Deuout contemplations expressed in two and fortie sermons vpon all ye quadragesimall Gospells written in Spanish by Fr. Ch. de Fonseca Englished by. I. M. of Magdalen Colledge in Oxford

Accessit Tentator, The Tempter drew neere.

This word Tempter (as Rupertus hath noted it) containeth in it these two things:

The one, The Deuills malice.

The other, His craft and subtletie.

Touching the first, he hath no other occupation saue doing of ill, & working of mischiefe.* 1.1 The vnknowne Author expounding those words of Dauid, They meditated deceit all the day long, saith, That these are those Deuils which spend all the whole day in plotting of mischiefe, and in working deceit, as if this were gi∣uen them to taske, and were hired so to doe. There is no day-labourer, bee hee neuer so hard a Workeman, but towards high noone doth rest himselfe a little: but the Deuill,* 1.2 Dolos, tota die meditabatur. It is said in the Reuelation, That cer∣taine Locusts came out of a bottomlesse Pit, and that they had a King ouer them, which is the Angell of the bottomlesse Pit, whose name in the Hebrew Tongue is Abaddon; in the Greeke, Apollyon, and in the Latine, Exterminans. Here is like to like, such souldiers, such a Captaine. Your Locusts neuer do good, but hurt, and this is the Deuills office; and therfore is he termed Exterminans. Dauid calls him by the name of Dragon, who with his verie breath doth taint the aire, and kills therewith the Birds that flie to and fro therein: Exterminauit eum aper de sil∣ua, The Boare of the Mountaine destroyeth the Lords Vineyard; he ouerthroweth Mo∣nasteries; through sloath and idlenesse soliciting Religious men to be negligent in comming to Church, carelesse in preaching, and loose in their life. In the marriage bed he soweth tares, treacheries, and lightnesse. With wordly men he persuadeth, That he is no bodie that is not rich; and therefore, bee it by hooke or by crooke, by right, or by wrong, he would haue thee get to be wealthie. In a word, he is generally set vpon mischiefe; and therefore hath hee the name of Tempter. But it is to be noted, that he doth then most hurt, when hee is most prouoked. Petrus Chrysologus saith, Est quidem Diabolus per se nequam, fit tamen ne∣quior, prouocatus. Like vnto your Dogge, who barkes out of custome, but if you throw stones at him he will barke the more: or like vnto the Bull in the Place, who beeing houted at, and galled, growes thereby more mad, and more fierce: or like vnto the Boare when he is wounded with the Speare; or the Beare, who

enraged, sets more furiously vpon the Hunter that pursues him, and throwes his Darts at him. There was a voyce alreadie thundred out against him from Hea∣uen, in the riuer of Iordan. Our Sauiours fasting was as stones throwne against a barking Curre; his being in the Desert was no fit place for him to worke his will, considering those good meditations wherein our Sauiour was then occu∣pied: And therefore seeing himselfe thus crost, he would labour to make his ad∣uantage, and trie what he could doe by the helpe of these other stones, as he had then a purpose to employ them.

Touching the second, to wit, His craft and his subtletie, notable is that place of Saint Paul, We are not to wrestle with flesh and bloud, but with the snare of the De∣ill: The Apostle doth not say, against his force and his power,* 1.3 though that bee great; but against his craft & his subtletie, against his trickes & deuices, & against his plots and stratagems. Tertullian renders it, Machinationes; Saint Hierome, Adinuentiones; and the Reuelation, Altitudines Sathanae, The depth and profundi∣tie of his policies and deepe reaches. Saint Chrysostome expounding that phrase of Principes tenebrarum, The Princes of darkenesse, saith, That they are not Noctis tenebrae, sed maliciae; the darkenesse of malice being greater than that of the night. Spiritualia nequitiae, cui nomina mille, mille nocendi artes, (i.) Spirituall wickednesses,* 1.4 which haue a thousand names, and a thousand wayes to hurt, as the Poet hath it. A cer∣taine Monke asked the Deuill, How he was called? He told him, Mille modis arti∣fex vocor, I am called a cunning Workeman. And therefore the Scripture stiles him Serpent, and a winding Snake, that rolls vp himselfe as it were in a circle. Visi∣tabit Dominus super Serpentem tortuosum, saith Esay. Eductus est coluber tortuosus, (saith Iob:) There is no Labyrinth so intricate, and so full of doublings & tur∣nings, as is he. It is much doubt which of the two is most requisit in a Captaine, Virtus, an Dolus? Courage, or Craft? In the Deuill, if his power be incomparable, his subtletie is much more. Some of the antient Saints haue put it to question, Why the Deuill did appeare vnto our Mother Eue in the forme of a Serpent? Saint Chrysostom saith,* 1.5 That God did giue him the libertie to make free choice of any one of the beasts of the Field, which soeuer he had most mind vnto; and, that he made choice of the Serpent, as of the wisest and subtillest, as the sacred Text deliuereth vnto vs. Saint Augustine, That it was not in his election to chuse any other; to the end that the deceit and subtletie of the Serpent might stirre vp a kind of jealousie and warinesse in our Mother: For craft and cunning haue euer done more hurt than open force. The Wolfe is then most to bee fea∣red when he puts himselfe into Sheepes cloathing, or a Lyon in a Foxes skin; (which is the condition of your Heretickes.) Dauid speaking of those which fol∣low the Deuils partie, saith, Partes Vulpium erunt. The Spouse calles them little Foxes, Vulpes paruulas, qui demoliuntur Vineas, Alluding in them, to the Deuills.

Vpon this craft and subtletie of the Deuill, Saint Gregorie and S. Ciril ground this conceit, That the Deuill is not like your foolish Physitions, who with one receit cure diuers diseases; but against euerie vertue, good inclination, and mo∣tions of the Spirit, he hath such sundrie temptations, and so fit for euery mans humour, that if the tempted will but cast his eyes towards them, it is a thousand to one that he is not taken with them. God askt of Iob, Answer me, By what way the heat is parted vpon earth? Gregorie vnfoldeth this question,* 1.6 By those coles which the Deuill scat••ereth abroad amongst the People of this world; as those of co∣uetousnesse, reuenge, and wantonnesse. Euerie one carries a cole in his bosome that burnes and consumes him; In via hac qua amb••labam absconderunt laqueum mihi, When I thought my selfe safest, walked securely, and followed my pleasures and de∣lights

without suspition of danger, then was the net laid for me, &c.

But for all the Deuills cunning shifts, and for all his sleights and subtleties, he can neuer so wholly disguise himselfe, but that he will alwaies leaue one clouen foot vncouered, whereby (which is no small comfort vnto vs) we may come to know him. Iob speaking of the Deuill, in that metaphore of the Leuiathan; amongst many other properties aboue specified, he mentioneth this one, Luce∣bit post cum semita; He leaues behind him a white path in the sea, like vnto that froth which a great Ship causeth, when she hath a stiffe gale of wind in the poop of her. Whereby he signifieth vnto vs, That the Deuill which way soeuer he goes, leaues some signe behind him. At the feet of Saint Michael they paint the Deuill, with the faire bodie of an Angell, but with the foule taile of a Dragon. For albeit at the first sight he transfigure himselfe into an Angell of Light, yet in the end he will discouer himselfe to bee the Prince of Darkenesse. The Deuill hath beene seene to preach in the habit of a religious Frier, verie deuoutly, ap∣pearing as an Angell of Light, persuading the People to repentance, and com∣municating great comfort vnto them; but in the end, all his Sermons haue ended in melancholly passions. For the Deuills Reuelations runne a contrarie course to Gods▪ for these, although they somewhat trouble vs at the beginning, yet they end euermore in peace and comfort: but those of the Deuill, though they begin in joy, yet they end in sorrow.

Notes

• * 1.1

  The Deuills trade onely to doe Euill.
• * 1.2

  His diligence in following it.
• * 1.3

  Ephes. 6.12.
• * 1.4

  Virgil. E••e.
• * 1.5

  Why the De∣uill appeared to Eue in the forme of a Serpent.
• * 1.6

  Iob 38.24. He hath a Hooke for euery humor.