Octob. 3. 1639.  
Imprimatur Cantabrigiae per Rogerum Daniel.  

Ra. Brownrigg Procan.  
Samuel Ward.  
Tho. Bainbrigg.  
Jo. x.    


The Mind of the frontispiece.   depiction of angel  

How firmly hangs this earth's rich cabinet  
Twixed fleeting Air, on floating waters set?  
By this one argument, fond Atheist see,  
The Earth thou treadest on shows a deity.  
On such a liquid basis could it stand,  
If not supported by a powerful hand?  
But what's the Earth, or Sea, or heaven to me  
Without Thee Three-in-One, and one-in-Three?   

Nec caelum sine T●terra. no● unda placet.   depiction of man standing on a globe with a hand pointing down from a cloud 
THE DIVINE COSMOGRAPHER  by 〈…〉 
x te pendenti reputa●… insi●tere terrae nonne vel hinc clar● conspici●… 〈◊〉 ●●um?   
Printed for Andrew Crook. 1640. W●… sulp●it.   

To my much honoured friend, WILLIAM HODGSON Esquire, on his elegant and learned descant on the Eighth psalm.  
WHen I peruse with a delighted eye  
Thy learned descant on a text so high,  
The choice of such a subject first I praise;  
And then thy skill and Genius, that could raise  
A style in prose so high as to express  
This holy panegyric; and no less  
The Use, to view through this variety  
Of creatures the creators' majesty:  
And must condemn those vain Cosmographers,  
Who whilst they strive to search and to rehearse  
All creatures frame and beauty, while they toil  
To find the various nature of each soil,  
The ocean's depth, through whose vast bosom move  
〈◊〉 many wonders, nay to skies above  
And higher spheres their contemplations raise,  
They lose the pith of all, the maker's praise.  
Thomas May.   

{non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}.  
HOdsonus ille, Lector, ut vides, nouâ  
Illustrate arte flammei poli plagas,  
Mundíque tractus; ceu Syracosius Senex  
Ingentis olim juserat coeli vias,  
Suúmque magno reddidit mundum Jovi,  
Humana Divi dum stupent ars quid queat.  
Sic sic aperti tramitem aeris secans,  
Stagnantis olim transiit terrae vias  
Columba, justi missa de manu Senis,  
Miro volatu remigans liquidum aethera.  
Qualisve docti quae Tarentini manu  
Efficta veras arte lusit alites.  
Hodsonus ille, Lector, ut spatio brevi  
Se continere non queat ampliùs vides.  
En! ille mensor aeris, & liquidi poli  
Percurrit orbem, tranat & quod aethera,  
Pinnisque quicquid turbidum findit mare.  
Accessus illi haud invius Diespiter  
Quà promit orbi syderis radios novi,  
Vesperéque sero condit ubi lumen suum;  
Ali isque tentat coeli inaccessas domus.  
Humero efficaci sic priùs coelumtulit,  
Laturum erat quod se, vice Atlantis, pue●  
Tonantis olim, pondere haud pressus grav●  
Linguâque doctâ sic & Hodsonus potens  
Stylóque docto jam viam adfectat polo;  
Terrásque notas linquit, & coelum petit,  
Radiavit ipse quod priùs lumine suo.  
Scrib. V. Optimo & ami● Guilielmus Burtonus. Kingstoniae ad Thamesin apud Regn●   

To my worthy & learned frien●W. H. Esquire, upon his divine meditation and elegant explanation of the Eighth psalm.  
'Mongst all the reverend rites the Church deigns,  
None melts the mind so much, so mildly reign●  
o'er man's affections, warming our desire  
And icy frozen zeal with heavenly fire,  
As th' Hebrew Siren's music, Jordan's swan,  
God's darling David, that prophetic man:  
Whose manna-dewing lays with charming strains  
And anthems chanted from inspiring veins  
Do mount our winged souls aloft, which fly  
Ravished to Heaven in blessed theory.  
This sacred Hymn, the subject of thy quill,  
Limned in such orient colours by thy skill,  
As a rich tablet shows in lively features  
God's love to man, & man's rule o'er the creatures,  
Fowls of the air, and beasts on earth residing,  
The scaly fry in the vast Ocean gliding,  
With all the numerous host of heaven past counting,  
In spangled order and bright beauty mounting;  
These all by thee are taught to speak the story  
Of the world's fabric, and their founder's glory.  
Nor hast thou marred the majesty of those  
Mysteries sublimed, dressed statelier in thy prose:  
But rather cleared those rubs and doubts which did  
●n obscure knotty arguments lie hid;  
And in this 
* Tit Psal. Pro Torcularibus.  winepress trod the grapes whose jnuce  
●hall to weak fainting souls such heat infuse,  
●s will not only cheat their hearts, but be  
Thy glories Truchman to posterity.  
Reuben Bourn.   

To his ever honoured friend, William Hodgson Esquire, on his contemplations on the Eighth psalm.  
Sir,  

GOd hath blessed you with a lovely vine,  
And you have blessed your God in so divine  
Soul-ravishing fancies, wherewith you are filled  
From the pure 
* Titulus Psalmi, Pro Torcularibus.  winepress of this psalm distilled  
I do conceive what pangs were in thee, when  
Thou formdest and brought'st forth with thy ski●full pen  
This perfect feature, whose alluring face  
Smiles on the world with an attractive grace.   

When thou beholdest with a single eye  
The spangled heavens, the embroidered sky,  
That looks upon the earth with thousands, we  
Confess and know that thy divinity  
Doth much irradiate the celestial tapers,  
Bright in themselves, but brighter by thy papers   

Curious contriver! how dost thou enrobe  
The great and small ones of each massy globe  
In fine-weaved ornaments! Such is thy skill,  
The Persian needle comes not near thy quill.  
Richly hast thou adorned the Earth our mother,  
Sea the earth's sister, and the Air their brother:  
And, which is most praiseworthy; each I see,  
And all that's in them, laud the deity.   
William Moffet, Mr. of art's Sydn. Coll. Camb. Vic. of Edmonton.   

The DIVINE COSMOGRAPHER; or, A brief Survey of the whole world, delineated in a tractate on the VIII psalm: By W. H. sometime of S. Peter's college in Cambridge.  
Printed by Roger Daniel, Printer to the university of CAMBRIDGE. 1640.   

PSAL. VIII. To the chief musician upon Gittith, A psalm of David.  
O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.  
2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength, because of thine enemies that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.  
3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast ordained;  
4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him?  
5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.  
6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet.  
7 All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field:  
8 The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.  
9 O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!   

The Divine Cosmographer; or, A brief survey of the whole world, delineated in a tractate on the eighth psalm.  

SECT. 1. A preface on the book of psalms in general.  
THe Holy Ghost describing the genealogy of our Saviour, from how many kings he was descended, vouchsafeth none of them the style and title of a King but David, and him twice in one verse, Matth. 1.6. and that for a literal and moral reason: partly, because he was the first king settling and establishing the kingdom of Israel; but principally, for that he was endowed with all princely qualities, as justice, wisdom, clemency, courage, and devotion: A king as mighty in religion as valour; who wrote more like an Evangelist than a Prophet. And therefore the Fathers conclude him to be, Homo in Veteri, non de Veteri Testamento, a man that lived in the time, but not after the manner of the old law, more like a Christian then a Jew. As the fat was taken away from the peace-offering, so was David chosen out from among the children of Israel Ecclus 47.2. That which was most excellent in every thing, the Hebrews called the fat: as, adeps frumenti, the fat of the corn; medulla tritici, the marrow of the wheat. The witty imitator of Solomon doth there make an allusion between the father of Solomon and the fat of the peace-offering: All the peace-offering was the Lords, yet all was not offered to him; but part was given to the Priest, and a part to the people: but the fat was fully burnt up to the Lord: So the zeal of God's house burnt up David as the fat of the sacrifice. In this fire of zeal did he oft ascend, 
Judg. 13.20.  like the Angel in the flame of Manoah's altar, to the throne of God: and his tongue being touched by a coal from that altar, many a dainty song did he tune upon his harp; which harp was no● more sweet than his song was holy.  
Though Moses the man of God was the first that by a special direction from God began and brought up this order, to make music the conveyer of men's duties into their minds; yet David the darling of God hath sithence continued it, as having a special grace and felicity in this kind. One touch of the son of Jesse, one murmur of this heavenly turtle, one Michtam of David's jewel, his golden song, is far above the buskined raptures, the garish phantasms, the splendid vanities, the pageants and landscapes of profaner wits.  
Et hîc rhetoricantur Patres: The Fathers both Greek and Latin have robed his Psalter with many rich encomiums. Athanasius, and Basil, and Augustine, and Jerome, and Chrysostom, and almost all the new writers, stand so deeply affected to this book, that they hold it to be the soul's anatomy, the laws Epito me, the gospel's Index Omnis latitudo Scripturarum, 
Hier.  The breadth of the whole Scripture (as he sometimes spoke of the Creed, and the Lord prayer) may hither be reduced. And it is observable out of Luke 24.24. that it is put for all the books of the old Testament as they are differenced from the Law of Moses and the Prophets. Again, it appeareth in the Gospel that Christ and his Disciples were very conversant in this book, because in their sayings and writings not fewer than sixty authorities are produced from above forty of these psalms. 
B. King, Lect. 26. on Ionas.   
This book was and still is more usually both sung and read, not only in the Jewish Synagogues but in Christian assemblies, as well by the people as the Minister, and that with more outward reverence, than any par● of holy Writ. The Jew● acknowledge the old Testament, abhor the new; the Turks disclam● both, 
Dr Hakewell in his David's Vow, pag. 2.  yet swear as solemnly by the psalms o● David as by the Alcora● of Mahomet.  
In all ages this boo● hath ever been esteeme● of the best & most learned men. Yea, the greatest Potentates, who with Joseph have had manu● ad clavum & oculos ad calum, have without blushing stooped unto a verse it being the usual recreation of King David, wh● was, as Euthymius speaks primi Regis & lingua, & cor, & calamus, the ●ongue, the pen, & heart of the King of Heaven. Thus, as we read, our good king Alfred translated the Psalter himself into the Saxon tongue. And our late most learned King James of happy memory (who as it is said of Scevola, 
K. James.  that he was Jurisperitorum eloquentissimus, of all lawyers the most eloquent man; so was he {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, of our Nobles the most skilful in divinity; and as Sylverius said of Caesar, he honoured learning with his own labours: a Prince mighty both with his sceptre and his pen; who besides his prose, it● ad carmen noverat, mad● such a verse when h● pleased, etiam sanissim● coloris, of a most daint and elaborate composit●on, as became Buchanan best Scholar) among other things truly and exactly translated ou● Church-psalmes, no● long before he was translated hence.  
The Subject of thi● book is singular: Fo● whereas the other prophecies were the Ambassies from God to the people, or at least the abstracts thereof, these are for the most part holy colloquies, holy whisperings, and secret conferences with God. What a spiritual Library of all manner of prayers, precepts, exhortations do I here find! The Psalter of this Kingly Prophet operateth that in the Church which the Sun doth in heaven; it illumi●ateth, heateth, and ma●eth fruitful all the good desires of Christianity. Our Prophet once desired to be a doorekeeper in the house of the Lord; 
Psal 84.11.  and ●e was heard in that he ●rayed for: for, as Hilary ●aith, this whole book of ●salmes was but a bunch of eyes, opening several ●oores to let the soul enter into all the treasures of devotion. This is the Spouses garden: here be lily 〈◊〉 and roses; here be apple● and pomegranates, an● sweet fruits; here be the myrrh, 
Cant. 4.12.13.  aloes, & Cassi● and sweet spices; here b● the fountains and well of living water; hîc su●preces & vota, here a● prayers and consolation● and amulets of comfor● more pleasant than the pools of Heshbon, mo● glorious than the towe● of Libanon, more red● lent then the oil of A●ron, more fructifyi● than the dew of Hermo● Prophets, Apostles, h● Martyrs, all the ancie● Fathers have made use of ●is book that begins ●th blessedness, and ●ntains nothing but ●essednesse; blessedness ●ing times repeated twenty ●en times in the con●ete in this one book: 
Revel. 21.  ●hich like the tree that ●areth fruit every ●neth, the Church hath ●pointed shall bring ●th fruit every month 〈◊〉 due season.  
As the matter is ex●llent, so is it digested ●o an elegant form of ●ords: Which fall not ●th the vulgar liberty 〈◊〉 speech, but run in ●mbers upon ordered ●et of divine poesy, composed and set to M●sicall tunes: in observ●tion of which the Psa●mist is as critical as the daintiest lyric or H●roick, yet with a vast d●paritie, both for subs●mitie of matter and admirable expression. S● rightly did Jerome pr●nounce of David to Pa●linus, that he is our Si●nides, Pindarus, Alce● Catullus, and in stead all others.  
Sundry reasons are ●ven why the Lord wou● have the chief points Religion included numbers by the sw● Singer of Israel. T● first is, That they mig● be transmitted pure and without depravation to ●osteritie: for they run ●o evenly and so harmo●ously upon feet, that if ●here want but a word or syllable the error is de●rehended.  
Secondly; it is done ●or the help of memory: ●or concinnity of numbers is sooner learned ●nd longer retained than ●rose.  
Thirdly, it puts us in ●ind of the harmony ●f our actions: In which holy and heavenly use of the harp the royal Pro●het by his tunes of Mu●ck teacheth men how to ●et themselves in tune, Psal. 15. and not one● how to tune themselv● but to tune their ho● hold, Psal. 101.  
Fourthly, to leap ov● a large field at once, a● to speak a little more that of which we can ●ver speak enough, it s●veth for the comfort the godly who are mo● often cheered by psalmody then by Praye● In this last respect S. A●gustine thus describeth psalm, 
Prolog: in Psalm.  Psalmus tranqu●litas animarum est oer sig● fer pacis, A psalm is t● tranquillity of the so● and standard-bearer peace. With which greeth that of S. A●●rose , Psalmus est vox ec●esiae, et clamor jucundita●s. And this hath truly been verified in the expe●ence of the Saints, that ●evout singing of ●salmes causeth tears of ●y to stand in the eyes ●f yet we may call them ●ares, or not rather the ●ew of heaven, 
Lib. De scalâ claustrali.  with S. ●ernard) which add a ●rment to the torment●. O how often, saith ●ood S. Augustine, have ●wept for joy, when the ●weet hym●es of thy ●raise, O Lord, have ●unded in my ears. 
Aug. lib. confess. cap. 6●  Et ●liquebatur cor meum, My heart melted, and ●rops of heavenly passions distilled into my sou●Suspirans tibi & respiran● Sighing and longing afte● thee, I was overjoyed i● spirit, and wholly overcome with the frago● of thy sweet ointment●  
I will end this prefa● with a note already mad● unto my hand: Athanasius in an epistle ad Ma● cellinam De optima inte● pretatione Psalmorum, reports, that coming to a● old man, and falling i● talk with him about the psalms, he receive● from him a good direct●on: whereupon, as himself saith, he listened diligently: The note wa● this, That there is grea● odds between the Psalms ●nd other Scriptures: for ●f you set aside the mysti●all part of them, the ●orall is so penned that ●very man may think it ●peaks de se, in re sua, it 〈◊〉 penned for him, and ●tted for his case: which ●f other parts of Scrip●ure cannot be so affirm●d. To this note of A●anasius I will add ano●er of S. Augustine's, ●et us so read psalms ●ll ourselves be turned ●to psalms, till the ●nging of psalms and ●ymns unto the Lord ●vite the very Angels of ●eaven to bear us com●any; so shall we learn with a near approach t● join our souls as clo● to the ears of God 〈◊〉 Philip joined himself t● the chariot of the E●nuch. Then sing ye me●rily unto the Lord, O 〈◊〉 Saints of his, for it well b●cometh you to be thankful for you are the timber of the Holy Ghost.  
But because concept●ons like hairs may mo● easily be filleted up the dissheveled, I will tie 〈◊〉 my loose thoughts certain knots: I w● single out one dear fro● the herd, and in particular fix my meditatio● on the eighth psalm.   

SECT. 2.  
BEfore I enter upon the parts of this psalm, 
The title of the Eighth psalm explained.  must first clear the title, and show what is imply●d in the very bark and find thereof. The In●cription, which S. Au●ustine calls the key of ●very psalm, is, To him ●hat excelleth in Gittith. ●o are the eighty first & the eighty ninth inscri●ed.  
Some derive the word ●ittith from a musical ●strument so called, be●ause either invented or ●ost used in Gath: and ●us the Chaldee Para●hrast translateth it, To sing upon the harp tha● came from Gath. So by Gittith here may b● meant, either such instruments as were used by the posterity of Obed 〈◊〉 Edom the Gittite; or tha● these psalms were mad● upon occasion of transporting God's Ark from the house of Obed-Edom, the history whereof is in 2. Sam. 6. and 6▪ 10, 11, 12 verses. Others more probabl● think it respecteth the time when this and thos● songs used to be sung namely at the time Hag●gittith, at the vintage which feast was solemnly celebrated by the I●raelites; in which they especially praised the name of God for the great and manifold blessings conferred upon man: Which ●s the whole blood and ●uyce of this psalm. According to this the Greek ●ranslateth it the wine-presses: & Gath in Hebrew signifies a winepress; Torcular calcav● solus, I have trodden the winepress a●one, Isaiah 63.3. Where by the way I could take along with me this observation; In those words the Prophet speaks not of himself; for it is he that asketh the question, vers. ●. Who is he, &c. Proper indeed they are to Christ, and so proper to him only that we shall not read them anywhere applied to any other. It is he that was in torculari, in a press, yea, in a double winepress; In the former he was himself trodden and pressed; he was the grapes and clusters himself; in the latter, he that was trodden on gets up again, and doth tread upon, and tread down his enemies. The press he was trodden in was his cross and Passion; never cluster lay so quiet and still to be bruised as did Christ in that press: But that which he came out of, where calcatus became calcator, was his Descent, and glorious Resurrection.  
Upon this little piece of ground I could raise another fabric, & infer this collection from the title, To him that excelleth: As David entitleth these psalms, so doth God for the most part bestow his graces, to him that excelleth; and with a liberal hand doth he deal his favours to him that improves his talon to the best advantage. God's family admitteth of no dwarfs, which are unthriving and stand at a stay; but men of measure, who still labour to find somewhat added to the stature of their souls. 
emblems of Perseverance.  The eagle's emblem is Sublimiùs, To fly higher, even to behold the Sun, as Pliny noteth; the sun's emblem is Celeriùs, Swifter, like a giant refreshed to run his course, as David speaketh, Psal. 19 the Wheat in the Gospel hath its emblem, Perfectiùs, Riper; First the blade, than the ear, then full corn, Mark 4.28. Ezekiel's emblem, Profundiùs, Deeper; first to the ankle, then to the thigh, Ezek. 47.4. Christ's emblem was Superiùs; Sit up higher, Luke 14.10. Charles the fifth his emblem was Vlteriùs, Go on farther. The woman with child hath here emblem, Pleniùs, Fuller, until she bring forth. So ought every Christian to mount higher with the Eagle, to run swifter with the sun, to sit up higher with the guest, to pass on further with the Emperor, to wax fuller with the Woman, till they may bring forth good fruits of saving faith, and so come to a full growth to be perfect men in Jesus Christ. But it is not my intent to angle about the shore: I will now let down my net, and launch into the deep.   

SECT. 3.  
THe ground upon which the Psalmist sweetly runneth through the whole psalm, is a twofold rapture expressed in a sacred rhapsody, in an exstaticall question of sudden wonder; a wonder at God, and a wonder at Man. In his wonder at Man, the parts be Antitheta: first, of his vileness & Debasement; Secondly, of his dignity and Exaltation. In the first each word hath its energy, What is man? and then, What is the son of man? paraphrastically thus, according to the Chaldee, What is man? Not man, that rare creature endowed with wisdom & understanding; not man, as he is cura Divini ingenii, the almighty's masterpiece, the Epitome of the greater world: But, What is Enosh, or Enosch, 
man's abasement.  miserable, doleful, wretched man? or, What is the son of Adam; whose original is Adamah, earthy? What is the son of calamity or earth? What is he? Nay, what is he not? what not of calamity and earth?  
And because the life of opposites is in comparing them, the Prophet in a deep speculation looking over that great nightpiece, and turning over the vast volume of the world, seeth in that large Folio among those huge capital letters what a little insensible dagesh-point Man is, and suddenly breaks forth into this amazed exclamation, Lord! what is man? Having considered in his thoughts the beauty of the celestial host, the Moon and the stars, he brings up man unto them; not to rival their perfection, but to question his; and after some stand and pause, in stead of comparison makes this inquiry, What is man, or, the son of man?  
Secondly, 
man's dignity.  we are here to take notice of man's dignity. Though the Prophet abaseth himself with a What is man? yet withal he adds, having an eye at God's favour and mercy towards man, Thou takest knowledge of him; Thou makest account of him; making him only lower than the Angels, but Lord over the rest of the creatures. And this knowledge, this account o● God, doth more exa● man then his own vileness can depress him.  
In his wonder towards God, as if God's glory were the circle of David● thoughts, he both begin● and ends the psalm with an elegant Epanalepsis Priùs incipit Propheta mirari quàm loqui; O Lord our governor, how excellent is thy name in all the world! vers. 1. And desinit loqui non mirari; O● Lord our governor, how excellent is thy name, &c. vers. 9 Sicut incipit it● terminat; & geminatio re● ejusdem intentionem habe● & animi ardorem, saith Musculus on Psal. 117. To which agreeth that of S. Augustine upon this hymn, Incipiendum cum Deo, & desinendum cum ●o: To praise God is the first thing we must begin with, and the last we must conclude with. And it is easy to observe, how that the universal underlong of most of these Ditties is, Praised be the Lord. David's gracious heart in a sweet sense of the great goodness of his God, everywhere breathes out this doxology or divine Epipho●ema, Praised be the Lord.  
This is the resolution and logical Analysis o● the whole psalm. B● should I fold up so ri● a work in so small a compass, I did but show yo● the knotty outside of a Arras-hanging: I wi● now open and draw o● at length, and present t● your eyes the pleasan● mixture of colours i● each piece thereof. An● lest I should lose my se● in this Zoan, in this fiel● of wonders, my meditations shall keep pace wit● the Princely Prophet● method, and among those magnalia Jehovae mirifica Domini, the wonderful works of the Lord, I will first conside● how that out of the ●outhes of babes and suck●ngs he ordaineth strength, 〈◊〉 still the enemy and the ●venger.   

SECT. 4.  
SAint Jerome writeth of Paula that no●le matron, that she joy●d in nothing more than ●uòd Paulam neptim audie●t in cunis balbutiente lin●uâ Halleluja cantare, that ●e heard her niece Paula ●ven in the cradle with a ●retty stammering tongue 〈◊〉 sing Haleluiah unto ●e Lord. O God, thou ●eedest no skilful Rhetorician to set forth the praise: 
Virgil.  Ipsa tibi blandos fundent cunabula flores; even newborn babe● and sucklings do sufficiently declare thy power wisdom, and goodness 

Beza. — Qui matrum ex uber● pendent,  
Elingues pueri (dict● mirabile!) vires  
Immensas numénque tuu● muto ore fatentur.   
Thus did the blessed Innocents, those primiti● Martyrum, witness ou● saviour's glory, non l● quendo sed moriendo, no● by speaking but by su●fering for him, so the God out of their mout● made perfect his praise. Christ assuredly got praise ●n that hymn which the Angels sung, Glory be to God on high; he got great praise by S. Stephen his Protomartyr, and by S. ●ohn whom he loved: but ●s praise was made per●ect by the mouth of those ●abes and Innocents. Marvel not that children ●ake up that train: for ●nto them and unto us ●en was born a Child, as ●e Prophet speaks, and ●ch an one as ever de●ghted in little ones, like ●s Father. To him was ●ver sacrifice more ac●ptable of beasts, than ●mbes; of birds, than pigeons: and that Lamb● of God carried the sam● mind, 
Matth. 19.14.  Suffer little children to come unto me, and fo●bid them not, for unto such belongeth the kingdom ● heaven. And if the kingdom of heaven belong to them, good reaso● they should belong un● the king. As great Princes will have their se●vants to attend on hi● whom they honour, 〈◊〉 God commands the glorious Angels in heave● to take charge of his lit● ones here on earth; a● they are ever rea● pitching their te● round about them, a● do ever attend either 〈◊〉 their safeguard or revenge. Nay, they are no longer Angels as S. Gregory well observes, than they are so employed: for ac●ording to S. Augustine, Angel is a name of office ●ot of nature. They are always Spirits, but not always Angels: For no ●onger messengers from God to man, no longer Angels; since to be an Angel, implies only to be a messenger.  
It was a witty Essay of ●im, who styled Woman the second edition of the e●itome of the whole world, ●eing framed next unto ●an, who was the ab●ridgement of the whole creation; and though a● Infant be but man in 〈◊〉 small letter, yet (saith another Characterist) he 〈◊〉 the best copy of Adam b●fore he tasted of Eve or the apple.  — Felix sine fraudib● aetas! 
Thrice happy infancy, in which no guile 〈◊〉 gall is to be found! C●jus innocentia & ignosce●tia, saith Culman, Whos● humbleness and harmlesness abundantly co●founds the enemy and the avenger: For a littl● child being injured takes not any revenge but only makes complaint to its parents. I● this respect we should ●mitate little children; and when any wrong us, not suddenly break into God's office, who saith, Vengeance is mine; whose prerogative royal it is, to ●epay it: but only make complaint to God our Father in heaven, or to the Church our Mother on earth.  
He that upon an ambi●uous word, to which he ●rames an interpretation against himself, upon ●ome chimaera of spirit, ●oth instantly fall into ●rags, rotomontadoes, ●untilioes, steps as it were ●to his Prince's chair of state, yea God's own seat, dethroning both and so disturbs heave● and earth. And he the shall communicate wit● another, still retaining t● impure passion of malic● in which is steeped the venom of all other v●ces, doth put Adonis i● the crib of Bethlehem, 〈◊〉 heretofore the heathe● did.  
But from our Saviou● crib I remove m● thoughts to Moses h● cradle. When tyrann● call Pharaoh sent out h● bloody edict for the slaughter of all the mal● babes and suckling's 〈◊〉 Israel, when the exec●tioners hand should ha● succeeded the midwives, 
The tender care of Pharaoh's daughter to the infant Moses.  then was the merciful daughter of that cruel father moved to compassion with the beauty ●nd tears of a little infant, 
Which with a smile seemed to implore the aid  
And gentle pity of that royal maid:  Which young and live●y oratory so prevailed with her, that from the ●rk of bulrushes, where●n she found it forlorn ●nd floating among the waves, she brought it to the palace, and bred it; ●ot as a child of alms, ●or whom it might have ●een favour enough to live, but as it had bee● her own son, in all the delicates and in all the learning of Egypt. Thu● many times God write● such presages of honou● and majesty in the fac● of children as are able t●confound the enemy an● the avenger.  
Some have observed how aptly these words ex ore infantum, are her● inserted in the secon● verse of this psalm, between the first and the third, wherein the Prophet magnifieth God● glory in consideration o● the heavens, & such lik● works of his and his ordaining; as though the Heavens too, the Sun, the Moon, the stars, and the rest, were to be rec●oned among those babes ●nd infants out of whose mouths together with ●thers he hath appointed ●e predication and per●ct composition of his ●raises.  
And because parallel ●xts of Scripture, like ●sses set one against another, cast a mutual ●ght, it will not be a●isse to illustrate this by ●nferring and medita●g on some passages of ●e former part of the ●eteenth psalm, and the next place consider ●w the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth h● handiwork.   

SECT. 5.  
THough Men only were made to be the speech-sounding letter in the alphabet of the Creation; though the Heavens, the Day and the Night be mute, yet hav● they a language whic● is universally understood: The continua● succession of day & nigh● doth notably set forth the wonderful power & providence of God; On● day telleth another, & on● night certifieth another, vers. 2. If the world be, as Clemens Alexandri●us saith, Dei scriptura, the first Bible that God made for the institution of man; then may we ●ake those words to be ●art of the book of the world, where Nights are as it were the black in●ie lines of learning, days the white lightsome spaces between the ●ines, where God hath ●mprinted a legible deli●eation of his glory.  
Here with Chryso●tome we may observe the goodly eutaxy of the hours, 
The hours compared to young maidens.  how like maidens dancing in a round, very handsomely and curiously the● succeed one another, and by little and little, and without any stir in the world, the inmost convey themselves utter most, the foremost, hindermost, and middlemost do all shift places one with another, and yet for all this, they never stand still, but do still stand in their just distances, — & positae spatiis aequalibus horae. Where likewise I may assume that of the Apostle, Rom. 10.15. How beautiful are the feet of those that bring glad tidings? How beautiful 〈◊〉 {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, how howerlike! and then they are fair and beautiful indeed.  
I will elevate this a point higher, and next consider the goodly and glorious vault of heaven, where are those worlds of light, much bigger than so many globes of earth, hanging and moving regularly in that bright and spacious contignation of the firmament. If there were no other, this were a sufficient errand for a man's being here below, to see and observe those goodly luminaries above our heads, their places, their quantities, their motions, to discern those glories that may answer to so rich a pavement.  

The Sun.  There is the sun, the Heart of the world, the Eyes of the universe, the gem of nature's ring, the Prince of life, Monarch of days and years, the Bridegroom, the Husband of the Earth which provides heat and sustenance for her and all the children that hang on her breasts.  

The Moon.  There is the Moon, a weaker light for a necessary use, Mother of months, Lady of seas & moistures, a secret worker upon bodily humours, whose virtue is not greater in her light then in her influence.  
There be those twinkling stars, 
The stars.  as it were virgins with torches waiting on their Mistress the Queen of Night: Posuit etiam Deus stellas, Gen. 1.16. Some read, Dedit stellas, God gave the stars in way of dowry or a jointure; but others, Posuit stellas, He set them in order: He hath not set them tanquam in centro, but tanquam in circulo, in excellent order.  
Surely if these dark and low rooms are so well fitted, 
The empyreal heaven.  it is not like those fair and upde● rooms are void. This sidereal heaven (i● contemplation of which in an holy trance I could gaze myself into wonder) is not more richly decked with conspicuous candles perpetually burning, than the throne of God with celestial Lights. There are innumerable regiments, bands and royal armies of Cherubims and Seraphims, Archangels and Angels, Saints and Martyrs. There is nothing which a religious soul can covet but she hath it; and to borrow a strain of the Schools, for the closing up of this sweet note, Hîc Deum amamus amore desiderii; at in coelo, amore amicitiae: Here we desire to have God, there we have our full desire.  
To cast mine eyes back from whence I have a little digressed, by a retrogradation, I contemplate again the excellency of Man, together with the privileges of his condition wherewith God hath ennobled him.  
In some creatures we have only vestigium, the print of God's foot; but in others imaginem, his image. The sun, the Moon, and the Stars are glorious creatures, yet are they but the work of God's fingers: whereas man is the work of his hands; 
Psal. 139 14.  Thy hands have made me and fashioned me: I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made, &c. The word in the original signifies such art and curiosity as is used in needlework or embroidery. Man is as it were God's Scutcheon, wherein he hath portrayed all the titles of the most excellent beauties of the world. 
The world compared to a large clock.  God having framed the world (saith Causinus in his Holy court) as a large clock, hath proportionably given to Man the place. The first wheel of this great clock of the world, is the Primum Mobile: The continual motion, the secret influences of Antipathies and Sympathies, which are, as it were, hidden in the bowels of nature: The hand thereof, is this goodly and beautiful embowed frettizing of the heavenly orbs which we behold with our eyes: The twelve signs are, as it were, the distinctions of the twelve hours of the day: The sun exerciseth the office of the steel and Gnomon, to point out time; and in his absence, the Moon: The stars contribute thereto their lustrous brightness: The flowery carpet of the earth beneath us, the spangled canopy of the heavens above us, the wavie curtains of the air about us, are so many emblems to exercise the wisest in the knowledge of this great Workman: The living creatures are the small chimes▪ and Man is the great clock, which is to strike the hours, and rende● thanks to the Creatou● S. Chrysostom saith that the Angels are the morning-stars, 
Job 38.  whereo● mention is made in Job who incessantly praise God; and Men are the Evening-Starres fashioned by the hand of God to do the same office. Briefly, God hath made man the Charge of Angels, the sole Surveyour of heaven, the Commander of the earth, the Lord of the Creatures. And thus am I led by the hand to consider his regency and Dominion over them.   

SECT. 6.  
WHen God had formed of the earth every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air of their own fit matter, he brought them unto Man, who was their Lord, to acknowledge his sovereignty, and to receive from him their names, Gen. 2.19. Some have conceited Adam sitting in some high and eminent place, his face shining far brighter than ever the face of Moses did, and every beast coming as he was called, and bowing the head as he passed by, being not able to behold his countenance. Most probable it is, that either by the help of Angels, or by that which the Greeks call {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, a natural and secret instinct from God, by which every creature perceiveth what is good & bad for them, they were gathered to Adam. God brought them to man for diverse reasons:  
First, To let him see how much he did excel them, and how much the more he should be thankful. God made other creatures in several shapes, like to none but themselves; Man, after his own image: others with qualities fit for service; Man, for dominion.  
Secondly, That he should give them their names, in token of his power over them.  
Thirdly, That posterity might see what admirable knowledge Adam had in giving names to the creatures according to their kinds. All the Arts were engraven upon the Creatures, yet none but Man could see them: for he receives them both actively and passively; and therefore by logic he understood their natures, 
Adam the first Nomencl●tor; and why he gave the creatures their names.  and by Grammar their names.  
If God had given their names, it had not been so great a praise of Adam's memory to recall them, as it was then of his judgement at first sight to impose them. By his knowledge he fitted their names to their disposition: and even in this he showed his dominion over them, in that he knew how to govern them and order them also. To witness their subjection they present themselves before him as their awful king, to do their first homage, and to acknowledge their tenure. Such was the wonderful beauty of man's body, such a majesty resulting from his face, that it struck a reverence into them all. The image of God, as it were the Lord's coat of Arms which he had put upon Man, made the creatures afraid of him. Though God made Man paulò inferiorem Angelis, little lower than the Angels, yet he made him multò superiorem reliquis, far above all the creatures: He that made Man and all the rest, praeposuit, set Man above all the rest. Thus while man served his creator, he was feared of every creature.  

Observ.  But did he not lose this patent of Dominion by his fall? Are not the beasts now become his enemies? May we not now take up the complaint of Job, chap. 39.7. The wild ass derideth the multitude of the city, and heareth not the cry of the driver. The unicorn will not serve, nor tarry by the crib, 9 The hawk will not fly by our wisdom, neither doth the Eagle mount up at our command, v. 26, 27. We cannot draw out Leviathan with an hook, neither pierce his jaws with an angle. Job. 41.1, 2. How then is the fear of Man upon the creatures?  
Though Adam in the state of innocency had this rule over them in a more excellent manner, 
Answ.  for than they were subject by nature, of their own accord, without compulsion; yet by his transgression Man did not altogether lose this power and dominion: For it was one of the prerogatives which God gave to Noah and his sons, Gen. 9.2. The fear of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of heaven, upon all that moveth on the earth, and upon all the fish of the sea: into your hands are they delivered: That is, saith the Paraphrast, The outward privileges of your first creation I do now, though imperfectly, renew unto you; Let the fear and dread of you be planted naturally in every beast of the earth, whether tame or wild, and in every fowl of the air, and generally in all that treadeth on the earth, and in all the fishes of the sea: All these, my will is, shall be subject to your will and command, that as by you and for you they were preserved, so they accordingly serve to your use.  
When Christ was in the wilderness with the beasts forty days and forty nights, they hurt him not, Mark 1.13. So when the image of God is restored to man in holiness, all the creatures begin willingly to serve him; but they are enemies to the unregenerate. The dogs did eat the flesh of Jezebel, 2. King's 9.36. yet they licked the sores of Lazarus, Luke 16.21. The ravens pick out the eyes of those that are disobedient to their parents, Prov. 30.17. yet they fed Elias in the wilderness. 1. King's 17.6. The serpents stung the people of Israel, Num. 21.6. yet the viper that leaped on Paul's hand hurt him not, Acts 28.6. The lions that devoured Daniels accusers, touched not him, Dan. 6.23, 24. And still there are some relics of God left in man which make the beasts to stand in awe of him: For first, they cannot do that harm to man which they would, because God restrains their power. Secondly, they do not offend man, but when he offends God. Thirdly, the nature of every wild beast hath been tamed by the nature of man, James 3.7. Fourthly, the most savage beasts stand in fear of him; they fly his company; they shun his arts and snares; they fear his voice and shadow. When man goeth to rest, the beasts come forth to hunt their prey, Psal. 104.20. Fifthly, they serve man, and submit themselves to his will. The Lion will crouch to his keeper: the Elephant will be ruled and led about by a little dwarf: the Horse yields his mouth to the bridle; the Ox his neck to the yoke; the Cow her dugs to our hands; the Sheep her wool to the shearers. He can now stoop the Hawk to his lure, send the Dog on his errand, teach one fowl to fetch him another, one beast to purvey for his table in the spoil of others. I am fallen upon a subject not more large than pleasant; & híc pinguescere potest oratio, my lines could here more easily swell into a volume then be contracted into a manual. 
Lib. De mundo universo.  For as Aeneas Silvius noteth, That there is no book so weakly written but it contains one thing or other which is profitable; and as the elder Pliny said to his nephew when he saw him walk out some hours without studying, 
Plin. lib 3. cap. 5.  Poteras has horas non perdere, You might have chosen whether you would have lost this time: so if we would improve our most precious minutes to the best, and contemplate on this great school of the world, where men are the scholars, and the creatures the characters by which we spell, and put together that nomen majestativum, as S. Bernard calls it, that great and excellent name of God, we should find that there is no creature so contemptible but may justly challenge our observation, and teach a good soul one step towards the creator. There is not any so little a Spider which coming into the world bringeth not with it its rule, 
Nascitur aranea cum lege, libro, & lucer●â.  its book, its light: It is presently instructed in what it should do. The Swallow is busy in her masonry: The Bee toileth all day in her innocent theft: The Pismires, 
Prov. 30.25.  a people not strong, prepare their meat in summer, and labour like the Bees: sed illae faciunt cibos, hae condunt, but these make, the others hoard up meat. As Vulcan is commended in the Poet for beating out chains and nets 
— quae lumina fallere possunt,  
— non illud opus tenuissima vincunt  
Stamina,  so thin that the eye could not see them, being smaller than the smallest thread: So the smaller the creature is, the more is the workmanship of God to be admired both in shaping & using thereof. Our God is as cunning and artificial in the organical body of the smallest creature of the world as of the greatest: And what application we may make thereof, I shall have fair occasion given me again to treat of, when I come to consider the Fowls of the air, and the Fish of the sea. In the mean time having selected this psalm for my meditations on man's Lordship and sovereignty over the creatures, I proceed according to the prophet's method; and from his Omnia subjecisti, from some generals, come to handle some particulars: and, as he hath ranked them in order, I will next declare how the Lord hath put under his feet all Sheep and Oxen, and the beasts of the field.   

SECT. 7.  
THere be beasts ad esum. and ad usum. Some of them are profitable alive not dead; as the Dog, & Horse, serviceable while they live, once dead they are thrown out for carrion. Some are profitable dead not alive; as the Hog that doth mischief while he lives, but is wholesome food dead. Some are profitable both alive and dead; as the Ox that draws the plough, the Cow that gives milk, while they live; & when they are killed, nourish and feed us with their flesh: Yet none of them is so profitable as that quiet, innocent, harmless creature, the Sheep: Whose every part is good for something; the wool for raiment, the skin for parchment, the flesh for meat, the guts for music. In Sacrifices no creature so frequently offered; in the sin-offering, Peace-offering, Burnt-offering, Passeover, Sabbath-offering; and especially in the daily-offering they offered a lamb at morning, and a lamb at evening, Num. 28. Lorinus observeth out of the Fathers, 
Mactabant agnum jugis nostri sacrificii typum, Lorin. in Act. Apost. c. 8.  why a lamb was so continually offered; namely, as a type of the offering of Christ: who in eight and twenty several places of the Revelation is called the lamb of God.  
For the name of Sheep; notatissima est dicendi forma, saith Bucer: in the 34. of Ezekiel, the Prophets are thirteen times called Shepherds, and the people one and twenty times called Sheep. In what honour the name, function and person of Shepherds hath been, is everywhere apparent through the sacred Scriptures. A Shepherd was the first tradesman, though the second son of all the children of Adam. 
Shepherds in high esteem with God.  And after Abel, many Shepherds were in near attendance upon God. A shepherd's life, saith Philo, est praeludium ad regnum; ideò reges olim dicti sunt {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}: Of which phrase Homer and other Grecians have made use. The old Testament hath none in more esteem than Shepherds. Moses, that kept Jethro's sheep; Jacob, that kept Laban's sheep; Amos a Prophet, taken from the herd; Moses a Priest and a Prophet, from the sheep; Elisha the Lord's Seer (and you know whose spirit Elisha had) yet taken from the cattle; David the Lord's soldier, (and who ever got such victories as David?) yet fetched from the fold, and by the choice of God destined to the Throne. 
B. Hall.  When he had lain long enough close among his flocks in the field of Bethlehem, God sees a time to send him to the pitched field of Israel, where at his first appearance in the list with that insolent uncircumcised Philistine, whose heart was as high as his head, he takes no other spear but his staff, no other brigandine but his shepherd's scrip, no other sword but his sling, no other artillery but what the brook affords, five smooth small pebbles; and yet by these guided by an invisible hand he overcame the Giant. Afterwards when the diadem impaled his temples, his thoughts still reflected on his hook and harp. All the state and magnificence of a kingdom could not put his mouth out of taste of a retired simplicity. As a Musician often toucheth upon the sweetest note in his song, pavin or galliard, so our Kingly Prophet in diverse psalms, but especially in his three and twentieth, (which we may call his Bucolicon) hath most daintily struck upon the same string, through the whole hymn: There have you Shepherd, sheep, green fields, still waters, ways, paths, valleys, shadows, yea the rod, and the crook.  
But more than all this; God the Father is called a Shepherd, Psal. 80.1. God the son doth name himself a Shepherd, John 10.11. God the Holy Ghost is named a Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, 1. Pet. 2.25. These very terms of Shepherd and Sheep have led me farther than I thought besides the waters of comfort.  
The night hath now furled up her sails, and a clear thin cloud laden only with a light dew besprinkleth with drops the whole earth, like pearls, which sparkle as little eyes in the faces of the flowers and plants. The glorious Sun is now unlocking the door of the morning to run his race. The winged Choristers of heaven do now begin to prune and pick themselves, and in their circling turns mount and soar aloft, and carol out their praises to God, as rendering their dutiful devotions and thanks unto him who hath thus reflected the beams of the Sun upon them: Whose sweet Anthems and modulations invite mine ear to listen thereunto, and after some pause break off my thoughts from the beasts of the field, and direct my pen to write somewhat of the fowls of the air.   

SECT. 8.  
MY meditations are now on wing: and I will make a short and speedy flight through the volary of the open air, to look on the numberless guests which it containeth; to see the several fowls of all shapes, colours & notes, whom Nature doth so willingly and bountifully furnish for the benefit of man, even to a mirror of delicacy, bravery, use.  
First, if we consider profit, they are for meat. 
Num. 11.  When the Israelites in the desert murmured for meat, Moses asked whether he should kill all the beeves and sheep, or gather together all the fish of the sea: He forgot the fowls of the air. But God sent them such a drift of Quails, in such abundance, that they were about two cubits above the earth. O the goodness and providence of that great housekeeper of this Universe! They desired meat, and received Quails; they desired bread, and had Manna. God gave them the meat of Kings, and the bread of Angels. Again, they are not only food in their flesh, but in their eggs also: And as their flesh is for our eating in the day, so are their feathers for our resting in the night. They are profitable both in war and peace, in sagittis belli, & in calamis pacis: Their feathers are for arrows in time of war to fight with, and for quills in time of peace to write with.  
Secondly, they are good if we consider pleasure. There is pleasure in the taking of them, by fowling to meaner persons, and by hawking to Princes and the better sort. There is pleasure in them to the Eye; when the navy of Tharshish brought unto Solomon gold from Ophir, there ●ame also besides Apes, and parrots and popinjays, (as some have probably conjectured) and the starry-trained Peacocks, which are only birds of pleasure; whose dainty-coloured feathers being spread against the sun, have a curious lustre, and look like gems: 
Job 39.16  The wings of the Peacock are pleasant, and the feathers of the Ostrich. So is the purpled Pheasant with the speckled side. Our Prophet David was much taken with the colour of the Dove; Pennae columbae deargentatae, her feathers are silver-white, Psal. 68.13. And three several times in the Canticles doth Solomon set forth the beauty of the Spouse, 
Cant. 1.14 Cant. 4 1. Cant. 5.12  alluding ad oculos columbarum, eyes single and direct as a dove, not learing as a fox, and looking diverse ways; oculos columbinos, non vulpinos. There is pleasure in them to the ear. The harmony of instruments is but devised by art, but the singing and chirping of birds is naturalis musica mundi, The fowls of the air do sing upon the branches, Psal. 104.12. How doth it delight us to hear the pretty lyric Lark, the Blackbird, the Linnet, the several kinds of Finches, the mirthful Mavis, the Wren, the Thrush, & Starling, & all the shrill-mouthed choir, chant forth their dulcet polyphonian notes! How doth the Nightingale (which the Latins call Philomela, a bird that loveth to sing) charm our senses, when she maketh an organ of her throat, sometimes breaking her notes into warbles, sometimes stretching them out at length!  
Lastly, in these feathered creatures do I likewise find bonum honestum. Many rare and admirable documents of instruction may we learn from them.  
The Dove is an hieroglyphic of unspotted chastity, 
The Dove.  of white innocency; and harmless simplicity.  Nescit adulterii flammam intemerata columba. 
Never was Dove sick of a lustful disease, but so loving and so true to her mate, that (I will deliver it from a better pen) she hath given life to a Proverb by her property; True as the Turtle, is the highest language conjugal love can speak ●n. The nature of her is described in this distich, 
Est sine felle, gemit, rostro non laedit, & ungues  
Possidet innocuos, puráque grana leg it.  She hath no malice to sour her gall, to dissweeten her temper, she hurteth not with her bill, she hath harmless claws, and feedeth on pure grain. 
Matth. 10.16.  In the Gospel (saith that ingenious author) where our blessed Saviour vouchsafeth to make the Dove his own text, and our copy, he proposeth her in his Sermon as a pattern worthy the imitation of all Christians; Be ye innocent as Doves; {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}: A word derived from the privative particle α and the verb {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, signifying simple, without mixture; or from the same α and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an horn; and than it implies as much as hurtless or harmless. Who ever saw the rough foot of the Dove armed with griping talons? who ever saw the beak of the Dove bloody? who ever saw that innocent bird pluming of her spoil, and tiring upon bones? This quality is so eminent in the Dove, that our Saviour there singled it out for an hieroglyphic of Simplicity. Whence it was questionless, that God of all fowls chose out this for his sacrifice, Sin ex aliqua volucri, &c. Levit. 1.14. And before the law Abraham was appointed no other fowls but a turtledove and a young Pigeon, Gen. 15.9. Neither did the holy Virgin offer any other at her purifying then this emblem of herself and her blessed Babe. Shortly, the holy Ghost in Scripture is resembled to a Dove, and appeared in the shape thereof: the Devil on the contrary is compared to Serpent, and used it as his instrument. Illa à primordio Divinae pacis praeco; The dove in the beginning brought an olive-branch, and preached peace unto the world: Ille à primordio Divinae imaginis praedo; The Serpent in the beginning played the thief, and robbed mankind of the image of God.  
We have an example of mercy in the Pelican, 
The Pelican.  which is a bird of mercy, and hath in the Hebrew (as the masters of that tongue observe) the name of mercy, as a truly merciful bird. She taketh her name Pelican, {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, from smiting or piercing, in regard that by piercing her breast she reviveth her young ones, after they have been killed by serpents, or by her own bill.  
The brave bird which the Grecians call Onocrotalus, is so well practised to expect the Hawk for to grapple with her, that even when sleep shutteth her eyes, she sleepeth with her bea● exalted, as if she would contend with her adversary. Hence may we have the quintessence of al● wisdom, To stand upon our guard, and daily expect death; it being 〈◊〉 business we should learn all our life, to exercise i● once.  
When Moses went up unto God, 
The Eagle Exod. 19.3, 4.  the Lord called him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel; Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and bow I bare you on eagle's wings. By the Eagles some there understand Moses and Aaron, the two guides that led the children of Israel out of Egypt; & will have them compared thereunto propter acumen intelligentiae & altitudinem vitae, by reason of their piercing judgement and holy life. They indeed were, as Chrysostom saith, mollissimae pennae misericordiae Divinae, 
Homil. 46. in Matth.  as it were the down-feathers of God's mercy, because they handled the people committed to their charge tenderly, in imitation of Eagles: Of whom some report, that whereas other birds carry their young ones in their talons or claws, which cannot be done without some griping, they lay them upon their wings, and so transport them without any grievance. Which is a good emblem for Magistrates, and teacheth them paternal affection towards their people.  
Gorran in his Exposition of Saint Luke's Gospel, cap. 17. v. 37. saith, 
The Saints resembled to Eagles.  that the Saints resemble the Eagles in these five properties.  
First, Calvitie peccatorum. For as the Eagles moult off their feathers, and so become bald, so the Saints pluck off their sick feathers from their soul; they circumcise the old man with the lusts thereof, and weed out sin by the roots. The Prophet Micah exhorting the people to repentance, bids them to enlarge their baldness like the Eagle, Micah 1.16. Mary Magdalene did more than cast her feathers, when she converted her eyes, her hairs, her lips, feathers of wantonness, into pledges of repentance. She had been parched with sin and the heat of concupiscence, 
Judg. 1.15.  as the wife of Othniel complained of an hot country when she begged of Caleb and Joshua the springs above and the springs beneath; This holy Sinner at her conversion brought unto our Saviour irriguum superius, springs of tears in her eyes above; & irriguum inferius, springs of blood (if I may so speak) in her heart beneath, even a bleeding, contrite and a wounded spirit. As Pliny saith of the fleur de lis, 
Lilium lacrymâ suâ seritur.  or flower-de-luce, that it is begotten by its own tears; in the same manner are the Saints produced to beatitude by their proper afflictions.  
The second resemblance is in renovatione novi hominis, in their new birth: Who reneweth thy youth like unto the Eagle, Psal. 103.5. The Eagle by casting her beak, and breaking her bill upon a stone, receives a new youthfulness in her age. This rock is Christ, upon which the Saints break their hearts by repentance. Paul had cast his bill and his feathers when he said, Now I live not, but it is Christ that liveth in me, Gal. 2.20. Extinctus fuit saevus persecutor, & vivere coepit pius predicator, saith Gregory.  
The third resemblance is in volatûs elevatione, in their lofty flight. Doth not the Eagle mount up, and make her nest on high? Job 39.27. So it is with the Saints: As their conversation, so their contemplation is as high as Heaven. Such elevations had our Prophet David, Psal. 25.1. & Psal. 121.1. Such an Eagle was Saint Paul, qui in terra positus, à terra extraneus: He lived here, yet a stranger while he lived here. Of all fowls, saith Munster, the Eagle only moves herself straight upward and downward perpendicularly without any collateral declination. By her playing with thunderbolts, and confronting that part of heaven where lightnings, and storms, and tempests most reign, she teacheth great and courageous spirits how to encounter all disasters. And by beating her wings on high, we are taught Sursum corda, 
Ambr. in Job 39.30.  to ascend up in our thoughts where our Saviour is. What the Poets feign of the Eagles laying her eggs in Jupiter's lap fabulously, that doth the faithful man by David's counsel truly, and with Isaiah's Eagle flying up to Heaven casteth his whole burden upon the Lord.  
The fourth is in visionis claritate, in the clearness of vision. Saint Augustine writeth of the Eagle, that being aloft in the clouds she can discern sub frutice leporem, sub fluctibus piscem, under the shrub an hare, under the waves a fish: So the faithful being Eagle-eyed, 
Exod. 3.2.  can with Moses in a bramble see the majesty of God; with the three children in the furnace see the presence of Christ; 
Dan. 3.  
2. King's 6.17.  with Elizeus in the straitest siege see an army of Angels to defend him; 
Rom. 8.18.  with S. Paul in the heap of afflictions behold a weight of glory provided for him.  
The last is in viae occultatione, in the secrecy of their way. One of those things which the Wise man admired at, was the way of an Eagle in the air, Prov. 30.19. See them fly we may, but their ways and subtle passages we cannot discern: So the Saints good works are seen of men, but their intentions with what mind they do them are not discoverable.  
I have the longer insisted on this princely bird, the Eagle, because among all other birds is ascribed to her maximus honos & maxima vis; and in the Scriptures are grounded many proverbs and similes upon the strength and length of her wing, upon her lofty flight, and sharp sight. It were infinite to follow the Allegorists in moralising her qualities: and to trace Pliny or Aelian for the variety of Eagles, were a course easy, but a discourse tedious. It would likewise in my poor conceit, something savour of his spice of pride that numbered his people, to reckon and heap up all that I have read on this argument. I have already showed what excellent lessons the Bee, the Swallow, and diverse other birds do read unto us, 
Tertull. De corona militis, cap. 3.  and I must not per eandem lineam serram reciprocare, draw my saw the same way back again. I discharge this point: The next that attendeth our consideration is the other part of God's work, on the fifth day, which I may call his Water-work: And so I take into my thoughts the fish of the sea, and whatsoever walketh through the paths thereof.   

SECT. 9  
WHen Argus in the Poet had the custody of Io, 
Constiterat quocunque loco, 
Ovid. Met. lib. 1. Thus elegantly translated by Mr George Sandys.  spectabat ad Io;  
Ante oculos Io, quamuìs aversus, habebat.  
Which way soe'er he stands he Io spies:  
Io behind him is, before his eyes:  So may I say of them that go down into the sea in ships, On every side, which way soever they look, they see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep, Psal. 107.23.  

The Sea wonderful in many respects.  First, the Element in itself is wonderful: First, in regard of the depth, situation and termination of it. Secondly, in regard of its motion, its afflux and reflux, its ebbs and flows, its fulls and wanes, its spring and neap-tides. Thirdly, in regard of Navigation, or the art of sailing, which now is so ordinary and common, that we almost cease to bestow wonder on it.  
Again, it is wonderful in the numberless number of Creatures which it containeth. This one word FIAT hath made such infinite numbers of fishes, that their names may make a dictionary, and yet we shall not know them all.  
First, for the profundity of the sea, (which is the distance between the bottom and superficies of the waters) it is of that immensity that in many places no line can touch it. The common received opinion that the depth of it being measured by a plummet seldom exceeds two or three miles, is not to be understood (saith Breerwood a worthy writer) of the sea in general, but only of the depth of the Straits or narrow seas, which were perhaps searched by the Ancients, who dwelled far from the main Ocean.  
For the site and bounds of it, 
Whether the Waters be higher than the Earth?  it is excellent. The natural place of the waters by the confession of all is above the earth: This at the first they enjoyed, and after repeated and recovered again in the overwhelming of the old world, when the Lord for a time delivered them as it were from their bands, and gave them their voluntary and natural passage. And at this day there is no doubt, but the sea, which is the collection of waters, is higher than the land, as seafaring men gather by sensible experiments. 
Psal. 104.16.  Thou coverest it with the deep as with a garment, saith the psalm. As a vesture in the proper use of it is above the body that is clothed therewith, so is the sea above the land. And such a garment, saith one, would it have been unto the earth, but for the providence of God towards us, as the shirt that was made for the murdering of Agamemnon, where he had no issue out. Therefore the Psalmist addeth immediately, At thy rebuke they fled: at the voice of thy thunder they hasted away. They go up by the mountains, they go down by the valleys unto the place which thou hast founded for them. Thou hast set a bound that they may not pass over; that they turn not again to cover the earth. Though that fluid Element is always running and often roaring as if it would swallow up the earth, though this untamed beast be unresistible by the power of man, yet is it ruled like a child by the power of God: The sea is his and he made it, Psal. 95.5. He stilleth the raging of the sea and the noise of the waves, Psal. 65.7. He hath shut up the sea with doors, Job 38.8. He hath established his commandment upon the sea, and said, Hitherto shalt thou come and no further; here will I stay thy proud waves, vers. 11.  
By many texts of Scripture the earth is said to have the sea for its foundation, Psal. 24.2. and Psal. 116.16. yea, to be made out of the matter and to consist in it, 2. Pet. 3.5. God would have his servant Job admire hereat, when he asked him, Whereupon are the foundations set? and who laid the cornerstone thereof? Job 38.6. Elsewhere it is said to have no foundation, Job 26.7. only to hang in the midst of the world by the power of God immovable, Psal. 93.2. Psal. 104.5. Isaiah 40.12. and 42.5, etc And these which haply may seem most inept and weak pillars, are firm bases, Psal. 104.5. and mighty foundations Mich. 6.2. All which is an argument demonstrative of God's power and providence, who as he brought light out of darkness, so hath he set the solid earth upon the liquid waters, and that for the convenience of man's habitation.  
Secondly, 
Reciprocatio & aestus maris: The ebbing and flowing of the sea.  it is wonderful for its motion: Why it moveth forward, why it retireth, is to us above all reason wonderful. That such a motion there is, experience showeth; but the searching out of the cause of it, is one of the greatest difficulties in all natural philosophy. 
Aristotle.  Aristotle was so much admired for his logical wit, that by some he hath been charactered by three special Epithets: first, that he was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, a lover of universalities; secondly, that he was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, a lover of method; lastly and chiefly, that he was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}, a subtle searcher out of causes: Yet this Genius and secretary of Nature, this acute Philosopher, this prince of Philosophers, is reported to have stood amazed at the flowing and ebbing of Euripus, and despairing of finding out the cause thereof, cast himself into the river, and was comprised of that he could not comprehend. What Aristotle's opinion was concerning this matter is an uncertain conjecture, for as much as little or nothing can be gathered touching this out of any boo● which is certainly known to be Aristotle's; for the tractate of the propriety of Elements is judged to be none of his, but of some later author. This is more at large most judiciously discussed by Mr Nathanael Carpenter in his geography, Lib. 2. cap. 6.  
Thirdly, 
Navigation.  it is wonderful in the art of Navigation on it. Is it not strange that there should be a plough to delve a passage through the unwieldy Ocean? that the Water should be of such fidelity as firmly to bear up all vessels from the shallop to the ship, from the smallest carvel to the mightiest and greatest carrack, and by the help of favourable and propitious winds convey them on their woven wings from climate to climate, to the benefit and commodity of their far-distant owners?  
Concerning the original of shipping, I find it to be God's own invention. If God had not said to Noah, Fac tibi arcam; and when he had said so, if he had not given him a design, a module, a platform of the Ark, we may doubt whether ever man would have thought of a means to pass from nation to nation, of a ship or any such way of trade and commerce. This Ark resting afterwards on the mountain of Ararat, gave a precedent to other nations neare-bordering how ships were to be framed. Thus Navigation first taught by Almighty God, was afterwards seconded by the industry of famous men in all ages.  
For the use and commodity of Navigation may be produced many arguments. 
The benefit thereof.  The first and principal is the promotion of religion; How should the Gospel have been divulged through the whole world, had not the Apostles dispersed themselves, and passed the sea in ships, to convey their Sacred message to divers nations and kingdoms?  
Again, sea-traffic and Merchandizing is of that excellent use, that the state of the world cannot subsist without it. Not the lion and the Unicorn, but the Plough and the Ship under God are the supporters of a Crown.  
Non omnis fert omnia tellus,  
No country yieldeth all kind of commodities.  
There must be a path from Egypt to Asshur, and from Asshur to Egypt again, to make a supply of their mutual wants. Mesha the king of Moab was a king of sheep; Hiram king of Tyre had store of timber and workmen: Ophir was famous for gold, Chittim for ivory, Basan for oaks, Lebanon for cedars, Saba for frankincense. We have our gold from India, our spices from Arabia, our silks from Spain, our wines from France. And thus by the goodness and wisdom of God is one country the helper and mutual supporter of another's welfare. He maketh one the granary, to furnish her neighbours with corn; another the armoury, to furnish the rest with weapons; another the piscary, to furnish the rest with fish; another the treasury, to furnish the rest with gold. By this is the Merchant the key of the land, the treasurer of the kingdom, the venture of his soils surplusage, the combiner of nations, and the adamantine chain of countries. 
Quò va●ts?  The sea and the earth, saith a learned Prelate, are the great coffers of God; the discoveries of navigation are the keys, which whosoever hath received may know that he is freely allowed to unlock these chests of Nature without any need to pick the wards.  
Here could I spread my meditations, and train on my Reader with delight: but my principal aim is, to show how wonderful the Sea is in the great variety and abundance of Creatures that live and move within this womb of moisture.  
Almighty God hath so richly sown the great and boisterous element of waters with the spawn of all sorts of fish which so innumerably multiply, and hath crowned the deeps with such abundance, that the Sea contendeth with the Earth for plenty, variety, and delicacy.  
The Breed of it is yielded to be full of wonder. As there is miraculum in nodo, a wonder in the knitting of those two elements of Water and Earth in one spherical and round body; so is there miraculum in modo, 
Nec laborat Deus in maximis, nec fastidit in minimis, Ambros.  a miracle in the manner of the operation: For eodem modo producitur balaena quo rana; totidémque syllabae ad creandum pisciculos quot ad creandum cete. Small fishes are not the superfluity of Nature: There is as much admirableness in the little Shrimp as in the great Leviathan: both are miraculous. There are miracula magna & miracula parva; & saepe parva sunt magnis majora, saith Saint Augustine: The basest fish, even that shellfish called Murex, giveth our Purples, the most sumptuous and delightful colours: 
Aquarum est quod in regibu adoratur.  And Margarites, the most precious pearls that beautify Princes robes, come from the sea. And this is first the Bonum jucundum, the pleasure good, which we find in them. The taste of many fishes, in all manner of magnificence, is more delicate and exquisite then that of flesh. And Fish hath ever had the privilege which at this day it hath, 
Mountaign in his essays, Lib. 1. Cap. 49.  That chief Gentlemen are pleased and have skill to dress it.  
Nor is Fishing itself less delightful to them that use it then Hunting and Hawking are to others. They are indeed Princely disports, & studium Nobilium, the study, the exercise, the ordinary business of many great Ones; yet much riding, many dangers accompany them: hilares venandi labores, &c. whereas fishing, which is a kind of hunting by water, be it with nets, weels, bait, angling or otherwise, is still and quiet. And if so be the Angler catch no fish, yet hath he a wholesome walk 
Among the curled woods and painted meads  
Through which a silver-serpent river leads  
To some cool courteous shade.—  He whiffs the dainties of the fragrant fields; he sucketh in the breath of fine fresh meadow-flowers, which (like the warbling of music) is sweetest in the open air where it cometh and goeth; he heareth the menstruous harmony of birds, a choir whereof each tree entertaineth at nature's charge; he sees the Swans, Herons, Ducks, Water-hens, coats, and many other fowl, with their brood; which he thinketh better than the noise of Hounds▪ or blast of Horns, or all the sport that they can make.  
This is true of those that use fishing for recreation: But what shall we say of the poor stipendiary fishermen, qui cruribus ocreati, who booted up to the very groins, toil and take much pains for a little pay? Certainly God crowneth their labour with a sweet repose, and their diet is more wholesome & nourishing; whereas surfeits light frequently on the rich, and the gentle blood groweth quickly foul: The bread of him that laboureth (as Solomon saith of his sleep) is sweet and relishable, 
Eccle● 5.12.  whether he eat little or much. This hath he prettily expressed in his Sicelides; 

Happy, happy fisher-swains,  
If that you knew your happiness  
Your sports taste sweeter by your pains,  
Sure hope your labour relishes:  
Your net your living: whe● you eat,  
Labour finds appetite and meat.   

When the seas and tempests roar,  
You either sleep, or pipe, or play,  
And dance along the golden shore,  
Thus you spend the night & day:  
Shrill wind's a pipe, hoarse sea's a taber,  
To fit your sports or ease your labour.   Moreover, by fishing and using themselves thereto men are enabled to do service for their country: 
Judg. 5.  When Reuben abode among the sheepfolds to hear the bleating of the flocks, when Gilead did stay beyond Jordan, and Issachar took his rest in his tents, than the people of Zebulun did jeopard their lives unto death in the field against Sisera. Zebulun is a tribe of account, as well as Judah, Benjamin, and Nepthali, Psal. 68.27. Moses by a spirit of prophecy, (as likewise remembering what old Israel had prophesied of this son and his posterity, Zebulun shall dwell by the seaside; he shall be an haven for ships, Gen. 49.13.) breathed but this prophetical pathetical dying farewell, They shall suck of the abundance of the seas, and of the treasures hid in the sands, Deut. 33.19.  
And here doth fall into our contemplation the Bonum utile, the great benefit, commodity and profit that we reap from the Sea: Which according to our English proverb, is a good neighbour, in that it yields such store of fish whereby the inhabitants may be nourished, and other creatures the better preserved. For Abraham's servant to fetch a calf from the stalls, Jacob to bring a kid from the fold, Esau● to bring venison from the field, doth not so much express how God filleth us with plenteousness, as the unseen prey which the fisherman bringeth from the sea.  
Who can number the sand of the sea? saith the son of Sirach, Ecclus 1.2. nay, what man is able to number the fish of the sea? which are so many that the Patriarch Jacob prayed that Joseph's children might increase like the fish, Gen. 48.16. 
Boi●.  Beasts of the field and birds of the air bring forth but one or two young ones, if they be big; or, if they be little, some three or four, others five or six, few above ten, none usually above twenty: but fish, as experience teacheth, every day bring forth hundreds at one time: In the great and wide sea, saith our Prophet, are things creeping innumerable, both small and great, Psal. 104.25.  
In the creation God said, Let the waters bring forth in abundance every creeping thing that hath the soul of life, Gen. 1.20. Howbeit in all that abundance, as it is observed, there is nothing specified but the Whale, as being the Prince of the rest, and, to use the phrase of Job, king of all the children of pride. Wherein the workmanship of the Maker is most admirable: for it is said, Then God created the whales; and not singly, the whales, but with an additament, the great whales. So doth the Poet term them immania cete, huge whales, as being the stateliest creatures that move in the waters. God made the whale, saith a Father, to be vectem maris, the bar of the sea: He, like the Serpent in the Revelation, 
Apoc. 12.15.  casteth out of his mouth water like a flood, 
— this monstrous whirl-about  
into the sea another sea doth spout.   
In creating of them creavit Deus vastitates & stupores. 
Plin. lib. 9 cap. 2.  For, as Pliny writeth of them, when they swim and show themselves above water, annare insulas putes, you would think that Islands swam towards you, and that great hills did aspire to heaven itself with their tops. The greatness and strength of a whale in a most elegant narration is expressed by Job, which for acuteness, vigour and majesty of style doth far exceed what ever we can fetch from the schools of Rhetoricians: He beginneth it at his first verse of his 40 chap. and so to the end, where he leaveth it ●s an Epilogue of God's great work. This Emperor of the Ocean, this unequalled wonder of the deep, this balaena, the great whale (for so Tremellius translateth Leviathan in that passage of Job) is very profitable to the Merchant, for its oil, bones, and ribs. In Isleland, as Munster writeth, of the ribs and bones of the biggest whale many make posts and sparres for the building of their houses.  
I will land this point with an observation of such fish as are for the food and sustentation of man.  
I never find that Christ entertained any guests but twice, and that was only with loaves and fishes. I find him sometimes feasted by others more liberally: but his domestic fare, for the most part, except a● the Passeover, was fish▪ He that chose but twelve Apostles out of the whole world, took four of those twelve that were by profession Fishermen ● as, Simon Peter, and Andrew his brother; and the two sons of Zebedee, James and John. And the ancient Fathers observe, that our Saviour did express himself to the Sea-tribe more than to any of the rest: For he was conceived at Nazareth a city in the portion of Zebulun, and in that city was he brought up, and began to preach first there; and mount Tabor, upon which he was transfigured, was in the tribe of Zebulun also.  
With the Hebrews the same word doth signify a pond or a fish-pool which is used for a blessing. And surely it is a blessing to any country, among other commodities which every a kingdom, to have the benefits of fishponds and sluices; in which commodious stews men may preserve the fishes which they take, and sell them for advantage and gain. The Prophet Isaiah foreseeing the destruction of Egypt saith, The waters shall fail from the sea, and the river shall be wasted and dried up: And they shall turn the rivers far away, and the brooks of defence shall be emptied and dried up; the reeds and flags shall wither. The fishes shall mourn, and all they that cast angle into the brooks shall lament, and they that spread their net upon the waters shall b● weakened. And we find that among other plague● of Egypt this was one, That their fish, the chief part of their sustenance, died with infection: and their Nilus did not only yield them a dead but a living annoyance; it did never before so store them with fish, as it did then plague them with frogs. If it be such a curse to be deprived of so great a blessing, what a blessing it is not to know such a curse!  
To descend to the particulars: Among this scaly footlesse nation, I likewise find Bonum honestum: For from them we may draw symbola virtutum quae imitemur, many exquisite emblems for our instruction.  

The Tench the Physician of fishes.  As fishes when they are hurt, heal themselves again by touching the Tench, finding the slime of his body to be as a sovereign salve: so must we when we are wounded with sin, repair to our Saviour Christ, cujus sanat fimbria, saith Ambrose, whose garment is our plaster; whom if we do but touch tactu fidei, by a true faith, we shall be whole. Thus the woman in the Gospel that twelve years long had laboured of an issue of blood, to whom the art of the Physician could neither give cure nor hope, at length by a touch of the verge of his garment was revived from the verge of death: She came trembling to our blessed Saviour, and though her tongue were mute, yet her heart spoke; for she said within herself, If I may but touch the hem of his garment, I shall be safe. That she supposed to find more sanctity in the touch of the hem then of the coat, I neither dispute, nor believe. 
B. Hall.  But what said she? If I may but touch, a weak action; the hem of his garment, the remotest part; with a trembling hand, a feeble apprehension. Here was the praise of this woman's faith, that she promised herself remedy by the touch of the outmost hem.  

Levit. 11.9. Deut. 14.9.  In the old law those fish were only reputed clean which had fins and scales. The fins of the fish are for steering of their motion; the scales, for smoothness of passage, for safeguard, for ornament: So are those only clean in the sight of God, 
●ern. Serm. 1. in die S. Andreae.  qui squamas & loricam habent patientiae, & pinnulas hilaritatis, who have the scales and coat-armour of patience, and the sins of joy and cheerfulness to spring up to godward; Or as the Paraphrast there saith, Those men that have no knowledge and faith to guide them, no good dispositions to set them forward, no good works to set them forth, are not for your entire conversation.  
By the story of the Dolphines' assembled in shoals upon the seashore to celebrate the obsequies of Ceraunus, 
The dolphin. Aelian, lib. 8. c. 3.  who had before freed them from the snare of the fishermen, we learn, That good turns are golden nets which catch the swiftest gliding fish. The Dolphines moving from the upper brim of the water to the bottom when she sleepeth, 
optic glass of humour cap. 4. p. 5  condemneth those that streak themselves upon their beds of down, and snort so long— 
— indo mitum quod despumare Falernum  
Sufficiat, quintâ dum linea tangitur umbrâ;  as would suffice to sleep out a surfeit till high noon, &c.  
I cannot set forth this King of Fishes in more orient and better colours than he before hath done 
Brave Admiral of the broad briny regions, 
Sylvester.   
Lover of ships, of men, of melody,  
Thou up and down through the moist world dost fly  
Swift as a shast, whose salt thou lovest so,  
That lacking that, thy life thou dost forgo.  Seas of examples in this kind are infinite. Sallust du Bartas, a Poet above the ordinary level of the world, for the choice of his subject most rare and excellent, is admirably copious on this theme. I will therefore forbear to write Iliads after Homer. And although for the most part it be true, that wit distilled in one language cannot be transfused into another without loss of spirits, yet who so is able judiciously to compare the Translation with the original, will confess, to the immortal glory of our countryman, 

Mich. Drayton. — that from the French more weak  
He Bartas taught his six-days-work to speak  
In natural English.  and so 

Sam. Daniel. — hath lighted from a flame devout  
As great a flame, that never shall go out.    

SECT. 10.  
THus have I made a brief circuit over the whole earth, and a short cut over the vast Sea: And now before I put my ship into the creek, before I conclude, I must draw these scattered branches home to their root again. The general substance of them all together is this; As it is a most pleasant kind of geography, in this large map of the World, in the celestial and terrestrial Globe, to contemplate the creator; so there is nothing that obtaineth more of God, than a thankful agnition of the favours and benefits we daily receive at his bountiful hands. If we be not behind with him in this tribute of our lips, he will see that all creatures in heaven and earth shall pay their several tributes unto us; the Sun his heat, the Moon her light, the stars their influence, the Clouds their moisture, the Sea and Rivers their fish, the Land her fruits, the Mine their treasures, and al● things living their homage and service. O● the contrary; If the familiarity of God's blessings draw them into neglect, he will have a● just quarrel against us for our unthankfulness; and our ingratitude (which is a monster in nature, a solecism in manners, a paradox in divinity) will prove a parching wind to dam up the fountain of his favours toward us.  

Hugo de S. Vict.  I will seal up all with a pretty note that Hugo hath; There is no book of nature unwritten on: and that which may not ●e a teacher to inform ●s, will be a witness to ●ondemn us. It is the ●oice of all the creatures ●nto Man, Accipe, red, ●ave.  
Accipe; Take us to thy ●se and service. I Heaven ●m bid to give thee rain; I sun, to give thee light; ● Bread, to strengthen thy ●ody; I Wine, to cheer thy heart; We Oxen leave our pastures, we lambs our mothers, to do thee service.  
red; Remember to be thankful. He that giveth all, commandeth thee to return him somewhat. It is hard if thou canst not thank the great Housekeeper of the world for thy good cheer: This is the easi● task and impositio● which the supreme Lord of all layeth upon all the goods thou possessest & on all the blessings of this life: — Minimo capitur thuri● honore Deus.  
Cave; Beware of abusing us. The Beasts of the field do cry, Do not kill us for wantonness; the Fowls of the air, Do not riot with us; the Wine, devour not me to disable thyself: The hours, which ever had wings, will fly up to heaven to the author of Time, and carry news of thy usage toward us.  
And now, Manum è ●abula: I have finished my meditations on this psalm, wishing I could have had S. Ambrose his faculty, qui in Psalmis Davidis explicandis ejus lyram & plectrum mutuatus, who in the expression of David's psalms is said to have borrowed David's own harp: so rightly did he express his meaning. But my fear is, that I have muddled and made this Topaz but so much the darker by going about to polish it.  
To end as I began, with the commendation of the book of psalms; Est certè non magnus, verùm aureolus, & ad verbum ediscendus libellus; The Psalter is not a great but a golden book and throughly to be learned.  
This method our Prophet observeth in this excellent hymn; The Proposition and Conclusion thereof are both the same; carceres & meta, the head and the foot, as i● were the voice and the echo: The whole psalm being circular, annular▪ serpentine, winding into i● self again, as it beginneth so it endeth, O LORD our governor, how excellent is thy name in all the world!   
FINIS.