The Inventors' premeditation upon this Emblematical Frontispiece of the subsequent pious MEDITATIONS. MY Heart a matter good indite, By good Examples Cloud by Day, By Faith's shining Lamp led by Night, With Zeals wings soar up the steep way To Light inaccessible, which To Fill, and not be Filled, is rich. Leaving th' Earth and TITLES below, Where black Heart buried, yet not dead, Some Posthume rays doth now bestow, Whiles it lies sleeping in Death's bed. An Adamantine heart GOD leaves, But takes that which Contrition cleaves. Let each sound heart take in good part This, thus reflected, Broken heart. RESOLVED MEDITATIONS & Meditated Resolution's. Written by A. W. Enlarged. 1634 LONDON Printed for Walter Hammond Loquela Emblematici Frontispicij, in obsequtum Inventoris, & piam Authoris memoriam suggesta. ACcensus radijs, zeloque agitante levatus In coelum geminis, flammâ ocyus, evolat, alis Igne rapax Animus; mundique nitentia tangit Lumina, Nub●genis, variata, & nixa, Columnis, Sursum contendens, summaeque, Volumina Legis Secum adamanda, verenda, Dieque ac Nocte revolvit. Haec alto ènsu: Mundó, TITVLISque relictis. Non illum, DUX SOLIS, amatique arbiter Ortûs Despicit, afflictum: cum mens divulsafatiscit, Cordaque dividuo perrumpit Malleus ictu. Si silices gest at, solidoque Adamante rigescens Effugit insultus, & faevi verbera motûs; LUNAE LUX, illum non respicit, alma rigorem. Hîc, fractum COR, Lector, habes, penetrale serenae Mentis, & innocuae; per quod, post funera paucos Nunc spargit radios animi vigor ultimus, ardor Verus, & instanti, duplicata potentia mòrte. Colli at hos, rapiatque in concava pectora Candor Lucidus ingenij; deducetque aethere flammas, Concipietque novos aeterni luminis ignes. GULIEL. HAYDOCK. Spare-Minutes; OR, RESOLVED MEDITATIONS AND PREMEDITATED RESOLUTIONS. Written by A. W. — Ego cur acquirere pauca Si possim invidear? The second Edition corrected and enlarged. LONDON, Printed by R. B. for Walter Hammond, and are to be sold by Michael Spark, in Green Arbour, 1634. TO THE RIGHT Worshipful, My much Honoured Friend, Sr, William Dodington Knight, all health and happiness. Right Worshipful, I Will not make an over— large gate to my little City: A short Epistle best suits with so small a volume, and both fitly resemble your knowledge of me, and mine acquaintance with you, short, and small. But a mite freely given, makes a poor widow liberal: and in this Present, poor, like my habilities, is a thankfulness, infinite, like your deservings. To speak much, might be thought flattery; to say nothing would be known ingratitude: I must therefore be short, I may not be silent. The happy fortune of my tongue hath encouraged my pen: and I humbly crave in the one, what I favourably found in the other, a courteous acceptance. Which if you please to add to your former favours, & my happiness, I shall have just cause to rest Your Wòrships truly devoted ARTHUR WARWICK. RESOLVED MEDITATIONS AND Premeditated resolutions. IT is the over curious ambition of many, to be best or to be none: if they may not do so well as they would, they will not do so well as they may. I will do my best to do the best, and what I want in power, supply in will. Thus lest I pay in part, I shall not be a debtor for all. He owes most that pays nothing. PRide is the greatest enemy to reason, and discretion the greatest opposite to pride. For whiles wisdom makes art the ape of nature, pride makes nature the ape of art. The Wiseman shapes his apparel to his body, the proud man shapes his body by this apparel. 'Tis no marvel than, if he know not himself, when he is not to day, like him he was yesterday: and less marvel, if good men will not know him, when he forgets himself, and all goodness. I should fear, whilst I thus change my shape, lest my maker should change his opinion: and finding me not like him he made me, reject me, as none of his making. I would any day put off the old cause of my apparel, but not every day put on new fashioned apparel. I see great reason, to be ashamed of my pride, but no reason, to be proud of my shame. THe reason that many men want their desires, is, because their desires want reason. He may do what he will, that will do but what he may. I Should marvel that the Covetous man can still be poor, when the rich man is still covetous, but that I see, a poor man can be content, when the contented man is only rich: the one wanting in his store, whiles the other is stored in his wants. I see then, we are not rich or poor, by what we possess, but by what we desire. For he is not rich that hath much, but he that hath enough: nor he poor that hath but little, but he that wants more. If GOD then make me rich by store, I will not impoverish myself by covetousness: but if he make me poor by want, I will enrich myself by content. Hypocrisy desires to seem good rather than to be so: honesty desires to be good rather than seem so. The worldlings purchase reputation by the sale of desert, wisemen buy desert, with the hazard of reputation. I would do much to hear well, more to deserve well, and rather loose opinion then merit. It shall more joy me, that I know myself what I am, than it shall grieve me to hear what others report me. I had rather deserve well without praise, than do ill with commendation. A Coward in the field is like the Wiseman's fool: his heart is at his mouth, and he doth not know what he does profess: but a Coward in his faith, is like a fool in his wisdom; his mouth is in his heart, and he dares not profess what he does know. I had rather not know the good I should do, than not do the good I know. It is better to be beaten with few stripes, than with many. EAch true Christian is a right traveller: his life his walk, CHRIST his way, and Heaven his home. His walk painful, his way perfect, his home pleasing. I will not loiter, lest I come short of home: I will not wander, lest I come wide of home, but be content to travel hard, and be sure walk right, so shall my safe way find its end at home, and my painful walk make my home welcome. AS is a wound to the body; so is a sinful body to the soul: the body endangered till the wound be cured, the soul not sound till the body's sin be healed, and the wound of neither can be cured without dressing, nor dressed without smarting. Now as the smart of the wound, is recompensed by the cure of the body: so is the punishment of the body sweetened by the health of the soul. Let my wound smart by dressing, rather than my body die; Let my body smart by correction, rather than my soul perish. IT is some hope of goodness not to grow worse: It is a part of badness not to grow better. I will take heed of quenching the spark, and strive to kindle a fire. If I have the goodness. I should, it is not too much, why should I make it less? If I keep the goodness I have 'tis not enough: Why do I not make it more? He ne'er was so good as he should be, that doth not strive to be better than he is: He never will be better than he is, that doth not fear to be worse than he was. HEalth may be enjoyed; sickness must be endured: one body is the object of both, one GOD the Author of both. If then he give me health, I will thankfully enjoy it, and not think it too good, since it is his mercy that bestows it: if he fend sickness, I will patiently endure it, and not think it too great, since it is my sin that deserves it. If in health; I will strive to preserve it by praising of him: if in sickness; I will strive to remove it, by praying to him. He shall be my GOD in sickness and in health, and my trust shall be in him in health and in sickness. So in my health. I shall not need to fear sickness, nor in any sickness despair of health. IT is the usual plea of poverty to blame misfortune, when the ill-finished cause of complaint is a work of their own forging. I will either make my fortunes good, or be content they are no worse. If they are not so good, as I would they should have been, they are not so bad, as I know they might have been. What though I am not so happy as I desire? 'Tis well I am not so wretched as I deserve. THere is nothing to be gotten by the world's love, nothing to be loft (but its love) by its hate, Why then should I seek that love that cannot profit me, or fear that malice that cannot hurt me? If I should love it, for loving me, GOD would hate me, for loving it, If I loathe it for hating me, it cannot hurt me for loathing it. Let it then hate me, and I will forgive it, but if it love me, I will never requite it. For since its love is hurtful, and its hate harmless, I will contemn its hate, and hate its love. AS there is a folly in wit, so there is a wisdom in ignorance. I would not be ignorant in a necessary knowledge, nor wise above wisdom. If I know enough I am wise enough, If I seek more I am foolish. IT's no marvel that man hath lost his rule over the creature, when he would not be ruled by the will of the Creator. Why should they fear man, when man would not obey GOD? I could wish no creature had power to hurt me, I am glad so many creatures are ordained to help me. If GOD allow enough to serve me, I will not expect that all should fear me. NO affliction (for the time) seems joyous, all time in affliction seems tedious. I will compare my miseries on earth with my joys in heaven, and the length of my miseries, with its eternity, so shall my journey seem short; and my burden easy. THere is nothing more certain than death, nothing more uncertain than the time of dying. I will therefore be prepared for that at all times, which may come at any time, must come at one time or another. I shall not hasten my death by being still ready, but sweeten it. It makes me not die the sooner, but be the better. THe commendation of a bad thing, is his shortness, of a good thing its continuance: it were happy for the damned, if their torments knew end, 'tis happier for the Saints that their joys are eternal. If man, that is borne of a woman, be full of misery, 'tis well that he hath but a short time to live; if his life be a walk of pain, it's a blessing, that his days are but a spannelong. Happy miseries that end in joy: happy joys that know no end: happy end that dissolves to eternity. HAd I not more confidence in the truth of my Saviour, than in the traditions of men, poverty might stagger my faith, and bring my thoughts into a perplexed Purgatory. Wherein are the poor blessed, if pardon shall be purchased only by expense? Or how is it hard for a rich man to enter into heaven, if money may buy out the past, present and future sins of himself, his deceased and succeeding progeny? If Heaven be thus fold, what benefit has my poverty, by the price already paid? I find no happiness in Room on earth, 'Tis happiness for me to have Room in heaven. THere is no estate of life so happy in this world, as to yield a Christian the perfection of content: and yet there is no estate of life so wretched in this world, but a Christian must be content with it. Though I can have nothing here that may give me true content, yet I will learn to be truly contented here with what I have What care I though I have not much (If I have enough) I have as much as I desire. If I have as much as I want, I have as much as the most, if I have as much as I desire. IT is the greatest of all sins always to continue in sin. For where the custom of sinning waxeth greater, the conscience for sin grows the less: it is easier to quench a spark, than a fire; I had rather break the Cockatrice's egg, then kill the Serpent. O daughter of Babylon, happy shall he be that taketh thy children whilst they are young and dasheth them against the stones. NAture bids me love myself and hate all that hurt me, Reason bids me love my friends and hate those that envy me, Religion bids me love all and hate none. Nature showeth care, Reason wit, Religion love. Nature may induce me, Reason persuade me, but Religion shall rule me. I will hearken to Nature in much, to Reason in more, to Religion in all. Nature shall make me careful of myself, but hateful to none; Reason shall make me wise for myself but harmless to all; Religion shall make me loving to all, but not careless of myself. I may hear the former, I will hearken only to the later. I subscribe to some things in all, to all things in Religion. ABundance is a trouble, want a misery, honour a burden, baseness a scorn, advancements dangerous, disgrace odious. Only a Competent estate yields the quiet of content. I will not climb, lest I fall, nor lie in the ground, lest I am trod on. I am safest while my legs bear me. A competent heat is most healtful for my body, I would desire neither to freeze nor to burn. A Large promise without performance is like a false fire to a great Piece, which dischargeth a good expectation with a bad report. I will forethink what I will promise, that I may promise but what I will do. Thus whilst my words are led by my thoughts, and followed by my actions, I shall be careful in my promises, and just in their performance. I had rather do and not promise, than promise and not do. THE good-meaner hath two tongues, the Hypocrite a double tongue. The good man's heart speaks without his tongue, the Hypocrites tongue without his heart. The good man hath oftentimes GOD in his heart, when in his mouth there is no GOD mentioned: the Hypocrite hath GOD often in his mouth, when the fool hath said in his heart there is no GOD. I may soon hear the tongue, but safest the heart, the tongue speaketh loudest, but the heart truest. THe speech of the tongue is best known to men: GOD best understands the language of the heart: the heart without the tongue may pierce the ears of heaven, the tongue without the heart speaks an unknown language. No marvel then if the desires of the poor are heard, when the prayers of the wicked are unregarded. I had rather speak three words in a speech that God knows, then pray three hours in a language he understands not. MEditation is the womb of our actions, Action the midwife of our Meditations. A good and perfect conception, if it want strength for the birth, perisheth in the womb of the mind, and, if it may be said to be borne, it must be said to be stillborn: a bad and imperfect conception, if it hath the happiness of a birth, yet the mind is but delivered of a burden of imperfections, in the perfection of deformity, which may beg with the cripple at the gate of the Temple, or perisheth through its imperfections. If I meditate what's good to be done, and do not the good I have meditated, I lose my labour, and make cursed my knowledge. If I do the thing that is good, and intent not that good that I do, it is a good action, but not well done. Others may enjoy some benefit, I deserve no commendations. Resolution without action is a slothful folly, Action without resolution is a foolish rashness. First know what's good to be done, then do that good being known. If forecast be not better than labour, labour is not good without forecast. I would not have my actions done without knowledge, nor against it. IT is the folly of affection not to comprehend my erring friend, for fear of his anger: it is the abstract of folly, to be angry with my friend, for my errors reprehension. I were not a friend, if I should see my friend out of the way, and not advise him: I were unworthy to have a friend, if he should advise me (being out of the way) and I be angry with him. Rather let me have my friend's anger than deserve it; rather let the righteous smite me friendly by reproof, than the precious oil of flattery, or connivance, break my head. It is a folly to fly ill-will, by giving a just cause of hatred. I think him a truer friend that deserves my love, than he that desires it. WHen Children meet with primroses, nuts, or apples in their way, I see those pleasures are oftimes occasions to make them loiter in their errands, so that they are sure to have their Parent's displeasure, and oftimes their late retunre finds a barred entrance to their home, whereas those who meet with dangers in the way, make haste in their journey, and their speed makes them welcomed, with commendation. Nature hath sent me abroad into the world, and I am every day travelling homeward: If I meet with store of miseries in my way, discretion shall teach me a religious haste in my journey: And if I meet with pleasures, they shall pleasure me only by putting me in mind of my pleasures at home, which shall teach me to scorn these, as worse than trifles. I will never more reckon a troublesome life, a curse, but a blessing. A pleasant journey is dear bought with the loss of home. When I see the fisher bait his hook, I think on Satan's subtle malice, who sugars over his poisoned hooks with seeming. pleasures. Thus Eves apple was candied with divine knowledge, ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil. When I see the fish fast hanged, I think upon the covetous Worldling, who leaps at the profit without considering the danger. Thus Achan takes the gold and the garment and ne'er considers that his life must answer it. If Satan be such a fisher of men, its good to look before we leap. Honey may be eaten, so that we take heed of the sting: I will honestly enjoy my delights, but not buy them with danger. I See, when I have but a short journey to travel, I am quickly at home, soon out of the pain of my travel, soon into the possession of my rest. If my life be but my walk, and heaven my home, why should I desire a long journey? Indeed knowing my home so pleasant, I would not be weary with a long walk, but yet the shorter my journey, the sooner my rest. I Cannot see two sawyers work at the pit, but they put me in mind of the Pharisee and the Publican: the one casts his eye upward, whiles his actions tend to the pit infernal: the other standing with a dejected Countenance, whiles his hands and heart move upward. 'Tis not a shame to make show of our profession, so we truly profess what we make show of: But of the two, I had rather be good, and not seem so, than seem good, and not be so. The Publican went home to his house rather justified then the Pharisee. WHen I think on the Eagles carrying up of the shellfish into the air, only to the end he may break him by his fall, it puts me in mind of the devilish costly courtesies, who out of the bounty of his subtlety, is still ready to advance us to destruction. Thus more than once he dealt with my Redeemer, no sooner had he raised him to the top of an high pinnacle, but strait follows, cast thyself down; and having placed him on an high mountain, let him fall down and he shall be largely rewarded with his own. If advancement be so dangerous, I will take heed of being ambitious. Any estate shall give me content: I am high enough if I can stand upright. WHen I see leaves drop from their trees, in the beginning of Autumn, just such think I, is the friendship of the world. Whiles the sap of maintenance lasts, my friends swarm in abundance, but in the winter of my need, they leave me naked. He is an happy man that hath a true friend at his need: but he is more truly happy that hath no need of his friend. I Should wonder, that the unsatiable desires of ambition can find no degree of content, but that I see they seek a perfection of honour on earth, when the fullness of glory is only in heaven. The honour on earth is full of degrees, but no degree admits a perfection: Whereas the glory of heaven admits of degrees, but each degree affords a fullness. here, one may be lower than another in honour, and yet the highest want a glory: There, though one Star differs from another in glory, yet in the fullness of glory they all shine as Stars. here, the greatest may want, there the least hath enough: here, all the earth may not be enough for one; There, one heaven is enough for all. LORD let me rather be least there, without honour here, than the greatest here, without glory there. I had rather be a doorkeeper in that house, than a ruler in these tents. WHen I see the heavenly sun buried under earth in the evening of the day, and in the morning to find a resurrection to his glory, Why (think I) may not the sons of heaven, buried in the earth, in the evening of their days, expect the morning of their glorious Resurrection? Each night is but the pastdayes' funeral, and the morning his Resurrection: Why then should our funeral sleep be other than our sleep at night? Why should we not as well awake to our Resurrection, as in the morning? I see night is rather an intermission of day, than a deprivation, and death rather borrows our life of us than robs us of it. Since then the glory of the sun finds a Resurrection, why should not the sons of glory? Since a dead man may live again, I will not so much look for an end of my life, as wait for the coming of my change. I See, that candle yields me small benefit at day, which at night much steeds me: and I know, the cause is not because the candle's light was less at day, but because the day's light is less in the evening. As my friends love to me, so mine to my friend may be at all times alike; but we best see it, when we most need it: and that, not because our love is then greater, but our want. Though then I welcome a courtesy according to my want, yet I will value a courtesy according to its worth. That my fortunes need not my friend's courtesy, is my happiness: should my happiness slight my friend's courtesy, 'twere my folly. I See that candle makes small show in the day which at night yields a glorious lustre, not because the candle has then more light, but because the air hath then more darkness. How prejudicial then is that ambition, which makes me seem less than I am, by presuming to make me greater than I should be. They whose glory shines as the sparks amongst stubble, lose their light, if compared to the Son of glory. I will not seat myself higher than my place, lest I should be disgraced to an humility, but if I place myself lower than my seat, I may be advanced to the honour of, friend sit up higher. I had rather be exalted by my humility, then be brought low by my exaltation. I See that candle which is as a sun in the darkness, is but as a darkness in the sun; the candle not more lightning the night's darkness, than the sun darkening the candle's light. I will take heed then of contention, especially with great ones. As I may be too strong for the weaker; so I must be too weak for the stronger. I cannot so easily vanquish mine inferiors, but my superiors may as easily conquer me: I will do much to be at peace with all men, but suffer much ere I contend with a mighty man. I See when I follow my shadow it flies me, When I fly my shadow it follows me: I know pleasures are but shadows, which hold no longer than the sunshine of my fortunes. Lest then my pleasures should forsake me, I will forsake them. Pleasure most flies me when I most follow it. IT is not good to speak evil of all whom we know bad: it is worse to judge evil of any, who may prove good. To speak ill upon knowledge, shows a want of charity: to speak ill upon suspicion shows a want of honesty. I will not speak so bad as I know of many: I will not speak worse than I know of any. To know evil by others, and not speak it, is sometimes discretion: to speak evil by others, and not know it, is always dishonesty. He may be evil himself who speaks good of others upon knowledge, but he can never be good himself, who speaks evil of others upon suspicion. A Bad great one is a great bad one. For the greatness of an evil man, makes the man's evil the greater. It is the unhappy privilege of authority, not so much to act, as teach wickedness, and by a liberal cruelty, to make the offenders sin not more his own than others. Each fault in a leader is not so much a crime, as a rule for error: And their vices are made, (if not warrants, yet) precedents for evil. To sin by prescription, is as usual as damnable: and men run post in their journey, when they go to the devil with authority. When then the vices of the rulers of others, are made the rules for vices to others, the offences of all great ones must needs be the greatest of all offences. Either then let me be great in goodness, or else it were good for me to be without greatness. My own sins are a burden too heavy for me, why then should I lad myself with others offences. To speak all that is true, is the property of fools: to speak more than is true, is the folly of— too many. He that spends all that is his own, is an unthrifty prodigal: He that spends more than is his own, is a dishonest unthrift. I may sometimes know what I will not utter, I must never utter what I do not know. I should be loath to have my tongue so large as my heart, I would scorn to have my heart less than my tongue. For if to speak all that I know, shows too much folly, to speak more than I know shows too little honesty. IT is the ambitious folly of too many, to imitate rather greatness than goodness. They will sooner follow the example of their Lord, than the precepts of their GOD. I will always honour greatness, I will only imitate goodness: and rather do good without a pattern, then commit evil in imitation. 'Tis better to be saved without a precedent, then to be damned by example. THere is no security in evil society, where the good are often made worse, the bad seldom better. For it is the peevish industry of wickedness, to find, or make a fellow. 'Tis like, they will be birds of a feather, that use to flock together. For such commonly doth their conversation make us, as they are with whom we use to converse. I cannot be certain, not to meet with evil company, but I will be careful, not to keep with evil company. I would willingly sort myself with such, as should either teach, or learn goodness: and if my companion cannot make me better, nor I him good, I will rather leave him ill, than he shall make me worse. TO teach goodness is the greatest praise, to learn goodness, the greatest profit. Though he be wisest that can teach, yet he that doth learn is wiser. I will not therefore be unwilling to teach, nor ashamed to learn. I cannot be so ignorant, but I may learn somewhat, nor so wise but I may teach more, I will therefore teach what I know, and learn what I know not. Though it be a greater praise to teach, then to learn, yet it is a lesser shame to learn then to be ignorant. AS there is a misery in want, so there is a danger in excess. I would therefore desire neither more, nor less, then enough. I may as well die of a surfeit, as of hunger. IT is the apish nature of many, to follow rather example than precepts: but it would be the safest course of all, to learn rather by precept then example. For there's many a good Divine that cannot learn his own teaching. It is easier to say this do, then to do it. When therefore. I see good doctrine with an evil life, I may pity the one, but I will practise only the other. The good sayings belong to all, the evil actions only to their authors. THere are two things necessary for a traveller, to bring him to the end of his journey: a knowledge of his way, a perseverance in his walk. If he walk in a wrong way, the faster he goes the further he is from home: if he sit still in a right way, he may know his home, but ne'er come to it: Discreet stays make speedy journeys. I will first then know my way, ere I begin my walk: the knowledge of my way is a good part of my journey. He that faints in the execution looseth the glory of the action. I will therefore not only know my way, but also go on in my way: I had rather my journey should want a beginning, then come to an untimely end. If heaven be my home, and CHRIST my way, I will learn to know my way, ere I haste to travel to my home. He that runs hastily in a way he knows not, may come speedily to an home he loves not. If CHRIST be my way, and heaven my home, I will rather endure my painful walk, then want my perfect rest. I more esteem my home then my journey; my actions shall be led by knowledge, my knowledge be followed by my actiions. Ignorance is a bad mother to devotion, and idleness a bad steward to to knowledge. I Cannot but wonder at the folly of those hearts, who are like to kill themselves with the fear of dying, making the news of an ensuing mischief, a worse mischief then that they have news of: whereas the foreknowledge of an approaching evil, is a benefit of no small good. For if it cannot teach us to prevent it by providence, it may show us, how to sustain it by patience. I may grieve with the smart of an evil, as soon as I feel it: But I will not smart with the grief of an evil as soon as I hear of it. My evil when it cometh may make my grief too great, why then should my grief before it comes make my evil greater? AS I see in the body, so I know in the soul, they are oft most desperately sick, who are least sensible of their disease: whereas he that fears each light wound▪ for mortal, seeks a timely cure, and is healed. I will not reckon it my happiness, that I have many sores, but since I have them, I am glad they grieve me. I know the cure is not the more dangerous, because my wounds are more grievous; I should be more sick if I plained less. IT is one, not of the least evils; not to avoid the appearance of evil, which oft makes the innocent justly punished with undeserved suspicion. I would desire to be thought good, but yet I had rather be so. It is no small happiness to be free from suspicion, but a greater to be void of offence. I would willingly be neither evil nor suspected: but of the two I had rather be suspected and not deserve it, then deserve evil and not be suspected. I Know but one way to heaven, I have but one Mediator in heaven, even one Christ: and yet I hear of more Ways, more Mediators. Are there then more Christ's? Are the Lords ways as your ways that we must go to the King of heaven as unto a King on earth? Or if we must, yet if my King bid me come shall I send an other? If he bid me come unto him, shall I go unto another? If he bid me ask for peace only in the name of the Prince of peace, why should I mention the Lady Mary? If I shall be heard only in the name of his son, why should I use the name of his servants? Were it a want of manners, or a want of obedience to come when I am bid? Is another better, or am I too good to go in mine own errands to the Almighty? Because the son was worse used than the servants on earth, shall the servants therefore be sooner heard then the Son in heaven? There are still unjust Husbandmen in the Lord's vineyard, who not only abuse the servants, but kill again the Son, and rob him of his due inheritance. When the LORD therefore of the Vineyard cometh, what will he do to these Husbandmen? I do not envy your glory ye Saints of GOD, yet I will not attribute the glory of my GOD to his Saints. How shall my GOD glorify me, if I should give his glory to another? TO be without passion is worse than a beast, to be without reason, is to be less than a man. Since I can be without neither, I am blessed, in that I have both. For, if it be not against reason to be passionate, I will not be passionate against reason. I will both grieve and joy, if I have reason for it, but not joy nor grieve above reason. I will so joy at my good as not to take evil by my joy: so grieve at any evil as not to increase my evil by my grief. For it is not a folly to have passion, but to want reason. I would be neither senseless, nor beastly. IT is the folly of wit in some, to take pains to trim their labours in obscurity. It is the ignorance of learning in others, to labour to divest their pain by bluntness; the one thinking he never speaks wisely, till he goes beyond his own, and all men's understandings: the other thinking he never speaks plainly, till he dive beneath the shallowest apprehension. I as little affect curiosity in the one, as I care for the affectation of baldness in the other. I would not have the pearl of heaven's kingdom so curiously set in gold, as that the art of the workman should hide the beauty of the jewel: nor yet so slightly valued, as to be set in lead: or so beastly used as to be slubbered with dirt. I know the pearl (how ever placed) still retains its virtue, yet I had rather have it set in gold, then seek it in a dunghill. Neat apparel is an ornament to the body, but a disgrace, if either proud or slovenly. I See corruption so largely rewarded, that I doubt not, but I should thrive in the world, could I but get a dispensation of my conscience for the liberty of trading. A little flattery would get me a great deal of favour, and I could buy a world of this world's love, with the sale of this little trifle Honesty. Were this world my home, I might perhaps be trading: but alas, these merchandise yield less than nothing in heaven. I would willingly be at quiet with the world, but rather at peace with my conscience. The love of men is good, whiles it lasteth, the love of GOD is better being everlasting. Let me then trade for those heavenly merchandise: if I find these other in my way, they are a great deal more than I look for, and (within little) more than I care for. AS faith is the evidence of things not seen: so things that are seen are the perfecting of faith. I believe a tree will be green, when I see him leavelesse in winter: I know he is green when I see him flourishing in summer. It was a fault in Thomas not to believe till he did see. It were a madness in him not to believe when he did see. Belief may sometime exceed reason, not oppose it, and faith be often above sense not against it. Thus whiles faith doth assure me that I eat CHRIST effectually, sense must assure me that I taste bread really. For though I oftentimes see not those things that I believe, yet I must still believe those things that I see. THere is none so innocent as not to be evil spoken of, none so wicked as to want all commendation. There are too many who condemn the just, and not a few who justify the wicked. I oft hear both envy and flattery speaking falsehoods of myself, to myself, and may not the like tongues perform the liketaskes, of others to others? I will know Others by what they do themselves, but not learn myself by what I hear of others. I will be careful of mine own actions, not credulous of others relations. THe Cross is but a sign of CHRIST crucified, CHRIST crucified the substance of this Crosse. The sign without the substance is as nothing, the substance without the sign is all things. I hate not the sign, though I adore but the substance. I will not blaspheme the Cross of CHRIST, I will not worship but CHRIST crucified. I will take up my Cross, I will love my Cross, I will bear my Cross, I will embrace my Cross, yet not adore my Crosse. All knees shall bend in reverence to his name, mine never bow in idolatry to his image. IT is the nature of man to be proud, when man by nature hath nothing to be proud of. He more adorneth the Creature, than he adoreth the Creator▪ and makes, not only his belly his God, but his body. I am ashamed of their glory, whose glory is their shame. If nature will needs have me to be proud of something, I will be proud only of this, that I am proud of nothing. AS the Giver of all things, so each receiver loveth a cheerful giver. For a bargain is valued by the worth of the thing bought, but a gift by the mind of the party giving: which made the widow's mite of more worth, than the riches of superfluity. I see then, he gives not best that gives most, but he gives most, that gives best. If then I cannot give bountifully, yet I will give freely, and what I want in my hand, supply by my heart. He gives well that gives willingly. I See at a feast, that others seed heartily on that dish which perhaps would not suit with my appetite, whilst I make as good a meal on those cates, that perhaps their palates could not relish. I will not therefore think I do well because my actions please not others, nor be confident that my actions are good, because my doings please myself: but be more careful to provide what is good at a feast, then what's delightful: and more study to express what is honest in my actions, then what's pleasing. So, if sick stomaches cannot relish my sound meats, the fault shall light on their ill appetites: and if unseasoned judgements like not my honest intentions, the fault shall fall on their ill relished apprehensions. It would please me well to have praise when I deserve it; but joy me more to deserve praise when I have it. FINIS. Spare-Minutes; OR, RESOLVED MEDITATIONS AND PREMEDITATED RESOLUTIONS. The Second part. Written by ARTHUR WARWICK. LONDON, Printed by G. M. for Walter Hammond, and are to be sold by Michael Spark, in Green Arbour. 1634. TO THE VIRTUOUS and Religious Gentlewoman my much esteemed friend Mistress ANNE ASHTON, be health and happiness here and hereafter. Worthy Mistress, THE acknowledgement of your favours shall be my meanest thanks and to thank you for those favours, must be my best acknowledgement. I can do no more, I will do no less, Nor have I any better means to show my own living gratefulness, then by coupling it with my dead Sons thankfulness, and by receiving his, to enliven my own, and to testify both to posterity, by this small memorial. Neither is it unsuitable that his study should yield some matter of thankfulness after his death, who in his life time studied to be thankful to you his most deserving friend. Which gave me (his sad father) a fit hint to dedicate these his last Meditations to yourself, to whose name and worth, he meditated and intended, to raise a fairer Monument, had he lived. This prevented, what remaineth, but that this remnant clothe his thankfulness as far as it can, and supply the necessitated defect of his uneffected purpose. These collected out of loose papers, seem to be wrought in some sudden temperate heat of his honest fantasy, and hammered on the anvil of objected occaseons, and being forged roughly into these shapes, were cast a cooling into the next paper that came to hand: and so wanting filing, and polishing, must crave pardon for their ruder form. They assume their greatest worth and value from your courteous acceptance, and account it their chiefest happiness, if, for them, you love his memory while you live, who endeavoured to make your memory outlive yourself. This if you deign to do you shall much comfort the sadness of Your assured and devoted friend Arthur Warwick. RESOLVED Meditations AND PREMEDITATED Resolutions. The Second part. WHen one ascends from the ground to an higher room, I observe with what contempt he insults and tramples on the stairs by which he riseth, and how he first and most darteth that step by which he first stepped from the dirt. Which putteth me in mind of the practice of the aspiring ambitious, who, to get up to their wished height of honour, bedurt with scorn, and neglect those by whose shoulders they were first mounted, and exalted I hate that ambition which enforceth ingratitude; which, being the basest of vices, cannot but foil, and disgrace a man graced with such honours. I am not preferred with honour, if debased with ingratitude. HE that will not be persuaded to leap down from an high chamber at once, cometh willingly down by the stairs: and yet the declining degrees of his winding descent make it not less downward to him, but less perceived of him. His leap might have brought him down sooner, it could not have brought him down lower. As I am then fearful to act great sins, so I will be careful to avoid small sins. He that contemns a small fault commits a great one. I see many drops make a shower: and what difference is it, whether I be wet either in the rain, or in the river, if both be to the skin? There is small benefit in the choice, whither we go down to Hell by degrees or at once. THE gentle and harmless sheep being conscious of their own innocency, how patiently, how quietly, do they receive the knife, either on the altar, or in the shambles? How silently and undaunted do they meet death and give it entrance with small resistance? When the filthy loathsome and harmful swine roar horribly at the first handling, and with an hideous crying reluctancy, are haled, and held to the slaughter. This seems some cause to me, why wicked men (conscious of their filthy lives, and nature) so tremble at the remembrances, startle at the name, and with horror roar at the approach of death: when the godly quietly uncloathe themselves of their lives, and make small difference 'twixt a natural nights short sleep, and the long sleep of nature. I will pray not to come to an untimely violent death, I will not violently resist death at the time when it cometh. I will expect and wait my change with patience, embrace it with cheerfulness, and never fear it as a total privation. IT is no small fault to be bad, and seem so: it is a greater fault to seem good, and not be so: The cloak of dissimulation is a main part of the garment spotted with the flesh. A vice thus covered is worse than a naked offence. There is no devil to the Hypocrite. WHen I see the Larkers day-net spread out in a fair morning, and himself whirling his artificial motion, and observe how by the reflecting lustre of the sun on the wheeling instrument, not only the merry lark, and fearful Pigeon are dazzled, and drawn with admiration; but stowter birds of prey, the swift Merlin, and towering Hobby are enticed to stoop, and gazing on the outward form lose themselves. Me thinks I see the devil's night-nets of enticing harlots fully paralleled, spread out for us in the vigour of our youth; which with rolling eyes draw on the lustfullnesse of affection, and betray the wantonness of the heart, and wit● their alluring glances often make to stoop within danger of their fatal nets, not only the simple and careless, but others also, men otherwise wary and wife: who coming within the pull of the net lie at the mercy of that merciless fowler, to their certain destruction. Hence I resolve when I see such glasses, to shun such motions, as assured that those glasses have nets adjoining; those nets a fouler attending; that fowler a death prepared for me, than which I cannot die a worse. I may by chance, I must by necessity, at sometime come within their view: I will at no time come within their danger. I cannot well live in this world, and not see them at all, I cannot live well in this world, nor at all in the better world, if I be caught in their fatal nets. THere be that make it their glory to feed high, and fare deliciously every day, and to maintain their bodies elementary, search the elements, the earth, sea, and air, to maintain the fire of their appetites. They that thus make their bellies their Gods do make their glory their shame. I distaste a sordid diet as unwholesome, I care not to taste and feed on variety of delicates as unhealthful. Nature contented with a few things is cloyed, and quelled with over many: and digestion her cook employed in the concoction of so much variety at once, leaves the stomach too fowl a kitchen for health to abide in. Since than so to feed may the sooner end my life, and the end of my life is not so to feed, I will be taught by Grace not to live to eat, but eat to live; and maintain health by a competent diet, not surfeit with excess. HE that too much admires the glory of a Prince's Court, and drawn up thither (by his ambition) thinks high places to be the highest happiness; let him view the foggy mists, the moist vapours, and light exhalations drawn up from the earth by the attractive power of the glorious sunbeams: which when they are at highest, either spend themselves there in portending meteors, to others terror and their own consumption; and either by resolution are turned into rain, or congelation unto hail or snow, which sink lower into the earth at their fall, than they were at their ascending. For my part, I may admire such a glowing coal. I will not with the satire kiss it. As I think it not the least and last praise to please Princes; so, I know, it is not the least danger of times to to live with them, procul a jove procul a fulmine. He presumes too much of his own brightness that thinks to shine clear near the sun; where if his light be his own it must be obscured by comparison: if borrowed from the sun, then is it not his, but an others glory. A candle in the night's obscurity shows brighter than a torch at noonday. And Caesar thought it a greater glory to be the first man in some obscure town, than the second man in Rome the head city of the world. IT is a common custom (but a lewd one) of them that are common lewd ones, by custom, to wound the fame, and taint the reputation of their neighbours with slanders; and having no less impotency in their tongues then impurity in their hearts, form both opinions and censures according to the mould of evil in themselves. And this they do, either with the Lapwing to divert, by their false cries, the travelling stranger from finding the nest of their filthiness, or with the curtold Fox in the fable, to endeavour to have all foxes cut-tayld: or, with the fish Sepia, to darken with the pitchy ink of aspersions, all the water of the neighbourhood, that so themselves may scape the net of Censure, justly cast to catch them. Or else, to have themselves thought as good as any other, they will not have any thought good, that dwells near them. I will therefore suspect him as scarce honest, who would (with a slander) make me suspect an other as dishonest. I will not presently disrespect him as dishonest, whom a lewd person dishonesteth with suspicion. The devil is not more blacke-mouth ' then a slanderer; nor a slanderer less malicious than the devil. WHen I see the sunnerising from the East in glory, like a giant ready for the course, within an hour's space obscured with mists, darkened with clouds, and sometimes eclipsed with the Moon's inferior body: and however, without these, after noon declining, descending, setting, and buried under our horizon; I seem to see an earthly king mounting his throne in glory, yet soon clouded with cares, and fear of dangers: sometime darkened in honour by the malicious envy of his subjects; sometimes eclipsed in his dominions by the interposition of foreign powers; and however, without these, in a short time, descending and setting at the evening of his life, and seldom passing the whole day thereof in perfect continual glory. Then think I. O the odds of comfort in that heavenly and these earhly kingdoms; O the comfort of this odds; There each Saint is a glorious King; each King hath his incorruptible Crown; each Crown a boundless, fearless, endless kingdom. Let me strive for the glory of such a kingdom only, which is a kingdom of such glory. Felice's anima quibus hae cognoscere sola, Inque domos superûm scandere, curafuit. THE Laws in themselves are the scoales of justice, the wronged poor-man's shelter, the pillars of the Commonwealth: but the abused practice makes those scoales unequal, that poor-man's shelter a man's poor shelter for his wrongs. The proof of this, appears with the juries at the Assizes in their proofs: when one may often discern perjury usher in the evidence to the jury, and injury follow with the verdict. I admire with reverence the justice and wisdom of the Laws: I deplore with compassion the abused practice of the Laws, and resolve, rather to bear with patience an hayleshower of injuries, then to seek shelter at such a thicker, where the brambles shall pluke off my fleece, and do me more hurt by seratching, than the storm would have done by hailing. I care not for that physic, where the remedy is worse than the disease. HOw cunningly doth the Prince of darkness take on him the form of an Angel of light? How often have seeming-saints proved devils? even in those things (lightly) most faulty, which they make a show of being most free from: Some more proud of being thought plain, than a flaunting gallant in his new fashion. Others refusing a deserved commendation, only with a desire to be commended for refusing it: The one hating pride with a more proud hatred, the other shunning praise with a greater vainglory. It is bad to have vices, worse to dissemble them. Plato possessed his rich bed with less pride than Diogenes trampled on it. I Meet sometimes with men whose crazed brains seem soldered with quicksilver; whose actions strains run only in odd crotchets; whose judgements being hoodwinked with their own opinion, and passion, admit of nought for reason, but what their unreasonable self-will dictates to them. And than what they will do, they will do; and do it they will with that torrent of violence, that overturnes all obstacles of counsel, which cross their courses. From these I will learn not to make Will my coachman, unless Reason run before to show the way: And if my action must pass by the waters of uncertain danger, of all vessels I will not use the Whirry. As sloth seldom bringeth actions to good birth: so hasty rashness always makes them abortive, ere well form. AS in virtues, he that hath one, hath all: so in vices he that hath one hath seldom one alone. He that will steal, must lie; and he that will steal, and lie, will swear his lie; and so easily screw himself up to perjury. He that will be drunk, what will he not be, when he is drunk? and being slipped down from the top of reasonable sense, where stoppeth he from tumbling down into a beastly sensuality? I will therefore give the water no passage no not a little, lest it make a breach, and that breach let in an inundation to drown the sweet pastures of my soul. I see the devil's claw is an enteringwedge, to let in his foot; that foot, his whole body. I will be careful to set a Watch and keep the door, that sin may have no admittance. I cannot be too careful, so it be to the purpose; it cannot be to the purpose, if it be too little. THat the voice of the common people is the voice of GOD, is the common voice of the people; yet it is as full of falsehood, as commonness. For who sees not that those black-mouthed hounds, upon the mere seat of opinion, as freely spend their mouths in hunting Counter, or like Actaeon's dogs in chase an innocent man to death, as if they followed the chase of truth itself, in a fresh sent. Who observes not that the voice of the people, yea of that people that voiced themselves the people of GOD, did prosecute the GOD of all people, with one common voice, he is worthy to die. I will not therefore ambitiously beg their voices for my preferment; nor weigh my worth in that uneven balance, in which a feather of opinion shall be momentenough to turn the scales, and make a light piece go currant, and a currant piece seem light. THere are a sort of men which are kind men to me, when they expect some kindness from me: who have their hands down to the ground in their salutations, when the ground of their salutations is to have a hand at me, in some commodity. But their own ends once served, their kindness hath its end at once: And then it seems strange to me, how strange they will seem to grow to me; as if the cause (their desire) being removed the effect (their courtesy) must strait cease. I will not acknowledge such my friends, but their own; and when ever I see such insinuating palpalation, I will bethink me what the authors would have of me. And, with a thrifty discretion, rather deny such their requests, then, in a prodigal kindness become their friend, more than mine own. I See a number of gallants every where, whose incomes come in yearly by set numbers, but run out daily, sans number. I could pity the cases of such brave men, but that I see them still in brave cases. And when I see them often foxed, methinks the Proverb suits those suits, What is the fox but his case? I should think them to be Eutrapelus his enemies, whom he clothed richly to make them spend freely, and grow debauched. I will do those men right, and wonder at them, because they desire it. I will not wrong myself to envy at them, because they deserve it not, nor to pity them, because they scorn it. I know that gorgeous apparel is an ornament to grace the Court, for the glory of the Kingdom, but it is no ornament useful in the Kingdom of Grace, nor needful in the Kingdom of glory. A rich coat may be commendable in the Accidents of armoury only, but it is not the only substance of a commendable gentleman. I will value the apparel, by the worthiness of the wearer; I will not value the worthiness of the wearer, by the worth of his apparel. Adam was most gallantly apparelled, when he was innocently naked. THe men of most credit in our time, are the usurers. For they credit most men: And though their greatest study be security, yet is it usually their fortune to be fullest of care. Time is precious to them: For they think a day broke to them, is worth a brokeage from their creditor. Yet this they find by use, that as they have much profit by putting out, so must they have much care to get it in. For debtors are of Themistocles his mind, and take not so much care how to repay all, as how they may not pay at all, their creditors, and make this their first resolution, how they may make no resolution at all. I envy not therefore the Usurer's gains, but considering they (as Marchant-adventurers) send abroad their estates in uncertain vessels, sometime into the bankrupt rivers of prodigality, and unthriftiness, sometimes into the seas of casualties, and misfortunes, that many times their principal comes short home, I think, with myself, Let them gain much by the adventure, that adventure so much to gain. I will make this use of those uses, as to claim no interest in their gains, nor to owe any thing to any man but love. If I lend where need is, and receive my principal again, I will account that my principal gain, and think my courtesy but a commanded charity. IN gratitude is the character of an ill nature in ourselves, a canker of friendship with others, and the very poison that kills charity in the embryo, being but newly conceived in the pregnant minds of good men, and causing an abortion of liberality, ere it comes to its intended birth. For who will sow those barren sands, where he knows he must not only not expect a good harvest, but be sure to lose his seed and labour? Yet in these times what is more common or more practised than this ingratitude? For in receiving benefits, who will not (with Euclio in Planutus) find a third hand to reach out to take them? But in requiting, who is not more maimed than the statuas of Mercury, which Alcibiades so mangled that he scarce left them a finger to point out the way to travellers? It is ten to one, but we all desire to be cured of the leprosies of our wants: yet scarce one of ten of us returns, to give thanks for the cure. I will not think myself so enriched by receiving a courtesy, as engaged to be thankful for it. I am not left a free man at my liberty, by taking a man's free liberality: but I sell my freedom for his benefits. I can not deserve to be gracious with my friend, if, with the Graces, I look not with two faces back to require, as well as with one forward to receive. I Will not much commend others to themselves, I will not at all commend myself to others. So to praise any to their faces, is a kind of flattery: but to praise myself to any is the height of folly. He that boasts his own praises, speaks ill of himself, and much derogates from his true deserts. It is worthy of blame to affect commendation. Merrily and wittily said Plautus, that was one of the merry Wits of his time, I would (said he) by my will have tale-bearers and tale-hearers punished the one hanging by the tongue, the other by the ears. Were his will a law in force with us, many a tattling gossip would have her vowels turned to mutes, and be justly tonguetied that desires to be tied by the teeth at your table: wherewith Theominus his tooth she gnaweth on the good-name of her neighbour: And many a hungry Paret whose belly is his artsmaster would cease to second his ave to his Lord with depraving tales called news, and make his grace after dinner the disgrace of some innocent: And most men would give them course entertainment, that come to entertain their ears with discourse of defamative reports. I will be silent and barren of discourse, when I chance to hear a tale rather than go with-child therewith, till an others ears be my midwife, to deliver me of such a deformed monster. I may hear a tale of delight, & perhaps smile at an innocent jest, I will not jest, not joy at a tale disgracing an innocent person. WHen I see a gallant ship well rigged, trimmed, tackled, maned and munitioned with her top and top-gallant, and her spread sails proudly swelling with a full gale in fair weather, putting out of the haven into the smooth maine, and drawing the spectators eyes, with a well-wishing admiration, and shortly hear of the same ship split against some dangerous rock, or wracked by some disastrous tempest, or sunk by some leak sprung in her by some accident, me seemeth I see the case of some Courtfavourite, who to day like Sejanus dazzleth all men's eyes with the splendour of his glory, and with the proud and potent beak of his powerful prosperity cutteth the waves and ploweth through the press of the vulgar, and scorneth to fear some remora at his keel below, or any crosse-windes from above, and yet to morrow on some storms of unexpected disfavour, springs a leak in his honour and sinks on the Syrteses of disgrace, or dashed against the rocks of displeasure is split and wracked in the Charybdis of infamy, and so concludes his voyage in misery and misfortune. I will not therefore adventure with the greedy shepherd to change my sheep into a ship of adventure, on the sight of a calm sea Vt pelago suadente etiam retinacula solvas, Multatamen latus tristia pontus habet. I Will study to deserve my Prince's favour, I will not desire to be a Prince's favourite. If I fall whence I am, I can raise myself, but to be cast down thence were to be crushed with a desperate downfall. I prefer a mediocrity though obscure yet safe, before a greater eminency with a far greater danger. WHen a storm drives me to shelter me under a tree, I find that if the storm be little, the tree defends me, but if the storm be great, the tree not only not defends me, but poureth on me that wet which itself had received, and so maketh the much wetter. Hence instructed, I resolve that if improvidently I fall into some small danger of the laws, I will presume to seek shelter under the arms of some potent friend, but if the tempest of my trouble be too potent for my friend, I will rather bear all myself, then involve my friend in the danger. It would be bad enough for me to be drenched with or distressed by the storm of the laws anger only; It would be worse to be drowned with the anger of my storming friend also. My conscience of my ill deserving towards the laws would enforce a patience: my remembrance of my welldeserving to my friend would make the just addition of his anger intolerable. COntent is the mark we all aim at, the chief good and top of felicity, to which all men's actions strive to ascend: But it is solely proper to GOD'S wisdom to engross all true content into his own hand, that he may sell it to saints by retail, and enforce all men to buy it of him or want it. Hence is it that a godly man in his mean estate, enjoys more content in GOD, than a King or Emperor in his earth's glory and magnificence. I will then strive to purchase me a patent of content from him that hath the monopoly thereof: and then, if I have little in estate, I shall have much in content, Godliness shall be my great riches, whiles I am contented with what I have. AS in the greater world for man, so in the little world of man, as in the outward riches of the one, so in the inner treasures of the other, many possess much and enjoy but little, many have much, and use but little, others use much, and but little well. I shall not so much endeavour to have much wherewithal to do, as to do much, with that little I have. It shall not so much grieve me, that I am a poor treasurer, as joy me, if I have been a good steward. I could wish I had more to use well, but more wish well to use that I have. If he were so blamed that employed not one talon well, what would become of me, if I had ten, and abused them? POpular applause, and vulgar opinion may blow-up and mount upward the bubble of vainglorious mind, till it burst in the air, and vanish: But a wise man builds his glory on the strong foundation of virtue, without expecting or respecting the slender props of vulgar opinion. I will not neglect what every one thinks of me; For that were impudent dissoluteness. I will not make it my common care, to hearken how I am cared for of the common sort, and be over-solicitous what every one speaks of me, For that were a toilsome vanity. I may do well, and hear ill: And that's a Kingly happiness. I may do ill, and hear well: and that's an hypocrites best felicity. My actions shall make me harmony in my hearts inner chamber: I will not borrow the Voices of the vulgar to sweeten my music. THe rancour of malice is the true nature of the devil, and the soul possessed therewith is his dearest darling. For where envy, hate, and revenge take up the whole heart, there GOD hath no room at all left to be in all his thoughts. I may meet a mad man, and avoid him, I may move a choleric man, and pacific him, I may cross a furious drunkard, and shun him, but a malicious man is more dangerous, implacable, and inevitable than they all. Malice omits no occasion to do mischief: and if it miss thy body and substance, it prosecutes thy shadow, Visam fera saevit in umbram. My soul come not thou into their secrets, unto their assembly, mine-honour be not thou united. I must not turn anger out of my nature, I must not turn my nature into anger, I must give place to Wrath, but not a resting place, but a place to let it passe-by, that I may let go displeasure. I may give entrance to anger on just cause, I may not give it entertainment on any cause, till it sour with the leaven of malice. I must be angry with sin, but I must be angry and sin not. WHen I plant a choice flower in a fertile soil, I see nature presently to thrust up with it, the stinging nettle, the stinking hemlock, the drowsy poppy, and many such noisome weeds, which will either choke my plant with excluding the sun, or divert its nourishment to themselves: But if I weed out these at first, my flower thrives to its goodness and glory. This is also my case when I endeavour to plant grace in the fertile soil of a good wit. For luxurious nature thrusts up with it, either stinging wrath, or stinking wantonness, or drowsy sloth or some other vices, which rob my plant of its desired flourishing. But these being first plucked up, the good wit produceth in its time, the fair flower of virtue. I will not therefore think the best wits, as they are wits, fittest to make the best men, but as they are the best purged best wits. The ground of their goodness is not the goodness of their wits, but the good weeding and cleansing it. I must first eschew the evil, ere I can do good, supplant vices, ere I can implant virtue. AS it is never to soon to be good: so is it never too late to amend. I will therefore neither neglect the time present, nor despair of the time past. If I had been sooner good, I might perhaps have been better. If I am longer bad, I shall (I am sure) be worse. That I have stayed long time idle in the marketplace deserves reprehension, but if I am late sent into the vineyard, I have encouragement to work, I will give unto this last as unto thee. WHEN I see the Husbandman well contented with the cold of frost and snow in the Winter, because, though it chilleth the ground, yet it killeth the charlocke, though it check the wheat somewhat in growing, yet it choketh the weeds from growing at all: Why should I be moved at the winter of affliction? Why vexed at the quaking fit of a quartane ague? Why offended at the cold change of affection in my Summer-friends? If as they seem bitter to my mind or body, they prove healthful to my bettered soul. If my wants kill my wantonness, my poverty check my pride, my disrespected slighting quell my ambition and vainglory, and every weed of vice being thus choked by afflictions winter, my soul may grow fruitful for heaven's harvest, let my winter be bitter, so that I be gathered with the good corn at reaping time into the LORDS barn. AS oft as I hear the Robin-redbreast chant it as cheerfully in September, the beginning of Winter, as in March the approach of the Summer, why should not we (think I) give as cheerful entertainment to the hoare-frosty hairs of our age's winter, as to the Primroses of our youth's spring? Why not to the declining sun in adversity, as (like Persians) to the rising sun of prosperity? I am sent to the Ant, to learn industry; to the Dove, to learn innocency; to the Serpent, to learn wisdom; And why not to this bird to learn equanimity and patience; and to keep the same tenor of my mind's quietness, as well at the approach of calamities winter, as of the spring of happiness? And, since the Romans constancy is so commended, who changed not his countenance with his changed fortunes, Why should not I, with a Christian resolution, hold a steady course in all weathers, and though I be forced with crosse-windes, to shift my sails, and catch at side-windes, yet skilfully to steer, and keep on my course, by the Cape of good hope, till I arrive at the haven of eternal happiness? THE same water which being liquid is penetrated with an horsehaire, will bear the horse himself when it is hard frozen. I muse not then that those precepts and threats of GOD'S judgements enter not into the hardened hearts of some old men, frozen by the practice of sin, which pierce and penetrate deep into the tender hearts and melting consciences of younger folks thawed with the warmth of GOD'S fear. Hence see I the cause why the sword of the Word, so sharp, that it serveth in some to divide the joints and marrow, in others glanceth or reboundeth without dint or wound, from their crystal frozen and adamantine hearts. I cannot promise myself to be free from sin, I were then no man: but I will purpose in myself to be free from hardness of heart, by custom and continuance in sin, I may err in my way, I will not persist and go on in my errors, till I cannot return again into my way. I may stumble, I may fall, but I will not lie still when I am fallen. WHen I see two game-cocks at first sight, without premeditated malice fight desperately and furiously, the one to maintain the injury offered, the other to revenge the injury received by the first blow and to maintain this quarrel, not only dye the pit with their blood, but die in the pit with their mutual bloody wounds, me thinks I see the success of those duëllers of our time; which being ambitious of Achilles his praise, Pelidis juvenis cedere nescij, desperately and furiously adventure their lives here, and endanger their souls hereafter only for the vain terms of false honour. I will not say but that being flesh and blood I may be careless of my flesh and blood to revenge injurious indignities offered me: yet since as a tenant my soul must answer her Landlord for reparations of the house she dwells in, and I have no warrant of GOD or man for such revenge, I will not kill my own soul to kill an other man's body. I will not pull the house of my body on my soul's head in a fury, that GOD may make them both fuel for the fury of hell fire. WHen I view the heavens declaring the glory of GOD, and the firmament showing his handy work, and consider that each little numbered star even of the sixth magnitude, containeth the earth's dimension 18. times in bigness by Astronomers conclusions, I easily descend to consider the great difference of earthly men's glory, and that weight of glory afforded the Saints in heaven. For what a poor ambition is it to be the best man in a City? What's a City to a Shire? What a Shire to the whole Island? What this Island to the Continent of Europe? What Europe to the whole Earth? What that Earth to a Star? What that Star to Heaven? and that to the Heaven of Heavens? And so by a retrogradation how little? How nothing is this poor glory. I find many which say, hoc nihil est aliquid: I find in myself cause to say, hoc aliquid nihil est. If I needs will be somebody by my ambition, I will be ambitious to be ranged with the Saints in Heaven rather then ranked with the Kings on earth: since the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than they. I Saw once a jerfalcon let fly at an Heron, and observed with what clamour the Heron entertained the sight and approach of the Hawk, and with what winding shifts he strave to get above her, labouring even by bemuting his enemy's feathers to make her flaggwinged and so escape: but when at last they must needs come to a necessitated encounter, resuming courage out of necessity he turned face against her, and striking the Hawk through the gorge with his bill fell down dead together with his dead enemy. This sight seemed to me the event of a great suit in Law, where one trusting to his cases potency more than his causes equity, endeavours to disinherit his stubborn neighbour by colourable titles to his land. here may you hear the clamorous obloquys of the wronged and see the many turnings and winding Meanders in the Law sought out to get above his adversary. And lastly when the issue must come to trial, oftentimes in the grapple they both sink to beggary by the Law whiles lawfully they seek to get above each other. Hence warned against potent enemies I will always pray, LORD make me not a prey unto their teeth; and against an equal or inferior I will not borrow the laws extreme right to do him extreme wrong: nor fall to law with any body till I fall by law, to be no body. I will not do that to have my will, which will undo myself of what I have, by my wilfulness. THe Psalmist doth not slander the slanderers, when in a good description of their bad natures, he saith, their throat is an open sepulchre, etc. the poison of Asps is under their lips. For what more loathsome stench, and noisome smells can a new opened sepulchre belch out, than these venomous open throated slanderers? And well may their lipscontaine the poison of Asps, of which Lucan saith, in nulla plus est serpente veneni, when a few words of theirs shall (like a Witches spell) charm and strike dead a man's dearest reputation. I will therefore endeavour to make my actions of that virtue, that as an antidote of Mithridates his best confection, they may repel the worst infection those serpents shall spit at me. And albeit I cannot be free from their assaults (from which none is freed) yet I will not with Cleopatra set those Asps so near my heart that they may stop my vital spirits with their poison. And since I must pass through this Africa of monsters and harmful beasts, I will carefully fear and shun the worst of tame beasts the flatterer, and of wild beasts the slanderer. MEditation is a busy search in the store-house of fantasy for some Ideas of matters, to be cast in the moulds of resolution into some forms of words or actions; In which search when I have used my greatest diligence, I find this in the conclusion, that to meditate on the Best is the best of Meditations: and a resolution to make a good end is a good end of my resolutions. A Meditation of the Authors found written before a Sermon of his for EASTER-day. MY heart a matter good indites; O then Lord make my tongue a ready writer's pen: That so assisted by thy grace's art, Thy grace unto the world I may impart: So raise my thoughts, my willing mind so bless, That I thy glorious rising may express. And raised from death of sinful ignorance, Thy selfe-advancing power may advance. And if my simple willingness wants skill, Thou mad'st me willing; LORD accept my will, An other written before a Sermon of his on the 51. Psalm, verse 1. LORD guide my tongue, that covets to declare, How great my sins, how good thy mercies are. I both would show, and yet so great is either, That whilst I both would show I can show neither. They both are infinite, they both began Ere I beginning had, or shape of man. Where then shall I begin, with hope to show How great both are, who both exceeding know? Mercy still pardons, sin doth still offend, And being endless both, where shall I end? Thou first and last, whose mercy heal my sin, Show me to end, and teach me to begin. The last thing the Author wrote a few days before his death. A Bubble broke, its air looseth, By which loss the bubble's lost. Each frost the fairest flower bruiseth Whose lives vanish with that frost. Then wonder not we die, if life be such, But rather wonder whence it is we live so much. Tales long or short, whether offending Or well pleasing have their end. The glass runs, yet the set-time ending Every atom doth descend. If life be such (as such life is 'tis sure) When tales and times find ends why should life still endure? This world is but a walk of pain That has only end by death. This life's a war in which we gain Conquest by the loss of breath. Who would not war-fare end and travels cease To live at home in rest and rest at home in peace? Nothing here but constant pains Or unconstant pleasures be: Worthless treasures, losing gains, Scanty store, chained liberty. If life afford the best no better fate, How welcome is that death, that betters that bad state? What's the earth when trimmest dressed To that crystal spangled dwelling? Yet the Saint in glory lest Is in glory far excelling. Glorious Redeemer let this earth of mine Thy glorious body see and in thy glory shine. Oft I see the darksome night To a glorious day returning: As oft doth sleep entomb my sight Yet I wake again at morning. Bright Sun return, when sleep hath spent death's night, That these dim eyes of mine may in thy light see light. FINIS.