sauiour Christ let him neuer looke to come there The Hedge-hog with all his prickles shall not hurt thee nor the Adder wiâ—h his teeth nor the Serpent with his sting nor all the venimous Vermine in the World The standing pooles and stinking puddles shall not soile thee but the heaping vp of money and thy keeping of it close in thy Chest when the Poore are readie to starue for hunger haue not a peny to buy them a loafe of bread that is it shall soyle thee and make thy soule all mud and filth That foulenesse which shuts vs out from Heauen is that of sinne and nothing else but that And therefore it is said in the Apocalyps Nihil coinquinatum intrauit in regnum Coelorum Nothing that is filthie shall enter into the Kingdome of Heauen And therefore Saint Chrysostome aduiseth vs That we should haue an eye vnto that which defileth vs seeke to auoyd it Which that we may so do God giue vs the grace for his mercies sake c. THE XXII SERMON VPON THE THVRSEDAY AFTER THE THIRD SONDAY IN LENT LVC. 4. When he was come into Symons House his mother in Law was held with a great Feuer OVr Sauiour Christ hauing throwne out that talking Deuill in Capernaum and inioyned him silence Saint Luke here recounteth his entring into Peters house not into that which Peter and Andrew had in Bethsaida being Naturalls of that Countrie for neither that protinùs of the Euangelist nor the Sabboth wherein they were to walke but a mile will giue way thereunto And though Peter had not a house in Capernaum yet his mother in Law might haue had one there or hee might haue bestowed one on her daughter in dower And albeit Peter had made a renunciation of the proprietie yet might he haue a reseruation of the vse therof as he had of the Nets fishing Rods. S. Marke saith That he went into the house of Symon and Andrew whither it were because it belonged to them both or whither or no because it might haue been Peters fathers house and the fathers house we vse commonly to call it likewise the sonnes house And though the house was poore and meane yet was it no such great wonder that he who had left the Pallaces of Heauen and made choice to bee borne in so poore a thing as Bethlem should for one day make so mean a house his Inne especially the wil of the partie that entertained him being so rich as it was to doe him seruice And Symons wiues mother Saint Ambrose in his booke De Viduis reckons this mother in law of Peters amongst many other that were most famoused and renowned in the world And from this name of Socrus which signifies our wiues mother or a mother in Law Tertullian and Saint Hierome doth inferre that Peter was married for Mother in Law signifieth an affinitie deriued from marriage And howbeit it seemeth vnto Saint Hierome That the wife of Saint Peter was alreadie dead yet Clemens Alexandrinus affirmeth that she was aliue and that she afterwards suffered martyrdome for maintaining the Faith of our Sauiour Christ. But in fine it is a plaine case that he had a wife Iesus rose vp and came out of the Synagogue c. Our Sauiour Christ diuided his whole life into these two stations From the Synagogue to the Sicke And from the Sicke to the Synagogue Where as Saint Luke reporteth it he preached the Law In Hierusalem saith Genebrard there was a principall Temple which had in it foure hundred and eighty Synagogues some more honourable than the other and some lesse and in all the Cities of that Kingdome there was great store of them which occasioned our Sauiour to say They affect the chiefe places in the Synagogues There with a strange kind of silence did the people hearken vnto them and it was counted a great punishment to depriue any Citisen of this so great a good In these Synagogues our Sauiour Christ spent the greatest part of his life and when he went out of them it was to cure the Sicke or to relieue others necessiâ—ies And though now a dayes a Preacher comes sweating out of the Pulpit and goes to a friends house where hee hath warme Napkins clapt about his necke and is much made of yet our Sauiour Christ goes here from Maries businesse to that of Martha's and from that againe of Martha to that of Maries from the Synagogue to the house of Peter because Peters wiues mother was sick Chrysologus saith That it was easie to bee seene what was the motion that carried him along to Peters house Vtique non discumbendi voluptas sed iacentis infirmitas Not so much for his owne ease as to case the Sicke He entred into
Symons house and Symons wiues mother c. Our Sauiour Christ had a great desire to cure her and this good Widdow had as great a care to welcome him and to serue him and her Feuer did more grieue her out of the hinderance of her seruice than the cause of her torment And Christ on the other side did accept of this inuitation more for to recouer the Sicke than to recreate himsâ—lfe The Sicke did desire more to giue him kind entertainment for to manifest her loue than to receiue health for to mitigate her paine Both their desires rested well satisfied that of Christ in healing the Sicke and that of the Sicke in seruing of Christ. And though the Angells might enuie this her care yet did she seeke to outstrip the Angels in her desire to serue her Lord. Here may we see the practise of that which Ecclesiasticus recommendeth vnto vs Let noâ— the portion of thy good desires ouerpasse thee giue and take and sanctifie thy soule c. Giue away the goods of the earth and thou shalt receiue those of Heauen According to that of S. Paule Let your aboundance supply their wants that their aboundance may supplie yours for by this chopping and changing of pouertie for plentie and of plentie for pouertie neither of both haue cause to complaine That embleme of Alciat is well knowne vnto you A lame man and a blind man met boâ—h by chance at a riuer the lame man guided the blind man and the blind man carried the lame man on his shoulders In like manner saith Chrysostome wee must succor one another the whole must cure the Sicke and the Sicke must giue the whole louing and friendly entertainment The whole house was inriched by this reception of our Sauiour the mother and the daughter by being not onely made whole but holy If giuing entertainment to an earthly Prince inricheth the whole house that receiues him with earthly blessings How much more shal their happinesse be who feast the king of Heauen God hath often notified vnto vs the great content that he takes in hospitalitie especially towards the poore the stranger That thou shouldst lodge and feast a King thou countest it a great fortune and happinesse vnto thee for honours fauours rewards follow thereupon but in entertaining the poore thou doost him this kindnesse for no other respect in the world but because he is the Image of God Hospâ—talitatis nolite obliuisci quidam enim c. Alluding to that hospitage of Abraham who thinking he had entertained strangers in his house entertained Angels And S. Austen and S. Gregory Some men say they thinking that they only feed the Poore they are mistaken for therein they feast our Sauiour himselfe Chrysologus saith That in the brest of the Blessed it is not possible there should be any desire or longing but if it were possible to haue any sure it would be that of relieuing the poore The Sonne of God hath not a pillow whereon to leane his head Why did Christ take pleasure in such a strange kind of pouerty Because thou shouldest take pleasure in giuing him entertainment When Abraham went forth to meet the three men from out his Tent bowing himself down to the ground before him who he thought was the chiefest among them he said Lord if I haue now found fauour in thy sight goe not I pray thee from thy seruant let a little water I pray you be brought and wash your feet and rest your selues vnder the shaddow of this Tree and I will bring a morcell of bread that you may comfort your hearts afterward yee shal goe your wayes They accepted of his kindnesse and thanked the good old man but he vsing none of these courtly complements in his plaine countrie fashion assured them that they were heartily welcome and that hee thought himselfe beholding vnto them that they would take such as they found Abraham he runnes me to the beasts takes me a tender and good Calfe kills it giues it to his seruant who hasted to make it readie then he hies him in to Sarah wils her presently to make readie at once three measures of fine meale to knead it quickely and make Cakes vpon the hearth The cloath is now layd bread butter milke and the Calfe which hee had prepared is set before them they fall too Abraham he in the mean while stands by and waits vpon them When they had eaten they tooke their leaue and went on their way and hee likewise went with them to bring them on the way This vertue Lot had learned from him Saint Paul commends him highly for it And Peter stiles him Iust He was righteous both in seeing and hearing Chrysost. saith That he staid waiting for these strangers in the street at the gates of the Citie till it was late in the night that they might not light into the vncleanly conuersation of these wicked Citisens So that it was late ere hee met with these Angels and adoring them as Abraham had done before he said vnto them My Lords I pray you turne in now into your seruants house And the Angells making shew that they would abide in the Street all night hee pressed vpon them earnestly and in a manner pulled them in by force Coegit illos Hee was wonderfull instant vpon them This inforced courtesie of his they afterwards fully requited by notifying vnto him How that Sodome was to bee destroyed with fire from Heauen And although the Angells made hast to be gone and to haue Lot to get him packing out of the Citie yet they deferred the punishment a while that he might haue time to warne his sonnes in Law to bee gone Lot thereupon went out and spake vnto his sonnes in Law which had married his daughters sayd Arise get you out of this place for the Lord will destroy the Citie but he seemed vnto his sonnes in Law as though he had mocked Then the Angels hasted Lot saying Arise take thy wife and thy two daughters which are here left thou be destroyed in the punishment of the Citie And as hee prolonged the time the Angels caught both him and his wife and his two daughters by the hands and brought him as it were forth by force and set him without the Citie so he was saued and the rest were burned In this vertue of Hospitalitie there are manie famous women much renowned in the Old Testament as the Shunamite that entertained Elisha and the widdow that harboured Elias Rahab who receiued the Spies that were sent to Ierico All of them being so happie in this their hospitality that it seemeth God sent them such good guests more for the good of those that gaue them this friendly entertainement than that of those who were entertained by them And if a man shall pay so well for his Lodging how much more will God requite it Symons wiues mother was taken with a great Feuer Many of the Saints
fountaines of Loue to consider in God The one In his Creating of vs. The other In his Redeeming of vs. In creating vs hee poured forth the rich treasure of his Loue Thy hands made mee and fashioned mee c. The Beasts Birds and Fishes could not say so much All the rest of the creatures had their beeing God onely speaking the Word Ipse dixit facta sunt But when he came to the creation of Man he sayd Faciamus hominem c. Tertullian and Saint Austen are of opinion That God tooke the forme of Man vpon him because he had created him after his owne image and likenesse Wherein hee manifested most strange pledges of his loue not only because he was the workemanship of his owne hands howbeit Aristotle saies that euery man beares a loue and affection to that which his owne hand hath planted and for which he hath taken paines As God sayd vnto Ionas Thou weepest and takest on for thy Gourd for which thou hast not laboured neither madest it to grow but for the good affection that he had placed vpon man and for that he had taken Mans likenesse vpon him But much more are wee bound vnto him that he hath redeemed vs. He created vs by his power but he redeemed vs by his loue so that we owe more to his loue than his power His taking of our weakenesse vpon him was our strengthening Thy power did create me but thy frailtie did refresh me said Saint Augustine He calls our Redemption a second Creation And as we vse to sing in the Church What benefit had our birth beene vnto vs if we had not receiued the fruits of Redemption So likewise may we say What good would our creation haue done vs if wee must haue perished had we not had the profit of Redemption Secondly For to put a Sinner in some good hope assurance for why should not I relie vpon Gods loue being that he hath taken such a deale of pains forme and hath wearied out himselfe to giue me ease Zacharie represents our Sauiour Christ vnto vs with wounds in his hands and asking the question What are these wounds in thy hands How camest thou by them or Who gaue them thee This answer is returned Thus was I wounded in the house of my friends Rupertus Galatinus are both of opinion That this is a metaphor drawne from a Labrador or Husbandman who hath his hands hardned and a kind of callum or thicke skinne growne vpon them through too much labour So that seeing Man was condemned for his offence to dig and plough the earth Christ vndertooke that taske for him as one that was willing to suffer for his friends I am a Husbandman for Man taught me to be a Heardsman from my youth vp for to ease them of this burthen I was willing to beare their punishment He then that shall take such pittie and compassion of me he that shall vndergoe such a deale of trouble for my sake makes me to haue a strong hope and beleefe that he will denie mee nothing Iacob wrestled all night with God the Patriarke in that strugling got a lamenesse and God grew so wearie that he cried vnto him Let me goe But Iacob answered I will not let thee goe except thou blesse mee Was this a good time thinke you to craue a blessing Yes marry was it for I standing in need thereof and God waxing wearie for my sake What shall I aske that hee will denie mee Thirdly Christ shews himselfe wearie to the end that by this his great pains he might saue the sinner from perdition Saint Augustine saith Fatigatus Iesus quia fidelem populum inuenire non poterat That Iesus was wearie because he could not find out a faithfull People The Sheepeheard that seekes after his lost sheepe may wearie out himselfe verie much in seeking of him out but much more will hee find himselfe so if he doe not find him It is not so much Gods paines that hee takes but our sinnes and our wandring so farre out of the way from him that makes him so wearie And if a Sheepe had but the vnderstanding to know the paines that the Sheepheard takes the care and wearinesse that accompanies such a strange kind of stragling besides his being indangered of being deuoured by that Wolfe the Deuill which lies in wait for his destruction he would bee better aduised and fall a bleating after his Sheepheard Christ Iesus and hasten into the Fold Fourthly The feare of a mans own hurt and condemnation for though God now shew himselfe vnto thee wearie and as it were quite tired out in seeking after thee who refusest to be found while it is day thou shalt see him hereafter in pompe and maiestie to thy great feare and terrour Now he calls vnto thee inuites thee and intreats thee to come vnto him now thou findest him heere sitting and staying to see if thou wilt come vnto him beeing meruailous willing and readie to doe thee good and to supplie thy necessities hee is now all pittie and mercie but hereafter he will bee all rigour and justice Nothing hath put God to halfe that paines as hath thy sinnes it is they that haue wearied him they that haue wounded him and they that haue crucified him and if therefore now thou shalt not take the benefit of these his paines wounds and crucifixion they shall hereafter condemne thee For you was my side opened and yee would not enter in saith Saint Augustine my armes were spred abroad to embrace yee but yee would not come neere me and therefore these my wounds shall be the Atotrney to accuse you and the Witnesse to condemne you and all those things which heeretofore did represent vnto you reasons of confidence and assurance shall now driue you into the depth of desperation and make you call vnto the Mountaines with a Cadite super nos Fall vpon vs and couer vs. The Quaile keepes a mourning and complaining in her kind of language when shee sees the Sunne and the Condemned they will likewise howle lament when they shall see Christ in the Heauens The Angells did aske Who is this that comes from the earth so glorious and so bloudie I haue fought a bloudie battell here vpon earth triumphing like a Conqueror ouer the Deuil Death c. But then they replyed and asked him What bloud and wounds in Heauen to what end I pray you They are memorialls of the wrongs I receiued And in the day of vengeance I shall say vnto you Behold the Man whom yee haue crucified Ye shall then take notice of these wounds of this Crosse of myne So that those things that are now our strong tower our defence our protection our assurance and our loue shall be our feare our cowardise and our condemnation In Exodus God commanded That they should not seeth the Kid in the milke of it's Damme Lyra and Clemens Alexandrinus make this Glosse thereupon That
stinke and putrifie breed filâ—hie vermine So in like manner the grace of the holy-Ghost the Word of God and the blessed Sacraments inioy the selfe same vnion with that first beginning from whence they proceed The second That as your liuing water doth enioy a kind of life vncessable motion for which cause the Scripture attributeth thereunto the actions of life The Flouds are risen the Flouds haue lift vp their voice the flouds lift vp their waues c. So the grace of the holy Ghost the Word of God and the blessed Sacraments cause in the Soule the effects of life The third That as your liuing Water doth ascend to the height of it's birth and Beeing so the Grace of the holy-Ghost the Word of God and the blessed Sacraments ascend vp euen as high as to God himselfe because they had their birth Being from God he being the Spring or Wel-head from whence they had their rising Fiet in eo sons aquae salientis in vitam eternam If thou knewest the gift of God First hee setteth downe the originall of all our ill which is our not knowing or our want of knowledge According to that of Pope Clement in an Epistle of his to the Councell of Toledo And it is a most assured truth That the first step to il is the ignorance of good Salomon saith Without knowledge the mind is not good Hee calls it the knowledge of the soule which is the onely thing that importeth vs for Heauen As for the knowledge of the World and the wisedome thereof it is but foolishnesse with God Secondly he doth not say If thou didst but know who it is that talketh with thee thou wouldst haue giuen him water without asking thee for it wouldst haue offered him to drinke of thine owne accord though comparing Man with God Man cannot be said to bestow any thing on God by way of gift or donation all that good correspondencie which can be held on mans part is to shew himselfe thankeful for the fauours which he receiueth from Gods hand If God shall giue me wealth he doth it to the end that I should serue him if he giue me honour he doth it to the end that I should maintain his cause c.. Anna Samuels mother said O Lord if thou wilt looke on the trouble of thy handmaid and remember and not forget thyne handmaid but giue vnto thyne handmaid a man child then will I giue him vnto the Lord all the dayes of his life Nor doth this earths pouertie owe ought more for those fauours which we haue from Heauen This made Saint Augustine to say Da quod iubes iube quod vis And the truth of this is grounded vpon that which is deliuered in the last Chapter of the first of the Chronicles when as Dauid and the Princes of the people made a plentifull rich Offering of three thousand talents of gold seuen thousand of siluer and as many of other mettals c. This holy King said Who am I and what is my people that wee should be able to offer willingly after this sort for all things come of thee and of thyne owne hand we haue giuen thee None can offer vnto God saue what they haue receiued from God Quis prior reddit illi retribuitur ei Thirdly Christ did lay a double bait before this woman The one Curiositie of knowledge The other Desire of receiuing Two things wherewith that sex of theirs is soonest taken and as the holy-Ghost hath said That in another third thing womans appetite is insatiable so likewise is it in these two and for this cause they compare her to a Lampe which goes still sucking in the oyle with which it must continually be maintained Fourthly Gregorie Nazianzen hath obserued That our Sauiour Christ did put a doubt in the Samaritans desire forsitan petisses he put a doubt in her asking but not in his giuing To shew vnto vs That albeit woman bee couetous in receiuing yet God is more bountifull in giuing To receiue is proper vnto Creatures that are in need and in want all Creatures haue their mouths stil open crauing their fulnesse from God and God he is alwayes readie at hand to satisfie their hunger Open thy mouth wide saith the Psalmist and I shall fill it The soule desireth but one onely thing which is thy selfe ô God this will suffice her Nam vnum est necessarium for one thing is necessarie But the Flesh through it's many longings desireth many things yet let it desire neuer so many it shall be sooner wearied with asking than God with giuing if it bee for it's good Abraham did entreat for Sodome till hee waxed wearie of his suit and had he beene earnest therein and not haue giuen it ouer it may be God would haue spared that Citie What shall I returne to the Lord for all that he hath rendred vnto me I will take the Cup of saluation and will call vpon the name of the Lord. Man is disingaged by paying and is impawned by receiuing but God holds himselfe fully satisfied for those former fauours hee hath done thee to the end that thou maist craue new courtesies from him hee lookes not to haue old scores paid and desires nothing of thee but a thankefull acknowledgement And this is the reason why Christ became a suiter to this woman for a little water he was willing to beg of her a draught of dead water that shee might beg of him a cup of liuing water dealing with her as a father doth with his prettie little sonne begging an apple of his child that he may thereby take occasion to throw vpon him a thousand fauours The Philippians made much of the Apostle who thanking them for this their kindnesse saith I reioyce in your care for me I speake not because of want for I haue learned in whatsoeuer state I am therewith to be content Notwithstanding yee haue well done that yee did communâ—cate to my affliction not that I desire a gift but I desire the fruit that may further your reckoning The rendering of thankes for one courtesie is a requiring of another but I doe not thanke you to this end but that yee may reape the fruits of your charitie extended toward me But some one will say If God be so free handed and so bountifull in giuing knowing our necessities why doth he driue vs to beg these his fauours Saint Augustine answers it thus That God will haue vs to exercise our selues in the petitioning of our desires Vt possimus capere quae praeparat dare That wee may bee made capable of those kindnesses which God is willing to conferre vpon vs. Thomas hee puts the question thus Either God will giue me this or that or he will not giue it me For his will is immutable and begging be it in what kind so euer seemeth to be Quiddam accessorium But his answere is That begging is the meanes which God
either out of necessitie curiositie or out of malice All the Court doth attend and wait vpon thee because thou commandest all but thou art neuer more alone than when thou hast most companie for all those that accompanie thee are not all of thy companie they goe not along with thee but with themselues following thee not so much out of affection as affectation more to see thy miracles than to receiue thy instructions The pledges of true friendship indeed are to hazard a mans life for his friend to condole with him in his miseries and to reioyce with him in his happinesse but since wicked presumption as Ecclesiasticus speaketh hath sprung vp to couer the earth with deceit and that priuat interest like the Iacke-Daw hath only learned to prattle the language of loue there is no trust to be had in these pledges There is some friend which is onely a friend in name and hast thou not seene that when heauinesse remaineth vnto death a companion and friend hath bin turned to an enemie There is some companion which in prosperity reioyceth with his friend but in the time of trouble is against him There is some companion again that helpeth his friend for the bellies sake taketh vp the buckler against the enemie There are perhaps some such that dare nay will not sticke to lay downe his life for a good friend indeed And there are some likewise which for their own interest wil hazard both goods and life and all that they haue but if they did thinke they should faile of their ends and that it should not turne to their greater aduantage they would not venture one farthing though it were to saue thy life When Adoniah vsurped the Kingdome and proclaimed himselfe King the Princes of the Bloud tooke part with him Ioab Dauids Generall besides diuers other principall Captaines and Commanders and most of the valiantest men of Warre as also Abiathar the High-Priest In a word the Clergie and the Laitie were both mainly for him and yet hauing all these on his side he was all alone All the strength of the Armie was not with Adoniah many vnderstand this of the Kings Guard but for our purpose it may be better vnderstood of all those who profest themselues to be Adoniahs fâ—iends but were not true in heart vnto him nor did not sticke so close vnto him as they made shew for they did not so much respect Adoniah as their owne ends The Kings sonnes thought he would prooue their best brother the Nobilitie their best King Ioab that hee would pardon his murdering of Amasa and Abner and that hee should hold his place of Generall Abiathar That he would not put him out of the Priesthood though there was I know what prophecied to the contrarie But the proclaiming of Salomon was no sooner heard but they left one by one and went their wayes till they had left him like a single proposition to stand alone by himself hauing no champion to make good his Title Seneca pressing this Argument saith Many Flyes come to the Honie many Wolues to the Sheepefold many Ants to the Wheat yet the flyes are no friends to the honie nor the wolues to the sheepe nor the ants to the corne Nor art thou to esteeme those thy friends that accompanie thee for they are no better than flyes wolues and ants which seeke not thee but themselues And if thou shouldst but heare after they haue profest themselues thy friends fawn'd vpon thee with flattering tearmes and vow'd what a deale of loue and affection they beare vnto thee what they talke of thee behind thy back and what they mutter and whisper of thee in by-corners thou wouldst then see and perceiue that all thy prosperitie is the fable and common by-word of their wrongs and discontents Because they saw his Miracles which he did on them that were diseased All the Miracles of our Sauiour Christ were directed to the repayring of our miseries First for the furthering of our Faith which depending vpon the Will comes by benefits to bee well affectioned thereunto and to incline to Knowledge and Vnderstanding The other To show by sencible signes the end which caused him to come into the world which was to cure our Soules infirmities The third That it might appeare vnto Man that the onely motiue thereunto was his Mercie Now the Iewes did neither fixe their eyes nor their thoughts vpon any one of these but onely vpon their owne proper ends Either because hee should heale them or fill their bellies And therefore albeit some say that the Euangelist did set downe this reason that he might thereby aduise vs that our Sauiour was bound as it were to doe that he did for these people that followed him yet I doe rather beleeue that he set downe this passage to giue vs thereby to vnderstand how vnobliged he stood to doe them this so great a fauour and how kind hee was of his owne accord to those that did so ill deserue any kindnesse at his hands And therefore hee discouereth their mindes layeth open their intentions and manifesteth their priuate interests Because they saw his Miracles c. And therefore Saint Paul saith He did shut vp all in vnbeleefe That is Hee did permit that they should all fall into the net of sinne that hee remaining wholly disingaged his obligation should by his mercie his pittie of them be the more esteemed by how much the more it was vndeserued Quia videbant signa As if he should haue said That they sought rather after meat than after him that was to giue it them and therefore hee said vnto them elsewhere Yee haue followed me because I haue filled your bellies and giuen you fulnesse of bread For there are some people that seeke after God for worldly blessings and neuer thinke vpon him but in time of want and necessitie and then if God doe not relieue them they care not a pin for him Elisha was with Iehâ—ram and reprooued him because he neuer sought after him but in time of hunger and thirst Micah went weeping and crying after those that had stolne away his siluer god but because hee made vse thereof for his owne priuate interest when a greater conueniencie of gaine was offered vnto him hee forgot the former and thought thereof no more It is better for thee sayd they that thou shouldst bee a Priest of a whole Tribe than of one particular House Philon commenting vpon Cains answer vnto God the Seuentie rendering this Translation Si proijcis me à facie tua à facie tua abscondar If thou cast me from off the face of the earth let me be hid from thy face saith That it was all one as if hee should haue said If thou wilt not bestow vpon mee the blessings of the earth keepe those of heauen to thy selfe if I may not enioy the pleasures delights of this world let vertue and goodnesse for me goe a begging I care
veen cora çon que no quiebra What the eye sees not the heart rues not Boaz knew well enough the great want and necessitie wherein Ruth and Naomi liued but hee did not relieue this their pouertie because he did not see it but when he saw the one of them gleaning the skattered eares of corne that were left in the field his eyes wrought vpon his heart and taking compassion of her hee aduised his Reapers That they should purposely leaue some eares for her to picke vp O Lord said Martha to our Sauiour Hadst thou beene here my brother had not beene dead for hadst thou but seene thy sicke friend and the affliction of his sorrowfull sisters thy seruants thou couldst not chuse but haue taken pittie of vs. The Chroniclers of those Times report of Alexander the Great That he had Cor durum auarum a hard and couetous heart but his couetousnesse he ouercame by his ambition of command and empire and his hardnesse by his eye-pittie Diodorus storieth That seeing in Greece a great number of poore soules that were naked and distressed the teares trickled from his eyes and tooke order that they should be furnished foâ—thwith both with cloaths and money If then a heart that is naturally hard â—annot indure to see men in miserie and not relieue them How much more shall God who is made all of mercie and compassion extend his pittie towards vs The Princes of the Philistines found this to be true when making the similitude of their loathsome and painfull disease in gold they presented them before the Arke conceiting with themselues That God but looking vpon the meere similitude of their Emerodes his bowells would bee mooued with compassion towards them Pulchriores sunt oculi tui vino Wine quickens the spirits it comforts cheereth the heart but the eyes of God are more louely to looke to and far better than the best wine Cum subleuasset oculos Iesus vidisset There was a time when God did put the repairing and remedying of our miseries in our eyes Sicut oculi ancillae in manibus Dominae suae ita oculi nostri ad Deum Dominum nostrum c. As the eyes of a louing and faithfull handmaid are alwayes attending on her Mistresse obseruing euerie the least cast of her countenance so our eyes should be still bending as it were hanging continually ouer that diuine Fountaine till we draw from it the water of Mercie and of Pittie O Lord thou art bound to take pittie on me because I haue myne eyes fixed and nayled as it were to thy mercie This care God did represent vnto vs when he commanded Moses to erect that dead brasen Serpent to the end that those who were stung by those liuing serpents might by looking thereupon bee healed As many as are bitten and looke vpon it shall liue That Precept of Leuiticus tended to this purpose The seuenth yeare shall be a Sabboth of rest vnto the land it shal be the Lordâ— Sabboth thou shalt neither sow the field nor cut the Vineyard This was Natures feast of rest obliging vs to lift vp our eyes to Heauen and to beg of God our dayly bread For too much plentie aboundance doth make vs oftentimes to abandon Gods prouidence and to grow forgetfull of the care that he hath of vs. Out of the same reason he would not that the promised Land should be Locus rigatus a watred land like to that of the ouerflowing of Nilus but that they should expect and looke for their water from Heauen for in Aegypt the power that they had to open at their pleasure the waters of Nilus and to inrich their grounds therewith was no small meanes to make them forget God But Experience crying out with a loud voyce That our eyes do not endeauour to looke vp so high as they should and that when they ought to lift them vp to heauen they cast them downe to the ground The remedying of our miseries was made ouer to his eyes giuing vs thereby such good securitie that to behold his eyes and to be cured is all one The Fabricke of the Temple being ended Salomon made a most deuout prayer vnto God wherein hee did earnestly petition him That he would be pleased to looke downe vpon this his house with a gratious and fauourable eye for ô Lord if thou shalt but vouchsafe to grace this Temple by beaming forth thereupon the resplendent rayes of those thy eyes which are the light and life of the Church I shall giue it for granted that it shall surely stand in thy grace fauour Let thyne eyes be open to this house night and day There is no gage or pledge so sure as God setling of his eye vpon vs for mens eyes do commonly follow the desires of their hearts and because our good and the best estate we haue cannot rest well assured in the hands of our desires for that for the most part they are our greatest enemies and oftentimes proue our Hangmen and Executioners God gaue them ouer to the lusts of their owne hearts so that there is no trusting to our owne eyes God left Adam to his owne libertie and trusted him with the Empire and domination of the whole earth but hee lost it in the turning of a hand to giue content to his longing wife Ne contristaret delâ—â—ias saith the glorious Doctor Saint Augustine fearing more her sorrow if hee should not haue satisfied her longing than the losse of Heauen Earth and God Afterwards God fearing the like frailtie in man when he had shut vp that small remnant of mankind in the Arke which he was willing to free from the furie of the Flood he shut it too tooke away the key and hung it at his owne girdle doubting with himselfe That if he had left it in Noahs hands though hee were so good and holy a man as he was it would not be safe in his keeping Amongst other innumerable reasons there are two that we may specially relie vpon and confidently build vpon them The one That the eyes of Gods prouidence are still watching ouer vs and taking care of our good Saint Cyrill saith That our Sauiour looking vpon this hungrie people and that had followed him thus afoot did represent Gods beholding from the top of that high hill of his eternitie all those things that either are were or shall be For as Boaetius saith Cunctorum spectator est Deus God ouersees all Of men Saint Austen saith That all that haue beene or are in the world are poore beggars which eat of the crummes which fall from Gods Table And as your poore wandring beggars which are almost hunger-starued stand at the gates of a rich man that is a great almes giuer with their scrips and pilgrime staues expecting an almes so all men both great and small rich and poore from the king to the beggar stand waighting at this great House-keepers gate looking for some releefe
allowance from the King There are some who are like vnto Bells Priests who deuouring the Kings treasure and feeding themselues fat with his wealth make him beleeue that the God Bell did eate vp all that which was brought in vnto them The Spleene or Milt in mans body is the stampe or Hieroglyph of these kind of people which the fatter it growes and the more it swels the feebler and weaker are the rest of the members of the body Lesse conuenient is that Minister which is couetous for though he haue neuer so much yet is he neuer satisfied Valerius Maximus reporteth That it was propounded in the Senat of Rome That two persons should be nominated to goe for Spaine against Viriatus and the worthiest of the two to be made choice of the one was Seruius Sulpitius the other the Consull Aurelius and the Senators referring the choice to Aemilianus Scipio to elect him whom hee thought fittest for that imployment his answer vnto them was I like of neither of them for Alter nihil habet alteri nihil sat est The one of them hath nothing and to the other nothing is enough not approouing the one because hee was too poore nor the other because he was too couetous Your full fed Flies are woont to bee lesse painefull to the wounds of the Poore because their fulnesse hath it's bounds and termination But this example is nothing to the purpose for your richer sort of Ministers for your Flies and so all other birds and beasts haue their limits and bounds in their fulnesse whereupon they rest and dwell as the sea doth in the sand but your couetous men the richer they are the greedier they grow and more hurtfull to the Commonwealth for a poore Minister will content himselfe with smal matters but the rich Miser is insatiable The Prodigall keeping hogs at a Farmhouse in the Country suffered a strange raging kind of hunger but when he could get no better food to satisfie the same he was well content to take part with the Swine The rich man in the Gospel had the world at wil wanted nothing neither for his backe nor his bellie Thou hast much goods said hee of himselfe laid vp for many yeares but all this would not satisfie his insatiable desire The Barnes are not big enough my Granaries too little for my hunger I will plucke them downe and make them bigger Iesus tooke the Loaues and when he had giuen thankes he c. It is first of all to be noted That our Sauiour tooke the Loaues and the Fishes first into his owne sacred hands that he might thereby shew himselfe to be the author of this miraculous multiplication Secondly He did lift vp his eys vnto Heauen in token that he had this power from Heauen Thirdly He gaue thankes vnto the father as he was Man because he was pleased to worke so great a miracle for the spirituall and corporall good of man which he accounted as a kindnesse done vnto himselfe Fourthly He did blesse the loaues and the fishes giuing them the vertue and power of multiplication Fiftly The partition and diuision of them he did put them into the hands of his Disciples that they might diuide them amongst them and minister them vnto them And all this was a type of the blessed Sacrament He could haue as well created loaues and fishes anew but then peraduenture the people would haue thought that God had sent them down from Heauen as he did raine at the prayer of Elias or Quailes in the Desert or as Manna and so they would haue diuerted their eyes their thoughts from the vertue of those diuine hands And therefore it was fit conuenient that he should adde an augmentation vnto them but not create them as at the wedding he turned the water into wine which he could if he would haue created anew Saint Augustine saith That this multiplication began in the hands of our Sauiour Christ Saint Chrysostome That it inlarged it selfe in the hands of the Apostles Saint Hilarie That it indured till it came to the hands of the Guests The vertue was all one but it extended it selfe to all that the seruice might be the better performed and the miracle made the more notorious and manifest Our Sauiour Christ was willing that this multiplication should bee by the hands of his Apostles for to fasten vpon all Clergiemen this liberalitie bountie in distributing of bread and doing almesdeeds A Bishop puts on his Pontificiall robes in the Church and in the Church hee puts them off againe and when he comes forth his office is to inrich the widdow with his purse and to spend his portion vpon Orphans and fatherlesse children Iudas returned the money for which he sould his Sauiour to the Temple and the Priests entring into councell What they should doe with it they decreed That it should bee spent vpon the Poore because it was the price of the bloud of the High-Priest who was the Father of the Poore Saint Bernard saith That the Priest that hath his part here vpon earth must not looke for a part in Heauen Si quid habuerit prater Deum pars eius non erit Deus Saint Cyril That when Bishops seruants passe vp and downe the Streets and enter into vnknowne houses he that lookes vpon them ought to presume That they go in there to seeke after the Poore to relieue them And Saint Iohn saith That the Disciples presumed this of Iudas when our Sauiour said vnto him Quod facis fac citò Many sticke not to say I shall dye ere long and then I will giue all vnto God What an ill account do these men make saith Saint Cirill All Clergie men haue to their heires those that are their enemies who euery moment desire their death And because their enemie shall not haue it they say Let vs giue it vnto Christ. Nihil inuenerunt viri diuitiarum in manibus suis The rich found nothing in their hands Saint Augustine giues the reason Quia nihil posuerunt in manibus Christi Because they deposited nothing in the hands of Christ. They did all eate and were satisfied Eusebius Emisenus saith That there was a very sauorie contention betweene fiue loaues and fiue thousand men besides women and children And that euery one did resolue to make an end of their peece of loafe and their fish as well for to satisfie their hunger as for that it was so sauourie to the taste And in that bread which they thought would haue beene but two bits a man they had thirty and the same imperceptibly and insensibly increasing those fiue loaues were too hard for those fiue thousand persons and their hunger Our Sauiour Christ was herein desirous principally to prooue That in his house there are all sorts of dainties and fulnesse The world seekes to disgrace Gods hospitalitie and good house-keeping alledging that to be his friend and to dye of hunger is all one And that
dawbe vice with the colour of vertue These are the ordinary impostures of Hypocrisie But some hold them to be so hurtfull that if they should be suffered and borne withall any long time the world would be vtterly vndone by it That a woman should dissemble her euill feature and the fowlenes of her skin with rich and well made clothes and with borrowed colours and that her beauty being not her owne but a falshood and lye from the head to the foot she should make it to appeare as a truth That a Merchant should carry the name of a very rich and wealthy man though he owe a great deale more than he is worth That a Huckster should sell Barajas Oliues for those of Seuill c. Let it passe Mundus in maligno positus est It is a naughty world But that an Apothecary should put vpon a boxe of poyson a Rotulo or written Scroll of wholesome physick and say rats bane is sugar it is not a thing to be indured Lesse are we to suffer deceits in the medicins and confections for the soule He that should haue seen the beasts the birds the boords the store of money that was there and the great noyse of the sacrifices that were there to be made would haue thought it had beene the Priests zeale diuine worship a relieuing of the poore and an easing of those that came a farre off to the Temple that they might with the lesse trouble performe their deuotions but all this was nothing but couetousnesse and their greedy desire of greater gaines And perhaps for this reason Saint Iohn called it the Passeouer of the Iewes Erat proximum Pascha Iudaeorum The Iewes Passeouer was at hand Not my Passeouer but yours where you doe not treate of my honour but of your owne profit Vias vestras sabbatha vestra odiuit anima mea saith the Prophet Esay And the Prophet Malachie calls these their solemne feasts dung Behold I will cast dung vpon your faces euen the dung of your solemne feastes Not because they were so in themselues but because theirayme was their owne priuate Interest which is no better than a dunghill in the sight of God The third occasion was their disrespect to the Temple where God euer pretended that his Maiestie should be more especially respected Regnaâ—it deus super omnes gentes sedet super sedem sanctam suam The Maiestie regall vpon earth is respected throughout the whole iurisdiction of his Crowne but much more where he hath his throane and chaire of Estate God as he is King of Kings and Lord of Lords ouer all the nations of the earth ought much to be respected but more especially where he hath his throane in euery one of his Kingdomes In heauen at the right hand of his father which is the supreame throane of his greatnesse and Maiestie In the Synagogue he had the Propitiatorie and in the Temples the Sacrarium When the Angell appeared vnto Ioshua with a drawne sword and commanded him to put his shooes from off his feet diuerse graue Doctors doe concurre in this that this Angell was the Sonne of God as hee had before appeared vnto Moses in the bush commanding him the like Wherein he notified two things vnto them The one the reuerence that they ought to beare to that place where he did so especially manifest himselfe For the ground wherein thou standest is holy ground By our feete are meant our affections by our shooes our cares And many nations tooke from thence the putting off of their shooes when they entred into the Temple The other That against those who should loose this respect to that place the sword was drawne to slay them and fire prepared to burne and consume them Ezechiel painting out the abhominations of the Temple saith Behold there came sixe from the way of the vpper gate which looketh towards the North and euerie one of them had Vasa interfectionis the vessels of slaughter in his hand The 70 translate it Septem secures Seuen hatchets It is Theodorets obseruation that against all Zenacharibs Armie God sent forth but one Angell onely but against the prophaners of his Temple six according to the number of the dayes of the Week because there should not that day passe ouer their head wherin some new Executioner or other should not but rise vp to torment them In multitudine misericordiae tuae introibo in domum tuam adorabo ad Templum sanctum tuum in timore tuo Caietan reades it In multitudine gratiae tuae He that is predestinated to saluation hath that respect to Gods house that if hee did not persuade himselfe that he stood in his grace and fauour he would not dare to presume to put his foot within the doores thereof and should he presume so to do he would leane himselfe against the corner of the first pillar he came at not daring like the Publican to lift vp his eyes But your Pharasaicall Hypocrite makes as bold with gods house as with his owne He lies here and lies there sweares here and swears there murmures here and murmures there he liues there as if there were no God and liues here as if God did not see him And that which causeth the more feare and horror is That many times they meet at the Church for to treat and talke of their greatest villanies Saint Ierome against Vigilancius saith Confiteor timorem meum I confesse my feare When entring into the Temple of the Martyrs I conceiue any anger or euill thought in my mind or when sleeping I haue had any euill dreame it makes my body and soule to tremble Now then when entring into Gods house I quake and tremble when I am to receiue what can I doe withall By Ezechiell God complaines of those rich men that built their houses neere vnto his Qui fabricati sunt limen suum iuxta limen meum Ioyning wall to wall to my house they haue prophaned my name with their abhominations And I consumed them in my wrath Being then that God cannot indure such bad neighbourhood Wil he beare with those impudencies that as it were in despight ye doe before his face Saint Ierome hath noted vpon Esay that amongst other things that Salomon offended God in one was That hee had built vp such a high Turret in his pallace that it ouertopt the Temple and did ouerlooke it For Gods house ought not to be inferiour to mans What shal we say then to those that make it a den of theeues It hath beene obserued That all those great and powerfull Princes which haue presumed to presse into Gods Temples haue come to an euill end Sabellicus reports of Pompey that hauing bin formerly verie fortunat after thathe had presumed to prophane the Temple by entring into the Sancta sanctorum nothing afterwards prospered with him The fourth occasion was Christs great zeale to his House Zelus domus tuae comeâ—it me The zeale of thy House hath deuoured me or eaten
other the conuerted were but few but in the Resurrection they were without number as it appeareth out of the Acts. Our Sauior Christs answer was somewhat of the darkest to their clouded vnderstanding And albeit they drew from thence a different sense and contrarie meaning yet might it serue as a signe vnto them that hee was able to doe that which he did And they that would deny that he could destroy the Temple and build it vp againe in three dayes which was but a materiall Temple would more stifly denie that he could dye and rise againe the third day by his owne vertue and power Saint Matthew accuseth these men to be false witnesses Hic dixit which was the Iewes accusation Possum destruere Templum Dei. First because they did wrest the sence and true meaning of our Sauiour Secondly because they did alter and change the words Thirdly because their proceeding against him was malicious Whence I may reade this lesson to your Lawyers your Registers and your Scriueners That one Tilde or Tittle may condemne them of falshood When our Sauiour Christ said of Saint Iohn Si cum volo manere donec veniam quid hoc ad te If I will that he tarry till I come when Peter was so inquisitiue of him what should become of the Disciple whom he loued and leaned in his bosome what is it to thee Doe thou follow mee Then went this word streight amongst the brethren That this Disciple should not dye But the Euangelist did correct this their mistake For Iesus said not to him He shall not dye But if I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee Iob said Ye shall not find iniquitie in my tongue But Zophar one of his friends laid it to his charge Dixisti enim Purus est sermo mâ—â—â— mundus sum in conspectu tuo For thou hast said My doctrine is pure and I am cleane in thine eyes And albeit it may seeme that he charged him herewith vpon his owne confession yet Saint Gregory giues it for a calumnie and slander because Zophar had altered and changed his words God make vs so pure both in Doctrine and life that when this Temple of our bodies shall be destroyed it may by the mercie of our Sauior Iesus Christ be raised againe THE XXVII SERMON VPON THE TVESDAY AFTER THE FOVRTH SVNDAY IN LENT IOHN 7.14 Iam die festo mediante c. Now when the Feast was halfe done Iesus went vp into the Temple and taught c. SEuen continued dayes one after another the Feast of the Tabernacles was celebrated in the chiefe citie Ierusalem which was one of the three principall Passeouers of the Iewes solemnising the same in remembrance of that benefit which God did to that People in leading them fortie yeares through the Desart not hauing any house wherein to dwell and yet not wanting tents or booths wherein to lodge themselues To this Feast came all of all sorts from all parts of the land of Promise building themselues Cabbins in the fields Iosephus saith That they vsed Tents from whence they went to the Temple and performed their Offerings for their families according to their abilitie Christ came on the Tuesday to this Solemnitie of this opinion is Saint Augustine though some others are of the mind that he came thither at the verie beginning of the Feast though he did not make himselfe knowne till he saw a more conuenient time He preached to the People and so deepe was his Doctrine that the Iewes wondring thereat said one to another Quomodo hic literas scit cum non ded scerit How knoweth this man the Scriptures seeing that he neuer learned And howbeit this their voyce of admiration was secret and whispered in the eare from one to another yet Christ made answer thereunto in publique shewing therein the pledges and tokens of his Diuinitie saying openly vnto them My Doctrine is not myne but his that sent me He that shall truly endeauour to doe his will shall know it is his but hee that preacheth his owne proper doctrine seeks after his owne honour and commendation but he that preacheth Gods Doctrine can neither lie nor offend therein The Iewes did lay a double slander vpon him The one Seducit turbas He seduceth the People The other Sabbathum non custodit He keepes not the Sabboth But this his answer giues a blur to them both Moses saith hee gaue you a Law and yet none of you keepeth the Law Why go yee then about to kill me For euer since that hee cured him that lay so long at the Fish-poole they sought after his life In a word this muttering and whispering of theirs tended onely to the apprehending of him but not any one of them durâ—â—â—y hands vpon him because his houre was not yet come and many of the People beeing woon by his miracles and his doctrine beleeued in him Iesus went vp into the Temple and taught c. One of the greatest benefits which the world receiued by our Sauiours comming was That hee reading in Heauens Chaire to so wise and discreet a companie who by onely reading in the booke of his Essence were instructed in all kind of truth did not for all this disdaine to become a Schoolemaster to little children here vpon earth accommodating the profoundnesse of his deep learning to our rude and weake capacity accomplishing that of Saint Iohn Erunt omnes docibiles Dei They shall be all taught of God And this may be verified of those Angells and blessed Saints that are in Heauen and of those faithfull ones that are vpon earth for the verie selfe same truths he taught them in the Temple of his glorie which he did these other in his Church only differenced in this That they see them and we beleeue them Many Doctors haue sate and read in their Chaire here vpon earth but because they dranke not of the water of his Doctrine in this Schoole but in the duâ—tie puddles of lies and falshoods they were as Iob saith The farmers of lies and the followers of peruerse opinions And as there are Artisans for Idols which carue them guild them and adore them so are there Artisans of lies and false opinions which frame them set them forth with painted eloquence and adore them as if they should guide them to the end of their happinesse He taught The Euangelist doth not here set downe the Theame of his Sermon but in the Chapter of Wisedome Salomon saith Shee teacheth sobernesse and prudence righteousnes strength which are the most profitable things that men can haue in this life Two things the Scripture doth euery foot repeat of this celestiall Doctor The one The profitablenesse of his Doctrine Ego Dominus doceâ—s vtilia so saith Esay I am the Lord thy God which teach thee to profit and lead thee by the way that thou shouldst goe And Saint Iohn saith Verba quae loquor spiritus
the Chronicles deliuereth the same vnto vs and of Adam the Schoolemen do affirme That he could hardly haue giuen all things their proper names as Saint Chrysostome hath obserued it if God had not infused that knowledge into him to call them after that fitting and conuenient manner And this knowledge was communicated to Christ euen from the verie instant of his conception by meanes whereof hee saw all things in their proper species besides that blessed knowledge whereby he saw them in God as in a glasse Of this infused knowledge Saint Iohn saith God gaue not the spirit by measure vnto him but it was without limitation for hee that is sonne and heire to his father is not to be stinted as those that are seruants And therefore it is said The Spirit of the Lord shall rest vpon him the spirit of wisedome and vnderstanding the spirit of councell and might the spirit of knowledge c. This infused knowledge was setled in others by fits not in all times all places nor so generally in all things as in our Sauiour Christ from whom it sprouted as water from a Fountaine That fountaine of the Rocke strucke by the Rod of Moses it had beene a foule sinne in the Israelites to haue searched into the veins of Nature whence these waters gushed out and not to thinke on Gods grace from whence this fauour flowed And no lesse absurde was it in the Iewes to seeke in the Schooles and Vniuersities after those veines of liuing water of that diuine learning of our Sauiour Christ which was that true rocke and not to direct their eyes towards God who is the true giuer of knowledge Lastly It was a foule fault in them to thinke that God is tied to humane meanes knowing quod Deus scientiarum Dominus est That God is the Lord of sciences and that it was the Holy-Ghost that taught and instruucted those the Prophets taking one from following the heards of Kyne Oxen and another from keeping of Sheepe Non sum Phopheta saith Amos of himselfe I am not a Prophet nor the sonne of a Prophet but a Heardsman of Tekoah And of Dauid it is said That he tooke him from the Sheepefold following the Ewes with young He indewed Daniel being a child with wisedome and Ioseph with vnderstanding to declare King Pharaohs dreame Nor was it needfull for him to draw these men out of the Schooles of Athens nor to take them from forth the Vniuersities of Greece c. As soone as euer our Lord God had discouered to the glorious Apostle Saint Paul the beames of his light he presently departed to Arabia and to Damascus to preach the Gospell hee might haue gone first to Hierusalem to take acquaintance of those other Apostles of more antient standing and to conferre with them what he should preach but this did not seeme vnto him a conuenient meanes to credit his Doctrine Nec veni Hierosolimam ad Antecessores meos to the end that the Gentiles might not presume that this his Doctrine was of the earth and not of Heauen as afterwards he told the Galathians The Gospell which was preached by me is not afterman neither did I receiue it of man neither was I taught it but by the reuelation of Iesus Christ. And the Ephesians What I receiued from the Lord I deliuered vnto you But because the Iews did surpasse all the world in passion and malice they did attribute all to the Deuill whom the Gentiles had made their god My Doctrine is not myne c. The Commentators make three expositions vpon this place My Doctrine is not myne but I haue receiued it from my father The Doctrine of the Father and of the Sonne as he is God is one and the same as is their essence nor is there any other difference more than that he hath receiued it from the Father but as he is man it is in it selfe diuers as is their nature because it is an accident and an infused habit though the truth thereof in both is one and the same Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine expound this saying of our Sauior as he is man and that this Doctrine of his was not his but of his father that sent him abroad to preach and publish it to the World And the same Saint Augustine in some other places deliuereth it of Christ as he was God but affirmeth in the end That it may be interpreted either way Saint Cyril Saint Chrysostome declare this of Christ as he is God but which way soeuer you take either sence doth signifie That Christ is the Sonne of God The second Exposition is My Doctrine is not myne that is It is not onely myne but his that sent me And this sence and meaning is founded vpon many places of Scripture wherein this Negatiue Non is the same with Non solum Not onely As for example It is not yee that speake but the spirit of the father which speaketh in you i. Not you alone but the spirit of the Father Againe Doe not thinke that I alone will accuse you to the Father there is another also that accuseth you euen Moses in whom yee trust because yee beleeue not that which he wrote of mee that is Hee doth not only beleeue in me Thirdly He that beleeueth in me doth not beleeue in me but in him that sent me In the fourth place Whosoeuer shall receiue me receiueth not me but him that sent me That is Not onely me Lastly I laboured more aboundantly than them all yet not I but the grace of Godwhich was with me The third It is not myne nor did I inuent it nor is it the Doctrine of men but of God Many Philosophers haue out of an ouerweening conceit gon a wandring and inuented new sects and strange Doctrines that they might haue the honour to be accounted authours of nouelties answerable to that which God said of certaine false Prophets They speake a vision of their owne heart and not out of the mouth of the Lord Woe vnto the foolish Prophets that follow their own spirit and haue seene nothing And it is Antichrist that shall be called Pater errorum The father of errors Our Sauiour Christ teacheth vs here two things The one That God is the Fountaine of Wisedome and that as the Earth cannot yeeld it's fruit without water from Heauen so the heart of man cannot affoord any fruit without the Doctrine of God Concrescat vt plunia doctrina mea flâ—at vt ros eloquium meum The Husband in the Canticles was willing to insinuate as much when he compared the brests of his Spouse to two little Kids Duo vbera tua sicut duo hinnuli Caprae Thy two brests are like two young Kids that are twins which feed among the Lillies pouring forth in due season their milke vnto vs in a plentifull manner Some Commentators vnderstand by these two brests the two Testaments which like two brests spring aboundantly communicating
loueth truth saith Saint Iohn commeth to the light Our Sauiour Christ did not so much endeauour to haue vs to vnderstand as to beleeue This is the worke of God that yee beleeue on him whom he hath sent In Heauen our happinesse consists in seeing but on earth in beleeuing Tast and see how gratious the Lord is Earthly food is first seene after the sight followes the taste The woman saw that the fruit was pleasant to the eye whereupon she tooke of the Fruit and did eat Here the sight did precede the taste but in Heauen we first taste and afterwards see there the taste precedes the sight and in my opinion Saint Chrysostome and Saint Cyril doe not differ much from this sence being that they make bonam voluntatem dispositionem intellectus the goodnesse of the Will to bee the disposition to the vnderstanding but a depraued Will is like vnto an infirm eye which through it's indisposition doth not see the light The places of Scripture which confirme this Doctrine are without number Ecclesiasticus saith More truths will one holy soule sometimes declare than many vnholy Doctours and Phylosophers which wander out of the way and weare out their eye-brows in search thereof Intellectus onus omnibus facientibus eum Vnderstanding is a burthen to all that dâ—e it Gregorie Nazianzen hath noted That the Prophet did not say Praedicantibus eum To them that preach it but Facientibus To them that doe it I vnderstood thy commandement and therefore hated the way of Iniquitie The second part is a cause of the first because I did abhorre all the wayes of wickednesse I attained to so much knowledge of thy Law I am wiser than the Aged because I haue sought thy Commandements Salomon saith My sonne seeke after wisedome obserue righteousnesse and the Lord will shew it vnto thee Iob. Behold the feare of the Lord is wisedome and to turne backe from euill is vnderstanding Osee. Sow to your selues in righteousnesse c. according to the translation of the Seuentie Saint Iohn saith If yee shall abide in my Word yee shall know my will Esay To whome shall God teach his wisedome To whom shall his Doctrine be reuealed Shall it happily bee to those that are weaned from his milke To those that haue Aloes on their nipples or to those that when the Prophet shall command them something on his part shal answer Manda remanda expecta re-expecta What doth the Preacher meane to grind vs in this manner and to repeat so often vnto vs Haec mandat Dominus c. All these places prooue that conclusion of the first chapter of Wisedome In maleuolam animâ—m non introiuit sapientia Saint Augustine saith That the two sisters Leah and Rachael represented this order First fruitfull Leah was married representing the fruit of good workes next beautifull Rachael representing the fairenesse of wisedome and knowledge In the right erudition of man the labour of operating those things that are right are preferred before the will of vnderstanding those that are true And Saint Bernard persuading a friend of his to this truth speaketh thus vnto him Experto crede citiùs illum sequendo quà m legendo consequipossis aliquia magis inuenies in syluis quam in libris Beleeue me who am experienced herein that thou shalt sooner come vnto him by following than by reading him and shalt meet with something more amidst the Woods than thy bookes The shadie trees and the solitarie Rockes will throughly instruct thee in that which many learned tutors are not able to teach thee Then sayd some of them of Hierusalem Is not this hee whom they goe about to kill And behold he speaketh openly c. This place expresseth the Empire the securitie and libertie of Gods word And this is specified in that commission which God gaue vnto Ieremie when hee nominated him to bee his Preacher Behold I haue set thee ouer the nations and ouer the kingdomes to pluck vp and to root out and to dâ—stroy and throw downe to build and to plant This generall power was graunted vnto him with a non obstante no man could put him by it Notable to this purpose is that Historie of Moses with Pharaoh On the one side wee are to consider the great interest wherewith he went vnto the King about the libertie of the Hebrew people being so much inslaued inthralled and so sorely taxed beyond all right and reason On the other side so many scourges so many plagues so much feare and so much death and yet notwithstanding hee durst not cause him to be apprehended nor to be put to death nor had not the power to touch vpon that thought And questionlesse the reason thereof was that he acknowledged a superior power proceeding from Gods Word which Moses did euer and anon repeat vnto him Haec dicit Dominus Thus sayth the Lord I haue compared thee ô my Loue to the troupes of horses in the Chariots of Pharaoh Rupertus saith That all Gods Cauallerie against the power of Pharaoh was onely Moses Rod this made that great King turne coward this strucke a terrour into him made his heart to tremble within him and maugre his greatnesse to acknowledge God The Beloued sayes then to his loue As that Rod was Gods Armie wherewith like a Potters Vessell he brake that King and all his Host in pieces so thy Armie ô my Church shall be my Word which shall be as it were another Moses Rod against those that shall withstand it Virgam vigilantem ego video I see a waking Rod saith Ieremie And God answers thereunto Benè vidisti quia ego vigilabo super verbum meum Thou hast well seene for I will watch ouer my Word Saint Paul puts it to the question What will yee Shall I come vnto you with a rod or in loue and in the spirit of meekenesse And no lesse worthie the obseruation is that History of Amos There was a false Prophet called Amaziah an Idoll Priest whom Ierâ—boam had placed in Bethell who could by no meanes indure Amos whether it were because he swayed much among the people or for that by his Sermons as Saint Hierome hath noted it he had withdrawne the People from those sacrifices wherein Amaziah was interessed he laboured with him both by cruell threatnings and gentle persuasions that he would get him gone into the Land of Iudah Get thee into the land of Iudah and there eat thy bread and prophecie there But when he was most threatned then did he preach most against Ieroboam not sticking to say Ieroboam shall die by the sword his wife shall be a Harlot in the Citie and thy sonnes and thy daughters shall fall by the sword and thy hand shall bee deuided by line and thou shalt die in a polluted land c. For the Word of God the more it is threatned the freer it is and like the Cammomile Dum premitur surgit vberior The more you
beleeue the immortalitie of the soule they hold a sudden death a kind of happinesse but a Christian who confesseth that there is a iudgement after death desireth a more lingring and leisurely kind of dying for to preuent future danger both of soule and bodie In Leuiticuâ— God commanded That they should not offer any câ—eature vnto him which did not chew the cud or which had not a clouen hoofe And he therefore ioyned these two things together for to swallow the meat downe whole is verie dangerous for the health and the foot not cloâ—en verie apt to slip and slide and in a mysticall kind of sence is as much as if he should haue said That he that shall swallow down so fearefull dangerous a thing as Death without chewing meditating thereon shall doubtlesse slide if not take a fall as low as Hell The onely sonne of his mother In the order of conueniencie it seemeth fitter that the old mother should haue died than the young sonne But as there is nothing more certaine than death so is there nothing more vncertaine than the time of our death the young Bird as soone falls into the snare as the old one and your greater Fish as soone taken with the hooke as your lesser Frie. If the Wicked turne not God will whet his sword bend his Bow and prepare for him the instruments of death and ordaine his Arrowes against them For old men that stand vpon the graues brinke death hath a Sythe to cut them downe for young men that stand farther off he hath his Bow and his Arrowes Saint Augustine saith That God taketh away the Good before their time that they may not receiue hurt from the Bad and the Bad because they should not doe hurt to the Good The onely sonne of his mother Not that he was her onely sonne but her best beloued sonne Salomon stiles himselfe Vnigenitum matris suae His mothers onely begotten sonne not that he was the onely sonne of Bershabe as it appeareth in the first of Chronicles but because he was so deerely beloued of his mother as if he had beene her only sonne he was his mothers darling her best beloued the light of her eyes and her hearts comfort she cherished him made much of him would not let him want any thing yet all this care and prouidence of hers could not shield him from death There is a man in the Citie that is of a strong and able bodie and abounding in all worldly happinesse There is another saith Iob that is weake hungerstarued and his wealth wasted and consumed both these death sets vpon and layes them in the graue He exemplifies in the King and the Gyant for the rest he makes no more reckoning of them than of so manie little Birds whom the least fillip striketh dead but he sets vpon a King like a Lyon a poore man hath many meanes to hasten his death but Kings seldome die of hunger of penurie of heats or of colds c. And a Gyant seemes to be a perdurable and immortall Tower of flesh but in the end both Kings and Gyants fall by the hand of Death And since that Death did dare to set vpon the Sonne of God and his blessed mother let neither High nor Low Rich nor Poore hope to find any fauour at Deaths hands Ioshuah did stop the Sunne in his course Moses the waters of the red Sea Ioseph did prophecie of things to come and many of Gods Saints wrought great Myracles but there is no myracle to be wrought against Death Ieremie tells vs of certain Serpents that cannot be charmed charm the charmer neuer so wisely of this nature is Death Ecclesiasticus introduceth a dead man who speaketh thus by way of aduice to the Liuing Memento judicij mei sic enim erit tuum Heri mihi hodie tibi That man was neuer yet borne nor shall be hereafter that shal not see death or escape this heauie iudgement Salomon commanded the child to be diuided in the middle about whom the two mothers did contend and that sentence which he did not then execute shall bee executed vpon all liuing flesh for all men beeing in regard of the bodie sonnes of the Earth and in regard of the soule the children of Heauen euerie one receiues this sentence from the Iudge at his death Let the earth returne to the earth from whence it came and the Spirit to God who gaue it life She was a Widow woman The word Erat She was carrieth with it a kind of emphasis she was a sorrowfull and forelorne Widow A Widow ought to bee a rule and patterne of perfection to all other women shee should bee the glasse wherein they should see their faults and what is amisse in them In a word shee was a woman irreprehensible and without blame Nor according to Saint Paul hath the Virgin or the Wife that tie and obligation vpon them as shee hath The one because her small experience in the deceits and vanities of the world may excuse her in many things the other the charge and care that necessarily attends Wedlocke When Absalon entred into the wiues and Concubines of his father the King gaue command they should bee shut vp like so many Recluses because they had opened the doore vnto him as if the King had beene dead And Widowes are to liue so seperated and seuered from the world as if they liued not in it Isiodore expoundeth the Spanish word Viuda which signifies a Widow to be quaâ—i vidua diuided from her husband as the Vine from the Elme which was it's prop and stay which being taken away the Vine lieth leuell with the ground and without any comfort The Hebrew deriueth the name of Widow from a certain word which signifieth both bound dumbe now to be bound and dumbe are the conditions and properties of him that is dead who is neither able to mooue nor speake So that the vulgar Translation calls a Widow Sterilem barren and vnfruitfull as it is in Iob and in Esay Another letter stiles her Eradicatam pluckt vp by the Roots as a tree that is quite rooted vp that it may neuer grow nor waxe greene againe The smell of thy garments is like the smell of Frankincense They must not smell of Amber nor of Ciuet but of Frankinsense which they offer vp in Incense for a widdow ought to lead the remnant of her dayes so neere vnto her husbands Tombe that her garments should sauour of that incensorie perfume Of such Widowes as these God hath that especiall care that none shall doe them any wrong for the teares that drop downe from their cheekes ascend as high as Heauen And as the vapours that are exhaled from the earth come downe againe in lightning and thunder and terrible tempests so prooue the Widowes teares to those that shall vniustly cause them to weep and draw those watred drops from their eyes Heliodorus pretended to rob the Temple of Ierusalem
Crosse of Christ. And those teares likewise which those men shed who did bewaile the miseries of Ierusalem whose foreheads God commanded to be marked with the letter Tau Others are shed by vs meerely out of compassion for other folks misfortunes and such as these were the teares of our Sauiour Christ He beheld the Citie and wept ouer it So likewise at Lazarus death Iesus wept Did not I weepe for him that was in trouble Was not my soule grieued for the Poore And Ieremie did neuer make an end of weeping for the miseries of his people Others the deuout meditation of Christs bitter torments extort from vs According as it was prophecied by Zach. They shall looke on me whom they haue pierced and they shall mourne for him as one mourneth for his onely sonne and shall be in bitternesse for him as one that is in bitternesse for his first borne Others gutter downe from vs out of a vehement and earnest desire wee haue to our celestiall Countrie and to the enioying of that our heauenly habitation Of this qualitie were those of Dauid Woe is mee that the time of my pilgrimage is prolonged And in another place My teares were my bread euen day and night And all these seuerall sorts of teares spring from the Fountaine of Grace and are comprehended vnder the stile of blessednesse Beati qui lugent Blessed are they that weepe c. There is another sort of teares which flow from naturall pittie and conceiued griefe for the death of our parents children kinsfolkes and friends as also for losse of wealth honour health and the like and when the Scripture mentions them it doth not reprehend them The Shunamite bewailed her dead sonne Marie Magdalen the losse of her brother Lazarus and humane Histories recommend these teares of pitty vnto vs Alexander wept when he met with a troup of poore miserable Greekes that were all totterd and torne and they who vpon such sad and miserable spectacles are not tender eyed and hearted are cruel creatures Viscera â—orum cruaelia saith Salomon and Saint Paul stiles them Siâ—â— affectione Voyd of naturall affection Now these teares may offend two manner of wayes First In their excesse for God will not haue vs to bewaile that thing much which in it selfe is little Saint Augustine hath obserued That after Iacob began to mourne for the losse of Ioseph and the bereauing him of Beniamin which mourning of his continued almost the space of twentie yeares God withdrew those Regalos and fauours from him which hee was wont to conferre vpon him before the Angells ascended and descended the ladder before the Angell gaue him strength to wrestle all night long c. before he inioyed prosperitie wiues children and victorie against Esau but afterwards the more teares the more sorrow fell vpon him for God neuer grants to the teares of the earth the comforts of Heauen And although he permit a mannerly and moderate kind of naturall pittie according to that of Ecclesiasticus Super mortuum modicum plâ—ra And in another place Quasi dira passus incipe plorare My sonne let teares fall downe ouer the Dead and begin to lament as if thou hadst suffered great harme thy selfe Such few drops he fauoureth and cherisheth but if they be excessiue or ouermuch he condemneth them as vnlawfull and as a wrong done vnto God For the losing of God or the losse of his loue thou mayst well weepe World without end because it is an incomparable losse but for the outward losses of this World Incipe plorare Begin thou to weepe but quickly make an end The second offence is That a man hauing cause enough to bewaile his owne sinnes the losse of his Soule and of God doth notwithstanding lament these earthly transitorie losses neglecting the former This disorder Christ sought to rectifie and amend in those tender-hearted women of Ierusalem who wept so bitterly to see how ill hee was vsed by the Iews and how heauie the burthen of his Crosse lay vpon him Daughters of Ierusalem weepe not for mee but weepe for your selues c. He went and touched the coffin The first place is taken vp here by his mercie which is the wel-head of al those blessings which we receiue from his bountiful hand His Prouidence doth conserue vs his wisedom protect vs gouern vs his Goodnesse sustaines vs his Liberalitie inricheth vs his Grace healeth vs And all this floweâ—h from the fountaine of his Mercie The antients stiled Iupiter Optimus maximus Because as Cicero notes it the attribute of Beneficence is more gratefull and acceptable in God than his Greatnesse and Power In the second place came in his words of comfort Noli fâ—ere weepe not In the third his hands Tetigit loculum Heere hee exerciseth his hands his tongue and his heart If we cannot imitate the hands of our Sauiour Christ in doing good yet at least imitate his heart and his tongue For Pittie and words cost nothing and are wanting to few They made a stand that bare him Here he shewed himselfe Lord both of the liuing and the dead And therefore Saint Luke vseth this word Dominâ—â— Hanâ— cum vidisset Dominus When the Lord had seene her These that bare him thus to his graue are first of all a stampe or token of the goods of this life which carrie vs step by step from our honors riches delights and pastimes to the house of eternall lamentation and mourning Secondly they are a stamp or token of il lewd companie which say to an vnexperienced ignorant yongman Come along with vs and let vs lay wait for blood They are like those highway robbers which persuade men to rob kill saying We wil make our selues rich c. Or like those carnall men which crie vnto vs Come let vs take our pleasure Of this People the Prophet Esay complained saying This is a People robbed spoyled they are all of them snared in holes they are hid in prison houses they are for a prey none deliuereth for a spoyle none saith Restore The Deuill and his Ministers lead your wilfull young men away captiue clap them into Hels Dungeon and there is none that deliuereth them or to say so much as Alas poore man whither wilt thou run on to thy destruction Young man I say vnto thee Arise He called him by the name of his age or youth because that had brought him to his graue for it is sinne that sises out our lifâ— and cuts it short Youth is a kind of broken Ship which leaks draws in water at a thousand places so that of force it must quickely sinke Elâ—hu sayd That if a young man will be obedient and be ruled he shall enioy his dayes in peace but if he will be head-strong vngouerned Morietur in tempestate anima â—ius vita inter effoeminatos The Seuentie render it In adolescentia for a Tempest at sea and Youth that is tossed too
were seuered from their bodies how could they crie Saint Gregorie resolues it thus That their desires did crie out aloud Moses did not vnfold his lips nor once open his mouth and yet God said vnto him Why doost thou 〈◊〉 vnto me onely because his desires did set out a throat So Abels bloud was said to crie out against Cain So that with God a few words will suffice Besides your better sort of women ought to be verie sparing of their words Auaritia in verbis saith Plautâ—s in fâ—eminis semper laudabilis Of a lewd and naughtie woman Salomon reporteth That she inuiting a young man irretiuit â—um sermonibus prouoked him with her words Ecclesiasticus saith That wisedome and silence in a woman is the gift of God Nature may giue beautie bloud prosperitie and other good gifts but wisedome and silence God giues Sicut vitâ—a cocciâ—â—â— labia tuâ— Thy lips are like a thred of scarlet and thy talke iâ— comely Those your womens haires which are dis-sheâ—â—led and blowne abroad with the wind they did vse to brâ—id bind them vp with a red ribbond And therefore the Bridegroome compareth his spouses lips to a thred of Scarlet or some red coloured fillet to bind them vp the better to show that she should not be too lauish of her tongue but of few words and those too vpon fit occasion The second consideration in this their discretion was That they called him Lord Domine c. Your greatest Kings and most powerfull Princes vpon earth haue no dominion or empire ouer the soule neither are they able to adde or take away one dramme of the spirit But thou ô Lord Thou art the vniuersall Lord both of Heauen and Earth and we are thy handmaides and seruants and therefore thou canst not denie vs thy fauour Saint Ambrose expounding those wordes of Dauid Seruus tuus sum ego I am thy seruant saith That they who haue many Lords and Masters here vpon earth cannot cleaue vnto God Seruâ—â— tâ—us sum ego serui dominati sunt nostri Those creatures which God hath giuen vs to be our slaues flesh the dainties the delicacies the delights pleasant pastimes of this world shall haue dominion ouer them The third Quem amas He whom thou louest Amatus or beloued is a more honourable name than that of Angell Apostle Martyr Confessor or Virgine Lucifer was an Angell Iudas an Apostle The Heretick will not sticke to say that hee dyes for Christs cause and that he is a Martyr and a Confessor your Vestalles stiled themselues Virgines yet all these names haue beene lyable to sinne to misfortune and Hell But the name of Beloued is not compatiblâ— in that kind And Christ hath got the start of Man in his loue For hee loued vs first And where he once loues he neuer leaues off Besides Two things I would haue you to note which are vsuall with the Saints and children of God The one to set before their eyes the fauours they haue receiued to alledge them to shew themselues thankefull for them and to praise and commend them The other Not to shew themselues forgetful of their seruices towards God Knowing that it is Gods condition and qualitie when he bestoweth one fauour to ingage himselfe for a greater Ezechias alledged vnto God his holinesse and goodnesse of life O Lord remember now how I haue walked before theein truth and with a perfect heart and haue done that which is good â—n thy sight Saint Gregorie presseth hereupon Were it not better to alledge thy miserie than to represent those many good things which thou hast done all which thou hast receiued from his hand But with God to alledge them and to shew our selues thankefull for former receiued fauors is a powerfull meanes for the receiuing of far greater benefits and blessings from him After that Dauid had made a large muster of his tribulations He sayth Conuersus viuificasti me de abissis terrae iterum reduxisti me Thou hast quickned mee and hast brought mee againe from out the deepes of the Earth Where I would haue you to ponder the word iterum For God neuer does one single fauour Secondly the righteous are forgetfull of their owne seruices for that they hold them so meane and so vile that they iudge them vnworthy Gods sight And when in that generall iudgement God shall say I was naked and yee couered me c. The Saints shall answere Lord when did we see thee naked c. And it is noted by Theodoret that these are not words of courtesie or out of mannerlines but of meere forgetfulnesse For it is their fashion so to despise their owne seruices and deseruings that they doe wholy forget them The fourth consideration of their discretion was That so especiall is the fauor which God showes vnto his friends and the griefe which he conceiueth of any that shall befall them that they held it a greater point of Wisedome to alledge that hee was his friend than their brother Saint Bernard sayth That albeit the defect of my seruices doe dishearten mee yet Gods great mercies and his many fauours doe incourage mee For it is not Gods fashion to forsake his friends And therfore saith Saint Austen Non enim amas deseris The Princes of the Earth are now and then well content their friends should suffer because in them Power and Loue is not equall But those in whom these attributes goe hand in hand ought not to suffer their friends to miscarrie They would seeme here to put this vpon Christ and to make this cause his owne O Lord That wee should loose our brother it is no great losse because in thee wee haue a brother But thou ô Lord amongst so many thy professed enemies hast lost a great friend It is the condition of Gods Saints to greeue for the death of the Iust because God receiues a losse in them and to resent their own proper iniuries not for that these iniuries are done to themselues but for that they are iniuries done vnto God Tabescere me fecit zelus meus quia obliti sunt verba tua inimici mei Vpon which place Genebrard giues this exposition That mine owne iniuries doe not so much offend mee for that they are mine but because they are offences done vnto thee And Dauid in his thirtith Psalme treateth of some crosses and affliction that God by sickenesse had layd vpon him after he had built his pallaces Thou didst hide thy face and I was troubled I was loath to dye not for mine owne sake for it were happinesse to me if I should dye to day or to morrow but not for thee What profit is there in my bloud when I go downe to the pit What seruice can Dauid do thee when he is layd in his sepulchre But ô Lord in his life in his honor in his crowne and in his kingdome he may do thee good seruice This ô Lord concernes thee and
will but thy will â— Lord be done It was our Sauiours saying to his Father when praying in the Garden he besought him Let this Cup passe from me And in another place I descended downe from heauen not to doe myne owne will but the will of my Father that sent me Anselmus saith That a soueraigne will in man and which doth not submit it selfe vnto Gods will is the will of Worldlings and sauouring too much of the earth and this superioritie would if it knew how rob God of his priuiledges as proud Lucifer endeauoured to doe And in another place he tearmes a mans owne proper will Pestem lepram mundi The plague and leaprosie of the world and that God doth punish nothing more vpon earth and that there had neuer beene any Hell had it not beene propter propriam voluntatem for this selfe-will of ours Saint Bernard saith That it conuerteth good into ill and that it loseth the reward of Fasting whereby Heauen might be gained Alledging that of Esay Behold in the day of your fast you will seeke your will Cassianus reporteth of a holy Hermit That a friend of his at the houre of his death asking his aduise How he might be saued Answered That he was neuer wedded to his owne proper will Taulerius reporteth of a certaine Diuine That he did oftentimes desire of God That he would direct him to a Master that might teach him the way of his saluation and that at last he met with a poore man that was all ragged and torne God giue you the good day said he vnto him To whom the other replied I neuer had bad one yet What meanest thou by that quoth he He told him I did euer place my happinesse and content in submitting my wil to Gods wil and because his will diuides it selfe into good and euill contenting my selfe with his good will and pleasure I haue alwayes led a contented life But what said he wouldest thou doe if God should cast thee into Hell He answered My Soule hath two armes the one of Humilitie the other of Charitie with the one I would obey with the other I would take hold on God himselfe and would force him to descend downe with me into Hell and hauing him along with me I should enioy all happinesse and content Leo the Pope saith That the dispossession of our owne proper will Omnes fidâ—les instruxit omnes Confessores incendit omnes Martyres coronauit Instructed all the Faithfull inflamed all the Confessors and crowned all the Martyrs Ecce quem amas infirmatur Behold He whom thou louest is sicke This Ecce implies matter of admiration Behold one that is beloued of God and that is sicke The Angell said vnto Gideon The Lord is with thee thou valiant man But hee answered with a kind of admiration and wondring Ah my Lord If the Lord be with vs why then is all this euill come vpon vs This is a secret hidden from the eyes of the flesh wherein we are to acknowledge these two truths The one That Tribulation conserueth Vertue The other That God giues tribulation to his best friends as a reward of their great and good seruices Touching the former In that earthly Paradise Vertue was conserued in it's perfect rest and quiet because the goods of the bodie did concurre with the goods of the soule But this concord was broken through sinne and then vertue amidst it's ease and pleasure liued in greater danger but in it's tribulation in greater securitie Caietan saith That the certainest and most assured signe that Vertues are such strangers here vpon earth is for that they haue need of so many materialls of persecutions for their preseruation Fire being in it's own sphere is solely by it selfe conserued without any fuell to maintaine it or breath of aire to blow it the like succeedeth with Vertue Touching the second Saint Ambrose saith of Iob That before the stormes of affliction fell vpon him he was a holy man yet for all that had he not the reward of holy Virtutis praemium non habebat God had not rewarded him for this his vertue He had shewed himselfe a valiant souldier in peace but not a Conquerour in warre and that his troubles and afflictions bestowed vpon him the Palme of this his victorie He saith likewise of Ioseph That the temptation of his Mistresse clapt the Crowne of Chastitie vpon his head and the wrong he receiued by imprisonment was the Touch-stone of his valour Your earthly Crownes are made of gold but your heauenly Diadems of the thornes of tribulation Necesse fuit vt tentatio probaret te It was needfull that thou shouldst be tried by temptation But this is a Theame which hath beene beaten vpon heretofore and in many places much insisted vpon and therefore I will passe it ouer This sickenesse is not vnto death but for the glorie of God c. That great dangerous diseases honour the Physition that doth cure them that great and terrible tempests recommend the Pilots skill that can preserue the Ship amidst those cruell flawes and raging seas that great victories innoble the Captaines that obtaine them is a manifest and knowne truth but that those stormes which pricke and paine my feet should serue for flowers in Gods hands that those stones whereat I stumble should serue as Diamonds for his Crowne this is a hidden treasure and a secret mysterie of heauenly Phylosophie but so certain that in case God had not created the world for any other end than to throw tribulations vpon his friends it had beene a famous piece of worke and a most glorious Fabricke for so great is the glorie which a Saint drawes from his sufferings that he makes no reckoning of the paine that he indures And it is fitly tearmed glorie for that all our felicitie consisteth in the seeing of God Tribulation openeth the eyes of the Soule whereby wee come to see him the better Vexatio dat intellectum It is a kind of glorie to suffer affliction Heretofore sayd Iob Auditu auris audiuite nunc autem oculus meus videt te In my prosperitie ô Lord I had some knowledge of thee but now in my miserie sitting on the dunghill I haue seene thee with myne eyes I find a great difference between that which I heard and that which I now see Not that he saw God saith Saint Chrysostome but because his knowledge was by his miserie made more cleere After that man had fallen by sinne God gaue that to him for a punishment which before he had bestowed vpon him for entertainement He had placed him in Paradise to dresse keepe it afterwards he allotted it him as a chastisement In the sweat of thy browes c· and the mysterie is That Gods disfauour is Hell his fauour Heauen but trouble and affliction sent vs by God is like vnto Moses his Bush which the more it flamed the fresher it seemed for as it is obserued by Saint Gregorie
amongst some of his Emblemes which hee hath made of humane beautie he paints forth in one of them a Lyon a Hare a Fowle and a Fish for there is not any creature more couragious than a Lyon nor any more cowardly than a Hare nor any creature higher than the Fowle nor lower in his mansion than the Fish all which render and yeeld themselues prisoners to beautie Balac liued in great feare of Gods People and when he could not get Balaam to curse them aduising with his Councell Balaam being the first proiector he sent as Lyra noteth it a squadron of the fairest women that his Countrie could affoord amongst the Israelites who did beare in their Banner for their Deuice the Image of Belphegor and they who before did seeme to that King to be inuincible rendred themselues captiues to the beautie of those Moabitish women Et initiati sunt Belphegor comederunt sacrificia mortuorum They married them and adored their Idoll and as Iosephus sets it downe it was not onely the common people but many of the chiefest amongst them that offended in this kind For the flesh being not onely baited but blinded with this outward beautie it hath no eyes to behold the light of the Sunne Supercecidit ignis that is The fire of Concupiscence fell downe and they saw not the Sunne The light of myne eyes is not with me thus Dauid discoursed with himselfe treating of his adulterie Osee compareth Adulterie to a heated Ouen whence comes forth the flame which burnes and the smoke which blindes Seest thou a man besotted with the loue of this or that woman and of that doting affection towards her that hauing â—uffered for her sake in his honor his estate and his health if he do not take vp himselfe in time and looke out some remedy for this sore you may boldly say he is blind Saint Iohn painting foorth the fall of Lucifer saith That the bottom lesse pit was opened with a key for Lucifer according to Rupertus had the first handsell of hell and from forth that infernall pit there went out such a thicke smoke that it darkened the Sun and the Starres And this is the stampe and figure of him that shall throw himselfe downe headlong into the bottomlesse pit of dishonestie whence commeth forth so much smoke that it blindeth the Sun of the vnderstanding and darkneth those starres of the faculties of the soule From these circumstances do I draw the difficulty of Mary Magdalens Conuersion grounding my supposition vpon these three truths The first That for God to iustifie a soule is a farre greater matter than to create heauen and earth and all that therein is This hath beene prooued elsewhere And Iob exprest as much when he said The creating of me was the least of thy mercies towards me Exaltare saith Dauid Exalt thy selfe ô God aboue the heauens and let thy glory be vpon all the earth that thy beloued may bee deliuered So that if we should put into the one hand of God the world created and into the other a soule conuerted the glory of this hand is the greater And there are two very good reasons for it The one For that in the creating of the world God had no repugnancie or resistance but in the conuerting of a soule he may meet with opposition by reason of mans peruerse will Et qui creauit te sine te non saluabit te sine te For though bee created thee without thy will he will not saue thee wâ—thout thy will God takes more pleasure in conuerting a soule than in all the rest of those wonders which he wrought with his hands Auerte oculos tuos à me quia ipsi me auolare fecerunt Turne away thine eyes from me for euen they haue made me flye away Auolare is the same in that place as Superbire inflare Rabby Salomon renders it Insolentior factus sum animo To see thy eyes heretofore so withdrawne from me and now so busie in beholding â—e So great is the contention which is betwixt the loue of God and the loue of the world betweene the desires of the flesh and of the Spirit That the one doth striue to take the sword out of the others hand Alterius vires subtrahit alter amor Plotinus calls Loue a Painter Diuine Loue that paints and humane Loue that paints This painteth forth our felicitie in riches beauty and feasting That in pouerty teares and fasting For to ingraue such an image as this in our hearts to paint such a picture we must blot out all those colours which any other loue hath drawne there The other For that in creating the world God did not shew himselfe to bee weary but made it as it were a kind of entertainment and passe-time Ludens in orbe terrarum But in redeeming mankind he was wearied out euen to the shedding of his blood and the loosing of his life The second truth is That it is the easiest thing in the world with God to inrich a sinner with his grace God sent Ieremy to the Potters house who beginning to worke vpon a peece of clay it not fadging to his mind he tore it in sunder and molding it anew fashioned it afterwards to his owne good liking and content CaÌ„not I deale by you as the potter doth with his clay Is my power lesse than his Noah kept a Lyon in the Arke but he continued still a Lyon But our Sauiour Christ in his Church turnes the Lyon into a Lambe The pots in the Lords house shall be like the bolls before the Altar Saint Ierome saith That he did prophetically decypher the time of the new Law wherein the black-souted Caldrons should bee so bright and beautifull that they should serue for flagons full of flowres and bolls of sweet and pretious odours Esay treating of the facilitie wherewith God doth worke this change and alteration draweth his comparison from a little cloud which a contrary wind taketh and makes it disappeare in a moment I shall put away thy transgressions like a cloud and thy sinnes as a myst Ecclesiasticus compares it vnto yce which the Sunne no sooner shines vpon but it is melted Thy sinnes shall melt away as the yce in the faire weather Dauid borroweth his comparison from a frozen Torrent set vpon by a furious South-west wind and letting loose those waters causeth them to leape out of their beds For your frost and yce are the waters fetters which keepe them close prisoners Hibernis vinculis soluta saith Nazianzene And Niuale compede vinctum saith Horace of the riuer Iberus But all these comparisons are too large and spatious in respect of Gods least breath which in an instant doth banish sinne from our breasts and inricheth it with grace The third That in regard of Man it is a thing of great difficulty especially if the foule fiend hath got the masterie and possession of our will When a man hath
hyred a house for terme of life with the liking and consent of it's owner for to put such a one out we must necessarily haue the absolute Posse and power of the king we must haue his authority to turne him out The diuell hauing taken a long lease of the house of thy soule with thy good liking and consent thou must haue Gods absolute power to eiect him and thrust him out Not that the diuell is so powerfull as some make him howbeit the Scripture tearmeth him Vectem concludentem a strong bolt which goes athwart a doore and Serpentem tortuosum a winding serpent which clewes himselfe vp close and vpon the least aduantage takes hold like the Cuttle-fish with his clawes but because God howbeit he can doe whatsoeuer he will is now and then content to giue him leaue to worke vpon our will This difficultie is somewhat the more increased in regard that Mary Magdalen was a woman which is the Hyerogliph of weakenes There be three things saith Salomon hidden from me yea foure that I know not The Hebrew letter saith Three or foure things are too hard for me The Hebrew renders the word Admirabiles The Seuentie Impossibiles Impossible for him to know On the one side because they are wreathing and winding too and fro on the other because they leaue no signe or print behind theÌ„ the one is of an Eagle in the aire the other of a Serpent vpon a stone the third of a ship in the midst of the sea and the fourth of a young man in his youth being so mutable a creature and so full of foolish longings Euen such is the way of an adulterous woman Which eateth and wipeth her mouth and saith I haue not done ill When a woman is greedy in deuouring good morsells in secret behind the doore and wiping her lips tells the world she hath fasted and eaten nothing all that day when shee commits folly in a corner and boasts her selfe in publike to be honest saying There is not that woman liuing that liues more honestly than I doe the diuell hauing taken such possession of her soule it is a desperate peece of businesse All these circumstances of difficultie and many more which wee omit to set downe are to be found in this storie But in those things that to vs seeme impossible God is wont to shew his wisedome and his power Great is the Lord and great is his power And as a Physition saith Saint Augustine doth take pleasure sometimes to light vpon an incurable infirmitie not so much for his gaine as his fame Non quaerens mercedem sed commendans artem So was Christ well contented with this occasion Ad informationem eorum qui credituri sunt For the better informing of those that were to beleeue To giue knowledge saith the Apostle to all sinners That there is in God a power a wisedome and a will for to heale them of their infirmities be they neuer so foule and enormious So that this conuersion is the bayte of humane hopes and the reparation of our desperation Had we none other to cast our eyes vpon in the Church but the Virgin Mary and Iohn Baptist where were our hopes The Church therefore doth set two Maries before vs. The one free from sinne the other full of sinne The one takes away Vaine-glory from all the righteous and the other banisheth Cowardise and despaire from all sorts of sinners At the presence of the Sunne all the lights of heauen withdraw themselues and hide their heads in a cowardly kind of fashion but when the Moone once begins to shine they recouer their former boldnes and libertie The Sunne presideth ouer the sonnes of the day the Moone ouer the children of the night Hee that cannot come to be a Sunne let him liue in hope to be a Moone or a Starre What sayes Hosee I will giue her the valley of Achor for the doore of Hope The Prophet there touching vpon the Historie of Achan who in the spoyles of Ierico hid the golden wedge contrary to Ioshuas proclamation wherewithall God was so offended That the Army marching to a City called Ay was ouerthrowne and the Israelites turning their backs like so many hares it seemed the doore of Hope was shut against them for entring into the Land of Promise But the delinquent being conuinced and stoned to death in the valley of Achor and all his familie God foorthwith gaue them victorie ouer their enemies And therefore he saith I will giue them the Valley of Achor for a doore of Hope Saint Ierome renders it in another letter I will giue to my Church the valley of peruersenesse or of the peruerse for to raise vp the hopes of deiected hearts as a Paul a Mary Magdalen c. All this concerneth that her condition and state of sinne wherein she stood which Saint Luke painteth forth in those his first words Behold a woman in the City which was a sinner That we may the better treat of the second State touching her Repentance it is to be supposed that Mary Magdalen had heard some sermons of our Sauioâ—r Christ as heretofore hath beene prooued and that our Lord did direct his discourse to a soule that had sustained so many losses one while proposing the shortnesse of this our life another while the fearefull horrours of death together with the bitternesse of sinne the terrour of iudgement the torments of hell c. Why shouldst thou so highly prize thy beauty that thou shouldst adore it Why being the Image of God in thy soule and thy body shouldst thou be so much affected to the foulenesse of sinne What was it that made the Angels so foule c. smelling so sweet of Amber Muske and Ciuet how canst thou endure the euill sauour of hell Pro sua in odore foetor Thy soft bed is wearisome vnto thee and being not able to abide in it all night long thou shiftest thy bed and canst thou then endure the bed of eternall flames moth-eaten mattresses sheetes of snakes and bolster and pillowes of wormes gnawing continually on thy conscience Thou changest thy gownes and thy dressings twice or thrice a day and canst thou suffer the euerlasting rayment of hell fire The daintiest dishes are set before thee to feed on and canst thou endure that hunger where tongues are bitten off and fed on Fame pascentur vt canes manducauerunt linguas suas prae dolore Thou canst not abide in thy house no not one houre and canst thou liue clapt vp in the dungeon of eternall death and damnation O how many lye there in endlesse paines and torments neuer to be released for far lesser sinnes than thine What canst thou hope for what canst thou expect Is it that the earth should swallow thee vp aliue as it did Dathan and Abiram Or that fire should come downe from heauen and consume thee as it did Sodom or that God should showre downe lightning and thunder vpon thee as
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
by the same rounds by which she went downe to hell Wee make a rope of our vices and a ladder of our sinnes by which we descend to hell In some their eyes are the instruments of their destruction in others their hayres in others their dainties and delicacies in Mary Magdalen all whatsoeuer she possessed Shee was the net that swept all the vices vnto her and all those good blessings which God had bestowed vpon her she had made them weapons wherewith to offend him And as the souldier that yeelds himselfe holding his weapon by the point offers it to the Conqueror so did Mary Magdalen ô Lord said she with these weapons haue I offended thee but now I here lay them downe at thy feet If this man were a Prophet he would surely haue known who c. God doth so kindly and so louingly entertaine all those that are penitent sinners that it would make a man thinke that he had not knowne them He that hath kild thy brother if thou know him not thou welcommest him to thy house and settest him at thy table behold heere the immensiue Loue of God for that which thou doest out of meere ignorance God doth here doe it out of cleere knowledge If thou shalt bewayle thy sinnes and offences thou shalt finde God after that manner as if either he had not knowne thy faults at all or if hee did know them that hee had quite forgot them In a word here the boord of a sinner is made the chaire of holinesse and of vertue If this man were a Prophet Your Hypocrites which desire no more but the bare name of Prophets and to be onely esteemed for such are commonly seuere and sharpe but those which professe to be so indeed will rather offend through mildnesse and softnesse than roughnesse and austeritie Saint Chrisostome sayth Melius est Deo de misericordia rationem reddere quam de austeritate It better agrees with God to render an account of his mercy than of his seueritie If God bee naturally kind Why should a Prophet be cruell One of the reasons Why the day of iudgement ought to be desired is That wee may see the faces of those who being very well satisfied of their owne sanctitie are out of a loathing of other folkes sinnes ready forsooth to turne vp the stomacke Your Vultures are all femalls according to the opinion of your Naturalists and conceiuing by the Aire they are the stampe and Embleme of your Murmurers which teare and rend the flesh aliue as your Vultures doe dead carcasses and if thou wouldest know whereupon they ground this thou shalt find it is in the ayre If he but knew who and what manner of woman this were which toucheth him The iudgements that are most preiudiciall to a Common-wealth and most contrarie to Gods nature and condition are the discrediting and disgracing of present vertues with the reprochfull remembrance of forepassed vices some doe this out of zeale forsooth but true zeale neuer disheartneth or discourageth those that are weake How can that be zeale which persuades it selfe Que el sapâ— siempre es sapo That once a toad and euer a toad This kind of zeale I should hardly giue credit vnto though it should descend downe from heauen especially when I consider with my selfe Que del sapo puede hazer dios Perdiz That God of a toad can make a Partridge What saith Ieremy Orietur sicut mane Iustitia Consider the thicke duskinesse of darknesse and then againe the glorious brightnesse of the light being on the one side such neere neighbours and trenching one vpon the other on the other so contrary and so farre asunder that there is nothing more differing than light from darknesse nothing in that extreame distance A bird passes in an instant ouer fields mountaines valleys riuers and seas and flyes from extreame to extreame Quis mihi dabit pennas sicut columbae c. Who will giue mee the wings of a Doue What wonder is it then that God should passe from the foulenesse of sinne to the fairenesse of grace The hardest thing in the world is to vnteach a man that which he hath learned and therefore the Philosopher did demand a double Salarie for teaching those schollers that had beene read too before by some other Philosopher But this shewes the force and power of Gods Spirit for that which humane industrie cannot end in many dayes grace will end in an instant Your aqua fortis will eat out any written character and cleanse those blots and blurs of inke which the dashing of the pen or any the like accident hath occasioned but you shall neuer be able to write any letter well againe in the said paper But your eye-water that of teares is far more forcible and strong than your aqua fortis for it doth not onely cleanse the soule of it's former blots and blurs but there may be written therein anew very faire letters and handsome Characters Aristotle saith That your Plants are watered with the water of the earth and with the water of heauen but affirmeth with all That that of heauen worketh the more wonderfull effects So likewise are there teares of the earth and teares of heauen but these worke heauenly effects The Historie of Elias in that contention and opposition which he had with the false Prophets â—alls out very pat for this purpose Hee powred water on the Sacrifice and fild the trenches full therewith fire descended downe from heauen and lickt vp the water till there was not one drop left The comparison is not much amisse of him Who after that he had fed vpon many dishes fals roundly to that which was serued in last because he findes it more sauourie and pleasing to his palat than any of the former As this fire that came downe from heauen consumed the beasts that were sacrificed with them the wood the stones and at last the very water so was it with this Sacrifice which Mary Magdalen offered to our Sauiour Christ He fed vpon all those dainties shee had set before him her boxe of Alablaster filled with costly oyntment her disheuelled hayres her pretty mouth her faire hands her sweet kisses her modest lookes her blushings and her bashfulnesse but most of all on her teares Lambebat hee did licke them vp they were so sweet and sauourie to his taste and left so pleasant a rellish behind them Iesus answered and said vnto him Seest thou this woman Petrus Chrisologus saith That our Sauiour in this his answer shewes vnto vs that he was first of all desirous to cure him who had least feeling of his griefe not thinking that hee was sicke because he felt no paine And that these open and publike teares of Marie Magdalen should discouer the secret hidden sores of the Pharisee making the same serue as a medicine for his maladie and a meanes to open his eyes who as yet had them blinded with selfe-loue Vides hanc
man Irenaeus saith That God setteth vp some because they are worthy to beare rule others because they are vnworthy But where there is a good Gouernour that Common-wealth he fauoureth Phocas was a most cruell Emperour of Constantinople whereupon a holy Monke in a corner of his Cell thus complaineth vnto God Cur fecisti eum Imperatorem Why didst thou make him Emperour Who had no sooner made his mone but he heard a voyce from heauen saying Non inueni peiorem I could not finde a worse In Thebes there was a great Hypocrite which was euen ready to die out of the great desire he had to be a Bishop who had scarce obtained that dignitie but that he fell a spoyling the Common-wealth but an Angell told him That hee was not made Bishop because he deserued to be a Bishop but because that Common-wealth deserued not a better Bishop According to that of Iob Hee causeth the Hypocrite to reigne for the sinnes of the land Being all one with that which Ieremy said of his people Dabo eos inferuorem vniuersis regnis terrae propter Manassem filium Ezechiae Anastasius reades it Per Manassem For as a good King is a great cause why God with a gracious eye doth looke vpon his people so a bad king is the meanes that he vseth for the punishing of them Saint Gregorie the Archbishopricke of Milan being void wrot to the Clergie that they would obliege God by prayer and by fasting to giue them a good Pastor For as God is pleased with his people so he giues them Prelats accordingly The Queen of Sheba considering the wisedome of Salomon said That nothing did more manifest Gods loue towards his people of Israel and the desire of their perpetuitie than in hauing giuen them so wise a Gouernour And Iosephus reporteth That he being but twelue yeares of age when he first began to gouerne the people listening to that sentence which he gaue at his first sitting in iudgement touching the two women that contested about their child Let the infant be cut in twaine Many laughed at it deeming it to be a childish sentence but afterwards wisely weighing the discreet course that hee had taken in iustifying the truth without any further proofes or testimonies they then cryed out De coelo elapsus This King is sent vs downe from heauen And albeit the heauens planets and starres are to mans seeming farre off yet in regard of those influences which they cause in inferiour bodies they are neere at hand And albeit they are incorruptible yet doe they affoord great fauours to corruptible things If heauen behold vs with a propitious eye and the planets with prosperous aspects the earth doth enioy much fruitfulnesse and abundance But contrariwise our soules are not subiect to those materiall heauens but to those heauens of our Prelats and Gouernours Behold I create a new heauen and a new earth This may bee vnderstood of the Ecclesiasticall Estate and the Secular of Superiours and Inferiours When these heauens affoord a prosperous light the earth is beautifull pleasant plentifull and fertile And so on the contrary Ieremie saith I beheld the earth and loe it was emptie I beheld the heauens and could see no light in them What light then could there bee in Ierusalem when as Annas and Cayphas were the high Priests The high Priests consulted that they might put Lazarus to death Saint Augustine saith That this deuise and drift of theirs was deriued from the diuell and from hell There are some thoughts that are ingendred and bred in our flesh as the rust in the yron the rottennes in the wood the moth in the cloth and the worme and mytes in butter and in cheese Our flesh is a durtie puddle which sends forth such foule and thicke vapors from it that if you doe not make great hast to expell and driue them thence they will quickly cloud and darken the light of the vnderstanding It is sicke of the kitchin the gutter whitherall the dust and sluttishnesse of the sences gathers and meetes together to make such a stinke and stoppage that the water of Gods grace can hardly get through and cleanse the same it is a most grieuous and heauie burthen not onely because it is so painefull and intollerable but also because it is ineuitable All the plagues of Aegypt were remooued by Moses his prayer saue onely the flyes And these are those our thoughts and cogitations being inexcusable as importunate and troublesome which are ingendred in this our body of flesh Euery one beares about him his particular affection and the Idol which his heart adoreth This man his pleasures that man his profit one his honour another his grace and fauour with his king some their great and strong Alliance others their daintie and delicious fare And euerie one of these is like vnto the beast that is tyed to his racke and manger whereon his thoughts doe continually feede This is that same Trahit sua quemque voluptas Euery man is wedded to some one kinde of pleasure or other The Schoolemen set downe two sorts of thoughts The one which flesh and blood produceth The other which are sowne in vs. Cogitatio innata And Cogitatio ab alio lata That which is bred in vs. And that which is otherwise brought vnto vs. Some hearbes grow vp in the earth ofthemselues others are sown So some thoughts haue their breeding in mans brest others are sowne there and it must of force follow that they are sowne eyther by the diuell or by God Of those of the diuell Saint Paul saith Let no temptation take hold on you but that which is humane That the verie thought of some extraordinarie beautie should trouble and disquiet thee the thought of thy Princes fauour of Signiorie or any other temporall good this is a humane temptation but the killing of Lazarus and the selling and betraying of our Sauiour Christ is a diuellish temptation And therefore Saint Iohn saith That the diuell had put it into Iudas his heart that it was hee that had sowne this bad seed there and thrust this thought into him But whether or no this thought be of the flesh or of the diuell sure I am that it is the generall doctrine of the Saints That we should not nourish any euil thought nor let it like a bottome of yarne waxe warme in our hand Esay complaineth of his people That they conceiued mischiefe and brought foorth iniquitie that they hatched cockatrice egges and woue the spiders web that he that eateth of their egges dyeth and all that which is trod vpon breaketh out into a serpent As out of an Aspick 's egge saith Aristotle being kept warme and cherished is hatcht the Basiliske so from our thoughts taking warmth from the heat of consent is bred the Basiliske of sin This is for the sheepe to breed vp the wolfe or to giue sucke to that toad which shall venome thy brest and work thy death The Greeke Text
saith Consultauerunt consilio They did lay their heads together they sat in Councell they did not onely thinke vpon but consent to the greatest malice and wickednesse which euer the diuell or hell could imagine Vt Lazarum interficerent To kill Lazarus This is the end of our thoughts when they are not cut off in time Sinne is so great an Vsurer that it goes dayly gayning more and more ground vpon mans brest till it hath brought it to a desperate estate They were growne to that desperation that they said vnto filthinesse I am thy seruant Saint Ierome saith That as the couetous thirst after money so doe these after dishonestie They are like those that goe downe into a deepe well they knit rope to rope and one sinne to another Why dyed I not in the birth Or why dyed I not when I came out of the wombe Why did the knees preuent me And why did I sucke the brests Wherein the Prophet painteth foorth vnto vs the foure estates of a child The first in the wombe The second when it is borne The third when it is swadled vp The fourth when they giue it the teat S. Gregorie doth applie these foure to the foure estates of sinne The first in the thought which conceiues it The second in the ill which bringeth it forth The third when we put it on like a garment The fourth when we nourish and maintaine it Saint Augustine painteth foorth these foure estates in these foure dead folkes In the daughter of the Archisinagoguian who stirred not from home In the sonne of the widow of Naim who was accompanied to his graue In Lazarus who lay foure dayes dead And in him whom our Sauiour Christ did not raise vp at al saying Let the dead bury the dead They consulted to put Lazarus to death Our Sauiours death was already concluded on and now this cruel people treated of making away Lazarus Of whom our Sauiour Christ said Vt descendat super vos omnis sanguis iustus à sanguine Abel ad sanguinem Zachariae c. It is no maruell that they sought to kill Lazarus for in him was sum'd vp all the blood of the iust that had beene shed in the world And the reason that makes this to seeme so is because all the iust that dyed in the world since Abel were a Type and figure of Christ And if they did die it was to giue testimonie of his death and had it not beene for our Sauiour Christs death his had not preceedd And for that the life of the iust was a shadow of that of our Sauiour Christ in taking away his life in whom all the liues of the world were contained they were guiltie of all the rest and as much as lay in them were the Homicides of the whole world And if he that carryes but one mans death about him findes no place of safetie vpon earth What rest shall he find that hath so many deaths crying vpon his conscience Saint Chrysostome treating of the sinne of Cain saith That it was greater than that of Adam For besides his loosing in the turning of a hand the greatest Empire that euer the world had we cannot imagine any sinne to be greater than the barring of all mankind from heauen the depriuing him of grace and of the friendship of God yet notwithstanding this seemeth to be the greater and hee proueth it by the sentence that was giuen vpon the one sin the other God sentencing Adam said Cursed is the earth for thy sake c. The blow of the curse was to fall vpon Adam and as the father which makes shew to throw the candlestick at his sons head but flings it against the next wall so God sayes Cursed is the earth for thy sake But with the Serpent and with Cain he proceeded otherwise To the Serpent he said Thou art cursed aboue all cattle and aboue euery beast of the field vpon thy belly shalt thou goe and dust shalt thou eate all the dayes of thy life To Cain Thou art cursed from the earth which hath opened her mouth to receiue thy brothers blood from thine hand it shall not henceforth yeeld vnto thee her strength c. He did not forbid him to tread vpon the earth but he forbad him to enioy the fruits thereof c. Secondly The voyce of thy brothers blood cryeth vnto me from the earth Saint Ambrose saith That he heard the voyce of Abel for with God the dead speake as well as the liuing The Hebrew hath it The voyce of bloods putting it in the plurall number as Lyra hath noted it For hee had shed so many bloods as Abel might haue had children For albeit they had neither being nor life in themselues yet they might in their cause and beginning It cryes to mee from the earth Not from his body for though thy brother should haue forgiuen thee yet the earth would not pardon thee to see it selfe violated by a Traytor And if God would haue but giuen way thereunto a thousand mouths would haue opened to swallow thee vp aliue but being he would not consent thereunto it goes choking those seedes which might haue serued thee for thy sustenance and delight and shaking thee off from thence like a banished man this Writ is gone out against thee A vagabond and runnagate shalt thou be vpon the earth Thirdly All the superiour and inferiour creatures were to be his persecutors and his tormentors the heauens with thunder and lightning the Angels with fearfull apparitions the beasts of the woods and men shunning his company and God himselfe chastising him with a continuall trembling But some wil say How could God persecute him since he published a Proclamation That whosoeuer should kill Cain should be punished seuen-fold Sextuplum punietur The Seuentie Interpreters render it Septem vindictas exoluet Seuen seuerall reuenges shall bee taken of him Procopius answers hereunto That this Proclamation was made against Cain For a man cursed by God persecuted by heauen by earth by Angells by men by beasts and by himselfe would haue held it a happinesse to dye but God would not that he should inioy so great a blessing But that he should liue seuen generations and that in euery one of them God would take seuere vengeance of him Septem vindictas exoluet till that Lamech should come who gaue him a sodaine and violent death And this is a notable place against all kind of murderers and man slayers Dauid would not drinke of the water though he were thirsty which his souldiers brought him because it had cost them the hazard of their liues and therfore offered it vp in sacrifice to God They did poure forth innocent blood like water in the siege of Ierusalem Dauid did shed the water because it seemed to him to be blood and others shed blood as if it were but water some take blood for water and others water for blood Cogitauerunt vt Lazarum interficerent They consulted to
vertue and power of the eyes of our Sauiour Christ they did paint a sunne whence three Raies or bright-shining beames brake forth the one raising vp one that was dead the other did breake a stonie heart and the third did melt a snowie mountaine and the Motto was this Oculi Dei ad nos The beames of Christs eyes raise vp the dead breake rocks and melt snow A facie tua saith Esay montes defluent The fire which they hid in the transmigration of Babylon the children of Israel found at their returne turned into water but exposing it to the beames of the sunne it grew againe to be fire to the great admiration of the beholders which is a figure of Saint Peter who through his coldnes became water but the beames of the Sonne of righteousnesse raised a great fire out of this water Pliny reports of certaine stones in Phrygia that being beaten vpon by the beames of the sunne send forth drops of water But the beames of the Sonne of righteousnesse did not onely from this Petra or stone Saint Peter draw teares but whole riuers of water According to that of Dauid Which turneth the rocke into water-pooles and the flint into a fountaine of water Saint Ambrose seemeth to stand somewhat vpon it why Peter did not aske forgiuenes of his sins at Gods hands Inuenio saith he quod fleuerit nō inuenio quid dixerit lachrymas lego satisfactionem non lego I find that he wept but do not find what he said I read his teares but read not his satisfaction The reasons of this his silence and that he did not craue pardon of God by word of mouth are these First because he had runne himselfe into discredit by his rash offers and afterwards by his stiffe deniall and therefore thought with himselfe That it was not possible for him to expresse more affection with his mouth than he had vttered heretofore Etiam si oportuerit me mori tecum non te negabo c. And that tongue which had deny'd him to whom it had giuen so good an assurance could neuer as he thought deserue to be beleeued And therefore our Sauiour questioning him afterwards concerning his loue he durst not answer more than this Thou knowest ô Lord whether I loue thee or no. Secondly he askes not pardon by words because the pledges of the heart are so sure that they admit no deceit And for that Lachryma sunt cordis sanguis Tears are the hearts blood S. Ambrose therfore saith Lachrymarū preces vtiliores sunt quā sermonū quia sermo in precando fortè fallit lachryma omnino non fallit The prayers of teares are more profitable than of words for words in praying may now and then deceiue vs but teares neuer S. Chrysostome saith That our sinnes are set downe in the Table-booke of Gods memorie but that teares are the sponge which blotteth them out And indeering the force of teares he saith That in Christs souldier the noblest Act that he can do is to shed his blood in his seruice Maiorem charitatem nemo habet c. For what our blood shed for Christ effecteth that doth our teares for our sinnes Mary Magdalen did not shed her blood but she shed her teares And Saint Peter did not now shed blood but hee shed teares which were so powerfull that after that hee had wept hee was trusted with a part of the gouernment of the Church who before hee had wept had not gouernment of himselfe for teares cure our wounds cheere our soules ease the conscience and please God O lachryma humilis saith Saint Ierome tuum est regnum c. O humble Teare thine is the kingdome thine is the power thou fearest not the Iudges Tribunall thou inioynest silence to thine accusers if thou enter emptie thou doest not goe out emptie thou subduest the inuincible and bindest the omnipotent Hence it is that the diuell beareth such enuie to our Teares When Holofernes had dryed vp the fountaines of Bethulia hee held the Citie his and the Diuell when he shall come to dry vp the teares in our eyes when he hath stopt vp those waters that should flow from the soule of a sinner hee hopes he is his Elian of Tryphon the Tyrant reports of this one vnheard-of crueltie Fearing his Subiects would conspire against him he made a publike Edict that they should not talke one with another and being thus debarr'd of talking one with another they did looke very pittifully one vpon another communicating their minds by their eyes And being forbid by a second Edict that they should not so much as looke one vpon another when they saw they were restrained of that libertie likewise wheresoeuer they met one another they fell a weeping This seemed to the Tyrant the damnablest and most dangerous conspiracie of all the rest and resolued to put them to death The diuell is afraid of our words afraid of our affections but much more afraid of our teares O Lord so mollifie our sinfull hearts that whensoeuer we offend thee our words our affections and our teares may in all deuotion and humilitie present themselues before thee crauing pardon for our sinnes Which we beseech thee to grant vs for thy deare Sonne Christ Iesus sake To whom with the holy Spirit be all prayse honour and glorie c. THE XL. SERMON The Conuersion of the good Theefe MAT. 27. Cum eo crucifixi sunt duo Latrones vnus a dextris alter a sinistris There were crucified with him two theeues one at his right hand an other on his left THere are three most notable Conuersions which the Church doth celebrate That of Saint Paul That of Mary Magdalen That of the good Theefe The one liuing here vpon earth The other now raigning in heauen The third dying vpon the Crosse. Of all the rest this seemeth to be the most prodigious and most strange First because Mary Magdalen saw many of our Sauiour Christs myracles heard many of his Sermons and besides her sisters good example might worke much good vpon her Secondly Saint Paul saw Christ rounded about with glorie more resplendent than the Sunne had heard that powerfull voyce which threw him downe from his horse and put him in the hands of that dust whereof hee was created But the Theefe neither saw Miracle nor Sermon nor example nor glorie nor light nor voyce saue onely Christ rent and torne vpon the Crosse as if hee had beene as notorious a theefe as those that suffered on either side of him Againe How much the quicker is the motion and the extreames more distant repugnant and contrarie by so much the more strange and wonderfull is this change and alteration This theef was a huge way off from either beleeuing or louing our Sauiour Christ and that hee should now on the sodaine and in so short a space passe from a theefe to a Martyr from the gallowes to Paradise must needs be an admirable change Mira mutatio saith S.
meanes being in both alike the ends should be so diuers and different That the one should acknowledge Gods power and repenting his wickednesse sorrowed with teares and said I Nebuchadnezzar praise and glorifie the King of Heauen But the other persisting in his obstinacie said I know not the Lord Who is the Lord c. In this account may come in those two seruants of Pharaoh which were fellow-prisoners with Ioseph whereof the one was saued and the other hanged We may likewise put into the reckoning those two of whom Saint Matthew saith that grinding in one mill The one shall be receiued and the other refused And those two who standing by Aaron when he was offering incense the one was strucken dead and the other remained aliue And as in the Tribunall of iudgement God shall put the sheepe on the right hand and the goates on the left and shall separate the good fishes from the bad and chaffe from the corne and the tares from the wheat so in the Tribunall of the Crosse Leo the Pope saith he condemned the blasphemous theefe and saued the good theefe The second morall reason was to teach vs in those two theeues the easiest and the safest way to heauen To wit That a soule should liue betweene hope and feare Feare is the bridle which holds in Hope Hope is the anchor which secureth Feare Feare makes thee a coward considering what thou art the smal worth that is in thee But Hope makes thee confident considering what God is and his infinite clemencie Vpon these two vertues God imployeth all his fauours Gods eyes are vpon those that feare him and those that trust in his mercie For he hath his eyes nayled vnto those which feare him and place their hopes on his goodnesse Iacob prophesied of Isachar That he should be a strong Asse cowching downe betweene two burthens It is a common saying That those are not to be trusted that liue between two Kingdomes because borderers for the most part are a bold and vnruly people But here it is quite otherwise The best people for heauen are those that liue between the Feare of hell and the Hope of heauen Saint Augustine declares the extraordinarie happinesse of this vertue of Feare Beatipauperes Spiritu Blessed are the poore in Spirit For they that haue much to loose liue still in feare A stout Roman being threatned by Caesar told him Mihi senectus metum ademit Old age hath made mee fearelesse Hee had but a few yeares to liue which made him esteeeme the lesse of the losse of his life But the righteous considereth with himselfe that he hath eternall yeares to loose I had those yeares still in my mind wâ—e therefore vnto them that haue followed the wayes of Cain and are cast away by the deceit of Baalams wages There are some which build too much vpon their owne confidence like vnto Balaam who hauing been both disobedient and couetous would yet notwithstanding dye the death of the righteous Without Hope what good can man inioy The diuell vsed all the tricks and deuices that his wit was able to inuent to put Iob out of hope For which end he made vse of two meanes The one he took from the earth by procuring that those his friends on whom he most trusted and hoped for greatest comfort from them should cast him downe and driue him into despaire by their bitter words and sharpe censures The other from heauen by getting fire to descend from thence speaking in these two thus vnto him What shouldst thou now doe but despaire and die seeing thou hast nothing to hope for either from heauen aboue or earth beneath He hath not onely robbed mee of my leaues and my boughs tearing downe my branches but hath rent vp my hopes by the rootes And yet for all this saith patient Iob Though he kill me yet will I trust in him Saint Ambrose saith That God doth most of all resent the sinne of desperation Not because of all other sinnes it is the greatest but because it is most preiudiciall to man for it shuts vp the passage to blessednesse and barres the doore of heauen against vs God being more sensible of the hurt we doe our selues than of the wrong wee doe him And therefore Iudas his despaire did much more trouble him than did his selling of him for in selling him he did but shew what little reckoning he made of his Humanitie but in his despairing the base opinion that he had of his Diuinitie Vae illis as before qui in viam Cain abierunt Woe vnto them that haue followed the wayes of Cain Now the worst of those wayes that Cain tooke was his despaire Maior est iniquitas mea quam vt veniam merear as if he should haue said God either cannot or will not pardon so grieuous and hainous a sinne as this is Yet we see that God did permit that he might lay some good ground for our Feare that one of the theeues should be damned and that it is neither our dying side by side with Christ nor his bedashing vs with his diuine blood neither the prayer which he made to his Father with teares in his eyes nor the hauing of the image of a Crucifixe or of the Virgin Mary hanging at our beds head but the wearing of Christ in our hearts by Faith could do this theefe any good or keep him from leaping at once from the Crosse vnto hell and yet he would that the other should be saued not onely as he was a theefe and to finde pardon of that particular offence as to lay a foundation for the Hope of forgiuenesse for all other sinnes whatsoeuer committed by vs in this world and to the end that his absolution as Saint Augustine saith and his indulgence might serue as a comfort to all Christians For as in Adam we lost Paradise so in the theefe we got it againe Certaine desperate fellowes vttered by Ezechiel Our bones are dryed vp and our hope is perished But God in answer sayes vnto them I will open your Sepulchres and put life into those your drie bones doe ye not therefore despaire And for the better ingrafting of this truth in his peoples hearts he raised vp a whole field that was full of these bones c. Arnoldus the Abbot saith Non habet metas diuina clementia Sit qui inuocet erit qui exaudict Sit qui poeniteat non deâ—rit qui indulgeat Gods mercie knowes no bounds nor limits Let man call and God will heare let man repent and God will forgiue We indeed receiue things worthy of that we haue done but this man hath done nothing amisse This whole Historie doth depend vpon these foure points The first point are those motiues which moued this Theefe to be conuerted The second The great good hap that he had The third The diligence that he vsed on his part that God might pardon and fauour him The fourth and last The fauour
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
powerfull Prince as it succeeded vnto Iulius Caesar Caesarem vehis fortunam eius It is not much that he should be fauoured Saint Ambrose saith That as long as Peter stucke close to Christs side he did set vpon a whole squadron at once but when he was gone but a little further off from vnder his wing a silly maid did out-face him and made him turne coward And when hee began to sinke in the sea because he was neere Christ Christ stretcht out his hand vnto him to saue him whereas if he had beene but two strides further from him he might haue beene in danger of perishing Saint Cyprian stiles him Collega Christi Christs Colleague His fellow and companion When one goes forth into the field vpon a challenge one girts his sword vnto him another buckles his armour and others accompany him into the field and if he get the victorie all doe share in the glory of the Conquerour In that his combat in the desart the Angels did wait vpon him In that combat of his death an Angell comforted him The Theefe he goes along with him for companie and all doe partake of his glory Thirdly Saint Chrysostome saith That he met with another happinesse to wit That he dyed as Christ did vpon the Crosse God hauing proposed heauen vnto vs in Conquest onely he shall inioy it that can get it by force of Armes But the Crosse doth excuse them this labour For it being heauens key whosoeuer shall come therewith may enter without any violence but others must be forced to knocke and that hard at the gates and it is well if with a great deale of labour he can get in at last Saint Bernard saith That the leagues which are betweene earth and heauen are without number but he that hath a familiar let him bestride but a sticke and with that woodden horse he will trauell in two houres from Madrid to Rome This vertue the Crosse inioyes with much more aduantage doe but fasten your selfe to that and in an instant you shall be conueyed to heauen And expounding that word Dum veneris in regnum tuum this Saint saith Et tum vidit Then euen then did he see him taking his iourney for heauen and said vnto him Lord remember me when thou commest into thy Kingdome Fourthly it was his good hap to stand mainely then for Christs honor when in a manner all the world had forsaken him Quando Petrus saith S. Chrysost. negabat in terrae Latro confitebatur in Cruce When Peter denyed him on earth the Theefe acknowledged him on the Crosse. When Iudas saith S. Ambrose sold him as a Slaue then did the Theefe acknowledge him for his Lord. O my good Theefe saith S. Aug. What couldst thou see in a man that was blood-lesse blasphemed abhorred and despised What Scepter what Crowne couldst thou hope for from him whose Scepter was a reede whose Crowne thornes c. Dauid commanded his son Salomon that he should shew kindnesse to the sonnes of Barzillai the Gileadite and cause them to sit downe and eat with him at his owne table because they stucke close vnto him in his tribulation Fiftly That he had the good happe to bee there iust in the nicke when Christ was crowned with a Crowne of glorie and had made this his wedding day and all things were ended according to his owne hearts desire and therefore so noble a bridegroome could not but conferre answerable fauours and so great and generous a King do no lesse than bestow a Crown vpon him Shiâ—ei railed against Dauid when flying from Absalon he went halfe naked and vnshod by the skirt of a mountaine but when the war was ended he prostrated himselfe at the Kings feet and said Let not my Lord impute wickednesse vnto me nor remember the thing that thy seruant did wickedly when my Lord the King departed out of Ierusalem that the King should take it to his heart for thy seruant doth know that I haue done amisse But Abishay the sonne of Zeruiah answered and said Shall not Shimei die for this because he cursed the Lords annoynted Shall foure words of submission saue the life of this blasphemous dog But Dauid said Shall there any man die this day in Israel Dost thou not know that I am this day King ouer Israel Make account that they now crowne me anew and that it is fit that I should shew my selfe franke and generous not conferring fauours according to the merit of him that askes them but according to the liberall disposition of him that doth them This good fortune no man may expect much lesse depend vpon and therfore Eusebius Emisenus saith Periculosum est in vltimum diem promissa securitas And that the example of the Theefe doth not fauour deferred amendment till a mans death And though we are not to streighten Gods franke-heartednes and howbeit it may be presumed that in that houre many theeues are in Gods secret will saued yet did he onely leaue this one publike example vnto vs Onely this one saith S. Bernard that thou mayest not presume and only this one that thou maiest not despaire And weighing those words Verely I say vnto thee to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise he saith That he did bind it with an oath as he vsed to doe in matters of greatest moment and difficultie To thee onely not to any other shall befall the like extraordinarie good hap for thee onely was this Hodiè ordained Here then mayest thou see the rarest accident that euer hapned earth and heauen reconciled whilest riuers of Diuine blood run streaming from our Sauiours side for our saluation But some one will aske me How comes it to passe that this Theefe in so short a space knew the set time and season of this his happy chance when as Ierusalem in so many yeares could not light vpon the like encounter S. Augustine S. Chrysostome and Leo answer hereunto That he had Christ for his Master who reuealed the same vnto him complying with that deliuered by Ieremie De coelo misit ignem eru diuit me Gregorie Nissen saith Repleuit eum eruditione Spiritus Sancti Cromatius In ipso crucis candelabro sol resplenduit The Sun did shine vnto him vpon the candlesticke of the Crosse. Theophilact doth here apply that parable of Saint Mat. No man doth light a candle and set it vnder a bushell In a word this light was so powerfull that it awakened this drowsie and sleepie theefe snorting in the security of sin leauing him so well instructed that S. Augustine saith He remained as a Master in the Church First of all he vsed extraordinarie diligence in taking hold of this treasure leauing all that he might not loose this He gaue God all that was in his free power to giue him He had his hands and his feet nayled vnto the Crosse onely hee had left free vnto him his tongue and his heart imploying in Christs seruice whatsoeuer was in
Christ should rise againe for hee would neuer haue made a sute vnto him whom he saw was a dying man if he had thought there had been an end of him He assuredly did beleeue the immortalitie of the soule and looked after another life being more carefull thereof than his fellow-theefe who desired only this temporal life saying vnto Christ Salua temetipsum nos If thou be that Christ saue thy selfe and vs. This our good Theefe beleeued that which Christ spake before Pilat My Kingdome is not of this world Quite contrarie to those Apostles of his who stroue for chaires of preheminence one desiring to sit at his right hand the other at his left supposing his Kingdome to bee a temporall Kingdome Againe His Hope was no lesse great than his Faith Quis credet ei qui non habet nidum c. Who will ground the hopes of his happinesse vpon that man that hath not a house to put his head in nor a bed to sleepe in yet this Theefe had set vp his rest vpon him that had no resting place Great was the hope that Daniel had in the Lyons Den but he there saw that the Lions did lick the shooes on his feet like louing Curs Great was Aminadabs confidence who was the first that aduentured to set vpon the sea and to enter the deepe but he had seen great prodigies in Aegypt Great was that assurance of Dauids when being beset round on al sides by Saul his souldiers said vnto him Transmigra in montem sicut passer But he answered Ego dormiui somnuÌ„ coepi surrexi quia Dominus suscepit me they would haue had him flye like a bird vnto the hill But hee told them That hee would lay him down and sleep in peace for the Lord was his keeper and would make him dwell in safetie He had such confidence in his God that hee tooke no great care concerning his enemies Lastly His Loue was no lesse great than his Hope Loue saith Salomon is as strong as death But here Loue was much more strong than death for death was now scorned by Loue. They hung not him vp vpon the Crosse for any loue that he bare to our Sauiour Christ yet before he dyed he would haue giuen a thousand liues to haue purchased his loue and it was a greater griefe torment vnto him that he saw he was not crucified for Christ than the Crosse it selfe was vnto him So that beginning to suffer like a Theefe hee became to dye like a Martyr Hodie mecum eris in Paradiso To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Neuer did any former ages see a fauor comparable vnto this First in regard of that which heauen is in it selfe being that next vnto the hypostaticall vnion it is the greatest good that the omnipotencie of God can giue vs. All other good leaueth vs still hungry this onely affoordeth fulnesse I shall be satisfied when thy glory shall appeare All doe seeke after heauen and doe appetere Deum as their vltimum bonum Desire the fruition of God as their chiefest felicitie But because they neither know what God nor heauen is they haue scarce peept in with their heads within the doores of that Supreame Princely Pallace but that they are rauished with that strange and vnspeakeable admiration that blessing themselues they breake out in this manner This surely is God Their weake apprehension not being able to conceiue the least glorie of that great Deitie so that Esay might very well say I am found of those that seeke not after me The capacitie of our conceit and the modell of our imagination is but a thimblefull in respect of that immense Ocean of Gods greatnesse And therefore true is that saying That the Iust doth finde that which hee doth not seeke for And if the crummes which fall from that diuine Table doe robbe a man of his vnderstanding banish all other thoughts from him and doe as it were alienate him from himselfe how will he be transported when he shall drinke at the fountaine of that riuer of delights and when God shall say vnto him Open thy mouth wide and I wâ—ll fill it So incomparable is the greatnes of this good That God suffers himselfe to be rob'd by the labours and sweats of man When we buy a thing dog-cheape we vse to say it is stolne Put in one scale fastings almes-deedes sacke-cloth and ashes the torments of Martyrs the troubles of Confessours and in another scale one houre nay one minute of heauen and in reason of buying and selling heauen is robbed by vs. And hereunto doth allude that phrase in Scripture Et violenti rapinus illud And the violent take it by force Now then that after so many thefts robberies deaths our Sauiour Christ should grant so great a good to this Theefe a greater fauour cannot be imagined Secondly in regard of the aduantage he had of others We know that in glory some shall enioy more some lesse As one starre dâ—ffers from another in brightnesse All shall inioy eternal glorie but not all the same degrees in glorie But consider I pray you the great aduantage that this Theefe made for he held it to bee a great happinesse vnto him if God would be but pleased to afford him any the least corner of heauen Abbot Arnaldo a graue and antient Authorhathaduentured to say That God had giuen him the chaire wherein Lucifer sate S. Cyprian saith Quid tu Domine amplius Stephano contulisti c. Oh Lord what could that Protomartyr Saint Stephen inioy more or that thy beloued Disciple which did leane his head in thy bosome And as Cirillus Ierosolimitanus saith What could the long seruices of those that endured the heate of the day obtaine more at Gods hands But God makes theÌ„ this answer I do not thee no wrong didst thou agree with me for a pennie Some labourers were working hard at the Vineyardfrom the first houre others from the third houre others began at the ninth houre others wheÌ„ the sunne was vpon setting First came Adam then Noah after him Abraham and the rest of the holy Prophets but the Theefe came iust at the Sunne-setting Saint Chrysostome saith That the same day that Adam was cast out of Paradise of the earth the same day did this Theefe enter into the Paradise of heauen The word Amen or verely doth imply as much Aniently the Tribes were diuided set apart vpon two hils the one breathing forth curses Cursed is he that honoureth not his Father Cursed is he that leadeth the blind out of the way the other blessing Blessed be thou in the Citie blessed in the field c. Onely the difference was in this That to these their maledictions and cursings they did euer say Amen For as it is in the Prouerbe Para el mal sobraua pannÌ„ For ill there was neuer yet cloth wanting there was stuffe still enough ready at hand But to their blessings they answered with
silence reseruing their Amen or So be it for the comming of our Sauiour Christ from whom all our good was to come And Theodoret giues vs this note withall That those that silenced their Amen were those that were to be fathers vnto Christ according to the flesh Fourthly in regard that this fauour is made the greater by it's quick dispatch Hodie mecum eris in Paradiso To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Theophylact and Tigurino read Amen dico tibi hodie Making there the point But this ought not to be receiued as Cassianus prooueth it but that this Hodie must goe hand in hand roundly along with Mecumeris And Iustin Martyr saith Iuxta fluenta plenissima gratiam simul accepit gloriam Grace and glorie with a full tyde came flowing in both at once vpon him S. Ambrose saith That our Sauiour Christ made this exceeding great haste Ne dilatione gratia minueretur Lest the fauour he intended to do him should be lessened by delay This fauour farre exceeding all the rest in the world besides As that of Alexander towards Perillus demanding a dourie of him for his daughter and that of the Gardiner who had the Kingdome of Sidonia giuen him or than that which Herod offered to his daughter Herodias or Assuerus to Queene Hester Si petieris dimidiam partem Regni mei c. If thou shalt aske the one halfe of my Kingdome c. And because Bis dat qui citò dat He doth a double curtesie that doth it quickly Least delay might lessen the Doners bountie Hee therefore saith Hodie mecum eris This very day shalt thou be with me c. S. Ambrose saith Quod magis veâ—ox erat premium quam petitio That the reward was quicker than the request Seneca sayes That hee that giues must not giue slowly for the willing mind wherewith it is done being therein the most to be esteemed it looseth much of it's estimation by it's slow proceeding Leo the Pope saith That it was a great fauour from Christ to put this so humble and so discreet a petition into the Theeues heart but a farre greater fauour to giue him such a good and quicke dispatch Ioseph foretelling Pharaohs seruant of his libertie being then his fellow-prisoner said vnto him Memento mei Haue me in remembrance with thee when thou art in good case But for all the others faire promises he continued two yeares after in prison But the Theefe had no sooner said Memento mei but his Sauiour saw him dispatcht O happy theefe thou didst negotiate well and with a good Iudge that could dispatch thy businesse so quickly and so well Lastly in regard of it's bountie and freenesse the reward outvying the request hauing more fauour done him than he desired Vberior saith S. Ambrose est gratia quam precatio God hath vsed and still doth the like liberalitie towards many Abraham desired a sonne to inherit his estate and a sonne was giuen him from whom God was to descend Iacob beg'd Beniamin and god gaue him both Beniamin and Ioseph Tobias desired that he might see his son in safetie God returneth him home vnto him sound rich and wel marryed Iudith craued Bethulia's libertie God gaue her that and Holofernes head into the bargaine and victory against Nebuchadnezzar Anna prayed for a sonne God gaue her one that was a Saint a Prophet Gods fauourite Salomon desired wisedome to gouerne his kingdome the better he had that and much more besides infinite store of wealth bestowed vpon him Ezechias sued vnto God for life and whereas he would haue bin contented with two years holding of it God granted him a lease of fifteen yeares to come The seruant that owed 10000 Talents desired to be but forborn for a time and the whole debt was forgiuen him But God neuer dealt so franke and freely with any man as with this theefe for he but only intreating him to be mindful of him he gaue him heauen Qui merita supplicum excedis vota sings the Church Theophylact saith That your Kings Princes and great Captains when they obtaine any notable victorie they reserue the principal captiues for their Triumph So Saul spared King Agag and the best things so the Emperors of Rome Zenobia and others Titus and Vespasian most of the young men of Iudaea But that our Sauiour Christ should enter in triumph into heauen with a theefe it seemeth a thing of small glory to the Triumpher and little honor for heauen But Abbot Guericus answers hereunto That it was a new and most noble kind of victorie Nouum pulcherrimum genus victoriae The kings of the earth get victories ouer their enemies by treading them vnder by kicking and spurning of them by contemning and tormenting them as appeareth by Histories both humane and diuine This is a tyrannous kind of reuenge and reuengefull cruelty But that of the King of heauen is a noble reuenge and a sweet victorie The enemies of a king of this world will kisse the earth for feare but those of the King of heauen for loue And therfore it is said Inimici eius terram lingent Againe S. August saith That Christ did inrich and illustrate heauen with the person of this theefe so far was he from doing him any the least dishonor For it is a great honour to heauen to haue such a Lord and Master as shall make of great Theeues great Saints S. Chrysost. hath the same and further addeth That by seeing one raigne in heauen who wanted earth to liue on euery man may liue in hope to inioy the like happinesse For it is not likely that he will be miserable to any that was so liberall to a theefe The Doctors do doubt whether this Theefe were a Martyr or no For he that is a Martyr it is not the greatnesse of the paine but the goodnesse of the cause that makes him a Martyr Achan was stoned to death and Saint Stephen was stoned to death But Achan was no Martyr because he dyed deseruedly for his sins The like reason you will say may be rendred of the theefe But S. Ierome Eusebius Nissenus and S. Cyprian stile him Martyr not because he suffered for Christ though he suffered not without Christ but because suffering with Christ so great was the sorrow which he conceiued for his sinnes that Christ taking this his torment to his account as if he had suffered for his loue made of the Crosse a Martyrdome S. August saith That on the Crosse he acknowledged Christ as if he had beene crucified for Christ. Eusebius Nissenus That albeit he began with the punishment of a Delinquent yet he ended with the glory of a Martyr And S. Cyprian That Christ did conuert the blood which he shed vpon the Crosse into the water of baptisme and that presently he placed him in Paradise Iustin Martyr and Irenaeus vnderstand here by Paradise some other place of ioy but rather earthly than heauenly Irenaeus prooues it by
Enableth vs to doe what Nature cannot 50 The order of it different from that of Nature 108 Not obtained without diligence 166 H Haire HAire hath bin hurtfull vnto many  Harlot The price of a Harlot no lasting portion 397 Her manners ibid. Hardnesse of heart In the Iewes without paralelle 206 They that liue in it iustly suffered to dye in it 58 117 Markes whereby to know a hard heart 296 A hard heart can neuer be mollified 537 Health Life is no life without it 239 Heart It cannot loue and hate both at once 117 Mans heart Gods temple 557 c. Of the whole man God desires only the heart 369 What is vnderstood by heart 371 It hath many enemies and all within it selfe ibid. The heart of the Earth what 130. Hearers Curious hearers reprooued 124 Heauen The ioyes of it 194 Not purchased without violence 230 391 545 In our passage to it no tyes of Nature to be regarded 311 The glorie of it 627 Hell The paines of it how dreadfull 244 c. All other paines but pastimes to these 453 Honour Despised of Christ. 327 Neuer without it's burden 35 Gods children more ambitious to deserue it than inioy it 192 Earthly honours brooke no partnership 228 The desire of honour not alwayes to bee condemned 327 Honours where no merit is addes but to our shame 554 Desired of all 555 Hope More prevailent with man than feare 190 The nature of both 619 Sathans practise to depriue Iob of his hope 620 Hospitalitie Pleasing to God 375 God the onely keeper of it 443 Humilitie Twofold one of the Vnderstanding another of the Will 33 The onely way to Heauen 217 No Humilitie like our Sauiours 635 Hunger A great temptation 80 Why Christ would hunger 78 Hypocricie Feignes the good it hath not 15 A kind of Stage-play 16 The Hypocrite hath no hope of Heauen 18 The danger of hypocriticall and luke-warme Christians 268 301 Hypocrisie straines at a Gnat and swallowes a Camell 262 368 I Ego I. A Word of great authoritie 45 Iealousie A true symptome of basenesse 338 Iewes A jealous and enuious people 315 Gods many fauours toward them 316 Their subtiltie and incredulitie 565 566 The murderers of all Gods Saints 602 In nature both like the Bore and the Beare 604 Ignorance A maine cause of all our euill 401 591 Images What difference betwixt the maker of them and the worshipper 151 Incredulitie A maine let to Christs miracles 322 Incontinencie Is a Sinne which hath two properties 570 Informers Like the flyes of Aegypt in a common weale  Ingratitude The first fault that euer was committed 143 Neuer vnpunished of God 144 No cut to vnkindnesse 224 God substracts his blessings from the vngratefull 270 It is vsually the requitall of goodnesse 330 The Embleme of it 383 568 To returne euill for good a diuelish sin 635 Inheritance Gods inheritance may run a twofold danger 248 Iniuries Must be patiently digested 47 When and how to beforgiuen 333 c. To suffer them is true noblenesse 533 Intercession Not to be vnderstood but of the liuing 379 Two things required to make it effectuall 378 Ionas Whence descended 132 Reasons mouing him to flye 133 Why he would be cast into the Sea 136 The Marriners charitable affection towards him 137 Iugde No small comfort that Christ shall bee our Iudge 94 Two properties of a Iudge 95 He must not be rash 137 Iudges must incline to mercie 421 A good Iudge compared to a Crane 458 Iudgement Why attributed to Christ. 94 Iudgement how to be guided 471 c. All shall appeare in iudgement 98 The day of Iudgement desired of the Iust. 99 Pilats Iudgement against Christ. 640 The most vniust that euer was 641 Iudas Foolish two wayes in the sale of our Sauiour 634 The vilenesse of his fault ibid. Iustification A greater worke than either the creation of the World or of Angels 294 572 The first step to it is mercie and pitie 397 Set out by diuers apt similitudes 573 582 K Knowledge See Learning Wisedome TO know thy selfe the beginning of perfection 480 L Lambes A Name attributed to the iust and why 154 Law Whereunto vsefull 40 The law of Taliation 46 Lawes if many gainefull to some but losse to the most 363 Learning See Wisedome Not gotten without labour 464 c. God the giuer of it 466 Lent Why called the Spring of the Church 10 Liberalitie Must be waited on by Frugalitie 444 Life This life onely a procession of quicke and dead 489 True life is to meditate on death 1 4 490 c. Short life content with short allowance 8 542 Whether better a publique or a priuat life 107 An euill life the losse of Faith 128 Long life the enlargement of sinne 136 Life seldome wearisome to any 174 The euills of this life are onely seeming euills 179 180 Life without health no life 239 Why desperat sinners are suffered to liue long 241 Nothing permanent in this life 243 This life is onely toyle and labour both to the wicked and the iust 396 Light Twofold 188 The excellencie of that light which is spirituall 189 Christ why called the Light of the World 517 The benefit of this Light ibid. c. Reasons why some hate and shun it 519 What is meant by Light of life 522 Looking-Glasses Why placed about the Lauer in the Temple 526 Lord. A name implying Honour and Power 32 Loue To loue our selues wee need not be commaunded 42 We must loue our enemies 43 The causes why we cannot 49 How our loue must be ordered 56 The perfection of it how to be discouered 57 Neuer without feare 92 How God should be loued 377 Gods loue is alwaies working 388 435 475 c. 477 It cannot be repayd but with loue 475 No loue where no reliefe 503 Gods loue seene by his delayes in punishing 513 Loue and Hate transforme a man alike into their obiects 564 Nothing more tedious to one that loues than the absence of what he loues 633 Loue triumpheth ouer God himselfe 635 Lyar Lying The World the Flesh and the Deuill all lyars 528 The mischiefe of lying 529 M Madnesse TWofold 604 Magistrates Should bee free from what they punish in others 360 457 Like sheepe-heards they should feed their flockes rather than fleece them 437 In choice of State ministers what ought to be regarded 441 Magistrates should be bold in reforming publique abuses 454 c. More heede the conuersion of the offendor than the correction of his offence 455 Two things they should specially looke vnto their conscience and their fame 526 They must be examples 527 Christ in his proceeding against the Deuill a patterne for all magistrates ibid. That Common-wealth is lost in which the magistrates and their ministers are both bad 563 They should euer haue Gods Laws before their eyes 588 Ill Rulers sent by God to punish the people 600 They should account no time their owne but other mens 631 Malice Will
gouerne a Commonwealth which is Ars artium The Art of Arts thou shalt thinke a Cobler fit enough to doe it There are many reasons why a Prince should make Noblemen and Gentlemen Presidents and Prelates But to weigh downe this there is another great counter-poise For being bred vp daintily from their cradle some of them make gardens of this Vineyard others houses of pleasure Naboth made choyce rather to dye than to part with his Vineyard to the King because he would not see it turned to a garden for to that end onely did he desire it Shall my inheritance sayd he with the fruit whereof my house is maintained bee turned into a garden for a tyrant to sport himselfe therein God would take it very heauily to see the Vineyard which hee bought with his bloud to bee by some gentleman-like Prelate turned into a greene Court especially hauing layd such a greeuous curse on those Husbandmen that shall not looke well vnto it as Regiones vestras alieni deuorant c. Hee let it out to Husbandmen Locare is a word of Espousall or Marriage and it sutes well with that Loue and Zeale which a Prelat ought to haue to the Vine his Spouse To this marriage the interest of Wealth the respect of Honour nor the pleasures of this Life must not mooue him but the good only of the Vine and the desire he hath to take paines therein till like salt in water himselfe shall wast away and consume He that enters vpon Gods patrimony must enter thereupon with a far different end to that which he doth who enters vpon that of the King for this commonly makes his owne priuate benefit the marke whereat he aymes But the Prelat must make another mans profit the pinne which hee must hit The Minister of a King takes a lesser charge first vpon him that it may serue as a step to greater preferment But a Prelat must not marry himselfe to the Church vpon hope to meet with a better benefice the next day after Sposponâ— enim vos vni viro Virginem castam exhibere Christo. Many Prelats seeme vnto me to be like vnto those seuen husbands which were espoused to one woman who in that other life was wife to none of them all So putting the case the other way let me aske you as those other did our Sauiour when seuen Churches shall bee married to one Prelat which of those shall be sayd to bee his wife in that other Life He planted a Vineyard and let it out to Husbandmen Saint Bernard sayth Viâ—â— sapienti sua vita vinea est sua Conscientia To a wise man his own life and conscience is a Vineyard So that not onely the Church is called a Vine but euerie mans particular Soule may also be immagined to be a stocke of this Vine And that for three principall conueniences First In regard of the great haâ—arads which the Vine runneth as frosts haile wormes want of water carelesnesse of him that keepes the Vineyard theeues dogges boares foxes and enemies such as Hâ—lofernes commanded to take away the waters from those of Bethulia But farre greater perils than these doth maâ—s Soule passe through as those frosts that nip it through default of Charitie those haile-stones of our sinnes which beat it downe to the Earth that it can hardly rise againe those Deuils which like the children of Esau and gouernours of the people of Moab cry Exinanite exinanite persequimini comprehendite eam And the carelesnesse that is had in pruning it Saint Bernard saith That the naturall Vine will aske but once pruning but the metaphoricall Vine a thousand prunings because euerie foot new buds and new sprigs of vices begin to sprout vp in it being subiect as Saint Paul saith periculis in mari periculis in terra to perills by sea and perills by land c. Secondly There is not any Plant whose Fruit doth more liuely represent the essence of our nature The Flower of the Vine represents vnto vs our childhood the beautie thereof it 's peaceablenesse it 's prettinesse it 's wittinesse it 's pleasingnesse it 's innocencie The sharpenesse and sourenesse thereof beeing greene our youths hardnesse harshnesse tartnesse and vnseasonablenesse The Grape it selfe growne to perfection the sweet sauourie discreet and ripe yeares of our life whereof that wine is made which glads the heart of man and washes away care In the Raysons which by the heat of the Sunne proouing both sauorie and wholesome serue for physicke is our old age represented vnto vs which ought to be the Antidote of youth It is that discourse which doth aduice vs that we ought not to despaire of our tart and distastefull youthfulnesse for the greene and soure Grape comes not onely to be a ripe one but turnes also to be a Rayson and your young wild Lads come not onely to be stayd and well gouernd men but proue likewise graue wise antient old Senators in the commonwealth Themistocles was such a young lewd fellow that his father did disinherite him and his mother for verie griefe hung her selfe yet it was his fortune afterwards to come to be a most valiant Captaine and to prooue a most prudent Gouernour The like hapned to Alcibiades and to Apolemon so saith Valerius Maximus and to Iulius Caesar as Fulgosius reporteth it vnto vs. Aristotle according vnto Aelian in his younger yeares played away all his Patrimonie he followed the warres he found that that course did not fit well with him hee turnes Apothecarie frequents the Schooles and prooues in the end the Prince of Phylosophers Thirdly All sorts of Trees be they barren or fruitfull they haue their naturall heigth and bredth either more or lesse according to their seuerall kindes your Pines and your Cedars are the tallest of all others your Wallnuts round like a Cup and more spredding at the top In a word euerie one hath his conuenient stature and proportion But the Vine hath no determinate either heigth or bredth if you let it alone it will traile vpon the ground so the fruit thereof rot vpon the earth if you let it leane vnto a pole it will runne vp to the top thereof if to an Elme it will creepe vp to the highest boughes if to a wall it will runne and shoot it selfe along till it hath claspt it in it's armes and quite ouerspred it And this is the verie Image and true stampe of man for all liuing beasts and other creatures whatsoeuer hauing their termes and bounds of augmentation which they may not passe and exceed Man through his free wil fauoured and assisted by Grace doth enioy so great an excellencie that hee can by the helpe thereof leaue behind him the highest Mountaines reaching by participation to Gods owne Beeing and abiding And though he cannot shoot vp thus high of himselfe beeing no better than a sillie Worme of the earth yet being raised vp by Grace he may climbe vp to this happinesse