throughout the face of the whole earth Iob in his 41. Chap. maketh a dreadfull description of the Deuill in the metaphor of a Whale or as some would haue it of a Sea Dragon a Fish of that exceeding greatnesse that when he discouers himselfe in the waters he seemeth to be some little Island or some pretie big Hill Corpus eius scuta fusilia his bodie is couered ouer with such strong scales as if they were barres of Brasse and ribbes of Steele and so close lockt ioynted together that the subtillest aire cannot get in between the knitting of the ioynts Stornutatio eius splendor ignis The breath of his nostrills is like vnto lightning his eyes as flashes of fire from his mouth come forth flames as out of a Furnace from his nose issueth a thicke smoake his breath kindleth coles and sets them on fire there are no weapons either offensiue or defensiue that can withstand his force Reputaâ—it quasi palus ferrum as quasi lignum putridum Yron to him is as strawes and swords of steele as rotten sticks A man of arms may threaten him with a Mace of Iron a Gunner shoot his Bullets at him an Archer his Arrowes a Slinger his Stones the Pikeman his Lance all which hee so little cares for that hee makes but a jeast of it In a word when he comes to make an end of this large description which he makes of the Deuill he concludes that chapter with this Epiphonema Non est potestâ—s quae comparetur ei The power of the world is not able to compare with him Saint Gregorie vpon the fourth Chapter of Iob noteth That the Scripture giues the Deuil three kind of names or attributes Behemoth or Elephant Leuiathan which some will haue to bee the Whale and Auis Rapinae a Bird of Rapine that liues onely vpon prey Nunquid illudes ei quasi aui In which three names hee did comprehend the power of all the Beasts of the field of all the Fishes of the sea and of all the Birds of the aire The power of these three sorts of creatures extends it selfe to these three elements the Water the Earth and the Aire and they beeing all deposited in the Deuill whose habitation is the Fire hee comes to haue dominion ouer all the elements In other places of the Scripture hee is called a Dragon a Leopard a Beare a Lyon but these comparisons come short of the other And therefore some Doctours expounding this word Behemoth say That it signifies Multitudinem Bestiarum a multitude of Beasts because it includeth in it the force and poyson of all other sorts of Beasts whatsoeuer Saint Paul calls him a Prince of power the Ruler and Gouernor of this world For as the state and power of a Prince is farre beyond that of his Subiects and Vassals so is the Deuil in al other things Aduersus Principes Potestates Mundi rectores Against the Princes and Powers and Gouernors of the earth The Greeke word is Cosmocratoras a word of that fulnesse that diuers Fathers haue diuersly interpreted it Tertullian The possessions of the world Hilarie and Saint Hierome The Mightie of the world The Lords of the world Esay calls him a Barre or a Bolâ— because the strength of a Prison consists in good Barres and Bolts and strong Lockes Visitauit Dominus super serpentem vectem The Lord will visit that creeping Barre Theodocion translates it Robustum The strong Barre Simmachus Vectem concludentem siue claudentem The enclosing Barre or the Barre that shutteth vp For he doth shut vp many in his prison and keepes them in miserable seruitude Saint Iohn in his Apocalyps bewaileth the Earth and the Sea because the Deuill comes forth enraged fiercely against them shewing great sorrow that God had giuen them such small meanes to be reuenged of him beeing a Beast so powerfull so cruell so tyrannous and so bent against them that man was turned coward and become fearefull But since our Sauior Christ ouercame him hath bound him fast in fetters and chaines of yron he bids vs be of good courage and that we should stand no more in feare of him Feare not saith our Sauiour I haue ouercome the World Many of Gods People when they entred first into the sea shewed themselues fearefull cowardly but after that the powerfull hand of God had ouerwhelmed the Egyptians had thrown them vp dead on the other side of the sea the weakest women among them and those men that were most faint hearted with songs of joy and with Timbrels did set forth the glorie of this victorie and did make a mocke of the power of Pharaoh They praised the hand of the Vanquisher who opened the mouthes of the dumbe and made the tongues of Infants eloquent So likewise did the world liue cow'd before by the power of Satan but after that the powerfull hand of Christ our Sauiour left in the Wildernesse the print of that wound which he had giuen him on the head the meanest and most cowardly Christian may now make a jest both of him and Hell One of the Sages of Greece said That better was an Armie of Sheepe that had a Lyon to their captaine than an Armie of Lyons that had a Sheepe to their Commander And therefore albeit wee are but weake and sillie Sheepe yet haue we a Lyon to our Captaine who hath ouercome our enemies The Lyon of the Tribe of Iuda hath ouercome When Ioshuaâ— ouercame thâ—se fiue Kings of the Ammorites neere vnto Gibeon he would haue the Princes of the People to put their feet vpon their neckes that seeming vnto him to be a powerfull meanes to put them in heart and to serue to encourage the rest of his soldiers not to feare them for that God should bring downe their enemies and put them vnder their feet This valiant Captaine did also subdue Zeba and Salmana and commanded his sonne that hee should vnsheath his sword and runne them through which he did of purpose to make him gather courage vnto him and to cast off all feare Nor can there greater worth be desired in a Captaine than to know how to free his souldiers from feare When Dauid had smote off Goliah his head those of Israel were as bold as Lyons and the Philistines were as fearefull as Hares In the time â—f Salomon the Scripture saith That Israell did liue in that peace and so deuoyd of feare as no men more Euerie one vnder his owne Vine and vnder his owne Figge tree not that all of them had their Vines and Figge-trees but because they might sleepe quietly and securely as the Poets feigne of Tytirus and Melibaeus vnder the shade of the broad spredding Beech singing this Song of joy Deus nobis haec otia fecit All which was a figure of the peace and â—ecuritie which the Church was to enioy by the conquest of this our Captaine for by warre wee come to the enioying of peace and
partie was nobly borne and that many of good Qâ—alitie came to visit him in his sickenesse and did weepe and bewaile his death did our Sauiour performe this myracle Amongst all those myracles which our Saour Christ wrought Saint Augustine giues to this the first and prime place and indeed it seemes to be an epitome and short summe of all those other myracles that he wrought in the whole course of his life for in the resurrection of one that is dead there is giuen sight to the Blind eares to the Deafe a tongue to the Dumbe feet to the Lame motion to the Paraliticke c. And therefore Saint Iohn with this myracle doth as it were shut vp and giue a close to the proouing of his Diuinitie A certaine man was sicke named Lazarus c. Therefore his Sisters sent vnto him Here we may consider the good aduisement and discretion of this noble paire of Sisters When Marie Magdalen treated of the reparation of her own soule she went her selfe in person passing through a world of inconueniences but for the restoration of her brother to his bodily health she thought it would be sufficient and serue the turne well enough to send her Seruant with a letter to our Sauiour The Worldling for the health of his bodie will round the world but will not stirre a foot for his soules health For to esteeme of things as they are and to giue them their true weight and to put euerie thing in it's proper place is not onely the marke of a prudent but of a predestinated person Aegypt taxed Moses of ingratitude as Phylon hath noted in his life for that hee did forgoe Pharaohs Pallace refused to be called the sonne of Pharaohs daughter and chose rather to suffer aduersitie with the People of God those poore Israelites than to weare the Crowne of Aegypt and to enioy the pleasures of the Court esteeming as Saint Paul saith the rebuke of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Aegypt But first of all he was not vngratefull for concerning those good blessings which he enioyed he was more bound to God for them than to the King Secondly he shewed he was no foole in doing as he did for better is one crumme of bread in the Lords house than all the prosperitie of the world without it Than to enioy to vse Saint Pauls words the pleasures of sinne for a season I had rather be a Doore-keeper saith Dauid in the house of the Lord than to dwell in Tabernacles of sinners Nazianzen reporteth That the Emperour Valens offering Saint Basil his fauour and to be a friend vnto him if he would but bee a friend to Eâ—doxius the Arian he told him That he should highly esteem of the Emperours fauour and friendship but hee was to esteeme more of Gods Saint Augustine saith That Adam did eat of the Apple Ne contristaret delitias c. least he should grieue his Loue not led along with carnall concupiscence but with a friendly affection Suting with that of Saint Paul That Adam was not deceiued but the woman was deceiued but it had beene better for Adam to haue displeasâ—d his wife than to grieue the spirit as Saint Paul speaketh of a sinner In a word fathers mothers chiâ—dren wiues friends and all our kindred and acquaintance are to be had in lesse esteeme than our soules and our God And therefore Marie Magdalen went in person for to seeke out Christ for her God and for her soule but did not so for her brother Behold he whom thou louest is sicke c. The Saints doe much ponder the discretion of this letter The first consideration is It 's briefenesse and shortnesse of stile Imagination caâ—not desire an elegancie more briefe nor a briefenesse more copious Apâ—leiusâ—coffes â—coffes at the long and spatious Orations which the Priests made of their Syrian Goddesse Elias mockt at those of Baals Priests continuing from morning to high noone Clamate voce maiori said he Crie aloud for he is a god that either talketh or pursueth his enemies or is in his journey or it may be that he sleepeth and must be awaked c. Our Sauior Christ aduising vs how we ought to pray saith When yee pray vse no vaine repetitions as the Heathen for they thinke to bee heard for their much babling It is now the fashion of the World to amplifie reasons and to inlarge it's discourses with the ornaments of Eloquence the floures of Rhetoricke choice Phrases and a great deale of artifice and cunning but that of Heauen consists of few words but is full of spirit and deuotion one single Paâ—er noster vttred with feruour is of more force than many vosario's without it When a Vessell sounds it is a signe it is emptie Moses treating with God sayd O my Lord I am not eloquent neither at any time haue beene c. but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue Moses was herin mistaken for I would haue thee to know that a talking tongue and a dumbe heart doe not sute wel together Diuine Bernard askes the question Why God in the Lords Prayer did put this word Qui est in Coelis Which art in Heauen being that he is present euerie where and in all places And his answer is That his desire was that our prayers should proceed with that feruencie and forcible ejaculations as if God could not heare vs vnlesse by our prayers we pierced Heauen As for our harpes we hanged them vp vpon the Willoughes Ruffinus saith That your Willoughes are but barren Trees and without fruit and when Prayer proceeds from a drie heart and a barren and vnfruitfull soule it is like the Harpe there spoken of that hangs vpon the Willoughes by the waters of Babylon In a word your Laconicall kind of Language that which is short full Nazianzen saith That it is The vttering of much matter in a few words and the fewer the words are the greater are the voyces of our desires When the Deuill left Iobs lips onely free from byles and sores he did not doe it out of any pittie towards him but out of a desire that hee had to draw some word of impatience or blasphemie from them but he was both deceiued and ashamed when he saw that he imployed them in these only foure praise-worthie words Sit nomen Domini benedictum Blessed be the name of the Lord. And say the Deuill should haue bereaued him of the vse of his lips and that he should not haue beene able to haue vttered a word yet his desires would haue spoken their mind in a loud voyce Cum inuocarem exaâ—diuit me Deus justiciae mea He calls him Deum justiciae meae The God of my righteousnesse not The God of my Prayer And why so The reason is Because Workes out-speake Words Saint Iohn saith That hee saw vnder the Alter the soules of the Martyrs Crying with a loud voyce How long Lord c. But if these soules
be solicitous carefull and painefull for the sluggard Nature abhorreth and condemneth Vidisti hominem velocem stabit coram Rege i. Seest thou a man diligent in his businesse hee shall stand before Kings Diligence is pretious in all men but most in a Seruant Who can indure a lazie Seruant or a dull Beast The Ball was antiently the Symbole of a Seruant according to Cartaneus The ball one while goes flying in the ayre ouer our heads another runnes as low as our feete but neuer lies still but is continually tossed too and fro And Aristotle sayes That a Seruant is Instrumentum viuum A liuing Instrument and as an Instrument hath not his owne will but is directed by the hand of the Artificer so a Seruant is not to bee at his owne will to doe what himselfe listeth but as he is commanded and employed by his Master If Masters and Seruants would keepe these rules it would bee a happinesse for the Master to haue such a Seruant and for the Seruant to haue such a Master It hath antiently beene doubted Why amongst men so equall by nature God hath permitted so great inequalitie as there is betweene him that serueth and him that commandeth And the reason of this doubt is the more indeered for that seruitude is a thing so distastful held so great an ill that many haue preferred death before it Theodoret answereth thereunto That Seruitude was the curse of Sinne and that the first Seruant in the world was Cham on whom his father threwt his seuere malediction That he should be a Seruant to his bretheren Because he discouered the nakednesse of his father S. Austen saith in his Books De Ciuit. Dei That this penaltie began from the malediction of Eue and that those words Thou shalt be vnder the power of thy Husband implyed subiection and seruitude Saint Ambrose in an Epistle which he writes to Simpliciarius saith That Seruing is sometimes taken for a blessing and hee prooues it out of that which Isaac did to his elder sonne Esau He blessed him that he might serue his brother hauing out of a particular prouidence and loue made Esau seruant to his brother to the end that his harshnesse might bee gouerned by his discretion So that wee see that although the fortune of a Seruant speaking generally is verie bad first because libertie is a great good secondly because to serue a Tyrant is a great euil yet he that hath the good hap to serue a good Master is verie happie for such a Master serues in stead of a Father a Councellor a Tutor And this was this seruants happinesse to haue so good a Master as this Centurion heere spoken of who saith Puer meus jacet c. In domo Paraliticus At home sicke of the Palsie It is a consideration as profitable as often repeated That troubles and afflictions brings vs home to Gods House They are like those officers that follow a fugitiue sonne or seruant who bring him backe againe to his father or his master Many meanes God vseth for to bring vs home vnto him but by no meanes more than by affliction Hunger draue the Prodigall home to his Father Ioaâ—s burning of his corne made him come to Absalon the vntamed Heyfer is brought by the Goade to the Yoke There is no Collirium that so opens the eyes of the soule as miserie and trouble The gall of the Fish recouered Tobias of his eye-sight the darknesse of the Whales bellie brought Ionas forth to the light the stroke of an Arrow made Alexander know he was mortall Wormes made great Antiochus confesse he was no God and the threatning of Elias wrought repentance in Achab In a word Vexatio dat intellectum Castigasti me Domine eruditus sum Affliction causeth vnderstanding thou didst correct me ô Lord I was instructed O! how correction opens those eyes which prosperitie kept shut O! how often doth the paining of the bodie worke the sauing of the soule O! how often doe misfortunes like the rounds in Iacobs ladder serue to bring our soules vp to Heauen God dealing with these afflicted soules as the Gardner doth with the Buckets of his Well who humbles them by emptying them that hee may afterwards bring them vp full And so is that place of Iob to bee vnderstood Hee woundeth and hee healeth i. hee healeth by wounding like your cauteries which cure by hurting It is Gods owne voyce I will smite and I will make whole according to that of Ose Percutiet curabit he strikes the bodie with sicknesse and with that wound he healeth the soule But here by the way it is to be noted That there is a great difference betwixt one sinner and another for he that is hardned in sinne is made rather worse than better by correction And this is that which Esay bewaileth where hee crieth out Woe to the sinnefull Nation a People laden with Iniquitie Why should yee be stricken any more yee will reuolt more and more All the fruit that such kind of wilfull sinners reape from their punishment is to adde sinne vnto sinne like that Slaue who being whipt for swearing falls into blaspheming I haue smitten saith Ieremie your childeren in vaine they receiued no correction And in another place he compares them to reprobate siluer which being put into the Crisol of affliction to be refined and purified remaines fouler than before Others there are that are tender hearted and are as sensible of other mens miseries as if themselues were in the same case and iust so was it with this discreet Centurion Dignus est vt illi praestes i. He is worthie for whom thou shouldst doe this The Elders of the Iewes in Capernaum which were sent by the Centurion vnto Christ to beseech him to come and heale his seruant acknowledged a power in our Sauior of working miracles by that often experience they had made thereof but they did not acknowledge his Diuinitie And therefore they here notifie vnto Christ the great merit and deseruingnesse of this Centurion which if it had beene meerely for Gods sake they might the better haue pleaded it They alledge two reasons to induce him thereunto The first Diligit gentem nostram He loueth our Nation which hee hath many wayes manifested by those his good deeds and actions towards vs and this his loue and kindnesse bindes vs to solicite his cause which good will of his ought likewise to incline you to fauour this his suit The second Synagogam aedificauit nobis He hath built vs a Synagogue whereby hee hath not onely shewed his good affection to the Iewes but his religiousnesse also vnto God Dignus est ergo vt illi praestes Hee therefore deserues this fauour at thy hands Their reasons are both powerfull as well with man as with God for Loue obligeth much Saint Ambrose saith That Nature did ingraue nothing so deepely in our hearts as to loue
vnto Christ our Sauiour repeating that lesson himselfe which he had instructed his Embassadours in when they said vnto him Domine noli vexari i. Lord trouble not thy selfe Saint Ambrose saith That the name of Lord sometimes signifies honour sometimes power and that in men these two goe diuided but in God they goe ioyntly together Here we call him a Lord that is so indeed for that power and command that he hath ouer others and sometimes we call him Lord that is no Lord but doe it out of courtesie onely to honour him the more Nor is this in the Scripture any strange kind of language Rebecka called her Seruant Sir or Lord and Marie Magdalen vsed the same stile to our Sauiour taking him at that time for a Gardner And although this name bee due vnto our Sauiour both manner of wayes and may well challenge this double title though some call him onely by the first being desirous to honour and respect him as Regulus Lord come downe before my sonne die and as hee that lay at the Fish-poole and could not help himselfe Lord I haue no man c. Others by both as Saint Thomas Domine mî Deus mî And the Centurion beleeuing through Faith that he was God and Man on the one part passible and fatigable and on the other impassible and indefatigable the one way he stiles him Lord the other he entreats him That he would spare himselfe that trouble Noli vexari or as the Greeke hath it Ne vexeris which is all one with Ne fatigeris Wearie not thy selfe Non enim sum dignus vt intres subtectum meum I am not worthie thou shouldst come vnder my roofe Some wil aske Who taught this Captaine so much Diuinitie in so short a time Pope Leo answers hereunto That where God is the Master the Scholler quickely apprehendeth what is taught him Cito dicitur quod docetur Saint Gregorie telleth vs That the holy Ghost is such an excellent Artisan that he hath no need of termes and such and such times of standing to create Doctors Masters as was to be seene in Saint Paul and the good Theefe Petrus Chrysologus saith That the like did succeede with this Souldier and that of being a Centurion of the Roman Souldiarie he became on the sudden a Captaine of the Christian warfare and began to teach before hee knew well how to beleeue And that the greatest Lights of the Church repeate still that Lesson which he read the first day of his Faith In a word How easie a thing is it with God to inrich the poore in an instant with his grace Facile est in oculis Dei subitò honestare pauperem It is an easie thing in the sight of the Lord suddenly to make a poore man rich I am not worthie c. Before he said Noli vexari and now he giues the reason of it telling our Sauiour That his house is not worthie the entertaining of so great a Guest Words of as great faith as humilitie Of great Faith by acknowledging this his diuine Maiestie vnder this vaile of his humane nature Of great Humilitie by confessing himselfe vnworthie to receiue into his house so much Vertue and Holinesse But here is to bee noted That there is a twofold humilitie one of the vnderstanding another of the will that of the vnderstanding whereby a man is brought to the true knowledge of his own vnworthines that of the wil wherevnto wee readily yeeld of our owne accords To expresse this a little more plainely There are some men that are humble who are humbled by their own will othersome become humble beeing humbled by their fortune That the humbled should bee humble it is no great vertue the greater wonder were that he should grow proud vpon it But that Honour and Greatnesse should willingly humble it selfe and of it's owne accord Hoc regium est This is an heroicall vertue and beseeming Kings What a glorie was it vnto King Dauid that being so powerfull and so rich a Prince as he was that he should be more meeke and humble than a child Si non humiliter sentiebam c. What a commendation in Iohn Baptist so highly honoured both of Heauen and Earth that hee should confesse himselfe vnworthie to vnlose the latchet of our Sauiors shooe What shall we say of the Sonne of God who being equall with his Father willingly humbled himselfe to become his Seruant teaching others this lesson Learne of me for I am meeke and humble of heart What sayes the Preacher The greater thou art the lowlier be thy carriage And for this is our Centurion heere commended being so great a Commander as he was For I also am a man vnder authoritie and I say to one Goe and he goeth and to another Come and he commeth Saint Austen saith of him That by confessing himselfe vnworthie he made himselfe more worthie for there is no disposition so fit for the receiuing of God as that which acknowledgeth and confesseth it 's owne vnworthinesse And Saint Ambrose beating vpon the same point saith That those houses which seemed too streight and too narrow to receiue our Sauiour Christ were made large enough by confessing their vnworthinesse to receiue him But here doth that place of Saint Paul offer it selfe He that shall eat of this Bread and drinke this Cup vnworthily shall bee guiltie of the Bodie and Bloud of Christ. Now if hee that receiues Christ vnworthily shall be held guiltie of his bodie and bloud Shall not hee much more be condemned in confessing himselfe vnworthie to receiue him I answer That in the Communion there are two manner of dignities to be considered one of the person which receiueth Christ our Sauiour the other of the disposition and preparation wherewith hee receiueth him Touching the first dignitie No man can receiue Christ worthily for the holiest bee hee neuer so holy is but a creature and there is an infinite distance betwixt him and his Creator But touching that other dignitie of preparation and disposition a man may receiue him worthily by doing that which God commandeth vs to doe for the better receiuing of him A Husbandman can hardly receiue his King worthily in respect of his house and his person by reason of the great disequalitie between them but in respect of his preparation doing that which he is commanded to doe on his part as to see the house bee cleane and euerie thing in good order so may he receiue him worthily Sed tantum dic verbo sanabitur Puer meus Onely say the word and my Seruant shall be whole Sir trouble not your selfe in comming to a House vnworthie so great a fauour But halfe a word from your mouth will be sufficient to cure my Seruant Yet doth hee not hereby signifie that his word was necessarie since that without his word and without his comming his will was sufficient and all this did the Centurions
friend but he that doth not onely loue his friend but his enemie also hee shall be sure of a double reward Introduxit me Rex in cellam vinariam ordinauit in me charitatem i. The King brought me into the Banquetting house and his banner ouer me was Loue. Origen notes That that which the Soule desires of her Husband is not to loue or to hate for this being a naturall perfection it is not possible it should faile the will is neither idle nor in vaine for it must of force wish either well or ill All the kindnesse that shee desires of her husband is his ordering of his loue for in disorder intollerable errours arise Of all the Predicaments God is the highest and hee ought to bee the principall marke of our well ordered affection Dilexi quoniam audiuit Deus vocem orationis meae i. I loued because the Lord heard the voyce of my prayer Loued Whom hast thou loued A prudent wil which placeth it's felicitie in the obseruance of the Law wee must not aske of it Whom it loueth This is a question to be asked of a Reprobate or Cast-away In a word He that man ought chiefly to loue is God and next man for the loue of God be he friend or be he foe And because when it doth not reach extend it self to our enemie it cannot be said to be perfect loue it is said Estote perfecti sicut Pater vester Be ye perfect as your Father The reason is Because in the rest of the actions of vertue humane respects may come athwart vs one may fast because abstinence importeth his health another giue Almes because he affecteth vaine-glorie a third not seeke to be reuenged for feare of those inconueniences that follow after it a fourth be chast for the auoyding of shame c. But to loue a mans enemie that must onely proceed from our loue to God it must needs be done only for Gods sake and God onely can requite it Secondly he reduceth this perfection to the loue of our enemie because it is a sure pledge for Heauen When Elias and Baals Priests were both of them to offer Sacrifice in triall of the true God it was conditioned That that God that should send downe fire from Heauen vpon the Alter should bee held to bee the true God Baals Priests ball'd vpon him but all would not doe but Elias when he had set vp his Alter with the wood vpon it the beasts about it and had poured water thereupon to the filling vp of the Trench he had no sooner pour'd forrh his Prayer but such great store of fire descended from Heauen that it burnt the flesh the wood the stones and likewise wasted and consumed the water That it should burne the beasts the wood and the stones it was no such wonder but that it should take hold on it's contrarie which is water it was a manifest signe that it was the fire of Heauen That your loue should cleaue to your owne flesh bloud it is not much that it should take hold of the wood and stone that likewise is no great wonder but that it should worke on it's contrarie on one that desires to make an end of thee to consume thee this is loue indeed this is charitie this is the fire of Heauen Thirdly The loue to our enemie doth more discouer the perfection of our loue because it is without any hope of temporall reward Elisaeus filled the widdows emptie cruses with Oyle and thou must replenish with thy loue and good workes those emptie brests that haue nothing in them to deserue it For where there is some deseruingnesse and reason of merit the Gentile the Publican doe the like Fourthly It argueth more perfection for that the loue of our enemie is that glosse which sets before our eyes our owne faults and offences When Shimei reproched Dauid to his face and gaue him such opprobrious language that his Captaines and Commanders that were then about him were impatient of it and would haue killed him Dauid withstood it and would not suffer them to take away his life and the reason was because it put him in mind of his own sinnes and he that lookes well vpon his owne takes no great notice of another mans And this made him to say Peccatum meum contra me est semper My sinne warres more against me than mine enemie Againe though thy enemie doe persecute thee without a cause it is not without cause that thou doost thus suffer for as Tertullian hath it Nullus iniustè patitur No man suffers wrongfully So that thou must not looke so much vpon him that iniures thee as vpon thine owne sinnes for the which God permits them to iniure thee It is Ieremies Who euer said Let it bee done though the Lord command it not Let vs search our owne wayes Take but thy life into examination and thou wilt find that thy sinnes deserue a thousand times more Dauid would by no means consent that his People should reuenge those disgracefull words which Shimei spake vnto him and What was the reason Onely for that he was Gods Instrument S. Austen vpon the 31 Psalme pondering those words of Iob Dominus dedit Dominus abstulit The Lord hath giuen and the Lord hath taken noteth That he did not say Dominus dedit Diabolus abstulit The Lord gaue and the Deuill tooke away For those whips and scourges which God sendeth though they be inflicted vpon vs by the hands of the Deuill yet are we to account them to come from God Out of the whole drift of this Chapter I will inferre one cleere and manifest consequence which is this If to hate our enemie be so much condemned both of Heauen and Earth those excesses and exorbitances which fall out vpon this occasion be it in respect of the time and place or of the person or the act it self or our deepe disaffection they are all of them here condemned Two kind of faults God doth extreamely hate and abhorre The one Of those who haue no measure or moderation in their reuenge saying with the Idumaeans Exinanite exinanite vsque ad fundamentum in ea Raze raze them to the verie foundation They would not haue one stone left vpon another in Hierusalem wishing that they might say Etiam periere ruinae The verie ruines are also perished Wherby it seemeth that mans cruelty would stand in competition with Gods clemencie And that as God is not willing that any man should set a taxe and size vpon his mercie so these men will haue no man to put a rate vpon their reuenge Saint Peter asked our Sauiour Christ How many times hee should forgiue his brother Will seuen serue saith he Our Sauiour answered I say not seuen times but seuentie times seuen times Whence Tertullian hath noted That hee had an eye therein to mans excesse in reuenge Lamech slew Caine and the yong man that waited vpon him and the women going about
belonging thereunto Saint Bernard expounding those words of the ninetie one Psalme Dicet Domino susceptor meus es tu refugium meum Deus meus sperabo in eum i. I will say vnto the Lord Thou art my c. asketh the question Why God being the God of all Dauid in that place cals him twice his God I answere That he is the God of all in regard of his Creation and Redemption and other his generall benefits towards man but in Temptation hee is the God of euery indiuiduall person as if hee did not busie himselfe nor thinke vpon any other thing than the fauouring of the Iust and the assisting of him vpon those occasions Saint Gregory declaring those wordes of Christ Not a haire of your head shall perish sayth That a haire doth not paine vs when it is cut away from vs but the cutting of the flesh doth If that then shall be kept from perishing by Gods protection and prouidence ouer vs which doth not paine vs how much more will he take heed that that shall not perish which may put vs to paine Last of all There is not any thing so notorious and so approoued as the generall good that is gotten by Temptation From thence grow those braue Spirits those valiant Souldiers and those couragious Captaines which wage warre against the Deuill and Hell keeping him out at the staffes end and putting him to the worst As on the contrary from Idlenesse come Cowards whiteliuerd Souldiers Faint-hearted Soule-lesse and Lazie people As long as there were any frontyre-townes in Spaine for the enemies to make their inrodes it had many braue and famous Souldiers as the Cides and the Bernardos But now there are none but Carpet-Knights all men of bombast made of nothing but softnesse and delicacie their Armour is turned into gay clothes and their stiffe Launces into starcht bottle bands and beards They all did then smell of Gunpoulder but now stincke of Amber Siuet and other Indian Gummes Athanasius askes the question Why the prouidence of God did ordaine this continuall warre betweene the Deuils and Men And the answere is That thereby the valour of Gods Souldiers might bee knowne Saint Ambros sayth That the Deuill workes his owne destruction by his dayly tempting of Men for by seeking to weaken their Bodies hee strengthneth their Soules And that Iob when hee sate vpon the dung-hil with his pot-sheard in his hand to scrape off his scabbes made all Hell affraid and to stand amased at his patience Ductus est Iesus a Spiritu in desertum vt tentaretur Hee was led by the Spirit into the Desart that hee might bee tempted The holy Ghost was a guide to all our Sauiours Actions Hee was Dux Comes as Saint Cyprian saith or as Esay hath it Spiritus sanctus ductor eius fuit i. The holy Spirit was his Leader But in none of our Actions makes the Scripture any mention that the holy Ghost leadeth vs vnto but onely to Temptation And this is expressed with wordes that carry a kind of force with them though voluntary and sweet Expulit agebatur ductus est Hee drew him not hee was chased hee was led And the mysterie thereof is that no man ought to presume considering his weakenesse so much vpon his owne securitie and confidence that hee should enter into Temptation vnlesse the holy Ghost take him vp as it were by the haire of the head and set him into it And the truth of this doctrine is deliuered vnto vs by Victor Antiochenus Saint Iohn Chrisostome Gregorius Nissenus Euthimius many other Saints of God In corporall warre it is greater courage to fight than to flie but in the spirituall warfare the assurance of the Victorie consists in flying And God would rather haue vs to bee cowards through feare than couragious through presumption and therefore hee first promiseth vs his Protection that is his Ayd and his Fauour Deus refugium virtus adiutor in opportunitatibus in tribulatione i. God is a helper in due season in tribulation Hee first sayes he will bee our refuge and afterwards our helper Flye therefore from danger and haue recourse vnto God and beeing sheltred vnder the shadow of his wings and vpheld by the strength of his Arme thou needst not feare any harme that Hell can doe vnto thee So that God is not bound to fauour thee in those temptations which thou doost thrust thy selfe into but in those that thou seekest to shun Saint Austen aduising I know not whom that they should not talke and conuerse with Women so familiarly as they did they excused themselues vnto him telling him that they onely did so that they might meete with some Temptations wherewith to encounter But this glorious Doctor plainely told them Herein you seeke nothing but dangers and stumbling blockes to cause you to fall And as it is fit to take from before the eyes of the franticke all those images and pictures which may moue passion in him for that they wil be an occasion to make him madder than euer he was before so ought a sinner to auoid all the vanities of this World Ecce elongaui fugiens mansi in solitudine Saint Bernard hath well obserued that for his better ease and quiet this holy King did not onely leaue his owne Citie but fled farre from it And hee that shall flie from the occasions of sinning performes no small matter But hee that shall flie a farre off from them will find it to bee most for his ease Temptation as it is the Deuils acte is ill and God doth not will it positiuely but permissiuely hee doth so sayth Saint Chrisostome Aduising vs that wee should not seeke after them but if they chance to set vpon vs then are wee to stand to it and valiantly to fight it out This our Sauiour Christ would insinuate to his Disciples in the garden when hee sayd vnto them Watch and pray that yee enter not into Temptation For a man to sleepe when hee is in daunger and not to flie vnto God for succour is to seeke after Temptation Saint Austen Saint Cyprian Saint Gregorie and Saint Chrysostome say That this is the meaning of that prayer which 〈◊〉 daily make And lead vs not into Temptation Which carries with it a double sence The one Lead vs not ô Lord into Temptation for our weakenesse and frailtie is exceeding great So doth Petrus Chrisologus expound it But because it is not a fitting language for a Souldier to desire of his Captaine that hee should not send him foorth to fight that other sence is more plaine Suffer vs not ô Lord to fall into Temptation But if thou wilt permit that wee must bee tempted yet consent not ô Lord that wee bee ouercome And this sence Saint Austen seemeth to approue in that his sermon de Monte. But in what sence soeuer you take it it is very true that no man ought rashly to run himselfe into danger
because wee setting our whole delight vpon them wee make them prooue vaine vnto vs. A clock is accounted a vaine thing when it strikes not true but miscounts it's houres The harmonie of this World is like a clocke if a man imploy it wholly in his pleasures it makes him become vaine But Salomon spake not a word of these things till hee had made triall of them When the Prodigall went out of his Fathers house Paradises of delights were presented vnto him but when he was gone far from him all was hunger nakednesse miserie This punishment inflicted vpon him made him open his eies and see his errour Amnon enamoured of Thâ—mâ—r was readie to dye for her loue it seeming vnto him that his life did consist in the inioying of her nay hee counted it his heauen But hee had no sooner had his pleasure of her but he kicked her out of doores and could not indure the sight of her The possessing of riches is not of it selfe either good or bad onely the good vse of them makes them good the bad bad And therefore beeing desired by vs Saint Paul stileth them temptation and Sathans snare Qui volunt diuites fieri inâ—idunt in tentationem in laqueum Diaboli i. They that will bee rich fall into Temptation and into the snare of the Deuill So that your imaginarie goods worke more vpon vs and with more aduantage than those which wee inioy and possesse And the reason is for that the Deuill doth represent more glorie to the imagination in such an office such a dignitie such riches such beautie and such delights than is true Facinatio enim nugacitatis obscurat bona inconstantia concupiscentiae transuertit sensum His cunning witch-craft doth peruert the vnderstanding and makes vs take Ill for Good This is that which our Sauiour Christ called Crapulam ebrietatem saeculi A kind of drunkennes wherwith the men of this World are ouertaken Et inconstantiam concupiscentiae And the Greeke text vseth the word Funda For as that goes alwayes round so doth concupiscence euerie moment altering our desires There are some kind of pictures which if you looke one way vpon them seeme faire and beautifull if another way foule and ougly and full of horror Such doth the Deuill set before thee Thou must haue therefore an eye to the one as to the other looke as wel what is to come as what is present before thee least the Deuill chance to deceiue thee Si cadens adoraueris me If thou wilt fall downe and worship me How earnest and how importunate is the Deuill Saint Gregorie saith That there are two kinds of temptation one sudden as that of Lucifer who as soone as he saw the Sun of Grace begin to rise presently opposed himselfe against him sweeping away with him a third part of the Stars as you may read in the Reuelation And as that of Dauid in the case of Bershabe and as that of Peter when he was suddenly set vpon by the Maid in Caiphas house The other taking more leisure as that of Iudas whom the Deuil went by little and little importuning by his suggestions as an enemie that ouercomes by lengthening out the warre or as a Physition cures a disease by prescribing a long and tedious dyet or as a Moath imperceptibly mars the cloath and the Worme destroyes the wood The Hebrewes call the Deuill Belzebub which is as much to say as Deus Muscarum The God of Flies Now the World hath not a more busie or troublesome creature than your Flies and Gnats in Autumne and in the time of Haruest nor Man a more busie enemie than the Deuill in the Autumne and Haruest of our Soules when we should labour most for Heauen and prouide for a deere yeare Your Flie amongst the Aegyptians was a symbole of importuning and therefore it is said by way of aâ—age The wickednesse of the Flie. There are sinnes which like the Cow we chew the cud vpon we ruminate vpon them and our thoughts are neuer off from them Iob did point out vnto vs these two kinds of temptations the one in the stone that being rent from the top of an high hill falls suddenly down carrying away before it all that stands in it's way it beeing impossible to preuent conueniently the danger thereof Lapis transfertur de loco suo The other in the water which beeing so soft as it is yet by little and little hollowes the hardest stone Homineâ— ergo similiter perdes tota die impugnans tribulauit me Onely Importunitie is the shrewdest temptation Sampson yeelded vnto Dalila tyred out with her re-iterated importunings And there are a thousand Sampsons in these dayes which doe not yeeld themselues so much to sinne by the batterie of temptation as by importunate treaties Si cadens adoraueris me If falling downe thou worship me This was a strange kind of impudencie in the Deuill but he no sooner saw his maske taken away and that our Sauiour had discouered him and his trickes but he hid his head for shame Vade retro Sathana Goe behind me Sathan Saint Hierome saith That with this verie word our Sauiour Christ tumbled him headlong downe to the bottomlesse pit of Hell whereinto he entred howling and making such a hideous noyse and lamentable out-crie that hee strooke a great feare into all those infernall Spirits The strong one was bound and trodden in pieces with the foot of the Lord. Beda hath almost the verie same words This imprisonment of his was enlarged afterwards by Christs death according to that of the Apocalyps He bound him for a thousand yeares In a word He was so ashamed and so out of countenance with this answer of our Sauiours that for many days he did not so much as once offer to peepe out of Hel. Where Pride is there will bee Reproch so saith Salomon That place of Deutronomie whence our Sauior tooke this authoritie doth not say Adorabis Thou shalt adore but Timeâ—is Thou shalt feare as if the truest way to worship God were to feare him The Scripture attributes two names vnto Christ the one of Spouse the other of Lord in the one he shewes his loue in the other the feare which is due vnto him in the one the securitie wherewith wee may come vnto him and offer him our Petitions in the other the respect and reuerence which we owe to so great a Maiestie They are things that are so cimented and ioynted together that he affectionatly loues who humbly fears But I feare I haue bn too long and therefore I will here make an end THE SIXTH SERMON VPON THE MVNDAY AFTER THE FIRST SVNDAY IN LENT MAT. 25. Cum venerit Filius Hominis When the Sonne of Man shall come I Haue treated of this Theame at large in fiue seueral Chapters vpon the Parables But the Sea is neuer emptied by those waters which the Riuers take from it nor those diuine Mysteries lessened by those
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
open to others view and their owne confusion Nor shall these our sinnes bee conspicuous onely to others but euerie offendor shall see and plainely perceiue his owne particular sinnes For there is no man that fully knowes his owne sinnes while hee liueâ— here in this world And so doth Saint Basil interpret that place of the Psalmist Arguam te statuam contra te faciem tuam Euerie man shall then behold himselfe as in a glasse In a word This day will be the summing vp of all those oâ—â— former dayes wherein as in a beadroll wee shall read all the loose actions of our life all our idle words all our euill workes all our lewd thoughts or whatsoeuer else of ill that our hearts haue conceiued or our hands wrought So doth a graue Author expound that place of Dauid Dies formabuntur nemo in eis In that day shall all dayes be formed and perfected for then shall they bee cleerely knowne Et nemo in eis This is a short and cutted kind of speech idest There shall not bee any thing in all the world which shall not bee knowne in that day The other wonder shall be That all this businesse shall bee dispatcht in a moment In ictu oculi saith Saint Paul In the twinckling of an eye The Greeke Text in stead of a moment renders it Atomo which is the least thing in nature Concluding this point with that saying of Theophilact Haec est res omnium mirabilissima This is the greatest wonder of all Statuet Oues à dextris eius Haedos à sinistris He shall place the Sheepe at his right hand and the Goats at the left Dayly experience teacheth vs That what is good for one is naught for another that which helpeth the Liuer hurteth the Spleene one and the selfe same Purge recouers one and casts downe another the Light refresheth the sound Eye and offendeth the sore Wisedome saith That those Rods which wrought amendment in the Children of Israell hardned the hearts of the Aegyptians the one procured life the other death darkenes to the one was light light to the other darknesse When Ioshuah pursued the Ammorites God poured downe Hailestones Lightning and Thunder to Gods enemies they were so many Arrowes to kill them to his friends so many Torches to light them In the light of thy Arrowes saith Abacuc Death to the Wicked is bitter to the Good sweete Iudgement to the Goats is sad heauie but to the Sheep glad ioyfull to the one a beginning of their torment to the other of their glorie And therefore it is here said He shall place the Sheepe at his right hand From this beginning ariseth the Iust's earnest desiring of this our Sauiours comming and the Wicked's seeking to shun it Which is made good by Saint Austen vpon that place of Haggie Hee shall come being wished for of all Nations And his reason is because our Sauiour Christ being desired it is fit that he should be knowne and for want of this knowledge it seemeth vnto him that this place doth not so much suit with his first as his latter comming Saint Paul writing to his Disciple Timothie sayes That the Iust doe long for this judgement His qui diligunt aduentum eius Agreeing with that of Saint Paul to the Romans That the Iust passe ouer this life in sighs tribulations expecting that latter day when their bodies shall bee free from corruption and from death Saint Iohn introduceth in his Apocalyps the soules of the Iust crying out Vsque quò Domine sanctus verax Non judicas vindicas sanguinem nostrum de his qui habitant in terra How long Lord holy and true c. Saint Austen and Saint Ambrose both say That they doe not here craue vengeance on their enemies but that by his comming to judgement the Kingdome of Sinne may haue an end Which is the same with that which we dayly beg in those words of our Paternoster Thy Kingdome come And Saint Iohn in his last Chapter saith The Spirit and the Spouse say Come Come Lord come quickely make no long tarrying That the Sinner should hate this his comming is so notorious a truth that many when things goe crosse with them would violently lay hands on themselues and rid themselues out of this miserable world if it were not for feare of this Iudgement And this was the reason why Saint Paul in saying It is decreed that all men shall die once presently addeth After death Iudgement Other wise there would be many as well discreet as desperate persons that would crie out Let vs die and make an end of our selues at once for a speedie death is better than a long torment This is that that keepes these fooles in awe and quells the vaine confidence of man in generall Tunc dicet Rex his qui à dextris eius erunt vsque esuriui c. Then shall the King say to them on his right hand I was hungrie c. Hee begins with the rewarding of the Good for euen in that day of justice he will that his mercie goe before as well for that it is Gods own proper worke as also for that it is the fruit of his bloud and death Venite Benedicti Patris mei Come yee blessed of my Father a most sweet word in so fearefull a season possidete Regnum Come yee and take possession of an eternall Kingdome Quia esuriui I was hungrie c. Some man may doubt Why Christ at the day of judgement being to examine all whatsoeuer actions of vertue doth here onely make mention of mercie I answer For that Charitie is that Seale and Marke which differenceth the Children of God from those of the Deuill the good Fisâ—es from the bad and the Wheat from the Chaffe Ecce ego judico inter Pecus Pecus so saith Ezechiel and in summe it is the summe of the Law as Saint Paul writeth to the Romans Secondly He maketh mention onely of the workes of mercie for to expell that errour wherein many liue in this life to wit That this businesse of Almes-deeds is not giuen vs as a Precept whereby to bind vs but by way of councel and aduice whereby to admonish vs. And this is a great signe token of this truth for that there is scarce any man that accuseth himselfe for the not giuing of an Almes But withall it is a foule shame for vs to thinke that God should condemne so many to eternal fire for their not shewing pittie to the Poore if it were no more but a bare councell and aduice Gregorie Nazianzen in an Oration which he makes of the care that ought to bee had of the Poore proueth out of this place That to relieue the poore and the needie is not Negotium voluntarium sed necessarium not a voluntarie but a necessarie businesse And Saint Augustine and Thomas are of opinion That we are bound to relieue the necessities of
calls it Eusebim Herodotus Ninus for that it was bult by Ninus husband to Simiramis stiled by another name Assur It was a Citie not only the greatest in all the Kingdome of the Assyrians but in the whole world Moses giues it the name of great Citie De terra inquit illa exiuit Assur aedificauit Niniuem haec est Ciuitas magna It's greatnesse appeareth no lesse by that relation which the Prophet maketh of it Itinere trium dierum for the circuit of this Citie was a three dayes journey and that there were in it onely of babes and sucklings aboue a hundred and twenty thousand soules The Histories make mention That the walls thereof were a hundred foot broad and were fenced with a hundred and twentie strong Towers Sardanapalus was the last thirtie eigth King of that Monarchie it hauing continued a thousand three hundred and seuentie seuen yeares Ionas according to some Hebrewes was the sonne of the woman of Sarepta whom the Prophet Elias raised vp to life his fathers name was Amithay of the Tribe of Asser. But more probable is that of Saint Hierome and Saint Austen That he was of the Tribe of Zabulon his Countrie Geth or Pher the court of one of those Kings whom Ioshuah subdued and slew God commanded him to goe and preach at Niniuie for out of his especiall prouidence he had alwayes a care to prouide a Light not onely for the Iews but also for the Gentiles And therefore Athanasius saith That the Law of Moses was a generall Schoole for all the world and that the Prophets wrought their Reuelations for all the Nations vnder the cope of Heauen and that to this end they went themselues abroad in person and likewise sent their Bookes into diuers Kingdomes and Monarchies as it appeareth by Esay Ieremie Ezechiel Daniel Amos Sidrac Misac and Abednego out of whose Prophecies those Phylosophers that were Gentiles stole many sentences namely those complainers on Gods prouidence are condemned who crie out in hell The Sun of vnderstanding rose not vnto vs. Theophilact saith That God being the Master of the Gentiles after that he had by the light of the Gospel inlightned the world by his Sonne and his Apostles and Disciples he prooued thereby that he was one and the selfe same God both of the Old and the New Testament Quia ascendit malitia eius coram me For the malice thereof is come vp before me That which thou art to preach vnto them is That their sinnes haue mightily mooued my patience This is the office of a Prophet To Esay God said Declare vnto my People their iniquities To Ieremie Behold I haue put my words into thy mouth that thou maist plucke vp destroy c. To Ezechiel They whom I send thee to are stiffe necked and hard hearted In a word God did notifie this Obligation to all the Prophets whereby all they are condemned who place their end altogether in curiosities This is to go about to seeke out for those that are thirstie pretious waters wines cooled with snow and put into copper flaggons Cold water for a thirstie Soule as Salomon saith This is to quench a fire that consumes a whole Citie with bottles of Rosewater it is a going about to open the doore of our breasts with a Key of Gold when one of Yron according to that of Saint Austen is more necessarie It is as if a Souldier should goe forth to warre with his head curiously combed and curled with his Ierken perfumed and other effoeminate gallantries Like vnto these is that Prophet or Preacher who with glorious words flaunting phrases idle curiosities and smooth-filed eloquences shall goe to fight the Lords quarell against the worlds sinfull Monsters That those of Niniuie were great and mightie sinners it is prooued out of this word Malitia which doth embrace all kind of sinnes and much more inforced by that word Ascendit for in the Scripture it is still taken for a great excesse De cadaueribus ascendit faetor The stinke shall come vp out of their bodies Esay saith it Superbia tua saith the booke of Kings ascendit in aures meas Come vp into my eares And here he mentioneth all kind of wickednesse and abhomination and this word Coram me Before me confirmeth as much For when a sinne doth encrease to that heigth that it ouertops the heauens and that it comes to the sight of God it is then so intollerable that it is not to be endured Surrexit Iomas vt fugeret Ionas rose vp that he might flie away Rabbi Rinchi an Hebrew Doctor saith That Fugere doth here inferre an acceleration or making of hast intimating that Ionas made hast in going to the Hauen at Tharsis to take his journie towards Niniuie as also that the Prophet to whom God speaketh is so great with child as it were and so full of that which God commaunds him that if hee should withhold the reuelation which God hath put into him hee would burst with keeping it in That may be said of him which Iob speaketh of himselfe My bellie is like the wine which worketh and hath no vent and like the new bottles that burst Therefore will I speake that I may take breath c. Ose complaineth and did sorrow exceedingly that he had held his peace Woe is me that hauing seene the King and Lord of Hosts I should hold my peace because I was a man of polluted lips Ionas rose vp that he might flie More plaine is that opinion of Saint Hierome Nazianzen Theodoret Theophilact and Methodius the Martyr That Ionas was not so hastie as here before we haue made him but that he pretended nothing lesse but sought by all meanes possible how he might auoyd this journey and closely conueis his bodie as it were from this command of God by shaping his course another way Whither it were of dislike that God should passe ouer his fauors to the Gentiles and that his owne Countrie should remaine disgraced and ruined and albeit he happely knew this was to come to passe hereafter yet hee would not willingly haue seene it so to succeed in his time or whither it were in point of honour in his owne person thinking if not foreknowing that God being so mercifull that he would pardon the Niniuites vpon their first teares he should then suffer in his reputation and should be taken for a braine-sicke foole and that he had exceeded his Commission and so be mocked and laughed at for his labour So that in the end he was fully resolued not to vndergoe the Embassage that was enioyned him and therefore embarking himselfe hee thought hee might then goe whither he wolud through the world This is Saint Hieromes opinion which the Chaldees Paraphrase doe likewise fauour Surrexit vt fugeret ad Mare antequam prophetaret in nomine Domini He rose vp that he might flie vnto the sea before he should prophecie in the name of the Lord.
should come from the Stocke of Dauid Now whither it were that this Cananitish woman by giuing him this attribute thought with her selfe That he had some obligation to fauour the Gentiles for the first Troupes that Dauid had were of fugitiue Slaues and Forreiners which came to his ayd Et factus est eorum Princeps or whither the power that she saw he had in casting out Deuils wrought thus vpon her or whither the much honour that hee had alwaies shewne to women or all of these together were motiues of her pretension I cannot tell you but sure I am that shee did beleeue That our Sauiour Christ came into the world for to saue sinners and for the generall good of all Mankind for the Iew and for the Gentile and that the Deuills were subiect vnto him differing therein from the Pharisees who made him Belzebubs Factor and that there was no disease so incurable which this heauenly Physition was not able to cure and that he had past his word to the greatest Sinners That if they should call vpon God for mercie and beleeue in his sonne Christ Iesus whom he had sent into the world he would free them from forth the depth of their miseries Non respondit ei verbum He answered not a word Origen and almost all the rest of the Saints judge this silence of our Sruiour to bee verie strange in regard of the strangenesse of the circumstances First of all Because that Fountaine saith Origen which was alwaies woont to inuite and call vs to drinke doth now denie water to the Thirstie the Physition that came to cure the Sicke refuse to helpe his Patient that Wisedome which cried out in the Market place with a loud voyce Venite ad me that it should now remaine dumbe Who may not stand amased at it O Lord thou doost not onely accept of Prayer but doost like of the bare desire to doe it not onely of the lips but of our willingnesse to mooue them Et voluntate labiorum illius non fraudasti eum saith Dauid And Wisedome Optaui datus est mihi sensus When I prayed vnderstanding was giuen me and when I called the Spirit of Wisedome came vnto me Secondly That those prayers cries which come not from the heart should notbe heard it is not much Aufer à me tumultum carminum tuorum saith Amos Take thou away from me the multitude of thy Songs for I will not heare the melodie of thy Viols And all because they were not from the heart And in another place Populus hic labijs me honorat corde autem longe est They honour me saith Esay with their lips but their heart is farre from me But this Cananitish woman did by her voice expresse her hearts griefe and most true it is That parents many times louing their children better than themselues are more sencible of their sorows than of their owne Thirdly it being so pious a businesse as the freeing of her daughter from the torment of the Deuill and being sent besides of God into the world Vt dissoluat opera Diaboli the Apostles as well pittying the daughters miserie as the mothers sorow besought our Sauiour in her behalfe saying Dimitte illam Fourthly There must be some great matter in it some extraordinarie reason why Christ should bee now more dumbe than at other times But of that wee haue spoken elsewhere Clamaui per diem non exaudies nocte non c. they are the words of the sonne of God to his eternall Father What ô Lord sayth hee shall I call vpon thee night and day and wilt thou not heare mee Thy silence can bee no scandall vnto mee because I know the secrets of thy heart and thy loue towards mee Marry vnto others it may giue great offence In the former Chapter of this Storie wee haue giuen some reasons of this silence Of those which haue since offered themselues let the first bee that of S. Chrisostome If our Sauiour Christ sayth he should haue made present answer to the Canaanitish woman her patience her perseuerance her prudence her courage and her faith would not haue beene so much seene nor manifested to the World So that our Sauiour was not dumbe out of any scorne or contempt towards her but because in the crysoll of these his put-byes and disdaines hee might discouer the treasure of her Vertues And for this cause did Christ heape so many disgraces vpon her one on the necke of another one while not seeming to take any notice of her griefs another while stiling the Iews children and her selfe a dog Wherewith this poore woman was so far from being offended or taking any exception at it that humbly casting her self downe at his feet shee did worship and adore him allowing all that he sayd to be true that these disgraces were worthily throwne vpon her confessing her selfe to bee no better than a dog yet notwithstanding shee comes vpon him againe with an Etiam Domine Yet the crums ô Lord c. That with kind words and faire promises and other gratious fauours God should incourage his souldiers put strength and boldnesse into them and winne their loue and affection it is not much but that with disdaines and disgraces they should receiue augmentation and increase like Anteus who the oftner he was by Hercules throwne to the ground the abler and stronger hee grew it is more than much Hee that is in Loue hath his affection rather inflamed than abated by disdaines And this Canaanitish woman was falne so farre in loue with our Sauiour that his neglecting of her could not quench the heat of her affection In a word because to fight against the disfauours of God is one of the greatest proofes that a Soule can make of her prowesse that this womans valour might bee the more seene Non respondit ei verbum Hee answered not a word c. The second is of Saint Gregorie Many times saith he God doth defer this or that fauor which we beg at his hands and for no other cause but that he would haue vs to perseuer in Prayer God is so well pleased that wee should pray and sue vnto him that with him hee is Magis importunus qui importunat minus Most troublesome that is least troublesome Saint Austen sayth that out of the pleasure and delight that hee taketh therein God will haue vs to intreat him euen for those things which are alreadie decreed vpon in his diuine Councell And as his prouidence giues vs the fruits of the Earth by the meanes of trauell and tillage so he giues vs many good things many rich blessings by the means of prayer Abrahams posteritie rested verie secure in regard of the promise which God had made vnto them And yet for all this would hee haue Isaacs prayers to bee the meanes that Rebecca of barren should become fruitfull There was great certaintie that God would send raine after that great
paine and torment Mors depascet eos Death shall gnaw vpon them and dying to life they shall liue to death Venit adorauit eum dicens Domine adiuua me Came and worshipped him saying Lord helpe me As there are some kind of fires which recouer more force by throwing water vpon them so the heart of this woman did recouer more courage by this our Sauiors disgrace in not vouchsafing her an answer thinking thereby to quench the heat of her zeale And falling downe prostrate before him and adoring him as God said vnto him Lord am I thy Sheepe or not thy Sheepe camest thou for me or not for me I dare not be so bold to dispute that with thee yet giue mee leaue considering the wretchednesse of my case to call vnto thee for helpe and to beat at the doores of thine eares with a Domine adjuva me with a Helpe me good Lord. Here are those hot impatient violent and firie dispositions condemned for whom those two louely Twinnes Hope and Patience were neuer borne with whom euerie little delaying of their desires and deferring of their hopes driues them to the depth of desperation and is as a thousand deaths vnto them They are like vnto your hired Horses who come so hungrie to their Inne that they will not stay the plucking off of their bridle though thereby they should the better come at their meat Osee compares them to a young Heyfer that hath been vsed to tread out corne who is no sooner taken from the cart or the Plough before her yoke is taken off would faine runne to the threshing floore Ephraim vitula est doctaÌ„ diligere trituram So affected to her feeding that she hath not the patience to put a meane betweene her treading and her eating Non est bonum sumere panem Filiorum mittere Canibus It is not good to take the Childrens Bread and giue it to Doggs This was so cruell a blow that any bodie else would hardly haue indured it But God alwayes proportions his fauours and disfauours according to the measure of our capacitie To thee hee giues riches because he distrusts thy weakenesse to another pouertie because hee knowes his strength Fidelis Deus qui non patietur vos tentare vltra id quod potestis God is so good a God that hee will not suffer yee to bee tempted aboue your power And this reason alone ought to make men rest contented with that state and condition of life whereinto God hath put them Christ you see carries himselfe scornefully to this woman yet poore soule shee patiently suffers and indures all Whether or no for that it is an ordinarie thing with God to be then most kind when he seemes to bee most curst How did he deale with Abraham touching his sonne Isaac Hee makes him draw his sword set an edge vpon it and lift vp his arme to strike but when hee was readie to giue the blow hee holds his hand and bestowes a blessing vpon him for this his great faith and obedience Non est bonum sumere panem filiorum It is not good to take the childrens bread What shall I giue the childrens bread vnto dogges It is not fitting My Miracles and my Doctrine were meant to the children for so was Israel called Filius meus primogenitus Israel It was prouided principally promised vnto them vpon a pact or couenant which God had made with Abraham In a well ordered house the dogs are not allowed to eat the childrens bread worser scraps will serue their turne it is enough that they haue that which is necessarie to nourish their bodie Oculi omnium in te sperant Domine The eyes of all things wait vpon thee ô Lord and thou giuest them their meate in due season such as is fitting for them But the choyce bread of his Law and of his presence this is reserued for his owne house and familie those that are his children and his owne people Of whom Saint Paul sayth Credita sunt illis eloquia Dei And Dauid Non fecit taliter omni nationi Hee hath not dealt so with any nation besides Your Turkes the Moores and the Negros in a scorne and contempt of them wee call them dogges And wee inherit this name from the Moores who when they were Lords of Spaine bestowed that nick-name on vs. The Scripture giues this name of base minded men Nunquid caput canis ego sum Am I a dogges head It was Abuers saying to Ishbosheth As if hee should haue sayd shall I be so base as to pocket such a wrong Againe Shall I take off this dogges head that curseth my King It was Abishays speech of Shimei as making no more reckoning of him than of a dogge Againe Is thy seruant a dogge that I should be so deuoyd of all pittie and humanitie It was Hazaells answere to Elisha when hee told him of the euill that he should doe vnto the children of Israell And Saint Paul aduiseth the Philippians to beware of dogges alluding to Heretickes And the Iewes gaue this attribute of dogge to the Gentiles Etiam Domine nam callite Yes Lord for euen the Whelpes Here this Canaanitish woman taking her Cu caught him at his word She had him now and as Saint Chrisostome noteth held herselfe now as good as alreadie dispatcht and that her sute was at an end Inferring hereupon ô Lord I account my selfe a most happy woman that I may be admitted into thy house though it be but in the nature of a dog First because that dogs beeing faithfull and louing affectionate thereby their Masters vnto them And none shall be more louing and loyall vnto you than I who shall still wait vpon you be neuer from your heeles and follow you vnto death And secondly for that to dogs were neuer yet denyed the crums that fell from their Masters table I would not poore vnworthy creature as Theophilact makes her speake desire any of those thy greater miracles which thou keepest for thine own children the least that thou hast will content me be it but as a crum in comparison of the whole loafe O how humbly and discreetly did this Canaanitish woman goe to worke How meane and yet how great a courtesie did shee beg of our Sauiour For in Gods house the least crumme of his bread is sufficient to make vs happy for euer and neuer more to suffer hunger as the least drop of his bloud is able to cleanse thousands of soules from their sinnes Elegi abiectus esse in dâ—mo Dei mei I had rather bee a doore-keeper in the house of my God c. Another letter hath it Ad limen Dei mei At the threashold of my God I had rather bee a begger and craue an Almes at the grouncell or lowest greese in Gods house than to triumph and liue in pompe in the pallaces of Princes Moses would rather haue his scrip with a morsell of bread and
that had neither hand nor foot to help himselfe lying benum'd in his little cart bore before him the cause of his griefe by falling into those faults which he had formerly committed And this is inferred out of these our Sauiours words vnto him Iam noli amplius peccare Now see thou sinne no more But if any man aske me How can that man sinne that is bound hand and foot I answer That for all this his desires and thoughts are not fettered Iniquitatem mediâ—atus est in cubili suo astitit omni viae non bonae Hee that applies himselfe to euill thoughts and hath a desire vnto them there is not that wickednesse whereof he would not reap the fruits thereof From whence I cannot but note out these two things vnto thee The one That the sinnes of our thoughts and imaginations are of all other the easiest to be done How many Kniues would a Cutler make in a day if he could finish them without a Forge an Anuile or a Hammer Questionlesse â—erie many The like reason is to be rendred of the errors of our thoughts The other That they are the harder to be seene or holpen To be seene for that they are so secret Ab occultis meis munda me Clense me ô Lord from my secret sinnes To be holpen for as he that is still kept hungrie and thirstie hath neither his thirst nor his hunger satisfied but encreaseth more and more vpon him so â—e that neuer enioyes those humane delights neuer hath the hunger and thirst of his desires satisfied So that this poore sicke man perseuering in his sinne it is not much that God should perseuer in his punishments for our shorter sinnes Gods chastisements â—re also short In momento indignationis auerte faciem meam parumper i. For a moment in myne anger I hid my face from thee for a little season But for our longer longer Vir multum jurans à domo eius non recedet plaga i. The Plague shall neuer depart â—â—oÌ„ the house of him that sweareth much whence it coÌ„meth to passe that so many are â—arr'd and so few amended Which is all one with that of Ieremie Dissipati neâ—ue compuncti These are the Deuils Martyrs who suffer not onely without a reward as Saint Paul saith Si peccantes suffertis quid vobis est gratiae but treasure vp new torments vnto themselues But some one will aske How comes it to passe that this man being a sinner which waited at the Fish-poole our Sauiour should for his sake leaue other iust â—nd good men and make choice to come vnto him First as I haue told you alreadie because Sicknesse preserueth the soule from â—inne and that it is a token of Gods mercie and goodnesse towards vs. Secondly Because this poore wretch did hope to be healed his thoughts and â—is hopes laying hold vpon Gods fauour towards him with a strong and assured â—â—â—iance and this was that which this sicke man did purposely seeke after Euthimius doth much endeere his sufferance and his perseuerance neuer despairing but assuring himselfe that Heauen would yet at last bee propitious and fauourable vnto him and though yeare after yeare nay for so many yeres together he found no good many contradictions offering themselues vnto him yet his hopes did neuer faile him His sinnes were rather accessorie and accidentall than of any proposed malice or in despight as we say of God and such kind of faults as these God sooner pardoneth and farre more easily forgiueth The Scripture sometimes proposeth vnto vs Peccadores remitados Notorious sinners to whose account you cannot adde one sinne more than they haue charged themselues withall Who haue purposely departed from God Of these Iob saith Quasi de industria recesserunt à me Esay Pepigimus faedus cum mâ—rte We haue made a couenant with Death Malachie Vanus est qui seruit Deo He is vaine that serueth God These are desperate resolutions Others there are who sinne by accident In the Historie of the Kings it is said of Dauid That he arose vp from his chaire to walke vpon the Tarrasse of his Pallace and that his eye lighted by chance vpon Bersheba who was bathing her selfe in her garden this was a businesse which fell out casually and as we say by hap-hazard though his plotting how to haue his pleasure of her was a thing premeditated but his seeing and his coueting of her was as it were accidentally and by chance Whereas the desire that Dauid had to serue God was euer purposed and determined by him Iuraui statui custodire iudicia justiciae tuae So that his offending of his God was not wilful but of weaknes by meere haphazard Saul made a Proclamation That no man should eat till hee had gotten the victorie ouer the Philistines but the souldiers were so hungrie with sighting and fasting that their minds ran on nothing else saue the stanching of their hunger Et comedit populus cum sanguine The people tooke Sheepe and Oxen and Calues and slew them on the ground and did eat them with the bloud which was contrarie to Gods commandement not considering that this their eating at this time and vpon such an occasion was peccatum per accidens an accidentall sinne In a word one of the surest pledges of our predestination is to make our seruing of God the Principall and our offending him the Accessorie Hunc cùm vidisset Dominus When the Lord had seene him This his seeing of him was not by chance nor is it so to be construed of Christ but to shew that he was man hee did many things as it were by chance And therefore when he saw this mans miserie and knew how long he had layne thus and how he was forsaken of all the world and that there was no bodie to helpe him then c. It is a great matter I can assure you for a man to cast his eyes vpon the wretched estate of the Poore for from the eyes compassion growes the hearts tendernesse the one is no sooner toucht but the other melts Noli auertere faciem tuam ab vllo paupere Turne not away thy face from the Poore Tobias told his sonne That if he should not turne his eye aside from the Poore God would neuer turn away his face from him The sores of the Poore saith Saint Chrysostome being beheld by vs teach aduise and mooue vs. When Pilate presented our Sauiour Christ to the Iewes wounded from head to foot and all his bodie on a goaâ—â— bloud he said vnto them Ecce homo Behold the man but they shutting their eyes and turning their faces away from him cried out Away with him away with him whereas if they had earnestly beheld him and viewed him wel from top to toe their hearts had they beene of stone as they were little better they would haue growne soft and tender with it The reason why so little remedie now a dayes is giuen
proclaime them as we say at the Crosse. Leaue this care to God for he will bring them to light in their due time when they shal make for thy honour and his glorie Elias was verie carefull that no man should know of his departure nay he sought to hide it from Elisha saying vnto him in Gilgall Sede hic c. Tarrie here I pray thee for the Lord hath sent me to Bethel But Elisha said As the Lord liueth and as thy soule liueth I will not leaue thee And hee was scarce come to Bethell but the childeren of the Prophets that were at Bethell came out to Elisha and said vnto him Knowest thou that the Lord will take thy master from thine head this day Noui silete Yea I know it said he hold yee your peace Elias afterwards departed for Ierico intreating Elisha that hee would tarrie behind promising him that he would presently returne vnto him but he could not persuade Elisha vnto it They were scarce come to Ierico but the sonnes of the Prophets acquainted him with the like newes to whom he answered as before Noui silete In the end going for Iordan Elisha still followed him and fifty of the sonnes of the Prophets so that the more Elias sought to conceale this businesse the more God made it knowne by reuealing it as Tostatus hath obserued to the sons of the Prophets And Elias desiring that they should not see this his Chariot of fire and his Triumph one only God made many witnesses of his glorie Neminem viderunt nisi solum Iesum Onely in Christ Iesus are our hopes secured Men will accompany you whilest the glorie of your prosperitie lasteth but that beeing ended you shall find no man that will sticke vnto you Woe vnto him that is alone for if he fall hee shall haue none to helpe him vp And this is truly verified of those who trust on the world or haue any confidence in man Weigh and consider with thy selfe what a number of friends Ierusalem had in it's prosperitie how readie to seru◠her and to court her loue but when Ierusalem began to fall and when she had most need of her friends Ieremie complaineth Shee had not so much as one friend to be her comforter The God of all comfort vphold vs with his euerlasting loue that we may not perish in this wrold nor in the world to come THE TWELFTH SERMON VPON THE MVNDAY AFTER THE SECOND SVNDAY IN LENT IOHN 8.21 Ego vado quaeretis me I goe my way and yee shall seeke me THe Scribes and Pharisees were offended at the fauour which in affront of their authoritie our Sauiour had shewne to the Adulteresse saying Let him that is among you without sinne cast the first stone at her They had made some threatning offers as men that thought themselues much wronged by him to take away his life but because his houre was not yet come no man laid hands on him Whereupon our Sauiour said vnto them Ego vado Why seeke yee thus after my life I goe my way I am he whom willingly and of myne owne accord offer my selfe vnto death your armes were not strong enough to hold me if it were in my desire to make resistance but when I am dead yee shall seeke mee For the Iewes vsed continually to cal for their Messias and did earnestly long after him expecting then his comming when as hee was alreadie come and for that this hope of theirs was hopelesse he saies vnto them Yee shall die in your sinnes your death shall differ much from mine for I shall goe one way and you another Whither I goe yee cannot come Your inferiour Ministers did presume That our Sauiour out of a desperate humour would needs liue among the Gentiles as hee that goes to Morocco to turne Moore the Pharisees they thought that he would goe destroy himselfe What meaneth this man to say Whither I goe yee cannot come Will he kill himselfe Vnto which vnmannerly speech our Sauiour replied Yee are from beneath I am from aboue yee are of this world I am not of this world I haue told yee alreadie That except ye beleeue that I am he yee shall die in your sinnes not onely in that of incredulitie but in all those other which ye shall commit for without faith in him who I am there is no remission of sinnes c. I goe my way and yee shall seeke me This phrase of speech our Sauior Christ did often vse to shew That hee died meerely out of his owne proper will and pleasure O Lord said Abraham I shall be verie willing to die without leauing any children behind me seeing that thou wilt haue it so Eusebius Emisenus to this purpose expoundeth those words which our Sauior vttered on the Crosse to his father In manus tuas Domine commendo Spiritum meum Into thy hands ô Lord I commend my Spirit Now Commendare is all one with Ponere I put not ô Lord my soule into the hands of death nor into those of my enemies for neither their whips nor their thorns nor their nayl◠nor their speare were able to take my life from me if I had not bin willing to surrender it vp into thy hands Seneca saith That a benefit consists not so much in the thing that is giuen as the good will wherewith it is giuen And therfore when the gift is small the greatnesse of it must be measured according to the goodnesse of the will The death of our Sauiour Christ was the greatest benefit that euer the world enioyed but the willingnesse wherewith he laid downe his life for vs was farre greater Maiorem Charitatem c. Greater loue hath no man than this that a man layes downe his life for his friend But heare now the wofullest the heauiest and most lamentable case that can possibly fall within the compasse of thy imagination to wit That the death of his Sonne which God promised to the world as a Sea of mercies as a Heauen of hopes as a ransome of our slauerie and as a reparation of all our miseries he should now giue it as a threatning to this wretched and vnfortunate Nation and how taking his leaue of his Disciples in that Sermon of his last Supper with tender teares trickling down his eyes and with a great many other kind demonstrations of his loue hee should make such large promises vnto them after his death one of the chiefest whereof was Let not your heart be troubled for although I go from you yet shall I still remain with you Lo I am with you till the end of the world yet he should say now to the Pharisees Ego vado quaeretis me I depart away from you neuer to see you more O what a cruell blow was this O what a sad departure is this how comfortlesse and how hard to be endured If from him that is dangerously sicke the Physition shall goe his way who is able to cure
of Moses Chaire comprehendeth and includeth in it two things The one Iurisdiction for to command and chastise The other Authority for to teach and instruct In a Prelate likewise two other things are to be considered First Hâ—s Life Secondly His Doctrine As it was an especiall effect of his diuine prouidence That the vertue of the Sacraments should not be annexed and wedged to the goodnesse of the Minister for that many might thereby lose the fruit of receiuing them aright so likewise the goodnesse of the Doctrine is not tyed to the Prelates goodnesse I wil make this my Couenant with them saith the Lord My Spirit that is vpon thee and my words which I haue put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed saith the Lord from henceforth euen for euer S. Augustine in his book De Doctrina Christiana and in that which hee wrote against Faustum Manicheum saith Cathedra Moysi c. The Chaire of Moses wherein they sate and bare rule did inforce them to teach well though they liued ill besides Moses in his Chaire did not allow of any strange Doctrine And in case such a one shall read himselfe and vent in the Chaire the froth of his owne wit God is so farre from commanding this man to be obeyed that he coniureth both the Old and New Testament against him Ieremie speaketh thus to the Prophets Myne heart breaketh within me because of the Prophets those false Prophets which deceiue the People all my bones shake I am like a drunken man and like a man whom Wine hath ouercome for the presence of the Lord and for his holy words The Priest and the Prophet shake hands and ioyne both together in the perdition of my sheep and applaud themselues in these their errors but they shal haue no great cause to brag and boast thereof for I will giue them Hemlocke to eat and Gall to drinke The Prophets of Ierusalem haue defiled the Land and haue beene the onely Authors of all those mischiefes that are now afoot in the World The Priest and the Prophet are defiled and haue strengthened the hands of the Wicked These Prophets then ô Lord being that wee may not imitate their workes Shall we giue credit to their words They doe not teach vs that which God reuealeth vnto them but the inuentions of their owne braine and the foolish imaginations of their owne hearts All the whole thirteenth Chapter of Ezechiel is full of these complaints and threatnings And in the twentie third Chapter he repeateth that which was spoken by Ieremias Heare not the words of those that see vanitie and diuine lyes And in the thirteenth Chapter of Deâ—tronomie If thyne owne brother shall persuade thee to serue strange gods hearken not vnto him c. In the New Testament there are many cleere and plaine places to this purpose As in Math. 7. Rom. 16. Tim. 1. 3. Titus 3. and Thessalonians 3. And Saint Iohn in his Canonicall Epistle If any man shall declare any other Gospell 〈◊〉 him be accursed In a word The Doctrine which appertaineth to the Truth God commands vs to serue obey the same all the rest to shun and auoyd it Chrysostome expounding those words All things whatsoeuer they shall say vnto you doe saith All those things that are not repugnant to the Law of God And the phrase of Scripture is Children obey your Parents in all things and Seruants obey your carnal Masters in all things which is to be vnderstood in all those things wherein they ought to obey them There is sometimes in your Prelates a kind of sickenesse like vnto that of Iob who when all the rest of his bodie was full of sores and botches yet his lips remained whole and sound Onely my lippes are left about my teeth And because the lips of the Priest are the depositorie of the wisedome of God according to that of Malachie The Priests lips preserue knowledge and Ezechiel That God hath charged his Priests That they shall teach his people the difference betweene the holy and prophane and cause them to discerne betweene the vncleane and the cleane and that he wil giue them light to decide such controuersies as shal come before them wee may verie well giue credit to that which they shall say Quaecunque dixerint vobis facite shunne therefore their workes but obey their words Saint Augustine drawes in the example of the Vine enuironed with Bushes and Thornes willing thee to gather the Grapes and let the Briars alone Saint Chrysostome introduceth diuers other examples Out of the Mines take the gold and throw away the drosse From your Standards the Roses that smell sweet and put by the prickles that may offend thee From your soure Hearbes your sweet Honey from your durtie Shells your orientall Pearle and from your fruits take away the huskes and the parings Vpon one the same Tree there may be two sorts of Fruits the one wholsome the other mortall eat the good hate the bad Sampson suckt Honey out of the jaw of a Beast and let the bone alone Saint Chrysostome Si male vixerint c. If they liue ill that 's theirs if they teach wel that 's ours Take therefore that which is thine and leaue that which is anothers alone to himselfe In euerie Teacher there is a life and a doctrine the life is his the doctrine thyne chuse thou that which is thine and cease thou to examine what is his Si separaberis pretiosum à vili quasi Os meum eris If thou separate the pretious from the vile thou shalt be as my Mouth Pretious meat in a foule plate is the Doctrine of Heauen in an ill life Saint Augustine points out vnto vs three kind of Ministers Pastor mercenarius latro foue tolera fuge The Sheepheard the Hireling and the Theefe all enter into the Sheepefold but the Sheepeheard and the Hireling teach good Doctrine the Theefe bad Flie from the Theefe beare with the Hireling but loue the true Sheepheard Whatsoeuer they shall say vnto you doe If God command that wee respect and obey the Sheepheards for their good words though their actions bee naught he that shall contemne his Pastor who is holy both in his life and doctrine What fauour can he hope for One of those fauours which God promised to his people was To giue them Gouernours that should be Peace it selfe and Iustice itselfe Ponam visitationem tuam pacem prâ—â—positos tuos justiciam Hee stiles Iudges Masters and Gouernors with the name of Visitation and saith That they shall be his peace and his justice speaking it in abstracto which carrieth more force with it than if it had beene vttered in concreto For admit that a Prelat be a Lyon and that as Ecclesiasticus saith Euertit domesticos eius and that hee begin to rome and rage about the house there is not any whip comparable to
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
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
him what would haue become of poore Peter But vpon the sinnes of the Pharisees our Sauiour did not put any taxe or limitation That all the bloud of the Iust might light vpon their heads For they were a reprobate kind of people The liues of the Prophets he reuenged by the death of his Sonne and heire He reuenged the euill workes which they had done in that the Light beeing brought into the World they shut vp themselues in Darkenesse And with this suteth that of Esay Thou hast made their owne iniquities the instruments and as it were the hands to dash them in pieces Thou hast made them subiect to their sinnes they can doe no more than what sinne shall command them to doe If it bid them kill they shall kill if steale they shall steale In a word Sinne is their Lord and they are Sinnes â—laues And therefore the Scripture termeth those that are great Sinners Vendidos Men that are sould ouer vnto sinne Esay puts this name vpon Aâ—bab I am sould to sinne and those who denied God his Law or their Countrie did take part with those their enemies that were Infidells the first booke of the Macabees registreth them for Slaues that had sould themselues ouer vnto sinne The like saith Saint Paul of those who remaine captiues to the Deuill and that follow after his will A quo captiui tenemur ad ipsius voluntatem Out of whose snare wee must come to amendment and not suffer our selues to be taken of him at his will And the Inheritance shall be ours The Sinner summing vp his wickednesse thinkes he hath made a iust and good account So Pharaoh pursuing Gods People made this sure reckoning with himselfe Persequar I will follow them take them and spoyle them and my Soule shall haue it's desire vpon them So did it fare with these Farmers they had cast vp their reckoning and made full account that the Inheritance should be theirs They had destroyed his People his Temple his Vineyard his Syon his Prophecies his Miracles his Priesthood his Arke his Authoritie and his Glorie What could they well doe more to make themselues Lords of all But Conuertetur dolor eius in caput eius They shall bee ouertaken in their owne wickednesse and this mischiefe shall light vpon their owne heads Et ejecerunt eum extra Vineam And they cast him out of the Vineyard They cast him out of the Vineyard and slew him Saint Chrysostome saith That they cast him out of the Vineyard that his bloud might not defile it Vsing him herein like a Leaper which was no more than was prophecied by Esay Stand apart come not neere me for I am holier â—han thou The Iewes were so daintie that when Iudas repented him of what he had done and returned them their mony againe they would none of it It is not lawfull for vs to put this money into the Treasurie because it is the price of bloud And they did not onely expresse their hypocrisie in this particular but they would not likewise enter into the Praetorium or Common-Councell house That they might not be defiled with his companie And here in this place They cast him out of the Vineyard but the Diuine prouidence which did with a more especiall hand guide that action did so order the businesse that the bloud of our Sauiour Iesus Christ should be shed out of the Vineyard because it should not hinder the destruction and desolation that was to come vpon that wretched accursed City For if Ierusalem should haue beene besprinkled with the bloud of this Lambe the Angel would haue past by it and the Roman power should not haue bin able to haue ruined it and laid it leuell with the ground They cast him likewise out of the Vineyard for to inrich the Land of the Gentiles his bloud which spake better things than that of Abel being shed in their â—auour and for their good The glorious Doctor Saint Ambrose saith That the â—ield which Caine drew out Abel into was bad and barren ground it being Gods pleasure that that place should be vnfruitfull wherein that bloud should be shed â—hat was to crie for vengeance But for the bloud of our most blessed Sauiour â—nd Redeemer Iesus Christ howbeit it fell among stories yet because it spake â—etter words than that of Abel as also for that from the Crosse he poured down â—is benediction vpon it they lost their barrennesse Saint Augustine saith That as in the Garden he sweated bloud making that ground fruitfull therewith that Martyrs might bud and spring out of it so in Mount Caluarie hee also shed his bloud to the end that the Land of the Gentiles taking this diuine Balsamum into their Soules and letting it soke into their hearts they might bring forth great and plentifull Fruits euen Fruits in aboundance Quid faciet Dominus Vineae What will the Lord of this Vineyard doe Tell me yee that are learned in the Lawes What course thinke yee he will take with these Husbandmen Ezecâ—â—â—l in his twentie eigth Chapter sets out the King of Tyre with all possible glorie and greatnesse adorning him with Wisedome Beautie Riches pretious stones Pearles and brooches of Gold brought from beyond the seas But if many were these his blessings and fauours which God had bestowed vpon him the greater by far were those his sins which hee committed against him in his ingratitude disloyaltie â—yrannie dishonestie wantonnesse filthinesse c. And therefore when God shall come to take an account of vs What will the Lord of the Vinyard doe then And in the sixteenth Chapter he paints out vnto vs a poore little Infant that was cast out as it were into the Streets and no eye pittied her This poore soule the King as he passed by tooke her out of the extremitie of miserie bred her vp made much of her inricht her couered her with Silke gâ—â—ded her about with fine Linnen cloathed her with broydered workes decked her with ornaments put bracelets vpon her hands a chaine about her necke and a beautiful Crown vpon her head c. when he had bestowed all these things vpon her and that she was come of age to be his Spouse which the King of all other things desired most she left his house ranne away from him set vp for her selfe in a by-corner of the Citie playing the Harlot multiplying her Treasons lightnesses loosnes of life purchasing her selfe Louers with her Siluer not remembring the dayes of her youth when she was naked and bare and forsaken of all the world saue this good King that tooke compassion on her Now when God shall come to take an account of her concerning those courtesies which she had receiued What will the Lord of the Vineyard do then The fauors which God affâ—â—ded his People Who can recount them He sent them Prophets Miracles 〈◊〉 Victories they did sigh for his comming importuning Heauen with theâ—â— groanes The Light shined
the heart of this people bee made blind and their eares dull Cum ejecisset Daemonium locutus est mutus When the Deuill was gone out the Dumbe spake The Deuill was first to be driuen out before the Dumbe could speake First The dore or the window is to be opened that the light may come in First you must turne the cocke of the Conduit or plucke out the stopple before the water can gush out The penitent man must first cast the Deuill out of his bosome before hee can make any good Confession First the Preacher must cast him out of his heart before hee can preach any sound Doctrine What confession can a Sinner make while the Deuill dwells in his soule What sorrow or feeling can hee haue of his former faults What purpose of amendment for the future What acknowledgement of the heinousnesse of his crimes What shame or what feare of offending Antiently men did confesse themselues only vnto God to whom euery secret of the heart was so open that mans thought and intention was sufficient with the penitent his condemning himselfe by his own mouth Yet notwithstanding Ezechias said I will recount all my yeares in the bitternesse of my soule And Dauid Anni mei sicut araneae meditabuntur With that care and melancholie wherewith the spiders weaue their webs drawing euery thred out of their owne bowells so will I meditate on the yeares of my life drawing out threds of sorrow and repentance for euerie fault that I shall commit from the bottome of my heart If thou canst be content to imploy all thy sences for the good of thy bodie not do the like for thy soule thou doost therein wrong thy soule heauen and God Thou weepest and wailest for the losse of these earthly goods but shedst not a teare for the losse of those rich treasures of heauen Two things are inioyned the penitent The one a full and intire Confession The other a strict examination of their owne conscience And that so strict as may befit so great and waighty a businesse as is the saluation of the Soule and then may the Dumbe speake and the Preacher preach For if the Deuill be still pulling him by the sleeue what good crop can he render vnto God of his Hearers What light can hee giue to his Auditorie who is himselfe possessed by the Prince of Darknes Open thou my lips o Lord I shal set forth thy praise do thou pardon me my sins I shal sincerely preach thy Word The Scribes Pharisees who were teachers but not doers of the Law Ieremy cals them false Scribes What they wrought with their pen they blotted out with their works The like kind of fault that partie committeth who singeth Psalms vnto God in the Quire and yet hath the Deuill in his brest And then how different must this mans thoughts be from his words He can hardly say Confitebor tibi Domine in toto corde meo I will confesse vnto the Lord with my whole heart as long as he hath giuen himselfe ouer vnto Sathan The Dumbe spake This man prostrating himselfe at our Sauiours feet might verie well say Blesse the Lord ô my Soule and all that is in mee praise his holy Name The Lord looseth them that are bound the Lord inlightneth the Blind Praise the Lord ô my Soule I will praise the Lord in my whole life A Sinner that truly repents himselfe and that sees himselfe freed from the Deuill and from Hell is neuer satisfied with giuing thankes vnto God and in praising his holy Name as oft as hee considers the great mercie which God hath shewed towards him Saint Augustine saith That although the creating of Angells and the justifying of Soules doe equally argue Gods great power yet the second is an act of farre greater mercie He casteth out Deuills through Beelzebub the chiefe of the Deuills Origen Saint Augustine and Saint Ambrose say That the Deuills haue their studies and their cares apart This is their first Tenent Some say they treat of Auarice some of Luxurie others of Ambition others of Reuenge some perturbe mens minds occasioning great sorrow others excesse of foolish joy and mirth Secondly They hold That in euerie one of these seuerall vices there is a superiour Deuill which hath command ouer many that are inferiour vnto him And he that is the Chiefetaine of one of these Legions is not obedient to any Saint whatsoeuer except him that excells in humilitie whose lowlinesse of mind may be able to incounter with his pride of heart S. Marke relateth That our Sauiour deliuering one ouer that was possessed of a Deuill to his Disciples to the end that they should make him whole howbeit they had boasted That Deuills also were subiect vnto them yet they could not doe it Afterwards asking Iesus the cause of their not curing him hee answered Such kind of Deuills as these are not cast out but with Prayer and fasting This Deuill should seeme to be a Prince of some Legion and none could doe any good vpon him saue such Saints of God as were wonderfull meeke and humble and with Fastings did beat downe the bodie of sinne and by frequent and feruent prayer prostrate their Soules Thirdly Many of these deuils do possesse diuers parts of the body which correspond with that vice which they are subiect to And as the soldier who sealing a wall or a fort stickes his dagger or his Pike in some part of the wall where hee meanes to get vp so the Deuill seekes to pitch his standard there where hee may aduance it with most ease and most to his honour and glorie Alfegor that dishonest Deuill domineeres most in the Loyns as it is noted by Saint Gregorie in his Exposition of that place vpon Iob Virtus eius in lumbis eius His strength lies in his loynes Pluto the Prince of Couetousnesse raignes most in the hands Our Sauiour Christ healed a hand that was withered signifying thereby That it was a couetous hand and yeelded not the fruit of good workes Beelzebub who is the Prince of Pride rules principally in the head This Beelzebub by interpretation is the Prince of Flies whither it were or no that they gaue him this name in regard of those many Flies which his Sacrifices did breed or whither it were because the Acharonitae did presume that he had freed them from certaine filthie and loathsome Flies or for that the Flies are alwayes buzzing about the head and face or because the Deuill and these Flies are much alike in their euil disposition According to that of Salomon Muscu morientes perdunt suauitatem â—â—guenti Dead Flies doe marre the sweetnesse of the Oyntment or for that the Flie is the Emblem of a proud Deuill Ipse est Rex super omnes filios superbiae This Deuill is a proud daring Deuill proud in his Motto Similis ero Altissimo I will bee like to the most High and proud in that his proffer To haue
the heart there is no excuse We read in the Legend That the Deuil met with Machariâ—s and told him I haue the odds of thee in a thousand things thou fastest and I neuer eat thou watchest and I neuer sleepe thou sometimes takest paines and I am neuer idle yet thou hast one great aduantage of me to wit thou hast a cleane heart and myne is full of rancor and malice c. This people honours me with their lips but their heart is farre from me This is an excellent Lesson for those that pray and sing in the Quire that prayer which is onely with the tongue God makes little reckoning of it Saint Cyprian sayth That the Church doth admonish the People that at the time of diuine Seruice they should haue their hearts in Heauen Sursum corda And although their answer be Habemus ad Dominum yet many doe repeat it by rote like Parats without any kind of attention at all Thou desirest of God That hee would heare thee when thou art so farre off from thy selfe that thou doost not heare thy selfe and wouldest haue him to be mindfull of thee when God knowes thou doost not mind thy selfe It is a wofull thing that men should say Seruice as if they did not say it and that they should pray as if they did not pray and that they should sing as if they did not sing The Lateran Councell saith Studiosecelebrent deuote quantum Deuâ— dederit And they willed it so to be done In virtute sanctae obedientiae Saint Paul Be fulfilled with the Spirit speaking vnto your selues in Psalmes and Hymnes and spirituall Songs singing and making melodie to the Lord in your hearts Whereupon Saint Hierome saith Audiant hi quibus psallenâ—i in ecclesia officium est Let your singing men giue eare to that which they sing in the Church And Gratian puts it in the Decretals And the Glosse saith Non clemens sed amans clamat in aâ—re Dei It is not the loudnesse of the voyce but the louingnesse of the heart that rings in Gods eare In a word The power of Prayer must come from the Soule Saint Gregorie saith That Abels Sacrifice was so well accepted of God because hee had first offered the same in his heart and that it was not so much esteemed for that it was of the best of his flockes but for the deuotion wherewith he offered it vp And Cains out of a contrarie respect so sleightly regarded But in vaine they worship me teaching for Doctrine mens Precepts By these Precepts of men he vnderstandeth those which are contrarie to the Lawes of God as it is well noted by Irenaeus And in those dayes there were verie many among them as Thomas Saint Hierome and Epiphanius hath obserued Saint Paul sayth as much Improoue rebuke exhort for the time will come when they will not suffer wholesome Doctrine but hauing their eares itching shall after their owne lusts get them a heape of Teachers and shall turne their eares from the truth and shall be giuen vnto Fables Where Faith is indangered there must wee not vse a soft and smooth hand Now the Pharisees following Iewish Fables and applying themselues to the precepts of men did turne away from the truth they placed their holinesse in outward ceremonies they receiued the offerings of stolne things God abhorring nothing more The Saduces did denie the immortalitie of the soule the resurrection of the dead finall judgement reward and punishment The Galileans denied obedience to any saue to God The Herodians did beleeue that there was no other Messias but Herod The Esseni that men ought not to sacrifice in the Temple nor sweare vpon necessitie nor haue proprietie of goods To all these our Sauiour sayth They worship mee in vaine They do but loose their labor in honoring me and in seruing me That which goeth into the mouth defileth not the man c. There is no meat in it's owne nature that hurteth the soule Saint Paul saith To the cleane all things are cleane but to the vncleane nothing is cleane For the sinne is not in the meat but in the vse thereof and when we ought to abstaine God saw all that hee had made and lâ—â— it was very good The forbidden tree was good but it was Adams disobedience that made it bad Euery creature of God is good saith Saint Paul and nothing ought to beerefâ—sed if it be receiued with thankes giuing But the forge wherein this is ill forged is the heart Out of the heart come euill thoughts The heart in Scripture is sometimes taken for the Vnderstanding Their foolish heart was full of darkenesse Sometimes for the Will Where is their treasure there is their heart allso Sometimes for the Memorie Let not my words depart out of thy heart all the dayes of thy life And sometimes for the soule Thou shalt loue the Lord thy God with all thy heart From a good soule come good thoughts and good workes and from an euill soule euill thoughts and euil workes As this fountaine is so are the waters that flow from thence either troubled or cleere And as to repaire a sicknesse wee must haue recourse to it's cause so all your Saints adresse themselues to the soule Dauid desired of God that he would giue him a new heart fearing that the heart that now he had would neuer leaue it's woonted trickes but runne according to it's old byas Create in me a cleane heart ô God and renew a right spirit within me And if that may not be done then he desires an Amplius laua me Wash me till my spots be taken away and that I be whiter than the snow Fiat cormeum immaculatum in iustificationibus tuis c. At the doore of Paradice God placed one or many Cherubims For Cherubin is there in the plurall beeing set there to cowe Man and to keepe him backe So many Cherubims were not set there for Man onely but for the Deuill who had taken of the fruit of the tree of Life and deliuered it vnto Man But the Deuill is farre more greedie of the heart of Man than of the tree of Life And therefore we are to desire of God that he will bee pleased to set a guard vpon it From the heart comes Murders Adulteries Fornications Thefts false Testimonies and Slanders Here is a powerfull hellish squadron which assaults the heart Saint Paul makes a larger muster of all these souldiers These are the knowne workes of the flesh dishonesties filthinesse vncleanenesse fornications adulteries witchcrafts sorceries enmities contentions emulations angers debates dissentions enuies drunkennesse and murder There are no countries regions nor cities sayth Saint Chrysostome that containe such a companie of enemies and all of them conspiring against a poore miserable heart What so many rauening wolfes against one silly sheepe so many greyhounds let slip against one cowardly hare so many kites against one single chicken so many eagles against one poore pigeon
likewise beeing the greatest in Nature and Essence ought to bee the greatest in our Loue and Affection Next vnder God enter those goods of Heauen of Earth And Good being the marke whereat our Loue shoots our greatest Loue should direct it selfe to the greatest good And this is to obserue an order and good temper in our Loue. Now touching the disorder of our Loue our Sauiour sayd Hee that loues Father or Mother more than mee is not worthie of mee Againe In not louing God to whom wee owe so much loue this excesse in the contrarie may turne to immodestie and impudencie And make vs breake out with those Cast-awayes in Iob into these desperate termes Get thee farre from vâ— we will haue no knowledge of thy wayes Besides In imploying our loue so wholely vpon the Creatures we may chance to choake that loue which we owe to the Creator Saint Austen expounding that place of Iohn Loue not the World neither the things that are in the world saith That our heart is like vnto a vessell which if it be filled full with the World it cannot receiue God beeing like to that peece of ground where the Tares did choake the Wheate So that of force wee must emptie the vessell and weede well the ground of our hearts that the loue of God may fructifie in vs. This inordinate loue doth set the heart like a Calenture on fire From the heart come all our euill thoughts and goe festring through the faculties of the soule And â—inne when it is finished bringeth foorth death saith Saint Iames. She was taken with a great Feuer As there are diuers kinds of Feuers so haue they a correspondencie with the diuers infirmities of the soule your young men are soone rid of their Feuers especially if their fits bee not violent but an old woman that is taken with a great Feuer wil hardly recouer her health A prisoner will easily shake off slight and slender shakles but those that are double chained and double bolted he will hardly free himselfe from them One single stick is easily broken but more beeing bound together verie hardly A threefold cord is hardly broken The like reason may be giuen of old sinnes vpon which custome hath drawne a necessitie Saint Austen treating of the State of his owne sinnes sayth That he was fast fettered with three strong chaines The one of his owne Will The other of an ill Custome that he had gotten The third of a kind of necessitie which did keepe him as it were by force in this so hard and cruell slauerie Tenebat me dura seruitus They besought him for her The motiues of this intercession were First For that this good old woman was of so sweet a disposition and so louing a nature Which was much in so old a woman and no small matter considering shee was a Mother in Law It may be Mothers in lawe in those dayes were more louing and better beloued than they are now And one great argument thereof is That our Sauiour Christ should put the loue of the Mother in law and Daughter in law in one and the same degree with that of the Children Parents as it appeareth in that place of S. Mathew I came to set a man at variance against his Father the Daughter against her Mother and the Daughter in law against her Mother in law Where you see he links them together all in one chaine And so it ought to be For if the Husband and the Wife by Matrimony remaine one flesh the Daughter in law ought likwise to be so with the Mother in law though not in the selfe same degree wholly and altogether The second motiue was the intreatie of the Apostles who as Saint Marke maketh mention interceded for her And such pittifull hearts and tender bowels as theirs were beeing sought vnto by so good an Hostesse who desired so much as she did to serue them could not chuse but take pittie of her and speake a good word for her Besides the miserable paine she was in might haue moued the hardest heart to compassion much more theirs whose eyes had seene in what an ill taking she was in And kind hearts are soone sencible of those sorrowes which the eyes shall impart vnto them They bâ—sought him for her In the intercession of Holy men God attends two things The one That we persuade our selues that they are preuailent with God and that they can effect much with his diuine Maiestie The other That he is well pleased that we should make vse of them for the honour that hee receiues thereby the good that we reape by it A King is well pleased that men should haue recourse to his Fauorit the more to honor him It was a great honour to Christ saith Gregory Nazianzen that he was the Mediator betwixt God and Man Saint Cyril giues the same attribute to the Apostles and Deutronomie to Moses Medius fui inter Deum vos I stood betweene the Lord and you But here is the difference That the Saints haue need that others should intercede for them but our Sauiour hath no such need sed accedit per teipsum ad interpellandum pro nobis Al other Mediators are through our Sauior Christ that prayer which hath not this mediation Saint Augustine saith That in stead of remoouing sinne it reneweth sinne And Saint Ambrose That Christ ought to be the Mouth by which we are to speake the Eyes by which wee are to looke and the Hands by which wee are to offer In a word The Saints of God are verie powerful with God through Christ our Lord. And therefore it is said Whatsoeuer yee shall aske the Father in my name shall be granted vnto you Some make a doubt Whither this be to be vnderstood of the Saints that are liuing or those that are dead That it is meant of the liuing there are many proofes thereof in Scripture To Iobs friends God said Goe to my seruant Iob and my seruant Iob shall pray for you for I will accept him c. Abimilecke hauing taken away Sarah and God threatning him with death and the King pleading ignorance in his excuse God said vnto him Giue Abraham his wife againe and he shall pray for thee and thou shalt liue Moses by his intercession procured the pardon of sixe hundred thousand persons The People said vnto Samuel Doe not thou cease to pray for vs. Saint Stephen prayed for those that stoned him to death And by his prayer saith Saint Augustine Paul was reduced to the Church In the Ship the same Apostle by prayer preserued the liues of two hundred seuenty six persons Saint Basil cites that place of Dauid The eyes of the Lord are vpon the Righteous his eares are open vnto their crie Those two sonnes which Ioseph had in Aegypt Ephraim and Manasses the one signifying forgetfulnesse the other Prosperitie Iacob adopted them for his owne Sicut
thousand persons besides women and children with seuen loaues a few fishes and they beeing all satisfied there were twelue baskets full remaining This miracle is mentioned by Saint Mathew and Saint Marke In the other That which the Church doth this day solemnise which was the more famous not onely for that the guests were fiue thousand besides women and children the loaues fiue the fishes two and the leauings twelue baskets full but for that all the foure Euangelists wrote thereof and much the more for that it was an occasion as it is obserued by Saint Chrysostome because our Sauiour did preach that excellent Sermon of the Mount for whose Doctrine that miracle was most important After these things our Sauiour went c. Saint Augustine and Saint Hierome are of opinion That the occasion of our Sauiours withdrawing of himselfe was the death of Iohn Baptist the ioy for whose birth beeing so generall it was not much that the sorrow for his death should be great And this sutes well with that Text of Saint Mathew who reports it to be after the death of Saint Iohn This his departure thence shewed his sorrow for his friends death but that kingdome had greatest cause to lament and bewaile Saint Iohn Baptists death and Christs going from them for what is a Kingdome without them The Saints of God are the force and strength of Kingdomes the walles and bulwarkes of Cities the hedges about a Vineyard the foundation to a Building bones to the bodie life to the soule and the chiefe essence and being of a Commonwealth And whilest they had Christ and Saint Iohn among them there was not any Citie in the world so rich as that but the one being dead and the other hauing left them Ieremie might verie well take vp his complaint and bewaile their miserie and solitude Esay treating of the misfortunes that should befall Shebna the High-Priest sayth Auferetur paxillus qui fixus fuerat in loco fideli peribit quod pependerat ex eo The Naile that is fastned in the sure place shall depart and shall be broken and fall and the burthen that was vpon it shall bee cut off Now paxillus is that which in poore mens houses is called the Racke whereon they hang spits or a shelfe whereon they set their vessels which in rich mens houses is called Aparador a Court-cupboord whereon is placed their richest pieces of plate and such as are most glorious to the eye And hereof mention is made in the one and thirtieth Chapter of Exodus and the third of Numbers But your poorer sort of People that are not scarce worth a paire of Rackes strike in certaine pinnes into the wall and as the shelfe falling all falls with it that depends thereupon so when the High-Priest being a good man dies all good perisheth with him in the Commonwealth because the chiefe good of the State dependeth thereupon The Homicâ—de had fiue Cities to flie vnto for shelter but hee could not returne home to his owne Countrie till the death of the High-Priest And Philon rendring the reason of this interdiction saith That the High-Priest is a Pariente or Kinseman of all those that liue in his Commonwealth Qui solum habet ius in viuos in mortuoâ— as euerie Citisen hath his particular Kinsemen to whom he owes an obligation to acknowledge the benefits he receiues from him and to reuenge the wrongs that are done to him In like manner the High-Priest is the common Kinseman of the Liuing to whom hee owes an Obligation to accord their discords to cut off their suits in Law to quit their wrongs and to desire the peace and prosperitie of them all In conclusion he being as it were a common father to all in so great a losse in so sencible and generall a sorrow when a common misfortune should compound particular wrongs when all mens hearts are so heauie their eyes so full of teares their minds so discomforted it is a fit season for a Homicide to returne home to his Countrie And if the death of a High-Priest who happely was no holy man causeth in a Commonwealth so generall a griefe the death of Iohn Baptist and our Sauiours departure from this People What effect of heartie sorrow ought that to worke God threatned his People by Esay The Lord shall giue you the bread of aduersitie and the water of affliction When the King of Israell commanded Micheas to be cast into prison hee said vnto him Suâ—â—enta tecum paâ—e tribulationis aqua angustiae Feed vpon the bâ—â—ad of affliction and the water of affliction In the Hebrew both places beare the same words but Esay afterwards saith That though Gods hand shall be heauie vpon them and that he shall afflict them with many miseries yet he will not take away their Doctors and Teachers from amongst them nor the light of his Doctrine I haue threatned you with the famine of my word I will send a famine in the land not a famine of bread nor a thirst of water but of hearing the Word of the Lord. But God recalls this threatning oftentimes Et non faciet auolare à te vltra Doctorem tuum and will not cause thy Teacher to flie from thee But Iohn Baptist being dead and our Sauiour withdrawne himselfe that Countrie could not rest in a more wretched estate Secondly The death of Iohn Baptist made him leaue the land and put forth to sea making a seperation betweene him and them for when God gets him gone from thy house or thy citie thou art beaten out of doores as they say with a cudgell euen then doth a man go turning backe his head like a Hart that is hunted and pursued by Hounds neuer letting him to be at rest but chasing him with open mouth from place to place God cannot absent himselfe from his Creatures nor can his immensitie giue way to the vtter abandoning of this goodly Fabricke and wonderfull Machina of the World yet so great is the hatred which he beares to sinne that he also commands vs to get vs out of that Citie where Sinne doth raigne signifying thereby vnto vs That if any thing can make him to absent himselfe from vs it is our sinnes God had his house and his residence in Hierusalem so sayes Esay God had his house and his hearth there as if hee had beene one of their fellow Citisens and a Towne dweller amongst them but their abhominations made him to abandon that place Ezechiel saw the glorie of God how it went by degrees out of the Temple staying one while here another while there resting it selfe now against this pillar now that till at last The glorie of God was cleane gone out of the Temple Their abhominations did as it were driue him out by head and shoulders shoov'd him forth by little and little The great abhominations that the House of Israell committeth here causeth me to depart from my Sanctuarie Iosephus in
not for it Many make vse of God as they doe of a Felt to defend them from the Sunne and the raine which heats and stormes being ouerpast they hang it vp against the wall seruing God as many seruants serue their Masters not so much for loue as gaine And this ariseth from hence that they know no other good saue that which their sences set before them and this is the marke whereat they shoot And hence it followeth that in the predicament of those things that are good God of all other is the most disesteemed and least accounted of According to that of Saint Augustine Omnia diligimus omnia amamus solus nobis vilis est Deus For the good of this life men will doe much more than they will for God they will goe I know not how many leagues some by sea others by land for these temporall respects but will scarce stirre a foot out of doores for Gods seruice If they would but take halfe that paines for their saluation as they doe for their damnation they would all of them be Sainted in Heauen Out of the pleasure that some take in hunting they care not whither they eat or no for two or three days together but it goes against their stomacks to fast but one day for Gods sake Out of the delight that some take in play or in rounding the streets they will scarce sleepe in thirtie nights one after another but will not watch one in humbling themselues vpon their knees and praying vnto God For these worldly vanities they will not sticke to impawne their whole estate but it goes against the haire with them to spend so much as one poore Royall in Gods seruice Vpon a Prince or the Princes Fauourite they will make no bones to bestow some great and costly Present but grudge to offer vp to God a poore hunger-starued Lambe Of these kind of men Malachie much complaineth Yee offer the lame and the sicke and yee snuffe at it when yee haue done and thinke yee haue beene at too great charges with God as if the worst of your Flocke were not good enough for him Caligula gaue to the repairing of the Walls of Rome sixe thousand Sextercios which are fifteene thousand Crownes and vpon one of his Mistresses hee bestowed as many Sextercios to buy her a Kirtle making his Whore equall in cost with the Commonwealth Tibi soli peccaui malum coram te feci These words of Dauid are diuersly commented but one of the sences vpon that place is this O Lord I haue onely offended thee against thee onely haue I sinned thee onely haue I despised I was careful that the people might not come to the knowledge of this my sinne and that it might be hid from Vrias his house I was more fearefull of mens eyes than I was of thine which are brighter than the Sunne And hereunto did that holy King Dauid allude in his 48 Psalme Wherefore should I feare in the euill dayes when Iniquitie shall compasse me about as at myne heeles That sinne which he made least reckoning of and cast behind him as it were at his heeles were those cords that did most wring him It was an old Prouerbe Oculus habet in solea that which hee should haue made most reckoning of he put it vnder the sole of his shooe but God whom hee should haue esteemed aboue all him hee made least account of When Iesus lifted vp his eyes and saw c. Saint Mathew and Saint Marke both say That he went together with his Disciples into a Barke and that hee crost ouer to the Desert which was on the other side of the Riuer and the people that followed him taking notice of the voyage that he was to make whither it were that they wanted ship-room or that the wind was against them they ran on foot thither out of all Cities and came thither before him waiting for his comming Our Sauiour being disimbarkt went vp to the Mount saying vnto his Disciples Rest a while He went forth to see the people that followed him and when hee saw them beeing mooued to pittie and compassion of them because they were like Sheepe that had no Sheepheard hee entertained them with much courtesie and kindnesse and hauing instructed them in many things concerning the Kingdome of God he afterwards cured those that were sicke And when the day was now farre spent his Disciples came vnto him saying This is a desert place and now the day is farre passed therefore I pray you dismisse them and let them depart that they may goe into the Villages and Townes about and buy them bread for they haue nothing to eat but he answered and said vnto them It is better that yee should giue them to eat When Iesus had lift vp his eyes To behold one earnestly is a token of loue and care and herein our Sauiour not onely shewed a token of his affection but also of his prouidence That it is a signe of Loue Esther said vnto King Assuerus If I haue found fauour in the sight of the King she did take the eyes to bee the Archiue of fauour and therefore did petition him That he would entertaine her suit with the eyes of grace and fauour The Prince of Poets painting forth Iupiters fauouring of the Trojans being driuen by tempest on the Affrican Coast expresseth it thus Libiae defixit lumina regnis Inclining Dido's brest to take pittie and compassion of them and to supplie their wants and to feast them in her famous citie of Carthage That it is a token of Prouidence Ioues Statue with three eyes doth exemplifie it vnto vs beholding things past things present and things to come This agrees with that other Firmabo super te oculos meos I will fixe my eyes vpon thee But this looking here must be a looking with care and attention and therefore we haue here a Seeing and a Seeing it is ecchoed and redoubled vnto vs Cum subleuasset oculos vidisset videns vidit afflictionem suam Vide Domine considera me There are some eyes which looke but doe not see Of the rich Foole Iob said He opened his eyes and found nothing Your Hares sleepe with their eyes open and Hermolaus reporteth the like of Iupiters Guard Of your Images and Idols Dauid said They had eyes but did not see And S. Luke saith of S. Paul Beeing open eyed he saw nothing Others there are who see but will not see these see a poore Soule but turne their eye aside from him because they will not see him contrarie to Salomons councell Turne not away thyne eye from the Poore They will not affoord them their eye lest their heart should follow after such men will not take notice of the wretched estate of the Poore lest the pittifulnes of so miserable a spectacle might chance to mooue them to charitie and draw something out of their purses Saint Bernard cites the Spanish Prouerb Ojos que no
vpon their coyne an Oxe a creature that in his feeding goes still backeward which is the hieroglyphicke or embleme of a couetous man who the more he eats the more backeward he goes Set not thy eyes nor thy thoughts vpon riches for when thou least thinkest of it they shall betake them to their wings like an Eagle and shall flie vp to heauen Riches that are ill gotten flie vp to Gods tribunall seat and there like so many fiscalls or busie Attornies accuse thee for an vniust possessor of them and crie out as loud against thee as the bloud of Abel against his brother Cain The fourth thing that wee may draw from this patterne is That a Prince ought more sharpely to correct those abuses and vices which are growne old through custome especially those of your great and powerfull Ministers who commit them without controlement by publike authoritie God deliuer vs from those Ministers who sell that for their priuate profit which they are bound to doe gratis out of their Office and from that Priest which makes sale of the administration of the Sacraments from that Confessor that will be soundly payd for his Absolution From that Iudge that will be bribed before hee will doe iustice and from that Secretary that makes sutors come off roundly for their quicker dispatch These be things that send many of them quicke to hell The Pharisees should haue kept their Temple cleane from all couetousnesse haue banished your Merchants bankes and haue fauoured and graced those their Sacrifices in stead whereof they sold those beasts that were to be offered made money of them and put the same forth to vse and profit as others did Sacerdotes eius contempserunt legeÌ„ meam à sabbatis mois ouerterunt oculos suos coinquinabar in medio eorum The Priests of my Temple haue broken my Law and haue defiled my holy things They haue put no difference betweene the holy and prophane neyther dâ—scerned betweene the vncleane and the cleane and haue hid their eyes from my Sabboths and I am prophaned amongst them Where I would haue you by the way to waigh that same word coinquinabar For the Ministers of a State being theeues they make their Lord Master likewise a theef thou hast made my house a den of theeues by being thy selfe a companion of theeues According to that of Esay Socij furum And therefore Christ lasheth them with whips a sitting punishment for theeues Saint Ierome saith That he is a theefe and makes the Church a den of theeues Qui lucrum de religione reportat Who out of the duty of his Ecclesiasticall dignity makes priuat gaine and profit to himselfe Saint Gregory is of the same minde And as Theodosius the Emperour said Quid poterit esse securum si sanctitas as incorrupta corrumpatur What can be secure if incorrupted Sanctity shall be corrupted Which is all one with that of Iob That a Gouernour should rob widowes and deuoure their houses being bound to defend and protect them that he should strip that poore man naked whom he ought to cloath this is a great crueltie There is a curse that lyes vpon them that shall lead away the Asse of the fatherlesse and take the widowes Oxe to pledge that shall rise early for a prey cause the naked to lodge without garment and without couering in the cold and to plucke the fatherlesse from the breast c. It is so due a debt which Princes owe to fauour succour and defend the right of the poore of the fatherlesse and of the widow that Cassiodorus in his thirty nine epistle saith That it is as needlesse and superfluous a businesse to aske it at his hands as to sue to that which is heauy to descend downeward or to that which is light to ascend vpward But Saluianus lamenting the miseries of his times complaineth That your great and powerfull Ministers in stead of complying with their obligaâ—ion and in stead of fauouring and defending their poore Vassalls sell them Iustice at a deare rate Verifying that lamentation of Ieremy Aquam nostram pecunia bibimus ligna nostra praetio comparauimus Selling vnto them the water of their wells and a sticke of fire from their hearthes And would to God they would but sell their water and their wood as others vse to doe at common and ordinary rates for then there would something remaine to the buyer but there is a new kind of tyranny now adayes he that sells wraps and wrings all he can vnto him but returnes nothing takes all but giues not a dodkin to the poore whereas he that buyes giues all that hee hath and receiueth nothing And therefore in that Countrey or Kingdome where the Great ones are all so generally bad it is no great wonder that Religion Iustice and whatsoeuer else belonging to gouernment should be sold and set forth to sale Ieroboam made of the lowest of the people Priests of the high places Who would giue most money might consecrate himselfe and bee of the Priests of the high places which thing as the Text sayth turned vnto sinne to the house of Ieroboam euen to root it out and destroy it from the face of the Earth Simon Magus sought to buy the grace of the holy Ghost What his gracelesse pretension came to I neede not tell you you knowing already how deare it cost him The Emperour Iustinian sayd That the selling of Iustice in a Commonwealth was the vtter vndoing of it for why should not that Iudge or Officer robbe and steale who payd so great a summe of money for his Commission What would a Theefe an Adulterer or a Murderer care if hee knew he might redeeme his offence with money He that buyes must of force sell So sayd Alexander Seuâ—rus And therefore he would neuer consent as Lampridius reporteth it that any office at least of Iurisdiction should bee sold in the Empire The Priests therefore of the Temple selling the sayd oblations it is not much that our Sauiour should whip them and that hee should call them Theeues The last thing that a gouernor may draw from this patterne is perseuerance There are many which are as the Glosse hath vpon the decretals Primo ferâ—ens postea deficiunt Hot at first and afterwards grow cold When they are a little warme in their place they flagge and fall off punishing one and freeing another and both vniustly They wincke at theeues and robbers on the high way they cancell Deedes falsifie Records conceale Writings alter Euidences foist in false indictments set delinquents at libertie facilitate causes and a thousand the like disorders to the great detriment and disauthoritie of Iustice. And therefore they make the Crane the Hieroglyph of a good Iudge which neuer changes his plumes but is all of one and the same colour both in his youth and in his age Out of this Historie I shall inferre three or foure conclusions The first if the
vita sunt The words which I speake are spirit and life The other The elegancie and sweetnesse of his deliuerie Diffusa est gratia in labijs tuis such heauenly dew did drop from his lips and diffuse it selfe in that aboundant and plentifull manner Which graces of his poured forth thus gracefully the Spouse toucheth vpon in the Canticles His lips are like Lillies dropping downe pure myrrhe In the Lillies is painted forth our Sauiours beautie in the Myrrhe the profit we reap from him which is very great Myrrhe being a principall preseruatiue against corruption Mirabuntur omnes They all meruailed c. S. Chrysostome and Saint Cyril are of the mind That this admiration was amongst those that were the most incredulous of all that companie It is an ordinarie thing in your hearers when they heare a famous Preacher to admire him acknowledging his Doctrine to bee so deepe that it exceedeth mans capacitie for Wisedome is so superexcellent and so diuine a thing that in whomsoeuer it is found it causeth great admiration Things high and eminent shall not be so much as mentioned in comparison of her so saith Iob. And Salomon It is to be preferred before all riches Euerie man doth prise and esteeme it saue the Foole he that is most wise doth most honour the Wise but hee that is a Foole makes little reckoning of those that are wise Fooles hate knowledge Homer stiles wise Apollo a god multarum manuum of many hands because he hath a hand in euerie thing a hand for to lighten the blind vnderstanding a hand for to guide the soule in the way of vertue a hand for to gouerne the Common-wealth and to appease the tumults and rebellions rising therein a hand to conserue the same in peace In a word as Apollo who is the Sunne by expatiating and spreading abroad his beames through diuers parts both of sea land giues a beeing and a life to all things to mettalls in the veines of the earth to pearles in the shels of the sea to trees plants birds beasts men c. so a wiseman is Vita generalis reipublicae The generall life and liuelihood of a Commonwealth Themistius calls him Deum a God Horace Rex Regum a King of Kings c. And if any man shall say with Saint Paul Scientia inflat That Knowledge and Wisedome puffeth vp and affoords matter vnto man of pride and arrogancie Clemens Alexandrinus answers thereunto That the word Inflat doth likewise inforce that it doth breath and inspire into vs noble and generous thoughts Filijs suis vitam inspirat saith Ecclesiasticus The Greeke Text renders it Exaltat Euebit Wisedome exalteth her children it giues them a new kind of Beeing new hearts new resolutions to vndergoe glorious enterprises In a word Qui illam diligit diligit vitam He that loues her loues his lâ—fe So that if it be an occasion of arrogancie it is not so in it selfe but by accident when it lights on an insolent brest which conuerts good into euill Your Kings and Princes haue in all ages honoured wise men with great titles preferments and not only your wise prudent Princes but those of meaner parts and abilities and euen your worser sort of Kings Dionisius the Tyrant sent to Plato that he might come to see him one of his fairest Gallies with store of daintie prouision and well accompanied and at the Hauen where he was to land had prouided a Coach with foure horses to be readie to receiue him that he might come in the greater pompe to his Pallace and all this honour he was willing to doe him for that he was a wise man And if such men as he should cause such admiration in the world What admiration must he raise in mens minds in whom all the treasures of Gods wisedome were deposited Whence we may consider that if a few drops of that soueraigne fountaine did strike the People into such admiration when in Heauen we shall see the fulnesse of that riuer or rather immensitie of that great sea What admiration must it needs mooue Yet notwithstanding Saint Augustine saith Mirabantur omnes sed non omnes conuertebantur They were wonder-strucken but not spirit-strucken many did admire but few were conuerted The like successe for the most part haue the Sermons of your famous Preachers Ezechiel reporteth That it fell out so with himselfe That morning saith he that he was to preach the citisens would call to one another saying Let vs goe and heare the Prophet let vs see what new thing will now come from him they enter in thronging sit them downe beare themselues verie grauely and hearken diligently to my words but are farre off from putting them in execution being onely vnto them like a smooth verse or a musicall Song with a sweet and pleasing eire nor was there any of that harsh eare who wil not one while commend the voice another while the tone this man the dittie that it 's ayre but goe not a step further setting vp their rest there Musicke passes along by the doore at mid-night it wakens thee thou â—isest out of thy bed thou gettest to the window thou hearest it thou takest delight in it but when it is gone out of thy hearing thou returnest backe againe to bed layest thee downe and fall'st againe asleepe as if thou hadst heard no such thing at all Leuani oculos meos saith Zachary I turned me and lifted vp mine eyes and looked and behold a flying booke Then said he vnto me This is the curse that goeth forth ouer the whole earth Saâ—nt Gregorie saith That this booke is the sacred Scripture wherein as Lyra notes it are written the curses and chastisements against the â—infull men of this world A flying booke When there doth appeare in the ayre any new strange sight the Vulgar he wonders at it the wise man he is afraid of it because it is a vsuall prognostication of miseries and disasters As those fearefull fightings that were seene in the ayre in the time of the Maccabees your Comets your Crucifixes of fire and your showers of blood The like effect doth Gods word worke Some stand wondring at it and some grow sad vpon it The Seuentie translates it Vidi falcem volantem I sawe a flying sickle Which as Pierius noteth signifieth the time of Haruest Mitte jam falces quâ—â—iam maturae sunt messes Thrust in your sickles for the haruest is ripe In token that when the word of God and the malediction in holy Scripture comes to be little or nothing at all regarded and when the earth in stead of corne brings forth nothing but thistles and thornes it is high time to cut it downe Saint Iames compares the word of the Lord to a looking-glasse And Saint Bernard calls it the Looking-glasse of Truth which nor flatters nor deceiueth any man But hee that shall looke therein shall finde himselfe to be the same he seemes Saint Aâ—gustine
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
them That the one flyes like an arrow out of a bow and cuts the waues with a swift wing and that the other is a slugge and sayles very slowly And therefore of the way of a Ship in the sea and of a young man running on in a wanton course whereunto may be added the vncertaintie of the day of our death Salomon saith That they were things too wonderfull for him and past his finding out Efferebatur He was carryed out The word Efferebatur is worthy our consideration it being a plot and deuise of the diuell to carry the dead out of their Cities to bee buried for to blot the memory of the dead out of the minds of the liuing In the remembrance of death the Saints of God found these two great benefits The one Amendment of life The other Happinesse in death Touching the former it is by one common consent agreed vpon by the Fathers That the perfection of our life doth consist in the continuall meditation of death Plato called Philosophie Mortis meditationem A meditation of death affirming That the whole lesson of our life was to learne to dye The like saith Gregory Nazianzene Many Saints and Doctors haue demurr'd vpon this point In that God should deferre till the day of iudgement the reward of the body this may seeme an inequalitie to some but there is none at all in it For the dust and ashes of the body doe perswade and preach vnto vs the contempt of the world Asahel beeing slaine by Abner lying dead on the ground as many as came to the place where Asahel fell and dyed stood still as men amased This is that valiant Captaine this that vndoubted Souldier There is nothing that doth so quel the courage of Man and daunt his spirits as death it is natures terrour Those Spies that were sent out to discouer the Land of Promise were strucken into a great feare and amasement at the sight of those huge and monstrous Gyants In comparison of whom said they we seemed as Grashoppers Dreading that they were able to deuoure them aliue and to swallow them downe whole And therefore made this false relation at their return The land through which we haue gone to search it is a land that eateth vp the Inhabitants thereof but the people that raised this euill reporr died by a Plague More truly may it be said of Death That hee deuoureth the Inhabitants of the earth this is he that tameth the fiercest Gyants That dreame of Nabucadonezars which might haue beene powerfull receiuing it by reuelation to make him abate his pride and lay aside his arrogancie the Deuill presently blotted these good thoughts out of his remembrance The like course doth the Deuil now take with vs. He doth not go about to persuade vs as he did our father Adam that we are immortall But in two things he goes beyond vs and is too cunning for vs. The one That our death shall be delayed God saith Mors non tardat Death lingers not The Deuill sayes Tardat It lingers Moram faciet It loyters My Lord will delay his comming said the seruant in the Gospell But this feined supposition was his certaine perdition Ezechiel did prophecie the ruine of Ierusalem and the death and destruction of her Citisens telling them their desolation was neere at hand There shall none of my wordes be prolonged but the word which I haue spoken shall be done saith the Lord God But the Deuill did otherwise persuade with them making them to say The vision that hee seeth is for many dayes to come And hee prophecieth of the times that are farre off The wanton woman in the Prouerbes which inuited the yong man to her bed and boord sought to intice him by this meanes The good man is not at home hee is gone a long journey Therefore let vs take our fill of loue c. From this vaine hope of life ariseth that our greedinesse and couetousnesse to inioy and possesse the goods of this life And a little beeing more than enough for him yet it seemeth vnto man much cannot suffice him And it is an euill thought in man and much to be pittied that a man should afflict himselfe for that which neither hee himselfe nor all his posteritie shall liue to enioy O foolish man doost thou thinke thou shalt returne to liue againe in those goodly houses that thou hast built and to reinioy those pleasant gardens and orchards that thou hast planted No But mayst rather say to thy selfe These my eyes shall neuer see them more Why then so much carke and care for three dayes or thereabouts The Romans would not build a temple to Death nor to Pouertie nor Hunger judging them to bee inexorable gods But more inexorable is Death for man neuer returnes againe from Death to Life And therefore the Antients painted Death with the Tallons of a Griffine Saint Luke painting foorth the vigiles of the day of Iudgement and the anguish and agonie of the World he saith That many shall waxe fearefull and trouble their heads to see and thinke on those things Which shall befall the whole World Pondering in that place that they shall not bee sensible of their owne proper danger nor the aduenture wherin they stand of their saluation or condemnation yet cease not to afflict themselues with the losse of the World and that the world shall be consumed and be no more But ô thou foolish man if thou must dye return thither no more what is the world to thee when thou art at an end the World is ended with thee And if thou beest not to inioy it any more what is it to thee if God doe vtterly destroy it And all these euils arise from the forgetfulnesse of Death Hee liues secure from Danger that thinkes vpon the preuenting of Danger Saint Chrysostome expounding that place of Saint Luke He that will follow me must take vp his Crosse dayly and so come after mee Signifying that what our Sauiour pretended was That we should alwayes haue our death before our eyes I dye dayly saith the blessed Apostle Saint Paul My imagination workes that dayly vpon me which when my time is come Death shall effect There is no difficultie that is runne through at the first dash and there is not any difficultie so hard to passe through as Death A Shooe-maker that he may not loose the least peece of his leather or make any wast of it casts about how he may best cut it out to profit tries it first by some paper patterne c. Plutarch reporteth of Iulius Caesar that he beeing demaunded which was the best kind of Death Answered That which is sudden and vnlooked for Iulian the Emperour dying of a mortall wound gaue thankes vnto the gods that they did not take him out of this life tormenting him with some prolix and tedious sickenesse but by a hastie and speedie death And for that they doe not
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
must runne to thy account The like bold insinuation did Moses vse when he said O Lord pardon this people lest the Aegyptians should say Thou hadst plotted this of purpose to lead them out into the Desert and there to make an end of them hauing no bodie to helpe them Tibi soli peccaui malum coram te feci vt iustificeris in sermonibus tuis vincas cum iudicaris Saint Augustine giues it this interpretation Tibi soli peccaui viz. Tibi solum sum relictus O Lord this wound was only made for thee that thou alone mightst heale it all other Physitions haue quite giuen me ouer there is not any one vpon earth that knowes how to cure mee and therefore I lay the same open onely to thee Vt iustificeris Thou hast ordained a Law That at what time soeuer a Sinner shall repent him of his sinne and turne vnto thee thou wilt blot out his offences O Lord I am sorrie I haue offended thee I confesse my fault and acknowledge my sinne before thee and therefore it must be put to thy account to pardon me otherwise it wil be said of thee That thou doost not comply with thy promise Secondly These two sisters did pretend to strengthen this our Sauiours loue to their brother For it doth not stand with the rules of friendship that a man should loue and not releeue the necessities of him he loueth One telling Theophrastus That two such were very great friends that the one was very rich and the other very poore He returned him this answere It cannot bee beeing they be friends This very argument did these sisters vrge our Sauiour Christ withall Lazarus beeing thy friend and thou being life it selfe why hast thou suffered Death to lay hold vpon him Againe There is no force that is able to resist Death but Loue Loue is as strong as Death Death hath been so audacious as to enter within our doores let Loue reuenge vs of this his presumption The Athenians placed Loues Statua betwixt Mercurie and Hercules the one the god of Eloquence the other of Fortitude To shew that Loue doth not consist so much in wordes as in workes Thou hast vouchsafed ô Lord to honour our brother with the name of friend now manifest the same by thy strong arme and thy powerfull hand The fifth was their hauing recourse vnto him that had caused this wound and was onely able to cure it First for that God is highly offended that we should haue recourse to any but himselfe Secondly Because no Phisition nor earthly phisick can minister health without the will and pleasure of our heauenly Phisition He woundeth and he maketh whole The former is notified vnto vs in Ahâ—ziah who finding himselfe sore sicke of a fall through the Lattice window of his vpper chamber sent fearing he should die of that bruise to consult with Baalzebub the god of Ekron Which Messengers Elias meeting withall said vnto them What is there no God in Israel that yee goe to inquire of Baalzebub the god of Eckron deliuer therfore this message from God vnto your king Thou shalt not come down from the bed on which thou art gone vp but shalt die the death Hosea doth likewise complaine That his People had recourse in their doubts vnto Idolls My People aske councell at their stockes Lyrae renders it In simulachro ligni This my People is so foolish that they goe to aske councell of a piece of wood The seuentie Interpreters turne it thus In virgis suis Whereupon Rupertus hath obserued That this was a kind of superstition which cloue vnto them from the Chaldeans from whom they had receiued this infection for it was a fashion amongst them when they would know what should befall them to throw vp a couple of stickes as high as they could fling them or two arrows tied together and marking the one for good lucke and the other for bad they mumbled I know not what words and that which in the falling fell vppermost did prognosticate the successe Ezechiel reporteth That the King of Babylon comming with a great armie doubting with himselfe whither he should goe against Rahab or Ierusalem comming where there were two wayes to take vsed this superstition of the two Arrowes Quaerens diuinationem The King of Babell stood at the parting of the way at the head of the two wayes consulting by diuination and made his Arrowes bright c. and the lot lighted against Ierusalem This difference there is betwixt him that is a Saint of God and him that is not that he in his griefes hath recourse first vnto God and next to humane remedies wheras the other hath first recourse vnto Physitions when they notifie to the former the danger wherein he is he falls to a confession of his sins a heartie repentance and to the receiuing of the blessed Sacrament The Antients did picture Health in the forme of a handsome faire Damosell sitting in a Royall Throne for without health there is no pleasure in royall Thrones in Scepters nor in Crownes for the better conseruation whereof we are to vse temperance in our dyet The Serpent is the Symbole of Prudence without which it is impossible to preserue our health The foolish and vndiscreet man that makes no reckoning of the falling of your Sereno's or euening dewes oftentimes blasting those that are in them as in Spaine and the like hot Countries of your Sunnes heats and your Snowes colds your foule and pockie Whores loose oftentimes their healths if not their liues But aboue all we must haue recourse vnto God for God is all in all and without God little importeth temperance prudence Physitions or Physicke The sixt consideration of their discretion was That they did propose their miserie but not prescribe the remedie for it is sufficient that we propound our necessitie vnto God Saint Augustine saith Amanti sat est nunciasse It is enough for him that loues to intimate his mind And Saint Bernard Sic melius tanquam non orantes oramus tanquam diffidentes confidimus c. A modest kind of demanding and a diffident seeming confidence doth oftentimes further a suit and promote the thing we pretend Ezechias being threatned by Zenacharib did before God vnfold his menacing letter O Lord sayd hee thou maist read in these lines the pride and arrogancie of this blaspheming King Saint Peter when his soule melted into teares did not tell God what he pretended by them Which caused Saint Bernard to say Lachrimas Petri video precem non audio I see Peters teares but heare not his prayer The blessed Virgin sayd no more than this Vinum non habent They haue no wine And therefore Commit thy way vnto the Lord and trust in him and he shall bring it to passe c. The Sisters good will was well knowne to our Sauiour but they did not publish the same for the Iust neuer ties himselfe to his owne will Not my
Ioab aduised Dauid of the siege of Rabbah and what a number of men he had lost in that seruice the King might haue iustly cut off his head for his rash and vnaduised approach to the wall But Dauid durst not condemne him and put him to death because he was an Accessorie or rather the principall in the busines and therefore Ioab charged the messenger that carried the newes saying If the Kings anger arise so that he say vnto you Why went you nigh the wall c. the storie is worth your reading then say thou Thy seruant Vriah the Hittite is also dead This point did that kingly Prophet touch vpon in those words so diuersly commented on Tibi soli peccaui O Lord my sinne was against Vrias against those souldiers that died for his occasion against those which did blaspheame thy name and against the people whom the robbing of another man of his wife and the killing of her husband hath scandalized and beene an occasion of great offence vnto them But that which doth most affâ—ict and torment me is That I haue committed this against thee and that I haue thus sinned against thee For in any other person whatsoeuer in my kingdome the rigour of Iustice might haue restrained him from so foule a sinne but this did not once enter into my thought And therefore he comes with a Tibi soli peccaui iumping with that saying of Saint Paul Qui iudicat me Dominus est He that iudgeth me is the Lord. The world hath not that man in it whom his Propria culpa The sinnes which himselfe hath committed doe not mooue or daunt him and make him turne Coward sauing Christ who was made perfect by nature Nemo mundus à sorde neque â—nfans vnius diei How can he be cleane that is borne of a woman Iohn Baptist was sanctified in the wombe of his mother and was bred vp from a child in the wildernesse Saint Peter was he that loued most Saint Iohn that was most beloued Saint Paul past through the third heauen and did afterwards defie all the world Who shall separate me from the loue of Christ And Iob was so bold to say Would my sinnes were weighed in a ballance c. And in another place Shew mee my sinnes and my iniquities what they be Also Dauid I haue run without iniquitie Iudith passing through the midst of an Armie of Barbarians breakes out into these words The Lord liueth that would not suffer his handmaid to be defiled There was not that rough-hewne souldier that did so much as offer to touch her Let vs set side by side with these Saints the vnspottednesse of those Virgins the constancie of those Martyrs and the courage of those Confessors that suffered for Christs sake In a word all the worthy squadrons of those blessed Saints that are now in heauen will say thus as Saint August hath noted of themselues which Saint Iohn did confesse If we say we haue no sinne we deceiue our selues and the truth is not in vs. As also Iob If I wash my selfe with snow water and purge my hands most cleane yet shalt thou plunge me in the pit and mine owne cloathes shall make me filthie For to be without sinne is the blazon or cognisance of God alone Many did liue very well assured of their innocencie in particular cases as Iacob That the Idols of his father in Law Laban were not receiued by the seruants of his house As Beniamin and his brethren that Iosephs cup was not in their sacks Saint Peter that he should not deny his Sauiour Christ had a thousand more importunate women set vpon him The Pharisee he thought with himselfe I am not as other men c. yet all of them may say with Saint Paul I am conscious of nothing to my selfe yet am I not hereby iustified for Gods eyes see that which mans eyes see not In a word the noble Acts of the greatnesse and power of God as his creating of the world his conseruing it his redeeming of mankinde his iustifying of soules his seeing the thoughts of the heart his calling things that are not as if they were his commanding the waters the windes death and life and all those other wonderfull things which Iob specifieth of God to whose 38 chapter I referre you may make him confidently to say Quis ex vobis arguet me de peccato Which of you can rebuke me of sinne Which of you can c. Saint Chrysostome saith That the greatest testimonie of our innocencie is that of our enemies Non est Deus noster sicut Deus eorum iâ—imici nostri sint Iudices Our God is not as their God let euen our enemies bee Iudges And fit it was that this testimonie should precede and goe before as well in regard of our Sauiours life as his death In regard of his life for publike persons that are placed in authoritie seated in high and eminent throanes that haue great gouernments offices and dignities committed vnto them are not onely bound to be vertuous and holy but also to be so esteemed which they must mainely striue and indeauour So that in a Prince be he Ecclesiasticall or Secular two obligations ought to concur in him One of Conscience The other of Fame A particular Christian which doth not giue occasion whereby to bee condemned of his neighbour may liue satisfied and well contented with the testimony of his owne conscience but not a Prince or a Prelate For if he suffer in his good name or in his fame and be ill reported of it is the destructionoftheir Subiects Saint Augustine saith That he that relyeth on his conscience and is carelesse of his good name is cruell towards himselfe We must not doe good onely in Gods sight bâ—t also before men For fame though false doth fall heauy vpon publike persons In the Temple there was a vessell of brasse a very faire one out of which there ran a conduit pipe of water and was without adorned with those Looking glasses which women that repented them of their sinnes had offered who forsaking the world had consecrated themselues to God to the end that the Priests which did enter to offer sacrifice should wash themselues in that water and behold themselues in those glasses and it was Gods intent and purpose according to Philon That they should place no lesse care in the cleanenesse of their life for to offer sacrifice than those women did in appearing good to the world beholding in those glasses the least marke or spot in the face And in the 28 chapter of Exodus God commanded That when the Priest should enter or goe foorth in the Sanctuary he should beare bells about the border of his garment to the end that the noyse and sound thereof might make his going in and his comming forth knowne And the Text addeth Ne moriatur Least hee dye the death And the glorious Saint Gregorie saith That the
sence so sutable to the Text because Christ doth there point out the immediat cause of that their incredulitie and that this was not so much a predestination or reprobation as that their present hardnesse of heart and vnbeleefe yet notwithstanding I must giue you to vnderstand That to heare the word of God is a great Prenda and pledge of our predestination especially being accompanyed with these foure concurring circumstances The first is Audire To â—eare the word· Blessed are they that heare the word of God This is the first step And he that doth not put forward a foot to this is not to be accounted a child of God The husbandman in the Gospell sow'd his seed in foure seuerall parts of the ground and if in any one of them hee forbare to sow it was because he did not take it to be his Many birds are taken and delighted with the light as your partridges and your pigeons But your wolfes beares bores and other wild beasts flye from it all that they can It is Chrysostomes note That when God went about to catch Paul the light went afore the voyce For the voyce will affright the blind but the light will make him in loue therewith Saint Paul preaching to the Iewes said The light of the Gospell was principally ordained for you But seeing ye put it from yee ye iudge your selues vnworthy of euerlasting life And treating of the Gentiles he saith That they did glorifie the Word of God and that they did beleeue it and giue credit thereunto And when the Gentiles heard it they were glad saith the Apostle and glorified the word of the Lord and as many as were ordained vnto eternall life beleeued I am the way the truth and the life And he that looseth this way looseth the truth and looseth life euerlasting The second is Aâ—dire cum frequentia To heare the word frequently and very often The earth that is extraordinary dry and scorched with heat the drops of water which it receiueth it turneth into toades And hee that seldome frequents sermons it is to be feared they worke little good vpon him if not turne to his hurt Many will come to heare Sermons but with a preiudicate opinion and are more carefull to picke a quarrell against the Preacher than profit themselues The franticke patient that throwes stones at the Physitian that cures him puts himselfe in great pâ—rill In a word The Word of God is the Soules sustenance and being ministred slowly it is no meruaile if it fall into a Consumption The third is Audire cum attentione To heare diligently and with attention freeing the soule from all worldly cares and incumbrances for as the eyes cannot ioyntly and at once behold both Heauen and Earth so the Soule cannot attentiuely at one and the same time behold the things of the World and of God If any man loue the world the loue of the Father abideth not in him When a great and principall Riuer is diuided into many Riuolets or little streames so much the lesse water will euerie one of them haue The like succeedeth with that heart which is diuided into many cares and desires Foolish and noysome lusts drowne men in perdition and destruction And Salomon saith When thou sittest with a Prince obserue what is before thee and put thy knife vnto thy throat if thou bee a man giuen to thy appetite A Christians sitting at the King of Heauens Table is the hearing of his Doctrine this is that Boord whereunto Wisedome inuiteth vs. Where the Bread of wholesome Doctrine is set before thee which strengthneth the heart of man and the Wine of Grace which cheereth and comforteth the heart At which Table whosoeuer shall come to sit must consider with attention that which is set before him casting out of his mind all other worldly things Those Ministers that were imployed for the apprehending of our Sauiour Christ finding him preaching to the People they hearkened vnto him with that earnest and diligent attention that they had quite forgot to put that in execution which was giuen them in charge by the Pharisees and being demanded by them Why did yee not bring him along with you They returned this answer Neuer any man spake as he spake The glorious Doctor Saint Augustine before that he had vnwinded himselfe out of the errour of the Maniâ—hees hee went of purpose to heare Saint Ambrose but not with intention to giue any credit to his Doctrine but to delight himselfe with the elegancie of his phrase and being rauished with the sweetnesse of his words had his heart taken as well as his eâ—re his attention supplied the fault of his intention this was that putting of the knife to the throat The glorious Apostle Saint Paul goes a little further and calls Gods Word not only Cultrum but Gladium not a Knife but a Sword Take vnto thee the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God What then Marrie he giues thee a caueat in these insuing words Si tamen habes in potestate animaâ—â— tuam That thy soule be not distracted with the troublesome businesses of this world Saint Chrysostome compares the soule of the Iust to a Poole of Water which stands all alone in some low Valley where there is all stilnesse reposednesse freshnesse cleerenesse and the Sunne-beames purest brightnesse Salomon likeneth the Soule of a sinner to a troubled and tempestuous Sea The heart of the Wicked is as a raging sea The fourth is Audire cum conseruatione To heare with a retention and to lay vp the Word of God in our hearts Blessed are they that heare the Word of God and keepe it Not they who heare the Word of God and forget it taking it in at one eare and letting it out at another but they which heare it and keepe it It is Saint Gregories obseruation That the Physition doth despaire of that Patients stomacke that cannot keepe it's meat but throwes it vp as soone as it receiueth it Saint Chrysostome aduiseth That he that heareth a Sermon should doe as he doth that comes out of a Bath presently to retyre himselfe get him to his Chamber there keepâ— himselfe warme wrap good store of cloathes about him that the ill humors may the better be exhaled and drawne from him Plutarch telleth vs That many take no pleasure in Flowers or care any further for them than to looke vpon them smell to them and haue them in their hands buâ— the Bee drawes from them both honie and wax and the Apothecarie makes many medicines of them against diuers and sundrie diseases Many heare Sermons onely for their pleasure for the elegancie of the stile delicacie of words grauity of sentences and the gracefulnesse in their deliuerie but this is but to make a nosegay to smell to for a while and cast it anon after into a corner Say we not well that thou art a Samaritane and hast a Deuill One of the greatest miseries than
of all other can least endure that a brother should outstrip him though it be Gods owne handy-work to aduance and prefer him And the sonnes of Thamar are a type and figure thereof who stroue and strugled in their mothers wombe The other in regard of the desire that they haue to see a brother or a kinsman prosper onely that they may sucke from him and wholly disfruit him as if hee were a tree of their owne orchard which of these two mischiefes is the greater For in the first the enuious brother looses and the enuyed gaines In the second all rob that tree which affoords them fruit and that brother or kinsman that is owner of it I remember a memorable saying that was vttered by a holy Prelat relieuing being importuned therunto two of his brethren with 200 Crownes for to buy them Oxen to till their ground I shall said he desire of God That this poore pittance which I now giue you doe not consume the rest of that which ye now enioy My brethren to facilitate their request told me that I was a single man had no body to care for that I was a Guarda de Vinas a Vine-keeper a Church-man and an ouerseer of soules Sed vineam meaÌ„ non custodiui But I did not keep this my Vinyard so wel as I should haue done for I could not defend it from my brethreÌ„ and my kinsfolk one plucking this from me and another that til they had left me nothing to pleasure either my selfe or the poore whom I ought most to haue respected If thou be rich all thy kindred will bee like so many horse-leeches to draw thy blood from thee but if thou be poore not a kinsman that will looke vpon thee That mirrour of patience that holy man Iob saith in his 31 chapter Despectio propinquorum terruit me There was not that kinsman that would looke vpon me in my misery but beheld me with disdaine and scorne and would not affoord me any the least comfort Vaine is the confidence in friends and kinsfolks vaine is the confidence in Princes And therefore ô Lord let vs relye vpon thee who neuer faylest those that put their trust in thee To God the Father God the Sonne and God the Holy Ghost c. THE XXXV SERMON VPON THE WEDNESDAY AFTER PASSION SVNDAY IOHN 10. Facta sunt enzenia Hierosolymis The Feast of the Dedication was celebrated at Ierusalem THe Feast de las Enzenias or of the Dedication was celebrated in Ierusalem The Greeke word signifieth Renouation The Iews had three Feasts of this name The first in remembrance of the great solemnitie made by Salomon when he had finished the Fabrick of the Temple which was one of the Myracles of the world The second in memoriall of the re-edification thereof done by Zorobabel and the Princes of Iuda hauing Cyrus his Warrant for it who restored the gold and siluer which Nebuchadnezzar robbed the Temple of The third in remembrance of that Altar which Iudas Machabeus built anew which Antiochus had prophaned by placing thereon the Statue of Iupiter Olympus and offering thereon costly and sumptuous Sacrifices And this is that Feast whereof the Gospell makes mention it was celebrated on the twentie fifth of Nouember which in the Iewish account was the ninth moneth about the beginning of Winter and therefore it is sayd It was Winter Now our Sauiour Christ passing along through the porch of the Temple the Iewes flocked about him both Nobles and Plebeians and sayd vnto him How long doost thou make vs doubt How long wilt thou hold vs in suspence if thou be the Christ tell vs so plainly without any more adoo But Iesus gaue them so vnsauorie an answer to this their vnmannerly demand that they tooke vp stones to stone him The feast of the Dedication was at Ierusalem It is the language of the Scripture and especially of the Apostle Saint Paul to call our Brest Heart or Bosome Gods Temple as in that to the Corinthians Yee are the Temples of the liuing God And he citeth that place of Leuiticus As God hath said I will dwell among them and walke there And Saint Ambrose further addeth That as in a materiall temple made with hands there are Porches Floores and Altars c. so within vs we haue all these things Phylon saith That an honest a holy and deuout Soule is the Altar whereon God is adored But here we are to consider That our heart or the soule of a Christian man is a higher rooft Temple and farre more spacious After that Salomon had made an end of building his Temple he sayd O Lord I haue built thee an House to dwell in but it is too little for thy greatnesse for if the Heauens and the Heauens of Heauens are not able to containe thee how much more vnable is this House that I haue built it being but a Thimble as it were in comparison of thee for that thou art higher than the highest Heauens and deeper than the profoundest Depth What House is that saith Esay in a sleighting kind of manner which yee haue built for me and what is that place of my rest Were not all things made by my hand If then a Temple made by such powerfull hands be so small a House for God to dwell in for which cause Saint Paul sayd He dwelleth not in Temples made with hands How great a one will that be which man shall make for him So that tâ—e least vnworthie and the least narrow house is our brest Greater yet is God than our heart and yet God saith If any shall open I wâ—ll come in vnto him and wil sup with him This is that Temple which God desires should bee renewed After that the Temple was prophaned by Antâ—ochus the Text saith They did wisely consider with themselues That that Altar should be destroyed and a new one built for they thought it not fit to offer Sacrifice vnto God vpon that Altar whereâ—n Antiochus whom the Scripture stileth The Root of all wickednesse had performed so many abhominations They therefore built a new Altar and did instiâ—ute a Feast in memoriall of it's re-edification wherein they gaue thankes vnto God That he had giuen them a time wherein they might truly serue him as they had done heretofore Now as the councell was good in the Machabees To build a new Alter for had they made the old one neuer so cleane yet the forepassed abhominations would haue caused a continuall horrour so will it be verie good councell vtterly to destroy a foule Soule which hath been an Inne for Vice and an habitation for Deuils and to create it anew that there might not remaine any relish of it's former ill And Dauid seemeth to desire as much of God in those words of his Create in me ô Lord a new heart When Liquor hath layne a long time in a Vesâ—ell though you wash and rynse it neuer so much it retaineth somewhat of
apprehend Dauid Michal saued his life by letting him out a window Why did they not follow in pursuit of him being so much offended as they were at this tricke which Michâ—l had put vpon them Some Hebrewes make answer hereunto That God had damd vp the window or cast a myst before their eyess that they could not perceiue the manner of his escape Ecclesiasticus saith The congregation of the wicked is like tow wrapped together Their end is a flame of fire to destroy them An Armie of Reprobates can no more stand against the godly than bundles of Towe or Flaxe before a flaming fire How long c. The Iewes comming round about our Sauiour they said vnto him Quousque c. How long doest thou make vs doubt As Loue transformeth a man so doth Hate Vulnerasti cor meum soror mea said the Bridegroome to his Spouse Another letter hath it Excordasti Which alludeth vnto that which the Spouse answered Ego Dormio cor meum vigilat But how can the Spouse sleepe and her heart wake yes her husband had stolne away her heart and that waked with him when she was asleepe Now Hate no lesse transformeth than Loue. Saul did not liue in himselfe but in Dauid Haman not in himselfe but in Mardochee the Pharisees not in themselues but in Christ. And therfore they say Thou causest our soules to doubt Thou hast robd vs of our soules we are not our selues but as bodies without a soule And in token that the cause of this their suspension was Enuie they confesse these their so many distractions vexations and torments of the mind All other kind of sinnes bring paine and torment with them but it is after they haue tasted of their sinnes but Enuie torments before hand The Pharisees had scarce seen Christs Miracles and the applause which his doctrine had in the world when they began to suffer and to be grieued And this is the reason why this Vice is harder to be cured than any other Good doth ordinarily quench ill as water quencheth fire But Enuie because it makes another mans good his ill that which to other vices is death is to Enuy life It is the fire of brimstone which the more water you throw on it the more it burneth They came about mee like so many Bees who are exasperated and grow angry with those that doe them no harme but good They waxed hot like fire among thornes which no water can quench Animam nostram tollis Where I would haue thee to weigh the word Tollis Thou takest away our soule thou makest vs to doubt c. Thou art in fault that we liue in this paine and passion It is the common course of your greatest sinners to lay the blame of their sinne vpon God O Lord Why hast thou made vs to erre from thy wayes saith Esay and hardned our heart from thy feare It is a sin inherited from Adam who laid the fault of eating the apple vpon God The woman which thou gauest me to be with me c. She that thou gauest me to be my companion to be my cherisher and my comforter Who would haue thought that she would haue intreated any thing at my hands that should not haue beene very lawfull and honest The sicke man is wont to lay the fault on the Clymat wherein hee liueth and on those meates wherewith hee is nourished Seneca tells a tale of a certaine Shee-slaue who one morning when she awaked finding her selfe blind laid the fault that she could not see vpon the house desiring that she might be remooued to another The cause of your Eclypses is the earth which interposes it selfe betweene the Sunne and the Moone Whereas hee that shall impute the fault to the Sun shall but betray his ignorance Of the Eclipses of these Iewes the cause thereof was their passions their couetousnesse and their enuie If our Sauiour Christ preached vnto them they desired Miracles if he wrought Miracles they desired Doctrine from his workes they appealed to his words and from his words to his workes and laying the fault on the Sun they said Animam nostram tollis Thou makest vs to doubt If thou be the Christ tell vs plainly In three words they vttered three notorious lies The first Dic nobis palam Tell vs plainly for all that thou hast hitherto sayd vnto vs is as nothing The second Dic nobis palam and we will beleeue thee The third Dic nobis palam for that is the reason why wee haue not hitherto beleeued thee Saint Augustine and Saint Chrysostome haue both obserued that in these their lies there was a great deale of craft subtletie which was this That the Iewes did still presume that our Sauiour Christ would boast himselfe to bee King of the Iewes and that he was temporally to sit in Dauids Throne they went about to draw this from him that they might haue some ground of accusation against him and therefore they thus cried out vnto him Dic nobis palam Tel vs plainly for in all the rest that they desired of him our Sauiour Christ had giuen them full satisfaction For if Palam be to publish a thing openly and not to doe it in hugger-mugger or in some by-corner or other I haue alwayes preached publiquely in your Synagogues and in the middest of your Market-places And I sayd nothing in secret If Palam shall carrie with it a kind of boldnesse and libertie yee may call to mind my whipping of you out of the Temple the seueritie of my reprehensions and that I called yee the children of the Deuill that I might publish your euill thoughts to the world c. If Palam shall signifie Cleerely or Manifestly what more cleere or manifest truth could ye heare than that which I haue preached vnto you Wil you that I shal tel you in a word who I am I and the father am one Of the materiall Sunne a man may complaine That an earnest eying of it and a steadie fixed looking thereupon may make vs blind but on the Sunne of Righteousnesse no man can lay this fault for hee himselfe giues that light whereby our eyes are inabled to see The commandement of the Lord is pure and giueth light vnto the eyes And therefore Saint Paul calls the old Law Night and the Law of Grace Day In that Law the Sunne had not shewed it selfe all was clouds and darkenesse and albeit they did inioy some light it was but a glimpse or as the light of a candle through some little chinke but when the Sonne of God appeared in the flesh that darkenesse of the night was driuen away and the day appeared c. I told yee and yee beleeue not the workes that I doe in my fathers name they beare witnesse of me Our Sauiour Christ had prooued himselfe to be both God and Man by such conuenient meanes that it had beene follie if not meere madnesse to haue desired better
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
therefore our Sauiour Christ when he saw Mary Magdalens modestie and that out of bashfulnesse she forbore to presse too neere vpon him he made signes vnto her imboldning her thereb◠to come vnto him She brought a boxe of oyntment c. This was a certaine signe and assured token of her generall change and alteration In the old Law those women that did wholy giue ouer the world and did consecrate themselues to the Temple did offer vp those glasses wherein they before beheld themselues being a iewell of great esteeme amongst women as being a meanes to preserue their beauties and repaire those wrongs that any spot of foulenesse should doe the face And Moses made a Lauatorie of Copper for the Priests to wash themselues in adorning the same with these kind of glasses For she that shall forgo the world and strip her selfe of all euen to her very glasse wherein she was wont to looke the holiest Priests may looke that woman in the face without sinning There are certaine sinners which will not let slip any occasion that offers it selfe vnto them Petrus Chrysologus likens these vnto diuells Amongst the Gergesenes our Sauiour Christ commanding the diuells that they should come out of those men that liued in the fields in the Sepulchres and graues of the dead as if they were houses of peace and pleasure they besought him that he would suffer them to goe into the heard of Swine to wit out of one filthy place into another and so in like manner from sinne to sinne Others there are that all their life long haue tyde themselues fast to Occasions girdle haue as it were sworn and made a vow neuer to forsake her These two sorts of sinners Ieremie pointed at If the Blackemore can change his skinne or the Leopard his spots Now which will first change his skinne and condition either the tanned Negro or the spotted Tygar The sinner which lyes at racke and manger and is chained fast to the ring of the cratch or he that accustomes and vses himselfe to change and alter euery houre and like the Cameleon puts on as many colours as come neere him Which of these two Estates I say is the more dangerous I answer That amongst Reprobat people there is not a pin to chuse But amongst those sinners that hope for heauen That of the Cameleon seemeth to bee the more dangerous because it may be presumed from his ordinary reincidencie that in the confession of his sinnes he neuer truely repents himselfe of them whence great Sacriledges are wont to succeede But for the other it may so fall out That hee may be as constant in good as he hath beene before in ill And she stood at his feet behind him Retrò at his backe Whence we may consider a wonderfull and strange kind of change When Mary Magdalen did cast her sinnes behind her backe God did set them before his eyes but when Mary Magdalen did set them before her eyes and grew fearefull and timerous to looke him in the face and had not the heart to presse into his presence that was to be her soules best Physician God did cast her sinnes behind his backe Saint Augustine touches vpon this string vpon those words of Dauid Auerte faciem tuam à peccatis meis Turne aside thy eyes ô Lord from my sinnes Oh thou sinner saith the same Father I shall giue thee a good remedy for this Tu inde non auertas Doe not thou turne thine eyes from off thy sinnes and God will turne away his but if thou shalt cast them behind thy backe Gods eye will be still vpon them and punish them seuerely in thee Standing behind In that looking-glasse of Christ she saw the foulenesse of her soule and she startled at it Statuam contra te faciem tuam In a glasse that which is faire seemeth more faire and that which is foule more foule There are some glasses which makes all those appeare faire which fall within the view of them A glasse standing in a window makes the opposite wall glitter and shine the more The Raine-bow leaues that fairest which leaneth neerest to it The Sunne setting vpon a darke cloud makes him become as bright as gold In like manner our Sauiour Christ layd open to Mary Magdalen the foulenesse of her sinnes that he might leaue her more faire and more beautifull than shee was before Standing behind Petrus Chrysologus cryes out Mary Magdalen what meanest thou by this Commest thou as one that is sicke to seeke a Physition and when thou shouldst come to him doest thou flye from him Whereunto he answers That as one vnworthy to looke him in the face she made choise to stand behind him and if it possibly could haue beene she would not that he should haue seen her though such was her wretched case That she was driuen to desire his fauour and best furtherance The sick Patient cannot flye from the Physition which is willing to cure him In this perplexitie and anguish of her soule shee resolued with her selfe to shunne the sight of our Sauiour Christ though not vtterly put her selfe out from his presence Dauid did desire of God that he would not forsake him in his anger nor go away from him in his displeasure Which seemeth cōtrary to that rule of S. Paul Giue place to wrath and contrary to Iobs desire Quis mihi det vt in Inferno protegas me abscondas me donec transeat furor tuus c. Saint Augustine saith That if it were possible for a sinner to flye from God it were not the worst remedie to hide himselfe whilest his furie be ouerpast and his anger quite gone But it being of necessitie that he must fall into Gods hands and that a sinner can no where hide himselfe from his all-seeing eye the best counsell were to aduise him That to escape Gods hands hee should put himselfe into Gods hands and prostrate himselfe at his feet Ionas flying from God told the Marriners I feare the Lord God of heauen which made the sea and the dry land If God then be the God both of sea and land Why didst thou seeke to flye from him by going to sea By or neere vnto his feet When a Huntsman woundeth a Deere with a forked arrow that is sent from a strong bow though the Deere may bound and stand vp for a while yet at last he sinkes and falls downe at the Keepers foot Our Sauiour Christ had wounded Mary Magdalen with the arrow of his word he strooke her to the very heart the barbes thereof sticking in the sides of her soule Sagittae potentis acutae cum carbonibus dissolatorijs This Deere of his was so sorely wounded That she was forced to fall downe at his feet in the house of Simon the Leaper One of the greatest glories that was prophesied of our Sauiour Christ was That he should make his enemies his foot-stoole And in another place His enemies shall bow
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
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.
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
building Circumstances of Time and Place in Holy Writ of great significancie Ierem. 6. 2. Mac. 1.18 The feast of Fire Leuit. 6.13 Zach. 14 6. God wil helpe those that flie for him but not from him PeniteÌ„ce compared to a Storme Prou. 30. Christ omits no meanes euen to reclaim the Reprobatâ— if it might be Exod. 3. 1. Cor. 15. God did his greatest works always on the Sunday God will haue his Temples honoured Lost is that Common-wealth in which Magistrates and their Ministers are both faulty Luk. 23. God will not suffer his children to fall into the hands of the vngodly Eccl. 21.9 Entry of all sin the worst and hardest to be cared Men are euer ready to vnburthen themselues of their miseries Esay 63. Gen. 3. The subteltie of the Iewes in circumuenting our Sauiour Psal. 19. The Iewes wanted nothing to make them beleeue but a willingnes to beleeue 1. Iohn 5.7 Ioâ— â— 39 Act. 10.43 Mat. 11. Why our Sauiour would prooue his Diuinitie by no other testimonie than his works Mat. â—1 A true Christian glorieth in nothing more than in his sufferings for Christ. Hot fierie Spirits vnfit for the Ministery Gen. 4. Deut. 28.65 66 67. No torture to a guilty conscience Psal. 85. The vngratefulnesse of mans nature Foure faire mothers that euer bring forth foule children Psal. 106. The Circumstances of Maries perdition The sin of dishonestâ—e hath two pâ—operties (1.) It sticks of all others the closest to the Soule Gen. 6. 3. Reg. 11. (2.) It bliâ—â—s the VnderstaÌ„ding The force of Beautie â—osea 7. Adultry compared to a heated Ouen Gods glorie greater in our conuersion than creation Psal. 108. To conuert a sinner is a worke of wondrous difficultie in regard of mans peruersnesse Zachar. 14. The iustification of a sinner set out by diuers apt similitudes Esay 44. Eccles. 3.16 Prou. 30. Woman the hieroglyphike of weaknes Prou. 30. Maries conuersion affordeth hope to the most desperate sinners Osee 2. Of Maries repentance The foulenes of sinne We may dally with the sicknes of the bodiâ— not of the soule The fairenes of vertue Psal. 78. Good occasions must be embraced with speed Cant. 5.4 Ier. 3. Relapses into sin are dangerous God will neuer eâ—e our sins if we wil eye them our selues The way to flie from God is to flie vnto him The office of the Eye Teaâ—es worke two effeâ—â—s Teares sometimes denied vs for our punishment Teares for sin must neuer haue an end Teares the delight of a Penitent Psal. 14â— What is meant by waters aboue the heauens 3. Reg. 10. Deepe sorrow wants a tongue Why Christ should not suffer his Apostles to wash his feet when he had washed theirs Gen. 22. Cont. 9.4 The Haire hurtfull vnto many Maries entertainement of our Sauiour expressed in two things The nature of a Prophet should be rather sweet than sharpâ— True zeale neuer disheartneth but encourageth the weake God in a moment can make of a sinner a Saint The efficacie of penitentiall teares 2. Reg. 19. To Christ they are more sauourie than wine The reason of the demand Christ euer ready to forgiue sinners Sathan can do little without vs. Gal. 5. Esay 67. Iob 41. The wicked haue a league no loue The world consisteth of nothing but opposition Exod. 18. Good counsell a pretious Genâ—me Gal. 2. Ill counsell produceth ill effects Eccl. 2. Exod. 1.8 2 Mac. 4. Psal 2. Exod 17. As the iust hunger and thirst after right so doe the wicked after bloud Sap. 3. Ieremie Caâ—t 2. Sharpe reproofes work sweet effects Wickednes is meere folishnesse Gen. 37. Philip. 3. Esay 53. Dan. 9. Gen. 49. Iud. 5. Ier. 44. Priuat interest must giue way to the generall good Exod. 33. 4. Reg. 10. 1. Reg. 18. Luk. 3. Mat. 26. The same words out of diuers mouths may be diuersly relished Rom. 8. Mat. 26. Act. 19. Iob 10. Preparation against death necessarie Iob 30. God the onely Lord of all Apoc. 19. Deut. 32. Ill Rulers sent by God to punâ—sh the people 3. Reg. 10. Four estates of a child and whereunto alluding The Iewes were murderers of all Gods Saints Esay 59. A twofold madnesse Eccl. 30. To take occasion from good to do ill is hellish malice Osee 2. 4. Reg. 18. Christs death his glorification Abacuc 3. Christ why called a Bull. Deut 33. Psal. 32. Act. 5. Two opinions concernâ—ng Peters deniall Mar. 16. Luk. 22. How Peter may be said to haue lost his faith Of Peters Fall The occasions of it Maâ— 23. 3. Reg. 20. Gen. 31. God not called the God of any man while he liueth Iob 4. Truths seldome heard in Princes Courts 3. Reg. 22. S. Peters sinne like that of Adam Man bya sight of his owne weaknesse is taught to pity an others Reasons why Christ suffered Peter to deny him Mâ—t. 26. Peter more iniurious to Christ than all his enemies Psal. 142. 〈◊〉 â— 12 The power of Christs eyes Psal. 114. The efficacie of Teares Eccl. 3. Cant 1. 1. Cor. 10. Mat. 3. Exod. 32. Dan. 1â— Act 4. Psal. 2. Heb. Esay 43. Iob 58. Iob 38.22 Mat. 24. The nature of Hope and Feaâ—e Gen. 49. Iude. Num. 33. Sathans practise to depriue Iob of Hope Gen. 4. Motiues iuducing the theefe to his conuersion Ioâ— 5. Mar. 15. Patience the badge of Christs Diuinitie The Crosse is heauens Key 3. Reg. 2. Repentance must not be delayed Man is nothing but as God remembers him Two definitiâ—ons of man Gen. 15. Isay 6. Exod. 5. Mat. 17. No more was his Hope Psal. 4. The glorie of the heauenly Paradise Mar 9. Esterâ— His reward exceeds our requests Christ neuer counted any thing his but our happines Esay 55. Gen. 2. No loue like to that of our Sauiour towards vs. Three kinds of friendship Iudas banished out of the world all Vertâ—â— Loue and Feare Loue triumphed euen ouer God himselfe Gen. 41.44 No humilitie like our Sauiours God hath two houses The holy Sacrament not to be receiued but with a great deale of preparation No preparation sufficient for the Holy Supper Christs Humilitie the character of his Loue. Our Sauiours art in gaining of wretched Man Affliction alters the verie forme of Man Cant. 5. Hier. 29. Esay 43. Psal. 21. Châ—â—st on the Crosse the only obâ—ect of Admiâ—ation Iob. 1â— Luke 23. Pilat pronounced the sentence of death against Christ. Pilat a cowardly Iudge Cap. Testes q. 3. Leg. Vaius §. de quaest Testium vltro accusandi non est credendum Feare and Iealousie spurred vp the Iewes to crucifie Christ. Mount Caluarie why so called Christ suffered in the midst of the world Psal. 74.12 Ezech 5. Christs nayling the cruellest part of his Passion Two reasons proouing him more sensible of this torment than any other Zachar. 12. Euery part of Christ affords a sinner confidence Christs Deitie more concealed at his death than any time before Malice is euer it 's own foe Coloss. 2. The difference betwixt our Sauiourâ— triumph and those of Men. Exod. 14. Esay 63.