^c 
 
POST-MEDLEVAL PREACHEES. 
 
LONDON : 
 
 GILBERT AND EIVINGTON, PRINTERS, 
 
 ST. JOHN'S SQUARE. 
 
omc account 
 of tl?e most 
 cekbrated 
 
 |lo8t mediaeval 
 flTcacbcrs, 
 
POST-MEDIiEVAL PEEA0HER8: 
 
 SOME ACCOUNT OF THE 
 
 MOST CELEBRATED PREACHERS OP THE 15th, 16th, & 17th 
 
 CENTURIES; 
 
 WITH OUTLINES OP THEIR SERMONS, AND 
 
 SPECIMENS OP THEIR STYLE. 
 
 S. BARING-GOULD, M.A, 
 
 If 
 
 AUTHOE OF 
 "ICELAND: ITS SCENES AND SAGAS." 
 
 Honliou, 
 KIVINGTONS, WATEKLOO PLACE ; 
 
 HIGH STREET, 1 TEIKITY STREET, 
 
 1865. 
 
^3 
 
PEEFACE. 
 
 The following work is of Theological, Biographical, 
 and Bibliographical interest. 
 
 It has been written with the view of bringing a 
 class of Preachers before the public who are scarcely 
 known even by name to the theological student, but 
 who are certainly remarkable for their originality, 
 depth, and spirituality. 
 
 Among the numerous Preachers of the three centuries 
 under review, it has been difficult to decide which to 
 select, but those chosen are believed to be the most 
 characteristic. 
 
 The Author returns thanks to Mr. John Mozley Stark, 
 of Fit zwilliam- street, Strand, for his assistance in the 
 compilation of this Work, by the loan of some costly 
 and scarce volumes not in the Author's library. 
 
 The title-page, and the Dance of Death at the head of 
 this page, are taken from the Sermons of Santius Porta, 
 printed and published hj J. Cleyn, Lyons, 4to. 1513. 
 
 47.saa,". 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Introduction- 
 Gabriel BlEL 
 Jean Rauhn 
 Meffreth 
 Matthias Faber 
 Philip von Hartung 
 Joseph ue Barzia 
 jAcauEs Marchant 
 John Osorius 
 Maximilian Deza 
 Francis Coster . 
 Index 
 
 page 
 I 
 
 CI 
 
 81 
 100 
 UG 
 134 
 155 
 177 
 192 
 206 
 237 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The history of preaching begins with the first sermon 
 ever delivered, the first and the best, that of our 
 blessed Lord on the mount in Galilee. 
 
 The declamations of the ancient prophets difier 
 widely in character from the sermons of Christian 
 orators, and in briefly tracing the history of sacred 
 elocution, we shall put them on one side. 
 
 For the true principles of preaching are enshrined in 
 that glorious mountain sermon. From it we learn what 
 a Christian oration ought to be. We see that it should 
 contain instruction in Gospel truths, illustrations from 
 natural objects, warnings, and moral exhortations, and 
 that considerable variety of matter may be introduced, 
 80 long as the essential unity of the piece be not in- 
 terfered with. 
 
 In this consists the difierence between Christ's model 
 sermon, and the exhortations of those who went before 
 Him. 
 
 Jonah preached to the Mnevites, " Yet forty days, and 
 
)Z : .; ', ,; ' • ,. . riNTRODUCTION. 
 
 Mneveh shall be overthrown," and that was his only- 
 subject. 
 
 • John Baptist preached in the wilderness, and on one 
 point only, " Prepare ye the way of the Lord." 
 
 They confined themselves to a single topic, and that 
 purely subjective, whereas a Christian sermon is to be 
 both objective and subjective. It should be like Jacob's 
 ladder, reaching from God's throne to man's earth, with 
 its subject-matter constantly ascending and descending, 
 leading men up to God, and showing God by His In- 
 carnation descending to man. 
 
 A Spanish bishop of the seventeenth century thus 
 speaks of the Sermon on the Mount, the model for all 
 sermons, and the pattern upon which many ancient 
 preachers framed their discourses. 
 
 He quotes St. John, " I saw in the right hand of Him 
 that sat on the throne a book written within and with- 
 out, sealed with seven seals;" and this book, he says, is 
 the life of our blessed Lord, written with the characters 
 of all virtues — within, in His most holy soul ; without, in 
 His sacred body. It is sealed with seven seals. St. 
 John continues, " I saw a strong angel proclaiming with 
 a loud voice. Who is worthy to open the book, and to 
 loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor 
 in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the 
 book, neither to look thereon." 
 
 "Who, then, was worthy to open that book ? None 
 save Christ Himself. He opened it in the Sermon on 
 the Mount, wherein He taught all men to follow and 
 observe the virtues which He practised Himself. 
 
 Hearken and consider as He opens each seal : — 
 
INTRODUCTION. 6 
 
 " Blessed are tlie poor in spirit :" and behold Him at 
 the opening of this first seal, poor and of no reputation. 
 
 " Blessed are they that mourn :" and this second seal 
 displays Him offering up prayers for us, " with strong 
 crying and tears." 
 
 " Blessed are the meek :" and we see Him meek and 
 lowly of heart, before the judgment-seat answering not 
 a word. 
 
 ** Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after right- 
 eousness :" this fourth seal exhibits Him whose meat it 
 was to do the will of Him that sent Him, and who on 
 the cross could still cry, " I thirst,'* in the consuming 
 thirst for the salvation of our souls. 
 
 " Blessed are the merciful :'* and " His mercy is over 
 all His works.'* 
 
 " Blessed are the pure in heart :" and who was purer 
 than the Virgin Son of the Virgin Mother ? 
 
 And the seventh seal opens with : " Blessed are the 
 peacemakers ;" showing us Christ who made '* peace by 
 the blood of His cross " between Jew and Gentile, be- 
 tween God and man. 
 
 Every sermon preached since that mighty discourse, 
 which opened the life of Christ to man, what has it 
 been, but a turning over of leaf after leaf in that most 
 mysterious book ? 
 
 There is something very striking in the accidents of 
 that first sermon, that fountain whence every rill of 
 sacred eloquence has flowed to water the whole earth ; 
 delivered, not in the gloom of the temple, in the shadow 
 of the ponderous roof, like the burden of the law to 
 weigh it down, but in the open air, free and elastic like 
 
 B 2 
 
4 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the Gospel, on a mountain-top, in the soft breeze be- 
 neath an unclouded sun ; the Preacher standing among 
 mountain flowers, meet emblems of the graces which 
 should spring up from His word, sown broadcast over 
 the world. We can picture the scene : the twelve around 
 Him, bowed in wonder, like the sheaves of the brethren 
 bending before the sheaf of Joseph ; and beyond, a great 
 multitude with eager uplifted faces, a multitude hun- 
 gering and thirsting after righteousness, drawing in 
 the gracious words which proceeded from Christ's lips ; 
 whilst far below, gently ripples and brightly twinkles 
 the blue Galilean lake, over the waters of which that 
 Preacher walked, and the waves of which by one word 
 He stilled. We may say with the angel, " The waters 
 which thou sawest are peoples, and multitudes, and 
 nations, and tongues" (Bev. xvii, 15), and see in them 
 a type of the world once tossing in the darkness and 
 terror of a night of ignorance without God, but now to 
 be calmed in the daylight of His presence, and lulled 
 at the sound of His voice. 
 
 The following analysis of the Sermon on the Mount, 
 taken chiefly from Dr. J. Forbes, will give some idea of 
 its arrangement : — 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 A. The character of the true members of Christ's 
 kingdom diametrically opposed to the expecta- 
 tions and character of the world. 
 
 The Beatitudes, or progressive stages of 
 
 Christian life (verses 3 — 10). 
 The reward of those who keep the beatitudes 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in this world (11) and in the next 
 (12). _ 
 B. The duty of Christ's servants towards the world 
 (13—16). 
 
 The Subject. 
 " Christ is the end of the law for righteousness." 
 
 (Ver. 17.) "Think not that I am come to destroy 
 the law and the prophets." 
 
 A. (Negative proposition) I am not come to 
 
 destroy, 
 
 B. (Positive proposition) but to fulfil. 
 Negative proposition explained (18, 19). 
 Positive proposition explained (20). 
 
 Christ then shows how that the law is made of none 
 efiect by the Scribes and Pharisees, and not by 
 Himself. 
 
 II. 
 
 A. The Teaching of Christ contrasted with 
 that of the Scribes. Perfect form of 
 the Second Table of the Law. 
 
 1. Law of Individual Life (YI Commandment, V 
 
 Beatitude) (21—26). 
 
 2. Law of Family Life (YII Commandment, YI 
 
 Beatitude) (27—32). 
 
 3. Central Law of Truth (IX Commandment) 
 
 (33—37). 
 
 4. Law of National Life (YIII Commandment) : 
 
 B 3 
 
b INTRODUCTION. 
 
 On its Negative or Passive Side (III Beati- 
 tude) (38—42). 
 On its Positive or Active Side (YII Beatitude) 
 
 (43-48). 
 
 III. 
 The Practice required by Christ of His Disciples 
 contrasted with the Practice of the Scribes and 
 Pharisees. 
 First Defect of Pharisaical Righteousness, Osten- 
 tation, or Hypocrisy. God must be regarded in 
 all our Acts (chap. vi. 1). 
 
 a. In the Duties owed to our [N^eighbours 
 
 (2-4). 
 ]3. In the Duties owed to God (5 — 15). 
 y. In the Duties owed to Ourselves (16 — 18). 
 Second Defect of Pharisaical Righteousness, World- 
 liness. God must be regarded in all our Affec- 
 tions (19—34). 
 Third Defect of Pharisaical Righteousness, Spiritual 
 Pride. God must be regarded in all our Judg- 
 ments (chap. vii. 1, 2). 
 We must acquire Discernment to judge, 
 a. How to give (3 — 5). 
 h. To whom to give (6). 
 c. What to give (7—12). 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 The conclusion sums up, in three practical exhorta- 
 tions, the whole sermon. Such being the spirit of the 
 Law and the Prophets, and the strictness of the right- 
 eousness required, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 7 
 
 I, Beware of Supineness (13, 14). 
 II. Beware of false Teachers (15—20). 
 III. Beware of empty Professions (21 — 27). 
 
 The other sermons given in Holy Scripture are those 
 of St. Peter, St. Stephen, and St. Paul ; in all of which 
 arrangement is discernible. 
 
 But passing from the apostolic age to those suc- 
 ceeding it, we find that preachiug consisted chiefly in 
 scriptural exposition, the only order observed being 
 that of the sacred text. Such was the nature of the 
 sermons of St. Pantaenus (a.d. 180), the Sicilian Bee, 
 so named from the way in which he gathered honey 
 from the flowers of prophetic and apostolic fields. He 
 is said to have travelled preaching the Gospel as far 
 as India, whence he brought back a Hebrew copy 
 of St. Matthew's Gospel, left by St. Bartholomew. 
 St. Clement of Alexandria and Origen succeeded him ; 
 adding polish and refinement to the matter. These 
 great men, so well versed in the history of the Old and 
 'New Testaments, were also probably masters of the art 
 of preaching, though but few of their genuine homilies 
 are extant by which we might judge. 
 
 In Africa, St. Cyprian preached with eloquence and 
 vigour. A few sermons and homilies of St. Athanasius 
 remain ; and fifty sermons preached by the Macarii to 
 the monks in the Thebaid. St. Ephraem Syrus, Deacon 
 of Edessa, was a voluminous writer, and an eloquent 
 preacher. Sozomen observes of him, that, though he 
 had never studied, yet he had so many beauties in his 
 style, and so many sublime thoughts, that the traces 
 of his eloquence are discernible through a translation. 
 
 b4 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 St. Gregory Nyssen says that lie had read and medi- 
 tated more than any one else on the Bible; that he 
 had written expositions upon all Holy Scripture ; and 
 that he had, besides, composed many fervid and touch- 
 ing exhortations. " All his discourses," says he, " are 
 filled with weeping and compassionate expressions, 
 which are calculated to move even the hardest hearts. 
 For who that is proud would not become the humblest 
 of men, on reading his sermon on Humility? Who 
 would not be inflamed with Divine fire, by reading 
 his treatise on Charity? Who would not wish to be 
 pure in heart, when reading the praises he has lavished 
 on virginity ? Who would not be alarmed on hearing 
 his discourse on the Last Judgment ; wherein he has 
 described it so vividly, that not a touch can be added 
 by way of improvement ? God gave him so profound 
 a wisdom, that, though he had a wonderful facility of 
 speaking, yet he could not always find words to express 
 the crowd of ideas which flowed into his mind." 
 
 Every one knows what was the success of the homi- 
 lies of St. Augustine, of the two Gregories, of St. Chry- 
 sostom, St. Basil, St. Ambrose. " There were giants in 
 those days." We will not speak of them now, as their 
 lives and their works are well known. Suffice it to 
 say, that they spoke so as to suit the capacities of their 
 hearers. Sometimes they preached without prepara- 
 tion, and in a homely manner ; seeking rather to in- 
 struct than to please. 
 
 St. Cyprian, St. Ambrose, and St. Leo, among the 
 Latins, pass with justice for the most eloquent orators 
 of their time. St. Augustine is more simple than they ; 
 
INTRODUCTION. 9 
 
 but he preaclied in the small town of Hippo, to shop- 
 keepers and labourers. 
 
 In the age after Augustine, perhaps the most famous 
 preacher was Salvian (390 — 484), surnamed the Master 
 of Bishops, not that he ever was a Bishop himself, but 
 because so many of his pupils at Lerins became even- 
 tually prelates in Gaul. Among the most eminent of 
 these was St. Csesarius of Aries (470—542), son of the 
 Count of Chalons. He passed his youth in the shadow 
 of the cloister of Lerins, and left it only to succeed the 
 first fathers of that peaceful isle, Honoratus and Hilary, 
 upon the archiepiscopal throne of Aries. He was for 
 half a century the most illustrious and most influ- 
 ential of the Bishops of Southern Gaul. He presided 
 over four Councils, and directed the great controversies 
 of his time. He was passionately beloved by his flock, 
 whose hearts he swayed with his fervid eloquence, of 
 which 130 still extant sermons bear the indelible stamp. 
 Another of the early preachers of Gaul was St. Eucher 
 (434), whom Bossuet calls "the Great;" and he, too, 
 issued from that great nursery of saints, the Isle of Lerins. 
 
 Valerian of Cemele (450), has left behind him sermons 
 plain and sound, but devoid of eloquence. Basil of 
 Seleucia was a preacher of fame in the East. Photius 
 says, that "his discourse is figurative and lofty. He 
 observes, as much as any man, an even tone. He has 
 united clearness with agreeableness, but his tropes and 
 figures are very troublesome. By these he wearies his 
 hearer always, and creates in him a bad opinion of him- 
 self, as an ignorant person, incapable of blending art 
 with nature, and powerless to keep from excess." 
 
 b5 
 
10 INTRODUCTION, 
 
 Photius is rather too hard on Basil, whose sermons are 
 really stirring and good. The discourses of Andrew of 
 Crete (740) are also excellent ; those of John Damascene 
 are poor. 
 
 Turning to England, we shall find Bede instructing 
 our Anglo-Saxon forefathers in the faith of Christ and 
 in the mysteries of the Gospel; and Alfric, in 990, com- 
 piling homilies in the vulgar tongue, to the number of 
 eighty, and, among others, that famous one on the 
 doctrine of the Holy Eucharist, which Matthew Parker 
 could flourish in the face of his Romish opponents, 
 saying, " What now is become of your boasted argu- 
 ment of apostolic tradition ? see here that the novelties 
 with which you charge us are older than the doctrines 
 which you oppose to them ! " 
 
 Wulfstan, Archbishop of York (1003), is known 
 through one remarkable sermon, " Sermo Lupi ad Anglos 
 quando Dani maxime persecuti sunt eos." 
 
 We have now arrived at the true middle ages, and I 
 will say but little of the history of preaching in that 
 period, as it has already been treated of by that distin- 
 guished ecclesiastical scholar. Dr. Neale, in his volume 
 "Mediaeval Sermons." And, indeed, but for his labours, 
 the bulk of this introduction would necessarily have 
 been extended beyond its due limits, for the middle ages 
 teemed with preachers, and preachers very striking for 
 their originality and depth. The monasteries were 
 great nurseries of preachers, sending forth continually 
 multitudes of carefully trained and orthodox teachers. 
 These preaching monks and friars exercised an immense 
 influence over the uneducated laity, and for long they 
 
I]STRODIICTIOX. 11 
 
 worked in harmony with the secular clergy. Let me 
 give one instance from a chronicler of the thirteenth 
 century, Jacques de Yitry, who has left us some interest- 
 ing details concerning a very celebrated preacher of his 
 time, Foulque de Neuilly. " He excited to such an 
 extent all people, not only of the lower orders, but 
 kings and princes as well, by his few and simple words, 
 that none dare oppose him. People rushed in crowds 
 from distant countries to hear him, and to see the 
 miracles wrought by Grod through him. ... Those 
 who were able to tear and preserve the smallest 
 fragment of his dress, esteemed themselves happy. 
 Besides, as his clothes were in great request, and as the 
 multitude were constantly tearing them off him, he was 
 obliged to have a new cassock nearly every day. And 
 as the mob commonly pressed upon him in an intolera- 
 ble manner, he struck the most troublesome with a stick 
 he held, and drove them back, or he would have been 
 suffocated by the throng eager to touch him. And, 
 although he sometimes wounded those whom he struck, 
 yet they were by no means offended, and did not mur- 
 mur, but, in the excess of their devotion, and the 
 strength of their faith, kissed their own blood, as 
 though it had been sanctified by the man of God. 
 
 " One day, as a man was engaged in ripping his 
 cassock with considerable violence, he spoke to the 
 crowd thus, * Do not rend my garments, which have 
 never been blessed : see ! I will give my benediction to 
 the clothes of this man.' Then he made the sign of 
 the cross, and at once the people tore to rags the man's 
 dress, so that each obtained a shred." 
 
 b6 
 
12 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Pass we now to the wane of sacred eloquence at th.e 
 close of the fourteenth century. By this time pulpit 
 oratory had become sadly debased, though still a few 
 noble orators, as Savonarola at Florence, Louis of 
 Granada in Spain, and Philip of Narni at Rome, shone 
 as lights. 
 
 In the place of earnestness came affectation: the 
 natural movement of the body, when the feelings of 
 the preacher are roused, was replaced by studied ges- 
 tures ; the object of the orator was rather the exhibition 
 of his own learning than the edification of his hearers, 
 and the lack of matter in sermons was supplied by pro- 
 fanity and buffoonery. Preachers became the slaves of 
 rule, their sermons were stretched on the same Pro- 
 crustean bed, and were clipped or distorted to fit the 
 required shape. By this means all natural eloquence 
 was stifled ; every action of the body, every modulation 
 of the voice, was according to canon ; and to such an 
 extent did this run, that some preachers made it a matter 
 of rule to cough at fixed intervals, believing that they 
 were thereby adding grace to their declamation. In 
 some old MS. sermons, marginal notes to the following 
 effect maybe found : " Sit down — stand up — mop your- 
 self — ahem ! ahem ! — now shriek like a devil." 
 
 Such is a sermon preached by Oliver Maillard, and 
 printed with these marginal notes at Bruges in 1500, 
 black letter, quarto. Balzac describes a lesson given by 
 an aged doctor to a young bachelor on the art of 
 preaching, and it consisted of this— "Bang the pulpit; 
 look at the crucifix with rolling eyes ; say nothing to 
 the purpose, — and you will be a great preacher." 
 
INTRODUCTION. 13 
 
 Throughout the fourteenth century sermons were 
 for the most part hammered out on the same miserable 
 block. The same text perhaps served for an Advent or 
 a Lenten series. Maillard in the next century preached 
 sixty- eight sermons on the text, " Come up . . . unto the 
 mount " (Exod. xxxiv. 2) ; and he took for his text 
 throughout Advent, Christmas, and the festivals imme- 
 diately following — in all forty-four sermons — the words 
 of St. James i. 21, '* Wherefore lay apart all filthiness 
 and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meek- 
 ness the engrafted word, which is able to save your 
 souls." 
 
 The preacher having given out his text, pronounced 
 a long exordium, in no way to the purpose, containing 
 some scriptural allegory, some supposed fact from 
 natural history, or a story extracted from a classic 
 historian. He then returned to his text and began to 
 discuss two questions, one in theology, the other in civil 
 or canon law, remotely connected with it. On the 
 theological question he quoted the sentiments of the 
 schoolmen, on the other he cited legal authorities. 
 
 He then proceeded to divide his subject under heads, 
 each of which was again subdivided, and each sub- 
 division was supported by the authority of a classic 
 philosopher, and illustrated by an anecdote often point- 
 less, sometimes indecent. Indeed, to such an extent 
 were classic allusions and quotations in vogue, that 
 the story is told of a peasant who had " sat under " his 
 priest for long, and had heard much of Apollo in the 
 Sunday discourses, bequeathing his old cart-horse "to 
 M. Polio, of whom the cure had said such fine things.'' 
 
14 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 This absurd aifectation continued long the bane of 
 the pulpit. In the sixteenth century a monk preach- 
 ing on the feast of St. Peter, saw no impropriety in 
 mingling mythology with Gospel history, and in 
 quoting the fable of Daphne to illustrate the denial 
 of the Apostle. " The nymph of the wood," said he, 
 " being pursued by the shepherd Apollo, fled over hill 
 and dale, till she reached the foot of a rock up which 
 she could not climb, and, seeing herself at the mercy 
 of her pursuer, she began to weep, — in like manner, 
 St. Peter seeing himself arrested by the rock of his 
 denial, * wept bitterly.' " And Camus, Bishop of 
 Belley, who flourished in the beginning of the seven- 
 teenth century, could use such words as these on 
 Christmas Day : — " We now, skimming over the sea 
 in our boat, come to behold the Infant born into the 
 world to conquer it. He is our Bellerophon, who, 
 mounted on the Pegasus of His humanity, winged by 
 union with the Deity, has overcome the world, ' con- 
 fidite, ego vici mundum ; ' the world, a true and strange 
 Chimera ! lion as to its front by its pride, dragon 
 behind in its avarice, goat in the midst by its pollu- 
 tion ! He is our youthful Horatius overcoming the three 
 Curiatii of ambition, avarice, and sensuality ! He is 
 our Hercules, who has beaten down the triple-throated 
 Cerberus, and who has in His cradle strangled serpents. 
 The one crushed only two, but ours has destroyed three, 
 the vanity of the world by His subjection, the avarice 
 of the world by His poverty, the delights of the world 
 by His mortification." 
 
 Sometimes preachers, carried away by their feelings, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 15 
 
 gave vent to the most violent and indecorous expres- 
 sions. As, for instance, the Pere Guerin preaching 
 on the danger of reading improper literature, could not 
 refrain from using the following language with refer- 
 ence to Theophilus Yiaud, who had written a very 
 immoral poem, "La Parnasse des Pontes," 1625, for 
 which he and his book were condemned to be burned. 
 " Cursed be the spirit which dictated such thoughts," 
 howled the preacher. ** Cursed be the hand which 
 wrote them ! Woe to the publisher who had them 
 printed ! Woe to those who have read them ! Woe to 
 those who have ever made the author's acquaintance ! 
 But blessed be Monsieur le premier President, blessed 
 be M. le Procureur General, who have purged our 
 Paris of this plague ! You are the originator of the 
 plague in this city ; I would say, after the Pev. Father 
 Garasse, that you are a scoundrel, a great calf ! but no ! 
 shall I call you a calf? Yeal is good when boiled, 
 veal is good when roast, calfskin is good for binding 
 books ; but yours, miscreant ! is only fit to be well 
 grilled, and that it will be, to-morrow. You have 
 raised the laugh at monks, and now the monks will 
 laugh at you." 
 
 Preachers have been quite unable at times to resist 
 the chance of saying a bon mot. Father Andre, being 
 required to give out before his sermon that a collection 
 would be made for the dower of a young lady who 
 wished to take the veil, said — "Gentlemen, your alms 
 are solicited in behalf of a young lady who is not rich 
 enough to take the vow of poverty." I believe it is 
 of the same man that the story is told, that he halted 
 
16 INTKODUCTION. 
 
 suddenly in the midst of a sermon to rebuke tlie con- 
 gregation for indulging in conversation whilst he was 
 speaking. One good woman took this in dudgeon, and 
 standing up, assured the preacher that the buzz of 
 voices came from the men's side of the church, and not 
 from that reserved for the females. " I am delighted 
 to hear it," replied the preacher, *'the talking will 
 then be sooner over.'* This reminds me of Gabriel 
 Barlette's dictum, "Pone quatuor mulieres ab una 
 parte, decern viros ab alia, plus garrulabunt mulieres." 
 
 Kings even have been publicly rebuked for some- 
 thing of the same kind. Every one knows that Made- 
 moiselle d'Entragues, Marchioness of Yerneuil, was 
 mistress of Henry IV. One day that the Jesuit father, 
 Gonthier, was preaching at St. Gervais, the king 
 attended with Mademoiselle d'Entragues, and a suite 
 of court ladies. During the sermon the marchioness 
 whispered and made signs to the king, trying to make 
 him laugh. The preacher, indignant at this conduct, 
 turned to Henry and said, "Sire, never again permit 
 yourself to come to hear the word of God surrounded 
 by a seraglio, and thus to offer so great a scandal in a 
 holy place." The marchioness was furious, and en- 
 deavoured to obtain the punishment of the preacher, 
 but Henry, instead of consenting, had the good sense 
 to show that he was not ofi'ended, by returning to hear 
 Father Gonthier preach on the following day. He 
 took him aside however, and said, "My father, fear 
 nothing. I thank you for your reproof; only, for 
 Heaven's sake, don't give it in public again." 
 
 I have said that the preachers of the fifteenth cen- 
 
INTRODUCTION. 17 
 
 tury often degenerated into the burlesque, in order to 
 attract the attention they failed to rivet by the excellence 
 of their matter. Unfortunately this fault was not confined 
 to the fifteenth century, but we find it again and again 
 appearing among inferior preachers of the next two 
 centuries. It must be remembered that the monasteries 
 had then fallen from their high estate through the into- 
 lerable oppression of the "in commendam," and that 
 learning was far less cultivated than in an earlier age. 
 The popular friar-preachers, the hedge-priests, who took 
 with the vulgar, were much of the stamp of modern dis- 
 senting ministers, men of little education but consider- 
 able assurance ; they spoke in the dialect of the people, 
 they understood their troubles, they knew their tastes ; 
 and, at the same time, like all people who have got a 
 smattering of knowledge, they loved to display it, and 
 in displaying it consisted much of their grotesqueness. 
 The following sketch of one of these discourses is given 
 by Father Labat, in his " Voyages en Espagne et en 
 Italic, Amst., 1731, 8 vols, in 12mo." He says that he 
 was present on the 15th September, 1709, at a sermon 
 preached in the open air under a clump of olives near 
 Tivoli. 
 
 The day was the Feast of the Name of Mary. " Those 
 who did the honours of the feast placed me, politely, 
 right in front of the preacher. He appeared, after 
 having kept us waiting sufficiently long, mounted the 
 pulpit, sat down without ceremony, examined his 
 audience in a grave and perhaps slightly contemptuous 
 manner ; and then, after a few moments' silence, he 
 rose, took o£P his cap, made the sign of the cross on his 
 
18 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 brow, then on Ms moutli, and then on his heart, which 
 after the old system he supposed to be on his left side; 
 lastly, he made a fourth sign, which covered up all the 
 others, since it extended from his head to the pit of his 
 stomach. This operation complete, he sat down, put on 
 his cap, and began his discourse with these words, ' I 
 beheld a great book written within and without,' which 
 he explained thus : Ecco il verissimo ritrato di Maria 
 sempre Yirgine; that is to say, Behold the veritable 
 portrait of the ever Virgin Mary. This application was 
 followed by a long digression upon all books ever known 
 in MS. or in print. Those which compose the Holy 
 Scriptures passed first in review; he named their 
 authors, he fixed their date, and gave the reasons for 
 their composition. He passed next to those of the 
 ancient philosophers, of the Egyptians and of the 
 Greeks; those of the Sibyls appeared next on the scene, 
 and the praise of the Tiburtine Sibyl was neatly inter- 
 woven into the discourse. Homer's Iliad was not for- 
 gotten, any more than the ^neid ; not a book escaped 
 him ; and then he declared that none were equal to the 
 great book written within and without ; a book, said he, 
 imprinted with the characters of divine virtues, bound 
 in Heaven, dedicated to wisdom uncreate', approved by 
 the doctors of the nine angelic hierarchies, published by 
 the twelve Apostles in the four quarters of the globe ; 
 a book occupying the first place in the celestial library, 
 in which angels and saints study ever, which is the 
 
 ^ I have been obliged somewhat to modify these expressions here ; the 
 originals are too profane for reproduction. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 19 
 
 terror of demons, the joy of heaven, the delights of 
 saints, the recompense of the triumphant Church, the 
 hope of the suffering, the support, the strength, the 
 buckler of the militant. He never left this great book, 
 the leaves of which he kept turning, so to speak, for 
 three good quarters of an hour, and then finding that it 
 was time to rest, he quitted us suddenly without a ' good- 
 bye.' I mean without the blessing, and without having 
 spoken of the Blessed Yirgin in any other light 
 than that which served him in the explanation of his 
 text. 
 
 " I confess I never heard a sermon which pleased me 
 better, for I was not a bit wearied during it ; and, in 
 his style, I suspect he was unequalled. The Passion of 
 Father Imbert, Superior of our mission at Guadaloupe, 
 his sermon on St. Jean de Dieu, that of Father Ange de 
 Rouen, a Capuchin, on a certain indulgence, had hitherto 
 appeared to me inimitable masterpieces; but I must 
 award the palm to that which I have just reported, and 
 to do the preacher justice, he surpassed the others men- 
 tioned as the empyrean sky surpasses the lunar sky in 
 grandeur and elevation." 
 
 I must speak here of a famous preacher of the 
 fifteenth century, to whom I cannot afford a separate 
 notice, and who is more offensively ridiculous than the 
 man spoken of by Labat; I mean Gabriel Barlette. I 
 do not give him other notice than this for two reasons ; 
 the first, because there is reason to believe that the 
 sermons which pass under his name are spurious com- 
 positions, as indeed is asserted by a cotemporary, 
 Leander Alberti, who says that they were the compo- 
 
20 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sition of a pretender who took the name of the great 
 preacher. 
 
 It is therefore not fair to judge of a really famous 
 man from works which may not be his. Another 
 reason why I have limited to a few lines my notice of 
 sermons which were undoubtedly popular, if we may 
 judge of the number of impressions they went through, 
 is that there is positively no good to be got from them ; 
 they are full of the grossest absurdities and the most 
 profane buffoonery. I have given an account of some 
 three or four of this class of sermon, and I can afford 
 no more room to similar profanities. 
 
 Gabriel Barlette was a Dominican, and was born at 
 Barletta in the kingdom of Naples. He lived beyond 
 1481, for he speaks of the siege and capture of Otranto 
 by Mahomet II. as a thing of the past. In one of the 
 sermons attributed to him is the following passage on 
 the close of the temptations : — ''After His victory over 
 Satan, the Blessed Yirgin sends Him the dinner she 
 had prepared for herself, cabbage, soup, spinach, and 
 perhaps even sardines.'* 
 
 In a sermon for Whitsun-Tuesday, he rebukes dis- 
 tractions in prayer, and he illustrates them in this un- 
 seemly way. He represents a priest engaged at his 
 morning devotions, saying, "Pater noster qui es in 
 coelis — I say, lad, saddle the horse, I'm going to town 
 to-day ! — sanctificatur nomen tuum, — Catherine, put the 
 pot on the fire ! — fiat voluntas tua — Take care ! the 
 cat's at the cheese ! — panem nostrum quotidianum — 
 
 Mind the white horse has his feed of oats Is this 
 
 praying?" No, Gabriel, nor is this preaching ! 
 
IJ^TRODUCTION. 21 
 
 Another preacher of the same stamp was Menot. 
 Michael Menot was born in Paris ; he was a Franciscan, 
 and died at an advanced age in 1518. 
 
 Take this specimen of his reasoning — 
 " The dance is a circular way ; 
 The way of the Devil is circular ; 
 Therefore the dance is the Devil's way." 
 And he proves his minor by the Scriptural passages 
 " circuivi terram," " circuit quserens quern devoret," 
 " in circuitu impii ambulant." In his sermon for 
 Friday after Ash- Wednesday he thus expresses his 
 sense of the value of magistrates : " Justices are like the 
 cat which is put in charge of a cheese lest the mice 
 should eat it. But if the cat lay tooth to it, by one 
 bite he does more mischief than the mice could do in 
 twenty. Just in the same manner," &c. The following 
 is a specimen of his style, a sad jumble of Latin and 
 French. He is giving a graphic description of the 
 prodigal son wasting his goods. " Mittit ad quaerendum 
 les drapiers, les grossiers, les marchands de soye, et se 
 fait accoutrer de pied en cap ; il n'y avait rien a redire. 
 Quando vidit sibi pulchras caligas d'ecarlate, bien 
 tirees, la belle chemise froncee sur le collet, le pour- 
 point fringant de velours, la toque de Florence, les 
 cheveux peignes, et qu'il se sentit le damas voler sur le 
 dos, haec secum dixit : Oportetne mihi aliquid ? Or me 
 faut-il rien? Non, tu as toutes tes plumes; il est 
 temps de voler plus loin. Tu es nimis prope domum 
 patris tui, pro benb faciendo casum tuum. Pueri qui 
 semper dormierunt in atrio vel gremio matris suae, 
 nunquam sciverunt aliquid, et nunquam erunt nisi 
 
22 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 asini et insulsi, et ne seroiit jamais quenices et bejaunes. 
 Bref qui ne frcquente pays niliil videt." 
 
 Of course this sermon was not thus preached, but it 
 gives us an idea of Menot's acquaintance with Latin, 
 and of his utter inability to render the slang which had 
 disfigured his vernacular by classic phrases. 
 
 But it must not be supposed that all preachers of the 
 fifteenth century were like these clerical jesters. 
 
 Gabriel Biel was grave and dignified, his sermons 
 remarkably simple in construction, and full of wisdom 
 and fervour. The same may be said of Thomas a 
 Kempis, John Turricremata, and Henry Harphius. 
 
 With the sixteenth century a new phase of pulpit 
 oratory was about to dawn. Men wearied of con- 
 ventional restraints, and spoke from the heart, know- 
 ledge was profounder, less superficial, the conceits of 
 schoolmen were kept in the background, and scriptural 
 illustrations brought into greater prominence. Anecdote 
 was still used as a powerful engine for good, but it was 
 anecdote such as would edify. Similes were introduced 
 of the most striking and charming character ; and the 
 preachers sought evidently rather to instruct their 
 hearers, and to render doctrine intelligible, than to 
 surround themselves with a cloud of abstruse doubts 
 and solutions, to the bewilderment of their hearers, 
 and to their own possible glorification. It is im- 
 possible not to see in this a fruit of the Reformation. 
 To people famishing for the bread of life, the preachers 
 of the fifteenth century had given a stone, and now 
 their successors were alive to the fact, and strove 
 earnestly to remedy it. They threw themselves 
 
INTRODUCTION. 23 
 
 forward like Phineas, and stood in the gap, so that 
 it is to them, perhaps, more than to great theologians 
 like Bellarmin, that the Catholic Church must look 
 with thanks for having stayed the advancing tide of 
 reform. 
 
 If, in that age of religious upheaval, the pulpit had 
 remained as unedifying as heretofore, there can be no 
 manner of doubt that the eruption in Germany would 
 have devastated Italy, France, and Spain. Indeed the 
 Huguenot party in France was very powerful, and 
 extended so widely that it must be a matter of sur- 
 prise to many to find its tenets now represented by 
 a few miserable, quivering fragments. In fact the 
 Roman Church, after the first shock, recovered ground 
 on all sides, for her clergy rose to meet the emergency, 
 and turned to the people as the true source of strength 
 to the Church, and leaned on them, instead of putting 
 her trust in Princes. I cannot believe that the massa- 
 cres of the Huguenots had any thing to do with the 
 extirpation of Protestantism in France, for persecution 
 strengthens but never destroys. I am rather inclined 
 to attribute it to the vigour with which the clergy of 
 the time set themselves to work remedying the abuses 
 which had degraded pulpit oratory. Sacred eloquence 
 is the most powerful engine known for influencing 
 multitudes, and the Catholic clergy resolutely culti- 
 vated it, and used it with as much success as Chry- 
 sostom, Gregory, or Augustine. They had a vast 
 storehouse of learning and piety from which to draw, 
 the writings of the saints and doctors of the Church in 
 all ages, and they drew from it unostentatiously but 
 
24 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 effectively. Their sermons were telling in a way no 
 Protestant sermons could equal, for the Calvinist or 
 Lutheran had cast in his lot apart from the great 
 men of antiquity, whilst the Catholic could focus 
 their teaching upon his flock. The former had but 
 their own brains from which to draw, whilst the 
 latter had the great minds of Catholic antiquity to 
 rest upon. There are vast encyclopedias and dictionaries 
 of theology, moral and dogmatic, filled with matter any 
 Catholic preacher of the meanest abilities could work 
 up into profitable and even striking discourses, great 
 collections of anecdote and simile, which he might 
 turn to for illustrations, and, above all, exhaustive 
 commentaries on every line, aye, and every word of 
 Scripture. 
 
 From all these great helps to the preacher, the 
 Protestant minister conscientiously, and through pre- 
 judice, kept aloof. 
 
 This may account for the undoubted fact that after 
 the first flush of triumph, sacred oratory in the re- 
 formed communities sank to as dead and dreary a 
 level as it had attained in the fifteenth century. 
 
 The Protestant preachers were not always as grotesque, 
 but they became as dull and unspiritual, whilst the 
 Roman Church having once napped, never let herself 
 fall asleep again, but with that tact which once charac- 
 terized her, but which is fast leaving her, she stirred up 
 and kept alive ever after the fire of sacred eloquence. 
 
 And here I must make an extraordinary statement, 
 yet one indisputably true, however paradoxical it may 
 appear. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 25 
 
 The main contrast between Roman Catholic sermons 
 and those of Protestant divines in the age of which I 
 am speaking, consists in the wondrous familiarity with 
 Scripture exhibited by the former, beside a scanty use 
 of it made by the latter. It is not that these Roman 
 preachers affect quoting texts, but they seem to think 
 and speak in the words of Scripture, without an effort ; 
 Scriptural illustrations are at their fingers' ends, and 
 these are not taken from one or two pet books, but 
 selected evenly from the whole Bible. 
 
 Let me take as an instance a passage selected at 
 hap-hazard from Konigstein, an unknown German 
 preacher. He is preaching on the Gospel during 
 the Mass at dawn on Christmas Bay. I choose him, 
 for he is as homely a preacher as there was in the six- 
 teenth century, and as he may be taken as a fair 
 representative of a class somewhat dull. 
 
 " * And the Shepherds said one to another, Let us 
 now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which 
 is come to pass' (Luke ii. 15). The Saviour being de- 
 sirous of weaning altogether the hearts of His own people 
 from worldly glory, not only chose to be born in po- 
 verty, but to be announced to poor folk, and to be pro- 
 claimed hy them. And this He chose lest the beginning 
 of our faith should stand in human glory or wisdom, 
 which is foolishness with God, whereas He desired that it 
 should be ascribed to Divine grace only ; therefore the 
 Apostle says, * After the kindness and love of God our 
 Saviour toicards man appeared,' &c. Kindness and love in 
 His conversation, and His nativity into this world, by 
 taking our flesh ; of God our Saviour, by His own vast 
 
 G 
 
26 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 clemency ; not hy works of righteousness ivJiich we have 
 done, for we were by nature children of tvrath, so that our 
 works were not done in justice, nor could we gain 
 safety by them ; but according to His mercy He saved us 
 by present grace and by future glory, as we are saved by 
 Hope ; and it is He who hath called us with an holy calling , 
 not according to our works, but according to His oicn 
 purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus 
 before the world began, by the washing of regeneration 
 and the reneival of the Holy Ghost, that is, by the 
 washing of Baptism, which is a spiritual regeneration, 
 for, except a man be born of ivater and of the Spirit, he 
 cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. Water cleanses 
 the body without, and the Spirit purges the soul within. 
 In Baptism man ends the old life which was under the 
 law, that he may begin the new life which is under 
 grace ; so that he who believes is daily renewed more 
 and more by the Spirit, which is given us in Baptism ; 
 as says the Apostle, Be renewed in the spirit of your 
 mind,*' &c. 
 
 Of a similar character are the sermons of Helmesius, 
 and the simple, earnest, and thoughtful postils of Poly- 
 granus. 
 
 There is another observation which I must make 
 upon these venerable preachers. It is impossible to 
 read them attentively without observing how different 
 in tone they are to modern ultramontane theologians, 
 and how sadly modern Romanism has drifted from 
 primitive traditions, and how rapid has been its de- 
 scent, when this is noticeable by ascending the stream 
 of time but a few centuries. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 27 
 
 I am not prepared to say that there is nothing false 
 and unprimitive in the doctrine of these great preachers, 
 but that doctrinal corruption was not then fully developed. 
 I suppose that an English priest would find it hard to 
 select a sermon of the new Roman school, which he 
 could reproduce in his own pulpit ; but if he were to 
 turn to these great men of a past age, he would meet 
 with few passages which he should feel himself con- 
 strained to omit. The germ of evil had been slowly 
 expanding through the middle ages ; it flowered at the 
 close, and now it has seeded; and become loathsome 
 in its corruption. 
 
 Let me take the worship of the Blessed Virgin, 
 which has of late assumed such terrible dimensions. 
 A modern Roman preacher rarely misses an oppor- 
 tunity of inculcating devotion to Mary. But it was 
 not so with the old preachers. They do use language 
 which cannot always be justified, but, more often, 
 language which ought to be frankly accepted by us, 
 considering that the tone of English reverence is 
 unwarrantably low with regard to the blessed ever- 
 virgin Mother. Often when there is a natural opening 
 for some words of deification of Mary, the preachers 
 of the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries 
 turn from it to make a moral application to their 
 hearers. I will only instance De Barzia, a bishop of 
 Cadiz. He gives three sermons for the Purification. 
 
 The first is on the care which a Christian man 
 should take not to scandalize his neighbours by any 
 act which though innocent might give ofience, or by 
 the neglect of any duty. 
 
 c2 
 
28 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The second is on the great danger of setting an evil 
 example. 
 
 The third is on the funeral taper, by the light of 
 which those truths, which man saw not in the day 
 of his life, are then most evidently discerned. 
 
 For the Annunciation he gives three sermons. The 
 first on the modesty of Mary, which all should imitate. 
 The second is on the general confession of sin made in 
 Lent. The third is on the promptitude with which man 
 should act on Divine impulses. 
 
 It is true that De Barzia uses strong language from 
 which we should dissent, on the feasts of the Assump- 
 tion and the Nativity of Mary ; but the fact of letting 
 two of her festivals pass without pointing her out as a 
 prominent object of worship is what, I should suppose, 
 no modern Ultramontane would do. 
 
 I must now turn to a bright and pleasant feature 
 in these preachers — their keen appreciation of the 
 beauty of nature. This indeed had been a distinguish- 
 ing characteristic of the Middle Ages. In architecture, 
 in painting, and in poetry, even in preaching, the great 
 book of nature had been studied, and its details repro- 
 duced. As the sculptor delighted to represent in stone 
 beast, and bird, and plant ; as the painter rejoiced to 
 transfer to canvas, with laborious minuteness, the tender 
 meadow flowers ; so did the preacher pluck illustra- 
 tion from the book of nature, or refer his hearers to it, 
 for examples of life. 
 
 "With the Eenaissance, the artist turned from the 
 contemplation of God's handiwork, but not so the 
 sacred orator. In him the same love for the works 
 
INTRODUCTION. 29 
 
 of God is manifest, his mind returns to them again 
 and again, he gathers simile and illustration from 
 them with readiness and freedom, he seems to stand 
 before his congregation with the written word in his 
 right hand, and the unwritten word in his left, and 
 to read from the written, and then turn to the un- 
 written as the exponent of the other. Nature was 
 not then supposed to be antagonistic to Eevelation, 
 but to be its Apocrypha, hidden writings full of the 
 wisdom of God, and meet " for examples of life and 
 instruction of manners." 
 
 The great Bernard used the heart-language of every 
 mediaeval theologian when he said, "Believe me who 
 have tried it; you will find more in the woods than 
 in books : the birds will teach you that which you 
 can learn from no master." 
 
 In like temper did Philip von Hartung preach to 
 a courtly audience on the text, " Consider the fowls of 
 the air," and drawing them away from the glitter of 
 the palace, and the din of the city, set them down 
 in a meadow to hear the lessons taught them by the 
 lark. 
 
 " Consider the fowls of the air, and look first to 
 the lark {alauda), drawing its very name, a laude, 
 out of praise ; see how with quivering wing it mounts 
 aloft, and with what clear note it praises God ! Aldro- 
 vandus says that he had been taught from childhood, 
 that the lark mounted seven times a day to sing hymns 
 to its Creator, so that it sings ascending, and singing 
 soars. 
 
 "St. Francis was wont to call the lar\s his sisters, 
 c 3 
 
30 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 rejoicing in their songs, whicli excited him to the 
 praise of his Creator. Seven times a day might we 
 too chant our praise to God : first for our creation, 
 which was completed in seven days ; then for our 
 Eedemption, which was perfected by the seventh 
 effusion of blood ; thirdly, for the seven sacraments 
 instituted by Christ ; fourthly, for the seven words 
 uttered from the Cross; fifthly, for the seven gifts 
 of the Spirit shed on us from on high; sixthly, for 
 our preservation from the seven deadly sins, even 
 though the just man falleth seven times a day (Prov. 
 xxiv.) ; and lastly, for the seven sad and seven glorious 
 mysteries of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 
 
 " A heavenly lark was royal David, going up to Thee, 
 God, ' seven times a day ' to praise Thee ! David 
 from the softness of a palace ; David from the cares 
 of a kingdom ; David from the tumult of battle ; David 
 engaged in so great correspondence with many and 
 mighty kings, seven times a day, rose to the praise 
 of God ; and shall not you, my brethren, mount from 
 your ease seven times a day to give thanks unto God ? 
 Threefold, aye ! and fourfold, were our blessedness, if 
 from this vale of tears our hearts would but wing their 
 way on high to seek true and never-fleeting joys. Notice 
 the lark ! it is not content, like the swallow, to skim 
 the surface of earth, but it must struggle up higher 
 and higher. *The higher the soul goes,' says Hugo, 
 ' the more it rejoices in the Lord.' And just as the lark 
 when on earth is hushed, but mounting breaks into joy 
 and song ; so does the soul raised to Heaven rapturously 
 and sweetly warble. It sings not upon the topmost 
 
INTRODUCTION. 31 
 
 boughs of trees, as though spurning all that is rooted 
 in earth. And so do you cast away all cares, all 
 intercourse, all affairs of life, all that is evil, all, in 
 short, that is earthy. Socrates was wont to say that the 
 wings of a lark failed us when we came down from 
 Heaven, drawn by the host of earthly objects. But 
 we can spread them again to flee away and be at rest, 
 if we will, by earnest endeavour, dispose our hearts to 
 mount, and so go on from grace to grace." 
 
 Beside this let me place a lesson from the flowers, 
 cuUed from Matthias Faber. " They teach us to trust 
 in God. I pray you look at Divine Providence exerted 
 in behalf of the smallest floweret. God has given it 
 perfect parts, and members proportioned to its trunk ; 
 He has provided it with organs for the performance 
 of all those functions which are necessary to it, as the 
 drawing up of juice, and its dispersion through the various 
 parts ; a root branching into tiny fibres riveting it to 
 the soil; a stalk erect, lest it should be stained and 
 corrupted through contact with the earth, strong also, 
 lest it should be broken by the storm, a rind thick or 
 furred to protect it from cold, or heat, or accident ; twigs 
 and leaves for adornment and shelter ; a most beauteous 
 array of flower above the array of Solomon in all his 
 glory. He has given it, besides, a scent pleasant to 
 beasts or men ; He has endued it with healing proper- 
 ties, and, above all, with the faculty of generating in its 
 own likeness. How many benefits conferred on one 
 flower ! one flower, I say, which to-morrow is cut down 
 and cast into the oven ! "What, then, will He not give 
 to man, whom He has made in His own image, an heir 
 
 c 4 
 
32 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of Heaven ! . . . * Consider the lilies of tlie field how they 
 grow/ aye ! hoiv they grow, how is it ? They grow 
 steadily night and day, stretching themselves out and 
 expanding, so that no man may discern the process 
 going on. So, too, let us grow, daily extirpating 
 vices, daily implanting virtues, thus sensibly increasing, 
 so that, after the lapse of years, we may be found to 
 have advanced in spiritual growth, though we ourselves 
 may not have known it. As said the Apostle, * Forget- 
 ting those things which are behind, and reaching forth 
 unto those things which are before, I press towards the 
 mark' (Phil. iii. 13). 
 
 " They teach us, also, to sigh for heavenly beatitude, 
 and the society of the blessed. If even in this world 
 such variety of flowers is seen, such beauty, such 
 fragrance, and these in flowers which to-day are and 
 to-morrow are cast into the oven, what will be the 
 beauty, what the variety, what the glory of the elect in 
 the kingdom of God ! Those who go to distant lands 
 are ever discovering fresh and fresh flowers ; and so in 
 Heaven is there unmeasured variety among the angels 
 and the elect. 
 
 " Yet in all this variety there is perfect unity. For as 
 in the same garden, or meadow, the flowers are content 
 with their several beauties, and no one impedes the 
 growth of another, or thrusts it out of its place, but aU 
 look up to the one sun, and bask and grow and gather 
 strength in his brightness ; so also in Heaven. There 
 each of the Blessed will be content with his portion of 
 glory, none interfering with another, none envying 
 another. For all will see God face to face, and live 
 
INTRODUCTION. 33 
 
 and move and have their being in His presence, and 
 therewith be satisfied through eternity." 
 
 Simile has been used extensively in all ages of the 
 Church, but in the fifteenth century it had become very 
 mean and coarse. Meffreth could talk of the world as 
 being untranquil, like a globule of quicksilver, never to 
 be brought to rest till fused to a black residuum in the 
 sulphurous blast of Hell ; and could illustrate the text, 
 " Here we have no continuing city,'' by comparing this 
 poor world of ours to the weed-covered back of a large 
 whale, which an eminent and veracious navigator — of 
 course he means Sinbad— mistook for a verdant isle, 
 only to discover his mistake when he began to drive 
 into it the stakes of his habitation. 
 
 Far nobler was the use of simile in the great revi^/al 
 of the sixteenth century. 
 
 Pre-eminent among those who made it a vehicle for 
 conveying truths, are the names of De Barzia and 
 Osorius ; both men of great refinement of taste and 
 richness of imagination. 
 
 What, for example, could be more graceful than the 
 following, given by the Bishop of Cadiz, when speaking 
 of the impossibility of man comprehending the reason 
 of God's dealings, when He touches with the finger of 
 death at one time a child, at another an aged man, then 
 a youth, and next, perhaps, one in full vigour of man- 
 hood? To us, this selection seems to be a matter of 
 chance, but there is no chance in it. The Bishop then 
 uses this illustration. The deaf man watches the 
 harpist, and sees his fingers dance over the strings in a 
 strange and unaccountable way. Now a strong silver 
 
 c 5 
 
34 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cord is touclied, then a slender catgnt string. At one 
 time a long string is set vibrating, at another a very 
 short string ; now several are thrummed together, and 
 then one alone is set quivering. Just so is it with us ; 
 we hear not the perfect harmony, nor follow the won- 
 drous melody of Grod's operations, for the faculty of 
 comprehending them is deficient in us, and to us in our 
 faithlessness there seems chance and hazard, where 
 really there exists harmony and order. 
 
 Osorius uses a different simile in illustrating an idea 
 somewhat similar. 
 
 He is speaking to those who murmur at God's deal- 
 ings in this world, and who would fain have His dispo- 
 sition of things altered in various particulars. He then 
 says, that those who look on an unfinished piece of 
 tapestry see a foot here, a hand there, a patch of red in 
 one spot, of green in another, and all seems to be con- 
 fusion. Let us wait till the work is complete, and we 
 shall see that not a hand or foot, not a thread even is 
 out of place. Such is the history of the world. We 
 see blood and war where there should be peace ; we see 
 men exalted to be kings who should have been slaves, 
 and men condemned to be slaves who would have ruled 
 nations in wisdom and equity, and we think that there 
 is imperfection in the work. Wait we awhile, till at 
 the Last Day the great tapestry of this world's history 
 is unrolled before us, and then we shall see that all has 
 been ordered by God's good providence for the very 
 best. 
 
 But Scripture supplied most of the illustrations needed 
 by these preachers. It was to them an inexhaustible 
 
INTRODUCTION. 35 
 
 storehouse, from which they could bring forth things 
 new and old. Holy Scripture seems to have supplied 
 them with every thing that they required ; it gave them 
 a text, it afforded confirmation to their subject ; from it 
 they drew mystical illustrations for its corroboration, 
 and examples wherewith to enforce precept. 
 
 To some, the sacred page may be crystalline and 
 colourless as a rain-drop, but to these men who knew 
 from what point to view it, it radiated any colouf they 
 desired to catch. 
 
 They did not always make long extracts, in the 
 fashion of certain modern sermon-composers, who form 
 a sermon out of lengthy Scriptural passages clumsily 
 pegged together, always with wood ; but with one 
 light sweep, the old preachers brush up a whole bright 
 string of sparkling Scriptural instances, in a manner 
 indicating their own intimate acquaintance with Scrip- 
 ture, and implying a corresponding knowledge among 
 their hearers. Take the following sentence of an old 
 Flemish preacher as an instance : he is speaking of the 
 unity prevailing in heaven : — 
 
 " The7'e all strife will have ceased, thefe all contra- 
 diction will have ended, there all emulation will be 
 unknown. 
 
 '' In that blessed country there wilt be no Cain to slay 
 his brother Abel ; in that family, no Esau to hate 
 Jacob ; in that house, no Ishmael to strive with Isaac ; 
 in that 'kingdom, no Saul to persecute Diavid; in that 
 college, no Judas to betray his master.'* 
 
 Let me take another example from a sermon on the 
 small number of the elect. 
 
 c6 
 
36 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " * Many are called, but few are chosen/ 
 
 "Noah preached to the old world for a hundred 
 years the coming in of the flood, and how many were 
 saved when the world was destroyed ? Eight souls, and 
 among them was the reprobate Ham. Many were called, 
 but only eight were chosen. 
 
 " When God would rain fire and brimstone on the 
 cities of the plain, were ten saved ? No ! only four, 
 and of these four, one looked back. Many were called, 
 but three were chosen. 
 
 "Six hundred thousand men, besides women and 
 children, went through the Red Sea, the like figure 
 whereunto Baptism doth even now save us. The host of 
 Pharaoh and the Egyptians went in after them, and 
 of them not one reached the further shore. And of 
 these Israelites who passed through the sea out of 
 Egypt, how many entered the promised land, the land 
 flowing with milk and honey ? Two only — Caleb and 
 Joshua. Many — six hundred thousand — were called, 
 few, even two, were chosen. All the host of Pharaoh, 
 a shadow of those who despise and set at nought the 
 Red Sea of Christ's blood, perish without exception ; 
 of God's chosen people, image of His Church, only few 
 indeed are saved. 
 
 "How many multitudes teemed in Jericho, and of 
 them how many escaped when Joshua encamped against 
 the city ? The walls fell, men and women perished. One 
 house alone escaped, known by the scarlet thread, type of 
 the blood of Jesus, and that was the house of a harlot. 
 
 " Gideon went against the Midianites with thirty- 
 two thousand men. The host of Midian was without 
 
INTRODUCTION. 37 
 
 number, as the sand of the sea-side for multitude. How- 
 many of these thirty-two thousand men did God suffer 
 Gideon to lead into victory? Three hundred only. 
 Many, even thirty-two thousand men, were called ; 
 three hundred chosen. 
 
 "Type and figure this of the many enrolled into 
 the Church's army, of whom so few go on to 'fight 
 the good fight of faith ! ' 
 
 " Of the tribes of Israel twelve men only were chosen 
 to be Apostles ; and of those twelve, one was a traitor, 
 one doubtful, one denied his Master, all forsook Him. 
 
 "How many rulers were there among the Jews 
 when Christ came ; but one only went to Him, and he 
 by night ! 
 
 " How many rich men were there when our blessed 
 Lord walked this earth ; but one only ministered unto 
 Him, and he only in His burial ! 
 
 "How many peasants were there in the country 
 when Christ went to die ; but one only was deemed 
 worthy to bear His cross, and he bore it by constraint ! 
 
 "How many thieves were there in Judaea when 
 Christ was there ; but one only entered Paradise, and 
 he was converted in his last hour ! 
 
 " How many centurions were there scattered over the 
 province ; and one only saw and believed, and he by 
 cruelly piercing the Saviour's side ! 
 
 " How many harlots were there in that wicked and 
 adulterous generation ; but one only washed His feet 
 with tears and wiped them with the hair of her head ! 
 Truly, ' Many are called, but few are chosen.' " 
 
 We hear but little in modern sermons of the mystical 
 
38 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 interpretation of Scripture, which was so common in all 
 earlier ages of the Church. The Epistles of St. Paul 
 show us that the primitive Church was accustomed to 
 read Scripture in a mystical way. What, for instance, 
 can be more '' fanciful," as we moderns should say, than 
 his allegorizing of the history of Isaac (Gal. iv. 22 — 31), 
 and of Moses (1 Cor. x. 1), or his argument from the 
 law that the laity should pay for the support of their 
 pastors : " For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou 
 shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out 
 the corn'' (1 Cor. ix. 9, 10), and "Let the elders that 
 rule well be counted worthy of double honour (i.e. hono- 
 rarium, contribution in money) . . . for the Scripture 
 saith. Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out 
 the corn?" (1 Tim. v. 17, 18.) Bacon said that we 
 should accept as conclusive the meaning of Scripture 
 which is most plainly on the surface, just as the first 
 crush of the grape is the purest wine, forgetting, as 
 Dr. Neale aptly remarks, that the first crush of the 
 grape is not wine at all, but a crude and unwholesome 
 liquor. Certainly modern preachers are ready enough 
 to give us the most superficial interpretation of Scrip- 
 ture, and rarely trouble themselves with probing the 
 depths of Holy Writ for fresh lessons and new beauties. 
 In the same way it was quietly assumed till of late that 
 the ocean below that depth which is storm-tossed 
 was quite azoic. We know now that that untroubled 
 profound teems with varied forms of life, and is glo- 
 rious with hitherto undreamt-of beauties. Our modern 
 divines are content with the troubled sea of criticism, 
 and pay no heed, and give no thought, to the manifold 
 
INTRODUCTION. 39 
 
 beauties and wonders of the tranquil deeps of God's 
 mind, above which they are content to toss. The 
 analogy between God's word written and God's un- 
 written word is striking. Yet we are satisfied to know 
 that the further the great volume of Nature is explored, 
 the closer it is studied, the greater are the wonders 
 which it will display. Why, then, do we doubt that 
 the same holds good with the written word ? Deep 
 answers to deep, the deep of Nature to the deep of 
 Revelation. The Same Who is the Author of Nature 
 is the Author of Eevelation ; and we may therefore 
 expect to find in one as in the other that "His 
 thoughts are very deep," "His ways past finding out;" 
 that in one as in the other there is a similarity, a 
 mighty variety yet an essential unity, a vast diversity 
 yet a perfect harmony; that there are mysteries in 
 both, through which, as through a glass darkly, shines 
 the wisdom of the Creator. 
 
 Commentators on Scripture, such as Scott and Henry, I 
 really fill pages and volumes with the most deplorable 
 twaddle, and exhibit conclusively their utter incapacity 
 for comm^entating on any single passage of Scripture. 
 Not only are their comprehensions too dull to grasp 
 the moral lessons in the least below the surface, but 
 they entirely ignore the mystical signification of the 
 events recorded in the Sacred Writings. To the Medi- 
 aeval divines and those who followed their steps, every 
 word of Scripture had its value ; indeed, the very 
 number, singular or plural, of a substantive was with 
 them fraught with significance. Take one instance; 
 Stella the Franciscan remarks, ob St.- John xiv. 23 : — 
 
40 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 " ' Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, 
 he will keep My ivord {rov \6yov fiov Tr^prjaei) : he that 
 loveth Me not, keepeth not My words (tov^ Xoyov^ fxov 
 ov TTjpel).' Love of God makes one command out of 
 many, for to him who loves, the many precepts are 
 but as one. So here Christ says, * If any man love Me, 
 he will keep My word ;' but of him who loves not. He 
 says, * He keepeth not My words.' Of him who loves, it 
 is spoken in the singular; of him who loves not, in 
 the plural. Eve said, ' Of the fruit of the tree which is 
 in the midst of the garden, God hath said. Ye shaU not 
 eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die ' (Gen. iii. 
 3) ; whereas God forbade only the eating, not the 
 touching. But a chilled heart made one command into 
 two ; whilst a heart full of love, like that of David, 
 could sum up the six hundred and thirteen precepts of 
 the old law into one, when he exclaimed, * Thy com- 
 mandment is exceeding broad,' and 'Lord, what love 
 have I unto Thy law, all the day long is my study 
 in it.' " 
 
 Compare with this suggestive passage the only re- 
 mark made on the text in D'Oyly and Mant: "The 
 manifestation I mean is, that of inward light and 
 grace, which shall never depart from those who are 
 careful to live as I have commanded them." The ob- 
 servation of Stella is suggestive, that in D'Oyly and 
 Mant is decidedly the reverse. 
 
 But I would speak now of the mystical interpreta- 
 tions of Scripture. I have only room for a very few. 
 The following are from Marchant. " Unless Christ had 
 been sent, none of us would have been released from our 
 
INTRODUCTION. 41 
 
 iniquities. Wherefore the Apostle often exhorts the 
 Jews not to glory in the law, for the law did not suffice 
 to justify and to make alive. Do you desire a figure of 
 this mystery ? Listen to that of Elisha. He was asked 
 to come and call to life a child which was dead : he sent 
 his servant first with a stafi", which he was to lay upon the 
 dead child ; but neither servant nor staff were of avail. 
 Then went he himself, and see what he did : * He went 
 up, and lay upon the child, and put his mouth upon his 
 mouth, and his eyes upon his eyes, and his hands upon 
 his hands :' contracting himself to the form of the child ; 
 * and the flesh of the child waxed warm . . . and the 
 child opened his eyes.' You see the figure, attend to 
 the verity. God sent Moses His servant, and the 
 Prophets, with the staff of the law ; but neither they 
 nor the law could avail to restore man to life from the 
 death of sin. It was necessary, therefore, that He Him- 
 self should go to man, and bow Himself to man by the 
 assumption of man's nature, and contract Himself to the 
 form of a child by the Incarnation, not only casting 
 Himself on this our dead nature, but taking our nature, 
 hands, arms, mouth, and soul to Himself. .... This 
 circumstance of the closing of the door that none might 
 see, when Elisha stretched himself upon the child, is not 
 without significance. For as none discerned how Elisha, 
 that great man, was able to contract himself to the form 
 of a little boy ; so no one can comprehend how the Son 
 of God, so high and so mighty, could unite, and apply, 
 and abase, His nature to ours ; so that He became 
 mortal Who was immortal, passible Who was impassible, 
 infant Who was God. In all these the mystery is great, 
 
42 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the door is shut ; it is not necessary for us to see, but it 
 is necessary for us to believe. We have another figure 
 in the sign given to Hezekiah. When he was sick unto 
 death, the sun , going back ten degrees was the sign of 
 his restoration to health. *And the sun went back 
 ten degrees on the dial of Ahaz.* In like manner, that 
 man might rise from the sickness unto death of sin, it 
 was necessary that * the Sun of Righteousness ' should 
 descend through the nine angelic choirs, * being made 
 a little lower than the angels,* as though going down 
 nine degrees till He reached man the tenth." 
 
 " The Lord said to Joshua, * Moses My servant is 
 dead : now therefore arise, go over this Jordan, thou, 
 and all this people, unto the land which I do give them ' 
 (Joshua i. 2). Joshua is by interpretation a Saviour, 
 and is the same as Jesus. As he, after conquering 
 Amalek, brought the people into the land of promise, 
 and divided the land between them ; so has Christ come 
 to overcome the devil, and to introduce Christians daily 
 into His Church through the Baptismal stream, and 
 finally to lead them into glory. Moses could not bring 
 them in, for the Father saith unto the Son, * Moses My 
 servant is dead.' The ceremonies of the law are made 
 of none effect, 'now, therefore, arise' from the bosom 
 of the Father, enter the earth in human form, expel 
 the devils : ' go over this Jordan,' drink of the 
 brook of Thy Passion in the way, 'Thou, and all 
 this people,' for by the way by which goes the head, 
 by that must the members go, and where leads the 
 general, there must follow the soldiers, * and go unto the 
 land which I do give them ' — the land of the living, to 
 
INTRODUCTION. 43 
 
 whicli Christ ascends and we follow ; to which neither 
 law nor prophets, no nor Moses, could introduce us, but 
 only our Joshua, our Jesus, the Son of God." 
 
 I have not yet spoken of the text, except to mention 
 Maillard as having preached on the same throughout a 
 season of Lent. Some of the earlier mediaeval preachers 
 delighted in selecting strange texts, and even went so 
 far as to take them from other books than Holy Scrip- 
 ture. Indeed Stephen Langton composed a sermon, 
 still preserved in the British Museum, and published in 
 Biographia Britannica Literaria, on the text : — 
 
 " Bele Aliz matin leva • 
 
 Sun cors vesti e para, 
 En2 un verger s'^en entra, 
 Cink flurettes y truva, 
 Un chapelet fet en a 
 
 de rose flurie j- 
 Pur Deu trahez vus en la, 
 
 vus hi ne amez mie ; "^ 
 
 which was a dancing-song. Maillard also did the same 
 thing when he preached in Thoulouse, singing at the 
 top of his voice as a text the ballad " Bergeronnette 
 Savoisienne." 
 
 Peter of Celles took a stanza from a hymn, and his 
 example has been followed by others. Hartung preached 
 from the words^ " It fell, it fell, it fell," occurring in the 
 parable of the sower. 
 
 Texts have sometimes been selected with remarkable 
 felicity. I have room for two instances only. 
 
 In the reign of King James I., a clergyman was to 
 preach before the Vice- Chancellor at Cambridge, who 
 
44 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 was a very drowsy person. He took his text from the 
 twenty-fourth chapter of St. Matthew, " "What, can ye 
 not watch one hour ? " and in the course of his sermon 
 very often repeated these words, which as often roused the 
 vice-chancellor from his nap, and so irritated him, that 
 he complained to the bishop. The bishop sent for the 
 young man, that he might hear what he had to say for 
 himself in extenuation of the offence ; and so well 
 pleased was he with the preacher's defence, that he 
 recommended him to be one of the select preachers 
 before the King. On the occasion of his occupying 
 the pulpit before James (First of England and Sixth of 
 Scotland), he took for his text James i. 6, " Waver 
 not,'' from the translation then in use. This somewhat 
 startled the King, for it touched him on a weak point ; 
 but he loved a joke, and was so well pleased with the 
 preacher's wit, that he appointed him one of his own 
 chaplains. After this the bishop ordered the young 
 man to preach again before his university, and make 
 his peace with the vice-chancellor. He did so, and 
 took for his text, " Whereas I said before, * What, can ye 
 not watch one hour?' and it gave offence ; I say now 
 unto you, * Sleep on, and take your rest.'" And so 
 left the university. The other story is less known. A 
 Capuchin having to preach one day in a church at — I 
 believe — Lyons, slipped on the steps into the pulpit, 
 and fell on his head. The Franciscan garb is scanty, 
 and the congregation were startled by the apparition of 
 a couple of bare and brawny legs protruded through the 
 banisters. The unlucky preacher however picked him- 
 self up with great rapidity, and stationing himself in 
 
INTRODUCTION. 45 
 
 the pulpit, before the general titter had subsided, gave 
 out his text, selected with great readiness from the 
 gospel for the day — " Tell the vision to no man." 
 
 Next to the text in a sermon comes the exordium. 
 
 If a royal personage were present, some compliment 
 was expected to be paid by the preacher to his august 
 hearer, at the opening of the sermon. Some of the 
 greatest preachers have injured their reputation by 
 indulging in unmerited flatteries. Chaussemer, a Jacob- 
 ite, preaching after the famous passage of the Rhine, 
 before Louis XIY. in Holy Week, when according to 
 custom, the king washed the feet of some poor folk, 
 used these words, " The haughty waves of the Rhine, 
 which you. Sire, have passed as rapidly as they them- 
 selves are rapid, shall one day be dried up ; but these 
 drops of water, which your royal hands have sprinkled 
 over the feet of the poor, shall ever be treasured before 
 the throne of God." JS^oble was the commencement of 
 a sermon of Father Seraphim, when preaching before 
 the same monarch. " Sire ! " he began, " I am not 
 ignorant of the fact that custom requires me to address 
 to you a compliment ; I pray your Majesty to excuse 
 me ; I have searched my Bible for a compliment, — I 
 have found none." I cannot omit here the really 
 magnificent exordium of a preacher, who, in his matter 
 and style, belonged to the seventeenth century, but who 
 flourished in the eighteenth — I allude to Jacques Bry- 
 daine, born in 1701. He had been a mission-preacher 
 in the country, when he was suddenly called to preach 
 at St. Sulpice, before the aristocracy of Paris. The 
 humble country parson, on mounting the pulpit, saw 
 
46 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 that the cliurcli was filled with courtiers, nobles, bishops, 
 and persons of the highest rank. He had been in- 
 structed in the necessity of acknowledging their presence 
 by a compliment. But listen to the man of God. 
 
 " At the sight of an audience so strange to me, my 
 brethren, it seems that I ought to open my mouth to 
 ask your favour in behalf of a poor missionary, deficient 
 in all the talents you require, when he comes before 
 you to speak of your welfare. But far from it, to-day 
 I feel a different sentiment ; and though I may be 
 humbled, do not think for one moment that I am 
 troubled by the miserable anxieties of vanity; — as 
 though, forsooth, I were preaching myself. God forbid 
 that a minister of Heaven should ever think it necessary 
 to excuse himself before such as you ! Be you who you 
 may, you are but like me, sinners before the judgment- 
 seat of God. It is then only because I stand before 
 your God and my God, that I am constrained now 
 to beat my breast. Hitherto I have published the 
 righteous dealings of the Most High in thatched 
 temples. I have preached the rigours of penitence to 
 unhappy ones, the majority of whom were destitute of 
 bread. I have announced to the good inhabitants of 
 the fields, the most awful truths of religion. Wretched 
 one that I am, what have I done ! I have saddened 
 the poor, the best friends of my God ; I have carried 
 terror and pain into the simple and faithful souls which 
 I should have sympathized with and consoled. 
 
 " But here, here, where my eyes rest only on the great, 
 the rich, the oppressors of suffering humanity, the bold 
 and hardened in sin ; ah ! here only is it, here in the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 47 
 
 midst of these many scandals, that the word of God 
 should be uttered with the voice of thunder ; here is it 
 that I must hold up before you, on one hand the death 
 which threatens you, on the other, my great God who 
 will judge you all. I hold at this moment your sen- 
 tence in my hand. Tremble then before me, you proud 
 and scornful men who listen to me. Listen when I 
 speak of your ungrateful abuse of every means of grace, 
 the necessity of salvation, the certainty of death, the 
 uncertainty of that hour so terrible to you, final im- 
 penitence, the last judgment, the small number of the 
 elect, hell, and above all eternity ! Eternity ! behold 
 the subjects on which I shall speak, subjects which I 
 should have reserved for you alone. Ah ! what need 
 I your suffrages, which may, perchance, damn me with- 
 out saving you ? God Himself will move you, whilst 
 I, His unworthy minister, speak ; for I have acquired a 
 long experience of His mercies. It is He, and He 
 alone, who in a few moments will stir the depths of 
 your consciences." ^ 
 
 Passing from the exordium to the subject : that 
 which is so tedious in modern sermons is the want of 
 variety in the matter. There are a stock of subjects of 
 very limited range upon which changes are rung, but 
 these subjects are so few that the changes are small in 
 number. Many years ago I was staying with a relation 
 in holy orders, after a tour through different watering- 
 places, and I mentioned to him the curious fact, that on 
 three consecutive Sundays, in different churches, I had 
 heard sermons on Felix waiting for a more convenient 
 season. Having mentioned this, I forgot the circum- 
 
48 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 stance. Five years after I was in a cathedral town, 
 and went to one of the churches there, on a Sunday- 
 morning. To my surprise I saw my relation sail up 
 the nave in rustling silk, preceded by the verger, escort- 
 ing him to the pulpit. As he passed my pew, our eyes 
 met. He was as surprised to see me as I was to see 
 hira, as he was only a visitor like myself. I noticed 
 signs of agitation in his countenance, and that he was 
 some time before he delivered his text, which was upon 
 Zaccheus in the sycamore-tree. 
 
 After service I waited for him, and on our meeting, 
 his first words were, " You wretched fellow ! You put 
 me terribly out ; I had Felix trembling in my pocket 
 ready for delivery; but when I saw you, our conver- 
 sation five years ago flashed across me, and I had to 
 change the sermon in the pulpit." But this was not 
 all. Next Saturday I was at the other end of England, 
 staying with a country parson, and I related this inci- 
 dent. My host pulled a long face, broke out into a 
 profuse perspiration, and said, — " I am really very sorry, 
 but I had prepared Felix for to-morrow, and what is 
 more, I do not see my way towards changing the sub- 
 ject." 
 
 The remarkable part of this anecdote is, that the 
 moral application was similar in all these discourses. 
 Now, the sermons' of the divines of the fifteenth, six- 
 teenth, and seventeenth centuries seldom ofiended in 
 this manner. Matthias Faber published three enormous 
 volumes of sermons for every Sunday in the year, con- 
 taining some fifteen discourses for each, and they are 
 perfectly varied in matter and in application. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 49 
 
 The following is a list of tlie subjects for one Sunday 
 — tlie second in Lent : — 
 
 St. Matt. xvii. " He was transfigured before them." 
 
 Sermon I. — The means whereby a hardened sinner 
 may be transformed into a new man, and his heart be 
 softened. 
 
 1. By constantly hearing God*s Word. 
 
 2. By assiduous prayer. 
 
 3. By earnest endeavour. 
 
 4. By diligent practice of virtues. ' 
 
 Sermon 11. — The incidents which took place on 
 Mount Tabor, and the lessons they give us. 
 
 1. By labour must we pass to glory, for it was 
 
 " after six days '* and a laborious ascent that 
 the mountain-top was reached. 
 
 2. Beatitude is to be sought above, not on earth, 
 
 for the disciples were rebuked for desiring 
 to make tabernacles on earth, the true 
 tabernacle being in heaven. 
 
 3. In every act we should consider the end : thus 
 
 Christ in the glory spoke of His approach- 
 ing decease. 
 
 4. Those who would see the glory of God must 
 
 watch. 
 
 5. Christ is to be heard by all, for He is glorified 
 
 of His Father. 
 
 6. Christ's passion to be constantly before the 
 
 minds of His servants. 
 
50 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Sermon III. — What might be seen on Mount Tabor. 
 
 1. The glory of Christ. 
 
 2. Our own future glory, the reflex of His. 
 
 3. The vanity of worldly glory. 
 
 4. The certainty of future judgment ^ 
 
 Sermon TV. — Why Christ in His passion made His de- 
 cease (excessum) . The point of this sermon depends on the 
 various significations of the Yulgate expression, excessics. 
 
 1. He deceased (excessit) to show us how great an 
 
 evil is sin. 
 
 2. To show us His fervent love. 
 
 3. To compensate for our evil deaths by His most 
 
 perfect and holy death. 
 
 4. To compensate for our defects by His super- 
 
 abundant merits. 
 
 Sermon Y. — Pious exercises for the season of Lent. 
 
 1. The exercise of fasting; set before us by the 
 
 example of Moses and Elias, each of whom 
 fasted during forty days. 
 
 2. The exercise of prayer; set before us by the 
 
 example of Christ, who was transfigured 
 " as He prayed." (Luke ix. 29.) 
 
 3. The exercise of conversion; set before us by 
 
 Christ's raiment becoming white and glister- 
 ing; teaching us that we must wash our 
 robes, and make them white in the blood of 
 the Lamb. 
 
 ' The maimer in which these and other points are deduced from the 
 text cannot be explained here; suffice it to say that it exhibits great 
 ingenuity and subtlety in the preacher. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 51 
 
 4. The exercise of making devout use of God's 
 
 Word; "This is My beloved Son, in whom I 
 am well pleased ; hear ye Him." 
 
 5. The exercise of the memory of Christ's passion ; 
 
 by the example of Moses and Elias talking 
 with Him of " His decease which He should 
 accomplish at Jerusalem." 
 
 6. The exercise of present opportunities of grace, 
 
 before the cloud obscures Christ, and ye 
 desire " to see one of the days of the Son of 
 Man, and shall not see it." 
 
 Sermon YI. — The transfiguration of Satan into an 
 angel of light, and how he deceives men. 
 
 1. He leads them into the high mountain of pride, 
 
 that thence he may cast them down. 
 
 2. He dazzles by the splendour of his countenance. 
 
 3. He puts on a show of virtue, like glistering 
 
 raiment. 
 
 4. He brings upon men a cloud of doubts and 
 
 difficulties and worldly delights. 
 
 5. From that cloud he utters a loud voice, filling 
 
 men with fear at the difficulties besetting 
 them if they would begin the service of Gfod. 
 
 6. He chooses his apostles. 
 
 7. He produces Elias ; example of indiscreet zeal. 
 
 8. He brings forward Moses ; example of exagge- 
 
 rated meekness. 
 
 Sermon YII. — Eternal good things ofiered us by 
 God : what they are and what their nature. 
 
 1. They are solid and true. For the transfigura- 
 D 2 
 
52 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 tlon was not a mere dreaming vision, l)ut 
 seen when the three " were awake." 
 
 2. They are pure and sincere ; unmixed with care, 
 
 or pain, or toil. 
 
 3. They are secure and stable. 
 
 4. They are perfect and complete. 
 
 5. They are realities, not promises. 
 
 6. They are bought at a low price. 
 
 Sermon YIII. — Wherefore Christ was transfigured. 
 
 1. To establish our faith in the resurrection. 
 
 2. To excite our hope, 
 
 3. To kindle our love. 
 
 4. To console the Church. 
 
 5. To show who He was. 
 
 6. To teach us to despise the world. 
 
 7. To give a moment's joy to His body, wearied 
 
 with fasting, watching, and toil. 
 
 Sermon IX. — The great Parliament held on Tabor, 
 and what was treated of there. 
 
 1. The death of Christ was discussed. 
 
 2. The glory of Christ the Mediator and Legislator. 
 
 3. The imperial laws were drawn up ; that 
 
 a. The cross should precede the crown ; 
 /3. The end should be held ever in view ; 
 
 7. Beatitude should be sought above ; 
 
 8. The passion should ever be had in re- 
 
 membrance. 
 
 Sermon X. — On the meaning of excessus. 
 
 Sermon XI. — Man's fourfold transfiguration. 
 1. From a state of grace into one of sin. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 53 
 
 2. From a state of sin into a state of grace. 
 
 3. From the state of delight in this world into the 
 
 misery of hell. 
 
 4. From the state of pain here to the glory of 
 
 Heaven. 
 
 Sermon XII. — The ^ve sources of joy to the re- 
 deemed. 
 
 1. The place — Heaven. 
 
 2. The society of the blessed. 
 
 3. The delights of the senses, especially of the eyes 
 
 and ears. 
 
 4. The dowers of the risen body ; glory, agility, 
 
 subtlety, and impassibility. 
 
 5. The beatific vision of God. 
 
 Sermon XIII. — The estimation in which indulgences 
 are to be held. 
 
 Sermon XI Y. — Lessons drawn from the Gospel. 
 
 1. The power of prayer. 
 
 2. The duty of watching. 
 
 3. The image of worldliness in Peter, to be 
 
 avoided. 
 
 4. The lightest sins to be shunned. 
 
 5. The difference in the falls of good and bad. 
 
 6. The fleeting nature of joy here on earth. 
 
 7. The signs of Christ's coming in judgment. 
 
 Sermon XY. — Mysteries contained in the Gospel. 
 
 1. Why Christ elected only three of His disciples. 
 
 2. Why He led them into a mountain apart. 
 
 D 3 
 
54 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 3. Of the nature of the Transfiguration. 
 
 4. Why Moses and Elias appeared. 
 
 5. Why they spoke of the passion, 
 
 6. Why the cloud overshadowed the vision. 
 
 7. Why the disciples were bidden to be silent re- 
 
 specting the vision. 
 
 8. How the Father is well pleased in the" Son. 
 
 9. The order of events in the Transfiguration. 
 
 These sermons of Matthias Faber, and indeed most of 
 the sermons of great preachers in the sixteenth and 
 seventeenth centuries, are very simple in construction. 
 The system of dividing into a great number of heads, 
 and then subdividing, had been cast aside by the Catholic 
 preachers at the Keformation, as unprofitable. But 
 Protestant orators continued the baneful practice. It 
 prevailed till lately in England, and is common still in 
 Scotland. Dr. Neale remarks, " One would think, to 
 read some of the essays written on the subject, that the 
 construction, of a sermon was like a law of the Modes 
 and Persians. Look at Mr. Simeon's one-and-twenty 
 tedious volumes of 'Horae Homiletica3.' The worthy 
 man evidently considered this the greatest system of 
 divinity which English theology had ever produced. 
 And of what does it consist? of several thousand ser- 
 mons treated exactly in the same ways, in obedience to 
 precisely the same laws, and of much about the same 
 length. Claude's Essay had laid down certain rules, 
 and Simeon's Discourses were their exemplification. . . . 
 The preacher opens with a short view of the circum- 
 stances under which the text was spoken. This is 
 
INTRODUCTION. 55 
 
 a very convenient exordium, because it fills two or three 
 pages with but little trouble. The clergyman has only 
 to put Scripture language into his own, and he is fairly 
 launched in his sermon without any efibrt. Another 
 almost equally easy method of opening is to be found 
 in drawing a contrast between the person or thing of 
 which the passage in hand speaks, and that to which 
 the writer may wish to allude. And it has this special 
 advantage ; that if he is unlucky in finding much like 
 ness between the two, he is sure to discover a good 
 deal of ^m-likeness, and either treatment will supply a 
 good number of words. Thus, as every one knows, 
 come the heads, —a most important part in this style of 
 discourse. Taking Mr. Simeon as a pattern, we shall find 
 that they cannot be less than two, nor more than four ; 
 though, indeed, there are not wanting those who have 
 greatly extravagated beyond the superior limit, as the 
 Puritan divine's ' And now, to be brief, I would observe 
 eighteenthly, that — ' so and so, may suffice to prove. 
 Then come all the minutiae of subdivisions and under- 
 divisions (little heads, as the charity children call them), 
 all set forth, when the aforesaid discourses came to be 
 printed, in corresponding variations of type." After 
 a lengthy exordium, one Sunday evening, a preacher 
 divided his subject into twenty heads, each of which he 
 purposed D.Y. considering in all its bearings. On 
 hearing this, a man in the congregation started up and 
 proceeded to leave the church, when the preacher called 
 to him, " Wherefore leave, friend ? " "I am going for 
 my nightcap," replied the man ; " for I plainly see that 
 we shall have to pass the night in church." 
 
 D 4 
 
56 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The conclusion in an old sermon of tlie three cen- 
 turies under review, is short, pithy, and to the purpose. 
 It consists in a vehement appeal to the consciences of 
 the hearers, in the application of a parable or a Scrip- 
 tural illustration, in a rapturous exclamation to God in 
 the form of a brief extempore prayer, or in a string of 
 anecdotes and examples. The following is a conclu- 
 sion by Guevara, Bishop of Mondoneda : — 
 
 " Tell me, good Jesu, tell me, is there any thing in 
 a rotten sepulchre which is not in my sorrowful soul 
 and unhappy life ? In me more than in any shall be 
 found hard stones of obstinacy, a painted sepulchre of 
 hypocrisy, dry bones of old sins, unprofitable ashes of 
 works without fruit, gnawing worms of great concu- 
 piscence, and an ill odour of an evil conscience. What, 
 then, will become of me, O good Jesu ! if Thou do not 
 break the stones of my faults, throw down the sepulchre 
 of my hypocrisy, reform the bones of my sins, and sift 
 the ashes of my unruly desires ? Raise me up, then, 
 good Jesu ! raise me now up : not from among the 
 dead which sleep, but from among sins which stink, for 
 that the justification of a wicked man is a far greater 
 matter than the raising up of a dead man ; because that 
 in the one Thou dost use Thy power, and in the other 
 Thou dost exert Thy clemency.'^ 
 
 Many of Paoletti's sermons conclude with a string 
 of incidents and stories, from which I presume any 
 preacher using the sermon might select that which 
 seemed to him most appropriate. 
 
 The effect produced by the sermons of these ancient 
 preachers was sometimes extraordinary. Jerome de 
 
INTRODUCTION. 57 
 
 !N"arni preacliecL one day before the Pope, with such zeal, 
 on the duties of residence, that next day, thirty bishops 
 fled from Rome to their several dioceses. St. John 
 Capistran, a Franciscan, preached in 1452 at Nurem- 
 berg, in the great square of the town, and he spoke 
 with such vehemence against gambling, that the inha- 
 bitants brought out their dice, cards, and tables, heaped 
 them up and burned them before him. The same thing 
 happened next year at Breslau. Of the marvellous 
 conversions, the result of their powerful preaching, of 
 course we can know but little, though there is evidence 
 that they were neither few nor un enduring. It was 
 not an uncommon thing for people to throw themselves 
 at the foot of the pulpit, and denounce themselves of 
 crimes they had committed, or to throng the preacher 
 after the sermon was over, earnestly desiring him to 
 hear their confessions. But the most original scene, 
 the result of a sermon of great power, exhorting to con- 
 fession and amendment, took place in a church at Turin, 
 during Lent in 1780. After the most touching appeal 
 of the preacher, a man stood up and began to confess 
 his sins aloud. He said that he was a lawyer, and that 
 his life had been one of extortion. He mentioned the 
 names of several families which he had pillaged, widows' 
 houses he had devoured, orphans' substance which he 
 had conveyed into his own pocket. This went on for 
 some little while, when suddenly a gentleman on the 
 other side of the church sprang up, and in a voice 
 choking with rage, exclaimed, " Don't believe him ! it 
 is not true. The good-for-nothing fellow is de- 
 scribing me and my acts ; but I never did any thing 
 
 D 5 
 
58 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 of the kind ! " It was evident to all that the cap 
 fitted. 
 
 The story is told of a rich usurer of Yicenza urging 
 the ecclesiastical authorities of the town to send for an 
 eminent preacher to declaim against usury. " He has 
 converted many usurers in various towns of Italy/' said 
 the man, "and I should not in the least scruple to 
 pay some of the expense of his coming here." " But," 
 said the clergyman to whom he spoke, " if you are 
 determined on your own conversion, you surely need 
 not the exhortations of a preacher to strengthen your 
 resolutions." " Oh ! " replied the usurer, " it is not for 
 myself. This town is so full of usurers, that there is no 
 room for a poor fellow like me to gain a livelihood. 
 Now if they were all converted, and gave up their evil 
 habits, there would be some chance of my being able 
 to pick up a living." 
 
 There were, indeed, preachers who were sent round 
 the country to declaim against certain special sins. 
 Their forte lay in attacking one species of guilt, but 
 they were inefiective when preaching on another point. 
 There were preachers whose strength lay in panegyrics 
 upon saints ; and others who — I pity them — were great 
 in fimereal discourses. Of the latter class was Gemi- 
 ntano, a Dominican, whose " sermones funebres " were 
 published at Antwerp in octavo, 1611. They are ninety- 
 eight in number. He preached over the graves of 
 popes, archbishops, bishops, abbots, soldiers, doctors, 
 rich men and beggars, beautiful women, an emperor, 
 a drowned man, a prisoner who died in jail, an executed 
 criminal, and a murdered man or two ; he preached at 
 
INTRODUCTION. 59 
 
 the interment of mercliants, fishermen, ploughmen, and 
 huntsmen — in short, it would be hard to find some over 
 whom John Geminiano did not dolorously hold forth. 
 A sad moment for Geminiano when he first let people 
 understand that his strong point lay in a grave. 
 
 A really great preacher was never suffered to hide 
 his light under a bushel; according to our parochial 
 system, the most eloquent man of the day may, for 
 aught we know, be perched on the top of a Wiltshire 
 down, or be buried in the clay of a North Devon par- 
 sonage, fifteen miles from a railway. 
 
 The Eoman Church had the regular clergy to draw 
 upon for preachers, and as they had no ties, could send 
 them up and down the country, so that the same course 
 of sermons would serve them again and again. Indeed, 
 otherwise it would have been impossible for some of the 
 favourite preachers to have continued providing fresh 
 matter and committing it to memory, for it must be 
 remembered written sermons are not tolerated in the 
 Roman communion. It might be possible for an elo- 
 quent man with a lively imagination to continue for 
 long without exhausting himself, but how could a solid 
 and learned preacher, who relied on quotations, continue 
 extracting and committing to memory long paragraphs 
 from the Fathers, Sunday after Sunday, and year after 
 year ? Let us take a sermon of Mangotius the Jesuit, 
 for instance. 
 
 Adrian Mangotius was a Dutchman, and consequently 
 eminently practical and unimaginative. His sermons 
 are good in their way ; there is not a bit of originality 
 in them, but the fragments of which they are composed 
 
 D 6 
 
60 INTRODtJCTIOK. 
 
 are judiciously selected. In Hs fifty-ninth discourse, 
 lie quotes St. Matthew four times, St. Luke thrice, St. 
 John twice, the Epistles five times, Reyelation once, the 
 Old Testament ten times, St. Augustine a dozen times, 
 St. Gregory four times, St. Ambrose twice, St. Jerome 
 twice, St. Bernard twice, St. Thomas Aquinas once, 
 Cicero some three or four times, Plutarch, Sallust, and 
 Yirgil once. 
 
 This 'style of sermon suits some people, perhaps, but 
 it did not take with the masses, who liked richness of 
 imagery, abundance of simile, and neatness of illustra- 
 tion. So when Father d'Harrone, a man of sound 
 learning, but little brilliancy of genius, preached a 
 course in Rouen, after the great Bourdaloue, to use his 
 own words : — " When Bourdaloue preached last year 
 at Rouen, artisans quitted their business, merchants 
 their wares, lawyers the court, doctors their sick ; but 
 as for me, when I followed, I set all in order again ; no 
 one neglected his occupation." 
 
 In the following pages I have given a sketch of some 
 of the most remarkable preachers of the fifteenth, six- 
 teenth, and seventeenth centuries. The divine and the 
 bibliographer may miss the names of some great and 
 eminent men, as Paolo Segneri, Antonio Yieyra, 
 Latimer, Andrewes, &c. But these men are either well 
 known, or their lives and sermons are within the reach 
 of English readers. Segneri's Lenten sermons have 
 been translated and somewhat diluted by Prebendary 
 Ford, Yieyra is noticed in • * Mediaeval Sermons," and 
 English preachers I have omitted entirely to notice, 
 because they are for the most part hopelessly dull. 
 
GABRIEL BIEL. 
 
 This excellent and learned man is generally supposed, 
 from his name Biel, the modern Bienne, to have been a 
 Swiss, though some assert that he was a native of Spire, 
 and the latter is probably the real place of his nativity, 
 though his family may have been of Swiss extraction, 
 for he is called " Gabriel Biel ex Spira " in the beginning 
 of his " Sermones de tempore,'' as published by Johan 
 Otmar, in Tubingen, 1510. 
 
 He went by the name of " the Collector," from the 
 fact of his being a laborious compiler rather than an. 
 original composer. 
 
 He was undoubtedly one of the best scholastic divines 
 of his age, and was a careful reader of the Fathers. 
 
 Gabriel Biel was a member of the Regular Canons, 
 and was Doctor of Theology, which he taught as pro- 
 fessor in the University of Tubingen, founded by Count 
 Eberhardt of Wirtemberg, in 1477. 
 
 He soon became a favourite with this nobleman, who 
 listened to his sermons with delight. 
 
 At one time he was vicar and ordinary preacher at 
 the metropolitan church of St. Martin at Mainz, but the 
 date of his appointment is uncertain. Gabriel Biel was 
 
62 GABRIEL BIEL. 
 
 a man of gravity and learning; his sermons were popular, 
 not on account of the eloquence with which they were 
 delivered, for of that there was little, but of their 
 beautiful simplicity and intrinsic excellence. 
 
 His hearers were not amused by his discourses, but I 
 venture to say that they were edified. 
 
 His style is pithy, his sentences pregnant with 
 meaning, for what he said, he said in few words, and 
 he said it too very gracefully. Instead of wearying his 
 hearers with unprofitable scholastic quibbles, he gave 
 them practical good advice in plain and homely words. 
 
 The date of his death is not known with certainty, 
 but it probably took place in 1495, though, according 
 to some, he lived till 1520. 
 
 His works and their diiferent editions are : — 
 
 Commentaria in libros iv. Magistri Sententiarum ; 
 Basil., 1512 ; Brixise, 1574, 5 vols, in 3, 4to. 
 
 In Sententias ; Parisiis, 1514, fol. ; Basileae, Joe. de 
 Pfortzen, 1512, 2 vols. fol. ; Lugduni, Jacobus Myt, 
 1527, fol. 
 
 Sententiarum repertorium generale ; Lugduni, Cleyn, 
 1614, fol. 
 
 Historia Dominicse Passionis, prodiit una cum Defen- 
 Sorio et Sermonibus cunctis ; Hagense, 1519. 
 
 Passionis Dominicse sermo historialis ; sine loco et 
 anno, 4to. 
 
 Sermones dominicales de tempore. Sermones de fes- 
 tivitatibus Christi. Absque loci et anni nota, 4to. ; 
 sine loco impressionis, 1494, fol., Goth., a 2 col. ; 
 Tubingen, Otmar, 1510, Goth., 2 col. ; Haguenaw, 
 1515, 4ta 
 
GABRIEL BIEL. 63 
 
 Sermones de Sanctis. Absque loci et anni nota, 4to. 
 Ejusdem de festivitatibus Yirginis Maria), 1599, 4to. 
 
 Sermones gacri totius anni; Brixioe, 1583, 4to. 
 
 Sermones medicinales contra Pestem et Mortis Timo- 
 rem; Defensoriumobedientiaepontificis. Expositiocanonis 
 Migsae ; Lugduni, 1514, fol. ; Parisiis, Jehan Petit, 1516, 
 fol.,Goth. ; Hagenoise, 1519, fol. ; Antuerpiee, 1549, 8vo.; 
 Lugduni, 1542 ; Yenet., 1576 ; Brixise, 1580 ; Bergomi, 
 1594. 
 
 Lectura super canonem Miss93, in alma universitate 
 Tuwingensi ordinarie lecta ; Eeutlingae, Otmar, 1488, 
 fol. 
 
 Tractatus de Monetarum potestate simul et utilitate ; 
 [N'orembergise, 1442, 4to. ; Colon., 1574, 4to. ; Lugduni, 
 1605, 4to. 
 
 Epitome script! Gulielmi de Occam, et CoUectorium 
 circa iv. libr. Sent. Still in MS. 
 
 The Exposition of the Mass which passes under the 
 name of Biel is really a copy from the work of Eggeling 
 of Brunswick, as, indeed, Biel owns at the end of the 
 book. 
 
 The simple earnestness of Gabriel Biel renders his 
 sermons very attractive ; and as being the production of 
 a well-read and a thoughtful man, these sermons furnish 
 ample material for reproduction in the modern pulpit. 
 The reader will not find in Biel much of the fire of the 
 Italian pulpit, nor the richness of simile which charac- 
 terized the Spanish preachers, but he will find plain 
 truths drawn from Scripture in a very straightforward 
 manner, and applied in short but nervous sentences. 
 
 Perhaps the main difierence between a sermon of 
 
64 GABRIEL BIEL. 
 
 Biel and one of a modern preacher, is, that the former 
 contains many thoughts in few words, whilst the latter 
 consists of many words, but contains few thoughts. 
 
 Analysis of Sermon xix. " De tempore," being a 
 sermon for Septuagesima, on the text from the Gospel : 
 " The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that is an 
 householder, which went out early in the morning to 
 hire labourers into his vineyard," &c. (Matt. xx. 1.) 
 Introduction. 
 
 Hitherto the Church has been keeping festival. 
 "Now she closes her season of festivity, that 
 she may lament and weep for the lapse of her 
 sons. 
 A. (1) Man's nature as it left the Creator's hands 
 was very noble. It was immortal, not by 
 nature, but by grace. By nature it was 
 capable of decay and death, but by grace it 
 was provided with the tree of life, the fruit 
 of which renovated and preserved it. 
 
 (2) Man's life was maintained subject to a con- 
 
 dition, the condition of obedience. Its pre- 
 servation was contingent on the keeping of 
 God's commandment. 
 
 The soul as created was innocent ; man was 
 wise in intellect and clean in affections; he 
 was associated with angels, accustomed to con- 
 verse with God, peaceful in conscience, and 
 endowed with all gifts of nature and grace. 
 
 (3) Man's knowledge of God was not enigmatical, 
 but intuitive. He saw God by some internal 
 
GABRIEL BIEL. GO 
 
 power of contemplation : a power not so per- 
 fect as that will be which we shall possess in 
 our country, nor so imperfect as that which 
 we have in the way. 
 
 (4) Man's conscience was at peace with God ; and 
 
 internal peace implies external peace as well. 
 Paradise was a place of perfect peace, for the 
 elements were tranquil, the animals were in 
 subjection, nourishment was in abundance. 
 
 Had this state of peace continued, man 
 would not have died, but he would have been 
 translated to Heaven without death. 
 
 (5) But alas ! all this was forfeited by sin ; and 
 man was spoiled of his graces, and wounded 
 in his faculties. 
 
 He lost original righteousness, and with its 
 loss his tranquillity was disturbed, his flesh 
 became unbridled, his intellect parched, his 
 will depraved, his memory disturbed. 
 
 (6) Creation was moreover armed against him, so 
 that earth was no more ready to nourish him 
 spontaneously ; but he was constrained to la- 
 bour in the sweat of his brow for his daily 
 bread. 
 
 B. And now we are led to a consideration of the 
 Gospel for the day, which speaks of fallen 
 man, and of fallen man working, and working 
 moreover to recover the conditions which he 
 had before he fell. 
 
 The Gospel is full of doctrine and dogma suited to 
 all conditions of men. 
 
66 GABRIEL BIEL. 
 
 Doctrine I. is serviceable for increasing our faith. 
 For the Gospel teaches us that in no other 
 way can we attain the reward of the kingdom, 
 than by working with true faith in the Lord's 
 vineyard, which is the Church. 
 
 It is not sufficient that we should be called, we 
 must work as well. 
 
 Work is not sufficient, unless it be work in the 
 Lord's vineyard. 
 
 Work in vineyards of our own planting will never 
 be paid for by the Lord of the vineyard, when 
 He comes to give the labourers their hire. 
 
 Again; this Gospel opposes the presumption of 
 those carnally-minded men who think to be 
 saved by faith only ; whereas faith without 
 works is dead, being alone. 
 
 Doctrine II. giveth hope. For it shows that the 
 kingdom of Heaven is open to all, and closed 
 to none ; all are called to the work, even though 
 it be at the last hour. So long as there is life 
 there is hope. 
 
 Again ; this Gospel, at the same time as it 
 shows that none should despair, opposes all sloth 
 and cowardice in undertaking the work of the 
 salvation of the soul. 
 
 Doctrine III. inflames charity. For it exhibits to 
 us in a remarkable manner the love of the 
 Father towards man ; a love which embraces 
 all, and rejects none ; a love ready to reward 
 both the righteous and the unrighteous, both 
 the good and the bad, if the unrighteous and 
 
GABRIEL B1EL» 67 
 
 bad will but turn from their evil ways, and be 
 converted, that He may heal them. Examples 
 of those called at late stages of life, and yet 
 meriting a reward equal to those who have 
 borne the burden and heat of the day, are 
 afforded by David, St. Peter, St. Paul, St. 
 Matthew, and St. Mary Magdalen. 
 
 Again ; by this Gospel all excuse is removed 
 from those who neglect the work of their 
 salvation, for no man can say that he has 
 not been hired, inasmuch as God calls him 
 throughout life ; calling him externally and 
 internally, — externally, by the beauty of 
 creation, by the Holy Scriptures, by preach- 
 ing, by the scourge of afflictions ; internally, 
 by shame at sin committed, by fear occasioned 
 by the knowledge of the uncertainty of the 
 hour of deatli, by dread of judgment, by horror 
 of hell, by promises of absolution, of glory, 
 and by aspirations of love for the mysteries of 
 Redemption. 
 Doctrine lY. induces to humility. For it shows us 
 that no man should puff himself up with spiri- 
 tual pride, because he may have laboured long 
 in his Lord's vineyard, or may have been kept 
 free from falling into heinous crimes ; by this 
 Gospel he is taught that many that are first 
 shall be last, and the last shall be first. " Why 
 dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost 
 thou set at nought thy brother ? for we shall 
 all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ." 
 
68 GABRIEL BIEL. 
 
 "Therefore judge nothing before the time, 
 until the Lord come, who both will bring 
 to light the hidden things of darkness, and 
 will make manifest the counsels of the hearts ; 
 and then shall every man have praise of God/' 
 
 Doctrine Y. urges to the fear of God, lest by delay 
 in undertaking the work of his conversion, 
 man should neglect the call of God to work, 
 and lest he thereby lose his hire. 
 
 " Let him that thinketh he standeth, take 
 heed lest he fall." *' "Watch ye, therefore, 
 for ye know not when the Master of the 
 house Cometh, at even, or at midnight, or 
 at the cock- crowing, or in the morning : lest 
 coming suddenly. He find you sleeping." 
 
 Conclusion. Finally, let all keep in mind the 
 awful sentence of Him who cannot err : " Many 
 are called, but few are chosen." Let each fear 
 for himself, lest he be found among the number 
 of the called who have neglected the vocation ; 
 and let him strive by all means in his power 
 to be of the number of the chosen. 
 
 This sermon is followed by another on the same 
 Gospel ; the subject being, the small number of the 
 elect. 
 
 The analysis given will show how wholesome and 
 practical were the discourses of this truly pious and 
 learned man. 
 
JEAN RAULIN. 
 
 John Raulin, bom at Toul in 1443, of noble and 
 wealthy parents, was educated at the Navarre College 
 in Paris, and took honours in theology in the year 
 1479. 
 
 In 1481 he was elected President in the place of 
 WiUiam de Chateaufort, and he filled the position with 
 the utmost probity, and ruled with singular discretion. 
 
 In 1497 he resigned the mastership and retired to 
 Cluni, where he lived a life of great sanctity. 
 
 In 1501 he obtained a commission from Cardinal 
 Ambassiani to introduce a reform into the Benedictine 
 Order. He died at Paris in the Cluniac monastery, on 
 February 6th, 1514, aged seventy-one. 
 
 Raulin was a man of considerable piety, of blameless 
 life, and of the utmost integrity. He seems to have 
 been regarded in his day as a great preacher, and his 
 sermons have been several times republished. Those 
 for Advent have passed through six editions, and those 
 for Lent through five. 
 
 Besides sermons, he wrote a " Doctrinale " on the 
 
70 JEAN RAULIN. 
 
 triple death, — the death of the body, the death in sin, 
 and the last or eternal death. He is also the author of 
 a volume of letters and tracts on the reform of the 
 Cluniacs ; also of " The Itinerary of Paradise," " A 
 Discourse on the Eeformation of the Clergy," and a 
 " Commentary on Aristotle's Logic." 
 
 He was a dry and methodical preacher, vehement 
 in his denunciations of the corruptions in Church and 
 State, and ready unscrupulously to attack all abuses 
 in ecclesiastical discipline. His style is wholly devoid 
 of eloquence, and is precise and dull. His sermons are 
 full of divisions and subdivisions, which could never 
 have fixed themselves in the minds of his audience, and 
 serve only to perplex his readers. They are wanting 
 in almost every particular which would make a sermon 
 tolerable now-a-days ; and after a lengthened perusal, 
 one rises from the volumes wondering how there could 
 have been found hearers to listen to such discourses, or 
 readers sufficiently numerous to necessitate a rapid suc- 
 cession of editions. 
 
 As a representative man of a type common enough 
 in the century which produced him, he is valuable. For 
 the age and the taste of his period, he is grave ; but he 
 sometimes sinks almost as deep in bufibonery as Menot, 
 Meffreth, or Oliver Maillard. 
 
 As an example, taken at hazard, of one of his ser- 
 mons, I will give a short outKne of his Epiphany dis- 
 course on the text — " It is the Lord that commandeth 
 the waters ; it is the glorious God that maketh the 
 thunder ; it is the Lord that ruleth the sea." (Ps. xxix. 
 3,4.) 
 
JEAN RAULIN. 71 
 
 Question. Was it of necessity that Christ should be 
 baptized ? 
 
 Answer. No ; for reasons taken from St. Bernard 
 and St. Chrysostom. 
 
 Christ however consented to be baptized for three 
 reasons, — 
 
 1. To set an example to us. 
 
 2. To conceal Himself from Satan, who behold- 
 
 ing Him baptized might hesitate to regard 
 Him as the Messiah. 
 
 3. To show His perfect humility. 
 
 In the baptism of our Lord, there were three mani- 
 festations : the Son in His humanity, the Father by the 
 voice, the Holy Ghost by the descent of the dove. 
 
 Then follows an exhortation to humility, and a warn- 
 ing to priests and people to practise godliness instead 
 of contenting themselves with professing it. " The 
 hand is bigger than the tongue," hints E-aulin. 
 
 The Son was manifest in His humanity. A question 
 is asked : — Did John Baptist recognize Christ ? 
 « Answer : — 
 
 1. He recognized Him when He was unborn, 
 
 " The babe leaped in my womb for joy ;*' but 
 he did not distinctly know Him now, for— the 
 reason given is perfectly monstrous — Aristotle 
 says that the human frame changes every 
 seven years. 
 
 2. He knew that Christ was among the throng by 
 
 a sort of inspiration, but he knew not which 
 of his hearers was Christ. 
 ' 3. Knowledge is double ; it arises out of 
 
72 JEAN RAULIN. 
 
 a. Demonstration, and is acquired by reason. 
 yS. Experience. 
 
 Raulin investigates the knowledge of John, and 
 resolves the question by stating that at first he had 
 no certain knowledge, but that after the manifesta- 
 tions accompanying the baptism, he obtained it by 
 experience. 
 
 A second question is asked : — Why St. John Baptist 
 did not venture to touch Christ ? 
 
 Answer : — 
 
 1. Because he had an instinctive fear of God pre- 
 
 sent in the flesh. 
 
 2. Because he was conscious of his own sinfulness. 
 The Father was manifest by the voice. 
 
 In holy baptism all men are made in like manner 
 children of God. We are made children, 
 
 1. By adoption — to the Father. 
 
 2. By ingrafting — to the Church. 
 
 3. By spiritual generation — to the priest who 
 
 baptizes. 
 
 From this arises the question : — Did St. John the 
 Baptist become spiritual father of our Lord by baptizing 
 Him? 
 
 This Eaulin answers in the negative ; for, 
 
 1. Christ received not grace through the ministra- 
 
 tion of John ; for He was full of grace from 
 the moment of His conception. 
 
 2. The rit^ was imperfect. 
 
 3. It was a baptism of repentance, which could not 
 
 avail spiritually one who had never sinned. 
 The Spirit was manifest under the form of a dove. 
 
JEAN RAULIN. 73 
 
 The dove appeared above water, and here follows a 
 dissertation on the virtues of divers waters. 
 
 The question arises : — Why did the Spirit elect the 
 form of a dove ? 
 
 This Raulin answers in the following manner : 
 
 1. A dove is without gall, and is harmless, and 
 
 therefore represents the character of those 
 born of the Spirit. 
 
 2. A dove bore the olive-branch to the ark, in 
 
 token of God being reconciled. And by bap- 
 tism we are reconciled to God. 
 
 3. A dove has seven qualities, resembling the 
 
 Spirit's sevenfold gifts. These are, — 
 
 (1) It moans instead of warbling ; this represents 
 
 the spirit of holy Fear. 
 
 (2) It is a gentle bird, and is offered in sacrifice ; 
 
 thus representing the spirit of Piety, 
 
 (3) It is granivorous, not carnivorous ; thus it sha- 
 
 dows forth the spirit of Knoicledge. 
 
 (4) It dwells in the clefts of the rock ; thus ex- 
 
 hibiting the character of the spirit of Forti- 
 tude. 
 
 (5) It brings up the young of others ; thus showing 
 
 forth the spirit of Counsel. 
 
 (6) It rends not what it eats, but swallows whole ; 
 
 a type of the spirit of Understanding. 
 
 (7) It dweUs beside waters ; thereby exhibiting the 
 
 marks of the spirit of Wisdom. 
 
 All these points are drawn out at length, and examined 
 minutely ; Scripture is tortured to illustrate them, and 
 
74 JEAN RAULIN. 
 
 illustrations of a most unsuitable nature are brought to 
 bear upon tbem. 
 
 It will be seen from this abstract, how thoroughly- 
 unprofitable the sermons of Jean Eaulin prove to be ; 
 they bear the character of playing and trifling with 
 Scripture and with the most sacred subjects, and it is 
 sad to think that a good and blameless man, such as he 
 was, should have degraded the ministry of God's Word 
 to a mere tissue of Sunday puzzles. 
 
 Raulin delighted in far-fetched similes, and in 
 tracing out types beyond all limits of endurance. That 
 of the dove was sufficiently extravagant, but what can 
 we say to his working out the details of the parable of 
 the Miraculous Draught of Fishes, in such a manner as 
 to make the little fishes resemble the faithful in the 
 Church, because, 
 
 (1) Fish have their eyes at their sides, and so 
 
 can always see about them ; and faithful 
 Christians are ever watchful. 
 
 (2) Fish advance in the water by wagging their 
 
 tails ; and good Christians have to advance by 
 remembering the end of all things ! ! 
 
 (3) Little fish are eaten by big fish, and so of the 
 
 faithful it is said, " Men shall devour you." 
 Occasionally Jean Raulin tells a story to enliven his 
 discourse — stories in the pulpit were in vogue then — 
 and these anecdotes and fables are often exceedingly 
 good and pointed, but they are most unsuited to a 
 sermon. 
 
 On one occasion, when preaching on the corrup- 
 tions in the Church, and declaiming against the way 
 
JEAN RAULIN. 75 
 
 in wHcli tlie clergy condoned moral sins of the blackest 
 dye, but showed the utmost severity when the slightest 
 injury was done to the temporal welfare of the Church, 
 he illustrated his subject by a story to this effect : 
 
 The beasts were once determined to keep Lent 
 strictly, and to begin by making their confessions. 
 The Lion was appointed confessor. First to be shriven 
 came the Wolf, who with expressions of remorse acknow- 
 ledged himself a grievous sinner, and confessed that 
 he had — yes, he had — once eaten a lamb. 
 
 " Any extenuating circumstances ? " asked the Lion. 
 
 "Well, yes, there were," quoth the Wolf; "for the 
 mother who bore me, and my ancestors from time im- 
 memorial, have been notable lamb-eaters, and * what's 
 born in the bone comes out in the flesh.' " 
 
 " Quite so," said the confessor ; " your penance is 
 this, — say one Pater Noster." 
 
 The next to approach the tribunal of penance was 
 the Fox, with drooping tail, a lachrymose eye, and 
 humble gait. 
 
 " I have sinned, father ! " began Eeynard, beating 
 his breast ; " I have sinned grievously through my own 
 fault ; I — I — I — yes, I once did eat a hen." 
 
 " Any extenuating circumstances ? " asked the Lion. 
 
 " Two," replied the penitent ; " I must say, the fault 
 was not quite my own. The hen was grossly fat, and 
 it roosted within reach. Now, had she been an ascetic, 
 and had she gone to sleep in some tree, I should never 
 have touched her, I assure you, father." 
 
 " There is some truth in that," said the confessor ; 
 " say as penance one Pater Noster." 
 
 E 2 
 
76 JEAN RAULIN. 
 
 Next came the Donkey, hobbling up to the confes- 
 sional, and her broken ee-yaws ! could be heard from 
 quite a distance. For some time the poor brute was so 
 convulsed with sobs that not a word she said could be 
 distinguished. At last she gulped forth that she had 
 sinned in three things. 
 
 ** And what are they ? " asked the Lion gruffly. 
 
 " Oh, father ! first of all, as I went along the roads, 
 I found grass and thistles in the hedges ; they were so 
 tempting that — that — that — ee-yaw, ee-yaw ! " 
 
 " Go on," growled the Lion ; " you ate them ; you 
 committed robbery, — Yile monster ! I shudder at the 
 enormity of your crime." 
 
 *' Secondly," continued the Donkey, " as I came near 
 a monastery one summer's day, the gates were wide 
 open to air the cloisters ; impelled by curiosity, I — I — 
 I — just ventured to walk in, and I think I may have 
 somewhat befouled the pavement." 
 
 " What ! " exclaimed the confessor, rising in his 
 seat, and shaking his mane ; " enter the sanctuary dedi- 
 cated to religion — you, a female, knowing that it is 
 against the rules of the order that aught but males 
 should intrude ; and then, too, that little circumstance 
 about the pavement ! Go on," said the Lion grimly. 
 
 " Oh, father ! " sighed the poor penitent ; " the holy 
 monks were all in chapel, and singing the office. They 
 sang so beautifully that my heart was lifted up within 
 me, and at the close of a collect my feelings overcame 
 me, and I tried to say Amen ; but produced only an 
 ee-yaw ! which interrupted the service and hindered 
 the devotion of the monks." 
 
JEAN RAULIN. 77 
 
 " Horrible ! " cried the Lion, his eyes flashing with 
 pious zeal, his hair bristling with virtuous indignation 
 " Monster steeped in crime, is there any penance too 
 great to inflict on you? I — " The reader may guess 
 what became of the helpless beast. 
 
 This story, which I have related in my own words, 
 instead of giving a literal translation, must have been a 
 cutting satire on the practices of the clergy of that 
 period, and as true as it was cutting ; but the pulpit 
 was not the place for it. 
 
 Another of Eaulin's beast fables is good. It occurs in 
 a sermon on St. Nicolas* He is speaking of the persua- 
 sion which parents have that their children are perfect 
 spiritually and corporeally. Once an old toad had a 
 son who was fond of church-going— so fond, indeed, that 
 in the ardour of his devotion he went one day without 
 his socks. This troubled the old toad, as his son was 
 liable to colds in the head if he caught chills in his feet. 
 Seeing the hare dashing by, he called out, " Hey ! you, 
 there ! going to church, I suppose ? Do me a good turn 
 and take my son his socks, or he'll get his death of cold." 
 
 " But how am I to know your son ?" 
 
 *' I^othing more easy,'' replied the toad ; " there's not 
 such a good-looking fellow in the crowd." 
 
 " Ah ! I know him," said the hare ; " we call him the 
 swan.'' 
 
 " Swan ! " expressed in a tone of contempt, " swan ! 
 a fellow with great splay feet and a neck you might tie 
 in a knot ! " 
 
 " Well, let me see ! I know him ; he is the peacock." 
 
 The toad screamed with dismay. " How can you in- 
 E 3 
 
78 JEAN RATJLIN. 
 
 suit me by thinking that cracked-Yoiced thing my son ?" 
 and he pufied himself up to the shape of a ball. 
 
 " Then how am I to know your son ?" 
 
 " Why, look you," pumped forth the toad with state- 
 liness, "he is remarkably handsome— ahem! he is the 
 image of me : has goggle eyes, a blotched back, and a 
 great white belly ! " 
 
 Now, could any congregation hear this story from the 
 pulpit without laughing ? It is sufficiently piquant, and 
 would go home to many parents present. 
 
 There is a capital story which I believe originated 
 with Raulin, but which has since been versified by 
 Southey, and even dramatized ; but it may be questioned 
 whether any modern author has told it with any thing 
 like the naivete oi the original. 
 
 It occurs in the third sermon on widowhood. I give 
 it in the Latin of the period. 
 
 " Dicatur de quadam vidua, quod venit ad curatum 
 suum (a son cure), quserens ab eo consilium, si deberet 
 iterum maritari, et allegabat quod erat sine adjutorio, et 
 quod habebat servum optimum et peritum in arte mariti 
 sui. 
 
 " Tunc curatus : ' Bene, accipite eum.' 
 
 " E contrario ilia dicebat : ' Sed periculum est accipere 
 ilium, ne de servo meo faciam dominum.' 
 
 " Tunc curatus dixit : * Bene, nolite eum accipere.' 
 
 "Ait ilia: * Quid faciam ? non possum sustinere pondus 
 illud quod sustinebat maritus meus, nisi unum habeam.' 
 
 " Tunc curatus dixit : * Bene, habeatis eum.' 
 
 " At ilia : * Sed si malus esset, et vellet mea dlsperdere 
 et usurpare?' 
 
JEAN RAULIN. 79 
 
 " Tunc curatus : * Non accipiatis ergo eum/ 
 
 "Etsic semper curatus juxta argumenta sua concedebat 
 ei, Yidens autem curatus quod vellet ilium habere et 
 haberet devotionem ad eum, dixit ei ut bene distincte 
 intelligeret quid campanae ecclesiaG ei dicerent, et secun- 
 dum consilium campanarum ipsa faceret. 
 
 " Campanis autem pulsantibus, intellexit juxta volun- 
 tatem suam quod dicerent : * Prends ton valet, prends 
 ton valet.' Quo accepto, servus egregie verberabit earn, 
 et fuit ancilla quae prius erat domina. 
 
 "Tunc ad curatum suum conquesta est de consilio, 
 maledicendo boram qua crediderat ei. Cui ille : * Non 
 satis audisti quid dicant campanae.' 
 
 " Tunc curatus pulsavit campanas, et tunc intellexit 
 quod campanae dicebant : * Ne le prends pas, ne le prends 
 pas.' Tunc enim vexatio dederat ei intellectum." 
 
 In an Easter sermon, Raulin asks why the news of 
 the resurrection was announced to women. And he 
 replies that they have such tongues that they would 
 spread the news quickest. 
 
 He then says that it has been asked why women are 
 greater chatterboxes than men. And the reason he 
 gives is certainly original, if perhaps not conclusive. 
 
 Man is made of clay, woman of bone — the rib of 
 Adam. 'Now if you move a sack of clay, it makes no 
 noise ; but, only touch a bag of bones, and rattle, rattle, 
 rattle, is what you hear. 
 
 This remark is also made by Gratian de Drusac in his 
 Contro verses des Sexes masculin et feminin, 1538, p. 25. 
 
 A story told by Eaulin, with which I shall conclude, 
 is not without beauty. 
 
 E 4 
 
80 JEAN RAULIN. 
 
 A hermit supplicating God that he might know the 
 way of safety, beheld the Devil transformed into an 
 angel of light, who said, " Your prayer is heard, and I 
 am sent to tell you what you must do to be saved ; you 
 must give God three things united — the new moon, the 
 disc of the sun, and the head of a rose." The hermit 
 was nearly driven to despair, thinking that this was an 
 impossibility, but a real angel appeared to him, and told 
 him the solution. " The new moon is a crescent, that is 
 to say a C ; the disc of the sun is an ; and the head 
 of a rose is R. Unite these three letters, and offer to 
 God COR, your hearty then the way of salvation is open 
 before you." 
 
MEFFRETH. 
 
 According to a mediaeval legend, an evil spirit once 
 entered a monastery, passed his novitiate, and became a 
 full brother. In preaching one Advent to the assembled 
 friars, he spoke of the terrors of hell, and depicted them 
 most graphically, being, of course, eminently qualified 
 for so doing. His discourse produced a profound sensa- 
 tion among his audience, their blood curdled with 
 horror, and some of the weaker brethren fainted away. 
 When the true character of the friar was discovered, 
 the Superior expressed to him surprise at his want of 
 judgment in preaching a powerful sermon, calculated to 
 terrify the hearers from ever venturing on the road 
 which leads to the place described by the preacher 
 with such fidelity : but the devil replied with a hideous 
 sneer, " Think you that my discourse would prevent a 
 single soul from seeking eternal damnation ? ISTot so ; 
 the most finished eloquence and the profoundest learn- 
 ing are worthless beside one drop of unction, — there 
 was no unction in my sermon J** 
 
 E 5 
 
82 MEFFIIETH. 
 
 Mefireth, the subject of this notice, was a preacher of 
 great popularity in the fifteenth century ; his sermons 
 display great power of a certain order. He was un- 
 doubtedly an accomplished theologian, a good scholar, 
 and a man of diversified reading ; he could speak with 
 force, and describe with considerable graphic power, — 
 but for all this, in his two hundred and twenty-five 
 sermons there is not one in which the unction necessary 
 for the conversion of souls is to be discovered. It is 
 quite impossible to read these sermons without feeling 
 that the preacher's great object has been the exhibition 
 of his own ingenuity and learning, not the saving of the 
 souls of his hearers. 
 
 Of the man himself but little is known, and that 
 little we gain from his own title-page. From it we 
 ascertain that he was a German priest of Meissen, and 
 that he flourished about 1443. 
 
 His only work is the Hortulus Eeginse, seu Sermones 
 Dominicales et de Sanctis, per totum annum, in Partes 
 ^stivalem et Hyemalem distributes. Proderunt No- 
 rimbergse, 1487, fol. ; Basileas, 1488, 2 vols. fol. ; Colonise, 
 1645, 4to. ; the same sermons. Pars Hiemalis ; sine loco 
 et anno, folio. 
 
 Sermones de Praecipuis Sanctorum Festivitatibus ; 
 Monachii, 1614, 4to. ; Coloniae, 1625, 4to. 
 
 Mefireth having stated boldly, in his Sermons on the 
 Conception of the Blessed Virgin, that she was born 
 with the taint of original sin, his editors were put 
 to some trouble in order to get a licence to publish ; 
 in the first edition there is an explanatory note by 
 the publisher, in the second, a long preface by Fr. 
 
MEFFRETH. 83 
 
 Joannes de Lapide, a Carthusian and Doctor of the 
 University of Paris, refuting the opinion of Mefi'reth 
 on this head, and stigmatizing it as heresy, not, 
 however, on Scriptural and Patristic authority, but 
 on the ground of the judgment of Sixtus IV., the 
 decision of the University of Paris, and the decree of 
 the Council of Basle. 
 
 The edition of 1625 contains another " Praemonitio 
 ad lectorem, in tres sequentes sermones de gloriosae 
 Yirginis Maria3 conceptione," which, after giving an 
 account of the indulgence decreed by Sixtus TV. to 
 all those who should keep the octave of the feast of 
 the Conception, concludes with these words : " Sixtus 
 Popa TV. constituit, ut nee affirmantes, nee negantes 
 Beatam Virginem sine originali peccato conceptam 
 fuisse, hsereseos, vel peccati mortalis damnarentur, 
 idque Concil. Trident, sess. 5 de peccato originali 
 et Pius Y. in quadam sua constitutione confirmarunt : 
 ceterum doctrina dicentium, B. Yirginem cum peccato 
 originali fuisse conceptam, pietati sedificationique populi 
 minus videtur profutura. Quare quae per tres sequentes 
 sermones a Meffreth in hanc sententiam dicuntur, non 
 sunt pro concione rudibus proponenda, sed Doctorum 
 disputationi relinquenda: praesertim cum ex iis 
 quaedam admodum incerta et fals6 quam vero pro- 
 priora sunt.'' 
 
 Notwithstanding that a soupgon of heresy might be 
 supposed to attach to Meffreth by vehement adherents 
 of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, the man 
 is quite extravagant enough in his teaching about Our 
 Lady to satisfy on all other points the most zealous 
 
 E 6 
 
84 MEFFRETH. 
 
 Mariolater. For instance, with him, Mary is the garden 
 of all delights (De Sanctis S), by her name devils are 
 put to flight (48), no one can be saved without her 
 assistance (87 and 95), and she was conceived without 
 earthly father (17). If Mefireth could swallow so many 
 camels, he need not have strained at a solitary gnat. 
 The sermons of Mefireth occupy 1412 pages of small, 
 close print, in double columns, in the edition of Anthony 
 Hierat, 1625; and they are furnished with three indices, 
 one to each of the parts. 
 
 They are quite incapable of being reproduced in a 
 modern pulpit, but they are nevertheless valuable, and 
 worth the few shillings which they cost, for Mefireth 
 was a man well versed in the mystical signification of 
 Scripture, and he has carefully gathered together a vast 
 amount of serviceable material, though he has been un- 
 able to build it together, with the wood, hay, stubble, 
 which he has added, into a homogeneous mass. 
 
 His sermons open with a fact (?) from natural history, 
 to which he gives an allegorical interpretation. This 
 serves as an introduction. The body of the discourse is 
 separated into two or three parts, and each part contains 
 several heads ; each head is again broken into divisions, 
 and each division is subdivided. The sermons vary in 
 length ; those for Saints' days are short, but the rest are 
 of intolerable length. They are enlivened with anec- 
 dotes, sometimes good, generally pointless, occasionally 
 absurd. 
 
 Those of Meffreth's sermons which are intended as 
 expositions of our Lord's parables are better by far than 
 the rest, and wiU be found useful by the theological 
 
MEFFRETH. 85 
 
 student. As an example, take the following analysis of 
 his exhaustive exposition of the parable of the Sower. 
 
 He explains it " anagogice," " allegorice," and " mo- 
 raliter.'* I shall give only the first two interpretations, 
 as the moral signification has been given in the Gospel, 
 and Mefireth does little else than repeat it. 
 
 I. Anagogice — 
 
 1. God the Father sows seeds of two kinds : 
 
 A. Angelic nature, sown in the beginning, 
 
 a. On the way ; i. e. on Christ, its true resting- 
 place, from which some of the angels were 
 snatched away by pride. 
 
 yS. On the rock ; i. e. on Christ. On this rock 
 Satan fell and was broken. This is the rock 
 which at the last day will fall on him and 
 grind him to powder. 
 
 7. Among thorns ; i. e. envy and ambition. 
 
 8. On good ground ; this is the angelic 
 nature, which rested unfallen on the good 
 ground of God's presence, and there ripened 
 into the fruits of love, reverence, and 
 obedience. 
 
 B. Human nature, sown on the sixth day of 
 creation. This fell — 
 
 a. On the wayside of luxury : for the woman 
 
 saw that the tree was good for food and 
 
 pleasant to the eyes. 
 y8. On the rock of pride : for Eve was tempted 
 
 by the promise, " Ye shall be as gods." 
 •y. Among the thorns of ambition: for the 
 
 woman saw that the fruit was good to make 
 
t> MEFFRETH. 
 
 one wise, and she desired "to know good 
 and evil.'* 
 2. God the Son went forth from the bosom of the 
 Father to sow Himself — 
 
 A. In the womb of the ever-blessed Virgin, that 
 good ground where He would spring up and 
 bear an hundredfold. In her womb He sowed — 
 a. His Divinity. 
 
 /3. The humanity of Adam's flesh. 
 7. The human soul, which is the breath of 
 God. 
 
 B. When He left the womb of Mary He went 
 forth to sow — 
 
 a. The Gospel, which fell — 
 
 1. On the wayside of the impenitent. 
 
 2. On the rock of Pharisaic pride. 
 
 3. Among the thorns of worldliness and 
 
 avarice. 
 
 4. On the good ground of the elect. 
 
 /S. That He might sow His Divine grace. 
 7. That He might sow His mercy, pardoning 
 iniquity : and this fell — 
 
 1. On the wayside of luxury. 
 
 2. On the rock of despair. 
 
 3. Among the thorns of riches. 
 
 C. His own self did our Lord sow in His double 
 nature, when He left earth for Heaven, there 
 to sow the roses of martyrdom, the violets of 
 confessors, and the lilies of virgins. 
 
 II. Allegorice — 
 
 A. The sower is a preacher of the Gospel. The 
 
MEFFRETH. 87 
 
 seed is the word. The resemblances are six- 
 fold. 
 a. The seed attracts the moisture of the earth, 
 
 without which it is sterile. 
 p. The seed occupies the place of weeds. 
 
 7. It generates seed in its own likeness. 
 
 8. It contains within itself the principle of life. 
 €. It is in a state of continual progression ; first 
 
 the seed, then the blade, then the ear, and 
 afterward the full corn in the ear. 
 5". It multiplies itself. 
 
 B. The sower is a preacher; his characteristics 
 should be — 
 
 1. Discretion as to lohere he sows. 
 
 2. Discretion as to when he sows. 
 
 3. Discretion as to how much he sows. 
 
 4. Discretion as to what quality he sows. 
 He must also go forth — 
 
 a. From evil communications. 
 /8. From covetous desires, lest — 
 
 1. His example injure. 
 
 2. His eye be darkened. 
 
 3. He forget his vocation. 
 7. To contemplation. 
 
 C. The soil is fourfold in its quality. 
 
 1. It is trodden down by the continual passing 
 
 to and fro of worldly and carnal lusts. 
 
 2. It is stony, without depth of conviction. 
 
 3. It prodjices thorn-Kke pleasures, riches, ease, 
 
 ambition, and luxury. 
 
 4. It is good and deep. 
 
88 MEFFRETH. 
 
 Perhaps one of the most striking of MefFreth^s ser- 
 mons, and one free from his worst defects, is that on 
 the text, "A certain man made a great supper, and 
 bade many," &c. ; being part of the Gospel for the 
 second Sunday after Trinity. It is divided into three 
 parts, the first two of which I give in abstract, as they 
 are suggestive and beautiful. 
 
 By way of introduction, Meffreth observes that Isi- 
 dore in his Natural History asserts that the tiger is a 
 beast swift as an arrow, marked and dappled with 
 diverse colours, and when it approaches fire or water, 
 or a looking-glass, it becomes so sluggish that it either 
 falls into the fire and is burned, or tumbles into the 
 water and is drowned, or remains in a brown study in 
 front of the mirror tiU the hunters capture it. 
 
 Now this has its moral significance, observes the 
 preacher, for all hum-an beings are tigers, set like 
 arrows to fly swiftly to their true end and aim, eternal 
 happiness, which they would reach, were it not for 
 certain fires and waters and mirrors which retard them, 
 and allow them to fall into the hands of the devils, who 
 are the hunters. 
 
 Mefireth having proved that man's true end and aim 
 is eternal beatitude, shows how that he is checked, and 
 falls short of his aim, by the fires of evil concupiscence, 
 the water of impure affections, and the mirrors of worldly 
 felicity. It will be seen that there is some confusion in 
 metaphor here. 
 
 Meffreth having settled the tigers, approaches the 
 text. 
 
 The supper, he observes, has two significations ; 
 
MEFFllETH. 89 
 
 it is (A), tlie Blessed Sacrament, and it is (B), the 
 beatitude of eternal fruition, the one being the earnest 
 of the other. 
 
 And first, with regard to the Blessed Sacrament, he 
 shows that the name of supper applies well to it for 
 three reasons^-the first being that it was instituted at 
 the Last Supper ; secondly, that coena is derived from 
 the Greek Kevovy " neu\'^ and so exhibits it as a sacra- 
 ment of the New Testament ; and thirdly, because Kevov 
 signifies shadoWy the eucharistic symbols being shadows 
 of the living realities they contain. 
 
 A certain man, in the parable, made a great supper : 
 a great supper indeed is the Holy Eucharist; great 
 because of the glorious nature of the food ; great be- 
 cause of the abundance of meats it ofiers ; these meats 
 being remission of sin, mitigation of carnal desires, a 
 revivification of good works by the destruction of sins, 
 a fructification of virtues, an increase in grace, a mys- 
 tical ingrafting into Christ, and a pledge of eternal 
 life. Each of these seven meats is treated of at some 
 length, and ramifies into collateral subjects. Great, 
 too, is the supper of the Holy Eucharist, because of its 
 durability. The feast of Ahasuerus, remarks Mefireth, 
 lasted but seven days (Esther i.), whereas that of the 
 Eucharist had lasted 1496 years, that being the date of 
 his sermon. The preacher then, following St. Ambrose, 
 shows who are those who come not to the Holy Table ; 
 they are the heathen, the Jews, and the heretics. The 
 heathen, like him who had bought a piece of land, 
 have set their afiections on this earth, and sold all that 
 they might secure it. The Jews, ever ploughing with 
 
90 MEFFRETH. 
 
 the five yoke of the Pentateuch, never sow in the seed 
 of the Word. The heretic, wedded to a sect of his own 
 choosing, deserts the Catholic Church, which is the 
 Bride of Christ. None of these men, says our Lord, 
 shall taste of My supper. 
 
 But secondly (B), the supper signifies the beatitude 
 of celestial glory. The whole of this division is worked 
 out, I think all will agree, with singular felicity. 
 
 A supper, to be really great, says Mefireth, must 
 have ten properties or requisites : — 
 
 1st. It must take place at a suitable time, neither 
 too early nor too late. That of Ahasuerus was made 
 in the third year of his reign, and that of Christ in 
 the third age, the age of grace. 
 
 2nd. It must take place in a spacious, and suitable, 
 and secure spot. That of Ahasuerus was made " in 
 the court of the garden of the king's palace: where 
 were white, green, and blue hangings, fastened with 
 cords of fine linen and purple to silver rings and 
 pillars of marble." And the preacher shows how 
 that the place of the heavenly banquet excels that 
 of Sushan in spaciousness, suitability, and secu- 
 rity. 
 
 3rd. There must be great liberality and hilarity of 
 the host. Of Ahasuerus it is said, "The heart of 
 the king was merry with wine, and he commanded — 
 to bring Yashti the queen before the king with the 
 crown royal, to show the people and the princes her 
 beauty: for she was fair to look on." Christ also shows 
 His liberality and hilarity by making His feast known 
 to all; by the greatness of His preparation; by His 
 
MEFFRETH. 91 
 
 inviting many ; by His distress at the refusal of those 
 first invited, and His sending into tlie streets and lanes 
 of the city; by His compelling men to come in from the 
 highways and hedges. 
 
 The fourth requisite of a great supper is the abun- 
 dance and the variety of the dishes. King Ahasuerus 
 gave drink " in vessels of gold (the vessels being 
 diverse one from another), and royal wine in abun- 
 dance, according to the state of the king." In Hke 
 manner has Christ prepared abundance of good things 
 for His marriage supper. And chief among these are 
 the twelve refections of the just, each of which MeflPreth 
 comments upon with great beauty. I can but name 
 them. 
 
 1. Health without infirmity. (Ps. ciii. 3. Isa. 
 Ix. 18.) 
 
 2. Youth without age. (Ps. ciii. 5.) This is fol- 
 lowed by a dissertation on the apparent age which the 
 resurrection body will have. 
 
 3. Satiety without distaste. (Isa. xlix. 10. Eccles. 
 i. 8.) Followed by a proof that the soul can be satisfied 
 with nothing short of God. 
 
 4. Beauty without deformity. (Matt. xiii. 43. Wisd. 
 iii. 7.) Followed by a dissertation on the degrees of 
 glory hereafter. 
 
 5. Impassibility with immortality. (Isa. xxv. 8 ; 
 xlix. 10.) 
 
 6. Abundance without want; to this the preacher 
 applies very beautifully the text. Judges xviii. 10. 
 
 7. Peace without break. 
 
 8. Safety without fear. (Ps. cxlvii. 14.) 
 
92 MEFFRETH. 
 
 9. Knowledge without ignorance. (1 Cor. xiii. 12.) 
 
 10. Glory without shame. (Col. iii. 4.) 
 
 11. Joy without sadness : joy in having overcome 
 our foes, joy in having become purged from every 
 defect, joy in having escaped the woes of the 
 lost. 
 
 12. Liberty without restraint, arising from the 
 spirituality of the body. To will being then to 
 do : the spiritual body being capable of travelling 
 as swiftly as mind, of executing whatever the imagi- 
 nation can conceive. 
 
 Each Person of the ever-blessed Trinity, observes 
 Meffreth, will grant us three gifts. 
 
 God the Father will present us with the unutterable 
 contemplation of His unveiled presence, with the entire 
 possession of all good things, and with the fulfilment of 
 every desire. 
 
 God the Son will afford us clean and renewed flesh, 
 sanctified souls radiant with beauty, and participation 
 in the Divine nature. 
 
 God the Holy Ghost will give us the sweetness of 
 eternal fruition, the wine of perennial gladness, and the 
 fruits of love, joy, peace, &c. (Gal. v. 22, 23.) 
 
 Meffreth then returning to the requisites of a feast, 
 says that the fifth is the courtesy of the ministers. In 
 that made by King Ahasuerus, it is expressly said, " The 
 king had appointed to all the officers of his house, that 
 they should do according to every man's pleasure." 
 How fully will that requisite be obtained in the 
 heavenly banquet ! exclaims Meffreth, when even Christ 
 '* shall gird Himself and make '' His servants " sit down 
 
MEFFRETH. 93 
 
 to meat, and will come forth, and serve them." (Luke 
 xii. 37.) 
 
 The sixth requisite of a feast is sweet music, and here 
 Meflfireth speaks of the music of the heavenly city as 
 heard by St. John in Patmos. 
 
 The seventh requisite is abundance of light, and on 
 this he quotes the Apocalypse xxi. 23, " And the city 
 had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in 
 it : for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is 
 the light thereof." 
 
 The eighth requisite is the delicacy of the victuals, 
 and this he applies to the varied delights the redeemed 
 will have in the society of the saints and of the angels 
 in their differing orders and ranks. 
 
 The ninth requisite is duration. The banquet of 
 Ahasuerus lasted but seven days, whilst that of Christ 
 will be for ever and ever. 
 
 And lastly, a feast must be peaceful and calm. When 
 Ahasuerus made his banquet, he prepared '' beds of gold 
 and silver, upon a pavement of red, and blue, and white, 
 and black marble." How much sweeter will be the 
 rest of the redeemed in the green pastures of Paradise, 
 beside the ever-flowing waters of comfort ! 
 
 In another sermon on the same Gospel, Meffreth 
 strangely inverts the subject just given, and makes 
 the certain man to be the devil, and he describes with 
 equal power the great feast of emptiness which he pre- 
 pares. The properties of a feast are of course in this 
 case wanting in every particular. For abundance of 
 light there is outer darkness; for sweetness of music 
 there are never-ending cries of despair ; for calm and 
 
94 MEFFRETH. 
 
 tranquillity there is strife and discord, and instead of 
 those who are at that fearful feast having delicacy or 
 variety of food, they are themselves the food on which 
 the never-dying worm so sweetly feeds. 
 
 The commencement of the second sermon for the 
 same Sunday after Trinity is so thoroughly character- 
 istic of Meffreth's worst style, that I must give it in his 
 own Latin. 
 
 " Experientia, quae est rerum magistra," — note this 
 pompous and stately beginning, and see what it intro- 
 duces — " ssepe ostendit, quod mus, quandoque intrat 
 promptuarium macilentus, ibique invenit lardum, carnes 
 vel caseum et hujusmodi (and all that sort of thing) 
 comedit, et impinguatur, cumque dominus venit quae- 
 rens murem, vult fugere per foramen arctum, per quod 
 intravit, sed prae pinguetudine non potest exire, sicque 
 capitur et necatur. 
 
 " Moraliter. Per mures hie ad praesens intelliguntur 
 homines, quia, sicut mus ab humo dicitur, eo quod ex 
 humore terras nascatur. Nam humus terra dicitur. Sic 
 enim homo ab humo est dictus, eo quod de limo terrce est 
 formatus. Gen. i." After a few words about minding 
 earthly things, and a quotation from Boetius, he con- 
 tinues, — " Si enim inter mures videres unum aliquem, 
 jus sibi atque potestatem prae caeteris vendicantem, id 
 est, usurpantem super alios mures. quanto movereris 
 cachinno, id est, risu, quia derisibile esset, et talis po- 
 testas terrena scilicet derisibQis, quae non extendit se ad 
 corpus. Quid vero si tu corpus spectes hominis, quid 
 est imbecillius, id est, debilius homine? quasi diceret, 
 nihil ; quos scilicet homines muscarum saepeque morsus 
 
MErrRETH. 95 
 
 in secreta, id est ;'' — another id est, Meffreth. is intent 
 upon being intelligible, — " in interiora hominis quaeque 
 reptantium, id est, serpentium, necat introitus." The 
 construction of this sentence is very confused. " In quo 
 declarat, quod homo est mure debilior, imo parvissimo 
 mure, quia musculus est diminutivum a mure. Iste 
 quidem homo ad instar muris macilentus et nudus in- 
 trat in promptuarium hujus mundi. Juxta illud Job i. 
 Nudus ingressus sum in hunc mundum et nudus revertar 
 illuc. Cui alludet Apost., 1 Tim. vi., Nihil intuUmus in 
 hunc mundum, haud, id est, non dubium, quia nee auferre 
 quid possumus.'' 
 
 Having brought us into the larder of this world, 
 Meffreth ought to have followed out the moral applica- 
 tion, but he becomes apparently lost over the " lardum, 
 carnes vel caseum et hujusmodi," and never leaves them 
 throughout his sermon. 
 
 An Advent discourse opens with the following state- 
 ment: " JS^aturalists say that the Balustia, a certain 
 flower of the pomegranate, is cold and dry, and has 
 astringent and stiptic properties, wherefore it is used 
 against dysentery and bloody flux of the stomach. It 
 also restrains choleric vomiting, if it be cooked in vine- 
 gar and laid upon the collar-bone — so say medical 
 men." 
 
 " Expert naturalists say that every irrational animal, 
 when it feels itself becoming weak and helpless, at once 
 seeks a remedy for its languor, which may restore it to 
 
 health In like manner, says Isidorus (lib. xii.), 
 
 stags, when they feel themselves burdened with in- 
 firmity, snuff the serpents from their holes with the 
 
96 MEFFRETH. 
 
 breath of their nostrils, and having overcome the 
 noxiousness of the poison, reinvigorate themselves with 
 their food. Aristotle (lib. vi.) says of animals, that 
 bears are wont to eat crabs and ants for medicinal 
 purposes. Avicenna relates in his book viii. of ani- 
 mals, that it was related to him by a faithful old 
 man, that he had seen two little birds squabbling, and 
 that one was overcome ; it therefore retired and ate of 
 a certain herb, then it returned to the onslaught; 
 which, when the old man observed frequently, he took 
 away the herb. Now when the birdie came back and 
 found it not, it set up a great cry and died. And 
 Avicenna says, * I inquired the name of the plant, and 
 conjectured it to be of the species which is called 
 Lactua agrestis.' " (Dom. Sexagesima i.) 
 
 " The owl at night eats the eggs of the jackdaw, 
 because it is strongest by night. But, on the other 
 hand, the jackdaw walks off with the owFs eggs by 
 day, and eats them, because the owl is feeble by day. 
 In like manner the devil devours all man's good works 
 in the night of sin, .... and just as the devil like an 
 owl destroys man's good works by mortal sins, so on 
 the other hand ought man in the day of safety and 
 grace to destroy the devil's eggs by works of repent- 
 ance." (Feria, 4to. post, Eeminiscere i.) 
 
 "According to naturalists, salt has the property of 
 preserving from putrefaction. For we see that if meat 
 is placed at full moon in the beams of the moon, it 
 breeds worms, because the moon augments the moisture 
 of the meat, and by this means predisposes it for cor- 
 ruption. If, however, meat is salted, the moon cannot 
 
MEFFRETH. 97 
 
 do it SO mucli harm ; for salt extracts from the flesb. its 
 juices, wherefore men desirous of preserving meat from 
 putrefaction put it in the pickle-tub. Morally — by 
 salt understand the bitterness of penitence, or satisfac- 
 tion ; and by the meat understand carnal delights," &c. 
 (Domin. 2da p. Pascha, 9.) 
 
 I have mentioned the fact of Meffreth using stories 
 in his sermons. They occur very frequently ; they are 
 not all either appropriate or edifying. The folio vising, 
 however, is pretty : it is to be found in the first sermon 
 on the parable of the Eich Man and Lazarus. MeflPreth 
 is speaking of wealth and its cares as contrasted with 
 the insouciance of poverty. He then relates the story 
 of a certain Robin, or Eubinus, a poor man who lived 
 under the steps leading into the palace of a wealthy 
 nobleman. Poor Eobin had a hard time of it : he toiled 
 all day, and at nightfall he would go about the streets 
 with an old fiddle, playing for a few coppers : some- 
 times, however, he would get as much as five pence, 
 and then he would fiddle and sing at night on his straw, 
 so cheerily that the rich man in his palace heard him 
 and sighed, because his own heart was never glad. One 
 day the lady of the house said to her lord, " How is it 
 that you with all your wealth are never happy, whilst 
 poor Robin under our stairs is as cheerful as a cricket ? " 
 " I will destroy his mirth," replied the rich man ; and 
 he secretly conveyed a bag of money into Robin's den. 
 
 No fiddle, no song, were heard for many days, for the 
 poor fellow was gloating over his strangely-acquired 
 wealth, and fearing hourly lest it should be taken from 
 him. " How is it," asked the lady of the house, ** how 
 
 F 
 
98 MEFFRETH. 
 
 is it that Eobin neither fiddles, whistles, nor sings now?" 
 " Mark ! " replied her lord ; " I will restore his song to 
 him." So he reclaimed his money. Now when Robin 
 was free of this source of care, he caught up his fiddle 
 and sang to it right lustily half the night through. 
 Another charming story told by Meffreth is this : — 
 There was once an aged hermit in the Egyptian desert, 
 who thought it would be well with him if he had an olive- 
 tree near his cave. So he planted a little tree, and think- 
 ing it might want water, he prayed to God for rain, so rain 
 came and watered his olive-tree. Then he thought that 
 some warm sun to swell its buds would be advisable, 
 so he prayed, and the sun shone out. Now the nurs- 
 ling looked feeble, and the old man deemed it would be 
 well for the tree if frost were to come and brace it. He 
 prayed for the frost, and hoar frost settled that night on 
 bar and beam. Next, he believed a hot southerly wind 
 would suit his tree, and after prayer the south wind 
 blew upon his olive-tree and — it died. Some little 
 while after, the hermit visited a brother hermit, and lo ! 
 by his cell- door stood a flourishing olive-tree. " How 
 came that goodly plant there, brother?" asked the un- 
 successful hermit. 
 
 " I planted it, and God blessed it, and it grew." 
 " Ah ! brother, I too planted an olive, and when I 
 thought it wanted water I asked God to give it rain, and 
 the rain came ; and when I thought it wanted sun, I asked, 
 and the sun shone ; and when I deemed that it needed 
 strengthening, I prayed, and frost came — God gave me 
 all I demanded for my tree as I saw fit, yet is it dead." 
 '• And I, brother," replied the other hermit, " I left 
 
MEFFRETH. 99 
 
 my tree in God's hands, for He knew what it wanted 
 better than I." 
 
 Yery different is Meffreth's story of the fat priest who 
 was carving a capon in Lent, when his servant burst 
 out laughing behind his back. " Sirrah ! what are you 
 laughing at?" asked the globular parson. 
 
 " Oh, your reverence ! excuse me, but I could not 
 help thinking what a lot of drippings there would be 
 from you, when hereafter the devils have the roasting 
 of you." 
 
 F 2 
 
MATTHIAS FABER. 
 
 Matthias Faber was born at Neumarkt, in Bavaria, in 
 the year 1586. He was appointed to the cure of the 
 parish of St. Maurice in Ingolstadt, and to the profes- 
 sorship of the University in that town. Whilst there, 
 he published three volumes of sermons for every Sunday 
 in the year, and these have gone through six editions. 
 
 He was much regarded as a preacher, and deservedly 
 so, for he was a man f tdl of learning and genius, though 
 not remarkable for his eloquence. 
 
 In the year 1637, at the age of fifty-one, he was re- 
 ceived into the Society of Jesus at Vienna, and continued 
 after his reception to preach with considerable success. 
 He then published another volume of sermons for all the 
 Sundays and the principal festivals of the year. This 
 book, divided into two parts, is called the Auctuarium, 
 and was thenceforward published along with the former 
 volumes. The Concionum opus tripartitum, together 
 with the Auctuarium, contain one thousand and ninety- 
 six sermons. Besides these, he preached funeral and 
 marriage orations, published after his death, which took 
 place on the 26th of April, 1653, at Tyrnau. 
 
MATTHIAS FABER. , , , , 101 
 
 It is not to be expected hat in sucli a vast collection 
 all should be of equal merit ; and yet few of Faber's 
 sermons would be put down as bad. The vast majority 
 of them are remarkably good, and full of matter. Not 
 one, perhaps, could be found which does not contain 
 more suggestive remarks than we are accustomed to 
 hear from the modern pulpit in a month. Faber is 
 brief, but what he says lie has thought well over, and it 
 is always worth the hearing. He is almost too brief 
 sometimes, for he throws out a brilliant remark, and 
 goes on to another without making the most — without, 
 indeed, making any thing of the former. 
 
 How great is the contrast between him and a modern 
 preacher, who every Sunday labours through a polished 
 and carefully worded essay, containing in many words 
 the feeblest whiff of an idea ! And Faber could vary 
 his matter to suit his hearers. Preaching before his 
 University, he discussed learned questions in Divinity 
 with great lucidity ; but preaching to the good citizens 
 of Ingolstadt, he confined himself to practical instruc- 
 tions. 
 
 His style is dignified and earnest, but it is not 
 eloquent, though many of the passages in his sermons 
 are very graceful. And he is perfectly free from the 
 bombast which supplied the place of eloquence among 
 certain preachers of his day. 
 
 Matthias Faber does not shrink from telling a story, 
 and a story with a good practical moral to it, but he 
 does not attempt simile to any extent. 
 
 There is an apparent crudity in his discourses. Pro- 
 bably this is owing to their being printed from the 
 
 F 3 
 
10^ , MATTHIAS FABER. 
 
 abstract which he drew up before preaching ; so that 
 when delivered, the apparent abruptness and ruggedness 
 of this outline may have been smoothed away. 
 
 Few ancient preachers would be more serviceable to a 
 clergyman of the present day, or more acceptable to an 
 English congregation. Unfortunately, the volumes are 
 somewhat scarce, and consequently expensive. 
 
 The following is a list of Faber's works and their 
 several editions : 
 
 1. Controversise contra Altorfienses Professores. 
 
 2. Concionum opus tripartitum ; Ingolstadii, 3 vols. 
 foL, 1631 ; Cracovise, 1647. 
 
 3. Auctuarium Operis Concionum Pars ; GraGcii, 
 foL, 1646 ; Antverpise, 2 vols. foL, 1647. 
 
 Auctuarium pro Dominicis et Sanctis ; Cracoviae, 
 foL, 1647. 
 
 Opus Concionum, Pars Hiemalis ; Antverpiae, 3 
 vols, fol., 1650. 
 
 Auctuarium ; Antverpiae, fol., 1653. 
 
 Opus Concionum cum Auctuario; Colonise Agrip- 
 
 pinae, 4to., 5 partes, 1669. 
 
 Opus Concionum, Pars JEstivalis ; Antverpiae, fol., 
 1663. 
 
 Opus Concionum ; Coloniae, 3 vols., 4to., 1693. 
 
 Concionum Sylva nova, seu Auctuarium. Cui 
 accedunt Conciones Funebres, Nuptiales, et Strenales 
 posthumae. Coloniae, 4to., tomus primus, 1695. 
 
 4. R. P. Matthiae Fabri Conciones Funebres ; Brugis, 
 12mo., 1723. 
 
 5. Horet den Sohn Gottes ; Olivae, 24mo., 1678. 
 
 I shall give the reader the outline of some of Matthias 
 
MATTHIAS FABER. 103 
 
 Faber's sermons, that he may judge for himself whether 
 he deserves the praise I have accorded to him. 
 
 Fourth Sunday in Lent. 
 
 St. John vi. 13. "They gathered them together, and 
 filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five 
 
 barley loaves." 
 
 ' • 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 There were twelve baskets full of food gathered 
 from this feast which Jesus made in the wil- 
 derness, and twelve are the wholesome lessons 
 which I gather from it, and with which I feed 
 you to-day. 
 
 1. Learn fervour and zeal for hearing the Gospel. 
 " The people," we are told, " ran afoot out of 
 all cities, and outwent them, and came toge- 
 ther unto Him." Behold their earnestness, 
 and contrast it with your indifference. They 
 came on foot, they came long distances, they 
 came in great numbers, they outwent Christ 
 and His Apostles, they came voluntarily and 
 without having been summoned, they came 
 oblivious of their bodily wants, bringing with 
 them their wives and children. Faber draws 
 a contrast between these people and his hearers, 
 undoubtedly just, but certainly not flattering : 
 and he applies to the latter the words of God 
 to Ezekiel, " Ye pollute Me among My people 
 for handfuls of barley, and for pieces of 
 bread." 
 
 F 4 
 
104 MATTHIAS FABER, 
 
 2. Learn the various effects produced by God's 
 
 Word on different hearers. 
 
 Faber is singularly infelicitous in filling this 
 basket. He observes that our Lord at one time 
 drew near to the sea, but did not enter it ; at 
 another put off a little from land, but soon 
 returned to it, and now in to-day's Gospel 
 crosses the sea, and having crossed it, performs 
 the miracle : so does He shadow forth three 
 kinds of Christians in His mystical Body, the 
 Church : those who only approach the bitter 
 sea of repentance, those who just enter it and 
 again return to land, and those who traverse 
 it and are found meet to sit down in green 
 pastures at His heavenly banquet. 
 
 3. Learn the custody of the eyes. 
 
 Christ *' lifted up His eyes " and beheld the 
 multitude. He had them before on earth, not 
 straying hither and thither ; and so He 
 teaches us to restrain our wandering gaze. 
 His eyes meekly rested on earth ; Eve's, stray- 
 ing among the boughs, saw the fruit of the 
 tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and 
 those wandering eyes brought death into this 
 world. So did the restless eyes of Potiphar's 
 wife light on Joseph, so did the unguarded eyes 
 of David fall on Bathsheba, and the curious 
 eyes of the two elders on Susanna. But we are 
 not required to keep our eyes always fixed on 
 earth, or closed ; but to restrain them from 
 idle curiosity, to avert them from dangerous 
 
MATTHIAS FABER. 105 
 
 objects, and to guard them carefully when we 
 pray. There are, on the other hand, times 
 when we should raise them, after the example 
 of Christ. For the considering and relieving 
 of the poor (John vi. 5), in giving thanks 
 (Mark vi. 41), in praying (John xvii. 1), 
 in giving instruction (Luke vi. 20), in 
 seeking the glory of God in all our actions 
 (John xi. 41). 
 
 4. Learn to ask God's blessing on your food. 
 
 As Christ gave thanks, and looking up to 
 Heaven blessed the loaves and fishes. 
 
 We have the same lesson in Deut. viii. 10, 
 " When thou hast eaten and art full, then 
 thou shalt bless the Lord thy God." And 
 we have the example of the Israelites who 
 would not eat of the victims till Samuel had 
 blessed them. 
 
 5. Learn care for the poor. 
 
 Christ gave the loaves and fishes to His dis- 
 ciples to distribute among the multitude, and 
 so He gives the rich their abundance, not for 
 them to consume it themselves, but that they 
 may " distribute and give to the poor." 
 
 6. Learn to see God's providence in the support of 
 
 all men, and especially of His own servants. 
 
 Thus did God provide manna for the Israel- 
 ites in the wilderness (Exod. xvi. 12), bread and 
 meat for Elijah during the famine (1 Kings 
 xvii. 4), food for Daniel in the lions' den 
 (Bel and Dragon, 33). 
 F 5 
 
106 MATTHIAS FABER. 
 
 7. Learn to seek the food of the soul before seek- 
 
 ing that of the body. 
 
 Thus Christ before feeding the multitude 
 "spake unto them of the kingdom of God" 
 (Luke), "began to teach them many things '' 
 (Mark). 
 
 8. Learn that fasting precedes festival, Lent goes 
 
 before Easter. 
 
 So now Christ retired to the wilderness, as 
 " the Jews' passover was nigh at hand ; and 
 many went out of the country up| to Jerusalem 
 before the passover, to purify themselves" 
 (John xi. 55.) 
 
 9. Learn moderation and frugality in diet. 
 
 Christ performed the miracle of feeding five 
 thousand, not with luxuries, but with plain and 
 wholesome food, to teach us not to care about 
 luxurious living, but to be content with simple 
 diet. 
 
 10. Learn that there should be order in the Church. 
 
 For the people sat not down till commanded, 
 and then, not in confusion, but in ranks. 
 
 11. Learn to avoid waste, and what is superfluous 
 
 learn to give to the poor. 
 
 This may be gathered from the fragments 
 being collected by the Apostles at Christ's 
 express command. 
 
 12. Learn to despise worldly honours. 
 
 For when the multitude would have taken 
 Jesus by force, and made Him a king — as we 
 read in to-day's Gospel — He fled from them 
 into a high mountain apart 
 
MATTHIAS FABER. 107 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 Let all who have been fed from these fragments of 
 instruction be satisfied, and, thanking God, 
 acknowledge Christ for their true king. 
 
 First Sunday after the Epiphany. 
 
 St. Luke ii. 51. " His mother kept all these sayings 
 in her heart." 
 
 Introduction. 
 
 In God's Word we find rules of life for aU con- 
 ditions of men, for all stages of life, for all 
 positions in society. The Gospel for this day 
 gives instruction to several grades of men. 
 
 1. Parents are taught : — 
 
 a. To train their children in the fear and ad- 
 monition of the Lord. To bring them at an 
 early age to the house of God, to teach them 
 to love its courts, to take pleasure in its ser- 
 vices, and to delight in the instructions given 
 there. 
 
 /3. To seek their children when they wander 
 from the paths of righteousness, to seek them 
 sorrowing, and to find no rest till they see 
 them restored. 
 
 2. Children are taught — 
 
 a. To follow God rather than man ; to obey Him 
 in preference to their earthly parents, remem- 
 bering that " He who loveth father or mother 
 more than Me, is not worthy of Me." 
 
 yS. But in every thing else, except where the will 
 r 6 
 
108 MATTHIAS FABER. 
 
 of parents clashes witli the will of God, cheer- 
 fully to submit to them. 
 
 3. Married persons are taught to feel for each other, 
 
 and to sympathize with each other. Thus 
 Joseph entered into the grief of Mary at the 
 loss of her Son, and returned with her to Jeru- 
 salem in quest of Him. And Mary showed 
 deference to her husband, saying, " Thy father 
 and I have sought Thee sorrowing," placing 
 Joseph in honour before herself. 
 
 4. Kinsfolk and acquaintance are taught that they 
 
 have a responsibility in the children of their 
 relatives. Mary and Joseph sought Jesus 
 among them. So God required Abel at the 
 hand of Cain. So the Apostle writes to 
 Timothy, "If any man provide not for his 
 own (i.e. look not after his own), and specially 
 for those of his own house, he hath denied the 
 faith, and is worse than an infidel. '* 
 
 5. Priests are taught to abide in the temple, and to 
 
 be ready to hear the doubts and perplexities of 
 others, and to answer them as God gives them 
 understanding. 
 
 6. Finally, all may learn — 
 
 a. From the fact of Joseph and Mary coming to 
 Jerusalem, notwithstanding that Archelaus did 
 still reign there, and leaving their substance 
 and business for the service of God — that we 
 should not allow vain excuses to hinder us 
 from attending public worship. 
 
 y9. From the fact of Christ the Eternal "Wisdom 
 
MATTHIAS FABER. 109 
 
 deigning to listen humbly to these blind 
 Pharisees and ignorant doctors— that we 
 should not puff ourselves up with the consi- 
 deration that we know better than those whom 
 God has appointed over us as teachers, but in 
 lowliness hearken to their instructions. 
 
 7. From the fact of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus 
 accomplishing the days, and not leaving before 
 the feast was over — that we should not be 
 eager to rush out of church in the middle of 
 service, in the midst of the celebration of the 
 Blessed Sacrament, before the completion of 
 the sacrifice. 
 
 B. From the fact of Mary and Joseph going to 
 Jerusalem, " according to the custom of the 
 feast," — we learn to submit to all laudable 
 customs, and not to set ourselves against them 
 on the plea of our superior wisdom or under- 
 standing. 
 
 e. From the fact of Mary and Jesus going to 
 Jerusalem, whereas the law was not binding 
 upon women and children — we learn not to rest 
 satisfied with the letter, but to go on to the 
 spirit ; not to be content with mere conformity 
 to the bare commandment of Grod, but with 
 loving hearts to strive to " do more for His 
 sake than of bounden duty is required." (The 
 Church, for instance, bids us communicate 
 three times in the year, but let us draw near 
 oftener to the altar of God. The law of God 
 requires us to give tithes of our goods, but let 
 
110 MATTHIAS FABER. 
 
 US give more, be liberal-hearted, and liberal- 
 handed, and glad to distribute. S. B. G.) 
 f. From the fact of Christ being said to have 
 increased in favour with God and man — let us 
 learn to seek first the favour of God, and then 
 the favour of good men will be added to us. 
 Those who seek first the favour of men, often 
 lose both that of man and God. Pilate, to 
 find favour with Caesar, fearing the accusation, 
 "Thou art not Caesar's friend," gave up 
 Christ. And what did he gain ? Nothing ; 
 he lost the favour of God and of Csssar. By 
 the one he was driven into exile, by the other 
 he was cast down into hell. 
 Conclusion. 
 
 From like fearful end may Christ in His mercy 
 keep us. 
 
 I will add a few specimens of the style of Matthias 
 Faber. And I shall quote first some portions of an 
 Easter sermon. 
 
 " See how our hope and confidence should be fixed on 
 God. For the women went to the sepulchre through 
 the morning twilight, without thought of the soldiers 
 who guarded it, or of the sepulchral stone which closed 
 it, for removing which they were far too weak. But as 
 they drew nigh they considered this difficulty among 
 themselves, saying, * Who shall roll us away the stone 
 from the door of the sepulchre?' And yet they 
 turned not back despondingly, but resolutely perse- 
 vered, trusting in God to provide the way and means. 
 
MATTHIAS FABER. Ill 
 
 And so it was as they trusted: by the providence of 
 God the stone was removed by an angel, and at the 
 sight of the angel the keepers fled in fear. Where 
 human aid is wanting, there, if we trust in God, Divine 
 aid is present." 
 
 " Behold the place, where we can see an image of the 
 beatitude which we may expect on the Resurrection 
 day. We see it in the angel. For he appeared as *a 
 young man,* and we all shall arise in ' the measure of 
 the stature of the fulness of Christ,* in the flower of 
 youth. His countenance was like lightning, and the 
 bodies of the blessed shall be resplendent as the sun. 
 He was vested in * raiment white as snow,' signifying 
 the glory and beatitude of the soul ; * And white robes 
 were given unto every one of them ' (Rev. vi. 11), those 
 white robes which are promised to him thafc overcometh 
 (Rev. iii. 5). He sat upon the stone — image of the 
 constant and perpetual rest, ay, and regal dignity of 
 the blessed in Heaven. And lastly, the angel was 
 * sitting on the right side,' for in Heaven there is 
 nothing sinister and adverse, but all right, prosperous, 
 and happy. But of this I have said enough elsewhere." 
 The following are from a Palm Sunday discourse : — 
 " Processions are in use in the Church on this day 
 with palm-branches, in imitation of that in which 
 Christ our Lord was this day conducted by the crowd 
 and His disciples to the city of Jerusalem. But our 
 Jerusalem is in Heaven, and thither are we advancing, 
 led by Christ. With Him, and by Him, must we enter 
 the vision of peace which Jerusalem signifies. In this 
 procession he who takes not part, enters not Heaven. 
 
112 MATTHIAS FABER. 
 
 For the idle and the spectators have no admission 
 there. All those who took part in that triumphal 
 entry into Jerusalem had something to do. Some 
 loosed and led up the ass and colt, some laid their 
 garments on them, some set Jesus thereon, some spread 
 the public road with garments, some cut down branches 
 from the trees, others again sang ; the very beasts ful- 
 filled their office, and bore their Creator. In like manner 
 must we do something for Christ, if we would become 
 partakers of His glory." 
 
 After having applied these several acts of the multi- 
 tude to various conditions of life, in a practical manner, 
 he comes to the seventh, " Others cried, saying, Hosanna 
 to the Son of David," which he explains thus, " This do 
 those who are happy and well-to-do in this present life, 
 who are tossed by no storms of adversity, but sail on a 
 tranquil sea. But there is danger in a life so calm in 
 its state of wealth and pleasure. Yet they who have 
 it, may also enter into the Blessed City, if they refer 
 those good things which they enjoy to God, and diligently 
 thank Him for them, * singing and making melody in ' 
 their * hearts to the Lord ; giving thanks always for all 
 things unto God and the Father in the name of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ.' (Eph, v. 19, 20.) In like manner 
 the state of felicity in which they were created was not 
 injurious to the holy angels, for directly they were 
 created they began to sing praises and give thanks to 
 God for the benefit they had received, as God testified 
 to Job, * The morning stars sang together, and all the 
 sons of God shouted for joy.' (Job xxxviii. 7.) And 
 by reason of this praise, they were confirmed in a state 
 
MATTHIAS FABER. 113 
 
 of grace and felicity, and received glory. For this 
 cause the holy patriarchs, though they abounded in 
 earthly possessions, yet lost not their salvation. For 
 indeed, they referred all their fortune, their prosperity, 
 their abundance, to God. Thus Noah, saved from the 
 deluge, * builded an altar unto the Lord ; ' thus Abraham, 
 having received a promise of the land for a possession, 
 * built an altar unto the Lord.' Thus did Isaac when 
 he received the promise of the seed ; thus did Jacob 
 when delivered from the fear of Esau ; thus, too, in 
 acknowledgment of the good things they acquired, 
 they called these things gifts of God ; as Joseph called 
 his sons, and as Jacob his sons and his flocks. 
 
 *' If those who sail in prosperity, would but imitate 
 these, and sing praises to God, they would reach the 
 port of safety without difficulty." 
 
 I have said that Faber did not excel in simile. I 
 must instance a few of his attempts at illustration of 
 this nature, to corroborate my statement. 
 
 In one sermon, already quoted, he speaks of persons 
 who begin repentance, and then soon break off from 
 their pious exercises, to return to their old state of 
 torpor and indifference, and he says they resemble 
 frogs, which crawl a little way out of their swamp, 
 but, at the least sound to alarm them, flop into their 
 slough again. 
 
 In another sermon, Faber rebukes those who ask 
 thoughtlessly in prayer, and make no use of the 
 blessings given them in answer, and he tells them 
 they are like the boys who on bonfire night go about 
 begging wood with the song, — 
 
114 MATTHIAS FABER. 
 
 "Lieber Herz Sanct Veith, 
 Bescher uns ein Scheitt." 
 
 " O dear Saint Vitus, 
 Grant us a faggot! " 
 
 And what use do they make of the faggot when they 
 have it ? asks the preacher. "Why they make a fire 
 with it, on which they may jump, till they have 
 stamped it out ! 
 
 And in speaking of the obedience of servants to their 
 masters, he says it should resemble that of the man who 
 is being shaved. Such a man turns his head this way, or 
 that way, puts his chin up, or puts it down, in obedience 
 to the slightest gesture and sign of the barber. 
 
 Faber is fond of quoting popular sayings and proverbs ; 
 some of which I give in his quaint old German : — 
 
 1. Wer sich mischt unter die Klew, 
 Dem fressen die Saw. 
 
 2. Ein guter ZoU 
 1st spardir woll. 
 
 3. Wo tein gleicher Glauben ist 
 
 Da auch tein Recht, betrawen ist. 
 
 4. Sanct Catyarein, 
 Schliest die Thur ein. 
 
 This is in reference to St. Katharine's day closing 
 the door of the Christian year. 
 
 I must find space for one story related by Faber on 
 New Year's Day. 
 
 A farmer once told a wise man that he was daily 
 becoming poorer; whereupon he received from the 
 wise man a casket, with the advice to take it daily into 
 his kitchen, his garden, his storehouse, his vineyard. 
 
MATTHIAS FABER. 115 
 
 his cellar, his stable, and his field ; and then, on the 
 condition that the box was not opened till the year's end, 
 the sage promised wealth to the farmer. The husband- 
 man obeyed implicitly : in the kitchen he found the cook 
 wasting the meat, in the cellar the vats leaking, in the 
 fields the labourers idling, in the garden the vegetables 
 unhoed. All these disorders were rectified, and by the 
 year's end the man's fortune was doubled. Then he 
 opened the casket, and found in it a slip of paper, on 
 which was written : — 
 
 " Wills du Dag dir reichlich geling 
 Solves taglich zu deinem Ding." 
 
 Which, Faber adds, is like the German saying, The 
 best soil for a field is that in the farmer's shoe. 
 
PHILIP VON HARTUNG. 
 
 This very popular preacher was born on the 25tli 
 October, 1629, at Theising, in Bohemia. He entered 
 the novitiate of the Jesuit order in 1645, at the age of 
 sixteen. He spent his early life in different colleges, 
 but finally he ascertained that his vocation was to be a 
 preacher, and thenceforth he devoted his time and ener- 
 gies to the composition of sermons. He preached most 
 frequently at Sternberg, in Moravia, and at Glogau, in 
 Silesia. He died at Eger on the 9th March, 1682, 
 aged fifty-three. The greater part of his works were 
 published after his decease. 
 
 1. E. P. Philippi Hartung, Concio tergemina rustica, 
 civica, aulica, in Dominicas ; Colon., 1680, 4to., 2 vols. ; 
 Egr®, 1686, fol. ; Colon., 1709, 4to. ; Norimbergae, 1718, 
 fol. Conciones tergeminse in Festa; Norimbergae, 1711, 
 4to. Ibid., 1718, fol., 2 vols. 
 
 2. PhiHppicae sive Invectivao LX. in Notorios Pecca- 
 tores. Pro singulis to tins anni Dominicis. ^grae, 1687, 
 fol.; Calissii, 1688, 4to. ; Augustas et Dilinga^, 1695, 
 4to. 
 
PHILIP VON HARTUKG. 117 
 
 • 3. Problemata Evangelica ; Egroe, 1689, fol. ; Au- 
 gustse et Dilingse, 1695, 4to. 
 
 4. Heiliger Tag ; Pragi 1783, 12mo. Heiliger Tag 
 und gate Nacht ; Eauffbeyern, 1745, 12mo. 
 
 The sermons of Philip von Hartung are very unequal ; 
 some of them are polished gems, others are very rough 
 diamonds ; but none are without value. The preacher 
 had his mind stored with matter, but he was wanting 
 in the art of nicely digesting it, and reproducing what 
 fermented in his brain, in a pleasant form. At least, so 
 we must judge of him from his published Latin ser- 
 mons ; but it is quite open to question whether these 
 discourses were delivered as they are written. I am 
 rather inclined to regard them as his schemes from 
 which he preached, the outlines which he developed 
 extempore. And this I think the more probable, as the 
 vast majority are short. It must be remembered that 
 only one edition of the sermons appeared during the 
 author's lifetime, and that, only two years before his 
 death. In this edition are contained the Sunday ser- 
 mons, but not those for the festivals. 
 
 Hartung gives at least three sermons for each Sunday 
 and festival : one addressed to a rural congregation, the 
 second to a town audience, and the third delivered before 
 Court. As might be expected, the concio aulica is the 
 poorest of the set, the preacher being less at his ease, 
 and more fettered by conventionalities. The rustic 
 sermons are capital. He preaches on broad facts of 
 religion, Sunday after Sunday, with striking vigour, 
 considerable beauty, and no smaU amount of origi- 
 nalitv. 
 
118 PHILIP VON HARTUNG. 
 
 During the Sundays in Advent he preaches to the 
 rural congregation on the Last Judgment. The first 
 sermon is on the appearance in Heaven of the cross, the 
 sign of the Son of Man ; the second is on the trumpet- 
 call waking the dead ; the third on the examination of 
 the risen ones ; the fourth on the final dooms of good 
 and bad ; each of these is a most striking sermon. 
 
 From the first Sunday after the Epiphany to Quinqua- 
 gesima, Hartung preaches on Hell : the absence of Jesus, 
 its chief woe, the hunger and thirst of the damned, 
 the gloom, the tears, the horror of the abode, the un- 
 dying worm of conscience, the fire, the eternity of the 
 punishment, the murmurs of the damned, &c. 
 
 From the first Sunday in Lent to Palm Sunday he 
 preaches on Death : the time of death the season of 
 temptation, the time of death the moment of trans- 
 figuration, the time of death the time for confession and 
 communion, the time of death the moment of supreme 
 joy, &c. 
 
 At the same time he has another series of rural ser- 
 mons from Septuagesima to the close of Lent, on our 
 Lord's Passion. 
 
 From Easter Day, Hartung preaches upon Heaven : 
 the beauty of the glorified body fills three discourses ; 
 he speaks then of the harmony of Heaven, the immu- 
 tability of the joy, the vastness and beauty of the abode 
 of the redeemed, the delight of the five senses in 
 Heaven, and the thoughts of Heaven. 
 
 Throughout Trinity, Hartung preaches upon God. 
 I shall give two sermons of the preacher, the one on 
 Hell, the other on Heaven. 
 
PHILIP VON HARTTJNG. ' 119 
 
 First Sunday after the Epiphany. 
 
 Rural Sermon. 
 
 On Hell—1. 
 
 The absence of Jesus, the chief woe of the lost. 
 
 Luke ii. 48. Thy father and I have sought thee 
 sorrowing. 
 
 1. He loses much who in a moment loses his wealth, 
 as did Job. 
 
 He loses more who loses the favour of a king, and 
 the love of an intimate friend, as did Absalom. 
 
 He loses more yet who loses himself, as did Ahitho- 
 phel. 
 
 But he loses most who loses Jesus ; for he who loses 
 Jesus loses every thing, a treasure above price, the best 
 of friends, the surest of counsellors, his all in all. 
 
 ** Omnia si perdas, Jesum servare memento, 
 Ipse tibi Jesus omnia solus erit." 
 
 The names Jesus and Jehovah are very similar, as 
 St. Jerome observes, for what Jehovah signifies, that 
 Jesus is — all in all. Oh ! how sweetly does Ambrose 
 exclaim, " Christ is our all." 
 
 Art thou an infant ? He is thy mother, her breast, 
 her milk. 
 
 Art thou aged ? He is thy staff, thy stay. 
 
 Art thou a boy ? He is thy path, thy way. 
 
 Art thou sick ? He is thy physician and thy medi- 
 cine. 
 
 Art thou dying? He buries thy soul, not in the 
 bosom of Abraham, but in His own pierced side, and 
 
120 PHILIP VON HARTUNG. 
 
 thy body He lays in the field which He purchased for 
 thee at the price of His blood, the field of the Church, 
 His Bride. 
 
 Christ is all to us. He who loses Him, loses all. 
 Truly, if Micah could say when his idols were removed, 
 Ye have taken away my gods which I made, — and what 
 have I more ? (Judg. xviii. 24 ;) far more truly may he 
 complain who sees himself deprived of Jesus. 
 
 And this will be the chief woe of the damned — that 
 Jesus is irrevocably lost to them. For if He were in 
 hell, it would be no hell, as Heaven without Him would 
 be no Heaven, as the Royal Psalmist exclaims : Whom 
 have I in Heaven hut Thee ? To be with Jesus, is to be 
 in Paradise, as the poor thief learned, when he was 
 assured that he should be with Jesus, and therefore be 
 in Paradise : To-day shalt thou he with Me in Fara- 
 
 To be away from Jesus is to be in hell. Wherefore 
 the sentence of the Judge is : Depart from Me, ye 
 cursed. To be separated from Jesus, and that for ever ; 
 ah ! that is the malediction of all, that a hell deeper 
 than hell itself. 
 
 But how is it that we esteem this loss at so small a 
 price? that we lose Jesus knowingly, wilfully, for a 
 momentary pleasure, for a point of honour, for a no- 
 thing at all ; and having lost Him, seek Him not sor- 
 rowing ? 
 
 Our own gross ignorance is the cause, readily con- 
 senting to sin, and so losing us the dear presence of 
 Jesus. 
 
PHILIP VON HARTUNG. 121 
 
 2. How great this loss is, and how great a grief 
 arises from this loss, those who have experienced the 
 loss know. 
 
 Mary Magdalene saw her beloved Jesus fall seven 
 times beneath the great weight of the cross, she beheld 
 Him hang for three hours upon the cross, she saw Him 
 taken down from the tree and laid in a sepulchre, and 
 yet not one Evangelist says that she shed a single tear. 
 But on the most festive day of the Eesurrection, when 
 the angels sang their paschal hallelujah in full choir, 
 when mourning was laid aside for garments white and 
 clean, when the dead themselves rose for joy from their 
 graves, and the dawn blushed a fairer pink than here- 
 tofore, and the sun, rejoicing as a giant to run his course ^ 
 scattered brighter than wonted beams, then Magdalene 
 wept inconsolably, nor deigned to look at the angels 
 who asked, Woman, why weepest thou ? for, says the 
 Evangelist, she had lowed down her face to the earth, 
 as though beaten down and crushed beneath the burden 
 of her sorrow. 
 
 But why this strange paradox ! that she should not 
 weep at the time for tears, and now not laugh at the 
 time for laughter ? Magdalene's answer explains all : 
 They have taken away my Lord. This was her sole and 
 worthy cause of tears — the absence of her Lord. " She 
 wept more," says Augustine, " because He was removed 
 from the sepulchre, than because He was slain upon the 
 tree.'* "When He was on the cross, she stood by; when 
 He was entombed, she sat over against the sepulchre ; 
 dying she was near Him, risen she was parted from 
 Him — therefore flowed her tears. Truly may St. Ber- 
 
122 PHILIP VON HARTDNG. 
 
 • 
 
 nard say : "So sweet is Jesus to all who taste of Him, 
 so beautiful to all who behold Him, so dear to all who 
 embrace Him, that a little moment of absence is greatest 
 cause of sorrow/' But oh ! what will it then be, to lose 
 Him for ever and ever ! 
 
 3. To this example of a female disciple who loved 
 much, let us add that of a male disciple who loved very 
 much, that from both we may learn what it is to lose 
 Jesus. Peter, inseparable, as it were, from Christ, ac- 
 cording to his own testimony. Lord, to v)hom shall ive 
 go ? Thou hast the words of eternal life, — Peter, I say, 
 when he saw his Master rise from the supper of the 
 law, and gird Himself with the towel, pour water into 
 a basin, and stoop to wash his feet, refused to permit 
 Him to do it : Thou shalt never wash my feet. Oh, 
 Peter ! hast thou forgotten thy words to thy Lord : 
 Bid me come to Thee on the icater ? And why wilt thou 
 not dip thy feet in water when thy Lord cometh to 
 thee ? Thou art ready to go with Him to prison and to 
 death, and that thou mayest go the better. He who 
 giveth Sis angels charge concerning thee, is conforming 
 thy feet that they may bear thee up, lest thou dash thy 
 foot against a stone. Aj ! He is placing His hands 
 beneath thy feet to bear thee up Himself, lest thou 
 stumble at the stone of stumbling and rock of offence. 
 Why delay ? Why shrink back ? Why recoil ? God 
 loveth not headstrong piety, nor an obstinate self-will ! 
 Listen, Peter, to what Christ answers thee : If I wash 
 thee not, thou hast no part with Me. So many words, 
 so many lightnings ! by these Peter is threatened, not 
 with prison and darkness, not with horrors and 
 
PHILIP VON HARTUNG. 123 
 
 wretcliedness, not with pyres and wheels, but with the 
 absence of Christ Himself, Thou hast no part loith Me. 
 . . . Touched by this lightning- stroke, Peter ex- 
 claims : Lord^ not my feet only^ hut also my hands and 
 my head. 
 
 4 
 
 5. Fatal will be that last sentence : Depart from Me, 
 ye cursed, into everlasting fire. Here observe that the 
 first portion of the sentence refers to expulsion from 
 Christ's presence as the chief pain of hell. Of which says 
 St. Chrysostom: " This pain is worse than to be tortured 
 in the flames." And St. Bruno : " Let torments be 
 added to torments, let cruel ministers cruelly rack, let 
 all kinds of scourges increase their severity, but let us 
 not be deprived of Grod, whose absence would be the 
 worst of tortures." And that this may be confirmed 
 by the mouths of three witnesses, B. Laurentius Jus- 
 tiniani says, "The interminable want of the beatific 
 vision will excel all other woes." 
 
 Certainly the damned would feel no pain if they could 
 see Jesus. Three children were cast into the burning 
 fiery furnace of Babylon, and they trampled on the 
 flames, they sang among their torments, and called 
 upon all creatures to unite with them in praise. Would 
 you know the reason ? We have it from the mouth of 
 the hostile king : Lo ! I see four men loose, walking in 
 the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt ; and the 
 form of the fourth is like the Son of God. The form, 
 the very image only, of the Son of God was sufficient 
 to remove all power from the fierce element, to turn 
 torment into jubilee, punishment into delight, a furnace 
 
 G 2 
 
124 PHILIP VON HARTUNG. 
 
 into a joke {focum in jociim ; a pun), a torturer's pyre 
 into festive flames. No less would the damned rejoice 
 if they could thus behold the Son of Grod, and would set 
 at nought fire, hell, and damnation. 
 
 6. Oh ! if after myriads of years they were given a 
 chance of obtaining one thing from Christ, would they 
 ask of Him any thing else but that which the blind man 
 required — Lord, that I may see ? "Why did the damned 
 Dives ask that Lazarus might come with a drop of 
 water at the tip of his finger to cool his parched tongue ? 
 Why did he not rather demand a refreshing shower, or 
 a pleasant rill of cool water to flow into his throat ? 
 It was because he desired the presence of the glorified 
 Lazarus. By that presence all his pains would be re- 
 lieved, his hell would be turned into Paradise. The 
 longed-for Lazarus is the very Son of God, who suffered 
 poverty at the gate of the rich, asking for a Kttle crumb 
 of comfort, but in vain ; rejected by the Jews, the dogs 
 of Gentiles came, and found healing in His wounds. 
 
 Now the damned desire of the Father that He should 
 send His Son, who with the finger of God's right hand, 
 the Holy Spirit, might touch the stream of celestial joys, 
 and let one drop distil into the consuming fire, to re- 
 fresh the lost for one moment, to give them for one 
 instant a glimpse of the beauty of that radiant counte- 
 nance. But in vain ; in vain they ask, they cry, they 
 weep ; they shall see the face of Jesus no more. 
 
 The sentence was pronounced against the children 
 of outer darkness when God said. My face will I turn 
 also from them. The hiding of that countenance is the 
 source of all ills. My face will I turn from them! they 
 
PHILIP VON HARTUNG. 125 
 
 have set the face of men before them in the place of 
 Mine. They have loved the beauty of human counte- 
 nances rather than the glory of Mine which is divine. 
 My face ivill I turn from them ! I, who turned not My 
 face from those who spat upon it, and buffeted Me. 
 My face icill I turn from them, and My face is as the sun, 
 and they shall never see light; My face, which is the 
 source of all gladness ; Lord, lift Thou up the light of Thy 
 countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, 
 and they shall be sad ; My face, the prospect of be- 
 holding which tempers more than did the hopes of 
 possessing Rachel. They shall labour for ever without 
 rest, or solace, or refreshment. And this is the sum of 
 their woes, that Jesus, whom they lost in the way of life, 
 they find not again, and shall not see or grasp through 
 ages evermore. 
 
 7. Oh, weeping mother of Jesus ! who soughtest Him 
 whom thou hadst lost, through no fault of thine own ; 
 by that pain, that anxiety, that aching void thou didst 
 endure through three days when thy Son was absent ; 
 keep, I pray thee, thy Jesus and my Jesus in our souls, 
 that we may never lose Him through our grave offence. 
 Rather may the world perish, and all the vanity therein, 
 than that thy Jesus should be lost to us ! Rather may 
 health and life, and good report, and fortune, hope and 
 all things perish, if only we may keep Jesus, without 
 whom all things else are nought, for He is all in all. 
 
 G 3 
 
126 PHILIP VON HARTUNG. 
 
 The Second Sunday after Easter. 
 
 Rural Sermon. 
 
 On Semen. — YI. 
 
 The unity and concord of the Heaven-dwellers. 
 
 John X. 16. There shall he onefold and one shepherd. 
 
 1. And when will that happy time at last arrive, 
 when the fold will be but one, and one the Shepherd, 
 so that once more all shall be of one heart and of one soul 
 among those that believe ? 
 
 Alas ! the fold of Christ has ever been broken 
 through : Nicolaitans and Corinthians in apostolic times, 
 then Gnostics^ Manichseans, Arians, Donatists. These 
 were followed by Iconoclasts, Albigenses, Hussites and 
 sects of this age, which I will not name \ 
 
 Shall there ever be discord in the faith ? Shall we 
 in the same fold be ever severed in heart ? . . . Unity 
 is not to be found here : not here, but in Heaven, 
 where the Pastor is one, and the God triune ; where 
 the flock is twofold, human and angelic. Of the con- 
 cord of the blessed shall I now speak. . . . 
 
 2. There is not so great a variety among garden 
 flowers or meadow herbs, among forest trees, among 
 fishes of the sea or birds of the air, among meats at a 
 feast or nations upon earth, as there is among the 
 saints. Yet, though so great is the variety, great also 
 is the harmony. The Psalmist, considering the won- 
 
 ^ Notice the gentle and loving spirit of the Jesuit here ; he avoids 
 giving offence without retiring from his position. 
 
PHILIP VON HARTUNG. 127 
 
 drous unity of the saints, breaks forth into praise to 
 God, who maketh men to he of one mind in an house. 
 They have the same will, not as brothers, but as one 
 man, and yet they are of all tribes, and tongues, and 
 nations, and they are a great multitude which no man 
 can number, yet all understand each other, for each 
 can speak all tongues. 
 
 The variety of nations, and sexes, and states, and 
 merits, and natures will afford delight. The angels in 
 their three hierarchies, in each of which are three 
 choirs, and in each choir nine mansions ; thus are they 
 divided, yet in this great crowd there is no crowding. 
 The limbs are not bound to the body as closely as the 
 elect are united in the bonds of their charity. Why 
 are the members of the body so united ? Because, for- 
 sooth, they communicate into one spirit. Though their 
 natures may differ, and their offices vary, one soul con- 
 ciliates them; then how much more will the Divine 
 Spirit, by whom all the elect live, make unity such as 
 this and much more excellent. None will contradict, 
 none contend with, none emulate, none envy another. 
 Without are dogs. In that country there will be no 
 Cain to slay his brother Abel ; in that family there will 
 be no Jacob to hate Esau ; in that house no Ishmael to 
 contend with Isaac ; in that kingdom no Saul to per- 
 secute David ; in that college no Judas to betray his 
 Master. Hence their exceeding joy. Behold, how good 
 and joyful a thing it is, brethren, to dwell together in unity I 
 All will the same thing, for all have but one rule which 
 they observe, the will of God, against which they can 
 
 rebel no niore Wherefore, because it is the will of 
 
 g4 
 
128 PHILIP VON HARTUNG. 
 
 God that Peter should be greater than James, each 
 will be content, each will rejoice in the joy of the other 
 as though it were his own. Consequently, St. Augustine 
 says, " Each will be glad in the beatitude of another, as 
 much as in his own ineffable joy, and he who has friends 
 has as many joys. Whatever is needful, whatever 
 pleases, is there ; all riches, all rest, all solace. For 
 what can be wanting to him where God is, to whom 
 nothing lacks? There, all know God without error, 
 see Him without end, praise Him without fatigue, love 
 Him without fail. And in this delight, all repose full 
 of God ; cleaving ever to blessedness, they are blessed ; 
 contemplating ever eternity, they are eternal." See 
 how good and how pleasant ! so pleasant, that one day 
 granted in Heaven in the enjoyment of the society 
 of the blessed would be of sufficient value to make us 
 resign all the delights of this life, to make us renounce 
 all evil companionship. One day in Thy courts is better 
 than a thousand. For all joys, all pleasures of this 
 world, as compared to the perennial delight in Heaven 
 flowing from the vision of God and the society of the 
 saints, are but as a drop to the ocean. 
 
 3. Man is a social animal, and though he may abound 
 in all, yet if he have not a companion he is not happy. 
 Let a man be shut up in a palace or a garden, and be 
 left alone, he will soon weary of the solitude, and ask 
 to be either let go or to have a companion admitted. 
 God Himself judged this when He saw that it was not 
 well for Adam to be alone, even in Paradise. Seneca 
 said divinely, " The possession of no good is pleasant 
 without a companion." 
 
PHILIP VON HARTUNG. 129 
 
 God, thougli He needs none, yet seems to affect 
 society, for He says. My delights were with the sons of 
 men. Indeed, when He designed to form man. He 
 said. Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. 
 Let us make, one labour of the Three Persons; and 
 the one work is social man. After our likeness, that 
 as there is plurality of Persons in one Nature, so there 
 might be a plurality of bodies, yet a unity of souls^ 
 But this unity will not be perfect, this likeness complete, 
 except in the celestial Paradise, where, says St. John, 
 we shall he like Sim ; then, indeed, many will be one, 
 and one like all, in the admirable unity of souls. 
 Drexelius ingeniously observes, " God found an admi- 
 rable art, by which a happy one might make the joys 
 of many myriads his own, and thus each might be 
 hundredfold happy." The art consists in this, that the 
 thought is deep rooted in each of the blessed ones, a 
 thought sweeter than honey : God loves me intimately 
 and infinitely, and I love God with my whole being ; 
 and these all love me, and I love them ; eternally shall 
 I be loved, eternally loving. Hence the immense joy 
 which each feels in the other's happiness. . . . Isaiah 
 beholding this celestial charity, this goodly unity in the 
 land flowing with milk and honey, says. My people 
 shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, 
 and in quiet resting-places. 
 
 Shall sit down (Yulg.). This the position, this the 
 mark of perennial rest. Now we stand and fight till 
 we drop into our graves. . . . In the beauty of peace 
 (Yulg.). Beautiful is that which is perfect ; in Heaven 
 
 g6 
 
130 PHILIP VON HARTUNG. 
 
 peace is most beautiful, for there is it altogetlier most 
 perfect. In the tabernacles of confidence (Yulg.). When 
 six hundred thousand men went forth out of Egypt, they 
 dwelt in tabernacles, but not in confidence ; in taber- 
 nacles of fear and anxiety, for the way before them was 
 to be opened by the sword, and the foe was to be 
 dreaded on every side. But in Heaven there is no foe, 
 nothing hostile, no ambushes, no heartburnings; but 
 security and confidence, unity and charity ; therefore 
 they sit down in wealthy rest (Vulg.), for they will not 
 only possess what they have hoped for, but more than 
 they hoped for, ay I more than they were capable of 
 hoping for. One possesses what all possess, and there- 
 fore they are all of one heart and of one soul. 
 
 4. But how will it be, that with such disparity of 
 rewards, there will be no strife and envy ? This may 
 best be explained by a simile. If a father had ten 
 sons of difierent statures, and were to dress them 
 each alike in silk, the smallest would not envy the 
 greatest because his breast was wider, his sleeves fuller, 
 his cloak longer, but would be content with his own 
 little tunic, and would be unwilling to exchange it. 
 So, too, the eldest would be well pleased in the little 
 brother because he was suitably equipped. The same 
 too in a banquet, where each may drink what, and how 
 much, he likes. But St. Augustine has a more grace- 
 ful simile, taken from the strings of a harp. The 
 strings are of various lengths, but when struck they 
 produce harmony. "The saints will have their own 
 harmonious differences in degrees, just as the sweetest 
 
PHILIP VON HARTUNG. 131 
 
 music is that produced by diverse, but not adverse 
 sounds.'' 
 
 5. He who would attain to tbis most blessed society, 
 ougbt to be in the fold of Christ, that one, true, good 
 Church Catholic, which is the fold of Christ, beyond 
 which is neither unity of doctrine nor the bond of the 
 Good Shepherd's charity. 
 
 Secondly, let the Christians who are in this fold 
 learn from the sheep to seek unity. Let them remain 
 closely bound to each other, and not bite each other 
 as dogs, nor rend as wolves, nor kick as horses, nor butt 
 as goats; so, Christian, abstain from tossing thy 
 neighbour on the horns of pride, injuring him with the 
 bark of envy, rending him with the tooth of detraction ; 
 but like a gentle lamb cleave to the Good Shepherd, 
 and thou shalt be of the dear sheep of Christ. For 
 what St. Bonaventura sskjs seraphically, touching the 
 religious state, is to be repeated a thousand times : 
 " There is no greater proof of a man's predestination, 
 and that he is conforming himself to God, than that he 
 should exhibit himself to be gentle and patient," and 
 I add, that he should show his love for concord and. 
 unity. 
 
 I think that no one can peruse these two sermons, 
 which I have given almost entire, curtailing them but 
 slightly, without being convinced of the overflowing 
 charity and deep-seated piety of the holy man who 
 wrote them. Whatever there may be of crudity in the 
 style, every thought gushes from the pure spring of the 
 love of God, open and flowing in the heart of the good 
 
 g6 
 
132 PHILIP VON HARTtJNG^. 
 
 Jesuit. Se that helieveth on Me, out of his helly shall floW 
 rivers of living icater, may justly be applied to Philip von 
 Hartung. Many and many a rill of the water of Life 
 may be lighted on in the garden of delights contained 
 in his volumes. Often, perhaps, the water is dis- 
 coloured, but more often is it limpid and crystalline as 
 when it leaped out of the fount of God. 
 
 In style Hartung resembles the more earnest preachers 
 of dissent, because he speaks from the heart. Out of 
 the abundance of the heart the mouth speaheth. If our 
 preachers had the zeal and the love of God which was 
 found among the great Catholic orators, and is still to 
 be discovered among dissenting ministers, there would 
 be fewer complaints of the barrenness of the land, less 
 deadness to the calls of God in professed Church-goers. 
 It is quite impossible for a preacher to effect the slight- 
 est good unless he feels what he says from the depths of 
 his soul ; it is hopeless for him to expect to draw hearts 
 to the love of Jesus, if he knows not what that love is. 
 And the sermon, however eloquent and finished in 
 style, will never convert sinners, unless its inspiration 
 is derived from God ; and that inspiration can alone be 
 obtained by prayer. 
 
 He who prays much is filled with a power of winning 
 souls quite inexplicable ; he sheds a sort of magnetic 
 influence upon hearts, drawing them to Christ; and, 
 though the words be few and ill-chosen, they can do a 
 work for God which the most polished masterpiece of 
 elocution would be powerless to effect. 
 
 I think the story is told of Francis Eorgia, that he 
 was asked to preach at a certain church in a distant 
 
PHILIP VON HARTUNG. 133 
 
 city. On his arrival he was too ill to speak, and he 
 requested some one to occupy his place. ''No!" said 
 the priest who had summoned him ; " only mount the 
 pulpit, say nothing, and come away." He did so ; 
 hearts were touched, people burst into tears, and the 
 confessionals were filled with penitents. He was a 
 man of Prayer. 
 
JOSEPH DE BARZIA. 
 
 I KNOW of no preacher of his age who comes so near to 
 Paolo Segneri, the great luminary of Italian eloquence, 
 as this Spaniard, De Barzia. He flourished at the begin- 
 ning of the seventeenth century, and was Bishop of Cadiz. 
 
 His works are : — 
 
 Christianus animarum excitator. Auctore J. de Bar- 
 zia, Soc. Jesu ; Augustao Yindelicorum, 1721, 2 vols, 
 folio. 
 
 There is, I believe, a mistake in this title ; Joseph de 
 Barzia was not a Jesuit ; at all events, the brothers 
 Bacher have not included him in their catalogue. 
 
 Compendium excitatoris Christiani ; lingua primum 
 Hispanica vulgatum ipsomet ab Auctore Rdo. D. Josepho 
 de Barzia Episcopo Gaditano, nunc demum Latine ver- 
 sum a R. P. Petro Gummersbach, Soc. Jesu ; Coloniae, 
 1724, 4to. 
 
 Manductio ad excitationem Christianorum ; seu, Ser- 
 mones Missionales. Auctore Jos. de Barzia ; AugustsD 
 Yindelic, 1732, 2 vols, in one, 8vo. Ibid. 1737, 2 vols, 
 in one, 8vo. 
 
 The sermons of De Barzia are model mission-dis- 
 courses; they are interesting, pointed, full of illustra- 
 
JOSEPH DE BARZIA. 135 
 
 tion and anecdote, and are eminently qualified to arrest 
 the attention, and arouse the consciences of the hearers. 
 
 The good Bishop possessed the art of never suffering 
 the attention of his audience to flag. He carefully 
 avoided wearing his subject thread-bare, and the 
 moment he saw that his shot had taken effect, he 
 opened a new battery from another point altogether, yet 
 aimed at the same object. 
 
 His knowledge of the Bible is wonderful, even for 
 a Eoman Catholic Post-Mediaeval preacher ; his ser- 
 mons teem with Scriptural illustrations of the most 
 apposite character, culled from every portion of Holy 
 Writ. It is not that he affects quotations from Scrip- 
 ture in the manner of Helmesius, who, in an Advent 
 sermon, could make one hundred and seventy-five quo- 
 tations, but that he found in his Bible an inexhaustible 
 store of illustration for every subject which he handled. 
 
 The majority of Mediaeval sacred orators, and their 
 immediate followers, seemed to think, and consequently 
 speak, in Scripture terms, but De Barzia preaches to 
 unlettered men, who knew little or nothing of their 
 Bibles, beyond the broad outlines of sacred history, and 
 who would not recognize quotations from the prophetic 
 books or the Epistles. He therefore avoids these to a 
 considerable extent, unless he can point them out seve- 
 rally as words of Scripture, and confines himself chiefly 
 to the narrative portions of the inspired volume. He 
 selects an incident which can bear upon his subject, 
 relates it in the most vigorous style, and then applies 
 it with force and effect. 
 
 And these happy selections show such thorough ac- 
 
136 JOSEPH DE BARZIA. 
 
 quaintance with the sacred writings, that it is im- 
 possible not to see that Holy Scripture formed the staple 
 of the good Bishop's meditations, night and day. His 
 sermons are eminently practical ; they are not dog- 
 matic. He Barzia makes no attempt to instruct in 
 Catholic doctrine, he presupposes that his hearers are 
 orthodox, he does not suggest the possibility of there 
 being a heretic among them, he makes no attempt to 
 arm them for the conflict of the faith, but he goes 
 straight as an arrow to their consciences, and stirs them 
 to the perception of their moral obligations. 
 
 In this he differs widely from the German and French 
 preachers of his age, who seldom preached without 
 firing a broadside at heresy, and generally took the 
 opportunity to furnish their hearers with arguments in 
 favour of Catholic doctrines and practices. 
 
 He Barzia is more subjective than the other 
 preachers of his day, and he excels in sermons calcu- 
 lated to strike terror into the impenitent heart. Each 
 man has his special line, and his was the declaration of 
 God's judgments. Marchantius would melt the stony 
 heart with love. He Barzia shatter it with fear. And 
 yet his soul was full of tenderness and the love of God, 
 which exude from him occasionally, as the aromatic 
 gum from the frankincense. 
 
 For instance, take the following:— "Ungrateful 
 sinner, let me speak to thee in the name of Jesus cru- 
 cified — ' Why ! ' says He to thee, * who filled thee with 
 such rage against Me ? What iniquity have your fathers 
 found in Me ? (Jer. ii. 5.) Of what sin canst thou 
 charge Me, that thou ragest so furiously against Me ? 
 
JOSEPH DE BARZIA» 137 
 
 Many good things ham I shoioed you ; I have displayed 
 abundant charity, I have poured forth many benefits ; 
 for which of those works do ye stone Me ? (John x. 32.) 
 Art thou enraged against Me because I brought thee 
 into existence out of nothing ? Art thou vexed because 
 I have watchfully preserved thee? because I have 
 brought thee to a saving faith ? Dost thou count it 
 an injury that I gave up life and honour, blood and all, 
 upon the cross for thee? .... Come now, answer 
 thou Me, wherefore art thou enraged against Me ? ' 
 Jesu, best beloved ! cease to inquire ! I own that there 
 is no cause, I acknowledge my audacity, and I bewail 
 it ! Flow, my tears, flow, and streaming over my 
 cheeks, testify to my sorrow ! Break, heart, break, 
 through excess of love ! I acknowledge, I own, I see 
 clearly my condition. What have I done ! I have 
 returned Thee evil for good, and hatred for Thy good 
 will. Which was it, love or enmity, which crucified 
 Thee ? Lord ! it was love, and it was enmity. Thine 
 the love, mine the enmity." 
 
 The following abstract is a good specimen of the 
 Bishop's quaintness. 
 
 The Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost. 
 
 Sermon III. 
 
 God is to be loved with the whole heart, and even 
 light sins are to be avoided. 
 
 Matt. xxii. 37. Thoti shalt love the Lord thy God ivith 
 all thy heart. 
 
 The unhappy Ishbosheth, son of Saul, was slain in 
 
138 JOSEPH DE BARZIA. 
 
 his own house, after the destruction of his father's 
 army. How, think you ? Was the door open for the 
 foe to enter ? It was open : for he had been winnow- 
 ing wheat ; and they came about the heat of the day to 
 the house of Ishbosheth, ivho lay on a bed at noon. And 
 they came thither into the midst of the house, as though 
 they would have fetched wheat; and they smote him, 
 (2 Sam. iv. ^,Q>.) Here was neglect of ordinary watch- 
 fulness, a little heedlessness, a little drowsiness, a little 
 care for the wheat, leading to loss of life. St. Eucher 
 says truly, "When man loses the solicitude of discre- 
 tion, he leaA^es the door open for the ingress of evil 
 spirits to the slaying of his soul.'' 
 
 Truly, many an ill has come to us through this 
 indifference to our danger, through carelessness for our 
 spiritual peril. 
 
 Oh, what precious swords are rusted, because they 
 are not drawn from their scabbards ! 
 
 Oh, what noble horses become sluggish in their 
 stalls, because they are not exercised ! 
 
 Oh, what crj'-stalline pools nourish reptiles, because 
 they are not stirred ! 
 
 Oh, what great souls, living in honour and purity, 
 have fallen into an abyss of sin, because they have been 
 negligent ! " For," says Lessius, " he who serves God 
 negligently, deserves in return that God should not 
 exert Himself to care so greatly for him." 
 
 Little venial faults begin to accumulate and in- 
 crease till the whole moral nature is clouded by them. 
 The intellect is darkened, the fervour of charity cooled, 
 the spirit stained ; the strength fails in temptation, the 
 
JOSEPH DE BARZIA. 139 
 
 soul is enervated in prayer, the whole man is neglectful 
 in the practice of good works ; and why ? Because he 
 has neglected to purge himself of his little faults, to 
 struggle against his infirmities. King David often 
 cried to God, Incline Thine ear unto me ; how doivn Thine 
 ear to me. (Ps. xvii. 6 ; xxxi. 2 ; Ixxi. 2.) It was not 
 enough that God should hear his prayer, but He must 
 also bow down over him. Just as sick men, when their 
 voices are broken and faint with disease, require the 
 physician to incline his ear to their lips ; so does 
 David, well knowing how weakened and broken is his 
 prayer through venial sins and daily transgressions, 
 ask God in like manner to incline His ear to him. 
 
 Oh, how great is the evil arising from little ills ! A 
 grain of sand, how light it is ! but many grains accu- 
 mulated will sink a stately vessel ! How light is a drop 
 of rain ! yet many gathered into one stream will sub- 
 merge houses ! How trifling is the loss of a little tile ! 
 yet it will admit the rain to rot the timber, to break 
 down the walls, and to produce a ruin ! 
 
 In like manner one little venial sin may lead to 
 destruction, if it be neglected. It is a trifle looked at 
 by itself, but it has brought a soul to perdition, in that, 
 as St. Thomas asserts, a venial sin may dispose towards 
 the commission of a deadly sin ! 
 
 It is worth noting, the manner in which the sea- 
 crab gets an oyster and eats it. In the morning early 
 the oyster gapes, that it may bask in the sunbeams. 
 Then up steals the crab, not boldly advancing upon the 
 fish, or it would at once close its shell and escape him, 
 or clutch him tight by his claws. What course does 
 
140 JOSEPH DE BARZIA. 
 
 the crafty animal adopt ? It takes a little pebble and 
 tosses it into the oyster. This prevents tlie valves from 
 closing, and then he rushes up and devours the oyster 
 at his leisure. 
 
 Soul of man ! just so comes the evil one towards 
 thee ; not alluring thee to some sin of horrible deadli- 
 ness, but flinging a little pebble — a tiny fault — into 
 thy heart, and if thou cast it not from thee at once, but 
 keepest thy heart still unclosed, he obtaineth an entry 
 and destroy eth thee utterly. 
 
 Take another specimen. The following passages are 
 condensed from a sermon on the Vanity of all the labour 
 of sinners, and the lamentations of lost souls when they 
 behold in retrospect their life squandered in empty 
 trifles. 
 
 The Fourth Sunday after Pentecost. 
 
 Sermon III. 
 
 Luke v. 5. We have toiled all the night, and have taken 
 nothing. 
 
 Those words of Job are worthy of notice, I have 
 made my bed in the darkness. I will explain them to 
 you by the use of a simile. 
 
 A lighted candle is given to a servant that he may 
 retire to rest by its light, after that he has made his 
 bed. The fellow snatches up the candle and begins to 
 wander about the house, dawdling over this or that, 
 gossiping with one or another, till the candle is ex- 
 pended, flickers up, and dies out. Then, in hurry, he 
 runs to his chamber, but he is without light, and he is 
 constrained to make and to retire to his bed in the dark- 
 
JOSEPH DE BARZIA. 141 
 
 ness. Christian soul ! if you sigh for the rest of 
 eternal glory, know that God has given to you for the 
 very purpose of finding it, and preparing for it, the 
 taper of life. If you consume that life in idleness and 
 in vanities, you will have to make your bed in the dark- 
 ness, and in the outer darkness lie down to rest, — to 
 rest ! oh, no ! to seek rest, and find none on that ill- 
 made couch, to toil all the night of eternity and to take 
 nothing ; for the time of preparation has been wasted, 
 and the work which was to be done has been neglected 
 till the allotted time for doing it has expired^ 
 
 Of the virtuous woman declared King Solomon, 
 She layeth her hands to the spindle. Where is the flax ? 
 " Spun,'' says St. Ambrose. See what a mystery is in- 
 volved here ! The flax is attached to the head of the 
 distaff", and the spun thread is twisted round the 
 spindle. " On the distaff* is that which is to be done, 
 on the spindle that which is done," says the same 
 Father. Therefore does Solomon commend the just 
 soul which has accomplished its work, not that which 
 has its work to accomplish : for that soul which has 
 finished its work is secure, not that which has to com- 
 mence it. Look, then, to thy spindle, see if of the 
 work God has set before thee any is spun off and com- 
 pleted ; if so, there lay thy hand, for there is thy virtue, 
 there thy security. Christian man ! that the praise of 
 the virtuous soul may be thine, it behoveth thee not to 
 have a handful of flax at thy distaff-head, but a 
 full spindle at thy side : not purposes, but acts ; not 
 confession to be made, but confession made ; not resti- 
 tution to be accomplished, but restitution accomplished; 
 
142 JOSEPH DE BARZIA. 
 
 not injuries to be forgiven, but injuries already for- 
 given. Things that are future are but flax on the 
 distaff-head, flax which will blaze up and leave no 
 trace ; but things of the present are thread spun, and 
 therefore is the virtuous woman commended, who layeth 
 her hands to the spindle. 
 
 Terrible is the sentence of God in Deuteronomy : 
 // I whet My glittering sword, and Mine hand take hold 
 of judgrnent ; I ivill render vengeance to Mine enemies. 
 (Deut. xxxii. 41.) And where will God whet His 
 glittering sword ? Where are blades usually whetted ? 
 Let us look. Surely on a whirling circular stone. And 
 on what stone will God whet His sword ? I reply, on 
 that stony heart of the sinner, which is ever revolving, 
 never at rest. Watch the grindstone a little while. 
 See how it plunges down into a trough of turbid, foul, 
 and muddy water. stone, stone ! why rush down 
 into this filth? Rise up, rise up from this unclean- 
 ness. I put my hand to it, I set the stone in motion. 
 How easily is it made to revolve ! It moves — it leaves 
 that sink of filth — it mounts upwards. In vain ! It whirls 
 round, and with a rush seeks again its bed of pollution. 
 
 Heart of sinner, hard and stony ! why dost thou 
 not emerge from the corruption in which thou wallow- 
 est ? 'I will emerge,' thou repliest. Why dost thou 
 not leave thy enmities, thy passions, thy shameful un- 
 cleanness? *I will leave them,' is thy answer. And 
 yet nothing comes of these fine promises. Always on 
 the move like the grindstone, you never remove from 
 the trough of slime ; always leaving sin, that with 
 fresh relish you may plunge into it again. 
 
JOSEPH DE BARZIA. 143 
 
 Know, you sinners who are so full of good resolu- 
 tions which come to nought, so full of promises of 
 amendment which end in relapse, that it is on whirling 
 grindstones such as you that the glittering sword of 
 Divine vengeance is whetted. If I ivhet My glittering 
 sword, ... J will render vengeance to Mine enemies. 
 
 To whom, I ask, will He render vengeance ? To His 
 enemies ; to those such as you who have such excellent 
 purposes, but who have never accomplished one good 
 purpose. Then when that sword is whetted, too late 
 will you exclaim with the lost, * We have erred, we have 
 erred, we have taken nothing !' Wretched sinners ! 
 do you hear these threats, these warnings, these words 
 of Gfod calling you to repentance ? You hear, and yet 
 you stop your ears as the deaf adder ; you despise, you 
 laugh, you mock, you harden into stone ! 
 
 Well, then, be hard as stone, have your laugh out, 
 despise as you will, stop your ears ! you are at liberty so 
 to do ! Yet, mark me, the time will assuredly come 
 when the laugh will be turned against you. 
 
 Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched 
 out My hand, and no man regarded; hut ye have set at 
 nought all My counsel, and would none of My reproof: 
 awful is that which follows ! I also will laugh at your 
 calamity ; I will mock when your fear cometh. (Pro v. i. 
 24 — 26.) good God ! goodness immeasurable, 
 dost Thou laugh at the destruction of Thy sons ! Alas ! 
 terrible laughter is that indeed. 
 
 Hannibal is said, after the subjection of Carthage 
 by E-ome, to have walked through the city, and, as he 
 saw the tears and heard the wailing of the people who 
 
144 JOSEPH DE BARZIA. 
 
 groaned under the terrible burden imposed upon them 
 by the conquerors, to have laughed. Then, when his 
 fellow-citizens rose up against him in indignation, he 
 replied, " I laugh not from joy to see your bondage ; but 
 I laugh at your tears, now too late, now in vain ; for 
 had you in proper time fought as men, now you would 
 not be weeping as women." 
 
 Behold, sinners, as in a picture, your tears and 
 God's laughter : you bewailing your misery, and God 
 laughing at your tears : you sobbing through eternity 
 under the burden of the DeviFs rule, and God laughing 
 at your sobs : you lamenting in the agony of eternal 
 fire, and God laughing at your lamentations : and all — 
 because when as Christians you might have fought the 
 good fight, now, when too late, you break forth into tears 
 which are vain, and into lamentations which are fruitless. 
 
 Surely this is a very terrible, yet striking sermon, 
 one sure to tell on rude and uncultivated minds, from 
 the vigour of the moral application, and the richness of 
 the imagery. 
 
 There are some very remarkable passages in the next 
 sermon, which is on the subject of the merit of good 
 works consisting in the inward disposition, and not in 
 the magnitude of the outward act. 
 
 De Barzia relates the story of the anointing of David. 
 He pictures Samuel before the sons of Jesse admiring 
 the stalwart form of Eliab, and the stature of Aminadab, 
 and thinking that one of these must be the destined 
 king. Yet no— it is none of these. The word of God 
 bids him anoint David, the youngest, the feeblest, the 
 
JOSEPH DE BARZIA. 145 
 
 sheplierd boy : for the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not 
 on his countenance. . . . Man looketh on the outivard appear- 
 ancCy hut the Lord looketh on the heart. Oh ! exclaims 
 the Bishop, how different are the judgments of God 
 from those of man ! 
 
 Men often preach up some act as great and won- 
 derful which is worthless in God's judgment. Men 
 estimate the quality of a work from the outside, God 
 weighs the inward intent of the soul : as says the wisest 
 of kings : All the tcays of a man are clean in his otvn 
 eyes ; hut the Lord weigheth the spirits. (Prov. xvi, 2.) 
 This is the difference between the judgments of God 
 and of man, and this difference will be made manifest 
 when all things shall be revealed before the Divine 
 tribunal. To that judgment-seat will come the 
 Christian soul and there give account of all its works, 
 its alms, its fasts, its prayers : boastfully perhaps it will 
 advance, resting on the multitude of these, reckoning 
 to enter through them into life everlasting, and to 
 merit the crown of immortality. 
 
 Look ! what an eminent work of mercy ! a large sum 
 of money given as dower to a poor girl ! Look ! what 
 a meritorious fast ! three days' abstinence on bread and 
 water ! Look not on his countenance. To the eye these 
 seem to be great works, and yet they are accounted as 
 nothing by God, because they were not wrought with a 
 right intent : whereas the crust of stale bread given 
 in the name of a disciple, and out of love to God, is re- 
 warded with a crown of eternal glory. I am reminded, 
 says the preacher, of a story told by John Geminiano, 
 which is to the point. 
 
 H 
 
146 JOSEPH DE BARZIA. 
 
 Two women came before a judge, contending about 
 the ownership to a clew of wool, wliicb each claimed to 
 be her own. 
 
 The judge inquired as to the shred upon which the 
 wool had been wound. One woman declared she had 
 wound it upon a bit of black rag, another affirmed that 
 the piece was white. Then the judge ordered the wool 
 to be unwound, and djelivered it over to the woman who 
 had asserted that she had used a black rag ; for the end 
 of the thread was found twined round a black centre. 
 
 Oh! how carefully will all excuses, all outward 
 appearances, be wound off at the last, and the true 
 intent within be revealed ! Now every act is like a 
 clew, and who can tell what lies at its core, and what 
 its origin ? — all that is hidden. Now self-love persuades 
 man that his show of virtue is wound about the best in- 
 tention, as a white bobbin, but too often has it been 
 coiled about the black one of vanity or self-will. 
 
 " Let each man fear," says St. Bernard, "lest, in that 
 searching examination, his righteousness prove to be 
 sin." The Amalekite soldier, who dealt King Saul his 
 death-blow, came exultingly to David expecting great 
 reward, and lo ! he received the punishment of death ; 
 in like manner will many a man at the last perish eter- 
 nally who has expected to triumph. . . . 
 
 When thou appearest before God the righteous 
 Judge, say, whose will be the works thou hast wrought? 
 Thy studies, thy labours, thy vigils, thy cares, thy 
 traffic, thy contracts, thy business of life, whose will 
 they be? Works of salvation to thee, or works of 
 avarice ? All the many Sacrifices of the altar at which 
 
JOSEPH DE BARZIA. 147 
 
 thoTi hast assisted ! All the pious sermons thou hast 
 listened to, all the alms thou hast distributed, all the 
 penances thou hast undergone, all the Communions thou 
 hast received, all the fasts and mortifications thou hast 
 undertaken, all the works of mercy thou hast performed ! 
 Tell me, are they to be referred to nature or to grace, to 
 reason or to concupiscence, to self-love or to the love of 
 God ? Tell me, are they works meriting eternal salva- 
 tion, or deserving condemnation? Whose shall those 
 things be which thou hast provided ? 
 
 Chj"istian soul, all this is now veiled in mystery in- 
 scrutable, but this will be made manifest before the sun, 
 when the Judge shall call up for examination all thy 
 works, and pronounce upon them, one after another, 
 according to the end, according to the method, accord- 
 ing to the intent, according to the circumstances where- 
 with they have been wrought. 
 
 This admirable lesson is taken from the first sermon 
 for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost. I will now 
 give a sketch of one of De Barzia's complete sermons ; 
 and I shall select for the purpose one on the subject 
 of the solemn account those will have to give who 
 hinder others in their spiritual progress. 
 
 There are other sermons by the preacher on the same 
 subject, but this is the best among discourses which are 
 all very good. To my taste this sermon is superior to 
 any by Paolo Segneri. 
 
 The text is from the Gospel for the day — with us, the 
 Gospel for the Purification. 
 
 h2 
 
148 JOSEPH DE BARZTA. 
 
 The Sunday after Christmas Day. 
 Sermon II. 
 
 Luke ii. 40. And the child grew, and waxed strong 
 in spirit, filled with wisdom ; and the grace of God tvaa 
 upon Him, 
 
 Exordium. Among other iniquities which Absalom 
 committed in his rebellion, perhaps the chief was that 
 he, by flatteries and fair promises, stole away the hearts 
 of the men of Israel from their allegiance to David. 
 
 Poolish youth ! exclaims the preacher ; see . the 
 veterans of the king drawn up before thee in battle 
 array ! See the army of mighty warriors assembled to 
 overthrow thee ! Thy destruction impends ; it is but a 
 matter of a few hours more or less. Yet, lo ! on the 
 contrary, I see David fleeing ; David, the mighty man of 
 war ; David, who shrank not before Goliath ; David, who 
 quailed not before Saul ; he, even he, without striking a 
 blow, turns his back to flee before an undisciplined 
 rabble ! How can we account for this ? Chrysostom 
 replies, ^' David fled, not because he feared, but because 
 he did not choose to see his son slain before his eyes.'* 
 It was love, not fear, which put him to flight. So great 
 was the guilt of Absalom in weaning the children of 
 Israel from their duty, that it could only be washed out 
 in the blood of the ofi'ender. And all those who by 
 enticing words, or by evil example, allure others from 
 their duty to God, their true King, act as did Absalom, 
 and like Absalom will be slain, all the sort of them. 
 
 Propositio. The subject of this sermon is the severe 
 judgment which will fall on all those who put stum- 
 
JOSEPH DE BABZIA. 149 
 
 bling-blocks in the way of their brethren, or who, in 
 any way, impede their spiritual progress. 
 
 Confirmatio. We do not hear of God's wrath being 
 kindled against any nation so fiercely as against 
 Amalek. I will hlot out the remembrance of Amalek 
 from under Heaveny He swore, and He bade Saul again 
 and again, Go and smite Amalek. What was the sin 
 of this people, that Divine fury should thus be roused 
 against it ? The answer is threefold. 
 
 First, the children of Amalek opposed the progress of 
 the Israelites to the Promised Land ; and Moses reminded 
 the people that this sin was not to go unpunished : 
 Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way^ when 
 ye were come forth out of Egypt ; hoiv he met thee by the 
 way, and smote the hindermost of thee, even all that tvere 
 feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary ; there- 
 fore it shall be, when the Lord thy God giveth thee rest from 
 all thine enemies round about, in the land which the Lord 
 thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that 
 thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under 
 Heaven; thou shalt not forget it. (Deut. xxv. 17 — 19.) 
 
 But this is not a sufficient answer. Did not other 
 nations rise up against Israel to withstand them in their 
 advance ? The Midianites fought against them ; the 
 Amorites blocked their way ; Og, King of Basan, fell 
 upon them ; and yet against these no such fearful de- 
 nunciations of wrath were launched. The Lord hath 
 sivorn, that the Lordioill have war with Amalek from gene- 
 ration to generation. And four hundred years after : 
 Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, I remember that which 
 Amalek did to Israel, how he laid wait for him in the way, 
 
 h3 
 
150 JOSEPH DE BARZIA. 
 
 when he came up from Egypt. Now go and smite Amalek, 
 and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not ; 
 hut slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and 
 sheep, camel and ass. (1 Sam. xv. 3.) For the second 
 reason turn to tlie thirty-sixth chapter of Genesis. 
 
 Timna was concubine to Eliphaz, Esau's son ; and she 
 bare to Eliphaz Amalek, Consequently the Israelites 
 and the Amalekites were near of kin ; thejrwere sprung 
 from the loins of one father, Isaac. This nation, con- 
 sequently, which was bound by kindred to assist the 
 Israelites, forgot its ties of blood, and fell upon them. 
 
 There is also a third reason for the annihilation of 
 Amalek. It was the first of all the nations to assault 
 the chosen people, the first to fall upon them with the 
 sword, the first to stop the way to the Promised Land. 
 This was the final reason why Amalek was singled 
 out for such overwhelming destruction that Balaam in 
 prophecy could exclaim : Amalek was the first of the na- 
 tions that warred against Israel (marg.), but his latter end 
 shall be that he perish for ever. The children of Israel 
 were in a critical position when encamped at Rephidim : 
 they had just escaped from Egypt, and in a few days 
 they might return thither if their hearts failed at 
 the prospect of war. They had begun to sigh for 
 the leeks, and the onions, and the flesh-pots of 
 Egypt, and but little more was wanting to bring 
 their discontent to a climax, and to send them back 
 to their captivity. Amalek, being the first to attack 
 them, set an example to other nations of the land, 
 provoking Midianite, Moabite, and Amorite to regard 
 the chosen people of God as enemies instead of treating 
 
JOSEPH DE BARZIA. 151 
 
 them as wayfarers, to impede their progress instead of 
 opening to them a passage. 
 
 AppUcatio. From this learn, Christian soul, that if 
 God chose to annihilate this people because it hindered 
 the chosen race in its progress to the Land of Promise, 
 because it opposed this people which it was bound by- 
 relationship to assist, because it was the first to do so, 
 thereby encouraging others to stand against it — then 
 great indeed will be Grod's wrath with you, if you pre- 
 vent others from reaching the Heavenly Canaan, they 
 being members of the same spiritual family, and you 
 being the one to encourage others to destroy the souls 
 for which Christ died. 
 
 Let infidel, heathen, and heretic persecute, their 
 guilt is tolerable compared to yours ; if you lead from 
 the paths of righteousness, and you be the first so 
 to lead astray, one who is of the same household of 
 Faith, a brother, a relation, one redeemed by Christ's 
 blood, a member of the same mystical body, of the same 
 Church — think what you are thereby doing ! Christ, 
 the true Moses, is leading His people from the Egjrpt 
 of sin, through the wilderness of this world, into the 
 country of everlasting felicity. And what are you 
 doing ? Barring the passage to God's people, undoing 
 the work of Christ, setting at nought the blood of the 
 covenant. Terrible will be the condemnation of those 
 who act thus ! 
 
 De Barzia, after having appealed earnestly to the 
 consciences of his hearers, and urged them to examine 
 themselves whether they have ever put an occasion 
 of falling in their brother's way, bursts into a magni- 
 
 H 4 
 
152 JOSEPH DE BARZIA. 
 
 ficent piece of irony. He says that lie hears the 
 excuse made, — " Come, now I persecution is a strong 
 term, unjustifiably strong ; I never persecuted any one 
 for leading a holy life : I may have teased So-and-so, 
 but that is all ; just teased him in joke, you under- 
 stand.** In joke ! a joke more ruinous than the worst 
 cruelty of a persecutor. A joke I Ah, ha ! a right 
 merry joke, a capital joke, indeed ! Go, cut the pipes 
 which bring water into this city — only in joke, of 
 course — cut the pipes, then, and watch the result. 
 Such a joke ! the fountains fail, the mills cease working, 
 the gardens are parched up, men and beasts perish 
 through thirst. Oh, magnificent joke ! 
 
 This the Bishop applies with all his vehemence and 
 fire. He then continues by reference to the old law : 
 Life for lifey eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, 
 foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, 
 stripe for stripe. If a man smote another with a stone 
 . and injured him, by the law of Moses he was bound to 
 pay for the cure of the injured man, and also for the 
 loss of time. By which is signified, that if any one by 
 evil example, or bad advice, cause spiritual sickness in 
 another, he must atone for that, suffering for the sins 
 which he has led his brother to commit. 
 
 Epilogus. Woe to such an one on the last great 
 day, when the Judge says, "See, impious man, this 
 child was waxing strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and 
 the grace of God was upon him, but you by your sneers 
 and ridicule, by your jests and scoffs, turned him aside 
 from the path of My commandments into the way of 
 death. You have made My labours for that poor soul 
 
JOSEPH DE BARZIA. 153 
 
 in vain ; come now, make recompense for all that you 
 liave done/' and He shall deliver him to the tormentors 
 till he have paid the debt. 
 
 At the risk of wearying the reader, I shall give in 
 outline a specimen of one of De Barzia's Saints' -day 
 sermons, and I select the third for the festival of St. 
 John the Divine, 
 
 Text, John xxi. — W7iat is that to thee ? 
 
 Introduction. Although our Lord promised to His 
 disciples that they should have whatsoever they asked, 
 yet He made the condition —i/'ye abide in Me. Wherefore ? 
 Judas had at this time gone out, so that those to whom 
 the promise was made were certain to abide in Christ ; 
 and He in His foreknowledge knew that of the eleven 
 all would remain constant till death. But Jesus spake 
 not out of His omniscience as God, but out of care for 
 the eleven, lest they should be elated and puifed up 
 with spiritual pride, knowing that they were ordained 
 to eternal life. Christ spoke conditionally, so as to 
 teach them fear and anxiety for themselves, and in 
 order to keep them humble. 
 
 Subject. The uncertainty in which we are as to our 
 future condition is salutary ; for it keeps us on the watch, 
 it makes us cautious and anxious about our salvation. 
 
 Confirmaiion. When Jacob fl'ed from Laban, he was 
 pursued by his father-in-law, who had lost his house- 
 hold gods which Eebecca had stolen. Laban, charged 
 Jacob with the theft, and Jacob bore the charge with 
 patience, and without resentment. But after that 
 Laban had searched through the goods of his son- 
 
 H 5 
 
154 JOSEPH DE BARZIA. 
 
 in-law, hut found them not. And then^ but not till 
 then, Jacoh was wroth and chode with Lahan. (Gen. 
 xxxi. 36.) How was this ? At first Jacob was full 
 of meekness, but now he is wroth. Oleaster gives 
 the reason, he says : "At first Jacob knew not whether 
 the idols were amongst his stuff or not, but now, the 
 moment that he feels himself secure, his anger breaks 
 forth against Laban for having accused him of the 
 theft. As long as he was afraid lest the idols should be 
 found, he was silent ; but when they were not found, 
 then he became bold.'^ And which of you. Christian 
 souls, knows whether some idols may not be secreted in 
 the dark corners of your hearts, some secret sins buried 
 deep in your bosoms ? No man knoweth. Wonderful 
 is the providence of God which leaves us ignorant as to 
 our final condition, so as to keep us humble. But sup- 
 pose now, man ! that you were assured of your final 
 acceptance, satisfied that there was no idol hidden in 
 the depths of your heart, would you not be filled with 
 pride as was Jacob, would you not break forth into words 
 of contempt for those who are not so sure ? 
 
 Epilogue. Thanks be to Thee, infinite God, for 
 Thy great mercy in having veiled Thy final judgment 
 from our eyes, so that every one is rendered fearful lest 
 he should miss the prize of his high calling, and fail 
 to reach the crown for which he is now striving. For 
 Thou hast concealed it solely for our good : yet is our 
 future state foreknown to Thee ; and Thou wouldst 
 have us serve Thee not for the hope of reward, or for 
 the fear of torment, but from love : and Thou art 
 worthy to be loved and served though there were no 
 future glory, no future hell. 
 
JACQUES MAECHANT. 
 
 Although the subject of this notice was well known 
 in his own day as an eloquent preacher, his sermons, 
 with few exceptions, have not come to us in their original 
 condition, and March ant is known now chiefly as a 
 dogmatic and moral theologian. His great work, the 
 Hortus Pastor um, contains the notes of his sermons and 
 catechetical instructions, as we know from his own 
 account ; and he published them in a compendious 
 form, that they might serve the like purpose to other 
 preachers. The Hortus Pastorum differs widely from 
 the Dictionaries and Libraries of Predication, which 
 issued from the press at the close of the Middle Ages ; 
 for they contained crude extracts from the Fathers and 
 from Mediaeval expositors of Holy Scripture, without 
 any attempt being made at digesting them into a form 
 ready for delivery, whereas each proposition of Mar- 
 chant might be pronounced from the pulpit verbatim, 
 and indeed possesses all the ring of a popular sermon. 
 
 Jacques Marchant flourished in the Low Countries at 
 the beginning of the seventeenth century. He had the 
 
 H 6 
 
156 JACQUES MARCHANT. 
 
 good fortune to sit at the feet of Cornelius a Lapide, 
 when that great man taught at Louvain, a circumstance 
 fully appreciated by Marchant, and referred to by him 
 with thankfulness in his preface. 
 
 He was appointed Professor of Theology in the Bene- 
 dictine monastery of Floreffe, which had been founded 
 in 1121 by Godfrey Count of J^amur, and he seems to 
 have looked back in his later life with firm attachment 
 to his cloister life in that picturesque and venerable 
 abbey above the gliding Sambre. He was afterwards 
 removed to the more famous monastery of Lobes, which 
 had sent forth so many great men in the Middle Ages, 
 and there he contracted a lasting intimacy with 
 Raphael Baccart, afterwards its abbot. 
 
 Marchant was next transferred to the town of 
 Couvin, to the church of which he became pastor and 
 dean. 
 
 Jacques Marchant wrote his work, " The Garden of 
 Pastors,*^ at the instigation of his brother Peter, a 
 Franciscan, at one time Commissary and Visitor- Gene- 
 ral of the Province of Britain, and afterwards Pro- 
 vincial of that of Flanders. 
 
 The Dean of Couvin was a man of very remarkable 
 refinement of taste. His mind was eminently poetic, 
 and there is not a subject which he touched, over which 
 he has not cast a gleam of beauty. He handles his 
 matter with the utmost tenderness, yet he holds it with 
 the firm grasp of a theologian. 
 
 The glow of his fervent piety irradiates every page 
 of his writings, and invests them with that peculiar 
 charm which attaches to the works of the great mystic 
 
JACQUES MARCHANT. 157 
 
 and spiritual writers of an earlier age. He is full of 
 holy reverence and godly fear : with him there is none 
 of that offensive trifling with sacred matters, none of 
 that profane prying into solemn mysteries, which dis- 
 graced certain of the earlier preachers, who were only 
 eager to exhibit themselves as well versed in the 
 subtleties of the schools. 
 
 Marchant never approaches a sacred subject but with 
 veiled face and the bow of reverence; never does he 
 degenerate into buffoonery; "The wise man doth scarcely 
 smile a little," — and the smile of our author is inex- 
 pressibly sweet. 
 
 If St. Thomas Aquinas is to theology what Michael 
 Angelo was to art, then Jacques Marchant may take 
 his place beside Angelico of Fiesole. 
 
 And perhaps the reason of this spirituality is, that 
 the Dean drew from the purest wells of living water, 
 instead of letting down his pitcher in the polluted 
 cisterns of a pagan antiquity. Profoundly learned he 
 was not ; his knowledge of the classics was but limited ; 
 — but he was well versed in the writings of the great 
 Christian Fathers, and well trained in the science of the 
 Saints. 
 
 His pure and loving spirit seems to have panted, like 
 the hart, for the water-brooks of Divine wisdom, and 
 to have turned instinctively from the dry and sterile 
 land whither the men of his day were bending their 
 steps. Yes ; he left the satyr to dance in the desolate 
 ruins of the olden world, that he might lie down in the 
 green pastures of the Christian faith. 
 
 It is certainly remarkable that, whereas in his day 
 
158 JACQUES MARCHANT. 
 
 men affected to quote tlie classic writers of Eome and 
 Greece, and the study of these authors was reviving, 
 Marchant passes them almost completely over\ The 
 catalogue of his library I give, as it would be hard to 
 find one more judiciously selected. 
 
 His commentators on Holy Scripture, in addition to 
 the Fathers, are Jansenius, Titelmann, Jansonius Bara- 
 dius, Yiegas, Salasas, Eibera, and Cornelius a Lapide. 
 His theological writers, after the great Thomas and 
 Cajetan, are Bellarmin, Suarez, Clarius, Torres, and 
 Malderus. The preachers whom he consults are Pepin, 
 Louis of Granada, Diez, Stella, Yega, lachinus, Staple- 
 ton, Osorius, Yalderama^ Coster, Labata, and Car- 
 thagena. 
 
 His spiritual authors are Thomas a Kempis, Blosius, 
 Harphius, Platus, Aponte, Sales, Salo, Solutivo, Eode- 
 riguez, Bruno, and Baldesanus. 
 
 His catechetical writers are Canisius, Somnius, 
 Foelisius, Nider, Bayus, and Claude Thuet. 
 
 " And although," says Marchant, " I may have 
 amassed stones, wood, and mortar from other sources 
 than my own field or quarry, in order that I might 
 erect this edifice, yet do not deny it to be mine, for it 
 is according to my own scheme ; mine is the labour, 
 mine the skill, mine the hand which erected, disposed, 
 and consummated it. No one surely will deny that the 
 garden is his who possesses, digs, cultivates, arranges, 
 and adorns it, though he may have brought from else- 
 
 1 I believe he quotes Juvenal twice, Ovid once, and the ^neid twice. 
 
 2 Valderama, however, is not to be commended ; he is vulgar, pompous, 
 and irreverent. 
 
JACQUES MAUCHANT. 159 
 
 where some seeds, herbs, fruit-trees, and flowers, which 
 by pruning, lopping, and transplanting, he may have 
 sown or planted there. However, it is little to have 
 sown, planted, watered, and cultivated, unless there be 
 increase and fruit produced, all which comes, not of 
 human skill, but of God alone. 
 
 "I say, then, that the garden is not mine, but His 
 who worketh all in all, to whom I commend and recon- 
 secrate it with my whole heart, that He may give it 
 increase. And do thou use it happily, and pray for me. 
 Farewell." 
 
 The Hortus Pastorum consists of four books ; the first 
 treats of Faith, the second of Hope, the third of Charity, 
 the fourth of Justice — the four great streams springing 
 from one source which water the Eden of the Church. 
 
 Under the head of Faith, Marchant expounds the 
 Apostles' Creed in seventeen tracts, each containing 
 several propositions and lections. 
 
 Under the head of Hope, he discusses prayer, and 
 especially the Lord's Prayer and the Angelic Salutation. 
 In this book are five tracts. 
 
 Under the head of Charity, Marchant treats of the 
 Commandments, in four tracts. 
 
 The fourth book of the Hortus Pastorum has a sepa- 
 rate title, the Tuba Sacerdotalis, or the sevenfold blast 
 of the priestly trumpet laying low the walls of Jericho. 
 
 These walls of the city of palms are, according to 
 Marchant, the seven deadly sins, which he accordingly 
 treats of in seven tracts, each containing from nine to 
 ten lections. 
 
 In addition to the Hortus Pastorum and the Tuba 
 
160 JACaUES MARCH ANT. 
 
 Sacerdotalis, Marchant is the author of other works, a 
 list of which follows, together with the list of the dif- 
 ferent editions of the Hortus. 
 
 Hortus Pastorum ; Parisiis, Soly. fol., 1638. 
 Do. do. 1651. 
 
 Do. do. Josse, fol., 1661. 
 
 Do. Coloniee, 4to., 1643. 
 
 Do. nova editio curante M. Alix ; Lug- 
 
 duni, fol., 1742. 
 Candelabrum Mysticum ; Montibus, 4to., 1630. 
 Do. cum Horto ; Parisiis, fol., 1638. 
 
 Do. do. do. 1651. 
 
 Do. do. do. 4to., 1696. 
 
 Yitis florigera de palmitibus, etc. ; Parisiis, fol., 1646. 
 Triomphe de St. Jean Baptiste ; Mons, 12mo., 1645. 
 Opuscula pastor alia ; Parisiis, 4to., 1643. 
 Resolutiones pastorales ; Colonias, 18mo., 1655. 
 
 Do. cum Horto, q. v. 
 
 Quadriga Marias Augustse ; Montibus, 8vo., 1648. 
 Conciones funebres; Colonise, 2 vols. 4to., 1642. 
 Do. do. 1652. 
 
 Rationale Evangelizantium, in quo doctrina et Veritas 
 evangelica sacerdotibus ad pectus appendenda. Ace. 
 Yitis florigera. Ed. quinta opusculis part. &c. Coloniae, 
 3 vol. in uno, 4to., 1682. 
 
 The funeral orations are hardly likely to be much 
 read now, but the sermons on the Saints, published 
 under the title of Yitis florigera, are of value ; they give 
 an outline of the life of each Saint, and a moral appli- 
 cation of the lesson inculcated by the Church in the 
 appointment of the festival. The Eesolutiones pastorales 
 
JACQUES MARCHANT. 16l 
 
 will be found exceedingly useful, as it contains solutions 
 of many difficulties which are likely to beset a parish 
 priest. The Candelabrum Mysticum is a very important 
 and useful practical exposition of the Sacraments, and the 
 Yirga Aaronis florens, which is generally bound up with 
 the Hortus, is an admirable directory of priestly life, con- 
 taining godly admonitions and advice, under five heads 
 and thirteen lections, each lection representing a blos- 
 som on Aaron's rod, or a perfection in the sacerdotal life 
 to which every priest should labour to attain. At the 
 end of this work there is an interesting account of the 
 introduction and founding of a congregation of St. 
 Charles Boromeo (oblates), in the diocese of Leyden, 
 by the joint efforts of Marchant and his friends Stephen 
 Strecheus, Suffragan of Leyden, and John a Chokier, 
 Yicar-General. This congregation is a society of 
 secular Clergy constituted on much the same principles 
 as the Societies of the Oratorians and St. Philip Neri. 
 At this time, when associations for the advancement of 
 spiritual life are being formed in our own branch of 
 the Church, it would be well to consider whether the 
 rules of St. Charles might not be taken and adapted to 
 our modern exigencies, and so the congregation of 
 oblates be revived amongst ourselves. 
 
 But to return to the Shepherd's Garden. 
 
 As a specimen of the manner in which Jacques 
 Marchant expounds a doctrine, I will give in outline 
 his exposition of the eleventh Article of the Creed — 
 " The Eesurrection of the Body." 
 
 Lection I. On the resurrection of the dead. 
 
 Proposition 1. Universal resurrection was an- 
 
162 JACQUES MARCHANT. 
 
 nounced in the Old and 'New Testaments ; Christ 
 proves this from the words, The God of Abra- 
 ham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, Ife is not the God 
 of the dead, but of the living. 
 
 For the Sadducees denied the existence of 
 angel or spirit, and a state of life after death. 
 
 If God is Grod of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, 
 and He is God of the living, then these patriarchs 
 are in a state of existence after death. 
 
 Christ quoted from Moses, and not from pas- 
 sages in the prophets, because the Sadducees 
 accepted the Pentateuch only. 
 
 Christ raised some from the dead as an earnest 
 of what He would do hereafter, as for instance, 
 Lazarus, the widow's son, and the daughter of 
 Jairus. 
 Proposition 2. The resurrection of the body, 
 though naturally hard to be understood, is most 
 easy to be performed by God. 
 
 The doctrine of the resurrection was unknown 
 to the philosophers. 
 
 There are natural difficulties in the way, 
 yet it is possible with God, as illustrated by 
 the vision of Ezekiel (xvii.). 
 
 Daniel also was promised the resurrection 
 (xii. 2). 
 
 Marchant relates the story of the seven sleepers 
 as an illustration of the manner in which those 
 sleeping in their graves may awake in the flesh 
 and in the likeness of their former selves. 
 
 Nature gives us figures and types of resur- 
 
JACQUES MARCHANT. 163 
 
 rectioTi : the seeds decaying and springing 
 up again ; the trees shedding their leaves to 
 burst again into leaf, and flower, and fruit; 
 the waning of the year to break again into 
 spring. 
 
 If there is a difficulty in "our conceiving how a 
 body scattered to the winds may be restored, take 
 a globule of quicksilver, shiver it into countless 
 minute particles, gather them again into your 
 palm, and lo ! the globule is identical with that 
 which was before. 
 Proposition 3. This doctrine of a resurrection has 
 been the source of joy and consolation to saints 
 and martyrs in their afflictions. 
 
 Example of Job. I know that my Redeemer 
 livethy and that He shall stand at the latter day 
 upon the earth : and though after my skin worms 
 destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. 
 (Job xix. 25, 26.) 
 
 Example of the seven brethren (2 Mace. vii.). 
 
 Examples of St. James and St. Nicasius. 
 
 The Apostle asserts that if we had no such 
 hope we should he of all men most miserable, but we 
 have a hope of resurrection (Phil. iii. 20, 21). 
 
 In like manner then as the husbandman (James 
 V.) waits unconcernedly for the time when his 
 seed sown in corruption shall spring up, so must 
 we not be saddened if these our corruptible bodies 
 waste and decay, but must commit them unto 
 the faithful Creator, remembering the words of 
 Habakkuk, Rottenness entered into my bones, and 
 
164 JACQUES MARCHANT. 
 
 I trembled in my self ^ that I might rest in the day of 
 trouble. . . . Yet I will rejoice in the Lordy I will 
 joy in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is 
 my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds' 
 feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high 
 places. 
 Lection II. Of the identity of the risen with the 
 present body. 
 
 Proposition 1. The two bodies are essentially one. 
 The resurrection is one of the flesh, not of the 
 soul only. 
 
 It is a resurrection of substantial flesh, not 
 of an aerial phantom. 
 
 Job distinctly says. In my flesh shall I see God, 
 whom I shall see for myself and not another ; in 
 the same skin and flesh, not in other skin and 
 flesh ; with the same eyes. 
 
 Example of Eutychius of Constantinople con- 
 fessing this truth when dying. 
 
 Corollary. From this we see what dignity belongs 
 to the human body, with what reverence man 
 should treat it, and how it is worthy to be 
 guarded carefully by angels (Jude 9). 
 
 Proposition 2. Although the risen body is iden- 
 tical with the natural body in substance, yet 
 it difiers from it in accidents. For the risen 
 body has four dowers — 
 
 1. Impassibility, or incapacity for suffering 
 
 pain, disease, or corruption. 
 
 2. Grlory, being made resplendent as the sun, 
 
 after the fashion of Christ's transfi guration 
 
JACQUES MARCHANT. 165 
 
 3. Agility, or capacity for following every 
 
 impulse of the will. 
 
 4. Subtlety, or capacity for penetrating every 
 
 where. 
 Of these four conditions of the body the Apostle 
 speaks (1 Cor. xv. 42 — 44), It is sown in corrup- 
 tion, it is raised in incorriiption (impassible) ; it is 
 sown in dishonour , it is raised in glory ; it is sown 
 in weakness, it is raised in power (agile ) ; it is 
 sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual (subtle) 
 hody, 
 
 St. Paul takes the figure of a grain of corn, 
 which is sown in corruption, decaying in the 
 earth, but rises in incorruption ; and shows that 
 in like manner will the body rise free from cor- 
 ruption. 
 
 The body is sown in dishonour ; however noble 
 and illustrious it may have been in life, it be- 
 comes an object of loathing in the tomb ; but it 
 will be raised glorious, radiating light. 
 
 The body sown in weakness, unable to resist 
 the attack of decay and the worm, will be 
 vigorous and free on the Resurrection morn, 
 capable of performing any act which the mind 
 can devise. 
 
 The body sown an animal or natural body, 
 subject to vegetative processes, and other condi- 
 tions of nature, at the Resurrection will be free 
 from all these conditions. 
 Proposition 3. Bodies here deformed, will hereafter 
 be perfected. 
 
166 JACQUES MARCHANT. 
 
 Marchant reasons that, in a state of perfection, 
 all imperfection, and therefore all deformity, will 
 be done away. 
 
 He discusses the question of the age to which 
 all bodies will seem to have attained at the 
 Resurrection ; the received doctrine being that 
 we shall all come . . . unto a perfect man, unto 
 the measure of the stature (marg. age) of the ful- 
 ness of Christ. (Eph. iv. 13.) 
 Lection III. The circumstances of the resurrection. 
 Proposition 1. The trumpet call precedes it. 
 
 For it takes place in a moment, in the twinkling 
 of an eye, at the last trump — that trump being the 
 voice of the archangel. (1 Thess. iv. 16. Matt. 
 xxiv. 31.) 
 
 The trumpet of old called to a solemn assem- 
 bly ; it was a sign of advance, it was a signal of 
 battle. So will the last trump call the Heaven 
 from above and the earth, that God may judge His 
 people ; it will be the sign of advance to the elect 
 into their kingdom, it will be the signal for all 
 creation to arm itself to fight against the ungodly. 
 
 Do you ask what is the object of the trumpet 
 blast ? 
 
 1st. It is to call the angels together, to pre- 
 pare for the severance of good and bad. 
 
 2nd. It is to wake the dead. 
 
 3rd. It is to summon the elect to the feast of 
 good things in Heaven. 
 
 4th. It is to terrify the wicked and announce 
 to them their doom. 
 
JACQUES MARCHANT. 167 
 
 Proposition 2. The locality of tlie resurrection is 
 uncertain. 
 
 It is supposed by many that it will take place 
 in the Yalley of Jehoshaphat, where good and 
 bad will be gathered together. Others suppose 
 that the good and bad will be gathered in 
 separate spots. Others again suppose that each 
 individual will remain by the grave whence he 
 has arisen. 
 Proposition 3. The time when the resurrection will 
 take place is also uncertain. 
 
 Some think it will take place early on Easter 
 Day, at the rising of the sun, that our resurrec- 
 tion may be made in all points like that of our 
 great Head. Others think that it will take place 
 suddenly at night : At midnight there was a voice 
 heard. Behold, the Bridegroom cometh ; go ye out 
 to meet Sim. The type of Israel coming out of 
 Egypt points also to midnight. 
 
 But the place and the time knoweth no man, 
 they depend on the Providence of God. 
 
 I confess to feeling quite at a loss what to select as a 
 specimen of Marchant's refined and beautiful writing. 
 Every page contains beauties, and it is hard to choose 
 among them. 
 
 The following is very tender. After quoting the 
 text, My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among 
 ten thousand (Cant. v. 10), he breaks forth into the 
 following passage: "White is my Beloved in His 
 purity and His innocence, but ruddy in His burn- 
 
168 
 
 JACQUES MARCHANT. 
 
 ing charity, through which He shed His blood. White 
 is He in His nativity, girded about with virgin flesh, 
 but ruddy in His circumcision, sprinkled with His gore. 
 White at the transfiguration, in His glistering raiment, 
 ruddy on the Mount of Olives, bleeding in His sweat. 
 White is He in the palace of Herod, dressed in the 
 white robe, ruddy in that of Pilate in the purple 
 garment. White upon the Cross, in the water which 
 flowed from His side, but ruddy, bathed wholly in His 
 Blood. White is He in the Sacrament, under the species 
 of bread, ruddy under the veil of wine. White in His 
 mercy, ruddy in His justice ; white in His Body mystical, 
 in the virgins, but ruddy in the purpled martyrs." (114.) 
 
 " He is the chiefest among ten thousand^ through His 
 passion exalted above all creatures and above all glory 
 of the elect. 
 
 " The chiefest among ten thousand, as leader of His 
 people Israel to the Promised Land, by the pillar, 
 the rod, and the Bed Sea; the pillar, forsooth, at 
 which He was scourged, the rod of His Cross, and 
 the Bed Sea of His Blood. 
 
 " The chiefest among ten thousand, as the great High 
 Priest entering into the holiest of all with His own blood. 
 
 " Tl^e chiefest among ten thousand, as the Mediator 
 between God and man, ever presenting before the 
 Father those wounds by which He was constituted 
 Mediator. 
 
 " The chiefest among ten thousand, as the Shepherd 
 of either fold, that of Jew and that of Gentile ; by the 
 pastoral stafi* of His Cross reducing them into one fold 
 under one Shepherd. 
 
JACQUES MARCHANT. 169 
 
 " The chiefest among ten thousand, as Head of the 
 militant and triumphant Church. 
 
 "The chiefest among ten thousand, as Head and 
 King of angels and men, of both making one society, 
 one kingdom. 
 
 " The chiefest among ten thousand, as the Judge of 
 living and dead." (110.) 
 
 I make no apology for translating, almost entire, the 
 following exquisite passage on the wound in our Lord's 
 side, so redolent with spiritual fragrance, so rapturous 
 in heavenly ardour : — 
 
 " Not only ought the dove to dwell in the clefts of the 
 rock, but she should also flee to the cavernam macerice 
 (English vers., * secret places of the stairs ') : that is, 
 the wound in the side. . . . There make thy nest, and 
 enter, dove ! therein lurk many mysteries : for why 
 was that side opened ? 
 
 "First, that thou mightest enter the ark with the 
 olive-bough, the symbol of peace. Lo ! Christ is the 
 ark, and the wound in His side is the window of 
 the ark through which thou may est enter ; for as 
 the dove found not rest for the sole of her foot, so 
 dost thou wander in vain with the raven, and wheel 
 around the corpses of this world ; thou canst not find thy 
 rest, save in the heart of thy Saviour. There has He 
 chosen to build thee a home ; there, in that heart burn- 
 ing with love, to plant thee a flowery Paradise, in which 
 thou mayest delight, and exclaim. It is good for us to 
 he here. * How good ! ' says Bernard, * how good to 
 dwell in that heart, in that dug field ! ' Lord, Thy 
 heart is a good treasure, for which I will surrender all 
 
 I 
 
170 JACQUES MARCHANT. 
 
 my fancies, all the desires of my mind. I will acquire 
 it for myself, casting all my tliouglits into Thy heart ; 
 and I will worship toward this ark of the covenant, and 
 praise the name of the Lord 
 
 " If then at any time thou feelest want and lukewarm- 
 ness, or dryness, then turn thy heart to the Lord, turn 
 to the heart of thy Lord ; seek it on the cross. His couch 
 of love. There wilt thou find the way to His very heart 
 open ; by that broad gate of His side, by that door of 
 piety, thou may est enter. There join heart to heart, 
 that thou mayest become partaker of light, of life, of 
 flame, and of that peace which He shall speak unto His 
 people, and to His saints, that they turn not again. 
 
 *^ Secondly, He c:ose that His side should be opened, 
 because to the Redeemer it was not enough that His 
 whole body was bloody with the rods, that His hands 
 and feet were purpled by the nails, but He desired to 
 shed forth, by the spear, as token of His unbounded 
 love, that blood which still lingered about the heart, 
 and which neither thorns nor scourge had extracted. 
 Wherefore He was w^ounded, not so much by the 
 spear, as by love, or if you prefer it, by both the 
 lance and love. Whence it is said twice. Thou hast 
 wounded My heaH, My sister. My spouse; thou hast 
 v)ounded My heart ! And do thou reply, * Wound 
 Thou my heart, my Bridegroom ; wound Thou my 
 heart ! wound it with compassion, wound it with love ; 
 with these twin arrows from Thy bow pierce through my 
 heart. Twice did Moses smite the rock, twice do Thou 
 smite this stony heart, that from it may stream, if not 
 blood, yet bitter tears/ 
 
JACQUES MARCHANT. 171 
 
 *' Thirdly, He chose to show us the place of our re- 
 generation. Hence there flowed forth both water and 
 blood, signs of Baptism and the Eucharist, which re- 
 generate us to God. And thus is it said, Thy daughters 
 shall he nursed at Thy side (Isa. Ix. 4), O Christ ! for 
 Thou regeneratest us by the blood and water streaming 
 from Thy side. 
 
 " Fourthly, consider that, although the lance gave no 
 pain to the Saviour, yet was it keen, for it wounded 
 with cruel pang the heart of the Mother. For her 
 heart was bound up with the heart of her Son ; and to 
 this the prophet seems to refer when he says. Supra 
 dolorem vulnerum meorum addiderunt. (Ps. Ixix. 27.) 
 But in conclusion, I repeat — Arise, dove ! enter in, 
 
 love ! for here is the door by which thou shalt pass 
 to the marriage-feast of thy Bridegroom ; for here is 
 the window of love which desires to enkindle thee 
 also ; for here is the furnace streaming forth with 
 mercy. Gathering together all thy evil affections, 
 thy sins, thy negligences, cast them into that furnace 
 of love, that there they may be consumed. There ex- 
 claim with Thomas, My Lord, and my God ! and with 
 the Psalmist, This shall be my rest for ever ; here will 
 
 1 dwell, for I have a delight therein. For there is the 
 place to live, there is the place to die." 
 
 In like manner does Marchant exclaim : " Spare, 
 cruel nails, spare those sacred feet, which have 
 never walked in the way of sinners. Come rather and 
 pierce my heart ; pierce my hard heart with the piercing 
 of penitence, that ye may draw from it the salty tears 
 of contrition ; for, from the time when ye were sprinkled 
 
 I 2 
 
172 JACQUES MARCHANT. 
 
 with the Saviour's blood, ye have had power to heal the 
 wounds of the mind. 
 
 " Yet would not the Saviour spare Himself these nails, 
 that He might make satisfaction for all offences com- 
 mitted by our feet walking in the way of sinners, when 
 we went astray like the lost sheep ; and that He might 
 merit by this price and these pangs to guide our feet 
 into the way of peace. 
 
 " It was not sufficient for Him to have endured so 
 much labour, sweat, and weariness, whilst seeking 
 His wandering sheep ; but He desired also that His 
 feet should at length be pierced, not with the thorns 
 only, but also with the nails." 
 
 On the words. He stood in the midst of tliemy he 
 remarks : " There then were the disciples gathered in 
 terror, in error, all had lost their faith, all wavered, 
 doubting of the resurrection. All, the Virgin excepted, 
 had lost the light of faith, as is represented by the 
 Church in her Office for Holy Week (i. e. Tenebrae), 
 when fifteen candles are extinguished, one alone being 
 excepted and -allowed to remain alight. This indicates 
 the eleven Apostles with the three women losing the light 
 of faith, which remained in the Virgin alone, of whom it 
 might truly be said. Her candle goeth not out by night. 
 These, then, being gathered together, Christ was present 
 in the midst, though the doors were shut ; for just as 
 He issued from the Virgin's womb leaving her still 
 virgin, as He passed through the unmoved stone of the 
 sepulchre, so now did He enter to His disciples with- 
 out impediment, for nothing can hinder the transit of a 
 glorious body : He stood in the midst of them ! Stood, 
 
JACQUES MARCHANT. 173 
 
 as a pastor in the midst of his flock, gathering them to 
 him ; as a leader in the midst of his soldiers, en- 
 couraging them ; as the sun in the midst of the stars, 
 illumining them ; as the heart in the midst of the 
 body, vivifying it ; as the tree of life in the midst of 
 Paradise amongst the elect trees ; as the candlestick in 
 the midst of the house, lighting it and dispelling its 
 gloom ; as the column in the midst of the building, 
 sustaining it. 
 
 "And this word stood has its special significance, 
 denoting the resurrection. For before the resurrec- 
 tion, when He bore the burden of our sins. He is de- 
 scribed as at one time lying in the manger, at another 
 as seated weary by the well, and then as prostrate with 
 His face to the earth praying, upon the mountain, or as 
 bowed down and crying to the Father in the garden, or 
 again as stooping under the weight of the cross as He 
 ascended Calvary, whilst on the cross itself He is 
 spoken of as bowing His head to give up the ghost. 
 All which attitudes of the body denote the weight of 
 our sins with which He was burdened. But now, that 
 burden is shaken off in His resurrection, for He has 
 drowned it in the abyss of His blood, and so rightly is 
 He spoken of as standing in the midst." 
 
 Jacques Marchant thus paraphrases the 110th Psalm ; 
 " At the ascension it was said unto Him, Sit Thou on 
 My right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy foot- 
 stool. That is, Do Thou, who art exalted above all 
 creatures, share with Me My kingdom until all Thine 
 enemies are subjected unto Thee, till the kingdom of 
 the predestinate is filled, and Thy victory has attained 
 
 I 3 
 
174 JACQUES MARCHANT. 
 
 to its perfection. And here by the fulfilling of the 
 kingdom of predestination, and the conquering of foes, 
 and the extension of empire, this is signified, that in 
 the consummation of the age. He will return again into 
 the world, that the subjection of every thing to Him 
 may be made manifest in all the world. Wherefore 
 the Psalmist adds, The Lord shall send the rod of 
 Thy power out of Sion : be Thou ruler y even in the midst 
 among Thine enemies. That is, the sceptre of Thy 
 royal power, the sceptre of strength, shalt Thou begin 
 to extend and pass on from the city and mount of 
 Sion, even unto the ends of the earth, by Thy Apostolic 
 messengers ; so that Thou mayest rule even in the 
 midst of Thy enemies and false brethren, Jews, heathen, 
 and heretics. In the end of the age, however. Thy king- 
 dom will be exalted perfectly over Thine enemies, when 
 Thou shalt send forth the sceptre of virtue, the banner 
 of Thy cross out of the Heavenly Sion, that Thy foes 
 may be entirely subjected beneath Thy feet. Then he 
 adds : In the day of Thy power shall the people offer Thee 
 freeivill offerings unth an holy worship, when the king- 
 dom will be Thine, and Thine the only principality." 
 The Yulgate varies so much from our English Version 
 in this third verse, that Marchant's paraphrase cannot 
 apply to it, and I shall therefore pass on to the fifth 
 verse : " The Lord upon Thy right hand shall tvound 
 even kings in the day of His wrath. Christ our Lord 
 sitting at Thy right hand shall break all the power of 
 kings who have persecuted the Church. Then shall 
 the Neroes, Maximinians, and Deciuses be thrust down 
 into hell. He shall judge among the heathen ; He shall 
 
JACQUES MARCH ANT. 175 
 
 fill the places with the dead bodies : He shall then ex- 
 ercise judgment over all nations, and, having con- 
 demned the wicked, shall perfect and consummate their 
 last extermination. Then shall the places of hell be 
 filled with impious men, and with devils thrust down 
 thither and there enclosed; and that because jET^ shall 
 smite in sunder the heads over divers countries, breaking 
 down the proud, and bringing them into confusion 
 before all the world. 
 
 " And would you know why He is given such power 
 to judge the nations and trample upon kings and 
 haughty men? Se shall drink of the hrook in the 
 way : therefore shall He lift up His head. Because, for- 
 sooth, in this way and mortal life, which glides by as 
 a brook. He drank the turbid water, bearing our infir- 
 mities, by His Passion descending into the very depths 
 of the stream ; therefore, because of this so great hu- 
 mility, hath God highly exalted Him, making Him the 
 Judge of all. 
 
 " If indeed in His first Advent it was cried, Blessed 
 is He that cometh in the name of the Lord ; Hosanna 
 in the highest ! how much more in that His second 
 triumphal coming will it be cried by angels, by the 
 elect, by kings, by priests, by people, by children, ay ! 
 by all creatures. Let the Heavens rejoice, and let the 
 earth he glad: let the sea make a noise, and all that 
 therein is. Let the field be joyful, and all that is in it ; 
 then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice before the Lord, 
 for He cometh, for He cometh, to judge the earth. 
 
 "We too, considering that time of triumph, shall ex- 
 claim to our King and Saviour with glad accord, * Eeign 
 
 i4 
 
176 JACQUES MARCHAXT. 
 
 even in the midst among Thine enemiesj Eeign, Thou 
 Son of David, setting up Thy throne above all monarchs ! 
 Eeign, Thou peaceful King, trampling under foot all the 
 kingdom of Satan ! Reign, Thou Son of Mary, in the 
 midst of heretics and blasphemers ! Reign, Thou Gali- 
 laean, in the midst of infidels once rebels ! Reign, Thou 
 Nazarene, in the midst of Julians and persecutors ! 
 Reign, Thou innocent Lamb, in the midst of ravening 
 wolves ! Reign, Thou Lamb which was slain, in the 
 midst of angels and all the elect ! ' I heard the voice 
 of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and 
 the elders, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb 
 that was slain to receive poiver, and riches, and wisdom, and 
 strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing. And every 
 creature which is in Heaven, and on earth, and under the 
 earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, 
 heard I saying. Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, 
 he unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the 
 Lamb for ever and ever.^* 
 
JOHN OSORIUS. 
 
 John Osorius, a Spaniard of the diocese of Burgos, 
 entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus in 1558, 
 at the early age of sixteen* He taught moral theology, 
 but gave himself up more especially to preaching, his 
 talents in that line soon manifesting themselves. He 
 preached often before the Court, and was selected to de- 
 liver orations on various public occasions. For instance, 
 he preached twice at the fitting out of the Armada, and 
 again on its discomfiture. His three sermons, entitled 
 Cum nostri redirent ah Anglia re infecta, will be found in 
 the fourth volume of his collected sermons. He was 
 select preacher on the anniversary of the death of St. 
 Ignatius Loyola, the founder of his order, and also on 
 the occasion of the death of the king. He died at Me- 
 dina, aged fifty-two, in the year 1594. 
 
 His sermons have been published several times. 
 
 Concionum Joannes Osorii ; Antverpiae, 1594-5, 3 
 vols. 8vo. Ibid., 5 vols., 1597, 8vo. 
 
 Concionum J. Osorii ; Colon. Hierat. 1600, 12mo., 
 5 vols. ; Lugduni, Pillehotte, 1601, 8vo. ; Yenetiis, 
 1601, fol. ; Parisiis, M. Sonnium, 1601, 8vo., 5 vols. ; 
 
 i5 
 
178 JOHN OSORIUS. 
 
 Yenetlis, 1604, 4to., 5 vols. ; Monast. WestplialisB, 1622, 
 8vo. 5 vols. 
 
 R. P. Osorii Concionum Epitome ; Colon., 1602, Svo., 
 3 vols. ; De Sanctis, ibid., 1613, Svo. 
 
 John Osorius was a preacher of a high order. He 
 was eminently Scriptural, and thoroughly practical. He 
 neither wasted his efforts on the discussion of profitless 
 school questions, nor wearied his hearers by abstruse 
 disquisitions on points of Canon law. His matter is 
 always solid, and his method sound and clear. A man 
 of refined taste and lively imagination, he could render 
 his discourses attractive to both educated and unedu- 
 cated. He seldom breaks into a torrent of eloquence, 
 like De Barzia, but his style is polished and graceful. 
 He had none of the fire of the Bishop of Cadiz, but in 
 his heart burned the pure flame of a tempered zeal, not 
 raging forth as a furnace, dazzling and scorching all 
 around, but calmly glowing in unruffled peace, un- 
 noticed perhaps in the glare of day, but steadily beam- 
 ing as a guiding star to the wanderer in the night. 
 
 In one point he certainly resembles his countryman 
 De Barzia, viz. in his accurate Biblical knowledge. 
 But the use he made of Scripture was difierent to that 
 made by the Bishop, as his audience was very difierent 
 from that to which the Prelate addressed his Mission 
 Sermons. Holy Scripture was the spiritual food of this 
 Jesuit preacher, and his discourses prove his intimate 
 acquaintance with every portion of Grod's Word. His 
 discourses do not contain, as do so many .modern ser- 
 mons, crude and undigested lumps of Scripture, clumsily 
 pieced and awkwardly inserted to distend the dull 
 
JOHN OSORIUS. 179 
 
 oration to its conventional limits, but the words of 
 Inspiration float lightly and fragrantly on the stream 
 of simple eloquence, as strands of new-mown grass and 
 cut meadow flowers on the calm brook which softly 
 glides past the field where the mowers mow the haj. 
 
 If De Barzia roused long-dead consciences, waking 
 them from their sepulchres with note like a trumpet, 
 bringing them forth bound hand and foot in the corpse- 
 clothes of evil habits, and delivering them over to the 
 confessors to be loosed and let go, Osorius quickened 
 the consciences but just dead, with still small voice, 
 taking them as it were by the hand and lifting them 
 up with tenderness, that he might restore them to their 
 parents — to their God, who was to them a Father, to the 
 Church, which was to them a Mother. 
 
 But with all these rare merits, Osorius had his de- 
 fects. His sermons are wanting in arrangement and in 
 unity of design. He preached on the Gospel for the day, 
 and aimed rather at giving a running commentary on 
 the selected passage of Scripture, than at elaborating one 
 text and concentrating his powers upon its application. 
 Hence, each of his sermons, which are very long, may well 
 be broken into six or eight short discourses with separate 
 points, but when preached in their entirety the eflcct 
 is that of a surfeit. Nothing can be better than the 
 food he provides, but it is in too great abundance, and 
 it is too varied ; briefly, in his sermons there is what the 
 French call an embarras de richesses. 
 
 There is this excuse to be made for Osorius, that he 
 did but follow in the wake of the Patristic and Medi- 
 aeval preachers, whose public orations consisted almost 
 
 i6 
 
180 JOHN OSORIUS. 
 
 invariably of Scripture expositions, partaking more of 
 the character of our modern Bible-class lectures than 
 our set sermons; and it was only bold men like De 
 Barzia, who set all conventionalities at defiance, that 
 originated the class of sermon now recognized as the 
 normal type of a pulpit discourse. Osorius, however, 
 could divest himself of the trammels of custom when he 
 chose, and he has left some notable specimens of ser- 
 mons which have but one point and subject, in his 
 fourth volume ; and I very much question whether anj 
 more noble and more vigorous have ever been com- 
 posed than those written by John Osorius, the Jesuit, 
 on the Four Last Things, the Three Foes of Man, and 
 the Seven Last Words. 
 
 Osorius seldom relates anecdotes, and his sermons are 
 almost entirely free from those stories which preachers 
 of his age delighted in introducing to illustrate their 
 subjects ; but, in their place, he brings forward similes 
 to an extraordinary extent. His sermons are studded 
 with them, and his similes are almost invariably grace- 
 ful aiid neat. It may be questioned whether he does 
 not somewhat overdo it, when one sermon contains 
 fifteen similes. Yet these are so beautiful that we could 
 ill spare one. Perhaps we are too critical in requiring 
 all sermons to be cut to the same shape ; perhaps the 
 beauty of the wood hyacinth may consist in the multi- 
 tude of its azure bells, and the splendour of the tulip 
 would be lost if it grew in a bunch. 
 
 But the reader shall judge for himself. I will give 
 him a string of similes from the Trinity sermons of 
 Osorius. 
 
JOHN OSORIUS. 181 
 
 "Aristotle says that as the sun, most visible in itself, 
 cannot be contemplated without difficulty by our eyes, 
 on account of their weakness ; so God, of supreme entity 
 and perfection, can hardly be grasped by us, through 
 the imperfection of our intellect." 
 
 " When my father and mother forsake me^ the Lord 
 taketh me up, says the Psalmist ; and Israel exclaimed. 
 Make us gods to go before us. For without God we 
 have not power to advance. What will he say to this, 
 who enters on a state of life without God to lead him, 
 who undertakes hard matters forgetful of God ? As 
 the ivy trails along the earth when it finds not a tree, 
 to which it may cling and by which it may ascend, 
 so does the soul lie prostrate till it has found God, to 
 whom it may cling as to its beloved ; and having found 
 Him, by Him ascend, gomg on from grace to grace.^^ 
 
 " The Heavens declare the glory of God, and the firma- 
 ment shoioeth His handiwork : they all point wondrously 
 to their Creator, showing themselves to be creatures 
 fashioned by His hands. 
 
 " Cicero observes : If when travelling you came sud- 
 denly in a desert upon some magnificent palace, such 
 as that of Solomon, and were to ask how it came thither, 
 and the answer were made that a mountain had fallen, 
 and that its ruins had shaped themselves, somehow, into 
 this great mansion, you would laugh them to scorn 
 who asserted this, for the house shows plainly the 
 handiwork of an artificer — and that he was a famous 
 artificer to boot — who thus ranged all in such perfect 
 order, and this, you would say, was self-evident. So, 
 too, he who considers the workmanship of this world 
 
182 JOHN osomus. 
 
 with attention, — tlie garden of earth, the abyss of sea, the 
 heavens wondrously adorned, the variety of stars, their 
 varied and yet harmonious motions, — he will say that it 
 is manifest that some master artificer has arranged 
 them, and that their conjunction cannot be fortuitous." 
 
 " Look first at the beauteous image of the soul, and 
 gather from it that it has a divine artificer. If you saw 
 a boy holding a charming image in his hand, and you 
 asked him. Whose is this image ? who fashioned it ? 
 if he were to reply, I made it ; you would at once say, 
 That is not true, for it is a masterpiece of art. So, too, 
 the wondrous power of our souls, and their wondrous 
 perfection, point to a Heavenly artificer." 
 
 " Who, then, is God ? He is One and Three: one in 
 nature, one in wisdom, one in goodness ; but three in 
 Person: Three Persons but One God, one wise, one 
 powerful, one good. 
 
 " How then three Persons and not three Gods ? I and 
 thou are two persons, but one in nature and species. 
 
 "How two persons with one nature ? Because in me 
 there is that which is not in thee, and this constitutes 
 difierence in personality. 
 
 " But thou sayest, What is there in the Father which 
 is not in the Son ? 
 
 " That thou mayest understand, take this illustration. 
 
 " I have invented a science, entirely of myself ; this 
 science I teach thee ; thou and I communicate it to a 
 third. The same science is in all three ; one of us 
 knows nothing which the other knows not ; one knows 
 as much as all the three. Yet is there this difierence 
 between us, I have the knowledge of myself, having 
 
JOHN OSORIUS. 
 
 183 
 
 received it of none ; in thee it is derived from me ; in 
 the third it proceeds from thee and me. JS'ow suppose 
 that, instead of a science, this were my nature which I 
 gave to thee, and which we two communicated to the 
 third ; then should we three be one in nature, and yet 
 with the diversity I have specified. 
 
 " Thus, as I have said, is it with our God, in whom 
 it is the same to be, to know, to be able, &c. This 
 wisdom and nature is in the Father self-derived, re- 
 ceived of none. It is in the Son also, the same, but 
 received by intelligence from the Father. It is in the 
 Holy Ghost, but proceeding from the Father and the 
 Son by love : therefore the Persons are three, but there 
 are not three Gods nor three Lords, for the nature, and 
 the wisdom, and the power, and the goodness are one, 
 but in three Persons ; therefore there is but one God, 
 one Lord, one Wise." 
 
 "God is the abyss of being, as signifies His name 
 Jehovah ; in Him are all perfections, of which perfec- 
 tions each is infinite, all are One. What then is my 
 God ? Ask every creature, and let them show you their 
 God, and tell you what He is; not that each can declare 
 Him perfectly, but each in part. Does it not happen 
 to you sometimes, as you walk abroad, that you light 
 upon a brook, and say, I will trace it to its source, 
 and see whence this streamlet flows? Do you now 
 act thus, and you will attain to your God. Mark what 
 is good in the creatures you behold, in the song of 
 birds, in the beauty of flowers, in the wealth of metals, 
 in the sweetness of meats ; these are but rills proceed- 
 ing from God the abounding Fount; all these utter 
 
184 JOHN OSORIIJS. 
 
 the things which are in God ; for all creatures are but 
 voices manifesting Him." 
 
 Yet we must not rest in them. "It has happened 
 that painters have pictured fruit with such accuracy 
 that birds have come out of the sky thinking them 
 real, in order to feed upon them ; but finding them 
 to be painted, and that there is no food in them, they 
 fly away to seek their true sustenance. The Divine 
 painter has traced with His brush in His creatures the 
 beauties which live in Himself, and in them they seem 
 to live. Yet are they but figures, not verities, for the 
 fashion of this world passeth aivay. Would you know 
 how to act, knowing that these are but pictures and 
 not realities ? Act as the bird, which finding no food 
 in the painting seeks its real meat elsewhere. Mark 
 this, you will find in creation no true food, no satiety, 
 no repose; mark this and fly away to your God, He 
 is very good. He is true food, in Him alone is repose." 
 
 "When you hear sweet harmony, you say, I hear 
 musicians, though you see them not; so seeing the 
 harmony of creation, acknowledge God its source. 
 In God are all perfections. Take the opal. Look at 
 it fixedly from one point ; it is white as snow, and 
 you see nought save whiteness in it. Turn a little 
 aside ; it flashes out in flames as a carbuncle. Look 
 from another point, it glows a rich crimson as the 
 ruby; again, from another point it is all green as 
 the emerald. Lo ! you have an image of God, that 
 most precious gem, to win which we must sell all we 
 have. He is one, yet manifold. Moses beheld God, 
 and He was to him like to the carbuncle, a burning 
 
JOHN OSORTUS. 185 
 
 fire : The Lord thy God is a consuming fire. That same 
 God did David beliold : The^ Lord is full of compassion 
 and mercy: long-suffering and of great goodness. To 
 him then was He not all white ? Isaiah beheld him : 
 Wherefore art Thou red in Thine apparel ? and seeing 
 Him executing vengeance, He was like to the ruby. 
 John beheld Him, and a rainbow round about the throne, 
 in sight like unto an emerald. Lo ! what variety, and 
 yet what unity ! " 
 
 One of the most curious ideas of Osorius is the 
 following. He says that as be lies in bed he bears 
 the stroke, stroke, of. his beart ; and it sounds to him 
 as though within were two wood- cutters engaged night 
 and day in hewing down a tree. I^or am I wrong 
 in thinking so, he continues, for Flux and Eeflux are 
 engaged every hour in laying their axes to the root of 
 the tree of life. In another sermon he speaks of men 
 fretting over the loss of worldly, goods and neglecting 
 their eternal inheritance as resembling the little boy 
 who has built a mud castle, and who weeps when a 
 passer-by overthrows it with his foot, though he cares 
 nothing that a lawsuit is going on at the time by 
 which a large inheritance is being wrested from him. 
 
 The following is singularly beautiful, to my mind. 
 Osorius is speaking of the dower Christ has given to 
 His Church. He says, that as when a traveller marries 
 a wife in a far country he gives her a few presents, 
 but says to her, my beloved, when we come home 
 to m^y own country, where all my wealth and property 
 are, then you shall have ten thousand times better 
 presents ; so does Christ act with His Church. Here, 
 
186 JOHN OSORIUS. 
 
 in the far country of this earth, He gives her a few gifts 
 and graces, but when He leads her home to His 
 heavenly habitation, He >>ill crown her with endless 
 glory. 
 
 On the subject of the Ascension, he observes, very 
 gracefully, that when a fleet is tossing on the sea, if 
 one vessel enters the port in safety, the others pluck 
 up courage to follow. When the soldiers see their 
 leader mount the wall of the besieged city, they, though 
 below, are stirred to press onward too. 
 
 And again, speaking of Christ resuming His seat in 
 Heaven, he says that when a costly gem is given to a 
 king, he sets it in a golden ring, which is exquisitely 
 wrought, and which seemed a miracle of perfection 
 before the insertion of the gem. But when the jewel 
 is set, its glory eclipses all the graving of the ring. 
 So was Heaven beauteous without Christ, beauteous as 
 the setting, but now the precious gem, for whom all 
 was made, is again in His place, and eclipses all other 
 glories in His own effulgent beauty. 
 
 " The joy of Heaven must have been great, and the 
 cause of the joy is manifest. Heaven has received its 
 sun, enlightening it more than all its stars. It has 
 gotten its precious gem adorning that ring of eternity 
 more than its fine gold, more than all the comely forms 
 thereon engraved. But, earth, how canst thou rejoice 
 this day, deprived of the sun which late illumined 
 thee? When the sun shines in this hemisphere, all 
 things rejoice receiving light from it; but when it 
 retires to the other hemisphere, those things which are 
 in it begin their rejoicing, whilst those which are in 
 
JOHN OSORIUS. 187 
 
 ours are veiled in darkness, and droop in gloom and 
 tears. When the ark of God was brought to Beth- 
 shemesh, that is, the house of the sun, the calves of the 
 cows which drew it were shut up at home, and they 
 lowed because the mothers which gave them milk were 
 away. This day is the ark of God, which has been 
 held captive in the house of this world, brought back 
 into Heaven, the true house of the sun. And we, as 
 the calves, remaining shut up in this world's tabernacle, 
 without our nourishment from the breast and wounds 
 of Christ, how shall we do otherwise than low and 
 lament ? " 
 
 This beautiful and quaint passage will show how 
 Osorius finds illustration in Scripture. I translate a 
 few more specimens of his style. 
 
 ^'Behold how He loved Mm. St. Thomas explains 
 this passage admirably when he says, quoting the 
 wise man, Nothing doth countervail a faithful friendy 
 and his excellency is invaluable, for a faithful friend is 
 worthy of love : and yet, a faithful man who can find f 
 He is a faithful friend who is stable in friendship ; not 
 forgetting a first friend when a new one arrives, nor 
 when exalted in prosperity forgetful of the friend in 
 poverty, nor despising the friend who is cast down. 
 
 " God will be found the most faithful friend, in that 
 He never forgets former friends for the sake of new 
 ones ; but those whom He chose before time was, these 
 will He love in eternity, when time is no more. 
 Neither does the addition of new friends make the 
 former less the friends of God, but rather the more 
 grateful is it to Him that many should love Him. 
 
188 JOHN OSORTUS. 
 
 Nor is Christ like the chief butler, who, when things 
 went well with him, forgot Joseph ; but though the Lord 
 he high, yet hath He respect unto the lowly. Christ, 
 when mortal, chose men to be His friends ; when made 
 immortal. He called them His brethren. Go to My 
 hrethren, and say unto them, &c. (John xx. 17). Nor 
 is the friendship of Christ capable of change through 
 loss of the friend, as is evident from the eleventh 
 chapter of St. John. Now Jesus loved Martha, and her 
 sister, and Lazarus, when they were hale and sound. 
 But what will He do when Lazarus is sick? Lord, 
 behold he whom Thou lovest is sick; He ceases not to love 
 because His friend is sick. Lazarus dies, the misery 
 increases, but friendship does not decrease ; for He 
 says, Our friend Lazarus sleepefh. Lazarus is not 
 called friend because that he loves, but because he is 
 still beloved. Now Lazarus stinketh, and still Christ 
 is his friend, for He weepeth because of him. Behold, 
 they say, how He loved him ! Ill, multitude, do you 
 speak ! to Him love is present, therefore rather say, 
 Behold how He loveth him ! most faithful Friend, 
 Thou art He who sayest, / have loved thee with an 
 everlasting love! 
 
 " Far otherwise are we toward Christ. He is in bonds, 
 and lo ! Peter swears that he knows Him not. 
 man ! if you seek a true friend, seek first Christ, who 
 changeth not. What think you is the friendship of 
 the world? "What the friendship of the flesh? You 
 have three friends. You are in peril, for you are sum- 
 moned before the king to be tried, and sentenced for 
 high treason. You go to your first friend, and tell 
 
JOHN OSORIUS. 189 
 
 him your danger, and ask of him assistance. He 
 replies that he will accompany you as far as the 
 judgment hall, and leave you there. *Do you settle 
 your affair with the king ; I can do no more for you.' 
 Seeing that there is no help to be gotten from this 
 friend, you turn to the second, and ask of him succour. 
 He replies, * When you are executed, I will wrap your 
 body in some old and cast-off linen, for a shroud.' 
 You go to the third, and he says, *I will be your 
 advocate. I will assist you, and will liberate you. I 
 will pacify the king, and, if need be, I will die in your 
 room.' Is not this a faithful friend ? Now those who 
 enter into compact of friendship with their flesh, 
 which of these friends have they got? The first, 
 which will accompany you only to the gate of death. 
 Cherish the flesh, love it, and it will be a Delilah to 
 you, handing you over to your enemies, leaving your 
 soul before the Judge, without accompanying it. The 
 world resembles the second friend, to please which you 
 must torture yourself, but all it will give you in the 
 end will be the shroud to enwrap your dead body. 
 But Christ is the third friend, the faithful one, our 
 advocate, who, to liberate us, endured death for us ; He 
 who accompanies us to the judgment, who frees us, 
 who protects us I Let Him be our friend who truly 
 loves us. TFe love God because Se first loved usJ^ 
 I conclude with the following striking passage : — 
 " Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of? 
 Being desirous of alluring His disciples to drink of the 
 cup. He expounds to them its sweetness, when He says 
 that He will drink of it first. And, in sooth, if we were 
 
190 JOHN OSORIUS. 
 
 faithful to Grod, this reason would be sufficient to make 
 us drink it readily. But, as says the wise man, most 
 men loill proclaim every one his own goodness : but a 
 faithful man who can find ? There is not a son, there 
 is not a servant, who acts as faithlessly with his father 
 or his master as we act towards God. Would you 
 know that of a certainty ? I tell you be loth to sin, 
 be ready to die rather than sin. 
 
 " Ah ! but you say, I like to sin. I ask you. Upon 
 what grounds do you persist in sinning? Well, you 
 say, God is so good ; He loves me, He is ready to 
 pardon. So this is the reason why you continue in 
 sin ! And what though you know this for certain, 
 where is your fidelity ? where is your Christian honour ? 
 Does a wife act in this manner with her husband? a son 
 with his father ? a servant with his lord ? I pray you 
 bid your wife act in this manner towards you. Say to 
 her, ' Be chaste.' She will say, * That is no concern of 
 mine. I know full well that you are good, that you 
 love me, and that if I were an adulteress you would 
 pardon me.' And if it were so, would this answer of 
 your wife gratify you ? Why ! where would be the 
 honour of a good woman ? where her fidelity ? Would 
 it be deemed sufficient by you, if she were an adulteress 
 and were reconciled to her husband ? Does any minister 
 act thus ? You say to the royal minister, * Beware lest 
 thou plot treason against your master.' He replies, ' He 
 is an excellent king ; he loves me, he will most certainly 
 pardon me even if I do turn traitor.' vilest of men ! 
 man truly without honour ! where is the fidelity 
 which you owe to your monarch ? 
 
JOHN OSORIUS. 191 
 
 "Vilest Christian of the household of Faith, unfaithful 
 and destitute of honour ! how continue to sin ? how do 
 you still commit adultery against Grod ? how are you so 
 traitorous to your King ? You say : He will pardon me. 
 Be it so. Yet where is your fidelity? where your 
 honour? Is it sufficient to be reconciled, to be a 
 pardoned traitor ? Is it not far better to be able to 
 say, I never was a traitor ? 
 
 " Now let us turn to the subject. If we are faithful 
 servants of God, enough for us that He has said. The cup 
 that I shall drink ofy to make us thirst for that cup. He 
 drank thereof before thee ; wilt thou not quafi" of it out 
 of love for Him ? Is there a faithful soldier who would 
 see his sovereign enter the battle, and fight amongst the 
 foe, and withdraw himself, leaving his king alone, and 
 betake himself to his sports ? Hear what Uriah said. 
 The ark, and Israel, and Judah, abide in tents ; and my 
 lord Joah, and the servants of my lord, are encamped in 
 the open fields ; shall I then go into mine house ? How 
 different also she who said. My Beloved is mine, and I am 
 His. Bernard says, * In no other way can man respond 
 to his God in these same words, except by love, and by 
 drinking of the cup.' God gives thee gifts ; thou canst 
 give Him nothing. I will take no bullock out of thine 
 house, God beatifies thee ; thou canst not beatify Him, 
 except by love and suffering. God loves thee ; love 
 Him thou canst. He suffered for thee ; suffer for Him 
 thou canst. Thus may est thou render unto Him what 
 thou hast received of Him, and return, as it were, like 
 for like to thy God." 
 
MAXIMILIAN DEZA. 
 
 Maximilian Deza, an Italian, was born in 1610, and 
 joined the Congregation of the Mother of God, in 
 which he soon became famous as a preacher. He seems 
 to have been a man of fervent piety and Apostolic zeal. 
 He had acquired a good knowledge of the Latin classics 
 in his early years, and this he was fond of exhibiting, 
 with some pedantry, in his discourses. But such was 
 the taste of the times, when classic literature and art 
 were deluging Europe, and producing a revulsion in all 
 the laws of taste which had regulated the mediaevals. 
 This affectation of classic learning was the bane of 
 Deza*s oratory, and it is constantly obtruding itself 
 on the reader, in a marked and offensive manner, 
 though nowhere perhaps so prominently as in his 
 sermon at the marriage of the Queen of Poland with 
 the Duke of Lorraine, in the Cathedral of Neustadt in 
 Austria, in which sermon, for instance, he enumerates 
 celebrated marriages, as those of Cadmus and Harmonia, 
 Jupiter and Juno, David and Michal, Isaac and Rebecca, 
 and that at Cana— all in one breath. 
 
MAXIMILIAN DEZA. 193 
 
 As soon as his fame was establislied, he was in 
 request throughout his native land, and we find him 
 preaching at Bonona, Turin, and Milan. In 1664 
 he preached before the Doge at Genoa; in 1666 he 
 was in Malta. We have sermons of his delivered at 
 Rome in 1672, and at Yenice in 1686. There is ex- 
 tant a sermon by Deza on the birth of the Prince 
 of Wales, the so-called "Pretender," son of James II., 
 and an oration preached at Yenice on the occasion of 
 the exhibition of the Blessed Sacrament for obtain- 
 ing success against the Turks, with whom the Re- 
 public was then at war. Maximilian Deza was sent for 
 by Leopold I. to preach before him at Yienna, and 
 there the old man died peacefully in his seventy-seventh 
 year, a.d. 1687. 
 
 His sermons were published in Italian, " Prediche 
 deir Avvento del P. Massimiliano Deza, Lucchese 
 deUa Congregatione della Madre di Dio," by Mcolo 
 Pezzana, Yenice, 1709. 
 
 There is also a Latin edition, translated by Cassimir 
 Moll, a Benedictine, published by Yeith, Yienna. 1726, 
 and dedicated to John Julius de Moll, Archbishop of 
 Salzburg. 
 
 The sermons extant form three series; the first 
 consists of sermons from the First Sunday in Advent 
 to the Sunday after Christmas, together with two 
 discourses on the parable of the Prodigal Son, in 
 all nine, forming one volume. The second con- 
 tains thirty-eight sermons preached during Lent ; 
 and the third part, which is immeasurably infe- 
 rior to the other two, consists of orations on divers 
 
 K 
 
194 MAXIMILIAN DEZA. 
 
 saints, such, as St. Catharine of Bologna, St. Peter of 
 Alcantara, St. Eosa of Lima, together with, sermons 
 on state occasions. 
 
 Maximilian Deza just escaped being a really great 
 orator, like Segneri, whom he much resembles in his 
 vehemence, zeal, fine word-painting, and brilliant 
 transitions. There is nothing heavy or dull about his 
 sermons ; they are calculated to rivet the attention of 
 an audience, and they appeal earnestly to the con- 
 science. They are not sermons to be read in measured 
 tones from the pulpit, but to be declaimed with flashing 
 eye, modulated voice, and vehement gesture. To modern 
 readers Deza seems to play with an idea in a manner 
 unsuitable to our nineteenth century ideas of pulpit 
 proprieties ; but it must be borne in mind that his 
 discourses are long, lasting sometimes two hours, and 
 the mind of the hearer would need rest, it would only 
 be fatigued if kept constantly on the stretch. Viewed 
 thus, it will be seen that Deza handles his matter with 
 great skill ; he works one point of his subject to a climax, 
 — you hold your breath even in reading him — and then 
 he gently drops the point, and gives time for relaxation 
 of the attention till he deems it fit to produce another 
 effect, just as in a drama the sensational scenes are 
 separated from each other by the talkee-talkee scenes 
 in the front groove. But these intermediate portions of 
 Deza's sermons are by no means dull ; they are light 
 and pleasant trifles with which he toys, but which lead 
 on insensibly to his point, just as the small beads of a 
 rosary draw the fingers on to the larger ones. 
 
 Take his sermon for Ash- Wednesday as an example. 
 
MAXIMILIAN DEZA. 195 
 
 He is preaching on the words, " Remember, man, 
 that thou art dust, and that into dust thou shalt 
 return,'' which occur in the E-oman Office for the 
 day. 
 
 He begins with the lessons drawn from the ashes 
 sprinkled every where ; and he bids his hearers look 
 on these ashes, and remember that they shall one day 
 be like them. He then draws with skill a picture of 
 man's forlorn condition, with the prospect of death 
 before him, and no possibility affi)rded him of escape. 
 He laughs to scorn the thoughts of immortality con- 
 nected with name and title ; he tells the story of 
 Empedocles seeking an immortal name by jumping 
 into the crater of ^tna ; and then he warns his 
 hearers most solemnly to keep death ever before their 
 eyes. Eemember, he cries, that you have sucked in 
 with your mother's milk the seeds of death. Ee- 
 member that all beasts were created alive, but Adam 
 was created a lifeless frame, till God breathed into his 
 nostrils the breath of life. Eemember that from the 
 moment of birth, the moment of death began to creep 
 nearer. Then suddenly pointing to the hour-glass he 
 exclaims, Look ! this hour is stealing away in grains of 
 dust, warning you to remember what you too ere long 
 will become. And having worked this out with great 
 solemnity, he suddenly breaks off into a description of 
 glass and its manufacture. He says it is made of sand 
 and ash, it is fused with heat, it is formed by the breath. 
 Is not that like man ? he asks ; man made of dust, 
 kindled by the glow of life, vivified by the Divine 
 breath ? 
 
 k2 
 
196 MAXIMILIAN DEZA. 
 
 Well ! you will say that glass is a very brittle affair ; 
 it some what resembles ice, and is just as fragile ; one 
 little fall, and it is shivered into countless fragments ; 
 it is made by a puff, it is clouded by a breath, it is 
 broken by a touch. 
 
 You consider it very fragile. — I tell you, on the 
 authority of St. Augustine, that man is far more fragile. 
 
 Glass carefully preserved may become an heirloom, 
 but man can never last out more than a generation. 
 
 Glass is only shattered by accident, but man is 
 perishable by his nature. 
 
 Glass is broken by external force, but man bears 
 about within him the seeds of dissolution. 
 
 Glass is snapped by a touch, but man untouched will 
 crumble into his grave. 
 
 Glass once broken may be restored, not so man. 
 
 Glass though broken does not decay, but man's flesh 
 becomes corrupt. 
 
 Having thus amused and rested his hearers, Deza 
 begins another earnest appeal to them; he explains 
 that the soul of man does not descend to the grave, 
 and he solves a difficulty in the text. Genesis iii. 19, 
 Dust thou arty and unto dust shalt thou return. 
 
 Having done this, it is proper that the congregation 
 should be given a little breathing-time, and so the 
 preacher takes the sentence. Dust thou art, and plays 
 with it, by giving a description of dust agitated by the 
 wind. Oh, into what fantastic shapes does the wind 
 whirl the dust ! how the dust-cloud runs along, rushes 
 forward madly, stops and spins awhile, and tosses itself 
 up, up, till it seems verily to fly; it ascends higher 
 
MAXIMILIAN DEZA. 197 
 
 and higher, it is carried above the tree-tops, it will 
 reach the clouds of Heaven. Stay ! — the wind drops. 
 Where is the dust ? It falls, it obscures the landscape, 
 it is scattered every where, it parches the tongue, it 
 blinds the eyes, it clogs the throat ; and that which 
 just now dulled the air and obscured the sun, has 
 returned to itself again ; dust it was, and nothing more, 
 and unto dust has it returned. 
 
 Is not this a picture of man? asks the preacher; 
 man, poor dust carried up and hurried forward by 
 the winds of his vain fancies ? Ambition puffs him up 
 on high, only to fling him to earth again ; passion 
 drives him forward, and then drops him a helpless 
 atom to his native soil. 
 
 Look how high those giddy particles are flung — 
 Thou tahest away their breathy they die, and are turned 
 again to their dust. 
 
 Yes, toss yourselves in pride, rush on in the storm of 
 passion, eddy up in the struggle of life, spin in the 
 giddiness of pleasure, penetrate every where in the 
 eagerness of curiosity — Thou takest aioay their breathy 
 they diey and are turned again to their dust. 
 
 Deza then examines the words of Solomon, There is 
 a time to he horn and a time to diey and he asks why 
 the King did not say there is a time to live. Having 
 answered this question to his own satisfaction, by show- 
 ing that Solomon spoke of definite moments of time, 
 but that life was not a point of time, but a fleeting 
 succession of moments, he enters on the subject of the 
 shortness of time, and quotes Wisdom v. 10. The life 
 of man, says Solomon, is as a ship that passeth over the 
 
 k3 
 
198 MAXIMILIAN DEZA. 
 
 waves of the tvater, and leaves no trace — no trace but the 
 foam-bubbles ; and those foam -bubbles are like the life 
 of man, now appearing in the wake of the vessel, and 
 then brushed away by the next wave, — and this wave 
 is like the life of man, sweeping on resistlessly to the 
 rock on which it will be shivered with a roar — a roar 
 like the life of man, loud and fierce for the moment, 
 and then carried off on the wind — the wind like the 
 life of man sinking into a lull and lost. 
 And so throughout the sermon. 
 I will now give an analysis of one of Maximilian Deza's 
 most characteristic and striking discourses, with a trans- 
 lation of a portion of it as a specimen of his style of 
 oratory. 
 
 The sermon I have selected is that for the First 
 Sunday in Advent, with which the Feast of St. Andrew 
 coincided. The lessons from each holiday are very 
 happily blended. 
 
 Maximilian Deza takes two texts, the first from the 
 twenty-first chapter of St. Luke, Then shall they see 
 the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and 
 great glory; and the second from the Ofiice for St. 
 Andrew's Day, " Blessed Andrew prayed, saying, 
 Hail, good Cross ! may He receive me by thee. Who 
 by thee redeemed me." 
 Introduction. 
 
 On this coincidence of holidays two points of con- 
 sideration are presented to us ; the Cross the 
 sign of terror and destruction to the guilty, 
 and the Cross the sign of joy and salvation to 
 the just. 
 
MAXIMILIAN DEZA. 199 
 
 I. The love of the Cross is the characteristic of the 
 
 elect; whilst the hatred of the Cross is the 
 sign of the reprobate. 
 
 a. The Lord knoweth those that are His — 
 by their love of His Cross of suffering. 
 If any man will come after Me, let Mm 
 deny himself and take up his cross, and 
 follow Me. 
 yS. But the wicked are called the enemies of 
 the Cross of Christ, whose end is destruc- 
 tion. 
 The day will come, the great and terrible 
 day of the Lord, when He will call the 
 heavens from above, and the earth, that He 
 may judge His people ; when the Cross, 
 the sign of the Son of Man, will appear in 
 the clouds of Heaven. 
 
 II. Then God will judge the world with fire, and 
 
 the Cross alone will be the standard by which 
 all will be tried. 
 
 God will judge the world with fire. — How 
 with fire ? When a palace is destroyed by the 
 flames, every thing in it is reduced to cinder ; 
 the rags of the beggar, the gorgeous robes of 
 the prince, the statue of the king, and the 
 image of the ape. So every man will be tried 
 with fire, and all difference between man and 
 man as now existing will be rendered indis- 
 tinguishable. King and subject, master and 
 slave, will stand shivering in nakedness be- 
 side each other; there is no respect of per- 
 K 4 
 
200 MAXIMILIAN DEZA. 
 
 sons with God, they will be but as a heap 
 of cinders, which are equally hideous, though 
 some may be the ashes of costly articles, 
 others of vile materials. 
 
 One alone distinguishing mark will be 
 left, the love of the Cross, by which to judge 
 them. 
 
 III. By the Cross will the saints be recognized, as 
 in Ezekiel ix. the prophet saw in vision the 
 destruction of the last day, when God's com- 
 mand was, Slay utterly old and youngs both 
 maidSy and little children, and women : but come 
 not near any man upon whom is the mark 
 Tau, 
 
 This Tau, Deza observes, is the Cross, the 
 mark on the brow by which the faithful shall 
 be known. Tau is the last letter of the Hebrew 
 alphabet, and it is the last sign which shall 
 appear in Heaven. The preacher then goes 
 through the list of those slain, old and young, 
 maids, and little children, and women, and 
 shows how that wisdom of grey hairs, or inno- 
 cency of childhood, or purity of virgins, are of 
 no avail to stand the fire of trial unless the 
 Cross be the source of those graces. 
 
 The Cross is the banner of the Xing in His 
 army on earth. It is the tree of life in the 
 Paradise of His Church. 
 
 lY. The Cross, as sign of safety to some and of 
 destruction to others, was prefigured in the 
 Old Testament — 
 
MAXIMILIAN DE2A. 201 
 
 a. By the rod of Moses, which, opened the sea 
 for the passage of the Israelites, and 
 which brought it back again to over- 
 whelm the Egyptians. 
 /3. By the ark of Noah. 
 
 7. By the blood^marks on the lintel and door- 
 post when the destroying angel passed 
 through Egypt. 
 Y. A contrast is drawn between St. Peter and the 
 penitent thief. The former feared the Cross, 
 and when our Lord spoke of His approaching 
 crucifixion, the Apostle said, Be it far from 
 Thee ; and was therefore sufiered to fall. But 
 the thief who sought Christ through the Cross 
 found acceptance. 
 YI. Deza shows that people may now become 
 enemies of the Cross of Christ — 
 a. By gluttony and drunkenness. 
 )3. By debauchery and frivolity. 
 
 7. By injustice and dishonesty. 
 
 8. By falsehood and calumnies, 
 e. By hypocrisy. 
 
 He draws a very solemn and awful picture of 
 the dawning of the great day, and the flashing 
 of the sign of the Son of Man upon the enemies 
 of the Cross of Christ, and then — 
 YII. He comments on the sentences pronounced 
 on the good and on the bad. This is the pas- 
 sage I translate. 
 Part II. 
 
 YIII. Maximilian Deza now shows how St. An- 
 k5 
 
202 MAXIMILIAN DEZA. 
 
 drew is a blessed child of the Cross. He 
 shows how that to him the Cross was as a 
 second mother, guiding him through life, sus- 
 taining him and embracing him in death. 
 IX. The love of Christ's Cross regenerates us, as- 
 sures us of our sonship, and is an earnest of 
 our inheritance. 
 
 At our birth into this world we are placed 
 in divers positions by the will of God and by 
 no appointment of our own. So some are 
 born to be kings, some to be slaves, some to 
 be philosophers, others to be fools. 
 
 But at the regeneration it will not be so. 
 Our position then will be regulated by our 
 own selves, for we shall be nearer to, or more 
 remote from, Christ; be princes or subjects 
 according to our love for the Cross of Christ 
 during our earthly existence, according to the 
 closeness of our walk in the bloody foot- 
 prints of our Master, bearing our crosses after 
 Him, in the season of our probation. 
 And in conclusion, Deza makes an eloquent and 
 
 earnest appeal to his hearers to redeem the time because 
 
 the days are evil. 
 
 The following is a translation of the seventh section 
 of this most striking sermon, which exhibits at the 
 same time his power and his weakness, his merits and 
 his defects : — 
 
 " Behold ! " will say the Judge, with threatening voice, 
 to that great throng of accused ; *' behold ! on this Cross 
 
MAXIMILIAN DEZA. 203 
 
 I poured forth all the treasures of My love — producing 
 blood for your welfare ; to you though was that most 
 precious stream counted but as dung, squandered reck- 
 lessly for some fleeting vanity. From this My Cross 
 with last and dying voice, with tears breathing nought 
 but piety, I called you to penitence, but as deaf adders 
 you stopped your ears and hardened your hearts to the 
 sweet incantations of love. On this Cross, full of sor- 
 rows and of confusion, painfully I suffered death, that 
 I might recover eternal life for your souls ; and you, 
 meanwhile, before the countenance of God dying for 
 you, did laugh with the scribes, mock with the Pha- 
 risees, sport with the soldiers. This My Cross was a 
 noble pulpit from which I, the Master of humility, of 
 patience, and of charity, taught you the love of your 
 enemies, praying to the Father for My foes and My 
 persecutors. But you ! what did you take in, what did 
 you learn ? Answer, what ? The implacable madness 
 and rage of a Saul, the boastings of a Goliath, the im- 
 pieties, and crimes, and vengeance of a Cain, a Joab, or 
 an Absalom. And what ! were your hopes too rash to 
 calculate on finding safety in that Cross ? Ah, wretched 
 ones ! Are ye not those to whom the withering roses 
 of this world were more acceptable than My thorns ? 
 Are ye not those who sucked in the sweet poison from 
 the cup of Babylon, but rejected the chalice of My 
 passion ? Are ye not those who, fleeing the embrace 
 of My Cross, rushed into the arms of lust which polluted 
 you, of the world which betrayed you, of Satan who 
 erects his trophies upon your ruin ? These, these were 
 K 6 
 
204 
 
 MAXIMILIAN DEZA. 
 
 your lovers, these the idols of your heart, these the 
 deities ye idolatrously worshipped — commend yourselves 
 now to them, let them arise and help you. In Me 
 remains no hope for you, no more bowels of mercies, — 
 Depart from Me, ye cursed! This Cross is your 
 condemnation ; this gallows-tree is your scourge, this 
 wood will rack and consume you more fiercely than the 
 flames of hell. Depart from Me, ye cursed, into ever- 
 lasting fire.'' 
 
 But oh, happy elect ! to whom on the contrary the 
 holy Cross has been the bow of peace eternal, the ladder 
 of Heaven, the pledge of glory, the unfading palm of 
 lasting triumph. " Come, ye blessed of My Father ! " 
 Oh, sweet words ! best-loved invitation ! most plea- 
 sant reception, long-looked-for glimpse of Paradise so 
 near ! " Come, ye blessed of My Father. Ye inno- 
 cents by your sweat, ye penitents by your tears, ye 
 martyrs by your blood, did water the tree of My Cross ; 
 come now, gather the fruits of safety, life, and happy 
 immortality. Come, ye blessed of My Father. Ye who 
 followed My blood-stained traces up the hill of Calvary, 
 even ye shall ascend with Me to the topmost height 
 of the heavenly Sion, where this Cross is exalted to be 
 the trophy of your victories. Come, inherit the king- 
 dom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 
 By nature were ye My subjects, but by grace My sons ; 
 and as sons of a reigning Father My kingdom shall be 
 your patrimony, and My Cross the sceptre of a death- 
 less realm. My charity bore it, out of love for you ; 
 your gratitude bore it, out of love for Me; now has 
 
MAXIMILIAN DEZA. 205 
 
 come the season for both. Me and you, that to patient 
 love should succeed love beatifying. As long as I am 
 God, that is, for eternity, ye shall also be happy, shall 
 be likewise glorious, triumphant, princes of Heaven with 
 starred diadem on your brows, and monarchs of the 
 universe." 
 
FRANCIS COSTER. 
 
 The subject of this memoir was born at Malines in the 
 year 1531 ; he was one of the first to join the new 
 Society of Jesus, and at the age of twenty-one was 
 received into it by the illustrious founder himself. 
 
 St. Ignatius soon discovered the remarkable talents 
 and the deep spirituality of the young man, and he 
 stationed him at Cologne, placing him in the van of the 
 army of the Church, and in the thick of the fight then 
 waging between Catholics and Protestants. He was 
 admirably adapted for his position, and fully justified the 
 confidence placed in him by Loyola. The Lutherans 
 and Calvinists found in him an enemy of no ordinary 
 power, and quite invulnerable to their blows. His know- 
 ledge of Scripture was as thorough as, and was sounder 
 than, their own. Their arguments were dissected, and 
 the fallacies exposed, by Coster, in a manner so clear 
 and so conclusive that he stung them to madness. 
 
 Volume after volume passed through the press from 
 his pen, many of them composed in the vernacular, so 
 
FRANCIS COSTER. 207 
 
 as to be read by tbe vulgar. He is said to have brought 
 back multitudes to the Church who had fallen away 
 at the first blush of Protestantism, and to have 
 strengthened numerous souls which wavered in doubt. 
 
 He taught astronomy and lectured on the Holy 
 Scriptures in Cologne. He was afterwards Rector of 
 several Colleges, thrice Provincial, and present at three 
 General Congregations of the Order. 
 
 After a life of controversy, yet with a soul full of 
 peace and goodwill to men, Francis Coster entered into 
 his rest in 1619, aged eighty-eight years ; of which he 
 had spent sixty-seven in the Society of Jesus. He died 
 at Brussels. 
 
 His works are too numerous for me to give a list of 
 them here. A complete catalogue will be found in the 
 Bihliotheque des Ecrwains de la Compagnee de Jesus^ par 
 Aug. et Alois Backer, vol, i. pp. 218 — 224. I mention 
 the sermons alone. 
 
 E,. P. Costeri Conciones in Evangelia Dominicalia a 
 Dom. Adventus usque ad initium Quadr. ; Coloniae, 
 Ant. Hierat. 1608, 4to. Conciones ab initio Quadr. 
 usque ad Domin. SS. Trinitates ; ibid, id., 1608, 4to. 
 Conciones a Domin. post Fest. SS. Trinit. usque ad 
 Adventum ; ibid, id., 1608, 4to. 
 
 R. P. Fr. Costeri Conciones in Evangelia ; ibid, id., 
 1613, 4to.; 1626, 8vo., 3 part., 4 vol. This last the 
 best edition. 
 
 Yyftien Catholiicke Sermoonen op t'Epistelen end 
 Evangelien ; Antwerp, 1617, fol., 4 vols. 
 
 Catholiicke Sermoonen op alle de heylichdaghen des 
 jaers ; Antwerp, 1616, fol., 2 vols. 
 
208 
 
 FRANCIS COSTER. 
 
 Sermoonen op d'Epistelen van de Sendaglien, — met 
 twee octaven ; Antwerp, 1616, fol. 
 
 Francis Coster difiPers in style from all the other 
 preachers whom I have quoted. He is neither eloquent 
 nor impressive as a speaker, he is immensely long, and 
 must have been desperately tedious in the pulpit ; and 
 yet I question whether a priest could possess a more 
 valuable promptuarium for sermon composition or cate- 
 chetical lecture than Coster's volumes. Coster is rather 
 an expositor of Scripture than a preacher ; his insight 
 into the significance of the sacred utterances is per- 
 fectly marvellous. 
 
 Coster relates numerous stories of difierent merit and 
 point. He seldom indulges in simile. He says sharp 
 and piquant things in a quiet unassuming manner ; 
 and unless the reader is quite on the alert, he may miss 
 some very happy remark couched in a few pregnant 
 words. For instance : he says on the subject of 
 Profession not Practice, that Christ lived thirty-three 
 years on earth, and He did many great works ; but we 
 know of only one sermon that He preached. The arms 
 are long, the tongue is short ; the hands are free, the 
 tongue confined behind the prison bars of the teeth ; to 
 teach us that we should work freely, but talk little. 
 Those who profess great things and practise little what 
 they profess are in a bad spiritual condition ; the clock 
 whose hand stands at one whilst the clapper goes twelve, 
 is wrong in the works. 
 
 The stories Coster tells are very unequal. There is 
 one delightful mediaeval tale reproduced by him which 
 I shall venture to relate, as it is full of beauty, and. 
 
FRANCIS COSTER. 209 
 
 inculcates a wholesome lesson. There is a ballad in 
 German on the subject, to be found in Pocci and Gores' 
 Fest Kalender, which has been translated into English 
 and published in some Eoman children's books. 
 
 The story was, I believe, originated by Anthony of 
 Sienna, who relates it in his Chronicle of the Domini- 
 can Order ; and it was from him that the preachers and 
 writers of the Middle Ages drew the incident. With the 
 reader's permission I will tell the story in my own words, 
 instead of giving the stiff and dry record found in Coster. 
 
 There was once a good priest who served a church in 
 Lusitania ; and he had two pupils^ little boys, who came 
 to him daily to learn their letters, and to be instructed 
 in the Latin tongue. 
 
 Now these children were wont to come early from 
 home, and to assist at mass, before ever they ate their 
 breakfast or said their lessons. And thus was each day 
 sanctified to them, and each day saw them grow in 
 grace and in favour with God and man. 
 
 These little ones were taught to serve at the Holy 
 Sacrifice, and they performed their parts with care and 
 reverence. They knelt and responded, they raised the 
 priest's chasuble and kissed its hem, they rang the 
 bell at the sanctus and the elevation ; and all they did, 
 they did right well. 
 
 And when mass was over, they extinguished the altar 
 lights, and then taking their little loaf and can of milk, 
 retired to a side chapel for their breakfast. 
 
 One day the elder lad said to his master — 
 
 " Good father, who is the strange child who visits us 
 every morning when we break our fast ?" 
 
210 FRANCIS COSTER. 
 
 " I know not," answered the priest. And when the 
 children asked the same question day by day, the old 
 man wondered, and said, "Of what sort is he?" 
 
 " He is dressed in a white robe without seam, and it 
 reacheth from his neck to his feet." 
 
 "Whence Cometh he?" 
 
 " He steppeth down to us, suddenly, as it were from 
 the altar. And we ask him to share our food with us : 
 and that he doth right willingly every morning." 
 
 Then the priest wondered yet more, and he asked, 
 " Are there marks by which I should know him, were 
 I to see him?" 
 
 " Yes, father ; he hath wounds in his hands and 
 feet ; and as we give him of our food, the blood flows 
 forth and moistens the bread in his hands, till it blushes 
 like a rose." 
 
 And when the master heard this, a great awe fell 
 upon him, and he was silent awhile. But at last he 
 said gravely, " Oh, my sons, know that the Holy Child 
 Jesus hath been with you. Now when He cometh again, 
 say to Him, ' Thou, Lord, hast breakfasted with us full 
 often, grant that we brothers and our dear master may 
 sup with Thee.' " 
 
 And the children did as the priest bade them. The 
 Child Jesus smiled sweetly, as they made the request, 
 and replied, " Be it so ; on Thursday next, the day of 
 My ascension, ye shall sup with Me." 
 
 So when Ascension Day arrived, the little ones came 
 very early as usual, but they brought not their loaf, nor 
 the tin of milk. And they assisted at mass as usual ; 
 they vested the priest, they lighted the tapers, they 
 
FRANCIS COSTEE. 211 
 
 chanted the responds, they rang the bell. But when 
 the Pax vobiscum had been said they remained on their 
 knees, kneeling behind the priest. And so they gently 
 fell asleep in Christ, and they with their dear master 
 sat down at the marriage supper of the Lamb. 
 
 This story reminds me of another, to be found in one 
 or two mediaeval sermons. 
 
 A little boy once made an agreement with an aged 
 priest that they should say Prime together. 
 
 So, on the first morning after the arrangement, the 
 child rose, and descended to the church, where he lighted 
 the candles. He waited long for the priest, and pulled 
 the bell ; but the old man turned in his bed and would 
 not rise. Then the lad looked from the window, and 
 the land was dumb with snow. He thought, I will 
 run forth, and sport in the snow, for the father comes 
 not to Prime. But he resisted the temptation, and he 
 recited the office by himself in choir. 
 
 On the second morning he descended again, and rang 
 the bell, and lighted the tapers ; but the priest came 
 not. Then the boy thought, I will go forth and slide 
 on the frozen pond. But he overcame the temptation,^ 
 and recited the office by himself in choir. 
 
 On the third morning he turned in his bed, and 
 thought. It is so cold, I will not rise ; the father will 
 not leave his bed, nor will I. But he resisted the 
 temptation to lie in bed, he dressed and came down to 
 the church, he pulled the bell, he lighted the tapers ; 
 but the priest came not, so he sang the office by himself 
 in choir. 
 
 And this continued for six mornings ; each morning 
 
212 FRANCIS COSTER. 
 
 was tlie cLild tempted, each, morning did he overcome 
 the temptation. Each, morning the priest lay in bed, 
 and the little boy sang the office by himself in choir. 
 
 On the seventh morning the priest was roused by the 
 bell, but he turned in bed and fell asleep again. Then 
 he had a dream. He beheld in his dream the Lord 
 Jesus standing by the treasury in Heaven ; and in His 
 hand He bare seven crowns of pure gold. " Oh, my 
 Lord, are these for me?'' exclaimed the sleeper. 
 "KayV replied the Blessed One, "not for thee, but 
 for thy little acolyte. Seven times has he been tried, 
 and seven times has he overcome ; therefore have I pre- 
 pared for him seven crowns. Blessed is the man that 
 endureth temptation^ for when he is tried he shall receive 
 the crown of life.'' 
 
 But leaving these stories, let us turn to a sermon of 
 Coster's, and analyze it thoroughly. It will be seen how 
 pregnant it is with thought, how exhaustive it is as a 
 commentary on a passage of Scripture, how suggestive 
 it is of matter for a modern preacher. 
 
 I shall choose the sermon for the First Sunday in 
 Lent, curtailing it in only a few points, where the 
 conclusions drawn seem unwarranted, or where the 
 doctrine enforced is distinctively Roman. These 
 omissions I have made from no wish to misrepresent 
 the preacher, but simply to reduce the bare skeleton 
 of the sermon to moderate limits, the entire dis^ 
 course filling forty- seven pages of quarto, close print, 
 double columns, and occupying about 5000 lines. I 
 tremble to think of the time it must have taken to 
 deliver, if it ever were delivered. 
 
FRANCIS COSTER. 213 
 
 First Sunday in Lent. Lessons from the Gospel. 
 Matt. iv. And Jesus was led hy the Spirit into the 
 wilderness. 
 He was led. Here note — 
 
 1. That God is our leader into all good works. 
 
 2. That He leads, but does not constrain. 
 By the Spirit. Here note — 
 
 1. That in our Lent fast, we should follow the 
 
 Spirit's leading. Now the Spirit leads and 
 guides — 
 
 a. By the voice of the Church. 
 
 /3. By the voice of conscience. 
 
 2. That our works are alone acceptable to God, if 
 
 done through the grace and impulsion of the 
 Spirit. 
 Into the wilderness. Here note — 
 
 1. That Christ went into the wilderness to make 
 
 expiation in His body for our excesses ; to 
 endure poverty for our luxury, want for our 
 abundance. 
 
 2. That Christ went into the wilderness imme- 
 
 diately after baptism, to teach us that, by 
 baptism, we are called to renounce the world, 
 and to lead a life of mortification. 
 
 3. That Christ sets us an example of retirement 
 
 from the world and its turmoil, at seasons. 
 
 4. That Christ, by His example, has sanctioned 
 
 and sanctified the life of the eremite. 
 To he tempted of the devil. Here note — 
 
 1. That, in order to be able to resist the devil, we 
 must be furnished with the Holy Spirit. 
 
214 FRANCIS COSTER. 
 
 2. That God suffers us to be tempted for wise 
 purposes — 
 
 a. To bring out our hidden virtues ; thus He 
 brought out the virtue of faith in Abraham 
 by tempting him to slay his son, and the 
 virtue of patience in Job by suffering him 
 to be afflicted with loss of substance, health, 
 and friends. 
 (fS. To keep us vigilant. (1 Pet. v. 8.) 
 7. To reward us finally for our merit in resist- 
 ing temptation. (James i. 12.) 
 S. A. The word to 'tempt' has three significations 
 in Holy Scripture. It signifies — 
 a. To bring out hidden graces ; and thus is 
 used of God tempting us. (Gen. xxii. 1.) 
 0. To lead into sin ; and thus is used of the 
 
 devil tempting us. (1 Cor. vii. 5.) 
 7. To provoke to anger ; and thus is used of 
 our tempting God. (Ps. xcv. 9. Acts 
 v. 9. Heb. i. 12.) 
 B. God tempts us in Lent, drawing out of us 
 a proof — 
 a. Whether we love ourselves better than 
 
 Him. 
 ^. Whether we love our souls better than our 
 
 bodies. 
 7. Whether we love our present corruptible 
 bodies better than our future incorrupti- 
 ble bodies. 
 S. Whether we love to obey the Church better 
 than to follow our own wills. 
 
FRANCIS COSTER. 215 
 
 4. Christ endured temptation from the devil — 
 
 a. That He might prove the force of every 
 temptation by which we are assailed. 
 
 /3. That He might show us how to meet 
 temptation. 
 
 7. That He might break the force of tempta- 
 tion. 
 
 3. That He might teach us to expect tempta- 
 tion. 
 And when Se had fasted forty days and forty nights. 
 Note that Christ fasted, though there was no need 
 
 for Him to mortify His body, in that His 
 
 body was free from sin. 
 Forty days and forty nights. Here note — 
 
 1. That forty represents the law as amplified by 
 
 the Gospel, 10x4. 
 
 a. Forty days did the rain descend to flood, 
 the world. (Gen. vii. 4.) 
 
 ^. Forty days were corpses dressed with 
 aromatic herbs before consigning them 
 to the grave. (Gen. 1. 3.) 
 
 7. Forty years did Israel wander in the 
 wilderness. 
 
 S. Forty days did Moses spend, on two occa- 
 sions, in the mount. (Exod. xxiv. 18 ; 
 xxxiv. 28.) 
 
 €. Forty days did Goliath defy the armies 
 of the living God. (1 Sam. xvii. 16.) 
 
 f. Forty days did Ezekiel bear the iniqui- 
 ties of the children of Israel. (Ezek. 
 iv. 6.) 
 
216 FRANCIS COSTER. 
 
 rj. Forty days did Elijah fast in tlie desert. 
 (1 Kings xix. 8.) 
 
 6. Forty days did Nineveh afflict itself in 
 
 sackcloth and ashes. (Jonah iii. 4.) 
 t. Forty days was Christ with His Apostles 
 after the resurrection. (Acts i. 3.) 
 
 2. We keep forty days of Lenten fast — 
 
 a. That we may represent in the Christian 
 year the fasting of our Lord, as we also 
 represent His birth, His death. His 
 resurrection, and His ascension. 
 
 fi. That we may a.ppease God's wrath against 
 us ; making satisfaction to the best of our 
 power for our fallings short during the 
 rest of the year. 
 
 7. That we may practise and test our strength, 
 
 so as to be able to exert it when tempta- 
 tion arises. 
 
 B, That we may fulfil Christ's words, TF7ien 
 the Bridegivom is taken away, then shall ye 
 fast in those days. 
 
 e. That we may worthily prepare for the 
 great solemnity of Easter, suffering with 
 Christ that we may also be glorified 
 together. 
 
 3. The advantages of fasting are, — 
 
 a. It keeps the body under, and brings it 
 into subjection; giving us the habit of 
 obtaining a mastery over our appetites. 
 
 y8. It disposes the soul for prayer, and the 
 mind for meditation. 
 
FRANCIS COSTER. 217 
 
 7. It makes reparation for past offences. 
 
 (Jonah iii. 5 — 10.) 
 S. It is meritorious, being one of those three 
 works of which Christ has said that 
 it shall be openly rewarded. (Matt. 
 vi. 18.) 
 And when the tempter came to Sim, he said. Here 
 note— 
 
 I. a. The devil is called tempter, as one who 
 
 builds is called a builder, and one who 
 paints is called a painter : from the work 
 upon which he is constantly engaged. 
 
 ^. The devil probably came in human form, 
 as angels when appearing to men assumed 
 human forms. It seems likely that Satan 
 had not fathomed that mystery, which 
 angels desired to look into, the mystery 
 of the Incarnation, and that he did not 
 know that Christ was Incarnate God : 
 yet was he filled with vague alarm. 
 
 7. Christ's temptations came from without; 
 they could not proceed from within, as 
 His nature was sinless. 
 
 II. We also learn — 
 
 1. That solitude is not freedom from tempta- 
 
 tion, but rather a time for it. 
 
 2. That Satan expends the whole force of 
 
 temptation on those who are leading a 
 life of high vocation. 
 
 3. That Satan suits his temptation to the 
 
 occasion. 
 
218 FRANCIS COSTER. 
 
 4. That if Christ endured temptation, no man 
 
 must expect to escape it. 
 
 5. That if Christ suffered Satan to approach 
 
 Him with temptation, He will not re- 
 ject us drawing nigh unto Him in 
 prayer. 
 
 6. That temptations come to us in disguise: 
 
 the evil one seldom presenting himself to 
 us in his naked deformity. 
 If Thou art the Son of God, Here note — 
 
 Satan had heard the voice from Heaven, proclaim- 
 ing Christ to be the beloved Son of God ; but he 
 may have considered Him as a son in some 
 sense as Adam, who was called a son of God. 
 That he could have grasped the mystery of 
 the hypostatic union is impossible. Sin pro- 
 duces blindness, and Satan could not have seen 
 and comprehended God's purposes. Had he 
 believed Christ to be very and eternal God, it 
 is inconceivable that he should have thought 
 it possible to tempt Him into sin, unless the 
 eyes of his understanding were so obscured 
 by his pride that he had lost belief in all 
 good, that he actually could imagine the God- 
 head to be peccable, just as a prostitute dis- 
 believes in the purity of the most spotless 
 virgin. 
 If Thou art. Note— 
 
 I. That Satan tempts even by that little word if; 
 implying a doubt whether God had meant 
 what He said when the voice came from 
 
FRANCIS COSTER. 219 
 
 Heaven ; by this word if Satan endeavoured 
 to drive Him. into — 
 
 a. The sin of pride : by causing Him to 
 
 perform a miracle, so as to prove 
 
 Himself to be the Son of God, and 
 
 thus to dispel the doubt of the querist. 
 
 ^. The sin of doubt: by causing Him to 
 
 question the declaration from Heaven ; 
 
 for Satan's if implied that God, had He 
 
 meant that Christ were His Son, would 
 
 not have left Him to starve. 
 
 II. That it does not behove us to question the 
 
 dealings of God's providence, though He suffer 
 
 us to want, nor if He refuse to hear our 
 
 petitions. Perhaps we ask for what is wrong, 
 
 unsafe, or contrary to His wiU. 
 
 Command that these stones he made bread. Here note — 
 
 1. God wills to draw us from temporal things 
 
 to things spiritual, but the devil obtrudes 
 carnal matters, to draw us from spiritual 
 things to things temporal. 
 
 2. The temptation of Christ bears some analogy to 
 
 that of our first parents. Eve was tempted 
 by the sight of the fruit which was good 
 for food, Christ by the cravings of natural 
 hunger. 
 
 3. Satan tempts us through our need for the 
 
 necessaries of life. Thus some steal, others 
 cheat, others live unchaste lives, under the 
 excuse that they do it for a livelihood. 
 
 4. If Christ by a word can change stones into bread, 
 
 l2 
 
220 FRANCIS COSTER. 
 
 can He not cliange bread into His true and 
 sacred Flesh ? 
 
 5. Satan tempts Christ to make more than was 
 
 necessary, these stones, so that He might fall 
 into the sin of gluttony. 
 
 6. Satan tempts Christ to a false humility, by 
 
 urging Him to make bread, the plainest food 
 of the poor, instead of costly viands. 
 
 7. Satan neyer offers what can satisfy. The pro- 
 
 digal son was given but the husks, and here 
 Satan presents nought but stones. 
 
 8. Christ left Satan still in doubt as to whether 
 
 He were the Son of God or not: teaching 
 us pious reserve on the subject of spiritual 
 favours. 
 And He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not 
 
 live by bread alone, hut by every word that proceedeth out 
 
 of the mouth of God. Here note — 
 
 1. Christ implies that God's power is not limited 
 
 to the means prescribed by Satan. God can 
 satisfy His own sons in ways of His own 
 devising. 
 
 2. Christ passes over the challenge. If Thou art 
 
 the Son of God, teaching us that our spiritual 
 privileges are not to be proclaimed, but rather 
 concealed, that pearls are not to be cast before 
 swine, nor the children's bread to be given to 
 dogs. 
 
 3. Christ's words imply the full inspiration of 
 
 Scripture: He says, that man shall live by 
 every word; not by the general sense. 
 
FRANCIS COSTER. 221 
 
 4. Christ's words are prophetic : they indicate the 
 
 fact that He Himself was to be the true food 
 of man, He being the Word of Grod, He to be 
 present as man's spiritual food and sustenance 
 in the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, until 
 the end of time. 
 
 5. Christ answered in the words of Scripture, 
 
 teaching us that in Scripture, as in an 
 armoury, are the weapons of our spiritual 
 warfare. The sword of the Spirit is the 
 Word of God. 
 Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city^ and 
 
 setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple ^ and saith unto 
 
 Him. Here note — 
 
 1. In the first temptation we have Satan coming 
 
 to our Blessed Lord as a man moved with 
 compassion for His famished condition. In 
 the second, he appears as an angel of light, 
 bearing Him to the holy city, as the angel 
 bore Habakkuk to Babylon, and the Spirit of 
 the Lord caught away Philip to Azotus. In 
 the third, he presents himself as a god de- 
 manding worship. 
 
 2. Christ's great love is noticeable here, in suffer- 
 
 ing Himself to be borne hither and thither, 
 whithersoever the tempter listed. So did He 
 afterwards suffer Himself to be dragged by 
 the wicked Jews from the judgment hall to 
 % Gabbatha and to Calvary. So too now does He 
 
 suffer His sacred body to be in the hands and 
 mouths of unworthy priests and lay communi- 
 L 3 
 
222 FRANCIS COSTER. 
 
 cants, and to be offered in the meanest chapel, 
 and to be carried to the filthiest hovel of the 
 sick. 
 
 3. Temptation to spiritual pride is seyere to those 
 
 who are leading a high spiritual life ; tempta- 
 tion to pride is common to all who are placed 
 in high positions, whether in Church or 
 State. 
 
 4. We must not be scandalized at the manner in 
 
 which Episcopal appointments are made, 
 whether by intrigue, or by State interference ; 
 Christ was exalted to a pinnacle of the temple 
 by the devil, and many a holy man may be 
 elevated to the dignity of the Episcopacy by 
 the vilest of means. 
 Holy city, so called because — 
 
 1. In it was the temple of God. 
 
 2. Christ was present in the city to sanctify it. 
 
 3. It was a shadow of the Heavenly Jerusalem. 
 
 If Thou he the Son of God, cast Thyself down. Note — 
 This temptation followed the other as though de- 
 duced from it. Satan implied, " You have done 
 well in showing your reliance on God ; perfect 
 your reliance, prove how complete it is." Ob- 
 serve also that — 
 1. Christ's temptation is not only to spiritual 
 pride, but also to vain- glory, in that the 
 prospect was before Him of being seen by 
 men, supported by angelic hands, and thus 
 of establishing His position as a prophet, at 
 the outstart of His ministry. 
 
FRANCIS COSTER. 223 
 
 2. Satan not only makes use of our natural wants, 
 
 but even of our virtues, as means of tempta- 
 tion ; urging us to carry them to excess. 
 But virtue consists in moderation, in neither 
 doing too much nor too little.' Thus liberality 
 lies between avarice and prodigality, and 
 compunction is the mean betwixt assurance 
 and despair. 
 
 3. Satan has no power to cast us down without 
 
 the consent of our own free wills. He may 
 urge to fall, but he cannot compel man to 
 fall. 
 
 4. Satan endeavours to cast down to earth, whilst 
 
 Christ is ever striving to draw man from 
 earth, to lead man to seek those things which are 
 above. (Col. iii. 2.) 
 
 5. We are guilty of casting ourselves down from 
 
 the pinnacle upon which we are placed, when- 
 ever— 
 
 a. We presumptuously neglect the natural 
 means of support with which God has 
 supplied us. 
 /3. We deliberately fall into sin, with the 
 purpose of expiating it afterwards by 
 confession. 
 
 7. We undertake any unprofitable task. 
 
 For a Christian should set before him 
 nothing upon which to expend his time 
 and energies but what is of utility. 
 
 8. We do evil that good may come. 
 
 For it is tvritten, He shall giue His angels charge 
 l4 
 
224 FRANCIS COSTER. 
 
 concerning Thee : and in their hands they shall hear Thee 
 upf lest at any time Thou^dash Thy foot against a stone. 
 
 I. Satan placed two dangers before our Lord : that 
 
 of being dashed to pieces, and that of commit- 
 ting a sin. 
 
 To remove the fear of either committing the 
 sin, or of exposing Himself to danger, Satan 
 quotes Scripture. He does this on two 
 grounds — 
 
 1. To exhibit himself in a favourable light, 
 
 as though he were the angel of God 
 sent to bear Christ up. 
 
 2. To remove the fear of injury, on the 
 
 authority of Scripture promises. 
 
 II. Satan endeavours to remove the prospect of 
 
 danger, so as to make the thought of commit- 
 ting the sin less alarming. For many are 
 deterred from crime by fear of its conse- 
 quences ; and if the fear be removed, then 
 they are ready to commit the sin. 
 
 Eve was prevented from disobeying God by 
 the fear of the consequences (Gen. iii. 3) ; 
 Satan removed the fear when he said. Ye 
 shall not surely die; and then at once the 
 woman fell. So when Satan removes the fear 
 of death, as something doleful to think upon, 
 when we are in health, we are ready enough 
 to sin. Whereas fear is salutary; as says 
 Scripture, To fear the Lord is the beginning of 
 wisdom. Ecclus. i. 14. 16. Matt. iii. 7. Luke 
 xii. 5. Examples of the fear of the Lord 
 
FRANCIS COSTER. 
 
 225 
 
 deterring from sin in Gren. xxxix. 9. Hist. 
 Susanna 23. 
 
 III. Satan quotes Scripture for his own vile pur- 
 poses, to screen himself under the semblance 
 of piety. We have a warning here against 
 those renegade Catholic priests and monks 
 who desert the Church and the authority of 
 the Bishops, that they may give themselves 
 up to heresy and to unclean living, sheltering 
 themselves all the while under Scripture texts 
 distorted to serve their own purposes. 
 
 ly. Satan garbles Scripture in quoting it. 
 
 1. He distorts the sense. Christ needed not 
 
 angelic hands to sustain Him, and there- 
 fore the passage is not applicable to Him, 
 but refers to His people. (Acts i. 9. 
 Heb. i. 3.) 
 
 2. He omits passages which did not suit his 
 
 purpose. The words are, They shall keep 
 Thee in all Thy tvays, i. e. in the ways of 
 God's commandments, not in breaking 
 those commands. He also omits. Thou 
 shalt go upon the lion and adder: the young 
 lion and the dragon shalt Thou tread under 
 Thy feet y because those words referred to 
 himself as overcome by Christ. 
 Y. Note also how great is the dignity of the 
 
 true servant of God, upon whom, by God's 
 
 command, the angels wait. Hence we may 
 
 learn : — 
 
 1. Not to regard ourselves as of no value, for 
 L 5 
 
226 FRANCIS COSTER. 
 
 we are so liigMy esteemed of God that 
 He commissions His own ministers to 
 attend on us. 
 
 2. To entrust ourselves altogether to their 
 
 guidance, for they will keep, us in perfect 
 peace. 
 
 3. To lead such a life as will make the angels 
 
 surround us, and be our constant attend- 
 ants. As bees swarm about a bed of 
 flowers, so will they gather around those 
 who bloom with Christian graces. Thus, 
 the Bride is spoken of as terrible as an 
 army with banners, that army of the living 
 God, the angelic hosts of chariots and 
 horses of fire surrounding the faithful. 
 Around the bed of Solomon were three- 
 score valiant men. And angels are about 
 our bed watching and protecting us. 
 Jesus said unto himy Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy 
 God. Note here that — 
 
 I. Christ does not enter into a long discussion with 
 
 the devil, but at once silences him, ]jnowing 
 his obduracy. (Tit. iii. 10.) He teaches us 
 thereby not to parley with diabolic suggestions, 
 but at once to suppress them. 
 
 II. Christ answered in the words of Scripture, to 
 
 show us how to meet the assaults of the evil 
 one ; not with weapons of our own devising, 
 but with those taken from the armoury of 
 God's Word. 
 
 III. Christ met and overcame Satan with his own 
 
FRANCIS COSTER. 227 
 
 weapon. Thus did David slay Goliatli with 
 his own sword ; thus was Haman hanged on 
 his own gallows; thus did Christ triumph at 
 the last over Satan by a tree, wherewith 
 Satan had ruined man. 
 lY. We tempt the Lord our God, whenever — 
 
 1. Presumptuously we require Him to alter 
 
 the course of nature on our behalf. 
 
 2. We rush needlessly into danger. 
 
 3. We thoughtlessly cast ourselves into prayer, 
 
 without having prepared our minds as to 
 what we shall ask. (Eccles. xviii. 23.) 
 
 4. We persevere in sin that grace may abound, 
 
 postponing repentance, stopping our ears 
 to the calls of God. 
 
 5. We tie God down to means, as the princes 
 
 of Bethulia tempted God, when they said 
 that they would give up the city in five 
 days. (Judith viii. 11.) 
 
 6. We attempt to excogitate the meaning of 
 
 Scripture, with regard to doctrine, for 
 ourselves, without following the direction 
 of our divinely-constituted and infallible 
 guide, the Church. 
 
 7. We stifle the promptings of conscience. 
 
 8. We neglect the appointed means of grace 
 
 for those of our own choosing. 
 Again the devil taketh Sim up into an exceeding high 
 motmtainj and showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world, 
 and the glory of them ; and St. Luke adds, in a moment 
 of time, 
 
 L 6 
 
228 FRANCIS COSTER. 
 
 I. Whereas St. Jolm was shown the kingdoms of 
 
 the world become the kingdom of the Lord 
 and of His Christ, in ecstatic vision, here in 
 vision are the kingdoms of the world shown 
 to Christ as bowing under the rule of Satan. 
 
 II. Note also, how that — 
 
 1. Satan exhibited all the kingdoms to tempt 
 
 Christ, whilst to tempt us one jug of 
 wine, one fair woman, one handful of 
 gold, are deemed quite sufficient. 
 
 2. Satan showed the glory of the kingdoms of- 
 
 earth, but not their emptiness, their 
 troubles, their fleetingness. 
 
 3. Satan spreads the net of ambition before 
 . those who are leading a life of high spiri- 
 tuality. Thus the Apostles, who had for- 
 saken all for Christ, yet strove amongst 
 themselves as to which of them should be 
 the greatest. (Luke xxii. 24. 2 Kings 
 xxiv. 2.) 
 
 4. Satan showed the glories of earth, not of 
 
 Heaven, trying by this temptation also 
 to withdraw Christ's mind from things 
 above to things below. 
 
 5. Satan did not show the real kingdoms, but 
 
 only a semblance of them. So he oflPers 
 us, not those things which will satisfy, 
 but things which have no substance. 
 (James iv. 14.) 
 
 Whatsoever there is in this world of 
 glory, of beauty, of majesty, is but the 
 
FRANCIS COSTER. 229 
 
 shadow of good things to come. Satan tries 
 to urge us to clasp tlie shadow, that we 
 may lose the substance. 
 6. Satan showed all in a moment of time ; we 
 learn thereby — 
 a. That his temptations come upon us with 
 
 great suddenness. 
 /3. That the things he offers us are fleeting 
 and without stability. In this world 
 nothing is enduring. (1 Cor. vii. 35.) 
 If Satan gives us what we desire, he 
 removes it from us speedily. (Ps. 
 Ixxvi. 5. Prov. xiii. 11.) 
 And saith unto Him, All these things will I give Thee, 
 if Thou wilt fall down and worship me. Here note — 
 
 I. Satan no longer says, If Thou he the Son of God, 
 for he is now pres^ting himself as God, and 
 might therefore be supposed to know all 
 things. 
 II. Note here also, that — 
 
 1. The devil's motive in tempting man is still 
 
 his unconquered pride. StiU does he 
 desire to be equal with God. But one of 
 the three things which God hateth is, 
 a poor man that is proud (Ecclus. xxv. 2) ; 
 and who is poorer than the devil, yet who 
 more proud? 
 
 2. All sin leads to the worship of Satan, 
 
 and the breach of the First Command- 
 ment. For sin is a turning from the 
 obedience of God to the bondao:e of cor- 
 
230 FRANCIS COSTER. 
 
 ruption, a leaving the kingdom of grace 
 for the slavery of sin, an electing of eternal 
 death in the realm of outer darkness in 
 place of resurrection to eternal life in the 
 kingdom of Christ. All sin leads to this, 
 for — 
 
 a. Sin must inherit death and damnation. 
 
 /3. Sins lead to infidelity. (Ps. xiv. 1. Prov. 
 xviii. 3.) 
 
 7. They make gods of mammon or the belly. 
 (Tobit iii. 3. Phil. iii. 19. Eph. v. 5.) 
 
 3. Satan is like a merchant offering wares in 
 
 exchange for souls ; like the king of 
 Sodom who said, Give me the souls, and 
 take the goods to thyself. (Gen. xiv. 21, 
 Vulg.) But what shall if profit a man, if 
 he shall gaiti Jhe whole world and lose his 
 own soul ? 
 
 4. Satan tells here three lies. 
 
 a. He claims the world and its kingdoms as 
 
 his own, whereas they belong to God. 
 
 The whole world is Mine, and all that 
 
 therein is, 
 yS. He says that he gives kingdoms to whom 
 
 he will (St. Luke) ; whereas God says. 
 
 By Me kings reign. (Prov. viii. 15. 
 
 Dan. ii. 21. John xii. 31.) 
 7. He says that he has power to bestow 
 
 things, whereas he has no such power 
 
 whatever. 
 
 5. Satan tempts Christ to fall down : and so — 
 
FRANCIS COSTER. 231 
 
 a. His deceptions have all one object : the 
 
 accomplishment of our fall. 
 /8. No man can worship Satan, without 
 falling first most grievously. 
 6. Satan begins with small temptations, and ends 
 with great ones ; begins with a matter of bread, 
 and ends with an offer of kingdoms. This 
 teaches us not to despise small temptations ; 
 they are the forerunners of greater ones, 
 the little foxes which spoil the vines. (Cant. ii. 
 15.) Give an inch, and Satan will take an ell. 
 St. Peter began his fall by mixing with bad 
 company about a fire ; he ended by denying 
 his Master with oaths and curses. 
 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan ; for 
 it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and 
 Him only shalt thou serve. 
 
 I. Hitherto Christ has answered with gentleness, 
 
 as the shafts of the devil were aimed simply 
 at Himself as man ; but now that Satan casts 
 the arrow of blasphemy against God, He is 
 kindled with zeal : thereby teaching us to 
 bear our own injuries with meekness, but 
 to resent with the flame of indignation any 
 affront offered to the majesty of God. So 
 Christ endured patiently being called a glut- 
 tonous man and a winebibber, but He was 
 fired with zeal when He saw His Father's 
 house made a house of merchandise. 
 
 II. Christ said not. Get thee behind Me, Satan ; but. 
 
 Get thee hence, Satan : for to Satan there was left 
 
 \ 
 
232 FRANCIS COSTER. 
 
 no place for repentance, whilst to Peter, all 
 that was needed was a following of Jesus in 
 His humiliations and sufferings. 
 
 III. The weapons wielded by Christ in His tempta- 
 tion, were, pure trust in God, the Word of God, 
 and hatred of the devil. 
 
 ly. It is of advantage that when we are tempted, 
 we should recognize the tempter through his 
 disguise. Temptation loses half its power 
 when it is recognized as a temptation. 
 When Christ showed Satan that He knew 
 him, at once Satan took to flight. (1 Cor. 
 xi. 14. 2 Cor. ii. 11. 1 John iii. 4.) 
 
 Y. Christ made no allusion to Satan's offer, but 
 passed at once to the condition, to show 
 us that we should not suffer his allure- 
 ments to find the smallest lodgment in our 
 minds. 
 
 YI. Christ made use of the words. Thou shalt 
 worship the Lord thy God, instead of Thou 
 shalt fear the Lord thy God, Deut. vi. 13, 
 from which He quoted, to show that in Him 
 we have passed from the bondage of fear to 
 the liberty of love, from the fear of servants 
 to the reverence of children, that we have 
 come to the perfect love of the New Covenant, 
 which casteth out fear of the Old Law. 
 
 YII. Christ teaches us that God demands worship 
 and bodily reverence, that reverence of falling 
 down on the knee which Satan asked for him- 
 self. 
 
FRANCIS COSTER. 233 
 
 VIII. Christ says not only, Thou shalt worship the 
 Lord thy God, but also, Him only shalt thou 
 serve : to teach us that bodily and spiritual 
 worship is insufficient, unless it is followed 
 by obedient service ; that acts of devotion must 
 go hand in hand with observance of the com- 
 mandments. 
 Then the devil leaveth Him, and behold angels cams and 
 tninistered unto Him. 
 
 Leaveth Him, St. Luke adds, /or <^smso« ; for Satan 
 returned to Him with provocations throughout 
 His life, and finally afflicted Him on the cross. 
 It was of his coming to Him then that Christ 
 spoke, when He said. The Prince of this world 
 Cometh, and hath nothing in Me. (John xiv. 30.) 
 It was then on the cross that Christ endured the 
 last assaults of Satan : then, when He made that 
 ofiering of a sweet-smelling savour, which, when 
 the evil spirit had smelled, he fled into the uttermost 
 parts of Egypt, and the angel hound him. (Tobit 
 viii. 3.) 
 Note here likewise that — 
 
 The devil leaveth Christ : thus does he also leave 
 
 us, after having tempted us, — 
 
 a. In the hopes of returning with seven other 
 
 spirits to take up a permanent abode in 
 
 man's heart, if found empty of the love 
 
 of Jesus. 
 
 y8. That he may plot some new form of 
 
 temptation ; retiring to gather strength. 
 
 We must use this time of freedom for 
 
234 FRANCIS COSTER. 
 
 ^ recruiting our forces and collecting addi- 
 
 tional arms of defence. 
 7. That lie may throw us off our guard, luring 
 us into false security and spiritual sloth : 
 — tempting us by his very absence. 
 Angels came and ministered unto Sim, when the tempta- 
 tion was ended. In like manner will angels minister 
 to us if we successfully resist. 
 Observe also that — 
 
 I. This brings great consolation to the religious, 
 
 who have pledged themselves to the angelic 
 life of poverty, chastity, and obedience. 
 
 1. Christ overcame the temptation of the flesh 
 
 when He rejected the offered stones. 
 
 2. Christ overcame the temptation to disobe- 
 
 dience and self-glorification when He re- 
 mained on the pinnacle of the temple in- 
 stead of showing a form of will-tvorship and 
 voluntary humility by casting Himself down. 
 And so should religious occupy any position 
 to which their superior appoints them with- 
 out seeking to desert it. 
 
 3. Christ overcame the temptation to avarice 
 
 when He rejected the offered kingdoms of 
 the world : electing rather, poverty. 
 
 II. Angelic consolation follows retirement: the 
 
 angels ministered to Christ in the wilderness. 
 It follows victory over temptation : the angels 
 ministered to Christ when the temptation was 
 ended. 
 
 III. Conflict with Satan does not lead to conquest : 
 
FRANCIS COSTER. 235 
 
 Christ took no spoils by His triumph. It is 
 rather the victory of successful defence, of 
 having lost nothing in the struggle, not of 
 having gained aught. 
 
 Now I ask any candid person whether this is not a 
 marvellous sermon, abounding in thought, overflowing 
 with suggestions ? Having read it, will he take up 
 Scott, or Matthew Henry, or D'Oyly and Mant, and see 
 what those luminaries have to say on the passage of 
 Scripture thus wrought out by the Jesuit preacher ? 
 
 I have not the least doubt as to the opinion he will 
 form on the contrast. 
 
 We may truly say of the majority of Protestant com- 
 mentators, that — Their minds are blinded : for until this 
 day remaineth the veil — upon their heart — in the reading of 
 the Old, or New, Testament. This is more applicable, 
 of course, to foreign reformed theologians — if I may use 
 the term theologian of those who are ignorant of the 
 first principles of theology — than to our own divines. 
 The English Church has always studied the Fathers, and 
 has loved them ; there is no great gulf fixed between 
 us and the Mediaevals, as there is between the Church 
 and Protestant sectaries, and gleams of patristic light 
 are reflected in the pages of our great divines. But 
 there are commentators among us, such as Scott, who, 
 scorning the master- expositors of early and Mediaeval 
 days, go to the study of God's Word with the veil of 
 their self-sufficiency on their hearts, and become hope- 
 lessly involved in heresy. 
 
 Scott affords us a melancholy example of a mistaken 
 
236 FRANCIS COSTER. 
 
 vocation. A commentator on Holy Scripture should be 
 a man of profound theological learning, and of great 
 intellectual power. Scott, a most amiable and pious 
 clergyman, was neither a well-read man, nor were his 
 abilities at all above par. His voluminous Commentary 
 is accordingly, though overflowing with pious senti- 
 ment, of small theological value. 
 
 Protestant clergy commenting on Scripture, amidst 
 the bustle of their ministerial avocations and their con- 
 nubial distractions, without referring to the great works 
 of early and Mediaeval theologians, whose whole lives 
 were spent in prayer and Scriptural studies, stand the 
 chance of blundering as grossly as would a farm la- 
 bourer if he undertook to excogitate, for himself, a 
 system of astronomy, without reference to any treatises 
 on the science already existing, or qualifying himself 
 for the study, by a mastery of the rule of three, but 
 regarded with unmitigated contempt all the disco- 
 veries made by those who have spent their lives in the 
 exclusive study of the stars, and rejected as useless all 
 the appliances of art invented to facilitate this investi- 
 gation. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Absurd sermons, 18—21. 70 — 73 
 
 Alberti, Leander, 19 
 
 Anecdotes 
 
 of F. de Neuilly, 11 
 
 told by Balzac, 12 
 
 of Cambridge preacher, 43, 44 
 
 of Franciscan preacher, 44 
 
 of Chaussemer, 45 
 
 of the Pere Seraphim, 45 
 
 of Felix trembling, 47, 48 
 
 of a long sermon, 55 
 
 of Jerome de Narni, 57 
 
 of St. John Capistran, 57 
 
 of a pubUc confession, 57 
 
 of a usurer, 68 
 
 of the Devil preaching, 81 
 
 of Hannibal, 143 
 
 Bequest to Apollo, 13 
 Birds, 29—31 
 Bon-mots, 15, 16 
 
 Catholic preachers, 23 — 25 
 Classical allusions, 13, 14. 192 
 Commentators, 39. 235, 236 
 Conclusions, 56 
 
 D'Oyly and Mant, 40. 235 
 
 Effects produced by sermons, 56 — 
 
 58 
 Exordium, 13. 45—47 
 
 Flowers, 81—33 
 Friar-preachers, 17 
 
 Gratian de Drusac, 79 
 
 Henry IV., 16 
 Horee Homileticse, 54 
 
 James I., 43 
 
 Lapide, Cornelius a, 156 
 Lapide, Joannes de, 83 
 Lengthy sermon, 55 
 Louis XIV., 45 
 Love of nature, 28 —33 
 
 Mademoiselle d'Entragues, 16 
 Marginal notes, 12 
 Mariolatry, 27- 84 
 Mystical interpretations, 37 — 43. 
 85. 124. 141. 187 
 
 Natural history, 84. 88. 94-97. 
 
 139 
 Nature, love of, 28—33 
 
 Oblates, 161 
 
 Open-air sermons, 11. 17 
 
 Parker, Matthew, 9 
 Preachers, 
 
 Adrien Mangotius, 59, 60 
 
 Alfric, 10 
 
 Ambrose, St., 8 
 
 Andrew of Crete, St., 10 
 
 Andre, le Pere, 15 
 
 Andrewes, Bp., 60 
 
 Ange de Rouen, 19 
 
 Antonio Vieyra, 60 
 
 Athanasius, St., 7 
 
 Augustine, St., 8 
 
 Barlette, Gabriel, 16. 19, 20 
 
238 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Preachers (continued) 
 
 Barzia, Joseph de, 27. 33. 134 
 
 —154. 178 
 Basil, St., 8 
 Basil of Seleucia, 9 
 Bede, the Venerable, 1 
 Biel, Gabriel, 12. 61—68 
 Borgia, Francis, 132 
 Bourdaloue, 60 
 Brydaine, Jacques, 45—47 
 Csesarius of Aries, St., 9 
 Camus, Bp. of Belley, 14 
 Capistran, St. John, 57 
 Celles, Peter of, 43 
 Chrysostom, St., 8 
 Claude, 54 
 
 Clement of Alexandria, St., 7 
 Coster, Francis, 206—236 
 Cyprian, St., 7. 8 
 Damascene, St. John, 10 
 Deza, Maximilian, 192-205 
 Ephraem Syrus, St., 7 
 Eucher, St., 9 
 Faber, Matthias, 31. 49—54. 
 
 100—115 
 Foulque de Neuilly, 1 1 
 Geminiano, John, 58, 69. 145 
 Gonthier, le Pere, 16 
 Granada, Louis of, 12 
 Gregory the Great, St., 8 
 Gregory Nazianzen, St., 8 
 Guerin, le Pere, 15 
 Guevara, Antonio de, Bp. of 
 
 Mondoneda, 56 
 Harphius, Henry, 22. 158 
 Harrone, le Pere d', 60 
 Hartung, Philip von, 29. 43. 
 
 116—133 
 Helmesius, 26. 135 
 Imbert, Father, 19 
 Kempis, St. Thomas a, 22 
 Konigstein, 25 
 Labat, 17 
 
 Langton, Stephen, 43 
 Latimer, Hugh, 60 
 Leo, St., 8 
 Macarii, the, 7 
 Maillard, Oliver, 12, 13. 43. 
 
 70 
 Marchant, Jacques, 40. 136. 
 
 155—176 
 Meffreth, 70. 81—99 
 
 Preachers {continued) 
 
 Menot, Michael, 21. 70 
 
 Narni, Jerome de, 56 
 
 Narni, Philip de, 12 
 
 Neuilly, Foulque de, 11 
 
 Origen, 7 
 
 Osorius, John, 33, 34. 177— 
 191 
 
 Pantsenus, St., 7 
 
 Paoletti, 56 
 
 Polygranus, 26 
 
 Raulin, Jean, 69—80 
 
 Salvian, 9 
 
 Satan, 81 
 
 Savonarola, 12 
 
 Segneri, Paolo, 60. 134. 194 
 
 Simeon, Mr., 54, 55 
 
 Stella, 39, 40 
 
 Turricremata, John, 22 
 
 Valerian of Cemele, 9 
 
 Venerable Bede, 10 
 
 Vieyra, Antonio, 60 
 
 Wulfstan of York, 10 
 Protestant preachers, 23 — 25 
 Proverbs, 114, 115 
 
 Relation between Nature and Re- 
 velation, 28, 29 
 
 Scott the commentator, 89. 235, 236 
 Scriptural illustrations, 34. 37 
 Sermons for, — 
 
 First Sunday in Advent, 198— 
 
 202 
 Christmas Day, 14. 25 
 St. John's Day, 163, 164 
 Sunday after Christmas Day, 
 
 148—153 
 Epiphany, 70—73 
 First Sunday after Epiphany, 
 
 107—110. 119 — 125 
 Sexagesima, 85 — 87 
 Septuagesima, 64 — 68 
 Ash-Wednesday, 194—198 
 First Sunday in Lent, 213 — 
 
 236 
 Fourth Sunday in Lent, 103— 
 
 107 
 Palm Sunday, 111—113 
 Good Friday, 169—171 
 Easter Day, 110, 111 
 Easter Monday, 172, 173 
 
INDEX. 
 
 239 
 
 Sermons for 
 
 Low Sunday, 172, 173 
 
 Easter Tide, 161—167 
 
 Second Sunday after Easter, 
 126—131 
 
 Ascension Day, 173 — 176' 
 186, 187 
 
 Trinity Sunday, 181—185 
 
 Second Sunday after Trinity, 
 88—93 
 
 Fifth Sunday after Trinity, 
 140—144 
 
 Sixth Sunday after Trinity, 
 144—147 
 
 Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity, 
 29-33 
 
 Eighteenth Sunday after Tri- 
 nity, 137—140 
 
 Twentieth Sunday after Tri- 
 nity, 36, 37 
 
 Feast of 
 
 St. Andrew, 198—202 
 The Purification of our Lady, 
 
 27, 28. 148—153 
 The Annunciation, 28 
 St. Peter, 1 4 
 St. James, 189—191 
 Transfiguration of our Lord, 
 
 49—54 
 Nativity of our Lady, 28 
 Name of Mary, 17 
 Similes, 22, 23. 34. 74. 113, 114. 
 
 139, 140. 142. 181—186 
 Subjects of sermons, 47 — 54 
 Sermon on 
 
 Birds, 29. 31 
 
 Danger of neglecting trifling 
 faults, 137—140 
 
 Example, bad, 148—153 
 
 Elect, small number of, 36, 37 
 
 Flowers, 31—33 
 
 Subjects of Sermons (continued) 
 Sermon on 
 
 Heaven, 126—131 
 Hell, 119—125 
 Judgment, 198—205 
 Resurrection of Lazarus, 186 — 
 
 189 
 Shortness of life, 194 -198 
 Sower, parable of, 85 — 87 
 Supper, parable of, 88—93 
 Temptation, 213—235 
 Uncertainty of our future con- 
 dition, 153, 154 
 Vanity of the work of sinners, 
 
 140 — 144 
 Wounded Side, 169-171 
 
 Tales related in sermons, 75 
 
 Beasts at penance, 75 
 
 Toad and bis son, 77 
 
 Widow and her servant, 78 
 
 Hermit and the way of safety, 
 79,80 
 
 Mice in the larder, 94, 95 
 
 Poor Robin, 97, 98 
 
 Hermit and the olive-tree, 98 
 
 Priest and capon, 99 
 
 Crab and oyster, 139 
 
 Hannibal, 143 
 
 Women and the clew of wool, 
 146 
 
 Children and the child Jesus, 
 209 
 
 Priest and the acolyte, 211 
 Texts, strange, 13. 43 — 45 
 
 Unction, 84 
 
 Viaud, Theophilus, 15 
 Violent denunciations, 
 Vitry, Jacques de, 1 1 
 
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JW^ssrs. Bibfngton^a i^cto ^ubltcations 21 
 
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i^easrs. IRibington's ^tto ^ulilications 25 
 
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 ham College. 
 
 [Vol. I. Books I. and II. with Introductions. 6s. 
 
 DEMOSTHENIS ORATIONES PUBLICAE, 
 Edited by G. H. Heslop, M.A. late Fellow and Assistant Tutor 
 of Queen's College, Oxford. Head Master of St. Bees. 
 
 [Parts I. & II. The Olynthiacs and the Philippics. 4?. 6d. 
 
 ARISTOPHANIS COMOEDIAE, 
 Edited by W. C. Green, M.A. late Fellow of King's College, 
 Cambridge. Classical Lecturer at Queens' College. 
 
 [Part I. The Acharnians and the Knights. 4-J'. 
 [Part II. The Clouds. 3s. dd. 
 [Part III. The Wasps, y. 6d. 
 
 ISOCRATIS ORATIONES, 
 Edited by John Edwin Sandys, B.A. Fellow and Lecturer of 
 St. John's College, and Lecturer at Jesus College, Cambridge. 
 [Part I. Ad Demonicum et Panegyricus. ^. dd. 
 A PERSII FLACCI SATIRARUM LIBER, 
 Edited by A. Pretor, M.A., of Trinity College, Cambridge, 
 Classical Lecturer of Trinity Hall. ^s. 6d. 
 
28 
 
 JHessrg. laiblngton'a ^tto ^ubltcations 
 
 CA TEN A CLA SSICOR UM— Opinions of the Press. 
 
 Mr. JebVs Sophocles. 
 
 " Of Mr. Jebb's scholarly edition of 
 the 'Electra' of Sophocles we cannot 
 speak too highly. The whole Play 
 bears evidence of the taste, learning, 
 and fine scholarship of its able editor. 
 Illustrations drawn from the literature 
 of the Continent as well as of England, 
 and the researches of the highest clas- 
 sical authorities are embodied in the 
 notes, which are brief, clear, and 
 always to the point." — Lofidon Re- 
 view, March i6, 1867. 
 
 "The editorship of the work before 
 us is of a very high order, displaying 
 at once ripe scholarship, sound judg- 
 ment, and conscientious care. An ex- 
 cellent Introduction gives an account 
 of the various forms assumed in Greek 
 literature by the legend upon which 
 ' The Electra ' is founded, and institutes 
 a comparison between it and the 
 * Choephorae ' of .i^schylus. The text 
 is mainly that of Dindorf In the notes, 
 •which are admirable in every respect, 
 is to be found exactly what is wanted, 
 and yet they rather suggest and direct 
 further inquiry than supersede exertion 
 on the part of the student." — Athe- 
 nceum. 
 
 "The Introduction proves that Mr. 
 Jebb is something more than a mere 
 scholar, — a man of real taste and 
 feeling. His criticism upon Schlegel's 
 remarks on the Electra are, we believe, 
 new, and certainly just. As we have 
 often had occasion to say in this Review, 
 it is impossible to pass any reliable 
 criticism upon school-bcoks until they 
 have been tested by experience. The 
 notes, however, in this case appear to 
 be clear and sensible, and direct at- 
 tention to the points where attention is 
 most needed. " — Westminster Revietu. 
 
 "We have no hesitation in saying 
 that in style and manner Mr. Jebb's 
 notes are admirably suited for their 
 
 purpose. The explanations of gram- 
 matical points are singularly lucid, the 
 parallel passages generally well chosen, 
 the translations bright and graceful, 
 the analysis of arguments terse and 
 luminous. Mr. Jebb has clearly shown 
 that he possesses some of the quahties 
 most essential for a commentator." — 
 Spectator 
 
 "The notes appear to us exactly 
 suited to assist boys of the Upper 
 Forms at Schools, and University 
 students ; they give sufficient help 
 
 without over-doing explanations 
 
 His critical remarks show acute and 
 exact scholarship, and a very useful 
 addition to ordinary notes is the scheme 
 of metres in the choruses." — Guardian. 
 
 "If, as we are fain to believe, the 
 editors of the Catena Classicorum 
 have got together such a pick of 
 scholars as have no need to play their 
 best card first, there is a bright promise 
 of success to their series in the first 
 sample of it which has come to hand 
 —Mr. Jebb's ' Electra.' We have seen 
 it suggested that it is unsafe to pro- 
 nounce on the merits of a Greek Play 
 edited for educational purposes until it 
 has been tested in the hands of pupils 
 and tutors. But our examination of the 
 instalment of, we hope, a complete 
 ' Sophocles,' which Mr. Jebb has put 
 forth, has assured . us that this is a 
 needless suspension of judgment, and 
 prompted us to commit the justifiable 
 rashness of pronouncing upon its con- 
 tents, and of asserting after due perusal 
 that it is calculated to be admirably 
 serviceable to every class of scholars 
 and learners. And this assertion is 
 based upon the fact that it is a by no 
 means one-sided edition, and that it 
 looks as with the hundred eyes of 
 Argus, here, there, and everywhere, to 
 keep the reader from straying. In a 
 
 IContion, ^iforXf, antr Cambridge 
 
JW:essrs. Bi&ington'a i^eb) ^uftUcatfons 
 
 29 
 
 CA TEN A CLA SSICOR UM— Opinions of the Press. 
 
 concise and succinct style of English 
 annotation, forming the best substitute 
 for the time-honoured Latin notes which 
 had so much to do with making good 
 scholars in days of yore, Mr. Jebb 
 keeps a steady eye for all questions of 
 grammar, construction, scholarship, and 
 philology, and handles these as they 
 arise with a helpful and sufficient pre- 
 cision. In matters of grammar and 
 syntax his practice for the most part is 
 to refer his reader to the proper section 
 of Madvig's 'Manual of Greek Syn- 
 tax :' nor does he ever waste space 
 and time in explaining a construction, 
 unless it be such an one as is not satis- 
 factorily dealt with in the grammars 
 of Madvig or Jelf Experience as a 
 pupil and a teacher has probably taught 
 him the value of the wholesome task 
 of hunting out a grammar reference 
 for oneself, instead of finding it, handy 
 for slurring over, amidst the hundred 
 and one pieces of information in a 
 voluminous foot-note. But whenever 
 there occurs any peculiarity ■ of con- 
 struction, which is hard to reconcile 
 
 to the accepted usage, it is Mr. Jebb's 
 general practice to be ready at hand 
 with manful assistance."— Cowi'^wz/t?- 
 rary Review. 
 
 "Mr. Jebb has produced a work 
 which will be read with interest and 
 profit by the most advanced scholar, 
 as it contains, in a compact form, not 
 only a careful summary of the labours 
 of preceding editors, but also many 
 acute and ingenious original remarks. 
 We do not know whether the matter 
 or the manner of this excellent com- 
 mentary is deserving of the higher 
 praise : the skill with which Mr. Jebb 
 has avoided, on the one hand, the 
 wearisome prolixity of the Germans, 
 and on the other the jejune brevity of 
 the Porsonian critics, or the versatility 
 which has enabled him in turn to 
 elucidate the plots, to explain the 
 verbal difficulties, and to illustrate the 
 idioms of his author. All this, by a 
 studious economy of space and a re- 
 markable precision of expression, he 
 has done for the 'Ajax' in a volume 
 of some 200 pages," — Athenceurn. 
 
 . Mr. Simcox^ s Juvenal. 
 
 " Of Mr. Simcox's ' Juvenal ' we can 
 only speak in terms of the highest com- 
 mendation, as a simple, unpretending 
 work, admirably adapted to the wants 
 of the school-boy or of a college pass- 
 man. It is clear, concise, and scru- 
 pulously honest in shirking no real 
 difficulty. The pointed epigrammatic 
 hits of the satirist are every where well 
 brought out, and the notes really are 
 what they profess to be, explanatory in 
 the best sense of the term." — London 
 Review. 
 
 " This is a link in the Catena Classt- 
 corum to which the attention of our 
 readers has been more than once di- 
 rected as a good Series of Classical 
 works for School and College purposes. 
 The Introduction is a very comprehen- 
 sive and able account of Juvenal, his 
 
 satires, and the manuscripts."— yi^^- 
 nceutn. 
 
 "This is a very original and en- 
 joyable Edition of one of our favourite 
 classics."^ — Spectator. 
 
 " Every class of readers— those who 
 use Mr. Simcox as their sole inter- 
 preter, and those who supplement 
 larger editions by his concise matter 
 — will alike find interest and careful 
 research in his able Preface. This 
 indeed we should call the great feature 
 of his book. The three facts which 
 sum up Juvenal's history so far as we 
 know it are soon despatched ; but the 
 internal evidence both as to the dates 
 of his writing and publishing his Sa- 
 tires, and as to his character as a 
 writer, occupy some fifteen or twenty 
 pages, which will repay methodical 
 study." — Churckfnan. 
 
 ILontfon, ©xfortj, antr ^Tamfiri^ge 
 
30 
 
 i^cssrs. IRiiJington'a i^^to ^tt{)licat(ons 
 
 CATENA CLASSICORUM— Opinions of the Press, 
 
 Mr. Bigg's Thucydides. 
 
 " Mr. Bigg in his ' Thucydides ' 
 prefixes an analysis to each book, and 
 an admirable introduction to the whole 
 work, containing full information as to 
 all that is known or related of Thucy- 
 dides, and the date at which he wrote, 
 followed by a very masterly critique on 
 some of his characteristics as a writer." 
 — A thencputn. 
 
 " While disclaiming absolute ori- 
 ginality in his book, Mr. Bigg has so 
 thoroughly digested the works of so 
 many eminent predecessors in the same 
 field, and is evidently on terms of such 
 intimacy with his author as perforce 
 to inspire confidence. A well-pondered 
 and well-written introduction has formed 
 a part of each link in the ' Catena ' 
 hitherto published, and Mr. Bigg, in 
 addition to a general introduction, 
 has given us an essay on ' Some Cha- 
 racteristics of Thucydides,' which no 
 one can read without being impressed 
 
 with the learning and judgment brought 
 to bear on the subject." — Standard. 
 
 " We need hardly say that these 
 books are carefully edited ; the reputa- 
 tion of the editor is an assurance on 
 this point. If the rest of the history is 
 edited with equal care, it must become 
 the standard book for school and 
 college purposes. " — John Bull. 
 
 " Mr. Bigg first discusses the facts 
 of the life of Thucydides, then passes 
 to an examination into the date at 
 which Thucydides wrote ; and in the 
 third section expatiates on some cha- 
 racteristics of Thucydides. These 
 essays are remarkably well written, 
 are judicious in their opinions, and 
 are calculated to give the student much 
 insight into the work of Thucydides, 
 and its relation to his own times, and to 
 the works of subsequent historians." — 
 Musewn. 
 
 Mr. Heslofs Demosthenes, 
 
 " The usual introduction has in this 
 case been dispensed with. The reader 
 is referred to the works of Grote and 
 Thirlwall for information on such 
 points of history as arise out of these 
 famous orations, and on points of 
 critical scholarship to ' Madvig's 
 Grammar,' where that is available, 
 while copious acknowledgments are 
 made to those commentators on whose 
 works Mr. Heslop has based his own. 
 Mr. Heslop's editions are, however, 
 no mere compilations. That the points 
 required in an oratorical style differ 
 materially from those in an historical 
 style, will scarcely be questioned, and 
 accordingly we find that Mr. Heslop 
 has given special care to those cha- 
 racteristics of style as well as of lan- 
 guage, which constitute Demosthenes 
 the very first of classic orators."— 
 Standard. 
 
 "We must call attention to New 
 Editions of various classics, in the 
 excellent ' Catena Classicorum ' series. 
 The reputation and high standing of the 
 editors are the best guarantees for the 
 accuracy and scholarship of the notes." 
 — Westminster Review. 
 
 " The notes are thoroughly good, so 
 far as they go. Mr. Heslop has care- 
 fully digested the best foreign com- 
 mentaries, and his notes are for the most 
 part judicious extracts from them."— 
 Mjiseum. 
 
 "The annotations are scarcely less to 
 be commended for the exclusion of 
 superfluous matter than for the excel- 
 lence of what is supplied. Well-known 
 works are not quoted, but simply re- 
 ferred to, and information which ought 
 to have been previously acquired is 
 omitted." — A thettcBum. 
 
 mon^on, ^xforU, an^ ©ambriXfge 
 
iWeasrs. IRibinQton's i^eto publications 
 
 .^« 
 
 CA TEN A CLA SSICOR UM— Opinions of the Press, 
 Mr. GreerHs Aristophanes. 
 
 "The Editors of this Series have 
 undertaken the task of issuing texts 
 of all the authors commonly read, and 
 illustrating them with an English Com- 
 mentary, compendious as well as clear. 
 If the future volumes fulfil the promise 
 of the Prospectus as well as those 
 already published, the result will be 
 a verj' valuable work. The excellence 
 of the print, and the care and pains 
 bestowed upon the general getting up, 
 form a marked contrast to the school- 
 books of our own day. Who does 
 not remember the miserable German 
 editions of classical authors in paper 
 covers, execrably printed on detestable 
 paper, which were thought amply good 
 enough for the school-boys of the last 
 generation ? A greater contrast to 
 these can hardly be imagined than is 
 presented by the Catena Classicoruin. 
 Nor is the improvement only external : 
 the careful revision of the text, and 
 the notes, not too lengthy and con- 
 fused, but well and judiciously selected, 
 which are to be found in every page, 
 add considerably to the value of this 
 Edition, which we may safely predict 
 will soon be an established favourite, 
 not only among Schoolmasters, but 
 at the Universities. The volume before 
 us contains the first part of an Edition 
 of Aristophanes which comprises the 
 Acharnians and the Knights, the one 
 first in order, and the other the most 
 famous of the plays of the great Athe- 
 nian Satirist." — Churchman. 
 
 "The utmost care has been taken 
 with this Edition of the most sarcastic 
 and clever of the old Greek dramatists, 
 facilitating the means of understanding 
 both the text and intention of that 
 biting sarcasm which will never lose 
 either point or interest, and is as well 
 adapted to the present age as it was 
 to the times when first put forward." — 
 BelVs Weekly Messenger. 
 
 "The advantages conferred on the 
 learner by these compendious aids can 
 only be properly estimated by those 
 who had experience of the mode of 
 study years ago. The translated pas- 
 sages and the notes, while sufficient 
 
 to assist the willing learner, cannot be 
 regarded in any sense as a cram."— 
 Clerical Journal. 
 
 "Mr. Green has discharged his part 
 of the work with uncommon skill and 
 ability. The notes show a thorough 
 study of the two Plays, an independent 
 judgment in the interpretation of the 
 poet, and a wealth of illustration, from 
 which the Editor draws whenever it is 
 necessary. " — Museum. 
 
 "Mr. Green presumes the existence 
 of a fair amount of scholarship in all 
 who read Aristophanes, as a study of 
 his works generally succeeds to some 
 considerable knowledge of the tragic 
 poets. The notes he has appended are 
 therefore brief, perhaps a little too brief. 
 We should say the tendency of most 
 modern editors is rather the other way ; 
 but Mr. Green no doubt knows the 
 class for which he writes, and has been 
 careful to supply their wants." — Spec- 
 tator. 
 
 "Mr. Green's admirable Introduction 
 to 'The Clouds' of the celebrated 
 comic poet deserves a careful perusal, 
 as it contains an accurate analysis and 
 many original comments on this re- 
 markable play. The text is prefaced 
 by a table of readings of Dindorf and 
 Meineke, which will be of great service 
 to students who wish to indulge in 
 verbal criticism. The notes are copious 
 and lucid, and the volume will be found 
 useful for school and college purposes, 
 and admirably adapted for private 
 reading. " — Examiner. 
 
 "Mr. Green furnishes an excellent 
 Introduction to 'The Clouds' of 
 Aristophanes, explaining the circum- 
 stances under which it was produced, 
 and ably discussing the probable object 
 of the author in writing it, which he 
 considers to have been to put down 
 the Sophists, a class whom Aristo- 
 phanes thought dangerous to the morals 
 of the community, and therefore ca- 
 ricatured in the person of Socrates, — 
 not unnaturally, though irreverently, 
 choosing him as their representative." 
 — A thencEum. 
 
 IContfon, ^xfortr, antJ €^amliriUge 
 
» Jttesgrs. ^(bington's i^tJu publications 
 
 CATENA CLASSICORUM. 
 The following Parts are in course of preparation:— 
 
 Edited by Alfred Barry, D.D. late Fellow of Trinity College, 
 Cambridge, Principal of King's College, London. 
 
 DEMOSTHENIS ORATIONES PUBLICAE, 
 Edited by G. H. Heslop, M.A. late Fellow and Assistant Tutor 
 of Queen's College, Oxford. Head Master of St. Bees. 
 
 [Part III. De Falsa Legatipne. 
 
 MARTIALIS EPIGRAMMATA, 
 Edited by George Butler, M.A. Principal of Liverpool College ; 
 late Fellow of Exeter College, Oxford. 
 
 DEMOSTHENIS ORATIONES PRIVATAE, 
 
 Edited by Arthur Holmes, M.A. Fellow and Lecturer of Clare 
 College, Cambridge. [Part I. De Corona. 
 
 HOMERI ILIAS, 
 
 Edited by S. H. Reynolds, M.A. Fellow and Tutor of Brasenose 
 
 . College, Oxford. [Vol. I. Books I. to XII. 
 
 Edited by J, M. Marshall, M.A. Fellow and late Lecturer of 
 Brasenose College, Oxford. One of the Masters in Clifton 
 College. 
 
 TERENTI COMOEDIAE, 
 
 Edited by T. L. P apillon, M. A. Fellow and Classical Lecturer of 
 Merton College, Oxford. 
 
 HERODOTI HISTORIA, 
 Edited by H. G. Woods, M.A. Fellow and Tutor of Trinity 
 College, Oxford. 
 
 TACITI HISTORIAE, 
 Edited by W. H. Simcox, M.A. Fellow and Lecturer of Queen's 
 College, Oxford. 
 
 4.^ 
 
y\ 
 
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