selfe-loue or indolence hasting to heale their hearts before they are wounded and to comfort their consciences before they be afflicted Heerevpon they condemne all deep sorrow and lamentation as soft and effeminate or want of faith and patience all funerall rites and ceremonies as Heathenish and Vnchristian all solemne afflicting of the soule himnes supplications fasting and almes deeds which notwithstanding hath beene practised of holiest men and women in all ages In the eighth of the Actes the second verse deuote men beare out the body of the blessed Martyr Saint Stephen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and made great lamentation The word signifies extremity of griefe with beating and knocking of the breast With what extraordinary sorrow did Saint Austine mourne for the death of his mother Et libuit flere in conspectu tuo de Illa pro illa de me pro me dimisi lachrimas vt effluerint quantum vellent Lastly which is the greatest commendations of this goodnesse and softnesse of nature wee reade that our Sauiour Christ was deeply moued and did weep at the departure of his friend wherevpon the Iewes obserued how greatly hee loued him God hath created in our hearts Dulce nomen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this sweete name of naturall affection Which is as a sparke of that eternall loue wherewith the indiuided Trinity is enslamed Which is so spirituall and actiue that being moued it doth presently heat and dissolue the heart into passion The second extreme to be auoided is immoderation of griefe which proceeds from impatience and vnbeleefe For when men beleeue not that God is the God of the dead as well as of the liuing and of the sicke as of the whole that all things worke vnto the good of the godly then loue sayling them and their hope they sorrow like them which haue no hope And how can they haue any hope when they want the Comforter who is so called saith Saint Austiue that they which suffer losse of things temporall might bee comforted with hope of things eternall Therefore when any crosse befals them through immoderate loue of these transitory things they are infinitely deiected full of bitter thoughts of cursing and howling Desperate mourners not capable of consolation accusers of God reuolters from Religion One example for all take the King of Israell in that miserable siege and famine of Samaria how he railes first against the Prophet of God secondly against God himselfe for that is the methode and these are his blasphemous words Behold what euill commeth from the Lord why should I wait longer vpon the Lord Ecce tantum malia Domino quid amplius expectabo à Domino A true example of impatience and insidelity Likewise the Gentiles when the hand of God was vpon them they vsed to breake out into exclamations and accusations against God as in that Atque Deos atque astra vocat crudelia mater As Quiutilian quis mihi alius vsus vocis quā vt incusem Deos And Iure per mala mea per infelicem conscientiam Hence rise their funerall pompes and superstitious exequies for the dead Sacrificing of men and women in honour of the defunct ertificiall howling and cutting of their flesh ambitious Sepulchers and excessiue feasts of many daies continuance In which kind euery Nation had some peculiar vanity and superstition aboue the rest Lastly in all their troubles and calamities they captiuate their vnderstandings to their affections wayling without restraint raging against God and his creatures But Iobs lamenting was not of this kinde neither are his words otherwaies to bee interpreted then as signes of extraordinary griefe easing his oppressed heart although not without some perturbation Hitherto of the griefe and passion of Iobs minde expressed by this interrogation Quare wherefore Which is a word of sorrow not of indignation Now to the matter and cause of his griefe namely that such benefites of God as light and life should bee so blotted with miseries and vexation of spirit Although according to the vsuall interpretation these words haue one and the same sence light and life and labour and bitternesse of soule yet their proper acception and signification will affoord vs this difference of discourse All the misery of man is either labour or bitternesse of soule By labour vnderstand all that wee do with difficulty and impediment whether they be actions and operations of the mind or body By bitternesse of soule is ment all that wee suffer in our soules either immediately or from the body or any outward affliction These two diuers kinds of misery do planely and distinctly appeare in that sentence of woe which God pronounceth against Adam In dolore comedes heere is the misery of suffering In sudore comedes there is the misery of working In like manner the good things which we enioy they bee either such as guide and ease our actions which Iob comprehends vnder the name of light or those which sustaine and benefite our passions which are contained in the word Life For the first Light is of three sorts sensible intellectuall and spirituall Sensible light is either artificiall or naturall Concerning naturall light as of it selfe nothing is more sweet and cheerefull so to the spirit which is in wearinesse and toyle nothing is more tedious In the 10 of Eccle. the 7 verse Lighe is sweete And in the Creation light is the first creature that is made and first hallowed Hence is it adorned with so many Epithits in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Therefore as poore labourers by singing do sweeten their paines for which cause S. Basil cals their singing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sauce of their toyle So the light of the Sunne doth lighten their labour and makes them more cheerefull in their worke Yet how much pleasanter is light to them that are at liberty and rest which haue leasure to contemplate the beauty of the heauens or to discourse of the benefites of light But if they bee bound to some grieuous taxe and incessant labour as the Israelites then light is but an eye-sore Whilst they see their owne vexation and how much worke they haue to doe whilst they see others sporting and themselues toyling Lastly whilst they see their misery to bee exposed to the sight of all They see youth dancing and age wooing women walking to theaters to see and to be seene Lastly they see the day distribrute beauty and cheerofulnesse to all creatures but vnto themselues vnto birdes vnto buildings to the clouds to the aire to the earth to the waters And therefore vnto them which in time of old tyranny were condemned ad lapicidiuas yet this was some comfort that they neither so much saw their own miserie nor the happinesse of others The Sunne in the creation was ordained for signes and seasons to rule the day and to shine vpon the earth but after sinne had brought in labour the sun became a taske-maister to call men forth vnto their worke as it is in
prefiscini God blesse it least perhaps selfe-loue might breed within it or rather because enuy did pretend flattery I omit superstition but sure it is whether the world be not worthy of things worthy or because God permits the diuel still to exercise his inueterate enuy or whether the substance of these beauties is not durable howsoeuer it is things wonderfully amiable haue no long continuance Whilst vertue is in health malice hates it and loue neglects it and if it perish not quickly of it selfe enuy murders it enuy will consume it selfe vntill it bee consumed Which coniunction of enuy and murther the Greekes expressed in the similitude of their names there is but one letter betweene enuy death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that is a deadly and dismall letter So the Apostle ioynes them together Rom. 2.19 Full of enuy and murther And Gal. 5.2 The workes of the flesh are enuies and murthers Wherefore if thou wilt preuent the one suppresse the other Thou beholdest in another that good which is not in thy selfe either it is thine owne fault or in recompence thou hast that which hee wanteth Or why doest thou maligne him when God gaue it him or may not God dispose of his owne or is there not another world to giue euery man satisfaction Further alasse what is there in this world worthy of enuy is not euery good thing haunted with his spirit are not the vertues of the best poore inough but wee must paire them by detraction if thou wilt needs enuy enuy within thy self to see the worse part get the better to see the prosperitie insolencie of the flesh aboue the spirit Woe to them saith Saint Iude which walke in the way of Cain for they contemne the simplicitie of Grace for they admire things transitorie and there is no loue in them From which sinnes the blessed spirit of loue preserue vs which combineth the Father and the Sonne vnto whom one GOD bee all honour praise and confession for euermore Amen The end of the first Sermon THE SECOND SERMON Of Humane Miserie IOB 3.20 Wherefore is the light giuen to him that is in misery and life to them which are bitter in spirit THINGS Tragicall which in themselues are fearefull and vnpleasant notwithstanding they are represented or remembred with delight But besides that the suffsrings of the Saints recorded in Scripture doe affoord vnto a Christian further instruction namely with the Greeke Church to pray to haue his purgatorie in this life and to say with S. Austen Domine hic seca hic vre vt in aeternum parcas Lord here lance mee and here lash me that thou maist spare mee for euer A famous patterne of these passions was happy Iob and amongst other his tragicall exclamations is this miserable and dolefull complaint powred out of the aboundance of his griefe In which text consider two things First the griefe and passion of Iobs minde expressed by an interrogation quare wherefore Secondly the cause and matter of his griefe in the words following which is the misery of mankind and that hee diuides into two kinds the troublesome things which we do out of these words light and labour and the miserable things that we suffer in the words following and life to them that are bitter in spirit For hee thinketh that light doth aggrauate our labours and life augment our sufferings This interrogation wherefore is not a word of indignation or murmure against God but of sorrow and complaint For sighes and groanes and miserable outcries they are the irruptions of a heart burdened with griefe which if it should not finde passage that way would bee combust or cleaue asunder And they are caused oftentimes from extreame heate and affection of loue when the minde being stricken with some vnexpected accidents vttereth tearmes which seeme to be of hatred and disgrace which notwithstanding doe indeed proceed onely from the affection of loue troubled and distracted Such affectionate speeches the Psalmes the Canticles and the booke of Iob they be full of where the Saints of God are expressed varying themselues into all shapes of affections Into feare into hope into chiding into weeping into sudden silence into shew of despaire into forsaking and suddenly into earnest intreating Hence we learne two things The first that the violence of affection and griefe it may be pleasing vnto God sometimes and compatible with the gouernement of reason and of grace There is in vs naturally in some more in some lesse a softnesse and flexiblenesse of nature which takes impression of griefe it is created of God and the operations of it are not in vaine When God is angry hee will haue vs grieue when hee chides or when hee scourges hee will haue vs weepe and powre out our soules into deprecations and complaints Yea then our loue appeares to him when wee melt like waxe before the heate of his anger when we seeke him and sorrow that wee cannot find him and when wee feele the discontinuance of his fauour This bleeding of the heart of man it is delightsome both to God and to vs therefore saith Saint Austine Possumne audire abs te Domine Cur fletus dulcis sit miseris an hoe tibi dulce est quod speramus ex audire te Neither is the extremity of any passion to be blamed but the perturbation or disobedience to reason Therefore wee read in Scripture of the boly men of God when they were afflicted with any occasion of griefe that their sorrow is expressed in termes of greatest lamentation They rend their hearts and their garments they afflict their soules with fasting they put on sackecloth and ashes because as Saint Ierome saith Ieiunus venter hahitus lugubris Ambitiosius dominum deprecantur Lastly their words are dolefull aboue all the Tragicall exclamations that Art can find How exceeding great was the lamentation of Ieremy for the good King Iosias that it came to bee a Prouerbe as the mourning of Hadadrimon in the valley of Megiddon Wherefore there being a meane and measure in mourning two extremities are to be auoided the first is dulnesse and sencelessenes of heart a pretended calmenesse but indeed a stoicall and vnnaturall carelessenesse proceeding from the loue of case and want of compassion and affection either in our owne troubles or the troubles of others These men will neither weepe nor exclaime nor giue any signes of violent passions as if this were fortitude and patience which is rather stupidity and want of charity What father will like his sonne if vpon his displeasure he shew himselfe nothing daunted nor moued in his countenance nor stricken at the heart to looke pale or to humble his voyce or to weepe or to deiect his eyes Will a father call this patience or stubbornesse in his sonne Such are they who when their heauenly Father afflicts them make hast presently to stop their passions that neither teares nor groanes nor complaints may finde any passage through too much
before Their bodies how much the stronger so much the longerenduring of sicknesse of consumption of death Vaine-glorious cruell dissembling rising by the ruines of others Lastly what is man-age but the Giantnesse of sinne and the power of miserie But when these ages of childe-hood youth and man-hood are worne into old age then you haue the recapitulation of humane miserie the infirmitie of childe-age the incorrigibilitie of Boy-age the subtiltie of Man-age and all these greater here then in the former Ages Here the prodigalitie of youth is dried vp into auarice pride and lust bee sinnes here out of fashion but not out of vse vndecent and vnbeseeming vices Here wisedome doateth and of power to sinne is left a will to sinne the greater torment Lastly what is old age but the store-house of repentance and obliuion the ragges of life the ashes of a lustfull body and wearinesse of a wandring minde Atque hi sunt manes quos patimur these are the miseries which we suffer in all ages sin and sorrow and folly vexation and bitternesse of spirit Hence spring complaints and discontent either for want or disease or the frustration of our hopes or some other euill No prosperitie without change and in the midst of laughter the heart is heauie What way and course of life can a man cut out wherein there is not trouble and vexation of spirit Theologie neuer so full of questions the law as full of difficulties as men of quarrels Physicke as manifold in cures as the appetite in absurd desires In Courts few prosper and those that prosper perish The Countrey makes beasts and the Citie Diuels Single life is solitarie and marriage ill company This is the miserie of life Now followes the life of Miserie Who knowes not that life and all the comforts of life they bee but increase of afffliction to those that are plunged in griefe What pleasure is there in melodie to a man that mournes And to him that is in an ague how vnseasonable is the discourse of loue and iollitie Eternitie of torment is the hell of hell so continuance or life in miserie there is the misery of misery Space of time diminishes sorrow that is past but increaseth that which is present because it weakens patience and prolongs the hope of deliuerance Therefore the Patriarch complaines that his dayes were few and euill Not euill and few For to haue a short time allotted him and yet euill dayes intermixed is more euill But being afflicted with euill yeares to haue them shortened is lesse euill 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O daies few and euill briefe and tedious How it lies vpon vs beloued to lengthen them by good deeds And so much the more because the shortest of the yeare is certaine but the shortest of our life is vncertaine Let vs frustate the tenure of iniquitie and in euery age doe the vertue of the age not the sinne of the age that so not liuing after custome but after truth nor making profusion of the bloud of CHRIST that it may not faile vs at our greatest neede wee may preserue the seale of our redemption inuiolate and bee bold euery one of vs to pray O my GOD let not the end of my deuotion bee suddaine but after much mortification of heart and long consumption of languishing desires to see thee make a ripe dissolution of my flesh and spirit close vp my wearied thoughts and receiue mee to thy mercie Amen Liue sweete IESV and reigne with the Father and Holy Ghost one God c. The end of the second Sermon THE THIRD SERMON Of the loue of Christ 1. PET. 1.8 Whom you loue though yee haue not seene THAT which blessed Saint Peter commends in the dispersed Iewes of Asia Pontus Cappadocia that they loued Iesus whom they had not seene The same is the praise of all deuout Catholickes who haue liued these many yeares that being scattered from sea to sea vnder euery starre and throughout all lands yet they loue their one Head vnseene as they loue their many fellow-members vnseene Which is a singular commendation in the Daughter of Christ dispersed His espoused Church so deerely to affect Him whom Shee neuer saw Whereas the daughters of men make sight a necessary antecedent of affection and will esteeme highly of no obiect vntill the eye haue set a price of it This word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though contained in the aduerbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or else vnderstood not expressed in the originall implies another loue of Christ namely as hee was visible in the state of Mortality making that to be the greater but this the harder As if hee should say You loue Christ whom you haue not seene How much more vehement would your loue haue beene if you had seene him These then be the two parts of my Text First the loue of Christ being seene Secondly the loue of Christ being not seene If any man loue not our Lord Iesus Christ let him be Anathema Maranatha Of all the senses there is none so proper a mediator of loue as is the sight It is the beginning of loue according to the Prouerb exaspectu nascitur amor and it is the perfection thereof whilst we desire to see that whereof we haue much read or heard Therefore we loue our eves aboue all parts of our body giuing them the names of the most louely creatures in the world as the Sunne and Moone O oculi gemiua sydeva And that which wee loue deerest wee compare it to the eye as Ocule ocelle ni and Psal 7.8 Keepe mee as the apple of an eye Now the causes why sight so much procureth loue First it is the most spirituall sense and may bee called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a corporall minde whereby we vnderstand things sensible By reason of which affinity videre is put for intelligere For this cause the mind best liketh that obiect which is commended to her by the eye Secondly it is the quickest sense and therefore doth soonest fire the affections According to that Segnius irritant animos immissa per aures quam quae sunt oculis subiecta sidelibus Thirdly it is the surest euidence and most certaine demonstration Whence by metaphor the word demonstration is drawne And therefore the fruition of eternall happinesse is called Vision Lastly it is the most vnwearied and vnsatiable sense the eye being neuer satisfied with seeing Which makes for the continuance of loue For loue hateth nothing more then mutability and fastidious inconstancie For these causes I say sight is the most peculiar Factor for Loue. Now that wee may the better vnderstand this loue of Christ which they had that saw him in the flesh let vs consider a little of the diuers kindes of loue There is a sensuall loue or rather lust which the base Iewes nor other Infidels euer suspected in Christ Iesus although hee loued the two sacred sisters of Bothania and though Saint Iohn leaned in his bosome and many woemen vsed to