HOLY weeke.
Yet by one other parable he foresheweth the most deserued reprobation of the earthly & persecuting
Iewes, and the gratious vocation of the Gentils in their place. 15. Then he defeateth the snare of
the Pharisees and Herodians about paying tribute to Cæsar. 23. He answereth also the inuention of
the Sadducess against the Resurrection: 34, and a question that the Pharisees aske to pose him: turning
and posing them againe, because they imagined that Christ should be no more then a man: 46. and so he
putteth al the busy Sects to silence.
1.
⋮
The Ghospel vpon the 19. Sunday after Pentecost.
AND Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ answering, spake againe in parables to them, saying:
2. The Kingdom of Heauen is likened to a man being a King, which made a
Mariage.
Then did God the Father make this mariage, when by the mysterie of the Incarnation he
ioyned to his Sonne our Lord, the holy Church for his spouse.
mariage to
his sonne.
3. And he sent his
Seruants.
The first seruants here sent to inuite, were the Prophets, the second, were the Apostles,
and al that afterward conuerted Countries, or that haue and doe reconcile men to the Church.
seruants to cal them that were inuited to the marriage: and they
would not come.
4. Againe he sent other seruants, saying: Tel them that were inuited, Behold I haue
prepared my dinner; my beeues & fatlings are killed, and al things are ready: come ye to the
mariage.
5. But they neglected and went their waies,
One to his farme.
Worldly excuse against reconciliation.
Such as refuse to be reconciled to Christes Church, alleage often vaine impediments
and worldly excuses, which at the day of iudgement wil not serue them.
one to his farme, and an other to his
merchandise:
6. and the rest laid hands vpon his seruants, and spitefully intreating them, murdered
them.
7. But when the King had heard of it, he was wroth, and sending his hosts, destroied
those murderers, and burnt their citie.
8. Then he saith to his seruants: The mariage indeed is ready: but they there
inuited, were not worthie.
9. Goe ye into the high wayes; and whosoeuer you shal find, cal to the mariage.
10. And his seruants going forth into the wayes, gathered togeather al that they
found,
✟
Not only good men be within the Church, but also euil men; against the Heretikes of
these daies.
bad and good: and the mariage was filled with ghests.
11. And the King went in to see the ghests: and he saw there
A man not attyred.
The Church consisteth of good and bad.
It profiteth not much to be within the Church and to be a Catholike, except a man be of
good life, for such an one shal be damned, because with faith he hath not good workes:
as is euident by the example of this man, who was within, & at the feast as the rest,
but lacked the garment of charitie & good workes. And by this man are represented al the
bad that are called. And therfore they also are in the Church as this man was at the
feast: but because he was called, and yet none of the elect, it is euident that the
Church doth not consist of the elect only, contrarie to our Aduersaries.
a man not attired in
a wedding garment.
12. And he saith to him: Freind, how camest thou in hither not hauing a wedding
garment? But he was dumme.
13. Then the King said to the waiters: Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into
the vtter darknes: there shal be weeping & gnashing of teeth.
14. For many be called, but few elect.
15.
⋮
The Ghospel vpon the 22. Sunday after Pentecost.
*
Mark 12,13.
Luke 20,20.
Then the Pharisees departing, consulted amoung them selues for to entrap him
in his talke.
16. And they send to him their Disciples with the Herodians, saying: Maister, we know
that thou art a true speaker, and teachest the way of God in truth, neither carest thou for any
man. For thou dost not respect the person of men:
17. Tel vs therfore what is thy opinion, is it lawful to giue tribute to Cæsar, or
not?
18. But Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ knowing their naughtines, said: What do you tempt me Hypocrites?
19. Shew me the tribute coin. And they offred him a penie.
20. And Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ saith to them: Whose is this image and superscription?
21. They say to him, Cæsars. Then he saith to them: Render therfore things that are
Cæsars,
To Cæsar.
Neither must temporal Princes exact, nor their Subjects giue vnto them, Ecclesiastical
iurisdiction.
Temporal duties and payments exacted by worldly Princes must be payd, so that God be not
defrauded of his more soueraigne dutie. And therfore Princes haue to take heed how they
exact, and others, how they giue to Cæsar, that is, to their Prince, the things that are
due to God, that is, to his Ecclesiastical ministers. Wherevpon S. Athanasius reciteth
these goodly wordes out of an epistle of the ancient and famous Confessour Hosius
Cordubensis to Constantius the Arian Emperour: Cease I beseech thee and remember that
thou art mortal, feare the day of iudgement, intermedle not with Ecclesiastical matters,
neither doe thou command vs in this kind, but rather learne them of vs. To thee God hath
committed the Empire, to vs he hath committed the things that belong to the Church. And
as he that with malicious eyes carpeth thine Empire, gainesaieth the ordinance of God:
so doe thou also beware, lest in drawing vnto thee Ecclesiastical matters, thou be made
guilty of a great crime. It is written: Giue ye the things that are Cæsars, to Cæsar;
and the things that are Gods, to God. Therfore neither is it lawful for vs in earth to
hold the Empire, neither hast thou (O Emperour) power ouer incense and sacred things.
Athan. Ep. ad Solit. vitam agentes. And S. Ambrose to Valentinian the Emperour
(who by the il counsel of his mother Iustina an Arian, required of S. Ambrose to haue
one Church in Millan deputed to the Arian Heretikes) saith: We pay that which is Cæsars,
to Cæsar; and that which is Gods, to God. Tribute is Cæsars, it is not denied: the Church
is Gods, it may not verily be yealded to Cæsar: because the Temple of God can not be
Cæsars right. Which no man can denie but it is spoken with the honour of the Emperour,
for what is more honorable then that the Emperour be said to be the sonne of the Church?
For a good Emperour is within the Church, not aboue the Church. Ambr. l. 5. Epist.
Orat. de Basil. trad.
to Cæsar: and the things that are Gods, to God.
22. And hearing it they marueled, and leauing him went their wayes.
23.
*
Mark 12,19.
Luke 20,27.
Act. 23,8.
That day there came to him the Sadducess, that say there is not Resurrection, and
asked him,
24. saying: Maister, Moyses said,
*
Deu. 25,5.
If a man die not hauing a child, that his
brother marie his wife, and raise vp seed to his brother.
25. And there were with vs seauen brethren: and the first hauing maried a wife,
died; and not hauing issue, left his wife to his brother.
26. In like manner the second and the third euen to the seauenth.
27. And last of al the woman died also.
28. In the Resurrection therfore whose of the seauen shal she be? for they al had
her.
29. And Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ answering, said to them: You doe erre, not knowing the Scriptures, nor
the power of God.
30. For in the Resurrection neither shal they marie nor be maried: but are as the
As Angels.
The Saints heare our prayers.
As Christ proueth here, that in Heauen they neither marie nor are maried, because there
they shal be as Angels: by the very same reason, is proued, that Saints may heare our
prayers and help vs, be they neer or farre of; because the Angels do so, and in euery
moment are present where they list, and need not to be neer vs, when they heare, or
helpe vs.
Angels
As Angels.
Religious single life, Angelical.
Not to marie nor be maried, is to be like to Angels: therfore is the state of Religious
men, and women, and Priests, for not marying, worthily called of the Fathers an Angelical
life. Cyp. lib. 2. de discipl. & hab. Virg. sub finem.
of God in Heauen.
31. And concerning the Resurrection
Of the dead.
S. Hierom by this place disproueth the Heretike Vigilantius, and in him these of our
time, which to diminish the honour of Saints, cal them of purpose, dead men.
of the dead, haue you not read that which was
spoken of God saying to you.
32.
*
Exo. 3,6.
I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Iacob? He
is not God of the dead, but of the liuing.
33. And the multitudes hearing it, marueled at his doctrine.
34.
⋮
The Ghospel vpon the 17. Sunday after Pentecost.
*
Mark 12,28.
But the Pharisees hearing that he had put the Sadducess to silence, came togeather:
35. and one of them a Doctour of law asked of him, tempting him:
36. Maister, which is the great commandement in the law?
37. Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ said to him:
*
Deut. 6,5.
Thou shalt loue the Lord thy God from thy whole hart, and
with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind.
38. This is the greatest & the first commandement.
39. And the second is like to this:
*
Luke 19,18.
Thou shalt loue thy neighbour as thy self.
40.
On these two.
Not only faith.
Hereby it is euident that al dependeth not vpon faith only, but much more vpon
charitie (though faith be the first) which is the loue of God and of our neighbour,
which is the summe of al the law and the Prophets: because he that hath this double
charitie expressed here by these two principal commandements, fulfilleth and
accomplisheth al that is commanded in the Law and the Prophets.
On these two commandements dependeth the whole Law and the Prophets.
41.
*
Mark 12,35.
Luke 20,41.
And the Pharisees being assembled, Iᴇꜱᴠꜱ asked them
42. saying: What is your opinion of Christ? whose sonne is he? They say to him, Dauids.
43. He saith to them: How then doth Dauid in spirit cal him Lord, saying:
44.
*
Psa. 109,1.
The Lord said to my Lord, sit on my right hand, vntil I put thine
enemies the foot-stole of thy feet?
45. If Dauid therfore cal him Lord, how is he his sonne?
46. And no man could answer him a word: neither durst any man from that day ask him
any more.