he prayeth to God for them herein imitating his good and blessed Master Iesus Christ saying Lord impute not this sinne unto them As wee read Acts 7.60 If Moses in the precedent examples hath bin seene something too much desirous of revenge we may also reade that many times he hath forgiven those that had offended him yea and hath mediated and prayed to God for them least hee should have revenged them David having received innumerable offences and wrongs of Saul notwithstanding finding him wearie in the Cave having him in his bed at his discretion he forgave him all the injuries and harmes he had made him suffer saying only The Lord is a just Iudge that will avenge mee of mine enemies and will render unto me after the integrity of my heart The Apostles indeed suffered themselues to be carried away by this sweet desire and appetite of revenge when they would make fire fall from heaven upon that Towne that had offended them but it was because they were fraile and weake men like us when they fell into their faults and errours but they were soone rectified and raised up againe by the grace of the holy Ghost so that at length when any gave them injuries they rendered none againe they were whipped and stoned they were cast into prison and yet they blessed and prayed for them that did it and sought by all meanes to Preach the Gospell unto them and to shew them the way of salvation these second examples wee must follow that we may appeare to be the children of God Disciples of Christ and imitatours of his Apostles This noble and godly action of forgiving our enemies we must practise first if we desire that God shall acknowledge us for his children we must strive to be like him who is the fountaine of forgivenesse who is meekenesse and curtesie it selfe and nothing but mercie Secondly wee must pardon others if wee desire that God shall forgive us since that is conditionall which wee aske him Lord forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespasse against us Now if we doe not forgive men their trespasses no more will our heavenly Father forgive us Math. 6.15 For with the same measure that we mete it shall be also measured unto us againe And that which must the more oblige us to put off the infected and poysonsome coate of cruelty and revenge since it is an abomination to God which he hath prohibited us in so many places of Scripture as Proverb 20.22 Say not thou I will recompence evill but waite upon the Lord and hee shall save thee And Rom. 12.19 Dearely beloved avenge not your selues but give place unto wrath for it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay saith the Lord if then thy enemie be hungrie give him to eate if hee be thirstie give him drinke for in so doing thou shalt heape burning coales upon his head And Ecclus 28. The Lord will be avenged of him that revengeth himselfe and hee will keepe carefully his faults for him forgive thy neighbour his misdeedes and when thou shalt pray thy sinnes shall he forgiven thee Shall man keepe his wrath against man and aske to be cured by the Lord he will not take pitie of man like to himselfe and will aske pardon of his sinnes since he that is but flesh keepeth his wrath and asketh forgivenesse to God who shall obliterate and blot out his sinnes It is a common saying and proverb There is nothing so sweet as revenge but for my part I cannot perceive this sweetnesse unlesse it bee compared to a well scowred blade of a sword that pierceth and passeth through easily but at the same time taketh away our lives as the Bees that leave their sting where they strike and with it their life Animasque in vulnere ponunt so when we revenge our selues we leave the sting of our wrath in the wounds of our enemie but wee doe not consider so blinde are we that withall we thereby wound our soules to death Heliodorus tells us of one that said That death would be sweet and welcome to him if he knew that his enemie should also die and of another iealous woman that cryed out O how delightfull would death be to mee if I could fall dead upon the dead bodie of my rivall Plutarch saith very well That of all the wild beasts there is none so savage and cruell as a man that hath the liberty and power to execute his revenge But if wee consider it diligently we shall see that this impatience and not to be able to beare an injurie is a great infirmitie and weakenesse but as noble hearts and generous and magnanimous soules doe scorne and despise wrongs so doe they also forgive and forget all kindes of revenge Pericles of all the actions of his life esteemed this the most remarkable that hee had never revenged himselfe for any wrong done unto him And Phocion being put to death unjustly feeling the effects of that mortall Hemlock to bring him neare to the last period of his life recommended nothing so much to his sonne as this that he should forget the memorie of this offence and that he should never seeke to be revenged for it that in medling with it he would stay the gods from taking in hand the justice of his cause who would questionlesse revenge him of this offence Let us use the same Doctrine though comming from the prophane mouth of a Papan they are neverthelesse of infallible truth as a Diamond looseth nothing of his value though it be in the dirt let us then practise it and let us remember that whilest we desire to punish our enemies wee doe them a great favour and are reveng'd of our selues for the offence which they have done unto us which would deserue a farre more rigorous labour if wee left it to God but hee seeing that wee will neither referre it to his justice nor to his commaundements nor to his promises being unwilling to endure a companion in any of his works hee suffereth us to try our uttermost which is most commonly the cause of our ruine Let us then breake off this discourse which would never end if wee should punctually follow it and let us remember that revenge is our Masters owne dish which none can touch without incurring his indignation And let us imitating our heavenly Father forgive our enemies for if hee should take revenge of all the offences which wee at every moment commit against his sacred Majestie hee would then reduce us to that nothing from whence we came or would inflict upon us eternall paines and punishments since the least offence committed against an infinite goodnesse deserveth an infinite paine and torment Let us then follow Saint Lukes admonition Be mercifull as your heavenly Father is mercifull and presently after wee shall heare that blessed recompence which we shall receive for it to wit Blessed are the mercifull for they shall obtaine mercie Wee have already shewed how God recompenseth
were the Royall Pallaces and honourable company which hee had in heaven among the Angels He was swadled in clowts and laid in a Manger for want of a Cradle to keepe him from the injuries of the weather were those the delights of his Paradise He was fugitive here and there to shunne the envie and furious rage of Herod who sought to kill him In a word considering diligently all the course of his life from the moment of his birth to the last period of his death wee shall finde all his actions framed in humility and guided by meekenesse and simplicity This example and no more he did not goe chuse within the Pallaces of Kings the goodliest and gallantest Courtiers hee did not elect the sonnes of Princes to be his Apostles but went to the receipt of custome to the Cottages and Boats of Fishermen to call that honourable company of his twelue Apostles who like well instructed Disciples followed the steps of their loving Lord and Master so well did they imitate and follow his examples and especially that of his simplicity that they may be patterns of it themselues as the History of their life sufficiently sheweth and as the duty of their place required for men being deepely plunged in malice presumption and arrogancie there was no way to vanquish them but wholy by contrary weapons to them unknowne that they might the more easily be subdued and vanquished To their arrogancie they opposed meekenesse to their pompe and vaine glory humility and simplicity ever remembring the command of their good Master Be ye simple as Doves Now it is remarkable that the faithfull and such as walke uprightly before God are called by the wicked and by the children of the God of this world Poore and simple people because they addict not themselves to fraud and deceit so spake Iobs wife to her husband being yet in affliction upon his dunghill Doest thou still retaine thine integrity But Iesus Christ to shew us that hee approoveth those whom the world rejecteth speakes as if he had said See you those simple and base people they shall see God So Christ gives them hopes of the blessed vision of God as if hee had promised light to the blinde knowledge to the ignorant and wisedome to fooles for so this wicked world calleth those that will not drinke the cop of his malice nor tread in his pathes full of sinne and iniquity Blessed then are the pure in heart c. He doeth not onely say they shall be blessed but he speaketh in the present tense saying they are already blessed for God having given them that holinesse which they possesse and upon all occasions practise hath also given them two strong and well feathered wings to soare and flie aloft to heaven whereof the one is faith by the which the just trusting and reposing himselfe wholy in the promises of Christ takes his flight towards Paradise to have a tast of them for it is the nature of faith as appeareth by her definition to know how to assure it selfe how to aske the grace of God promised in his word how to embrace salvation offered by Iesus Christ and during this life how to possesse in part that eternall and blessed life And because faith beginneth here to tast the delights of the vision of God she is yet upheld and fortified by Hope which is the second wing that makes her expect heaven and promiseth her absolutely to fill her abundantly with those sweet pleasures whereof she hath shee yet had but a tast and to make her perfectly know that which now she seeth but obscurely and like a shadow Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see GOD. Vpon these words there is an objection to be resolved why Christ saith here the pure in heart seeing the Scripture in many places is directly opposite to this justice to this purity to this cleanenesse as we read Prou. 20.9 Who can say I have made my heart cleane I am pure from my sinne And in the first booke of Kings the 8. Chap. There is no man that sinneth not And in the 1. Epist of Saint Iohn 1. Chap. If we say that we have no sinne we deceive our selues and the truth is not in us And in the 25. Chap. of Iob How can man be justified with God or how can he be cleane that is borne of a woman Although these places and many more that we purposely leave to avoyd prolixity seeme to be opposite to our Text notwithstanding we will reconcile them together For when the Spirit of God calleth heere those that live justly and holily pure in heart we must not understand it so as if they were totally and absolutely cleane from the filthinesse of sinne for in that sence the royall Prophet David saith There is none just no not one But we must understand here those that strive to walke in the sacred pathes of Gods commandements that live holily before God and without reproach before men that have beene purified like gold tried seaven times in the fire and that fire is the word of God that enters and penetrates to the most secret thoughts there to consume the wood and chaffe of our wicked inclinations This cleansing and purification is clearely set forth unto us in the 15. Chap. of Saint Iohn in these words of Christ Now ye are cleane through the word which I have spoken And in the 13. Chap. ver 10. of the same Gospell Hee that is washed needeth not save to wash his feete but is cleane every whit and ye are cleave but not all In a word the faithfull that live holily may be called just and pure in heart Secundum quid non simpliciter Iust in that degree of Iustice that may fall on man whilest he is here below fighting against flesh and blood his domesticall enemies that often overcome him and would quite keepe him downe if hee were not upheld and fortified by the spirit of grace and by the Almighty hand of God that raiseth and delivereth him The faithfull servant of the Lord is againe called pure in heart because hee is such in part already and that besides the great disposition that is in him to tend to his perfection hee already here begins to tast the excellent sweetnes of that delicate fruit whereof he shall hereafter be fully and perfectly satisfied and satiated in Gods Paradise Blessed then are the pure in heart for they shall see God Wee have another circumstance here very pregnant and remarkable to wit that Christ exhorteth us here to be pure in heart and not of our head or hands because that the heart being the seate of the soule sinne is most busie to vitiate and infect it with his foule and filthy corruption which it doth not in the other parts of the body and therefore you see that God doth so strictly command us to keepe our hearts for his part and behoofe saying My sonne give mee thy heart Now to omit or let passe nothing
Resurrection of his body but hee doth not say I will see him by my flesh and if he had it might have beene understood of Christ that shall come at the last judgement in the sight of all but his meaning was that when hee should see God hee should be in his flesh though the wormes and corruption had devoured it Saint Augustine is excellent upon this subject saying We shall see God with our corporall glorified eyes as we see the life of a man by his living actions not seeing life it selfe so is it likely that being enlightened by a heavenly and divine light we shall be able to see the Creator of all things both in them and himselfe so doubtfully the learnedst speake of it In the 5 Chap. of the 2. booke of Kings we reade that Elisha after that he had healed Naaman the Syrian saw Gehazi his servant take Presents from him although hee were beyond the common reach of the sight and when Gehazi was returned hee said unto him Went not my heart with thee when the man turned againe from his Charet to meet thee Now if this Prophet hath bin able to see the actions of his servant although absent from him how much more shall our glorified bodies see all when God shal be all in all Now Elisha saw this action of his servant either by a speciall revelation from God or by the sight of a spirituall imagination of the Prophet that shewed him the thing after which manner he knew the most secret counsells of the King of Syria We speake of these things as blind men doe or colours wee finde no certainty of them any where the Fathers themselues speake so obscurely of them they goe as softly on in the handling of this question as if they trod on thornes they grope along as if they went in the obscure darknes of the blackest night hardly can you finde two agreeing together and which is more strange not one that is agreed with himselfe and indeed how should a worme of the earth the dwelling of errours the subject of ignorance know or comprehend that great God which is the fountaine of all knowledge and the bottomlesse and shorelesse Ocean of wisedome and prudence It is true that when our soules shall be blessed with that eternall happines that they shal enjoy the divine vision in which consisteth our chiefest felicity we shall then see God as he is but to conceive and comprehend the infinity of his being it will be altogether impossible to us Those that sayle in the maine Sea which way soever they looke finde no other object but the heaven or the waves their sight being too weake to penetrate to the bottome or to view the shores Even so shall we see God and know him as farre as it shall please him to enable us but so farre shall wee be from compreheading him that he doth comprehend us and wee should then be no more seene there then a drop of wine in the Ocean Saint Basile handling this question in the Epistle to Eumonius hath an excellent comparison from the least to the greatest If we cannot comprehend the composition of a Pismire for the smalnesse of it how shall wee comprehend the infinite greatnesse of God We shall comprehend it indeede but it shall be as a spunge cast into the Ocean which is filled quite with water but is overcome and compassed round about by it I should want time rather then matter to speake on a subject so high and excellent wee should never have done if we should propound and resolue the infinite number of arguments and opinions moved upon this question of our sight of God But for us let us hold as the Mathematicians doe linea recta est brevissima that the straitest line is the shortest and in this the shortest way is the surest let us turne neither to the right hand nor to the left from the certaine way of truth taught unto us by the truth it selfe to wit by Iesus Christ in our Text saying Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see GOD. Let us then purifie our hearts and cleanse our soules from the filthinesse of sinne and from the spots of iniquity let our consciences bee white as snow and cleane as washed wooll let us take the firme and inviolable oath of Alleageance to our God and let us not suffer Satan our mortall enemie to take possession of the fort of our soules of the hill of Syon that is of our consciences let us not suffer him to make a breach in that vow that we vowed to his obedience at our first reception into the Church by Baptisme and so wee shall be washed seaven times in the Iordan of repentance and of contrition for our faults when we have put on the white roabes of holinesse justice and innocencie we shall be invited to the Lambs wedding we shall sit downe at table with the Kings sonne wee shall be abundantly filled with the dainties of his house and shall drinke in the river of his delights In a word when like the high Priest we have left off the habits of our naturall corruption and put on the white and cleane garment of sanctification for our selues of love for our God of charity for our neighbour then even then the gate of the most holy place which is heaven shall be opened unto us wee shall see Gods Majestie not darkly and as in a clowd as it hath long appeared to our fore fathers but rather as a bright shining Sunne whose vertue shall enlighten us whose love shall warme us and whose compassions shall animate us at whose sight wee shall be vivified consolated and glorified For hee will enrowle us among his Angels will make us Citizens of heaven and impatriate us to be absolute possessors of the rich treasures of eternall life where it is farre easier to know what is not there then to discourse what is There there is no death no wearinesse no infirmity no hunger no thirst no heat no cold no corruption no want no mourning nor sorrow Wee have told you what there is not there but what there is there eye hath not seene eare hath not heard neither is it entred into the heart of man what God hath prepared for them that love him now because these joyes and felicities have not entred into the heart of man therefore man must strive to enter into them God speakes thus by his Prophet Isaiah chap. 32. My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitatoin and in sure dwellings and in quiet resting places In this blessed life there is a certaine assurance a sure tranquillity a happy eternity an eternall happinesse a perfect charity a perpetuall day a quick motion in a word all shall be there led and governed by the same Spirit Here let us burne with zeale to ascend to those faire places let us be enflamed with extreame desire of possessing so goodly an inheritance and if our bodies cannot as yet goe
him by degrees unto the very last point of perfection which is wisdome or the perfect knowledge of sacred mysteries as wee read in the Prophet Ieremy Chap. 11.2 The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the spirit of wisedome and understanding the spirit of counsell and might the spirit of knowledge and the feare of the Lord. The old proverbe saith truly That feare and diffidence is the mother of security for when we feare our enemie and are vigilant over his actions then we prevent his ambushes avoyd his power Let us remember that Sathan the deadly enemie of our soules watcheth still at the doore of our hearts as a roaring Lyon attending to devoure his prey so that if wee have not still the feare of God before our eyes to avoyd the nets and ginnes which he layes in the way for us we shall become his prey and food But if wee stand upon our guards and no way feare his assaults or threatnings then hee will infallibly fly from us both with hast and shame For God commonly bestoweth his graces and favours to those who feare to offend him and hee distributeth and imparteth his richest treasures to those that serve him with reverence feare and trembling Wee reade Acts 2. That when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty winde and it filled all the house where they were sitting and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sate upon each of them and they were all filled with the holy Ghost First this great noyse this impetuous winde which shaked all the house at the comming of the holy Ghost serves to teach us that those who feare God and who tremble under the authority of his all powerfull hand are those whom he visiteth by his holy Ghost and whom hee replenisheth with his benefits and graces as he did here his Apostles We read in Saint Iohn Chap. 20.19 When the doores were shut where the Disciples were assembled for feare of the Iewes that Iesus came and stood in the middes of them and sayd Peace be unto you And what is this but a lesson to teach us that the children of God should keepe their hearts close and fast shut for feare of vices sinnes and offences whereunto the devill denoted by the Iewes doth every day by a thousand snares and artifices seeke to seduce and draw our soules to eternall death Those people I say when they were shut up for feare then God came and visited them and gave them his peace as he did to his Apostles Moses receiving the tables of the Law upon Mount Sinay Exod. 19.16 So many stormes so many claps of thunder and flashes of lightning fearefully fell upon the heads of the children of Israel that they were all astonished with horrour and trembling But they were presently exempt and freed from this feare when Moses brought them the contract of their alliance written with the proper hand of God so when wee exceedingly feare and reverence God then speedily he makes a firme friendship and alliance with our soules Whiles the children of Israel had the feare of God before their eyes they were fraughted and replenished with a thousand blessings preserved from a thousand misfortunes by a thousand miracles they were preserved from bondage and slavery by a thousand prodigies they past thorow the red Sea drew water out of Rockes and were fed in the wildernesse with Manna and Quayles from heaven But as soone as by their impious and treacherous Idolatry they had cast off the yoke of the sweet and gratious feare of God and shut their eyes against the judgements of the ever living God and instantly after they had adored the golden Calfe then God sent flying Serpents who slew them by thou sands which sheweth and teacheth us That those who walk uprightly in the pathes of Gods commandements and are marked with the seale of awfull feare are still filled with his blessings and benefits but the perverse and obstinate who cast away the snaffle they I say stumble at a thousand miseries and misfortunes and being forsaken and abandoned of GOD they are exposed and precipitated to eternall death and given in prey to that olde Serpent the devill The auncient Pagans have perfectly and truly depaynted feare when they said it was all environed with fire and flames as Love and so they understood of corporall and Mundane or worldly feare and likewise of divine feare concerning their false imaginary Gods Here we will doe as Noah did Wee will make use of sinners to build the Arke of our salvation or as Salomon did of the timber stones of King Hiram to build the temple of the Eternall 1. Reg. 5. That which Pagans have spoken without knowledge wee will speake with reason and knowledge That all sorts of feare is a fire in our soules which scorcheth and consumes us as long as it remaines there But let us here endevour particularly to consider the Analogies and resemblances that there is betweene fire and the feare of God which is the subject of our text Fire is a furious hastie and active Element and so likewise are the points of apprehension and feare Fire is the cleanest the purest the wholsomest of all Elements It cleanseth it purifieth it drives out all filthinesse and corruption as being neither able nor capable to suffer in it selfe any impurity for it either consumes or expells it And all this agrees well with the feare of God which is the most wholsomest Physick that we can take to purge our selues of sinne and to purifie our hearts of all vncleanenesse for there is no vice but it will purge and reject Fire is an Element which consumes and devoures all that is presented to it and the feare of God is a coale and flame which devoureth all our concupiscences To make straight a crooked peece of wood or timber wee use fire thereby to make it become more soft and flexible So to replace soules in the way of life when they are either crooked or gone astray in the by pathes of vice then the feare of God of all other remedies is the best and most soveraigne Fire by Antiperistase as it heates those who are cold so it refresheth and comforteth those who are hot The feare of God heates and enflames those soules to doe well who are most frozen in piety and contrariwise it cooleth those who are most enflamed with their burning sensualities and concupiscences To venemous Apostumes mortal Gangreens and desperate diseases wee for the last remedy apply Irons and fire to cure it To sinners inveterated in their wickednesse and as it were despairing of their salvation wee must apply the Iron and fire of the feare of God to make them apprehend and know his divine judgements if they remaine impenitent and vnrepentant Historians report that the Arabian Phoenix the onely bird of his race
and full of wounds and doth not give him bread to eat calleth him not into his house to warme him and that like the Samaritane powreth not oyle into his wounds what Adamantine heart is so hardned as not to open and cleave with griefe at the object of such pittifull spectacles and sights There be some that take the Etymologie of Misericordia Mercie from that it makes the hearts of men miserable by beholding the miserie of others and that with as much truth as reason for the truly mercifull feeleth in himselfe all the miseries of others which was it that drew so many teares out of Heraclitus his eyes being able to behold nothing on earth but what was lamentably miserable Saint Paul exhorteth us Rom. 12.15 to weepe with them that weepe and to be of like affection one towards another Good Iob in his complaints Chap. 30.25 said Did not I weepe with him that was in trouble was not my soule in heavinesse for the poore It is one of the most pious and generous actions of the soule to take upon her the afflictions of others and to ease them of them It is the sacrifice the most delightfull with which the Lord is pleased they are Ieremiahs ragges but they draw us from the Cave of sinne from the pit of iniquity it is the dry rock of the mountaine of Horeb from whence flowes aboundantly the wholesome waters of grace and blessing In a word it is a Iacobs ladder by the which the Angels of consolations and divine favours descend upon us by the which our faith our love and affection ascend up to Christ who stayeth for us on the top to say unto us Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you before the foundation of the world And will not therefore our hope to heare those sweet and gracious words oblige us to comfort and consolate the afflicted and with our meanâ—s to ease and refresh the poore and needie since those are actions so pleasing acceptable to God that S. August saith That charity towards the poore was a second Baptisme because that as the water of baptisme is a sacred signe unto us that the fire of originall sinne is ex inguished in our soules so pitie and compassion of the afflicted is an undoubted marke that God hath powred out the sacred waters of his grace and forgivenesse upon the burning coales of our transgressions to quench them Saint Chrysostome calles it the friend of God that obtaineth of him all she asketh shee setteth prisoners at liberty recalls the banished and implores and obtaines grace for the condemned the hand of the poore is the purse of God it is the Altar whereon wee leave our gifts to goe and reconcile our selues to our eldest brother Iesus Christ our Saviour whom the wickednesse of our sinnes did cruelly fixe and naile to the Crosse Having sufficiently considered the two first branches of mercie let us now behold the third branch of this divine plant which Saint Luke hath perfectly taught us saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Love your enemies and ye shall be the children of the most high Math. 5.44 Luk. 6.27 Luk. 3.24 for hee is kinde unto the unkinde and to the evill And indeed this part of mercie doth greatly beautifie and make glorious her body for her two sisters Pitie in giving and Compassion in condoling are actions which humanity cannot refuse to the lamentable cries of the languishing to the sad and sorrowfull objects of poore and miserable men but must move your hearts were they of steele and draw teares from your eyes though they were of marble But to forgive our enemies is to vanquish and overcome our selues it is a nearer approaching to the divine nature then to the humane All Histories are full of charitable actions of men towards their neighbours and without taking them out of Scripture the examples are thankes be to God usually to be seene but to forgive our enemies not to annoy them when it is in our power is to be enlightned by the sacred presence of the holy Ghost to be regenerated by his grace to bee fully possessed of mercy Moses that great servant of God who had beheld him face to face that had seene him practise this rare and excellent vertue towards the people of Israel falling into Idolatry Hee that had mediated for them speaking to God after this manner O Lord what will thy enemies say that thou hast brought thy people out of Egypt by a strong hand and stretched out arme to kill them in the wildernesse seeing that thou couldest not bring them into the land which thou diddest promise them and himselfe notwithstanding is carried away by this passion of revenge when hee made the earth open and swallow vp alive Core Dathan and Abiram with their families though it bee not mentioned that they had participated in the murmuring of their heads yea he did not spare Mary his owne sister whom he covered with leprosie Neither is it to the purpose to say that it was in Gods cause that hee used this revenge that is vallable in putting Nadab and Abihu to death because they had violated the divine ordinance God forbid that I should excuse their fault but I desire onely to shew that though Moses were so holy a man yet hee had some touch of humane weakenesse But in this circumstance what shall wee say of David a man after Gods owne heart that so often curseth his enemies that giveth charge to Salomon his sonne to revenge him of the injuries and curses which Shimhi had spoken against him as he fled from before Absalom What greater Prophet then Elijah neverthelesse because two of Achazias Captaines were gone to seeke him to take him and bring him to the King as hee had commanded them he made the fire fall downe from heaven which consumed them with their fifties And the Apostles themselues having not beene well received in a certaine place said to Christ Wilt thou that we make fire fall from heauen upon that Citie but Iesus diverted and hindered them Wee produce all these examples not to imitate but to shunne them and thereby to make it appeare that wee must not revenge our selues when wee can doe it but rather to doe good to our enemies when they have done us hurt is to make our selues perfect in this excellent vertue of Mercy It is to becom conformable to the Saviour and Redeemer of our soules who seeing and feeling the horrible cruelties of the Iewes against him hearing the blasphemies which they pronounced against his divine Majestie notwithstanding in stead of revenging himselfe he prayeth his Father and crieth out thus Father forgive them for they know not what they doe That which made Saint Stephens martirdome the more honourable is that in the middest of his torments among a fearefull shower of haile of stones cast against him hee desireth not God to punish his tormentours but rather being possessed with the spirit of mercie and meekenesse