[255.1] [Add. MS. 34,889, f. 199.] The date of this letter is not clear, and we place it at the end of Henry VI.’s reign. It is probably much earlier.
[436]
A WHITSUNDAY SERMON OF FRIAR BRACKLEY[256.1]
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.
[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.
[256.2] Omitted in Fenn’s literal transcript.