The Homilies of the Anglo-Saxon Church Part 35

The holy Gregory has expounded for us the obscurity of this gospel, thus beginning: The Lord our Redeemer is desirous to find us ready, and therefore chid the evils which follow the senescent world, that he might wean us from its love. He manifested how many sufferings will precede the ending of this world, if we will not dread G.o.d in serenity, that at least, terrified with many tribulations, we may dread his approaching doom. Here above in this lesson Jesus said, "Nation shall arise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and great earthquakes shall be everywhere, and pestilence, and hunger." And afterwards among them thus said, "There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars, and on earth affliction of nations, for the mingling of the sea-waves and sound."

Some of these signs we have seen accomplished, some we fear are to come.

Verily in these new days nations have arisen against nations, and their affliction on earth has happened greater than we in old books read. Oft an earthquake in divers places has overthrown many cities, as it happened in the days of the emperor Tiberius, that thirteen cities fell through an earthquake. With pestilence and with hunger we are frequently afflicted, but we have not yet seen manifest signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars. We read in astronomy, that the sun is sometimes darkened by the intervention of the lunar orb, and also the full moon suddenly becomes dusky, when it is deprived of the solar light {611} by the shadow of the earth. There are also some stars beamed with light, suddenly rising, and quickly departing, and they by their uprise ever indicate something new: but the Lord meant not these signs in the evangelical prophecy, but the awful signs which will precede the great day. Matthew the Evangelist wrote more plainly of these signs, thus saying, "Straightways after the great tribulation, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall give no light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven shall be agitated, and then shall appear the sign of Christ's cross in the heavens, and all earthly powers shall mourn." The minglings of the sea, and the sound of the waves have not yet unusually happened, but when many of the before-said signs have been fulfilled, there is no doubt that the few which are remaining will also be fulfilled.

My brothers, these things are written that our minds may be vigilant through heedfulness, that through security they slacken not, nor through ignorance become void; but that terror ever occupy, and attention to good works confirm them. The Lord said, "Men shall wither for terror and for awaiting the things which shall come over all the world: for the powers of heaven shall be agitated." The powers of heaven are angels and archangels, thrones, princ.i.p.alities, lordships and powers. These hosts of angels will appear visible to our sights at the advent of the severe Judge, that they may sternly exact from us that which the invisible Creator patiently forbears. Then we shall see the Son of man coming in clouds, with great might and majesty. The Lord called himself the Son of man oftener than the Son of G.o.d, from the humility of his a.s.sumed humanity, that he may admonish us with the nature which he for us received. He is truly Son of man, and not Son of men, and there is no other son of one man but Christ alone. He will be manifested in might and in majesty to those who would not obey him while existing in humility, that they then may feel his {613} might by so much the more severely as they now will not bow their necks to his patience. These words are said of the reprobates, but here follow the words which comfort the chosen. Jesus said, "When these wonders begin, then lift up your heads and behold, for your redemption approacheth." As if he had manifestly exhorted his chosen, 'When the torments of the world shall thicken, when the dread of the great doom shall appear, raise then your heads, that is, be glad in your minds, for then this world shall be ended, which ye loved not; then shall be at hand the redemption which ye sought.'

In holy writ _head_ is very frequently put for the mind of man, because the head directs the other members, as the mind devises the thoughts. We lift up our heads when we raise our minds to the joys of the heavenly country.

Those whom G.o.d loves are exhorted to be glad for the ending of the world, for when that pa.s.ses away, which they loved not, then certainly they will find that which they loved.

O let it not be, that any believer, who desires to see G.o.d, mourn for the fall of the world; for it is written, "Whosoever will be a friend of this world, will be accounted a foe of G.o.d." But he who rejoices not at the approach of the ending of the world, manifests that he was its friend, and will then be convicted that he is G.o.d's foe. But let friendship for this world depart from the hearts of believing men, and depart from them who believe the other life to come, and really love it. They should mourn for the destruction of the world who have planted the root of their heart in its love, who seek not the life to come, nor even believe in it: but we, who full well know the joys of the heavenly country, should unanimously hasten to it. It is for us to wish that we may go to it quickly, and arrive by the shorter way, for this world is afflicted with manifold tribulations, and with crosses tormented.

{615} What is this deathlike life but a way? Understand now what it is to faint through the toil of the way, and yet not to desire the way to end.

The Lord said, "Behold these figtrees and all other trees, when they sprout, then ye know that summer is near. So likewise ye may know, when ye see these before-said signs, that G.o.d's kingdom draweth near." Verily by these words it is manifested that the fruit of this world is falling. It grows that it may fall; it sprouts that it may destroy with diseases whatsoever it had before sprouted. This world is like to a senescent man: in youth the body is thriving with strong breast, with full and hale limbs; but in senile years the man's stature is bowed, his neck slackened, his face wrinkled, and his limbs all afflicted; his breast is tormented with sighs, and between his words his breath fails; though disease sit not on him, yet too often his health is a disease to him. So it is with this world: at first it was thriving as in youth, it was growing in bodily health, and fat in abundance of good things, long in life, still in long peace; but now it is with age oppressed, as it were with frequent tribulations afflicted to death.

My brothers, love not this world which ye see cannot long exist. Of this the apostle said, "Love not the world, nor anything that dwelleth on it, for whosoever loveth the world, hath not love of G.o.d in him."

Well is the kingdom of G.o.d compared with the summer season, for then the clouds of our dreariness pa.s.s away, and the days of life shine through the brightness of the eternal sun.

All these before-said things are with great certainty confirmed by this following sentence, "Verily I say unto you, This tribe shall not pa.s.s away, until all these things shall take place." These words the Lord spake to the Jewish {617} tribe, and their kin will not pa.s.s away through decay, before this world ends. Of this sentence the apostle Paul said, that "the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet of G.o.d, and the dead will first arise; afterwards, we who live, and shall be found in the body, will be caught forth with the others in clouds towards Christ, and so we shall ever after be with G.o.d. Comfort yourselves with these words." Also in this sentence the Evangelist Matthew agrees, in these words, "The Lord will send his angels with trumpet and loud voice, and they shall gather his chosen from the four winds, from all earthly boundaries to the high heavens."

The apostle said, "We who live." He did not mean himself by those words, but those who continue in life until the ending of this world. By that it is likewise manifested, that mankind will not wholly perish before the ending, but that they will, nevertheless, have a short death who shall then be found in life; for heavenly fire will pa.s.s over all the world with one burning, and the dead will arise from their graves with that fire, and the living will be slain by the fire's heat, and straightways after requickened to eternity. The fire will in no wise injure the righteous who had before been cleansed from sins; but whosoever is uncleansed shall eat the fire's breath; and we shall then all come to the doom. The doom will be deemed on no earthly field, but will be as the apostle here above in this lesson said, that we shall be seized up in clouds towards Christ, through the air; and there will be the separation of righteous and impious men. The righteous will afterwards dwell nowhere but with G.o.d in the kingdom of heaven, and the impious nowhere but with the devil in h.e.l.l-torments.

Jesus concluded this gospel with these words: "Heaven and earth shall pa.s.s away, but my words shall never pa.s.s away." Heaven and earth will not turn to naught, but they will be changed from the form in which they now exist to a {619} better form, as John the Evangelist said, "Then there shall be a new heaven and a new earth." There will not indeed be others created, but these will be renewed. Heaven and earth will pa.s.s away, but will, nevertheless, continue, for they will be cleansed by fire from the form which they now have, and will yet stand ever in their own nature. Then will the sun be sevenfold brighter than it now is, and the moon will have the light of the sun.

David verily prophesied of Christ's advent in these words: "G.o.d shall come manifestly, and he will not keep silence. Fire shall burn in his sight, and round about him shall be a mighty storm." The storm will wash whatsoever the fire burns. Of that day the prophet Zephaniah said, "The great day of G.o.d is very near at hand, and exceedingly swift: bitter shall be the voice of that day: there shall the strong be afflicted. That day is a day of wrath, and a day of affliction and anxiety, a day of misery and wail, a day of darkness and dimness, a day of the trumpet and of outcry."

My brothers, set the remembrance of this day before your eyes, and whatsoever now appears to be trouble, it shall all be mitigated on comparison with it. Correct your lives, and change your conduct, punish your evil deeds with weeping, withstand the temptations of the devil; eschew evil and do good, and ye will be by so much the more secure at the advent of the eternal Judge, as ye now with terror antic.i.p.ate his severity.

The prophet said, that the great day of G.o.d is very near at hand and very swift. Though there were yet another thousand years to that day, it would not be long; for whatsoever ends is short and quick, and will be as it had never been, when it is ended. But though it were long to that day, as it is not, yet will our time not be long, and at our ending it will be adjudged to us, whether we in rest or in torment shall await the common doom. Let us, therefore, profit by the time which G.o.d has given us, and merit the everlasting life with him who liveth and reigneth for ever and ever. Amen.

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NOTES.

_Page 2, l. 5 from bot._ undergann--_here a finite verb seems wanting_.

--_2, l. 3 f. b._ geendung yssere worulde. _It was an universal belief at the time throughout Europe, that the world was to end in the year 1000_: M. Michelet _has collected the princ.i.p.al pa.s.sages to be found in the old writers relative to this superst.i.tion_. Concil. Trosl. a. 909 (Mansi, xviii. p. 266): "_Dum jam jamque adventus imminet illius in majestate terribili, ubi omnes c.u.m gregibus suis venient pastores in conspectum Pastoris aeterni_," etc.--Trithemii Chron. a. 960: "_Diem jamjam imminere dicebat_ (Bernhardus, eremita Thuringiae) _extremum, et mundum in brevi consummandum_."--Abb. Floriac. a. 990 (Gallandius, xiv.

141): "_De fine mundi coram populo sermonem in ecclesia Parisiorum audivi, quod statim finito mille annorum numero Antichristus adveniret, et non longo post tempore universale judicium succederet_."--Will.

G.o.delli Chron. ap. Scriptt. Fr. x. 262: "_A.D._ MX, _in multis locis per orbem tali rumore audito, timor et mror corda plurimorum occupavit, et suspicati sunt multi finem saeculi adesse_."--Rad. Glaber, l. iv. ibid. 49: "_aestimabatur enim ordo temporum et elementorum praeterita ab initio moderans saecula in chaos decidisse perpetuum, atque humani generis interitum_." Hist. de France, t. ii. p. 300, _note_, ed.

Bruxelles.

--_6, l. 8._ heofenas. Sic MS. _for_ heofenes _or_ heofenan.

--_8, l. ult._ awec. MS. Reg. _has_ awyht, _and after_ anre handa _adds_ and ealle eoran he belic on his handa. {621}

--_10, l. 11 f. b._ nor-daele. _So Caedmon_, p. 3, l. 8.

a he worde cwae, ... . .

aet he on nor-daele ham and heah-setl heofena rices agan wolde.

_In fact the whole beginning of the work ascribed to Caedmon appears to be a metrical paraphrase of this homily._ Andweald _is corrupt orthography for_ anweald.

--_26, l. 13 f. b._ _for_ geferena, MS. Reg. _has_ egena.

--_28, l. 2 f. b._ _After_ acenned waes, MS. Reg. _adds_, see aefre buton anginne of am aelmihtigan Faeder acenned waes.

--_42, l. 12._ Nis nan ... Haelend Crist. _These words seem an interpolation, or incidental remark of aelfric; they are therefore inclosed as a parenthesis in the translation._

--_58, l. 9._ maeghad _should correctly have been rendered_ virginity.

--_84, l. 9 f. b._ _This pa.s.sage concerning Rachel is not clear: it may possibly refer to some rabbinic tradition about her children._

--_98, l. 8 f. b._ on issere stowe, _in this place_. _The place where aelfric composed the homily, probably Cerne abbey_ (Cernel).

--_100, l. 10 f. b._ nella heora ing wanian. _This pa.s.sage is obscure, and the translation purely conjectural. Monday was accounted an unlucky day by the old Germans._ _See_ Grimm, D. M. p. 662, _and on superst.i.tions connected with the moon_, ib. p. 407.

--_108, l. 13._ _This pa.s.sage is evidently the original of the lines in the_ Codex Exoniensis, p. 69, 30 _sq., and contribute to strengthen the opinion that Cynewulf was the author of that work, as well as of the Vercelli poetry. To him aelfric dedicated his Life of S. aethelwold._

--_174, l. 9._ _On praying to saints for their intercession, see also_ Theodori Lib. Pniten. xlviii. 1, 2. _in_ 'Ancient Laws and Inst.i.tutes of England.'

--_190, l. 13 f. b._ we his gelyfa. _The construction with the genitive is worthy of notice: in another place we have_, we e gelyfa Cristes aeristes.

--_242, l. 16._ alefed. _This word is probably akin to_ laepeo (T.

Roffens. laeweo) _in the_ Laws of Eadward and Guthrum, x. {622} (Anc.

LL. and Inst.), _which in the old Latin version is rendered_, membris disfactus.

--_244._ Rubric. "_The_ Litania Major _is St. Mark's day, and the_ Litania Minor _is for the Rogation time, or the three days preceding the feast of the Ascension, by the Anglo-Saxons called_ Gang-days. _The service both on St. Mark's day, and on the three Rogation days before the Ascension is the same, and from the present homily it seems, that on the Rogation days the Litany in the time of aelfric was called Major, as it is also in the Canons of Charlemagne, and in some very old MSS.

of the Liturgy; though by the Council of Clovesho_, A.D. 747, _the service used on St. Mark's day was called_ 'Litania Major,' _leaning for the use of the term on the authority of Rome. The distinction is still strictly observed, the_ Litania Major _signifying St. Mark's day, the other the Rogation week_."--R.

--_244, l. 16._ Uigenna, Vienne _in the former province of Dauphine_.

--_246, l. 6 f. b._ haligdom _may here probably signify_ the host.

--_294, l. 13._ Lucas se G.o.dspellere. _See_ Homily p. 314, _where the book of_ The Acts of the Apostles _is ascribed to St. Luke_.

--_298, l. 5 f. b._ twegen englas, etc. _See_ Cod. Exon. p. 28.

--_322, l. 15 f. b._ _See_ Cod. Exon. p. 295.

--_338, l. 8 f. b._ onne. _In_ Matt. xviii. 12. _and_ Luke xv. 4. hu ne.

--_436._ Hom. de a.s.sumptione, etc. _Here some leaves have been cut out of the MS.; the part wanting, reaching to p. 446, l. 3, is supplied from _MS. Reg._ It is also supplied (apparently by the hand of Wheelocke) in the MS. itself, but in a text far too corrupt for use._

--_448, l. 4._ _For_ nalaes, MS. Reg. _reads here_, ne laes, _which is followed in the version; but the entire pa.s.sage is still far from clear_.

--_524, l. 9 f. b._ _Here a leaf has been cut out; the part wanting, reaching to p. 530, l. 11, is supplied from_ MS. Reg.

--_534, l. 9._ "_This pa.s.sage refers to a ceremony once in very general usage. It was the custom to spread out a sheet of sackcloth on the floor, and on this to sprinkle ashes in the shape of a cross. Just as the dying person was in the last agony, he was taken out of bed, and stretched on the sackcloth and ashes; it being deemed more becoming, that sinful man should yield up {623} his soul thus, than on a soft bed, when his divine Redeemer died on the hard wood of the cross._"--R.