Part 28

We raedadh be dham witegan Heliam, thaet englas hine feredon on heofonlicum craete, fordhan dhe seo untrumnys his gecyndes behofode sumes byrdhres. Ure Alysend Crist naes geferod mid craete ne dhurh engla fultum; fordhan se dhe ealle dhing geworhte, he waes geferod mid his agenre mihte ofer ealle gesceafta. Se aerra man Enoh waes geferod to lyftenre heofonan, and Helias waes mid craete up-awegen; ac se Aelmihtiga Haelend naes gefered ne awegen, ac he dhurhferde dha roderlican heofonan thurh his agene mihte.

Us is to smeagenne hu seo claennys waes dheonde geond tha geferedan dhenas, and thurh dhone astigendan Haelend. Enoh waes geferod, sedhe waes mid haemede gestryned, and mid haemede waes strynende. Helias waes on craete geferod, sedhe waes thurh haemed gestryned, ac he ne strynde thurh haemed, fordhan dhe he wunade on his life butan wife. Se Haelend astah to heofonum, sedhe naes mid haemede gestryned, ne he sylf strynende naes; fordhan dhe he is ord and anginn ealra claennyssa, and him is seo claennys swidhe lufigendlic maegen, thaet he geswutulode dhadha he geceas him maeden-mann to meder. And eall se halga heap dhe him fyligde waes on claennysse wunigende, swa swa he cwaedh sumum godspelle, "Se dhe to me cymdh, ne maeg he beon min leorning-cniht, buton he his wif hatige."

Se godspellere Marcus awr['a]t on dhisum godspelle, thaet ure Drihten, aefter his upstige, saete on his Faeder swidhran hand; and se forma martyr Stephanus cwaedh, thaet he gesawe {310} heofonas opene, and dhone Haelend standan on his Faeder swidhran. Nu cwydh se trahtnere, "Thaet rihtlice is gecweden, thaet he saete aefter his upstige, fordhan dhe deman gedafnadh setl." Crist is se sodha dema, the demdh and toscaet ealle dhing, nu and eac on dham endenextan daege. Se martyr hine geseah standan, fordhan dhe h['e] waes his gefylsta on dhaere dhrowunge his martyrdomes, and dhurh his gife he waes gebyld ongean dha redhan ehteras, dhe hine waelhreowlice staendon.

Se ende is dhises godspelles, Thaet Cristes apostoli "ferdon and bodedon gehwaer, Drihtne samod wyrcendum, and dha spraece getrymmendum mid aefterfyligendum tacnum." Tha apostoli, thaet sind Godes bydelas, toferdon geond ealne middangeard. Petrus bodade on Iudea-lande, Paulus on haedhenum folce, Andreas on Scithia, Iohannes on Asia, Bartholomeus on India, Matheus on Ethiopia, and swa heora gehwilc on his daele, and Godes miht him waes mid, to gefremminge heora bodunga and ungerimra tacna; fordhan dhe Crist cwaedh, "Ne mage ge n['a]n dhing d['o]n butan me." Eft he cwaedh, "Ic beo mid eow eallum dagum, odh thisre worulde geendunge," sedhe lyfadh and rixadh mid tham Aelmihtigan Faeder and dham Halgum Gaste ['a] on ecnysse. Amen.

SERMON ON THE LORD'S ASCENSION.

Primum quidem sermonem feci: et reliqua.

Luke the Evangelist has informed us in this epistolary reading, thus saying, "Jesus, the Redeemer of the world, showed himself living to his disciples, after his passion and his resurrection, by many reproofs, for forty days, and spake to them concerning the kingdom of God, eating and drinking together with them: and commanded them that they should not depart from the city of Jerusalem, but that they should await there the promise of his Father which (he said) ye have heard from my mouth. For John the Baptist baptized with water, and ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost now after a few days. The assembly of his disciples therefore said unanimously, Beloved Lord, wilt thou now put an end to this world? He answered them, It is not for you to know the time or the moment which my Father hath appointed through his might: but ye shall receive the might of the Holy Ghost, and ye shall be my witnesses in Judea, and in all the world, unto the uttermost land. And he led them then out of the city up to a hill which is called the mount of Olives, and blessed them with uplifted hands. Then after {297} that blessing he went to heaven, they looking on; and a heavenly cloud descended towards him, and took him from their sight."

"While they stood gazing up to heaven, they saw there two angels in white garments, thus saying, Ye Galilean men, why stand ye thus gazing towards heaven? Jesus, who is now taken from your sight to heaven, shall so come again as ye have seen that he ascended to heaven. They then returned to the city of Jerusalem with great joy, and went up on an upper flooring, and there stayed till Pentecost in prayers and in praises of God, until the Holy Ghost came to them, as the noble King had before promised them."

"In this fellowship were Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, the other James and Simon, the other Judas and Mary the mother of Jesus, and several others, both men and women. The whole multitude was an hundred and twenty persons, unanimously continuing in prayers."

Jesus taught the holy lore to his disciples before his passion, and after his resurrection he was continuing among them these forty days, from the holy Easter-tide until this present day, and in many ways reproved and tried his disciples, and repeated that which he had before taught, for the perfection of doctrine and right faith. He ate and drank after his resurrection, not because he then had need of earthly food, but because he would manifest his true body. He ate through power, not for need. As fire consumes drops of water, so did the divine power of Christ consume the received meat. Verily after the universal resurrection our bodies will require no strengthening of earthly meats, for Jesus will supply all our needs with heavenly things, and we shall be enriched with glory, and mighty to execute whatsoever is pleasing to us, and we shall be full swift to go through all the immensities of the kingdom of God.

{299} He promised to his disciples then and frequently that he would send to them the Holy Ghost, and thus said, "When he comes he will stimulate and direct you to all the things which I have said unto you." Then came the Holy Ghost in semblance of fire to the holy company on the eleventh day after Christ's ascension, and inflamed them all with innoxious fire, and they were filled with heavenly lore, and knew all worldly tongues, and fearlessly preached faith and baptism to the powerful and cruel.

The holy company asked Christ, whether he would at that time put an end to this world. He said to them in answer, "It is not for you to know the time which my Father hath through his power appointed." He said also in another place, "No man knoweth the day or the time of the ending of this world, nor the angels, nor any saint, save God only." Yet by the tokens which Christ mentioned, we see that the ending is very near at hand, though it be unknown to us.

The apostles were witnesses of Christ's works, for they preached his passion, and his resurrection, and ascension, first to the Jewish people, and afterwards their voice came to every land, and their words to the boundaries of the whole globe; for they recorded the miracles of Christ, and the books exist among christian people, both where the apostles bodily preached, and where they did not come.

All creatures serve their Creator. When Christ was born, heaven sent forth a new star, which announced the birth of God. Again, when he ascended to heaven, the heavenly cloud bowed down towards him, and received him: not that the cloud bare him, for he holds the throne of heaven, but he passed with the cloud from the sight of men. There were seen two angels in white garments. In like manner at his birth angels were seen; but the holy gospel has not explained how they were adorned; for God came to us very humble. At his ascension were seen angels adorned with white garments. Joy is betokened by white garments, for {301} Christ departed hence with great joy and with great majesty. At his birth it seemed as though the Godhead were humbled, and at his ascension humanity was exalted and magnified. With his ascension is annulled the writ of our condemnation, and the sentence of our destruction is abrogated.

When Adam had sinned, the Almighty Ruler said to him, "Thou art earth, and thou shalt to earth return. Thou art dust, and thou shalt return to dust." Now to-day that same nature went incorruptible into the kingdom of heaven. The two angels said that Christ would come as he ascended, because at the great doom he will be seen in human form, that his slayers may recognize him whom they formerly put to death, and also that those who despised his precepts may then justly receive eternal punishment with the devil. Holy writ says, "Tollatur impius ne videat gloriam Dei:" "Be the sight of God's glory taken away from the impious." The impious will not see the glory of Christ, whom they had before despised in life, but they will then see him awful whom humble they had contemned.

Recumbentibus undecim discipulis: et reliqua. We have now read the narrative of Luke concerning Christ's ascension; we will now turn our consideration to the other evangelist Mark, who said in the present day's gospel, that Jesus appeared to his apostles, and chid them, because they would not at first believe his resurrection from death, when it was announced to them. Then said the Lord to his disciples, "Go over all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature: he who believeth and is baptized shall be saved; he who believeth not shall be damned. These signs shall follow those men who believe," etc. This gospel is here now simply said, but we will now unfold its mysteries to you, according to the exposition of Gregory.

The apostles' doubt as to the resurrection of Christ was not so much their lack of faith, but was our confirmation. Less {303} have benefited us those who quickly believed than those who were doubting; for they beheld and touched the scars of Christ's wounds, and so drove out all doubts from our hearts. Jesus then reproved his disciples for their doubt, when he would bodily leave them, that they might be mindful of the words which he said to them on his way. He said, "Go over all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature." The gospel is for us to hear and exceedingly loving, that we may avoid hell-torment and cruel tortures through the incarnation of Jesus, and come to the host of angels through his humility. He said, "Preach to every creature:" but by that name is man alone betokened. Stones are creatures, but they have no life, nor have they sense. Grass and trees live without feeling; they live not by a soul, but by their greenness. Beasts live and have feeling without reason; they have no reason, because they are soulless. Angels live, and have sense, and use reason. Now man has something of all creatures. He has in common with the stones, that he is existing; he has in common with the trees, that he lives; with the beasts, that he has sense; with angels, that he understands. Man is therefore called 'every creature,' because he has something in common with every creature. The gospel is preached to every creature, when it is preached to man alone; for all earthly things are created for man alone, and they all have some likeness to man, as we before said.

"He who believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; and he who believeth not shall be damned." That faith is true which gainsays not by wicked practices that which it believes; of which spake John the apostle; "He who saith that he knoweth God, and holdeth not his commandments, is a liar." Again, the apostle James says, "The faith which is without good works is dead." Again, he said, "What profiteth it thee that thou have faith, if thou hast not good works? Faith {305} cannot save thee without works. The devils believe, but they tremble." The devils saw Christ in this life, in his human state, but they fell at his feet, and cried, and said, "Thou art the Son of God, therefore thou art come that thou mightest fordo us." The man who will not believe in God, nor has any awe of God, is worse than a devil. He who believes, and has awe, and, nevertheless, will not do good, is like unto a devil.

In quodam tractu, qui aestimatur Sancti Hilarii fuisse, sic invenimus scriptum, sicut Anglice hic interpretavimus, et ad testimonium ipsam Latinitatem posuimus: "Daemones credunt et contremescunt; qui autem non credit, et non contremescit daemonibus deterior est: qui autem credit, et contremescit, et veritatem operibus non agit, daemonibus similis est." He who rightly believes, and rightly lives his life, and with awe of God practises good works to the end of his life, shall be saved, and shall have everlasting life with God, and with all his saints. The Lord said, these signs shall follow those who believe in him, "In my name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall drive away serpents; and though they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall set their hands over sick men, and it shall be well with them."

These wonders were needful at the beginning of christianity, for by these signs was the heathen folk inclined to faith. The man who plants trees or herbs, waters them so long until they have taken root; when they are growing he ceases from watering: so also the Almighty God so long showed his miracles to the heathen folk, until they were believing: when faith had sprung up over all the world, then miracles ceased. But, nevertheless, God's church still works daily the same miracles spiritually which the apostles then wrought bodily. When the priest christens the child, then casts he out the devil from that child; for every heathen man is the devil's, but through the holy baptism he is God's, {307} if he observe it. He who forsakes opprobrious speeches and calumnies, and injurious scoffings, and busies his mouth with the praises of God and with prayers, speaks then in new tongues. He who corrects thoughtlessness or impatience, and stills the bitterness of his heart, drives away serpents, for he extinguishes the evilnesses of his mind. He who is allured to fornication, but yet is not induced to its accomplishment, drinks a deadly drink, but it shall not hurt him, if with prayers he flees to God. If any-one be weakened in his purpose, and slothful for good living, then if any-one, with exhortation and examples of good works, strengthen and raise him up, it will be as though he set his hand over the sick and heal him.

The spiritual miracles are greater than the bodily ones were, for these miracles heal a man's soul, which is eternal, but the former signs healed the mortal body. The former miracles were wrought both by good men and by evil. Judas, who betrayed Christ, was evil, though he had previously wrought miracles in the name of God. Of such men Christ in another place said, "I say unto you, many will say to me on that great day, Lord, Lord, lo! have we not prophesied in thy name, and have driven devils out of mad men, and have performed great miracles in thy name? Then will I profess to them, I know you not: depart from me, ye unrighteous doers." My brothers, love not those miracles which may be common to the good and to the evil, but love those signs which are exclusively good men's, which are the signs of true love and of piety. The evil has not true love, nor is the good devoid of it. These signs are mysterious and not perilous, and they have so much the greater reward with God as their glory is less with men. The Omnipotent Lord, after these words, was taken to heaven, and sits on the right hand of his Father.

We read in the old law, that two men of God, Enoch and {309} Elijah, were lifted up to heaven without death: but they await death, and will by no means escape from it. They are taken to the aerial heaven, not to the ethereal, and continue in some secret dwelling-place with great strength of body and soul, until they shall return again, at the end of this world, against Antichrist, and shall receive death. Our Almighty Redeemer waited not for death, but he overcame it with his resurrection, and manifested his glory by his ascension to the highest throne.

We read of the prophet Elijah, that angels conveyed him in a heavenly chariot, because the infirmity of his nature required some supporter. Our Redeemer Christ was not conveyed in a chariot nor by angels' help; for he who wrought all things was borne by his own might over all creatures. The first-mentioned man, Enoch, was conveyed to the aerial heaven, and Elijah was borne up in a chariot; but the Almighty Saviour was not conveyed nor borne, but he passed through the ethereal heaven by his own might.

We have to consider how chastity was cherished by the ministers who were thus conveyed, and by the ascending Jesus. Enoch was conveyed, who was begotten by coition, and who begot by coition. Elijah was conveyed in a chariot, who was begotten by coition, but he begot not by coition, for he continued during his life without a wife. Jesus ascended to heaven, who was not begotten by coition, nor did he himself beget; for he is the origin and beginning of all chastities, and to him chastity is a very amiable virtue, which he manifested when he chose him a maiden for mother. And all the holy company which followed him was living in chastity, as he says in one of his gospels, "He who comes to me, may not be my disciple, unless he hate his wife."

The evangelist Mark wrote in this gospel, that our Lord, after his ascension, sat on the right hand of his Father; and the first martyr, Stephen, said that he saw the heavens open, {311} and Jesus standing on his Father's right. Now says the expounder, "That is rightly said, that he sat after his ascension, because a seat is befitting a judge." Christ is the true Judge, who will judge and decide all things, now, and also on the last day. The martyr saw him standing, for he was his supporter in the suffering of his martyrdom, and through his grace he was rendered bold against the fierce persecutors, who cruelly stoned him.

The end of this gospel is, that Christ's apostles "went and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following." The apostles, that is, God's preachers, went over all the world. Peter preached in Judea, Paul among the heathen folk, Andrew in Scythia, John in Asia, Bartholomew in India, Matthew in Ethiopia, and so each of them in his part, and the might of God was with them, for the efficacy of their preaching and of numberless signs; for Christ said, "Ye can do nothing without me." Again he said, "I will be with you on all days, until the ending of this world," who liveth and reigneth with the Almighty Father and the Holy Ghost ever to eternity. Amen.

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IN DIE S[=CO] PENTECOSTEN.

Fram dham halgan easterlican daege sind getealde fiftig daga to thysum daege, and thes daeg is geh['a]ten Pentecostes, thaet is, se fifteogodha daeg dhaere easterlican tide. Thes daeg waes on dhaere ealdan ['ae] gesett and gehalgod. God bebead Moyse, on Egypta-lande, thaet h['e] and eall Israhela folc sceoldon offrian aet aelcum h['i]wisce Gode an lamb anes geares, and mearcian mid tham blode rode-tacn on heora gedyrum and oferslegum, dha on dhaere nihte ferde Godes engel, and acwealde on aelcum huse dhaes Egyptiscan folces thaet frumcennyde cild and thaet {312} leofoste. And Israhela folc ferde on dhaere ylcan nihte of dham leodscipe, and God h['i] laedde ofer dha Readan s['ae] mid drium fotum. Tha tengde se Pharao aefter mid mycelre fyrde. Dhadha he com on middan dhaere s['ae], tha waes thaet Godes folc up-ag['a]n, and God dha besencte dhone Pharao and eal his werod. Dha bebead God Moyse and tham folce thaet h['i] heoldon dha tid mid micelre arwurdhnysse, on aelces geares ymbrene. Tha waes seo tid tham folce geset to Easter-tide, fordhan dhe God h['i] hredde widh heora fynd, and heora ehteras fordyde. Tha thaes ymbe fiftig daga sette God tham folce ['ae], and waes gesewen Godes wuldor upp on anre dune the is geh['a]ten Syn['a]y. Thaer com micel leoht, and egeslic sweg, and blawende byman. Tha clypode God thone Moysen him to, and he waes mid Gode feowertig daga, and awr['a]t dha ealdan ['ae] be Godes dihte. Tha waes se daeg PENTECOSTES geh['a]ten on dhaere Ealdan Gesetnysse.

Thaet geoffrode l['a]mb getacnode Cristes slege, sedhe unscaedhdhig waes his Faeder geoffrod for ure alysednysse. Nu is his dhrowung and his aerist ure Easter-t['i]d, fordhan dhe he us alysde fram deofles theowdome, and ure ehteras beodh besencte thurh thaet halige fulluht, swa swa waes Pharao mid his leode on dhaere Readan s['ae]. Thas fiftig daga fram dham easterlican daege sind ealle gehalgode to anre maersunge, and thes daegdherlica daeg is ure Pentecostes, thaet is, se fifteogodha daeg fram dham Easter-daege. On dham ealdan Pentecosten sette God ['ae] dham Israhela folce, and on dhisum daege com se Halga Gast on fyres hiwe to Godes hirede; fordhi ealswa thaet lamb getacnode Cristes dhrowunge, swa eac seo ealde ['ae] getacnode godspel-bodunge under Godes gife. Threo tida sind on dhysre worulde: ['a]n is seo dhe waes butan ['ae]; odher is seo dhe waes under ['ae]; seo dhridde is nu aefter Cristes to-cyme. Theos t['i]d is gecweden 'under Godes gife.' We ne sind na butan ['ae], ne we ne moton healdan Moyses ['ae] lichamlice, ac Godes gifu ['u]s gewissadh to his willan, gif we gemyndige beodh Cristes bebodum and dhaera apostola lare.

{314} Hit is gereht on dhyssere pistol-raedinge, hu se Halga Gast on dhisum daege com to dham geleaffullan heape Cristes hyredes. Lucas se Godspellere awr['a]t on dhaere b['e]c 'Actus Apostolorum,' thaet "se halga hyred waes wunigende ['a]nmodlice on gebedum on anre upflora, aefter Cristes upstige, anbidigende his behates; tha on dhisum daege, the is Pentecostes gecweden, com faerlice micel sweg of heofonum and gefylde ealle dha upfleringe mid fyre; and waes aeteowed bufon heora aelcum swylce fyrene tungan, and h['i] wurdon dha ealle gefyllede mid tham Halgum Gaste, and ongunnon to sprecenne mid mislicum gereordum, be dham the se Halga Gast him taehte. Tha waeron gegaderode binnan dhaere byrig Hierusalem eawfaeste weras of aelcere dheode dhe under heofonum eardiadh; and tha apostoli spraecon to dhaes folces gegaderunge, and heora aelc oncneow his agen gereord."