Frends, this holy tyme, as owr moder Holy Chirch maketh mension, the
Holy Gost came from hevyn, and lighted in the disciples of Crist,
inflamyng them with connyng, and strenghyng them with grace. And be
cause the doctrine and prechyng of them shuld go thurghought all the
werd, furst thei wer to be enfourmed and taught connyng, and to be
strenth with awdacide and grace, and than to be endewed and yovyn all
manner of langags that thei myght prechyn to all maner of naciones, so
that tho naciones that thei preched to myght understond them, and every
naciones his owyn tonge; and so thees Appostilles, after that thei wern
enspired with the Holy Gost, wher so ever thei preached, were ther never
so many naciones present, ich nacion thought that thei spokyn in ther
owyn langage--etenim illud loquebantur variis linguis Apostoli.
Frends, iij. thyngs be necessary in prechyng to hym that shall prechyn
thurgh the werd as the Appostell dede--that is to sey, connyng,
boldnesse, and langags. If thei had had connyng and none audacite, but
have fered to have preched, it shuld litill a profited, as we have
examplles dayly at Cambrige, exempli [gratia][256.2] de Clerico quis
studuit sermonem, &c. And if thei have bothyn connyng and audacite, and
have none eloquensye ner copiousnesse of langage, so that he preche that
his audiens is most excercised in, that thei may understand hym, elles
it profiteth not.
Therfor thes holy Appostill[es], be for thei shuld prechyn, furst thei
wer to be confirmed and strenghed. Our Lord strenghed them be under
nemyng,[257.1] enformyng, and helpyng, culpando ut in Evangelium
recumbentibus, &c. He strenghed them with his help and grace whan he
brethed in them, seyng ‘Accipite Spiritum Sanctum; et quorum remiseritis
peccata, remittuntur eis, et quorum retinueritis retenta sunt,’[257.2]
&c. He strenghed them also be his doctrine whan he seid ‘Petite et
accipietis; si quid petieritis Patrem in nomine meo, dabit
vobis.’[257.3] How that ye shuld prayn to God and askyn, I taught you on
Estern day. Therfor ye shall pray to God be good werkyng, right full
lebyring, and in good deds perseveryng.
Frends, ye owe for to ask of God that your joy may ben a full joy and
perfight; we may never have a full joy in this werd, wher as ever among
folwyth hevynesse. A man joyth sumtyme in gold and sylver, and in gret
substaunce of erdly gods, in bewte of women, but this joy is not
perfyght--but this joy is not stabill, but it is mutabill as a shadow;
for he that this joyth in the bewte of his wyffe, it may fortune to
morwyn he shall folwyn her to chirch up on a bere. But if ye wull knowyn
what is a full and a wery joy, truly forgevenesse of synne and
everlestyng blisse, wher as is never sikenesse, hunger, ner thurst, ner
no maner of disseas, but all welth, joy, and prosperite, &c. Ther be
iij. maner of joys, the on void, a nother half full, the thred is a full
joy. The furst is plente of werdly gods, the seconde is Gostly grace,
the threde is everlestyng blisse. The furst joy, that is affluens of
temporall gods, is called a veyn joy, for if a man wer set at a bord
with delicate mets and drynks, and he sey a cawdron boyllyng a forn hym
with pykke and bronston, in the which he shuld be throwyn naked as sone
as he had dyned; for he shuld joy mych in his deliciose mets, it shuld
be but a veyn joy.
Right so doth the joy of a covetouse man, if he sey what peyn his sowle
shuld suffre in helle for the myskepyn and getyn of his good, he shuld
not joy in his tresore, ut in Libro Decalogorum, ‘Quidam homo dives,’
&c.
Semiplenum gaudium est quando quis in præsenti gaudet et tunc cogitans
de futuris dolet, ut in quodam libro Græco, ‘Quidam Rex Græciæ,’ &c. Her
ye may se but half a joy; how [_who_] shuld joy in this werd, if he
remembred hym of the peynes of the toder werd? ‘Non glorietur fortis in
fortitudine sua, nec sapiens in sapientia sua, nec dives in divitiis
suis.’[258.1] De quibus dicitur, qui confidunt in multitudine divitiarum
suarum, quasi oves in inferno positi sunt.[258.2] ‘Qui gloriatur, in
Domino glorietur.’[258.3] Therfor lete us joy in hope of everlestyng joy
and blis. ‘Gaudete quia nomina vestra scripta sunt in cælo,’[258.4] ut
gaudium vestrum sit plenum. A full joy is in hevyn. Et in hoc apparet
quod magnum gaudium est in cælo, quoniam ibi est gaudium quod ‘oculus
non vidit, nec auris audivit, et in cor hominis non ascendit, quæ Deus
præparavit diligentibus,’[258.5] et ideo, fratres, variis linguis
loquens [precor] ut gaudium vestrum sit plenum, vel habeatis gaudium
sempiternum.
[Footnote 256.1: [From Fenn, iii. 392.] The original MS. of this
sermon was endorsed, of course in a much later hand than the
document, ‘An ancient Whitsunday sermon preached by Frier
Brackley (whose hand it is) in the Friers Minors Church, in
Norwich.’ Of this and the remaining papers of Henry VI.’s time
the dates are very uncertain.]
[Footnote 256.2: Omitted in Fenn’s literal transcript.]
[Footnote 257.1: _i.e._ reproving.]
[Footnote 257.2: John xx. 22, 23.]
[Footnote 257.3: John xvi. 23, 24.]
[Footnote 258.1: Jer. ix. 23.]
[Footnote 258.2: Psalm xlviii. (xlix.) 6, 14.]
[Footnote 258.3: 1 Cor. i. 31.]
[Footnote 258.4: Luke x. 20.]
[Footnote 258.5: 1 Cor. ii. 9.]
437