Bohemian language; nay, a new period begins with him in our older literature. "In this edition we have paid diligent attention to both these sides of the question, the historical and the philological. Only such things have been admitted into this collection as can be satisfactorily ascer tained to have proceeded from the pen of Huss. As regards the sources of the edition, precedence has been given to the oldest manuscripts, as compared with the later ones; and use has only been made of the oldest printed copies in cases in which there are no older manuscripts in existence." * * * [Here follow observations on the orthography, etc., which will not interest an English reader.] "In this collection, we take first the longest and, at the same time, most important writings of the master who perished at the stake, i. e., the 'Exposition of the Faith,' etc., then the treatise on Simony, and, in the second volume, the Postilla: the remaining shorter writings, letters, and poems will follow. "A fuller account of the writings of Huss, of the chronological order in which they were written, and of the sources of this edition, will be appended to the third volume. "Prague, April 30th, 1865." "K. J. E." POSTILLA;" OR, "6 EXPOSITION OF JOHN HUSS's PREFACE TO HIS "Our merciful Saviour the Lord Almighty, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, very God and very Man, came into the world to bear witness to the truth, to preach concerning the kingdom of heaven, to collect strayed sheep, and to show them by word and deed the path to everlasting happiness, therein fulfilling the will of His Father, the Lord God. In humility, in stillness, and in poverty, rejected by the proud and by the prudent of this world, especially by the bishops, the masters, the priests, and the lawyers, who always opposed Him, did our merciful Saviour work with the people by preaching until His death; and this He did out of great compassion. Therefore writes St. Matthew in the ninth chapter, saying, 'Jesus, seeing the multitudes, had compassion on them, because they were troubled, and lay like sheep having no shepherd.' Therefore He said to His disciples, 'The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers into His harvest.' That is to say: there are many people who would gladly hear the word of God, and thus come, like wheat, into the garner of the kingdom of Christ; but the labourers are few, that is to say, there are few faithful preachers, who work from love with the people of God for the glory of God, for the salvation of the people and for their own. Therefore saith the Saviour, Pray ye the Lord of the harvest,' that is, God, who is Lord of the whole world, that He will send faithful labourers into His harvest. This expression, "The harvest is plenteous, and the labourers * These correspond to great extent, but not entirely, to our "Gospels." are few,' is considered by St. Gregory, who says: "This we cannot utter without grievous sorrow; for, although there are those who would gladly hear good things, yet there are none to tell them. Yes, the world is full of priests, and yet very few labourers are found in God's harvest; for we receive the office of the priesthood, but do not in deed fulfil our office. But consider, my brethren, consider what the Lord says: Pray ye the Lord of the harvest, that He will send labourers into His harvest! Pray ye for us, that we may be able to prepare things beneficial for you, that our tongue may not cease from exhortation; and that, as we have undertaken the office of preaching, our silence may not condemn us before our righteous Judge.' Thus far St. Gregory. Considering his words, or rather those of my Saviour, in order not to neglect my priestly office and waste my time, I have determined, with God's help, briefly to explain all the Sunday Gospels, for the praise of God and the salvation of faithful Bohemians, who wish to know and fulfil the will of God, desiring that those who read or hear may be saved, may preserve themselves from sins, may love God above all things, may hold fast love towards one another, may make progress in virtues, and may entreat the Lord God for me, a sinner. "And as people do not usually possess the Gospels written in the Bohemian language, and as an exposition is not so easily received without a previous foundation, I therefore intend to place the Gospel first, and the exposition afterwards, that the word of our Saviour may sound forth most loudly, and thus be made known to the faithful for their salvation: for whosoever hear it in love until death, the same shall be saved, and are blessed in this world, as the Saviour Himself saith: Blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it.' (Luke xi. 28.) Considering this, we ought diligently, lovingly, steadfastly, and cheerfully to listen to the words of our merciful Saviour, to tell and preach them to others, to guide them to the understanding thereof, and explain one passage of Scripture in accordance with another, as the saints by the gift of God explain them. My intention is, so far as I am able, to explain the Gospels in the manner easiest to be understood, and not in my usual manner of preaching." "GOSPEL FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY IN ADVENT.--Matt. xxi. 1-9. "The subject matter of this Gospel actually occurred on Palm Sunday, and therefore it is more suitably commemorated on that day than on the present day. Still we read it to-day, commemorating His com. ing, which the Christian Church commemorates to-day; the Bohemians using the term 'advent' according to the Latin language; for the Latin adventus corresponds to the Bohemian words for 'coming' or 'visit.' This the Holy Church commemorates from to-day until the day of Christ's nativity; and thus this whole space is called' advent,' that is, the time during which Christ's visit is commemorated. "Know then that Christ's visit is threefold, as the Scripture proves. Firstly, in the body. In that He visited us, when, being God, He became incarnate in the Virgin Mary's womb. Of this He speaks Himself in the sixteenth chapter of St. John: 'I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world.' "The second visit of Christ is spiritual, in which He visits us by His grace; for He saith, 'If any man loves Me, He keeps My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him.' This is the meaning of Christ, that He and the Father will come to that man who loves Christ, and keeps His word. And of this visit He speaks in the Revelation of St. John, in the third chapter: 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me.' At the door doth Christ stand, so that He is ready with gracious will to visit each man; and He knocks, when He warns him by inspiration, by pain, by threatening, or by sickness, or by the giving of various gifts. And whosoever listens to the voice of His command, forsaking sin, and fully turning His will to good, to this man doth Christ enter in, visiting him by His grace; and if the man ends his life in that grace without returning to sin, then Christ will sup with him and he with Christ; that is, he will enjoy everlasting happiness. And in this way, too, doth Christ visit a man spiritually, when he forsakes deadly sins, and He forgives him them, and when He grants him His special grace, and when at the hour of death He comes to him by His grace. Likewise, too, He visits evil men by threatening, by vengeance, and by everlasting destruction, and that especially at the hour of death. Therefore He saith, in the twenty-fourth chapter of St. Matthew: 'Watch; for ye know not at what hour your Lord cometh.' And in the third chapter of the Revelation of St. John He saith: 'If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.' "The third visit of Christ is future, at the day of judgment; concerning which He speaks Himself in the twenty-fifth chapter of St. Matthew: When the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all His angels with Him, then will He sit on the throne of His kingdom, and all people will be gathered before Him.' Concerning this coming also we say in the Creed, that He will come to judge the quick and the dead. "Hence, then, thou hast furthermore, that His first visit took place once for all, when once for all He became incarnate; that the second is taking place every day, as every day He visits the faithful by His grace, and the evil by vengeance or by warning; and that the third is yet to come. For His first visit we ought to be very grateful, and thus to commemorate it lovingly; with regard to His second visit, we ought to be diligent, that it may please Him to abide with us, and to conduct ourselves devoutly, that He may visit us with especial grace on the day of His nativity; with regard to the third, we ought to be in very diligent expectation, for He commands us to watch very diligently, that is, to keep from sin, and advance in the grace of God. And on account of these three visits the holy church has ordained, that from this day forth we should improve ourselves in the practice of virtue more diligently than before, remembering that by His incarnation He came for our salvation, and that by His grace He especially visits us on the day of His nativity, and that for the third time He will come in the judgment-day, and will give us an everlasting kingdom. "And for this visit the preparation is threefold: firstly, that the faithful, expecting their Lord, should conduct themselves reverently, and that especially when He is approaching. And this rests upon that saying of the holy Isaiah in the first chapter, 'Cease to do evil, learn to do good.' And as David saith, 'Refrain from evil, and do good.' The second preparation is, that when we hear that so great a Lord is nigh, we should prepare ourselves, and that in three ways: firstly, by preparing for Him a house, that is, by cleansing the soul from sins; for He saith through Isaiah in the first chapter: 'Wash you, and make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before Mine eyes.' Secondly, we ought to prepare ourselves in a beautiful garment, as Isaiah says in the fifty-second chapter: Put on thy beautiful garment, O Jerusalem, holy city!' 'Jerusalem,' in this place, signifies the congrega tion of the faithful, which is the holy city, in which Christ is to abide as King for ever; and this city ought to dress itself in a garment of gloriousness, that is, in virtue, which makes a man glorious. And this garment is immeasurably better to every soul than all the garments of this world with which the body adorns itself; nay, virtue alone adorns a man better than any bodily garment: and this garment ought to be white, that is, unspotted by sin. Thirdly, we ought to make preparations to provide meat suitable for so great a Lord. The suitable meat, which Christ eats, is the fulfilment of His will, as He saith Himself in the fourth chapter of St. John: 'My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.' And again He saith: 'Labour not for the meat that perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of Man shall give unto you.' Those provide themselves with the meat that perisheth not, who fulfil the will of God, and abide therein; for they will live in everlasting happiness for ever. And thus it is that faithful Christians nourish Christ every day, when they fulfil His commandments. And this He will Himself acknowledge on the judgment-day, when He says to the righteous, 'I was hungry, and ye gave Me meat; thirsty, and ye gave Me drink.' Yes, thus ought we to prepare ourselves to commemorate properly His first boly visit, to make ourselves ready for His second and third visits, and thus worthily receive His holy body on the day of His Divine nativity. For Saint Augustine says in a sermon: 'Dearly beloved • On receiving Christ's "holy body" Huss quotes Augustine, but it is well known that he dil not interpret the words, “ Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man,” as Augustine did. At the Council of Constance, the charge against him of "heresy" as to the Real Presence fell to the ground. Augustine considered the consecrated outward elements as symbols merely, and clearly separated and held apart the sacramentum and the res sacramenti, so that the Anglican Reformers could appeal to him in the Twenty-ninth Article for that very important doctrine, that the wicked, and such as be void of a lively faith, although they do carnally and visibly press with their teeth the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ, yet in no wise are they partakers of Christ;"" whereas Huss, in a treatise which he wrote when in prison in Constance, declares he "had never preached that the substance of the material bread remains in the sacrament of the altar." (Larroque, Histoire de l'Eucharistie, II. Partie, cap. xix.) In truth, the Bohemian reformer was in this respect very far behind Wycliffe, whose doctrine generally he had embraced.-EDIT. WES. METH, MAG. brethren! by the grace of God days have come to us, in which we desire to celebrate the Divine nativity: therefore I entreat and exhort that we labour in the best way we are able, in order that on that day we may be able to approach the altar of God with a clean conscience, with great diligence, and with a clean heart and body, and may be worthy to receive His body and blood, not to judgment, but to the healing of the soul and to our salvation. For our life lies in Christ's body, as He Himself saith: "Unless ye eat the body of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you." Therefore let him change his life who wishes to receive life; for, if he change not his life, he receives life unto judgment, and is more injured thereby than quickened. O, how happy is that soul that, by God's help, has so framed its life that it is worthy to receive the consecrated symbol of Christ! Again, how unhappy and miserable is that conscience which by evil deeds has so defiled itself, that Christ will not abide in it, but the devil begins to rule it!' All this says St. Augustine. 66 "From all these words, as St. Paul also commands us in the Epistle for to-day, let us obtain instruction: Let us cast off the works of darkness,' that is, let us free ourselves from sins, which lead to everlasting darkness, and let us put on the armour of light,' that is, let us take up virtues which will lead us to everlasting light. For if we thus live, we shall commemorate properly the threefold visit of Christ; we shall be suitable objects for Him to visit with His especial grace now, afterwards at the hour of death, and finally at the judgment-day. Already has He visited us by His incarnation; we commemorate that visit as having already taken place. He has also visited us by His grace in baptism, in that He freed us from our sins; and, though we have sinned after baptism, still He has visited us by His grace in repentance. If, then, any have not sinned mortally after baptism, He has visited them by especial grace, and doth visit them. And of His third visit at the judgment-day we are in expectation; expecting which, we ought to be always in readiness; for He Himself saith, 'Be ye ready; for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when ye think not.' And we ought to be so in readiness, as to suffer lovingly whatever happens to us for the sake of our beloved Christ, even as He for us sinners, for His adversaries, without being bound thereto, suffered lovingly a cruel death; for which death He came voluntarily to Jerusalem, and rode in upon a young ass with great weeping, exhibiting His gracious visit to the people of Jerusalem. "Therefore this Gospel is read to-day concerning the spiritual visit wherewith He has visited the faithful by His holy passion; not in order to take from them their property, nor to make them proud, but to redeem them from death, and give them an everlasting kingdom. Therefore the holy Zechariah prophesies, saying to the Holy Church, 'Behold, thy King cometh to thee, righteous and a Saviour: He is poor, and riding upon an ass and a colt, the foal of an ass.' In this saying, the prophet comforts the holy church, saying, 'Behold thy King,' a King gracious as regards vengeance, mighty as regards protection, * Literally, "host" (hosti). |