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The Three and Thirtieth SERMON. (Book 33)
PART I.
LUKE XI. 27, 28.And it came to pass as he spake these things, a certain woman of the company lift up her voice, and said unto him, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps which thou hast sucked.
But he said, Yea, rather blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
WE cannot say more of our Saviour in the dayes of his flesh then this, He went about doing good.* 1.1 He was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame, and health to the sick. And as he cured mens bodies of diseases, so he purged their souls from sin. As he went, his steps dropped fatness. Scarce proceeded there a word from his blessed lips that breathed not forth comfort. In this chap∣ter, he cast out a devil which was dumb, and the people wondred.* 1.2 But such is the rancour and venome of Envy and Malice that no vertue, no miracle, no demonstration of power can castigate or abate it. What is Vertue to a Jew? or what is a Miracle to a Pharisee? When the devil was gone out, saith the Text, the dumb spake; a work not to be wrought but by the finger of God: But if a Pharisee look up∣on it, it must change its name, and be said to be done by the claw of the Devil: For some of them said, He casteth out devils through Beelzebub the prince of the devils. Others tempting him, sought from him a sign from heaven; as if this were not such a one, but rather proceeded from the pit of hell and from the power of darkness. It is the character of an evil and envious eye to look outward, extrà mittendo, not to receive the true species and forms of things, but to send out some noxious spirits from it self, which discolour and de∣face the object. Hence Envious men are thought, as S. Basil saith, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, to infect every thing they look upon, and, like the Basilisk, to kill with a very look. What do they cast their eye upon that they do not poison and corrupt? Is it Temperance?